Remake Detroit (VIDEO)

by Elizabeth Seward on

Detroit is coming back from the dead, one creative maker at a time. i3 Detroit is one of the organizations that is helping to pave a new path through Detroit – and there are other groups of people making an effort to rejuvenate the city through artists, too. This short documentary focuses on a devotion to the reincarnation of Detroit that is the driving force behind the collective efforts of many to bring the city back by utilizing a human characteristic the city has long been familiar with: the desire to make; the desire to build.

Thanks, Laughing Squid.

Dueling Summer Garlic Festivals Find Common Ground

by Chris Owen on

Summer festivals and events often bring open-air concerts, barbecues, annual farm-oriented contests and more. The warm weather experienced in the United States from June through September has a way of doing that. To summer day trippers, it’s often not a problem of finding an event to attend, but choosing which one. Such is the case in Oregon where dueling garlic festivals had friends and neighbors at odds.

The Elephant Garlic Fest (slogan: “fun stinks”) has been held for 15 years in North Plains, Oregon. This year, organizers of the North Plains event decided to combine their festival with an annual barbecue and truck and tractor pull held in Banks, Oregon. Meanwhile, others in North Plains still wanted their garlic festival, so they organized one of their own, the Summer Fest and Garlic Out West (slogan: “where it’s chic to reek”).

With the events happening on two consecutive weekends, one week and less than 10 miles apart, community organizers worried that neither would receive the attendance needed to make them successful.Now, after months of battling that included intellectual property disputes, conflict-of-interest accusations and claims of impropriety, it will be the 2013 North Plains Summer Fest & Garlic Out West Festival in North Plains that prevails. To be held August 9-11, the event will feature live music, food and craft vendors, beer and wine garden, fundraiser runs, pancake breakfasts, a parade down Main Street and more.

The festival also features garlic beer, garlic ice cream, garlic milk shakes and more, as we see in this video:



Meanwhile back in Banks, the Barbecue and Tractor Pull will continue and be held August 16-18, minus the garlic.

Wondering what the big deal is about garlic in Oregon anyway? In 2010, the United States exported 18.6 million pounds of garlic, much of which was grown in Oregon.

French Vintage Carnival Rides Come To NYC

by Meg Nesterov on

If you are a fan of carnival rides, history, or just good old-fashioned summer fun, take a ferry out to NYC’s Governor’s Island this summer for a festival of vintage Parisian rides and carousels. Billed as a museum meets amusement park, Fete Paradiso will open on July 13 and run until September 29, and feature 19th- and 20th-century attractions such as a pipe organ, flying swings and a bicycle carousel like the one featured in “Midnight in Paris.” To add to the vintage French feel, there will be food from bistro Le Gamin and a beer hall and event space converted from a 1900 bumper car pavilion, along with special events opening weekend for Bastille Day.

Admission to Fete Paradiso is free and rides are $3 a pop. The free ferry to Governor’s Island from Manhattan‘s Battery Maritime building or Brooklyn‘s Pier 6 runs half-hourly until 7 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. Learn more about Governor’s Island on their website, and follow the carnival set up on Instagram here.

Technically, Cruise Travel Is Safer Now: Do You Care? (POLL)

by Chris Owen on

After the grounding of Costa Concordia, the world of cruise travel took a good hard look at everything they were doing in the way of safety. A comprehensive Operational Safety Review of passenger safety measures resulted in new policies that promised to address safety concerns. Those policies were adopted by members of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which covered most of the major cruise lines we know about. Recently, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which oversees those and other cruise lines worldwide, adopted the same rules for all ships sailing, effectively standardizing safety rules for all.

Cruise lines hope that refreshed safety rules as well as a new Cruise Industry Passenger Bill Of Rights will reassure first time cruise travelers having second thoughts after safety-related events turned them off.

But seasoned cruisers who have sailed a number of times, those who were undeterred by safety-related concerns, don’t seem to care all that much and have continued sailing, as planned, without hesitation.

What about you?

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Northern Nights Music Fest To Go On, In Spite Of Itself

by Chris Owen on

Northern Nights Music Festival is a three-day celebration of music, art, food and local culture set to run from July 19 – 21 at California’s Cook’s Valley Campground. Host to various acclaimed music festivals for decades, thousands of visitors attend events in the area every year, making concert tourism a big part of the local economy. But some local residents don’t see it that way. They want more time between events, environmental impact studies and more control over concertgoers.

Describing the Northern Nights Music Festival as a “blowout of alcohol and drugs,” Mendocino County Board of Supervisors chairman Dan Hamburg publicized his stance. “There’s something about us welcoming in a rave that scares me,” Hamburg said in a WilItsNews report.

Still, there’s big money at stake with tickets for the three-day event selling for $160 per person and thousands expected to attend. To satisfy officials, promoters have promised to be sure the environment is respected by roaming the adjacent river for campers, educating festival goers on where and how to shower, use the toilets and park their cars.

In response to neighboring landowners and their concerns, the stage and speakers will be directed away from them and a blocking sound wall will be built. To comply with permit requirements that loud music stop at 2 a.m., concertgoers will be given wireless headphones for a “Silent Disco.”