Metro Times 01/25/23

We received responses to last week’s cover story, our annual Winter Guide, which included a list of 30 reasons to love winter in metro Detroit.

Been there done that! —Keith Casey Facebook

Been there still doing that And it sucks! Lol. —Daniel Cowell, Facebook

Why would anyone love metro Detroit any time of the year when there’s litter and trash scattered all over the place? Connie Bulach, Facebook

Because EbonyBrownStyle on TikTok

can gone somewhere talking about furs is a trend to leave in last year. I still don’t believe she’s from Detroit. There’s no way. —Reya Gaines, Facebook

What winter? We’ve had zero snow and it is sunny and 50 today. There will be no winter this year I’m afraid. Sad. —Lynda Herman, Facebook

Editor’s note: In true Michigan fashion, metro Detroit saw between one and two inches of snow the Sunday after our guide was published, and some areas saw three inches. Meteorologists say more snow is expected on Wednesday and Friday, and could continue next week. Gotta love it!

Have an opinion? Of course you do! Sound off: letters@metrotimes.com.

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NEWS & VIEWS

Beautiful, abandoned apartments to be renovated

TWO UNIQUE, LONG-vacant apartment buildings in Detroit are being renovated to provide 87 units of new affordable housing in the Piety Hill neighborhood, the city announced last week.

The historic Lee Arden Apartments and the neighboring Kingsley Arms Apartments, on the 600 block of Hazelwood Street, will be offered to Detroiters making between $31,350 and $50,160 a year.

The buildings will include a total of three studios, 63 one-bedroom apartments, and 21 two-bedroom apartments. The average rent will be less than $1,000 a month.

A developer, Hazelwood Partners LLC, is teaming up with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a community development financial institution, to complete the ambitious $10.3 million project.

The Detroit Housing for the Future

Move over 313 — here comes 679?

IF YOU WANT to show your city pride with a 313 area code, you better lock that down fast. The Detroit area is projected to run out of unassigned phone numbers with the 313 area code by 2025.

That’s according to the Michigan Public Service Commission, which announced Thursday that it’s looking into adding a new 679 area code.

The MPSC plans to hold a hearing in March in Detroit to take public comment on a proposal to add the new area code.

The 313 area code covers Detroit,

Hamtramck, Highland Park, Allen Park, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, the Grosse Pointes, Inkster, Lincoln Park, Redford Township, River Rouge, and Taylor.

The proposal calls for applying 679 over the same geographic territory as 313. It would apply to new numbers only, and would not require people with existing 313 area codes to change their phone numbers.

Calls between 313 and 679 numbers would be billed as local calls, but the

Fund (DHFF), which helps developers with finances to renovate affordable housing, is providing a $6.7 million loan for the project.

DHFF has helped fund 10 projects with a total of 378 units for lower-income residents.

“The Detroit Housing for the Future Fund is proving to be a powerful tool in our efforts to create affordable housing for Detroiters,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in a statement. “In the case

of this developer, almost an entire block will be completely renovated, and ready for new people to move in and enjoy a high quality yet affordable home in a beautiful neighborhood. It also gets us that much closer to fulfilling our goal of creating or preserving 15,000 units of affordable housing to ensure that Detroiters of all income levels can live in any neighborhood they wish.”

Hazelwood Partners includes Ryan Zampardo and Devon Caldwell of Detroit-based Inkwell Partners, David Conca of Vera Development, and Todd Rodgers of Essential Property Management.

The group is also nearing completion on the Weber Apartments, across the street from the Lee Arden and Kingsley Arms buildings.

When all three buildings are complete, they will provide more than 130 new units of affordable housing.

The Piety Hill neighborhood is just north of Detroit’s New Center area.

“We appreciate the City of Detroit, LISC Detroit and the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund for helping us transform these beautiful, historic buildings” Zampardo said. “It is extremely important to us as developers to make sure our apartments are attainable for all Detroiters. Without the DHFF, achieving these affordability levels would not be possible.”

DHHF is a private investment fund anchored by a $15 million commitment from JPMorgan Chase and a $10 million guarantee from The Kresge Foundation. It is managed by LISC Fund Management LLC, a subsidiary of LISC.

“Creating and maintaining affordable housing is one of our key missions,” said Camille Walker Banks, executive director of LISC Detroit. “The Detroit Housing for the Future Fund is a valuable resource particularly during a time of rising housing costs and inflation, as well as stagnating or shrinking incomes. Everyone should be able to afford and live in quality housing.”

—Steve Neavling

change could require some devices to be reprogrammed.

The proposal dates back to 2000, but the MPSC says the effort was delayed.

The public hearing for the change is set for 1:30-3 p.m. on Thursday, March 9 at Wayne County Community College District’s downtown campus (Frank Hayden Community Room #236), 1001 W. Fort St., Detroit.

Those who can’t make the public meeting can also submit written comments by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 20, 2023 to Executive Secretary, Michigan Public Service Commission, P.O. Box

30221, Lansing, MI 48909, or by email to mpscedockets@michigan.gov. All comments will be made part of the public case file and should reference Case No. U-21337.

The Michigan Telecommunications Act grants the MPSC the authority to approve or reject area code changes in Michigan. A final order is expected by May 31, 2023.

679 doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as 313, but we’re sure Eminem could still figure out something to rhyme it with.

—Lee DeVito

COURTESY PHOTO

Knock, knock? CVS door repair makes a confounding sight

CUSTOMERS WEREN’T QUITE sure what to make of the white double wooden doors at the entrance of a CVS pharmacy on Detroit’s east side on Friday morning.

“Are they closed?” one man asked.

Another customer quipped, “Where’s the doorbell?”

It was an odd look for the CVS at East Warren and Mack near the border of Grosse Pointe.

Would-be thieves used a car to smash through the normal glass doors at about 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, and for a quick fix, CVS installed wooden doors that look like they

belong on a home.

No one was injured, and the suspects didn’t steal anything, Detroit police tell Metro Times

A bright yellow sign assured customers that the store was open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

CVS employees declined to discuss details of the robbery, and neither Detroit police nor the pharmacy’s corporate spokespeople would comment.

A Church’s Chicken in Detroit resorted to a similar repair after a car smashed into the building.

—Steve Neavling

Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland sues ex-wife

LIMP BIZKIT GUITARIST Wes Borland is suing his ex-wife for defamation in Detroit’s Third Judicial Circuit Court following what he says are disparaging comments she made about him in the press, a violation of their divorce terms.

In the filing, first reported by Rolling Stone, Borland accused Carré Callaway, frontwoman of indie rock band Queen Kwong, of breaching the terms of their 2020 divorce agreement, which states that “neither party may make speeches, give interviews, or make public statements that defame the other party.”

In an interview published by Band camp Daily last year, Callaway claimed Borland gave her only three days to leave their home in Detroit’s Arden Park-East Boston Historic District, adjacent to the city’s Boston-Edison neighborhood. The former couple

moved to Detroit from Los Angeles in 2015 to renovate the home for a DIY Network TV show called Sight Unseen Callaway told Bandcamp Daily that she and Borland had “rescued and adopted out a couple hundred cats” in the home. But the marriage dissolved, and just weeks after Callaway had been diagnosed with the life-threatening disease cystic fibrosis, she claimed she was given just three days to move out and find new homes for the cats.

“We had seven or eight cats of our own, and when everything fell apart, one thing that made me realize things were really over was his desire to not only get rid of me, but the cats too. There was a disabled one called Daisy. She died a week after he left because he was the only one who could care for her. That’s the hardest thing to get over,

Union membership in Michigan grows

UNION MEMBERSHIP IN the U.S. grew by 273,000 in 2022, including by nearly 50,000 in Michigan, according to the annual report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.

The Michigan AFL-CIO applauded the news, saying the movement was led by workers of color against decades of anti-union policy in the U.S. and Michigan.

“For nearly 40 years, politicians in Lansing have unjustly inserted themselves into our collective bargaining agreements, tipping the scales in favor of corporations and millionaires,” Michigan AFL-CIO president Ron Bieber said in a statement. “But yesterday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics annual report proves the resilience and power of Michigan’s labor movement.”

The Michigan AFL-CIO is Michigan’s largest labor organization, representing more than 1 million union members and their families in 40 different labor organizations.

According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 71% of Americans support unions, its highest point since 1965. But union membership also hit an all-time low in 2022, with 10.1% of workers unionized in 2022 — down from a high of 20.1% in 1983, the first year the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported comparable figures.

According to Axios, while the workforce added 273,000 union jobs in 2022, the figure was outpaced by the total number of jobs added that year, 5.3 million.

In recent years, especially in the aftermath of the burdens placed on so-called “essential” workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a wave of high-profile union efforts,

honestly,” she said, adding, “I still have nightmares about it.”

According to Borland’s filing, “These statements intentionally do what Ms. Callaway was expressly prohibited from doing: They adversely affect Mr. Borland’s public image and reputation that he has built over a twenty-plus–year career” and are an attempt at “destroying Mr. Borland’s extraordinary and hard-earned professional reputation.”

Borland is asking for $5,000 for “costs and attorney fees” and for the court to sanction Callaway. In a statement, Callaway told Rolling Stone that “The TRUTH CANNOT BE DEFAMATORY,” and adds, “This action is simply a tactic to bully, intimidate, and silence me. This is an attempt to financially ruin me, exhaust my physical well-being and denigrate my credibility with the explicit intent of causing harm to my career. This is an overall attack on

including among workers at corporate titans like Amazon and Starbucks.

But in states like Michigan, union membership has been weakened by laws dubbed the “Right to Work,” a package signed by former Republican governor Rick Snyder during a lameduck session 10 years ago. The Michigan laws prohibit workers from having to pay union dues, a move was met with protests at the time.

“The growth in union membership demonstrates the urgent need for our pro-worker legislative majority to act upon the will of the people that elected them and restore their union freedoms and collective bargaining rights,” Bieber added.

Now that Democrats hold a trifecta of power in Michigan for the first time in 40 years, union supporters are calling on lawmakers to repeal “Right to Work.” Democrats have signaled their intention to do so, and legislation to repeal the laws has already been introduced in both the state House and Senate.

“These statistics highlight the urgent need to repeal Michigan’s anti-union ‘right-to-work’ law,” said legislation sponsor state Senator Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat who represents several metro Detroit communities. “Our new legislative leadership has the opportunity to take long-overdue action to remove existing restrictions and ensure workers are able to more freely negotiate the pay, benefits, and protections they deserve.”

According to the BLS, median weekly compensation for union members was $1,216 in 2022, compared with $1,029 for nonunion workers.

—Lee DeVito

freedom of speech and artistic expression.”

