Sly Stone, the American musician who lit up generations of dancefloors with his gloriously funky and often socially conscious songwriting, has died aged 82.
“After a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family,” a family statement reads. “While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come.”
“We have been deeply moved by how much Lakeside Mall has meant to the Sterling Heights community for nearly 50 years,” Allison Greenfield, principal of Leviathan Development and chief development officer of Lionheart Capital, said in a news release. “This inspired us to create plans for repurposing the existing public art within the reimagined Lakeside. One of Lionheart’s main pillars is to reduce waste and facilitate reuse of serviceable materials and items, when possible, in the redevelopment process.”
Emphasis mine. Am I the only one who finds this statement…meaningless? How is "repurposing the existing public art" going to help in this lofty goal? They're demolishing the place and most likely disposing of the tons of rubble in the most traditional and cost-effective manner. Hardly "reduce-reuse-recycle." Empty, useless marketingspeak and a little tone-deaf too.
Lakeside Town Center will feature residences, parks, a hotel, office spaces, retail outlets, dining establishments, and more. Approximately 30 acres will be dedicated to the new public spaces, incorporating the repurposed sculptures from Lakeside Mall. “This thoughtful integration will enhance the community’s cultural landscape and preserve the artistic legacy of Lakeside,” officials said in the release.
Jacob Russell says he’s been part of metro Detroit’s mostly white improv scene for almost 13 years and noticed his peers didn’t know much about contributions Black people made to American history. The comedian, who grew up on Detroit’s west side, said that disconnect inspired “Birth of a Ho’ Ass Nation,” a satirical one-man show to “give them a perspective of how I grew up and what I was taught.”
Russell said he was inspired to write the first play, which he first performed in 2017 and has since become a series, because he wanted to offer his audience something deeper than just jokes.
Along with writing the play, Russell, 38, plays all the characters like Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B Du Bois and Ida B. Wells. He also throws in some non-historical figures–a human version of Jim Crow, a talking lion simply named Lion and a heightened version of himself.
Michigan lawmakers didn’t just pass an $83 billion budget early Thursday, they also approved nearly 100 other bills during a marathon 19-hour session before finally breaking for summer recess.
…and yet the duo is styled in homage to Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain and Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising. A clash of non-conflicting ideas…? Artistes: whaddya gonna do with 'em?
On February 3, 2023, a freight train owned by Norfolk Southern carrying thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio.. For days, flames engulfed the rail cars, which contained highly hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, used in the production of plastic. A thick, tall plume of black smoke billowed from the accident site and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents. Now, scientists say that traces of this pollution was found across 16 states, spanning 540,000 square miles from Wisconsin to Maine to South Carolina.
When [David] Gay [National Atmospheric Deposition Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison] and his colleagues began their research, they expected pollution in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The reality, he said, was much more extensive. A low pressure system helped push pollution over parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. Pollution likely made its way into all the Great Lakes, except Lake Superior, he noted.
Tsk, tsk, Unca Walt…seems brother Roy and his bean counters forgot to pay Ms Lee (voice actor, singer and co-composer of the five original songs from the film) royalties when the Disney company released Lady on VHS in 1987—you say "copies," I say "transcriptions." Maybe they were too busy plotting the Mickey Mouse Preservation Act with Sen Sonny Bono…?
Ms Peggy Lee, Unca Walt and Sen Bono would like to inform you all that in the United States of America you may do as you please with the following Public Domainimage, be it reproduction and sale on t-shirts, posters, or producing new adventures of the pictured character…but you're going to have to give it a new name.
“Today, Detroit takes a step into a major national leadership role in fighting climate change,” Duggan said at the event in the footprint of the Gratiot-Findlay project. “127 city buildings are currently powered by 33 megawatts of energy per year from traditional sources, largely fossil fuels,” Duggan said. “In the next two years, we are going to build solar fields that are going to produce that 33 megawatts of energy in renewable energy, effectively generating all the power for city buildings from solar fields.”
Duggan said Monday that the program targets “some of the most blighted areas in the city” and would be “helping neighborhoods that think they’ve been forgotten.”
Homeowners in the footprint of the proposed solar fields stand to receive twice the fair market value of their homes or $90,000, whichever is higher, while renters will get 18 months of rent to relocate. Homeowners within community benefits areas surrounding the projects will receive $15,000 to $25,000 each for energy efficiency upgrades.
Support for solar arrays in city neighborhoods has been far from unanimous. Detroit dropped a plan for a project in Grixdale Farms after residents raised concerns about the potential for solar fields to hurt property values or add to issues with blight and crime in the area outside the project’s footprint.
