More on self-sucking
Q: I have a different take on autofellatio, autofellatio in front of your girlfriend, and swallowing one’s own come than you presented in your column last week: It’s a humiliation/submissive/rape-type fantasy. Speaking strictly for myself, I consider myself straight and I can do the autofellatio thing — and the girlfriend has watched me. And it…
Letters to the Editor
Critic’s choice I hope nobody gets the impression that I went to New York last winter just to review the stage version of Tuesdays With Morrie (“Free press for Mitch,” Metro Times, Oct. 8-14). On that same trip I reviewed La Boheme, Movin’ Out, Hairspray, Def Poetry Jam and Imaginary Friends. —Martin F. Kohn, theater…
The Eyes Of …
Good evening. My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight not to bury Alice but to praise him. Now, before the nattering nabobs of negativism start slinging incendiary phrases like "conflict of interest" and "comically sniveling" around (Jeffrey Morgan penned the liner notes to Rhino’s Alice Cooper box set. — ed.), just let me say…
Savvy to the Max
Finally! Somebody got it right — it being the way we imagine our relationship to the past. No easy matter in this town, with its dueling predilections for brainless demolition and nostalgic rot. But architect Donald Schmitt has pulled it off at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, a project as admirable as it is…
What’s coming up?
The DSO has an event-packed October: Wednesday, Oct. 15, the Music Box opens with an eclectic program including the avant-garde sounds of eighth blackbird, the classic Beaux Arts Trio, and violinist Daniel Hope’s revival of the music of Ravi Shankar. Show time is 8 p.m. In Orchestra Hall Oct. 15, Oscar Peterson, a prolific jazz…
The Last Men On Earth
Straight outta Toledo, Ohio, and currently taking LP numero five on the road, Five Horse Johnson comes signed, sealed, delivered and even stamped — as the CD booklet proudly announces — “boogie coalition approved.” Close contemporary kin might include Raging Slab (who coined the term “boogie coalition”), Nashville Pussy, Atomic Bitchwax, etc., but the actual…
Journey to the center
When Auter Love was a young man he loved to ride motorcycles. Not anymore. He’s 96, blind and frail. “I had two or three of them,” says Love, who was born in Arkansas and raised in Battle Creek. Love sits in an easy chair with his hands resting on a worn cane. His back is…
Metallic poses
The most striking thing about famed sculptor Rona Pondick’s new work is that it doesn’t look like art. Her strange mercurial hybrid sculptures, part animal/part woman, have lots of room in Cranbrook Art Museum and at first sight seem more like the enormous hood ornaments of fancy automobiles or perhaps realizations of corporate logos than…
So Damn Happy
The best thing about being the Queen of Soul is that you can call on the most artistically endowed music makers on earth to help put your project together, as Franklin did on this, her 12th Arista album. The flip side to that is these heavyweights — producers, singers and songwriters — are under the…
(Dis)connecting
It’s 6:30 p.m. GMT. Richie Hawtin (Plastikman being his studio persona) plugs in his dying cell phone just in time to explain a couple of things: He spent the whole weekend playing in Frankfurt before taking the train this morning to Cologne to go record shopping at the Kompakt store, and now he’s just landed…
BID letter
BAGLEY ACQUISITION CORPORATION 800 Michigan Building 220 Bagley Detroit, Michigan 48226 (313) 963-5270 Fax: (313) 963-7727 To: Curt Guyette, Metro Times News Editor From: Anthony V. Pieroni Date: October 13, 2003 Re: “Taking Care of BIDness” Your report on the proposed BID is the most comprehensive and accurate that I have read to date ("Taking…
3
The next time some horn-rimmed, pasty-faced putz tries ta tell ya that rock ’n’ roll is deader than yesterday’s glass doorknob, just whip out this ragged wad of raw garage musical mayhem and smearcase it across his smug mug, ’cause this is one of the best lease breakers you’re likely to hear in many a…
Lady, lay it on me
“I like to play that real loud, raucous music,” Caroline Dahl says in a hushed voice that’s lightly touched with a Kentucky drawl. We sit together in a quiet coffeehouse in a quaint San Francisco neighborhood; looking across the table at her thin frame and immaculately pressed business suit, it’s hard to believe Dahl is…
All in the family
One of the triumvirate of the area’s classic, old-line Italian-American restaurants (Mario’s, Lelli’s, Larco’s) with roots that go back half a century to Detroit’s Six Mile Road. Pastas and steaks in generous portions are equally emphasized in an upbeat setting featuring black-and-white photographs of Italian gardens.
