In this episode of AADL Talks To, we interview Bill Zirinsky and Ruth Schekter. Bill and Ruth discuss their history running the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and the Crazy Wisdom Journal. They also talk about their time in Ann Arbor, including some of the city’s changes over the years. They discuss their experience as a unique “new age” bookstore in a town known for its book shops.

Video extra from the feature-length documentary Welcome to Commie High from 7 Cylinders Studio.

Video extra from the feature-length documentary Welcome to Commie High from 7 Cylinders Studio.

Learn about Mark’s adventures including putting the bike with the piano on a boat and towing it with the help of volunteer swimmers from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island.

Mr. B is a blues and boogie-woogie pianist who has become one of the premiere purveyors of a vanishing art. Having learned his craft first-hand from the early masters, he is a rare living link to the first generation of blues and boogie pianists.

The 41 stories in the book include a suicide submarine parade. Ann Arbor’s top 10 astronauts. Shakey Jake, The Embassy Hotel, and stories of trains crashing into buildings. The birth of Iggy Pop. Punching Nazis. The day the dictator came to town. The music mobile, the naked mile, and a brief history of poop. Rich and his book are truly fun!

"Friends of the Sixties" and host Michael Erlewine present poet and blues scholar John Sinclair backed up by the Blue Scholars doing the words from an interview of Howlin' Wolf by Michael Erlewine at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969. The Blues Scholars include Michael Erlewine on harmonica, Seth Bernard on guitar, Luke Winslow-King on bass, with vocals by May and Anne Erlewine. Originally recorded in 2007 at the Heart Center Studios. (c) Copyright 2013 by Michael Erlewine.

Part One of an interview by All-Music Guide founder Michael Erlewine with harmonica virtuoso Peter Madcat Ruth, an internationally known musician. These video-podcasts are part of a series of interviews for the Michigan Music Project, a documentary on Michigan musicians, artists, venues, and music supporters. The interviews in this series represent basic archival footage (roughly edited) from which excerpts will be taken for eventual documentary.

This video originally appeared here.

This is a rough-draft of some footage Stephen Erlewine took back in 1970 at the second pivotal Arbor Blues Festival, where his brother Michael was in charge of food and drink for the blues artists, and also served as interviewer for scores of the performers. This was a life-changing experience and led some years later to Michael founding the All-Music Guide (AMG).

This video originally appeared here.

Yalcin Yanıkoğlu and Bob Chunn have been intimately involved in helping create and evaluate proposed maps with their proprietary software. Chuck asked them to evaluate the Independent Redistricting Commissions maps so citizens can knowledgeably comment on them while there is still time.