Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
The Sound of No Hands Clapping
The Sound of No Hands Clapping by Toby Young $24.95 304 pp. Da Capo Press Review by John Dicker There are few reasons to pay attention to Toby Young’s second memoir, The Sound of No Hands Clapping. Young is 42 years old and, yes, you read it right, this is his second memoir. Unless you’re…
Understanding abuse
I worked as a legal advocate for battered women for years, and I’d like to "fill out" your advice to LIFE a little, on the assumption that his lady-friend is telling the truth. (And I think this is worth addressing, because far too many women are in her situation, and this is worth a little…
Stalking the answers
Bruce Dale got his education early. As a 12-year-old living in the mining town of Ruth, Nev., he saw his dad leave every morning to work at the nearby copper mines. Normally his father would come home and talk to his son about fishing, hunting or Bruce’s schoolwork. But one evening it was different. “Dad…
Ozzy who?
Metal’s as hotly contested as any other musical genre. Arguments always rage over which bands are sick and which are sellouts, which groups have left their mark with bruised ears and drawn blood, and which should think about hacking off their hair and heading home. Of course, the louder metal is, the more likely it…
Tube food
As I type these words, men and women of science are growing meat in a laboratory. That’s meat grown independently of any animal. It isn’t hatched or born. It doesn’t graze, walk or breathe. But it is alive. It sits growing in a room where somebody has called it into existence with a pipette and…
The mod couple
Alyce Voit hates walls. Can’t stand them. Thinks they’re worthless. She also has a thing against doors — she thinks they’re a racket for the building industry. “That’s why people have to move all the time,” she says. “Families outgrow their space so easily these days.” It’s unlikely Voit will ever outgrow her home, a…
Can you dig it?
Most of us don’t like thinking about funerals — which is why so many of us get badly ripped off. Naturally, I have taken precautions against this; my servants have strict instructions that my remains are to be scattered, but not cremated, to inflict the maximum disgust on those still living. Hey, if I can’t…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Check your head
This isn’t the first time Richard Linklater has used an animation technique known as interpolated rotoscoping, but in tackling the drug-induced paranoia of Philip K. Dick’s sprawling novel “A Scanner Darkly,” Linklater has found a suitable match for his jittery animation technique. His lush chameleon-like visuals enhance Dick’s schizophrenic view of modern society and give…
Leonard Cohen I’m Your Man
Though he may forever be in the shadow of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen’s haunting, trademark voice and intensely personal lyrics have earned him a devoted following. Cohen’s crusty commentary is often amusing and his insights fascinating, though his constant self-deprecation and humility are taken to such extremes that it starts to come off as ego…
Whisper to a scream
The Knife opens Silent Shout with the title track. As mysterious and icily beautiful as the Scandinavian winter is long, its sinister bass line is followed by frantic synths, digitally processed vocals and drum programming that scratches like rusty needles. But what is Karin Dreijer Andersson saying, her voice sounding barely human over the claustrophobic…
Cansei de Ser Sexy
For Brazilian kids who grew up speaking Portuguese, São Paulo disco punks CSS have a way with the witty English couplet. “Music is my king-sized bed,” sings frontwoman Lovefoxxx over a sleazy up-and-down glam rock riff, and she follows with “My music is where I’d like you to touch.” The song is called “Music Is…
You, Me and Dupree
This bargain-basement The Man Who Came to Dinner exposes a lot of Wilson’s bare ass while he stinks up the bathrooms, jerks off in the living room and sets the couple’s home on fire. Yet it doesn’t give away all its laughs in the trailers (though it probably couldn’t; the very funny masturbation scene and…
Nightlife
“What to do when you’re trapped in a machine?” Jenny Hoysten asks on Erase Errata’s Nightlife. It’s not the first time a musician has expressed concern with this country’s scary political climate, but few contemporary artists match the intelligence and blatant intensity with which this San Francisco trio turns its disillusionment into a reason to…
Little Man
In “Little Man,” which Shawn and Marlon wrote and star in and Keenen directs, the brothers rip off a classic Bugs Bunny plot: an ill-tempered little person pretends to be a baby to get away after a robbery. This time, it’s a jewelry heist, and the little person, Calvin, puts himself on the doorstep of…
Leonard Cohen I’m Your Man
