Metro Times 10/19/22

NEWS & VIEWS

Feedback

We received responses to last week’s cover story by our digital editor Alex Washington (her first ), a weetest Day story looking at the romantic relationships of three local couples.

S/O to Alex Washington and her amazing cover! love the positive nature Black working couples are being shown. This is perfect!

— hristian Black, Facebook

That’s all the fun of writing. You did FANTASTIC! know one of your couples personally and loved every word! So accurate!

— herell eid, Facebook

Dope! Black Love Y — ocki Harris, Facebook

This was such beautiful insightful loving piece! love black loveeeee.

—Franise olaMarcia Hearn, Facebook

love how she covered real Detroiters!! — randirossario, Instagram

Beautiful article. — lolamarcia, Instagram

Alex Washington is the one of the best writers in this generation. Thank you for such beautiful write up about our love! nd O TS on your rst cover for Metro Times!!! We’re honored to be apart of this epic moment.

—Melody Fresher, Facebook

On the cover: Courtesy photo

Publisher -

Associate Publisher -

EDITORIAL

Editor in Chief - Lee

Digital Content Editor - Alex Washington

Investigative Reporter - Steve Neavling

Staff Writer - Randiah Camille Green

ADVERTISING

Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen

Regional Sales DirectorDanielle Smith-Elliott

Multimedia Account ExecutiveJessica Frey

Account Manager, Classi eds - Josh Cohen

BUSINESS/OPERATIONS

Business Support Specialist - Josh Cohen Controller - Kristy Dotson

CREATIVE SERVICES

Creative Director - Haimanti Germain Art Director - Evan Sult Production Manager - Sean Bieri Graphic Designer - Aspen Smit

CIRCULATION

Circulation Manager - Annie O’Brien

EUCLID MEDIA GROUP

Chief Executive Of cer - Andrew Zelman

Chief Operating Of cers - Chris Keating, Michael Wagner

VP of Digital Services - Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator - Jaime Monzon euclidmediagroup.com

National Advertising - Voice Media Group 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Detroit Metro Times P.O. Box 20734 Ferndale, MI 48220 metrotimes.com

Got a story tip or feedback? Email letters@metrotimes.com or call 313-202-8011

Want to advertise with us? Call 313-961-4060

Want us dropped off at your business, or have questions about circulation? Call 313-202-8049

Get social: @metrotimes

Detroit distribution: The Detroit Metro Times is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader.

The Detroit Metro Times is published every Wednesday by Euclid Media Group.

Verified Audit Member

NEWS & VIEWS

SHUTTERSTOCK

Birmingham family sues Snapchat after son died from fentanyl-laced pill

By Steve Neavling

THE FAMILY OF 19-year-old Birmingham man who died after taking fentanyl-laced pill that he bought from dealer on Snapchat is suing the social media company over his death.

Jack McCarthy’s mother found him slumped over dead in their kitchen in January 2021. police investigation revealed that McCarthy purchased what he believed were Xanax, Adderall, and Oxycodone from drug dealer on Snapchat.

The Oxycodone was laced with le thal amount of fentanyl, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, accord ing to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The lawsuit alleges that Snapchat features, such as disappearing mes sages, makes the social media platform popular among children and young adults for illicit drug deals.

The Social Media Victims Law Center S , which led the lawsuit on behalf of the families of McCarthy and either other victims, accused Snapchat of creating platform that obstructs parental supervision and enables drug dealers to easily locate children and young adults.

Snapchat is popular with drug deal ers because the disappearing messages

erase evidence of the sale, the lawsuit states. As result, Snapchat is one of the primary sources of fentanyl, the lawsuit alleges.

“As much as Snap wants us to believe that this is social media issue, it is in fact Snapchat issue, caused by Snap’s inherently flawed marketing strategies and product designs which encourage, facilitate and assist online drug dealers with nding minors and young adults, said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of SMVLC.

“Snapchat has become the ‘new street corner in the shady part of town’ where kids and teenagers know they can go to buy drugs and drug dealers can escape punishment, ergman added. “While it is obviously wrong to buy illegal drugs of any kind, these kids didn’t deserve to die for one bad decision.

Carrie Goldberg, co-counsel of the lawsuit, said Snapchat, which is one of the most popular social media platform among children, facilitates majority of lethal fentanyl sales.

“This is case about the Snap Drug artel, olderg said. The design of Snapchat, with its disappearing messages and evasion of both parental oversight and law enforcement scrutiny

is irresistible to drug dealers. We are all hearing about kids being poisoned from fentanyl-laced pills they buy on line. These transactions aren’t happen ing on the dark web. The vast majority of the cases we’ve seen involve kids buying the lethal pills on Snap.

In April, the Drug Enforcement Administration warned of an alarm ing increase in fentanyl deaths. In the 12-month period ending in October 2021, more than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, and 66% of those deaths were from synthetic opi oids such as fentanyl, according to the CDC. More Americans are dying from fentanyl overdoses than gun- and autorelated deaths combined.

“Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate, D dministra tor Anne Milgram said in April. “Already this year, numerous mass-overdose deaths have resulted in dozens of overdoses and deaths. Drug tra ckers are driving addition, and increasing their pro ts, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs. Tragically, many overdose victims have no idea they are ingesting deadly fentanyl.

Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach Snap, the company that operates Snapchat, for comment.

Lime offers free e-scooter rides to vote in Detroit

By Steve Neavling

E-SCOOTER COMPANY

LIME is offering free rides to voting sites in Detroit for the general election.

The offer includes two free rides for up to $15 each way to and from the polls and is al ready available for early voting.

To claim the free ride, use the promotional code DETROIT VOTES2022.

Lime has 400 scooters in Detroit, and ridership was up 10% in September compared to the same time last year, Lime spokesman Jacob Tugendrajch tells Metro Times.

“We are proud to do our part to increase voter turnout in Detroit this year, and we are excited to offer free rides to poll sites throughout the early voting period and on Election Day, e aron Foley, director of government relations at Lime, said in statement Friday. “We understand that Detroit resi dents sometimes have long way to go to get to their polling location and do not always have affordable and accessible transportation options to go and cast their vote. Lime to the Polls allows us at Lime to help voters get to their polling place on our e-scooters or connect them to public transportation options to make their trips bit more convenient. Lime to the Polls has been hugely successful in the past and we’re excited to double down on it in Detroit this year by including the early voting period.

Lime said it’s spreading the word about the free rides through social media and by working with city o cials.

Lime is one of several escooter companies in Detroit. Others are Bird, Link, Boaz, Spin, and CMax.

It’s unclear if any of the other scooter companies are offering free rides to the polls.

DTE Energy donates to nearly every Michigan lawmaker as it seeks rate hike

By Steve Neavling

AS DTE ENERGY pushes for an 8.8% rate hike, the utility giant and its execu tives and lobbyists have donated to the campaigns of nearly every state legisla tor in Michigan.

Of the state’s 148 senators and repre sentatives, 138 have received campaign contributions tied to DTE Energy, totaling more than $1 million, according to the Energy and Policy Institute, fossil fuel industry watchdog group.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also received $235,900 from DTE Energy and its executives and lobbyists, dating back to when she was state lawmaker. In July fundraising blitz, Whitmer received nearly $40,000 from DTE executives.

Whitmer appoints the three mem bers of the Michigan Public Service Commission, which will decide on the company’s proposed 8.8% rate hike for electricity and gas in November.

The commission approved four rate hikes since 2015.

The donations come at time when environmental justice activists, con sumer groups, and clean energy advo cates are calling out DTE Energy for its high rates, chronic power outages, and reliance on fossil fuels.

State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, has called for ban on political donations from regulated utilities like DTE Energy. Rahbi returned total of $400 in donations from DTE’s political

action committee in 2017 and 2019 and hasn’t received any contributions since.

I ve been in o ce for six years now. have introduced dozens of bills to try to expand solar energy in Michigan, stop climate change, expand our renew able energy portfolio, and every single one of those bills has been blocked not by magic, not by some external alien force coming in, it s DT , abhi testi ed at a recent public hearing on DTE’s proposed rate hike. “It’s DTE, it’s Consumers [Energy], it’s their lobbyists on the tiles in the hallway calling legislators up, telling them they have to take their names off my bills.

He and state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck, are proposing group of bills that would require utility companies to provide hourly bill credits during outages and allow for more op portunities for the public to comment on utility planning.

“DTE makes millions on Wall Street but doesn t invest it back in the grid, Aiyash tweeted. “Michigan’s private utility companies care more about pro t and political power than they do about keeping the actual power on.

Like Rabhi, Aiyash has not accepted donations from DTE Energy.

Among legislators, Sen. Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton, who presides over the Senate as president pro tempore and could be the next Senate GOP leader, received the most donations from DTE Energy

and its executives and lobbyists during his political career, raking in $69,500.

Senate Minority Leader Jim Anan ich, D-Flint, accepted the second highest amount at $67,950, followed by Sen. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, who received $53,250 and previously chaired the House Energy and Tech nology Committee and is now vice chairman of the Senate Energy and Technology Committee, which covers energy and utility issues.

The Senate Energy and Technology Committee’s current chairman, Dan Lauwers, R-Brockway Township, took in $25,400.

“These committees cover energy and utility issues, and their leaders have discretion over which bills can get hearings and ultimately advance to vote, the nergy and Policy Institute said in news release. “If committee chairs do not allow hearing on bill, there is no opportunity for legislators to take action on it. That is familiar frustration for clean energy and con sumer advocates who have frequently been at odds with energy commit tee leaders. DT continues to ght bills that would remove Michigan’s arbitrary cap on distributed solar. In addition, the utility has consistently opposed proposals for more ambi tious renewable energy standard in Michigan, even though such measures are major drivers of renewable energy expansion.

House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski, of Scio Township, received in $50,300 in donations, and Republican Speaker of the House Jason Wentworth, Republican, raked in $46,950.

Wentworth chose Rep. Joe Bellino, Ronroe, to chair the influential ouse

Energy Policy Committee. In addition to receiving $36,820 from DTE-linked contributors over his career, the utility giant even paid for him to play golf at PGA tournament.

Michigan residents pay the highest energy rates in the Midwest, despite two consecutive summers of lengthy outages.

Most of the outages have occurred in Detroit.

“What does DTE do when it’s not shutting people off or failing to x outages .S. ep. ashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, said in Twitter thread. “They’re jacking up your rates. Since 2015, DTE rate increases generated $774 million, the second highest rate of increase of any investor-owned utility in the country.

She added, “DTE Energy is one of the most expensive and unreliable utility companies in the nation. They need accountability, NOT another rate hike that puts the lives of millions in danger.

DTE Energy also has come under re for donating to the campaigns of Republicans who are pushing lies about election fraud and proposing restric tions of voting rights. coalition of voting rights advocates unfurled large banner outside of DTE’s headquarters in Detroit in May, calling on the company to stop funding the campaigns of politicians who attack voting rights.

The Wayne County Board of Commissioners approved measure in July that called on companies such as DTE Energy to stop donating to politicians who are undermining the public’s faith in elections.

The Wayne State Board of Governors is considering similar proposal.

STEVE NEAVLING

A worker-owned thrift store is coming to Hamtramck

By Randiah Camille Green

UNLIKE MOST THRIFT hops, Detroit

Public Thrift isn t owned by a religious organization or non-pro t that relies on low-wage labor.

It s a worker-owned co-op three years in the making that s nally opening a brick-and-mortar in amtramck. Friday is the soft opening for the shop, located at 10 oseph ampau, while a bigger grand opening is planned for Friday, Oct. .

