Hopes and horrors
The absurd race to fill Detroit’s City Council seats — nine men and women who are Detroit’s legislature, and don’t seem to answer to anyone. But a couple of candidates deserve your vote.
Impaler
The dark, imposing figure known as the Impaler surrounds himself with ancient legend, a sweeping cape, and a fishnet-clad harem. It’s an extravagant showcase of gothic decadence – an ineffable hybrid of Barry White’s alluring rap and the disturbing sexiness of Count Dracula himself. Backed by electro-industrial beats, live bass and guitar, the Evil One…
Pop pioneers
After a Seattle recording session and a cross-country tour, Red Shirt Brigade’s new pop revolution comes home.
In the Sun Lines
Listening to the spry slither of Tara Jane O’Neil’s sophomore solo record, In the Sun Lines, a memory replays in blurry, rattling filmstrip fashion with each swelling-yellow guitar undulation. O’Neil is sitting across from me on a concrete step, squinting, blushing, distracted and trying to explain the physical and emotional similarities between writhing in pain…
Da Em, da Witch and a switch
Serious costumed craziness at the Emerald Ballroom … Scantily clad vixens and buckets o’ blood at the Season of the Witch Halloween party … & Motor’s got some surprises for us.
The Reincarnation of Luna
Part disco and part industrial, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult’s sound is somewhere between lounge music and biting punk rock. TKK takes cheesy guitar riffs, a pulsating disco beat and samples from old movies to produce something too explicit to be cute and too flippant to be just another industrial band. On The…
Metal memories
Stand up, pump your fists, and pledge allegiance to heavy beginnings with Slipknot and System of a Down.
The Grand Pecking Order
You’ve all seen on “Sesame Street” when the two-headed monster slinks onto the screen, sounds out its supremely complex, polysyllabic word — “basketball” or “pencil” — then attempts to walk off-screen. But each head goes in a different direction, whereupon an argument ensues much to the delight of thousands of developing toddlers. While this slapstick…
Chicken Little effect
So far only a handful of folks have died from anthrax, but for the past couple of weeks, the headlines have been clogged with stories on the coming plague.
Indestructibly feminine
This is the ultimate coming-out party, striking for the way Barbra Streisand, making her big-screen debut in her portrayal of vaudeville-era comedienne and chanteuse Fanny Brice, so effectively created her own mythology — with complex performances from both Streisand and Omar Sharif.
The Iron Ladies
HHH 1/2
Using entertainment as a vehicle for social change,…
Down a green path
Forget about trying to return Detroit to its industrial glory days. The architecture department at University of Detroit Mercy sees an alternative vision taking shape for a section of east Detroit.
K-PAX
Kevin Spacey returns to the screen as another variation of the highly intelligent, psychologically damaged character that he could patent. His Prot is either an interstellar tourist or a mental patient on the verge of blissful catatonia. But the film’s hackneyed people and events could only happen on a planet called Hollywood.
Letters to the Editor
A liberal disgrace As a civil libertarian, I find plenty to dislike in both Democratic and Republican policies. But I’ve noticed a clear distinction in the way the two approach the other and its positions: The right argues its policies the best if can (sometimes, not very well) while the left prefers to attack the…
Grateful Dawg
Toward the end of his life, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia renewed his friendship with master mandolin player David Grisman. The two had a yin-yang relationship, both personally and musically, and the happy mesh is examined in this new documentary assembled by Grisman’s daughter Gillian.
Scary
The Pirahnas and Pat Benetar rock the Haunted Tube … Kid Rock’s red-white-and-blue video shoot … The Howling Diablos harmonize with musical legends … DJ Butter goes multimedia … True Skool’s back in session … & much more.
Downtown 81
Filmed on NYC’s Lower East Side in 1980-81, this slender fable is a notch below amateurish. But as a documentary of a particular place and time, it’s spiced by brief performances from the likes of Tuxedomoon, DNA (with the great Arto Lindsay) and James White and The Blacks — and the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat…
Drop that lipstick
You’d better empty that purse before you enter the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building….
13 Ghosts
This low-voltage spine-tingler is from the same team that gave us last year’s House on Haunted Hill and, like that B-movie, is another disposable remake of one of director William Castle’s cheesy horror classics of the ’50s and ’60s. It has a nonsense plot filled with "Scooby Doo"-quality dialogue and jokes.
Enjoying the view
Q: Last Sunday, on a cold, foggy afternoon, I was in line at a department store when the woman in front of me, who was in a very short skirt and jacket, bent over the counter, revealing that she was naked from her waist to her shoes. Luckily, her request took a long time, and…
Tiger tales
Tiger Stadium may freeze over before the Detroit City Council can get its act together….
Indestructibly feminine
What could a lavish Hollywood musical and a modest film about a gay Thai volleyball team possibly have in common? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Funny Girl and The Iron Ladies are part of a long tradition of movies about misfits who triumph against the odds, and both films utilize real-life stories to…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Whatever your relationship with nature has been, I suggest you make it more intimate and lyrical. Cruise out into the wilderness — or at least to a park — and let your imagination dream up giddy, uproarious, uninhibited forms of communion. Drink the sun, eat the wind, blow kisses to a…
Ferndale fuss
Ferndale city council member opposes Iraqi sanctions; resident thinks she’s “un-American”….
Crystal symphonies
Philip Glass fills the movie-house darkness with shimmering music … and he’s coming to Ann Arbor with a concert tour of his big-screen greatest hits.
Food-chain reaction
Local food bank sees donations declining; others hope it’s not a trend….
Timecode stasis
A daring new series on Fox-TV commits every “real-time” minute of one day to 24 one-hour episodes.
Battle of the blight
Some angry Brush Park residents oppose a new revitalization plan….
Metro Galleryscope: Fall 2001
November blows in with cold winds and hot art — five great shows featuring oil painting, watercolor, photography and sculpture.
An endorsement for neither
There’s been intense debate in the Metro Times editorial department regarding who this paper should endorse in next week’s mayoral election.
Art palaver
Upcoming art lectures focus in on two ongoing Cultural Center shows….
The House of the brave
Two members of Congress who took a stand against the prevailing patriotic tide…
Gaffe and a half
Will the real Herbie Hancock please stand up?
Renaissance guy
Arthur Bradford makes films, smashes guitars and writes damn fine short stories…
