A2 Questionnaire: Colleen Crawley

(Same 6 Questions, Different Victim)

Colleen Crawley, Project Designer for Motawi Tileworks

Colleen, what’s your favorite dish to cook?
Pasta with grilled vegetables – it’s delicious, easy to make and everybody loves it!

It’s Friday night and you’re exhausted – what do you do for dinner?
If my teenage daughter is home, we often grab a pie from NYPD – our favorite pizza in town. But Jerusalem Garden is usually the first choice if it’s just my husband and I.

It’s Saturday night and you’re ready to go out and have a great time – what do you do?
We might start with dinner downtown – maybe Shalimar in the cold weather or Prickly Pear’s courtyard in the summer. While we’re waiting for a table, we’ll stroll into the shops and galleries on Main Street, especially Four Directions and Selo Shevel. Afterwards we’ll either go hear some music or catch a flick at the Michigan Theater. Of course it it’s early summer, we’re probably heading to Top of the Park.

What’s your favorite restaurant (besides Zingerman’s!) to take out-of-town guests?
Often we head to Seva, but we’ve also had great luck with Quarter Bistro.

What do you love about Ann Arbor that you think is unique among other cities?
The quality of life! Not just hospital and school options, great restaurants, groceries, coffee shops, amazing parks, bike trails, low crime, cleanliness, etc. But also the fact that we live less than a mile from downtown (an easy walk) but we’re off a dirt road, surrounded by vegetation and wildlife – now that’s unique!

Last question – if you were to write a Blues song about living in Ann Arbor, what would the title be?
“(I Got) The Birkenstock Blues”

Trader Joe's, and Stating the Obvious About Downtown

“Good intentions, but as long as I can’t find a place to buy toilet paper and Tide downtown, I’m going to need my car.”

(Hmmm. Quoting myself? Must be feeling particularly self-important today.)

Recognizing that this doesn’t exactly qualify as a news flash, if Ann Arbor wants to achieve a truly urban, high-density, livable downtown, there has to be a viable small grocery within easy walking distance of said density. Kerrytown and the People's Food Co-Op serve the Kerrytown district, but something more centrally located would be ideal.

In a previous post about loft-living downtown (the origin of the quote above), I also speculated that possible buyers at Liberty Lofts might have second thoughts, given the unknown factor of the tenant for the 20,000+ feet of commercial space currently vacant in that building. Don't you think a Trader Joe’s would fit the space, and serve the downtown and Old West Side community, perfectly?

TP and Frozen Pizza

Strip malls like the Lamp Post Plaza are not necessarily Trader Joe’s only habitat. Before the store opened here in Ann Arbor, my first encounter was with a Trader Joe’s in the Back Bay area of Boston (photo left). And I have friends living in Wrigleyville in Chicago, who for years have extolled the virtues of “Two-Buck Chuck.”

Think of what Trader Joe’s could offer downtown, all under one roof. Fresh produce, meat, and flowers. Bread, milk, and dairy. Cereals, coffee, beverages. Fantastic gourmet goodies. And many of the staples that, to my knowledge, are not currently easily available downtown – paper products, dish and laundry soap, pet supplies. Oh, and frozen pizza. Don’t forget frozen pizza. In taking an inventory of what Trader Joe's has to offer, the only necessities to my “modern” life that I found lacking (at least in the Ann Arbor location) were Pop Tarts and soft drinks.

Even though Trader Joe’s carries food-stuffs and products that appeal to a high-end lifestyle, their prices are not high end, which would be a boon for downtown residents on a budget. And I would think that, after dropping half a mil on a loft, many of these folks oughta be on a budget.

I know absolutely nothing about Trader Joe’s growth or business plan (though click here for an interesting article), and whether they would consider that Ann Arbor could sustain a second store. I do know that the 20,000 square feet of space at Liberty Lofts is expensive. When you consider that most grocery stores require a low per square foot lease rate/cost, I suppose it’s unlikely that a Trader Joe’s, or any comparable market, would open in that space. Or any other downtown, for that matter.

But a girl can dream, can’t she?

Mountain Stage Radio Show

You know when you’re at a party, and a friend tells a story that you’ve heard at least a couple times before? But you laugh your butt off anyway, since you like the guy so much and because with each retelling the embellishments are more over the top?

That’s the way I feel when Jeff Daniels performs what has become his “Where Did My Wife Go” Blues. At this point in its life cycle, a 28’ RV from Lloyd Bridges, two bags of snacks, and a theology student from Princeton are just a few of the accoutrements of the story (in addition to the wife). And even though it had to be at LEAST the third time I’d heard the tale, I still laughed so hard that tears rolled down my cheeks, at the Mountain Stage Radio Show performance during the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

The Mountain Stage Radio show is sponsored by West Virginia Public Radio, and the episode recorded in the Power Center will air later this month on WHFR, public radio out of Dearborn. The show is Prairie Home Companion-esque, with host Larry Groce reading snippets, bios, and sponsorships during set changes. That’s Francis the recording engineer at the recording boards, back stage. In addition to Jeff Daniels, Catie Curtis performed several songs, including one she co-wrote titled “People Look Around,” which won the grand prize this year at the International Songwriting Competition.

A sample of the award-winning lyrics….

When the water is rising and there is no higher ground,
You can wave your hands up on the roof,
But you might be left to drown.
In the streets of New Orleans; a makeshift funeral pall,
Here lies Vera, God help us all.
And the truth is bigger than these drops of rain, falling.

Antje Duvekot, a German-born folkie with a beautiful voice, was also on the bill, as was Duncan Sheik, who has earned much acclaim recently for writing the music for the Tony-award-winning musical Spring Awakening. But honestly, I’d just as soon hear him sing “Barely Breathing.”

The Empire Strikes

The highlight of the evening was the set by Cat Empire, this crazy band from Australia with a rather unfortunate name. I don’t know who these guys are, but they woke up the crowd in the Power Center! (video clip) Six members playing a mix of instruments, including one who was literally smokin’ on the trumpet, and a kick-ass organ player. And the music? Whacked. Genre-defying. High-energy. I heard Latin. I heard funk. I heard jazz. Loved ‘em!

Cat Empire’s only shortcoming was vocals. At one point, my friend turned to me and asked, “can you understand anything that they’re singing?” Maybe it was the Aussie accent, or perhaps something to do with the levels set for the radio taping, but both men who took lead vocal seemed like they could work on making their pipes stronger. But you know what? when a group is so pretty to look at, this sheila will cut them some slack.

("sheila" reference too cheezy?)

In the lobby I bumped into Jessica, John, Nick, and Sarah, young friends who work at Kosmo in Kerrytown, and Cat groupies. Count me among the converted, too!