Northern Express - March 04, 2024

FASCINATING PEOPLE OF 2024

Matthew Archibald

JoAnne Beemon

Micah Bauer >

Doug Craven

Malachy Godfrey

Tina Greene-Bevington

Liann Kaye

Daniel Kinga

Kendall Kotcher

Celeste Lovely

Phylicia Masonheimer

MaryAnn Tucker Moore

Shea Petaja

Lauretta Reiss

Jessica Rickert

Kathy Sanders

Josh Stoltz

Lisa Thauvette

Jimmy Tomczak

Karen Zeeb

After graduating from Traverse City Central, Micah Bauer didn’t just walk the Pacific Crest Trail—he ran it, completing the 2,650-mile trail in half the usual time.

Supported by Nancy & Bob Giles 'Truth Matters' Author Conversations

BARBARA M c QUADE

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

American society is more polarized than ever before. Please join us at the City Opera House to discuss how we’ve arrived at this moment with author Barbara McQuade. Her new book Attack from Within, argues that we are being pushed apart by disinformation—the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth.

McQuade, legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, a former U.S. District Attorney of Eastern Michigan, and a University of Michigan law professor, shows us how to identify the ways disinformation is seeping into all facets of our society and how we can fight against it.

Guest Host: John Bacon is a college instructor, public speaker and national bestselling author.

Event Sponsors: Pam & Harold Lassers • Literary Sponsors: Annie & Mike DeVries

MONDAY, MARCH 11 • 7:00 PM

In-person at City Opera House + livestreamed For tickets, visit NationalWritersSeries.org

Sales

Distribution

Roger Racine

Creative Director: Kyra Cross Poehlman

Distribution: Joe Evancho, Sarah Rodery Roger Racine, Gary Twardowski Charlie Brookfield, Rachel Cara

Editor: Jamie Kauffold

top ten this week’s

Just Keep Skiing The M-22 Chili Challenge

Don’t let the intermittent snow fool you—there is still plenty of ski hill fun to be had! Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville hosts its Spring Carnival on Saturday, March 9, with the Cardboard Classic sled race and the wet and wild Slush Cup. Meanwhile, Boyne Mountain is going all in on the younger generation with their Kid’s Festival Weekend, March 8-10, featuring sky-high trampoline bounces, skilly ski races, and a “Wacky Wonka Dinner” inspired by the candyman himself. And to the north, the Highlands at Harbor Springs has a busy line-up on Saturday with the Hops ’N Highlands craft beer weekend and the Snow & Throw Challenge, a ski/snowboard race plus disc golf competition—the first of its kind in the Midwest! Visit the resorts’ respective websites to learn more.

2 tastemaker

Charles and Reid’s Heatwave Margherita

Good news, readers: You don’t need to drive all the way to Detroit for Detroit-style pizza. We popped into Charles and Reid in Traverse City, and they had everything we love about the big city pie: the crispy, caramelized crust, the generous use of sauce, and plenty of classic brick cheese. Our top pick was the Heatwave Margherita ($20 for a small, $24 for a large), which had the usual fresh basil, mozzarella, and tomato toppings along with chili oil, Calabrian chili peppers, and a decadent balsamic glaze. The result was hot…but not too hot. And in this writer’s humble opinion, the next-day leftovers might be even better! Find the pizza parlor at 113 E State St. in Traverse City (in the alley behind the City Opera House and Brilliant Books). Call to order: (231) 252-3497. charlesandreid.com

Chill(i) out at the 2nd annual M-22 Chili Challenge at Leelanau Sands Casino on Saturday, March 9, from noon-4pm. This cookoff includes local restaurants like Big Dex’s Restaurant, Bogey's 19th Hole at The Leland Lodge, Lylah’s, Knot Just a Bar, and more. Enjoy tastings, outdoor yard games, adult beverages, and live music with Driving Dawn. Tickets, $15. leelanausandscasino.com/play/m22chili_challenge

Hey, read It! Promise 4

“What if?” is the name of the speculative game in award-winning author Christi Nogle’s newest short fiction anthology, Promise. Readers step through the looking glass, à la the strangelyfamiliar lens of authors like Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick, to worlds where technology can channel the dead (“The Laffun Head”), generations of relatives materialize through webs of cyber-family trees (“Guesthouse”), and looking in the mirror means becoming an unrecognizable beast (“Cocooning”). Set in the not-too-far-away future, this colorful volume offers 21 tales ranging from techie sci-fi to ghostly horror to alien travel through an infinite matrix. All are united by Nogle’s dreamy prose, and though packed with themes that might make you cringe, the book conveys an unmistakable message of hope. Buckle up, readers: It’s about to get wonderfully weird.

5

Photo courtesy of Crystal Mountain

6 A Whiskey Warm-Up

Traverse City Whiskey Co. is gearing up to say farewell to cool temps with their first ever Winter Warm-Up. Catch the fun at their Stillhouse in TC (201 E. 14th Street) on Saturday, March 9, from 1-5pm. The event will feature hot cocktails, exclusive spirit tastings, and food available from Cordwood BBQ, a beloved staple of The Little Fleet. Runaway Mule—self-described as “a four piece hick-a-billy band from northern Michigan”—and Toledo’s Twin Pfunk will keep the good times rolling with live music throughout the afternoon. This family-friendly outdoor event will also offer yard games and plenty of cozy spots by the fireside! The Winter Warm-Up is free to attend, though food and drink do require purchase. Learn more at tcwhiskey.com.

Traffic Is Coming

Winter is fading, and that means Michigan’s other season is on its way: construction season. The Traverse City area is bracing for the upcoming Grandview Parkway reconstruction, a Michigan Department of Transportation Project, which kicks off Sunday, March 10. The project is split into two segments: Segment 1 will take place from March to July on East Front Street between Garfield Avenue and Grandview Parkway, and segment 2 will take place from July to November on Grandview Parkway from East Front Street to Division Street. Maps for each segment and detours are available at traversecitymi.gov/ projects/mdot-grandview-parkway-project.html. Consider this your PSA to prepare for longer trips, new routes, and confused visitors. Before it begins, let’s all take a deep breath and vow to avoid road rage, shall we?

Stuff We Love: Filling Local Jobs!

With spring just around the corner, Northern Express is looking ahead to our “Now Hiring” issue, which will be online and on newsstands April 22. We dedicate a special portion of the issue to job listings from across the region, so this is your chance to post all those must-fill summer jobs as we head into the busy season in northern Michigan! There is no limit to the number of positions you may submit, though we do not guarantee publication of all jobs. To submit a job posting, head to northernexpress. com/jobs. You’ll need to have the following information handy: employer name, position title, position type, pay range, city, a brief description, and a contact email or phone number. We recommend sharing your openings as soon as possible and updating us if they are filled. Happy hiring!

Stay lucky with two of our low ABV bubbles perfect for sipping all day, every day, but especially on St. Patrick’s Day

Bottoms Up

Rocket Fizz’s Americana Huckleberry

While you might know Rocket Fizz in Traverse City for its wall-to-wall shelves of snacks and sweets, it’s their effervescent soda stash that’ll have you feeling like, well, a kid in a candy store! Unleash your inner child with vintage-inspired picks like Honey Cream, Cherry Cola, or our favorite (and the staff’s!): Americana Huckleberry. Handcrafted and sweetened with pure cane sugar, this bright purple sip is as juicy as its namesake fruit (think: brambly berries backed by a touch of vanilla) with a creamy mouthfeel and a puckery finish. Pair one with a pastel handful of saltwater taffy and let the sugar coma commence! Grab a bottle or mix your own multipack at Rocket Fizz’s downtown Traverse City location (111-B E. Front Street). Find them online at rocketfizz.com.

By steven Tuttle

Last year was yet another one for the weather record books. (This seems more like an annual event now than some sort of anomalous outlier.)

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2023 was the hottest year globally on record. Each individual month from June through December was also the hottest ever. For the first time ever, every day in 2023 was at least 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above the daily preindustrial (1850-1900) averages. Two days in November, the 17th and 18th, were two full degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above that average.

While these may not sound like impressive numbers, they are huge for a science in which temperature fluctuations are typically measured in tenths or hundredths of degrees. Potentially worse news is the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which also looks at weather patterns from their vast array of satellites, predicts 2024 could be warmer still.

That heat, which resulted in hundreds of daily record highs being set in the U.S. and around the world, including record high maximums in 56 U.S. cities just from June 14 through June 19. Another 86 American cities experienced record-breaking overnight high minimum temperatures. Then there was Phoenix, which went an astounding 31 straight days of high temperatures above 110.

The heat exacerbates drought, reservoir declines, and sea level rises. And it turns normal wildfires into a nearly literal Hell.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, wildfires in Canada last year burned nearly 46 million acres, an area about the size of Florida. Those fires—we remember the smoke—affected every Canadian province and forced the evacuation of nearly 156,000 people.

Greece was home to the worst wildfires in European Union history, charring more than 300,000 acres, killing 28, and forcing hundreds to wade into the seas for safety.

Some places took a break from wildfires, or relatively so. Australia, which burns so regularly during their summer it’s officially called the bushfire season, had a fairly mundane year by their standards, as did the U.S. According to our National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), our 2023 wildfire season saw nearly 55,000 wildfires burn 2.7 million acres. (It should be noted they count fires as small as 10 acres). That is a significant step down from the record-breaking 2022 wildfire season that saw 10,000 additional fires that burned an additional 5 million acres.

Unfortunately, Hawai‘i was not nearly so lucky. Fueled by brush parched by an unusual drought and pushed by winds from Hurricane Dora, four wildfires on Maui merged into a single, catastrophic nightmare. Nearly 3,000 homes, businesses, and other structures were destroyed; Lahaina, the former royal capital of the islands, was essentially wiped off the map; and, most tragically, 100 people died in the conflagration. It was the deadliest natural disaster in Hawai‘i’s long history and the deadliest U.S. wildfire since our own Thumb Fire in 1881 that killed 282.

Unfortunately, NIFC tells us we are, on average, experiencing more wildfires lasting longer and burning more acreage than ever before. Increased temperatures nearly everywhere continue to dry out our wildlands fuel load so the potential for even greater fire disasters becomes very real. It isn’t helping that in some of the areas most at-risk for wildfires there is increasing human development interfacing with wildlands.

(For those wishing to pick nits, yes there were times when the planet was quite a bit warmer; it was two million years ago, before the Ice Age, and record-keeping was a little weak.)

The temperature increases have been nearly universal, but precipitation has arrived in floods or not at all. Our west coast certainly benefited from some record precipitation last year, including a monster snowpack in the Sierras. The downside of that was plenty of flash floods and landslides, both now nearly regular features in California.

According to our National Centers for Environmental Information, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), parts of northern Canada, much of Central America, areas of western and southern Asia and the Middle East, and most of Brazil are experiencing severe or serious drought conditions.

Additionally, parts of Africa, particularly the area in the northwest known as the Maghreb Region and the sub-Saharan east, are suffering both drought and famine. Four million Ethiopians are currently at risk of starvation, as are citizens of Yemen and Gaza beset by war, and those suffering from drought, conflict, corruption, or incompetence in Madagascar, South Sudan, North Korea, and Central African Republic.

We can’t blame it all on our obviously changing climate, but we were warned about rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and increased natural disasters and bizarre weather more than 50 years ago. Now it’s here—all of it. The trend lines are not good, and we’re playing catch up.

THE FASCINATING PEOPLE OF HOUSING

Guest Opinion

by Yarrow Brown

Thinking about the theme of this week’s Northern Express, I wanted to highlight some fascinating people around housing, including the very important Housing Ready teams that are being deployed in Northwest Michigan to help support the housing needs of the 10 counties.

When we think of people who exemplify housing efforts, many of us first think of Jimmy Carter. The Carter Work Project, led by the former president and his wife, Rosalyn, has been involved with Habitat for Humanity in the construction of 4,300 homes in 14 countries around the world. For Carter, having a house is about more than having a safe place to sleep. It is about community, a sense of belonging, and the dignity that comes with building, maintaining—and paying for, with some help—a home of one’s own.

In San Antonio, the actress Eva Longoria is expecting a shortage in affordable housing, so she created a foundation that helps Latinas by supporting them in their education and careers. She realized that even once these women get a job, a lot of times they cannot afford a place to live and has started to invest in affordable housing and advocate for more housing projects.

One of my favorite eighties bands, Bon Jovi, is also involved in supporting housing. Jon Bon Jovi founded the JBJ Soul Foundation which has provided “support for over 700 units of affordable and supportive housing in 11 states and Washington D.C.” In 2014, Project HOME was launched, “a mixed-use development with 55 units for formerly homeless or lowincome residents” and it includes other uses like retail and offices. Every resident in Project HOME has access to basic healthcare and fitness classes through the foundation’s Health Initiative Program.

For those who love Star Wars, creator George Lucas changed his plans when he bought a 1,000-acre ranch in Marin County, California, for a production studio and the locals protested. In the end he decided to use the land for Grady Ranch, which includes several residences. According to Lucas, “We’ve got enough millionaires here. What we need are some houses for regular working people.”

Others who have done groundbreaking work around housing include Robert C. Weaver. He was the first Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the first Black person to be appointed to a U.S. government cabinet-level position in 1966. What is most remarkable about his leadership was that he expanded affordable housing programs and championed the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

Patricia Roberts Harris was the first African American woman to hold a cabinet position when she was appointed HUD Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1977. Harris brought aid to deteriorating

neighborhoods and worked to bring business back to impoverished areas.

