Frozen Valentines Heart, photo by LadyDragonflyCC – Happy Valentines.
A few weeks ago we featured one of LadyDragonflyCC’s photos on our Make it a Michigan Valentine’s Day. Is it OK to go back for seconds, especially as Michigan’s frozen heart melts in a mid February thaw?
Give us what you’re loving this Valentine’s Day in the comments!
Check this out big as love and in her Frozen Possibilities slideshow.
van buren dunes beach- holga, photo by EllenJo.
Is it cruel or welcome to post photos like this in February? Please discuss below…
EllenJo writes that because her hands were wet it was hard to advance the film, so she ended up with some cool “happy accidents” like this. Check this out bigger in her blue slideshow and I hope your weekend is full of happy accidents!
More about Van Buren Dunes on Michigan in Pictures … more Holga too!
Air Force One leaving the U.P., photo by gkretovic.
When it comes to high speed internet, the lights are still off in one third of our households … for millions of Americans, the railway hasn’t showed up yet.”
~President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama spoke in Marquette at Northern Michigan University yesterday to tout his proposal to roll out high-speed wifi to 98% of Americans within five years. Click that link for the details and a video of his speech from Absolute Michigan.
Check out this photo of Air Force One and Obama leaving Marquette bigger in Greg’s slideshow.
Also see Kim Nixon’s photos of the motorcade as it passed through Marquette.
Manistee Bank & Trust and The Vogue Theatre, photo by Eridony.
The Ludington Daily News reports that Michigan filmmaker Michael Moore was in Manistee yesterday morning announcing that his new State Theatre Project will support a community-driven effort to restore and reopen the 72-year-old theatre located in the heart of the City of Manistee:
“The people of Manistee are about to see what a popular, thriving movie palace can do for their downtown,” said Moore. “They will return the Vogue to being the crown jewel of Manistee. We will turn on the Vogue’s marquee lights, bring in some jobs, pump money into the economy and do it with a nonprofit venture staffed mostly by volunteers. The Vogue will show first-run movies plus documentaries, foreign films, kids movies and classics — something for everyone. The Vogue will be Manistee’s new town square.”
Moore explained that the Vogue perfectly fits the profile for his State Theatre Project, a nonprofit endeavor he’s funding to help replicate throughout the State of Michigan following his success with Traverse City’s State Theatre. Moore said, “It’s a wonderful, iconic theatre in the center of a downtown and the community is behind the revitalization and prosperity of both. This will provide the spark for the continued resurgence of Manistee and will serve as a model for other small, aspiring communities throughout the nation.”
Click through to read more. There’s also an interview with Travis Alden on Interlochen Public Radio about plans for the Vogue.
Water Winter Wonderland’s page on the Vogue Theatre has some great photos and a timeline. Michpics favorite Marjorie O’Brien has a photo in her excellent Michigan Theater Project gallery and writes that the Vogue opened in 1938 and was designed by Pereira & Pereira, architects.
See this bigger and check out more views of the theatre and Manistee’s historic downtown in Brandon’s Manistee slideshow.
Yashica: Ford Lake, photo by Matt Callow.
The details: Yashica Mat 124G, expired Tmax 100.
View it bigger, see more of Matt’s shots from Ford Lake or dive into his slideshow.
Detail: Wayne County Building–Detroit MI, photo by pinehurst19475.
Yesterday was a busy day for Michigan in Pictures as a lot of folks came by to learn more about the works of art featured in the Chrysler/Eminem “Imported from Detroit” Super Bowl ad. The Joe Louis Memorial, a shiny clean Spirit of Detroit, the murals of Diego Riviera (which Slate found ironic) and the stunning Fox Theatre have all been touched on here, but there was another sculpture,
At first I thought it was a second work by Marshall Fredericks, sculptor of the Spirit of Detroit and many more iconic works scattered about Michigan. I couldn’t find it under his name, so I widened the net and found Victory, the very first photo that the informative pinehurst19475 ever uploaded to Flickr. The photo was taken in June 2000, and he or she wrote (with my links):
This sculpture is a the base of the tower of the Wayne County Building (formerly the Wayne County Courthouse}, built from 1897-1903 and restored in the late 1980s. This quadriga, entitled “Progress,” is one of two at the building (the other is “Victory”). The sculptor was John Massey Rhind. The Wayne County Building is considered a fine example of Beaux Arts Classicism. To see the quadriga (four-horse chariot) and figures of this sculpture in all their glory, go to the large size version of this photo.
Learn a whole lot about Detroit in Anthony Lockhart’s slideshow.
