Freaks and cliques
It’s no secret that kids have taken over network television. Shows such as "Dawson’s Creek," "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Felicity" have ruled the growing niche of teen viewerland for a couple years now. But now that a crop of clones has popped up, it seems as though every network exec wants to provide an…
Light, lovely pierogis
Ferndale is so fashionable that hip eateries are spilling over east of Woodward. Christine’s Cuisine, the namesake of chef Christine Adams, is a casual, comfortable place to dine. The “cuisine” in this restaurant’s title is appropriate because the intent is ambitious; there’s an emphasis on the homemade, and there are plenty of hits among a…
In one ear
TANTALIZING LOVE ALWAYS It’s been a long time coming. The Demolition Doll Rods sex-and-salvation magnum opus, TLA (on über indie Matador Records), has been out since August – but Margaret, Dan and Christine are just getting around to celebrating it in their hometown. You see, the girls have been on the road for the past…
Location, location, location
As the coffeehouses in Royal Oak multiply like so many hypercaffeinated rabbits, Brazil retains its historic position on Main Street. A prime location in the heart of the town with an active sidewalk seating area, as well as a bevy of comfortable couches inside, the space encourages patrons to take time out to smell the…
Party made for walkin’
You have to love those Michigan Democrats. For years, whenever it came time to choose a presidential nominee, they managed to be the laughingstock of the nation. They are well on the way to doing it again. While we weren’t looking, the gang that tried to give us Larry Owen changed the rules and took…
The Best Man
When a movie centers around a wedding, it’s usually the betrothed who are going through a crisis. In writer-director Malcolm D. Lee’s debut film, it’s the best man who’s transformed by the experience. Harper Stewart (Taye Diggs) has two things making him nervous as he prepares to reunite with his close-knit group of college friends…
Tricks for treats
A few houses over from mine, the neighbors have decorated their front porch with scarecrows, pumpkins, a dozen or so ghostlike objects and a sign announcing "Happy Fright Night." Next door to me on one side, there’s a liberal frosting of fake spiderwebs; a similar display graces the porch of the house on the other…
Black Cat, White Cat
First, run away from home. Once you’ve reached your destination (those fields of gold by the river will do), raise your skirts and jump: The waters – dirty, noisy, restless – are friendly. So are the people. Remember Gadjo Dilo, the film about another “crazy stranger” lost in the land of the gypsies, intoxicated by…
Film wrap, bar flap
A MISPRINT THING The folks behind the upcoming locally produced music film It’s a Detroit Thing threw their wrap party at Motor in Hamtramck last Thursday, and the club was literally packed to the sweaty rafters with scenesters, freeloaders, good fellas and beefy, swarthy guys of the "Members Only" ilk. As I strolled up to…
Bringing Out the Dead
Cruising the New York City night, ambulance driver Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) is in a perpetual state of expectation and dread. Part of it is the nature of his job – stretches of time-killing driving suddenly punctuated by urgent, life-altering calls to action – which is made even more chaotic and uncertain by the disorganization…
High price for money
High price for money High-interest mortgage lenders, also known as subprime lenders, were the primary source of home loans to minorities and low-income people in the Detroit area in 1998, according to a report released last week by Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in Washington, D.C. The ACORN study, "Stripping the Wealth,"…
Three to Tango
It could be a coincidence that two of television’s hottest stars appear in a movie that has a painfully shallow TV quality. But it probably isn’t. This yawner of a plot would fill up a half-hour sitcom slot nicely; unfortunately it can’t carry an entire movie. Damon Santostefano’s Three to Tango follows the quirky, confused…
Seizure: For the birds
Seizure: For the birds The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has flexed its "zero tolerance" muscles in an effort to protect Americans from THC – the psychoactive component of marijuana – by halting a truckload of sterile, and, for all intents and purposes, THC-free hemp seeds on their way to a birdseed manufacturer in Baltimore. Seventeen…
Small Change
There’s something quietly desperate about François Truffaut’s 1976 film, Small Change. Made immediately after the director’s dark and unrelenting The Story of Adele H., it has an eagerness to please which seems both anxious and cramped. Truffaut had early on established himself as a poet of adolescent confusion – that wrenching period in one’s life…
Surgery a success
A 12-year-old Iraqi girl brought to the United States by a Southfield-based relief agency has undergone successful open-heart surgery and is expected to return home within three weeks. Zahraa Hamada’s surgery was performed Oct. 18 at no cost to her family by doctors at Indiana University’s Riley Hospital for Children. The seven-hour operation went better…
Members only
There are three good quotes, 36 pictures of naked guys contemplating their snopps, 25 pieces of trivia we never asked for (Did you know that "eunuchs of the Chinese Imperial Court often carried their pickled testicles in jars which they displayed around their necks?"), 92 terms for masturbation, and a penis-stand-up-comedian (the Jerry Seinfeld of…
