NEWS & VIEWS
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We received comments in response contributor Hayley Cain’s cover story profile about Scott Colburn Boots and Western Wear in Livonia. Yeehaw!
BREAKING NEWS. . . We are excited and honored to be featured in this week’s issue of Detroit Metro Times!
—Scott Colburn Boots and Western Wear, Facebook
Loved working there — and oftentimes, listening to Mr. Colburn and his buddy play the square dance music and call the dances over the PA in the store! Good times!
—Carol Syperski, Facebook
I have always shopped there and love this store but really never knew the back story !! I loved this article ! Can never have to many pairs of boots!
—Marlene Karpo, Facebook
Great place to buy jeans for tall people! They have extended sizes on the shelf. Also nice selection of women’s skirts and hats.
—Sally Duffy, Facebook
I got my boots stretched here a longggg time ago, best Western place around!
—@napthyme, Instagram
I’ve driven by this place 1000 times —@slavikista, Instagram
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NEWS & VIEWS
When MSU desegregated the college gridiron
Usually, when the Underground Railroad is mentioned, images of Black Americans furtively fleeing enslavement in the South are invoked. A century later in 1966, the system and its heroic conductors such as Harriet Tubman took on new meaning for Michigan State’s football coach Hugh “Duffy” Daugherty (1915-1987) and the school’s president John Hannah (1902-1991) as they colluded to bring Black players out of the grip of Jim Crow laws and eventually aid the end of segregation.
Those momentous days were given a fresh gloss at a recent Michigan State Hall of Fame induction ceremony where the 1965-1966 football teams became the first teams to be inducted. More significantly, they were the first fully integrated college teams and thereby were instrumental in eliminating the racial barriers and forging a new era of college football. Daugherty spearheaded this movement by venturing to the South to recruit Black players.
Clint Jones, one of Daugherty’s recruits, said at the ceremony that, “What was accomplished here at
Michigan State with the 1965 and ’66 teams was equivalent to Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, or any other paradigm shift that’s happened in the civil rights movement and also American history. And this is American history, not just Black history, but American history, and it is also unprecedented, of what happened in the time period that it did,” he said. “That’s something that for the most part is kind of an urban legend within Spartan Nation that has been revealed throughout the United States, as it should be. Anytime you have a paradigm shift like that it needs to be known and widely spread to the public.”
Jimmy Raye, the team’s quarterback — an underground passenger, so to speak, and the first of his race to lead a college team to a national title — amplified Jones’s memories about the coach, stating, “I think everything that Coach ‘Duffy’ Daugherty did was unique. I think it’s something that should definitely be recorded in history, and something that was on the precipice of integrating college football throughout the country and particularly the South where I came
from, with the Jim Crow laws in effect, and Black athletes didn’t have an opportunity to play Division I level football at Southern schools. I think Coach ‘Duffy’ Daugherty should be recognized for his color blindness and his willingness to play and deal with the consequences of playing a fully integrated team. There are a lot of firsts that took place in that era at Michigan State, and I think that everything they’re doing now to recognize that will stand in the history of Michigan State Athletics for all time. I’m just very, very, very appreciative of that.”
Several organizations, institutions, and individuals have been tireless in their efforts to keep MSU’s gridiron heroes alive, including Maya Washington, the daughter of Gene Washington, whose documentary Through the Banks of the Red Cedar features Washington’s remarkable college and professional career, and noted Detroit attorney Greg Reed, who as a student at the college witnessed what the team accomplished and who attended the induction ceremony. “What they did was a defining moment in my life,” Reed said, “inspiring me to advocate
for exploited athletes and artists as an MSU freshman engineering student. This pledge led me to law school… inspiring my transition into civil rights, representing revered figures from Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Alex Haley, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, and Aretha Franklin, and six world champions, and grounding me in the principles of ‘know thyself,’ Nation of Islam, and ‘love thyself,’ as I embark on my next journey.”
Reed insisted that more needed to be known about the role Daugherty and President Hannah played in forging this historic development. Reed did champion a cause to have Congress to archive the team’s legacy for future generations. While Tom Shanahan offers some important insight in his book Raye of Light about the quarterback and Daugherty, turning to the source was even more rewarding as Daugherty in his autobiography (with Dave Diles) recalled the events. “Recruiting was a lot easier back when schools in the North had the corner on black athletes,” he recalled. “For a long time, the major southern schools simply didn’t recruit the good
Former Michigan State coach Hugh “Duffy” Daugherty, left, gives last-minute instructions to quarterback Jimmy Raye.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
black athletes. Coaches like [Alabama coach Paul “Bear”] Bryant would frequently let me know about an outstanding player of that type, and I’m proud to say that Michigan State was a forerunner not only in accepting but aggressively recruiting outstanding black scholar-athletes. Once the doors in the South were opened, though, it made things a lot more difficult.”
(Shanahan debunked the myths that “Bear” Bryant sent Southern Black players to Daugherty.)
Among the engrossing moments in Daugherty’s reflections is his personal encounter with Charles Aaron “Bubba” Smith, and key to Daugherty’s early forages into the South. “Bubba’s father was a very successful high school football coach in Beaumont, Texas. We had tried to recruit Bubba’s older brother, Willie Ray, but he wound up at Iowa. Willie Ray wasn’t happy there and eventually left school. So when Bubba was a senior in
high school, Mr. Smith called me and asked if we’d ‘take a chance on my boy Bubba and try to make a man out of him.’”
Daugherty speaks with delight and reverence about his players as well as his relationship with President Hannah, who had empowered Duffy with unwavering in his support of Duffy’s initiative. He recounted an incident: “There was a so-called Black Student Alliance on campus and there were some football players in that group,” he recalled. “Their concern was that there was not enough black involvement within the framework of the university — secretaries, administrators, cheerleaders, you name it. We had already hired a black assistant coach, but the BSA had some grievances in other sports. The committee took the matter to our athletic director, Biggie Munn, and told him frankly that unless meaningful steps were taken — and right now — they would
boycott all spring sports. That meant spring football, too.”
Duffy continued, “Our black athletes missed one day of practice. I made no announcement of any kind, but everyone knew if they missed one more, that was it. President Hannah saved the day, as he so frequently did. Spring practice rules permit four practice days per week. Dr. Hannah asked if I could excuse the blacks from the next practice. My answer to him was that I thought that would work to the detriment of the entire squad. He said he thought the issue could be resolved if the black athletes could meet with our faculty representative, Dr. John Fuzak and Dr. Robert Green, former disciple of Martin Luther King Jr. The compromise solution was to call off practice for one day for everyone while the summit meeting took place. The problems were aired and solved, and practice resumed. Everyone was back on the field, and that was the extent
of our so-called ‘black problem…’ My relationship with John Hannah is the most treasured of all those I have formed in nineteen years as a head coach.”
Many of the experiences connected with accomplishments of the Spartans in 1965 and 1966 were summoned from the past by the players and other speakers, and it was left to Jones to assemble the pieces. “Everyone from President Hannah to Ken Earley, our equipment manager, and everyone in between worked together for our team to succeed. We were nothing if we didn’t work together,” Jones said.
What they did on the gridiron ramified to the various sectors of society where activists were bravely involved in bringing about change, and few of them like Reed recognized how all the elements combined and helped expand and accelerate the march toward freedom and justice.
—Herb Boyd
Inmate’s $100M judgment against Sean Combs reversed
The judge giveth and the judge taketh away.
But Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, the Michigan inmate who was awarded $100 million in a lawsuit against entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs earlier this month, says last week’s Lenawee County Circuit Court ruling that reversed his victory won’t be the end.
“This isn’t over,” Cardello-Smith told metro Detroit attorney David Fink following the virtual hearing. Fink represented Combs, who was arrested on federal racketeering and sex charges in New York early last week, in the civil case.
Judge Anna Marie Anzalone, who made the $100 million judgment in Cardello-Smith’s favor after Combs failed to appear for a Sept. 9 virtual hearing, ruled in agreement with Fink that the statute of limitations for Cardello-Smith’s lawsuit had expired. Cardello-Smith’s complaint stated that he and Combs met in 1997 when Cardello-Smith worked at Fishbone’s Rhythm Kitchen restaurant in Detroit’s Greektown, and that they later partied together at a hotel. Combs drugged and raped CardelloSmith as other consensual group sex involving women took place, the lawsuit alleged.
A temporary restraining order that Anzalone issued on Cardello-Smith’s behalf in August was set aside after her Sept. 18 ruling. Cardello-Smith,
serving an unrelated sentence at the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon, generated hundreds of thousands of YouTube views from the hearing in which he successfully argued that Anzalone should prevent Combs from selling assets that might be used to compensate CardelloSmith in his lawsuit. Combs has been the target of a growing number of claims alleging sexual assault and violence.
Both the temporary restraining order and the default judgment were set aside today after Fink further argued that Combs had not been properly served notice of the complaint. Combs learned about the $100 million award only after Metro Times reported the initial story, according to his defense.
“Also, Mr. Combs has denied every single fact alleged in the complaint,” Fink told Anzalone.
“Your honor, this witness has no credibility,” Fink said, citing Cardello-Smith’s convictions including sexual assault and kidnapping.
“This man has been in court more times than I have.”
Cardello-Smith, who appeared from a meeting room at Earnest C. Brooks, briefly addressed Fink’s accusations by alluding to wrongful conviction and telling the court that his proof of service to Combs’s residence in Los Angeles was evident from postal tracking numbers.
“Sean Combs lived at that address,” Cardello-Smith said. “That is his home, period.”
