fireworks

The fun starts at 7 p.m. on July 3rd at Hudson Mills Metropark with a concert by Big Pinky and the Joint Effort Band. Fireworks start at 10 p.m. Come early because the Park entrance gate will close to incoming traffic at 9 pm.

The 21st annual Ann Arbor Jaycees Parade will kick-off at 10 a.m. on the 4th of July at State and William. Don't forget to take the kids down early for the Bike Decorating Contest.

There will be no trash, recycling, or compost trucks on the roads on Independence Day, Monday, July 4th. Solid waste routes will be collected one day later throughout the week, with the normal Monday routes serviced on Tuesday and the Friday collection areas picked up on Saturday, July 9. Ann Arbor City Hall offices, the 15th District Court in the Justice Center, the Wheeler Service Center, and other city locations will be closed on the holiday Monday.

whitey bulger

James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Irish mobster of South Boston was arrested in Santa Monica, Ca. by the FBI Tuesday after successfully eluding capture for over 16 years.

He began his career in crime as a simple bank robber in 1949, graduating to murder, loansharking, drugs and the protection rackets in South Boston where he became the boss of the Winter Hill Gang.

While Whitey was busy running the mob, his brother, former state Senate President Billy Bulger was busy running the state of Massachusetts.

In the mid-1970s he became an informant for the FBI where he cunningly informed on his rivals and enemies thus eliminating his competition. He is accused of at least 19 murders and may face the death penalty in Florida if the FBI ever lets him stand trial there.

Growing up in the same neighborhood was former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. He became Bulger’s chief FBI handler. He was convicted of tipping Bulger of FBI and DEA investigations and alerting him of his impending racketeering indictment in 1995 at which time Bulger fled leading to an international manhunt that lasted until this week.

The library has several books about Bulger, including Black Mass : The True story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI, and the Irish Mob, Street Soldier : My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob, and book on CD The Brothers Bulger : How they Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century.

Bulger has inspired several films and television programs including: Brotherhood. Showtime Series, What Doesn't Kill You, and The Departed.

city hall

On Monday, June 27, the City of Ann Arbor Customer Service Center will be open for business at 8 a.m. in its new permanent location on the first floor of City Hall, located at 301 E. Huron Street.

Customer Service Center services include:
• Payment processing for water bills, parking tickets, property taxes, and solid waste;
• Routes city calls and requests and provides general city information to walk-in customers; and
• This unit also is responsible for water utility meter reading, installation, repair, billing, backflow prevention inspections and certifications.

The Customer Service Center phone number will not change, which is (734) 794-6320.

Looking for something to do this summer?

Top of the Park kicked off this past Friday June 17th. Bands play every evening and movies show Sunday through Thursdays at dusk (10 pm), with the exception of Mondays. TOP will again be officially closed on Mondays i.e. no events/movies/music will take place on Monday evenings. Some of the movies featured this year include: Top Gun, How to Train Your Dragon, Inception, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Back to the Future, Footloose, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Phantom of the Opera Silent Film with Carillon Accompaniment & Guest Soprano.

Tomorrow's entertainment includes: Rock the Mall, a Teen Music Competition and the film The Social Network. This summer's TOP also includes wacky acrobatic troop Strange Fruit performing The Three Belles.

You can view the entertainment schedule at the Festival Website. For a printable Calendar, click here.

Top of the Park is located at Ingalls Mall, directly in front of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies on Washington Street near the Burton Memorial Tower.

Don't forget to check out the performaces at the Mainstage as well. Artist/Comedians that are performing at the Power Center include: Steve Martin, Los Lonely Boys, k.d. lang, The Capitol Steps, and Tom Tom Crew.

Before you go, make sure to check out Festival Rules and Regulations for helpful tips to make everyone's experience more enjoyable.

Check out the Ann Arbor Summer Festival on facebook!

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival runs till July 10th, so come prepared to dance, sing along and have a good time!AASF2011

33 1/3 Sereis image

The AADL recently added the 33 1/3 series of books to the collection. Each volume covers one album from the perspective of a diverse set of authors. Some of the volumes tell the story of the band, or the recording of the record, while others tell how that record effect the author. There are a couple of volumes that are fiction and dissect the record as part of the story.

Now as part of the Ann Arbor Summer fest three of the volumes
The Pogues’ “Rum, Sodomy & The Lash”
Tom Waits' “Swordfishtrombones”
Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”
Are going to be highlighted locally.

From (http://33third.blogspot.com)
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Ann Arbor: 33 1/3 Reading & Listening Parties

As part of the 2011 Summer Festival and the Fresh Ink Literary Arts Series in Ann Arbor, there will be a series of readings/listenings with local writers, journalists, and music aficionados reading excerpts from 33 1/3 books, followed by a guest DJ mixing from the oeuvre of the featured artist of the evening, beginning June 20th, and running for 3 weeks. A very cool idea...

