Old school sports
In the shadow of the old Tiger Stadium, this place was a sports bar years before it was cool. The old fashioned pressed-tin ceiling and sports memorabilia everywhere add to the atmosphere. Plus, the hamburgers can’t be beat.
Changing of the Garde
Whatever the art, at the cutting edge there is a real balancing act between brilliance and bullshit. Just ask Sonic Youth. For the last 20 years the band has skated the thin ice between improvised noise and indie-rock darlinghood to become one of the most prolific and polarizing camps in "popular" music today. That said,…
From the heads of quiet kids
Ann Arbor indie improvÂers, Flashpapr, make connections in a disconnected world. Read the story, then listen to their latest glorious recording on Sonic Metropolis.
It’s about the beer
Dozens of beer styles from around the world brewed in back. No smoking, no food to speak of, no TV, but plenty of friendly conversation along with the sipping. Tours available.
Fusion Forever!
What do you get when you put together members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Journey, the Flecktones and the Allman Brothers Band? Well, if you happen to be super-drummer Steve Smith, you get an instrumental quartet that plays muscular jazz-rock fusion with an absolute vengeance. While Smith’s artistic résumé merely began with Journey and has blossomed…
Gone fishin’
Blues piano legend Pinetop Perkins is a big fish in a big pond.
Homebrew heaven
Michigan’s first brew-on-premises has a small bar with six rotating selections on tap and many bottled beers. They have kegs, bottles and growlers to go, and homebrewing supplies. The friendly staff can help you brew your own beer and they’ll even clean up your mess.
Musical Mad Libs
Solex is a) a cheap but well-thought-of French scooter; b) Elisabeth Esselink’s musical moniker; c) the name of Ms. Esselink’s feline companion; d) all of the above and more. (See answer below). Esselink is Solex, a one-woman show from Holland. While sitting around in her used record shop, she began to fool around with an…
Attention Span
SAVE THE DATES A new year means you have to make a commitment. So many to choose from, but only one will be around for the whole year … yes, selecting a calendar is never easy. Virtually every person, place and thing has been photographed 12 times and turned into a calendar. You can check…
Brotherly love
The first bar to open in the city that now has a beer joint on almost every corner, 7 Brothers retains all that is great about Hamtramck’s celebration of tossing one back at the neighborhood bar. Better even than $1.25 Pabst and a pool table is the gregarious George, who’s been behind the bar for…
Reggae Remembered
It’s a safe bet that one of the most anticipated days of the year for reggae fans is when the annual retrospective Strictly the Best CDs drop. There are no surprises here, as one CD focuses mainly on up-tempo dance songs with some of the past year’s most popular riddims, while the other is much…
In one ear
INTERGALACTIC-INTRASTATE PARTY These days everyone’s an alien, crash-landed on this planet to save our rock ‘n’ roll souls. It’s a grand tradition and one that wipes the rock-cultural baggage slate clean, allowing for free-ranging musical expression — from Bowie’s post-hippie, proto-glam to the instrumental meanderings of Man … or Astroman? to countless less-well-known operatives working…
Dark and lovely
The perfect place to meet a blind date; even plain Janes look mysterious and alluring in the shadowy, ethereal lighting. Ultra hip – but never “trendy” – this Hamtown original is an out-and-out clubhouse for cool cats. Tremendous booths, pool table, jukebox and lots of laid-back style.
Soap Opera Soundtrack
The Midwest is so flat, someone once told me you could watch your dog run away for days. Funny, but sad, I thought, this prolonged witnessing of the moment. One listen to Songs, Lullaby for the Working Class’ third full-length offering and I couldn’t help but think about the agony of prolonging the moment, especially…
And now for other news…
Well, I finally left my bunker, only because the $20,000 generator I bought New Year’s Eve was interfering with my shortwave radio, and I wanted to see whether any fragments of civilization remained after the Y2K bug had destroyed the world. To my astonishment, I found that the universal holocaust duly hinted at by the…
Game between games
Iridescence is the Motor City Casino’s elegantly decorated attempt to “break the mold” of casino restaruants by focusing on game and fish (Wild boar, Muscovy duck, Chilean sea bass) rather than more traditional steakhouse fare. The entrees are unique, tasty, and show special attention to detail, but the desserts are the real showstoppers.
