• About MT
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • RSS Feeds

Get our issue, highlights, free stuff and more!

  • Blogs
  • News
  • Arts+Culture
  • Music
  • Watch
  • Eat
  • Sports
  • Best of
  • Calendar
  • Classifieds
  • Slideshows
  • Choice Picks
  • Free Stuff
  • Careers
  • Dating
  • Clubs
  • Archives
  • MMJ
  • Blowout
  • Adult Classifieds
  • Trending
    • Most Read
    • Latest Posts
    • Comments
    Most Read
    • Film Review: Man of Steel This latest Superman iteration is a visual feast but light on character development. | 6/14/2013
    • Hold On to Your Pawn Tickets Two Cheers for Detroit’s Dailies | 6/18/2013
    • From Motown to Coketown? Is keeping the petroleum byproduct known as “petcoke” stored, in the open, on the bank of the Detroit River a wise decision? | 6/12/2013
    • Summer Guide MT’s Definitive Guide to Summertime Awesomeness | 6/19/2013
    • Film Review: Before Midnight The Before series earns its hat trick with the release of Richard Linklater's third installment. | 6/13/2013
    • What’s next for Detroit? Suggestions for Kevyn Orr | 6/12/2013
    • Monk Beer Bar Mussel-bound | 6/19/2013
    • City Slang: New Black Dahlia Murder album lands at number 32 on Billboard charts
      Everblack, the new album from local metal heads Black Dahlia Murder, released on Metal Blade Records, entered the Billboard top 200 at number 32. According to a statement, “The album also landed at #3 on the Billboard Current Hard Music Albums chart (behind Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age). Additional chart debuts include #3 on the Billboard Hard Music Albums, #9 on the Billboard Independent Albums, and #30 on the Hits Albums Chart. Additionally, the album peaked at #15 on the iTunes album chart, and #2 on the iTunes Metal chart, second only to living legends Black Sabbath.” BDM’s Trevor Strnad reacts to the success of the album: “We are thrilled that “Everblack” is being so well received by the fans and we thank them truly from the heart for picking the album up. It’s been an amazing ride so far and the new album is our proudest moment yet. THANKS!!” Click here to join the City Slang Turntable community!!! Follow @City_Slang
    • Urinal Cake Records – “UrineFested” 6/21-6/22
      Profile: Urinal Cake Records (on Metro Times Music Blahg – “Urinal Cake Records’ First Year + New Gardens (Grows)”) “Urinefested” Local Label Showcase -2 day Fest in Detroit June 21-22nd at P.J.’s Lager House (1254 Michigan Ave), Friday: The Clone Defects, Terrible Twos, Moonhairy, Obnox, Ritual Howls, Mountains and Rainbows – - Saturday: Johnny Ill Band, Protomartyr, Growwing Pains, Drugs Dragons, K9 Sniffles, Feelings, Guinea Worms, and the Keep On Trash DJs. — Visual artwork displays by Jeff Arcel, Thelonious Bone, Davin Brainard, Zak Bratto, Joe Casey, Luke Chapelle, Jimbo Easter, Andy Gabrysiak, Ben Lyon, Johnny Lzr, Kara Meister, Nai Sammon, Timmy Vulgar, and Matt 7 http://urinalcakerecords.com – pjslagerhouse.com  ~   There seems to be a lot of local DIY record labels, lately. But Johnny Ill nonchalantly shrugs that into perspective: “Shit, there could be no one to put out your music. I’m not dong it, so I’m glad guys like Eric are doing it…”   It’s still a rarity, says Ill (a.k.a. John Garcia of The Johnny Ill Band,) for someone (like Eric Love of Urinal Cake Records) willingly financing and spending time resources for local songwriters to produce, package and distribute their works.   “The worst thing that could happen [...]
    • City Slang: Battlecross post-Orion news
      Following their triumphant appearance at OrionFest, local metal heads Battlecross has announced that drummer Kevin Talley (formerly of Six Feet Under, Chimaira and Dying Fetus) will be staying on with the band for its forthcoming tour. See Battlecross performing Slayer’s “War Ensemble” at OrionFest here. The new album, War of Will, will be released via Metal Blade on July 9, and the first single will be “Force Fed Lies”. Battlecross will be on the Mayhem Festival with Rob Zombie throughout the summer. Follow @City_Slang
    • DIA ‘Courts’ New Diners
      Who says the Detroit Institute of Arts is only for art admirers? The addition of a Friday night music schedule has found some new converts. And now food lovers can rejoice as the museum unveils a new go-to place for visitors to eat, drink, relax and socialize. It’s the newly revamped Kresge Court. Combining an elegant atmosphere with competitive prices, visitors can enjoy an array of gourmet snacks, sandwiches, salads and desserts that use regional ingredients. Befitting a hip hangout, the dishes skew creative. If you’re stopping by for a quick lunch, you’ve got to try the fine ficelle salad. The stars of this show are prosciutto, black mission fig jam, wild arugula and European-style thin sourdough baguette. The green goddess salad features local greens, carrot ribbons, marinated summer squash, sunflower seeds and currants. Other offerings include DIA deviled eggs and wasabi tobiko caviar; artichokes, radish, black olive aioli and flatbread; toasted farro salad with shaved fennel; surryano dry-cured ham with hot pepper pickles and more. Desserts include Italian pudding with bittersweet chocolate, seasonal fruit croustade, and an alcoholic spin on a Detroit classic, a Boston rum cooler with Vernor’s ginger ale, French vanilla ice cream, Captain Morgan spiced rum, [...]
    • The 1943 Detroit Race Riot, 70 years later
      Mention “Detroit” and “riot” to most metro Detroiters today, and most people will think of the year 1967. Some will call it a “riot” and some will call it a “rebellion,” but chances are that nobody will talk about Detroit’s forgotten riot, the 1943 Detroit race riot. Most likely, that’s because the events of 1943 don’t neatly dovetail with our conventional narratives about the Greatest Generation, and they provide ugly examples of white racism that most area residents, if they remember them, would rather forget. And that’s a shame, because the 1943 riot offers a chance to look beyond  simplistic sociological assumptions about ’60s civil disorder and the ensuing urban disintegration. This is especially interesting at a time when historians such as Thomas Sugrue are re-examining Detroit and the roles played by whites and their institutions, often uncovering sweeping antecedents that transcend a passive white exodus. And for those whites who think the ramifications of institutional racism are overstated, those old photographs of white mobs rampaging up and down Woodward Avenue, beating and stabbing black Detroiters, might change a mind or two. And 1943 is also worth another look because it helps define the early civil rights movement. It saw African-Americans effectively [...]
    • Oh Criminals, Where Art Thou?
      I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed with my Detroit experience so far. In the past 8 months, I have no gunshot wounds, stabbing scars, or even a stolen vehicle to show for it. I don’t even have a lower credit score! When I told everyone I was moving here, I got a wave of backlash and pleas to reconsider. It reminded me of the time I traveled to the Middle East and, as I was boarding my flight, received a hundred text messages and calls saying, “If you go, you are going to DIE!” Well, my time in the Middle East was just as disappointing and uneventful as my time here in Motown. Where have all the criminals gone? With a nice bout of insomnia, I used to walk to the YMCA at 5 a.m. to work out in total darkness. My Dad freaked out when I told him. What my father can’t understand is that, unless you live right downtown, and once the sun sets, the streets of Detroit are deserted. No cars. No homeless people. Even the pimps seem to take the night off. I could streak down Woodward (my apologies for the [...]
    Detroit Daily Deals powered by ReferLocal
    Calendar
    • CALENDAR
    • RESTAURANTS
    • CLUBS

