Hard-boiled sex & other stuff
Nearly everyone is, so far as I can tell, somewhat obsessed with sex. This is a terrible thing, because as a result they are less interested than they ought to be in my fascinating theories about International Monetary Fund policies. And if I dared to spend even a few paragraphs looking at the highly relevant…
Keep fear alive
What do you get when you mix business and security? Once upon a time it would have been called good old-fashioned fascism, a system Sinclair Lewis said was big business with bayonets. But those days of worrying about jackbooted thugs are over. As we have heard over and over again these last two years, “The…
Wealth, death and style
Eric Michael Packer, 27-year-old self-made billionaire, buyer and seller of money, decides one morning after another sleepless night in his 48-room apartment (which includes a screening room, a gym and a shark tank) that he wants to get a haircut. It’s something to do; it gives his day a point. Packer needs this small goal…
Doubting that Thomas
It was hardly a shocker last week when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the court majority’s qualified support of affirmative action. Anyone who paid attention during Thomas’ Senate confirmation soap opera, or his subsequent career on the bench, had to suspect what his position was going to be. You can almost set your…
Dizzy over Lizzie
A 16-year-old girl has the math world spinning….
The Rites
Dear Mysterious Members of the MacArthur Genius Grant selection committee; Given your thing for secrecy, I figured this was as good a way as any to get in touch. If this is a faux pas, please don’t hold it against my man, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, on whose behalf I seek to pull your esteemed coattails.…
Setting the record straight
At the risk of sounding peevish, News Hits can’t let a recent column by Free Press public editor John X. Miller pass without comment. As the equivalent of an ombudsman, Miller serves as the paper’s conscience, dealing with reader complaints and pointing out problems in coverage when they arise. But in a piece published June…
July 2-8, 2003
2-6 WED-SUN • FUN FOR ALL TasteFest — For 15 years, Detroit’s Comerica TasteFest has been tantalizing the taste buds and entertaining the summer sandals off many a local. Making its home in the heart of the New Center, this family-oriented shindig is an honest-to-goodness cross section of the best food, art and entertainment that…
Tommy Boy Classic Cuts
Seminal hip-hop label Tommy Boy has earned the right to cash in on its back catalog. As one of the more adventurous rap labels of the ’80s and early ’90s, the Tom Silverman-led imprint counted techno classics from the likes of 808 State among its early releases as well as, as this comp shows, most…
The shirt hits the fan
News Hits has decided Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Isidore B. Torres needs a nickname. We’re thinking “Over Easy” might be good, or maybe “Poached.” Whatever it is, the moniker needs an oviferous point of reference, because at the moment Torres has egg smeared across his juristic puss. The omelet dripping from his chin is…
Sunlight and sangria
Nestled in a quiet Ann Arbor neighborhood at Monroe and State Streets, Casa Dominick’s is a 43-year-old sidewalk cafe. Suffused with ample outdoor seating, Dominick’s porches, balconies, courtyards, and outdoor fountain welcome those who love fair weather March though November. More an “afternoon spot” than a nighttime hangout, this informal oasis is open until 10…
Discs in the mail
All of the ingredients that made Charlie’s Angels an instant box-office hit are back — with the exception of Bill Murray as Bosley — from Cameron Diaz’s goofy butt wiggle to Lucy Liu’s cold stare and colder smile. The asses are in tiptop shape; the gun-free play is fast and furious, and Demi Moore is…
Celebrating a non-indictment
It was a curious sight. There stood Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick last week, defiant at his City Hall news conference, with an air of victory and vindication accompanying his reaction to news that state Attorney General Mike Cox would not file criminal charges against the mayor or his team. The event felt like a pep rally,…
Meet the new porn
Somewhere in the mid-to-late 1980s one of America’s most important pop culture social scenes found itself morphing into a post-rock organism. Eighteen-year-old men enrolled at state universities across the country uttered a collective sigh of dissatisfaction. An obvious dearth of interesting music had forced them to turn their backs on arena rock and sent these…
T-E-N-N-N-S-S-S-I-O-N
Geezer: 4 1/2 stars Weezer: 4 1/2 stars We’ve seen the future of horror and its name is Danny Boyle. The director of Trainspotting (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997) and other more or less compelling movies made in England has hit the panic-button bull’s eye with 28 Days Later, easily the best horror movie…
Into the void
Abandoned Shelter of the Week This 87-year-old two-story half-brick house at 1558 Monterey St. near the Lodge and Davison freeways isn’t even attractive to vagrants. Extensively damaged by fire, with missing windows and plaster cascading down the stairway, it contained barely any remnants of the trash or clothing the Abandoned Structure Squad usually discovers. It…
Jet Lag
Jet Lag, directed by Danièle Thompson (La Bûche), who co-wrote the script with her son Christopher, is being touted as a romantic comedy, although it’s only sporadically comic and mechanically romantic. Set mostly in an airport terminal and a hotel room, it seems like a play – a little cramped and dialogue-driven, and full of…
For the record
Phantom judicial ruling, pension board’s secrecy complicate hazardous waste case….
Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity
With this film and 1994’s Double Happiness, writer-director Mina Shum seems to have cornered the market on indie-flavored movies about Chinese-Canadians. Her approach is anecdotal; her mode is the leisurely paced character study, and her tone is fond amusement. In the earlier film, her central character was a young actress (Sandra Oh) who had to…
The Lizzie Method
THE LIZZIE METHOD Take, for example, the following quadratic equation: 6×2+13x+6=0 Multiply 6, the leading coefficient, by 6, the last number in the equation. 6 x 6=36 Find the two numbers that will multiply to 36 and also add to 13, the middle number. 4 x 9=36 4+9=13 This is the same way the Split…
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
All of the ingredients that made Charlie’s Angels an instant box-office hit are back — with the exception of Bill Murray as Bosley — from Cameron Diaz’s goofy butt wiggle to Lucy Liu’s cold stare and colder smile. The asses are in tiptop shape; the gun-free play is fast and furious, and Demi Moore is…
Em’s partial shagging; Gaye goes postal
Borderline squall Only a month in regularity and Hit Singles already gets to print its first retraction! Last week’s column misreported an important detail of Cass Records, the label headed up by Detroit’s favorite nephew, Ben Blackwell. Blackwell fired off a steamed e-mail offering to buy us a handy-dandy map of Detroit boundaries after our…
The Hard Word
Are “character” and “complications” such hard words? It seems they must be for this Aussie heist flick’s writer and first-time feature director Scott Roberts. It’s been more than a decade since Roberts scripted his last film, a mountaineering actioner titled K2 that might rate a footnote in modern film history for beating more popular pictures…
Sunny, with a chance of art
Hot videos and cool constructions on Ferndale’s Woodward strip…
The Trip
“A gay romantic comedy, Disney-fied” – that was one brief and off-the-cuff description of The Trip. Would boy meet boy as they slurp the same spaghetti noodle and end up in a stubbly faced kiss ˆ a la Lady and the Tramp? Almost, but not quite. First-time writer-director Miles Swain picks from the box of…
Don’t promise … run away!
This weekend, the TD Waterhouse Centre will be overrun by the Promise Keepers, that battalion of Christian men who are determined to face up to their masculine responsibilities — specifically, by reclaiming their status as masters of their various households. To the PKs, reserving ultimate authority at the dinner table is the most spiritually sound…
The right appeal
When gossip-to-the-stars Dominick Dunne finally ascends to that great Sardi’s in the sky, Danny Goldberg should take his place at the earthly table and start dishing. Goldberg, music critic turned publicist turned record company exec and currently chairman and CEO of Artemis Records, shares most of the strengths and weaknesses of Vanity Fair’s most eminent…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): China is now marketing an amazing product: milk beer. Appealing to both the infantile longing for creamy liquid nourishment and the adult craving for inhibition-loosening alcohol, it’s bound to become the 21st century’s first new staple. The time is ripe for you to gorge yourself with a blend like milk beer.…
Preston’s follies
Veteran sideman half-remembers rock’s finest moments….
Santorum in a sentence
Q: I am new to anal sex and enjoy it, despite the embarrassment of occasional santorum. But is the person receiving supposed to have an enema first? Am I not being sensitive to my lover if I don’t have an enema first and there is some santorum? Is there any etiquette that I’m not aware…
Big screen 101
Like a relentless flock of Alfred Hitchcock’s birds, movie mania has invaded southeast Michigan. It seems like, every few weeks or so, a locally produced independent film has its premiere somewhere in metro Detroit. Meanwhile, the digital revolution in cameras, sound and editing equipment is having a major impact on production values, making it possible…
Summer fiction contest
Poetry and prose cures for those August doldrums…
Discs in the mail
Just because someone writes a song doesn’t mean it’s done, much less good. And anybody with a computer and recording software, a small mixer, a compressor and a microphone can make a record. It used to be that a band or artist would do demos of songs — first drafts — play live shows, and…
Pajam party
Hometown trio becomes international idol makers….
Letters to the Editor
Not a victim Mildred Gaddis’ “victim” comment in Jack Lessenberry’s column was totally out of line (“Fight the victim culture,” Metro Times, June 25-July 1). I am proud of where I live as well as of the mayor we selected. However, it’s hard to be proud when others are constantly reporting negative press. By the…
Soul purpose: Detroit hip hop 2003
As evidenced by everyone from Kem to Slum Village, D12 to Eminem, Detroit is no longer the perennial bridesmaid to New York and LA on the scope of national hip hop. We’re not just talking sales figures and levels of celebrity — we’re talking creativity, inspiration and downright resourcefulness. As Detroit is quickly becoming an…
