Cover Story
Metro Times 2013 Fall Fashion Issue
Dressing for a date? What to wear? In the 2013 Fall Fashion issue, two nice kids find their way to romance and fashion compatibility in a fashion photo fantasy shot by Mike Raffin of Mars Photo and Design at the Majestic Entertainment complex. Great fashion picks for him and her; interviews with local designers and…
City Slang: Black Jake and the Carnies to get Halloween-y
Ypsilanti bluegrass-punks Black Jake & the Carnies will host “Black Jake’s Halloween Showcase” at Woodruff’s on October 25. The bill also features The Gepetto Files and The Doppelgänger Circus Sideshow. They say, “The leaves are changing, the pumpkins are ripening, and there’s a distinct chill to the air which foretells the coming of All Hallow’s…
A Sunday afternoon of Wiggles
On Sunday afternoon, the Lions were making us squirm but ultimately holding on to an impressive victory over Washington, while the Tigers were doing everything they could to make the end of the regular season as tense as humanly possible. Channels were being flipped as Detroiters tried to catch all of the action. Me –…
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…
Film Review: Thanks for Sharing
Thanks for Sharing | C+ We blame Michael Douglas. Acting as a kind of celebrity patient zero, he claimed he was a victim of sexual addiction (an affliction that seems particular to wealthy white males) before anyone had ever heard of the term. Now everyone from Tiger Woods to Russell Brand blames their excessive desire…
Film Review: Prisoners
Prisoners | C+ Under cinematographer Roger Deakin’s masterful lens, Pennsylvania is a dark and rainy gloomscape where it seems the sun will never shine. It’s the kind of gorgeously rendered dreariness that chills the bone even as it pleases the eye. Which is to say, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners looks great. It’s also extremely well-made.…
Pere Ubu at Trinosophes
Influential underground punk Rock band Pere Ubu is playing Trinosphes tonight – Friday, September 20. The Cleveland band has close ties to Detroit, and we don’t just mean geographically; front man David Thomas sang with the reformed DKT-MC5 for a while back in the mid-2000’s. A statement reads, “Pere Ubu return with their first new…
Scott Hocking’s Bad Graffiti
Much has been made of the many wonderful examples of quality graffiti art that we have decorating Detroit. We had our own slideshow last week highlighting as much. But we also know that for every beautiful mural, there’s a nonsensical, often illegible, tag on a garage door. Detroit photographer Scott Hocking created a series, appropriately…
Haim – (Summer) Days Are Gone
Days Are Gone Out: 9/30 Polydor This west coast sister trio has charmed all the right ears these last couple years with their cool, funky, disco-beat bumping brand of pop and now it’s your turn. Though formed in 06 and having since evolved their signature style of a soulful electro-pop, they’ve mingled with a range…
12th Man Report: Lions don’t live and die with Reggie
The Lions offense used to be a two-man show. The Stafford-to-Johnson connection became so customary we started to take the duo — and their success — for granted. This year, they’ve added another act: newly acquired Reggie Bush. Bush has made all kinds of noise in the football and fantasy football worlds so far this…
A brief chat with Emma Watkins of the Wiggles
Yes, that’s right, we interviewed a Wiggle. Honestly, if you’re offered a Wiggle interview, you really have to grab it. I love my job – in the past week, I’ve interviewed a Wiggle, Martin Short and Andrew WK. Weird mix, huh? Anyway, Emma Watkins is the first female member of the Australian kids band/gang –…
The East Village Other Electric Newspaper review
Various Artists The East Village Other Electric Newspaper ESP OK, this is interesting, though it is to be approached with trepidation. What we have here is the first North American CD release of an album originally put out on vinyl back in the ’60s. The Electric Newspaper was a counterculture ‘happening’ in New York that…
Second Annual Detroit Alternative Fashion Show
Image courtesy of Michael McMahen, 49% Productions The Second Annual Detroit Alternative Fashion Show will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the Legendary Leland Hotel Saturday September 21, 2013.This is a unique opportunity to view and buy local Detroit designs and support local Detroit artisans. Your $10 ticket grants you access to the runway show, designers vending…
Putting the ham in Hamtown
SIDE DISH Putting the ham in Hamtown — It’s time for the inaugural Hamtramck Food Week, which will feature dishes from select restaurants at fixed prices (in this case, $10), as well as how-to demonstrations, a contest to crown Hamtramck’s very own Top Chef, and even a community potluck to showcase professional amateurs. It all goes…
City Slang: ICP in court (again), allegations denied
According to a number of sources, the Insane Clown Posse is being sued by former in-house publicist Andrea (Andy) Pellegrini. She filed a complaint on Monday claiming “constant and pervasive harassment,” and that she was “mocked belittled and the subject of sexual advances.” TMZ has posted the “highlights” of the complaint: “In 2011, Violent J’s…
Should Peralta Play?
