War-on-drugs vets
Legalized medical marijuana has helped remove the looming physical and mental presence of the narcotics police from our lives for the first time since we started smoking weed. If we have a patient ID card, we’re protected from arrest and imprisonment for our daily smoking activities, and we can replenish our supplies from our licensed…
Bound for glory
John K. King Books 901 W. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit; 313-961-0622 John K. King is the big kahuna when it comes to local used bookstores. Crammed with miles and miles of books, and occupying a quaint old glove factory, you can get everything from old postcards to maps, from great literature to cheesy novelizations of Welcome…
Motor City seasonal
In the consumerist orgy of the holiday season, it’s important not to let the cries of "shop local" fall on ears deafened by endless demands and brains dulled by to-do lists, fiscal worries and yuletide cocktails. Patronizing indie businesses keeps more bucks in the local economy than visiting big-box retailers, and preserves the distinct, local…
Saints of Mexicantown
Jessica Hernandez is small-framed and soft-spoken, but she can belt out a chorus in a trill that’s easily twice her size — and it’s sharp, soulful and bluesy. You can hear it on her new Eric Hoegemeyer and Ben West-produced EP Weird Looking Women in Too Many Clothes. Its sound speaks volumes. "There’s something that…
Dublin your pleasure?
John Cowley & Sons 33338 Grand River Ave., Farmington 248-474-5941 johncowleys.com Often lost among the dozens of strip mall restaurants labeled "bar and grille," the classic neighborhood joint is something of a dying art. The food and drink might be great, or it might be terrible — but Cliff and Norm are always there. Not…
Binary stars
When the first item on your Saturday morning to-do list reads "make oversized alien heads with friends," you know you must be doing something right. And for Marcie Bolen and Deleano Acevedo, the creative forces behind Detroit electro-rock duo Silverghost, that’s all part of the plan. The duo has pretty much been a self-contained world,…
Plant life
The tourists wandering through their home don’t bother them so much. And they’re used to the shrill buzz of the saws scrappers bring. Even the snarling bobcat they just ran into in the basement wasn’t so scary. But the people firing guns into the walls have become a bit of a nuisance. "They just come…
Burlesque
Burlesque GRADE: F- All gristle and no sizzle, Burlesque is a candy box of nutrition-free delights that’ll rot out the teeth of sugar-lovers but will leave a bitter aftertaste for more sensitive viewers. Ostensibly a series of Christina Aguilera music videos separated by a pantomime of the hoariest clichés from Depression-era backstage musicals, the movie…
Season’s greening!
Contributors: W.K Heron, Brian Smith, Michael Jackman, Bill Holdship, Michael Gallucci, Nathan Phillips, Megan O’Neil, Dennis Shea, Norene Smith, Tim Hill, Travis R. Wright, Bret McCabe Funk & Soul Covers Joaquim Paulo and Julius Wiedemann Taschen, $40, 432 pages You want to get a gift for someone who loves music, but it’s like they’ve already…
Discarded keys
Anyone who has parented a teenager knows that kids sometimes do things that defy all logic. That’s because their brains have not fully formed, and their ability to make sound decisions is impaired. Given that fact, it’s not surprising that the overwhelming majority of nations don’t lock kids up kids under the age of 18…
Letters to the Editor
Doing justice Re: "Detroit’s Greatest Hits that should have been" (Nov. 10) Brett Callwood mention of the Rockets’ "No Ballads" does justice for one of Detroit’s most beloved rock front man: Dave Gilbert. In his time, Dave was the baddest motherfucker to walk on stage, grab a mic and deliver the goods. I’m tired of…
Locally literate
For the last several years, we’ve been rounding up books related to our region, marveling at the amount and variety of books about Michigan and Detroit, waiting to see if and when the trend would crest. We’re still waiting, as the books just keep rolling off the presses. All this is good news for area…
Metro Retro
17 years ago in Metro Times: Marilyn Lessem looks at single-sex schooling as a possible option for struggling students. The article, "Class distinction," focuses on young females, who researchers say don’t get the same opportunities as males in grade schools, and suffer from such problems as lack of self-esteem and enthusiasm for school. Lessem says…
Of sex and injustice
Some years ago, I talked to a heartbroken woman who lived near the Ohio border. Her daughter, who was younger than 16, the legal age of consent in Michigan, had been willingly having sex with her 17-year-old boyfriend, an honor student. The kids wouldn’t stop doing it, surprise, surprise, and the mom then took them…
Pryor disturbances
