Czar wars
Louis Schimmel says he’s making Hamtramck’s deficit disappear. Some locals wish they could make him disappear.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I love and respect your rational mind, but it’s rather arrogant in its presumption that it can know all there is to know. Will you consider suspending its tyranny long enough to receive help from the great beyond? This week your future self will try to contact you in order to…
Pass revoked
After five years and over 500 segments dedicated to local artists and musicians, WTVS suspends production of Backstage Pass.
Asterisk (“*”)
I don’t think it’s selling Triangle short to say that the band comes on like Mouse on Mars and lingers like Built to Spill. Because between these two indie-rock poles lies a vast landscape of familiar-yet-reworked turf, and the two indie “proles” of Triangle do their best to map it out while not giving their…
’70 come back!
Why freaky Michael Jackson dares to show his face on national TV….
Indian artistry
Entrées at Rangoli come in small copper bowls. Among our favorites: nargisi aloo (a saucy, scooped-out potato stuffed with nuts, vegetables and cheese); chicken tikka masala (roasted breast meat in a thick and luscious sauce); spicy-hot chettinadu pepper chicken (fiery peppers in a coconut curry. If you’re new to Indian food, there are several combination…
Stay sick, turn blue, tune in
Invite The Ghoul into your home this Thanksgiving weekend….
Live in Atlanta
On a personal note, I miss Josh, man. Members of the hometown blues community know without question that Motor City Josh Ford was one of the brightest lights on the local blues scene before he moved down south to Atlanta. The boy can stroke the guitar like nobody’s business, but more importantly he’s got a…
The shape of punk to come
In which Ted Leo engages old comrade Travis Morrison in some revealing interplay….
Live Trane: The European Tours
The stats for this boxed set are impressive: seven CDs recorded over two years (November 1961 to November 1963), 20 of 38 cuts previously unreleased, approximately 11 hours of music. One of the greatest saxophonists of the past century is heard playing outside the confines of an early-’60s recording studio with the most sympathetic combo…
The view from ground zero
Sorting through the election results … Kilpatrick’s got a lot on his plate and the City Council may not be much help. PLUS: Southfield and Pontiac boot out bad mayors.
Sound-Dust
Stereolab takes a maximal approach on its recent album, Sound-Dust, using electronic sounds, guitar, bass, piano, organ, a horn section, glockenspiel, harpsichord, flute, harmonica and other instruments. It sounds like an interesting mix, sure to create a diverse collection, but all of the songs sound oddly similar and Sound-Dust is monotonous and hard to sit…
Clubby go-round
Swanky, new nightclubs popping up everywhere (whether we need ’em or not) … Pure Detroit sells more cool, local stuff … Feelin’ Bleu … & Eminem wears used clothes.
A Funk Odyssey
Long labeled a Stevie Wonder imitator, Jason Kay’s white-skin soul-funk singing and stage kinesics got Jamiroquai ridiculed as some sort of ’90s dance version of the Average White Band. But eight years (“Twenty Zero One”) into the ’70s-’90s bit-picking of black psychedelia, he has put the Wonder thing to the side and embraced the groove.…
Hide & seek
In war, the maxim goes, the first casualty is truth. The second and third, apparently, are civil rights and the rule of law.
Lyricists Lounge: Underground Airplay
Let’s clear up a few questions before turning the thumb up or down on this one. Underground Airplay, the third CD connected with the legendary Lyricist Lounge, is presented in conjunction with Ecko Unltd., a clothing company? Yes. And though the debate still rages as to what is and is not “real” hip hop, this…
Living history
We celebrate Detroit’s innovators with festivals such as the DEMF — and now a sort of techno museum, thanks to Submerge’s new building.
New Favorite
Riveting when they’re not striving to be, Alison Krauss and Union Station’s full-bodied, alluring and euphonic New Favorite is a smooth sail that glides through the realm of loneliness. Strongest when rooted in traditional bluegrass sounds, the group advantageously uses this foundation as a starting point of exploration, resulting in an organic expansion and blurring…
Finding fetish friends
Q: As a longtime reader of your column I wonder about the path between fetishes and lasting intimacy. I am a man in my 40s with a —– fetish. I would like to find a woman who shares this, but not to overshadow the other aspects that make a lifetime partnership work. I just recently…
Tough farewell
It’s tough saying goodbye to piano great Tommy Flanagan….
