AltWeeklies Wire
Revisiting W. Eugene Smith's Obsessive Archives from a Swinging Placenew
In the late '50s, world-famous (and drug-addicted) photographer W. Eugene Smith retreats to a Manhattan building at the artsy intersection of high-life and low-life, a building of artists' and musicians' lofts. Over eight years he shoots something like 1,500 rolls of film and records 1,700 reels of tape. A fascinating sampling of photos and tape transcripts is now available.
Metro Times |
W. Kim Heron |
11-25-2009 |
Books
Quack! Media Plans on Complete Musical Success in This New Recession Economynew
In an era when the bloated infrastructure of the music industry as we have known it for the last 50 years is imploding, it's refreshing to see a back-to-basics approach succeed, as in the case of the Ann Arbor multimedia company.
Metro Times |
Chris Handyside |
11-17-2009 |
Music
Juan Cole: Afghanistan 'Needs a Light Touch'new
"You just have to accept that there's going to be a certain amount of disorder in the countryside as long as people are organized tribally. And if you put 100,000 or 150,000 Western troops in there, that's just more people to feud with."
Metro Times |
Curt Guyette and W. Kim Heron |
11-17-2009 |
War
'The Fourth Kind' is Dreadful Brain-Eating Garbage Best Left for the Scrap Heapnew
At last, here's a movie that finds Dan Brown's religious mumbo-jumbo too plausible; The Fourth Kind is a toxic stew of von Daniken and voyeurism; it's like Blair Witch but without the stomach-turning camera work because here all the nausea rises straight up from the script.
Metro Times |
Corey Hall |
11-10-2009 |
Reviews
'Taxidermia' is Either Magical Realism or the Most Disturbing Movie You'll Ever Seenew
Some films are tough to watch and others may make you queasy, and then there's Taxidermia, a bizarre, squirmy parade of grotesqueries that requires a titanium-lined stomach to simply endure. In fact, you don't so much watch Gyorgy Palfi's film as sit back and let it happen to you.
Metro Times |
Corey Hall |
11-10-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Gyorgy Palfi, Taxidermia
Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen Get Lost in the Supermarketnew
Through the magic of print and cross-referencing, we're taking this virtual shopping tour of a supermarket with the songbooks of Dylan and Springsteen as our shopping list, to see how they feel about the things that are really on the mind of the Everyman.
Metro Times |
Serene Dominic |
11-10-2009 |
Music
'Amelia' is a Handsome, Dull and Utterly Banal Earhart Biographynew
Mira Nair's film is old-school Hollywood in that musty, detached way that impresses no one and ultimately does a disservice to the person it so dutifully strains to deify.
Metro Times |
Jeff Meyers |
10-27-2009 |
Reviews
'Earth Days' Offers an Intriguing Look at the Green Movement's Originsnew
Along with the eye-opening archival footage and alarming facts, Earth Days is an honest appraisal of the U.S. environmental movement -- warts and all.
Metro Times |
Jeff Meyers |
10-27-2009 |
Reviews
After 10 Years of Popping Detroit, the Singles Split for L.A.new
After 10 years of what lead singer and guitarist Vince Frederick refers to as "going in circles," the band is packing its bags and heading off to the washed-up cultural wasteland called Los Angeles, the city where bullshit not only talks, it still maintains a strong control of the music industry.
Metro Times |
Brett Callwood |
10-27-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Singles
LeBron James Doc 'More Than a Game' is an Incurious and Narcissistic Puff Piecenew
This slick 90-minute promo film -- tarted up to resemble a doc -- for Nike's crown jewel overflows with energy, style and a great soundtrack, but shows zero insight and honesty.
Metro Times |
Corey Hall |
10-20-2009 |
Reviews
In 'Shop Class as Soulcraft,' Matthew B. Crawford Says: Get Off Your Assnew
Ex-Bush think-tank dynamo-turned-vintage motorcycle shop owner Crawford calls out the trend in America's displacement of values pertaining to manual trades while questioning the misguided future of would-be knowledge workers (a dirty word as far as Crawford's concerned).
Metro Times |
Travis R. Wright |
10-20-2009 |
Nonfiction
A Race is on to Record the Untold Stories of Aging Holocaust Survivorsnew
Until the Iron Curtain parted, the Holocaust stories like Lupyan's and others' from the former Soviet republics went largely untold on the world stage. But now, there is an urgency to record survivors' stories while a dwindling number still are alive to tell them.
Metro Times |
Sandra Svoboda |
10-06-2009 |
History
'Tony Manero' Shows Us That the Flipside of Pop Culture Escapism is Soul-Sucking Insanitynew
Shot on Super 16mm film, employing a handheld camera that purposely loses focus, and creating a seedy, claustrophobic atmosphere of despair, Tony Manero is the kind of edgy, angering work cinephiles flock to because it seems so much more uncompromising than it is.
Metro Times |
Jeff Meyers |
10-06-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Pablo Larrain, Tony Manero
Michael Moore on 'Capitalism,' Reagan's Destruction and Getting Booted Out of GMnew
General Motors isn't Moore's only target this time. He argues that America's economic gap is a chasm, and that the foundations of a corrupt political and corporate system are about to crumble. With a wink and nudge, he wants you to help him push it over the edge, and then pick up the pieces.
Metro Times |
Corey Hall |
10-06-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
How Did Drew Cohen Go from a Hip-Hop DJ to Mayer Hawthorne, Soul Man to the Stars?new
Blame it on the times; honky hip-hop's blunt delivery just doesn't seem as likable as a nerd who looks like a Nixon campus-campaign volunteer -- complete with black frames, cardigan sweater, skinny tie, high-water cuffs and all, crooning comfortably in a Pharrell-falsetto against a backdrop of a double chin and double-digit unemployment.
Metro Times |
Hobey Echlin |
09-29-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
