Maxwell loves yo stankin’ draws
The sweet soul singer and heartthrob is candid, congenial and controversial – “You kidding? Detroit is my heart, yo!”
Tempest in a pee-pot
I really thought I could do it. I had just completed my doctoral degree, and my first full-time teaching position would soon begin. But I needed some work over the summer – in fact, I still do – so I decided to prostitute myself to the pimp known as the temporary services agency. Gratuitous sexual…
And baby makes … 6 billion
On or around October 12, 1999, a Very Important Baby will be born. This one will mark world population reaching 6 billion. The 5 billionth baby isn’t even a teenager yet, having been born in 1987. It took until 1800 for the population to reach its first billion; the second took only until 1930. Just…
Soul survivors
Detroit house music label Nouveau Riche Entertainment mixes old-school sound with next-school business… and they believe it’s music worth fighting for.
An unexpected guest
The call came from out of the blue. Or, perhaps more accurately, from out of the black and blue. Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer was on the line, asking whether the Metro Times wanted to talk with him about, well, whatever we liked. Though the next elections are more than a year a way,…
Trying to shame Edison
National Organization for Women president Patricia Ireland declared Detroit Edison a "merchant of shame" during a Detroit speech Saturday. "Electricity is not the only thing that is shocking at Detroit Edison," said Ireland after listening to two female employees’ allegations of years of sexual harassment at the utility. The two women stood before lewd drawings…
Hearings on I-75: Widening debate
While many Oakland County politicians and I-75 users say the artery must be widened to alleviate congestion and accidents, others are trying to persuade transportation officials to consider alternatives to pouring more pavement. That includes regional mass transportation – buses and rail lines connecting Detroit and the suburbs. "I would suggest that every option that…
Cathartic caterwaul
These two are totally friggin’ mental! And that, to paraphrase Martha Stewart, is a good thing. Bantam Rooster’s debut album of two years ago, Deal Me In, was a raging slab of punk frustration with dangerous backwoods undertones wailed by guitarist/howler T. Jackson Potter and drummer Eric Cook. They were a duo then, as Bantam Rooster’s…
George draws a line
I get no kick from cocaine. Mere alcohol, no longer use it at all. But one thing is perfectly true. If I ever sniffed, I ain’t telling you. –George W., with apologies to C. Porter First, in the interest of full disclosure: Hillary Rodham Clinton and I have had sexual intercourse. Not, however, with each…
Instant journalism
The Lizard of Fun sits perched on my suitcase, its face screwed up into a scowl like some living gargoyle. It’s muttering incomprehensibly as it taps away furiously at my laptop computer. "I’m imitating a journalist. Since you’re going on vacation, and obviously won’t be fully prepared for any kind of rest and relaxation until…
Monkey art and Woodward cruisin’
The Whitney. You’ve gotta love a place that offers fine dining, Parke Davis midwife training, live rock ’n’ roll and Jerry Peterson’s monkey art – including a curtained booth named "Wolfie’s Peep O Rama" – all in one night. Peterson (aka Jerry Vile), editor of the soon-to-be defunct piss-and-vinegar rag Orbit, held an outdoor art…
Private function
Is it possible for the private and anonymous self to survive online? Or are we submerged in the world’s largest digital fishbowl, flopping around like guppies in a shark tank at the zoo? In last week’s Rolling Stone, William Greider’s exposé on cyberprivacy quoted Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy as saying, "You already have zero…
Pitch’d
REMEMBERING SIMPLICITY Do you remember the first party you went to? Do you remember how you knew about the party? Was it word of mouth? Was it a flier? How many people were there? The atmosphere: Was it dark with a throbbing strobe, or did the event have "intelligent" lighting and lasers? How much did…
Grad and glad
A local band makes good and makes a good record. That’s enough material for a story all its own. After all, they say it’s harder to be a hero in your hometown than anywhere else in the world. Ain’t it the truth. Anybody who’s listened to the Verve Pipe honing its personal sound and poetry…
Food stuff
Snake wine? Keith Famie, one of Detroit’s premier chefs, biked the length of Vietnam earlier this year. He brought home an image of the nation that puts war in the background. The bike trip included three Vietnam veterans and was filmed for "Famie’s Adventures in Cooking" which airs on WDIV-Channel 4. A preview will be…
Autumn Tale