Torch Blues
For all the Stevie Ray lovers who swear he sprang out of nowhere complete with monster chops, this release should put that bit of fiction to rest. As great a player as Stevie was, he was just one more highly acclaimed white guitar virtuoso who studied at the foot of Albert King; Eric Clapton is…
News Hits
DANCE AND DEBAUCH The much-ballyhooed end of the millennium gained considerable steam in the last few weeks of 1999, as local glitterati, hipsters and the groupies who love them gathered for raucous parties at various locations about town. Romeo boy made good, Bob "Kid Rock" Ritchie, busted down the gilded gates of Greektown’s Bouzouki Lounge,…
Friendly on tap
Simply the friendliest place in Ferndale to park your butt on a stool and drink away some hours, surrounded by the easy banter that comes only from a true neighborhood watering hole. Danny’s is best enjoyed in your most comfortable lounging garb so that you can realx and enjoy the area’s best Irish beer on…
Food Stuff
HEALTHY EATING STARTS EARLY Remember grade school, and the one kid in the class who was overweight? He or she would get teased about it; the fat one really stood out. In the 1960s and early 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control, only 5 percent or 6 percent of kids between 6 and…
The End of the Affair
A mysterious dark shadow hovers completely and constantly over Neil Jordan’s onscreen rendering of the love-triangle novel by Graham Greene. At the same time, the tragic mistress and wife, Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore), her husband Henry (Stephen Rea) and her lover Maurice Bendix (Ralph Feinnes) make the landscape yet another shade darker. On the rainy…
Getting gamy
"Sock it to me." Anyone who knew that Richard Nixon was the president who made a guest cameo on "Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In" couldn’t help but hope that million-dollar winner John Carpenter would have mimicked Tricky Dick as he gave his final answer. Instead, he made a homespun phone call to his pappy. Get out…
Magnolia
It’s not far-fetched to say that writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s audacious new film is about everything. After all, he tackles the big themes: love and death, sin and redemption. But at its core, Magnolia is a film about repercussions, particularly the way the sins of the father play out in the warped lives of his…
Coincidental breakdown
Amid the glut of cultural generalizations that capped off last year, the question arose: Where are the millennium movies? This wasn’t necessarily a desire for a new batch of end-of-the-world disaster films, but something that could somehow capture the tenuous state we find ourselves in as the odometer rolls over to 2000. One such movie…
Focal Flavor
At three bucks a pop, this independent, locally generated film mag is the value of the almost-quarter for obscure movie buffs. It pulls back the satin sheets on cult porn, homemade parodies, festivals, mainstream goods and – in that first-person zine way – expresses the impact of movies on the individual. The fact that it’s…
Overlooked and underplayed
In 1998, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, there were over 7,000 CDs released. This year it looks like consumers will be just as inundated with product; these numbers don’t even represent all the CDs from basement-recording-studio pop-stars and indie labels. Sounds like the national census to me. Factor in those CDs, and…
On the fly
Subtitled “Culture that matters,” Gadfly – named after an irritating mythological insect – has honorable, if subversive, intentions. And therefore, it seems a bit more identity-conscious than it is content-conscious. This current issue features Mick Jagger on the cover – mugging in eyeliner, frosty lipstick and what has aged into an antique pout. Inside, the…
Breaking down walls
The problem? A mentally retarded man on Detroit’s west side was being tormented by neighbors. The solution? Bring in the clowns. Tommy Meadows took part of his clown troupe to the man’s home for a neighborhood party laced with consciousness-raising about disabilities. And what better entertainers than Meadows’ C.B. Fun Time Clowning, a team of…
Snow Falling on Cedars
On one level, Snow Falling On Cedars is a conventional courtroom drama. At its center is the murder trial of Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), accused of killing a fellow fisherman during a heavy nighttime fog in the waters off San Piedro Island. Director Scott Hicks swiftly establishes both the crime and the courtroom dynamics. It’s…
Citizens shut out?
By law, the governor of Michigan is required to appoint a citizen advisory committee to provide input on the quadrennial task of determining how billions of dollars in state transportation funds are spent. The law’s intent is to ensure a broad range of interests are formally heard from before legislators decide how to dole out…
Elaine L. Jacob Gallery
Located in WSU’s Old Main, the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery is one of the best galleries to see contemporary art in Detroit and is absolutely a treasure for the university. Director Sandra Dupret does an excellent job managing this two-floor space which houses monthly exhibitions of artistic greats such as Barbara Kruger and Guerilla girls.
Legalizing stench
Living downwind from 2,500 manure-producing animals may not only assault one’s senses, but one’s health. That is why some municipalities throughout the state have passed laws regulating the way large livestock farmers in Michigan contain and manage animal waste. But Gov. John Engler put a halt to any attempts at local control last week when…
Sybaris Gallery
Sybaris Gallery elevates craft to the level of fine art, you could call it fine craft. The gallery only handles pieces of the craft persuasion such as ceramics, metal, fiber, wood and jewelry. When you are finished strolling around whatever show might be up at the moment, ask for a tour of the backroom facilities…
Buddha in the badlands
Healing the heart-of-Motor-darkness with swirling sands and energies….
flashpapr
One of the most interesting stories coming out of the Michigan music scene these days is that of Ann Arbor’s flashpapr. Invited into existence in 1996, flashpapr began as a guitar-violin improvisational project but evolved over the years and through a growing friendship tempered by tragedy. Flashpapr make music out of the happenstance, the banality,…
Great beer oasis
Great Baraboo is a lively, family-style microbrewery in the heart of Budweiser country. There are four permanent selections on tap, with a fifth tap reserved for rotating specialty brews.
B.I.G.-Xploitation
The eeriest thing about listening to Born Again, Biggie’s first posthumous release, is not hearing the voice of the slain Christopher Wallace banging and full of life, but it is the unshakable feeling that he’s being exploited. On the real, B.I.G. never needed this many guest stars to make a record, and on this new…
