I Capture the Castle
Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai), with classic English restraint, has tried to “keep a lid on things” while the rest of her family melodramatically flips theirs. The picturesque castle that they have called home for a decade has become a keep for her older sister Rose (Rose Byrne) who sees herself as the auburn-tressed Rapunzel of…
Letters to the Editor
Not the full story Carolyn LaFave’s interview with Huwaida Arraf of the ISM was very straightforward, but Arraf stated the biggest piece of propaganda in modern history (“Bearing witness,” Metro Times, July 23-29). Palestinians would kill every Jew and destroy Israel if they could. If there were no roadblocks, innocent civilians would be killed every…
Respiro
Respiro is situated in the present, in and around a village on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a setting which seems both harsh and idyllic. It’s a relatively isolated community and the old ways prevail. The men, who mostly fish for a living, are macho and the women, many of whom work in a local…
Cinema citing
This Friday, Aug. 8, when the Detroit Film Theatre kicks off its new season, the question sure to be heard is: “Can you believe it has been 30 years?” To many, the three decades of movie-going provided by the DFT have passed quickly. The celluloid adventures and Monday night excursions have become a tradition for…
Gigli
Jennifer Lopez’s formidable crossover powers have made her the arguable queen of pop. So with hunk and soon-to-be-husband Ben Affleck, riding on her coattails, Tinseltown marketers probably figured that the world would line up just to watch the couple grocery shop. But “You just never fuckin’ know,” as Affleck’s titular thug-with-a-heart-of-gold, Larry Gigli (“rhymes with…
A hole in the heart
They were called stakeholders — residents and business owners around Tiger Stadium who had a direct interest in the ballpark’s fate. Early in 1998, more than a year before the team would depart for its new home, about 30 of these stakeholders began meeting with planners and architects hired by the city to help devise…
The Embalmer
Peppino (Ernesto Mahieux) doesn’t look too good on paper. In fact, he looks like he walked straight out of a David Lynch movie and caught the first plane to Naples. He’s so short that he is constantly referred to as a dwarf; he has a comb-over and a hideous Eurotrash wardrobe, and he stuffs animals…
Arrests trigger crime wave?
Riddle me this, Batman: When does catching crooks lead to an increase in crime? The answer: When the crooks nabbed are cops. At least it appears that could be the case in the Fourth Precinct in Southwest Detroit. “We have had a noticeable increase in prostitution on West Vernor,” says Kathy Wendler, executive director of…
Will emote for food
See Eric happy. See Eric sad. See Eric kill someone in cold blood and stuff their body into a trunk. That’s the general gist of http://www.emotioneric.com, a wildly popular cult site where our hero Eric conveys a variety of emotions ranging from “sarcastic respect for authority figures” to “working on a tech support line, answering…
Mad hatter
Kay Everett is nothing if not brazen. Despite the public flogging the city councilwoman received over her $10,000, city-funded “Hats on Me in 2003” fashion/campaign calendar, and the FBI investigation into her political finances announced shortly thereafter, Everett requested $3,233 in tax dollars to pay for 1,000 reprints of documents, which include such notices as…
Unprotected hacks
If you’re working for Detroit’s daily newspapers and you’re not in the union, watch out: You can get fired at any time for any reason. (So can any “at will” employee in Michigan — a category that includes the serfs here at News Hits.) That’s the message Louis Mleczko, president of the Newspaper Guild of…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Fifty years ago prophets believed we’d all be working no more than 32 hours a week by now. Some predicted we’d have as many as 220 days off a year, devoting just 145 to earning our daily bread. What went wrong? Most of us are putting in more hard labor than…
Gray ghost
Abandoned Shelter of the Week More than a few former eyesores in this east-side neighborhood have been the beneficiaries of new siding, windows and landscaping. And, for a while, it looked like this house at 11726 Corbett would join their ranks. Neighbors say the place has been a mess for eight years, but it seemed…
It’s Supper time
Bill Callahan isn’t what you’d really call a people person. It’s a rare night when an audience will inspire much more than monosyllables between his typically dreary cerebral ballads. If you get a chance to talk to him after a show he’s as serious as cancer. He doesn’t like people asking him questions, and only…
Hair-band bar
From movie theater to disco, then biker bar to heavy metal venue — Harpo’s has pretty much seen it all. One of the few big local venues that has kept its doors open without the help of mammoth promoters Clear Channel, the folks over at Harpo’s have much of which they should be proud, not…
Born under a good sign
Gritty blues emanates from the stage at Tenny Street Roadhouse in Dearborn. The center of attention is a young harmonica player and singer named Sunny Girl, who’s wailing convincingly on her harp. Behind me, someone remarks, “Wow, she acts a bit grown up for a 15-year-old, doesn’t she?” Which is only half-true, because Sunny Girl…
Detroit looks
Clear (fashion/design) Volume III, Issue 3 — “nouveau/revival” US $5.95, Canada $7.95 The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics by Barrett Watten Wesleyan University Press, $27.95, 460 pp. O postmodern metropolis, O postmillennial zeitgeist … how do we see thee? Let us count the ways. The world we live in, the dreamscape (or…
You call this birth control?
