The Perpetual Northside

If you were at the corner of Fremont andFreylinghausen between 12:00 and 3:00 it wouldn’t have been hard to imagine yourself at an outing in the Treme district of New Orleans or a block party in Brooklyn. The sounds of Pogo Rey and The Blue Haze cranking out blues classics from Congo Square to Wang Dang Doddle from their impromptu set up on the porch of an abandoned house, to the barbeque pulled pork and coleslaw care of The Arcadian Brewery, to the rich mix of neighbors of all ages grooving to the sounds while planting, raking, and painting the new art wall at the Fremont Garden on the corner. What you could be sure of was that you were in the absolute coolest place in Battle Creek, that day and many before and to come.

The day was put together by The Fremont Tomato Heads, under the leadership of the local community activism of John Wright ostensibly to have the garden’s new fence converted into an “art wall” by local artists of all age. A group of young adults from The Mylestone Project had agreed to support the effort and flyers were circulated in the surrounding neighborhoods; but nobody knew what to expect. A crowd of about 20 divided itself between working in the garden and painting the art wall when Pogo Rey and the boys just showed up, commandeered the aforementioned porch, and using electricity provided by extension from a neighbor’s, started laying down the perfect vibe for a springtime day in a community garden.

For more pictures of this event, and information about community gardening and related events, go to http://www.facebook.com/BCURBANGARDENMAN?clk_loc=3. You’ll want to be there next time it happens!

Night Ranger ranked as one of rock’s biggest “arena bands” with hits like “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” and “Sister Christian”….but as the decade drew to a close, Night Ranger’s popularity declined and their string of Platinum albums came to a close with 1988’s “Big Life”.  The band continued to release LPs and tour throughout the years, but they have yet to recapture the phenomenal success they enjoyed during the 80’s.

Since 1947, the 110th wing at the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base courageously answered the nation's call in times of conflict. Now they need your help! We need to stand together. Tell congress to embrace the Air National Guard and reinstate the C-27J. It's the most effective and efficient way to defend America.    

Sexton looked great as they defeated the Battle Creek Central Bearcats on Tuesday night at the Fieldhouse. Check out my recap in video form.

The Soggy Waffles, a bluegrass group of Battle Creek Youth Orchestra members, will start performing on the road very soon.

While not strictly an 80's band (They released their debut LP in 1977), Foreigner achieved their greatest success in the 80's with hits like "Waiting for A Girl Like You", "I Want To Know What Love Is" and "Urgent". But that was yesterday....(pun intended).....What are the boys from the world's most faceless band doing these days? Well, for one, they are releasing new CDs of (sometimes) new music and touring. Or are they? Because, secondly, if you happened to catch them live last year on their tour with Journey, you didn't really see them. They weren't there. We'll get to that shortly.

The long-standing feud between the brothers-Van Halen and their lead singer, well, ANY lead singer, pre-date the internet, compact discs and hybrid vehicles. So what does Van Halen have to offer to the 21st century? 

This past week, I went to Willard Library to pick up a children’s book “A Ball For Daisy” by Chris Raschka.

With their breakthrough LP "Pyromania", Def Leppard converted overly pop-friendly American radio into a haven for guitar distortion, booming bass and high adrenaline melodies. By no stretch of the imagination was Def Leppard first in making hard rock, but they were arguably the best during the 1980's. 

Battle Creek Central’s boys and girls basketball teams entered tonight’s game with revenge on their minds. Back on December 9 in Marshall, both the Bearcats and the Ladycats were soundly defeated by the Marshall Redhawks. The girls lost 39-59 while the boys lost 53-74.

On Tuesday, January 24th, students in the cafeteria at Kellogg Community College (KCC) were asked to get involved in shaping the Omnibus Farm Bill now under development in Washington DC. Provisions of the bill run for 5 years and 2012 is a renewal year. Michigan voters enjoy an elevated roll in the process because our Senator, Debbie Stabenow (D), chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee. “As Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Stabenow has the opportunity to stand up for small farmers, consumers and the environment by supporting a “Fairer” Farm Bill,” said Alistair Hall, Field Organizer with Food & Water Watch, which organized the event.

A mostly unstructured painting class is helping a group of students with various levels of artistic experience get in touch with their creative side.

Knowing I was a teen in the 80's, it wouldn't surprise anyone who peered into my parked car to see a pile of CDs in the front seat of such bands as "Whitesnake", "Def Leppard", "Journey" or "The Cars". What MAY surprise that curious peeper is that these CDs are not your typical collection of "oldies". They are in fact, NEW albums by some of the greatest bands of the spandex, big hair, pop-music decade.

A robotics program has been started in the Harper Creek schools and will hopefully spread to other Battle Creek area school districts.

The 2011 Battle Creek Central Holiday Tournament is in the books. But rather than write a traditional story about the three games from last night, I decided to do an audio podcast with highlights from each game, my MVP of the tournament, and the play of the tournament. Hope you enjoy!

High school basketball fans were treated to a belated Christmas present on Tuesday night as Battle Creek Central hosted it’s annual Holiday Tournament at the Battle Creek Central Fieldhouse. Teams from Albion, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Warren made the trip to the Cereal City for the holiday tradition that dates back to the late 1980s.

Bill Leroy may be new to The Revolution Rink staff, as the Ice Events Manager, but he’s no stranger to amateur hockey enthusiasts in the Battle Creek-Kalamazoo area. He is well known for his postings at both Wings Stadium and Twin Stars Arena in Kalamazoo and he’s been known to lace them up and jump in the game as time allows and the need arises. You might say he’s a player’s manager and that’s exactly why the General Manager Richard Keys has brought him to Battle Creek; to turn things around at the Rink.

“Is there an “Occupy” movement in Battle Creek” I asked myself?  A search on the internet turned up a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Battle-Creek/178295168922780) revealing that not only was there such an organization, it was to meet at the downtown Brownstone Café on Saturday morning.  

The Devils came down to Central, they were looking for a game to steal.

And they did just that.

After opening up the season with three straight road games, the Battle Creek Central Bearcats finally get to play basketball in front of a friendly crowd.

It may be hard to extrapolate from a New York Times op-ed piece on the state of the “ex-burgs” to major metropolitan areas of the country, and the housing stock in Battle Creek, but a recent walk through the Northside had me doing just that. In walking along streets like Orchard, Guest, Sherman, Elizabeth, Laurel, and Garrison I am struck by the sense of permanence those Tudors, Colonials, and Federalists convey. They still look exactly the same as they did 10, 20, or 30 years ago. The lawns are still as well maintained, the walkways are still bricked in painstaking herringbone patterns, the porches (yes porches, do you remember those?) are painted and screened with attention to historically appropriate detail. If one didn’t know better, one might think that these homes have been occupied by the same families for decades; but that is not the case. Having lived in two of these houses over the past 30 odd years I know that, except in very few instances, entirely new generations of families are enjoying the same vistas as those that my young family did; and that makes me feel good.

If you were at Prairieview Elementary School on Tuesday night, the aroma of chicken stir fry and risotto could be smelled emanating from the cafeteria. But this wasn’t preparation of the following day’s lunch, it was all part of a cooking demonstration.

A lot of things have changed in Battle Creek over the last 50 or so years; downtown theaters and department stores, Eaton and Clark Equipment, and tours of Post just to name a few. For most of us these changes happen gradually enough so that they go by without much notice. It is only in moments of nostalgia that we contemplate the magnitude of their loss and are saddened. But if on returning to Battle Creek on a Sunday morning, after years of absence, and in passing the corner of Van Buren and Capital, you might come to believe that the touchstones of your past were still in place in old Battle Creek.