Thoughts on Wrestlemania 23.
REALITY SHOW The WWE’s Wrestlemania is a brand that lives and breathes “It’s fake,” that old dismissal of professional wrestling, is still true of Vince McMahon’s WWE. Its wrestlers are outsized characters, the storylines are written with entertainment in mind, and the matches are meticulously choreographed set pieces, right down to that inevitable moment when…
Stone Cold, Wrestlemania, and mystery enemies.
I am transfixed by this photo. What is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin firing his submachine guns at? I think it’s terrorism. Or maybe a hot air balloon full of grinning puppies. Or maybe the Arcade Fire. Do you have any suggestions? Put ’em in the comments. Austin will be a guest referee at this weekend’s…
Adult.(s) only.
The word on the street after Adult.’s Blowout preparty performance boiled down to “Woah,” and the new album is no slouch either. Here’s a video-style taste from Thrill Jockey. Why Bother? is out now on Thrill. JTL Adult. “Punctuation Power: Thunderbirds are Now! and Adult. on quality, crap, and making an impression”
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You will soon uncover evidence that a seemingly innocuous hot dog vendor is actually creating an army of cyborgs in the sewer system under the streets. You will also make a citizen’s arrest of a grandmother who’s embezzling money from a children’s charity to support her gambling habit. APRIL FOOL! Your…
Art Bar
Even after getting accustomed to the small scale of Ann Mikolowski’s portraits at CCS, the mini landscape drawings in pen, pencil and watercolor on paper — in a related exhibition at Paul Kotula Projects — are a jolt to the eye. Though Mikolowski’s landscapes are mostly large and contemporary in style, they recall precious 19th…
Motor City Cribs
Trombonist John Rutherford calls English Village home.
American Life in Poetry
by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006 At some time many of us will have to make a last visit to a house where aged parents lived out their days. Here Marge Saiser beautifully compresses one such farewell. Where They Lived One last time I unlock the house where they lived and fought and…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Reign Over Me
After five years, Hollywood is finally venturing into the still-tender territory of 9/11 and its aftermath. Now that it’s gotten past the respectful historical dramatizations, the tragedy’s long-term implications are popping up in everything from intimate dramas to politically charged action films. Birmingham native Mike Binder, who has used the bruised interiors of difficult characters…
States of mind
Rushing to yoga class for a deep dose of serenity, which usually wears off on the drive home, is what many women do to center their hectic lives. Would you like to meet, in a way, a woman preternaturally centered, effortlessly grounded? You can at CCS’ Center Galleries, in the exhibit Ann Mikolowski: Two Ways…
Lady rumble!
Early in the morning on Saturday, Jan. 20, Hillary Clinton announces her bid for the presidency of the United States of America on her Web site, stating, “I’m in it, and I’m in it to win it.” Four subway stops and one transfer away from her New York City office (roughly a 38-minute commute), a…
Phat, black and cyclical
Their music is rarely, if ever, heard on local hip-hop radio. But underground Detroit emcees and producers Black Milk, Guilty Simpson and Phat Kat are doing something about that with new albums, a new tour and a continuing commitment to pay tribute to the late, great J Dilla. If the recently departed hometown luminary isn’t…
What are you afraid of?
We approached a range of metro Detroiters with some simple questions. What are you afraid of? What worries you? And are you willing to talk about it? This is what we found out. “I’m afraid my children will grow up to be pansies. We’re teaching kids today to fear everything. I’m afraid that fear…
Bully for nobody
Normally I am not in favor of violent behavior, there being far too much of it in today’s world. But I think it might be a useful educational experience if some very large human being were to grab a couple Michigan state representatives, namely, John Moolenaar and Jack Hoogendyk, twist their arms painfully behind their…
Kill or be killed
Harsh Times Weinstein Company No list of 2006’s most overlooked movies would be complete without Harsh Times, the cathartic and compulsively watchable directorial debut from Training Day screenwriter David Ayer. This gritty crime film vanished from cinemas in a blip, and with it Christian Bale’s best performance, maybe ever (even topping The Machinist). He is…
Blow below the belt?
