The city of Royal Oak has declared 2 states of snow emergency so far and were sure more is to come. Keep your eyes glued to your email for those postings from the city at 10pm or you’ll be like me and wake up to a $50 parking ticket on your car.

After months of weekly meetings at The Coffee Beanery in Berkley,  i3Detroit has made its home located downtown at 322 East 4th Street Royal Oak Mi.
Weekly meetings are held currently each tuesday at 7PM at the new location.  If you are interested in finding out more about the group and would like to be apart of it please visit! i3 is actively accepting new members.

The grand opening will be hosted the first weekend of October, opening the doors to the public to come and see what i3Detroit is all about.  With the first class
“Intro to Small Scale Web Advertising (Part 1)” scheduled for Monday, October 05, 2009 from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (ET) i3 will feature many lectures available to the public to learn topics presented by various hosts.

Anyone is allowed to visit i3Detroit, though Membership allows full access to the premises 24/7 onsite storage, voting rights,  and other various perks.  Non-members are allowed to visit the space while another member is willing to accompany them.

http://www.i3detroit.com

“Fall in love with the Detroit Zoo all over again at this exclusive after-hours event for guests 21 years and older ONLY.  Summer Zoomance invites guests to revisit their childhood memories of the Detroit Zoo while creating new ones during a peaceful twilight stroll among the Zoo’s award-winning habitats from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The evening will include live entertainment and animal enrichment.  Adult beverages and food will be available for purchase.

Guests must be born on or before August 18, 1988 to enter event.  IDs will be checked at the Main Gate entrance.  Admission is $8 for all guests and parking is free for Detroit Zoological Society Members. Parking is $5 for non-members.  This event takes place rain or shine..”

Summer Zoomance

Royal Oak is known for a few things, Live music being one of them. Occasionally you will be walking downtown, or eating at one of the patio cafes and hear the sounds of an acoustic guitar in the distance and some young out of key guy singing, or you will get lucky and be at the corner with the saxophonist.  Though RO’s live music has its up and downs of musicians, its always entertaining to hear something going on while downtown.

So back to my point, The Decemberist are a larger touring band, and over the past hour has been pushing publicity via twitter to get people down to Royal Oak to come check them out.  Not like they are a loud scream-O band.

Well I score this one Artists 1 RO Police 0

Around 3am this morning a fatal hit and run accident caused the entire city of Royal Oak to wonder WTF.
“WTH is going on with the helicopter hovering over Royal Oak/Ferndale? It’s no traffic copter.”
“wtf is this big ol’ helicopter doing flying back and forth over Royal Oak at 4:30am??”

During the hours of 3am and 6am a US Coast Guard helicopter was call in to help search and capture the hit and run suspect on westbound i696 to Woodward ramp.
As of 6am it is reported the suspect is in police custody.

Well, my adventures of July 10th. of course.  Day started out receiving a tweet from the city I live in, informing me of a free trolley ride between the regional 5 local downtown cities.  Trolley #1 made a round trip every 30 mins to Royal Oak,  Pleasant Ridge, Ferndale.
Trolley #2 visited Royal Oak, Berkley, and Huntington Woods. 

While visiting around Royal Oak, walking down Fifth Ave I came across Fifth Ave Billiards to find a IRS seizure posted on the door.  Apparently 5th Ave Billiards owed 2 years in back taxes, so the government seized their building and equipment.  Sad to see another one go down in Royal Oak, from my understanding they just recently lost their dance license.. WTF, a license to allow people to DANCE?

To end the night, I celebrated an early birthday with a gift to myself by catching the midnight showing at the Royal Oak theater. 1984′s Ghost Busters,  being 26 catching a movie that came out on big screen 25 years ago was pretty awesome.

The i3 Detroit technology cooperative will hold an electronics recycling drive on Saturday July 11^th, 2009, in downtown Ferndale. Volunteers from i3 Detroit will accept drop-offs from 9AM to 3PM outside of Go Comedy, 261 E. 9 Mile Rd., Ferndale. The group will also hold a raffle for $300 in prizes at the event.

