Food stuff
LEARN TO TASTE Remember the high school science experiment where you blindfold your classmates, pinch their noses shut and offer them an apple and an onion to munch? Most people, if they can’t see it or smell it, can’t taste the difference. The perception of taste depends on a lot more than the taste buds,…
Through the windshield glass
Unless you’ve been holed up in your Y2K bunker practicing for midnight, you already know Master Cylinder, one half of Junior Communist Club. MC, aka Peter DuCharme, is the musical brains responsible for the hypnotic VW Jetta commercial, "Synchronicity." You know, the one in which a young, attractive couple rolls through a rainy New Orleans…
Ring warriors
America needs a straight-faced funny guy who cut his delicate teeth on Michael Moore’s "TV Nation" as much as it needs an in-depth investigation into the world of pro wrestling. At 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1, it’ll get both. The cable channel Bravo airs the debut of the weekly BBC mockumentary show "Louis Theroux’s…
Mingus amongus
No jazz musician has been serviced so well in death as Charles Mingus. In life the volatile Mingus led big bands only for special occasions, otherwise forcing himself to imply Ellingtonian splendor with mere combos. Two decades after his death, the permanent big band he never had gathers weekly at the Fez, a New York…
Diamonds are forever
Summer, 1945-1985 (Self-Portrait @ Tiger Stadium). Photographer Carl Schurer saw his first Tigers game as a kid in 1945, then kept going back for more than 50 years. He took the 200 shots of this large (5’x7′) photo-collage during four games in the summer of ’85. Frank Lary, the Yankee killer – Willie Horton, the…
Power pop-era
Sloan fans are now officially spoiled. The evidence? The past two years have yielded more than half of the Canadian power-pop quartet’s recorded output (and, arguably, their finest musical moments). Sloan spent the first half of the ’90s dickering around with the marketing end of the record industry, creating a minibuzz around their hometown of…
Smug as a bug
THE VOLKSWAGEN BUG BOOK: A CELEBRATION OF BETTLE CULTURE By Dan Ouellette Angel City Press, $30, 144pp. I want to make one thing perfectly clear. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this – talk about the past, I mean. And while it might be hard to put a one-word name to…
Swing’s still the thing
Swing, temporarily at least, remains something of a sure thing in terms of commercial appeal. So why shouldn’t veteran practitioners of the style show off their admirable aptitude in a genre some younger listeners might imagine was originated by the Brian Setzer Orchestra or the Royal Crown Revue? Why not, indeed. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, as…
Dueling studies
You know the old saying, be careful of what you wish for, because you just may get it? The Detroit Regional Chamber recently learned just how true that can be. In March, the chamber released a study prepared for it by Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants, which predicted a broad range of negative fallout from implementing…
Swing’s still the thing
Swing, temporarily at least, remains something of a sure thing in terms of commercial appeal. So why shouldn’t veteran practitioners of the style show off their admirable aptitude in a genre some younger listeners might imagine was originated by the Brian Setzer Orchestra or the Royal Crown Revue? Why not, indeed. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, as…
Afro-hop francais
Breakthrough international duo Les Nubians have done a new thing with the vision that was hip hop … their musical lifeblood flows from the Bronx to Bordeaux and back again.
Letters from jail
"It was all quite amusing," wrote the South African inmate of a gathering some 17 years earlier. "Do you still remember? It was New Year’s Eve, wasn’t it? Little did we know then what 1963 would bring. The watershed that changed so many of our lives! For you, marriage and children – and eventually England.…
In the surf of meanings
Detroit playwright Ron Allen hears the sound of many waves crashing….
Bed and Board
Even before François Truffaut shot his first feature, The 400 Blows (1959), he was planning a follow-up film which would show what happened to the young protagonist of Blows, Antoine Doinel, after he had done his time in reform school, followed by a short, unhappy stint in the army. That his early idea of what…
Comic booked!
Censors trip rights–and it’s anything but funny….
