Cheapskate celebration
When an occasion is truly special, home is the only place to celebrate in a way that defines your personal style. All it takes is a few significant items, a special place, and the right combination of reverence and fun.
Low lights, cool jazz
Located in the former digs of fellow jazz hang The Bird of Paradise, Ann Arbor’s Firefly Club is a snazzy jazz bar that exudes an understated elegance. It’s nostalgic. It’s inviting. It’s oh so satisfying. The perfectly lit room radiates in soothing lilac and purple. From the exposed brick, the votive candles, the deco-influenced decor,…
The Emperor’s New Groove
A cavalcade of cartoon characters — mutated from American pop culture, inexplicably, as Mayans — plays out a failed version of Disney’s routine tale of adventurous, comic redemption in the studio’s latest animated feature: with no groove, no soul at all.
Gadgets galore
A simple pickle picker-upper was responsible for starting an ever-growing collection of kitchen gadgets … try one or two of our gadget-collector’s favorites.
Letters to the Editor
Wrong word I am writing on behalf of the Arc Detroit, the local chapter of a national organization advocating on behalf of people with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities and their families. The purpose of this letter is to protest in the strongest terms possible Liz Langley’s derogatory use of the word “retard” in…
Savory Spanish holiday
Authentic Flamenco over dinners of tapas and paella, all in your local Holiday Inn. Empanadas, three varieties of paella, plus a variety of seafood, meat and poultry entrées. Desserts include a classic flan, very rich, sitting in a pool of caramelized sugar with its lingering smoky flavor.
Think differently
Behold, this is Sega’s glory stance: Rocketed by rival Sony’s inability to manufacture PS2 units in time for holiday shopping warfare, the Dreamcast is finally given due recognition as an overflowing powerhouse of gaming majesty. For only $149 and 50 coins per game, why not scream “Sega?” Here are two reasons to wear out your…
Choose the cream
Forget Christmas. Celebrate Festivus with fatty frozen treats!…
Opening nights
With the coming new year, Detroit’s nightlife comes of age….
Proof of Life
In Proof of Life, based on William Prochnow’s Vanity Fair article, "Adventures in the Ransom Trade," war is business and business war. Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan depict the dilemma of their characters with depth and intelligence, both bound by duties that seem to go increasingly against their hearts.
New music: Gulfs of Silence
Gidon Kremer is a violinist for the 21st century. This set of works by contemporaries Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass and Vladimir Martynov takes listeners for the deeply feeling, intelligent creatures that classical music has always wished them to be. Pärt, of course, is renowned for his undivided attention to the spiritual in music, of the…
Moc your socks off
Keep your feet warm, dry and multicolored…
Zoom, zoom, zoom
The more you hurry, the more you fall behind….
An Affair of Love
In this film, the French title of which is Une Liaison Pornographique, a woman (Nathalie Baye) and man (Sergi Lopez) initially meet for a one-time tryst. Their anonymous affair, initiated to fulfill a sexual fantasy, develops into something more.
New Music: Gulfs of Silence
The music composed by Georgian expatriate Giya Kancheli always raises the weightiest issues: “Grief, regret, the repudiation of violence. Hope predominates over happiness and joy,” he writes in the liner notes to this new release. Of the two tone poems for orchestra recorded here, the first, “Simi,” is subheaded “Joyless thoughts for violoncello and orchestra.”…
Picture this
Be a champ – get your photo on a box of Wheaties…
Yes, they stole the election
It is hardly possible to imagine a worse end to the presidential election. Never before has the Supreme Court befouled itself in such a way.
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
While the kindergarten set snickers at the jokes, the butt of which are … well, butts, Mommy and Daddy might find a social satire under the “ripey diapies.” The Rugrats could be called the baby-in-laws of TV’s “The Simpsons” fostered by the same producer, Gabor Csupo.
New Music: Gulfs of Silence
The music composed by Georgian expatriate Giya Kancheli always raises the weightiest issues: “Grief, regret, the repudiation of violence. Hope predominates over happiness and joy,” he writes in the liner notes to this new release. Of the two tone poems for orchestra recorded here, the first, “Simi,” is subheaded “Joyless thoughts for violoncello and orchestra.”…
Fashion records
Dress like a playa…
Voting rights rescinded
That feeling right there is what is causing African-Americans across the country to question whether the Voting Rights Act was ever really the law we thought it was…
Vertical Limit
The world of this flick is Hollywood big with hyperreal climbing stunts, explosions and computer graphic-enhanced avalanches: It’s a thrill ride. But as Hollywood as it looks, at its heart a family drama motivates this tale of man (and woman) against nature.
New Music: Gulfs of Silence
The Italian title of this divine set translates as “Elegy for a shadow.” Dedicated to the violinist’s deceased mother, it has the aura of a profound tribute, as much to a musical attitude as to a person. In prelude to this program of primarily Italian New Music, and twice again before its end, Makarski offers…
Atop the pot
Custom colors for your commode…
Just play "Jingle Balls"
Rock and Roll Santa and a rapping elf at the Fox Theatre … Seeking refuge from the frigid weather at the Woodward Avenue Brewery … & a lament on Tiger greed.
Gulfs of silence
“Granum Sinapis” for a cappella choir, the first of three works by contemporary French composer Pascal Dusapin on this disc, is based on a text by the 14th century German mystic, Meister Eckhart, which reads, “It is light, it is brightness,/It is darkness too,/It is unnamed,/It is unknown.” However, the music seems to set up…
Man of the year
For all of us who don’t play an instrument and don’t sing that well, Harry Smith proves that a mere record collector can change the course of music. When Smith accepted his Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in February 1991, just nine months before his death, he declared, “I’m glad to say that my dreams…
Talking to The Man
An MT exclusive interview with the jolly one himself….
Our finest
Compiling the best of 2000 from Detroit artists, DJ’s, and musical patrons.
Slay that punky music
The Brothers Chemical (aka Tom and Ed) have, er, come a long, long way, baby. They’ve had to prove that they were more than just the archetypal purveyors of big beat and distance themselves from the ever-dumber (or is it more dumb?) dance-floor crowd that jumped on the bandwagon after they completed the first successful…
Man of the year
For all of us who don’t play an instrument and don’t sing that well, Harry Smith proves that a mere record collector can change the course of music. When Smith accepted his Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in February 1991, just nine months before his death, he declared, “I’m glad to say that my dreams…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Happy Holy Daze, Aries! I meditated on what holiday gifts might motivate you to take maximum advantage of your astrological opportunities in 2001. Here’s what I came up with: 1. An antique slot machine. It would serve as a symbolic statement that all of your impulsive risks and odds-are-stacked-against-you gambles are…
Justice steps in
Finally, a federal investigation of Detroit police…
Select blues
Unless you’re one of those longtime hardcore blues fans who takes pride in the amount of research you’ve done to find out the stuff few other blues fans know, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve never heard of Jimmy Johnson. Chalk this one up to yet another of the best blues cats you woulda, shoulda…
Man of the year
For all of us who don’t play an instrument and don’t sing that well, Harry Smith proves that a mere record collector can change the course of music. When Smith accepted his Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in February 1991, just nine months before his death, he declared, “I’m glad to say that my dreams…
Will work for love
Q: For 10 months, I dated the most incredible girl. She really loved me. I told her that I didn’t know if I loved her, but I hoped that I would eventually. This hurt her, as did my taking her and our relationship for granted. Two months ago, she broke up with me, but we’ve…
More cops
News Hits’ suggestions to the feds in Detroit police probe…
Think differently
Behold, this is Sega’s glory stance: Rocketed by rival Sony’s inability to manufacture PS2 units in time for holiday shopping warfare, the Dreamcast is finally given due recognition as an overflowing powerhouse of gaming majesty. For only $149 and 50 coins per game, why not scream “Sega?” Here are two reasons to wear out your…
Man of the year
For all of us who don’t play an instrument and don’t sing that well, Harry Smith proves that a mere record collector can change the course of music. When Smith accepted his Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in February 1991, just nine months before his death, he declared, “I’m glad to say that my dreams…
Reluctant hero
Scott Gwinnell’s Jazz Orchestra is a gift to players and listeners alike….
Darth Vega
Detroit Newspaper CEO offers hard-to-reach bonus for returning workers
Deep cuts
White women should wonder about the photographs of Helmut Newton — as should all women and men. Who are these figures populating worlds of opulence and isolation who seem to have everything — mansions, swimming pools, great bodies, sexy clothes and toys (human or otherwise) — that glossy magazines dangle like exotic treasures beyond our…
Changing positions
• Recently, a woman wrote to ask you for advice regarding painful intercourse because her lover’s penis hurts her cervix when he thrusts. One thing I did not see mentioned in your response or in the comments of others is that the position of a woman’s cervix tends to change throughout her cycle, and also…
Recall this
Hamtramck mayor Zych beats recall attempt…
Beyond good and evil
Set within the milieu of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade’s erotically sinister fairy tale of agonizing pleasures and a reversal of fortune comes to its lurid climax short-circuiting sex, violence and politics in an ejaculation of gore — with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix and Michael Caine.
Party pressure
The ultimate New Year’s soiree is about more than just paper hats and noisemakers….
Hail to the thief
The Supreme Court’s horrid decision may have thrown us off guard, but we must be inspired to fight back instead.
What Women Want
What women want, in director Nancy Meyers’ opinion, is a little respect. It’s a ballsy move for pretty-boy action hero Mel Gibson to tackle a role where he’s not just parodying a sensitive man but actually becomes a vulnerable one. Gibson delivers — with Helen Hunt and Alan Alda.
Down the habit hole
Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs. —Lily Tomlin I probably know as much about aliens as anyone they’ve ever probed, and as much about zombies, ghosts and extraterrestrial cattle as Mulder and Scully put together. If a show has a name like “The Unexplained,” “In Search Of” or “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,”…
Carson’s OK
Insane Clown Posse takes on NYC and TRL…
State and Main
As director David Mamet (House of Games, The Winslow Boy) deftly shows in his new film about filmmaking, it takes just as much effort and commitment to make a bad movie as it does to make a good one — with Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker.
What’s your party type?
Discover the secret to your own ideal New Year’s event….
Rah rah
Serious sports talk now on the Detroit radio dial…
Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation (2000)
Hey kids, it’s time for Spike & Mike’s annual antidote to all that wretched holiday niceness and bogus good cheer. As usual, only about a third of the entries really qualify as both sick and twisted, but they’re doozies. Enjoy (you sick bastards).
Playlist salad
It’s not so hard to cater to everyone’s musical tastes….
Rush backs up
Smelly ol’ Rush Limbaugh finds a new spot on the Detroit dial…
Dude, Where’s My Car?
This stoner mystery recycles tried and occasionally true gags packaged for today’s teenage audience. But some things are funny no matter how many times you see them. And at the heart of this film is the timeless struggle between stoners, jocks and nerds, something we can all relate to.
