It always amazes me how many people have never heard of the hamtramck blowout around here... I do run in a lot of different circles but still - how can you be oblivious to "the largest music festival in the nation" as MT puts it ..
GOD CLUB
Michele Oestman's Solo Show
Wednesday, March 4
Thursday, March 5
2nd Annual Blowoff Weekend
w/Tried In Absentia, The Atlas Moth, Flesh Eating Flesh
10pm
$5
Saturday, March 7
Now there are a lot of funny people out there
Come join us next weekend (March 6, 7, 8) 
Wild At Heart
TICKET GIVEAWAY: You have another chance this week to win a pair of tickets to see indie band Asobi Seksu (Japanese for casual sex) at the Pike Room on 3/05/09. They are supporting their new album “Hush” which I have been playing on my show (8-10AM Sat mornings on 88.3FM or www.wxou.org ).
There is a new production at the Ringwald Theatre which plays to their strength of gender-bending farces of established material. “The Bad Seed” presents the sordid tale of 8 year-old Rhoda Penmark (played to hilarious effect by Joe Plambeck). Patty McCormack played her in the 1956 film and received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance (her most recent performance was Pat Nixon in “Frost/Nixon”) as the girl who is “perfect on the outside and rotten to the core within”. The play follows the movie very closely as far as plot as we find this perfect little girl who loves reading and playing the piano is also a murdering psychopath. It starts with the drowning of a classmate who beat her at a penmanship contest and leads to more horrorific deaths.
The main 2 differences between the play and the movie is the ending (though minor) and the over-the-top style that the Ringwald is noted for (esp for those who saw their productions of “The Facts Of Life” or “Debbie Does Dallas”). I’ll admit that I enjoyed many of the moments where the play winks at the audience with their over-the-top lines and audience in-jokes. Joe does a great job as young Rhoda and I loved both Laurel Hufano as the ever-drunk Mrs. Daigle and Christa Coulter as the ditsy Ms Fern (Rhoda’s teacher).
However, sometimes the pay seemed to be too tongue-in-cheek for its own good which occasionally downplays the black comedy inherent in the script. The night I went, they had a few kinks with messed up dialogue and effects which seemed to be some of my favorite moments. That’s Monday for you! Still, if you are looking for something to bring a few laughs your way, this will definitely fit the bill for that and the Ringwald has lowered ticket prices for this production which makes it more wallet friendly. For more info, go to www.whowantscaketheatre.com
My grade is a C+.
Also, a longtime standard starts tomorrow with the “Fiddler On The Roof” which starts March 3rd at the Detroit Opera House. Look for a review coming on my myspace page (wildatheart_13) this week.
I don’t have much else on my plate this week
so here are some upcoming shows of note.
Vocalist Libby York will be performing at the DIA this Friday in conjunction of the opening of the new Norman Rockwell exhibit (members this weekend and opens officially on the 8th).
March 3rd is also the date for Irish punk rockers, Dropkick Murphy’s with NYC punk band H2O opening.
Bettye LaVette will be bringing her style of blues and soul to the Ark on Thursday, March 5th.
On the 6th, jazz fans can see the Yellowjackets at the Music Hall (also playing the 7th) or travel across the Border to Caesar’s to see Detroit rocker George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
Saturday, March 7th can be celebrated with the punk rock sounds of the Swingin’ Utters (you’ll love them is you like bands like Stiff Little Fingers or Sham 69) @ the Magic Stick or the feel good indie pop of Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele @ the Pike Room.
Sunday leaves you at the Palace with supergroup Fleetwood Mac (sans Christie McVie) or at the Ark with Duncan Sheik who is still “Barely Breathing” after al these years.
Have a good week and don’t forget “Star Trek: the Exhibit” at the Detroit Science Center, “Hatching The Past” @ Cranbrook Institute of Science or “Kong’s Night Out” @ Meadowbrook Theatre. I hope to get Eddie Mekka on my show next Sat. Fingers crossed.
Also, for those who missed Sam Roberts this past weekend, you missed a great show which even had Kid Rock in the audience. The show rocked and the only bad thing I can say is that I would have loved it more if Kid Rock had joined him on stage.
Lastly, I almost forgot my trip to the new Taste Pizza Bar where I went with my friend Andrea and a special group of movers and shakers. Being a large group, we did overtax their kitchen since we al got a small pizza and they do al the dough fresh so nothing is made beforehand which caused some people to get their pizzas quicker than others.
We started with an appetizer consisting of fried mozzarella (tasted good but nothing special), chicken fingers (just OK) and fried pickles (better than it sounds). My salad came with a very tasty blueberry-pomegranate dressing. I ordered the hula pizza which was ham and pineapple and while small for the price, it was very tasty and worth the wait. My friend Andrea though the Red Velvet cheesecake tasted like Heaven and the rapturous expression on her face seems to verify that. I also thought it was the best thing we got.
Overall, the dinner was nice despite the wait for some people (smaller groups shouldn’t have that issue) and we both thought the pricing was a bit out of line. Overall, I think this is a place to go once in awhile when the mood hits type of places and not someplace I will regular.
My grade is a B-.
As one of Detroit's brightest young artists, Cristin Richard has bucked conformity at every turn and explored taboos, irony, sexual empowerment and repression with her polarizing fashion and installation art made primarily out of pig intestines. Dealing with repressed urges and manifesting them as fashion statements, Richard has stated that her Catholic upbringing and it's attendant conformity has fueled her art.
Nate Young and Alivia Zivich provide a dada element with their mixed-media (food-based) creations, Julio Dominguez pushes buttons with his look into private America via vintage photos. Nate Savino, audiophile and cultural rabble-rouser explores androgyny from both points of view and James Brutus' paintings are as exquisitely rendered as they are provocative. Live Conformists/Dead Troublemakers is not an erotic show.
The Artists
This flyer is cooler than cool
