Cover Stories
RTA’s bylaws show a clear bias toward bus over rail
The legislation creating the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority (RTA) was created to represent Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties. Under the bill, the 10-member board representing the RTA would be tasked to oversee current transit operators across the four counties and develop a proposed 110-mile bus rapid transit (BRT) system. But a distinction in…
How Detroit ended up with the worst public transit
Jim Storm has an easier time than most. In the region that gave America a set of wheels, the Ferndale resident hasn’t owned a car in years, leaving behind the perpetual repairs, insurance payments and gas pumps for the bus — and for him, at least, it works. The thought of someone actually ditching his…
How the Nain Rouge cursed Detroit — with a party
Detroit, legend has it, was doomed from the start, ever since Antoine Cadillac pissed off a little red imp he encountered on a stroll. Ignoring the warnings of a fortuneteller, Cadillac attacked the creature, who then cursed Cadillac — and the city that would rise from the settlement he founded — with misfortune. Since then,…
Liberal dad can’t deal with son’s Pokémon fetish
Q: I am a liberal parent. I raised a daughter who is bi and poly. I always thought that I could accept anything that parenthood might throw at me. I knew that I could embrace my son if he were straight, gay, bi, trans, etc. If there is a controlling consciousness of the universe, it has…
Film Review: Le Week-End
Le Week-End | C+ There is really only one reason to go out of your way to catch Le Week-End: Jeff Goldblum. Seen far too seldom in Hollywood films anymore, the gangly yet graceful actor brings a uniquely manic intensity to his performances. With stammering, off-kilter line deliveries, dancing facial expressions and questions that seem…
Film Review: Need for Speed
Need for Speed | C Car culture hits the skids in this amusing but empty attempt to cash in on the megabucks generated by the Fast and the Furious franchise. Need for Speed bears the terrible burden of being based on a video game, but is not blessed with memorable or even vaguely familiar characters…
Film Review: Better Living Through Chemistry
Better Living Through Chemistry | C Go for the jugular or go home. In creating their suburban noir, writer-directors Geoff Moore and David Posamentier seem to understand that irony is the stock-in-trade of any good dark comedy. Casting Sam Rockwell is a good start. The actor can turn on a dime, charming audiences with…
El Dee debut ‘Endearment’
This is a fantastic time for Detroit music, because it’s capable of throwing up so many surprises. Especially in this modern era, when the city doesn’t really have a specific sound to champion, but rather an eclectic set of talented and driven musicians, many heading in completely different directions. Take El Dee. You’ve got a…
J. Dilla’s ‘Donuts’ subject of new book
J. Dilla’s Donuts By Jordan Ferguson Bloomsbury, 136 pp., $14.95 The 33 1/3 book series from Bloomsbury, which sees authors focus on the creation of specific albums, has produced some real gems, including Nicholas Rombes’ Ramones, Don McLeese’s Kick Out the Jams, and Joe Harvard’s The Velvet Underground and Nico. They’re often flawed, though, because…
Say hello to Brandon Moss
I’ve been lucky enough to play with some pretty awesome musicians over the last few years. I’m in a band called Bars of Gold, which is also another band called Wildcatting, when our singer isn’t singing. I’m also the human drum machine for Caveman Woodman, which is Frank Woodman’s busking project. It’s not as common, but I’ve also been playing…
New releases by Tunde Olaniran, The Singles and more
Tunde Olaniran Yung Archetype Quite Scientific There’s a whole lot to love about the latest from Flint’s Tunde Olaniran, an ambitious effort that at once mixes a scrappy, DIY aesthetic with slick, pop-yearning production. Beats gleefully oscillate between industrial on one song and “trap” on another. In just five songs, Olaniran tackles a gamut of…
Restaurant Review: New Hellas
New Hellas 32729 Northwestern Hwy., Farmington Hills 248-702-6999 Starters: $4-$16 Main courses: $10-$30 Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Sunday. New Hellas was always one of the foundational restaurants of Greektown. Sacrificed on the altar of casino development, the venerable source for traditional Greek food seemed lost, until the former Morels location on…
Dennis Barger of Taylor’s WonderWorld Comics
