Metro Times 02/15/23

NEWS & VIEWS

We received responses to our “Lust Issue.”

I’m a cover gorl!!! Huge thank you to @ metrotimes for making me the cover ... and another big thanks to the very lovely @yogawithrandiah for the Interview. This year is kicking off with a bang, Can’t wait to see you all this weekend at the @dirtyshowdetroit. —@theorionstory

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Thank you to @metrotimes and @ alexwashington for this interview and feature in this year’s Lust issue! I love talking about burlesque and this was the warmest experience. Also apparently my name is on the cover so if you see it in person snag a copy!

—@earthakittenburlesque, Instagram

The first time I saw a tv ad for Lover’s Lane was when I realized that I no longer lived on the west side of Michigan. —Antonia Maurici, Facebook

Lmao why did I read the cover story as the dirty show’s mitch McConnell? that’d be another type of dirty show! —@k_junfire, Instagram

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Military shoots down UFO over Michigan

THESE ARE WORDS we never imagined we’d be reporting at Detroit Metro Times: According to officials, a U.S. F-16 jet shot down an unidentified flying object over Lake Huron on Sunday.

The object is the fourth “high-altitude object” decommissioned by Air Force jets in North America in recent days, following incidents in airspace over Alaska, Canada’s northern Yukon territory, and South Carolina.

“Our national security and safety is always a top priority,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tweeted Sunday. “I’ve been in contact with the federal government and our partners who were tracking an object near our airspace. I’m glad to report it has been swiftly, safely, and securely taken down. The @MINation-

alGuard stands ready.”

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters tweeted that he’s “been in touch with the Pentagon, DHS, and FAA regarding the closure of air space over the Great Lakes” and said he will “continue pressing [the Department of Defense] for transparency.”

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin said, “We’ll know more about what this was in the coming days, but for now, be assured that all parties have been laser-focused on it from the moment it traversed our waters.”

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman acknowledged that much remains unknown. “The American people deserve far more answers than we have,” he wrote on Twitter.

“The increasing incidents of unidentified objects, the latest over

Lake Huron in Michigan airspace, are disturbing,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell said in a statement. “We need the facts about where they are originating from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing. Our national security is of the utmost importance and we must work in a bipartisan way with this Administration and all relevant partners for answers and the appropriate reaction. I’m thankful to the Air Force, National Guard, and all our military forces who are working vigilantly to keep us safe.”

The recent incidents in Michigan, Alaska, and Canada follow the discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon that entered North America through Alaskan air space and floated over the continental U.S. before being downed

on Feb. 4. President Joe Biden was criticized by Republicans for not taking action on the balloon sooner, and has ordered the other objects to be swiftly shot down.

China has denied responsibility for the balloon. U.S. officials say China spies on military sites across the globe using such balloons.

The object downed over Michigan was described by officials as shaped like an octagon, while the ones over Alaska and Canada were described as “cylindrical.” It is not clear if the objects are related to the Chinese surveillance balloon or to each other.

Officials say they are still retrieving wreckage from all four downed objects to better understand them.

—Lee DeVito

Detroit Land Bank reaches $1.5M settlement over demo claims

THE DETROIT LAND Bank Authority (DLBA) will pay the federal government $1.5 million over claims that it failed to substantiate $13 million in payments to contractors.

The DLBA Board voted Friday to pay the money as part of a settlement agreement to close a federal investigation that began in 2019.

The federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) alleged the Land Bank doled out federal funds to demolition companies without contractors documenting the cost of dirt used as backfill between 2017 and 2019. As a result, it was impossible for TARP

discern whether the tax dollars were properly spent.

“Absent this information, the Michigan and other state agencies cannot verify the accuracy of contractors’ reimbursement claims, and taxpayers have no assurance that contractors are not inflating reimbursement requests for demolition materials to exceed their actual costs,” TARP said in a letter to the Treasury Department in June 2021.

DLBA CEO Tammy Daniels said the settlement won’t cost city taxpayers a dime because it comes from federal funds.

“We ran demo as an independent

program, keeping field and contractor expenses separate from our general operating budgeted and annual City subsidy,” Daniels said in a statement. “The City and its residents can rest assured that this investigation did not call into question the safety or effectiveness of the land bank’s demo program in eliminating blight, and this settlement will not be funded by any City tax dollars.”

The DLBA approved the settlement to “avoid the delay and expensive of litigation” and insists “it provided all documentation requested and required for grant reimbursement under the program.”

This wasn’t the first time the Detroit Land Bank has come under fire over dirt used in demolitions. In March 2021, the Detroit Office of Inspector General found that contractors were putting untested — and potentially contaminated — dirt into the ground at demolition sites.

Separate state and federal investigations also found that the city was overpaying demolition companies for years.

Since 2014, the city used more than $265 million in federal funds to demolish more than 15,000 houses.

—Steve Neavling

Project Green Light failed to reduce violent crime, DOJ finds

DETROIT’S HIGHLY TOUTED Project Green Light, a crime-fighting initiative that relies on a widespread surveillance network of high-definition cameras throughout the city, was ineffective at reducing violent crime, the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice concluded.

The findings contradict repeated claims by the Detroit Police Department and Mayor Mike Duggan that the controversial surveillance system was responsible for large reductions in violent crimes. In May 2019, Duggan claimed that violent crime fell 31% at businesses that use the high-surveillance cameras. He also said carjackings were down 40% from 2015 to 2018.

The DOJ found no evidence that the cameras reduced violent crime.

“There was no statistically significant difference in violent crime reporting for treated businesses that implemented Project Green Light, compared with matched untreated control businesses that did not implement the initiative, from the preintervention period to 1-year postimplementation,” the DOJ report states.

What Project Green Light did do was reduce property crimes, the DOJ said. In areas where high-definition cameras were installed, reported property crimes declined about 27% after the first year of Project Green Light’s implementation.

Detroit police officials say the DOJ study was narrow in scope and failed to capture the full impact of Project Green Light.

“Project Green Light Detroit is intended to prevent, detect, and solve crime,” DPD spokesman Jackson Vidaurri told Metro Times in a statement. “The evaluations only looked at the program as a deterrent and was unable to separate changes in crime at PGLD locations from prevailing crime trends.”

He added, “While deterrence is difficult to analyze, some measures of solvability are easier to observe. Previous department analysis has found that PGLD cases with video evidence had a higher closure rate than non-PGLD cases with or without video evidence. Additionally, PGLD cases were solved more quickly than other types of cases, and that cases with video evidence that

were not solved were active longer, indicating that investigators spent more time and had more leads to investigate than cases without video evidence.”

The city launched Project Green Light in 2016 at gas stations, liquor stores, and fast-food restaurants, where a disproportionate number of violent crimes are committed. To participate, businesses purchased high-definition cameras at an average cost of $4,000 to $6,000 and installed extra lighting and deterrent signage.

The live video is fed to monitors at the Detroit Police Department’s real-time crime center, where officers use the high-definition images to help track down suspects and solve crimes.

Since its inception, the city has installed hundreds of more surveillance cameras at parks, schools, low-income housing complexes, immigration

Millionaire Perry Johnson to run for president

PERRY JOHNSON, THE self-described “quality guru” who was kicked off the 2022 Michigan gubernatorial ballot for turning in fraudulent signatures, is preparing to shell out millions of more dollars on his latest long-shot quest.

The 75-year-old Republican millionaire with no political experience is running for president of the United States.

As of press time, Johnson planned to spend $192,000 to air a Super Bowl ad in markets across Iowa, a key early state in the primaries.

Johnson, a Bloomfield Hills businessman, announced Thursday that he has formed his presidential committee, the first step before raising and spending money.

In a statement, Johnson said he supported Donald Trump in 2016 and

2020 “and could very easily support him in 2024.”

“If we’re being candid however, the politicians of both political parties have failed to provide adequate solutions to the most pressing problem facing our country: runaway spending and the inflation that came with it,” Johnson said.

This won’t be the first time Johnson has launched a Super Bowl ad. During his gubernatorial campaign in 2022, he ran a Super Bowl ad in which he touted himself a “quality guru” with an international business background.

Johnson is the founder of Perry Johnson Registrars, a Troy-based firm that helps other companies meet government and industry certification standards.

“My message is very simple: every

penny the Federal Government is borrowing is making it harder and more expensive for us to live,” Johnson said. “The cost of groceries, gas and energy are all unaffordable as we deal with the worst inflation since Jimmy Carter. My plan to fix it is even simpler.”

He’s proposing what he calls “Two Cents to Save America,” a plan to reduce the federal government by 2% a year to “finally get spending under control and tame our nation’s record inflation.”

Johnson said he plans to visit Iowa next week, open an office, and embark on a bus tour before formally announcing he’s running for president “in the months ahead.”

“I’ve spent my entire life as a problem solver,” Johnson said. “I built my businesses on the premise of taking something that is imperfect, broken

centers, gas stations, churches, abortion clinics, hotels, health centers, apartments, and addiction treatment centers.

Privacy and civil rights activists have criticized the saturation of cameras, saying the predominantly Black city is being over-surveilled.

Some businesses have complained that the city was strong-arming them to buy and install the cameras.

At times, the cameras can hold police accountable. When Memphis officers brutally beat Tyre Nichols on the night of Jan. 7, a surveillance camera affixed to a utility pole provided a clear, bird’seye view of the beating in a way that police body cams did not. The SkyCop camera is one of about 2,000 installed in the city that feed live video to the city’s real-time crime center.

—Steve Neavling

or inefficient, and through quality standards, making it as close to perfect as possible. We helped save the automotive industry in Detroit by implementing quality standards and we can help save the country by implementing the 2% diet – cutting spending by two cents out of every discretionary dollar. I am a problem solver, a quality guru, and I am ready to take on the biggest and most inefficient institution in the country – the federal government.”

Johnson will likely join a crowded field of Republicans vying for president. Trump already announced his candidacy, and many Republicans are calling on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run.

Johnson has no name recognition outside of Michigan.

—Steve Neavling

We Came As Romans was on the brink of collapse.

“We almost broke up,” drummer David Puckett tells Metro Times. “We didn’t know what to do.”

The Troy-based metalcore band was prepping for what was supposed to be its comeback tour when tragedy struck: Singer Kyle Pavone was found unconscious following an accidental heroin overdose.

On Aug. 25, 2018, six angry kids from the suburbs became five, and music lost another voice before his time. Pavone was 28. Hope has been one of the band’s core tenets since forming in the mid-aughts. But at that moment, it was impossible to find.

Suddenly the Myspace success story with a decade of countless sold-out shows across five continents, hundreds of millions of streams online, and impact beyond its members’ wildest teenage dreams was forced to reckon with Real Shit: the loss of a brother.

“Not only have you lost your best friend,” guitarist Lou Cotton says, “as that starts to settle you’ve gotta think of, ‘what are we gonna do as a business and for our careers?’”

More than four years and countless therapy sessions later, the band is in a much different place. There are lots of analogies for grief. For guitarist Josh Moore, it’s like being trapped out to sea at night, somehow trying to navigate the tidal waves of anger, anxiety, sorrow, and regret as a tropical storm bears down.

“At first it’s just figuring out a way to weather that,” Moore says. “Figuring out a way to continue to push forward so I’m not just here in this rut.”

The band made the decision not to replace Pavone, who handled clean singing alongside co-vocalist Dave Stephens’s guttural screams. They felt it would be impossible to find someone

with his distinct combination of voice, charisma, and chaos. Instead, Stephens would carry out all vocal duties for the band, strengthening its foundation instead of filling a void. He, Moore, and bassist Andy Glass have been working with a voice coach to increase their range and versatility.

And so WCAR persevered, at least musically. Since that tragic August morning, they’ve played over 400 shows — proof that in their darkest moments, fans were willing to persevere alongside the band.

I catch up with WCAR as the band into pre-tour rehearsals supporting its first record since Pavone’s passing, last October’s Darkbloom. Following a 72day run last year that concluded with a pair of hometown album release shows at the Loving Touch, the band has been home enjoying the fruits of its labor. Spirits are high, but after this much time off, there were some jitters.

