This Saturday the University of Michigan Wolverines travel to East Lansing to play the Michigan State University Spartans at Spartan Stadium. The rivalry between the two teams and their fans is intense and the Lansing State Journal takes note of this in their article "Rivalry ingrained in players from families - Intense feelings have bubbled up since childhood."

Wikipedia says that the Paul Bunyan-Governor of Michigan Trophy is awarded to the winner of the annual football game between the University of Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State University Spartans. U of M holds the series edge at 67-29-5, and the trophy has been in Ann Arbor until last year when the Spartans defeated the Wolverines 35-21 and ended a five-game losing streak in the series. Relive the Spartan 2008 victory through this slideshow from the Detroit Free Press.

The game takes place at Noon EST and pits the 1-3 Spartans vs the No. 22 ranked 4-0 Wolverines. Although Michigan has the unbeaten record and the national ranking, the home team has won the last 12 out of 17 games and the Spartans are desperate for a win following a 3 game losing streak. That being said Michigan hasn't lost to Michigan State in consecutive seasons since 1967.

You can read a transcript of a live chat with Shannon Shelton and Mark Snyder, who will cover Saturday's game on the Detroit Free Press's website. Another transcript is available at mlive.com "Live chat: Join Michigan football beat writer Dave Birkett at noon to talk Michigan-Michigan State." Also at mlive.com you can listen to "The Press Box Podcast: There's pressure on Wolverines, Rodriguez to beat Spartans." The Lansing State Journal's Assistant Sports Editor, Barry Kiel and MSU beat reporter, Joe Rexrode discuss the upcoming match-up against Michigan in this streaming video.

MSU vs U of M Video Spirit Rally

Choose sides and get in on the discussion over at SpartanTailgate.com or MGoBlog. These are great resources with all the news and updates you need regarding MSU and U of M sports.

Michigan in Pictures has a couple of posts from awhile back about Spartan Stadium in East Lansing (where Saturday's game will be played) and Michigan Stadium aka The Big House.

Somewhere we have to note Whack-a-Wolverine from the Lansing State Journal and we definitely want to hear what YOU think about the rivalry and the game!

cseeman (Corey) is the Library Director at the Kresge Business Administration Library at the University of Michigan (Corey's homepage)

You'll definitely want to check this photo out background bigalicious or in his cool Tulip slideshow. His sets include Birds of Saline, Fiddlers Restrung (not to be confused with the Saline Fiddlers) and Lighthouses of Michigan (slideshow) that is helpfully broken down into Lighthouse of Lake Michigan, Lighthouses of Lake Huron, Lighthouses of Lake Erie and Lighthouses of Lake St. Clair.

You can also check out his Flickriver.

ballin' by Beth☮♥♬

With the 2009 Final Four taking place in Detroit, it's probably fitting that both the University of Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans have received NCAA Basketball Tournament bids

It's the first NCAA tournament bid for the Wolverines since 1998, a #10 seed in the South Region with a draw of Clemson (23-8). UM takes a record of 20-13 into the 6:10 PM game on Thursday (Mar 19).

The Spartans (26-6) secured the #2 seed in the Midwest region. This is the 12th consecutive bid and they will face Robert Morris in the opener. Despite a disappointing loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tourney, they are expected to do well after playing one of the toughest schedules in the country.

More UM & MSU Links (add more in the comments below!)

• Green & White from the Lansing State Journal and mLive's UM Wolverine's page.
• University of Michigan and Michigan State at rivals.com
• Michigan State & University of Michigan and at ESPN's Clubhouse
• The blogs: MGoBlog & Spartan Tailgate
• YouTube: Michigan State Spartans opening video & University of Michigan team celebrates with fans on Selection Sunday

MSU College of Human Medicine by Eridony

Going up

The New York Times reports that in the midst of the darkest economic times Michigan has seen in decades, the University of Michigan is spending billions to grow with nearly three million square feet new buildings for science, medicine, health, art, business, sports, food service and student housing under construction and five others  in the design stage.

wizardkitten at Blogging for Michigan packed a lot of positive economic stories for Michigan into a post about how Obama's "Green New Deal" can create jobs, ease global warming and lessen our dependence on foreign oil all at the same time. She links to a nice article about Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor and also to related stories in the Freep and LA Times and notes that when added to our burgeoning movie industry, those folks out on the west coast might start to think that we are OK after all. Especially if - as she reports elsewhere - Gov. Granholm is tapped for the post of Queen of England.

