The Betsie Current

10/02/2025

BREAKING NEWS: From our friends at the Glen Arbor Sun...

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s visitors center in Empire is closed due to the federal government shutdown that started today. Buses full of schoolchildren visiting from throughout Mic…

10/01/2025

SPECIAL SEPTEMBER ISSUE: Since it's the first day of October, it seemed like we should probably get our Special September Issue up online! https://bit.ly/TBC-2025-13 (You can also find hard copies on news shelves all over Benzie and beyond.)

Released September 25, this 12-pager contains a two-page calendar of events, per usual, along with two first-person narrative essays on "tough topics."

This is our fifth time releasing our Special September Issue, and it is always very popular: four years ago, after the hustle and bustle of summer had subsided, we decided to do a “special” kind of issue to mark the beginning of fall and of Su***de Awareness Month.

In the years since, we have annually published very vulnerable essays from writers on a variety of topics that do not usually get a lot of traction, in our pages or the pages of other publications: mental health, sobriety, miscarriage, su***de, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), grief, ADHD, transracial adoption, and now we have two exceptional essays that we can't wait for you to read in 2025!

Since 2021, our Special September Issue has featured quite heavy material, and we know it is not for everyone, since it is such a departure from what we normally do... And sure, we could have spread these stories out over the course of several issues, with one tough essay per issue. However, we thought long and hard about it, ultimately deciding that it would be more impactful to have one entire issue dedicated to these often hard-to-discuss topics.

We actually won an award for this: our September 2023 issue won First Place in the Michigan Press Association's annual awards for "Special Section."

And we've heard from so many of you in the past and already this year about how you really connect with these stories.

Let us know in the comments below what you think of our 13th issue of our 14th year in business!

09/29/2025

SAVE THE DATE : We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film, Psycho -- (1960, PG)! We chose this spooky film specifically for October and Halloween!

We can't wait to see you on Tuesday, October 28, at 6pm--bring your friends!

Learn more at the FREE "Psycho" Showing - Garden Classic Movies event.

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sycho is a 1960 American horror film, produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Martin Balsam.

The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh), shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins), and his disturbed mother. A private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin), and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance.

Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film, "North by Northwest" (1959), as it was filmed on a small budget in black-and-white by the crew of his television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

Initially, the film divided critics, due to its controversial subject matter, but audience interest and outstanding box-office returns prompted a major critical re-evaluation.

Psycho was a massive commercial success; from a budget of $806,947 ($6.2 million with 2025 inflation), the film gained $50 million ($384.5 million with 2025 inflation) at the box office, worldwide, not including the money made with rentals.

Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director for Hitchcock and Best Supporting Actress for Leigh.
Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and is arguably his most famous and influential work.

It has been hailed as a major work of cinematic art by international film critics and scholars, who praise its slick direction, tense atmosphere, impressive camerawork, memorable score, and iconic performances. It is regarded as "the most heavily analyzed film in the long career of the most investigated director in the history of American film" and often is ranked among the greatest films of all time.

Psycho set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films and has been considered to be one of the earliest examples of the "slasher" film genre.

After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Pictures produced follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a made-for-television spin-off, and a television series.

In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

09/29/2025

SAVE THE DATE : We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film -- All The President's Men (19676 PG)! This is to honor the death of Robert Redford earlier this month.

We can't wait to see you on Tuesday, September 30, at 6pm--bring your friends!

Learn more at the FREE "All The President's Men" Showing - Garden Classic Movies event.

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All the President's Men is a 1976 American biographical political thriller film about the Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, with a screenplay by William Goldman, it is based on the 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the two journalists investigating the scandal for The Washington Post.

The film stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively. It was produced by Walter Coblenz for Redford's Wildwood Enterprises.

The film was nominated in multiple Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA categories; Jason Robards won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Ben Bradlee.

In 2010, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

09/03/2025

SAVE THE DATE: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a beloved film to start the school year off right: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, PG-13)!

The showing is FREE to all guests, and if you dress up in your "best '80s teen' outfit," you get a free Kilwins Frankfort treat! (Limited to first-come, first-serve basis.)

We couldn't BELIEVE the turnout to our free showing of Practical Magic back in October 2023 when we first started this thing; we had around 125 of you show up, and probably 90% of you were dressed up as a witch!

So we decided we'd like to make this a MONTHLY event, and we're calling it "Monthly Movie Club," where we will feature great nostalgic flicks!

January 2024: Grumpy Old Men - 75 people
February 2024: Casablanca - 130 people
March 2024: The Big Lebowski - 105 people
April 2024: A League of Their Own - 105 people
May 2024: The Great Outdoors - 70 people
June 2024: The Goonies - 210 people
July 2024: Dirty Dancing - 170 people
August 2024: Overboard - 100 people
September 2024: Clueless - 65 people
October 2024: Beetlejuice - 75 people
November 2024: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - 85 people
December 2024: Love Actually - 125 people
January 2025: The Shining - 55 people
February 2025: Sleepless In Seattle- 80 people
March 2025: The Shawshank Redemption - 70 people
April 2025: You've Got Mail - 60 people
May 2025: Best In Show - 70 people
June 2025: Stand By Me - 155 people
July 2025: Top Gun - 255 people
August 2025: Now & Then - 60 people

We can't wait to see you on Friday, September 12, at 7:30pm--bring your friends! Learn more and RSVP at FREE "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Showing & Party, and "invite" your friends to the Facebook event, too!

