1.
Metro Detroit
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The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in Southeast Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are several definitions of the area, including the official statistical areas designated by the Office of Management and Budget, Metro Detroit is known for its automotive heritage, arts, entertainment, popular music, and sports. The area includes a variety of landscapes, parks, and beaches. It is one of the nations largest metropolitan economies, with seventeen Fortune 500 companies and this urbanized area covers parts of the counties of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne. These counties are referred to as the Detroit Tri-County Area and had a population of 3,862,888 as of the 2010 census with an area of 1,967.1 square miles. As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 4,296,250 with an area of 3,913 square miles. It had a population of 5,318,744 as of the 2010 census, lenawee County was removed from the CSA in 2000, but added back in 2013. With the adjacent city of Windsor, Ontario and its suburbs, when the nearby Toledo metropolitan area and its commuters are taken into account, the region constitutes a much larger population center. An estimated 46 million people live within a 300-mile radius of Detroit proper, Metro Detroit is at the center of an emerging Great Lakes Megalopolis. Detroit and the region constitute a major center of commerce and global trade, most notably as home to Americas Big Three automobile companies, General Motors, Ford. Detroits six-county Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of about 4.3 million, in May 2012, the Department of Labor reported metropolitan Detroits unemployment rate at 9. 9%. The Detroit MSA had a Gross Metropolitan Product of $197.7 billion in 2010, firms in the region pursue emerging technologies including biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and hydrogen fuel cell development. Metro Detroit is one of the health care economies in the U. S. according to a 2003 study measuring health care industry components. Casino gaming plays an important economic role, with Detroit the largest US city to offer casino resort hotels, caesars Windsor, Canadas largest, complements the MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, and Greektown Casino in the city. The casino hotels contribute significant tax revenue along with thousands of jobs for residents, gaming revenues have grown steadily, with Detroit ranked as the fifth largest gambling market in the United States for 2007. When Casino Windsor is included, Detroits gambling market ranks either third or fourth, there are about four thousand factories in the area. The domestic auto industry is headquartered in Metro Detroit. The area is also an important source of engineering job opportunities, a 2004 Border Transportation Partnership study showed that 150,000 jobs in the Detroit–Windsor region and $13 billion in annual production depend on the citys international border crossing
2.
The Detroit News
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The Detroit News is one of the two major newspapers in the U. S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival Detroit Free Presss building. The News absorbed the Detroit Tribune on February 1,1919, the Detroit Journal on July 21,1922, and on November 7,1960, it bought and closed the faltering Detroit Times. However, it retained the Times building, which it used as a plant until 1967, when a new facility opened in Sterling Heights. The street in downtown Detroit where the Times building once stood is still called Times Square, the Evening News Association, owner of The News, merged with Gannett in 1985. The News claims to have been the first newspaper in the world to operate a station, station 8MK. In 1947, it established Michigans first television station, WWJ-TV, in 1989, the paper entered into a 100-year joint operating agreement with the rival Free Press, combining business operations while keeping separate editorial staffs. The combined company is called the Detroit Media Partnership, the Free Press moved into The News building in 1998 and until May 7,2006, the two published a single joint weekend edition. Today The News, which has won three Pulitzer Prizes, is published Monday–Saturday, and has a page in the Sunday Free Press. The Detroit News was founded by James E. Scripps, who, in turn, was the older half-brother, the papers eventual success, however, is largely credited to Scripps son-in-law, George Gough Booth, who came aboard at the request of his wifes father. Booth went on to construct Michigans largest newspaper empire, founding the independent Booth Newspapers chain with his two brothers, the Detroit News building was erected in 1917. It was designed by architect Albert Kahn, who included a concrete building with large street level arches to admit light. The arches along the east and south side of the building were bricked-in for protection after the 12th Street Riot in 1967, the bricked-in arches on the east and south ends of the building were reopened during renovations required when the Free Press relocated its offices there 20 years later. In 1931, The Detroit News made history when it bought a three place Pitcairn PCA-2 auto-gyro as an aircraft which could take off and land in restricted places. It was the ancestor of todays well known news helicopter, in 1935 a single Lockheed Model 9 Orion was purchased and modified by Lockheed as a news camera plane for The Detroit News. To work in that role, a pod was built into the leading edge of the right wing about eight feet out from the fuselage. This pod had a dome on the front and a mounted camera. To aim the camera the pilot was provided with a primitive grid-like gun sight on his windshield
3.
