Remembering James Semark
John Sinclair’s upcoming Higher Ground column to be posted here Wednesday (and, of course, on the street in the “hard copy” as we say) eulogizes the poet and cultural activist James Semark, who was one of the founders of the Detroit Artists Workshop in the ’60s and integral to efforts in recent years to commemorate…
Leaving
Leaving GRADE: C- Between the terrific performances and artful cinematography, this is one high-class piece of melodramatic crap. It’s one thing to indulge in every possible cliché of French film drama — a pampered yet adulterous wife, a wealthy but icy husband, a lower-class yet sensitive hunk, obsessive love, jealousy, murder — it’s another to…
Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture GRADE: C+ An unsparing yet self-involved exercise in Gen-Y navel-gazing (that’s smart enough to display some meta instincts), Lena Dunham’s semi-autographical DIY indie flick both benefits and suffers from its virtues. It delivers an unflattering yet empathetic view of generational ennui with the handmade feel of authenticity, but it can’t help but be…
Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture GRADE: C+ An unsparing yet self-involved exercise in Gen-Y navel-gazing (that’s smart enough to display some meta instincts), Lena Dunham’s semi-autographical DIY indie flick both benefits and suffers from its virtues. It delivers an unflattering yet empathetic view of generational ennui with the handmade feel of authenticity, but it can’t help but be…
Leaving
Leaving GRADE: C- Between the terrific performances and artful cinematography, this is one high-class piece of melodramatic crap. It’s one thing to indulge in every possible cliché of French film drama — a pampered yet adulterous wife, a wealthy but icy husband, a lower-class yet sensitive hunk, obsessive love, jealousy, murder — it’s another to…
Detroit music tastemaker Jim Shaw dies
Jim Shaw died this morning. He was 54 and had fiercely, bravely, elegantly fought a nasty cancer of the liver for nearly two years. To the end, he was with family and friends in his Hamtramck home, where he wanted to be. Jim was a humble giant on the Detroit music scene for a solid…
Roadside Jesus
Judgment day is nearly upon us and old JC himself is set to return, and then the world will burst into flames in October 2011, thus the end. No shit. And according to this AP report, at least one Christian group is chirping the return of Jesus Christ with billboards in select American cities, including…
Greater Detroit nabs 30 Grammy nods
A onetime MT editor once chirped that all award shows suck — until you win. And this year we can say with some jaundiced certainty that the 2010 Grammy Awards don’t suck. Here’s why: Detroit-related releases are up for not one, not 10,but 30 awards, give or take. That includes the more high-profile hit-makers such…
Jack White’s Tussle With Online Fans Continues
Jack White didn’t think that auctioning records online could create such a dust-up with his fans. But that’s exactly what happened this week when White’s Third Man Records imprint decided to auction off five limited-edition newly reissued White Stripes debut LPs on their own eBay page. The bidding on all five copies immediately went over…
New Motor City Anthem! Moe Dirdee’s “You Don’t Belong in Detroit”
Here’s a new video from local emcee Moe Dirdee that’s bound to be a Detroit hip-hop anthem soon enough. It’s called “You Don’t Belong in Detroit” and is full of enough grittiness and straight up ‘tude that people in the city need to get behind this song. The reality is, most outsiders don’t belong in…
Blastoff
It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving in Highland Park and the term Black Friday is taking on new meaning. At roughly 3 p.m. on a cold afternoon, the Metro PCS on the north side of Woodward Ave. looks more like Ghettro PCS, with a throng of local residents stuffed inside trying to win all of the…
Macho dramas?
