Head Cheese
Ann Arbor’s foxiest party crew, the Bang!, is already known for making everybody dance. But in honor of their aerobics-themed Physical Bang!, hosts Jeremy Wheeler and Jason Gibner will make you sweat till you bleed with this list of workout video monomanias. 5. Zsa Zsa Gabor, It’s Simple, Darling (1993): The darling diva of old…
Shifting ground
Even though he’s a named plaintiff in a federal lawsuit, the man we’ll call Reynaldo didn’t want his name used for this article. That request for anonymity, at least in part, speaks to the complexity surrounding the issue of undocumented foreign workers in this country. Reynaldo, now 26, came into the United States illegally in…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Comerica TasteFest 2006 is proud to be the exclusive sponsor of MB75! Lou Reed & Don Cherry — The Velvet Underground Railroad (ESP Disc) :: Includes the hit single "Gil Scott Heroin." Minmae — le grand essor de la maison du monstere (Greyday) :: Minmae match the Underground sound by duplicating everything from the Velvet’s…
Gay Serra, Serra
Openly gay judge faces an electoral fight.
Dial ‘D’ for Davies
It was a thrill to hear Ray Davies’ familiar Muswell Hill drawl on my stupid Nokia. I had even strewn my yellowed copy of the Kinks’ Face to Face nearby, strictly for irony’s sake. But that’s about all I accomplished on the morning of June 1, when I took part in a teleconference promoting Ray…
Courting civil rights
MCRI battle makes for drama on the courthouse steps.
Past out
It might have seemed like the end for Ann Arbor rockers Porchsleeper, when longtime bassist Zach Johnson called it quits last December. “I think he just got tired of driving three drunk idiots all over tarnation,” says singer-guitarist Brian Raleigh. Although the split was amicable, the loss of a bassist (and friend) was tough to…
Letters to the Editor
A modest proposal Re: Jack Lessenberry’s “To fight terrorism, invade Paraguay” (Metro Times, June 21), I had to consider the column for several days before I finally concluded that he is wrong. Paraguay is not a threat to the United States; the target of the next war should be Swaziland. Don’t know where Swaziland is?…
Old World charm
Eastern Market’s Roma Café: 116 years and counting
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Food Stuff
Mixed plates — Those with a taste for music will enjoy the offbeat offerings at Cass Cafe this Fourth of July weekend. The cafe will host two cover-free nights of “emotionally driven raucous rhythms topped with eerily melodic, yet placid, harmonic grooves.” Live acts will include Punisher, Detroit Techno Militia, Colin Zyskowski, Andy Toth, Rob…
Art Bar
Visiting a familiar and once-dear place after a long absence can knock the words right out of us. In this poem, Keith Althaus of Massachusetts observes this happening to someone else. I like the way he suggests, at the end, that it may take days before that silence heals over. Homecoming We drove through the…
Dab’ll do ya
Ann Arbor’s Dabrye adds emcees on Two/Three, locals like Invincible, Guilty Simpson, Big Tone and, on “Game Over,” the late Jay Dee, as well as such underground stalwarts as the metal face of MF Doom on “Air,” which whirs and splutters like a deconstructed horror film sound track. The vocal turns are significant, since 2001’s…
Some sacred moment
A guy in Russia thought he could stop a train and killed himself trying. Ten people in Tanzania died trying to walk on water. A man bludgeoned his girlfriend with a Bible on Halloween. Religion inspires horrifying acts of devotion. We all know that, but we seldom stop to consider how dramatically faith can suddenly…
Loose
Check yourselves, Ms. Stefani and Fergie, because Nelly Furtado is the original hollaback girl. She’s always had her B-girl street smarts, Portuguese pride, and girl-next-door (or north of the border) sweetness. But here, the Canadian chanteuse has finally gotten her funk on. Loose is produced in bulk by Timbaland (Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z), and is…
Scale-busting splendor
It’s Saturday night in Roseville and a Mary J. Blige track is rattling the windows of the Georgian Inn. “Get your ass on the dance floor,” Blige commands. Indeed, there’s plenty of ass on the dance floor — in fact, there’s plenty of everything. This is Club Abundance, a Michigan-based social club for plus-sized women…
Live at Tonic
The fusion licks of bassist Christian McBride and his bandmates are so tight that you have to wonder whether they could play this stuff in their sleep. That’s a common problem in fusion, for which there are a number of solutions. One is to rely on virtuoso displays, which is the tactic McBride, keyboardist Geoffrey…
Rock study
What do you know about the Beach Boys? Specifically, what do you want to know about its head, Brian Wilson? If you’re a die-hard fan, 120 music appreciation credits short of expertise, or you simply want to know why your father won’t relax about the musical magician behind the song “Good Vibrations,” find your way…