Marcia L. Fudge is the current secretary of HUD. Secretary Fudge is committed to solving our nation’s urgent housing challenges and believes communities should serve people. I am fascinated by her ability to work tirelessly to help low-income families, veterans, and older adults realize the dream of home ownership in communities across the country. Under Secretary Fudge’s leadership, HUD published the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which requires communities that accept federal funding to create plans to address local housing discrimination or face a penalty. The rule is intended to combat racially segregated neighborhoods and further uphold the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

Statewide and regionally, I can think of several fascinating leaders who are moving the needle on housing. There is Tom Woodman from Citizen Robotics, which just had their first opening of a 3D printed home in Detroit. Al Everet of THRIVE creates attainable housing and brings new technologies such as 3D printing to our region. Jon Stimson of Homestretch is incorporating mass timber and panelized construction into homebuilding. Tina Allen, with New Waves Church, is leading a collaborative housing project with Habitat for Humanity Grand Traverse Region alongside Wendy Irvin, their executive director. Sarah Ulrich, director of Northwest Michigan Habitat for Humanity, is leading a project in Alanson using modular homes and providing universal access designs.

This year the state recognized the critical need for housing. We have a strong group of people on our regional Housing Ready team for Region D, or the 10-county region, to help communities reach their housing goals. Kent Wood with Borealis Strategic is helping to support our policy and advocacy work in Lansing and across the region. Ryan Kilpatrick and his team at Flywheel Consulting will be supporting Benzie and Leelanau Counties with new housing collaboratives, zoning reform, housing funds, and project support. Susan Leithauser-Yee will be the main contact for Grand Traverse County, supporting housing goals and initiatives for the county with the highest need for housing. Erick Kehoe and Suzanne Shultz with Progressive AE will be focusing on Wexford and Missaukee Counties. The other five counties are supported by an existing team of professionals supporting the Housing Ready initiative.

We cannot do this work alone. We will need everyone to support our communities and create collaborative and important projects led by fascinating people.

Yarrow Brown is the executive director of Housing North, a 10-county housing agency serving northwest Michigan.

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Wait, How Many?

And you thought your glovebox full of unpaid parking tickets was impressive. Police detectives and patrol officers arrested Ahyoka Keith, aka Carol Ann Sumner, on Feb. 16, two weeks after she was charged with an astonishing 322 felonies and 327 misdemeanors by the Spring Township police department in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Keith is an over-the-road trucker, and her 649 warrants were related to the theft of thousands of dollars from a relative.

Not Getting It

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A 42-year-old resident of Ajax, Ontario, was arrested and charged with impaired driving on Feb. 20 at the Durham Regional police station, where he had driven to complain ... about his arrest for public intoxication from earlier that morning. The man asked to speak with a supervisor when he arrived at the station, but officers noticed he seemed to be intoxicated, and, after confirming he had driven himself, issued a breathalyzer test, which the man failed. His license was suspended and his vehicle was impounded.

Need for Speed

The Hockenheimring racetrack in BadenWurttemberg, Germany, was the setting for a Guinness World Record-setting run recently. The speed reached -- 92.24 mph -- might not sound so impressive, but Fulda University engineering student Marcel Paul attained that velocity in a toy car. Paul spent 10 months modifying the miniature Porsche with the goal of beating the 88 mph made famous by the time-traveling DeLorean DMC-12 in the "Back to the Future" movies, and in the process created the world's fasted ride-on toy car. Said one user in the comments on Paul's Instagram video of the milestone event: "Hell no that looks dangerous."

Bleepin' Birds

Eight potty-mouthed parrots are set to rejoin the rest of their flock at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in Boston, United Kingdom, after zoo officials decided that recent efforts to help the dirty birds clean up their act in isolation had shown promise. Steve Nichols, who serves as chief executive of the park, still isn't sure what will happen when the birds are reunited with their more well-behaved peers. "We could end up with 100 swearing parrots on our hands," Nichols said. "Only time will tell." For now, the park does not plan to take down its signs warning visitors of the potential for foul language.

Very Senior Year

It's never too late to graduate, and Fred Allen Smalls of Georgetown, South Carolina, is proof. Smalls took the stage at Georgetown High School on Feb. 4, the day before his 106th birthday, to receive an honorary diploma at a ceremony that came to fruition largely due to the efforts of his granddaughter. Smalls completed eighth grade in the 1930s and moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a janitor and held several other jobs before beginning a career with the District of Columbia, eventually retiring during the John F. Kennedy administration. WPDE ABC 15 reported that the diploma was "something he's wished for most of his life." And the diploma wasn't the first time Smalls made recent news: In 2023, ABC News

recognized him as the oldest Philadelphia Eagles fan. ABC 15

Sticky Situation

A coyote that found itself in an ironic predicament in mid-January has the Humane Animal Welfare Society (HAWS) and the Wildlife in Need Center (WINC) of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, to thank for its rescue -maybe with a little help from above? WDJT in Milwaukee reported that the coyote had gotten its head stuck inside a hollow statue of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, while chasing a rabbit. The coyote was spotted dragging the statue and working to free itself, but by the next day, the animal was exhausted and still trapped. HAWS located the coyote and transported it to WINC, where it was freed, treated for minor injuries and given the nickname "Frannie."

Long-Term Lending

More and more libraries across the country have converted to fine-free lending, and that's a very good thing for one patron of the Licking County Library in Ohio. WPDE ABC 15 in Columbus reported that an Instagram post shared by the library included video of a poetry book that recently had been returned -- about 93 years late. The patron had found the "Heart Throbs" poetry collection at a relative's house and discovered the due date card inside the front cover, last stamped "Nov 9 '31." WPDE estimated the total fine would have been approximately $5,770.

Cemetery Shortcut

In the immortal words of Shaggy, "It wasn't me." The Lavonia (Georgia) Police Department wants residents to know that a chaotic scene in a local graveyard Feb. 20 had nothing to do with them. "In case you saw or heard the law enforcement commotion," reads a post on the department's Facebook page, "well, it wasn't us." The commotion in question? Deputies from the Oconee County Sheriff's Office in neighboring South Carolina had chased a reckless driver across state lines and into the Lavonia City Burgess Cemetery, reports FOX 5 Atlanta. The driver -- who was apparently "late for an appointment" -damaged several graves before attempting to flee on foot. Unsuccessfully.

Thong and Pony Show

Australian equestrian Shane Rose, a threetime Olympic medalist, decided to push the sartorial envelope on Feb. 11, competing in a skimpy mankini -- the kind popularized by the 2006 movie "Borat." In fairness, the annual Wallaby Hill Extravaganza in New South Wales is a costumed competition, where equestrians put horses through their paces in all kinds of wacky get-ups. Some even go through multiple costume changes, which was the case with Rose. As the Wallaby Hill Equestrian Centre put it on Facebook, Rose "truly showed us 'all he's got' as he wore less and less with each horse he entered the arena with." But someone complained about the mankini, USA Today reported, leading governing body Equestrian Australia to bar Rose from competing while it investigated. (Even rowdy Aussies must follow codes of conduct, after all.) For a few days, Rose's 2024 Paris Olympics plans hung in the balance, but he was soon cleared of any wrongdoing. Let's hope he changes clothes before heaving a big sigh of relief.

BUILDING THE PARTY

Guest Opinion

by Douglas P. Marsh

In a recent opinion column, small business ownership expert Mary Keyes Rogers adeptly diagnoses several problems in our United States political systems. She homes in particularly on our country’s two major political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, and elected leaders, referring to some iconic household names: John McCain, Mitt Romney, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Hunter Biden, and George Santos

Rogers wisely recognizes, too, that our twoparty system is not going away any time soon, no matter how divorced both of the parties have become from the will of the people. A third party cannot coexist with the other two major parties under our country’s predominant election rules (see Duverger’s Law) and this system carries the inertia of our nation’s entire history to this point.

Relatedly, she recites Pew research that around a third of Americans hold negative views of both major parties. Yet more to this point, we know that more than half of eligible voters regularly do not vote in any given U.S. election.

Keen to problems, Rogers is not so certain on solutions. At one moment she encourages us to atomize, for each of us to form “the Party of Peter or Patty.” We can skip primaries, she says, and “support candidates with positions on policies that address problems” in the general election. A bit later, though, Rogers foresees that we will “tune out of political conversation altogether,” but calls this “good for our collective mental health.”

What to do?

The answers to our problems are neither tuning out nor searching in vain for Democrats and Republicans to represent us. Instead, we must all become active and engaged members of a mass political party in which we represent our own interests and concerns. The major parties have stopped listening or speaking to us, so we have to listen and speak all the more with each other!

The latest Gallup polls indicate that 41 percent of us are already politically independent. 28 percent of us identify as Democrats and another 28 percent as Republicans. But how many of us are organizing or attending party meetings, or campaigning for a candidate or a referendum measure? What is political party membership? What could it be? What should it be?

We do not want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars funding war and genocide abroad. We need funds to repair our roads and bridges and to develop sustainable energy infrastructure. We need universal access to drinkable water, nutritious food,

and stable shelter, or the spaces and means necessary to procure and produce our own. We need affordable, single-payer healthcare.

We’re locked into a two-party system, but they need not be the Republican and Democratic parties. These organizations have become self-serving and unresponsive to the will of the people. Historically and theoretically, another party can rise to power, despite the thoroughly corrupted condition of elections in our country. So how could a critical mass of people activate, mobilize, and decide together that enough is enough?

One vehicle and contender, among larger alternatives to the major parties, is the Green Party of the United States (GPUS). Since its founding in the 1980s it has been a party for environmental conservation and social and economic justice. Through the 1990s, the party’s platform took shape, and in the 2000s it emerged onto the national stage and spread to all 50 states.

In more recent years, GPUS members have updated the party platform to address the most pressing issues of our day in ways that are completely different to Democratic and Republican party strategies. And by adhering to grassroots democracy and decentralization as key values, the organization remains responsive and adaptive to the demands of a diverse and dynamic membership.

Meanwhile, the party has continued to solidify its widespread ballot access using a network of dedicated activists, most working as volunteers. Joining and getting active with the Green Party is easy (and free, in Michigan). Greens run independent, grassroots campaigns of all sorts at all levels and typically avoid corporate donors. The ideological commitments the party expects of members are clear, concise, and understandable, articulated as four pillars and 10 key values (see gp.org/platform).

Even as a massive group of people organized around our most basic demands, we can’t outspend the major parties on media and outreach (or anything else). Nor should we want or try to. If enough of us take the steps required to get our names on ballots, and at every opportunity support and vote for exclusively fellow members of our party, one that grows rapidly but organically from the core interests and concerns we share, we can forge a new path forward together.

But only as an independent, united, mass political party of common people.

Douglas P. Marsh is a journalist born in and then exiled from Traverse City because he couldn’t afford the rents. He visits family and friends often and has written for the R Eagle, Elk Rapids News, St. Ignace News, Industrial Worker, and more.

FASCINATING PEOPLE OF 2024

Meet 20 inspiring members of our community

By Northern Express Staff & Contributors

Have you ever wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail? Open a bakery? Make a movie? Start a business? Stand up for a cause you believe in?

This year’s crop of Fascinating People of northern Michigan has done all of the above…and more. Whether they’re chasing eclipses around the world or showing off their skills on stage, these 20 folks never fall short of fascinating. Get to know them with the help of writers Kierstin Gunsberg, Ross Boissoneau, Al Parker, and Jillian Manning.

Micah Bauer

The Trailblazer

Ask most high school seniors why they can’t wait for graduation, and they’ll list homework-free weekends and catching extra Z’s. For Micah Bauer, it was the call of the Pacific Crest Trail he couldn’t wait for—literally. With three weeks still left in the 2023 school year, Bauer convinced Traverse City Central to let him skip his graduation ceremony and wrap up the loose ends of his schooling to embark on his childhood dream of running—not just walking—the 2,650-mile trail system. Completed by less than 36 percent of participants, the trek spans multiple

countries, terrains, and climates along the West Coast and takes an average of five months to navigate through desert heat and avalanches. It’s no walk in the park. But the Trojan track star, equipped with a satellite communicator and loads of calorie-packed peanut butter and Nutella wraps, finished 2.5 months early, just in time to start his freshman year at Concordia University in Ann Arbor.

As an Olympic hopeful, Bauer is fast, but it’s his love for growing up exploring the beauty of northern Michigan that motivated him to take up running in the first place. “Just go out there and have the adventure,” Bauer says. “In the end, it’s not about how fast you go— it’s just about enjoying the moment and being there.”

Kendall Kotcher

The Warrior Princess

Kendall Kotcher always knew she was destined for the stage.

“I remember seeing shows like The Wizard of Oz and Phantom of the Opera,” she says of growing up in the Detroit area.

“I remember watching them and being like, ‘I want to be up there—that’s what I want to do.”