Food Stuff
ABUNDANT INGREDIENTS In the first aisle of Alcamo’s (4423 Schaefer, 313-584-3010), Dearborn’s venerable Italian grocery, you’ll find crushed tomatoes, ground tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato paste, tomato sauce, whole tomatoes and strained tomatoes, imported from the old country in a waxed cardboard box. Emily Chimento, whose family has run Alcamo’s…
Blues mining
Odetta. Even her name demands respect. Odetta has been performing for 50 years. Fifty. One of the guiding lights in the folk boom of the early ’60s, Odetta performed a distinctive brand of gospel-folk-blues with regal authority. Her husky voice was perfect for such grassroots epics as Pete Seeger’s "If I Had a Hammer," as…
Cubano chant
One of the first acts of the Cuban socialist revolution was the 1959 founding of the Cuban Institute of Cinematic Art and Industry. Embracing Fidel Castro’s dictum, "within the revolution, everything; against it, nothing," a small group of dedicated revolutionaries, most with little or no experience as filmmakers, came forward and forged a national cinema…
Wicked memories
You can play a neat game with these tracks by trying to remember in just what horror flick you heard them before. That’s a tough job, though. Some are almost unrecognizable when stripped out of the movie environment and left to hang on their own as pieces of music. Luckily, most of them are worthwhile…
Let there be mass transit
Inside a Highland Park church, Victoria Kovari has issued a rallying cry to her Christian soldiers and anyone else willing to listen. This isn’t about the Bible. It’s not a fire and brimstone sermon. It’s about a burning public policy issue of immediate relevance to metro Detroit: fostering social and economic equality in the region…
High lonesome rose
Sally Timms is known for her estimable vocal contributions to the Mekons, a 20-year-old punk-turned-reggae-turned-country-turned-avant-garde-rock group that continues to record. Her voice is one of the high points on classic Mekons recordings, such as So Good It Hurts and Curse of the Mekons. On those records, Timms’ singing stands out like a single rose amid…
Underground chic
The Mill Street Entry, located in the lower level of Clutch Cargo’s, aspires to be one of the premier cigar-and-martini lounges in Metro Detroit. What sets it apart is its Vegas-style stage set-up, featuring an emcee and live acts ranging from rockabilly to big band swing, Saturday nights.
Some call it emo
Nobody likes labels, especially when they get stuck with one that they can’t shake. Way back when, somebody came up with a tag called "emo." The details are shaky at best, but for what it’s worth, it’s short for emotion and is generically applied to bands who came out of the U.S. hardcore punk scene…
Rock ‘n’ roll elegance
The State Theatre is an elegantly restored Roaring ’20s movie house, that is decidedly a rock-and-roll venue. It consistently hosts some of the bigger shows to roll into town. There’s also weekly programming events, including occasional movie nights and the popular Ignition dance party on Saturday nights.
Attempted sellout
Complete artistic control, working with Brian Eno again, critical praise for the first time in almost 20 years, living to see his 50th birthday – you’d think David Bowie would have been happy with his last two outings, but he’s not. Bowie just wants to be a rock star again. Hours, his heavily hyped new…
Everybody knows my name
Kid Rock’s sold out homecoming Palace concert makes his point, firmly, with the middle finger – a rite of personal victory for the top dog who played underdog for years.
Beer lover’s dream
A beer lover’s, barrel-aged dream, this east-side hangout features hundreds of beers from across the globe–Check out a complete beer list @ taproom.com. Live music fills the back room on occasion, but the brews are by far the main attraction. A helluva place to hang, libate and listen.
What’s with Watt?
Confident that they were still songwriters and not beat junkies, singer Tracey Thorn and multi-instrumentalist-arranger Ben Watt let dance floor artists Todd Terry and Spring Heel Jack take them into the middle-’90s. They aided and abetting the duo on Walking Wounded (1996) – a record that utilized rather than aped house music and gave the…
Record-setting goals
To get new songs heard, record labels send them to pool directors, who then distribute them to local club DJs … giving unknown records a chance to make a hit on the dance floor.
Get to know Jac
Jacoby’s is a slice of old Detroit nestled in the rapidly dwindling neighborhood known as Bricktown. A beirgarten dating to 1904, the cozy bar offers up tin-ceilinged charm along with sauerkraut and brats. An added attraction in the tiny upstairs has been live music on many weekend nights, featuring some of the best local bands…
Jazz in the details
Can’t let ’99 roll out without a nibble at one of this year’s overlooked morsels: tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s soothing, funky, melodious session released back when the snows were still upon us. A veteran of Chico Hamilton’s quintets – in which thick guitar chords replaced piano backup – Lloyd homes in, this time, on fairly…
Going public
Into the (water) closet to commune with your neighbors….
Top of the pops
Ann Arbor’s version of the Liverpool club that the Beatles made famous has the original’s low-ceilinged ambience and hosts the finest old-school local practitioners. On any given weekend, you’ll hear blues, rockabilly, rock ‘n’ roll and R&B chords and choruses ringing from beautifully converted innards of this former brewery.
