Cover Story
Detroit Letters to Santa We’d Like to See
Dear Santa, I’m not gonna lie to ya, I’m getting desperate. In Kyle Quincey, I have the most overpaid chunk of wood in the NHL and my best players are fast approaching their pensions. My players’ teeth are falling out like crabs from a hooker’s G-string. Meanwhile, Zetterberg has fucked up his back. All of…
Metro Times Sold to New Euclid Media Group
In August, it was announced that Times-Shamrock Communications was putting its alternative weekly division up for sale, which included the Metro Times, San Antonio Current, Cleveland Scene, Orlando Weekly and Baltimore City Paper. Today, we can report that Metro Times is now part of the newly-formed, Cleveland-based Euclid Media Group, along with the San Antonio…
Reviewing Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks OST
What says Christmas more than a new Disney movie? Putting cynicism regarding marketing and extreme capitalism to one side, it’s undeniable that Disney retains a certain magic at this time of the year. Think Scrooge McDuck and Disneyworld parades, Fantasia and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas. The child in all of us gets all warm and…
City Slang: Superbomb for Ferndale Library
Local atmospheric rockers Superbomb (featuring members of Black Lodge, Factory Girls and Dead Letters) will perform at Ferndale Library on Friday, January 3. This will be one of the library’s “First Stop Friday” events. According to the band, “The series, curated by the library’s Kelly Bennett, has become a regular fixture in the Ferndale music…
The Top Ten Funniest Detroit Sports GIFs of 2013
It was an eventful year in Detroit sports, full of big wins, big losses and lots of hilarious moments that were deemed GIF worthy by the masses. Things might not have always gone right on the court, ice, diamond or field, but at least there were lighthearted glimpses into stadium life that helped (somewhat) to redeem…
Detroit’s Leg of the ‘Acoustic Guitar Project’ Culminates With a Free Concert Dec. 28 in Troy
It’s been said that a hero is rarely recognized in his hometown. We’ll be able to test the accuracy of that statement on Saturday, Dec. 28. That’s the day Detroit native Dave Adams, founder and prime mover of the international music incubator known as the Acoustic Guitar Project (TAGP), wraps up the local segment of…
Film Review: Inside Llewyn Davis
Inside Llewyn Davis | A A cold, cruel wind cuts through every frame of this brilliant, mysterious and lyrical black comedy, and the chill comes not just from the film’s wintry Manhattan wonderland, but from the ever-bleaker worldview of Joel and Ethan Coen. While there has always been a theme of chaos and existential indifference…
Film Review: Saving Mr. Banks
Saving Mr. Banks C- Even with a heaping spoonful of sugar, Disney’s bullshit revisionist fantasy and bald-faced marketing ploy is a bitter pill to choke down. Did you know that Mary Poppins’ author, P.L. Travers, was a bisexual bohemian actress who hung out with the poet William Butler Yeats and published erotica? You certainly…
What’s the DIA’s collection worth? We now have an idea.
