Family Tree
When Russ Schwartz, an apprentice at the Performance Network Theatre, helped build faux bricks for the set of the theater’s 2009 production of Fences, he found the sheer size of the task daunting. “You cut a board of...
Read More2012 February
The TreeHouse Is Replanted
On the day after Thanksgiving, when she reopened her Chelsea TreeHouse indoor playground in its new location in a south-side strip mall, owner Michele Balaka was ready for crowds—but nothing like the size she experienced that...
Read MoreThe Rise of HVA
“Our day varies from day to day,” says Steve Champagne, a fifty-eight-year-old paramedic with Huron Valley Ambulance. “Monday, we did four calls, which is pretty slow. Then yesterday, we did eleven. And I...
Read MoreDexter Marketplace Changes
Wags to Wiskers pet supplies in Dexter Plaza closed for good last Christmas Eve, but there’s a happy ending to the story–just not in Michigan. Owner Kristen Snyder moved to North Carolina and moved the business...
Read MoreSorting it out
Since the Western Washtenaw Recycling Authority was launched twenty years ago, it’s recycled enough paper, glass, metal, and plastics to fill eighty football fields fifty-six feet high. But general manager Phil Bolyard...
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Perry’s Tuxedos Plus
Cyndi Lauper’s hit song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” climbed the charts back in the eighties. David Perry would sing it a little differently. “Guys just wanna have fun,” he says with a smile, as he...
Read MoreEthnic Food Nation
Long before Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I wondered at the popularity of fast-food chains. Ethical and health issues aside, fast food doubles down on the most basic flavors–salt and sugar–at the...
Read MoreKroger, Reimagined
The Traver Village Kroger just completed a major remodel, with enhanced deli, meat, and seafood sections. It also boasts a new Asian section with a Chinese-speaking supervisor, Jin Jing, a nod to the north side’s large...
Read MoreDavid Francey
The nearest comparison for folksinger-songwriter David Francey would be to Gordon Lightfoot, who shares Francey’s Scottish-Canadian background. If you enjoy the mix of Canadiana and contemporary love songs in...
Read MoreThe Anti-cafe
Roos Roast finally has its own cafe, though owner John Roos is reluctant to call it that. He calls it the Anti-Cafe. It has regular hours, sells espresso with or without steamed milk, and may eventually sell “kind of...
Read MoreStucchi’s on State
Edgar Allen Poe is eating a strawberry ice cream cone. Franz Kafka is enjoying Cream de Mint Chip. And Herman Hesse looks as if he thinks you’re considering taking a lick of his Swiss chocolate almond.You’ll find...
Read MoreThe Hagen Quartet Returns
I was wrong. Folks who’ve read my reviews for the last twenty-eight years may be surprised to hear that. Not surprised that I was wrong: given my emphatic opinions, by now my being wrong is likely a given, and considering...
Read MoreSpring walks and scents
Days are getting longer, and my strolls and stops through Ann Arbor reliably unroll a pleasant stream of fun new surprises of the delicious variety.For example, last week Cherry Republic at the corner of Liberty and Main had a...
Read MoreTwo Women of Little Rock
“A life is more than a moment.” Hazel Bryan Massery has spent half a century repeating a curiously poignant truism—to family, to reporters, to curious audiences around the country. But the person whose affirmation...
Read MoreRoadkill Patrol
“We really do cruise the streets every day–but not specifically to look for dead animals,” says Scott Purr.Purr owns the Critter Control franchise in Green Oak Township, which has a contract with the city of...
Read MoreRed Tail Ring
Think of any stringed instrument, and I guarantee that Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo can play it–and thoroughly impressively. The two form the folk revivalist band Red Tail Ring and sound like something you’d...
Read MoreHard Times, Big Plans
“The housing commission needs to change if we’re going to survive,” says Jennifer Hall.Ann Arbor Housing Commission board chair Marta Manildi says they had a pretty good year last year: “We brought in a...
Read MoreNew Owner for Jerusalem Market
Not only is Jerusalem Market, in the Courtyard Shops on Plymouth, the only Middle Eastern grocery on the north side, but it’s just a few blocks away from Ann Arbor’s only mosque. For all its...
Read MoreAlison Swan
A few years ago MSU Press published a lovely anthology edited by Alison Swan titled Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes. It was a useful combination of obsessions: fine writing and a passion to protect the lakes. And...
Read MorePete and Michelle Baker
On Valentine’s Day 1998, U-M art students Pete Baker and Michelle Mijal had their first date, dinner at the Original Cottage Inn. Apart from one brief breakup, they’ve been a couple ever since. They finally made it...
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