Burning to know: Decision day looms for Detroit incinerator
ATTENTION: We’ve just learned that this meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday, June 18. The time is still 2 p.m., but the location isn’t yet nailed down. Will keep you updated. For those who have been following the Detroit incinerator issue, Wednesday, June 17, is likely to be a big day. That’s when the Greater…
WEEKEND WARM-UP
Was kinda touched to discover that Question Mark (yes, that Question Mark — are there any others?) left me a voicemail yesterday, personally inviting me to the Mysterians’ local show this Sunday night. So, just in case you missed it when we posted it earlier this week. The legendary ? & The Mysterians will be…
Cary Safarian Speaks!
Collage art that came enclosed with Cary Safarian’s letter. An interesting item came by post yesterday: a genuine letter from former Graystone Hall promoter Cary Safarian. You may recall our piece; on the fundraiser that had hoped to come up with money to support and a bid for clemency on behalf of MDOC Prisoner 207905;.…
REMEMBERING RAY & THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ADDS HOOKER
Detroiter Marcus Belgrave assumes a key role in a new podcast series on the music of Ray Charles. Longtime jazz journalist — and a pioneering jazzhead on the Web — Bret Primack is heading up a 16-podcast series on the music of Ray Charles for Concord Records, rounding up notable musician-commentators including Al Kooper, Mike…
RUMORS & REUNIONS…
So the rumor is that Jack White and his new band, Dead Weather, are playing a “surprise” show at the Magic Stick this Friday night, June 12th. Looks like a pretty reliable rumor; I even received an invite earlier this week on Facebook to join the Majestic Theatre’s new fan page, where a “big announcement”…
A covenant kept
The word "family" kept cropping up at a festive gathering held on Detroit’s west side last Friday afternoon, even though none of the people involved were actually related. It just felt that way when some of the young men and women who have passed through Covenant House came back for a reunion. As burgers and…
City Center
There’s been a slight change to the City Center template since Saturday Looks Good to Me frontman Fred Thomas started releasing experimental 7-inch singles under this new moniker in January of ’08, SLGTM drummer Ryan Howard has become a permanent member. Either because of Howard’s influence or through a natural aesthetic refinement, this LP is…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
What the world needs now is Jeffrey Morgan’s sweet Media Blackout #219! Bart Davenport — Palaces (Antenna Farm) :: Burt Bacharach is more like it and I like it, like it, yes, I do. Bad Flirt — Virgin Talk (Kartel) :: What’s to like? How about perky power pop fuelled by fun-filled female vocals, a…
Let Go
We learn a lot from the albums we listen to — all about what we like and hate; what melodies haunt us or annoy us; when a lyricist’s pushing too hard and when they’re not pushing hard enough. After we disassemble the music piece by piece — instrument by lyric, mood by beat, chorus by…
Spreading his wealth
Manuel J. "Matty" Moroun isn’t shy about making campaign contributions — and his enthusiasm has been infectious. His wife, son and daughter-in-law also give generously, as do some of his top employees and at least one of their spouses. They often reach the highest limits for contributions and they give not only during election seasons…
Management
Aniston is Sue, a bored corporate art dealer who, on a business-trip whim, has a fling with the calmly pathetic Mike (Steve Zahn), the night manager of his parents’ nowhere Arizona motel. She goes on with her life, but he sees stars and begins to follow her cross-country multiple times, hounding her at each turn.…
Taking a toll
Taking a reporter on a tour of the area around the American side of the Ambassador Bridge, state Rep. Rashida Tlaib expresses a mixture of outrage and disbelief at the audacity of the span’s owner. Steering her dark gray Buick Rendezvous through the southwest Detroit neighborhood she represents, the freshman Democratic legislator keeps one hand…
City gardens
The three members of Detroit rock ensemble Gardens slump on a couch at downtown’s High Bias recording studio. Exhausted from several days’ work on the band’s debut album, the trio is disheveled but exuberant. In fact, they look downright relaxed for three guys about to get the boot from their landlord. "Our electricity got shut…
Old dogs, new tricks
Marshall Crenshaw Jaggedland 429 Records Iggy Pop Preliminaires Astralwerks/Virgin Longevity is one of the greater, if rarest, achievements in pop music. With it, however, comes the burden of reinvention and the dilemma of what to do when, say, you once claimed you wouldn’t be singing "Satisfaction" at age 30 … and then find yourself still…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
All in the family
The ham is carved, the stuffing is steaming and the rolls are buttered and passed around the table. It’s a traditional Sunday after-church meal, and overseeing it all is the head of the family, Kimberly Bennett, seated near a stack of Mother’s Day cards she has just been given. This isn’t her real family. It’s…
Spanning the years
Last man standing Bait shop owner holds his ground against an ugly bridge-expansion project By Detroitblogger John Published: 4/29/2009 Politics & Prejudices Used pol for sale One politician, slightly tarnished, will take best offer By Jack Lessenberry Published: 4/15/2009 Politics & Prejudices Uncovered bridge By Jack Lessenberry Published: 3/7/2007 The battle of the bridge Distrust…
Rebuilding Joan
About thirty years ago, jazz vocalist Joan Bow moved from Ann Arbor to California on a dream and a big fat lie. The 20-year-old University of Michigan student told her folks she was going for an extended vacation, sure that they’d try to dissuade her if they knew she intended to make it as a…
