Metro Times 08/10/22

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metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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NEWS & VIEWS Feedback W e received comments in resp onse to Randiah Camille Green’ s cover story on how D etroiters are turning to herb alism and eating common w eeds that grow in their b ack yards.

Thought-provoking. Thank y ou.

— @ surrealisticp leasure, I nstagram Don’ t be doing this without a guide, as M ichigan does have highly toxic plants that grow nearly every where.

— @ motow nmogul, I nstagram M ay be not a good idea. There’ s tons of soil contamination in Detroit due to heavy industry . Any contaminates in the soil are

absorbed by the plant e.g. lead, arsenic, etc.

— @ alec. higgins. yo, I nstagram Any time y ou use the terms “white supremacy ” or “coloniz ers” ppl get their panties in a bunch like it’ s not a prevalent issue that has stripped indigenous ppl from their culture and traditions. M ay be go read the article with an open mind and learn something. B ut, the bigger take away is plant medicine and herbalism and its healing properties, things big pharma doesn’ t want y ou to know so y ou can stay ingesting toxic pills and medications that are harmful to our organs, nervous sy stem, etc. sta a ff

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Vol. 42 | No. 42 | August 10-16, 2022

News & Views Feedback ............................... 4 News ...................................... 6 Informed Dissent .................. 8 The Incision......................... 10 Cover Story How community organizers challenged Bedrock’s latest tax break.............................. 12

Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen

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What’s Going On Things to do this week ........ 16

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Music Feature ................................. 20

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Food Review ................................. 22 Bites ..................................... 24 Weed One-hitters ........................... 28 Culture Film ...................................... 30 Savage Love ......................... 32 Horoscopes .......................... 34

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metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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NEWS & VIEWS Blighted holdout house near Little Caesars Arena mysteriously burns down

By Randiah Camille Green YET ANOTHER BUILDING in Detroit has burned down under suspicious circumstances.

The ramshackle house at 2712 Cass Ave., near Little Caesars Arena, was engulfed in flames early Monday morning.

It was one of the last remaining residential properties in an area that was mostly bought out and razed for Ilitch family development projects. The Ilitches quietly purchased around 70 properties in the South Cass Corridor District over 15 years that were left to decay, driving down land value in a strategy critics called “derelict by design.” This allowed the Ilitches to buy more property in the area for cheap to redevelop.

Over the years, the “holdout” house has been for sale for as high as $5 million due to its close proximity to the $839 million arena. Now the last house standing is gone.

Detroit Fire Department Chief James Harris tells Metro Times he got the call just before 4 a.m. Monday and more than 20 officers responded to put out the blaze. A cause has yet to be identified.

“The house is completely burned down,” he says. “Right now we’re still investigating and we don’t have any further information or a cause to report.”

Harris says no one was in the house at the time and no injuries were reported.

A “for sale” banner by Darren Johnson at Johnson Premier Realty Co. hung on the abandoned home for several years.

Johnson was pretty annoyed when we called him on Monday morning, informing us that he was no longer “dealing with that property” and that he had been bombarded with media calls all morning.

Property records show the house is owned by the Scheherazade Love trust.

P&P Realty most recently had the house listed for sale at $2.5 million. P broker and owner Shane Parker confirmed the house was zoned B4, which is a general business district and it was available for cash or land contract terms.

The house at 2712 Cass Ave. was one of the last houses in Detroit’s South Cass Corridor that hadn’t been sold for redevelopment.

STEVE NEAVLING

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Conservative Michigan town defunds library over LGBTQ book

By Steve Neavling A GoFundMe campaign was launched last week in hopes of keeping the library open. As of Friday morning, the campaign raised $4,745.

The head of the fundraiser, Jesse Dillman, tells Metro Times that the Patmos Library “is a core part of our small community” and that his family and many others rely on the collection.

“My kids love the toys and games, my wife and I love to rent the puzzles and attend the events, and we all love reading books there,” Dillman says. “The state of Patmos Library impacts my family in a very direct way.”

Dillman says he was “discouraged and disappointed” that the library was defunded.

“It even made me a bit angry to see people willing to tear down the very fabric of our small community over this perceived issue,” he says. “I spoke with other residents who were also very concerned about the future of the library after the results came in. Some are even getting more involved to help share the GoFundMe, or campaign in other ways.”

About 30% of the township’s residents turned out to vote. Dillman says he suspects that the opponents are a vocal minority and that most of the township’s residents support the library.

“I firmly believe most Jamestown residents are in favor of funding Patmos Library,” he says. “If we work together with the wonderful team at Patmos, I know we can overcome the rhetoric from a small vocal group and secure the funding the library needs.”

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MATTHEW DEPERNO CAMPAIGN

A CONSERVATIVE TOWN in Michigan voted to defund its library this week because residents were angry about an LGBTQ-themed book that was on its shelves.

About 62% of voters in Jamestown Township, located outside of Grand Rapids, rejected a millage that funded the Patmos Library.

Now the library is at risk of closing.

Residents were incensed over the graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir, a coming-of-age autobiography that explores the life of the non-binary author and illustrator.

For months, residents have demanded the removal of the book. The library responded by moving the book behind the counter so it was out of reach of children.

But that wasn’t enough. Opponents of the novel formed a group, the Jamestown Conservatives, which baselessly suggested the library was grooming children and led an effort to defund the library.

The group then wanted more LGBTQ books removed from the shelves.

Library officials refused, pointing out that only 90 of the library’s roughly 67,000 books, videos, and other items have LGBTQ themes.