The current tour is the band’s biggest yet. Video screens with music-synced motion graphics have replaced their usual stage banners, and they’ll be headlining some of the largest rooms of their careers on a three-band bill — culminating with a stop at Saint Andrew’s Hall this Saturday. Night after night WCAR will exorcize demons, playing cathartic songs about their late frontman to a fanbase nostalgic for material Pavone himself performed.

| ALEX BEMIS

That vulnerability could be a huge risk.

In 2008, six teens from Troy took a leap of faith. A majority of the members of the band were in their first two years of college, with Pavone and founding drummer Eric Choi still in high school, and soon WCAR built a dedicated local fanbase playing loud, noisy music at least three weekends a month. They played churches, a Days Inn in Hazel Park, and 200-seat rooms, like the Hayloft in Mount Clemens, often squeezed onto seven-band bills. But the band’s work ethic, pop sensibilities, and fan outreach helped WCAR stand out in the late-aughts Myspace metalcore scene.

Glass’s art direction capitalizing on the band’s boyish good looks didn’t hurt either. Looking at their old profile via the Internet Archive is like a time machine back to Somerset Mall circa President Barack Obama’s first term: gauged ears, foppish hair with shaggy bangs angled over one eye just so, and pyramid-studded belts holding up women’s skinny jeans. You can almost smell the Got2B Glued hairspray holding it all together.

Between Choi’s high school graduation money and scratch from odd jobs, the band had enough funds to record the aptly titled four-song Dreams EP. Produced by Joey Sturgis (The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria) and recorded in Sturgis’s friend’s garage, it gave the band something to shop around to labels and give away to fans online.

Even before sending out Dreams, the band members knew straddling school and the music biz would soon be untenable. If WCAR wasn’t going anywhere by year’s end, the plan was to break up and get their diplomas.

But to hear Moore tell it, no one really planned to finish school. He was on a full-ride academic scholarship at Oakland University with no skin in the game. They were going to make this work.

Pavone was already on the verge of dropping out of Seaholm High, though. He was a born singer, with perfect pitch and a knack for rearranging chord progressions in his head. Kyle could sing along to any pop song in the car and hit every note. (That’s likely why WCAR’s cover of U.K. club banger “Glad You Came” by The Wanted is the most popular of their top 10 songs on Spotify.)

Connor Pavone shares stories about his older brother, sitting across from me at Java Hutt. Even at 6 feet 2 inches tall with a lacrosse player’s shoulders, Connor still looks enough like his lanky, but shorter big brother that I did a double take when he walked into the coffeehouse for our interview.

After WCAR was signed, Connor says, their parents invested in his voice and sent him to lessons with heavy metal vocal coach Melissa Cross. Kyle was primarily a tenor, but learned to stretch to restrained falsettos and a deep low-end.

The family knew Kyle was destined for stardom given his showmanship and pipes. Balancing his talent and behavior at home was another matter. Connor says things were always tumultuous between his parents and brother. Kyle partied hard.

As an outsider, Kyle fell in with others like him. And with that came sex, weed, booze, and malicious destruction of property. He wouldn’t come home for days at a time because, well, a cell phone confiscated for bad behavior meant no one could bug him about

We Came as Romans is pressing onward without its longtime vocalist.

curfew. By his junior year, the Pavones had enough and kicked Kyle out.

“Being a rockstar before you’re in a band has its grievances with your family,” the younger Pavone says.

Connor recalls pleading with Kyle to take the ACT test. He even entertained the idea of taking it for his troubled sibling. Connor was a sophomore and still a skeleton back then. He could’ve easily passed for Kyle if need be. Neither of them had studied, but college wasn’t optional for either of them. Connor saw an incredulous Kyle walk into school four hours late on testing day, and again stressed how important the ACT was to his dismissive brother. Half an hour later, Connor spotted Kyle walking out the door. He took the test, sure. But he also marked B for every answer.

“He got the points for writing his name correctly,” Connor says. “I don’t think he ever went back to high school after that.”

Around the same time, WCAR’s original singer had exited and the band needed a fill-in. After a brief try-out tour, Kyle was hooked. When Glass visited the Pavones to talk them into letting his friend pursue touring fulltime, they had no idea he’d already quit school.

Connor says his family wasn’t particularly religious, but was willing to try anything to get Kyle on track. Glass used that as a tool, telling Kyle’s parents that WCAR was a Christian band.

The band had its ties to spirituality. However, it never was explicitly religious. Prior to WCAR, Moore played in a band at church. Glass’s parents were missionaries, taking him to India when he was 4. Themes like hope, love, and brotherhood run through the band’s lyrics, but WCAR was keen to not put themselves in a box. It’s about inclusion for them.

“They wanted to give people hope because some of the guys [as teens] didn’t feel like they had it,” Puckett says. He joined the band in 2016 after Choi amicably parted ways, and had toured with WCAR in his previous band, For Today. “They wanted to be that beacon.”

The Venn diagram of heavy music and hopeful messages is incredibly tiny. It’s a sincerity that, almost 20 years later, still helps WCAR stand out.

Scroll down the YouTube comments on the band’s music videos and amid countless memorials for Pavone you’ll find almost as many missives saying how a given song helped someone through the loss of a loved one or a tough breakup.

The same can be said for lots of bands, sure, but WCAR’s fans take it to another level, and the band has noticed.

“It adds more fuel to the fire,” Glass

says.

And besides, not everyone in the band is Christian. They all love tattoos and partying — preaching religion from the stage would be hypocritical.

One last thing about WCAR’s Myspace page: It’s also a time-capsule of those early years of the grind. Struggling to scrap together the $50 per month each member paid to cover a van payment, gas, and insurance. Stretching $2 per day for food. (“It was your job to come up with the $0.12 tax,” Moore says.) Sleeping six guys in a Chevy Astro van because even if they dropped $60 of their nightly $70 payout on a crappy hotel, only half would be allowed in.

A lack of willing auto-loan co-signers limited buying options to junkyardbound deathtraps. In 2009, the band toured coast to coast and back with nary a night off in four months. WCAR burned through three vans during those early years — quite literally.

They’d just replaced the transmission in their second van and were in Cincinnati when the dashboard suddenly caught fire, melting the wiring harness before an overnight drive to a show in New Jersey. The guys stuck spraypainted tap lights to the trailer, wired the headlamps directly to the battery somehow, and drove all night in a cabin that reeked of acrid, oily electrical smoke.

That cross-country drive would be a

catalyst for the rest of their career. Selling out a 200-seat room in Michigan was one thing. But doing it in a larger market in front of a label? That night, WCAR picked up an agent and met their managers for the first time.

“That was a huge stepping stone,” Stephens tells me.

Dreams got immediate attention from labels, but the band held out until an offer came in from Equal Vision Records. Moore naively thought that since the band Chiodos was based out of Michigan, had signed with Equal Vision, and sold hundreds of thousands of albums, by the same virtue WCAR could copy their homework, change it a little bit, and profit.

“Of course, because that’s just how it works,” he says with a wry laugh.

On a long enough timeline, every band will drop a divisive album. In WCAR’s case, it’s their 2015 self-titled fourth record.

“They did what they set out to do at a larger scale than they ever could have imagined” with the first three albums, Puckett says on his drive north from Ohio for rehearsals. “And then they kind of lost that vision.”

WCAR enlisted producer Dave Bendeth (SR-71, Paramore) and came away with an album that the band fell out of love with almost before it even hit the shelves. Fan response was similar.

“It was us trying a bunch of weird shit and not knowing where we wanted

to go,” Stephens tells me.

Moore says behind the scenes, the band got pulled in lots of directions by people with the mindset of “your resume looks like shit compared to mine, so you’re going to do what I say.” Moore, the primary songwriter, says there are a few good standalone tracks on the album. But as a cohesive statement?

“It’s a straight turd,” Moore says. “I started in this band when I was 15, I’m 30 now. I’ll know a stinker of a song when I hear one.”

We Came As Romans debuted 11th on the Billboard 200 before dropping off the chart within two weeks. The album relied on syrupy hooks and eschewed the synths and deeper lyrics WCAR was known for. What works for Top 40 doesn’t work for metalcore. If you’re not writing music you believe in, your fans see right through it, Stephens says. Merch, tickets, and music sales all took a dive. Offers for support slots dried up. After a decade of relentless work, it was looking grim. “To have it fall apart so quickly was heartbreaking,” Stephens says.

“We were witnessing the decline of our band in real time,” Moore says. “I think a lot of the industry had lost faith in us … we lost a little faith in ourselves.”

Not everyone was as affected by the album’s reception. Pavone and his brother were roommates, and days before he passed, the self-titled record came up. According to Connor, Pavone said the album needed to happen given their success, saying, “We had to put out a shitty record, because now it brings us back to Earth.”

Cold

Like

War, the band’s 2017 SharpTone Records debut, was a return to form. WCAR just had to go through a full-blown identity crisis to get there first. Following its previous album the band was rudderless, unsure of what to say or how to sound. Producers Drew Fulk (Motionless in White, Beartooth) and Nick Sampson (Miss May I) reached out to WCAR fans on Facebook and asked what they missed about the band.

The band took the feedback and ran with it, reintroducing synths, drum machines, and bigger riffs. They also played up the dynamics between Pavone’s soaring clean vocals and Stephens’s bowel-shaking screams.

An offer to support Michigan-based I Prevail on tour came in, and kept the band busy for 50 nights between September and December. This critically put them on the road during Cold’s October release window. Fans ate up the new material and its sincere — but still crushingly heavy — reflections on heartache, the band’s career thus far,

Kyle Pavone photographed during a live show in 2009. | DOUG COOMBE

and staying true to yourself.

“When our backs are to the wall we’ll come out swinging,” Glass says.

The next month they announced a headlining tour that would end early April in Grand Rapids after a stop at The Crofoot Ballroom the night prior.

It was spring 2018 and slowly, WCAR was clawing their way out of the hole.

The number of bands who’ve successfully replaced a singer is incredibly small. So rather than try, WCAR forged ahead without Pavone. Weeks after laying their fallen brother to rest, the band headed out on tour supporting Bullet for My Valentine as scheduled.

Stephens acknowledges that singing Pavone’s parts would be weird, both for fans and his bandmates. Given the alternative, he thought it was the right choice.

“I can’t imagine how much more strange it would be to have someone else singing them permanently,” he told Kerrang! in 2019. “To celebrate Kyle’s memory and legacy with our music, we had to have the rest of the band pulling together to go forward. It was about making the best of our situation.”

Pushing through the pain every night with each other and their fans wasn’t an easy choice. Versus laying in bed all day with the shades drawn, lights off, and a bottle of gin, though, it was the healthier option.

“You don’t know where you’re going to get [mentally] staying in that environment and letting the spiral keep happening,” Moore says.

The idea was, regardless of how hard it was to keep their heads above the waves of grief, they’d come out stronger if they went through it together. YouTube clips of those shows are a stark contrast to every other tour from the previous decade. There was no stagediving off amps. The exuberant smiles from the sheer joy of realizing a highschool fantasy were gone.

“I’m standing in place crying and I’m head down, playing my guitar,” Moore says. “It was literally all my suffering on display every day.”

WCAR barely made it through those sets. Facing an existential tragedy, how do you press on? At least once a week someone wanted to stop the tour and go home. But each show got a little easier, with the band members consoling one another and doing regular check-ins to see how they were feeling, encouraging each other to push on because they’d worked so hard to get this far and Pavone would be pissed if they gave up now.

MusiCares, a non-profit support network tied to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, reached out to the band, giving them grants for

therapy and helping them find counselors. All but one member took the offer, and several are still in treatment. You can hear the help the organization provided throughout Darkbloom, the band’s first album without Pavone’s direct input. He may not have been with the band physically during the writing and recording process, but his spirit was guiding it the entire way.

When it came time to record, the band scrapped some 30 morose demos after Glass says he had an unexpected visitor during a Reiki meditation session. He says he felt Pavone reaching out through the Reiki practitioner to send him a message, saying, “If you have to suffer to create music because of me, then you didn’t really know me.” It was an eerie moment – Glass hadn’t told the practitioner the band was headed into the studio or working on a new album.

