Day Four of the Toronto Film Festival
Five films today and things start out strong. The first screening of the day is a 9AM showing of Sarah Polley’s sophomore effort “Take This Waltz.” Polley, better known as an actress (Dawn Of The Dead, Go, The Sweet Hereafter), made an impressive debut with the tender and affecting “Away From Her,” which starred Julie…
Looking behind the new poverty numbers
On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to release the most recent numbers on poverty in the United States. Thanks to the nonprofit Institute for Public Accuracy, we can get ready to absorb those (“almost certainly grim”) numbers by considering the insights of Alice O’Connor, a history professor at University of California at…
City Slang: Detroit artists on Substream compilation
A new compilation album from Substream Records features three tracks by Detroit artists. A statement from the label said, “This, the second volume of the ‘Substream Likes’ series, lets you discover 18 exciting new artists. On the track list we find everything from upbeat Kenyan electro-pop, melancholic Swedish indie and our two new Substream artists:…
Danny Brown (the Model) Posing in New York Times Style Magazine
Yesterday morning, while flipping through the Sunday version of the New York Times, a strange nugget of Detroit music minutia jumped out at me. Actually, I’d already bypassed the newspaper itself and was thumbing through T Magazine, the paper’s highly couture style mag, when i noticed Danny Brown’s mug starring back at me. I’d recognize…
T. Calmese — “Trust Me” Video + New Album
T.Calmese appears to have reached a career crossroads. He took his last moniker, iLLiTe, about as far as it could go from his early Subterraneous Records days and decided not long ago that a name change could do him some good. He’s rapping under his given name these days, T. Calmese, and he actually sounds…
New Ro Spit leak: “The City” … where his car goes to get stolen
Motor City rapper/clothier/shoe salesman Ro Spit says his car got nicked the other night off of Gratiot in Detroit. Our condolences, man. That sucks. We hate it when that happens. Anyway, his car contained 20 promo copies of his soon-to-be-released album Glass Ceiling Project, his third full-length, which features many hometown rap godheads, including Dwele,…
Day Three of the Toronto Film Festival
Saturday kicked off with the much anticipated new George Clooney movie (his second at the fest), The Descendants. Perhaps it’s a bit unfair to call it George Clooney’s movie since it heralds the return of director Alexander Payne (Sideways) after a seven year absence from the big screen. Needless to say the lines were long…
City Slang: Counterculture Voices at the Kerrytown Bookfest
On Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m., the Kerrytown Bookfest in Ann Arbor will host a panel discussion called Counterculture Voices, followed by a book signing / meet-and-greet. On the panel will be, well, me. I will there as the author of MC5: Sonically Speaking and The Stooges: Head On. Also on the panel will be…
Toronto International Film Festival Diary Day 2: Friday, Sept. 9
The first full day of the 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival saw me harness my U2 media pass and attend my first ever press conference. Answering Twitter questions about the From the Sky Down premiere the night before, director Davis Guggenheim, Bono, and The Edge sat down with TIFF Documentary Programmer Thom Powers for…
Day Two of the Toronto Film Festival
I can’t begin to describe the complexities of planning which film screening to attend, how to get there in enough time, what to do when something is delayed (a 15 min technical issue can mean an entire shift in your day), or how you secure tickets to the public screenings. It’s dizzying, and sitting in…
City Slang: ICP announces Psychopathic American tour
Those dirty old clowns the Insane Clown Posse have announced that they will tour the U.S. this fall with Psychopathic label mates Twiztid and Blaze Ya Dead Homie. The tour is tagged the American Psycho Tour. According to a press release from the label, “Like with any tour that ICP headlines, anyone attending the “American…
Toronto International Film Festival Diary Day 1: Thursday, Sept. 8
I arrived in Toronto today a little after 2pm and immediately had to start scurrying. It was a big night, after all. The U2 documentary From the Sky Down, about the making of 1991’s Achtung Baby, was opening the festival at 6:30, and I was responsible with doing coverage for the band’s fan site, atu2.com.…
Day One of the Toronto Film Festival
I don’t know if it’s Canadians, Hollywood types, or all the Foreign filmmakers, buyers and fans but they sure do like to smoke up here. Outside every movie theater, hotel, nearby restaurant or cafe is a huddle of well-dressed smokers. And black is the color of choice. It’s a sea of fume-spewing PIB (people in…
City Slang: The Kari Lynch Band reach battle final
