GM’s Cassandra
“I was the resident Cassandra,” Marina Whitman recalls. “But I have to say that even in my most Cassandra-like moments, I never conjured up what’s actually happened.”Whitman was a vice-president of...
Read More2009 January
Boos for the Big House
Last month we asked six local architects to evaluate downtown’s newest buildings. This month they turn their eyes to the U-M campus. Campus buildings earned some of our panel’s harshest criticism—and their highest...
Read MoreUrban style
It sounds as if it has something to do with investment banking, but Citi Trends, which opened in December in Glencoe Crossing Shopping Center on Washtenaw, calls itself “a value-priced retailer of urban apparel and...
Read MoreMissing pigs
Three bronze pigs have gone missing from the playground at County Farm Park. According to Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation deputy director Tom Freeman, the metallic mother and her three piglets that once clustered near the...
Read MoreGoing with the Flow
Sparkling in the sunshine on a perfect fall day, Mill Creek cascades over rocks and meanders through quiet pools as it flows toward the Huron River. Turtles sun themselves on rocks, and minnows dart through the water. But from...
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Chanticleer
The first question you have to ask about Chanticleer—the twelve-voice, all-male choir from San Francisco coming to St. Francis of Assisi Church on Thursday, January 29—is “What do they actually sound...
Read MorePostcard Passion
Aikenhead’s business, Boulevard Postcards, may be the only one in the area that deals exclusively in old cards—most postcard merchants also trade in magazines or books. The Detroit native and trained photographer has a day...
Read MoreOverheard on Miller
Walking down Miller in the first snowstorm of the season, two men bowed their heads to the wind as their boots crunched the newly fallen snow. “So what do you think about this weather?” asked one.”I like...
Read MoreChanges at Fantasy Attic
With one master’s degree in clothing and textiles and a second in the history of clothing, Monica Ladd is uniquely qualified to run a costume shop. But after twenty-three years of dressing people up, Ladd’s ready to...
Read MoreBehind the veil
Like a flashy lure, Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair demands attention. From the street, large windows give an unobstructed view of comical, lounging robots and kid-friendly shelves lined with boxes of mechanical arms,...
Read MoreAlasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas
There’s a new fusion genre emerging in folk music, so far without a name. You could call it chamber folk, by analogy with chamber pop, a streak of quiet indie rock that uses orchestral instruments. Some of it turned up on...
Read MoreInauguration celebration
The day after Barack Obama was elected president, Stefanie Thacker made plane and hotel reservations for herself, her husband, and their two daughters to be in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration. As an African American,...
Read MoreEcofriendly products for Fido
Lisa Pearce’s dog, Pepper, sleeps on a bed made of pop bottles, and it’s a lot more comfortable than it sounds. The bottles have been recycled into a soft, fluffy fiberfill called IntelliLoft that cushions dog beds...
Read MoreThe Sale of Chelsea Hospital
After nearly forty years of independence, Chelsea Community Hospital is giving up its autonomy for the safe harbor of a giant health care empire.The impending sale to Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, part of Novi-based Trinity...
Read MoreSteve & Barry’s closing
All 250 Steve & Barry’s stores, including the Ann Arbor location on State Street, were scheduled to close by early 2009. The twenty-year-old chain’s rapid growth was based on a single idea: selling...
Read MoreThe Village Attic opens
“It’s kind of like a miniature Bed Bath & Beyond,” manager Debra Cook says of the Village Attic, the new second-story annex of the Village Apothecary on South University. Garry Turner owns the building as...
Read MoreProtecting a Jewel
On an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon in October, seventy-three-year-old Bob Miller is in a bold mood. A descendant of Freedom Township’s early German settlers and a volunteer local historian, he’s bent on...
Read MoreGood-bye Pfizer, hello Sushi
The restaurant business attracts plenty of passionate, food-obsessed dreamers who quickly discover they’re in over their heads. Maybe the industry needs more computer scientists.Here’s how Umi Sushi, a...
Read MoreUlta Beauty opens at Cranbrook
Ulta Beauty, a fast-growing cosmetics and (mainly) hair care superstore, has opened in Cranbrook Village next to David’s Bridal. In an email, manager Gena Juncaj described Ulta as a “comprehensive beauty shopping...
Read MoreMystery Train
A young, hip Japanese couple arrives in Memphis on a pilgrimage to Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley recorded his first hit. An Italian woman, stranded in Memphis while her husband’s corpse is processed through customs, sees...
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