Darkbloom might be the band’s most personal work yet, a raw, crushing 36-minute examination of the seven stages of grief and a forthright refusal to let the loss of a beloved frontman destroy WCAR’s future. “You can write about the stuff that sucks,” Stephens says, “and you can also write about how you got through it.”

The album also makes up a bulk of WCAR’s set for this tour, with the band playing nine of those ten songs every night when fans might want to hear more classics off the first three albums instead.

Two years ago the band retired material from its first full-length — 2009’s To Plant a Seed — from live play largely in part because those songs were written in high school and the band didn’t identify with them as much anymore. Given what they’ve been through, WCAR needs to play Darkbloom live.

The late singer’s legacy

lives on in the Kyle Pavone Foundation, which provides Narcan, fentanyl test strips, and overdose training for production crews at festivals. It’s run by Connor and his parents.

During the COVID lockdown they partnered with the Battle Creek Community Foundation for the Kyle Cares Scholarship, paying out $2,000 grants for musicians in need of help with mental and physical health, substance abuse treatment, food, and housing. Of the 85 applicants so far, none were refused.

It lives on in stories. Pavone was the guy who’d slur his way through a Blink-182 medley on his birthday at a Danish karaoke bar before telling the crowd “you’re welcome” and dropping the mic. He’d pierce your lip behind a barn at church camp with an earring, and without ice.

It lives on in pre-show rituals. Like whiskey time and sharing Pavone stories in the green room with the crew. In a ridiculous backstage speech from Glass where the band gets on all fours, barking like dogs, before chanting “nothing will stop this band” and a countdown to “KYLE!” then hitting play on the laptop to start the show.

For this tour, his voice is in the live mix for tracks off 2013’s Tracing Back Roots too. Listen closely and you’ll hear him singing onstage.

The wiry brunette with a goofy, infectious smile was larger than life and, the way his friends and bandmates tell it, you wanted to be a part of whatever he was doing. Pavone had a reputation for living in the moment, of giving himself over completely to what was happening right in front of him and bringing those closest along for the ride. That included the fans.

“[WCAR] talks about love,” high school friend Stevie Garofolo says, “but Kyle made the audience really feel it.”

It lives on in the growth he’s forced the band to face, musically and personally. “If everything was super easy, and perfect and laid out,” Glass says, “there would be no story, no mountain to climb.”

“The fact that we all came together and decided this was still our dream and still what we’re going to dedicate our lives to,” Moore says, “it says a lot about the character of a person and the perseverance to still be here after all the shit that’s happened.”

For example, Stephens starts vocal prep a month before everyone gets together. He’s changed his diet, and how he behaves on the road. Now he only cuts loose after their home closer. It’s when “Hallway Dave,’’ relieved of singing duties, makes an appearance and starts drinking only to pass out in a liminal space at someone’s house soon thereafter.

“The biggest thing that’s changed is me taking my role as a singer really seriously,” he says.

Of course, the band would trade anything to have Kyle back. He was the life of the party, chaotic energy. Some of that still exists, but not to the extent it once did.

“There’s a little more stoicism involved now,” Puckett says.

But for all the darkness of Pavone’s passing, it gave the band a new mission. A reason to keep playing.

“We know the impact we want to leave behind because we don’t want anyone to go through what we went through,” Puckett says. “It helps us sleep better at night.”

music and playing live, did they want to continue? Following COVID lockdowns and spending more time with their families, the guys realized how much they missed out on after a dozen years on the road. They also realized how much they missed touring.

Rather than force themselves to eat shit on the road 10 months a year to make ends meet, they would spend six months touring and six months off. The guys make enough off the music and live show to give them an average American salary. Puckett said it’s not a ridiculous amount of money, but it being a really cool job makes up for it. Each band member has their own side hustle to supplement their music income.

Every night of the Darkbloom tour has sold out, including a band-record 2,000 seats in Orlando. Apprehensions about playing in certain markets on such a lean bill had vanished when I talk with Moore and Glass halfway through the tour. Glass looks tired, and mentions their hour-ish set leaves him exhausted afterward. He’s excited to come back for a sold-out show where it all began, though.

“Detroit shows go a little harder,” he says. “They know you’re there to give it your all because it’s the origin of where something really special was created.”

It does add a little extra pressure, however.

“It’s like a video game where you fight the final boss,” Glass says. “You don’t want to fuck up your hometown show.”

Moore says last October’s intimate shows at The Loving Touch were a proving ground for the new music. Seeing the way the audience of friends and family reacted to those heartfelt tracks gave Moore confidence they’d be received well everywhere else.

That support network is what makes playing Detroit different from any other city on the planet, being surrounded by those who’ve cheered you on since day one and know the road you’ve traveled. When Moore started crying halfway through introducing somber album closer “Promise You” last October, his wife parted the crowd to hold his hand onstage and he was able to get through the speech and play the song. Watching his dad sing every lyric doesn’t get old either.

“Just being surrounded with the people that have been there since we were practicing really shitty metalcore in their basements,” Moore says, “there’s something special about that for me.”

In

the

years that followed Pavone’s death, WCAR took an audit. After spending their adult lives making

We Came As Romans performs with Erra and Brand of Sacrifice at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 at Saint Andrew’s Hall; 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; 313-9618961; saintandrewsdetroit.com.

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.

MUSIC

Wednesday, Feb. 15

Live/Concert

Dave Mason 7:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $35-$47.

Dreamer! The Supertramp Experience 7:30 p.m.; Capitol Theater Windsor, 121 University Avenue West, Windsor; $48.73-$154.98.

Flipturn 7 p.m.; Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $17.

Rolling Loud Presents: Freddie Dredd 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

Sky Covington 7-8:30 p.m.; Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, 97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms; $10-15.

Tove Lo 8 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak;

DJ/Dance

Bleep Pop + Spkrbox present MIKE WOO + MATT BERELS + MORGAN JONES 9 p.m.; Spkr Box, 200 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $10.

(More than) Punk Nite w/ DJs

Nips & Horrorshow 8 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Thursday, Feb. 16

Live/Concert

Sky Covington 7-8:30 p.m.; Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, 97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms; $10-15.

Adore Delano 6 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $35.

Thornetta Davis 7:30 p.m.; The Carr Center, 1505 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $15-$25.

Visions of Atlantis , The Spider

Accomplice 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck; $18.

Friday, Feb. 17

Live/Concert

Sky Covington 7-8:30 p.m.; Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, 97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms; $10-15.

Thornetta 7:30 p.m.; The Carr Center, 1505 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $15-$25.

Ana Popovic 7:30 p.m.; The Token

Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $20$160.

BabyTron with Shitty Boyz and Da Boii 7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; sold out.

Chance Timm, Milo, DJ Udenjoe 8 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Frankie Scinta 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $32-$66.

Matt Hires 8 p.m.; 20 Front Street, 20 Front St., Lake Orion; $20.

Seeking Fiction, Painted

Friends, The Dartmoors 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $10.

Valentines’s Soul Jam 8 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $59-$250.

YG - The Red Cup Tour 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49.50-$99.50.

Saturday, Feb. 18

Live/Concert

Sky Covington performs Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe 7-8:30 p.m.; Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, 97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms; $10-15.

Armageddon (Def Leppard), Rock of Love (Poison) and Rattrap (Ratt) Tributes 7:30 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15-$120.

Black Girl Magic 8 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $38.50$174.50.

Cole Ritter and The Night Owls

8 p.m.; 20 Front Street, 20 Front St., Lake Orion; $20.

Dames Brown presents: The Love Counselors Chapter III 8-11 pm; The Hawk - Farmington Hills Community Center, 29995 Twelve Mile Road, Farmington Hills; $30 in advance / $35 at the door.

The Dip with Stephen Day 7 p.m.; Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $25.

Early Eyes, Huhroon 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $18.

Twistin’ Tarantulas 8-11 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Gwan Band at Bogart’z 9-11:59 p.m.; Bogart’z, 17441 Mack Ave., Detroit; no cover.

Kittens & Crooners featuring

February 15-21, 2023 | metrotimes.com

’80s hitmakers Duran Duran announce Detroit date

NEW WAVE FAVES Duran Duran have announced a new North American tour, with a stop at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Saturday, Sept. 16.

The English rock band will be joined by fellow countrymen Bastille and American disco and funk band Nile Rodgers & CHIC.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Thursday, February 16 at 313presents.com, livenation.com, and ticketmaster.com.

More information, including presales, is available duranduran. com/tour.

The band was formed in 1978 and scored a string of hits in the ’80s, including “Girls on Film,” “Rio,” and “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Last year,

Paul King 6-10 p.m.; Ciao Amici’s, 217 W. Main, Brighton; $25. Limbs, Dark Divine, Colorblind, in Our Wake 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck; $16.

NAV: Never Sleep Tour 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $39.50-$59.50.

Norma Jean 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $23.

Pan-Pot 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20.

ShamRock Jazz Orchestra 7 p.m.; Emerald Theatre, 31 N. Walnut St., Mount Clemens; $30-$240.

Van Halentine’s Day XI featuring Panama with The Beggars 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

We Came As Romans 6 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $29.50.

Sunday, Feb. 19

Live/Concert

Lalah Hathaway 7:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $48-$60.

the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“It’s remarkable to me that as a band, we are still hitting new milestones, and introducing the sound of DD to new generations of music lovers,” Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon. “We are truly grateful that we get to do what we do on a daily basis, and that we still love our job as much as we did when we started out some four decades ago.”

The band is touring in support of its 2021 record, Future Past, which includes contributions from pioneering Italian producer Giorgio Moroder, Tove Lo, Blur’s Graham Coxon, and Mark Ronson, among others.

—Lee DeVito

MAVI 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20. Our Lady Peace 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $30-$55.

Pollyanna, Pictoria Vark, Killing Pixies, Rodeo Boys 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck; $15.

Monday, Feb. 20

Live/Concert

GloRilla 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

Legendz of the Streetz Reloaded

Tour 2023 7 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $75-$250.

Vinyl Williams, Dendrons, Tranquility , Astronaut of Juda 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck; $15.

Tuesday Feb 21

Live/Concert

Lil Darkie 6 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $27.50.

The Ritz 6 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $12.

DJ/Dance

RAPH_PH, FLICKR

B.Y.O.R Bring Your Own Records Night 9 pm-midnight; The Old Miami, 3930 Cass Ave., Detroit; Free.

THEATER

Performance

Cathedral Theatre at the Masonic Temple Ancient Aliens Live, Saturday, 6:30 p.m.

Emerald Theatre The Vagina Monologues. This event is for adults age 18+. $30. Thursday, 6 p.m.

The Fillmore Dita Von Teese: GLAMONATRIX. $29.50-$129.50. Thursday, 7 p.m.

The Music Box Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday, 3 p.m.

Theatre NOVA The Language Archive

Through Feb. 26.

Tipping Point Theatre Loy A. Webb’s The Light.

Musical

Blues In The Night Wednesday, 8 p.m., Thursday, 8 p.m., Friday, 8 p.m., Saturday, 6 p.m. and Sunday 2 and 6:30 p.m.; Meadow Brook Theatre, 207 Wilson Hall, Rochester; $43. 248-377-3300; mbtheatre.com.

Jagged Little Pill (Touring)

Wednesday, 8 p.m., Thursday, 8 p.m., Friday, 8 p.m., Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, 8 p.m.; Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; $39-$131; 313-972-1135; thezenithatthefisher.com.

COMEDY

Improv

Go Comedy! Improv Theater

Fresh Sauce $20 Fridays, Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m.; $20 Saturdays, 10-11:30 p.m.; $10 Sundays, 7 p.m.; free Sundays, 9 p.m.

Stand-up

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant Brendan Sagalow & Mike Feeney. $20 advance / $25 door, Saturday, 8:30-10:30 p.m.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle

Josh Blue “The Freak Accident Tour.” $30. Thursday, 7:30-9 p,m,, Friday, 7:15-8:45 & 9:45-11:15 p.m., and Saturday 7-8:30 & 9:30-11 p.m.

The Music Hall Hollywood Casino

Greektown Present Ms Pat $14-$45 Friday 8 p.m.

