Mixed-up media
You may not recognize his name, but chances are you’ve seen Robert J. Thompson on television and read his comments in newspapers. One day last week I saw him discuss the Presidential debate on CNN and, a few hours later, read his insights on Howard Stern in the New York Times. Thompson is the founding…
Pan-Asian not panned
Generally, restaurants that specialize are best. It’s difficult to do more than a few things very well, and often, places that serve too many things — too many types of things — end up not doing any particularly well. We’ve had a number of local restaurants try to serve various Asian cuisines, but Asia is…
Voting Yankee
I read The Week magazine the other day, and it featured a suave-looking Osama bin Laden caricature on the cover wearing a John Kerry T-shirt and a Kerry-Edwards pin. The cartoon had bin Laden passing out Kerry campaign literature with a tagline underneath, “Who would he prefer? A vote for Kerry, says the GOP, is…
More than just a game
Among the many plangent platitudes that permeate the vocabulary of the game, one ancient adage maintains that football builds character; an alternate suggests that in fact it reveals character. The sentimental sports movies, i.e., the majority, depend upon the first statement, while the better ones naturally concentrate on the second, employing their subject as a…
The font of consummation
The Tragically Hip is getting back to its roots. The band’s eleventh album, In Between Evolution, hearkens back to the quality and sound of earlier records, before the generally panned Music @ Work and In Violet Light of recent years. It may have seemed that the quintet was running dry after 20 years of writing…
Cult thing
If you’re a novice Cramps fan, or completely in the dark, the band’s new CD, How To Make A Monster, on their own Vengeance Records label, ain’t for you. “It’s the kinda thing our fans really dig,” says guitarist, Poison Ivy. “If somebody had never heard The Cramps and that’s what they picked up, I…
The XX Files
When the foul ball came screaming toward me at an end-of-season Red Wings game, I wasn’t paying attention. I hadn’t liked the way the game was going, so I had turned away. Rather than root for my team and risk being disappointed, I watched people frolicking in the hot tub out beyond right field. This…
The drum roll, please
“Can you imagine singing in a closet full of clothes and then going to sing in the Sistine Chapel?” At last Wednesday’s unveiling of the renovated Eastman Theatre stage — to an original percussion fanfare performed on an historic snare drum — RPO Maestro Christopher Seaman may have had the best metaphors. But everyone shared…
Reader feedback 10.13.04
Planning downtown, loving talk radio
Body count 10.13.04
To honor the war dead and fill an information gap in US mass media, City Newspaper will run weekly lists of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed during the occupation of Iraq. The totals: 1074 American soldiers, 138 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 13,182 to 15,248 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning…
Design down the Avenue
This Saturday marks a chance for residents of the Upper Monroe to stake a claim for the future of their neighborhood. Local architects, city planners, and neighborhood residents will be banding together for a day-long design charrette. And there are some big topics to address during the brainstorming session: the Culver Road Armory, Cobbs Hill,…
The sounds of silence
It’s official: Amy Goodman has become a celebrity. Touring the country to promote her new book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them (cowritten by her brother, David), the host of the independent news program Democracy Now! is frequently confronted by thousands of fans. Democracy Now!…
‘Democracy’ denied: Why WXXI won’t air ‘DN!’
Standing by their decision to keep Democracy Now! off their airwaves, WXXI officials are maintaining their stance that the show fails to meet the station’s standards for balance and objectivity. City Newspaper placed calls to WXXI Radio News Director Peter Iglinski and Radio Vice President Jeanne Fisher, and our questions were referred to Creative Director…
Convulsive anatomies
In 1992 Paul Schimmel, chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, curated the infamous Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990’s. In his catalogue essay Schimmel equated the anxiety at the end of the 19th century and the work of the Symbolists — which was imbued with an obsessive fear that…
A Green sings the school-board blues
With no Republican running for the single open seat on the city school board this year, most viewed the Democratic primary between appointee Domingo Garcia and David Gantt-backed challenger Cynthia Elliott as the real race to watch. When Garcia won that race, focus switched to other races to be decided in this fall’s election. (For…
Through the eyes of a child
There’s a formula for single-actor plays that can get pretty tedious. “What’s that you say, Mr. President?” the actor playing some famous person says, then answers in an effort to imitate the president’s voice. Some are historically interesting and even showcase an actor’s versatility. But in The Syringa Tree Shipping Dock Theatre is offering a…
Learning in the real world
If there is one thing all parents want for their children, it’s a good education. Standards are up, test scores are down. Expectations are up, budgets are down. Whether children attend public school, private school, alternative school, or homeschool, the question remains: how can I provide the best education for my child? Writer, speaker, and…
Music of the heirs
Conceived, designed, and directed by John Haldoupis, After Sondheim, a new musical revue, is a collection of songs from musical theater pieces by newer and younger composer-lyricists. Haldoupis considers them possible successors to Stephen Sondheim, the current king of American musicals. With three unlikely exceptions, they all write both words and music for their shows.…
