Archive for June, 2009

Martin Contreras and Keith Orr, co-owners of Common Language Bookshore, also own the aut BAR, located next door. (Photo by the writer.)

Less than two weeks after Shaman Drum Bookshop announced plans to close, the owners of another independent Ann Arbor bookstore are saying they could be next.

On Friday, Keith Orr – co-owner of Common Language Bookstore – sent an email to customers laying out the situation that his business faces: “There is no easy way to say this,” he wrote. “Common Language is not making enough sales to support itself. Its very existence is in peril.”

After a Chronicle reader forwarded the email to us on Monday, we went over to the store in Kerrytown’s Braun Court to talk with Orr. Sitting in the shaded courtyard in front of the shop he owns with partner Martin Contreras, Orr spoke about why they decided to reach out for help, and how he hopes the community will respond.

Contreras and Orr have been subsidizing the store with their personal savings and with money from another business they own, the \aut\ BAR, which is located in an adjacent building. They can’t continue that indefinitely – sales have to increase to support the store. Though there is a sense of crisis, Orr says, they aren’t planning to shut their doors next week or even next month. Yet they wanted to alert the community that they are struggling, and if they can’t find a way to make the bookstore financially sustainable, they’ll have to close. [Full Story]

From left: AAPAC Chair Margaret Parker, administrator Katherine Talcott and administrative coordinator Jean Borger at the commission's June 9 meeting. (Photo by the writer.)

Ann Arbor Public Art Commission meeting (June 9, 2009): Ann Arbor Public Art Commission members spent their regular meeting this month discussing their annual plan and budget, as well as hearing reports from their public relations, planning and projects committees. They also discussed German artist Herbert Dreiseitl’s upcoming visit to Ann Arbor, during which he’ll discuss his plans for the municipal center with AAPAC and the city. [Full Story]

Three Ann Arbor artists will be part of the Detroit Artists Summer Market’s first show, according to TheDetroiter.com. They are Tom Carey, who “uses techniques from Balinese Shadow Plays and does Technicolor paintings of monsters and robots from Ultraman”; Julie Renfro, who “is influenced by her quilter mother and architect father, and uses found objects often glittery to create pieces of meditative beauty and obsessive detail”; and Mike Sivak, who “creates detailed assemblages in varying scales that become their own worlds.” The show runs from June 26 through July 25. [Source]

A New York Times article on Iranian security forces quotes Afshon P. Ostovar, a UM doctoral student who is writing his thesis on that topic. Says Ostovar: “The Revolutionary Guards are a social and economic ladder.” [Source]

Mark Lincoln Braun wheels his custom-built tricycle out of his shop to give The Chronicle a peek. (Photo by the writer.)

Some Chronicle readers might know Mark Lincoln Braun (Mr. B) for his boogie woogie and blues piano playing – this year’s edition of the Ann Arbor Art Fairs (July 15-18) will mark the 30th year in a row he’s performed there.

This year he’ll also be performing at a children’s cake walk at the Townie Party (July 13) – an event hosted by the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair that has kicked off the fairs for the last four years.

Mr. B is also a cycling enthusiast.

So he’ll be arriving at the Townie Party by pedal power. And that’s how his 350-pound piano is getting there, too – on the back of his custom-made tricycle crafted by former Ann Arbor resident and frame builder Mark Nobilette.

The road to the Townie Party for the tricycle isn’t exactly going to be a spin around the block – it first heads to Flint, then to Lansing, back down to Chelsea and then to Ann Arbor. [Full Story]

Writing on Ignite Ann Arbor’s website, Ryan Burns anounces the list of speakers for the first set of Ignite talks (June 30, 7:00 p.m. at the Neutral Zone), which all conform to a tight format (exactly 5 minutes and 20 slides, with 15 seconds per slide – automatic advancing of slides):  Dianne Marsh, Eli Neiburger,  Eric Jankowski, Zach Steindler, Dave Askins, Heidi Kumao, Aydin Akcasu, James Deakins, Kyle Mulka, Brad Boegler, Bob Stack.  Askins is editor of the Ann Arbor Chronicle (this publication). He  will be offering an “origin story” of The Chronicle. [Source]

The blog of A2 Journal, a weekly paper owned by the Heritage Newspaper chain that’s set to launch next month, has posted a video shot at Saturday’s Ann Arbor Farmers Market, interviewing about a half dozen vendors there. [Source]

The Wall Street Journal reports that UM business professor Noel Tichy will be heading up the new Jack Welch Institute, an MBA program at Chancellor University System LLC in Cleveland. Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, has bought a 12% stake in the university, which offers most of its courses online. [Source]

When The Chronicle sees a Tweet wondering if a local business has closed, that sometimes sends us off on a quest – and Sunday evening, the business in question was Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger. Since we’d covered the mystery closing of another landmark eatery in January, we braced for bad news.

