The fall of the last great Detroit Tiki Temple

For several generations in this area, the Chin Tiki restaurant on 2121 Cass Avenue was the place for people to go celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, proms and other occasions of note. Marvin Chin opened it in an era when Polynesian/ Chinese food was relatively new to American palettes. The building itself was two stories of waterfalls, mysterious caverns, coves, tapa cloth covered walls and filled with relics, many made by Oceanic Arts in Whittier, California which is still in business today. The Chin Tiki opened in 1966 and stayed in business until 1980.

On March 6th, 2009, what was once the grandeur of the Chin Tiki came down. It had sat idle for years with Marvin & his son still coming by from time to time tinkering on the place. Many tiki enthusiasts had hoped that this haven would somehow be reborn and its significance be saved. When Marvin passed away in 2006, so did the dream of its re-opening.

The fences went up and the heavy equipment moved in during 2007 after the Ilitch Holdings Company came in and bought up the land for what is to be rumored a new stadium for the Ilitchs' Detroit Red Wings hockey team.

What was the front entrance to a magic tiki temple for so many people is now destroyed.

Visitors were often greeted with costumed hostesses distributing leis.

The second floor housed a huge dance floor that had nightly Polynesian acts.

For many, the Chin Tiki was a place to escape the daily grind. It was a destination.

As we look back at the City and its progress we're left to mourn what was once one of the premier dining destinations and a cultural icon for the area.

Gone are the days that adults can justifiably leave their children at home with the sitter, go partake of potent potables, dine in exotic fare, see scantily clad women and be flung off to an exotic locale... if even for one night. Along with the Mauna Loa, the Tropics, and a Trader Vic's, this building and all of the wonderful tiki memories that it housed is now a distant memory.

Syd Mead lectures at CCS

Jay Kruz, Syd Mead and Karen Kruz with a piece of art Syd had done for Ford in the 1960's and hadn't seen since then.

Earlier this week I was honored to have played host to Syd Mead on the CCS campus.

I first met Syd Mead during my junior year at CCS when he came by the campus to demonstrate his techniques. It was a few years after he had worked on his epic Blade Runner with Ridley Scott. Over the years he's come back several times to CCS to speak and inspire the students. This time he filled the Wendell Anderson Auditorium to capacity to the point where I ended up listening to the lecture from the audio visual control room. He talked about his career- all the way from his childhood to his current projects. He was quite frank and honest during the question & answer period with the audience afterwards. My sincere hope is that his visit to CCS has inspired some of my students the way he inspired me years ago. It was an honor to have had him back on campus. Kudos to all of the people that attended and help make the evening possible.

Sketchbook drawings

As an instructor, I'm one to harp on my students to keep up a sketchbook. As a working professional I know I should as well, but due to time constraints, job, life, and every other third excuse in the book- over the last few years I've hardly kept a sketchbook for myself other than the ones I take on trips and vacations.

Well, within the last week I decided to jump back into it and re-discovered how liberating it was. No deadlines, no art direction, no restraints as to what or how I was to put images in the sketchbook. I didn't worry about how clean or crisp my line-work was; after all it was a sketchbook and not a finished art book. The images are sometimes raw, sometimes refined and all across the board. It was fun, uninhibited and just outright fun again.

The only thing is I filled the book in about two days and will have to get another one soon.

CCS Noel Night last Saturday

The 36th Annual Noel Night down in the Cultural Center of Detroit last Saturday- what a hoopla! There were over 3000+ people coming by CCS to scope out wares made by the students & alumni. A little cold blowing snow outside but somehow it still managed to bring in the crowds year after year.

Rest in peace, Betty Page.

I'm sure I'm not the only one mourning or blogging about Betty Page and her untimely death today, but I'd like to think that because earlier this year one my idols Dave Stevens passed away, she decided to join him and give him one of the most gorgeous figures to draw. May the poses be grand, beautiful and naughty all at the same time.

Enough of the hype, now VOTE!

For the last few months there has been enough mud slinging, campaigning, and all sorts of issues debated back and forth. Well, it boils down to today. So go out there and exercise your right to vote!

Recollect Dead exhibition

I'm a part of the Recollect Dead custom sneaker exhibition and costume party being held on Halloween night at the Cave Gallery at 1600 Clay Avenue in Detroit (third floor of the Russell Industrial Center, Building #4).

Nike/ Richard Hamilton TV commercial

-the fake Richard Hamilton

-the real Richard Hamilton

Ordinarily I get hired to do storyboards for TV commercials, but from time to time I get hauled onto the set to do all sorts of things. Just a few days ago I got the call in the middle of the day to participate in a Nike commercial featuring Detroit Pistons star, Richard "Rip" Hamilton. This two day gig consisted of me replicating Rip Hamilton's tattoos on two stand-ins. I was given photo reference as to what the tattoos looked like and I had to find a way to apply them to the actors' arms. Throughout the shoot I also had to be on hand to touch up the artwork as sweat and abrasion would wear it down.

It's always amazing working on a larger production like this. There were well over 300 actors which included the crowd, two basketball teams (dressed as the Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks), announcers, photographers, scorers, referees, towel boys, and everything you'd see at a real basketball game. Being a part of the crew that helps make this illusion look so real is daunting and yet humbling- turning Detroit's Cobo Arena to look like The Palace of Auburn Hills, making 300 people look and sound like 20-30,000 cheering people and me making two Michigan State students look like an NBA All-Star.

