Classic construction
I — What is the festival? The 12th annual Great Lakes Music Festival consists of 20 concerts spread over 14 days (June 11-25). It’s a gem of the Midwest cultural scene, a chance to hear acclaimed musicians nail compositions by many of the usual suspects (Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven et al.) but also adventuresome enough…
Cut to the chase
As this is being written Monday, the Detroit City Council has just voted unanimously to override Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s veto of its spending plan for the next fiscal year. That in itself is beyond remarkable. For this council to act unanimously on deciding to take a potty break is practically unheard of. But for council…
Lords of Dogtown
Director Catherine Hardwicke and skater-turned-filmaker Stacy Peralta team up to tell the story of how a handful of slackers managed to turn skateboarding into a multimillion-dollar X-Games sport. The skate scenes and period detail may be spot-on, but when it comes to the characters, the film falls flat.
Steppin’ into the world of foot worship
Q: I’m a straight male foot fetishist and, like any other American male, I regularly Google my fetish. Last night I ran across a Web site promoting foot fetish parties in New York City: www.foot-worship-party.com. Have you heard of this event? Is it legit? Is it legal? For a guy with a foot fetish, it…
News hole
Michigan Department of Corrections officials have grown very touchy — at least when it comes to certain newspaper investigations of former corrections staff touching women prisoners. So touchy, it seems, that they won’t let any inmates — male or female, at any of the state’s 41 prisons and 10 low-level security camps — get their…
American Bellydancer
This attempt at a documentary is essentially an hour and a half long infomercial for a bellydance troupe started by Miles Copeland, former manager of The Police. The film seems to lack the presence of not only an outside eye and outside voice, but also an editor, and the memorable moments are few and far…
American Life in Poetry
The poet and novelist Marge Piercy has a gift for writing about nature. In this poem, springtime has a nearly overwhelming and contagious energy, capturing the action-filled drama of spring. More Than Enough The first lily of June opens its red mouth. All over the sand road where we walk multiflora rose climbs trees cascading…
Freep bleep
News Hits read with interest Monday the front-page comments of Carole Leigh Hutton, publisher and editor of the Detroit Free Press. Good ol’ C.L. informs us readers that, thanks to a new "state-of-the-art" printing facility shared by the News and Freep in Sterling Heights, readers will soon be enjoying "far more color, crisper printing and…
A man about town
There’s nothing happening here. Or at least, it sure can seem that way, given the sprawling nature of our community. One man has made it his mission to reverse this misconception, person by person. He keeps himself abreast of all cultural activities in the region, attending nearly every one of them, sometimes six in one…
Proactive
Fight flight — Those of you old enough to recall the Vietnam era may remember a notion floated at that time in the form of a question that asked, "What if they held a war and nobody showed up?" As the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan sink deeper into the mire, that question is gaining…
A month without art
Aug. 1 through Sept. 6, the Detroit Institute of Arts will be closed to the public for renovation. There are no financial reasons for closing, it’s simply to put a cushion in its ongoing renovation schedule. Pete Van Dyke, communications coordinator at the DIA, says, "There are certain things we can’t get done unless we…
Head Cheese
The Get Up Kids’ keyboardist James DeWees has had a quite a musical career. He spent his youth slaving over classical piano, and was once a drummer in scrotum-squishing metalcore pioneers Coalesce. Now, with Get Up’s singer Matt Pryor bailing after a decade of the Kids’ beaming punk-pop, DeWees will be devoting all his attention…
Schoenberg’s controlled chaos
If Beethoven can be considered rock ’n’ roll, than 20th century composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was punk rock. The Viennese composer was a non-conformist; his music defied traditional structural elements such as melody and harmony and his dissonant chords made people angry. He was also a guy so radical that he inspired his enemies. Even…
Letters to the Editor
Season of the snitch Re: "American showdown" (Metro Times cinema reviews, May 25), the star of High Noon, Will Kane (Gary Cooper), is portrayed as brave, honest, upstanding, certainly not a coward, addressing the townspeople about their duty to fight for their town. Gary didn’t learn much playing this role when he was called as…
Room to breathe
Never laugh at your own remarks, even if they’re funny. Don’t push your opinions on others. Never be too literal or too stubborn. Speak less rather than more. Always choose friends that make you look good. Never go to a party alone. Also, try not to go to museums and libraries alone. And if someone…
Comics
This Modern World Red Meat Comix
Pie and joy
You either love pie or you don’t. Invariably, there’s something shifty, unnatural or just plain wrong with those latter few. This is especially so when summer comes on and brings its true fruits and berries, not those nurtured in hothouses for durability and cosmetic appeal, or shipped halfway across the country, along the way losing…
New wings
Ginger Strand is a fabulous name for an author. Flight is a slightly less fabulous title for a debut novel. The pages of Flight are less fabulous still, but by no means thoughtless or poorly written, just a bit cramped, like traveling in economy with NBA players. Flight is the story of the Gruen family,…
Street fighter in the halls of Congress
John Conyers Jr. spends a lot of time on airplanes these days, dashing around the nation like an elegant old street fighter, trying to wake people up. He’s been fighting for a long time, for voting rights in the South; standing atop a car with a bullhorn to try and stop Detroiters from burning down…
TV party tonight!
