If you are thinking about heading to Dearborn City Hall Park today for the free Jazz on the Ave concert, which begins at 7 p.m., you should first plan to stop at Green Brain Comics, located just down the street from City Hall.

From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. today (Aug. 25) you will have the chance to meet Ted Raimi – who has starred in numerous television and film projects (probably best known for his performances in all three blockbuster Spiderman films directed by his brother, Sam Raimi) – and preview the new web series “Playing Dead.” Also on hand will be Detroit visual artist SLAW. The Playing Dead web series is a dark comedy, written by and starring Suzanne Keilly, about a down on her luck actress that takes a part time job as Death to pay the bills.

Raimi’s appearance at Green Brain Comics, 13210 Michigan Ave., precedes a screening and benefit on Aug. 28 at the Detroit Film Theatre of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Hosted by WDET 101.9 FM’s Ann Delisi, the live performance event includes creative independent rock performances from Detroit artists Troy Gregory and Lightening Love, a question and answer session with Raimi and Keilly, and features the work of Detroit visual artist SLAW. All proceeds from the Aug. 28 event benefit the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit.

For more information check out Green Brain’s website HERE or call 313-582-9444

Dearborn may not have the kind of retail we’d like to see (at least not yet) but there is a good collection of restaurants.

And now some of those establishments will be featured on canvas as of a project called “Dearborn Paints – Good Food!”

Dearborn artist Janet Kondziela recently painted food at Top Dog Coney Island, 13342 Michigan.

Over the next 12 months, Dearborn artist Janet Kondziela will be bringing together art, commerce, marketing and a bit of fun. Some of you may have already bumped into Kondziela, who has been on location at several Dearborn establishments with her easel and paints, creating an original painting of each business’s signature product.

An exhibition of all the finished work is scheduled for September 2011 at the Padzieski Art Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center. The exhibit will include all the finished pieces plus additional original work by Dearborn artists.

Aided by a grant from the Dearborn Community Fund and some additional support from the Dearborn Chamber of Commerce, Kondziela will be on site at more than 25 businesses. The project kicked off in May at Westborn Fruit & Flower Market. Other locations have included: Alcamo’s, 4423 Schaefer; O’Kelley’s Knights of Columbus Hall, 23663 Park; Dearborn Farmer’s Market, behind Bryant Library, Top Dog Coney Island, 13342 Michigan; Jim’s Place, 13245 Michigan and Leon’s Family Dining, 23830 Michigan.

Kondziela’s dates for August include: August 10 (10:30 a.m.), LaPita, 22681 Newman; August 13 (11 a.m.), Buddy’s Pizzeria, 222148 Michigan; August 21 (10 a.m.); Westborn Fruit & Flower Market, 21735 Michigan; August 28 (Noon), O’Sushi’s (outdoors), 22431 Michigan (Sept. 4 rain date). New sites are added as they become available. For current updates, visit Kondziela’s  website HERE or  the Dearborn Community Fund at 313-943-5478.

Dearborn estimates Homecoming weekend will draw about 150,000 people over the weekend, which means driving and trying to find a parking space could be challenging.

The good news is the city is offering free shuttle service and free parking.

Two options exist: free parking and free shuttle service from Dearborn High School, sponsored by Henry Ford Health System, and free shuttle service from the west Dearborn business district along West Village Drive, from Military to Monroe.

All shuttles take visitors to the festival grounds at Ford Field Park in Dearborn.

The Dearborn High shuttle will pick visitors up at the school parking lot, on the west side of Outer Drive, north of Michigan Avenue. It runs from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, and noon to 11:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday of Homecoming weekend. Parking is free.

The shuttles are Dearborn Public Schools buses and include handicapped accessible buses and will make continuous loops between the festival grounds and the school. There is no established time schedule.

Another free shuttle is available on West Village Drive, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The City of Dearborn shuttle vans will stop along West Village Drive from Monroe to Military. Parking fees may apply, except on Sunday. On Friday and Saturday, parking is at a special festival rate of $1 in the West Parking Deck only.

The Ford Field parking lot also provides a limited number of spaces, including handicapped parking, for $5 per car.

