Sometimes, when I’m having a bad day, I think about how much better my life would be if I were a bear.
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Mondo Montge @ Funhouse Gallery Detroit
Collage tends to have a bad reputation in the art world, often viewed as “crafty” and not really a serious art form. But the list of famous artists that have dabbled in collage or used it as their main medium is pretty impressive including: Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Otto Dix, Robert Rauschenberg, George Grosz, Ray Johnson, David Hockney, and Jean Dubuffet.
So with that in mind, The Funhouse Gallery is proud to present an all collage group show. Featuring a wide variety of collage techniques including 3 dimensional assemblage. Will include the work of 30+ local, national and international artists. Full list of artists coming soon.
And in the Side Show Gallery, ceramics by Kelly Kaatz
Artist’s Statement-
The creation of forms using hand building techniques, with minimal use of tools, ables me to further the idea of clay as a natural material. The essence of my methods are embodied in my work, and each serve as narrative to the other. All of my pieces are organic and fluid which makes them comfortable and exciting to use on an everyday basis.
-Show will open April 13 and run 5wks through May 18th
-The opening will be from 7-11pm on Sat April 13th and will feature special musical guests playing in Studio 20 by 15 down the hall:
-8:30 pm Desolation Angels
-9:30 pm The Lookouts
-10:30 pm Best Idea Ever
Gallery hrs Fri 5-9, Sat 2-6, and every third thursday 5-9, or by appt. 248-933-0558
Parental Guide: Some of the pieces in this show contain mature content, 18 and over recommended, under 18 welcome at parent’s discretion.
Artist Line Up:
Linda Allen, Beth Amber, Mark Arminski, Kimberly Autumn, Ralph Baginski, Erin Benjamin, Dan Casado, Darwin’s Daughter Couture, Dekilah, DVS, Ren Fracture, Steven Goossen, Dion Hitchings, Maralena Howard, Diane Irby, Johnnythuders UFO, Jack Johnson, Gwen Joy, Mike Kelly, Dave Kent, Killmonkies, Jared Konipitski, Molly Landis, Brian Lewandowski, Luke MackGilvery, Michael Marcus, Carson Matlock, M80, Dennis Metea, Kelly Miller, Monkeyteeth, Carol Morris, Catherine Peet, Kelly Papcun/Brandon Burke, Aaron Prukard, Ashley Reakes, “Scary” Cary Safarian, Simone Schiffmacher, Anita Schmaltz, Sisi, Carolyn Smythe, Jack Summers, Justin Tumey, Matt Walters, Marty Winters, Allison Zuckerman
Series: Block House
Block House 01
Block House 02
Block House 03
Block House 04
Block House 05
Block House 06
8.5×11 print $10
Carnival Fresh Mex
Originally published in the Metro Times here.
Carnival Fresh Mex
645 Griswold St., Detroit
313-223-1400
carnivalfreshmex.com
Open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday; closed Saturday and Sunday.
Though there’s no carnival inside, this fairly new downtown eatery lives up to its name with a menu full of tasty dishes loaded with fresh ingredients — offering a nice break from the drudgery of gray winter days. Yeah, the joint’s signage may not look terrific, but, as the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. Sure, it’s set up like a fast food joint with large backlit menus hung over an ordering counter. While the food is fast, it’s not the same sadness pile slopped onto a tray masquerading as food you’ll find at the big chains. Fresh Mex delivers the goods.
Most dishes come with your choice of meat, and you can choose among a wide variety of proteins, from such familiar favorites as marinated steak, chicken strips and shredded pork to more adventurous choices, including fried pork stomach. Fresh Mex also serves menudo for those lovers of beef tripe.
There’s a salsa bar where patrons can load up on a mild pico de gallo, a zesty salsa verde, a red salsa with a medium burn, and hot salsa. Guacamole and sour cream are available for some extra coinage at the ordering counter.
We tried an assortment of menu items, even grabbing some breakfast before work. Is there a better way to start your day than with huevos con nopales, eggs scrambled with cactus, onion and chorizo, topped with cilantro and salsa, and served with tortillas? There isn’t. What’s even better is it can all be washed down with Sidral Mundet apple soda, made with real cane juice.
