‘A painful period’
José Lopez moves nimbly across the porch of his senior citizens’ complex in southwest Detroit. The 77-year-old laughs with his fellow residents. He greets his visitors with a beaming smile on his face. After working 40 years at the Ford Rouge plant, Lopez shows all the outward signs of a man in contented retirement. But…
Small World no more
Many a Detroiter knows the draw of Small World Café — a beloved luncheon spot not only for its cozy atmosphere but for its near-addictive and cheap luncheon curries and veggies and perfect basmati rice served by chef and owner Rita Ahluwalia. Despite its location in the basement, down a hall, inside the International Institute…
Deportee documentary
Filmmaker Alex Cortez has seen the stories of the Repatriation as no one else has. In compiling dozens of interviews for a documentary on los repatriados, he has spoken face to face with more deported members of the Mexican community than anyone else. He has done most of his work close to his home near…
Putdown or lowdown?
You might have heard some hubbub over the August issue of Playboy, which contains an article titled “Detroit, Death City.” The author of the piece, Frank Owen, is a white native of Manchester, England, who married a black woman from Detroit. The nut of the story focuses on his father-in-law and his brother-in-law, now both…
Ribs low & slow
For me, the culinary associations of summer include fresh sweet corn, ripe, juicy tomatoes and barbecued ribs. For the record, ribs which are baked in the oven and then slathered with barbecue sauce are just roast pork, not barbecue. Real barbecue is cooked low and slow — that is, at low temperature, very slowly. Pork…
All smoked up
If you believe its opponents, the medical marijuana initiative on the Aug. 3 ballot is going to get smoked. You know, man, like in defeated. Proposal M, which would allow Detroit residents with a doctor’s note to get cannabis-relief from maladies such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis, is opposed by slightly more than 52 percent…
Two who never came back
Marta Ornelas and Jesus Manrique are los repatriados who never returned. They left Detroit in 1934, when Marta was 23 and Manrique, who was born here, was 3. They live in the city of León in central Mexico, where Ornelas grew up and lived before moving to Detroit with her husband in 1929. In June,…
Court confusion
It seems the U.S. Supreme Court has given the green light to judges around the nation to sidestep federal sentencing guidelines — even if that wasn’t its intention. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court held last month that Washington state’s sentencing guidelines are unconstitutional because they violated a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a…
Fighting with paint
It’s a hot July morning at 9 a.m. — too early for most teenagers to consider getting out of bed, let alone to show up at school for summertime activities. But here they are, three teenagers, sitting around a table on the second floor of Harms Elementary School on Detroit’s southwest side. As the minutes…
French-fried Cass
If Detroit was once the Paris of the Midwest, then 4100 Third St. is that rare abandoned structure that’s retained its Old World charm. The single-story building, once a bustling food stamp office, at the corner of Alexandrine in the heart of the Cass Corridor, features side entrances protected by gratings with floral twists and…
Rader recalled
Roots rock pioneer Don Rader had one wish: to keep on rockin’ until the very end. He got his wish. Even Rader’s passing hasn’t stopped his gig this Wednesday, July 28 (tonight), at Memphis Smoke. After a year-long struggle with heart disease and several surgeries, Rader finally succumbed to the malaise on July 5 at…
Letters to the Editor
No voice, no votes I have to take exception to Jack Lessenberry’s recent observations about black voter apathy (“Barbarians in the Rose Garden,” Metro Times, July 21). I agree that black voter participation has dwindled considerably in the years since the passage of the civil rights and voting rights legislation, but the reason for this…
Welcome to the jungle
This story is the seventh part of our Century of Sound series, tracing Detroit’s musical heritage over the last hundred years. In a dingy East Lansing diner, a sign reads, “Directions to Ann Arbor: East until you smell it, south until you step in it.” While the compass from Detroit points a slightly opposite…
Those big-heart Dems
The Democrats simply love minorities, love ’em. And they can prove it! More than half of all delegates at the Democratic National Convention this week in Boston are minorities. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential hopeful, is reportedly spending an unprecedented amount on ads in African-American and Latino media outlets — $2 million for…
Serving up more beef
Proof is revered in certain hip-hop circles about as much as Vanilla Ice at a Black Panther party reunion. Love him or hate him, the platinum-selling drama-filled emcee has finally released a solo album — facilitated by the production heroics of Davina, House Shoes, Amp Fiddler, and DJ Premier — that makes us remember why…
Youth against fascism (redux)
“We’re playing at the House of Blues [in Las Vegas], and I think this is really the only weak-selling show on the tour,” says Kim Gordon. “I’m curious about who’s going to come see us. I was trying to explain to Coco” — Gordon’s daughter with bandmate Thurston Moore — “what Vegas was about, and…
Forget What You Know
Welcome to fantasy rock critic camp, where becoming a famous rock critic is as easy as being pushed off a log. Here are five snappy examples for you to study at home. Then, once you’re mastered the proper degree of witty cynicism, there’s room at the end for you write your own withering review. So…
