Corktown Farmers Market to debut next week
Update: After months of planning (on their part) and waiting (on our part), organizers of the new Corktown Farmers Market will officially open next week. The inaugural pop-up will take place in the Michigan Avenue strip between Lodge Service Drive and the Detroit Institute of Bagels, featuring vendors such as Detroit Food Academy, The Blu Kitchen,…
Anyone can sing “Precious Lord,” a song which doesn’t belong to either Mahalia or people who pretend to be her
Of all the non-news items stemming from the Grammys which blew into giant controversies immediately, there is one which I hoped might develop into a bigger kerfuffle than it did. I personally lack the star power of Shirley Manson or Beck Hanson, and I don’t have anything like the constant, churlish, thousand yard-stare of Kanye West…
Detroit does V-Day right with performances of ‘The Vagina Monologues’
Each year around this time, activists band together to fight violence against women, hosting workshops, launching fundraising campaigns, and — most popularly — organizing productions of the iconic play the The Vagina Monologues.
Lost in translation? The globe-spanning journey of a J Dilla toy
Did Sintex rip-off a South Korean artist with a recently released J Dilla toy? Not exactly.
Party at Craft in Royal Oak for a good cause Sunday
Revel with a cause … in Royal Oak.
Did ICP & their labelmate Jumpsteady rip off these Ohio goths, twice?
The website Cleveland.com reports today that Insane Clown Posse’s label Psychopathic was sued Friday in the Northern District of Ohio by Midnight Syndicate, a duo based in Ohio who make spooky soundtrack music for small-budget films and video games. This suit is against the Psychopathic rapper Jumpsteady, and alleges that entire chunks of his album The…
HopCat Ann Arbor to open on Valentine’s Day
HopCat Ann Arbor opens on Saturday, Feb. 14
USA Today makes giant mistake about Monroe
USA Today offered the city of Monroe a big apology this week after a story the newspaper published declared it to be a community where “crime is soaring.” The problem? It had the wrong Monroe. From the Monroe News: The story that appeared on the USAToday website said Monroe, Michigan, saw violent crime grow by…
Deadspin highlights proposed community benefits agreement ordinance in Detroit
Has Detroit found the answer to making publicly-funded mega-developments more equitable for the city as whole? That’s the basis of a question posed in a piece over at Deadspin today by Brooklyn-based writer Bill Bradley, who’s written about the city of Detroit plenty of times in the past. What Bradley’s talking about is Detroit’s proposed…
These two Necros shows from the early ’80s are brutal, inspiring
I was never much for hardcore punk rock. The skinheads in South Florida, where I was a teen, showed up ready to jump onstage and try to thrash at every vaguely punk rock show I attended in the early to mid 1980s (the funniest being… John Cale on stage with an acoustic guitar, and a…
DIA to offer free bus rides to and from museum
Need another reason to visit the Detroit Institute of the Arts? How about free round-trip transportation to the museum? That’s right, the DIA is offering free bus rides to and from the museum on select days for residents of Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties. All you have to do is call ahead to reserve your…
The Spirit of Don Knotts?
We get it, ice is a tricky medium.
The ‘Mats are playing the Fillmore on May 3rd!
Everyone’s favorite 1980s college rock everyband, the Replacements, just announced their first set of extended shows in 24 years, which includes a stop at the Fiillmore on May 3! Word is that their last round of reunion gigs was good, and didn’t involve them falling all over each other. We don’t have a link to…
Detroit’s Sharon Case turns 44 today
A minor holiday for fans of the soap opera.
Eastern Market’s Savvy Chic to re-open on Valentine’s Day
Savvy Chic gets an upgrade
Local man behind bars after trying to bail friend out of jail, handing over cocaine along with the cash
A man is behind bars after giving cops bail money for a friend and, whoops, a packet of cocaine. A 51-year-old Clinton Township man apparently stopped by the local police station on Saturday to get a buddy out of jail, but ended up behind bars himself after accidentally handing over a package of drugs along with…
Al Taubman linked to enormous leak of HSBC files
Billionaire mall mogul Al Taubman has been linked to a cache of files from banking giant HSBC that illustrate how the company’s Swiss arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars in assets. The revelation follows an enormous leak of HSBC records, obtained by the French newspaper Le Monde, which in turn…
We tried Jack White’s ‘Lazaretto tour’ guacamole recipe
With the blessing of Jack White’s management, we tried his guacamole recipe, reprinted here for your pleasure.
