A Natural End
Ann Arbor has a reputation as an environmentally progressive town when it comes to recycling services, bike lanes, and local organic food, but it’s lagging behind when it comes to alternative ways of preparing and burying...
Read More2016 January
Campaign Manager to the Stars
Brad O’Furey is Ann Arbor Democrats’ go-to campaign manager. In the past three years, he’s helped elect Christopher Taylor mayor, Sabra Briere to council, Carol Kuhnke to circuit court, and Adam Zemke to the...
Read MorePeacemaking Court
With their matching light wood paneling and benches, the courtrooms on the second floor of the Washtenaw County Courthouse are almost identical. But Tim Connors’ court stands out. On the walls are Native American dream...
Read MoreJimmy Smith, 1952-2016
One November afternoon in 2014, I ran into Jimmy Smith at the Stadium branch of Bank of Ann Arbor. He was kidding around with the tellers, putting some kind of gizmo on the counter, pressing a button so that it suddenly barked....
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Grizzly Peak
In fall 2015, Grizzly Peak Brewing Company marked several significant milestones in interesting ways. Aficionados celebrated the 4,000th batch of beer brewed at the Washington St. pub with a hoppy but balanced “4K”...
Read MoreBrennan Andes 2016
“Jazz is not dead,” Frank Zappa once intoned. “It just smells funny.”Zappa’s quote fit Ann Arbor’s jazz scene five years ago, after the closing of downtown strongholds the Bird of Paradise,...
Read MoreWalgreens Eats Rite-Aid
According to the dippy TV ad narrated by actor John Corbett, Walgreens resides “at the corner of happy and healthy,” but, out in the real world, the one at the corner of Jackson and Maple has been pretty rapacious....
Read MoreJohn Gorka
The first time I heard John Gorka was at the Michigan Theater sometime in the early Nineties, when he was the opening act for someone I don’t remember. That says something about my memory but probably more about Gorka. (My...
Read MoreHandel, Scarlatti, & Bach
The act of communing with ancestral musical traditions inside of a structure designed for spiritual reflection can have a positive effect on anyone who sits to listen. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, or which...
Read MoreSandy Alcini
“The dreads are kind of a spiritual thing for a lot of people,” says Sandy Alcini, owner of Grateful Dreads, a hair salon tucked behind a house on N. Fourth Ave. For Jamaican singer Bob Marley, whose photograph hangs...
Read MoreChris Bathgate
Singer-songwriter Chris Bathgate’s recent records have deserved their widespread acclaim. But to fully understand him, you’ve got to see him live. Born in Illinois, Bathgate cut his teeth in the Ann Arbor music scene...
Read MoreNew Owners at Stadium Hardware
In December, congratulations were in the air at Stadium Hardware. Mike Kruzel, soon to retire, was giving nearly everyone who walked into the store a bear hug or a slap on the back. His tongue was a little looser than usual too....
Read MoreHealthy Deli
Who doesn’t like mom-and-pop delis? A guy named Matthew Corrin. He started Freshii in 2005 because he was sick of all the mom-and-pop delis in New York, where he was working for Oscar de la Renta. The fashion industry does...
Read MoreJohn Primer
When I moved to Chicago in the early 1980s, it was in part the blues that drew me there. The first generation of Southern migrants who created urban blues were still at it, and I got to hear titanic, wrenching solos from Muddy...
Read MoreBarton Dam Turbine?
Q. The turbine at Barton Dam has been shut down for the past couple weeks. Is this permanent?A. The 302-acre Barton Pond was created in 1885 by the Ann Arbor Water Company to serve as a water source, and it still supplies most...
Read MoreExpensive Gift
A few hours after Ann Arbor child care worker Jan Kirk died of breast cancer, her daughter, Jennifer Kirk, and a close friend drove to Nie Funeral Home, which had transported Jan’s body to the University of Michigan...
Read MoreFinal Curtain
John Manfredi and Suzi Regan reopened the Network in August 2014, three months after the board of directors closed the deeply indebted theater for the first time. With Manfredi as executive director and Regan as artistic...
Read MoreArborBike update
The secret is ArborBike, the Clean Energy Coalition’s rent-by-the-hour system that wrapped up its first full season in December. Members, who sign up online or at one of thirteen docking stations, paid $6 a day, $10 a...
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