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant Tonight vs Everybody:

Thursday Open Mic at The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant. Free Fridays, 11 p.m. and Saturdays, 11 p.m.; FreeThursdays, 10 p.m.

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!

Imaginative performances at Paramita: A new weekly series called Natural Peals is happening at the intimate Paramita Sound record shop and wine bar in downtown Detroit. Per the flyer, the series features “artists who wish to experiment and explore sounds in an unconventional small room setting.” This Wednesday, Feb. 15, Sterling Toles will take to the (mini) stage. Toles is a multimedia artist, as well regarded for his visual art (look up his exhibition last year at MOCAD) as he is for his music. Within the city, he is known as a mentor to countless others, and outside the city he rose to prominence recently by collaborating with Boldy James on one of the best records of 2020, the monumental Manger On McNichols. Event starts at 9 p.m., no cover but definitely check out Paramita’s extensive beer and wine list, which is as wide-ranging as the Natural Peals acts. —Joe

ready familiar with Detroit’s historic Black Bottom; and if you aren’t, go follow the important work that the Black Bottom Archive is doing on all their socials. Named originally for its dark, marshy soil, Black Bottom was a heavily segregated area of Detroit that was a mostly economically and socially independent neighborhood populated with Black-owned enterprises. A new residency of the same name, Black Bottom, starts up this Sunday, Feb. 18, at Spot Lite, to “celebrate the artistic and sonic genius originating from The Bottom — jazz, funk, soul, blues, gospel, disco, house, and techno.” This first iteration of the series features west coast singer-songwriter Neverend Nina, as well as local trumpeter and vocalist Baddie Brooks DJs Etta and The Darker Sista will keep the beat alive, with inspired techno, soul, and house music. Tickets are available via Resident Advisor, or at the door.

—Joe Zimmer

enigmatic performances and redhot stage presence, so we can only assume that such a solid local lineup will guarantee a strong night of cathartic, performative energy. Tickets are available now on RA.

—Broccoli

Zimmer

The spirit of Black Bottom is alive: Many readers are hopefully al-

Performance Art Meets Punk at Marble Bar: Atlanta’s Celebrity Death Slot Machine is returning to Detroit on Saturday, Feb. 18 at Marble Bar for a stop on their latest tour, accompanied by Haute to Death as well as local favorite Gusher. CDSM has made a name for themselves for their

DIY art punks: This week’s dose of indie/punk/garage/post-punk/noise rock comes from my personal faves Deadbeat Beat, playing alongside other rippers Paint Thinner and MRKT. No bells or whistles, just a stacked, locals-only bill, that’s hot enough to make you forget that we don’t actually have Spring in Detroit. The show will take place at the community art space Spread Art (5153 12th St., Detroit — the former Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit space), this Friday, Feb. 17. MRKT put out a great record on Outer Limits Recordings late last year, which you can find on their Bandcamp, and Paint Thinner creates noisy, psychedelic epics that only get more heady when experienced live. Deadbeat Beat’s lyricallydriven, artfully-strummed indie rock offers some lighter, sunnier fare, to round out the bill. The show runs 8 p.m.-midnight, and I couldn’t find a cover charge listed, but whatever it is, it’s worth it.

—Joe Zimmer

Detroit artist Sterling Toles performs at Paramita Sound this week. COURTESY PHOTO

MUSIC

Amazing grace

After dark years, Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful embrace light and love on Narrows

It’s morning on an uncommonly beautiful winter’s day when we reach out to Misty Lyn Bergeron for an interview — a remarkably bright, cloudless day with vibrant blue skies. Which is exactly why Misty Lyn asks to postpone the conversation until after dusk, because, she says, she just wants to “utilize this sunlight.”

And of course she would. Of course she should. We all should.

“I need light in my life,” Bergeron says, bluntly, fully aware that she could very well be speaking for anyone and everyone, as we each, in our own way, regain our physical and mental footing in the aftermath of a pandemic. “Maybe you can tell from the lyrics that I’ve shifted into a softer place. I use the word ‘love’ a lot, but I mean it in a universal kind of way, not in a sappy, sentimental way. I’ve changed. I’m a bit more humble, perhaps. I used to be more sharp and cynical and I wrote a lot about the darkness in my life. That can be useful, but now I have access

By Jeff Milo

to this other side of things, and it feels more natural for me to include the light.”

If you need light in your life, then you need Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful’s Narrows piping through your earbuds as soon as you’re done reading this article. The Ypsilanti-based singersongwriter, and leader of the versatile roots and folk ensemble whose band name suggests something of immense grace, will celebrate the release of its third (but technically fourth) fulllength album, Narrows, this Friday at The Ark in Ann Arbor.

Light

Bergeron has been singing for much of her life, but she’s been writing and performing her own music around the Michigan scene for nearly 20 years now. By the time her debut album, For The Dead, was released in 2009, she was already a staple of the Ann Arbor and Ypsi area’s burgeoning folk scene, supported by the Big Beautiful (made up of

songwriters, producers, and wickedly talented musicians in their own right) including Carol Catherine on violin, Ryan Gimpert on guitar, Jim Roll on bass, and Matt Jones on drums. Mary Fraser (also of the band Child Sleep) joined on keys a couple years ago, and songwriter Timothy Monger is now on bass.

Several songs on For the Dead and its 2012 follow-up False Honey are a ruminative mix of fairly forthright autobiographical odes with vibrantly descriptive lyrics that sporadically leaned into subtle poetic symbolism that left a door open for any listener’s subjective interpretation. Narrows, meanwhile, is not a concept album, but there is one consistent motif, a word that appears and reappears in the lyrics of many of its 10 songs: Light.

Sometimes the presence of a light is even indirectly referenced as simply the natural counteragent to darkness, as it is on the song that gives the album its name. “You are not alone, even in

the darkest places,” Bergeron sings in a magnificently lachrymose falsetto from the song “Call On Me.” “You are not alone,” she repeats, “even in the sharpest narrows.”

“There’s a cool bright hope, streaking through the night,” Bergeron sings on another song, “Keep On The Light.” And it’s noteworthy that words such as “hope” are also periodically repeated, as well as “love.” Indeed, there is a lot of love on this record, much of it unconditional; there is also a lot of hope on this record too, much of it unflinching in the face of an all-consuming unrest.

Narrows, then, could be the musical equivalent of a much-needed infusion of a cosmic dose of vitamin D. Along with light and love and hope, there is also an enduring empathy and a profound humbleness. There are a couple songs that evoke a yearning and an appreciation for feeling smaller, or literally narrowing your perspective of the world — as well as of yourself.

Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful performs at The Ark on Friday. DOUG COOMBE

Surrender

“I think there are two sides to being humbled, though,” Bergeron says. “There is the hopeful side I sing about on Narrows where things become more simplified and what no longer serves you falls away. It can open you up to seeing the world in a new way. But when your ego gets involved being humbled can feel like an attack on your identity or your way of being in the world.”

When “humbled” is suggested as an apt word to describe the perseverance and patience required to finish Narrows, Bergeron says that “the word that actually comes to mind is ‘surrender.’ This record had its own ideas about how and when it would be released into the world, and I eventually just had to surrender to it all. For whatever reason, it had to happen the way it happened.”

While it’s technically been 11 years since Bergeron’s most recent album, that gap of time dividing her discography is deceiving. She actually had two full length follow-up albums, including Narrows, essentially completed before the pandemic put everything on pause.

“Most of what you’re hearing on Narrows is a live recording,” she says. “A big chunk of the album was all done live within one weekend, in 2017” with her band, of course, the Big Beautiful. “Because my goal, back then, was to finish it quickly!” she says. “I wanted to do a record really fast.”

Her reasons for expediency came in the wake of a terrible car crash that left her seriously injured in the late summer of 2015. “So, Narrows is actually our fourth record,” Bergeron says, “There’s an entire third record that we were working on before that, an album that I was in the middle of when I got in that car accident.” By 2017, though, after a long physical and mental recovery, Bergeron had been writing a lot and was feeling a need to start something new. “I wanted to go to a studio we’d never used [La Luna in Kalamazoo], and see how much we could get done just living in the new songs for a weekend. I wanted to experiment with a mostly live sound, including my vocals, and not get caught up in the overthinking and perfectionism that can hold up a record.”

And the experiment paid off, initially. The bulk of Narrows was completed by late 2018. But, Bergeron says, that’s when her “whole life kind of stopped.”

“Over the last four years I have been dealing with some mental and physical health issues and deep grief because of a relationship that ended,” Bergeron says about the inertia that halted Narrows’ progress. “When the pandemic hit, it amplified all of it to a point where… well, I honestly

feel lucky to be here talking about it today. I was isolated for over two years in a way that I’m still processing. Everything I love and that gives me a feeling of purpose … involves people gathering together. And it was all gone overnight.”

Bergeron says, as the pandemic lightened up, “I got my wits about me enough to be able to start mixing and mastering [Narrows]. But it was slow. It was really hard! Everything I did felt like I was moving through water, barely able to keep my head above the surface. Such is depression and anxiety. I’m not sure how I was able to do it.”

She adds, “but I did it. … I had something bigger than me helping me out.”

Grace

So she surrendered. “That’s been the big lesson these past few years,” she says. “Learning where I have control and where I don’t, when to let go and trust the process, accepting that I might never know why the timing of the universe is the way it is. Surrendering to it all.”

And despite the fact that these lyrics of love and light and hope were written some time ago, “It does, in some ways, seem perfect that it’s coming out now,” she says.

“We all just collectively went through the wringer,” Bergeron says. “I was humbled by it and it opened my heart in ways that I’m still discovering. I imagine there is a chance that this happened to other people, too, and it might make folks more open to receiving a record like this than they may have been before. Maybe after this experience we can all stand a little more love and hope anywhere we can get it. Sometimes it feels like I wrote these songs for my future self.”

One song, “Hard to Hear,” is a standout because it’s the only one that directly addresses the car accident: “In a cool dark place, there was empty grace, I came back to face… myself again,” Bergeron sings. “[Just] after the impact of the cars in the head-on collision, I was floating between two places,” she says. “I would be in my body in excruciating pain with bright red behind my eyes when I closed them, and then it would switch over to this cool, dark void. I was not in my body, but I was still conscious and aware, and I felt relief and like I was being held. That’s what I’m writing about.”

Bergeron says she felt like “whatever that was has always been holding me even when I couldn’t feel it.” As she navigated some health issues toward the end of 2022, “because of that I found a new energy that allowed me to get things done that I was unable to do before,” she says. “Now that I’m feeling

better I can see that alongside the darkness of the last few years there is also beauty. In retrospect I can see where I was held and that there was so much grace.”

And when she implies good things happening at the end of 2022, she’s referring, in part, to the successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to support the record. Even if the record wasn’t “done fast,” the campaign certainly met its goal with endearing expediency — yet another reminder of the grace in her life, Bergeron says.

“Many of the good things in my life are born from my music, or just being a musician,” she says. “[Music] has formed this life for me; everything’s built around it. Music’s not the endall, be-all, but I can see the grace that comes through it and the people that I get to know because of it. … I’m coming to the part where I can look back and be grateful for some of it, grateful for how I’ve grown and changed. And to see the community support from the Kickstarter felt like a lift up into the next phase of my life.”

Perhaps no song captures this note of prevailing gratitude better than “Love is You,” one that’s not just about a humbling epiphany and growth, but also repeats the words “light” and, particularly, “love,” more than any other song on the record. Bergeron says this repetition was intentional. “I often listen to kirtan and I find comfort in mantra,” she says, referring to a calland-response style of music native to India. “It’s a way for me to get back to my center and remember myself, a way to get underneath my ego, to remember what’s important,” she adds. “It comforts me physically. There is a healing energy in it, to keep repeating words that are empowering. As Maya Angelou said, ‘words are things.’”

She continues, “But the lyrics aren’t me, like, telling you what’s what. I am discovering it with you. I’m sharing what has been revealed to me. I’m not telling you it’s love, I am realizing it’s love and saying it out loud. Like, ‘Ohhh! It is love! Did you know that?’”

