A GOOD CAUSE…
There will undoubtedly be numerous benefits to aid the more than 100 residents who lost their homes last week to the fire at Forest Arms Apartments (which also housed People’s Records and Amsterdam Espresso on its ground floor). The first is already planned for this Friday, February 15th, featuring live performances by local performance artist…
“THESE OTHER BOYS, THEY’RE JUST MAKING NOISE…”
The International Pop Overthrow — which takes its name from the classic Material Issue tune, of course — has long been one of the major music fests in Los Angeles every summer. The festival picked up the mantle for power-pop that was left when the similar L.A.-based Poptopia fest ceased to be. Over the years,…
PEOPLE’S RECORDS DESTROYED IN BLAZE
You may or may not have heard of the fire that occurred early this morning at Forest Arms apartments near Wayne State University. The fire started around 3 a.m. in the corner apartment of a 47-year-old man, whose body has yet to be recovered due to the roof caving in. Television reports this morning were…
WENDY’S DREAMS & VISIONS
Speaking of Wendy Case — who, indeed, does know and is a friend of hot author Charles Bock (see below) — don’t miss the display of her art that opens tomorrow night (February 7th) in the Majestic Café (4120 Woodward Ave.). The exhibition, titled Is There Room For Me… On Your Couch, is a dual…
Ladies of Lebanon
Lebanese directors aren’t exactly household names in America, but that sorry truth would soon change if more of them were as capable and charming as Nadine Labaki. A triple threat, she wrote, stars in and makes her feature directing debut in Caramel, now moving its way across the country after stirring up acclaim on the…
Secret sharers
Lovers’ experiment leaves neighbors rankled.
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Spirit away
Initially, the careful, cool yet deeply soulful constructions in Zero/Suspension seem to examine spatial elements such as flatness and dimensionality. But the more you reflect on Jim Shrosbree’s wall sculptures and works on paper, the clearer it becomes that the exhibition is a meditation on one particular consideration of space: the nature of movement. The…
Canine corner
I love your column, and I appreciate that you continually stand up for the oppressed, the repressed, and those who just need a little push to get out there and live how they really want (and often need) to. But I couldn’t help but cringe at a recent letter from RUFF and at your advice…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
From Death Race 3000 to Destroy All Monsters.
Ultimate mixtape
The Gories "I Think I’ve Had It" From Houserockin’ (Wanghead With Lips, 1989) Garage R&B at its finest, right up there with Willie Dixon’s "Hidden Charms," which also found its way onto the Gories debut album. "I really dig you," screams Collins in this desperate original, "but I just can’t take it no more!" And…
Going with the flow
Loudly speaking by Dolores S. Slowinski A Line Drawn on paper can — depending on how it angles, bends, doubles back, around and over itself — create the illusion of space, depth and perspective. Throw that line into space and those illusions should become palpable and exciting. New Yorker Sheila Pepe’s crocheted, irregular web of…
A Dirtbombs Family Tree
First two 7-inch singles, recording commences 9-18-95: Lineup #1 Mick Collins (guitar/vocals) Chris Fachini (drums) Patrick Pantano (drums) Tom Lynch (bass) Eric Johnson (fuzz) Recording session 1/1/97: Lineup #2 Mick Collins (guitar/vocals) Tom Lynch (bass) Joe Greenwald (fuzz) Chris Fachini (drums) Scott Michalski (drums) First live performing lineup, beginning with a party at Ghetto Recorders…
Have a gay old time
It’s 10 p.m. on a Friday night and the bar at Carl’s Chop House is four deep, a feat that’s worthy of notice all by itself. The group is neatly coiffed, snappily dressed, boisterous and just a little more touch-feely than your average group of twenty- to fortysomething guys. It’s the latest installment of the…
True East
Golden Harvest is quiet, and the décor is mainly soothing blue, in a former catering hall in an unlikely spot on 12 Mile Road across from the GM Tech Center. Recommended for its specialty, its seafood and its daily dim sum, served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m, Golden Harvest also keeps live fish and…
Anyone can write the Grammys!
