Return of the rebel prince
Rufus Wainwright plots the demolition of pop….
Collateral Damage
Apparently the war on terrorism needs unthinking drones — and conservative hacks such as Schwarzenegger (like John Wayne before him) are only too happy to provide its latest propaganda. Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) tries to implicate each viewer in Old Testament eye-for-an-eye bloodlust.
Letters to the Editor
Editor’s note: Metro Times editor Jeremy Voas’ column ("Why we’re suing Ashcroft," Metro Times, Jan. 30-Feb. 5) generated more letters than any story we’ve published in recent years. A sampling follows. Support from New York Thank you for filling this lawsuit against Ashcroft. I don’t know if you’re taking a lot of heat for it,…
Social insecurity and you
There are few things less understood than Social Security. And there aren’t many facts of modern life in America that are more important.
Always heroes
At the Red Bull Music Academy international invitees exchange info about the ideas and mechanics of electronic music culture (listen to their comments on Detroit techno in particular).
Java, jive & Jennings
Our invincible scribe braves the headache of a lifetime to catch vintage troubadours the Filter Kings and the sardine-like surroundings at the Dirtbombs’ recent show (just how many hipsters can fit into the Lager House?) … all this & so much more.
Just don’t do it
Local pastor urges boycott of the latest $200 Air Jordans….
Tuff enough?
Is it OK to treat human beings like animal commodities and sexualized objects for the sake of entertainment and corporate sponsorship if everyone’s in on it?
Blowin’ smoke
Detroit trash incinerator will most likely keep burning, despite any protests we may have….
Info crackdown
Reporters say Information is barely trickling out of the Mayor’s office, if at all….
Pay delay
Laid-off workers advise state lawmakers on unemployment needs….
Abandoned Shelter of the Week
This week’s abandoned home last saw life as a house of worship, but it’s been awhile since any preaching occurred here. Neighbors say the structure at 6351 Waterloo on Detroit’s east side was abandoned after catching fire about two years ago. The place has been condemned by the city, with a warning not to enter…
Rat chat
Abandoned houses go down; city’s rat population goes up….
Laundry Service
From Menudo to Ricky Martin, “prefab” Latin pop stars have traditionally been attacked on two fronts: Not only have these South-of-the-border hit-makers supposedly been “manufactured” for American ears, they’ve also supposedly betrayed something about their own heritage — something (to use the academic parlance) authentically Latin. Predictably enough, Shakira — a 24-year-old Colombian with Lebanese…
House of the holey
This week’s abandoned home last saw life as a house of worship, but it’s been awhile since any preaching occurred here. Neighbors say the structure at 6351 Waterloo on Detroit’s east side was abandoned after catching fire about two years ago. The place has been condemned by the city, with a warning not to enter…
… And the Women Who Love Them (Special Addition)
There’s something completely disarming at work here. One would think that after even the briefest stints as either a) a music critic, b) a punk-rock fan, c) a casual radio listener or d) all of the above, pop-punk would be so old hat as to not even keep the musical rain off one’s head. Well,…
Lovers leap
The joys and pitfalls of life with many lovers … Penetrating the polyamory subculture.
Voci featuring Kim Kashkashian, viola
Popular (people’s) music and classical (art) music are usually thought of as two different planets, orbiting far apart — and bringing them together might seem like mixing oil and water. But more than one early 20th century composer — Debussy, Bartók, Kodály, Ives — dipped into the bottomless well of folk music on the road…
Line dancing
Two girls hit the bars to find out if guys will fall for their own cheesy pick-up lines.
Forget me not
The story of British novelist Iris Murdock’s descent into Alzheimer’s Disease manages for the most part to avoid the warm, fuzzy approach, though it’s not above the lure of nostalgia and the simplifying of an arduous struggle. It’s also a love story with a pervading tone of civilized sadness — starring Judi Dench and Kate…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I love how skilled you are at wriggling free of unproductive jams. I admire the way you change yourself into a fresh creation when you’ve gone as far as you can with the old model. I am delighted by how robustly you rebel against your past and fling yourself open to…
Aberdeen
A weighty nostalgia drags through this moving picture, eroding time and color. Aberdeen takes a dysfunctional family’s melodrama on the road to the unplanned destination of redemptive bonding — with Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård and Lena Headey.
Playing with the doctor
Q: I have been a conscientious mental health practitioner for more than 30 years. Taboo of all taboos, lately I have been receiving oral sex from a patient. This is how it happened: My patient told me she’s been in and out of therapy her whole life because “I am a cocksucker and I must…
Cool & Crazy
A better title for this film might be The Singing Strand Boys: Norway’s Berlevåg Male Choir. Director Knut Erik Jensen’s documentary presents us with the stern beauties of nature and the passionate and motley characters of the choir.
Five to stay alive
Charting new grounds in the wilds of art, five vastly different artists test the thresholds of our imagination in a blockbuster exhibition at detroit contemporary.
Big Fat Liar
“Nobody believes a liar … even when he is telling the truth!” This moral from an old Aesop’s fable is the foundation for a modern-day retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. But the film’s moral is: Don’t pair up two extraordinary, up-and-coming child actors with one low-caliber, two-bit adult goofball.
Rally round the PFLAG
Good advice for nervous closet-dwellers … Sensitive guy needs to butch it up … Coming clean with dirty stories … & readers argue about when to give in.
Rollerball
Set in some fictional central Asian country, this remake features long and incoherent sequences of its title sport, a combination of Roller Derby, pro wrestling and free-form mayhem. The film’s message, which has to do with the commercial viability of violence, has become a wretched cliché.
