With the rise of home recording technology and DIY musicians, are the days of the Hit Factory and Sun Studios over? Not if you know your niche, say local sound engineers. Concentrate's Patrick Dunn checks in with a trio of Ann Arbor's recording studios and gets the lay of the land.
When entrepreneurship intersects with the arts something unexpected usually happens. For Missy Orge, chief program officer at Food Gatherers, it's meant a side business creating bird pants. Yup, you read that right. Trousers for our fine-feathered friends.
Michigan is known for what it has been able to forge out of metal and steel. Scott Lankton takes that to a whole other level. As a master blacksmith he's forged everything from a sword for the British Museum to hand-wrought railings for local clients. Concentrate's Patrick Dunn chats with this local artisan about living and working in Ann Arbor.
As corporate media conglemerates swallow up the radio airwaves, WCBN has remained both a voice for independent expression and a training ground for next gen radio talent. Even with a recent cut in university funding, supporters predict that the campus radio station will continue "to infinity and beyond."
Get fit and hone your ability to fight off pirates (or brigands and orcs). Ann Arbor's Ringstar Studio is the latest in alternative fitness training gyms, offering its students everything from martial arts to aerial stunts to stage combat.
Film fests are hardly a new thing in Ann Arbor, but how many inspire locals to dress up as zombies and march through town? This weekend the undead rise to celebrate the return of the Three Corpse Circus International Film Festival. Concentrate's Patrick Dunn chats with founder Chris Anderson.
It's not easy being on the cutting edge. For 50+ years the Ann Arbor Film Festival has been internationally respected as a venue for experimental work. Drawing new audiences to film and video that challenges the conventions of entertainment, however, can be daunting. Patrick Dunn chats with Leslie Raymond, the festival's new executive director, about her plans for AAFF's future.
Doing anything on September 12? Try Nerd Nite, a TEDx for the bar set. Growing in popularity nationwide, the event mixes presentations on topics like knifemaking and the origin of writing with your favorite drinks. Concentrate gets the skinny on this blend of brains and fun.
Can your ten year-old lay down some hot licks and choice riffs? Is your eight year-old experienced? They can be at Rock Band School. Since 2002, Alex Johnson has not only been teaching Ann Arbor kids to rock, he's been schooling them in music theory.
What started in 1986 as a small office of sports injury oriented doctors and therapists has ballooned into a 45,000 sq. ft. clinic with nearly 150 staffers, a trio of satellite offices and over 100,000 patients a year. Today, Ann Arbor-based MedSport is a success by any measure, offering a team approach to medical treatment and rehabilitiation.
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