Netropolis
So you’ve read our entire annual "Best of Detroit" issue and still want to know more about what to do and where to go? Don’t worry. In this high-tech, data-happy world of ours, we’ve all become information addicts. Allow me to ease your pain. What you really need is more info. That’s right. These days,…
Sporting life
BEST SLOGAN FOR THE LIONS We Suck! Hey, sports fans! How about them Lions! Oh, okay — Hey, masochistic sports fans! Forty-one years without a championship — the Lions’ quest of futility is old as the Edsel. Clever MT poll respondents have picked a succinct new Lions slogan: We suck! Even sparse Silverdome crowds could…
The ordeal of another trial
Finally, after much fanfare, Jack Kevorkian gets his latest wish — he goes on trial for murder next week. The smart money says he’s finally going down at last. Until now, I, too, thought this was the end of him, that the K was now engineering his own destruction and damaging the cause he had…
Urban life
TOP 10 THINGS TO DO WITH TIGER STADIUM 10. Burn it down 9. Use it for outdoor concerts 8. Homeless shelter 7. Little League baseball 6. Play Tigers games there 5. Singles bar 4. Turn it into lofts/condos 3. Fill it up with beer 2. Cover it with a glass dome and fill it with…
Pitch’d
MIAMI ADVICE As major label A&R folk look to the U.S. electronica scene once again for the next Stardusts and Fatboy Slims, many eyes will be on Detroit at the 1999 Winter Music Conference in Miami this week. The BPM world’s version of New Music Seminar, CMJ and South by Southwest music conferences all in…
Blowing a wad
BEST INDEPENDENT MEN’S CLOTHIER Showtime Clothing 16231 Mack, 313-886-6288; 5708 Woodward, 313-875-9280 Dan Tatarian is a good guy. But he doesn’t want you to know it. "This man has a kind heart," says D., a regular customer at Tatarian’s Showtime Clothing (and gifts and CDs). "He has a rough exterior, but a kind heart." Tatarian,…
Food Stuff
MIDDLE EAST FEAST Definitively decide on the best Middle Eastern restaurant in metro Detroit. At first, I leaped at the chance. It soon became clear, however, that the way was fraught with peril. I couldn’t visit them all in a reasonable time. Should I try the well-known places or look for that storefront gem that…
The Corruptor
“You don’t change Chinatown. Chinatown changes you,” detective Nick Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) of NYPD’s Asian Gang Unit tells his idealistic partner, Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg), as he’s trying to keep him alive during violent exchanges between the Tongs and the Fukienese Dragons. But the unexpected presence of a white cop in Chinatown is just a…
Witness this, Mayor
In what her attorney predicts will be an "explosive" case, former radio talk show host Robin Hardin has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit that lists Mayor Dennis Archer and several prominent members of his administration as potential witnesses. A spokesperson for Archer says the allegations involving the administration are baseless and doomed to fizzle. Hardin…
The Deep End of the Ocean
The Deep End of the Ocean takes a surprisingly low-key approach to a subject that stirs powerful emotions and is ripe for television movie-of-the-week exploitation: the disappearance of a child. As milk cartons with mug shots have replaced milkman-delivered glass bottles, the primary American fear has changed as well. Instead of the Cold War and…
Higher education, striking lesson
Last week, as Wayne State University graduate assistants continued negotiating for their first union contract, the University of Michigan graduate assistants who helped them organize staged an effective walkout, threatened to strike and won a tentative contract. Is there a lesson in this for the Wayne grad students? Days before a tentative agreement was reached…
The Rage: Carrie 2
The truth is that, after the uncanny success of Brian DePalma’s Carrie, this sequel — and its uninspired title — sounded like a really bad idea. After all, who can forget the ethereal Sissy Spacek drenched in blood in the middle of the stage; the bewildered look on her face; the quiet fury gathering —…
Prof’s sworn statement
An English professor suspended from Macomb Community College for classroom cussing has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing college and faculty union officials of conspiring to destroy his teaching career and violate his civil rights. Professor John Bonnell, who has been suspended indefinitely with pay since Feb. 4, says he has used profanity in…
The Saltmen of Tibet
The Saltmen of Tibet opens with an Asian woman singing. We don’t know who she is and though the song is translated in subtitles, its meaning is obscure. It’s a song that seems crammed with kings and gods, strange names and places, heroic deeds. The woman appears to be in a trance. Each line of…
Triumph with strings
Back in 1975, the members of the Takács Quartet were students at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy and banded together under the leadership of Gabor Takács-Nagy to form what would soon become one of the top performing string quartets in the world. With the intense violin artistry of Takács-Nagy leading the way, the group recorded some…
La Séparation
Director Christian Vincent’s La Séparation treats the breakup of a relationship with the muted meticulousness of a very civilized sensibility. With the stately opening of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on the soundtrack, a color palette which tends toward the darkening end of the spectrum and two central actors who seem to do most of their emoting…
Whose disaster?
