Fighting for democracy here
Let’s suppose your doctor prescribes some spiffy new drug for your pimples, say, or your aching back. Unfortunately, it turns out to have some minor side effect, like it makes you totally blind. Or kills you. Whoops. Guess the drug company didn’t experiment enough on those rabbits. Or maybe it didn’t work the same on…
The angina monologues
Though the central character of R.W. Burda’s play Heart Attack is named D’Artagnan, he is not at all like his namesake, one of the three musketeers. In fact, “Dart,” as he is called, is a bit more like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills he believes to be his nemeses. Dart is a stand-up comedian living…
Bound for giving
Book people are a picky lot. Every year, gift-givers sort through massive, if not mainstream, bestseller lists — from Oprah’s Book Club to The New York Times — and then sink into despair as they watch the inevitable disappointment wash over the recipient’s face. For our fellow bibliophiles (and their desperate loved ones), we’ve organized…
No silly toys
The Stooges Heavy Liquid Easy Action Multi-disc Stooges boxes aren’t exactly commonplace, not even in the bootleg world — which makes the authorized 6-CD Heavy Liquid all the more important a release. It’s not quite the Raw Power equivalent of Rhino’s Fun House box, 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions, but as a look —…
Letters to the Editor
Wright home Great article on Detroit structures (“Still standing,” Metro Times, Nov. 30). For your information, the Dorothy Turkel House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1956) is currently being foreclosed on and has not been well maintained. If you know of anyone who may be interested in acquiring the property, please pass our information on to them.…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Bang and clang lit
It’s December, and we all know what that means: The Baby Jesus wants you to spend, spend, spend. And what better way to honor the birth of a savior than by picking up books by or about those minstrels of Satan — rock stars. We’ve been reading our eyes bloody on the Beat Reader desk…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): There may still be enough oil buried in the earth to sustain our civilization’s exorbitant appetite for material comforts for another 100 years. Or it may be true, as some researchers suggest, that global reserves of black gold are rapidly dwindling, and 20 years from now we’ll all be farmers and…
Christmas Kryptonite
Each year, many critics ritualistically wrap up that season’s Christmas music. That it’s become a chore to do so in 2005 isn’t because of the serious dip in quality holiday fare. Quite the reverse — it’s because Christmas music has gotten too “acceptable” and “objection-free” for its own good. Look at this batch of more-than-tolerable…
When the Wayne comes
If you don’t love Wayne Newton, you don’t love America. Sure, Frank Sinatra might always be the chairman of the board, Dean Martin was the life of the party and Barry Manilow writes the songs, but Wayne Newton is “The Entertainer.” The man they call “Mr. Las Vegas,” ne Carson Wayne Newton, has been a…
Art Bar
American Life in Poetry Painful separations, through divorce, through death, through alienation, sometimes cause us to focus on the objects around us, often invested with sentiment. The Wind Chimes Two wind chimes, one brass and prone to anger, one with the throat of an angel, swing from my porch eave, sing with the storm. Last…
Head Cheese
Unrepentant Marxist and former linchpin of revered Swedish anarcho-punks the Refused, Dennis Lyxzen now heads The (International) Noise Conspiracy. On their kickass, Rick Rubin-produced major-label debut, Armed Love, the Conspiracy wed soul-fueled, poppy garage with rumbling punk and witty sloganeering. “Bigger Cages, Longer Chains” and “Capitalism Stole My Virginity” are songs more than treatises —…
Even for callboys, honesty is best
Q: Here’s my problem: I got fired from my job at the beginning of the summer and, long story short, ended up escorting to pay the bills. Being a callboy in New York turned out to be not nearly as bad as I expected. In fact, it was fun. I was safe (condoms, worked through…
Digging the roots
While many Detroit area musicians continue to wax poetic about the ’60s, Nick Schillace rhapsodizes about the songs of an older, darker decade. When asked about his influences, the 35-year-old guitarist, teacher and musicologist name-checks Depression-era country, blues and folk artists like Blind Willie Johnson, Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and the artists on Harry…
Eye on art
detroitarts.blogspot.com With all the whining the Detroit arts community does about the lack of intelligent dialogue in this community, blaming both the media and the general public, it’s surprising — or perhaps, telling — that artist Ann Gordon offers the only well-known blog dedicated to covering the metro-area art scene. Detroitarts (detroitarts.blogspot.com) is the young…
Partial abortion victory
News Hits reported last month that a handful of bills that would limit the reproductive rights of women were moving through the Michigan Legislature. Last week, one of those measures passed in the Senate, but in an altered format. The bill initially passed by the state House would have required all abortion providers to perform…
Skirting issues
tu-tutimes.blogspot.com Even in the multifaceted blogosphere, the tu-tu times is something of an anomaly. No chronicling of obsessions, no armchair quarterbacking, no links to breaking news stories, no rumor-mongering, no marketing. A year in the planning, the blog covers the one-shot art insurrection of two anonymous Detroiters who targeted the city’s controversial “streetlight shrouds.” Installed…
Where’s the check?
