City Slang: RIP Dan Sicko
We are saddened to learn today that writer Dan Sicko passed away on Sunday, having battled ocular melanoma, a form of eye cancer, since he was diagnosed in 2008. He was just 42. Sicko was a freelance writer with publications like Wire, but he’ll be best remembered for his book, Techno Rebels. In it, Sicko…
City Slang: Three Small Stone bands to tour the States together
Three bands that are on the roster of Royal Oak-based label Small Stone Records are to tour together. Backwoods Payback, Lo-Pan and Suplecs will be spreading their stoner metal across the United States. The Detroit date is at the Corktown Tavern on September 29, and the three bands will be joined by Freedom Hawk. Those…
City Slang: The Seatbelts rock the People’s Arts Festival
On years gone by, the People’s Arts Festival has been plagued by rain-related issues. Thankfully, this year saw no such problems and the sun was shining down as Saturday saw the festival kick off without a hitch. That’s great too, because a lot of work goes into putting this thing together, and it really is…
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
As my colleague Corey Hall likes to point out, most horror films set in today’s world are, by their very nature, pretty silly. They require cell phones to die or get no reception, automobiles to break down, friends and family to ignore the strange deaths or injuries of those around them, panicked warnings to fall…
Attack the Block
Attack the Block B+ Like Coca Cola, extraterrestrial assaults go with everything in film; from space invaders to coming-of-age nostalgia to immigration policy debates to rah-rah jingoism, and in this case, the boiling over of multiethnic tensions in the U.K. Basically this flick could be titled Gangs vs. Aliens, though these energetic street thugs yield…
Right undercuts the unemployed … and the economy
Right undercuts the unemployed … and the economy In this week’s News Hits column, we reported that the Snyder administration and the Michigan Legislature failed to capitalize on an opportunity to obtain an additional $137 million in federal funds that could have gone toward helping the state’s unemployed workers. That comes on top of the…
City Slang: People’s Arts Festival this weekend
On Saturday and Sunday this weekend (weather permitting), the fifth annual People’s Arts Festival takes place at the Russell Industrial Center, 1600 Clay St., Detroit. Admission, as always, is free, and the event runs from 11am-midnight on Saturday, and 11am-6pm on Sunday. The People’s Arts Festival is fast becoming one of the most anticipated festivals…
Our Idiot Brother
Our Idiot Brother B All hail Paul Rudd! Is there a more likable comic actor working in Hollywood today? Never showy but frequently funny, he’s refreshingly free of the manic, attention-craving desperation or snarky cynicism of his peers. Director Jesse Peretz was smart to wait for Rudd to become available for his genial comedy Our…
The Whistleblower
The Whistleblower B Two years ago, producer-writer Luc Besson scored a big hit with his sex-trade revenge thriller Taken. Liam Neeson played a retired CIA operative out to rescue his daughter from seedy slavers and depraved Arabs. Worldwide the movie earned north of $225 million. Slick, frantic and violent, it took a serious real-world subject…
Movement icon Grace Lee Boggs at environmental justice conference
The equivalent at a nurses’ convention would be having Florence Nightingale in attendance. For an auto show, perhaps Henry Ford. It was Grace Lee Boggs for hundreds of environmental justice advocates gathered in Detroit on Thursday for the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual Environmental Justice conference. Workshops have dealt with the federal efforts to ensure environmental…
City Slang: Alice Cooper releases Rolling Stones-esque single
The first single from Alice Cooper’s new Welcome 2 My Nightmare album is tastefully entitled “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and, according to Alice, it’s a tribute to the Stones. “This is my tip-of-the-hat to early Rolling Stones,” says Alice, “Like in 1964/65 when their songs were very Chuck Berry orientated. They just feel so…
Remembering Gil Scott-Heron … and a jazz chart success
Poet-musician-rap progenitor Gil Scott-Heron was remembered and honored at last weekend’s African World Festival along with Bob Marley and Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Scott-Heron is honored again Thursday (Aug. 25) in acoustic music, poetry and prose with performances by jessica Care moore, Invincible, and Ren Cen outside the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History,…
City Slang: “Rollin’ & Tumblin’” revisited
I don’t even know if “revisited” is the right word here. Rollin’ & Tumblin’ might be one of the most criminally overlooked albums to have ever come out of Detroit, so it was never really visited in the first place, or at least, not by nearly as many people as should have. Personnel-wise, the Motor…
Christian dominionists eyeing Detroit, Muslims, demons?