The defeated millage would have provided 84% of the library’s $245,000 budget.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” Walton, the library board president, told Bridge Michigan. “The library is the center of the community. For individuals to be short sighted to close that down over opposing LGBTQ is very disappointing.”

The GOP’s Trump-backed, conspiracypeddling candidate for Michigan attorney general could be in deep shit

By Steve Neavling THE RACE FOR Michigan attorney general took an unexpected turn after the incumbent Dana Nessel requested a special prosecutor to investigate alleged election breaches by her Trump-endorsed opponent Matthew DePerno.

In a petition requesting a special prosecutor on Friday, Nessel’s office said DePerno and two other people “orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators” that were illegally taken from county clerks.

Nessel announced the referral Monday morning, citing a “potential conflict in the case.”

According to the petition, DePerno’s involvement was discovered during a months-long, joint probe

by Nessel’s office and the Michigan State Police. While investigating “a conspiracy to unlawfully obtain access to voting machines used in the 2020 General Election,” state police found that DePerno was involved, the petition states.

“When this investigation began there was not a conflict of interest.

However, during the course of the investigation, facts were developed that DePerno was one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy,” the petition reads.

Nessel’s office made the request to the Michigan Prosecutor Attorneys Coordinate Council, an autonomous entity within the Department of Attorney General that ultimately will decide if a special prosecutor is warranted.

In February, state police began investigating allegations that supporters of former President Donald Trump gained unlawful access to voting software and tabulating machines

in an attempt to prove widespread fraud.

DePerno was at a hotel room where he and three others “broke into” tabulators and performed “tests” on them, according to the petition.

Deperno, a Kalamazoo Republican, has built his reputation around baseless claims of election fraud.

He filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the results in Antrim County, where a brief error that was quickly corrected turned into a baseless conspiracy peddled by Trump and his supporters.

According to the petition, DePerno received help from state Rep. Daire Rendon, R-Lake, who informed a clerk that the Michigan House of Representatives was investigating election fraud.

The petition also names Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who previously said he was investigating election fraud.

In a hyperbolic statement late Sunday, DePerno’s campaign said he “categorically denies the allegations.”

“The petition itself is entirely an incoherent liberal fever dream of lies,” the statement reads. “It is clear that Dana Nessel is attacking our democracy and demonstrates she wants to turn our great country into a banana republic.”

The statement continues, “This is a complete absurdity that shows the tactics of the institutional left and Matt DePerno looks forward to defeating her and bringing back orders to this office in November.”

DePerno’s campaign then insisted that if Nessel presses on, she “will ultimately find herself on the defendant’s side of a malicious prosecution case.”

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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NEWS & VIEWS Informed Dissent

By boosting his far-right opponent, the Democrats did Peter Meijer dirty — and are playing a dangerous game By ff y

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It’s possible, if not likely

, that John G ibbs would have beaten M ichigan’ s U .S. R ep. Peter M eij er without Democrats’ help.

While the $4 50 ,0 0 0 they spent exceeded what G ibbs raised during the campaign, it paled in comparison to M eij er’ s arsenal. B esides, G ibbs had Donald Trump’ s endorsement, which is worth twice that sum in R epublican primaries.

B ut to the degree it mattered, the meddling paid off. Democrats got the matchup they wanted: Instead of challenging a normie incumbent in November, Hillary Scholten will face an election-deny ing, possibly anti-Semitic former Trump staffer who promoted the weird-ass conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton’ s campaign manager participated in satanic rituals. A seat they ’ d probably lose became a seat they ’ ll probably win.

This wasn’t the first time this cycle that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ( DCCC) tried to game a R epublican primary on behalf of a M AG A mouth-breather. It was, however, the first time their preferred opponent won. M achiavelli would be proud.

B ut the DCCC is play ing a very dangerous game, one whose short-term benefits are far outweighed by its longterm risks.

M eij er was one of only 10 R epublicans — and the only freshman — to vote for Trump’ s impeachment following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Q uite appropriately , Democratic leaders praised his “courage and integrity ” while denouncing “opportunistic politicians who desire to rule at all cost.”

M eij er’ s party , meanwhile, j oked about assassinating him.

B ut as soon as Democrats no longer found it useful to pit G ood R epublicans against Trump’ s Lackey s, they dropped

Peter Meijer.

nearly half a mill reminding M ichigan R epublicans that G ibbs was Trump’ s guy and shrugging off the hypocrisy by quoting Jean-Paul Sartre: “In politics, we all have dirty hands up to our elbows. Nobody ’ s pure,” R ep. Jamie R askin said.

The day before the primary , M eij er wrote that it was nauseating to watch “my Democratic colleagues to sell out any pretense of principle for political expediency — at once decry ing the downfall of democracy while rationaliz ing the use of their hard-raised dollars to prop up the supposed obj ect of their fears.

“The Democrats are j ustify ing this political j iu-j itsu by making the argument that politics is a tough business.

I don’ t disagree. B ut that toughness is bound by certain moral limits: Those who participated in the attack on the Capitol, for example, clearly fall outside those limits. B ut over the course of the midterms, Democrats seem to have forgotten j ust where those limits lie.”

This is an important point: E ither Trump and his acoly tes pose an existential threat to our democratic institutions or they don’ t. If they do — and they do — why elevate them?

M ichigan’ s 3 rd District is a tossup.

B ut it won’ t be the tossup on which Congress turns. To keep control of the House, Democrats have to win all the races that FiveThirty E ight currently

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GAGE SKIDMORE, FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

rates as tossups — plus a handful that favor R epublicans. So it’ s worth asking whether the j uice is worth the squeez e.

