Friday, June 22, 2018

Pub Reading of She Kills Monsters this Sunday at Conor O'Neills

AADL's summer Pub Reading Series continues this Sunday at Conor O'Neills. This month is a staged reading of Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters. The play tells the story of a woman who's grieving her little sister's death and happens upon her sister's D&D module. It's a fun play with a lot of 90's nostalgia and D&D geek culture references and most of the story takes place inside of a D&D game. In a departure from previous pub readings, there will be limited costumes and props. But be warned, the room where the pub reading series takes place can get pretty hot, so dress accordingly.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: June 18, 2018

Tonight at 7:00 pm we've got a #a2council meeting. Here's the agenda. Starting things off is a thick 27 item Consent Agenda. Highlights include 6 street closures ranging from the 4th of July Parade to UM home football games.

There are 4 public hearings, but I am only going to mention 3 of them. PH-2 is on the Fraternity/Sorority rezoning that has been at a few other meetings. PH-3 is on a change to water and sewer rates. PH-4 is on the site plan for 1101 South University. This is the site of the South University Espresso Royale and there is a proposal to build a 5 story building there.

The item I am most interested in is C-1, the Flag and Seal ordinance. This ordinance would require people who want to use the flag or seal of the city to get permission from the city first. I wonder if this is in response to a real issue or if it's a preemptive strike, so to speak. Part of the text of the ordnance reads:

The use of the city seal or city flag by any person for the following, or for any use not expressly approved or authorized by this chapter, is prohibited:

...

(2) Except expressly provided by this chapter, in connection with any advertisement or promotion for any product, business, organization or service whether offered for sale, profit, or without charge; (3) On any written or printed materials that are not official city publications, including proposals or other materials that are submitted to the city for any purpose;

...

This seems like a pretty broad restriction on the use of public images and I wonder whether it would stand up in court. Also, I again wonder if this is really needed.

Gentle reader, what are you most looking forward to at tonight's #a2council meeting? We are well into campaign season so there may be some political fireworks. Make sure you tune in tonight at 7 to watch CTN's live stream and follow the blow-by-blow action on #a2council hashtag on Twitter.

Friday, June 15, 2018

Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival this weekend at AADL

Gentle reader, you that we hear at Damn Arbor HQ love comics. As such, we are very excited for the Comic Arts Festival at the Downtown Branch of the AADL this Saturday and Sunday. The event kicks off at 11 am tomorrow with "Iron Cartoonist" think Iron Chef but with comic artists competing in various drawing challenges. There are other great events including a screen printing workshop and a Drawbstacle Course. Of course, there will be tons of artists and signings.

Monday, June 4, 2018

Ann Arbor City Council Preview, June 4th 2018

Today is the first #a2council meeting of June. There are a couple of big items on the agenda. First, DS-1, is a resolution to buy back the Y Lot from Dennis Dahlmann for $5.5 million. The extra million and change is to settle Dahlmann's lawsuit against the city. So we may move to the next phase of the Y Lot. The second big items is the zoning code refactoring, ZORO. B-1 is the second reading of this ordinance, which passed its first reading back in April. There will also be a public hearing (PH-1) on this ordinance.

Also on the docket for tonight is a pretty thicc consent agenda with 23 different items. My favorite item is CA-16, which covers bulk chemical purchases for the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Also on the agenda B-3/PH-3 is a rezoning of a portion of the Briarwood parking lot from Parking to C2B (Business Services District). So we may see some infill coming to our local mall's parking lot. We touched on this a bit last month.

Gentle reader, what are you most looking forward to at tonight's #a2council meeting? We are well into campaign season so there may be some political fireworks. Make sure you tune in tonight at 7 to watch CTN's live stream and follow the blow-by-blow action on #a2council hashtag on Twitter.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Normal Park Yard Sale this Saturday

Tomorrow is the first Saturday in June, which means it's time for the annual Normal Park Neighborhood Association Yard Sale. This year's yard sale will feature at least 89 different homes hosting sales. This is, beyond a doubt, Washtenaw County's best garage sale event of the year. If you're cruising for deals tomorrow, you may even see me and EJ. Check out the map below: