Snooze ya loose
What John Dingell wants John Dingell gets. At least that is what happened when the Democratic congressman from Dearborn wrote an irate letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for another public hearing on a plan to operate deep-injection wells in Romulus. Last month about 400 people packed a public hearing to decry injection…
Burnin’ love
Trouble with the annual Ypsilanti Elvisfest and the firing of the event’s director have at least one impersonator — er, tribute artist — all shook up. Sherman Arnold, a popular local impersonator, says he’s boycotting the fest he co-founded because he’s angered by what he claims is poor management, and the firing of 2002 festival…
Anti-war path
As our fearless leader (you know, the one who ducked hazardous duty in Vietnam by serving a cush stateside assignment in the Air National Guard) laid out the case for war in his State of the Union address, he once again reminded Americans of his devout faith in the Almighty. Such hypocrisy prompted one devotee…
Portrait of a tattoo artist
Inkslinger creates living tributes.…
Pimping the system
Rap duo Dead Prez reserve the right to speak freely….
Into the light of day
An amazing handful of tough new movies unpacks stubborn old fears….
Whither Madison-Lenox?
Two people stand on a sidewalk in downtown Detroit staring at a once-majestic but now sadly decaying building. Citizen No. 1 says, “Tear it down.” Citizen No. 2: “Save it.” And so it goes. Yin, yang; up, down; the distant drumbeats of demolition morph into jackhammers and wrecking balls, and, as ever, Detroit is at…
Auction block
The Abandoned Structure Squad frequently gets inquiries from readers interested in attempting to purchase homes featured in this space, and much of the time we are unable to provide much assistance. When it comes to acquiring abandoned properties, the city bureaucracy is a nightmare, titles are more clouded than Seattle, and owners are in absentia…
February 5-11, 2003
5 WED • MUSIC [DARYL] (cq) — Hey, hey, rock ’n’ roll purists — a little deviation from the well-trodden garage rock path can’t hurt on a Wednesday night. You see, to Texas natives [DARYL], the purity of a rock song comes from the impact of a full package. While exercising spot-on attention to detail…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries actress Lara Flynn Boyle was at the Golden Globes Awards on January 19. She wore a pink ballerina outfit, complete with a poofy tutu, that was appropriate for an 8-year-old girl doing a dance recital. Despite her outrageously comical get-up, Boyle never cracked a hint of a playful smile while…
Grown-up toys & Katie’s woes
Q: I like to jack off with something up my ass. Unfortunately, I can’t order a butt plug on the Web because my college roommate is a Christian. He would go into a preaching marathon if a package from a sex shop arrived. Can household items do double-duty as butt plugs? —Ass Lover Oppressed By…
The underground railroad
A strange silence surrounds the pending transformation of one of Detroit’s forgotten engineering triumphs. Though few have seen it — and security will certainly try to stop you should you want to take a peek up-close — the Detroit River Tunnel is likely to stop running trains between the United States and Canada within the…
President Bush’s big lie
Slowly, oh so slowly, we have been carefully groomed to accept our selected president’s war against Iraq. If the ministry of truth hasn’t quite won our hearts, it has at least gotten us resigned to believing that it is inevitable. “All Aboard! America’s War Train Is Leaving the Station!” a cheery headline in the New…
The kids are alright
On Jan. 13, musician Pete Townshend was arrested on suspicion of possessing and making child pornography. Townshend admitted using a credit card to download kiddie porn from the Internet, but only to help research his autobiography, which will deal in part with sexual abuse he vaguely recalls having suffered as a youth. Images he found…
Disguised in D.C.
Every city has its secrets. (And if you’re reading this in Detroit and you don’t already know that, well …) We are constantly encouraged by chambers of commerce to construct tourist-friendly versions of places that hold untold wonders if one were to step off the beaten path — it’s just easier that way. It’s more…
Dump stir
Police say Detroit should trash its new illegal-dumping law….
Wail of a tale
Sitting in an African dance class in Wayne State’s Old Main building, his djembe drum resting beside him, percussionist King Sundiata Keita tells a story. “At 17, I began to play the djembe, and I would take it everywhere I went.” In 1979, Keita made his way to Detroit’s Masonic Temple to interview Bob Marley…
Look back in shame
The cover of the Oxford American magazine now on newsstands shouts, “America, Look at Your Shame,” but the shameful incident took place in the streets of Detroit — nearly 60 years ago. In one photograph, an African-American man lies on the ground while another tries to clamber to his feet to face a mob of…
Discs in the mail
The number of CDs released in the Detroit area each month is staggering. It really is. So much so that it’s almost disturbing. And I know how musically literate this place is and all that. And I am, in fact, constantly astounded by its depth and wealth of musical history and blah, blah, blah, blah.…
Simply put
It is quite difficult to remain in a foul mood while eating soup. Even poorly made soup. If it’s warm, if it’s not poured directly into your lap, and if there isn’t a hair in it, it is impossible to hang on to the tension, the cynicism, the fatigue. Soup is an old friend. From…
Letters to the Editor
Liberal garbage It amazes me how Lessenberry refuses all logic and reason in everything he writes and instead uses continual emotional invective to brainwash the idiot masses. “Fighting an immoral war” (Metro Times, Jan. 22-28) is exactly the ignorant, liberal garbage that brought us 9/11 in the first place. Big deal if Iraq has a…
Abandoned Shelter of the Week
The Abandoned Structure Squad frequently gets inquiries from readers interested in attempting to purchase homes featured in this space, and much of the time we are unable to provide much assistance. When it comes to acquiring abandoned properties, the city bureaucracy is a nightmare, titles are more clouded than Seattle, and owners are in absentia…
The new Backroom
Steve’s is a back room no more. The 15-year-old eatery behind the swinging saloon doors of a grocery in Harper Woods is still open for lunch, but owner Steve Kalil has moved the main operation to the booming “Nautical Mile” of St. Clair Shores. The house specials feature what is best about Middle Eastern food:…
The spy who snagged me
What’s the opposite of zeitgeist? Whatever it is, ex-Newsweek Moscow bureau chief Bill Powell taps it in this curiously hollow and unsatisfying real-life spy story about Cold War shenanigans immediately before and following the Soviet Union’s collapse. In July 1998, shortly after being released from prison, Vyacheslav Baranov, a former member of Soviet military intelligence,…
Biker Boyz
Despite the talent involved (Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke and Kid Rock), the hip pop music, the bike tricks and a respectable attempt at direction, this flick inevitably lives up to its lackluster title. It’ll leave you with a monster-rally headache and a craving for something salty.
Plot o’ nine tales
This adaptation by French director Claude Miller of a Ruth Rendell novel has the sort of queasy suspense one has come to expect from that oft-adapted writer. It’s a well-lit movie with a classic noir subtext: Claw as you may, the trap has long been set.
The Trials of Henry Kissinger
Alex Gibney and Eugene Jarecki’s documentary on former Secretary of State and crisis groupie Henry Kissinger is spun from a book by professional contrarian Christopher Hitchens, whose premise is that Kissinger is a war criminal and should be tried as such.
The Recruit
Al Pacino is in one of his scruffy spy modes. Yet The Recruit isn’t really about espionage and it takes its time opening its eyes on any thrills. It’s really a half-baked melodrama about looking for fathers in all the wrong places played out in flimsy spy-thriller drag.
Brigadoon
Whatever you get from watching Vincente Minnelli’s 1954 adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s hit musical depends on the state of mind you bring into the Redford Theatre this Friday and Saturday. The dance numbers were choreographed by Gene Kelly, and dancers Kelly and Cyd Charisse have the lead roles.
