All by Hisself: Live at the Lonestar
The left hand is thunder, thumping so hard there’s no need for a drummer. The right hand is lightning, tripping across the keys, spinning out golden triplets and silvery runs that can make a piano fan deliriously happy. And the voice is steeped in grits and gravy, as funky and down-home as you please. They…
The charter school mess
By now, you probably know the basics of the autopsy report. Bob Thompson, a wealthy businessman from Plymouth, offered to put up $200 million to build 15 charter high schools in Detroit. Whatever your politics, that was an amazingly generous offer, especially in a city where the schools, like the government, are a stunning failure.…
Arrested suspense
Olivier is a carpenter who teaches his trade to young boys. One day, he takes on a new apprentice, a 16-year-old boy fresh out of prison. The boy is the key to Olivier’s puzzling and tortured behavior. As the Belgian filmmakers follow their protagonist with a handheld camera, it’s a difficult movie to watch, but…
Time warp
In a way, the new presentation of The Rocky Horror Show at the Capitol Theatre in Windsor is a return to roots. Originally a live musical comedy, Rocky Horror opened in London in 1973, and in 1975 was made into The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Quietly shelved by 20th Century Fox, the film was regarded…
Party Monster
Macaulay Culkin plays Michael Alig in the true life tale of a young, innocent, Midwestern gay kid who quickly turns into a fabulous, drug-addled New York City party promoter. The script — despite forays into delirious surrealism — is bound by reality, and there just isn’t that much interest you can drum up in watching…
Milton’s paradise found
“Where’s Milton?” someone asks, raising his voice over the din within the small, smoke-filled bar that is Nancy Whiskey’s. “He’s around here,” somebody shouts back. “Probably getting the food.” The tumble of voices — a comfortable mix of conversation and easy laughter — swells and subsides like an ocean wave. Every so often a barbed…
Once Upon A Time In The Midlands
As the title implies, writer/director Shane Meadows’ new film has some spaghetti Western overtones, though they’re rather faint and somewhat forced. Here Meadows’ weaves a simple story with some eccentric characters. Once all the parts are in place, the story bogs down and the mood shifts from light comedy to soggy drama. Still, it’s a…
Wild about Harry
At first the conversation was just about the unjustly obscure Harry P. Guy — and jazz activists Barbara and Kenn Cox’s work to bring him out of the shadows. But with only a little prodding the subject matter grew broader as the Coxes shared memories of clubs, scenes, characters; stories of kids grown into musicians…
The review the Freep wouldn’t print
How many ways can you define “superficial?” Mitch Albom’s new book suggests quite a variety. The Five People You Meet in Heaven attests to Albom’s imagination and verbal dexterity, but his widescreen sentimental streak skewers his credibility. His imagination and linguistic facility carry a very short day in the follow-up to Tuesdays With Morrie, the…
Power pop
Even before Japanese pop artist Yumiko Kayukawa’s opening last weekend (which, for better or for worse, gave the partying art show crowd a chance to rock out to Neil Diamond, Elvis and Bowie, karaoke-style), CPOP had sold four of her paintings. It was only the second time (since Shag’s big CPOP show) that the gallery…
Out of Time
There are better "wrong man" films out there, but few have the good fortune to have Denzel Washington as leading man. Nevertheless, this is a film where everything is obvious, and surface suspense sits in for nail-biting thrills. Playing his billionth Johnny Law character, Washington is as good as ever, though not as likable as…
Taking care of BIDness
It seems like a no-brainer for the Detroit City Council. If downtown property owners want to tax themselves an additional $3 million per year to clean sidewalks, remove graffiti, add landscaping and provide uniformed “ambassadors” who will roam the streets greeting visitors, why stop them? The plan has the support of major business groups ranging…
School of Rock
With Mike White as screenwriter and one of Quentin Tarantino’s film-geek buddies, Richard Linklater, directing, Jack Black’s newest comedy had potential it didn’t live up to. The plot is cribbed, characters are cliché, and it’s beyond comprehension why a director with Slacker and Waking Life on his résumé would churn out such moldy fare. Nevertheless,…
Rock’s remake; Bush bash
Kid rote We here at HS headquarters feel as though we’re rising bleary-eyed from a dream that saw us pie-eyed at a caucus for troubled parents of Kid Rock fans, a place where Harley logos, floppy halters and ape-draped, fast-food-fed frames rose from the seats, propelled fists into the air and chirped in unison unfortunate…
Local bar, Euro-style
Don’t look for any Hamtramck street signs reading “88 Avenue” while searching for the club of the same name. Instead, drive down Conant Street to Belmont Avenue and you’ll find the discreet corner building. Owned by husband and wife Kaz and Eva Pasek, this eclectic enclave has been a well-kept secret for the past five…
October 8-14, 2003
10 FRI • THEATER The Trip — From the same theater that brought us last year’s Jesus Hopped the A Train, this comedy about four old friends is one for the ladies, a “tribute to women,” as director Oliver Pookrum says. Four lifelong girlfriends embark on a road trip-adventure that tests their love and loyalties.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "I’ve been practicing radical authenticity lately," my Aries friend Steve told me. "I’m revealing the blunt truth about unmentionable subjects to everyone I know. It’s been pretty hellish — no one likes having the social masks stripped away — but it’s been ultimately rewarding." I said, "I admire your boldness in…
Letters to the Editor
Lending a hand Thanks to Brian Smith for the story about Bootsey (“X inflammable,” Metro Times, Oct. 1-7). He’s sure had a hard life. I’m in the band Cinecyde. From time to time, I’ve given a helping hand to Bootsey. Last Thursday, I spoke to him and found out the bad news. He’s right in…
You want me to touch what?