With the notable exception of two historical dramas, 79-year-old French writer-director Eric Rohmer seems to have spent the last 40 years making the same film over and over and again. Rohmer was one of the core members of the French New Wave of directors which coalesced around 1960 — among others were Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol,…
Sweet sacrilege
When publisher Maurice Girodias found himself in Paris in the early ’50s, he hit on an idea. Concocting a catalog with titles such as I’ve Got a Whip in My Suitcase or The Chariot of Flesh, by the likes of "Count Palmiro Vicarion" or "Carmencita de las Lunas," Girodias would then cross his fingers and…
Bad air haze
The chemistry behind ozone pollution in Earth’s lower atmosphere begins with the burning of fossil fuels; emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles and coal-fired electric plants top the list of sources. Then come what are called volatile organic compounds – vapor from gasoline itself, before it is combusted, is one example. Add summertime’s soaring temperatures and ultraviolet…
Take-away tempeh
A sort of organic grocery, with produce, vitamins, and health and beauty products, the Sprout House does a thriving carryout business in sandwiches, refrigerated prepared dishes such as sesame noodles and tempeh salad, and hot and cold soups. Offerings vegan, organic dairy, organic chicken, soy cheese and vegetarian options, the story has fresh produce trucked…
Bowfinger
Movies about making movies run the risk of alienating audiences who aren’t actually in the film industry, but Bowfinger finds that happy medium between insider joke and mass entertainment. This surreal tale of guerrilla filmmaking in the shadow of the Hollywood sign is chock-full of goofy charm, and taps into the universal struggle of outsiders…
Mickey Blue Eyes
The great Mafia movie parody always deserved an interesting twist. Enter Mickey Blue Eyes aka Michael Felgate (Hugh Grant), a genteel fine art auctioneer with a lack of coordination with weapons and a throbbing heart for a New York Mafia princess, Gina (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Mixing all the culture-shock elements of an English gentleman trying to…
In Too Deep
Jeffrey Cole (Omar Epps) is an undercover cop who, rather easily, infiltrates the inner circle of an underworld crime boss known as God (L L Cool J). God is the kind of smiling sociopath who might show up beaming and huggable at some church function but, at the first whiff of disloyalty, shove a pool…
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Whether known by its provocative original title, Killing Mrs. Tingle, or the suitably nonviolent, positivist Teaching Mrs. Tingle, the directorial debut of screenwriter (Scream) and television producer (“Dawson’s Creek”) Kevin Williamson is one mammoth wasted opportunity. The 34-year-old Williamson has successfully captured the zeitgeist with his brand of media-savvy, trivia-saturated American teens, but Teaching Mrs.…
Buddha basics
It’s easy to find a scapegoat for the dysfunctional relationship American women have with their bodies. Whenever your favorite woman asks, "Do these jeans make me look fat?" all you have to do is shrug and point: The Media (capital M, which is an upside down W, which stands for Women’s magazines). Society (as a…
Avant-gains
Warning; Archie Shepp’s recent collaboration with the Ritual Trio signifies some serious heaviosity in the ever-expanding realm of free/modern jazz. A tribute to the late bassist Fred Hopkins (a longtime mainstay of Chicago’s avant-garde community), Con-versations displays four music veterans engaging in an emotive remembrance of their fallen comrade. Although Shepp’s blustery tenor sax occupies…
Spirit of B-boy
If we can still get away with talking about "keeping it real" then Sway & King Tech keep it real. These guys eat, sleep and breathe hip hop – now the proof is on wax. This or That, the duo’s new offering, is a fresh, coherent statement from beginning to end: Be true to the…
Real love blues
Hollywood hasn’t quite ruined Randy Newman for pop music, but big-screen duties sure have hogged his time. The prolific composer of film sound tracks hasn’t given us a real solo album – not counting 1995’s all-star Faust project – since the affecting Land of Dreams, released all of 11 years ago. For Bad Love, Newman…
Faded funk
Mike Paradinas (mu-ziq) is, like his peers, Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert, a tremendous talent. In the brave new world of autistic dance music – which both flirts with and ignores the dance floor – Mike is the most brilliant of the idiot-savants, work-playing in the increasingly mined terrain of electronic music, from the break…
Mcbluesish
Essential? True, the names on this CD are some of the best names in the blues. Luther Allison. Otis Rush. Magic Sam. Jimmy Reed. Robert Cray. The performances on this two-CD collection are all well worth listening to. If you like good blues performed by some of the best in the business, then there’s…
