The Polish Muslims
The Polish Muslims, whose name is a purely fanciful oxymoron, have been characterized as a Hamtramck counterpart to Weird Al Yankovic. They do traffic in parodies, and for a drive-by blurb that’s adequate, but several...
Read More2015 June
Beard Love
Beards are back. And they’re getting a lot of attention.Aaron Wilson, age twenty-eight, and winner of Ann Arbor’s Best Beard Contest, says random women often stop to compliment him on his “well-groomed”...
Read MoreDr. Rahmani’s Downtown
When I called Shinola in Detroit in April asking when its Ann Arbor store would open, the person who answered the phone said May then brightly added, “It will be on Main St., right across from Starbucks.” And that...
Read MoreStorm Over the U-M
On June 27, 2013, a storm in Ann Arbor delivered 2.2 inches of rain in three hours and caused a flood so severe that students were kayaking in the street at the corner of Division and Hill.It was no fluke. From 1980 to 2010, the...
Read MoreWho Inspects Carnival Rides?
Q. I see that the fair at Pioneer High School is back in June. I am curious about how the rides there are inspected to make sure that they are safe.A. Amidst the fun and excitement of a carnival, terrible things can happen....
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Which Perry?
The former Perry Nursery School of Ann Arbor, on Packard near Carpenter, is now Foundations Preschool of Washtenaw County. First funded by the Depression-era WPA in 1934, it took its name from its original location: Perry...
Read MoreRobert Randolph
he tradition of so-called sacred steel, the pedal steel guitar as used in African American churches, developed within a single Pentecostal denomination with a very long name: The House of God, Which Is the Church of the Living...
Read MoreThe Harbaugh Tie
From his posts on Twitter to his khaki pants, head football coach Jim Harbaugh has been embraced by the U-M and the community. And it’s a good bet that some local dads will be getting his tie on Father’s Day.At the...
Read MoreKilldeer Camo
June is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth. Fittingly, it was in June last year that some egg rock lookalikes hatched in a landscape bed outside our front door.What are egg rocks? That’s what...
Read MoreColeman’s Chairs
With almost $63,000 raised, plans to place two bronze Adirondack chairs in the Farmers Market will come to city council on June 1. “I haven’t made the molds yet,” says Ann Arbor sculptor Tad McKillop....
Read MoreLife on the Edge
What’s it like to own a strip mall? For one thing, you don’t call it a strip mall. “I prefer to call it a retail center. It sounds less transient,” says Deb Pearson, the petite, dark-haired marketing...
Read MoreA Festival’s Rebirth
The AABF launched with a splash in 2003. There were celebrated authors, a large street fair, and a budget to match. But when the economy hit the skids, so did its funding.”The festival absolutely started because of Karl...
Read MoreRebranding Reddeman
“You can’t beat a beer, a sunny day, and good company!” Nash Pater grins as he stands on a patio overlooking the greens at Reddeman Farms Golf & Banquets on a recent weekday afternoon. Pater–vice...
Read MoreRebuilding Nepal
“Another 5.7 again. I am safe and taking some Xanax,” Himalayan Bazaar co-owner Pem Dorjee Sherpa posted on his Facebook page May 16. After a major earthquake hit Nepal on April 25–and barely a week after...
Read MoreRobin Hills Farm
Robin Hills Farm of Chelsea may be coming late to Southeast Michigan’s crowded market for community-supported agriculture (CSA) crop shares, but it’s arriving with a few interesting twists. Vegetable manager Mitzi...
Read MoreThe Glen Levens
The Glen Levens are a classic example of a band that exists not out of necessity but out of desire: its members all have solid day jobs but just can’t stop getting together to play the music they love.The band started out...
Read MoreWolverine State Brewing Co.
Hard to believe Wolverine State Brewing Co. has been hidden away in the parking lot behind Big George’s for nearly a decade. It has not only survived but thrived as an ultimate townie watering hole, in recent years adding...
Read MoreRachel DeWoskin
I claim no expertise on the parameters or expectations of young adult fiction. I read the Harry Potter books, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Laura Ingalls Wilder when my own child was the right age, and I read Sherman...
Read MoreGreat Lakes Chamber Music Festival
With near-perfect symmetry, summer solstice will occur midway through the twenty-second annual Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, a two-week series of more than twenty concerts taking place in theaters, chapels, galleries, and...
Read MoreNonpartisan Elections Ahead?
The Second Ward Democrat says that’s why he plans to propose changes to city elections this month. “We started talking about election reform leading into the mayor’s race last summer,” recalls Ward...
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