By the time Kotcher was completing her acting degree at Michigan State, she’d found another performance outlet: stage combat, which she says helped transform her from “an awkward giraffe” into “a warrior princess.” Today, she’s certified in all eight of the Society of American Fight

Liann Kaye

The Next Great Filmmaker

For the last 15+ years, writer, director, and filmmaker Liann Kaye been producing film content through her company Paper Frame Productions for brands like Johnson & Johnson and musical artists like her sister, Charlene (KAYE), who Kaye says “disappointed” their immigrant parents first “by deciding to become a rock musician.” Next, it was Kaye’s turn.

“I was the ‘good daughter’ who worked at corporate companies as a video editor,” she says. “Until I had a nervous breakdown and decided I had to quit and attempt to make one short film.”

Since then, Kaye has focused on telling AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) stories. Her awardwinning YouTube mini-series, The Blessing, navigates the topic of interracial, intercultural marriage when Italian-American Leo gets to know his future-in-laws before proposing to his Chinese-American girlfriend. Meanwhile, her short film, Seoul Switch, starring K-pop’s Kevin Woo, premieres this week at Oregon’s DisOrient Asian American Film Festival.

As critics have pointed out, Kaye’s writing stands out for its warmth and humor that transcends cultures and generations.

“As an Asian American female filmmaker, there are a number of barriers to being seen and heard in Hollywood,” she says. “I care deeply about issues such as race, equality, justice, etc., but I do believe that delivering those themes through an accessible lens is my passion.”

Directors’ disciplines.

The Traverse City Film Festival brought Kotcher north, and she worked summers at the festival while spending the school year with a traveling theater company. After COVID hit, Kotcher decided to make TC her permanent home. Here, she still acts (catch her as Madame de Garderobe in Old Town Playhouse’s Beauty and the Beast) and helps teach young performers. She’s also the vice president of the Up North Pride board of directors.

“Being a part of the LGBTQ community and also being a theater human, both of those spaces gave me permission to be myself when I was growing up,” she says. “I want to pay it forward and contribute creatively.”

Photo by LilJes Photography

Photo by Savannah Lauren

Tina Greene-Bevington

The Eclipse Chaser

First contact. Penumbra. Totality. Those may sound like the titles of sci-fi novels, but these terms are just regular verbiage in the solar-eclipse community, where Tina Greene-Bevington is a die-hard member.

Her fascination with solar eclipses started at age 11 when her teacher helped the class construct pin-hole viewers out of shoeboxes to safely view an impending partial eclipse. From that point forward, “I became hooked on everything to do with the stars and planets,” says Greene-Bevington, who grew up to be an educator herself before retiring to Suttons Bay, where she now owns Bay Books.

In the spring of 2006, she caught her first total eclipse from the rolling waves of the Mediterranean Sea, observing and photographing all four minutes and seven seconds of the roving solar phenomenon from a boat off the coast of Libya.

Since then she’s lugged her Canon EOS 70D all over the world to chase eclipses from Antarctica to Australia (her next eclipse locale is in the Sea of Cortez). Her only guarantee is adventure, since weather can quickly put the kaput on eclipse viewing.

As they say, it’s about the journey, not the destination. “When you chase solar eclipses, you’re opening yourself up not only to adventure, but new cultures, new food, new experiences, and wonderful learning opportunities,” she says.

Kathy Sanders

The Advocate

Doug Craven

The Man in the Woods

Doug Craven has spent most of his professional life in the great outdoors. (And a lot of his personal life, too.)

“I would say my connection [to nature] stemmed from an early age spending time with my grandfather and my grandmother up in Harbor Springs,” he says. “Hunting, fishing, mushroom gathering, maple syrup making—just kind of being outside and part of the landscape.”

Craven is the Natural Resources Director for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, a role he’s held for more than 20 years. He was the first director of the department and says the investment made in expanding from five employees to 30 during his tenure shows how important protecting the land and waters are to the LTBB community.

The biggest project on his desk right now? The Archie Kiogima ba Migizi Aviary and Rehabilitation Center, the first tribal eagle aviary and raptor center east of the Mississippi River and one of only eight nationwide.

No matter what he’s working on, Craven says he’s guided by two main philosophies. The first, “looking seven generations forward.” The second, working toward “the common good.” Those have led him to become more invested in Odawa culture and to join the Pellston Planning Commission, with a special interest in improving housing access in the area.

When Wisconsinite Kathy Sanders retired from education in 2014, she settled in on the west side of TC and quickly became involved with the advocacy group Before, During, and After Incarceration (BDAI) through Saint Francis Church’s Justice & Peace Commission.

Less than a decade old, BDAI is focused on assisting and humanizing an oft-overlooked group—the incarcerated. “It comes down to being a justice issue,” explains Sanders of the BDAI’s efforts to provide resources like mental health care, addiction treatment, and coaching programs for post-release success to inmates.

Sanders also notes the ripple effect that incarceration has on the local community, especially when it comes to children whose parents are jailed. Support those parents, Sanders explains, and you’re supporting the next generation. “If you can stabilize people’s lives, you’re stabilizing the community.”

Last year, Sanders was honored for her community contributions when she was given the Sara Hardy Humanitarian Award by the Traverse City Human Rights Commission. For Sanders, a highlight of the midsummer ceremony was spending the evening with her fellow advocacy champions at the Justice & Peace Commission and beyond.

“The greatest honor is being able to work with them, because this kind of work is not something one person can do alone,” she reflects. “It really, truly does take that village.”

Matthew Archibald

The Singing Librarian

Students at Grand Traverse Academy (GTA) call him “The Library Guy.” Others know him as “The Singing Librarian.”

Matthew Archilbald answers to both with a slight smile and an easy-going manner. His official title is Branch Manager of the East Bay branch of the Traverse Area District Library (TADL). Prior to this gig, he worked in the popular Youth Services Department at the main TADL branch, where he was keen on creating STEM projects and videos for curious youngsters. The Albany, New York, native was a voice major in college and spent 12 years teaching music. He’s also been involved in productions at the Old Town Playhouse and with the Northwestern Michigan College Choir.

Every Wednesday, Archibald flexes his musical muscles during “Sing and Stomp” days for youngsters at the library. And he looks forward to his monthly trips when he drives the library’s Bookmobile to GTA.

When he gets time off on a weekend, you can often find him driving to the U.P., where the family runs Archie’s West Bay Diner in Grand Marais. He helps out wherever he can in the restaurant. That’s a lot of work and a busy schedule for this self-described book lover, so what’s the most satisfying aspect of a typical day? “I really love the people I work with,” he says.

Phylicia Masonheimer

The Modern Theologian

It’s an Instagram world, and theologian Phylicia Masonheimer of Petoskey is using it, and her Biblical studies degree, to great success as a platform for Every Woman a Theologian, her online ministry with 140,000 followers and growing. (There are also books, blogs, speaking engagements, an annual conference, and Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer, her popular podcast.)

Every Woman a Theologian has deep intellectual heft and a level of spiritual sincerity that women (and men, too) often find lacking in patriarchal ministries. Specifically, Masonheimer uses her voice as a counter to “legalism,” the rules- and fearbased Christianity practiced by a number of well-known Chrisitan leaders, which has proven to be a slippery slope.

“…[I]f you are only interested in protecting your ministry, advancing your personal interests, making money, etc., [then] corruption is the natural next step,” she says. (For an eye-opener, watch Amazon’s Shiny Happy People.)

Masonheimer is part of a growing movement of female ministers who are peacefully, but firmly, pushing back against the patriarchy, using the “female voice…as a sort of ‘spiritual mother’ on the road to healing” to prove that, in this fractured—and fractious—world, there might be hope after all.

Dr. Jessica Rickert

The History Maker

A member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Dr. Jessica Rickert became the first female American Indian dentist when she graduated from the University of Michigan in 1975.

“At that time, the first American Indian dentist was Dr. George Blue Spruce. He contacted me and wanted to know if it would be a good idea to start a society of American Indian Dentists,” Dr. Rickert tells us. She said yes, and that society has grown from two people to hundreds today.

Dr. Rickert practiced dentistry in Interlochen until she stopped doing clinical work in 2016. But instead of fully retiring, she joined Delta Dental for their Anishinaabe Dental Outreach program.

“My tribe is not in the state of Michigan because President Andrew Jackson forced them to walk to Kansas against their will, but our grandparents walked back,” Dr. Rickert says of why she’s always called Michigan home. “The Grand Traverse Band is not my tribe, but they’re very welcoming.”

She now travels the state talking with Michigan tribes about dental health and careers in dentistry. In 2022, Dr. Rickert was awarded the American Dentistry Education Association’s prestigious William J. Gies Award for her tireless advocacy of diversity in dentistry.

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Josh Stoltz

The Grassroots Innovator

As the Executive Director of Grow Benzie, Josh Stoltz could be the poster child for many things: Farming. After-school programs. The environment. Art. What he is mostly, though, is a bundle of enthusiasm.

When asked how things are going, he immediately responds, “They’re rockin’!” The Benzie County nonprofit is properly named a Rural Prosperity Incubator, working to improve the lives of those in Benzie County through countless projects and events, plus space for “food and farming entrepreneurs to experiment.” Stoltz has built it from the ground up—literally, as the building Grow Benzie inhabits was an abandoned nursery before being purchased.

Stoltz has traveled to Great Britain and Russia as a Rotary Charities Changemaker Fellow, studying how those in other rural areas are dealing with population changes and their environment. Back home he’s continued to do the good work.

“We partner with other agencies to get stuff done in the community,” Stoltz says simply. “We’ve diversified our income,” he adds, meaning the monies from grants, foundations, members and fundraisers have grown to the point he doesn’t have to worry constantly about it. “It’s the first time in nine years I’m not thinking about [closing] if we don’t hit the next funding goal.”

That gives him time to think of more big ideas to impact his community.

Lisa Thauvette

The Improv Aficionado

How it started: “I took an improv workshop, and the reason why I took it was because it really scared me to do it,” says Lisa Thauvette, founder of Tilt Think Comedy Collective.

Thauvette’s day job is as a Montessori consultant—she’s taught all over the world, including as a head of school in Brussels, Belgium—but she’s always loved the theater. When she found improv, she found her calling.

“[I thought], I’m not smart enough. I’m not funny enough, quick enough, you know, all those things,” she continues. “So I took one workshop, and I was like, you don’t have to do all those things. You just have to be playful, and I’m pretty playful. So I took a shine to it.”

How it’s going: Thauvette went on to perform internationally with a professional improv troupe. When she moved to Traverse City, Tilt Think was born. Tilt Think players have performed at the TC Comedy Fest, enjoy recurring shows at The Workshop Brewing Company, and have welcomed members from Chicago, L.A., and New York into their ranks.

“You get people who do improv for really different reasons,” Thauvette explains. “We get people who say, ‘This has changed my life,’ people that are just enamored, and it’s just incredible to see what they’re doing and how far they’ve come.”

Daniel Kinga

The Self-Betting Man

JoAnne Beemon

The Peaceful Protester

Perhaps you’ve been in Charlevoix on a Friday between noon and 1pm and have seen a woman, often alone, holding a sign for peace. That’s JoAnne Beemon, and she has been keeping that silent vigil for 20 years as a member of Women in Black, the international peace movement against war, violence, and militarism that has been honored at the United Nations and at the White House.

“The crime is war,” she says, “and it drives waste and climate catastrophe.”

When Daniel Kinga moved from Nashville to Traverse City, he wasn’t expecting to start a Michigan-themed sunglass line or become a bank manager. He says when he was a kid, he wanted to be a police officer, or maybe run a Fortune 500 company. “I just wanted to be successful,” he tells us.

In his 15+ years in TC, he’s certainly crossed a few milestones off his list. He was part of the 2022-23 Leadership Grand Traverse Program and is active with groups like Traverse City Young Professionals and Northern Michigan E3. No matter what goal he’s chasing, he says he’s driven by curiosity, adventurousness, and a desire to “give back as much as I could.”

Oh, and another cool fact? Kinga once won a rap competition at Streeters (RIP to the former music venue!), which led him into hosting events and meeting famous music artists. He says the most down to earth celebrity he ever met was Waka Flocka Flame.

“Whenever I meet celebrities, I tend to just ask them questions like, how did you do it? What was your big break? What was your biggest fear? What advice do you have?” Kinga says. “Most of the time, the advice was ‘believe in yourself.’ So I guess I would just bet on myself at all times.”

That resolve is just part of Beemon’s advocacy. She pushed Big Rock Nuclear Plant to address its safety issues, and she supports the closing of the Line 5 pipeline. She has led campaigns to protect and preserve natural areas, including Fisherman’s Island State Park from private takeover and Stover Creek from overdevelopment. She secured the Lake St. Clair/Six-Mile Lake Natural Area, founded the Charlevoix County Land Conservancy, and worked to preserve Antrim County’s Grass River area. She was Michigan’s first successful Green Party candidate, and as drain commissioner, she thwarted Walmart’s plans to build in Charlevoix.

There’s more, but space won’t allow. Perhaps the best way to sum it up: Beemon received a record number of nominations to be named a Fascinating Person, and it’s easy to see why.

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Jimmy Tomczak

The Exploring Entrepreneur

Jimmy Tomczak is a multi-hyphenate. He’s a University of Michigan neuroscience graduate. He hosts meditation retreats, themed events, and other in-person gatherings geared toward connections, collaboration, and community. He’s an inventor (see Paperfeet, sandals made from recycled billboards). A public speaker. He’s played in bands. He’s traveled the country.

