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start at $100, though VIP tickets fetch as much as $1,500 and include an afterparty with the genre-jumping artist who still lives in suburban Detroit.
• Rock, who was born Robert Ritchie and grew up in Macomb County, Mich., is volunteering his services. So are Detroit Symphony Music Director Leonard Slatkin and orchestra members. Proceeds will help pay symphony musicians for community outreach and education efforts.
• "As a musician, and of course a Detroiter, I am proud to be supporting this longstanding cultural institution," Rock has said of his show with the orchestra.
• One night -- even one that rocks and rolls in big money -- doesn't erase bigger, long-term woes for the internationally recognized orchestra. Musicians agreed to major concessions during the six-month strike that ended in April of last year, but that's only slowed the orchestra's $2.5 million-to-$3 million annual drain of a roughly $14 million endowment that it draws from to survive. And officials have been mired in a so-far unsuccessful effort to restructure a $54 million bank loan on a real estate deal for the Max M. Fisher Music Center.
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• NBA questions: Can the Heat win it all? Is Rondo the playoff MVP?
• The NBA playoffs are in full swing and already there have been some surprises.
• Who would have thought the Bulls could lose a first-round series, or that the Knicks would win a game against the Miami Heat?
• As the first round winds down, some questions about the postseason so far and a few predictions:
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• CAN METTA WORLD PEACE SAVE THE LAKERS? Asking the former Ron Artest to provide stability might seem strange, particularly as he returns from his latest trouble with the NBA, a seven-game suspension for elbowing Oklahoma City's James Harden in the head. But the Lakers need someone to provide some defense and a couple of 3-pointers as they head to Game 7 against Denver, making this the perfect time for World Peace to remind us that there is some good to go with his bad.
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