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The 4th Annual Great Indoor Folk Festival takes place this Sunday, February 12 in Building 50 at the Grand Traverse Commons. The festival runs from noon to 5:30, and it is family-friendly and free, though you're encouraged to donate through "busker buckets."

There will be 6 different stages with over 50 musicians on seven different stages. An article in this weeks Northern Express is well worth your time. They explain that the regional organization Songwriters in the Round is the driving force behind the event:

“It’s a community of really talented people. It’s an interactive family of musicians,” said Robin Lee Berry of Boyne City.

Berry will once again be part of the roster of performers. She will be singing and playing some of her original compositions along with some judiciously chosen covers.

“It’s a really wonderful experience,” said Berry. “I’ve been part of the Songwriters in the Round since its second year. It’s really brought a lot of musicians out of the woodwork.”

The list of performers is great, and many of them are from Leelanau - some highlights:  Louan Lechler, Robin Lee Berry, Kirby, Dane Hyde & Greg Stanton, Dennis Palmer & Allison Brown, Sister Wilene, Cabin Fever, Jim Crockett & Friends, Blind Dog Hank and Dede and the Dreamers.

About a week ago now I came across this photo by Mark Lindsay. I asked former Park Ranger Bill Herd, and he told me what has since come out in the media. From 140-year-old shipwreck piece washes ashore on remote stretch of Sleeping Bear Dunes beach in mLive:

Sleeping Bear Dunes historians believe the schooner fragment, estimated to be about 40-feet long and peppered with twisted metals spikes, is part of the ship’s bilge keelsons, which the Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archeology says were long timbers running most of the ship’s length, strengthening the keel.
It’s one of several fragments of the wreck to wash ashore over the years, said Laura Quackenbush, museum technician with park service. In fact, wreck fragments from the Jennie and Annie, as well as other ships which foundered off the dunes coastline, wash ashore once or twice a year.
“It’s a very dynamic shoreline,” she said. “It’s a common occurrence around there.”

Over the weekend photographer Ken Scott made the hike and posted the video below of the Jennie and Annie and also of the other (as yet nameless) wreck that we reported on last year.

Photo credit: Sleeping Bear Point Wreck by Mark Lindsay

Hey everyone, we're super sorry that we've been away so much. To try and make it up to you, we're going to give someone on our email list* a pair of tickets to the Traverse City Winter Microbrew and Music Festival tomorrow morning!! This year is the 3rd annual, and it takes place this Saturday February 11th at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.

The annual festival is produced by Porterhouse Productions and features over 40 breweries, wineries, cideries, and meaderies - most from Michigan - along with local food vendors and beer & food pairings. A highlight of the festival is a wide range of entertainment featuring Funktion, Heatbox, The Crane Wives, Whitney Morgan and the 78s, Dragon Wagon and Rootstand. There's also fire dancers, live polka music and a silent disco. Click the poster to the right for all the details, and as it's an outdoor festival (with tents) you know that fashion = warm! (ie: Carhart over Calvin Klein!)

*If you're not on our list sign up at the top right. If you don't want to get our weekly email, just post a comment on the Leelanau.com Facebook or send an email to andy@leelanau.com saying you want to win and we'll add you to the list we draw from!

Speaking of polka, here's one of the polka bands that will be at the Microbrew festival, Squeezebox. There's a little dancing, but nothing like what you'll probably see closer to the polka capital of the USA, Cedar Michigan.

The Glen Arbor Art Association offers several residencies each year for practicing artists who would like the opportunity for creative exploration in an idyllic setting in northern Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula. The purpose of the residency program is to provide visiting artists with a respite from daily responsibilities to enable them to concentrate on their work.

Participants use studio space provided at Thoreson Farm, a farmstead in the historic Port Oneida district of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A small apartment is provided in the Art Association building in Glen Arbor at no charge for the residency period. Residencies are considered in writing, visual arts, photography, sculpture, fiber arts, ceramics, music, philosophy and creative research.

Applications may be submitted until March 1 for the 2012 season. For more details and how to apply, see their web site!

photo credit: The Road to Pyramid Point by Matt Callow> (produced during a GAAA residency!)

This photo of the Northern Lights over Fishtown was taken by Ken Scott in October of 2011. Today on Absolute Michigan we posted a feature about a solar flare that may bring northern lights to Leelanau's skies tonight (and potentially over the next few days):

NASA's Space Weather site is the place to go for Aurora Borealis forecasting as they help make sense of the data the space agency receives about solar flares and their impact on earth's atmosphere. Yesterday they gave Northern Lights watchers a lot of hope with this news:

This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash (shown right or in short movie right here)

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site: movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the leading edge of the CME will reach Earth on Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours).

That means it's hitting the Earth 11 AM - 6 PM EST, but this level of intensity makes the Northern Lights a real possibility for the next couple of days so definitely LOOK UP tonight and tomorrow if there's any break in the clouds! If the northern lights hit, our Northern Lights Log will light up with reports. You can also learn a lot more about the Northern Lights at Michigan in Pictures and also at aurora borealis on Leelanau.com!

You're invited to share the love of Leelanau and Leelanau wine at the Taste the Passion wine tour, held February 4 & 5, 2012. This special weekend celebrates wine, chocolate and love at the wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail.

Your ticket allows you to chart your own course, enjoying food and wine pairings at 17 wineries along with a optional winter and Valentine-themed activities at many of the wineries.

