Q. On the northwest corner of Granger and Olivia streets, my daughter noticed a tree that has a huge piece of sheet metal wrapped around it. We are curious about what it is. Maybe a giant Band-Aid for a past tree injury?A. That...
Read MoreThe photography exhibit Albert Kahn: Under Construction, on display at the U-M Museum of Art, raises some unusual issues of authorship and artistry. Kahn, the Detroit-based architect of iconic structures like Detroit’s...
Read MoreThe audience sits blindfolded as novelist and songwriter Josh Malerman performs a scene, with live musical accompaniment, from his horror-thriller Bird Box. As one of several unconventional readings at the 2015 Midwest Literary...
Read MoreWhen Larry Collins took over as Ann Arbor fire chief last year, he made it a priority to get better statistics about the AAFD’s work (“Beyond Fire Lore,” April 2015). Now, he says, “I think we have...
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The Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight dramatizes a true-life investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The movie focuses on the Boston area but noted that similar abuse occurred worldwide. What about Ann...
Read MoreAri Sussman can quote the Code of Federal Regulations definition of vodka word for word: “neutral spirits” made “to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color.”The co-owner of Ann Arbor...
Read MoreIn 2015, Jen and Charlie House moved from Milan to Dexter. Jen, thirty-eight, says Milan lacked a sense of community and a vibrant downtown. In Dexter, she “feels like I’m living in a Norman Rockwell painting,”...
Read MoreKary Moss, an Ann Arborite, is just back from a recent speaking engagement. And she was talking about Flint because the constitutional rights group played a decisive role in uncovering the city’s water crisis.In 2013, Moss...
Read MoreThe son of a bluegrass-loving academic, Robbie Fulks paid his dues at the famed folk clubs of New York City and Chicago. “I think the folk thing is so much a part of my hard drive that I’m always going to be...
Read MoreAn expert on substance abuse, U-M nursing prof Carol Boyd talks to people across the social spectrum–including a few small-time drug dealers. “It’s not like I go into crack houses,” she says–but she...
Read MoreThe almost inconceivable magnitude of the Holocaust makes it a very daunting subject for a movie. Filmmakers have necessarily tended to focus on stories of individuals; think Schindler’s List, or the recent Son of Saul....
Read MoreAs if to prove that there’s still room for locals downtown, John Roos is bringing a RoosRoast cafe to E. Liberty, replacing Elixir Vitae.”Maybe I’ll call it RoosRoast 2.0,” he says enthusiastically....
Read MoreGrowing up, I never knew much about Ann Arbor besides the obvious: Hill Auditorium and the Big House. My friends played an annual band concert at Hill, and I got peeks of the stadium while my dad yelled at the television during...
Read MoreTime stops just before the music begins. A string quartet is preparing itself for takeoff. Four individuals sit perfectly still, bows pressed against strings. Their eyes glitter as glances are exchanged. Silence is the flint...
Read More“Easy peasy!” writes Linda Bankauskas. “March’s I Spy is the Stone Chalet Bed and Breakfast.” “I thought it looked familiar,” says Amy Thomas, “and then I realized that I drive by...
Read MoreWe received 142 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Boundaries Books on page 91 of the March Observer.The ad promoted a supposed memoir by Whit Ingalls Wilder, They Paved the Prairie and Put Up a Parking Lot. The book...
Read MoreFor more than sixty years, the Christian Science Reading Room, on the ground floor of an old house at 306 E. Liberty, has been a quiet oasis downtown. As its surroundings grow denser, taller, and busier, the contrast between the...
Read MoreAll winter long, families find refuge from the gloom at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, where, for a short time, they can imagine themselves taking a tropical mini-vacation. “I can see an almost instant transformation when...
Read MoreElmo Morales came to Ann Arbor in 1964 on a U-M track scholarship with “two bags, a suit, and a tie. I thought I was all grown up.” He had gotten a lot of offers from other schools. He lived in a rough part of...
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