Remembering DeShaun “Proof” Holton Tonight at the Shelter
Today is the fifth anniversary of the passing of Detroit hip-hop legend DeShaun “Proof” Holton. As many local music fans painfully remember, the veteran emcee was shot and killed in the early hours of April 11, 2006 during an argument at the C.C.C. nightclub on the city’s East Side. While the details of that night…
Can’t Tell the Players With the Program as ‘Law & Order: Los Angeles’ Returns
A footnote in television history will be written Monday night at 9 when Law & Order: Los Angeles returns to NBC (Channel 4 in Detroit) with a two-hour episode – and a totally revamped cast. While NBC will never admit its mistake in prematurely canceling the original Law & Order last May after 20 seasons,…
New Quelle Video — “The Loop” Feat Utopia High
One of the Detroit-bred hip-hop artist that is starting to gain the most attention outside of the city is Quelle. He’s one of Danny Brown’s chief producers (that’s his beat on “Guitar Solo”) and is part of the Crown Nation family. Although Quelle is based in California these days, like so many other Detroit hip-hop…
Dirtbombs, Flying Lotus, Little Dragon, Monolake added to Movement lineup
In its third and final (we think) round of announcements for this year’s Movement Festival, Paxahau has saved the most inspired booking for last. Yes, we’re talking about the double-bass ‘n’ drums attack of the Dirtbombs, heading by vocalist-guitarist Mick Collins, a pioneer of ’80s garage rock who also had a fancy for the electronic…
Movement inspirations: Now let’s have a party
In its third and final (we think) round of announcements for this year’s Movement Festival, Paxahau has saved the most inspired booking for last. Yes, we’re talking about the double-bass ‘n’ drums attack of the Dirtbombs, heading by vocalist-guitarist Mick Collins, a pioneer of ’80s garage rock who also had a fancy for the electronic…
Your Highness
Your Highness GRADE: B- Where else will you see a fully engorged, hump-crazy Minotaur on a rampage? This prolonged assault on good taste is initially shocking, then dull, and then ultimately wears down your prudishness like that goofy kid making armpit fart noises on a school bus ride. Written by and starring the potty-mouthed Danny…
Arthur
Arthur GRADE: C- Those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, as the saying goes, which is especially true of voracious studio execs with a release calendar to fill and a dearth of new script ideas. The original Arthur dropped in 1981 when America was in the throes of a recession, and a somewhat…
Hanna
Hanna GRADE: C+ Despite Joe Wright’s highfalutin pedigree (he directed Atonement and The Soloist), Hanna is exactly the kind of slick, nonsensical middlebrow entertainment he should be spending his time on. More stylist than storyteller, Wright’s a filmmaker who revels in metaphorical subtext and self-consciously arty surfaces while uncritically leaving the narrative mechanics to his…
1 Woodward rail line (not 2) slated to open in 2015 (not 2013)
The Woodward Light Rail train line won’t open until 2015 — two years after the 2013 date that city and federal officials have touted. But when it runs, it will carry riders all the way from Jefferson Avenue to the city limits at Eight Mile Road, and construction will still begin in earnest next year.…
The Motor City’s Burning: from Hooker to Stevie to Coffey to Iggy to Funkadelic to the Volbeats
Radio Free Detroit! Willy Wilson’s The Motor City is Burning on CJAM 99.1 FM airs each Wednesday night from 6:30-8 p.m. Wilson’s a music head to be sure and he’s been a fan of the Detroit sound since he was a sprout. He spins great shit, like a Rodney Peel mashup or somethin’. For proof,…
Blogger John is Journalist of the Year, and other MT wins at SPJ
It was good night for Metro Times at the annual awards dinner Wednesday of the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The big win: Detroitblogger John took the journalist of the year award. Detroitblogger — real name John Carlisle, and an editor for the C&G Newspapers for his day job — impressed the…
This is what a Wye Oak looks like
Wye Oak’s new record Civilian (Merge Records) has already been met with a heap ton of critical praise and will certainly be on a slew of best of 2011 lists. They’re playing the Magic Stick Lounge this Friday April 8th – go see them! That way, when they’re all huge famous Grammy winners and the…
Making musical history at Art X: Tribe reunion & more
With Art X beginning with its opening reception tonight and the full-blown festivities tomorrow, you may be overwhelmed already with the myriad options. (All of them free, we’ll underscore, and listed at artxdetroit.com; be sure to check for any last-minute changes.) Who knows what folks will be talking about after the fest, but we’d be…
More billboard adventures in the skin trade!
