Archaeologists of meaning
Artists Scott Hocking and Clinton Snider uncover the doors to yesteryear….
Taking matters into your own hands
“Individuality is fine,” Major Frank Burns once said on “M*A*S*H,” “so long as we all do it together.” And that pretty much sums it up. As much as Americans are herdlike followers of trends in pop culture, religion and politics, we still celebrate our individualism. We love ourselves and romanticize the image of the lone…
Eyes on target
Frozen moments of illumination fill our pages — both online and in print — with the 21st annual Metro Times Photo Contest. Leapin’ lens caps! The latest installment of Metro Times’ Photo Contest is officially the biggest ever, having delivered to our doorstep more submissions (530, yow!) than we’ve ever seen. But we know what…
Abandoned Shelter of the Week
The door is always open at 17580 Marx St., a two-story brick house near McNichols and I-75. For the family-minded, the large lot offers a tempting play area for children with more than 15 worn-out tires (they make excellent swings) and several child-sized patio chairs left behind by a previous occupant. But this house, located…
Tell it like it is
Or as you imagine it — in poetry or prose….
Hands-on cuisine
For those unfamiliar with Ethiopian dining, a big part of the draw is that you get to eat with your hands (steaming washcloths are tendered before and after) and then eat the tablecloth. At the Blue Nile, you get only two all-you-can-eat choices: four meats and seven vegetables for $17.90, or all veg for $14.90…
The camera never lies
Q: I was surfing through some porn and I ended up at one of those Webcam screenshot galleries. People talk girls into getting naked on regular cam chats, and take a bunch of screen shots to send to a site that has tons of galleries. I’m pretty sure one of the galleries has my ex-girlfriend…
18
When Moby’s Play was released in 1999, it was very much the work of a techno bluesman. After following his heart straight into the cutout bins with punk-rock covers and gorgeously out-of-place ambient tracks on 1996’s Animal Rights, Moby found himself without a deal or DJ gigs. So he put his melancholy into song as…
Most soldiers die in vain
You may have noticed that mail wasn’t delivered and the schools were closed Monday, which was Memorial Day. That’s a day, some of us vaguely remember, when people wear paper poppies and put flowers on soldiers’ graves or something like that. Time was, back in the 1960s and before, when Memorial Day was May 30,…
Gravity
Thirteen Years Alejandro Escovedo Texas Music Group By The Hand Of The Father Alejandro Escovedo Texas Music Group In 1991, Austin’s Alejandro Escovedo met his crucible in the form of his estranged wife’s suicide. The resulting shock and grief somehow yielded a pair of artistic masterpieces that earned him No Depression’s “Artist of the Decade”…
We’re so pretty
Sloan continues to pop and mock the rock….
Call it sleepless
Part mystery, part moral dilemma, but seductively intriguing, Christopher Nolan’s film deals with a typical movie trope (cops after a killer) in an atypical way, sucking you into the land of the midnight sun, where never-ending light becomes the enemy — with Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams.
Letters to the Editor
Dump Marvin It’s such a shame what the DEMF is turning into ("‘God’s event,’" Metro Times, May 22-28). The first year was amazing — a perfect moment in Detroit’s sometimes embarrassing history. The second year, festival-goers made clear who they wanted to guide the event; if the festival is to fulfill its potential, Carl Craig…
Lagaan
Shamelessly and expertly manipulative, this four-hour-long tale of colonial India, told from the point of view of the colonized, is a Bollywood (as the Hindu film industry is called) musical epic with a triumph-of-the-underdog plot familiar to Western audiences from our own homegrown sports films.
May 29-June 4, 2002
29 WED • FUN FOR ALL The Shrine Circus Xtreme — Boasting a human cannonball, three "globes of death" and an wide array of traditional attractions, the Shrine Circus will be visiting the Pontiac Silverdome through June 2 for its 94th visit to Metro Detroit. Call 248-645-6666 for information or stop into Ticketmaster locations. Lions…
Shane
Made in 1953, and starring Jean Arthur, Van Heflin and Alan Ladd as Shane, this isn’t just a western; it’s director George Stevens’ masterwork in which every little detail seems to contribute to the intensity in the air. Don’t forget to get to the Redford Theatre a half-hour early for the organ overture.
Bombs, reparations, memory
It’s probably not the most Christian belief to have. Still, I’ve always had a really hard time with the forgive-and-forget attitude that is supposed to be one of the more important mainstays of Christian morality. Whether or not I’m willing and able to truly forgive someone depends on what it is they did. To a…
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
The spirit of the mythical American West runs at the head of a herd of wild mustangs who live and breathe — like their two-legged, Disney-animated counterparts, the Lakota — on the open golden plains fed by the rushing Cimarron. But at least in this spirited pony ride, the Indians are the good guys.
Strong signal
Organized labor is gaining ground on the air….
Enough
Despite the high-action chases and the climactic fight scene, this flick isn’t a true thriller. It’s soap-opera revenge for any woman who cheered Lorena Bobbit and identified with and mourned for Nicole Brown-Simpson — with Jennifer Lopez.
John Hammond Jr.’s bag of tricks
The blues will always be the blues. Always. No matter what. But the quality and potency of the blues has doubtlessly been enhanced by the presence of John Hammond Jr. — he has added vital flavor to the sound. And like the music itself, Hammond (who hits 60 this year) has always had the ability…
Political prisoner
Green Party candidate for governor gets dragged off forum stage.
Vicious vigorish
Lansing’s red tape stifles Detroit’s ability to service low-income children.
Three times the fun
Q: I am a 28-year-old female involved in the most loving and promising relationship of my life. I now find myself faced with a conflict. About three months ago my boyfriend and I experimented with a threesome. We invited a well-endowed, handsome friend of ours into our bed to please me sexually. It was an…
Queasy rider
Attempts to get a proposed ethics ordinance in front of Wayne County voters seem like a roller-coaster ride.
Free will astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When I started as a horoscope columnist, my Aries editor said, “Always emphasize the big three. Money, love, and power are what people care about most.” When he realized that I’d just as soon write about Jungian archetypes and lucid dreams, he downsized me. I’m still chronically worried I don’t give…
Fired up
Proposed measure for medical marijuana users shelved by Wayne County Circuit Court.
Secret histories
The indie world loves the idea of the secret genius, the dream that slaving away in various garrets is a shadow army of great artists too original, honest or ornery to get famous. In reality, it rarely proves true. Most of the artists laboring in obscurity are there for a reason. Every now and then,…
Swingin’
Abandoned house of the week – 5/29/02
