Over the buzz of both hops and chatter there is a cow bell. The noise can be a spell-breaker or a tension-reliever depending on who is sitting in front of you. The cowbell means your six minutes have concluded. It’s time to turn to your clipboard of names and scrawl some notes— to quickly decide if the stranger in front of you is worth a seventh minute (or perhaps, even, a second date) before the next date sits down. Welcome to a Perky Wallflower Speed Dating session.
Filtering by Author: Cashmere Morley
The Sugar Shack: How One Sweet Family Tradition Turned into an Airbnb Experience
It’s the time of year where the wind is nipping at your winter coat and the gopher may or may not have already seen its shadow. Many Michiganders may opt to stay indoors while the final weeks of winter thaw to spring, but Kirk Coppernoll of Sugar Shack Experiences in Grass Lake insists that these are actually the proper months to tap a maple tree and sip a maple cocktail in the woods. Grab a tap, boil some sap, and meet some other nature-loving strangers as the syrup boils: this is the Sugar Shack.
Peace, Love, and Cows
There is a feeling of peace in the cowbarns at Goloka Eco Experience in Maybee, Michigan. The farm air feels crisp as it enters the lungs—unequivocally more clear than city air. In this moment, the gentle thud of a heartbeat or thwap of a tail against the ground is one’s only soundtrack against the world. Soft, big brown eyes peer out from underneath impossibly-long eyelashes, begging for pats on the head or scratches at the nape of the neck. Goloka Eco hosts an experience one simply cannot find among the hustle and bustle of regular everyday life--an invitation to be present. To come sit. To forget about time for a while. To cuddle a cow, as volunteer Karunasindhu Nitai Gaura Dasa says, is to form a “meaningful relationship.”
Wreck It to Repair It — How Rage Rooms Are Helping People De-Str
“There are all sorts of people out there,” said Rachel Crawford, co-owner of Destruction Depot, “...some people do yoga, some people meditate, and sometimes people just need to break things.”
Making Your Own Magic
At age five, Paula Hampton knew that there was something magical about art. The way her mother would hold a pencil to paper and make a face appear on a blank canvas, unaided by anything save her imagination, blossomed a world of possibility in Hampton’s heart.
Green Living: Bring Your Own Container, Leave with a New Way to Live
It is a song many of us sing every day: the last swipe of lotion on a dry day leaves a container empty; the final drizzle of olive oil escapes the bottle and sizzles on the pan; the old water kettle stops boiling; it is time to throw it all out and start over with something new.
The Creations and Howls of Darryl "Barking Dog" Brown
There is a frenetic energy. There is also a stillness. There is a shape propelling into infinity. There is a cluster of dots, bound so tightly together it makes a heart ache. Here, in this painting, the creative freedom of dreams is restricted only by canvas size. Darryl “Barking Dog” Brown paints to create works that “connect us to the spirit world, through which we may learn to live a more sustainable life on planet Earth.”
From Depot Town to Showtime: An Interview with Actor Leo Sheng
“The roles I’ve taken so far have all been trans characters. And so, they are innately trans stories,” said Leo Sheng. “And with my job comes this joy of getting to be this type of representation that I didn’t have growing up. So maybe [the reason I’m an actor] is a little selfish, but I’m excited I have this opportunity to tell stories, period.”
Restoration Through Ink
Identity, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” As a society, now more than ever, the meaning of one’s identity has never been more fluid or more open to interpretation. What defines someone’s identity? The answer is different for everyone. But for those asking that question, tattoo artist Jamie Wedge at the Lovely Monkey Tattoo in Whitmore Lake is hoping to provide a solution.
Happiness is Just a Twist Away: An Interview with Balloon Artist, Carolynn Hayman
It is possible you’ve met Ann Arbor’s Carolynn Hayman before, without even realizing it. Perhaps it was at a pride festival, where she skipped down the streets with a rainbow mane, a pair of hooves, and a bright pink horn atop her head. Or maybe it was at a bookstore, where she danced in a lobster costume, complete with bright red claws and googly eyes. She may have even showed up at your birthday party, a bright bouquet of flowers in her hands. What do all these events have in common? Hayman, owner of Pop! Designs & Creations, promises one thing: she creates unique balloon experiences “for every occasion.”
Nadim Azzam and Whip Jams: Taking a Ride with Local Musicians
In the first few seconds of the pilot episode of Whip Jams, the viewer is taken on a kaleidoscopic tour through downtown Ann Arbor that feels almost foreign in 2021: windows down, sun splashing across laughing faces, music blasting. This is not a view one might associate with the current times, but in a world where human connection feels lost, comes a Youtube video series that aims to fuel a new kind of connectedness. Nadim Azzam is many things: creator, producer, marketer, promoter, and host of Whip Jams, to name a few. But before that, or perhaps beyond that, Azzam is a musician.
The Whimsical World of David Zinn
If you are observant enough, careful enough, curious enough, there is an entire world underfoot waiting to be discovered. It is a world nestled in ours but unlike ours—an illusionistic wonderland etched in chalk by Ann Arbor’s neighborhood “chalk man.” It’s a reality only visible to those who are looking for it amongst the jumble of the mundane. But in this world, if you are lucky enough to stumble across it, one rule remains the same as ours: things will not, cannot, last forever. Artist David Zinn says that’s the point.
Leaps of Faith : Tales of Local Businesses, Fall 2020
This column is a look at a brave soul who took a leap of faith to open her own business . What follows is a personal profile of a business owner following her dreams and thriving despite the odds—and Covid.
Winter Around Town Doesn’t Have to Put the Freeze On a Good Date Night
Winter around town doesn’t have to put the freeze on a good date night! Here are five unique local spots that will warm your date’s heart this season.
Leaps of Faith--Tales of Local Businesses, Red Yoga and Teaspressa
This column is a look at brave souls who have taken a leap of faith to open their own businesses in and around Ann Arbor. What follows are personal profiles of business owners following their dreams and thriving despite the odds.
Local Haunts for a Scary Good Time
Visiting an old haunt takes on a whole new meaning when you dig a little deeper into the history of the place. Every person has a story, and those stories sometimes get trapped in brick and mortar. Lives are cut short by tragedy, buried by lost opportunity, and marred by time moving on. At death, some feel that their story is not finished being told. Just ask some of the people working and living around local places in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, who believe some stories go on long after someone has passed.
The Art of Humanizing Robots: An Interview with Cre Fuller
In the heart of Ypsilanti is an artist’s studio that feels, at times, both rooted in the future and the past. Glass eyes of various colors stare at you from every direction. Dentures riveted into metal figures bare wild grins. There is a nostalgia here; a feeling of things lost and found again. But there is also a sense of creation, of assemblage. It is a peek into a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein’s mind. A human-meets-robot dreamscape brought to life in rivets and metal. This is Cre Fuller’s studio.