Midtown Detroit
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The community area of neighborhoods is bounded by the Chrysler Freeway on the east, the Lodge Freeway on the west, the Edsel Ford Freeway on the north, and the Fisher Freeway on the south. The area includes several historic districts, the Detroit Medical Center, the Midtown area is a general mixed-use community area of neighborhoods containing successive waves of development that have transformed the area multiple times since it was first platted. The neighborhoods are dominated by the thoroughfare of Woodward Avenue, which runs north and south through the heart of Midtown, Woodward Avenue, running north and south through the center of the neighborhood, is primarily inhabited by commercial businesses, public-oriented/cultural institutions, and religious buildings. The heart of the center is located directly on Woodward in the northern part of Midtown. Wayne State Universitys campus covers 203 acres in the section of Midtown. Waynes campus is irregular, and parts extend south of Warren and north of I-94, out of Midtown, Wayne is one of Michigans three research institutions and serves over 32,000 students. The first portion of what later became Wayne State University was the Detroit Medical College, the school of education was begun in 1881. In 1896, Old Main was built as Detroits Central High School, College classes were added in 1913, and these Liberal Arts classes evolved into Detroit Junior College in 1917. The school began offering degrees in 1923 and graduate courses were added in 1930. In 1933, the previously disparate colleges were united under one administration into Wayne University, in 1956, the school was renamed Wayne State University. Since the early 1940s, Wayne State University, backed by the City Planning Commission, has shaped the development of the area through its plan for growth. The availability of urban redevelopment grants beginning in the 1950s became an important funding resource for expansion of the university, the size of the campus has continued to expand, with the University constructing new building as well as repurposing older buildings located in the area. As of Fall 2015, nearly 30,000 students were enrolled at Wayne State, over 18,000 undergraduate students andover 8000 graduates students, with the remainder enrolled in professional programs. The Art Center is centered on the Cultural Center Historic District, the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the district contains several cultural attractions. The library and art museum were built in the 1920s, heralding a City Beautiful movement in Detroit that aimed to establish the area along Woodward as the center of the city. Wayne State University, then housed in the former Central High School, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Science Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit also are located in the Art Center area. These neighborhoods have been infilled with townhomes and other residential developments, south of Wayne State University, the North Cass area contains a substantial number of multi-unit apartment houses, many mixed with earlier single-family homes. There are also a number of buildings, particularly along the Cass Corridor just west of Woodward
4.
