Photo by Doug Coombe
NEWS & VIEWS
Feedback
We received comments in response to contributor Rob St. Mary’s cover story about When We Went Mad: The Unauthorized History of Mad Magazine. The film, more than 15 years in the making, was made by local director Alan Bernstein and held its local premiere last week at Detroit’s Redford Theatre.
Awesome. I can’t wait to see this. Hopefully it will be released physically. We love our blu-rays... that’s how all these small renegade movie theaters are showing the films. We don’t stream them.
—@beatsandblood, Instagram
Very cool. I hope it mentions that horrible
film “Up the Academy” —@paul_unger1, Instagram
So so so ecstatic for you! Hire a sky writer to inform us when it’s available to stream or something!!!
—Melissa Reizian Healander, Facebook
So cool to see something from your imagination fully realized like this. I’m glad I could contribute in a very small way. Congrats!
—Patrick Coller, Facebook
We just might be on to something pretty good here... a terrific article about a certain magazine and a particular documentary.
Thank you, Robert St. Mary and Leyland ‘Lee’ DeVito!
—Alan Bernstein (director), Facebook
NEWS & VIEWS
Duggan won’t seek fourth term
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced last week that he will not seek a fourth term in office but declined to address widespread speculation that he’s exploring a potential run for Michigan governor in 2026.
The announcement marks a major shift in Detroit politics, as Duggan’s decision opens the field for new leadership in the city and sets the potential stage for his ambitions on a statewide level.
“It’s time,” Duggan told employees in a packed auditorium at city hall last Wednesday. “I’m not going to be a candi-
date for mayor in 2025.”
Duggan’s departure from city hall concludes an era that began in January 2014 when he took office as Detroit’s first white mayor since Roman Gribbs in the 1970s.
Throughout his tenure, Duggan, a former Detroit Medical Center CEO and Wayne County prosecutor, played a significant role in Detroit’s recovery from bankruptcy, focusing on core city services, downtown development, and large-scale initiatives like the return of the Detroit Pistons to the city. His ad-
ministration is credited with improving government efficiency and streamlining essential services, which endeared him to many Detroiters and helped him win three terms with commanding margins. However, Duggan’s time in office has not been without controversy. Critics argue his focus on downtown development has disproportionately benefited wealthy investors while leaving many struggling neighborhoods behind. His administration’s diversion of more than $1 billion in taxes originally earmarked for schools, libraries, and essential
You can follow Detroit Metro Times on Bluesky
Detroit Metro Times
readers can follow us on Bluesky, an alternative social media platform that has exploded in popularity in recent days and is now the No. 1 downloaded app on Apple’s App store.
Our Bluesky page can be found at @metrotimes.bsky.social.
Founded in 2019 by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky’s popularity has surged following the recent
U.S. presidential election.
That’s due to Twitter’s new billionaire owner Elon Musk, who renamed the company X after purchasing it in 2022 and swiftly moved to reprogram it to push right-wing propaganda, hate speech, and his support for Donald Trump. (In exchange, Presidentelect Trump recently appointed Musk to lead a new “department of government efficiency.”)
services to fund real estate projects has raised concerns among community advocates, who say the funds often benefited affluent developers more than Detroit’s residents.
Duggan’s demolition program, which aimed to eliminate blighted buildings, was the subject of a lengthy federal investigation, and his support for police surveillance technologies, including facial recognition, drew significant criticism from civil rights groups concerned about the disproportionate impact on Black residents.
Now that Duggan has confirmed he will not seek another term, Detroit’s 2025 mayoral race is expected to be highly competitive. City Council
President Mary Sheffield, Councilman Fred Durhall III, former Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins, and former businessman Joel Haashiim have already declared their candidacies, and Duggan’s announcement may prompt additional contenders to join the race.
“I’m going to watch these candidates emerge,” Duggan said. “We need someone who will bring us together.”
The election is likely to be a defining moment for Detroit, offering residents a chance to shape the city’s future without Duggan’s influence for the first time in more than a decade.
Duggan said he plans to announce his next plans “in the coming months.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited and cannot seek reelection.
With his track record, Duggan brings considerable name recognition and campaign experience to the race for governor, if he runs.
While Duggan is looking toward the possibility of a new chapter in Michigan politics, his decision marks the end of an era in Detroit. Whether he ultimately runs for governor or steps away from public life, Duggan’s influence will likely continue to shape both Detroit and Michigan for years to come. His announcement signals a new beginning, both for the city he led for over a decade and for his own political journey.
—Steve Neavling
Musk’s meddling with X has turned off many users opposed to Trump, with Bluesky reportedly gaining more than 1 million followers in the past week. Metro Times already has 3,000 followers there.
You can also follow Metro Times editor-in-chief Lee DeVito (@leedevito.bsky.social) and investigative reporter Steve “the Motor City Muckraker” Neavling (@
mcmuckraker.bsky.social) on Bluesky as well. (Additionally, you’ll find our sister papers Cincinnati CityBeat, @citybeatcincy.bsky.social, and the Louisville Eccentric Observer, @leoweekly.bsky.social.)
Aside from Bluesky, you can also follow Metro Times on Facebook, Threads, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
—Lee DeVito
Mike Duggan has been mayor of Detroit since January 2014.
CITY OF DETROIT
State senators revive sweeping police reform package
Four years after first proposing significant police reform legislation, Michigan state senators are reintroducing a comprehensive package of bills aimed at increasing accountability, transparency, and public trust in law enforcement.
Many of the measures were initially introduced in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, whose murder by a police officer in Minneapolis sparked protests against police brutality across the U.S. The efforts failed to pass in prior sessions but have gained renewed momentum amid ongoing public demand for reform.
The package includes bills to regulate no-knock warrants, establish stronger use-of-force guidelines, require police intervention in cases of excessive force, and bolster protections for people filing complaints against law enforcement officers.
One of the bills would impose stricter regulations on no-knock warrants, requiring officers to be “clearly recognizable” as law enforcement and prohibiting the use of flashbangs. The legislation also mandates that officers obtain a warrant to enter a property by force.
Another bill requires all law enforcement agencies to adopt a written policy within six months mandating officers to intervene and report when they witness a colleague using excessive force. Agencies must also establish use-offorce guidelines, including defining physical force that restricts air or blood flow as “deadly force.”
The package also addresses body camera tampering, making it illegal to destroy, conceal, or deactivate a body camera during incidents involving excessive force. Violators could face up to 90 days in jail.
Additionally, the bills take aim at wandering cops, which are officers who move from department to department after engaging in misconduct. In recent months, Metro Times has reported about wandering cops and how easily they get new jobs.
Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) would be required to revoke the licenses of officers found to have used excessive force resulting in death or serious injury. The legislation also strengthens background checks for officers and standardizes reporting requirements for those facing criminal charges or
personal protection orders.
The bills also aim to protect the public from retaliation when filing complaints against officers. One measure creates the “Reporting of Law Enforcement Officer Misconduct Privacy Act,” requiring that complaints remain anonymous unless the complainant consents to being identified.
The reforms also focus on preventing harmful interactions before they occur. One bill calls for MCOLES to establish minimum standards for training in de-escalation, implicit bias, and crisis response. Another proposes creating the Office of Social Work and Police Partnerships to integrate social workers
into law enforcement agencies and boost cross-training between the two professions.
While previous attempts to pass similar legislation failed, the reintroduction comes as public pressure for police accountability remains strong. Advocates hope that the renewed effort will gain bipartisan support.
The bills are expected to be soon introduced formally in committee hearings. Advocates and lawmakers alike are urging swift action to prevent further harm and ensure justice for Michigan’s communities.
—Steve Neavling
Detroit River refuge’s ancient forest gets national recognition
The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge has achieved a significant milestone: The Humbug Marsh Unit in Gibraltar has officially joined the Old-Growth Forest Network, a national collection of protected native forests where people can experience biodiversity and the beauty of nature.
A celebratory event took place on Oct. 20, marking the induction of the marsh into this prestigious network.
Attendees joined a guided hike along the 2.25-mile Green Trail, led by Great Lakes Regional Manager Leona Addie and Park Ranger Alex Gilfrod. Along the way, participants explored the unique ecological features of Humbug Marsh and learned to identify characteristics of old-growth forests, including trees more than 300 years old.
“The old-growth forest makes up 32.24 acres of the larger 405.16-acre Humbug Marsh Unit,” said Gilford. “It’s a special place where the public can get up close and personal with ancient oak trees and be inspired by this protected natural gem in the downriver area.”
Humbug Marsh has long been a beacon of conservation efforts. In 1998, a
proposed development threatened to destroy the last remaining mile of natural shoreline on the U.S. side of the Detroit River. In a powerful display of community action, more than 1,000 local residents rallied in Gibraltar to oppose the project, successfully preserving the marsh.
This victory ultimately led to the addition of Humbug Marsh to the refuge in 2004 and continues to serve as a testament to the community’s commitment to conservation.
“The broad support for the refuge has
been instrumental in building awareness and ensuring ongoing efforts to protect wildlife and habitat,” Addie said.
Humbug Marsh is recognized for its ecological importance. In 2010, it was designated Michigan’s first Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The marsh’s wet mesic flatwood habitat is rare in Michigan, featuring shagbark hickory, oak, ash, and elm trees. Its coastal wetlands, influenced by fluctuating Great Lake water levels, provide
critical habitat for rare fish and wildlife species.
“This ever-changing habitat is a major repository of species and plays a vital role in preserving ecosystem processes,” Addie said.
The addition of Humbug Marsh to the Old-Growth Forest Network ensures this remarkable area will continue to inspire and educate future generations while safeguarding its ecological treasures, officials said.
The refuge’s inclusion in the OldGrowth Forest Network underscores the importance of preserving natural spaces for public enjoyment and biodiversity. For visitors, Humbug Marsh offers a rare opportunity to explore ancient forests and understand the dynamic interplay of habitats that make Michigan’s ecosystems unique.
With its long history of communitydriven conservation and ecological significance, Humbug Marsh remains a shining example of what can be achieved when people come together to protect the environment, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
—Steve Neavling
Protesters march in Detroit following the death of George Floyd in 2020. STEVE NEAVLING
Supporters of the Humbug Marsh Unit in Gibraltar celebrate. COURTESY OF U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
Miss Eva’s Detroit opens in North Rosedale Park
A new cocktail bar and live music venue is readying to open its doors in Detroit’s North Rosedale Park.