Q: I was in the passion of sex with a gentleman when he asked if I would touch his ass. My lady friends all said they would get up and run if this request was made of them. I did not. I stayed. I touched. Then he requests of me, “Do you have a strap-on?”…
Whistle-blower kissed off
If it’s not an old adage, it should be: Remain a thorn in someone’s side long enough and you’re bound to get plucked. Which brings us to Dennis Whittie, who sure enough just got plucked. Whittie, a consummate shit-stirrer and Hamtramck police officer for two years, was fired last week. Earlier this year, Whittie filed…
Obadiah’s last word
What up doe, Obie Trice? So this is your neighborhood. Lauder, off Schoolcraft, on Detroit’s northwest side. I know this hood. A lot of musical cats know this hood. Sound Suite studio was once located just two miles north, on Lauder and Puritan. It was that nondescript, beige brick building with the skinny pillars out…
Gays bad, earth flat
Republican state Sen. Alan Cropsey of DeWitt is spearheading an effort to add the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment to the Michigan Constitution. If there were some sort of truth-in-amendment-naming law, the effort would be called the Homosexual Persecution Act. Whatever it is called, Cropsey is pushing a bill that, if approved by the Legislature and…
Pondick goes back to the future
The most striking thing about famed sculptor Rona Pondick’s new work is that it doesn’t look like art. Her strange mercurial hybrid sculptures, part animal/part woman, have lots of room in Cranbrook Art Museum and at first sight seem more like the enormous hood ornaments of fancy automobiles or perhaps realizations of corporate logos than…
Dogging the deal
A group of taxpayers which refuses to give up the fight plans to continue efforts to keep a controversial land deal from going through (“Down at the fair,” Metro Times, Nov. 14-20, 2001). The issue centers on a 34-acre parcel of state-owned land adjacent to the Michigan State Fairgrounds. Although valued at more than $20…
Long time comin’
P.W. Long spent five years trying to keep the songs from coming. Which may seem odd to fans of the songwriter and former Detroiter responsible for the potent punk-country-blues-rawk of past projects like the late, lamented Mule. And it was certainly out of left field after the prolific 1-2 punch of his 1997 and ’98…
Buyer beware
Abandoned Shelter of the Week The Abandoned Structure Squad (known far and wide by the acronym ASS) thought it should alert potential homebuyers about this property. At only $11,000, it certainly carries an enticing price tag, but there is one itty-bitty little catch. The city has tagged 15101 Lamphere for demolition. “I worked very hard…
The sporting life
What is the market for a sports bar with a fancy menu? Will whooping and hollering MSU fans sit still long enough to eat Gulf shrimp pasta with artichoke hearts and basil chiffonade? Will hockey fanatics travel to the intersection of I-75 and Clifford, in a not-yet-promising neighborhood, for the Amish chicken with sweet yellow…
Alice doesn’t live here anymore
Phoenix hasn’t much going for it beyond mind-searing temperatures and year-round golf. It’s as culturally barren as the deserts its developers paved over to put in more strip bars and strip malls, so it’s no wonder the chamber of commerce clings to Alice Cooper’s continued citizenship there as a chief selling point. True, he elevated…
Free Press for Mitch
Mitch Albom, the Detroit Free Press’ decorated sports columnist, has become a one-man multimedia empire. His essays on sports, culture and other issues often appear on Page 1. Albom also has his own radio talk show. He’s a regular commentator on ESPN’s panel TV show “The Sports Reporters.” He’s a musician and songwriter. But it…
The Wolf
There’s a fine line between stupid and clever — and hell-bent headbanger Andrew W.K. ain’t afraid to stampede back and forth across it with all the subtlety of a wolf in a chicken coop. Monitoring the 24-year-old Michigan-bred singer’s maturation from his 2001 major-label debut, I Get Wet, to his follow-up, The Wolf, feels at…
Lofty invasions
Detroit art can be a painful process. For decades, artists have sacrificed creature comforts to create in the postindustrial setting that for many defines the essence of their work. They bear down, braving drafty winters, taking refuge in converted warehouse lofts, worrying about substandard maintenance issues like rodent infestation. Yet, in certain pockets of the…
Rock’s remake; Bush bash (Hit Singles)
Kid rote We here at HS headquarters feel as though we’re rising bleary-eyed from a dream that saw us pie-eyed at a caucus for troubled parents of Kid Rock fans, a place where Harley logos, floppy halters and ape-draped, fast-food-fed frames rose from the seats, propelled fists into the air and chirped in unison unfortunate…
Body Of Work: The Downchild Collection Vol. 2
In a culturally insecure country where just having your toe touch Canadian soil for even a split second automatically confers living-legend status on you by default, Mr. Donnie Walsh has been a true Canadian blues legend for decades. Which is why it was such a galling insult and absolute travesty that the Dan Aykroyd-Jim Belushi…
The prince of pandering
“Stop me if I sound pretentious, please,” chirps Neal Pollack. He’s barreling down the highway toward New Orleans’ famed Circle Bar in a van full of stinky dudes. Pollack’s interpreting his maiden voyage as a rock singer with giggly bursts that drip with irony, and as he lectures on “living the rock ’n’ roll dream”…