Way back in September, the Michigan Secretary of State’s office decreed that something called the Vision 05 Political Action Committee would have to ask the Kilpatrick mayoral campaign to return $20,000 in illegal donations. In an Oct. 5 letter, PAC treasurer Todd Bettison, a Detroit police commander, told the state that his outfit had duly…
Activist’s outlet
info.detnews.com/weblog Veteran TV producer and activist Ron Scott has blogged recently about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (her “strange and perplexing world”), about GM Chairman Rick Wagoner (his “tough love” prescription for the company noticeably fails to include a salary cut for himself) and about the firing of loser Lions coach Steve Mariucci (reminding readers…
Holy smokes
This week’s abandoned structure has a rather fitting name, considering its condition. The white building that once housed Explosion Apostolic Ministries at 4550 W. Warren Ave. in Detroit looks as though an explosion happened inside it. An ASS (Abandoned Structure Squad) peek through one of the missing windows, or a step through one of the…
The faces of street life
snowsuit.net Lit by the silver sheen of a computer screen, a man named James, with eyes and skin almost as dark as his black beard, stares out from the monitor. His expression is self-assured, curious and resigned. The only sign that he leads a rough life is the stormy weather in the whites of his…
Proactive
Time flies — Each year volunteers search the Rouge River watershed looking for stoneflies — sensitive creatures that serve as a kind of barometer to water quality. If the aqua’s clean, lots of the little buggers will be found. The annual winter search takes place this year on Jan. 21. So why is Proactive mentioning…
Cop out
firejerryo.com If you want to keep up on the latest insider info regarding Detroit’s always turbulent political scene, John Bennett’s Detroit Uncovered is a must read. A seven-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, Bennett launched his site in 2002 under the name firejerryo.com. That’s when Jerry Oliver, who did little to endear himself to…
Site for sounds
motorcityrocks.com MotorCityRocks.com gained a front-and-center spot in the legion of current music blogs soon after it was launched in early 2003. Nearly everything on the site is stuff you can find elsewhere. But, it’s the assemblage of “information” — the blog postings and MP3 files, essentially — that accounts for the site’s popularity. What’s refreshing…
Fantasy league
sweatymen.blogspot.com Get your mind out of the gutter. Sweaty Men Endeavors is not the type of Web site you might imagine. It has “a slightly gay name, but it’s still a sports blog,” says creator Ian Casselberry, 32. “I wanted something that would sound a little smart-assed and would attract attention when [people] see a…
Urban explorer
detroitblog.org John leads a double life. As a local journalist, he writes for a living, with a byline that allows all who read his work to know it belongs to him. And then there’s the identity he keeps secret from co-workers, friends and family. As the anonymous author of Detroit Blog, John comments on area…
Virtual ties
hamtown.blogspot.com There is a fair amount of talk these days about how blogs are becoming a key component in forming online communities. But don’t go singing those praises to Mike Rehfus, founder of the Hamtramck Confidential blog. Rehfus knows what real community is all about, and sees the virtual form falling far short by comparison.…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 14 Monkey Day FUN FOR ALL/HOLIDAY Monkey Day — one of the more promising pseudo-holidays to crop up over the years — may not be the most important festivity of the year, but it certainly has potential to be one of the silliest. As one pro-simian site puts it, it’s your chance to…
Brushes with greatness
Originally, gallery owner Susanne Hilberry wanted her current art show to be a portrait show, but as she visited artist studios in New York and Detroit, her idea shifted, pure and simple, to painting. It’s a medium that seems to get knocked around an awful lot by people who want to claim it’s obsolete, but…
Meet the bloggers
So I’m talking to a guy who’s been my friend for more than 30 years, a computer programmer I’ve known since our college days together. And I tell him how the paper is putting together a package of pieces about local bloggers. He didn’t see the point. Why, he asked, should anyone care about the…
Risky business
You’d think that by now we’d have plumbed the depths of fiscal inefficiency in Detroit. Sadly, you’d be wrong. Former Auditor General Joe Harris — he left his post earlier this month — says Detroit currently pays between $30 million and $70 million a year in lawsuits and claims. The city could substantially reduce that payout…
A tale of blood and oil
It’s not often that a film overestimates the attention span and intellect of its audience — but Stephen Gaghan’s overly dense Syriana does just that, challenging viewers to follow a complex tapestry of covert arms deals, espionage and cynical manipulations by the U.S. government. From Washington, D.C., to Texas to Tehran (and all points between),…
The Protocols of Zion
Director Marc Levin (Slam, Whiteboyz) tackles anti-Semitism in America. Inspired by the outrageous claims of a New York cabbie that no Jews died during 9/11 because they were forewarned, the filmmaker connects this conspiracy theory to a piece of late-19th century Russian propaganda entitled The Protocol of the Elders of Zion. Levin takes to the…
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
In the much-anticipated first film adaptation of the series, the four Pevensie siblings travel through a magical wardrobe to the land of Narnia, where trees can talk and mythical creatures exist. But Narnia isn’t just holiday fantasy camp: The evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton) has held sway there for 100 years. The four Pevensie children,…
King Kong
Peter Jackson is the Cecile B. DeMille of the new millennium. Faced with the task of following the tremendous artistic and commercial success of the Lord of the Rings series, the writer-director has reinvented the granddaddy of all cinematic spectacles, King Kong. He creates an awe-inspiring, terrifying and poignant film — that needs to be…