Located at 19566 Grand River Ave.,
Miss Eva’s Detroit has a Harlem Renaissance, “speakeasy”-style vibe complete with a low-key entrance in the back of the building.
The project is led by Jay Williams, who grew up down the street.
“With the resurgence happening in our city, there is a lot of incredible activity happening in Detroit’s downtown — which is great,” Williams said in a press release. “We also want to bring some of that love back into the neighborhoods.”
The club is celebrating its opening with a star-studded series of concerts, including Charity featuring the Klouds Band on Friday, Nov. 29; Isis Damil on Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7, Angela Davis on Friday, Dec. 13, Thornetta Davis on Saturday, Dec. 14; Mahogany Jones on Friday, Dec. 20; jessica Care moore on Saturday, Dec. 21; and Brandon Williams on Saturday, Dec. 28.
“Traditionally, in Detroit, you’d have a bar within walking distance of your home,” Mike Monford, Miss Eva’s Detroit music director, said in a statement. “You could go to the corner and check out jazz musicians like Donald Byrd or another big Detroit name on
any given night. Jay is bringing this back.”
Additional performances will be announced throughout the winter, with a formal grand opening planned for later this spring.
The bar is named after Williams’s grandmother, Eva Marie Franklin, who was a music lover, pillar of the community, and entrepreneur who opened a restaurant in Idlewild, Michigan’s popular African American vacation destination.
Williams wants Miss Eva’s to be a celebration of African American culture, including the bar program, which highlights Black-owned and Detroitbased brands. Its craft cocktails menu features drinks like the Parliament, (Two James Grass Widow bourbon, muscovado sugar, tobacco bitters, Ethiopian liqueur, and smoke) and the Spruce (IslandJon Vodka, toasted pecan, and cream, shaken and served in a coupe glass with a dark chocolate garnish).
“I might be biased, but my grandmother was one of the greatest women ever,” Williams said. “She was not only beautiful and always dressed to the nines, but she was also strong and intelligent.”
More information is available at missevasdetroit.com.
—Lee DeVito
Thurs 11/21
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOPAZ!
Fri 11/22
JOIN US AFTER DETROIT’S 21ST ANNUAL XMAS TREE LIGHTING BOOZY HOT CIDER $6! VULTURES OF CULTURE/3148’S/
Charity kicks off a live music series at Miss Eva’s Detroit.
COURTESY PHOTO
New doc sees ex-chef turn the camera on Detroit’s dining scene
What’s Keith Famie been cooking up these days?
Well, nothing in the kitchen. At least, nothing for our consumption. The Farmington Hills native once hailed as one of America’s “Best New Chefs,” who went on to operate such upscale metro eateries as Chez Raphael and Les Auteurs, traded in his cutlery for cameras nearly two decades ago.
Famie founded his own video production company, Visionalist Entertainment Productions, and has gone on to create nearly 30 longform documentary-style films, winning multiple Michigan Emmy Awards for works centering on Detroit and its history. Beyond the things we know we’re famous for — cars, music, and coneys, for example — Famie has reminded us in his previous docs that we are also the city of churches, faith, and hot rods, among other attributes.
But with his latest release, Famie appears to have come full circle.
Detroit: the City of Chefs, detailing our city’s long and eclectic culinary history and the melting pot of immigrants who helped make it so, airs at 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, on Detroit PBS, Famie’s broadcast partner for years.
Prior to that, however, the film will be showcased in a gala Metro Detroit premiere that should excite both film-
goers and foodies alike.
Detroit: City of Chefs will debut on the big screen at Novi’s Emagine Theater at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9, accompanied by a variety of food and chefrelated events. (Tickets are priced at $20 for general admission, $200 for the VIP “Chef Extravaganza Experience.”
More about that later.) But why, after all these years, has Famie now decided to make a film focusing on chefs? Was he attempting to distance himself from his previous life?
Pondering the question, Famie says he really doesn’t have a good answer.
“I’ve always wanted to tell this story,” he said in a recent conversation. “I understood the importance of the story of our culinary heritage, but it just wasn’t something that was on the radar screen to do.
“Maybe in a subconscious way at 64 I was reflecting upon where I came from personally and the richness of that story, and I started seeing people like Milos [Cihelka, the master chef best known for his years at Southfield’s gone-but-not-forgotten Golden Mushroom restaurant] turning 92, other individuals falling away, I thought it was time.”
Nearly 14 months in the making, Detroit: City of Chefs includes interviews with dozens of chefs, restaurateurs,
connection between our restaurant industry and auto industry. As Big Three executives traveled around the world on business, they grew accustomed to diverse menu offerings, meticulous preparation and impeccable service. They brought those expectations, and suggestions, back home with them: Detroit restaurant owners had no choice but to compete.
A limited number of $200 “Chef Extravaganza Celebration” tickets will be available until Nov. 27. They include preferred seating for the 7 p.m. screening on Dec. 9, a special collector’s program book, and admission to a pre-reception from 5:30-6:45 to meet and mingle with chefs, restaurant owners and hospitality industry standouts, many of whom are featured in the film. Will there be food, too? What do you think?
and other Detroit icons of eating out. It’s surely the last visual image of our seafood fine-dining legend Joe Muer, Jr., who died Aug. 11 while the film was still in production. And because the subject was especially dear to Famie’s heart, he and his team at Visionalist Entertainment added some special garnishes.
They reached out to Detroit’s College of Creative Studies, who selected student Alexandra Martinescul to painstakingly craft 20 miniature clay likenesses of people interviewed in City of Chefs, which were then used in a stop-motion animation CCS created for the film. And Detroit’s timeless chanteuse, Jill Jack, was commissioned to write the doc’s original theme song, “The Legends of the Stove,” which she also performs. (The trailer for Detroit: The City of Chefs is available at vimeo. com/860356161.)
The documentary traces our city’s rich kitchen history back to the early 1900s, and shows how it was enhanced as different ethnic groups — the Italians, Poles, Irish, German, and Lebanese among them — landed in Detroit, bringing their unique cooking styles and ingredients with them. “I talk about the work ethics of the early European chefs and immigrants, and what that led to,” Famie says. “You can still see that work ethic in the great young chefs we have in Detroit today. To be a great chef, I think you have to have a little ADD.”
City of Chefs also explores a unique
A “grand buffet,” created by chefs and students at Schoolcraft College’s Culinary Arts Program and Oakland Community College’s Culinary Studies Institute, will feature such epicurean ecstasies as smoked whitefish cannoli, tuna tartare, beef tenderloin sliders, and veal and oxtail ragout, finished off by the likes of chocolate Chambord cream gateau, hazelnut praline tarts, and cheesecakes galore. (Tickets can be purchased at detroitcityofchefs. com.)
The $20 general admission tickets carry additional perks, too. Prior to the film, attendees can stroll through a “Chef Alley” spotlighting such local culinary companies as Old World Olive Co., Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace, Stoney Creek Mushrooms, Hope’s Cookies, and Michigan Chefs de Cuisine. And speaking of chefs, such well-known Detroit chefs and authors as Brian Polcyn, Jimmy Schmidt, Kelli Lewton, and Mary Brady will be on hand to sign copies of their books.
The premiere event will also host five Michigan charities: The Rainbow Connection; Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit; Rising Stars Academy; New Day Foundation for Families; and Community Living Centers.
—Jim McFarlin
The Keith Famie documentary Detroit: The City of Chefs receives its official premiere at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9 at Emagine Theatre in Novi, 44425 West 12 Mile Rd., prior to its broadcast debut at 9 p.m. Dec. 12 on Detroit PBS. A limited number of VIP tickets, which include preferred seating, a collector’s program book, a pre-reception and a grand buffet, are $200 each and must be sold by Nov. 27 from detroitcityofchefs. com. General admission tickets are $20 and can be purchased up to and at the premiere; to buy in advance, go to emagine-entertainment.com.
Far left: Chef Keith Famie traded in his cutlery for cameras nearly two decades ago.
COURTESY PHOTO
NEWS & VIEWS
Local neo-Nazis tweak Michigan’s mean streak
By Joe Lapointe
My most profound travel experience came almost 50 years ago at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Especially jarring was the vibe of claustrophobia. Imagine eight innocent people hiding in eight rooms for two tense years while Nazis hunted them down only because they were Jews.
So they imprisoned themselves voluntarily in that the alternative was much worse during the Holocaust of World War II. In her diary, written in what she called “the Annex,” teen-age Anne told of how she felt.
“ . . . Like a songbird that has had its wings torn off and flies against the bars of its cage in total darkness,” she wrote. “‘Outside, fresh air and laughter,’ a voice inside me screams. I don’t even try to answer anymore . . .”
Her story is current again locally because a small group of masked neoNazis in Howell Township waved swastikas and chanted “Anne Frank was a whore!” outside a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank earlier this month at the American Legion Post 141 about 60 miles northwest of Detroit.
This sort of animosity is a recurring undercurrent in Michigan and particularly in Livingston County. During a racist backlash in the 1970s, Robert Miles — as Grand Dragon — led a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and hosted rallies at his farm.
In the last decade, Michigan at large saw both a plot by right-wing militia to kidnap and kill the governor as well as protestors with rifles invading the state capitol to intimidate legislators. This is the lava churning beneath our feet in the Great Lakes State.
The Anne Frank play wasn’t the only demonstration site that night. Another rally took place in nearby Fowlerville, again with masked fans of Adolf Hitler, who murdered six million European Jews. Similar events occurred elsewhere in Livingston County last summer.
Chants then included “Heil, Hitler!” and “We love Hitler! We love Trump!” Speaking of Donald Trump — the once and future president — he has helped embolden the extremists in his decade
of demagogy and he has vowed to hunt down undocumented migrants and run them out of the United States.
To do so, he’s deputized bullies like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan to enforce his will. It’s easy to see what could come next.
