2012 September

Debt U

Two months out of Earlham College, Cooper Stansbury, twenty-two, was unemployed, stuck in his parents’ home in Ann Arbor, and beginning to fixate on January 2013. That’s when he has to begin repaying $20,000 in...

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Brady Hoke, Year Two

In Brady Hoke, Year One, I was a skeptic about the short-term fortunes of Michigan football, albeit in a schizoaffective way. Regardless of Hoke’s abilities, I didn’t believe he could do much with the defense he had...

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The White Ravens 2012

Like most kids raised in Michigan, siblings Amy and Will Bennett of the indie-pop band The White Ravens submerged their summers in local lakes and rivers. These memories, mingled with lyricist-vocalist-bassist Amy’s...

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The Great Chuseok Party

The children and I had kites on the brain last year (from the U-M Center for Chinese Studies’ fiftieth anniversary kite festival), so the first thing we noticed as we walked up to the Nam Center for Korean Studies’...

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Tracy K. Smith

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I came to Tracy Smith’s Life on Mars only after she won the Pulitzer Prize for it. I had seen the title, and I immediately remembered the wonderful David Bowie song, and I felt just a...

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Red Hawk Turns Twenty

The State Street neighborhood anchored by classic movie marquees has changed a lot since 1992, when Red Hawk Bar and Grill (redhawkannarbor.com) first opened its doors. Traffic patterns were overhauled, student housing towers...

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Overture Audio Goes West

Keith Moorman had to get Overture Audio out of its home across from the South Main Market, where he’s been selling top-of-the-line sound equipment since 1989, because the building is being razed to make room for a...

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A hidden cocktail bar

“We’re going for a speakeasy kind of feel,” is the smooth response of Andy, the bartender at The Last Word, to the question of why his bar always looks like it’s closed. The Last Word opened last February...

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Life after Chamberlin

At age 103, the Ann Arbor Art Center is looking for only its second paid leader.The first, Marsha Chamberlin, was hired thirty-three years ago to turn the all-volunteer Ann Arbor Art Association into a professional organization....

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River of books

Over the summer, a river of books flowed through the vacant Secretary of State office in Maple Village. Friendly women in blue “AAUW” T-shirts bustled to take bags and boxes of them from walk-in donors, while others...

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Vie Adds a Boutique

Tucked between Sweetwaters and Three Chairs and across from Downtown Home and Garden, Vie Fitness & Spa sees a lot of foot traffic, and owner Heather Dupuis likes to give passersby a reason to look in her large picture...

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1972 Revisited

“I hate Facebook,” says Candi Carver Dufek one early Saturday morning at Sweetwaters downtown. “It’s a waste of time.” But, she says, “Kit made me join it.”So I joined it, and a thousand...

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Curry on Crust

An unusual hybrid eatery, Curry on Crust (curryoncrust.com) opened this past winter on Ford Road in Canton. A variety of spinach-green, tikka-orange, and curry-yellow “sauces” spread out atop standard rounds of pizza...

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Briarwood additions

Briarwood added three stores over the summer. Best Buy Mobile set up shop next to T-Mobile (near JCPenney). It’s basically Best Buy’s version of a phone store, though in deference to its neighbor, this one...

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Is Big Brother watching?

Q. I-94 drivers have noticed the big pole-mounted cameras put up near every local intersection. Who’s watching? And what can they see? I’m all for better advance warning of traffic problems–but it’s a...

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U-M merch at Woodland Plaza

“It’s our first off-campus location,” says manager Damon Stafford, and by September 8 it will be clear why Underground Printing, one of the few companies officially licensed to sell U-M apparel, opened a branch...

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Hungry Howie’s

It has not been a good summer for fast food. Hungry Howie’s in Boulevard Plaza was not the best pizza, but you could get a whole one for $5–for that price, you didn’t get much in the way of toppings, but you...

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Voices from the Underground

“This process has gone on so long!” exclaims Ann Arbor writer Ken Wachsberger. Two decades after he started work on Voices from the Underground: Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press, the final...

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Farewell, Taco Tuesday

Mythlogic, builder of powerful custom computers, moved off Main Street over the summer, leaving three vacant storefronts in a row that it once shared with Edible Arrangements and Sheesh.The fire at Sheesh last year...

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White Market Closes

It wasn’t much of a surprise when White Market closed. The little grocery near the Diag had been on a monthly lease since Uptown Coney Island owner Gus Boutsikakis bought the building last summer. Dave Jones says his store...

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