Detroit Public Thrift started as a pop-up in 019 and had a short-term space through the uild Institute s Pilot program in early 0 0. The goal was to open a permanent storefront in 0 1, but renovations took longer than expected, so here we are.

It s going to be a really accessible thrift store and that s what we want people to see, co-owner argo Dalal tells Metro Times . e re 50% or more lack-owned, we re ueer-owned, woman-owned, and rst-generation immigrant-owned. It s not religious or owned by a large, national corporation. It s owned by local community members who care about the community.

The thrift store has seven memberowners who Dalal says each partake in the risk and rewards of ownership.

hen we have pro ts we will distribute them e uitably amongst us, she says. e use a democratic model and vote on making decisions. hen everyone understands they are an owner and has that mindset, it leads to a lot of thoughtfulness in what we re doing. e have been working on this business for almost three years and have doubled our team even though none of us have been

paid yet.

The co-op received a loan from the Detroit ommunity ealth Fund where Dalal is the executive director to open the brick-and-mortar.

The loan was created for workerowned businesses, and we didn t have to put our own money on the line because it has non-extractive terms, she says.

In a non-extractive loan, the bor rower s repayment to the lender cannot be greater than their actual pro ts.

Dalal adds, e ll be able to use that loan to pay workers a living wage, pay our rent, and get all our store xtures. Traditional nancing doesn t allow for shared ownership and makes it hard for people from low-income backgrounds to start a business.

ike any resell store, Detroit Public Thrift will offer gently used and vintage clothing, shoes, bags, books, household items, furniture, and more.

There s not a men s or a women s sec tion, but everything is organized, Dalal says, emphasizing that it s a genderinclusive space.

long with the Detroit ommunity ealth Fund loan, the co-op held two crowdfunding campaigns in 0 0 and 0 1 to get the word out and help start the business.

The store s new neighborhood is also home to ook Suey and Iyengar oga Detroit, which are both also workerowned.

That s another reason we love our location in amtramck, Dalal says. e have three co-ops within a uarter mile of each other and we re already making plans to work with each other. Part of

the values of a worker-owned co-op is collaborating with other worker-owned co-ops.

Dalal hopes Detroit Public Thrift can be an example for other groups who want to start e uitable cooperative busi nesses.

e ve all worked for companies that don t understand what it is to have a lack or ueer employee, or what it is to treat employees with dignity and respect, she says. That s part of why we wanted to start this because we were tired of feeling exploited or unheard in our workplaces. co-op changes the mentality of work. e re all e uals.

hen we have members who are sick or their car is broken down and they can t show up, we understand that. e re agile and can rely on each other. That s the culture that we want to show is possible.

ventually, the group hopes to open additional locations and maybe even another business in the food service industry.

For now, the amtramck store is accepting clothing donations, though Dalal says they won t take ust anything collecting dust in your closet.

e are really committed to being a low-waste thrift store, she says. lot of larger thrift stores make money from selling items to other markets, but we re a small team and we can t sell pounds and pounds of textiles. hat really hap pens is that we end up being responsible for throwing away stuff that can t be sold and nding the right waste receptacle for this stuff. So if it has holes or stains and, you know, it s nothing someone else would buy, you shouldn t be donating it.

Michigan man at center of MSNBC’s new documentary shows harm of the war on drugs

By Lee DeVito

A MICHIGAN STORY that illustrates the harms of the war on drugs is set to gain a wide national audience.

S has partnered with video on demand platform Documentary to air a new lm about ichael Thompson, a Flint man who received ichigan s lon gest sentence for a non-violent offender after he was caught selling three pounds of cannabis to an undercover cop.

The Sentence of Michael Thompson debuts on S at 10 p.m. on Oct. 0, and will be available to stream on Documentary starting ov. 1.

The Sentence of Michael Thompson is e ual parts a condemnation of the faults within our criminal justice system and an admiration for the Thompson family s faith and optimism in the face of in ustice, a press release states. The lm strips away the arti ce of thinking that the war on drugs was a boon to underprivileged communities, and pres ents it more accurately as a revolving door of mass incarceration. In-depth interviews with Thompson s attorneys and family members reveal the heart breaking damage done to the families of the incarcerated and the hypocrisy of a system that keeps non-violent offenders locked up as others pro t from cannabis legalization.

Thompson was sentenced in 199 for rearms possession by a felon after selling three pounds of cannabis to a friend-turned-undercover cop. e remained behind bars even after ichi gan voters legalized cannabis in 01 , until ov. retchen hitmer granted him clemency in 0 0.

The doc is directed by yle Thrash and aley lizabeth nderson. It is presented by S Films and T along with a Synonymous Pictures production, produced by Thrash and . Ian oss, and was executive produced for S Films by S President ashida ones and S Films vice president of longform ac uisitions manda Spain alongside ryn ooser, athryn verett, ustin acob, ydia ives for T , and illiam rause.

It earned awards at several festivals, including the udience wards at S S and the hicago ritics Film Festival, the ury ward at the iverrun International Film Festival, and the ury and udience ward at the Palm Springs International Shortfest.

COURTESY PHOTO

Detroit City Council approves $7M ShotSpotter expansion despite opposition

By Steve Neavling

DETROIT CITY COUNCIL last week narrowly approved a million expan sion of a controversial technology that critics say is unproven, invasive, and racially discriminatory.

fter weeks of delays and debates, the council voted 5- to expand ShotSpotter, a technology that relies on a network of sensors to detect gun shots.

ouncil members ary She eld, abriella Santiago- omero, ary aters, and ngela hit eld- alloway voted against the expansion. The council repeatedly delayed voting on the expansion in Septem ber because a ma ority opposed using O ID-19 relief funds to pay for the expansion. They said that money should instead be spent on addressing the root causes of crime and poverty, such as affordable housing, better obs, school programs, transit, health care, and clean air and water.

To pay for the four-year, million contract, the city is using funding within the police department s criminal code enforcement budget.

efore Tuesday s vote, police hief ames hite implored city council to approve the expansion of ShotSpotter, saying it s an effective crime- ghting tool at a time when the city is reeling in violence.

So far this year, he said, more than 5 people have been killed by guns, and people have been shot. There also were 10 mass shootings this year, compared to seven in all of 0 1.

rapid response needs to be in place, hite said.

ctivists lambasted the council, say ing the tax dollars could have been bet ter spent in a city in desperate need of services. randen Snyder, co-executive director of Detroit ction, called the expansion a slap in the face to thou sands of Detroit residents teetering on the precipice of homelessness, eco

nomic instability, and oblessness. e added, hile communities of color continue to be underserved, over looked, and overpoliced, the ouncil has decided that spending millions of dollars on police surveillance over four

years is more important than funding services and tools that are proven to help our communities thrive.

ast month, the council votedto renew the city s original 1.5 million contract with ShotSpotter.

Detroit to pay more than $1M over police brutality lawsuit

By Steve Neavling

THE CITY OF Detroit will pay Detroit Will Breathe protesters more than $1 million as part of police brutality lawsuit led in the aftermath of dem onstrations over the death of eorge Floyd in 0 0.

The protest group Detroit ill reathe claimed in the suit that police violated their constitutional rights by responding to peaceful demonstra tions with beatings, tear gas, pepper spray, and mass arrests. Some of the protesters were hospitalized with seri ous in uries.

nder the udgment, Detroit ill reathe and 1 plaintiffs will receive a total of 1,0 5,000.

This offer of udgment resolves the case in our favor and means that the federal court will rule that the ity of Detroit and the Detroit Police De partment violated the constitutional

rights of protesters during the eorge Floyd uprising in 0 0, Detroit ill reathe said in a statement.

The Detroit Police Department, under the leadership of then- hief ames raig, repeatedly denied wrong doing, even after some protesters were met with brute force while peacefully demonstrating.

fter ling the lawsuit, a federal

udge in September 0 0 issued a restraining order prohibiting police from using batons, shields, tear gas, rubber bullets, chokeholds, and other tactics against peaceful protesters, le gal observers, and medical personnel.

From the moment the ourt issued its restraining order until the present it is my understanding that there have been no incidents of force against

protestors, no arrests, and no allega tions of property damage, Detroit ill reathe attorney ack Schulz told Metro Times in a statement.

lthough this order ends with the lawsuit, there is two years of peaceful protest without the police resorting to batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets to support its value should the police drift back to this violent approach.

Prior to the restraining order, Schulz says, The o cers showed little restraint and intentionally caused se rious physical and emotional in uries rather than even attempting to place protestors under arrest peacefully.

During the lawsuit, the plaintiffs received body cam footage, incident reports, and other documents that detailed the brutality.

It is no coincidence that the ity forfeited the case after we obtained this evidence, and before putting ames raig and any other police o cers on the stand, Detroit ill reathe said. DPD s desperation to publicly demonize us, per hief raig s many interviews on Fox ews, showed their fear of a movement exposing the true oppressive nature of police.

ity o cials declined to comment on the udgment, which was approved by city council in uly.

ATTORNEYS FOR DETROIT WILL BREATHE

COURTESY PHOTO

“So, does this change any thing?” asked Dana Loesch, the former rebrand spokeswoman for the ation al ifle ssociation, on her radio show after The Daily Beast published proof that erschel alker had reimbursed a former girlfriend and mother of his child for an abortion after pressuring her to get it.

ot a damn thing, she answered.

ow many times have I said these four words these four very important words inning. Is. . irtue.

It s not ust conservative political commentators who rallied around Walker. Sens. Tom Cotton and Rick Scott announced that they ll be oining the football-has-been-turned-candi date on the campaign trail in eorgia.

ou might think that the self-styled party of family values might care if one of their candidates paid in their own formulation to have his mistress murder their child . Indeed, in the pre-Trump era, political careers were destroyed over less.

ut in 0 ope. hat does this say about the state of our politics Of the state of the OP

Donald Trump never succeeded in building his wall the one at the

VIEWS

By Abdul El-Sayed

southern border, at least. ut that doesn t mean he didn t build any walls. ather than a wall of metal and con crete separating the .S. from exico, he built an ineffable wall in the minds of voters that separates a person from their persona . is wall allows them to maintain an indelible cognitive dissonance about the politicians they support. It renders those politicians immune to charges of hypocrisy. hat the person does is unimportant it s the persona they re supporting, anyway.

politicians can recklessly and completely violate the very standards they campaign on and face little to no conse uences.

Donald Trump laid down the rst bricks before he even got to o ce. emember the Access Hollywood tapes, in which then-candidate Trump said that he could sexually assault women on account of his celebrity e was elected president ust one month later. e spent the next four years building that wall ever higher through his antics. It s why he remains the most popular epub lican in merica despite being impeached twice and investigated for corruption three times. It s why his endorsees can get away with murdering their own babies.

That wall wouldn t even have been possible without the new cultural bricks with which it s built. ven a decade ago, candidates campaigned in words and policies. Today, they campaign in memes and hashtags. In his seminal work Amusing Ourselves to Death cultural critic eil Postman ar gued that the medium is the message. riting in a time before the internet, he documented how the uxtaposition of facts and entertainment on television rendered it all as entertainment. He would have been horri ed by TikTok an online altar to the entertaining.

Trump is the ultimate meme and he rendered our politics into an end less meme war. nd meme wars aren t about facts, policies, or a record of ac complishment. They re about vibes. search for the next dopamine hit.