Borland’s attorney B. Andrew Rifkin told Rolling Stone, “Mr. Borland wishes Ms. Callaway the best in her career. He does not wish to limit her artistic expression, but as part of their divorce settlement, both parties agreed to keep their opinions about their divorce private and refrain from making negative public comments about the other party.”

The couple married in October 2016 and filed for divorce in January 2019. Borland listed the home for sale for $899,900 in 2020. They purchased the home, originally built in 1924, five years earlier for $500,000.

Known for wearing outlandish costumes while performing in Limp Bizkit, Borland also played guitar in a touring version of Queen Kwong.

—Lee DeVito

STEVE NEAVLING

housing people. (According to the latest census data, a narrow majority of Detroiters now own the home they live in, reversing a decade-long trend toward renters.) In order to illustrate the human crisis eviction represents and who’s getting paid off it, the rban Praxis Workshop developed “the Eviction Machine” to expose how running people out of homes is an important business model for the real estate industry in Detroit.

It isn’t hard to see how this could go wrong. If your business model depends on profiting from shelter, a human need, then it will quickly clash with Detroit’s largely Black and working-class population struggling to make ends meet in order to fulfill that need.

Here’s what we know: A third of Detroiters live in poverty. While the city recently reported a 6.8% unemployment rate, the rate for Black residents is likely much higher. In recent years, 35% of low-income Detroiters say their financial situation has gotten worse. So it’s no surprise that, according to the American Community Survey, 0 of Detroit renters were cost-burdened in 2021, meaning they spend more than 30 of their income on housing. A shocking 34% spend more than half of their income on housing and are considered severely cost-burdened. This has hideous ripple effects. early 40 of Detroit’s families don’t have enough food to eat. The same amount can’t afford a 400 emergency.

What does all this mean for evictions According to the Poverty Solutions report, “21 of renters 1,000 tenants) will face the threat of eviction this year.” Landlords, as they will remind you, do not have to weigh history’s sins when they move to raise rents or evict someone. But anyone who looks honestly at the history of housing in this city will see that evictions can’t be untied from the chain of profit-maximizing decisions above decisions that are still ruining lives to this day.

As public outrage and pressure mounted, City Council President Mary She eld and the Detroit right to counsel coalition stepped in to craft a right to counsel ordinance. It passed unanimously back in May, promising that low-income people wouldn’t have to face experienced landlords and their attorneys alone. According to another Poverty Solutions report, “only 4.8 of tenants were represented by an attorney in eviction cases filed 2014-2018, compared to 83.2% of landlords.”

nsurprisingly, landlords win the overwhelming majority of these cases. And as research shows, having an attorney of your own greatly improves your odds of winning in court and keeping your home.

That makes the right to counsel an important outlet for people who desperately need good representation. But its delay, and our national decision to make housing a luxury good instead of a human right, means that we remain shackled to the recent past, when so many had “no other choice, no other place to go.”

The Four Corners would’ve been considered a slum fifty years ago. In ce or ro t, Keanaga amahtta-Taylor cites a Free Press article from 19 2, in which one eastsider describes appalling living conditions, from “rat infestation to holes in the ceiling.” Today, nearly 100,000 Detroiters live in unfit housing.

At the Four Corners, entire stretches of the hallway have had the carpet pulled up, exposing a floor that’s badly scarred from what looks like extensive water damage. Inside the apartment of Ken Pruitt, another tenant and a close friend of Treasure’s, they describe life there as one where residents are forced to navigate constant disrepair. Doors and closets take more effort to close than they should because the carpet is ballooning from what appears to be previous water damage. The tops of nail heads spring from a kitchen floor where the carpet’s been pulled out. Black mold lines the bathroom floor and the splatter of bed bugs line the bedroom wall. Days later, Treasure sends me a photo with a text message saying “I flushed the toilet and it came through the tub this morning.”

These are normal conditions at Four Corners. early a year ago, Detroit viction Defense put the building’s owner, Michael Eissman, on their “Slumlord atch,” after tenants reached a breaking point and began documenting all the ways Four Corners fails and devalues its residents: “roaches, black mold, sewage leaks, broken windows, inadequate heat, and repeat flooding.” D D notified the city, but progress has been slow.

For a moment, though, Treasure was optimistic. Both her and Ken take pride in their homes, and all they’ve done to make them livable despite the owner’s extraordinary negligence. Throughout a

good chunk of her two years there, the building’s new management represented by a woman who Treasure says would at least hear her out seemed to be slowly turning a corner. They seemed to be listening to tenants and made some badly needed repairs. n top of that, one of the building managers had a kind heart, Treasure says, and would work with tenants whose circumstances were complicated but navigable. For Treasure, that meant paying rent toward the end of the month to better match her pay period.

But then a backlash came. The manager who understood Treasure’s situation was replaced with someone who began to tighten the screws again. Repairs slowed down and verbal agreements like the one made with Treasure were thrown out. Treasure picks up any work shift she can, often overnight, and regularly clocks close to 0 hours a week. She supports a teenage son and a disabled father, and is saving up for a home of her own.

hen she fell behind on rent this fall, the new management refused to take her partial payments and told her she was “blocked and never called me back.” Soon after, Jackson was handed a notice to quit, which gives tenants thirty days to leave on their own. When that day came on Dec. 12, she declined, something she had every right to do. The landlord must now take her to court if they want to proceed. Which is exactly what they’ll have to do, she says.

Things might’ve been different if the more understanding manager were still there, and Jackson suspects that’s exactly why she was let go: “She was too nice,” which in this case means “she was putting money towards helping clean the place up and get rid of insects.” Without warning, Jackson went from feeling like she had a partner to work with to being run out by a cutthroat slumlord. “ ou really miss that atmosphere of a person who’s willing to work with you,” she says. Attempts to contact Eissman for comment were unsuccessful.

Changing gears so abruptly and then being hit with an eviction could have been a deeply isolating experience for Jackson. viction, by its very nature, boots people from the main arena,

outside of the workplace, that most people’s lives unfold in, cutting them off from loved ones and entire communities in the process.

But Jackson began connecting the dots between what she was facing and the problems with the entire rental market. She realized that although “this is my fight, it’s not only my fight.” By that, she means the challenge of finding good, affordable housing affects people in every corner of the city. Those people should be uniting against “money hungry” landlords to “prevent this from happening to anybody else.”

Here’s the thing though: because so many people are facing an almost identical landscape of grief in the rental market and bullying, neglect, and retaliation from landlords, the actual solution “is not complicated,” Attorney Tonya Myers Phillips, project leader of the Detroit right to counsel Coalition DRTC , tells etro imes

Right to counsel isn’t a perfect tool, especially in a court system that’s notoriously cozy with landlords and real estate sharks, but Jackson’s situation is exactly the type of thing an aggressive eviction defense o ce could prevent by giving her a fighting chance against powerful and relentless adversaries.

“It’s inexcusable that the mayor’s o ce let this deadline pass in the manner that they did,” Phillips says. “We’re calling on our mayor to fully fund the ordinance so our people, our community won’t be unnecessarily evicted and facing homelessness.”

She adds, “ e’re past the point of asking questions about, Does this work Should we do this ’”

According to eviction defense experts, a serious right to counsel program in Detroit would cost roughly 1 . million annually. The Detroit Right to Counsel Coalition is calling for a round 18 million annually to ensure the o ce has everything it needs to fight aggressively on behalf of tenants who need it. So far, the City Council has approved 18 million over three years, while the mayor has so far only allocated $6 million over those three years, coming up $48 million short of the amount advocates say is needed to do this the right way.

“So the ordinance is dramatically underfunded,” attorney Phillips says.

hich is inexcusable since “Detroit is in an incredibly strong financial position. The money’s not an issue.” Phillips points to 800 million in American Rescue Plan funding for Detroit, which came with strong Treasury Department encouragement “to support the right to counsel and eviction

diversion

Black mold lines the bathroom floor. Days later, Treasure sends me a photo with a text message saying “I flushed the toilet and it came through the tub this morning.”

strategies.” More to the point, a recent Rock Community Fund report found that a well-funded right to counsel o ce would save the city 18.9 million annually by freeing up all the money that’s spent on the sprawling eviction industry: from carrying out evictions to funding the meager safety net programs that support people afterwards. In other words, the program would pay for itself and then some.

The report also found that “represented tenants are nearly 18 times more likely to avoid disruptive displacement

than unrepresented tenants.” That’s astoundingly effective, and makes it all the more disturbing to know that “individuals are suffering unnecessarily,” Phillips says.

After missing the deadline and following public outcry, Conrad . Mallett, the city’s Corporation Counsel, “accepted full responsibility for the fact that we missed the deadline.” early seven weeks after that deadline, the city finally chose the nited Community Housing Coalition to manage the eviction defense o ce, beginning in early 2023.

hen asked about why the city hasn’t imposed an eviction moratorium, Mallet gave two ustifications. The first, Mallett says, is that under the federal and state funded Covid Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) program, “Persons who experience eviction and who come to court with their eviction notice receive representation.” But people familiar with the actual design of that program say this is nonsense. As it stands, tenants who come to court for eviction cases are offered legal advice in a sideroom, but are not given an attorney with the ability

at the Four Corners describe a building in constant disrepair.

to argue forcefully on their behalf. This is perhaps better than nothing, but it is significantly less than what was promised and what the scale of the problem requires.

The second reason is that since “RTC will be up and running by January,” city housing analysts decided “a citywide moratorium at this time was not necessary” though “the possibility of course is always under review.” It’s important to spell out exactly what this means: that tenants should trust the same city that missed its own deadline when it says free eviction defense is coming sometime in January. And according to recent reporting from Malachi Barrett at ri e etroit, it will take the city at least until February. In the meantime, thousands of renters have likely already been evicted in violation of the ordinance. ot only that, though countless more, Treasure Jackson among them, could be next because the city refuses to use the power it has to stop them from being tossed out of homes across the city.

ltimately, housing advocates say the right to counsel is a narrow solution to a fundamental problem with the way we provide housing in our society, which is mostly through private markets and landlords whose sole purpose is not to offer people quality, secure shelter, but to get paid off of their need for it. Since the stakes are so high though, victories like right to counsel have to be constantly guarded and seen as a step towards the kind of society where housing is a human right.

In response to the city’s delays, Detroit Eviction Defense is urging tenants facing eviction to “ask the court to adjourn (postpone) your case until you are assigned a free attorney under the right to counsel rdinance.” They’ve spelled out instructions for how to do so, including a sample motion, which you can find online https: bit.ly 3C mFe .

The entire saga is also a wake up call for the future of right to counsel. From the very beginning, everyday people have been in the driver’s seat, dedicating themselves to getting tenants the support they need and organizing relentlessly for it. ithout them, RTC doesn’t stand a chance. “It takes the power of the people to loosen things up and to get action,” Phillips says. And that’s what Detroiters have done. And that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

is stor s m e ossi le t ro rt ers i it t e ce stice e orti iti ti e t e etroit it ctio t t e mo . eit e ter or i il i ts.

