DIY again forever
What is striking about these two newly available-on-CD releases from former Arlington, Va., residents Unrest are the subversions that Mark Robinson and his band get away with. The freedom is obvious and immediate; this is punk, the "new thing," fresh refuse from the blank generation. Reagan is still in the White House; Michael Jackson is…
Bias bill: $45 million
The long legal battle between Detroit Edison and more than 1,300 of its workers ended last week when an arbitration panel awarded $45.15 million to workers to settle three class action suits accusing the utility of race and age discrimination. The lawsuits grew out of a 1991 company reorganization plan that included reducing Edison’s workforce…
Spaciously responding
Elegant and coy, luminous and tender, of the sky as much as of the earth, Terry Blackhawk’s book of poems, Body & Field, reminds us that, as far as landscapes go, shadows are as important as the light. It’s not just that Body & Field draws intense, at times devastating parallels between people and places,…
Ferndale backlash
Gay and lesbian activists in Ferndale are preparing for a battle in the wake of a petition drive that has suspended the city’s recently passed anti-bias law. The law, approved by the City Council in September, protects people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation on the basis of categories including race, gender and…
Three ways to Sunday
Someone once said, or wrote — and it may have been Marge Piercy in one of her other books for that matter — that a triangle is the most stable structure. And so it would follow, perhaps logically, perhaps not, that a sturdy three-legged stool is a good place to sit and spend a weekend…
Focus on prisons
An upcoming congressional hearing will throw more light on a Michigan prison system that continues to be criticized for its treatment of women prisoners. U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, both Detroit Democrats, will hold a hearing to address prison conditions and related issues Monday, Nov. 8, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at Coleman A.…
Hello cutie
What do 12-year-old girls, young Japanese housewives and little raver kids have in common? Hint: It’s small, white, disgustingly cute, with a red bow and a head that’s shockingly huge, but has no mouth. Welcome to Hello Kitty’s world, a dangerous place to tread if you’re a cynic, an old humbugger, or completely lacking a…
President Hoffa … so far
When James P. Hoffa became president of the Teamsters, he promised Detroit newspaper workers that their struggle would soon be over. Insiders still make no predictions about when or whether the papers will settle the conflict short of an appeal to the Supreme Court. Every indication is that Hoffa does want to close the books…
Prose garden …
The Moon is a Mirror Sometimes, Girl slips her hands in through our bedroom’s window and pets my brother’s and my’s peach fuzz cheeks. When this happens, we try not to wake. If we wake, we make like we are still sleeping. Girl holds our sleepy heads in the palms of her mud cracked hands…
Literary Quarterly: Winter 1999
Behold our quarterly lit review, featuring pages of choice reads for your perusal. This season’s offerings include the latest from Marge Piercy, novelist Carla Harryman’s look at the rules, Mick Vranich’s new verse constructions, luminous poetry from Terry Blackhawk, and more… Saw Horse: Poems 1990-1999 – Mick Vranich Reviewed by Norene Cashen Carpenter-musician-poet Mick Vranich’s…
Red-hot Wings
Fans turn out to admire the Stanley Cup reproductions, the old photos, the statues of Gordie and Stevie, the jerseys from 1938 and 1965. Huge portion sizes — the house salad, with tiny peas and an excellent basil vinaigrette, could serve four. Sandwiches are hard to get your mouth around. Eight pastas and a number…
Being John Malkovich
Little Alice (in Wonderland) doesn’t live here anymore. She’s changed ownership and profile: She’s into the movie business now. Her alter ego, Miette, outwitted an entire colony of Cyclopes in City of Lost Children. Her friend, the white rabbit, made a cameo appearance in The Matrix in the guise of a tattoo. So why are…
Worse than Kevorkian
Jack Kevorkian, whom I long have been attacked for defending, is in jail now and, probably, forever. Which, as I have said, was what he wanted and deserved. Having fought to win for people and their physicians the right to choose when to hasten the inevitable, he then badly damaged the cause he virtually created.…
Music of the Heart
