Cover Story
More than a few words with ICP’s Violent J
We’re hanging out with Violent J (Joseph Bruce) of the Insane Clown Posse in one of his homes in a bucolic stretch of Milford. It’s a nerd’s paradise, full of pro wrestling memorabilia, a collection of soda from around the world, toys for his son, JJ, and daughter, Ruby — ages 7 and 5, respectively…
April – and Ambulance Chasers
It’s 10:15 on a Wednesday night and Doc Waffles is standing on a curb downtown, answering via cellphone outside the Old Miami with a show going on all blurting over the back of his shoulder from the swinging door entrance and he’s able to elucidate, still, with characteristic eloquence: “…the best art works are the…
City Slang: Alice Cooper gives career advice
According to Classic Rock Magazine, Alice Cooper is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the “School’s Out” single by advising students about what do do after the exams are over. Cooper said of “School’s Out” that, “It’s the song that launched my band’s career – it’s every school’s anthem.” “It was Britain that made it a…
City Slang: Joel Peterson presents chamber music at the DIA
Detroit musician and composer Joel Peterson will present an evening of contemporary chamber music at the DIA on September 9. There will be two sets, and each will feature some of the finest musicians in the area including saxophonist Erick Ronmark, bass clarinet player Shannon Orme, viola player James Greer and violinists Constance Marwick and…
City Slang: Stewart Francke with new Kickstarter campaign
Local singer/songwriter Stewart Francke has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to raise $25,000 to make a new album as well as a documentary DVD. The campaign can be viewed here. Francke says, “The money will be used to finish recording and mixing the songs at RMS Studios in Birmingham with my partner, drummer and co-producer…
Weekend Hit List
Friday 17th Ypsilanti Heritage Festival Depot Town, Riverside Park: Celebrating Ypsilanti’s heritage with historic exhibits and tours, as well as a parade, vendors, kids’ activities, music, food and more. [READ MORE] Monty and the Boozehound A presentation from an art group known as “the Superior Bugout” brings a traveling duo of street artists to Detroit for…
City Slang: Bob Birch – What a man
As is often the case when a well-known musician passes away, Bob Birch’s tragic death on Wednesday morning was met with a flood of grief on the internet. It seems as if everyone knew Bob well, and everyone thought that he was one of the best bass player’s around. In this case, the messages were…
Sparkle
The film Sparkle evokes two flavors of Motown nostalgia. There’s nostalgia for the bygone days of ’60s musical dominance, when the city’s streets overflowed with excitement and fresh talent. Then there’s nostalgia for a more recent, vanished era when major motion pictures were actually filmed in town. Today’s hardscrabble Detroit bears little resemblance to its…
Bicentennial of the surrender of Detroit
Little noted today, it is the 200th anniversary of a seminal moment in Detroit history. On Aug. 16, 1812, British forces invaded the town of Detroit after the surrender of U.S. forces by Brig. Gen. William Hull. After a day of British and American forces exchanging cannon fire across the Detroit river on Aug. 15,…
Want Some (More)
It’s too easy for me to call The Make-Up a personal “revelation…” That would play into their whole hands-in-the-air hallowed hullabaloo aura, their sanctimonious/philosophic tilt towards rock-as-religious-experience… but oh, yes, the spirit took me. Lord, I can’t deny it… “Everybody got power… Gospel-Yeh-Yeh…” The D.C. quartet were on the vanguard of blending the sweat, swirl…
City Slang: African World Festival location change
The 30th Anniversary African World Festival starts tomorrow (Friday), and organizers are keen to point out to attendees that the festival is NOT at Hart Plaza this year as it has been on previous years. Rather, it has been moved to the grounds of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The festival…
ParaNorman
ParaNorman| B+ Being the weird kid sucks. Yes, the rise of the Internet and fanboy culture has allowed adult geeks to inherit, if not the Earth, then a goodly portion of pop culture, but the ugly truth of the playground still remains: Nerds are not welcome. Norman Babcock (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an unfortunate…
City Slang: The return of Inside Out
All-girl punk band Inside Out is reuniting for a show at Smalls in Hamtramck on September 29. The Ruiners and Betty Cooper are also on the bill, and the Motor City Rah-Rahs will be around to dance. The band, consisting of Karen “Queen Bee” Neal, Catherine Carrell and Lynda Mandolyn, disbanded in ‘92 so this…
Art for our sake
Philip Lauri will take part in the opening MicroFest panel discussion that begins at 7 p.m. on Aug. 17, at Art Effect Gallery, 1420 E. Fisher Fwy., Detroit; 313-734-5555. For a full schedule of events, see the online version of this story; a pass to all events is $35. What exactly is the relationship between…
A slice above
