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Grex > Agora46 > #75: Ann Arbor Art Fairs, they're baack! | |
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| Author |
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| 25 new of 82 responses total. |
senna
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response 42 of 82:
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Jul 13 01:51 UTC 2003 |
In fairness, while I have long enjoyed sniping at the art fair hype, it's not
at all a bad event, and it's not like local media don't hype other local
events that I actually like. I still think Ann Arbor gets a bit too much of
an inflated view about itself, but things like Art Fair just don't happen
everywhere.
And downtown is easy to avoid. Traffic hangups aren't as bad as football exit
traffic, either, and I don't exactly complain about that. :)
So what was I saying? Oh, yeah, all my whining about art fair was unfair.
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mary
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response 43 of 82:
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Jul 13 17:22 UTC 2003 |
I've made a reservation for 8ish, for the Parthenon, 5:30 p.m., this
coming Tuesday, the eve of Art Fair. If you know you're joining let me
know, here or in mail, so we end up not too over (or under) the
reservation. Thanks.
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remmers
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response 44 of 82:
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Jul 14 19:16 UTC 2003 |
I'll be there. (But you knew that.)
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remmers
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response 45 of 82:
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Jul 14 19:22 UTC 2003 |
(I've also put an announcement of this august event in the motd.)
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janc
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response 46 of 82:
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Jul 15 00:32 UTC 2003 |
Jan, Valerie, Arlo, and Kendra expect to come. That's 4ish right there.
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mary
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response 47 of 82:
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Jul 15 00:39 UTC 2003 |
Cool. I'll up the number tomorrow as I know a few more
are planning to attend.
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dcat
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response 48 of 82:
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Jul 15 01:26 UTC 2003 |
I'll come for a bit, but I'm going to 7 Samurai at the MT at 630.
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mary
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response 49 of 82:
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Jul 15 14:36 UTC 2003 |
I think we're up to 13 people who've said they are coming to
dinner. So I'll increase the reservation to 16. Oompah!
And see you there.
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krj
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response 50 of 82:
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Jul 15 18:25 UTC 2003 |
Rats, I missed the warning about this, and it's too late for me
this year.
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gelinas
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response 51 of 82:
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Jul 16 05:48 UTC 2003 |
The company and the food were good. Nice to put a face to the dcat loginid.
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mary
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response 52 of 82:
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Jul 16 11:26 UTC 2003 |
I agree. It was nice to meet your wife too.
Everyone's food looked good. Even Arlo's grilled cheese.
I was hungry. ;-)
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other
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response 53 of 82:
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Jul 16 16:54 UTC 2003 |
No complaints about the fried calamari, but Grizzly Peak does it better.
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dcat
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response 54 of 82:
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Jul 17 03:11 UTC 2003 |
Chicken/lamb meatballs were good. Good also to put a few more faces to names,
although (kip) is another grexer whom i believe i've met before (didn't you
do the OS X lecture for LUGWash last year?).
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ea
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response 55 of 82:
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Jul 17 03:37 UTC 2003 |
Sounds like i should have tried to leave work early to be there ...
maybe next year.
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dcat
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response 56 of 82:
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Jul 17 04:54 UTC 2003 |
(other) & I had to leave early to make the Seven Samurai showing at 630 at
the MT. Good movie, if a (eensy) bit long. :)
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jaklumen
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response 57 of 82:
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Jul 18 04:26 UTC 2003 |
I'd love to see it sometime-- supposedly, Liam Niesen studied it for
his role in "Phantom Menace".
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krj
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response 58 of 82:
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Jul 18 06:07 UTC 2003 |
Today I was touring Art Fair with STeve from about 2 until closing.
Grexers sighted: ea bicycling up behind us on South U, and Rob Argy
over by the spinning cube sculpture while we were having dinner.
We mostly concentrated on the Original Street Art Fair in its new
digs around Burton Tower. My initial reactions to the new site
are very positive. It's *spacious* with lots of shady spots, and
the location should handle Saturday's crowds well. The absence of
the merchants -- the new location is entirely? on the UM Campus --
makes it feel more open and less pressured, and I was having flashes
on the Carbondale Mountain Fair in Colorado, held in a city park.
There is the Neptune Fountain for a new centerpiece; there is the
Michigan League for air-conditioned retreat; we heard a carillon
concert.
What did everyone else think?
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scott
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response 59 of 82:
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Jul 18 10:18 UTC 2003 |
I just biked around the periphery, or at least tried to. I got onto the Diag
through the east side somewhere, then realized I was sort of trapped by Art
Fairs on almost every side. I finally managed to escape through the corner
of State & South U, taking the long way around to Ashley.
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mary
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response 60 of 82:
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Jul 18 11:41 UTC 2003 |
I agree with you, Ken, the new location is better. It reminds me
of my favorite fair held in State College, PA, home of Penn State.
Their fair is much smaller than ours but with some incredible art.
It's held on a long wide pedestrian way lined with huge old oak
trees. Lots of shade, no firepits with sausages or violinists
playing muzak at the limits of their speaker's volume.
Maybe it's age, maybe it's the new larger size, but our fair
looks tacky to me this year.
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janc
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response 61 of 82:
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Jul 18 14:17 UTC 2003 |
Yeah, I like the new location of the Original Fair - I just don't like it's
contents so much. It has the lowest density of stuff I like of all the fairs
I've visited. (Which isn't that many of them, actually, since seeing a lot
of the fair while totting two kids is not so easy).
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keesan
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response 62 of 82:
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Jul 18 14:47 UTC 2003 |
We liked the new location because there was a place to sit in the shade of
the bell tower in the afternoon. We sat down next to someone that Jim had
worked with 20 years ago. It took 20 minutes before they recognized each
other. Jim pointed out that you can distinguish the tourists from the townies
because the former had perfectly white shoes. This guy had shoes even dirtier
than Jim's, and a carillon concert program.
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dcat
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response 63 of 82:
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Jul 18 15:39 UTC 2003 |
The artists like the new location, too --- no merchants everywhere, it's not
as crowded, bigger walking areas, and no parking meters in/right behind their
booths.
Handful of fairgoer complaints about it being too spread out, but it's kinda
hard to get 1400 artists (not to mention half to three quarters of a million
tourists) into a smaller space. . . .
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furs
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response 64 of 82:
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Jul 18 17:39 UTC 2003 |
I wish I could be there. :(
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scott
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response 65 of 82:
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Jul 18 19:01 UTC 2003 |
I'm finding myself to be totally uninterested in checking out the Art Fair
this year, aside from bicycling around a bit yesterday (as a rule, don't get
tangled up in the crowds, so I didn't see much).
Seems like a lot of the usual stages are gone, though - I didn't see the State
& Washington stage, the Liberty & Ashly stage either.
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dcat
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response 66 of 82:
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Jul 18 20:17 UTC 2003 |
They're still working on the building at State & Washington during the day,
so they couldn't ask someone to try playing music there. They moved the AA
Art Center info booth up there, and *we've* been having trouble being heard.
Thursday they were pumping concrete up to the sixth floor or something; it
was *quite* loud.
Also, the Free Press's "official" guide to the Art Fair is absolutely
trash; they left out a bunch of information booths from the map (and left *in*
the old tram round the Fairs that hasn't run in several years), so I wouldn't
be surprised if you're looking on that and not finding stages that do, in
fact, exist.
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