Oct 26, 2008 | Community |
“Here comes one!” a voice whispered, and six pairs of eyes turned toward the intersection of Gralake Avenue and Lakeview Drive. A rush of adrenaline spread through the shrubbery that concealed a pack of pranksters,...
Read MoreOct 25, 2008 | Community |
For travelers on Ann Arbor’s west side, the big red barn with “M GO BLUE” boldly emblazoned across its roof marks the spot where the city ends and the townships of Lodi, Scio, and Pittsfield meet. Standing on...
Read MoreOct 24, 2008 | Uncategorized |
The Observer listing is specific—”Possibly Washtenaw County’s most baffling corn maze, this vegetable labyrinth features over ten miles of paths that form intricate space-themed designs.” Sounds like fun,...
Read MoreOct 23, 2008 | Marketplace |
What’s your favorite restaurant in Ann Arbor?” I get that one a lot. For me, and I assume many others, the short list has long included Pacific Rim by Kana. Even when newer eateries turned my head, Pacific Rim was...
Read MoreOct 23, 2008 | Marketplace |
For eight years, Caffe Dolce has been tucked into the back corner of the Country Creek Plaza. This fall, it’s finally expanding. Owners Alex and Michelle Petrut need the room. On a recent day at lunch, their little...
Read MoreOct 22, 2008 | Community |
If Larry Kestenbaum is biting his nails on election night, it won’t be because he’s worried about his bid for a second term as Washtenaw County clerk and register of deeds: Kestenbaum, a Democrat, is unopposed. Four...
Read MoreOct 21, 2008 | News |
Hey, aren’t you the doc in the commercials?”Robert Bartlett gets asked that a lot these days. The surgeon and researcher has long been hot stuff in his professional world—he invented a life-support system called...
Read MoreOct 20, 2008 | Marketplace |
Haifa is the biggest port in Israel—in big contrast with Haifa Falafel. The sandwich shop, which was scheduled to open in the Glencoe Crossing shopping center in late September, seats only fifteen.The name and the photos on the...
Read MoreOct 20, 2008 | Marketplace |
“It’s amazing exposure. It’s a stand-alone. It has a cute, unique, homey feel—a beautiful courtyard,” says Rhonda Gilpin. And the parking. Don’t even get her started on the parking: “There are...
Read MoreOct 19, 2008 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
Two years ago, German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter told Musical America she planned to stop performing “when I reach my forty-fifth birthday,” that is, in June 2008. Shortly afterward, however, she told the...
Read MoreOct 19, 2008 | News |
In September market manager Molly Notarianni ordered Fusilier Farms to stop selling cherries and peaches at the downtown market. Another grower, Glenn Heim of Chelsea, was expelled outright. The sanctions grew out of a new farm...
Read MoreOct 17, 2008 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
There are currently two disparate trends in the practice of jazz and improvised music in our country. One is firmly committed to maintaining a strictly defined tradition and therefore requires long apprenticeship, now mainly...
Read MoreOct 17, 2008 | Community |
When I was in second grade in the early 1960s, my parents had to sign a permission slip for me to learn about dinosaurs. My teacher at West Willow Elementary School in Ypsilanti, Ann Lee, taught evolution—a radical move in our...
Read MoreOct 16, 2008 | Community |
With limited time, limited money, and a desire to minimize our carbon footprint, Gary and I decided to spend our minivacation canoeing on the Huron. Since the river can be very shallow in late summer, we chose a route through...
Read MoreOct 16, 2008 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
The Bellamy Brothers first came on the scene in 1975 with a pleasant if absolutely white-bread country-pop hit called “Let Your Love Flow.” The kind of music they made was soon redefined as country, and for most of...
Read MoreOct 16, 2008 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
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...
Read MoreOct 15, 2008 | News |
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...
Read MoreOct 14, 2008 | Marketplace |
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...
Read MoreOct 13, 2008 | Event Reviews, Uncategorized |
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...
Read MoreOct 12, 2008 | Community |
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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