2004 February

Ann Doyle's CD Ready to Move is not a farewell. A longtime mainstay of the local music scene, Doyle is not leaving Ann Arbor, nor is she seeking greener pastures elsewhere. No, on the new CD, Doyle is singing about another...

I try to keep a low profile when on assignment. It makes things easier and keeps my experience more true to life. However, it's far less feasible, or necessary, for an Observer photographer to be inconspicuous. For starters,...

Gamelan music is the classical music of Indonesia, a tradition centuries old. The gamelan is an orchestra consisting mostly of tuned bronze kettles and gongs of different sizes; with several dozen players, it is one of the...

Beyond all argument, Hilary Hahn is an amazing young (twenty-four) violin virtuoso. Her 1999 recording of Bach's Ciaccona for Sony Classics was a technical tour de force that quickly became one of the best-selling classical...

Let's just say Mike Boyd's goal is not precision. As a friend commented when Boyd was playing, "He mumbles when he sings, but it suits him." He mumbles with his guitar too, playing muddy tones and wrapping his...

There was an article in the New York Times last fall about the advent of a new social genre: the rejuveniles. This boisterous breed is made up of adults who gleefully out their inner kid, revel in childish pursuits, turn the...

In the film Lost in Translation, Bill Murray plays a washed-up actor hawking whiskey for Tokyo TV. Hoping to jazz up a photo shoot, the photographer asks, "You know the Rat Pack?" Murray hilariously channels those...

Every other year for the last twenty years or more, there has been a Dutch writer-in-residence in town for a semester. Invited by the U-M English department and supported by the Foundation for the Production and Translation of...