Tenants

ALEJANDRO

EMPLOYMENT

CONTROLS INTEGRATION ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Collect 20-28 Tier I/II supplier embedded ECU SW packages for Body Control Module (BCM), Electronic Brake Control Module, OnStar module, Instrument Panel Cluster, Transmission Control Module & 20 other embedded ECU modules, for future truck programs. Review, validate & release In-Vehicle SW Configuration Management (VeSCoM) to internal Electrical Engrg, Chassis Controls & Powertrain Engrg groups for review & debugging of current & new VeSCoM system SW packages of suppliers. Create test plans, using VSpy & DPS tools, in Controls Development Plan (CDP), based on VeSCoM & release CDP to Flint & Oshawa Assembly Plants. Create VeSCoM documentation incl. Master 3PD, release notes, ID files, HW dependencies, new features, known issues/anomalies for each VeSCoM SW release & upload to SharePoint. Perform KBTs & milestone tests of 2028 supplier embedded ECU packages based on HD truck program monthly milestones. Perform In-Vehicle CDP testing to identify bugs in supplier before vehicles are assembled in plants & submit timely reports to Controls Mgr. Bachelor, Electrical, Mechanical or Electronics & Communication Engrg, or related. 6 mos exp as Engineer, capturing & analyzing CAN bus & LIN bus data from vehicles or test bench using neoVI FIRE2 HW & performing root cause of issues using collected data using VSpy tool, or related. Mail resume to Ref#31380-4111, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

EMPLOYMENT

CONTROLS TOOLS DIAGNOSTIC SOFTWARE ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Member of Test Automation Platform Team, develop test automation solutions, identify, program, tune, optimize & integrate off the shelf tools & design new SW tools to validate system & SW reqmts for conventional ICE passenger vehicle, Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), & Autonomous Vehicle platforms’ embedded ECUs, in C#.Net, Iron Python & Python, using MATLAB, Simulink, ETAS INCA, Stahle RC, CarSim, dSPACE Control Desk, NI LabView, Lauterbach Debugger & VSpy tools, & CAN devices according to J2534, & Automotive Ethernet protocols based on DoIP standards. Ensure accurate validation for low & high-risk scenarios. Mentor & work w/ offshore supplier team to develop new test methods for test automation & post data processing in C#.NET & Python programming languages, using MS Visual Studio tool for embedded ECU testing. Bachelor, Computer Science; Computer, Software, or Electrical Engineering, or related. 60 mos exp as Engineer, Developer, Lead, Consultant, or related, mentoring or working w/ team to develop new test methods for test automation & post data processing in C#.NET & Python programming languages, using Microsoft Visual Studio tool for embedded ECU testing, or related. Mail resume to Ref#35091-104, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

Robert Bosch LLC seeks a Sr. Software Engineer

(Multiple Positions) in Plymouth, Michigan. REQS: Bach dgr or frgn eq in Electrical Engg, Electronic Engg, Computer Engg or rela fld, +5 yrs prof exp in Embedded SW Devel for Auto Safety Systems. Applicants who are interested in this position should apply online at https://www.bosch.us/careers/, search Sr. Software Engineer / REF182007U

WHAT’S GOING ON

Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Be sure to check all venue website before events for latest information. Add your event to our online calendar: metrotimes.com/ AddEvent.

Wednesday, Jan. 25

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Dancing with the Stars: Live! 2023 Tour p.m.; Caesars Palace

Windsor Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $38-$83.

Icewear Vezzo p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

Jason Hogans p.m.; Ziggy’s, 206 W. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti; $5 suggested.

A Songwriter Scramble: Aaron Markovitz, Ashley Pyle, Tom Alter :30-9:30 p.m. Berkley Coffee Oak Park Dry, 14661 West 11 Mile Rd., Ste 50o, Oak Park; $10 suggested.

Tall Heights, Andrea von Kampen 7:30 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $17.

DJ/Dance

(More than) Punk Nite w/ DJs Nips & Horrorshow p.m.; Bowlero Lanes Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

THEATER Performance

Fox Theatre Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic; $20-$90; various times. Go Comedy! Improv Theater Big Fun Murder. 7:30-9 p.m.

Meadow Brook Theatre Birthday Club. $43. Various times.

ISSUES & LEARNING

Lectures & Classes

Leon & Lulu An afternoon of Feng Shui Fun, with Feng Shui master Dennis Fairchild. Celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit with the renowned astrologer. $25 per guest. Ticket includes a box lunch courtesy of the Three Cats Restaurant. Cocktails and refreshments will be available for purchase. $25. Noon-1 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 26

MUSIC Live/Concert

Dancing with the Stars: Live! 2023 Tour p.m.; Caesars Palace Windsor Augustus Ballroom, 377 E.

Riverside Dr., Windsor; $38-$83.

Couch, Jackson Lundy 7-11:30 p.m.; The Parliament Room at Otus Supply, 345 E Nine Mile Rd, Ferndale; $20.

In the Tradition 8-10 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $20.

Leela James p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $39-$51.

Magic City Hippies Winter Tour 2023 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $20.

Neal Francis, Danielle Ponder p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $25.

The Floozies: Midas Whale Tour with Jaenga p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20-$23.

THEATER Performance

Baldwin Theatre Stagecrafters presents Clue. $25-$30.

Fox Theatre Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic $20-$90. Various times.

Meadow Brook Theatre Birthday Club. $43.

Tipping Point Theatre Loy A. Webb’s The Light Not. $28-$48.

COMEDY Stand-up

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle Comedian Brad Williams with Ella Horwedel and Wes Ward. $35. Various times.

Continuing is Week Stand-up

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant Tonight vs Everybody: Thursday Open Mic.

Friday, Jan. 27

MUSIC Live/Concert

Bobby Murray’s Winter Bash featuring Lenny Watkins with Barbara Payton & The Woodward Horns p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $42-$58.

Broadway Rave p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $15.

Donatella, Green Again, Kenneth Wallace + DJ Rock City Ray p.m.-12:30 a.m.; Bowlero Lanes

16 January 25-31, 2023 | metrotimes.com

Lunar New Year fest at Fairlane mall

GET READY TO welcome the Year of the Rabbit. A Lunar New Year celebration is planned for Fairlane Town Center on Saturday, Jan. 28. Hosted in partnership with Dragon Eagle TV, the event will feature a lion dance, ribbon dance, food samples, and a Lunar New Year backdrop for selfies.

A variety of giveaways including take-home lanterns, bonsai trees, miniature rabbit figures, white rab bit creamy candy, and red envelopes with feng shui gold coins will also be available. There’s also a ra e for 2 gift cards to The Ukiyo Store and P.F.

Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; free.

Friday Night Folk: BanjoFest p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $250, $120, $45.

LagerHouse uncorked/The Seatbelts, Rearrangements, Blasty’s Backroad 7:45-11:45 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $10.

Magic Bus p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $10+.

La Nueva Estrategia, Nicole Padilla, Historia del Norte p.m.; Pike Room, S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $45+.

The Detroit Sound Showcase p.m.; Aretha Franklin Jazz Cafe At Music Hall, 350 Madison Street, Detroit; $15.

The Reject Room p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck 10.

Wine, Women & Song XXI: Coming of Age! 7:30 p.m.; Kerrytown Concert House, 415 North Fourth Avenue, Ann Arbor; $29-$80.

DJ/Dance

Shlump: Alien Trip Tour p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20.

Chang’s.

The Lunar New Year is traditionally celebrated in East Asian cultures, marking the start of a new lunar cycle on the second new moon following the winter solstice. The holiday fell on Jan. 22 this year and is celebrated for around 16 days. 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit.

The Fairlane Town Center Lunar New Year festival is from 2-3:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 in the mall’s South Court (near Express).

For more information, see shopfairlane.com.

—Randiah Camille Green

Walker & Royce p.m.-2 a.m.; Russell Industrial Complex-Exhibition Center, 1600 Clay Street, Detroit; $25.

THEATER Performance

Baldwin Theatre Stagecrafters presents Clue. $25-$30.

Fox Theatre Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic. $20-$90. Various times.

Meadow Brook Theatre Birthday Club. $43. Various times.

Open Book Theatre Company Nollywood Dreams. $30. Various times.

Rosedale Community Players

Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot. Various times.

Tipping Point Theatre Loy A. Webb’s The Light. $28-$48. Varioius times.

COMEDY

Improv

Go Comedy! Improv Theater AllStar Showdown. $20. Various times..

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant T Barb. 8:30 p.m. Show Tickets $10 advance, $15 at the door.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle

Comedian Brad Williams with Ella Horwedel and Wes Ward. $35. Various times.

Royal Oak Music Theatre JR De Guzman: Later That Evening. $39.75 $49.75. p.m.

Continuing is Week Stand-up

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant The Sh*t Show Open Mic. Free.

ART Opening

Flagstar Strand Theatre For The Performing of Arts Rocco Pisto Retrospective . Opening at 5 p.m. Appetizers and a cash bar will be available until 7:30 p.m. Exhibited works of art include over 50 pieces ranging from 1976-2022. Through March 31.

Saturday, Jan. 28

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Wine, Women & Song XXI: Coming of Age! 7:30 p.m.; Kerrytown Concert House, 415 North Fourth Avenue, Ann Arbor; $29-$80.

BOOGIE T: MONSTER ENERGY

OUTBREAK TOUR 9:30 p.m.; Elektricity Nightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $40.

Cafe Shalom featuring Joseph Palazzolo, Classical Pianist 7:309:30 p.m.; Congregation Beth Shalom, 14601 Lincoln, Oak Park; $20-$25.

Excluded p.m.-1 a.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $20.

Jackie’s Dead p.m.-midnight; Bowlero Lanes Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; free.

Led Zeppelin 2 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15$150.

Of The Trees p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $22.

One Exit Down p.m.; Pike Room, S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $12.

Saved By The 90’s p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $15.

Umphrey’s McGee p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.50-$59.50.

David Penn with Marina, Esshaki, Tokka p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $15-$20.

46th Ann Arbor Folk Fest 6:30 p.m.; Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor; $47.50+.

Local buzz

By

Broccoli and Joe Zimmer

Welcome to a new column about Detroit’s music scene. Got a tip? Hit us up at music@metrotimes.com!