N&D Center
Wednesday • 28 George Friend MUSIC You might remember hometown shredder George Friend from his days with the Twistin’ Tarantulas or his bluesy solo project, Black Beauty, but these days, he’s more a touring act than homebody. Friend, who bid farewell to the Motor City a few years ago in pursuit of California-style fame and…
Which Way Is East
Drummer Billy Higgins rode his cymbal onto the national scene as part of the Ornette Coleman posse that hijacked the hard-bopping ’50s and heralded the free jazz ’60s. Between his auspicious arrival and his death in 2001, he established himself as a sort of omnipresent utility man, playing in aggregations as woolly as David Murray’s…
Moving to run
Stephanie Roberts has lived on Ashton Street on Detroit’s northwest side for 17 years. A young man who is seeking to represent her neighborhood — District 10 — in the Michigan House of Representatives is her next-door neighbor. At least that’s the address he lists. Roberts doesn’t see him as a true resident. The candidate,…
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
This stoner/road-trip comedy features two Asian-American (but more middle-class suburban) buddies who get super-stoned and go on a journey to obtain White Castle burgers. Despite a few laughs, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is the film equivalent of eating a sack full of greasy sliders: The first few bites are heavenly, while the…
The hangman’s legacy
Three black men dangle like grape leaves from a tree. They await you. In fact, they beckon you — dare you, almost, to come closer. Their dares, however, are silent and motionless. Not like the menacing taunts of a “gangsta” rapper. No, these black men have been rendered completely harmless by the ropes from which…
Catwoman
To take the ripe-and-ready concept of a woman possessing the mystical and physical prowess of a cat and waste it on an hour-and-a-half music video is just plain criminal. Even by the standards of a popcorn-munching, comic-book movie blockbuster, this film is just plain ridiculous as Halle Berry tries hard to make us forget she…
MIA: ABC, CBS, NBC
Here’s something on which Democrats, Republicans, George W. Bush and I totally agree: This is one of the most crucial presidential elections in history. Opinion polls show the vast majority of the people think so too. Interest in this election and belief in its importance is far higher than four years ago. But you would…
The Bourne Supremacy
For those hoping for a summer movie not laden with computer effects or comic book heroes or unpopular teen girls fighting with very popular teen girls, don’t look to The Bourne Supremacy. The sequel to the 2002 hit The Bourne Identity featuring Matt Damon is nothing more than a pumped and revved version of the…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Two years ago a diminishing marriage rate and an increase in divorces began to worry Malaysian officials. The family development minister issued a plea for spouses to be more aggressive about calling each other "darling," "sweetie," and other affectionate names. As you slip into the Amorous Season, Aries, I’m going to…
Sweet nothings?
John Kerry and George Bush came a-courtin’ last week. The only things missing were bouquets of roses and boxes of bonbons as the presidential challenger and the incumbent hit Detroit in an attempt to woo the African-American vote with speeches to the annual conference of the National Urban League. As a Democrat, Kerry was akin…
Carandiru
Carandiru is the name of an infamously overcrowded prison in São Paulo where a riot in 1992 led to more than 100 unarmed inmates being killed by the police. Brazilian director Hector Babenco (Pixote, Kiss of the Spider Woman) has fashioned an over-the-top, garishly melodramatic pulp depiction of life in the prison before and during…
Thrown out
Seventy-five summers ago, Detroit was home to a vibrant, thriving and industrious Mexican community. Life revolved around family, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church and days of hard labor in the auto plants. Five years later, everything had changed. The church near Roosevelt and West Kirby, which was built by the Mexicans themselves, was in…
Prose in the park
By virtue of its archaic cadence and content, the language of William Shakespeare, demands its audience sit upright, knees together and eyes forward, for unless you are a scholar of the Bard, its easy to miss what’s going on. And while being in a theater might help your concentration, there’s something uniquely cool about enjoying…
Solicitors of death
In 1975, after five years of civil war, Cambodia was taken over by the Khmer Rouge, a home-grown agrarian communist movement with an insanely absolutist approach to ideological purity. The government killed 2 million people in a four-year reign of terror. This documentary attempts to explain the how and — to a lesser extent —…
‘Forget about civil rights’
America’s history of dealing with ethnicities that are not exactly white Anglo-Saxon is pretty dismal. Think slavery. Think reservation. Think Nazis marching in Skokie. The 19th century establishmentarian welcomes given to the Irish, Germans, Russians, Poles and other Eastern Europeans as they embarked upon their New World dreams were often something less than enthusiastic. And…
Too tight, Toulouse
Q: Are porn performers who take it in the ass all on drugs? Every girl I’ve tried it with (all of them willing, mind you) wails in pain and declares the ass unpassable! Are porno bottoms, male and female, all coked out of their minds or something? Seems like they’d have to be to take…