First targets will be Latin American men of color, the nearest and clearest scapegoats. Trump has convinced his cult that many of these “illegals” are murderers and rapists sent from “shithole countries” to live in welfare luxury in fancy hotels. Maybe they’ll hide in the annex of the Ritz.
It won’t stop there. What if new terrorism erupts from the Middle East involving Muslims or Arabs? During his first term — despite no emergency — Trump sprang his “Muslim ban” on travelers passing through airports from certain nations. Real terrorism would bring a worse crackdown.
And what about transgender Americans, demonized by Trump and by his white, Christian, nationalist base? This is about more than “men in women’s sports.” Crackdowns on the LGBTQ+ movement and on abortion rights are two elements of the crusade against sexuality spurred by the religious right.
One trick of authoritarians like Trump is to isolate specific minority groups one at a time as “the other” and convince his followers that the “others” are the enemy from within, as Trump puts it.
Next, it could be journalists or school teachers or religious leaders from
faiths he doesn’t like. Just isolate each sub-group and reassure the majority that the fate of those “others” is none of your concern.
Trump probably won’t target Jews, at least not at first. But the bubbling up of public antisemitism in recent months in the Detroit outskirts — and across the world — is a manifestation of the hate and division roused in recent years.
In Anne Frank’s Amsterdam this month, violence erupted around the soccer match of an Israeli team with other antisemitic incidents following in ensuing days unrelated to soccer, which Israeli President Isaac Herzog called a “pogrom.” (According to Dutch police, tensions mounted after supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. burned a Palestinian flag in the city square and were filmed chanting anti-Arab slogans.)
When it comes to violence like this, Frank’s precocious writing echoes through the decades. This, from her diary, after Germany conquered the Netherlands but before the family went into hiding.
“Jews must wear a yellow star,” Frank wrote. “Jews must hand in their bicycles; Jews are banned from trams and are forbidden to use any car, even a private one; Jews are only allowed to do their shopping between three and five o’clock . . .”
The horror didn’t come all at once. Gradually, the vise squeezed.
“Jews must be indoors from eight o’clock in the evening until 6 o’clock in the morning,” she wrote. “. . . Jews are
forbidden to visit theaters . . . Jews may not go to swimming baths . . . Jews may not take part in public sports . . . Jews may not visit Christians.”
Anne Frank, her parents, her sister, and the other four in hiding were captured in 1944. She died of typhus at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, shortly before the end of the war. Only her father, Otto, survived to authorize the book, the play, and the film.
Had Anne lived, her 96th birthday would be next June 12. Her memory and spirit will return to public attention again on January 27 when Anne Frank, the Exhibition opens in New York at the Center for Jewish History. It’s scheduled to run through April 30.
The immersive experience will include a full-scale replica of the Annex where the Frank family hid with the other four. Also on display will be scrapbooks and other artifacts from the Franks, who left Germany after Hitler took power.
Anne wrote in Dutch. Curators at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam said the exhibition is designed to travel to other places. Might one stop be near here?
“At this time,” they said in a press release, “future venues have not been determined.”
Perhaps a visit to metro Detroit would radiate vibes of truth and caution as far out as Livingston County and, maybe, as well, to the ends of the Earth.
Anne Frank blasphemy another sign of Trumpist times.
From left: Audra Kubat, Isis Damil, Emily Rose, Mayaeni, Marbrisa, and Michelle Held.
DOUG COOMBE
By Caryn Rose
n Friday, six Detroit singersongwriters will gather inside Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts for what’s known in Nashville as a “Writer’s Round.” The Friday Night Live! event that evening will feature musicians Isis Damil, Michelle Held, Audra Kubat, Marbrisa, Mayaeni, and Emily Rose.
The term “Writer’s Round” is shortened from writers-in-the-round. The idea is for each musician to take turns performing their songs in an acoustic, stripped-down format (don’t say “unplugged”) that’s intended to focus the audience’s attention on the song and not the performance, and is accompanied by a story or some background information about the song, the writing process, or some other element they think is interesting or relevant. In Detroit, these kinds
of evenings aren’t common, but musician Kubat, who curated the event, is hoping to change that.
When Kubat — a long-time singer, songwriter, and music educator born and raised in Detroit — was offered the Friday Night Live! spot, she decided that she wanted to do something “more eclectic and collaborative,” she tells Metro Times “Instead of just doing a solo show of my own, I wanted to kind of curate a particular songwriting night.”
In Nashville, a destination for both hopeful performers and songwriters, the round-robin format of acoustic guitars and storytelling is a norm and a rite of passage for newcomers, with dozens of helpful “how to slay your next writer’s round!” articles on the internet. But it’s not a musical tradition the Motor City is known for.
“The songwriter in the round is really an older, traditional way of sharing songs that’s been
around for a long time, but it’s not very Detroit,” Kubat says. “When I first started playing in Detroit, there wasn’t really hardly anybody doing like, ‘I’m just going to play guitar and sing!’ It’s like, the late ’60s, that happened, and Joni Mitchell lived here, and it didn’t really get big here in Detroit.”
She’s also done this sort of thing before. “I started an open mic at Union Street that ran for almost 12 years, and it was an open mic that really created a listening space because of the way I invited people in. Some of the greatest players in the city would come there, because they knew that people would be listening. They knew that the space was conducive to that because of the host and I was really trying to create a space where people could come and really hear the lyrics of songs.”
This is the impetus that inspired Kubat to
pitch her idea to the DIA, especially after an event she attended at the museum earlier this year. As part of its Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898-1971 exhibit, Friday Night Live! hosted the Black Opry Revue, featuring performances by Isaiah Cunningham, Christine Melody, Jett Holden, and Nathan Graham. “They did a songwriter’s round. It was all people of color, and it was a beautiful night of listening,” Kubat says. “And I was like, ‘This is so great. I want to do this, and I want to have the great Detroit area songwriters do it.’”
The event also ties into Kubat’s current approach to being a working musician, in a climate where venues and opportunities for artists are drastically changing if not evaporating. “I’m really about localizing the way that we support our community,” she says. “Like we need people to stay in Detroit. We don’t need everybody to leave because there’s not enough opportunity. So how can we inspire our audience to understand that them coming to our shows really helps us thrive as artists, and I want them to feel like they are a part of what helps us thrive, right?”
Asking Kubat to talk through her criteria for selecting the artists who’ll be joining her in Rivera Court, her immediate answer is about the art itself. “I think that the main criteria was songs that do work,” she tells Metro Times . “Songs that were sort of actively engaging in some kind of growth or development… I think all of these artists have a real propensity for that, that they’re able to take a story, whether it’s about themselves, whether they’re hiding themselves in it, and connect with an audience and have them want to know more and to hear more. And all of these writers have done that for me, held me in that pin-drop moment. I think when you can do that to an audience, it’s a real beautiful gift, and I think the audience really gives that gift back by listening. So I wanted it to be a memorable experience for the people that gathered, and I also wanted it to feel that way for the artists that really deserve that listening space, and to, again, be in a space where artistry is.”
Isis Damil
There’s something smoky in Isis Damil’s voice. It’s smooth, it’s sexy, it sparkles, it definitely wears sequins. Her video audition for NPR’s Tiny Desk series, featuring her song “Sacrifice,” demonstrates her impressive vocal command as well as her songwriting chops; it’s polished, intimate, tasteful, combining jazz, modern R&B, and any definition of the term “soul” you’d like to invoke. When asked for her elevator pitch, Damil responds, “Expect songs about relationships, God, vulnerability and sisterhood.” So when she tells you her favorite songwriter is Prince, it all makes sense. This is her third performance at the DIA and the thing she’s looking forward to the most
is the women she’ll be sharing the bill with. “I grew up as an only child and longed for spaces to share with beautiful, like-minded women,” she says.
She’ll be previewing an unreleased song at the event, and her favorite exhibit at the DIA was The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion . She has some shows coming up in December and you can buy tickets and get more info at isisdamil.com.
Michelle Held
There are thousands of folk singers who say they’re influenced by the likes of Dylan but where they fall to the wayside is that they offer nothing new or noteworthy to the culture. Where Held emerges above the fray is not just the unique technical qualities of her vocal instrument, multi-textured and commanding, but also her emotional approach to the songs. She’s got a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Black Cowboys” — hardly a well-known choice — that adds more depth and intimacy to the original interpretation; it’s not just presenting the same song in the same way.
Held recently released a song about the death of legendary singer-songwriter John Prine, “The World Moves On,” that doesn’t just sound great musically and vocally and sonically overall, but also offers more than empty platitudes. There’s a warmth and a sincerity that might not be fashionable — there’s zero irony here — and it’s easy to believe her.
To hear more of Michelle’s music, and find out about her January charity event “Darkness on the Edge of Corktown,” supporting the Motor City Mitten Mission, you can visit michelleheld.com.
Audra Kubat
Kubat is a songwriter, a performer, and an educator who is also the proprietor of the Detroit House of Music, a space for musicians to work and perform. You’d probably characterize her music under the umbrella of “Americana,” songs that stretch across folk and blues and country, with a propensity towards acoustic, more intimate, less electric sounds, anchored by a gorgeous, velvety voice with endless depth.
She’s been a working musician for decades, beginning in 1999 with her band Stunning Amazon. But pick anything from her solo records and the same qualities of deliberate, focused craft are obvious. Start with the urgency in “The Bells” from 2016’s Mended Vessel , the quiet beauty of “Georgia” from 2005’s Million Year Old Sand , or the sonic peace of “Caged Bird” from The Sliver & the Salve — Kubat’s artistic output is strong, thoughtful and consistent.
Listen to more music — including the deeply thoughtful “Gray Glory Parade,” her 2021 protest song featuring poet jessica Care moore — at audrakubat.com.
Marbrisa
She claims Stevie Wonder as her favorite artist of all time, and where you most hear that influence in her own work is how she has no limits to what
genre she’ll work in.
A recipient of a Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Songwriter in the World Music category, Marbrisa is more of a musical polymath than a devotee of a particular sound. She went to Spain to attend flamenco guitar school, she’s played in jazz clubs in Mexico City, and she curated a monthly songwriter event in New Orleans, where she’d gone to immerse herself in jazz and Black American music.
And her songs showcase an eclecticism borne out of enthusiasm, impossible to pigeonhole.
