Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
I live a block from Michigan Stadium. There are few things like the experience of seeing 115,000 people filter through your neighborhood- it is an all day event. This is why they come.
Place you live: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Place your photo was taken: Ann Arbor, MI
Can you sum up Ann Arbor? I live on the 500-block of Keech Avenue. Bordered on one side by Michigan Stadium and by Almendinger Park on the other, both entities play an important role in the identity of my neighborhood. We have literally thousands of visitors to our street every year. People come from all over the country to visit the stadium and participate in the American ritual of Big-10 College Football. People come from all around town to visit the park and participate in activities there. Visitors to both places inevitably end up passing through Keech Avenue.
I think of Ann Arbor as embodying traditional notions of Middle America. Here, the passing of time is defined as much by the rituals we collectively participate in as by the months on a calendar.
Occupation: Professor/Department Head, Art Department
Preoccupation: Father, Photographer. No time for much else, but also bigh on the list of things I love to do: tinkering with RC helicopters (or anything that flies really), downhill skiing, whitewater kayaking
A perfect day in Ann Arbor? There’s a different one for each season: in fall it includes a walk in the woods, in winter it includes sledding or building a snow penguin, in spring it involves walking downtown, in summer it involves drinking beer on neighbors’ porches.
If someone was visiting, what must they do? Walk inside Michigan Stadium. Take strolls down Main Street and State Street, eat lunch at Zingerman’s Deli. Have a beer outside at Dominick’s
A perfect meal in Ann Arbor? Smoked chicken and monterey jack macaroni and cheese and a Sprecher Pub Ale at Zingerman’s Roadhouse
What is the best thing about your spot? Football days
What is the worst? Football days
A little known fact about where you live? Bob Seger’s Mainstreet was inspired by Ann Arbor’s Main Street.
Where is your favorite place in the world? Either Santa Fe, NM or Big Bend, TX