BIG BLOCK!
From the shoulda/coulda/woulda dept: The band Big Block shoulda happened back in the ’90s, everyone who remembers says so. The label weasels wooed, fans cooed and other bands booed but the quartet remained a local, fleeting institution. Nothing more. Of course it was nothing more. How often are the deserving rewarded? Huh? And if ever there’s been…
KK’s next gig: Pastor? Rapper?
A satirical look at Kilpatrick’s future employment opportunities.
10,000 B.C.
The prehistoric visuals are lush, but trouble begins as soon as actors speak. A half-asleep Omar Sharif narrates the fractured yarn, which details a buff young buck named D’leh (Steven Strait) keen to steal his tribe’s title of top mammoth hunter from an all-mighty warrior named Tic Tic. He needs the mighty “White Spear” to…
Hillary Rodham Nixon
Yes, Tricky Dick has a disciple — someone just as ruthless and unlikable.
The Bank Job
Terry (Jason Statham) is an auto repair shop owner over his head in mob debt. No stranger to smash-and-grab type crimes, he’s lured into a bank robbery scheme by sexy old friend, Martine (the impossibly angular Saffron Burrows). What Terry doesn’t know is that she’s been strong-armed into working for MI-5 by her lover (Richard…
Copycat fight
With revenue projections quadrupling those in previous years and updated equipment improving the quality of its work, the Wayne County Copy Center seemed poised for a glossy 2008. The glass-fronted center is located in newly renovated space in the basement of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center conveniently near the elevators. It’s been marketing itself…
They called it rock
British Sea Power’s last album, Open Season, benefited from brevity and focus. Between its wintry feel and frontman Yan’s melancholy-tinged lyrics, this was pop music that celebrated looking out your window and contemplating the meaning of life. By comparison, Do You Like Rock Music? — the band’s third album — is the sound of hurtling…
Mother of invention
Series interrupted. Screenwriters reeling. Ratings sagging. If ever TV looked like it could use a shrink, it’s now. And what luck, it has one. Are you addicted yet? Open five nights a week, In Treatment is the latest break-all-rules experiment from the programming wizards at HBO. The therapist is Gabriel Byrne, of all people, and…
Nanking
Four years before Pearl Harbor, Japan was already flexing its military muscle, invading China and seizing its capital, Nanking. In the six horrific weeks that bridged 1937 and 1938, Japanese soldiers systematically looted, massacred, and raped an innocent population, killing nearly 200,000 civilians and committing upward of 20,000 sexual assaults. The filmmakers have used a…
On guard
Arron Afflalo steps quickly backward, shifting side to side as his opponent dribbles up court. As he senses the ball handler gearing up to make his move, Afflalo’s hand snakes out and strikes the ball away to his teammate Rodney Stuckey. Stuckey dribbles on the run as he scans the defense. He cuts toward the…
Behind the legend
Bagger Dave’s, which seats 108, is more a full-service restaurant than its fast-food, drive-in and take-away competitors. That said, Dave’s burgers, fries and sandwiches are often delivered to the table wrapped in paper bags. (That’s where bagger comes from.) Unlike most burger joints, you can purchase bottled beer ($3.50-$4.75) and wine ($5-$6.50) by the pour…
Subtext: Beauty
A gallery can seem like a fixed, static space. Works are chosen and placed under light, waiting in stillness and silence for the crowds. On opening night, art critics filter in with the public and churn out 500 words or so explaining why people should or shouldn’t like whatever hangs on the wall, sits on…
My Brother’s Wedding
The theatrical releases of Killer of Sheep (1977) and My Brother’s Wedding (1983) transformed Charles Burnett from elusive legend to tangible influence. His intimate tales of life in South Central Los Angeles have influenced indie filmmakers with their verisimilitude and heartfelt specificity. In this film, the Mundys are focused on the upcoming nuptials of their…
Motor City Rides
Diminutive Alex Winston’s 2006 Ford E350 van makes her ‘that badass in the big truck.’
Richter: The Enigma
Notoriously private, pianist Sviatoslav Richter spent his entire life shunning cameras and reporters only to finally agree to be interviewed near the end of his life. Through most of Bruno Monsaingeon’s documentary, the Russian pianist jokes, talks about his life, comments on contemporaries and discusses years of performance with only a hint of self-loathing. Like…
Letters to the Editor
Still hopeful Regarding “Just go” (Metro Times, Feb. 27), I’m just a parent of three kids who cares about what’s happening in the city of Detroit. I’ve lived here all my life. And it has been hard to tell my kids that they should do what’s right, go to school, be honest, while seeing this…
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Miss Pettigrew tries mightily to capture a moment, not just in the life of woman whose small world is spiraling out of control, but of a nation on the precipice of World War II. The result is all froth and no substance, though. Adopting a British accent and a priggish, deferential demeanor, Frances McDormand (Fargo,…
Super duper site
Web project tries to bring transparency to super delegates.
Couch Trip
Jean-Luc Godard 3-Disc Collector’s Edition Lions Gate Jean-Luc Godard’s career trajectory is like Bob Dylan’s. Both had a string of indisputable masterpieces in the 1960s and a couple in the ’70s. Then they got all weird on us and tumbled from their Critic’s Darling pedestals. And they’ve both seen resurgences lately, Dylan with his last…
Blowout bonanza!
OK, 230-plus bands later, we’re exhausted. That is, words fail us. But they say a photo is worth a certain number of words (we forget how many; too damn tired), so take a gander at some of the spectacular shots presented here. Keep in mind that — from the topical rap of BlackReign & Ohkang…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Platters that matter and leave you in tatters.
Food Stuff
Fun plates for local foodies.
Out the hard way
The trouble with being gay and open.
D.C. showdown
Conyers: ‘We will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress.’
An open letter to Martin Lawrence
At 42, he’s hitting career lows it took Chevy Chase decades to sink to.
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Pod people
It’s one of those deep-of-winter snowstorms. There may be a chill in the air, but Longview Sound studio in Rochester Hills — where three-quarters of the team behind the Internet show called Detroit Jazz Stage are working — proves to be an extremely warm and welcoming environment. The studio is owned and operated by Mark…
The mayor who cried lynch mob
OK, we confess that we were starting to doze off toward the end of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s State of the City address Tuesday night. Much like he did when he came from the bunker to address City Council last month, the mayor seemed to be working from the basic political PR guidebook: Hit a single…
Across the board
Silvio Cunha Pereira rests his forearms on the wobbly brown table and squints at the plastic blue-and-white chessboard in front of him. The clock is ticking. Five seconds. Four. Three. Whiffs of fresh McDonald’s french fries float through the Wayne State University Student Center. Behind Pereira, college students hurry past, their heels clicking on the…
Cinnamon Girl – Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity
This two-CD collection of Neil Young covers benefits Casting for Recovery, a national nonprofit and support and educational program for women who have or have had breast cancer. The covered tunes are the usual suspects: “Ohio” (twice), “Heart of Gold,” “Helpless,” “The Needle and the Damage Done,” “Like A Hurricane,” etc. After all, Young’s catalog…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 12 Leila Haddad: Gypsy Dances from Rajasthan to the Nile ALONG THE LONG ROAD Fun fact: Gypsies originated in northern India, and migrated westward through the Balkans to Europe and the Middle East. Along with language and customs, their dance forms evolved over the centuries — for instance, Spanish gypsies are known for…
Righteous wail
In the early ’60s, Albert Ayler went from being a nobody expatriate saxophonist to a jazz-world sensation. In 1970, his body was found floating in the East River. In the brief in-between he challenged conventions of musical beauty and order. Now first-time Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collins has stitched together the scant film and video of…