    Calendar

    Search thousands of events in our database.

    Restaurants

    Search hundreds of restaurants in our database.

    Nightlife

    Search hundreds of clubs in our database.

    MT on Twitter
    Tweets by @metrotimes
    MT on Facebook

    Print Email

    Cover Story

    Occupy: on the move

    How a broad-based movement came into being, how it's growing, and who's joining up

    Photo: N/A, License: N/A

    Photo: Curt Guyette, License: N/A

    Curt Guyette

    Activist Sarah Coffey

    Photo: Curt Guyette, License: N/A

    Curt Guyette

    Lee Gaddies

    Photo: Curt Guyette, License: N/A

    Curt Guyette

    Reaching for consensus at a Detroit general assembly.


    By Curt Guyette

    Published: December 7, 2011

    It is also, supporters say, a movement that is still in its infancy, yet to find its full voice. 

    In addition, observes author, teacher and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff, there is a fair amount of sham to the complaint that the protesters are flailing away at ill-defined targets.

    "Anyone who says he has no idea what these folks are protesting is not being truthful," Rushkoff writes. "Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they are upset about, and we all know that there are investment bankers working on Wall Street getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher."

    But it goes even deeper in that. The anger is that the system has been corrupted to the core, with the super-wealthy and corporations using their vast economic resources to control the political process, tilting the game ever more in their favor. Like a snowball rolling downhill, getting larger and more powerful as it goes, crushing whatever might try to stand in its way.

     

    What's important about the movement so far is that, even without articulating specific demands, it has already had a noticeable effect on America's political landscape.

    "It has changed the conversation in a profound way," lefty filmmaker Michael Moore declared in a recent radio interview. "Seven, eight weeks ago, all we were listening to was about the debt ceiling and the deficit crisis, and ... nobody's talking about that distraction any longer. They're talking about the real issues now that are facing the majority of Americans: jobs, the fact that millions of homes are underwater, that 50 million people don't have health insurance, we have 49 million living in poverty now, we have 40 million adults who cannot read and write above a fourth grade level, that are functional illiterates. That's the nation that corporate America and the banks and Wall Street have created." 

