News Hits
We’re number … uh, never mind Columbia Journalism Review recently polled newspaper executives around the country to learn which dailies are considered the nation’s best. A total of 42 papers received at least four votes each. Noticeably absent from that list were our very own Detroit News and Free Press, which occupy a market much…
Late August, Early September
With a plot as imprecise as its title, Late August, Early September solidifies writer-director Olivier Assayas’ reputation as a worthy heir of the French New Wave of the ‘60s. Less emotionally detached than his earlier slice-of-life feature, Cold Water (1994), and more rooted in the quotidian than his playfully surreal meditation on filmmaking, Irma Vep…
Food Stuff
MOCK TURKEY What to do about vegetarians on Turkey Day? There’s a solution: Tofurky. It loosely resembles a rolled turkey breast, but it’s made of tofu and wheat protein. It’s even stuffed, and comes with a bag of gravy, four drumsticks and (new this year) "wishstix" made of Tofurky jerky. I arranged for delivery of…
The World is Not Enough
Even while fulfilling the expectations of the global James Bond audience, something unusual has happened to the series during its last three outings. Pierce Brosnan hasn’t changed Bond as much as refined him to his essentials, yet these films all possess a wistful nostalgia for easily identifiable villains and a time when past events could…
James Bond redux
What makes James Bond indestructible? It’s an interesting paradox. This globally popular franchise is so successful because it manages to constantly change while remaining essentially the same. The character has been embodied by five different actors during 19 films, from 1962’s Dr. No to The World is Not Enough, yet he’s always simply Bond, James…
Poppin’ a New York groove
Absolut. Breakdancing. Club kids. Disneyfication. Emoticons. Feng Shui. Goth. Hemp. Implants. Joe Boxers. Karaoke. Lounge music. Marilyn Manson. Navels. Orange. Phone sex. Queen Latifah. Riot grrrls. Snapple. Tattoos. Undergarments. Versace. Wired. Xena. Yoga. ‘Zines. Plus hundreds more. Read on. Thanks go to the fine folks at Paper magazine for compiling this dictionary for our popping…
Lone gunman
Up until now, novelist Walter Mosley has ranked among those very few Americans older than 35 who’ve never seen John F. Kennedy’s head explode. That’s about to change. Sliding into a front-row seat at the Carolina Theater, in Durham, N.C., Mosley is upbeat, awaiting his first glimpse of the historic Zapruder Film, Abraham Zapruder’s legendary…
Picture of an exhibition
“The look of life is tied to having and controlling life,” writes John Marriott in his incisive catalog essay for The Doll House, a show organized by Windsor’s enfant du visible, Mark Laliberte. That stark installation of works by five women artists picked at the wounds of our ancient fascination with the cuddly effigies that…
Locks unbound
Dreads Photographs by Francesco Mastalia and Alfonse Pagano Introduced by Alice Walker Artisan, $35, 144 pp. Fashion dread, a young people business Material dread, a young people business Styling dread, a young people business Commercial dread is some other kind of people’ business. Original dread, a rasta business. Original dread, a rasta business "Rasta Business"…
Sleepy Hollow
Constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) stands before New York City’s burgomaster (Christopher Lee), tense, poised, ready to break. Formidable, Lee’s glare paralyzes Crane’s will — a nice touch considering that Tim Burton’s film tries to pay desperate homage to the Hammer productions, to those glorious days of stilted discourse and walking corpses, of blood-sucking beasts…
The chill of the game
Contrary to what Nike would like us to believe, far more people watch rather than actually play sports. So what exactly are we armchair superstars watching? David Shields has a pretty good idea, at least when it comes to basketball. In his new book, Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season (Crown Publications, $20,…
Sherry Washington Gallery
Specializing in African-American art from some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century, the Sherry Washington Gallery has been providing Metro Detroit with a steady supply since 1989.
E-Z access
In reply to Jack Lessenberry’s column entitled "Party Made For Walkin’" (Politics & Prejudices, MT, Oct. 27-Nov. 2), I am happy that Lessenberry decided to write about our upcoming presidential caucus. Unfortunately the vote-by-mail program, which is the most innovative part of the caucus, was not mentioned. The vote-by-mail program will give everyone access to…
Failing Father
If Freud was even in the ballpark, it would necessarily take reggae deity Bob Marley’s male children to emasculate his majestic body of rebel music. And, with Chant Down Babylon, that’s exactly what has happened. Stephen, Damian and Julian Marley have, admittedly, assembled an impressive cast of African-American hip-hop and R&B artists to deliver Marley’s…
Harassing the homeless
Some police officers are harassing homeless people in an attempt to move them away from business districts, service agency leaders told Detroit Police Chief Benny Napoleon in a meeting arranged last week by City Council President Pro Tem Maryann Mahaffey. At the root of the problem is a woeful lack of homeless facilities. There are…
Joy in repetition
Relaxing really isn’t the proper word, but it’ll do to describe the latest release by the former Prince Rogers Nelson. Relaxing, not because he has forgotten funk or left out any harsh edges; though never unruly, the album still pushes and shoves its way through the funk, from stripped-down drum machines ("Undisputed") to Nelson’s pungently…
Hunger pains
As the president and CEO of this country’s largest food bank network, Deborah Leff deals with all sorts of numbers on a daily basis. America’s Second Harvest supplies food to pantries and soup kitchens in all 50 states. Last year, the Chicago-based organization delivered more than 1 billion pounds of food, feeding 26 million Americans…
Minor league heavy hitters
The boy-band craze of ’99 may have saved the music industry in more ways than it knows. After nearly a decade of scavenging the wreckage of the AltRock explosion, the scouts are going home and the players can go back to playing for the love of the game. The Dismemberment Plan, one of these aforementioned…
All together now
Ten Detroit musicians assemble the pieces of their musical dream band, including all-time favorite vocalists, drummers and … toasterplayers?
