On a Friday afternoon at Serendipity Books, soft jazz music plays over the speakers, and strands of twinkling white lights accent rows of neatly shelved used books as Lucy Jimison-Silverio leads a tour of her cozy shop. Since...
Read MoreThe shawarma takeout joint in the back of the BP station at the corner of Main and William has changed names and owners again. Cass Lake Shawarma was there for less than six months before Abdul Aloqlah took it over and renamed...
Read MoreSam and Maggie Idriss opened Idriss Meat Market in half of the former Golam Produce on Packard near Platt. Owner Golam Khan is “leaving for Bengal. His mother is very sick,” Sam says, explaining Golam’s sudden...
Read MoreDaughter of bossa nova pioneer Joao Gilberto and Brazilian vocalist Miucha, stepdaughter of “The Girl from Ipanema” vocalist Astrud Gilberto, and niece of the socially progressive poet and songwriter Chico Buarque,...
Read MoreMatt Morgan surprised Morgan & York customers April 27 with his email announcement that after fifteen years, the “time has come for me to make a change, and I’m pursuing another opportunity here in Ann...
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The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey was originally published in four hardback volumes between 1942 and 1958, followed by one-volume updates in 1977 and 1981. The new edition, scheduled for completion in time for...
Read MoreIt’s good that I don’t live far from Mark’s Carts–and its companion business for libations, Bill’s Beer Garden–because it took several attempts to try Seafood Driven, the newest cart in the...
Read MoreI started seeing Rebecca Makkai’s short stories a few years ago. They’d pop up in some of the finer literary journals (including our own Michigan Quarterly Review) and then get reprinted with amazing regularity in...
Read MoreOne evening in May, Susan Fecteau was clomping back and forth on her kneepads on the sidewalk outside Literati bookstore, writing her latest missive to Rick Snyder. A passing couple paused to ask what response she’d been...
Read MoreChalking sidewalks isn’t illegal–but painting walls is, and Rebecca Arends has made it her mission to stop it (Inside Ann Arbor, October 2015). Last summer, the massage therapist repainted ten graffiti-coated walls...
Read MoreSo says JD Lindeberg, president of the Ann Arbor-based sustainability consulting firm Resource Recycling Systems. Founded in 1986 by Jim Frey and Kerry Sandford, respectively former employees of the Ecology Center and Recycle...
Read MoreThroughout most of the Nineties and Aughts, Anthony’s Gourmet Pizza was headquartered in a small but busy storefront in the Georgetown Mall on Packard. Anthony’s made its mark with pizza variations like Sicilian deep...
Read MoreA 4,600-square-foot single-family house is going up at 215 Beakes, where a collision shop–built before Ann Arbor had a zoning ordinance–long stood. The adjacent houses are modest: 946 square feet at 213 Beakes and...
Read MoreIt’s lunchtime, and high-profile sportscaster Mike Tirico makes an entrance, radiant in the light coming from two directions. He’s followed all the way to his table by a bubble of handshaking and voices asking him...
Read More“On a recent walk from the Old West Side to the State Street area,” writes Rob Utterback, May’s I Spy image “was on my mind.” Approaching 113 W. Liberty, he “looked up, and there it was, the...
Read MoreOnly 74 clever Fake Adders correctly identified last month’s ad for the Home Schooling Association of America. It incorporated the name of the previous month’s winner, “Hollingsworth,” in the phrase,...
Read More“We get the same absolute number of dollars [from the state] that we got in 1997,” U-M president Mark Schlissel told the Ann Arbor Rotary Club in May.The first question after Schlissel’s talk to the club was a...
Read MoreI don’t “presearch” art exhibits. No site checking. No bios. I want fresh eyes, a mind uncluttered by prejudice, and an openness to the art even if it’s not on my list of favorite styles.That objective...
Read MoreIt was a snowy January night back in 1984 when I first encountered the Watusies. Singer Dan Mulholland, fresh from a long stint with the popular Urbations, had recruited keyboardist Fred Klein and guitarist Chris Casello (and...
Read MoreLuna Gale opens with several brisk scenes featuring a social worker, a grandmother, and a couple of parents whose youth and inexperience is signaled by the fact that they’ve named their wee one Luna Gale. “Weird...
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