If you seek a sleeping bear...

   EMPIRE, MICHIGAN, The park of the village of Empire is beautifully situated between
   Lake Michigan on the West and South Bar Lake on the East.  This favorite recreation spot
   is visited by both resorters and residents.  -Postcard in Ektachrome by Jack D. Rader, 1960s.

Located in Leelanau County, Empire is the gateway to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Links to related websites:   www.empirechamber.com   &   www.leelanau.com

Two online books might be of interest.  Just click and read!

Beautiful Glen Arbor Township:  Facts, Fantasy and Fotos, by Robert D. Rader and the
Glen Arbor History Group, 1977.  Historian Kathleen Stocking writes about the dunes:

              "They change, yet they don't change.  They are like jewels, evocative of
              eternity, of ancient processes in the earth.  Their form changes, but their
              substance does not.  They stay in the memory, those millions upon millions
              of tiny pieces of quartz and feldspar."    -Kathleen Stocking, p. 89. 


                www.manitouislandsarchives.org/archives/ebooks/bgat/bgat-web.pdf

A Nationalized Lakeshore:  The Creation and Administration of the Sleeping Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore, by Theodore J. Karamanski, National Park Service, 2000.

                          www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/slbe/index.htm

     SLEEPING BEAR DUNES   -Postcard from a folio, West Michigan, The Waterwonderland 
     State, published by Dexter Press, West Nyack, N.Y., c. 1960.

We love the Pure Michigan ads at CIRCUMSPICE MICHIGAN, and find ourselves grabbing a
hankie whenever these evocative 30-second spots are aired on radio and television.

View Our Ads - Pure Michigan Travel

www.michigan.org/Topics/Pure-Michigan-Ads/Default.aspx


~~~~~~~~~~~CIRCUMSPICE MICHIGAN:  Postcards of a Pleasant Peninsula~~~~~~~~~~

If you seek a feel-good movie...

                 GOOGLE ME THE MOVIE, by Jim Killeen, 2007.

                    -Postcard designed by the filmmaker's mother, 

                        and sent out as a party invitation, 2009.

A priest, a swinger, and an actor walk into a Texas bar... 

Sounds like the opening line of a joke, but the story is true.  That unlikely trio

was joined by four others-- all named JIM KILLEEN.

Jim Killeen, born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, studied theater at Wayne

State, and moved to California to pursue his dream of a film career.  He soon 

found himself to be just another out-of-work actor living in Los Angeles.

One night, everything changed when he hatched the idea for a documentary film.

"It all started when I Googled my name... " is the opening salvo for his independent

film, Google Me The Movie.

Jim Killeen Googled six other Jim Killeens, and not only contacted them by phone,

but sought them out on their home turf.  With a film crew in tow, Jim traveled to

Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and all over the United States.  But that's not all folks...

He invited the Jims to join him in Killeen, Texas, for the city's centennial celebration,

and flew them all there, expenses paid.  Not bad for an out-of-work-actor-turned-filmmaker!

They took part in a chili cook-off, went to a rodeo, and were honored by the mayor, who

proclaimed a "Jim Killeen Day".  Now, about that Texas bar...

Google Me The Movie is a funny, serious, and often moving account of the lives of the

Jim Killeens-- what they share, what is unique to each, what is their philosophy of life,

and what makes them happy.  DNA testing was done to find out if they were actually

related to one another.  The results were interesting...

Watch for filmed segments on location in Beverly Hills, Michigan, and East Lansing.

Movie contains discussions of mature subject matter.

                    www.googlemethemovie.com    

                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

CIRCUMSPICE MICHIGAN:  Postcards of a Pleasant Peninsula