Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In a past life you may have been a peasant who worked as a scullery maid at a rural castle and never traveled more than five miles from home. Perhaps you were the sickly bastard child of a nun and monk, confined to bed and taught by private tutors in a…
Letters to the Editor
Respect and racism Jack Lessenberry should brush up on the first law of holes: When you’re in one, stop digging. First the good part: Mr. Lessenberry has the right to say bad things about Detroit, some of which are painfully true. And there can be benefit in provoking discussion of important issues like how we…
Does Detroit have the blues?
When is the blues going to get the respect that it deserves in Detroit? No, I don’t mean Royal Oak, the home of Memphis Smoke, and I’m not talking about Dearborn, home of the relatively new George and Harry’s, and the soon-to-be-opened Sully’s Roadhouse. Not talking about St. Clair Shores, home of the Blue Goose,…
Jailhouse shock
Hepatitis C sickens thousands, costs millions….
A kick in the eye
Satori Circus pulls up stakes and lights up the road ahead….
The ins and outs of film sex
Q: I’m a young actor who is trying to get some info on the behind-the-scenes etiquette of filming a sex scene. (Cable-series sex, not adult-movie sex). I’ve done theater and some extra work in film but up to now I’ve never done sex/nudity. However, the time has come: I’m in a real sex scene and…
Why Johnny Marr sings
When Bowie sideman Mick Ronson stepped out from Ziggy’s shadow to release a solo album, Play Don’t Worry, some less-than-kind critics opined that maybe he should’ve called the opus Play Don’t Sing. One could almost imagine what expectations await a singing Johnny Marr, the last truly great guitar hero rock has produced. As a founding…
Gay, by the way
Who’s out there? And where do they fit inside the swirling yin-yang continuum? If you really want to know where flaming meets flattop meets “can chromosomes be wrong?,” visit Reel Pride Michigan 2003, the GLBT film festival, beginning Jan. 24 at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak. For eight days, Reel Pride, in association…
Suing for testing, treatment
With thousands of Michigan inmates infected with the hepatitis C virus and only a handful receiving treatment, students from the University of Michigan Clinical Law Program and their professor filed suit in federal district court Jan. 21 to get better health care for infected prisoners. “It’s really a public health concern because more than 90-some…
Liver let die?
Last January, a 31-year old California inmate serving 14 years for robbery received a heart transplant. The cost to taxpayers: More than $1.5 million, including follow-up care. The episode angered Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. “You have to wonder if a law-abiding, taxpaying citizen drew one last breath while Jailhouse Joe was getting a…
Fighting an immoral war
It seems highly likely that our government soon will be waging a pre-emptive and aggressive war against Iraq. George Bush minor, the man the people rejected but who was installed as president by a partisan Supreme Court, already has dispatched 150,000 troops to the region; it’s hard to believe he got them dressed up for…
That was then, this is now
Detroit Repertory Theatre posts a sign of the times….
Albert and the ladies
Some things deserve a nickname. It seems perfectly appropriate to call a big dude “Tiny.” Or a dumb kid “Einstein.” Or a tolerant lover “Cookie Puss.” But whoever bestowed the Woodward Avenue Brewery in Ferndale with the unfortunate moniker of “the WAB” did it no favors. “WAB” is not a fun word to say. It’s…
January 22-28
22 WED • MUSIC Alles Gute! Bis Bald! featuring the Trembling — Seen bellied-up at almost every rock ’n’ roll venue that offers more fun than a day trip to Zug Island, Munich native Tanja Mayer quickly became a lovable supporter and fan of all things Detroit rock ’n’ roll. In an attempt to repay…
Singsong days
Pas/Cal trips the pop fantastic….
