Cover Story
Shredding it up in Motown
To see Michigan hometown athlete Brandon Dosch shred a BMX dirt bike course is something to behold. The recent silver medalist from X Games Brazil may now be coming home to X Games Detroit in 2014. “It would mean the world to me to compete in front of my city,” Dosch says. Such are the…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, Metro Times, 733 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 46226. Email MP3s and streaming links to [email protected]. Iggy Pop is on The Lone Ranger: Wanted, music inspired by the new Disney film. His tune, a traditional, morose little number called “Sweet Betsy From Pike”, is dark and…
Barrow vs. Duggan: Right on or write in?
Detroit mayoral candidate Tom Barrow’s efforts to keep Mike Duggan out of the race has heads swiveling as if it were a tennis match as the tactical volleying goes back and forth. First Barrow claims that Duggan is legally ineligible to be on the ballot because he didn’t meet the City Charter’s residency requirements because…
Monday Morning Fuel Report
It’s Monday morning, Detroit, and time for your weekly AAA fuel report. According to the AAA, gas prices are down by an average of 33 cents from last week around Metro Detroit, and the average is now $3.39 per gallon for a regular gallon unleaded gas. However, prices swing wildly depending on where you are…
City Slang: New Battlecross video
Local metal boys Battlecross have launched a lyric video for “Flesh and Bone” via RevolverMag.com. According to a Metal Blade press release, “BATTLECROSS have released a brand new lyric video, which, includes live footage from their performance at Orion Music and More in Detroit, MI, exclusively at RevolverMag.com! Fans can stream the video now here.…
City Slang: New videos from Psychopathic
Two new videos have been made available from Psychopathic Records artists. Big Hoodoo’s new video, for the single “Never Had”, can be seen here. His debut album, Crystal Skull, comes out this week. Meanwhile, the new video for Anybody Killa’s “Hey Girl” can be seen here. Whoop whoop, indeed. Click here to join the City…
City Slang: Mayer Hawthorne at Meadowbrook
Mayer Hawthorne will play Meadowbrook in Rochester Hills on July 27. According to a statement, “Mayer is supporting the upcoming release of his third studio album Where Does This Door Go, which will be released July 16th via Republic Records. The album features a host of top-flight production work from Pharrell Williams, Greg Wells, Jack…
Detroit’s Wild Week
Just when it looked as if the current Detroit City Council might make it through a full term without creating any distracting scandals, we learn that Council President Charles Pugh (pictured above) may have engaged in what’s been described as “inappropriate” behavior with a teenaged boy. Pugh, the council’s first openly gay member, went AWOL…
City Slang: Laneway and Movement link up
The Movement Electronic Music Festival and Ghostly International will combine to host a stage at the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival Detroit, held at the Meadowbrook Music Festival, on September 14. Sigur Ros and the National will headline the boutique indie music festival. According to the press release, “The Movement Stage presented by Ghostly International–featuring one…
How Mad Men’s sixth season killed its star
Photo by Jordin Althaus Back in April, when Mad Men was primed to begin its penultimate season, the only question that lingered in my mind was, “What will the first shot be?” Not the first shot of liquor, not the first shot one character took at another, but the first exposure of light, the first…
Trinosophes Makes Detroit Tastier
Photo by Princess Gabbara This March, Detroit’s Eastern Market welcomed a cool little place to its neighborhood. It’s the art gallery, performance space and café, Trinosophes. The venue’s vintage-style café is getting a lot of attention due to its earthy, crafty, cozy atmosphere and a menu offering American and Indian fare at affordable prices (as…
City Slang: George Morris offer from Five Three Dial Tone
Local label Five Three Dial Tone is offering the chance to advance-purchase the new George Morris 7”, Organ Solos. They say, “Once again we’ve pressed 50 of the 300 records on white vinyl, and placed those into alternate artwork sleeves. And once again, we’re offering the members of our e-mail list first crack at snagging…
Hamtramck: Back to Square One
An article in this week’s Metro Times by editorial intern Tommy Zimmer examines the various reasons the city of Hamtramck was recently deemed by the state to be in a state of financial crisis. On Wednesday, not long after the paper hit the streets, it was announced that the job of cleaning up the mess…
Tonight: A Grittier Granta?