B ut the real danger lies in the message Democrats sent: If y ou do the right thing, we’ ll fuck y ou for it. What incentive do R epublicans have to take “courageous” stands if they know that not only will their party ostraciz e them, but the other guys will pour fuel on the fire That’ s not to say that Democrats should R epublicans win reelection. B ut they shouldn’ t go out of their way to defeat the ones who respect the rule of law. It’ s not like the G O P is getting less authoritarian.

In Dallas last week, the Conservative Political Action Conference invited autocrat V iktor O rban, the prime minister of Hungary — whose close adviser recently resigned while calling a racist speech he made “pure Naz i” — to open its event. O rban delivered a grievanceridden address about “globalists” and “communists” and “fake news.” Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz , and other R epublican luminaries followed.

M eanwhile, in Florida, G ov. R on DeSantis wielded his executive powers in an unprecedentedly autocratic fashion. He suspended a twice-elected district attorney for what DeSantis called “incompetence” : signing pledges not to prosecute doctors who provide reproductive and gender-affirming health care services — and criticiz ing

DeSantis for his authoritarian actions.

Ironic, huh?

DeSantis, of course, is the governor who revoked Disney ’ s longstanding tax benefit in retaliation for the company criticizing his anti-LGBTQ efforts.

“I don’ t think the people of Hillsborough [ County ] want to have an agenda that is basically woke, where y ou’ re deciding that y our view of social j ustice means certain laws shouldn’ t be enforced,” DeSantis said.

Another bit of irony : The DA he suspended won reelection in 20 20 with 53 % of the vote, whereas DeSantis won in 20 18 by 0 .4 percentage points while getting stomped in Hillsborough. So may be he should take a pass on what the people there want.

The governor’ s bumbling attempts at dictatorship might be darkly comedic — it s Florida, and I don’ t live there — if he weren’ t a frontrunner for the R epublican presidential nomination. B ut if and when the little ty rant becomes every one’ s problem, our democracy will need R epublicans willing to stand against him at their own political peril.

When Democrats shiv someone like M eij er, they ’ re making that less likely — and lending credibility to Trumpian claims that their concerns about democratic erosion are nothing more than political posturing.

Get more at billman.substack.com.

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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NEWS & VIEWS

As inflation eats away at paychecks, giving Americans a break on energy costs is good policy… for them AND for the planet.

SHUTTERSTOCK

The Incision

Americans are feeling the pain of inflation. So much of that pain is concentrated in the costs Americans have to pay for gasoline, electricity, and heating fuel.

Climate policy IS ‘kitchen table’ policy

By Ab dul E l- Sayed

So, are we all O

K with Joe M anchin now? O K , probably not. B ut I can’ t be the only one thinking it after he a y took action on climate change.

O n the one hand he is the principal reason that we don’ t have paid family leave, universal childcare, and child tax credits. O n the other hand, if this deal holds, he appears to be a key reason why we might actually get some real climate legislation. ( E ditor’ s note After this column was filed, the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 20 22 on Sunday , 51-50 , with V ice President K amala Harris casting the tiebreaker vote and delivering a victory for Democrats.)

To be sure, it doesn’ t go far enough — like not even close to far enough. B ut it’ s estimated that it would bring emissions down about 4 0 % by 20 3 0 . Though that’ s 10 % less than B iden’ s commitment — which itself is about 50 % less than what we actually need — it’ s an important step in the right direction.

The bill is all carrots and a few sticks.

B ut it’ s a lot of carrots, $3 70 billion carrots. M ost of that comes in the form of tax subsidies and rebates to spur consumer investment in improving energy efficiency, installing solar panels, heat

pumps, and wind turbines, and purchasing electric vehicles. It also includes incentives for businesses to manufacture clean technologies, as well as a critical investment in environmental j ustice to address the disproportionate impacts of pollution and climate change on folks in marginaliz ed communities.

B ut here’ s the key point. Fossil fuel apologists have often tried to frame climate policy as an effete consideration for the well-to-do, coming at the cost of action on “kitchen table” issues in “real America” like creating j obs or lowering the cost of household costs. This moment should teach us something about how profoundly flawed that perspective is.

Americans are feeling the pain of inflation. So much of that pain is concentrated in the costs Americans have to pay for gasoline, electricity , and heating fuel. E nergy costs are up a staggering 4 1.6% since last y ear, the highest single increase by sector and leading America’s overall inflation.

That’ s exactly what this bill targets.

This isn’ t Teslas and paper straws, it’ s fewer trips to the pump and better windows in y our home. It’ s better air for y our kids to breathe and cleaner water

10 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

to drink. It’s good jobs making stuff that’ s actually good for Americans.

This matters because Republicans are attacking it. After all, they are furious that they ’ d been duped. The details are murky , but new reporting suggests that M anchin and Senate M aj ority Leader Schumer may have pulled a M cConnell… on M cConnell. The Senate M inority Leader had been holding the CHIPS Act — to support building semiconductors here at home — hostage. ( While I have issues with pay ing huge corporations more money to do something they never should have stopped doing in the first place, the fundamental premise that we need to reshore our critical supply chains is correct.) M cConnell wanted to make sure that there would be no reconciliation deal before he’ d let CHIPS pass through. B ut after M anchin pulled out of the climate and corporate tax deal a few weeks back, M cConnell let CHIPS pass — only to be surprised by the resurgence of the Inflation Reduction Act. Now they ’ re say ing that this bill is out of step with the main issue that Americans want action on inflation. Except for it’ s one of the single most important things a Democratic Congress and the

president could have done. It addresses the absurd energy costs spiraling out of control on Americans, and it taxes maj or corporations more fairly , which removes money from the economy in a more progressive way that doesn’ t lock people out of homeownership or send car loans through the roof.