Weeknight tropical wine-down Typically, if you’re looking for a lowkey weeknight set (which still has the potential to blow some weekend sets out of the water), Motor City Wine is the go-to spot. While the outdoor patio is closed in the colder months, the wine tasting room plays host to an eclectic array of DJs and jazz artists in a uniquely intimate setting. One of the newest weekly sets is hosted by DJ and Motor City Wine proprietor David A-P alongside one of Detroit’s hardest working DJ-producers, Dez Andrés. Simply titled Tropicalia expect a mixture of salsa, samba, mambo, bossa nova, Brazilian psychedelic, and all the other topical Latin vibes in between. While DJ Dez has achieved cult status for his decadeslong career as a singular producer on Moodymann’s Mahogani Music label and his own La Vida deep house imprint, he’s also known for his masterful conga-playing. There is no one better to entrust with a Latin-every thing music night. Tropicalia happens every Thursday at Motor City Wine, no cover.

—Joe Zimmer

Detroit made me funky The ultimate connoisseurs of soul, R&B and everything-in-between 45s, Brad Hales and Frank Raines’s long-

standing monthly party Funk Night returns to the Old Miami this Friday, Jan. 27. Raines runs the record label of the same name, Funk Night Records, specializing in private press funk music, forgotten gems, and even some local hip-hop mixed in. Hales is the owner of People’s Records a gold mine for gospel, jazz, and funk music fans, with encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s homegrown labels and recordings. The duo typically plays music exclusively from their crates of 7-inch records, and you’ll often hear music that is virtually impossible to hear anywhere else. This week’s edition includes a special treat, with a live performance from Ultimate Ovation an OG Detroit band from the 1970s which operated its own record label in the city called Ultimate 1999. They’ve recently recorded some new music, available on Funk Night Records, naturally. —Joe Zimmer

Exploring the origins of house music Before there was house, there was disco, and many dance music his torians would point to Francois K as one of the leading forces behind this cultural transition. Born in France, Francois moved to New York in 1975 and eventually found himself playing at legendary establishments such as Studio 54, Paradise Garage and more. As an A&R at Prelude Records and then starting several labels of his own, Francois’s remixes and selections have helped define the sound of ew York dance music for the last 40-plus years. On Saturday, Feb.11, Francois

will be touching down at Marble Bar in Detroit along with fellow New Yorkers JADALAREIGN and Rissa Garcia so expect a night of sonic euphoria perfect for combatting the winter blues. Tickets are available on Resident Advisor. —Broccoli

Stoop Lee presents Tha Sequel: It’s been a busy couple years for Stoop Lee a Detroit Hip Hop artist that has made a name for himself with nostalgic flows, easy-going style, and a heck of a live band to boot. Lately he’s been do ing more show organizing, including a huge skateboarding and music festival at Detroit’s Bishop Skatepark last year, and on Friday, March 24 he’s re turning to El Club Detroit for “Tha Sequel.” Part show part music showcase, the lineup features artists that Stoop Lee works with and respects in the local music scene, exhibiting a sense of intentionality and genuine community building that we don’t always see in the hyper-financially-incentivized world of ticket sales and social media numbers. Ally Evenson brings a soft yet forceful touch to the lineup, and Curtis Roach is sure to put on a show as one of the city’s brightest new stars to come out of the pandemic. Whu Else joins in as another promising local act on the bill, and finally Pia the Band rounds out a lineup that blends the worlds of indie music, hip-hop, and beyond. Tickets are available at elclubdetroit.com. —Broccoli

Got a tip on Detroit’s music scene? Hit us up at music@metrotimes.com!

Dez Andrés.

COURTESY PHOTO

MUSIC

From ‘Better Made’ to ‘how to get paid’

How Detroit hip-hop infiltrated the snack food market

By Kahn Santori Davison

Detroit’s snack food industry is stitched into the culture here as much as the Big Three, Coney Islands, potholes, and Carhartt. Every Detroiter has grown up having a favorite potato chip and Faygo combo, and munches on Kar’s Nuts on the Tigers’ opening day. But if you’ve been paying attention to the gas station and convenience store snack aisles lately, you might have noticed bags of “Vezzo Hotz” potato chips sporting an illustration of rapper Icewear Vezzo showing his iced-out grill and gold chains.

The chips made their debut last May, the first offering from the newly formed Detroit-based snack food company We Eatin’ and distributed by fellow Detroit snack food company Nicks Chips. At the end of 2022, two more Detroit hip-hop-inspired flavors had

been released: Peezy’s Cheese potato chips based on Peezy and Baby’s BBQ potato chips based on Baby Money.

“I have been trying to get these to market since 2020,” says Chanel Domonique, founder and CEO of We Eatin’. “I literally had to go through the whole COVID scenario of [the price of] corn syrup going up, supply chain issues, and not having enough employees at certain manufactures.”

The chips are now available in more than 250 stores, Domonique says, and more than 200,000 bags have been sold so far, with popularity steadily growing. Domonique has her hands in every aspect of the production process, testing seasonings, quantity, and quality, and every bag has a QR code on the back that links to the latest music, merch drops, or performance dates

from the featured artist.

She’s managed the career of Icewear Vezzo for years, and felt it was only right that his offering was the first flavor launched.

“I was thinking about so many names and people, but Vezzo’s had to be the first ones,” she says. “ e’ve grown together. I’ve literally been there since the beginning.”

On one hand, the chips are an example of the notoriety and celebrity of today’s current wave of Detroit hip-hop all-stars. All three emcees had banner years last year. Icewear and Baby Money both inked record deals with industry giant Quality Control Music, while Peezy has Kim Kardashian making a TikTok video to his mega hit, “2 Million Up.” But more importantly, the chips represent another way

hip-hop has always been able to take mainstay shards of American culture and remake it into something that reflects its fanbase.

Domonique is not the first visionary to marry hip-hop and snack foods. In 1994, a Philadelphia brand called Rap Snacks was born and has put some of the biggest names in hip-hop on bags of chips. But We Eatin’ is intimate and unapologetically Detroit. These aren’t rappers thrown on bags of chips for the sake of selling bags of chips. These are home-grown artists, and every flavor is meant to capture their essence, energy, and presence in Detroit.

“I had them send me what their favorite flavors are, and then we create some type of dynamic,” Domonique says. “I allow for each influencer to be involved with everything, even how their bag will look. It also goes with who they are as influencers. Vezzo is hot as fuck. Peezy’s Cheese, well, he’s got a record going crazy called ‘2 Million Up.’ Baby Money BBQ, it’s a money-green bag and he’s Baby Money.”

Domonique also plans to tap into Detroit’s film and entrepreneurial culture for future flavors.

“ very influencer I’m putting on these flavors and allowing to have their own line launched have built it out of the mud, whether they’re an artist, an influencer, or a small business owner,” she says. “Because I am coming for entrepreneurs as well — even in our movie market where we have a lot of actors that, even though they are local, they are in so many films that they have an audience.”

We Eatin’ isn’t stopping at just snack foods. Domonique envisions a McDonald’s-like extended universe where characters, personalities, YouTube shows, tutorials, and content will all be available. For teens, topics like, “How to make a beat” or “How to start a clothing brand” will be featured while animated characters similar to Cocomelon or Grace’s World will be geared toward children.

“The influencers will be a special guest in each episode,” Domonique says. “For toddlers, it might be a jingle with Vezzo rapping about ABCs for the kids, teaching life skills. We have characters that will be introduced to the market next year, and I’ll be launching TV commercials. There will be a lot of community engagement to pour back into the city of Detroit.

e’ll be doing a few different lifestyle events for the flavor launches, and there will also be a more nationwide reach.”

More information is available at weeatinsnacks.com.

Chanel Domonique launched her Detroit rap-themed potato chip company We Eatin’ last year.

COURTESY PHOTO

SOFTWARE ENGINEER-VMEC, Milford, MI, General Motors. Review & analyze MATLAB, Simulink & Stateflow models & autocode generated base software for torque monitoring. Design, develop, validate, debug & integrate ICE passenger vehicle, Hybrid (HEV) & Battery (BEV) Electric Vehicle engine, chassis, transmission, & electrification torque monitoring & vehicle & system remedial action safety SW, in Embedded C, using Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, Eclipse IDE, IBM RTC/DOORS/ Rhapsody tools, following MISRA CERT C standards. Design, review, integrate & verify SW to meet vehicle specific architecture, system, security, & safety requirements of global passenger vehicles. Improve customer & driver safety by supporting new controls strategies, diagnostics, & controller communications. Perform embedded ECU testing on test bench & in vehicle, using dSPACE ControlDesk, ETAS INCA, VSpy, Vector CANoe tools, & Lauterbach HW, to verify functionality at Function, Controller & System levels prior to production release. Master, Electrical, Mechanical, or Mechatronics Engrg. 12 mos exp as Engineer, developing & validating conventional ICE passenger vehicle & HEV or BEV torque monitoring & vehicle remedial action safety SW, in Embedded C, using Gerrit & IBM RTC tools, following MISRA CERT C standards, or related. Mail resume to Ref#31115- 20204, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

MUSIC

World wide Webb

Detroit-born drummer Spider Webb weaves a tale from Motown and beyond in new doc

By Jim McFarlin

It may be easier to list all the superstar artists and legendary entertainers that drummer Spider Webb hasn’t kept time with than the ones he has. From Roberta Flack to Peter Frampton, Aretha Franklin to Harry Belafonte, the renowned Detroit-born percussionist can look back with pride upon an extraordinary six-decade career.

And he does, with incredible detail, in the new two-hour documentary Spider Webb Untangled: The Life and Times of Legendary Drummer Kenneth Rice, released this week on Vimeo and DVD by Lansing-based Megawave Corporation. An o cial member of Motown Records’ illustrious Funk Brothers session players and the driving beat behind such R&B immortals as The Temptations’ “Cloud Nine” and Eddie Kendricks’s “Keep on Truckin’,” Webb will be signing DVD copies of his film and chatting with fans from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Motown Museum Shop in Greektown.

“I could not be more happier with the way my career has gone,” Webb declares, his voice more reflective than boastful. “I’ve done a lot of things most musicians only wish they could. By my early 20s I was traveling around the world, playing with Harry Belafonte, doing things that I never dreamed of

doing. I mean, I always had thoughts of playing with the people I listened to on records, but I never really believed I’d ever find myself in that position.”

Born Kenneth Ronald Rice in 1944 on Hastings Street, just blocks from Detroit’s fabled Black Bottom neighborhood, Webb suggests in the documentary that constant beatings from his mother left him permanently blind in one eye from childhood. “I went all through elementary school with a patch over my eye,” he remembers. “So I was an introvert. I kept to myself because I knew I was different than everybody else.”

Eventually he bonded with grade school classmates at Goldberg Elementary — many of whom are interviewed in the film over love of music. “I tried to play trumpet, saxophone, trombone,” he recalls, “but when I sat down behind the drums it was like, ‘This is where you belong.’ I found my calling in fourth grade.”

