Robert Downes

Music Robert Downes If you were into the local nightclub scene in the ’80s and ’90s, then chances are you busted a few moves with The Crowd Pleasers, who were the uncrowned kings of traveling show bands in the Midwest.
Based out of Columbus, Ohio and playing a circuit of Holiday Inns and other venues throughout Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana, The Crowd Pleasers performed countless dates in Northern Michigan. The seven-man group energized crowds with their brand of R&B, funk and soul, with an extra kick from a horn section that gave the band an irresistible dance groove.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes “Our future is directly tied to our ability to develop, attract, and retain concentrations of skilled people.“

-- Mark Murray, president of Meijer, Inc., commenting on Michigan‘s future in the State‘s Emergency Financial Advisory Panel Report

Americans have never been keen on taxes, going back to the days of the Boston Tea Party. And the anti-tax mantra has accelerated since the presidency of Ronald Reagan to the point where any suggestion of raising taxes has become a cardinal sin.
It doesn‘t help that government often wastes our tax dollars with an obscene ineptitude. For instance, the news last week that $9 billion of our tax dollars have gone missing in Iraq. Turns out that the Bush administration bundled up 363 tons of cash in bricks of $100 bills and flew it to Iraq during the early days of the war to help with reconstruction. Then the money simply... disappeared. Apparently, people (including contractors already on our payroll) just showed up in Baghdad with garbage bags and shoveled in the loot under any pretense, with no accountability.
So who can blame Michigan citizens for grumbling over the news that Governor Granholm has proposed a 2% tax on services to help balance the state‘s budget? The services would include everything from haircuts to auto repairs, lawyers, accountants and movie and concert tickets.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Stumbled across a good book over the holidays. A real page-turner; couldn’t put it down. Even got up at 6 a.m. one weekend to read more. That doesn’t usually happen when a book was written more than 2,000 years ago.
It’s “The Gallic Wars” by Julius Caesar, written during his conquest of Europe during 58-51 B.C. And what Julius went through back then seems eerily familiar today.
In those days the area of Europe including France, Switzerland and the Netherlands was known as Gaul. Caesar led his Roman legions against dozens of tribes, some of which raised armies of 60,000-100,000 warriors, hellbent on protecting their homeland.

Music Robert Downes In the real world, Jeff “Jabo” Bihlman teaches blues-rock guitar to a few dozen students in Northern Michigan. Meanwhile, in cyberspace, he’s also teaching
thousands, thanks to a new online guitar series at www.workshoplive.com.
The frontman for the popular Bihlman Brothers blues band, Jeff also has a new role as the star of a 30-minute infomercial that’s playing on TV in major cities across the nation, such as Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, and both coasts. Plus, he’s featured on a concert DVD being used to promote the new online teaching method that’s advanced far beyond similar sites on the Internet.
And the biggest news of all. The Bihlman Brothers just signed a three-record deal with legendary Hollywood producer Bruce Robb on his brand new record label, Quarter to 3.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Ever wonder why prescription drugs cost so much in America when they’re so much cheaper in countries such as Canada?
Do you have prescription drug costs ranging into the thousands of dollars each year? Are you elderly and living on a limited income? Do you have to choose between buying the drugs that will save your life or paying for food and heat?
Well, tough beans. Because according to conservative pundits, you are nothing more than a “greedy granny,” trying to get Uncle Sam or his Canadian counterpart to lend a hand when you should be paying through the nose like everyone else.