B ut then climate action has alway s been a kitchen table issue — assuming, of course, y our kitchen table is here on E arth. a y s

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metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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FEATURE

Making Goliath stumble How community organizers challenged Bedrock’s latest tax break — and nearly won • By Eli Day WHEN THEO PRIDE, a community organiz er with Detroit People’ s Platform, got word that a proposed $60 million tax abatement for billionaire Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm Bedrock was being pulled from City Council’s consideration on June 28, he had two interlocking thoughts.

The first was satisfaction at the small victory a band of skeptical everyday Detroiters had achieved over the city’s most powerful corporate goliath.

“We were able to defeat a lot of the propaganda,” Pride tells Metro Times. “This thing was stopped because of community voices.”

The second was another dose of skepticism.

O rganiz ers had seen city and corporate leaders outmaneuver the community with hand tricks and stalling tactics before.

“The powers that be see all of the political opposition from the community to this thing. And not only that — we’re organized, and we’re focused. So the other part of me thought this is a tactic to buy time to wear the community down,” he say s, only to reintroduce “this thing in a different form so Gilbert can still get what he wants.”

And in a sense, that’s what happened. On July 26, council finally approved the abatement on a narrow 5-4 vote. But zoom out a little and you can see the fingerprints of organizers on the outcome, from the razor-thin vote to the set of activist-fueled benefits for the community.

Pride calls it “an example of what community power can do.”

Public outcry , long-term organiz ing, and new way s of thinking about development braided together with Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield’s community benefits proposal “to create the conditions and leverage needed to get those benefits added.”

Pride also points out that nearly having a majority of council members stand up to the “tax incentiveindustrial complex is grounds to be optimistic that development and policy in general can look much different than it has in the past, that it can be community-centered, more equitable, and more just.”

The basics Going head-to-head with Gilbert and his vast web of lobbyists and boosters was hard to imagine back in June, when Bedrock hit up the council for an extra $60 million tax break for the project, a mixed-use de-

12 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

velopment that includes a mid-rise and skyscraper on the site of Detroit’s former J. L. Hudson Department Store. The real estate giant claims that the ten-year abatement is necessary to bring the two downtown buildings to life, which will feature a hotel, luxury condos, and commercial retail space.

But after several residents spoke out against another round of corporate handouts (Bedrock received $618 million worth of tax breaks for the project from the state in 20 18 ) , the council postponed the initial vote twice. On June 28, Bedrock withdrew its request, acknowledging that “it is clear more time is needed for this matter to work through the process.”

Organizers had caught Bedrock off guard, and the Goliath stumbled.

Behind the weeks-long spectacle is a much longer chain of events.

Beginning in the late 1970s, political and business elites promised that we’ d all eat good once we deregulated the economy and slashed taxes on the wealthy.

Then came a 40-year cycle of corporate giveaways and sharp public spending cuts that ended with cities like Detroit fighting for their lives by giving corporations whatever they asked for to entice them to move in. And finally, after decades of fabulous profits for those corporations and pitiful to imaginary benefits for ordinary people, organiz ed public pressure is now growing and challenging the status quo with public spending schemes that put human prosperity above corporate wealth.

Talking like Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell The basic argument for corporate handouts like Bedrock’s is that by cutting taxes on the rich, they’ll

invest and innovate more. Once you do this, productivity will increase and the economy will grow, which benefits everyone. Bedrock’s basic logic is similar feed us tax dollars and jobs and tax revenue will flow.

But it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

The research is clear on each of these points. First, investment and growth often thrive in high-tax environments. Second, the public sector has always been a vital driver of innovation, resulting in the development of technologies ranging from the internet to cell phones to drug manufacturing. Third, labor productivity, juiced by what’s often nauseatingly called “human capital development,” is a vital piece of economic growth that we could easily finance through higher taxation. Lastly, without altering the distribution of where all that new wealth goes, it will inevitably flow into the hands of the already rich. This is what’s happened over the last 50 years worker productivity has steadily increased, while employers have frozen their wages. In Michigan and everywhere else, the gains have all gone to the wealthy few.

But it isn’t just that living standards have stood still for so many while the wealthiest have made a killing.

Many poor and working-class people actually did worse over the last 40 years. While corporate welfare flowed generously, Republicans and Democrats dismantled spending on basic human needs like housing, education, health care, and food at every level, including in cities like Detroit. Wages and upward social mobility for ordinary people have flatlined. Life expectancy is slipping. Inequality is in the stars.

These were all choices. They were all avoidable.

The facts are clear here as well. A mountain of research shows that public welfare spending on ordinary people is far more effective at growing the economy and improving people’s well-being than the relentless stream of welfare that flows to corporate suites. That’s because corporate welfare only succeeds at making the rich richer. On creating wide prosperity, it is a pathetic failure compared to public spending.

While most city leaders no longer openly call for slashing public spending, some still echo the demands of corporate hostage takers.

“Have they come out and said outright, We’re going to lay these 7,500 people off ’ No,” Councilman Coleman Young II, a strong supporter of the Bedrock

But not “if you start asking very fundamental questions about what development is for,” Peter Hammer, Wayne State University Professor of Law and Director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, tells Metro Times. “How else could those public funds have been spent ”

We’ve got options

Theo Pride of Detroit People’s Platform.

abatement, recently told WDET. “But have I heard things like, This project is not doable This is something we’re going to have to reevaluate.’ They’ve made strong suggestions that this is a possibility...”

