Two great Michigan film organizations, 8 Ball Movie Night and Burnout Society Film Club, are showcasing Michigan underground filmmakers in their Short Attention Span Theater Film Festival.
Minzey’s Maze: The Criminal Mind and the State of Michigan: Exclusive Interview with Homicide Detective & Legendary Profiler DAVE MINZEY
By: Ryan M. Place
Detective First Lieutenant Dave Minzey is the Michigan law enforcement community’s ace in the hole you’ve never heard of. But you should know him. He deserves greater recognition for his tireless service.
This man has been shot, stabbed repeatedly with a pairing knife by a Mexican lady, bitten by a guard dog, suffered wound-to-wound blood exchange with AIDS patient and finally, was in a terrible car accident that required four surgeries to get all the tiny micro shards of broken glass out of his eyeballs.
He has tracked down serial killers, sexual sadists, child molesters and more. Yes, Minzey is the boots-on-the-ground take no guff jack of all trades who exudes a hypnotically calm demeanor. He’s an excellent listener and observer, always silently processing and analyzing things.
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Born 1954 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Dave moved around and grew up in Milford and Flint, before moving back to Ypsi in 8th grade, “I was in the same grade and class as murder victim Dawn Basom at West Junior High in April 1969. Her death really opened my eyes and the whole community’s eyes to the need for strong law enforcement”, he says, “Ypsi is a rare and interesting slice of America. Half the city is hard-working blue collar families and the other half is academia, anchored by Eastern Michigan University. EMU is a great school for working people to send their kids to college. There’s occasional tension between townies and students but overall the university and the town mesh well together.”
The beautiful campus of Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI)
Minzey graduated from Ypsilanti High School in 1973 and enrolled at EMU. “My Father, Mother, two brothers, and sister all went to EMU. My father Jack Minzey got his B.A. 1950 when it was Michigan State Normal College, got his M.A. at UofM and PhD at MSU in educational leadership, then returned to teach education at EMU for 25 years from 1967-1992. We have a rich history there.”
Dave himself received his B.S. in Political Science 1978 and M.A. in Educational Leadership 1989 at EMU. “In the early 70’s, I applied to the EMU Campus Police Department, became a Dispatcher, then enrolled and completed the Wayne County Police Academy at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. I had the unique opportunity to work as a police officer while still attending EMU. This experience was invaluable and also exposed me to the police culture surrounding the University and its relationship to Ypsi.”
Michigan State Police
For over 20 years, from 1978-2001, Minzey served in the Michigan State Police as a Trooper, Detective Sergeant, Detective Lieutenant and Detective First Lieutenant. “Every enlisted member of the State Police starts out as a trooper working the road. If you survive recruit school and graduate, you are assigned to a Post. I was sent to the Niles Post. A busy post covering two counties, Niles is on the state line, just north of South Bend, Indiana. Interestingly, Niles was a favorite destination of Chicago gangsters in the roaring 1920’s who flocked to the dance halls around Barron Lake.”
Swar-Mandir: Learning How to Play the Indian Sitar in Detroit with Master Lady Sitarist Manjula Verma
By: Ryan M. Place
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” Aldous Huxley (1931)
*This is a long article with 3 parts:
Narrative Lesson, History of India, Links.
The sitar is a beautiful stringed musical instrument from India. Yes, it is considered “exotic” by most Americans and can be somewhat intimidating with its complicated and beautiful musical syntax but learning to play the sitar will definitely relax you. Plus it’s just fun to play.
Manjula Verma runs the ‘Swar-Mandir School of North Indian Classical Music’ in Canton, Michigan. Having such a rare treasure in the form of a talented lady sitarist from New Delhi here in Southeast Michigan, located only 30mins west of downtown Detroit, is truly an incredible opportunity for musicians and lovers of great music to expand their range of capabilities and appreciation.
Manjula Verma in Detroit
Born in India, Manjula Verma learned Hindustani (North Indian) classical music early on in life and received her Master’s degree in music from highly esteemed Kurukshetra University. She later moved to the United States and has been teaching here ever since.
New Delhi to Detroit!
A few years ago, with a sitar loaned to me by my musical pot-smoking woodcarver Uncle Hippie, I began taking lessons from Miss Verma after I saw her pamphlet at McKenny Union back when I was a student at Eastern Michigan University.
The ritual is always the same. I arrive for my one hour long lesson. We bow to each other with praying hands and greet with “Namaste”. We then sit barefoot facing each other atop a rug on the floor of her living room. She helps me tune my sitar and then teaches me a raag (song). Sometimes we use an electronic tabla to help keep the beat.
