Everyone's a Critic

WJN's journalistic triumph

2010-02-21T13:08:00.008-05:00

More than twenty years ago, I met a new neighbor while we mowed our back yards. We were amused to learn that we both were editors (not a common occupation, even in Ann Arbor). I'd recently taken over the Ann Arbor Observer, while Nina Gelman ran the Washtenaw Jewish News.Though Gelman has long since moved on--she married and moved to California--I've read the WJN ever since. And recently they've

Holden in Heaven, by Eve Silberman

2010-02-18T14:57:00.005-05:00

In mid-February, forty people were waiting their turn to check out a 60-year-old novel from the Ann Arbor District Library. Of course it's not just any novel--it's the high school classic Catcher in the Rye. The recent death of reclusive author J.D. Salinger has caused a resurgence of interest in the man and his best-known book. "It's been flying off the shelf," says a Borders clerk, estimating

Remembering Miep Gies, by Eve Silberman

2010-01-25T17:05:00.007-05:00

The recent death in the Netherlands of Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank and preserved the diary that stirred the conscience of the world, was especially significant to Ann Arborite Irene Butter--a retired U-M professor, Dutch Holocaust survivor, and one of the last people to see Anne Frank aliveButter met Gies in 1994 when she came to Ann Arbor to receive the University of Michigan's Raoul

Sophisticated Funk and a Sophisticated Fan

2009-12-14T23:34:00.003-05:00

Quite a few bands from New Orleans come through Michigan on tour, and if the Subdudes have gotten lost in the shuffle for you, be advised that they don't sound like any of the others. Their starting point was probably the 1970s New Orleans R&B of Allen Toussaint, but they don't even sound much like him. Their sound is stripped down, more acoustic than not, awesomely funky -- and often all about

A Staredown and a Turning Point

2009-10-23T10:54:00.001-04:00

Many if not most blues lovers in southeastern Michigan have a John Lee Hooker story to tell, but last month at the Ark the veteran South Carolina folk singer and guitarist Jack Williams had one that was new to most of us.The role of the Southern university towns in the musical revolutions of the third quarter of the twentieth century is insufficiently appreciated. Williams got his start in Athens

The Travelin' McCourys and the Lee Boys: The Ark, 10/18/09

2009-10-23T10:50:00.003-04:00

The Travelin' McCourys and the Lee BoysThe Ark, October 18The Travelin' McCourys consist of two sons of the legendary bluegrass singer Del McCoury, along with several other veteran bluegrass musicians. The Lee Boys are one of the African American "sacred steel" bands from Florida that have achieved national fame over the last few years with a high-powered brand of gospel that has a pedal steel

THEATER IN THE RAW AT PERFORMANCE NETWORK, by Sally Mitani

2009-09-29T13:42:00.004-04:00

I still can't get over it sometimes--Performance Network is a real Equity theatre. Founded in the early 1980s, it lived on table scraps in that little black hole over on Washington for years and now it's a polished, regional repertory theatre. It's like watching a ragged ghetto kid graduate from Princeton. I sometimes miss those old, edgy days, though, when you'd walk out in the parking lot for

FOOTBALL SATURDAY SILENCE, by Al Slote

2009-09-23T19:05:00.004-04:00

One of the joys of living in Ann Arbor and within a mile or two of the U-M Stadium is hearing on a football Saturday afternoon the noise of the crowd. You knew Michigan had just scored. And prolonged silence meant things weren't going well. Well, those days are gone forever. There was always a twofer in the construction of the corporate sky boxes: added revenue and keeping the crowd noise in the

NAKED CAME THE MAYOR by Bruce Laidlaw

2009-09-14T18:05:00.009-04:00

"He was the voice of Republicanism in the middle of the radical sixties and seventies," says John Stephenson about his father, Jim Stephenson, mayor of Ann Arbor from 1973-75. Stephenson infuriated thousands of young voters when he led city council in voting to overturn the infamous $5 pot fine--so much so that one young rebel threw a cherry pie in his face. In the end, the potheads prevailed:

STADIUM VIEWS by Craig Ross

2009-09-02T14:36:00.002-04:00

The Michigan Stadium renovations have now consumed over 400,000 man hours. The project is on schedule and will be completed by next June. The last major piece of the project will be the removal of the old press box. This will begin the day after the OSU game in November and will be accomplished by deconstructing the structure piece by piece and then hauling the pieces down the elevator shafts on

LITTLE MISS HIGGINS, by James M. Manheim

2009-07-28T09:56:00.002-04:00

The show by Little Miss Higgins at the Ark on July 9 stood out from those of other young artists the club has booked lately. It wasn't very well attended; Jolene Higgins is an unknown in these parts, and long warm evenings are rare enough here that what might seem intriguing enough to try at any other time doesn't merit stepping into a dark room in midsummer. And her music was billed as Canadian