You can listen to more at marbrisamusic.com.
Mayaeni
It’s the deceptive power of her vocals that first draw you in — like her song “200.” “I wrote the song I needed to hear,” she says, a recitation of promises and a reminder of why she — or you, or anyone, honestly — matters.
Her music is a testament to melody, light, and space, and uplifts the listener. “The most important thing I want people to know about my music,” she says, “is that it’s authentic and comes from a place of raw emotion and personal experience.”
Her favorite item at the DIA is the Sowo Mask, “because it is Mende. My mother is from the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone and my name Mayaeni is a Mende name meaning ‘all my mothers, all my women.’”
Listen to her new song, “Sippin Lemonade” and check out her beautifully curated Instagram feed at mayaeni.com.
Emily Rose
Her voice sounds ancient and immediately familiar, whether she’s singing love songs, like “Alma,” confessions (“My Redemption Song”), on covers by Tom Petty (“Only a Broken Heart”) or a delightfully lo-fi rendition of Quarterflash’s “Harden My Heart” that breaks it down to its essentials.
That’s also representative of Rose’s approach to originals, and she probably fits into the “folk” category, and will appeal to fans of that genre, but there’s something more intriguing, more interesting, than a textbook interpretation of that particular term. “I like to write things that are simple and observational,” she says. Her favorite item at the DIA is the 16th century French Gothic Chapel.
Emily Rose’s next record is The Parlor Tapes , recorded on a four-track cassette recorder in the parlor of a historic Detroit home. Rose also has a residency the second Wednesday of every month at Ghost Light in Hamtramck called “Ghost Night,” which focuses on different departed artists, along with a second set of original music. Find out more about these (or anything else) at emilyrosemusic.com.
Friday Night Live! Detroit Songwriters with Audra Kubat is set for 7-8:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22 inside Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of the Arts; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-7900; dia.org. The event is free to attend with museum admission.
WHAT’S GOING ON
Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Be sure to check venue websites before all events for latest information. Add your event to our online calendar: metrotimes.com/ AddEvent.
MUSIC
Wednesday, Nov. 20
Live/Concert
Creed, 3 Doors Down, Mammoth WVH 7 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $39.50-$225.
Felix Martin, Ando San, Beneath This Facade 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.
Matt Lorusso Trio & Special Guests 8-11 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.
Pond, Fazerdaze 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $23.
DJ/Dance
VIVARIUM: caitlin c. harvey, Distant Feelings, Gustav Brovold, Half State 8 p.m.; Red Door Digital, 7500 Oakland Ave., Detroit; $12. Karaoke
Offbeat KARAOKE with Robby Rob 9 p.m.; Third Street Detroit, 4626 Third St., Detroit; no cover.
Thursday, Nov. 21
Live/Concert
Drew Baldridge, Tori Martin, Dylan Wolfe 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $20.
Echosmith, Lisa Heller, Jackie Evancho 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $26.99.
Kenny G : The Miracles Holiday and Hits Tour 2024 8 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $54-$65.
Nate Bergman (of Lionize), Noveltysongs 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.
Sheila Landis: Pop Faves and Golden Melodies 7 p.m.; The Hawk Theatre, 29995 W. 12 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills; $20 advance, $25 at the door. Scotty McCreery, Ben Chase 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $33-$78. Karaoke
DARE-U-OKE 9 p.m.-midnight; North-
ern 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.
Friday, Nov. 22
Live/Concert
Almost Queen (Queen tribute) 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$99.
Archthrone, Nociception, Decedent, Marrowbone 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.
Candlelight: Classic Rock on Strings 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.; Sanctuary Church Birmingham, 300 Willits St, Birmingham; $35.
EAGLEMANIA (Eagles tribute), Adaboy! 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $20-$35.
Elle King 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $32.50-$85.
Fresh Horses (Garth Brooks tribute) 8 p.m.; Emerald Theatre, 31 N. Walnut St., Mount Clemens; $18-$220.
Gillian Welch, David Rawlings 6:30 p.m.; Cathedral Theatre at the Masonic Temple, 500 Temple St., Detroit; $49-$160.
Legends of Punk tour: Fabulous Disaster, Clampdown, Whoremones 7 p.m.; Small’s, 10339 Conant St., Hamtramck; $12.
Live in The Wine Grotto: Motor City Lyric Opera 6-8 p.m.; Saint John’s Resort, 44045 Five Mile Rd., Plymouth; $25-40.
Magic Bag Presents: MEGA 80s 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.
Sins of a Madman (Ozzy tribute), Bloodstone (Judas Priest tribute) 8 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15-$80.
Saddle Up Country Dance Party! 8 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; $10-$15.
Senses Fail, Saves The Day, Narrowhead 6:30 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $34.50.
State Champs, Knuckle Puck, Meet Me @ The Altar, Daisy Grenade 6 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $39.50 advance, $45 day of show.
DJ/Dance
Yoi Toki: A Future Funk / Va-
November 20-26, 2024 | metrotimes.com
porwave Dance Party 9 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $15. 6th year Anniversary Ecstatic Dance & Potluck 7-10:30 p.m.; Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church, 23925 Northwestern Hwy., Southfield; $25-40 ($5 discount for cash).
Westend (all night long) 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $15-$20.
Saturday, Nov. 23
Live/Concert
Anthony Gomes, Cage Willis, Faded, Duke Charelle 7 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $20-$120.
Invincible (Michael Jackson tribute) 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$99.
Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $47.50-$125.
Magic Bag Presents: Class Of ‘98 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $15.
Neal Francis, Smushie 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.
Neisha Neshae 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20-$50.
Slowdive, Quannnic 7 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak;
Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Travis Thompson 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $25. Turnpike Troubadours, Trampled by Turtles, The Woods Brothers 6 p.m.; Detroit Masonic Temple Library, 500 Temple St, Detroit; $44-$215.
Weston Estate, Souly Had 7 p.m.; Majestic Theatre, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.99-$109.99.
DJ/Dance
Bogue record release party with DJ Anytime (Steve Nawara) 8 p.m.; Donovan’s Pub, 470 W. Canfield, Detroit; free.
Cumbiatron: The Cumbia Rave 8:30 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; $25.
MORTEN, Fedo, ARCS, Da11as 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20-$25.
Sunday, Nov. 24
Live/Concert
Chris Duarte Group, Brendon Linsley Band 7:30 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15$80.
Exodus, Havok, Candy, Dead Heat 6 p.m.; Majestic Theatre, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.50-$59.50. Illusion of Fate, Nethergate, Syphoned, Tormentous 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.
Midwest Takeover: Big Jaz, Sada Baby, Louie Ray, Mari Red, YM Jay, Claire 6 p.m.; The Crofoot, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $75.
Phil Ogilvie’s Rhythm Kings 5-8 pm; Zal Gaz Grotto Club, 2070 W. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor; no cover (tipjar for the band).
Phora, Tyla Yaweh 7:30 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $13.60.
Monday, Nov. 25
Live/Concert
The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show 7 p.m.; Detroit Masonic Temple Library, 500 Temple St, Detroit; $38-$155.
Sky Covington’s Satin Doll Revue: Tributes to Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Etta James, and Billie Holiday 7-10 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $40. Xeno & Oaklander, Access To Concrete, Johnstonsons 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $18.
DJ/Dance
Adult Skate Night 8:30-11 p.m.; Lexus Velodrome, 601 Mack Ave., Detroit; $5.
Tuesday, Nov. 26
Live/Concert
Global Sunsets, Blackman & Arnold Trio 7-10 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.
Mark Ambor, Kenzie 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25. DJ/Dance
B.Y.O.R Bring Your Own Records Night 9 p.m.-midnight; The Old Miami, 3930 Cass Ave., Detroit; no cover. Open Mic
Open Mic : Art in a Fly Space 7-10 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; no cover.
Performance
Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti
at Eagle Crest The Dinner Detective Comedy Mystery Dinner Show; $69.99; Saturday, 6-9 p.m.
Embassy Suites Troy The Dinner Detective Comedy Mystery Dinner Show; $69.99; Saturday, 6-9 p.m.
Meadow Brook Theatre A Christmas Carol; $50; Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; and Sunday, 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Planet Ant Black Box True West by Sam Shepard; $25 advance, $30 at the door; Fridays, Saturdays, 8-9:30 p.m.
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Detroit Cantastoria Festival is a wild, wooly and wonderful evening of short shows in the “cantastoria” form. This event features a handful of short pieces made by local artists and some artists from afar. Cantastoria is an ancient art form involving storytelling and painted banners. We also feature crankie shows which are narrated stories featuring painted scrolls that are displayed with a crank mechanism. A variety of great shows with live music! Refreshments! Cantastoria and crankie museum! Cheap art emporium! $10-20 suggested donation, first come first served seating. Produced by Flying Cardboard Theater. Friday, 8-11 p.m. and Saturday, 8-11 p.m.
The Inspired Acting Company Moon Man Walk by James Ijames. A magical story about love, family, and the secrets we keep. $30-$35; Fridays, Saturdays, 8-10 p.m. and Sundays, 2-4 p.m.
They Say The Murder Mystery Co’s Dinner Theater Show; $59; Saturday, 6:30-9 p.m.
Tipping Point Theatre Little Women; $25-$55; Wednesday, 2-4 p.m.; Thursday, 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Friday, 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 6-8 p.m.; and Sunday, 2-4 p.m. Musical
Fisher Theatre - Detroit Mean Girls (Touring); Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Fox Theatre A Charlie Brown Christmas (Touring); $25-$60; Sunday, 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 6:30 p.m.
COMEDY
Improv
Go Comedy! Improv Theater Go Comedy! All-Star Showdown; $25; Fridays, Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle 101 Comedy Class Showcase; $10 advance, $15 at the door. Wednesday; 7:30 p.m. Stand-up
The Fillmore Mike Birbiglia: Please Stop the Ride; $50-$70; Thursday, 7 p.m.
