Scouting for alternatives
It’s a little before noon on a Saturday, and seven children are gathered around a table in a cozy Troy home, scribbling with markers. Many are dressed in uniform, sporting neatly pressed khakis and crisp green polo shirts. The boys and girls, ages 3 to 10, are busily decorating a box they’ll later fill with…
Countering the recruiters
A provision in the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act dictates that any high school getting federal tax dollars must provide its students’ names, addresses and phone numbers to military recruiters asking for them. The schools must also give recruiters the same access to its students as generally provided to colleges or prospective employers. Enter…
The beast of metal
1. Nile Annihilation of the Wicked (Relapse) You’d be hard-pressed to find anything resembling beauty in death metal; it’s a genre that promotes the destruction of the clean and healthy. But, after years of chipping away at the artistic, um, rock, Nile managed to create something both unmercifully extreme and beautiful. 2. Atheist Unquestionable Presence…
Art Bar
Those photos in family albums, what do they show us about the lives of people, and what don’t they tell? What are they holding back? Here Diane Thiel, who teaches in New Mexico, peers into one of those pictures. Family Album I like old photographs of relatives in black and white, their faces set like…
Proactive
Taxman cometh — The group’s name may not sound sexy, but the Accounting Aid Society helps thousands of senior citizens and low-income families in metro Detroit keep their money in the community. The society helped nearly 7,000 people complete federal and state tax returns last year, with the average family receiving returns of $849. The…
Adultery reading
I am a faithful man. I have never committed an act of adultery. I’ve been with the same woman, my wife, for 21 years. So I might not be the best man to write about Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader. But then again, that’s exactly what drives me to read and write fiction — it escorts…
Support Kwame, fight for schools
Let’s admit this about Kwame Kilpatrick: He kicked media butt in the election, including mine. Brilliantly and thoroughly. I did not think he deserved another term, and I thought his opponent was a better choice, but that didn’t matter. What matters is that he persuaded the voters he was their man. What now? Frankly, we…
Letters to the Editor
Mixed feelings The 2005 Dubious Achievement Awards (Metro Times, Jan. 4, 2006) were hilarious, with an undertone of fierce indignation, in the best Swiftian tradition. Apparently, Metro Times has lots of terrific material to work with. But in less talented hands, the piece could easily have been a yawner. Jack Lessenberry’s opinion piece, on the…
The killer & the salesman
Writer-director Richard Shepard’s buddy film-black comedy offers a sharp mix of irreverent humor and surprisingly engaging character drama. Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) is a burned-out, globe-trotting assassin-for-hire. Orphaned, friendless and fond of pricey alcohol and cheap sex, he stumbles into Mexico City on his birthday to eliminate a target. Drunk at the hotel bar, he…
Heartburn
“Long ago, we were finding out everything about each other,” A Thousand Times Yes guitarist-vocalist Joe Hoffman sings in “Desert of Law-Abiding Souls,” off 2003’s Michigan. It was the band’s official debut after losing a member and leaving Lansing for Detroit; it was also a record cloaked in mythology and suggestion, from aliases for each…
In hot water
Turning the bowl slowly in my cupped hands, I admired its elegance, its earth colors, its glazes, the likes of which I’d never seen before. It was handcrafted, simple and beautiful. Raising the bowl to sip the somewhat murky liquid inside, I paused to sample the aroma. The last thing I expected to smell was…
Breakfast on Pluto
Kitten, or Saint Kitten as he sometimes asks to be called, is the son of a parish priest (Liam Neeson) and his cleaning woman. His parents abandoned him as an infant, leaving him in the care of a harsh foster mother and sister. His preference for women’s attire, his smart mouth and his mischievous nature…
Radical axis
Ah, Cass Corridor. While much of it’s still run-down and decrepit, it’s also the stomping grounds of fiery social activists and business owners who see a community with infinite potential. Along with bombed-out buildings, the area now has gardens, bistros, a brewery, art enclaves, an organic bakery, not to mention new housing developments cropping up.…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Casanova
Thank God for Oliver Platt. Without his reliable scene-stealing, this gussied-up sex comedy might have been truly insufferable. As a matter of fact, most of the cast of Casanova is so good you find yourself wishing they could all be transported to a better film.
7″ pop shots
Kelley Stoltz Stoltz 45 b/w ’84 Tigers Cass Records On his past couple of records, former Detroiter Kelley Stoltz has carved an enviable and oft-ear-grabbing body of work from his lo-fi approach to classic, expired-warranty pop music. So this little trinket of lighthearted ephemera could be a bit of buzz-kill for his fans. The A-side…
Grandma’s Boy
Watching this slapstick slacker comedy is the cinematic equivalent of a cover band: an Adam Sandler movie without Sandler himself. A product of his Happy Madison productions, it stars a collection of the Waterboy’s best buddies and hangers-on, who proudly carry on the sophomoric humor of their master.
