When it come right down to it, Jesse Kranyak is an urban pioneer. Opening a restaurant and bar on an underdeveloped Ypsilanti block, he hoped customers would come. And they did. In just five short months the Wurst Bar has become both a neighborhood fixture and a night time destination, known for its beer, bingo, and sausages.
It's a bike. It's art. It's two great tastes in one. Concentrate's Tanya Muzumdar pedals around town on the seven-seater Conference Bike, and learns why Ann Arbor is a a great place to ride (and Mackinac Island is verboten).
Festifools is right around the corner (that corner being the month of March), and its puppet masters and luminaria makers are busily getting ready. Concentrate chats with founder Mark Tucker about what it takes to put together an arts event in Ann Arbor, and asks him to reflect on our community's attitude about public art and art education.
With a spree of 70-degree March days upon us, it's none too soon for the re-opening of Mark's Carts, the food cart courtyard now in its second season on Washington Street between First and Ashley in downtown Ann Arbor. The eight carts will open on March 30, from 5 to 10 p.m., to coincide with Fool Moon, a procession of luminous sculptures held as a prelude to the FestiFools puppet street party the first Sunday in April. Three new carts will join five others from last year: The Beet Box will serve a broad base of healthy foods; A2 Pizza Pie is cooking personal pizzas in a wood-fired oven; and Cheese Dream will do assorted grilled cheese sandwiches and soups. The returning carts are: The Lunch Room, with vegan entrees, sides and desserts; San Street has Asian street food; Debajo del Sol has Spanish paella and tapas; Darcy's Cart will be open for breakfast burritos and other local items; and vegetarian street food comes from Hut K Chaat. The on-site commercial kitchen has been upgraded with two new ovens and more work tables, according to Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden and founder of Mark's Carts. Also new this year, an emphasis on more evening hours. "That's important to us to have more carts open in the evening," Hodesh says. "Last year the carts kept their own hours and sometimes in the evening they weren't out there, or [there was] one. We're trying to encourage them to have two or three out there in the evenings." Iffy April weather means the cart hours will be flexible, but starting May 1, at least one and hopefully all eight carts will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and up to 10 p.m. on Fridays to accompany the live music series. Saturday hours will run from roughly 10 a.m. through mid-afternoon during the first half of the summer. Sunday hours are still to be determined, as that tends to be a day off, says Phillis Engelbert, media and events coordinator for Mark's Carts and co-owner of The Lunchroom. A beer garden in the Downtown Home and Garden parking lot from 5 to 11 every evening is planned to open by early-to-mid July. "So on the nights when the beer garden is open the carts will be open until the beer garden closes to provide food for the beer garden," Engelbert says. Sources: Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden and founder of Mark's Carts; Phillis Engelbert, media and events coordinator for Mark's Carts and co-owner of The Lunchroom Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
Before Michigander Glynn Washington created Snap Judgment (and won the Public Radio Talent Quest contest), he was a U-M law school student and a spoken word poet in Detroit. Now, he hosts the weekly story-telling show on National Public Radio (which can be listened to as a podcast). This week his show, entitled Hand Of Fate, features a tale of being a transfer student at U-M. Check out the show here.
There's no denying the impact and influence of the Sundance Film Festival on the movie industry. And that influence is being spread to nine other cities. Amazingly, Ann Arbor is one of them. This coming January, Sundance returns with another movie premiere. Excerpt: "Under the program, a handful of movie theaters around the country host a screening of a movie that's part of the prestigious film festival based in Park City, Utah. A public appearance by the filmmaker is also part of the event. Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater has been part of the program for each of its first two years, and it's again on the newly announced list of theaters for the third year. Sundance Film Festival USA will take place on Jan. 26, the second Thursday of the festival in Park City. In addition to Ann Arbor, other participating cities are new arrivals Houston, Orlando, and Tucson, plus returnees Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn, Nashville and San Francisco." Read the rest of the story here.
Death defying stunts! The clang of blades and snap of whips! This week's multiplex blockbuster? No, just another day at stunt camp. Chris Barbeau oversees one of only three such programs in the nation. And its home is here in Ann Arbor. Huzzah!
Okay, let's be honest, you're not going to find make-and-take marshmallow shooters at Art Fair. But you will at Maker Faire! This year's celebration of mad inventors brings back the human-sized mousetrap, the world's largest Mentos in Coke demonstration, and more inspiration and innovation than you can shake a circuit board at. It's at the Henry Ford and you'd be crazy to miss it.
Art house theaters are far from immune to the tough times that come with a recession. A number are looking for new revenue streams to keep afloat, and Variety magazine is pointing them toward the Michigan Theater for a splash of inspiration.Excerpt:Belove ultimately decided that the quickest area for improvement was in refining the theater's underused memberships, which began generating stable and lucrative revenue without much marketing push. "If I could double or triple that, it would probably tip us into a different level of comfort," he says.Since starting their member program 14 years ago, Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater now takes in over $400,000 in annual subscriber revenue, while offering well-perceived premium benefits like free screenings, popcorn and validated parking.Read the rest of the story here.
It used to be, if you wanted to be in the music industry you had to head to the coasts. Sam Valenti IV didn't like those rules so he followed in Berry Gordy's footsteps and made a few rules of his own. Today he runs Ghostly International, Ann Arbor's highly successful and hipper than hip music label. Sam kicks off Concentrate's 2011 Speaker Series with a talk about the evolution of his company here in Ann Arbor. The event is Thursday, January 27th. Sign up today!
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