MedMar Limbo
The fate of local medical marijuana clinics may be in the hands of the state legislature.When the Michigan Supreme Court upheld a ruling that shut down a Mt. Pleasant medical marijuana dispensary for violating Michigan’s...
Read More2013 July
Carpenter Blues
Plenty of local musicians–Mr. B, Dick Siegel, and Jay Stielstra, to name a few–have also worked as carpenters. Though the careers are seemingly very different, both involve the use of one’s hands to create...
Read MoreKiki Markovits
You must “build right angles,” Kiki Markovits instructs in a heavy Austrian accent as she points at her perfectly positioned chin and neck. A petite woman dressed in a stylish cotton top, black leggings, and...
Read MoreTad Weed, Solo
Around here, everyone who has even a passing interest in jazz has heard pianist Tad Weed in more than one context. A native of Jackson, he fell in love with jazz at a young age, studied piano, and eventually went to Central...
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Cancer Cuts
Oncologists squeezed by the federal “sequester” are looking for help–from their patients. St. Joe’s docs sent out what one calls a “Dear Patient” letter emphasizing that while they will still...
Read MoreBarbecue Quest
Growing up in the Midwest, I was never enamored with the local barbecue–typically baked or boiled ribs slathered with ketchup-like, overly sweet sauce, then quickly finished on an open grill. Later, on visits to the Texas...
Read MoreEraserhead
“You really are sick!”It’s the line that begins one of the most stomach-churning scenes in Eraserhead, and it’s also how many folks who saw the movie in 1977 regarded then-unknown writer-director David...
Read MoreNew Speedway at Maple/Miller
The Maple-Miller intersection has a gas station again: a shiny new Speedway opened on the northeast corner, on the site of the derelict Marathon that closed in 2008. The intersection used to have two gas stations–even...
Read MoreBig Changes at Small Stores
Is it a stretch to compare a raincoat made in California to a jug of beer made on South State Street? Maybe less of a stretch since Elizabeth Cline’s book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion shot up the...
Read MoreGoing Native
The Great Lakes Garden “grew out of a sense I’ve long had that botanical gardens have a responsibility to reflect the region where they’re located,” explains Bob Grese, the U-M landscape architecture prof...
Read MoreSummer Adventures
When I was a young girl, I spent most of the year dreaming and pining for those wonderful months of summer—days filled with sandy feet and sunburnt noses and evenings spent lying outside, looking up at the sky with my sister and...
Read MoreAudiophile explains audio file
“It’s evil. It’s insidious,” says Keith Moorman, speaking of a certain business practice–his own. Moorman owns Overture Audio, newly reopened in the former O’Leary Paint building on West...
Read MoreDel Sur South American Market
We had a nice note from Diana Ellis this month! “I think I found the Fake Ad on page 48–the Ola! Dressing ad!” she wrote. “Every time I come back home for a visit, the first thing I do is dive into the...
Read MoreBurton Tower
“My daughter and I are entering our first I Spy b/c we think it’s Burton Tower,” say Jason Kahn and six-and-a-half year-old Renia Kahn. “You can just see the top of the clock face at the bottom of the...
Read MoreSaxophonist Dan Bennett
I’m a jazzhead. Nah, not really–I’m not even sure if that’s a real term. I had some stuff in my library, Dizzy and Miles, but no real listening background to refer to; I’m an R&B girl,...
Read MoreCatastrophic Reform
“This is a cash grab, pure and simple,” says state rep Adam Zemke.Asked about his new job as Ann Arbor’s Fifty-Fifth District representative in the house, Zemke replies, “It’s very different being...
Read MoreSuperintendent Scramble
By the time Andy Ingall was hired as Chelsea’s school superintendent, he’d been in the district administration for thirteen years. He’d been director of instruction under superintendent Dave Killips, and, when...
Read MoreAmadou & Mariam
The story is compelling enough by itself. Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia were both born sighted in the Malian capital of Bamako in the 1950s. Both went blind as young people–Mariam because of untreated measles and...
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