Pretty lights at Michigan Fairs

I’m down at Lollapallooza, maybe looking for a Michigan angle but really just helping my daughter celebrate her 17th birthday.

This photo is from the Ottawa County Fair. Fair season is in full swing all across Michigan, and you can find out when and where they are using the fair locator at Michiganfairs.org!

Check this out background bigtacular and in Kevin’s Fun with Lights slideshow.

Above the Rest………

Above the Rest………, photo by smiles7.

Stand up, stand out.

Check this out bigger and in Julie’s Spring/Summer slideshow.

Viewing the Northern Lights in Michigan

20100804-DSC_6621, photo by xmatic.

Michigan in Pictures has seen over 10,000 people looking for aurora borealis aka the northern lights in the last two days. The cause of this is a major solar ejection that hit our magnetic environment on Tuesday/Wednesday. The good news is that here’s another plasma cloud on the way. The second wave may have hit last night, but it might hit tonight as well (and even if it doesn’t we may still be able to see some activity).

Most people I know downstate haven’t been able to catch them but xmatic up on the Keweenaw Peninsula got a great series of photos over of the aurora over Lake Superior. Check this out bigger and in xmatic’s northern lights slideshow.

Here’s a photo that Shawn Malone took of the aurora over Marquette Harbor in the Detroit News. Shawn has another photo on Michigan in Pictures and many more on her northern lights page.

Michigan in Pictures has lots more information including What makes the colors of the Northern Lights and information about the “rivers from the sun” that cause the northern lights.

Skywatchers should also mark August 12 for the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower!

Dog Days of Summer: August in Michigan

Dog_Parade_3, photo by Steven Scherbinski.

“If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?”
- Steven Wright

Every month, we post a Michigan event calendar on Absolute Michigan. Our 2010 August Calendar of Michigan Events features too many cool Michigan events to list here – click that link and get a little relief from the Dog Days of Summer!

You can see this photo bigger (if you dare) and also have a look at Steven’s slideshow from the Northport Dog Parade.

Also check out the August slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool!

Elk Rapids Beach

Elk Rapids Beach, photo by kmoyerus.

Somebody told me once, “If you see a curve, take a picture.”

Check this out bigger and see more black & white photography on Michigan in Pictures.

Michael Moore to help restore Michigan’s downtown movie theaters

Bohm Theatre, Albion, photo by I am Jacques Strappe.

One of the cool things that came out at this year’s Traverse City Film Festival was Michael Moore’s plan to to bring back downtown movie theaters. John Flesher And Mike Householder of the AP write in USA Today:

For generations, Americans viewed films in stately, single-screen theaters that were pillars of city business districts — an experience that faded with the rise of suburban multiplexes and the decline of downtowns.

Michael Moore wants to bring those theaters back. The Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker has a plan to refurbish or prop up downtown movie houses in his home state of Michigan— and eventually nationwide.

Such efforts have been made before. But Moore’s approach has a twist, modeled on the successful resurrection of the State Theatre in Traverse City, his adopted hometown in northern Michigan.

The way to rescue downtown movie houses, Moore says, is to run them as nonprofit ventures staffed mostly with volunteers. That slashes costs and gives the community a stake in the theater’s survival, he says.

Moore plans to provide grants and training to theater operators who use those methods. The money would come from a fund he’s creating with his rebate from a state film tax credit earned by producing his documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, in Michigan. He expects the refund to total about $1 million.

“One of our goals is to create an economic boost, particularly in struggling downtown areas,” he told The Associated Press this week during the annual Traverse City Film Festival, which he and others established six years ago. “Another is to save the art of cinema and encourage great films to be made.”

The Flint native moved to the Traverse City area in 2003 and took an interest in the State Theatre on the resort town’s main street. Opened in 1916, it had become a shuttered relic.

As someone who lives in Traverse City and has seen the amazing impact that the re-opening of the State Theatre has had on downtown Traverse City by driving traffic to restaurants and shops, I have to say that this is an economic development idea that communities should take a good look at!

If you want to see these theaters, there’s no better place than Marjorie O’Brien’s amazing Theaters of Michigan set. The theaters are organized alphabetically by city name. She hopes to do a book and writes that although it’s probably an obsession:

This project is, however, the least I can do to raise public awareness about the plight of historic movie theaters.

Each theater featured in this set is unique and different from the next. Each theater has had very different stages in its life; each has its own storied history.

Check them out, beginning with Albion’s shuttered Bohm Theatre, in her Theaters of Michigan slideshow.

PS: If you want to learn more about Marjorie, check out our Michigan in Pictures photographer profile of Marjorie O’Brien.

Taking time with a Lake Superior sunset

_DSC1376, photo by adonyvan.

Hey everyone, sorry for being a day late with this. I plead film festival. ;)

Check this out bigger and see more from this shoot in his Houghton & UP MI slideshow.