I dug up a photo from a November 2007, when Dave and I took a small road trip to Toledo one afternoon. We took Jefferson Avenue out of Detroit, which turns into River Road eventually, and followed that as far as we could before we got to I-75. Along the way, the Fermi II nuclear power plant is visible to the east. It's almost a cliche to say it "looms," and I've often wondered what it feels like to see the towers outside your windows or across your fields every day.

An hour or so later we reached Toledo and got a close look at the new Veterans Glass City Skyway, which I described in this post. That post has an image of the bridge, which I re-edited and posted on Flickr, too.

Tags: michigan, ohio, road trips

How to lose money fast: Open a business... As part of the media's blitz on poor crippled Detroit, they talked to PJ from PJ's Lager House, the venue where the Sean Fitzgerald CD release was just held. Very clear-eyed talk about the economics of opening a bar. At least it sounds like profitability is in the near future for the Lager House, and that's good news, because they're trying really hard and it is a good music place.

Tags: music, news

Franken shuts down Lieberman on Senate floor ... Senator Franken was presiding over the senate, Senator Lieberman was speaking, ran out of time, asked for more... and Senator Franken did not grant it. His spokesperson said they're running the Senate very tightly in order to get things done.

Reports that Senator Franken gave Senator Nelson (news) the evil eye when he rose to speak are as yet unsubstantiated.

Tags: politics

On Friday, Dec. 18, I'm playing at a new-to-me venue, Phoenix Cafe in Hazel Park. Sharing the stage with three other performers, Kris McLonis, Johnny Ozer, and Panama Doug... show starts at 9, cover is $5. Phoenix Cafe is at 24918 John R, Hazel Park, MI 48330; free parking in the back. One interesting thing about this place is, it's BYOB. They have coffee and tea, and that's it, but you can bring in soda or (I've seen) beer. I think it's nonsmoking, too.

On Saturday, Dec. 19, Finvarra's Wren will give their annual Solstice Concert at Mama's Coffeehouse at the Birmingham Unitarian Church (8:00 p.m., $12). Celtic and American traditional music, performed very skillfully on traditional instruments. This concert is one event in the holiday season that gives me all kinds of good feelings.

In between, I somehow have to accomplish Christmas gift shopping and making out cards and helping my Mom get her shopping done. If it wasn't for music, I'd really dislike this time of year more than I can say.

Tags: music

Crooks Hijack Facebook Accounts, Injuring Dignity ... reason number 4,182 why it's hard to have faith in the goodness of humanity.

Tags: internet

At the end of the Sean Fitzgerald CD release show last Sunday, I was talking with Anthony Retka, Tone of Tone & Niche and one of the folks who pulled the CD together out of a digital mountain of recorded songs. Jokingly, I told him his next project had to be a how-to document to say what a person should do to prepare his/her creative work in case of untimely demise, for the benefit of those like Tone who try to make a "product" out of it later.

We laughed about it, but more than once since Sean's death, I've thought about the issue of my finished (or nearly finished) but unreleased music, and whether it'll be findable or useable in the event of a hasty unplanned exit on my part. It's not that I'm delusional about how much demand there would be for any posthumous Charlie Monterey release. They're not beating down my door now, and though death may enhance one's reputation, I'm not terribly hopeful it'll do that much for mine. But... still... there are a few people who might want to hear a recording of, say, "Take the Picture" (my latest completed song) after I can't sing it. That's why there was a posthumous Sean Fitz release; there are a couple hundred fans interested, and there were good songs that only needed to be dusted off, shined up a little, and burned to CDs.

So here's a question for musicians, writers, photographers, and other artists reading this: Have you given much thought to posthumous work? Any aspect, as far as what you'd like to see released, to how you're arranging your current works-in-progress, or whether it's even worth thinking about at all.

I kept stumbling over the last paragraph, and even now I see where I could've clarified things. This probably means ... something.

Tags: art, music, photography, writing

It didn't seem to have a set, formal name, but I called it the Remembering Sean Fitzgerald CD Release show, Sunday night at PJ's Lager House in Detroit. It was a fine night with lots of cool people to talk with and much good music. The highlight was the unveiling of a CD of previously unreleased songs of Sean's, compiled by friends of his. Some of the songs are on the relatively new Sean Fitzgerald Memorial Myspace; the whole CD will eventually be available on CDBaby and/or iTunes.

Here's a video of "Worlds Collide," a song of Sean's that I did with jjfmi to close my portion of the evening. Thanks, John, for discovering the video.

Speaking for me, it was a relaxed evening and not terribly sad, rather a good night for reminiscing and hanging out. I did tell the owner of the bar that I need to come down sometime when the reason isn't that someone died. It's a cool little place and the sound guy is maybe the best I've encountered in any bar or coffeehouse. Usually they book rock acts there, only rarely acoustic-oriented bands. But I like rock too, sometimes.

Tags: detroit, music