Exciting Times for "Re-Entry"

It's been a while since my last post, sorry.

But to let you in on a secret, the writing is coming along great. Interviews have been amazing - lots of personal stories about the early days of Detroit punk rock around Bookie's Club 870, the founding of "White Noise", the evolution to "FUN" and then the creation of "ORBIT".

If you have something to add, or can help with photos of "ORBIT" events (especially, the parties and end of the magazine "wake" at St. Andrew's Hall) please get in touch!

CHEERS!

Rob St. Mary - author of "Re-Entry: The Orbit Magazine Anthology"

From "Punk Rock" to "Rock Lobster"

For Orbit restaurant writer, Jimmy Doom, it about being in the right place at the right time.

Jimmy Doom

As he remembers it, Doom says around 1997 the usual food critic wasn't around or had left the paper. Jerry Peterson was looking for someone to review a place for the magazine. So, Doom got the gig. He says it was great because Orbit was a very free place to write for editorially. Sure, you could make fun of a place if you wanted to but that was not the idea. It was about trying to review places that Orbit readers would be interested in checking out. Doom says he didn't deliberately seek out bad places, but sometimes he found them.

Pulitzer-Prize Winner says Fun "Infected" Him

For Detroit Free Press reporter M.L. Elrick there was no greater publication than Fun Magazine. 

M.L. Elrick

As he puts it, the free Detroit satirical paper was "so raw" and did things most people would never dare because "you would be worried you would be shut down."

"I took the ship down, probably."

Through the 1990s and into the 2000s Liz Copeland was the voice of eclectic music overnight on WDET 101.9FM. That was until the format changed in the mid-2000s. 

And like fellow former WDET host Ralph Valdez, Liz Copeland (now, Warner) also wrote for Orbit.

Liz Copeland - "She's Zotik!"

She spent about 2 1/2 years at the paper until the final issue hit the racks in the fall of 1999. 

To which, Liz says "I took the ship down, probably."

How Did You Get This Assignment?

Since I started the adventure to the Orbit anthology I've been asked by family, friends and other folks how it all came to be. 


Well, pull up a chair and I'll tell you. 


Back about three years ago I was taking part in a group art show at the world famous C-POP gallery in Detroit. While there I got the chance to meet honcho Rick Manore. 

Me, Rick Manore & Niagara at Pink Pump Event - June 2011

Brit Brings Orby to Oxford

It was around 1991 or so when John Dickerson called the Orbit offices in Royal Oak. The magazine was looking for sales people. Dickerson says as soon as publisher Jerry Peterson heard his voice he was hired. Dickerson immigrated to Michigan from Oxford, England in 1989 and brought with him the kind of accent known to get us Midwestern folks to not only take everything they say seriously but more importantly, and Peterson must have known this, that kind of voice that can get people to sign on the dotted line and buy advertising.

A few twists, turns and about four years later, Dickerson headed back home to England and decided to bring something with him – Orbit Magazine.

Dickerson says after talking to Peterson, the publisher of Detroit’s Orbit, it was decided that he would publish a UK edition in Oxford, England.

Orbit issues Americans have NEVER SEEN!

Orbit UK launched around 1995 and lasted for about 3 years. Exact dates and the number of issues are still being researched by your humble author.

WDET alum recalls the punk rock days, White Noise and Orbit

Ralph Valdez is known to most Metro Detroiters for long running radio show on WDET 101.9FM. Valdez's eclectic mix was heard for about 20 years on the Detroit airwaves before the station changed formats from mostly all music to mostly news/talk about five years ago.

Ralph Valdez

But, how Valdez came to write for Orbit Magazine actually starts in the late 1970s in a little club near Detroit's Palmer Park neighborhood.

The place was Bookie’s Club 870.