Q: I am a recently married 30-year-old straight guy. My wife is great, and, in fact, I have a baby on the way. My relationship with my wife is a good one. We married for all the right reasons after a long “courtship.” My problem lies with my addiction, if you will, to receiving head…
Kids’ stuff
Three students from Friends School in Detroit gathered around a table: Alex Halladay, 13, an eighth-grader from Detroit: I’m afraid of heights, spiders and falling. I used to watch TV a lot and I’d see scary films where people are up high and like an elevator might fall or something weird so every time I…
Zach attack
In just a few hectic years the bearded face and unwieldy moniker of comedian Zach Galifianakis has appeared in such cinema classics as Bubble Boy and Corky Romano; on TV in Fox’s Tru Calling, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, his own VH1 series Late World with Zach, and lip synching in the memorable Fiona Apple video…
Buffed out
Ann Arbor’s Athletic Mic League has been holding down ace-deuce-style indie hip-hop since the mid 1990s, fitting easily into the J Dilla era with conscious, soulful rapping and inventive, R&B-flavored tracks. So why you haven’t heard more about them? After 12-plus years in the game, life caught up with them: kids, college … you know…
Over the border
With community activists and business people at his side, and with the Ambassador Bridge as a backdrop, state Rep. Steve Tobocman stood on a vacant lot in southwest Detroit last week to announce a plan he says will help boost area jobs and help revive Michigan’s flagging economy. The Detroit Democrat intends to introduce legislation…
Night and Day
Thursday-Friday • 29-30 Christopher Titus COMEDY Though his childhood played out like an episode of America’s Most Wanted, Christopher Titus used the absurdity of his family’s neglect, alcoholism and abuse to fashion a successful career. By forgoing the automatic-rifle-in-hand climb to the top of the bell tower — and using comedy as his release valve…
Bring on the bling
Hip-hop jeweler to appear in Detroit court.
Houses and headlines
Detroit’s cheap houses are national news.
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
If you’re in a band, there’s a compilation you should listen to if you’re interested in hearing how things used to be done — and done right. It’s on Epic Records and has the exhaustive title Tired of Waking Up Tired: The Best of the Diodes, the Original Recordings: 1977-1979. Now in the interest of…
Letters to the Editor
Renewed hope Thank you for the very timely article on the electricity production issues facing Michigan (“Power play,” Metro Times, March 21). As a member of the Ann Arbor Energy Commission and a longtime advocate of renewables, I feel that this is a very important topic that needs as much press as it can get.…
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Tavern on the lean
Diners are permitted them to build their own burger of beef, turkey or veggie with a dazzling array of choices. You can have your patty in a traditional bun or in a bowl with greenery and add one cheese from 10 options that include feta and horseradish cheddar and four toppings from among 20 that…
Color Me Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick impersonator Alan Conway managed to pass himself off as the legendary director to dozens of gullible rubes in the late ’80s. As an imposter, he found that the merest application of charm and strategic name-dropping got him into doors he never could have opened himself. In the role of Conway, Malkovich is in…
Tears of the Black Tiger
This hyper-stylized, blood-soaked, campy Thai cowboy musical melodrama is director Wisit Sasanatieng’s insane parody-tribute to a bygone era of movie magic. An homage to old studio horse operas and more exotic Asian genre pictures most Westerners have never seen, the film is a lurid Technicolor fantasy that saturates the screen with hot pinks, foamy greens,…
Soured utopia
More chilling than many of the horror films coming out of Hollywood today, Stanley Nelson’s compassionate and disturbing documentary is a compelling examination of idealism, naiveté and megalo-maniacal zealotry. Using home movies, photographs, rare archival footage, newly discovered audiotapes and interviews with former members and survivors of the Jonestown massacre, Nelson presents a spellbinding account…
Shooter
Mark Wahlberg stars as Bob Lee Swagger, a reclusive marine sharpshooter who, after a mission gone wrong, retires to Wyoming to become a scraggly-bearded mountain man. Recruited by Danny Glover to show how he’d execute the commander-in-chief, Swagger deduces the best place and method only to (surprise) be set up. Wounded and pursued by the…
Pride
A film about an all-black championship swim team from the ghetto … you gotta admit, it’s not a storyline you’ve seen before. Based on the real-life triumphs of African-American swimming coach Jim Ellis, who founded the PDR swim team in one of Philadelphia’s most dilapidated inner-city neighborhoods in the 1970s, Pride is noteworthy in at…
The Last Mimzy
In case you were wondering, a “Mimzy” is some sort of advanced robotic messenger sent from the far future to record lost human emotions, cleverly disguised as a child’s fluffy stuffed bunny. Or something like that. This illegitimate cousin of The Velveteen Rabbit is at the mushy center of a peculiar kid’s pic that waffles…
The Namesake
There’s a great movie to be made about the huge cultural gulf between modern, first-generation Americans and their humble immigrant parents, but sadly, The Namesake isn’t it. Adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, Mira Nair’s film spans almost three decades, shuttles back and forth between Calcutta, New York and New England, and features a slew of…