As I walked up the steps to Mulenga Harangua’s porch, I noticed that he seemed to be fixing the place up. At least he’s slapped a coat of paint on the porch and steps. It made the place he was squatting in look a lot friendlier. I knocked lightly on the front door and it…
Motor City Cribs
When the Roseville power pop quartet Citizen Smile inquired if we wanted to photograph them at their church rehearsal space, we envisioned the classic setting of a group taking over an abandoned church like Plymouth’s Chris Breest or R.E.M back in early ’80s Athens, Ga. We realized something was up when we were given a…
Loaded answers
Q: I’m a 23-year-old female college student whose life consists of going to class and going to the gym. I got hurt in my last relationship, so I’ve been staying away from dating for a while. I’m attractive and I notice guys checking me out — making the gym a second home does have benefits!…
A cornucopia of giving
Stores fill their end caps with heaps of cheap and nasty bubbly wine for the holidays. Do yourself and our state’s economy a favor by buying a bottle or two of Michigan-made beverages. May we suggest estate-grown and -bottled sparkling wine from the Leelanau Peninsula? L. Mawby wines are made using the traditional methode Champenoise,…
Food Stuff
Big bar night — It’s here: The big bar night before Thanksgiving, when you have a much better chance of running into former Detroiters returning home for a tryptophan high. We had an exhaustive list of spots last week, but somebody pointed out a few nightspots we missed, including Northern Lights Lounge (660 W. Baltimore…
Bridge brigade
Some of the leading proponents of the Detroit International River Crossing held a press conference last week in an attempt to prompt Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop to keep his pervious promise and allow a vote on a proposal to build a new publicly owned span in the Delray area. Bishop had promised several…
Riff-a-rama
Book publishing may be on the skids, but the music biography is fortunately nowhere near extinction just yet. The big news this year, of course, is Life by Keith Richards (Little Brown, $29.99), which has already hit No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestsellers list. The Rolling Stones’ musical architect claims inside the…
The Left Releases Free EP: Gas Leaks
One of Detroit’s most exciting new hip-hop groups just (re)released a free EP to all of their fans and it’s definitely worth a listen. The EP is called Gas Leaks and it was meant to be a three-song prequel to Gas Mask, the full length album that members of the Left (Journalist 103, Apollo Brown,…
Third Man to reissue first three White Stripes albums … ‘definitive’ versions
The first three White Stripes albums, 1999’s The White Stripes, 2000’s De Stijl and 2001’s White Blood Cells are getting the full-on audiophile treatment, remastered for the first time in a total analog mastering chain from the first generation master tapes. Each will be pressed on heavy, 180-gram vinyl while the “heavy board” jacket will see art that’s…
Magestik Legend — The Great Escape Trailer
Just yesterday, I was looking at some killer photos of late actor Steve McQueen as he was preparing to star in the classic 1963 film The Great Escape. No matter who you are, your cool factor does not, or will ever, mirror McQueen’s. Believe it. But then I started thinking, can Detroit rapper Magestik Legend’s…
Fair Game
Fair Game GRADE: A- Seven years, trillions of dollars and thousands of lives later, and we’re still trying to chop through the thicket of half-truths and distortions that obscured the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The thorniest of those tangles grew around the issue of weapons of mass destruction, where they were or if…
The Next Three Days
The Next Three Days GRADE: C+ Crisply acted, smartly directed and patently absurd, The Next Three Days is a high-tension thriller wound so tight it seems ready to snap like a stressed guitar string at any minute. Adapted by award-winning writer director Paul Haggis (Leaving Las Vegas) from a French thriller mostly unseen in this…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 GRADE: B+ It was with the last Harry Potter film — The Half Blood Prince — that director David Yates gave up trying to create a stand-alone installment and simply accepted that audiences were either with Harry or they weren’t. Dark and menacing, it was the most…
Love and Other Drugs
Love and Other Drugs GRADE: C Is it possible to make a maudlin satire? That’s the uncomfortable question posed by Love and Other Drugs, a hyperactive romantic comedy set in the over-hyped world of ’90s prescription drug sales, a film that twitches and creaks due to a manic-depressive tendency buried deep in its genetic code.…
127 Hours
127 Hours GRADE: B+ Oh, don’t be such a pussy. It’s not that bad. The act of James Franco sawing off his own arm amounts to roughly 10 minutes of screen time at best (for those of you who are clueless — sorry about the spoiler). It’s a harrowing 10 minutes to be sure, and,…
