Burning Up the Dance Floor
July 24, 2003. I arrive home from work. Kalaea, the co-director of my dance group, has left messages on my voicemail: “The Technology Center is burning! You have to come and see!”I had spent a few moments that...
Read More2016 July
Piada
Jul 15, 2016 | Marketplace |
Street food is the new restaurant food–it seems like the label is being applied to everything that isn’t served on a fine china plate with an artful squiggle of tomato coulis. Along with family-owned restaurants like...
Read MoreSnowflake Wanted
Jul 14, 2016 | News |
In May, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners voted 6-1 (with two absences) to launch a new search for a county administrator. The lone dissenter, Dan Smith, was unhappy that “we never did take a formal vote”...
Read MoreThe Pretzel Bell
Jul 13, 2016 | Dine, Marketplace, Restaurant Reviews |
In a town full of individuals ready to bow down before the mighty block M, re-creating an iconic keeper of the flame seems a tad presumptuous, if not downright ballsy. Simply put, former institutions can’t be replicated,...
Read MoreThree Walks
A few years back, the Centers for Disease Control anounced approvingly that 145 million Americans walk for exercise. But a good hike should be more than racking up steps on a Fitbit or Apple Watch. An amble though our towns can...
Read MorePEDs, Bo, and Me
In reading recent accounts of state-sponsored use of performance enhancing drugs, primarily by Russia, I was struck by how quickly it was decided that the FBI would open an investigation. There hasn’t always been a keen...
Read MoreVote of Confidence
Jul 9, 2016 | Community |
Scot Graden, superintendent of the Saline Area Schools, took nothing for granted when the district decided to ask voters last fall to pay more taxes to help finance $67.5 million in school improvements.It had been fifteen years...
Read MoreMoney and Authenticity
Jul 8, 2016 | News |
Two of Ann Arbor’s three seats in the state house are up for grabs this year. In the deep-blue Fifty-Third District, Jeff Irwin is term-limited out. In the swing Fifty-Second, Democrat Gretchen Driskell replaced a...
Read MoreKouZina
Jul 7, 2016 | Marketplace |
“This is going to rock,” said the Observer’s Jim Manheim when he found out that KouZina has a large back patio. For him, a stellar way to spend an evening has long been a gyro at the Royal Oak KouZina,...
Read More“We Can Help Dexter”
Jul 6, 2016 | Community |
Karl Fink and John Hansen arrive right on time for a Thursday morning interview at Dexter’s Joe and Rosie coffee shop. But it takes them a moment to get to the table. First, they’ve got to greet just about everyone...
Read MoreMagical World
My journey with my teenage son to the U-M Biological Station began in an unlikely place: Jazzercise. That’s where I met a friendly lady named Carol. I often chatted with her after class, and one day she mentioned that her...
Read MoreShannon Gibney
Jul 5, 2016 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
I’d never heard the phrase transracial adoptee until I read Shannon Gibney’s young adult novel, See No Color, yet it describes something I’ve known about for a long time. Alexandra Kirtridge, Gibney’s...
Read MoreDetroit Dog Heads to Detroit
Jul 5, 2016 | Marketplace |
Detroit Dog Co. closed its doors in downtown Saline in early April but will soon open two new venues and a food truck. “All three are in the works,” says owner Catrina Vlisides, reached by phone, her seven-month-old...
Read MoreManning Home and Farm
Jul 4, 2016 | Marketplace |
We received only 29 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Manning Farm and Home on page 27 of the Spring Community Observer.The ad featured driverless tractors, leading several Fake Adders to comment on the feasibility...
Read MoreThe Graduate
Jul 4, 2016 | Community |
“Hi Bo!” (hand)writes JoAn Wetzel, chattily greeting last month’s subject, the “mural on the west wall of the Graduate” Ann Arbor Hotel. “The picture is of Bo Schembechler,” writes David...
Read MoreIntroh!
Jul 4, 2016 | Community, Marketplace |
Here at Fake Ad HQ, we get told a lot how clever we are. Truth is, we like it. But our cleverness pales in comparison with the wit of some of our devoted Fake Adders.Last month’s Fake Ad was for IntrOh!, a service that...
Read MoreEnsoleil
Jul 3, 2016 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
The story behind Ensoleil’s band name (meaning “in sun”) is that the women who make up the quartet first began playing music together a couple of years ago on sunny Saturday mornings at the Ann Arbor Farmers...
Read MorePave It Games
Jul 2, 2016 | Marketplace |
It’s worth embracing the old adage “the road to success is always under construction.” Michiganders take it literally, knowing that with the last frost and the promise of spring come construction projects both...
Read MoreAssassins
Jul 2, 2016 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
Like its neighbor to the west in Chelsea, Dexter’s small Encore Theatre has its own celebrity connections. Founder Dan Cooney went to high school in Dexter. Now he’s a New York actor, and he’s married to a...
Read MoreUpcoming Events
- June 15, 2026 Fiber Arts Drop-in: Dzanc House 6:00 pm
- June 15, 2026 Embroiderers’ Guild of America 6:30 pm
- June 15, 2026 Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Part 1): UMS Choral Union Summer Sings 7:00 pm
- June 15, 2026 Tartan and Thistle Scottish Country Dancers 7:30 pm
- June 15, 2026 “Adventures of a United Nations Sales Representative”: Ann Arbor Stamp Club 7:30 pm