Would she have been so on point, so eloquent, so earnest in this interview had she done it hastily in the morning, like we’d planned? Or was it best, in the end, to take that time, and spend it not only outside, but out in the light — absorbing it, witnessing it, listening to it, even? And then bringing that light to this conversation? “All it takes,” Misty sings, “is a little light.”

Misty Lyn and the Big Beautiful will perform a record release show on Friday, Feb. 17 at The Ark; 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; 734-761-1818; theark.org. Doors at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20.

Thurs 02/16

Happy Birthday, craig benton!

Fri 02/17

WINTER RAVE WONDERLAND TECHNO & HOUSE FEAT. MEL BEATZ/SMITH & RECKLESS/ DROP CATCH/DJ FOOD FIGHT

Doors@9pm/$5 Cover

Sat 02/18

BANGERZ & JAMZ MONTHLY LADY DJS DANCE PARTY! WITH DJ AIMZ & DJ EM Doors@9pm/$5 Cover

Sun 02/19

Happy Birthday, NICOLE POWELL!

Mon 02/20 FREE POOL ALL DAY

Tues 02/21 B.Y.O.R. BRING YOUR OWN RECORDS (WEEKLY)

Open Decks @9pm/NO COVER IG: @byor_tuesdays_old_miami

Coming Up:

02/24 THE DECARLO FAMILY/ LULU SUMMERFIELD/BRENDA

02/25 RAW & RUGGED FEAT. HUSH & BOBBY J FROM ROCKAWAY/ISAAC CASTOR/QUEST MCODY

3/03 COCKTAIL SHAKE + TBA

03/04 SUBSTANCE ALBUM RELEASE FEAT. MVCK NYCE/BIG TRIP/DANGO

03/10 ZOESETTE & THE GROOVE/ MERCURY SALAD

03/24 CINECYDE/THE HOURLIES/ SEARCH & DESTROY

03/25 ASKELPLIUS (SMILEY’S B-DAY SHOW)

03/26 NAIN ROUGE PARADE PARTY W/BANGERZ & JAMZ

JELLO SHOTS always $1

Old Miami tees & hoodies available for purchase!

A humble, James Beard-nominated taco joint

Casa Amado Taqueria

chef-owner Amado Lopez says he was surprised by his recent designation as a semifinalist in the emerging chef category by the prestigious James Beard Foundation.

The restaurant, he says, is a modest place for everyone. He quit the world of fine dining a while ago because “I realized my dad can’t even come in here, so why am I cooking this food?” And yet here are Beard judges, who visit anonymously, rubbing elbows with kids from nearby Berkley High School who hit the shop for a solid bite for under $10.

The Beard awards in past ages were reserved for higher-end restaurants, but the foundation has evolved with the times, and, rightly so, now considers less “fancy” restaurants, like Casa Amado, for its awards.

Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical — aren’t all the best tacos in southeast Michigan concentrated in Downriver and Southwest Detroit? Who goes to Berkley for tacos? Lesson learned. The flavors here are big and bright, and built around stewed meats. Though Lopez pulls influences from all regions of Mexico, his tacos seem to have more in common with those I’ve tried in Chi-

By Tom Perkins

cago or the west coast than in Detroit, which are often Jaliscan-rooted.

Lopez spent the early part of his career in the Chicago kitchens of some of the nation’s top chefs, like Rick Bayless, with whom he traveled to Mexico. He also worked in one of decorated chef Shawn McLain’s Chicago restaurants. McLain now operates Highlands at the top of the GM Rencen.

Lopez wanted to spend more time with his kids as his family grew, and the fine dining schedule didn’t jibe with that. Simultaneously, his wife, who is from Michigan, suggested moving to the suburbs — Detroit’s suburbs. The proposal left Lopez skeptical, but he landed a job and eventually took over Plum Market’s catering, where he prepared food for a who’s who of Michiganders, like Pete Karmanos. Circumstance during the pandemic led Lopez to the Atomic Dog hot dog restaurant in Berkley, where Casa Amado began taking shape as a pop-up before evolving into a full time operation. Atomic Dog closed and handed the keys to Casa Amado last March.

Among the best of Lopez’s tacos: the Mexican bistec. He describes it as if pico de gallo was cooked down and

simmered with steak. The super-tender beef is braised with a tomato base, onion, garlic, and jalapeño, and spices like cumin or allspice could be added. It’s folded with an acidic nopales cactus and bell pepper slaw. The pork taco pops with equally tender braised pig shoulder done with guajillo chile, ancho chiles, and garlic, and coated with a tangle of pickled onions. Friday’s special is a fish taco, and on a Wednesday we got a shrimp taco with green chile, cheese, and slaw.

The bird in the chipotle chicken tacos is composed of thighs that are cooked down with garlic, thyme, and bay leaves, then chopped up, marinated with a chipotle-garlic sauce, seared on the flat top and mixed with red salsa. That’s topped with a rajas — a traditional mix of poblano, onion, garlic, corn, zucchini, and some sort of cream, like sour cream or crema, as well as cheese.

Some of the best bites are the Sonoran hot dog, which is a charred natural casing dog with a heavy dose of bacon, green chiles, pickled onion, jalapeño, and chile sauce on a toasted bun. The way all that acid cuts through the charred pork — oh yes.

Casa Amado Taqueria

2705 Coolidge Hwy., Berkley 248-398-3294

casaamado.com

$11 for three tacos

Wheelchair accessible for carryout

Casa Amado does two veg options. A mushroom taco offers substantial mushrooms that are flavorful from the same chipotle-garlic marinade used for the chicken. It’s finished with queso fresco and arugula, and hangs with its meaty counterparts. The inspiration for the Seema was a vegetarian friend who doesn’t like mushrooms. The tortilla comes griddled with cheese that ends up caramelized and reminds one of the cheese around the edge of a Detroit-style pizza. The tortilla is filled with a cactus and bell pepper slaw, a healthy coating of arugula, pickled onions, jalapeño, queso fresco, and roasted chile sauce. Busy and delicious.

The guacamole and hot queso were the only items that left a bit to be desired — perhaps a bit flat in the shadow of all the dazzlers across the taco menu. The drink menu offers all the standard Mexican beers, a few craft brews, and solid margaritas.

Expect an informal vibe when visiting — one orders at the register, and the food is brought out to the small dining rooms.

Tacos and a Sonoran dog from Casa Amado Taqueria.

TOM PERKINS

Chowhound

First look: Rusted Crow is opening a new Belleville location

By Robert Stempkowski

WELCOME TO CHOWHOUND, your prandial information portal to what’s trending in Detroit food culture. Consider this your new feed for restaurant announcements, au courant culinary conversation, and assorted tasty news nibbles from our local dining front. And, hey, if you’ve something to share on those subjects, reach out to me, “Mr. C,” at eat@metrotimes.com. Here we go:

Ready to ride the wave to Belleville?

Rusted Crow’s rolling in: Longtime restaurateur and club owner “Freddy G” Giordano is readying his gorgeous new Rusted Crow, which flew its former downtown Detroit coop to feather the nest you’ll need to see to believe, just above Belleville Lake. Doors fly open come mid-March, and Giordano’s spectacularly furnished space is somewhere I suspect folks will flock to break bread and make merry. (The Rusted Crow’s Dearborn Heights location remains open.)

Talk about shiny objects: An actual plane’s hanging inverted in air over the live band lounge, while the dining room’s decked out in vintage outboard motors and visually stunning artwork (you can’t miss the Katsushika Hokusai “The Great Wave”-inspired wall or pin-up girl murals). From a Rosie the Riveter-uniformed bar staff to an old ship’s toilet repurposed for “flushing” down their tips (now there’s disposable income!), the concept’s a cheeky toast

to Americana and waterside society. Woodworked homages to Ford and Edison afford everyone a good reason to raise a glass, while the water ski bar will undoubtedly start conversations between imbibers who come in to kick it. And what kinds of vittles will Crow cook up to complement all that vibe? Portobello fries ($9) and Portofinostyle Mussels ($15) sound promising. Hawaiian-style, buttermilk fried chicken ($13) and a Santa Fe-inspired burger ($15) are sandwiches I’d sink my teeth into. Entrée salads and light pastas, seafood, and steaks frame the dinner fare, while a half dozen housecrafted pizzas (baked slick and quick through Crow’s blistering conveyor belt oven) round out the menu essentials.

Boat slips on the lakeshore across the street from the restaurant will welcome the nautical set. Overland access will be easy as well. Take I-94 west to Belleville exit. Turn south and head straight across the water bridge (as the Crow flies, of course). Then look left. You’ve arrived at a definite destination. Rusted Crow on the Lake is located at 569 Main St., Belleville; 734-325-2941; rustedcrowspirits.com.

What’s in a name? In this case, a great business decision story wrapped in a parable on stellar service. Matt Wiseman, founder and owner of Motor City Seafood, employed some savvy crisis management tactics and an admirable commitment to clients to see his

company’s existential crisis through a COVID-crippled food economy. Forced to furlough a crew of 17 and face the possibility of business failure, Wiseman and wife Staci rolled up their last four sleeves and went to work doing everything they could to help save others as well as themselves. They got involved in city-sponsored programs to feed Detroit-are first responders, slashed prices for their cash-strapped restaurant clients and dropped order minimums which are standard practice for food suppliers and wholesalers. In short, they delivered just what everyone needed.

“If someone wanted only four orders of scallops we brought it,” Wiseman says, for example. “Few could afford cases of salmon, so we sold single sides (“flats”).” Along with so many others, Motor City Seafood was just trying to survive. In the end, empathetic choices and gracious accommodation (see also: “service”) proved pivotal in helping them thrive. These days, while the recovery continues and remains in question for many, Wiseman now counts among his considerable and marquee restaurant accounts (Joe Muer, Selden Standard, Shewolf, Mabel Gray, Chartreuse, Oak & Reel, et al.), those with whom the tough times were shared and seen through. In a world where current food costs can leave us questioning the possibility of profiteering in some corners of the marketplace, it’s nice to know this just wasn’t so for folks turn-

ing in need to Wiseman; a fish monger who kept things going affordably for his customers when the going got really tough. Kudos.

Botana, burger, and ribs bucket list: Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again. I did, returning recently to Michigan almost 40 years after my ’80s exodus to Arizona, and making a beeline back to three iconic eateries that were there for me then and still serve today: Xochimilco in Southwest Detroit, Miller’s Bar in Dearborn (my hometown), and the original Bone Yard BBQ in Dearborn Heights.

Back for my first botana from Xochi’s (3409 Bagley St., Detroit; 313-843-0179) in years, I reveled getting reacquainted with what I now recognize as fairly straightforward nachos, reminiscing over the dish’s success secret whispered in my ear by the owner way back when, only after an inebriated, heart-crossing promise to take it to my grave. After another taste took me back to munchie-driven days feasting late-night with old friends, the Boneyard (7010 N. Telegraph Rd., Dearborn Heights; 313-561-0102; theboneyardbbq.com) returned me to a booth there circa 1980, when my high school sweetheart and I bathed our lips in barbecue sauce on many a date night before driving off to park somewhere and suck face. And walking into Miller’s Bar (23700 Michigan Ave., Dearborn; 313-565-2577; millersbar.com) was like stepping back into boyhood; recalling my aunts’ constant complaints about the allure local “beer gardens” held for my uncles. I sat down, made fast friends with Jen the bartender and ordered up a Miller’s killer cheeseburger. Between the good grub and gab we social animals seem to have a gift for when gathered at watering holes, I didn’t want to leave, either. Jen, Mike the manager, and I talked and laughed long and loud enough to draw more bar customers into the conversation. The guy to my right showed us pictures of his moonshine still. The one to my left talked tequila with us as we poked fun at my ordering the cheap stuff against Jen’s advice. We ended up having quite a time together, we five strangers.

My trip down restaurant memory lane reminded me: It isn’t what seasons the meals we never forget, it’s the memories stirred up whenever we enjoy them again. So, here’s a toast-challenge to you and yours. Put a must-do-soon bucket list together and head out to where the food and drink take you back to happy places from years past. Return to them with family and friends. It will leave you feeling good down to your gut. Break bread. Make merry. Tell stories. And catch up. Cheers.

