Mystery captured
Hamtramck’s own Joseph Bernard would appear to be the classic enigmatic artist. As a painting major at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1970s, Bernard began his career making works that used physical traces of the human body imprinted onto gesso (the traditional artist’s medium for priming canvas) spread over…
The homie
This story is the third part of our Century of Sound series, tracing Detroit’s musical heritage over the last hundred years. The Detroit piano players who enlivened the New York scene beginning in the 1950s formed a veritable keyboard aristocracy. Hank Jones, Barry Harris and the late Tommy Flanagan and Roland Hanna, in particular,…
Letters to the Editor
Road rage Re: “Driven to destruction” (Metro Times, June 16), what utter nonsense Keith Schneider has unloaded on Metro Times readers from his roost in northwest Michigan, free of Detroit commuting, about which he obviously knows nothing. Only those who have lived in metro Detroit as adults for the last 50 years and regularly travel…
Slum Village square
The diminutive offices of Barak Records in Southfield teem with chipper people. It’s hard to tell who is employed and who is visiting, since everyone is greeted with a hug or handshake. Even the employees seem to be just hanging out. The Barak “lounge” is the locus of pseudo-social activity. It’s furnished with two love…
Willie Anderson on record
Detroit had several active record companies in the late 1940s, so it’s not surprising that the Willie Anderson trio made some records. They cut two titles for Fortune around 1947-48 and four titles that were issued on Jamboree, a New York City-based label, around the same time. Anderson may have gone to Manhattan to record,…
Weaving a tread thread
The first steps of the Walk & Squawk Performance Project’s latest endeavor aren’t baby steps. Rather, The Walking Project: First Steps, is an experimental, broad-reaching multimedia event, not to mention a tremendously creative and ambitious undertaking. This special weekend of performance, expression and cross cultural exchange will include experimental theatre, art installations, a musical jam…
Picture this…
The jazz violinist chose a shot of wild horses taken during a Brazilian vacation. The jazz bassist, a picture of his late mother. One classical composer chose a picture of himself as a child on his tricycle. Another classical composer chose a picture of a parakeet posing as a cowboy. And as inspirations for compositions…
N&D Center
WEDNESDAY•23•THEATER Charlotte’s Web E.B. White was something of a miracle worker; as a children’s book author he managed to not only entertain the masses of eager new readers, but to teach them important lessons about life along the way. One of his most beloved tales, Charlotte’s Web is a beautiful story about the circle of…
State of suspense
In 1968, all six members of the Robison family — mother and father, three teenage boys and a young daughter — were found brutally murdered in their northern Michigan cabin. Each was shot with a rifle except the 8-year-old girl, who was bludgeoned to death. The bodies lay decomposing for nearly a month before they…
Bigot’s beef is bull
Q: I was talking with my Rush Limbaugh-quoting uncle and gay marriage came up. I told him that gay men and lesbians wanted nothing more than their human rights. I told him that telling part of the population that they can live as “partners” but not get married is separate and unequal. He responded by…
American woman
Some weeks ago I saw Ani DiFranco at a smallish venue in an ugly town, and when she got to the infamous line, “the music industry mafia is pimping grrl power,” the young women in the place sent up a predictable howl. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a girl, or…
Bey’s way
Andy Bey snagged the vocalist of the year award from the Jazz Journalists Association the other night. The journalists’ award — which Bey took for the second year running — was hardly a shocker, since they’re the same folks who’ve been straining for nearly a decade for the mot juste to describe him and his…
All My Friends Are Going Death
We are a select few for whom coffee alone is never enough. For those of us who supplement our daily multiple intakes of caffeine by adhering to a steady supplemental regimen of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music and Neil Young’s Arc, kicks keep getting harder to find. Fortunately for us, Some Girls know that there…
He do voodoo
It was 1982 when Stan Ridgway’s art-punk outfit, Wall of Voodoo entered the charts. But when their catchy song “Mexican Radio” hit the airwaves, few were privy to the genius behind the band’s concept. Originally formed as a sound track company specializing in cheap sci-fi and B-movie underground epics, Wall of Voodoo would be (wrongly)…
Gardentroduction
From Esham to D12, Detroit’s East Side has established itself as the Motor City’s face of hip hop, similar to the way South Central Los Angeles was Cali’s rap stronghold during the ’90s. With their self-titled debut Gardentroduction, these 12 emcees from the Conant Gardens housing project might be primed to become the next East…
The art of the possible
When I first saw Tyree Guyton’s work, I was not very impressed, and for a long time I had no idea how political it was. This was partly because what I first saw of his work was some painted automobile hoods in an art gallery. Primitive art, I thought. Colorful, crude. What’s all the fuss…
Spielberg schmaltz
The new Spielberg/Hanks collaboration is passable, clichéd entertainment. Loosely based on a true story, the movie is about a Slavic man trapped in an airport terminal because a coup in his country leaves him without a visa. In the terminal the man becomes a saintly hero who romances Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Proof is in the punch; disgruntled band members
Beef & potatoes Something about D12’s DeShaun “Proof” Holton, downtown summer nights and brawling seem to go hand-in-glove. It seems like Hit Singles just reported the feud between Proof and Royce da 5’9” that almost boiled over before being settled last July. Now, we get reports of full-on fisticuffs involving Proof and WDTJ (105.9 FM)…
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
A group of nerd oddballs put together a dodgeball team in a desperate attempt to save their beloved Average Joe’s gym from takeover. But the save-the-farm-from-the-mustachioed-bad-guy premise is just a framework for vulgar, nasty and sometimes mean jokes. But if you like seeing people hit in the face, ass and groin, you’ll love Dodgeball.
