Cover Stories
Metro Times 2013 Fall Arts Issue
There is an arab proverb that goes something like this: “If you have only two pennies, spend the first on bread and the other on hyacinths for your soul.” In other words, life without art is nearly akin to starving. In this year’s Fall Arts issue, we eschew the prototypical paint on canvas to explore…
The Detroit Design Festival comes into its own for year No. 3.
The third annual Detroit Design Festival will see the city showcase emerging and established design talent Sept. 18-22 at venues throughout the city, including downtown, New Center, Eastern Market and 13 other neighborhoods. Organizers are planning on hosting more than 300 designers who will display their work in the festival’s 70 different locations, spanning myriad…
More DIY reviews
Lola Valley Lola Valley, an all-girl outfit full of energy, took the stage at the Loving Touch Saturday night with a crowd on its feet. Their presence on stage was not to be ignored as the girls sang their hearts out. They meld soul, rock and funk into one hypnotizing show. Colossus Colossus came…
A brief chat with Martin Short
Comedian and actor Martin Short is performing at the Andiamo Celebrity Showroom this coming Friday, September 20, and the former Saturday Night Live star says that he’ll be presenting a “party with Marty.” He’ll be dragging out a bunch of his characters, he’ll be singing, dancing, telling stories – he’ll be doing just about everything.…
City Slang: DIY in Ferndale
If the DIY Street Fair in Ferndale isn’t already the best outdoor festival in Metro Detroit, it’s fast becoming that very thing. OK, the weather turned a little shitty on Sunday, but on Saturday we had that perfect blend of end-of-summer sun and start-of-fall cool The vibe of the event is fun, happy and family-friendly,…
Toronto International Film Festival ’13 Diary: Day 3
Day 3: Rock and Roll Can Save Your Life When you spend over a week seeing several movies per day, it’s impossible not to start drawing connections between them, especially within films you see in back to back screenings. Often times, these connections are largely projection, but on the third day of TIFF ’13, I…
Edward Sharpe: Two voices carry farther than one
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Rough Trade / Vagrant Did any of you miss this one from earlier in the Summer? Maybe you’re leery of bands who sound insistent that you have a good time; the ones attempting panache with their pop while unabashedly donning a theatrical clown nose. Their trumpets forcefully nuzzle your…
Groove With Us (Streaming)
The refrain I’ve heard repeated most often, so far, this weekend of the 6th DIY Street Fair is something close to …this is a lot bigger than it used to be… Things…have gotten a lot bigger, ya know? I’m getting to the point soon (which is Passalacqua, essentially,) but The Do-It-Yourself art and music festival…
Reviewing Bradford Frost’s Reveal Your Detroit
If you had to portray your day-to-day life in Detroit with 27 photos, which images would make the cut? In 2012, the DIA joined forces with forty-five community organizations and asked citizens that exact question. The result is a beautiful photographic journey narrated by author Bradford Frost that winds through Detroit from a city native’s…
Beggars DIY preview
While reaching out to several bands playing this weekend’s DIY Street Fair, I heard back from the Beggars’s Steven Tuthill, who was enormously generous with his time. While the band is well known to Detroiters and has been around for many years, I hail from West Michigan, so it was all new to me as…
What is THAT? – Oddities from the MT mailbox
Here’s the deal. Every day here at the Metro Times, our mail delivery includes CDs, books and all sorts of other promotional items. A lot of it we can use and review – local-interest music, DVDs, etc. But we also get a lot of weird and whacky items that just kinda build up. So that’s…
City Slang: Brunswick Brawlers and Ciccarelli at WAB
Walked into the WAB on Thursday night and briefly saw the guys from the Rogue Satellites who were waiting for friends to arrive. “Have any bands gone on yet?” I asked. They didn’t know. That’s the thing about playing shows in hang-outs and good food joints like the WAB – there were lots of people…
City Slang: DIY bands in their own words
There’s a lot of great music to be heard at the DIY Fest in Ferndale this weekend, created by some fascinating musicians. Here are some juicy nuggets that those guys have passed down to us over the years: “Technically our worst show but weirdly one of my Top 5 favorites was when we opened for…
12th Man Report: Suh-Mania
When it rains it pours. At least that’s what it seems like when Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh makes the news. After his very controversial $100,000 fine from his hit in the Lions’ victory over the Minnesota Vikings — controversial whether you think it was the most offensive fine ever dished out in the history of…
City Slang: Motor City Breakdown
On Friday, September 27, the Corktown Tavern and Static will host a night of Detroit rock ’n’ roll dubbed Motor City Breakdown. Bands performing on the night are the Luckouts, Loudmouth Baby (a female Ramones cover band), the Farleys, and the Wet Wipes. There is also a Rock ’n’ Roll Rummage sale with “musical treasures,…
City Slang: Sponge in-store news
This Friday, September 13, rockers Sponge will play an in-store and a party to celebrate the release of the new Stop the Bleeding album. The band will be at FYE in Berkley from 6 p.m., then at the Diesel Lounge in Chesterfield. Doors are at 7 p.m. According to a statement, “While Stop the Bleeding…
7 Product Rip-offs You Should Avoid
Rip-offs, known by economists as “market inefficiencies,” are cases in which the price of something has little to do with its actual value. They are particularly common in industries where oligopolistic conditions dominate, which has been increasingly common since deregulation fever hit Washington. In today’s marketplace, the consumer is often a sheep to be shorn.…
12 years later
It seems incredible that a full 12 years have passed since the World Trade Center went down on September 11, 2001, but the math does add up. Like the Kennedy assassination, people will often ask if you remember where you were when you were informed of the attacks. I was in London; I had yet…
Let’s Bomb Syria, Right Now!
