Motor City Dream Cruise


Book Description

They were car guys and they were getting old. Johnny, Cecil, Mike, Tommy, Kyle and Greg; friends since high school; men in their mid-sixties; more than any other signifier they could imagine, they were car guys. Their garages are filled with shrines of pristine pistons and finely polished chrome. Aged autos far from dinosaurs, they were without flaw, cared for meticulously like the children of first-time parents, and loved unconditionally, even when a distributor cap wouldn't budge. They were bragged about and they were touched up regularly. Their owners, though, unlike the cars, were undoubtedly falling apart. Whether it was blood pressure, cholesterol, hips needing replacement or little blue pills hidden in coat pockets, their bodies were beginning to require more attention than their cars. Despite their aging bodies, it was time for the Dream Cruise, the once a year Detroit event for guys to show off their cars, get into a little bit of trouble and, more importantly than anything else, bond with their friends, and the guys were undoubtedly ready.




Motor City Dream Garages


Book Description

There isn't another place in the world that can match Detroit's automotive history. For nearly a century, what was conceived, designed, produced, and marketed from this town ruled the roads. So it only stands to reason that the Motor City is likely to host some of the country's greatest collector garages. From the personal home of the man who put America on wheels to the posh residences of current automotive icons such as Bob Lutz, Motor City Dream Garages takes readers on a guided tour of 20-plus of Motown's most interesting garages. Going beyond even these fantastic garagemahals, this book also takes readers inside select company garages for exclusive looks at the unique and important collections amassed by companies such as General Motors and Roush Industries (parent company to Roush Racing, owned by Jack Roush). If you like both garages and the beautiful machines within, this book is for you!




Scream Cruise


Book Description

Every August a million people converge on Detroit's Woodward Avenue for the annual Dream Cruise - when over 40,000 hot rods, muscle cars, sports cars and classic autos go rumbling up and down a miles-long stretch of steamy asphalt. But as this year's Dream Cruise approaches, a cloud of gut-wrenching terror hangs over the Motor City. A crazed bomber inflicts a series of horrific explosions that claim hundreds of innocent lives. He then demands a multi-million dollar payoff to stop the carnage - or else. With the body count rising almost by the hour, FBI agent McCoy Johnson finds himself in several wild, heart-stopping races against the clock to halt the killings. But with time running out, can he prevent the evil, Detroit-hating psychopath from turning the Dream Cruise into a holocaust of wanton slaughter?




Off Camera Affair 1 (the Motor City Drama Series)


Book Description

Kai Lewis is a TV reporter with the inside scoop on Detroit's juiciest corruption scandals. Years ago, her affair with Frank Anderson, the very handsome but very married lead news anchor, had taken her body, soul, and career to new heights. But Kai's thrill ride with Frank ended in an unspeakable tragedy. Now, she avoids his advances, despite the deep feelings for him that still undeniably linger within her. Anxious to move on, Kai initiates a summer fling with Deandre Grant, a sexy NBA player with mind-blowing bedroom skills. Soon, Kai finds herself hungering for more than a casual relationship, and she's overjoyed when Deandre confesses that he feels the same way. Unfortunately, their beautiful beginning is tainted when their relationship hits two major roadblocks: Kai's sister, LaNaya, a video vixen and exotic dancer, who gets caught up in a sexy webcam operation with dangerous consequences just as Kai is trying to sort out her own love life; and Janice, Deandre's deranged baby-mama. On a business trip to Atlanta, Kai discovers something about Frank, her former flame, that changes her perspective on the past. Will this new information open the door for reconciliation with him, or will she go all the way with Deandre? Kai reports the news every day, but there is much more drama off the air, when it comes to her own life. This novel is a tale of fate, desire and the unexpected.




Joyride


Book Description

This book is a photographic celebration of the Woodward Dream Cruise, which began in 1995 as a modest fund-raiser for a children's soccer field and now attracts nearly 2 million auto fans from around the world every year. The book is full-color throughout.




Cultures of the City


Book Description

Cultures of the City explores the cultural mediation of relationships between people and urban spaces in Latin/o America and how these mediations shape the identities of cities and their residents. Addressing a broad spectrum of phenomena and disciplinary approaches, the contributors to this volume analyze lived urban experiences and their symbolic representation in cultural texts. Individual chapters explore Havana in popular music; Mexico City in art; Buenos Aires, Recife, and Salvador in film; and Asuncion and Buenos Aires in literature. Others focus on particular events, conditions, and practices of urban life including the Havana book fair, mass transit in Bogota, the restaurant industry in Los Angeles, the media in Detroit, Andean festivals in Lima, and the photographic record of a visit by members of the Zapatista Liberation Army to Mexico City. The contributors examine identity and the sense of place and belonging that connect people to urban environments, relating these to considerations of ethnicity, social and economic class, gender, everyday life, and cultural practices. They also consider history and memory and the making of places through the iterative performance of social practices. As such, places are works in progress, a condition that is particularly evident in contemporary Latin/o American cities where the opposition between local and global influences is a prominent facet of daily life. These core issues are theorized further in an afterword by Abril Trigo, who takes the chapters as a point of departure for a discussion of the dialectics of identity in the Latin/o American global city.




