Free Press mess
Talk about a tricky situation. Pulitzer Prize winning Free Press reporters M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer yesterday found themselves covering a story they were directly involved in. It’s an explosive issue that centers, in part, on the guy who now appears to be the person most responsible for the two star reporters receiving that Pulitzer…
Marcus Belgrave receives $50,000 Kresge arts award
Former Ray Charles trumpet player Marcus Belgrave relocated to Detroit in the days of the Motown assembly line. And since then he has, arguably, become the face of serious, deeply rooted jazz in Detroit. Belgrave — whom one bandleader dubbed “Serious Bell” — is known as a bandleader, performer and mentor to myriad younger performers,…
Matty Moroun loses a big one
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at Judge Beverly Hayes-Sipes’ ruling that the Detroit International Bridge Co. is illegally occupying a section of Riverside Park. After all, from the time nearly a year ago when city of first sued to regain control of land that the company fenced off just after the 9/11 attacks, it…
Night and Day
FRIDAY OCTOBER 9 Boing FLIGHTS OF FANCY The three Michigan-based artists showcased in Boing all share a penchant for unconventional whimsy — hence the irreverent onomatopoeic title (go ahead, say it out loud — Boing!). Sara Joseph creates quirky and fanciful sculptures; Brian Iler paints shiny, happy abstractions; and Ryan Standfest makes eccentric creations in…
Zombieland
Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson show almost perfect chemistry as a sort of college-aged-Woody-Allen-meets-redneck-John-Wayne on-the-road duo, hacking and slashing through an undead landscape. Eisenberg’s Columbus is a neurotic geek, whose social alienation and World of Warcraft skills have helped him survive. Harrelson’s Tallahassee is a Twinkie-loving, backwoods loner who has discovered his life’s calling —…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Purgatory Hill
Pat MacDonald (who officially goes by the spelling "pat mAcdonald") first came to fame in the ’80s as one-half of Timbuk3 (of "The Future’s So Bright" fame), where he served as principal songwriter, and he’s always played music that isn’t exactly just blues or just rock or just whatever form may be lurking between those…
Praiseworthy pie
Supino Pizzeria, barely a year old, is all the rage. It took less than six months to establish itself as a contender for our Best Gourmet Pizza honors, coming in second among our readers’ picks. And if it was busy then, it’s swamped now, after a favorable review in a local daily paper, confirming the…
Too many creeps
There ARE really only two ways to view this movie. The first is to see it with a large crowd of giddy, screaming teens or college students. The second would be home alone, late at night. Anything in between won’t work because, frankly, this is more of a cultural event like The Blair Witch Project…
Food Stuff
Toasting success — Several members of the Michigan Brewers Guild came back from this year’s Great American Beer Festival with honors, including some area brewers. Local medal winners included Birmingham’s Big Rock Chop House & Brewery, Royal Oak’s Bastone Brewery, Dexter’s Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, and Warren’s Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. Congrats, folks. Here’s to you.…
Cheat Code
Wet Bethesda Softworks Xbox 360, PS3 Let’s get this out of the way: The game’s called Wet, and the main character’s a hot chick with tattoos and a big sword. One might think this to be a jiggle-fest with a bunch of dick jokes. But, alas, the joke’s on you, pal. The sex appeal is…
Enuf cash for girls
It wasn’t long after I heard that Tyler Perry would be bringing Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf to the screen that I began to wonder which color Madea would get. The characters in Shange’s Obie Award-winning play don’t have names but are described as Lady…
Behind closed doors
Well, the national economy is still terrible, and the situation in Michigan far worse. The deal under which Roger "Superman" Penske would have saved the auto manufacturer Saturn fell apart, which probably means thousands more jobs down the drain. And in Lansing, the dysfunctional set of wretches known as the Michigan Legislature still haven’t agreed…
Motor City Cribs
If you were looking to set up a recording studio — one where a chunk of culture-changing Detroit music would be created — you probably wouldn’t choose the former Feltus Poultry site downtown behind the Fillmore. The live room at producer Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Recorders is a spacious, concrete-and-cinderblock space where the chicken-processing took place…
It’s a family affair
It’s a Friday night in Ferndale. The family is gathered around the table. There are glasses of wine, stacks of French fries, sandwiches being shared, coloring books and blankies at the ready, talk of pre-school and minivans. Except this night, the table happens to be at the Emory Bar. And the family is the core…
Kill city dreaming
Here’s yet one more example of so many things that demonstrate just how far and full-circle the Iggy Pop story has come over the years. The opening credits to Michael Moore’s brilliant new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, are accompanied by Iggy singing "Louie, Louie." And at the end of the movie, Mr. Pop is…
Metallic K.O.
