New billboard reminds public ‘DETROIT IS THE BIRTHPLACE OF TECHNO MUSIC’

Production company Paxahau has removed and replaced the Movement billboard that stood at the Russell Industrial Center advertising the festival year-round to drivers along I-75. We’d occasionally debated with vehicle passengers whether the annual three-day event necessitated an advertisement that stood in the same place 365 days a year. This writer had argued yes, as…

Julia Child-inspired French Bistro opens today near Ann Arbor

James Beard-award winning chef Alex Young opens his new Julia Child-inspired French Bistro just outside of Ann Arbor today. As we previously noted in our preview of the restaurant, The Standard Bistro & Larder, Young’s new project is especially exciting because there’s a dearth of quality French cooking in southeast Michigan and James Beard-caliber chefs.…

Detroit Public School students shine in annual art exhibition at DIA

You know what they say — children are the future. This idiom is best illustrated by the 81st Detroit Public Schools Community District Student Exhibition. Despite massive cuts to Detroit’s public school art programs, artistic students persevere with the support of the exemplary teachers working tirelessly to encourage self-expression. Explorations of imagination and visions of…

Tool is bringing its Music Clinic to the Royal Oak Music Theatre in May

Earlier today, rock act Tool announced the dates for its Music Clinic, an “Immersive Dissection” that promises “a rare glimpse behind-the-scenes.” The limited dates includes a May 16 stop at the Royal Oak Music Theatre. Drummer Danny Carey, bassist Justin Chancellor, and guitarist Adam Jones will discuss the band’s songwriting process and then perform the songs live.…

Tunde Olaniran summed up the Flint water crisis in one perfect tweetstorm

Last week, Gov. Rick Snyder announced that due to decreasing levels of lead in Flint’s water supply, the state would cease sending the city bottled water once current supplies run out. Yay! Crisis over, right? Wrong. Tunde Olaniran, a Flint-based musical artist, isn’t buying the governor’s cheerfully delivered news. He launched into a twitterstorm in the…

Ferndale’s Voyager named one of America’s top 10 restaurants

Food & Wine magazine says Ferndale seafood restaurant Voyager is among the nation’s top 10 restaurants. The national outlet’s list of top spots will be in an issue that hits newsstands on April 13. Restaurateur Eli Boyer (who helped launch Corktown’s Gold Cash Gold) and chefs Justin Tootla and Jennifer Jackson opened the restaurant in…

Mabel Gray’s James Rigato revives Doug’s Delight ice cream parlor

Just about every small town in Michigan has a beloved summertime ice cream shack where the community gathers for frozen treats during the summer months. For decades, Doug’s Delight was that spot in Hazel Park. It traded in soft-serve ice cream and comfort food at the corner of John R Road and West Annabelle Avenue,…

Settlement in Flint case will result in screenings and treatment for students

Attorneys representing students at Flint schools have reached an agreement  with the Michigan Department of Education, Genesee Intermediate School District and Flint Community Schools to establish a new universal screening program that uses in-depth assessments when needed for all Flint children who were exposed to lead, a potent neurotoxin, by the Flint water crisis. The suit…

At last, Stormy Daniels will perform in Detroit on Wednesday

Who would have thought a porn star would be more poised than the Secretary of Education while being grilled during a 60 Minutes interview? Such is the case with Stormy Daniels. In the wake of revelations of an alleged affair and cover-up with President Donald Trump, Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) will take to the…

Corktown cafe Folk opens on Wednesday

The owners of Corktown’s The Farmer’s Hand specialty grocer are preparing to open a new cafe next door to their shop. Kiki Louya and Rohani Foulkes will present the space, called Folk, on Wednesday when they host an all day brunch. Folk writes on its Facebook page that its menu will offer “globally inspired yet…

In search of Detroit’s worst potholes

Voting season has officially ended for Metro Times’ annual Best of Detroit poll, but because it’s still pothole season, we’ve decided to add one last category: The best (worst) pothole in metro Detroit. Dear readers, we need your help. While construction crews have started doing their thing, time is of the essence. Let’s remember the…

Unlikely duo 311 and The Offspring co-headline tour headed to Freedom Hill

Get your chakras’ shit together and warm up that dab rig because beloved barefoot ‘n chill sextet 311 is coming to Freedom Hill on Tuesday, August 14 and they’re bringing low self-esteem poster children The Offspring along for the ride. The two ’90s favorites will co-headline the 29-city “Never-Ending Summer Tour” with opening act Gym Class Heroes…

Masonic Temple to undergo $3.7 million renovation

Big changes are in store for one of Detroit’s most iconic historic landmarks. The Masonic Temple will undergo a $3.7 million renovation that is slated to be completed by the end of this year. It’ll be the first time the building has undergone a comprehensive spruce-up since 1990. Crain’s reports that $2.5 million will fund renovations…

