Cover Stories
Michael Stone-Richards
Michael Stone-Richards is the consummate cosmopolitan. European-born, Stone-Richards has lived in several American cities, spending the last seven years in Detroit, where he works as a professor in the Department of Liberal Arts at the College for Creative Studies. As a globetrotting, erudite academic of African heritage, we knew he’d have unique perspectives on the changes…
David Roehrig
David Roehrig was born in Salt Lake City, but has lived in the Detroit area since age 2, when his mom brought him back to her hometown. The 30-year-old says he’s bounced between the city and the east side suburbs since then, and has spent the last six or seven years in Hamtramck and Detroit. He’s…
Torya Schoeniger
Torya Schoeniger is the owner of Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes, a culinary effort inspired by her love of all things French. After finishing her studies at Wayne State University in French and teaching for several years, Schoeniger decided to open her crêpe shop, as well as the stylish, French-influenced restaurant Rodin, which closed at…
Lila Cabbil
Born in Durham, N.C., Lila Cabbil was raised in Detroit. She lived through the golden age of the civil rights struggle and became a close friend of Rosa Parks, ascending to the presidency of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. Her academic work has related to multicultural leadership development and race relations. A…
Ryan C. Doyle
Ryan C. Doyle, 34, is a visual artist living in Detroit’s Banglatown neighborhood north of Hamtramck. Originally from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, he’s galloped all over the globe creating art and fabricating metal for a living. He’s the guy behind “Gon Kirin,” a 77-foot-long fire-breathing dragon made out of scavenged and found materials. In 2011, he grew…
Malik Yakini
A resident of Detroit’s west side, Malik Yakini, 58, is head of the nonprofit Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. He’s an activist and educator about food justice issues who has been honored by none other than the James Beard Foundation. His group runs D-Town Farm in Rouge Park, the largest farm in the city of…
Sean Mann
Sean Mann has seen plenty of different environments. He grew up in suburban Livonia, attended college in small-town Kalamazoo, and lived abroad in the United Kingdom after graduation, before moving back to Detroit. He is a resident of the city’s Hubbard Farms neighborhood on the southwest side, where he’s active in the neighborhood. He’s best…
Film Review: Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Mr. Peabody and Sherman | B- A super-intelligent dog, his clumsy yet enthusiastic boy sidekick, and a time machine: This slyly clever and silly little premise made the original Peabody’s Improbable Histories cartoons a beloved part of millions of boomers’ Saturday morning routines back in the ’60s, and has sustained the characters through decades of…
Sword-and-sandal flicks
Spartacus (1960): Everybody talks about Ben-Hur (1959), but it’s Spartacus that deserves that second look. Sure, Ben-Hur had Charlton Heston unwittingly acting out a homoerotic subtext Gore Vidal had worked in, and that’s priceless. But Kirk Douglas had wanted to play the lead role of Judah Ben-Hur, and when he couldn’t he put together the…
Film Review: 300: Rise of an Empire
300: Rise of an Empire | C- Grunt, slash, snarl, stab. Repeat. This is the primordial formula at the bloody heart of this relentlessly violent and unpardonably cheesy follow up to 2007’s surprise blockbuster 300 — the movie that made the multiplex safe again for shirtless, sword-slinging savagery. The original flick, directed by the style-over-substance…
A terminally ill guy loves his cheating wife
Q: I have a slowly terminal disease and don’t have more than five or six years left. I haven’t told my wife, which brings me to my problem. We had lived together for seven years when she cheated on me the first time. We worked things out, we got back together, but we continued to live…
Restaurant Review: Try It Raw
Try It Raw 213 E. Maple Rd., Birmingham 248-593-6994 Handicap accessible Breakfast: $5-$7.25 Entrées: & salads: $5.25-$12 Desserts: $2-$7.25 Juices and smoothies: $4.25-$35| Open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. At Try it Raw, a tiny organic and vegan diner in downtown Birmingham, the restaurant’s straightforward name lets people know what…
Garlic powder, and why it rules
Many foodies look down on garlic powder — and its cousin, granulated garlic — as a stale, cheap substitute for the real thing. It’s a shortcut for lazy cooks, not something the serious chef would consider. I get the principle behind the sentiment: Fresh is better than preserved, as a rule of thumb. But taken…
‘Packard: The Last Shift’ debuts at local film fest
Shortly after landing a gig as a video journalist on the staff of the Detroit Free Press, Brian Kaufman became obsessed with the Packard Plant. Of course, you can’t really blame him. The sight of the blighted Packard may be so familiar to Detroiters that it’s easy to forget it’s there, but most cities don’t…
Charlie McCutcheon
“I currently play guitar with Old Empire, and drums with several other outfits, including Esme, the Potions and, most recently, Krakatoa. There are also occasional projects that I enjoy participating in, such as Me & the Ghost, Radyopanic and the odd theater-pit gig. Basically, I just like to play and collaborate with as many musicians…
Motor City Rock and Roll: 1965 to 1975
