Coffee Excursions

Flag: Astro Coffee; Garage Doors; Commonwealth

Despite my near-constant shilling for Comet Coffee, I do occasionally drink coffee at other establishments. Even in Ann Arbor! I'd recommend the colada at Frita Batidos or Zingerman's Dirty Sheed, for example.

Outside of A2, there are a couple of new(ish) coffee places well worth your time. In Birmingham, not too far from where my parents live, Commonwealth has completely transformed the social environment. It's a place to seen and be seen for the creative, hipster, and leisure classes, complete with garage doors transforming the interior space into a sort of conservatory. The food's great, too. Every time I'm in Oakland County, I make sure to stop by.

Astro Coffee, located just down the the block from Slows BBQ in Corktown, opened over the summer to a great deal of press. Two of my friends from Comet now work there, and I stopped in a few weeks ago. It's a beautiful space with lots of exposed brick, a giant chalkboard for a menu, and a communal table in the back. They've been doing a brisk business and apparently there are already regulars. I'll be working in Detroit one day a week during the fall, and am definitely looking forward to grabbing a drink on the way in from A2.

The Pop Project, The Kickstand Band, and Swimsuit TONIGHT at U of M Art Museum

According to Suburban Sprawl, The Pop Project, The Kickstand Band, and Swimsuit are all playing at the U of M Art Museum tonight. I had the chance to see Swimsuit a few months ago and it was totally worth it. Do a little end-of-summer dancing to some fun bands!

Doors are at 7 PM; all ages and it appears to be free. Here's a Swimsuit video to get you PUMPED:

SWIMSUIT / Sunlight from Daniel Vocino on Vimeo.

Charlie Slick show tomorrow

Charlie Slick and Thunda Clap are playing a show tomorrow at Mark's Carts. It's at 7 pm and it's free. Hope to see you there.

Previously:

There will be spin art

Kodama stencil

Anyone know where this stencil is located?

Upstairs at R. Hirt Jr. Co.

As one of the stores framing Detroit's Eastern Market, R. Hirt Jr. Co. is teeming with customers on Saturday mornings. Run-off from the farmer's market, perhaps weary of all the vegetables outside, these shoppers wiggle around the main floor, gape at the high prices on the Haribo candy, only to, inevitably, puddle around the cheese counter by the door, where the staff will slice samples as the clientele pretends to be torn between two kinds they'd never, before the French twisted around the salesgirl's tongue, heard of before.

Look what they're missing upstairs.

That's right: musical theater space robots.

What to expect from the Onion

Ann Arbor is about to join a group of 12 elite cities that have print editions of the Onion, America's Finest News Source. In your face San Francisco! What can we expect from this new weekly paper? Damn Arbor sent our finest team of investigators across the country to collect other city's print editions of the Onion. We managed to get our grubby little paws on a copy of the Washington D.C. edition from the week of July 28 and the Austin, TX edition from August 4 of this year. Both cities' editions were similar, starting with a "news" section that was almost entirely stuff that cold be found on the Onion's website. There were a few bits scattered here and there that are unique to the print edition: weather, real estate, TV highlights, etc. After a brief sports section and standard A.V. Club fare, the real difference between the online edition of the Onion and the print editions can be seen. The local A.V. Club is filled with local movie and concert listings and reviews. There is also a crossword puzzle and the comic Red Meat. All in all I am pretty excited about the Ann Arbor's edition of the Onion. The only question that remains is what the addition of this national satire chain will mean for our locally produced satire.

Move-in has begun at Mary Markley.

Fraser's Pub

As an Ann Arbor resident for nearly two decades, I'm embarrassed to admit that until last week, I had not been to Fraser's Pub. I'm glad I finally took the time to check it out. Fraser's is pretty decent neighborhood pub with decent food and a respectable selection of beers. Definitely worth the trip.

On a side note the bimodal distribution of Fraser's Yelp reviews is interesting. Looks like you either love it, or think it's really middle of the road:

One man's multi-modal transit hub is another man's parking structure

Urban planning student and Damn Arbor contributor Joel Batterman has an informative opinion piece about the Fuller Road Station over on the Com. From the article:

More than two dozen U-M faculty, including a past dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, have petitioned President Coleman to consider this course of action. Four decks of concrete for cars doesn’t advance U-M’s sustainability mission, and the cost of the project works out to about $44,000 per parking space, roughly four years’ undergraduate tuition. With the same total sum, U-M could boost bus service, provide local funds for a train station, and retain more to spend on things like financial aid.
A strategy of perpetual parking expansion may have made sense in the Interstate era. It doesn’t make sense today, from the perspective of economics or ecology. By choosing cheaper, less polluting, and more effective alternatives, U-M has a chance to demonstrate the “Michigan Difference” and renew its commitment to be “leaders and best.”

It's really great to hear an urban planning take on some of our local issues.

Helicopter tour of Ann Arbor

Really it's just a helicopter tour of Ann Arbor until 2:30 or so. Then it's a tour of major construction projects in Southeast Michigan. Hope you brought your hardhats.

"View From the Top" Helicopter Tour from Specs Howard TV on Vimeo.