Detroit’s Christmas tree lighting
The 21st annual Christmas tree lighting in Campus Martius promises to “bring holiday magic to life” with a spectacular celebration in the heart of downtown Detroit. This cherished seasonal event will feature star-studded musical performances (including Alex Sampson of America’s Got Talent, Memphis roots band Southern Avenue, and Detroit’s Thornetta Davis), ice skating showcases, small business shops, local food and drink, family-friendly programming, and vendor giveaways. New this
Fox Theatre Jim Gaffigan: Barely Alive Tour; $39.75-$99.75; Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Little Caesars Arena Gabriel Iglesias: Don’t Worry Be Fluffy; $39.50-$150; Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle Ben Bailey; $25-$35; 7:30 p.m., Thursday; 7:15 p.m., and 9:45 p.m., Friday; 7 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.
Detroit to L.A. Comedy Challenge SemiFinals; $10; Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Continuing This Week Stand-up
Blind Pig Blind Pig Comedy; FREE; Mondays, 8 p.m.
Detroit Shipping Company 313 Comedy Show; no cover; Sundays, 7-8:30 p.m.
The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant The Sh*t Show Open Mic; $5 suggested donation; Thursdays, 9-10:30 p.m.
ASMA, based in Mexico City and formed by the artists Hanya Beliá and Matias Armendaris, will illuminate the significance of the exhibition Wonder & Pursuit in conversation with MOCAD’s Associate Curator Abel González Fernández. Friday, 6-7 p.m.; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).
The State of AI in Design Industries Three CCS alumni from varying design backgrounds will come together for a conversation centering the rise of AI in design industries, and how the use of AI has affected their own practices and sectors. The panel will be moderated by CCS Provost, Tim Flattery; Wednesday, 6:30-8 p.m.; College for Creative Studies, 201 E. Kirby St., Detroit; no cover.
Continuing This Week
Ideation Orange Detroit Royalty: A Collection of Paintings and Prints by Niagara & Snapshots: A Photographic Retrospective of the work of Sigrid Dobat. $5-$50; through Nov. 30.
year is the cozy CHALET 313, a two-story glass-paneled heated lounge where you can sip hot cocoa with 360-degree views of the park’s festive wonderland. Gather under the 66-foot Michigangrown Norway spruce and marvel as Santa lights the night sky with the glow of 25,000 twinkling lights.
—Kara Frank
4-9 p.m., Friday, Nov. 22, at Campus Martius Park; 800 Woodward Ave., Detroit; downtowndetroit. org. Free to the public.
Supernatural Brewing and Spirits Supernatural Brewing Comedy Night!; $10; 7 p.m. Thursday, 7-9 p.m.
DANCE
Dance performance
Detroit Opera House Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: 50th Anniversary Tour. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo brings its internationally beloved troupe of male dancers to Detroit to perform a brilliant combination of skillful pointe work and hilarious parodying of classical ballet favorites such as Swan Lake and The Dying Swan. $30-175; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
The Music Hall The Nutcracker; $45$95; Saturday, 7 p.m.
ARTS
Artist talk
ARTIST TALK: ASMA and Abel González Fernández The artist duo
Janice Charach Gallery Recollection; through Dec. 11.
Louis Buhl & Co. Kaylie Kaitschuck: They Don’t Love You Like I Love You; through Dec. 21.
Matéria Core City Alberte Tranberg: A third thing; through Dec. 21.
The Shepherd Grace Under Fire; through Jan. 11, 2025.
WELLNESS
Self-care
Beginners fitness bootcamp
Beginner friendly fast paced bootcamp fitness class with great trainers that keeps the class fun and simple. Mondays, 7:308:30 a.m. and 5:30-6:30 p.m.; Kratos Fit Gym, 9379 Telegraph, Redford; no cover; kratosfpg.fit.
Benefit
Northville Fitness 2024 Santa 5K Run/Walk and 1 Mile Jingle Run/Walk. The 5K will be professionally timed by the Michigan Running Foundation, with results available immediately. $40; Saturday, 10 a.m.-noon.
Carbon Athletic Club CAC’s Annual Holiday Train Party Every year we host a spectacular, one-of-a-kind event in conjunction with the Canadian Pacific holiday train. We are uniquely situated right along the tracks so that our view is like no other and our crowds have reached up to 700 attendees! Carolers, live music, bonfires, hot chocolate and warm donuts, warming spices & bourbon. We’re offering levels of cozy you cannot even begin to imagine. We’ve got it all and it’s one hell of a night. This event is what keeps our lights on and we hope you’ll join us! $10; Monday, 6-11 p.m.
Critics’ Pick
DOWNTOWN DETROIT PARTNERSHIP
MUSIC
Back in Bogue
Twenty years ago, addiction, tragedy, and industry hijinks kept Detroit band Bogue from launching. Now its lost album is ready to blast off.
By Chris Handyside
In the frenetic, beer-soaked, tinnitus-inducing atmosphere of early-2000s Detroit, the (other) Big Three ruled the conversation. The White Stripes, Electric Six, and the Von Bondies dominated the bold print and rained buzz and music industry expense accounts upon the scene. Amid this madness, there was one band — Bogue — that could have ruled them all.
With all the raw power of Detroit’s gritty rock legacy and a deep, intricate sound that drew from punk, soul, and heavy blues, Bogue had the guts, the swing, and the punch. It was the proverbial favorite band of your favorite band. And its live shows were sweaty, howling celebrations of heartbreak and good times. But by the time the bloom was off the “Detroit is the next Seattle” rose, Bogue was no more and all the band had left behind was a demo recording, made on the quick and cheap, that was passed hand-to-hand.
Now, more than 20 years since its recording and the passing of band coleader Dan Maister, Bogue’s music has been remastered and is finally getting a shot at a proper release as the album How’d You Feel About Talking to Me on the JettPlastic Recordings label.
A band born from the Cass Corridor
Bogue could only have been born in one place, the Cass Corridor (not “Midtown”), the funky pumping artistic heart of Detroit, where genres and boundaries and hearts go to be broken. Guitarist-singer Maister and drummer (and acclaimed sculptor) Matt Blake formed Bogue as a two-piece in 1999, shortly after Maister left his spot as bassist in PW Long’s Reelfoot — the outfit that Mule mainman Preston Long spun out of the ashes of that legendary band.
They hadn’t played long before they hooked up a gig at the Gold Dollar where Mike Walker (late of psych noise titans Gravitar) worked as a doorman. “As soon as I saw them, I said to myself, ‘I have got to be in this fucking band,” recalls Walker. Turns out, Walker and Maister lived across an alley from one
another in the Corridor and had been head-nod-familiar from the neighborhood. It made it easy to give jamming together a shot.
The trio’s chemistry was immediate, their collaboration organic. It helped, says Walker, that “I think Dan was ready to be the songwriter he always wanted to be.”
Their proximity helped cement their bond and made it easier to woodshed the jams Maister had written and practice five times a week.
The result was Bogue — a band that married the blues punk energy and legacy of the Laughing Hyenas with the soulful groove of Detroit’s deeper musical roots.
The lost demo: Capturing lightning in a bottle Bogue’s music has the raw intensity of the city’s most iconic bands, but there was something more underneath. Beneath the gut-punching power of their live shows was a surprising intricacy — an almost jazzy interplay between the musicians that never veered into indulgence. The band’s sound drew from a wide range of influences, from classic rock to Southern soul, with a heavy dose of punk rock attitude.
“We listened to a ton of the Meters, Otis Redding, and the Stones,” Walker says. “But we also came from a punk rock background. We loved Mudhoney and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. We wanted to create something that merged all those influences.”
In 2002, Bogue entered the studio to record what they thought was just a demo, recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders to be shopped to the swirling industry interested parties of the day. The recording process was rushed. They had only two days to capture their sound, with seriously limited resources. “We didn’t have any money for tape,” Walker recalls. “So, Diamond let us record over two reels — 40 minutes of tape, like, old Hentchmen part recordings maybe.
“It was super tight, but we didn’t care. We just wanted to get it done.”
What that time constraint did, though, was capture on tape the ur-
gency of the band’s live show. Walker remembers the process as almost impulsive: “We tracked all the music in one day, and Dan laid down vocals the next. We were in the studio, but we didn’t have time to be precious with it. We were like, ‘cut it, print it, let’s go.’”
“Diamond would just be like, ‘Sounds like another hit to me!’ and we’d move on,” laughs Walker.
“It was really about capturing the energy. We didn’t want to spend time obsessing over every detail.”
There’s a distinct vitality to the demo that was preserved even in the remastering process. The spontaneity, the sweaty joy of playing together as a band, is all there. The music wasn’t overworked or overproduced, and that’s part of what made it so compelling. “It’s a young band cooking live in the studio,” Walker reflects. “It’s messy, but in a good way.”
So, while it wasn’t supposed to be the final product, the demo captured the essence of Bogue at that moment in time — hungry, confident, and ready.
The recordings immediately became a cult classic for those who managed to get their hands on the burned CDs.
At the time, Bogue had serious interest from labels. “We were shopping the demos around, trying to find a label that understood us,” Walker recalls.
At one point, the band thought they might be the flagship act for a new label started by and named after Diamond, its trusted producer, financed by New York-based investors hot on the Detroit sound.
“Jim understood us. He got the soul in our sound, and he loved the dirty, loud side of our music,” Walker says.
“I remember they couldn’t wrap their silly heads around what ‘bogue’ meant,” says Diamond, “and wanted the band to change their name!”
The label was ready to launch, “I had a logo, etc., etc., the record was done and then they lose the distributor!” says Diamond.
“Now we have an ‘if a tree falls in the forest...’ scenario.”
This experience left a bitter taste in the band’s mouth. “It felt like people saw Detroit as a commodity,” Walker explains. “[The money people behind
the label] wanted to capitalize on the scene, but they didn’t care about the music. It was just business for them.”
The band, nevertheless, continued full court press trying to break through. Maister and Walker joined the band the Detroit City Council, led by pal and scene stalwart Tom Potter of Bantam Rooster, for a U.K. tour. They toured backing up and opening for PW Long.
“We were all in,” says Walker, “We were going to make Bogue happen.”
The pressure nevertheless mounted and Matt Blake left the band to focus on his sobriety. The band recruited a new drummer, Bill Hafer, a fine art painter who had most recently been in an East Side Guns N’ Roses cover band. While Hafer brought new energy to the group, the internal struggles, including addiction and creative differences, began to erode the band’s momentum.
