http://arborweb.com/ Ann Arbor online: news and reference community resource, with the area's best events calendar, Ann Arbor Observer City Guide, comprehensive information on housing, restaurants, government, education, and more, and free classified ads. en-us 2009 Ann Arbor Observer. All Rights Reserved. http://arborweb.com/articles/wenk_s_wines.html Obscured by the greeting cards, candy, and convenience items at Wenk's Prescription Shop is a little known but carefully selected collection of wine. The space is tight. Bottles are displayed upright in deep shelves, around a single display table, or in open boxes on the floor. Almost all carry a sm... Robert Blackburn Community http://arborweb.com/articles/delius_and_graewe.html Many years ago, New Yorker jazz writer Whitney Balliett wrote that jazz was "the sound of surprise," but in much of today's mainstream this phrase has become a bit moldy, as tradition and homage have taken the place of making it new. Yet improvised music continues to thrive in infinite variet... Piotr Michalowski Culture http://arborweb.com/articles/park_shoe_repair_fills_a_niche.html When Kay Kendall retired last year, she sold her shoe repair shop on North Fourth Avenue to Todd Roberts and Duane Thomas. We don't cover service businesses in this column, so we didn't write about it. But now we can: Roberts and Thomas have expanded Park Shoe Repair into retail by selling wo... Sally Mitani Marketplace http://arborweb.com/articles/sex_offender_shuffle.html When they moved to Glacier Hills, Henry Vander Kaay and his wife, Doretha, since deceased, gave their home next to Eberwhite Woods to the Salvation Army. Last year, the church put it up for sale, planning to use the money to provide more scholarships to its summer camps. Things seemed to be going we... Vickie Elmer News http://arborweb.com/articles/_i_escanaba__i_.html As Jeff Daniels burrows back in U.P. time, his titles get shorter. Simply titled Escanaba, the third of the trilogy that began with Escanaba in da Moonlight and was prequeled a few years ago by Escanaba in Love, this pre-prequel takes place in 1922 and lays down the first princi... Sally Mitani Culture http://arborweb.com/articles/blast_from_the_past.html It's not easy to find the office of ClassCreator.com on Packard. "We've been too busy to put up a sign," explains founder and CEO Brad Switzer. A 1986 Pioneer High grad, Switzer was asked to do a pro-bono website for his class's twenty-year reunion--and almost immediately recognized the potential of... Madeline Strong Diehl Community http://arborweb.com/articles/running_fit_s_new_hq.html The new headquarters of Running Fit on Jackson Road, which serves as both retail store and warehouse space, is the former Church of the Nazarene. That seems entirely fitting. For Randy Step running is a religion, and the bouncy, skin-and-bones Step is an evangelistic preacher. Step, fifty-th... Sally Mitani Marketplace http://arborweb.com/articles/the_new_black.html In food fashion, local is the new black. Chef Brandon Johns put his locovore stamp on Vinology before leaving to open his own uber-local restaurant, the Grange Kitchen & Bar, last summer. Since then, Vinology has been anxious to emphasize that it, too, still uses a lot of local ingredients. On a... Katie Whitney Marketplace http://arborweb.com/articles/trophy_csi.html On the evening of November 19, 1931, a Cadillac pulled up to the two-level gas station on Washtenaw (today home to Bearclaw Coffee). According to the Michigan Daily, the driver and passengers had obscured their faces with "dark goggles" and "hats pulled down over their eyes." They rolled a fi... Greg Dooley Community http://arborweb.com/articles/berliner_philharmoniker.html If you want to start a fight among classical music fans, ask them: "Who's the best orchestra in the world?' Nationalists will proudly point to the great American orchestras--the grand symphonies of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the brash bands of Cleveland and Chicago, or the sophisticated en... James Leonard Culture