Tributes to Leonard Cohen are like a cottage industry — this is at least the fourth release of its kind — but the sound track to Leonard Cohen I’m Your Man has a unity lacking in 1991’s I’m Your Fan and 1995’s Tower of Song. (Another plus: no Don Henley). Pulled primarily from two of…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
This week I’m gyrating at MB78 revolutions per paragraph! Demented Are Go — Hellbilly Storm (Hep Cat) :: Stray Cats meet Alice Cooper. So go. Anajani — Blue Alert (Columbia) :: After seeing Anajani One-Name and her boy toy slash co-writer slash producer Leonard Cohen performing together last month, a good friend who knows his…
Syd Cheese
Infamous lost soul Syd Barrett died last week at his Cambridgeshire, England home; he was 60. Pink Floyd’s early leader managed one genius album — 1967’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn — and a couple of brilliantly frustrating solo efforts before the onset of narcotics-assisted mental oblivion. Though some would argue he died decades…
Art Bar
Here is a marvelous little poem about a long marriage by the Kentucky poet, Wendell Berry. It’s about a couple resigned to and comfortable with their routines. It is written in language as clear and simple as its subject. As close together as these two people have grown, as much alike as they have become,…
Tryst on my list
Q: My boyfriend of three years has a lower libido than I do and rarely wants to do anything sexual. For a variety of reasons, I will not DTMFA. We no longer have arguments about this, but I do feel a bit lonesome for the type of physical contact he won’t provide. Now comes the…
Dice roll
The word, according to rapper Dice, is “ruggedness.” That’s what he thinks labels both local and national are missing when it comes to signing Detroit hip hop, and why they should really be dibbling and dabbling more with the street cats who really bring it. You know, like Dice. Does he have the right to…
Gloss & Dross
Playing the fool There are few reasons to pay attention to Toby Young’s second memoir, The Sound of No Hands Clapping. Young is 42 years old and, yes, you read it right, this is his second memoir. Unless you’re a prodigy along the lines of Mark Twain or David Sedaris, is there any reason to…
Fusion heads
Here’s how drummer Mike Clark experienced a tipping point in jazz history: Herbie Hancock had released the Head Hunters LP, named for his new group, and the single “Chameleon.” The group hit the road, starting in Chicago, playing clubs and staying in “suicide hotels with the blue light blinking on and off outside.” But as…
Backslash
Coaster crazy — So, is rolling down a steep hill in a giant ball not enough of a thrill for you, you Mountain Dew-chugging lunatic? Though surfing the Net is admittedly not “Xtreme,” it can provide you with a the latest info on the newest death-defying and stomach-churning roller coasters and thrill rides all across…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m pleased to announce the imminent arrival of a new chapter in your own personal soap opera. It could include any of the following plot twists: midnight confessions, madcap sex farces, thumb-sucking saints, an invitation to play leapfrog with a unicorn, work turning into play and vice versa, a showdown between…
Have you got the balls?
In college I had a hamster named Hecubus who loved to roll around in his plastic ball. One day when I wasn’t paying attention, he accidentally rolled down the stairs. Now, thanks to local entrepreneur Robert Pelon, I know exactly how poor Hecubus felt that fateful day. You, too, can feel like a human in…
Night and Day
Wednesday -Saturday • 19-22 Ann Arbor Art Fair ART/FUN FOR ALL It’s a Michigan tradition and the people will come in droves, but that hasn’t stopped organizers of the Ann Arbor Art Fair from updating this year’s haps to make it even more enticing. This year, the sprawling art fair and outdoor music festival will…
Campus revamp
It was a showpiece at last year’s MLB All-Star game and during the last Super Bowl, but Campus Martius Park is more than a bright spot in a formerly blighted area of downtown Detroit. The city dumped millions into this gem in the hopes that it’d bring people back to the D. But as history…
Letters to the Editor
Station to station Thanks for your upbeat story about the visionary city manager of Ferndale, Tom Barwin. Though his input and action on behalf of mass transit will be sorely missed in metro Detroit, what better person to have in the Chicago area to push for high-speed transit between Detroit and Chicago? I don’t believe…
Unfakeable
As conscious of the quick sell as anyone in today’s music industry, Nashville’s cadre of professional songsmiths have made phrase-crafting a science. From Josh Gracin’s “Favorite State of Mind” to LeAnn Rimes’ “Something’s Gotta Give,” Billboard’s country singles charts read like little summaries of the artists’ established emotional range. This dude’s about havin’ a good…