Day For Night
Even before François Truffaut shot his first feature, The 400 Blows (1959), he was planning a follow-up film which would show what happened to the young protagonist of Blows, Antoine Doinel, after he had done his time in reform school, followed by a short, unhappy stint in the army. That his early idea of what…
In one ear
Garage Days revisited Yes, even the immortal bands had to start somewhere; and Detroit legends-groundbreakers-earthshakers the MC5 were once a garage band. Well, "garage band" is such a loosely tossed-about word these days. The MC5, at one point, had to practice in their garage and/or basement and had to take those thrilling first steps toward…
Love on the Run
Even before François Truffaut shot his first feature, The 400 Blows (1959), he was planning a follow-up film which would show what happened to the young protagonist of Blows, Antoine Doinel, after he had done his time in reform school, followed by a short, unhappy stint in the army. That his early idea of what…
College strikes back
Macomb Community College is going after John Bonnell with a vengeance, challenging the professor’s court-ordered reinstatement following an extended suspension for use of profanity in class and other alleged infractions. An ad college trustees ran Monday in The Macomb Daily contained a vow to take the issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court…
Mumford
In the four months since he arrived in the small, scenic town of Mumford, an enigmatic psychologist whose name happens to be Dr. Mumford (Loren Dean) has acquired more patients than the other two local shrinks combined. So what’s his secret? A naturally empathic listener unafraid to tell patients what he really thinks instead of…
Pay plan’s stormy reception
John Giddings says that when it comes to city politics, he normally keeps his cool. But Mayor Dennis Archer’s recent pay-raise plan for non-union city employees rubbed the Detroit ombudsman the wrong way. "Let’s just say we have had differences of opinion over several issues and I have chosen to remain low-key," says Giddings. "This…
My Life So Far
Even if – due to a slow start – it takes a viewer 30 minutes to become emotionally engaged in this coming-of-age film by Hugh Hudson (The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire), it eventually finds its gravity in the inevitability of life and death. My Life So Far (also known as The World of Moss)…
Rockin’ politics
Recent Oakland University graduates and other young folks are gearing up for an unusual entertainment event– one that mixes music, beer and political participation. Rockin the Vote, being held Wednesday, Oct. 13, at Bo’s Brewery in Pontiac, will afford attendees a chance to register to vote while listening to the sounds of Oakland University’s classic rock…
Jakob the Liar
The dream within a dream seems not only possible but necessary at certain junctures in life. It is from such a place that Hungarian-born director Peter Kassovitz’s Jakob the Liar originates. One ordinary man, Jakob Heym (Robin Williams, also the movie’s executive producer), offers an account – based on the book by Holocaust survivor Jurek…
Not-so-gentle reminders
By land and by sea locked-out newspaper workers continue to spread their message that the long-running labor dispute with the city’s dailies is not over. Before the annual Detroit News river cruise last Friday night, locked-out workers and supporters shouted, "No justice, no peace," and attempted to hand out "scab certificates" to those boarding the…
A vote against punk Darwinism
It’s been well over 20 years since punk started, so it would be great to report that the punk underground is doing what it should be doing long after its survival has been guaranteed – you know, putting together a stormy mix of music reminiscent of Ritchie Valens going down on Etta James while she…
Two sailors, one mission
You might call it the story of two U.S. Navy Vietnam veterans and one brawling bigot. Last week, one of the sailors took a stand against the bully and gave us a glimpse of that rarest of things in politics – an act of real integrity. The other swabbie is yet to be tested. And…
Rock around the radio
Most of this 1998-99 series of live performances from KCRW’s (89.9 FM in Santa Monica) music showcase, "Morning Becomes Eclectic," might make Detroiters wish they could sweep past Howard Stern’s syndicated talk sludge and the self-assured repartee of Motown’s morning DJs to tune in to real music-oriented radio. But all envy aside, host Nic Harcourt’s…
Shrine of the times
I’m rereading The Color Purple for the third or fourth time, when the Lizard of Fun snatches the book from my hands. "Hey!" I protest. "Give that back!" "No can do," says the Lizard, shaking its head. "It’s Banned Books Week. I’m taking appropriate action." "By banning books one reader at a time?" "By building…
Closet singer-songwriter
Subtitled "Spare Tracks and Lost Demos" and available only through the Razor & Tie Web site, Loose Monkeys is intended for only the most devoted GP fans. Except that after surviving six major labels, Graham Parker only has devoted fans. Success or not, Parker’s always been an acerbic writer with a thin, soulful voice that…
Tears, beers and developing
DEATH OF THE DOWAGER Innocent bystanders who happened upon the fabled Detroit intersection of Michigan and Trumbull over the past week or so were no doubt awash in maudlin sentiment and wistful reminiscence, as Monday’s closing of Tiger Stadium coincided with the opening of the floodgates of lachrymose dewy-eyed nostalgia. Inevitably, in media spectacles such…
Skankboys 6
The Hippos’ bouncy ska-punk tunes are all flavorful and sweet, and as hard to resist as store-bought cookies. Yes, they’re formulaic (this tune sounds like the Bosstones, that tune like Oingo Boingo), but the traditional ska-song recipe doesn’t lend itself to much experimentation, and what it may lack in originality is made up for with…
