Michigan Land Use Institute
This article is excerpted from the spring 2001 issue of the Great Lakes Bulletin, a publication of the Michigan Land Use Institute. The Michigan Land Use Institute is a 2,400-member, nonprofit organization that works to expose the costs of sprawling development and to promote alternatives to growth as usual. The Institute’s statewide Transportation and Land…
Saturday Looks Good to Me
Somewhere close to a dozen musicians make up this claustrophobic pop collective, playing everything from guitar to horns to sleigh bells. Featuring out-of-context, slightly political lyrics held together by an undeniably fun Motown undercurrent, you just … wanna … dance.
Homeowners scrub up after sprawl
A Dearborn Heights family deals with sewage in the basement.
Your music man
Detroit doesn’t sound like “Detroit” anymore, and Recloose (aka Matthew Chicoine) is a significant part of that phenomenon. While taking techno back to the bedroom in EPs and singles for Carl Craig’s Planet E, Recloose has, like his international Matt-peer Matthew Herbert, messed with the boundaries of house, techno, hip hop and jazz for beats…
The natural way
How various Rouge River watershed communities deal with cleanups and other preventative measures.
Sing it back
From its whispered beginnings in “You’re Unknown to Me,” Bodily Functions continues Matthew Herbert’s multigenre electronic experiments by plotting lyrical intensity with musical freedom in an attempt at teasing out the threads of love in the modern world. Shifting from vocalist Dani Siciliano’s strong but soft vocal lifts and lilts to the sampled rhythmic cornucopias…
Better MAD than dead
Does the Shrub’s limited missile shield program make sense? What about the anti-ballistic missile treaty we signed in 1972? Jack goes to respected nuclear physicist Al Saperstein for answers.
Bounce back
In characteristic accelerated Assault fashion, Jefferson Ave. throws a smorgasbord of hyper-speed beats, laid-back raps and wildcards into the air, watches them fall perfectly into place, shrugs its shoulders and deems it funky. This perceived nonformula is just what made DJ Assault’s past work so irresistible — those rushed simple rhymes, that crude production, that…
Sailors take warning
Listen to haunting tales of Southern gothicism as Melissa Swingle and Trailer Bride head straight into the red-sky storm. Also: Melissa Swingle of Trailer Bride and Tracee Miller of Blanche share the stage and the detroit contemporary’s gallery walls.
Raw-edge authenticity
Score one for the butt-rockin’ blues. Guitarist-vocalist Gary Moore has been stirring up big blue waves for a while now, and this, his most recent release, makes clear why. Moore has just enough raw edge in his voice to make you believe he knows a bit about what he’s singing. It’s not the kind of…
2Pacalypse now
Why was (and is) Tupac Shakur so important? He wasn’t an emissary, activist, policy maker or leader of some grand movement. Or was he?
Letters to the Editor
Dance to it I love the fact that Detroit’s culture engine is alive whether the natives know it or not. ("Motown on our minds," Metro Times, July 18-26) Why? Because a week ago I was at Area One, Jones Beach, N.Y. In the Ford Focus tent (which might have drawn its influence from the first…
Hungover at Tiffany’s
For at least a handful of folks, this is a really sooper-exciting release. See, Holly Golightly is just about as close as the garage-punk scene has to a diva. For the rest of us who are merely fans of great rock ’n’ roll prick up your ears. Singles Round-Up is a chronological collection of Golightly’s…
Love at first bite
Q: I am 18 years old and have been friends with a very beautiful young woman for about two years. The other day I went out with her and attempted to kiss her, at which time she threatened to bite me! What’s up with her? I have not hurt her in any way, nor is…
Mekka adds life
Featuring artists from Carl Craig to Roni Size, the Toronto-based mekka Electronic Music Festival sells community as brand name in the techno-marketing era.
