UPDATED: Burger King employee suckerpunches an elderly customer, kills him
UPDATE Yesterday the BK began serving customers again after the homicide — which is what the cops are now calling it — of 67-year-old Paul Cannon, who was punched in the face by a 20-year-old BK employee. Cannon died from blunt force trauma to the head. From WJBK: Police said that on Thursday afternoon, a…
Remembering James Moody
“My goal in life is to play better tomorrow than I did yesterday,” James Moody told MT’s jazz scribe Charles L. Latimer when they spoke for a January article. “I’m in competition with myself and nobody else.” That Moody vs. Moody competition, that internal drive to best himself as a jazz artist, is over –…
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader GRADE: C- Even the first and worst Harry Potter can fly circles around this lumbering claptrap, so it’s probably not fair to compare this third trip to the Narnia well to the infinitely superior Deathly Hallows. Still, it’s instructive to consider the care and craft…
The Tourist
The Tourist GRADE: C- Not content being the reigning most beautiful woman in the world, Angelina Joile is seemingly attempting to crib the style of screen queens from glamorous days gone by. As a result, The Tourist plays something like a drag ball, as Jolie tries on chic outfits, puts her hair up and cops…
Black Swan
Black Swan GRADE: B Darren Aronofsky directs his films like grunge anthems: moments of hushed moody lyricism that give way to bombastic visuals, in-your-face emotions, and soundtracks that get cranked all the way up to 11. It’s not that he lacks ambition; Aronofsky is nothing if not ambitious. It’s that he doesn’t seem to understand…
Joe Strummer’s back to fight Detroit-Windsor hunger! Arrrghhhgorra buh bhuh do arrrrgggghhhhnnn!!!!
Weird as it sounds, Wednesday, Dec. 22 is, now, officially, Joe Strummer day in the Detroit-Windsor area. Huh? Yup. At least that’s what radio CJAM 99.1 is proclaiming. The FM station is, in fact, planning to spin Joe Strummer music — the singer from the only band that mattered — for 24 hours straight, beginning…
Food Stuff
Eater’s bazaar — The inaugural Detroit Holiday Food Bazaar promises to be an unmatched agglomeration of local culinary expertise, helping connect holiday shoppers with cottage vendors in a festive environment. With no shortage of local sources for locally made gifts of the inedible variety, thanks to new cottage food laws, the last year has seen…
Letters to the Editor
Unfair to teachers Mr. Lessenberry’s attack on public education ("Save our schools," Dec. 1) is full of the same lies that have characterized this so-called debate. He talks about schools churning out "thousands of barely literate high school graduates" and hurting our economy. If he would do some research he would find out that, according…
High society notes
Highest greetings from Amsterdam. I’d like to begin with a salute to a pair of dear friends of mine in Detroit who have just passed from our midst: the poet and composer James Semark, a founder of the Detroit Artists Workshop whose early works were published by the Artists Workshop Press and who struggled to…
Illy Mack
Steve makes sure that when Jen sings, "Get maaad," the music gets mad too. Illy Mack is a minimalist soul-pop duo (singer-keyboardist-guitarist Jennifer David and bassist-drummer Steve Kendzorski) whose charm is born of raw emotion and the ability to translate it into a song and a stage show. David, who’s a lively brunette and a…
Smoked out
Anyone who still thinks Michigan’s medical marijuana law is just some ruse intended to provide partiers with a get-out-of-jail-free card needs to meet Linda Lott. And municipal officials who think they are doing their residents a service by passing ordinances intended to circumvent that voter-approved law need to take notice as well. In fact, the…
Our Bizarro Detroit
It seems that Kwame Kilpatrick just won’t go away. In the past few weeks, the former mayor has garnered more ink in local news pages than the current mayor. And given that the city of Detroit is in multiple crises that Mayor Dave Bing is supposed to be pulling us out of, it seems strange.…
Leadership for sale
Michigan legislators make pretty good money, as state lawmaker salaries go. Every one of our 148 elected representatives will be paid more than $6,600 this month. Paid that by your poor, cash-strapped Michigan, paid with our taxpayer dollars … even though they aren’t doing any more of the people’s business. They’ve knocked off for the…
