Poetry in Motion
It was the kind of discussion business owners dread. “The economy took a huge toll on us in 2008,” says Joe Meza, the founder, owner, and driving force behind ArborMotion, the import car care conglomerate on State...
Read More2010 December
Mutually Beneficial
Did someone just mention money?For fifteen minutes, DDA executive director Susan Pollay has led the Mutually Beneficial Committee through the first draft of an agreement between the city of Ann Arbor and its Downtown Development...
Read MoreStorm Over Huron Hills
John Updike wrote about the “peculiar bliss” of golf, of how players can be so caught up in the game that they neglect even their most basic needs. He attributes golf’s power to its “immensities of space,...
Read MoreTreadmills on Jackson
Danny Sherbin, who owns Exercise Warehouse in Livonia, is crystal clear on what kind of customers he’s looking for in his new Exercise Warehouse on Jackson Road: rich ones. “The motivation was to go to an area...
Read MoreStorm Water Art
Despite a national outcry over funding art while laying off firefighters, City Council voted 8-3 in November to proceed with a $742,000 sculpture fountain in front of the new police-courts building. But two additional interior...
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The Math of Dating
Tell a friend, a sibling, or a neighbor that you are using an online dating site, and it seems as though every one of them has a story.Some things about online dating are the same regardless of one’s age, sex, or...
Read MoreMoving Pictures
By the time you read this, Frames Unlimited might already be back in its familiar Maple Village address, the freestanding building it shares with Village Kitchen. That space is now being remodeled to accommodate two new...
Read MoreFox at the Co-op
It’s probably safe to say that People’s Food Co-op regulars are generally not big fans of ultra-conservative Fox News. But the staff at the Detroit Fox affiliate has at least one devoted fan of the co-op. “I...
Read MoreBeyond Apples
In the last couple of years, the offerings have increased enormously at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. While some farmers have always carried a few prepared items—jams, baked goods, cider—to augment their plant, vegetable, fruit,...
Read MoreBus Stop 2010
A cold rain has started, dark rags of clouds spitting out hard, tiny droplets, the wind kicking up. My bus from the VA Hospital was five minutes late to the Green Road Park & Ride lot, missing my connecting bus home. I know...
Read MoreFrom art fairs to Ashley St.
Say the word nonpareil, and a lot of folk will think of those sugar-coated chocolate drops sold in candy shops. But the larger meaning of the word is unique, fine, and without equal. So it’s an apt moniker for Michelle...
Read MorePimp My Cop Car
Ann Arborites may have seen the Washtenaw County sheriff’s new customized ride–a 2009 Chevrolet HHR–parked at Wheeler Park or directing traffic at U-M football games. Featuring a black-and-white paint job, red...
Read MoreThe Santa Conundrum
Does my ten-year-old son still believe in Santa Claus? Or does he believe that if I believe he believes in Santa Claus, he’ll get more presents? I can’t be sure, but I think I’m being played. Last week a...
Read MoreSimon Dybbroe Møller
Like a lot of other people, I often find contemporary installation art to be groan inducing. What is meant to be a profound comment on some aspect of global society or a critique of traditional aesthetics all too often fails to...
Read MoreVenezuela on Packard
Elizabeth Marcano-Kennedy painted the facade of the former Big Ten Burrito on Packard the rich, red shade of a robust South American wine. Marcano-Kennedy’s a soccer fan, and since wine red is the official color of the...
Read MoreHail to the Newest Wolverine
The Wolverine State Brewing Company Brewery and Taproom, housed in the back half of the original Big George’s building, had promised an opening last summer. Like most new businesses, especially those involving food or...
Read MoreTelephone Man
“The cell died!” Pete Blanshard exclaims. “I’m no good with them.”Blanshard is explaining why a phone interview just ended abruptly—and making it clear that the vintage phones he restores...
Read MoreThe AASO Bounces Back
Times are tough in the classical music world. The musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra went on strike over management’s proposed 33 percent pay cut before the current season started—and remain on strike two months...
Read MoreLac La Belle
I saw Lac La Belle in 2009 at the fabulous Dally in the Alley in Detroit, just a little while after the trio adopted that name. Before then, they were Jennie and the Sure Shots; that made you think they played cowgirl music,...
Read MoreHomeless Smokers
Cigar bars aside, about the last place in Ann Arbor where you can still smoke indoors is the DeLonis Center–the homeless shelter has three ventilated rooms for nicotine-addicted residents. Administrator Mike Austin says...
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