NATHANIEL MAYER, R.I.P.
Damn! It has not been a great couple of weeks for legendary Detroit vocalists. We lost Mr. Mayer yesterday due to complications from the stroke he suffered earlier this year. As someone who remained a vital part of the local music community right up until he was struck, this news is very sad indeed. Not…
BOO!!
First off: Happy Halloween from Mr. Bruce Springsteen! You probably already know about these already, as it’s so late in the day, but I promised to post about both…so here are the two hot shows taking place tonight on this scariest of nights: The Von Bondies are at the Crofoot tonight with a whole bunch…
Poll watchers
For you political junkies out there who can’t get enough election news and want to keep tabs of how the presidential race is going down the home stretch, I have a couple of Web sites to recommend. The first is realclearppolitics.com, a site that, among many other things, posts a daily roundup of all the…
Safe American home
The news came today: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved Aziz Alfassa for permanent residency in the United States, putting to rest the 20-year-old’s fears of deportation to Togo where he said he would have feared for his life. “We are grateful that they decided to give this young man a chance at a new…
Tearjerk
It was hard not getting a little teary-eyed watching the Barack Obama infomercial Wednesday night. Who could not be touched by the amber waves of grain, and all those seemingly sincere testimonies to the character of the man who wants to lead us, and the tales of people struggling as a result of eight years…
FIVE COMMEMORATED; JACK GUITAR HEROED
Cool show tomorrow night (October 30th) celebrating the 40th anniversary (to the day) of the release of one of the greatest and most important albums to ever come out of this city, the MC5 ‘s Kick Out The Jams. The show at the Crofoot also marks the release of Detroit Music Revolution: Rock ‘n Roll,…
Caught in the middle
Facing deportation to a hostile homeland or going undocumented in the United States
Eminem grows up
My former colleague Dave DiMartino interviewed Eminem for Yahoo! Music at the height of the artist’s Slim Shady superstardom. When asked what his impressions were, DiMartino said Marshall Mathers — because that’s who he interviewed — was “a super nice guy. I really liked him. I also felt a little sorry for him. I think…
Couch Trip
For Alfred Hitchcock, a chandelier is not just a chandelier. In the most fascinating scene in the otherwise mundane courtroom drama The Paradine Case, it’s the symbol that literally divides Louis Jourdan’s effeminate valet and Gregory Peck’s inquisitive barrister in their first taut encounter. In subsequent edits, its stalactite shards gleam above their heads in…
Election Day — the movie
Film focuses on America’s unequal elections
Live at Shea Stadium
“Rain’s a load of rubbish,” road manager and man Friday Kosmo Vinyl says, introducing “the only band that matters” to an apparently drenched audience during their biggest U.S. tour. “Don’t worry about rain.” And the crowd — contrary to the story that the Clash, an odd choice to open for the Who, nearly got booed…
Hollywood schtuppin’
For the longest time, lovely Elizabeth Banks was that actress who, if you saw her out at the grocery store or Starbucks, you’d recognize her only enough to suspect maybe you knew her from somewhere in the real world. After this autumn, you’ll never forget where you know her from again. The Massachusetts native, who’s…
Food Stuff
Full plates for local foodies.
Urine trouble
If he could save pee in a bottle …
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Halloweenout
Ted Nugent — Sweden Rocks (Eagle Vision DVD) :: I like Ted, but his cackling, bug-eyed rants are beginning to scare even me. Fred "Herman" Gwynne, Yvonne "Lily" De Carlo, Al "Grandpa" Lewis — The Munsters: The Complete Series (Universal Studios Home Entertainment) :: If y’wanna suss out someone’s secret psyche, ask if they’re a…
The guy who isn’t Elmore Leonard
On a drive through Indiana two years ago, Michigan-based author Loren Estleman and his wife, Deborah Morgan, discovered a weathered water tower painted with the words “GAS CITY” in large letters. The sight immediately gave Estleman an idea: What about a lawless city in the Midwest? The writer had lots of ideas motoring around in…
Flashback
For years, we’ve been covering local filmmakers, from obscure figures like Josh Becker and Jerry Chandler to famous native Detroiters like Kristen Bell, Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi, as well as our host of local festivals, from the Ann Arbor Film Festival to the Women of Color Fest to Reel Pride to the Media City…
Counting the days
The problems ahead are formidable
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Made in Michigan
Since Detroit Docs launched in 2002, the independent film festival has been run by a number of individuals and organizations, but its mission to promote documentaries and foster work by local filmmakers has remained unchanged. The sixth Detroit Docs International Film Festival, starting tonight and running through Sunday, has streamlined and sharpened its focus, maintaining…
Northern fires
French-cuisine-trained Ryan Odette moved from one concept of cool to the other when he closed his tiny MamO Bistro and opened a crowd-pleasing barbecue joint. No more roasted apricots and fig jus: now it’s ribs, wings and pulled pork, playing to a full, and much bigger, house. The ribs appear unpromising: rather black and dry-looking,…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY • 29-31 THOLLEM MCDONAS A TRUE PIANO ORIGINAL Bay Area pianist Thollem McDonas has found Detroit a sympathetic stop in his heavy touring, performing something like 20 gigs here in three years by his count, finding a small circle of simpatico collaborators and big-eared fans. Kicking off a four-gig residency at CAID last week,…