 In Metro Detroit, electronics cannot be recycled curbside. Instead, residents usually have to make an appointment to take their old electronics to a SOCCRA drop-off center[1]. The i3 recycling drive will give Metro Detroiters an alternative way to recycle their old electronics, as well as raise awareness for the importance of electronics recycling in general.

Full Details Please Visit i3Detroit.com

Each June, Located in and around a home in Warren MI. Geeks, Gamers, and FRIENDS from all around the nation… hell the world meet up for a week long EXPO. Among the Expo this year included a viking from Norway, being the only international to make the trip for the 2009 Icrontic EXPO.  Previous years have included some Euros
If you have never experienced EPIC, ExPo ICrontic, it is held each year in June. People come from all over to compete in tournaments, Board Games, join in some interactive classes, or just to hang out at the Icrontic HQ

This year (June 23-28) marked the largest attendance to date hitting 60 attendees, 5 days of gaming, a food tour extravaganza, lots of beer, and prizes supplied by sponsors such as, OCZ Technology, ATI, Duck Brand Duct Tape, NZXT Guardian, Thrustmaster, EA Games, Sumo Lounge Furniture and Futuremark.

“We changed the name and the concept to indicate that this huge summer gathering was about way more than computer gaming; it was about being an Icrontian, and Livin’ the Icrontic Life. We renamed the gathering to reflect this, and “EXPO ICRONTIC” was born (EPIC for short).” – Icrontic.com

Events Included:

• LAN Gaming (Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and more)
• Tastes of Detroit food tour
• Duct Tape Challenge
• IC Golf Outing
• Boardgaming Area
• Rock Band
• Moar

The Icrontic.com community is dedicated to each years events, planning generally starts before the last handful of attendees have even finished leaving the year prior. People arrive days in advance just to hang out at ICHQ and help with the preparation.

Internationals guests tend to stay around 3 weeks enjoying as much as possible of Michigan, and sometimes a trip or two into neighboring great lake states. Some of the competitions involve board game challenges, Team based death matches, and strategy based games. The winning team would earn prize tickets to enter a raffle for certain prizes. Ranging from portable console cases, games, new pc cases, power supplies, and ram.

As the last day came to an end, late into the night as after the last tournament ended, prizes were awarded in a Chinese raffle, Drinks were raised, some departed some slept, while some just refused to sleep, savoring their last remaining hours together pulling pranks on those that choose to sleep randomly around the house. Some relaxed on the back porch until well after the sun had risen and the birds and squirrels were awake.

“So to summarize, EPIC is the biggest Icrontic event of the year; the most fun, the most hectic, the most social, the most…. Epic! ” – Icrontic.com

Well until Oktoberfest

Links:
What is EPIC
Icrontic

As any other normal night downtown Royal Oak, the streets are filled with people, bikers and old cars from the 50′s 60′s.  Came across some models on 3rd st posing, after a short bit, I ran into Oné talked with him for a bit, then he had to hurry and catch his bus to make it back to warren and prepare for another long day of job hunting and possibly entertaining us on another hot day downtown.

The night got interesting when I came down center street and saw a crowd building out front of Noir Leather before I arrived there had to be a good 15, maybe 20 people standing around.  At this moment I realized I only had my phone on me, so I apologize for the low res video included, pictures came out alright.  After a few minuets of prep the show began.

“As a certified instructor, I have led Yoga and Pilates classes in metropolitan Detroit since 2001. I work with clients of every age, shape and size. Through my recovery of a near fatal car accident, I have incorporated Yoga and Pilates into my daily life for the past 7 years. I have extensive knowledge in rehabilitation and injury recovery. I am available for private training, group classes and corporate sessions.”

Aviva can be reached at

http://www.Aviva4Fitness.com
248.797.6469

In a way we plan to bring back the community that was ROSO but with our twists on things, we will be building a much bigger community.

So stay tuned….  we have more to come..