Kyong Park and his talking house
New York artist and architect Kyong Park has much to do with Detroit’s role in the Shrinking Cities project. Though relatively unknown here, he’s known internationally for his Detroit art and architecture projects. In “Detroit: Making It Better For You,” a video Park created, he spins a satirical tale of a 1950s corporate conspiracy to…
Which one is Detroit?
Halle, Germany, could be Grand River. Leipzig sings “The Baroque Blues.” Do you recognize this building? (It’s in Ivanovo, Russia.) Liverpool does “The Eastern Market Tango.” Manchester does “The Hudson’s Rubble.” Read more about Shrinking Cities: Detroit is not alone Kyong Park and his talking house Ghetto palm Detroit’s contributions to Shrinking Cities Contraction…
Monk in Paris: Live at the Olympia
These are glory days for fans of Thelonious Monk. Columbia is reissuing material from the pianist’s late-life commercial heyday in the 1960s. There’s Solo Monk, for instance, with additional tunes and alternate takes for completists; there’s the reissue of Underground which restores the tunes to their full, unedited lengths, delivering a Monk classic de-compromised. But…
December 10-16, 2003
10 WED • THEATER Nutcracker’s Nuts — In 2001, Broadway Onstage brought down the house with this hilarious holiday-themed comedy; it has since become a tradition. Penned by local author Dennis Wickline, the play weaves the tale of the residents of a retirement community in northwestern Michigan who decide to stage The Nutcracker for their…
The Deepest End: Live In Concert
Just over a year ago I sat down to interview Warren Haynes, vocalist and fretboard wizard for the mighty Gov’t Mule. We talked about his band’s then-latest releases, The Deep End , Vols. 1 and 2, which saw Haynes, keyboardist Danny Louis and drummer Matt Abts squaring off with a legion of internationally known bassists…
Monkeying around with the holidays
In just a few days, humans around the globe will unite by donning goofy costumes, spreading joy and tidings of good will, and honoring one of the most celebrated figures of popular culture. No, not Santa, you simple-minded fool. The monkey! And, actually, it won’t be many humans and they won’t be spread very far…
Hidden Italian delight
Manager Dean Cicala describes La Dolce Vita as “a little hidden jewel that people are happy to find here.” Sometimes it is simplicity itself that makes a dish. Pasta dishes range from $12-$19. Main courses include too many chicken options, too few veal, two beef, and only one fish option. The gems on the dessert…
Remember Right Now
Beats the hell outta me, pal. I always thought that Tora Tora would become one of America’s great rock ’n’ roll bands. I mean, if you ever find a copy of their long-deleted first album, Surprise Attack, pick it up and see for yourself if they didn’t deserve their 15 minutes of arena-rock stardom. But…
Ghetto palm
When Ingo Vetter, a German artist, came to Detroit last month for the Shrinking Cities project, he discovered, all over the city, in its parking lots and vacant lots, abandoned structures and trash-dumps, “the ghetto palm.” “They are called ghetto palm because you mainly find them in corners nobody takes care about,” and because they…
Laptopless vs. scantly clad
For several years now, there’s been an extremely interesting debate in the electronic music community over what’s more boring: watching a laptop performance or seeing a live set in the traditional sense (with lots of gear and knob twiddling). As it turns out, the answer is that the question itself couldn’t possibly be more stupid.…
Billy Talent
A cursory glance at any of the advance reviews will reveal that these Billy boys are already being touted as bona fide contenders in the punk-influenced hard-rock sweepstakes, albeit in a classically derivative kinda way. And although it’s true that Billy Talent is from Toronto, please don’t hold that against the band because the Canadian…
Scrooge this
The holidays often require you to squelch your inner Scrooge. Take, for instance, the times you have to resist asking your favorite aunt for a gift receipt after she gives you poinsettia-embroidered towels or a sweater bearing pictures of frolicking snowmen. You know the season will be brighter if you just accept such things for…
Cruise, too controlled
With the star producing and Edward Zwick (known for Glory and Legends of the Fall) directing, Tom Cruise’s plays a Civil War vet who travels to Japan to help train the imperial army to fight the samurai rebels. Changing sides to fight with the noble guys, he leads them in doomed last stand in an…
The real question at DMC
Nearly four years ago, when Mike Duggan announced he was running for Wayne County prosecutor, I was appalled. For more than a dozen years, the politically savvy Duggan had been chief deputy to Boss Ed McNamara, the county executive. That meant that Duggan was really chief enforcer for what was Michigan’s last great odorous political…
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
Ten years in the making, this documentary follows the tragic story of Chinese-occupied Tibet. But beyond the bloodshed and oppression, there’s a lesson in the unearthly devotion of Tibetan monks who have been imprisoned and tortured for 20-plus years, yet still hold onto their faith and forgive their persecutors.
Contraction action
Shrinking Cities presents Detroit as a classic example of suburbanization, in which much of the population moved outside of the city during a 50-year process. Here are some stats on Detroit and the other focus cities, as presented by Shrinking Cities: Detroit developed from 1900 as the center of the global auto industry. In 1930,…
Tokyo Story
The
masterpiece among the four Yasujiro Ozu films showing during the Detroit Film Theatre’s celebration of the master filmmaker’s centennial. An elderly couple from the country make what they know will be a last trip to see their grown children in the city. The cultural details may seem strange but the feelings involved are universal.