Another sex pistol or freedom of expression questioned yet again? OK, perhaps this ain’t exactly an issue of Mapplethorpian proportion, but many of us think that barely exploitative images of women and men on billboards outside adult establishments ought to be allowed, ’cause, well, such images are not exactly new, are they? This digit believes…
The team’s team
Manager Jim Leyland, the coaching staff and the players have to worry about the hitting, catching and throwing. The Tigers front office staff has to worry about everything else. Players’ contracts, the shade and thickness of the grass on the playing field, what Tigers clothes fans can buy, what souvenir giveaways they get at certain…
Lighting the way
"The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion is all around. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." Those words, spoken decades ago, could have been uttered yesterday. They came from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and were delivered April 3, 1968, one…
Mr. Chief – Assuming Power
Mr. Chief – Assuming Power Independent Redford’s Mr. Chief had to move to South Florida to see his hard work pay off. Be glad he did. Assuming Power showcases Chief’s personal growth as an emcee and his growing ability to craft songs. His knack for tight punch lines never went unnoticed, and here he spits…
A team to remember
Fifty years later, the Detroit Tigers of 1961 — men now in their 70s and 80s — have not forgotten the season that slipped away. It might have been an immortal year. After all, the team won as many regular-season games — 101 — as any Detroit team to that point. But, instead, it has…
The woman who replaced Hank Aaron
Never let it be said that baseball is "just a game," at least as it relates to Toni Stone. For Stone to step into the batter’s box or make a play at second base was to overcome overwhelming racist and sexist obstacles that existed in mid-20th century America — baseball no exception. Jim Crow was…
Frozen in time
Baseball home openers, with all the hot dogs, hot chocolate and hot corner clamor, stay with you for years. Like when I saw the Yankees edging the Tigers 2-1, April 6, 1987, despite Larry Herndon’s colossal 500-foot blast soaring over my silent scream into the Tiger Stadium upper deck bleachers. The game on Opening Day…
For the Love of the Name
With this year’s Tiger spring training roster including such a great name as Charlie Furbush, now seems a fitting occasion to look back on some of the most delightfully unusual names ever to grace a Tiger uniform. According to an informal office poll, here they are. Boom-Boom Beck Pitcher, 1944 Red Cox Pitcher, 1920 Snooks…
Come-ons and turn-offs
Q: I came out as trans-something-slash-genderqueer three years ago. I was born male but live my life predominately as female. I’m 25 now. Coming out involved accepting that it would complicate my ever finding someone. I haven’t dated since. My problem: Today, a guy my age asked me out while making me a sandwich in…
Hash Bash No. 40
There were googobs of people out at the 40th annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash on Saturday, the celebration of all things cannabis. One news report I saw put the number of revelers at 6,000. I’m not sure how that number was calculated, but I say there were googobs of people who defied the chilly weather…
Spun
FRIGHT FROM THE BINS Telly Telly Savalas (MCA) 1974 People astonished about Charlie Sheen’s current megalomaniacal makeup, calling himself a "Vatican assassin warlock," "a bitchin’ rock star from Mars," the drinker of "Tiger Blood" and the carrier of "Adonis DNA" ought to remember that there’s at least one celebrity whorehouse where he clearly checked his…
Friends in D’d
Struggle isn’t an unfamiliar concept in these parts. So when a fellow Detroiter asks for help, the call rarely goes unanswered. No matter how tough things get, there’s always time and dime for a pal in need. Take Drew Podgorski, for example. The former frontman and guitarist with area punk bands Just Ask and Running…
Motor City Five
