Grand Rapids does American Pie

This was stage and filmed in response to a newsweek article proclaiming Grand Rapids, Mi a top 10 dying city in the US.

I don't thing we are

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI&feature=player_embedded

Bill Steffen! They even got the local weather guy to join in!

I miss Michigan, It's a true underdog story up there.

Good video but needs more Wagon Attack! That is good stuff from Grand Rapids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7ZzqBPz4sY
When you said "American Pie" I thought of the movie that was hypothetically set in Grand Rapids. I did not think of Don McLean.

Very strange. I really do not get what they are trying to achieve here. The intention seems to want to say, "GR is a great town and we are not dead." The irony, is they chose to express that livleyhood with a song about a dying America. It is a song about the regression of strong 50's values, prosperity and hope giving way to the difficulties of the 60's and 70's.
Read up on the meanings behind the song.
http://understandingamericanpie.com/index.htm

Yeah that's just silly. If anything, I'd say GR is the top growing city in Michigan. It's got a clean, fun, safe, and beautiful downtown. There are more young people moving there every year. ArtPrize is great, the river is great, and HopCat is especially great.

bastomatic wrote: Yeah that's just silly. If anything, I'd say GR is the top growing city in Michigan. It's got a clean, fun, safe, and beautiful downtown. There are more young people moving there every year. ArtPrize is great, the river is great, and HopCat is especially great.

Ah yes, but you are forgetting one important fact. "There really is a Kalamazoo!"

I nearly forgot about the "there really is a kalamazoo" speal. used to have a snowglobe with that logo on it

Yeah, I don't get it.

My son is 35 miles away and claims a lot of people are unemployed in GR and this gave them something to do.

In reply to pete240z:

My first thought was "How many of these people are actually gainfully employed?"

Great video

2.8M views as of 6/8

Hope GR gets it's mojo back

btw... it was filmed on a weekend

Maybe Detroit should get a bunch of homeless people to walk down the street singing Purple Rain. It has as much to do with Detroit as American Pie has to do with GR. I'm still mystified by this. Did they just pick a song out of a hat? Why not Kool Moe Dee, Wild Wild West? Why not Like a Virgin?

@DrBoost..

most likely because the song is extremely well known and most people know the majority of the lyrics.

Grtechguy wrote: @DrBoost.. most likely because the song is extremely well known and most people know the majority of the lyrics.

By the looks of some people's lips, I would say not...

BTW, I went back to visit "home" over the holiday weekend. The nostalgia is gone. I no longer miss Michigan.

Michigan sold a zero coupon 50 year maturity bond. They got 58 million dollars for it, which was spent the next day. In 50 years, they will owe someone something like 5 BILLION dollars, all at once. Great management they got going there.

Dr. Hess wrote: Michigan sold a zero coupon 50 year maturity bond. They got 58 million dollars for it, which was spent the next day. In 50 years, they will owe someone something like 5 BILLION dollars, all at once. Great management they got going there.

hey! We fired GranMole

DrBoost wrote: Maybe Detroit should get a bunch of homeless people to walk down the street singing Purple Rain. It has as much to do with Detroit as American Pie has to do with GR. I'm still mystified by this. Did they just pick a song out of a hat? Why not Kool Moe Dee, Wild Wild West? Why not Like a Virgin?

Perhaps they were attempting to be ironic.