For complete details about Homecoming, including a schedule of events, visit www.cityofdearborn.org or call 943-2285.

If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend, stop by The Henry Ford in Dearborn for the first Maker Faire in Michigan.

Presented by MAKER magazine, Builders, inventors, crafters and artists show off their creations in a festival-like setting inside the Henry Ford Museum and in the parking lot.

As one of our readers points out to us, the Maker Faire is a “quirky techno circus of sorts, with lots of interesting exhibits going on. Pretty geeky and forward thinking.”

The event runs from 9:30 a.m. today through Sunday. Tickets are $28 or $48 for both days. Discounts are available for members, seniors and children. For more information, please call, 313-271-1620.

You also can read more by clicking HERE.

This year’s Dearborn Homecoming will have a different sound, at least from the entertainment side as attendee regulars will notice the absence of a big name national entertainer.

Forget K.C. and the Sunshine Band, The Commodores or Rick Spingfield. This year it is “Big Shot with Michael DelGuidice–the Ultimate Billy Joel Experience,” who will headline this year’s Homecoming festival August 6-8.

Dearborn was trying to land Motorcity rocker Mitch Ryder but scheduling conflicts kept him off of center stage and the city instead went with Michael DelGuidice and his band, who will perform Saturday, Aug. 7, from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Michael DelGuidice and band will perform music of Billy Joel, the Beatles, Elton John and many others. DelGuidice has played with Billy Joel himself, as well as being featured in Joel’s Broadway musical, Movin Out. He has also shared the stage with Donna Summer, Roger Daltrey and many others. For more on the band, click HERE.

There will be great musical entertainment all three days of Homecoming on three stages: the Main Stage, Stage B and the Food Court Stage.

Starting off the Main Stage festivities on Friday will be Horizon, backed by the Two and a Half Deep Band. This popular Motown review will be jamming out from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday features Emerson Drive, a country music ensemble that has earned countless fans and critical acclaim with their fresh style. They take the Main Stage at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday and play until 10 p.m. For more on the band, click HERE.

On Stage B, audiences can hear local favorites The Bomb Squad from 6-8 p.m. on Saturday night, and on Sunday, Fifty Amp Fuse will play from 6-8 p.m.

Oakwood Healthcare System is the presenting sponsor of the 2010 Homecoming.

For a complete list of entertainment at Homecoming, as well as schedules for children’s activities and strolling entertainers, events at the Living History Hill, car cruise, art fair and contests, click HERE.

The third of six free outdoor Jazz On The Aveconcerts is this Wednesday, July 28 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Arab American National Museum. The concert was moved from Dearborn City Hall park because of the threat of rain.

East Downtown Dearborn hosts the jazz series in July and August, along with V98.7 Smooth Jazz HD and WWJ News radio.  Concert co-sponsors include Oakwood Healthcare, the Dearborn Community Fund, the Dearborn Times-Herald, Dearborn Press & Guide and Metro Timesnewspapers. The outdoor concerts take place at Dearborn City Hall Park, 13615 Michigan Ave. at Schaefer. Bring lawn chairs or blankets and stake out a good spot for great music in the park.

Area restaurants will be open nearby, as well, providing concert-goers tasty carry-out dinners to eat in the park before the concert.

Here’s the schedule to mark your calendars:

- Wednesday July 28: Rayse Biggs Band

- Wednesday August 11: Thornetta Davis Band

- Wednesday August 18: Kimmie Horn Show

- Wednesday August 25: The Brothers Groove

PLEASE NOTE: In the event of inclement weather, the concerts will be moved inside the Arab American National Museum located directly across the street from Dearborn City Hall. No food or beverages are permitted inside the auditorium and seating is limited. Stay tuned to the EDDDA website for location updates as rain is in the forecast for tomorrow Wednesday July 28.

Woodworth becomes Woodsboro High School in the movie Scream 4.

Dearborn’s Woodworth Middle School will be named Woodsboro High School when it appears in the upcoming Scream 4 movie, which is expected to open in the spring of next year.

We wrote about the school’s starring role in the movie a week ago (see earlier story, HERE).  Well, now we have some official photos of what the school will look like in the movie.