“They’re talking about these things in a very theoretical way,” Pride says. “The same way Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell would talk about laissez-faire capitalism, and how it benefits everybody.”

As Deadline Detroit recently detailed, economists are deeply skeptical of Bedrock’s claim that the tax break will create new jobs and revenue for the city.

Massive, taxpayer-supported private developments are notoriously bad at keeping promises. Instead of creating new jobs, they often draw existing ones away from nearby regions, draining the word “development” of any real meaning and at an enormous cost to taxpayers. And the supposed $71 million tax benefit

COURTESY PHOTO

“Detroit is really ground zero for the failure of global capitalism.” during the project’s first decade depends on the creation “of 1,948 new, full-time jobs in Detroit, and not just hosting existing jobs that relocated from older city buildings,” the Detroit Free Press reports.

For argument’s sake, let’s assume Young’s assertion is correct and that Bedrock is sincere when it essentially says, “Look at all those great jobs we’re creating. It’d be a shame if something happened to them.”

The scenario should only frighten y ou if the choice is between coughing up millions to a giant corporation and doing absolutely nothing.

The problem, as Pride puts it, is that boosters for corporate handouts “naturalize” this bleak set of options as if “there is no alternative” and that we can’t possibly do things differently.

Hammer agrees. He points out that the U.S. approach to growth, which chases after shiny new buildings and corporate expansion at all costs, is “an aberration” internationally.

“We fetishize the idea that this actually works,” he says. But “Detroit is really ground zero for the failure of global capitalism” as a whole.

This failure can’ t be laid at the doorstep of ordinary Detroiters, he stresses, but at the architects of a system that places corporate stock prices and market share above actual human lives.

You only need to look to the auto industry, which “took decades to respond to a changing global market” before running away to the suburbs, then the South, then Mexico, and then overseas in search of cheap labor and the ability to pollute and plunder poor communities as they pleased. And of course there’ s the housing industry , which has turned Detroit into a majority renter city and thrown hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes.

All of this “should make us more skeptical of markets, not less,” Hammer adds.

You can extend that skepticism to political and corporate elites who sell us fantasies about tax breaks.

“They invoke the same rituals and rites,” he says, and expect that miracles “will suddenly fall from heaven.”

As Pride puts it, “Development becomes a very hollow word to invoke the idea of prosperity.” But it’s done “in a way that improves a place without improving people’s lives,” he says. You can make an area more vibrant, for instance. “But did the people who used to live there benefit from this ” he says. “A lot of times development is occurring but people aren’t benefiting.”

This “hollow” form of development has very real human consequences in Detroit. A third of people here live in poverty, at least 11% of Black residents remain unemployed, and 48% of Detroit’s families don’t have access to enough food. And residents in some Detroit neighborhoods can expect to live 20 years less, on average, than residents 20 miles northwest in posh West Bloomfield ones, 67.8 years compared to 87.

This is where it’ s helpful to remember that there’ s an entire world out there, where people have tried different things to achieve better results.

Hammer prefers “the human capabilities theory.”

The idea is that the “purpose of development is to enable each individual to reach their full human capabilities,” he says. “And so it inverts the whole notion of what development is.” Instead of being about fancy property development, “it’s all about investing in people.”

Examples are everywhere. Pride suggests a community benefits ordinance with real guarantees for the communities where developments take place by “letting actual residents in on the decision-making process.”

“I’ll just go all the way,” he adds. “Hand over political control to the community in ways that give them

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ownership over community processes,” including “water, housing, childcare, and so forth.”

Hammer suggests “a community land trust and different ways of owning property” that recognize housing as a human right instead of a way for private equity corporations to get rich, as well as “a real water affordability plan.”

M olly Sweeney , executive director of education j ustice organizing group 482 Forward, made the simple connection between the tax abatement and the education funding streams they directly cannibalize.

What struck 482 was that “schools are still completely underfunded,” Sweeney say s, “and this money was also being taken from libraries and communities in a moment where we need as much money as possible for schools.”

We can line these proposals up against B edrock’ s claim that another round of tax breaks was our only option. Their lobbyists argued the $60 million incentive shouldn’t even be up for debate, since an earlier tax package approved in 2017 was also “a commitment to approve [ this] tax incentive,” Bridge D etroit reports.

It’ s unclear where the earlier deal required the city to mindlessly approve future multi-million dollar tax deals without comment or alteration.

The distortions continue. As Bedrock lobbyist Jared Fleisher told the D etroit F ree P ress, “the proposed tax abatement doesn’t take any revenue from city services, schools, or the library just the Downtown Development Authority ] and other downtown proj ects.”

B ut as Sweeney points out, this ignores how the DDA came to be in the first place.

Since it was formed in 1978, the DDA has captured tax dollars that would have otherwise gone to schools and other services in order to finance projects downtown. Bedrock’s tax break would indeed exempt them from the DDA’s tax collection. But if the DDA were dismantled, or restructured, the funding could flow to its original source — schools and city services.

Organizers knew this was an opportunity to break through the cloud of distortions with the voices and aspirations of ordinary people.

Using people power Organizers like Pride and Sweeney knew that if institutions like the DDA were pulled into the sunlight, many ordinary people would be furious at its bizarre taxing power and demand more funding for their own communities.

And that’s exactly what they did. When the abatement came up, 482 Forward teamed up with Detroit People’s Platform to flood the council’s phone lines.