“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” asks the lost tourist in New York City. “Practice, practice.” That old joke comes to mind during Music of the Heart, whose emotional climax takes place at the fabled concert hall. But irreverent humor has no place in a movie as relentlessly earnest and uplifting as this inspirational…
Gene eggs with ham
Sickened by too much on-sale Halloween candy, I’m looking in the refrigerator for something nutritious to eat. After digging through the Lizard of Fun’s stash of Hershey bars ("Hey, careful!" it shouts. "Didn’t you hear there was a shortage? Those things are collectors’ items!"), I reach the conclusion that there’s nothing edible left, other than…
Grand Illusion
Watching the newly restored and freshly subtitled release of Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion (1937), one is struck by how many different things the film is doing — depicting the death throes of a certain phase of European civilization; creating the template for a new genre, the POW comedy-drama; and telling a heartrending anti-war tale without…
Trash, talk and tourists
WATERING HOLBROOK After a grueling week of dental pain and the associated numbing of said mandibular throbbing, I stopped in on Thursday night to rest my weary bones with the bluesy magic of the Immortal Winos of Soul at Holbrook Café. But is it ever possible to stop at just one Hamtramck watering hole? Of…
House on Haunted Hill
This remake of William Castle’s 1958 schlock shocker is a big-budget B movie: the horror film as spooky thrill ride. Which makes it perfectly fitting that Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush) has made his substantial fortune safely scaring people in his theme parks (there’s a great scene where he serenely terrifies a skeptical television reporter and…
Whole Web catalog
Informatica 1.0 by Peter Black Random House, $22.95, 398 pp. Learning about the Web from a book is like teaching yourself to swim on dry land. Sure, you might grasp the theory, but you’ll never really get it until you dive — or plug — in. So I was a bit surprised when I found…
Princess Mononoke
Few examples of Japanese animation (known as anime) make it to American movie screens, and the ones that do — such as Akira — are usually set in a violent, post-apocalyptic landscape. Princess Mononoke is something quite different. This highly imaginative and beautifully rendered fable of ancient Japan comes from writer-director-master animator Hayao Miyazaki (Laputa:…
Pitch’d
The Heyday of Rave A throbbing strobe, booming bass, kids worshiping the speakers in total abandon — all in a dark warehouse decorated only in black plastic. The DJ had the crowd anticipating every move, taking their minds on a trip they could have never foreseen. The focus was so intense, the communication among the…
Building the poem
The hallowed narrative voice in Mick Vranich’s poetry works its isolated magic as well on paper as it does on stage with his group, Wordban’d. At times in Saw Horse, you can almost hear it. The section "Mud" starts this contemplative body of work, which finds its form in the quieter moments of everyday life,…
Food Stuff
NEW FOOD NEWS The more glamorous aspects of journalism involve charting new terrain, exploring new ideas, trying new food … here are a few samples that hit the MT office lately. Sweet slurps Dannon is taking the lunchbox market by storm with its new Danimals Drinkable yogurts, tiny (3.1 oz.) servings of runny yogurt which…
Dates in the pocket
When does authorship begin? Maybe it’s when you take your text (or mess) in both hands, claiming responsibility for whatever happens — on the page, in public. Then again, you might want to hibernate or woodshed until good and ready for the slings and arrows of the literary scene. Notoriety can’t be your only goal,…
Laides and germs
In Ingmar Bergman’s drama The Seventh Seal (1956), squire Jons enters a church and finds a painter producing a fresco featuring the Dance of Death. Jons asks why the painter must dwell on such an unhappy subject. The painter responds that it may not be such a bad idea to frighten people now and then.…
The noun, the verb, his wife and her lover
The odds are good that you’ve recently laughed at a joke, giggled over a forwarded e-mail or even twittered at a newspaper story filled with mangled, bungled or outright ridiculous English directions or translations. Whether we’re laughing at the (apparently baseless) claim that Jack Nicholson’s last movie, As Good As It Gets, was retitled Mr.…
