Archive for October, 2009

The storefront of Liberty Street Video at 119 E. Liberty in Ann Arbor.

When the economy soured last year, Dave Kozlowski still felt optimistic about the prospects for his business, Liberty Street Video. After buying the store in 2007 and investing in new inventory, sales were growing 10-15% each month, and he had finally stopped losing money.

But in January, he says business took a turn for the worse. Since then, sales at the East Liberty store have dropped around 5-8% each month, with no sign of improving. So with his lease up for renewal at the end of the year, Kozlowski has decided to close the last independent video store in Ann Arbor.

Sunday will be the last day of the store’s regular hours. It will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, then reopen on Wednesday with truncated hours: from 2-8 p.m. weekdays, and noon-8 p.m. on weekends. The goal is to sell off all inventory, including DVDs for $5 and $2 for VHS tapes. Kozlowski says he’s hoping to recoup some of his roughly $200,000 investment and pay down $40,000 in debt, including the $10,000 in back rent he owes the landlord, Ali Amiri.

“It’s been fun,” Kozlowski told The Chronicle. “I love it. I love the town.” [Full Story]

The New York Times reports that the NCAA is releasing four sets of data it has collected, including detailed academic statistics and graduation rates, to a national clearinghouse at UM. (It’s unclear from the article which UM department houses this clearinghouse, or how the data will be made publicly available.) The data collection began under the NCAA leadership of Myles Brand, who recently died: “The N.C.A.A.’s method for measuring classroom success, known as the academic progress rate, is the most high-profile of the data initiatives that were begun under Brand. … While some teams and universities did well, baseball players scored poorly despite records of good grades in high school, and a committee was set up to examine potential causes. … [Full Story]

Time magazine’s The Detroit Blog has a post about Drew Barrymore feeling the love for Michigan, as she was promoting her movie “Whip It,” which was filmed in part in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. Says Barrymore: “On Saturday nights, I would go to the 8 Ball in Ann Arbor and have a cold PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and I loved that. I loved the Majestic in Detroit. It was great for me because I really found locations that would work. I found wonderful places. I felt like it was a blessing we got to shoot there.” [Source]

Performance Network posts a video shot on the opening night of its 10th season at its downtown Ann Arbor location, at 120 E. Huron. [Source]

Joel Goldberg

Ann Arborite Bill MacDonald makes some of the best Michigan wines you’ve never tasted.

There’s a good reason his “MacDonald Vineyard” label never appears on retail shelves or restaurant wine lists. As an amateur winemaker, he can’t peddle his wares commercially.

But you might envy those fortunates on his holiday gift list. For three straight years, from 2006 through 2008, the Michigan State Fair’s wine judges awarded him the large blue ribbon that denotes the state’s top amateur wine.

The number of years he entered? Three, 2006 through 2008.

Retiring undefeated this year, he stepped up several weight classes to enter the Indy International Wine Competition, which draws hotshot amateurs from around the country. His 2008 Pinot Gris – made from grapes grown in the small Old Mission Peninsula vineyard he and his wife bought in 2003 – took home a Double Gold medal.

Unfortunately, while MacDonald’s vinous talents were impressing judges, his day job was teetering. Last year, after 26 years as a real estate appraiser, he found himself downsized as collateral damage from a bank merger.

Never missing a beat, he quickly leveraged those blue ribbons into a first wine industry job, as winemaker for Spartan Cellars, the non-commercial winery where grapes from MSU’s experimental vineyards go to ferment.

We sat down at Vinology over a glass of Riesling to talk about growing grapes and making wine, and began with a quick spin in the Wayback Machine. [Full Story]

Writing on her Al Dente Canoodler blog, Monique Deschaine – owner of Al Dente Pasta – describes the confusion over her brand and the Pasta Al Dente brand promoted by the food giant ConAgra: “ConAgra has been heavily promoting a line of frozen pasta entrees called Pasta Al Dente. No, it is not a figment of your imagination – you do see the little circle R by the name Al Dente on every bag of our pasta. Yes, that does mean that we have the registered trademark for the name Al Dente for Pasta. … This is when you say to me, ‘That’s your name. That’s not fair. They can’t do that.’ The only … [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor District Library’s website has a new feature – “Secrets of the Library” – with its first item highlighting the Art Prints program: “Did you know that we have hundreds of framed Art Prints from a wide variety of artists for you to borrow to redecorate your home or office? Just like books, you can take Art Prints home for eight weeks.” [Source]

Canned meat is a terrible delivery device for icing.

On the second day of each month, The Ann Arbor Chronicle provides a kind of status report about The Chronicle itself in the form of a milestone message written by either the publisher or the editor. We alternate months.

First a note about spam. Long story short, I’ve retrieved many messages from our spam folder in the last month. I may have missed some. My apologies for apparent non-responses.

