A really cold one
Icy-cold lager straight from the UK…
Big 10
U of M makes Mother Jones’ list of top 10 protest breeding grounds…
Sauerkraut & salsa
Hail, hail to Emperor Norton for emancipating yet another diggable, groovable, downright hip and strange creature of sound, aka Señor Coconut Y Su Conjunto. A native of Chile, Coconut began his career in entertainment as a dancer. Now with El Baile Aleman (The German Dance) he’s proven himself to be an accomplished conductor and arranger…
Signature sweets
Personalized Halloween candy wrappers.
Secrecy blowout
Firestone tire calamity may lift product liability secrecy orders…
Elite freedoms
Gilles Peterson has made a living by keeping contemporary musical forms open and responsive to the debris of the posts — post-house, post-jazz, post-hip hop, etc. From his label, Talking Loud, featuring drum-and-bass masters 4 Hero and Roni Size, to steady DJ gigs since his teens in clubs and on pirate radio, Peterson has forced…
Boosting buzz
Coffee with a healthy kick
Just ask
Greektown Casino project manager says riverfront casinos are dead…
Back to school
Once again, VP Records hits the public with a must-have compilation, this time focusing on some of the biggest hits of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Often characterized as a low point in reggae history due to the increased focus on gun talk, partying and sexual pleasures, no one can deny the infectious beats of this…
Rock ’n’ roll naïveté
Journalist-director Cameron Crowe looks fondly at his past in the music….
Drinking alone
Ryan Adams pours his own sound from the heart….
All-star game II
Say it three times: Hyacinths and Thistles. Then Wasps Nests. Make it into a tongue-twisting riddle. Whatever you have to do to remember these titles before your next trip to the record store, do it. In his second studio project under the name The 6ths, Stephin Merritt has gathered another all-star stack of artists to…
Letters to the Editor
Wild about Harry I enjoyed Adam Druckman’s Netropolis column, "Campaign buttons" (MT, Sept. 6-12), especially his astute observation on candidate Web sites giving out important information; “I suspect that’s exactly what the two major parties don’t want to do." Perhaps you could write about www.harrybrowne.org, the Web site of the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president.…
Win or lose
Tyree Guyton is the subject of an award-winning documentary
Pushing your boundaries
A portrait of the artist as an agent of change is a portrait of Public Enemy. Chuck D and Professor Griff, charter members of one of hip hop’s all-time greatest groups, have a new baby named Confrontation Camp, a rap-rock outfit in the spirit of Rage Against the Machine. It’s a fresh sound and a…
After 20 years, hindsight is 20-20
Things the Metro Times has done, written, predicted and provoked … for better or worse….
See the word
detroit contemporary gallery debuts new art publication…
Going beyond gamelan
From the forest drumming of shamanic rites to the slick studios of Jakarta, from untouched traditional sounds to a confluence of Asian and European elements, the scope of Indonesia’s music can be quite daunting, even as the rewards of exploration are plentiful. And when you’re faced with the world’s fourth-most populous nation, with 300 ethnic…
And the winner is …
MT’s Music Awards Hall of Fame hits us with the best shots….
Studio madness
Artist Maureen Maki is moving; selling tons of stuff…
You hadda be there
Director Cameron Crowe (who wrote cover stories for Rolling Stone in his teens) has created a full-bodied portrait — funny, touching, frivolous and smart — of ’70s rock, an intoxicating brew of innocence and decadence. With Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs.
Metro Times Music Awards Hall of Fame
THE list.
Build and come
Will new WSU construction really help students’ education?…
Girl on the Bridge
When it comes to a decidedly different perspective on romance, leave it to French director Patrice Leconte (Monsieur Hire) to redefine the parameters of love and obsession. The film’s fuel is the kinetic chemistry between veteran Daniel Auteuil and newcomer Vanessa Paradis.
How to be sorry
Sometimes doing the right thing can set you free….
Outrageous pages
We’ve caused a few stirs, from time to time….
Shower
Chinese director Zhang Yang’s film about a male-only public bathhouse in Beijing is resolutely old-fashioned and, despite a burnish of novelty bestowed by its exotic locale, a little too familiar, a little too sentimental and, finally, a little too cute.
Ralph and the Cap’n
Ralph Nader takes a few minutes out of his presidential campaign to advise our news editor about his kids’ breakfast menu.
Life, art and other essentials
From high times to low blows, the MT has been there….
