Arts + Culture

The Ear Behind the Music

Legendary Motown musical architect McKinley Jackson reflects on music Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie Before he arranged Marvin Gaye's hit Sexual Healing. Before he sat in the control room with The Four Tops, The Temptations and Aretha Franklin. Before he became the quiet power behind some of soul's most beloved records… McKinley Jackson was a teenager with a talent for trombone and an ear nobody could explain. “I didn’t know the rules,” he says. “But I already...

Arts + Culture

The Shape of Memory

Inside Axiom Glass: fire becomes form and form becomes memory Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie Before Andrew Madvin ever picked up a blowpipe, he was melting action figures in the backyard. “They all died in flames in an epic battle,” he said with a laugh. That early fascination with fire would eventually find its calling. In college, Andrew discovered hot glass—and with it, a lifelong collaboration with heat. What began as a metal and jewelry focus in high school...

Arts + Culture

The Psychology of a Good Time

The Sights & Sounds Concert series curates music—and local joy Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie When the clouds part and the smell of sizzling mac and cheese drifts across the west lot of the Royal Oak Farmers Market, Christie Siegel doesn’t just see a crowd. She sees a moment. A rhythm. A possibility. Music, in her hands, becomes something more than sound. It becomes a living formula for joy. “I always put myself in the shoes of the attendee,” says Siegel, who has...

Arts + Culture

Mr. Glass

Habitat Gallery has been creating glass collectors for a half-century Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie There’s a massive, luminous, and quietly mysterious crystal egg in the center of Habitat Gallery. Crafted by glass artist Christopher Ries, it weighs nearly a thousand pounds, and houses something you don’t notice at first.  Step closer. Shift your angle. Suddenly, inside the clear mass, a tiny earth shimmers into view, refracted and floating—waiting to be discovered...