Features Robert Downes “Sky,” an immature bald eagle, was first spotted lying dazed and dying on a rock in the middle of a river near Pellston last August 17 by a sharp-eyed DNR officer.
The young female was apparently suffering from the effects of West Nile Virus, a neurological disease spread by mosquitoes which kills most birds.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes To Blog or Not to Blog?
I got you something really nice for Christmas this year that you won’t get from almost any other forward-thinking newspaper editor in the country.
What is it? Take a guess. Give up?
Okay, here it is. I’m going to spare you the torture of reading an Editor’s Blog.
Blogging is the new hot trend in journalism, even though there are millions of blogs in cyberspace already, wiggling like mental spermatozoa in search of a brain to fertilize.
Blogs from editors and reporters are hatching on newspaper websites like a bogful of frog eggs. And mostly, they‘re about as tasty.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes ’Tis the season to get back in the gym. Some of us have never left it; we’ve been noodling at stairmasters and weights, aerobics and yoga all year long in a lackluster way, waiting for our winter cousins to show up for their annual visit, which tends to run from January through April.
It can get downright lonely in the gym during the heat of the summer, but after the New Year, the place is packed with stinky people once again and it’s hard to find a stray machine in need of company. Every stairmaster, treadmill and exercycle is hammering like an 18-cylinder sports car.

Music Robert Downes Bass man T. Money Green has a lot of friends: Beside the 2,277 listed on his MySpace site, he’s also pals with the likes of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, George Clinton and many of the biggest rap, funk and R&B stars in the world.
In fact, he’s played with many of those super stars on scores of gold and platinum albums.
In short, Tony Green is a big, friendly guy who can play the nuts off a squirrel in a high-energy funk show that’s full of special guests, humor and top-flight musicianship. For proof of that, check him out New Year’s Eve when he and his Road Work band play Streeters Bar & Grille in Traverse City.

Features Robert Downes Every weekend, John O’Brien presides over a regular party on wheels.
Well, not really, but close enough: John is virtually the “life of the party” by helping tipsy bar patrons get home safely with his Celtic Shuttle & Tours service.
At 2 a.m. every Friday and Saturday, you’ll find his big green bus parked in the alley next to Union Street Station in downtown Traverse City. From there, he makes a pickup at the U&I Lounge a block away, and then a big loop of stops to deliver merrymakers to their homes, safe and sound.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Tomorrow morning, patriotic Americans will be cheering as the airwaves buzz with the news that 1,500,000 additional troops have launched a second invasion of Iraq to smash the insurgents.
The event will go down in history as being comparable to the surprise D-Day invasion of France in 1944.
In his autobiography written years later in 2019, former President George W. Bush unveiled the workings behind his top secret plan which surprised the whole world. How, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006 the skies of Iraq were filled with parachutes and the streets choked with tanks as the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines launched Operation Squawking Eagle. The 1.5 million troops came from bases around the world which were drained of their personnel.

Music Robert Downes “Waiting To Be Found” is a great title for Kristine Seelye’s new CD because the Petoskey singer-pianist is just getting back to making a serious go at her music.
Kristine began singing with church groups, school choirs and in musicals at the age of 12. Countless performances honed her skills both as singer and pianist, resulting in a scholarship to Interlochen’s summer camp and later, live performances in Mexico, the Ukraine and Israel. Concurrently, she launched a career teaching high school German.

Music Robert Downes If you’re planning to buy a new guitar for Christmas for someone in your family, you won’t be alone. Approximately 3.3 million acoustic and electric guitars were sold in 2006 -- about three times as many as 10 years ago, according to the New York Times. That makes the guitar the most popular instrument in America.
You’d think that would mean a bonanza for Northern Michigan music stores, but Internet sales and the introduction of cheap junk guitars at big box stores are upping the competition.
That, and the fact that Traverse City has at least four music stores -- a number you’d expect in a metropolitan area, but not in a small town. Here’s a rundown on what music stores are doing to buck the competition, along with some timely advice for parents planning to buy their kids a guitar this Christmas.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes In the desert of western Sudan, a 35-year-old woman named Hatum is “pregnant with the baby of one of 20 Janjaweed raiders who murdered her husband and then gang-raped her.”
Those are the words of Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times who has spent the past few years trying to rub the western world’s face in the genocide underway in Africa’s largest country.

Features Robert Downes If you love the outdoors and the call of the wild, then chances are you’re well aware of Backcountry Outfitters, which has been a Northern Michigan tradition for nearly 30 years in downtown Traverse City.