The Metro Times Music Awards Hall of Fame
Pistol Allen Alvin’s (rock club) Johnny Angelos The Ark (folk venue) Denny Armstrong Howard Armstrong Baker’s Keyboard Lounge (jazz club) Black Market Boogie Woogie Red Ortheia Barnes Bugs Beddow Norma Jean Bell Marcus Belgrave Horatio Bennett Rayse Biggs Bootsey X and the Lovemasters Hugh Borde Roy Brooks Betty Carter Chenille Sisters Chisel Bros. featuring Thornetta…
Woman on Top
This silly contemporary fairy tale about realigning the balance of power between men and women — with more than a nod to Like Water For Chocolate — focuses on a woman who uses cooking as a means to express her desires — with the beautiful and personable Penelope Cruz.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I predict that by the year 2050 most everyone will have a sweet-tempered android or two that will function as best friend and personal servant, sometimes even as lover and spouse. The downside of this development, which will be regarded as an upside by most people 50 years hence, is that…
Nader’s long march
Sizing up the Green hero in Detroit….
Kenny Larkin
Kenny Larkin has the inclusive house sensibilities of the most swingin’ dance-inducin’ Chicago club DJ, but the overall feel is very calculated, very edgy, stripped-down experimental Detroit techno. With a visible percussive backbone and soul-cooked ribs reaching out from the center, the third-wave technician creates a tasty mix of future music that’ll space you out,…
Highlander: Endgame
First-time MTV-style director Douglas Aarniokoski often fails to realize what the first and best film of the series, Highlander (1986), was essentially about: two immortal swordsmen — one good, one evil — locked in mortal combat.
The end of daze and ’Tater nadir
Q: Five years ago, I found the hippie chick of my dreams practically passed out from the heat on a grassy knoll outside a concert. I nursed her back to health and became her closest friend and part-time sex partner. After she went away for a few months, I realized that I loved her. When…
Art on sticks, concerts on tapes
A diverse feast at the Detroit Festival of the Arts… Gossipy, electro-music news… & more.
Changing channels
In “VideoCulture: Three Decades of Video Art,” metro art spaces showcase three decades of the ‘cool medium.’
Party! Party! Party!
This is a dream: Gamers alike have yearned for a system that would deliver a multiplayer, party punch — taking the humdrum of singles night to a more intoxicating level. That is the authority of Sega’s blazing Dreamcast. First, automatic transmission is provided in Infogrames’ phenomenally pleasant surprise, Wacky Races. Dick Dastardly, Penelope Pitstop, Peter…
The safest sex
Q: When my son was 11 years old I accidentally walked in on him while he was masturbating. Later he asked me if I used to do it. "Absolutely," I said, "and I still do at 43. It’s a form of safe sex until you find the right mate.” I also explained to him the…
Cat scan
It looks like a computer mouse. It hooks up to your computer like a mouse. But it’s not a mouse. Metro Times editor Adam Druckman digests the :Cuecat invasion.
Hot slices, cool pizza
Open late for Royal Oak hanger-outers, Pizza Paesano isn’t just another pizza joint. The pesto pizza is subtly flavored; the crust is thin and crisp and excellent. The gyro is also marvelous, decorated with thin lamb strips and scallions. Besides pizza, the guys serve calzones, a spinach pie and a spicy meat pie (Italian sausage,…
Party! Party! Party!
This is a dream: Gamers alike have yearned for a system that would deliver a multiplayer, party punch — taking the humdrum of singles night to a more intoxicating level. That is the authority of Sega’s blazing Dreamcast. First, automatic transmission is provided in Infogrames’ phenomenally pleasant surprise, Wacky Races. Dick Dastardly, Penelope Pitstop, Peter…
Green and dusty dreams
Tom Ness is giving up the Senate race for a real run at Sander Levin’s Congress seat. Is there any reason to take him seriously? Damn straight!
Party! Party! Party!
This is a dream: Gamers alike have yearned for a system that would deliver a multiplayer, party punch — taking the humdrum of singles night to a more intoxicating level. That is the authority of Sega’s blazing Dreamcast. First, automatic transmission is provided in Infogrames’ phenomenally pleasant surprise, Wacky Races. Dick Dastardly, Penelope Pitstop, Peter…
Snacks that bug ya
Yummy worm-filled lollipops.
Growing up with Metro Times
When I first came to work as listings editor at the Metro Times in 1985, MT founders Ron Williams and Laura Markham asked what I expected to be doing in five years. It was a standard job interview question; I use it myself when interviewing prospective employees. But at the time it was a stretch…
Nurse Betty
A fractured fairy tale for our cynical time: Director Neil LaBute (In The Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors) effortlessly blends black comedy and sentimental wish fulfillment with flashes of gut-churning violence — with Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock.
Health food rocks
Nutritious soy for junk-food addicts.
Family reunion
Waxing nostalgic on Plus 8 Records … & checking out electronic music all over town.
Rock this joint
Imagine if Edmund Morris, Tom Wolfe and Jackie Collins had a threesome in a cheap motel on the outskirts of some god-awful suburb of St. Louis to celebrate the failed impeachment of Bill Clinton. This book is the equivalent of what the maid would find on the sheets. Don’t care for that metaphor? Joe Eszterhas…
Two views of the newspaper strike
Jack Lessenberry responds to a letter from a striking newspaper worker….
