TWO LOCAL GROUPS WIN CASH IN FACEBBOOK COMPETITION
A few weeks back, we took a look at four metro-Detroit organizations competing for a cool million, thanks to an innovative, Facebook-fueled grant giveaway (“Chasing the buck,” Jan. 13). Gathering votes from Facebook friends the world over, Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, Friendship Circle and Sikhcess, both from West Bloomfield, and the Canton-based charity Hand…
Remembering Howard Zinn
The word “hero” gets tossed around a lot, but we’ve just lost someone who was the real deal. Historian, author, playwright, teacher and social crusader Howard Zinn is dead at the age of 87. Best known for his groundbreaking book A People’s History of the United States, Zinn was both an academic and activist. Having…
POT EXPO IS STILL A GO, BUT CONTEST ON HOLD
The judges for this weekend’s canceled medicinal marijuana contest at the Caregivers Cup will wait until October to decide which Michigan grower produces the best “medicine” for their condition, says Anthony Freed, executive director of the Michigan Marijuana Chamber of Commerce. A second Caregivers Cup is planned for then — the time of year when…
JUDGE MAY GET TOUGH OVER MISSING POLICE FILES
Defense attorneys are asking for sanctions and a Wayne County Circuit Court judge says he may get tough with the Detroit Police Department over a set of missing files in a murder case. Calling it an act of “last resort,” Wayne County Circuit Judge Tim Kenny told defense attorneys Wednesday that if Detroit police don’t…
Food Stuff
Winter warmers — At Royal Oak’s Bastone, chef Robert Young has dreamed up a new winter menu to help shake off winter’s chills. Enjoy steaming-hot pasta paired with a favorite award-winning craft brew. Still hedging? Everything on the menu costs less than $15. Drop in at 419 S. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-544-6250. Fat Tuesdays…
Going down
Think being the centerpiece of a TV reality series sounds like a ton of fun? Having a gaggle of cameras recording your every move as if you were some kind of Kardashian appeal to your fantasies of fame? Consider the other side of the picture, as presented by vinegar-tongued comedian Eddie Griffin. "You know what…
The can can
How Many Licks? (or, How to Estimate Damn Near Everything) by Aaron Santos, Ph.D. Running Press; 175 pp. In your entire life, how many times will you poop? And if you collected it all, how much would it weigh? Would it all fit in a train car? What about an Olympic-size swimming pool? I think…
Motor City Cribs
Even futuristic techno isn’t immune to the march of time — Juan Atkins’ pioneering Metroplex label is having its 25th anniversary this year. And the (tongue-in-cheek) "janitor" of Metroplex, Anthony "Shake" Shakir, is celebrating the 15-year anniversary of his own Frictional label this year. While his compatriots and collaborators Atkins, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Kevin…
Direct-to-video greats
Direct-to-video has become more than the final resting spot for movie studio bombs, sad-sack sequels and low-rent actioners fronted by bloated former tough-guys. It’s also where you can find quality film and festival faves that either barely made a ripple at the box office or never got released theatrically at all. Here’s a selection of…
Metro Retro
21 years ago this week in Metro Times … Frank Provenzano investigates the incinerator after employee Bernie Labowitch scooped an empty coffee can of ash out of the incinerator. Later test results showed high levels of lead, cadmium, nickel and mercury, all in the face of the city’s refusal to analyze the ash left from…
Extra ordinary
Inspired by journalist Geeta Anand’s book, director Tom Vaughan certainly has some meaty material to work with. And like most Hollywood movies, he fudges some of the facts and creates “composite” characters to better tell his story — all forgivable acts. What’s not forgivable is turning a fascinating portrait of a man who risked everything…
Letters to the Editor
Sierra Club on Moroun’s plan Whoa, Jack! Before you do the whack job on the Canadian Sierra Club ("Unstoppable Matty," Jan. 20), you should know that the Sierra Club on this side of the border also doesn’t support the new bridge. Along with other eco-whackos — such as Michigan Environmental Council, Transportation Riders United and…
Tooth Fairy
Dwayne (don’t call him “Rock”) Johnson stars as faded hockey star Derek Thompson, now reduced to slogging it out thug-like in the minor leagues, where he’s nicknamed “Tooth Fairy” for his frequent knockouts of opposing players. Worse, he has been charged with babysitting a brash Gretzky-like upstart (skateboarder Ryan Sheckler) who’s a snot-nosed punk. Off…
Boyz will be boyz
You wouldn’t know it to scan the room, but the four dudes gathered in the living room of a rented Woodbridge house on a recent Sunday evening are the core of one of the most productive, dynamic and vibrant gangs of sound and vision this city has birthed in the last few years. They operate…
Chops
Following a high school class of musicians from Jacksonville, Fla., as they practice and eventually compete in Lincoln Center’s 2007 Essentially Ellington Competition, Bruce Broder’s engaging doc skips the typical highly personal underdog profiles and nail-biting twists in the contest to instead examine the collaborative process of building a top-notch ensemble. Former Michiganian Broder lets…