Crown Royale (Buff 1 & DJ Rhettmatic) first official video — ‘We Gotcha’
Here’s the brand new music video from hip-hop group Crown Royale for their debut single “We Gotcha.” Comprised of Atheltic Mic League vet Buff 1 and DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beat Junkies, Crown Royale started making music together a little over a year ago at the suggestion of Mayer Hawthorne and his manager,…
Facebook creep zeros in on area high school girls
From the Dept. of Too Many Creeps: Some troubled dude has a strange hobby, collecting — Wait. No, this ain’t “Arnold Layne” (or Syd Barrett) This particular guy got caught hoarding pics of high-school girls who showed some skin in bikinis and what not on their personal Facebook profiles, WXYZ says. It so happens that…
A fruit jar lid knocks some guy out
Via mlive.com: A few years ago Darryl Alexander used the butt end of a screwdriver to open a jar of Del Monte “Orchard Select” fruit. The Southfield 56-year-old apparently whacked the unyielding lid and it rocketed straight to his eye, thus knocking him to the floor where he lost consciousness. After hospitalization, Alexander wore a…
The Sights burn down the Motor City tonight on CJAM 99.1
The Sights, obviously one of our two or three fave purveyors of song, din and drink, released yesterday its latest rekkid, the aptly titled Most Of What Follows Is True, on the mighty L.A.-based Alive label. The album’s great; it’s filled with sing-song themes of self-reproach and waning innocence, all delivered with the heartfelt zeal…
First-rate fare
Luxe Bar & Grill 525 N. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham; 248-792-6051 Checking out in advance the new Luxe Bar & Grill online, I found reviewers happy to discover a meal for less than $10 in Birmingham. True, two of the Luxe’s burgers and four salads are less than $10, but most glasses of wine are…
Straight Talk
The Metro Times "Higher Ground: A Home Grown Event" inside Eastern Market’s Shed 3 Friday evening seemed to go off well; the Feds didn’t bust in and carry everyone off to jail. For the two hours I was there, it seemed a festive, though not over-the-top, event. Mostly I wanted to hear what the distinguished…
My Dog Tulip
My Dog Tulip GRADE: A- Ah, the bond between man and mutt. It’s a relationship that’s been poorly explored by Hollywood. Whether it’s Benji, Air Bud, Lassie or Old Yeller, the artifice is too obvious, the need for melodramatics or comic antics too forced to capture the true joys and complexities of human-dog companionship. Plus…
Philosophy of flow
The music biz, or what’s left of it, has more than its fair share of dirty tales. But the casual music fans don’t notice. You buy a CD, you like it, done. But for every album purchased these days, there are 10 others that either got shelved, leaked or have to be given away despite…
Monsters
Monsters GRADE: C For those who found the apartheid allegory of District 9 simply too subtle, here’s a film that posits an America literally walled-off and relying on its military might to keep out a nasty new group of shadowy invaders surging north from Mexico. These "illegals," however, aren’t day laborers, but massive, neon-flashing, car-smashing…
Metro Retro
23 years ago in Metro Times: Henrietta Epstein reports that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians donated their services in their last Halloween concert, after their benefits and salaries had ended suddenly in September, even before the end of contract negotiations with the DSO board. Robert Pangborn, percussionist with the DSO for 23 years, tells MT,…
Spun
Tyvek Nothing Fits In The Red The debut full-length from Detroit rock ‘n’ roll deconstruction crew Tyvek was a cacophony of half-baked far-out ideas, throwaway instrumentals and sloppy recording — it had all the unhinged zaniness that fans have come to expect from the band, but it was just too hard to digest. On Nothing…
Letters to the Editor
Tear down that fence Just read the excellent article by Curt Guyette regarding the land that belongs to the city ("Bamboozled," News Hits, Nov. 3). It is so remarkable that this situation has gone on since the Dennis Archer administration! What was Archer thinking? Really! What was he thinking? Since the City Council didn’t approve…
Motor City Five
Someone said the Wiyos are one of the best live bands on the planet. If that means they’re absent of pretense and nonsense and play a purely natural American acoustic hybrid of twisted old-time, jug, jazz, blues and rag in punk rock spirit, then so be it. Dylan loves ’em. Here Wiyos offer their five…
More smoke
Here are four words that, in this particular sequence at least, have never appeared in this space: "Thank you, Kwame Kilpatrick." And what, you might ask, has the felonious Kwamster done to earn our gratitude? Actually, it’s what he didn’t do: Attempt to have the city into purchase the municipal waste incinerator this column has…
The big bar night