Dirtnap Across The Northwest
Seattle has had a healthy underground/punk/garage/rock ’n’ roll scene for the last few years, but documentation of it has been sparse at best. Most of the worthy local garage labels like Regal Select and Bag Of Hammers were defunct, punk mainstay Empty records scaled back and moved, and SubPop was deaf to 95 percent of…
The artful Dodge
Few things compare to a night on the town with good friends. The New Dodge Bar in Hamtramck embodies this concept. A “partier’s bar,” the vibe at the New Dodge is simple: Have a ball. Owner, bartender, cook and run-arounder extraordinare, Kathy Gordon is a testament to the virtues of celebration – with her cheery…
The Weather Underground
Taking their name from a Bob Dylan line — "You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" — the Weather Underground was committed to the violent overthrow of the government, in protest of Vietnam, racism and imperialist capitalism. The documentary combines archival footage and contemporary interviews and seems to send the…
The rules of the road
Oliver Pookrum is a man with a message. The founder of Detroit’s African Renaissance Theater (ART) can talk for hours on the future of black theater and the importance of live performance in a city with only one commercial movie theater. The exciting thing is that people are listening. “What we need to do is…
Intolerable Cruelty
In their newest venture Joel and Ethan Coen present a screwball comedy about divorce among LA jet setters. George Clooney is superb as the shallow, looks-obsessed lead male. Catherine Zeta-Jones, in contrast, is all cool savoir-faire. The brilliant cinematography effectively exploits the gaudy world of Hollywood decadence, and the script is witty, even funny. But…
The Albom ethics flap
Some years ago, one of my brothers, to whom I was not at that time personally close, wrote a long letter to Metro Times attacking one of my columns in a tone that seemed more personal than issue-driven. Naturally, this was embarrassing to me. The editor at the time told me about it, though I…
Secret Lives
Secret Lives, subtitled Hidden Children & their Rescuers During WW II, is a documentary based on stories of Jewish children whose lives were spared when Dutch Christians risked clandestine adoptions. The film is inescapably uplifting. The most poignant parts show the children reunited with their rescuers, some 50 years later. It seems significant that none…
Sing-song Call Girls; Spangler scores
Hooker-friendly What do you get when you combine a trio of tarty, sex-positive pop chicks new to musical instruments, a fetching transsexual time-keep, an ex-cross-dressing Trash Brat and jizz-loads of glitter songs that plunge deep into personal record collections? The latest music-driven porn installment of John Leslie’s Fresh Meat Series on Evil Angel? Well, no,…
Koffin Kats
With lyrics of death, self loathing, demonic beings, drug use, and just having a rockin’ good time yall! They didnt come from hell but they’ll probably end up there.
The inn crowd
Spurred in part by the 2006 Super Bowl, nearly 2,000 new hotel rooms are slated for construction in downtown Detroit, with another 600-plus under consideration. Such development begs questions, chief among them being whether the market can support the doubling of downtown rooms in the long term. And are the taxpayers at risk if the…
Tarantino tantalizes, taunts
Director Quentin Tarantino alloys decades of pop culture in Kill Bill: Volume 1, the beautiful weapon of an auteur’s vision, thrust through our adrenaline glands and into the dark marrow of our funny bones. Kill Bill is Tarantino’s almost impossibly omnivorous cinematic pop culture collage, a stew of audiovisual references placed delicately onscreen in the…
October 15-22, 2003
15-18 WED-SAT • FUNDRAISER/MUSIC WDET-FM Fall Fundraiser at 313.JAC — Lets face it, if you have an ear for up-and-coming locals, Detroit radio will usually yield barren results — until the dial reaches WDET-FM 101.9, that is. By airing of-the-minute local music (not to mention NPR offerings and bafflingly creative programming), WDET-FM is an essential…
Casa de los Babys
John Sayles’ latest tackles a worthwhile subject: the dark and economic side of motherhood. A talented ensemble cast of female actors converge on a Mexican resort town, where the wealthy Northerners have come to adopt local babies, while the locals are too busy working to care for their own. Despite the rich premise, the film…
Smile, you’re on Cop Camera
For your edification, we offer this excerpt from a recent letter David Soul, a member of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, sent to Detroit City Council President Maryann Mahaffey regarding his experience at a Sept. 27 anti-war rally: “Those of us at the gathering at Woodward Avenue and East Warren Avenue were…
Dopamine
In the latest Sundance Film Series pick, protagonist Rand bases his life on science, believing that love is nothing but a distinct hormonal reaction. When he encounters Sarah, his views are challenged for the first time. In the end, Dopamine is a bland exploration of the biomechanics and machinations of love.
The daily union blues
The polite description for it is concessionary contract. News Hits calls it a reaming — at least for the unions. Workers represented by four unions at the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press voted to take it in the behind on Sunday when they ratified a three-year contract that requires them to partially pay for…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The best way to attract good luck in the coming week is to experiment with doing the opposite of what you usually do. You could act as if limitations are fantastic opportunities. Instead of indulging your impulses, you can question them lightheartedly. Rather than leading everyone into interesting temptation with your…
Cirque du Council
The rift between Detroit City Council members led to some petty, downright silly bickering last week. The latest bout took place when Kay Everett, following her usual M.O., arrived late to the meeting and insisted on discussing an issue that had already been thoroughly hashed out. She persisted in questioning a representative of the city’s…
Simon and Garfunkel’s greatest spats
Just think — these two have known each other for more than a half-century, with breakups, reunions and long stretches of non-communication less-tenacious squabblers like CSN&Y and the Eagles can only dream of. Yet Simon and Garf have managed to make nice once again for the “Old Friends: The 2003 Concert Tour,” unofficially dubbed “The…
Real estate mouse hunt
Abandoned Shelter of the Week Like many homes on Detroit’s west side, 7034 Holmes St. stands empty in a neighborhood near Livernois and Warren. Built in 1924 when the city was a much different place, the home appears to have held up well structurally. It needs a new roof and porch, but the inside seems…
’68
Thirty-five years ago, Detroit reveled in the Tigers’ first World Series championship in 23 years. For a major American city climbing from the rubble of racial unrest, it was an important, if short-lived, victory. But the city was changing, the people were changing — and without our realizing it, the game we celebrated that fall…
The Max rocks
Looking for parking near the brand-new Max M. Fisher Center is an experience in Detroit’s ever-present state of contradiction. Driving slowly around the lower section of the Cass Corridor, near the last of the low-income buildings in that area, one can easily get nervous about parking along a too-dark street. But pull behind the new…