Fallen by jnhkrawczyk

Going down

Unfortunately, it's not all (or even mostly) good news. Comerica Bank's preliminary November Michigan Business Activity Index (28k PDF) fell 4 points to 79 - the lowest level in 16 years. The November reading was down 13 points from November 2007 and 27% from its October 2003 peak of 108. That decline rivals the largest previous peak- to-trough decline of 33% between September 1978 and June 1980.

Michigan Radio's Jack Lessenberry notes that while Washington doesn’t have to live within its means and can borrow and borrow and borrow - hello $11,000,000,000,000 national debt - state governments are not so lucky (also check out his interview with Chris Christoff, the Freep's Lansing Bureau chief). Jack notes that every few months, Michigan has a "revenue estimating conference" wherein budget controllers assess expected revenues as compared to budgeted expenditures. When revenues fall short, it's time for cuts. A round of cuts is expected this month, and it likely won't be the last. He says that our elected officials can go to their usual strategy of blaming each other (and solving nothing) or steal a page from the past:

Back in the 1970s, Governor Milliken used to convene regular weekly meetings of what he called the “quadrant,” the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate. They would get together and discuss how best to solve state problems.

Governor Jennifer Granholm should try that. She is in a position to serve as an honest broker. She can’t run again. These are desperate times, and saving the state needs to take top priority.

In a move that seems oddly desperate, General Motors is selling about 200 vehicles from its collection of 1000 vintage GM cars & trucks. They will be sold at Barrett-Jackson's 2009 Scottsdale Auction and could raise as little as $5 million.

And speaking of roller coasters...

Reports suggest that the Tigers are no closer to filling the roll of closer. Rollercoaster Jones, where are you?

To read an excerpt from the book visit newsstand.com.

Fore more information regarding the author Michael Rosenberg visit his website www.michael-rosenberg.com. Dig a little deeper into the following articles and reviews on these websites: The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and mlive.com.

The Michigan Notable Books program annually selects 20 of the most notable books published in the year. The selections are reflective of Michigan's diverse ethnic, historical, literary, and cultural experience. You can click to view more Notable Books featured on Absolute Michigan and learn more about the program at www.michigan.gov/notablebooks.

Social! The Detroit Pistons have launched a new social network called Posting Up. It's a place where fans can network and share blogs, photos, videos and their love of the Pistons.

Antisocial! The annual UM/Ohio State game has lost some if its luster (OK, most of its luster) thanks to the Wolverines' lackluster season. The Michigan Archives November Image of the Month might make you feel a bit better. It shows & tells the story of how Peter Fletcher altered the 1978 Michigan Department of Transportation highway map to take a dig at Buckeye Nation. You can tune into the game next Saturday at noon (line is OSU by 19) and also check out The Game: Michigan Wolverines vs. Ohio State Buckeyes for a history of the rivalry and some cool video and links. An interesting twist is that Spartan fans need to have UM win to get a Big Ten title - oh the irony!

YouTube Group Crowd Scene by paulhitz

Social! We've launched a new page we're calling Michitwitter. The idea is that folks will drop a quick comment about what they're doing, Michigan related stories they've read or toss off a cool Michigan link. So far "folks" has been us, but you can change that.

Antisocial! You can register your home or mobile number for free with the National Do Not Call Registry. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days and if they do, you can file a complaint at that link. If you add your number, that addition is now permanent, making this site worth the couple minutes it takes to add your numbers!

Social! Connect with us on Flickr, YouTube, Facebook & MySpace using the buttons below! Of course we also love your comments and your email!

What are your favorite Michigan social networks? Post them in the comments!