“It got really dark there,” says Walker. “It was difficult with the lifestyle choices we were making.”
The band’s trajectory inevitably slowed, and the excitement that had once driven Bogue backslid to entropy. The final note was Maister’s tragic suicide in January of 2005. He was just 34 years old. Original drummer Blake, too, died suddenly of a heart attack in 2008 at the age of 43.
Walker continued in other musical projects and eventually re-settled in his hometown of Marquette. It is from that geographical, temporal, and psychological distance that he now has the chance to see the work the band produced and shepherd it into the light.
A powerful legacy
For Walker, the decision to release the record was a personal one. “It’s been 20 years, and I’ve accepted that it probably wouldn’t come out.” But then Walker contributed an interview to an oral history accompanying the 20th anniversary reissue of Electric Six’s album Fire
“And it just hit me, I need to get this out,” he says. “I didn’t care if people thought it was a vanity project. I just wanted to see it through and put it to rest. This is something I was part of, and I’m really proud of it.”
It made perfect sense, then, to go back to the source and see if the recordings could get that final push, the last bit of “oomph” and polish from the man who recorded them two decades ago. So it was that Diamond was tapped to remaster them. The difference is both subtle and startling.
“When I found the stuff to master,” says Diamond, “it was just to make it
big and loud and keep true to what we had recorded over 20 years ago. Nothing fancy needed.”
“I had basically zero input, and honestly I was kind of relieved,” says Walker.
“I didn’t know what to look for when he sent the masters back to me. I’d listened to the rough mix quite a few times in the previous months, trying
“I didn’t care if people thought it was a vanity project. I just wanted to see it through and put it to rest. This is something I was part of, and I’m really proud of it.”
with the weight of the intervening challenges and tragedies of two decades — Walker feels a deep connection to the music.
“I’m proud of what we did with this stuff. Pride is something that’s new to me, but this is what helped me get to a point in my life that I can accept that as a concept.”
He cites the song “I’ll Regret This,” a slow instrumental, as an example.
“When I was still drinking, I couldn’t hear it and not cry, for missing both Dan and Matt. Now I hear it, and I want to climb on the roof and play it for the whole town, ‘You hear that, fuckers?! You can’t step to that!’ kinda vibe,” he laughs.
“The most regrettable part is that I don’t get to see Dan and Matt’s reaction to this. There’s so much work that went into it, and every decision I make now, I wish I could run it by them. But I know it’s the right time to release it. At least it’s getting done.”
Bogue may never have become a household name, but with the release How’d You Feel About Talking to Me?, folks will finally get to hear a lost classic of Detroit rock properly — a record that was never meant to be heard as loud and proud as it should have been.
to decide the order. So, when I put it on the stereo, I was totally shocked. It sounds ferocious!
“I texted Jim right away, and he’s like, ‘Yeah. It *should* sound ferocious!’
“I think my wife was laughing at me because I’m sure I was making stupid faces,” says Walker. “Like I was watching a boxing match or something.”
Despite the passage of time — and
As Walker reflects on the band’s legacy, he remains proud of what it achieved. “We never really got to be the band we could have been, but that’s just how it goes sometimes,” he says. “We were part of something special, and now people can finally hear it. Better late than never.”
A record release party will go down at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, at Donovan’s Pub; 3003 Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 313-964-7418. DJ Anytime (aka Steve Nawara of the Detroit Cobras, Rocket 455, and Wildbunch) will spin jams.
Guitarist Mike Walker, the last remaining member of Bogue, decided to release the band’s unfinished 2002 recordings. DOUG COOMBE
MUSIC
A street-trained philosopher
Detroit rapper-turned-entrepreneur shares life lessons in The Hustle Code
By Eddie B. Allen Jr.
Hustling has become a way of life for Detroit King Tape. Whether as an independent rap artist promoting his King of Detroit 2006 CD on local billboards, or temporarily working at Thorn Apple Valley’s slaughterhouse on the east side, adapt-andthrive has been his blueprint. Now in his 40s, he’s a serial entrepreneur who owns and distributes Health n Hustle Nature’s Flex detox supplements, contributes music and acting to films like the 2024 indie movie The Port, and plans to launch the Ceenverde tequila line in 2025.
Reflecting on years committing burglaries, selling drugs, and drifting back and forth to prison — in between producing for his downtown-based Industry Sound Studio’s Deal Witt It Records — Detroit King Tape self-published a book, The Hustle Code, this fall. A sort of abbreviated memoir dipped into the inspirational genre, The Hustle Code offers life tips from the perspective of a street-trained philosopher. Although today Tape, who says he always felt a “calling” beyond his challenging childhood circumstances, spends most of his time in the Los Angeles area, he tells Metro Times that The Hustle Code was developed from uniquely Detroit experiences.
Metro Times: What motivated you early on to move beyond illegal hustling into hustling as a positive lifestyle for success?
Detroit King Tape: I have a very vivid memory of being at Terre Haute [an Indiana
federal prison]. The guards were racist as a hell, and I remember refusing a job to help build a unit where they’d kill inmates on death row. So they wrote me a “ticket” and put me in the “hole.” It was Christmas time, and I remember them playing Stevie Wonder and “This Christmas” by Donnie Hathaway on the speakers, just to fuck with us. I sat back and realized, “I gotta switch this shit up.” Every cell that I went to, from then on, I would find a piece of paper and I would write, “This, too, shall pass,” and put it on the wall.
MT: How did all that experience crystallize into The Hustle Code?
DKT: During the time that I was on the run [at 18, after shooting a man in Saginaw, which was eventually deemed a justifiable homicide], I was at a friend’s house and his mom saw the stress on me. This was a childhood friend who I knew well, so his mom knew me. She said, “Let me read your tarot cards.” I said, “I’m not really into that,” but she said, “It might help you,” so I said, “OK.” Everything she read in the cards, it was resonating in a positive way. She told me all that I was dealing with was going to be resolved, and she didn’t even know I was on the run at the time. So I called my mom and I was telling her I wasn’t turning myself in, but the police had been calling her and telling her they just wanted to talk to me. She said, “Hell naw, you’re not going in. Fuck that!” That’s my mom, because she’s
Hustle Code. How does fear factor into a “hustle” mentality?
from the streets. She didn’t want her baby turning himself in to the police on a murder charge. It turned out that they had already talked to everybody in the case, and the woman who was being choked by the man I shot, she told the story that I saved her. The reading that my friend’s mom gave me, she stated that I would be “cleared,” so I felt like I was being guided through the whole thing. It was confirmation, because it was telling me that I had a higher calling.
MT: Where did you learn about hustling?
DKT: When I was in school on the east side I would make ninja stars out of paper and sell them for a quarter a piece to the students. That’s where the hustle started. It was just embedded in me. I wasn’t even the type of young guy that wanted to be under anybody’s wing. That’s all my mother dated, hustlers, and my sister, when she grew up, that’s all she dated. I would just pick up “game” from watching them. I learned about guns after stealing my mother’s boyfriend’s gun. I got into shootouts and everything, and I would just replace the bullets and put the gun back. Like I say in the book, there’s a negative connotation, but your hustle can be applied to your way of life. It’s a way of maneuvering. When we’re talking about the mindset of a person, we have to be able to maneuver in a certain way.
MT: You mention fear several times in The
DKT: I first experienced fear as a young African American. It’s like going down in that dark, spooky basement, just encountering things you have to conquer. I had a fear of going to visit my father in prison. He spent 33 years, only to come home and die in a house fire within two years. Seeing how smart he was, how much potential he had, they still denied his freedom. I had to develop my peace and make up my mind that I wasn’t going down like him. A lot of people have the fear of actually learning a new way. A lot of people don’t want to try something different. They want to, but it’s hard. It’s not easy to flip that switch. Even in the streets, if you have to convert, if you have to get a job, you can say, “It’s temporary. Let me see it as something for the longevity of what I’m doing that’s going to get me through this period.”
MT: How does the health principle play into The Hustle Code?
DKT: It’s what I learned about balance. Two things in life you gotta have – your health and your hustle. All the ailments I saw in the people around me through the years, we weren’t just dying of murder. I saw people with diabetes, people on dialysis. I was talking to a lady the other day and telling her there are two things your kids are going to look up to you for: being cool and rich. But it’s hard to have one without the other. There’s a lot of parents and their kids don’t give a fuck about ‘em, because they’re not cool. Health is the cool part now, because people are more into being healthy. You have to have health to sustain your hustle. I just want to leave the people with this message right here: You can’t be short-sighted and still want longevity. That’s the overall message of The Hustle Code – in order to apply all of this, you have to be thinking with a mindset of moving ahead.
The book is available for purchase for $19.99 from detroitkingtape.com.
Detroit King Tape has published a new book. COURTESY PHOTO
FOOD
Soul food classics
By Jane Slaughter
Fixins
Soul Kitchen
1435 Randolph St., Detroit
313-513-7685
fixinssoulkitchen.com/Detroit
Entrées with sides $17-$29
The design at Fixins is aimed to trigger every patriotic impulse of a Detroiter and more particularly of a Black Detroiter. The outsize posters throughout celebrate Motown, movies like The Wiz and Mahogany, and magazine covers from Ebony, Essence, Jet, and Black Enterprise lionizing Marvin, Aretha, Stevie, and Berry Gordy.
The featured whiskey is Uncle Nearest, called after the former slave who taught distilling to Jack Daniel. Cocktails are named for Black Wall Street (the Fixins group has an outpost on the original Black Wall Street in Tulsa) and for Belle Isle.
Detroit’s Fixins is the newest in a four-eatery chain owned by Kevin Johnson — star of the Phoenix Suns, mayor of Sacramento, motivational speaker, and restaurateur. The menu includes the usual favorites — fried chicken, oxtails, fried fish, pork chops, waffles, grits, collards, mac and cheese,
biscuits, cornbread, candied yams, black-eyed peas, fried green tomatoes — and a new rendering of deviled eggs, with the white deep-fried before the stuffing is piped in. Just in case you thought there wasn’t enough frying in soul food.
There is, of course. The crust on Fixins’ fried chicken is so thick you have quite a crunchy way to go before you get to the meat, which, perhaps because of all that protection, is as juicy as it’s possible for chicken to be. I loved it while trying not to think too hard about what an inch of warm, flaky fried dough meant to me nutritionally.