Namaste (pronounced ‘nah-mah-stay’) is a Hindi greeting between Master and student. The student says it first to the Master then the Master says it to the student. Namaste essentially breaks down to a dual-meaning of “I honor the Atman and the light within you” & “may the power within you be strong.”
Namaste in Sanskrit
Manjula Verma then transmits her Gharana. “Gharana” is the musical dynasty/lineage of whomever you study with and learn to play from. When you learn a Master’s style of playing, you learn their ‘gharana’. For instance, I’m a disciple of Manjula Verma’s Swar Mandir gharana.
Should you be lucky enough to study with Miss Verma (aka: Ustad Guruji Manju) and learn her Gharana, it will be an immensely positive life-changing experience for you. Just remember that consistency is key to solid accelerated development of your sitar skills. Ideally, you should plan on taking lessons for 30mins/wk or 1hr/wk but whatever you can swing is good.
You can learn the sitar at any age. Also, you do not need to actually own a sitar, since Miss Verma has numerous sitars available for playing and rental.
Prospectus
This short essay-article, this Sitarticle, is designed to be a very brief elementary introduction to the sitar. The information below is a very brief collection of insights I’ve learned from Miss Verma in the few short years I’ve been her student.
History of the Sitar
The Seal of Delhi
Although loosely originating in the raw form of the Kithara instrument in Ancient Greece, the true inventor of the sitar is widely regarded as Amir Khusro (1253-1325).
During the Medieval Ages, Khusro was a Persian Sufi musician at the Court of the Sultan of Delhi in India. Here he greatly modified the Kithara around 1278 AD and invented the Sitar as we know it today. Thus, the modern-day sitar design is over 700 years old.
Before you play the sitar, dip your index finger and middle finger tips into cotton swab saturated in coconut oil.
Coconut Oil
Anatomy of the Sitar
Sitar
The main gourd body of the sitar is traditionally carved from teakwood or Punjabi toonwood.
There are 10-20 moveable nickel-plated brass frets. You readjust the frets slightly with each new raag.
The pick is called a Plectrum or in Hindi it is called a Mijrab. Very different from a guitar pick, the Plectrum is a small metal triangle you wear on your index finger. A sitar is always picked with a Plectrum and never plucked with your fingers.
There are 7 strings on the main board = 4 steel Melody strings and 3 bronze Drone strings.
The first main string is called the Baaj Taar and it’s located on the far right.
There are 11-13 Tarab (sympathetic ) strings directly beneath the main strings. Playing the main strings causes these strings to vibrate.
The main resonating gourd is called the Kaddu. There is also an optional secondary gourd, the Tumba. This removable pumpkin gourd is secured at the top beneath the headstock. I took mine off.
The fingerboard is usually made of Tunwood and the tuning pegs are made of Teakwood.
Manka = a decorative bead used for tuning the Baaj Taar, the main string. My manka is shaped like a swan.
Manka (bead) in the shape of swan
Tabla = two small drums that traditionally accompany the sitar. The tabla player provides drone percussion, which helps define the Taal, the time in beats. In the absence of a tabla player, you can use an electronic tabla, which allows you to adjust the pace of the beats to make them slower or faster.
Raags (Songs) Played on the Sitar
Ravi Shankar (c. 1967)
Melodies played on the sitar are called Raags. There are hundreds of thousands of raags.
Raags are divided up into season and time of day. This raag-time changes every 3hrs and is called Prahar. There’s 8 prahars. 24hrs = 8 prahar = changes every 3hrs.
For instance, there are Summer evening raags, Winter afternoon raags, Spring morning raags, Autumn evening raags and so forth.
Some fun and simple beginner raags you will learn with Miss Verma are Raag Bhupali (romantic nighttime raag) and Raag Bhimpalasi (Autumn evening raag).
Notes (Swars) combine to form melodies and some sitarists even use the raag system of 72 Melas (scales).
Basic Structure of the Raag
Made in India
Raag starts with alap (slow tempo; improve) over 3 octaves.
Jod (slow tempo that gradually increases rhythm)
Ulta Jhala (fast vamping) increasing speed
The Gat introduces the tabla, then the tabla gradually stirs in
Gat (3 parts) = Sthai (middle octave), Manjha (mid-set), Antara (upper octave)
Vilambit Gat
Drut Gat
Then finally back to Jhala (vamping on the chikari)
Raag Alap Jor Alap Vilambit Gat Vilambit Gat toras Drut Gat Drut Gat toras Jhala (vamping) End on Thai
Octaves & Time Theory of Indian Music
Middle Octave = Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ne, Sa
Ma is the only note with two states = Pure Ma and Higher Ma
Ascending the octave is called Aroha.
