N&D Center
1 THU • WINE TASTING O.C.C.’s 9th Annual Great Lakes Great Wine Tasting —Bring out the sommelier in you! As part of its annual celebration, Oakland Community College’s Culinary Studies program invites guests to choose from 500 different types of wines that have been entered in the Great Lakes Wine competition. Signature dishes will be…
Anthology: 50th Anniversary
Of all the classic music spotlighted in Standing in the Shadows of Motown, perhaps none is so indelibly associated with the film’s inspirational theme as that of the Four Tops. One electrifying moment comes when, during the concert segment, the Funk Brothers slide into one of history’s most famous song intros and, with Gerald Levert…
Hope Springs for Locals
Spring is here, and that means a lot of new music. Here are a few of the hundreds of homegrown talents attempting to put their stamp on music and the arts. Read on. Nothin’ II Lose Stage II Volume II NIIL Entertainment Maybe I’m not the right man to review this CD. Maybe I’ve…
Keep It Simple
I slipped this disc into the player as we were pulling out of Okemos. By the time we got to Webberville, about 20 miles down I-96, my wife had formed her opinion. “This sounds more like a pop record than a blues album,” she said. She nailed it. This is a new genre: Bluezak. It’s…
Woman of heart and mind
On the morning of the write-up/I was on my way to the darkest room in town/and my reputation was about to take a dive below the ground. I’m not a liar/I’m not a liar. —“The Write-Up” by Mascott When asked about the significance of these powerful words, songwriter Kendall Meade of Mascott replies plaintively, “I…
Prophecy
Just when you think that nothing could possibly be achieved in the field of heavy metal that hasn’t already been done to death decades ago, along comes an astonishing new album that single-handedly revitalizes the moribund old genre which, up until now, had absolutely nothing left to offer but rote riff repetitiveness. Ladies and gentlemen…
Free speech and shock jocks
What is the best part of screwing an 8-year-old? Hearing the pelvis crack. —Announcer, KUPD-FM radio, Tempe, Ariz. Voltaire, the witty 18th century celebrity intellectual, was famous for saying “I may not like what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.” That’s at the core of the freedom…
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Following in the crowd-separating “you either love them or they’re noise-shit” tradition of fellow New Yorkers Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground, Liars have quite possibly just pulled one over on everyone. They eliminated their once indispensable rhythm section and essentially disowned the songs on their brilliant debut They Threw Us All in a Trench…
Blood on the tracks
America’s government began shaming itself long before the ongoing, widely decried “war on terrorism” in Iraq. But instead of sacrificing its own soldiers and the occasional Iraqi civilian, back in 1932, the chosen lambs were Southern black men. What became vaguely — yet infamously — known as the Tuskegee Experiment was conducted by the U.S.…
Past is now
Security checkpoints. Bombs going off in busy cafes. These are not synopses from today’s news but rather the stuff of The Battle of Algiers. The 1965 film delivers a hyperactive, stark and poetic look at the revolt in the French colony of Algeria in the 1950s, and delivers a close-up look at the action in…
Manton’s back pages
What kind of man If you call him a man Ain’t never got a dime, But he’s always dressed to the nines He can never show respect With his two-faced intellect He’s got cream on his jeans From sucking up at the scene He will use you all And then throw you out in the…
The Ladykillers
The Ladykillers is Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of the 1955 film of the same name. Why are the Coens making remakes? This is pretty safe stuff, has a few chuckles in it, some soul-shaking gospel numbers and a nice look. But it’s just OK, and OK isn’t good enough for the Coen brothers.
Sex and violence at City Hall
The air was thick with estrogen and irony. Two city councilwomen nearly took off the gloves over legislation aimed at gals who take off their clothes. That’s so hot! The girls’ room smack talk between Detroit Councilwomen Sharon McPhail and Kay Everett last week made national TV news, but nearly lost in the whole imbroglio…
Never Die Alone
It took 30 years for deceased Detroit author Donald Goines to realize his dream — having one of his novels turned into a major Hollywood film. Never Die Alone stars rapper-turned-actor DMX and actor David Arquette. The tale of drug addiction, crime and prostitution is visually engrossing, largely due to its dim and grainy visuals.
