A WAILIN’ CRAZY TIME…
“Man I love Detroit. It’s so black in here,” exclaimed legendary saxophonist Donald Washington, kissing the mike onstage Friday night at the Bohemian National Home, as musicians behind him slapped each other on the back and wiped sweat on their sleeves. Washington, in town from Minneapolis, meant to encourage the catcalling crowd in Bohemian’s library.…
Loves art, ‘hates, hates, hates the scene’
Combining thoughtful criticism, news, analysis and "Page Six" style gossip, Tyler Green’s blog Modern Art Notes (www.artsjournal.com/man) has been listed among "the most influential visual arts blogs" by The Wall Street Journal. Green’s no-holds-barred approach has positioned him as the conscience of the art world, for more than six years, calling bluffs, breaking stories and…
Things We Lost in the Fire
Things We Lost in the Fire is a glossy, inelegant, strangely inert film that boasts terrific performances, moments of real emotion and a third act that avoids cheap posturing and neat conclusions. It’s a decidedly mixed bag, but if Allan Loeb’s highly regarded script is to be commended, it’s for pulling on your heartstrings without…
Hoodwinkin’ tinseltown
There’s a terrible myth about artists, especially filmmakers. It’s assumed that those who create cinema must also somehow be qualified to speak articulately on the subject. This isn’t always the case — in fact, it’s rarely the case. Director Gavin Hood is an exception to this myth. With this former lawyer from South Africa —…
The last stink
John Nagy has been alive for 53 years, and every one of them has been spent living in Delray. Until now. A well-known grassroots activist, Nagy has pulled up stakes, moving from his lifelong neighborhood on Detroit’s southwest side to Monroe’s Frenchtown Township. He’s left the community where he was born and attended school, moving…
Losing grace
On a chilly Sunday, an organ plays a somber hymn during Mass at an old Catholic church in Delray, in southwest Detroit. Words by Father Edward Zaorski echo through the mostly empty wooden pews. Some of the few dozen people are teary-eyed. As with a number of Detroit churches that have closed in recent years,…
Night and Day
Wednesday • 24 Oslo’s Reopening Hipsters rejoice!Let’s see if they have the chops(ticks) to hack it a second time around: The much-loved sushi bar, art gallery and underground (literally) music venue is reopening under the new ownership. Former waitress Katalia Lemos and her husband, Roberto (DJ Bet) are taking the helm, attempting to resuscitate the once-glorious scenester…
Straight and narrow
A homophobic father causes a family dilemma.
Getting Randi
Radio host Rhodes comes to town, and other goings-on.
Out come the freaks
Ah! Halloween in Detroit. The one time of year when local clubbers actually dress up to get down, shedding their usual drab, anti-fashionable dance gear to wear something even more hideous. But, hey, forget the clothes. It’s all about the music, right? As long as the D is still kicking it from the deep end,…
Press props
Kudos for a Detroit daily.
American splendor
“What I do is talk for four minutes, then take a break.” That’s Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn using his puckish sense of humor to describe what he does onstage. His songs do suggest a rambling vamp he’s made up on the spot. And as Finn indulges his combination of stage patter and storytelling, he’s…
All flesh-eaters, all the time
Fido Lionsgate A zombie movie that takes place when George Romero was still going through puberty? Imagine the postwar 1950s, but instead of the Germans, our nation was busy defeating the zombies. Fido opens with a newsreel that explains how the undead were brainwashed into doing our menial chores thus freeing the Eisenhower era for…
Will success spoil Fred Thomas?
Aside from the fluorescent lights, Mountain Dew banner and cluster of tailored suits, this CMJ day-stage performance is just like any other Saturday Looks Good To Me show. Fred Thomas, of course, is front and center. He has a slightly surprising air of confidence about him. He’s even making jokes: “Hello. We’re Saturday Looks Good…
Motor City Cribs
Artist Chris Turner’s home is more 1907 than 2007.
Head Cheese
Critical Bill’s Mike Scott picks his five fave Detroit lyrics.
