Latest Northern Michigan News

The story I really want to tell this week is about the early 20th century American socialite and art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, so I’m going to try to connect it to what’s happening in the stars! 

Isabella Stewart Gardner was known as a brilliant and unconventional patron of the arts, and this week marks the 94th anniversary of her death on July 17, in 1924, at the age of 84.

When Dan Nickels makes a mistake, he doesn’t throw it away. He keeps it. In fact, Dan puts his mistakes on display .

There’s so much happening in the sky this week, starting with the planet Jupiter, which changes direction after nearly four months of retrograde motion; there’s a New Moon that will cause a partial solar eclipse in other parts of the world; and after Friday the 13th, it will be possible to view all five naked-eye planets and the Moon in one night! 

This week the Earth arrives at that place in its orbital path that is furthest away from the Sun. This is called its “aphelion” and it will happen on Friday, July 6, even though it seems like a complete contradiction that Earth is furthest away from the Sun during the Northern Hemisphere’s Summer ~ but so it is.

Samantha Irby created the blog, “Bitches Gotta Eat.” Her debut collection of essays called “Meaty” was published in 2013. It’s being republished in connection with an upcoming TV series based on the book. Samantha’s latest book is “We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.” She talks this hour with author and storyteller Elon Cameron. Elon asked Samantha how she would describe “Meaty.”

There are polka bands across the country, particularly in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.  Where there are Polish-American communities in Michigan, there is usually polka music and dance.

Judy and Her Suchey Brothers are a polka band from the Alpena area. They've been playing together for 45 years.

The end of this week brings the end of this month, but not before the ringed planet Saturn opposes the Sun and the Moon comes to Full Phase.

Saturn and the Moon are locked in a beautiful harmony, and they’ll appear right next to each other in the evening sky this week, especially Thursday, June 28th, looking southeast an hour after sunset. 

There’s something unique happening this week just after the Sun stands still at its Solstice moment early Thursday morning: Venus and Mars will fall into position on opposite sides of the Earth, drawing our attention to the great mystery of understanding the beloved.

The last New Moon of the Spring happens this week on Wednesday, and for the occasion, the night sky is getting decked out in its favorite jewels: the evening star and the starry crown. And in between, a beautiful imagination develops over the Western edge of the world, where the ancient goddesses known as the Hours join in the dances of the gods. 

Next month, the planet Mars will make one of its closest-ever approaches to the Earth, and this week, to get ready, the red planet rises at midnight in the region of Capricorn, appearing as a mighty warrior guarding the ancient gateway of the gods.

In 1678, the Godiva Procession was instituted in Coventry, England to commemorate and honor Lady Godiva, who rode naked on horseback through the main street to protest her husband’s intent to raise taxes on the poor. Nearly 200 years later, in 1842, Alfred Tennyson found himself waiting on a train in Coventry and penned his iconic poem about it, which we can imagine is being written across the evening sky this week as the moon comes to full phase and sweeps past the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.