Blog Post
Teen Stuff: It’s time for Breakin’ Curfew!
by manz
The Neutral Zone and UMS present the 8th annual Breakin' Curfew. The event is created, produced, marketed, and performed by local teens. The performances at Breakin' Curfew feature everything from dance, spoken word, jazz, classical music, rock, to hip hop, and much more. The electricity of a teen-centric audience watching a show of teens, produced by teens, is amazing. It is quite the unique showcase of talent. All this fun takes place at the Power Center on Saturday, May 14 at 8pm. See here for ticket info and more. Yes, adults are of course welcome to attend and support these great minds!
May 14, 8pm -- Power Center -- See UMS site for ticket info
Blog Post
George Washington's Beer Recipe
by cecile
The New York Public Library recently published George Washington's recipe for a "small beer" that he wrote in a notebook while serving in the Virginia Militia. The recipe lists the ingredients as bran hops, yeast and molasses--could this have something to do with his becoming a dental victim?
In any event, the Ann Arbor District Library has many books devoted to home brewing:
Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide : Everything you Need to Know to Make Great-tasting Beer is written by a powerhouse in the small brewing industry and covers beginning and advanced techniques.
Homebrew Favorites : a Coast-to-Coast Collection of over 240 Beer and Ale Recipes has chapters according to types: pale ales, brown ales, porters, stouts, European lagers from serious home brewers.
Better Beer and How to Brew It is a great place for a beginner to start.
And don't forget the upcoming 14th Annual Michigan Summer Beer Festival in Depot Town - Riverside Park, Ypsilanti, July 22-23
Blog Post
National Train Day
by cecile
Today is National Train Day, a celebration of national rail travel sponsored by Amtrak.
Locally, Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje and the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers will celebrate National Train Day with coffee and donuts. Mayor Hieftje will read a proclamation from the City in support of train travel and present it to the conductor of Amtrak train #351 heading to Chicago.
The Ann Arbor District Library has a wonderful collection of materials train-related. Here is a small sampling to help you celebrate:
The Train set in Paris 1944, starring Burt Lancaster, is an exciting film about the French Resistance and a German colonel trying to steal a vast art collection.
Strangers on a Train is the film noir Alfred Hitchcock classic.
Orient Express: the Life and Times of the World's Most Famous Train is about the luxurious European train operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits.
Blood, Iron, & Gold : How the Railroads Transformed the World chronicles one of the greatest technological feats of the 19th century.
China’s Great Train is about the building of the great “Sky Train” the world’s highest railway that goes to Tibet.
Blog Post
Comics!
by articia
Comics and comic book characters have always been popular with many but have more recently broken into the mainstream in a huge way. Because of the recent rise in popularity, many kids (and "kids at heart") are taking up an interest in comic books.
The Ann Arbor District Library has fantastic Graphic Novel collections in youth, teen, and the adult sections of all 5 library branches and also offer lots of neat programming involving comics, how to create them, and info about those who do.
Tomorrow, May 7th, 2001, is Free Comic Book Day. Free Comic Book Day - the first Saturday in May each year - when participating comic book shops around the world give away comic books to anyone who comes into their stores. Check out local comic book store, Vault of Midnight, and see what you can find!
And for those busy tomorrow that can't get out to Free Comic Book Day, check out this event in June: Kids Read Comics hosted at the The Chelsea District Library and throughout the downtown business district in June.
"Kids Read Comics Convention is a totally free event that unites kids, teens, parents, teachers and librarians with professional artists and writers from the comics and animation fields. Our goal is to introduce kids to worlds of imagination while unlocking their creative impulses, and to serve that goal, the convention features:
* hands-on workshops
* panels and presentations for kids, families, and educators
* a chance for kids to meet and chat with comics and animation professionals
* the opportunity for kids to have their own art portfolios reviewed"
Blog Post
Earth Day Festival Comes to WCC
by Debbie G.
Come join the fun on Sunday, May 1, noon ~ 4 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Area Earth Day Festival in the beautiful Washtenaw Community College Community Park. All the events are free and this year will feature a concert at 2 p.m. by local singer/songwriter and environmentalist Joe Reilly. Joe is encouraging festival goers to wear costumes representing their favorite plants and animals and join Joe in song and dance.
Visitors may also enjoy free face painting provided by Ann Arbor Cohousing, and recycled-content crafts sponsored by The Scrap Box. Stop in to see the Bubble Man and be sure to make time for the Leslie Science and Nature Center’s Birds of Prey and Brian Cressman’s reptiles.