NYC house sensation Levon Vincent just gave away his brand new record for free
Over on his own Facebook page, radical house musician Levon Vincent has posted the link to free downloads for his brand new album, which hits shops tomorrow. Our guess is that Detroit Threads will have the physical version, very soon. Cursory listens to a few tracks have our brains dribbling out of our ears. Vincent,…
Feds wrap investigation into Wayne County with no additional charges
The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Monday announced that it has completed the federal corruption investigation of Wayne County government — and no additional charges will be sought. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade thanked former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, who will not be charged, and the Wayne County Corporation Counsel for their cooperation. “Their assistance and…
Detroit finally has a new website
Hey, Detroit! “Surf” on over to http://www.detroitmi.gov/ for a pleasant surprise — it looks like the city of Detroit has finally updated its website.
The Keggs’ sole 45 from 1967: One of the best Detroit records ever!
In order for a record to achieve true cult status, it doesn’t hurt if there’s an interesting and macabre story behind it, and of course it really helps if the thing is now impossibly rare. If the music is the kind of primitive outsider material that you wonder how it ever got pressed in the…
In case you are totally stressed out like I am right now, here’s some lovely drone music by Phill Niblock
I didn’t know it’s possible to have a hedder as long as that one I just typed in here, but clearly it is possible. So, yeah — the conceit of this blog post is that I just had a very unrelaxing weekend, so I’m now in the deep breaths trying to at least relax stage…
Tonight! Popular music stars compete for shiny trophies
Oh right, it’s that day, again. It’s the Grammys! Hooray. I’m dancing around the room just thinking about it. You know how entire industries have sprung up around the idea that people are interested in seeing images of their favorite stars without their makeup on, or what they look like running errands, or even caught…
Here’s the full transcript of Dylan’s rambling, cantankerous MusiCares Person of the Year speech
It’s weird that the guy waited forty years to take down Tom T. Hall, of all people, but this whole thing is really worth reading in its entirety. Thanks to whoever transcribed this for the L.A. Times, you are a saint. The speech was given at a big fancy Grammys-related event where other musicians played…
Detroit needs Sun Ra more than ever, for his poetic afro-futurism, and that joyous noise
In anticipation of original Arkestra members Marshall Allen and Danny Ray Thompson performing tonight with Jaribu Shahid at Trinosophes for the third day of the fabulous first Over the Pavement festival, we briefly consider the welcoming space the Detroit metropolitan area has always been for Ra (and after his death the Arkestra, headed up by…
Check out this J Dilla toy Detroit artist Sintex worked on
When we interviewed the Detroit artist Sintex he showed us this licensed J Dilla toy he designed.
It’s J Dilla’s birthday
Every year, Feb. 7 heralds Dilla Day, a celebration of the late, great hip-hop producer J Dilla, who would have turned 41 today. Dilla died on Feb. 10, 2006 from Lupus complications, but his legacy lives on.
Lovely Scottish folk dude Alasdair Roberts stays in the shadows for his very new video
My favorite new record is probably Alasdair Roberts’ eighth solo album for Drag City. It’s called Alasdair Roberts so that no one will ever be confused who it is by, and it came out last week and it’s really beautiful and Roberts wrote all the songs and I’ll soon review it. The first video from the…
Some Brooklyn-based barber shop is opening in Midtown
Some Brooklyn-based barber shop is opening in Midtown
Toledo Mayor Dead at 70
D. Michael Collins is dead
Proposed elimination of tax-exempt bonds for stadiums likely won’t affect Detroit project
In his proposed budget for the upcoming year, President Barack Obama wants to eliminate a federal tax-exemption on government-issued bonds for sports stadiums, but the change likely won’t impact the financing for a new $450 million Detroit Red Wings arena near downtown. Under the budget Obama released this week, the federal tax-exemption from bonds that finance…
Love ‘RoboCop?’ Love economics? Watch this
Do you love overanalyzing the 1987 sci-fi flick, RoboCop? Do you love talking economics? Of course you do – you’re a Detroiter. EconPop is a YouTube series that applies economic concepts to pop culture. The crux of the dilemma posed by RoboCop, according to EconPop host Andrew Heaton, is this — when should a private…
These are all the known live clips and videos by Swiss punk band Liliput/ Kleenex. You’re welcome!
