Rick Coates

Dining Rick Coates Tastemakers
Rick Coates 7/13/09

Gaylord Alpenfest
July 14-18, 2009

Now celebrating its 45th anniversary, Alpenfest in Gaylord has grown from a small community-based celebration over a couple of days into a five-day festival that attracts visitors from all over. Despite its growth, Alpenfest has remained true to its community roots by celebrating the traditions of its German and Polish settlers. The festivities begin on Tuesday, July 14, and with more than 80 events, including several concerts, there is a lot to do - and a lot to eat.

Features Rick Coates Howl of the
Wolves
Minor league football tackles TC
By Rick Coates 7/13/09

Ryan Brown walked off the football field six years ago realizing that he had played the last downs of his favorite sport. He considered himself one of the lucky ones; the Traverse City High School and Traverse City West standout was able to play four years of college football at Northwood.
“Football is the one sport you don’t get to play after high school for the most part. Every other sport has adult leagues; sure a few get to play college football and even fewer get to play professional,” said Ryan Brown. “At least with these other sports you get a chance to feed the hunger by playing them after you’re finished with school. Every year in the fall I start getting that hunger again and really miss suiting up and playing.”
For Brown and others, that “hunger” is now being fed with the formation of the TC Wolves, a new-semi professional football team in Traverse City. The team is part of the North America Football League (NAFL) and will kick off their 10-game schedule this weekend at Ypsilanti Yellow Jackets, the team’s home opener will be Saturday night July 25 at Traverse City Central against the Chicago Wolverines.

Music Rick Coates Joe McBride
Brings Smooth Jazz With a Twist to Idlewild Music Fest

By Rick Coates 7/6/09
 
Jazz Pianist Joe McBride and Idlewild both have something in common, they
are “Lookin’ For A Change.” Their paths cross this weekend as McBride is
one of the headlining acts at the Seventh Annual Idlewild Music Fest.

Music Rick Coates Blissfest 2009
By Rick Coates
7/6/09
For the past 29 years the Blissfest Music Festival has built its reputation by presenting innovative folk, roots and worldbeat musicians at their annual event held near Cross Village (between Harbor Springs and Mackinaw City). This year is no different as a collection of jam-band, bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic, folk, jazz, Latin and other ethnic music and dance groups come in for the three-day Festival July 10-12.
Much of the allure to Blissfest has been from musicians that fly under the radar of mainstream music. From time to time the Festival has brought forward a national headlining act, but for the most part these musicians are ones who do not review commercial airplay; these are musicians who build their following playing the best festivals around the country.

Music Rick Coates get your CherryFest On
three shows you don’t want to miss

By Rick Coates 7/6/09
 
The Bay Side Entertainment Stage at the National Cherry Festival has long
been the best musical entertainment value in Northern Michigan. For years
festival goers were granted access to all concerts for the week for the
price of the $1 Cherry Festival Pin. A few years back they raised the
price to $3 for the week. Last year they introduced the V-Pass for $15 as
the Festival faced a tougher operating budget needed to help subsidize the
national acts they bring to the Open Space.

Dining Rick Coates Tastemakers
Rick Coates 7/6/09
Sleeping Bear Gourmet Cherry Festival Open Space
There are many highlights at the National Cherry Festival, and certainly the local restaurants offering their specialties at TC’s Open Space is one of them. This year, look for a unique offering of “organic” foods from a brand new collaborative, Sleeping Bear Gourmet. The brainchild of Melissa Ewing (Yotta Bars) of Maple City, Sleeping Bear Gourmet is comprised of: Food For Thought (preserves, salsas, and mustards), Higher Grounds Trading (coffee), Light of Day Organics (loose leaf teas), Naturally Nutty Nut Butters, and Stone House Bread.

Features Rick Coates Need a Laugh?
Paula Poundstone Delivers

By Rick Coates 7/6/09

Comedy always seems to make a comeback in economically challenging times. It is not that comedy has disappeared, but the circuit of standup comics seems to go up and down with the economy and in tough times a good night of laughter seems to be the best medicine.
Certainly Interlochen Center for the Arts thinks so, as they welcome Paula Poundstone to Corson Auditorium this Friday. Poundstone is currently touring in support of her first ever comedy CD release I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them In Maine, and her book There Is Nothing In This Book I Meant To Say. She burst onto the comedy scene in the mid ‘80s after dropping out of high school.

Features Rick Coates Need a Laugh?
Paula Poundstone Delivers

By Rick Coates 7/6/09

Comedy always seems to make a comeback in economically challenging times. It is not that comedy has disappeared, but the circuit of standup comics seems to go up and down with the economy and in tough times a good night of laughter seems to be the best medicine.
Certainly Interlochen Center for the Arts thinks so, as they welcome Paula Poundstone to Corson Auditorium this Friday. Poundstone is currently touring in support of her first ever comedy CD release I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them In Maine, and her book There Is Nothing In This Book I Meant To Say. She burst onto the comedy scene in the mid ‘80s after dropping out of high school.