The documentary was inspired by Webb’s 2009 autobiography, also titled Untangled and ghostwritten by Bert G. Osterberg. Ironically, the book came about at a time when he had turned his back on music.

“I stopped playing because I was frustrated with the industry,” Webb

says. “I decided to move back to Detroit, and I got a job with Burroughs, which is now Unisys. I stayed there nine years, and among the people I worked with was this lady named Armaine. We would talk and I would tell her I played drums, worked with Belafonte, blah, blah blah. She was married to Bert, and when she would talk about me he would say, ‘Honey, that guy never did any of those things. He’s just trying to get next to you!’”

One night Webb was invited to play at a special event and invited Armaine and Bert. “They said, ‘Wait a minute. This guy is for real. He can play drums!’” Webb grins. “Bert said I ought to write a book. He had published two books already. He didn’t know that I had been trying to ‘write my book’ for 20 years.”

John Palmer of Megawave, the documentary’s producer and director who will also be at Wednesday’s meet-andgreet event, saw the same promise after reading the book and meeting Webb. The doc has some flaws you can’t help wonder why Webb is interviewed against a white wall with a wood railing for the entire film rather than, say, a stage, recording studio or anywhere with a drum kit in sight — but overall it is an honest, well-spun musical time

capsule.

“I think we could have done some things better,” he acknowledges, “but I’ve never, ever been satisfied with anything I’ve done. Once you say ‘I’m satisfied,’ you cease to be creative. The thing I want people to take away from this is that regardless of what kind of hand you’re dealt in life, you can overcome it and be successful, because I did. When people ask me where I went to college I say, ‘USD: The University of the Streets of Detroit.’”

Latter-day Detroiters may remember Webb from his years performing with acclaimed pianist Bill Meyer and the late bassist Hubie Crawford at Bert’s Marketplace in Eastern Market, especially on open mike nights. “Open mike was about giving people an opportunity to do what they dreamed about,” he says. “We were never judgmental. We supported them, played good behind them, made them feel good. We let them fulfill a goal they had held in their hearts.”

Turning 79 this year and living in the same West Side house his parents bought in 1948, Webb knows this documentary came along at just the right time to redirect his creative passions. Decades of forging his own unique drumming style have left a devastating physical toll: three herniated discs, one bulging disc, three pinched nerves and a severe case of sciatica have left him unable to sit behind a kit. “The hardest thing to accept was that the thing I love the most was the thing that brought me down,” he reflects.

“Nobody ever told me I was playing drums the wrong way, or I needed to stretch and exercise because playing drums is so physical, and I probably wouldn’t have listened if they had. When I was 40 I thought I was Superman. But I am going to play drums again. I just don’t know when.”

Many assume his nickname came from his flamboyant drumming style. Many would be wrong. “When I was a kid there was a dance called the hully-gully, and one day I was doing it at school,” he relates. “A girl cried out, ‘You look like a black spider, climbing up a wall!’ The next day everybody said, ‘There’s that spider! Hey, spider!’ And it stuck. From third grade! I added the ‘Webb’ later myself.”

Kenneth “Spider Webb” Rice will appear for a meet-and-greet session hosted by Megawave’s John Palmer, director of the documentary Spider Webb Untangled, from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, at the Motown Museum Shop in Greektown, 580 Monroe St., Detroit. Rice will be talking with fans and signing DVD copies o is lm. ee s i er e t le . com for more information.

“I could not be more happier with the way my career has gone,” drummer Spider Webb says.

COURTESY PHOTO

EMPLOYMENT

CONTROLS DESIGN ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Design, develop, review, & verify algorithms to meet psgr vehicle specific architecture, system, security, safety & encoding reqmts of US & global

Battery Electric Vehicle embedded ECU Vehicle Integration Control Module

Battery Energy Transfer features incl programmable charging & charging termination, in MATLAB & Embedded C programming languages, using MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, Model Development Kit, Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, Eclipse IDE, IBM RTC, Artifactory, ETAS INCA, & internal tools, dSPACE HIL test bench, in Windows OS, in Agile & SAFe methodologies. Define & execute embedded ECU SW unit level testing using CppUTest & vehicle tests from customer expectations & system reqmts. Collaborate w/ teams to define & integrate cmpnts, check functionality on dSPACE HIL test bench & in vehicle. Research & develop novel solutions to various controls problems that cover multiple domains incl chemical, electrical, mechanical, & thermal. Master, Mechanical, Electrical or Automotive Engrg. 12 mos exp as Engineer, designing or developing calibration data anlys tool to detect potential defects of control SW of embedded ECU in MATLAB, in Windows Operating System, or related. Mail resume to Ref#45956, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

EMPLOYMENT

SOFTWARE ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Gather system requirements for GM conventional ICE passenger vehicle Engine Control Module (ECM) features including Cold Start Emission Reduction, Fuel Delivery System, High Pressure Fuel Pump, & Gas Particulate Filter & functions including Cold Start Control, Cold Start Diagnostics, Fuel injector Control, Fuel Injection mode. Create designs & updates Algorithm Design & Software Description Documents. Implement designs according to embedded SW & modeling standards, using MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, C language, PolySpace, Gerrit, Jira, Jenkin, Artifactory, Eclipse IDE, & IBM RTC. Ensure implementation complies with MISRA, CERT & GM embedded C Coding Standards & ISO26262 safety standards. Integrate implementation into production SW & verify it w/ cmpnt & controller build. Review build logs & update SW to address build issues. Validate design & implementation performing unit testing using Simulink Test, CPPU, RiBeTT tools. Validate system behavior using vehicle virtual simulation with GMSIM & AutoVAL, HIL bench with dSPACE, Control Desk, ETAS INCA & MDA tools. Bachelor, Computer Science, Computer or Electrical Engrg, or related. 60 mos exp as Developer, Engineer, Technical Lead, Asst. Consultant, or related, designing, validating, or releasing ECM or Body Control Module (BCM), or ECM or BCM features, or related. Mail resume to Ref#23382, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

The vessels on which many Mexican lunches or dinners are served are perhaps at times a bit underappreciated part of the equation. A killer birria or piquant al pastor can make you ignore or forgive a standard-issue, prepackaged tortilla in a taco, dough in a huarache, or bread in a torta.

The very best spots deliver on both elements. Among those in metro Detroit is Sheila’s Taqueria. For various reasons, the dough used in the sopes, huaraches, gorditas, and tortas share the stage with the al pastor, chorizo, and asada. That partly owes to Shelia’s being the restaurant version of a bakery of the same name in Southwest Detroit, which largely made its mark by producing goods on the sweeter end of the spectrum.

But the Taqueria gets its daily delivery from the bakery, and the fresh, crusty bread that held the torta with milanesa de res, or breaded steak, stood out. It was packed with shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato, avocado, refried beans, cheddar, pickled jalapeño, and crema, and was a delicious mess. But the pambazo was the superior sand-

Holding it together

By Tom Perkins

wich on the first visit. For the uninitiated, pambazos’ soft, crusty bread is dipped in a guajillo chile sauce, then fried to give it a slightly crisp exterior. In between the deep red pieces of bread is salty chorizo with big, soft hunks of soft potato that sop up the flavor. It’s finished with pickled alape os, a thick coating of shredded iceberg lettuce, and cooling crema.

The corn masa dough comprising the gorditas, sopes, and huaraches all possessed a perfectly crisp exterior, and were soft and puffy inside. The al pastor in the gordita was slightly sweet and piquant, packed into the pocket with shredded iceberg, lettuce, tomato, avocado, crema, and a dusting of cotija cheese. The birria on the huarache was perhaps the only thing I wouldn’t order again as it was a bit dry, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and it was topped with the same mix of iceberg lettuce, tomato, crema, avocado, and cotija.

Most of the two jumbo sandwiches and the heartily packed gordita and huarache left Sheila’s in my belly, not in a take home box — a willingness to eat to this level of discomfort is a good

sign. The chef packed up what scraps I had leftover and we spent a funny moment attempting in broken English and Spanish to marvel over how much I had just eaten.

The taqueria is inside a store-bakery selling sweets and other baked goods, along with drinks and staple foodstuffs. The restaurant portion is comprised of a small counter and bare bones dining room, and lunch was a little slow on a Monday, but was so slammed on a ednesday that the staff didn’t have time to bring out the chips and salsa that usually come with the meal.

Several friends whose tastes I trust had alerted me to or agreed that I should visit Shelia’s, which launched its taqueria in 2018. The restaurant is named after the owner’s daughter, and a manager said business had been booming prior to COVID and was picking up again. On two lunchtime visits, the other diners were blue collar types — the restaurant is smack in the middle of the state’s industrial heartland.

On the second visit, the El Hawiaina, or The Hawaiian, which is an al

pastor torta with hunks of pineapple, was a pleasant surprise. Al pastor is made on a spit topped with pineapple slices, which drip down the sweet juice and give the meat its sweet and savory profile, so the Hawaiian torta is a smart idea. In an attempt to control my gluttony, I limited myself to one sandwich and an order of sopes, which like their huarache and gordita cousins, were soft, puffy discs with crispy exteriors. Went for the chorizo again, and the sopes came topped with iceberg lettuce, tomato, crema, avocado, and cotija.

Both meals were washed down with a horchata, though there’s an entire convenience store of beverages to choose from, and it’s tempting to grab a loaf of bread on your way out the door.

The vessels deliver at Sheila’s Taqueria in Melvindale.

TOM PERKINS

FOOD

HopCat Royal Oak announces new opening date due to construction delays

AFTER SOME DELAYS, Royal Oak’s HopCat is gearing up to reopen next month.

According to the company, construction issues have pushed back the public grand opening to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11.

As an act of goodwill, the company is promising free Cosmik Fries for one year to the first 100 guests in line, along with HopCat swag and other giveaways.

The new restaurant is located at 430 S. Main St. in a space formerly occupied by Noodles Co., Gamestop, and BD’s Mongolian Grill. HopCat previously opened a Royal Oak location in 2017 at 208 5th Ave., but it closed in 2020 due to a landlord dispute. (That building now houses Pastaio, a Florida-based Italian chain.)

“We’re thrilled to be back in the vibrancy of Royal Oak,” said Ned Lidvall, CEO of parent company Project BarFly. “Given the challenges that the industry as a whole has faced the past couple of years, we are more than ready to hit the ground running. We have assembled a very strong team — led by Kinnewu Pulford — and we’re very excited to be a growth company again, and to continue our focus on

craft beer, music, good times, and ‘food your mom would make if she loved craft beer.’”

HopCat’s new 11,300 square-foot Royal Oak restaurant will have 60 local beers on tap and can accommodate 266 diners, the company says. The beer tap system was repurposed from the original Royal Oak location, and a second kitchen will serve off-premise customers, including carry-out, thirdparty delivery service, and catering, a company first.

