2016 September

The Garage Bar Opens

It’s called the Garage Bar, but don’t go there looking for cocktails called the “Tune Up” or the “Spark Plug.”The Garage Bar is a new option at Pizza House, the campus destination on Church...

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Ann Arbor Nights

The bus drops me off on Victors Way twice a week around 9 p.m., just as the skies slowly peel from the bright blue of day to reveal soft shades of lavender, pink, and silver. I love this time of night and enjoy walking slowly...

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Back Yard Fences

To my neighbors …I’ve been thinking about fences lately; I apologize if you’ve seen me surreptitiously peeking at your backyards, trying to see your views and your fence arrangements. It’s really...

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Fill ‘er Up!!

Man, are we a people in a hurry! It’s not enough that we have drive-up windows at our already quick fast food joints or phone and online ordering that brings the food out to us the moment we drive into the lot. Now we need...

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Manuel Alvarez Bravo

On two huge walls upstairs in the U-M Museum of Art are twenty-three small photographs. From a distance, they’re simple, unassuming, black and white. Don’t be fooled. This collection and its photographer, Manuel...

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Fair Food Fight

Limited access to grocery stores selling fresh produce was blamed for poor diet leading to soaring obesity rates. Yet the city was also home to Eastern Market, one of the most vibrant farmers’ markets in any inner city in...

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Taqueria Changes on Packard

In Mexican restaurant news, Taqueria La Fiesta at 4060 Packard has permanently closed its doors, consolidating with Ypsilanti parent La Fiesta Mexicana.Farther west on Packard, a customer who found Tmaz Taqueria closed on Sunday...

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In the Shadow of the Towers

In July, city council approved “the Residences at 615 S. Main.” Plans call for demolishing the existing buildings between 615 and 637 S. Main Street, preserving the nineteenth-century brick building at the corner of...

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Liberty’s Secret

Ann Arbor City Council member Sabra Briere sits in a room filled with desks. Along with other volunteers, she’s making phone calls to get out the vote for presidential candidate Senator Weston.Senator Who? Weston is a...

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KouZina

My first trip to Greece was as an exchange student the summer after I graduated from high school. I had never left the country, except for a very brief and rather surreal dip into Mexico during a family road trip to California,...

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Rock ‘n’ Roll French

In August Adam Baru, the man behind downtown siblings Mani Osteria and Isalita, opened Mikette in the Courtyard Shops on Plymouth Rd. A French bistro decorated with an eclectic mix of early twentieth-century French paintings,...

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“A High Level of Satisfaction”?

Does that mean they’re happy with local government?Complicating the answer is that in two of the three races, voters had to choose among three candidates. “A three-way race is difficult for challengers,” writes...

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Roundabout Crashes

Accidents increased fivefold when the exceedingly congested intersection at State and Ellsworth became the county’s first two-lane roundabout in late 2013, from twenty-nine in 2012 to 168 in 2014–instantly making it...

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Fix My Roads

Politicians are split about whether Ann Arborites approve of how they’re running the city (see Inside Ann Arbor, p. 13). But after voters renewed the city’s streets and sidewalks millage by a staggering four-to-one...

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Jon Kimura Parker

The Ann Arbor Symphony will open its 2016-17 season on September 10 with the Festive Overture, written in 1954 by Dmitri Shostakovich. A friend who watched him dash off this cheerful piece at lightning speed later compared its...

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The Gibson Brothers

Some performers are beloved by hard-core fans of a genre but hardly visible at all to the wider public. It’s worth chasing down such favorites, for eclecticism is overrated as an artistic philosophy–in the main,...

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Jive Colossus

Watching Jive Colossus take the stage before a set, it’s difficult to know exactly what sort of music to expect. Looking at the predominantly Caucasian ten-person lineup, with a wide variety of fashion senses and ages,...

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Peter Ho Davies

Peter Ho Davies’ new novel, The Fortunes, tells four stories of Chinese Americans over their long collective history in the United States.The first and longest is about Ling, the fictional servant of the very real Charles...

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