Fallen Beauty by lorainedicerbo

Welcome to 'The Week' for October 20-26. This is where we will be posting comments such as news items, interesting blog posts, cool video and media, coming events, new web sites added to Absolute Michigan and other items of note.

We invite you to do the same!

Temps are dropping and most areas have already experienced their first frost with snow coming up in the forecast. With this change in weather it is a great week to check out the The Michigan Story Festival in Mt. Pleasant on October 24 - 25. The two-day Michigan Story Festival offers a complete showcase of the power of storytelling in all its art forms. Michigan Story Festival is one of the only storytelling festivals to integrate the stories of many cultures and traditions. There is also the History, Mystery & Haunting: THE WHITNEY RESTAURANT in Detroit on October 25th for an evening to be remembered! First enjoy a three-course meal at this beautiful, 5-star restaurant. Later, Kathleen Tedsen and Beverlee Rydel, authors of "Haunted Travels of Michigan" will tell the Whitney story and, in association with paranormal team HIGHLAND GHOST HUNTERS, will share their experience and evidence collected during a two-night investigation. You may be in for a surprise! Photographs, Video & Audio Presented. A ghost hunt will follow.

Also be sure to check out our massive Michigan Haunted Houses, Mazes & Attractions page that features all kinds of haunted houses, corn mazes and scary attractions from all across Michigan.

Also, this Saturday the Michigan State University Spartans travel to Ann Arbor to play the University of Michigan Wolverines at The Big House. Check out our Michigan vs Michigan State Football Rivalry page for a ton of information on this much anticipated annual football game!

gothic splendor by dnj_Brian

Nathan Bomey of the Ann Arbor Business Review has an interesting piece showcasing how Michigan's three research universities have a direct and significant impact on our state's economy.

One of every $50 earned in the state of Michigan can be attributed to the economic impact of the state's three research universities, according to a new report.

"The economic impact of them is growing even at a time when the wages in the state are declining and the state budget support is declining," said Patrick Anderson, CEO of East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group, which conducted the study.

The University Research Corridor - which consists of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University - registered a net economic impact of $13.3 billion in 2007, up 3.5 percent from 2006, the report concluded.

Continue reading: State's universities drive economic development in the Ann Arbor Business Review at mlive.com

Rain or Shine (since 1922) by paulh192

Welcome to a special Monday evening edition of The Week on Absolute Michigan.

While the stock market falls, folks on Mackinac Island are getting ready for the Festival of the Falling Leaves Moon (Sep 18-20) which celebrates the time of year when the trees were told to stay awake for seven days and seven nights and only the cedar, pine and spruce obeyed. You can probably guess the punishment.

Perhaps in celebration of a certain Maize & Blue team's loss to a certain golden-helmeted gang, Kalamazoo holds the 2008 Irish Fest (Sep 20).

Other events on tap for the weekend include Oktoberfest in Frankenmuth (Sep 18-21), Old Town Blues Fest in Lansing (Sep 19-20), the Grand Haven Salmon Festival (Sep 19-21), the Harvest Stompede Vineyard Run & Walk in Leelanau (Sep 20-21), Autumn Harvest Festival in Negaunee, and the Copper Country Color Bike Tour in Houghton (Sep 20). the Southwest Michigan Community Harvest Fest in Scotts (Sep 21), Michigan's Center For The Photographic Arts Fall Focus Festival at Grass Lake (Sep 20-21) and the Helluva Rodeo in Hell.

Feeling the burn? The State of Michigan gets into Eventapalooza Harvest Festival at Leelanau State Park (Sep 20) and an Evening at an 1896 Logging Camp at Hartwick Pines near Grayling (Sep 20) and Detroit's Historic Fort Wayne kicks off the Halloween season with History, Mystery & Haunting.

Got something to say? Post it below. Going to start a new event? Maybe think about another weekend!

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by Amy Loo Who

Established in 1960, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair is the Original of the now four award winning art fairs together attracting over 500,000 attendees from across the nation. Among the many accolades received by the fair is the Number One Art Fair rating in the country (October 2004) and Top Ten Art Fair (October 2005, 2006 and 2007) by the AmericanStyle readers survey.