By their count, about 500 people hit the phones of “every single councilmember to say we need to have more thoughtful tax policy ,” Sweeney say s. They also tapped people “to make individual phone calls to council members they had relationships with, especially people with a little bit more power in the city.”

Say s Sweeney , “It seemed like it j arred them enough” to make them postpone the first vote on June 14.

As surely as Bedrock was regrouping after the first delay, so were organizers. After gathering again, 482 and DPP crafted a memo for council members on “the truth about tax abatements” that highlighted the pitiful record of corporate giveaway s in the city . They also attended a series of public meetings held by the council, where they were able, as Sweeney puts it, to argue for a policy to “tax billionaires, not give abatements to billionaires.”

Another delay followed on June 21. All together,

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Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield.

While corporate welfare flowed generously, Republicans and Democrats dismantled spending on basic human needs.

Sweeney explains, “public pressure on Bedrock, plus all the articles that came out of it, plus pressure on the city council” forced Bedrock to pull the abatement from consideration on June 28.

Sweeney and Pride both stress that this wasn’t just a spontaneous burst of outrage. It was the product of patient, long-term organizing in communities across the city. “We’ve been doing a lot of work with our members around taxes and school policy,” Sweeney adds. “So I know people really feel it. If there’ s money going to a billionaire and not going to kids, they’re going to take action.”

It also occurred at a time of “raised consciousness” in the “local and national environment” where “really wealthy folks have gained so much and regular Detroiters have lost so much,” Sweeney say s.

During the CO ID-19 pandemic, for instance, thousands of working-class Detroiters died and struggled to scrape by — and they wouldn’t have had to in a more equal country. Meanwhile, Gilbert, the city ’ s wealthiest oligarch, saw his net worth grow by more than $40 billion — the same oligarch who just won a $60 million tax break. For many average Detroiters, this crystallized that the problem isn’t that there’s too little to go around, but that a small few are capturing all the rewards while the vast maj ority carry all the risks of keeping the economy going.

Council heard the public outcry and responded.

Sheffield laid out conditions for approving the abatement, including affordable housing guarantees, small business commitments for the site, and neighborhood improvement funding.

These were all included in the approved abatement.

And as Pride explains, that was the result of “a longer community struggle and organizing effort led by majority Black Detroit.”

He adds that public pressure “also put those in

CITY OF DETROIT, FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

power on notice” so that in the future, it will be much harder for “Bedrock lobbyists, DEGC spokesmen, and land-developer-aligned public officials to sell” these sorts of proj ects “as is.”

Pride stops short of declaring total victory, though.

“There is still a long way to go to carve out a truly progressive political space in our city government,” he say s. The B edrock vote may signal growing progressive power on city council, but DPP has also tracked “a total of $132 million in tax breaks over a span of 30 days” approved by city council.

“We need to go further to truly address the housing crisis, poverty, joblessness, inequity and injustice,” Pride says.

Meanwhile, Councilman Scott Benson’s office is essentially on a propaganda run to reeducate voters on the miracles of tax breaks. He’s teamed up with the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and Brownfield R edevelopment Authority for a series of community meetings where they give “a one-hour presentation on how tax breaks promote development, reduce blight and offset the cost of environmental cleanup on contaminated sites,” Bridge D etroit reports. At their first and only meeting so far, Detroit People’s Platform was in the room, offering details about the pitfalls of corporate giveaway s that the glossy presentation never mentioned.

“It’ s important that residents have good information and facts,” Bridge quotes B enson say ing. Those “facts ” If residents want robust public services, “Development and new residents are really the only way s that we can do that.”

It’ s either a shockingly naive or dishonest admission in light of the countless alternatives offered by residents, organizers, and scholars.

B ut B enson’ s revealing statement is helpful in one way. It draws a clear line between what organizers consider the cramped worldview of local elites on one side, and the enormous imagination of ordinary people on the other.

Elites, as Pride puts it, tell us that “There is no alternative,” even as alternatives blanket the entire globe. That’s where the second group comes in with a parade of ideas, showing us how easy it would be to improve people’ s lives “when residents are included in the process” and “the community is able to make political decisions themselves.”

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WHAT’S GOING ON Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Submit your events to metrotimes.com/calendar. Be sure to check venue websites for COVID-19 policies.

THU, 8/11-SUN, 8/14 Hamtramck Music Festival The Detroit enclave’ s annual music festival is back, with doz ens of local artists across more than 20 venues packed inside two square miles. Like our former Metro Times B lowout festival, the Hamtramck M usic Festival is a chance to catch local artists before some of them inevitably blow up, and in recent y ears, the festival has moved from its ty pical M arch date to a new summertime setting. This y ear’ s fest features acts like Z ilched, Audra K ubat, G abriel B rass B and, and the Amino Acids, among many others.

—Lee DeVito Mu ltip le loc ations; see h amtramc k mu sic fest. c om for more information. W ristb ands are $ 2 5 .

THU, 8/11-SUN, 8/14 Charivari Detroit While the larger M ovement electronic music festival tends to get most of the hy pe, Charivari Detroit has been going strong for nine y ears. It’ s like M ovement’ s, underground, less hipster cousin. This annual techno, dance, and house fest celebrates Detroit’ s contributions to the electronic music world by featuring local DJs. As with previous y ears, the 20 22 lineup features Detroit pioneers like DJ M inx, M oody mann, and Juan Atkins.

“Charivari Detroit will first and foremost be a celebration of the City of Detroit and its contributions to electronic dance music,” according to a press release.