He’s also a writer, having authored Lakeside and Tide: Inspiration For Living Your Best Life Now. The description in part says the topics in the book are “set to the compelling metaphor of water and waves.” That may be the key to it all— or at least to how he got Up North.

Tomczak and his partner, artist and photographer Katelyn Wollet, landed in Traverse City because of its connection to water and the outdoors. A mass layoff of the innovation staff at the company where he most recently worked has given him time to pause and consider what’s next, likely in the product/marketing/strategy space. Of course, he’s also working on another book, and there’s always that saxophone in the basement.

Above all, he says he wants “to make our collective home a better place: house, community, town, state, nation. I try to help [others] as I can with their careers and get the most out of their life.”

Celeste Lovely

The Camper Queen

Celeste Lovely of Gaylord, at loose ends during the COVID lockdown, told her husband she wanted to go camping, a non-starter for her spouse.

But it gave Lovely an idea: She knew folks were escaping to northern Michigan rather than staying locked down in the city. This self-described “very stubborn, ambitious gogetter” was speaking in the parlance of entrepreneurs everywhere when she told her husband that she was “going to make us some money.”

The idea was to buy some travel trailers and rent them to visitors. (Thank you, Brewbaker’s of Onaway.) “They

believed in me,” she says. With a website and a Facebook page, Celeste Lovely Camper Rental took off. “I knew right away that I had something.”

Lovely started with one camper, and today she owns three and represents five more through a consignment arrangement, sort of a rolling Airbnb for owners. Campers are delivered to state parks and campgrounds between Roscommon and Mackinaw City, set up on site, and then picked up on the day of check-out. Clients come from all over, including internationally.

Lovely would like to expand this one-woman operation, “but slowly.” She also has a very busy photography business for weddings, families, and high school seniors, plus a photo booth and rentable studio space in Gaylord for photographers and other creators.

Karen Zeeb

The Mapmaker

“Maps are amazing,” says cartographer and designer Karen Zeeb. “We all have phones and GPSs, but they don’t generate cool.”

Zeeb’s passion was ignited when her cartographer brother gave her some work to do in Illustrator. “I didn’t know it was a career. I got into it because I love graphic design.” That lightbulb moment took a while to become a business. “I had to go to school for six years,” she notes ruefully of achieving her Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies from the University of Washington.

Today, the owner of AltaTerra Cartographic calls the Mancelona area home, after working and living in Colorado, Seattle, California, and elsewhere. “I’m from Ann Arbor, my dad lives in Michigan, my mom and sister in Traverse City. I wanted to get away from the city,” which at the time was Scottsdale, Arizona. “I love being out in nature.”

Many of Zeeb’s maps are done for the U.S. Forest Service, such as those for the Rocky Mountain region; others are visitor maps for the U.S. Geological Survey. She also gets a chance to indulge her whimsical streak with pet portraits and maps showing attacks by Godzilla, Mothra, and other such monsters with the movies from which they came.

Malachy Godfrey

The Karaoke Chauffeur

What do teaching, theater, limousine service, science fiction, and karaoke have in common? Two words: Malachy Godfrey.

The transplanted Brit owns and runs Car Trek Karaoke, providing a unique experience for those interested in wine, brewery, or color tours, graduation or bachelorette

parties, even mundane taxi rides or airport shuttles. With an onboard karaoke machine with some 10,000 songs, plus another 8,500 on the vehicle’s hard drive, every ride’s a party.

The science and math teacher came to the U.S. as part of a teacher exchange, and a traveling science show landed him in Traverse City. Facing budget cuts, Godfrey looked around for the next step. “A friend said, ‘Have you considered driving a taxi?’ I thought, ‘What a stupid idea that is.’”

20 FASCINATING PEOPLE

Then he began to think about it—he could relax, talk to people—and “It didn’t sound so terrible.” That led to outfitting his own vehicles with a karaoke system and often a space theme. (Wait, did we mention Godfrey is a sci-fi enthusiast, who worked on London’s West End theater scene and was in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ?) He still keeps his hand in many pies, including work as a producer on various sci-fi films.

Lauretta Reiss

The Designer Chef

Lauretta Reiss, a former footwear designerturned-chef, owns and operates Small Batch at the Cupola, one of Harbor Springs’ most intriguing culinary spots. Originally from metro Detroit, Reiss retired to Harbor Springs in 2012 after a high-powered design career that took her around the globe, much of the time spent in Asia and Europe.

Like several of the folks on this list, she didn’t stay retired long. The move north reignited her passion for baking and cooking, and in 2014 she opened a bakery. Then within a year she launched her restaurant, Small Batch at the Cupola. With an eclectic, ever-changing menu, it’s been a hit from the start.

Reiss’ most recent success came in December 2023, when she competed against two other chefs in the Marty Van De Car Chef Challenge at Sage Restaurant at Odawa Casino. Each chef prepared hors d’oeuvres, an appetizer, and an entree course. “We did a pork belly, apple, cheese skewer, scallops in a sauce, and a mini pork Osso Bucco,” recalls Reiss.

The creations were served to some 150 diners who did the judging. Reiss won all three categories and has been invited back. Of course, she’s ready to defend her title. “I’m incredibly competitive,” she says with a laugh.

MaryAnn Tucker Moore

The Lighthouse Luminary

MaryAnn Tucker Moore is a “professional volunteer” at a number of Mackinaw City organizations: Woman’s Club, Historical Society, Arts Council, the Wawatam Area Senior Center and more. “I’m service oriented,” she says, and she means it.

Her longest running gig began in 1992, when she joined the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association (GLLKA) to help with the nascent restoration efforts at the remote and derelict 1873 St. Helena Lighthouse, 10 miles west of Mackinac Island. (Michigan has 129 historical lighthouses.) Since then, she spent every summer for 31 years on the island, helping with the Lighthouse Keepers program, where overnight guests work on projects—and pay for the privilege—while enjoying some of the planet’s most beautiful real estate.

Moore knows how to dig a latrine, but she sounds like a poet when she talks about St. Helena. “The historical location moved all of my senses.” Plus, she’s a retired Family and Consumer Science teacher—home ec, to folks of a certain age—and you just know she can do stuff: scheduling, cooking, cleaning, guiding tours, treating poison ivy, rescuing lost guests who wandered off, among other responsibilities.

Moore stepped away from active GLLKA participation in 2022, but remains on the board. “If I see a need, I’m willing to help,” she says.

Shea Petaja

The Ultimate Wing-Woman

Life coach Shea Petaja is happy to be known as “the ultimate wing-woman” and a “thinking partner” to her clients.

“What I like in coaching is that I can work with anyone, and I’m guiding them to their truth,” Petaja says. “You hire a coach … when you need strategy, accountability, and discipline and to be seen in a really great, but honest, light.”

Petaja’s journey has taken her from biblical studies in college to selling furniture to the world of finance before she went into full-time coaching. She’s now coached over 100 people since she got her certification in 2014. She calls this work “The Holy Shift” (points for the pun!).

“I’ve had to shift so much in my life and transition so many times that I feel like my expertise is helping people know who they are, figure out what they want, and then how they’re going to do it,” she says.

When she’s not coaching, Petaja can be found putting together the latest episode of her podcast, The Honest Edge, where she interviews fascinating people of her own. “My podcast is [about] people who have been through tremendous pain and have come out on the other side and what it looks like to become an authority on your pain and your life,” Petaja says.

Fighting Back Against Disinformation

Author Barbara McQuade is in pursuit of the truth

By Anna Faller

Legal expert and author Barbara McQuade has dedicated the last three decades to fighting for America’s national security. In recent years, though, her battles have been closer to home as disinformation has spurred public distrust and violence in the U.S. This work formed the inspiration (and title!) of McQuade’s debut book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.

She’ll join the National Writers Series on Monday, March 11, at 7pm to talk about common disinformation tactics, their dangers, and how to dig for the truth.

“I think it’s time we all step back and examine how we consume news,” says Anne Stanton, National Writers Series co-founder and director. “To remain engaged and be a strong believer in democracy, truth is the starting point.”

Government & Law

McQuade’s journey began in the early 1990s when she earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. From there, she went into private practice and spent more than a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney (where she led a national security unit), before serving as the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan throughout the 2010s. Appointed by then-president Barack Obama, McQuade was the first woman to hold this position.

During her tenure, she oversaw countless cases involving issues of counterterrorism, human rights, and public corruption, including the high-profile trial of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; the conviction of a would-be Al-Qaeda bomber in connection with a 2009 flight hijacking; and the exposure of supposed cancer-specialist Farid Fata’s notorious healthcare scam.

Since then, McQuade’s returned to her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law and procedure, national security, and other related topics. In 2017, she became a regular contributor to MSNBC, where she’s a legal analyst, and she also a co-hosts Politicon’s legal discourse podcast, #SistersinLaw.

If there’s a common thread to her career, it’s McQuade’s lifelong fascination with government—especially honest and wellfunctioning ones. “I’m deeply offended by corruption, and I think that’s motivated my

life’s work,” she says.

Consequently, it was Robert Muller’s 2016 presidential election report that turned her on to the potential dangers of disinformation online.

“I know most people think about that [report] as all being about the culpability of Donald Trump, but there’s far more there,” McQuade explains, noting the influence of Russian technology to sow discord and impact election results by means of phony cyber personas.

Even more startling to her is the recent uptick in similar tactics within the U.S. “Disinformation is a national security threat. I want to name it, raise awareness about it, and help defeat it through public education,” she says.

Repetition & Lies

So, what exactly is disinformation?

Unlike misinformation, which is when someone unwittingly spreads false content (e.g., you saw it, thought it was true, and shared it with other people), McQuade defines disinformation as deliberately false claims used to further agendas.

Though it feels like a product of our current times, disinformation actually dates back to authoritarians like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Further, while digital technology and social platforms offer new means of delivering disinformation, McQuade says that the strategies used to create it haven’t changed much in the last 80 years.

This, she says, is because they’ve been proven to work—even on those who think they’re immune.

Repetition was a noted favorite of German philologist and Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Simply put: a message blasted on repeat will convince people that the message is true…even better if it comes with a catchy slogan. This speaks to a psychological concept known as the Illusory Truth Effect, which suggests that we’re more likely to believe information that we’ve encountered before.

Through the lens of modern disinformation, this is why mantras like “Stop the Steal,” and “Drain the Swamp” have connected with such a wide audience. “People think there must be some truth to it, because they’re hearing it from so many sources,” says McQuade.

Large-scale lies are another key tactic. Though most of us stretch the truth

sometimes, it’s often done out of decorum or to preserve another person’s feelings or our own. Big lies, though, are a social nono—that is, unless you’re trying to convince people of something that would otherwise sound preposterous.

This, says McQuade, is largely how Hitler hid the realities of Holocaust concentration camps, and similarly, is how Donald Trump perpetuated claims of forged election results. Heck, some leaders, like Vladimir Putin, have even built a platform by convincing their followers that all people are corrupt and that truth is for the weak and naïve.

“No one imagines that someone would have the audacity to tell such a big lie, because they couldn’t imagine doing it themselves. Those are the kinds of lies that work,” McQuade says.

Consequences & Weaponization

Attack from Within notes that the consequences of these tactics and others could spell catastrophe for our government.

For starters, McQuade says disinformation engenders harm to democratic structures, like tightening the belt around mail-in voting—a critical resource for those with mobility issues, tough work hours, or a lengthy commute— polling specifics, and voter ID requirements.

“Not only do these impositions undermine confidence in elections, but they also disenfranchise our citizens,” she explains.

Safety is another biggie, especially as it relates to false claims surrounding elected officials and public redress, which has run the gamut from verbal threats to protesting at their homes to legitimate attacks. As McQuade observes, this phenomenon also renounces U.S. rule of law, which dictates that we’re all treated equally and that formal disputes are resolved in court.

When we distrust our public officials though, some people will inevitably be moved to carry out their own law enforcement tactics.

“So we saw on January 6, [2021], when members of the public tried to storm the capital,” she notes, also pointing to instances like the 2020 plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul.

McQuade predicts that the weaponizing of disinformation will get worse before it gets better. With technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes now capable

of replicating the voices and images of political leaders, a fake story could lead to further distrust among voters or even cause Wall Street markets to tumble.

Literacy & Truth

So how can we, as consumers, become more literate in pinpointing disinformation?

For starters, educating ourselves on the hallmarks of false claims is critical. Misspellings of reputable sources, for instance, are telltale signs of disinformation, as are obvious attempts to mask a poster’s identity, like nebulous usernames (think: USA Eagle, Patriot Girl, and the like) or those containing only numbers, both of which indicate bots or false personas.

Cross-checking online information, especially if it’s emotionally-charged, is another. Further, McQuade calls on tech companies to quell disinformation by requiring transparency for algorithms and funding sources for targeted ads (which, she says, could help provide needed structure without running afoul of the First Amendment), as well as encouraging social platforms to redirect false claims to reputable sources.

By arming ourselves with information, we also protect the truth and the people who bring it to light.

“We need brave souls on the front line who are willing to persist, even when it’s scary,” NWS event guest host and fellow author John U. Bacon notes.

The event is supported by Bob Giles’ “Truth Matters” Nonfiction Author Conversations and the Traverse City International Affairs Forum. “If people can remain open-minded in [adhering] to a mission of truth, hopefully they’ll be able to look and think for themselves,” Bob Giles’ daughter Megan Giles Cooney concludes.