Descending the octave is called Avroha.
Raag Bhimpalasi sheet music from my lesson with Miss Verma
Remember, the main string (string on the far right) is called the Baaj Taar.
Da Bol-striking the baaj taar inward Ra Bol-striking the baaj taar outward Dir Bol-striking the baaj taar inward and outward fast in one swoop
Ryan M. Place (student of Miss Verma)
Learning the sitar from Miss Verma has taken me to a higher level of understanding music. If you live within a one hour proximity of Detroit, I highly recommend learning with her.
Miss Verma is outstandingly talented and we are enormously fortunate to have her in such close proximity. I also keep pushing her to write an instructional book on the Sitar with CD accompaniment and hopefully she does one day to help continue spreading the joy and love of the Indian Sitar.
Also, according to Miss Verma, an excellent sitar will cost around $2,000 and can be purchased from Rikhi Ram (New Delhi, India) or Hiren Roy and Sons (Calcutta, India). Rikhi Ram was founded in 1920 by Rikhi Ram Sharma. He died in 1961, then his son Bishan Dass Sharma took over until his death in 2007 when his son Sanjay Sharma took over.
It takes decades to master the full dynamic range of the sitar, so please be patient. ‘Spose that’s nothing considering The Mahamanvantara, 311 trillion years of Brahama, and how an individual human lifespan is merely a nano-blip of a second in comparison. Many years from now, I hope to one day master the sitar. Namaste!
Swar-Mandir
School: Swar-Mandir School of North Indian Classical Music
Teacher: Manjula Verma
Location: Canton, Michigan (30mins west of downtown Detroit)
Length: 30min to 60min classes for Beginners
Materials: Sitars are provided. You do not need to bring one.
Contact: call or email Miss Verma with any questions 734-776-2129 MKVredrose@yahoo.com
India is projected to have the world’s largest population by 2050.
Indus Valley, NW India (7000 BC) The concept of farming begins here.
New Delhi, India (1500 BC) A 23ft high column, the Iron Pillar of Delhi, is made of an alloy that will not rust. It still stands there to this day.
Bodhgaya, Bihar, India (461 BC) Siddhartha Gautama (35) a Hindu born in Kapilavastu, attains enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.
Karnataka, South India (400 BC) India begins exporting steel to Greece for the Greek Emperors. This wootz steel was also used to make the famous Damascus Swords of antiquity.
Punjab, India (326 BC) Alexander the Great (aka: Sikander) attempts to conquer India. During the Battle of the Hydapses River, he defeated the hill tribes. Alexander had blacksmiths make giant oversized armor, which he left strewn about in fields. The local hill tribes were so frightened of possible giants, they surrendered. Punjab was annexed to Macedonia. However, impressed with his adversary’s skills, he appointed King Porus to rule the area and Alexander left India.
India (200 BC) The Law of Manu establishes the Hindu caste system.
India (250 AD) The game of Chess is invented.
Henan Province, China (495 AD) Ba Tuo comes from India and establishes the Shaolin Temple of kung fu warrior monks atop Mount Song.
China (527 AD) Buddhist monk Bodhidharma comes from India and introduces China to Ch’an Buddhism at Shaolin Temple. His 6 treatises become the essential principles of Zen. He is also the inventor of kung fu boxing, which he taught to the monks at Shaolin Temple.
Allahbad, India (636 AD) Annual festival, Maha Kumbh Mela, begins. This festival still occurs and every year it attracts over 100 million people and remains the world’s largest gathering.
Shankara (788-820) Hindu mystic philosopher and poet-author of The Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination).
India (700’s AD) Padma Sambhava pens the Bardo Thodol the Between State (Tibetan Book of the Dead). This book was transport to and buried in Tibet.
Delhi, India (1278 AD) estimate Persian Sufi musician Amir Khusro invents the modern-day sitar.
Romania, Europe (1300’s) Gypsies, ancestors of Turkish conqueror Tamerlane, arrive from India.
India (1497-1498) Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama becomes the first person to sail from Europe to India.
Northern India (1526) Mughal Empire starts.
Goa, India (1556) A Portuguese ship carrying a printing press and 14 Jesuits destined for Abyssinia (Ethiopia) stops at Goa. Christian missionaries on Goa hijack the printing press, install it on Goa and thus, printing in India is born.
Madras, India (1640) British colonizers fortify the city of Madras, transforming it into a regional trading center.
