Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): A newlywed couple I know is planning to go to Cuba for their honeymoon. That’s pretty risky. The American government has sternly discouraged us citizens from traveling there for years, and President Bush recently laid down even further restrictions. But I admire my friends’ desire to combine their romantic getaway with…
According to Larry Joe
Larry Joe Campbell is starting to think people are out to get him. “I’ll walk into a place and someone will stare at me, and I’m thinking, ‘This person wants to beat the hell out of me.’” They don’t. Rather, they’re just trying to place Campbell’s face. The Michigan native actor’s boyish visage has become…
It’s Reigning Sound!
ASHEVILLE, N.C — Another Friday night, another rock band. Well, not just any band — this is Reigning Sound, recently transplanted from Memphis to Asheville and one of the most respected outfits in the land. How respected? No less than Steve Van Zandt, he of Springsteen, Sopranos and "Little Steven’s Underground Garage," informed yours truly…
His way always
This story is the sixth part of our Century of Sound series, tracing Detroit’s musical heritage over the last hundred years. On a cold December day in 1992, some of Motown’s biggest stars, including the Spinners and Stevie Wonder, gathered to pay final respects to Maurice King, a man who helped them to develop…
Book poor
It was an unusual sight in normally serene Grosse Pointe. Cars honked and some passersby shouted words of support to 30 or so picketers who marched outside the Grosse Pointe Public Library last week. The picketers wielded signs that read, “Honk if you love your library staff,” and “Nice place to visit, bad place to…
North again
Recently I made it up to the Leelanau Peninsula, north of Traverse City, to visit my brother and his family in Northport for a few days. It’s a rural area, less densely populous than some Northern vacation spots, unspoiled by billboards and traffic, and boasting miles of gorgeous beaches. Driving around, I was struck by…
A savage week
Q: I’m a 28-year-old guy. When I make out with a girl, I produce lots of pre-come. It is often so much that my pants get wet. And it’s tons worse if there’s petting involved. This can be very embarrassing, especially if we’re in public. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll wear a pair…
King throng
Life is simple for the fanatic. Every moment of every day is devoted to the cause, sacrificed at the altar of the chosen godhead. What to wear, what to buy, what to listen to, what to watch, what to hoard, what to shun is never a cause for indecision or angst. The fanatic always has…
International flair
Homeland Security paranoiacs may be trying to squelch the flow of people and information across the border, but the Art Gallery of Windsor is keeping it moving. For the first the time since the 1960s, AGW has included artists from Detroit and environs in its biennial exhibition, and has come up with a winner show…
Sad farewell to famous playwright
At a play called Crack Steppin’ sat an elementary school kid in a downtown Detroit theater. It was the early 1980s and playwright Ron Milner’s production gave the boy a dramatic look at the devastation of crack, a devastation the boy would witness in his community for decades to come. The play had a lasting…
Judah jilts
Let three minutes of Judah Johnson’s new break-your-heart, synthesizer-driven songwriting into your ears. Take in the reticent techno backbeat, the Dirty Three-worthy drones and the post-rock dolor of singer/songwriter/keyboard player Dan Johnson’s voice. Let it in. By the time you stop listening, there will have been a shift, however minor, somewhere on your insides. There…
N&D center
Wednesday • 21 The Yarbles MUSIC It’s not just the Yarbles’ enthusiasm and moxy that makes these high school-age rock ’n’ rollers a point of interest. The fact that they have been so diligent in their pursuit of steady gigs and participation in the local music scene adds oodles to their cred. The sound is…
2004 Metro Times Photo Contest Winners
Color photo winners Experimental/digitally altered photo winners Black and white photo winners “For all those thousands of photos I took, I guess one finally paid off!” That was Glenn Kujansuu’s reaction to winning first place in the 2004 Metro Times Photo Contest in the new category for experimental/digitally altered photography. Metro Times holds the annual…
Barbarians in the Rose Garden
Virtually every battle of World War II was long ago turned into a major Hollywood epic, but nobody has ever paid much attention to a fascinating challenge that war posed to our democracy. During the most intense phase of combat, with V-2 missiles (what we today call Scuds) raining on London and amid deep worries…
A costly mea culpa
