Brakhage
Stan Brakhage began devising his experimental films in 1952, at the age of 19, and he’s still plugging away. As depicted in Jim Shedden’s documentary, he comes across as a generally amiable, obsessive, probably a little crazy, intuitive artist who at one point matter-of-factly refers to what he does as “a mystery.” Shedden’s film is…
The Dilbert myth
"Been doing any real work lately?" asks the Lizard of Fun, surfing its favorite cartoon Web sites. "I mean, real work, not that TV watching and newspaper scanning you call research." "Sure," I say, defensively. "I’ve been interviewing interesting and important people. Media critics. They’re the ones who actually think about the newspapers I read…
October Sky
There will always be a market for coming-of-age, feel-good movies, especially when they tell ” a true story.” With strong characters consumed by universal (thus recognizable) dilemmas and a set to match (bleak houses populating bleak landscapes under bleak skies), the film’s mandatory happy ending – the “emergency exit” we know so well – creates…
Slippery slopes and other horrors
During his first trial five years ago, Jack Kevorkian showed his general respect for the judicial process by ostentatiously studying Japanese throughout. The metaphor was apt – he had suddenly and deliberately attacked the medical establishment. Then, and for years after, he won victory after victory, in large part due to his Yamamoto, Geoffrey Fieger.…
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker’s teen queens are more hard than sweet, candy-colored bitch goddesses for whom popularity equals power. Just watch Courtney (Rose McGowan), Julie (Rebecca Gayheart), Marcie (Julie Benz) and Liz (Charlotte Roldan) strut down the hallways of Reagan High in synchronized slow motion, and their stature is unmistakable. But so is the eerie sense of déjà …
Pitch’d
BASS, THE FINAL FRONT REAR? No, that wasn’t a typo in last Wednesday’s New York Times; critic Neil Strauss really did devote most of his "Pop Life" column to DJ Assault and the Detroit ghetto-tech – booty, if yer nasty – phenomenon less than a year after MT profiled the sped-up mix of electro and…
Still Crazy
Still Crazy is a boomer version of Hard Core Logo, which means it’s slightly less ironic, kinder to its characters and has a happy ending. This time the reuniting group is a British band called Strange Fruit, arena-rock kings in their ’70s heyday, now grizzled geezers ready to give it one more go. This is…
Food Stuff
RHYMES WITH TURDUCKEN Seems there was this old geezer in Maurice, La., who ambled into Hebert’s Specialty Meats one day in 1985. He had a turkey, a duck and a chicken, all recently deceased at his own hands, and he asked co-owner Widley Hebert Jr. to debone the birds and stuff one inside the other.…
She shoots, she scores!
Anyone who thinks that poetry is a sweet cream frosting piped in by Hallmark or a delicate bonbon with its unique intellectual nugget crafted by frustrated academics had better read Maureen Owen’s American Rush and learn it by heart. Here’s a generous collection spanning three decades of writing – making up seven books from 1973’s…
Suck it!
Sometimes the remote control can take you to places you didn’t know existed. One Monday night not so long ago, I was buzzing around the box when I happened upon a Pamela Anderson clone lounging in the back of a limo. Plucked of brow and plastic of bust, the blonde bombshell seduced the camera, her…
Home and hope
Ordinary and African. An almost oxymoronic concept. Imagine something African daring to be ordinary. Dark, hot, dense Africa. The ultimate Western "other." Bosch in black face. The haunted wood of the Earth’s soul, where devils and demons danced to incinerating polyrhythms, while a parade of Christian civilization’s emissaries orchestrated the rape of its natural and…
Bosnia stories
We were driving just outside of Sarajevo when the voice of Rudolf Reitz, director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), came over our two-way radio, warning that snipers were shooting from the hills up ahead. It was February 1996 and the war was technically over, but there was still sporadic violence in Bosnia.…
A sultan’s life
The Book of Saladin is the second in a projected quartet of historical novels in which the author, Tariq Ali, plans to depict key confrontations between the developing Islamic and Christian civilizations, told from the Muslim point of view. The first in the series, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, centered around the Christian expulsion of…
Hemp, hemp hooray
There was once a strain of cannabis sativa – the industrial, not smokable, variety of hemp – named Early Michigan. That was long before hemp, and the marijuana it’s related to, became illegal in this country. Today, even though industrial hemp hasn’t yet regained its status as a legal crop, you could say hemp is…
Missouri loves company
You know, not every poor, white, trailer-dwelling American aspires to appear on TV with Jerry Springer. But otherizing what yuppified-by-cathode ray tube-Americans call white trash certainly occurs under Mr. Springer’s supervision. TV can’t outline or explore, let alone temporarily erase, the American class DMZ between the preapproved haves and the paycheck-to-paycheck millions who splurge on…
Chinese bathroom
I grew up with public bathrooms. The first one I frequented stood on a hill, far away from our compound. Every door was missing, the floor littered with yellow toilet paper, half-vaporized urine and dried turds. It was still my favorite because most bathrooms had just an open ditch where people squatted face to face…
Digital diagnosis
Earlier this year about 8,000 southeast Michigan residents received letters from their physicians informing them that they will soon be issued a Medcard. About the size of an ATM card, Medcards carry health care information ranging from benefits coverage to blood type to specifics about chronic health conditions. The tiny computer chips embedded in these…
Conner creek contamination
Tests recently conducted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have determined that Conner Creek on the city’s east side is one of the Detroit River’s most polluted sites. "Sediments were found to be extremely contaminated," stated a report issued by the DEQ. "Heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium and lead were found at the…
Demolishing a demolition plan
Highland Park Mayor Linsey Porter thought he had a workable plan for tearing down the city’s 500 vacant buildings. In 1997, following Porter’s lead, residents voted by a 2-1 margin for a special tax increase that would pay for razing the dangerous buildings. Porter was elated to finally have financing for the demolition project. But…
Know your snitch
Critics from all points of the political spectrum have joined in opposition to proposed federal regulations that would transform the nation’s banks into a network of snitches for the United States government. The proposed "Know Your Customer" plan, first released last December, has ignited a firestorm of criticism from thousands of citizens and such groups…
Literary Quarterly: Spring 1999
Home and hope Review by Bill Harris A quietly poetic collaboration corrects age-old myths of empire. A sultan’s life Review by Richard C. Walls Islam fends off Christianity in this 12th-century saga. Anchors away Review by Alisa Gordaneer Former newsman mines satire behind the screens. Missouri loves company Review by Chris Handyside Daniel Woodress spins…
Go bananas for beans
Jamaica, Jamaica is not just a bakery but also serves a range of West Indian takeout including dinners of meat or fish, rice, plantains, bananas and mixed vegetables — large, filling, cheap and generally delicious. Additionally, the menu board offers kingfish and snapper, pot roast, and beef soup. You can also pick up fliers on…
Another Day In Paradise
To judge from Another Day in Paradise, the last thing junkies and thieves want to be is alone. How else to explain the way Mel (James Woods) and Sid (Melanie Griffith) take Bobbie (Vincent Kartheiser) and Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner) under their protective wings? Director Larry Clark (Kids) opens the film with a security guard…