SketchCrawl- Detroit

Last Saturday all across the world was SketchCrawl, a day in which artists of all levels were encouraged to go out and sketch away. I was introduced to this by fellow sketch monkey, Jay Shuster- when he insisted I participate in one or at least start one here in Detroit. Seeing as how trusted teaching colleague, Joe Hickey had already hitched his trusty wagon to this cause, I figured it'd be easier for me to latch on.

While we didn't have the massive following that we both wanted, we did manage to take a few kids downtown to Campus Martius. Amidst the sparrows, pigeons and the great Detroit architecture, we drew away for awhile. Before hypothermia set in, we eventually went to one of my favorite places in town, The Guardian Building. It is by far one of the most visually lush buildings in the area and just a wonderful place for people to meet, draw and just ogle at the splendor of this architectural gem. It is truly one of those places that I would recommend all Detroit visitors check out, grab a bite to eat in, go shopping, and if the mood moves you... sketch!

Reflection

Sometimes on those seriously melancholy days, it takes something as innocent as the neighbor's cat to come over to sit in your lap to give you a sense of perspective.

"Geisha" is the cat that lives across the street and has found it within her persona to adopt me. She'll come over to just hang out and just chill. In doing so, she'll make me pause my day and look out into the world in her eyes. In such a busy and disjointed world, it's sometimes nice to just look out across the world and think about what's really important in life.

Medicine Hat pennants

Some people collect spoons, postcards, street signs or other items from their hometown. Me? I've been collecting for the last few years these sometimes satin, but more often than not, felt pennants from Medicine Hat, Alberta- my hometown. Utilizing everything from crudely Native American imagery to the day-glow fauna to represent the city has always struck me bizarre and yet intriguing.  The typographic solutions vary and some are repeated, but combined with the silk screened images they represent to me that far off magical place where I was born.

Sad day in typography

While I never had him as an instructor during my time in college, we all knew of the legend that Jerry Campbell was. He, along with his friends Dick Isbell & Arthur Spaniola taught the majority of the lettering classes at CCS. These guys could hand letter fonts on a blackboard better than most of us could with layout paper. They could do calligraphy with a brush, pen, marker and probably a broom if given the chance. They designed more car logos for the Big Three here in Detroit than most and had numerous typefaces to their credit.

Jerry Campbell passed a few days ago and we lost a giant in the typographical world.

Here's the obituary from The Detroit News today:

"POPS" A long-time Detroit typographer and calligrapher Gerald B. Campbell, 86, has died in Henderson, Nevada, a week after suffering a stroke. Born in Lansdowne, New Brunswick, Canada, on September 23rd, 1922, he graduated from Royal Oak High School in 1940. During World War II he served with the Second Armored Division and saw combat in N. Africa, Sicily, Normandy, and at the Battle of the Bulge. He became the president of the Graphic Artists Guild in 1968, and taught typography and calligraphy at the Center for Creative Studies for 17 years. His company, Campbell/Isbell Alphabets, designed dozens of typefaces and hundreds of logos and special typography for the automotive industry. He is survived by his brother Earl "Curly" (Jean); daughters Carole (Steve) and Mary; sons Colin, Scott, Matt (Nancy) and Gerry; five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. A life celebration will be held at the VFW Hall in Royal Oak, 214 E. 4TH Street on Saturday, October 11th, from 12-5p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Veterans of Foreign Wars or the Alzheimer's Association in memory of his late wife of 44 years, Martha (nee: Bieke).

In a world where typography at times is taken for granted, here was a man who created it, treasured it and taught it to us as an art form. He will be missed dearly by those of us in the CCS community to which he is listed as a 1948 graduate.

Jay Shuster & his beard, part II

I had way too much fun coming up with imagery for Jay's beard last time (see my August 2008 posting), I couldn't hold off and I had to come up with another series. Part of it is that I know Jay's a good humored lad who can take this sort of ribbing about his facial fuzz and stand proud. Secondly is that I probably secretly wish I could grow a lush jaw mop like him.

Love classic car ads

There's a part of me that wishes that car advertisers one of these days will be bold and daring enough to go back to hiring illustrators to do gorgeously painted car ads and catalogs again. Not that I could even come close to doing what those old time car painters did back then. They were done by truly technically gifted and great artists. These ads portrayed a much more simpler time whereas nowadays people want to see actual photography as proof.

Here's an ad from the May 15th, 1954 Maclean's Magazine that showed my 1954 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe in all of it's glory.

Paul Newman passes

One of the most dynamic actors of our time, Paul Newman has passed away. Beyond his many accomplished roles, he also had a social consciousness that spread to many of his charitable organizations. By all accounts he was a wonderful family man, director, friend, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and racing enthusiast.

Pictured here is Doc Hudson, a role where he was the voice of the iconic 1950's car I nearly bought about 15 years ago and with fellow actor/ humanitarian, Tim Robbins in The Hudsucker Proxy. Newman has said never really liked the role of corporate cad, Sidney J. Mussberger, but I thought it was a great role for him.

He will be sorely missed.