The Rusted Crow’s decor is inspired by Americana and waterside society.

ROBERT STEMPKOWSKI

WEED

Why this Michigan cannabis company pivoted to ‘bud-and-breakfasts’

CONNIE MAXIM-SPARROW IS

used to switching gears when she has to. She says she first became involved in Michigan’s cannabis industry by accident. At the time, Maxim-Sparrow was using the skills she learned working in government to help businesses write grants, and soon after Michigan voters approved cannabis for medical purposes in 2008, she helped a client become a licensed cannabis grower. By 2017 she founded Sparrow Consulting to help companies obtain licenses and develop business plans. Soon, Michigan legalized cannabis for adult-use, and eventually Sparrow Consulting had helped businesses acquire several hundred licenses across 10 states, she says.

But now, as the price of cannabis has plummeted in Michigan, MaximSparrow is pivoting again.

“This market kind of peaks and ebbs and flows, and the licensing aspect has really slowed down substantially,” she says. “And then on top of that, the market is extremely unstable, and we’re seeing a lot of cannabis operators struggle to pay their bills.”

To adapt, Sparrow Consulting has launched Dérive Travel, a new cannabis hospitality and traveling service, joining similar Michigan-based endeavors like Michigo and Sparx and Recreation.

Maxim-Sparrow says the idea came amid the pandemic, as she found herself in an “empty nest” after her children moved out.

“My husband and I kind of looked at each other and said, ‘The market is not going well. We have this lovely home. What should we do?’” she recalls.

They got the idea to transform their Muskegon home into “The Nest,” a “bud-and-breakfast” rental modeled after a bed-and-breakfast, with plans to open a second one in Dowagiac.

Maxim-Sparrow says the rental units have private “bud bars” in each room, including items like bongs, rolling papers, and other paraphernalia. Dérive Travel will also partner with local cannabis dispensaries for discounts and online ordering and delivery. She also envisions hosting private dinners where chefs can come over and serve up cannabis-infused meals for guests, and partnering with other facilities like grow operations to offer tours of the cannabis industry.

She says the goal is to create a safe space for people to explore cannabis.

“We’re really focused on everyone from the canna-curious to cannaconsumer,” she says. “There’s still a substantial stigma related to cannabis use, and we’re still seeing the war on

drugs prevent, I think, some people from trying cannabis. There’s not really ways for people that are curious about cannabis to come into a comfortable space to learn about it.”

Not everyone knows about directory services like WeedMaps, she says, and cannabis businesses face hurdles when it comes to traditional advertising. Plus, dispensaries can be intimidating to newbies.

“It’s still very underground for the average soccer mom who might be stressed out because she’s raising her three kids, and would not contemplate using cannabis versus, say, anxiety medication” she says. “We’re seeing cannabis starting to become very much readily available and affordable, plus we’re also seeing people choosing cannabis over other substances.”

She compares the idea to that of sex

toy parties.

“Everybody started going to sex toy parties when they were being hosted in their friend’s house and it wasn’t so ‘clutch your pearls,’ right?” she says. “I think we’re seeing some of that with consumers that are interested in cannabis, but they don’t even know where to start. And frankly, maybe they don’t want a co-worker to see them walk into a dispensary?”

Maxim-Sparrow says she thinks that the service could be appealing to people from states that have recently legalized adult-use cannabis like Missouri to come see what Michigan’s market is like.

“There are lots of illegal states in the United States where people are very curious as to what life looks like a legal state and very much want to come and experience that,” she says.

“I think that the cannabis producers and those of us in the industry are going to have to find ways to convert consumers into cannabis versus just kind of ignoring them,” she adds. “And I think that there’s a hungry group of people out there that are very curious.”

After becoming involved with last year’s inaugural Cannabash music festival in Muskegon, Sparrow Consulting has also launched a new company called Dedaco, a cannabis event and production company that will take over operations for Cannabash in 2023.

Maxim-Sparrow says last year’s Cannabash drew about 7,000 attendees to see acts like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Trick Trick, and Willy J Peso.

“Cannabash was a huge hit last year, and that really taught us that consumers are hungry for a normal destigmatized situation,” Maxim-Sparrow says. “They want to experience cannabis as if it is something normal, no different than alcohol at a music festival.”

–Lee DeVito

2023 Cannabash fest details announced

CANNABASH — A CANNABIS and music festival that debuted in Muskegon last year — is slated to return in 2023, with new details announced Friday.

The festival is set to return on Saturday, July 8 at Muskegon’s Softball World grounds with headline entertainment by Detroit rapper Sada Baby and Atlanta’s Ludacris.

Other announced acts include the return of host and Detroit rapper Willy J. Peso, along with DJ Prim, DJ Jodi Dro, RBL Posse, Foesum, and Rehab.

Organizers say last year, the

inaugural Cannabash drew some 7,500 attendees and more than 70 cannabis brands and vendors.

Tickets are live at cannabashfest.com with general admission tickets available starting at $50 and VIP tickets available for $175. Both tickets include swag bags, while VIP gets preferred parking and access to a VIP smoke lounge, among other perks.

All ticket holders will also be entered into a raffle giveaway to win “a 4-night, 5-day cannabis inclusive Jamaican vacation.”

–Lee DeVito

COURTESY PHOTO

CULTURE

A Swan Lake for our dystopian times

The classic ballet is recast in ecological terms for Detroit Opera House presentation

By Konstantina Buhalis

Swan Lake is more than just Black Swan — it’s one of the most legendary productions of all time. First staged in 1895 with music by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, this libretto-turned-ballet was initially considered a failure but has gone on to become one of the most beloved productions in the world. And now, this ballet that has stood the test of time is coming to Detroit, reinterpreted as a modern-day dystopian nightmare.

Ballet has a long history of commissioning productions based on fairy tales and folk stories; the original Swan Lake was inspired by Russian and German tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by a sorcerer. However, this version of Swan Lake is firmly rooted in the present, using a polluted, industrial playground as the backdrop to a story of eco-consciousness and villainous businessmen whose actions threaten the safety of wildlife.

The production is the work of French contemporary choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, who will bring his version of Swan Lake to the Detroit Opera House this week through a partnership with

Ann Arbor’s University Musical Society. Preljocaj has brought four previous shows to Ann Arbor, including a production of Snow White

“I always have three words each time I start a new creation,” Preljocaj tells Metro Times. “These three words are ‘text,’ ‘context,’ and ‘pretext.’” He says his idea was to take the words “swan” and “lake” and, through word association, draw meaning and symbols from the words to create a new narrative.

“When I started to work on Swan Lake finally, the first thing I did was to read the title,” he says. “What is a swan? Swan, in our context, is an animal, and because of climate change, maybe this animal will disappear from the Earth. And a lake is a huge water reserve, and with climate change [raising] the heat of the planet now there are a lot of lakes that have started to disappear, and also there is a lot of pollution with industry.”

For the music, Preljocaj felt the score had to both reflect tradition as well as embrace the present, and while the original Tchaikovsky score is used in most of the production, Preljocaj added new additions using electronic mu-

sic by 79D to heighten the mood and introduce an aspect of futurism in the production. “I wanted to connect my story to the industrial world,” he says.

Swan Lake is the crown jewel of many companies, being one of the most technically demanding ballets produced. Preljocaj’s vision takes from the original creation, with lines and formations inspired by Marius Petipa’s original staging. Though the famous 32-fouetté turn sequence is missing, Preljocaj describes this production as a conversation between him and Petipa.

“I think choreographers can discuss beyond the time, and it’s very nice for me to have a kind of discussion with my use, an imaginary discussion with Marius Petipa, through the choreographic steps, through the choreographic lines, through the choreographic movement,” he says.

Preljocaj asks the audience to see Swan Lake beyond the tale of Odette and Odile, and to examine how the way we live affects the lives of the precious creatures around us, and the responsibility we have to protect the Earth.

And though ballet has had a reputation as an art form enjoyed only by the

wealthy and labeled as “old-fashioned” and complicated, Preljocaj says he aims for accessibility with this production, and encourages audiences who might not be familiar with ballet to watch it as if it’s a film.

“Sit in the seat and look at this ballet, like a movie, in a certain way,” he says. “It’s because the story is still obviously very mysterious, but also very connected to our world. And it’s kind of a thriller in the subject. I think all the different elements are very dynamic, and the story keeps going.”

Swan Lake will be performed Friday, Feb. 17-Sunday, Feb. 19 at the Detroit Opera House; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; 313-237-7464; detroitopera.org. Tickets start at $25. A masterclass will be taught at the Opera House from 11 a.,.-12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb 18 from 11:00 am-12:30 pm at the Margo V. Cohen Center for Dance in the Ford Center for Learning at the Detroit Opera House with instruction from Preliojac’s assistant. Pre-registration is required for the class, which is free with a ticket stub or $25 without a ticket stub.

Ballet Preljocaj performs Swan Lake

JC CARBONNE

EMPLOYMENT

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER-JOINING TECHNOLOGY, Brose North America, Auburn Hills, MI. Plan, procure, review, set up, & support threaded fastening & riveting eqpmnt technologies (joining technologies) on specialized threaded fastening & riveting eqpmnt to join cmpnts using threaded fasteners (screws, nuts & bolts made of steel, aluminum, & plastic, cold forged according to drawing, ready-to-install, galvanized & coated), rivets, threaded bolts, & ensure high quality, high volume production of mechatronic window regulators, full door modules, seat structures with seat adjuster syss, & motors (actuators), at high volume mechatronics mfg plants in US/CAN/ MEX. Support customer projects for series production, incl. guidance on joining technologies eqpmnt & PLC-based eqpmnt incl. screw guns, PLC-based robotic bowl feeders (fastening eqpmnt), gantry syss to hold screw guns & align parts to be fastened, robotic riveting & threaded bolt pressing eqpmnt, manual riveting & threaded bolt pressing eqpmnt, clinching eqpmnt, new threaded fastening & riveting processes, & threaded fastening & riveting eqpmnt procurement. Required travel to Brose plants in US/CAN/MEX to evaluate plant technical reqrmnts & installation of new production eqpmnt, train plant personnel in threaded fastening & riveting technologies; to production line eqpmnt builders & threaded fastening & riveting eqpmnt suppliers to validate designs & verify compliance w/ Brose eqpmnt specs & agreements, & assess technical & organizational capabilities, up to 7 wks

P/A. Bachelor, Industrial, Mechanical, Chemical, or Automotive Systems Engrg, or related. 24 mos exp as Engineer, supporting customer projects for production, & preparing & verifying eqpmnt layouts, or related. Mail resume to Ref#1009, Brose, Human Resources, 3933 Automation Ave, Auburn Hills, MI 48326.

EMPLOYMENT

COUNTRY BUYER SUPERVISOR, Plastic Omnium Auto Exteriors, Troy, MI. Plan, develop, execute &lead North America procurement (supplier sourcing) strategies for raw materials (resins &paints) &original eqpmnt plastic &painted bumpers systems incl. wiring harnesses, injection molded brackets, stamped metallic clips &reinforcements, &chromed trim emblems, &plastic &painted tailgate systems incl. injection molded interior &exterior trim panels, glass, &brackets; &tools incl. injection tooling, stamping tooling, grippers/End of Arm tools; eqpmnt incl. bonding cells, punching &welding machines, automatic assy stations, painting jigs &checking fixtures); &packaging systems incl. metallic racks, returnable plastic boxes, &expendable specific boxes, for global sourcing of U.S. OEM global projects in US, MEX/CAN &Interntl (FRA, GER, PRT, IND, CHN). Lead, supervise &mentor team of 2 Country Buyers. Plan, perform economic analyses, develop, control &assure timely, cost efficient &financially profitable procurement of complex cmpnts &syss for 4 mfg plants in US &4 in MEX. Required domestic &intl travel to automotive cmpnt suppliers for site visits to assess & define improvement in mfg processes, to PO plants in US/MEX to discuss technical plans &product spec changes, &to SC &MEX to mentor Country Buyers, up to 12 wks P/A. Bachelor, Industrial, Chemical or Mechanical Engrg, or related. 36 mos exp as Country Buyer or Supervisor, Purchasing or Supply Project Manager, or related, developing &executing Country or Regional procurement (supplier sourcing) strategies for raw materials (resins &paints) &bumpers syss incl. wiring harnesses, injection molded brackets, stamped metallic clips, &chromed trim emblems; &painted tailgate syss, or related. Mail resume to Ref#13656, Plastic Omnium Auto Exteriors, Human Resources, 2710 Bellingham Dr., Troy, MI 48083.

