Cellist Sara Page (center, right) rehearses with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp. Page is among the campers who made an exceptional effort to raise funds to attend the camp this year.
For young people who want a career in the arts, a handful of prestigious summer camps are a vital early step. Interlochen, in northern Michigan, is one of them.
Jessye Norman, Josh Groban, Norah Jones and Lorin Maazel all spent summers at Interlochen when they were younger. But with tuition ranging from $3,000 to $10,000, depending on the campers' age and discipline, does it mean that only rich kids get to follow in their footsteps? It turns out that some extra-resourceful young people are paving their own way. I went to camp to meet them.
I am Traci Currie, and I spent the first day of the 2011 Ann Arbor Street Art Fair talking to people who ventured out into the blazing sun to enjoy all sorts of art from all over the nation.
Most people mentioned the weather, while others talked about their love of art. Some talked about both.
Here are their comments along with some photos I took at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair:
Sculptor and painter Valerie Mann came up with the idea for the art show seven years ago when she was wondering how she could help people in the area who were struggling economically.
She bounced the idea off her friend Peter Bowe.
Bowe is co-owner of Saline Picture Frame Company. He says, “When you have a business in a small town there’s a lot of need people are always asking for money to sponsor an event or that sort of stuff.”
The two friends figured they knew a lot of people who made art, had a cool space (the frame store) and had the tools and materials to mat and hang works of art.
So they asked folks to donate small pieces of artwork like a sketch they’d already done, or something that wouldn’t take too much effort to produce.
In seven years, they’ve made $100,000 and all the cash has gone to Food Gatherers, a non-profit that feeds people-in-need in Washtenaw County.
It's not the post-apocalyptic competition featured in the Mel Gibson movie.
Instead of "two men enter, one man leaves" ...
It's more like "around 100 men and/or women enter, around 100 men and/or women leave... perhaps with some scrapes and bruises."
A write up on this wild, anarchic race is featured on the Changing Gears website by WBEZ's Robin Amer.
Robin writes about how the organizers unearthed an abandoned velodrome in Detroit's Dorais Park:
It was literally unearthed by one of the city’s vigilante lawn-mower gangs — people who mow the lawns at city parks because the city cannot afford to do so. The velodrome, on the city’s east side, was repaired by racing enthusiasts who cut down trees growing in its center and invested thousands of dollars of their own money and over 4,000 lbs of concrete fixing its surface. And now, it has come back to life as home to a variety of competitions.
When asked who the sanctioning body for this race is, organizer Andy Didorosi replied:
We are. We're the only sanctioning body in the world for zany two-wheeled party racing on abandoned Velodromes. :) Sanctioning bodies are silly.
Here's a video of last year's race. I like how the victor, instead of doing a lap with a checkered flag, does a lap with a torn-off portion of a Pabst Blue Ribbon box.
Detroit 1-8-7: The star's chairs are captured in this photo. The kicker? The photo was taken in Atlanta, GA while the crew was on a shoot there. The magic of Hollywood.
There's been a lot of speculation over whether the television program Detroit 1-8-7 will stick around.
Melissa Burden wrote about the speculation in today's Detroit News:
A local actors union said it has confirmed with producers of "Detroit 1-8-7" that the show is leaving the Motor City for good, even if it's picked up for a second season.
An administrator for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Detroit chapter posted Tuesday on the group's Facebook page that the cop drama is leaving Michigan.
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