Cover Story
The end of the world as we know it
It was easy to dismiss all the hype surrounding the auspicious date of Dec. 21, 2012. There was the far-out talk of Mayan prophecy and the galactic alignment lighting up the pop-culture lens that envisions the apocalypse. There were even the extraterrestrials, about to return. But even the true believers in Mayan folklore and its…
City Slang: I Love Lightning Bugs readers album of 2012
We are naming I Love Lightning Bugs’ Kensington album the City Slang Readers Choice Album of 2012. Of course, they were the only band smart enough to post a link on their Facebook page and send out a mass tweet, but who cares? They used their heads. Self-promotion is to be admired in a hard-working…
City Slang: A New Year’s Bang
Paxahau, the peeps behind the Movement Festival, are hosting an electronic New Year’s Eve extravaganza at the Palace of Auburn Hills featuring Skrillex and Boys Noize. According to the event page, “The headliners are bringing friends from OWSLA and Boys Noize Records to the birthplace of techno for what is sure to be an unforgettable…
City Slang: Glitter Trash New Year at the Lager House
Still wondering what to do for New Year on Monday night? Well, sleaze punks Glitter Trash are playing the Lager House. Steffie & the Dirty Virgins and the Reelers are also on the bill, so expect genders to be gleefully mixed in the best possible way. It’s a no-holds-barred, leave-your-apprehensions-at-the-door night of mayhem and debauchery.…
City Slang: What was your album of the year?
Right now, we are gathering polls from critics and musicians and we’ll be posting a bunch of Top Tens in the New Year. However, it’d be good to get your opinion. Let us know your favorite local album, local song, national album and/or national song from 2012 and we’ll publish some of them in a…
City Slang: Belle Isle to host Orion Fest
A stunning bit of news this – not only is Metallica bringing its stellar Orion Fest to Detroit but the Bay Area thrash metal giants are actually coming into the city and planning to plant the festival on Belle Isle, rather than the DTE Energy Music Theater (or somewhere like that). Fans of all styles…
City Slang: Detroit School of Rock and Pop winter series
The Detroit School of Rock & Pop will host a winter concert series in 2013. They say, “Starting this January, The Detroit School of Rock and Pop Music will become a Friday night venue for an intimate “micro” concert series. The evenings will provide a free music “clinic” early in the evening for students to…
Les Misérables
Les Misérables | B- Caked in dirt, lips quivering with emotion, her lovely hair hacked to a patchy mess, Anne Hathaway powers through a show-stopping rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream,” a mesmerizing performance in which the savvy actress cries on cue and pitches her sweet voice to an octave she’s sure that only Oscar…
Holiday grab bag
Q: I just started an intense relationship with a guy who has a boyfriend. This guy and I love each other. However, he is uncomfortable with me meeting his boyfriend. I’ve asked if it’s OK that we’re fucking, and he said they’re in an open relationship so it’s OK. I asked if it’s OK that…
‘Tis the Season to be Jolly
Starting this weekend, from Dec. 28 to Jan. 1, the seventh annual MittenFest takes place at Woodruff’s Bar in Ypsilanti. What was a fairly modest affair at its inception has grown into a mega festive extravaganza featuring heaps of new local talent. Organizer Brandon Zwagerman says that the first MittenFest was Dec. 23, 2006, a…
Another year shot
Well, we’re almost through another year, though in the trite, overused, yet accurate and immortal words of the Prophet Yogi … it really ain’t over till it’s over. And hopefully, by this time next year, the secret Communist forces that we’ve gradually secreted in Cheyenne Mountain will be hunting down the last free, patriotic Americans…
The thick of it
Ajishin Sushi & Noodles 42270 Grand River Ave., Novi; 248-380-9850: Ajishin’s udon soup is extraordinary. The base broth is developed from seaweed and fish and has so much umami flavor going on it’s like a black hole for hangovers or the common cold. The namesake of the soup, the udon noodle, is a thick, wheat-based…
Union blues & Detroit’s red ink
The coalition of unions representing city of Detroit employees held a press conference last week to declare that they are trying to help solve the city’s financial problems, but no one seems too interested in listening to what they have to say. "A chief problem is that both the state and the city have ignored…
Cue Mulenga
I was walking down Woodward Avenue near Grand Circus Park; the wind was cutting through my pants as winter finally started to show some teeth. I saw Mulenga Harangua walking along with what looked like an old, bent pool cue in his hand, peeping in the windows of storefronts. The cue stick looked more like…
Filling Station
Vinsetta Garage 27799 Woodward Ave., Berkley 248-548-7711 vinsettagarage.com Handicap accessible Appetizers, soups & salads: $3.95-$7.50 Sandwiches & pizza: $6.95-$14.50 Entrées: $10.50-$33 Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday Few restaurant openings this year have generated the incredible hype that surrounded the resurrection of Vinsetta Garage, the auto shop-turned-trendy restaurant on Woodward in…
This Is 40
This Is 40 | C Essentially a lengthy home movie about the fabulously successful and esteemed comedy director Judd Apatow and his photogenic family, This is 40 instead casts as its lead the more handsome and endearing Paul Rudd. Apatow’s real-life wife Leslie Mann, and their daughters Maude and Iris, play very thinly disguised versions…
The Guilt Trip
The Guilt Trip | C+ Like Chinese restaurants, The Guilt Trip gives Jewish-Americans an excuse to get out of the house on Christmas Day. And Bubbe can come along too! Seth Rogen plays Andy Brewster, an organic chemist who is desperately trying to find a chain store willing to carry his new Earth-friendly cleaning…
City Slang: Christmas in Detroit
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers for a spectacular 2012, and wish you a wonderful Christmas and holidays. Here’s a tasty little video clip, featuring Tino Gross and most of the Howling Diablos plus Dave Edwards of the Look performing as Funky Daddy & the Detroit Demolition called Christmas…