About the Event: An Evening with Barbara McQuade will take place on Monday, March 11, at 7pm at the City Opera House in Traverse City and via livestream. Tickets range from $5-$27 plus fees and can be purchased through the City Opera House (in-person tickets only) or online through the National Writers Series website. Signed copies of McQuade’s featured book, Attack from Within, will be available at a 20 percent discount. The guest host for the event will be bestselling sports author and broadcast veteran, John U. Bacon. For more information, visit nationalwritersseries.org.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT (and Collaboration)

What members of the blind and visually impaired community and their advocates have to say about accessibility in Traverse City

By Art Bukowski

Sometimes Roxane Townsend will feel bold enough to cross Grandview Parkway for a chance to sit by the bay and listen to the waves.

Townsend, 68, is fully blind now, but it wasn’t always that way. She remembers those deep, vivid blues set against the lighter hues of a summer sky. When she sits on the sand and hears the waves lapping the shore, it isn’t hard to conjure up what many of us take for granted.

“I know what the bay looks like; I can imagine it in my head whenever I want,” she says. “A lot of people don’t realize they have this vision in their brain until something like this happens.”

Townsend lives in a small room in an old house on Second Street, which is quite close to that big blue bay. But for someone who can’t see, it can feel 100 miles away. She doesn’t know if it’s day or night without her phone speaking and telling her the time, she says, and previously simple tasks can now be mountains to climb.

“I get up most days and try to find myself. I have to find my clothes, find my toothbrush, find my shoes—my goodness. Take off your shoes, put them someplace, then close your eyes and try to find them,” she says. “I want everybody to try that. Just the shoes.”

Townsend says she has adult children to help her and a cab driver she’s made friends with, and in the past, she’s made use of BATA

buses. This means karaoke at the Sail Inn and visits to the library, among other places.

“Music has always been in my family and in my mind,” she says. “It’s my mainstay.”

And she’s often out and about with “Matilda,” her trusty cane. It’s a bit bulkier than the common slender white canes, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I keep changing the ends on her. She’s stoked fires and lots of other stuff,” Townsend says. “She’s been through it all with me.”

And while Townsend makes the most of things, she can’t shake the feeling that she is at once a burden on society and invisible to those around her.

“A lot of blind people are embarrassed. We are mortified…there is such a stigma

attached to it,” she says. “We are made to feel less than other people.”

Identifying Progress and Problems

Townsend has not been impressed with the services for people who are blind in the Traverse City area. She cites issues with transportation, few safe crosswalks, and a general lack of awareness.

“I feel like there’s not a lot of help for blind people north of Grand Rapids,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like I’m in the dark ages.”

Disability advocates in the Traverse City area say the region gets mixed grades when it comes to supporting those with visual impairments.

The exact number of people with visual

Steve Lagerquist of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy leads a hike for people with visual impairments and other disabilities at GTRLC’s Arcadia Dunes preserve. The conservancy gathered input from people with visual impairments while designing a universal access trail there.

impairments in the region is hard to pin down due to incomplete surveying combined with different definitions of impairment, advocates say. But it’s estimated that hundreds of people in the Grand Traverse region and thousands across northern Michigan at large have at least some degree of significant visual impairment.

Demarie Jones is an independent living resource specialist with Disability Network Northern Michigan, which assists people with all forms of disabilities across the northern portion of the state. There are state and federal agencies that provide help, too, Jones says, but they are stretched pretty thin. The state-run Bureau of Services for Blind Persons (BSBP) is one such agency.

“Like every agency, the BSBP is strapped for employees, so there are basically two individuals that serve the entire upper part of Michigan,” Jones says.

Disability Network offers direct assistance to people with visual impairments, largely by helping with day-to-day life tasks and other needs as necessary. On a community-wide level, the group presses local government to continuously improve accessibility.

“We’re making progress. In the case of crosswalks, when roads are being changed or new lights being put up, they’re adding an auditory signal,” she explains. “We don’t get much pushback when it comes to making things more accessible.”

Other positives include increasing recreational opportunities in the form of universally accessible trails, Jones says. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy is among the organizations working to provide such opportunities at its preserves and natural areas.

“Which is good, because that’s why we all live up here, right?” Jones says. “To enjoy the beauty of nature.”

Where the community continues to fail, she notes, is in finding safe and affordable places for people with disabilities to live.

huge, huge problem for folks who are disabled, or elderly, or on a low income,” she says. “We’re building all kinds of housing, and only a small portion of it is allocated for people on fixed income. That’s where we’re falling way behind.”

Working Together for a Better Future

Melinda Hollands, a social worker, is also blind. She runs a support and networking group called Traverse City Visually Impaired Persons, or TC-VIP. About a dozen people come together each month, though about 70 people are on the email list.

In addition to transportation and housing, Hollands says employment for people who are blind or visually impaired is another significant issue throughout the region.

“People who are visually impaired have a lot of skills and a lot to offer employers. But a lot of times they don’t get that opportunity to work because there’s so many assumptions about what people can or cannot do, or how safe they may or may not be,” she says. “Employment is a big barrier for people.”

Hollands has been mulling over the idea of a disability etiquette presentation that could be provided to groups throughout the community to help the general public interact with people who are blind.

“They’re often intimidated, maybe even scared and unsure [when interacting with us],” she says. “And we as the blind community don’t want to be scary. We don’t want to intimidate people. People mean well…so we can continue to raise awareness and educate people. It could be a win-win situation.”

Moving forward, the TC-VIP group, Disability Network, and other advocates hope for a seat at the table—or at least to be consulted—as community decisions are made.

“We’re not experts in road design, but the people who are experts in road design may have no clue what it’s like to be visually impaired,” Hollands says. “We’re trying to work together, and that can be really positive.”

saturday TRAVERSE CITY RESTAURANT WEEK: Downtown TC, Feb. 25 - March 2. Downtown TC participating restaurants will have either a $25, $35 or $45 set menu. Call or make reservations online at the restaurant(s) of your choice. downtowntc.com/ traverse-city-restaurant-week ----------------------

WELLNESS FAIR - ELK RAPIDS: 9am2pm, Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall, Elk Rapids. Learn about local wellness options. Free demonstrations & door prizes. Free admission. fb.me/e/1KV3uNkRu

FAT & FLURRIOUS FAT BIKE RACE: Start at 10am in Downtown Boyne City & get a police escort to Avalanche. Sport Class: One lap around Avalanche. Open Class: Two laps around Avalanche. Awards & after party at Stiggs Brewery. $60. fatandflurrious.com ----------------------

MAPLE SUGARING DAYS: 10am-3pm, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Experience the sugaring process through time. Start by traveling back in time at the Dechow Farm. Learn the history of maple sugaring from the Anishinaabe, then travel through to the present day at the Olsen Farm. End your adventure by sampling warm syrup or making maple taffy. Dechow Farm: 3991 W Harbor Hwy, Maple City. Olsen Farm: 3164 W Harbor Hwy, Maple City. All programs are free with a valid park entrance pass. nps.gov/slbe/ planyourvisit/maple-sugaring-days.htm

OPEN STUDIO, PETOSKEY: 10am-1pm, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Visual Arts Room, Petoskey. Drop-in art for the whole family. New projects are offered each week. Free. crookedtree. org/event/ctac-petoskey/open-studio-march-2

HARBOR SPRINGS AREA SPRING RESTAURANT WEEK: Feb. 23 - March 3. Enjoy special menus at each participating restaurant. harborspringschamber.com/events/details/restaurant-week-2024-13765

SATURDAY 25 CENTS FAMILY FAVORITES: 11am, Lyric Theatre, Theater 1, Harbor Springs. Featuring “The Great Muppet Caper.”

STORYPALOOZA FOR READ ACROSS

AMERICA - FREE DAY: 11am-4pm, Dennos Museum Center, NMC, TC. An all-ages celebration of stories. From graphic novels to zines, classic literature to poetry, you can read, share, & listen to stories from around the community. dennosmuseum.org/events/community-programs.html

MARDI GRAS AT THE MOUNTAIN: Crystal Mountain, Thompsonville. Noon-4pm: DJ CDX will play hits at the Crystal Center Patio; find the Crystal Mountain Court Jester skiing on the mountain; On-Slope Scavenger Hunt. 1-3pm: Mardi Gras mask making at Lodge Pavilion Tent. crystalmountain.com/event/mardi-gras

INAUGURAL INTERNATIONAL FLY FISHING FILM FESTIVAL: 12:30pm & 3pm, The Vogue Theatre, Manistee. Tickets: $25; includes free access to demonstrations, presentation & seminars throughout the weekend by regional fly-fishing experts. voguetheatremanistee.org

SOUP-ER BOWL SATURDAY – VEGMICHIGAN-TRAVERSE CITY MONTHLY MEETUP: 1pm, Oryana West, TC. Join for a soup sampling. You will be preparing three healthy, low cost & easy to make vegan soups. Whatever your food preference (vegetarian, vegan, omnivore), everyone’s welcome. Free to attend. meetup.com/traverse-city-vegmichigan-meetup/events/299164726/?utm_ medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_ savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

SUDS & SNOW: 1-6pm, Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort, TC. This “Party in the Woods” includes a 1/2 mile hike through the backwoods of where there are two live-music

stages featuring local musicians, 20+ craft vendors serving beer, wine, & cider, plus local food trucks. $40-$70. tcsudsandsnow.com

USA CURLING MIXED DOUBLES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: Feb. 27 – March 3, TC Curling Club, 1712 S. Garfield Ave., TC. The Mixed Doubles National Championship determines the strongest mixed doubles team in the nation to advance to represent the United States at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in April in Sweden. See web site for daily times & tickets. $5 - $20; 5 & under, free; 6-18, half price. tccurling.org/usa-curling-national-championship -------------------- --

ENTER THE HAGGIS: 7pm, Dennos Museum Center, Milliken Auditorium, NMC, TC. For the better part of two decades, Toronto’s Enter The Haggis has combined bagpipes & fiddles with a rock rhythm section to create a distinctively eclectic sound. Their songs tell stories of everyday hard-working people, often faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges. $25 - $35. simpletix.com/e/enter-the-haggis-tickets-153331

“COMING OF LIGHT”: 7:30pm, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Corson Auditorium. Presented by NMC Concert Band & Grand Traverse Chorale. Featuring John Rutter’s “Magnificat” & C.M. von Weber’s “Clarinet Concerto.” Tickets are $8 students/seniors or $13 adults pre-order, & $10 students/seniors or $15/adults at the door. simpletix.com/e/nmc-concert-bandgrand-traverse-chorale-pr-tickets-157524

BLISSFEST PRESENTS: GRACE THEISEN: 7:30-9pm, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Theater, Petoskey. Grace is an award-winning songwriter & Americana artist from Kalamazoo. She will be joined by special guest Annie Bacon. $25$30. showclix.com/event/grace-theisen-

BLISSFEST TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY

DANCE: 7:30pm, Littlefield-Alanson Community Hall, Alanson. Featuring contras, squares, circles & more. Music provided by Rigs and Jeels with caller Cynthia Donahey. All dances taught & no need to come with a partner. Potluck at 6:30pm. Bring dish to pass & tableware. $10/person; $5/student; 12 & under free.

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: 7:30pm, Old Town Playhouse, TC. The classic story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, & the Beast, a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. $20-$33. tickets.oldtownplayhouse.com/TheatreManager/1/online?event=0

mar

sunday

send

Meet Marvel Comic illustrator Jerry DeCaire! This artist for Thor, DeadPool, X-Men, etc. will run a workshop for drawing superheroes from 1-3pm on Sun., March 10 at Dennos Museum Center, NMC, TC. Cost for this Second Sunday Art Project: Art of A Super Hero is $0 - $10 and reflects the price of admission to the museum. There is a limit of 40, and you must register in advance: https://www.simpletix.com/e/second-sunday-art-project-art-of-a-super-htickets-153872. Show up to the museum early and enjoy a free TADL Caldecott Storytime from 12:30-1pm.

mar

monday STORYTIME ADVENTURES: 1:30pm, Great Lakes Children’s Museum, TC. Featuring “Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes” by Erick Litwin. greatlakeskids.org

04 mar

05

tuesd ay

mobile device or laptop with login info & your questions. Free. leelanautownshiplibrary.org

GRAND TRAVERSE ICE YACHT CLUB MEETING: Grand Traverse Yacht Club, Greilickville. For those interested in ice boating. Social hour at 6pm; meeting at 7pm. Held the first Tues. of each month. facebook.com/ groups/GTIYC

GRAND TRAVERSE KENNEL CLUB MEETING: Incredible Mo’s, Grawn. 6pm meet & greet; 7pm meeting. Public welcome. Grandtraversekennelclub.com

MAPLE SUGARING DAYS: (See Sat., March 2)

TRI 45 WINTER TRIATHLON: 10am, Treetops Resort, Gaylord. Choose from either the Tri 45 Solo Triathlon ($75) or Tri 45 Group Triathlon ($95). Includes a 5K cross country ski (classic only), 10K fat tire bike, & 5K trail run. There will be a post-race celebration at Snow Belt Brewery. trisignup.com/Race/MI/Gaylord/2024GaylordAl lOutdoorsTri45WinterTriathlon ----------------------

HARBOR SPRINGS AREA SPRING RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sat., March 2)

INAUGURAL INTERNATIONAL FLY FISHING FILM FESTIVAL: (See Sat., March 2, except today’s time is 11am.)