“That man got that [court notice], that man signed it, and now he’s going to lie through his attorney,” added Cardello-Smith. “His credibility is shot … I’m the prisoner and I have way more credibility than he does.”
Earlier Cardello-Smith had asked for an adjournment, saying he hadn’t been allowed to properly prepare for the hearing since being placed in protective custody after the announcement of his court victory. Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) spokesperson Jenni Riehle confirmed that Cardello-Smith was removed from the general prison population.
“Prisoner Smith was placed in protective temporary segregation at the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility on Sept. 10, which he is not provided the opportunity to waive at this time,” Riehle said in a statement.
“The facility is currently making a determination on next steps to ensure Smith’s safety.”
But during the initially scheduled Sept. 16 hearing requested by Combs’s defense, Cardello-Smith alleged that MDOC officials had harassed him, altered documents relevant to his court proceedings, and tried to exploit him under the guise of protection. He waddled backwards from a camera in the meeting room
to show Anzalone that his limbs were shackled to his waist, which he said hindered his legal work.
Riehle told Metro Times the prison’s warden informed her office that Cardello-Smith was no longer in waist chains Sept. 17, but he appeared shackled at the waist again in court again last Wednesday.
The Sept. 16 hearing was continued due to what Anzalone said was a lengthy docket of cases that also required her attention, but not before she threatened Fink with a contempt charge as the lawyer kept speaking when she tried to end the proceeding.
The court “has heard many lies from Mr. Smith,” Fink said earlier, including a claim that Combs had visited the prison to discuss a settlement of the lawsuit. Fink presented a visitor log revealing only the names of Cardello-Smith’s lawyer and that of a private investigator since 2024.
Cardello-Smith, who didn’t get to respond Sept. 16, repeated to Anzalone during the Sept. 18 hearing that MDOC officials interfered with his litigation: “They want to alter all sorts of documents if the court doesn’t rule in Mr. Combs’s favor.”
He told the court he’ll file a motion for reconsideration of the Sept. 18 ruling.
Anzalone set a date of Nov. 4 for summary disposition of the case.
—Eddie B. Allen Jr. and Bill Proctor
Detroit News reporter blasted for ‘racist’ Tlaib cartoon
A Detroit News auto industry reporter who moonlights as a political cartoonist is being criticized for appearing to imply that U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is a member of Hezbollah, which critics have labeled as “racist,” “xenophobic,” “vile,” and “disgusting.”
The illustration depicts Tlaib at her desk next to the charred remains of an electronic device with a thought balloon reading, “Odd, my pager just exploded.” The cartoon is a reference to a recent attack against the Lebanese organization Hezbollah that is believed to have been orchestrated by Israel, in which beepers and walkie-talkies were modified to act as remote-controlled explosives. The bombs injured thousands and killed dozens, including at least two children, and could be a violation of international law, which prohibits the use of booby traps.
“This racism will incite more hate and violence against Arab and Muslim communities and it makes everyone less safe,” Congresswoman Tlaib tells Metro Times in a statement. “It’s disgraceful that the media continues
to normalize this racism against our communities.”
The cartoon’s author is Henry Payne, who works on the Detroit News staff as an auto critic. When asked for comment, the Detroit News said the comic did not appear in its pages and noted it has not run Payne’s comics for years, though Payne signs his work using his @detroitnews.com email address. Payne’s political cartoons are nationally syndicated by Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Payne and Andrews McMeel Syndication did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The Tlaib cartoon was picked up by the conservative magazine National Review, and from there it circulated on the social media platform X. Other elected officials representing the Detroit area’s Arab and Muslim communities echoed Tlaib’s disapproval of the cartoon.
“Absolutely disgusting. Anti-Arab bigotry & Islamophobia have become normalized in our media,” Dearborn mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud wrote on X. “The National Review ran this
dangerous cartoon of @RashidaTlaib. This garbage was created by Henry Payne with the @detroitnews.”
He added, “At what point will people call this out?”
“Shame on the @detroitnews for allowing this racist, xenophobic vile cartoon on their platform,” Michigan state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, a Hamtramck Democrat, wrote on X. “Pay attention to who condemns this. And then recognize the different standard Arab and Muslim politicians are held by.”
“Every elected official in Michigan needs to speak out about this disgusting cartoon from @DetroitNews,” Democratic Party strategist Waleed Shahid wrote on X.
“Terrible, @detroitnews!” state Sen. Dayna Polehanki wrote on X.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer also weighed in on the controversial cartoon. “It further stokes the divide in our politics and does absolutely nothing to move us forward on the issues that matter,” she said in a statement. “In a moment of tension and division, we need to see the common humanity in one another. We must remain
vigilant against all forms of bigotry including islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and sexism.”
She added, “Michigan is strong when Michigan is united. Let’s keep rising above the division and come together to see the dignity and decency in each person.”
On his website, henrypayne.com, Payne titled the comic “Cartoon: Tlaib Pager Hamas,” implying that the Congresswoman is also a member of the governing body of Gaza.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S, and both have been trading escalating attacks with Israel ever since Hamas captured Israeli hostages on Oct. 7.
As the lone Palestinian American in Congress, Tlaib has repeatedly criticized the U.S. for backing Israel’s attacks, which have reportedly killed more than 40,000 people and risk exploding into a wider regional war. Tlaib and others in Congress have urged the Biden administration to call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire.
—Lee DeVito
Mac Saturn resurfaces following controversy
“Mac
is back.”
That’s the message posted last week on the Instagram account of Mac Saturn, a rising Detroit-area rock band whose future seemed uncertain after its keyboard player was arrested earlier this year, announcing its return from a brief hiatus.
In January, Evan Mercer was arrested on charges related to posession of child sexual abuse images — just hours before the band was supposed to kick off its tour in support of its latest record, Hard to Sell, with a big hometown show at the Fillmore.
Following the negative publicity and backlash from fans, the band scrapped the rest of the tour, with the exception of a Sept. 22 appearance at Louisville’s Boubon & Beyond festival. At the time, the band said that it “made the difficult decision to end our tour effective immediately.”
But now the band says it’s back on the road without Mercer, announcing two new tour dates:
With gratitude and supreme humility, we look ahead toward the next chapter of our musical journey. It has been a year of healing, reflecting and intense growth that the strength of our focus as a group has mirrored.
We thank deeply those who came forward to rid our lives of an unknown evil, and our loyal fans for the encouragement and love they’ve shared over these past months. We’re as hungry and excited as we’ve ever been to get back onstage and start writing this next chapter with you all.
See you on out there.
With love,
Carson, Mike, Angelo, and Nick
The new shows are scheduled for Oct. 9 at Brighton Music Hall in Boston and Oct. 10 at Empire Underground in Albany, New York. Tickets go on sale at noon on Friday at macsaturn.com.
Following news of the arrest, allegations surfaced on social media disputing the band’s claims that it was unaware of the charges against Mercer before they were made public. Metro Times interviewed former fans who accused the band’s frontman Carson Macc of other bad behavior, including a penchant for approaching teenagers and young women on Instagram and lying about his age. The band’s representation denied the allegations.
The band’s team, and Mercer’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
—Lee DeVito
NEWS & VIEWS
Lapointe
Is WJR radio trying to shed its right-wing bias?
By Joe Lapointe
Until this month, Tom Jordan co-hosted the morning All Talk show on Detroit’s WJR (760-AM), a “heritage news-talk” radio station broadcast from Detroit’s New Center and, for more than a century, a powerful voice of the Motor City.
But that prestigious, 50,000-watt, clear-channel signal no longer broadcasts the voice of Jordan, he says, because he was “blacklisted” by progressive politicians who refused to appear on his biased program. Seems like this talker talked himself out of a talking job.
“It went up as high as the White House,” Jordan said on Friday during his new podcast on the internet. “. . . We tried to get the surrogates on for Kamala Harris . . . They wouldn’t come on because certain conservative hosts like myself were being blacklisted because we weren’t Democrat-friendly enough.”
His podcast Tom Jordan Talks appears on weekdays on Wayne Radio at 9 a.m. Curiously, that’s when WJR carries All Talk with Kevin Dietz, formerly Jordan’s sidekick for almost three years. On a different podcast with Tudor Dixon, Jordan said more about WJR.
“In the past few months, I was specifically told, specifically, that ‘We’re going to change the way we do things,’” (at WJR) Jordan told Dixon, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for governor in 2022.
Jordan did not name anyone, specifically, who told him of the policy change at WJR. Despite multiple requests, there was no response or comment last week from the station’s program director Ann Thomas, a longtime WJR hand who was promoted to that job 14 months ago.
Jordan said WJR told him not to share his opinions throughout the majority of the show and to let others speak even when he disagreed with them. During his stint at WJR, Jordan had a tendency to dispute progressive guests and callers by talking over them and cutting them off, sometimes
with lies.
“So, I was specifically told, ‘We want to have continued access to these people,’” Jordan said to Dixon. “And they specifically told me that ‘We no longer want to be considered a conservative talk-radio station. We’re trying to shed that label.’”
Despite its prestige and powerful signal, WJR has lost clout in the media market, as have legacy media brands like daily newspapers. The most recent Nielsen ratings (for August) show WJR ranked 16th in the Detroit market with a 2.7 share of listeners. (The leader at 8.5 is 97.1 FM “The Ticket,” a sports station).
The leader among AM stations is WWJ (950-AM), where Jordan worked as a newscaster before WJR and became disenchanted, he said, with what he calls leftist media bias. Primarily a news station, with some sports, WWJ places ninth in the overall market at 5.4, double the audience of WJR.
For the most part, Jordan’s knee-jerk opinions on WJR were simplistic boilerplate talking points from the MAGA script.
