News Hits
Watt went wrong? The Rev. Edwin Valentin never much cared for the term radio "pirate." Sure, he’s operated the tiny, 90-watt Christian Musical Radio in Pontiac since 1996 without the license required by the government. And the threat of a $5,000 fine continues to hang over his head. But in a 1998 MT article, Valentin…
Gates of Heaven
Time has not been kind to documentarian Errol Morris’ first feature film, Gates of Heaven (1978), and one suspects that a large infusion of irony into the zeitgeist during the past 20 years, along with an increasingly desensitized attitude toward matters grotesque are the reasons why. In any event, pet cemeteries, the ostensible subject of…
MP3 for all
In this turbulent new era of CD burners, illegal MP3s and knee-jerk lawsuits from the music industry, I probably shouldn’t admit this. But I must confess … I don’t always pay for the records I listen to. Ever since high school, I have occasionally borrowed albums from friends and made copies for my own collection.…
Wu-fu
The most fun I had with this game occurred when I approached the register to purchase it. For a second, I thought I had mistakenly placed a copy of Penthouse or Hustler on the counter as the Toys ‘R’ Us cashier asked, "Do you know this is a mature title?" In response to my confused…
Food Stuff
SWEET PASSIONS Before Valentine’s Day the lines can be long at Sydney Bogg, Detroit’s oldest chocolatier, but if you need to impress a certain sweetie, this is the place to do it. "What makes our candy so good?" asks owner Jim McGuire. "It’s very simple. We buy the most expensive chocolate in the world." McGuire…
What love is
Jackie McLean fans who jumped on board with his tough ‘60s sides – Let Freedom Ring, One Step Beyond or Destination Out – know him as a post-hard bop alto saxophonist with an open affection for Charlie Parker, some graduate seminars with Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Art Blakey under his belt, and a constant…
Head man
Pity poor Tony Soprano. His stress and panic attacks have sent him to a psychiatrist, who, in turn, has gone into hiding from him. He sits at his dinner table with AJ and Meadow, his two snotty adolescent kids. His long-suffering wife, Carmela, who would probably waste little time hopping into bed with the parish…
Warlocks in space
Up in the sky, it’s a bird. Well, sort of. The original space-rock band’s 30th anniversary is here and, in honor of that momentous occasion, Hawkwind is releasing classic tracks from its auspicious sonic vault. A two-CD set featuring live recordings from 1972, Codename Hawkwind contains truly vital British psychedelia. Disc one displays the all-time…
Sex uncovered
I’m not sure if it’s singing or howling, but I am sure that the Lizard of Fun is wearing a pair of white satin bellbottoms and a big gold chain around its neck, and that ABBA’s Greatest Hits has been playing loudly for the past several hours. "Mama mia, here we go again," shouts the…
Sean Deason
Sean Deason, one of the flagship recording artists representing Detroit’s third wave of techno, finds the soul of the city by way of outer space and the dots, loops and inner digital machinations of the synthesiser and the drum machine. His compositions are at times air-tight technological workouts, but on others listeners and dancers find…
Adventures in trespassing
Lucas McGrail walks into the front lobby of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station and steps over a sandstone wall panel that lies in pieces on the floor. Pigeons flee their perches near the ceiling far above, their wingflaps echoing loudly through the huge, empty room. McGrail looks down at the sandstone and points out the mason’s…
Swell maps
How do they do it? In the course of 15 years, 10 albums, a bunch of singles and various EPs, Yo La Tengo’s musicians have never lost their way (and the band’s from Hoboken). From its velvet-soft pop balladry (with a big nod toward Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground) to its guitar-based drone /…
Ruins and redemption
American Ruins by Camilo José Vergara Monacelli Press, $60, 224 pp. The ongoing debate over Detroit’s abandoned buildings took a strange turn five years ago when New York photographer Camilo José Vergara made the modest proposal that the 12 square blocks surrounding Grand Circus Park be turned into an urban ruins theme park. Some found…
Blues from the hometown
Just about every local blues band working in Detroit today either already has a CD out or is working on one, but there aren’t many compilation CDs out there of modern-day Detroit artists that give the listener an opportunity to sample more than one group at a time. The benefit of a CD such as…
Raising suits over stink
A pair of class action lawsuits filed in recent weeks signals that some southwest Detroiters are fed up with waiting for government officials to curb polluters. Dan Pederson hit the breaking point after watching his family suffer through four consecutive stench-filled days last summer. The stink, which he says smells like some weird, sickening mix…
Thai your luck
This review is from when the restaurant was under previous ownership. I eat out a lot (surprise!), and bring home lots of laden Styrofoam boxes, which I faithfully recycle. Eating at home can produce some strange tablefellows, as we pool the last few days’ doggie bags to make dinner for three. Recently I had the…
Pop the clutch
Detroit punk heroes the Suicide Machines shift gears on their latest self-titled recording, but they keep the rock rolling … which should keep their legions of faithful fans happy.