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: (See Sat., March 2, except today’s time is 2pm.)

GREAT LAKES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

SUNDAY SERIES: 4pm, First Congregational Church of Charlevoix. Featuring The Drumheads. Enjoy the many sounds of percussion (drum, cymbals, marimba & more) with favorites from Schumann to Guaraldi. Free.

USA CURLING MIXED DOUBLES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: (See Sat., March 2)

COFFEE & CONVERSATION AT THE CHAMBER: 8-10am, Harbor Springs Area Chamber office, 118 E. Main St., Harbor Springs. Connect with Chamber staff & other members.

03 mar

06

KIDS CRAFT LAB: 10:30am, Great Lakes Children’s Museum, TC. March comes in “like a lion” with roaring winds. Give your lion a fabulous lion’s mane with colorful strips of paper. Sign up at the front desk when you arrive. Make your reservation on web site. greatlakeskids.org ----------------------

WINTER POP-UP PEEPERS PROGRAM: 10-11am, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. An adult-accompanied program for early learners ages 3-5 of all experience levels with the natural world. Today’s program is “Feathered Friends.” $5/child. Register: natureiscalling. org/preschool-peepers-program

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: 10:30am, Suttons Bay-Bingham District Library, lower-level Community Meeting Room. Preschoolers of all ages are invited to join for stories, songs & active fun. Free. sbbdl.org

STORYTIME ADVENTURES: (See Mon., March 4)

TECH TUESDAY: GOOGLE DRIVE: 3pm, Leelanau Township Library, Lower-level Community Room, Northport. Join for a presentation on how to use Google Drive. Bring your

wednesday

“WOMEN AND THE ARTS” PRESENTATION: 4-5:30pm, Benzonia Public Library. To celebrate Women’s History Month this program brings to life some of the world’s most beautiful & powerful pieces of art done by women most have never heard of. It covers the artists before 1750 & includes some of the portraits of the powerful women of the time period.

TASTE OF THE VILLAGE - MARCH RECESS: 5-7pm, The Village at GT Commons, The Mercato, TC. After-work happy hour for adults. Drinks, food, prizes & networking. Food offerings from Cuppa Joe, Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery, Spanglish, Red Spire Brunch House, & Sugar 2 Salt. Drink selections will be beer from Earthen Ales & wine & cider from Left Foot Charley. Prizes: A two-night stay in a 2-bedroom condo at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons + 4 tickets for a Guided Historic Walking Tour; & 4 tickets for a Guided Historic Walking Tour + $100 Village gift certificate. Entrance will be at the PepeNero lobby. Shops will be open until 7:30pm & Mini Tunnel Tours will be available for $3. Sponsored by West Shore Bank. $10. facebook.com/ events/1104302930779193

thursday

FIRST STEPS SCIENCE:

WHAT’S UP WIND?:

10:30am, Great Lakes Children’s Museum, TC. Discover different hands-on ways to experience wind. Take home project included. Sign up at the front desk when you arrive. Make your reservation on web site. greatlakeskids.org

SAILING INTO OBLIVION: ON THE HIGH SEAS WITH JEROME RAND: 1-2:30pm, NCMC, Library Conference Room, Petoskey. Learn of an adventurous life sailing the world’s seas & oceans in a 32 ft. vessel. Register. Free. ncmclifelonglearning.com/event-5606599/Registration

STORYTIME ADVENTURES: (See Mon., March 4)

NMC CAREER & EMPLOYMENT FAIR:

2-6pm, NMC Hagerty Center, TC. Held in partnership with Northwest Michigan Works & Networks Northwest. The first hour is reserved for veterans & active military families. Featuring 75 regional & national businesses looking to fill part time, full time & seasonal positions in a variety of fields. Free. nmc.edu/careerfair

POTLUCK & OFF THE WALL MOVIE NIGHT: Helena Township Community Center, Alden. Call for movie details & to sign up for the potluck: 231331-4318. Dinner, 6pm; movie, 7pm. Free.

THE GREENSPIRE SCHOOL PRESENTS:

“BEAUTY AND THE BEAST JR.”: 6:30pm, The Village at GT Commons, Kirkbride Hall, TC. Enjoy this tale as old as time. Doors open at 6pm. The performance is a new venture of Greenspire Productions. $10 GA. greenspireschool.org/ticket-sales

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: (See Sat., March 2)

POPULAR MUSIC ENSEMBLE: RISE UPSONGS OF STRUGGLE & RESISTANCE: 7:30pm, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Corson Auditorium. Experience a multi-genre collection of past & present hits including Beyonce’s “Freedom,” Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” & Tori Amos’ “Cornflake Girl.” $17 adult; $14 child through college. interlochen. org/events/popular-music-ensemble-rise-songsstruggle-and-resistance-2024-03-07

friday

KID’S FESTIVAL WEEK-

END: Boyne Mountain Resort, Boyne Falls, March 8-10. Includes a scavenger hunt, coloring contest, family movie night, snowman building, Willy Wonka Rail Jam & much more. boynemountain.com/annual-events/kids-fest-weekend

STORYTIME: 10:30am, Leland Township Library, Leland. Stories & more for children aged 0-6 & their caregivers. Free. lelandlibrary.org

WOMEN OWNING & APPRECIATING WOODLANDS: LAND MANAGEMENT & PLANNING WORKSHOP: 1-4pm, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. Discover ways to manage invasive species & deer population. Become inspired to add natives into your landscape, & sketch out a management plan of your own. Register. Free. natureiscalling.org

STORYTIME ADVENTURES: (See Mon., March 4)

THE GREENSPIRE SCHOOL PRESENTS: “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST JR.”: (See Thurs., March 7)

“ANYTHING GOES” PRESENTED BY TRAVERSE CITY CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL: 7pm, TC Central High School Auditorium. This

Tony award winning musical has a cast of 40 students. It also features a pit orchestra of 23 student musicians, as well as professional musicians Joshua Wagner (trumpet) & Jeanmarie Riccobono (clarinet). Eight students serve as the tech crew. $20-$25. tcaps.booktix.com

“OUR TOWN”: 7pm, Cadillac Community Auditorium, Cadillac High School. Presented by Cadillac Footliters. This Pulitzer Prize winning drama has universal themes of family, love, marriage & death. GA: $11. cadillacfootliters. ludus.com/index.php

TC FIGURE SKATING CLUB PRESENTS

“UNDER THE SEA ADVENTURES”: 7pm, Centre Ice Arena, TC. Skaters will take you on a journey through “The Little Mermaid,” “Moana,” “Finding Nemo,” & “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Enjoy amazing skating, music, props & lighting. $20-$180. mynorthtickets.com

“CORNERS GROVE”: 7:30pm, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Phoenix Theatre. Thornton Wilder’s acclaimed drama “Our Town” gets a contemporary update in Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s play “Corners Grove.” Set more than 100 years after the original play, “Corners Grove” recasts the traditional characters as a diverse group of high school students on the cusp of adulthood. $24 adult; $19 child through college. interlochen.org/events/corners-grove-2024-03-08

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: (See Sat., March 2)

FRIENDS OF THE BOB & TOM SHOWGREG HAHN & DAVID DYER: 7:30pm, City Opera House, TC. Both Hahn & Dyer are favorites on The Bob and Tom Show. Hahn costarred in the film “Tomorrow Night” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He has also appeared on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” (NBC), “Premium Blend” (Comedy Central), “Make Me Laugh” (5 episodes, Comedy Central), & many others. Dyer has been performing stand-up at clubs & corporate events all over the country for the past 22 years. $20-$40. cityoperahouse.org/node/562

saturday

HBA HOME EXPO: 9am5pm, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Acme. Over 100 vendors showcasing the latest in home building design & remodeling trends. $12; kids, free. hbagta.com

HOPS ‘N HIGHLANDS: 9am-10pm, The Highlands Resort, Harbor Springs. A craft beer-tasting weekend. Includes a variety of Michigan breweries including Ore Dock Brewery, New Holland Brewing Co., Short’s Brewery, Bell’s Brewery, & many more. There will also be live music, food trucks, keg bowling, IFOSH Stein Hoisting Winter Championships, & more. $25. highlandsharborsprings.com/events/hops-and-highlands

KID’S FESTIVAL WEEKEND: (See Fri., March 8)

SPRING CARNIVAL: Crystal Mountain, Thompsonville. Featuring the Creative Sled Contest, Cardboard Classic Race, On-Slope Scavenger Hunt, Slush Cup, live music & more. Fun-in-the-sun costumes highly encouraged. crystalmountain.com/event/spring-carnival

4TH ANNUAL COMMUNITY SEED SWAP: 10am-noon, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. Bring your garden seeds - any vegetables, fruits, or flowers that you enjoy growing - & plan to leave with seeds & dreams for your 2024 garden. You do not have to bring seeds to attend this event. Shelly Stusick, Go Beyond Beauty specialist with the Invasive Species Network, will be on-site with info on avoiding invasives, planting native, & the Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network. Register. Free. natureiscalling.org

OPEN STUDIO, PETOSKEY: (See Sat., March 2)

LITTLE WAVES: Enjoy a musical children’s program series hosted by the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra. Includes a multimedia musical storybook time as well as a chance to see one or more of the many instruments of the orchestra up close. For ages 4-10. Held at 10:30am at Petoskey District Library, & at 1pm at Charlevoix Public Library. Free. glcorchestra.org/education/little-waves

seum Center, NMC, TC. Featuring a Caldecott Storytime & a hands-on workshop with Marvel Comic illustrator Jerry DeCaire - artist for Thor, DeadPool, X-Men, etc. Limit of 40. Register in advance. $0-$10. simpletix.com/e/second-sunday-art-project-art-of-a-super-h-tickets-153872

“ANYTHING GOES” PRESENTED BY TRAVERSE CITY CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL: (See Fri., March 8, except today’s time is 2pm.)

8 – April 6 with an opening reception on Fri., March 8 from 5-7pm at Charlevoix Circle of Arts. The wood pieces featured were crafted by members of Northwestern Michigan Woodturners. The quilts on display were made by local artists. charlevoixcircle.org

Saturday, March 2 - 7:00 PM

R.O.V. WORKSHOP: 11am, Glen Lake Community Library, Empire. Learn about the health of the Great Lakes in this fun workshop presented by Inland Seas Educational Association. They’ll review their Remote Operating Vehicle program which enables underwater research. The ISEA will lead a hands on-exercise to make a functional ROV. Register: 231.326.5361. glenlakelibrary.net/events ----------------------

TC FIGURE SKATING CLUB PRESENTS

“UNDER THE SEA ADVENTURES”: (See Fri., March 8, except today’s times are 11:30am & 4:30pm.)

“BON APPETIT”: 2pm, Old Art Building, The Blue Lantern Tea Room, Leland. An Operatic Biography of Julia Child. Indulge in what is arguably the world’s most famous chocolate cake while getting the story straight from the baker’s mouth. An actual transcript of Julia baking her cake is masterfully set to music & sung by nationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Lindsey Anderson. $30 each or $125 for all 5. oldartbuilding.com/events/the-blue-lantern-tea-room ----------------------

“CORNERS GROVE”: (See Fri., March 8, except today’s time is 2pm.)