First, we went with the old standby: tacos. They’re served taquería-style, with two or three warm corn tortilla layers to each taco. I chose the pork al pastor (pork marinated with pineapples, spices and onion) and topped it with pico de gallo. The pork was moist and tender, and the sweet pineapple flavor of the marinade went perfectly with the fresh de gallo.
The second lunch meal was the torta, a sandwich served with your choice of meat. We chosebarbacoa this time, which, like the pork al pastor, was juicy and tender. The torta is made with a fresh-baked toasted bun topped with lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole and mayo. It comes with thick-cut fries, which were not as crispy as we prefer. We also picked up a couple of tamales on this trip, as well as a burrito for someone else in the office. The tamales were great, like homemade. Our office mate reported that the burrito was good but a bit bland and dry. That could very well be because we failed to grab him some salsa.
Carnival Fresh Mex is a family-run business owned by a father and his three sons. This is the family’s second location; the first was in Pontiac. Asked why they chose to open up a second location in Detroit, Jason, one of the sons, said they had a four-part plan when deciding to move to the city. First, get a location downtown, which they achieved by getting in touch with Andreas Apostolopoulos just three days after he purchased the Penobscot Building. (The family business has worked with Apostolopoulos at some of his other properties.) The second step in the plan is to do a catering service, for which they have already completed a soft launch. Jason says that so far it has gone very well and they hope to launch a full catering menu soon. The third step in the plan is to have some retail items at the downtown location such as chips and handmade salsas. The final stage of the plan is obtaining a liquor license so they can serve beer and have a regular happy hour.
At the Pontiac site, the taqueria is inside a grocery store, which made it easy to always use and restock with fresh ingredients. The Detroit location gets fresh produce delivered from Eastern Market and meat from Sherwood Foods three times a week. If they ever run low on anything in between deliveries, they just bring it in from the Pontiac grocery store location.
Business in the downtown location has been doing well since opening about six weeks ago. Jason admits that the first weeks were a bit overwhelming, and they were surprised by the crowds eager to taste their wares. He says that the staff has found its groove and can work well through the lunch rush. We’ve been back a few times over the last few weeks and never waited longer than 10 minutes. You can call your order in ahead of time; if you can get together an order of $35 or more, they’ll deliver.
INSIDE JOB: Sexual appliances aren’t just mainstream, they’re hard to keep up with!
Originally Published in Metro Times
Throw away your trench coat, wipe the crust from your eye, and come out of that dank basement — sex toys have gone mainstream. No longer do we need to schlep to the seedy parts of town and slink into poorly lit, windowless pits to find sexual stimulation enhancements. Sex toy development has gone way beyond the edible underwear, expressionless blow-up dolls and French ticklers of yesteryear. How much tickling do the French really need anyhow? We’ve moved beyond the gag gifts of bachelor and bachelorette parties and onto high-tech gadgets you might actually want to use.
While the Internet may be destroying brick-and-mortar bookstores, its wrecking ball has yet to dent the walls of the new sex-toy shop. Stores like Lover’s Lane, Babeland andEarly to Bed provide a friendly staff that offers information and encouragement to people of all genders, orientations and experience levels who want to explore their sexuality. There are testers of lubes and oils available for comparing slipperiness, taste and scents. Toys can be handled, to better evaluate feel and vibration intensity levels. You can’t do that on the Internet. All of these stores do have shops online, for those who are still a little too shy or who live too far away to make it into the shop. But don’t fret small-towners, if Howell, (population 9,500) can get its own Lover’s Lane (which just opened two months ago) then there’s hope for your sleepy town too.
In this brave new world of mainstream sex toys, some clear trends are starting to emerge. Women are becoming empowered and taking charge of their sexuality, men are seeking sleaze-free, sex-positive stores, couples are shopping together, and people are looking for earth- and body-conscious products.
Eco-friendly toys are not just about a healthy planet. Keeping toxic chemicals out of your body is probably a good idea, but, until recently, most toys were made from some pretty nasty, cancer-causing stuff. Jasmine Portofino, founder of Earth Erotics, thinks this trend will only continue to grow. “I started Earth Erotics in 2007,” she says, “and, since then, I have watched dozens of body-safe and environmentally conscious adult products come onto the market.” Eco-friendly sex toys are made from high-quality nontoxic materials and are often vegan-friendly.