The striking Writers Guild of America granted special waiver last week for the 50th annual Grammy Award telecast to go on, allowing such “actor” musicians as Justin Timberlake, Tim McGraw, Jon Bon Jovi and Fantasia to cross the picket line. This is probably because none of them have ever been in movies anyone has seen…
Caramel
Set in a smallish beauty salon in an unglamorous corner of Beirut, this tale of interweaving lives of women has the salon as its nexus of activity, gossip and sisterly bonding. The setting is exotic but the characters are familiar types. Of course, some of the dilemmas they face are somewhat different. What are for…
Pay dirt
It’s been nearly three decades since Dirtbombs leader Mick Collins first picked up a guitar with the sole intention of “murdering the Eagles.” It’s been precisely four decades since Collins heard, at age 3, his very first favorite song — Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” — on a hand-me-down 78 RPM record. Since then,…
Fable at a crossroads
Tyrone “Pinetop” Purvis is a man with a heap of woe on his shoulders. He has a haunted past, the debt-ridden nightclub of the title and a gun-toting enforcer out to collect or evict. He’s got the unctuously racist sheriff leaning on him. He’s got a desperate plan for a big-draw Saturday that’s falling apart.…
Hit play
Klimt Koch Lorber One never expects John Malkovich to gently ease into a role. But the combination of laissez-faire, where’s-my-check distraction and oh-here’s-the-scenery-to-chew he gives us as the titular artist in Klimt is truly shocking. Told in multiple flashbacks from the perspective of a bedridden and near-death Gustav Klimt, this film by Raúl Ruiz stumbles…
Over Her Dead Body
Eva Longoria Parker plays Kate, the title corpse, a rampaging bridezilla who dies on her big day, only to hang around and haunt hapless groom Henry (Paul Rudd), preventing him from moving on and finding bliss. That bliss comes in comely Ashley (Lake Bell), a caterer-psychic who’s supposed to be helping Henry contact his lost…
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
War/Dance
Sean and Andrea Fine’s luscious and leering documentary tries to tell the inspirational tale of traumatized children achieving grace through artistic expression. The former National Geographic filmmakers dangerously toe the line between uplift and exploitation. Rose, Dominic and Nancy are young teens living in the Northern Ugandan refugee camp Patongo. A dangerous and isolated place,…
Focus on the facts
If Kilpatrick really cared about Detroit, he’d resign.
State of the gay nation
The battlefields are public opinion, the courts, Congress and state legislatures. And gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered activists point to strategic victories — plus the promise of more — despite well-publicized setbacks.Recent successes include the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that state laws banning sodomy are unconstitutional. On the political front, the three U.S. senators running…
Free speech twofer
Detroit cop-turned-blogger and Ferndale activists score wins for free speech.
Night and Day
Thursday • 7 Is There Room For Me … On Your Couch? ROCKIN’ ART (YES, ROLL YOUR EYES) If you missed Andrew W.K.’s contributions to an art exhibit at the University of Michigan’s Law School two years ago, fear not — there’s another way to see the melding of rock ‘n’ roll and fine art.…
Motor City Cribs
Ferndale digs where hard rockin’ roomies cook a mean salmon fillet.
Letters to the Editor
Immigrants coddled? I read with interest Sandra Svoboda’s article, “Caught in the crossfire” (Metro Times, Jan. 30). It is indeed heartrending when we hear about children suffering through no mistakes of their own, but because of the illegal status of their parents. But, the question to ask is, “How can we condone illegal immigration when…
D-TOWN IN SUNDAY REVIEW OF BOOKS (WELL, SORT OF)
A cool part of Detroit made it into the New York Times two Sundays ago. No, it wasn’t for any literary achievement from the Motor City, although it was related to the lead book review in this past Sunday’s lofty Sunday Review of Books. The featured book was Las Vegas native Charles Bock’s first novel,…
SWINE FEST IN HAMTRAMCK!
The first annual Hamtramck Music Awards (or “The Hammies,” for short) at the Painted Lady this past Saturday night (February 2nd) were a total gas. Bootsey X (aka Bob Mulrooney) showed up to present the Polish Muslims with their Lifetime Achievement Award (which makes sense, as Bootsey and the Muslims’ Dave Uchalik played together in…