Jack Kelley, former star foreign correspondent for USA Today, not only severely damaged the reputation of the nation’s largest daily by fabricating and plagiarizing stories for a dozen years, the disgraced reporter is also costing USA Today’s owner, Gannett, some cash. Gannett Satellite Information Network Inc., a subsidiary of Gannett Co. Inc. (which also owns…
2004 Color Photo Contest Winners
1st place color: Monique Perreault, Grosse Pointe Farms 2nd place color: John Wright, Sterling Heights 3rd place color: Charles Mann Jr., Detroit Honorable mention color: Jon Luebke, Dearborn Honorable mention color: Jon Moshier, Royal Oak Experimental/digitally altered photo winners Black and white photo winners Cover Story
Breeding distrust
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) says there’s been “a recent wave of reports from across the country indicating that FBI agents are contacting Arab and Muslim Americans, including citizens, for what has been described as voluntary interviews.” Particularly disturbing to Arab-American leaders is the way the feds launched this latest round of interrogations. “Unlike previous…
2004 Experimental/ digitally altered Photo Contest Winners
1st place experimental/digitally altered: Glenn Kujansuu, Southfield 2nd place experimental/digitally altered: Basel Abbasi, Ferndale 3rd place experimental/digitally altered: Aaron Lund Honorable mention experimental/digtally altered: John Wright, Sterling Heights Honorable mention experimental/digitally altered: Aaron Michael Lund Black and white photo winners Color photo winners Cover Story
Bullets and ballots
Metro Times reported last week (“Schoolyard Brawl,” July 14) on how an intense struggle over the elected leadership of Hamtramck’s public schools has divided this town of 23,000. Three of the school board’s seven members faced a recall election Tuesday. Just how intense the struggle is, however, didn’t become apparent until after last week’s story…
2004 Black and White Photo Contest Winners
1st place black and white: Kelly Hornfeld, Commerce Township 2nd place black and white: John Wright, Sterling Heights 3rd place black and white: Marty Gross, West Bloomfield Honorable mention black and white: John Wright, Sterling Heights Honorable mention black and white: Jody Lioko, West Bloomfield Color photo winners Experimental/digitally altered photo winners Cover Story
Letters to the Editor
Build Detroit for Detroiters In response to some recent letters and articles about whatever happened to Detroit’s plan to be a great city to live in, it’s upsetting to see every trace of the past disappear. It used to be that John R was an avenue filled with history. Now it’s gone, just like Paradise…
Maurice King on record
Maurice King’s arrangements were dynamic, audacious works that played a significant role in establishing the Flame as a major entertainment spot. King bemoaned the fact that his Flame Show Bar band was never given a chance to record some of their better and jazzier material, although the band did record with Johnny Ray and LaVern…
Fish fit for royalty
An authentic sushi bar is hidden in the back of this small Japanese grocery, and it’s often crowded at lunchtime. This small but dense space is permeated with a clean, efficient no-nonsense atmosphere. This may not be the place to impress a client or woo a date, but sophisticated diners used to eating sushi in…
Noi Albinoi
This is an Icelandic film with all the hallmarks of the frozen genre: the deadpan humor, the patient depictions of people doing nothing particularly interesting, the location in a place where time has slowed to a crawl and everyone goes about their business with the moroseness of a race trapped in an endless winter. Tomas…
Lost Boys of Sudan
In the African nation of Sudan, a civil war raged for 20 years. When the dust settled, some 20,000 kids were left orphaned. Called “lost boys,” many of the kids eventually, with help from the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, made it to America. This documentary focuses on two of the refugees who,…
I, Robot
The film version of Isaac Asimov’s classic tale uses the science fiction author’s concepts to prop up a ridiculously clichéd script and by-the-numbers action sequences. It’s hard to pay attention for falling over plot holes and ’70s era television cop show shtick. Will Smith actually throws his badge at his superior officer for criticizing rogue-ish…
The Door in the Floor
Based on the long first chapter of John Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year, this film tells the tale of the Coles, a couple haunted by the deaths of their sons. Jeff Bridges plays a drunken skirt-chaser; Kim Basinger’s Mrs. Cole is no Mrs. Robinson, though the audience gets to see her and…
Glitzy memorial
There are some who will love every urbane, musical moment of this biopic of late composer Cole Porter, known best for his 1948 Broadway hit, Kiss Me Kate. His complicated love story, featuring an adoring wife and homosexual hanky panky, is told in a narrative structure that leaves Porter witnessing and commenting on his life…