Poster artist Gary Grimshaw may have died in January, but his friends, family and fans can rest assured that his work will live for many years to come. Detroit Rocks: A Pictorial History of Motor City Rock and Roll 1965 to 1975 was originally published in 2012 but it’s getting a bit of a timely…
Reviews of Beck, Angel Olsen and The Muppets
Beck Morning Phase Capitol You’ve got to hand it to Beck. The guy has successfully juggled two careers — one as the ironic, genre-jumping party animal on releases like Mellow Gold and Odelay, and the other as a stripped-down, straightforward singer-songwriter on the likes of Mutations and Sea Change. His first offering since 2008’s Modern…
Siamese prep for first gig with new band
Ryan O’Rourke swore he’d never be in another band. And yet the singer-guitarist from defunct Detroit-area outfit FUR (which blended industrial, new-wave and post-punk with pop) is about to play his first show with his new outfit, Siamese. As FUR began to fray in summer 2013, O’Rourke had already started writing a set of songs…
Michéle Ramo talks tips of the trade
Michéle Ramo walks up to the counter at the Bean & Leaf coffee shop in Royal Oak and orders a triple-shot espresso. In his Italian accent, it sounds like the most natural thing in the world — what would keep most people awake for hours is probably a normal Sunday afternoon beverage for this guy. …
Readers praise Lessenberry and Gabriel, discuss War on Drugs
You’re All Right, Jack Jack Lessenberry: Congratulations on your 1,000th Politics & Prejudices column for Metro Times. I’ve known you to be one of the most intelligent politicos in Michigan and really enjoy your well-written articles. —Michael Caruso, Royal Oak Laws for Gain and Profit I’m writing to thank you for Larry Gabriel’s excellent…
Critics of Orr’s bankruptcy-exit plan gather
Detroiters opposed to the restructuring plan filed by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr sent a message this week to officials looking to expedite the city’s historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy: The pushback has just begun. That’s the takeaway we here at the Hits gathered from a town hall meeting Sunday, where a consortium of activists delivered…
Michigan anti-picketing legislation in the pipes
Tom McMillin, the anti-gay Rochester Hills legislator forever running for office, introduced a bill last year that he reportedly said would “help provide a stable economy while giving job providers some recourse to stop [one] type of disruptive act.” The act McMillin says is disruptive to our economy? Picketing. House Bill 4643, sponsored by McMillin,…
Duke’s to open smokehouse in Macomb Township
Imagine our surprise when we received several packages of craft jerky and sausage in the mail the other day. The brand was Duke’s, and we opened Duke’s package and ate his meat. (Yeah, we know.) It was tasty stuff, and the label on the package said the company was located in the Southwest. But we…
Film Review: Jimmy P (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)
Jimmy P (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) | C+ It’s hard to decide whether Benicio Del Toro and French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin’s sad-eyed depiction of Jimmy P, real-life Native American and World War II veteran, is a net positive or negative. On the one hand, indigenous Americans seldom make it onto the screen, and, when…
Film Review: Son of God
Son of God | D I could never be described as being “without sin,” but, as a film critic, casting stones is kind of my thing, so forgive me for what I must now say; Son of God is a truly dismal experience, as torturously boring as a month of Sunday school lessons. Footage…
Film Review: Tim’s Vermeer
Tim’s Vermeer | B Whatever kind of geek you are, it’s hard not to appreciate, nay, honor the obsessive ambitions of Tim Jenison. A self-made digital-effects millionaire, the 59-year-old Texan inventor decided that he wanted to paint an exact copy of Johannes Vermeer’s 350-year-old masterpiece, “The Music Lesson.” Two thousand days later, Jenison succeeded, which…
Film Review: The Bag Man
The Bag Man | C When did John Cusack become Nicolas Cage? At least as talented and far more likable, the actor has starred in a remarkable number of forgettable thrillers as of late, never turning in a bad performance but mostly just sleepwalking through them. Add The Bag Man (nee Motel) to an…
Garden Primer
Food Thought For the last several years, more and more Americans have decided to devote a portion of their time, energy and money to vegetable gardening. The trend runs from well-to-do gourmets trying to grow rare heirloom vegetables to cash-strapped householders trying to make ends meet. But what they share in common is a desire…
Anti-German Fast Food
We’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of the Coney Island restaurant, with Todoroff’s Coney Island in Jackson, opened in 1914, being the first restaurant to mark the anniversary, and Detroit’s American Coney Island’s anniversary coming up in 1917. But a question that seems lost to time is just why these hot dogs are called…
Craft beer comes to Frankenmuth
It must be regarded as proof of the local food movement’s success in Michigan that even in freeway-billboard-advertised, tourist-oriented Frankenmuth, local food and drink are being given a place at the table. The scenic little burg, with its perpetual Christmas at Bronner’s and ongoing chicken dinners at 125-year-old Bavarian Inn, would seem the last place…
