Entries by editor

Celebrating songs of Leelanau: The Accidentals’ “Michigan and Again”

Our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with The Accidentals’ ballad “Michigan and Again”—a love song for the band’s home state. The song’s music video features footage of the Sleeping Bear Dunes along Lake Michigan. “I started writing ‘Michigan and Again’ in the backseat of the van when I was probably 19 or 20 years old,” band member Sav Madigan told the Sun. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Great state, what state am I in?’ and writing that down in a little notebook I always kept in my jacket. A few minutes later I thought, ‘Michigan and again and again and again and again …’ and realized that the two lines kind of rhymed.

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Making merry on the riverside: an alternative view

We live in what we perceive to be an entirely human-centric world. As a result, there is often no consideration for the others—for wildlife, writes Tim Mulherin. Our society is increasingly estranged from nature. Author Richard Louv expressed his concern for this regressive phenomenon in his seminal work “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”. Our apathy for wildlife is a key indicator. When the calendar turned to July this year, this new awareness became acute. Fireworks were being set off nightly by can’t-wait patriots in anticipation of the commemoration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Bang! Boom! Domestic pets, especially dogs and cats, trembled whenever the faux bombardment began, desperate to escape the sharp reports punctuating the air. Yet my immediate thought when seeing our aging, red-coated Pomeranian pacing frantically, demanding to be picked up and consoled, turned to wildlife, whose well-being rarely factors into the human experience.

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The Great Denial: Genocide in Real Time

“Genocide” is most commonly invoked in the past tense, used to describe an historical event. While genocides are underway they are often overshadowed by the larger context of war and can go unrecognized in the day to day, a civilian bombing here, a displacement there. Then there are refugee migrations, and forced famine. Most often it is from the safety of hindsight that a genocide be universally accepted as such and join the history books along side those of Armenia, Rwanda, Darfur, Cambodia, Germany and Srebrenica, to name just a few from recent history. Because in the past, due to the limits of gathering and disseminating information, many indicators of genocide of the past went unnoticed, the momentum of the killing would outpace the ability of society to identify a genocide and respond. Yet today we are watching in real time as it’s horrors unfold in Gaza. This is new terrain.

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‘Big, beautiful bill’ scraps $20M conservation project in northwest Michigan. Now what?

A tribe and several conservation groups were gearing up to remove old culverts and rehabilitate 29 streams across northwest lower Michigan: shelling out for contracts with county road commissions, hiring construction crews and prepping sites. Now, more than $20 million set aside for that work has been clawed back by Congress, leaving those involved $450,000 poorer and halting the project. The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians received the award in 2023 as part of a US Department of Agriculture program called the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, or RCPP. It was the only project in Michigan to receive money that year. A supplemental pot of money created by then-President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 was largely rescinded when President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4, leaving places like northwest lower Michigan caught in the crosshairs.

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Cedar holds 43th annual Polka Fest, Aug. 21-24

The Cedar Polka Fest is an annual festival celebrating the town’s rich Polish history. The celebration lasts four days and nights, and attracts nearly 10,000 people for family fun in the heart of Leelanau County. Come to Cedar and eat, drink, and dance the nights away. With live Polka music from the best polka bands in the nation, this festival is a real treat for Polka fans. Food vendors offer beer, polish food, ribs, hotdogs, popcorn and more. Kids will enjoy games, while adults can indulge in the unique atmosphere that Polka Fest creates.

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Achieving flow in art and life: Cedar jeweler Dana Fear

There was great beauty in the design: the raised sterling circle and the bezel-set rose-cut pink sapphire and blue/black spinels drew my eye, writes Bronwyn Jones. But it was the sound accompanying the movement of rounded sterling wires as they slid from their slender tubes and tapped gently against the inside of the raised circle that called out to me, a group of tiny chimes giving gentle voice in response to the movement of my hand and body. Such is the magical multi-sensory aesthetic of Dana C. Fear’s unique and stunning hand-crafted kinetic jewelry. It must be seen and touched within the context of her compelling studio and retail space on Kasson Road in downtown Cedar to fully comprehend its brilliance. That ring became mine; its fluid movement speaks as I write.

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Sleeping Bear Dunes rangers save heart attack victim

On Friday, July 11, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore park rangers rushed to help a visitor who had a heart attack at the fish weir on the Platte River. Thanks to their quick actions and the use of an AED, they saved a life. The rangers arrived in just three minutes and took over CPR from the visitor’s family. They used an AED to deliver two shocks and performed chest compressions for about 10 minutes. The visitor’s pulse returned, and they started breathing on their own. The patient was then taken to Munson Medical Center, where they made a full recovery. The rescue was made possible by donations to the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, who helped buy the AEDs and medical supplies and funded emergency medical training for the park rangers.

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Jazz guitarist Joe Taylor strums at The Homestead

Guitarist Joe Taylor has received many accolades over the course of his career, from praise by his peers to consideration for a Grammy award. Perhaps none mean more to him than being called “a funky mix of Jeff Beck and Chet Atkins” by The Mississippi Press. “That’s very flattering,” says Taylor from his South Carolina home. “Both Chet Atkins and Jeff Beck, not being singers, played guitar as a vocalist. Like me, it became a way to express (music) in a vocal fashion.” Taylor will perform Aug. 21 at The Homestead as part of its Music on the Mountain Series. He will be bringing the core players from the new album with him: pianist Jeff Franzel, drummer Ray Marchica and bassist Paul Adamy. They came to the recording session with specific instructions from Taylor: they could bring riffs and ideas, but the songs would be written in the studio by the quartet.

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Leelanau School hosts Small Farm conference

Farmers today face a number of challenges. Climate change, increasing costs for land, seeds, insurance and staffing, and development pressure all weigh on an endeavor that has always operated on thin margins. Any advantage they can accrue will help. Enter the annual Small Farm Conference, taking place Aug. 18-19 at the Leelanau School. Christina Marbury, community engagement specialist for Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology, says the conference will be beneficial for most anyone connected with the land, from small-scale growers to those interested in sustainable practices or ways in which they can diversity their offerings to make a profit. “It’s great for farmers, of course,” says Marbury. “Also people interested in farming, (those) growing at home—there’s a nice variety of business focus.”

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Raw sewage discharge into Lake Leelanau prompts public health advisory

The Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department issued a public health advisory on Wednesday, Aug. 13, following an equipment failure during routine maintenance that resulted in the release of raw sewage into Lake Leelanau at the Lake Leelanau DNR Boat Ramp East on East Bingham Road.

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