It’s the end of a long week. What are you doing this weekend? (Please don’t answer for real, I don’t actually care; that question was rhetorical.) Before I head out, I’m going to listen to the Swiss band Liliput, who started out calling themselves Kleenex but later had to cease and desist for copyright reasons.…
Watch the trailer for the film Ryan Gosling directed in Detroit
Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River was apparently so bad that Warner Brothers felt it couldn’t bear to release it in theaters nationwide. Attendees of last year’s Cannes Festival literally booed at it. Now, following a limited-release in New York and Los Angeles, the film will head straight to Video On Demand. But Gosling filmed Lost…
GreenSpace Cafe to open across street from Zeke’s
As a dining destination, Ferndale just keeps getting more interesting. The latest addition, Zeke’s Rock and Roll BBQ, is already a tremendous hit. But in an interesting twist of fate, the restaurant that’s slated to open across the street from it in spring will be the opposite of (and, if you will, the antidote to)…
Check this rare live recording of Nolan Strong in Detroit in the early 1970s
Motown may be the biggest name, but the smaller and scrappier (and, of course, earlier) local label Fortune issued an incredible amount of killer blues, gospel, hillblilly, pop and polka, from its inception in 1946 to its shuttering in the mid 1990s. Nolan Strong and the Diablos were the biggest R&B act in Detroit from…
An alternative to that ‘Vulture’ list of Detroit artists
Last month, New York Magazine’s Vulture caught flack for perpetuating the media’s nasty habit of whitewashing its coverage of Detroit. Titled “Is Soho in the ’70s Just a Two-Hour Flight Away? 9 Artists on Why They Live in Detroit,” the article briefly discussed the city’s racial dynamics — and then proceeded to fail to include even one…
Local filmmaker Colin Duerr is casting for his first full length feature film
A couple months ago we blogged about how local filmmaker Colin Duerr was looking for someone with exceptionally long blackheads to be popped on camera. Well, it seems Duerr has moved on to a new project. The 27-year-old award-winning filmmaker (you may remember him from The Ded Dave Show) is now looking to get started…
Here’s Danny Brown’s theme song for ‘Fresh Off the Boat’
In case you haven’t heard, Danny Brown did the theme song for ABC’s new Fresh Off the Boat.
Five live Protomartyr clips to get you ready for their MOCAD show tomorrow
Local heroes Protomartyr open up the new season of musical events at MOCAD tomorrow night. You can still purchase tickets here. I like MOCAD’s press release a lot so I’m going to quote it here, OK: “In a city full of brilliant people with dead-end jobs and dampened by bitter-cold winters, playing music offers a…
Cafe 78 to open tomorrow at MOCAD
A new eatery takes its place at MOCAD.
American Idol Season XIV to host semi-finals at the Fillmore later this month
American Idol, which has been running on FOX for an impressive fourteen seasons now, is filming its Season XIV semi-finals at the Fillmore in Detroit in February and March. My Fox Detroit reports that host Ryan Seacrest and celebrity judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. will all be on hand to whittle the…
Legislator wants the death penalty in Michigan for anyone who kills a cop
A state senator from Detroit wants to authorize the death penalty in Michigan, but only for anyone who’s convicted of killing a police officer, according to the Detroit Free Press. “If you kill a cop, you’re the most egregious criminal out there,” Smith told the newspaper. “If you’re willing to go that far, there’s no…
Batch Brewing Company plans to open next week
Batch Brewing Company, a nanobrewery in Corktown, plans to open mid-week next week according to a post on their Facebook page. When we spoke to one of the brewery’s partners, Stephen Roginson, at the beginning of January, he said he planned to open Batch’s doors by the end of the month. Now, just a week…
M1 construction has Midtown Zef’s Grill ‘locked in’
Support a little restaurant when it needs it most.