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
In verity? MB57 varieties! • Thine Eyes Bleed — In the Wake of Separation (The End) :: Mine ears bleed. • Wolf Parade — Apologies to Queen Mary (Sub Pop) :: What if Bowie and Ronson had recorded Hunky Dory while stewed to the gills on a case of scotch? • The Dead Science —…
Stroke me, stroke me
First impressions of Earth? It sucks — unbearably so. The problem being that, of all the things that become the Strokes — undeniable hooks, celebrity girlfriends, cheekbones to die for, etc. — desperation isn’t one of ’em. And after the lackluster sales of 2003’s underrated Room on Fire, the band’s third album is little more…
Play it again
The recent controversy over programming changes at 101.9 FM WDET has left Detroiters on both sides of the fence. Some are happy with the change, saying they prefer the all-news all-day format, while others — a slightly more excitable bunch — have been devastated by the about-face, citing the change as little more than an…
the man
Where does one turn, as an artist, after levels of (inter)national success have waned? Maybe to what comes naturally, like turning up your guitar and rocking, dude. That density of sound recalls the familiar comfort and safety once realized in the garage as a kid. All the pressure is gone, momentarily, and you make music…
Storefront salvation
Drive down any major Detroit thoroughfare and, among the check-cashing joints, liquor stores, coin laundries, abandoned buildings and vacant lots, you’ll see churches. All manner of churches. Grand cathedrals and humble chapels, converted storefronts and former synagogues, monumental megachurches and squat brick temples. Whether imposing or unassuming, they’re sure to have some surprising mural or…
To: Elliott From: Portland
Tribute albums are always risky propositions, especially when the feted artist tended to record definitive versions of the songs, and what artist in recent memory sounded surer of his music than Elliott Smith? To: Elliott From: Portland is, per the title, a collection of Smith covers by hometown artists, both known (Decemberists, the Thermals) and…
Sight, science and spirit
For more than three decades, London-born, Detroit-bred artist Judy Pfaff has had a prolific career. She has exhibited in numerous shows in international galleries and museums, and her work is in a bevy of East Coast collections and across the country. She’s a sculptor, painter and printmaker who’s even better known for her work as…
Smoke & Mirrors
Old-school alum O.C. has long been a hip-hop staple, if not one of the most ill-promoted emcees in history. Originally signed by MC Serch in 1991, O.C. had a string of hits, and at least one classic album in 1994’s Word…Life. He hit near-immortal status through his affiliation with the Bronx-based Diggin’ in the Crates…
Night and Day
Thursday & Saturday • 12 & 14 Mittens MUSIC You’ve probably never heard of them, but the Boston-based sing-song trio Mittens hits the metro area twice this week. Don’t think too hard about it: If you like the songs of the Shins or the less-is-more ethos of VU, shell out the paltry cover charge and…
Head cheese
We Are Scientists are following a success template traced by legions (the Rapture, Bloc Party, blah blah). After self-releasing a series of EPs beginning in 2001, WAS got scooped up by Virgin, hence their full-length debut, With Love and Squalor (out Jan. 10). What makes it good is the execution of detail — from the…
Wham BAMN
On the 29th floor of the Cadillac Tower in Detroit, a group of high school and college students sat around a conference table last December reviewing a script they would read over the phone to black voters who signed petitions to put the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on the state ballot. “Did you understand what…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): At New York’s Museum of Modern Art, I brought my face to within a few inches of Vincent van Gogh’s painting, "The Starry Night." It looked delicious. I wanted to kiss it. Its stars were throbbing and voluptuous. The night sky shimmered with currents of spiraling energy. In the foreground, the…
Backslash
The world is full of idiots. And many of them are very loud. This simple premise is one of the driving forces behind the genius of overheardinnewyork.com, a blog run by two New York City men who collect and post snippets of stupidity, irony and insight overheard in the streets of the Big Apple. Behold…
Acting out
In contemporary theater, there are few playwrights who really know how to mess with audiences’ minds by dramatizing touchy ideas. A couple of names that come up are Alan Ball, writer of the Academy Award-winning film American Beauty and creator of HBO’s Six Feet Under, and Craig Lucas, author of The Secret Lives of Dentists,…
Kwame, all grown up?
After his swearing in, mayor tells off the press
A full house and a sexless spouse
Q: I’m a married guy with a good job, a wonderful kid, and my wife’s a good lady. The problem? Sex. She rarely wants or needs it, and when I can get her in the mood it’s the same old dull routine. Same position, I do all the work — she won’t even touch my…
Taking transit steps
News flash: Various metro-area government officials and business owners voted to cooperate on something. Bigger news flash: It was regional rapid transit. A few weeks ago on the 15th floor of the Compuware building in downtown Detroit, members of the Woodward Avenue Action Association — a group of business and civic leaders from communities along…
Amazing feet
It took bare feet and a lot of guts. Since its inception in the early 20th century, the modern dance movement has made its mark as a rebellion staged against classical dancing, against all the corps of dancers who perform in unison en pointe, with flowing arms, long, extended legs and airborne movement. Modern dancers…
Fighter’s last rites
She equated the freedom to fight the powers that be with the freedom to fight cancer, her husband, Bill, explained. And Sunday, kin, friends and admirers — filling the ground floor of Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit and overflowing onto the balcony — could consider how both quests played out in Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann’s…
