Brewster’s minions
Henry “Madness” Mayers had a story to tell — a story he’s lived and relived vicariously through others during his tumultuous 17-year career as a music promoter and video director. But he couldn’t figure out how best to tell it. Recording an album would have been too typical, and writing a book didn’t appeal to…
Head case
Frank Slomzenski calls the agglomeration of severed heads, torsos, cornucopia and a 7,670-pound bell “Detroit’s Easter Island” because, as with the stone heads on the Polynesian island, they sit near a body of water. Easter Island’s figures overlook the South Pacific; Slomzenski’s are near the Detroit River. Easter Island’s Polynesians created their stone heads to…
N&D Center
Thursday • 8 Detroit Dodgeball Sports We can thank Ben Stiller’s puerile new comedy, Dodgeball, for America’s renewed interest in the game that once made recess the best part of our day. But we bet you didn’t know that this fun game of cat and mouse is not relegated to the playground anymore. The Detroit…
Letters to the Editor
Where’s Starr now? Great article regarding Bush (“Establishment turns on Bush,” Metro Times, June 30). Why haven’t they appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Bush like they did for Clinton? All Clinton did was get a blow job — Bush and his bunch have gotten hundreds of our men killed or maimed — all for…
(Un)lucky Charms
This story is the fourth part of our Century of Sound series, tracing Detroit’s musical heritage over the last hundred years. Sure, the early ’90s grunge-era/dawn of alt-rock produced its share of Detroit bands that had national impact, but that impact was only fleeting. And of these bands, only one, Charm Farm, embraced the…
Dilated pupils
From innocent crayon drawings of peace doves to violent recollections of a rape, the works in Visions of Peace 2004 are an eye-opening sample of what Michigan children are saying through art. The annual exhibit, on display at Swords into Plowshares Peace Center and Gallery in Detroit, celebrates the rights of children that were codified…
Grosse adolescence
Lately it seems when young (under 40) writers sit down to produce something creative they inevitably spit out a thesis on the 1980s — the era of their awakening. Whether these writers remember the decade with fondness, regret or a little of both, they have a compulsion to share the experience with the rest of…
Winter wonderland
I was fortunate enough to be born into a house of discriminating musical tastes. Thus, when I was a kid and my peers were cranking Dr. Dre and Guns N’ Roses, I was rummaging through my dad’s collection of Muddy Waters. Something about the raw, driving, irresistible pull of this music drew me in: I…
Pass the chutney
The vibrant colors and flavors that characterize Indian food are abundant here. American customers may be puzzled about why it takes 20 minutes to get entrees, but that’s because each dish is cooked to order. One page on the menu features dishes from south India, which are harder to find in our area. Open daily…
A Study in Brown
Call :Brownstudy (aka Jason Hogans) crazy to his face and he laughs. Tell him he’s a gifted musician, he frowns. If you want to see him blush, tell him he’s sexy, and expect him to return the compliment. You can call the man many, many things, but all the guy wants to do is tell…
Dirty District Vol. 2
When Slum Village’s 2002 release Trinity dropped and received mixed reviews, much of the blame was hurled at the production of T3 and the extremely young BR Gunna duo (Young R.J. and Black Milk), who attempted to fill the shoes of exited Slum member Jay Dee. Predictably, the album broke barriers but lost fans for…
Shorts cuts
This weekend, local filmmakers and film lovers will congregate in the breezy comfort of a makeshift outdoor theater. The event is called the Boxcar Film Series and, unlike many other film-related events, the Boxcar series will focus on the virtues of the short film. Curator Jack Cronin has put together a program of 12 very…
Endangered Species
The Chinese Stars A Rare Sensation Three.One.G Thirty years ago these uncanny albums would’ve been released on a major, high-profile label like Island or Harvest to great critical acclaim and they both would have gone on to sell tens of thousands of copies. The fact that those days are gone forever is a sad…
Behind the scenes
Q: Tracking roughly the last year’s worth of Savage Love, I noticed that you have published a total of 37 of your readers’ letters. This works out to an average of 3.08 letters published in each column. How many letters do you receive each week, on average? I am really curious to know what the…
A Rare Sensation
Ex-Girl Endangered Species Alternative Tentacles Thirty years ago these uncanny albums would’ve been released on a major, high-profile label like Island or Harvest to great critical acclaim and they both would have gone on to sell tens of thousands of copies. The fact that those days are gone forever is a sad indictment which…
Fond farewell
For years Peter Williams’ answering machine informed callers, “You’ve reached Peter Williams, the hardest-working painter in Detroit. I’m in the studio now. Please leave a message.” He’s called himself an Uncle Tom, a neo-Negro, a black man who just wasn’t black or white enough for the depth of segregation in Detroit and didn’t give a…
Drunkard in the Think Tank
In 1971, a young Roy Loney penned the following lyrics, cocksure and full of whiskey swagger: "I’m a monster/ I’ve got a revved-up teenage head/ Teenage monster/ California born and bred/ Half a boy, half a man/ Half the sea and half the land goes by/ Oh my!" Oh my, indeed. Had Loney then summarily…