For instance: Former President and current Republican candidate Donald Trump did not really inspire the January 6 lynch mob; abortion is murder and women have no right to choose it; Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is
a liberal-socialist-Communist-Marxist; most of the news media is corrupt and practicing propaganda over journalism; Trump won’t implement the sinister and radical “2025 project” of his boosters because he says he has nothing to do with it; the Justice Department has been “weaponized” for “lawfare;” so-called “critical race theory” is racism in reverse for both whites and Blacks; marijuana is addictive and might make you psychotic; and the FBI is targeting Bible shoppers.
With a clear “tuxedo voice,” practiced cadence, and professional delivery, Jordan is a master blender of sweeping generalizations, counterfactual reasoning, straw-man arguments, and bad-faith debate.
Let’s hear Tom, now, for a sample.
“The Democratic, far-left, liberal tentacles have reached deep within the media and within the government and within the corporate world as well,” Jordan said on his podcast Friday.
Kooky as some of his opinions are, few are as malignant as those of Mark Levin, a syndicated talk-show screecher who continues to pollute WJR’s air on many weeknights for three hours, starting at 8 p.m.
Among Levin’s favorite targets are Arabs and Muslims, especially around Detroit. For instance: Levin calls Dearborn “Dearborn-istan.”
On this topic, Jordan’s words rivaled
Levin’s last October when Jordan attacked U.S. Rep. Rashida Talib of Michigan following the Hamas terrorism from Gaza into Israel. That violence killed 1,200 persons; hundreds were wounded or kidnapped.
Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress; her district includes parts of Dearborn; outside her office on display was a Palestinian flag.
“She supports, it seems, Hamas, a terrorist regime,” Jordan said of Tlaib last October. “She’s denouncing Israel. That’s absolutely un-American. She is a terrorist sympathizer at this point. She sympathizes with Hamas.”
Jordan added at that time that Tlaib also “probably sympathizes” with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
“She should be gone,” Jordan said of Tlaib. We must assume Jordan meant “gone” as in “voted out of Congress” and not something more menacing. And now it is Jordan who is “gone” from his former role, but still a voice in the podcast wilderness.
Although Jordan never quotes the Koran, he sometimes quotes Bible verses off the top of his head to make points. In fact, in signing off his podcast on Friday, Jordan invited his audience to join him on Sunday at a Christian church in Waterford, north of Detroit, where he is a pastor and preacher. In this way, he’s still all talk.
Tom Jordan’s exit suggests changes in and on the air.
MICHIGAN MUNICIPAL LEAGUE, FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
Where are the records, mIke?
Illegal document purge under duggan In Wayne county prosecutor’s offIce blocks freedom for Wrongfully convIcted
Wayne County illegally destroyed troves of criminal files when Mayor Mike Duggan was the elected prosecutor, creating a staggering obstacle for wrongfully convicted inmates seeking to prove their innocence, Metro Times has learned.
Between 2001 and 2004, while Duggan was prosecutor, most if not all misdemeanor and felony records from 1995 and earlier were removed from an off-site warehouse and destroyed in violation of state law.
In Michigan, prosecutors are required to retain the files of defendants serving life sentences for at least 50 years or until the inmate dies. Violating the law carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
The records contained a wealth of vital information, including police and forensic reports, lab results, transcripts, video recordings, and witness statements, all of which are essential for mounting a defense against wrongful convictions.
The file purge was not previously reported. Metro Times learned about it recently in interviews for an ongoing series about wrongful convictions.
What makes the file purge especially concerning is that it involved records from a deeply troubling era in Detroit’s Homicide Division, a time plagued by rampant misconduct, false confessions, constitutional abuses of witnesses and suspects, and a widespread federal investigation. In the 1980s and 1990s, the misconduct among police, especially homicide detectives, was so pervasive and egregious that the U.S. Department of Justice demanded reforms to avoid a costly lawsuit while Duggan was the county prosecutor.
The two decades of misconduct produced an alarming number of
wrongful convictions and false confessions, as illustrated by a spike in exonerations and court settlements stemming from that era. However, legal experts say many more innocent people are still behind bars, but the destruction of the prosecutor’s records has compromised the integrity of countless convictions, leaving some inmates without a viable path to freedom.
The purge has also impeded the work of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which she created in 2018 to investigate claims of wrongful imprisonment.
prosecutor poInts fInger at mayor
How the records came to be destroyed remains somewhat of a mystery, but there are indications of a coverup.
A county logbook that registers the destruction of public records appears to have been tampered with, which would also be a crime.
“There is a logbook that had sections that recorded the numbers of purged files,” the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement to Metro Times. “The record book had the pages 1995 and older removed from the book. We don’t know how that occurred.”
Worthy, who replaced Duggan as prosecutor in 2004, is pointing the finger at Duggan’s administration.
During Duggan’s tenure as prosecutor, employees for his office “were enlisted to locate and purge the files that were on site and located in the off-site storage,” ostensibly to make room for newer records, according to the current prosecutor’s office.
While Duggan was prosecutor, his staff warned “that purging felony files was extremely ill advised,” according to Worthy’s office.
When Worthy became prosecutor in July 2004, she said she was notified of the purge and was “astounded.”
“One of the first issues I had to deal with was the concern that under my predecessor’s administration all files were ordered destroyed that were pre-1995,” Worthy told Metro Times. “I must have had at least 20 people report this to me. It was very well known throughout the office. I was astounded that this even included homicide files! I could not believe it and even to this day, we cannot locate files pre 1995.”
Worthy added, “This has caused massive problems for us, especially
for our Appellate Division and now our Conviction Integrity Unit.”
In statements to Metro Times, Duggan, who has been mayor since 2014, repeatedly denied involvement in the destruction of files and claimed he had no idea there was even a purge, even though prosecutors routinely rely on those records for appeals, post-trial motions, public records requests, and other routine tasks.
Some of the destroyed records would have been less than a decade old.
Asked why she didn’t publicly reveal the file purge when she first took office, Worthy declined to comment. If the files were purged during his administration, Duggan suggested, it could have been done without his knowledge by the Wayne County Building Department, which he said exclusively “managed and controlled”
the documents at an off-site warehouse.
“When Prosecutors wanted older files, they filled out a request form and the files were retrieved by the records management staff of the Buildings Department,” Duggan’s spokesman John Roach tells Metro Times “The Prosecutor’s Office otherwise had no access to, or responsibility for, the management or storage of those files.”
Worthy’s office took issue with that characterization and said prosecutors are ultimately responsible for safeguarding the files.
“WCPO had custody, management, and control over the files stored in the warehouse,” according to the statement from the prosecutor’s office. “When assistant prosecutors needed old files it was common for them to search the on-site files and also to go to the actual warehouse with the person who was the administrator of the files to physically search for the files themselves. WCPO’s appellate unit had a vested interest in keeping the files because they were routinely needed to respond to post-trial motions and appeals in state and federal court.”
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office recently moved to the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center in Detroit.
STEVE NEAVLING
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. ASSOCIATED PRESS, PAUL SANCYA
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans’s Office, which runs the Building Department, told Metro Times it would look into the claims by Duggan and Worthy but didn’t respond by deadline.
In a follow-up statement last week, Duggan stood by his contention that he was unaware of the purge and said there’s no credible evidence that he was involved.
“It is inconceivable that any member of the prosecutor’s office would ever have condoned any destruction of documents in violation of the Michigan Records Retention Act,” Roach said. “If there is a claim that the prosecutor’s staff at some point approved an improper purging, name the staff involved, the date they are claiming it was done, and the process they followed. Absent that, it is impossible to respond to vague memories of unidentified people making claims about actions of unnamed staff more than 20 years ago.”
It isn’t the only time records vanished in a Duggan administration. In October 2019, the Detroit Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said top officials in Duggan’s administration ordered the deletion of emails related to the nonprofit Make Your Date, which was run by the mayor’s now-wife. Duggan’s administration dodged charges after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in April 2021 that the “facts and evidence in this case simply did not substantiate criminal activity.”
In September 2020, Duggan and the city won the annual Golden Padlock Award, which recognizes the most secretive U.S. agency or individual every year, for the intentional destruction of emails.
The immeasurable impacT
Whatever the case, the impact of the file purge is far-reaching and profound. Tens of thousands of people, some of them juveniles, have been convicted of felony crimes in Wayne County since the 1980s, when a rise in homicides coincided with alarming reports of widespread police misconduct. Investigations and lawsuits uncovered staggering corruption — from framing suspects and withholding exculpatory evidence to rounding up witnesses and suspects for long periods without a warrant. Over the past two decades, lawsuits filed against the city and its police department for wrongful convictions have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
It was a bad time to be accused of a crime, and the police tactics led to a rise in false confessions and exonerations.
Steve Crane, a private investigator who works on behalf of prisoners who maintain their innocence, says the purge is inexcusable and detrimental to countless prisoners.
“Wayne County not only failed to protect the public records from destruction, they intentionally destroyed the records, knowing the records contained
evidence involving a person’s life imprisonment,” says Crane, who has helped win the release of three wrongfully convicted inmates.
Without the prosecutor’s files, Crane worries that innocent people are going to remain behind bars.
“They might spend the rest of their lives in prison because of this,” Crane says. “The last guy we got out, we had prosecutor files. These files are crucial to understanding whether a person is innocent or not.”
FighTing For Freedom
For inmates like Carl Hubbard, the loss of those files has been devastating. He was convicted of fatally shooting 19-year-old Rodnell Penn in a violence-prone area of Detroit’s east side in 1992, largely based on the prosecution’s key witness, 19-year-old Curtis Collins. On the first day of his trial, Collins recanted and said he incriminated Hubbard because police threatened to jail him for murder and other crimes if he didn’t testify against Hubbard.
