2014 March Archives - Page 2 of 3

Don’t flush ’em!

Mar 16, 2014 | Marketplace |

Robert Kellar, new PR guy for the Ann Arbor public services department, recently issued a list of “Commonly Flushed Items That Should Not Be.” Topping the list is “Flushable Wipes.”Municipal sewer...

Wally and Cindy MacNeil first met in 1984, when they were in their mid-twenties. Each worked at the old Maude’s restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor. They got married, started a family, and in 1996 opened their own restaurant,...

Closing a Campus Landmark

Mar 15, 2014 | Marketplace |

This isn’t the first time there have been eulogies for the Blue Front, but this time, it’s actually closing. Back in 1988, Lois Kane noted in this column that it had already changed owners three times since its...

When the Grass Dances

Mar 14, 2014 | Community |

The sun likes to play peek-a-boo with the clouds during the winter, but there are plants that do a pretty good job of catching whatever light shines through. Some dormant ornamental perennial grasses fall within this category....

Into the Wild

Mar 13, 2014 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |

A little shorty of a play at Purple Rose clocking in at an hour and fifteen minutes, no intermission, is for all its brevity a hefty piece. You know how one-acts sometimes seem so light and trivial that they don’t demand...

Heywood Banks

Mar 13, 2014 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |

The next time I go to hear Heywood Banks do his standup comedy concert–which will be on April 15, when he comes back to the Ark–I’m going to lay in a supply of Advil for after the show. The last couple of times...

The Big Chill

Mar 12, 2014 | Community |

Hammond and partner Paul Ellerholz of Midwest Outdoor Service plowed and shoveled seven days a week during the harsh midwinter weather. January alone recorded more than three feet of snow–the official total was 37.8...

Crime is down–again

Mar 12, 2014 | News |

The number of burglaries on the Observer’s Crime Map for December was so low it looked like a misprint: just eleven in the entire month, compared to seventy-nine in December 2012. It’s vivid proof of the old adage...

Pierre Paul moves

Mar 11, 2014 | Marketplace |

“We’ve expanded into gifts, handmade items, scarves, jewelry, starting at $8.50. There’s a lot in here for under $100,” reports Graham Mitchell, who started working in the Pierre Paul Art Gallery four...

Art for the Masses

Mar 11, 2014 | Marketplace |

Chelsea resident Susan Pickering Rothamel has moved her art supply business, USArtQuest, from Grass Lake to a warehouse on W. Old US-12 and added a huge selection of art papers as well as classes open to the public. “I...

The Act of Killing

Mar 10, 2014 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |

In late 1965, after a coup attempt whose circumstances remain murky, Indonesian society exploded into one of the paroxysms of mass killing that form a kind of grim leitmotif of twentieth-century life. Supported by the Indonesian...

Zola Bistro Reviewed

Mar 9, 2014 | Dine, Marketplace, Restaurant Reviews |

The reasons I choose a particular restaurant can change with time—even from day to day—but often I find a favorite dish or table or server that thrills and comforts and brings me back over and over to the same seat. When...

Changes at the Colonnade

Mar 8, 2014 | Marketplace |

For free entertainment you could do worse than stop in at the magic show that always seems to be going on at Oreck Clean Home Center, as the chain calls its stores now. It isn’t just a vacuum cleaner store anymore. Mike...

Fandom and Family

Mar 8, 2014 | Community, My Town |

When a theatergoing friend and I finally made it to a production of Detroit’s celebrated Mosaic Youth Theatre, I had an ulterior motive: I hoped we might run into Rick Sperling, Mosaic’s founder and director. I...

Proactive Policing

Mar 7, 2014 | News |

With serious crime near an all-time low (see Up Front, p. 9), city council voted to add $125,000 to the police department’s budget in December. The money is buying about 70 hours a week of police overtime for traffic...

My Father, My Portnoy

Mar 4, 2014 | Community |

We received seventy-eight entries correctly identifying the February Fake Ad for the e-book My Father, My Portnoy, by Ira Roth. The ad appeared on page 82 of the issue, nestled among the Services ads.”Philip Roth at age 80...

Cobblestone Farm Log Cabin

Mar 4, 2014 | Community |

“This is the log cabin adjacent to Cobblestone Farm,” writes Janine Chey, “where my kids used to attend summer day camps.” Pamela Kittel calls it “a fine example of efficient home design for frigid...

DIY Lumberjack

Mar 3, 2014 | Community, My Town |

“Do you need any tree trimming?”I had just pulled into my driveway when he hailed me: a young man in work clothes and a knapsack, coming up the walk. He handed me a badly Xeroxed leaflet and explained that he was a...

Kuroshio closes

Mar 3, 2014 | Marketplace |

Kuroshio closed. The building’s landlord, Ed Shaffran, explains that the father and son team Ken and Alan Wang “are wonderful people, but I think Ken would tell you, they’re not restaurant people.” Son...

Bookstore Ecology

Mar 2, 2014 | Marketplace |

“I don’t know what prompted this media interest,” says Nicola Rooney about the news that her eponymous Nicola’s Books is for sale. For a year she has been quietly trying to find a buyer by “talking...

2014 March

Don’t flush ’em!

Mac’s Acadian Seafood Shack

Closing a Campus Landmark

When the Grass Dances

Into the Wild

Heywood Banks

The Big Chill

Crime is down–again

Pierre Paul moves

Art for the Masses

The Act of Killing

Zola Bistro Reviewed

Changes at the Colonnade

Fandom and Family

Proactive Policing

My Father, My Portnoy

Cobblestone Farm Log Cabin

DIY Lumberjack

Kuroshio closes

Bookstore Ecology

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Nightspots