Recent Posts

I saw Joni Mitchell there in, I think, '65, before she got famous. I fell madly in love.

Does anyone remember the Co-op boarding house off of Division that was famous for its so-called Socialist members?

I lived in a house in the '90s on the north side of A2 that was once owned by local politico Perry Bullard.  While renovating I found a cache of '60s ephemera including Peace and Black Panther Party buttons and a carefully cut out piece of map of the area around Moscow, Russia that was used as insulation under a wall light switch.

Anyway, does anyone know what happened to Ellen Frank? 

Sadly, I have been told that Ellen Frank took her own life some years ago.

I knew all three of these women pretty well, Gilda, Leslie Coutant, and Ellen Frank. I considered all of them my friends. As for Gilda not being smart? Ridiculous. Gilda was (as mentioned) an incredible woman, funny, kind, and smart, real smart. Who besides me remembers her Bassett Hound "Dudley?" He was as funny as she was.

I was a good friend and dated Ellen Frank for a while. She was the 'thinker," of the three, but don't count out Leslie Coutant either. She was very literate and got a number of degree including an MA (New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM (1992) - English Literature), an MA (Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, Ann Arbor, MI (1976) - Comparative Literature), an  BGS (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (1973) - Emphasis in humanities - Italian and French).

My name is Michael Erlewine. I was the lead singer and Chicago-style harp player for the Prime Movers Blues Band (1965-1971), and Iggy Pop was our drummer for a time.

Anyway, does anyone know what happened to Ellen Frank? 

i worked there!

When the riots in Detroit occurred it was during some of the hottest and stickiest days of July.  I was working on an "experimental" film project in Detroit for an art class with George Manupelli and Milton Cohen and drove back to Ann Arbor through throngs of people in Detroit milling around the streets.
By the time I had returned to A2 the riots were in full force and the University was on alert for the possibility that rioting would spread to the campus environs.  Students were told to stay in their dorms or off campus housing; faculty were contacted to be available to help calm potential student gatherings.  We were glued to tv sets watching the news in Detroit and couldn't believe that troops had to be called in to patrol the streets.

After the South U. events Ann Arbor Bank installed thick protective bullet proof plastic barriers in front of each of the teller locations. (This is the same bank on South U that had police on its roof with a machine gun after the "demonstrations" began.) There were rumors at the time that radicals might begin robbing banks to fund their activities. 

Anthony R. Smith's PhD thesis documents the Ann Arbor Human Rights Party.  "College Town Radicals..."  l98l? Check University Microfilms.   I think Tony is living in San Francisco and may still have family in the Ann Arbor area.  He was teaching at Antioch University SF until it closed  and I know he has an interesting perspective on A2 city politics and the individuals involved in the HR Party. 

Both the Art and Music Schools were involved in "revolutionary arts"; "happenings" became the finely tuned performance art pieces of today.  Besides the Ann Arbor Film Festival being famous for the police bust, I remember incredibly long lines to get tickets!  Roommates would take turns holding places in line so we could have the pleasure of watching experimental films sitting in hard seats that would result in "fanny fatigue". 

The Once Group Festivals were contemporary music extravaganzas.  The Once Group theatrical performances were all over the community--on top of parking structures, in Prof. Milton Cohen's loft above the Michigan Theater, even a small event incorporating a nude female stretched across Red's Rite Spot's dining counter.  A number of participants are still living in Ann Arbor and there is good documentation of their activities at the Bentley Library.  I don't think there has ever been sufficient acknowledgement of their influence on today's art scene.

I believe there is an old article in a Reader's Digest that describes Red's Rite Spot and the Christmas season mistletoe tradition is highlighted. 

Art was an older black man who lived on Oakland. Every weekend there'd be great parties at his place. Maybe it was a rooming house and he had a room there; I don't recall. I do recall that I lost my virginity at one of those.

Somehow my mind connects these to the Art School scene. This was the time of the Ann Arbor Film festivals, and George Manupelli. Anyone remember my pal Geno Bacchus? We used to hang out at Dominick's together. He was a friend of Pat Oseczko, who later became world famous with her funny, political "wearable art." She was a regular at Art's parties as well.

Anyone have any memories of that scene?

P.S. I may have the name wrong. It is not Art Fletcher, who was a jazz flute and wind instruments player that I was tight with briefly toward the end of my time in Ann Arbor.