The best L. Brooks Patterson zingers from his State of the County address
Oakland County executive L. Brooks Patterson gave his State of the County address Wednesday night, and as usual it was chock-full of Patterson’s abrasive brand of humor.
What is Todd Courser saying?
It’s perhaps best to leave the description of Todd Courser to MT columnist Jack Lessenberry. [The Michigan Tea Party’s] fast-emerging leader is a scarily bizarre character named Todd Courser, who nearly got himself elected chair of the Michigan Republican Party last February. Incumbent Bobby Schostak, a pretty typical business/country club/pander-when-necessary type, barely survived — and…
Happy Birthday, Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper turns 67 today.
The best restaurants in Detroit, according to Yelp
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions about Yelp, the online forum for crowd-sourced reviews, but whatever your stance, it’s always interesting to hop on and see which restaurants have risen to Yelp stardom in your hometown. We perused the social sharing site today to track down Detroit’s top rated Yelp restaurants— and here are the…
Michigan will recognize over 300 same-sex marriages performed last year
The state of Michigan will not appeal a federal court’s ruling that legalized more than 300 same-sex marriages performed last March, Gov. Rick Snyder’s office said Wednesday. “The judge has determined that same-sex couples were legally married on that day, and we will follow the law and extend state marriage benefits to those couples,” Snyder…
WXYZ has no plans to become ‘Gawker-like’
Dashboard camera footage of a tragic plane crash in Taiwan that killed at least 26 people drew a serious amount today. The footage was so spectacular, WXYZ Channel 7 implored its readers to check it out. Except, initially, the post said this: Poor taste, no? That was the summary of Deadline Detroit guy Alan Stamm’s article…
Before techno was white and hedonistic, it was Black and political
Today, thanks to some cultural smudging, “techno” has become synonymous with a multi-billion-dollar electronic music industry — a far cry from its inner-city origins.
George Cushingberry’s law license has been suspended for one year
George Cushingberry Jr., Detroit City Council’s second-highest-ranking member, won’t practice law again anytime soon: The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board on Tuesday suspended his license for one year. Cushingberry, a guy whose efforts as a problematic lawyer have been known for years but somehow ended up a non-factor in the run-up to his election, will have…
If you buy that “Star Trek boogie van” on Craigslist, this has to be your soundtrack
Check out this listing for a 1978 GMC G15 Custom Star Trek ‘boogie’ Van – $9500 (east vancouver). Holy mother of Frazetta, how sweet is that customized van? (As a child of the ’70s, I have seen more than a few of these things out in the wild, and I’ve always referred to them as…
Savage Love: To cheat or not to cheat
Q: My husband and I are a straight couple in our early 50s, and we’ve been married for more than 30 years. We were raised to wait for sex till we got married — this was back in the early ’80s. Our wedding night was pretty disappointing since neither of us knew what we were…
Politics and Prejudices: No, Dearborn is not under Sharia law
Brian Stone is a gay Buddhist college student who has lived almost his whole life in Dearborn, except for four years in the Navy. He’s also cheerfully mad as hell over Sharia law. Last week, he and his buddy and fellow veteran Adam ran around the city and took pictures of Adam grinning and holding…
Horoscopes (Feb. 4 – 10)
ARIES (March 21-April 20): At this point it comes down to how much you can handle. With enough fire to get anything moving, you don’t know for sure if you care enough to make it worth your while to rise above all of this and be redeemed by it. If that sounds dramatic, your life…
Hot Shotz: Melody Baetens Malosh throws one hell of a Paczki Day party
Much like most movers and shakers in Detroit, Malosh has her name attached to more than one different endeavor around town. She’s a writer for the Detroit News, where she tackles important issues like the local music and bar scenes, and she’s a co-owner of one of Hamtramck’s most beloved bars and music venues —…
Side Dish: Six things going on in Detroit drinking and dining this week
