1OD - The Michigan Daily Weekend Magazine -- Thursday, October 8, 1998 0 0 The Michigan Daily Weekend Ma Oct. 8: It's not just for Christmas anymore /What: Frakenmuth, MI /Where: North of Ann Arbor toward Flint. MI' /How: Take,1-23 North until it becomes 1-75. Follow I- 75 until to Birch Run Street in Frankenmuth. From there you can pretty much follow the signs to anywhere in own. /How Long: 1 hour, 15 minutes. /What's There: Besides the Christmas store, the town also sports a Bavarian atmosphere, friendly folks and food worth checking out. As the days get shorter and winter solidifies its grip on Michigan, Frakenmuth transforms into a winter- wonderland - so you might want to wait just a few weeks or so before you jump in the car. Of course if you want to go soon, before the roads get all slippery and dangerous, it's still a place worth seeing. Traffic is not usually a problem on 1-23 and 1-75 unless you are heading north onFriday evening or trying to go during rush hour. /ln Two Weeks: Northwestern University Road-Trip of the Week Frankenmuth offers Bavanan Chisnas throughout the year Tillinghast shows he's not afraid of the big Daniel Wolfnan For the Daily Tourist-friendly Frankenmuth, Mich. was open for business this past week; therefore, it was Christmas in Bavaria. Frankenmuth is best known as the sight of the largest Christmas store in the world, "Bronner's Christmas Wonderland," and yet to be familiar with that fact is a wholly different thing than experiencing it. Still, con- veying the experience is even more curious. Driving into the parking lot of Bronner's, one sees the sprawling parking lot, capable of housing 1000-plus vehicles, then parks and walks to the store. Nearing the West Entrance of the store, one is sudden- ly ambushed by the sight of a 20- foot high statue of a smiling Snowman, pipe in mouth. Dazed tourists surround it. A perception of enormity is spreading throughout a first-time visitor's body. Moving on, the visitor is greeted in the small municipality of Bronner's by hanging signs declar- ing "God Bless You," and permuta- tions thereof, in 75 different lan- guages. A decrypting sign explains that words in different colors mean different things. People of all ages, perhaps unacquainted with the Irish Gaelic form of "Greetings," point at the signs before finally entering the enormous store. Inside, however, is where suspi- cion meets confirmation for the vis- itor, for Bronner's isn't playing around - Bronner's unabashedly means business. Hundreds of Santa Claus models adorn the west wing's vestibule, and thousands of puppets of angels hang from the 50-foot ceil- ing. In a remote corner, a mechani- cal Christmas tree sings "Jingle Bells" with perfect syntax. Walking under gigantic wreaths into a differ- ent room, customers have choices between a myriad of porcelain fig- urines of religious characters, while some are distracted by an intricate 10-foot long plastic presentation of "Snow Village." Most daunting, however, is simply the sheer size of the store, as its main showroom, the size of four football fields, leaves not a cranny un-Christmasized, nor a nook un- Noeled. There is a dining room named "Season's Eatings," and a movie room playing videos of Bronner's highlights. Outside, on a section of the 27-acre Bronner's grounds, stands a full-size replica of the Silent Night Memorial Chapel from Oberndorf, Austria. How to interpret all this? Reactions to the "Christmas Wonderland" vary, but all contain the element of awe. Judy Ackerman of Saginaw makes the sojourn to Bronner's at least once a year, and describes it as, "An unbelievable Bavarian culture is never hard to find - from the architecture to the spirit of the locals. Traverse City calls it "unreal." There is, though, another view of Bronner's people take: awed cyni- cism. "[Bronner's] is overwhelming, such an onslaught of red and green," said Dance junior Jasmin Rae Ziegler. "But it's so consumer-ori- ented, it's kind of a joke. What are they teaching their kids?" But Frankenmuth is more than just Bronner's; it proudly labels itself "Michigan's Little Bavaria." One follows the street signs point- ing to the "Tourist District," drives past Michigan's Own Military and Space Musuem (where every day is Memorial Day), past the Black Forest Brewing Co., and on to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant (est. 1888), ready to eat a "World Famous Chicken Dinner." The architecture of the buildings, a bucolic Bavarian motif, sets the tone for the meal. Those dining are given a choice between the See ROAD TRIP, Page 11B By Debby Hwang For the Daily English Language and Literature Prof. Richard Tillinghast has noth- ing to fear from Charlie Brown. "Miss Sweetstory," thought "Peanuts" comic strip character Snoopy when the aforementioned Brown claimed his favorite novelist produced nothing more than cheap pulp. After all, how could anyone not grow to love'The Six Bunny- Wunnies and the Female Veterinarian?!" Tillinghast doesn't need to worry about such allegations he delivers the goods - wether it be in a poem, in front of a class, or in a recording studio. A student of the celebrated poet Robert Lowell at Harvard University in the '60s, Tillinghast came to the University in 1983 to teach in the nascent MFA Creative Writing program and has been here since. His list of recent publications - poems, essays and reviews - reads like a ripping Shakespearean soliloquy and has included works in journals and magazines renowned nationally and internationally. Tillinghast currently reviews books and composes essays for The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal and The New Criterion, among other periodicals. Six poetry books and one literary memoir later, he has also released an album on CD. The prodigality - and quality -of Tillinghast's paper- work overwhelms even a reluctant reader. Is the CD, an amalgam of poetry and music, of the same cal- iber of worth? And why pick Poignant Plecostomus to conspire with? Well for one thing, the band - which experiments in several different musical genres - has garnered both critical success and a loyal follow- ing. That urge to constantly rupture the confinements of the known arrested Tillinghast's attention; it is, surely, similar to his own. Poignant Plecostomus combines jazz and rock with gyrating, fiery world music undertones; many compare them to the watershed Mahavishnu Orchestra of the '70s. Tillinghast certainly has a cosmopolitan back- ground; he learned [and in some cases forgot] Turkish, Farsi, Latin, French, Italian, Hindi and other lan- guages. He still lives part of the year in Ireland. "I could hear that they were doing things that might go well with my poetry, so we started doing a few gigs together around Ann Arbor, and then it began to evolve into some- thing really hot," the poet explained. More practically perhaps, Tillinghast's son Josh is drummer for the lauded fusion group. He is joined by Joel Robbins on violin, Shumit Das Gupta on bass, Pat Farrell on Fender Rhodes and Toby Summerfield on guitar. The poet and band united years ago and since then received acclamation after accl tion for both litheir present on- and studio session performa They are, a fan notes, "a pus force-field with its diversil mood and sound that's memc long after they've left the stag their next stop." In June of this year, with fim backing from a friend and con nity support, Poignant Plecost Used & Rare BOOKS Bought & Sold 113 W. Liberty (12block Wof Main St.) 995-1891 Vintage F Photography Westside Bookshop since 1975 CAN THE WOLVERINE HOCKEY TEAM WIN ANOTHER TITE? FIND OUT IN FACE-OFF '98. COMING NEXT .. ..._ place" Linda Lamb, a visitor from WEEK. I AUIANA YUGUVI./Uaily A waitress at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant serves a "world famous chicken dinner." To portray the culture, waiters and waitresses wear native outfits and are pre- pared to explain the difference between Wiener Schnitzel and sauerbraten. I INDOOR SOCCER Fall Season: Oct. 22nd - Dec. 19th Now accepting Registrations for Fall Leagues Registration Deadline: October 12th Individual Registrations are welcome 9)k Call (734) 913-4625for Details %www.wwsports.com SPORTS CENTER