Downtown Detroit
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Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Detroit is the city in the larger Metro Detroit region. Downtown Detroit is bordered by M-10 to the west, Interstate 75 to the north, I-375 to the east, the citys main thoroughfare M-1 links Downtown to Midtown, New Center, and the North End. Downtown contains much historic architecture and many of the prominent skyscrapers in Detroit, including the Renaissance Center, the Penobscot Building, One Detroit Center, Historic churches, theatres, and commercial buildings anchor the various downtown districts. Downtown has a number of parks including those linked by a promenade along the International Riverfront and its central square is Campus Martius Park. In recent years the area has seen tremendous growth and redevelopment. Since 2000 a number of construction projects have been completed including the new Compuware Headquarters at Campus Martius Park. General Motors moved their headquarters into the Renaissance Center, and the Detroit Lions have relocated from Pontiac to Downtown Detroit. High-profile events like the 2005 MLB All-Star Game, Super Bowl XL, as a result, new residents are moving into Detroit in the assortment of new lofts that are opening. An example of these trends is the Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel, in 2006, the Cleveland-based Ferchill Group began the $180 million redevelopment of the historic Book Cadlliac Hotel at the corner of Washington Blvd. and Michigan Avenue. DTE Energy Headquarters features an urban oasis of parks, walkways, in 2007, Downtown Detroit was named among the best big city neighborhoods in which to retire by CNN Money Magazine editors. Downtown contains popular destinations including, the International Riverfront, the MGM Grand Detroit, Greektown Casino Hotel, Downtown Detroit hosts over 92,000 workers which make up about one-fifth of the citys total employment base, in addition, it is home to about 5,300 residents. Downtown offers a number of high rises, including Riverfront Towers, The Albert. The Renaissance Center contains the Detroit Marriott hotel, General Motors headquarters, as well as many shops, Compuware has its headquarters in the Compuware World Headquarters building by Campus Martius Park in Downtown Detroit. Compuware moved its headquarters and 4,000 employees to Downtown Detroit in 2003, Little Caesars and Olympia Entertainment have their headquarters in the Fox Theatre. Ernst & Young has offices in One Kennedy Square on Campus Martius Park, pricewaterhouse Coopers has offices in a building across from Ford Field. Chrysler maintains executive offices at Chrysler House in the citys Financial District, in 2011, Quicken Loans moved its headquarters and 4,000 employees to downtown. Comerica Bank and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan are also major employers downtown, as of the 2010 Census, there were 5,287 people residing in the district
5.
Detroit
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Detroit is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state, the municipality of Detroit had a 2015 estimated population of 677,116, making it the 21st-most populous city in the United States. Roughly one-half of Michigans population lives in Metro Detroit alone, the Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U. S. Border, has a population of about 5.7 million. Detroit is a port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport is among the most important hubs in the United States, the City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor are connected through a tunnel and various bridges, Detroit was founded on July 24,1701 by the French explorer and adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers. During the 19th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region, with expansion of the American automobile industry in the early 20th century, the Detroit area emerged as a significant metropolitan region within the United States. The city became the fourth-largest in the country for a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, suburban expansion continued with construction of a regional freeway system. A great portion of Detroits public transport was abandoned in favour of becoming a city in the post-war period. Due to industrial restructuring and loss of jobs in the auto industry, between 2000 and 2010 the citys population fell by 25 percent, changing its ranking from the nations 10th-largest city to 18th. In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777 and this resulted from suburbanization, corruption, industrial restructuring and the decline of Detroits auto industry. In 2013, the state of Michigan declared an emergency for the city. Detroit has experienced urban decay as its population and jobs have shifted to its suburbs or elsewhere, conservation efforts managed to save many architectural pieces since the 2000s and allowed several large-scale revitalisations. More recently, the population of Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, paleo-Indian people inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago. In the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, for the next hundred years, virtually no British, colonist, or French action was contemplated without consultation with, or consideration of the Iroquois likely response. When the French and Indian War evicted the Kingdom of France from Canada, the 1798 raids and resultant 1799 decisive Sullivan Expedition reopened the Ohio Country to westward emigration, which began almost immediately, and by 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400, by 1778, its population was up to 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in the Province of Quebec
6.
