Ann Arbor ReSkilling Festival
ReSkilling Festivals tap into Ann Arbor’s vast pool of qualified experts, who volunteer to share their knowledge, mostly on things that aren’t taught in college. So far, our town has hosted five free and...
Read MoreCulture
Do You Ever Wish?
“Do you find you’re alone most of the time?” “Do you understand your rightful place in the world?” “Do you love your siblings?” “Do you wish that you could be somebody else?”...
Read MoreGeri Allen
The University of Michigan’s annual veneration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King takes on a local tone when the University Musical Society presents “From Cass Corridor to the World: A Tribute to...
Read MoreJeff Epton
A few readers will remember Jeff Epton from his years on the Ann Arbor City Council in the 1980s. Epton was probably a true socialist, yet he got along rather well with moderate Republicans (yes, there really were such...
Read MoreHomegrown Symphony
The community concert band is something of a two-headed animal: concert bands perform the marches and popular songs that are central to community celebrations, but there’s also a rarer strain of the tradition that treats...
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Maura O’Connell
I still vividly remember the first time I heard Maura O’Connell sing. It was at the Wheatland Music Festival in 1981. I was walking through the woods behind the main stage, from the workshop lane to the dance stage, when I...
Read MoreThe Detroit Symphony’s Return
The University Musical Society is always looking for a reason to celebrate. Last season it celebrated American mavericks, climaxing in three concerts with the San Francisco Symphony performing pieces few folks had heard before....
Read MoreNatural Habitat
The Habitat at Weber’s Inn has been a townie bar for many years, and when they have live music, it’s often reflective of roots in this area. Al Hill and his Love Butlers band, long gone to Nashville, used to play for...
Read MoreBlack Jake & the Carnies
Black Jake stands at the front of the stage, dressed like a ringmaster, his banjo adorned with Christmas lights. He stands resolute, barely moving amid the chaos that surrounds him, yet he cranks out lyrics like an auctioneer....
Read MoreThe Klezmatics
As a Jew I have a problem around Christmastime. No, it’s none of the things you probably think it is. I don’t have a problem with the focus on consumerism and materialism–not any more than many Christians do,...
Read MoreAmitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh writes big, sprawling novels that encompass gigantic swaths of history. Characters in his books are fictional, but he is also comfortable inventing moments for historical figures; for instance, in River of Smoke,...
Read MoreThe Art Forger
Inspired by the 1990 robbery at the Gardner Museum in Boston that claimed three of Degas’ drawings, still at large, B.A. Shapiro’s new novel The Art Forger plunges into the seedy underworld of high art. The story...
Read MoreTim O’Brien 2012
Born in 1954 in Wheeling, West Virginia, Tim O’Brien grew up with bluegrass, the folk revival, and rock and roll–and Lawrence Welk to boot. In the late 1970s he joined a bluegrass band called Hot Rize that landed...
Read MoreSuperior Donuts
From the moment actor Randolph Mantooth steps on stage in the Purple Rose’s superlative production of Superior Donuts, he takes total control of both the stage and the material of this extraordinary play by Tracy Letts...
Read MoreKhalid Hanifi 2012
Both liberals and conservatives will find something to like about Khalid Hanifi’s new album, A Brief Respite from Shooting Fish in a Barrel, described by the Ann Arbor singer-songwriter as a collection of “resolutely...
Read MoreDave Holland
Bassist Dave Holland began his musical life in his native England, but when he was just in his early twenties, Miles Davis asked him to join his quintet. He played with Davis on some of the pioneering recordings of the movement...
Read MoreIris DeMent
Iris DeMent sings and plays the piano, often in the style someone once called church-house ragtime. For the most part she’s drawn to styles that predate country, rock and roll, and even Broadway pop; old white gospel is...
Read MoreGrammar of the Elite
What do the rich and powerful have to say?As a recent incident proved, one way to learn what the elite talk about is to stash a video camera behind a votive candle and a vase of flowers at a $50,000-a-plate political fundraiser....
Read MoreDavid Mitchell
By the time this issue of the Observer is out, we will have begun to see the reaction to the new movie made from David Mitchell’s wonderfully odd novel, Cloud Atlas. The movie has been getting some early attention because...
Read MoreDragon Gate Inn
Flaming arrows fly. Jumping, twisting, hurling, whirling bodies brandish swords. Warriors die in many inventive ways: impaled through a wooden door, decapitated by sword, caught by the sudden thrust of a thrown dagger....
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