top ten this week’s A Celebration for Scallywags

Ahoy, matey! The Boyne City PirateFest has pulled into the harbor, and that means it’s time to don your tricorne, polish your boots, and sharpen your cutlass for a week of marauder fun. See the Pirate Princess and Queen crowned on Thursday; fly the Jolly Roger and join the flotilla invasion of Sunset Park with your boat on Friday; and catch a parade, fair, rafting adventure, talent contest, and more on Saturday. (Good pirates also help out with Boyne River cleanups, which are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, or else you’ll have to walk the plank.) Throughout the week, you can count on plenty of family fun, live performances, and, of course, good old fashioned grub and grog. Oh, and did we mention there might be some mermaids and hidden treasure around town? Shiver me timbers! The festival begins Arrrgust 5 and runs through Arrrgust 13. See the full schedule at boynecitypiratefest.com.

Lavender Haze

If you missed out on Eras Tour tickets, the next best thing is Michigan songwriter and vocal powerhouse Kanin Wren! Kanin’s Version: A Taylor Swift Experience will be held at Lavender Hill Farm in Boyne City on Friday, Aug. 11, at 7:30pm. Kanin and a live band will cover Swift’s most popular songs from each era, and there will be a VIP meet and greet, swag bag, and post-show photo op. Tickets: $15-$55. lavenderhillfarm.com/series-lineup

Hey, watch It! Jury Duty 4

This is one jury summons you won’t want to get out of. We recently caught up on Freevee’s Jury Duty, a sitcom that falls somewhere between mockumentary, courtroom drama, and reality TV hoax show. Almost everything is fake—the case is made up and the jurors and courtroom officials are actors—except for two details. First, the show was really filmed in a California courtroom. And second, juror Ronald Gladden is a real-life solar contractor, and as far as he knows, he’s really serving on a jury…and doing so alongside movie star James Marsden (as himself). Marsden’s fame requires the jury to be sequestered, and the circumstances in and out of the courtroom only get wackier and more unbelievable from there. You’ll recognize a few faces from the rest of the cast, many of whom are talented improv actors, and oscillate between laughing and cringing as they take Gladden along for this quirky ride. All eight episodes stream free on Amazon’s Freevee.

The brainchild of chef Ryan Mateling, AIKO Street Food (which means “little loved one” in Japanese) blends local ingredients with Izakaya cuisine, and the flavors are anything but small! Our go-to dish, and a truck menu staple, is a savory Japanese street pancake called Okonomiyaki. It starts with a handful of crunchy veggies: fresh-shaved carrot and cabbage with a trio of herbs. From there, the mixture is studded with green onion, ginger, and serrano chili before the whole shebang is cooked to perfection on the flat-top and finished off with “pancake” batter, which features egg whites for extra fluff. It’s served with a touch of hot sauce, kewpie mayo, and savory Furikake seasoning. We’ll have our cake, and eat it too, please! Find the Okonomiyaki ($12, plus $2-$8 for protein) at AIKO Street Food, located at the DAM Shop in Elk Rapids (118 Bridge St.). For seasonal menus and hours of operation, visit aikostreetfood.com or follow along on social media @aikostfood.

Do you hear that siren call? Farmfest is back Aug. 11-13 (with VIP early access on Aug. 10). This beloved 45th-parallel festival hosts performances from dozens of Michigan artists, including the Charlie Miller Band, Hey Cuz, Distant Stars, The Real Ingredients, Jake Allen, The Blue Water Ramblers, and more. See them perform everything from danceable rock ‘n’ roll to singer-songwriter tunes on multiple stages on the 110-year-old farm property. Pro tip: Be sure to check out Farmfest’s dance pavilion—home to morning yoga classes and other workshops throughout the day—and a kids’ area with crafts and creative fun for the youngsters. The Fatted Calf will be serving up their eclectic, global menu throughout the weekend. And don’t miss late-night sing-alongs and storytelling down at the Fire Circle! Admission rates start at $50 (teens) and go up to $200 (VIP), and meal passes and RV passes are also available. Buy tickets and get details at farm-fest.com.

The Air We Breathe

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has released an early draft of their 2022 Air Quality Annual Report. The report is based on data from 40 monitor locations (including Frankfort and Manistee) throughout the state and offers information on concentrations of pollutants in the air, air quality index, and temperature and precipitation data. Here are a few highlights: Traverse City had zero Clean Air Action! Days in 2022, where residents are encouraged to adjust their habits to reduce air pollution levels. But in 2023, we have already had 16 for high ozone or PM2.5 levels (fine inhalable particles often associated with wildfire smoke). And while the 2022 monthly observed temperatures in the northern Lower Peninsula stuck closely to normal averages, our precipitation strayed from the usual pattern, with seven months falling below average and four months above, including extremes on both sides. View the full report at michigan.gov/egle and get air quality data at deqmiair.org.

