That C&C Music Factory Song Was Set Here Too
The watchword for writers seeking to capture the essence of A2 seems to be “sweaty,” if you go by this Daily column on fiction with an Ann Arbor backdrop. Author Bharati Mukherjee depicts our town as “an equal parts hot-sweat sexy academic wonderland,” while a character in a Dean Bakopoulos novel counsels, “Do not, do fucking not … under any circumstances, fall in love with a woman in Ann Arbor,” warning of “warm narrow beds that smell of beer and salt and sweat.”
No offense, but this is rather thin material. I have a copy of that “Writing Ann Arbor” anthology, but I haven’t really delved into it. Maybe there’s a better adjective that will emerge from there!
FWIW, I was unmoved by “Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon.” Bakopoulos’s descriptive abilities were not sufficient to make me feel all that Ann Arbor sweat.
posted by Dave on November 9th, 2007 at 5:34 pmAnn Arbor has always been a hotbed of hot beds.
posted by David Cahill on November 10th, 2007 at 11:27 amromantisise ann arbor (in lit.?) not really that bad an idea. but why look to other’s to do it for you? it’s easy. it’s only a frame of mind. and a good one at that. Cheers to those who try! Maybe Dave (see above) should try to inspire someone, anyone, to do something. Anything!
Ann Arbor is indeed a hotbed of hot beds, for those who choose it to be.
posted by daniel on November 10th, 2007 at 12:07 pmI came recently upon another great and thought provoking literary reference to A2. It is from the poet Donald Hall, the former poetry editor at the Paris Review– who, representative of that journal’s perennial editorial wisdom, passed repeatedly on the young Allen Ginsburg. This is an excerpt for the delectation of those who are not familiar. The poem, called “Eating the Pig”, is ca. 1975-1978.
Twelve people, most of us strangers, stand in a room
in Ann Arbor ….
How bizarre, this raw apple clenched
in a cooked face! Then I see his eyes,
his eyes cramped shut ….
they gutted the pig and stuffed him,
and roasted him five hours, basting the long body.
Then a young woman cuts off his head.
….With sudden enthusiasm we dismantle the pig,
we wrench his trotters off, we twist them
at shoulder and hip….
In ten minutes, the destruction is total.
….His intact head
swivels around, to view the landscape of the body
as if in dismay.
…. twelve of us, in our different skins, older and younger,
opened your skin together
and tore your body apart, and took it
into our bodies.
…………….
posted by ggb on November 12th, 2007 at 2:17 amI don’t know about you, but I took this to be a great metaphor.
HOORAY! For the poem.
posted by Nitro on November 12th, 2007 at 11:20 amFrom Anne Sexton’s “Transformations”, “Rapunzel”:
Let your dress fall down your shoulder,
posted by Bruce Fields on November 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pmcome touch a copy of you
for I am at the mercy of rain,
for I have left the three Christs of Ypsilanti,
for I have left the long naps of Ann Arbor
and the church spires have turned to stumps.
Frank Black:
I’m just another ten percenter
My mind is like an ocean
My mind is like an ocean
I’m hanging in the harbor
I’m just drifting, letting out the line
I’m letting out the drifting line
I’m trying to be a guy
Who’s hailing from Ann Arbor
Making jerk
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on November 12th, 2007 at 12:11 pmGetting perk
And it’s good
Yeah I would
I’m a jerk!
the sweat’s where all the rent goes!
posted by byproxy on November 13th, 2007 at 2:13 amThere once was a man from Ann Arbor
That never went to a barber
He had no clue
that it was not 72
But he could never venture farther.
posted by Ypsidweller on November 14th, 2007 at 10:18 pmThis has absolutely no relevance to the current discussion, but I figured one of this blogs astute readers might be able to answer an AA trivia question. Does anyone know which house Robert McNamara lived at in AA while he was working at Ford?
posted by MDS on November 24th, 2007 at 12:27 amyeah! a feeble attempt at cultural significance. ann arbor is about as significant as a hamsters droppings. why not give up and call it University-ville or Wolverine. Wolverine, I like that.
posted by green-meany on November 29th, 2007 at 12:37 pmI am deeply offended by the above senseless attack on hamsters. In protest I wrote the following poem:
When a hamster drops its load
an Ann Arbor, it makes more sound
than thirty thousand Amazonian hardwoods
a hurricane off Nunavut
fifty clubbed seals
a Malaysian sewing room
a Bowery whimper on cardboard.
The student-keeper whispers:
posted by ggb on November 29th, 2007 at 4:24 pmshould I be offended
should the hamsters of Ann Arbor organize
dare I dispose of shaved cedar?
Robert MacNamara - Check out the old Polk Directories in the Library - it was somewhere in Ann Arbor Hills.
posted by from a REAL oldie on November 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pmHere is a spy novel from 1940 that takes place in a barely-disguised Ann Arbor:
“The Dark Tunnel” by Ross MacDonald
It’s full of chase scenes, including in the steam tunnels that are no longer available as sheltered short cuts between campus buildings. The building now housing “The Lord Fox” restaurant figures as well — it was sort of a dive.
This was his first novel before he was famous (and originally published under a different name).
I assume any respectable and comprehensive list would have it, but I don’t see it mentioned here.
posted by Mae on December 2nd, 2007 at 10:22 pmWhere are the new posts from aaio?
Aaauuugghh!
David Boyle
posted by AAIO Is Overmissing on December 3rd, 2007 at 10:21 pmMae- catch 22 - it is now!
(hey- now we’re respectable and comprehensive!)
posted by AAIO disrespected? on December 4th, 2007 at 12:10 pmDear AAIO,
Come back, we miss you.
Sincerely,
A leaderless and discontented public (A.L.D.P.)
posted by MDS on December 5th, 2007 at 1:06 pmAAIO - Come back!
posted by Anonymous on December 5th, 2007 at 2:35 pmI missed you all too!
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 6th, 2007 at 12:47 pmWhy is it beer and sweat and not wine and sweat?
Whenever I wake up in one of those apartments it’s always some shitty chianti.
posted by Aeranis on December 20th, 2007 at 4:57 am