It’s OK to be in bread
Whatever the carb cops have to say, not to mention those making piles of money pandering to Atkins mania, it’s time to wake up and smell the bread. There’s a reason it’s called the staff of life. It’s one of the oldest prepared foods on record. It was a key to the bloody uprising of…
Fraction shapes
Sins against humanity are nothing new — war and suicide bombings and world suffering are dished out by television news shows like daily horror shows. Yet despite our familiarity with life’s everyday hard knocks, it’s hard to wrap one’s brain around the kind of sadistic exploitation exposed in Planet Ant’s current production. Playwright and director…
Saw
Waking up underwater in a filthy bathtub only to discover that you’re chained at the ankle to a rusty pipe in one of the creepiest shithouses this side of old Tiger Stadium — this is no way to start your day. Sounds pretty intense, eh? Don’t get your hopes up. For the next 90 minutes,…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Three Aries starlets have recently stopped dying their hair blond: Mandy Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker and Reese Witherspoon. I suggest you draw inspiration from their example. Stop all pretending. Throw off your disguises. Be as natural as you dare to be. Beginning Nov. 22, "Know thyself," will be your battle cry,…
Keyes to the city?
I say we recruit Alan Keyes to run for mayor of Detroit. Whaddya think? Wouldn’t have a chance in hell, but he’d sure get folks to tune in to next year’s election race, wouldn’t he? And see, that’s the thing: Now that this presidential election is (maybe) over, we need to ensure that just Detroit…
Birth
Take out Birth’s icky, controversial scenes and remove all the pedophilia issues, and the movie would still have been lame. Kidman and director Jonathan Glazer fail to convince us that Kidman’s character, Anna, is convinced that a little boy is her dead husband reincarnated. Kidman looks ravishing in a pixie cut, but conjuring up images…
Electile dysfunction
Q: After much trial and error, it has become abundantly clear to me that I am a lesbian. My problem is that I am having a lot of trouble meeting women. I tried dating a friend of mine, but that turned out terribly. I am sick of meeting people in bars, seeing as how bars…
Proactive
Post-active We launched this column as a way to help inform folks about events of importance, and as a way to help get people involved in political and community activities. This week, though, we’d like to offer a pat on the back to a whole lot of you who already did just that. We’re talking…
The Tigers Have Spoken
A live album that clocks in at a little more than a half hour? Dude, where’s my copy of Frampton Comes Alive? But even before opening cut “If You Knew” has finished unspooling its twangy luminosity, you get the feeling that this’ll be a filler-free affair. Country queen Case — abetted here by the Sadies…
Green Day vs. Meatloaf: Who’s the real Punk Pavarotti?
If we still cared about music in 1991, we’d have taken to the street with torches when Michael Jackson crowned himself “King of Pop” after recording an album as lame as Dangerous. And if we cared in 2003, we would’ve laughed Rolling Stone outta business for naming Justin Timberlake the “New King of Pop” for…
Frying Matty’s bacon
When a bastion of capitalist pig-ism starts bashing you for being a monopolistic cash hog, is it time to reconsider the way you’re makin’ all that bacon? This porcine musing squealed its way into our thoughts while reading Forbes magazine’s latest issue, which features a none-too-flattering article on Manuel “Matty” Moroun. You might not know…
The New Danger
Let’s play football, and Mos Def’s sophomore album, The New Danger, is an 18-game season. There’s a new team, Geffen Records, a new starting lineup, rock band Black Jack Johnson, and a new playbook involving live instruments. Fans of Mos the B-boy, prepare to adjust. This is an organic lineup. He’ll still make the playoffs,…
A killer tour
Why do Americans have such a morbid fascination with serial killers? Books, films, miniseries, Web sites — we just can’t seem to get enough of those murder-happy bastards. A handful of names — Gacy, Berkowitz, Bundy, Speck — achieve legendary, almost rock star-like status. So much so that it’s almost easy to forget the truly…
Harsh Hersh
Barring ballot recounts and legal wrangling, the nation should now know who prevailed in what arguably has been the most important and fiercely fought presidential election in decades. But regardless of who has been elected the next commander in chief, the country’s in a heap of trouble, says investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who’s been uncovering…