Blues from the hometown
Just about every local blues band working in Detroit today either already has a CD out or is working on one, but there aren’t many compilation CDs out there of modern-day Detroit artists that give the listener an opportunity to sample more than one group at a time. The benefit of a CD such as…
The burning man
A vinyl lover gets on the CD-burner bandwagon, and gives you a leg up on the equipment and programs you’ll need to climb aboard.
Gun Shy
After 18 years working as one of the DEA’s top undercover agents, Charlie (Liam Neeson) wants nothing more than to retire to a simple, stress-free life and an “ocean view.” Things are not that simple. First, he must broker a deal between Fidel Vaillar (Jose Zuniga), scion of a Colombian drug family, and hot-headed mob…
Sign of the V
In The Vagina Monologues, the point is to talk about it….
Holy Smoke
From the moment Ruth Barron’s (Kate Winslet) dazzling, innocent eyes meet the glowing hypnotic gaze of Indian cult guru Chidaatma Baba (Dhritiman Chaterji), the young Australian woman is hooked. Hooked on being hooked, that is. If it takes any recognizable shape at all, Jane Campion’s (Sweetie, The Piano) Holy Smoke is a meta-meditation on escaping…
Attention Span
COUPLES COUPLING There are no startling revelations behind Playboy’s "Best Kept Sex Secrets" video. For $20, it offers up a sweet potion of sweat, silicone and intimate advice for lovers. Essentially a 55-minute better-sex infomercial, it features sex kittens and waxed, tanned calendar hunks, bumping and grinding under instructional voice-overs. From vibrators to tantric techniques,…
Teenage wasteland
If nothing else, in comic circles Ed Brubaker is known for great characters. From the autobiographical Lowlife to his slacker detective in The Scene of the Crime, Brubaker’s gift is to create people you feel you know and usually wish you didn’t. With Deadenders he introduces Beezer, a Vespa-riding, amphetamine-dealing street kid. Beezer’s hassled by…
Build it, for us all
Three or four years ago, a college sophomore came to my class dressed for a job interview, looking sophisticated and grown-up. We were discussing Vietnam as America’s first TV war, in which, via film, we got to see the daily battles over dinner, with Walter Cronkite. Her mother told her about that, she said brightly,…
Geriatric genius
Well, it’s good to know there are still signs of life on The Duplex Planet. Issue 155 showed up in my mail box recently with a rip in the cover featuring Ed Rogers hunched over a table with pen in hand and his eyes focused intently on the piece of paper in front of him.…
Pitch’d
REVISITING TOMORROW Where does all that adolescent obsession with the Modern Romantic movement lead? How about the teenage desire to collect every Atari 2600 cartridge? Sometimes it’s redirected toward starting an electronic music label that celebrates the artificial. It worked for Ersatz Audio’s Adam Miller, whose label is about to commemorate its five-year anniversary with…
Rear Window
For a great popular artist, Alfred Hitchcock had an unusually experimental turn of mind. His love of the suspense genre seemed as genuine as his disdain for its clichés and he was forever tinkering with the mechanics of the old familiar story of danger and escape. Throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s he perfected his ingenious…
Loose Lips
REAL ART Aaron Timlin of detroit contemporary gallery, with his unpretentious willingness to educate in layman’s terms, opened up the art world to me last year. Now, I am happy to announce there’s another venue joining the ranks of galleries run by fabulously real people. The Snug Gallery in Detroit, which shares a roof (and…
Scream 3
Someone has taken their love of bad horror movies about bad horror movies too far. No. 3 in this trilogy is as goofy as its predecessors. But at least it promises that the Scream that started in 1996 has finally stopped. Big on hype, low on even comic value, this latest installment in a cheesy…
