From a video about squirrels on U-M's diag to a National Geographic grant to film extreme tree-climbing, U-M student Charlie Engelman has turned a video hobby into the start of a career in educational entertainment.
Local boy - turned found letters, notes and memos guru - turned filmmaker Davy Rothbart can now add theater artist to his ever expanding resume of projects. Excerpt: “Found,” which opened on Tuesday night at the Atlantic Theater Company, derives its title and much of its text from the magazine of the same name, which publishes collections of such writings. (“You have to make up your mind Mr. Dickens, ’twas either the best of times or the worst of times; it could scarcely be both.”) Davy Rothbart, the founder of Found, the magazine, is basically the principal character, and the musical, with a book by Hunter Bell and Lee Overtree, and music and lyrics by Eli Bolin, tells the (semi-fictionalized) story of the “Eureka!” moment of the magazine’s birth and, eventually, its near-death by success. Read the rest of the mostly positive review here.
Okay, there's us. And we're proud to say we've been around 300+ issues now. But let's share some of the love, okay? There are some damn fine local bloggers out there and we think you should be reading them. So, we've put together a list of five must-read sites.
Josh Ross is starting his career by combining the two main subjects he studied in college, business and music. Ross graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelors degrees in both business administration and music earlier this year. So he launched the J-RO School of Music, a new business that teaches young people about music by using both classical and contemporary examples. "Everyone teaches classical," says Josh Ross, founder of J-RO School of Music. "That's great but if someone wants to learn about pop or hip-hop there aren’t many places that do it." The idea is to swim with the current when it comes to teaching young people about music by teaching them fundamentals for songs they are already excited about. Ross does camps and workshops that put equal emphasis on contemporary music, like pop, rock, musical theater, and hip-hop, and classical music. "What's great about it is the kids are familiar with the songs and then they want to learn how to play them," Ross says. The J-RO School of Music has facilitated 50 students so far this year. The students have ranged in ages from 7 to 70-years-old. Ross, who is releasing his own acoustic rock album this fall, would like to up those numbers beyond 100 and open his own storefront for the company over the next year. He hopes to use the base of that business to do more community outreach so underprivileged kids can have equal access to music education. "I want to make it sustainable so I can provide some programs for children who don’t have those opportunities," Ross says. Source: Josh Ross, founder of J-RO School of Music Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Interestingly, both retirees and professionals agree on what makes a city attractive to live in. Excerpt: "Intellectual engagement is one big draw... The three-week Ann Arbor Summer Festival showcases more than 100 events, including dance, local bands, comedy and outdoor movies. Ann Arbor is home to dozens of restaurants, from Caribbean to vegetarian to Tex-Mex. Transplanted New Yorkers will feel right at home sampling the bagels and pastrami at Zingerman’s Deli, an Ann Arbor institution since 1982." More here.
For the last seven years the Yellow Barn has provided a much-needed venue for Ann Arbor's creative community, giving small groups and organizations an inexpensive space to gather and perform. But maintaining it has proved difficult in a city that offers few other similar options.
The sports media was abuzz with the fact that the Real Madrid-Manchester United soccer game played at U-M Big House brought in 109,318 spectators. With tickets going for $100 and more, that's an economic event worth sitting upright for? But was it a one time fan event or a harbinger of things to come? Some believe it was more the former than the latter. Excerpt: "Among the major outlet process coverage of the match and the rest of European soccer’s American summer vacation, there have been think pieces of questioning the value of these European tours—whether they are a detriment to the growth of MLS, a ‘problem’ for American soccer as a whole, or merely a vapid commercial exercise. All of these things are potentially true, but they represent an ever-present insecurity that forms a divide within American soccer culture—that there is a right way to be an American soccer fan, that there is a right way to grow the sport in the United States, that these friendlies are fake." Read the rest here.
The HomeGrown Festival, which features, shockingly enough, local food, music, and drink, will be held at the Kerrytown Farmer's Market the night before the Kerrytown Bookfest - making the weekend a two-fer of community fun. There's a HomeBrew competitionso how bad could it be? Visit the HomegRown Festival's site here. Check out their event brochure here. Info on Bookfest can be found here.
Park n Party launched a couple of year’s ago with a novel idea, enabling tailgaters to reserve a parking spot online for University of Michigan home football games. The business has really started to gain traction since then. "Last year what we saw is people definitely told their friends," says Jason Kapica, partner with Park n Party. "The pinnacle was last year’s Winter Classic hockey game. We sold 3,000 reservations. We sold every spot we had access to." The big one-off events have proven as popular as the home football games. Park n Party has done well with annual events like Ann Arbor Art Fair and the Manchester United soccer game at Michigan Stadium. Park n Party has also been able to expand into South Bend, Indiana, for Notre Dame home football games and is eyeing Madison, Wisconsin, for University of Wisconsin football games. "I'd really like to get to Columbus for Ohio State," Kapica says. "Madison is definitely something we're looking at for football." Park n Party’s software allows people attending big events to reserve parking spots online, saving them the trouble of driving around searching for a place to park their car. The four-person team has refined the system so it covers more than 3,000 parking spots around Michigan Stadium. Those have proven popular with large groups of friends attending Michigan football games and corporate events. "We get a lot of calls for large tailgate parties," Kapica says. Source: Jason Kapica, partner of Park n Party Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Children with serious health challenges must often spend a lot of time thinking about their limitations. Thanks to a new, 105-acre camp that just broke ground in Pinckney this week, about 1,500 of those kids will get a chance to focus on what they can do — including how much fun they can have. "They're so used to hearing 'you can't do that because of your illness.' At camp it's always, 'you can do that,'" says North Star Reach Marketing and Communications Specialist Marji Wisniewski. "They make friends and meet kids just like them. And that's important. They are being cured of their illness at their hospitals, but it's at camp where they heal." Beginning in the fall of 2015, North Star Reach will host fall and spring weekend camps and weeklong summer camps for children with children with cancer, heart disease, ventilator dependency, organ transplants, sickle cell disease. Many will be referred from their healthcare providers, as North Star Reach has partnered with 13 hospitals for the project. So far, $21,000,000 of the $26,000,000 needed to construct the many buildings of North Star Reach and to maintain operations for the first two years. "We're going to have a complete medical center on site, a beautiful dining hall and rustic cabins," says Wisniewski. "Everything is 'state of the art rustic,' meaning it has everything these children with special needs need to have, but they won't have to think about it. For them, they're just going to camp." The Pinckney camp is a provisional member of SeriousFun Children’s Network, which was founded in 1988 by Paul Newman. North Star Reach will be the ninth such camp in the U.S. In addition to 20 to 25 staffers, North Star Reach will rely on a number of volunteers to complete their programming. More than 100 volunteer opportunities will be available each week. For more information on volunteering or taking part in the capital campaign, people may visit NorthStarReach.org. Source: Marji Wisniewski, North Star Reach Writer: Natalie Burg
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