Affirming cowardice
Just a thought, but President Bush might want to consider abandoning ship on this race issue right quick before someone notices he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Oopsie. Too late already? Oh, well. Guess it’s time to buckle up. Here’s the deal: Before the president made up his mind to tackle the University…
Appreciating dump
Broken children’s toys, shoes and liquor bottles litter the yard of this week’s featured abandoned house at 4840 McDougall on the city’s east side. The home, built in 1910, stands sandwiched between another abandoned house and a trash-laden vacant lot. According to a neighbor the house has been abandoned for at least three years. The…
January 29-February 5, 2003
29 WED • ART "The Bewildered Object: New Work by Lucian Pompili" — Bring on the funk, California funk art that is, as in the surreally humorous work of sculptor Lucian Pompili. Birthed from the Rat Bastard Protective Association (a group of artists who, in 1951, mounted the exhibition "Common Art Accumulations" at the Place…
Abandoned Shelter of the Week
Broken children’s toys, shoes and liquor bottles litter the yard of this week’s featured abandoned house at 4840 McDougall on the city’s east side. The home, built in 1910, stands sandwiched between another abandoned house and a trash-laden vacant lot. According to a neighbor the house has been abandoned for at least three years. The…
Home runaround
Detroit evicting grandmother from abandoned house she spent $20,000 to repair….
The Friends of Jack White Chart Association
The Electric 6 The Barfly at the Monarch, Camden OK, the Barfly is a room above a pub in Camden. Realistic capacity about 140, 160 max. Brendan Benson blasts the house system while Electric 6 is being line-checked. The schwa-schwa air-kissing rockeratti scum are out in their Armani-record bag-and-cocaine-yapping droves, and I have to admit…
The Roots revamped
Equal parts mini-marathon, improv show and authentic hip-hop at its finest, fans and followers across the country never seem to grow weary of a good Roots concert. The Roots are guaranteed to go down in history as one of the best live performance groups in hip-hop history. Public acclaim for their recorded albums, however, has…
Bleu Room Experience
Nestled prettily on Woodward Avenue in a neighborhood that burgeons with resurgence, come-hither shades of periwinkle illuminate downtown Detroit’s night sky. Like a blue beacon of dance music, Club Bleu emanates more than just a touch of color. Inside, Bleu’s contemporary chic decor features an imported Brazilian Purple Heart wood dance floor and stainless steel-and…
Making admissions at U-M
At their core, the (University of) Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards and penalizes prospective students, based solely on their race. —George Dubya, squinting at the TelePrompTer, Jan. 15, 2003 The truth has finally been exposed: George W. Bush has outed himself as a secret liberal, hell-bent on reversing decades of…
Gino’s Porcino
The one medium-sized room that is Porcino is about as spare as a restaurant can be, with no hint of color: black chairs, white tablecloths and gray (definitely not inelegant gray) walls. The menu is also sophisticated, though not as minimal as the decor. You can’t call a salad that includes goat-cheese croutons rolled with…
Mating mousecapades
“Britney back with Justin — Their hot sexy night!” creams the cover of Star magazine. “Burp,” I burp, running my shaky fingers over my bile-wracked constitution. I’m not above this national fascination with nubile nobility, but I am growing a few spikes of resentment. I liked it better when Barbie and Ken couldn’t talk and…
Lit crit and clit
Some people go to a pub for a pint. Others go to pick up chatty and impressionable grad students. Meet Alan, the “hero” of this bizarre little piece of literary criticism masquerading as a blue travelogue around the historic sites of Aberdeen, Scotland. Alan has inherited a rambling flat filled with the library of the…
Blaxploitation history month
While every month is Black History Month at my house (and Italian-American Week, and National Kung-Fu Appreciation Day, judging from my DVD consumption), the officially sanctioned version is right around the corner. I would wait until February for this column, but will run it now in deference to those who would like to pretend Blaxploitation…
Only knocks once
Director Lynne Ramsey has created from Alan Warner’s novel a movie of wonder, chill, sadness and evolution that focuses on a singular character made well worthy of our attention by Samantha Morton’s performance.
The bubble business
Are you tired of the indignities of sucking on spent toilet paper rolls, rotten apples, pop cans, bongs made from a musty pair of Doc Martens and Saran Wrap? Well, Michael Farrington would like to show you something. He would like you to know that there’s a better way, a more artistic approach to your…
Talk to Her
Like life, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s films feed on a need to satisfy cravings and desires, but life doesn’t always pulse with sexual archetypes and breath-quivering Latin rhythms the way his latest effort does. It’s a desolate dance of the senses.
