‘HI, MY NAME IS SAM RIDDLE; I’M ON MY WAY TO JAIL’
“Everybody is speculating, but I’ll tell you: I’m turning myself in tomorrow,” Sam Riddle told the News Blawg when we ran into him at Floods Bar and Grille with a small circle of well-wishers and supporters early Monday evening. He portrayed the slammer as a detour rather than the end of a political career. Political…
What Price Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is a hypocrite, which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. But his “hiring” of stricken rock star Bret Michaels as the 2010 winner of Celebrity Apprentice in the show’s two-hour NBC season finale Sunday (9 p.m. May 23, Channel 4 in Detroit) – as genuine a feel-good moment as TV…
Work cycle: Riding bikes to the office
Converging on Campus Martius in a wave of bright colors, helmets and two wheels, about 60 people took part in the National Bike to Work Day May 21. Among them: Mark Rionda, a Merrill Lynch financial advisor who, though an avid rider, had never commuted to his downtown Detroit office by bike from his home…
Judgment dazed
On the song "New Heights" from his new OJ Simpson album, Detroit’s Guilty Simpson lays out his place in hip hop, circa 2010: I got a murderer’s intent when I jump on a beat and vent/I’m Guilty, I leave my prints … Stuff that rap missed while they do handstands and backflips … The gruff…
Live at the Troubadour CD/DVD Combo
It’s a trend that seems to have taken full flight with Leonard Cohen’s Live in London release last summer. And as much as this writer enjoyed Cohen’s show here at the Fox, I wished throughout the performance that I hadn’t first heard the album and watched the DVD, since everything about the show was identical,…
Food Stuff
Food films — The folks at Detroit Abides will screen two films about big food and small food, Big River: A King Corn Companion and HealthyTown. Director of HealthyTown, Bill Couzens, will be on hand to discuss his film, which explored efforts to build oases in Detroit’s "food desert." Big River, a short follow-up to…
Robin Hood
In an attempt to tell the tale before the tale we already know, Robin Hood takes its cue from Braveheart and Elizabeth, tracking Robin Longstride’s morally ambivalent tenure in the crusade of Richard the Lion-Hearted (Danny Huston) and his subsequent return to England. Unwittingly pulled into the backstabbing intrigue of the English throne, Robin and…
Letters to the Editor
Bridging the gap Thank you very much for your continuing efforts to educate all on the Matty saga (it would make a good movie). I have followed you throughout and am impressed by your insight into the whole situation. I live in Olde Sandwich Towne in Windsor, two blocks from the Ambassador Bridge, and have…
Banksy bombs Detroit
Last week, underground superstar street artist Banksy paid a visit to Detroit. He was on what could be considered one of the most proactively viral and resourceful publicity tours in history. Hitting Los Angeles, Park City (for Sundance), Chicago and Toronto, the famed spray-can kid left a series of paintings in his now-iconic style, but…
Push and shove
The issue of campaign finance reform is a little bit like a schoolyard shoving match. One side gives a push. The other side pushes back. On Monday, a group of Michigan legislators responded to a massive thump to the chest delivered earlier this year when the U.S. Supreme Court opened the floodgates to allow unlimited…
On the move
If you are at all like News Hits, you might be anticipating the upcoming U.S. Social Forum — which will be held in Detroit beginning June 22 — a little bit the way a kid feels about Christmas. You just can’t wait for it to arrive. And sometimes, when your parents weren’t looking, you’d rummage…
No place like home
The road winds past crowded gardens and flowering trees, past the horse barn and the pool, and up to the gated mansion. It’s a beautiful place for someone to call home. The main house has 16 rooms, a wide balcony on the second floor, plush furniture on hardwood floors, and lots of space in which…
Cheat Code
Splinter Cell: Conviction Ubisoft Xbox 360 (Review Copy) PC Old Man Strength must kick ass. By dint of age and wisdom, you automatically augment your muscle-power tenfold. Sure, your boyish charm yields to a few wrinkles, but chicks dig the rugged exterior. Group that with super-spy killing skills and the gravelly voice awesomeness of Michael…
Operator’s manual
The band’s name was the greatest uni-word translation of pubescent sexuality ever, its singer was an out-of-the-closet (long before it was trendy) U.K. punk rock "star" whose songs rose from a grim Manchester basement to American TV ads pimping Toyota ("What Do I Get") and — gasp! — AARP ("Everybody’s Happy Nowadays"). You’ll recall how…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY MAY 19 The Ride of Silence MAKING NOISE QUIETLY At the risk of scaring people by highlighting the potential dangers of traveling on two wheels, cycling advocates have organized this annual event to honor riders injured or killed while biking. It’s also to raise awareness among motorists, police and city officials that cyclists have…
Hate mail
