Published: 10/6/2010
Types: Culture, Spirituality
It's hard to hear the priest. His voice has softened with age, he's got a thick Polish accent and his microphone keeps cutting in and out. Still, Father Edward Kaszak pushes forward with the Mass, a little in fluent Polish, some in halting English, giving the most unique liturgy in town. There ar...[MORE]
Published: 9/22/2010
Types: Cover Story
One has a Heineken mini-keg behind the seat. This one has a TV on it. That one has a PlayStation affixed to the back end. Pastel colors glow, polished chrome sparkles. They're among the dozens of custom bicycles lined along the curb in front of this one house that has no neighbors on either side of...[MORE]
Published: 9/15/2010
Mike Harnett leans back against the hood of his car, arms folded, eyes alert. It's early afternoon, and everything is still and quiet in the fields around him. His job is to watch over the cars of the customers at the Ivanhoe Café, better known as the Polish Yacht Club, a 101-year-old bar an...[MORE]
Published: 8/25/2010
His barbecue stand is stocked with two grills, a hot dog cart and a group of men who seat themselves at his side every day. Charles Gaither can be found on the corner of East McNichols and Hoover six days a week, from just before lunch until the sun sinks away, standing over two barrel grills that ...[MORE]
Published: 8/11/2010
Types: Culture, Spirituality
What can it actually accomplish? It's just a sign, stark and simple, and it declares, in the kind of religious language that saturates the city's culture, that "God said ... Thou shall not kill." And suddenly it was appearing on trees and poles all over town. The woman behind it says t...[MORE]
Published: 7/28/2010
His office smells like horse manure. But James Buchanan doesn't mind at all. He's standing behind his small desk on a sweltering July afternoon, putting on a heavy wool uniform worn by soldiers long ago. Buchanan is in charge here at the Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Center, which lies at the edge of ...[MORE]
Published: 7/21/2010
Types: Arts
Four people with grim faces walk into the tombstone store. They've come here, to Otto Schemansky Sons Monuments on Van Dyke near McNichols, to get a marker for the gravesite of a 7-year-old girl shot and killed by Detroit police in a bungled raid several weeks back. These four, a mess of street man...[MORE]
Published: 6/30/2010
The place was a dump. It had been the office of a used car lot that was left to the weeds years ago, fodder for a bulldozer if anything were ever to replace it. So a fellow named Bird came by one day with a few brushes and some cans of paint and put two paintings here; one on this ugly shack and a...[MORE]
Published: 6/16/2010
For many people, Detroit is synonymous with its downtown. But there's a whole city outside there, one that's wilder, weirder, a little less safe, but a lot more interesting. Whether called the "inner city" or simply "the neighborhoods," it makes for a great unplanned tour, with...[MORE]
Published: 6/9/2010
There's a group standing in a vacant field in a rough part of the city. Tough-looking guys with nicknames like Ghetto and Shonuff wear leather vests over their club's colors and check out one another's wheels. Their clubhouse, across the alley, has a sign by its door warning, "Private Club. Mem...[MORE]
Published: 5/26/2010
After Mike Sand returned home from Vietnam in the early '70s, his dad took him to the local VFW Post. The old man had been a commander in World War II, and now that his son had served overseas, it was time to join the other vets at the hall. "When I came home, my dad, you know — 'You got...[MORE]
Published: 5/19/2010
Types: Culture, House & garden
The road winds past crowded gardens and flowering trees, past the horse barn and the pool, and up to the gated mansion. It's a beautiful place for someone to call home. The main house has 16 rooms, a wide balcony on the second floor, plush furniture on hardwood floors, and lots of space in which to...[MORE]
Published: 4/28/2010
A bluegrass song plays on the jukebox. The banjo and fiddle duel it out. A biker named Spanky waits his turn at a pool game and loudly taps out the rhythm of a washboard beat on his pool stick along with the song. He's pretty damn good at it too. The bar owner, an old Southerner who's been sitting...[MORE]
Published: 4/14/2010
The smell inside the Canticle Café is unmistakable. It's an odor that clings to the homeless, one of long days spent out in the weather, of dried sweat and unwashed dirt. It gets them kicked out of most places, keeps people at a distance and relegates them to a handful of spots like shelte...[MORE]
Published: 3/31/2010
There's no stage at this strip club. No pole. Not even a bar. And the music comes from a boom box. Welcome to Club Thunderbolt, the strangest place in the city to get a lap dance. It's located in the back room of an old house in an east side neighborhood of working class bungalows. "Everybody...[MORE]
Published: 3/24/2010
Once Valentine's Day passed, things got slow again at the flower shop. Life here is marked by flower-driven holidays, and between those busy dates, it gets real quiet. There's no radio on, not much traffic is heard passing down the street, and people don't often walk past the front windows anymore....[MORE]
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