MT Exclusive: Banksy leaves a rat in Warren and a diamond in Detroit
Through a friend of a friend of a friend at the Ghostly Intl. imprint, Metro Times has come to acquire proof of a recent visit to Detroit from none other than Banksy, one of the world’s most intruiging artistic figures. A bit on Bansky: The annonymous nightstalker is said to have come up through Bristol’s…
GOD BLESS PATTI SMITH: “FIND A NEW CITY”…LIKE DETROIT!
During a recent panel discussion and audience Q&A discussion in New York, someone asked Patti Smith if it was still possible for a young artist to move to New York City and live a similar life to the one that Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe and other artists did years ago. Such a life was recently immortalized…
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS DO OUTRAGEOUS CHERRY….
Matador Records released Together, the new album by the terrific New Pornographers, yesterday, May 4th. So what does that have to do with Detroit? Well, in addition to the album, the label is releasing a limited-edition, 7-inch vinyl EP, entitled Togetherness: The New Pornographers Play Outrageous Cherry, which will be given out for free (while…
MUSIC WEEKEND PSA’S: ROCK & RUMMAGE AND THE 2ND BOOTSEY BENEFIT…
The Third Annual Rock and Rummage Spring Cleaning Spectacular is happening on a Friday this year — this Friday, May 7th, to be exact, at the Belmont in Hamtramck (10215 Jos Campau, between Holbrook and Caniff). The event is a traveling rock ‘n’ roll-themed flea market with vintage clothing, handmade goods and other pop culture…
Letters to the Editor
Good words Thank you for this "Remembering Ravitz" (April 21). I was extremely disappointed when I read the articles in the mainstream press regarding Mel’s passing. I know that the many individuals who had the honor to work with him and his thousands of supporters who read this article will thank you for providing this…
Up in the air
Two recent events in the Detroit area represent what might be described as the yin and the yang of an issue expected to play a significant role in Michigan’s environmental and economic future: wind power. First there was the Michigan Wind Energy Conference, held in late April at Cobo Center. Among the highlights of the…
Walk the dream
Chanting "Education not deportation," a dozen marchers set off on foot from southwest Detroit’s Clark Park Thursday morning, heading to Ann Arbor, where President Barack Obama spoke at Saturday’s commencement. By Friday, they felt like national celebrities when CNN listed one of the walkers, Dayanna (who doesn’t give out her last name because she is…
Swell day
Anyone who has come within sniffing distance of this column during the past 18 months knows we’ve been fixated on Detroit’s Riverside Park, located next to the Ambassador Bridge owned by Manuel "Matty" Moroun. The city, since late in 2008, has being trying to get Moroun to return a 150-foot swath of what’s known as…
Skipped Parts
In 2002, independent director and provocateur par excellence Todd Solondz made a little movie called Storytelling, remembered today almost solely on its controversial sodomy scene between Robert Wisdom’s college professor and Selma Blair’s student. For the film to receive an R rating from the MPAA, the scene had to be cut or altered. Solondz altered…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY MAY 5-8 Bill Charlap Trio and Fred Hersch STANDARD-BEARERS Bill Charlap has been called the heir to Tommy Flanagan’s place among piano royalty, a pianist with a way of caressing a standard without fawning over it, and a stunning repertoire of those gems to work from. And just to underscore their similarities, Charlap often…
Deep blue sea
The food is marvelous. The menu was designed by San Francisco chef Michael Mina, whose official title on Saltwater’s website is “celebrity chef,” and Mina does his best to bring the ocean’s delights inland. I’d venture that the number of Detroit-area diners who know the difference between a Tatamagouche oyster from Nova Scotia and a…
Just say Yes
On a recent Sunday afternoon, the scene at Detroit’s Yes Farm, a tightly knit community kept up by educators, artists and activists on the east side, is positively rural. Out on the urban prairie, the two-block mini-neighborhood is surprisingly intact and attractive, with its tree-lined street and solid old homes. Between a community garden and…
Welcome to your nightmare
This sleek, scaled down “re-imagining” strips away the camp, and attempts to restore his Freddy as a fearsome, child-molesting demon — but drained of wit, he’s an unpleasant dude. Creepy (and great) Jackie Earle Haley ably slips into Robert Englund’s striped red sweater, though his new improved makeup makes him look a bit like a…
Smokin’ hot ‘cue!
