Or Roger (Fraser) and Me
“Is it just us, or does it seem that you can hardly pick up a national magazine or a newspaper without reading something about Ann Arbor?” (It’s probably just him, or otherwise we wouldn’t be posting about this.) “What’s so special about Ann Arbor? Why does it seem to be a focal point for so many fascinating people and cultural phenomena?” That’s what the prospective producer of a new A2-themed documentary, covered in Jo Mathis’ column today, wants to know, and he wants to talk to you in his efforts to make the film a “charmingly offbeat entry that the Telluride judges will adore.” Modeled after “Fast, Cheap and Out of Control,” the project is tentatively titled “Hypercubes, Humvees, and Hippie Hash.” But it’s not too late to go with “Slow, Expensive and Over-Extolled”!
i am supremely confident this will help ann arbor lose the “overrated” tag…
posted by nyambani yangu on February 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pmBy creating a massive national backlash to A2 as Athens on the Huron? Let’s hope!
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 19th, 2008 at 1:22 pmHe should really bow to destiny’s yoke and stuff the soundtrack with lots of pre-”Face to Face” Kinks and the eponymous “Velvet Underground” album, so it’ll sound like “Royal Tenenbaums” or “Juno.” Maybe Tally Hall too, I suppose.
posted by Lazaro on February 19th, 2008 at 1:33 pmAnd what of those celebs he so nonchalantly toots his own horn over, do they have to go to Peterborough for the interview?
posted by abc on February 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pmAlliteration is part of the key to AA’s popularity, and I may not be kidding, either; note the “Hyper…” etc. film tentative title, filled with its own multiple-H alliteration. . .
Ann Arbor, Tree Town, whatever: an alliterative town name (even Newport News) is automatically magical, so to speak. (I’m not sure what Ho-Ho-Kus in New Jersey counts as, but I don’t know if “magical” is the right description)…
posted by David Boyle on February 19th, 2008 at 7:57 pmThe Kinks? Velvet Underground? I’ll tell you who must be crapping himself with anticipation over royalty possibilities…The “A Squared Environmental Blues” guy, that’s who.
Can’t be green if we ain’t go no stream…We’ve been singing that one since it hit the Youtube. Now that’s a soundtrack.
posted by Sarah on February 20th, 2008 at 7:35 amRe: Alliteration
Looks like someone’s Asperger’s is acting up again.
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on February 20th, 2008 at 12:36 pm“Sloppy cover-up job,” as a chorus, simply does not scan well. But “can’t be green if we got no stream”? Total earworm. I still get that one running through my head too!
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 20th, 2008 at 12:56 pmY’know, once you move out of Ann Arbor, you see Ann Arbor a lot less in articles.
Also, I got an Ann Arbor moment for him—there was some actress who’s on a couple Law and Orders, specifically one where she plays a 20-something girl who pretends to be in high school in order to manipulate a guy, and ends up killing another teacher who finds out. She’s in an issue of Hometown Girls, one of our fine (discontinued) magazines, posing naked next to the U-M sign on the Diag, and also next to an Ann Arbor cop car, and next to the Ann Arbor News building.
posted by js on February 20th, 2008 at 5:32 pmamusingly, I was in their last doc in 1996, ha-ha.
posted by (former) OFWinsurgent on February 20th, 2008 at 10:17 pmUm, I moved the hell away from Ann Arbor some years ago, and from my present wonderful home across the river from D.C., I read a fair number of national magazines, newspapers, etc. And how often do I read about Ann Arbor, or see it mentioned on television?
How about NEVER??
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Ann Arbor is a total and complete nonentity.
posted by Bender on February 26th, 2008 at 1:42 amGood for Bender. Better for me. Since A2 is such a nonentity, and a total and complete one at that, maybe we won’t need to build any more mondo concretos. Do us a favor and continue to tell everyone how nonentical Ann Arbor is.
I hope he/she enjoys that lovely home across the river from DC as well as the overcrowding, high cost of living, dreadful summer heat, traffic, crime and the constant drone of Beltway politics in and around DC.
With a coat of new snow, my backyard looks lovely today.
posted by mucho gusto on February 26th, 2008 at 10:35 amAnn Arbor? That’s in Wisconsin right? I love their cheese.
posted by leighton on March 3rd, 2008 at 9:11 amI live on the west coast and don’t read/hear too much about AA out here. However, I was watching the documentary ‘Grass’ a couple of nights ago and they of course mentioned the AA leading the movement for the decriminalization of pot. I recall many fine days at the Hash Bash. Is it still going on? Probably not the same as in those halcyon days.
posted by Westy on April 1st, 2008 at 8:14 pm