R.I.P. RON MURPHY —
His career could be described as standing in the shadows of the shadows of Motown — as well as the shadows of soul, R&B and techno. Ron Murphy, legendary Detroit music producer, record collector and mastering/cutting plant operator, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 58 years old. Bulletins started popping up on…
All that’s left
The primary implosion’s silver lining.
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Winter’s tales
Now entering its 34th year, the Detroit Film Theatre series could easily rest on its laurels. But, like the Detroit Institute of Arts itself, which has undergone a massive, attitude-shifting renovation, the winter 2008 season has both the familiar and a blast of the new to challenge audience perceptions. Opening with the one-two punch of…
Letters to the Editor
Party wreckers Thanks to Jack Lessenberry for his review of the follies of Michigan’s political class of 2007 (“System Failure,” Metro Times, Jan. 2). His work for 2008, however, should be easy, given the farce of a presidential primary that has been engineered by both of this state’s political parties. Told they would be punished…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 9 The Von Bondies THE OL’ ONE-TWO PUNCH With a litany of pop harmonies and white-boy heartache lyrics, local faves the Von Bondies probably hauled their amps out of a different garage than most self-made Motown rock ‘n’ rollers. But add the usual frantic bassing, a bluesy Yardbirds-style intensity, some brand-new members and…
7-inchers of fun
Wooden Shjips “Loose Lips” Sub Pop Trippy, spaced-out vocals follow the charm of psychedelic drone that hasn’t been done with such precision since Spacemen 3. This San Francisco combo is cornering the market on the soundtrack to the modern nod-out; wah-wah guitars never flowed through your veins so easily. Much like a digital photo, though,…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Tough and lovely
In Delray’s south end, where dying neighborhoods border the river’s edge, a ramshackle home stands out among the empty fields.”The Delray Crib in the Hood,” an old house surrounded by fortress-like plywood walls, has for several years been a local curiosity. Passers-by often slow down to stare at or take photos of this unusual fenced-in…
Picture perfect
Cybelle Codish has been shooting evocative imagery for Metro Times for a long time. This gallery of past covers illustrates just how much marvelous work she’s contributed to the paper over the years.
Queer questions
Look over the letters that stumped Savage.
Drive-in Saturday night
Hot Rod Paramount Home Entertainment Someone named Carrie Keagen who works for something called NGTV.com had this to say about Hot Rod, words that appear on the DVD case: “The funniest film I’ve seen in years!” If that’s an honest statement, one has to assume that the only “films” Carrie sees are Holocaust documentaries. Yet…
Best of 2007
If you knew where to look, 2007 was a very good year for electronic music, whether it was for dancing, listening or a stormy marriage between the two (the latter being my personal favorite). The year was marked by the continued supremacy of the indie imprint as the primary source of quality tunes. The labels…
Words of Our Own
A poet drives into Detroit.
Animal kingdom
On a bright day at the Detroit Metropolitan Zoo, only a handful of people wander over the quiet paths and peer into the snow-tufted enclosures where lions lounge and camels chew their feed. The zoo feels quainter in the winter than it does in summer, when loud families crowd the space. No stands dispense snacks…
By the slice
Doing a mostly carryout business, My Cousin’s New York Pizzeria trades on the mystique of New York pizza. Their rendition is round, generally thin (although thick-crusted at the slightly charred edges), moderately greasy and eaten folded lengthwise. The slices, wider than the Detroit norm for round pizzas, are eminently foldable and the crust is thin…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Our rat-a-tat reviewer tackles the tracks
Terror’s Advocate
With Terror’s Advocate, director Barbet Schroeder has done more than simply profile French attorney and international provocateur Jacques Vergès. He has created a startling and compelling history of modern terrorism. Vergès has been intimately involved with terrorists of various political persuasions for more than 50 years, representing notorious clients from bombers and hijackers to deposed…
Charlie Wilson’s War — and ours
In the film Charlie Wilson’s War, the nitwit and deeply corrupt congressman elevated to heroic status through Tom Hanks’ ever-charming performance has a meeting with Pakistan’s then-dictator Zia ul-Haq in which they broker a deal for a joint effort to “save” Afghanistan from the Soviets. It’s all great fun; the United States is, as always,…
Plainspeak
Two things are apparent early in this film: Demme’s deep affection for his subject; and that James Earl Carter didn’t expect the vitriolic response to his latest bestseller. It takes a while for it to sink in that things are not going normally. Large and enthusiastic crowds greet his book signings (where Carter is a…
Brothers and sisters
Things would seem to be on the upswing for greasy country-soul men (and lady), the Deadstring Brothers. Then again, looks can be deceiving.Two years ago, the Detroit quintet received their first American distribution, signing with Chicago insurgent country label Bloodshot Records (Bobby Bare Jr., Bottle Rockets, etc.) for their sophomore album, Starving Winter Report. A…
Pain and hope
The idea for this project began to take shape last spring when I was the tour photographer for singer-songwriter Kem. He was in Washington, D.C., to perform at the White House, and I went with him as he visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. We weren’t prepared for what we saw —…
Hope rises
When change trumps experience.
Motor City Cribs
DJ Benzi’s Ann Arbor roost.