The Woodsboro name also appears inside Woodworth Middle School.

For the next four days (Tuesday, June 29 – Friday, July 2) Dearborn will have a “fourth” high school with the addition  of Woodsboro High School in Scream 4. The photographs show how the front of the school has been changed for the movie.  Film crews also have done some work on room 208 and in the hallway outside the classroom.

The school will return to Woodworth Middle School once filming wraps up.

For those wondering, the school is being paid $500 per day for each prep and take down day and $1,000 a day for each filming date.  While we don’t have the exact number of days right now, school officials say film crews currently are scheduled for four film days and about eight days of prep and take down. So that would be a check to the school district of $8,000.

We’re not ones to usually pay attention to beauty pageants, but when Miss Michigan is from Dearborn and competing in the Miss USA competition, well, then it becomes more relevant.

Rima Fakih

So congratulations to Rima Fakih who on Sunday was crowned Miss USA and at the same time helped shine a positive light on Dearborn for the many national media outlets covering this story. (Worth noting that at the time of this post, Rema Fakih was the number one most popular search on Google. The Internet search engine called the volume of searches for Fakih as “volcanic”.)

The Detroit Free Press had a nice feature story about Fakih in Saturday’s edition. You can read that story by clicking HERE.

Born in New York to Lebanese-American parents, and raised in Dearborn with her parents and her younger brother, Rami, Fakih is a graduate of St. John’s Preparatory Catholic High School. The 24-year-old earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with a minor in business administration from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Well done Rima and best of luck on your next pageant step, the Miss Universe contest.

The movie is based on Larry Beinhart's book of the same name.

Get ready for some celebrity watching in Dearborn.

Pierce Brosnan, Ed Harris, Jim Gaffigan, Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear are among those starring in a new Mandalay Entertainment film called Salvation Boulevard that is expected to begin filming sometime in May in Dearborn and metro Detroit, sources tell Deepsaidwhat.com. The film is directed by George Ratliff.

We are told movie crews will be staying at the Ritz and the Hyatt in Dearborn for about a month once filming begins for the movie, which is expected to be out sometime in 2011.

The movie, adapted from Larry Beinhart’s novel of the same name, is about a private detective investigating the killing of a professor and it becomes a clash of faiths: The detective is a born-again Christian, the dead man an atheist, the accused killer an Islamic foreign student and the D.A. is Jewish.

Should be interesting.

Have you ever wondered what to do with that collectible figurine, crystal vase or piece of vintage jewelry that is just taking up space and does not appeal to your children or other heirs?

Have you ever watched an episode of “The Antiques Road Show” and wondered how much money is collecting dust in your china cabinet, jewelry box, attic, or basement?

If you answered “yes” to either question, you’ll want to take part in an April 30th fundraising event for the Dearborn Symphony that provides an easy way to donate what we call “Precious Collection” items without taking a road trip.

The “Precious Collection” event at the Fairlane Woods Clubhouse also gives those of you who want to keep your heirloom items a great opportunity to find out how much they are really worth, while helping the Dearborn Symphony.

Here is how it works:

1.)  If you have an item to donate that you believe is worth $50 or more, contact Margaret Schaefer at 313-565-2366 or e-mail her at: [email protected] by Monday, April 5, 2010. She will arrange to pick up your donation, which will be appraised, then sold at the Precious Collection Sale to be held on Friday April 30, 2010 from 3-8 pm at the Fairlane Woods Clubhouse, on Auto Club Drive, just south of Ford Rd. in Dearborn. A donation letter, suitable for IRS purposes, will be provided following the sale.

 2.) If you don’t have an item to donate, come to shop for “Precious Collection” items, bid on Silent Auction items, and enter hourly prize drawings—all while enjoying wine and cheese.

3.) Advance sale tickets are available for $15 each, payable by check made out to “WADOS.” Checks must be mailed or delivered before April 23rd to:

Patti Mack, 3501 Monroe, Dearborn, MI 48124

Tickets will be $20 at the door.

Admission price also includes verbal appraisal of up to two items you might bring along.

Best of all, proceeds go to support the Dearborn Symphony.