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22B - The Michigan Daily - best of Ann Arlor 1999 - Thursday, April 8, 1999
AZ Best Place to People Watch, Break Up
With arrival of spring,
students spend more
time outside on D
Ffw. ' j x% ,rar . El

The Michigan Daily - Best of Ann Arbor 19
El Best Entertainment
Dave's on top, but Colonel Sun
may challenge for WIQB airtime

By Cortney Dueweke
Daily Arts Writer
The recent fair skies and warm
weather have brought forth the usual
batches of students, residents, and vari-
ous religious zealots. After the months
of frigid temperatures and snow, it
seems like all University students are
ready to escape their confining dorm
rooms and houses and spend a little
time outdoors. Their settling place of
choice?
The Diag, of course.
Suddenly, it seems like there are actu-
ally students at the University again.
Somewhere between the screaming
hustle of football Saturdays and the icy
grip of winter, most of us retreat
indoors and are never heard from again.
Sidewalks are empty, bike racks are bar-
ren, benches forlorn.
The Diag cannot affect the weather, of
course, but it is the first place we flock to
when temperatures rise to the threshold of
our collective comfort levels.
As the temperature rises, so does the
number of people packing into the Diag
each day. Students cluster on the
cement benches and congregate on the
steps of the Grad library, nap in the sur-

rounding grass and listen as preachers
inform them of their impending descent
into hell.
Due to its central location and the
sheer number of people who frequent it,
the Diag is the perfect place to do a lot
of things. But its main attraction is peo-
ple watching.
On a given day in the Diag, thou-
sands of different people pass through.
Students hand out pamphlets and are
eager to recruit others to help support
their cause. People protest while others
protest against the protests.
Students draw in chalk on the pave-
ment, advertising events or rooting for
their Greek Week teams. Groups of
bewildered Campus Day visitors cluster
together taking it all in. Musicians beat
on bongo drums and strum on guitars.
Freshmen scurry Away from the brass
block M, trying to avoid bad luck.
Preachers rant and rave about how all
college students are drug-pushing, sex-
crazed carriers of sin.
All these people give the Diag the
charm that makes it a popular place to
hang out. No matter what time of day, one
can find someone interesting to watch.
And very little of the warm .weather-

102.9 FM, WIQB (Best Radio
Station) If you can get past the fact
that every single DJ as well as all of
the call-letter recordings they play
insist upon referring to the station as
just "IQB" (what are you guys too frig-
gin' cool to say
the letter "W")"
- you can
then agree that
this is a pretty
cool little sta-,
tion. They find
the time to play
some of
today's more
rockin' one-hit
wonders with a
healthy dose of
R.E.M. and
D a v e
Band songs
from a few
years ago. Dave Matthews Bands Ii
They alsoD
occasionally pull out all the stops and
play songs like "Safety Dance" which
always makes a station worth the air-
space it invades on our dials. They are
always worth listening to, if for no
other reason than because they are Ann
Arbor-based and give away concert
tickets that you actually have a shot at

winning. Once you are actually caller
nine or whatever, you then don't have
to drive all the way to Detroit to pick
up the prize - pretty cool, no?
Ann Arbor Art Fair (Best Local
Festival) And
you thought no
one else was
around with
usA;> you in the sum-
m e r
Regardless of
the dearth of
events that fit
in this catego-
ry, Art Fair is a
perfect exam-
ple of what
makes Ann
Arbor great.
It's creative,
eclectic and
bursting at the
Courtesy of RCA Records seams with
eked and souflded great.pel.Noi
people. Now, if
only they could do something about
the humidity and the otherwise nasty
weather during that week.
Colonel Sun (Best Local Band)
Look out, Stipe. Watch your butt,
Vedder. These boys are on your tails
and moving quickly. With sounds that

would make any woman moan with
ecstasy and any man weak in the
knees, Colonel Sun is turning Ann
Arbor into the next Athens, Ga. Rock
never sounded so good from folks so
young.
Dave Matthews Band (Best
Concert) Experiencing the song
"Satellite" live is better than watching
"Titanic" three times in a row. Of
course, lots of things are better than
that, but trust us, Dave and the boys
kick butt in concert. Why else would y
Mick Jagger and the Stones have invit-
ed Dave up on stage to jam with them
in San Antonio?
Nectarine Ballroom (Best Dance
Spot) Sure, there may be a dearth of
dance clubs for a town Ann Arbor's
size, but we college kids really demand
that most commercial space downtown
go to bars. Still, at the Nectarine,
dancers of all sorts can appreciate the
eclectic mix of music and dance floors a
in this local classic. Remember, you
have to be 18 years old to get in, but
for those old enough there's no place
like the hot, sweaty, colorful atmos-
phere of this wild operation. A great
place for any night - especially week-
end nights - the Necto is more than The annual mega-fair that is the Ann Arbor
just fruit. Tradition" by the majority of voters.

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induced tomfoolery the Diag hosted last
week was not lost on LSA senior Eric
Gardner.
"There was a pro-bombing rally the
other day," Gardner said. "A guy came
through, totally unrelated to the protest,
and he had a three-foot long World-
War-IL-style bomb. He was just dancing
around with it through the Diag."
Also, "The preacher was out - he
has new material. I heard the MSU riot
material twice" Gardner continued. "A
couple walked through holding hands
and the preacher, of course, has a spiel
about holding hands: 'You hold hands
and it's going to lead to him feeling her
you-know-whats' which caused every-
body on the Diag to cheer."
With last Saturday's Hash Bash, there
was an increased number of interesting,
if rough-around-the-edges people on
hand to promote the legalization of
marijuana - among other things.
People getting stoned and arrested pro-
vided even more people-watching oppor-
tunities than usual for Diag regulars.
Now that the bleak and barren months
of winter have passed, the people in and
around the University have come out of
hibernation and into the center of cam-
pus.
If you're looking for entertainment
in the human form, look no further
than the Diag.

People-watching is a favorite Ann Arbor past-time - especially with the weather
getting warm again. But, if you're in a relationship, watch your step. The Diag
won honors for "Best Place to People Watch" and "Best Place to Break-Up."
Photos by ADRIANA YUGOVICH/Daily

www. mic higandaily.com
The perfect study break. 4


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