Some of the best things about the Thanksgiving Eve drinking holiday are catching up with old high school and college friends, awkward run-ins with ex-boyfriends and -girlfriends, and late night debauchery on a weekday — all at your local watering hole. Not sure where to spend it? Don’t sweat it. We’re here to enhance all…
Detroit cosmopolitan
Celldweller, a fusion of industrial-electronic music, rock with the epic feel of orchestral music, is a one-man project consisting of a Detroiter via New York called Klayton, aka Scott Albert. The musician is an internationally acclaimed artist, producer, songwriter, performer, programmer and re-mixer. His music has been featured in such films as Iron Man, Spider-Man…
Gray as hell
Q: I have been married for 16 years and have three children. My marriage isn’t the best, nor is the sex. I have strayed many times, and it’s always been with women — I love women and I love having sex with women. However, for years I have had a fantasy about being with a…
Scoundrel time
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, an ambitious politician on the make with a law degree, a real estate license and grease in his hair, is more than happy to cost this region tens of thousands of mostly high-paying jobs, just to please one greedy, aging billionaire. What’s worse is that he is getting away with…
Girl talk
Is it possible for a TV series to "jump the shark" in only its second season? Human Target, my favorite new action spree of 2010 and FOX’s obvious hope to succeed Kiefer Sutherland’s 24 for testosterone-driven, blow-’em-up, male fantasy appeal, returns with fresh episodes at 8 tonight (Channel 2 in Detroit). The show has undergone…
Food Stuff
New toppings — In August, we noted Southfield’s new Pizzeria Biga (29110 Franklin Rd.; 248-750-2500; pizzeriabiga.com), which opened in late June. The pizzeria is the production of Luciano Del Signore, the owner-chef of the justly celebrated, upscale Bacco (29410 Northwestern Hwy., Southfield; 248-356-6600; baccoristorante.com), just around the corner. This week, both restaurants have some news.…
Today’s Special
Today’s Special GRADE: B- Actor, writer and, most famously, Daily Show correspondent, Aasif Mandvi has whipped up a winning indie comedy despite an overload of clichés. Based on Mandvi’s Obie-winning play, Today’s Special is the sort of small, quirky pleasure that invites hokey puns, being laden with a host of familiar themes, from the cooking-as-personal-passion,…
Re-Detroit
It’s all about the "re-" these days when people talk about the city’s future: Reimagine Detroit, journalist John Gallagher urges in his recently released book title. Redesign the crumbling, outdated city infrastructure, the planners say. Realign the city departments and services to save money, the fiscally minded clamor. Mayor Dave Bing has dubbed the effort…
Cheat Code
Fallout: New Vegas Bethesda Xbox 360 (Review Copy) PS3, PC Let’s get this out the way: Fallout: New Vegas has more than its fair share of glitches. From strange animation hiccups and frame-rate issues to outright game freezes — polished, this game’s not. Yet … games this glitchy aren’t usually this good. Warts and all,…
Power shag theater
Last Wednesday night, the Wonder Twins teased their hair and applied blue eye shadow up to their eyebrows for Rock of Ages, the five-time Tony-nominated musical of massive rock proportions starring American Idol also-ran Constantine Maroulis. You’ll note that ROA is jam-packed with ’80s arena rock anthems by the likes of Whitesnake, Poison, Quiet Riot…
Cat Power!
On the southbound service drive of the Fisher Freeway, right where motorists could once catch a glimpse of Tiger Stadium, sits a relatively new landmark. In the shadow of the stark, ramped bridge that curls back to span the expressway, a pair of wide eyes awaits drivers. They are set back in a domed cat…
Detroit: the most freaked-out place to live in America!
We’re at No. 1 with a bullet! Ready for another national Top 50 list that’s aced by our fair city? Indeed. Detroit is America’s “most stressed out city” in which to live and work, according to a study by Portfolio.com and bizjournals. We here at MT aren’t exactly sure how we missed this two-month old…
MT Music Blog Interview: Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor’s Sean Morrow
After turning heads out in New York and Austin this past summer, local psych rockers Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor prep themselves for their first Detroit headlining show in what’s seems like forever. The Doors-ian trio – consisting of vocalist/guitarist Sean Morrow, bassist Eric Oppitz and drummer Rick Sawoscinski – are set to hit PJ’s…
A world of clothing in Detroit’s backyard
Imagine giving the best kind of gift this holiday season: apparel inspired by countries from around the world that match your purchase with a donation to the country that inspired your purchase. 24-year-old Mallory Brown, founder of World Clothes Line, is the visionary behind this local start-up and her Farmington Hills company is poised to…