Rust Belt Rising Almanac 2013; Volume One, 168 pp., $17 An inaugural annual “almanac” arrived in our mailbox a few weeks ago. It’s called Rust Belt Rising, billed as “a portrayal of growth, change and loss in America’s Rust Belt cities through short stories, poems, essays and art.” It features a couple pieces written about Detroit, and…
Garage Grill & Fuel Bar
Garage Grill & Fuel Bar 202 W. Main, Northville 48167 248-924-3367 garagenorthville.com Handicap accessible Entrées: $15.50-$29 Pizza: $10-$13 Sandwiches: $11.50-$14 Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, 4-10 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Not counting waterside, there can’t be many more pleasant venues for summer dining than the wrap-around patio…
Deemable Tech: My Kindle Is Toast
Q: My kid stepped on my Kindle, and now half of the screen is completely destroyed. Have I lost all of the books I bought? Is there any chance that Amazon will replace it? A: Sorry about your Kindle! Right now might not be the best time to mention it, but you should really consider getting a…
Stage Left: Detroit’s All in the Family
If things are as bad in Detroit as the media portray them, why do people hang on and remain? It’s a question that hangs over many of the city’s depopulated neighborhoods, often left unanswered and unexamined. Those asking it sometimes see stubborn residents as drains on city resources, or obstacles to ambitious redevelopment ideas. It…
Detroit vs. Lansing: Them vs. Us
Ten days ago, it looked very much as if a compromise had been reached allowing almost a half-million Michiganders without health insurance to get Medicaid. Additionally, it seemed certain that the Detroit mayor’s race would come down to Mike Duggan vs. Benny Napoleon, with the vast majority of the business community and political power structure…
Fellow Detroiters
It’s that time of year again. Kresge Arts in Detroit has announced this year’s 18 Kresge Artist Fellowships for Detroit-area literary and visual artists. Each of the fellowships includes an unrestricted prize of $25,000, rewarding creative vision and commitment to excellence within a wide range of artistic disciplines. The 2013 Kresge Artist Fellows are: LITERARY…
Enema Kits and Missing Clits
Q: I am a married 54-year-old postmenopausal woman. My libido has diminished significantly, and it takes me much longer to climax. My husband gets tired sooner and is unable to maintain an erection as long as he used to; this makes it even more difficult for me to climax. I have taken up an activity…
Emily Rose, and Kept Rising
You know that thing where you hear a line of lyric or poetry by Jim Morrison and think to yourself, “Sir, you may have been a compelling frontman but you were completely full of shit?” The Lizard King indeed — for fuck’s sake. Morrison was obviously high out of his mind pretty much throughout his…
STUDIO VISIT: Mike Kelly of Funhouse Gallery
Some artists spend their whole lives chasing after their muse, trying to find inspiration for their art. Mike Kelly’s muse, an evil telepathic monkey, found him. The first 40 years of his life weren’t very creative, he acknowledges. He didn’t go to art school, paint or draw. As a pathologist at a hospital, he spent…
Holy Smokes?
Apparently God, who — from a believer’s standpoint — is the creator of all things, including marijuana, doesn’t care if you use it. At least that’s the opinion of the Rev. John Jackson of Trinity United Church of Christ in Gary, Ind., and probably quite a few of his peers. Jackson attended a recent conference…
Oops, They Did It Again
On June 3, Gov. Rick Snyder declared the city of Hamtramck is in a financial emergency. In response, the Hamtramck City Council, using a provision of the state’s new emergency manager law, voted to have an emergency manager appointed to take control of the city. It is the second time this city of about 22,000…
Taking a Stand
DETROIT — A HUMAN BLOCKADE by protestors on Monday morning successfully kept trucks from dumping loads of petroleum coke at a site adjacent to the Detroit River. The material — a byproduct of refining bitumen from Alberta, Canada’s tar sands — has been a source of growing controversy in the city since March, when public…
Food Stuff
Food Thought The Best Summer Drinks; 500 Incredible Cocktail and Appetizer Recipes By Ray Foley Mass Market Paperback; $8.99; 240 pp. From the ultimate authority on bartending, Bartender Magazine, The Best Summer Drinks is the perfect recipe guide for the hottest drink time of year. This book contains 500 summer cocktail and appetizer recipes submitted…
Film Review: A Band Called Death
A Band Called Death | B Here is another story about long-brewing rock ’n’ roll redemption, a miraculous tale about an unlikely spiritual and artistic rebirth springing up though the gray, cracked concrete wastes of abandoned Detroit dreams. A Band Called Death is a gripping documentary about a family of talented musicians that played inventive,…
Boards of Canada
Boards of Canada rmake inhumanness intriguing. A pair of Scottish brothers who are a little leery of the limelight, they’ve spent almost two decades mastering electronica — a murky umbrella of music genres. Their music is trippy, as the two have fun with ethereal samples from obscure educational films and never shy away from droning…
Queens of the Stone Age
The first new release in six years from this iconic modern psyche- and metal-tinged blues-rock outfit is going to (almost) disappoint a fair number of fans. It might impress a fair number as well — and they could be ridiculed for it. The irksome part is that most probably won’t be able to deny Clockwork’s…
City Slang: Manic Pixie Dream Show at Corktown Tavern
Local performance artist/clown Satori Circus will join adopted Detroiter and Pennsylvania native Hayley Jane, burlesque dancer extraordinaire, at the Corktown Tavern on Friday, July 9, for the Manic Pixie Dream Show. According to the press release, “Hayley Jane returns to Detroit for her first performance since The Dirty Show last February. This tantalizing performer mixes…
Sunday Report from Hipster Beach
Plus ça change, non? On Sunday, my buddy Sasha and I were hungover from my house party the night before. The last guests had left when the sun was way up, and he’d crashed on my couch. So in the early afternoon, after tidying up a bit, we drove down to Honest John’s and…
Cardamom spices up Ann Arbor
Buzz is building about Ann Arbor’s newest Indian restaurant. Named after the popular Indian spice, Cardamom, which opened in April, is already making a name for itself with an affordably priced menu that offers a fusion of modern and traditional dishes from all over the subcontinent. Chicken tikka from Cardamom. In other words, this is…
Bellyache’s Busy Summer…
What a summer this local label’s been having… You turn back around from one release show and it seems like there’s another one just around the corner. Muggs Voyag3r Nice Hooves and now Betty Cooper! And then, as the temperatures rise, plug in your Oscillating Fans…..keep cool. Somewhere down the line we’ll hear…