The meme war of our politics has di vorced a politician from their personal choices. It s why a man like erschel alker with zero credibility as a se rious politician can campaign on an abortion ban with zero exceptions except for, well, erschel alker. It s why he can so flagrantly violate the policies on which he campaigns and not only maintain the support of his

party, but count on them to rally to his aide.

It all comes back to power. fter all, erschel alker is instrumental to OP control of the Senate. nd without Senate control, epublicans can t keep passing policies that they themselves are immune from. hich should highlight the cruelty of the whole enterprise. It was never about values. It s about con trol. illions of people have lost access to their own bodily autonomy because of this politics of control. ut its purvey ors can t even control themselves.

Originally published Oct. 11 in The Incision. Get more at abdulelsayed. substack.com.

What the GOP’s embrace of Herschel Walker says about the state of our political culture

MAGA politicians can recklessly and completely violate the very standards they campaign on and face little to no consquences.

No Exceptions. Except for Herschel.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

The Incision

For the first time since the 1980s, the Kay Beard Building at Westland’s sprawling former Eloise Psychiatric Hospital campus is once again accepting patients. Well, sort of.

A long-abandoned icon of local lore with a history that dates back to 1839, Eloise was for decades a favorite of urban spelunkers, history bu s, and even paranormal investigators. But last year, a development group breathed new life into it by transforming its bottom floors into a haunted Halloween attraction. “Eloise Asylum” ri s on the facility’s spooky history as the largest psychiatric facility in the U.S., a small city within a city that once treated as many as 10,000 patients.

The attraction is the brainchild of David Carry, who comes from career of designing world-class haunted at tractions and moved to Michigan from New Orleans for the project.

“What we did is we tried to tell story,” he says, guiding us through the set during recent weekday. “It’s not your typical haunted house.”

Once inside, guests are corralled into the lobby, where they “check in” to the facility and proceed into various themed rooms that contain phantas magoria of terrifying sights, includ ing “brainwashing” room showing

disturbing images on TV screens and laboratories where twisted experimen tations are conducted. It’s play on Eloise’s real-life history, which involved then-new psychiatric treatments like electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and sensory deprivation.

The sets have been seamlessly blendinto the existing Eloise structure.

“Some of this is real, and some of it’s fake,” Carry says, knocking on various set pieces to show they’re actually made of wood and painted to match the aging building surrounding it the handiwork of artisans with experience

in working in Michigan’s short-lived ollywood lm industry.

Standing in faux morgue surroundby dummy cadavers, Carry says he’s fooled plenty of attendees. “We got funny Yelp! review or something, can’t remember which platform it was, but somebody said they physically felt uncomfortable being in the building,” he says. “She said that she felt sick after seeing this set, because she said it’s re ally offensive to have people go through the actual morgue. was just like, thank you so much. That’s the great est thing, compliments like that. They

thought it was real.”

The development has been described as costing somewhere between “north of $1 million” and “multimillion-dollar.” And it’s still work in progress. This year, second attraction has been added; admission grants access to both, which each take about 30 minutes to roam. The developers also intend to add several separate “escape room”style attractions throughout the year where teams of players must solve puzzles in order to “escape” the asylum.

“We’re still improving,” Carry says. “We’re still adding.”

Carry says this year, they added things to the design that they just didn’t have time to get to last year, and also tweaked the existing layout in response to feedback. For example, he says some said they felt that seeing other guests walking through the same parts of the attraction took them out of the illusion of the experience, so this year they closed off some lines of sight.

The public also wanted more pop-up scares, he says.

Eloise Asylum employs more than 100 actors dressed as various charac ters, roaming the grounds and spook ing attendees. Carry says they’re mix of locals and traveling actors from the haunted attraction circuit. “We’ve been really lucky and have lot of people that want to be involved in this,” he says. “They’re Halloween-lovers, they’re haunted house enthusiasts, for sure.”

The sets contain mix of actors and animatronic puppets, which are some times combined to create what Carry calls “chameleon scares,” where an actor will be hidden among the animatron ics. Carry says they’ll rearrange the sets each night, swapping animatronics out with actors to keep fans on their toes.

“You’re never going to get the same show,” he says. “You might get something a little bit different from night to night. It’s great for people that want to come multiple times year.”

Carry has designed other highpro le haunted attractions and other immersive entertainment experiences across the country, including the former satanic-themed House of Shock founded by Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo in New Orleans, considered one of the best in the U.S. He was also involved with Seismique, high-tech psychedelic art exhibition in Houston that he says changed the way he thinks about the possibilities of haunted at tractions.

“I learned lot from that,” he says. “I thought there were lot of really interesting things to incorporate into the haunted house realm, just taking different types of artists and having them do facade projections or video mapping, and incorporating that into horror thing.”

He believes Eloise Asylum is one of the most technologically advanced Halloween haunted attractions in the world right now. Digital projec tions make it appear as though ghostly apparitions move through walls, and attendees can peer into the windows of “padded rooms,” which are actually TV monitors playing footage of actors. There’s also creepy “whisper” hallway with sounds that come from series of speakers, making it seem as though voices are following you around.

“Sound is something that felt was always void in haunted houses,” he says. “So we really try to pump that sound in there so that you can actually feel it.”

As you wander deeper and deeper into Eloise Asylum, Carry and company keep upping the ante. We don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say we were thoroughly disoriented and disturbed by the time we emerged

back into the sunny autumn day out side.

Certainly, large part of the scare factor of the Eloise Asylum attraction comes from its spooky real-life history, and the developers are aware of criticisms that they’e making light of the actual pain and suffering that happened within its walls. The Eloise Asylum website tells its guests they will “Scream for great cause!”, noting that portion of ticket sales support local homeless shelter that was opened in another one of the former hospital buildings on the campus.

Eloise Asylum has expanded outside the ay eard uilding as well, lling a former empty eld with a carnival-style environment to keep people waiting in

line entertained with food vendors and live entertainment. There’s even stage with an old-school “freak show.”

That’s performed by Reverend B. Dangerous, traveling performer with an Uncle Fester vibe. At one point, he hands us screwdriver, and then jabs it into nearby wood panel to prove it’s real. Then he shoves it up his right nostril all the way. (Kids, don’t try this at home!)

Dangerous has taken his freak show on the road, touring with acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Pantera “every big heavy metal band that you can think of,” he says.

“I love it, think it’s great word to be called ‘freak,’ because that means you’re an individual,” he says. “And

that’s what this place is about, these independent individuals.”

He says Eloise Asylum is among the most impressive productions he’s ever seen.

“I’ve worked for some of the top haunted houses in the world,” he says. “And this one is there. mean, it’s past it.”

While we’re talking, Dangerous invites us into the upper unused floors of the ward, where the padded rooms used to be. We walk the sunlit halls, passing gra ti left behind by ur ban explorers, and Dangerous waxes philosophical about the genre of horror entertainment.

Dangerous acknowledges the criti cisms the attraction has faced. He says that while Eloise Asylum is designed to terrify people, he also hopes it can help the area, both economically and beyond.

I ve read different posts that are people talking about the suffering that happened here, and there was suffer ing,” he says. “I can’t take that away. But it was also hospital to help some people. There was also good.”

He adds, “You have to remember there was the woman who lost her hus band in the war, and she just needed somewhere to go for minute. This was hospital, and there were people with good hearts that did good work here.

And that’s what hope that this can turn back into.”

Dangerous says he likes to scare people because he wants to jolt them into reality. These days, he says he sees too many people listlessly scrolling on social media apps like TikTok on their phones. He believes this social media addiction “disconnects” us from ourselves.

“That’s what these phones do some times, it makes you forget that you’re alive,” he says. “And that’s what good scare great scare does, is remind you.” He says he can see result almost immediately. Once the adrenaline sub sides, “They’re smiling. You can see that little candle light up.”

He adds, “That’s the great thing about haunted attractions, horror shows like this, is that people are able to leave with good laugh, good shiver down their spine. This helps reconnect those wires little bit.”

He adds, “And if you look away? I’m coming after you! I’ll force you to watch!”

Eloise Asylum Haunted Attraction is open Fridays-Sundays through Nov. at 30712 Michigan Ave., Westland; 734-447-5515; eloiseasylum.com. See website for full schedule. Tickets are $42 for access to two haunted attractions, or $67 for VIP with express line access.

The scenes at Eloise Asylum haunted attraction include a mix of animatronics and actors, in sets that have blended into the existing actual building structure.

Spookyseason

A selection of Halloweenthemed events in metro Detroit and beyond By MT sta See metrotimes.com for more listings. Did we miss one? Let us know at tips@metrotimes.com. See venue website for schedule and other information.

AWAKEN HAUNTED ATTRACTION

4760 Churchill Rd., Leslie; 517-8783030; awakenhaunt.com. Through Oct. 30. $25+.

AZRA: CHAMBER OF HORRORS

31401 John R Rd., Madison Heights; 734-718-0088; azrahaunt.com. Through Nov. 5. $35+.

BLAKE’S BIG APPLE: HAUNTED BARN, ZOMBIE PAINTBALL, SPOOKYLAND 3D MAZE, HAUNTED HAYRIDE

71485 North Ave., Armada; blakefarms. com. Through Oct. 30. $19.85+.

DERANGED HAUNT

35560 Goddard Rd., Romulus; 734660-6991; derangedhauntedattraction. com. Through Oct. 31. $22+.

EDSON INCIDENT: SHIP OF NIGHTMARES

USS Edson, 1680 Martin St., Bay City; edsonincident.com. Through Oct. 30. $20+.

ELOISE ASYLUM

30712 Michigan Ave., Westland; 734447-5515; eloiseasylum.com. Through Nov. 5. $42+.

EREBUS HAUNTED ATTRACTION

18 S. Perry St., Pontiac; 248-332-7884; hauntedpontiac.com. Through Nov. 5. $20+.

EXIT 13 HAUNTED HOUSE

6069 N. Saginaw St., Mount Morris; exit13hauntedhouse.com. Through Oct. 31. $30+.

FULL MOON MANOR HAUNTED HOUSE AT BONADEO FARMS

1215 White Lake Rd., Highland Twp.; 248-787-4553; bonadeofarms.com. Through Oct. 30. $15+.

GHOSTLY GROVE

10055 Dexter-Pinckney Rd., Pinckney; ghostlygrove.com. Through Oct. 30. $25.

THeM boNes

A look inside Michigan’s Anatomy of Death Museum and the ‘king of weird’ who runs it

By Randiah Camille Green

TAXIDERMY, BONE JEWELRY, and skulls are the rst things you ll see upon entering the natomy of Death useum in ount lemens.

It s not uite shocking for anyone who grew up obsessed with horror or goth culture. It gets more interesting, howev er, beyond a pair of body bags fashioned into curtains. Diseased human hearts sit in glass cases. eal skeletons lie on dissection tables next to children s skulls in ars. There s even a trophy skull from India s aga onyak head-hunting tribe. Dark piano music that sounds like the soundtrack to a dramatic horror movie plays in the background.

ave you been to a place like this before owner Todd a osa asks while showing us around. ecause we have people that come here and pass out. So, I always ask.

The natomy of Death useum, which opened in 019, is the only one of its kind in ichigan. It s something like Philadelphia s tter useum or angkok s Sirira edical useum, on a much smaller scale.

a osa s morbid fascination with death is the reason for all the oddities on display. The hefty, bearded man

with bone tattoos on his ngers says he s been into the macabre most of his life. is rst car was a hearse that he got from his ob at a funeral home when he was 15. e drives a hearse to this day, albeit not the same one. aughing, he says he s probably the king of weird.

