4B - Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Map THIS TAT
MARISSA MCCLAIN/DaIly
Fairy doors tend to mimic the storefronts ot the boildings in which they appeor, hot on o fantastically srmoll scole.
Gatewas to the urban fairworld
The mysterious
doors of fairyologist
Jonathan B. Wright
By CARLY STEINBERGER
DailyArts Writer
They may be small, but they
certainly haven't gone unnoticed.
Since the spring of 2005, fairy
doors have been appearing all
around downtown Ann Arbor. The
first one popped up in Sweetwaters
Coffee & Tea on West Washing-
ton Street. Others soon followed,
at locations such as the gift shop
Peaceable Kingdom, The Ark and
the Ann Arbor District Library.
Intricate and unique, each fairy
door is a miniature replica of the
establishment in which it resides.
The Sweetwaters door, for exam-
ple, mirrors the outside of the cafe.
Peering into the Peaceable King-
dom's miniature door, the plates
and little trinkets unmistakably
resemble the store's products.
But where did these little doors
come from?
"What I hear is that when the
fairies moved in and started build-
ing, the workers would come to
the store in the mornings and
find sawdust on the counter,"
explained Lynn Antisdel, a Peace-
able Kingdom employee.
Antisdel insisted that the fairy
doors are quite literally built by
fairies. She did mention, however,
that there's a man who has a spe-
cial connection with them.
His name is Jonathan B. Wright,
and he frequently refers to himself
as a "non-certified fairyologist."
In an interview with the Daily,
Wright maintained that fairies
were responsible for the tiny doors.
"In 1993, the first fairy door that
I know of was found in our house,"
Wright said. "The door was not
necessarily attributed to a fairy.
My wife was running a childcare
program in our home and it was
the kids who found the door and
they speculated on what might
be living there - which included
a 'lion mouse' and various others
tiny beings."'
Wright upheld that the fairy
door phenomenon began in 1993
(although no fairy doors were dis-
covered downtown until 2005).
He implied that it was in part
inspired by other mythology, like
Stuart Little, the Borrowers and
other creatures that are "weensy
and living in tight quarters."
Wright says that fairies built
the fairy doors in Ann Arbor, but
he specifically refers to them as
"urban fairies." He clarified the
difference between urban and
woodland fairies, aside from the
obvious habitat preferences.
"I see (urban fairies) as a kind of
new generation of fairies, maybe
ones that have got beyond some
of the traditional foibles of fair-
ies - being allergic to iron, etc.
They're a little bit more interested
in people, and that's why they live
in closer proximity."
Yet, many are still confused as
to why these urban fairies build
doors. Wright elaborated on this
point as well.
"You wonder if they even need
doors to get into spacest I would
say they're more of a prop by the
fairies that replicate a human con-
vention. Not required, but more
for fun."
Wright also indicated that
sometimes these fairies broaden
their horizons, building objects
other than doors.
"There was a car entered in
(Ann Arbor's) Rolling Sculpture
Car Show by a fairy named PeZz,
and it was a small Vernors- and
Mentos-powered vehicle," he said.
"I don't think fairies would need a
car, per se - they supposedly have
wings. But again, it just might be
for fun."
Wright has maintained his
interest in fairy doors for so many
years because he and his wife have
always been intrigued by mythol-
ogy and fairy stories. He com-
mented that as more and more
fairy doors began to appear in his
house and eventually downtown,
it grabbed his attention. A trained
illustrator, Wright was inspired
to write books on the subject and
maintain a website, urban-fairies.
com, which includes a history of
fairy doors, their locations around
Ann Arbor and any observations of
urban fairy activity.
But perhaps another reason
Wright has kept up his interest in
fairy doors is the way they inspire
children. During the Daily inter-
view, which took place at Sweet-
waters, a group of kids ran into the
cafe and immediately began look-
ing at its fairy door. Their curiosity
brought a smile to Wright's face.
"I like the fact that it's free and
it's fun. This group showed up,"
he said, as he gestured to the chil-
dren surrounding the Sweetwa-
ters door, "and they get to visit the
fairy doors."