Filth and Wisdom
First-time director Madonna’s larger-than-life aura pervades this indie project. A ballet dancer who spends more time in class than on a stage, Holly (Holly Weston) finds work as a stripper until that elusive big break comes. Her best scenes are extended dance sequences. Obsessed with helping starving children in Africa, Juliette (Vicky McClure) has left…
Tumbling into town
The Tour of Gymnastics Superstars handsprings into Joe Louis Arena
Pride and Glory
A solidly made but relentlessly bleak cop drama loaded with strong performances and tightly controlled bursts of intensity, this film’s also pretty daunting, with a creeping sense of doom as inevitable as nightfall. It trudges a familiar beat: corrupt big city cops, who fight, and scream and steal and abuse their livers in dingy barrooms…
(Not) just a juggalo
Some of you may still be undecided when it comes to the Big Decision ’08 — but if the country were voting “yes” or “no” on Proposition Insane Clown Posse, there’d be no fence-straddling whatsoever. If you’re for the Delray, Detroit horrorcore hip-hop duo, then you’re a juggalo or the female equivalent, a juggalette (damn,…
Perfect union
Director Jonathan Demme has traded longtime collaborator Tak Fujimoto for cinematographer Declan Quinn, taking a roving hand-held cinéma vérité approach that not only makes you feel embedded in this Connecticut wedding but reveals keenly observed moments. Sprung from rehab for the weekend, Kym (Anne Hathaway) heads home to attend her sister’s (Mad Men’s Rosemarie DeWitt)…
Check your head
Of Great & Mortal Men 43 Songs for 43 Presidencies Sandard Recording Co. Thievery Corporation Radio Retaliation ESL Just in time for the election comes Of Great and Mortal Men, three Cali-based lo-fi singer-songwriter types — Christian Kiefer, Matthew Gerken (of Nice Monster) and Jefferson Pitcher (ex-Above the Orange Trees) — presenting 43 songs depicting…
Thinking outside the flood
In 1966, poet, novelist, essayist and National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu escaped Romania’s communist regime. He became a U.S. citizen in 1981. In his poetry, those experiences are still heavy and palpable — a portable exile that he carries with him. His latest collection, Jealous Witness, is mostly about his adopted home of more…
Stand-up biography
Pablo Picasso said, “It takes a long time to become young.” And Elaine Stritch proves him right. At 82, the actor, singer and Broadway legend sees the world with wisdom, humor and simple wonder. And that’s what makes her Emmy- and Tony Award-winning one-woman play, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, nothing short of spectacular. On a…
Detroit noir
Estleman fans waiting for an Amos Walker mystery to hit the big screen will have to console themselves with Amos Walker’s Detroit, a handsome coffee-table book and lovely pictorial of the Poletown P.I.’s stomping grounds. Published locally by Wayne State University Press and photographed by Michigan’s Monte Nagler — with descriptive text by Loren Estleman’s…
Motor City Rides
My Dear Disco’s vegetable-oil-powered Ford E350 XL Power Stroke
Ashes of Time Redux
This absurdly gorgeous fantasia looks as if it was shot through a fine silk scarf. And the calmer moments are infused with glorious shafts of light. The film’s visual excess and narrative obscurity divided critics upon its 1994 release — many found it exceedingly precious and willfully obtuse, and some simply didn’t know what to…
On the Download
Man alive — times are strange! The skies are slate gray, we’re on the verge of either falling into the abyss economically, politically, personally … or not. Every day feels like a test of your will to simply persevere. The gales of November are starting to blow over the horizon, and the Halloween season gives…
Rock out with your cock out!
Detroit’s own Electric Six knows how to mix a sense of humor with a taste for AC/DC, Queen and Devo without coming across as a parody. Unlike the Darkness, who couldn’t keep the fire burning after their first acclaimed album, E6 is still doing it right on this, their fifth release of cock-rockable, dance-worthy anthems.…
Election protection
Progressive activists in Detroit were trying to get the message out last week: The right to vote needs to be protected, and any efforts at curtailing that right during this election are going to meet vigorous opposition. If you have problems at the polls, there are numbers that you can call to get immediate assistance.…
Dreamer
Few things can make a band’s future as uncertain as the loss of its lead singer. Whatever the reason for departure, with very few exceptions, the band can almost never again reproduce its original distinctive sound. But Stephen Keech, Haste the Day’s replacement for Jimmy Ryan (who left the band to spend more time at…
Letters to the Editor
The naked truth I read with interest your review of Michele Tarailo’s show Ebb and Flow (“‘She’ is the landscape,” Oct. 22). As curator of the exhibition, it was my suggestion to use the image of the embracing couple on the cover of the Art Gallery of Windsor’s newsletter. The image was chosen because it…
Silverghost
Distorto guitars. Clap-along beats. Jittery synth lines. Girl-boy harmonies on ultra-cool melodies and catchy choruses on an individually hand-painted CD. … What else could you want? Well, maybe a little better recording and production. I wanna hear Marcie Bolen’s snaky, jaggedy guitar lines just as loud as Deleano Acevedo’s synth. But that’s a small qualm…
