N&D Center
Wednesday • 12 Allan Barnes and Tim Caldwell: Tainted Cheesecake ART Back in the 1940s, cheesecake posters of Betty Grable stoked the fantasies of young men. But things have changed — oh, have they ever! From the kinky minds of artists Allan Barnes and Tim Caldwell, Tainted Cheesecake is a photo exhibit that takes the…
Comics
This Modern World Red Meat Comix
Turn on, fit in, punk out
Watching Qu’un Toi, my Asian mail-order bride, roll through The Urbz: Sims in the City (EA), I wonder how much of a role her cultural background plays in her intuitive understanding of the game. Coming from such a socially regimented culture, she loves the conveniences and freedom of expression here; she experiences snow cones and…
The whack pack
If you’re prone to despair when following the madcap adventures of Detroit City Council, you may find some comfort in looking to other cities. For example, browsing for any useful information on the City of Detroit’s Web site, you stumble across Councilmember Barbara-Rose Collins’ page only to discover that first on her list of “most…
Bullet holes & torn lives
The first time I remember meeting my little cousin Dwayne, he tried to stab me. Dwayne was 5 years old. I was 9, I think. I had gone out West with my mother and father to spend a week or so visiting with my relatives, meeting some of them for the first time. While I…
One man’s haven
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda marks one of the more shameful examples of the West turning its back on a country overwhelmed by madness and evil. This harrowing political melodrama pulls no punches when indicting Europeans and Americans for protecting their own citizens and leaving Rwandans to die. In the film, the hotel manager of…
Using your noodle
One of my favorite dishes begins with one of the simplest, cheapest and increasingly common man-made ingredients on store shelves today. In 2003, according to the online version of the Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, the Chinese ate close to 30 billion servings of the stuff, or 40 percent of the world’s total appetite for it.…
Million Dollar Baby
Director and star Clint Eastwood brings the audience ringside for a mat-level view, in this film about a salty manager who reluctantly takes on a fledgling female boxer. Eastwood lets the audience feel every bone-crushing fist that slams into heroine Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), but the film hits even harder outside the ring, where the…
Muses and muscle
Camilo Pardo is not your average Big Three employee. First of all, the 41-year-old with a pencil-thin goatee is the chief designer of Ford’s recently debuted $140,000 GT sports car, a glamorous modernization of Ford’s futuristic 1960s race car of the same name. Bill Ford recently referred to the GT as the “pace car” for…
A Tale of Two Sisters
South Korea’s contribution to the "creepy undead girl with long black hair covering her face" genre, is clearly inspired by films like The Ring or The Others. Though it may not evoke the visceral dread of those films, it does boast a suffocating atmosphere and disjointed storyline that turns the screws on your nerves while…
Getting Detroit back on the road
I want you young people to know that the city you’re growing up in today is not worthy of you. Somehow, we’ve lost our way as a society and as a community. [Yet] we’re all in this together and we can turn this thing around. —Freman Hendrix, announcing his candidacy for mayor They don’t…
House of Flying Daggers
Director Zhang Yimou has gone from creating historical dramas to making films freighted with social commentary to his latest role: martial arts visionary on the art-house circuit, as illustrated by Hero and now Daggers. The plot is thin, but the real meat of the film is the ballet-like, gravity-defying and supernaturally acrobatic fight scenes. It’s…
Hybrid buzz
In a moment rife with symbolism, the profligate past and potential future took center stage when the North America International Auto Show opened to the media on Sunday. For an industry in the throes of what many see as revolutionary change, the schizophrenia displayed in selecting the car and truck of the year couldn’t have…
White Noise
Naught but a disappointing return for the talented Michael Keaton as he takes a stab at the morose understated guy confronting supernatural forces. This half-baked supernatural thriller has a few creepy scares but mostly apes the style and content of The Ring and everything M. Night Shyamalan ever directed. Silly, underdeveloped and lacking any original…
Head cheese
This dude Andrés (aka DJ Dez) isn’t a stranger to music scenes here or elsewhere. As the former DJ for Latin-funk powerhouse Ozomatli, Dez has toured the globe, spinning Afro-Latino records consistent with his Cuban-Jamaican heritage. His father, famed Cuban percussionist Humberto Hernandez, actually got Dez the Ozomatli gig, which ended in 2000. Now manning…
Mississippi returning
Junior Kimbrough’s guitar was a crafty snake, his voice a simultaneous growl and wail, just like the soul of any man. Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough celebrates his life through artists who understand that rawness, that immediacy, even if they know they’ll never fully divine where the man’s power came from. Fat Possum’s…
Jack is back
Under a blazing Cuban sun with the mercury registering 105 degrees, a mostly hostile, mostly white crowd of 20,000 leaned forward in anticipation in the 26th round. The latest great white hope, Jess Willard, landed a succession of four blows; to the mat went his opponent, Jack Johnson, heavyweight champ, the most visible black man…
Turning Point