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Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen comedy film-- written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes and starring Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, and Alan Ruck, with supporting roles from Jennifer Grey, Jeffrey Jones, Cindy Pickett, Edie McClurg, Lyman Ward, and Charlie Sheen.

The film tells the story of the eponymous character, a charismatic high school slacker who lives in Chicago and skips school with his best friend, Cameron, and his girlfriend, Sloane, for a day; he also regularly breaking the fourth wall to explain his techniques and inner thoughts.

Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week. Filming began in September 1985 and finished in November, featuring many Chicago landmarks, including the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The film was Hughes's love letter to Chicago:

"I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could. Not just in the architecture and landscape, but the spirit."

Released by Paramount Pictures on June 11, 1986, the film became the 10th-highest-grossing film of 1986 in the United States, grossing $70 million over a $5 million budget.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, who praised Broderick's performance, and the film's humor and tone.

In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

07/16/2025

TONIGHT: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a favorite summer film -- Top Gun (PG-13, 1986)!

The showing is FREE to all guests, and if you dress up in your "best Top Gun outfit," you get a free treat from Kilwins Frankfort (limited to first-come, first-serve basis.)

We couldn't BELIEVE the turnout to our free showing of Practical Magic back in October 2023 when we first started this thing; we had around 125 of you show up, and probably 90% of you were dressed up as a witch!

So we decided we'd like to make this a MONTHLY event, and we're calling it "Monthly Movie Club," where we will feature great nostalgic flicks!

January 2024: Grumpy Old Men - 75 people
February 2024: Casablanca - 130 people
March 2024: The Big Lebowski - 105 people
April 2024: A League of Their Own - 105 people
May 2024: The Great Outdoors - 70 people
June 2024: The Goonies - 210 people
July 2024: Dirty Dancing - 170 people
August 2024: Overboard - 100 people
September 2024: Clueless - 65 people
October 2024: Beetlejuice - 75 people
November 2024: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - 85 people
December 2024: Love Actually - 125 people
January 2025: The Shining - 55 people
February 2025: Sleepless In Seattle- 80 people
March 2025: The Shawshank Redemption - 70 people
April 2025: You've Got Mail - 60 people
May 2025: Best In Show - 70 people
June 2025: Stand By Me - 155 people

We can't wait to see you on Wednesday, July 16, at 7:30pm--bring your friends! Learn more and RSVP at FREE "Top Gun" Showing & Party and "invite" your friends to the Facebook event, too!

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Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer; the screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns", written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier.

The film stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), are given the chance to train at the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, and Tom Skerritt also appear in supporting roles.

When Top Gun was released on May 16, 1986, although its visual effects and soundtrack were universally acclaimed, the film initially received mixed reviews from film critics. Despite this, four weeks after its release, the number of theaters showing it increased by 45 percent, and it overcame initial critical resistance to become a huge commercial hit, grossing $357 million globally against a production budget of $15 million. Top Gun was the highest-grossing domestic film of 1986, as well as the highest-grossing film of 1986 worldwide.

The film maintained its popularity over the years and earned an IMAX 3D re-release in 2013, while the retrospective critical reception became more positive, with the film also emerging as a cult classic. Additionally, the soundtrack to the film has since become one of the most popular film soundtracks to date, reaching 9× Platinum certification. The film won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for "Take My Breath Away," performed by Berlin.

In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

A sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," in which Cruise and Kilmer reprised their roles, was released 36 years later on May 27, 2022, and surpassed the original film both critically and commercially.

07/04/2025

We had 11 adults, 3 kids, and 1 baby help us to hand out more than 2,100 newspapers at the annual 4th of July parade in the City of Frankfort, Michigan, this morning!

Thank you SO MUCH to the largest team of "newsies" that we've ever had, and so much appreciation for (our editor/co-owner Aubrey's) Aunt Brenda and Uncle John for bringing down the 1955 Ford pick-up truck and letting us use it to stash extra newspapers--it made the 1-mile route SO MUCH EASIER this year!

Lastly, a big "thank you" as well to everyone who cheered for us and took a newspaper--we hope that you enjoy reading it! :)

(This photo is missing 4 adults and the baby!)

07/04/2025

Frankfort Parade 2025: We handed out more than 2,100 copies of our newspaper this morning! This is the view from the parade route!

06/24/2025

TONIGHT: We'll find out which nostalgic coming-of-age flick y'all prefer! (You can also let us know which you prefer in the comments below!)

Last year, on June 18, 2024, we had 210 people attend our free showing of "The Goonies," and we raised $380 for Benzie Area Pride Network through your kind donations.

Tonight, we've got our Free "Stand By Me" Showing & Party at 7:30pm at The Garden Theater.

Will we have more than 210 people show up...?

