Alterna-crafters
Three young women in jeans and thrift store T-shirts are hovering over a kitchen table in a cozy Ferndale bungalow. Spread out before them are hundreds of colorful little felt pins, all shaped like the state of Michigan. Each bears a tiny heart over the spot that marks Detroit. “If I never see another piece…
Head Cheese
Jere Stormer knows the meaning of multitasking. An occasional WDET DJ and a sometime actor, his MySpace page says he’s in at least four bands. Now that’s Detroit. Fortunately he had enough free time to burp up his monomanias, which cover some of his own outlets — he must get confused about which one is…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Reading this horoscope could not only stimulate waves of pleasurable endorphins in your brain, it may also fine-tune your immune system, increase your calorie-burning power, promote relaxation of the smooth muscles of the digestive tract, enlarge any part of your body you want to enlarge, and cut down the risk of…
Pulp friction
The allegations were bizarre. The person making them, a Detroit-area man in his mid-30s, contacted Metro Times to say he had both a story to tell and a haunting question he hoped could be answered. He claimed that more than two decades ago, starting in the early 1980s when he was about 12 years old,…
Pork away
The Ribs and Soul festival will fill up Hart Plaza.
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Wake-up calls
Nowadays the split is defined. There’s an obvious division between emcees who are “conscious” and their more shrill counterparts, everybody from Clipse and the Dipset crew to David Banner and Lil Jon. But back in 1998, when Talib Kweli and Mos Def appeared as Black Star, those lines of demarcation weren’t as clear. That’s part…
Turf before surf
I saved my pennies to visit Seldom Blues, Frank Taylor’s lovely spot on the river. I wanted to fill a hole in the Metro Times’ listings, a two-year-old Ren Cen restaurant that, like Taylor’s Sweet Georgia Brown in Greektown, has drawn raves. What a disappointment to encounter food that wasn’t bad, certainly, but nothing to…
Punishing with sound
“Sound has got to be sick,” says the Punisher, who away from her turntables is known as Michelle Hermann. “That’s the first thing we think about when we set up a show. In control, but out of control. A live, totally sick environment that takes the experience to another level.” “It means everything,” agrees the…
OH that’s so wrong
Parker Posey returns to her crazy, twitchy, indie roots with “The OH in Ohio,” playing Priscilla, a successful married woman from Cleveland whose life appears picture-perfect on the surface — but in the bedroom, it’s a different story. Priscilla has never had an orgasm in her life, despite the valiant efforts of her schoolteacher husband…
American boy
The art of channel surfing is underrated. To the inexperienced, it can be a cornea-scorching exercise in futility. But for those of us who donate a goodly amount of our paycheck to the cable company — and have done so ever since music television became a reality — there’s a surefire way to resist the…
Scoop
It’s hard to watch a celebrated filmmaker slowly crumble, but Woody Allen’s slide into mediocrity has been going on for so long now it’s a wonder he still finds financing. Over the last 16 years the director has made 19 films and, arguably, only four or five are worth the celluloid they’re printed on. Most…
From the personal to the political
Q: I am about to marry a caring and intelligent man, an amazing lover, a total stud, beyond well endowed, someone who “gets” me in a way. Here’s the problem: I have a ferocious sex drive, to the point where three to five times a day is good and more is better. The beauty of…
Peaceful Warrior
Corny this movie is, yes, but blame them you cannot. What do you expect from a film about the bodhisattva of gymnastics? Peaceful Warrior is based on gymnast Millman’s book about his own life; here he’s played by relative newcomer Scott Mechlowicz, and the venerable Nick Nolte is Socrates, the wise, mysterious mentor who taught…
So long, Maryann
Maryann Mahaffey died last week, and everyone rushed to say the usual sorts of things. Here’s something they didn’t say, however, and which says it all: I simply cannot believe that she is gone. When Coleman A. Young died, or Ronald Reagan, or even my own parents, that was that; whatever feelings I had, that…
Once in a Lifetime
Hard as it is to fathom today, for a brief, shining moment soccer was the height of chic in New York City in the 1970s. The New York Cosmos soccer team packed crowds of more than 77,000 into Giants Stadium and kick-started a veritable footie boom. But the buzz was fleeting, lasting only a few…
Night and Day
Thursday & Saturday • 3 & 5 Computer Recycling Days COMMUNITY Technology giveth and technology taketh away: Though home computers have helped to make the world better, the refuse created by their unwanted parts has become a serious problem. No shit. In fact, many used computers find their way to landfills, but what many people…
The Ant Bully
Conservative wingnuts are going to have a stroke over the latest addition to this summer’s computer-animated kidfest. It’s only a matter of time before the Neil Cavutos and Debbie Schlussels of the world accuse Hollywood of brainwashing our unsuspecting tots with a celluloid version of The Communist Manifesto. Writer-director John A. Davis based the film…
Rock the stacks
Talk about doing it for the kids. By the end of August, the High Strung will have toured through the reading rooms of more than 60 public libraries, breaking the cardinal rule of such rooms — “quiet, please” — with fully electrified sets of ’60s-leaning bash-pop. It’s actually the Detroit trio’s second time doing this.…
Miami Vice
The whores of Hollywood have cannibalized almost every innovative TV-series concept in their desperate experiments to produce box office magic. What took so long to get around to Miami Vice? The obvious assumption is that Universal and writer-director-producer Michael Mann, the prime movers behind the ’80s television landmark, simply were waiting for the right combination…
The seal deal
In 1988, the owner of Chicago-based Grove Fresh juice company read a trade publication story about a Baltimore attorney who had successfully sued one of Grove Fresh’s competitors for allegedly adding sugar and other ingredients to supposedly 100 percent pure orange juice. That suit was against Canada’s Holiday Juice company, which was owned at the…
Shadowboxer
If there’s one thing to applaud about this exceedingly violent and uneven arthouse-wannabe thriller, it’s that Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. get totally freak-deaky. The bad news: There’s only one thing to applaud about this movie.
Letters to the Editor
Some final thoughts Re: Jack Lessenberry’s column “Can You Dig It” (Metro Times, July 19). I grew up the son, grandson, and great-grandson of small town funeral directors. I don’t plan on following the family line, but I am soon to graduate with a degree in mortuary science from Wayne State. I’ll hold a license…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Who shot MB80? J.R. Ewing – Maelstrom (Dim Mak) :: You’re not dreaming in a prison shower, this unreasonable metal screamonstrosity sounds just like Ozzy ’n’ Alice ’n’ Ig, oh my! The Adored – A New Language (V2) :: Ramonesish perky percolating power pop guaranteed to purify your aural palette. Knut – Alter (Hydra Head)…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
A brush with history
With dusty, blanched streets, faded awnings and the sweet and spicy aroma of your neighbor’s dinner breezing down the block, Hamtramck feels timeless. Artist Dennis Orlowski walks around the town like he’s living in an earlier era. On a sunny afternoon, he drops in on the mayor then strolls across the park to say hi…
Backslash
Travel trail – OK, so the name is a wee bit dorky — but the concept behind www.funspotpals.com is a good one. Few people like traveling alone — and often your friends’ schedules, income and level of thrill-seeking don’t always coincide with your own. Always wanted to go skydiving but your best man is too…