Clare, MI, group the Kari Lynch Band is one of 11 finalists in the Charter Center Stage Battle of the Bands competition. According to a statement released by the band, the top vote-getters from each region were announced this week, and the winning local band will kick-off the show featuring Panic! At the Disco, Fitz…
Creature
Creature D A hideous, misshapen, leathery brute stalks the bayou in Creature, but that’s just Sid Haig. A crusty staple of cult flicks from Spider Baby to The Devil’s Rejects, Haig is a reliably creepy presence, and he’s about the only thing worth watching in this inept slide into the murky depths of cinematic…
PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake Wins the Mercury, Opens Old Wounds
The bestowing of the UK’s Mercury Prize upon Polly Jean Harvey’s Let England Shake is a heartening moment beyond the typical cultural reach of the award, for two reasons: The first is that she’s the only person in the nearly two-decade history of the honor to receive it twice, which is nifty enough. The second…
City Slang: Some Velvet Evening set to release new album
Dynamic honky tonk duo Some Velvet Evening, consisting of Carrie Shepard and John Holk, celebrate the release of their debut album, No Law Against Talking with a CD release show on September 13 at Oak City Grille. As they say themselves on a press release, “Masters of twang, melancholy and harmony, their original tunes harken…
Contagion
Contagion Director: Steven Soderbergh. Writer: Scott Z. Burns. Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Gweneth Paltrow and Jude Law. Rated: PG-13. Running time: 105 minutes. B- I try to remain agnostic regarding genre, but I’ve never really understood the appeal of virus movies. People panic, fret, sneeze and talk it over, but when…
City Slang: “Wax Ecstatic” revisited
Despite the fact that Sponge’s debut album, Rotting Pi?ata, featured the monster hits “Plowed” and “Molly”, for my money Vinnie Dombroski and his boys destroyed any notion of a sophomore jinx with the second album, Wax Ecstatic. This is simply an incredible album. More consistent than its predecessor, the flow of the songs here is…
Bodycount
Bodycount Codemasters Xbox 360, PS3 > Many years ago, the FPS world depended solely on the playability of its single-player campaign. In the past five years or so, gears have shifted, and if your FPS doesn’t have killer multiplayer, your game is most likely considered a flop. Bodycount brings some awesome features back to the…
Mike Douglas – The Men in My Little Girl’s Life (1966)
It’s amazing this record can even spin around past the stylus for all the sap drenched inside its sentimental grooves. The all-singing, all-narrating title track finds the affable former daytime talk-show host using his inquiring voice to approximate a little girl wanting to go out and play with boys outside. Ah, they grow up so…
Warrior
Warrior B+ Everybody loves an underdog, especially at the movies, where palooka tales are evergreen and hard-luck heroes always have a puncher’s chance of achieving their most cherished dreams. Combat sports, from boxing to karate to even wrestling, have all scored cinematic victories, yet the increasingly mainstream MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) has never found a…
Letters to the Editor
letters Corporate silence Thank you for Sandra Svoboda’s amazing coverage of the EPA’s national Environmental Justice Conference in Detroit ("Justice for All," Aug. 17). Rarely has this issue been covered in such depth and with so much sensitivity to its nuances and significance. The value of your publication to our community was once again demonstrated.…
Blinded by the fright
After witnessing the first jetliner crash into the Twin Towers on that Sept. 11 morning, a friend of mine’s wife and 7-year-old daughter fled to their nearby Manhattan loft and ran to the roof to look around. From there, they saw the second plane explode in a rolling ball of flaming fuel across the rooftops.…
Failure to communicate
News Hits is trying to understand. We also want to help. What we’re trying to understand is why Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and his administration are making it so difficult for journalists to obtain information in the fastest, most efficient way possible. Because, the fact is, we here at the Metro Times have been experiencing…
9/11 by the numbers
3000 Approximate number of people who died as a direct result of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania on 9/11 4,477 Number of U.S. troops who have died so far in Iraq 1,534 Number of U.S. troops who have died so far in the Afghanistan war 250,000…
Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption
Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption D With our abundance of rotting urban blight, rusted industrial ruins and ample, spooky woodlands, Michigan makes a swell backdrop for end-of-the-earth fantasies. Rarely does a season change here without one or two locally produced slasher-zombie apocalypse romps landing on my desk for review. Many of these zero-dollar productions tacitly expect a…