Labor’s love lost
Editor’s Note: When staff writer Sandra Svoboda said the clashes over public education were a Shakespearian-level drama unfolding, we said, "go forth, our muse, and tell the tale in the bard’s vernacular." The result unfolds before thee, dear reader. Miss Juliet and Mr. Romeo are fictional characters, though reflective of many of the experiences, actions…
Girls like them …
One thing’s for certain, especially now that history has demonstrated it decade after decade: Good pop-punk, or punk-pop, always sounds pretty good when it’s executed correctly. And Gorvette — a collaboration between Nikki Corvette and Amy Gore, two of Detroit’s best-known female rockers — do it extremely well, just as anybody familiar with their past…
‘Sand-bagging’ revisited
News Hits went to court Tuesday morning to continue covering the case of Diane Bukowski, a freelance reporter for The Michigan Citizen convicted last year on two felony counts involving charges that she either resisted arrest, obstructed justice or endangered an officer. Bukowski was arrested on Election Day in November 2008 at the scene of…
The Crooks
The Crooks have musical influences way beyond their teenage years. The band’s early live performances and demo tapes drew comparisons to Led Zeppelin, instrumentally speaking. But with producer Matthew Smith behind the boards, the trio’s debut album sounds more like Cream than anything else upon first listen. In fact, "Face Down Blues," which opens the…
Days of wine and neurosis
His fans know it’s astounding what he can ring off inside four minutes. Besides pop hooks and tender epistles, you get literary gibes and folk-derived strolls through suburban dreams, slacker ennui and barstool tragedies that can simultaneously take the piss out of hipster totems and yupster self-gratification. Lloyd Cole can fashion deceptively simple characters, similar…
Dinner and a show
If “Musick has Charms to soothe a savage Breast” (William Congreve, 1697), food, too, will smooth savage passions or normal grumpiness brought on by hunger pangs. Sandwiches come with big, perfect steak fries. The Cuban is crunchy and filling, with lots of pickle. Appetizers are another way to go, with my favorite being the skewered…
Night and Day
THURSDAY JANUARY 28 Nouvelle Vague MEET THE NEW BOSSA! While dreamy bossa nova renditions of new wave and post-punk classics may reek of schtick, if not downright sacrilege, Nouvelle Vague pulls it off with aplomb. French producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux employ a rotating cast of French and Brazilian chanteuses with smoky vocals and…
Special Reserve
With songs like "The Well Known Asshole" and "Give Me My Dat Back," Obie Trice’s no frills flow and everyman sensibilities built a buzz and earned a deal with Eminem’s Shady Records. But after two discs with the label — the gold-selling Cheers and Second Round’s On Me — he split. As a preface to…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Mid-city eats
Atlas Global Bistro 3111 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-831-2241; atlasglobalbistro.com: Voted by our readers as the best affordably expensive restaurant (under $50 per diner), Atlas has the vibe of a hip city eatery thanks to its striking interiors, knowledgeable service and international cuisine. In Atlas’ quirky kitchen, ingredients don’t necessarily remain with their cuisine-of-origin, and the…
Three’s company
Q: I’m a single (mostly) gay guy who is curious about women. A hot bisexual mate is interested in a friends-with-benefits arrangement. I’m not looking for an LTR just now, so regular, no-strings sex sounds great. However, his girlfriend doesn’t know he’s bisexual, and I’d feel uncomfortable having sex with him behind her back. I’ve…
Cable TV vs. America
It’s now clear that Adolf Hitler might easily have won World War II if cable TV had existed in America at the beginning of the New Deal. I am dead serious about this. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, the United States economy was in a state of near-collapse, with the…
International BAIT
I stopped in at the office of Project BAIT the other day. No, I wasn’t looking for worms or minnows. BAIT stands for Black Awareness in Technology. At least that’s what it stands for today. In 1970, when BAIT’s For My People black public affairs television show first aired on Channel 50, it stood for…
Blank generation
Five years might as well be an eternity in the here today, gone tomorrow underworld of dance music culture. Raise your hands, clubbers and ravers — who can remember what made you sweat ‘n’ shout during the dark winter of ’05? Well, if you were in Cologne, Berlin or Detroit, it was probably some variation…
TUESDAY AFTERNOON FUN WITH THE STOOGES…
I guess this Swiftcover insurance commercial, which is currently running in Great Britain on the telly, means Iggy’s really about as “mainstream” as you can get these days. Not as much fun or as genuinely funny as Johnny (Lydon) Rotten’s British butter commercial from a year or so ago was — but still pretty clever,…
