DOUG FIEGER, 1952-2010
We were saddened to hear of the death of native son Doug Fieger in Los Angeles this morning following a long and gallant battle with brain and lung cancer. The singer-songwriter-guitarist may be remembered by some locals as lead singer and bassist of Detroit’s the Sky — which recorded two albums for RCA, produced by…
LOCAL MUSIC TIDBITS: BLOWOUT SCHEDULE, JACK WHITE, FABULOUS COUNTS & MORE…
In case you haven’t yet noticed, the official 2010 Blowout schedule has finally been announced. Just click on that banner at the top of this page that says, um, Metro Times Blowout… Don’t forget about the Roommates’ reunion — featuring our friend Beaux Mitchell — at Paycheck’s in Hamtramck this weekend — Saturday, the 13th,…
KSM TERROR TRIAL IN THE D?
Recently, New York City declined $200 million in federal funds for hosting the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 terrorists, citing the traffic jams and other hassles it would bring. We can understand Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reluctance to green light it, even with the generous subsidy. We’ve tried getting around Manhattan just…
RIDDLE: ‘MISUSE OF CHARISMA’
Sam Riddle (with microphone, of course) during U-M administration building protest in 1975. Like Larry Gabriel, who reflects on Sam Riddle in his Stir It Up column this week, I’ve followed Sam Riddle since college days at Michigan State University, when I was student and he was a radical BMOC. Erudite, charming in a roguish…
Come together …
M-1 has a University of Michigan assembly hall of 400 students, artists and faculty hanging on every syllable that leaps off his tongue. It’s little wonder. Sporting a black shirt, jeans and sneakers, he’s charismatic, firm and earnest. But the emcee — mostly known for politically charged lyrical punches — isn’t rapping. He’s lecturing. Dude…
Skin trade
Jerry Butler — the porn actor, not the soul great — published a book about his life in the porn business, Raw Talent, back in 1990. It told the various ins and outs of the industry, which often wasn’t all that sexy. But the best parts of the book were the catty moments that dissed…
A promise and a riddle
Times were so giddy in the winter of 2009. Barack Obama, the first black president, a liberal Democrat, had taken office after a campaign about change. Along with his Democratic majority in Congress, he seemed poised to sweep away the very odor of right-wing malfeasance left behind by the Bush administration. But 2010 seems to…
Beyond porn
Bad pornography is a social disease that’s curable with a good dose of art. So says Alan Moore, who’s been flying his freak flag in comics, poetry and prose for so long that his illustrated treatise on erotica almost feels overdue. Moore hopscotches through a CliffsNotes version of erotic history before switching into manifesto mode.…
My first porno
There was a time when one needed a parental permission slip to check The Catcher in the Rye out of the Bad Axe junior high school library due to its "graphic" nature. J.D. Salinger’s recent death brought to mind that no matter how much things stay the same, things do change with time … especially…
Sex Songs Hall of Fame
Steve Albini and Big Black titled their final album Songs About Fucking. It was, in part, a tongue-in-cheek move, but a case could be made that every song — especially since the advent of rock ‘n’ roll (the term originated as a euphemism for fucking) is basically about sex. Rickie Lee Jones recently argued on…
Notes of a dirty old man
He’s been called a sexist pig and a trash merchant. He’s also been called a visionary armed with a heightened sense of irony. Either way he’s Jerry Vile (aka Jerry Peterson), storied organizer and mouthpiece of The Dirty Show, now one of the biggest erotic art shows in the world. He’s also the former editor…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY-SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10, 13-14 Luis Resto THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN Since bringing soulful life to the synthesizer in Was (Not Was), Luis Resto has been a behind-the-scenes mainstay in the music biz, collaborating as a keyboardist, synth maestro and producer with everyone from Patti Smith to Eminem. It was that partnership that, besides…
Letters to the Editor
ACORN nuts Re: "Smashing ACORN" (Feb. 3): I don’t know why the GOP was so concerned about ACORN registering cartoon characters to vote. While Mickey and Minnie would have likely voted Democratic, Scrooge McDuck and Elmer Fudd surely would have voted Republican, and Goofy’s vote could have gone either way. —Carl Ballou, West Bloomfield Cartoon…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Bridge bumps
The Detroit International Bridge Co. and its billionaire owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun took a major hit in court last week, when Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Prentiss Edwards ordered the removal of a duty free shop and fuel pumps constructed atop of 23rd Street in southwest Detroit. The judge also ruled that the company, which…
Lovers’ feasts
Amadeus Cafe & Patisserie 122 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor; 734-665-8767; $$$: Amadeus is a unique restaurant designed after the old-world cafes of Vienna. A variety of traditional dishes from Central Europe are offered, as well as desserts and a unique list of wines and beers. Enjoy candlelit dinners and live classical music on the…
Sweet things, good cause
If you’ve got somebody to love, or are just in a serious "like" mode, we suggest you do your Valentine’s Day sweet-treat shopping at Detroit’s Avalon International Breads at 422 W. Willis St. Why the promo? Sadly, its not because the Hits has been well-bribed with any Avalon goodies. No, the reason for the plug…
Black like me
Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., the esteemed Harvard historian, received the call on his cell phone from President Barack Obama to arrange last summer’s now-infamous White House "beer summit" while sitting in the American Airlines lounge at JFK. He was waiting for his flight to interview Eva Longoria for his four-part series Faces of America,…
Cheat Code
Ah, Valentine’s Day, a day for lovers. Cupid unloads on your ass with heart-shaped arrows, and then it’s flowers and chocolates and all that jazz. Well hoobidy-hoo-blah on that; life isn’t a Twilight movie, and romance is never simple. Nine times out of ten, true romance starts with physical attraction. Some like them cute and…
Food Stuff
Linked up — What Eastern Market restaurant has the tastiest sausages? For us, it’s Farmer’s Restaurant, hands-down. If you’ve been open since November 1977, you must be doing something right. And Farmer’s links are made just for them, by a vendor whose name they keep top-secret. Yeah, it’s that good. Taste for yourself, at 2542…
Where’s the jockstrap?
