In contempt: Bridge Co. president jailed
Jaws dropped in a Wayne County Circuit Court Monday morning when Dan Stamper, president of the Detroit International Bridge Co., was handcuffed by sheriff’s deputies and taken to jail after the company, which is owned by billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun, was cited for contempt. Along with sending Stamper to jail, Judge Prentis Edwards fined the…
Football: Helmet-to-helmet hits ain’t nothing
AT 0:06, YOU CAN HEAR THE HELMET-TO-HELMET IMPACT … This football season had plenty of talk about rules and concussions. It’s a serious issue: Plenty of quality NFL quarterbacks have had their careers cut short because of concussions, and even though “hard hits are part of the game,” after a weekend of brutal helmet-to-helmet hits…
Country Strong
Country Strong GRADE: C+ The ultra-chic Oscar-winning actress and rock star’s wife has displayed a proclivity for roles that let her show off her singing chops (see her on Glee?), and here she’s a glitz-soaked, hairsprayed country diva, modern like, say, oh, Carrie Underwood. Paltrow’s idea of playing regular folk is to essay a freefalling,…
Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ at Numero Uno for 2010. Overall music sales down, of course.
Congrats to Eminem and his Recovery album for landing the biggest selling album of 2010, according the brand new, year-end Nielson SoundScan reports. We say congrats because the total number flies in the face of myriad comments from internet gimps about Em’s irrelevancy, about how this record was gonna stiff, and hard. Well, hardy har-har.…
Brand New Ro Spit — “I’ve Arrived”
http://vimeo.com/18355904 Here’s a new video from Michigan emcee Ro Spit for his song “I’ve Arrived.” Considering how much love I gave video guru Gerard Victor for his stellar work in 2010, it’s no surprise that he directed the video for this tune as well. Based on the scenery, it looks like they shot this on…
Ann Arbor’s Buff1 Goes to New Zealand
Ann Arbor’s Buff1 is grinding it out hard these days. He recently dropped an album with turntable legend DJ Rhettmatic called Crown Royale that’s being received well nationally. And considering the way he’s hovering around longtime friend Mayer Hawthorne in Los Angeles and touring regularly, one gets the impression that 2011 ought to be one…
Democracy Still Ain’t Pretty… But It Gets The Job Done
So, once again the Detroit Film Critics Society got together and rendered their year-end verdict. The society is 20 strong and includes anyone who writes or reports about film within a 150 mile radius of Detroit. To be honest, we should probably be called the Michigan Film Critics Society but, frankly, it doesn’t sound half…
Turkey shoot
As a professional critic, I am well aware that many people consider my profession to be a den of fatuous, narcissistic, flinty-hearted bloviating trolls, grown fat and sassy off the succulent flesh of others’ failure. To which I say: Fair enough, but a big steaming bowl of schadenfreude can be oh-so-delicious. While I would damn…
Casino Jack
Casino Jack GRADE: C For political satire to succeed, a film needs to a) be funny and b) go for the jugular. George Hickenlooper’s truth-based Casino Jack does neither. The story of the stratospheric rise and not-far-enough fall of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is the perfect topic for a wickedly incisive comedy, indicting the oily…
The sleeper
A quick look through the annals of movie history proves that the film industry has generated countless odd, goofy stories. It was (and still is) an art form that draws from the fringes — from silent star Pola Negri to filmmaker Ed Wood to Mr. WTF himself Randy Quaid, and so on. Mountains of books…
The roots of the fiasco
I’d like to start off the new year, if I may, with a radical look at the War on Drugs — a close look at its roots and at the ugly growths that have resulted in America’s failing social order today. I’d like to take as my text a statement by — of all people…
Spun
FRIGHT FROM THE BINS Raindrops: Activities For a Rainy Day Melody House Nope, slashing your wrists is not a rainy day activity outlined on this lonely long player aimed at precipitation kiddie crowd control. Raindrops and its ghastly ’60s cover art conjure up an idyllic time when Ritalin wasn’t overprescribed and preschoolers might’ve sat still…
A page from Bobb’s book?
