The Cool
We don’t know how we could have missed this: the Ann Arbor Ad Club’s “Capture the Cool” contest to create a logo and/or slogan that adequately sums up the coolness of a city that’s “a leader in modern health care, yet embraces ancient holistic healing methods” (via ypsidixit.) “Rub shoulders with the rich and famous,” the site urges, apropos of nothing. “Or at least the well-connected and infamous.” Unless they mean “infamous” in the same way as that Daily article about Rush Street, we’re not sure if Ann Arbor actually has any infamous. And what does “well-connected” really mean here, anyway? The guy at Zingerman’s recognizes you and gives you free baguettes when you walk in there?
The deadline’s the 19th, and we just know that one of you can win this thing. This is an unprecedented opportunity for “culture jamming,” or whatever the kids are calling it these days. If the $1000 prize isn’t incentive enough, keep in mind that all entries will be exhibited at the Ann Arbor Art Center.
The rub: you’ve got to pony up for membership in the Ad Club to enter.
posted by Laura F. on January 9th, 2005 at 10:13 pmI was looking for something to prove to my boss that the song “Main Street” by Bob Seger was about the “Star Bar” in Ann Arbor. That’s when I came across your site. So far I only read a little but I love It! No shit, Ann Arbor is overrated!I have thought that for some time now.
posted by Sandy on January 9th, 2005 at 10:21 pmI’m 47 years old. I grew up in Ann Arbor and hit the streets when I was very young. At 14 I became a street person and hung out with a lot of the left wing groups, artist and radical gay and lesbians so I know a lot of Ann Arbor history first hand. Ann Arbor wasn’t a big trendy town until the 70’s and each year seems to get trendier and further away from what made it a pretty cool place to live and grow up.
Anyways, long long ago when we had the Sunday free concerts at Gallop park we would all go see the local bands and I think Bob Seger was one of them but not 100% sure. I had a buzz on most of the time and there were so many bands back then so hard to be sure.
There was a question about the song “Main Street” on your site and this is what I know about it from my old friend Laurie N, another old Ann Arbor person, it was about the “Star Bar”, on Main Street. For a long time it was the badest skid row bar in town and it seems like the ambulance’s where there on a nightly bases.
In the seventies this guy renovated it and I can’t remember his name but I know for sure that when they tore down the U of M’s Barbour gym he took the floor made of oak and used it in the renovation.
So I left Ann Arbor in the 80’s because I couldn’t find a job. There was always a lot of competition fighting to get those choice sweatshop jobs. The students seemed to take anything and work for almost nothing making it very hard if you didn’t have rich parents to foot the bill for rent and food! I was the third generation of a family from Ann Arbor and not any of us went to the U of M but they let us be their janitors and clean up their messes. Now no one in my family except one second cousin lives there because no one can afford it. Besides all that who wants to live there? It sucks now. Seems like they glossed over all the history with their over priced restaurants and over prices shops. Sometimes I wish I could go home to Ann Arbor but I guess I couldn’t because it’s not there anymore!
Thanks for letting me write.
Sandy
Urrrr… I think you don’t know the “gown” part of Ann Arbor… or the “town” part, for that matter. I’m sorry you missed out on the “good old days”, but the Radical chic was phony then and the “trendy” chic is phony now. Ann Arbor is too expensive to live in because the mob got into the local real estate business as a tried and true way to launder money (Jimmy Hoffa’s probably buried in Dexter). This led in turn to a lot of international mob types figuring out how to launder THEIR black money by buying local peoples houses with CASH (hard to refuse cash) AND overpaying!!! Plus the Detroit machine owns the UofM and makes sure there’s never enough student housing to meet demands.
I’m sorry, but you all don’t seem to know very much about “Ann Arbor history first hand”… “Street people” is a nice way of saying transients and bums and hobos that live along the rail lines. I played in Lansky’s junk yard as a kid and can take you to the old illegal dump behind the cemetary on Sunset Rd., maybe we’ll even find an unmarked grave or ten. I worked all during high school in the 80’s in Ann Arbor and know for a fact you’re full of shit, as if I could earn enough at fifteen to afford room and board OFF THE BOOKS, so the only excuse a 28 year old like you would have had was that you were pathetic and lazy (my parents divorced, and my pops died in 2001 and left me his debts). So let’s get this straight, pal, I was born and bred and raised in A2 as well, and the town is better off without jerks like you who won’t take responsibility for your own failure. If three generations of your family can’t figure out how to get A’s at WCC for a couple of years and then transfer to UofM for the degree, then I’m sorry, but it’s not about others being ‘rich’…. it’s about you being dumb. YOU seem to know how to type and use a computer! So you’re not illiterate. I guess you’re one of those people who think the world and Ann Arbor owes you something for breathing? Well I for one am happy that YOU don’t live in Ann Arbor, as we don’t need leeches who can’t pull their weight.
