Cover Story
The Books Issue 2012
Our staff gets all literary on you. Well, not too literary. We have an excerpt from Mitch Ryder’s autobiography, young adult lit about going back in time, poetry inspired by Belle Isle, nonfiction chronicling the life of trailblazing Detroit lawyer Ernie Goodman, a local comics roundup, even pulp fiction from the mean streets of Ferndale…
Detroit Music. A Photographic Retrospective
Doug Coombe told me that the Detroit music scene keeps on reinventing itself. Sure, certain bands or artists seem to hang around, continuing to sing and slug and strum it out for years on end, but in the grander scope, one can detect nuanced waves, preciously fleeting moments of musical collaborations and creative collectives developing…
City Slang: Black Dahlia Murder to tour Canada and finish in Detroit
The Black Dahlia Murder will continue the North American tour by hitting much of Canada through May, before finishing off at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit on June 2. Joining them on the Canadian Ritual Tour will be Exhumed and the gloriously named Fuck the Facts. According to a press release, “The Black Dahlia Murder have…
City Slang: Mosaic Youth Theater revives Now That I Can Dance
On Friday, May 11, the Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit will conclude its 20th Celebration season by reviving the musical Now That I Can Dance – Motown 1962. The show will run for two consecutive weekends from May 11th thru May 20th at the Detroit Film Theatre at the DIA. According to the press release,…
Time of the Season – Samuel Seed’s Sounds
Samuel Seed worries that it may be the wrong season for both of these records, but I think they’ll be able to transcend… Whether these are overtly autumnal, wispy drifters he’s cooing out on New Love Ln -it shouldn’t affect any of us, really, as we’ve all slowly grown used to an evermore disorienting shift of…
City Slang: Kem video online now
The video for Detroit’s Grammy-nominated Motown star Kem’s new single “You’re On My Mind” is online now, and can be viewed here. According to the press release, “In his “You’re On My Mind” video, KEM stars as a man who has suffered a recent relationship breakup. After being alone in his house for some time…
Two Weeks Notice… Of Mice & Musicians
Bottles & Bones – (4.7.12 // 4.21.12) Of Mice and Musicians’s 2nd album Bottles and Bones comes out in a couple weeks on Five30 Music: … A bassist setting funky grooves, an R&B-ready crooner, an experimental post-rock-leaning drummer, two new school rappers up front, a turntablist splashing in scratches and auxiliary samples at the fringes and a guitarist scorching out an amalgam of spacey…
MOBiLOGIX
The hip-hop marketplace…a beat-spilled bazaar…MOBiLOGIX pitch 13 tents’ worth of tracks featuring an assorted sampling of rap styles to any listener who meets them at their MRKT… …(or whoever meets them at the Park Bar, for that matter). Mobil Home (“brand new breed of an ill-Emcee…”) leads the way with his impassioned raps, augmented by the…
City Slang: OurStage offers bands the chance to play Warped
Top digital music destination for unsigned bands OurStage.com is offering bands the chance to play the Warped Tour, which hits the Palace of Auburn Hills on June 6. One new band will be taken out to play all 22 dates of the tour, while 22 more bands will be selected to play at their own…
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games B+ As teen-minded literature turned into teen-minded cinema goes, it’s easy to get suckered into thinking The Hunger Games is deeper and richer than it is. Set in a dystopian future, this clever mash-up of Battle Royale, The Running Man and Stephen King’s novella The Long Walk has enough white-knuckle suspense, adrenalized…
Ex-Wayne County prosecutor disbarred for allowing perjury
Karen Plants, a former Wayne County assistant prosecutor, has been disbarred for the role she played in allowing a jury to hear perjured testimony in a 2005 cocaine trafficking case. Plants originally had her license to practice law suspended for two years by the Attorney Discipline Board following her conviction last year in Wayne County…
Bridge officials no longer in contempt, judge rules
With completion of the controversial Gateway Project now in the hands of the Michigan Department of Transportation, there is no longer any reason to hold Manuel “Matty” Moroun and other officials of the Detroit International Bridge Co. in contempt of court, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Prentis Edwards ruled today. But that doesn’t mean years…
City Slang: The Philter get trashed
Got to admit, I wasn’t familiar with the Philter before venturing over the the New Dodge on Wednesday night for the monthly Trash night, but I won’t be forgetting them in a hurry. While vendors were selling rock ’n’ roll garage sale wares around the pool table, while the Wings were losing to New York…
In Darkness
In Darkness B- It may seem uncharitable to label a Holocaust film as overly melodramatic, since the catalog of that era’s real horrors seems endless, but the Oscar-nominated In Darkness (it lost to A Separation from Iran for Best Foreign Film) hurls all manner of depravity, degradation and sorrows at the screen, until things start…
Albom worse than Daisey? Ranking the fabulists.