Brightblack Morning Light
Fans of Ambien, of lazing on wraparound porches during Saturday afternoons, and of those hazy, low-key bits in Spiritualized songs where Jason Pierce — possibly while slumped in a corner — whisper-mumbles about Jesus and broken hearts will find love in the sepia-toned somnolence of this self-titled offering from California-via-Kentucky quintet Brightblack Morning Light. Frontman…
Political ass-kissing
Q: I am a straight female and have been in a loving relationship with my boyfriend for three years. I’m also a politically connected woman, a very “in control” type, and when I say “no” I mean “no.” A little more about me: I was born in Alabama, play the piano, and was a professor…
Island flavor
This dine-in place with white cloths and flashy artificial red-white-and-pink flower arrangements offers tasty Jamaican staples not widely available in the area, such as rich, fatty oxtail, curry goat, tilapia, red snapper, kingfish and, if you’re lucky, the traditional ackee and codfish. Tripe and cow feet are offered for home folks who really want to…
More talk about the ‘N’ word
Based on the volume of responses to my last column, I think it’s safe to say that the “N” word gets people talking. I kind of thought it might. I wrote about the Web site abolishthenword.com, whose creators have taken on the mission of erasing the word “nigger” from our vocabulary, and that includes such…
Maniac Jack
You can harp on how the film altered the essential details of Stephen King’s novel. You can call out Kubrick for being a heartless bastard with his characters, subjecting them to odd, unflattering close-ups and allowing Nicholson to dominate the picture. But what remains is a true classic, less a conventional horror film than a…
Night and Day
Friday • 30 Charketa Glover Fashion Show FASHION Detroit’s fashion scene has come into its own over the past few years, thanks in no small part to the innovation, outreach and vision of the Pure Detroit Design Lab and its former director, Sarah Lurtz. And though Lurtz has left the helm to concentrate on her…
Superman Returns
In an ambitious turn, director Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2, The Usual Suspects) takes a corny superhero hunk and turns him into a lonely savior, isolated by his godly strength. He can protect mankind but never truly be a part of it. He yearns for Lois Lane’s love but is unwilling to compromise his call to…
Backslash
Stick it good — Duct tape: it’s the all-American, endlessly useful adhesive. Prom: the all-American coming-of-age event for teenagers. Two great tastes that go together. Sure, why not? The makers of the Duck Tape brand of adhesive are encouraging graduating seniors to consider a different type of garb for their big night o’ glitz: prom…
Waist Deep
Under a veneer of urban political unrest and father-son devotion, Waist Deep stretches the thinnest of storylines over a script that’s cliché-clogged and shamelessly derivative. The film bills itself as “a sexy 21st-century Bonnie and Clyde” (it isn’t), and its concluding scene is a little too similar to The Shawshank Redemption. Ex-model Tyrese Gibson, who…
Did they steal the last election?
For months, there has been a steady and growing buzz that the 2004 election was, in fact, stolen. Various theories have been put forward as to how this was done, but most revolve around manipulation of the new electronic voting systems that are becoming the norm. Frankly, until recently, I haven’t paid much attention, for…
Click
The film is high-concept Hollywood screenwriting at its least inspired. Sandler plays Michael Newman, a haggard suburban dad who can’t juggle his wisecracking kids, his starved-for-attention wife (Kate Beckinsale) and his high-pressure architecture job. A trip to the back room of Bed, Bath and Beyond (the aisle marked “Beyond,” of course) leads him to a…
Potato salad surgery
Potato salad is the DJ of the American picnic. It really is. Think about it. It’s gathered together from disparate sources like a remix for your tongue, it’s a culinary cornerstone crucial to the outdoor chilling experience. And if potato salad’s the DJ, then iced tea is the emcee, blankets are graffiti, and lawn sports…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): A Malaysian woman survived a showdown with a tiger. Kaliyama was working as a rubber tapper when the big cat slinked up behind her and wrapped its jaws around her leg. "Amma! Amma!" she cried out, invoking the name of the mother goddess. The tiger let go, backed off a step…
Wright or wrong?
Detroit’s Palmer Park area is a stately neighborhood of architectural showoffs. The area is the pride of the city’s leading citizens, with English and colonial revival residences and bright green carpets of manicured lawn that command attention. But those who drive slowly down West Seven Mile Road, easing to a crawl on the busy thoroughfare,…