According to the state, a small population of juvenile spotted lanternfly was recently detected in Lambertville [Monroe County]. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the findings last week.
“The infestation was detected through spotted lanternfly monitoring traps deployed by Michigan State University (MSU), as part of collaborative survey initiatives with MSU, MDARD, and the USDA,” MDARD’s Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division Director. Steve Carlson said in a statement. “This work is a critical component of our ongoing efforts to identify and limit the spread of spotted lanternfly in Michigan.”
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive plant hopper native to eastern Asia. It was first found in the U.S. in 2014 and spread rapidly.
According to Michigan.gov's Michigan Invasive Species website…
Spotted lanternfly feeds on more than 70 different plants including grapes, apples, hops and hardwood trees. The insects cause direct damage by sucking sap from host plants and secreting large amounts of a sugar-rich, sticky liquid called honeydew. This honeydew and the resulting black sooty mold can kill plants and foul surfaces. The honeydew often attracts other pests like yellow jackets, flies, and ants, affecting outdoor recreation and complicating crop harvests.
The Fluoxetine Quartet, a ray of sunshine each and every one of 'em, captured live way back in June 23, 2006 CE, circa five years after the fall of the Roman Empire.
A lot of people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidents and things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything.
![email protected] ☆ ![email protected] ☆ ![email protected]
Over at ![email protected] we've got a sidebar with a "total subscribers" shields.io badge, like many other communities all over the Lemmyverse do. I made a simple, non-badge-related edit to the sidebar and due to what seems an aggressive image proxy, the shields.io badge address gets mangled after the edit is saved.
This is "Community Info" from ![email protected] on Jerboa. At the bottom of the screen is the midwest.social/api/v3/image_proxy image.
This is "Community Info" from ![email protected] on Jerboa, as an example of a working badge. At the bottom the screen is the working shields.io badge.
The pre-save preview shows everything as should be. It's only when the edit is saved does the badge address get mangled.
I contacted our fearless leader, @[email protected], and he changed an image proxy setting. Now ![email protected] works as it should. Any further details or information in regards should be asked of him. Thanks.
Ford Motor Company’s official rooftop party. Yeah. Real proletariat there, Lee. $350 a pop. Yes, proceeds do go to the The Michigan Thanksgiving Parade Foundation.
TV (WDIV-4)
There. I just saved ya the trip. No thanks necessary. For those of you still asleep, it's tonight. Act accordingly.
Happy (early) Canada Day to our brothers and sisters across the river.
Possibly following in the traditions of Christmas decorations in November and summer Black Friday sales, some municipalities have been celebrating American Independence Day weeks in advance. Much of a super-genius as I am, I never really understood what's the rush. In any case, the linked article from our pals over at BridgeMichigan lists the pyrotechnic spectacles planned and already passed here in the Great State of Talktothehand-and-Belial.
You can listen to any of the near-infinite versions of this song…but none match the beauty and power of this version, lead vocal by the great Tony Williams. Close your eyes…
What the feez, "Blood"? This isn't gratingavant-garde or free jazz in the least! It sounds like Mssr Ulmer is channeling Jimi who's channeling T-Bone through Otis Rush!
Then again, like Grant Green used to say, It's all blues anyhow.
A lot of people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidents and things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything.
![email protected] ☆ ![email protected] ☆ ![email protected]
Detroit-born musical child prodigy Frank Isaac Robinson was known professionally as "Sugar Chile" Robinson—you can roll your eyes; it was a "different time". Robinson played with such luminaries as Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and Billie Holiday until in 1952 he said "stop." More on this wunderkind over at !detroit as today he is appearing live for a special performance at the Detroit Film Theatre's weekend screening of the 1943 classic musical, Stormy Weather.]
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation on Wednesday — which also was Juneteenth — to celebrate the contributions of Black athletes in the Negro National League. The Detroit Stars was one of the original eight teams represented at the birth of the league in 1920.
May 2 will be known as “Negro Leagues Day” in Michigan, the day in 1920 that its first game was played.
Rep. Helena Scott (D-Detroit) who sponsored the legislation to recognize the league, told a legislative committee in May 2023 that the league and its athletes stood up against racism and pursued greatness. “Without the influence of these exceptional players and the Negro League, Major League Baseball wouldn’t be what it is today, and America wouldn’t be the country that it is today,” Scott said during a state House Governmental Operations Committee hearing last year.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/09/sly-stone-pioneering-funk-and-soul-musician-dies-aged-82Open linkView original on midwest.social