Forget what Congress says or surveys about what U.S. and global public opinion show: This is the time to rain Tomahawk missiles on poor peasants and villagers in Syria. Why? Simple: To punish the Syrian government for using chemical weapons on poor peasants and villagers in Syria. Naturally, whatever symbolic attack we stage won’t hurt…
Book Review: What Remains
What Remains By Caroline Maun Main Street Rag (mainstreetrag.com), 70 pp., $14 An 80-year-old maple falls across four city lots, missing the houses. The intake of breath as one realizes one is spared, the wonder at windows suddenly filled with leaves and a sidewalk levered like Styrofoam, the amazement of neighbors, the acknowledgment that, yes,…
Tunde Olaniran
Tunde Olaniran is one of those rare beasts — he’s both prolific and mildly mysterious. The electro-pop and R&B magician has toured and recorded with a host of national and international acts. He’s been working hard on his own material and puts in the hours attempting to cross cultural and city boundaries — all from…
Michigan Marihuana Review Panel Weighs Testimony on PTSD Inclusion
Last week, the Michigan Marihuana Review Panel, which makes recommendations on qualifying conditions to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, heard public testimony on a petition to add Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome to the list of qualifying conditions. If the panel recommends the condition and LARA Director Steve Arwood concurs, it would be the…
The Artwork of Mike Ross
For artist Mike Ross, the artistic process informs the finished artwork. The themes of each of his pieces, whether illustrations or abstract paintings, are patterns and the disruption of patterns. Ross explains the concept behind his work like this: “I think of patterns as the way we understand the world. You see a thing and…
Film Review: Adore
Adore | C- Roz (Robin Wright) and Lil (Naomi Watts) are lifelong best friends who seem to idle away most of their days bikini-clad, wandering back and forth between their adjacent Australian beach houses, sipping white wine and lounging in the sand while admiring the glorious sea, the sun and each other. Lithe, statuesque blondes,…
The Detroit Symphony Fall Season Preview
This being the Fall Arts issue and all, we decided to inject some high-brow music into the proceedings by speaking with Erik Rönmark, artistic administrator at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Rönmark filled us in on what the DSO has in store for Detroiters this season and there is much to be excited about for both…
Man Man
Unless you’re Frank Zappa or Captain Beefheart, it’s very difficult to take jazz and rock, often such awkward bedfellows, and meld them into something comfortable and wonderful. In all too many cases, what we get is a rock record with some brass shoehorned in there, or a jazz record with electric guitar. Think a Brooklyn…
Michigan Opera: Fall Season Preview
Dr. David DiChiera, the 78-year-old founding director at the Detroit Opera House, home to the Michigan Opera Theatre, is a great believer in taking opera to “the people” and removing an antediluvian notion that this art form is the purview of tuxedo-clad swanks. We met at his office within the gorgeous surroundings of the Detroit…
B.A.S.S. Plano Elite Championship
Since joining the cast of MT, I’ve dabbled in everything Tigers — and a little bit of NCAA football. Now, with the NFL season openers last week, the fall sports season is officially upon us. This week I’ll be writing about something so seemingly relevant that it appears irrelevant: bass fishing. Two weeks ago, on…
Sheathe That Thing
Q: I’m a Savage Lovecast listener, but I’m sending this question to your column because my boyfriend would for sure recognize my voice if I called the show. I’m 25, I live in Portland, and my boyfriend and I have been monogamous for five years. His dick is of average size. It’s not small enough…
Shigeto
Shigeto (aka producer-drummer Zach Saginaw) has done some soul-searching during his time away from his hometown Detroit, spending several years in Brooklyn exploring and exorcising past experiences and his family history through trippy, synth-scrambled, half-danceable dreamscapes. Now he’s back, with a new album and a spot on the Movement/Ghostly International stage at Meadowbrook for the…
Serena Ryder
Canadian songstress Serena Ryder should be terrible. All signs point toward tedious mediocrity — thanks to comparisons with Adele and descriptions that include “soulful pop-rock” on her press release. Plus she’s opening for Michael Franti (the Spearhead dude) on his fall tour. However, Ryder’s Harmony is surprisingly enjoyable. Yes, it’s polished to within an inch…
Film Review: Riddick
Riddick | C VIN DIESEL, A lumbering action behemoth with all the smoldering charisma of a human-pit bull genetic experiment gone awry, has a hell of a career for a guy whose only discernible talent is scowling. Dude has multiple franchise vehicles to his credit; including this hyper violent sci-fi-and-horror “Pitch Black” saga which has…
The triumphant return of Thunderbirds Are Now!