Richie Hawtin It has been more than two decades since electronic music legend Richie Hawtin ventured from the suburbs of Windsor, Ontario, crossed the Detroit River, and changed the sound and perception of global techno. In that time, Hawtin, who’s now 40, which is hard to believe, is seen as the king of second-wave techno…
Save Freedom House
I’ve often written about Freedom House, the nonprofit, nonpolitical place that exists to provide shelter for those victims of persecution seeking political asylum in the United States and Canada. There is nothing else quite like it. Over the years they’ve saved hundreds, maybe thousands, of victims and help them start new lives in this country…
Communal creativity
That’s Kresge Foundation President Rip Rapson describing the Kresge Arts in Detroit (KAID) initiative at its onset, two years ago. Painter and sculptor Charles McGee had just been named KAID’s first "Eminent Artist," receiving a fat, no-strings-attached check for $50,000. Soon after, 18 visual artists, including Tyree Guyton, Cedric Tai, Kristin Beaver, Senghor Reid and…
Detroit does Detroit
Nobody loves Detroit bands more than other Detroit bands — and what better way to show it than a night of bands covering their favorite local acts. It was an evening full of delights, surprises, fake blood, drag and no Charlie Sheen. Laura: First and foremost, I would like to say how happy I am…
Of Gods and Men
Of Gods and Men GRADE: B+ "The Good Shepherd doesn’t abandon his flock to the wolves." —Of Gods and Men For a nation that swears by its Christianity, it amazes me how frugally that righteousness is wielded. While many on the hard religious right speak long and loud of sinful things they see in others,…
Cheat Code
Dragon Age 2 Electronic Arts Several surprises popped out and changed my entire perspective on this RPG bad boy, and the party-combat system is one that completely got me. No more of that flying-solo nonsense we see in modern-day single-player RPG’s, now we can switch between members of our party all through the game and…
Deep-dish delights
Michigo Pizza 255 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale 248-439-6195 A restaurant’s name ought to be easy to pronounce — you don’t want people feeling any subconscious inhibition about talking it up to their friends. I was stumped by "Michigo," with the middle three letters written in red. Was it mi-SHIH-go, prompting thoughts of meshuga (Yiddish…
Los Lonely Boys – Rockpango
Los Lonely Boys – Rockpango Playing in Traffic The brothers who engineered the inescapable adult contemporary hit "Heaven" have leaped to a smaller label and attempted to reframe themselves on this album, the packaging says, as "mean." But "confused" is a better word for hollow sentiments such as "Lately things are really crazy in the…
Food Stuff
Get roped in — The Culinary Studies Institute at Oakland Community College is hosting its first-ever Western barbecue and hand-crafted beer tasting. Executive chef Doug Ganhs will pair a five-course meal of authentic Western ‘cue with the artisanal suds of Ballew’s Basement Brew. Live entertainment will include a calf-roping demonstration, an old-time Western saloon, and…
Inge Season
It’s probably unholy this week to ask Brandon Inge what he’d be doing if he weren’t a baseball player. "I’m not sure," he haltingly answers. "Probably something in extreme sports." Not that the Detroit Tigers third baseman doesn’t use the quickness, balance and strength he’d need as, say, a ski racer, mountain biker or, dare…
Letters to the Editor
Brainwashed nation In "We should be ashamed" (March 16), Jack Lessenberry is absolutely correct in his assessment of our current culture and political state. He has articulated something that I’ve thought about for years but was unable to place into appropriate words. Am I losing sleep over the current state of affairs? Yes, I am!…
‘Goin’ to the Chapel and we’re gonna get married … WTF?
We’d likely have an advanced physical ideal of ourselves if walking became part of Motor City culture. But we live in a city where it’s pretty humiliating to stroll basically anywhere. Traffic rattles nerves of pedestrians and besides, the streets are designed for the comfort of your car, not you, and most folks would object…