And it's not just children who
get a kick out of these doors. Anti-
sdel said that Peaceable Kingdom's
fairy door gets both children and
adult visitors every day. Peaceable
Kingdom also gives out a free map
of all the Ann Arbor fairy doors.
But this map just includes all
the fairy doors that are connected
to Wright. Recently, fairy doors
built by other "tribes" of fairies, as
Antisdel puts it, have been appear-
ing around Ann Arbor. These
include the doors at the bookstore
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Crazy Wisdom and the one at the
candy store This & That.
"We actually built our fairy
door for our granddaughter," said
Andrea Graef, co-owner of This
& That. "She likes the fairy doors
around town, and that's why we
put it in." Graef's door, with a clear
front revealing a miniature sweet
shop behind it, also resembles her
store.
Wright isn't necessarily
opposed to fairy doors built by
other "tribes."
"For me it's more important to
leave the mystery and the magic
of how they appear than to take
credit for them or something like
that," he said.
Wright also made clear that the
fairy door phenomenon is far from
over. He said we should definitely
expect to see some new fairy doors
around town in the near future. It
seems that the urban fairies are
hard at work.
A CAPPELLA
From Page 1B
they're going to want people who
are going to mesh with that certain '
feel."
Because there were so many
auditioners this semester, many
groups ended up taking more mem-
bers than ever before.
"The girls this year were just out
of this world," said Vishrut Srivas-
tava, a junior in the Ross School of
Business and presidentof the Southz
Asian a capella group Maize Mir-
chi. "We had people that we defi-
nitely wanted to take but we just
didn't have space."
Of course, not all decisions were
particularly difficult.
"There was this one person who
auditioned this year," Srivastava
laughed. "At the beginning of the
audition, we test the range of their This year saw a record number of audition
vocal ability so that we can test to
see where they fit on the spectrum. a group is the music director, who
It's a pretty easy exercise, but this is not only responsible for run-
guy didn't really understand what ning rehearsals but also for coming
we were doing, so he started at the up with a schedule for the entire
bottom and kept on getting louder semester. Once rehearsals start
and louder and higher and higher, there's a thorough approach.
and we were all trying so hard not "Usually we only get to three
to laugh." or four songs in a rehearsal," said
"I usually laugh at least three Music, Theatre & Dance senior
times," admitted Chaz Cox, LSA Alex Kozak, the music director for
senior and a longstanding member Amazin' Blue. "In the beginning we
of the G-Men. "It's unclear to me just take time to learn the song."
why these people come to audi- Kozak typically runs rehears-
tions." als by first listening to the song as
Within the a cappella communi- a whole, and then splitting up the
ty and across the individual groups, sections to work the members indi-
the range of formal musical and vidually. She also changes up the
technical ability is striking. amount of time rehearsing through
"I am an example of a person that a song straight through.
can'treally read music," Cox said. "I "If we already have the notes
can go up when the notes go up and learned and we're doing more sty-
go down when they go down, but I listic things, we will probably start
can't play the notes on a piano." at the beginning. Then if there's
In terms of choosing and arrang- some section that needs tweaking,
ing the songs in their set lists, we'll stop," she said.
groups typically go on a weekend Solos are chosen in a similar
retreat every semester and figure fashion to callback auditions, with
out what new songs they want to each potential soloist singing the
sing. The person who suggests a song in the style they want to sing
song is responsible for arranging it. it while the rest of the group sings
"I like to write in new parts," softly around them.
Weber said. "Sometimes songs "After you do your thing, you
don't really translate well to a cap- leave the room, and that's where
pella - for example, if you have a everyone that's left has this formal
lot of guitar and bass chords - you deliberations process where you
really need to spice it up a little, pick the people," Srivastava said.
because you don't want everyone "And we always say, it's never per-
singing block chords. So I'm a big sonal."
fan of writing in new parts. All groups try to minimize
"(Arranging) takes me a really accompaniment in practice.
long time," she added. "There are' "Sometimes our music director
some people who can just do it in will stand in the middle and listen
one day." to parts and tell us what to do in
The most important position in terms of shaping the music," Cox
wear traditional Indian garb dur-
ing their concerts, but they're not
the only ones with distinguishable
stage costumes. For the G-Men, it's
their trademark blue jerseys.
