Picks and pans
The Detroit dailies (perhaps prematurely) endorse candidates for mayor….
The Road Home
Zhang Yimou’s film is a simple love story of a universal type, a folk tale with a leisurely pace and a foregone conclusion. This could all be terribly sentimental, but it’s redeemed by a truly captivating performance by Zhang Ziyi (who was Jen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
Smoke and mirrors
It’s possible to put a positive spin on anything — even the bummer that is premature death (no more rent payments, for one).
Fair beware
Opponents to fairgrounds deal still fighting sale….
Greenfingers
American director Joel Hershman (Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me) has taken the seeds of an unusual real-life phenomenon — British prisoners competing in prestigious gardening shows — and grown a lovely tale of one man (Clive Owen) blossoming through horticulture.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You understand that you can never own love, right? No matter how much someone adores you, no matter how much you may adore someone, you cannot force that unique state of grace to keep its shape forever. It will evolve or mutate, perhaps into a different version of tender caring, but…
Killer data
Detroit ranks third in fatal police shootings (this and other interesting facts)….
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 2’s story line pulls Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker through scenes and set pieces that showcase their skills — Chan’s unbelievable gymnastic agility and acting chops, Tucker’s newfound martial arts prowess and his loud mouth — but it ignorantly perpetuates stereotypes that the first movie challenged.
Frosting the cupcake
Q: You receive many letters about people’s idiosyncrasies, quirks and fetishes, but I think I have one for you that takes the cake — literally. My girlfriend and I are really into oral sex and rimming. After seeing 9 1/2 Weeks, we started playing with honey, whipped cream, strawberries and the like. Sometimes we put…
Hot under the collar
Bush takes a month off for his summer vacation; why doesn’t the rest of America?
Romping through rhymes
Carol Ann Duffy plays with words the way Mozart played with notes. Duffy’s writing, like Mozart’s composing, is highly sophisticated in both concept and execution, economical even in its excesses, and strangely light despite its substance. Duffy, born in 1955 in Glasgow, Scotland, is too young to be a contender for the position of Great…
Letters to the Editor
A poet, lost With love and respect for its author, Khary Kimani Turner— a consciousness-lifting poet in the true sense — I must dispute several points in his recent essay "2pacalypse now" (Metro Times, Aug. 1-7), which misleadingly depicted rapper Tupac Shakur as a martyr. As hip-hop forefathers The Last Poets once said, martyrs die…
Mess or masterpiece?
Critics make the case for once-reviled movies such as Coffy and The Hudsucker Proxy.
Eternally ours
"Hey ho, let’s go" … so begins, in 1976, a rock saga of such unmitigated gall and impact that 96 percent of the rest of R ’n’ R’s output since then is like mosquitoes pissing on a bonfire. But hey (ho), we don’t need to retell that tale here. Enuf to announce the repackaging and…
Kustom klassics
The Woodward Dream Cruise and Detroit’s romance with metal….
Eternally ours
Announcing the repackaging and rerelease of the first four records (masterpieces) by the Ramones, from “Blitzkrieg Bop” and beyond.
Eternally ours
"Hey ho, let’s go" … so begins, in 1976, a rock saga of such unmitigated gall and impact that 96 percent of the rest of R ’n’ R’s output since then is like mosquitoes pissing on a bonfire. But hey (ho), we don’t need to retell that tale here. Enuf to announce the repackaging and…
Danger eyes
When Squarepusher gestures hypnotically, resistance is futile….
Family fusion
Head chef Michael Lum says it best: “The idea is Asian-based, new-American cooking. It’s traditional American cooking with Asian spices to give it a new flavor.” Lum’s extended family help in the kitchen and elsewhere: an uncle makes fresh noodles and Lum’s wife creates sushi and other appetizers. Spotlight dishes include the duck Macao (marinated…
Eternally ours
"Hey ho, let’s go" … so begins, in 1976, a rock saga of such unmitigated gall and impact that 96 percent of the rest of R ’n’ R’s output since then is like mosquitoes pissing on a bonfire. But hey (ho), we don’t need to retell that tale here. Enuf to announce the repackaging and…
Giving Hedwig
Going one on one with ex-Detroiter and male impersonator Miriam Shor….
