Silver Bells in the City

The cold and the wind Friday night couldn't keep people away from downtown Lansing. The streets were packed with hundreds of thousands of people who gathered to take part in the 26th annual Silver Bells in the City.

Friday night marked my first time down to the event and I was shocked at the number of people who showed up.  I wasn't the only one though. Lansing resident and first year Cooley Law School student Christina McCoy shared a similar sentiment.

"Don’t take this the wrong way but I didn’t even know Lansing had this many people." she said.

No offense taken Christina.

The event featured a parade of lights with 67 floats in total and included everything from marching bands, horse drawn carriages and even a CATA bus covered in lights.

Eaton Rapids couple, Edward and Diane Monroe said the Silver Bells in the City event has became a favorite tradition of theirs.

"It's the start (of the holidays), all we need is snow now...14 foot," Edward said with a laugh.

"I think we’ve come out every year for quite awhile now, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it."

The night culminated with the much-anticipated lighting of the official state Christmas tree that sits in front of the state Capitol building.

Check out a map of all the hot spots at the event.

Christmas in Lansing

The city of Lansing officially kicked off the holiday season with the 26th annual Silver Bells in the City celebration on Friday.

The event included the lighting of the official state Christmas tree, an electric light parade, Disney roadshow concert and fireworks over the capitol building.

This year's Christmas tree was donated by a couple from the Upper Peninsula and measured some 65 feet tall.

Last year, the event drew an estimated 150,000 people and this year the city anticipated even higher attendance, said Joni Rainbolt, one of the event coordinators with Motion Marketing & Media.

Rainbolt said that more than $100,000 is needed annually to produce the event, which is made possible by hundreds of sponsors.

Click here to check out a map of all the hot spots for the event.

Picture courtesy of Silver Bells in the City and Downtown Lansing Inc.

There's more to the story in Old Town

When I originally set out to explore Old Town for the first time on Saturday, I left with the intentions of covering a single event, The Art of Giving.

It had taken me no more than half an hour being in the tiny town within a city to realize that this place had a much bigger story to tell.

Kathy Holcomb, the owner of Absolute Gallery and one of the coordinators of The Art of Giving event, was a pioneer in her own right. Her gallery opened little more than seven years ago during the earlier stages of Old Towns' revitalization. Since the opening of her gallery, Holcomb has made it a mission of hers to get the word out to others about the town, especially to younger people and students.

"People are amazed to find how much talent we have in this town and they're becomming very supportive of trying to buy locally now," Holcomb said. "This is really just a great way to showcase the arts and culture of an area."

Walking from store to store and talking with the various gallery owners, the personal connections many of them share with Old Town quickly became evident.

For many, like Karen Massoglia the owner of By the Riverside and the other coordinator of the event, Old Town represented a place where artists could come and live and work together in a secure community.

"It is a very intimate community and we all know each other and watch out for each other," Massoglia said.

After talking with all of the store owners, I came away with the impression that Old Town was a place that people could come and spend the day to escape the hustle-and-bustle of life. You don't necessarily even have to come to buy something but rather just come to enjoy the company of others in the stores and restaurants.

Old Town represents a bygone era and offers a peaceful oasis in the middle of a bustling city.

The Art of Giving in Old Town

This weekend marked the kick-off to what has become an annual event in the past few years.
The Art of Giving, which marks the unofficial start to the holiday season, offers a great opportunity for people to explore Lansing's oldest neighborhood, Old Town.

I spent the afternoon exploring Old Town for the first time and came away extremely impressed. More over, I couldn't believe that I had never even heard of this place until just a few days ago.

In any case, the two main coordinators of the Art of Giving event, Kathy Holcomb (Absolute Gallery) and Karen Massoglia (By the Riverside), were extremely passionate about the Old Town district and were extremely welcoming and eager to share their love for the arts and how it played a role in revitalizing the Old Town community.

The Art of Giving is essentially a way to bring people down to a relaxed, low-pressure enviornment where they can find unique gifts that they normally would not have been able to find at the typical store, said Kathy Holcomb of Absolute Gallery.

Obama on 60 Minutes: What to take away

The 60 Minutes interview with the President showed just how much of a difference two years can really make.

One of the most impactful statements President Obama made during the interview with Steve Kroft was his admission that Washington had indeed changed him. In a bit of political irony, Obama acknowledged that the Republicans, in this election, ran on a nearly identical platform the President himself ran on just two years ago: that of change and being anti-Washington.

Obama responded with this:

"That's one of the dangers of assuming power. And you know, when you're campaigning, you, I think you're liberated to say things without thinking about, "Okay, how am I gonna actually practically implement this." 

 Kroft, during the interview, threw out an interesting statistic to the President regarding the Tea Party saying that "according to the exit polls, four out of ten voters on Tuesday said they supported the movement." When asked what his take was on the rising Tea Party movement, Obama had this to say:

"It'll be interesting to see how it evolves. We have a long tradition in this country of a desire for limited government, of the suspicion of the federal government. Of the concern that government spends too much money. You know, I mean, that's as American as apple pie. But you're still confronted with a fact that the vast majority of the federal budget are things that people really think are important. "

Overall, Obama says he is still committed to working with all sides in Washington to move the country forward. When asked if he would be willing to govern from the middle, much like Bill Clinton had to do during his presidency, the President said this:

  "What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna reach out to Republicans and I'm gonna say, "What can we work on together?"

"But, I'm gonna keep on trying."

You can read CBS's abbreviated wrap-up of both parts of the interview here.
You can also follow the links below to read about what some of the pundits thought of the President's interview.
The Huffington Post
The Christian Science Monitor
The Atlantic

Below is Part 1 of the 2 part interview.

Obama on 60 Minutes: What to expect

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft will interview Obama in what is expected to be an interesting and honest look into where the President stands and what plans to do to fix what is still widely belived to be a broken system.

In the Presidents first television interview since the recent "shellacking" the Dems took during the midterms, Obama will discuss his first two years in office, from healthcare reform to the rise of the Tea Party, and what he hopes to accomplish in the next two years before the 2012 election rolls around.

Among other topics on the table, Obama will also address his opponents and the Republicans, why he thinks his administration has become disconnected from the American people and what he plans to do to restore that connection.

You can read the full transcript of the interview here.

Welcome to the blog.

Hello, my name is Josh Sidorowicz...and I am a blogoholic.

Helloooo Josh.


When I started blogging last February I didn't really understand the draw or appreciate the utility of a blog. In the nearly nine months since I wrote my first blog post I've come to understand the world of blogging and I've marveled at how it has specifically impacted the city of Detroit. The world of online social media has allowed for new era of innovation and ideas to take hold in a city so desperately in need of direction and optimism.

Blogging about Detroit has allowed me to network and connect with other like-minded people in a way I never dreamed of. There is a whole community of passionate, dedicated, forward-thinking Detroit lovers out there that have found a way to come together and inspire a movement, started online, that has permeated into the streets of the city through entrepreneurial efforts and volunteerism. It has truly been a thrill to watch and be a part of.

But alas, the hot summer air has left us and the trees are now bare, and I find myself back in the green and white boundaries of East Lansing, because after all jdetroit also needs his edumication (*cough*cough hence the blog title...clever right?!? alright at least humor me a little). For the next few months, I'll once again have to blog from a 100-mile distance.

And with that spiel , welcome to the official blog for Josh's JRN 200 musings.  I can't promise that your time here on this blog will be worthwhile and/or amusing but I will gladly redirect you over to jdetroit.com, a blog that I have, no doubt, poured my heart and soul into (not really thought, I do actually have other hobbies).