Cover Stories
Project Censored’s Top 10 stories the mainstream media missed in 2019
Every year, Project Censored scours the landscape for the most important stories that the mainstream corporate media somehow missed, and every year the task seems to get a bit stranger. Or “curiouser and curiouser” as suggested in the subtitle of this year’s volume of their work, Censored 2020: Through the Looking Glass, which includes their…
Junk food news: The trouble that comes with decoding a party to which you weren’t invited
This year’s edition of Project Censored adopted the Mad Hatter’s tea party from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland as an apt metaphor for the gas-lighting of important storylines, even as entertainment obscures those very same stories. The authors of this chapter, Izzy Snow and Susan Rahman, critique the power of corporate media to capture consumer…
Elvis Costello and the Imposters will ‘Pump It Up’ at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater
Peace? Check. Love? Double check. Understanding? You bet. All are foundational to the musical legacy of Elvis Costello, who, after 42 years, is still pumping it up. For Costello’s latest outing, the 65-year-old will return with his long-standing backing band, the Imposters, in support of his 2018 release, Look Now. Marking the 30th studio record…
Susan Okla’s art show at UFO Factory is a trip
A Susan Okla painting has the ability to transport you. Not to another world or even another time, but somewhere in the very bottom of your gut, just above your genitals, like a Magic School Bus trip through the very things you try to hide but can’t and won’t. The 25-year-old Southfield native graduated from…
Metro Detroit cover band Wrëking Crüe celebrates five years of Mötley Crüe debauchery at Token Lounge
Mötley Crüe is, uh, having a moment. Well, technically a “moment” for Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, and Vince Neil is a bit loaded, as 2019 saw the release of the Netflix biopic The Dirt, which airs out all the band’s dirty, STD-laden, heroin-encrusted laundry, as depicted in the band’s 2001 co-authored autobiography. Though…
Rapper Gucci Mane is free and will perform at Detroit’s Fox Theatre (not for free)
“Free Gucci’s Ferrari!” said no one ever, except perhaps rapper Gucci Mane who, after years of on-and-off incarceration, found himself fighting for yet another injustice: the towing of his precious $600,000 Ferrari Supercar while partying in Miami. Well, like most things in Gucci’s life, it ended up working out. Take his latest — and 15th…
‘Stupor,’ Detroit’s longest-running zine, gets the theater treatment at Ant Hall
Billed as Detroit’s longest-running zine, Stupor is the brainchild of Steve Hughes, who collects stories — “true stories from people Hughes meets, mostly from a barstool, mostly in the Detroit area” — and then collaborates with an artist to bring them to life. The latest issue, Junkyard Farm, illustrated by Alice V. Schneider, gets a…
Cranbrook’s planetarium takes on Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ — without lasers
File this under “trippy shit.” Per the program description, this is not the laser Floyd of yesteryear. In fact, there’s not a single laser to be found. Cranbrook Institute of Science’s month-long Dark Side of the Moon planetarium engagement is more of a visual interpretation of one of the most influential records of all time.…
Detroit artists to honor the sounds of the late Daniel Johnston with tribute concert at the Magic Stick
Beloved Austin-based singer-songwriter and master archivist Daniel Johnston is getting a proper Detroit sonic salute. The prolific artist died of a heart attack in September at the age of 58, and was known for his endearing body of work as much as he was known for his ongoing struggles with mental and physical health —…
Planet Ant to host fundraiser concert for Detroit Experience Factory with Vespre and others
Since 2006, the nonprofit Detroit Experience Factory has helped connect locals and visitors alike to Detroit and its story by leading more than 100,000 people through experiential tours of the city. To help DXF continue its work, fellow nonprofit Planet Ant has enlisted the sounds of Kaylan Waterman, who makes chillwave as Vespre, as well as…
You can make holiday cards on an old-school letterpress in Eastern Market on Friday
Signal-Return continues its On Press: Prints for Nonprofits series, in which local artists create a limited-edition print to promote local nonprofits. The latest edition, which debuts on Friday, pairs Sue Carman-Vian with Alternatives for Girls, Tyanna Buie with the Avalon Village, Ryan Standfest with the Build Institute, Mary Fortuna with the Detroit Food Academy, Hubert…