Motor City Barn Finds


Book Description

Tom Cotter returns to troll through Detroit and discover long forgotten classics in Motor City Barn Finds. You won't believe some of the rides he finds. Detroit has been America's Motor City for decades. It's home to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, as well as numerous auto industry companies and specialty and speed shops. At the same time, it's the poster child for urban blight and dysfunction. It's truly a city of contrasts, which presented challenges and opportunities in equal measure to barn finder Tom Cotter. In Motor City Barn Finds, Cotter plies his trade in a locale rich with automotive history. Detroit's lost cars are abandoned in empty lots, resident in decrepit buildings, squirreled away in garages, and stashed in historic wrecking yards. Behind the wheel of his classic 1939 Ford Woodie, Cotter trolls the back streets and neighborhoods of this historic city looking for lost automotive gems accompanied by photographer Michael Alan Ross. As America's Motor City, Detroit is an emotional and historical mecca for car enthusiasts, capable of drawing hundreds of thousands of car people for events like Woodward Dream Cruise and attracting design-forward companies like Shinola. At the same time, it's intimidating to navigate, with numerous dodgy neighborhoods and risky abandoned factory sites. Add it all together and you have fascinating and intriguing opportunities to dig for barn-find gold.




Off Camera Affair 4 (The Motor City Drama Series)


Book Description

When Kai takes a trip to Costa Rica with Santiago to attend his sister’s wedding, she can’t help but fantasize about her own happily-ever-after, but her excursion in paradise is interrupted by someone from Santiago’s past, someone who makes Kai question the man she longs to open her heart to. Is Santiago worthy of her love, or is he harboring a destructive secret? Back in Detroit, at the Channel 5 news desk, Kai is excited to hold the coveted spot as lead anchor. The fact that she is filling in for her trifling ex, Frank, definitely doesn’t diminish her resolve to advance her career. Unfortunately, someone at the TV station has a sinister plan. For Kai Lewis, danger is never too far away. Meanwhile, Kai is invited to interview for the job of a lifetime. As badly as she wants to seize the opportunity, she is reluctant to leave her family and the love of her life behind to move across the country. While she struggles with the difficult decision, a trial gets underway to decide the fate of her nemesis, Tisha. Despite Tisha’s laundry list of dirty deeds, her clever defense attorney has concocted a brilliant strategy, and Kai is concerned that the jury will acquit her instead of throwing her salty behind under the jail where she belongs. After the unnerving and shocking display of that lawyer’s slick courtroom antics, Kai finds herself confronted by her second nemesis, Madison, in the most disrespectful way. Kai’s life as a single mother and her work schedule allow her limited free time to spend with her man, but she tries her best to make every minute count, and her fantasies of a brighter future bring a smile to her face. With the love and support of her family, Kai feels nothing can stop her. But just as she’s on the verge of realizing a dream-come-true, she makes a devastating mistake that could cost her everything. Can Kai and her sister, LaNaya, undo the damage before it’s too late? Kai has already endured years of unspeakable drama from outsiders, but this time, she is responsible for a situation that could be the cause of her own downfall. In this final installment of The Motor City Drama Series, sex, witness testimony, and videotape distort reality.




Motor City Barn Finds


Book Description

Detroit: Motor City... and the poster child for urban blight and dysfunction. This presented challenges and opportunities for Cotter, as he trolled the historic city looking for lost automobile gems. Here he tells the story of these "barn finds" and shares anecdotes of the cars and his journey.




A Motor City Year


Book Description

In this first section, Sobczak follows people and places across the Detroit area coming back to life after a long winter, including rowers on the Detroit River, dancers at a high school prom, neighborhood basketball players in Detroit, and visitors to Domino's Petting Farm. Summer images include all of the major festivals-like GM River Days, Comerica City Fest, the Ann Arbor Art Fair, the Detroit International Jazz Festival, and Arts, Beats, and Eats-as well as more obscure events like the Michigan Elvisfest and Hines Park's Mud Days. Photographs in the fall and winter sections show communities and individuals living, working, and celebrating in the colder months, with traditions like the annual Michigan-Michigan State football game, the Hob Nobble Gobble, and ice skating at Campus Martius Park.