Waving at April Fools

Posted on by farlane

Wave by Ryan Munson

Wave by Ryan Munson

Those who know me or are longtime Michigan in Pictures fans know that April Fools Day is something near & dear to my heart (click that link for some of the best). It’s one of the many comforting things that are sliding away and I hope that all of you find new comforts & new ways of thinking about happiness.

You can view Ryan’s photo and more on Flickr & also check out the Ann Arbor Festifools group on Flickr for more from this A2 tradition!

PS: Shoutout to the folks who’ve tossed me a couple of dollars for Michigan in Pictures as well as all of you who are reading & sharing my posts. Feel free to email me a link to your Instagram or other photo page if you want me to check out your own photos for sharing and STAY SAFE!!

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“MU” merges University of Michigan & Michigan State University

Posted on by farlane

via Absolute Michigan…

"MU" merges University of Michigan & Michigan State University

HOWELL, MICHIGAN – This morning, Ann Arbor based University of Michigan and East Lansing’s Michigan State University announced a historic merger that will create the largest university on the planet, known simply as “MU”.

“We stand midway between two storied colleges to create the greatest of them all,” stated MU co-President Lou Anna Simon as she welcomed an estimated 11,110 alumni, honorees, and angry sports fans to what will be the main campus of MU in Howell. “MU will become the largest college in the U.S. and instantly the leader in medicine, science, arts, and of course – sports.”

Her fellow co-President Mark Schlissel “Today we put aside our differences to crush all other universities with the aggregated research, industry partnerships, academic synergies, and the combined athletic might that two nationally powerful programs can bring to bear.”

Although barely hours old, the new school has already been ranked #1 for the upcoming football, basketball and cancer research seasons.

Reactions of fans of the two programs contacted ranged from “confused” to “enraged” while the entire state of Ohio pretty much just broke down and cried.

Festifools #1 calling Festifools #9

Posted on by farlane

Festifools Ann Arbor

FestiFools: puppet painting, photo by Myra Klarman

The annual Festifools returns to Ann Arbor next Sunday, April 12 at 4 PM. The event is in its 9th year, and they explain:

A new local tradition, kicking off Ann Arbor’s outdoor festival season, FestiFools is a gigantic public art spectacular, created by members of the community and U of M students. Magnificent, huge, bizarre, politically incorrect, human-powered papier-mâché puppets join thousands of Foolish friends frolicking about downtown for one fun-filled hour. Don’t miss out on this eight annual celebration of foolishness!

Myra took this photo back in 2007 as she documented the very first year of what has become an Ann Arbor tradition. View her photo on Flickr and definitely check out her 2007 FestiFools April 1st Parade slideshow.

Give me a home, where the dinosaurs roam

Posted on by farlane

blah blah blah about being bigger than oneself

blah blah blah about being bigger than oneself, photo by hardyc

Is it just me or has the cloning of extinct species gone too far?

Check this out big as a brachiosaur and see more in Chris’s slideshow!

More April 1 fun on Absolute Michigan today!

Shark Attack Triple X: The Michigan Shark Experiment

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Shark Attack Triple X, photo by jnhkrawczyk.

Via the Herald-News in Roscommon:

…3 lakes in northern Michigan have been selected to host “an in-depth study into the breeding and habits of several species of fresh-water sharks.” Two thousand sharks are to be released into the lakes including blue sharks, hammerheads, and a few great whites.

The experiment is designed to determine whether the sharks can survive in the cold climate of Michigan, and apparently the federal government is spending $1.3 million to determine this. A representative from the National Biological Foundation is quoted as saying that there will probably be a noticeable decline in the populations of other fish in the lake because “the sharks will eat about 20 pounds of fish each per day, more as they get older.”

County officials have protested the experiment, afraid of the hazard it will pose to fishermen and swimmers, but their complaints have been ignored by the federal government. Furthermore, fishermen have been forbidden from catching the sharks. The report concludes by again quoting the National Biological Foundation representative, who says that “We can’t be responsible for people if they are attacked. Besides, anyone foolish enough to believe all this deserves to be eaten.”

Jill took this at The Heidelberg Project in Detroit. See it bigger in her Found Art slideshow.

PS: This was a spoof that the Roscommon News thought was real.

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Ann Arbor’s Annual Festifools

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

The Cellist

The Cellist, photo by beautyredefined.

Every year in April, the good people of Ann Arbor hold a street festival called FestiFools. The event takes place on April 11, 2010 from 4-5 PM and features “huge puppets and random acts of foolishness”. The event began when UM art teacher Mark Tucker, then Art Director for the Michigan Thanksgiving Parade, traveled to Viareggio, Italy to learn the fine art of carta pesta (papier-mâché) from their amazing float builders (must-click!).

Click through to festifools.org for much, much more including how you can help them build puppets!

Check this out bigger or in Kristin’s Ann Arbor slideshow.

If that’s not enough, how about the FestiFools YouTube channel, the FestiFools Flickr group or everyone’s Festifools photos.

Michigan Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents & Serendipity

Posted on by farlane

at Mackinac

at Mackinac :: a composite from -3 and -43 by Emery Co Photo

Last night I was looking for Creative Commons photos* with the appropriate license of the Mackinac Bridge so I could photoshop up a little something for Weird Wednesday: Michigan Sea Monsters (be sure to go back and read this!). I love it when the last Wednesday of the month rolls around as I get a chance to indulge my love of fooling with Photoshop. I was especially fired up as this month’s feature from Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey because it was the feature that I had hoped to run last year as the debut of Weird Wednesdays on Absolute Michigan.

In my search, I saw this photo of the Bridge and thought “Now that looks cool & misty.” Then I came upon this photo of a rock and said “Sea serpent ahoy!” The coolest part was that both photos were taken by Emery Co Photo (emerycophoto.com). I contacted her and she graciously allowed me to use them.

Hope you all get some time on the water this weekend and that everyone remembers that on the list of things we should be worrying about, sea serpents in Michigan come in somewhere around #23,432,555. ;)

*That would be the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. There are also a number of people in the Absolute Michigan pool who have told me that they are OK with me manipulating their photos for features on Absolute Michigan.