Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features Americana from Cowgirl, jazz fusion by Bobby Streng, bedroom indie by Claw, goregrind by Septic Fibrosis, and sci-fi synths by G.B. Marian.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features music from singer-songwriters Kylee Phillips, Bekka Madeleine, and Mike Vial, video-game hyperpop by Dapper Ain't Delirious, and drum 'n' bass from the AGN7 label.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features indie rock by Idle Ray, hyperpop by Dapper Ain't Delirious and Splingus, hip-hop by Gusmão, and punk by Reckless Manner.

Jeff Dunn didn't mean to become a go-to photographer for the Southeast Michigan jazz scene. He was just a guy who started taking his camera to jam sessions around 2014 after being a fan of the "sound of surprise" since the early 1970s.

"The first time I went to [Detroit's] Baker's Keyboard Lounge in 1973, I was hooked," Dunn told Pulp in a 2018 interview. "I've been addicted to live jazz performances ever since."

Now he's the house photographer for the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation, a regular presence at concerts from the Motor City to Tree Town, and the focus of a new exhibit at Argus Museum in Ann Arbor.

Jeff Dunn - Jazz Photography runs June 2-27, offering 38 shots by the St. Clair Shores resident and retired Wayne State computer programmer/web developer.

The exhibit is tucked into a narrow hallway with a slight zig-zag, but there's enough room to step back from each photo and imagine the 71-year-old Dunn's placement for each shot. The description plates for each image feature enthusiastic prose from the photographer about his subjects, revealing Dunn's fan-first appreciation of jazz.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features rebooted grunge by Tension Splash, electro-metal by The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, indie-folk rock by Lionbelly, techno by The AMX, and moody alt-rock by Iconic Chronic.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features synth-pop by Same Eyes, European folk duets by Warren & Flick, a videogame soundtrack by Cereza64, imaginary movie soundtracks by An Angel Submerged, and Latin-steeped hip-hop beats by Gusmão.

Comedies come in cycles. There was a time in the late 1990s and continuing through the early 2010s when movie theaters regularly welcomed rated-R-for-raunchy flicks with over-the-top humor. 

But as social mores changed, and movie theaters struggled to get people into their buildings, many of those movies went straight to streaming.

Wolverine Productions' Benjamin Vomastek misses when salty comedies with no-holds-barred japes populated the cineplex, and the University of Michigan grad is doing his part to bring them back.

Vomastek's film debut, 2024's Rosetta Stoned, filmed in Ann Arbor on a $30,000 budget, features a pothead who convinces a socially awkward classmate to exchange homework answers for weed. 

The new Hometown Summer, also filmed in Tree Town, premieres at the Michigan Theater on Thursday, May 22, at 7:30 pm. The cast and crew will appear after for a Q&A session.

In Hometown Summer, three young pals spend the warm months in Ann Arbor, and all kinds of mayhem happen when they get mixed up in a crazy business plan and indulge in all sorts of vices.

Vomastek makes no secret that his films are indebted to outrageous comedies of the past, such as Superbad and There's Something About Mary, so I asked him to discuss some movies that were direct influences on Hometown Summer.

"Each of these films carries a theme of human authenticity and realism that has inspired me as a filmmaker," Vomastek said.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features jazz by Dave Sharp Worlds Quartet and Elden Kelly, metalcore by Loss of Life, hyperpop by Scoops Lively, emo-punk by Normal Park, and live jams by Pajamas.

"Well, it's 1969, OK
All across the USA"
—The Stooges, "1969"

John Norman Collins was arrested in Ypsilanti on July 31, 1969, for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, an 18-year-old student at Eastern Michigan University. It made national news because a serial killer had haunted Washtenaw County since 1967, and eventually Collins was under suspicion for five other Michigan murders (as well as one in California).

But the story was knocked out of the country's consciousness just over a week later when Charles Manson and members of his cult killed seven people on August 8-9, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife of acclaimed director Roman Polanski.

The Manson murders were a cultural touchstone that some think helped usher out the hippy era, making way for a grittier 1970s where the idea of peace and love were swept into the dustbin of history.

This overall portrait of America in transition is the backdrop for director Andrew Templeton's new documentary, 1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals, which makes its Michigan debut on Friday, May 16, at Cinetopia Ann Arbor (Michigan Theater and State Theatre, May 15-18). It features new interviews, vintage footage, and re-creations.

The film focuses on Collins' crimes, but unlike John Keyes' 1974 book The Michigan Murders, Templeton analyzes the story through the lens of social upheaval and how the local police force stumbled through its investigation by targeting the "freaks and radicals" when looking for suspects.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features beat-driven ambient by Jason Engling, gothic-folk by Dollie Rot, folk by Dave & Kristi, organ experiments by Latimer Rogland, and gritty vaporwave by Delos Prismatic.