Blog Post
Wanted by AAPD: Unwanted RXs
by Debbie G.
On April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the City of Ann Arbor Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. This Special Collection will be held at the Ann Arbor Justice Center at 301 E. Huron St., 2nd floor. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Blog Post
The Thunderdrome: Unearthing a Gem in Detroit
by Caser
Let's time travel. It's 1969 and we're in Dorais Park, Detroit, near E. Eight Mile and Mound Road. Construction has just been completed on a brand new velodrome -- a cycling venue consisting of a steeply banked, concrete oval loop, 250 meters long -- in anticipation of the U.S. National Track Championships held there later that year. This Championship and the many that follow are bright spots in a declining neighborhood. For the next 20 years, the city maintains this bastion of bike racing against urban devastation, marked here by the closure of the Chrysler assembly plant across the street.
Eventually, the Dorais Park Velodrome is abandoned by the city and handed over to the elements. Illegal car races are sometimes held here, accelerating the cracking of the concrete that was only designed to sustain bicycles, while bushes, grasses, and trees split apart the fissures. Two decades of neglect take their toll.
Welcome to 2010. A group of renegade urban landscapers, known as The Mower Gang, take their lawn care equipment to Dorais Park, unearth the velodrome, and begin rehabbing the battered beauty. It's renamed The Thunderdrome, an homage to the post-apocalyptic Mad Max film series from the '80s, and a race is staged for two-wheeled vehicles that October.
As race organizer Ben Wojdyla writes, "the Thunderdrome wouldn't be limited to just bicycles. We wanted higher speeds and more excitement. We wanted loony subcultures, weirdos, a scene, a spectacle—something people could get excited about. So in addition to traditional fixed-gear road bicycles, geared bikes and mountain bikes, we also invited racers on mopeds, scooters and pit bikes". The Fall race is a success, drawing hundreds of spectators and racers and spawning the demand for a Spring race, which will take place this Saturday, April 30, at noon. Detroit reinvention and DIY spirit charge headlong into the future of the city.
The latest issue of Bicycling Magazine, with holdings at all AADL locations, has an article on the Thunderdrome, as does the October 2010 issue of Popular Mechanics. Check out the Thunderdrome's website for more details on the race.
Blog Post
Two Pulitzer Prize winners expected at Storymakers Dinner May 12
by annevm
This year's Storymakers Dinner is coming up May 12 at Zingerman's Roadhouse. Special guest will be acclaimed novelist Richard Ford, editor of "Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of Work," scheduled to come out in April. Ford's Independence Day was the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. And heads up for another Pulitzer Prize winning author, Jeffrey Eugenides, who also is expected to be at the Storymakers Dinner. The event supports 826 Michigan, a non-profit that helps students improve their writing skills.
Blog Post
Nonprofits: NEW helping boards make a difference
by annevm
Check out five (5!) workshops being offered this winter and spring by Nonprofit Enterprise at Work (NEW). On March 9, there is "Board Member Training: Serving on a Nonprofit Board," followed March 17 by "Your Board Members as Ambassadors and Fundraisers." Later in March will be "Nonprofit Training: Building Your Board" and "Spring Into Service: A Board Matching Event for Nonprofit Organizations." Finally in early April, a workshop is scheduled on "Starting Off Right: Board Member Orientation." Details are here. Don't forget AADL also has a collection of nonprofit resources on the second floor of the downtown library.
Blog Post
"Lastingness: The Art of Old Age"
by hamiltonb
Authors Nicholas Delbanco and Keith Taylor will discuss their book "Lastingness: The Art of Old Age" at the University of Michigan's Hatcher Graduate Library on March 9th, 5:00-7:00pm as part of the University's ongoing Author's Forum.
Library Journal's 2010 review of "Lastingness" describes the book as a "study of geniuses-as they aged-in the fields of literature, music, and the visual arts. Delbanco focuses on the fascinating question of why some people's creative talents flourish with age, while others' fade. He explores and explains our general societal conflict about our elders and the question of when to expect them to step aside. His profiles include Claude Monet, Giuseppe Verdi, W.B. Yeats, and Alice Neal, among others, all of whom lived until 70 or older and remained productive."
Nicholas Delbanco is a Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan. Keith Taylor is a writer and poet and coordinates the undergraduate creative writing program at U of M. The discussion is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a book sale and signing. The event will take place in the Gallery in Room 100 at the Hatcher Graduate Library.