Van Andel Arena

22 10 2008
  • 130 W. Fulton
  • Grand Rapids, MI 49503
  • (616) 742-6600
  • Website
Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids

Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids

After a great dinner in East Grand Rapids, it was time to head downtown for the evenings main event.  For my birthday, J bought me tickets to the Taylor Swift concert at Van Andel Arena.  I know it’s a little wierd for an almost 30-year-old to want to go to a concert that attracts the tween crowd, but I love Taylor Swift’s music and so does J.  She was in town headlining a show for B-93.  It was their annual Roof Sit for Kid’s fundraiser.  The show started at 7:00 at Van Andel Arena.

After some problems with construction around Greater Grand Rapids, we made it downtown at about 6:50.  I hate parking garages and the parking near the arena is garages.  Not being familiar with Grand Rapids, I didn’t know where to go.  We ended up finding another garage a few blocks from the arena.  The price was a little bit higher at nine bucks, but at least we didn’t have to deal with horn honking crazy teenagers as we were trying to leave the main lot.  We were in and out with no problem. 

We parked on Pearl Street and walked back to the Arena.  Grand Rapids is lucky to have such a beautiful place for concerts.  The outside glass facade is a nice look.  We made it inside where the usher scanned our tickets.  After a little trouble with the scan on mine, we found the stairs to go up to the concourse level.  I like the way the seating area is set up.  Our seats were in the upper deck directly across from the stage.  What’s neat is the way the concourse serves both the upper and lower decks.  If you’re in the lower deck, you go down stairs to get to your seats.  If you’re in the upper deck, you go up stairs.  Our section was right at the top of the stairs when we first walked in.  Since the opening band was still playing, we both hit the bathrooms and I took a quick look at concession and souvenir stands.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Downtown, Entertainment Venues, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Reviews

The Small Planet Food & Spirit

11 10 2008
  • 16800 S. Chandler Rd.
  • Suite 109
  • East Lansing, MI 48823
  • (517) 351-6230
  • Website
  • Menu
The Small Planet at Chandler Crossings in East Lansing.

The Small Planet at Chandler Crossings in East Lansing.

I was never around for the original incarnation of The Small Planet.  Apparently, it was pretty popular and people are excited about this new version.  I get hundreds and hundreds of hits every week from people looking for information on The Small Planet so we figured one of these days, we need to go check it out for ourselves.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting old or what, but I hate paying cover charges.  There are very few places that I will pay a cover and not bitch and they’re all in Chicago.  They’re not in Lansing.  Plus, the bands that play at The Small Planet really aren’t my kind of music.  I’m a country music fan.  I’m going to see Taylor Swift in two weeks and I’m excited about it, so it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for me to go to a bar that gets a lot of rock bands.

So, instead, we decided to check out their dinner menu.  We went on a Saturday night, but early enough the nighttime crowd hadn’t started coming in yet.  It was about 6:00 and the place was pretty empty.  From the beginning, J had a bad vibe about the place.  Small Planet is not a good place if you’re just looking for a meal.  The place is huge and very open.  There’s no comfort to it at all.  When you walk in, there are short tables leading all the way to the bar.  In the back, there are higher pub tables back by the video games and pool tables.  We chose one of the pub tables all the way in the back corner.  We did this very intentionally. 

I know Michigan hasn’t passed a smoking ban yet and I know it’s up to the owners to decide how much smoke they want.  The Small Planet management must not care at all.  There was no one seated anywhere near us.  There were people at the bar smoking and on the other side of the restaurant smoking, but it felt like someone was sitting at the table next to us blowing smoke in our face.  Like I said earlier, The Small Planet is not a good place if your just looking for a meal. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bar, East Lansing, Entertainment Venues, Lansing, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

Chicagoland Speedway – Joliet, IL

8 09 2008
  • 500 Speedway Blvd.
  • Joliet, IL 60433
  • (815) 722-5500
  • Website
The outside of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL

The outside of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL

My final stop in Illinois this week was at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL for the IRL Peak Antifreeze Indy 300.  I went to school in Joliet and this track was being built during my senior year.  The first race was the summer after I graduated.  Chicagoland doesn’t sell individual race tickets.  The only way to get tickets to any of the races is to buy tickets to all the races.  That first year, a buddy was able to get Busch series tickets off eBay, and until this weekend, that was the only race I had been to other than NASCAR qualifying.  My dad’s cousin buys the track pass every year to get tickets to the Nationwide and Sprint Cup race, but they couldn’t care less about the ARCA/IRL weekend.  For the last few years, I’ve wanted to get their IRL tickets, but I always had something going on.  This year, it just worked out that I was going to be in town, so my dad asked for the tickets and he and I finally got to go to an IRL race.

