11 minute read
Top Ten
this week’s top ten
Highlands on the Rocks
We’ll start by saying you should certainly save your imbibing for your aprèsski experience…and then we’ll tell you we’ve found the perfect opportunity for slopeside drinks at the Highlands at Harbor Springs. The weekend of Jan. 13-15, they’ll be hosting their Highlands on the Rocks event in partnership with High Five Spirits of Petoskey. Once you’ve finished up on the hill, you can check out local distillery, winery, and brewery tastings on the property, plus events for friends and family to enjoy. On Friday, High Five Spirits will offer live music and a tasting event at the Yurt at the end of The Enchanted Trail (which admittedly sounds like a trippy, madeup land, but is really a beautiful 1.5-mile trail decked out in fairy lights). Saturday, more local makers will be onsite for tastings with a curated menu of hors d’oeuvres in the Main Dining Room ($25/person). Get the details—plus lift tickets—by visiting highlandsharborsprings.com/events.
2 tastemaker
C.R.A.V.E.’s Italiano
C.R.A.V.E. of Gaylord is best known for its pizza—which arrives fast, hot, and full of fresh and delicious ingredients like fire-braised chicken and sweet pepper drop—but next time you’re there, skip the pie and go for a sandwich. We like the Italiano ($12), which feels like a classic Italian salad in oven-baked wrap form. (Think: salami, banana peppers, black olives, red onion, and more.) Sandwiches come with chips and a pickle, and you can opt for gluten-free bread for an extra $4. For the best deal, stop in for the Express Lunch from 11am-3pm Monday through Friday. Priced at $11.50, the special includes a sandwich of your choice or personal-size, one-topping pizza plus a soup or side salad. (There’s even a lunch card for folks who visit frequently!) Find C.R.A.V.E. at 148 W Main St. in Gaylord. (989) 748-4848, cravegaylord.com
A-Cappella-Palooza
If you’re up for questionable choreography, bad dad jokes, and boy-band hits, head to City Opera House in Traverse City on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 8pm for The Friars Winterpalooza. The Friars are the a cappella subset of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, and they’re ready to entertain—no backing band needed. General admission, $20; students 18 or younger with college ID, $10; seniors 62+: $15. cityoperahouse.org
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Hey, read It! Babel
Award-winning author and scholar R.F. Kuang (The Poppy War trilogy) nails the horrors of imperial power—with a supernatural twist—in her genre-bending newest, Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence. The story begins in Victorian Canton, where Robin Swift is plucked from a cholera outbreak and swept off to London by Professor Lovell, his wealthy and austere new guardian. In exchange for a prestigious English upbringing, Robin commits to language study in order to become a Babbler: a student at Oxford’s highly exclusive Royal Institute of Translation. At first, the school, which is also the hub of England’s magic silverwork, feels like utter paradise. But when Robin becomes entangled with a band of anti-establishment thieves, he is forced to make a choice that could change his life—and the empire’s future—forever. Incisive and delightfully nerdy (be sure to read the footnotes), this 560-page tome of a read is an undertaking, but we couldn’t put it down.
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6 MLK Remembrance Day
Northern Michigan has several events planned around Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 16—see our dates section for more—but one that caught our eye was the Building Bridges with Music annual MLK Remembrance Day program at City Opera House in Traverse City. On the stage for the evening will be soul jazz vocalist Joan Belgrave, R&B singer Mark Scott, spoken word artist Joel Fluent Greene, and The Lisa McCall Dancers. You’ll also get to catch a performance by Traverse City’s own NMC Canticum Novum, the premier vocal ensemble in northern Lower Michigan, under the direction of Jeffrey Cobb. The event starts at 7pm on Jan. 16, and tickets are FREE but do require reservation through the City Opera House. (Note: Seating will be limited due to COVID restrictions and masks are encouraged.) More information about the program can be found at buildingbridgeswithmusic.org.
Help Us Find Fascinating People!
NORTHERN express norther nex press.com
Welcome to 2023, readers. With the new year, we’re starting to put together our annual list of Fascinating People from across northern Michigan. These 20 people live a not-so-average existence and parlay their passions into something bigger than themselves. We love hearing about folks of all ages who do amazing things in their communities, who have crazy cool life stories, and who are poised to Molly Ames Baker make the future brighter. Last year, we featured two Nancy Bordine Duane Brandt Olympic athletes, an 83-year-old ship captain, a Mickey Cannon Katherine Corden retired Marine Corps Major General, and an eight- Kyle Evans Carol Greenaway > year-old mountain bike champ. We also got to tell NORTHERN MICHIGAN’S WEEKLY • march 07 - march 13, 2022 • Vol. 32 No. 10 the stories of multiple teachers, musicians, chefs, and creatives who inspire the people they interact with every day. If you know someone fascinating, send us a quick email at info@northernexpress. com with their name and a few sentences about what makes them special. Then, stay tuned for our Fascinating People issue later this winter to see who made the 2023 list!
