June 2012

Summer Festival Guide

With many summer music festivals just weeks away, Current is keeping you hip to the biggest and best parties this festival season. Choosing is tough — there’s a lot out there —and it’s about time to finalize summer plans.

by Saul T. J.

Forged in the Glass City

Before 1962, glassworking existed almost exclusively in the hands of scientists, engineers, and manufacturers. Some glass art was created in the 1940s and 1950s, but generally, the only place to find a furnace hot enough to manipulate glass was in a factory setting.

by Kevin Moore

Type Rider

People respond to turning 40 in many different ways. Maya Stein's response was to put a typewriter on her bike and cycle from Amherst, Massachusetts to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

by Allyson Rump

Sounds & Sights

Once again the city of Chelsea is opening up this summer for Michigan’s premier weekly festival, Sounds and Sights.

By Julian Garcia

Nada Surf

At the pinnacle of the band’s popularity in the late 90s, Nada Surf's label, Elektra determined that their then current recording project lacked a "single," but the band stood its ground

By SR

Also in bizz

by Jennie Barker

Emotional art

Exploring the emotional layers of people and animals, Marcia Polenberg's sculpture art is expressive, as she uses abstract coloring to breathe life into her work.

By Scott Recker

NT: Live Frankenstein

University Musical Society and the Michigan Theater are bringing back the popular National Theatre Live series...

by Julian Garcia

The Vibrator Play

The Performance Network’s staging of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) opens on June 14 and runs through July 15.

by Sandor Slomovits

Kicking a cliche

The story of the maniac genius rock-star isn't a new one — in real life or fiction.

By Scott Recker

Festive summer scene means fun for all

As the summer months approach in Ann Arbor, the concert and club scene heats up with the temperature. The free Top of the Park events associated with the Ann Arbor Summer Festival provide great communal opportunities for fans of jazz and all other kinds of music.

by Marc S. Taras

Rufus Wainwright

Hallelujah! Rufus Wainwright returns to town as part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

By SS

Our own fests

 Don’t get me wrong — I love local music. I’m all about it. I know, all too well, that I needn’t hem and haw, all anxious and longingly, over the fact that Festivals, audaciously gargantuan festivals, indeed, requiring that capital F, are happening more than a thousand miles away...

by Jeff Milo

Sincere Americana

Bill Bynum and Co.’s new CD is titled Less is More. If you had to come up with a nutshell description of their music, that phrase would do nicely. Adjectives such as genuine, authentic, sincere, satisfying and pleasing would also be useful in any longer narrative about the group and their music.

by Sandor Slomovits

Remembering roots

The man I’m looking forward to most is Billy Bragg, the British “alternative rock musician.” He’s been sticking it to the establishment for over 30 years, but he hates being labeled as a political songwriter...

by Twila Price

Notes from a bartender

As a bartender, many people often ask me “what is the best?” or “what is your favorite?” To answer these questions, I always ask the question, “what are you using it for?”

by Robyn Cleveland (Barman at The Ravens Club)

Wine country

In September Paesano will take you to the home of wine. Wednesday September 26, the tour group will leave

by Bailey Weills

Feast Week

Food-lovers rejoice, the month of June is here and with it comes Ann Arbor's highly-anticipated Restaurant Week.

by Jennie Barker

Happy Wok

“Chinese people usually eat the head,” our server told us, bemused that we’d taken so much effort to pick all the meat off our small fried pieces of fish, but left the tasty heads intact.

By Joe Saul and Lisa Leutheuser

Charging up downtown

Owners and potential owners of electric cars (EV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) often suffer from a term called ‘range anxiety’ which refers to the fear that a vehicle will run out of battery charge before reaching its destination.

by Jennie Barker

Current's Readers Choice 2012

You, the reader, have once again spoken. And what we got from the 2012 Best of Wastenaw County: Readers Choice is a healthy mix of newbies and perpetual champions...

Hot fun at the Summer Fest

Patti Smith is an iconic New York triple threat. Called the "Godmother of Punk," her rock career is legendary, beginning with Horses in 1975 and still going strong with the release of her 11th studio album, Banga, this month.

by Louis Meldman

James Bond 101

When film director/producer/author Paul Kyriazi published his course, How to Live the James Bond Lifestyle, in the late ‘90s, he didn’t predict that copies of the book would one day command bids of more than $1000 on eBay.

by Jason Webber