I told the funeral home, ou don t want the old hearse no more I ll buy it from you, he remembers. Then I started collecting funeral home stuff and then it evolved into human skulls, and skeletons, and ust, you know, weird stuff. I used to do a dead body removal service, then I worked for a crime scene cleanup company, and it ust kept going from there.

a osa describes the place as a death and funeral museum. e has several anti ue caskets, including a horse-drawn hearse and co n from 1 9 on display. Funeral flags and signs are crammed in seemingly every avail able crevice of the museum.

hile it may seem like one man s grim obsession, a osa says it s also a way to bring people together.

ight now, politically, this country is very divisive and a lot of people want

to push ideas on the kids, and a lot of these kids don t know how to take things, he explains. e get a lot of young kids in here and I tell them, look at the skulls and skeletons tell me who was gay or straight, who was lack or white, who is hristian or athiest. ou can t tell because at the end of the day we all die and we all look the same. atred is only skin-deep.

Pointing to a skull with beads and tusks molded onto it, a osa notes that it came from a tribe in Papua ew uinea s Sepik region that fashioned ancestor skulls for protection.

hat would happen is the ances tor would die, and to honor them they would put clay over the real human skull to make it look like their ancestor who died, so that the spirit would rec ognize it and inhabit it, he says. Then this would be placed somewhere in the hut and it would ward off evil spirits.

Something about it feels exploitative. e ask a osa if it s ethical to take cultural artifacts from tribes like the onyaks, whose traditions are dying out, and display them for our amusement.

verything you see here, a lot of museums have on display, he explains.

hat this is, is to teach you that these people exist and that you have to re spect them. The reason certain groups of people don t get along is because they don t understand the other peo ple s cultures. So if you ust explain to people how someone is, maybe they re not weird to them no more.

The museum artifacts are a fraction of a osa s collection, which he buys from medical universities, estate sales,

PHOTO: RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

How to get a head in business: Todd LaRosa opened his Anatomy of Death Museum in 2019.

and retired doctors and dentists. e says most of the specimens are from bodies that were donated to medical research.

Over the years, my collection kept growing and I had so many people asking me to come see it, so I nally decided to open a museum, he says. ou ever see merican Pickers I do that with funeral homes.

a osa also says he s proud that the museum helps the local economy.

Since we opened up, we ve brought a lot of people to this community, he says. The gas stations do more business when people come from out of state to visit us, and they eat at the restaurant on the corner. e says people come from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and isconsin. Peo ple travel, because where else are you gonna nd a place like this he adds. a osa also donates kits with sup plies like soap, shampoo, and socks to the homeless population. hen you re a business, you have to help others no matter their skin color or their status in society, he says.

smaller room on the other side of the museum houses a metaphysical shop with candles, sage, and books on witchcraft. There s also a collection of SF erotic prints by photographer Silvanna Sanchez featuring women in lingerie posing in the museum.

ere we re really big with women empowerment, a osa says. hy are men able to do certain things in society, but if a woman does, it s frowned upon So we do a lot of photo shoots here including using co ns, embalming tables, stuff like that. e re in a move ment right now where women are tak ing over, you know what I m saying e adds, The beauty of this is, we don t care who you are, what you do, as long as you don t come in disrespecting anybody. hen we do our photoshoots we have every body type, every religion, every sexual orientation. e have fur ries who come in here dressed like ani mals, wedding photoshoots, whatever. e says the museum has even hosted a couple of small weddings.

isitors to the death museum can take a self-guided tour with a booklet that explains each piece on display. They can even purchase a human femur or skull from the oddities shop in the museum s lobby.

efore we leave, a osa bestows on us a parting gift a necklace with a vial of bone dust, to remind us of our eventual fate.

The Anatomy of Death Museum is located at 292 Cass Ave., Mount Clemens. Hours are noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and until p.m. on Sunday. Entry is $10 for adults, $7 for children under 14, and free for kids and under.

GLENLORE TRAILS: FATE HAUNTED FOREST

3860 Newton Rd., Commerce Twp.; glenloretrails.com. Runs through Oct. 30. $25+.

HUSH

37550 Cherry Rd., Westland; 734-5026026; hushhaunt.com. Through Nov. 5. $8+.

JACKSON’S UNDERWORLD

1318 Wildwood Ave., Jackson; 517-9365834; jxunderworld.com. Through Oct. 31. $20+.

PAST TENSE AFTER DARK

1965 Farnsworth Rd., Lapeer; 810-6645559; pasttenseafterdark.com. Through Oct. 30. $10+.

ROTTEN MANOR HAUNTED ATTRACTION

13245 Dixie Hwy., Holly; 248-930-2835; rottenmanor.com. Through Oct. 31. $20+.

SCAREFEST SCREAM PARK

34111 28 Mile Rd., Lenox; scarefestscreampark.com. Through Oct. 31. $15+.

SCREAM MACHINE

23131 Ecorse Rd.,Taylor; 313-666-FEAR; thescreammachine.com. Through Nov.5. $20+.

SHAWHAVEN HAUNTED FARM

1826 Rolfe Rd., Mason; 517-676-1649; shawhavenhauntedfarm.com. Through Oct. 29. $25+.

TERRORFIED FOREST

145 Swarthout Rd., Pickney; 517-3022802; terrorfiedforest.com. Through Oct. 30. $25+.

TERROR IN THE VILLAGE

2325 Joslyn Ct., Orion Charter Twp.; terrorinthevillage.com. Through Oct. 30. $20.

WIARD’S ORCHARDS NIGHT OF TERROR

5565 Merritt Rd., Ypsilanti Twp.; 734390-9212; hauntedhousemichigan.com. Through Oct. 31. $29+.

XTREME ESCAPE ROOMS

14620 23 Mile Rd., Shelby Twp.; 586-540-7977; xtremeescaperooms. com; see website for full schedule. $31.

MUSIC CREEPY CHEAPY AT THE CROFOOT 1. S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; 248-8589333; creepycheapy.com; Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29. $14.

HALLOWEEN AT ELEKTRICITY

Ticket package available for five nights of events; Halloween costumes encouraged. Includes 12th Planet x Rusko Dubplate Special on Friday, Oct. 21; Jantsen and Space Wizard on Saturday, Oct. 22; Tchami on Thursday, Oct. 27; Super Future on Friday, Oct. 28, and Flux Pavilion on Saturday, Oct. 29. Doors at 9:30 p.m. on Elektricity; 15 S. Saginaw St.; 248599-2212; elektricitymusic.com. $50 for all five events.

HALLOWICKED FEATURING INSANE CLOWN POSSE AT HARPOS

With Fat Nick, Ouija Macc, Ho99o9, Mike E. Clark; and more; 14238 Harper Ave., Detroit; harposlive.com; Monday, Oct. 31. $125.

EDO RAMEN & SUSHI LOUNGE

Music by French Trio: Sean Blackman, Allison Laakko, and Rocco Popielarski playing jazz and French pop classics; Saturday, Oct. 22; 4313 W. 13 Mile Rd., Royal Oak; 248-556-5775; free admission.

DSO PRESENTS HALLOWEEN AT HOGWARTS

Detroit Symphony Orchestra performs selections from the Harry Potter films; 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 29; Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center; 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-576-5111; dso.org. $20+.

OTHERS

ANNUAL HALLOWEEN DINNER ADVENTURE AT THE WHITNEY

Four-course dinner with cocktails, historical tours, and musical performance; Oct. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 4421 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-5700; thewhitney.com; see website for full schedule. $179 per person.

SPIRITED ABSINTHE TEA AT THE WHITNEY

Four-course tea service with absinthe gift. Costumes encouraged. Starts 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29; 4421 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-5700; thewhitney.com; $179 per person.

OLDE WRESTLING AT THE WHISKEY FACTORY

A “frightfully fun night of vintage wrestling” presented by Iconic Tattoo & Piercing and 20x20 Apparel that “celebrates vintage wrestling with characters plucked right out of the roarin’ 20s.” From 6:30-9 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Whiskey Factory; 1000 Maple St., Detroit; whiskeyfactorydetroit.com. $18.

Glenlore Trails: Fate Haunted Forest

WHAT’S GOING ON

WED, 10/19

The Billy Davis Rhythm Machine Band

It’s true: the man credited with teach ing Jimi Hendrix how to play the guitar lives right in South eld. is name is Billy Davis, and at 84 years old he’s bona de rock and blues legend who s still amming after all these years.

You’ve seen videos of Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar behind his head, right That was Davis s signature move. How about playing the guitar with his teeth eah, that was Davis s am, too.

Davis, who was born in Mississippi and moved to Detroit in 1951, will be performing at the South eld ibrary with his group the Billy Davis Rhythm achine and.

In the late 1950s, Davis was the lead guitar player for ank allard and the Midnighters, who wrote and performed the original version of “The Twist,” inspired by the popular dance craze. Davis and Hendrix met at Midnight ers show in 1959. ntranced by Davis s guitar feedback which was unusual at the time) and wild stage antics, Hendrix was determined to meet him after the gig. e can t guarantee that Davis will pull out all his tricks and start doing backflips on stage this time, though.

I kinda let that go because I see other people doing it now,” he tells Metro Times see our full interview online . I was the originator of that,

but enjoy seeing the younger people doing it. Playing with my teeth and be hind my back, and getting on the floor making love with the guitar, that ust came to my mind at the time. I ust felt it and that s what I did. I put my heart and soul in it. I get a little carried away sometimes, and might do anything on stage but not so much these days.

—Randiah Camille Green

Jazz Blues at Your Library featuring the Billy Davis Rhythm Machine Band is from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at the outhfield Public ibrary Meeting oom, 300 vergreen d., outhfield. Tickets are $8 in advance or $5 for Friends of the outhfield Public ibrary members. limited number of tickets will be available at the door. For more information, see southfieldlibrary.org.

TUES, 10/25

Jamon Jordan 1967 Lecture

amon ordan, the uno cial Detroit historian who became the city s rst o cial historian last year, will give his rst annual lecture on Tuesday. The date marks one year to the day that amon was appointed city historian, after nearly nine years of working as an educator who shared the city s hidden lack his tory through the lack Scroll etwork.

is upcoming lecture will take place at ordon Park, at the corner of osa Parks and lairmont, where the Detroit ebellion of 19 began. Instead of fo cusing on the violence of the uprising,

however, Jordan will detail how Detroit recovered and continues to thrive.

The history you read in books is oftentimes not the history that is the lived experience of the people,” ayor ike Duggan said in a state ment. hen ochelle iley told me we needed a ity istorian, I agreed and told her she need sic to nd a historian who would tell the story of longtime Detroiters. amon ordan is doing ust that. e is lling a huge hole in the fabric of our community, and couldn t be more proud of his work.

Riley, the city’s director of arts and culture, said ordan s work is a tribute to his lifelong passion for history Detroit s, merica s and the world s. e are blessed to have him offer constant reminders of how rich our history and culture are.

—Randiah Camille Green

Starts at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at Detroit’s ordon Park (corner of osa Parks and lairmont). vent is free and open to the public.

WED, 10/26

DSO with Marvin Winans

Through its Detroit eighborhood Initiative,” the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is taking its show out of Orchestra Hall and into the community, with concert announced at the city’s Perfecting hurch. The event which features the church’s founder and pastor and rammy ward-winning gospel vocalist arvin inans and the Per

fected Praise hoir, led by DSO assistant conductor a ir cFadden will feature the music of Jessie Montgomery, illiam rant Still, Duke llington, and olland-Dozier- olland.