Get yourself off without fucking the Earth
Leaf Vibes
What could be greener than a vibrator shaped like a leaf? Sex-toy company Leaf Vibes makes a variety of toys with spring-fresh foliage designs. These toys don’t just replicate nature, they help sustain it. With a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, piles of spent batteries will no longer litter the floor around your bed. Leaf Vibes are also Phthalate-free, great for keeping your naughty bits cancer-free.
Glass dildos
Glass? Yes, glass. It is a naturally occurring recyclable material that is manufactured without heavy chemicals or solvents. Glass toys are made from borosilicate glass (the same stuff as your Pyrex baking pan) and can withstand the thermal stresses of the most enthusiastic user. The glass of these toys is usually hand-blown into beautiful designs that are easy to clean and can last a lifetime. Pass ’em down to the grandkids!
Stainless steel dildos
Stainless steel toys are made from the same grade of metal as medical equipment. If it’s safe enough to replace a hip, it’s probably safe enough to put in an orifice. It can be cleaned with soap and water or boiled for sterilization, keeping harsh chemical cleaners out of the drains and out of your body.
All-natural vegan lubes
Have you ever read the ingredients list on a bottle of lube? Hydroxyethylcellulose, chlorhexidine methylparaben, sodium hydroxide. What the hell is that stuff? Do you really want to slather it all over your most intimate areas? Another common ingredient lurking in many tubes of lube are animal byproducts, which, if you’re vegan, is kind of a big deal. Here’s where all-natural vegan lubes ride to the rescue. These certified organic lubes are paraben-, glycerin- and petroleum-free.
We asked around at a number of stores, and every person we talked to mentioned Fifty Shades of Grey, the book famous for introducing housewives to BDSM. Searah Deysach, owner of Early to Bed says of the book, “People’s interest in kink got piqued, and we are still seeing new comers trying out some fresh tricks.”
S&M lite
Handcuff and whips and ball-gags — oh, my!
Not sure where to even begin with all the crazy BDSM accoutrements? Try a bondage beginner’s kit. Most online retailers, such as Babeland, Early to Bed, and Muf.com, offer a variety of kits that include things like cuffs, blindfolds, and riding crops to get you started, some even include the book as a sort of guide.
Fifty Shades of Grey
Take a gander at the book that started this suburban BDSM trend. You can pretty much pick it up anywhere, even at the drugstore, next to paperback mystery novels and Sudoku puzzle packs. The book takes a lot of flak for being poorly written. It’s on par with any other dime-store romance novel. How well it’s written isn’t important anyway; what’s important is, it got women who had previously been too shy to ask for what they wanted in the bedroom, to finally ask for it.
Sex toys are often thought of as something we use all by our lonesome, and they are, but more often they are being used with others. Megan, store manager at Lover’s Lane in Howell, describes her client base as “mostly couples.”
Let’s Work Together
We Vibe
The C-shape design slides into the vagina, stimulating the clitoris on the outside and the G-spot on the inside, leaving plenty of room for her partner to slide on in and enjoy the vibrations right along with her.
Hello Touch
This sleek vibrator from Jimmyjane fits discreetly over the fingertips with a slim battery pack that is worn around the wrist like a bracelet, resembling something out of Tron. Next time your partner is too tired for lovemaking, you could try to coax them with a relaxing massage — enhanced with vibrations. The pads can be placed directly on the fingertips for intense vibrations or flipped around to the back of the finger for direct skin-on-skin vibrating action. Sounds like a great way to amp up foreplay.
Even toys that are geared to a specific gender have got couples of all orientations more interested in spending some quality time together.
A new frontier
for the fellas
Gay, straight, bi — everyone seems to be clueing into the secret of prostate stimulation. The prostate, that walnut-sized gland responsible for the production of the clear fluid that carries sperm during ejaculation, is also called the P-spot, and stimulating it leads to intense orgasms. It can be a challenge to reach back there, or to get your partner to, but, luckily, there are some toys on the market that are ergonomically designed to reach that tough spot.
Something for the ladies
Who says science can’t be sexy? This crazy sex machine was invented by Doctor X. Treme and while that may be a pseudonym this guy really does have a Ph.D. in applied physics, from Yale no less. What started out as a request from his wife to make her a sybian (aka a sex-machine), turned into a nerdy obsession that eventually lead to the creation of the X1 Orgasmatron, which delivers intense orgasms using all the awesome powers of math and science.
