Arbor Update

Entertainment here and afield

Posted by Josh Steichmann on 23. February 2006

Another rich weekend for local music. Friday has either Jim Roll (opening for The Flouride Program’s CD release) at the Elbow, or the Dirtbombs at the Pig with supergroup SSM opening.
Jim Roll is an internationally hailed roots rocker who gets disturbingly little love in his hometown. The Dirtbombs are an internationally hailed (though hated in Scandinavia) rock band with two drummers and no bassist (an inverted Cop Shoot Cop).

This all assumes that you’re not going to see the local bands at the Motorcity Blowout, where the trouble lies more in the plenty than the paucity. (Might I recommend catching something on Saturday, so as to not conflict with the already fine options in town? An intrepid music fan might even catch the earlier set from Roll and be able to make it back for the Dirtbombs in an act of musical coordination that would prepare them for the venue jumping of the Blowout).

(I had some cool pictures to go with, but I can’t figure out how to resize images through textpattern’s retarded interface…)

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Campus

Don't get your hair mussed, ride the MSA airBus

Posted by David Boyle on 23. February 2006

“Need a ride to the airport for Spring Break?
If so, airBus will take you there!
Just take $7 cash or check to the Michigan Union Ticket Office and pick up a ticket for airBus today. With frequent service on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, there’s bound to be a trip that fits your schedule.
For more information on schedules, fares, bus stop locations, and more, just go to our new website at http://www.msa.umich.edu/airbus and take a look around.
Also check the website for our return trip schedule. We’re running service on both Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5, so look for us at the airport and ride back to Ann Arbor for only $10 with your Mcard.
Remember: Cabs take you to the Cleaners;
airBus takes you to the Airport.
http://www.msa.umich.edu/airbus ”

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Campus

Juan Cole frontpaged at Daily Kos, Metro Times

Posted by David Boyle on 23. February 2006

UM (Ann Arbor) history professor Juan Cole is getting serious attention today, including mention in a front-page Daily Kos article ,

“Juan Cole’s blog, which covers the mess in the Middle East, will never be described as “sunny”. But it’s been particularly bleak today. Things are going from bad to worse. ...”

As well, on the cover of today’s new Detroit Metro Times , there is…Juan Cole, standing in coat and tie by a small world globe, with the blurb, “What this man says about the MIDDLE EAST WILL SCARE YOU: Juan Cole and the worst-case scenario”. The article within is Juan’s world: A scholar of the Middle East on the tightrope we’re walking .

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Local

Winling wins over Nowinski and vice versa

Posted by David Boyle on 23. February 2006

AU’s own Dale Winling and his demi-namesake Walter Nowinski seem pleasantly free from mutual rancor, at least as per the Daily’s 2/20 Neighborhood groups to represent student tenants: MPP offshoot aims to form student neighborhood associations ,

“Safety, parking and icy sidewalks are three issues off-campus housing that a new organization, Student Promoting Active Neighborhoods, aims to address. ...SPAN is a sister group of the Michigan Progressive Party…. “The idea is that especially in city politics neighborhoods have a lot of power,” said Walter Nowinski, MPP’s vice presidential candidate. Rese Fox, MPP’s presidential candidate, said that by creating a network of neighborhood associations, it will be easier for students to have their voices hear a by the city government. Though SPAN has ties to MPP, Fox said the group has no political affiliation. ...Nearly everyone at the meeting voiced their concerns with parking on- and off-campus. Rackham student Matt Brenner expressed a desire for more 15-minute parking outside classrooms for students to drop off papers or pick up things they had forgotten. Other problems with parking mostly centered on the ability to park in front of or near their own houses. ...Though it was brought up, students were unable to come up with a solution to increase the trust between students and DPS. MPP members consulted with Dale Winling, a Rackham student who is the director of the New West Side Association, a group representing the interests of renters and students. Winling said he approved of MPP’s plans. Nowinski said the two groups would not conflict.”

“Not conflict”? This bears commentary because one would not have expected conflict in any case?!
If conflict did exist: one would have nightmare visions of NWSA vs. MPP, like the Sharks and the Jets in West Side [!!] Story...

More seriously, it is nice to see student activism (by anybody either in any party or not in any party at all, including Students 4 Michigan or other folks working on Ann Arbor lease issues) vis-a-vis student well-being in Ann Arbor. Readers of Arbor Update should always feel welcome to submit their own commentary and ideas on this and other topics.