Back in 2002, Mario sucker-punched B2K and Lil’ Bow Wow with “Just a Friend 2002,” thus forcing them to make room for his self-titled debut. Now he returns with Turning Point, and he’s armed with a hit (“Let Me Love You”), a maturing voice and a swagger that should push him into the old superstardom…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’re like grass sprouting up through a crevice in a boulder, Aries. You’re like a hawk that has built a nest on the roof of a swank penthouse. You even remind me of an indie rock band that has somehow cracked the Billboard charts without selling out. I don’t know how…
Art Bar
Enjoy art — and save a kidney: The Lawrence Street Gallery is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan with a special exhibit and fundraiser. The gallery is donating a portion of all January sales to the foundation. The artists’ reception for this multimedia exhibit takes place 5-9 p.m., Jan. 19,…
The Way I Were
If eclectic singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston were food, he’d likely be an Asian buffet. Appealing, in an exotic, curious way — the wit and variety of his ideas are tempting, but not always easy to digest. If you’re up for the challenge, however, The Way I Were — a collection of Johnston’s self-produced 4-track demos from…
She wants to dance with me
Q: I’m a 21-year-old hetero, two weeks from finishing my tour in Afghanistan, and I have a question about strip clubs. I live in St. Louis and enjoy the pleasures of East St. Louis as often as I can. One of the first things I’m going to do when I get home is get drunk…
Remixing racism
DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid is a bit of an enigma. Spooky, or Paul Miller as he’s known in the civilian world, has taken on the world of academia, writing, DJing, painting, performance art and computer science. He has taught music-mediated art at the European Graduate School, has been editor-in-chief of the online magazine Artbyte,…
Motor City Love
“It’s a Motor City love/In a New York City world/And I’m Detroit dirty/I’m Motor City love.” The lyrics are a good few clicks shy of genius. Still, when slurred over some Night Train rowdy guitar, it at least has some fist-raising staying power. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few times Saturnine Hello musters anything memorable…
Backdated balladeers
A cold December wind follows two cautious but cunning Capricorns, one a child queen, the other a fairy princess (indeed, a child queen and a fairy princess), into a rabbit’s hole on the dark side of the planet. They emerge into the real world, Hamtramck’s Painted Lady, which is hazy with artificial light, cigarette smoke…
Shroud hounds
This past fall, News Hits took snide note of the city’s $1.2 million effort to protect streetlights from wire-stealing scrappers (“Not so bright,” Metro Times, Oct. 6, 2004). When last we visited the issue, the City of Detroit was placing plastic covers, called shrouds, over the bases of some 21,000 light poles. At that time,…
Underground highway
Trimly dressed 24-year-old Hugh Cleal has been a house DJ for the past eight years, and has a special knack for throwing underground parties. As the former guru behind the late ’90s “/syn-de-kat/” raves in some of Detroit’s most cavernous warehouses, Cleal has a true passion for music. Not your typical car salesman. “I sell…
Budget crunch
For those of you who might’ve missed it, Metro Times reported late last month that the city is facing a massive layoff this year because of an ever-increasing deficit (“Detroit faces massive layoffs in 2005,” Metro Times, Dec. 22, 2004). On Monday afternoon, City Council Director of Fiscal Analysis, Irvin Corley, reported to council that…
Heart & soul
Thank God another phony holiday landscape strewn with marketplace booby traps — and bought-and-sold illusions that all is well in the West — has disappeared from our cynical view. With this solemn blanket of fake joy lifted, we rub our eyes awake and yawn into a new adventure, an even happier new year of pseudo-prosperity.…
Down in the dumps
This trash-ridden property overlooking the Jeffries Freeway at 6709 Taft has only been abandoned for a short while. Darryl Green, who lives down the street, says the home was occupied with tenants as recently as one year ago. Now, scores of old tires, broken televisions and debris have been dumped across the front and back…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Always keep yer MB16 loaded and ready for action! • The Slackers — Close My Eyes (Hellcat) :: Closed my ears instead. • Loque — So Long (Lava) :: Low key, see ya. • Stroke 9 — All In (Records, Man!) :: Stupid band name. Smart rock album. • No Warning — Suffer, Survive (Machine…
Proactive
Kingly march — What’s being dubbed a “Freedom March” in “the honor and spirit” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be held Monday, Jan. 17. Organizers say this is the first Detroit march held to pay tribute to the slain civil rights leader. The event starts at noon at the Central United Methodist Church…
Shades of Grae
South African-born lyricist Tsidi Ibrahim, better known as Jean Grae, is in a bit of a predicament. With the first half of her career revolving around enough guest appearances to get her dubbed the “cameo queen,” Grae admits she’s still a bit overwhelmed by life in the limelight. Set to headline her first U.S. tour,…
Letters to the Editor
Dropping the dime on us In her recent article, (“Detroit faces massive layoffs in 2005,” Metro Times, Dec. 22, 2004), Lisa M. Collins correctly points out the complex reasons for our structural budget deficit. Ric Bohy, on the other hand, derives his insight from simplistic, mean-spirited distortions of fact (“Their honor, your dime,” Metro Times,…
