Missing a beat
News Hits read with interest how the two dailies explained the genesis of the Kwamester’s indictment last week on 19 counts of mail and wire fraud, and filing false tax returns. The charges stemmed from alleged use of his nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund as a personal and political piggybank. If you read The Detroit News,…
Carping on
The spin was dizzying last week after the discovery of a 20-pound Asian carp beyond the Illinois waterway barriers that were supposed to keep the invasive fish from the Great Lakes. Politicians, scientists, environmental groups and chemical peddlers issued press releases urging acceptance of their version of the significance of the find and what it…
Beam us in
News Hits has long admired Detroit Police Officer John Bennett, a guy who stood up to King Kwame back in the day when he was still the power to be reckoned with in Detroit politics. Bennett, you might recall, maintained a blog that had as its goal the ouster of then-chief Jerry Oliver. Jerry O…
Fish story
Asian carp arrived in Detroit. No, it didn’t invade through the Great Lakes into our local waterways, as some scientists fear it will in the next 10 years. Instead, it landed via shipping truck on my front porch, cleaned, smoked, wrapped and ready to be plucked from its bones and spread onto crackers at a…
Grown Ups
Adam Sandler basically gathered a cadre of his famous cronies, invited them over for pick-up basketball and an extended pool party, and declared this home movie good enough to open on thousands of multiplex screens. The results are exactly the sort of inside-jokey, juvenile and glorified skit you may imagine, which isn’t as fun for…
Night and Day
THURSDAY JULY 1 The Summer Pledge SPACE GAZING One of the trio of bands now signed to Woodbridge Records, the Summer Pledge creates an atmospheric din with throbbing drums, swirling guitars and vocals that never quite take center stage. The prog rock-meets-indie sound frequently shifts between opposing tempos, moods and dynamics, creating a tension that…
Gritty happenstance
Co-directed by an Israeli (Yaron Shani) and a Palestinian (Scandar Copti), Ajami’s grim and violent La Ronde is yet another interesting example of Israel’s emerging international film presence. The setting is an Israeli border community that straddles Tel Aviv and Jaffa, where interweaving flashbacks and flash-forwards of violence, revenge and corruption directly impact the lives…
Bird’s eye
The place was a dump. It had been the office of a used car lot that was left to the weeds years ago, fodder for a bulldozer if anything were ever to replace it. So a fellow named Bird came by one day with a few brushes and some cans of paint and put two…
Ondine
Colin Farrell is Syracuse, an Irish fisherman and recovering alcoholic divorced from his wife and struggling to remain connected to his precocious but sickly 10-year-old daughter, Annie (played by the terrific Alison Barry). One day, Syracuse discovers a gorgeous, barely conscious young woman (Alicja Bachleda) in fishing net. Is she a selkie (half-seal, half-woman)? Or…
Metro Retro
25 years ago in Metro Times: In an aptly named article "More ramblings about cats," Garaud MacTaggart writes almost anything anybody could ever want to know about owning a cat. The article has an almost eerie predictive quality, since it contains photos of cats accompanied by cute captions. Although "Why is somebody always sticking a…
Solitary Man
In Solitary Man, Michael Douglas plays Ben Kalman, a reduction of his most famous characters, like Gordon Gecko, a vain, one-time hot shot laid low by the vicissitudes of time, and mostly by his own epic failings. In his glory days, Ben billed himself as “New York’s honest car dealer,” then stopped believing his own…
Daddy issues
Q: I am a married white guy in my 50s. My wife and I do some role-playing where I am "Ted," her real-life father. In her script, I yell at my "bad daughter" (my wife) over some infraction and send her to her room. Later on, I sneak in and tell her that she could…
Ethiopia to go
At dinnertime, there’s just one way to order: the all-you-can-eat meat-and-vegetable platter for $16.90 per person or the vegetarian platter for $14.90. Patrons of the Blue Nile, Taste of Ethiopia or Windsor’s Marathon are familiar with the routine: Little heaps of fabulous dishes are placed on a giant circle of spongy injera bread, which everyone…
Renaissance state
Lord knows that Detroit has its share of struggles. But a resurgence of activism, hometown pride and some DIY ‘tude sees this place getting unified in many ways. And if the recent Allied Music Conference and U.S. Social Forum were any indication, you can feel it in the streets. Enter Monica Blaire and Roland "Ro…
Inner vision
When it comes to consistency within the male contemporary R&B realm, perhaps nobody delivers steady grooves as regularly as hometown crooner Dwele. The 32-year-old Grammy-nominated singer has a way of merging soul, jazzy production and hip hop better than almost anyone, which is why such artists as Kanye West and Slum Village continuously knock on…
Al Gore, a ‘sex poodle’?
Here’s what’s wrong with journalism in the Age of the Internet: Last week, reports surfaced that a 54-year-old masseuse claimed that Al Gore tried to rape her in a hotel room in Portland, Ore., nearly four years ago. Not last week, four years ago. What is this woman’s name? Well, she doesn’t want that made…
Recovery
With Recovery, Eminem adds to that sobering (sorry) roster of artists who, well, first of all, are capable of piloting their way back from substance abuse to tell the world about it in terms cryptic, cathartic and crystalline. The problem, if you want to call it that, is that Eminem has been the king of…
Detroit TV city
Trend alert: This is shaping up to be a very good year for beautiful young Dearborn women of Lebanese descent. In May, Rima Fakih, an Arab-American Muslim, was crowned Miss USA. Now, University of Michigan-Dearborn junior Sahar Dika has taken a break from college to star in the 24th season of the reality house party…
Twilight: Eclipse
This gooey stew of ham-fisted hormonal longing, supernatural soap operatics and bare-chested hunks is really just a trilogy dedicated to overwrought teenage indecision and abstinence. Of the three films so far, Eclispe is certainly the best in the series but … could the dialogue, plotting and characters be more turgid? Director David Slade makes a…
Food Stuff
Red, white & green? — Don’t have plans for Fourth of July weekend? Look no further than Dooley’s in Sterling Heights and Roseville. They’ll be open 6 p.m.-2 a.m. July 1-4, with burgers and dogs, giveaways and drink specials ($15 fish bowls). Drop in at 12414 Hall Rd., Sterling Heights (586-323-3501) or 32500 Gratiot Ave.,…
Meet the fellows
Under merciless fluorescents inside Detroit’s College for Creative Studies’ Center Gallery sits Detroit punk Timmy Vulgar, his Viking-red muttonchops connecting jawbones to a blond receder that’s sort of slicked back for the occasion. The untamed frontman is wearing blue jeans and a once-white T-shirt from a band (No Bunny) he’s probably shared a stage and…
Letters to the Editor
The Kids Are Alright Upon a recent visit to my favorite Thai restaurant, I noticed that it was packed and buzzing with mostly young people flashing their credit cards. It didn’t look like these were Tiger fans, so I asked a young lady what was going on and she told me it was the U.S.…
Scenes from the social forum
As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, and the quagmire in Afghanistan appears to grow more futile by the day, and the worldwide economic meltdown that began in 2008 lingers ominously, defenders of the status quo had a grand time last week snickering and sniping at folks who have the temerity to…