Doc up
The five-day Detroit Docs International Film Festival wrapped on Sunday at the Detroit Institute of Arts when director Jack Cronin announced the award-winning documentaries. The fifth Detroit Docs fest was notable for its cooperative spirit, bringing together groups that have worked on their own to promote film production and education, particularly the Detroit Film Center,…
Self-possessed
“For the past few years, I’ve been dreaming about escape,” says artist Ann Gordon. “Around the holidays, they play those Bond marathons on TV. You know, he’s sorta like my father, my boyfriend and me …” Man. The stuff you could read into a statement like that (aside from the glaring identity issues). Here’s a…
Basketball Jones
This year’s NBA2K and a next-generation phone.
Letters to the Editor
Eating some words I am writing regarding my letter, which appeared last week (“Public Hector,” Letters to the Editor, Metro Times, Oct. 17). My apologies to Marie Donigan. She reminded me that I mistakenly referred to her service to our city of Royal Oak as being on the school board; it is her husband who…
The Nightmare Before Christmas — 3D
For the uninitiated, Nightmare is the story of Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town. Bored by his duties and desperate to experience something new, he decides to kidnap Santa Clause and take over Christmas. Putting his ghoulish minions to work, he ends up ruining the very holiday he tried to improve. A sort…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid The Perry Bible Fellowship – by Nicholas Gurewitch
Rendition
There are flashes of bravery in Gavin Hood’s robust direction. The South African native (who won an Oscar for Tsotsi) expertly contrasts the American life of Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) — whose very pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) launches a one-woman campaign to find him after he fails to return from a chemical engineering conference…
Metro Times joins protest by alt-weeklies
WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 23, 2007) Member papers of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (aan.org) this week are providing links on their Web sites that direct their readers to the many places on the Internet where the home address of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is listed. AAN papers, including Metro Times, are doing so to…
Turning Japanese
In a stylish setting, bandana-clad sushi chefs vigorously chop and slice at the sushi bar turning out first-rate sushi and sashimi. But for the sushi-shy, there’s also an interesting limited array of other Japanese standards. Ronin offers only 5 entrées ($11-$28) but with noodles, fish, fowl and beef, most gastronomic bases are covered. The chilled…
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Harpout
Get on the chatter line with Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout #142! Johnny Thunders — Who’s Been Talking? (MVD Visual DVD) :: Recorded a few days before El Thunderoso died in April 1991, this Japanese gig is a joyous energetic romp, admirably augmented by the big Amazonian lungs of super-stacked platinum blonde chantoozie Alison Gordy. Better…
The Darjeeling Limited
A trio of estranged brothers, Francis (Wilson) Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Schwartzman), decides to reconnect on a cross-country train ride through India. That these kooky sibs would seek clarity in such a chaotic, overwhelming place speaks volumes about them — even when the screenplay leaves much unsaid. (Their stormy relationship gets fleshed out in…
Climate conversation
The environmental justice movement’s lessons for Detroit.
Gone Baby Gone
Affleck’s carefully chosen supporting cast is first-rate. Madigan, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, John Ashton and little known but equally impressive TV actors Titus Welliver and Amy Ryan, round out Gone Baby Gone with lived-in authenticity. But what makes Ben Affleck’s filmmaking debut rise above similar crime dramas is its layered exploration of human ethics and…
Bye-bye, democracy
Reporters: Democracy’s last line of defense.
30 Days of Night
Vampires in Alaska? Where the sun sets for a month at a time? It’s such an ingenious premise it’s amazing no one thought of it before. But these vampires, led by Danny Huston’s jaw-clacking Nosferatu, aren’t Ann Rice-suave goth. They’re brutally savage beasts that tear your throat out with gleeful abandon. Unfortunately, screenwriters Steve Niles,…
Food stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Private Eyes
Spending her days watching a bank of CCTV monitors, Jackie Morrison (Kate Dickie) is more of a compassionate Big Sister, looking over the residents of a dodgy neighborhood in Glasgow, Scotland. A quiet, self-contained widow, Jackie’s careful to keep her attention focused outward, onto the strangers she observes, while ignoring her own deep, suppressed pain.…
THAT WAS THE WEEKEND THAT WAS…
More photos from this past weekend’s Don Was shindig (see item immediately below) in Ferndale: John and Bobby of the Go put their final touches on vocals. Black Merda playing some “kinda-rock, kinda-funk, kinda blues”… Our own Khary Turner of Black Bottom Collective delivers the goods. All photos by W. Kim Heron
