FridayMusings since 2003

Wednesday, January 3, 2024 Helping define Livonia's Quality of Life

20 years publishing FridayMusings without bias but not without opinion

I just got back from Colorado. It was so enjoyable spending time with son Paul, his wife Raquel, and their children Leonardo and Maya. It's amazing to see how much they've grown, not just the grandchildren, but Paul and Raquel as well. They're growing into parenthood and taking on new roles and responsibilities. I'm so proud of them and happy for Leo and Maya to have such caring parents who give them every opportunity to learn new things every day, like preschool, swimming, and drawing. It just makes this granddad happy.

It's hard to believe that in my 75th year, I made my first-ever gingerbread house. Without the bodyguard, I'm not sure it would have ever been completed.

We had dinner with the extended family, including Paul's brother Matthew, a Major in the Air Force, his wife Evaleen, a newly promoted Lt. Colonel in the Air Force, and her parents Dan and Joan from Plainfield, Indiana, and Raquel's sister Carolina.

A lot of life transitions to catch up on upon return like Gail and Dave McKillop moving to Fox Run, and Steve Spreitzer waltzing away with daughter Emily at her wedding to Tyler Fosdick.

Add to that so many emails and texts to return. More smiles with Michigan winning and getting a note from Dan MacIver that he will be off to Houston for the National Championship game. I will live vicariously as he will report on Facebook all about that trip.

But let me tell you, the best part of returning home is reconnecting with you, the friends made after 20 years of writing about the town I call home.

Enough of this. Back to work sharing some of the fun coming to us in the town that others emulate and have since we were founded as a Township in 1835 and as a city in 1950.

What a way to support our First Responders and drive away with a brand new Golf Cart for only $20

You can enter a raffle to win a 2023 EZ-GP Liberty Golf Cart and support the Livonia First Responder Foundation at the same time. Raffle tickets are only $20 and can be purchased at several locations, including Livonia Fire & Rescue Station #1, Livonia Police Department, City of Livonia Treasurer's Office, Kirksey Recreation Center, and Roush Museum.

The drawing will be held on Saturday, February 10th at 10 a.m. at Livonia Fire & Rescue Station #3, 35000 Seven Mile Road.

The first prize is the golf cart, the second prize is a Super Bowl Party Gift Basket, and the third prize is a Taste of Livonia (various gift cards). Please help support your local first responders!

Livonia to host Martin Luther King Day Legacy Breakfast January 15

The Livonia Equity & Anti-Racism Network is sponsoring a breakfast honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King for the second year in a row. The breakfast will be held on Monday, January 15th, at the Madonna University Welcome Center from 8 until 10 am. The cost is $28.00 per adult and children 12-17, $10.00. Children aged 11 and under can participate in the children's programming for free.

In addition, there will be a youth art contest open to students in grades K–12. The theme is "Living the Dream: It Starts With Me—Spreading Hope, Courage and Unity". Artwork must be no larger than 12˝ x 18˝ and submitted electronically to Dropbox. One entry per person. For more information about the contest, contact L.E.A.R.N. at [email protected]. The deadline for entry is Wednesday, January 10, 2024, 5:30 p.m.

For more information about the breakfast and to make a reservation use this link.

Senior Tech Support

The Teen Volunteer Council at the Civic Center Library is offering basic tech support for phones, laptops, and tablets on Thursday, January 4, 2024, from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Michigan Room. Bring your device and get your questions answered by the volunteers. For more information, please contact the library.

Whiskey Charmers appearing at the Trinity House, January 5

The Whiskey Charmers are a Detroit-based band led by Carrie Shepard and Lawrence Daversa. Fans have often compared their sound to riding through the desert with the top down, or the feeling of being in some lonesome smoky bar off the side of an abandoned highway, or music from a Spaghetti Western.

William P Davis (Former Deputy Director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville) says of the band, “I’ve heard a lot of good musicians. The Whiskey Charmers remind me of no one – and, to me, that is one of the best compliments an act can receive.”

Ken Capobianco, Boston Globe Music Critic described their most recent album as a “Sharply executed and evocative set of Americana rock filled with superbly arranged songs about the struggle to find connections, a sense of home, and a center in a ghost town of a world”.

For tickets and a complete listing of January shows at the Trinity house check them out here.

Bennett Library to feature Noontime Concert: Blue Cat Band, January 18

The Blue Cat Band will be playing a variety of music genres and eras, including Motown, classic rock, gospel, and country at the Civic Center Library's Noontime Concert Series. The concert will be held on Thursday, January 18, from 12:15 pm to 1:00 pm in the Atrium. The Noontime Concert Series is generously supported by the Livonia Arts Commission.

Year Three is about to take place. Get those tickets while they last

January 28th, 11:00-1:00

Art is the creation, expression, or appreciation of beauty or meaning, based on aesthetic principles. Hockey is both a sport and an art form, as it certainly meets these criteria.