“As the dining landscape has changed so much, HopCat decided

to open with a second off premise kitchen in our building,” HopCat Royal Oak general manager Kinnewu Pulford said. “This will ensure that we can execute all of our to-go guests e ciently without compromising our service standards that made us so popular in the area prior. Needless to say, we are very, very excited to be back in the city of Royal Oak.”

The decor echoes the music-themed design of other HopCat locations, including a wall of classic vinyl record covers.

The restaurant will also have garage doors that can be rolled up in the warmer months, and a dog-friendly patio located along W. Main Street and Fifth Avenue that can accommodate about 100 diners and their furry friends.

HopCat will also participate in Royal Oak’s social district, a pandemic-era policy that allows guests to enjoy to-go beverages from establishments from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

The company says it will also offer special invite-only dinner seatings to raise money and awareness for the tigers and lions at the Detroit Zoo.

“Two Amur tigers and four African lions call the Detroit Zoo home — and caring for these majestic animals truly is a community effort,” said Dr. Ann Duncan, associate vice president of life sciences for the Detroit Zoological Society. “The unwavering support we continue to get from our partners, year after year, is incredible — and the fact that HopCat chose the Zoo as its charity partner for its grand reopening speaks volumes. We encourage the greater Royal Oak community to support the grand opening of HopCat, and we are also extremely appreciative of their efforts in supporting the continued, extraordinary care for these lions and tigers.”

HopCat is now hiring for the Royal Oak location. The Grand Rapidsbased beer bar chain has 10 locations, mostly in Michigan.

—Lee DeVito

The Red Hook is reopening location after car accident

REJOICE, THE RED Hook coffee shop will be reopening its Greenway location in Detroit soon.

According to a social media post, the local chain is gearing up to reopen its doors in the Rivertown area this week. It’s been closed since July of 2022 when a car plowed through the storefront, causing extensive damage.

In the post, a photo shows a shiny new countertop and display case which had previously been destroyed by the unfortunate accident.

“We can’t tell you how happy we are to finally reopen reenway for you,” the post reads. “We are beyond grateful to serve you from our beautiful shop.”

We’re eagerly awaiting the Red

releases

ATWATER BREWERY SEES your AI-generated Instagram portraits and raises you an AI-designed beer.

That’s right. The Detroit-based brewery is releasing a beer conceived by artificial intelligence, appropriately called Artificial Intelligence IPA. It’s described as “a blend of Centennial, Citra, and Amarillo hops resulting in tropical and citrus flavors and aromas.”

While the recipe for the new IPA was crafted by artificial intelligence, it’s actually brewed by humans.

Atwater’s quality manager Joe Platt came up with the idea.

“AI technology has the potential to impact and revolutionize many industries, including the brewing industry in the future,” he said in a press release.

“We asked an AI to create an IPA recipe for us, and it was able to create a recipe to the scale of our brew system; and created an AI-designed-human-brewed IPA. I’m excited for Atwater to be on the forefront of innovative brewing, we have more ideas and new beers coming in the very near future.”

Artificial Intelligence IPA will be on tap at Atwater’s Detroit, Grosse Pointe, and Grand Rapids locations. To celebrate, Atwater is selling the beer for $2.001 a pint as a nod to the 2001: Space Odyssey film and novel by Arthur C. Clarke and the series’ AI character HAL 9000.

“As far as we know, this is the first beer of its kind in Michigan; we are fortunate to have a team of innovators, like Joe on site in Detroit, and I encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for more great news and brews in 2023,” Atwater president Katy McBrady said in the news release. “Cheers!”

Another year, another step closer to an artificial intelligence takeover.

—Randiah Camille Green

Hook to open its new spot inside the former reat akes Coffee on oodward Avenue in Detroit’s Midtown. The Red Hook took over the space during the city’s annual Noel Night and teased a permanent move in early 2023.

reat akes Coffee shut down the Midtown location after its workers went on strike and tried to form a union over what they said were insufficient C VID-19 protocols that led to a large outbreak among the staff.

—Randiah Camille Green

COURTESY PHOTO

Detroit’s Atwater Brewery

AI-made beer and we’re not sure how to feel about it

Cannabis sales in Michigan continue to soar

By Steve Neavling

LEGAL CANNABIS SALES in the state hit a record $221.7 million in December, even as prices continue to plummet.

Although medical cannabis purchases are still on the decline, adult-use sales are higher than ever, hitting $208.3 million last month, according to the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency. By comparison, adult-use sales were $135 million in December 2021.

Meanwhile, medical cannabis sales dropped to $13.4 million, compared to $32.9 million in December 2021.

Flower still dominates the market, followed by vape cartridges and infused edibles.

Cannabis sales are likely to climb even higher in 2023 after Detroit issued its first round of licenses for

adult-use retail businesses to open in December. The city issued 33 licenses for dispensaries, microbusinesses, and consumption lounged.

Some of the Detroit adult-use dispensaries have already opened.

Meanwhile, the cost of cannabis continues to decline. The average price of an ounce of recreational flower was 90. 8 last month, compared to $175.57 in December 2021.

Prices are dropping because the

Skymint is giving away free weed for a year — and also giant joints

SKYMINT, ONE OF the largest dispensary chains in Michigan, is giving away free weed for a year, and another 24 lucky winners will receive 10-gram giant joints.

Skymint announced the sweepstakes last week.

ne person will be selected at random to receive free weed for a year in the form of a $500 in-store credit every month from Jan. 31, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2024.

“Cannabis has the power to change lives, and all of our cannabis is grown right here in the state of Michigan,” Summer Ransom-Cleveland, Skymint’s chief retail o cer, said. “Through this program, we want to share our love of cannabis and what it can do for us, our friends, our families, and our communities across the state.”

There are three ways to enter, and no purchase is necessary:

Fill out an entry form online at Skymint.com/FreeWeed

Follow Skymint on Instagram at @ Skymint cial se the code “FR D” with any online order

An additional 24 people will receive a 10-gram joint.

“This program mirrors our mission to provide access to products that enhance, elevate, and expand the person, the people, and the environment of which we are all a part,” Ransom-Cleveland said.

Participants must be 21 years or older. The sweepstakes ends on Jan. 30, and the winner will be notified on Jan. 31, 2023.

—Steve Neavling

market is saturated with cannabis — a good problem for consumers, but a challenge for retailers.

Rising sales in cannabis is also good news for municipal budgets. Unlike medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis has a 10% excise tax and a sales tax. xcise tax revenue goes

to local governments, schools, and roads.

There’s still plenty of room for growth. A vast majority of the state’s 1, 4 communities don’t allow adult-use cannabis sales. Additional communities are expected to opt in as the market matures.

Quality Roots opens Waterford dispensary

LOCAL CANNABIS DISPENSARY chain Quality Roots has opened its latest location in Waterford Township.

As of press time, the store had planned a grand opening celebration on Tuersday at the store, located at 1700 Tull Court.

It’s the company’s fifth location in southeast Michigan. Quality Roots C Aric lar says the store will start off serving medical mari uana cardholders only, but plans to expand to adult-use sales for any age 21 and older.

“ e are so stoked to finally open our doors and welcome the Waterford Township community and beyond,” lar said in a statement. “To start, we’re opening our Waterford location as a medical provisioning center with the goal of extending into the recreational space in the near future. Join us for the grand opening and enjoy our new state of the art facility.”

The company says the store

will employ between 5-8 full-time employees, and hopes to triple its workforce when it gets approval for adult-use sales. It says it also plans to host community events to benefit local nonprofits and neighboring businesses.

“It’s exciting to have a variety of diverse industries throughout Waterford Township,” Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Nikki Tippett said in a statement. “With the addition of Quality Roots, residents can be empowered and educated on the benefits of cannabis and cannabis reform. This is just one step forward in our mission to boost our local economy and create a strong, dynamic, unified business community.”

Quality Roots also has locations in Detroit, Battle Creek, Monroe, and wosso, with plans to expand into Berkley and Ypsilanti in the coming months. More information is available at getqualityroots.com.

—Lee DeVito

Darryl DeAngelo Terrell is unapologetically queer in first solo show

By Randiah Camille Green

is e t re i li ts iffere t loc l rtist e c ee . ot someo e i mi o t i eser es t e s otli t it s t rts@metrotimes.com.

A subject with an hourglass figure cinched in a white corset shows off their bare ass in a photo at Detroit’s alerie Camille. In another photo of this perfectly round bottom, a pearl necklace cascades down the sub ect’s back. The photogra pher is intentionally drawing the viewer’s eye directly to the sub ect’s voluptuous backside, and it works.

hen six-foot-seven artist Darryl DeAngelo Terrell walks into the gallery, it’s clear the voluptuous ass pictured belongs to them. But technically, the photos aren’t of Terrell themself they’re of Terrell’s lush, femme alter ego Dion.

Terrell, or Dion, is both the model and the photographer in this allerie Camille exhibit titled, e o ot i is s or e. It’s the Detroit-born, Brooklynbased artist’s first solo show.

“ ith Dion, I’m building my perfect world,” Terrell says. “It’s me building a world where I can exist and be celebrated being Black, fat, femme, and queer.”

The show features a variety of selfportraits of Dion serving looks with long nails, a fur coat, voluminous wigs, and shimmering dresses.

“I grew up in a family full of women and you know Black Detroit women, they fly,” Terrell says. “ specially from the ’90s I think about the sequin bodysuits my momma had and all of these things that resemble this very Black Detroit status the long nails and big ewelry, the fur coats ust this level of opulence that I think is unique to Detroit is where I get a lot of my influence.”

ften Dion is dressed in barely any thing like in a boudoir diptych of them in a canopy bed titled, “ ou fat fat, you da kinda fat that’ll make a nigga bite the skin between his thumb and pointing finger.”

es, that’s the real title, and Terrell incorporates humor in their work to ap

proach conversations about queerness with lightheartedness.

“Being queer is fucking hilarious,” they tell us as we share laughs at the gallery. “And then the added layer of being sixfoot-seven, 400 pounds, and queer and then being the bottom There becomes this idea that men seem to have where they’re like, I wanna make you my bitch.’ It’s all power dynamics.”

The series of black-of-white butt photos called “I mean... it’s ust the small of my back..... ain’t that all you wanted to see anyways ” was inspired by the ways Terrell is asked to perform for the men they have sex with.