What’s popping upstairs — You may not know the name Steven Reaume, but if you’re a fan of the fare at Foran’s Grand Trunk Pub, especially their elaborate weekend brunches, he’s the main man to thank. In addition to managing the pub’s kitchen, he’s also working for Grand Trunk owner Tim Tharp managing the upstairs…
Playlist: Six versions of ‘Amazing Grace’ totally worth hearing
I put this list together as I was listening to some of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s music in anticipation of their Detroit appearance Feb. 19 at the Magic Bag. Their version of “Amazing Grace” is so short but sweet it got me to thinking what other versions of this song do not suck. Even…
Trinosophes’ Over the Pavement fest hosts a variety of local and national music
There’s a new music festival in town, one for what people used to confusingly call “new music.” The three-day event Over the Pavement: A Festival of Art Music is curated and hosted by Joel Peterson and Rebecca Mazzei at their two-year-old, multi-use space Trinosophes. With acts as diverse as keepers of Sun Ra’s infinite flame…
Detroit’s In Style clothing grows
In Style Clothing opened 15 years ago on the corner of Nine Mile Road and Coolidge Highway in Oak Park and the locally owned ladies’ apparel store slowly grew, opening subsequent store’s around town while experiencing success as a retailer. But about a year ago, the stores’ owner, Briggit McClain, opened another location, this one…
New book finds similarities between the English of King James and Queen Latifah
One of the more interesting book notices to come our way this past year was an announcement about a book by a local author called What the Word BE: Why Black English is the King’s (James) English. It’s by Southfield-based writer editor, playwright, and business owner Diane Proctor Reeder, 57, and was named one of…
While artist Sintex fights ‘culture vultures,’ Detroit gears up for a graffiti crackdown
An army of skeletons clad in business suits stares down at the parking lot of the 4731 Gallery with piercing red eyes — a mural, among many that surround the gallery as part of a project called the Grand River Creative Corridor. Curated by the gallery’s managing director Derek Weaver, the project fights blight and…
All Dolled Up: Jerilyn Jordan’s not just a pretty face
Jordan is what you might call a style icon in metro Detroit. She’s done some modeling — OK, she’s done a ton of modeling — but she’s not just a pretty face. She’s also incredibly talented and unabashedly unafraid of letting it all hang out. She’s written a witty and self-deprecating blog for the now…
Ask a Juggalo: What’s a Juggaho?
Q: What is a Juggaho? A: Oh, boy. There’s some that are out there, I hate to say it, man. Juggahos are just a real shitty Juggalo wannabe. Little creatures and gremlins; they creep around, and they’re just like parasites. They claim to be trying to fit in, and they claim to be trying to…
DDays: Thirsty ladies down 130 beers, MGM Grand Detroit Casino gets renovation, Ferndale gets Zeke’s
All hopped up On Thursday, our friend Eric Allen alerted us that three women — Alex, Sarah, and a friend — tweeted at the Metro Times account to announce that they were going to attempt to drink all 130 beers on tap at the newly opened HopCat on Friday, Jan. 30. They even made a…
Drink Up
Deep Eddy Lemon Vodka Launched in 2010 in Austin, Texas, Deep Eddy is a line of premium vodka that can boast that it’s both gluten free and devoid of high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. In the five years since the small batch vodka first appeared on shelves, the brand has added flavors like cranberry,…
Feedback: Thoughts on Springwells Village, our GED coverage, and that naked cowboy
By any other name I’m so sorry that many of the residents of the recently “branded” Springwells Village don’t appreciate their section of Detroit being so named without their input. Totally understandable and a real snafu in community-building. I lived there for a few years with my family in a little house on Lawndale when…
El Rey de las Arepas could be Southwest Detroit’s most charming restaurant
El Rey de las Arepas is really La Reina — the queen. That’s Zoraida Gutierrez, from Caracas. Her son Rayner, owner of the first Venezuelan restaurant in the area, says Zoraida begins work every morning at 7 to start on the arepas, cachapas, and pabellones with which the family intends to make its mark on…
