“A LOVE SUPREME”
The lineup for the 29th annual Detroit International Jazz Festival — which runs this year from Friday, August 29th through Monday, September 1st, at Hart Plaza — was announced this morning at a press conference. Subtitled “A Love Supreme: The Philly/Detroit Summit,” the 2008 festival — the largest free fest of its kind in the…
Manifest cuteness
Several years back, James Kochalka created what by rights should’ve been the last Hulk comic ever made. A gloomy but cartoony version of the green-skinned giant slogs through the mud as a torrential storm rains down on him. “Go ahead and rain on Hulk,” he tells the sky. “You think Hulk care? Rain nothing to…
The freaks are out again
It’s been 18 years since this Detroit-born funk-jazz-pop-art collective released its last album — and the world’s grown a whole lot crazier during that time, especially America over the last eight years. All of which is perfect fodder for David Was’s surrealistic, quasi-political, downright insane lyrics, which almost never fail to portray a universe in…
Ho-hum, again
Perhaps it should’ve been a tip-off as to how disorganized this thing was going to be when the old dude called Metro Times at 4 p.m. the day of the show, said he’d just read on our blog that he was nominated “for a couple of awards” and wondered what he was supposed to do…
The Visitor
As Walter Vale, a numbed-to-the-world economics professor who hasn’t quite recovered from the death of his wife, Richard Jenkins returns to his long-neglected apartment only to find it occupied by “illegals” — Syrian Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira) — who’re victims of a real estate con. Sympathetic to their plight,…
Motor City Cribs
Dave Buick’s 1896 Woodbridge home has art and bloodstains.
Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
It could be that the title locale, for all its cutting-edge state-of-2003 relevance, is a surefire comedy-killer, and no matter how you spin it, racial profiling won’t beget gut-busting guffaws. The bad vibes begin when BFF Jersey grad students — straight-laced Harold Lee (John Cho) and wild card Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) — catch a…
Fired up
There aren’t hundreds of demonstrators marching through the streets of Detroit, carrying signs and shouting slogans. There are no daring activists scaling the Ambassador Bridge and the Renaissance Center to unfurl protest banners. And there are no marathon public hearings that attract overflow crowds of people willing to wait until the wee hours of the…
Young@Heart
Few things in this world could sound more depressing on paper than the prospect of a feature-length senior-citizen talent show. So consider it a triumph that Young@Heart overcomes it’s dauntingly cutesy premise — a doc about a chorus of old-timers singing punk, hip-hop and rock tunes — to succeed as both rousing entertainment and a…
It’s about the music, dude
AK Fest brings hi-fi-heads to Livonia.
French frighty
So, what makes Frontier(s) any different from torture porn churned out by overrated hacks like Eli Roth (Hostel)? Well, here’s where a short French history lesson may come in handy: In October and November of 2005, there were a series of large-scale riots in France that stemmed from the death of two teenagers who lived…
Are you experienced?
Cetan Clawson has an incredibly positive and powerful energy in person.The just-turned-20-year-old musician, who made his live debut in the sixth grade, has made a name for himself locally in the last two years by gigging constantly and displaying a guitar virtuosity and an onstage showmanship that belies his youth — at least in this…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY • 30 THE TEENAGERS NOT FOR THE JEFF BUCKLEY SET Nuance, it seems, is a thing of the past. There’s no mistaking the Teenagers of today with Frankie Lymon’s puppy loving doo-woppers — these French-accented, Devo-y popsters have a damn-it-to-hell perspective of courtship and cuteness. And subtlety. In their melodic pop ballads, they gleefully…
My Blueberry Nights
Blueberry centers on the malleable Elizabeth, who reflects different facets of her personality in diverse locales. (She’s alternately Lizzie, Betty and Beth.) Elizabeth would have made an excellent femme fatale, with an innate ability to draw strangers into her sphere, but Wong and his co-screenwriter, crime novelist Lawrence Block, have chosen another archetype: the innocent.…
On the Download
A new column, with tasty links.