CULTURE

The grandson of Detroit art royalty, James Charles Morris is forging his own path

By Randiah Camille Green

Art has always been a part of James Charles Morris’s life. It’s in his blood.

That’s a given when you have distinguished Detroit gallerist Dell Pryor for a grandmother. Morris grew up exploring Pryor’s gallery and began helping her hang art for shows in his teens.

“You name an esteemed Black artist, I’ve held their work,” he tells Metro Times. “Romare Bearden, Carole Harris, Shirley Woodson, Gilda Snowden, Anthony Barboza, Jamel Shabazz, Senghor Reid… the list goes on and on. It’s a lot of different artists whose work I’ve held and hung, and with that, you’re taking in the spirit of their work. It influenced me so much, taking in all of these masterworks. It’s like this circulating experience of different energies that would flow through the different incarnations of the gallery and I was there from pretty much the beginning.”

Now Morris is making his own mark on the art world with his multimedia collage pieces. The self-taught artist and photographer digitally manipulates his photos, layering his subject’s faces with sweeping texture.

His most recent piece, “Becoming One,” meshes photography, digital manipulation, collage, and painting. It debuted at Norwest Gallery of Art as part of the Expressions of Black Love exhibit in February. The show also features work by Judy Bowman, Shirley Woodson, Phil Simpson, Mieyoshi Ragernoir, Sheefy McFly, Maisha Hughes, Doug Jones, Abifola Abraham, Simone Bryant, Taylor Childs, Jamar Lockhart, Jason Phillips, DaJaniere Rice, Reggie Singleton, Rosemary Summers, and Vonmash.

When we meet Morris at Norwest Gallery on a rare sunny afternoon, he’s busy hanging lights for the exhibition’s opening reception, as he’s done countless times for Dell Pryor Gallery.

“I call it full circle that my piece is right across from Shirley Woodson, who I’ve grown up admiring her work,” he says. “That’s why when you saw me up on the ladder adjusting the lights, I’m used to it because I used to hang a lot of her shows.”

Looking around the gallery, many of the pieces on display are overtly affectionate — two lovers gaze at each other, a mother holds her son, a man puts his arm around his lover — but in Morris’s piece, a couple stares off the canvas at an unknown subject, putting space between each other and the viewer.

“With ‘Becoming One’ there’s no emphasis on a romantic relationship,” he explains. “There’s no emphasis on showing any of the tropes that people see when you’re talking about love like kissing or being hugged up. There’s more of a close separation, though they are connected by looking at their road ahead together.”

The mosaic montage that forms the couple’s clothing is made out of photos Morris shot himself and cut into various pieces. An ethereal aura emanates around the couple in bursting hues of orange that warm the entire wall behind it.

Morris has been a photographer for roughly 20 years, and he started digitally manipulating his work around 2020 during the pandemic. Prior to that, he ran a boutique in downtown Detroit called Definitive Style Exclusive (DSE) for 10 years. He closed the shop and switched to online sales as “things were starting to change downtown” and some of his politically charged T-shirts began to feel out of place.

“I saw the writing on the wall,” he says laughing as he reminisces about the shop’s final days. “No diss to anybody who’s going down there, but ain’t too many folks driving downtown going into a shop where there’s a shirt that says ‘I’m

Black get over it.’ I remember seeing this couple looking in the window from outside, they didn’t realize the window was thin so I could hear them, and they were saying, ‘I think this is just a Black-only store.’”

Morris says art hasn’t just been “a part” of his life, it’s been an immersive experience.

“Every single moment of my life I’ve been involved in some way shape or form in an artistic project or happening, and all it did was help me realize my potential as an artist,” he says. “As a kid, I was always creating figurines and different projects made out of materials like duct tape, electrical tape, cardboard, anything I could find. So it’s no coincidence that now what I do with collage has the same spirit. It was never any type of pressure from my family or anything, it just flowed

naturally.”

He adds, “For the last 15 years I’ve been more on the commercial side with my clothing brand and I had moved away from fine art, but once the pandemic hit it forced me to stop and get back into this creative bag. It made me say, ‘You really need to explore this more, because you have so much to say through your art, it would be a crime if you didn’t explore it.’”

Where to see his work: Expressions of Black Love is up until March 19 at Norwest Gallery of Art; 19556 Grand River Ave., Detroit; 313-293-7344; norwestgallery.com.

Got someone in mind you think deserves the spotlight? Hit us up at arts@ metrotimes.com.

James Charles Morris COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

The Oscars missed most of 2022’s best movies

With film exhibition, production, and distribution still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and a mess of durably ingrained habits, 2022 saw more pieces of the infrastructure we’d long enjoyed — and known to be fragile — continue to collapse. This was felt acutely on a local level, with Hamtramck’s Film Lab indefinitely shuttered ahead of a planned future move and Royal Oak’s Main Art Theater torn to rubble. More theaters may yet wrap or suspend operations besides — at least if the bankruptcy filings for the Regal Cinemas chain are any indication. At the same time, some recent hits and some of last year’s sleepers might still suggest an improving bill of health.

That leaves the remaining stalwarts we still have — not just the multiplexes but the independent operators — to hold down Detroit’s film scene: a big job. While multiplexes like MJR and Emagine have picked up some portion of the films which might once have once showed chiefly at spaces like the Main Art (NEON and A24’s work stand out in this), it’s the smaller and more publicinstitutional organs which tend to bring the best works to screen for local audiences. From the Detroit Film Theatre’s steady slate of weekend programming to Cinema Lamont’s welcome range of pop-ups to Cinema Detroit’s dynamic and sturdy programming this past year, it’s largely thanks to this good work that the most aesthetically significant, eccentric, and often not heavily commercial works worth seeing have made it out our way.

Not surprisingly, these films have largely been passed over by the Oscars, which with rare exceptions privilege

By George Elkind

works with a heavy marketing budget. Deemed contenders a priori (or in some cases at the last minute by industry-insider peers), these works tend — usually wrongly — to dominate conversations around this time of year. In the interest of amending or at least supplementing the record of what films mattered in 2022, what follows is a list of what I thought stood out: what merited and will continue for years to come to merit attention. With some exceptions, I selected works which had an official release locally or online — and while I was sorry to not have seen some by the time of filing (Happening and No Bears, for instance), I’ve labored throughout the year to catch and cover a good portion of what’s played.

Benediction (Terence Davies): Presenting a succession of plush period settings only to methodically rip the stuffing out from within them, Terence Davies shows his characteristic, fluidly subjective approach to structure (and time) to be as singular as ever in this treatment of one of Britain’s leading modernist poets. Breaking easily with the conventions of biopic filmmaking via the sort of informed apathy granted by long experience (see also A Quiet Passion for this) – and aided, too, by Jack Lowden’s alternately ferocious and poised leading performance — Benediction is a film as attuned to history as it is immune to mythology. Allowing for romance, beauty, and experiential transportation, it’s never distanced from its own seductive subjects (activist poetry, queer romance). The past is ever present here, and history offers us nothing like an arc. (Currently streaming on Hulu.)

RRR (S.S. Rajamouli): Widely taken

as an antidote to America’s anemic but globally dominant franchise work, which only gestures at the principles that govern proper “action” films, S.S. Rajamouli’s free-wheeling epic is both anticolonial and nationalistic: an ecstatic, imperfect, and politically flawed effort at generating a pan-Indian cinema, constituted in particular terms. Joining two real-life historical revolutionaries in what must be called a bromance, his approach to action, song, dance, and movement proves resourceful and inventive. A commercial work rightly acclaimed for its rich sense of character, movies like this seem not to happen much — especially in the States. (Currently streaming on Netflix.)

Ambulance (Michael Bay): Another lively work of commercial filmmaking, freely joining portions of canonical action work (Heat, Speed) to medical thrillers and the best drone photography I think I’ve seen, Ambulance is an angular, contradictory, and critical work in its treatment of righteous robbers and militarized policing. A thrilling hostage film which places at its center a neardead cop, Bay’s latest is one that’s widely been missed but shouldn’t be forgotten. (Currently streaming on Amazon.)

The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg): Hogg follows up her Souvenir films by now centering the series’ always prevalent focus on the relationship between mothers and daughters, with longtime friend Tilda Swinton holding dual leading roles in what amounts to far more than a gimmicky case for performance. Working with the gothic trappings of a British ghost story and echoing the work of Michael Powell, The Eternal Daughter is agile, incisive, and

moving beneath its mannered beauty, renewing classical techniques with every shot. (Currently streaming on VOD.)

The Stars at Noon (Claire Denis): Treating our neo-colonial moment by tailing journalists, diplomats, and shadowy operators, Denis casts this expatriate romance in unstable terms, centering erratic characters and spy film tropes. (Currently streaming on Hulu.)

Saint Omer (Alice Diop): Centering two French-Senegalese women, one on trial and the other an invested onlooker, Diop’s film gives rise to what might be the best performances of the year — making for a disciplined and extended meditation on power, gender, judgment, and self-regard. (Currently in theaters, likely on Hulu soon.)

Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg): The latest from Canada’s preeminent auteur meshes body horror with art-world trappings, serenely meditating on old age, death, intimacy, and the attendant violations and vulnerabilities at work in all three. (Currently streaming on Hulu.)

Decision to Leave (Park Chanwook): Wrapping a contemporary, fogbound Korean thriller in a thick web of Hitchcockian tropes, Decision to Leave manages to sell its combination of suspicion and a willful tendency toward the obscure by privileging energetic formal play and reliably brilliant performances. (Currently streaming on MUBI.)

A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia): A rare film which actually acknowledges and incorporates the collective work behind its making, Kapadia’s brilliant feature debut struggles — quite effectively — to capture the experience of a community both across time and in her political moment. Presenting itself in beautifully treated black and white, its sinuous structure demands attention and rewards repeated viewing. (Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.)

EO (Jerzy Skolimowski): Centering a donkey (played by several) as its lead, the octogenarian filmmaker recasts its predecessor Au Hasard Balthazar in punkish, lively terms. With searing drone photography, a meandering perspective, and rewarding bouts of imagistic play, this work is held together by little more than vision and the endurance of its lead — and becomes all the more absorbing for it. (Recently in theaters, not yet streaming.)

Honorable mentions (in no particular order): Aftersun (Charlotte Wells), Nope(Jordan Peele), Tár (Todd Field), Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras), Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine), Children of the Mist (Ha Le Diem), Corsage (Marie Kreutzer), Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)

The Academy has its own ideas — but we also have ours

CULTURE

Savage Love Kant

Say No

By Dan Savage

your question with a couple of actual ethicists.

paternalistic to say, ‘No, I’m not going to honor your request.’ But if the offer is the only thing that makes the writer think the sub is not in his right mind, then the writer may be projecting their own values, preferences, or worldview onto the sub in a way that is, itself, disrespectful of the sub›s underlying autonomy.”

: Q

Let’s say you’re a younger gay guy who’s been doing ethical FinDom (financial domination) for a few years and you’re good at it and you feel good about doing it because you take reasonable amounts of money, aka “tribute,” from your finsubs and you give value in return. In my case, I share sexy text messages, pics, and do meet ups with subs who’ve earned my trust. And let’s say one of your trusted subs — someone you’ve been draining in your own ethical way for a few years — offers to sign everything he has over to you. House, condo, vacation home, savings, stocks. Everything. This person says it’s their ultimate fantasy and they ask again and again. Do you have to say no? At what point can you ethically say yes? Let’s say this particular sub has no kids, no spouse, and his nearest relatives are Trump supporters and homophobes who were awful to him when he came out. He doesn’t want them to get anything. He says if I don’t take it all, he’s going to give it all to charity. I’m 32 (not that young, I guess) and he’s 72 and he’s not in great health. This would set me up for life and I would be able to help my parents out. Thoughts? What if I had to marry him to make it possible for tax reasons? Should I marry him? No one in their right mind would make an offer like this, right? I half expect him to come to his senses and think I’m a monster if I say yes. Can I do this and still think of myself as an ethical FinDom?

