Lights …. Camera …. Action, for local cinema connoisseurs

By Pat Stinson Sun contributor For many, films are an important way to survive the long, cold winter. Northern Michigan is now considered a movie mecca, as folks from all over the world migrate here in the summer to attend the Traverse City Film Festival. In case you haven’t heard, Michael Moore and the TC […]

Read more
/by

Community bids adieu to a deserted downtown at dusk

By Pat Stinson Sun contributor Much has been written in the last two months about the astounding six-week, $850,000 renovation and grand reopening of the 540-seat State Theatre in downtown Traverse City. Benzie County journalist Keith Schneider wrote a piece for the New York Times in December regarding the restoration of historic movie houses and […]

Read more
/by

Democracy Deficit in Michigan

Michigan’s presidential primary election has come and gone. The Republican candidates who graced our state the past two weeks have moved onto South Carolina and Nevada after Michigan native Mitt Romney secured the victory he needed to stay in the race. But the major Democratic candidates were notably absent from the motor state, and ultimately […]

Read more
/by

Eating hearty to stay warm

By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Just because the fudgies have taken the tourism season south for the winter — or maybe because of it — doesn’t mean those of you sticking around for gritty January-April can’t enjoy good food at the area’s local dining establishments. Tim Barr reports that you’ll wait no more than 15-20 […]

Read more
/by

Glen Lake deemed among top 1,000 schools in America

By Nadine Gilmer Sun contributor It isn’t well known that Glen Lake Community Schools, nestled in the hills east of the Glen Lakes, made the list of the top 1,000 schools in the country. Even the secondary principal, Kevin Kelly says, “I didn’t even know about it until I was driving to work one day […]

Read more
/by

Election 2008: A (presidential) race comes full circle

By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Cape Coast Castle, a haunting old slavery fort on the Atlantic shores of Ghana, was converted into a museum in the 1990s with help from the Smithsonian Institution and is now a tourist destination for, notably, African Americans to make their ancestral journey homeward and, quite possibly, back to the […]

Read more
/by

Historic Cottages book on shelves

From staff reports Rarely seen interior images of 50 cozy summer cottages and narratives provide a portrait of a special place and state of mind evoked by summer cottage living on beautiful Glen Lake. These cottages are viewed against the backdrop of early summer resort life in northern Michigan the first half of the twentieth […]

Read more
/by

Shopping Sonnet and American haiku:

Loving to shop, and buying American By Anne-Marie Oomen Sun contributor With more than a little guilt, I admit I love to shop. Since my mother introduced me to shopping discount at Robert Hall’s in Muskegon back in the sixties, I have enjoyed it. We are hunter-gatherers, right? That impulse is in all of us. […]

Read more
/by

Upnorthfoodies.com serves small slices of life

By Pat Stinson Sun contributor Paula McIntyre of Cedar was tired of hearing bad news about Michigan’s economy. She said most of the stories dominating the news have been reports from the southern regions of the state, where automakers and industry-related manufacturers are struggling or closing their doors. The barrage of gloomy stories especially annoyed […]

Read more
/by

Not your typical townies

The ghouls, goblins and cross dressers were out on the town in Glen Arbor during the Sunday prior to Halloween. Sue Nichols (left) took a tumble in the leaves, and Tim Barr (right, in the flowery dress) and Bonnie Nescott directed traffic outside of Art’s … Tim’s makeover slowed traffic to a crawl. Photos by […]

Read more
/by