Golcanda, India (1660) At the Kollur mine, the massive 115-carat Tavernir diamond is mined. From this diamond, the huge dark blue one-of-a-kind 46-carat Hope Diamond is cut.
Fort William, Calcutta (1756) Bengal’s ultra-tiny dungeon for British POW’s, the Black Hole of Calcutta, is rat-infested and grotesque. Fort William was a walled fort that was formerly a major factory of the Dutch East India Company in the 1600’s.
Afghanistan (1839) The Brits crush an Afghan revolt to keep the country of Afghanistan as a buffer between Russia and India in an effort to block Russian expansion.
India (1846) The creation of Jammu and Kashmir states creates an India-China boundary dispute that lingers to this day. There was even a short border war in 1962 between China and India over it.
India (1857-1947) The British raj (rule). The British Empire ruled India. During this time, Britain had 125 territories and India was considered the jewel in the crown of various properties including Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, West Indies (Jamaica, Trinidad), etc.
Janigpur, West Bengal, India (1858) British administrator Sir William Herschel uses fingerprints to identify prisoners due to high illiteracy rates. Sir William has villagers sign documents with handprints in this first ever documented use of fingerprint identification.
Indian Ocean (1874) A giant squid sinks the 150-ton ship Pearl. All 200 passengers onboard the steamer ship Strathowen, en route to India, witness this incident. Giant squid are massive, rarely-seen, 500ft long monsters that the Scandinavian’s call Kraken. Also consider that the Indian Ocean west of Java is a shocking 26,000+ feet deep. Who knows what’s down there?
Bombay, India (1899) Bollywood, the massive Indian film industry, begins.
Madras, India (1913) Genius math prodigy Ramanujan sends a Cambridge math professor in England a 10page letter with 120 math theorems. His genius is instantly recognized and he moves to England to study at Cambridge. In 1919, Ramanujan returns to India and dies at 32.
Calcutta, India (1929) Macedonian Roman Catholic missionary-nun, Mother Teresa, moves from Macedonia to India and becomes Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Bikaner, India (1938-1946) Diana Rigg (the famously hot Mrs. Emma Peel of excellent television show The Avengers) lives in India for the first 8yrs of her life. As a result, she is fluent in Hindi.
Maihar, India (1938) Ravi Shankar begins learning sitar under the Maihar gharana of Allauddin Khan.
Calcutta, India (1944) The human skull, skeleton and remains trade begins flourishing due to a London scientific supply company seeking alternate suppliers. India eventually outlawed the export of human remains in 1985 but this only made the items more expensive and the practice reputedly still thrives. As recently as a few years ago, it was estimated that some 200 gangs were supplying around 600 international smugglers who export these remains all over the world.
India (1947) The British rule of India officially ends and India partitions a Northern chunk off, thus creating the country of Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah rules Islamic Pakistan and Jawaharlal Nehru runs Hindu India.
India (1955-1967) A marvel of human engineering, the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is built. At 490ft high and 1 mile long, it’s the world’s largest masonry dam. It took over 50,000 people working full-time some 12 years to build.
Dharamsala, Punjab, India (1959) Fleeing Chinese-occupied Tibet, Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyato (24) winds up in exile in Dharamsala with 80,000 Tibetans. The Dalai Lama and his followers sill remain in exile here.
Goa, India (1966) Hippies from the United States travel to the island of Goa and help turn it into a psychedelic party island. Once an outpost of the Dutch East India Company in 1665, Goa becomes known for electronic music-fueled hard partying beach raves 350yrs later.
New Delhi, India (July 6th, 1966) George Harrison, aka: “the Quiet Beatle”, meets Ravi Shankar and Ravi takes him to buy a sitar at Rikhi Ram & Sons sitar shop.
Srinagar, Kashmir (September 1966) George Harrison returns to India and spends six weeks learning the sitar from Ravi Shankar on a secluded houseboat.
Rishikesh, India (1968) The Beatles study Transcendental Meditation with guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram. They write all of their material for ‘The White Album’ during their extended stay here.
Delhi, India (1970) Supremely talented American classical minimalist musician Terry Riley lives in India, studying raags.
Hyderabad, India (1996) 2,000acre film studio complex, Ramoji Film City, is constructed. Nicknamed “Tollywood”, this Bengali-Telugu version of Bollywood is much larger than Bollywood.
