Night & Day center
20 WED • ART Masterworks in Chinese Painting—This comprehensive overview of Chinese painting spanning from the twelfth to twe 20 WED • ART Masterworks in Chinese Painting — This comprehensive overview of Chinese painting spanning from the 12th to 20th centuries graces the University of Michigan for a mere seven more weeks. Darkened by time,…
Transcendental function
From the Motor to the Necto, DJ Ken Thomas stays the course….
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Chaos is often good to avoid. But not now, Aries. You’re in a phase when diving into uncertainty would be fertile and invigorating. May I suggest, then, that you pluck some inspiration from Discordianism? It’s one of the rare religions that takes account of Ralph Abraham’s assertion that heart physiologists find…
Sanctuary
A frigid Midnight Mass amid the ghosts of faith, defiance and bloody Christmases past….
Spectacular effort
Behind the scenes with the Radio City Rockettes….
Local exports
Gifts with a flavor of the community….
Toxic farewell
Engler’s goodbye gift to Dow: Higher dioxin levels….
Letters to the Editor
Eminem’s grandmother speaks out My grandson, Eminem, has not discussed the section of your Oct. 30 story called "The Todd Nelson Show" with me ("The real Slim Shady," Metro Times, Oct. 30-Nov. 5). But I have to ask why you published this trash without researching for the truth? This section of the story came from…
Bloody Mary Monday
Having first come into print a mere three years ago (the hangover from our birthday bash last week still hasn’t subsided, despite multiple hair-of-the-dog Bloody Marys throughout the week), News Hits is far too young to have experienced the last Tigers pennant (1984), the last earthquake to rock Detroit (1986) or the last Detroit City…
Emission impossible
While the Bush administration’s foot-dragging on global warming couldn’t be clearer, states across the nation are “remarkably — and increasingly — active” in fighting to save the world as we know it. Well, some states are. News Hits is embarrassed — but not surprised — to find that Michigan stands out as the antithesis of…
Snowball’s chance
News Hits wishes Gary Peters luck. But we’re not holding our booze-besotted breath. Peters has refused to concede the state attorney general’s race to his Republican opponent, Mike Cox. With about 3 million ballots cast, Peters is behind Cox by about 6,000 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Peters will decide whether he’ll…
Homeland insecurity
News Hits is thinking of immigrating to Canada, since it is likely that the Homeland Security Act will soon become the law of this land. The U.S. Senate was poised to vote on the bill Monday, the same day this publication went to press. Aside from all the other aspects of this bill that have…
All fall down
Overgrown weeds and rubble from a fire surround the charred remains of 3432 Cochrane, less than a mile from the historic Woodbridge District. Children’s toys still adorn the side porch, and what appears to be the gable from the front of the home lies on the front yard, still strung with holiday lights. The roof…
Abandoned Shelter of the Week
Overgrown weeds and rubble from a fire surround the charred remains of 3432 Cochrane, less than a mile from the historic Woodbridge District. Children’s toys still adorn the side porch, and what appears to be the gable from the front of the home lies on the front yard, still strung with holiday lights. The roof…
The Nature of Maps
Philadelphia’s not particularly known for its kickass rock bands, and oddsmakers didn’t see much need to dither with that formula, either, when it came to Matt Pond PA — at least not on the basis of the group’s first three albums. MPPA is the semieponymous (duh!) brainchild of one Matt Pond. It’s tempting to also…
White and whiter
Is Eminem’s 8 Mile as Cool as Ice…
Busy body meditations
Dancing with Edgar Degas at the Detroit Institute of Arts….
When the spirit moves you
An art pilgrimage for the festive season….
Gliding into the realm of dreams
Endless rows of sinuous bodies converge as the legendary Bolshoi Ballet brings the unconscious workings of a prince torn between purity and temptation up to the surface. Seemingly boundless extensions, perfectly executed pirouettes — our eyes close to summon the intoxicating world of Swan Lake … The tale is one of desire and sinister intent…
Heidelberg on wheels
Tyree Guyton spruces up the Thanksgiving Day Parade….
Affair gone foul
Q: I’m a successful guy with a beautiful wife who is a successful executive herself. About two years ago I had a seriously stupid affair with an attractive woman at my firm. It lasted six weeks, and then my wife busted us. She did the usual and threw my sorry ass out of the house;…
Esprit décor
Family’s extravagant home display is about togetherness, not excess….