“Techno is a Detroit creation and Detroit is flush with the pioneers and presentday masters of the genre as well as many of the most talented and respected DJ/ producers of House music.” The four-day gathering takes place on the green space at Historic Fort Way ne with a killer panoramic view of the Detroit R iver and Canada as the backdrop. There will be three stages of music, live art display s, y oga, and food.

—Randiah Camille Green S tarts at 6 p . m. on Th u rsday and Friday , noon on S atu rday , and 2 p . m. on S u nday at st t ay ff s A v e. , Detroit; c h ariv aridetroit. c om. Tic k ets start at $ 4 0 for a day p ass or $ 1 2 5 for all

R&B sensation Summer Walker performs at Detroit’s Fox Theatre as part of a limited tour.

fou r day s.

FRI, 8/12-SUN, 8/14 Ribs and R&M Music Festival The elements of a perfect summer day in the city are good food, good music, and good people. All will be served up at Detroit’ s R ibs and R & B M usic Festival. The fest will feature some of the best in barbecue with more than 20 food vendors, in addition to 50 retail vendors stationed throughout the weekend. B ut don’ t forget the music: This y ear, the R ibs and R & B M usic Festival will be headlined by 70 2, K ly maxx, and M elvin R iley of R eady for the World on Saturday , with Stokley of M int Condition and Jon. B closing on Sunday . While “R & B ” might be in the name of the event, it’ s not all the festival has to offer. On Saturday, there will be a comedy show featuring CoCo and Howie B ell, and throughout the weekend j az z and gospel musicians will get their time to shine on the stages as

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well. E ntry to the R ibs and R & B M usic Festival is free through 5 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday , and $10 after. V IP packages that include seating for the main stage concerts are available starting at $4 0 .

—Alex Washington From 1 1 : 3 0 a. m. -midnig h t Friday , A u g .

1 2 -S u nday , A u g . 1 4 at H art Plaza; 1 H art Plaza, Detroit; rib srnb mu sic festiv al. c om.

WED, 8/17 Summer Walker We’ re still not over 26-y ear-old R & B sensation Summer Walker’ s S till O v er I t, the 20 21 follow-up to the Atlantabased singer’ s 20 19 breakthrough LP O v er I t. After working as a stripper and running a small cleaning business, Walker made a name for herself by teaching herself to play guitar and posting videos covering early 20 0 0 s R & B tracks on Y ouTube, including a widely viewed mash-up of Drake, R ae

COURTESY PHOTO

Sremmurd, G inuwine, and B ey oncé, and her debut got U sher’ s stamp of approval. Her sophomore record continues in that vein with more songs of love and heartbreak with a throwback sound, though with an added lay er of intrigue. The subj ect of many of the songs is Walker’ s former boy friend and producer London on the Track, who returns on this proj ect, creating a simmering, palpable tension between the singer and the producer on many of the cuts. B ey ond the drama, Walker recently teamed up with the Weeknd for a remix of his track “B est Friends,” and it seems like she’ s established herself firmly among the top of the current crop of R & B singers. With so many artists skipping over Detroit on tours, we’ re glad Walker included the M otor City on this very limited run of concerts.

—Lee DeVito S tarts at 8 p . m. on W ednesday , A u g . 1 7 at th e Fox Th eatre; 2 2 1 1 W oodw ard A v e. , Detroit; 3 1 3 -4 7 1 -7 0 0 0 ; 3 1 3 p resents. c om.

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metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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MUSIC

Dispatch (from left): Mike Sawitzke, Brad Corrigan, Jon “JR” Reilly, Matthew Embree, and Chadwick Stokes.

MIKE SMITH

A blessing in disguise

Rock band Dispatch uses the pandemic pause to retool

By Alan Sculley

Dispatch returns to touring this summer quite literally as a band making a new start with a new album in Break O ur F all.

However, neither the band lineup nor the new album ended up being what Chadwick Stokes or B rad Corrigan — the two members of Dispatch — initially intended, although both outcomes have been for the better When it comes to the B oston-based band, the hope was that all three original band members — guitarist and singer Stokes, drummer Corrigan, and singer, bassist, and guitarist Pete Francis — would find a way through difficult times and emerge stronger than ever as a trio.

B ut it wasn’ t to be, as Francis, who battled depression and struggled with life on tour, left the band in 20 19 .

“I think not having a root sy stem when y ou tour, I think we saw that Pete really thrived when he was at home and

he had roots,” Corrigan say s in a lateJune video interview. “He was close to his wife and close to his kids and close to his entire family It’s definitely the hardest decision we’ ve ever made as a band, but also the most right.”

The decision to move on without Francis only happened after considerable efforts to make things workable for all three band members.

“It was such a hard time because we had come back with kind of renewed excitement and commitment to the band in 20 15, 20 16,” say s Stokes, who j oined Corrigan for the video interview.

“And that winter, Pete hit some lows that he had never experienced before.”

Still, Stokes and Corrigan tried to make things work, going through hours of therapy with Francis in hopes of finding a solution. Dispatch even toured without Francis, hoping time away from the road would solve his issues before finally concluding there was

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no way to move forward with Francis.

“It j ust proved to be very complicated, very hard for all of us, but for Pete also to come to the realiz ation that the road is not a healthy place ( for him) ,” Stokes say s. “We really tried to navigate that all as friends and partners.”

In moving ahead, Stokes and Corrigan decided not to look for a new bassist. Instead, Dispatch is now officially a duo, but with two long-time touring band members — guitarist M att E mbree and percussionist Jon “JR ” R eilly — plus M ike Sawitz ke ( from the E els) , who has co-produced the last three Dispatch albums, forming a five-piece unit both in the studio and on tour.

