Snowshoers and Dogs Strolling the Beach at the Old Mission Lighthouse
By MIKE NORTON
After three days of snow, wind and clouds, Saturday’s weather was amazing. The sun was out, the sky was a bright robin’s-egg blue, and the bay was shining between those snowy hills like an amethyst nested in white ermine. I couldn’t stay inside - I had to go out to Lighthouse Point just to roam around, look out over the water and enjoy the open sky.
I wasn’t the only one, of course. Not by a long shot. There were already cross-country skiers heading out on the huge network of trails that surround the Old Mission lighthouse, and a group of almost 20 people had decided that day to toss their dogs and snowshoes into their cars and come out to the lighthouse to stomp around in the snow. The people were tired by the time I caught up to them — but those were the happiest dogs I’ve seen in a long time!
Winter is loads of fun, but needless to say, it helps to take a creative approach to the season - and the folks over at the Left Foot Charley winery have adopted a particularly creative idea. On Monday night, Dec. 21, they’re sponsoring a local celebration of Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, a free outdoor “participatory sound sculpture” where attendees become part of the performance by roving around outdoors with boom boxes, mp3 players and laptop computers that have been programmed with parts of a complex “cloud of sound” that is different from every listener’s perspective.
In case you don’t know, Left Foot Charley is Traverse City’s one and only urban winery, and is located in the Grand Traverse Commons, on the beautiful campus of our former mental hospital, which makes it a perfect venue for something like this. Unsilent Night celebrations have been held in New York, Los Angeles, Missoula and Melbourne, but there are only two Michigan cities — Lansing and Traverse City - that will hold one this year.
The fun begins at 7 p.m. Reservations are required for the event, and you’re invited to bring your own device to play a part of the sound sculpture. (The way it works is that when you make your reservation, they give you link information for downloading to your mp3 - or they can hold a cassette/CD on reserve for you at Left Foot Charley and you can pick it up that night.) For more information, you can call the winery at 231-995-0500 or visit their web site at www.leftfootcharley.com
Tags: Cross-Country, Grand Traverse Commons, Old Mission Peninsula, ski trails, Traverse City