Detroit Free Press
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The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press and it is sometimes informally referred to as the Freep. It primarily serves Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Washtenaw, the Free Press is also the largest city newspaper owned by Gannett, which also publishes USA Today. The Free Press has received ten Pulitzer Prizes and four Emmy Awards and its motto is On Guard Since 1831. The newspaper was begun by John R. Williams and his uncle, Joseph Campau, the first issues were printed on a Washington press purchased from the discontinued Oakland Chronicle of Pontiac, Michigan. It was hauled from Pontiac in a wagon over rough roads to a building at Bates, the press could produce 250 pages an hour, hand operated by two men. The first issues were 14 by 20 inches in size, with five columns of type, Sheldon McKnight became the first publisher with John Pitts Sheldon as editor. In the 1850s, the paper was developed into a leading Democratic publication under the ownership of Wilbur F. Storey, Storey left for the Chicago Times in 1861, taking a lot of the staff with him. In the 1870s ownership passed to William E. Quinby, who continued its Democratic leanings and established a London, in 1940, the Knight Newspapers purchased the Free Press. During the following 47 years the Free Press competed with The Detroit News, the Free Press was delivered and sold as a morning paper while the News was sold and delivered as an evening newspaper. In 1987, the paper entered into a one hundred-year joint operating agreement with its rival, the combined company is called the Detroit Media Partnership. The two papers began to publish joint Saturday and Sunday editions, though the editorial content of each remained separate. At the time, the Detroit Free Press was the tenth highest circulation paper in the United States, july 13,1995, Newspaper Guild-represented employees of the Free Press and News and the pressmen, printers and Teamsters working for the Detroit Newspapers distribution arm went on strike. By October, about 40% of the staffers had crossed the picket line. The strike was resolved in three years later, and the unions remain active at the paper, representing a majority of the employees under their jurisdiction. In 1998, the Free Press vacated its headquarters in downtown Detroit. August 3,2005, Knight Ridder sold the Free Press to the Gannett company, the News, in turn, was sold to MediaNews Group, Gannett continues to be the managing partner in the papers joint operating agreement. The Free Press resumed publication of its own Sunday edition, May 7,2006, a quirk in the operating agreement, however, allows the News to continue printing its editorial page in the Sunday Free Press
7.
OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding
8.
Eric Millikin
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Eric Millikin, also known as Eric Monster Millikin, is an American contemporary artist and activist based in Detroit. He is known for his work in Internet art, Postinternet art. Millikin also works in art and body art, including artistic drinking projects. His artwork is often controversial and semi-autobiographical, with political, romantic, occult, horror, Millikins art often includes self-portraits as well as portraits of celebrities and political figures. The artwork is mixed media, often combining expressionist paintings and optical illusions with found objects, Millikins works often include text written in free verse, anagrams, ambigrams and cut-up technique poetry. Millikins artwork has also published in books, serialized in newspapers. Millikin often collaborates with artist Casey Sorrow, together, Millikin and Sorrow created and popularized the international animal rights holiday World Monkey Day. Totally Sweet, a series of pop art, large-scale portraits of monsters, each created from thousands of packages of Halloween candy, Millikin uses over 40 different kinds of candy, and a single portrait can take between 5,000 and 10,000 candies. Included in the series are portraits of monsters as Freddy Krueger, Lily Munster, Gort, Godzilla. Millikin compares his artistic technique of building large monsters from many parts to the similar techniques Victor Frankenstein used to create his monster. Inverting a national flag in such a way is a commonly used distress signal, Witches and Stitches, a series of early digital comics, from the 1980s, which were the first webcomics ever published. This unauthorized Wizard of Oz parody comic was published by Millikin on CompuServe as early as 1985 when he was in elementary school, publishing on Compuserve allowed Millikin to self-publish, avoiding censorship. Witches and Stitches was popular with audiences around the world and Millikins success inspired many artists to create their own webcomics, copies of Witches and Stitches are now often difficult to find because Millikin was threatened with a lawsuit over the comic. Millikins outspoken autobiographical style paved the way for artists to express their thoughts. The paintings feature illusionary impossible objects, ambigrams and palindromes, fetus-X, a series of alternative comics created in collaboration with Casey Sorrow. Fetus-X featured a psychic zombie fetus floating in a jar of formaldehyde who may or may not be Millikins missing conjoined twin or his clone from a timeline or dimension. The comic was run for a time in Michigan State Universitys The State News in 2000. After the Catholic League protested the comic and then MSU president M. Peter McPherson declared he wanted it banned, during the controversy over the comic, many people protested on both sides of the issue
9.
