The Leelanau News Blog
leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

Leelanau County's largest art fair takes place every year at Suttons Bay Marina Park on the first weekend of August  - that's this weekend! (August 2 & 3 2008). It features 100+ juried artists in all media along with community groups, food vendors and a children's area.

More at the Suttons Bay Art Festival web site and/or the Suttons Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.

ShugarTime-2, photo by jakphoto

News & such

While weren't updating every day during the summer, we did compile a few stories from last week.

• With the August primary election just a week away, it might be time to head over to the Michigan Land Use Institute to read the responses of County Commissioner candidates to five important questions about land use.
• If you search Election 2008 in the Enterprise, you can read more articles about the upcoming election.
• The Freep bit on the dinner with Mario Batali - one of many auction items you can bid on online from the Leelanau Conservancy (and in person on August 7)
• The Record-Eagle says that Cherry quantity is down, but cherry QUALITY is up this year as the sweet harvest winds down and the tart harvest ramps up.

The Weather

We had a lot of sun, a little rain and in general a great week of weather. Get the details from Weather Underground: July 2008!

Leelanau.com is a sponsor of the annual Traverse City Film Festival. We do this because it's one of the coolest events in our area year after year. Through the work of hundreds of volunteers, our area is able to host a film festival that can stand eye to eye with almost any in the world.

I really hope that you take some time, and some chances to see some of the great films that are still available like Anvil (which will be followed by a live performance of the band), Hamlet 2, Trumbo and many more. Even if you can't catch a film, there are filmmaker panels every morning at 10 AM at the Opera House and all kinds of things happening all over town like the premier of locally filmed movie Blind Pursuit at Inside Out Gallery (click for a trailer) and free movies on the big, big screen at the Open Space.

You can also follow along with photos from the TCFF Flickr and Traverse City Film Festival photo group and the TCFF blog which is updated constantly!

The photo is The Crowd by Raffi Appel and it's one of many in the Traverse City Film Festival 2007 slideshow.

The annual Leelanau Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Wine & Food Festival will be held Saturday, August 9 from noon to 6 PM at Haserot Park in Northport. The event features wines from the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas, food from area restaurants and music by Leelanau County's own Fabulous Horn Dogs. Your admission includes souvenir glass and two wine-tasting tickets.

Also in Northport on Saturday is the annual Northport Dog Parade, which starts promptly at 1 PM. Dress up your dog and then parade through the streets of Northport. Prizes for all!! More from the Leelanau Township Chamber of Commerce!

The annual Suttons Bay Jazzfest takes place this Saturday, July 26 at Marina Park in Suttons Bay. The event features fine wines and food from the Leelanau Peninsula and world-class jazz music. This year's lineup includes hris Copeland Big Band Featuring Harry Goldson and Claudia Schmidt, Tad Weed Trio, Betty Joplin Quartet, Cooper, Hay, Van Lente Group and Big Noise w/Sam Faught.

Much more information is available at the Suttons Bay Jazzfest home page, at the Suttons Bay Chamber and from Marcus Roberts' web site.

Photo credit: Marcus Roberts by trudeau. Also check out this photo of the Marcus Roberts Trio in action!

Serenity by Stacy Niedzwieck (click photo for wallpaper-sized image)

We're not doing daily news & weather updates until fall, but you can check weather for the week from Weather Underground and here's a few stories & photos that that caught our eye last week:

• Taste of Dehli from the Record-Eagle tells the story of New Dehli natives Rekna Chugh and Rajni Punhani and their excellent Indian food available at NJ's Grocery in Lake Leelanau.
• Finding the Roots of 'Leelanau' in the Enterprise offers an in-depth look at the roots of our county's name.
• KT from Lake Orion caught a near perfect view of Grand Traverse Bay while jimflix took the road to North Manitou from the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

The Glen Arbor Art Association welcomes singer/songwriter Annie Gallup to the Studio Stage/Lake Street Studios (in case of rain, location is Glen Arbor Town Hall) this Wednesday (July 23) at 8 PM. Head over to the Glen Arbor Art Association web site or call 334-6112 for details!

Annie grew up in Michigan and taught herself to play guitar, copping licks from old Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and Dave Van Ronk albums that she found at the public library. She is the winner of many songwriting competitions, including Kerrville New Folk, and has performed at concert venues throughout North America since 1994, driving enough miles to make it to the moon and almost back.

Check out this interview with Annie Gallup on NPR's All Things Considered and hear more of her work from anniegallup.com!

For the rest of the summer Leelanau.com will go to a summer schedule. That means that some days we'll update the site and this blog and other days we won't.

We will of course continue to post our weekly email newsletter (sign up on our home page) and you can check events in the Leelanau Calendar and follow comments on our July 2008 page.

Sorry if this puts you out, but we want to enjoy summer too!

(click to get the above photo at "background size")

Baled hay (South French Rd) by John Levanen

News from the Week

Last week's news was (as usual) mostly events. We did have a nice Fireworks video from Ken Scott (featuring music from Song of the Lakes) and a cool Sleeping Bear Dunes photo.

The Week's Weather

We had a good deal of sun and (other than Sunday) very summery temps, even cracking 90 for the first time this year!

July 10, 2008: Sunny & low 80s (83/53)
July 11, 2008: Mostly sunny & low 80s (83/52)
July 12, 2008: Mostly sunny & upper 70s (80/64)
July 13, 2008: Partly sunny, windy & 60s (71/60)
July 14, 2008: Partly sunny, a bit of rain & low 70s (73/58)
July 15, 2008: Partly sunny & upper 80s (90/57)
July 16, 2008: Mostly cloudy, some rain & 80s (86/60)

Click for the Leelanau news archive from July 2007 and our July 2008 page!

The first annual North Bar Lake Skimboard Competition takes place this Saturday (July 19) at North Bar Lake just north of Empire.

Registration is from 10 to noon and the competition starts at 1 PM. For details, please call Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak at 231.326.WAVE (9283).

photo: Goofyfooted by Andy McFarlane