Artpod

If you've turned on any TV news channel today my guess is that you saw experts talking about the meaning of the Iowa caucuses. I watched more of that than I intended to, and discovered that the single best assessment did not come from one of the glamorous talking heads, but from a former congressman who is going to be ninety years old this summer. When the results of the Republican race were known, good old John Dingell sent out this tweet: "Congratulations to Ted Cruz on winning the...

I was thinking yesterday that I ought to apply for the job of general manager of the Detroit Lions. Now, it is true that I don't know anything about football, and have no background whatsoever in the sport. And actually, I don't like football. But I've had some minor success at other things – I've been told I'm a fairly bright guy. I know how to write and teach and run my mouth, and so I was thinking – I could do this. Well, I'm kidding. Though I am a little tempted, since the job probably...

We've got indie rocker Matt Jones on his new (and maybe best) album, his Civil War obsession (sure, ok) and what happens when Sundance comes looking for Michigan talent. Some in the Detroit film community think Michigan students don't have the competitive edge it takes to make it in NY or LA.

Tomorrow we will happily celebrate the Fourth of July, both because we see it as the anniversary of American Independence and maybe especially because this year it comes with a three-day weekend.Actually, what we are commemorating is not really true independence; that came at the end of the Revolutionary War. What this day marks is the signing of the Declaration on Independence, the best-remembered line of which is, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created...

I discovered something bizarre when Brenda Lawrence first ran for mayor of Southfield 13 years ago.Back then, Southfield, a suburban business center and bedroom community just north of Detroit, had just become a majority African-American city. Lawrence was challenging a white mayor who’d been in office almost 30 years.When I talked to some of the 70,000 residents, I found white voters who were excited about her candidacy and who wanted to get rid of the longtime incumbent. But I talked to...