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Grex > Agora46 > #75: Ann Arbor Art Fairs, they're baack! | |
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| 25 new of 82 responses total. |
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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tod
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response 67 of 82:
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Jul 18 20:19 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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dcat
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response 68 of 82:
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Jul 18 21:45 UTC 2003 |
resp:67 - No.
The *good* guide to the Art Fairs is produced by the local monthly magazine
Ann Arbor Observer. Don't think the Ann Arbor News does much more than a map
in one section.
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other
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response 69 of 82:
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Jul 18 22:42 UTC 2003 |
Jon, you work for the AAAC?
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dcat
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response 70 of 82:
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Jul 18 23:04 UTC 2003 |
I've been volunteering for AAAC and the Street Art Fair ("the Original") at
information booths this week, but I don't otherwise work for either group.
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gelinas
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response 71 of 82:
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Jul 19 04:51 UTC 2003 |
I usually visit only the one fair. I like it's new location. Unfortunately,
other committments left me time for only one relatively quick circuit on
Wednesday. I liked what I saw, but nothing specific, other than Stephen Zeh's
baskets, comes to mind right now.
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janc
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response 72 of 82:
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Jul 19 04:51 UTC 2003 |
In previous years the Observer Guide has been the "Official" guide. I gather
some of the Observer people were annoyed that that designation had been given
to the Free Press without even consulting the Observer. The Observer went
ahead and did a nice guide anyway, but I wonder if the long article in the
front about the aging of the Art Fairs and the decline in attendence isn't
a small indication of annoyance. Hey, if they aren't official, they don't
have to be nice.
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krj
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response 73 of 82:
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Jul 19 15:24 UTC 2003 |
Concur with Scott in resp:65 :: it seems like the main official stages
are all gone, or at least moved somewhere I haven't found them.
Haven't found any music more ambitious than Mr. B's boogie-woogie piano.
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scott
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response 74 of 82:
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Jul 19 16:51 UTC 2003 |
I found myself more interested this morning, so I spent a couple hours between
Main & State streets. Aside from the usual Ecuadoran guys at Liberty &
Division there was almost nothing - a couple random guys with electronic
pianos in a couple of spots. Never did see anything which looked like a
stage.
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dcat
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response 75 of 82:
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Jul 19 19:57 UTC 2003 |
resp:73 - as far as I'm aware, there are only four performance areas
besides Mr B & a "barefoot violinist" at South U & Forest: WEMU Stage, @ Church
& Willard; South U & Tappan; South U & East U; and Ingalls Mall a bit below
Washington. Not sure if there was anything at Liberty Plaza as well. Also not
sure by how much that's less than previously --- has there ever been a stage
downtown? I remember a clown, but that's it.
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scott
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response 76 of 82:
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Jul 19 21:35 UTC 2003 |
Used to be a big stage at Liberty Plaza, another at State & Washington, and
yet another at Liberty (or maybe Washington) & Ashley. An actual stage, a
PA system, bands, etc. And that's only what we had recently. Back around
1980 there was a really cool stage on the diag too. Oh, and within 5 years
ago there was music at State & Thompson, too.
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dcat
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response 77 of 82:
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Jul 19 22:15 UTC 2003 |
Would've been Liberty at Ashley, as this is the first year there's anything
anywhere on Washington. Was that beyond the food court, or replaced by it?
I didn't make it that far down Liberty this year.
Not sure what you mean by State & Thompson, but those streets don't intersect.
Liberty & Thompson? That'd be too close to Liberty Plaza. . .
Did notice that only WEMU seemed to have a real stage. Not sure what the deal
is. Someone suggested the amount of construction in the area, but I'm curious
if the combination of the sluggish economy & the cost of the lawsuits btwn
Street Art Fair & South U Area Assoc. had anything to do with it . . . .
(i.e., cutting down on their ability to pay artists to perform, to rent
equipment, etc.)
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scott
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response 78 of 82:
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Jul 20 00:05 UTC 2003 |
Oops, Liberty & Thompson. Usually just a tent with a steel band.
The Liberty & Ashley stage was down by Ashley, sort of capping off the food
court.
Used to be you'd always hear music, sometimes from a couple different
directions at once.
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gelinas
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response 79 of 82:
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Jul 20 00:54 UTC 2003 |
Kleefeld was playing his piano, or his CDs, behind the Sailing Club booth on
Liberty. A harpist was three booths east of the Pioneer Water Polo drink
booth. I heard music from the sunken garden at Liberty and Division, but I
didn't investigate closely when walking that area.
Jeremy Kittel was fiddling on Ingalls Mall while I was in that area on
Wednesday.
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dcat
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response 80 of 82:
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Jul 20 01:02 UTC 2003 |
Al Hill was playing an electric piano keyboard thing at South & East U at 5ish
this afternoon. Don't know if he'd been there all week.
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