Chicagoland is great for the Indy Cars.  It’s the last race of the year and for some reason, the track provides a really racy surface for the open wheelers.  The two closest finishes in IRL history have come at Chicagoland and this year added another one as Helio Castroneves edged out Scott Dixon by .033.  The race saw a lot of three wide and side-by-side racing and that’s not just for half a lap.  This was going on for 10 to 15 laps at a time. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Entertainment Venues, Illinois, Joliet, Reviews

Memorial Stadium – Champaign, IL

8 09 2008
  • 1402 S. First St.
  • Champaign, IL 61820
  • (217) 333-3630
  • Website
The south endzone of Memorial Stadium filled with fans as the Fightin Illini take on the Panthers of Eastern Illinois

The south endzone of Memorial Stadium filled with fans as the Fightin' Illini take on the Panthers of Eastern Illinois

I finished up my weekend in Champaign at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Illinois.  Like many other Big Ten schools, U of I decided they needed luxury suites and to do so, they chopped their upper deck seating on the west side by quite a bit.  The benefit for me is one of the best press boxes I’ve ever worked out of and a relocation of the camera platforms from a basket hanging off the upper deck that I had to climb over the rail to get to to platforms at the back of the concourse which is much safer and comfortable. 

From the outside, the home of the Fightin’ Illini doesn’t look much different.  The architects were able to keep the integrity of the building.  Something that couldn’t be done a few hours north at Soldier Field in Chicago.  Inside, the west side is a totally different building.  When you first walk in to the stadium, you come to a huge open concourse area.  Plenty of room for the thousands of fans who show up on a Saturday afternoon to walk around comfortably.  The walls are lined with concession stands and souvenir kiosks.  If your seats are in the lower bowl, you can easily get to those seats from where you enter.  When the stadium was redesigned, they made it possible to walk from one side to the other which was something you couldn’t do just a few years ago.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Big Ten Tour, Champaign, Champaign/Urbana, Entertainment Venues, Reviews

Ingham County Fair

3 08 2008
  • 700 E. Ash St.
  • Mason, MI 48854
  • (517) 676-2428
  • Website
Heat race during the demolition derby at the Ingham County Fair in Mason

Heat race during the demolition derby at the Ingham County Fair in Mason

I LOVE demolition derby.  I’m a total redneck at heart.  After I graduated college and before I got my first job, I spent the summer working on demo cars with some friends of mine.  I loved every minute of it and wished I was more mechanically inclined.  My girlfriend, grew up going to Team Demo Derby’s at Santa Fe Speedway near Chicago, so there’s a place in her heart for demo derby too.  A co-worker of my girlfriend and her boyfriend had never seen a demo derby, so we met at the Ingham County Fair on the final night for some good ol’ fashioned car smashing.

County fairs were really cool when I was a kid.  We didn’t start going to theme parks until I was into junior high and high school, so the county fair was where we got to go on rides and win cheap prizes.  Walking into the Ingham County Fairgrounds in Mason brought back all those feelings.  I couldn’t believe a lot of the rides were the same (like the Gravitron) and none of the games had changed.  You’d think they’d come up with something new, but nope.

Row of food vendors near the midway at the Ingham County Fair in Mason

Row of food vendors near the midway at the Ingham County Fair in Mason

When we first walked in, we ran right into a row of food vendors.  We wanted to do a lap before deciding to make sure we didn’t buy something then find something better.  One of the first stands I noticed was the BBQ.  My girlfriend had just mentioned that she smelled BBQ as I was pointing it out to her.  After a lap to the midway and back, I got a pulled pork sandwich.  Well, sorta.  They called it pulled pork, but it was more chopped and it was Texas BBQ, so the sauce wasn’t as sweet and vinegar-y as I like it.  It was alright and hit the spot though.  The whole time I was ordering, I could litteraly hear pigs squealing from the barn right behind me.  I love the irony when they put the pig barn next to the BBQ stand. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Deep Fried Food, Entertainment Venues, Live Entertainment, Local Flavor, Mason

Comerica Park

27 07 2008
  • 2100 Woodward Ave.
  • Detroit, MI 48201
  • (313) 962-4000
  • Website
The view from our seats at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit.

The view from our seats at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit.