Futures
Nebulous since its late ’80s genesis, emo had most recently evolved into a sad guy poetry slam reserved exclusively for the pop-punk/post-hardcore set. Bands with three-tiered names poured lyrical anguish all over strident power chords, and grownups just didn’t get it. Jimmy Eat World tries to have it both ways on Futures. Their name still…
N&D Center
Wednesday • 3 David Turnley ART Photojournalist David Turnley was acquainted with the term “embed” long before it became a post-9/11 part of the American vernacular. Turnley — whose powerful photographic works have captured both Gulf wars, the war in Kosovo and Ground Zero — is an Ann Arbor native and former staff photographer for…
Adios, amigo
Damn. We’ve lost a good one. For more than seven years, staff writer Ann Mullen has been contributing hard-hitting news stories and compassion-filled features to this rag (not to mention her snidely funny items that appeared in this column each week). Guided by an ingrained sense of social justice and a healthy contempt for those…
Da Miss Tape
There’s got to be a bunch of furrowed-browed misogynists perched on barstools around town bent on slowing the flow of Detroit’s hip-hop distaff. Well, too bad for them that Raw Khemystery Entertainment — an all-female production house — just birthed one of rap’s hottest clap-back albums since Brooklyn’s Hip-Hop for Respect LP put ex-mayor Rudy…
Home is where the heart is
Detroit native Robert “Rabbit” Barringer lived a carefree life, residing in the one place he figured no one would bother him: a closed landfill on the edge of San Francisco, with a scenic view of the Golden Gate Bridge. “This landfill stands as a brooding monument to obsolescence. What could be a more appropriate refuge…
Hollow scene
The streets of Detroit were filled with vehicles flashing yellow lights as dusk approached on Halloween. City employees and an army of volunteers were still on patrol the day after Devil’s Night, keeping careful watch to prevent the city from returning to the bad old days when the town would be set ablaze. We can…
DVD Review
If you’ve already seen this Rodney Bingenheimer documentary, you know that it’s the Being There of rock films. Legendary KROQ DJ Bingenheimer — known as “Rodney on the ROQ,” a guy who helped break Bowie, Coldplay, the Sex Pistols, the Go-Gos and scores of others in the United States — was Chance the Gardiner at…
The stories of O
Harvey Ovshinsky’s storytelling mantra is simple — as mantras must be. “Don’t stop,” it says. “Go further.” An internationally acclaimed media fixture in Detroit for more than 30 years, Harvey O. has created and told thousands of stories throughout his expansive career. From his early days of radio to later years of television and now…
Condo clash
Since the late 1990s, developer Robert Slattery has made an indelible impression on Detroit’s Midtown, rehabilitating at least five residential properties and, in the process, helping to revive the Cass Corridor area. His most recent project is a conversion of Wayne State University’s former mortuary science building into condos. By investing in a largely depressed…
Not yo mama’s documentary
Documentary? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … This is the knee-jerk reaction many people still have, no doubt induced by the painstakingly boring films suffered through during grade school. But in recent years the documentary has been getting a makeover, evolving into provocative, funny, controversial mainstream fodder. The wildfire success of Super Size Me is one recent example; filmed…
Detroit boosters sign off; Obie Trice gets his TV
Day of the dead Bomp Records founder Greg Shaw died Oct. 19 at the age of 55, after suffering kidney and pancreas problems. And it wouldn’t be so sad if Shaw wasn’t such a swell guy, one gifted with a brilliant set of ears and a heart to match. Shaw was a tastemaker, to be…
From airmen to animators
Monster Road Imagine Robert Crumb crossed with Ed Wood — with maybe the slightest hint of the Unabomber thrown in — and you might get Bruce Bickford, the subject of director Brett Ingram’s scruffy, fascinating Monster Road. Bickford’s biggest claim to fame was as Frank Zappa’s favorite stop-motion animator in the ’70s and ’80s, when…
Letters to the Editor
WDET’s betrayal We were glad to see some mention of WDET’s changes in programming in the News Hits column (“Making airwaves,” Metro Times, Oct. 20), as we, and many of our friends, are very angry and disappointed at the decisions that have been made. We have supported WDET for many years and did so because…
12″ pop shots