“ ftentimes I’m asked to be extremely submissive,” they explain. “I’m asked to be extremely feminine and to perform these acts of labor. But it’s like y’all don’t really care about the way I’m presenting myself. All you wanna do is spend your three minutes behind me and fall into my back when you finish when you ask for a towel and leave.”

ther titles include “ ith xpensive Taste...That’s It, Ain’t Shit Broke Round Here,” “Documentation of Dion Being A Bad Bitch... Periodt,” and “Play Jill Scott, Album 3, Track 14, at 1:19.” That last one is a set of instructions that leads you to the real title, a part in the song where Jill Scott says “I ust wanna be loved.”

hile Terrell is upbeat and sure of themselves during our conversation, they weren’t always that way. That’s where Dion

comes in. The alter ego was birthed while Terrell was in grad school for photography and was pressed about the self-deprecat ing work they were making at the time.

“My first piece I did in grad school was titled, I ish I as Perfectly Happy,’” Ter rell remembers. “I photographed myself very plainly against a white backdrop with some gray underwear, very ashy. iterally, my knees were ashy like I had been pray ing in flour. It was basically dissecting the way my body was perceived by society and the ways I’ve internalized those things. My advisor at the time was like, Damn Darryl, what do you love about yourself ’ And I was like, I don’t know.’ All the things I should love about myself I’ve been taught not to, because of this body, because I was born male because I’m so big ”

They continue, “So I started thinking, in a perfect world, who would Darryl be and how would they represent themselves The things I love about myself are the soft things.”

So Terrell made their first photo pro ect as Dion, which is featured in the show, called “Dion ntitled 3 or Sitting Pretty or These iggas Revolve Around M .”

It was originally a triptych, but only one photo is in the alerie Camille show. In it, Dion is topless in a wicker chair, wearing a tulle skirt, and flanked by two “conven tionally attractive” men. This is when Dion was born.

“It was inspired by those black velvet paintings of the ’90s where you see a woman on the throne with two leopards at her feet and she’s got her staff and a spear,” Terrell says about the photo. “But I was like, what if the two leopards at my feet were two Black men Specifically, Black men who are deemed more attractive, and more desirable than me . hat would it be like for them to be not only adorning and caressing me but protecting me So literally it’s making me the center of their universe.”

Making work as Dion, the sassy character who exudes glamor, softness, and strength, has helped Terrell in their ourney towards loving themselves and their body.

“There’s definitely a confidence and heightened level of self-awareness that I as Darryl have grown into. I learn from Dion,” they explain. “In certain situations, I’ll be like DD, what would Dion do ”

They add, “I want people to come in and feel challenged, but also feel like damn, these are ust gorgeous photos.”

Where to see their work: e o ot i is s or e is on view at alerie Camille 4130 Cass Ave., Detroit 313-9 4- 3 galeriecamille.com until Feb. 18.

o c re t e ll ersio o t is rticle o metrotimes.com. ot someo e i mi o t i eser es t e s otli t it s t rts@metrotimes.com.

Artist of the week

COURTESY OF GALERIE CAMILLE AND THE ARTIST

CULTURE

In trial lm Saint Omer, rich re ection arises from restraint

By George Elkind

Courtroom dramas are known for their bombast, but Alice Diop’s new film Saint Omer — playing the DIA’s Detroit Film Theatre this weekend — is about as stylistically contained as they really come. Centering on the dour proceedings in the trial of a French-Senegalese woman named Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) in the French city of the film’s title, the film observes the collision of seemingly plain fact with confounding, sub ective contradiction. Building on the real-life 2013 case of Fabienne Kabou, Saint Omer examines the case of her fictional analogue in Coly. Having confessed previously to the killing of her own young daughter, she surprises the judge early on by pleading not guilty on the day of the trial itself.

It’s less the events that are in dispute than Coly’s own recollection of them: a sub ective elision which becomes all the more germane for her being the case’s key witness against herself. As Coly testifies newly that she doesn’t consider herself “the responsible party” in the murder, Diop’s stays raptly on her steadily delivered, deeply beguiling defense of herself — departing from

Malanda’s performance only to capture the transfixed reactions of those attending the hearing or to capture a question from an interlocutor. (There’s brief space, too, outside the hearings in moments in which the court adjourns). With Coly asked by the judge to “please explain” her point of view, Diop presents this task as fraught with mystery and complication, recounting the story of one’s life far easier said than done.

Among those attending is Rama (Kayije Kagame), a four-monthspregnant French-Senegalese writer and professor attending the trial who’s taken an interest in the case. Diop, a documentarian herself, has spoken in interviews of her desire to capture her own experience attending Kabou’s reallife murder trial (a hearing in which, as with the fictional one in this film, cameras were not allowed . So she strives to come close, framing Saint Omer around Rama’s firsthand experience, imposing layers of successive lenses which trouble Rama’s and our attempts to read Coly with too much clarity.

ith Rama’s character serving as a shared surrogate for both us as viewers and Diop herself in the act of observ-

ing, the potential for misinterpretation in the case by those watching calls attention to itself. Though nominally a disinterested party, Rama’s pregnancy, gender identity, and background all link her position on some deep level to Coly’s own, with their implicit connection being something the film never makes so bold a claim as to resolve.

For her part, Malanda as a screen presence has no trouble holding Diop’s, Rama’s, or this viewer’s attention. As Laurence Coly, she’s poised but barely slumping, mournful yet earnest, and both defiant and reserved, refusing ultimately to claim forms of knowledge she doesn’t have. At the same time, she’s in the position of advocating for herself — and may well be withholding a good deal in her attempts to do so. hile this is the sort of film for which repeat viewings would surely reveal successive layers in both Coly and her observers, it’s tempting to take her at her word when she tells the prosecutor late in the film, caught up in apparent contradictions arising from multiple testimonies, that, “if I lied, I couldn’t know why.” Reflecting a faltering grasp on the events of her case,

Coly cites what the prosecution calls “hallucinatory” episodes and forms of sorcery that seem to hark back in ways that are just beyond her to her own Senegalese heritage — to experiences which somehow precede her.

At this and other moments, it’s not only Coly’s guilt but her identity and even personhood which are on trial. Her education, intellect, and manners frame her as a kind of rational actor she seems sure herself that she couldn’t actually be (to the courtroom, this makes her implicitly seem more “French”). At other moments, her claim to have “ estern values” comes under question, as does her claim to French identity. So, too, do her motives for becoming involved with an older white partner who supported her through school, eventually becoming the secret but certain father of her late child.

ith Rama as observer, the tenuous, constantly contested nature of Coly’s identity in a French context is drawn out further through their contrasts. As an educated woman (albeit with greater success) of a similar background, with a child on the way whose future Coly’s case can at moments almost seem to haunt, Rama’s investment in the proceedings can seem at once beyond easy description and — on more intuitive levels easy to understand.

lucidating the finely tiered divisions which delineate the possible for those navigating white-dominated uropean society from a position in some inevitable way outside it or at least on its margins, Rama’s and Coly’s positions and even physicalities seem to rhyme with one another, with each erecting their own varieties of defense against the culture and circumstances which surround them.

While Diop’s direction Saint Omer exhibits a variety of restraint that true to the relationship between its real-life analogs — in some way mirrors Malanda’s firm performance, it also demonstrates a certain modesty in doing so. Refusing to make the sorts of claims she couldn’t back about her one investment or utilization of Coly or, implicitly, Kabou) as a subject, Diop allows the film to contend from start to finish with its own compromises and ambiguities, allowing for humane treatment of a subject to whom few would devote such attention, deference, or time. In doing this, Diop — without mounting a defense of Coly exactly — accounts for those mysteries which persist in spite of our attempts toward self-knowledge, and which easy narratives disallow. Arousing in us a wary sort of trust, it’s tempting even for a skeptic to believe Coly when she argues: “When I speak of sorcery, I’m not lying.”

In Saint Omer, Kayije Kagam stars as Rama, a writer interested in the trial of Laurence Coly, a fictionalized version of the real-life 2013 case of Fabienne Kabou. SRAB FILMS / ARTE FRANCE CINEMA

Savage Love Manners

By Dan Savage

: Q I’m a gay man and I’ve recently started seeing a guy in an open relation ship. He’s intelligent, funny, and sexy. He told me early on that his partner is a Dom top, into kink (leather, latex, etc.), that his partner has caged boys, and so on. Moreover, with his partner he’s a “bratty sub,” meaning he engages in erotic disobe ie ce e ce. s i iffere t to this initially, but I have begun to become aware of his partner’s presence in a way I don’t like, even though I’ve never met the . lso m sel eeli rese t l and jealous of the idea of him being told what to do, held back, or controlled. (The sex we have is hot, intimate, and intense, as well as completely vanilla.) I know his relationship with his partner is none of my business, but if he truly is a bratty sub, and his partner is a “tamer,” am I just a pawn in their games? Is the intimacy we share in the service of his primary D/s relationship? I like this guy and wish I could be with him but that’s not possible because he and his partner are engaged. I’m OK with that. But I can’t stand the idea of our connection being incorporated into an erotic game he’s playing with his partner. I don’t want to be conscripted into their power exchange. I welcome your advice.

—Neither Brat Nor Tamer

: A Let’s call the guy you’re hooking up with “Brat” and call his fianc “Dom.” Worst-case scenario, NBNT, Brat goes home and tells Dom everything you’ve been doing together, presumably in a very bratty way, and then Dom punishes Brat for being a slutty brat. If that’s what they’re doing — and we don’t know if that’s what they’re doing — then, yeah, I guess the vanilla sex you’re having with Brat is being “incorporated” into the erotic power-exchange games Brat and Dom play together. ou could ask Brat not to tell Dom anything about the time he spends with you, B T, but you ultimately can’t control what Brat does or says when he’s alone with Dom and them telling each other everything might a condition of their open relationship and you attempting to control what Brat says to Dom when they’re alone while at the same time ob ecting to the control Dom has over Brat is a little hypocritical.

ooming out for a second: Anyone who doesn’t like the idea of someone they’re fucking talking to a primary partner about the fucking they’re doing shouldn’t fuck primarily partnered people and or should only fuck primarily partnered people who have DADT arrangements with their primary partners. Submissive nglish ma ors: I order you to diagram that sentence.

Back to you, B T: I think the real issue here is that you’ve caught feelings for Brat. But since you can’t ob ect to Dom’s existence, as Dom was a given at the start and Dom’s willingness to open the relationship made your connection with Brat possible , you’ve subconsciously landed on the idea of ob ecting to the sex Brat has with Dom and the possibility that the sex Brat has with you in addition to being great and hot for you — fuels his connection to Dom. So, it’s not that Brat plays a subordinate role in his relationship with Dom that bothers you, e.g., Brat being told what to do, Dom controlling Brat , but the subordinate role you play in Brat’s life. ou want Brat the way Dom has Brat not the sub part, B T, the partner part — and you’re going to come to terms with that if you decide to keep seeing Brat.