“The fundamental, background, taken-for-granted ethical framework assumed by Dom/sub relationships is that they’re entered into autonomously and both parties are ‘in their right mind’ in some relevant sense,” said Dr. Brian Earp, Senior Research Fellow in Moral Psychology at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. “Running with that, if SETUP really does think his sub may not ‘be in his right mind,’ if he thinks his sub is offering to sign over all those assets due to some breakdown in his decision-making competence, then, yeah, it would be exploitative and wrong to say ‘yes’ to this offer.”

So… Dr. Earp doesn’t think you take the money?

Not necessarily.

Dr. Earp cited a relevant debate in the field of bioethics, which is his specialty, that might argue in favor of taking the money, SETUP. Indeed, it would be “objectionably paternalistic” of you to assume your sub isn’t in his right mind just because he wants to do something others might regard as imprudent or even harmful.

So, if signing over all his assets is the only crazy thing your sub wants to do, you can take the money. But if signing everything over to you is one crazy tree in a forest full of crazy trees, you can’t take the money.

But how crazy is wanting to give everything you own to someone anyway?

Dr. Garcia continued. “It requires attention to the particularities of persons and the fact that they are not abstract beings but individuals who have their own cognitive limitations that could affect their ability to consent in different situations.”

So again, if your sub’s not in his right mind, you can’t take the money. But if you know your sub well enough — and you love and respect them — and you believe your sub truly wants to give you all his money and has the cognitive abilities to make this choice and it would make him happy — if it would achieve his desired end — you can take the money.

It should go without saying — but I’m going to say it anyway — that you have a conflict of interest here, SETUP. So, to be perfectly scrupulous about the ethics of this, you might want to ask your sub to get a full psych workup before you agree and maybe book a few sessions with an extremely sex-and-kink positive couples’ counselor you can talk with together before he give you the ultimate tribute.

Zooming back out for a second…

—Seriously

Entertaining This Unbelievable Possibility

P.S. I told him he could leave me whatever he wants in his will, but he says wants to have the experience of giving it all to me while he’s still alive to enjoy it.

A: I shared your letter with three random gay dudes who do financial domination online. All three were extremely jealous and all three, perhaps unsurprisingly, felt you should take the money — and the house, the condo, the vacation home, all of it. In fact, two of them initially responded with the same three-word answer: TAKE THE MONEY!

But since you seem concerned with the ethics of the very unique situation you find yourself in, SETUP, I shared

“Take someone who refuses to go on kidney dialysis because she’s ‘tired of life’ and doesn’t want to deal with all the hassle,” said Dr. Earp. “In a recent real-life case, the doctors basically said, the sheer fact she says she prefers to die — which seems pretty harmful! — instead of getting the doctor-recommended treatment suggests she ‘lacks competence’ to decide about her own healthcare and so she should be forced to go on kidney dialysis ‘for her own good.’ But if you go with that way of thinking, you can basically just declare people incompetent — people who otherwise would not be seen as incompetent — every time they choose something you think is a bad idea.”

So, to avoid even the appearance of behaving in an objectionably paternalistic manner — because God forbid — Dr. Earp thinks you should take the money?

Not necessarily.

If there’s evidence of diminished mental capacity independent of the specific decision at issue here — your sub giving you everything he owns — that additional evidence of diminished mental capacity would argue against taking the money, the house, etc.

“Basically, if SETUP has some other, independent set of good reasons for thinking the sub is ‘not in his right mind’ apart from the sheer fact of offering to sign away all his assets,” said Dr. Earp, “then it’s not

“If we were to think giving all your stuff away without ‘expecting anything in return’ is evidence of not being in your right mind,” said Dr. Earp, “I wonder why you wouldn’t reach the same conclusion if the person just wanted to give away most of their stuff, or half of their stuff. Why wouldn’t you conclude that entering into a FinDom relationship as a sub is not by itself evidence that someone is not in his right mind? But if SETUP isn’t willing to concede that, as I assume he is not, then I don’t see why without other corroborating evidence of decision-making incompetence

SETUP should think that the sub’s desire to give away most or all their stuff is somehow, by itself, disqualifyingly irrational.”

Now, when it comes to big decisions — and this one more than qualifies — it’s always helpful to get a second opinion.

“I don’t think marrying this person would be an ethical issue,” said Dr. Manon Garcia, quickly dispensing with one of your concerns. “Marriage has been used for a long time as a way to protect and transfer assets,” and you’re free to use marriage that way and still regard yourself as an ethical person.

Zooming out, Dr. Garcia, Junior Professor of Practical Philosophie at Freie Universität (Berlin), thinks you should consider Kant’s Formula of Humanity: “So act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means.” (This is German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) first-ever appearance in Savage Love. Shame he isn’t alive to enjoy it.)

What that means, Dr. Garcia explained to me, is that we have an ethical duty — a positive duty — to treat people as ends in and of themselves, and not merely as means to our own ends.

“This positive duty is very demanding,”

Financial domination took off as a kink over the last fifteen years. Its sudden popularity has, I think, something to do with the mass cultural trauma of the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and the way our smartphones have facilitated certain kinds of fantasy play and arms-length sex work. And while SETUP may be the first FinDom I’ve heard from facing this particular dilemma/good problem to have — a finsub nearing the end of his life who wants to leave him everything — I don’t think he will be the last. I expect the others may find themselves in more ethically challenging dilemmas. Bust assuming SETUP is telling us the truth — his sub offered, SETUP didn’t demand; there are no children or other dependents — this one seems like a pretty easy call.

But for sake of argument — and because this might come up again in the future — let’s say SETUP’s sub had children. Could he take the money then?

“Parents have some duties to their children,” said Dr. Garcia...

Read the rest of this column at Savage. Love. You can follow Dr. Brian Earp on Twitter @BrianDavidEarp and learn more about his work and his books at brianearp.com. You can follow Dr. Manon Garcia on Twitter @ManonGarciaFR and learn more about her work and her books manon-garcia.com

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

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

Aries director Francis Ford Coppola was asked to name the year’s worst movie. The question didn’t interest him, he said. He listed his favorite films, then declared, “Movies are hard to make, so I’d say, all the other ones were fine!” Coppola’s comments remind me of author Dave Eggers’: “Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them.” In accordance with astrological omens, Aries, your assignment is to explore and embody these perspectives. Refrain from judging efforts about which you have no personal knowledge. Be as open-minded and generous as you can. Doing so will give you fuller access to half-dormant aspects of your own potentials.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

Artist Andy Warhol said, only half in jest, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art.” More than any other sign, Tauruses embody this attitude with flare. When you are at your best, you’re not a

greedy materialist who places a higher value on money than everything else. Instead, you approach the gathering of necessary resources, including money, as a fun art project that you perform with love and creativity. I invite you to ascend to an even higher octave of this talent.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

You are gliding into the Season of Maximum Volition, Autonomy, and Liberty. Now is a favorable time to explore and expand the pleasures of personal sovereignty. You will be at the peak of your power to declare your independence from influences that hinder and limit you. To prepare, try two experiments. 1. Act as if free will is an illusion. It doesn’t exist. There’s no such thing. Then visualize what your destiny would be like. 2. Act as if free will is real. Imagine that in the coming months you can have more of it at your disposal than ever before. What will your destiny be like?

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

The ethereal, dreamy side of your nature must continually find ways to express itself beautifully and playfully. And I do mean “continually.” If you’re not always allowing your imagination to roam and romp around in Wonderland, your imagination may lapse into spinning out crabby delusions. Luckily, I don’t think you will have any problems attending to this necessary luxury in the coming weeks. From what I can tell, you will be highly motivated to generate fluidic fun by rambling through fantasy realms. Bonus! I suspect this will generate practical benefits.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

Don’t treat your allies or yourself with neglect and insensitivity. For the sake of your mental and physical health, you need to do the exact opposite. I’m not exaggerating! To enhance your well-being, be almost ridiculously positive. Be vigorously nice and rigorously kind. Bestow blessings and dole out compliments, both to others and yourself. See the best and expect the best in both others and yourself.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

Is there a bug in the sanctuary of love? A parasite or saboteur? If so, banish it. Is there a cranky monster grumbling in the basement or attic or closet? Feed that creature chunks of raw cookie dough imbued with a crushed-up valium pill. Do you have a stuffed animal or holy statue to whom you can spill your deep, dark, delicious secrets? If not, get one. Have you been spending quality time rumbling around in your fantasy world in quest of spectacular healings? If not, get busy. Those healings are ready for you to pluck them.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

There’s a weird magic operating in your vicinity these days — a curious, uncanny kind of luck. So while my counsel here might sound counterintuitive, I think it’s true. Here are four affirmations to chant regularly: 1. “I will attract and acquire what I want by acting as if I don’t care if I get what I want.” 2. “I will become grounded and relaxed with the help of beautiful messes and rowdy fun.” 3. “My worries and fears will subside as I make fun of them and joke about them.” 4. “I will activate my deeper ambition by giving myself permission to be lazy.”

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21: How many people would fight for their country? Below I list the countries where my horoscopes are published and the percentage of their populations ready and willing to take up arms against their nations’ enemies: 11% in Japan; Netherlands, 15%; Italy, 20%; France, 29%; Canada, 30%; U.S., 44%. So I surmise that Japanese readers are most likely to welcome my advice here, which is threefold: 1. The coming months will be a good time to cultivate your love for your country’s land, people, and culture, but not for your country’s government and armed forces. 2. Minimize your aggressiveness unless you invoke it to improve your personal life — in which case, pump it up and harness them. 3. Don’t get riled up about vague abstractions and fear-based fantasies. But do wield your constructive militancy in behalf of intimate, practical improvements.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

By the time she was 33, Sagittarian actor Jane Fonda was famous and popular. She had already won many awards, including an Oscar. Then she became an outspoken opponent of America’s war in Vietnam. Some of her less-liberal fans were outraged. For a few years, her success in films waned.

By Rob Brezsny

Offers didn’t come easily to her. She later explained that while the industry had not completely “blacklisted” her, she had been “greylisted.” Despite the setback, she kept working — and never diluted her political activism. By the time she was in her forties, her career and reputation had fully recovered. Today, at age 84, she is busy with creative projects. In accordance with astrological rhythms, I propose we make her your role model in the coming months. May she inspire you to be true to your principles even if some people disapprove. Be loyal to what you know is right.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

Charles V (1500–1558) had more than 20 titles, including Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, and Lord of the Netherlands. He was also a patron of the arts and architecture. Once, while visiting the renowned Italian painter Titian to have his portrait done, he did something no monarch had ever done. When Titian dropped his paintbrush on the floor, Charles humbly picked it up and gave it to him. I foresee a different but equally interesting switcheroo in your vicinity during the coming weeks. Maybe you will be aided by a big shot or get a blessing from someone you consider out of your league. Perhaps you will earn a status boost or will benefit from a shift in a hierarchy.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

Some people I respect regard the Bible as a great work of literature. I don’t share that view. Like psychologist Valerie Tarico, I believe the so-called good book is filled with “repetition, awkward constructions, inconsistent voice, weak character development, boring tangents, and passages where nobody can tell what the writer meant to convey.” I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I believe now is a good time to rebel against conventional wisdom, escape from experts’ opinions, and formulate your own unique perspectives about pretty much everything. Be like Valerie Tarico and me.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

I suspect that arrivederci and au revoir and sayōnara will overlap with birth cries and welcomes and initiations in the coming days. Are you beginning or ending? Leaving or arriving? Letting go or hanging on? Here’s what I think: You will be beginning and ending; leaving and arriving; letting go and hanging on. That could be confusing, but it could also be fun. The mix of emotions will be rich and soulful.

Here’s the homework: Imagine a good future scenario you have never dared to visualize.

JAMES NOELLERT

Is it U.F.O.s that have us all in a panic or Ewe.F.O.s? Because the latter is strange, but nothing worth shitting the bed over.

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