The recent hoopla over Mike Daisey’s anti-Apple, off-Broadway, one-man show and This American Life’s program-long mea culpa for presenting it as journalism has reanimated the question of veracity in the media. Who gets to make up stuff? Slate takes a stab today at charting degrees of transgression as a function of profession, from fantasy writers…
City Slang: Hounds Below on Carson Daly Wednesday night
The Hounds Below will be on NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly tonight (Wednesday night/Thursday morning), on the show broadcast at 1:35 a.m. EST. That is definitely worth setting the DVR up for. No doubt, Jason and the boys will do Detroit proud. Other guests are Chef Paul Qui and Roll the Tanks. Hmmmm. Click…
City Slang: “Pop O.D.” revisited
Tribute albums can often be a ropey affair. All too often, they are packed with dour, inferior and tired, straight cover versions of songs that, no matter how you look at it, are far better in their original form. It has long been my opinion that the only way to go at a cover is…
Think: Pupils – the Entity
I want you to think very hard about this article ~ This interview with Pupils covers a lot of ground: from Sumerian mythology, to mathematically-inspired esoteric literary movements, to the Ghostbusters. And, finally, to how their inspiration is really to stimulate the audiences’ brain into questioning how they, how you, anyone – think…how you think…
A lawyer’s legacy
The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights by Steve Babson, Dave Riddle and David Elsila Wayne State University Press, $24.95, 558 pp. "I’m partial to Mark Twain’s understanding that history doesn’t repeat itself; at most it sometimes rhymes," Steve Babson said to start out when he…
Crank on local comics creators
Don’t Forget Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, May 5th 2012! DAGON GN 3 Stars Riffing: Nightmarish boat ride to the end of the world. Paranoia, claustrophobia and feelings of impending doom created by the experienced brushwork of a local metalhead. Reference points: Imagine H.P. Lovecraft channeled by Mad magazine’s Jack Davis. Mark Rudolph…
Teen spirits
Lost in the ’90s by Frank Anthony Polito Woodward Avenue Books, 284 pp. It’s April 7, 2012, and 18 years after the death of "The King of Grunge" was announced, it "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Get Lost in the ’90s, as a time warp overtakes "Hazeltucky High" and a stage-dive gone awry catapults young…
Guyette wins Wade McCree Jr. award
Sweet salutations! The Metro Times is pleased to announce that news editor Curt Guyette is a recipient of the Michigan Bar Association’s Wade H. McCree Jr. Award for the Advancement of Justice. Guyette is being honored for his cover story “Circle of lies,” which takes an in-depth look at a Wayne County case involving a…
Get that paper
Donald Goines Dopefiend "Goines’ books inspired me when I was younger, because I used to sneak and read them on my father’s bookshelf. His stories were urban, and he wrote from the heart. I didn’t realize that you could just write, like, whatever you felt. It was amazing: This guy just opened up his heart…
The Forgiveness of Blood
The Forgiveness of Blood Directed by Joshua Marston. Written by Marston and Andamion Murataj. Starring Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, Refet Abazi, Zana Hasaj. Running time: 109 minutes. Not rated. B Rural Albania, at least as presented in Joshua Marston’s quietly intense drama, does not appear to be a very inviting place. Oh, sure: The land…
Terry Blackhawk’s latest book of poetry
The founding director of the acclaimed InsideOut Literary Arts Project, which puts professional writers in school classrooms, Terry Blackhawk has received numerous awards for her poetry, including John Ciardi and Pablo Neruda prizes. The Light Between, her sixth collection of poetry, wends from Belle Isle to a gingko stand in Hiroshima, imagines figures from Medea…
Birmingham’s Townhouse Bistro has comfort class …
Townhouse 180 Pierce St., Birmingham 248-792-5241 townhousebistro.com Handicap accessible Prices: $15-$45 Townhouse is open 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday-Sunday. There’s a well-known scene in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta questions Uma Thurman about her $5 milkshake. When it arrives, he swipes it from her so he can grasp why milk and…
Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie D They say comedy is subjective, but watching the mirthless antics of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim for 90 minutes is like subjecting oneself to unnecessary punishment. To endure it is akin to humoring your depressed middle-aged friend when he enrolls in an improv class and then uncomfortably shifting…
Vote for good guys on transit
As our friends over at the nonprofit group Transit Riders United point out, 2011 was a bumpy year in terms of Southeast Michigan’s public transit picture. "The past year has been characterized by major shifts in the transit landscape in southeast Michigan, ranging from substantial reductions in bus service to promising new discussions about regional…
Food Stuff
Sustainable foodways Fans of soup, rejoice. There’s one more choice in town, with the introduction of Farm to Ladle, a "soup cooperative and catering company." They’re aiming high, going for seasonality, saying, "If it’s growing in the ground today, you will see it in our stock pots tomorrow." They declare that their ingredients will be…
