University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Ryan Miller, lead singer of popular alternative band Guste performs at Hill Auditorium. Gustert performance in Ann Arbor sold quickly R. Peplinski photi, 3 j f isfT f A

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There is not a single empty parking space available on this campus street. Parking spaces were very difficult to come by, especially during school hours. S. Jerome photo Parking on or near campus in Ann Arbor had always been a hot topic among not only students, but among residents of the city as well. Though there were many parking structures near school, the cheapest fee was upwards of twenty or thirty dollars for twenty-four hours. Some students who lived farther off campus solved this problem by paying an average of $100 a month to use empty parking spaces of students who lived closer to campus. Many students had parking spaces that came with the place they rented, but when they needed to drive to class, parking became a major concern. My card was deactivated at the parking garage and so I don ' t even know if I still have a spot at Tower Plaza, where I live, anymore! I actually got a ticket at a parking garage once that I had paid for. Parking ' s just hellish in Ann Arbor, said senior German and political science major Ellen Michaels. Tickets were a main concern in Ann Arbor, but a trick that a lot of students were aware of was that if the ticket was paid within twenty-four hours of being issued, the fine would only be five dollars. This, however, only applied to the parking meters on the street. In parking garages, the fine was always upwards of thirty dollars. I have to pay for a parking spot. Parking ' s not bad on the off hours, but it ' s kind of hard to find spots when you need them like on weekdays and lunchtime, said third year business major Katie Cprek. Towing also became a common problem campus that students came to dread. on This kid in my class got his car towed three times in one day last year because his parking space was being taken up by a city vehicle. Another friend of mine was parking in the parking lot at her own apartment at the beginning of this year and she got towed. Because of a new law in Ann Arbor, she had to pay $250 to get it back. Towing ' s really getting ridiculous here. In Ne w York City the towing fee is something like $75, but here it ' s $250? I mean, come on! said sophomore English major David Stryzeweski. Many students believed that since the city and the police were getting money from both tickets and towing charges, they were not doing as much as they could to relieve the lack of parking on campus, an issue that infuriated students with cars on campus.

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I. music scene... by Chris [Ibanese Students at the University milled around campus with their headphones blasting in 2006. While some undoubtedly stuck to mindless-but-catchy Top 40 selections, such as Justin Timberlake ' s SexyBack or Ludacris ' s Moneymaker, for others, music was much more meaningful. Metal fan and LSA junior Aaron Osborn said, [Metallica] honestly changed my life. Ask anyone who knew me before and after. It ' s like I found myself. Osborn enjoyed live shows in the Ann Arbor-Detroit area; he had seen Mushroomhead in concert ten times. They ' re absolutely amazing showmen, Osborn said, and [they] put on the best shows I ' ve ever seen. Especially around Halloween. Absolutely brutal. I once moshed for 45 minutes straight at one of their shows. While Osborn was admittedly a champion of metal music, he acknowledged that other kinds of music could have potentially been important to other people. I ' ll often be seen ripping on certain types of music, he said, citing country and rap as examples of music he would rebuke. But I can recognize that all forms of music have some value. Even if I can ' t stand it and make fun of it, it probably means something to someone. Ann Arbor was a good place to see a concert, with a club scene offering jazz shows, rock, techno, house, metal, rap, traditional Celtic, and just about anything else anyone could come up with. At venues like The Ark, one could expect to sit comfortably and hear sophisticated performances, like violinist and superb whistler Andrew Bird or English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, at a reasonable volume. One could stand and see a rowdier but equally brilliant show at places like The Blind Pig, which featured Ghostface Killah one night, or The Heidelberg, which offered metal shows on occasion. The Michigan Theater and Hill Auditorium also hosted a variety of artists including Guster, a popular band with Michigan students, who played at Hill on November 7 th , 2006. Ann Arbor offered perhaps the most interesting music scene in all of Michigan, and University students were happy to enjoy it. Junior biopsychology and English major Cynthia Chen plays a concerto at Hill Auditorium accompanied by the Campus Symphony. Chen was given this honor for winning the prestigious and highly competitive Eugene Bogart Concerto competition. C. Chang photo Senior neuroscience major Antony Abraham performs a song at Potbelly ' s. Abraham played there every Friday evening. R. Peplinski photo michigan life 41