Let’s look back a little bit — how about Aug. 5? Jhonny Peralta had officially accepted his 50-game suspension for PED use, the Tigers, expecting the Peralta suspension, had acquired shortstop Jose Iglesias just before the trade deadline passed — and everything was rolling smoothly. The possibility of Peralta’s eventual return with three games left…
Film Review: The Family
The Family | C+ Robert De Niro, once the big screen’s most intense actor, has spent so long playing an exaggerated riff of his former ferocity that now he’s sort of a shadow of a takeoff inside a parody. After a decade-plus of spoofing his tough guy persona, these days the mere sight of De…
Film Review: Short Term 12
Short Term 12 | A If we’re lucky — if the tides are right and the winds are calm — we might get one or two movies a year as good as Short Term 12. It’s a far better movie, in fact, than the casual multiplex ticket buyer probably deserves: More intimate, intense, honest and…
Film Review: Salinger
Salinger | C About the nicest thing you could say about this catty, painfully intimate deconstruction of the elusive, outsized genius Jerome David Salinger is that the author himself would have loathed it. The famed writer was pathologically adverse to hero worship, so we could only imagine his reaction to a lengthy tribute/analysis of his…
Film Review: Austenland
Austenland | C- Jane Austen, that enduring literary idol of bookish and lovelorn ladies everywhere, has an ever-expanding cult that threatens to penetrate all walks of life if we don’t remain eternally vigilant. She’s a curriculum staple; there are seemingly endless adaptations of her blousy page-turners keeping actresses Keira Knightly, she of the high cheek…
Chucho Valdes and the Afro-Cuban Messengers
Leading Cuban jazz pianist, composer and band leader Chucho Valdes says his new album Border-Free “combines compatible styles with Afro-Cuban roots …” These related styles, ranging from Spanish flamenco, Arabic music, Comanche music and classical, and are woven into the Afro-Cuban musical fabric that provides the framework of the various compositions. Multiple Grammy award-winning Chucho…
The Dirtbombs
The Dirtbombs are back! Well, they never really went away, but it’s been five years since the last album of originals from this Detroit outfit, which is a long time in the Internet music world. Led by dynamic guitarist and crooner Mick Collins, Dirtbombs lineups have shifted as much as the stylistic tract over the…
Detroit Mayoral Race Ripens
The Detroit mayoral contest has finally started to heat up. Not that we haven’t had any fireworks until now. Over the past several months, the whole “Duggan is on the ballot … now he’s off … now he’s a write-in … can you spell his name …” thing has spiced things up — although the…
Bat Signals & Noise Makers
Q: Straight male here. I took a writing course and some of us students created a writing group. We meet and workshop the things we’ve been working on. One of the guys in the group is gay and a while ago he confessed he had very strong feelings for me. I didn’t have a problem…
The Ruiners
Back in 2010, this writer reviewed the then-new Ruiners album, Happy Birthday Bitch, and basically said that while the band is one of the best live acts in Detroit, they had so far failed to capture that energy on disc, leaving us with some OK-ish sleaze rock anthems, but lacking the fun and spectacle that…
Outfitting Detroit’s Neediest
Noise from banks of humming sewing machines mixes with the chitchat of women running them; drilling and boots hitting a cement floor could be heard from outside the staircase of Corktown’s Pony Ride building. On one of the last unseasonably hot September days, these Detroiters were hard at work. Unlike other city incubators, there aren’t…
The Artwork of Jean Wilson
Sometimes all it takes is one person to foster the love of art in someone. For Jean Wilson, that person was her eighth grade art teacher. Wilson says she tried her hand at all the forms of drawing and painting she knew; realism, surrealism, abstract and impressionist before eventually losing interest in art. “I couldn’t…
Michigan Silent Spring
Michigan’s Silent Spring Dear Editor, I am shocked that Michiganders are still being subjected to toxic pollution from DTE Energy’s coal burning power plants! Over a decade ago I was stunned to learn all of Michigan’s 11,000 lakes were issued a “fish consumption advisory” by the state due to poisons like mercury emitted from burning…
The Detroit Fashion Scene
Cynthia LaMaide and Julie Lindsay have taken two very different journeys as designers. LaMaide creates one-of-a-kind, handmade dresses, the latest stop on a creative path that included 20 years as a stylist in Miami and touring with Lenny Kravitz. And one of Lindsay’s bags had a supporting role as Kristin Chenoweth’s power purse in Family…
Luxe Bar & Grill
Luxe Bar & Grill 115 Kercheval Grosse Pointe Farms 313-924-5459 luxebarandgrill.com Entrées $18-$28, sandwiches $9.50-$12 Hours: 11 a.m.-Midnight, 7-Days (Bar until 1 a.m.) I was pleased to hear that the excellent Luxe of Birmingham had opened a second location somewhat closer to (my) home. I was thrilled with nearly everything at the original location,…
Mercy and Weston
At the Bar Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say. Fashion may be one of the most subjective forms of personal expression, a series of choices that function like turn signals, letting those around us know our mood, our point of view, how we want the world to see us. Date night…
Think Fast Food Workers Can’t Be Paid Better?
Who says it’s impossible to pay fast food workers a decent wage? Come October 1, Dearborn Heights’ Moo Cluck Moo, a burger joint, will boost pay by 25 percent, to $15 an hour. When was the last time you got a 25 percent raise? That’s $31,200 a year if the culinarians work full-time. Besides being the…
Fire destroys Hippos
Pic courtesy of Andrea Karpinski A fire destroyed Hippo’s Bar in Hamtramck on Sunday evening. The cause of the blaze has yet to be determined, but it is believed to have started in a garage behind the building. Fortunately, the bar was closed and nobody was hurt. John “Hippo” Hypnarowicz worked as the district bus…
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. Dave Bennett is a former member of the Hot Club of Detroit, so you know straight away that the man has some chops. The coolest clarinet player in, well, anywhere…
12th Man Report: What happened to the bats?
Fact: The Tigers have scored the second most runs in the entire MLB this season, only behind the Boston Red Sox. Fiction: Today, as we speak, the Tigers have the second-best offense in the MLB. In times of trouble this year, when the starting pitching failed to bring its best, the Tigers’ offense — particularly…
Detroit Today …Your Town Tomorrow?
Traditionally, news institutions never praise the work of other news outlets, especially competing ones. Yet, the Detroit Free Press — specifically, business writers Nathan Bomey and John Gallegher — deserve recognition for having done an awesome job of number-crunching reporting to find out exactly how and when the economic mess happened. They did what reporters…
