Aghast over pipe
Federal regulators have given their environmental stamp of approval to a proposed natural gas pipeline that critics say would damage woods, wetlands and water bodies across Michigan. The environmental impact statement, issued April 2 by the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), will be used by the commission when deciding whether Vector Pipeline…
A geisha’s life
As captured by MOT, Butterfly is a passionate specimen….
Philly backs down
Supporters of internationally known death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal celebrated a victory recently when Philadelphia city officials reversed themselves to allow thousands of participants to join in a rally and march set for Saturday. Prior to last week’s reversal, the coalition of 500 groups organizing the event vowed to rally en masse despite a permit…
Mechanicollusion
Finnish duo Pan Sonic work the electronic buffer between the academy and the dance floor….
Artist Review of Audrey Becker
I had the opportunity to see her – and she had a cold and her voice was an octave lower and it was a miserable night weather-wise and she still absolutely blew me away…
Prerelease tension
It’s time to shut our eyes and use the force. For the next month, we’ll be crossing a highly charged territory filled with popular culture land mines, and the goal is to arrive at our destination unscathed. "What the hell are you going on about?" asks the Lizard of Fun, dusting off its old Boba…
Y2K-proof techno
Detroit techno third-waver Sean Deason has been one of the few purveyors of the 313 soundtrack-soul beatscapes to venture out of the usual 140 BPM formulas of the Detroit sound. On his new stellar (literally) full-length Allegory & Metaphor on his Matrix label, Deason makes the point in no uncertain terms. While some of the…
What the hell are we doing?
Do you realize what is happening? While you are reading these words, intelligent, highly trained Americans are deliberately bombing a small nation in Europe, killing and maiming thousands of people. We are not, officially, at war with Yugoslavia. They have not declared war on us. But we are bombing them. We have been doing this,…
Metroland
Two new British films, Metroland and Hideous Kinky, are based on novels – by Julian Barnes and Esther Freud respectively – which examine familiar topics in English literature through a more contemporary lens. Familial obligation vs. personal fulfillment, the rigid conformity of British life vs. the alluring emotional thaw of other cultures, and the price…
Pitch’d
WILL YOU JOIN ME PLEASE IN WELCOMING Off the air since a falling-out with WJLB last fall, ghetto-tech jock extraordinaire Gary Chandler is back doing his pitched-up, scratch-happy mix. Friday nights he’s returned to WJLB (FM 97.9), spinning live from new hot spot Studio 95 in Highland Park, while Saturday nights his mix show is…
Mighty Peking Man
A brief history of the Midnight Movie is probably much more interesting than a plot summary of Mighty Peking Man. In fact, those who – for some strange reason – sat patiently through Mighty Joe Young, already know the plot: Blond, drop-dead gorgeous young woman controls – affectionately – enormous gorilla that will find itself…
Food Stuff
TASTEFUL READING I enjoy reading both novels and recipes, but I especially enjoy reading novels with recipes in them. Almost all my favorite novelists write about food. Most of the time food isn’t the theme, but it plays a supporting part and always makes novels more readable. The great Chinese romance, The Dream of the…
Goodbye Lover
Initially, it seems as if screenwriter Ron Peer and director Roland Joffé have concocted Goodbye Lover as a tongue-in-cheek film noir set in a world where image is everything. The femme fatale, Sandra Dunmore (Patricia Arquette), memorizes self-improvement tapes and sells high-end real estate while her brother-in-law and enthusiastic lover, Ben (Don Johnson), is a…
Land of dreams
The "city that care forgot" is known as the birthplace of jazz, hometown of Louis Armstrong, center of a thriving carnival tradition, and source of savory Creole and Cajun cuisines. The locality in question is, of course, the grand city of New Orleans, a place that seduces with the promise of a surfeit of sensual…
Hideous Kinky
Two new British films, Metroland and Hideous Kinky, are based on novels – by Julian Barnes and Esther Freud respectively – which examine familiar topics in English literature through a more contemporary lens. Familial obligation vs. personal fulfillment, the rigid conformity of British life vs. the alluring emotional thaw of other cultures, and the price…