So not bogue …
Bogue is the kind of band that can tell you exactly where to find the best burrito in town. But they won’t. Hanging out with the Detroit trio at their practice space in Detroit is like getting a street-level lesson in the Detroit good life. From grub to gear to Ghettoblaster, Bogue knows its way…
Helluva house slave
What, exactly, is a house slave? Depends on who you ask. For example, if you were to ask entertainer-civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, then Secretary of State Colin Powell fits the description perfectly. Belafonte referred to Powell — and also National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice — last month as a “house slave” who must do…
Why taxes are a good thing
How is this for a shocking and outrageous statement: Taxes are wonderful. They are what make civilization possible. What’s more, anyone who says we are paying too much in taxes, especially in our once-great state of Michigan, is either an ignorant dupe of unscrupulous demagogues, a high-level deadbeat or a variety of shortsighted fraud. Now…
One who knows
“My name is Smith. That means worker, someone who works with his hands. My mother’s maiden name was Haddad. That’s Lebanese for Smith. My grandfather was an iron worker. My grandfather’s father was an iron worker. My first name is Akim. That means ‘one who knows.’” We’re at the China Ruby restaurant in Ferndale. A…
Invoking the Christmas spirits
A far-from-comprehensive holiday guide to light-headed fuel….
Right idea, great location
Detroit’s newest downtown restaurant still had a few bugs to work out when I visited, which was completely understandable given that it was Day Two and Day Three of operations. One bug was a tenderloin-Gorgonzola sandwich without any Gorgonzola. When I mentioned this to an amiably hovering Todd Stern, he said the same thing had…
BareNaked
Musicians making the jump from recordings to film have fared well in recent years, as hip-hop luminaries Ice-T (NBC’s “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”), Ice Cube (Friday) and the late Tupac Shakur (Juice, Poetic Justice) have shown that the move from audio to video doesn’t have to be fatal. Hip-hop wannabes and boy-band sensations…
OOOH! (Out Of Our Heads)
They’ve survived the demise of two labels, the departure of numerous A&R reps and the fickle winds of critical approbation. They’ve recorded two of underground rock’s signature albums, the raw alt-country-before-it-was-hip of 1985’s Fear & Whiskey and their major label swan song, The Mekons Rock’n’Roll, and yet they maintain a lower profile than the friends…
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Director Chris Columbus avoids overly replaying the visual wonders of his first episode, and as the shadows of J.K. Rowling’s fairy-tale allegory of white supremacy close in on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the true scare here is how far beings — be they human or wizard — will go to defend the myth…
Soul to soul
This documentary ultimately functions as an atonement, a call for the world to sit up and give props to the group of musicians who actually made the Motown records we still love so much: The Funk Brothers. The deep love and friendship that the fellas shared wash across the screen like a wave.
Jim Brown: All American
Cleveland Browns great Jim Brown, since his unilateral domination of the football field, has been almost as successful as a movie star and outspoken activist. Spike Lee’s documentary seeks to take ESPN’s "SportsCentury" to the next level, though it feels a tad too adulatory to be truly balanced.
I’m Going Home
Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s narrative strategy relies heavily on indirectness. When he says of his latest film that it’s “almost a nonstory,” he’s to be taken literally, although it deals with the final days of an actor who has suffered a devastating late-in-life tragedy.
Far From Heaven
Todd Haynes’ takeoff on Douglas Sirk’s overwrought, color-saturated 1950s melodramas rises above its camp roots and converts artifice into art. With Julianne Moore as a housewife who might be bored if she wasn’t so busy pasting on smiles for her friends and neighbors, the film explores two loves that dare not speak their names, homosexual…
His Secret Life
You’d never guess that co-writer Gianni Romoli had a hand in writing the zombie cult classic, Cemetery Man, which seethes with humor. His Secret Life allows death and deception to weigh every moment down (even those meant to be positive emotional breakthroughs) like an anchor tied around our necks.
Rockin’ the grave
What becomes of a drowned rock star? Ask his mom. Five years since his bizarre death while crooning Led Zeppelin tunes in the wake of the Mississippi, Jeff Buckley remains the 2Pac of rock & roll, with posthumous adulation forcing a continued retail presence and an almost unseemly reverence. And, like 2Pac, it’s the deceased’s…