The 49th annual Fair will take place July 16-19, 2008 on the Ingalls Mall Lawn by the Burton Memorial Tower, North University, and the Diag on the Central Campus at the University of Michigan. The Fair will feature 170 juried artists, five New Artists from local universities and colleges, the Potters Guild and an array of free art activities and performances for the whole family to enjoy.

View Larger Map

Plumeria by IShutterToThink

Named after former Michigan regent Frederick C. Matthaei, Sr. and his wife Mildred, who donated 200 acres of land, the Matthaei Botanical Gardens are operated by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Spring is a great time to visit and watch the Gardens come to life. Here is a downloadable Visitor Guide to help you enjoy your time there.

Exploration of the Gardens begins at the Visitor Center where you will find trails which all start and eventually loop back to the building. A visit to the unique Alden B. Dow commissioned Conservatory includes the Tropical House, Warm Temperate House, Bonsai & Penjing Collection and the Arid House.

Besides the beautiful plant life, onsite artwork, both visual and performance is important to the overall experience. The integration of the art with plant life is a interesting way to view the works and take in their messages.

The library and resource center, with over 3,200 cataloged books provides visitors a chance to learn all about plants and the issues surrounding them.

Here is a list of all of the trails, display gardens, natural areas and other exhibits throughout Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.

You may be interested in their 28th Annual Spring Plant Sale being held May 2-4 or in checking out the calendar of events.

Enjoy an August, 2007 video sldeshow by videoexchange over at YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out a collection of 360° virtual tours of some of the gardens and natural areas.

The Huron Valley Chapter of the American Institute of Architects has created podcasts to accompany a walking tour of Ann Arbor. Included is a Matthaei Botanical Gardens podcast. There is also a downloadable 'Ann Arbor Guide to Architecture' which includes a map and description of each entry.

Here are a ton of pics from Flickr to entice you to visit the Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

Tonight in NCAA action, fifth seeded Michigan State will attempt to pull off an upset over the #1 seed Memphis. You can read the NCAA's preview of the game or just paint your monitor green & white with Spartan Tailgate, the Enlightened Spartan, mLive's MSU section and greenandwhite.com.

Be sure to also check out our Michpics March Madness features on the Breslin Center and Crisler Arena.

Photo courtesy MGOBLUE and in honor of the teams, we gave our header a little shake and bake:

Three separate sources indicate that Carr has made his decision to retire official and people around the athletic department are being told. The formal announcement will come after the Ohio State game, possibly at the Monday press conference, possibly a day or two later.

You can click over there to read the 300+ comments, read about University of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr on Wikipedia, ponder why a Google search for Lloyd Carr offers the option to See results for: fire lloyd carr, check out how the folks at Sack Carr are taking things, or forget about it all for now and focus on this weekend's game vs. OSU.

To say that sage_82 (Mark Ratliff) is a master of the art of pumpkin carving is a huge understatement. His 2006 tribute to Michigan football legend Bo Schembechler and his 2007 Sparty are simply incredible.

Take a moment and check out some of the pumpkins he's carved (view the slideshow).

The Michigan art school has this year-long project for seniors called the Integrative Project, or IP. Pretty huge deal; you work on the same art piece for two semesters, basically live in your studio, if you don't pass it you aren't allowed to graduate, so on and so forth.

If you have a little time and want to take a look at the amazing range of projects, check out the slideshow of student postcard designs for their exhibits, and if you go to the show, be sure to say hi to Sam. Her work will include beetles and baseball, so it should be fairly easy to find!

UPDATE: The show went off and Sam was there with her camera. Click for 86: the Art & Design Senior Show photo gallery. (and yes, the baseball beetles are there)

scoring the game by Boston Fan in Michigan

Blue Cats and Red Sox is written by "a Bostonian at University of Michigan OBSESSED by baseball," but I guess how could she not be, coming from Boston. Luckily she manages to talk about other sports (and cities) as well, maybe because baseball isn't always in season? Baseball, football, the X-games - is there anything more important in life?

