One thing we did right
The most convenient thing about saints is that they are dead and can’t contradict what you say about them. Matter of fact, if you don’t study them too closely, you can manage to ignore the embarrassing things they tend to say about our own hypocrisy and remember only the part of their message that has…
Sticks and stones
A lot of people only venture out to the Old Shillelagh once a year on St. Patrick’s Day, when the line to enter wraps around the block and then some. It’s a terrible shame, because the Old Shillelagh is most charming when it’s not brimming to the bursting point with obnoxious drunks in leprechaun hats…
Contents Dislodged During Shipment
If you were a fanzine reader or record collector in the mid-to-late ’70s, you undoubtedly came across Akron’s Tin Huey, a strangely strange outfit of lapsed prog-rock and avant-jazz fans who managed to wriggle their way onto the musical radar, along with fellow Ohioans Devo, Rubber City Rebels, Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys, when…
Rooster tales
It’s 9 a.m. and time to go pheasant huntin’ in downtown Detroit! I’m gonna spot one of them suckers if it’s the last thing I do. It seems every resident of inner Detroit has experienced repeated pheasant sightings, except moi, bird-lover extraordinaire. In the tall grasses and shrubs, weeds and wildflowers that cover Detroit’s abundant…
Step Into Liquid
This feel-good documentary is more about surfing than surfers. Writer-director Dana Brown lays the "perfect wave" metaphor on pretty thick. But the cinematography makes the literal waves immediate and real — and truly beautiful.
Pedal mettle
There was a time when anything was possible. Remember? For most of us, bicycles are permanently linked to that freestyle frame of mind: a time when we swam in wonder at the world and had a hunger to explore; a time when simply riding to the store to buy a squirt gun, look at the…
The Medallion
There are good things to be said about Jackie Chan’s acting in this one. But the story is thin, and Jackie Chan should never be given superpowers or saddled with computer graphics.
Letters to the Editor
The voice of labor Jack Lessenberry made some valid points but there is not enough space here to tell the whole truth about labor’s ineffectiveness (“Labor and other pains,” Metro Times, Aug. 27-Sept. 2). As a former union representative for the United Steelworkers, I speak from practical experience. I came up through the ranks from…
Massoud The Afghan
Sixteen years in the life of the charismatic Afghan commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, from his fight against the Russians, to his fight against the Taliban to his assassination on the eve of 9/11. He also comes across as a larger-than-life hero in a country with few such figures.
Alley cats
Ask gray-headed bohemians about the origins of Cass Corridor’s annual fall celebration, the Dally in the Alley, and you’ll likely hear it was a way for the artists, musicians, and poets of the lively neighborhood to throw a big party. What’s more, though, the famous mother of all block parties remains true to its Cass…
The Other Side of the Bed
This half-charming, half-tiresome mélange of sex farce and musical chronicles a week or so of symmetrical partner-swapping.. The songs and choreography are actually not bad, for silly Spanish pop songs, but they can’t make this movie anything other than a Spanish-inflected trifle.
Amplified life
Joseph “Amp” Fiddler’s story is dedicated to anyone who ever danced to R.J.’s Latest Arrival’s “Shackles On My Feet” back in the ’80s. It’s for the people who have gotten themselves through rough times by reciting Parliament/Funkadelic’s timeless affirmation: “… with the rhythm it takes to dance to what we have to live through. …”…
Love And Pain
Having known more than my fair share of them over the years, I have a vested clinical interest in women who are either certifiably insane or, at the very least, vehemently insistent in their refusal to take their prescribed antidepressant medication. So if you’re like me, you’ll be pleased to hear that Sarah Jane Morris’…
The Bellrays rerun the pop revolution
In 1965 when a Byrds fan was asked to describe their music, she said, “they’re orange and green and yellow and near” and people actually knew what she meant. Of course you could get away with color wheel descriptions in those days because A) everyone was out of their tree but it was the same…
Free Mickey
As Congress battles the Federal Communications Commission over media consolidation that threatens to turn America’s news and entertainment spectrum into a giant blur of infotainment pabulum, the timing for a book about Disney’s mostly successful attempts to squish a cartoonist who dared satirize Mickey Mouse and Co. is perfect. Too bad that, unless you really…
Fonda them
Unless you were living in Amish country or trapped under a woofer for the past two years, you’ve noticed the seismic shift in the world of pop music. The sounds of stripped-down rock ’n’ roll eclipsed boy-band mania as the ruling pop music art form, and quasi-Stooges and the MC5-type bands flourished on the airwaves…
Remembered
