Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA WITH THE BEATLES!

Johnny recently read an article on the BBC recently where Paul McCartney was out horseback riding with his daughter who looked at him for a while before exclaiming "You're Paul McCartney!". Amazing how the rest of us can have complete confidence in knowing our parents and this young one suddenly realized, dad was a Quarryman, a Silver Beetle, a Beatle and a Wing. We wonder how long it then took her to start checking her bank account.

Here are the Beatles from 1965 with 'The Night Before'

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA WITH THE FACES!

Let's see, Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane and Kenny Jones. Not a real bad place to start. Well they WERE the Small Faces before Wood and Stewart joined them, and dropped the name 'Small' as it was in direct relation to the diminutive height of McLagan, Jones and Lane. With Wood and Stewart both near 6 feet tall, they simply became The Faces.

Rod Stewart went on to an amazing solo career, Ron Wood is currently a Rolling Stone and Kenny Jones replaced Keith Moon as the drummer for The Who.

Here are The Faces with 'Maggie May' from 1971

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA WITH ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN!

Ah yes, Echo and the Bunnymen. Many people think the band used the name 'Echo' since that was the name of their drum machine. Not so says the band. The band had a friend who kept dropping crazy names for them to use (a la Miles Copeland who as de facto manager of the Police came up with the odd sounding album titles such as 'Outlandos D' Amour'). Some of the ideas originally tossed out were:

The Daz Men
Glisserol
Fan Extractors

We like Echo and the Bunnymen ourselves. Here they are with their 1984 hit 'The Killing Moon'

Dateline Chelsea: When plastic bags are outlawed, only outlaws will have plastic bags

Well the enviro crowd is pushing a plan in Chelsea to ban plastic bags. Chelsea City Council Member Frank Hammer wants to consider an outright ban on plastic bags in the village. This means no more stores like Krogers or Polly's giving out any plastic, regardless what it's for, frozen foods included. Council Member Cheri Albertson is on board for looking into the ban as is Chelsea Mayor Ann Feeney.

Seems to be, a while back all the grocery stores dumped paper bags in favor of the cheaper plastic bags. So which is it?

Look if you wanna go all green and not use plastic bags, do so. If you wanna drive a hybrid, do so. If you wanna volunteer time to the local recycling programs, do so. Just stop involving the rest of us in YOUR causes. If say 70% of the shoppers at Store X stopped using plastic bags, the store would then in turn order less plastic bags. There is gonna be a terrific backlash against all things green if more MANDATORY laws and or programs like these persist.

Green is good, but it shouldn't be used as a blunt instrument.

Flame away

Friday morning open thread

YCD is busy upgrading servers and new computers for the interns this morning. This thread is yours. Play Grand Theft Auto IV yet? How about those Wings and Pistons?

Speechify

Late night open thread

Sometimes, it's nice to feel better than people in other cities. It's not polite to laugh at others who live elsewhere, or maybe it is, you be the judge:

FORT WORTH, Texas - Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company. The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious — perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off.

Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.

Wow, pretty stupid huh? Nobody could be dumber than that. Or could they?

MANCHESTER, N.H. - The first clue that something might have been wrong was when a car pulled into a parking lot in with a "No Parking" sign and post stuck to the front end. A Cumberland Farms clerk called around dawn on Thursday to report the car. When officers showed up, the sign had fallen off, and they found a sleeping driver inside.

The 23-year-old Manchester woman was arrested on marijuana charges, and officers were trying to figure out where she hit the sign.

Time for Ypsilanti, After Dark

On the Ypsilanti School Board ballot for Tuesday

Ypsilanti Public Schools - Trustee

One 1-Year Term
Kira Berman (kira.berman@gmail.com)
Katherine Weathers (klweathers10@msn.com)

Two 4-Year Terms
Sarah Devaney (sarahjdevaney@gmail.com)
Edward Jackson (shoto36@yahoo.com)
Thomas Reiber (techtom@comcast.net)

Email addresses listed should you have questions of the fine candidates

Don't forget the School Board elections this upcoming Tuesday May 6th

Update and our first big OUR BAD--School Board elections. We STILL mean what we said about those running for office, that hasn't changed but thanks to anonymous for the update!! So here's the millage wording:
Ypsilanti Public Schools - Proposal
OPERATING MILLAGE PROPOSAL

This proposal will enable the school district to levy the statutory rate of 18 mills on all property, except principal residence and other property exempted by law, required for the school district to receive its revenue per pupil foundation allowance.

Shall the limitation on the amount of taxes which may be assessed against all property, except principal residence and other property exempted by law, in the School District of Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County, Michigan, be increased by 2 mills ($2.00 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a period of 6 years, 2008 to 2013, inclusive, to provide funds for operating purposes; the estimate of the revenue the school district will collect if the millage is approved and levied in 2008 is approximately $420,066 (this millage is to restore millage lost as a result of the reduction required by the Michigan Constitution of 1963 and will be levied only to the extent necessary to restore that reduction)?

__ YES
__ NO
____________________

The polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm.

Now, for the bad news. There is only one competitive race, that being in the third ward, the others are running unopposed.

1st Ward-Lois Richardson, the Southside Pope is running unopposed for her second four year term. We'd like to see Lois take a broader view of city issues and not simply worry about Ward 1.

2nd Ward-John Gawlas is also running unopposed for his third 4 year term. Hey John, two terms under your belt, another on the way, we're holding you accountable in a BIG way.

3rd Ward-Brian Filipiak will be running against Ted Windish. If you win Brian, we're gonna expect more from you too. Anybody in their second 4 year term needs to produce results. If Mr. Windish wins we'll give him some time to get his feet wet but these days voters in Ypsilanti expect things to get done yesterday.

We make no endorsements one way or another. Down the road this will ensure we're not backing someone at the expense of another Ypsi citizen. We will call out anyone not doing a great job. You can't do that after endorsing someone. We don't play "We know we supported them but..."

We also hope there aren't a lot of 'victory' parties around town on election night. Too much damned work to do to lose ANY time. OUR victory party will be the day the busses are paid for, the police and fire are paid for, the River Street debacle is sold or handed off, that crushing bond paid off and we've attracted some new jobs to our fair city.

Good morning Dexter, we see you have a job opening....

That's right folks, Dexter has a job opening they are looking to fill. Township board member, Marcia Ottoman, was tossed from said board after thinking she had become a Federal Agent (hey, it happens) and plead guilty to such.

So, if you're interested in serving your community, or you simply want to pass laws to hurt your next door neighbor, here's the Dexter mumbo jumbo about this postion and how we go from here:

"The township has 45 days to appoint a trustee to fill the vacancy, Kelly said.

This person will serve until the Nov. 4 general election. The deadline to file as a partisan candidate for the Aug. 5 primary is May 13.

Anyone interested in filling the trustee position is asked to submit a letter of interest and a resume to Township Clerk Harley Rider at Dexter Township Hall, 6880 Dexter-Pinckney Road, Dexter, 48130."

OK rock and rollers, here's fabulous information for you

A delightful look back on the musical history of Detroit and Ann Arbor was released this past Tuesday which covers ALL the coolest stuff around. "A-Square: The Story Of Michigan's Legendary A-Square Records" was released by Ace Records as an import CD.

You'll groove to the sounds of Scot Richard Case, MC5, Ypsi Township's Iggy Pop, and the entire Grande Ballroom crowd.

There's more, MUCH MORE on this story here