    Holding a unique place in all of this is the city of Detroit. The town that put the world on wheels and became the Arsenal of Democracy in the fight against fascism, and the same town that helped give birth to the American labor movement, has in recent decades become the epicenter of this country's post-industrial decline.

    Now on the verge off insolvency, wracked by poverty and crime and abandonment, the city has long dealt with the sort of crises that washed over the rest of the country when the entire economic system came close to collapsing in 2008.

    As was pointed out last year when some 17,000 people made a pilgrimage to Detroit for the U.S. Social Forum — an event that received virtually no mainstream media coverage, yet addressed many of the same issues at the heart of the Occupy movement — Detroiters are ahead of the curve in terms of learning how to deal with economic catastrophe. The people of this city have been taking it on the chin for decades, and have learned how to adapt. The proliferation of urban gardens is just one example of finding ways to cope in the midst of deprivation and desperation.

    It is also a city with a long history of radical political movements and social activism, from labor to civil rights and black power.

    What we're seeing now, however, even as the echoes of those upheavals are being heard in the Occupy protests, is also different in an essential and crucial way from anything that has occurred within anyone's lifetime.

    Mass movements of the recent past were largely driven by single groups that attracted some measure of outside support. The anti-Vietnam War protests were primarily the product of young people of fighting age. Part and parcel of that was a distinct generational divide. Although there may have been many white supporters, the civil rights movement had as its driving force African-Americans. Similar patterns emerged in the gays rights and women's liberation movements.

    What's different now, observes Wayne State University history professor Fran Shor, is that the "economic dislocation" of this crisis is so widespread, affecting everyone from professionals at the upper edges of the middle class to blue-collar workers to the working poor. 

    Framing the issue in terms of the 99 percent is "brilliant branding," says Shor, because it immediately captures the essence of a crisis that crosses racial, ethnic, gender, class and generational boundaries.

    Even the rank-and-file of the right-wing Tea Party, which also rose up as a response to the economic meltdown, are outraged by the government's bailout of big banks and Wall Street brokerage houses, while Main Street homeowners — now former homeowners — fall victim to foreclosures and what Shor describes as the "continued predations of the 1 percent."

    That's not to say the Tea Partiers are rushing to set up tents in public parks. They definitely are not. But there are areas where fundamental concerns on both the right and left overlap. 

    Detroit native Lee Gaddies, a media coordinator for the local Occupy group, says he's been getting calls from people in the Tea Party who are concerned about a last-minute amendment to the $662 billion National Defense Authorization Act; the amendment, according to published reports, "would deny U.S. citizens suspected of being terrorists the right to trial, subjecting them to indefinite detention."

    Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page

    > Email Curt Guyette

    Related Stories
    • Building for a fight Detroit businessman shows another face of the Occupy movement | 12/7/2011
    • A squat in time Looking to reclaim one piece of the hood | 12/7/2011
    We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

    To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

    Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.
    comments powered by Disqus


    Metro Times

    733 St Antoine

    Detroit, MI 48226

    Main: (313) 961-4060

    Advertising: (313) 961-4060

    Classified: (313) 962-5277

    Contact MT | Advertise | National Advertising | Work Here

    All parts of this site Copyright © 2013 Detroit Metro Times.

    News

    News+Views

    Politics & Prejudices

    News Hits

    Stir It Up

    Higher Ground

    Blogs

    Music Blahg

    News Blawg

    Reckless Eyeballing

    The B-Roll

    Eat Blog

    Best of Detroit

    Best of Detroit

    Music

    Music Homepage

    Album Reviews

    Add Music Event

    Search Music Events

    Arts

    Arts Homepage

    Book Reviews

    Culture

    Culture Homepage

    Savage Love

    Motor City Cribs & Rides

    Watch

    Watch Homepage

    Film Reviews

    Sports

    Sports Homepage

    Events

    Calendar

    Search Calendar Events

    Enter Calendar Event

    Art

    Auditions

    Comedy

    Community

    Dance

    Film

    Fun for all

    Holiday

    Issues And Learning

    Music

    Shopping

    Sports

    Theater

    Food

    Food Homepage

    Find a Restaurant

    Clubs

    Find a Club

    Classified

    Classified Home

    Place Ad

    Jobs

    Services

    Stuff For Sale

    Massage

    Personals

    Adult

    Automotive

    Cars, Trucks+More

    Services

    Real Estate

    Real Estate

    For Rent

    Roommates

    Archives

    Search Archives

    Search Authors

    Search Issues

    Latest Comments

    Get Our Newsletters

    Enter your email address to get our weekly emails.

     

    Metro Times Stuff

    Win Free Stuff

    Slideshows

    Velvet Rope Photos

    Event Photos

    Social Media

    Facebook

    MySpace

    Flickr

    Twitter

    Youtube

    RSS Feed

     Full Feed