Darth Schuette
If this were Star Wars, what has happened with medical marijuana in Michigan recently would be analogous to The Empire Strikes Back — wherein Darth Vader, played by state Attorney General Bill Schuette, with the state Court of Appeals collectively playing the evil emperor in the background, has led his stormtroopers in an offensive that…
Blondie – Panic of Girls (Noble Id)
The last time Blondie made an album, 2003’s The Curse of Blondie, the veteran NYC group recalled its scrappy new wave roots. On Panic of Girls, Debbie Harry and company’s ninth record, they’re in more of an Autoamerican mode, coasting along on soggy island rhythms. The core trio — Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, and Clem…
Cheap thrills
Taqueria El Nacimiento 7400 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit 313-554-1790 Handicap accessible Prices: $4-$9 Salsa music is pumped through several speakers, fútbol is on flat screens around the room, and the tables are adorned with liter-sized bottles of Corona. Such is the scene inside Detroit’s Taqueria El Nacimiento. Situated on the north side of Vernor…
Brighton Rock
Brighton Rock B- Written and directed by Rowan Joffe. Starring Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Andy Serkis. Running time: 111 minutes. Not rated. Brighton is sometimes considered little more than a seaside tourist trap best known for craggy beaches and throngs of London day-trippers crowding the carnival attractions at its famous…
The secret garden
Her wound would not stop bleeding. She’d just had abdominal surgery, was laid up at home, and blood kept dewing up on the incision. She couldn’t get back to the hospital right away, so instead she called a friend from down the street, the woman from the neighborhood known for healing people. Tamra Meadows came…
Rapper’s delight
The first thing that’ll endear you to Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based rapper Dulcinea Detwah is her name — a phonetic spelling of the original French pronunciation of her hometown. She might live in New York City now, but she representin’. "Everybody who knows me, they know specifically where I’m from," she says. "Whenever somebody says that they…
How to kill journalism
The other day, I was sent a copy of a memo written by the bright, talented and hard-working managing editor of a group of weekly newspapers just outside the Detroit metro area. The memo, "A Reporter with Today’s Tools Should Use Them," was supposed to be a helpful guide to her reporters as to how…
Food Stuff
Suds on the walls There’s a new look at Royal Oak’s Bastone Brewery. Though the Belgian faves are still on the menu, the walls are now adorned with crisp, professional photography from Ferndale photog Carrie Acosta, showcasing the ingredients, process and culture of craft beer. All over the restaurant, guests will be treated to views…
Dally-oop!
A spliff’s toss from the Wayne State University campus, Detroit’s Cass Corridor has been one of the city’s more turbulent, influential and creative neighborhoods. It was the home to all sorts of activist rock freaks in the ’60s and ’70s. Back in the day, the Corridor was a haven for writers, painters, sculptors and photographers.…
Crimecraft: Bleedout
Crimecraft: Bleedout Steam PC Alrighty, a few things caught my eye here. First of all, it’s a PC title. Second, it’s a free PC title. Yes, with the generosity of our pals over at Steam, Crimecraft: Bleedout is all ours. Other than the frustrating registration process, (go to the game’s website, fill out a little…
From eight to 11
$=$5-10; $$=$10-25; $$$=$25-50; $$$$=$50+ FERNDALE Anita’s Kitchen 22651 Woodward Ave.; 248-548-0680; anitaskitchenonline.com; $$: In warm weather, a large, covered outdoor dining area allows outside dining. The bar serves beer, wine, juice, smoothies and wine and craft brews. Salads, veggie-intensive appetizers, pita pizzas, kebabs or shawarma, lamb chops, shanks and kibbeh dazzle the palate. Assaggi Mediterranean…
Wild Flag – Wild Flag (Merge)
This indie-rock supergroup — all-female, to boot — includes former members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium, and, um, the Minders. And if you think the sum of these parts wouldn’t amount to much more than Sleater-Kinney without Corin Tucker, hold on tight for a thrilling ride and one of the best albums of the year. With singer…
Me so sensuous!
Dear readers: I’m on vacation. The questions and answers in this week’s column are three recent installments of the "Savage Love Letter of the Day," which folks with the SLAPP — the Savage Love app for iPhone or Android — receive daily via the miracle of modern technology. If you have the SLAPP, you’ve already…
City Slang: Weekly music review roundup
Remember – if you send it, it will get reviewed. That’s the City Slang promise. It doesn’t matter what genre the music is – as long as it has a Metro Detroit connection, it’ll get in. Preferably, we’d like to concentrate on new releases but, while we’re getting warmed up here, feel free to send…
