In the wake of Alan Almond’s death earlier this week, several people wrote to me and asked if I’d consider picking up the torch, dropping my voice a few octaves, and bringing surreal, sexy jazz patter back to the Detroit metro area. And, while I’d hate to give up what we’ve created with The Saturday Six Pack, I’ve been giving it some pretty serious thought… not because I necessarily want to recite nursery rhymes breathlessly into a microphone over “the witching hour,” but because I think that a new version of Almond’s Pillow Talk might be just what’s needed to increase the population of Detroit. [God knows that people aren’t making love and getting pregnant during the decidedly non-sexy Saturday Six Pack.]
But, if there is a format change, it won’t happen for a while, as I already have the next few shows booked.
Speaking of which, here are the guests we have lined up for this weekend’s show.
Keta Cowan, the head of Synod Community Services, will be joining us to talk about the work being done through the Washtenaw ID Project to make government-issued photo identification available to all residents of Washtenaw County regardless of their immigration status, whether they might be homeless, etc., thus allowing them to do things many of us take for granted, like establish bank accounts and obtain library cards…. Michael Jackman, the managing editor of the Detroit Metro Times, will be coming in for a freewheeling conversation about politics, the changing media landscape in Detroit, his background in the underground press, his favorite Hamtramck bars, and any number of other things… Matt Siegfried, our local historian friend, will be picking the People’s History of Ypsilanti where we left off during his last visit, at the beginning of the 1850s… And Jim Roll, the main guy at Backseat Productions, who will be offering parenting tips this Fathers Day eve, justifying his all-lycra wardrobe, perhaps playing a few songs, and taking your calls.
And all of this is free on AM 1700 come 6:00 PM this Saturday.
If you’d like to tell your friends and neighbors about the program, feel free to share the Facebook event listing. Or, better yet, print out a few copies of the poster above, glue them to the sides of your children and pets, and set them loose to run around Ypsi Arbor.
AND, HERE, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER TUNED IN TO THE SIX PACK BEFORE, ARE THE DETAILS ON HOW TO LISTEN:
Unless you live really close by, I’d recommend streaming the show online, which you can do either on the AM1700 website or by way of TuneIn.com.
And for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with the show, and need to get caught up, you can listen to the entire archive on iTunes.
One last thing. We love phone calls. So please scratch this number into the cinder block wall of the recreation room of whichever facility you’re doing time in… 734.217.8624… and call us between 6:00 and 8:00 this Saturday evening. If we don’t get at least one call per show, we feel really bad about ourselves.
4 Comments
You get photographed more in one show that Almond got photographed during his entire career.
Jackman is highly quotable. You should have fun.
Here’s one of my favorites; a quote of his about McSweeny’s.
“Dave Eggers and his little publishing empire pretend to offer an alternative, but what they really offer is the same old literary insiders repackaged as outsiders. It’s mostly irrelevance and irreverence with some of the trappings of zine style.”
Man, I hope I can get home in time for this show! I used to work for Synod so it would be particularly interesting to know what they are up to these days.
Sorry I missed Saturday’s show. Kita from Synod is a fantastic person. My Daughter is a Learning Disabled adult, and as my wife and I were figuring out a future without us, someday, we found Synod. They will provide bill-paying and care services to our daughter when we die. Our financial advisor will control the money and investments and meet with the Synod folks to determine what she needs and a budget to provide it. We worked with Josh Fink, who is the go to attorney for special needs trusts, and Kita reviewed the papers for us. The sense of relief the day we signed them was palpable.