POT GARDEN, by Sandor Slomovits

2009-07-12T13:01:00.014-04:00

One might assume that ever since the Michigan Medical MarijuanaLaw went into effect, weed gardens have been springing up like...well,weeds. Supporting evidence is a colorful, hand-lettered sign by a small garden on the Old West Side, which boldly advertises, "[name withheld to protect the innocent]'s pot garden."Further investigation unearthed the fact that the "pot" on the sign refers to the

SHAKESPEARE IN THE ARB, by Sally Mitani

2009-06-12T23:35:00.005-04:00

You might be doing a disservice to your kids to bring them to Twelfth Night, this years' Shakespeare in the Arb. They might grow up thinking Shakespeare is always this much fun and will be in for some crushing disappointment later in life when they learn that fusty, pretentious Shakespeare is the more common variety. But people do bring their kids.

SHOULD THE NETWORK AIM HIGHER? by Eve Silberman

2009-05-30T21:40:00.007-04:00

I walked out of Fences, which ends its extended run at the Performance Network on May 31, in the daze you got only from first-rate theater. Only one other performance at the Network has so profoundly affected me: a production, several years ago, of Copenhagen.The plays are very different: Fences, by August Wilson, deals with a black family dominated by a troubled husband, father, and

THE ANN ARBOR NEWS - IN MEMORIAM, by Walt Palesch

2009-05-27T10:06:00.007-04:00

Today one of my best friends was diagnosed to be dying of a new and irreversible disease. A hundred or so cases have been diagnosed. But this malady appears to be sweeping across the land with deadly vengeance.I try to imagine what I'm losing here, what a twenty-year friendship has meant to me. My friend introduced me to everything about Ann Arbor, from politics, sports, restaurants,

AT THE ANTIQUARIAN FAIR, by Eve Silberman

2009-05-19T16:44:00.004-04:00

What you find at the Antiquarian Book Fair: A Gone with the Wind poster, autographed by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, price at $1200. A 1966 Detroit Tigers program for $45. A woman's diary from the 1890s, in spidery, hard-to-read writing, for $6.50.For book and nostalgia lovers, the yearly fair in the Michigan Union, held last Sunday, yields the charm of the unexpected. Forty dealers from

SELF-CRITICISM, by Sandor Slomovits

2009-04-08T13:25:00.008-04:00

While the full house at Hill Auditorium roared its appreciation and approval after every piece during Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble's concerts last month, one music lover clearly didn't feel she was getting her money's worth. Throughout the second half of the Saturday night program, employing a very narrow range of adjectives, mostly restricted to "stupid," she muttered disparaging

BUZZ SAW, by John Hilton

2009-03-24T18:34:00.006-04:00

"Attention please: the Ann Arbor News is closing." Sales rep Vikki Enos, first with the buzz as usual, announced the news over the Observer intercom at 9:55 Monday morning. I discarded the email message I'd been about to forward from restaurant reviewer Bix Engels--the first of a dozen that delivered the incredible news over the next few hours. In between came calls from worried advertisers who'd

THE RETURN OF THE PASTEL POET, by Eve Silberman

2009-03-20T14:36:00.003-04:00

OMG, he's back! Poet/musician Rod McKuen, heartthrob of my vanished sixteen-year-old self, will be performing at First United Methodist Church on April 3 as part of its Green Wood Coffee House Series. And though he's no longer the handsome, soulful, blond bard who had me shrieking at Ford Auditorium in Detroit in, literally, another century, he doesn't look bad for a geezer of (pause for

THE ART OF OBSESSION, by Katie Whitney

2009-03-18T16:46:00.004-04:00

What if you woke up one morning and realized that you couldn't stop noticing red pants? You notice them everywhere--that bag lady's sweats, that kid's corduroys, that girl's tight jeans--red pants, red pants, red pants. You even noticed when they weren't around, and worse, you missed them. You felt compelled to grasp at the moments you had together. Would you keep it to yourself? Tell a friend?

GREAT ESCAPES, by Michael Betzold

2009-03-10T12:52:00.003-04:00

Movies provide great escapes. One reason I don't watch TV is that it's hard to get lost in the small screen. It's the same reason I sit up close at movie theaters. Like vivid dreams, movies have the power to immerse you in other worlds.Two recent releases, Coraline and Watchmen, satisfy that urge for rapid immersion in alternate universes, but those universe's couldn't be less alike. Coraline is

POST-SLUMDOG SYNDROME, by Michael Betzold

2009-03-05T09:36:00.009-05:00

Now that the Oscars are over, the Michigan Theater is finally going to show one of the most-talked-about Oscar-nominated films, Waltz with Bashir, and I’m eagerly planning on going to see it Friday. My enthusiasm is only slightly diminished by an encounter this week with an old friend and movie buff who lives in Los Angeles and says the film is a letdown after you get past your amazement at the