Metro Times: Covers

Issue of 7/16/2008

Cover Story:

Celebrity skin
by Hobey Echlin
How a local porn star-turned-producer presses flesh for cash

Features:

C'est cool! by Ron Stang
Expect the unexpected at Windsor's first fringe fest ever
Color us impressed by Metro Times music staff
The best of the rest
Running a recall by Curt Guyette
Drive to oust Mayor Kilpatrick picks up speed
The Don Was Detroit Super Session by Bill Holdship
From Wasmopolitan to the Concert of Colors

Columns:

Comics (Comics)
Couch Trip by Metro Times film writers (Couch Trip)
Rip Torn wasted, porny anti-porn from Asia, Mannix still rules and a Kurosawa noir
Food stuff by Metro Times food staff (Food Stuff)
Full plates for local foodies.
Letters to the Editor by Metro Times readers (Letters to the Editor)
Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout by Jeffrey Morgan (Media Blackout)
Rock criticism so speedy it's a controlled substance
Motor City Cribs by Doug Coombe (Motor City Cribs and Rides)
Tim Caldwell's history-crammed Hamtown pad.
Pants suit coming? by News Hits staff (News Hits)
Flint police's panties in a bunch over exposed undies
Winning loser by News Hits staff (News Hits)
Company with Michigan connection heads up 2008 corporate Hall of Shame.
Night and Day by Megan O'Neil (Night and Day)
Stem-cell spin by Jack Lessenberry (Politics and Prejudices)
Jack on lifting Michigan's stem-cell research ban.
Hooking up by Dan Savage (Savage Love)
The wages of chastity, falling in love with sex workers, and more.
Smell the sludge by Larry Gabriel (Stir It Up)
In scandal-plagued Detroit, only the lawyers win.

Reviews:

Music/Books:
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady Reviewed by Ryan Allen (Record)
Modern Guilt - Beck Reviewed by Tim Grierson (Record)

Movies:
My Brother is an Only Child Reviewed by Jeff Meyers (Movie)
It’s the volatile 1960s, and hotheaded young Accio Benassi (Elio Germano) is looking for something to believe in and belong to. Smart but violently contrary, In contrast, older sibling Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) is the dreamy apple of everyone’s eye. Limited and unreliable but gifted with a silver tongue, he becomes a militant leftist hero while betraying the bottomless love of his on-again, off-again girlfriend Francesca (Diane Fleri). The social and political turmoil present a compelling backdrop for a coming-of-age tale, and all the performances are first-rate. And director Luchetti does a terrific job of re-creating the look and feel of the time. Unfortunately, it seems he never figured out what kind of story he wanted to tell. As a result, his characters never really grow up.
Meet Dave Reviewed by Serena Donadoni (Movie)
When Dave Ming Chang makes his first appearance, crash-landing ostrich-style on Liberty Island then taking his first tentative steps like a marionette being jerked in a dozen different directions. See, Dave is a vessel for Lilliputian aliens who have come to locate an ocean-draining orb that’s fallen into the hands of gawky Josh Morrison (Austyn Lind Myers). The tiny crew members each guide different parts of Dave’s anatomy under the guidance of their Captain, also played by Murphy. With multiple Murphys and an unusual premise, Meet Dave has potential, but quickly unravels. For every clever bit, there are moments of stupefying lameness that are only funny in a parallel universe.
Journey to the Center of the Earth Reviewed by Serena Donadoni (Movie)
Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) of the Maxwell Anderson Center for the Study of Plate Tectonics is a creature of the lab not fond of scientific fieldwork. But when his sullen teenage nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) comes for a visit, Trevor’s forced to confront his lethargy by the memory of his risk-taking brother, and they commence on an adventure that uses Verne’s tale of Professor Lidenbrock (and his nephew Axel) as a roadmap. While tracking one of Max’s seismic sensors located on Iceland’s Mount Snaeffels, Trevor and Sean seek out the Asgiersson Institute for Progressive Volcanology, only to find Hannah, the disillusioned daughter of a scientist who, like Max, believed that Verne’s works were thinly disguised fact, not fiction. Soon, the reluctant trio is on a journey that plays out like a high-stakes trip to a subterranean amusement park, each new otherworldly encounter is part ride, part mental and physical challenge that tests their resilience and ingenuity.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army Reviewed by Jeff Meyers (Movie)
If you recall from the last film, macho, cigar-chomping, beer-swilling Hellboy (played by the perfectly cast Ron Perlman) hooked up with his pyrokinetic babe Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) after saving the world from assorted demonic nasties. Well, marriage hasn’t been easy for this mismatched pair, and Liz’s secret pregnancy has her reconsidering their future together. Into this domestic mess steps exiled Elven Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who has vowed revenge against humanity for driving Earth’s supernatural beings into the shadows. He seeks the missing piece to a crown that’ll help him awaken an indestructible army of golden clockwork soldiers, allowing him to destroy the human race once and for all. Enter New York’s Bureau of Paranormal Research, aka Hellboy and friends. With Liz, his brainy fish-dude comrade Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), bureaucrat Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) and an unwelcome German gasbag (literally) named Johan Krauss (voiced by Seth McFarlane) at his side, the big red hero battles Nuada’s freakish monsters while learning that social acceptance ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Restaurants/Places:
Grape Expectations Wine Bar and Merchant Reviewed by Jane Slaughter (Restaurant)
Stocking more than 100 bottles, 50 of them for sale by the glass, and serving Italian- and Spanish-influenced small plates designed by chef Nina Scott. The choices range from fresh and chunky gazpacho to the "Cutting Board," an assortment of salami, prosciutto, chorizo, olives, roasted peppers and cheeses.