Vote here
Vote here News Hits wanted to remind our readers that Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano remains in office. Which means that you still have the opportunity to win a "Detroit Hustles Harder" T-shirt by predicting the date and time of his departure in our Ficano Exit Poll contest. Along with the when, we’re also asking…
Drug War’s dangerous side effects
This is an ugly story. It’s tragic and damning of the War on Drugs. The story seems like the plot of a television detective series such as The Closer or Law and Order but it is sadly a true tale of law and disorder. Michelle "Shelley" Hilliard went missing in the early hours of Oct.…
Street lit meets sci-fi
Drug Lords by E. Scrill Street Ink Publications, $15, 200 pp. The genre known as "urban fiction" — aka "street fiction" or "ghetto fiction" — gets little critical scrutiny. Only now are the genre’s pioneers, such as Donald Goines, getting a more serious look. The gritty stories of pimps, drug dealers and hoods have…
Punk ‘n’ disorderly
It took two minutes of the band’s set at this year’s Blowout to decide that the Real Spicolis are my new favorite band. Or, at least, my favorite new band. The band’s tortured punk blues was a joyous noise both raw and pissed, and the band was suitably naked, but for boxers and socks. How…
The Shins – Point of Morrow (Aural Apothecary/Columbia)
These alleged Shins — only chief architect and egotist James Mercer remains of the group that restored faith in lean guitar pop with 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow — are tailor-made for a Garden State revision, replacing the leads with surly golfers and the line "the Shins will change your life" with "the Shins will sound…
F-ing terrible
When it comes to open government, Michigan is failing, big-time. That’s the assessment reached by something called the State Integrity Investigation, a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. An investigation of all 50 states found Michigan ranked a dismal 43rd overall. "The State Integrity Investigation is an unprecedented,…
Detroit: Running out of time
You’d have had a hard time finding a politician in Detroit last week with anything good to say about the proposed "consent agreement" the governor offered the mayor and City Council. "This proposal is a passive-aggressive power grab," state Rep. Shanelle Jackson proclaimed. Jackson, who is now trying for a Democratic nomination for Congress, added…
Still rolling the Dice
A little more than 20 years ago, it seemed you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone do an Andrew Dice Clay impression. The foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, pompadoured self-proclaimed "Brooklyn bad boy" had scrapped and fought his way from small, dingy comedy clubs to become the most popular comedian in America — and the most controversial. While…
Broken home
There once was an old woman who lived alone in a house. One winter day, her niece stopped by to take her to church, and when she got inside she found that her aunt’s furnace was broken. It was almost as cold inside as it was outside. "I took her hand to try to help…
Coming out kinky in the Ivy League
Q: I was recently advised to begin reading your column by my therapist. I am a 21-year-old male and a senior at an Ivy League school. Despite my academic success, I’ve battled a lot of stuff in the past few years: anxiety, depression, substance abuse and porn addiction. It’s quite a load of shit to…
Skin Treatment
Pupils singer Steve Puwalski points out that audiences tend to be happier once the pants come off. "It’s about letting go. The show is a microcosm wherein the rules are a little bit different." It’s true, anything can happen at a Pupils show. For example, at the last Metro Times Blowout, the combo wound up…
Meeting the Beatles, retreating to the Rockies
Devils and Blue Dresses: My Wild Ride as a Rock and Roll Legend is Detroiter Mitch Ryder’s account of his roller-coaster life of incredible highs — does it get better than headlining for an opening lineup of the Who, Eric Clapton, and Smokey & the Miracles? — and crushing lows. The following excerpt takes place…
Letters to the Editor
The shame game I appreciated the leading News Hits column, concerning Sandra Fluke and Tracie McMillan ("Rush makes it personal," March 14). However, I take issue with the assertion that "neither is this a free speech issue." Rush Limbaugh’s comments were not merely "calculated to offend and inflame" but, as Fluke herself has acknowledged, it…
Ferndale potboiler
Crimes of Love by Donald Levin Poison Toe Press, $14, 284 pp. Another bit of pulp fiction in a local setting, author Donald Levin’s Crimes of Love is set north of Eight Mile Road — in Ferndale. Intended to be the first in a series of books starring fictional detective Martin Preuss, Crimes is…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Remember – if you send it, it will get reviewed. That’s the City Slang promise. It doesn’t matter what genre the music is – as long as it has a Metro Detroit connection, it’ll get in. Preferably, we’d like to concentrate on new releases but, while we’re getting warmed up here, feel free to send…
Best Of Detroit Poll 2012
Metro Times Best Of Detroit is back for the 2012 edition. So what’s in it for you? Plenty. Simply for filling out a ballot at Best Of Detroit 2012 poll or mailing in the paper ballot in this week’s Metro Times, we’ve got these prizes for random entries: • A pair of tickets to see…
