Ann Arbor

Amy Hempel

Oct 16, 2008 | , |

Back in the 1980s, Amy Hempel became famous for one extraordinary short story, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried.” In it the narrator visits a friend who is in the last stages of cancer, and the two women...

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Window war

Oct 15, 2008 | |

Last spring Heather O’Neal asked the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission for permission to re-place three rotting windows in her B&B, the Eighth Street Trekkers’ Lodge. The HDC made two site visits—and denied...

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Going Native at Home

Oct 14, 2008 | |

Sitting near the butterfly garden of Connie Bank’s home in Webster Township on an August afternoon is like being transplanted into a Disney cartoon. Monarchs dance through the spiky milkweed, sunflowers, and Technicolor...

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Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Oct 13, 2008 | , |

There are singers, and there are people with beautiful voices. The two are by no means mutually exclusive, but neither do they always coexist. Of course, there are also plenty of successful so-called singers—who aren’t—and...

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John Piette and Joanne Kimata

Oct 12, 2008 | |

Three years into raising honeybees, John Piette and Joanne Kimata had an anxious moment when the insects, previously mild mannered, seemed to turn on them. “They were on the defensive,” recalls Kimata. “They...

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Fan photos

Oct 11, 2008 | |

They start at the tailgate parties and then head to the stadium while it’s still almost empty. They talk to strangers, photograph them, and move on. And last year about 700 fans paid anywhere from $9.99 to $139.99 to buy...

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Everyday Cook closes

Oct 10, 2008 | |

“We’re closed,” Mary Campbell says flatly. “There’s nothing else to say.”The long, complicated odyssey of Everyday Cook came to an end in late August when Campbell announced in her blog that...

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Manchester Marketplace Changes

Oct 10, 2008 | |

Main Street Pizza and Grinders changed its name in May to Mr. C’s Pizza and Grinders. A Manchester mainstay for fifteen years, the business was forced to make the change for legal reasons when a Main Street Pizza franchise...

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Beer & golf

Oct 9, 2008 | |

One of the most rancorous city council decisions this year involved the award of a liquor license to Leslie Park Golf Course instead of a host of private businesses that had applied for it. One applicant, the Kerrytown eatery...

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Iraqi Exiles

Oct 8, 2008 | |

The next few months we will see a huge wave,” predicts Anya Abramzon.Abramzon, the executive director of Jewish Family Services, is speaking about refugees from the Iraq War. She says twenty Iraqis and their families have...

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Shabby Chic at Rose Cottage

Oct 8, 2008 | |

The off-white chaise lounge in the front window of Rose Cottage isn’t shabby chic, says owner Edna Middleton, but it goes with shabby chic, and she carries a lot of that.The chaise lounge aside, Middleton doesn’t...

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Whole Foods’ crowded world

Oct 7, 2008 | |

What new trick does Whole Foods Market have up its sleeve for its new store scheduled to open in late September at Cranbrook Village in the old Mervyns? A bakery? A deli? Those are child’s play: Kroger has been doing them...

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Planet Marcia

Oct 6, 2008 | |

Is Marcia Ottoman insane—or merely unrepentant?The answer will determine how long a sentence the former Dexter Township trustee receives for impersonating a federal prosecutor and for wire fraud.The federal government is arguing...

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Art lovers

Oct 6, 2008 | |

The newlyweds who walked into the temporary OnSite gallery on Main didn’t look like wealthy collectors: they entered in grubby clothes, and their bikes were parked outside. Talking to them amid Angelis Jackowksi’s...

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Fire Department Open House

Oct 5, 2008 | |

As engine #6 pulls up and parks in the street in front of the downtown fire station, Little Brother and I walk up slowly, hand in hand, to get a better look. Suddenly the driver’s door opens, and right before our eyes, a...

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Real live superheroes

Oct 5, 2008 | |

As engine #6 pulls up and parks in the street in front of the downtown fire station, Little Brother and I walk up slowly, hand in hand, to get a better look. Suddenly the driver’s door opens, and right before our eyes, a...

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Marketplace Notes

Oct 5, 2008 | |

“It used to be when it was only the rich people that bought granite, they would seek you out,” says Shawn Keene. “You could be tucked back in [an industrial] park and do really, really well. Now that the...

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Ellie Serras, Main Street pro

Oct 4, 2008 | |

Ellie Serras calls Main Street “the community’s front yard.” Since her husband, Dennis, and his Mainstreet Ventures partners opened the Real Seafood Co. in 1975, she’s seen the street blossom from a gray,...

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Rodney Crowell at the Ark

Oct 4, 2008 | , |

Rodney Crowell got his start in the 1970s as a member of Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, a key point of departure for the artistically ambitious side of contemporary country music. In Nashville he was best known for a while as...

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Counter Cosby

Oct 3, 2008 | , |

I’m confused about Counter Cosby. Are they musical geniuses or are they impaired in some way? It’s hard to tell.When I saw them perform last winter at TC’s Speakeasy, they actually were impaired. They played...

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