Wherefore cornbread?
You can get into dangerous territory when the subject is cornbread. It is, of course, a staple Southern dish. And if you’ve ever discussed Southern cooking with those who know something about it, you’re definitely getting into holy territory when this phrase comes up in the conversation: No self-respecting Southern cook would … The rest…
Moonshine moment
A statistical analysis of voting results in three battleground states hit us like a wicked shot of moonshine, the kind of jolt that dazes with potency then disappears as clarity lingers in its wake. Professor Steven Freeman, a professor of statistical analysis at the University of Pennsylvania with a doctorate from MIT, analyzed election data…
Hell Bent Rock ’n’ Roll
Their singer is a tattooed centerfold, the lead guitarist calls himself Elvis Christ, and the drummer drinks so much whiskey it became his last name. All of this and a predilection for raunch and dingy weekly-rate violence (“I had to superglue your wounds shut …”) means Seattle’s Go Like Hell are automatic heroes to the…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Introducing the new turbocharged MBX for 2004! • The Who – The Who Sell Out (Decca) :: Automobile commercials. Hewlett-Packard commercials. The CSI franchise. And you thought they were just being ironic. • Wu-Tang Clan – Greatest Hits (BMG) :: Bill Cosby is right. • ODB (Roc-A-Fella) :: D.O.A. • Wolf Eyes — Burned Mind…
Detroit’s a steal
Motown is in the Top 10 again, and, as is often the case, the distinction is one more reason for Detroiters to sing the blues. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit that assists in the fight against insurance fraud and vehicle theft, our beloved city was the tenth hottest spot for car…
Wham, bam, thank you ma’am
Virginia Adams has been a stay-at-home mom for her two children for three years. In between taking care of the kids, she finds time to serve as an offensive lineman, or rather, linewoman for the Detroit Predators, a full-contact tackle football team for women. Yes, it’s true — women do play football. And they watch…
‘We want it torn down’
Frustrated by the city’s lack of action, Sylvia Penn called the A.S.S. to get some help dealing with this eyesore at 5757 Vinewood. The place has been abandoned for more than a decade. “The house caught fire some years back and folks have been trying to get it torn down ever since,” Penn tells us.…
Griseled goodness
Had you attended a Lee Marvin Computer Arm show only a few years ago, you would have found yourself in a dingy basement in Lansing surrounded by crusty punks and trying to steal a glimpse of the band from behind the obstruction of a giant furnace. But if you attend a performance these days, you’ll…
Letters to the Editor
Sticks and stones Re: “Playing Hardball at the Ballot Box” (Metro Times, Nov. 17), Keith A. Owens states: “What should never be underestimated is how easy it is to manipulate the uninformed. Most Americans are uninformed on the issues …” Mr. Owens: So? So what? Implying the electorate is ignorant achieves what, exactly? From where…
N&D Center
Wednesday • 24 Speedball MUSIC You’d be hard-pressed to find a band more associated with muscle car envy and cocksure stage presence than Speedball. But it’s the Motörhead-frenzied sounds and thundering rhythm section that made albums like Do Unto Other Then Split and Drive Like Hell an indelible part of the Detroit rock ’n’ roll…
Comics
This Modern World Red Meat Comix
Earthly delights
At first glance, Amy Vogel is a landscape artist. Her large, mostly white canvases feature the barest outlines of a natural view, delicately painted in bright neon and pastels, cushioned in layers of thin, white wash. Half there, half not there, her work is colorful, wispy and very pretty — so pretty that you can…
We pause for a note about the author
After I telegraphed last week that the subject of this column would be Detroit City Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, she gave me a call. She wanted to ensure that, when I write about her, I deal only with “the allegations that were proven.” She continues, as she has so often in the past, to provide her…
Southern discomfort
You can’t go wrong making fun of hillbillies. Those moonshine-swillin’, sibling-screwin’, dumber-than-a-box-of-Krispy Kreme-donuts, good old boys who ride around in their rusty pickups blasting their shotguns at any varmint they take a dislikin’ to … yep, they sure are funny, ain’t they? You’re not going to get protesters and letter-writing campaigns defending the honor of…
East meets West Dearborn
The cuisine really soars is at the sushi bar, manned by chef Sam Ness. The food emphasizes Japanese cuisine but successfully incorporates Mediterranean flavors. After 10 p.m., Crave the restaurant morphs into Crave the lounge, with DJs spinning and plenty of action at the bar. Saketinis in many fruity variations are a specialty of the…
Embraceable you
Take a moment to ponder the importance of a hug. It’s a simple enough concept, one that most people could benefit from. But once you’ve had the kind of squeeze that cleanses the soul and lightens the heart, you may never think about the power of embrace the same way again. Mata Amritanandamayi, also known…
On a scale from 0 to 6 …
The man who forever changed how we talk about sex gets a thoughtful and challenging treatment in this biopic. Liam Neeson stars as Kinsey, the sexologist who believed that science must triumph over religious dogma in both the lab and the bedroom. Boasting terrific performances and timely ideas about sex, morality, and science, writer/director Bill…
Jimmy Eat World vs. Ted Nugent: Emo vs Macho?
You fabled, pass-along-readership people who never touch an alternative weekly can’t be expected to know this, but Jimmy Eat World is not really emo anymore. Even when the group out-cloudied Sunny Day Real Estate with its yeah-still-emotional second album Clarity, Jimmy Eat World was already gunning for the arena rock vote. It may not have…
Finding Neverland
Monster’s Ball director Marc Forster returns with Finding Neverland, an unexpectedly low-key look at the inspiration for J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. While the movie takes the usual feel-good liberties with its true-life story, it’s the soulful performances from Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, and the young Freddie Highmore that shine through.