P.S. Just in case there any Tucker Carlson producers are digging through my column looking for things to get outraged about: “caged boys” is a reference to submissive adult men, sometimes called “boys,” who en oy wearing locking male chastity devices, sometimes called “cages.” Brat’s fianc is holding the keys to cages with cocks in them, not the keys to cages with children in them.

: Q What is the etiquette for running into people you’ve hooked up with? My partner and I, both males, practice ENM, so long as doesn’t know who I hook up with and I always play safe. I was recently on my own at a store and saw a guy I hooked up with. I would’ve said hi/ac knowledged him, but he was with another guy, so I actively avoided eye contact since I didn’t know if they were together.

t e e itel s e c ot er st ot at the same time. I want to be ready for when this happens again either when I’m alone or with my partner.

—Ran Into Guy Dicked

: A Fucking questions, sucking questions, cock-locking questions I feel qualified to answer those on my own. But etiquette questions? Those are outside my areas of expertise, RI ID. So, I shared your letter with Daniel Post Senning, great-great grandson of mily Post and co-author of Emily Post’s Etiquette:

19th Edition

“Etiquette says we acknowledge people we know with our eyes, a wave, a nod, and a polite ‘How’s it going?’ when we meet in passing,” said Senning. “So long as the other person understands the limits of your romantic connection, there’s no reason for the encounter to be awkward.”

Since you weren’t with your partner, RI ID, you were free to acknowledge your hookup without your partner both noticing and knowing. But let’s say you were with your partner. hat then

“In a small world where we might be managing multiple relationships where the parties would rather not interact or know about each other, it’s a good idea to make explicitly sure everybody knows that fact,” said Senning, “and everyone knows that might mean walking past each other in public or otherwise limiting interactions.”

In other words, RI ID, what you know your partner — he would rather not know about your hookups — your hookups need to know too. It’s a small world and the gay world is even smaller even if you were to stick to horny tourists and business travelers, your chances of running into a hookup when you’re out with your partner are high. So, you should say something like this to your hookups as you’re showing thems to the door: “Hey, that was great. ook, if we run into each other and I’m with my partner, I might not be able to say hi. e’re open but we’re doing the don’t ask don’t tell’ thing, and saying hello to a hot guy like you is a tell. My apologies in advance.”

ow, in the example you mentioned, RI ID, you were alone, but your hookup was with someone else, and you opted to pretend not to see him. as that the right thing to do, etiquette-wise?

“Thinking about how you manage these moments with consideration for all involved is the right way to think these things through,” said Senning. “RI ID was right to consider the possibility the guy he saw might not want a past hookup to say ‘hello’ or otherwise engage when he was with someone else.”

hile I agree with Senning and defer to him on all matters of etiquette

I think gay men should err on the side of acknowledging the existence of men whose asses we’ve recently eaten, whenever possible. Ignoring someone we’ve fucked is cold and it can leave that person wondering what they may have done wrong. So, a quick smile and a nod. If the guy he’s with notices — or if the guy you’re with notices telling a small lie to spare someone’s feelings is a courtesy that etiquette allows. Some suggestions: “We used to work together,” “He goes to my gym,” “That’s eorge Santos.”

Daniel Post Senning co-authored mily Post’s tiquette: 19th dition with

Lizzie Post, also a great-great grandchild of Emily Post. Together they co-host the podcast Awesome Etiquette.

: Q I’m a 42-year-old gay man living in San Francisco, and I can’t stop playing the cum dump. My partner of ten years wants to marry me next year. That’s not the problem. My problem is that we have ridden an STI train for two years. Every three months we get a positive for some thing. It’s a roller coaster ride of shots and pills. My partner wants us to close o r rel tio s i et off t e tr i . My partner enjoys being topped by me, but he is older and struggles to top me. I’m vers and love bottoming. So, I end up exploring all the normal spots for anony mous sex when I want to get topped. I tried going to these spaces and just giving oral. something I also love doing, but I always end up bottoming. And I quickly go from “please wear a condom” to “load me up.” My doctor isn’t supportive, and I get lots of “you need to stop doing this” from him. What should I do?

—Lusting Over Anon Dick

: A ou should find a few regular fuck buddies who can load you up. That won’t eliminate your risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, AD, but having more sex with fewer people will under most circumstances significantly lower your risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections. And if you find it hard to stick to using condoms or oral when you visit places where men have anonymous sex, AD, you should avoid those places.

Again, I wanna emphasize that finding a small group of regular fuckbuddies isn’t a perfect system for avoiding sexually transmitted infections only abstinence is, it saddens me to say but taking non-anon and or nearly-anon loads from a small number of regulars as opposed to anon loads from a large number of irregulars should result in less time on STI train. And if you like the sleazy vibes at “the normal spots” for anonymous sex bathhouses, sex clubs, public sex environments you can arrange to meet your regular fuck buddies at them.

P.S. our doctor shouldn’t shame you, AD, but you can’t expect your doctor to congratulate you after you’ve contracted your fourth STI in less than a year. And your partner sounds frustrated with the track you’re on. He’s talking about closing the relationship right now, AD. If you don’t want him to start thinking about ending it, you’ll make some changes.

P.P.S. Therapy.

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love. Podcasts, columns, and more at Savage.Love!

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

Noah Webster (1758–1843) worked for years to create the first definitive American dictionary. It became a cornucopia of revelation for poet mily Dickinson 1830-188 . She said that for many years it was her “only companion.” ne biographer wrote, “The dictionary was no mere reference book to her she read it as a priest his breviary over and over, page by page, with utter absorption.” ow would be a favorable time for you to get intimate with a comparable mother lode, Aries. I would love to see you find or identify a resource that will continually inspire you for the rest of 2023.

TAURUS: April 20 May 20

“The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.” So declared Taurus philosopher udwig ittgenstein in his book Philosophical Investigations. uckily for you Tauruses, you have a natural knack for making sure that important things don’t get buried or neglected, no matter how simple and familiar they are. And you’ll be exceptionally skilled at this superpower during the next four weeks.

I hope you will be gracious as you wield it to enhance the lives of everyone you care about. All of us non-Bulls will benefit from the nudges you offer as we make our course corrections.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

Poet Carolyn izer said the main sub ect of her work was this: “ ou cannot meet someone for a moment, or even cast eyes on someone in the street, without changing.” I agree with her. The people we encounter and the influences they exert make it hard to stay fixed in our attitudes and behavior. And the people we know well have even more profound transformative effects. I encourage you to celebrate this truth in the coming weeks. Thrive on it. Be extra hungry for and appreciative of all the prods you get to transcend who you used to be and become who you need to be.

CANCER: June 21 July 22

If you have any interest in temporarily impersonating a Scorpio, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to play around. ncounters with good, spooky magic will be available. More easily than usual, you could en oy altered states that tickle your soul with provocative insights. Are you curious about the mysteries of intense, almost obsessive passion Have you wondered if there might be ways to deal creatively and constructively with your personal darkness All these perks could be yours and more. Here’s another exotic pleasure you may want to explore: that half-forbidden zone where dazzling heights overlap with the churning depths. ou are hereby invited to tap into the erotic pleasures of spiritual experiments and the spiritual pleasures of erotic experiments.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

The circle can and will be complete if you’re willing to let it find its own way of completing itself. But I’m a bit worried that an outdated part of you may cling to the hope of a perfection that’s neither desirable nor possible. To that outdated part of you, I say this: Trust that the Future ou will thrive on the seeming imperfections that arise. Trust that the imperfections will be like the lead that the Future ou will alchemically transmute into gold. The completed circle can’t be and shouldn’t be immaculate and flawless.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

Shakespeare’s work has been translated from his native nglish into many languages. But the books of Virgo detective novelist Agatha Christie have been translated far more than the Bard’s. More info: tinyurl.com Christi-

JAMES NOELLERT

eTranslations. et’s make Christie your inspirational role model for the next four weeks. In my astrological estimation, you will have an extraordinary capacity to communicate with a wide variety of people. our ability to serve as a mediator and go-between and translator will be at a peak. se your superpower wisely and with glee

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

ibran musician Franz iszt 1811 188 was a prolific and influential genius who created and played music with deep feeling. He was also physically attractive and charismatic. hen he performed, some people in the audience swooned and sighed loudly as they threw their clothes and ewelry on stage. But there was another side of iszt. He was a generous and attentive teacher for hundreds of piano students, and always offered his lessons free of charge. He also served as a mentor and benefactor for many renowned composers, including agner, Chopin, and Berlioz. I propose we make iszt your inspirational role model for the next 11 months. May he rouse you to express yourself with flair and excellence, even as you shower your blessings on worthy recipients.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21:

This may risk being controversial, but in the coming weeks, I’m giving you cosmic authorization to engage in what might appear to be cultural appropriation. Blame it on the planets They are telling me that to expand your mind and heart in ust the right ways, you should seek inspiration and teaching from an array of cultures and traditions. So I encourage you to listen to est African music and read Chinese poetry in translation and gaze at the art of Indigenous Australians. Sing abbalistic songs and say akota prayers and intone Buddhist chants. These are ust suggestions. I will leave it to your imagination as you absorb a host of fascinating influences that amaze and delight and educate you.

SAGITTARIUS: ov. 22 Dec. 21

“All the world’s a stage,” Shakespeare wrote, “and all the men and women merely players.” That’s always true, but it will be even more intensely accurate for you in the coming weeks. High-level pretending and performing will be happening. The plot twists may revolve around clandestine machinations and secret agendas. It will be vital for you to listen for what people are T saying as well as the hidden and symbolic meanings behind what they are saying. But beyond all those cautionary reminders, I predict the stories you witness and are part of will often be interesting and fun.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

In this horoscope, I offer you wisdom from Capricorn storyteller Michael Meade. It’s a rousing meditation for you in the coming months. Here’s Meade: “The genius inside a person wants activity. It’s connected to the stars it wants to burn and it wants to create and it has gifts to give. That is the nature of inner genius.” For your homework, Capricorn, write a page of ideas about what your genius consists of. Throughout 2023, I believe you will express your unique talents and blessings and gifts more than you ever have before.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18 reek writer ikos azantzakis 1883 19 was nominated nine times for the prestigious obel Prize in iterature, but never won. He almost broke through in the last year of his life, but French author Albert Camus beat him by one vote. Camus said azantzakis was “a hundred times more” deserving of the award than himself. I will make a wild prediction about you in the coming months, Aquarius. If there has been anything about your destiny that resembles azantzakis’s, chances are good that it will finally shift. Are you ready to embrace the gratification and responsibility of prime appreciation

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

Piscean educator Parker Palmer has a crucial message for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. Read it tenderly, please. Make it your homing signal. He said, “Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others rather, it means never living apart from one’s self. It is not about the absence of other people it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other.”

Here’s the homework: What is the best, most healing lie you could tell?

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