Dennis Barger has been running the Wonderworld Comics store in Taylor for nine years, and he’s also an organizer of the annual Detroit Fanfare Comic Convention. He’s appeared on reality TV shows like Comic Book Men, Hardcore Pawn and The Toy Hunter, and he was recently at the center of a national scandal when he…
John Collura of the Ataris
When the Ataris formed in the mid-’90s, they swiftly went on to become one of the buzz pop-punk bands on a pop-punk-heavy rock landscape. However, it was the release of the So Long, Astoria album in 2003 that saw them shift up a couple of gears and get serious radio play, thanks to a cover…
Casual Sweetheart
The ladies of Casual Sweetheart hadn’t even met before their first practice. Now, nothing could break them up. The members got together through an online feminist group, when Erin Norris of Ann Arbor posted that she wanted to start a band. “I just wanted to get out and play more,” Norris says. The posting drew…
Items for the seasonal food enthusiast
FOOD/THOUGHT Salad of the Day By Georgeann Brennan Williams-Sonoma, $22, 304 pp. Seasonal eating has come a long way over the last decade or so. The arguments in favor of the trend touch on health, the environment and more, but the best reason to eat seasonally, frankly, is that you’re getting your food at the…
Sausage-loving philanthropists square off
A Bunch of Brats — An inventive event is scheduled for next week. It’s called the inaugural Wurst Challenge, and it will feature sausage-loving philanthropists engaging in a little good old competitive eating for a good cause. The contestants, including Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber, will eat try to consume 20-foot bratwursts to benefit FLY Children’s…
Detroit area restaurants celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
Luck of the Irish — O’Meara’s Irish Restaurant has more than St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate. The Irish bar and restaurant is marking 20 years in business this year with a 10-month-long celebration of which this weekend’s party is just the kick-off. Find out what’s happening by dropping in at 2555 12 Mile Rd., Berkley,…
Sylvain Sylvain: New York Doll goes solo
Sylvain Sylvain might be best known for playing guitar with the New York Dolls, but he was last around these parts three years ago when he played Small’s with Batusis (alongside the Dead Boys’ Cheetah Chrome). Now he returns to play an acoustic set with another punk veteran — the Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock. It…
Readers react to ‘So You Want to be a Detroiter’
Detroiters speaking — and a note about coats Re: “So You Want to Be a Detroiter?” — Michael Jackman should take a bow for a truly superb, thought-provoking set of interviews. He identified interviewees worth hearing and coaxed out meaningful, important conversations. This package reads like a transcript from a forum I’m glad I “attended.” Who…
Mich. Republican urges action in carp crisis
When you look at President Obama’s proposed new budget, you’d never guess that Michigan has been one of his strongest bases of support, right from the start. Obama ran far ahead of his national averages here in both of his presidential elections, despite facing GOP candidates who, on paper, should have had a bigger advantage…
Lansing adds PTSD to medical marijuana qualifying conditions
The action was heavy in Lansing on the medical marijuana front last week — something good, something not so good, and something questionable. First the good: The state Medical Marihuana Review Panel met last week and voted 6-2 in favor of adding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to the list of qualifying conditions for medical…
Kevyn Orr to make rare public appearance at U-M
Straying from the usual exclusive visits to local editorial boards and radio stations, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr will make a rare public appearance later this month the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. And it’s free! Orr, 55, will deliver a lecture titled “The Future of Detroit Urban Governance” inside…
Schuette grasps at straws in Mich. gay marriage trial
News Hits HQ spent last week puzzled by the supernatural defense delivered by our Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office in the trial of DeBoer v Snyder. That momentous legal affair, which ended Thursday, brought Schuette and his team out to vociferously defend Michigan’s 2004 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Two lesbian nurses, April DeBoer and…