Q: I’m a 21-year-old woman with bi-curious tendencies who’s been in a committed relationship for four years. He’s sweet and kind. We share a lot of interests and get along very well. Thing is, I don’t know if I’m meant to be in a committed relationship. For the past year and a half, I’ve been…
Motor City Five
The film Louie Bluie — about the late (and phenomenal) Detroiter Howard Armstrong — left its mark on Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson. The young enthusiasts of the old-time black string band tradition were struck by Armstrong and company’s version of "Cacklin’ Hen." "We all watched the scene, and it was over from…
Metro Retro
22 years ago in Metro Times: Rene Riley is appalled by the 600 percent increase in war toys as the holiday season approaches in the article "War Toys are Us." Riley discusses the increase in popularity of toys that include G.I. Joe, He-Man and Voltron, and states that 100 million G.I. Joes have been manufactured…
Moving pictures
Joe Bernard started his career making cutting-edge, experimental movies, scratching and abrading footage by hand, marking the film frame by frame, treating it like a painter’s canvas — often implanting provocative poetic texts. But for the last decade, he’s been painting collages that capture the poetic vision that flickered by in the films. If you…
Save our schools
A few years ago, a woman I knew moved into Detroit and decided to try putting her son, a slow learner, into a public high school. She had been warned that the schools were impossible. However, she was somewhat of an idealist who believed public schools were essential to our democracy. So she felt it…
The last song
He packs away the CDs and the old cassettes, leaving the posters on the wall for last. "I guess maybe it hasn’t hit me yet," says 52-year-old Walter Esaw, as he boxes the stock of his little record store, Pearl’s Music, on Kercheval near Van Dyke. But the phone keeps ringing, bringing reminders. "Yes, next…
Food Stuff
Cuban casual Anybody into "slow food" in our region is familiar with Ann Arbor’s restaurant Eve, named for chef Eve Aronoff. She has appeared on TV’s Top Chef, but has earned most of her notoriety from her restaurant, which pulls together farm-fresh food, naturally raised proteins and an extensive wine list, making for memorable meals.…
High notes
You Should’ve Heard Just What I Seen: Collected Newspaper Articles, 1981-1984 Bill Brown Colossal Books, $25, 376 pp. This week, a book-signing in Ann Arbor marks the return of one-time local music critic and Metro Times writer Bill Brown. (Full disclosure: The author and Brown became friends in the late 1990s in New York.) Though…
Spun
The Greenhornes Four Stars Third Man Remember that Cinci band the Greenhornes, how they were the biggest Detroit band not from Detroit who made the type of wide-eyed, retro-leaning garage rock that Jack White grew out of ever since he became a rock god a few years ago? Their fourth album is their best, an…
How the West was won
It happened fast. It took one year, four songs, and 13 minutes. It continues to grow. Last summer, out of the blue one afternoon, two Detroit-area musicians spoke on the phone. Joshua Epstein initiated the call. On the other end of the line was Daniel Zott. At the time, the guys barely knew each other.…
Boob life
With the official end of the Big Ten football regular season schedule Saturday, there’s one less place we’ll have to suffer his presence. But you know Matt Millen will bumble and bluster through tomorrow night’s Thursday Night Football Texans-at-Eagles contest on the NFL Network. And Monday Night Countdown next week on ESPN. And holiday football…
Ship happens?
If you believe the folks at the Bruce nuclear power plant in Ontario, there’s little to fear from the proposed shipment of 16 steam generators contaminated with radioactive waste. Under a plan proposed by the company, the generators — each the size of a school bus and weighing in at 100 tons — would be…
Burning questions
Now that sale of Detroit’s municipal waste incinerator has been finalized, all that remains are questions. And more questions. The facility located near the intersection of interstates 94 and 75 is now owned by Detroit Renewable Energy LLC, a partnership between Connecticut-based Atlas Holdings and Ohio-based Thermal Ventures II, the parent company of Detroit Thermal.…
Authentic delights
Shangri-la Garden 27626 Middlebelt Rd., Farmington Hills 248-474-8183 The sushi chef at Shangri-la Garden made me think of the Maytag repairman — the man had nothing to do. On a couple of recent visits not a single diner made use of his talents, including me. This is a good sign, in my opinion — I’m…
Misunderestimating Palin’s media savvy
I assigned Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue in my course on women in contemporary U.S. media and politics. I spent the week walking around town, riding the train and dashing through airports with the book tucked under my arm. "Isn’t she awesome?" gushed a waitress in a New Jersey restaurant. My seatmate on a flight to…
Letters to the Editor
Sexist law? First of all I wish to thank Jack Lessenberry for his excellent columns. They are the first thing I read whenever I pick up the Metro Times. However, Lessenberry left one thing out of his piece on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry ("Of sex and injustice," Nov. 24): It is sexist. A female…
Beware of the sharks
Medical marijuana authorization clinics are cropping up all over the place. Grow schools and hydroponic equipment stores are getting to be part of the landscape. The state has received some 60,000 applications for medical marijuana cards and the number is growing daily. Although getting the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act passed took years, it seems that…
Music for Art’s sake
When Sean Dobbins assembled his band the Modern Jazz Messengers, he knew he had a lot to live up to. Naming the quintet after the iconic Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers was a bold proclamation given that Blakey’s band was sort of a graduate school for such celebrated jazz stylists as Lee Morgan, Wayne…
