IT’S NICE TO BE A GENIUS
There have, of course, been many differing opinions regarding our recent Detroit’s 100 Greatest Songs cover feature, to the point that some of the more uninformed ones made me blow an Internet gasket last week (well, sort of — people should be aware that I had a big smile on my face the entire time…
THE WASMOPOLITAN ROAD TRIP
As was noted on this site several times over the past two months, producer, songwriter and Was (Not Was) cofounder Don Was was recently in town to record and film a slew of new Detroit music for his part of the MyDamnChannel Web site. Cool excerpts from a majority of this stuff is now up…
SOUR CREEM
There were also plenty of smarmy and catty anonymous comments on the New York Observer’s website this week, some of them way more immature (and a few just as uninformed) as the ones on webvomit — which is extra depressing, since I can bet that at least a few of the comments were posted by…
VOTE NOW! VOTE OFTEN!
By the way, speaking of the Top 100 Detroit Songs list, don’t forget to submit your own list. We’ll be tabulating them in the very near future and the results will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Metro Times. Go here to post your choices. Marvin Gaye: As good as Ted Nugent?
THINKING OUT LOUD…
Sorry this blog hasn’t been updated in a while. That Detroit Top 100 Songs list, coming as it did on the short Thanksgiving week, took a lot out of us. And then I’ve always found Thanksgiving to be a semi-depressing, or at least bittersweet, holiday, although I did enjoy spending the first in a very…
Conyers’ hard choice
An expert on impeachment says not this time.
From Tina Fey to Tolstoy
So what. Old what’s-his-name still heads the free world. The economy’s still in the sewer. And we live in the empty, war-ghetto age of the narcissist. But should you be stuck for ideas on how to smartly part with your cash in this season of conscripted consumption, we’ve got a ton of ’em — mostly…
Running numbers
Barack Obama and the black-on-black poll.
Holiday gift guide – Books
Eyeball-popping tomes and comic book thunder!
Winging it
BCBS changes its mind on who’s an Angel.
Holiday gift guide – DVDs and Games
DVDs and Games that transcend stocking-stuffer status
Oslo’s back
Club is reopening — and returning phone messages.
Holiday gift guide – Music
Cult heroes, back-alley tunesmiths and forgotten soldiers of song.
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Criticizing capitalism
Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life by Robert Reich HarperCollins, $25, 272 pp. The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity by Robert Kuttner Alfred A. Knopf, $26.95, 339 pp. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein Henry Holt and Company, $28, 576…
Globe trot rentals
Escape To Canada The Disinformation Company Ltd. Who’d have thought that Canada, the clean, quiet neighbor to the north of the motherfuckin’ U.S. of A. — the only country in the world that totally knows how to kick serious ass and do everything right — who’d have thought that sweet little Canada had so much…
Ho, ho, ho’s
The great rock novel has never been written, so biographies, memoirs and histories continue to have the most impact. After all, the real Iggy Pop story would’ve made a much more interesting film than what Velvet Goldmine ended up being … and the James Osterberg story gets told quite well in former MOJO editor Paul…
A full menu
The bare tables and paper napkins belie the relative stylishness of the setting, and the huge menu meanders through steaks and seafood to Italian and Greek dishes before it gets to its gastronomic raison d’etre — specialties from Lebanon, with hefty portions averaging around $12, including soup and salad, as well as warm fluffy pita…
Shades of gray
The three-day Ingmar Bergman retrospective, which closes the Detroit Film Theatre’s fall season, pays tribute to the late Swedish filmmaker by showcasing one of his iconic movies with two lesser-known works that illuminate the depth and variety of his nearly 60-year career. When the 89-year-old Bergman died on July 30 (the same day as another…
Nice device
It’s nice to know that, at age 67, Brian De Palma has finally discovered something that really pisses him off. The director of Carrie, The Untouchables and Mission: Impossible has fashioned an entire career out of having a cool, ironic point-of-view and, more often than not, notably calorie-free material: For proof, look no further than…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
The Page Turner
To call The Page Turner a slight film isn’t an insult. It’s part of a vital tradition in French cinema that focuses the camera on the minute details of characters’ lives — the subtle interplays and calmly devastating moments — and creates the movie equivalent of a great short story.
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Our speedy music crit digs through the stacks.
From the cradle
Last year, Detroit saw many talented male poets earn book publication, such as Robert Fanning and Peter Markus. But the tables have turned. In 2007, it’s the ladies who rule. These five books are the best of our very best, and they’re all first books by women. Soluble Fish by Mary Jo Firth Gillett Southern…
Snow, no flakes
The latest in the ski action-feature-travel-comedy genre.
Night and Day
Thursday • 6 Mady Kouyate Harpo Never Played This Harp The harp may be the most angelic instrument, but West Africa’s 21-string version, the kora, has a particularly earthbound heritage. It’s been played by “griots,” who pass on tales of ancestors in the form of songs. Before moving to Michigan, Senegalese-born Mady Kouyate, for instance,…
Gotcha!
Pulling a big, fat switcheroo.
You’re getting warmer
I remember so well the final morning hours of the Kyoto conference. The negotiations had gone on long past their scheduled evening close, and the convention-center management was frantic — a trade show for children’s clothing was about to begin, and every corner of the vast hall still was littered with the carcasses of the…
Letters to the Editor
Hit and miss I was surprised, flattered and glad to see one of my songs on the “Bubbling Under” list (Metro Times, Nov. 21), but was really amazed not to see “Motor City Baby” by The Dirtbombs on any list. Did I overlook it (or did the voters overlook it)? I love that song and…