Charge of the blight brigade
Motor City Blight Busters and the Detroit Project struck again, this time unleashing 2,000 pairs of hands on 80 designated sites throughout the city last Saturday in the fifth annual Detroit Project Day. Volunteers from Wayne State University, the University of Michigan and other groups boarded up four abandoned houses, tore down three abandoned garages,…
There Was A Father
For better or worse, appreciation of this latest entry in DFT’s ongoing Ozu retrospective is somewhat dependent on familiarity with the director’s oeuvre. Taken by itself, it seems like a fairly stilted soap opera with funereal pacing and long digressive scenes in which people exchange inconsequential small talk. But it’s Ozu, and that’s enough.
Unemployed get free ride
They looked like castoffs from “The Apprentice,” sick of hearing “You’re fired!” like millions of other Americans. Their stories make it easy to think that Donald Trump is the only guy in America who is hiring. The 51 Show Us the Jobs tour participants, one from each state and the District of Columbia, stopped at…
The Clay Bird
Set in East Pakistan in the late 1960s, the film takes place during the period when the Bengalis were attempting to overthrow their military government. The rebellion led to the creation of Bangladesh. The movie makes a direct grab for the heart, as the viewer sees what happens to a family caught up in religious…
Ill begotten
Sick and uninsured, in the midst of a divorce and without income, Helen Tirpik turned to Wayne County for help one year ago. Suffering from kidney stones, she desperately needed care but had no money to pay for it. With no other options available, she became one of about 27,000 indigent people dependent on the…
Nothing Really Matters (Memories of Aging Strippers)
If I could offer one piece of advice to writer/director Fred Newman, it would be this: Stop while you’re ahead, pal. Never have I been so charmed by the beginning of a film, only to recoil in horror as it devolves into a train wreck of repetitive dialogue and a bludgeoning with the obvious. It’s…
Letters to the Editor
That’s glamorization? Thanks to Jack Lessenberry for warning us about the “revolting” and “sadomasochistic” The Passion of the Christ (“Speaking of God & country,” Metro Times, March 17). It is a breath of fresh air to see a critic protect his readers from the excessive violence so prevalent in today’s books and movies. I will…
Design & desire
Putting the art and science of seduction under the glaring academic light of a “symposium” has its downside. A four-hour examination at the Center for Creative Studies of how automotive industry insiders get us all excited about colored sheet metal that goes vroom seems more than a little self-serving. Don’t we already know how this…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in a mere 18 days. You should make him your role model as you devote the next three weeks to producing a masterpiece that will be regarded by posterity as one of history’s great accomplishments. APRIL FOOL! I was exaggerating a little,…
Italy at Riopelle
Detroiters really ciao down. One hundred years old and counting. Veal parmigiana to sauteed perch. Amazing garlic bread and even better lasagna. Most coveted tables are in the bar and main floor dining room. On a Saturday night, don’t go to Roma without a reservation.
Presumptions at Bey
Aureliano Hernandez isn’t distracted by the sounds of scraping metal chairs and noisy chatter in his high school classroom. The bespectacled teenager is talking about his life, and he’s trying to convey something personal and sensitive. He speaks thoughtfully, carefully contemplating his answers and sprinkling in small jokes that don’t always quite come off. Hernandez…
Sushi-powered DJs!
A wise man once said that a good DJ set is much like sushi. It tastes good if you know what you’re doing, but if you overcook the rice, you’re totally screwed. The moral of the story: Keep it simple and always serve fresh ingredients. Nightlife, meanwhile, is not unlike miso soup. It’s dark, cloudy,…
Dump them already!
Q: Please excuse the lack of pussy farts and gay penguins in this e-mail, but it would be nice if you could help out a straight guy with a meat-and-potato problem every once in a while. My girlfriend is the most complete mattress-back I have ever encountered. She refuses to adopt any position that doesn’t…
Golden Gate takes over Tangent
Sacha Eckes is a tall, curly-haired Belgian who was living in San Francisco when she was invited to exhibit her art in Detroit. Soon thereafter, the day following her 30th birthday, Eckes’ apartment building burned down, destroying all her paintings and most of her possessions. Eckes came to Detroit anyway and exhibited her melted art,…