Pizzeria Biga 711 S. Main St., Royal Oak 248-544-2442 pizzeriabiga.com Handicap accessible Pizza and pasta: $10-$20 Salads, small plates: $5-$12 Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday Royal Oak is overflowing these days with new restaurants, some of which seem like they belong more in mall parking lots than a pedestrian-heavy downtown. Fortunately,…
Letters to the Editor
‘B’ for the D Re: Curt Guyette’s story, "Underwater" (Aug. 8), I also do not understand why Gov. Snyder and Mayor Bing took bankruptcy off the table. Muni bond makers and lenders appear to have successfully frightened them (and L. Brooks Patterson, as well). I would be interested in what those discussions actually identified as…
Take This Waltz
Take This Waltz| A- I might be going out on a limb here, but no movie has ever made better use of the Buggles’ "Video Killed The Radio Star" than Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz. The scene, probably the best in the movie, is set on the Scrambler ride at a Toronto amusement park. Margot…
Food Stuff
Changes at the Whitney Big changes are afoot at the Whitney. Detroit’s iconic mansion restaurant will now be open for dining seven days a week, including for dinner on Sunday nights starting this week. Staff changes include Dave Duey, formerly of Fox & Hounds, as the new general manager, and Culinary Institute of America graduate…
Noise of summer
The millennial generation is lucky. When they go out, the earbuds go in. They don’t have to listen to the radio, and even get to laugh at a dying recording industry that can’t force-feed them "hits." But it seems like just yesterday it was different. Walking around the city each summer, there would be that…
Princess Thornetta of the blues
Thornetta Davis plays Friday, Aug. 17 at the Music in the Park Festival in Lexington. On Saturday, Sept. 1, she plays the Arts Beats & Eats festival, headlining the Pepsi R&B/Jazz Stage. She’s on the recent Johnnie Bassett disc I Can Make That Happen on the Sly Dog label. If Alberta Adams is the queen…
Taking the bait
It’s a quiet summer afternoon, the sun shines in a soft haze through the shop windows, the traffic outside is sounding a sleepy whoosh, so who could blame the shopkeeper for dozing off in a chair in the middle of the day? "That’ll be $5.70," says a bleary-eyed Michael Freeman to the customer who’d just…
Advice from a crush
I’ve been confused about my sexuality for two years. I am a 22-year-old female. I liked guys when I was in school, but then, in perhaps the most stereotypical of fashions, I developed a huge crush on Tegan and Sara when I was nearly 20. I like the idea of being with women, but I…
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
The Odd Life of Timothy Green| D The new film The Odd Life of Timothy Green belongs to an increasingly rare breed of mainstream American films in which nothing explodes, no one is stabbed, there is no nudity or profanity to speak of, there are no sex jokes and no one wears a fat suit…
Not so smart, ALEC
A new report from the lefties at Progress Michigan (with help from Common Cause and Michigan Citizen Action) shows deep ties between the American Legislative Exchange Council, otherwise known as ALEC, and Republicans in the Michigan Legislature. "Michigan citizens have a right to know who is writing our laws," Zack Pohl, executive director of Progress…
Hitting the pipe hard
Here’s a scary thought: What if the Enbridge pipeline rupture in Wisconsin late last month had occurred, say, in the company’s oil pipelines running under the Straits of Mackinac or the St. Clair River? The answer is that we’d be talking about much more than the dramatic spike in gasoline prices Enbridge’s most recent spill…
Does God hate Republicans?
There is, in fact, some new evidence that this may be so, based entirely on hard data and their own testimony. Just before the primary election last week, I watched all three contenders for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination on the PBS show Off the Record. Nothing really surprises me anymore, but to my mild…
Getting grounded
The Detroit Food Policy Council will hold a listening session on the "Land Sale Process in the City of Detroit" at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the Gleaners Community Food Bank. Call 313-833-0396 for more information. Mulenga Harangua and I sat on the back porch of the house where he’s been squatting the past…
Something New, Indeed: SelfSays’ ‘April’
Anybody see this guy at the T.V. Bar last weekend? Anyway… I’m heading into my day-job so I don’t have many minutes left for the usual long-winded grandiloquence… If you’re in as much a hurry as I, or just have four free minutes from work and you need to spark your dopamine receptors, then just listen…
City Slang: Kaleido prepares for summer fests
Local pop-punkers Kaleido, featuring Christina Chriss, are preparing for the Motors & Music festival at the Silverdome on August 18, then Arts Beats & Eats on September 2. Chriss has emerged as a compelling frontwoman and, though the band is often compared to the likes of Paramore, Kaleido in fact has a sound that effortlessly…