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: (See Sun., March 3)

“BOTANIC”: Alluvion Arts @ 414, TC. This exhibition takes a collective look at our intimate relationship to the plant kingdom. Driven by our community of collaborators & artists, this ‘living’ exhibition will grow with additional artwork, installations, plants & observations added until the exhibition closes on May 5. It opens on March 8 from 5-9pm. Dress up in your favorite botanical wear, bring a plant to share at the plant swap (inside the Alluvion) & meet & mingle with the exhibiting artists. thealluvion.org/arts

Friday,

2ND ANNUAL M-22 CHILI CHALLENGE: Noon-4pm, Leelanau Sands Casino & Lodge, Peshawbestown. This chili cookoff includes local restaurants Big Dex’s Restaurant, Bogey’s 19th Hole at The Leland Lodge, Lylah’s, Knot Just a Bar, & more. Enjoy tastings, outdoor yard games, adult beverages, bonfires & live music with Driving Dawn. Tickets, $15. leelanausandscasino.com/play/m22chili_challenge

THE GREENSPIRE SCHOOL PRESENTS: “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST JR.”: (See Thurs., March 7)

“ANYTHING GOES” PRESENTED BY TRAVERSE CITY CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL: (See Fri., March 8)

CADILLAC FOOTLITERS AUDITIONS: 4pm, Cadillac Footliters Clubhouse, 3841 Walker Ave., Cadillac. For “Hello, Dolly!”. This is a large cast with a wide variety of roles for ages 15 & up. sites.google.com/cadillacfootliters. com/hello-dolly-audition-hub

“CURRENTS OF COLOR: WORK BY CTAC’S WATERCOLOR STUDENTS”: Held in Atrium Gallery at Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey through March 16. Artist Trish Morgan teaches beginner, intermediate, & advanced watercolor courses for Crooked Tree Arts Center-Petoskey. CTAC invited Trish’s current & former advanced students to participate in this exhibition. crookedtree.org/event/ctac-petoskey/currentscolor-work-ctacs-watercolor-students

ANNUAL YOUTH ART EXHIBIT: Crooked Tree Arts Center, TC. Celebrating the work of K-12 art students & educators from throughout the Grand Traverse region. An Opening Reception/award reception will be held on Sun., March 10 from 1-3pm. Exhibit runs through April 5. crookedtree.org/event/ctac-traversecity/youth-art-exhibit-traverse-city

“OUR TOWN”: (See Fri., March 8)

KENNEDY’S KITCHEN: 4pm, The Bay Theatre, Suttons Bay. This group has been making Irish music together & performing at backyard parties, weddings, pubs, concert halls, & national festivals since 1998. They have averaged about 80 shows per year & traveled as far as New York & Naples, Florida, recording six CDs along the way. $20 per person. thebaytheatre.com/special-events ----------------------

OSS MANOR: 7-10pm, Cadillac Elks Lodge. Comprised of Seth Bernard, Michael Dause & Dan Rickabus, Moss Manor’s music developed & circulated during the pandemic as a way to process some of that experience: the isolation, the return to nature, the rediscovery of free time, & the making of music for its own sake. $10-$20. mynorthtickets.com/events/moss-manor-3-9-2024

VIENNA BOYS CHOIR: 7pm, Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Bay Harbor. One of the most famous choirs in the world, the Vienna Boys Choir has been enchanting audiences for centuries with their pure & pristine sound & charming performance style. $10-$67. greatlakescfa. org/events/detail/vienna-boys-choir-24

“CORNERS GROVE”: (See Fri., March 8)

----------------------

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: (See Sat., March 2)

mar

sunday

KID’S FESTIVAL WEEKEND: (See Fri., March 8)

HBA HOME EXPO: 11am3pm, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Acme. Over 100 vendors showcasing the latest in home building design & remodeling trends. $12; kids, free. hbagta.com

BEGINNER KNITTING: 12:30pm, Traverse Area District Library, Thirlby Room, TC. This class will teach how to cast on, the knit stitch, & how to cast off all through creating a bunny friend you get to take home. Necessary supplies are provided. This is part one of a series. Free. tadl.org/event/knit

SECOND SUNDAY ART PROJECT: ART OF A SUPER HERO: 12:30-3pm, Dennos Mu-

THE STEPCREW: 7pm, City Opera House, TC. This dance production combines Irish, Tap, & Ottawa Valley in a theatrical setting. They are led by soloist Cara Butler, The Chieftains’ top Irish dancer, & Jon and Nathan Pilatzke, Canada’s leading Ottawa Valley Step dancers. $10-$45. cityoperahouse.org/node/510

ongoing

SNOWSHOES, VINES, & WINES: Explore the trails at Black Star Farms Suttons Bay & then warm up with mulled wine, soup or wood-fired pizza. Held on Saturdays through the winter. Onsite snowshoe rentals are available from noon-4pm. blackstarfarms.com/snowshoes-vines-wines

BELLAIRE WINTER FARMERS MARKET: Bee Well Mead & Cider; Short’s Brewing Co. Southside event space; & Terrain. Held on Fridays through the middle of May from 9am-noon.

BOYNE CITY MARKET AT THE PAVILION: Veterans Park Pavilion, Boyne City. Held every Sat. through May from 9am-12:30pm. Shop local artists, food makers & farmers. boynecityfarmersmarket.org/series/market-at-the-pavilion-2

INDOOR FARMERS MARKET: Saturdays, 10am-2pm, The Village at GT Commons, The Mercato, TC. More than 35 vendors offer a variety of items from farm fresh eggs, meats & cheeses, to fruits, veggies, homemade breads & more. thevillagetc.com

art

JOURNEY THROUGH ABSTRACTION: Oliver Art Center, Frankfort. A group exhibition of diverse abstract art. The work of Michigan artists Kenneth Anbender, Nancy Clouse & Marat Paransky is showcased in this exhibition. Runs through April 5. Oliver Art Center is open Tues. - Sat. from 10am-4pm; Sun.: noon-4pm. Closed on Mondays. oliverartcenterfrankfort.org

“TURNED & STITCHED: ARTISTRY IN WOODTURNING & QUILTING”: Runs March

DENNOS MUSEUM CENTER, NMC, TC: - NORTHLAND WEAVERS & FIBER ARTS GUILD’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION: The exhibition runs through March 3 & includes the work of 27 current & past members. Open Tues. through Sun., 11am-4pm. dennosmuseum.org

- HEMINGWAY IN COMICS: This exhibition presents a new, more complicated way to look at Hemingway: a man, an artist, & a character that has taken on a life of its own & allows visitors to consider why Hemingway’s image, in particular, is so enduring. It’s not only for the dedicated Hemingway fan, but for all those with an appreciation for comics, pop culture, & the absurd. Runs through May 26. Hours are Tues. - Sun., 11am-4pm. dennosmuseum. org/art/upcoming-exhibitions/hemingwayin-comics.html?utm_source=cision&utm_ medium=email&utm_campaign=DMC-winter-2024

- YOUNG AT ART: A SELECTION OF CALDECOTT ILLUSTRATIONS: This exhibition includes original illustrations from Caldecott Medal recipients & from “runnerup” Honor books, as well as other illustrations by award-winning artists. It is an exhibition of works from Wichita Falls Museum of Art’s permanent collection. It runs through April 28. Hours are Tues. through Sun., 11am-4pm. dennosmuseum.org/art/ upcoming-exhibitions/young-at-art.html?utm_ source=cision&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=DMC-winter-2024

GLEN ARBOR ARTS CENTER:

- “HAPPY”: Held in Main Gallery. “Happy” features the work of 26 artists who explore & interpret the many facets & meanings of happiness: literal to metaphorical, in 2D + 3D. Runs through March 21. Open Mon. through Fri., 9am-3pm; Sat., noon-4pm. Free. glenarborart. org/events/exhibit-happy

- TREE OF LIFE -- AN EXHIBIT: TC artist Mary Fortuna explores the Tree Of Life - Connecting The World in this mixed media installation. This small show runs through April 25. The Tree Of Life that will grow in the GAAC’s Lobby Gallery is populated with animals, birds & insects. Each one is a hand-sewn soft sculpture. Hours: Mon. through Fri., 9am-3pm; Sat., noon-4pm. glenarborart.org/events/exhibit-tree-of-life-connecting-the-world

JOSEPH BEYER

Bob Marley: One Love

Perhaps the first sign that Bob Marley: One Love might be a suspiciously polished and glowing take on the pop culture icon was the video from his son, Ziggy, that played before the film. In it, Ziggy pronounces that he and the Marley family “love how the film turned out.” And so they should.

That’s because for the next 1 hour and 47 minutes after this introduction, you will experience Bob Marley framed as a heroic poet to be admired and respected (even as the narrative skips over any true negative shade from his absentee parenting, violence, infidelity in his marriage, or sometimes childlike-innocence about the consequences of his actions). What I believe you are meant to take from this shiny portrait is that Bob Marley, the man, was a vehicle for something larger and more important than his earthly shortcomings.

The artist died at the young age of 36, which has only increased the legend of his short life.

That Bob Marley, as channeled impressively with dynamic energy by actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, is almost always forgiven. And as the messenger for both the musical genre of reggae and the divine nature of cannabis, Marley’s quest for peace becomes his hero’s journey—even if you, the audience, have little layered context for why during most of it.

There are clues, of course. The politically torn Jamaica of his times is in the background, and the centerpiece of drama is the 1976 assassination attempt on Marley that comes from that cultural upheaval. Forced to abandon his country and family for his own safety, Marley’s time away from Jamaica becomes a reckoning of his purpose and an explosion of creativity resulting in the epic album Exodus.

The film benefits greatly from the glimmer of nuances in the performance of Rita Marley, played by the enormously talented Lashana Lynch. Rita is Marley’s confidante, wife, mother of his children, protector, and sometimes muse. Their dutiful understanding and acceptance of each other gives depth to a narrative that otherwise blows by quickly as it struggles to cover the exposition.

Despite all the good intentions of the many talented artists behind it, Bob Marley: One Love can’t seem to elevate itself from the category of cinematic camel. Everything seems carefully, delicately managed for the ages by a committee of family, studios, and four credited screenwriters.

It’s a disappointing result for a movie that roared into the market with extended trailers, major awards hype, and a sense of self-fulfillment as the true story of an Jamaican artist who created his own subculture with a pacifist’s mind, a stoner’s heart, and the unique perspective of an islander child during colonialism.

Writer and director Reinaldo Marcus Green, who comes from independent film roots with Monsters and Men and King Richard, is a keen observer. He infuses One Love with a documentary style when showcasing Marley’s creative energy. Those musical montages, along with a dreamlike visual style throughout, are evidence of how hard Green works to orchestrate a subconscious portrait.

It all comes through in a large format biopic fitting for the legendary impact of an artist who fiercely insisted that the music and the message were the same. And his raw vocals about peace, love, and understanding (channeled without cynicism), remain the best way to experience him.

Grand Traverse & Kalkaska

COMMON GOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT, TC

3/2 -- Blair Miller, 6

ENCORE 201, TC

3/2 -- The Equality Show Band, 7:30-10:30; DJ Ricky T, 10:30

3/8 -- DJ Ricky T, 9

3/9 -- The Untouchables, 7:3010:30; DJ Ricky T, 10:30

ETHANOLOGY, ELK RAPIDS

3/9 -- Up North PRIDE Silent Disco, 7-11

FANTASY’S, TC

DJ

IDENTITY BREWING CO., TC DINING ROOM:

3/8 – Christina Teresa, 6-8

KILKENNY'S IRISH PUBLIC HOUSE, TC

3/1-2 -- Risqué, 9:30

Mon -- Team Trivia, 7-9

Tue -- The Will Harris Trio, 8

Wed -- The Pocket, 8

Thu -- DJ Leo, 9:30

3/8-9 -- Lucas Paul, 9:30

KINGSLEY LOCAL BREWING

3/5 -- Open Mic, 6-8

3/7 -- Trivia, 7-9

LEFT FOOT CHARLEY, TC

BARREL ROOM:

3/4 -- Open Mic w/ Rob Coonrod, 6-9

TASTING ROOM:

3/8 – Swingbone North, 5-7 LIL BO, TC

Tues. – Trivia, 8-10

Sun. – Karaoke, 8

MARI VINEYARDS, TC

3/8 -- Erik Burke, 4-6

MIDDLECOAST BREWING CO., TC

3/8 -- Jesse Jefferson, 6-9

NORTH BAR, TC

7-10:

3/2 – Rhett & John 3/6 -- Jesse Jefferson

3/7 -- Drew Hale

SORELLINA'S, TC SLATE RESTAURANT:

Thurs. -- Tom Kaufmann on Piano, 5-8

Fri. & Sat. – Tom Kaufmann on Piano, 6-9

STONE HOUND BREWING CO., WILLIAMSBURG

3/7 -- Levi Britton, 7-9

THE ALLUVION, TC

3/2 -- Rachael Kilgour, 7:30-9

3/6 -- MI Made Songwriters Night w/ Spencer LaJoye, Sammie Hershock, Nicholas James Thomasma & Kyle Rasche, 7-9:30

3/7 -- Jeff Haas Trio feat. Rob Smith, Chris Glassman, & NMC Jazz Lab Band w/ Lisa Flahive,

Antrim & Charlevoix

6-8

3/9 -- The Bob Mintzer Quartet, 7:30-10:30

3/10 -- Moss Manor wsg Eliza Thorp, 7:30-9:30

THE HAYLOFT INN, TC

Thu -- Trent Breithaupt's Open Mic, 6

3/9 -- Truck Driver Bingo, 7:30

THE PARLOR, TC

8-11:

3/2 -- Chris Sterr

3/5 -- Jesse Jefferson

3/6 -- Wink Solo

3/7 -- Luke Woltanski & John Piatek

THE PUB, TC

3/2 – The Fridays, 8-11

3/3 & 3/10 -- Rob Coonrod, 6-9

3/6 – Tyler Roy, 7-10

3/9 – Empire Highway, 8

THE WORKSHOP BREWING CO., TC

3/2 -- Delilah DeWylde, 8-10

3/3 -- Comedy Open Mic, 7-9

3/5 -- Open Mic Night, 7-9

3/6 -- Jazz Jam, 6

3/7 -- Trivia Night, 7-8

3/8 -- Blair Miller, 8-10

3/9 -- The Crosscut Kings, 8-11

3/10 -- TiltThink Comedy Mixtape, 7-9

Leelanau & Benzie

BEL LAGO VINEYARD, WINERY & CIDERY, CEDAR

3/2 -- Matt & Brian, 3-5

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, THOMPSONVILLE

CRYSTAL CENTER, PATIO:

3/2 -- DJ CDX, noon-4pm

BIER'S INWOOD BREWERY, CHARLEVOIX

3/7 -- Open Mic Night w/ Host John Eaton: Sign-up at 6:15; Music at 7

BOYNE CITY TAP ROOM

3/7 -- Adam & The Cabana Boys, 7-9

BOYNE MOUNTAIN RESORT, BOYNE FALLS

STEIN ERIKSEN'S:

