More than hummus
Al-Ajami 14633 W. Warren Ave., Dearborn; 313-846-9330; $: Al-Ajami is less expensive than many other contenders, serving a competent menu that even includes 15 seafood dishes. Also good are the lemon chicken, which combines grilled chicken and pilaf with vegetables doused in lemon butter, a terrific chicken rice soup, and a good lentil soup. Servings…
You ain’t alone
Mavis Staples is irresistible. She is. It’s simple why: She’s as charming as she is talented. Aretha may’ve had more range and Betty Davis more sassafras, but no female R&B-soul singer matches Staples’ vocal personality, if not power. No one. Her deep, "growling" (as Bob Dylan once described it) voice, agile timbre and passionate delivery…
Rebuilding the temple
When Martin Herman moved to Detroit to begin his academic career at Wayne State University in 1962, fresh from a year’s study in Paris on a Fulbright research grant, the city offered six synagogues within walking distance of his home near Livernois and Curtis. Since Herman’s arrival, however, the Jewish presence inside Detroit has dissipated.…
Food Stuff
Get toasted — You may already know Novi’s brand-new Toasted Oak Grill & Market for its locally oriented, American brasserie cuisine — or the fresh market and wine shop adjacent to its dining room. Here’s one more reason to take note: Toasted Oak will have afternoon happy hours starting Thursday, July 15, and running 2-6…
Holding court
Holding Court pivot sweat pick set on blacktop plateau no script give and go run ’em back a mid-summer’s pickup play stretched out laced up one-on-one win by two run ’em back bound to the key turn to the wing swing bottom block drop step head fake who’s got next? run ’em back who’s got…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY JULY 14 Springfed Arts in the Park POETRY EN PLEIN AIR This new weekly event celebrates the literary arts and the literati who love and practice them. Springfed Arts hosts these outdoor performances that feature poets, writers, singers, spoken word artists and more. It kicks off with M.L. Liebler and the Magic Poetry Band…
Valley of the doll parts
This rock ‘n’ roll thing isn’t easy, and it certainly ain’t glamorous. Take Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome. Both have had their time with two bands, the New York Dolls and the Dead Boys, respectively, and both have made their mark, to varying degrees, on rock ‘n’ roll and punk rock. They’ve both seen band…
Risky business
Q: My boss and CEO lives and works in a different city, but most of her mail arrives at my office because it is the company’s official address. I routinely open mail and packages addressed to her. Usually they contain documents for me to handle or software for me to install, but today I opened…
Give vets their park
You can, and should, hate war with a passion. The Vietnam War, in my opinion, did more to ruin this nation than any single event in history. The war in Iraq, which we were lied into, not ready for, and then badly botched, is now widely acknowledged to have been a criminal mess from start…
Enlightened age?
Is anyone else totally discombobulated over these TV "summer seasons"? We used to moan there was nothing on our happy boxes this time of year but reruns. Now, an old episode of a familiar show might be a refreshing sight. The rapidly resurgent Law & Order: Criminal Intent ended its season on USA last week.…
Letters to the Editor
We hid it well I was impressed by your Ernest Hemingway article ("Hemingway’s ‘Last Good Country,’" July 7). It was well-written and very entertaining. I kept waiting for the thinly disguised, agenda-driven political drivel that contaminates almost every MT article, but it never came. —David Garvin, Keego Harbor Take that, Finley! Re: "Scenes from the…
Fun with funds
On his official Michigan House webpage, George Cushingberry’s event two weeks ago was a celebration of the blues put on by the local elected official eager to host a party. "I am pleased to sponsor this annual event and I’m asking residents and blues enthusiasts from all over to join me at our historic jazz…
Crude awakening
The question is an obvious one: Why would a handful of local environmentalists and a state representative gather downtown near the spirit of Detroit statue last week to announce their opposition to a proposed oil pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas, coming nowhere near Michigan? It’s a straightforward query that gets a multifaceted…
Metro Retro
25 years ago in Metro Times: Beginning with a passage from 1984 by George Orwell, MT takes a look at the large number of closed-circuit security cameras that have been cropping up around metro Detroit, especially the freeways. City officials, the police department and even the ACLU all agree that the presence of these cameras…
Melancholy salvage
The banjo plucks and rolls, the musical saw sighs alongside the accordion, and a quivering mountain refrain calls out to some old memory. This is what Frontier Ruckus sounds like on cursory listen. Led by singer-guitarist Matt Milia, Ruckus has been rising locally since conquering Lansing a few years ago.  While on Ann Arbor…
Cyrus
Seven years after his divorce, film editor John (John C. Reilly) is still a wreck. Hidden away in his featureless apartment, he has all but given up on social interactions. Prompted by his ex (a mostly wasted Catherine Keener) to attend a hip party, he fumbles his way through one clumsy interaction after another. Then…
Despicable Me
Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is a suburban-dwelling, third-tier evil mastermind whose recent exploits have failed to excite the criminal underworld. Worse, Vector (Jason Segel), a younger, geekier upstart, has set the bar for nefarious deeds by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza. Why? Who knows? Despicable Me’s world is a nonsensical mirror image of…
Permalight
The advance press about Permalight, indie-pop band Rogue Wave’s fourth album, was that this was finally going to be an upbeat record from singer-songwriter Zach Rogue. And although it’s always good to hear that an underappreciated talent has made a "happy" album, the news struck Rogue Wave fans as odd: Were their other records really…
Naked prey
The movie literally jumps into action: Adrien Brody’s mercenary awakening sees him parachuting against his will into a strange jungle. On the ground he quickly makes an uneasy alliance with a motley crew of earth’s roughest murderers, a killer elite culled from a variety of lethal backgrounds, including Russian Special Forces, drug cartel enforcers, psycho…
Kebabs and beer
For many diners, the lack of a liquor license is a deal-breaker. That proclivity can relegate most Middle Eastern spots to a lunchtime treat rather than an evening pleasure. Farmington Hills’ 2Booli addresses the problem with not only a full bar but a happy hour that lasts all evening long, Monday through Friday. Draughts are…
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Next to the snake, insects are probably the least loved of the planet’s creatures — especially if you’re an adult. How else to explain the $4 billion a year Americans spend to eradicate them? Leave it to the nation that practices Shinto — with its belief that there are spirits in all creations — to…
Micmacs
Boy, if filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet could bottle and sell his whimsy and quirk, the world would be a far zanier place. I’m just not sure it’d be any better. Like Michel Gondry or Terry Gilliam, the French stylist fills his movies with inventive set pieces, concocting frantic and elaborate visual gags. In French, the full…
