Erin Cowell

Features Erin Cowell National Writers Series 2011 1/17/11
The return of the National Writers Series
By Erin Crowell
If you thought the National Writers Series (NWS) was just another
festival to draw tourists to Northern Michigan, founder Doug Stanton
would tell you you’re wrong.

Features Erin Cowell Stranded: Terrie Gerbe spent a night in a blizzard on Highway 22
1/17/11
By Erin Crowell
Stranded
Terrie Gerbe spent a night in a blizzard on Highway 22
By Erin Crowell
Imagine being stranded in your vehicle for the night in the middle of
a blizzard. Hundreds of motorists have faced that peril this winter
in the storm-swept Midwest.
On Dec. 13, Shannon Kochis—a stylist at Salone de Capelli in Traverse
City—spent the day on her phone, checking for updates on her mother,
Terrie Gerbe, who was stranded in a snowstorm on Highway 22 between
London and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Features Erin Cowell Feel the Burn… Literally!: SmartLipo uses lasers to melt fat and speed recovery
By Erin Crowell
Three years ago, Melissa Kasarskis of Irons woke up to find a large
mass on her left and right hip, just below the skin.
“I looked down and saw this huge looking tumor and I freaked out,”
said the 43-year-old mother of two.

Art Erin Cowell Five Friends in Art: Jill’s Gallery offers a fall open house
By Erin Crowell
Unlike most art sales that bring the work of several strangers
together, the Second Annual Fall Open House & Art Sale combines the
work of five sisters and friends. Expect lots of color and variety
when these five Northern Michigan female artists present their work in
support of a local cause at the Second Annual Fall Open House & Art
Sale at Jill’s Studio, in Traverse City, on Saturday, Nov. 20, from 9
a.m.-5 p.m.

Features Erin Cowell The Bay Film Series
By Erin Crowell
For Northern Michigan and beyond, summer rolls in big tourist crowds and blockbuster films.
The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay is on that list of blockbuster providers during the summer; but come the colder months—unlike its big chain brothers—The Bay raises its curtain to the unfamiliar and thought-provoking world of international indie films.
Dim the lights and enjoy The Bay Film Series, The Bay Theatre’s annual selection of international and independent films showing one weekend of every month from September through April. Featuring a variety of genres from countries all over the world, the series offers a chance to experience the cinema in a different way.
“People get to see some films that they otherwise never would have access to,” said Denise Sica, manager of the Bay Theatre. “Sometimes it’s a comedy, sometimes a drama, sometimes it’s a documentary… it’s nice to have a mix of first-run movies coming out for summer, but this is an opportunity to experience and appreciate the unknown.”

Music Erin Cowell We‘re Dreaming of a White Christmas
By Erin Crowell
Old Town Playhouse director Phil Murphy grew up wanting to be Danny
Kaye after he watched the 1954 Paramount Film “White Christmas.”
“Bing Crosby…not so much,” said Murphy. “I didn’t make much of a
dancer and I’m not much of a comedian.”

Music Erin Cowell High Flying : Female bandmates help propel Paper Plane Pilots
By Erin Crowell
By day, Chandra LaPointe and Jennifer Harrison earn their paychecks like any other person— LaPointe as a middle school teacher at Mancelona Public Schools; Harrison as a parts sales rep at Traverse Motors. But by night, they take center stage, representing the double X chromosome of the Paper Plane Pilots.
One of Northern Michigan’s most popular bands, The Paper Plane Pilots is a combination of male and female talents, glued by the rhythms of Harrison (on drums) and the unquestionably able voice of LaPointe (main vocals and keyboard).
“Other than designated dressing rooms, there’s really nothing to say about having two female band members,” says Jon Head (guitar and vocals). “They really nail it.”

