Custer’s last stand
Abandoned Shelter of the Week On Detroit’s east side, 539 Custer sits near a church and barbecue joint. One can imagine the former residents eating a plate of ribs after Sunday worship. But if they did, it would have been some time ago. It has been about a decade since the three-family flat was occupied,…
Hiding Snide
“The name is Clem Williamson Snide, I am a private asshole,” begins the private detective protagonist in William Burroughs’ fairly unfamed 1981 effort, Cities of the Red Night. Burroughs’ hero sleuths around surreal city streets looking for clues to the disappearance of a maladjusted boy. When his the trail gets cold, Snide does what any…
A welcome home
Bosnian Specialties is unpretentious in the extreme, with seven round, well-spaced tables up a flight of steps, trying for a homey effect. Little rustic crosshatched roof effects adorn the windows and the corner table sits in a wooden bower twined with plastic grapevines. The food brings to mind Greek and Romanian dishes; gyros are on…
Over and out
Nabil Almarabh has been ordered deported to Syria, despite claims that he will likely be tortured or killed if sent there. Immigration judge Robert Newberry ruled last week that the 36-year-old Kuwaiti, who has been in federal custody since Sept. 19, 2001, be deported to the Middle-Eastern country. Almarabh had hoped to avoid deportation to…
Letters to the Editor
Blame the messenger Khary Kimani Turner’s article about the need for downtown hotel rooms quotes Patti Shock, chair of the Convention and Tourism Department of the University of Las Vegas, Nevada ("The inn crowd," Metro Times, Oct. 15-21). “Detroit needs to do some heavy PR to combat the negative image painted by the press over…
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
As I testified in my grand jury deposition, the last thing I remember before my third wife accidentally fell overboard is the two of us leaning over the railing and looking down at the churning whitecaps while syrupy music was piped over the cruise ship’s PA system. “What is this puerile pap?” she asked, glancing…
Roy about town
Between the ubiquitous presence of record execs’ thumbprints on the sound of pop music and the oversaturation of alternative rock, finding a place for musicians to sell records without the luxury of big-label distribution is getting mighty difficult. And to many, worth is measured either by commercial success or by the bragging rights of the…
24-hour movie people
I’m sitting in an editing room at the studios of GTN Inc., next to co-producer Michael Moreland, who is ostensibly in charge of the movie being made today. He was released from an emergency room around midnight last night, diagnosed with strep throat, and he hasn’t slept since. He’s following a constitution-rocking course of antibiotics…
The Deadstring Brothers
It takes exactly 16 seconds to realize there’s something desperate about the Deadstring Brothers. There are 15 seconds of a simple drumbeat and then — out of nowhere — a bomb drops. Fistfuls of piano, guitars and bass crash across the downbeat in ragged unison. A moment later, when the band abruptly halts and Kurt…
Walk on the mild side
Well, as Tom Petty once droned, the waiting is the hardest part. I saw the Strokes last Thursday night, and boy, did that Petty line suddenly become penetrating and profound. Coming into the show I knew that long periods would pass where the focus would be on the dull leg ache associated with standing too…
A $60 million question for city
Wayne County would take over collection of Detroit’s delinquent property taxes — a sum of around $60 million a year — under a bill introduced in the Michigan Senate. If the bill passes and the county takes over Detroit’s delinquent collection, the city will for the first time in decades get reimbursed for all of…
Comin’ From Where I’m From
Don’t do this to me. Don’t take off your clothes and not grind. That’s exactly what it feels like when I anticipate a great record only to be let down by mediocre results. Not that I want to grind with Anthony Hamilton. However, I first heard his incredible voice on Nappy Roots’ “Po Folks” single.…
New publisher for Metro Times
Nine years after she went to work for Metro Times selling ads to restaurateurs, Lisa Rudy was back at the paper Monday — as its publisher. “I loved every job that I had here. I got to learn the ins and outs of a lot of different departments. Ultimately, I wanted to be the person…
Hell On Wheels, Vol. 2
Hick-hop wunderkid DJ P (Danny Phillips) has been confounding and amusing underground hip-hop heads with his unashamed mix CDs of hardcore rap and unlikely ’80s cuts for the past four years. On 1999’s Uneasy Listening Vol. 1, he and DJ Z-Trip mixed the Pharcyde’s “She Keeps On Passing Me By” over Pat Benatar’s “Love Is…
Politics & strange bedfellows
Q: My future husband is running for political office in the Bible Belt. He has a good chance of winning, but campaigns can become ugly and personal. Before I met my husband, I dated women, posed for naked pictures, was into drugs, and even appeared in a “Girls Gone Wild” video. I do not regret…
No passport required
What does a city that prides itself on culture and knowledge need? Great beer and grub of course! And, no place offers that better than Ashley’s Pub in Ann Arbor. Just south of Nickel’s Arcade on State Street, Ashley’s offers one of the best (and largest) selections of beer this side of paradise. Excuse the…
The Fire Theft
Speaking of which, back in 1992 I was busy serving 5-to-10 in Woolworth for grand theft audio so I never got to smell what drummer William Goldsmith and singer Jeremy Enigk were cooking when their first band, Sunny Day Real Estate, showed up on the Seattle scene. But now that I’m a rehabilitated member of…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I have fallen prey to a widespread sin — overusing the term "sacred." I haven’t sunk to the vulgar depths of New Age hucksters who offer workshops in "sacred dog-walking." But I want to be more spare in invoking the term so that on those rare occasions when I do, you…
Hail to the King
This little cinematic jewel will probably not make a blip on the mainstream radar, but it’s the most unique and charmingly quirky film released in recent memory, pitting Elvis and JFK against a nursing home mummy. It’s Royal Oak native Bruce Campbell, the king of B-movies, playing the King himself in what may be the…
Searching for the other side
It isn’t your quintessentially stormy night, but the sky is dark and a fat, yellowish moon is rising by the time I start driving east on I-696. I’m on my way to investigate a haunting, or, more accurately, to stand around and watch other people do the investigating. Earlier in the day, I spoke with…
Veronica Guerin
Irish journalist Veronica Guerin learned just how bad the Irish underworld is during her mid-’90s investigation into Dublin’s heroin traffickers. Joel Schumacher directed this eponymous biopic, which ought to be fair warning for anybody interested in an affecting experience. Cate Blanchett’s Guerin hits all the right notes — but the film can’t allay a curious…
Pimping the hood
You’ve probably already heard about the controversy surrounding the new board game Ghettopoly? If you haven’t, then let me first say that no, this is not a joke. The board game, which is loosely patterned after Monopoly, used to be available at most Urban Outfitters stores for a little more than $20, although it appears…
The Legend of Suriyothai
This sumptuous mountain of eye candy was directed by a genuine Thai prince, Chatri Chalerm Yukol. An epic tale of historical intrigue set in 16th century Thailand, it’s a visual feast, though dramatically flaccid and confusingly paced. There’s enough cool violence and interesting rituals to keep one watching.
