Downwardly Mobile
Turns out Fox News problem solver Charles Eric Leaf had some problems at his old job, too….
Shallow Hal
Here’s another Farrelly brothers flick with a warmhearted and equal acceptance of everybody. Hal (Jack Black) can only see inner beauty, and 300-pound Peace Corps volunteer Rosemary Shanahan (Gwyneth Paltrow ) to him looks like, well … Gwyneth Paltrow.
Gray lady in waiting
Liz reluctantly realizes she’s growing older, and tries to come up with a few advantages to this whole aging thing.
Back in Blackstone
Blackstone Hotel residents speak out against new owner’s evictions….
Adanggaman
With its poetic flourishes and nearly surrealistic settings, this tale of the African slave trade directed by Roger Gnoan M’Bala at times proceeds more like a very grim fairy tale than a historical drama. It’s an odd mix of harsh history and once-upon-a-time story telling, both beguiling and unsettling.
You won’t know till you try
* I just read the question about the couple who have tried for a year to conceive. You should have also advised the male to be checked for a sperm count. I found out at age 30 that I was sterile due to being a Mosaic XXY Klinefelter male. The odds of being an XXY…
Fear factor
MDOT’s plan for expanded shipping yard inspires 300 residents to turn out in protest….
Lumumba
Director Raoul Peck’s bio-pic is very good when dealing with the personal tragedy of Patrice Lumumba — the democratically elected prime minister of the former Belgian Congo, a charismatic figure who held office for only 12 weeks in 1960 before being kidnapped, tortured and murdered by his political opponents — but deficient in supplying much-needed…
Free Will Astrolosy
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Now that you’re coiled deep inside the heart of the subterranean maze, I think you know what to do. Reverently slip into a state of expectant meditation. Humbly bow to the power of the uncanny mystery. Breathlessly utter the surprising password. And then cackle uproariously as the Secret of Secrets refuses…
Distaff inflection
It’s the Year of the (Elected) Woman in the city of Detroit….
Focus
In adapting Arthur Miller’s melodramatic critique of anti-Semitism, director Neal Slavin achieves a sort of heightened unrealism wavering between Kafka-esque anxiety and stylized mundaneness, making the tale less convincing on the screen than it is in print — with William H. Macy.
Free Will Astrology 11/14
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Now that you’re coiled deep inside the heart of the subterranean maze, I think you know what to do. Reverently slip into a state of expectant meditation. Humbly bow to the power of the uncanny mystery. Breathlessly utter the surprising password. And then cackle uproariously as the Secret of Secrets refuses…
Give me a “P”…
Rally against Afghan bombing and pro-war media coverage….
Wild Gift
From the opening riff of “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not,” to the final-choruses of “The World’s a Mess; It’s In My Kiss,” Los Angeles is a four-on-the-floor dream of what rock ’n’ roll should sound like in the presence of American decadence and decline. Recorded in L.A. in 1980, Los Angeles was…
Where U at, Rock?
Kid Rock is living large, but he’s laying low while his latest history gets written.
Dave Boutette
A member of the legendary Junk Monkeys (who still play around town on special occasions), Dave Boutette’s solo material rocks and rolls around in quieter pastures on the alt-country side of the fence. An accessible, folksy style permeates a substantial passel of impressive tunes – some soft and warm as the sun in the wide…
Under the Big Black Sun
From the opening riff of “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not,” to the final-choruses of “The World’s a Mess; It’s In My Kiss,” Los Angeles is a four-on-the-floor dream of what rock ’n’ roll should sound like in the presence of American decadence and decline. Recorded in L.A. in 1980, Los Angeles was…
Big as life
Movie fat girls jostle the glamour industry’s basic standards of beauty.
Get Ready
When an extremely influential band such as New Order releases its first studio album in eight years — its seventh in 20 years — you’d better Get Ready. Yet satisfying old fans while attracting new ones is often a crapshoot. The last thing this world needs is another crusty rock band coming out of the…
Grace after fire
Legendary freedom fighter Grace Jones invades our imaginary spaces.