“In 1969, most people said that the Stooges would never make it. In 2009, a few people still steadfastly refuse to recognize the monumental, enduring influence that the Stooges have had in the history of rock ‘n’ roll over the past forty years. Perhaps this book will make believers out of them.” — Robert Matheu,…
Letters to the Editor
Review missed mark Jane Slaughter’s review of Maria’s Comida in Hamtramck ("Border skirmish," Sept. 30) concludes with a straightforward choice: "You may believe your fellow Metro Times readers about [Maria’s Comida], or you may believe me. I’d go with me; that’s why they pay me the big bucks." As the family behind Maria’s Comida we…
Couch Trip
Homicide Criterion An underrated classic from David Mamet’s limited directorial oeuvre, Homicide features Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay and other Mamet perennials flawlessly mastering the playwright’s precise, staccato speech patterns. Mantegna plays Bobby Gold, an inner-city cop forced to reassess his non-practicing Jewish faith when an elderly Orthodox woman is gunned…
Cuts and boosts
Last time we checked our résumés, none of the crew here at News Hits was claiming to have an MBA from Wharton (at least not legitimately), so it’s not like we’re exactly qualified to question the moves being made by all those highly paid executives calling the shots for the Detroit News and Free Press.…
Derby distaff rules!
The plot is simultaneously up-to-the-minute hip and weirdly anachronistic. Teenager Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is pushed hard by her loving but inflexible mom (Marcia Gay Harden) to be a beauty queen. Bliss wants something more than her podunk Texas town can offer, so she rebels by joining an underdog roller derby team in nearby Austin.…
Forgotten election
With a state-appointed emergency financial manager in charge of money and a mayor wanting eventual control of the district, why worry about a Detroit Board of Education election this November? Mainly because it ensures some sort of locally elected representation and would check the "absolute" power of the financial manager, the candidates say. "I don’t…
Stars and stripes forever
Michael Moore is pissed. After two decades of tilting at corporate windmills, the nation’s most incendiary filmmaker is tired of sprinkling lighter fluid on the problem and reaches for his flamethrower, and in doing so offers a valedictory address for his entire, brilliant, scandalous career. His latest work is less reliant on stunts but more…
To have and withhold
Q: My partner and I have a dilemma. We’re a straight couple. Our lives and finances are intertwined, and we are already essentially living as a married couple. Now we want to hold a ceremony with family and friends to make public the commitment we’ve already made privately. That said, we are in favor of marriage…
The Invention of Lying
Ricky Gervais concocts a world where everyone speaks the blunt, often ugly, truth. So you get simple realities such as, “Your baby is so ugly it looks like a little rat.” It’s where nobody tells lies. With no lying, there’s no fantasy, so all movies are drab historical documentaries, and pudgy loser Mark Bellison slaves…
Smoothed out: Zonjic on the demise of V98.7
“I’ve been around long enough to know that every format seems to have a shelf life,” longtime morning DJ Alexander Zonjic mused philosophically the other day. And with the smooth jazz format hitting its expiration date nationally, the demise of WVMV-FM, V98.7, was no surprise. Friday afternoon, the station signaled the shift by following a…
