2010 May

Pangea’s New Direction

“We’re trying to take the industry in a new direction,” says j.c.potts, owner of Pangea Piercing. “We’re trying to position ourselves to be the jewelry store of the twenty-first...

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Orang-Bunyan

“THEY’RE BACK!” announced a message written on the blacktop path near Las Vegas Park in late March. And they were: the path was covered in chalk drawings depicting a virtual menagerie of characters you’ll...

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Sue Foley & Peter Karp

American songwriter Peter Karp and Canadian-born blueswoman Sue Foley struck up a correspondence–by letter, which is news in itself. “As time went on,” their website says, “the letters they shared became...

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From Bennigan’s to Red Robin

The Bennigan’s on South State that suddenly closed in January will reopen May 17 as a Red Robin. Like the burger chain’s first local location, on Carpenter Road, it’s owned by the Ansara Restaurant Group of...

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What? Me Divorced?

This year, the U-M will pay on average about $6,800 to provide health care coverage for an employee with dependents. So for the first time, the university has hired a company to conduct a full “dependent benefits...

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Robert deMaine

That was the question after a Detroit Symphony Orchestra Sunday afternoon concert. In the course of a lovely reading of the finale of Beethoven’s lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto, a single solo cellist sung out below pianist...

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Blue House Opens

The bad news on the craft front is that Rainbow Creations, a paint-your-own-ceramics store and studio on Zeeb, and Scrapbook Haven, an enormous emporium of scrapbooking supplies, have closed. The business provided a quick...

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Housing Commission Coup

“I was shocked,” Alan Levy says. “I didn’t deserve this.” Levy, a retired U-M housing official, had thought that when he got back from vacation at the end of March, he’d lead the Ann Arbor...

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A New Way to Read

Warning: I feel as if just about any descriptive noun I might use while discussing Anne Carson’s new “book”–Nox (Latin for night)–should be in quotation marks. “Poetry,”...

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Liberty St. Merger

If it always confused you that 4 Seasons was the store that sold the perfume and sexy lingerie, while Allure was the one that sold the clothing that changed with the seasons, you can strike that conundrum from your list of...

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Pete Poulos

Behind the modern glass facade of Frank’s Restaurant on Maynard is a good old-fashioned diner as popular for the man behind the grill as for the good grub he turns out.Pete Poulos, seventy-four, cooks every bite served in...

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Big Changes at Kerrytown

At the end of March, V2V shrank from two stories to half of its second-floor space in the Kerrytown Market & Shops, and Elephant Ears migrated over to fill the void.”Sales were strong, but Kerrytown wanted to divide...

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WineFest at Pfizer

“I feel like I’m living under a lucky star right now,” says Ann Arbor Art Center executive director Marsha Chamberlin. Like many nonprofits, the Art Center had a tough time last year–with income from its...

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Tea with the Fairies

My children and I walk up the beautiful wooden staircase to the hidden second-floor cafe–well known around town as the place to bring a secret date for a discreet cup of tea, up off the street and away from random friends...

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Our Town on Brokeback Mountain

There’s a stellar production of “Our Town” at the Purple Rose Theatre right now, running through May 29, but the Civic Theatre is doing an Our Town of another sort, called “The Laramie Project.”In...

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Pay to Pave

“It was forty years old, and it was dangerous,” says resident El Weir of the roads in his Scio Township subdivision, Wing Meadows. “I’ve lived here since 1973, and the road was getting really bad. And not...

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Pianist Fred Hersch

In recent years jazz has fragmented into many pseudo-movements. Some of the best players on the scene, however, have refused to wear stylistic blinkers and have created new approaches by openly embracing many elements from the...

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Bright spot

Visits at various times result in vastly different dining experiences at many restaurants, and that’s certainly the case with the new Mercy’s at the Bell Tower Hotel. Thanks to its prime spot across from Hill...

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For Pete’s Sake!

I’ve been playing folk music professionally for most of my adult life, and while I have many people to thank for that, there are few to whom I owe a greater debt than Pete Seeger. So I was very happy to be a part of a...

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Attorney Godfrey Finger

We received 168 entries last month identifying the Fake Ad as the one for the law offices of Godfrey Finger and one entry identifying it as the one “about the holistic dog.” Can you guess which one’s the right...

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