Demos & Outtakes
On Guided by Voices’ mid-period albums, guitarist Tobin Sprout played the role of a musical sharpshooter. And while GBV front man Robert Pollard has always been content to release every millimeter of tape that he’s recorded on (leaving it to the listener to separate the prime cuts from the fat), Sprout contributed songs only sporadically…
Letters to the Editor
Not easy being Green We at The Greening of Detroit read your cover story (“Down a green path, Metro Times, Oct-31-Nov. 6) with great interest. The article on the University of Detroit Mercy’s Adamah project was very interesting and the Adamah project’s vision of a green near-east side is exciting, but we were dismayed that…
Patriot games
The Michigan Legislature rams through its own anti-terrorism bill….
Off to see the wizards
Wow. Or in the words of the junior wizards of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, "Brilliant!" As impossibly packed with goodies as Santa Claus’ bag, this film taps into the wellspring that feeds Cinderella and the Alice in Wonderland stories, and flows even more deeply from Arthurian romance and classic myth.
A gay soiree
In David Dillon’s off-Broadway hit, seven sweet hunks fight for their right to Party.
Tubed
Local TV news shows score poorly; but WXYZ doesn’t really care….
The Wide Blue Road
Alternately languid and melodramatic, dated but well acted, this 1957 first feature by director Gillo Pontecorvo is a gritty tale of impoverished fishermen made hyper-real by its luscious color and a charismatic star in the lead – with Yves Montand and Alida Vali.
Letters to the Editor
Not easy being Green We at The Greening of Detroit read your cover story (“Down a green path, Metro Times, Oct-31-Nov. 6) with great interest. The article on the University of Detroit Mercy’s Adamah project was very interesting and the Adamah project’s vision of a green near-east side is exciting, but we were dismayed that…
6,000 hits
We reported a few weeks ago that Tim Beck plans on blitzing the polls with petitioners gathering names to put a pro-marijuana initiative on the Detroit ballot, figuring he could get all he needed in one shot on Election Day. It didn’t quite work that way, but supporters shouldn’t be dismayed. According to Beck, his…
Sidewalks of New York
A New York story, a motley brew of more-or-less neurotic friends and lovers snared in an understated romantic comedy plot line, Sidewalks could be a poor man’s version of a Woody Allen movie, though it’s little more than an interestingly well-made and fabulous soap opera — with Heather Graham, Stanley Tucci and Edward Burns.
When consoles collide
GameBox or Xcube…. Who’ll win the mother of all holiday video game showdowns?
Blackstone: A new chapter?
Recent drama at the Cass Corridor’s Blackstone Hotel finally may be dying down. The decrepit building’s new owner, Scott Lowell, settled with 16 residents as their lawsuit against him headed to court last week. Lowell agreed to give residents until Dec. 1 to leave the historic hangout for pimps, hookers and folks who are down…
Signs and Wonders
A businessman living in Greece (Stellan Skarsgård) with his wife (Charlotte Rampling) and their two children, is slowly going mad. One of the symptoms is the way every little duplication he spots is rife with meaning. The garbled mess of the world is sending him messages, even though he can’t quite figure out what they…
Name that number
The history of “Sharevari” — the classic party-club song that’s regarded as the first Detroit techno record.
Consumer retorts
“Buy Nothing Day” exhorts holiday shoppers to give it a rest….
The Wash
Welcome back to the ghetto of L.A., y’all. Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre just keepin’ it real representin’ the hood, Cali-style. This is a flick made by and for the 40-and-a-blunt crew. If that ain’t your thing, you probably won’t understand — or want to. But if you want a fair-to-middling slice of ghetto life…
Dictator of Detroit?
Hamtramck’s emergency financial manager Louis H. Schimmel has some ideas for Detroit, too. The current administration responds.
Fundamental resistance
Two authors mourn Algerian arts and letters in the age of terrorism.
Novocaine
Good-guy Steve Martin is the quintessential patsy, a man stifled by the perfect life he’s created, until Helena Bonham Carter shows up. What comes next is utterly predictable, another case of a duplicitous femme fatale and an elaborate plot to make an innocent man take the blame for crimes he didn’t commit.