Letters to the Editor
Jack’s wrong answer Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rhonda Anderson for stating it so well in your letter to Metro Times (Jan. 22-28). The answer is definitely not having a whole lot of whites and their kids (I see and hear enough of these “kids” every fucking weekend) and dogs (well, maybe that’s OK)…
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
With Adaptation, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman took a left turn and ran into a pot of gold at the end of a Hollywood road less traveled. With Chuck Barris’ Confessions, he attempts something more conventional: He just adapts the damn thing. A mind as usually dangerous to Hollywood clichés as his is a terrible thing to…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone,” said Henry David Thoreau. That might be an exaggerated definition of wealth at most other times but it’s quite apropos for you right now. There’s never been a better time for you to declare total amnesty…
Literary license
Jim Roll has the chops to turn acclaimed novelists into lyricists….
All About Lily Chou-Chou
At a rambling two-and-a-half hours, director Shunji Iwai’s film comes across as a mix of Rebel Without a Cause and Lord of the Flies, a tale where deepening alienation leads to more and more brutal recklessness, from petty theft to rape to suicide and finally murder.
Auckland rock city
D4 brings their beer-fueled Kiwi racket to America….
MARC’s radio resale
In 1888 when Heinrich Hertz first detected radio waves, he could have never known what sort of an impact these electromagnetic energy streams would have on the world. And by harnessing the wireless transmission of sound, Hertz’s successor, the father of radio Guglielmo Marconi, made standard fare of what once seemed impossible. Established as a…
Super Sucker
Jeff Daniels’ second directorial effort is juvenile stuff (not a bad thing) and it makes no bones about its meaning or pedigree (also not a bad thing). But there are only so many times you can watch a woman masturbate with a vacuum cleaner before the humor gets flat.
Stainless science
In Dead Ringers, director David Cronenberg’s twisted but true tale about two gynecologists (twin brothers played by Jeremy Irons), there’s an uncertainty about the function of a series of horrific gynecological tools invented by one of the brothers. They end up in an art gallery as sculpture and then get used in a nightmarish surgery.…
Affirmative reaction
For most of Ann Arbor, this particular Saturday morning is business as usual. Joggers exhale steam clouds as they run in packs along State Street through the University of Michigan’s main campus. Students who’ve signed up for weekend classes walk briskly with their heads tucked downward, faces wrapped in scarves. It’s a frigid day, and…
Darkness Falls
This dim-witted film’s three screenwriters must have used some computer program that should be called the Hollywood Cliché Generator 2000. They selected "Horror" from the menu and just filled in the blanks when prompted.
Miller time
Literate popster ponders celebrity, corporate marketing….
Run for the border
David Koelsch is accustomed to helping foreigners find asylum in the United States. But the immigration attorney says that many of his clients are heading for the Canadian border these days. He attributes the exodus in part to a new national program to track foreigners, and their fears that such monitoring will lead to deportation.…
Debunking the Drudge Report
Q: I went on to the Drudge Report today and read something that must be a bunch of shit or a complete hoax: “MAG: 25% OF NEW HIV-INFECTED GAY MEN SOUGHT OUT VIRUS, SAYS SAN FRAN HEALTH OFFICIAL.” It makes gay men look awful if it’s true. Can you prove or disprove Drudge’s outrageous claims?…
Here’s the Scoop
It seems that News Hits may have some stiff competition. Or maybe just a kindred spirit. The fledgling online publication, the-real-scoop.com, delights in taking pot shots at those who wield power in metro Detroit. And, like yours truly, it has a similar wit, edge, and charm, if we do say so ourselves. But scoop reserves…
Art 1010101010101010 …
Cranbrook’s "Post-Digital Painting" boots up wild new worlds….
15 minutes of pain
In October, News Hits caught up with thousands of pimple-faced Britney wannabes lining the streets of Greektown in hopes of earning a spot on “American Idol,” the obnoxiously popular Fox talent-search TV show. After camping out in line for days, the throng of would-be pop stars showed their respect for Detroit by leaving the street…
Drum, dance and speak
West African movements come to University of Detroit Mercy….
Site in their sights
A hunters’ group is pressuring Michigan State University to shut down a Web site that provides information on animal-related laws. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is demanding MSU cease operation of the Animal Legal and Historical Web Center (www.animallaw.info), charging that the site is biased because it’s sponsored by an animal-rights group, and edited by a…
