Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Chameleons use their stupendously strong tongues to reach out and capture their prey, which can be as large as one-sixth their size. The equivalent for you would be if you could snag a big chicken with the muscular organ in your mouth. I’m not predicting you’ll develop that skill in the…
Senator Al Franken?
Al Franken: God Spoke Docurama Can I just drop all pretenses of being objective and say that Al Franken’s election to the United States Senate would be the greatest thing ever? If this documentary is any indication, C-SPAN would be Must-See TV. This testament to Franken’s wit, insights and fearlessness, filmed in vérité style, covers…
The girl’s gone green
It’s an ordinary aluminum-sided house that sits on a packet of grass. Shrubs frame stone steps and metal banisters that lead up to an awning-covered porch. The Ferndale home’s interior is quaintly decorated. A glass cabinet in the corner of the family room is crammed with dolls and figurines; more knick-knacks and dolls rest on…
Art Bar
Not only do we have road rage, but it seems we have road love too. Here Elizabeth Hobbs of Maine offers us a two-car courtship. Be careful with whom you choose to try this little dance. Slow Dancing on the Highway: the Trip North You follow close behind me, for a thousand miles responsive…
Motor City Cribs
Detroit songbird Shahida Nurullah’s west side roost.
Millsian scholar
At the Detroit Youth Foundation on Woodward Avenue in the New Center area, a lifelong Mills fan inspires young Detroiters to create electronic music at an after-school program. DJ, producer and academic Alvin Hill (aka Munk) used to gaze down onto Mills from the upper level of the Nectarine Ballroom in the 1980s, soaking up…
Move, baby
Ah, to be in Detroit for Memorial Day weekend and in love with techno. Or house. Or any of the “electronic” music varieties. It’s time to don dancing shoes or to roll out a comfy blanket to dream in sonic ambient waves. This three-day (and -night) party celebrates Detroit for what it is: a pulse…
As Michigan crumbles
You know Michigan must be in bad shape when even the mainstream media notices, and, finally, they have. When the news came Friday that the budget mess was even worse than expected, both Detroit papers had enormous headlines. “STATE’S DEFICIT BALLOONS: $802 MILLION,” the Freep screamed. That’s a truly scary number, far more frightening than…
Night and Day
Thursday • 24 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony MUSIC Though the Grammy-winning quintet is a trio now (Bizzy Bone’s long gone; Flesh-N-Bone’s still in the clink), don’t guess for a second they’re any less thuggish or any less harmonic. Nah, Wish Bone, Krayzie and Layzie uphold the group’s sullied honor with its trademark speed-lipped raps, singsong harmonies and…
Enchanting fetishes
Q: I’m an early-20s gay guy turned on by hypnosis. During my adolescent explorations of the Internet, I found a site with stories about “mind control,” usually involving the seduction of straight men. I was hooked. I’m not beating myself up for being a “bad person,” because my desire to try this in real life…
Talking up Chuck
Chuck Palahniuk puts out books the way the Beatles and the Stones used to release records — nearly every year, with precision and artistry. Then he goes on tour and sells out huge venues. His latest work, Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, the first of an upcoming trilogy, should be no exception. Set…
One is the loneliest number
We’re in Lit, a subterranean and sublimely seedy club in New York City’s East Village. There’re five of us: The punk-rock door girl on a stool by the stairs, a young, soap-clean couple at a table near the front, this writer on a ratty ottoman behind them, and a lone, rattier-looking guy in long, unkempt…
From Detroit to Tokyo
How DJ Jeff Mills helped shape not just a music scene, but an international culture
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Lake effect
From its beginning in a gallery’s walk-in closet that founder Jef Bourgeau says he rented for $1 a year, the Museum of New Art in Pontiac has been less a place than a concept. It’s fitting, then, that MONA would host a series of artist exchanges between Detroit and its neighboring metropolis. Changing Cities: Chicago,…