Fresh airs
It’s 9:45 on a Tuesday night, and Holly Golightly is strolling gracefully up the sidewalk toward the club. By her languid movements, you’d never guess she was a good two hours late for this interview. Surrounded by a scruffy coterie of bandmates and old chums, she coolly maneuvers through the crowd of smokers at the…
How I Killed My Father
Directed and co-written by Anne Fontaine, How I Killed My Father is a bleak little drama about a hardened man who is given a chance at self-examination, if not redemption, when visited by a spirit from the past. It’s A Christmas Carol with only one ghost and no jolly seasonal songs.
Road to Baghdad
As family gatherings go, one that took place in Baghdad during August holds far more interest than most. Lateef Al-Saraji, an Iraqi native who has lived in the United States for the past 10 years, made the journey from his home in Erie, Mich., to visit the family left behind when he fled Iraq in…
Civil Brand
Screenwriter Preston A. Whitmore II, a Detroit native, casts the for-profit prison industry as a modern-day plantation. Though a few women get armed and murderous, the prison sewing factory is more a sexually abusive sweatshop than a plantation. Civil Brand should have been found guilty of being a bad B-movie and sent straight to quick…
Television show
"‘Jam punks’?!? Uh-oh…" Is the guttural noise coming over the phone line a mock groan or the sound of genuine exasperation? I honestly can’t tell, although after I read Richard Lloyd several more lines from Rolling Stone’s just-published review of Rhino’s Television reissues ("Television were the New York punk explosion’s answer to the Grateful Dead"),…
Wonderland
Director Paul Cox’s lack of interest in how porn star Johnny Holmes (aka Johnny Wadd) went from nowhere to the big-time to the skids robs Wonderland of anything a viewer can glom onto emotionally, like character, for instance. Nonetheless, the film — starring Val Kilmer as Holmes-Wadd in his final, druggy downward spiral — is…
Oct. 22-28, 2003
23 THU • MUSIC David “Fathead” Newman and Marcus Belgrave — Newman made his name with Ray Charles in the ’50s and ’60s and later played with Aretha Franklin and Natalie Cole. He’s one tough Texas tenor, but also says plenty on alto sax and flute. And his solid records in recent years show his…
Michigan plant put on ICE
Criminals aren’t the only sneaks. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pulled a fast one on illegal immigrants working in a Mount Clemens auto supply plant. Upon inspection of employee records, ICE (formerly Immigration and Naturalization Services), put the chill on 40 Mexican workers who were illegally employed at Powder Cote II, a company that…
Impeach the president?
Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. —George Bush, lying to the American people, Oct. 7, 2002 Forget politics and personalities, and tell me which of these two men most deserves to be fired: President A: Fumbles around with a…
School rule
The school is open. Kids are in class. And a federal judge finally issues a landmark ruling. In a written opinion issued last month, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood said that the parents suing Detroit Public Schools over the construction of an elementary school on a contaminated industrial waste site would be allowed…
Dead reckoning
Creative differences. It’s the crusty catchall for nearly every band breakup that doesn’t involve someone schtoopin’ someone they shouldn’t be (see Fleetwood Mac). Of course, creative conflicts can be the single most important element in a band’s makeup, which could be the case with Seattle-based Pretty Girls Make Graves. Prior to a gig at Cat’s…
Signs of the times
One way to let your neighbor — and nemesis — know where you stand these days is to post a sign in your front yard. “We support our troops,” “Peace,” and “No War” placards have become commonplace. But if the Michigan Democrats have their way, folks will soon see a new message posted on front…
From microbes to mountains
Often, you stand in front of something stuck on a wall, and it screams static. But each of these four shows elicits motion, emotion — or a sense of an artist moving on. Beverly Fishman: From Here to There Not to be missed is an exquisite survey of works created by Beverly Fishman during…