And seeing large CLOSED signs in the windows as we approached, plus a yellow cord strung across the front steps, it wasn’t looking good. But as we got closer, we saw – written much more faintly and in much smaller lettering – ”til Monday.” Then, ignoring the cord, we climbed the stairs and encountered a much more detailed sign on the front door: Blimpy’s was only temporarily closed for renovations. Whew. [Full Story]

No, these aren't the University of Michigan Regents. Reporters from the Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor News, Michigan Radio, Detroit News and other media outlets attended a briefing on the budget with UM provost Teresa Sullivan, sitting at the head of the table. To her right is Phil Hanlon, vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs. (Photo by the writer.)

University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting (June 18, 2009): Despite dissent from two regents over a 5.6% tuition hike, the University of Michigan Board of Regents approved several FY2010 budgets at their Thursday afternoon meeting – including budgets for the general fund, health system, and athletic department.

Though budget presentations – and speaking turns by each regent on the budget, most of them reading from prepared statements – took up much of the meeting, the board approved several other items, among them: 1) changes to UM’s technology transfer policy, 2) authorization to demolish seven vacant buildings that make up the Kresge complex at the corner of Ann Street and Zina Pitcher Place, 3) approval to hire an architect for a major expansion to the G.G.Brown building on north campus, and 4) design approval for a new intercollegiate soccer stadium.

We’ll begin our report with a look at non-budget agenda items. [Full Story]

David Babcock and Ed Koster act out a scene from the play "Hellcab" at Ann Arbor Civic Theatre auditions earlier this month. The show will be performed Aug. 21-23. (Photo by the writer.)

The woman is swaying in her seat, inhaling in a drunken hiss and dragging her feet along the floor. The driver stares straight ahead, looking mildly uncomfortable.

Grinning, her head wobbling slightly on her neck, she leans as far forward as possible and whispers loudly to the cabbie, “I looove you!”
The other people in the room – and the director, Paul Bianchi – laugh.

The woman and the man acting as the cabbie are seated in two chairs in the middle of the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre studio in downtown Ann Arbor – a high-ceilinged, mostly empty room with a wood-paneled floor and a piano at one end. It’s an evening in early June, and they’re auditioning for “Hellcab,” a play depicting a day in the life of a Chicago cab driver.

A day in the life of AACT itself is challenging in a different way. Like virtually all nonprofits, including those in the performing arts, the local theater faces some less-than-entertaining concerns this season. Although leaders of the theater say it isn’t in crisis, the nonprofit has made some cuts to save money, and is trying to get creative about ways to bring in revenue. [Full Story]

A Freep editorial praises municipalities who have joined the Detroit Aerotropolis: “You almost had to do a double take, maybe wipe your eyes a few times last Wednesday when leaders from nine Wayne and Washtenaw communities came together to announce that they’ll work together – and even share some costs and revenues – to get an innovative ‘airport city’ under way in metro Detroit. The mayors of Taylor and Romulus? Township boards in Van Buren and Ypsilanti? Until recently, it has been difficult just to bring these players together over coffee.” [Source]

The Lansing State Journal publishes an op/ed piece by Jason C. Miller of Ann Arbor, who argues that legislation proposed by state lawmakers aimed at regulating anonymous robocalls is unnecessary. Handling that issue at the federal level is a better approach, Miller writes: “More enforcement of the existing disclosure law is a better way to target anonymous calls. Existing federal law allows state attorneys general to bring enforcement actions and it further allows the state to designate other agencies and authorities to bring those actions.” [Source]

A post on Jen’s Book Thoughts blog gives a report about a recent book-signing at Aunt Agatha’s mystery bookshop by authors Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, who co-write books under the name Michael Stanley. The blogger, who lives in Ohio, writes: “First I went to a local restaurant where a group of folks met and had dinner with Michael and Stanley. It was great fun to just chat over a nice meal. We talked about books and South Africa and the University of Illinois (where Stanley went to graduate school). We talked a little about Cleveland. Very laid back and just fun. After dinner we walked back to the bookstore. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening and Ann Arbor was really … [Full Story]

Library board members watch a video prepared by the AADL tech staff about the kinds of services that libraries can provide if they have sufficient broadband capacity. On screen: Brian Cashman and Eric Boyd of Internet2. (Photo by the writer.)

Ann Arbor District Library Board meeting (June 15, 2009): A light agenda for Monday’s AADL board meeting included a discussion about how state funding cuts might affect library services, a video presentation on future broadband needs for libraries, and an update from director Josie Parker about negotiations over a utility easement the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority wants for its proposed underground parking structure. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board meeting (June 17, 2009): The AATA board led off its monthly meeting by going into an executive session to discuss terms of the contract they’re negotiating with the future CEO of the organization, Michael Ford, and emerged with a resolution to make a written offer.

Other positive news coming out of the meeting was scant, compared to three disappointments. First, Arborland management seems committed to not allowing AATA to use a bus stop located on its property inside the shopping plaza. Second, the LINK downtown circulator bus, which the Downtown Development Authority recently elected not to fund in the fall, won’t be supported by the University of Michigan, either. Finally, the north-south connector feasibility study, which appeared finally to  have all four partners on board with their funding, was postponed by the AATA board when questions were raised about the price tag on AATA’s share – $320,000. [Full Story]