Talk about being ahead of the curve! You see, this band Thunderbirds Are Now! was weird, spazzy and snarky before the Internet made that the new status quo. Back in what we now quaintly recall as the “pre-MySpace” days, Thunderbirds Are Now! played an agitated smash-up of indie-rock and electro-punk (with fast tempos, wordy verses…
Film Review: The Butler
The Butler | B+ The portrayal of African Americans in a domestic capacity in cinema over the last 75 years has been a sensitive one to say the least. From Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award-winning role as a house servant in 1939’s Gone with the Wind to actress Octavia Spencer receiving the same accolade playing a…
The Meeting House in Rochester
The Meeting House 301 S. Main St., Rochester 248-759-4825 Handicap accessible Small Plates: $5-$11 Entrées: $9-$27 Open 4-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sunday The Meeting House in Rochester occupies the former location of Mind Body & Spirits; moving in to such a location, executive chef Chris…
Brave New World
FEEDBACK Halcyon College Years Dear Editor: re: “Fill’r Up or; Life is a Backpack”; [College Guide, Sept. 4-10, 2013] I thought the article was well written, Eric is very articulate and it was humorous. I loved the part about the doppelganger. Awesome job -Lana Karim West Bloomfield, Aug. 30, 2013 Dear Editor: re: “The Good…
Detroit Fortress: Industrial Art
Two artists are staking their claim in a fenced-in compound on Oakland Avenue, just a stroll north of Grand Boulevard in Detroit. Their names are Steven Kuypers and Steven McShane, and their headquarters is called the Fortress. Dressed in neon spray paint, the 6,000-square-foot brick studio and residency space even has multicolored arworks perched atop.…
American Coney Island in Detroit
FOOD THOUGHT SprinkleBakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist By Heather Baird Sterling Epicure, $13.82, 288 pp. Cook like an artist! Combining her skills as a baker, confectioner and painter, Heather Baird has created an innovative cookbook designed to unleash the creative side of every baker. THE WORKS Four-in-One Avocado Tool $15.95, williams-sonoma.com Instead…
12th Man Report: The AL Central…it’s a race
A week ago, the Tigers had just finished taking two out of three games from the Cleveland Indians, and had a commanding 8.5-game lead in the division. Today? Well, September hasn’t treated them too well so far. The Tigers have lost six of eight games and have just a 4.5 game lead over Cleveland. And…
Toronto International FIlm Festival ’13 Diary: Day 2
Hateship Loveship Why You Might Care: Based on an old Alice Munro short story, Hateship Loveship stars Kristen Wiig in a role that allows her to display more dramatic range. Wiig plays a naïve caretaker in Iowa, hired to look after a dysfunctional family played by Nick Nolte, Guy Pierce, and Hailee Steinfeld. Why You…
Reviewing June Manning Thomas’ Redevelopment and Race
This is the new paperback edition of a book originally published in ’97, Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit (Wayne State University Press), and, as Thomas says in the new preface, the “book is as important today as it was when first published.” She’s right too; over 15 years after the…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Send CDs, vinyl, cassettes, demos and 8-tracks to Brett Callwood, Metro Times, 733 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 46226. Email MP3s and streaming links to bcallwood@metrotimes.com. The Counter Elites’ Are You a Counter Elite? (Simple Living Ferndale) sees the Ferndale duo yelling and snarling about, Grrr, corporate greed and, Wuuaarrgghh, capitalism, and stuff. “Hope is in…
