Letters to the Editor
The name’s not James That was a nice story written about my son, Mike Boulan, and his record label, No Cover Productions (“Burnin’ the blues,” Metro Times, Dec. 28, 2005). I just wish you could have gotten his name right. It is Mike Boulan, not James. Mike eats, sleeps and lives the blues. He has…
Sushi goes mainstream
If we added correctly, the restaurant is offering 119 items just in the “rolls” category. And the proprietor is constantly adding ideas as his in-laws fax menus from Japan. So competition, the lifeblood of capitalism, brings about such innovations as the $10 Dragon Roll: long, high, wide and bright, with different fillings, toppings and colored…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m hoping that in 2006 you will work your ass off with great ingenuity — not just at your job, but in every area of your life. Do you have it in you to break all your previous records for brilliant diligence? Are you willing to summon fierce discipline and crafty…
2005 Dubious Achievement Awards
End-of-the-year pieces are a news media staple, giving us ink-monkeys the chance to hand in our work early and take a little extra holiday time off. In our somewhat demented Metro Times spin on this venerable tradition, we again turn our jaundiced eyes back on the preceding 12 months to hand out awards for dubious…
‘Condi for pres’ is condescending
They’re talking about Condi for president. Maybe it’s because it looks more and more like U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) will be the Democratic nominee in 2008. Perhaps the Republican strategists, or at least those on board with the idea, are thinking that the best antidote for that possibility is a black woman. A black woman…
Why don’t guys like to gab?
Q: Recently, my boyfriend and I broke up, one reason being his lack of initiative in calling me. After we broke up, I spoke with several of my girlfriends and found out that they, too, have similar troubles with their boyfriends or guys they are seeing. Some of these women are in serious, long-term, loving…
The critics speak
Michael Hastings Most creative use of a straight razor — and worst ending: High Tension Some virtues of this French horror import: an ass-kicking heroine reminiscent of Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, implements of torture sharp enough to cut diamonds and the most copious bloodletting since the Italian gore classics of the ’70s. Alas, the…
A sad farewell
Any year that sees both Gilligan and Maynard G. Krebs head to that vast television in the sky can’t be counted as very positive episode of boob tube karma. Both of characters were embodied by the late, lachrymose Bob Denver, who died in September. Funny how fate works: Denver will forever be remembered for an absurdly…
The year in pop ‘culture’
When I first pitched this column, it was to be a twice-monthly examination of “pop culture,” a powerful buzz phrase within the realm of alt-newsweeklies and the mainstream media hype machine. And as with all buzz words, the true definition of the term eventually gets convoluted, or lost all together. What exactly is pop culture?…
The art of seeing art
Sure, if you ask him, artist Charles McGee will share plenty from his rich life. At 81, the incredibly sharp-minded and dynamic artist has a long list of accomplishments as an educator and community leader, and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. But all McGee really wants to riff on is art. You…
Top tens, top tins
Brian Smith 1. Calexico/Iron & Wine In the Reins (Overcoat): Soul-soothing expression and narrative beneath dusty trailer-court lives and associated alcohol-fueled unions. 2. Richard Hawley Coles Corner (Mute): Here’s yer Leonard Cohen, kids. 3. Sam Cooke Night Beat (Sony/Legacy): Dude gave rise to soul, made black and white chicks cream, set record-deal standards and was…
Riders in the norm
Few things in this world are quite as badass as a motorcycle. What other product has managed to retain its countercultural mystique, its aura of dangerous magnetism, while becoming such a part of the mainstream that even Rosie O’Donnell can be counted as an enthusiast? Exploiting this combination of corporate and cool, Toyota Trucks presents…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 4 No Way to Treat a Lady THEATER Douglas T. Cohen’s dark musical comedy just finished its run at the Boarshead Theatre in Lansing, and the press in Ingham County gave three cheers. The Lansing State Journal said, “This show explodes with as much energy as a Broadway musical with a cast of…
American Life in Poetry
Arizonan Alberto Rios probably observed this shamel ash often, its year-round green leaves never changing. On this particular day, however, he recognizes a difference — a yellow leaf. In doing so he offers us a glimpse of how something small yet unexpected may stay with us, perhaps even become a secret pleasure. A Yellow Leaf…
A very difficult year
Happy New Year, comrades. That is, I hope we can all find something to be happy about. Make no mistake — it’s going to be a hard one. A difficult year, that is, for the state, city and nation, unless we learn next month that some kid has invented a perpetual motion machine in some basement…
Downtown lowdown
Having grown up in Detroit, Jeannette Pierce has endured her fair share of “Murder City” cracks and jokes about “Detroit: Where the weak are killed and eaten.” But the attitude that Detroit is such a dangerous place to live has never made much sense to her. Bad things can happen anywhere (the only time she…