Well, who is she?
Since 1987’s Who’s That Girl? tour, Donna De Lory has been watching Madonna’s back both on the stage and in the studio as one of the Material Girl’s two backup dancers and singers. And while many would consider it a career’s crowning achievement to work so closely with one of the world’s biggest pop stars,…
Ban all handguns, now
Most citizens believe Michigan’s new concealed weapons law is outrageous — but Gov. Engler and his Supreme Court don’t think the general population has a right to change it.
Let me ride
Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little so-called dignity to get down. And if that means listening to something that promises to insult people like that prude Tipper Gore … well … fuck ’em. The Detroit Grand Pubahs (Andy Toth and Paris the Black Fu) have their blenders on puree, mixing hard funk, minimal techno,…
Letters from a ravaged land
A Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe writes emotional letters home documenting golden sunsets, joyous laughter and the tragedy of AIDS.
Eternally ours
"Hey ho, let’s go" … so begins, in 1976, a rock saga of such unmitigated gall and impact that 96 percent of the rest of R ’n’ R’s output since then is like mosquitoes pissing on a bonfire. But hey (ho), we don’t need to retell that tale here. Enuf to announce the repackaging and…
Head music manifesto
Few artists have pushed the boundaries and possibilities of sampling as much as London’s Matthew Herbert. Herbert refuses to sample others’ music; instead he takes sounds from his personal life.
All in the family
If there were a record that you could buy just from the names on the credits, this would be it. The label is World Circuit, the one that recorded Buena Vista Social Club. The producer: Nick Gold, the man with the “Midas” touch, responsible not just for the Buena Vista projects, but Oumou Sangare, Ali…
Stem cells, gut feelings
This whole thing about stem cell research has got me a little bothered, but not for the reasons that some might think. President Bush’s recent decision to allow limited research on stem cell embryos may potentially open the door to more expanded research down the road, but that doesn’t bother me at all. What bothers…
Masks and variations
The cover art on Greg Osby’s latest Blue Note release is thought provoking, to say the least. The African-American saxophonist, decked out in antebellum finery and top hat, sits before an ornate music stand, with a string trio of what look like black servants (slaves?) in the far background. Inside the liner-note sheet are two…
Hip hole in the wall
The demise of the Gold Dollar leaves a void in the scene….
Displaced persons
What framework can grasp a sea, country, person, any story? By the Sea, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s sparklingly beautiful new novel, is narrated by Saleh Omar and Latif Mahmud, both refugees from Zanzibar living in England. As each tells his tale, we learn that their pasts are intensely intertwined, and we come to see how various structures…
Fash, flash & MASH
Passing by the glitzy Fash Bash to take in the cultural feast at the detroit contemporary (art and music from Trailer Bride, Blanche and the Filter Kings) … Get-well wishes for Wendy Case … Good food coming to the Ren Cen? … & more.
Desolation arch-angels
His blaring headlights make you feel dirty — the kind of dirt that doesn’t wash off. You quickly lose focus of the real obstacle on your course as Sweet Tooth’s bulging, pesky stare, relentless in concentration, is locked, itching a nuclear trigger. Before long, the hair on your arm is singed and puss is spurting…
Beard beat
Judge hears testimony regarding contaminated school site (but there’s no verdict yet)….
Leland
Leland kicks a mighty fuzz guitar blanket blast overtop equal parts stealthy and precipitated bass and drums. An earnest voice reaches up through the worn parts in the middle, intent on being understood, accounted for and appreciated. Or at least just heard. Listen.
Green talk
Sierra Club and other enviro-groups host a mayoral forum….
Apocalypse Now Redux
Watching Apocalypse Now Redux is like watching the original big-budget two-and-a-half-hour blockbuster art film with a few digressions thrown in (nearly 50 minutes of additional, nonessential footage), some interesting, some curious, one long and seriously miscalculated.