As the tables turn
You say you want to live downtown? Where would you eat? Where would you get your morning coffee? Your groceries? And where would you go after work? The focus here is not on the prototypical weekend warrior “overpass and tunnel” crowd, suburbanites looking for a ballgame and some flaming cheese, an upscale anniversary dinner and…
Dubya’s dark eloquence
“I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy.” —George W. Bush, September 2000 The voice on the phone is a study in controlled passion, thoughtful and determined. Its tone moderates between humor and vitriol, resignation and defiance. It belongs to Mark Crispin Miller, a New York University professor of media studies who is among George W.…
Dive bar becomes bona fide music venue
Sometimes booze just isn’t enough. No longer just a shot-and-a-beer joint, Small’s former life as an old man’s bar that touted a strange attraction to thirsty young hipsters is over. Once known as the perfect "after-show hangout," this little Hamtramck gem will now be supplying the show. Where Dumpsters once loomed and cheeseburgers were overcooked,…
An impending tragedy
Hours after returning from his most recent visit to Iraq, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton appeared before a group of peace activists at Detroit’s Central United Methodist Church last Thursday, Jan. 16, urging them to increase their efforts to avert a war that seems more and more likely with each passing day. Gumbleton, along with a host…
Bob-Lo blow
Last week, Metro Times’ historical column, “Back in the Day,” told the story of a beloved Detroit icon, the Bob-Lo steamer Columbia. After a decade of inertia, the boat recently wound up in the midst of a power struggle over its ownership and future. The Steamer Columbia Foundation, a nonprofit organization that held title to…
Techno color
The wind outside could freeze a limb. But in the halls of the Detroit Historical Museum, techno-music glitterati, city patricians, politicians and media create heat through proximity and wine consumption. The mood is anxious, like calm before a storm. Some in the crowd paid $150 to celebrate the museum’s new techno exhibit — designed to…
Media scrum
News Hits was expecting to play Cassandra and warn of imminent calamity in a new round of media consolidation. There’s been relatively little media coverage (wonder why?) about upcoming Federal Communications Commission hearings to reconsider rules that, for instance, keep companies from buying newspaper and broadcast outlets in the same market, and bar single companies…
Seen one
This week’s abandoned house may seem familiar because it ran last week with an incorrect address and other information. It is actually at 2770 25th Street. The house, built in 1910, sits next to and across from vacant lots. A majority of windows have been broken, although none seem to be boarded up. A dilapidated…
Abandoned Shelter of the Week
This week’s abandoned house may seem familiar because it ran last week with an incorrect address and other information in the print edition. It is actually at 2770 25th Street. The house, built in 1910, sits next to and across from vacant lots. A majority of windows have been broken, although none seem to be…
Dual Mono
Greenhornes Dual Mono Telstar The Hentchmen Three Times Infinity Norton Cincy band the Greenhornes are currently being hotly tipped as one of 2003’s rockisback! combos to watch for. Indeed, their third album offers enough fuzztone-induced psychotic reactions, swivel-hipped love-in moves and snot-nosed teenage rama-lama to float a tanker’s worth of Nuggets box sets. Right from…
Francophilia
Something to declare can feel like a cocktail party where you don’t know anyone. Even so, as Britain’s most knowledgeable Francophile, Julian Barnes is a pretty good host. This collection of essays written over the past 20 years honors Barnes’ heroes of French film, music, theater, cooking, even cycling. He talks about Georges Brassens, François…
The Hours (music from the motion picture)
Philip Glass The Hours (music from the motion picture) Nonesuch Arvo Pärt Orient & Occident ECM New Series New Music, it seems, faces one of the same problems that other explorative genres do — how to expand the audience without putting a serious crimp in a musician’s ability to take chances. Recent releases by composers…
Andrei Rublev
Now Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s second feature film (1966) can be seen intact and restored in all its black-and-white dreamlike glory. Ostensibly a bio-pic of the 15th century monk and icon painter, it’s a case where the word “visionary” isn’t hyperbolic. This is essential viewing.
Her mind, their selves
Stephen Daldry’s film intertwines the lives of three women in a construction that fuses all three stories into one momentous thrust. The Hours demonstrates how the thoughts and actions of one tragic artist can send an emotional ripple through time and space — with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep.
Russian Ark
Russian director Alexander Sokurov’s film consisting of a single 96-minute take is both impressive and puzzling. With more than seven months of preparation and more than 800 actors and extras employed, it’s a technical marvel. But the feeling of missing the point is a recurring concern.
The Way Home
In Jeong-Hyang Lee’s ode to unconditional love and compassion, 7-year-old Sang-Woo is bused by his mother out into the rural countryside to stay with his grandmother whom he’s never met. Not until he finally feels a little pain on his own can he begin to understand the great sacrifices his imperturbable grandmother makes for him.
National Security
In this ironic slapstick version of producer Joel Silver’s testosterone-fueled burlesque show, the salt-and-pepper action buddy flick (think Lethal Weapon), doofus Martin Lawrence and stooge Steve Zahn stand in as security guard versions of Murtaugh and Riggs.
Kangaroo Jack
Unfortunately for Kangaroo Jack, Christopher Walken and the kangaroo get a fairly equal amount of screen time, which is to say not much at all. And although David McNally directs it in a trendy slo-mo/fast-mo/thumping sound track style, his movie remains both boring and ridiculous.
Panacea
During the past few years, Detroit has seen a lot of new clubs open. Many have succeeded financially while others have failed. There have been, however, few cases where good taste and bigger budgets have coexisted. If patrons want dominatrix midgets and fireworks, we’ve got it. If you want to valet park your Lamborghini and…