Jean Siméon Chardin’s “Still Life with Dead Hare” (c. 1760) could be worth between $5 and 7 million. Earlier this week, New York-based auction house Christie’s Appraisals turned in a 150-page report regarding the value of the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection. The report, requested by emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr as part of Detroit’s…
Lunchtime Links: You’re using #hashtags wrong, Savage reviews Palin, cartoonists copying cartoonists and more
1) Artist Mike Holmes has an uncanny ability to draw himself and his cat in the styles of other cartoonists. Above, he masterfully copies Gary Larson (The Far Side), Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Maurice Sendak (Where The Wild Things Are) and George Herriman (Krazy Kat). 2) OK, Internet, we need to have a talk… you’re using…
Help for your New Year’s Eve Party
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays by Ree Drummond HarperCollins; $17.99; 400 pp. With stunning photos and directions as clear and illustrated as one could want, author Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays is a fantastic collection of recipes, photos and homespun humor to help you celebrate New Year’s Eve…
Silent Lions, still… (New EP + Mittenfest, Hard Lessons Post-Xmas and Secret Fest)
This might be the third time…fourth?….that I’ve posted about Toledo-reared/Detroit-friendlies Silent Lions. But it’s partly because they keep so busy. Every time I turn around their starting another mini-tour or releasing another single or splattering weird new art on their page or…turning heads over at Pop Matters. They’re very committed, industrious 20-something noise-makers and they’ve…
12th Man Report: Lions players publicly back Schwartz
Over the past three or four weeks, Lions head coach Jim Schwartz has been under fire. Whether from fans or the media, questions have obviously been directed at the team’s leadership during this recent collapse. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press this past week, Ndamukong Suh rhetorically asked, “Am I playing for Jim’s…
Top 10 Coach Freakouts/Rants of 2013
Much to the delight of most sports fans, it’s been another killer year of rage-filled post-game press conferences across the wide world of the major associations. There is truly nothing more magical than watching a coach’s brain explode Scanners-style right in front of your very eyes. With that being said, Southern Illinois basketball coach Barry…
‘Rape Insurance’ Outrage Steels Democrats’ Resolve
If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then imposing a legislative mandate requiring Michigan residents with a vagina to purchase supplemental insurance to protect their constitutional rights could develop into quite a shit-storm. In the aftermath of the Michigan Legislature’s circumvention of the democratic process — after voting to prevent insurance carriers from…
Market North End
Market North End 474 N. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham 248-712-4953 marketnorthend.com Pizzas: $11-$15 Entrées: $14-$35 Handicap accessible Hours: 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-midnight Sunday (kitchen open till 11 p.m., pizzeria till midnight) One of the notable facts about the new Market North End (which is a restaurant, not a market) is how vegetarian-friendly it is,…
Rockin’ Around
Caught myself dancing to “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee this morning. http://www.retrochristmascardcompany.com/ Was it out of compulsion? Perfunctory ceremony? I find Christmas music so beguiling. At one moment I abhor it, and then at another moment, its a salve. Something like super saccharine junk food to take me back to an unburdened childhood, where…
City Slang: Lizzerd is back
Local rockers Lizzerd will reunited for a show at the Old Miami in Detroit on January 4. The original lineup, featuring Anthony Gentile (Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program) and Jheremie Jaque (Zombie Jesus and the Chocolate Sunshine Band), plus members of Err and Sharky & the Habit, recently played together for the first time in a…
20 Local Songs of 2013 (pt 2 of 2)
Continued from the first half of this Top 20…here… ~ 10. Shigeto – Ringleader 9. Zoos Of Berlin – “Movie On August Ray” (Time No Place) 8. Oscillating Fan Club – “Gone Are The Faces” (Bellyache Records) 7. Eddie Logix + Mister + Benjamin Miles – “In The Meantime” (self-release) 6. Duende – “Bleed” (Bellyache…
Michigan, Nation Reacts to ‘Rape Insurance’
Last week, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a measure banning insurance coverage for elective abortion. Under the initiative, private and public health insurance plans are forced to provide a separate policy covering abortions, and would have to be purchased in advance; they could not be purchased once a woman had already become pregnant — even in…
Letters on Snyder, Gawker, The Rockets and more