Hour Detroit
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Hour Detroit is a monthly city magazine covering the Metro Detroit area. The magazine uses an oversized format and features content on restaurants, arts and entertainment. It began publication in 1996 and is a member of the City, in addition to the print edition, it has a subscription service available for the iPad. It was founded in 1995 by John Balardo, Tom Hartle, the company also publishes DBusiness, Detroit Home, and Metro Detroit Bride. The company formerly published Absolute magazine and New York Home, Hour Medias subsidiary Target Distribution handles in-room hotel distribution of Metro Detroit Guest and Resource Guide. In 2005 Hour Media established New York Home, a luxury home decor. They acquired Absolute magazine, a focused on the luxury lifestyles of affluent New Yorkers. Both New York Home and Absolute magazine have ceased publication, in 2013, Hour Media acquired Greenspring Media Group, publisher of Minnesota Monthly, from American Public Media Group
10.
Ferndale, Michigan
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Ferndale is a city in Oakland County of the U. S. state of Michigan. It forms part of the Detroit metropolitan area, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 19,900. Ferndale is primarily residential, with a commercial and industrial sector in the southeast part of the city. Ferndales business district is anchored by the intersection of Woodward Avenue and 9 Mile Road, Ferndale is well known in the Detroit area for its LGBT population and progressive policies. It is also the setting for the NBC sitcom Undateable, Native Americans were early inhabitants of the area now known as the City of Ferndale. In the 1800s farmers began cultivating the land, after the invention of the automobile and the development of the automotive assembly line, the population of Ferndale increased rapidly. Ferndale was incorporated into a village in 1918 and it was then incorporated into a city on March 7,1927, by vote of the citizens of the village. It became a community for Detroit workers, with most of its growth in housing from 1920-1951. Through the early 1950s there were lines in the median strip of Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to Pontiac. These helped the northern suburbs of Detroit grow as bedroom communities as people could take the trolley to shop or work in Detroit, Ferndale High was completed in 1958. Ferndales downtown shopping area,9 Mile Road, featured many busy, popular stores in the 1940s to 1960s, but later went into decline, in recent decades, the downtown area has revitalized. Ferndales downtown is formed by two major thoroughfares, Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, circa 1997 the city made the downtown more pedestrian-friendly by narrowing West Nine Mile Road, the heart of the downtown, to one lane in each direction and adding on-street parking. The result has been a return of pedestrian traffic and an influx of new stores, the city has continued to make itself more accessible to people by reducing traffic lanes on Hilton Road and Pinecrest Road, two major local north/south streets, and adding bicycle lanes. Ferndale utilizes the Council-Manager form of government, and is governed by a city consisting of a mayor. The city council appoints a city manager, who manages the operations of the city. The current mayor of Ferndale is Dave Coulter, current city council members are Raylon Leaks-May, Greg Pawlica, Dan Martin and Melanie Piana, who is also Mayor Pro Tem. The current city manager is April Lynch, Ferndales first female manager, Ferndale is located at 42°27′40″N 83°7′44″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 3.88 square miles
11.