P.W. Long drags his aching, booze-drenched body across the floor, twisting slightly in a country breeze, as though trying to shake the painful memories from the rusty marrow of his soul. "Some see the glass half-empty, others see it half-full, I raise it to my lips and take another pull," he opines, as the echoes…
Garage banned
It began with something so commonplace that few questioned it: Wayne State University tore down a building. In keeping with the ironic times, the old Pontiac Motors service garage and showroom at the corner of Cass and York — once a showcase for the booming car culture of postwar Detroit — was ripped down and…
Lullaby For Liquid Pig
A songwriter friend of mine, who once was a ferocious dope fiend and who shall go unnamed here, is fond of saying, “I’m not a recovering anything — I just manage my life.” He’d likely agree with me, then, when I submit it’s extremely risky for a musician to detail, on record, his or her…
Fight knight
Octavio Lara’s locker room inside Joe Louis Arena is starkly different from one next door, where boxers preceding him on the night’s card raise a cacophony. Music there blasts from wall to wall. Lara has a radio on, but it’s low enough for casual conversation. He sits patiently, entirely at ease with his surroundings. He…
Tell It To Your Landlord
Looks like Shah and friends have been moving on up in the blues world since their first CD, Deep Detroit, was released in 2000. Recorded in the easygoing comfort of Howard Glazer’s basement home studio, the disc wound up earning the band stellar reviews worldwide and no shortage of tours both domestic and abroad. Tell…
Sept.3-9, 2003
5-7 FRI-SUN • FUN FOR ALL Arts & Apples Festival — Hey, art lovers — here’s one of your last chances to enjoy the fun of an outdoor art fair this year. The annual Arts & Apples Festival, which has been a favorite among locals for an impressive 38 years now, has something for everyone.…
Caught in the act
An elegant setting just north of downtown. New Zeland rack of lamb is outstanding, other dishes less so. You can ask for either a Caesar or a house green salad with your dinner, without being charged extra for the Caesar. Atlas provides breakfast six days a week, serving smoked salmon omelets, Belgian waffles, crabmeat Benedict,…
Will Kwame sack a flack?
Rumors abound in press circles that Jamaine Dickens, spokesman for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, is on the verge of being canned. Asked by News Hits if he’s headed for the unemployment line, the usually blunt Dickens turned cryptic and danced around the question, saying only that the mayor is expected to announce some major staffing…
Coming Now!
What if the Flamin’ Groovies had been fronted by Debbie Harry or the Runaways’ jail-bait fatale Cherie Currie? That’s but one of several retro-hypotheses that tickle the imagination while listening to the latest entry in the ever-expanding gee-rage sweepstakes. For, like the Groovies in their mid/late ’70s prime (particularly when Dave Edmunds was producing ’em),…
Hauling Ash into court
News Hits hopes like hell that U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Rosen has the balls to haul America’s chief law enforcement officer into court on contempt charges. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft allegedly violated a court gag order — not just once, but twice — according to a motion filed last week by defense attorneys…
Epic tragedy, little films
An international anthology of 11 short films (each 11 minutes, 9 seconds and 1 frame) from 11 directors makes us think of 9/11 as something more than a national (if enormous) tragedy. Polemics, abstractions, fantasies, romances, documentaries, the contributions run the gamut — and though uneven make a collective point.
More terror
Defense attorneys in the above-mentioned trial also are gearing up to appeal the three convictions. In preparation, they filed a motion asking Rosen to unseal several court records, including the notes U.S. Assistant Attorney Richard Convertino took during 30 hours of interviews with the controversial witness Yousef Hmimssa. Defense lawyers contend that Convertino ordered FBI…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m not saying you’re depressed, Aries, nor am I predicting you will be. But you are in an astrological phase when you’re more susceptible than usual to that feeling. Having issued that warning, however, let me add that I think being depressed would actually be very good news. It would mean…
Toy graveyard
Abandoned Shelter of the Week The City of Detroit has 959 Burlingame marked for demolition, but neighbors of the property might regret the disappearance of such a well-loved spot. It has apparently become a very handy place for dumping used toys. Who knows how the phenomenon began? What might have once been an innocent piece…
With friends like these …
Q: In Vegas I made the mistake of telling my “friends” I had an “accident.” The girl giving me a lap dance was grinding too hard and I blew my load. Within minutes the nicknames started: Sticky Pants, Pocket Paste, etc. I took my medicine for three days and thought that would be the end…