“It’s an honor to bring the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, arvin inans, and the Perfecting Praise hoir together in celebration of the brilliant Gospel and lassical musical traditions in De troit,” DSO director of social innovation arisa ntonio said in a statement. The last several years have been a di cult time lled with the loss of life, time, and connection. ith this concert, we hope to represent hope, joy, and resilience, and unite in celebration of all the things that bring meaning to our lives.

The family-friendly event is open to the public, part of the DSO’s mission to be “the most accessible orchestra on the planet. efore the event starts, the DSO will also offer free music educa tion activities for students of all ages through its Detroit Harmony initiative, which “aims to put an instrument in the hand of every K-12 student in the city of Detroit who wants to learn to play.

arvin inans is a member of Detroit s renowned inans family of gospel singers and is also known for appearing in Tyler Perry s lms and T work.

—Lee DeVito

Event starts at p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. at Perfecting hurch 1 Nevada Ave., Detroit 313.3 5.3 perfectingchurch.org. Doors open at p.m. Event is free and open to the public.

Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. See venue websites for information on COVID-19 policies.

Billy Davis, a guitar legend and bonafide badass who lives in Southfield.

COURTESY PHOTO

Rocka rolla man

Judas Priest’s Ian Hill talks 50 years of heavy metal ahead of Detroit stop

By Randiah Camille Green

Judas Priest hasn’t stopped running wild since 1969. The heavy metal band set off on the fall trek of its North American “50 Heavy Metal Years” tour earlier this month, making stop at Detroit’s Masonic Temple on Saturday.

At 71, Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill has zero intention of slowing down, but Priest has been victim of changes over the years, as its 1976 track goes. Hill is the band’s only remaining origi

nal member. Longtime guitarist K.K. Downing left in 2011 citing “personal and professional differences, and was replaced by Richie Faulkner. Then, longstanding guitarist Glenn Tipton stopped touring with the band after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s dis ease in 2018. Following that, Downing thought he could rejoin Priest, but has since trashed his former bandmates when the invitation wasn’t extended to him.

This is also, technically, Priest’s second “50 Heavy Metal Years” tour. The rst go round in 0 1 was cut short when Faulkner suffered an aortic an eurysm on stage at Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival and had to undergo emergency open-heart surgery. The band had just played Detroit’s Fox Theatre week earlier.

Despite it all, Priest triumphantly returned to complete the U.S. run in March of this year before touring in

Europe and circling back to the states in October. And after nearly 50 years, they re nally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We sat down with Priest bassist Ian Hill via Zoom to chat about the tour. The con version has been edited for length.

Metro Times: Did you ever imagine, back in 1974 when Rocka Rolla came out, that you would still be making music and touring this many years later?

Ian Hill: No, not at all. The thing is,

Judas Priest performs at the Masonic Temple on Saturday.

way back then, the concept of some one our age still playing popular music didn’t exist. Even the old crooners, you know, the [Frank] Sinatras, the [David] Crosbys, they were just in their 50s and 60s. The old rock ’n’ rollers, the Bill Haleys and the Elvises, were in their 40s. There was nobody in their 70s still trying to rock around. mean, in those days we were living from day to day anyway, you know, just surviving the day to get up the next day.

MT: ow different is it touring now compared to back then?

Hill: Well, we’re way less stupid than we used to be. We’re bit milder these days. Age does that to you. You tend to mature. You do your damnedest not to, but you do all the same. We do have to

look after ourselves little bit more than we used to. It’s not, you know, partying every night after the show. mean, that has been known to happen, but not any more. Well, not for long time anyway.

MT: Priest has always struck this interesting balance between these hardhitting songs and tracks that are more commercially accessible and catchy. What’s the songwriting process like for you guys and do you go into it with an idea for the type of song you want to write that session?

Hill: Yeah, it’s funny because there’s no blueprint really. We’ve always just done what comes from within basically, and then put it down and hope everyone likes it. We’ve been lucky up until now. When we started, heavy metal didn’t ex ist, really. It wasn’t until about 1980 with British Steel that we became a bona de heavy metal band. But coming back to the more commercial things, they played very important role. And you can sort of blame the record companies to certain extent, because they always wanted the radio-friendly track. [The radio] isn’t going to play, “Pain and Plea sure,” are they? They’re going to want something nice and happy, or at least upbeat. But the thing is it got heavy metal across to all of these people that wouldn’t necessarily have been turned on to it at all.

come back to our song, “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.” mean, that’s perfect example. We were doing all right at that point in 1992. We were playing sort of 5,000-seater town halls and the Fox Theatres and things. And AM radio picked up on that song and played the hell out of it! It sort of got people interested in us, in particular, and in general gave the whole heavy metal movement huge boost. And not just that record, but similar things from other bands as well. Those com mercial radio-friendly tracks are not to be ridiculed at all. They’re popular for reason. You get good groove going to them, bang your head, you can dance to them, which you can’t to most heavy metal songs.

It’s very versatile genre because of that. If you look at what happened towards the end of the ’80s, early ’90s, you’ve got bands like ourselves, and [Iron] Maiden, and Def Leppard All of us have played songs that will make you weep all the way to songs that’ll make you scared and everything in between.

nd then it got more speci c, so you became grunge band, you became speed band, you became goth band, or death band, and it’s all part of the same thing. ll those different little avenues that became available all had its roots in “Breaking the Law,” you know, or what ever. That’s what started everything up.

MT: With the wide range of material Priest has, when you guys are putting to gether the setlist, do you have any prefer ence as far as which songs really get you going or that you prefer to play live?

Hill: I’m in my music room at the mo ment and I’m going through the setlist for the new tour, and we always try and put whole mixture of songs our old ones and new ones, fans favorites, and some you haven’t heard for long time and I m getting off on all of it, you know? Even the old songs that we’ve played on every tour ever since they were recorded, and you think to yourself, “Oh god we’ve got to play that again?” And then you get up on stage and you see the fans’ reaction to it. You think ‘Yeah, that’s why we played it again.’ don’t have any real preference apart from the mood I’m in. If I’m feeling melancholy I’ll listen to “Beyond the Realms of Death” or something like that. If I’m feel ing crazy, it’s “Painkiller” or “Firepower.”

MT: You guys were recently inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Rob [Halford] wasn’t too thrilled about it. What are your thoughts on it? And why did it take so long?

Hill: Yeah, think we’re all on the same page there. mean, we’ve been in the game now for 50 years, and think heavy metal is like the Cinderella genre. It’s little bit overlooked because it’s not in your face every day. Obviously pop music and rap music, country music, it’s like every day you get in your car, you drive to work and you’re getting the same 40 songs thrown in your face all the time. Heavy metal, on the other hand, you have to go look for it And don’t think there’s any malice there. think it’s more, and this is in the nicest way, little bit of ignorance, and that’s why we’ve been overlooked over the years.

But who knows. [Black] Sabbath are there now, and Metallica, and ourselves. So maybe it’ll be the start of new movement to get more [metal] bands inducted.

MT: Do you think there’s any chance of ever reconciling with K.K. Downing and him rejoining the band? We know he’s been doing his own thing with KK’s Priest.

Hill: think time is not on our side for that, you know? Never say never, put it like that. [Downing’s] gonna be there at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anyway. He’s gonna get up and play some songs with us there. It might kickstart something, don’t know. On the other hand, he might pull us all apart. [Laughs.]

MT: ho s lling in for lenn Tipton this time around? What’s it been like moving forward and playing shows

without him since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease?

Hill: Andy [Sneap] is going to be stand ing in for Glenn again. You know, can’t even begin to understand what Glenn’s going through. Playing music is the one thing that he loves more than anything else and he can’t do it anymore and it’s terrible. But he’s determined to come out and try to take part in some shows, like two or three songs on the encore.

He’s been doing that for the whole of this tour. But don’t want anybody going out and buying ticket on the strength of that because chances are that he won’t be there. He’s planning on coming out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame about the beginning of Novem ber, so maybe he’ll join some dates around that if he’s up for it.

It’s one of those things where you see him one day and he’s perfectly normal. He’s walking around, lucid, totally normal Glenn who we’ve known for all these years. Other days, he is com pletely different person. The nature of [Parkinson’s disease] is like that, you know?

MT: Do you have any speci c memories of playing in Detroit?

Hill: remember thinking at one point we hadn’t played in Detroit for long time for some reason. We were under the impression that we weren’t very popular there but then we actually did show at one of the stadiums there. think it was an ice hockey stadium. Anyway, 11,000 people showed up and we thought, “Well, why haven’t we been playing here for the past ve, six years always remember that because we were playing smaller places anyway at that time and then we come to Detroit and play this enormous dome [laughs] and it was great. And I’m car freak anyway, so love Detroit. I’m total motorhead, you know.

MT: What’s the status of the new al bum you guys are working on?

Hill: The record s practically nished. The music part of things all the gui tars, the drums, and the bass is down now. There’s Rob He’s obviously been resting his voice for while for the up coming tour. You know, he doesn’t want to screw his voice up for that. Now, obviously, we won’t be able to get home until Christmas. And there’s possibil ity of an OzzFest in Europe in spring, so we’ll have to let the dust settle from that as well before we can release it. So, yeah, it’s looking like late winter, early spring 2023, 2024.

Judas Priest plays Detroit on Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Masonic Temple; 500 Temple St; themasonic.com. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $45.

COURTESY PHOTO

Rock ’n’ roll heart

Josie Pace blends an industrial edge with electro-pop beats

By Lee DeVito

Mohawked musician

Josie Pace stays busy. So far this year she dropped debut record IV0X10V5 (that’s “Noxious” rendered in internet-speak) in February, she strutted onstage to cover Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy” and “Nightclubbing” with the Don Was All-Star Revue at Detroit’s Concert of Colors in July, and earlier this month she embarked on her rst proper tour, jaunt opening for Los Angeles-based electronic act Aesthetic Perfection that makes stop at Small’s Bar on Friday.

“We don’t have lives outside of this,” Pace tells Metro Times She’s referring to musical partner Ken Roberts, who serves as her producer, manager, and live keyboard player (and previously played keys in ’90s alternative rock band Charm Farm, among others). Both grew up in metro Detroit, and now live near the Plymouth Rock Recording Company studio, where they’re con stantly at work.

Roberts says he met Pace few years ago after he found her music online; at the time, she was performing on acous tic guitar as singer-songwriter. “She plays acoustic guitar rather well, actu ally,” he says. But when they met up to create music together, Pace didn’t want to make acoustic music she didn’t even want to use guitars. Instead, they came up with an industrial-pop sound inspired by heavy acts like Nine Inch

Nails, Skinny Puppy, and Ministry, “but with little bit of twist to it with girl singing, and actually singing, not screaming,” Roberts says.

“It’s not that don’t love it, because love it lot,” Pace says of screaming. “I’m just not good at it.”

Pace says she still writes her songs on acoustic guitar, but they deconstruct them in the studio, rebuilding them as electronic tracks. “I don’t go into writ ing it thinking about what it’s going to sound like after the fact,” she says. The cybernetic experiments don’t always work out. “When it comes to turning her acoustic songs into electronic music, the process is de nitely a process because she doesn’t write that way,” Roberts adds. “But think that makes us stand apart from lot of bands in our genre

Josie uses chord progressions and stuff that are more theory-based in the singer-songwriter style, and then turn it into more of electronic music by tak ing it from there, which think makes the song stronger.”