Collins was thrown in jail for two days for perjury, and on the third day of the trial, he returned to the stand and changed his story, saying he saw Hubbard shoot Penn.
At the age of 28, Hubbard was sentenced to life in prison in September 1992 without any physical evidence tying him to the shooting. He has been fighting for his freedom since and has compiled evidence that he’s innocent: Collins recanted again in a sworn affidavit and said he wasn’t anywhere near the murder scene. Other people signed affidavits saying they saw Collins at another location that night. And a witness to the shooting said he saw someone else pull the trigger.
The owners of a nearby store, where Collins initially said he saw Hubbard moments before the shooting, said Collins was not in their business that night. They were familiar with Collins because he was banned from the store for previous behavior.
Hubbard believes he can prove Collins was lying during his testimony, which would be significant because the case hinged on his account. Collins testified that he left the area in a taxi cab after witnessing the shooting.
Through police records, Hubbard discovered the authorities subpoenaed the cab company to determine if Collins had, in fact, been picked up. But findings from the subpoena were never turned over to his lawyer, Hubbard says, which would constitute a Brady violation, giving him grounds for a new trial. Brady violations occur when prosecutors fail to disclose evidence that could benefit the defense.
Late last year, Hubbard enlisted a private investigator, Chris VanCompernolle, to retrieve the prosecutor’s files to find out what the subpoena uncovered. But to his
dismay, the prosecutor’s office said in a letter in November that the file could not be found.
“I was hurt,” Hubbard recalls in an interview from Macomb Correctional Facility. “It was a harsh reality, like I was going to die in prison. There was no justice going to be served. I could no longer prove my innocence.”
Hubbard has been in prison for 32 years, and he’s only seen his daughter once. He has never met his grandson. In January, his mother died.
“I just want the truth to come out,” Hubbard says. “It’s all I ever wanted.”
VanCompernolle says the significance of the purged records cannot be overstated.
“This is a big deal because Carl could spend the rest of his life in prison if he can’t get this information,” VanCompernolle tells Metro Times
innocence denied
Attorneys advocating for wrongfully imprisoned clients say the loss of the prosecutor files has created significant challenges. The Michigan Innocence Project, which won the release of 42 falsely convicted people since it was founded at the University of Michigan in 2009, has been unable to acquire Wayne County prosecutor files for dozens of prisoners because the records were destroyed.
“We’ve had dozens of cases impacted by this,” David A. Moran, co-founder of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, tells Metro Times. “You don’t know what is in them that could help. It’s a serious problem.”
Without the files, Moran says attorneys try to get as much information as they can from courts, police, and previous defense counsel. But they’ll never know what they’ve missed in the prosecutor’s files, Moran says.
Worthy’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which is tasked with freeing innocent
inmates, is also encountering setbacks. Since the unit was created in 2018, 38 inmates have been either exonerated or their cases have been dismissed. But the CIU is facing a staffing shortage, and the lack of prosecutor records has posed a significant challenge.
The CIU has received more than 2,300 requests to review cases since it was created. Of those, the unit has examined a little more than half so far.
Without the prosecutor’s files, the task is even more daunting and is detracting from other cases, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“It should be acknowledged that it takes time to reconstruct files that could be spent doing other work,” the office said in its statement.
Valerie Newman, the CIU director, says that her team has been able to find some documents using other avenues, but overall the file purge has made the unit’s work more difficult and time-consuming.
Mack Tiggart, who has been in prison since 1989 for a first-degree murder conviction, will never forget when he found out the prosecutor’s files in his case were destroyed. He’d believed he was closer to proving he was innocent and just needed the prosecutor’s file.
Then in May 2015, he received a letter from the prosecutor’s office, saying the county’s previous version of the CIU “was unable to obtain sufficient materials to make a complete evaluation of your case,” and without the prosecutor files, “no further action … will occur at this time.”
“I almost had a heart attack,” he recalls in an interview from Muskegon Correctional Facility. “It hurt my mother. She was so upset. It took two or three years for her just to come around. She said Kym Worthy promised my mother and my family that they would pull my files and reexamine them.”
Tiggart had reasons to be optimistic. In
Carl Hubbard.
Eugene McKinney.
PHOTOS VIA MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
court filings, two firearm experts discredited the ballistic evidence.
“The examiner’s testimony fell far short of what is scientifically reliable in the field of ballistics technology,” Tiggart’s attorney Roberto Guzman said in a letter to Worthy in September 2013. “His opinion was garbage, particularly since no laboratory analysis was done on the confiscated evidence to support that opinion.”
Police also lost evidence. The contested ballistic analysis went missing, and the prosecutor’s records had been destroyed, making it virtually impossible for Tiggart to prove his gun was not used in the murder, despite expert witnesses saying it almost certainly wasn’t.
One of the primary reasons Tiggart’s records are so important is because Michigan State Police exposed an alarming amount of botched ballistic testing at Detroit’s crime lab. The lab was forced to close in 2008, and Worthy’s office pledged to reexamine numerous cases after an MSP audit of 200 cases found that 10% of the ballistic test results were erroneous.
In cases that were botched, the prosecutor’s files could contain evidence that shows erroneous data was used for a conviction, defense attorneys say.
In June 2005, Tiggart’s co-defendant Cornelius Stanley was dying and swore in an affidavit that he had “framed” Tiggart because police had “coerced” him and threatened to charge his sister with murder if he didn’t implicate Tiggart.
“I shot Eric Wheeler and framed Mack Tiggart to protect myself, my sister and her two children,” Stanley wrote. “But now I am at death’s door. I am afraid to face GOD knowing that lies condemn Mack Tiggart to life in jail and he and my sister did nothing but help me when I was down on my luck.”
During a 2009 city council meeting, Worthy said she planned to reexamine many of the cases built on ballistic testing
Those files could become paramount again for people convicted at young ages. The Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to extend its ban on automatic life sentences for 18-year-olds to include 19- and 20-year-olds.
“In those cases, we still have to look at the circumstances of the offense, the evidence, and the victims have to be contacted,” says Rachel Wolfe, a defense attorney for prisoners who claim they are innocent. “There is so much important information in those files.”
to prove his innocence have been hampered by missing records.
In 2020, Houston sought to obtain his police and prosecutor records but was told they couldn’t be found. The CIU informed him that the recanted testimony alone was insufficient to overturn his conviction without the records.
Houston, now 44, remains in prison, asking, “How can I prove my innocence without those files?”
and assured one of Tiggart’s daughters that prosecutors would review his case.
Tiggart, who is now 68, has been waiting ever since.
On Memorial Day in 2022, Tiggart’s first daughter, Amanda, died from a massive seizure at the age of 44. Three months later, he says his mother died from a “broken heart.”
Before she died, Tiggart says his mother told him, “Don’t ever stop fighting for your freedom. The day will come when God will send the right person to help you get out of there. Mama have to go and lay down next to Amanda.”
Mark Craighead, who was exonerated of murder in 2022 and has been an advocate for innocent prisoners since then, says the illegal destruction of records shines a brighter light on the systematic suppression of evidence that contributed to wrongful convictions.
“They destroyed these records so you can’t fight them,” Craighead tells Metro Times.” If you have the cards stacked up against you like that, there’s no way you can win your freedom. This shows that there’s corruption from the top to the bottom — from the mayor to the prosecutor’s office, judges, and police department.”
More than wrongful convictions
The impact of the destroyed files goes beyond the wrongfully convicted. Prosecutors rely on archived records to glean insight into long-running criminal enterprises, to weigh in on prisoners’ requests for parole, and to file sentencing motions on convicted felons who have committed new crimes.
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that mandatory life sentences for children were unconstitutional, the files were used by defendants and prosecutors during resentencing hearings.
Prosecutor files are also used by inmates requesting gubernatorial pardons or commutations. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commuted the sentences of 35 inmates and granted four pardons since becoming governor in 2019. Since 1969, Michigan governors have commuted the sentences of 379 prisoners, including 162 who were convicted of first-degree murder, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
additional files Missing
Records from 1995 and earlier aren’t the only ones missing. Metro Times interviewed four prisoners whose files were never found for convictions between 1997 and 2003.
In 2003, when Duggan was prosecutor, Michon Houston was convicted of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Carlton Thomas on Detroit’s west side. The conviction was based on the testimonies of two witnesses, but their accounts differed. One of the witnesses, Jovan Antonio Johnson, later recanted, claiming he had been threatened by both the police and the real killer, Lavero Crooks, known on the streets as “Country.” The second witness was Crooks himself.
In a 2013 affidavit, Johnson said his testimony was false, explaining that Crooks had threatened him into implicating Houston. He also claimed that Crooks orchestrated his arrest in a drug deal shortly after the murder to pressure him into naming Houston as the shooter. Johnson said detectives further coerced him by threatening to charge him with murder if he didn’t comply.
In 2014, another witness, Tony Miller, came forward with a sworn affidavit, stating he was “completely sure” that Crooks was the shooter, as he had witnessed the crime. However, no one had ever interviewed him about what he saw. Additional testimony in 2021 from another person described Crooks as “wild and violent” and noted that it was common knowledge in the neighborhood that “Country” was responsible for the murder. Houston and Crooks had clashed before the killing. According to the 2021 affidavit, Houston believed Crooks’s violent behavior was bringing unnecessary police attention to the neighborhood. Despite these developments, Houston’s attempts
Eugene McKinney is a 54-year-old Detroiter who has been in prison since he was convicted of arson and first-degree murder in 1997.
