Demolition derbies, fried foods and carnival rides are scheduled to make their annual August appearance in the Lansing area as the 155th annual Ingham County Fair comes to the fairground, 700 E. Ash St., in Mason, for the week of Monday, Aug. 3 through Saturday, Aug. 8.
Some people grow up fighting. Whether it’s for sport or just being the smallest kid on the block, some people are born swinging and never stop. John Lennox, a theater instructor at Lansing Community College, was an admitted scrapper growing up, and the first time his high school theater director asked him to throw a punch on stage, he realized he knew just as much about fighting on stage as he did offstage.
Switching majors in college is nothing new. However, it is a little less common to entirely change career paths. With a biology degree from MSU’s Lyman Briggs School in 1993, Ed Stielstra intended on going to medical school. But his plans changed.
A line of men sit in chairs against the wood-paneled wall. Waiting. Of different races, and ages, they wait patiently, but not quietly, for their names to be called. On the other wall, men sit in chairs being taken care of by the staff of Dino’s Barber Studio, 4314 S. Cedar St., in Lansing. Everyone is talking and laughing while the motion of the store moves gently to the beat.
In a world filled with plenty of indoor entertainment for children, workers at the Harris Nature Center, 3998 Van Atta Road in Okemos, are offering elementary school children the opportunity to learn about the outdoors. The camps run from Monday through Thursday this week for a fee of $90 for all campers.
After a long day at work, being greeted at the door by a small furry animal might warm the heart and put a smile on your face.
The Summer Concert Series continues with a performance by Ryan Knott beginning at 7 p.m. and ending at 9 p.m. Friday. The concert will take place at Fountain Square at the corner of M.A.C. Avenue and Albert avenues. Saturday night’s performers will be Against School Violence, at the Ann Street Plaza, also beginning at 7 p.m.
Capital TheaterWorks, the resident company of The Ledges Playhouse, 133 Fitzgerald Park Drive, in Grand Ledge, presents “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde.
In a cartoon-bright room with walls covered in children’s drawings and populated by chairs shaped like hands and high-heeled shoes, 10 children sit with heads bowed over papers in fierce concentration.
Opening a cafe was never part of Colleen Davis’s plan. And yet five years ago, Davis opened Gone Wired Cafe. “When I was a student and a teacher, I would always go for places to study and to write and there weren’t any and I felt there was room for a cafe geared directly towards students and people who like to go to cafes to do their work,” Davis said.
Writing has always been a passion for MSU alumnus Adam Holwerda, who used the self-publishing Web site lulu.com to publish his first book of short stories, “Clayton’s Secret Notebook.”
Russ Zarras, a physics senior, was raised on funk and couldn’t resist the siren song of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. Lansing resident Kari Hanson saw an opportunity to see her boyfriend, Brice, and children hear music and dance under the stars to Huey Lewis and the News.
Grand Art Supply is all about color. From the bright primary colors that decorate the sign enticing shoppers off the street to the many neatly organized rows of pencils and paints, Grand Art Supply’s mission is to give the artists of the Lansing community some place to stock up on all the essentials to make art, said owner Greg Limmer.
Ready, set, rock ’n’ roll. For the first time, middle school and high school students will be working with Grand Rapids-based band The Outer Vibe for the School of Rock Camp. The camp started Monday and will end Friday, with the cost to participate in the camp at $120.
Approximately 3.5 million people will experience homelessness in any given year according to a study done by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in 2007.
For the past two weeks, the area along Red Cedar River behind the Auditorium has been filled with audiences attending the 49th annual Summer Circle Theatre produced by the MSU Department of Theatre. “I think it’s pretty amazing Summer Circle has been going on for this length of time,” said George Peters, chair of the Department of Theatre.
Every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m., a group of men gather in the dining room of Great Lakes Christian Homes, 2050 S. Washington Road in Holt. They sit together not to argue, discuss or plan, although that sometimes plays a part. They’ve come to make art they enjoy, and perform it well. They’ve come to harmonize.
It’s not every day that people follow their dreams, see them come true and find time to give back to their hometown community. For Desmond Ferguson, growing up playing basketball and developing a passion for the sport led to a successful basketball career playing for numerous teams, one of them being the Portland Trail Blazers.
What started out as a weekend hobby for Dave Cripe and his dad turned into much more than that when their business, Betty’s Buttons & T-shirts, was born. “My dad and I were at a car show and he’d bought this little button machine,” said Dave Cripe, owner of Betty’s Buttons & T-shirts, 1135 S. Washington Ave., in Lansing.
In celebration of summer and spirits, the 10th annual Festival of the Sun will take place from 2-10 p.m. Saturday at the park and parking lot located at the corner of Turner Street and Grand River Avenue, in Old Town Lansing.