The typewriter can't sing, but loves a musical stage play and sometimes closes my eyes as I picture the movement across the stage in a stirring dance sequence, putting myself in the middle of the dance.

The typewriter can't draw but loves the artist emphasizing an immediate impression of a moment using modern life as a subject matter in a way that had not been tried before.

As the announcer for Year Three of the Detroit Red Wings V Livonia All Stars captained by Council President Brandon McCullough, I will be front and center. as I can't skate.

This is event is truly a partnership, with 1,000 spectators joining in with those working to make it happen:

The National Anthem being sung by the Livonia Civic Chorus, third year in a row
UPS printing programs, third year in a row
Rotary AM/PM Clubs managing game operations for the third year in a row
Livonia Red Stallions Varsity team to volunteer.
Chuck Dardas, Veronica Cruz, and Dan MacIver will drop the ceremonial puck.
Livonia 10U Girls vs Livonia 10U COED will play during intermission;
Livonia 10U White vs. Livonia 10U Blue will practice Pre-Game

Get those tickets, at only $10, while they last rig.

Carrie Budzinski starts off her term on City Council with the first

Let's Talk Livonia Coffee Hour

Livonia Historical Society presents:

Smugglers on the Strait

January 22nd

The Livonia Historical Society is hosting a presentation on January 22nd at 2 pm at the Alexander Blue House. The talk will be given by Joel Stone, former curator at the Detroit Historical Society, which oversees the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. He has written extensively on North American frontier and transportation cultures.

The typewriter just loves this event and hopes that you will join him January 20th

Meet the Playwrites for Livonia Community Theatre Festival of One-act Plays.

Little Love Stories

Tickets for Little Love Stories are available at http://livonia-community-theatre.ticketleap.com/livonia.../

Meet Tara Meddaugh

This will be a weekly series introducing you to the talented playwrights from the LCT upcoming festival of one-act plays Little Love Stories.

First let's meet Tara Meddaugh, Playwright author of "20 Magical Minutes of Darkness and Silence and Peace".

Tara holds her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and is the recipient of numerous theatrical awards, including the Shubert Fellowship, the Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship and The Arts Alive Recovery NY Regrant Award.

Her work has been performed around the world, from Alaska to Bangkok to New York, and published by YouthPLAYS, Smith & Kraus, Oxford Press South Africa, LAMDA, Limelight Editions and Meriweather.

"20 Magical Minutes of Darkness and Silence and Peace" is a dark comedy/drama where Grace, a raccoon, is begrudgingly charged to find and bring back, her fellow raccoon who has gone missing after a shocking personal tragedy. When she finally finds the depressed Joffrey in a train station parking lot, he refuses to come back with her. Yet. Because he has something important he has to do first. In this parking lot. And he needs her help.

You can see more of her work at www.tarameddaugh.com.

Meet Cole Hunter Dzubak

Let's get introduced to our second playwright...Cole Hunter Dzubak, author of "Date with a Vampire"!

Cole Hunter Dzubak is an Ann Arbor-based playwright and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. He received his BFA in Acting from Michigan State University in May of 2022 and has been active in both the Southwest and Southeastern theatre scene.

As an actor he is best known for his work on The Fragile Mind Series (Doug), Counter CULTure (Spencer, Writer, Co-creator, and The ShoW (Chad, Writer, Director).

He has been fortunate enough to collaborate with organizations such as Penny Seats Theatre, Neighborhood Theatre Group, and Broken Arts Entertainment. Visit his website at https://www.colehunterdzubak.com/

"Date with a Vampire" is a 10-minute play about Danny, a well-mannered vampire hunter who dreams of finding THE ONE...the one to love, that is. Blair, a romantic, is meeting Danny for a blind date and insists on a late evening date at a coffee shop, with no chance that there would be garlic around. What could go wrong?

For a comprehensive source of all that is happening in Livonia, FridayMusings recommends the monthly reporting from Vote. Run. Serve-Livonia, a publication started by Councilwoman Carrie Budzinski.

With Livonia having been abandoned by the Gannett/ Observer Newspapers originally founded by Paul Chandler in the early 1960's and purchased by Phil Power from Chandler's widow in 1966, eventually sold to Gannett, your source for what's happening in Livonia starts with FridayMusings and includes the independent voice, no affiliation with Musings, just highly recommended, of Vote. Run. Serve-Livonia. Follow them and get the Livonia happenings weekly in your inbox.

And if you are not getting FridayMusings in your mailbox every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, take a minute, pass along your email address and I will be happy to add you to our growing list of three times weekly readers. All for free.

January Happenings – Vote.Run.Serve-Livonia (voterunservelivonia.com)

FridayMusings

Mail Address

19514 Bainbridge 48152

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Cell address

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The typewriter is not available for phone calls or emails Saturday and Sunday. Mental health and rehabilitation time. Out and about enjoying life.

What motivates FridayMusings:

We can't only define Livonia as taking small steps toward maintaining the way things were. That will give us mediocre outcomes. Our goal needs to be innovative and transformative.