McKinney claims he was falsely convicted and that police coerced witnesses to incriminate him in exchange for leniency. He says he had ineffective counsel and that prosecutors violated his constitutional rights by denying him a probable cause hearing.
But prosecutors have lost his records.
“Without that file, there’s no evidence that a probable cause hearing was held, even though I know one wasn’t held,” McKinney tells Metro Times. “The prosecutor’s file is really important to me, and I need to get it. Where do I turn to?”
He added, “There were other witnesses that came forward that said someone else did it. I’m entitled to a new trial because of new evidence from the police department because there was a witness who said the suspects weren’t me.”
Despite the promising evidence, McKinney feels stuck without the prosecutor’s file. He says someone needs to be held accountable.
“They need to be prosecuted because they are withholding some important evidence that could exonerate me,” McKinney says.
Since Worthy became prosecutor, she says she has made it a priority to preserve and safeguard homicide records and “ultimately convinced the county to provide us space to efficiently store files” at a building in Livonia. She says she would never destroy “a homicide file or a violent felony or capital case.”
Her office is also working on a project to digitize records to make them more accessible.
Worthy says she knows the importance of retaining the files. In her final six years as an assistant prosecutor, she focused almost entirely on homicide trials.
“The way I put together cases and trial files were my bread and butter,” Worthy said. “After a case was over, our trial files were to be forever preserved. These files were sacrosanct and trial prosecutors were always concerned when they turned them in that they be kept.”
Next week: Metro Times explores how the missing prosecutor files have impacted cases in which police illegally withheld exculpatory evidence.
Mack Tiggart.
Michon Houston. PHOTOS VIA MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
WHAT’S GOING ON
Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Be sure to check venue website before events for latest information. Add your event to our online calendar: metrotimes.com/AddEvent.
MUSIC
Wednesday, Sept. 25
Live/Concert
Amenra, Primitive Man, Blackwater Holylight, Pillar of Light 7 p.m.; The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $30.
Big Daddy Kane with live band 8 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $38-$50.
Jazmin Bean, Synthia Looper 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $27.50.
Magic Bag Presents: Eric Hutchinson, Ryan Montbleau 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $30.
Matt Lorusso Trio & Special Guests 8-11 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.
PeelingFlesh, Snuffed On Sight, Corpse Pile, Two Piece, Bashed In 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $18.
Sky Covington in Concert accompanied by Pamela Wise & Friends Performs Jazz 7-10 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $25.
String Cheese Incident 6 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $59.99-$135.
Summer Bike Night & BBQ 6 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville.
The National, The War On Drugs, Lucius 6:30 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $40.50-$120.50.
Thursday, Sept. 26
Live/Concert
Kaytranada, Channel Tres, Lou Phelps 7 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $29.50-$89.50.
Living Colour, Pharaohs 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $25-$45.
Sabrina Carpenter, Amaarae 7 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $25.50-$145.50.
Sunny Day Real Estate, Itchy Kitty 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $40.99.
The Rosies, Babe Haven, Rodeo Boys 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $10.
Trippie Redd 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49.50$89.50.
Karaoke
DARE-U-OKE 9 p.m.-midnight; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.
Drag Queen Karaoke 8 p.m.-2 a.m.; Woodward Avenue Brewers, 22646 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; no cover.
Karaoke at Detroit Shipping with DJ MO WILL 6-9 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; no cover.
Friday, Sept. 27
Live/Concert
Calling All Captains, Goalkeeper, Cascade Riot, Bring Your Best 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $17.
Davy Knowles Band, Jim McCarty, Brad Russell 7 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15-$120.
Dillon Carmichael 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $15.
Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise, The Scratch 6 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $33-$83.
Gone Guys, Shannon Barnes, DJ Sanford 9 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.
Magic Bag Presents: Mustard Plug with Authority Zero & Something To Do 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $25.
National Arab Orchestra & Flint Symphony Orchestra- East Meets West 8 p.m.; FIM Capitol Theatre, 140 E 2nd Street, Flint; Tickets start at $34; Genesee County residents save 30%.
The Airborne Toxic Event, Tyler Ramsey 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $37.50.
The Fab Four - The Ultimate Tribute (Beatles tribute) 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor;
25-October 1, 2024 | metrotimes.com
$28-$63.
The Ultimate Queen Celebration (Queen tribute) 8 pm; Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts, 12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $20-$50.
Two Feet 7 pm; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $29.50-$75.
DJ/Dance
D.O.D., Camden Cox, Nayt, ARCS, Hotpxl 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20-$25.
Meso & Spicy Bois Boiler Room Takeover Sept. 27, 8 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; $10-$20.
Saturday, Sept. 28
Live/Concert
101.1 WRIF’s 2024 Riff Fest with Godsmack, Seether, Asking Alexandria, Wage War, Sleep Theory, and more 1:30-9 p.m.; Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Dr, Village of Clarkston; $24-$125.
7 Ways, Hellrazor, Fail To Burn 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $15.
Alegres del Barranco y Fiera de Ojinaga: Gran Jaripeo Los Más Pedidos del Momento en Pontiac 3 p.m.; The Russell Industrial Center, 1600 Clay St., Detroit; $60-$350.
Candlelight: A Tribute to Beyoncé 8:45-10 p.m.; Christ Church-Detroit, 960 E. Jefferson, Detroit; $39.
Emo Night Brooklyn (18+) 8 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $18-$23.
Headless Mary, Fungits, No Luck, DJ Soul-Lo 9 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.
Magic Bag Presents: Pansy Division, Bev Rage & the Drinks 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.
Point North, Nevertel, Elijah, Rivals 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $25. Show Me The Body, High Vis, Special Interest, BIB, BEARCAT 6:30 pm; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $30.
Sturgill Simpson 8 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $59.50-$149.50.
The Bronx Wanderers 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$65.
Sunday, Sept. 29 Live/Concert
Marc E. Bassy & Skizzy Mars
Present: Folk Heroes North America 2024 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $27.50.
Nick Carter : Who I Am Tour 7:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $62.50-$74.50.
Phil Ogilvie’s Rhythm Kings 5-8 p.m.; Zal Gaz Grotto Club, 2070 W. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor; no cover (tipjar for the band).
Testament, Kreator, Possessed 6 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $37.50-$74.50.
The Holdup 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $18.
Twenty One Pilots, Balu Brigada 7:45 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $59.50-$159.50. Urban Heat, Wingtips, Gvllow, AL1CE 6 p.m.; Small’s, 10339 Conant St., Hamtramck; $20.
Monday, Sept. 30
Live/Concert
Foxxy Gwensday Wednesday & The Preservation of Jazz Present: Jazz & Cocktails Sky Covington and the Pamela Wise Ensemble Performs Jazz 7-10 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $20.
Meghan Trainor, Paul Russell, Ryan Trainor 6:30 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $29.50-$99.50.
The Preservation of Jazz Monday Night Music Series “Tributes” 7-10 pm; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $35.
DJ/Dance
Adult Skate Night 8:30-11 p.m.; Lexus Velodrome, 601 Mack Ave., Detroit; $5.
Tuesday, Oct. 1
Live/Concert
Fred again.. 8 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $50.50-$140.50.
Global Sunsets, Blackman & Arnold Trio 7-10 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.
Rapsody, Niko Brim, Lara 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $20.
Underoath, Static Dress 6:30 p.m.;
The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $34.50-$73.
DJ/Dance
B.Y.O.R Bring Your Own Records Night 9 p.m.-midnight; The Old Miami, 3930 Cass Ave., Detroit; no cover.
Karaoke
Open Mic : Art in a Fly Space 7-10 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; no cover.
THEATER
Performance
Fisher Theatre - Detroit Some Like it Hot Set your phasers to stun! Prepare to be beamed up for an unforgettable night with the original ‘Captain James T. Kirk’, award-winning actor William Shatner. Following a screening of the classic Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, William Shatner takes the stage to share fascinating and humorous behind-the-scenes stories from his life and illustrious career, including answering audience questions. VIP tickets are available, which include a post-show photo opportunity with Mr. Shatner. It’s going to be a warp-speed, once-in-a-lifetime adventure you won’t want to miss! Wednesday Sep. 25, 7:30 pm.; Tuesday Oct. 1, 7:30 pm.
Max M. Fisher Music Center Detroit Symphony Orchestra w/ Branford Marsalis Thursday Sep. 26, 7:30 pm and Friday Sep. 27, 8 pm.; Saturday Sep. 28, 7 pm.
Planet Ant Theatre Silly Goose: A Planet Ant Farm Team Original One Act Comedy In this hilarious, grown-up fairy tale, a mischievous little Goose takes on the Mayor of Smalltownerton, an idyllic small town, in an epic battle to win over its citizens. Join our feathered hero for a honkin’ good time as he works alongside a farmer, a gardener, a cowboy, a chef and even the story’s narrator to compete in a high-stakes pageant that could decide the fate of the town forever. Content Warning Play contains foul language and flashing lights sequences or patterns that may affect photosensitive viewers $20 Sep. 27-28, 7-8 pm and Sunday Sep. 29, 2-3 pm.
The Inspired Acting Company
The Book Club Play Personal dramas collide with literary debates when the book club allows a documentary crew to film their intellectual banter. Secrets spill, tensions flare, and reality gets a bit tangled with fiction. With a dash of humor and a sprinkle of heart, “The Book Club Play” dives into friendship, identity, and the magic of storytelling, nudging the audience to ponder the role of books in their own crazy adventures. $30-$35 Fridays, Saturdays, 8-10 pm and Sundays, 2-4 pm.