Backlot
Hung Who stars: Thomas Jane (The Punisher, The Mist), Anne Heche and Jane Adams (Little Children). What it is: Jane is Ray, a distressed high school basketball coach beset with financial and personal problems — the Detroit house he inherited from his parents burns down, his wife (Heche) and children leave him, etc. His big…
Cheat Code
My first skateboard was a Christian Hosoi street board, Slimeball Hairball wheels, and some hand-me-down trucks; I was geeked to be the next king of the streets. One problem … I couldn’t ollie — which is the foundation trick of street skating — and my skateboard career went down in flames. But now, Electronic Arts…
Couch Trip
Man Hunt Fox Here’s a noirish spy yarn about a British hunter (Walter Pidgeon) who has Adolf Hitler in his crosshairs, only to be captured by the Gestapo before he can pull the trigger. Escaping their torturous clutches, he falls prey to a legion of fascist enemies throughout Germany and foggy London, while finding an…
Motor City Cribs
Ann Arbor used to be a town in the country — but not anymore. But out on Jackson Road, on the town’s far west side, you’ll find a little reminder of the A2 that once was. There, tucked in the woods is Backseat Productions, Jim Roll’s recording studio for the last two years, in a…
Pho, not faux
Where to get pho? There are at least four Vietnamese places on Dequindre or John R, but Thang Long, run for 15 years by Alexander Nguyen, serves the country’s national soup with aplomb. A large bowl of clear beef broth, beef and rice noodles, with scallions and herbs added as the chef and the diner…
Rockin’ to the core
By this time next year, Core Effect could potentially be working huge fests such as Ozzfest and even Lollapalooza. Their videos could be No. 1 on YouTube and on Headbanger’s Ball. After all, the Royal Oak-based band already has its latest single in rotation on 101 WRIF, as well as on other Midwestern stations. They’ve…
My Life in Ruins
Nia Vardalos returns to her winning, ugly-duck-becomes-swan formula here, now as a frumpy, displaced history teacher who settles for a crappy tour-guide gig, hauling clueless English-speaking sightseers through the fading splendors of Greece. Richard Dreyfuss hits a new career low as a crude but secretly wise widower who helps Nia get her groove back, pointing…
Another blown chance
What do you think about … moving all the prisoners at Guantanamo to a prison somewhere in the Upper Peninsula? Actually, this is one of those ideas that seems screamingly crazy at first blush, and then makes more and more sense when you think about it. We’ve got the space and capacity for them —…
Real gone
Away We Go is a palate cleanser, a shaggy-dog indie-style road film engineered to connect Mendes with hipster audiences — it is, after all, written by McSweeney’s Dave Eggers, his wife, and Believer editor, Vendela Vida. Yeah, it’s got the quirky, arch tone you’d expect, and hipster-y soundtrack but Mendes brings a nimble and disarmingly…
Unlucky streak
Q: I am a 28-year-old straight woman who has been dating a 24-year-old straight male for two months. Recently, I gave him oral sex while he was seated naked on my couch. The next day, as I went to sit on the couch, I noticed a brown stain on the cushion that looked highly suspicious.…
Easy Virtue
Noël Coward 1927 farce about a young bride scandalizing her stuffy, well-to-do in-laws by actually having a pulse is remade into a film, starring leggy, raspy-voiced Jessica Biel as a brassy, race-car driving, Detroit-bred Larita, whom everyone insists on calling “Larry” in irksome fashion. She’s supposed to stand out, but this is ridiculous — the…
Food Stuff
Very Bavarian — Hankering for a quick road trip? This week sees Frankenmuth’s 51st Annual Bavarian Festival, June 11-14. Expect Bavarian music, authentically dressed German bands, two parades and a full midway. Saturday is kids’ day, with a children’s parade at 10 a.m., and Sunday’s parade can draw more than 100,000 people, with marching bands,…
The Girlfriend Experience
Today, there are two faces to Soderbergh: Hollywood product machine (Ocean’s 11, 12, 13) and the intellectual lo-fi auteur (Che, Bubble). Neither is particularly satisfying. The Girlfriend Experience is his latter face. With more than a nod to Godard, Soderbergh’s fragmented storyline (the past is barely discernable from the future) and icy chic cinematography explore…
Letters to the Editor
Smoking mad Re: "Smoked out" (June 10), I am weary of sorry little tyrants like Jack Lessenberry, who so eagerly wish to inflict the force of the state on those whose behavior they dislike. He apparently does not grasp the import of private property. If he does not wish to be bothered by tobacco smoke,…
The Hangover
The setup is standard frat-pack fare: Three guys take their best friend, a groom-to-be, to Vegas for the ultimate bachelor party, and end up losing him. The next day brings with it complete amnesia and an ever-escalating series of encounters, as Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Galifianakis try to figure out what the hell happened.…
On track
Filth, depravity and addiction make for a fun date night, as readily proven by the Ringwald’s infectious new production — a play adapted from the novel, made famous as a film. Trainspotting is caught in a loop of weird nostalgia — set in the ’80s but trapped forever in our minds as the shining totem…
Warped nostalgia
Your enjoyment level of the new Land of the Lost hinges largely on two factors: a nostalgic fondness for the tacky, tripped-out Saturday-morning original, and a desire to see those childhood memories get warped into a platform for jokes about Will Ferrell’s balls. This version smartly embraces the inherent goofiness of Sid and Marty Krofft’s…