Tawny Hammond Mike King Kaila Kuhn Al Laaksonen Michael Lehnert Paxton Robinson Liz Saile
20 FASCINATING PEOPLE Alex Sanderson Rachel Sytsma-Reed Emily Umbarger Joe Van Alstine Winter Vinecki Mark Wilson
Stuff We Love: A Downtown Getaway
Feel like you need a vacation after the holidays? Save your spring break dollars, and instead of hopping on a flight, head to the Delamar Traverse City to take advantage of their Snow Days day passes for NoMi locals ($35 for adults; $25 for kids 3-12; free for 2 and under). Passes are available Sundays through Thursdays now until the end of March and offer you access to hotel amenities like the outdoor heated pool, sauna, fitness center, fire pits with s’mores, and complimentary snowshoe rentals. You also get 25 percent off at Artisan restaurant and 20 percent off at Yen Yoga Fitness, both onsite at the Delmar. Level up your staycation and reserve a Cozy Cabana experience, with room for six guests to lounge by the outdoor pool with food and beverage service. (Is anyone else getting total hygge vibes?) For more details, head to delamar.com/ snow-days-day-pass.
bottoms up Terrain’s Skipping Stones
The holiday season might be over, but Terrain Restaurant in Bellaire toasts local bounty all year long, and we think the plummy nuance of the Skipping Stones cocktail deserves its own celebration. Named for the local stone fruit it features, the drink begins with Kalkaska’s North River Vodka, which Terrain bartenders infuse with tangy plums from nearby King Orchards (psst—there’s also a seasonal nectarine version!). Fresh lemon juice, warmlyspiced Peychaud’s bitters, house-made fruit syrup, and a splash of Slivovitz—that’s a damson plum-spiked brandy—complete this vibrantly-purple drink, which is served in a coup and garnished with a dehydrated lemon wheel. Pair it with something equally decadent; we love the duck confit and jam or a few scoops of house-made ice cream! Enjoy a Skipping Stones cocktail for $12 at Terrain Restaurant in Bellaire at 213 N. Bridge Street. (231) 350-7301, terrain-restaurant.com Northern Express Weekly • january 09, 2023 • 5
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2023…WILL IT BE ANY DIFFERENT?
spectator
By Stephen Tuttle
Will 2023 be any different than 2022? It seems unlikely.
War will continue to rage in Ukraine as Vladimir Putin refuses to abandon his delusions of reestablishing the long-dead Russian Empire. Unfortunately, the fighting in Ukraine is only one of a dozen or so ongoing armed conflicts, and U.S. weaponry is being used by one or both sides in all of them. After tens of thousands of years of what passes for human civilization, many governments still think the best way to solve problems is by killing some perceived enemy, and we’re happy to sell them the weapons that do the killing.
There is no reason to assume natural disasters will abate around the world after an especially troubling 2022. There were destructive floods and wildfires on every continent but Antarctica. Floods, fueled by weather extremes exacerbated by climate
change, wreaked havoc in 30 countries according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. In Pakistan alone, flooding covered a third of the country, killing more than 12,000 people and leaving 2.1 million homeless.
Nearly 60,000 wildfires ravaged millions of acres around the world, the second worst year ever but close to 2021’s record-breaking fire destruction. There is no reason to expect 2023 will be any better as extreme weather events continue to increase.
In the United States, no president has solved the legal and illegal immigration problem despite the outrageous claims of one former White House occupant. Torn between needing immigrants, legal and otherwise, to keep some businesses afloat or closing the southern border altogether, the problem is unlikely to get any better. (The claims of an “open border” are an egregious insult to the men and women of the Border Patrol who continue working diligently under difficult conditions.)
Former President Donald Trump will continue to face a myriad of potential legal issues. There are the tax issues in New York, a big problem in Georgia where the former president tried to get their secretary of state to “find” enough votes to give him a victory, not to mention all those purloined documents at Mar-a-Lago. Trump has spent his adult life weaseling out of legal trouble by writing checks to settle claims while insisting he did nothing wrong. We’ll see if that strategy works again, though his troubles in Georgia and with all those documents might not be so easy for prosecutors to overlook.
The election-deniers will still be with us, most notably Arizona’s Kari Lake who continues to demand either a new election or that she simply be declared the winner absent any evidence of fraud or other voting irregularities. It’s a strategy unlikely to work given the actual winner in that gubernatorial election, Katie Hobbs, has already been sworn into office.
The recent flooding in California will help to slightly mitigate their ongoing drought, but it might be a Pyrrhic victory. All that water will encourage significant underbrush growth, and if drought conditions return, the state’s fire season will be even more destructive than 2022’s record breaker.
More extreme weather events, including floods, fires, winds, and tornadoes, are inevitable as too many decision-makers ignore the signs of climate change all around us.
Locally, we will continue our Quixotic quest for affordable housing downtown
by subsidizing every step of the process from land acquisition to final construction. Traverse Citians will get to help pay for people to live in neighborhoods they can’t afford themselves.
Both the tall building and the fish pass issues appear headed for the state supreme court for what should be final decisions. An appellate court ruled the 60-foot limit applies only to the roof deck, and at least one developer has preliminary drawings including structures 10-15 feet above that limit, likely not what the voters had in mind when they rejected buildings taller than 60 feet on three occasions.
The court will decide if the fish pass is actually a park expansion or an experimental research facility occupying parkland that should have gone before voters for approval. We still don’t know which fish will be allowed to pass, and costs continue to rise. If ultimately approved, money could be saved by replacing the proposed concrete amphitheater with native trees and riparian flora.
(Thirteenth Circuit Court Judge Thomas Power, who made the original ruling in both cases, recently retired. Power, a friend of this writer, served on the school board, as a state representative, and for 30 years as a circuit judge. He has been an honest and honorable public servant for more than four decades, and his wit and wisdom will be missed.)
Finally, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has created preliminary plans for dramatically improving the banks of a mile of the lower Boardman-Ottaway River. Though it looks pricey, it would be infinitely superior to what currently exists, and we hope they can get it started in 2023.
