Detroit arts patron James Pearson Duffy, 1923 – 2009
James Pearson Duffy, longtime Detroit businessman, consummate patron of the arts, and champion of the Detroit arts scene, died on Tuesday at his home in Grosse Pointe at the age of 86. He was the only child of James F. and Helen Pearson Duffy. Duffy’s patronage of Detroit artists is legendary. Detroit Institute of Arts…
LITERARY & PERFORMING ARTISTS, KRESGE’S GOT $25k WITH YOUR NAME ON IT
As of Sunday, November 1,Detroit area artists working in the realms of performing and literary arts could apply for the Kresge Arts in Detroit fellowship grants. The $25,000 fellowships provide support for 18 artists living and working in metropolitan Detroit (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties) whose commitment to innovation and artistic achievement are evident in…
Detroit City Council: The end of livin’ at large
Concurrent with an election that produced the biggest rearrangement of Detroit City Council in memory, city voters also put a stake in the long-maligned at-large council system that held for most of the last century. This council sea change included the retirement of two council members (Barbara-Rose Collins and Sheila Cockrel), the withdrawal under indictment…
Detroit election: Lessons in clout
What are the lessons of Tuesday’s city election? Well, for one thing, we’ve seen how much influence endorsements by the city’s daily papers don’t have. Both papers, after endorsing Pugh, withdrew those endorsements after his home went into foreclosure. It wasn’t just the problem with personal finances — there was also concern about Pugh’s candor…
Park art
The pictures stay on the lawn. That’s the upshot as the city of Grosse Pointe Park withdraws its appeal of a lower court ruling that found its sign ordinance unconstitutional. The Park city fathers had gone after Erica Chappuis, and her husband, Laurent Chappuis, for erecting her paintings in their front yard, charging they violated…
Night and Day
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5 Ann Arbor Film Festival Screening STOP IN THE NAME OF TIME The Ann Arbor Film Festival takes its 47th annual show on the road, conducting screenings at universities, galleries and art house cinemas across the country, including this stop in Detroit’s Midtown. AAFF director Donald Harrison will be in attendance at the…
Released after 8 years
Hours after a judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for Dwayne Provience — imprisoned eight years for a murder that prosecutors at points have said he didn’t commit — he emerged from custody to the embraces and tears of family and supporters. "This is a load off of my back. I want to thank…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Couch Trip
Stop Making Sense (25th Anniversary Blu-ray) Vivendi As soon as you wrap your head around the fact it has been a quarter-century since Jonathan Demme and David Byrne teamed up to create Stop Making Sense, you may settle into another realization: Despite the intervening years bestowing a sort of classic-rock status upon the band’s hits,…
Censored!
Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored for 13 years, says he’s finished with reform. It’s impossible, he said in a recent interview, to try to get major news media outlets to deliver relevant news stories that serve to strengthen democracy. "I really think we’re beyond reforming corporate media," said Phillips, a professor of sociology at…
The thrill of defeat
English football coach Brian Clough was as swift with his tongue as with his feet, and by the late ’60s he’d talked his way into a gig managing a scruffy squad, Derby County, in the muddy midlands. It was here that he first ran afoul of his eternal nemesis, coach Don Revie (Colm Meaney), whose…
Pick a winner
Al Sultan 425 N. Inkster Rd., Garden City; 734-522-1500: We think this place is a contender for "Best Hidden Gem of Middle Eastern Food," given its generous servings, excellent quality and off-the-beaten-path location. Generous vegetarian plates (falafel, moujadara, and veggie gallaba) don’t top $10, and the equally generous meat dishes pack on the portions, seldom…
This is It
Michael Jackson’s This Is It begins with a sense of optimism because he’s clearly excited to tell fans about the shows. His tragic, sudden death in June meant that not one of the concerts ever came to fruition. Which makes This is It a rather uneven attempt to replicate what the production might have looked…
Dylan & Springsteen
Recently, I got a chance to see Bob Dylan bring his "never-ending tour" to a state fair. The real show, however, was watching the simple folk who gorged on Indian fry bread, cotton candy and turkey legs (that were only slightly juicier than a 2-by-4) getting to wander into a Dylan concert for the price…
French roll-ups
The 22-seat place, which seems all angles and nooks, is graced with dark red walls and photos of French scenes and signs in pretty frames. Most people will find one order of a savory crêpe and a shared sweet one to be enough food. They’re not paper-thin, and they come in different styles — one…
Electricity kills!