Welcome to Detroit, photo by mi_kirk
There were a lot of great snapshots from the Motor City in Chrysler’s 2 minute Super Bowl homage to Detroit (and itself) with Eminem, but to me, the most powerful image in this daring ad was the Joe Louis Memorial.
Click above to watch it the ad on Absolute Michigan.
See this photo bigger in Kirk’s Detroit slideshow and tell us what you think on the Absolute Michigan Facebook.
Just After Sunrise (2), photo by siskokid.
Jim writes that nothing beats the early morning light as it falls on the ice and snow of frozen Lake Superior. He took three shots (#1 and #3) from the beach at Little Girl’s Point in the far western end of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on a very cold Sunday morning in January. The day before this shot was taken some ice fishermen found out the hard way how capricious Superior’s ice can be. Sam Cook’s story begins:
For an hour and a half, Skip Wick had been trying to stay upright on a chunk of ice in Lake Superior’s 8-foot swells.
The 80-year-old ice angler, stranded on the lake Saturday after big waves undermined the ice in Saxon Harbor east of Ashland, knew his options were limited.
“As I was standing there, the ice kept breaking up,” said Wick, a retired shop teacher from Hurley, Wis. “There was a big roar, like a jet going over, and here would come a wave.”
The roar was the sound of the waves, later estimated by Ashland firefighters at 8 to 12 feet, lifting and grinding chunks of ice as far as Wick could see. The chunk he was on was about as long and wide as a car, he said.
If you read on, you will learn how they were eventually rescued with an air boat, or wind sled, called an Ice Angel. Many who challenge Superior or any of the Great Lakes in wintertime are less luck.
Check this out background big and in Jim’s massive Lake Superior slideshow.
While this might seem like the ice goes on forever, as you can see from the satellite view, it barely dents the lake! More winter wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.
Untitled, photo by jenny murray.
The Thoreson Farm page at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore says that the
John Thoreson and Ingeborg Sakariasdatte emigrated from Norway in 1877. Although they crossed the Atlantic on the same boat, family lore has it that they never really met on the boat. Ingeborg resided with the higher-priced ticket-holders, while John remained below deck with the lower-fare travelers. They first settled in Suttons Bay, and arrived in Port Oneida in 1880. The family initially rented the Kelderhouse/Baker farm until 1883, when they moved to Minnesota for one year. After returning to Port Oneida, they rented the old Burfiend house. Around 1900, along with their sons Ole and Fred, they built their farm on 160 acres of land purchased from the Andersons…
The Thoresons operated a general farm with livestock, small grains, and hay. With 75 trees, they were the first Port Oneida farm to raise cherries for market. They also owned sheep, pigs, chickens, and a few dairy cattle.
You can see some more photos of the farm (including a volunteer working on these buildings) at Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear.
Check this out bigger and in Jenny’s Holga slideshow.
Boyne Falls MI RARE 1950s Ice Sculpture at Boyne Mountain Snow and Ice Sculptures were a popular attraction at Ski Resorts in the 50s and 60s Bob Miles Photo Card S24328 Unsent, photo by UpNorth Memories – Donald (Don) Harrison.
In In Snowpocalypse Now Redux: When the weatherati cry wolf, what do we believe next time? Jeff Wattrick says that while we don’t want forecasts as understated as the “Snow, potentially heavy at times” that preceded the monstrous blizzard of ’78:
At some point we may actually get one of death storms with historic barometric pressure readings and the like. The forecasters may even predict it – that’ll happen when every dusting of wintery precipitation is a potential holofrost – but no one will care.
In essence, too much coverage can be as bad as not enough.
It’s like waking up every morning and predicting your own death. Eventually, you’ll be right. So what?
The wall-to-wall coverage – complete with live blogs, non-stop primetime school closure scrolls, and reports about panicked supermarket shoppers – doesn’t inform. It is absurdist theater that ignites in some a delusion that middle class life in 21st century Michigan can be a harrowing fight for survival.
…from such terrifying hazards as:
Thundersnow Is Go!: From beyond any known galaxy and bringing with it the laws and ideals of its home planet of Fontara…Thundersnow! As best as anyone can tell, it’s like a regular thunderstorm but with snow instead of rain because it’s winter. Like Murrow covering the London Blitz, the WXYZ liveblog bravely reported thundersnow rumbled through Southfield at 3:15 this morning.
As a resident and business owner in a resort destination I have railed about sensationalism in weather forecasts in the past. Definitely click through for the choice Simpson’s clip Jeff found!
Check this out bigger than a blizzard and in Don’s slideshow.
Michigan in Pictures 
