Jennifer for president!
On New Year’s Day, the survivors of November’s statewide election assembled at the Capitol in Lansing to take their oaths of office, shivering in the bitter cold. Amazingly, the public managed to contain its fascination at seeing its elected representatives installed. Actually, no one much showed up, except for a few hundred reporters, toadies, office…
Class Grass
While names like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs ring loud in the American pop consciousness, most bluegrass performers — with the possible exception of Alison Krauss — have toiled in relative anonymity. Their audience base, like that for jazz, blues and folk, is small but rabid, supporting a small host of touring acts committed to…
In one ear
KEEP RISING TO THE TOP After years of neglect, Detroit rappers and MCs are finally back in the national spotlight. Anyone who’s picked up a hip-hop magazine in the past few months can barely turn the page without seeing some mention of super wordsmith Eminem or A&M recording artists Slum Village. Yet these two are…
Now You Can Talk About Me
If you consider yourself a blues fan and can’t understand why you’ve never heard of George “Harmonica” Smith, don’t be too hard on yourself. Unfortunately, you’re not alone. Man, this is blues with a feeling so thick you can use it for gravy. No disrespect to the legions of Stevie Ray Vaughn fans, but if…
Drive to live
Ease into a comfy seat, tune the stereo to your favorite station and enjoy a bag of potato chips, or a hamburger, or a full meal of chicken, gravy and mashed potatoes. Adjust the mirror, get out your cosmetic bag and freshen your lipstick, or grab an electric razor and take care of that five…
Let your freak Ford fly!
There are freaks out there — and they’re driving among us. People who believe — hold on to your bonnet — that cars can transcend mere transportation and become — gasp! — art. It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s spent more than a few years around the Motor City that cars become,…
Grown to drive
What some might call the car of the future has already made its big debut. The unveiling came in Dearborn — more than 50 years ago. David Morris, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, described the event in a recent issue of his organization’s newsletter: "On August 14, 1941, at the 15th…
Portals to the underworld
Ceramic sculptor Jerome Ferretti fires up a visionary history of Detroit….
Test drive
"Jake," I said, "Whaddya look for in a car?" "Steering wheel. Tires. Engine. Brakes are important." "I mean when you collect on the lawsuit. What kind of car will you buy?" "I don’t have a lawsuit pending," Ferretti said while trying to light a Marlboro. A cough extinguished the match. He wiped his mouth on…
The long march to Disneyland
Pseudo-Maoist postcards from North America at the Art Gallery of Windsor….
Ring in the “nu”
This place has it all. If it’s all about location, Little Tree is in the heart of Royal Oak’s restaurant mecca and half a block south of the Main Art Theatre III. If it’s all about being seen, the very hip hang out here. Wear jeans and accessorize with cell phone. (Emily Post, where are…
Auto-gratification
Remember that time, crossing the street, when you got strafed by a New World Order hulk behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer? Running down jaywalking squirrels was just his way of telling imaginary wimps in the home and studio audiences to "Suck it!" For this grunting Konnan of the road, this petit bourgeois Mad…
NEW BLUEGRASS GAL
Bluegrass is such a tough genre to get right. It usually takes years – decades even – before an artist can take their place within the top rank of performers. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, such as Mark O’Connor and Alison Krause, but there has always been a role in bluegrass circles for…
Tabloid talk
It’s always been my dream job to work for the Weekly World News, or one of those other flashy, trashy supermarket tabloids that treats stories about aliens landing in Hoboken with as much respect as it affords to real news, such as Elvis sightings and 900-pound people getting trapped in their houses during floods and…
The Well
In the years following the Holocaust, it appeared as if Yiddish culture was nearly extinct. Those who emigrated to Israel rejected the culture and the language in favor of Hebrew. And in North America, too, Yiddish was shunned by the Jewish communities. All of that has changed in the past two decades as a new…
A toast at 25!
Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration opens the DFT’s 25th season.First, there is the pleasure of anticipation. Then, the ritual: the hot cup of coffee in the Crystal Gallery, the friendly chat, the quick glance at the program. Then, as the lights grow dim over the quiet rustle of the audience, the show begins — as it…
The Celebration
One likes to think of the used car salesman as a uniquely American breed. But what about Denmark? Allow me to introduce Lars von Trier. And has he got a honey for you. The controversial film collective, Dogme 95, was the result of a long weekend von Trier spent with Thomas Vinterberg, director of this…
Motor City Overdrive
Auto-gratification by George Tysh Fantasy rides are limp revenge in a world gone mall-istic. Drive to live by Alisa Gordaneer Living room, bedroom, storage locker and kitchen: our cars are our homes away from home. Grown to drive by Curt Guyette Metal, plastic, glass… and plants? What kind of cars are they building? Let your…
The Third Annual Italian Film Festival-Great Lakes: Six Films By Michaelangelo Antonioni
In 1966, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, then in his mid-50s and with a substantial body of work behind him, released a film called Blow-Up. Antonioni wasn’t entirely unknown in the States — his L’Avventura had been a critical success, though not without controversy, six years earlier, and the foreign film cognoscenti had been receptive to…
No, you do it
A Detroit City Council resolution asking Mayor Dennis Archer to arrange spousal benefits for unmarried partners of city employees by 1999 remains at an impasse. Archer spokesperson Anthony Neely says the mayor is still waiting for council members to pass an ordinance extending the benefits, as opposed to the nonbinding measure they passed in April…
Seventh Heaven
Slowly but surely the results of French writer-director Benoit Jacquot’s 23-year career as an auteur are being exported to America. His first film to play here was his eighth feature, 1995’s A Single Girl, a real-time tour de force which combines naturalism with an elliptical narrative sensibility. Its success led to the release last year…
Merger mania
It was the year of the megamerger. A record $1.6 trillion in U.S. mergers and acquisitions occurred in 1998, creating sweeping changes in industries ranging from oil to telecommunications. Among the many corporate marriages announced last year were Exxon-Mobil, Bell Atlantic-GTE and Travelers-Citicorp. Here in Michigan, one of the year’s top stories was the Daimler-Chrysler…
Tex-Wrex
The legendary Red Crayola band was originally an obtuse psychedelic trio that emerged fully formed deep in the heart of Texas in 1966. While the group went on to manifest itself in a variety of permutations with founding member Mayo Thompson at the helm, these early live recordings capture the original ensemble at its outrageous…
‘Twas the season to be needy
For 17 years, Thelma War dell’s church has provided holiday baskets for those in need. But this year Trinity Food Pantry ran out of the main course. "We did not even have enough turkeys this year," says Wardell, who oversees the pantry. The reason, she says, is that the number of people served this holiday…
More Kicks and Pricks
Pure genius by reason of pure unintentionality is where this comp lives and why it works. Every note let loose by the 30 acts is untainted by the notion that one day, the artists are “gonna make it.” Who gives a shit anyway? If you can get your pure joy unfettered in your own bedroom…
Drive, we said
“Man, I wish you could’ve seen it,” the cabbie beamed as we barreled down out of Pacific Heights. “These two chicks hijacked a friend of mine’s taxi. I was listening to the police radio and ran them down. It was like right outta Bullitt (1968). Shit, I love that film.” No doubt. Because there’s no…
Avant Reunion
Odwalla began in a poem as a sort of mythical savior leading the "Sun People" from the gray haze. Then there was the triumphant "Odwalla," an Art Ensemble of Chicago concert closer with which they declared the haze dispersed and marched from the stage. On the AEC’s comeback recording, the group’s first in eight years,…
Pitch’d
I AIN’T NO STUDENT OF ANCIENT CULTURE Detroit proved it could party grown-up style Christmas night when Kevin Saunderson hosted his “Evolution” party at St. Andrew’s Hall highlighted by the world debut of Juan Atkins’ electro group Model 500. Well-organized but not quite well-attended, the party drew a crowd split between young white rave kids…
Further Refinements
Just who is John Fahey and why are people still saying wonderful things about him? An eccentric yet brilliant guitarist who recorded his first record — the now-legendary Blind Joe Death — in 1959, Fahey has a unique playing style that he continues to refine to this very day. His early proto-baroque-folk-primitive-blues stylings influenced several…