Art Bar
Photorealist painter Robert Gniewek is showing his strikingly lifelike creations at Lemberg Gallery until Dec. 11. Gniewek’s brightly vibrant “snapshots” — captured through oil paint and linen canvas — range from the luminous Fox Theatre to the quiet beauty of a crumbling Brush Park mansion. 23241 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-591-6623; lemberggallery.com. ’Tis the season…
Enduring Love
Based on a novel by Ian McEwan, Enduring Love focuses on the repercussions of a freak hot-air balloon accident. College professor Joe (Daniel Craig) and his girlfriend Claire (Samantha Morton) witnessed the accident; so did a guy named Jed, a creepy Englishman that both Joe and Claire get to know far too well over the…
Chilling in obscurity
More than 20 years after it (re)imagined the dance party as an art form, simultaneously elevating producers and DJs to star status around the world, Detroit Techno is still looking for love in its hometown. Never mind that the Detroit Electronic Music Festival-cum-Movement has claimed millions of visitors since it began throwing the world’s biggest…
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
In many ways, SpongeBob SquarePants is the rightful heir to The Ren and Stimpy Show’s “Happy Happy Joy Joy” anthem. The movie is at times gross — but try to find a 4-year-old who doesn’t crack up when SpongeBob prances around in his underpants or Patrick the starfish runs around naked. There’s even an animated…
Crimes against nature
George W. Bush will go down as the worst environmental president in our nation’s history … generations of Americans will pay with reduced prosperity and quality of life. —Robert Kennedy Jr., Crimes Against Nature If we don’t save the environment, in the end, nothing else will matter. That’s something everyone knows to be true,…
National Treasure
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer once again puts the preteen audience in his crosshairs with National Treasure, an adventure in which Nicolas Cage discovers a treasure map written in invisible ink on the back of, um, the Declaration of Independence. The few moviegoers who are able to suspend their disbelief will be let down by the film’s…
Proactive
Noel, and relax! This may sound like a commercial, but we have to ask: Has this year left you feeling depressed? Did your hope for a smarter, more liberal America dwindle with Sen. John Kerry’s failed bid for the White House? Did your Motor City-loving ego cry out when the alleged West-Bloomfield-beer-chucker at last week’s…
A kinder, gentler Em? Bah.
A buck says it sucks to be Eminem these days. True, his latest could be multiplatinum by the time you read this. But when you’re the shocking Marshall Mathers, and your shock shine has all but faded, millions in sales cease to be the barometer for success. Now, your fans want good music. And that’s…
Miss (or mister?) manners
Q: I am a female university student who has a question of etiquette. There is a girl I’ve seen around campus whom I recognize from a few years ago — when “Jane” was a guy. I am positive that she is the same person because she still has the same face, and I’ve heard that…
Head cheese
The Fondas’ singer, the arresting Julie Benjamin, bears more than a slight resemblance to a pre-junk Marianne Faithful. In fact, the newly married former Slumber Party tub-tapper has come into her own as a sultry, spun-sugar pop singer, and live she’s an unwavering wall of presence, still as night air, alluring as Jagger’s ex. Aside…
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (Music from the Series)
Hi! Hi! Puffy AmiYumi Show! It’s a phrase squirmier and happier than 150 yipping puppies. Leave it to Puffy AmiYumi, J-pop superstars and domestic cult faves, who will finally hit American pop culture Hello Kitty-style with a Cartoon Network series based on their happy fun ball lives. Hi! Hi! the show features animated versions of…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Sometimes it’s just not worth trying to gnaw through the leather straps; you’re better off accepting your bondage, saving your energy, and escaping into daydreams. But in the coming weeks, Aries, you should definitely strive to chomp through the leather straps. In fact, you’re likely to have excellent results whenever you…
School of life
Detroit public school student Takeshia Gunn stumbles out of bed at 6 a.m., groggy because her son Day’ Jon kept her up until 2 in the morning. The 17-year-old gently wakes the boy still sleeping in her bed. She gets a plastic bowl of warm water, lays the 1-year-old out on the bed and unclothes…
Stones Throw 101 DVD & CD
Leave it to Peanut Butter Wolf to fashion one of the illest mixtape/DVD combos to come out since we don’t remember when. In fact, this mixer/DVD is the perfect holiday introduction into the Stones Throw’s stellar schema of bugged-out musical affiliates. The mixtape’s 42 tracks are all over the place. Breakestra strums out obscure fusion…
EA Sports’ jock conflicts test the length of one’s manhood
Their rivals have come and gone, but year after year EA Sports’ heavyweight franchises NBA Live and Madden NFL prove the ones to beat. Well-apportioned and enjoyably realized, these titles have evolved into the video game equivalent of that old barstool fixture, The Love Tester, as an unscientific yardstick of one’s manhood. Each year, EA…
Teen births down
Teen pregnancies have plummeted in Detroit and Wayne County, according to statistics compiled by Kids Count, a national state-by-state, city-by-city, county-by-county analysis of statistics that impact the well-being of children in America. In fact, the survey found that Detroit — with a 39 percent decrease — experienced the seventh-largest decline in teen birth rates from…
Seldom Blue
Lately, Alexander Zonjic has been multitasking. The mustachioed flutist is a radio personality, a concert organizer and he co-owns the upscale eatery Seldom Blues. Said endeavors haven’t interfered with his ability to make music, and this disc, Zonjic’s first in four years, proves it. Zonjic is smart too because Seldom Blues is loaded with a…