There’s more of it: corn fritters, which come with the fried fish, taste almost doughnut-like. The fish itself, a generous portion, has a very light, just right cornmeal coating, bucking to be seen as the health food of soul food. Or that nod could go to the collards, their tang leavened with a hint of sweetness, perhaps from the turkey necks they’re steeped with. Or earthy black-eyed peas, whose taste is unique but could owe something to ham hocks. Little bits of scallion scattered atop don’t look like mama’s, but were welcome.
All the sides, or fixins, at Fixins are traditional and well executed. I liked
best charred okra; if you roast this vegetable, you need never fear slime. I looked online for help describing okra’s distinctive flavor and got “a green-tasting grassiness,” which seems right, but I’d add “bright.” Mac and cheese was fine but more ordinary, as were red beans and rice — again, fine, but not in a category with New Orleans or Mexico. Fried green tomatoes come with chipotle-mayo sauce and thin slices of watermelon radishes. Green tomatoes being their unripe selves, the main taste is… fried. Artichoke dip is cheesy and spicy; you’ll taste all the cheeses far more than the veg.
My favorite dish was oxtails, and one wonders why oxtails aren’t eaten more often. Is it because cows have just one tail apiece? The tails were indeed the most expensive item on the menu, at $29; it’s their fat and cartilage that give oxtails their deep, rich flavor, and of course they’re slow-cooked to ultra-tenderness. Their exquisite gravy deserved a better bed than rice that tasted boxed.
Gumbo was a little gloppy for my tastes, with a dearth of sausage. I like my muffins and biscuits lighter, too — they should be fluffy, not solid. Sugar level is a matter of taste, and these corn muffins were on the sweet side,
as many, many grandmas are wont to make them.
Sandwiches are also possible: fish or chicken or burgers, the latter with melted pimento cheese. Green salads have plenty going on, such as Fritos, cornbread croutons and chicken thighs.
Fixins offers red, blue, or purple Kool-Aid for $5; personally, I would pay not to wander down that memory lane. There’s even an Adult KoolAid that also includes vodka, peach purée, and lemon juice. No thanks! I was happy with my Black Wall Street Old-Fashioned with Uncle Nearest rye, which came looking quite sophisticated, a rich brown in a tapered glass. I ordered it partly for the name and partly, I admit, for the crème de cacao. The chocolate is leavened with Hella smoked chili bitters and more “spicy spices.” To my taste it was far superior to the PYT, which was a pretty purple but medicinal. Cocktails in general run to the sweet side, with lots of Caribbean-ish ingredients.
Fixins already has a reputation; it was very full each weeknight I visited, and loud. A sign warns that 90 minutes is your maximum, though food comes quickly enough. Happy hour is Monday-Friday 3-6 p.m.
Fixins Soul Kitchen serves up soul food favorites like chicken and waffles. COURTESY PHOTO
CULTURE
Film
Four new movies to watch — in a theater!
As life becomes more lived in, I notice I have less time to spend at the movie theater, so when I’m finally able to go, I really like to take advantage of it and stuff as many movies into one visit as humanly possible. One of the worst parts of doing that? Spending eight or so hours at a theater. The best part? Watching a wide variety of disparate movies together that makes my brain feel like I’m in my own mini-film festival. Recently I caught four movies in a row at the theater and now my whole entire brain feels funny. Here’s what I saw:
The Wild Robot
Rated: PG
Runtime: 102 minutes
At the bookstore I work at, we’re constantly selling copies of the 2016 novel by Peter Brown to kids so excited to read it that they’re bursting to get out of the store and bury their brains in the book. Now I understand. From Chris Sanders, the director of How to Train Your Dragon and a few other stone classics, The Wild Robot tells the
By Jared Rasic, Last Word Features
story of a helper robot named Rez who accidentally ends up in the forest trying to do things for animals that are only terrified and confused by her. Obviously, they all eventually become close, but it’s done in ways that are genuinely lovely and filled with gorgeous lessons for kids. Any film that tries to teach the youth lessons about non-violence and how to cultivate a peaceful existence is OK by me, and even though the plot is sometimes very YA, it works in ways I found at turns very moving and wonderfully charming.
Grade: B+
Smile 2
Rated: R
Runtime: 127 minutes
The first Smile was easily one of the spookiest movies I’ve seen in the last couple years, so maybe I was unrealistically excited for the new one, but I found the sequel to be a bit of a mixed bag. From a bravura opening sequence done in one shot, to a genuinely dis -
are either dropped halfway through the movie or that don’t give the film a spine to hang the great Tom Hardy performance upon. The series has always been buoyed by astonishing talents (the first film was shot by the great cinematographer Matthew Libatique and scored by certified genius Ludwig Göransson, while the second was directed by Gollum actor himself, Andy Serkis, and shot by one of the two or three greatest living cinematographers, Robert Richardson. Nothing about the Venom movies seems to have earned this level of talent behind the camera, but their presence easily makes the films so much more than they could have otherwise been. Too bad that level of talent was curated for the screenwriters who, led by Kelly Marcel, do a great job crafting a funny and charming relationship between Eddie Brock (Hardy) and his alien parasite (voiced by Hardy), but the stories they’re asked to participate in are ridiculous. And I don’t mean ridiculous in the way a lot of superhero movies are, but in a generally nonsensical type of way. Basically, I like these movies more than I actually respect them.
Grade: C+
Heretic
Rated: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
turbing first act that almost gave me a panic attack, I initially thought Smile 2 was poised to be even better than the original. But then it feels like the film just stops taking itself seriously and leans into campy horror… and not in a good way. While writer-director Parker Finn has serious talent and is definitely trying to infuse modern, dread-soaked horror with a formalist Kubrickian vibe, he’s still so new as a filmmaker that the seams are still showing in his influences. Fun in the moment, but ultimately nothing too memorable.
Grade: C+
Venom: The Last Dance
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 109 minutes
Look, can we accept that these movies are ultimately really fun and entertaining, while also being complete and absolute nonsense. All three Venom films feel like products of massive amounts of editing and deleted scenes in postproduction, leading to plot lines that
Why hasn’t Hugh Grant been making creepy psychological thrillers for years? Imagine his droll and charming smirk that he has employed since Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Sense and Sensibility, but then weaponized in a way that makes him scarier than he has ever been before. Heretic follows two young Mormon women (the flawless Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who visit an Englishman in his deceptively large home in an attempt to win him over to the church. What begins as a discussion between the three about the history of organized religion and its effects on society as a whole ends up slowly twisting into a dangerous game of cat, mouse, and mouse. From the tightly written and unpredictable script to the three excellent central performances and the assured direction from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Heretic is an absolute blast. While the third act doesn’t tie things together in the most satisfactory of ways, the film still feels like a startlingly original thriller that’s almost impossible to look away from. I see a future where Hugh Grant is in a lot more movies where his charm curdles and becomes something much scarier.
Grade: A-
Based on a popular book by Peter Brown, The Wild Robot is charming both kids and adults.
DREAMWORKS
CULTURE
Savage Love Twinning
By Dan Savage
: Q I might be falling in love with my husband’s identical twin brother.
My husband and I have been in a traditional monogamous cishet straight marriage for twelve years. It wasn’t until the last few years that I started catching feelings for my brother-in-law, who is also married. I started to notice my BIL in a way that surprised me when we went on a family vacation together. He’s just so empathetic, compassionate, and articulate. He also has the same body my husband does (obviously), although my BIL is a little fitter than my husband. What is really hard to understand is that my feelings for my husband haven’t changed. Do I love them both? Is that possible? Our sex life isn’t suffering. I’ve never been someone who can have orgasms without a vibrator assist, and I’m fine with that. Sometimes though, I find myself thinking about my BIL and feel extremely turned on. When he’s not around I miss him. I’ve even dreamt about the two of us just talking to each other.
I feel extremely guilty about this because acting on it would mean betraying everyone I love. Sometimes it’s extremely overwhelming. I find myself watching my BIL and wondering if he feels the same way about me. I think he might — to a degree — but I know neither of us would want to jeopardize our marriages and I would never ask my BIL to jeopardize his relationship with his brother. I also love my sisterin-law very much. But I can’t help but wonder that in some weird parallel universe maybe I was meant to be with my BIL. I can’t tell anyone about this and I’m desperate to hear what you think. Could I have chosen the wrong twin? I am afraid the only way forward is to just keep quietly loving my BIL and never say anything.
—Crumbling Rapidly Under Stupid Heartache
A: It’s certainly possible to love more than one romantic partner at a time — please see the hundreds of columns I’ve written over the years about polyamory — but it’s not al-
ways possible for a particular individual to have more than one romantic partner at a time.
Like, say, someone in a traditional monogamous cishet straight marriage.
You know what else is possible? It’s possible for a cishet married monogamously married person to have one of those run-of-the-mill, all-consuming, life-affirming, harmless crushes on someone they’re not married to. (It’s impossible to have a crush on someone you are married to.) When a married person has a one of those run-of-the-mill, etc., crushes on someone who isn’t their spouse, CRUSH, it’s not a sign — not all by itself — that there’s something wrong with their marriage. Even happily married people sometimes fantasize about alternative timelines where they’re married to someone else, e.g., that friendly coworker, that hot barista, that unattainable movie star, etc., instead of the person waiting for them at home.
But when the object of a crush is someone explosively inappropriate… when the disclosure of the crush would create a blast radius so wide nothing for miles could possibly survive… that crush can best be understood as a kind of death wish. In other words, CRUSH: sometimes a crush is just a crush and sometimes a crush is a manifestation of a subconscious desire to blow it all up.
What can be done about a deathwish crush? Nothing. All you can do if you don’t wanna blow it all up — is wait it out, same as you would one of those harmless crushes. It might take a few weeks or months… or it might take the rest of your life... but crushes, death-wish or otherwise, like everything else, don’t last forever.