For the Greater Good
“Have you ever been cheated?” asks For the Greater Good. “Been lied to?” The four ladies in the Moto-litas have. They’ve also been tattled on, mistreated and condescended to. Then they wrote surf ’n’ turf songs about it — nine of ’em to be exact — and our music collections are better places for it.…
Glass houses
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s beautiful, compelling video installation now showing at Cranbrook….
Max Payne
Vengeance-stricken, the trench-coated beast walks on. Thus opens the ghoulish narrative of Max Payne, a reckless, pitiful New York detective who strives to make a mark on the city of despair. His pretty wife, young and innocent with child in tow, was bumped off at the hands of a mysterious foe. Worse yet, Payne is…
Facing the real enemy
Our rights and freedoms may soon be taken away forever. And this should frighten us all more than a few poisoned letters.
Los Angeles
From the opening riff of “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not,” to the final-choruses of “The World’s a Mess; It’s In My Kiss,” Los Angeles is a four-on-the-floor dream of what rock ’n’ roll should sound like in the presence of American decadence and decline. Recorded in L.A. in 1980, Los Angeles was…
A little light, please
Congratulations, Mayor-elect Kilpatrick. Now, could you please take a look at this to-do list?
A taste of southern Italy
The Italian menu is generous with options, including both tried-and-trues and some less-common selections. A few stand out, including the very rich rigatoni dello chef, with lots of black olives in a cream sauce, and tortellini Parigina, cunning little ears with ham and Parmesan in a cognac cream sauce. La Contessa is a pretty place…
Letters to the Editor
“Most of the people dying today in the Middle East are innocent. Our policy is to punish innocent people…” ? Jeremy Voas’ quote of Ismael Ahmed ("To kill or convert" Metro Times, Nov. 7-13). I fully realize that Voas have more firsthand knowledge of the situation and that Ahmed knows what he is talking about.…
Slow-motion hysteria
Dorrie, a harried yet highly effective stay-at-home mother of three young children, is peeling carrots in the title story of Getting a Life, a powerfully funny collection (set in and around London) that renders the conflicting pulls of motherhood and self-expression. Her oldest son, Martin, who has just started school, says, “I’m not eating those…
Down at the fair
The Detroit Fairgrounds real estate deal — a wild ride of secrecy, bungling and deception.
Preaching to the Perverted
Best-of albums are notoriously silly, for they rarely capture an entire band onto one album. It’s very hard to sum up a band’s entire sound and history into one hour. With a band such as Pigface, it’s even more ridiculous. Less of a band and more of a concept, Pigface was started by Martin Atkins…
Sex, sin and rock ‘n’ roll
Unadulterated ribaldry with the Bomb Pops and the Ruiners … Queen Bee’s ultimate girl power … The glam-o-rama spectacle that is the Trash Brats … Local band changeups … & more.
Party Music
Party Music is the fourth LP by the Coup, the Bay-area duo comprised of Boots Riley, a self-proclaimed communist, and Pam the Funktress, his DJ and right-hand woman. The album was supposed to be a kind of culmination of the rhetoric Boots honed on the Coup’s previous recordings — most notably, the excellent Steal This…
Stunned
Have you seen Stun Gun’s vintage plexiglass bass? … Ypsilanti Records’ cool new double-singles … What’s happening with the Waxwings, Troy Gregory and the Witches, 12 Angry Steps, Moods for Moderns and many more … (and that’s just the half of it).
Money worries, greed kills
With every twist and turn in this dark tale of 1949 America, the Coen brothers want to take us down a sleek new road of California noir. But despite Billy Bob Thornton’s superlative performance (he hasn’t sunk this deep into a character since Sling Blade), it often seems like they’re spinning their wheels.
Cast of characters (Fair side)
Joe Nederlander — Part of the family that runs the Nederlander theatrical organization, which includes the Fisher and Masonic locally. In 1999, Nederlander began secret negotiations to lease the Michigan State Fairgrounds and create a $200 million entertainment venue. John Hertel — A longtime friend of Nederlander. The Democratic chairman of the Macomb County Board…
Heist
Crime and chess have a lot in common. For those who’ve truly got game, strategy becomes a philosophy, but sometimes they overplay. Robber Gene Hackman gets away with it. Writer-director David Mamet ends up getting too clever for his own good, though his linguistic alchemy turns phrases of street prose into the witty, ironic poetry…