Another thing. The seventies weren’t “cool” in Ann Arbor, nor were the eighties (I left for NYC in ‘88). “Baddest skid row bar in town?” YOU ARE SOOOO transparently bourgeois! Let’s meet outside the US so I can show you.
I’ll set this wager for you. I’ll take you to Calcutta, or Dhaka, or Rio, or Sao Paulo or even Belfast… and I’ll find some poor english speaking prolie willing to kill you for your passport and identity within two hours (or to maybe kill me for mine if they were up to it). If you live for more than two hours YOU CAN HAVE MY HOUSE IN A2 (although it’s not paid for, I’ll take out enough life insurance to make sure you’ll own it free and clear).
(Don’t worry, I’ll stop them before they really kill you)… BUT the catch is that if I win the wager, you give up your US citizenship for the truely sincere poor person who I find willing to kill you for it. Because when I read your post, I thought I’d rather sell you into slavery or as meat for Irish dogfood than call you my equal or pretend you deserve the chances you wasted that better men weren’t lucky enough to be born into. Hypocrite.
posted by A S C on January 10th, 2005 at 7:44 amThe Liberty Inn was way better that the Star Bar. But which one smelled more like piss is a toss up.
posted by yd on January 10th, 2005 at 8:49 amBy his standards, I think Sandy will find that there is a great little town in Michigan that is sadly UNDERRATED– Highland Park, MI! Unless he is already squatting in one of its burned out houses, which incidentally he believes was the inspiration for at least three songs by the Temptations.
posted by personality on January 10th, 2005 at 10:38 amWow, people here get testy when the weather gets cold . . .
posted by Nick on January 10th, 2005 at 11:34 amWhat could be cooler than a pasty, bloated Elvis impersonator? I mean, I don’t know if any of us could top that.
posted by Dave on January 10th, 2005 at 11:44 amAnn Arbor: The Mafia Made Us Cool (Back Then)
posted by Matt on January 10th, 2005 at 12:49 pmIf the Mob had anything to do with Ann Arbor at all, there would be a few decent Italian restaurants in town. For proof, look at New Jersey. You can go a block without finding an Italian restaurant.
D’Amatos is not Italian. No decent Italian would serve veal cutlet in raspberry sauce. Gratzi is not Italian. They serve raviolu stuffed with squash. Argiero’s is Italian, except their veal cutlet is tough. But the bolognese sauce is great.
posted by JennyD on January 10th, 2005 at 2:20 pmWhat’s wrong with a pasty? Except that you can’t find a decent one south of Bay City…:)
As for the mob and Italian restaurants, maybe they wanted to hide that they really owned Ann Arbor. Or maybe it’s the German version of the Mafia that runs Ann Arbor (since there are some good German restaurants).
posted by Kozzie on January 10th, 2005 at 3:55 pmThe Mafia (however defined) is orders of magnitude short of having enough financial muscle to singlehandedly drive up Ann Arbor real estate prices.
Paranoia and conspiracy theories are almost always wrong. They sound the same, year in and year out, even as the identity of the supposed sinister force changes. Their appeal is to emotion, not logic.
Yup, maybe one time in 100, it turns out that the paranoids were right, and there was a conspiracy. That doesn’t justify swallowing the other 99 stories.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 10th, 2005 at 4:08 pmMmmm, pasties. Bay City is the only thing I miss about living in Midland.
posted by Dave on January 10th, 2005 at 4:45 pmWhat? Are you saying the mafia didn’t drive up real estate prices in a town with a large, prestigious university? Why the heck else would anyone pay big bucks to live there? It is SO overrated.
posted by personality on January 10th, 2005 at 6:34 pmThe Purple Gang used to hide out in Chelsea. Sadly, they didn’t drive up real estate prices or even start a decent delicatessen.