"There are other cities that are obsessed with baseball, of course, but the Bostonian brand of obsession is a distinct and particular one. It's an obsession that does not keep baseball in its own little niche, but spills it out into all walks of life, as if Boston Baseball is some kind of molasses that you're trying to hold in your hands."
- on Boston & Baseball

"It's like watching Darwin's finches. Only, you know, colder, and with more bad music."
- on the X-Games.

"I was sitting there saying things like, 'But we COULD HAVE WON if only it had been Roy of the Williamses in that corner of the endzone, instead of Mike of the Williamses and his useless, useless hands'"
- on the Detroit Lions, the Williamses and Bad Football

#15 Runs away with it by Pictopolis

When I was growing up, the Rose Bowl was always the Big Ten winner vs. the Pac 10 winner. Many times, that meant Michigan vs. USC. Wikipedia does a great job of taking you through the history of the bowl game dubbed "The Grandaddy of Them All":

Originally titled the "Tournament East-West football game," the Rose Bowl was first played on January 1, 1902, starting the tradition of New Years Day bowl games. The inaugural game featured Fielding Yost's dominating 1901 Michigan team, representing the East, who crushed a previously 3-1-2 team from Stanford University, representing the West, by a score of 49-0 after Stanford quit in the third quarter. Michigan finished the season 11-0-0 and was considered the national champion ... The game was so lopsided that for the next 15 years, the Tournament of Roses officials ran chariot races, ostrich races, and other various events instead of football. But, in 1916 football returned to stay.

In addition to having all kinds of information about the past and present of the event, the Tournament of Roses official Rose Bowl Game web site has a really cool timeline with photos from as far back as the 1890s. As you can see from the timeline, the Tournament of Roses Rose Parade is as big (or bigger) a deal as the game. This year is the 118th Rose parade (theme is Our Good Nature) which will take place on Monday, January 1, 2007 at 11 AM EST.

The Rose Bowl
part of a great set of Rose Bowl pics

Both the USC Trojan Football program and the University of Michigan football program have their own pages on the 2007 Rose Bowl (visit UM 2007 Rose Bowl & USC's 2007 page) that will allow you to wallow as deeply in all the tradition, stats and (of course) merchandising as you wish. UM's site has Lloyd Carr's thoughts on the facing USC and on how the BCS has changed it.

The Rose Bowl has not been kind to the Wolverines. Michigan hasn't won a Rose Bowl since '98 and has an 8-11 overall record (including dropping 5 of 7 to So Cal). Therefore, it's not surprising that there isn't much recent happiness for Wolverine fans on YouTube vis a vis USC (lot of Leinart beating the Maize & Blue in 2003). You have to go back to the 1989 22-14 victory over the Trojans to see something happy. No Rose Bowl is truly complete, however, without the University of Michigan marching band playing the national anthem.

University of Michigan Wolverines Blogs & Forums

the M Zone
M Go Blog
Blue Cats & Red Sox
Michigan Football Saturdays
UM Official Athletic site
The Fort
Schembechler Hall
Mr Wolverine

USC Blogs

Trojan Football News - solid, non-nonsense SC football.
The Displaced Trojan - another dispassionate and polite blog about USC football
TrojanWire - isn't there any passion, any fire, any of that legendary California craziness left out there?
Boi From Troy - "Politics, The Gays and USC Football" There we go, that's the California Mrs. Johnson warned us about in 4th grade.
Maybe the best thing our research team found was this account of Caltech's legendary 1961 Rose Bowl prank. You might also want to fire up the camera and shoot a fan photo for Universal Studios Michigan fan photo contest.

Jack Lessenberry says that even though he voted against Proposal 2 last month, and would vote against it again and is a a proud member of the American Civil Liberties Union, he thinks that the suits filed by the ACLU and the NAACP are flat-out wrong.

Find out why over at Jack's blog.

Photo: Thirds Rule by docksidepress