In this special "Valentine’s Day" edition of Couch Trip, we asked MT contributor Paul Knoll and his partner to provide commentary on a handful of recently released gay "erotica" titles. That was all we asked. Here’s the conversation: David Paul: I would assume that not much of what we took in had anything to do…
Metro Retro
23 years ago in Metro Times: Chuck Wilbur interviews University of California-Berkley professor and media critic Todd Gitlin about ABC’s Cold War propaganda miniseries "Amerika." It is the future, 1996, and the Russians have taken over through their peacekeeping front … The United Nations. Gitlin says that most people will inevitably "laugh or sleep it…
Dear John
Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried (the big-eyed daughter from Big Love) are the star-crossed lovers; Savannah, a glimmering Southern belle, and John, a silently strong Special Forces badass with a gentle soul. They meet cute, have a brief, memorable affair and promise to reunite when his duty’s over, but when the World Trade Center gets…
Wildlife in Detroit
"This, honestly, is the first time I’ve ever wanted to be in something truly collaborative," says Christian Doble, guitarist in the new Detroit trio that has dubbed itself FAWN. "We really wanted to create something together — sit down in the living room, start playing, and write a song from scratch. With FAWN, it’s all…
From Paris with Love
The plot is a brainless American buddy flick where uptight and upright newbie agent Jonathan Rhys-Meyers partners with the outrageously vulgar Travolta to take down drug dealers and terrorists in gay Paree. Unfortunately, what starts as a barely serviceable excuse for shoot ’em ups turns laughably serious with its “politically aware” third-act twist. And unlike…
Mind in the gutters
From chicks in chainmail bikinis to musclemen in tights, from the Tijuana bibles of old to the latest in panty-flashing fan service from Japan, sex and comics go together like a complete lack of social skills and comics. So here’s a brief roundup of some notable comic book hotties — according to me. Your mileage,…
Hidden thrills
Most everyone knows the strip of Bagley Street where the majority of Mexicantown establishments are concentrated. But real neighborhoods are not defined by a sole commercial district with freeway signs guiding the way. There are dozens of Mexican shops and restaurants scattered about southwest Detroit. Finding a satisfying meal at these places off the beaten…
Kiss me
If your Valentine’s Day plans include romance and seduction, or just plain seduction, you want to get your lips in top condition. Here are a few products that promise to prime your pout. Kiss Me Exfoliating Lip Scrub Philosophy The beginning of a true lip-pampering ritual, this scrub moisturizes with natural ingredients like olive…
Unhappy in their own way
James McAvoy plays Valentin Bulgakov, a cartoonishly chaste and hopelessly naïve follower of Tolstoy, who earns a position as the aging writer’s secretary. Sent by Vladamir Chertkov (a mustache-twirling Paul Giamatti), he is also tasked to become a spy in the house of love … or marital discord, as the case may be. You see,…
Tail of the tape
Q: A few years before my wife and I met, she made porn with her boyfriend at the time. He intended to start a pay-per-view website but never launched it. I was a bit upset when she told me, but then I remembered that I enjoy porn, and the idea of seeing the hottest woman…
A teen’s lament
With Lee Isaac Chung’s Munyurangabo, handheld camerawork and patient visual framing produces a rare and affecting character intimacy that gets under your skin. Though there is little in the way of dramatic dialogue (by Hollywood standards), you really feel like you know and understand the film’s two teenage Rwandans, Munyurangabo (Jeff Rutagengwa) and Sangwa (Eric…
Missing the story
Last week was a sad one at the immense, robin’s-egg-blue bookstore that looms over the Lodge Freeway, right off the Howard Street exit. That’s because Winky, the store’s straw boss, the world’s only Maltese terrier mix to survive a dozen years with cerebral palsy, departed to chase woodchucks in the sky on Groundhog Day. John…
No Impact Man
No Impact Man is the name of a project undertaken by Manhattan writer Colin Bevan, an experiment, blog, performance piece and prospective book pitch, to take himself and his family off the grid, to live for one year with as little negative environmental impact as possible. This means no eating out, no coffee, no TV,…
O’CONNOR SEES INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY IN JEOPARDY
She drew applause, two standing ovations and laughs for throwing in, among other quips, a “Who Dat?” Speaking at Wayne State University on Tuesday, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wasn’t shy in sharing her opinion about the need for a more independent judiciary. Judges needs to be free of politics and the…
PBS Looks at Detroit’s future
As part of their on-going series Blueprint America, a program that reports on our nation’s complex, ever-changing infrastructure, PBS took a good look at Detroit with Beyond the Motor City. Here’s a clip: Two animated sequences take a stab at portaying what a new transportation system in Detroit might look like, and how it could…