Pop goes the DJ
In the largely anonymous world of dance music, DJ Tiesto is a renowned brand name like Digweed, Oakenfold or Van Dyk. DJ Magazine named him the top DJ in the world the last two years, and there appears no limit to his momentum. Unlike the aforementioned, Tiesto is relatively new to electronic music, only beginning…
Bulgarian Lovers
Part social commentary and part romantic comedy, Bulgarian Lovers suffers from unnecessarily complicated plot turns and too much lingering over obvious points. The first feature in 15 years from veteran director Eloy de la Iglesia is directed with expected brio. But if you’re not responsive to soft-core gay sex scenes, there’s not much here.
Recess for DPS radio crew?
From Afrocentric and student talk shows to classic rock ’n’ roll and world-beat music, programming at the Detroit Public Schools’ WDTR-FM is in limbo as the administration moves to lease the station to an outside operator. The station’s 12 paid staffers were given “non-renewal notices” last week, and roughly 35 volunteers (the latter comprising virtually…
White Chicks
There was a time, back in the early ’90s, when the name Wayans, uncommon by itself, was synonymous with visionary and hilarious sketch comedy. But White Chicks just continues "The Wayans Brothers" juvenile comedy, as the pair plays undercover FBI agents disguised as uppity white suburban girls.
Adios, shysters
If you see State Rep. Steve Tobocman, D-southwest Detroit, give him a pat on the back. Tobocman spearheaded a bill called the Michigan Immigration Clerical Assistance Act (MICA) intended to protect immigrants from so-called “immigration consultants.” Last week, Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the bill into law. Tobocman says many unsuspecting immigrants — both legal and…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Let that which stood in front go behind!" roared Walt Whitman in his poem "Respondez!" "And let that which was behind advance to the front and speak." That’s the first clue you should meditate on in the coming week, Aries. Your second hint is from Bob Dylan, who could have been…
Less is more
At first, the scene was a happy one. Residents crowded into southwest Detroit’s BUOY 3 community center last Wednesday in their Pistons championship T-shirts, discussing the previous night’s victory. But the mood quickly turned to one of frustration as Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings began to provide details of the upcoming merger of the 3rd and…
Manhattan musings
Last month the work of 13 local artists came together in Femmes Detroit, an exhibition of varied media at Ceres Gallery in New York’s Chelsea District. Detroit-based artist Rose E. DeSloover hung her solo show, Kryptonite, in the adjoining space. An overwhelming number of former Motown artists, currently living in New York, hoofed it to…
Harping on Harper
After years of neglect, the abandoned retail space and apartment units at 15432 Harper on Detroit’s East Side suffered an August 2003 blaze that left the structure in a state that conjures images of war-zone ruination. Like a nightmarish dollhouse, its eastern face is all but missing. Its ceilings and roof have caved in, leaving…
Italian grillin’
Many of us Michiganders not deterred by the cold of winter have only to dress warmly while tending the pit in the quest for succulent grilled food. For those of you who mothball the grill or barbecue during winter, the time has come to cook outdoors. While the terms are used interchangeably, for the sake…
Sprung
Instead of spending the rest of his life in prison for a murder he says he did not commit, Vidale McDowell returned to his Detroit home Monday after more than two years in prison. “It feels good to be out,” said McDowell, now 20, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest. “I think it…