A very late show
You can swear up and down and carp and moan about rock being long dead, left to nestle in the top layer of the earth’s surface amid clods of petrified matter, dirt and crag; forever constrained, stuck in the ground, permanent. Well, that’s rock. It just sits there. If you don’t watch your step, you’re…
Honey
Try mixing a "Making The Video" segment with 8 Mile, add a healthy dose of Jessica Alba’s midriff, and you’ve got Honey, in which Alba’s belly button does more emoting than the rest of her body combined. Success stumbles onto Alba’s character, as she goes from teaching hip-hop dancing in the hood to VIP video…
Hamtramck gallery gives a bit
Just past six months into its tenure, Hamtramck’s new Primary Space gallery has found its stride, so to speak. Strangely enough, it’s with a somewhat disjointed group show, a motley crew of mostly unknowns. Who knew? Opening in June of this year, gallery partners Carrie Hazel and Jamie Latendresse (both formerly of CPOP) got by…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Six miles from Maui is a Hawaiian island that tourists never visit — Kahoolawe. The U.S. Navy seized it in 1941 and used it as a target range for decades. After years of protests by native Hawaiians, the Navy finally stopped bombing and began a clean-up campaign. Last month it formally…
Letters to the Editor
Wrong questions Rather than make personal attacks on Channel 7 reporter Steve Wilson (“Role reversal,” Metro Times, Nov. 26-Dec. 2), perhaps Jeremy Voas’ readers would have been better served by researching the issues that Wilson raised in his investigation. Wilson’s personal shortcomings and alleged unlawful behavior have absolutely no effect on the spending habits of…
Viva Los Straitjackets!
Las Vegas, September, 2003: The annual punk, garage and rockabilly music festival, the Las Vegas Rockaround, has descended upon an otherwise dingy, off-the-beaten-Strip casino. Starkly beautiful and bitchy Bettie Page wannabes fill the hallways, casting nasty glances at any broad with less than 50 percent of her arms inked in tattoos. The guys, with their…
Transit authority
Maybe it has something to do with youth, but it’s rare to hear a jazz band that plays all-original music. Ann Arbor-based Urban Transport refuses to build a set from recycling old songs. This is noteworthy at a time when too many local jazz ensembles play it safe and rely on standard material. The instrumental…
Poet of disappointment
When he died on his 60th birthday on Dec. 12, 1963, Yasujiro Ozu was one of the most popular and honored filmmakers in his native Japan. And yet he was an obscure figure in the West, where his films were rarely seen before the 1970s. It was said that Ozu didn’t travel well, that he…
A century’s treasures
Where else can a metro Detroiter take in sculpture by de Kooning, smoking lips by Wesselmann, a four-paneled piece by Roy Lichtenstein, weird new contemporary work by Tony Matelli, furniture designed by Charles and Ray Eames and Saarinen, the abstract geometry of Harry Bertoia’s metalwork, the blatant realism of Duane Hanson’s “Body Builder” and elegant…
Anatomy of a turn-on
Q: On “The Sopranos,” a hunk went to the bathroom, where he died, and the camera caught the actor sitting with his pants and shorts down around his ankles. It made me so hot I whacked off immediately. Also, I found a picture of an opera staged in Barcelona where six men were sitting on…
Rage against the voting machine
We weirdoes at New Hits like nothing more than to digest arcane publications and Web sites, the bloviations of conspiracy theorists, wacko rabble and wing nuts the world over. It’s infinitely entertaining and good for the self-esteem. But all too often, there’s an element of truth behind the agitprop that crackles and foments in the…
Detroit’s contributions to Shrinking Cities
Art and architecture projects representing Detroit in the international Shrinking Cities project have been chosen by the project’s three Detroit curators: Mitch Cope, director of the Tangent Gallery; Kyong Park, a New York artist and ex-Detroiter who’s created international art projects focusing on Detroit; and Dan Pitera, director of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center at…
Trailing the Tractor
A West Bloomfield Township home owned by Detroit high school hoops and U-M legend and current NBA baller Robert “Tractor” Traylor has become a neighborhood nuisance. Traylor, who plays for the New Orleans Hornets, has been sent a notice of code violation by West Bloomfield’s Code Enforcement Division. The reason? Soil erosion. His house has…
Detroit is not alone
Hold onto your armchairs, tireless Detroit history experts, for this could send ripples through countless late-night debates on the state of the city and its rightful place on the globe: Detroit is not the planet’s sole victim of postindustrial abandonment and blight. Despite perpetual discussion on why Detroit is singular in its pitiful, deserted yet…
Holy MOSES
If News Hits were monotheistic, we’d get on our knees and beseech the almighty to lead MOSES to the promised land. And we aren’t talking about the man who brought the tablets down the mountain. We are referring to the 80 metro-Detroit churches that make up the Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength. MOSES, along with…
Y bother?
An empty five-story building looms over Clark Park in Southwest Detroit. Boards cover the insides of the first-floor windows. Trash and weeds are scattered on the front lawn. Not long ago, the 88,000-square-foot structure — originally a YMCA — bustled with activity. Students from Western International High School, which sits across from the former YMCA,…
In Plainview
The construction of this residence at 13989 Plainview cheered Brightmoor residents. But elation evaporated when progress on the home came to an abrupt halt more than a year ago, leaving it incomplete and uninhabited. “This is a house a family could be living in and buying,” says neighborhood activist Loretta Hudson. “The last construction work…