Let’s get back on track, here, people–our kind host has offered us a chance to design a logo for our fair city. Well, your fair city. Suggestion: the other day, I witnessed a (heinously expensive) Bichon Frise–with red head ribbon–being wheeled, for an airing, in an urban-assault-type mega-stroller. Slap on a $49.95 tail mitten from Dogma Catman Too (hand-knit with organic hand-spun hand-dyed yarns from fair-trade Guatemalan tail-mitten knitters) and we might have a start on this logo thing.
posted by Laura on January 10th, 2005 at 9:11 pmI agree with Laura, I’d like to hear more ideas, but I can’t help myself but to comment on this post particle, “I’m sorry you missed out on the “good old days”, but the Radical chic was phony then and the “trendy” chic is phony now.” Anything can be anything to anybody. It’s personal, not something that can be gauged by another. An object, idea, city, event, music group may be a bunch of phony balony to you, but it might be truth to another.
posted by petunia on January 11th, 2005 at 11:58 amProof that postmondernism is alive and well in AA.
posted by Anna on January 11th, 2005 at 12:59 pmMake that a blue head ribbon and maize tail mitten and you’ve got yourself a winner.
posted by personality on January 11th, 2005 at 2:39 pm“Where ‘Killing People = Surrealism’?”
In the METRO TIMES last week, there was a story on some guy who used to hang out with John “The Mahatma” Sinclair in ****THE SIXTIES**** and who was recently arrested in British Columbia, of all places, for holding up a Toys ‘R’ Us. Sinclair commented on the arrest by saying that the guy was always into surrealism, and what “meaning” his robbery attempt might have. I guess it would have been more surrealist if people had actually been killed, and knowing Sinclair’s status in Ann Arbor, the above motto would make a lot of sense (although it’s not very catchy–or, um, good).
posted by Lazaro on January 11th, 2005 at 4:32 pmI’ve seen that dog-in-stroller. Took at least 4 blocks before I could breathe well enough to tell my kids what I was laughing at. I was laughing just that much harder because just moments before, I saw a man in a tan suit get into a tan Mercedes, the -exact- tan color of his suit. Mafia? Hmmmm… perhaps not in a Merc?
posted by Erin on January 11th, 2005 at 8:42 pmThank you, Erin–I thought I was hallucinating.
posted by Laura on January 11th, 2005 at 10:32 pmJennyD,
posted by D-dog on January 12th, 2005 at 9:44 amI agree that the Italian in Ann Arbor sucks, but you are wrong about the squash-stuffed ravioli. It’s actually quite common in the northern area of Italy known as Modena.
Dog in stroller? Poor thing. Dogs should be walked not rolled. How does it get any exercise?
You’re surprised that one of the 60’s folks is robbery? Given their commie roots and all?
Here’s a motto for Ann Arbor:
“Ann Arbor, where the universe ends at my face.”
Stupid question: What the heck is the deal with all these shoes dangling from power lines?
posted by Kozzie on January 12th, 2005 at 10:34 amD-dog, I married into a Southern Italian family and have been tainted by their views on cuisine. I apologize for my ignorance about Northern Italian cuisine, and appreciate the pointers. Plus I will venture immediately for said ravioli.
BTW, I make a great linguini and white clam sauce. Also, a red cream sauce with proscuitto over farfalle.
posted by JennyD on January 12th, 2005 at 3:27 pmmy favorite ann arbor motto is “Ann Arbor, 20 square miles surrounded by reality”
posted by Just a Voice on January 15th, 2005 at 9:43 pmreality, or Republicans? There’s a hell of a difference nowadays.
posted by Matt on January 16th, 2005 at 10:56 pmI’ll bet the “Star Bar” on Main Street is what became “Joe’s Star Lounge” renovated by Joe Tiboni, and haunted by the ghosts of The Replacements and REM, who played there back when nobody knew who they were.
posted by .:DataWhat:.? on January 17th, 2005 at 9:03 amYep. I wonder what Triboni’s up to these days. I see him around, but the last music gig I remember him having was booking the Gypsy Cafe (which was yet another venue that came so close to being viable, then died under a blur of cocaine…)
posted by js on January 17th, 2005 at 6:58 pm