Cover Story
Auto zone
Listen to Detroitblogger John discuss this story on WDET’s Craig Fahle Show It’s early January in Detroit, which brings certain predictable things every year — weather charitably described as miserable, amateur skaters doing face-plants on the Campus Martius ice rink on any given night, and the North American International Auto Show, which started last week…
City Slang: Etta James, “I’d Rather Go Blind”, and the Detroit connection
City Slang was sad to learn about the passing of Etta James last week. A lot was written about the woman with the beautiful voice, and we don’t have much to add besides the fact that, though not a Detroiter, she sounded authentic, honest, ragged and earthy enough to have been one. Something we did…
City Slang: Derrick May on film
There is a tremendous video about Detroit techno legend Derrick May on Youtube. May discusses the fact that he still plays vinyl records, his past, present and future. Watch the video here. Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!! Follow @City_Slang
City Slang: Snippets with Wagner and Bandyke
Couple of little (but very cool) bits of news for you on this fucking freezing Saturday morning. First of all, it was awesome to see that Dick Wagner’s e-book, Not Only Women Bleed, reached the number one spot in the “Biographies and Memoirs of Entertainers” category on Amazon this week. We still haven’t read it,…
Arab-American author Naomi Shihab Nye appears in Ann Arbor
Naomi Shihab Nye is no stranger to travel. Raised in St. Louis, Jerusalem and San Antonio by her Palestinian father and American mother, Nye makes regular trips to the Middle East and has crisscrossed the United States visiting the homes of such famous writers as Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poet and novelist,…
The Maple Theatre, still growing: The short death and long life of an Art House theater.
Local film lovers got a major shock on Wednesday, when various media reports surfaced that the Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield Hills would be going dark by the month’s end. The rumor, that the Maple’s owners, the indie-flick specialist Landmark chain, had lost its lease, was confirmed with a press release: “Unfortunately, we have lost…
City Slang: Black Dahlia Murder announces spring tour
Detroit metal-heads the Black Dahlia Murder has announced a national tour in March and April with Nile, Skeletonwitch and Hour of Penance. The tour will kick off on March 24 in Grand Rapids and ends on April 20 in Worcester, Mass at the New England Metal & Hardcore festival. BDM will be promoting the Ritual…
Goin’ hungry at MT
To be sure, the crap economy kills boundaries, human or otherwise. And it’s easy to “hate everyone on an empty stomach.” Proof? Here’s an email sent in-house here at MT headquarters today: to staff I left a wonderful roast beef sandwich in the refrigerator last night from Honeybee la Colmena. Today, it is gone. Seriously?…
Johnny Otis in Detroit: Greatest talent show ever
Not many people pack as many careers into a life as Johnny Otis, who died earlier this week at the age of 90 in his home state of California. Author, disc jockey, talent scout, legislative staffer, night club operator, band leader, songwriter, record label chief, ordained minister and “godfather of rhythm and blues.” The obits,…
Don’t think corporations are people? Join Friday protests.
In a way, it seems absurd that there’s an apparent need to amend the U.S. Constitution in order to affirm what is obvious to most people. But, with an abundance of absurdities confronting us these days, this is where we Americans find ourselves: In a place where people are fomenting a national movement to change…
Update: Trouble on Broadway averted? 1515 saved?
The plucky theater at 1515 Broadway in downtown Detroit has been there for the community for a quarter-century. Now, with owner Chris Jaszczak facing eviction by Citibank, the community is poised to rally in support of him.
City Slang: Small Stone at SXSW
Local stoner rock-focused label Small Stone Records has announced the line up for its annual showcase at SXSW, taking place at Headhunters in Austin, TX, on Friday, March 16. According to the press release, “Now entering its 17th year of operation, Small Stone Records has announced the final lineup for its 2012 SXSW showcase, set…
Red Tails
Red Tails C There’s nothing wrong with making an old-fashioned, John Wayne-style war movie, and goodness knows the Tuskegee airmen, pioneer black fighter pilots, are long overdue for a film that gives proper attention and respect to their struggles and accomplishments. But though it’s tempting to root for Red Tails based on its intentions…
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close C+ Why have one emotionally drenched ending when you can have three? The fact Stephen Daldry (The Hours, The Reader) and his screenwriter Eric Roth ( Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) feel the need to awkwardly and sentimentally wrap up and underline every narrative thread in…
Haywire
Haywire B The rise of female action stars in the last decade has been exciting, but has often come at the expense of pushing suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. Grumpy old cavemen like me have frequently scoffed at the notion, egalitarian as it may be, that spindly and protein-deficient runway models like…
City Slang: “W4 Homegrown” revisited
OK, so I was at Record Graveyard in Hamtramck a couple of weeks ago, and I came across this compilation LP, apparently from ’74. The sleeve tells that the album was compiled by the 106FM radio station and mastered in Grosse Pointe, with art designed in Ferndale. It truly is a local undertaking, and the…
Our 13-year-old son came out — how can we help?