"A human catastrophe" is how Denis Halliday sums up the policy toward Iraq that he saw firsthand as a United Nations relief administrator stationed there. Besides delivering a crippling and humiliating defeat to the Iraqi army during the short, furious 1991 Gulf War, the bombing campaign by the United States and its allies devastated the…
Paul Bowles: Migrations
Most people familiar with Paul Bowles, born on Long Island in 1910, know him through his short stories and novels — The Sheltering Sky, Let It Come Down, The Spider’s House — or through the Bernardo Bertolucci movie version of The Sheltering Sky. Relatively few are acquainted with his music or even know that he…
Approach the bar
BEST NO COVER BAR Wayne: Majestic Garden Bowl 4140 Woodward, Detroit, 313-833-9700 Oakland: Dick O’Dow’s 160 W. Maple, Birmingham, 248-642-1135 This supposedly authentic Irish pub smack-dab in the middle of Birmingham is replete with a fireplace, funny little stools on which to squat and sip your Guinness or Harp, and some wacky Stonehenge-style Gaelic rock…
RECOMBINANT REVISIONISM
"Postpunk" is a pretty wobbly term and the liner notes to this 3-CD compilation don’t quite nail it down. Taking the positive progress approach to musical history, we’re told how punk nearly obliterated "the tyranny of musical technique" and created "a nearly classless underground" in which postpunk could flourish. Which doesn’t explain why most of…
Professional Loafing
BEST ALTERNATIVE MOVIE HOUSE Main Art Theatre – Main Street and 11 Mile, Royal Oak, 248-542-0180 Not all that long ago, downtown Royal Oak’s Main Art Theatre began making great movie viewing available daily to a large, appreciative audience in metro Detroit. It was taking a cue from the pioneering Detroit Film Theatre at the…
Protest a-go-go
Along with 60s singers such as Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary, Tom Paxton is a classic representative of the mainstream folk movement. A Greenwich Village troubadour influenced by heartfelt American songwriters including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton wrote timeless love songs, politically minded protest songs and even successful children’s songs. While…
Best of Detroit 1999
You said it. And said it again. And again. Metro Times readers know how to fill out a ballot, and fill it out well. You made sure your opinions got here on time and in your best handwriting, all ready to stand up and be counted. The tireless Best of Detroit counting team worked late…
Babybeats
With up a tree — the debut album that followed the very loop and doodle Sub Pop 7 inch, "Impossible Things" — Stuart David from the underground pop sensation Belle & Sebastian is the first to make a break from the mother band to explore beatspeak. If Arab Strap is the "A" of beatspeak and…
Media blitz
BEST SENSATIONALISTIC TOPICS FOR FOX 2 NEWS TO TACKLE NEXT • Necklines plunge as local anchors fall victim to stalkers! • Composting with beauty salon cut-hair waste! • Bad hair days — what to do when they happen to you! • Weather patio: It’s raining outside! • The closets of our competitors’ anchors: Sex lives!…
The Complete Trix Recordings
When it comes to blues cats like Robert Lockwood Jr., there really isn’t much to tell you except to pay homage, pay attention and pay up. Buy anything and everything with the man’s name on it. That includes this 2-CD collection, which represents most of Lockwood’s studio work from the 1970s. Fetzer Mills Jr. says…
Deeply rooted
With an MO that covers nearly all aspects of hip-hop culture, The Roots reset the standard for hip-hop excellence….
Stuffing your face
BEST BAKERY: Wayne: Avalon International Breads 422 W. Willis, Detroit, 313-832-0008 Oakland: Hagelstein’s 800 S. Washington, Royal Oak, 248-541-0566 Macomb: Sweetheart Bakery 15381 Hall, Macomb Twp., 810-247-9950 Washtenaw: Zingerman’s 422 Detroit, Ann Arbor, 734-663-5282 BEST DELI: Wayne: McNally’s 1300 Porter, Detroit, 313-963-8833 It’s probably not just the 49 sandwiches named after Detroit institutions (Father…
Jean Marie Leclaire
Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764), like many of his French contemporaries, became enamored of the Italian style of playing and writing best exemplified by the work of Archangelo Corelli. With its emphasis on florid technique and intriguing harmonies, the Italian model was also responsible for giving the violin a more prominent role in French music than it…
Gilt-y Pleasures
Spangles. Sparkles, glitter and glitz. Somewhere under the small mountain of gold and silver lamé and shiny spandex is the Lizard of Fun, cackling with fabric-inspired lust. I slip on my sunglasses and check the calendar. Yup, this is the Metro Times Best of Detroit issue. Oscar night is just around the corner. "Whaddaya think?"…
Best of the Metro Times
BEST SPECIAL ISSUE Best of Detroit BEST COLUMNIST Jack Lessenberry BEST WRITER Chris Handyside Thank you for calling me the best writer. I thank you for that. I like writing a lot. I like writing a lot because I get to tell stories. I like to tell stories about people. I like most to tell…
Turkish Classical
The term "classical music" should embrace more than the standard western icons of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, but most Americans don’t think about the musical styles of other cultures as having a history and, thus, a classical tradition. Turkey, like much of the Islamic world, has its own musical backdrop, one that has evolved from…
Dubious achievement
The Oscars on Sunday may actually be suspenseful, what with no Titanic juggernaut threatening to sweep the awards. But one honor that won’t be surprising is the Lifetime Achievement Award, whose recipient is announced well in advance. It’s usually a mawkish affair, with a standing ovation, laurels galore and virtual canonization bestowed on some fossil…
Romance
Best Place to Meet Mr./Ms. Right At church Best Place to Meet Mr./Ms. Wrong A bar Our readers have proven themselves to be intelligent, sensible and in good taste by voting (cue the shrieking) bars as the best place to meet Mr./Ms.Wrong. Despite what’s often said, people are ugly after 2 a.m. Instead of wasting…