Water fight
As first conceived, the documentary The Water Front was supposed to look at the issue of privatizing municipal water systems. But it ended up being about much more than that. The subject drew the attention of Montreal filmmaker Liz Miller because, as she says, access to clean and affordable water is expected to become a…
Recycled ruins
In the back of the room, a 10-foot-tall white wooden fireplace, complete with a marble mantel and just a bit too much gold leaf trim, towers above you. A stone bust of a woman, a loose gown barely covering her bust, is built into the center of the display. A piece this ostentatious would dominate…
The essential Jeff Mills
Final Cut: “The Bass Has Landed” Full Effect Records, 1988 X-101: “Sonic Destroyer” UR, 1991 Underground Resistance: “The Seawolf” World Power Aliance, 1992 Jeff Mills: “Waveform Transmission Vol. 1” Tresor, 1992 Millsart: “Mecca EP” Axis, 1993 H&M: “Drama EP” Axis, 1993 Servo Unique: “Let’s Swing It” Luxury, 1993 Phylyps: “Trak (Axis)” Mix Basic Channel, 1993…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
What’s your favorite band name? It’s a sap’s game no matter what you reply because, let’s face it, all band names are inherently stupid. "The Band" is probably the cleverest of them all in a minimalist Zen sense. "Yes" also scores points for having a Karmic purity that reflects the group’s positive music. And I…
Tabloid tactics
New tell-all shows just how low journalism can go.
Once more, with feeling
It’s a spring afternoon and the gray slush of a Michigan winter has suddenly surrendered to a lush, inviting green. And the stars and director of the new press-darling film Once have the look of antsy elementary school students gazing lovingly out the window at an inviting swing set. The trio has been cooped up…
Letters to the Editor
Smashing Sambo In response to “Saving stereotypes” (Metro Times, May 16), I would like you to notice how you will never find institutions, educational or otherwise, attempting to preserve relics that glorify the genocide of the Native Americans, the Jewish holocaust or any other blatant violation of human rights. Yet, many Americans feel that African-Americans…
‘Sad day for legal system’
Detroit attorney on why we must shut Gitmo down.
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Frijoles off the freeway
The menu at this kitsch-clogged Mexican restaurant (in a former Denny’s) is dominated by tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos and fajitas with the spice and fire level toned down for tender Midwestern palates. The portions are generous, and they offer 31 combination dinners ($6.50 to $7.50) that mix and match endless varieties of tacos, enchiladas, burritos…
No parking
The new farce The Valet is tailor-made for a pack of unruly, Ritalin-doped 13-year-olds. The dialogue is simple and easy to understand, the characters are all easily identifiable Gallic stereotypes, and there’s a slew of juvenile sex jokes and double entendres to keep even the biggest drooling underachievers occupied. To be fair, if anyone’s earned…
Shrek the Third
Every fairy tale has a core of hidden wisdom, and the moral of this soggy third adventure of everyone’s favorite Ogre seems painfully clear: Beware of sequelitis. Overstuffed, overloaded and underfunny, Shrek the Third commits every sin in the sequel handbook, a shame; since the hero of this once-subversive series is the kind of lovable…
The Princess Bride
Though the movie helped solidify Rob Reiner’s career as a director, the real credit goes to William Goldman’s clever and eminently quotable script, which carefully walks the line between satire and sincerity. Adapting his own novel — written for his daughters — Goldman’s fairytale pokes fun at sword and sorcery epics even as it revels…
Tudrick quits Rock, woofs up Bulldog
Kenny Tudrick, the full-on Detroit rock ’n’ roll star who isn’t famous (yet), is officially off Kid Rock’s payroll. That’s right. The spindly, floppy-fringed guitar hero (yes, guitar hero) quit Kid’s slowing gravy-train ’cause, he says, he “had to.” Besides, we gotta ask, ain’t the ex-hit-making, George W.-supporter’s shtick getting, shall we say, a little…