Bangalore, India (2013) Ypsilanti, Michigan residents Rene Greff & husband Matt Greff (owners of Arbor Brewing Company in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti) open the first ever American craft beer brewery in India called the Arbor Brewing Company. http://www.arborbrewing.com/locations/india/?age-verified=9b9a988acb
India (2021) 36yr old Ryan M. Place ventures to India to explore the entire country and buy a real sitar. Hopefully!
Links
Ustad Vilayat Khan
Ravi Shankar
Ancient Vedic Chants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjcVbd1O7KQ
Marc Hulet, retired Senior Investigator for the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office (aka: the Detroit Morgue)
Papa Hulet, as he is affectionately called by friends and family, has had a remarkable career investigating suspicious deaths of all types. Homicides, suicides, autoerotic asphyxiation, gang victims, Mafia killings, blunt force trauma, stabbings, thermal burns, meth lab explosions, scraping brain matter off walls with putty knives, etc, you name it, Marc Hulet has handled it. “Decomp fluid, worst smell in the world. It’s the stickiest oiliest shit imaginable”, he says. “I’ve also fallen into the Detroit River while getting a body out of the water. It’s not very pleasant to surface gasping for air next to bobbing corpses.”
Sigma Tau Gamm @ Central Michigan University
Born in 1951 in Pontiac, Hulet attended Stevenson Livonia High School before attending Central Michigan University 1969-1973. Hulet was a Sigma Tau Gamma, graduated with a B.S. in Public Health Education and stayed inside the jock dorm Barnard Hall, “CMU was a great baseball school. Serial killer John Norman Collins stayed inside Barnard Hall when he went to CMU back in ’66. He then went to EMU and pledged Theta Chi and the saying at the time when I was in school was ‘Be a Thete and kill your date’ because of Collins.”
Talented local Detroit filmmaker Edward Goree is seeking an all-black cast for his short ‘Never Forget’ which will shoot inside a local school.
Read-thru will be held Sunday, March 2nd, 2014 from 3pm-8pm in the basement of the Fisher Building (3011 W. Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI).
This is an open call and scripts will be provided on the spot.
Mr. Goree graduated Eastern Michigan University with a film degree and is busy developing and shopping around several of his full-length feature screenplays.
Mr. Goree lives in Detroit and you will see alot of great things from this gentleman in the near future!
Please email for more info: edward.goree@margravepictures.com
Margrave’s very first production. Hezekiah the Sandpiper (Nick Place) is tormenting the world’s top international fashion model, Ali Maypop (Amanda Conte), for her toenails. Shot on location at Eastern Michigan University and surrounding environs.
Paul (Ryan M. Place) and Ryan (Paul Jason Rambo) are ultra-sophisto coffee snobs searching for the perfect cup of coffee, searching for Aquapulp. Very fun two day shoot.
Written by Paul Jason Rambo, Directed by Dave Donaldson and shot by Matt Morley, this musical short involves two friends (Paul Rambo and Bobby Darby) and one partying harlot (Caitlin Burt) and how real friendship should always trump the dangerously toxic and inauthentic relationships that plague some.
A favorite here at Margrave Pictures, this fun little short was shot in one day in Canton, Michigan. Shallow end o’ the gene pool swimmers Larry (Paul Rambo) and Krystal (Angie Wright) accidentally happen upon a priceless Angolan statue and uncover a hideous shadow CIA plot in the process.
Margrave’s very first production. Hezekiah the Sandpiper (Nick Place) is tormenting the world’s top international fashion model, Ali Maypop (Amanda Conte), for her toenails.
Gag reel for pilot episode of television series called ‘Lighthouse’, an existential comedy for the working drone. Yes they “work” at Lighthouse Car Wash but no real work is ever done.
Fun little short shot in a few hours in Detroit on Dios de Los Muertos. Asmodeus the Lust Daemon (Tim Climer) rises once a year for the entire month of November to terrorize whatever unfortunate he selects. Unfortunately, he selected the exceedingly plausible antiquarian brainfood enthusiast and wine shop employee Tweet Ripley (Dale Climer).
Written and Directed by Dave Donaldson and shot by Ryan M. Place, this video was shot for a contest and Dave gets a beer bottle broken over his noodle in this by Jason Cowan. Good showcase of Mr. Donaldson’s unrealized acting talents.
Hello! Margrave Pictures is currently looking to shoot short segments on a variety of talent such as: trick pool shooters, obscure instrument players (ie: sitar, glockenspiel, vibraphone, etc.), gorgeous ladies, performance poetry, music vids, etc.
If you can do something interesting and unusual or know somebody who is extremely interesting or unusual or has some rare film-worthy talent or ability, please contact us with the exact information. Thank you!
