Late night tales
The sticker on the review copy of Old Ramon says, under the name and title, “the long-awaited new album.” Now, a statement like that, placed prominently on product real estate, usually means that either the marketing folks are desperate for a hook upon which to hang the release of a forgotten artist, or it’s a…
Ready to rumble
A Knight’s Tale revamps the Middle Ages….
Twilight torch songs
On her devastatingly beautiful first full-length, Tiffany Anders sings with so much muted longing that she nearly implodes inside her own emotional intensity. It’s a helluva way to sing too, what with Anders suffocating in so much romantic remorse that by the end of the first track it’s difficult to imagine anyone being able to…
10 years freeing your mind
Carl Craig plans a huge celebration to honor Planet E’s 10-year anniversary … A definitive new CD from Adult. … & Bringing together the art, music and fashion of Detroit’s techno community.
Endless possibilities
To a child, 50 years seems an impossibly long time, but those of us over 30 know better. Marianne Williamson’s latest book, Imagine What America Could Be in the 21st Century, exploits that difference brilliantly. Williamson persuaded 40 people — psychologists, social critics, doctors, politicians, environmentalists, artists, teachers, scholars, poets and mystics — to envision…
What’s wrong with the media
Why write stories about our polluted air and water, the fact that schools don’t work or our rapidly diminishing sense of community, when writing about sex is so much easier?
Las Vegas tango
Like Bernardo Bertolucci before him, director Wayne Wang has made a frankly sexual film which titillates while commenting on its own obsession with carnal pleasures. The magnificently complex performances of Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker are emblematic of a generation that’s been both eroticized and demoralized.
Nomad’s land
Mesmerizing multi-instrumental duo Retsin finds a home within friends, projects, a van and anonymity.
The Circle
Jafar Panahi abandons the subterfuge which has become a common language in his country’s films and addresses head-on the plight of women in Iranian society. A series of vignettes about a group of women just released from prison, this is strong material — watchfully humane, clear-eyed and damning.
Taking the reins
David Jost will be the first to admit that he’s got a lot to learn about Detroit, which is why staffers here have been inundating him with advice and local lore. But the new MT publisher is clear about what we stand for. “The Metro Times is a newspaper with a strong reputation for editorial…
The Mummy Returns
Director Stephen Sommers resuscitates The Mummy (1999) with a shot of adrenaline, battle sequences flashing with action and whiplash motion. Though it lacks the attention to detail of its predecessor, this is an extreme roller coaster through an ancient Egyptian house of horrors — with Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and The Rock.
Auto-neurotic asphyxiation
Driving the message home that those gas-guzzlin’ SUVs are pure evil….
Attraction
Director Russell DeGrazier explores the nature of need with smart toughness: With his newspaper column and a radio call-in show, Matthew Settle dispenses tough-love pearls of wisdom that he will not heed, particularly when it comes to his ex-girlfriend (Gretchen Mol), whom he has been stalking.
Humpty hump
Wednesdays on the Greektown Casino patio with cheap beers and live tunes … Exploring the past and future nightlife scene near the stadiums … & a glossy new mag highlights local music, fashion and culture.
The Forsaken
This horrible road trip of faux pas never truly carries through its visual promise to deliver that potent brew of sex and horror that successfully fuels the horror genre, especially vampire movies. Its Playboyish female sexploitation isn’t sexy — its horrors don’t so much frighten as disgust.
The Water Is Wide
Drummer Billy Higgins remembered by jazz lovers everywhere…
Help yourselves, dudes
Celebrities tell us how we should live our lives (and we love to listen)…
Fairgrounds tussle
Citizens plan to file suit to halt school-fairgrounds deal…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Henry Kissinger once noted that “You first have to create the problem in order to solve the problem.” While I wish Dr. K had been wiser and more compassionate in formulating the predicaments he himself whipped up to solve, his idea is still useful as we meditate on your future. This…
Chug-a-lug
How about a big gulp of Water & Sewerage?
Higher power failure
Attending the American Atheist Convention, you get an idea of what it’s like to live in a culture that adores spirituality and the outer limits in all its forms.
Burnin’ in Hamtown
Hamtramck’s poor suffer with pollution from waste incinerator…
Talking dirty
Q: I’ve been seeing a guy for about five years who is 6’2″. When we first met we were both in fantastic physical condition. In the past two years he has gained over 100 pounds. Instead of being 175 he’s probably around 300 pounds. When we have sex he insists on being on top, and…
More drug-war casualties
Financial aid seriously threatened for students with drug records…
Dark underside
Plowshares Theatre revives August Wilson’s powerful hit….
Real survivor
Henry Dudzinski and his T-shirt are released from contempt-of-court jailing…
Metaphysical Jones
Every Thursday, this band of merry neo-noodlers transforms the quaint confines of 313.JAC into a bouncy psychedelic playground of sight and sound for Detroit¹s jazz-funk-groove-rock set. The overall effect is fun – light-hearted melody transforming into mysterious space-outs, then fast-paced guitar solos building up to a sonic blast of everything coming back together again. I…
The hole in the middle
Donut palaces saw a future sweet and full of air….
Daft new romantics
They say the future’s electric, but for Detroit electronic duo Adult., that future’s old news. Composed of vocalist-musician-photographer Nicola Kuperus and musician Adam Lee Miller, Adult. has already released a handful of intriguing neo-New Romantic electropop EPs that delineate discordant psychological scenarios while integrating the politics of dancing. Combining sincere appreciation (and understanding) with a…
Letters to the Editor
Law and logic Regarding Curt Guyette’s excellent article ("War resister’s league," MT, May 2-8), if health outcomes (instead of cultural norms) determined drug laws, marijuana would be legal. Alcohol poisoning kills thousands annually. Tobacco is one of the most addictive substances known. Marijuana is not physically addictive and has never been shown to cause an…
Band of brigands
Imagine an elderly European salt-of-the-earth man with a mischievous grin begin to dance a dance that’s been danced for hundreds of years — sometimes slow, sometimes in a race, but always covering the spectrum of emotions from birth to marriage to death. Imagine that, and you’ll take the first steps into the atmosphere created by…
Radical spirit
Marianne Williamson and the Church of Today’s all-American, all-inclusive spiritual pathway….