"Taste the Passion is definitely our most intimate event," says winemaker Larry Mawby. "Our tasting rooms are cozy places in wintertime, and with less people on the trail, it's a great opportunity to talk directly with winemakers and vineyard owners. To top it all off, Leelanau County is a winter paradise, offering everything from cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, to enjoying great meals at our restaurants, and evenings by the fireplace. This is a perfect chance to score a Valentine's Day touchdown!"

Tickets are just $30, and quantities are limited. Secure yours as soon as possible, as most of LPVA trail events do sell out. There are also lodging packages that include tickets! Get all the details right here.

If you want to add a little more fun to your weekend, on Friday night (Feb 3) at Mountain Flowers Lodge from 6-8pm, the The Homestead and Glen Arbor Artists will be hosting “Art from Michigan’s Wine Country.” Art will be on display and for sale from local artists. To purchase tickets in advance call The Homestead 231-334-5100.

Photo credit: 2010 Taste the Passion by KatSwinehart

Along with many sites on the Web, Leelanau.com went dark on January 18th to protest a pair of truly awful bills that are on a fast-track for passage, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Neither of these new laws would stop piracy, which we at Leelanau.com are opposed to. Both, however, would put control of online content in the hands of large entertainment corporations and the government, placing a giant burden on web media outlets like Wikipedia, WordPress, YouTube ... and even little old Leelanau.com.

With our Leelanau.com, Absolute Michigan and Michigan in Pictures websites all down yesterday, there was some time to think about the issue, and we'd like to share one thought: We live in a world very different from the early 1700s when Parliament enacted the Statute of Anne to address the concerns of English booksellers and printers (you can look it up ... for now, on Wikipedia).

We are encouraged at every turn and by every consumer device to sing along to commercials, dance to the latest music and in general, swim in a sea of ever-present media. You can debate the pros and cons of doing that but it seems that expecting our candid videos, blogged observations or Facebooked^TM thoughts won't incorporate background music or samples, brand names is flat-out silly. We need intelligent and well thought out laws that recognize the modern world, and SOPA and PIPA definitely aren't either of those things.

Click here to watch a short video or read more about this issue and please take a moment to contact your elected officials through the links we provide!

Also check out Martin Luther King's last visit to Detroit on Absolute Michigan.

Building Bridges with Music presents a unique opportunity to hear one of Michigan’s great musicians perform in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, free for the community. Jeff Haas and his colleagues will be joined by international students from Northwestern Michigan College who will read brief excerpts from MLK speeches as part of the musical presentation.

The community remembrance starts at 5:30 pm with a proclamation from Traverse City mayor Michael Estes and an invocation from Rabbi Chava Bahle, followed by Haas’ presentation of original music including selections from his 2002 jazz suite, “The MLK Suite: Then & Now,” and excerpts from MLK speeches and writings. Haas will be joined by Laurie Sears on saxes & flute, Chris Lawrence on trumpet, bassist Jack Dryden and drummer Jordan Huggett.

“Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches and writings on civil rights were a regular topic at our dinner table growing up in Detroit in the late 50s and 60s with immigrant parents”, explains Haas. “Dr. King’s belief that all of our thoughts and actions are either based in love or fear really made a lot of sense to me as a youngster. And I have always tried to convey that in my music.” He goes on to say, “There’s still a lot of work to be done and I am grateful for this opportunity to come together with my community and recommit to doing the work to see Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream become a reality.”

The performance is free to all, and the State is also showing two movies for free: To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help. Visit the State Theatre website for complete details.

Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
~Old Farmer’s Almanac

Speaking of wolves and January, last month the US Fish & Wildlife Service removed wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the federal endangered species list. Wolves are now managed by states in the region and the ruling takes effect on Friday, January, 2012. Read the release from the Michigan DNR about wolf de-listing.

Photo credit: Moon over Lake Leelanau by Missy Luick (a February full moon...)

You can check out all kinds park & trail information on our Sleeping Bear Dunes Homepage and get snow & trail condition updates at Ski Leelanau!

There is no better way to get outside and burn off some of those extra holiday calories than by joining a Park Ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on a guided snowshoe hike every Saturday. Meet at 1 p.m. at the Visitor Center in Empire for these popular weekend afternoon adventures. They take place every Saturday, starting on January 7, 2012 and going through the month of February. Dress in layers, wear waterproof boots, and don’t forget to take your camera along to capture the wonders of winter.

Park Rangers meet interested snowshoers inside the Visitor Center to first provide basic snowshoeing instructions, and then directions to a trailhead or off-trail area pre-selected by the Park Ranger. If you do not have your own snowshoes, the National Park Service will loan you a pair free of charge (they are limited to 30 participants so email or call them to pre-register). While exploring outside, the Park Ranger will encourage participants to inquire and learn about winter’s effect on the park’s unique features. Be prepared to be outside until about 3 p.m.

Not only is snowshoeing easy, fun and good exercise, it is also an activity that can be enjoyed by all ages. The Park Ranger-led hikes are mildly strenuous, yet they proceed at a leisurely pace for no more than one and a half miles. This allows visitors an opportunity for discovery, adventure, and to look for signs of wildlife or evidence of ancient glaciers. Some snowshoers simply want to experience and enjoy a winter wonderland, which is what you will find at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

There is no charge for the programs, however, participants need to display the park entrance pass or have an annual pass to join in the fun. Reservations are not required, but are suggested, especially if you wish to borrow snowshoes or are with a group. Please call (231) 326-5134, ext. 328, for details and to make reservations. For more in-depth information about Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, visit www.nps.gov/slbe.