Cover Story
How the Capitol exploded
Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of the story that appears in this week’s print edition of the Metro Times. Michigan is on the verge of doing something that would have been absolutely unthinkable even a few years ago. Unless there is a dramatic turnaround, this state — a place that helped give…
City Slang: AntiFreeze lineup change
Everyone at the Metro Times would like to wish Andre Williams well, after the legendary “Bacon Fat” man suffered a stroke. Get well soon, sir. As a result, Williams has obviously had to pull out of January’s AntiFreeze Blues Festival in Ferndale. According to the organizers, “Larry McCray will be taking his place that evening.…
City Slang: Jazz Experiences at the DSRP
There’s a new Jazz Experience program at the Detroit School of Rock and Pop. According to the school’s website, “Utilizing their unique ability to provide meaningful mentorship and instruction combined with unparalleled real-world experiences, the program will consist of weekly rehearsals, recording opportunities, concerts, events, and even their own television specials. Small group training will…
City Slang: Patti Smith at the Masonic
Patti Smith plays the Masonic Temple tonight, Sunday, December 16, as part of the Christmas Jubilee. Tickets start at $25, though front row seating is available for $100. Doors are at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 7. Other performers include Ty Stone, Sponge’s Vinnie Dombroski, Don Duprie, the Thornbills, Chef Chris, the Curmudgeons,…
City Slang: Katie Grace gets into the Christmas spirit with WDET
Katie Grace will perform on WDET’s Christmas program, airing on December 23 at 3 p.m., Christmas Eve at 2 p.m., and Christmas Dat at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. They say, “Detroit’s best bad girl will be a featured artist at Small’s Holiday Jam on Sunday, December 23 at 10:00 pm, 8 p.m. doors. She…
The Hobbit
The Hobbit | B If there’s one word that describes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, it’s "more." More action. More digital effects. More characters. More background exposition. More time in the Shire. More, more, more. And that’s not a good thing. There’s a point at which it seems some directors can no longer be told…
Bloviators and bomb throwers
M.L. Elrick, a former Free Press investigative reporter and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, delivered a few solid body blows to one of his erstwhile co-workers this week, business writer Tom Walsh. Elrick, who’s now at Fox 2, used his Facebook page to rightly take Walsh to task for a recent Freep column about the volatile…
Calendar Keeps Ringing: Holiday-HandGrenades / Strung-Out in Found Sound / Sights’ Waltz / FernCare Benefit
Everything all the time… –> Tomorrow night at Found Sound Records in Ferndale, progressive label Dead Letter Office will attempt caputring a night of spoken word art, starting around 7:30 pm: Phreddy Wischusen (a musical, meta-master-of-surrealist ceremonies-type), Steven Puwalski (a motor-mouthed, bearded-bard of re-invented no-wave-raked communal creativity) and incorrigible/unstoppable word-spooling Josh Malerman (of the High…
City Slang: Bill Grogan’s Goat to record Celtic rock tribute
Local Celtic rockers Bill Grogan’s Goat will record a track for Horslips – A Celtic Rock Tribute, an album being organized by the Shite n’ Onions website. They say, “Other bands featured on the tribute album include The Mahones, Mark Cunningham, The Gobshites w/Marky Ramone, The Radiators, The Indulgers, Larkin Brigade, Dun Ringles, Black 47,…
Any Day Now
Any Day Now | B Alan Cumming is one of those actors who’s always made a good impression but has never really stood out from the crowd. Whether it’s been his choice of projects (he’s played everything from Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 to a Spy Kids villain — with lots of television before and after)…
City Slang: The Ruiners get Handcuffed
This Saturday, December 15, the Ruiners will play Northern Lights on a bill with Chicago’s the Handcuffs. Show starts at 10, and cover is $5. We all know how good a live show our own Ruiners put on, and the fact that their new album is awesome. Apparently these Handcuffs ain’t too shabby either. A…
Justice distorted
The first time Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray and Korey Wise were in front of the camera for an important reason; it was the April 1989 video confessions they gave to police admitting to having raped and nearly killed a female jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The Central Park Five…
Doll parts apart
Margaret Doll Rod plays Saturday, Dec.15, at Small’s, 10339 Conant, Hamtramck; 313-873-1117; sharing the bill with the Seatbelts and Circus Boy. She’ll also be part of the Friday, Dec. 14, birthday celebration by promoter and ubiquitous scene presence Stirling at Corktown Tavern, 1716 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-964-5103. Between 1994 and 2007, the Demolition…
Right-wing power grab
After years studying the oppressive regimes of Eastern Europe, I knew exactly what to call what happened with "Right to Work" in Lansing last week: fascism with a human face. Or, perhaps, tyranny without a tie. The way legislation was rammed through in a single day would have been admired by all of those puppet…
Can you get a signal?