Tipping Point Theatre Grand
Horizons Tipping Point Theatre (TPT) opens its 17th theatrical season on September 25, 2024, with the Michigan premiere production of Bess Wohl’s hilarious, Tony® Award nominated Grand Horizons. Bill and Nancy have recently marked fifty years of marriage and settled comfortably in their new home at Grand Horizons, a senior living community. Their lives are structured in marital unison until one evening, Nancy announces she wants a divorce. Bill says okay. Their two adult sons are shocked as they question everything they thought was true in their lives and struggle to make sense of this unexpected news. $25 - $55 Wednesday Sep. 25, 2-3:45 pm, Thursday Sep. 26, 7:30-9:15 pm, Friday Sep. 27, 7:30-9:15 pm, Saturday Sep. 28, 6-7:45 pm and Sunday Sep. 29, 2-3:45 pm.
Musical
Christ Church-Detroit Candlelight: Tribute to Adele Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in Detroit. Get your tickets now to discover the music of Adele at Christ Church Detroit under the gentle glow of candlelight. General Info Venue: Christ Church Detroit Dates and times: select your dates/ times directly in the ticket selector Duration: 60 minutes (doors open 45 mins prior to the start time and late entry is not permitted). $34.00 Saturday Sep. 28, 6:30-7:45 pm.
Detroit Opera House Moulin Rouge (Touring) Wednesday Sep. 25, 7:30 pm, Thursday Sep. 26, 7:30 pm, Friday Sep. 27, 7:30 pm, Saturday Sep. 28, 2 & 7:30 pm, Sunday Sep. 29, 1 & 6:30 pm and Tuesday Oct. 1, 7:30 pm.
FIM Elgood Theatre Godspell Book by John-Michael Tebelak Music and New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz Directed by Michael Lluberes Flint Repertory Theatre opens the season with a splash! This bold new production, directed by producing artistic director Michael Lluberes, will be reimagined with actors performing in a pool of water. Boasting a score with chart-topping songs, Godspell is a sensation that continues to touch audiences.
A group of disciples help Jesus Christ tell different parables by using a parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques and a hefty dose of comic timing. Tickets start at $27; Genesee County residents save 30% Friday Sep. 27, 7:30 pm and Saturday Sep. 28, 7:30 pm.
The Detroit Masonic Temple Candlelight: 90s Unplugged on Strings Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in Detroit $29.00 Friday Sep. 27, 6-7:15 pm.
Eloise Asylum opens for fourth season of horror
The former Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in Westland was brought back to life in 2021, becoming one of Michigan’s largest and spookiest haunted attractions.
Now, Eloise Asylum is getting ready to open doors on Sept. 28 for its fourth season of serious scares.
With 48,000 square feet, two stories, and over 120 professional scare actors, guests can expect their hearts to race for over 45 minutes. One floor offers a hightech horror experience typically seen in theme parks and immersive art exhibits, while the other is based on the original psychiatric history of the building.
New this year, Eloise Asylum is hosting “Fandom Fridays,” where guests can meet Hollywood horror actors and paranormal YouTube stars, plus get exclusive autographs and photo opportunities. The lineup includes actors such as Douglas Tait of Freddy vs. Jason, Marty Klebba of Pirates and the Caribbean, and Lew Temple of The Walking Dead, among others.
From Oct. 18-20, a special “Haunt or Hunt Weekend” is happening, featuring a one-hour ghost hunting tour across two rarely seen floors of the former asylum, led by paranormal investigators.
To close out the season on Nov. 2, there will be a “High-Intensity Night,” where guests can “experience Eloise Asylum like never before.” The show will be more interactive, with guests being able
to take part in the action, plus opt for higher intensity extras.
Since opening, the attraction has faced criticism from some for making light of the real-world horrors that occurred when the building was a psychiatric hospital. Reverend B. Dangerous, a traveling performer, acknowledged such criticisms during an interview with Metro Times in 2022.
“I’ve read different posts that are people talking about the suffering that happened here, and there was suffering,” he said. “I can’t take that away. But it was also a hospital to help some people. There was also good.”
According to its website, a portion of the proceeds from the attraction benefit an on-site homeless shelter that was opened in another one of the former hospital buildings on the campus, “making your visit even more meaningful.”
This season, Eloise Asylum is open from 7-10:30 p.m. every Friday through Sunday in October, as well as Sept. 28 and Nov. 2. The experience is open to those ages 12 and up.
All special events require tickets separate from general admission.
Eloise Asylum is located at 30712 Michigan Ave., Westland. —Layla McMurtrie
For more information, and to purchase tickets, see eloiseasylum. com.
COURTESY PHOTO
FOOD
Where’s the beef?
By Jane Slaughter
Puma
4725 16th St., Detroit 313-819-6804
pumadetroit.com
Snacks $6-$16, mains $30, sandwiches $18-$25
Puma does Argentina without the beef. Well, not quite, but there’s not the focus on cow meat you might expect from an Argentinian chef: Javier Bardauil, whose upscale Barda, just a block away, was a James Beard Foundation finalist for best new restaurant in 2022.
The dearth of beef is not a complaint. Instead, Puma lists a wide variety of dishes from Peru, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Mexico, as well as Argentina; the one Argentina-branded dish is built on pork — chorizo.
Puma seems very much at home on developer Philip Kafka’s row of Quonsethut houses that he calls True North; he’s the landlord, but Bardauil designed the space, billed as Barda’s more casual relative. Besides featuring late-night DJs, it’s said to appeal to a younger (read: poorer) crowd, with more approachable (read: less expensive) menu items. With Barda’s starters starting at $18 and its mains topping out at $75, you can see why.
Puma’s not for the impecunious,
either, with mains set at $30 and $10 for potato salad. But if you’re happy with a small dish of vegan ceviche you can get out for $15 and the same again for your drink, or order a mammoth chicken sandwich for $18.
My favorite dishes at Puma were the simplest. Provoleta is a provolone-type cheese, melted in a cast-iron skillet till it bubbles, and served as an appetizer with chimichurri and bread. (The few slices of baguette didn’t match the amount of cheese and when we asked for more, we were surprised to learn we’d been charged $4 for two petite pieces.) Still, there’s no gainsaying chewy, crusty, melty cheese with a garlicky parsley sauce that is quintessentially Argentine.
Also perfectly simple was a big butterflied trout, displayed on a thick bed of arugula with a charred lemon to squeeze over. The tender, juicy flesh was easy to pick from the bones.
Arugula is a recurring note, to my delight. It appears in a chivito, the national dish of Uruguay, Argentina’s next-door cousin. Chivito means “little goat,” but the sandwich is now usually made with beefsteak — the same way it’s hard to find lamb in metro Detroit Middle Eastern restaurants these days. The chivito is very, very tall, with plenty of arugula, aioli, and a fried egg, and is a challenge to eat tidily, but it has a good smoky, charred flavor.
I was less happy with Bolivian chicken, fried in tallow, or beef fat. Though the two thighs were ginormous, some of that heft was due to a more-crust-than-meat policy. My companion had a similar tall fried chicken sandwich on brioche and commented, “I don’t think they have this tallow thing down.”
A side dish of rice nodded to the Caribbean, with mild coconut notes and a tangle of slivered red onion on top.
We liked better the choripan, a very Argentine meal: chorizo on a crusty baguette (pan), with generous chimichurri. The sausage was tangy, and we heeded the server’s advice that it needed two optional add-ons, cabbage and provolone.
For starters, besides the provoleta, Ecuadorean empanadas were beaten out by Puerto Rican arañitas (“little spiders”). The spiders are balls of crisp, shredded green plantains with jalapeños and aioli, all playing well together: fried, hot and spicy, creamy. The empanada was also made from shredded plantain, but chewy and in the shape of a pasty, filled with very mild melted cheese, not too exciting.
Puma carries three ceviche-adjacents. The vegan one marinates hominy and cucumber in a citrus sauce the Peruvians call “tiger’s milk.” It was tasty without being super-satisfying. The others are mussels with a Peruvian sauce and a Mexican shrimp aguachile.
For dessert dulce de leche is offered as soft-serve. It’s tasty enough (one of my favorite flavors), but it’s still soft-serve. Cocktails tend toward bitter ingredients like Campari, Aperol, and yerba mate, though I was happy with a Pisco Agrio. Pisco is grape brandy and agrio means sour, but this drink was decidedly citrus-sweet, easy to toss down. An Ananas combined tequila, pineapple cordial (sounds awful, I know), passion fruit and lime for a drink that tasted like none of the above. A friend ordered a “chef’s choice fancy mocktail” and liked the mojito-like result.
One cool thing about Puma’s drinks program: you can order a Chilean white wine or an Argentinian Malbec served in 8-ounce pours, for $15 or $18, called “penguins.” This custom originated in Argentina in the 1930s when Italians were arriving by the boatload, wine production was booming, and they needed a receptacle smaller than five-gallon storage containers to put on the table. Ceramic birds — you poured through the beak — serendipitously became the thing. I need to go back to Puma just for this.
There’s a stand-up steel bar outside, in addition to a long bar within. The place was full, and loud, on a Thursday; Puma is open Thursday through Sunday only, starting at 5 p.m.
Puma doesn’t take reservations. A 20% tip is added automatically.
At Puma, Argentinian chef Javier Bardauil serves up dishes from across South America and beyond.
NATE STURLEY
CULTURE
From music to film, and Michigan to Japan
Local filmmaker Josh Woodcock premieres first feature One Night in Tokyo
By Jeff Milo
Born-and-raised metro Detroit filmmaker and producer Josh Woodcock touts the virtues of modesty.