Q: In your advice to Sticky Mess, the woman whose boyfriend will only come on her belly, you missed one obvious point: Sticky “claims” she has been on birth control for three years, but any man who takes a woman’s word for that is draping his weenie on a chopping block. Granted, it is not…
The First 30 Years DVD
Charlotte, N.C., August 1974: It’s hot enough on the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield to cook grits on a brick. Along with 149,999 other sun-charred music fans, I’ve shoehorned myself into the racetrack in order to be part of one of the South’s biggest-ever rock festivals, the August Jam. Front and center for this midday broil:…
On track
Scavengers have stripped marble from its walls. Chandeliers, lavatory sinks and a large bronze clock that once loomed above the ticket counter are gone. Even some of the copper wiring has been looted from the Michigan Central Station, which has haunted Detroit’s southwest side since Amtrak pulled out in 1988. Despite its broken windows and…
Immigrant dreams & schemes
Stephen Frears, the director of My Beautiful Laundrette and The Grifters, shows again what he can do with a meaty script. This time he has a tale of complex relationships among illegal immigrants in London.
Shoni backward
In the summer of 1997 Café Aroma, the now-defunct coffee shop in Detroit’s West Village, held a weekly poetry series I hosted, where poets would gather to share their work. One night, Shoni Davis walked in with a guitar, zero performance experience — and truckloads of passion. She asked to sing two original songs. Her…
B-Phly
On Blaq Butta-Phly’s debut, the eastside Detroit native melds Tupac’s flow and pathos with Lil’ Kim’s frank sex talk. She emerges as a competent MC with standard-issue contradictory content and a commanding, albeit derivative, flow. On “The Hell With My Life” Ms. Butta-Phly suggests that her life is worthless if it’s not right with God.…
The neighborhood that wouldn’t die
On a lazy afternoon, kids joyfully beat the hell out of an oddly resilient piñata that hangs from an ancient tree. As the kids squeal and pound with all their might, the adults watch from afar, laughing robustly while they tend to the grill and pass around a plate of juicy watermelon slices. Neighbors lounge…
Phantom Power
Quirky-trippy Technicolor popsters Super Furry Animals will never be accused of doing anything half-assed. This is a band, recall, who once recorded an entire album (2000’s Mwing) in their native Welsh language; who once purchased an army tank in order to redecorate the weaponry in the decidedly non-militaristic lavender; and who pressed Paul McCartney into…
August 6-12, 2003
7 THU • MUSIC Steve Jarosz and Rod Hicks — Anyone who is taller than 6-feet-4-inches really has no need for a big pompadour, but there’s just something about jazz guitarist Steve Jarosz that makes it work. This long drink of water, known best for his work with swing/rock favorites, the Twistin’ Tarantulas and his…
Live At the Jazz Standard
It’s not clear why René Marie decided to concentrate on standards (eight of 10 selections) for her most recent recording for the prestigious MaxJazz vocalist series. Neither as daring nor as passionate as her previous offerings, How Can I Keep From Singing and Vertigo, Live At the Jazz Standard is weakened by songs that don’t…
What the city needs every year
Lots of people, including me, spend a lot of time analyzing what is wrong with Detroit. Penny Bailer leads a corps of young people who are helping to fix it, one child and one neighborhood at a time. It is called, simply, City Year. The kids who join don’t get much publicity, they don’t cost…
American Wedding
Geezer: 2 1/2 stars Weezer: 2 1/2 stars Just how much pie can America swallow? Even after two prodigious slices, the American Pie phenomenon lives on with an American Wedding à la mode. So how does this bunch (always gung-ho for masturbation and female nudity) fare post-college, when those high school hormones and emotional stakes…
That time of the month
In a town where so many musicians and DJs are enjoying full-bore, media-driven hype, don’t you wonder where all the chicks are? We’ve got the Emsters, the Kid Rocks, the Carl Craigs — and don’t make me utter again the name that ends in “ipes.” Aren’t we even curious about the whereabouts of the gal-fronted…
