The city’s proud of the Argo Cascades–and why not? Since it opened last spring, the aquatic playground has won two design awards and proven enormously popular. River trips increased 57 percent last year, despite low...
Read MoreBlogging was big in the late ’90s and early 2000s, as an explosion of Internet users cottoned to the idea of sharing with their circle of friends through an online journal. These days, much of that content has migrated to...
Read MoreGeneral Tso’s chicken doesn’t get much respect these days. Those deep-fried chicken nuggets with their brown, sticky sauce have taken chop suey’s place as the most mocked item on a Chinese restaurant...
Read MoreLocked like a bicycle against the back fence at the Argo Livery is half of an aluminum canoe–bow up, severed middle down, painted cheerfully inside and out. It’s a sign of things to come for the livery’s...
Read MoreLong live the video store!When Chelsea’s Blockbuster closed in March–one of hundreds of locations to close nationwide–no one could have predicted another video store would take its place. “There are so...
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Few can claim to have shared the same hour of television with Mad Men’s Jon Hamm and the Muppet Elmo, but such are Matt Shlian’s bragging rights. “I’ve lectured and presented work at top schools across...
Read MoreGardening meets artWith the help of his Buddhist community, artist Traven Pelletier has bought the historic barn on Baker Road that was formerly Dexter Gardens (before that, Bella Gardens, and still farther back, Sloan Nursery)....
Read MoreReturn with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear–well, one of them, anyway–when smoke-filled rooms and hot lead were the stuff of which newspapers were made …For a couple of summers in the early 1970s I...
Read MoreIn Moonrise Kingdom, the 2012 film by Wes Anderson, two wayward and love-struck twelve-year-olds run away together to the wilderness. Suzy (Kara Hayward) is the oldest child of two lawyers; Sam (Jared Gilman) is an orphan...
Read MoreEditor’s note: This event has been canceled. A notice in the Ark’s weekly email reads, “[Williams’] doctor has prescribed vocal rest and she has had to cancel a number of shows. We wish her a speedy...
Read MoreMy wife and I live downtown on the edge of Kerrytown. My brother lives in a suburb of Charleston, SC. We have normal-size homes with relatively normal American lifestyles, in every way but one: my Walk Score is 100 and my...
Read MoreQ: For several months I have walked past the small park at the corner of Liberty and Division. There are two empty stanchions standing in one corner of this pleasant area.There used to be a very nicely engraved glass marker,...
Read MoreTwo national pizza chains also opened new stores in April–Papa John’s on Plymouth Rd. and Hungry Howie’s on Washtenaw. It’s been almost a year since the Hungry Howie’s on W. Stadium Blvd. closed....
Read MoreThe former Pier 1 building is now divided between a Potbelly’s sub shop and the new Tony Sacco’s Coal Oven Pizza. “We’re going for the Whole Foods demographic,” explains Tony Sacco’s general...
Read More“Man, it was hard,” says Grant Grimard, nineteen. The former Pioneer High basketball captain broke with the pack after graduation in 2011: Instead of college, he joined the nonprofit City Year program, where he...
Read MoreThe Ann Arbor Thrift Shop’s windows look like its neighbors’ on Washtenaw–but the prices for its gently used clothing for women, men, and children are wildly different.How about $3 for a pair of shoes? They...
Read MoreNordstrom’s off-price retail spinoff, Nordstrom Rack, opened in April in the former Circuit City at Arborland, offering 50-60 percent off original prices on clothing, shoes, beauty products, and home accents. Nordstrom...
Read MoreSherwin-Williams has set up shop across the street from Arborland, in the former Fastsigns. Manager Matt Smith says that although a good portion of his business is from contractors and painters, the store offers a complete line...
Read MoreMy husband and I love almost everything about a road trip–driving away from everyday life towards new landscapes, small towns, and regional cultures. We love everything, that is, but road food, especially across the vast...
Read MorePier 1 Imports returned to Cranbrook Village in April after a five-year absence. The home decor, furniture, and gift retailer, which previously occupied a freestanding building on Eisenhower, replaced Old Country Buffet in the...
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