Angel Olsen brings stunning new record ‘All Mirrors’ to Royal Oak Music Theatre
On her latest record, All Mirrors, Angel Olsen took a trip down the rabbit hole with producer and frequent collaborator John Congleton, along with a 12-piece string section. Inhibitions to the wind, the Asheville, North Carolina-based singer delivers a stunning, theatrical, and grandiose fifth entry in her eclectic catalog. A far cry from the sparse…
As if! Ann Arbor’s State Theatre to screen the best fashion movie of all time, ‘Clueless’
The year was 1995. America was totally buggin’ over O.J. Simpson’s ill-fitting glove and reeling over the tragic Oklahoma City bombing, and, to make matters worse, a little dance called the “Macarena” was all the rage. Amid the horror of the aforementioned cultural touchstones was a little movie that almost didn’t happen. Enter Clueless, the…
DIA’s ‘Detroit Collects’ shows why the Motor City is a treasure trove of Black art
Opened to the public on Tuesday, Detroit Collects exhibits 60 works of all mediums from 19 Detroit-area art collectors, some of which are now available to the public for the first time ever. All are focused on Black artists, including works by Carrie Mae Weems, Romare Bearden, Nick Cave, Alison Saar, and Rashid Johnson, as…
Jimmy Fallon presents Michigan veteran with $50,000
Jimmy Fallon presented Michigan resident and 26-year U.S Air Force veteran Vernitta Love with $50,000 on The Tonight Show. Love’s son, Aaron, nominated his mother to win $25,000 from the Home Depot Foundation: Operation Surprise. The Foundation picks nominated veterans all over the country to give $25,000 for home repairs. Many veterans were in the…
Michigan fails to protect marijuana consumers from additive linked to lung illness
The Michigan agency tasked with overseeing legal marijuana sales has not taken action to protect consumers from vitamin E acetate, the chemical additive linked to the deadly lung illness linked to vaping. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday identified vitamin E acetate as a “very strong culprit” in the lung injuries that…
MOCAD hosts Carhartt x Motown launch, Martha and the Vandellas, and ‘Showing Up, Showing Out’ film premiere
This event has everything: a film premiere, clothing launch, performance by a legacy artist, and a performance by a future legacy artist. Oh, and it’s free. Carhartt WIP, NTS Radio, and Dazed magazine have come together to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Motown, starting with the premiere Showing Up, Showing Out, a film about the…
No, the city of Royal Oak doesn’t have ejaculating, dick-shaped holiday decor
As of this week, Michigan weather has been, dare we say, shockingly premature with the whole winter wonderland bukkake business. According to a viral Facebook post, the city of Royal Oak appears to be joining in on the festive spirit by decking its halls with balls of holly, jolly jizz — but we sense a…
Michigan brewery reminds us that Jeffrey Epstein probably didn’t kill himself
Jeffrey Epstein — the mysterious financier and convicted sex offender who is alleged to have trafficked girls for an international sex ring, and had ties to President Donald Trump, the Clintons, and Prince Andrew — was found dead in his jail cell in Manhattan while awaiting trial earlier this year. A medical examiner ruled Epstein…
‘Pain and Glory’ muses on a life lived most fully through art
In its pairing of intense bodily pain with the freedoms found in artistic expression, Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory is as Catholic as its title. Following acclaimed Spanish director Salvador Mallo (played gamely by Antonio Banderas) slowly recovering from a host of maladies (a bouquet of physical ones along with a depression), Pain and Glory…
Michigan police say marijuana legalization has made their jobs harder
Cue the world’s tiniest violin for Michigan cops, who have taken to the media in a couple of stories published this month to complain that last year’s vote to legalize marijuana for recreational adult use has made their jobs more difficult. Over at The Detroit Free Press, in a story headlined “Law enforcement facing the…
Former teammates, fans react to death of ex-Detroit Lions player Charles Rogers
Charles Rogers, a former wide receiver for the Detroit Lions and Michigan State University, has died. He was 38. A Saginaw native, Rogers was a five-star high school recruit. After earning All-America honors at Michigan State, Rogers was drafted to the Lions in 2003. He played for them until 2005, when he was released from…
Detroit cop accused of demanding women’s phone numbers had previous brushes with law