“I have a strict rule with all the work that I do: Until I’ve actually completed something, I won’t tell anyone about it,” he tells Metro Times
He’s had quite the busy year after what had already been quite a busy life, but he wasn’t going to start earnestly talking about the fact that he completed a feature-length film in the
span of a handful of months until it actually started screening at national festivals (and eventually even garnering awards).
Woodcock admits that “it seemed daunting, at first, to say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna make a 90-minute film.’ There’s something about it that seems scary until you just start breaking it down and figuring out how to piece it together.”
It wasn’t until after he finished seven independent short films within the three-year span of time following the
pandemic lockdowns that Woodcock finally felt ready, and even quite eager, to tackle the grander story arc permitted by a feature-length project. “It was always the biggest goal of my life,” Woodcock says, “just to be able to do it.”
Now, Woodcock’s finished featurelength film, a poignant and uniquely coming-of-age drama titled One Night in Tokyo, will be screened during this weekend’s Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival up in Bay City, having
already gained its distribution deal for a release in the near future. Back in April, his film won the audience prize for best drama when it premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose. Woodcock tells us that this weekend is likely his film’s last stop on the festival circuit, meaning it’s your “last chance” to see it for several months until it’s eventually, and officially, released. Woodcock’s pitch: “what would it be like if John Hughes made a French New Wave film set in Japan?”
Reza Emamiyeh and Tokiko Kitagawa star as unlikely friends in One Night In Tokyo
Arc
One Night In Tokyo follows Sam (played by Reza Emamiyeh), arriving in Tokyo to visit his ex-pat girlfriend — only to be promptly broken up with, forcing him to then cut his trip short and return to America the next day. Stuck for the night awaiting the next day’s flight, he makes an unlikely friendship with Ayaka (Tokiko Kitagawa), who reluctantly takes him out around the city with her friends. Walking the streets of Tokyo together, they not only have to overcome obstacles to understand each other but also learn to break down their own walls to understand themselves.
“I think the characters resonated with me,” Woodcock says, “because they feel real. They have their own faults, and I think they’re all relatable snapshots of someone in their late 20s or early 30s, looking at their lives and the paths they’ve taken and where they’ve wound up, and [asking] do we have control over
He adds, “my wife thinks I’m crazy,” in a very loving way, of course, but specifically when it comes to his seemingly indefatigable creative drive. “I think the best quality you can have for filmmaking, or even in music too, is just focus,” he says. “Just being able to lock-in so much so that if someone chops your arm off the first thought you have is, ‘At least I still have one arm left and I can still finish this…’”
Focus
This focus and fortitude, as far as his work ethic, has been a constant in Woodcock’s life. We remember Woodcock from the late 2000s and early ’10s, when he was a bit of a fixture around the local punk scene, playing guitar in bands like Hit Society and the Ill Itches; particularly standing out for bringing his inherent fastidiousness and organizational work ethic into dive bar-environments showcasing musical genres of a typically ramshackle, chaotic nature. He even spearheaded an ambitious compilation celebrating what was then a new-ish wave of garage rock, The Pathetic Sounds of Detroit
But that was almost just another sidequest for Woodcock the filmmaker. Much like the characters’ “arcs” in his new film, he’s also been ruminating on his own life’s path lately.
to Woodcock, who spent a profoundly formative span of months in 2014 living and working in Tokyo, where he got his first major job as a producer. That was the year Woodcock effectively diverged from his initial path into a law career and instead followed something involving his true lifelong passion: filmmaking.
After receiving “that awesome crash course into how the industry works,” Woodcock says of his time in Tokyo, “I felt that I’d finally found where my abilities worked best, even if it was going against what anyone else in my life really wanted me to do. But I said, ‘I don’t care, [film] is what I want to do and it’s what I’m gonna do, come hell or high water.’ I threw myself into it.”
Whole-hearted
Between 2015 and 2020, Woodcock was finding steady and fruitful work as a commercial producer around metro Detroit, but then caught a gig making documentary film series for the U.S. Navy, which is when he formally moved away from his home state of Michigan. In 2017, he landed a gig at a company near Seattle and started Kitsune Pictures to produce his own films.
getting ourselves a little closer to where we want to be.”
We mention Woodcock having a busy year, the top bullet point being that he and his wife welcomed their first child.
But along with that, as far as his professional life, late last year, Woodcock wrote Tokyo’s screenplay in just three weeks, then storyboarded everything and shot the whole film overseas with his cast and crew in just seven days. Oh, and then he did the first rough edit by himself within just another week. Within a furious four months, the film was pretty much in the can.
“I wrote all of [Tokyo] that December,” Woodcock says. “My wife was gone on a trip to India at the time but wound up having a long layover in Korea. I had the idea, then, of someone facing a long night like that, where they’re a fish out of water, somewhere. By the time she came back, I already had it all put together.”
Film has been the lifelong passion of this Michigan-raised creative, who has fond memories of going to the movies as a kid and scouring the shelves of his local Blockbuster Video. In high school, he’d stay up late with friends watching and meticulously dissecting DVD copies of early-2000s indie arthouse cinema. Even before going off to college in Ypsilanti, Woodcock was wearing lots of hats: he’d picked up the guitar as a teen, started dabbling in graphic design, and even infamously started his own underground school newspaper (but that’s another story unto itself).
In college, he majored in Japanese language and culture, studied political science, and later on law, even briefly working as a law clerk before switching careers to become a professional producer amd cinematographer. Throughout the later 2010s, he sustained himself with steady commercial work in the U.S. and Japan, but also soon wrote and directed several of his own short films, showing them at festivals and even garnering dozens of awards.
When it comes to his new featurelength film, Woodcock stresses that “secondary to the character arcs, I also really wanted to show a larger snapshot of Tokyo — something that’s not told from a tourist’s point of view, something with a more natural look to it.”
This second aspect was important
He naturally still considers this his home. In fact, he’s excited to screen Tokyo here because he wouldn’t have been able to finish it without a crucial online crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, with much of the financial support coming from his home state. Now, he’ll look forward to the movie being officially released later this year.
For now, though, Woodcock is finally relaxing a bit. He’s looking forward to Hell’s Half Mile, where he’s eager to reconnect with other musicians-turnedfilmmakers like Christopher Jarvis and Ryan Weise.
“[It’s] also a music festival, so there will be a lot of local bands there, too,” Woodcock says, adding that he’s also eager for hometown audiences to not only watch the film, but also experience its soundtrack, which was scored by local musician Topher Horn. “I remember calling [Horn] up and proposing he help score a full-length film, and then asking him, ‘Are we crazy for trying this?’ And he said, ‘No, let’s do it!’”
Call it daunting, or crazy — Woodcock did it. “I just wanted to make sure I’d gotten to a point in my life where I really knew what I was doing before I made anything public-facing,” he says. “I respect the art of [cinema], and I just didn’t want to ever do it in a way that wasn’t whole-hearted.”
One Night in Tokyo screens at Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival at 1:30 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Sunday. More information is available at hhmfest.com.
KITSUNE PICTURES
CULTURE
Savage Love
Vice Grips
By Dan Savage
Q
:
I’m a gay man in his early 30s who’s into sex stripped down to its most basic elements: tops come in, fuck me, come and go. I’ve moved to a new city. One guy in his mid-twenties came over and we had awkward-butpassionate sex like that. We chatted a little afterwards. I went to his apartment to see him a week later, and we did it again. It was hot; we have chemistry. Turns out, he’s also new in town. He’s from a conservative part of the country and says I’m the second man he’s ever had sex with. He’s got a lot of things I look for in romantic partners: smart, cute, soft-spoken, driven, and into his job. The bad part is that he’s in management training for a problematic fastfood company, and while he’s fairly apolitical, he says he will “probably” vote for Trump.
While there are certainly plenty of gay conservatives, I feel like he’s someone who hasn’t seriously given a lot of thought to politics outside of his strong belief in free enterprise. This isn’t someone who thinks a lot about intersectionality, or who has interrogated the way capitalism exploits. He wants to be a good boss. You said once not to fuck Republicans, because they should go fuck themselves. But I feel like there might be something here I can draw out of him. At the very least, his desire for kinky gay sex might make him willing to hear me out about my sharply divergent politics. But I don’t want to entertain someone who just wants his cake (my ass) and the license to eat it (his abhorrent politics), too. But the sex is good, and I like the idea of fixing him. What to do?
—Aroused Slut Sees Ultimate Potential
A: For decades, ASSUP, I have urged sane gay men not to fuck gay Republicans — gay Republicans can go fuck themselves — but in 2015 I singled out one gay Republican in particular that I didn’t want other gay men fucking: Tim Miller, former campaign staffer for John McCain,
former spokesman for the Republican National Committee, and at the time of my tweet, communications director for Jeb Bush. Seeing as Tim is no longer a Republican (but still a gay man), and seeing as my position on fucking gay Republicans hasn’t changed (just say no), I thought Tim might be able to offer you an unbiased answer. Despite my having urged other gay men not to suck Tim’s dick (without effect, it seems), Tim graciously agreed to weigh in. His response follows…
Yo ASSUP.
As a former Republican who Dan once tried to cockblock on account of his political views — unsuccessfully, I might add (very unsuccessfully) — I appreciate where your head is. Your instinct is downright humanitarian. It’s in line with the message Barack Obama delivered at the DNC convention. No, not the dick joke, the part where he said, “Everyone deserves a chance, and even when we don’t agree with each other, we can find a way to live with each other.” And here you are giving this hate chicken middle manager a chance to live in you! It’s a beautiful instinct really. Who knows, with your vice grip on his dick, maybe this young gay conservative might blossom into a coconut-pilled podcast host who eviscerates any MAGA moron that dares cross his path like yours truly.