Pace says she grew up listening to classic rock, and her favorite band is the Eagles, while Roberts says he listens to the Beatles all day long; the duo cite old-school rock acts like Jim Croce, John Denver, and Gordon Lightfoot, and Genesis as inspirations as well. “A lot of bands that you wouldn’t think that would be associated with when you hear our music, that’s where we pull our

inspiration from,” Roberts says.

“It’s what think also sets us apart from most other bands in our genre,” he adds. Of course, we re not the rst people to ever do that. Depeche Mode still writes that way. Martin Gore writes all the songs on acoustic guitar, and then he shows up at the studio with his acoustic demos, and they turn them into electronic music. And that’s why that band stands out, where you can sing their songs. There are so many hooks in their songs, and there’s so many people that try to do something that is like Depeche Mode, but they just can’t seem to grasp that sound. And that’s because they don’t write that way.”

Pace and Roberts started by releas ing a flurry of singles onto the internet, and shooting their own videos. By 2020, they had developed catalog that they shopped around in hopes of landing record deal, eventually inking one with Negative Gain Productions. They say they ultimately picked the Chicagobased label because of its notoriety in the industrial music genre, but also because it gave them artistic freedom. “I think that Negative Gain is perfect for having that security of having record label behind us, without having them dictating what we’re supposed to be doing and what they want us to do,” Pace says.

The duo wound up recording hand ful more songs for the project to make

the nal record sound cohesive. It came together pretty quickly,” Pace says. “It feels like it was long time, but it wasn’t very long at all, like six months, maybe, of actually putting it together.”

Highlights include tracks like “I’m Begging You,” which sees Pace pleading over an icy electronic track. “Underes timated” is pump-up song with dark mantra: “Thought you should know, will tear you apart,” Pace vows.

On this tour, the band is just Pace on vocals and Roberts on keys, but the band sometimes plays with live drummer, too. In the meantime, Pace and Roberts are also working on new album set for release next year.

e ve already got like ve or six songs demoed down and ready to go,” Roberts says. “So when we get back to his tour, we can hit the studio again and put out some more stuff.

Pace says she’s enjoying the journey Small’s Bar is where they performed for the rst time, so she considers it her home base.

“I’ve been wanting to tour forever,” she says. “I knew that music was what was going to do since was very young, and this is all had been dreaming about being signed to record label, releasing an album, going on tour, play ing in all these cities, and meeting so many people that actually enjoy what I’m creating. I’m so excited, but it’s de nitely a big feat to tackle.

Josie Pace performs with Aesthetic Perfection and genCab on Friday, Oct. 21 at Small’s Bar; 10339 Conant St., Hamtramck; 313-873-1117; smallsbardetroit. com. Doors open at p.m. Tickets are $23 advance, $28 day of show.

Josie Pace performs at Small’s Bar on Friday, which she considers her “home base.”

COURTESY PHOTO

Comfort food, with a twist

By Jane Slaughter

“It’ll be a long seven days,” sighed the hostess. Good Times’s alcohol license had been suspended by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, for some bureaucratic reason, and so proclaimed not-missable notice on the front door. had dinner anyway, and by the time came back 17 days later, all had been forgiven. See below for my alcohol experience.

Good Times, opened on the thriving Avenue of Fashion in 2019 by LaDonna and Derrick eynolds, offers tradi tional American comfort food with modern twist,” meaning burgers, wings, mac and cheese, salads, steaks, nostalgic desserts (modernized), and good number of seafood dishes, in cluding three boil bags. LaDonna says their biggest sellers are lamb chops and garlic-Parmesan wings.

The dishes sampled varied between ne and uite delicious. I liked best a grilled cheese sandwich with lobster and shrimp, dusted in Parmesan, where the crusty Texas toast seemed drenched in butter and the overall effect was richness unto Midas levels. The seafood flavors didn t get lost despite the abun dance of smoked Gouda, mozzarella, and cheddar, and it came with big

heap of flat, parsley-dusted fries.

Mac and cheese is also delight, with fat pasta and the same three cheeses as the sandwich.

Portion sizes are generous. Goodsized crabcakes had the requisite crisp exterior and soft insides, with tart remoulade. Shrimp and grits meant an enormous portion of garlicky cheese grits topped with six big shrimp, mildly spicy and served with red, yellow, and green peppers. They were bit soft for my taste, but grits are soft; they put the c in comfort food.

For chicken and waffles, the chicken came off best super-size breaded, welldone, uicy wings. The tall waffle was slightly sweet and vanilla-y, but it was served with plastic ramekin labeled reakfast Syrup it didn t even pre tend to be maple, and was just generic sugar-taste.

oth of these are also on the brunch menu, served noon-5 p.m. on Sundays, along with shrimp cake enedict, salmon croquettes, seafood omelet, loody arys, mimosas, and ellinis. found the $18 half-pound Sherwood urger ne, but not to rave about. It s tall and embellished with caramelized onions. An enhanced house salad came

with whole lot of shrimp and good house vinaigrette. Don’t be shy about asking for substitutions; the menu says ranch dressing goes on that salad, but our server offered options, and grilled shrimp instead of fried. Fries can be switched for garlic mashed potatoes; both are good, but there’s more volume to the fries.

Desserts were where the menu nodded hardest at traditional African merican cuisine - p cake, lemon pound cake. anana pudding was turned into very sweet ice cream, with strong banana flavor and chunks of vanilla wafer. The unlikely sounding peach cobbler egg roll was ust what it sounds like, a warm lling of soft peaches inside crunchy, barely sweet wrap. preferred it to the peach cobbler restaurants often serve, where the crust is as soft as the fruit.

Decor is not strong suit at Good Times. Astroturf and plastic vines adorn the patio, and pretend trees lin ing the sidewalk dining area look like something out of Dr. Seuss. Some of the tables seem to have been around for while. Still, was glad of an outdoor spot, even when, later, it was enclosed in plastic walls and heated.

Good Times

Livernois Ave.,

$12-$24,

$14-21, entrées $16-$48

The two cocktails we tried were also not strong suit, though strong. My mule tasted bitter and chemical, not like ginger beer, and my friend, who always orders martinis, said hers was the worst she’d ever tasted; my sip said lemon juice and chemicals. Perhaps better to stick to neat shots rather than mixed drinks. There’s nice long happy hour, 5-8 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday, when Hennessy is $8 shot and Green Tea Shooter (Jameson, peach schnapps, Sprite, and sour mix) is $6. Good Times sells hundreds of those week, accord ing to chef Lamar Rodgers.

The menu says that 15% tip will be added for parties of one to three and 20% for four or more, but that happened on only one of my visits. Rodgers says it’s more likely to be enforced on weekends.

Good Times serves up a “modern” take American comfort food classics, like this shrimp and lobster grilled cheese.

TOM PERKINS

Metro Detroit has a pizza-making robot

ZaBot dishes out hot pizzas 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Southfield

By Darlene A. White

Imagine going to vend ing machine, but when you arrive it’s loaded with pizza instead of candy.

local pizza spot in South eld has done just that. The ZaBot Pizza Machine is located in the parking lot of apri Pizza at 1 ile and reen eld. It looks like some sort of ATM machine, but instead of dishing out cash, it dishes out real, hot pizzas.

ZaBot can create all kinds of pies.

It only takes three minutes for the machine to create your pizza,” says Jim Cupp, general manager of Capri Pizza. “Everything that is on the pizza is the same as the pizza inside of Capri Pizza, but the only difference is that the dough is made fresh inside of our restaurant and this is pre-baked pizza dough out here.”

He adds, “We had to do lot of test

ing on the pizza to make sure people were going to be happy.”

There are no lines to wait in, or waiter to take your order just red robot. ZaBot can cook up to two pizzas at time, and customers can actually smell a whiff of the pie cooking inside of the machine while they are waiting for it to dispense.

The menu features standard pizzas like meat lover’s and veggie, and also offers specialty items, like a Detroit coney pizza and vegetarian bean burrito pizza. It also sells garlic cheese sticks with garlic butter, various warmsoft cookies, and hot soft pretzels with cheese sauce. Prices range from $8 to $12.

Cupp says ZaBot is durably con structed to withstand weather and tra c accidents. It is also open

hours and seven days week for those late-night munchie runs.

South eld is the rst city to launch ZaBot.

e are the rst to do a a ot in Michigan,” Cupp says. “The owners actually got the idea from place in ermany, I believe, and bought a ot over here.”

The process to order is simple. Customers can place their order using an interactive touchscreen that pulls up the menu items. Next, customers insert their credit card, since the machine is cashless. Once the payment is processed, the pizza robot will start cooking the order.

y the time customers are nished being amazed by the fact that robot is making their pizza, the order is ready and dispensed from the machine.

There’s perhaps no need to worry about ZaBot putting your local pizza place out of business any time soon. Its pizza isn’t cut when it comes out of the machine, so customers should grab plastic knife from the basket in front of ZaBot before leaving.

In order to keep the pizza robot loaded with fresh items, Capri Pizza workers walk across the parking lot from the restaurant to ll the machine s refrigerator with everything from fresh pizza ingredients to pizza boxes. The machine can store up to 96 pizzas.

Once the workers load the items in the back of the machine, it takes few minutes for the pizza machine to play catch up and start taking orders again.

ith new technology you always nd challenges along the way, Cupp says. e had gone through 0 different crust styles to gure out which one would cook the best in here,” he says. e nally gured it out and so far, everything is working out.”

Cupp says that ZaBot has been open for about week and has already served dinner to hundreds of families.

“We have been seeing lots of people come to the machine to try out the pizza, he says. I like it, too. y favor ite is really the dessert items like the cookies. Those cookies are so good.”

Susan Weisberg and her daughter, Esther, 8, of Birmingham, have en joyed eating from the pizza robot since it opened. They were thrilled Friday night to taste the pizza once again.

“The pizza is so delicious, like it’s really good pizza,” says Weisberg. “We have been here three times and we always get the veggie pizza. The veggie pizza is amazing. It comes out nice and hot. It s really cool, because it s a robot making your pizza.”

Weisberg says the ordering process is so easy, that her daughter under stands how to place an order on her own.

I really like pizza robot, sther giggles. It s so fun coming here.

The pizza machines also allow customers to capture their experience by pressing video recorded button on the machine that provides feedback to ZaBot. They are encouraged to use the hashtag #LoveMyZaBot and share their experience.

Cupp says within the next few months there will be mobile app, so customers can place their orders online and pick it up from ZaBot. The company also has plans to open more ZaBots across the state.

“We just want to give our customers more options,” he says. “That is what this is all about.”

The ZaBot Pizza Machine is located at 30 35 reenfield d., outhfield 44 - 0 capripizzadetroit.com zabot.

This ATM-looking machine in Southfield will make a pizza for you. DARLENE A. WHITE

Detroit cannabis dispensary suspended for 30 days after bags of untagged marijuana found

By Steve Neavling

MICHIGAN CANNABIS REGULATORS suspended medical marijuana dispensary in Detroit for 30 days and ordered it to pay 5,000 ne after nding multiple bags lled with mari uana that did not contain the required state information.

Moratorium proposed on new cannabis grower licenses to address plummeting prices

By Steve Neavling

LOBBYISTS FOR MICHIGAN’S largest cannabis operations are calling on lawmakers to impose moratorium on new growers to help prevent prices from continuing to plummet in the recreational market.

The proposed moratorium would prevent the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) from approving new grower licenses.