"We're defined by our blue jer-
seys," Cox said. "We wear them to
every gig, and they're something
that will always and forever be part
of the G-Men."
Beyond physical characteristics,
each of the a cappella groups has a
specific personality.
"I think there's sort of a spec-
trum where you're either extremely
musical or you're very social," Sriv-
astava said.
"Dicks & Janes and Amazin' Blue
are probably among the most musi-
cally focused a cappella groups,"
he added. "They put music first,
and it shows - they're both nation-
ally recognized groups. But you can
also be more about the relation-
ships than the music, which is a fair
distinction. I think Kopitonez falls
a little more on the fun side of the
spectrum. The G-Men and Friars
are also a little more fun."
"If you're in the community
you understand that you develop
a perception of each group, but
they're subtle," Cox explained. "For
instance, when I think of Dicks &
Janes, I think of really sharp cho-
reography."
"I think of technical sound and
super intense and really great,"
Weber added about the Dicks &
Janes.
One thing they all can agree on,
though, is that whatever the per-
sonality, a group is never limited in
the songs that it sings.
"In terms of musical genres, I
think it's very difficult to charac-
terize groups in that way," Srivas-
tava said. "We all spread out quite
a bit."
In order to accommodate the
wide diversity of groups across
campus, the Michigan A Cappella
Council (MACC) was created in
2002 to organize large-scale events
and promote cross-group bonding
in the a cappella community. Cox
and Weber currently serve as presi-
dent and secretary of the council,
respectively.
"The biggest issues for us are
things that affect the entire a cap-
pella community," said Weber. "It's
just sort of a way to check up on all
the groups."
In addition to putting on A Cap-
pella Rush in the fall, MACC spon-
sors MACCFest in November, a
collage concert featuring perfor-
mances from each a cappella group
on campus. It also organizes social
events around the year for the ben-
efit of the entire a cappella com-
munity - most notably AcaProm,
when members gather together to
get dressed up and dance.
Yet beyond the music, the solo
auditions, the competitions and the
performances, the most important
thing to the a cappella community
is the singers' bonds with each
other.
"I think it's so powerful when
you're singing with a group of
people that you love so much," Cox
said. "There's something that clicks
and everyone in the group feels it...
I'm getting goosebumps just talk-
ing about it."
The Lyres are geared up for their
third run-through of "Sweet Caro-
line."
"This song is all about energy and
value, so do what the music tells
you to do," the music director says.
"If you've already memorized your
music, tryto move around a little."
With that, one girl drops her
binder of music with a thud. Anoth-
er starts tapping her feet in antici-
pation. They're ready this time.
When the chorus hits, the sing-
ers have merged their movements
together - one human instrument
made out of a mess of limbs, hips
and fingers. Toward the end, this
time all the members unanimously
belt the words out: "So good! So
good! So fucking good!"
01
ers for a cappella groups.
said. "But there's nobody sitting at
the piano plunking out chords tell-
ing us what to do."
In addition to the three all-
female (Harmonettes, Sopranos
and Midnight Blue) and two all-
male (G-Men and Friars) a cappella
groups, there are also five groups
dedicated to special cultural or reli-
gious interests. There's the multi-
cultural group 58 Greene, the Asian
group Kopitonez, Maize Mirchi,
the Jewish group Kol Hakavod and
the Christian group Good News, all
of whom cater their songs and mes-
sages toward these focal points.
"We have a music portion and
a fellowship portion," said LSA
senior Cory Chin, who is a member
of Good News. "For the fellowship
portion, we have (auditioners) share
their testimony with us, about their
relationship with God - just to see
if they share the same vision as us
in sharing the good news."
Good News typically sings
arrangements from Christian rock
bands like Avalon, Switchfoot and
Point of Grace, but not always.
"If there's a secular song that we
think has a Christian message, then
we can use that too," he said.
Maize Mirchi incorporates
Western music into more tradition-
al Bollywood songs. And though
a large number of the traditional
songs are sung in Hindi, some of
the members don't know how to
speak it.
"Obviously, the soloist has to be
able to sing in that language, but
everyone else doesn't really need
to," Srivastava said.
Maize Mirchi members typically
01
Each group has its own personality - some are more music-focused while others are all about the social aspect.
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