3/8 -- Nelson Olstrom, 5

CAFE SANTE, BOYNE CITY

3/2 -- Nelson Olstrom, 7-10

3/5 – The Shifties, 6-9

3/8 – Michelle Chenard, 7-10

3/9 – Pete Kehoe, 7-10

ETHANOLOGY, ELK RAPIDS

3/2 -- Jerome Ford, 7-10

3/3 -- Crate Dig Sunday w/ DJ Franck, 1-5

FIRESIDE LOUNGE, BELLAIRE

3/9 -- Nick Vasquez, 6

JAX NORTHSIDE, CHARLEVOIX

3/6 -- Trivia Night, 7-9

MAMMOTH DISTILLING, BELLAIRE

3/2 -- Clint Weaner, 7:30-10:30

TORCH LAKE CAFÉ, CENTRAL LAKE

Thu -- Open Mic & Nick Vasquez, 7

Fri - Sat -- Leanna Collins & Ivan Greilick, 7:30 Sun -- Trivia, 5:30; Dominic Fortuna, 6:30

Manistee, Wexford & Missaukee

NORTHERN NATURAL CIDER

HOUSE & WINERY, KALEVA

3/9 -- Ted Bounty, 6

THE GREENHOUSE - WILLOW/ PRIMOS, CADILLAC 3/6 -- Trivia Night & Music Bingo w/ Shawny-D, 6-10 3/7 -- Karaoke Night w/ DJ Shawny-D, 7-10

Otsego, Crawford & Central

C.R.A.V.E., GAYLORD

3/9 -- Randy Reszka, 6-10

SLOPESIDE TENT, NEAR CRYSTAL CLIPPER CHAIRLIFT:

3/2 -- Sean Kelly, 3-5

VISTA LOUNGE:

3/2 -- Rhett & John, 2-5; Dasstig, 8-11

3/8 -- Life Theory, 8-11

3/9 -- Dominic Fortuna, 2-5; Life Theory, 8-11

DICK'S POUR HOUSE, LAKE LEELANAU

Sat. -- Karaoke, 10-1

FIVE SHORES BREWING, BEULAH

6-9: 3/7 -- Trivia Night

3/8 -- Open Mic

FRENCH VALLEY VINEYARD, CEDAR

4-7: 3/4 -- Mic It Up Monday

3/7 -- Keith Scott

IRON FISH DISTILLERY, THOMPSONVILLE

6-8: 3/8 – Alex Schofield Duo 3/9 – Frank & Cora

LAKE ANN BREWING CO.

3/2 -- The Swan Bros., 6:30-9:30

3/7 -- Trivia Night, 7-9

3/8 -- Levi Britton, 6:30-9:30

3/9 -- The Lab Ratz - Niemisto/ Kumjian/Blumenfeld, 6:30-10:30

Emmet & Cheboygan

ST. AMBROSE CELLARS, BEULAH

3/2 -- Steve Pichan, 5-8

3/3 -- Kids Open Mic w/ Chris Winkelmann, 3-5:30

3/7 -- Open Mic Thursdays, 6-8:30

SHADY LANE CELLARS, SUTTONS BAY

3/8 -- Friday Night LIVE w/ John Richard Paul, 5-8

STORMCLOUD BREWING CO., FRANKFORT

3/2 -- Blake Elliott, 7-9

3/5 -- Storm the Mic - Open Mic Night, 6:30-8:30

3/6 -- Trivia Tournament, 7-9

THE HOMESTEAD RESORT, GLEN ARBOR

WHISKERS BAR & GRILL:

3/2 & 3/9 – Bryan Poirer, 6-9

BOYNE VALLEY VINEYARDS, PETOSKEY 2-6: 3/2 -- Lou Thumser 3/9 -- Dane Tollas

CITY PARK GRILL, PETOSKEY Tue -- Trivia Night, 7-9 3/8 -- Annex Karaoke, 9:30

NOGGIN ROOM PUB, PETOSKEY 3/2 -- Mike Ridley, 7-10 3/6 -- PubStumper's Trivia, 6:30 3/8 -- Donald Benjamin, 7-10 3/9 -- Holly Keller, 7-11

POND HILL FARM, HARBOR SPRINGS 3/2 -- Shouting Bones, 5-8 3/9 -- Ty Parkin & The Old Souls, 4-8

THE BEAU, CHEBOYGAN 3/2 -- Summer Night Party w/ Lee Fayssoux, 8 3/7 -- Musicians Playground ‘Open Mic,’ 7 3/9 -- Brad Corpus, 8

Nashville Recording Country Artist Alex Schofield has opened for Travis Tritt, Chris Cagle, and Drake White. The Alex Schofield Duo is breaking into Thompsonville for the first time at Iron Fish Distillery on Fri., March 8 from 6-8pm.

lOGY

MAR

BY ROB BREZSNY

PISCES (Feb 19-March 20): I invite you to entertain the following theory: Certain environments, companions, and influences enhance your intelligence, health, and ability to love—while others either do the opposite or have a neutral effect. If that’s true, it makes good sense for you to put yourself in the presence of environments, companions, and influences that enhance you. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to test this theory. I hope you will do extensive research and then initiate changes that implement your findings.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo advice expert Cheryl Strayed wrote some rather pushy directions I will borrow and use for your horoscope. She and say, "You will never have my permission to close yourself off to love and give up. Never. You must do everything you can to get what you want and need, to find ‘that type of love.’ It’s there for you." I especially want you to hear and meditate on this guidance right now, Virgo. Why? Because I believe you are in urgent need of re-dedicating yourself to your heart's desire. You have a sacred duty to intensify your imagination and deepen your willpower as you define what kind of love and tenderness and togetherness you want most.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Author Adam Alter writes, "Perfect success is boring and uninspiring, and abject failure is exhausting and demoralizing. Somewhere between these extremes is a sweet spot that maximizes longterm progress." And what is the magic formula? Alter says it's when you make mistakes an average of 16 percent of the time and are successful 84 percent. Mistakes can be good because they help you learn and grow. Judging from your current astrological omens, Libra, I'm guessing you're in a phase when your mistake rate is higher than usual—about 30 percent. (Though you’re still 70 percent successful!) That means you are experiencing expanded opportunities to learn all you can from studying what doesn't work well. (Adam Alter’s book is Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most.)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Sometimes you Scorpios are indeed secretive, as traditional astrologers assert. You understand that knowledge is power, and you build your potency by gathering information other people don’t have the savvy or resources to access. But it’s also true that you may appear to be secretive when in fact you have simply perceived and intuited more than everyone else wants to know. They might be overwhelmed by the deep, rich intelligence you have acquired—and would actually prefer to be ignorant of it. So you’re basically hiding stuff they want you to hide. Anyway, Scorpio, I suspect now is a time when you are loading up even more than usual with juicy gossip, inside scoops, tantalizing mysteries, taboo news, and practical wisdom that few others would be capable of managing. Please use your superpowers

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here's a little-known fact about me: am the priest, wizard, rabbi, and pope of Parish #31025 in the Universal Life Church. One of my privileges in this role is to perform legal marriages. It has been a few years since I presided over anyone’s wedding, but I am coming out of semi-retirement to consecrate an unprecedented union. It’s between two aspects of yourself that have not been blended but should be blended. Do you know what I’m referring to? Before you read further, please identify these two aspects. Ready? I now pronounce you husband and wife, or husband and husband, or wife and wife, or spouse and spouse—or whatever you want to be pronounced.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “You don’t have to suffer to be a poet,” said poet John Ciardi. “Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.” I will add that adolescence is enough suffering for everyone, even if they’re not a poet. For most of us, our teenage years brought us streams of angst, self-doubt, confusion, and fear—sufficient to last a lifetime. That's the bad news, Capricorn. The good news is that the coming months will be one of the best times ever for you to heal the wounds left over from your adolescence. You may not be able to get a total cure, but 65 percent is very possible. Seventy-five percent isn't out of the question. Get started!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A psychic once predicted that I would win a Grammy award for my music. She said my dad and mom would be in the audience, smiling proudly. Well, my dad died four years ago, and I haven’t produced a new album of songs for over ten years. So that Grammy prophecy is looking less and less likely. I should probably give up hope that it will come to pass. What about you, Aquarius? Is there any dream or fantasy you should consider abandoning? The coming weeks would be a good time to do so. It could open your mind and heart to a bright future possibility now hovering on the horizon..

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads." So wrote Aries author Erica Jong. Is that true? Is it hard to access the fullness of our talents? Must we summon rare courage and explore dark places? Sometimes, yes. To overcome obstacles that interfere with ripening our talents, there may be tough work to do. suspect the coming weeks and months will be one of those phases for you, Aries. But here’s the good news: predict you will succeed.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In October 1879, Thomas Edison and his research team produced the first electric light bulb that was viable enough to be of practical use. In September 1882, Edison opened the first power plant on the planet, enabling people to light their homes with the new invention. That was a revolutionary advance in a very short time. Dear Taurus, the innovations you have been making and I hope will continue to make are not as monumental as Edison’s. But I suspect they rank high among the best and brightest in your personal life history. Don’t slack off now. There’s more work to be done—interesting, exciting work!

“Jonesin” Crosswords

"Full-Bodied"--there's an extra part in the theme. by Matt Jones

ACROSS

1. Serene

5. Ride back to the hotel, perhaps

8. Astronomer Tycho ___

13. Two-tone snack

14. 1993 Texas standoff city

15. "Star Wars" director

16. Mae or Jerry

17. Peas, to a peashooter

18. In the dark

19. Bean for baseball's Bryce?

22. Pass, as time

24. Travels by boat

25. "This could be the ___ ..."

27. "CSI" material

28. Family-friendly film ratings

31. Cabbage salad served at universities?

33. Actress Lucy

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The horoscopes you are reading have been syndicated in publications all over the world: the US, Italy, France, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Netherlands, Russia, Cambodia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Ireland, and Finland. Yet it has never appeared in a publication in the UK, where there are over 52 million people whose first language is English—the same as mine. But I predict that will change in the coming months: bet a British newspaper or website will finally print Free Will Astrology. I prophesy comparable expansions in your life, too, fellow Cancerian. What new audiences or influences or communities do you want to be part of? Make it happen!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote, "Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of small near misses." If you have endured anything resembling that frustration, Leo, have good news: The coming months won’t bring you a string of small near misses. Indeed, the number of small near misses will be very few, maybe even zero. Instead, predict you will gather an array of big, satisfying completions. Life will honor you with bull’s eyes, direct hits, and master strokes. Here’s the best way you can respond to your good fortune and ensure the arrival of even more good fortune: Share your wealth!

34. Stylized

35. Reno-to-Spokane dir.

36. "Knights of Cydonia" band

37. "La ___" (Debussy composition)

38. Just heated up?

42. "Gangnam Style" performer

43. Letter from Homer

44. Walk like a zombie

45. Some DVD players

47. "And Still ___" (Maya Angelou book)

48. Like home renovation shows that overdo the wood siding?

52. Video game character with his own Maker

53. Prefix with dextrous

54. Proton's place

58. Signing off on

59. Overwhelming victory

60. Donated

61. Talkative, slangily

62. ___-Tiki (Heyerdahl craft)

63. Shiraz location

DOWN

1. Nursery rhyme jumper

2. "... but few ___ chosen"

3. "___ MisÈrables"

4. Like some instincts

5. Use a tent

6. High points

7. With "The," '90s British alt-rock band named for an American novel character

8. Sunday shopping restriction

9. Ladder components

10. "Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself" org.

11. "Days Are Gone" band

12. Italian family related to the Borgias

14. Battle-trained canine

20. Poker starter

21. Chinese tennis star with a very short name in English

22. Mall units

23. Meager

25. Playful rascal

26. Home of the Boston Red Sox

28. Examines, as depths

29. Brazilian supermodel B¸ndchen

30. Napped material

32. Pete Davidson's show, once

36. Mentor in "The Karate Kid"

38. Vocabulary coinage, e.g.

39. 10,900-foot European peak

40. "Try to detect it! It's not too late!" song

41. Publisher of Modern Maturity

45. They're earned on "Press Your Luck"

46. "Li'l Abner" creature that looks like a white blob with a mustache

48. Air impurifier

49. Maori dance popularized by some New Zealand rugby teams

50. Part of the eye around the pupil

51. Have ___ in the oven

55. Viscous goo

56. Eggs in labs

57. "___ Behaving Badly"

COTTAGE FOR RENT: TC 1BR Cottage, Fully Furnished, Includes All Utilities, New Appliances, W/D, Cable TV, Very Nice & Quiet, Beautiful Setting, Parking, No Pets; $1,600 per month, (231) 631-7512.

MULCHING, WEEDING + LIGHT SPRING CLEAN UP: Booking for April + May! Call or Text Northern Watch LLC: 269-290-4276

PAID PART TIME JOB TRAINING FOR SENIORS 55+: Paid Part-Time Job Training in Grand Traverse, Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska and Emmet counties. Applicants must be age 55 and over, unemployed and seeking work and meet income guidelines. Position available in Reception and Clerical Support, Cashier, Sort-Stock, Food Prep-Servers, Custodial. To learn more call the AARP Foundation SCSEP office at 231-252-4544.

SEWING, ALTERATIONS, MENDING & REPAIRS. Maple City, Maralene Roush 231228-6248

MR. GETITDONE: If I can’t I will let you know who can. Call Mike 231-871-1028. Junk removal, leaf removal, grass, brush, powerwashing, anything just name it I can do it. Don’t wait to pick up the phone.