The politics of marijuana are shifting, and states like Colorado and Washington are seeing big growth in both entrepreneurship and tax revenues as a result. So where do metro Detroit providers stand since passing the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in 2008, and does the state have a ganjapreneurial future?
No one bats an eye at year-round Christmas shops and houses covered in twinkly lights. But deck your yard out with tombstones and zombies and the neighbors look twice. That doesn't stop the members of PoorManProps, a group of DIY Halloween makers who know how to get their spook on.
The Michigan Film Incentive may be a pale shadow of what it was a few years ago, but that doesn't mean all the movie talent has fled the state. Case in point: Deb Scott and Think So Animation. A New York transplant with big screen cred, her Ferndale studio will offer classes to those who want to learn the art of computer graphics and animation.
Opening a brick and mortar business in today's on-demand, technology-driven economy is a risky roll of the dice. Opening a business that insists on slowing down and unplugging from the net is, well, a whole other game. Which is exactly the point Chris Erwin and Angela Space are trying to make at 3 & Up, their newly opened board game lounge in Plymouth.
This weekend marks the fifth summer The Henry Ford has produced Maker Faire, showcasing local inventors, innovators, artists and creatives to tens of thousands of metro Detroiters. Metromode chats with a trio of makers who've been involved since the beginning about why the fair is important to them and what it needs to continue.
Blight, foreclosure, real estate speculation -- they can degrade a neighborhood's value and compromise the social and economic health of a community. For the last decade, land banks have been used as a tool for revitalization. Embraced by some and reviled by others, Metromode takes a look at where the programs have worked and why.
Over the years there have been several attempts to create a truly regional film festival, one that bridges the gulf between Ann Arbor and Detroit. With 50 films screening in Tree Town and 40 in Motown, the third year of Cinetopia might just be the film festival "to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
There's an awful lot of discarded technology out there. There's got to be a better place for it than the trash, right? The Royal Oak non-profit Motor City Free Geeks marshals hundreds of tech volunteers to refurbish computers and laptops, outfitting them with free software and selling them to the public for hugely discounted prices. It's like the Circle of Life for technology.
There are lots of high school kids with dreams of becoming a Hollywood director. But how many of them have started their own production company, attracted professional talent to their first 40-minute feature, and have a trio of projects currently in development? Oakland County teen Luke Jaden does.
Quick, name a locally created and produced television show that isn't a news program. Not so easy, is it? As the number of cable channels swells, it's ironic that local content dwindles. For six years now, Lee Martin's The Midnight Hour has proven itself the exception to that rule, producing a once-a-month suspense anthology that uses a whole lot of homegrown talent..
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