May the truth set us free
There is a crystal moment in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 that would, by itself, make the film worth triple the price of admission. Everyone has seen the famous scene where George W. Bush is sitting in a second-grade classroom somewhere in Florida when his chief of staff comes up and whispers in his ear. What…
Keep Right
There’s a reason KRS-One is down by law. He’s one of the only Bronx emcees left that actually lived the progression of hip hop from 1973 to 1993 — and hasn’t sold out along the way. There was the brief Ivy League teaching stint, but KRS-One lecturing at Harvard and Yale must have been positive,…
Tried and Trudel
It seems that wherever Gerard Trudel goes, controversy follows. The former Allen Park City Council member, alleged sexual harasser and ousted judge shed his scandal-stained robe in 2003 and acquired the keys to a rock ’n’ roll café in downtown Allen Park. One year and two lawsuits later, Trudel has finally received the certificate of…
Disney distortion
This Disney flick is a collection of easy-to-swallow stories of hard-working, plucky Americans wrapped in a shiny, happy, postcard-perfect package. The film comes on the heels of Disney’s refusal to let Miramax distribute another documentary: Michael Moore’s bitter anti-war, anti-Bush pill, Fahrenheit 9/11. Heart & Soul is an ode to America with no teeth, no…
News graveyard
If you’ve ever thrown a newspaper or magazine to the ground, stomped on it and screamed, “Garbage!” then you know that “killing” a story isn’t the most heinous crime in the Western world. In fact, journalistic mercy killings sometimes make the world a better a place. But not always. Consider Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot…
Napoleon Dynamite
Writer-director Jared Hess has crafted a knowing, slightly subversive morality tale that doesn’t strive for lofty cinematic heights. Jon Heder is unbelievable as a dork named Napoleon who lives with his chat-room surfing brother and llama-loving, ATV-riding grandmother. It’s a film that kids, and adults who remember, will take to their hearts.
Food for thought
While George W. Bush and his spin doctors are giddily hyping the news that the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery, a daunting number of Michigan’s poor are struggling just to keep food on their tables. State food aid applications are higher than they have been in 10 years, according to a quarterly…
King Arthur
Remember the legend? Forget it. This film tries to recreate the time and place with historical accuracy. There are plenty of Braveheart-style battles, plenty of lines like “It is said he is a great warrior,” and plenty of mist. The whole thing is a silly, unrelenting bore.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): One of the most exuberant poets of the 20th century was James Broughton. "I pray every night to wake up crazier," he wrote. By that he meant he wanted to become increasingly receptive to unpredictable joy and pleasure. His knack for having a good time didn’t mean he dodged the hard…
Faded picture
A picture postcard amid the ruins of the old Highland Park Holiday Inn between Woodward and John R near Davison reflects better days. The yellowed postcard, which depicts smiling businessmen in leisure suits standing on burnt orange shag carpeting, starkly contrasts with the results of 15 years of neglect and decay that have occurred since…
The Story of the Weeping Camel
This documentary-style docu-drama follows a family of shepherds on the fringe of the Gobi Desert. When one of the family’s camels rejects her newborn calf, the must get the mom to suckle. The slow, naturalistic pacing draws us into the villagers’ lives. The camel’s dumbness allows the viewer to project all sorts of emotions and…
Fishy journey
I’ve gone to Charlevoix every summer since childhood, and I enjoy it as much now as I did then. Of course my fascination with food has given me new eyes with which to explore “up North.” The constantly changing food scene seems to illustrate the difficulty of surviving in or near a tourist town with…
Sire does Fags; a Sight in Lederhosen
Cigars, er, uh, cigarett … Okay, we’ll eschew the outhouse-quality irony here (that would be gauche, now wouldn’t it?) and say hats off to the Fags. Why? ’Cause Detroit’s underappreciated fat-chord-shoutout-chorus masters finally signed to Seymour Stein’s Sire label after much yak, thus making them numero dos for the label with current Motor City bands.…
Before Sunset
Before Sunset is writer/director Richard Linklater’s sequel to his 1995 film Before Sunrise, a slight and occasionally charming story about two twentysomethings, an American boy and a French girl, who meet on a train and proceed to have a brief daylong encounter in picturesque Venice, after which they promise to meet again six monthslater. Before…
Evo-lution
Revolution has accepted four new artists — the emerging Lesley Louden, Christian Tedeschi, Norwood Viviano and internationally recognized sculptor Michael Lucero — into its illustrious stable. In Free Fall, a group show running through the end of July, the Ferndale gallery integrates its newcomers with its vets. Showing new work are Anne Wilson, Jim Chatelain,…
Wrap thy fingers ’round the literary chalice
We’ve heard it all before — you think you can write so well, better than the sludge you muddle through in these pages, better than most of what you’re forced to read in middle America. But you’ve got no audience, you’re too busy to put your stuff out there. Well, here’s your chance. Whether you…