Like him or not, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has made a major show of rooting out fraud and theft in the district. From principals filching from the petty cash coffers to the outright misappropriation of contract funds, Bobb has made seeking and finding such financial malfeasance — and putting into place…
Food Stuff
Good cause — The good people at Detroit’s Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS) have put together their 12th annual fundraiser, and it sounds like a fun, food-themed event. Called Soup City 2011, participants can expect plenty of soup, lots of sweets, and a bunch of live entertainment. More than 20 local restaurants will provide soups,…
Vanishing point
There was no reason to think the band hadn’t arrived. After all, they were packing venues all over Michigan within a few years of forming in 2004. Not only were the shows massively hyped — the hype, believe it or not, wasn’t undeserved. Throngs dug the band’s spastic, smart and danceable take on inspirations such…
Best in digging
The year in reverse is good for unexpected surprises. It’s nice to revisit a thrilling-fleeting-crushing-booming moment from last January or March and reaffirm that it still steps up today. Not everything is like that. I prefer to be slowly overpowered and overwhelmed by the frigid brilliance of Thomas Koner’s re-released ambient space dub trilogy Nunatak/Teimo/Permafrost.…
Cuban warmth
Frita Batidos 117 W. Washington, Ann Arbor 734-761-2882 www.fritabatidos.com At Ann Arbor’s newest casual dining spot, Frita Batidos, a sign hanging over the espresso machine proclaims, "NO, I am not Cuban — and this is not a Cuban restaurant." The food may not be traditionally Cuban, but paradoxically, the restaurant is entirely authentic, driven by…
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – III/IV
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – III/IV Pax Am It’s no secret that Ryan Adams cranks out songs at superhuman speed. He’s released a dozen albums since his solo debut a decade ago. III/IV, a two-disc collection of 21 leftovers from 2007’s Easy Tiger sessions, doesn’t quite hold together as well as Adams’ best albums,…
It’s complicated
Q: I’m a 27-year-old divorced woman. I married the first man I ever had sex with, and we had a very vanilla sex life. He refused to try any play with dominant-submissive roles. My fantasies have always involved my submission and my favorite porn features women being submissive. My current boyfriend is very open and…
All Good Things
All Good Things GRADE: C+ The performances are first-rate. The real-life tabloid story is intriguingly tawdry. Unfortunately, All Good Things has absolutely nothing meaningful to say. Andrew Jarecki’s (Capturing the Friedmans) speculative docudrama is little more than 100 minutes of this-then-that storytelling that offers up a possible (even believable) explanation for its unsolved murder-mystery, but…
Snyder takes command
Richard D. Snyder was sworn in as governor last weekend, taking power in a state that has lost people, lost political clout, lost nearly a million jobs in the last decade. He then, in his distinctive, oddly nasal voice, gave an unusual inaugural speech. Unusual, that is, because it was worth listening to. Though he…
A Dead Boy Lives
A few years ago, a young musician was heard talking about how he wished he had been around to experience the underground music scene of the 1970s in Cleveland, Ohio. The words tumbling out of him were tinged with romanticism; he imagined that it was very much like Paris in the 1920s or San Francisco…
Dark stars
There’s a scene in James O’Barr’s The Crow comic book where the main character, Eric Draven, approaches a female junkie who has been neglecting her pre-teen daughter, squeezes her arm until the heroin comes dripping out again, and says, "Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children. Do you…
Waterways
The way Jim Olson sees it, a state Supreme Court decision last week should help Michigan protect its natural resources, at least as long as the justices don’t reverse themselves again and stick with four decades of law they’ve now aligned themselves with. A key issue in the decision is citizens’ ability to sue state…
Letters to the Editor
Warped perceptions Re: Mike Conte’s letter to the editor ("Tiny little mind," Letters, Dec. 29, 2010), I am not any category. There are some subjects that I’m liberal on, and others I’m conservative on — much like most of America. However, Mr. Conte has an extremely warped perception of the Bush Era as "good times."…
Black sheep squadron
When Jack White recruits a tiny local band for his Third Man label, he intends an immaculate conception; no one is permitted to know how and why he zooms in. Tamara Finlay of one such Michigan band, a folk duo called the Thornbills, had the audacity to question White about what led to the spontaneous…
Saluting Motown spirit
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the first annual Motor City Brick Awards, a totally random acknowledgement of things that happened in Detroit this past year. We’re holding the ceremony in front of Belle Isle’s Scott Fountain because there’s a lot of space out here, and people are milling around bonfires chatting, snacking and…
Jim Sullivan – U.F.O.
Jim Sullivan – U.F.O. Light in the Attic Backwash Jim Sullivan’s story has an ending Jim Morrison would’ve wished for. After two albums and little success in the early ’70s L.A. music scene, Sullivan took his wistful songwriting chops and ear for killer melody and headed for Nashville. He got as far as Santa Rosa,…
Motor City Five
Strictly Roots Music is the longtime, often-ignored reggae record shop on Seven Mile Road near Greenfield. Its owner, DJ Kadhafi, is one of few who works to keep the Caribbean community here from splintering. His are also the best reggae ears in the Motor City — here are five of his fave 2010 jams, in…
