End of the Season

Tigers did not make it to the play off this season, but they definitely put up a good show for all Detroiters.

I happened to get 2 free tickets to their second last home game of the season, thanks to Michael, not the best seats, but definitely come with good views.

First of all, I was very impressed by the ball park. I've always thought it's just a stadium, but it was way more than just a stadium. It was a destination. There are food courts, stalls all over the stadium. There are also amusement rides for kids and promotional events going on. The shear scale of this event is amazing, which makes it hard to imagine this going on everyday during the season.





It was literally a festival, but more like a daily festival.



From the grand stand.



View of the Detroit city scape and the ball park.



Today is also the Chinese Mid Autumn festival, when the moon is the roundest and biggest of the year. Also a victorious night for the Tigers.



Every vendor has their own unique tricks to get attention.



Tiger's Defense!!! Double play!!!



Tigers were beating down on the Twins like there's no tomorrow, so the Twins wimped out and asked for a pitching change.



Cheers and more cheers!





Tiger Scores!!!



and a DOUBLE HOME RUN by Ordonez



Tigers won 8-0, was a good game packed with lots of offensive actions. It's definitely a good experience, good entertainment as well. This definitely beats going to a lame movie.

Leaving the stadium...





We'll be back next season!

Back to school: Cranbrook Academy of Art

Time is a tricky thing. Everyone gets the same amount, but the amount of usable time is entirely up to the individual. Before the semester starts, I thought it's time to give myself a good tour through the campus, and surely enough, I discovered interesting details and places where I didn't before.

BTW, here's the link to the photo album of Cranbrook Campus.



To cut the story short, Cranbrook was founded by a rich couple in the early 1900s. They were the media tycoons of that time and found this piece of land which reminded them of their hometown, Cranbrook of England. So they bought it and started to build an education community on it. They invited famous sculptor Carl Milles as the first director of the Academy of Art, and Eliel Saarinen to design the campus. Eliel's son, Eero Saarinen, designed the TWA( now as JFK) Airport in NYC as well as the St Louis Arc. Did I mention the Eames' relation to our 3D department?

There are also a library dedicated to Art and Design, a museum that holds world class exhibition as well as Michigan's biggest and private owned Natural Science Museum. Lot's of resources for us in the middle of nowhere.



The campus architecture is filled with intricate details that really take time to appreciate. One of the interesting features on this campus is the number of fountains and lakes there are. The land used to be a swamp, and they dug lakes to centralize the water and dry the land.







Before I go any further, the Cranbrook Educational Community is made up of different schools, from elementry to middle, to high school and then graduate school(no university). For the primary and secondary school education, it's really for the rich of the rich. Annual schooling and boarding is about US$40k, which is almost twice that of the graduate school!

Some photos of the highschool campus











Highschool library







Sports Complex



So much for the rich side, here's the Academy of Art campus







John's TP in the middle of the classic campus court yard! Reminds me of the Louvre in Paris.




Another main attraction of the campus is the Cranbrook House itself. This is the original residence of George Booth and his wife(the founders). It's a huge and beautiful mansion designed by Albert Kahn, and surrounded by beautiful landscaped nature and lakes.














Cranbrook Campus is basically a big park and welcomes anyone. There are always people picnicking and walking dogs. The campus is filled with trails in the woods. Open yet secured. It definitely qualifies as a destination.



Oriental Garden



Bog Garden



The girl's middle school by the lake



Local resident



And an announcement:



Which reads:

Wanted for crimes against plant material. Last known address Cranbrook's Sunken Garden. Aliases include: Peter, Fluffy, Flopsy and the dreaded uncle Wiggily. MO: They wear cute, cuddly outfits, travel in packs and eat everything in sight. Considered armed with appetite and dangerous! Do your part to stop these nibblers by closing this gate!

BACK IN THE HOOD!!! Detroit Grand Prix

02 September 2007, the Detroit GP returns since 1986. The wrecked race track on Belle Isle is finally getting an over haul. For those who missed the pre-fixed Belle Isle, here are the PHOTOS before the fix.

Belle Isle is the biggest metropolitan park in the US if I am not wrong. Its landscape was designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed the NYC Central Park and lots more. Other facilities on the island includes the oldest Aquarium in the US( although it's closed, the architecture is very interesting). There's the green house(can be viewed in the photo gallery) as well as a former casino designed by Albert Kahn.

As for its racing history, Belle Isle held Indy races from 1992 to 2001, then stopped due to budger issues. Prior to that, Detroit held Formula One races.

2007 sees the return of Detroit GP on Belle Isle, hosting both the American Le Mans series as well as the Indy Car League. Personally, I don't care for the Indy cars, but made an effort to check out those LeMans prototypes and the GT cars.



To my surprise, the event wasn't jam packed with people. The shuttle bus was quite comfortable, and the ticket box wasn't tagged with long line of people. The race grounds was quite easy to move around too. This is sorta disappointing because I wish it has attracted more crowds to support future races. Nonetheless, there were some good photography spots for me to explore.

Like all major events, the race started with the singing of American anthem and followed by a parade lap of non-related cars.





...... which was a bit of a waste of time. Then comes the race!

The track is a really tight one, so I was expecting lots of actions on the first lap, and there it happened right in front of me!

First Lap


Spun out


The cars are loud, but I wish they were louder, like F1 loud!

More clips on the race:





LeMans winner, the Audi R10 TDI (top) and the current leader Porsche (bottom)





and the Acuras



Some Porsche GT3s in action





Everyone's fighting for the right of way!



Race marshals





The pace car came out a few times during the race, which meant that there were some accidents happening that the officials had to control the pace of the race cars to guide them through safely. Here's a clip:



More actions!





Found a good spot, where an opening was made for the race marshals.



Beautiful part of the race track closed to spectators. It's a shame, because this is also the stretch where the cars reach their top speeds on this track.



TV crews





And of course, this won't happen if not for the crowd!





Other events in the race ground:



Audi had a display, of course, and showed their new R8 and S5

R8 Exterior and interior



S5



In the car park were lots of VIP cars, including Corvettes, Porsches, Ferraries, Vipers and more.



Of course, this is also where you catch the fabulous Ford GT "designer" Camilo Pardo showing off his car:
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Don't forget to visit the complete photo and video gallery!!!