Stuff We Love: Bountiful Farm Markets

Looking for a new farm market to explore? Lakeview Hill Farm has officially opened their brandnew storefront at 8236 E. Lakeview Hills Road just outside Traverse City (and conveniently close to the Leelanau Trail!). The market is housed in the 1890s-era Pleasant Valley Schoolhouse—a former oneroom school in Leelanau County.

Lakeview Hill owners John Dindia and Bailey Samp purchased the restored schoolhouse property in 2022 and have been working to get it up and running for the market ever since. You’ll find Lakeview Hill Farm produce alongside seasonal hauls from other farms, Stockist coffee, and pastries and breads from local favorites like 9 Bean Rows and Sugar2Salt, plus other food and homegoods to explore. (And don’t miss other cool buys like mini bouquets from the flower section of the farm!) The market is open from 9am-6pm Monday through Saturday and closed Sundays. To learn more, visit lakeviewhillfarm.com.

Bottoms Up

Mammoth Distilling’s Torch Lake Drive

Somehow, this writer didn’t know there was a Mammoth Distilling outpost in Bay Harbor. (Shame on me, but it was a happy surprise!) It was the perfect type of happy hour—not too hot and not too cold—to sit outside on the patio and people watch with a drink in hand, and opting for the summery Torch Lake Drive ($12) was the right choice. Mammoth rum (distilled from 100 percent black strap molasses) mixes with lime juice, simple syrup, Northwoods soda water, and the distillery’s iconic Cherry Bounce. This NoMi liqueur is made from local tart cherries, augmented with a subtle hint of whiskey, and sweetened with a cherry reduction from Brownwood Farms. There may be fewer cherries on the tree these days, but there was plenty in the glass. Find it at Mammoth Distilling locations in Bay Harbor, Bellaire, Central Lake, Traverse City, and Adrian. mammothdistilling.com

Some Local Odds And Ends

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle

Now that it appears the 2024 presidential election will be between someone indicted for dozens of felonies and an incumbent with an allegedly misbehaving son…well, let’s take a break and see what’s happening locally.

That Hartman-Hammond bypass is turning into one very expensive bridge, and the potential costs are soaring as if attached to a Space Launch System moon rocket. Pegged at $100 million just a couple years ago, the latest estimate is a stunning $323 million. Since any such project is years from even starting, we can assume the cost projections will continue to increase.

Yes, it’s more than just a bridge, though at more than 2,000 feet, it would be the second longest span in the state. There are also ramps to and from, plus the acquisition of privately owned land and property currently in the way of the proposed beyond its promised 30-year expiration in 2027.) They already have communications staff but apparently need more. le computers can easily access social media, whose software designers have created program algorithms so tantalizing the same parts of our brains light up that are active when psychoactive drugs are being consumed. The ubiquitous nature of the devices exacerbates our addictionlike behavior.

The DDA has multiple projects planned reliant on the extension of TIF 97, and while the city’s general fund would receive the bulk of previously captured TIF 97 taxes, they would receive somewhat less than the DDA because Grand Traverse County, Northwestern Michigan College, and the Traverse Area District Library would all recapture small shares of that money. The city could still undertake those or similar projects but of their own design on their own timetable and within their own budget.

The Au Sable Canoe Marathon just completed their 75th race. Considered by many to be the crown jewel of canoe racing, others of us consider it, um… excessively difficult. This is a monster of a race that receives attention but not enough considering it spans 120 miles, seven portages, and more than 14 hours, mostly in the dark. Billed as the World’s Toughest Spectator Race by Outside magazine, it’s pretty damn tough for the paddlers, too.

Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), like other school districts pretty much everywhere, is wrestling with a cell phone policy that will likely please no one. The phones, a technological masterpiece of hardware and software unimaginable not that long ago, have become attached to our children as if they are another part of their hand.

Zippia Research, an arm of a job search company, reports there are now 270 million smartphones in the U.S. and 81.6 percent of the population now possesses at least one of the devices. We check those phones, on average, 96 times a day, or about every 10 minutes. The numbers become almost terrifying among teenage users, who check phones every six minutes.

Pew Research of tweens and teens clearly outlines the growing negatives of social media access via smartphones. There are now clear links between heavy social media use and increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts.

This is a genie already out of the bottle that TCAPS and others now try to control.