Paul Comes to Detroit Area, and No One Tells Me.

László

Too Many Notes
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
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Location
Michigan
It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!

I had to order a mic today, so stopped at my local GC. I spot a PRS cab on the sales floor, and it's hand-signed by Paul. "Whoa," I say to my friend Scott who manages the guitar sales, "When did that come in?"

"Oh Paul Smith was here the other night, this is one of his personal cabs, he left it for us to put on the floor."

"You didn't call me!?!"

"Gee, someone should have. Yeah, he's a great guy, we all grabbed a dinner together afterward."

"You didn't call me???" I ask, still incredulous. "You know I am a huge PRS fan."

Every year, I want to go to Experience, but it's my busy season, so I can't. I'm sure that wherever there's a PRS clinic, guys whisper to each other, "Hey, remember, no one tells Les, OK?"
 
The one in Southfield? Sig Club members get email notifications of all the events. He was at Elderly yesterday, and will be in Carmel, CA next Tuesday. It's been a good thing for me, even though I've only been able to attend one of the special events. I have stories from that one event that amazed my friends.
Standard fare for most of the forum guys, but for a regular guy like me it was awesome.
 
Too bad! I missed him that last.... well, every time he came through Chicago. I really gotta do something about that.
 
Paul Lynde.

paul.jpg
 
]-[ @ n $ 0 |v| a T ! ©;93706 said:
Paul who?




















:laugh:

Oh, I did mention his full name in my original post, some guy named Paul Smith.

Sig Club members get email notifications of all the events.

Ha! No wonder I'm in the dark.

Actually, I didn't join 'cause I'd never actually use any of the swag that comes with it except the strings. Oh well!
 
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Les, no offense, but if I had to pay a visit to Detroit these days I would have made it a very short visit. It's very sad and disheartening to see and hear what's going on there.
 
I was in Detroit a few years ago, and it was really sad to see how bad some areas were then. Once you got a few blocks out of downtown, it was stunning how different the world appeared. We went to the Motown studios, and it was shocking how different things were five minutes away.
 
I was in Detroit a few years ago, and it was really sad to see how bad some areas were then. Once you got a few blocks out of downtown, it was stunning how different the world appeared. We went to the Motown studios, and it was shocking how different things were five minutes away.

Les, no offense, but if I had to pay a visit to Detroit these days I would have made it a very short visit. It's very sad and disheartening to see and hear what's going on there.

Guys, Detroit isn't about the inner city much, and hasn't been since the riots of 1967, although that's starting to change. The action is in the suburbs. And it has been about the suburbs since at least 1968, except for Downtown. Sorry to say, because I grew up in Detroit when it was known as one of the nicest cities in the US.

One problem of course is that you didn't know where to go in the city itself. The area around Wayne State University is quite nice, and it includes the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Historical Museum, etc. The area includes the highly regarded Center For Creative Studies, the Fisher and other midtown buildings, and so on.

Detroit's suburbs are absolutely as nice as those near any other city. Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Troy, the Grosse Pointes, Royal Oak, Novi, etc. are certainly comparable to tony suburbs anywhere in the country, and have a LOT to do. The area around GC's Southfield store is very upscale.

On a summer day, if you didn't know better, you'd think downtown Birmingham was Rodeo Drive in LA. It's very similar. And the shopping areas in Troy, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe, etc., are certainly as nice:





If you've been to Highland Park near Chicago, or Westchester County near NYC, you can get an idea of what life in the Detroit area is really like. It's very good, it's not overcrowded, there are places of great beauty. Darn few suburbs have anything to compete with Cranbrook Academy and its hundreds of acres of Saarinen designed schools and museums, smack dab in the middle of Bloomfield Hills, where I live:



Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, Palmer Park are gorgeous areas in the city itself, and the area around University of Detroit is still beautiful. I grew up around the block from this house in Detroit, and the neighborhood is still terrific. Bottom line, people who visit the city don't know where to go, or what to see, and the City does nothing to truly promote its image, but if you think the neighborhoods near downtown are all that's representative of the city, well you're mistaken:



This Frank Lloyd Wright house was 12 doors down from my house. The picture is current:



Here's another great house from my old neighborhood, and the whole neighborhood I have to say is one of the nicest still; house after house looks like this one:



Bottom line: Don't feel sorry for Detroit, it's going to be OK, and the suburbs are terrific. There's a lot happening in my town. I wish I could go through all of it, but I'm not the freakin' convention bureau. I'm proud of my town, and honestly woudn't live anywhere else. Except in winter. LOL

The city was robbed and mismanaged by corrupt administrations for 40 years, but that is changing, too. Right now the Downtown area is being bought up like crazy by investors from all over the world, and I have two close friends whose law firms are relocating downtown to be near some of the bigger businesses that are relocating to the area.

One of the hottest things is downtown loft space. You will see, things are happening.
 
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Guys, Detroit isn't about the inner city much, and hasn't been since the riots of 1967, although that's starting to change. The action is in the suburbs. And it has been about the suburbs since at least 1968, except for Downtown. Sorry to say, because I grew up in Detroit when it was known as one of the nicest cities in the US.

One problem of course is that you didn't know where to go in the city itself. The area around Wayne State University is quite nice, and it includes the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Historical Museum, etc. The area includes the highly regarded Center For Creative Studies, the Fisher and other midtown buildings, and so on.

Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, Palmer Park are gorgeous in the city, and the area around University of Detroit is still beautiful.

Detroit's suburbs are absolutely as nice as those near any other city. Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Troy, the Grosse Pointes, Royal Oak, Novi, etc. are certainly comparable to tony suburbs anywhere in the country, and have a LOT to do. The area around GC's Southfield store is very upscale.

On a summer day, if you didn't know better, you'd think downtown Birmingham was Rodeo Drive in LA. It's very similar.

If you've been to Highland Park near Chicago, or Westchester County near NYC, you can get an idea of what life in the Detroit area is really like. It's very good, it's not overcrowded, there are places of great beauty. Darn few suburbs have anything to compete with Cranbrook Academy and its hundreds of acres of Saarinen designed schools and museums, smack dab in the middle of Bloomfield Hills, where I live:


I should have figured....I have a friend who works at Oakland University and lives nearby. She's explained the same to me. I guess I was reacting to a news story recently on one of the news channels about the total decay of Detroit City, which has also affected several other cities in Michigan (from a market rating standpoint). Chicago seems to be a mess also, having a serious shortfall of funds needed to pay pensions. I worry about these things because of fears that NYC may be next.
 
I should have figured....I have a friend who works at Oakland University and lives nearby. She's explained the same to me. I guess I was reacting to a news story recently on one of the news channels about the total decay of Detroit City, which has also affected several other cities in Michigan (from a market rating standpoint). Chicago seems to be a mess also, having a serious shortfall of funds needed to pay pensions. I worry about these things because of fears that NYC may be next.

Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of mess to clean up in Detroit.

But there's a lot of greatness in the city as well. And don't forget that three of the largest companies in the world are part of the area's tax base. Yes, they've had their issues, too, but they are coming back, and the area is feeling the results once again.
 
To say my Detroit experience was limited is an understatement - we saw the hotel, Ford Field, Comerica Park, ate at Hockeytown, walked through downtown, and went to Motown while we were there for the Frozen Four. And that was it. The drive from Joe Louis Arena (where we went to get our pictures taken in our Penguin jerseys) to the highway was depressing - it was run down and boarded up. Not what I expected close to the arena. But we never got around to the suburbs. Despite the media bleatings, I should have suspected this was more a cyclical downturn, not the apocalypse.
 
I still think it would be nice if we could make use of the calender on this forum for Paul's travels. Of course one would have to actually check the calender unless there was some kind of alert, like a pm message pop-up. Bummer you missed it Les.

Do you get the normal PRS newsletter email? I thought it was on there as well.
 
I still think it would be nice if we could make use of the calender on this forum for Paul's travels. Of course one would have to actually check the calender unless there was some kind of alert, like a pm message pop-up. Bummer you missed it Les.

Do you get the normal PRS newsletter email? I thought it was on there as well.

It may be that I simply missed it.

It's ok, life will go on, somehow. ;)
 
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