Prices for legal cannabis have hit alltime lows in Michigan, largely because the market is saturated. As result, growers and dispensaries are often sell ing their products at or below cost, and some businesses are closing down.

The average price for an ounce of adult-use flower dropped from more than $512 in January 2020 to $117 in August, 77.1% decline, according to the CRA. During the same period, nearly 1.5 million cannabis plants were growing, compared to about 400,000 year earlier.

The number of active grower licenses surged 65% between July 2021 and July 2022.

To impose moratorium on new growers, three-quarters of Michigan legislators would need to vote in favor of the proposal. That’s because the 2018 ballot proposal to legalize recreational cannabis called for unlimited licenses.

It’s too early to tell whether the proposal has enough support from lawmakers.

Those in the legal cannabis industry are divided.

The Michigan Cannabis Manufacturers Association, which represents cannabis businesses, says moratorium could harm the industry.

“While the MCMA has not taken formal position on this issue, grow li cense moratorium could actually disrupt Michigan’s burgeoning cannabis market at critical juncture,” MCMA Board Chair Shelly Edgerton tells Metro Times. “The MCMA has constructive solutions to help improve our growing industry that look at the bigger picture.”

Citing study that found nearly twothirds of all cannabis comes from the illicit market in Michigan, Edgerton says the state could address the plummeting prices by “cracking down on the illicit market and ramping up enforcement statewide.”

By doing so, the demand for legal marijuana would increase.

“This avalanche of illicit and poten tially unsafe cannabis also threatens to destabilize our industry, putting jobs, businesses and opportunities at risk,” Edgerton says. “There is also growing number of licensed cannabis operators providing illicit or untested product.”

The MCMA has also called for crackdown on medical marijuana caregivers who grow cannabis at home for patients, arguing that the products are untested and unsafe. Activists have

called for boycott of businesses rep resented by the MCMA, saying there is little evidence to suggest that untested caregiver-grown cannabis poses seri ous public health risk.

At the CRA’s quarterly meeting last month, most people who spoke during the public comment period agreed there’s too much cannabis in the recre ational market.

Robin Schneider, executive director of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, which represents more than 400 businesses, said majority of her members support moratorium on grower licenses because small businesscan’t survive in this environment.

But if moratorium is imposed, she said, it’s important that it can be lifted if supply declines and dispensaries have trouble stocking their shelves.

moratorium would spell trouble for Detroit, which is nally beginning to is sue licenses to cannabis businesses. No adult-use cannabis growers currently have license in Michigan’s largest city.

CRA spokesman David Harns says the agency doesn’t take positions on moratoriums and will follow the path set by legislators.

“Our job is to implement the statutes and that laws that are sent our way,” Harns tells Metro Times. “If it’s determined that this is the way that industry is going to go, we of course will take the proper steps to implement.”

The Cannabis Regulatory Agen cy (CRA) found the marijuana in multiple bags, backpacks, and duffel bags at The ouse of ary Jane at 19154 James Couzens.

Regulators told the dispensary it could not sell or destroy the marijuana until the agency com pleted its investigation, according to CRA’s formal complaint. The agency also requested 30 days of video footage.

When the agency returned to The House of Mary Jane, the dispensary said it had destroyed the cannabis. The dispensary also failed to turn over the video, ac cording to the CRA.

“The Cannabis Regulatory Agency has legal responsibil ity to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public,” CRA spokesman David Harns said in statement. “Our licensees must follow all of the rules and laws that govern the cannabis industry. Untagged marijuana products and the inability to provide video foot age is simply unacceptable.”

In Michigan, cannabis business es are prohibited from possessing marijuana without batch num ber or identi cation tag or label. They also must retain surveillance recordings for at least 30 days.

According to the consent order, the dispensary must provide its standard operating procedures on compliant tagging and waste disposal processes before receiving its license back.

The ne and 0-day suspension is the stiffest penalty yet against a Michigan dispensary.

When reached by Metro Times The House of Mary Jane declined to comment.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Love in a hopeless place

By George Elkind

She takes liquor, he takes beer. That’s not sole hard rule in Stars at Noon but it’s guiding principle in its central romance nonetheless. The latest work from Claire Denis Beau Travail Trouble Every Day adapts novelist Denis Johnson in one of her trademark late-stage neo-colonial settings, which have to date ranged from space’s far reaches High Life to unde ned regions of French-speaking Africa White Material ). As in much of both Johnson and Denis’s work, the presumptive control of dominant powers and the privileged standpoint of its white characters has begun to fray, making the lm s icara gua kind of nether zone in which local resistance butts heads with the last dregs of strained imperial reach, and in which its maladaptive expatriate leads throw money around while glancing past their backs. Amid this atmosphere, in which air con ditioning and good lodging prove scarce, they attempt kind of fugitive romance, tense and troubled feat either of existing presently or looking ahead. Whatever you might take it for, it’s stubborn viewpoint either way.

The leading pair here are Daniel (Joe Alwyn) and Trish (Margaret Qualley): shadowy, well-mannered English businessman and self-proclaimed journalist who spends more time on sex work by the time we nd her. Daniel s married to an offscreen woman, and appears relatively secure; Trish wheels about in barely-veiled precarity that’s stretched back to an unclear time. owever durable or fleeting her situation is, she’s still yet to accept it, insisting that

things are stable and reliable in her life even as they swirl outside her control. As em bodied by Qualley, an always sparky actress with distinctive and even visually “loud” mouth, half-put-on form of cynicism becomes Trish’s trademark mode, with her working to overpower those around her all the more as her own situation crumbles. But it’s not her only register, for she delivers rich performance here that careens between hard-bitten cynicism and an almost child like openness, flickering with an instability between ways of being.

For more even-keeled but quite capable Daniel, the tricks she plies on restaurant staff and hoteliers albeit with diminishing returns) don’t quite work, but they also don’t seem necessary for him. He’s knowledge able, competent, and most important believes himself secure, slouching about between ne bars for o cial-seeming meet ings in loose white suit. Appearing thusly, he looks the part of colonial history incar nate, an operator wrapping cold cloak-anddagger workings in an all too pretty facade.

ut the lm s conspiratorial action which, as holdover from the book’s bygone 1980s setting, involves the CIA proceeds with methodical nature its characters regard more with bemusement than with fear. Its heart, nearly as mysterious, lies in examining how its main characters, each more out of water than they realize, manage to connect and brush against one another romantically and otherwise, hesitantly trusting the illogic of their feelings as they plunge into one another’s lives. Working with cinematographer Éric Gautier, Denis

imbues both their recurring trysts and especially Trish’s moments of solitude (an early morning walk home, for instance) with an air of attention and ethereal remoteness that makes each seem all the more pressing. Framing Trish and Daniel’s encounters as vulnerable excursions into a space of emotional risk, the lm casts its characters’ relationship to romance as of piece with their expatriate status: situa tion that, though legible along more plainly political lines, leaves them each out of their depth and in some way exposed. In both realms, the characters dream of themselves as being in power or control: reality which, even when it isn’t plainly shifting, remains constant question.

In this regard, the lm s entral meri can characters provide more atmospheric than tactile presence, even as the relation ship between their situation and the lm s white leads comprises its central subject. But don’t mistake this for more familiar kind of lmmaking that s ust about taking sides. Denis is attending here and not, to be sure, without some bias to where she nds emotional complexity. For Denis, examining the fraught, and in some way tantalizing, spectacle of these expatriates losing their fragile grip on power seems to give her more to chew on, making for work that covers parallel ground to her past works such as White Material and Beau Travail At the same time, this experience and its attendant disorientation is rendered with certain tender attention, through the eyes of an elderly (Denis is 76) direc tor eyeing the errors and gesticulations of

Stars at Noon

Rated: R

Run-time: 137 minutes

rather young people. Twenty-seven as of this writing (and bit younger onscreen), Qualley’s Trish scans as entitled, certainly, smug about her error-prone Spanish, and at times even bigoted in her eerie touting of militarized American authority abroad. “Are you tense?” she asks Daniel once, convey ing something between concern and hope. But under Denis’ directorial hand, this and each other’s outsized performance, whether crass or steely, becomes revealing gesture of its own.

But the would-be escape of romantic entanglement blends with political power plays throughout here, with characters guarding and sharing information in the same pressed manner that early, tentative intimate partners so often do. When this happens whether between Trish and Daniel or the web of ancillary characters who s uare off with them uite often it s done so in respectful, oddly sporting man ner; even when the characters skew hostile or mocking, there’s something shared but not out-loud unacknowledged that they all share in common. Whether in romance or the strangely immediate realities of expat political life, their circumstances fall victim to kind of existential tilt, making control even of one’s immediate situation hope less sort of phantasm. But even as Trish and Daniel come together, distinct in disposi tion but resisting this same undertow, the plainest difference between them is in how they regard this existential peril. She rushes and he trudges, but each has moved well beyond their depth, sinking toward certain kind of floor.

Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn star in Stars at Noon.

COURTESY PHOTO

:Q

CULTURE

Savage Love

Crushing loads

By Dan Savage

There is more to this week’s Savage Love. To read the entire column, go to Savage.Love.

I’m 71-year-old gay man married to a much younger man. That’s all fine, not relevant so much as just info. 15 years ago, I briefly took Prozac. While it dulled my sex drive, the orgasms I did manage to have while taking Prozac were off the charts. I even talked to my doctor about it at the time and he just sort of shrugged and said enjoy it. OK, fine. But a little more than 15 years later — off Prozac for most of that time (I didn’t stay on it long) my orgasms are still off the charts. My husband’s last a kind of normal-ish five-to-eight seconds but mine continue for a good 30 seconds and leave me unable to function after. Possibly related, from time to time I get a short but slamming headache. also very rarely experience unpleasant orgasm-related disorientation, like a sense of “déjà vu” that lasts for hours. I have been to a neurologist about this but was offered no explana tion. I worry these orgasms might be permanently debilitating to me. Do you think I could be harming myself with these massive mind-blowing events? I am having sex about twice a week and they are always like that.

—Massive Orgasms And Neurologi cal Symptoms

A: Some people get intense headaches immediately before or after climaxing, and while “sex headaches,” as their doctors call them, can be extremely annoying, they’re not lifethreatening. If you’re using Viagra or poppers (which should never be used together), that could be causing or worsening your sex headaches.

As for your other symptoms, recent study written up in The Times of London could offer some guidance. The study, published in peer-reviewed medical journal, focused on post orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS), rare sexual dysfunction that afflicts a tiny percentage of men. Basically, men can become allergic to their own sperm cells, and their own immune systems

mount response to those “left behind” sperm cells that exit the balls but not the body.

“Many health providers do not know about it, let alone the public,” the study’s lead author, Andrew Shanholtzer, medical student at Oakland University, told The Times of London “It is more than likely that it is underdiagnosed, with many sufferers out there.”

Seeing as symptoms include feelings of fatigue, disorientation, and head aches, along with an assortment of flulike symptoms, MOANS, it’s possible that you’re one of those undiagnosed sufferers.

The study details how Shanholtzer treated a younger POIS sufferer whose symptoms sounded lot worse (and lot less fun) than yours: cough, swollen lymph nodes, hives. The use of an antihistamine reduced the severity of this man’s symptoms by more than 90%. The study will be published in the November 2022 issue of Urology Case Reports (“Post orgasmic illness syndrome successfully treated with antihistamine: case report,” Shan holtzer, al), if you want to print it out, show it to your doctor, and give the recommended antihistamine fexof enadine try. Or, hey, maybe it was the Prozac you briefly took 15 years ago and an antihistamine won’t help.