The producers promoted it as the television show that’s also a cocktail party, but Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party, a live weekly New York public access program that ran from 1978-82, was better described by Parliament Funkadelic leader George Clinton as "anarchy Howdy Doody guerrilla TV." The soon-to-be released documentary TV Party is a must-have for…
Deco rated
Detroit has some of the best examples of art deco architecture in the world. At least that’s what Rebecca Binno Savage, author, historian, preservationist and president of the Detroit Area Art Deco Society, says. For those unfamiliar: Art deco architecture is characterized by buildings with prominent angles, splashes of color and the use of patterns…
Yo, Jack
Dear John,You got married today, eh? Good on ya, boyo, if true. Of course, one never knows. Neat little package of personal publicity on the eve of your record release. The sneaky "hack" leak on the Web site. Charming (in a "digitally-integrated viral marketing plan" way). I’d like to take this opportunity to pledge that…
Death or glory?
Bouncing back after three days (well, five days, counting two nights of pre-fest parties) of Fuse-In mayhem isn’t easy, even for, uh, "pro" scene-crashers like us. It’s all too much, to paraphrase our favorite Beatle. At Campus Martius, blocks away from where Detroit’s Memorial Day weekend electronic music festival was held at Hart Plaza, the…
Terrorhawk
Every Michigander — or at least the five Michiganders in Bear vs. Shark — will tell you it takes hefty portions of beer, campfire smoke and ATVs to write an impressive follow-up to 2003’s Right Now, You’re in Good Hands. The band wrote Terrorhawk secluded in a cabin in the Upper Peninsula — further disconnecting…
Media Blackout
At the tone, Bulova watch time is MB36! • TSAR — Band Girls Money (TVT) :: Led Zeppelin and Cheap Trick ("Everybody’s Fault But Mine") meet Rockpile and Mott The Hoople ("Superdeformed") in a fatal four-way! King, this one promises to be a hellacious slobber knocker, and it’s next! • Shawn Desman – Back For…
Mars Loves Venus
The Brunettes’ last LP was called Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks. Or, a perfect summary of what’s sickening about twee pop. Luckily the coed New Zealanders have a dark streak in their corn silk, and the dynamic between cynical and sweet really sells Mars Loves Venus. Jonathan Bree glowers like Jonathan Richman, and Heather Mansfield isn’t…
In The Flesh
The State Theatre was open for business on a sunny Memorial Day afternoon, and it smelled just like a baseball game. Troughs of roasting wienies crowded the lobby colonnade, and warm domestic splashed as fans jostled amicably in line. The mealy stench of Corn Nuts — familiar to patrons of ballparks everywhere — wafted through…
Motown Remixed
Motown Remixed takes its cue from the Verve Remixed series, where oldie classics get a new, beat-driven makeover from today’s dance floor finest. Difference is, of course, putting a funk beat under an old jazz standard is a no-lose situation; when it comes to Motown, these are funk classics. It ain’t broke so there ain’t…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to Steven Johnson’s book *Everything Bad Is Good for You*, TV is making us smarter. He says that shows are becoming increasingly complex in their portrayal of moral dilemmas, demanding that viewers stretch their mental capacities. I don’t necessarily buy his arguments, but I do think you’d be smart to…
Street hustle
Born blind, Robert Bradley has lived in music since he was a kid. Not lived with, but in it. The rhythm of the world around him beat in time with his heart, carrying him from his childhood home in Alabama, where he first discovered Elvis and Chuck Berry, to Detroit in 1966, just as race…
Weekly Fecal
If you think about it, Soundgarden wasn’t much more than a skinnier, younger Bad Company, and singer Chris Cornell is Paul Rodgers incarnate — the booming melodramatic croak, the omnipresent chest pubes, the swelling ego, the blatantly careerist strides, the affected arena moves, the preening homoeroticism, etc. And like Rodgers, Cornell suffers from Arena Rock…
In the key of D
By now you’ve probably heard the hubbub over Detroit’s new "theme song," "What It’s Like in the D," which debuted a few weeks ago at the Motor City Music Conference. Paid for by the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau (seems like a great use of extra cash when our city is in financial ruin,…
Peak experience
In Hollywood, they’re pitching his life. It’s a bio rich enough for a couple of pics. Jimmy Scott’s an archetypal soul singer, a guy who, a half-century ago, gave voice to yearning like no one before and showed the way for everyone after. He’s sung with Lionel Hampton and Lou Reed, appeared in David Lynch’s…
Tiny dancers
This documentary captures every heart-pounding, stomach-flipping, giggly, sweaty-palmed moment as a bunch of New York City 10-year-olds take on the world of competitive ballroom dancing. First-time filmmakers Marilyn Agrelo and Amy Sewell take an unabashedly hopeful look at a program that gives public school kids 10 weeks of concentrated dance instruction, then face off in…
Ivy league
Adam Schlesinger’s name may not instantly ring a bell, but you’ve no doubt come across his work on the radio or on the silver and small screens. Schlesinger is neither a forgotten one-hit wonder nor a pop superstar. He is, however, one of the lucky few who’ve made a successful living at music. Still, he…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 8 Dog and Puppy Beginner Obedience Classes ETC Put down that rolled-up newspaper and don’t even think about rubbing your puppy’s nose in the dooky — there’s a better way to handle the situation. Whether you have a new puppy or an older dog whose bad habits seem impossible to break, the Friends…
Cinderella Man
Russell Crowe and director Ron Howard team up again for this underdog boxing saga that’s in many ways better than their previous effort, the Oscar-winning biopic A Beautiful Mind. Simplistic yet undeniably effective, Cinderella Man tells a modest, rousing tale in an uncommonly understated style.
