Shirt tales
We looove our T-shirts, don’t we? Remember that one T-shirt you got at the Echo & the Bunnymen show? The one that crapped out after a couple washes, but for a minute there, you felt like the king of the world, huh? See, you can walk into any store at any mall in America and…
Springtime in a Small Town
Set in China in 1946, this film explores the love triangle between a sickly young man, his unhappy wife and their unexpected visitor. This is a meticulous study of thwarted desire, with beautiful cinematography, but the movie is very slow. This can be invitingly contemplative if you’re in a receptive mood — or, if you’re…
N&D Center
Wednesday • 8 Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls MUSIC Led by its ferocious drummer/leader, Rebel Souls is a hard-jamming jazz group that, musically speaking, has as much to do with Bob Marley and Fela Ransome Kuti as with, say, Charles Mingus; it’s also a group that embraces the political edge of all three. An example of…
Touch of pink
A young gay Pakistani-Canadian is afraid of coming out, so he copes with the stress with help from his imaginary friend, the spirit of Cary Grant (played dead-on by Kyle MacLachlan). Imagine if Harvey was not a bunny but a dead, famous actor, and Jimmy Stewart was Pakistani and gay … sort of. What should…
Words of war
As we near the third anniversary of Sept. 11, Americans prepare once again to remember the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the country. With this impending day of remembrance, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 still lingering in the theaters, and many loved ones still serving in Iraq, war is currently weighing heavily on the…
Every Night
After the one-two punch of 2002’s Love Will Find You and 2003’s All Your Summer Songs, Saturday Looks Good to Me (and main man Fred Thomas) had a trainload of momentum. AYSS was mooned over by nearly all who took the time to find it — and rightfully so. Its meticulously crafted handmade charms effortlessly…
Family feud
In the depths of the Whorehouse on Detroit’s West Side, gnarly rhetoric and grimy bass lines feed a vibration that can be felt a block away. Inside: two speakers, overflowing ashtrays, half-full liquor bottles, Tupac-adorned walls, an Apple computer burping up music, an ancient dinette set and a thousand-dollar mic. PayPaBoiz rappers Boo Boo Breed…
ScratchArt
For the purists in our midst, DJ Prime Minister has constructed an album so larcenous and unapologetic that it might tug at your music morals. The record jacks at least 15 samples per song, contains no original lyrics and its proud creator actually considers it to be art. Exactly where does this Prime Minister dude…
Hamtown rerun
News Hits thought the final episode in the Hamtramck schools soap opera ended with the results of a volatile recall election in July. Turns out, the drama continues. When we last left our unmerry cast of small-burg politicians, three Hamtown board members were in the midst of the recall battle (“Schoolyard Brawl,” Metro Times, July…
Flamingo Honey
After being pulled into the outside world by the auspicious hand of Jack White, who produced their 2003 V2 debut, the Grand Rapids drums-bass-synth trio Whirlwind Heat seems intent on letting us know that they’re down with the cool kids on the East Side. For Flamingo Honey, the group employs Detroit pop darling Brendan Benson…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Two wrongs may make a right this week. A mistake could lead to a lucky break, and some questionable decisions could result in you looking like a genius. The karma in your vicinity is extremely odd, Aries. It’s as if you can’t get the opportunities you need unless something goes awry.…
True to form
News Hits is mighty concerned about the upcoming election, and not just because there is a distinct possibility that the born-again zealot running this country may continue his reign. News Hits fears that the city of Detroit is failing to get voter registration forms in the hands of those eligible to vote. Carol Weisfeld, a…
The Power Of Beef
You can take your Motorhead, bind ’n’ blindfold ’em, and dump ’em somewhere out in the desert where nobody but the buzzards will ever find ’em. You can take your Fugs and Godz, wheel ’em outta the old folks home, and push ’em over the edge of a cliff and put ’em outta their misery.…
Lowe down
Around the Stiff Records offices, where he served as house producer in the sunset days of the 1970s, they called him “Basher.” Artists who covered his songs — an extensive list including John Hiatt, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Dave Edmunds, the Knack, Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, Rod Stewart, BR5-49, the Ramones and the Flaming Lips…
More Morford
Frequent visitors to this space are well aware that News Hits rarely — like once every Ice Age or so — has a good thing to say about the mainstream press. The big dailies are just too stodgy for our tastes. There is, however, one notable semi-exception to that rule. We’re talking about columnist Mark…
Food for Thought
We don’t know what would be more excruciating, eavesdropping in on Barbara Bush masturbating or listening to all 54 minutes of Young Rome’s debut Food For Thought. Here the B2K road dawg comes off like a 12 year old trying to nab honors at a Snoop Dogg karaoke challenge. “Freaky” is a club song with…
Censored!