Amanda Seyfried is a blond tabula rasa, a comely vessel to contain the anxieties and aspirations of the target audience, and her Sophie isn’t content with simply having a media job, but dreams of writing and landing the big scoop, Jean Arthur-style, except minus any spark or verve. She also has an unspoken disaffection with…
Eastern grace
Restaurateur Raymond Wong might be considered a grandfather of Chinese food in Detroit and Windsor, having brought some of the regional cuisines of China into an area that was used to Cantonese food — egg drop soup, chop suey and egg foo yung. After 40 years of owning and working in a succession of eateries,…
The Square
In a homey Australian suburb, Ray (David Roberts) runs a struggling construction business while catting around with his across-the-pond neighbor Carla (Claire van der Boom). When Carla stumbles across her criminal hubby’s (Anthony Hayes) stash of cash, she goads Ray into figuring out how they can take the money and run. Enter an arsonist named…
The bad guys
What can you say about a new one-hour police show that: • Was created and written by Matt Nix, the executive producer behind one of my favorite current series going, USA’s stylish Burn Notice; • Stars a pair of familiar, bankable names in actors Colin Hanks (Tom’s son, Band of Brothers) and Bradley Whitford (The…
Southern accents
Lois Hattaway, long ago an immigrant from Pine Hill, Ala., says that her mama had to work when her nine children were young, so they weren’t allowed to have friends over. They had to learn to play with each other and get along. Fifty years later, six of the siblings — Annie, Bettie, Lois, Martha,…
Gays & dolls
Q: One of my best friends at college is gay. I’m a straight female and I’m in a committed relationship with my own boyfriend. We’re going to be sophomores in the fall, and I feel like this is about the age where coming out to one’s parents is in order. However, my friend’s parents are…
Looking for Eric
British Director Ken Loach tells the story of Eric (Steve Evets), a lonely, scruffy, middle-aged Manchester postman, saddled with two rowdy teen boys and a lifetime of defeats and regrets. Many years earlier, he abandoned his pregnant wife, a mistake he chews on every day, made even bitterer since his second wife ditched him, leaving…
Demolition derby
A few Saturdays ago, we watched two teenage girls skip through the crowd on Second Avenue, round the corner at Temple Street, and float up the steps of the monstrous Masonic Temple. They looked punkish, in hues of tested teen rebellion, but somehow naïve to the neighborhood’s fringe culture. Both slowed when they got to…
House (Hausu)
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi throws in every insane trick — wipes, dissolves, freeze frames, strobe lights — including rivers of blood that resemble Hawaiian Punch. The result is phantasmagoric nonsense, as if Sam Raimi, Dario Argento, Russ Meyer and Roman Polanski had randomly edited together clips from a soap opera, a slasher flick and a feminine…
Kill the illegals
That’s right. Harass the bastards first, of course. Illegal immigrants have ruined this country. They took all our jobs and wrecked the auto industry and are why I have bad teeth. No doubt about it. Now, while I agree heartily with those sentiments, they aren’t originally mine; they are based on something the great Lakota…
His time is here
Well, this one will surely sound fine blaring from a car stereo, the windows rolled down, on a hot summer day during these next several months. On Detroit and Chicago musical legend Andre Williams’ second album for major indie Bloodshot, producer-guitarist Matthew Smith uses much the same formula — as well as some of the…
Metro Retro
23 years ago in Metro Times: John Grant takes a satirical look at a fictitious "Gambling World Theme Park" being built on Belle Isle. Attractions include a hotel and gambling complex, which somehow lacks beds — or actual gambling. "The mayor calls it ‘the thrill of gambling, but without the risks.’ … In a cost-cutting…
The Courage of Others
Midlake’s third album has the arch, moody insistence that tends to galvanize a love-hate relationship. The album is deeply inspired by the burbling British folk of Pentangle and the Renaissance, channeling stately webs of acoustic guitar enriched with a medieval flavor (notable in the trilling organs and flutes), all expressed in an erect art-rock demeanor.…
RA MAGAZINE’S “ORAL HISTORY OF DETROIT’S ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL”
Just in time for Detroit’s upcoming annual Movement music festival comes a splendid “Oral History of Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival” from Resident Advisor, which bills itself as “the leading online electronic music magazine.” It’s a pretty excellent piece, featuring comments from a large assortment of talking heads, including superstar DJ/producers like Kevin Saunderson and Richie…
Car Wash Café owner dead at 56
To those who knew him, Larry Meeks was more than a businessman running Harbor Town Garage off Jefferson Avenue. He was a charming, generous man with big dreams, which included his unusual Kar Wash Kafé on Meldrum Street. Meeks, who died April 29, of a heart attack at 56, used to own a collision shop…