Alternative newspaper
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Its news coverage is more locally focused and their target audiences younger than those of daily newspapers. Typically, alternative newspapers are published in format and printed on newsprint. Other names for such publications include weekly, alternative newsweekly. Most metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada are home to at least one alternative paper, Alternative papers usually operate under a different business model than daily papers. They sometimes include ads for adult entertainment, such as bookstores and strip clubs. They usually include comprehensive classified and personal ad sections and event listings as well, many alternative papers feature an annual best of issue, profiling businesses that readers voted the best of their type in the area. Often these papers send out certificates that the businesses hang on their wall or window and this further cements the papers ties to local businesses. Alternative newspapers represent the more commercialized and mainstream evolution of the press associated with the 1960s counterculture. Their focus remains on arts and entertainment and social and political reportage, editorial positions at alternative weeklies are predominantly left-leaning, though there is a contingent of conservative, and libertarian, alt-weeklies. Styles vary sharply among alternative newspapers, some affect a satirical, ironic tone, columns commonly syndicated to alternative weeklies include The Straight Dope, Dan Savages Savage Love, Rob Bresznys Free Will Astrology, and Ben Tausigs crossword puzzle Ink Well. Quirky, non-mainstream comics, such as Matt Groenings Life in Hell, Lynda Barrys Ernie Pooks Comeek, Ruben Bollings Tom the Dancing Bug, the Village Voice, based in New York City, is one of the first and best-known examples of the form. The Association of Alternative Newsmedia is the alternative weeklies trade association, the Alternative Weekly Network and the Ruxton Group are national advertising sales representatives for alternative weeklies. However, due in part to increasing concentration of media ownership, the Tribune Company, a multibillion-dollar company that owns the Chicago Tribune, owns four New England alternative weeklies, including the Hartford Advocate and New Haven Advocate. Village Voice Media and New Times Media merged in 2006, before that, the pre-merger Village Voice Media, an outgrowth of New York Citys Village Voice, included LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Seattle Weekly, Minneapolis City Pages, and Nashville Scene. In 2003, the two entered into a non-competition agreement which stated that the two would not publish in the same market. The US Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the agreement, the case was settled out of court with the two companies agreeing to make available the publishing assets and titles of their defunct papers to potential competitors. The Cleveland Free Times recommenced publication in 2003 under the publication group Kildysart LLC, while the assets of New Times LA were sold to Southland Publishing and relaunched as LA CityBeat. The deal was approved by the Justice Department and, on January 31,2006, in 1999, PM/CG expanded further through New England to Portland, Maine with the creation of the Portland Phoenix
12.
This Modern World
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This Modern World is a weekly satirical comic strip by cartoonist and political commentator Tom Tomorrow that covers current events from a left-wing point of view. Tomorrow also runs a weblog that informs readers about stories of interest and this Modern World appears mainly in alternative weekly newspapers. Visually This Modern World draws inspiration from a retro, 1950s sensibility, initially, the strip was almost completely composed of actual vintage clip art and magazine cutouts, assembled collage-style and often manipulated and retouched. However, Tomorrow has gradually replaced cutouts with his own drawings, usually drawn in four panels, it is not uncommon for all panels to be identical or nearly so, with only the dialogue and/or facial expressions changing. The 50s theme extends to the verbose dialogue of his human characters which is often bubbly, over-enthusiastic. The stupidity of the humans is countered by Sparky, a penguin with a red visor. A recurring theme in the books was that of reality engineering, wherein the very fabric of space. This periodically generates reality discontinuities, where reality breaks down and these are resolved by reality engineers. From 2000 to 2001, an animated This Modern World series was produced by Flickerlab for Mondo Media, each episode was approximately five minutes long. A. Characters include, Tom Tomorrow In an intermediate version of the strip and he was a private eye who was dressed in a radiation suit so his face was never seen. Dippy the Wonder-Penguin Tom Tomorrows sidekick and his vocabulary was limited to wank. Sparky the Wonder Penguin A sort of upgraded version of Dippy, similar to Dippy, Sparks first words in the strip are George Bush is a wanker. A strong liberal advocate, he became a Republican after being hit on the head with a random falling toilet. Blinky the Dog A small dog who shares some of Sparkys political sympathies, normally very mellow, he briefly became a radical when steroids were put into his food when he was intended to replace the then-Republican Sparky. Bob Friendly Mr. Friendly is in charge of the section of This Modern World. It was he who introduced Sparky the Penguin, Dr. Wilbur von Philbert One of the longest-running characters in the strip, Dr. von Philbert is the person who discovered how to mine reality for energy. Biff and Wanda Two blow-dried anchorpeople of the Action McNews, a newscast in which Tomorrow suggests that most TV news is more than PR spin. A Biff and Wanda strip almost always ends with a cut to a commercial break Biff and Betty Biff, Biff often appears alone with Sparky, expressing a naive conservative opinion which invariably prompts an exasperated liberal rebuttal from the penguin
