CONCERT OF COLORS WILL RETURN…BUT IN A SHORTER VERSION
The Concerts of Colors will return to the Max M. Fisher Music Center this summer, but in a shorter version, two days versus four. That’s the news we got Wednesday from Anan Ameri, director of the Arab American National Museum, one of the key groups that puts on the show along with New Detroit, ACCESS,…
Audrey Pongracz
For many artists Detroit could be like the Land of Oz, the Russell Industrial Center its Emerald City, and storied artist Mark Arminski the wizard. Change out the yellow brick road for yellow metal doors and your route to Arminski’s studio will yield unseen adventures, run-ins with extraordinary characters and a very bizarre bazaar. When…
Breath and Bone
Honestly, when this reviewer first looked at the debut CD from the Grosse Pointe-based Decks and read over the accompanying press release, he groaned. Was yet another local garage band with a “the” preceding their name hanging onto the ever-fraying remains of White’s Stripes? That Jim Diamond and Eddie (aka brother of Jack White) Gillis…
Mario Moore
Mario Moore says when painter’s block hits, he bucks up and forces his hand to move about the canvas with whatever utensil is handy. “Hell, yeah, art is hard,” he says, “but you can’t just stop.” He drops names like Rembrandt and Luther Vandross and cites social injustice — common themes for him — and…
Letters to the Editor
Bum rap, indeed! Metro Times published a piece entitled “Bum Rap” (March 18), subtitled “Longstanding grocery store is a skid row meet-and-greet,” written by someone named “Detroitblogger John.” We who are neighbors or work in the neighborhood would like to take issue with the basic premise underlying the article — namely that it’s Tom Boy…
Recantation redux
Victim changes his testimony … again
No freedom for Freeman
Governor denies clemency for man in closely followed case
Copping a feel
If there were as many cops on the street as on our TV sets, wouldn’t we all feel better served and protected? Since the days our remote control also was known as Dad, television has had an incurable affliction for taking a popular genre and beating it to a pulp. Once it was medical dramas…
Kill Taupe
Jason Driscoll was a Bay City coffeehouse kid, an artist and a drama club devotee — and he couldn’t wait to bolt. “In high school, I realized I saw the world a little differently than most people,” he says. “I’m sure I had labels like ‘weird,’ ‘geeky’ and ‘strange’ attached to me.” After bouncing around…
Lose the hat if you can’t drive the truck …
It’s 8 p.m., and Chapstik frontman Leighton Chamberlain Mann has just dropped off a semi loaded with explosives near his house in Ypsilanti. A long-haul trucker by day, Mann doesn’t really know what he’s transporting; only that it’s highly combustible. “They wouldn’t let me open the containers,” he says later at the band’s downtown Detroit…
Six pack
Peeling back the paint chips, exposing every negative, and checking the hem of each leg, I ventured to uncover some of the most exciting artists younger than 30 (OK, one of them is 30) buzzing about the eyes and ears of Detroit’s creative core — the collage of often-quirky tastemakers who step between kempt galleries…
Motor City Cribs
Detroit graffiti artist Antonio “Shades” Agee’s Corktown loft
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Either those cats cool it, man, or we don’t read Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout #212! Mark Burnett & Sonny Barger — Survivor: Altamont (FOX) :: You can’t say "40th Anniversary" any better! Alan Davey — Captured Rotation :: (MVD Audio/Hawkwind) :: Hawkwind meets power pop on this catchy pop rock meisterwack. Astralasia — The Hawkwind…
Crucial bookmarks!
Quickly, before we run out of time — because you never really know when links are going to expire — some housecleaning. I had a bookmark all saved up for you before this column went on a brief page-count-and-special-issue-induced hiatus. And it’s a goodie. If you’re a fan of Detroit rock ‘n’ roll of any,…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Real representation
Petition drive would have Detroit’s council elected by district
Food Stuff
JAVA JIVE — There’s more than mere joe at Trixie’s Coffeehouse; they also have readings and live music. Take this Saturday, April 11, when Trixie’s will have an acoustic performance from Sh! The Octopus for an all-ages crowd. At 9 p.m., at 25925 Gratiot Ave., Roseville; 586-776-9002. EAT LOCAL! — Chef Laura Stec, the author…
Resign time, a duet
Our do-nothing governor should step down
Sublime continental
Aladdin Sweets 11945 Conant, 313-891-8050; $: More than a sweets shop — though exotic confections are available — this little joint serves reliable Indian food, if you’re cool with the plastic and polystyrene crockery and cutlery. The price point makes it the best bargain on Conant. Ashoka Indian Cuisine 3642 Rochester Rd., Troy, 248-689-7070; $$:…
Phallus accusation
I found out my kid keeps stealing my dildos
Peace dividend
The five appetizers on the menu include the expected egg rolls, spring rolls and crispy wonton shrimp. More unusual are the refreshing shredded cabbage strips and steamed chicken laced with an airy lime dressing ($8). Another recommended starter is an order of pleasantly spongy pork meatballs ($5), gently flavored with lemongrass and served with Lan’s…
Got pop?