On the other hand...
It’s 2024, not 2014. Donald Trump attempted an insurrection. He’s currently advancing a racist conspiracy about Black immigrants abducting and eating house pets. He is a worthless shart stain with no redeeming qualities or virtues and that’s been abundantly
clear to anyone with a brain for at least nine years now. Being for Trump at this point... it’s not exactly the same as just mindlessly supporting Tom Tillis. It’s an act of active malice or supreme stupidity. So, like you, ASSUP, I’m torn. Not a great quality in an advice columnist but unfortunately for you Dan passed your question off to a substitute.
I guess my ruling comes down to a practical calculation. If he lives in a swing state, hold your hole hostage until he pledges to support Kamala. We can’t fuck around with so much on the line. If he doesn’t live in a swing state, well, give it a few more whirls, at least until he reveals himself to be intentionally awful. Who knows what could happen, right? After all, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for, maybe your hole has the change he seeks.
—Tim Miller
I wanna thank Tim — both for responding to your question and for eviscerating MAGA morons five days a week on The Bulwark’s flagship daily podcast — and I wanna officially lift my fagwa against his dick: gay men everywhere can suck Tim’s dick without incurring my wrath.
I also wanna expand a bit on something Tim said: can your hole — can anyone’s hole — change a person? While I think some people are too far gone for hole (or pole) to save (you can’t fuck the Nazi out of someone), some people don’t ever think critically about political beliefs instilled in them by rightwing families or churches until challenged by someone they’ve just fucked and wanna fuck again. The combination of sexual attraction, limerence, and oxytocin — the “love hormone” that floods our systems during really good sex — can open a person up in surprising ways. While it took the nomination of Donald Trump for Tim Miller to see the GOP for what it was (and Tim has gone on to do amazing and important work in the fight against Trump and Trumpism), for other former gay Republicans it was something a guy said during their refractory period — that magical moment when both minds and asses gape open — that made the difference.
So, you have my blessing, ASSUP, to keep fucking this guy. But to assuage your guilt (and avoid my wrath), you should gently draw this man out about his politics (and his
“He’s currently advancing a racist conspiracy about Black immigrants abducting and eating house pets. He is a worthless shart stain with no redeeming qualities or virtues and that’s been abundantly clear to anyone with a brain for at least nine years now.”
fast-food preferences) after he unloads in you. (There’s no better time to get someone to, um, interrogate the way capitalism exploits.) If thinking a little more deeply about his vote is the price he has to pay to keep unloading in you — if he knows he’s going to have to defend the indefensible when he sees you again — he may wind up voting for Kamala Harris along with you and me and Tim and all the other gay men out there with their heads screwed on straight. You’ve got a little less than six weeks to fix this guy, ASSUP, so we’re gonna need you to douche daily and spend as much time in this man’s apartment — and on this man’s dick — as you can between now and November 5. Your country is counting on you.
Tim Miller is the author of Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. Follow him on Twitter @timodc and Threads @ timmillergram.
Read the full column online at savage. love.
Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love! Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan! Podcasts, columns, and more at Savage.Love.
CULTURE Free Will Astrology
By Rob Brezsny
ARIES: March 21 – April 19
Here comes the Hating and Mating Season. I want to help you minimize the “hating” part and maximize the “mating” part, so I will offer useful suggestions. 1. To the degree that you can, dissolve grudges and declare amnesty for intimate allies who have bugged you. 2. Ask your partners to help you manage your fears; do the same for them. 3. Propose to your collaborators that you come up with partial solutions to complicated dilemmas. 4. Do a ritual in which you and a beloved cohort praise each other for five minutes. 5. Let go of wishes that your companions would be more like how you want them to be.
TAURUS: April 20 – May 20
Many fairy tales tell of protagonists who are assigned seemingly impossible missions. Perhaps they must carry water in a sieve or find “fire wrapped in paper” or sort a heap of
wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, and lentils into five separate piles. Invariably, the star of the story succeeds, usually because they exploit some loophole, get unexpected help, or find a solution simply because they didn’t realize the task was supposedly impossible. I bring this up, Taurus, because I suspect you will soon be like one of those fairy-tale champions. Here’s a tip: They often get unexpected help because they have previously displayed kindness toward strangers or low-status characters. Their unselfishness attracts acts of grace into their lives.
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20
You are in a phase with great potential for complex, unforeseen fun. To celebrate, I’m offering descriptions of your possible superpowers. 1. The best haggler ever. 2. Smoother of wrinkles and closer of gaps. 3. Laugher in overly solemn moments. 4. Unpredictability expert. 5. Resourceful summoner of allies. 6. Crafty truthteller who sometimes bends the truth to enrich sterile facts. 7. Riddle wrestler and conundrum connoisseur. 8. Lubricant for those who are stuck. 9. Creative destroyer of useless nonsense. 10. Master of good trickery. 11. Healer of unrecognized and unacknowledged illnesses.
CANCER: June 21 – July 22
Tanzanite is a rare blue and violet gemstone that is available in just one place on earth: a five-square-mile region of Tanzania. It was discovered in 1967 and mined intensively for a few years. Geologists believed it was all tapped out. But in 2020, a self-employed digger named Saniniu Lazier located two huge new pieces of tanzanite worth $3.4 million. Later, he uncovered another chunk valued at $2 million.
matter isn’t fully reconstituted for eight months. Now here’s my radical prophecy for you, Leo. Unless you run in a marathon sometime soon, your brain may gain in volume during the coming weeks. At the very least, your intelligence will be operating at peak levels. It will be a good time to make key decisions.
VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22
Is there a greater waste of land than golf courses? They are typically over 150 acres in size and require huge amounts of water to maintain. Their construction may destroy precious wetlands, and their vast tracts of grass are doused with chemical pesticides. Yet there are only 67 million golfers in the world. Less than 1% of the population plays the sport. Let’s use the metaphor of the golf course as we analyze your life. Are there equivalents of this questionable use of resources and space? Now is a favorable time to downsize irrelevant, misused, and unproductive elements. Re-evaluate how you use your space and resources.
LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22
On the morning of January 27, 1970, Libran songwriter John Lennon woke up with an idea for a new song. He spent an hour perfecting the lyrics and composing the music on a piano. Then he phoned his producer and several musicians, including George Harrison, and arranged for them to meet him at a recording studio later that day. By February 6, the song “Instant Karma” was playing on the radio. It soon sold over a million copies. Was it the fastest time ever for a song to go from a seed idea to a successful release? Probably. I envision a similar process in your life, Libra. You are in a prime position to manifest your good ideas quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21:
on the verge of being overprepared? What lesson are you so ripe and eager to learn that you may be anxiously interfering with its full arrival? If any of the situations I just described are applicable to you, Sagittarius, I have good news. There will be no further postponements. The time has finally arrived to embrace what you have been anticipating.
CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19
Capricorn screenwriter and TV producer Shonda Rhimes has had a spectacular career. Her company Shondaland has produced 11 prime-time TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton. She’s in the Television Hall of Fame, is one of the wealthiest women in America, and has won a Golden Globe award. As you enter into a phase when your ambitions are likely to shine extra brightly, I offer you two of her quotes. 1. “I realized a simple truth: that success, fame, and having all my dreams come true would not fix or improve me. It wasn’t an instant potion for personal growth.” 2. “Happiness comes from living as your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.”
AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18
Well, it’s officially the best time of year, if you’re not here we understand. It’s a good time to be out and about; however, we do have some yummy Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest to make the season complete. HAPPISH HOUR 3-6PM
I see you as having resemblances to Saniniu Lazier in the coming weeks. In my visions of your destiny, you will tap into resources that others have not been able to unearth. Or you will find treasure that has been invisible to everyone else.
LEO: July 23 – August 22
Marathon foot races are regularly held worldwide. Their official length is 26.2 miles. Even fast runners with great stamina can’t finish in less than two hours. There’s a downside to engaging in this herculean effort: Runners lose up to 6% of their brain volume during a race, and their valuable gray
You have passed the test of the First Threshold. Congratulations, Scorpio! Give yourself a kiss. Fling yourself a compliment. Then begin your preparations for the riddles you will encounter at the Second Threshold. To succeed, you must be extra tender and ingenious. You can do it! There will be one more challenge, as well: the Third Threshold. I’m confident you will glide through that trial not just unscathed but also healed. Here’s a tip from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “Those who do not expect the unexpected will not find it.”
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21
What development are you so ready for that you’re almost too ready? What transformation have you been preparing for so earnestly that you’re
I have performed in many poetry readings. Some have been in libraries, auditoriums, cafes, and bookstores, but others have been in unexpected places: a laundromat, a bus station, a Walmart, a grocery store, and an alley behind a thrift store. Both types of locations have been enjoyable. But the latter kind often brings the most raucous and engaging audiences, which I love. According to my analysis, you might generate luck and fun for yourself in the coming weeks by experimenting with non-typical scenarios — akin to me declaiming an epic poem on a street corner or parking lot. Brainstorm about doing what you do best in novel situations.
PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20
I have two related oracles for you. 1. During the unfoldment of your mysterious destiny, you have had several homecomings that have moved you and galvanized you beyond what you imagined possible. Are you ready for another homecoming that’s as moving and galvanizing as those that have come before? 2. During your long life, you have gathered amazing wisdom by dealing with your pain. Are you now prepared to gather a fresh batch of wisdom by dealing with pleasure and joy?
Homework: Maybe it’s time to fix a seemingly unfixable discomfort. Do it!
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