A former Detroit cop accused of demanding the phone numbers of two women in exchange for not getting ticketed or arrested during downtown traffic stops has a checkered past. Chancellor Dmitri Searcy was arrested in October 2015 and charged with embezzlement, larceny, and filing a false felony report after prosecutors said he stole money from…
Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency issues new rules for medical marijuana certification
The Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency has issued new rules for medical marijuana certification: • The patient application fee (for a two-year card) has been reduced from $60 to $40. • The $25 caregiver criminal background check processing fee has been eliminated. • The $10 fee has been eliminated for the following services: updating name or…
CDC finds ‘breakthrough’ link between deadly illness and vaping marijuana, not nicotine
Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Friday that vitamin E acetate, a substance found in some marijuana oil vaping products, is the primary link to a recent rash of a deadly lung illness — not nicotine as many consumers believe. CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat called the finding…
‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ swings through metro Detroit to take jabs at ‘Circus of Horrors’
For 31 years, we’ve been cheering and jeering alongside snarky, shiny, silhouetted robots/cult movie critics Tom Servo and Crow. Mystery Science Theater 3000 will embark on its final live tour with the show’s creator and original host, Joel Hodgson. The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour will invite Hodgson, MST3K’s robo-critics, and Gypsy — the real…
Detroit’s College for Creative Studies to host annual Sexpo with vendors, workshops, and sexual health resources
Sex Education has come a long way since the days of awkward “the birds and the bees” chats with ill-equipped gym teachers. Entering the conversation, once again, is the College for Creative Studies’ annual celebration of enthusiastic consent, gender identity, body positivity, and physical and emotional health. The single-evening sexpo will host an array of…
Second annual For the Girls Market returns to Ferndale’s Loving Touch to raise funds and supplies for homeless women and girls
’Tis the season for shopping, yes, but it’s also the time of year to reflect on how blessed you are. Like, really. Who needs two fucking iPads and an Apple watch? And of course you “lost” your airpods. Anyway, the Annual For the Girls Market returns for its second year to give local vendors an…
Uptown dude and piano man Billy Joel announces performance at Detroit’s Comerica Park
Hitmaker and “Big Shot” Billy Joel is “Movin’ Out” of his monthly Madison Square Garden residency for just a moment to deliver his largest capacity metro Detroit concert in 25 years. It was announced Friday that the 70-year-old non-firestarter has plotted a performance at Detroit’s Comerica Park next year. The concert, slated for Friday, July 10, marks…
Pepsi can from 1973 washes up on shore at Michigan Native American reservation
Bryan Newland, the president of Bay Mills Indian Community reservation near Sault Ste. Marie, was walking his dog along the beach of Lake Superior and picking up litter when a bright flash of color caught his eye. He initially assumed it was a regular Pepsi can. Upon further inspection, he realized it was a surprisingly…
‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ purrs along, part of a machine unlikely to ever die
Though an admirably solid work of Hollywood filmmaking, Terminator: Dark Fate can’t match the style, wit, or heft of its best predecessors — but was anyone expecting it to? An update to the Terminator franchise that (canonically) erases the other sequels made since 1994’s T2, Dark Fate manages to be both part of a franchise…
Oh hell yeah — Hala, Handgrenades, and Mac Saturn team up for Ferndale lineup
If Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys had a little music baby, it might sound a little like Detroit’s Ian Ruhala, who makes festival-ready makeout jams as Hala. At just 21, Hala’s output has been pretty damn prolific since releasing his 2014 debut self-titled record, which sounds incredibly uncertain compared to last year’s Jon Zott-produced single…
Detroit’s Savant kicks off late night techno series with Kevin Saunderson, new menu
Midtown restaurant Savant will now serve up Detroit techno along with a new late-night menu. Tom Pattyn, who also books talent at Pontiac’s electronic dance music nightclub Elektricity, tells Metro Times the series kicks off from 11 p.m.-2 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27, with techno legend Kevin Saunderson. The series will continue on Fridays and…
Man behind viral Oak Park Zillow listing says cocaine on counter was a joke