Music Rick Coates The Rebirth of
Billy Squier
By Rick Coates 6/29/09

Rocker Billy Squier dominated the arena rock scene in the early ‘80s, with a string of hits including “The Stroke,” In the Dark,” “My Kinda’ Lover,” “Emotions in Motion” “Everybody Wants You,” “The Big Beat,” “Lonely Is The Night,” “Fast Times (The Best Years of Our Lives)” and “Rock Me Tonite.” After spending a few summers touring as part of Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band, as well as taking a break from the music business, Squier is back, headlining his own tour that includes a stop in Traverse City.
He will take to the National Cherry Festival Bay Side Entertainment Stage on Tuesday, July 7. Squier last performed at the National Cherry Festival in 2001 as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame summer tour featuring Styx and Bad Company.

Music Rick Coates Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kicks Off the Cherry Festival
By Rick Coates 6/29/09

Kenny Wayne Shepherd was just a kid when he got his musical start. As a teenager in the early ‘90s, he and Jonny Lang were billed as “the boys who were going to save the blues.” The two guitar gunslingers were credited with introducing “America’s music” to a younger generation.
Shepherd is now a young man. At 32 he is married (his wife is Mel Gibson’s youngest daughter) and has two kids and a different perspective on life and music from his wild teenage years. He will kick off the National Cherry Festival’s week long concert series on the Bayside Entertainment Stage, this Saturday, July 4. Shepherd will be joined by the Bihlman Bros., the boys from Benzie County who will soon have their first national album release and will be making their first Northern Michigan concert appearance in five years.

Dining Rick Coates Tastemakers
Rick Coates 6/29/09
Cousin Jenny’s Cornish Pasties
Cornish pasties were developed in Cornwall, England as a hearty meal for tin miners. They were easy to carry and easy to eat. When the tin mines stopped producing, the Cornish people migrated to Canada and the Upper Peninsula to mine copper and iron ore and they brought their Cornish pasties recipes with them.
Jerliyn DeBoer brought the tradition with her to Traverse City when she moved from the Upper Peninsula and opened Cousin Jenny’s on May 26, 1984 on Front Street (where Good Harbor Coffee is today). After 25 years, she has sold 1.8 million of the popular homemade pasties and has employed 150 mostly college and high school students.
Her secret to success: “Making everything fresh. I arrive every morning at 3 a.m. to make the pastry dough from scratch,” said DeBoer. “I also have listened to my customers over the years and given them what they wanted.”

Books Rick Coates Like Father,
Like Son
Elmore & Peter Leonard share a passion for writing

By Rick Coates 6/22/09

At the age of 83, crime novelist and pulp fiction master Elmore Leonard remains at the top of his game. Last month he released his 43rd novel, Road Dogs, that is currently on the New York Times Best Seller list. Leonard has built his 56-year writing career around his ability to let his characters “tell the story.”
Elmore Leonard will come to Northern Michigan on Sunday, June 28 as part of the new “Traverse City National Writers Series” created by author Doug Stanton and Traverse City attorney Grant Parsons. Leonard will be joined by his son Peter, who is following in his father’s footsteps. Both authors are currently touring in support of their latest novels. The evening of conversation will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the City Opera House. Proceeds will benefit the college-bound writing students in the Traverse City Area Public Schools and the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools.

Music Rick Coates Pop Evil Lives its Music

By Rick Coates 6/15/09

Pop Evil lead singer Leigh Kakaty likes to joke that at first glance the members of Pop Evil don’t look like a group of guys who would hang out together.
“We are made up of all different ethnic backgrounds and maybe we don’t look like we belong together,” said Kakaty. “But put us on stage together and we become one. Pop Evil is more than a band -- it is a lifestyle.”
The Grand Rapids based rockers are riding high (and fast as the video for their hit song “100 in 55” was filmed as they performed on a flatbed truck as it traveled 100 miles an hour). They will perform at The Terminal in Traverse City this Friday.

Dining Rick Coates Organic Wines 6/15/09
During a recent visit to By the Light of Day Organics on the Leelanau Peninsula I struck up a conversation with proprietor Angela Macke about consumer confusion over “organic” labeling. She said it is equally “frustrating for the organic farmer who goes to great lengths to become certified organic.”
Macke, who has built a reputation across the country for her collection of certified organic teas made with ingredients she grows on her Leelanau Peninsula organic farm, says the key for the consumer is to “look beyond the certified claim and look on the label and see who actually certified it.”

Features Rick Coates Father’s Day at Wuerfel Park
Beach Bums team up with Little League

By Rick Coates 6/15/09

When the Wuerfel family decided to bring professional baseball to Northern Michigan, they wanted to have the team and their stadium to become an asset for the region. They have succeeded. Now in their fourth season, the Traverse City Beach Bums and Wuerfel Park have become a summertime destination for local and visiting families.
Going to a Beach Bums game has become part of the summertime culture in Northern Michigan. The Bums play a full schedule of games in the Frontier League, made up of some of the best professional players under the age of 25 hoping to make it to the big leagues someday.