A novel approach
"Children … can recover physically from malnutrition, but not mentally. Early childhood brain development, if impeded by chronic malnutrition, is irreversible." Novelist Mark Winegardner knew he had to do something when he heard Dr. Larry Brown, director of the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Tufts University, relay that message at a 1995 conference on…
Smoky-noir diva
If you visit the Green Mill jazz bar in Chicago, you’ll probably learn two things. Fact No. 1: The notorious Al Capone once owned (and hung out at) the Green Mill. Fact No. 2: Patricia Barber is the best-kept secret in Chicago. An alluring vocalist who plays Hammond B-3 and piano with tasty precision, Barber…
A rage in Watts
For Walter Mosley’s latest (anti)hero, anger is a circle of hell….
Showdown in Seattle
When President Clinton and bigwigs from more than 100 nations hit Seattle in late November to discuss the global economy at the World Trade Organization’s annual summit, they’ll be greeted by more than spiffy fruit baskets in their hotel suites. Awaiting the WTO delegates will be a sea of protesters, ranging from labor unionists to…
Vintage satisfaction
Detroit mysterian Wilbur Harden — a velvet voice on flügelhorn and trumpet, sometime colleague of Yusef Lateef — didn’t record a vault-load of material during his brief, late-’50s stay in the spotlight, but what he did produce was special. This two-CD set compiles all the sessions that he recorded with John Coltrane, in the company…
Attention Span
ALL IN THE WRIST Casio makes a watch with a built-in global positioning system. But for those who prefer to see the world from a comfortable recliner, the electronics manufacturer also offers an alarm chronograph watch with a remote control for TV, cable and VCR. The face of the $60 Technowear Wrist Remote Controller is…
Tax? What tax?
A perennial opponent of tax increases plans to sue Oakland County over a charge for emergency phone services that commissioners approved Nov. 18. Bill McMaster, state chair of Taxpayers United, Inc., says his nonprofit organization will file a suit alleging that the new 911 surcharge, 4 percent of each basic phone line charge, violates state…
Revolution Gallery
When looking for thought-provoking, conceptual pieces to ponder, look no further than Revolution Gallery. Featuring artists using all media from painting to installation.
In one ear
FIRST THINGS FIRST I know it’s not technically my place to be alerting you to techno news (we have a column that appears in this very space every other week called Pitch’d for that), but techno innovator Jeff Mills, who was set to spin a six-hour retrospective set as his mix-DJ persona, The Wizard, on…
The Big Man Cometh
If you’re in town for the Thanksgiving holidays, and turkey just isn’t enough, then you need to hit the Attic in Hamtramck and check out Big Jack Johnson. A Mississippi native, Johnson won the Best Live Performer award from Living Blues Magazine in 1994. If you’ve ever seen this man perform live, then you know…
Justice wins! Kids convicted
Don’t know about you, but I was overjoyed at the Nate Abraham verdict. Hard as it is to believe, a nearly all-white jury in highly affluent Oakland County found the courage to accept the idea that a semiretarded poor black child ought to stand trial as an adult. They further showed their backbone by convicting…
Mixology 909
The irony of a mix CD is that it is a CD. A DJ takes the sounds generated from two turntables (and in this case much more than that) and puts the end result on CD — a medium of audio transport often shunned by the hardcore mixmaster. Then again, we’re talking about Richie Hawtin,…
(Un)happy meals
At this very moment, it’s hard to think of something more intimidating than being face to face with a cold, dead, damp animal, except maybe having to stick my hand into its carcass in search of its guts. "Why does cooking a dead turkey symbolize being thankful?" I ask. "Maybe I should be thankful I’m…
Fahrenheit 451
François Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966) is generally ranked so low in the director’s canon that if you genuinely like it the impulse is not so much to praise it as defend it. There’s no getting around that it’s an odd film which many people find laughable or boring or both. It was awaited in its…
Party, parking, reservation?
BON VOYAGE, GOOD RIDDANCE Hipsters of all sizes, shapes and colors converged on a single downtown Detroit block last Saturday, as Orbit magazine threw its heavily hyped bon voyage party at St. Andrew’s, Jacoby’s and Steve’s Place. The tart-tongued, bile-saturated, spelling-impaired monthly churned out its final issue last month, and the rag certainly went out…
Flawless
Flawless is an excellent example of why plot isn’t everything. The setup would elicit embarrassed cringes as a television movie-of-the week, let alone in the hands of writer-director Joel Schumacher: Homophobic former security guard Walter Koontz (Robert De Niro) has a stroke and ends up taking singing lessons from his drag queen neighbor Rusty Zimmerman…