A Zillow listing for a home in Oak Park on Northfield Boulevard went viral for having what looks like cocaine in the picture. A powdery white substance, drawn into lines, can be seen on a plate in the corner. WXYZ’s Anu Prakash called the number listed on the rental, and spoke with a man named…
Flint doctor who dragged the Flint Water Crisis into the spotlight visits Detroit in support of her revealing book, ‘What the Eyes Don’t See’
The city of Flint has been without clean water since 2014. It wasn’t until 2015 that author, pediatrician, and medical researcher Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha discovered elevated lead levels in infants and children while serving as a program director at Hurly Children’s Hospital. Through her research, she was able to link the increased lead levels to the…
Rashida Tlaib joins calls to investigate whether political donations from Dan Gilbert influenced tax break
Rep. Rashida Tlaib joined calls for an investigation into whether political donations from billionaire Dan Gilbert influenced the designation of “opportunity zone” tax breaks in Detroit following a lengthy ProPublica report published last month. Three swaths of land where Gilbert owns dozens of properties got the opportunity zone designation after Gilbert’s organization gave $750,000 to…
Detroit’s Republic Tavern announces winter menu
The Republic Tavern has worked with local farmers to create a cozy seasonal menu fit for the winter weather. “Because we source from local farms, this allows us to change our menu ingredients regularly creating an elevated level of creative energy in the kitchen,” chef Matt Baldridge said in a press release. “We are excited…
Founders announces plan to reopen Detroit taproom, donate profits following discrimination lawsuit
Founders Brewing Co. will reopen its Detroit taproom in early 2020, the company announced Thursday — and it will donate 100 percent of its profits at the taproom to Detroit community organizations and charities through at least 2022. The Grand Rapids-based company was recently embroiled in a contentious racial discrimination lawsuit in which a Founders…
Southfield man underpaid his property taxes by $8.41, lost home and money
Uri Rafaeli, a former Michigan resident, mistakenly underpaid his 2011 property tax bill. When he was notified, he corrected his payment, but still owed $8.41. Oakland County then seized Rafaeli’s Southfield home and sold it for $24,500 in August 2014, according to Reasons magazine. He originally paid $60,000 for the property. Zillow estimated that the…
Ann Arbor’s London Beck to bring genre-bending bangers to the Blind Pig
Ann Arbor’s London Beck is a perfect storm. Burlesque-pop and hip-hop come together with loungey dance-floor jams for Beck’s recently released six-track Drift EP, on which Beck channels the Weeknd and Ariana Grande with hip-rolling musings on intimacy and late-night decisions. Curiously, their background is a bit more traditional, as Beck has spent most of…
Celine Dion moves mountains in first metro Detroit performance in more than a decade
If you have not basked in the glow of Celine Dion in person, you may have to adjust your life goals and daily priorities to accommodate what is now, in our book, considered a spiritual necessity. Like the Titanic itself, you know, before the whole iceberg thing, Dion is an unmatched, larger than life icon…
Detroit’s Soviet Girls, Junk Food Junkies, Prude Boys head to Trumbullplex with Lisa Prank
Supporting Seattle-based DIY TMI punk star Lisa Prank and her latest release, Perfect Love Song, are Detroit’s Soviet Girls featuring Anya Baghina, Devin Poisson, and Jonathan Franco. The trio released Filled Up With Nothing last year, which sounds like being trapped at your ex’s house during a snowstorm while his roommates insist on sitting in…
Mayer Hawthorne, Detroit Youth Choir to perform at Detroit’s 16th annual tree lighting
It’s time to dig out your gloves and earmuffs because the temperature is dropping, which also means two things: Holiday shopping season is upon us, and Detroit’s 16th annual holiday tree lighting ceremony at Campus Martius Park is coming up. The evening’s recently announced entertainment includes Ann Arbor native and hip-hop head-turned-crooner Mayer Hawthorne, as…
Voters ban marijuana businesses in 7 more Michigan municipalities
More communities have chosen to put a stop on pot, at least for now. Voters in 7 Michigan municipalities — Keego Harbor, Walled Lake, Allen Park, Hudson, Mt. Pleasant, Marenisco Township, and South Haven — elected some form of bans on marijuana businesses in their communities on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Lincoln Park, Crystal Township, and Northfield…
Could re-election of foul-mouthed Mayor Fouts be a harbinger for Trump’s second term?
