It all started with an innovative plan to bring more art to metro Detroit. A joint project of the Seventh Letter street art crew, with help from 1XRun (a division of Royal Oak’s 323East gallery), Contra Projects (headed up by Tom Thewes, the guy who directed CPOP Gallery in Detroit for 10 years) and...
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Normally, we object to any statement that declares Detroit to be a “blank canvas” ready to have new designs imposed on it. Generally, those who make such statements are prone to ignore the very real people, the centuries of heritage, the wealth of architecture that exist here in abundance. But when it comes to...
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Hey, Details. Don’t do us any favors, OK? A “Critical Eye” piece in Details recently offered a handful of breezy, drive-by puff pieces on some of our local movers and shakers. Entitled “The Rust Belt Revival: What’s Happening in Detroit, Michigan,” the brief piece has some photos and profiles of some of the usual...
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We were treated to an interesting tirade on our voice mail the other day. It referred to a small item in our March 21 issue entitled “Online? Sweet!” We were pleased to learn that Sanders Candy now had an online source for ordering. Apparently, this drove one of our readers bananas. He called in...
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On and off for a few years, we at Metro Times had the honor of hosting Michigan-born, New York-based writer Tracie McMillan at our office as a Metro Times “fellow.” While she occupied a desk in the back of our office, she was hard at work reporting for and finishing up her new book...
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Former Detroiter and noise-punk trailblazer Bob Madigan has died in San Francisco from liver failure. He was 47. Madigan founded the demented, drug-addled and noisy band Slaughterhouse in 1983 in Detroit, pulling together a bunch of friends to meld guitar feedback, banging drums and Madigan’s shouted lyrics into a viable noise combo. The band...
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The plucky theater at 1515 Broadway in downtown Detroit has been there for the community for a quarter-century. Now, with owner Chris Jaszczak facing eviction by Citibank, the community is poised to rally in support of him.
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Here at Metro Times, people love sending us books. We have stacks of them, spilling over our slush pile shelf and onto the floor. And there are always more, filling up our mailboxes, stacked on top, demanding our attention. So imagine our surprise when a local author wanted editorial coverage of his book —...
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As a lover of old records — heck, of all things with a layer of dust or two — there’s reason to be excited this month. See, rockabilly recording artist and sometimes MT scribe Michael Hurtt and his band have a new single out. It’s a handsome little disc on Motor City Special Records...
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Here is an e-mail that arrived last night, responding to a recent column by Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry about the Occupy movement. —MJ ——————————— November 8, 2011 To Mr. Lessenberry and the editors of Metro Times: In your recent column (“Unpleasant Truths,” Metro Times, Nov. 2-8, 2011) you served up several criticisms of...
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