Features Erin Cowell The Feminine Touch: Nicole Charbonneau breaks into the boy’s club of tattooing
By Erin Crowell
Nicole Charbonneau has worked on a lot of body parts. She can recall that list on the spot: back, shoulder, forearm, wrist, thigh, lower abdomen, foot, leg. And although Charbonneau works in the medical industry (she’s an administrative assistant at a Traverse City eye clinic), her part-time job is what has her operating on bodies.
The 26-year-old Kalkaska native works as a tattoo apprentice at Glenarts Studio in Suttons Bay. While most of her work consists of prepping equipment and making needles (the studio manufactures its own for its specialty in fine line tattooing), Charbonneau also sits in the inker’s chair from time to time – many times after a walk-in enters the studio doors, looks at Charbonneau without knowing her work and says, “I want her.”

Features Erin Cowell Revisiting the Salem Witch Trials: ‘May thy souls rest in peace’
By Erin Crowell
October settles over the New England coast, bathing its small towns in
warm colors of red, orange and gold. I chase the foliage by car,
taking a 2,500 mile road trip out East through New York, Vermont and
down along the shores of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
With Halloween fast approaching, a stop in Salem, Massachusetts seems
appropriate. So I plug the address into the GPS on my
dashboard—Margaret, as I’ve named it—and let her even, monotone voice
guide me to the coastal town famous for the witch trials of 1692.

Features Erin Cowell A Whole Other World: Online social games immerse players in a cyber fantasy
By Erin Crowell
Zack Mahrle leans back on the red floral couch in his bedroom, his
feet propped up on a white ottoman. He’s focused on the 87-inch
projector screen that covers the length of his closet, tapping away
with a fierce rhythm on the ergonomic computer keyboard sitting on his
lap.

Dining Erin Cowell Growing Self Reliance: Oryana’s Toast to Farmers features ‘localism’ expert
By Erin Crowell
The early morning stirs with the busyness of shoppers at a local
farmers market. Goods are strewn about tables, stacked in bushels and
overflowing rims of wicker baskets. There’s a sense of connection,
optimism and energy flowing through the crowd of vendors and
customers.

Features Erin Cowell The Fall of Females: Celebrating Women at the Dennos
By Erin Crowell
This fall, the Dennos Museum introduces its exhibition Celebrating
Women, a photography exhibit by Paola Gianturco, featuring festivals
that honor women’s roles, rites of passage, attributes,
accomplishments and spiritual lives.

Features Erin Cowell Fishnets & Fractures: Northern Michigan catches roller derby fever
By Erin Crowell
It’s a Tuesday evening in the Kalkaska Kaliseum and the Derby Dahlias are practicing for their first “bout,” a roller derby scrimmage happening on Saturday with the Sault Roller Derby Travel League Team from Canada.
The 11 young women are decked out in derby attire: helmet, knee guards, ankle guards, fishnets and striped knee-high stockings. Although just months old, the team is focused, cranking out drills, dropping pushups and hitting the floor—literally—doing a drill specifically aimed at falling “the right way.”

Features Erin Cowell In for the Long Run
By Erin Crowell
When Higher Grounds Trading Company started several years ago, the
mission was to offer Northern Michigan handcrafted, gourmet and
organic coffee through fair trade: by providing a dignified wage to
small community farmers in the less-developed regions of the world,
including Columbia, Ethiopia, Mexico and Peru.

Features Erin Cowell The Search for Le Griffon: Underwater explorers seek shipwrecks and other treasures in Northern Michigan waters
By Erin Crowell
Somewhere in the Great Lakes lies the answer to a question that has been on the minds of archeologists, historians and sailors for centuries:
What happened to Le Griffon? -- the French sailing ship that left Washington Harbor, near Green Bay, Wisconsin on September 18, 1679, but never reached its destination in Niagra Falls. Built by Rene-Robert Sieur de La Salle, the ship was the first European-owned vessel to sail the upper Great Lakes. Used as a fur trading ship to help supplement La Salle’s search for the mouth of the Mississippi River, the ship and its crew of six was on its return voyage to its home harbor when it disappeared.
What happened to Le Griffon?—a time capsule that many consider, when found, could reveal much about our country’s history—has been an unanswered question for the past 331 years.
That question may be answered soon.