Two months ago, I wrote about cake. That’s because – as I put it then – “[G]iven a choice between pie and cake, I prefer cake.” Over the years, I’ve put a lot of thought into cake. Deep thought. Nearly 15 years ago I wrote an academic paper in semantics called, “On Having Every Cake and Eating It, Too.” It was 50 pages long and included many diagrams. I bring this up mostly to emphasize that I can go on and on about cake … in a very scholarly way if I have to. No worries, I’m not going to delve into the contents of that old paper – mostly because I don’t know exactly where it is. It would be easier to find if it had been published. [Full Story]

An editorial in the Michigan Daily argues that despite the despicable anti-gay lyrics in a Buju Banton song, he has a right to exercise his freedom of speech. The editorial takes Ann Arbor mayor John Hieftje to task for his role in trying to get owners of the Blind Pig to cancel Banton’s performance this week: “As a governmental official, Hieftje can’t be reasonably considered separate from the office he holds, and his attempts to convince the Blind Pig to cancel the show were especially detestable considering his status. Hieftje, as a figurehead for the city, shouldn’t be positioning himself against free speech.” [Source]

John U. Bacon

In their century-old rivalry, Michigan holds a commanding advantage over Michigan State. But since 1950, the margin is much closer. Michigan has won 34 games, and the Spartans 23.

The rivalry is special not just because of the many Big Ten titles it’s determined or the national coverage it attracts. What sets it apart from other long-running feuds is the relationship between the schools, which fuels this duel with more emotion than any other.

The Spartans will tell you it’s their biggest game of the year. The Wolverines will tell you no loss is more painful. Unlike Michigan’s other rivalries against Notre Dame and Ohio State, this duel depends not on the teams’ records but on a constant regional turf war. It is a sibling rivalry, not subject to change. That’s why, even when one team is down, the tension is still high. [Full Story]

Jo Mathis

There’s nothing worse than facing a room of 25 college kids – and boring them, says University of Michigan French instructor Jenni Gordon.

In Paris years ago, the Ann Arbor resident discovered the power of storytelling in the classroom. Recently, in an attempt to help her UM students grasp the difficult concept of imparfait (imperfect past tense), Gordon wrote and illustrated a bilingual children’s story to share with them.

It worked.

The story of a little girl named Mathilde stirred within the students so many memories of childhood. “Suddenly, lots of people had a story to tell in the past tense!” said Gordon.

Now Press Lorentz/littleBeast Books in Ann Arbor has published Gordon’s story of Mathilde, a little girl with mixed feelings about her new baby brother. It’s titled both “Les Problemes de Mathilde” and – on the flip side – “One day, I had enough!”

The story is already a hit with the 20-ish crowd. [Full Story]

Ypsilanti Ward 3 city councilmember Brian Robb, on his blog East-Cross.com, posts updates that the council has received from lobbyist Kirk Profit over the past week about budget deliberations in Lansing, including how locally elected state legislators have voted. These updates are sent to several local government bodies who contract with Profit for lobbying work. Kudos to Robb for making this information publicly available. [Source]

Booth Newspapers reports that state Rep. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) was one of only two senators to vote for a bill Wednesday night that would have raised the state income tax rate from 4.35% to 4.8%. Michigan legislators continue fighting over how to balance the 2010 budget. The government shut down briefly early Thursday morning before a contingency bill was passed, giving legislators another 30 days to deal with a $1.8 billion deficit. [Source]

A2 City Chickens is partnering with Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum’s Local Table program for the first Loop de Coop – a tour of Ann Arbor backyard chicken coops. The self-guided tour of nine coops is on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration is required to get a map of the coop locations. A side note: A2 City Chickens reports that as of Sept. 28, 2009, the city has issued 22 permits to residents who want to keep backyard chickens. [Source]

At its Sept. 21 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council voted to attach to the official meeting minutes any emails sent to and from its members during its future meetings. The rationale for this move – as reflected in the whereas clause of the resolution – was to “help the public monitor compliance with the amended rules.”

What amended rules? At its previous meeting on Sept. 8, the council had amended its rules to restrict emails sent by its members during meetings to two kinds: (i) messages to city staff, and (ii) messages to other councilmembers that propose language for resolutions or amendments to resolutions. No restrictions were put in place on reading emails received during city council meetings.

In adopting the Sept. 21 resolution – but at the same time rejecting a proposal to release council meeting emails dating back to 2002 – councilmembers emphasized the need to look to the future and not dwell on the past.

However, the rule changes, together with the resolution passed on Sept. 21, suggest that Ann Arbor’s city council has fundamentally failed to give adequate thought to the future of open government in Ann Arbor. Instead, we appear to be moving into the future in a way that formally ensconces a flawed understanding of the letter and spirit of the Open Meetings Act. [Full Story]