P.S. I see two upsides to this death-wish crush of yours, CRUSH, given your particular and highly unique circumstances. First, if your husband ever finds out you have a crush on his brother — and here’s hoping he never does — it’s not like you have a crush on his physical opposite. Unlike a woman with brown hair and small breasts who realizes her husband is crushing on a blond with big tits, your husband won’t have to worry that he isn’t your type. And if like all married people you sometimes fantasize about other people while you’re having sex with your spouse, CRUSH, you won’t have to close your eyes to picture your crush instead of your husband. You
won’t even have to squint.
: Q
I’m a 36-year-old cis woman and I’ve been with my boyfriend for just over fifteen years. We’ve generally happy and we have a great and very active sex life. We’re monogamous, we’re kind to each other, and we spend a lot of time together. The thing is, we’ve never gotten married. I made it clear at different points in our relationship that I was open to it, but he’s always been against it. He says he just doesn’t see the point. It’s never been something I dreamt about, but I figured we’d get around to it eventually. Lately I’ve been feeling more and more like this fact — the fact that we haven’t gotten married yet — is an indicator that something is deeply wrong with our relationship. He’s not anti-marriage. He’s gotten choked up during the vows at every wedding we’ve ever been to. So now, fifteen years in, I fear it’s not marriage he doesn’t want, it’s me.
Other context: I come from a very broken family (abusive home, two siblings died from drugs/suicide, I’m estranged from nearly everyone else), and I’ve always felt that no matter how great my life might seem outwardly, deep down I’m radioactive because of where I came from. I’m also the primary earner in our house, with a very good income. He’s in a creative field and I’ve bankrolled our life together. I’ve been happy to do it. That said, his entire family is super weird about money, and I watched his sister marry and divorce an absolute troll because he was loaded. I’ve got no interest in giving him an ultimatum. Talking about it can’t change how he feels deep down towards me. What do I do?
—Relationship Isn’t Nearing Goal
A: If you wanna marry this man if you’re ready to marry this man stop waiting for him to pop the question and pop it yourself already. While a person can fake wanting to fuck you and/or spend time with you, a person can only fake that shit for so long. So, based on your description of your relationship, RING, I’d say your boyfriend genuinely loves you. If he was only interested in your earning power and willingness to subsidize his artistic endeavors, boredom and/ or resentment would’ve creeped in around the edges years ago. And think about it: if your boyfriend didn’t love you — if he was only after your money — he would’ve proposed to you, married you, and divorced you a long time ago. Again, if you’re still getting wanna fuck/wanna hang vibes from him fifteen years in, odds
are good they’re genuine.
And the world is full of happily married men and women who didn’t think marriage was for them, i.e., men and women only agreed to marry because it was what their spouses wanted. In some cases, these reluctant-to-marry-but-now-happilymarried types only had to be asked once, RING, but in others the partner that wanted marriage had to issue a shit-or-get-off-my-face ultimatum: we’re getting married or we’re going our separate ways. There’s always a risk, of course, that a reluctant-tomarry or doesn’t-see-the-point type partner will pick the second option — and end the relationship — but you can’t get what without making demands. And if he can’t have you without marrying you, RING, suddenly marriage has a point, right?
And if he refuses to marry you — if he refuses your ultimatum — you have the option of backing down.
P.S. When people hear “creative” they usually think “extrovert.” But not all creatives are extroverts. If you boyfriend is a behind-the-scenes creative (writer, composer, illustrator) as opposed to a front-and-center creative (actor, singer, contortionist), he may dread the idea of being the center of attention — and the bride and groom at a big wedding are the center of crushing amount of attention. So, if your boyfriend is an introvert, make it clear to him that it’s marriage you want, RING, not a big wedding.
P.P.S. Before anyone jumps into the comments to call RING’s partner a mooch: We can’t condemn straight men who are uncomfortable with their wives making more money than they do — and there are examples out there of straight men so threatened by successful women that they’ve actively undermined and even sabotaged their wives’ careers — and then shit on straight men being “bankrolled” by their committed romantic partners. If we don’t want straight men to feel “emasculated” for earning less than their female partners — and we live in a world where women are increasingly lapping men educationally and professionally — shaming straight men who earn less than their partners is the wrong way to go about it.
Read the full column online at savage.love.
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CULTURE Free Will Astrology
By Rob Brezsny
ARIES: March 21 – April 19
Award-winning Aries filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was born and raised in the U.S. But he has said, “I don’t make movies for America. I make movies for planet Earth.” I applaud his expansive perspective and recommend you cultivate your own version of it in the coming weeks. You will generate good fortune for yourself as you enlarge your audience, your range of influences, and your sphere of activity. It will be an excellent time to transcend previous notions of who you are and what your life’s assignments are. The frontiers are calling you to open your mind wider than ever as you leap to the next higher octave of your destiny.
TAURUS: April 20 – May 20
“Earth knows no desolation. She smells regeneration in the moist breath of decay.” Author George Meredith said that, and now I’m
conveying it to you. Why? Because you’re entering a phase when you will have maximum power to ensure that decay leads to regeneration. My advice: Instead of trying to repress your awareness of what’s decomposing, tune into it energetically. The sooner you embrace the challenging but interesting work to be done, the faster and more effective the redemption will be. Here’s your battle cry: Turn rot into splendor!
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20
indicators suggest that in the coming months, you should take extra advantage of your culture’s revels, parties, and social merriment. If you’re not in Japan, do your best to fulfill your cosmic mandate to frolic and carouse. Start as soon as possible!
VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21
If you’re not up north trying to ventilate some venison, feel free to head to your local watering hole and frolic with the does and bucks of your choosing.
Mercury will be your slippery but sticky companion in the coming weeks, Gemini. Whether or not you believe he is a literal god who abides in the spiritual realm, I trust you will acknowledge that he is a vivid archetype. He symbolizes forces that facilitate communication and promote connection. Since he is constantly traveling and conversing, he also represents boundary-crossing and thresholds. I encourage you to summon his assistance whenever you want to lubricate links and foster combinations. He can help you unify disparate influences and strengthen your network of allies.
CANCER: June 21 – July 22
Utility poles and telephones poles may seem to be indestructible towers, but they have a limited life span. A prime factor in their gradual demise is woodpeckers. The birds drill holes that over time weaken the wood. Their handiwork allows moisture to seep in, causing rot, and creates access points for small animals to burrow in and cause further disintegration. I bring this to your attention because I want to encourage you to launch a woodpecker-like campaign against any seemingly impregnable structures that oppress and restrict you. It might take a while to undermine their power to interfere with your life, but now is an excellent time to begin.
LEO: July 23 – August 22
BEER GOES WITH DEER!!
As an American, I’m jealous of how many festivals the Japanese people celebrate. By some estimates, there are over 100,000 events every year — an average of 274 per day! They may feature music, theater, dancing, entertainment, karaoke, sumo matches, games, delicious food, colorful costumes, spiritual observances, and parades of floats and shrines. If you are a Japanese Leo, you’re in luck. The astrological
The Flintstones was an animated TV comedy show broadcast in the U.S. from 1960 to 1966. It was colossally silly and wildly popular. It portrayed cavemen and cavewomen living suburban lives in the Stone Age with dinosaurs as pets and cars made of wood and rocks. The chirpy theme song for the show was stolen from a piano sonata written by the classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven. In the coming weeks, Virgo, I invite you to steadily carry out the opposite of that conversion. Transform what’s daft or preposterous into what’s elegant and meaningful. Change superficial approaches into righteous devotions. Move away from trifling diversions and toward passionate magnificence.
LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22
Even if you’re not a professional writer, I invite you to compose three lyrical messages in the coming days. One will be a psalm of appreciation for a person who enchants your imagination and inspires you to be your best self. Another will be a hymn of praise that you address to yourself — a gorgeous, expansive boast or an outpouring of gratitude for the marvel and mystery of you. The third salutation will be an address to a higher power, whether that’s God, Goddess, Nature, your Guardian Angel, Higher Self, or Life itself. If you can find it in your brave, wild heart to sing or chant these exaltations, you will place yourself in close alignment with cosmic rhythms. (P.S.: In general, now is a fantastic time to identify what you love and express your feelings for what you love.)
SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21: The Greek term pharmakon has a complicated set of meanings: scapegoat, poison, remedy, and recipe. According to my astrological analysis, all of these could soon be operative in your life. One surprise is that a metaphoric “poison” you are exposed to may ultimately serve as a remedy. Another curiosity is that a scapegoat may reveal a potent recipe for redemptive transformation. A further possibility: You will discover a new recipe for a very fine remedy. I’m not certain exactly how the whole story will unfold, but I’m betting the net effect will be a lot of healing.
The Museum of Broken Relationships is in Zagreb, Croatia. It collects castaway objects left behind after intimate relationships have collapsed. Among its treasures are love letters, wedding rings, jars of bitter tears, stuffed animals, featherfilled quilts, and matching sweaters. Inspired by this sad spectacle, I invite you to create a very different shrine in your home: one that’s dedicated to wonderful memories from times of successful togetherness. Making this ritual gesture of hope and positivity will prepare you well for the potential relationship growth available for you in the coming months.
CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19
It’s the Soul Retrieval phase of your long-term cycle, Capricorn. Have there been people, either alive or dead, who wounded or pirated parts of your treasured essence? Have you experienced painful events that weakened your connection to your inner riches? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to undertake meditations in which you carry out repair and restoration. You will summon curative agents whenever you reclaim lost and missing fragments of your soul. Be aggressive in seeking helpers who can synergize your own efforts.
AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18
The Wistaria Vine in Sierra Madre, California is the world’s biggest blooming plant. Spread over an acre, it weighs 250 tons and teems with over 1.5 million blossoms. I propose we regard it as your inspirational symbol for the coming months. Why? I expect you will be more abundantly creative and generative than maybe ever before. Your vitality will overflow. Your vigor will be delightfully lavish and profound. Homework: Start planning how you will wield and manage all that lushness.
PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20
Piscean playwright and songwriter Robert Lopez is the only person to have won all four of the following awards more than once: Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, and Grammys. He was also the youngest person to have won all four. I propose we make him your inspirational role model in the coming weeks and months. According to my astrological analysis, you are primed to ascend to new levels of accomplishment in your chosen field — and to be acknowledged for your success. Think big! Then think even bigger.
Homework: I invite you and dare you to revise your definitions of success.
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