Everyone knows Detroit’s a great town for music, no matter what one likes to hear — soul, R&B, hard rock, punk, garage rock, blues, hip-hop, electronic and lots of flavors in between. But what about the Rodney Dangerfield of rock genres, the underappreciated form known as power pop? You know, the stuff with lots of…
Adventureland
Greg Mottola’s late ’80s nostalgia trip is drawn from his own experiences of working at a low-rent theme park. The story is set in 1987 Pittsburgh. James (Jesse Eisenberg playing the Semitic version of Michael Cera) is a virginal smartass just out of college and hoping to backpack around Europe before heading to grad school.…
Josh Band
Josh Band earned his living designing building-sweeping robots for the Department of Defense. Now he’s a photographer. Few publications as yet have featured his work but you’d be hard-pressed to find a (working) model or stylist who doesn’t know him, and roving gallery-goers in four Michigan counties have, at some point, paused at one of…
Fast & Furious
Paul Walker reprises the role of brash lawman Brian O’Conner, now working for an FBI task force on the hunt for an elusive drug kingpin. To track the baddie down, he’s forced to reteam with old pal and rival Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel), the former king of street racing, now a fugitive south of the…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY • 8 FRANCESCO TRISTANO IVORY TICKLIN’ TECHNO A rising star of the classical scene, pianist and composer Francesco Tristano is a Juilliard grad who’s played Western standards in auditoriums the world over. The twist? He’s also released albums of piano-electro hybrids and piano reworkings of techno classics such as Derrick May’s "Not For Strings."…
Kiss and don’t tell
Emmanuel Mouret’s film is a kind of Woody Allen-Eric Rohmer mash-up that tries to balance Socratic discourse and moralistic parable against the comic inevitabilities of lust. The first half is very much in sync with bottom-of-the-barrel comedy tropes while the second half sours on ethics of temptation. Though there are sharp lines of dialogue and…
The Silent Giants
Brian Larson, Ed Knight and Chris Everhart are the Silent Giants, a young (all younger than 25) team of baby-faced artists who crawled between the sheets of Metro Times last summer when we rolled out the Poster Issue (“Rip it down,” June 25, 2008), for which they designed that issue’s cover. They were, um, fresh…
One-man show
Finale may not be as critically acclaimed as such fellow Detroiters as Eminem and Black Milk. But if you bring his name up among musicians and Detroit rap heads, you wouldn’t be able to tell: Most of them, in fact, will tell you that Finale is one of the best emcees to hail from the…
NEW EM VID IS A KILLER…
This is brilliant on so many different levels (and the Elvis tribute actually looks pretty sincere and is part of the point) that I don’t even know where to begin. So I’m just going to wait until the entire album is ready to be reviewed… Terrific commentary. Terrific song. Slim Shady’s back… Eminem – New…
DETROIT LOTTERY, ROCK STYLE…
The Magic Stick is hosting Detroit’s first Rock Lottery show on Wednesday, April 22nd to benefit The Greening of Detroit organization and in honor of Earth Day (which is also the 22nd). The concept of the “rock lottery” originated in Denton, Texas, but it has become an annual event at numerous venues nationally. How it…
LAST SHOT @ WONDERLAND
An oh-so-alluring Alice is brought to life once more this weekend at the Russell Industrial Center by the terrifically twisted minds of Theatre Bizzare for the burlesque-d re-telling of Lewis Carroll’s classic psyche-fable Alice in Wonderland. Note: Theatre Bizarre has nothing to do with the Russell Bazaar — one is a warped d.i.y. production company…
ALL ABOARD: COLTRANE & MORE…
In the months since the Detroit International Jazz Festival, the folks at Detroit JazzStage have been putting the festival’s Jazz Tent talks online. The discussions include the history of the Detroit proto-rock hit “The Hucklebuck,” the story of the Hammond B-3 in jazz and the spirituality of Alice Coltrane. A panel helmed by yours truly…