Dixon (aka Moodyman) et al have created a deep niche in house music where name recognition and mystique create a power far beyond the original intentions of the 12-inch format. No longer a way to sell a potential dance hit to millions, these black-on-black, untitled obscurities are, for DJs and collectors, a way of sharing…
Comics
This Modern World Red Meat The Comix
Head cheese
DJ UB likes to bark. Considering his biggest collaborations have been with Woof Pack and P-Dog (the turntable bully), UB might have a canine fetish. His last mixtape, DJ UB Presents the Wolf Pack: Inner City Quotables, highlighted his mixing skills and showcased stellar Detroit rhymesayers Al Nuke, Quest McCody and King Gordy. He’s since…
Tune that down
This kid Kent Alexander is a 15-year-old 10th-grader at University Prep High School and a Metro Times editorial intern. As far as we can tell, he digs heavy metal, ancient and modern philosophy, and Camus. He lives with his mother on Detroit’s East Side. This is his first interview with a rock star. American…
Detroit Artists’ Workshop Reunion Events
Detroit Artists’ Workshop Reunion Events: (all events are free) Thursday, Nov. 4: Detroit Artists’ Workshop 40th anniversary reception. John Sinclair will add his name to the group that has signed beams at the Scarab Club; government proclamations will be given. 7:30-11 p.m., 217 Farnsworth, Detroit; 313-831-1250. Friday, Nov. 5: “The Mimeograph Revolution,” a symposium on…
The men behind the curtain
When the shower is golden: There’s a line of collectible, gruesome action figures called “The Twisted Land of Oz.” It features a brick-house Dorothy who thrills to abuse by freakish gnomes as she seeks the source of her mystical bustier. This happens in a place where all creatures take hideous form as punishment for something…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout
Step right up! It’s lucky number MB7! • Megadeth — The System Has Failed (Sanctuary) :: President Mustaine. Got a nice ring to it, don’t it? • Marilyn Manson and Dita von Coque Teese — Wedding Bell Blues (Straight) :: Ooooh, marriage. How anti-Christ of him. • D.O.A. — Live Free Or Die (Sudden Death)…
What do we do now?
Don’t stop worrying, but don’t despair. No matter what. You’re reading this column after the election, and despite all the worries about a repeat of the Nightmare of the Living Chads, my guess is that you — who are now reading this — probably know what I didn’t know while writing it: You know who…
A choice film
If ever there could be a gray area on the abortion issue, the makers of Vera Drake have found it. Compassion — not politics — drives the script and brilliant performances. Imelda Staunton most certainly deserves and will receive an Oscar nod for the title role, playing a woman in 1950s London who quietly helps…
Hip-Hop Kwelification
The year was 1998. Joe Dumars was still a combo-guard and gas was 89 cents a gallon. Hip hop had already been hijacked, Puffy and Mase were on top, the Beastie Boys went grunge, and true-school heads were starved for a dose of reality. Biggie and Pac had both been clapped, and the void they…
Shakin’ Street
Detroit, despite all its cultural pretensions, has been artistically “dead” for longer than most people here want to admit. Young artists of all disciplines — music, poetry, painting, photography, filmmaking — have made it a necessary point in the past generation or two to get out of Detroit as soon as possible for the vital…
Ray
Like many Hollywood biopics, this is a respectful, if not particularly penetrating, homage to Ray Charles. Jamie Foxx turns in a remarkable performance, in which he meticulously and convincingly recreates Ray Charles. But ultimately, what makes Ray a real pleasure is the music. Charles’ toe-tapping, heart-thumping R&B is passionately infectious and Foxx’s bouncing body jitterbug…
Volunteers of Amerika
“Look what’s happening out in the streets. Got to revolution! One generation got old, one generation got sold. This generation’s got no destination to hold, pick up the cry! Yeah, now it’s time for you and me. Who will take it from the people? We will and who are we? We are Volunteers of America!”…
Art Bar
Pure Detroit has become something of a Motor City mini-empire since Shawn Santo and Kevin Borsay first opened their funky, Detroit-centric clothing and gift boutique six years ago. Since then, Pure Detroit has become the label of choice among hip Motown-lovers, with brightly vibrant apparel that boldly proclaims a proud love of D-town. There are…
Voices of Iraq
Three filmmakers distributed 150 digital video cameras to people throughout Iraq and encouraged them talk about post-Saddam life there, but the end result was edited to make a certain point: that you shouldn’t despair, and things aren’t as bad as you’ve been told. Despite this, it’s an interesting film, and the filmmakers manage to keep…
