River Hero
Standing on a footbridge next to Argo Dam, Laura Rubin likes what she sees: a group carries inner tubes toward the new Argo Cascades, bikers and runners whiz by, a couple of paddleboarders balance clumsily on the pond, a few...
Read More2013 October
Donald Lystra
We’ve all heard the longing: “If I’m going to write the book(s) I need to write, I need to quit my job and get to it.” Most of us never do it, but Ann Arborite Donald Lystra is living the dream. After a...
Read MoreToday Menswear Opens
Hipster is the word crying out to be used here. Today, the new men’s clothing store in the former Project Gallery on Fourth Avenue, is so fearsomely cool that it could itself be an exhibit at that gallery known for its...
Read MoreFilling the Ark
“It’s great to hear young music,” Dave Siglin says.Siglin ran the Ark, Ann Arbor’s legendary folk music club, from 1968 to 2008. “I retired because I was getting old and I wanted it to get...
Read MoreCrossing the Outback
Nineteen U-M students have been in Australia since August, getting ready for this month’s World Solar Challenge. Though student-run teams have been racing solar-powered cars since 1990, the 1,800-mile run from Darwin to...
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The Berrymans
If the old saw “laughter is the best medicine,” is true, then a Lou and Peter Berryman concert ought to cure everything that ails you. The pair write and sing some of the funniest songs, with the highest LPM (laughs...
Read MoreThe rise of NeoPapalis
A theory: Pizza ranks among the world’s most popular meals because 1) irresistible magic happens when good dough meets aromatic sauce meets rich cheese, and a hot oven melds them into a crispy-edged whole greater than its...
Read MoreThe Post-Borders Bookstore
Peter Blackshear pulls China: The World’s Oldest Civilization Revealed off the bargain shelf. “It’s put together by an Australian guy, Gordon Cheers,” he murmurs, leafing through it. “He’s...
Read MoreOldest and biggest
Wheels in Motion recently took over the building next door on Washtenaw (formerly Naked Furniture, which moved down the road) more than doubling its size–in fact, owners DeWight and Vickie Plotner also have a third...
Read MoreSemi-Privatization
“If we didn’t have this opportunity, we’d have to sell off half our properties,” says Jennifer Hall.”HUD is shrinking so fast it’s scary,” says Hall, executive director of the Ann Arbor...
Read MorePostmodern Mall
If you’re wondering what’s up with that rusty-looking metal grillwork over the store entrances at the not-quite-finished Arbor Hills Crossing shopping center, this is what the investors’ brochure says about...
Read MoreHirsute Yourself
“Unless the commercial scene of Ann Arbor has changed hugely, the fake ad for this month is for Hirsute Yourself on page 84,” Nishant Kheterpal emailed. “I applaud whoever wrote this one–it was really...
Read MoreThe Kelsey’s Tiffany Window
“I Spy … the Tiffany window … [in] the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology’s Library,” writes Amber Clark of Ypsilanti. The Kelsey “is a treasure trove for so many reasons!” exclaims Gaia...
Read MoreDooman River
Dooman River opens so slowly that for a long time I thought my DVD player was frozen. On an ice-covered river, two people make a long, slow approach. Finally, they look down, and the camera pulls back to reveal a child’s...
Read MoreRIP AnnArborcom
Last summer, bright blue billboards proclaimed AnnArbor. com the “#1 local newspaper site in America.” Yet in September the website’s owners, the Newhouse family, abandoned the four-year-old brand and its acorn...
Read MorePerformance reviews
The jobs website Indeed. com provides a forum for workers to review previous employers–or, for Ann Arbor company Ipanema Solutions, a staging ground for a verbal firefight between disgruntled workers and their ex-bosses....
Read MoreVintage Tech
Typewriters were once the norm for doing business around Ann Arbor and nationwide. But now that the tech age is a quarter century old, it’s hard for Ann Arborites who still use them to find places to repair them. So when...
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