Christian dominionism hadn’t registered on our radars until its recent discussion in a New Yorker piece on the rise of Michele Bachmann and a (to our reading off-target) rebuttal to coverage of the movement at the Daily Beast site. Here’s how The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza describes the movement, which Bachman embraced through the theologian…
Population points
Population is the code word that Lansing uses to pass legislation for Detroit. Once upon a time, a population of 1 million or more worked. Later laws used 900,000, or 800,000 or 750,000 as the magic number. But earlier this year, when the U.S. Census count showed the city tally had tumbled to 714,000, more…
Sun Ra: Interviews and Essays (Edited by John Sinclair)
$19.95; 202 pp. Headpress (Headpress.com) So you’ve entered an orbit around Sun Ra, or maybe you’re just curious. Maybe you were born after 1993, his departure from the earthly plane, and had your head blown off by Mr. "Space Is the Place" through discs, films or YouTube. Whatever, if you’re at the point of wanting…
Zee Avi – Ghostbird (Brushfire/Monotone)
Malaysian singer-songwriter Zee Avi’s big break came via a YouTube video a few years ago. That cute intro pretty much serves as the cornerstone of her music, which at turns can be too precious, too fluffy and too boring. On her second album, the 25-year-old Avi sounds like a starry-eyed dreamer with no actual footing…
Schuette gets cheesy
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette came out swinging against medical marijuana a couple of weeks ago when he held a press conference to announce what could well be called his "Swiss cheese offensive." Surrounded by a group of legislators, law enforcement officers and health care professionals, Schuette said that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act had…
Full-service Filipino flair
New Lutong Pinoy 31101 Dequindre Rd., Ste. A Madison Heights 248-565-8360 Appetizers: $2-$9 Entrées: $8-$15 According to the Internet, the old Lutong Pinoy, a small, carryout-only joint in Madison Heights, was the place to go if you were keen on eating authentic Filipino cuisine. Reconfigured as a full-service restaurant less than a mile from its…
Highland Dark
News Hits was checking out a press release sent out Monday by the Detroit chapter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition and other similarly left-leaning allies when something interesting caught our eye. We were already aware of the announcement’s main thrust: That there is much concern about the plan to remove an estimated…
Black Ivory – Feel It (P&C/Reel)
Under the inexpert arm of teenage producer Patrick Adams, Harlem’s kickass-coifed Black Ivory — Leroy Burgess, Stuart Bascombe and Russell Patterson — defied odds and struck gold on its debut LP, 1972’s Don’t Turn Around, which peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s R&B charts and upchucked a number of hit songs. That year’s follow-up did…
Long live socialism
Here’s the truth: I love socialism, and so do you, even though you may well neither know it, nor admit it. Matter of fact, so do most of the poseurs trying for the Republican presidential nomination. They, however, want socialism only for the rich, and never call it that. Instead, they pretend what they call…
Merv Griffin’s Dance Party (1962)
I’m sensing that your apprehension about stepping into the time machine to attend a Merv Griffin dance party might have something to do with the 1991 sexual harassment lawsuit ($11.3 million sought; case dismissed) filed against him by former employee Deney Terrio — the host of Dance Fever. But relax, we’ve got the dial pulled…
Letters to the Editor
Fight the polluters Thanks for Sandra Svoboda’s recent "Justice for All" (Aug. 17). I wish more forward-thinking news outlets would report on such necessary issues affecting communities of color. Your coverage of this story was very "on point," and I certainly hope that the Associated Press will do everything to highlight the emerging grassroots efforts…
Crank
Mason Jennings Minnesota Stats and Brackets 3½ Stars Riffing: His mostly ivory-keyed folk pop sways between somber choruses and semi-happy churches of acoustic and plugged-in guitars, bass and drums, and the occasional train into New Orleans. He can capture sadness. Reference points: As if he’s under your bed singing about the kind of lost innocence…
Justin Townes Earle
Justin Townes Earle doesn’t sully his dad’s name; hell, he’s got Nashville, train lines and New York neighborhoods rocking his veins. Here are five great lines from his latest, Harlem River Blues: 5 "Move Over Mama": Woman, you been sleepin’ in the middle of the bed too long … 4 "One More Night…
Choose three
Are you a social pariah? Suffering from shitty grades? Frequently spotted staggering around campus like a sleepless zombie? Well don’t feel too worthless if you answered yes to any of these — the college life trifecta is considered unattainable by many. Even if it’s too late to save me, I’ve learned some lessons that may…
Ghost town renegade
The stench fouls the wind, bringing reminders of what this place has become. It’s the smell of raw sewage, the stink of compost, the fumes from those dirty clouds billowing from the smokestacks. It’s the smell signifying that this is Delray. After so many years here, Dave Zammitt doesn’t notice it anymore. He’s the owner…
What next for college radio?