Fire and spice
Red Smoke Barbeque 573 Monroe St., Detroit 313-962-2100 In the early 20th century, the area along Monroe Avenue between Brush and St. Antoine Streets saw a flood of Greek immigrants. Today, Greektown is primarily a commercial district and the most familiar area for daring suburbanites when they feel the urge to venture out into the…
Bonstelle flips the Mockingbird
At the early December opening of To Kill a Mockingbird at the historic Bonstelle Theatre, the house lights were still on and the modestly sized audience was still finding seats while the stage, unveiled, was finished being dressed. It was the subject of chatter all around. Heads tilted and watched as seemingly random ticket holders…
Backlot
Would you rather spend December in Detroit or Malibu? For some intrepid film crews, the answer is snowy Motown, at least as long as the penny-pinching new regime in Lansing keeps alive the state’s very seasonally appropriate spirit of giving, in the form of huge tax incentives for film production. Ho-ho-ho, Gov.-elect Snyder! Giant Mechanical…
Hair today
There’s a scene in the 1988 movie The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years where Seduce guitarist David Black — looking every bit a Joe Perry-esque rock ‘n’ roll star — is asked by director Penelope Spheeris, "Who’s the biggest band in Detroit?" to which he answers "us." And that was no…
Fan the flames
Last winter, art rockers the Oscillating Fan Club very nearly called it quits. They’d just finished recording their second album, George Washington’s Teeth, but what should’ve been celebration time turned into a bout of mud slinging and bottle throwing. How very rock ‘n’ roll. Thankfully the four men who are OFC (guitarist-vocalist Ray Thompson, bassist-vocalist…
His aim is true
On a recent Thursday afternoon, four generations of College for Creative Studies (CCS) photographers — more than a dozen current students and their teachers, as well as past students who are now teachers — meet at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography to eat pizza, and mine the mind of 92-year-old Detroit photographer Bill Rauhauser.…
Hot dog!
Whatever you want to call it — a hot dog, a frankfurter, a red hot, a wiener — this is one confection that seldom gets the respect it deserves. It’s sort of a sore spot: As Detroiters, we may not be proud enough that our major contribution to Midwestern cuisine is the coney dog. Perhaps…
A truly flaky fetish
Q: I am a woman in a relatively new relationship. Before this guy, I had a deep disgust for anything anal-related. After some dedicated work and anilingus on his part, he’s helped me overcome my fears of the "grossness" of the area and made me an enthusiastic convert — as a recipient. He has expressed…
Looking for real justice
Last Friday, Steve DiPonio, a resident of Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, pleaded not guilty in Wayne County Circuit Court to felony charges related to the October beating of a homeless man, Charles Duncan, also of Corktown. DiPonio, according to witnesses, first used his pickup truck to harass several men, including Duncan, bedding down for the night…
Metro Retro
27 years ago in Metro Times: Richard Alexander reviews the newest of three Thai restaurants in the metro area: Bangkok Cuisine, on 15 Mile Road in Sterling Heights. The piece, titled "Strange invaders," hints at locals’ resistance to new foreign cuisines. "Like their attitude towards their cars, Detroiters tend to be cautious, if not actually…
Franchise yucks
The Man Behind The Nose: Assassins, Astronauts, Cannibals, and Other Stupendous Tales Larry "Bozo" Harmon with Thomas Scott McKenzie Igniter Books, $25.99, 224 pp. (hardcover) There’s a numbing sameness to only-in-America Horatio Alger stories: With persistence and determination, underdog succeeds in business and life by inventing or cultivating a contraption, process, or ability that catches…
Film-anthropy Free Movie Night This Thursday
This Thursday save some cash and come see a free movie at the 2nd Annual Metro Times Film-anthropy event. For one night at Palladium 12, a donation of three canned goods per person equals one free movie ticket. Date: Thursday, December 9th Time: 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. OR first 1,000 people to donate Location:…