Good songs sung well
Fuck saving rock ’n’ roll; Travis is concerned with the basics. In the Britpop wars that currently find Radiohead aping Autechre, these four Scots have responded to big expectations with the same unassuming stuff that made their sophomore effort, The Man Who, a million-seller: Bite-sized melancholia set to folkie guitar strums, alluring self-pity, confessional songs…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here’s a great way to nurture your astrological potential: Plunk yourself down in New Orleans for a week. The Big Easy is elegant and eccentric, just as you’re primed to be. It knows how to party with a more relaxed intensity than most places, also reflecting your current needs. There’s a…
Big fun, big wood
Stayin’ up all night at the new, gee-whiz-bang Detroit Science Center … strolling the fabulous, freaky 4th Street Fair … Entering show biz with Kathy McKee … & more.
I dare you
Why shouldn’t you call them jambands? I’ll tell you why. That one measly, two-syllable word is enough to reduce an ensemble of musicians, a lifetime of ambition and talent, miles of roads and buckets of sweat, to nothing, dust, a scowl of disgust. It is a magic word, a spice so piquant that a pinch…
Swept by religion
Good news for Christians: They are now not the only ones who look like reactionary boneheads when anyone uses their religion in a pop-culture context that doesn’t please them.
Lap dancing
Put on your best alias for upcoming shows from prime Powerbook innovator Robert Henke (aka Monolake) & pint-sized funkateer John Williams (aka Bileebob aka Jeckle) … plus more local electro-news.
Jump Tomorrow
Director Joel Hopkins takes a simple premise — a hesitant groom on his way to the altar — and fashions a sweet and charming pop art fable about the random nature of love. Delightfully subtle in its humor and big-hearted in its emotions, it’s a road movie about losing your inhibitions along the way.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here’s a great way to nurture your astrological potential: Plunk yourself down in New Orleans for a week. The Big Easy is elegant and eccentric, just as you’re primed to be. It knows how to party with a more relaxed intensity than most places, also reflecting your current needs. There’s a…
Long haul
Two long years later, MCA Financial’s mess is yet to be cleaned up….
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
This 26th anniversary rerelease of the British comedy sextet’s second feature is a mix of absurdist fantasy and period verisimilitude set in the randomly chosen year of 932. It wantonly blends a storybook Middle Ages, complete with brave knights and nympho-maidens, with a spectacularly grungy Ken Russell-esque one.
Elvis is everywhere
The King helps the homeless…
Buying justices
Got millions? You’ll need it to run for a spot on the Michigan Supreme Court….
Brother
Writer-director-star Takeshi “Beat” Kitano standard character is so cool as to make Clint Eastwood seem manic. This time he’s a Yakuza taking on Los Angeles street gangs and mob ruthlessness. Kitano’s films can only be judged in terms of their peculiar deadpan nihilism.
Looking for Kenny
Grow a white beard, everyone thinks you’re Kenny Rogers….
If all else fails, sue
Parents finally file suit to settle school contamination concerns at Beard Elementary….
Doggin’ around
Fun stuff to buy: Tarantino dolls & X-rated video of Snoop Dogg consorts…
Sic ’em
DaimlerChrysler fights father of young airbag victim (who’s still fighting back)….
Hold the dressing
That Jamie Oliver bloke is one cute cook….
Big fun on little DVDs
A digital second chance for oddball films like Point Break and Big Trouble in Little China.
Lone Star bombs
In this great country, a person’s dream can be turned into reality … and that’s not always a good thing. Take Patrick Veteto, who has had one hell of a dream — literally. A Marine reserve artillery officer, Veteto’s dream took shape as he drove along a stretch of the Padre Island National Seashore, on…
Dirtbombs
Want to know what legends are made of? Spend just one night in the shiny ’n’ grimy grasp of the Dirtbombs and you’ll get an idea. With two drummers, two bass players and the enigmatic vocals and possessed guitar of Mick Collins, this band overflows with hip-shakin’, soul-breaking rock catharsis.
Reviving the Rouge
A grand, regional effort to reclaim the Rouge River has begun to show impressive results … with lessons for Michigan and the nation.
Fresh finned fare
The setting is posh, with beveled glass windows set into the mahogany paneling, and the service is accomodating. The food’s the clincher, though – whether slip-sliding simple raw oysters or savoring the most fussy presentation, such as cashew-crusted mahi mahi sweetened with Jamaica rum butter and a salsa of mango and red bell peppers. The…
