Nathan Edmunds had just started ninth grade at Skyline High when he was overcome by a sadness so deep that he found it hard to get out of bed in the morning. He’d been a straight-A student with many friends, but both his...
Read MoreThe long-running battle between the city and the Ann Arbor Police Officers Association flared up again in March. The union contends that officers should pay less for their health care than other city workers because high levels...
Read MoreWay off Off Broadway came to Ann Arbor by way of the Carriage House Theatre, a new group that’s presenting Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a hundred-year-old barn on Third Street. The play opened June 23 and completes its...
Read MoreWhen Jamie Weeder did multiple roles in the Blackbird Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream two years ago, she found herself playing three characters in the same scene. Director Barton Bund considered...
Read MoreAfter an April fund-raiser for Shakespeare West was nearly rained out, artistic director Barton Bund did what any imaginative risk-taker might. He announced an impromptu “Shakes Scramble” the following week at the...
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“I’m going to be in the West Wing tonight–would it be all right if I took your book along?”Oran Hesterman’s Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All won’t be released till...
Read MoreIn a business climate where corporate giants like Starbucks have been closing locations as fast as they used to open them, small independent coffeehouses barely stand a chance. Cafe Uno didn’t even make it six months....
Read MoreFrom his basement studio under the sidewalk on Main Street, Dave LaFave conjures up great feasts of color, pattern, and texture in sometimes playful, often dramatic window displays for Selo/Shevel Gallery. Passersby are treated...
Read MoreDorian Deaver beams at the ten couples standing nervously on the dance floor at the Eberbach Cultural Arts Building in Burns Park. It’s common, he reassures them, “for the ladies to be more enthusiastic than the...
Read MoreHow did a new deli in an out-of-the-way strip mall suddenly earn honors from AnnArbor.com as the Best Place to Buy a Sandwich? In Zingerman’s hometown, no less? One had to wonder–especially as dozens of online...
Read MoreHoward Scheps “can’t exactly say” when he last rolled his trash cart to the curb in front of his east-side home. “Maybe right after Christmas,” says Scheps, who works in the Ann Arbor City...
Read MoreWendy Chapman knows what it’s like to juggle multiple careers. She’s not only the owner of Wendy, her eponymous women’s clothing store in Nickels Arcade, she’s also a commercial real estate appraiser....
Read MoreMurray Zetterholm closed Crossroads, his Christian bookstore in the Oak Valley shopping center, in April, after twenty-two years in that location. But he hasn’t gone out of business–Crossroads is still open...
Read MoreAnn Arbor began to rebound from the recession about a year ago. That’s the word from Steve Goldberg, sommelier at the Earle for thirty-some years. Traffic at the Earle, a luxury restaurant with a world-class wine list, is...
Read MoreQ. Are there any remaining Cold War-era fallout shelters in Ann Arbor?A. The Observer learned of just one surviving private fallout (aka bomb) shelter, in the tranquil Ann Arbor Hills neighborhood. The current home owner on...
Read MoreThe organizers of the free Top of the Park series at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival have generally favored local acts, but it’s easy to see why they chose Kalamazoo’s Deep Fried Pickle Project for this year’s...
Read MoreClaudette Jocelyn Stern thinks melting down scrap metal and recasting it into something useful is like alchemy: “It’s the idea of turning base metals into gold,” she says. “You’re turning something...
Read MoreA Chinese New Year performance in April? I was confused, but Auntie Ning explained that the Chinese American Educational and Cultural Center (CAECC) Spring Festival event was going to be like a “Chinese Nutcracker,”...
Read MoreA new model for U-M’s clinical psychology program marks a generational and gender transition.As late as the 1980s, “clinical psych” was a powerhouse. Ranked second in the country by U.S. News & World...
Read MoreSinger-songwriter Paul Thorn has said that his music is “kind of like going to church with a six-pack.” Thorn knows whereof he speaks. He grew up in Tupelo, MS, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, soaking up deep soul...
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