Q: My 13-year-old son came out to us this morning. He plans to tell his brothers in the next few days. We love and accept our son, and this news isn’t surprising (but when will the stereotypical neatness kick in?), but we do have some concerns. He has, apparently, already made the news public at…
Ray Parker Jr.’s Detroit roots
Ray Parker Jr. will forever be synonymous with one song. Forget the fact that he was playing with the Spinners when he was a teenager. Forget that he wrote hit records for Barry White, and has played with Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. Forget that he has worked in the studio with Tina Turner, Diana…
Genius on the stage
Mysterious and beautiful, an amalgam of avant-garde theater, opera and dance, Einstein on the Beach rattled the art world with its 1976 debut. Stage director and designer Robert Wilson and composer Philip Glass, visionaries both, took cutting-edge ideas nurtured in the intimacy of New York’s downtown loft scene and staged a four-hours-plus spectacle uptown at…
Here and there
The excellent reporting in these pages by my colleagues Larry Gabriel and Curt Guyette has kept me up to date on the hope for a greener future in Michigan by means of the marijuana legalization initiative. I’m far away from home this month, trying to make sense of the repressive measures presently being championed and…
Punk chef
Most people know Timmy Vulgar (aka Tim Lampinen) for his antics as the lead singer of the Clone Defects, Human Eye and Timmy’s Organism. Some may be familiar with his visual art, which often adorns the records he’s on. But fewer still know him as a talented cook. Among those who do, though, word is…
A shining moment
Whatever happens next, remember this: For years, an arrogant, squat little billionaire has bought our politicians, sneered with contempt at our laws and our courts, and held our economy hostage. But on the morning of Friday the 13th, he woke up in the Wayne County Jail, dressed in a green jump suit. Yes, yes, I…
Letters to the Editor
News Hits & giggles I picked up your latest issue (Jan. 11) and glanced at the cover. On the left side it listed "Lessenberry," "News Hits" and "Savage." But what my brain read was "Lessenberry," "New Shits" and "Savage" and I started wondering what politicians Lessenberry was writing about, since there hadn’t been a recent…
Pariah
Pariah B+ Coming of age is hard enough without also worrying about coming out; this double-trouble is presented with sensitivity and powerful immediacy by first-time writer-director Dee Rees. It is a striking debut: visually rich, emotionally complex and graced by strong performances from top to bottom. No performance here is stronger than Adepero Oduye,…
The Internet – Purple Naked Ladies (Odd Future)
Matt Martians and Syd tha Kid — part of the controversial L.A. hip-hop collective Odd Future — have a specific target in mind for their debut album as the Internet: Tumblr fans who crave some late-’80s pop-R&B to get high to. Dinky synthesizers, nakedly bathetic guitar arpeggios, and tinny drum breakdowns stew in a basement-studio…
Bridge to a jailing
Curt Guyette in News Hits and Jack Lessenberry in Politics and Prejudices take on a local story that went nationwide last week: the overnight jailing of billionaire Manuel ‘Matty’ Moroun and his bridge company president, Dan Stamper. News Hits dissects the Moroun claim that the jailing was capricious and unexpected: "Nothing could be further from…
Canvassing the hood
What: The opening of two new exhibitions featuring the work of accomplished local artists. Where: Paint Creek Center for the Arts, 407 Pine St., Rochester; 248-651-4110; pccart.org. When: Opening receptions 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20; exhibits display through Feb. 17. Paint Creek Center for the Arts launches two new…
The Big Pink – Future This (4AD)
On their 2009 debut, A Brief History of Love, London electro-rockers the Big Pink surveyed the ups, downs and sideways stagnancy of romantic relationships. Songs such as "Dominos" tumbled with grace and hooks. On the follow-up, Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze expand their worldview, taking in and soaking up their surroundings. Future This is all…
A finer Pointe
Green Zone Pizza 17008 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe 313-332-0559 Handicap accessible Personal pizzas: $6-$9 Sandwiches: $9-$11 > I’m not noble enough to patronize a place just because it’s green. Happily, Green Zone Pizza, open since last month in Grosse Pointe, is both planet-friendly and palate-friendly. Prius-driving owner Markus Wierderkehr has a background in recycling, and…
Food Stuff
In from the cold Shoppers at Detroit’s Eastern Market will find a bit of relief from the cold in Shed 2, where a tent has sprung up to guard people — and victuals — against wind and inclement weather (see picture). The move adds a bit of comfort for year-round marketers, and expands the amount…
Return of the Red Baron – The Royal Guardsmen (1967)
Looking through the children’s video section of a thrift shop, I was surprised to find that after cartoonist Charles Schulz had run out of agreeable holiday specials to subject the Peanuts gang to, the specials ground on regardless. Forty-five of them in all, according to Wikipedia: It’s Armistice Day Again, Charlie Brown; Here’s the Great…
The Mill and the Cross
The Mill and the Cross B Oh, boy. Where to begin? The Mill and the Cross is not for everyone. Actually, it’s not for most people. So the question becomes: Who is it for? If you’re a fan of Peter Greenaway, and I don’t mean his better-known work like The Cook, The Thief, His…
Relief case relieved
While News Hits is passing out praise for displays of judicial gumption, we’d like to give a nod to Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Daniel O’Brien, who dismissed all charges brought against the operators and employees of Clinical Relief, a medical marijuana dispensary in Ferndale that got busted in mid-2010. When this rag took an…
A Dangerous Method
A Dangerous Method B- David Cronenberg goes Merchant-Ivory. Or maybe it’s Last Tango in Switzerland. While there’s no denying that the Canadian auteur brings his pervy intellect to an otherwise buttoned-down costume drama about the origins of psychoanalysis, A Dangerous Method isn’t for everyone. And especially isn’t for fanboys hoping for another Videodrome or…
Will this become the next photo of Mitt Romney’s early years to go viral?
Out of all those in the GOP field vying for the party’s presidential nomination, Mitt Romney has faced enormous scrutiny for his activities prior to becoming a career politician (or “not” becoming a career politician if you take his word for it). It might be difficult to imagine the man who expressed with ease on national…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Remember – if you send it, it will get reviewed. That’s the City Slang promise. It doesn’t matter what genre the music is – as long as it has a Metro Detroit connection, it’ll get in. Preferably, we’d like to concentrate on new releases but, while we’re getting warmed up here, feel free to send…