Bert’s Marketplace 2727 Russell St., Detroit; 313-567-2030: On summer Saturdays, Eastern Market seems to be bursting at every seam. Stalls and sheds overflow with colorful produce as merchants set up shop along Russell Street. But Bert’s is different. Not only do you have a great place to sit, do some Eastern Market people-watching and enjoy…
The Little Traitor
Based on the Amos Oz novel, director Lynn Roth’s film is the same treacly love-thy-enemy story you’ve seen a hundred times before, set in a potentially fascinating time and place: Palestine in 1947. Unfortunately, after an interesting setup, with Port and his pals preparing to become freedom fighter — their plan to build a nail…
Groovy times
Mikel Smith used to be known as Detroit’s oldest raver. We haven’t heard that tag since the late 1990s, of course, when local electronic music hype was busting out all over the world, largely thanks to such then-surging properties as Carl Craig’s Planet E, Richie Hawtin’s Plus 8/Minus and various projects connected to the Underground…
School’s out
Our School is a stark, unvarnished look into the classrooms of three Detroit high schools, each facing unpredictable challenges in an incredibly volatile environment. As the city shrinks and the tax base erodes, no branch of Detroit’s civic body politic has suffered more, with more 80,000 pupils lost in little more than a decade. The…
They’re an American band
Derrick Mallory owns three station wagons in three different colors. He lives in Willis, not far from Ypsilanti, where the other three members of his band live. "One of them is burnt orange, inside and out," he says. "The speakers are two alarm clocks that I hooked up. It’s so ugly." We’re talking about cars…
Dee-troit royalty
On his excellent new eponymous LP — his first solo album since 1990 — Scott Morgan returns R&B music to the garage, which may not be the only place it belongs when played by white dudes, but certainly provides a nice, safe haven for the musical form when delivered properly. Of course, this is nothing…
Happy to rock Detroit
After years of constant climbing, the very funny Kathleen Madigan is finally one of the biggest names in stand-up comedy, packing houses nationwide, and putting up pure mileage numbers that’d make a trucker blink. She’s also a constant presence on TV. She has had her own stand-up specials, roasts, been a panelist on Dr. Phil,…
Six Pack to Go
Nick Pivot is nothing if not committed. In 1970, the singer-guitarist hitched his way to Nashville with his sights set on becoming a country singer. That’s kind of the same as going to L.A. to become an actor. Predictably, he returned home soon afterward and, before long, started playing with Bootsey X & the Lovemasters.…
Tomorrow’s lessons
Everyone knows that Detroit still has the largest public school system in Michigan, even if students have been fleeing it in droves. But what’s the second-largest system? Grand Rapids? Lansing? Not even close. The answer is Macomb County’s Utica Community Schools, which has an astonishing 29,283 students. And those kids, that school district, and what…
The Soul System EP
Having famous family ties can be both a gift and a curse in the entertainment and pop music worlds. The advantage is that one can sometimes capitalize on the more famous relative’s name recognition with fans and the public alike. That can be offset, however, with preconceived expectations built around the relative’s artistic quality and/or…
Lovers who step back
Q: I am a 28-year-old, post-op transsexual woman. I met a great 31-year-old guy. We have been dating for a year, and he recently told me that he didn’t think he was sure he was in love with me. He said that he didn’t know if he could give me any sort of commitment, that…
The Way of the World
As the story goes, Mose Allison, now in his 80s, figured he’d finished his last studio recording career with his final Blue Note discs late in the last century. Enter Michigan’s own Joe Henry, one of many admirers of the songwriter who serves as the textbook case of irritable blues syndrome, the guy who wrote…
Cheat Code
Yakuza 3 Sega; PS3 Kazuma Kiryu is a really nice guy. When you first meet him, he’s running an orphanage in Okinawa, but here’s the rub. In Tokyo, they know good ol’ Uncle Kaz by different names, "the Dragon of Dojima," and "the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan," to name a few. And, like…
Food Stuff
Bedeviled — Ferndale just got a little hotter with the opening of Cantina Diablos. After the owner of the old Rosie O’Grady’s built his new location on Nine Mile Road, he decided to redevelop the old Troy Street Rosie’s into Cantina Diablos, which opens just in time for Cinco de Mayo, at 4 p.m. May…
Metro Retro
22 years ago in Metro Times: Just as Richard Milhous Nixon releases a book and prepares for his subsequent re-entry to the political sphere, Chuck Wilbur delivers a straight-faced satire that sees Richard Nixon covering Prince’s 1999 album. Wilbur jokes, "If you liked the book, you’ll love the album. Who cares if Nixon doesn’t have…