Downward nobility
Karl Hyde, the 40-ish poet laureate of the UK dance-cum-rock outfit Underworld wants to talk. Which is good, considering his band’s new album, Beaucoup Fish, has been co-opted by the United States dance music press as a next-big-thing. The hype has landed the incongruous trio of Hyde (lyricist and onetime Blondie guitarist), programmer Rick Smith…
Life
While wrapping up production on The Nutty Professor, Eddie Murphy had a thought: What if two guys who barely know each other go to prison for life and – 60 years later – manage to escape? “A big prison escape film – but with comedy,” says Murphy, proud of the intriguing concept but, apparently, unaware…
Loco-mation
I’m going to breathe deeply now and type words I never thought would fly from my fingers: Damn the Simpsons! Damn them, damn them, damn them! The little yellow-orange four-fingered freaks have made my television viewing a remote-control hell. I’ve felt like a member of the Simpson family for years now: I was there when…
Motivating the movement
If you want a sense of the challenges organized labor faces today, look at the glossy magazine ad with the handsome young man in the striped dress shirt and red tie. Hands in his pockets, a smile on his face, basking in Madison’s Avenue’s best imitation of Rembrandt lighting, he’s carefree and prosperous. "Roll up…
Virtually historic
Encarta Africana edited by Henry Louis Gates and Kwame Anthony Appiah Microsoft, CD-ROM, $69.95 Multiculturalism has gone multimedia. Encarta Africana, an interactive CD-ROM encyclopedia recently released by Microsoft, documents much of the African diaspora, both past and present. With eye-catching graphics and more than 5,500 articles, photos, videos, audio clips and maps, it offers more…
Or Maybe She Ain’t All That
As much as I’m all for the young feminist voice, I’m more than a little resistant to letting the superlatives rip about the critics’ hottest rock babes who demand respect. Whether they’re being accused of being revolutionary poets or ripping out jugular veins with their angst-driven musical superpowers, I wonder if even they can take…
WDFN, “The Pan”
The balls are in the air: The big red one of stupidity, like a clown’s nose defying common sense, the snarly green one of misogyny, and the crystal ball of true sports expertise. WDFN-AM (1130) keeps all of them levitated, as if choosing just one to play with would involve some kind of wimp-out. Now…
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Rosalyn Tureck has devoted her long career to Bach’s music, but her critics, while lauding her exquisite playing, have also justifiably faulted her coolly deliberate, almost antiseptic approach. However, on this recording, Tureck’s style is leavened considerably. She bends the rhythms almost playfully, and her musical line is clean without being dry or academic. She…
Laboring on
Unlike fine wine, the years haven’t done much mellowing at Labor Notes. Even after two decades of raising Cain in union circles, the in-your-face bristle still leaps from the pages of this scrappy newsletter. Look back 20 years, when Labor Notes published its first issue out of cramped offices in the back hallway of a…
Not a Lemon in the House
It’s been about seven years since their last record, and here come XTC with layers of enduring majestic pop, unfolding on rich orchestral tones – the London Session Orchestra’s, to be exact. So lay aside all bad-comeback phobias, because XTC is so smooth, melodic and ageless, one would think the band had never missed a…
Rites of war
Air-raid sirens scream nightly in Belgrade. Serbian troops continue their attacks in Kosovo. The Balkans are awash with refugees. The civilian death toll mounts. This nation faces murky questions of war and peace, and answers that no one wants to face. Social critic and author Barbara Ehrenreich examined war and warriors in her most recent…
Criminal probe
The collapse of MCA Financial Corp. continues to send shock waves throughout metro Detroit, unsettling thousands of renters and mortgage holders with questions about their future. On Monday, Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm’s office said the collapse has also triggered a criminal investigation. Caught in limbo are people such as Cathy Burgess, who fears fallout…
Crackdown on pot
Any flashes of paranoia floating through the annual Hash Bash earlier this month might rightly have been described as drug influenced – but they were not delusions. Someone really does want to bring more heat down on Ann Arbor’s pot smokers. Her name is Bev Hammerstrom, a Republican state senator from Temperance. Abandoning the usual…
