OPINION
The new nation
of SlowlyLand
This two-state solution
could prove that all falafel
actually tastes the same
SEE PAGE 5
ARTS
A film experience
worth having
Soderbergh's "The
Girlfriend Experience"
services its viewers well
SEE PAGE 10
SPOR TS
A double dose of
champions
Best friends Ofili and
Gall win big at NCAA
Championships
SEE PAGE 11
Vol. CX1X, No. 141 1 2009' The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.con
N EW S ................................. 2
OPINION ............................ 4
CLASSIFIED ....................... 6
ARTS ............. ................. 9
SPORTS ............................ 11
Weekly Summer Edition
ART FAIR
Art fair
funding
falls short
Directors cut perks
for artists, prepare
for smaller fair
By TORREY JOSEPH
ARMSTRONG
For the Daily
Organizers of the Ann Arbor
Street Art Fair are working to
repair a hole in the fair's budget,
which was estimated on Friday to
be about $35,000.
The fair, now in its 50th year
and the longest-running of Ann
Arbor's four annual art fairs, has
lost some corporate sponsorship,
while independent artists have
been renting fewer booths out of
caution, fair officials said. Before
Friday, the budget hole was origi-
nally thought to be $65,000.
Shary Brown, executive direc-
tor of the Ann Arbor Street Art
Fair, said national corporations
that previously sponsored the
fair, like Maybelline and Ninten-
do Wii Fit, are not producing as
many new products, so market-
ing tours are not taking place.
The sfate's economy has also
deterred corporate presence at
the fair, which is scheduled for
July 15-18.
"They're leery of Michigan,
and they're trying to be cautious,"
said Brown, in reference to the
corporations.
The event is expected to fea-
ture 147 artists, a drop from last
See STREET FAIR, Page 8
During Shaman Drum Bookshop's liquidation sale, employee Sue Sielicki cashes out Niccola Parravano, who has been a patron
since the bookshop's opening nearly 30 years ago.
Shaman Drum to close
Local bookstore
couldn't compete with
online options
ByLARA ZADE
Managing News Editor
After 29 years of business, local
bookstore Shaman Drum Book-
shop will officially close its doors
on June 30 after suffering from fi-
nancial hardship in the past year.
In a written statement posted on
the shop's website Tuesday, Owner
Karl Pohrt wrote that after consult-
ing with his accountant and busi-
ness manager, it was clear to him
that the bookstore was no longer
a "sustainable business," despite a
"first rate staff, a fiercely loyal core
of customers, a very decent land-
lord and (his) own commitment to
the community of arts and letters
in Ann Arbor."
"The hardest thing about this
is losing the comrades that I've
worked with over the years," Pohrt
said in an interview Friday.
He also wrote that Ann Arbor
"continues to be an excellent book
town" and that remaining indepen-
dent bookstores need residents'
support.
Pohrt wrote in an open letter
printed in The Ann Arbor Chron-
icle on Feb. 17 that Shaman Drum
started losing money in September
due to "customers migrating to the
Internet coupled with the fright-
ening economic crisis."
In a Feb. 19 Michigan Daily ar-
ticle, Pohrt said that those two rea-
sons, along with the falling popu-
larity of books, "foretell the fate of
the already suffering independent
booksellers."
Pohrt said in the same article
that textbook sales in particular
have been declining at Shaman
Drum as more students buy their
books online through such outlets
as the UBook program, which is
an online book exchange that en-
courages professors to post their
required reading lists on CTools.
Students can then buy, sell and
trade books online through an inte-
grated exchange system at cheaper
prices.
"I don't think this is a bad policy,
See SHAMAN DRUM, Page 8