Ivan Kral takes us behind the scenes at the birth of New York punk, Anne Brown shares her platform for the State House, and Bee Roll reflects on how being “Ypsilantian of the Year” has changed her life… on this weekend’s Saturday Six Pack

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A month or so ago, we had local entrepreneur Steffan Graf of on the show, talking about his life on the road with Grand Funk Railroad, and how he went from opening for Led Zeppelin to designing residential lighting systems for the likes of Keith Richards. Well, after we turned the off the mics, Graf leaned over, asked me to hand him a beer, and told me that I should ask his friend Ivan to come on the show. “If you really want to know about Iggy Pop and Bowie,” he said, referring back to a question I’d asked during our interview, “Ivan’s the person you need to talk with. He played with Iggy for years.” “Wait,” I said, “you don’t mean Ivan Kral, who used to play with The Patti Smith Group?” “Yeah,” Graf responded, “he lives just down the road.”

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Well, it turns out that Graf wasn’t just fucking with me. Ivan Kral really does live just down the road, and he’s going to be in the studio with us come Saturday night, when I expect we’ll talk about everything from those first few gigs at CBGBs to the time he spend in Berlin with Bowie, which, by the way, he just recently wrote about for the website Dangerous Minds. [The above photo of Bowie, Pop and Kral was taken in Berlin in 1979.]

I should also add, not only is Kral one hell of a musician and songwriter who played an integral part in the birth of punk rock, but he was also one of the few people who, very early in the days of the scene developing around CBGBs, had the foresight to actually document what he saw going on around him on film… Here’s the poster for Kral’s 1976 performance compilation film, The Blank Generation, which, to my knowledge, is the only even remotely comprehensive film documentation that exists from the period.

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So, if you want to hear me rattling off questions about Television, the Ramones and Iggy Pop like a giddy fanboy, be sure to tune in during the 7:00 hour.

Before we’re joined by Kral, though, we’ll have two other awesome guests in the studio.

At 6:00, we’ll be joined by Ypsi City Council’s Anne Brown, who will be discussing her recently announced run for the Michigan House seat being vacated by David Rutledge, who, at the end of this year, will be term-limited out of office. Among other things, we’ll be talking with Brown about her platform, and what she hopes to accomplish in Lansing if elected to represent the 54th district… If you have specific questions that you would like for me to ask, either leave a comment here, or call in between 6:00 and 6:30. [The studio’s number is at the bottom of this post.]

And, at 6:30, we’ll be joined by Bee Roll, the owner of Beezy’s, with whom we’ll be talking about business, politics, food and how she’s managed the responsibility over these past 12 months of being our first official “Ypsilantian of the Year.”

Here, for those of you who don’t recall the ceremony, is Roll receiving her award on our very first episode of the Saturday Six Pack.

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I’m also told that, at some point during the broadcast, my occasional co-host, Jim Cherewick, will be dropping by to say hello and perhaps help provide commentary.

And, here, thanks to AM 1700 senior graphic designer Kate de Fuccio, is this week’s poster, in case any of you want to print copies and distribute them in outside the Governor’s Ann Arbor condo.

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FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER TUNED IN TO THE SIX PACK BEFORE, HERE ARE THE DETAILS ON HOW TO LISTEN:

Unless you live inside the AM 1700 studio, chances are you won’t be able to pick the show up on your radio. As that’s the case, 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. If you start right now, and listen to everything at double speed, but you can do it.

One last thing… If you’d like to tell your friends and neighbors about the program, feel free to share the Facebook event listing.

And do call us if you have a chance. We love phone calls. So please scratch this number into the cinder block wall of the recreation room of whichever facility you’ve been assigned to… 734.217.8624… and call us between 6:00 and 8:00 this Saturday evening. The show is nothing without you. Sure, sometimes it’s nothing even with you, that’s true, but usually you make it better.

This entry was posted in Art and Culture, The Saturday Six Pack, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

4 Comments

  1. Anonymatt
    Posted February 5, 2016 at 9:14 am | Permalink

    Be sure to ask Ivan if he’s upset that he wasn’t name checked in the Tom Tom Club’s Downtown Rockers song.

  2. Kat
    Posted February 5, 2016 at 9:43 am | Permalink

    I know you want to talk wth Anne Brown about her run for the House, but I would like it if you would ask her about Water Street. I hear now that the the rec center may not happen, and that we’ll likely have to pay a new tax to keep the debt payments from bankrupting us.

  3. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2016 at 5:42 pm | Permalink

    Please host a showing of Blank Generation. I think you better plan on going long this week.

  4. Stupid Hick
    Posted February 6, 2016 at 2:32 pm | Permalink

    Ask Bee, if your listeners can send in photos of the people who attended Sue Snyder’s birthday party, will she keep them by her register at Beezy’s and ask her employees to support Flint by refusing them service?

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