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Campus

Candlelight vigil tonight for Jill Carroll

Posted by David Boyle on 22. February 2006

At 8 p.m. on the Diag, sponsored by UM Amnesty International and Muslim Student Association, I believe.

Comment [27]

Campus

Larry Summers out as prez at Harvard

Posted by David Boyle on 22. February 2006

See, e.g., Harvard says Summers resigns as president ,

“Harvard University President Lawrence Summers has resigned after a turbulent five years of leading the prestigious school.
...Summers, whose abrupt style has won praise and contempt since he became president in 2001, sparked controversy last year when he said innate differences between men and women may help explain why so few women work in the academic sciences.
...But the abrupt resignation of the arts and sciences dean William Kirby, on January 27 deepened opposition against Summers.
...Next week he was to face his second no-confidence vote in 11 months.
...Summers also was embroiled in a public feud with the African-American Studies department that erupted shortly after he became president. The once-vaunted department has seen an exodus of top faculty. ...”

With problems like the Michigamua lawsuit, the African-American graduate students’ legal complaint, etc., one almost wonders how long Mary Sue is going to last…

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Local

Lease Signing Ordinance Gets First Reading

Posted by Dale Winling on 21. February 2006

City Council will hear the first reading of Mayor Hiefte’s much-awaited and frequently debated lease signing ordinance. Council meets on Tuesday this week due to Presidents’ Day being Monday.

An idea first floated nearly a year ago, the ordinance would impose restrictions on the ability of landlords to show an apartment within the first quarter or lease an apartment or house out from under a tenant within the first third of a lease’s term. This proposed measure comes in response to student sentiment that landlords create the fall housing rush by pressuring students. Area landlords have opposed the measure, calling it an unjustified intervention into the housing market.

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Local

This Week in Retail

Posted by Dale Winling on 20. February 2006

Arbor Update rounds up the regional retail scene.

Seven downtown stores are closing or moving out—Ehnis and Sons, Afterwords, Seychelle, Love From Michigan, Forma, Moderno, Tabor Hill Winery, the east half of John Leidy, Shayani Rugs, and Options 4.

Despite the gloomy Michigan economic outlook, retail is still coming to the Ann Arbor area. Friday’s Ann Arbor News includes a story on the announcement of 20 new tenants for the Brighton-area lifestyle center, Green Oak Village Place.

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Campus

Blogs at Daily heat up some

Posted by David Boyle on 19. February 2006

The “Michigan Daily” has had a whopping five weblogs for a while now; which I thought was a good idea, more or less. Splitting the focus among blogs for chief editor (“The Editor’s Page”), opinion (“The Podium”), news (“The Wire”...sounds like TV show), arts (“The Filter”...keeps out tar and nicotine, perhaps), and sports (“The Game”...sounds like rapper), Daily bloggery offers multiple voices and choices.

However, comparatively few people have utilized the Daily blogs (one big exception: “Podium” Suhael Momin’s 9/26/05 Conservative coming out day , with 69 comments); which is unfortunate, since it was a timely modernization for the D to create them: one of the “crown jewels” of J-Z Pesick’s time at the top.

Speaking of Pesick, looks like he was the last commenter (12/21/05) on the “Ed’s Page”; what happened to Donn “M.” Fresard? The Podium, too, is stuck back in January. However, the Wire has been hopping lately; Two lives in fifteen days (about the parking structure suicides), Students Want Minority-Focused Newspaper , Granholm falls hard in new poll , and City offering free smoke detectors , in the last three days alone.—AND all by reporters named Miller!!

Too, the Filter recently put up The Books at UMMA (one comment references Arbor Update), and the Game kicks some game with yesterday’s Lame ,

“Ice Dancing is officially the worst sport in history. ...”

In other words, the D-blogs are heating up a little, and the momentum may continue if they are lucky.

So, do check out the Daily blogs, whether “daily” or weekly. They, too, provide “Arbor updates” in their own way.

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International

Olympic update: Weir with you

Posted by David Boyle on 17. February 2006

Soviet Union-jacket-wearing U.S. Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir :

“I know that a lot of people, especially the more Republican-style people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport and what I’m going to say, what kind of revolutionary, crazy things are going to come out of my mouth. Good for them, they should be scared.”

Is this guy from Ann Arbor or something?

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