It’s been, appropriately enough, six years since Detroit’s Electric 6 released their Fire album, capturing worldwide attention with their combination of disco, garage rock and tongue-in-cheek comedy. (The disc was especially well received in this writer’s native U.K., where the band’s camp theatrics were welcomed with open arms and open wallets.) The singles, "Danger! High…
Flesh tones
It’s either sheer unadulterated brilliance or utter garbage, and while I’m inclined to think the latter, you almost have to admire the insane vision and sheer audacity to dream up something this beautifully gross.
Food Stuff
TV dinner — Celebrity chef, author and television host Anthony Bourdain will be in our area this Saturday, at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater. Billed as "An Evening with Anthony Bourdain," the star of No Reservations will take the stage that night. In the grand foyer, ticket-holders will be treated to complimentary samples from Ann Arbor’s…
Pay dirt!
Something has been missing from the career of Royce Da 5’9." Sure, he’s always been one of Detroit’s premier talents, and he has timeless songs ("Boom," "Hip Hop"), acclaimed projects (Death Is Certain, the Bar Exam mixtape series), and writing credits (Dr. Dre, Sean "Diddy" Combs) under his belt to prove it. Still, various barriers…
Cheat Code
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Acclaim Xbox 360, Ps3, Wii, PSP Any comic fan will tell you that comics have grown up, and contemporary ones often make allegories of real-life current events. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 takes foreign policies on terror and civil rights and adds superheroes into the mix. Lifting cues from the Secret War…
The List
It’s been an especially great year for cover albums and, thus, fans of the form. But the very best has been saved for last — or at least closer to the end of the year — via this gem from Johnny’s daughter, who remains probably the only music superstar progeny worthy of her surname, musically…
Lit up
The Slasher Killings: A Canadian Sex Crime Panic, 1945-1946 by Patrick Brode Wayne State University Press $22.95, 232 pp. In the mid-1940s, Windsor, Ontario, was a freewheeling incubator of vice. Troops returning from the war were welcomed home with a bevy of booze, houses in which to play cards and shoot dice, and brothels in…
Heat
This Ann Arbor trio’s second EP release continues to broaden the boundaries of its sonics. And the addition of horns and strings augment an already theatrical approach, adding depth to a cinematic-spacey, prog-psych post-whatever sound. These songs build, moving through several evocative passages, toward a dramatic climax. The material’s assurance is admirable, as each of…
Dear Gov. Granholm
Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed off on the last of this year’s state budgets last week, avoiding, for now, a government shutdown. Unfortunately, in the process, she sold out our future, doomed vast numbers of schoolchildren, and betrayed the people who elected her. Then, naturally, in classic fashion, she attempted to escape blame for what she…
Getting youth-enized
The 2010 United States Social Forum is planned to be really big. Organizers expect 20,000 to 30,000 grassroots progressive activists to converge in Detroit June 22-26 for meetings, demonstrations and get-your-hands-dirty work around town. Members of hundreds of progressive groups around the world are to participate in nearly 1,000 events. It’s hard to get your…
Letters to the Editor
Don’t trust Moroun I write regarding your News Hit “There goes a secret” (Oct. 21), about the inspection report finding the Ambassador Bridge in “fair” condition. Matty Moroun, the enigmatic owner of the Detroit International Bridge Company, was hoping you would blindly trust in him when it came to the safety condition of the Ambassador…
The Royal ‘E’
For some, downtown Royal Oak’s proposed 10-screen theater and bowling alley, with its already-approved liquor license, is the harbinger of suburban ruin. To them it promises parking woes, unwanted traffic and a "big box" operation that will be out of character with the walkable downtown and nearby residential neighborhoods. But for others, the Emagine Royal…