I don’t even know what to say.  WOW!  I cannot tell you how impressed I was with Comerica Park.  I don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to Major League ballparks.  Comiskey Park, US Cellular Field, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, and Busch Stadium are the only ballparks I’ve been to.  Comerica makes The Cell look like that sh*thole where the Cubs play. 

When my girlfriend and I first moved to Lansing, one of the first thing we did was check the Tigers schedule to see when our White Sox were in town.  Luck has it, they were here the first weekend we were.  Since we were still working out moving expenses, going to Detroit our first weekend here probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.  A few weeks ago, I noticed the Sox were in town again.  I got on StubHub to see what I could get for tickets and picked up two right field bleacher seats.  Since I bought the tickets two weeks ago, we’ve both been jacked about going to the game.

We parked near Greektown and walked to the park.  We ended up between Comerica and Ford Field which was a good spot since our seats were in the outfield.  We handed over our tickets and walked in and immediately both of us were in awe.  What a beautiful park.  I snapped a few pictures from left field then we went to make a lap around and see what else CoPa had to offer. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Detroit, Downtown, Entertainment Venues, Michigan, Reviews

Common Ground Festival

11 07 2008
  • N. Grand Ave. & Saginaw St.
  • Lansing, MI 48933
  • (517) 267-1502
  • Website

When I moved to Lansing three months ago, everyone kept saying, “You have to go to Common Ground.”  The Thursday night line-up offered three artists I really like, so I got my first taste of what Common Ground is all about.  I have to say, I was impressed.  It was a great atmosphere.  There was a lot to do and the music was fantastic.  I spent most of the night over at the West Main Stage where Julianne Hough, James Otto, and Kellie Pickler were performing.

I became a fan of Hough the same way most guys have.  I actually started watching Dancing With The Stars the year Hough became one of the dancers.  My girlfriend, who wasn’t my girlfriend at the time, loved the show and it gave us something to talk about.  That year, she danced with Apollo Anton Ono who I’ve never been a fan of, but I rooted for them all season long.  She was just fun to watch and had such a great Read the rest of this entry »


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Celebration Cinema – Lansing

30 05 2008
  • 200 E. Edgewood Blvd.Celebration Cinema
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 393-7469
  • No Menu Online
  • Website

So, like so many guys this weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing the Sex in the City movie with my girlfriend.  Unlike most guys, we had to go to the midnight showing Friday morning.  I actually suggested it because I didn’t want to waste a gorgeous weekend indoors at a movie.  She loved the idea and so did one of her co-workers so I picked her up from work and the three of us headed over the theater.  We ordered our tickets on-line earlier in the day and even went and picked them up on her dinner break, so once we got there, it was straight to the concession stand.

I had been hungry all night and was really looking forward to movie theater popcorn.  Not sure what they do differently, but there is nothing better than movie theater popcorn.  The menu was a little confusing.  The only thing they had listed behind the counter was combos.  Two pops and a popcorn, one pop and a popcorn, etc.  There was a video menu on the counter on the other side of their registers but it was moving so slow I didn’t want to sit there and wait to see what they had.  I just said screw it and went with the super combo which was a super bucket of popcorn and two large pops.  At first, it seems expensive at $13.50, but when you break it down, it’s really not all that bad.  There was a lot of popcorn and the pops were huge, so had I ordered them seperately, they probably would have all been over $4 if not $5.

Celebration CinemaThe cool thing about this particular theater is a lot of it is self serve.  There is another room just off the concession area.  There are a couple large fountain machines…but even better, there are a couple butter dispensers for the popcorn so you can actually determine how much or how little butter you want with the popcorn.  I don’t do movie theaters that often, so I definately took advantage of that one drenching my super sized bucket of popcorn in butter.  There are also shakers of powdered cheese on the counter.  I added some sharp cheddar to my popcorn.  My girlfriend liked it, but I couldn’t wait to get down a little farther in the bucket to get passed it. 

That large bucket lasted the two of probably a half hour or so…and I was really hungry so I wasn’t eating very slow.  The pop lasted me an hour into the movie then I had to get up and make a quick trip to the bathroom.  There was another fountain outside the theater we were in so I’m assuming that means free refills, but it was one in the morning and there was still an hour and a half left in the movie.  I didn’t want to have to get up again, so I passed on the refill.

I really liked the self service part of Celebration Cinemas’ concession.  It gives the consumer control over the amount of butter in the popcorn and ice in the drinks and it makes drink refills easier.  I’ve been to a lot of theaters and lot of different theater chains and this was the first time I had ever seen this.  A nice to touch.


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Categories : Entertainment Venues, Lansing, Reviews

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