REMINDER: The theater has air conditioning, so that's a great way to beat this early summer heat!

We can't wait to see you--preferably dressed up as characters from the film--and we can't wait to see if we top last year's numbers of attendees, so bring your friends!

06/03/2025

SAVE THE DATE: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a favorite film -- Stand By Me (R, 1986)!

The showing is FREE to all guests, and if you dress up in your "best Stand By Me outfit," you get a free treat from Kilwins Frankfort (limited to first-come, first-serve basis.)

We couldn't BELIEVE the turnout to our free showing of Practical Magic back in October 2023 when we first started this thing; we had around 125 of you show up, and probably 90% of you were dressed up as a witch!

So we decided we'd like to make this a MONTHLY event, and we're calling it "Monthly Movie Club," where we will feature great nostalgic flicks!

January 2024: Grumpy Old Men - 75 people
February 2024: Casablanca - 130 people
March 2024: The Big Lebowski - 105 people
April 2024: A League of Their Own - 105 people
May 2024: The Great Outdoors - 70 people
June 2024: The Goonies - 210 people
July 2024: Dirty Dancing - 170 people
August 2024: Overboard - 100 people
September 2024: Clueless - 65 people
October 2024: Beetlejuice - 75 people
November 2024: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - 85 people
December 2024: Love Actually - 125 people
January 2025: The Shining - 55 people
February 2025: Sleepless In Seattle- 80 people
March 2025: The Shawshank Redemption - 70 people
April 2025: You've Got Mail - 60 people
May 2025: 70 people

We can't wait to see you on Tuesday, June 24, at 7:30pm--bring your friends! Learn more and RSVP at Free "Stand By Me" Showing & Party and "invite" your friends to the Facebook event, too!

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Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming-of-age drama film, directed by Rob Reiner and based on Stephen King's 1982 novella "The Body." Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell as four boys who set out on a journey to find the dead body of a missing boy, the film is set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon in 1959. The film's title is derived from the 1961 song of the same name by Ben E. King, which plays during the film's closing credits.

Stand by Me received positive reviews upon release and was a commercial success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and for two Golden Globe Awards--one for Best Drama Motion Picture and one for Best Director. Rolling Stone has called Stand by Me "a staple of youthful nostalgia" and "the rare movie that necessarily gets better with time".

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 64 reviews and a rating average of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Stand by Me is a wise, nostalgic movie with a weird streak that captures both Stephen King's voice and the trials of growing up." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Stephen King was very impressed with the film--on the special features of the 25th anniversary Blu-ray set, King indicated that he considered the film to be the first successful translation to film of any of his works. According to a later interview with Gene Siskel, Reiner recalled that after a private early screening of the film, King excused himself for fifteen minutes to compose himself; he later returned to remark, "'That's the best film ever made out of anything I've written, which isn't saying much. But you've really captured my story. It is autobiographical.'" In a 2016 interview, King said that Stand by Me was his favorite adaptation of his work, alongside The Shawshank Redemption.

In a 2011 piece entitled "25 years of Stand by Me", writer Alex Hannaford opined that "[for] anyone older than about 33, Stand by Me remains one of the greatest films to come out of the Eighties." Hannaford added that the film "has a charm and depth that seems to resonate with each generation".

The film is considered a cult classic.

06/02/2025

SAVE THE DATE : We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film -- The Graduate (1967, PG)!

We can't wait to see you on Thursday, June 12, at 6pm--bring your friends!

Learn more at the FREE "The Graduate" Showing - Garden Classic Movies event.

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The Graduate is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham. The film is based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. Starring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), but falls for her daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). The soundtrack was recorded by Simon & Garfunkel, and featured the hit single "Mrs Robinson".

The Graduate grossed $104.9 million in the United States and Canada, making it the highest-grossing film of 1967 in North America. Adjusted for inflation (as of 2021), its gross is $857 million, making it the 22nd-highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada. It received seven nominations at the 40th Academy Awards, and won for Best Director.

In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it the 7th-greatest American film and the 17th-greatest a decade later, in 2007.

It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films.

05/28/2025

On Monday, May 5, our Aubrey Ann Parker attended an online meeting with more than a dozen reporters and editors from other Northern Michigan publications, such as the Traverse City Record-Eagle, Traverse City Ticker, Northern Express, Interlochen Public Radio, Glen Arbor Sun, Leelanau Enterprise, The Elberta Alert, WCMU Public Media, Boyne Citizen News, Cadillac News, and others.

The idea is to work together to promote regional stories that cross borders in multiple publication zones, to maximize getting the word out about important issues...

We've always enjoyed partnering with the Glen Arbor Sun, the Freshwater Reporter, and The Elberta Alert--cross-publishing stories in our publications when the stories warranted it.

We see this new project as yet another way to leverage the very talented journalists who reside in Northern Michigan, by cross-publishing some of their stories in our pages--and we're especially excited to see some of our Benzie-based stories making the greater regional scene!

Stay tuned for more on this project, but just know that we're excited!

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The Northern Michigan Journalism Project is led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio and is funded by Press Forward, a national movement to strengthen our democracy by revitalizing local news and information.