Three kids shot in Detroit in just over 48 hours

We’re now up to three kids shot in Detroit in a little over two days. The first victim, a 7-year-old boy, was hit by a stray bullet late Thursday night while he was tucked away in his home on Detroit’s east side. The culprit — angered by a love triangle, police said — had pumped…

Ted Nugent, who has no soul, suggests Democrats should be shot like coyotes

Right-wing wackadoodle Ted Nugent just can’t stop saying right-wing wackadoodle shit. On Friday, the Nuge appeared on the right-wing wackadoodle show InfoWars to issue an incoherent barb against, well, pretty much everyone. Here’s Nugent’s call for what sounds like an awful lot like an American jihad, per Media Matters: Don’t ask why. Just know that…

Detroit City FC returns on Saturday

Detroit soccer fans, rejoice: Grassroots sensations Detroit City FC returns to Hamtramck’s Keyworth Stadium on Saturday, April 14. No mere “beer league” (although, yes, there is plenty of beer), DCFC keeps getting bigger and bigger since it was founded in 2012, drawing crowds of between 5,000 to 7,000 enthusiastic, smoke-bomb wielding hooligans and facing off against…

Trump’s trade war would hit one-time ally GM

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports could hurt a one-time Trump ally: General Motors. On Tuesday, Trump announced more tariffs on Chinese products, including a 25-percent tariff on Chinese-made automobiles. The move, however, wouldn’t harm China’s domestic auto companies because they don’t sell very many cars in North America. General Motors, however, does produce…

Good news, everybody: Flint’s all better now!

A message from the Snyder administration confirms that, due to decreasing levels of lead in Flint city water, the city’s residents will stop receiving bottled water when current supplies run out. A message from the governor himself read: “I have said all along that ensuring the quality of the water in Flint and helping the…

Michigan regulators deal Larry Nassar largest fine in department history

Michigan regulators have fined Larry Nassar $1 million and taken the formal step of permanently revoking the convicted sexual predator’s medical license. The Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Department issued a statement Friday announcing the fine, calling it the largest to ever be issued by a health professional or occupational board with the department. Nassar…

Southwest Detroit’s Pepe Z Pizza reboots as El Club Pizza

Southwest Detroit brick-oven pizzamaker Pepe Z is now El Club Pizza. El Club owner Graeme Flegenheimer tells Metro Times that Matt Ziolkowski — aka Pepe Z — is no longer with the venue, and Flegenheimer is relaunching the brand as El Club Pizza. What will that mean for Pepe Z fans who check out El Club Pizza for…

This metro Detroit burger was just named one of the country’s best

So what if the Red Wings and Tigers stink this year. Metro Detroit has something even better to celebrate: A damn good burger. That’s according to Thrillist, which scored Dearborn’s Miller’s Bar as home to one of America’s top 31 hamburgers. Describing the stacked masterpiece, one of their burger critics writes: “A perfectly cooked medium burger…

The Democratic race to replace Bill Schuette just got even tighter

A former U.S. attorney appointed by Obama has picked up a key endorsement in the Democratic race for attorney general, further tightening a battle between a centrist and progressive with just a week to go until the Democrat endorsement convention. The UAW threw its support behind candidate Pat Miles Thursday. The other leading Democrat candidate…

Rumor mill: H&M heading to downtown Detroit

Detroit fans of fast-fashion brand H&M are in luck, as the company could open a downtown location in the near future. At least that’s according to Crain’s Detroit Business, which reports today that three sources say the Swedish-based company is scouting the city for its first Detroit store. Aside from that, scant details are available. But…

Petition against $1 billion gas plant left at DTE’s doorstep

Environmentalists have given DTE Energy an illustration of the opposition to the company’s plans to build a billion-dollar gas plant on the St. Clair River, delivering a petition signed by 10,000 of DTE Energy’s customers to the company’s headquarters in Detroit. At a news conference ahead of the demonstration Thursday, representatives of Michigan environmental groups…

CMU student accused of killing parents found incompetent to stand trial

A Central Michigan University student accused of killing his parents in a shooting on the Mount Pleasant campus last month has reportedly been found incompetent to stand trial. James Davis Jr. was deemed unfit for trial on March 23, according to MLive. The news outlet reports that it spoke with Davis’ court-appointed lawyer. The 19-year-old is…

A rare opportunity to see Eastside Elvis punk out tomorrow night

They’ve played for years, and they always seem to let us know they’re playing approximately 20 hours before a gig. Which means that, outside of gigs at local festivals, it’s hard to get the advance notice to write about the group in a weekly. But today, having heard they’ll be opening for female-fronted punk group…

Hazel Park Raceway closes after nearly 70 years of horse racing

Hazel Park Raceway has closed after nearly 70 years of horse racing. The track cited ongoing financial problems in a news release sent out Thursday morning. The first signs of the closure came yesterday, when the track reportedly sent horses away on their ship-in day. “Over the past 25 years, the gaming industry has dramatically…