Monday, June 20
Guest Reader: Bob Needham | Entertainment Director, AnnArbor.com
The Pogues’ “Rum, Sodomy & The Lash” by Jeffery T. Roesgen
WCBN DJ: Sue Dise

Monday, June 27 
Guest Reader: Jeff Meyers | Managing Editor, Concentrate Media
Tom Waits' “Swordfishtrombones” by David Smay
WCBN DJ: Saramin

Monday, July 4 
Guest Reader: Emlyn Chand, Writer and Book Publicist
Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” by Geoffrey Himes
WCBN DJ: Aaron Smith

All events are free. 7-9pm. Location: Arbor Brewing Company's ABC Brewpub

You can check out the series here, and there is also a partial list matching both the books and the CD version of the albums coverd by the book in our collection.

Green Lantern is based on the grahic novel series by DC Comics. In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force call the Green Lantern Corps has been dependent upon as protectors of peace and intergalactic order. When a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power, the fate lies in the hands of Green Lantern's newest recruit, the first human ever selected to wear the ring that grants them superpower.

In Submarine, 15 year-old Oliver Tate has two big ambitions: to save his parents' marriage via carefully plotted intervention and to lose his virginity before his next birthday. Worried that his mom is having an affair, Oliver forges suggestive love letters from his Mom to his Dad. Meanwhile, Oliver attempts to woo his classmate, Jordana, a self-professed, bossy, pyromaniac who supervises his journal writing --- especially the bits about her. I look forward to this delightful adaptation from Joe Dunthorne's humorous and imaginative novel (2008).

Based on the The X-Men comics created by Stan Lee, the current box-office smash X-Men, First Class is set up as a prequel. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men, closest of friends, working together to prevent nuclear Armageddon.

green lantern

map

Following the US Census every ten years, new lines are drawn for congressional and legislative districts, county commission districts, and city council wards. Although the population numbers changed little in Washtenaw County, there were shifts in where we live in the county.

Join us for a panel discussion on Thursday June 16, 2011: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room , co-sponsored by The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area and The Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor, and find out how your city, county and state are making these decisions and how it might affect you. Panelists include Jacqueline Beaudry, Ann Arbor City Clerk; Lawrence Kestenbaum, Washtenaw County Clerk; Rep. Jeff Irwin, State Representative, 53rd District and Rep. Mark Ouimet, State Representative, 52nd District.

Get a sneak preview into the discussion with our latest podcast episode, AADL Talks To: Lawrence Kestenbaum.

Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian has died

Jack Kevorkian, one of the most controversial proponents of assisted suicide, died yesterday at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

Kevorkian, a graduate of The University of Michigan Medical School (1952) and then a resident at The University of Michigan Medical Center, began his fourteen-year career in the public eye in 1997 when he assisted an Oregon schoolteacher suffering from Alzheimer's to end her life in the back of his rusted VW van in a Michigan campground. That distasteful image ignited outrage even as it triggered a national conversation about death with dignity and the right of those who suffer from terminal illnesses to choose to end their life.

Six years before his first assisted suicide, Kevorkian wrote Prescription: Medicide: The goodness of planned death (1991). He also was the subject of a documentary, Right to exit: Kevorkian (2009).

Kevorkian continued assisting in more than 130 additional deaths, was tried several times for second degree murder, and finally was convicted of first degree murder in 1999 in a trial that lasted less than two days. Not only did he videotape himself administering a lethal injection to a patient suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), and then airing it on a 60 Minutes broadcast, but he also defended himself, against the advice of his longtime attorney, the equally controversial Geoffrey Feiger.

Kevorkian served eight years in prison before he was released in 2007 after promising never to assist in another suicide.

There is agreement on both sides of this difficult topic, that despite his showmanship and addiction to the spotlight, Kevorkian was instrumental in jump-starting the hospice movement in this country and also in causing physicians to more actively pursue palliative measures for their terminally ill patients who were suffering terrible pain.

Kevorkian, 83, died of complications from a blood clot.

2011 Pritzker Prize for Architecture has been announced

Three days ago The 2011 Pritzker Prize for Architecture was awarded to Portuguese architect, Eduardo Souto de Moura.

The 58-year-old's work was described by Lord Palumbo, the jury's chairman, as "...of our time but also carries echoes of architectural traditions."

de Moura was a student of Alvaro Siza, who was Portugal's first Pritzker winner in 1992. Some of de Moura's buildings include the Braga (Portugal) Stadium and the Burgo Tower.

The winner, usually a closely guarded secret until the prestigious awards dinner, was leaked when it was announced the President Obama will attend tonight's event at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

runrun

They were a hale and hearty group in 1974 despite being temporarily delayed by a passing train at the first Dexter-Ann Arbor Run. We've gathered together a few articles and pictures from the Ann Arbor News Archives about the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run to jog your memory and get you motivated for this year's race on Sunday, June 5th.

Check out a few items from the archives:

-Article about the first race

-Photo of runners pack in the 1979 Dexter-Ann Arbor Run

-Article about friendly rivalry