Suburban Detroit’s Macomb County is famously regarded as a bellwether for politics. So the re-election of Mayor Jim Fouts for a fourth term on Tuesday in the county’s city of Warren should give pause to people hoping for Donald Trump to be a one-term president. Fouts won by 57.5 percent of the vote against former…
The cosmic balance of Detroit’s Rogue Satellites
The music of Lisa Poszywak and Jaye Allen Thomas — better known as the duo Rogue Satellites — tempers unnerving existential dread with a surreally soothing reverie and cathartic sonic exertion. We’re chatting in their home studio in Detroit about the band’s new EP, Baby I’m Jeff, out this week. “I think the original ideas…
As Trump’s impeachment looms, Republicans struggle to find a coherent defense
In a mostly party-line vote Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution establishing ground rules for the ongoing impeachment inquiry, allowing the release of deposition transcripts, providing opportunities for the president’s lawyers to present evidence, and setting up televised public hearings just in time for Thanksgiving. This, of course, didn’t stop House minority whip…
Detroit’s Chef Kate Williams shows range with American diner, Karl’s
With certain chefs, a new concept isn’t really a question of if it’s going to be good, but rather how good it’s going to be. Recently opened Pernoi by chefs Takashi Yagihashi and Luciano DelSignore of Slurping Turtle and Bacco, respectively, is one such spot. Magnet, the latest from Takoi’s Brad Greenhill that just opened…
A Detroit homecoming for the illustrious drummer Doug Hammond
Detroit has long been a pitstop or adopted home for many jazz musicians. For drummer, vocalist, composer, and poet Doug Hammond, it has been both. Born in Tampa, Florida, Hammond first moved here in 1965. He was one of the founding members of the Detroit Creative Musicians Association, serving as vice president and coordinator. His…
Rocker Carolyn Striho releases her first book
This appears to be the year for several of rock’s legendary artists — Elton John, Debbie Harry, Ringo Starr — to publish their memoirs. So it only seems fitting that one of Detroit’s resident rock legends — the ageless, irrepressible Carolyn Striho — should choose 2019 to release her first-ever book, as well. Detroit (Maiden…
Savage Love: A close female friend was raped by an old acquaintance of mine
I am male. A close female friend was raped by an old acquaintance of mine. I knew this guy when we were tweens, I didn’t really care for him as we got older, so it goes. It turns out that a few years ago, he raped my friend in an alcohol blackout situation. I don’t…
Horoscopes (Nov. 6-12)
ARIES: March 21 – April 20: Teetering on the edge, you don’t know if you’re coming or going. The need for patience, not just with others but with the situation itself, competes with the idea that you can’t wait to get on with the show. Your role in this situation has changed too many times…
John Conyers, weed warrior
The many great accomplishments of Rep. John Conyers Jr., who died on Oct 27, have been recalled in memorials these past few weeks. The list of Conyers’ accomplishments is long, as is fitting for someone who lived to be 90 years and became a household name in local politics. But amid all that eulogizing and…
‘Queer Eye’ star Jonathan Van Ness on his new memoir, being a cat dad, and why the totality of gender binary is a beauty myth
In the sixth grade, Jonathan Van Ness had an idea: He would try out for his school’s talent show by doing a lyrical interpretative dance to Jewel’s 1995 track “Pieces of You.” Eager to share his sure-to-shine routine with his mother, a woman whom he describes as being both supportive and professional, Van Ness performed…
Lori Beth Coolidge is a pot poet
Cannabis brings out the creative in some people. There are stoner bands and music and artwork and even literature. A few weeks back, I referred to the “poetry of strain naming” in a discussion of a new way of identifying strains by Leafly.com. It just seems that people get super hyperbolic when it comes to…
The art of the troll: MOCAD’s Richard Prince exhibition stirs controversy
A little more than a century ago, Marcel Duchamp famously pushed the limits of what could be considered art when he took a urinal, rotated it 90 degrees, signed it with the pseudonym “R. Mutt,” and submitted it to the Society of Independent Artists’ inaugural exhibition in New York. At the time, the work ignited…
Metro Times presents Whiskey in the Winter
Warm up at Metro Times’ inaugural whiskey tasting event. Whiskey in the Winter kicks off the holiday season with a night of whiskey sipping at the Detroit Shipping Company. Dozens of whiskeys, Scotches, and bourbons will be on hand for your sampling pleasure — from locally produced small batches to old classics — as well…
