Electoral College cheer
Admit the truth; Bush and Gore essentially ended up in a tie. Yet we will get a president-elect, possibly by the end of this week.
Non-Stop
Directed and written by Sabu (Hiroyuki Tanaka), this hip 1996 black comedy plays like a cross between Run Lola Run and one of Beat Kitano’s Yakuza massacre flicks, rising above its disposable mise-en-scène by dint of an engaging mix of brooding and whimsy.
Jazz for the people
Kind of Blue is a consensus jazz masterpiece, something that everybody can agree on. As with Citizen Kane, if you claim not to like it you’re either clueless or trying to be difficult. People who may find early Miles too abstract or later Miles too rowdy like it. People who are not particularly fond of…
Boom? What boom?
Times are great, as long as you’re already rich. Economic Apartheid in America addresses the country’s growing income gap.
About the thighs of it
Q: I used to be a ringer for Johnny Depp. Not long ago, I injured my back and became sedentary, and now I’m overweight. Size-wise, I’m not John Goodman overweight; I’m more Philip Seymour Hoffman overweight. Even when I was thin I was quite shy, so I never made the first move. Sooner or later,…
Hey Mr. DJ
How long can one artistic endeavor continue to scavenge, sift and sculpt from the raw materials of (culturally) dead pop forms and still produce shining temples of sonic architecture? All eyes should focus on the Japanese kitsch craftsfolk of Pizzicato Five. Fifteen years on and the godfathers (and godmother) of such très chic acts as…
Readers respond
In response to the woman who complained of frequent vaginal pain between the ecstatic moments because her vagina is apparently shorter than her lover’s penis: As a man with the same problem as her lover (i.e. as a fellow member of the Heavy Hung Society), I would like to offer a comment. My longtime sexmate…
Letters to the Editor
Lots of alternatives Concerning the parking situation as affected by the new Greektown Casino ("Parking roulette," MT, Nov. 1-7), I used to park at the Mobile Parking structure on Bates and Randolph next to the National Theater. The monthly rent was jacked up from $60 to $100. Then we learned they were going to kick…
Into the bright
An album that starts out giving up the funk à la John Scofield (with a faint hint of the “Tonight Show” band) quickly turns into one hell of an inventive surprise. Ann Arbor-based guitarist Carl Michel, whose last release (1998) was a relaxed, bluesy set with a pianoless quartet (featuring excellent work from alto saxophonist…
Free Will Astrology 11/15
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are men really more objective than women? Speaking as a dude who’s proud and happy to be a dude, I say no. A man’s opinions, in my opinion, are as rooted in his emotional fixations as a woman’s are in hers. The male of the species, however, is often skilled at…
Zoned out, closed and ruined
ABC News drops by for a visit … Fashionable freeloading at the Majestic … & a fond farewell to the beloved Kress Lounge.
Driven
If you’ve ever stood near a subwoofer and experienced music as vibration, then you know art has the power to move matter. Local word artist Ron Allen’s Neon Jawbone Riot rocks poetry in a similar mode — from sacred spirit to primordial cell — challenging readers to dive below surface language and dance with their…
Along roads of life
Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami follows the way inside….
Jazzman extraordinaire
Farewell to Detroit pianist Pat Flowers…
Oy vey
Katie Singer’s debut novel, The Wholeness of a Broken Heart (its title the translation of a Yiddish proverb, “es iz nito a gantsere zakh vi a tsebrokhn harts”), is a multivocal account of four generations of Jewish women. Centered around the primal conflict of mother and daughter, it attempts to tell a heartwrendingly honest tale…
See it like it was
DetroiterEd "Robbie" Roberson’s amazingly extensive collection of photographs chronicles the existence of African-American people over more than half of the 20th century.
Superfunding
The Super Bowl’s coming, the Super Bowl’s coming!…
Video kills stars
What with MTV’s ever-increasing population of scantily clad teen girls preening ’n’ pouting like a pedophile’s wet dream, criticizing the network for exploiting young women ain’t the subtlest of observations. Even still, few make such pointed, powerful critiques of this trend as filmmaker Sadie Benning, with her scathingly hilarious video for Julie Ruin’s (aka Kathleen…
Eatsville
What a treat — four days gorging through Montreal, the delicious Canadian city where luscious meals are long-remembered.
