ann arbor is overrated.

Overheated A2 rhetoric strikes again! The sale of one of the city’s golf courses, should such a thing ever happen, would be “lethal for the residents and golfers of Ann Arbor,” writes golf course architect William Newcomb. “To sell off a corner of the golf course is morally corrupt and philosophically bankrupt … If the city sells even the smallest piece of park, then all that we value in Ann Arbor is lost.” We only regret that Newcomb has but one Other Voices column to offer for his city.

Michigan Radio’s fall pledge drive is over, but we still have the enduring memory of Jennifer Guerra imploring her listeners to donate by featuring a short voiceover by a young woman named Britten who stated her title as “creative inspirational doer.” Now you can read all about her found-object work on Michigan Radio’s website. Apparently she’s a good friend of the Observer’s Vivienne Armentrout. “Of course not everyone is a creative inspirational doer, like Britten Stringwell. But that doesn’t mean you can’t reduce, reuse and recycle.” Some of us are reactive inspiration-killing bloggers, and we still manage to reduce and recycle posts.

A Duke Chronicle columnist defends his university’s setting:

Durham is not and will never be a college town like Chapel Hill. I’m not convinced that’s a bad thing.

Chapel Hill looks an awful lot like Ann Arbor, Mich., to me.

A few quick thoughts on our return from fall break:

• “My nice, solid building facade has become a mess of shards of color from one corner to the other,” writes Dale about his problems with urban-planning software tool Sketchup. Well, that’s what happens when you prioritize solid buildings over green space in your urban design! Without a linear park in which to expand, the creative energy of the community explodes into smithereens of color fragments. (We’re angling for a job writing copy for the Friends of the Greenway.)
• Does anyone know why all those Court TV and ABC trucks have been camped outside of the Washtenaw County buildings for the last couple days? Are they there to cover county clerk Larry Kestenbaum’s latest instant-runoff voting proposal?
• Today’s Daily carries a story about an attempt to close loopholes in the early-lease-pressure ordinance. Landlord Fred Gruber offers his thoughts: “It really doesn’t matter because the law itself is based on a flawed premise.” This is the same Fred Gruber who “jumped up and screamed” at an MSA meeting about some property management websites, until councilmember Wendy Woods “had to calm him down.” (Does anyone think that Woods’ replacement Mike Anglin would be up to that task?)

WQKL, “Ann Arbor’s 107.1,” is heartbreakingly close to being a great radio station. You hear three to four songs in a row of 80’s New Wave (The Smiths, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads) interspersed with the Shins and Spoon. Commercial radio pop bliss — some claim to prefer less-hyped local artists, but then some also claim to prefer a dessert of an unadorned pear to creme brulee. (107.1 does have a local music show, although we haven’t listened to it much.) But then the next five songs are all cut out of the same bland earnest acoustic John Mayer/Jack Johnson pap mold, and you start to forget why you’re listening to this in the first place.

We were listening last week when they played what was likely the single best exemplar of the worst aspects of this station: a soulful, sensitive acoustic version of Men at Work’s Down Under, from lead singer Colin Hay’s solo album Man @ Work.

The crowd that turns out for M-Flicks is a little too coarse for the sensibilities of Daily writer Elie Zwiebel. The mostly-student audience members cheer violent movies, “continually engag[ing] in a participatory celebration of brutality … It’s not as if we are isolated from this base and vulgar bloodlust. These are our peers who are cheering at the gushing of blood and clapping at death.” Not only that, but we hear that some of them even spend their weekends at an arena called “the Big House” where they cheer the brutal spectacle of young men attacking each other over the skin of a pig.

Thirty travel journalists are about to embark on a tour of A2 in a quest to get more “fam” with the area (that’s “familiarization,” natch. Obvs!) “Their outlets include AAA Magazine, as well as niche products that cover golf, food and the arts,” reports Ann Arbor Business Review. Golf? Don’t tell them about the Huron Hills debacle! The overarching theme of the tour, though, is — brace yourselves — A2’s “big city amenities wrapped up in a small city.”

Planning the tour was enjoyable for the Convention and Visitors Bureau because “it offered CVB staff the chance to look at the area through the eyes of the writers unfamiliar with Ann Arbor.” Yes, we also enjoy imagining that we’ve never heard of A2.