Grow a Pair Dear Editor: Governor Snyder and Attorney General Schuette must stand up for Detroit’s police and fire fighters’ pensions. The Michigan constitution may not trump federal bankruptcy law or the U.S. Constitution, but it is the law in Michigan, agreed to by the people of this state and supported by its citizens. The…
New Releases by Brendan Benson, Melvin Davis and More
Brendan Benson You Were Right Readymade Records You might refer to Benson as “the other Raconteur,” but that only downplays an excellent yet often overlooked solo career that soundtracked a number of iPod spots and car commercials without boosting the Nashville-via-Detroit rocker into the “household name” category. With the Racs on an unofficial hiatus, Benson…
Rising R&B Star Keely Ferguson
It’s a cold, blustery Wednesday evening in Greektown and a heap of Red Wings fans are in the street heading to the game. Many of them hop on the People Mover to Joe Louis Arena and unknowingly join 24-year-old local musician Keely Ferguson. To say Ferguson looks out of place amongst the sports-crazed crowd and…
DVD Review: The Stuff
The Stuff 1985, 93 Minutes, Rated R Thanks to the glorious people at Netflix, The Stuff is available to watch at will, which is great. Kinda. The Stuff’s star, Michael Moriarty, is a native of Detroit and attended University of Detroit High School. His dad was a staff physician with the Detroit Police Department.…
Wings’ Shootout Losses Gone Too Far
In preparation for a final shootout attempt, Mighty Ducks Coach Gordon Bombay sat in front of his captain Charlie Conway and told him: “One, two, three, triple deke.” His advice for Conway to score (albeit fictional) worked wonders over the years (really, over the three Mighty Ducks movies a la 1992,’94 and ‘96). Which brings…
Detroit’s 2013 Sports Winners and Losers
The interesting dichotomy of the sporting world is the division of a “good” and “bad” realm, a “yin” for every “yang.” For every missed tackle or fake girlfriend scandal, there is another beautiful Bobby Orr-esque goal being scored somewhere, making up for it. So, here are my thoughts on the year’s biggest winners and losers…
City Slang: The Rogue Satellites and Anastasia Gold join forces
Electro-pop duo the Rogue Satellites will join forces with dark cabaret drag queen Anastasia Gold for a killer bill at the Corktown Tavern on Friday, December 27. The bill will also feature Goth-flavored electro rockers Panic or Pain. Doors are at 9, cover is $5. “The Rogue Satellites are Detroit-based intergalactic synth-rock.The space persons are:…
Film Review: American Hustle
American Hustle | A Disco glitter is transformed into fool’s gold in David O. Russell’s outrageously entertaining caper film, very loosely based on the real world “Abscam” busts of the late ’70s, but with an absurdist intensity that brilliantly smudges the line between true-crime and fiction. As a title card asserts, “Some of this actually…
Champagne 101
“Tiny bubbles, in the wine, make me happy, make me feel fine.” That Don Ho, pure genius, I tell ya. As party people all over Detroit mobilize for New Year’s Eve, the Metro Times thought it helpful to give you naves in sparklandia a crash course on the libation of choice for NYE frivolity: Champagne. …
Help For Your Cocktail Party
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays by Ree Drummond HarperCollins; $17.99; 400 pp. With stunning photos and directions as clear and illustrated as one could want, author Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays is a fantastic collection of recipes, photos and homespun humor to help you celebrate New…
Rock N Roll Hall of Fame 2014 Inductees
· Peter Gabriel · Hall and Oates · KISS · Nirvana · Linda Ronstadt · Cat Stevens Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2014 There you have it, music fans. Nirvana’s narrative of mainstream-assimilation of grunge/punk comes full circle as they’re welcomed into The Hall! And fire-spewing, make-up-splattered, libidinous monster rockers KISS are…
The Artwork of Elysia Vandenbussche
Elysia Vandenbussche, owner of Local Portion, accepted the challenge of starting up a company in ceramics without any experience. Local Portion is now a successful Detroit concern focused on the beauty and functionality of simple designs. The company also centers on the relationship between consumers and the product. “In our culture of rush, we are…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, Metro Times, 1200 Woodward Heights, Ferndale MI 48220. Email MP3s and streaming links to [email protected]. When we interviewed Danny & the Darleans’ Danny Kroha a few months back, the Doll Rod, Gories and Readies man told us that the debut album is technically self-titled but,…
12th Man Report: Lions?
Somebody lost this game… It had been 798 days before the Monday Night Football crew had graced Ford Field with their presence. And the last time — the Lions handled the Chicago Bears 24-13, en route to a 10-6 record and their first playoff appearance in well, in that long. And Detroit’s playoff situation prior…