All that said, MOANS, we all gotta go sometime… and can think of much worse ways than being taken out by massive orgasm in my eighth decade of life.

:Q I’m a 41-year-old dude who has been monogamously married for 22 years. I know you’re doing the math and, no, it wasn’t a shotgun wedding. We were high school lovelies who went to college, got our degrees, got married, and established our careers before having two kids. Both our kids, who are still young, have been diagnosed autistic. Needless to say, our lives have become more challenging. About two years ago,

my partner fell in love with another woman (X) and asked if we could try polyamory. She asserts that her love for X does not diminish her feelings for me, and that, in part, X represents an escape from life’s challenges. I believe her, but that hasn’t made it easier for me. I’ve tried to be as supportive as pos sible, which has included developing a meaningful, loving, and sexually active relationship with X myself. However, the process of settling into polyamory has created more distance between us (me and my wife) than I would like. Further complicating matters, I’ve developed a strong connection with another woman (Y), and even though Y has strongly suggested the feelings are mutual, she’s in long-term relationship that appears happy and monogamous. want to tell Y I love her, but I haven’t out of respect for Y, her partner, and their young kids. I am also nervous about losing Y as a friend. Can telling someone you love them ever go wrong?

—Paralyzed Over Love’s Yearning

A: You’ve got wife, you and your wife currently share girlfriend

Go to Savage.Love to read the rest.

Ask: questions@savagelove.net. Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

I can think of much worse ways than being taken out by a massive orgasm in my eighth decade of life.

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Aries mythologist Joseph Campbell said that, and now I’m passing it on to you just in time for the Sacred Surrender Phase of your astrological cycle. Make sage use of Campbell’s wisdom, Aries! You will generate good fortune for yourself as you work to release expectations that may be interfering with the arrival of new stories and adventures. Be brave, my dear, as you relinquish outdated attachments and shed defunct hopes.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes before being discarded. Then they languish in our soil or oceans, degrading slowly as they cause mayhem for animals and ecosys tems. In alignment with current cosmic rhythms, I’m encouraging you to be extra discerning in your relationship with plastic bags — as well as with all other unproductive, impractical, waste ful things and people. In the coming weeks, you will thrive by focusing on what will serve you with high integrity for a long time.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

Achilleas Frangakis is a professor of electron microscopy. He studies the biochemistry of cells. In one of his research projects, he investigated how cells interact with the outside world. He didn’t learn much about that question, but as he experimented, he inadvertently uncovered fascinating new information about another subject: how cells interact with each other when they heal a wound. His “successful failure” was an example of what scientists sometimes do: They miss what they looked for, but find unexpected data and make serendipitous discoveries. I suspect you will experience comparable luck sometime soon, Gemini. Be alert for goodies you weren’t in quest of.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

Renowned Brazilian novelist Osman Lins was born under the sign of Cancer the Crab. He wrote, “I will now live my life with the inventiveness of an engineer who drives his locomotive off the tracks. No more beaten paths: improvisation is the rule.” In the coming weeks, I am all in favor of you, my fellow Cancerian, being an inventive adventurer who improvises liberally and departs from well-worn routes. However, I don’t recommend you do the equivalent of running your train off the tracks. Let’s instead imag ine you as piloting a four-wheel-drive, all-terrain vehicle. Go off-road to explore. Improvise enthusiastically as you reconnoiter the unknown. But do so with scrupulous attention to what’s healthy and inspiring.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

Inflation is a drag and money doesn’t spend like it once did. But it doesn’t seem so bad when a good chunk of the world is living in misery. You could always mark it a double.

In recent years, art historians have recovered numerous masterpieces that had been missing for years. They include a sculpture by Bernini, a sketch by Picasso, a drawing by Albrecht Dürer, and a painting by Titian. I’m a big fan of efforts like these: searching for and finding lost trea sures. And I think you should make that a fun project in the coming weeks. Are there any beautiful creations that have been lost or forgotten? Useful resources that have been neglected? Wild truths that have been buried or underestimated? In accordance with astrological potentials, I hope you will explore such possibilities.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

The most important experience for you to seek in the coming months is to be seen and respected for who you really are. Who are the allies best able to give you that blessing? Make vigorous efforts to keep them close and treat them well. To inspire your

is usually too hard-ass for me. I’m a sensitive Cancer the Crab, not a bold Sagittarius the Centaur like Bigelow and you. But I don’t want to assume you’re in the mood for her approach. If you are, though, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to deploy it. Some marvelous epiphanies and healing changes will be available if you forswear stuff that makes you pacified or comfortable.

JAMES NOELLERT

mission, I offer you three quotes. 1. Franz Kafka said, “All the love in the world is useless if there is a total lack of understanding.” 2. Anais Nin wrote, “I don’t want worship. I want understanding.” 3. George Orwell: “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

Libra poet Wallace Stevens said that the great poems of heaven and hell have already been written, and now it is time to generate the great poems of earth. I’d love to invite all Libras, including non-writers, to apply that perspective in their own sphere. Just forget about heaven and hell for now. Turn your attention away from perfection and fantasylands and lofty heights. Disregard pathologies and muck and misery. Instead, explore and celebrate the precious mysteries of the world as it is. Be a connoisseur of the beauty and small miracles embedded in life’s little details. Find glory in the routine.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

Here are two top Scorpio pastimes: 1. exploring and deploying your intense, fertile creativity; 2. spiraling gleefully down into deep dark voids in pursuit of deep dark riches. Sometimes those two hobbies dovetail quite well; you can satisfy both pursuits simultaneously. One of my favorite variations on this scenario is when the deep dark void you leap into turns out to actually be a lush wonderland that stimulates your intense, fertile creativity. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, that’s likely to happen soon.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

“I don’t want to be made pacified or made comfortable. I like stuff that gets your adrenaline going.” Sagittarian filmmaker Kathryn Big elow said that. With the help of this attitude, she became the first woman ever to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Her film was The Hurt Locker, about American soldiers in Iraq who dispose of unexploded bombs while being harassed by enemies. Anyway, Bigelow’s approach

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

Author Jan Richardson tells us we can’t return home by taking the same route we used when we departed. This will be wise advice for you to keep in mind during the next nine months. I expect you will be attempting at least two kinds of homecomings. For best results, plan to travel by different routes than those that might seem natural and obvious. The most direct path — the successful passage — may be circuitous.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

In the coming days, maintain strict boundaries between yourself and anyone or anything that’s not healthy for you. Be ultra-discerning as you decide which influences you will allow to affect you and which you won’t. And rather than getting sour and tense as you do this, I recommend you proceed with wicked humor and sly irony. Here are three saucy self-protective statements you can use to ward off threats and remain inviolable. 1. “The current ambiance does not align sweetly with my vital soul energy; I must go track down some more harmonious karma.” 2. “This atmosphere is out of sync with my deep precious selfness; I am compelled to take my deep precious selfness elsewhere.” 3. “The undertones here are agitating my undercurrents; it behooves me to track down groovier overtones.”

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

While asleep, have you ever dreamt of discovering new rooms in a house or other building you know well? I bet you will have at least one such dream soon. What does it mean? It suggests you want and need to get in touch with parts of yourself that have been dormant or unavailable. You may uncover evocative secrets about your past and present that had been unknown to you. You will learn about new resources you can access and provocative possibilities you had never imagined.

This week’s homework: What do you do pretty well that you could ultimately learn to do with brilliance and mastery?

STILL HAVEA HAPPY HOUR

EMPLOYMENT

CASHIER/CLERK WANTED UPTOWN ADULT SUPERSTORE (DVD’s, Toys, etc)

Detroit area, must be 18yrs old. Cashier, stock & cleaning Benefits-Hol/Vac/Health Call (313)869-9477 or come in to apply

HOME REPAIR

NEVER PAY FOR COVERED HOME REPAIRS AGAIN!

Complete Care Home Warranty COVERS ALL MAJOR SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES. 30 DAY RISK FREE. $200.00 OFF + 2 FREE Months! 1-877-6730511. Hours Mon-Thu, Sun : 9:30 am to 8:00 pm Fri : 9:30 am to 2:00 pm (all times Eastern) (AAN CAN)

HOME REPAIR

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES

in as little as ONE DAY!

A ordable prices - No payments for 18 months!

Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 1-877-6495043 (AAN CAN)

MOVING

LONG DISTANCE MOVING

Call today for a FREE QUOTE from America’s Most Trusted Interstate Movers. Let us take the stress out of moving! Speak to a Relocation Specialist, call 855-947-2919 (AAN CAN)

TRAINING / EDUCATION / MISC. COMPUTER & IT TRAINING PROGRAM!

Train ONLINE to get the skills to become a Computer & Help Desk

Professional now! Grants and Scholarships available for certain programs for qualified applicants. Call CTI for details! 1-855-554-4616 (AAN CAN)

SERVICES SERVICES

HEALTH

STILL PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR MEDICATION?

Save up to 90% on RX refill! Order today and receive free shipping on 1st orderprescription required. Call 1-855-750-1612 (AAN CAN)

HEALTH VIAGRA AND CIALIS USERS!

0 Pills SPECIAL $99.00 FREE Shipping! 100% guaranteed. CALL NOW! 888-531-1192 (AAN CAN)

AUTOMOTIVE CASH FOR CARS!

We buy all cars! Junk, highend, totaled – it doesn’t matter! Get free towing and same day cash! NEWER MODELS too! Call 866-5359689 (AAN CAN)

AUTOMOTIVE DONATE YOUR CAR TO KIDS

Your donation helps fund the search for missing children. Accepting Trucks, Motorcycles & RV’s , too!

Fast Free Pickup – Running or Not - 24 Hour Response - Maximum Tax Donation –Call 877-266-0681 (AAN CAN)

TV/CABLE/INTERNET CABLE PRICE INCREASE AGAIN?

Switch To DIRECTV & Save + get a $100 visa gift card!

Get More Channels For Less Money. Restrictions apply. Call Now! 877-693-0625 (AAN CAN)

TV/CABLE/INTERNET HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET

Finally, no hard data limits! Call Today for speeds up to 25mbps as low as $59.99/ mo! $75 gift card, terms apply. 1-844-416-7147 (AAN CAN)

TV/CABLE/INTERNET

4G LTE HOME INTERNET NOW AVAILABLE!

Get GotW3 with lightning fast speeds plus take your service with you when you travel! As low as $109.99/mo! 1-888-519-0171 (AAN CAN)

SERVICES SERVICES

MASSAGE

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ONLY (INDEPENDENT)

DRAPING IS REQUIRED INTAKE FORM is given COVID -19 READY Enjoy a calm and soothing massage HEALTHY BENEFIT HEALTHY MASSAGE 734 447 7895

Early and

are

must be

MASSAGE

CANDLE LIGHT MASSAGE

on

MASSAGE

RELAXING NURU MASSAGE for the quarantine must not be sick. Must be clean and wear mask. Outcalls only incalls are at your cost Hey I’m here to help. This is Candy melt in your mouth so try my massages they’re sweet as can be!!! (734) 596-1376

ADULT

ADULT ENTERTAINMENT HIRING SEXY WOMEN!!!

Hiring sexy women (& men). Highly Paid Magazine, Web, and Movie/TV work. no experience needed, all sizes accepted. 313-289-2008.

TO ADVERTISE IN MT CLASSIFIEDS CALL (313)961-4060