How Cellphone Companies Have Resisted Rules for Disasters by Cora Currier ProPublica, Dec. 3, 2012, 9:16 a.m. In a natural disaster or other emergency, one of the first things you’re likely to reach for is your cellphone. Landlines are disappearing. More than 30 percent of American households now rely exclusively on cellphones. Despite that, cell…
Shut Up and Play the Hits
Shut Up and Play the Hits | B+ Not all bands burn out, break up or fade away. This one … just stopped. The scene: This self-described "fat guy in a T-shirt," wakes up alone in bed, just eight hours after performing before tens of thousands of howling, jumping and jiving fans under laser lights.…
Child Bite – Vision Crimes (Joyful Noise Recordings)
Child Bite has honed a palpably rhythmic-centric blend of metal, hardcore punk and noise-pop throughout the band’s last few albums. With this latest 10-inch vinyl release, the local quartet is closer than ever, scarily so, to perfecting it. The opening track sounds, feels and moves like a kamikaze Tilt-o-Whirl, spurting sparks and wobbling off its…
Bad Brains – Into the Future (Megaforce)
The Jah-preaching hardcore relics return with a procedural album to follow up 2007’s Build a Nation. Bad Brains built their name on frenetic, high-energy music that shook the established sound. Into the Future can therefore best be called tame. There are H.R.’s signature spasmodic cadences and flashes of days of yore. "Yes I" and "Suck…
AC/DC – Live at River Plate (Columbia)
The release of this double-disc set of ferocious recordings from dates in Buenos Aires a few years back should be a treat for rock fans. It finds AC/DC in great form and pace, ripping through standards as well as plentiful material from the outstanding Black Ice album at the stadium of one of Argentina’s two…
Letters to the Editor
The Hantz chance I’m writing in response to Larry Gabriel’s column about Hantz Farms ("Sticky thicket," Dec. 5). As a resident of Van Dyke/St. Paul area (right at the edge of the Hantz Farms target area), I’ve seen the value of my home, which was worth $200,000 in 2005, plummet; in 2009 it was appraised…
Food Stuff
The other Puck drops — Local diners barely had time to mourn the loss of Wolfgang Puck Grille before the upscale chain opened an Italian-themed bistro and, now, a steakhouse, with Wolfgang Puck Steak, both at MGM Grand Detroit Casino. Puck says the new venue was created specifically for Detroit, featuring a broad menu of…
Plug + gas = Question for Dan
Q: At a dinner party, a straight man put a question to my boyfriend and me. He assumed that we, being gay men, would have an answer for him. We did not, Dan, and so we turn to you. What happens to one if one has to fart while one is wearing a butt plug?…
The Central Park Five
The Central Park Five | B- It’s tempting to give the sober and cogent The Central Park Five a better rating than it deserves in an attempt to show solidarity with the teens who were so despicably denied justice. It’s an important piece of recent history that speaks to ongoing issues that vex American society…
Ke$ha – Warrior (RCA)
What the hell to make of Ke$ha? Outwardly, she seems to factor in all the basics of lowest-common-denominator pop: Generic club beats? Bafflingly dumb lyrics? Auto-tuned vocals? Check, check, check. But then there’s the other side of her — the 1500 on her SATs, the Flaming Lips collaboration, her surprising songwriting ability — that leaves…
Playing for Keeps
Playing for Keeps | C Gerard Butler barely breaks a sweat as the roguishly handsome and perennially unreliable George Dreyer, a former top-flight soccer star who has retired to the D.C burbs to be close to his young son, and, secretly, to be a lot closer to his ex-wife, Stacie, played crisply by Jessica Biel.…
Winning plays
Tap Inside the MGM Grand Detroit Casino 1777 Third St., Detroit 313-465-1234 mgmgranddetroit.com/tap Open 4 p.m.-2 a.m. daily. Kitchen is open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, 4-11 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. Opens at 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays for special football games. When deciding to open a new tavern inside downtown’s MGM Grand Detroit casino, general manager Steve…
The Detroit Film Critic’s Society Has Spoken… Almost
So, as The Metro Times’ intrepid film critics Corey and I are part of the illustrious DFCS (Detroit Film Critic’s Society), which, like film critic societies across the country is far too male and far too white for my tastes. Nevertheless, as one of those said white males, I am loathe to give up my…