In late July, more than 600 people showed up in Monterey, Calif. to speak at a Federal Communications Commission hearing on ownership concentration in the news media. The participants were a diverse group, young and old, activists and workers, but they had a single consistent message: The mainstream news media have been doing a deplorable…
Wannabe savior
One of our readers e-mailed the Abandoned Structure Squad (known as A.S.S. to our pals) asking if we could obtain some info about a spacious and (unfortunately) airy two-story brick home at 11 W. Parkhurst. “I was driving up John R from McNichols and saw this beauty just there …” writes A.S.S. wannabe Scott Remington…
Project Censored’s judges
The panel of judges for this year’s Project Censored included: Robin Andersen, associate professor and chair, Department of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University Richard Barnet, author of 15 books and numerous articles for The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, and The Progressive Liane Clorfene-Casten, co-founder and president of Chicago Media Watch, a volunteer…
Terror and error
More than a year ago, federal prosecutors in Detroit lit up victory cigars after a jury found two North African men guilty of aiding terrorists and document fraud. In a trial that garnered national and international coverage, the first such trial following the attacks of Sept. 11, the convictions appeared to mark a significant victory…
An Indian treasure
Over the years, I have spoken to several restaurateurs who have opted for the sky-high suburban rents over a location in Detroit, citing crime problems, lack of patrons due to population flight, and the general risks of succeeding in the city proper. Maliha Naveed went to Wayne State University, and views the area as a…
2004 CMJ Music Marathon again? E6 gets the yolk.
The 24-year-old CMJ (College Media Journal) has long been a harbinger of hip. Its weekly magazine, in fact, tracks college radioplay, which, through the years, has been trumpeting indie music long before it’s co-opted by the mainstream (see U2, Nirvana, White Stripes and so on). The music (and film) marathon — which happens Wednesday, Oct.…
Hip to be queer
For a band that named itself after lesbian sex and writes songs with such pro-homo titles as “Mary” and “Return to Oz,” the Scissor Sisters get surprisingly defensive when it comes to being called a gay group. In fact, if you so much as ask singer Jake Shears and bassist Babydaddy how their sexuality informs…
Letters to the Editor
Above the fold Thank you for your article regarding the front-page coverage of Butch Hollowell’s alleged indiscretion with a prostitute (“Morality and the Freep,” Metro Times, Sept. 1). You hit the nail on the head. I am not a journalist, but I could not understand what he did that merited front-page coverage. As you stated,…
In need of restraints
Q: I’m not sure what to do. I’ve had a fetish for straitjackets since I was 15 years old. I’m now 35. I’ve only told two girlfriends about it and absolutely no one else. The last one went along with it just to please me; my current wants no part of it. Problem is, I…
Shake it up
He’s one of Detroit’s most respected artists, with his work in numerous collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts. He’s also an internationally known collector of folk art, and a distinguished teacher: From 1970 to 1990 he was head of Cranbrook Art Academy’s sculpture department. Now, Michael Hall (who lives in Hamtramck), has moved into…
Pacific adventures
It’s understandable that the menu at Picasso of Manila would list some dishes without description. Not too many non-Filipinos are going to order chopped pig’s ear (sisig) or pork stewed in pig’s blood (dinuguan). The rest of us can get a fine and adventuresome meal by ordering one of the many seafood, pork or noodle…
White guy can sprint
So how’s this for a controversial quote: “Let’s start with a few safe predictions. All of the sprinters in the men’s 100 meter final at the Athens Olympics in 2004 will trace their ancestry to West Africa. Almost all of the world-class throwers will be white, and mostly of Eurasian ancestry. And, except for the…
Endangered swamps
It’s a world filled with Spanish moss, French verbs and Cajun cookin’, where people with names like “Knuckles” and “Papoose” make their living on the water, hopping from bayou to bayou in search of the best seafood catch, leaving their families on shore to pray for their safety. It’s also a world that is quickly…
On the twang gang
It was the kind of sudden, vicious act that irreparably changes a venue. On July 25, the Old 97’s were playing the Gypsy Tea Room in Deep Ellum — a once-rundown, now-gentrified Dallas district — when, during the final song of the final encore, audience member David Cunniff chided a few skinheads who were flicking…
The killer beside me
This is a simmering psychological suspense story based on a novel by French author Georges Simenon. A ruthless killer enters the life of a despondent man and his unhappy wife, but the focus is more on character than carnage. Although there’s no shortage of suspense and anxiety-inducing plot twists, the heart of this film is…
Confessions of a girlie man
The best thing about Arnold Schwarzenegger is not that he is a comic book character, it is that he clearly knows that he is one. He was having a great time speaking to the National Convention of Mostly Nasty Middle-Aged Aryans last week, and I am sure that he would have done so bare-chested, with…
Wicker Park
This remake of the 1996 French film L’Appartement aims for angst and mystery, but is partially sabotaged by squeaky clean Hollywood actors portraying characters so wildly successful and cute that it’s impossible to believe any kind of terrible desperation would befall them. But even though the four troubled main characters don’t seem dirty or confused…