Letters to the Editor
Hot and bothered For years I have wanted to live downtown but do not, because I know the health effects of mass-burn incineration. Thanks to Curt Guyette for the well-researched article (“The big burn,” Metro Times, April 2) on Detroit’s mass burner and the efforts of so many (including City Council member JoAnn Watson) to…
Couch Trip
13: Game of Death Dimension Extreme Don’t be misled by the generic, horror-torture-bloodlust box-cover art on 13: Game of Death, nor by the insipid tag line — “13 challenges. $100 million. What would you do?” — that sounds like a pitch for a network game show. What we have here is a little gem of…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Playing charades
If women want sex without head games, forget it.
Random riches
Okay, so what do we have going into this week’s ish? – Guyette’s second report in the ongoing incinerator series is in – Svoboda wrote about a Transgender woman whose church kicked her out – Lessenberry chimes in on Rev. Wright – Holdship profiled that Cetan Clawson kid – He also went to the Detroit…
Spin out
When a new business called Wheelhouse Detroit opens at the Rivard Plaza on the riverfront, it’ll be a landmark event for a handful of reasons. For one, it’s been more than 30 years since bike rentals were offered at a park or recreation area owned by the city of Detroit. That’s something. Friends of Belle…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Don’t drop that soap, it’s Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout #169! Ladyhawk — Shots (Jagjaguwar) :: I’m deeply offended by the back cover photo that shows four naked guys in a shower spitting water at each other. Real men would have butch-slapped it on the front. The Cansecos — Juices! (Upper Class) :: José, can you…
Wright and the truth
Controversial pastor is warm, smart as hell and deeply intellectual.
Feature player
David Samuels belongs to an increasingly rare species: journalists who can parachute into an unfamiliar corner of America, establish their bearings quickly and extract a compelling narrative at once universally recognizable and resonant with idiosyncratic particularities. Not only is the species endangered; if you follow media trend pieces, so is its habitat. The number of…
Lawyers? Oooh, scary
Producing local TV can be scary business. Wolfman Mac’s Nightmare Sinema, the ultra-campy, increasingly popular late-night blend of horrible horror movies and comedic shtick seen weekends on WMYD (Channel 20), has been taken off the air until midnight May 17 for what’s being called a complete retooling. And it appears the move was not completely…
The Good Life
As we’ve learned over the past 20 years or so, records made by the kids of famous musicians are always a crapshoot. On the one hand, we have those who could never live up to their legendary parents’ achievements, e.g. Julian Lennon, Dweezil Zappa, Jakob Dylan, and uh, Lisa Marie Presley. On the other hand,…
Hypochrists
Parishioner booted for being transgendered.
Transmiticate
Los Angeles-based L7 were Riot Grrls before the Riot Grrl movement existed. Though they never shied away from politics, supporting causes like Rock for Choice and Greenpeace, they never let it get in the way of slamming together punk and metal into a crashing good time. Twenty-three years after L7’s inception, singer-guitarist Donita Sparks is…
Pass the petitions, brethren
Churches get behind drive for guaranteed health care.
The Sky is Mine
A decade ago, Alpha was just another beat klatch with a girl singer and a penchant for moody, vaguely hip-hop songs, residing right alongside the now-forgotten likes of Lamb, Whale, Sneaker Pimps, Morcheeba, etc., etc. Then for 10 years the duo (Corin Dingley and Wendy Stubbs) made instrumental records and remixes, which might explain why…
And then bless us
MT series on questionable murder conviction earns honors.
Tiny, tasty
For a mini-state with fewer than 30,000 inhabitants, San Marino has made a lot of history. Founded in 301, it is the oldest republic in the world; its 400-year-old written constitution claims another longevity record, and its citizens once elected a government dominated by their communist party. With the opening in March of the Tre…
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Deception
When done right, cinematic sex can be pretty hot. But Deception, despite the hunky presence of Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman, doesn’t offer much originality. Working late one night, lonely corporate accountant Jonathan (McGregor) meets suave Wyatt (Jackman) and strikes up a friendship over a joint. Before long, he’s getting dragged to swank nightclubs and…