The blood of others
Worshipping the hit men of professional sports…
Furious fireplay
With an “emotion engine” — the nickname for the powerhouse motherboard that batteries PlayStation 2 — come more complicated games. And as much as gamers love flash-crazy graphics, enhanced violence and overall escapism thrills, enough is enough! Unreal Tournament begins our major quibbles with PS2, the frail Furby of Christmas 2000. Realistically, playing this first-person…
Erekt, Screwd, Putty, Gum, Oomf
Why do Fudge’s hair care products have funky names?…
Pretty people
Rockin’ with style at Zones … Warn Defever is everywhere … Innovative musicians mind-meld at the Music Menu … & much more.
Premier showing
Sorry, Lauryn. Premier rules the world. The East Coast’s leading beatmaker can seemingly do no wrong in 2000, with everyone from Royce the 5’9” to Black Eyed Peas seeking him out to provide instant street buzz and popularity with mix DJs. Now his MC proteégés are expanding his empire. This album can be seen as…
Drink and wheel
Local market adds cupholders to shopping carts…
Doin’ the limbo
Michael Moore comments on the fiasco in Florida…
Trance in your pants
It happens to the best of them. Trance, once so promising as the apogee of electronic music sophistication, is being laid low by commercialization. This double-CD collection-mix of played-out trance “hits” from so-called stars such as Paul Van Dyk, BT, Moby, etc., offers nothing new. Save for a cautionary tale: If the corporations are cashing…
Don’t forget the ketchup
Heinz makes ketchup funny…
Damn democracy
Engler’s pissed that Detroiters voted….
And Life Goes On …
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s films are like fairy tales drained of all colorful effect. This one concerns a film director driving to a region of Iran which has been devastated by an earthquake, in order to find out if the boy who starred in his last movie has survived.
Catchphrase
Blank books for sale at Borders…
Desperate acts
Bush-backing Detroit News is hypocritical…
Men of Honor
Director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) and screenwriter Scott Marshall Smith opt for the noble Hollywood high road to tell a true story of individual struggle against entrenched oppression in the U.S. Navy — with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert De Niro.
Radio head
Mr. Netropolis is green with envy over his friend’s sweet setup, but takes a moment to introduce MT’s latest online experiment.
High hopes
Presidential candidates reach compromise (in our dreams)…
Winter Sleepers
This film, which director Tom Tykwer made just before his huge art–house success Run Lola Run, is an entertaining, if pokey, soap opera whose pretensions are subsumed by Tykwer’s facile camera, especially when it’s floating, godlike, above the majestic Alps.
Warn’s World
After more than 10 years, His Name Is (still) Alive… … Warn Defever talks about HNIA’s newest 4AD release and how he contributed to Tom Cruise’s nervous breakdown.
Freedom’s song
Immigrants hope for better life in U.S….
Little Nicky
Playing the devil’s offspring as good-natured loser, Adam Sandler reaffirms the delicate balance of menace and mirth behind his best movie characters. Sandler unleashes his little devil, but realizes that a spoonful of sugar helps the malevolence go down. — with Harvey Keitel and Patricia Arquette.
Election dog walk
The most important issue on Keith A. Owens’ mind, as well as everyone else’s in the nation, is the election at hand and who will come away as the next president…
Choiceless
Newspaper workers faced with “final” contract offer…
Red Planet
Sci-fi’s groundbreaking flicks of the last 30-odd years are Xeroxed, cut and pasted like an anonymous hostage note and ransomed here. Between the lines, between the scenes, the message reads: Hollywood, we have a problem.
Demystifying Arabia
Dearborn’s first annual Middle Eastern and North African Film Festival….
The Butlers did it
The Butler Twins, Curtis and Clarence, have long been considered among the most important members of the Detroit blues community. This CD should make it clear to anyone with a good pair of blues ears why this is the case. Born and raised in Alabama, the Twins arrived in Detroit in the ’70s armed with…
No more Mr. Nice Guy
In 1996, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs commissioned an architect to design new headquarters for his hugely successful Pixar Animation Studios. When employees learned the details, they began to wonder aloud how all 400 of them were going to share a single bathroom. Not happy about being questioned, Jobs responded by chastising almost everyone in…
Labor strains
Behind closed doors at the National Labor Relations Board in Washington — a new book accuses the board of dragging its feet on matters which included the Detroit newspaper case.
Charlie’s Angels
Loaded with nods to the last 50 years of pop culture, this series of intense vignettes establishes a specific tone: cheeky but not campy, with girlpower fueling the action and fun the ultimate goal — with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Bill Murray.
Furious Fireplay
With an “emotion engine” — the nickname for the powerhouse motherboard that batteries PlayStation 2 — come more complicated games. And as much as gamers love flash-crazy graphics, enhanced violence and overall escapism thrills, enough is enough! Unreal Tournament begins our major quibbles with PS2, the frail Furby of Christmas 2000. Realistically, playing this first-person…