Phoenicia owners are planning a new Capitol Park restaurant

The family behind the Phoenicia and Forest are planning a new casual dining concept in downtown Detroit’s Capitol Park. The Free Press reports that the Eid family will open Leila on the ground and mezzanine levels of the historic Farwell Building. The mezzanine will hold a private dining space, and patio seating will be available during warmer weather.…

We now know who gave Mike Posner a pill in Ibiza

On his 2015 hit “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” Mike Posner recounts the time he did exactly that: “I took a pill in Ibiza/ To show Avicii I was cool/ And when I finally got sober, felt 10 years older/ But fuck it, it was something to do.” But beyond those autobiographical details, we did not know…

Nolan the Ninja gets sensual on ‘Phoenix’

We’re used to Nolan the Ninja dropping so many bars that he could make Alcatraz look like the Mayberry County Jail. But in the romantic and melodic “Phoenix,” the Detroit-born emcee has slowed and smoothed down his flow. The vibe of the track is reminiscent of Slum Village’s “Climax,” and Nolan shows he can be…

Former Ford employee wins $16.8 million in discrimination lawsuit

Faisal Khalaf, a former engineer at Ford of Lebanese descent, was awarded $16.8 million after suing his former employer and two supervisors for multiple instances of discriminatory treatment based on his accent and Arab background. “There was a high-level executive at Ford Motor Co. that my client reported to … that would berate him and…

College sports fans keep making fun of the Flint water crisis

It seems plenty of college sports fans have what can only be very generously described as a sophomoric sense of humor. Once again, an overzealous fan used the Flint water crisis as the punch line to a joke while making banners taunting the Wolverines. This time, at least one supporter of Philadelphia’s Villanova Wildcats cracked…

‘Hamilton’ is coming to Detroit

Get ready to kick it back to 1776 — the historical hip-hop sensation Hamilton is coming to Detroit. Since its debut in 2015, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning biography of founding father Alexander Hamilton has been one of the hottest (and priciest) tickets in town. Hell, even cancellation lines have become their own right of passage. Now, Detroit…

Little Caesars gave away more than 1 million pizzas on Monday

Little Caesars gave away more than 1 million pizzas and Pepsi products during a 1.5-hour span on Monday afternoon, Crain’s reports. The free pizzas were a part of its March Madness promotion, in which the company said it would offer a Hot-N-Ready deep dish lunch combo for free if a No. 16 seed upset a No.…

Review: Detroit’s City Bakery serves up hearty concoctions

My friend and I had low expectations for City Bakery, which we assumed was basically a coffee shop. We settled on a geezer-hour visit, an early supper that would give us time to get to the Main Library’s geezer-hour jazz series (third Tuesdays — not to be missed if you think jazz can be enjoyed…

Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ is delightfully disobedient

If you Google “does Wes Anderson hate dogs?” you will find several cinematic examples that might suggest the answer is a resounding “yes.” In The Royal Tenenbaums, the family dog Buckley is killed by a coked-out Owen Wilson. Snoopy meets his demise by means of bow and arrow in Moonrise Kingdom. And Jeff Goldblum’s character…

We really are in mortal danger

We are in serious peril of being sucked into or maybe actively and aggressively starting a war — maybe even a nuclear one. That’s no exaggeration. We also are seriously risking plunging our economy into ruin, thanks to the impulses coming from our badly messed up, bizarrely immature, and possibly deranged leader. For nearly a…

Indie demigod Ty Segall on his delightfully schizophrenic double record

Everyone is quick to call Ty Segall “prolific,” and only now is the unofficial prophet of psychedelia learning to accept it. This assessment isn’t completely off base, though, considering the 30-year-old multi-instrumentalist and master of fuzz recently released his tenth album in 10 years, the double LP Freedom’s Goblin — a frenzied dive into his…

Horoscopes (April 4-10)

ARIES: March 21 – April 20 Everything is on its way up. The last few years have held you in a state of tension that has kept you on tenterhooks, wondering which way the chips will fall. Those closest to you have been up and down but at the moment they seem 100 percent ready…

Savage Love: Royal Oak Music Theatre

I visited Royal Oak, Michigan, for Savage Love Live at the Royal Oak Music Theatre. I didn’t get to all of the questions submitted by the large and tipsy crowd — a crowd that skipped the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes to spend the evening with me (so honored, you guys!) — so I’m…

Professional athletes cop to pot

Who is your pick for the most courageous Detroit Lion? This week, running back Mike James gets my vote. On Sunday, James will join a panel of professional athletes in Ann Arbor discussing their use of medical marijuana as part of the annual Hash Bash activities. What makes James courageous is that he is an…


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