Ben Yee remembers a time when student-staffed, college radio stations were a cultural force to be reckoned with. College stations broke near-unknown garage-rockers and basement-rappers who went on to become superstars; the stations could give listeners a well-informed, honest human connection in just one hour of programming, much like the open-format approach of WCBN-Ann Arbor.…
College budgets
Abe’s Coney Island 402 W. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti; 734-448-5200: This popular after-bar stop has a kind of self-deprecating humor, billing itself as "Ypsilanti’s finest four-star coney dog, steak-and-egg joint." Whether you’re stopping in for eggs over easy with hash browns "burned" in the morning, or sopping up booze and making ironic jukebox selections at 3…
Who’s bad?
Royce da 5’9" is a man who should be celebrated around these parts for many reasons. First of all, he’s pioneered the concept of including his height in his name. You really have to be a confident motherfucker to pull that off. Brett 6’2", for example, does not work. No, you have to carry yourself…
Kick the needy
News Hits was checking out a press release sent out Monday by the Detroit chapter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition and other similarly left-leaning allies when something interesting caught our eye. We were already aware of the announcement’s main thrust: That there is much concern about the plan to remove an estimated…
College Guide listings
Wayne State University Urban renewal The Willis Street Strip: Avalon International Breads, Goodwell’s Natural Foods, Flo Boutique, Spiral Collective, Re:View Contemporary Gallery Willis between Cass & Second avenues, Detroit: A couple of the freshest food spots in the D are sandwiched between a hip fashion boutique and two gallant galleries. Yes, the Willis Street Strip…
Transitional reading
"Adult" and "youth" are nebulous terms. The transition between the two is as well. We’ve all known adults who act like children or children who are wise beyond their years. Are there some criteria for adulthood? Does it become official when we reach a certain age? In Judaism, that age is 13. But I know…
Sweaty kid’s stuff
Q: I’m unemployed in Oregon and trying to come up with simple ways to make rent. My dear wife and I would like your opinion on the legality of selling my teenage son’s sweaty gym clothes online. It sounds rather skeezy, I realize, and I’m only half-joking here. If we had a nonsexual website with…
Problems Solved
The simplest answer is moderation. One easy way to stay fit is to register for a workout or sports class each semester. Including a friend can help keep you motivated. In addition to keeping you in top form, it could also boost your GPA as long as you actually show up to class. Also, don’t…
The Names of Love
The Names of Love C+ Directed by Michel Leclerc. Written by Baya Kasmi and Leclerc. Starring Sara Forestier, Jacques Gamblin, Carole Franck, Zinedine Soualem and Michelle Moretti. Running time: 95 minutes. Not rated. Just when you think writer-director Michel Leclerc’s frothy and frisky comedy might actually have something to say, it does something really stupid…
Food Stuff
Road trip! It’s far afield, but anybody going "up north" this weekend should consider a stop in Traverse for that city’s Summer Microbrew & Music festival, featuring more than 50 breweries, cideries, meaderies and wineries. It all happens Aug. 26-27; tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door Friday, $40 in advance, $45 at…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Remember – if you send it, it will get reviewed. That’s the City Slang promise. It doesn’t matter what genre the music is – as long as it has a Metro Detroit connection, it’ll get in. Preferably, we’d like to concentrate on new releases but, while we’re getting warmed up here, feel free to send…
TV Success of ‘Hardcore Pawn’ Spawns 2nd Pawnshop in Pontiac
The slogan of Detroit’s massive American Jewelry and Loan on Greenfield is “Where Detroit Cashes In.” Apparently the pawnshop’s owners, the Gold family, take their message to heart: The overwhelming success of Hardcore Pawn, the reality TV series set within their store and the most-watched show on truTV, has motivated them to cash in with…