“I think consciously we weren’ t j ust going to kind of replace Pete because that’ s impossible,” Stokes say s. “So it was more of a thing where we pivoted toward this kind of (five-piece) thing, and it was slightly different.”

The recently released Break O ur F all

is the first album to present Dispatch working as a five-piece band in the studio. B ut it’ s not the album Stokes and Corrigan initially planned to release.

They actually went into the studio with Sawitz ke and co-producer John Dragonetti ( of the Submarines) in January of 20 20 , emerging with a 10 -song album that was to be ready to release ahead of a maj or summer tour.

B ut as Stokes and Corrigan listened back to the album, they weren’ t sure it was all it could or should be. And when the pandemic hit a short time later, they decided to put the album on hold.

Looking back, Stokes and Corrigan say having the tour get canceled by CO V ID was a blessing in disguise because there was no longer a rush to release the album — flaws and all — to coincide with a tour.

With touring on hold, Stokes, Corrigan, their producers and bandmates tweaked some of the existing material

“I think consciously we weren’t just going to kind of replace Pete because that’s impossible. So it was more of a thing where we pivoted toward this kind of (five-piece) thing, and it was slightly different.” and Stokes wrote some new songs that turned Break O ur F all into a 15-song album.

Break O ur F all arrived last y ear, and it has been greeted as one of Dispatch’ s best albums in a career that dates back to 19 9 6, when Stokes, Corrigan, and Francis set out on a do-it-y ourself path.

Over the first six years, the trio released four full-length albums, toured extensively , and by 20 0 2 had become arguably the biggest band in rock that most people had never heard of.

Within the band, though, tensions and musical differences had grown to the point where the three band members felt they needed to take a break from each other and pursue other musical proj ects. They announced an indefinite hiatus.

B ut feeling the group hadn’ t given fans a proper goodby e, Dispatch scheduled a hometown farewell show at B oston’ s Hatch Shell for July 3 1, 20 0 4 .

It drew 110 ,0 0 0 fans, stunning a music industry that was largely unaware of the word-of-mouth following that had developed as the band’ s music spread across early file sharing websites like Napster and LimeWire, and the group gained a reputation as a stellar live act.

The popularity was further confirmed in 2007 when Stokes, Corrigan, and Francis reunited for three concerts at New Y ork’ s M adison Square G arden to raise money to fight famine and disease and support social j ustice and quickly sold out all three shows.

B ut it took nearly four more y ears before the trio decided to reunite for real, making a 20 11 self-titled E P and a full-length studio album, 20 12’ s Circles Around the Sun, and going on a maj or

tour. Then came another hiatus.

In 20 15, Stokes, Corrigan and Francis convened for a meeting to define a future path for Dispatch. The trio decided Stokes would assume the role of lead songwriter and started work on new music. The band released two albums — 2017’s America, L ocation 1 2 and 20 18 ’ s L ocation 1 3 — both of which came from the same recording session, before reluctantly parting way s with Francis and making a new start with Break O ur F all.

The latest album retains the signature mix of upbeat free-flowing folk and rock, but adds some new dimensions to the established Dispatch sound. O ne example is “The Legend of Connie Hawkins” ( which recounts the story of this star basketball play er who was railroaded in a college point shaving scandal that falsely tarnished his reputation) . It’ s an epic, multi-faceted track with a dreamy , psy chedelic feel and strong pop hooks. Different in another way is “M ay We All,” a concise and punchy tune that shows a power pop facet that had not been so pronounced within the Dispatch sound.

Break O ur F all, however, continues the band’ s tradition of having a topical element within the music — like, for instance, the references to G eorge Floy d and the B lack Lives M atter and M e Too movements on “M ay We All.” O ne of the songs added to the album, “Promise Land,” weaves together commentary on racism ( with a stinging reference to former president Donald Trump) , corporate power, and climate change.

“There was no shortage of ly rical, kind of protest ( topics) ,” Stokes say s.

“I think ‘ Promise Land’ was a bit of a reflection of that.”

Now Dispatch is finally getting to play concerts in support of Break O ur F all. The first outing is a co-headlining run with O .A.R . The co-headlining format means Dispatch will play a shorter-than-usual set that’ s likely to favor back catalog material over songs off of Break O ur F all. That will make crafting setlists a bit more of a challenge than when Dispatch headline their own shows.

“It feels almost like a festival set, like whenever we’ ve had festival sets, j ust try ing to pack as much as we can in,” Corrigan say s. “So we’ ll be doing something similar to that.”

The b and p erf orms as p art of the D isp atch and O . A. R. Summer Tour 2 0 2 2 w ith G. L ove on Sunday, Aug. 1 4 at the Michigan L ottery Amp hitheatre at F reedom H ill; 1 4 9 0 0 Metro P k w y. , Sterling H eights; 3 1 3 - 4 7 1 - 7 0 0 0 ; f reedomhillamp hitheater. com. D oors op en at 7 p . m.

Tick ets start at $ 2 0 .

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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FOOD

Spicy fish casserole from Aliz Seafood House.

TOM PERKINS

A great catch

By J ane Slaughter

The list of seafood choices at Aliz is diz z y ing, and as far as I can tell, they ’ re all good. The E nglish-Arabic menu has a chicken section, a M exican section, a burger section, and a pasta section, but I didn’ t go there. It was enough to try to sample the fried platters, grilled platters, skewers, casseroles, and whole fish, aided by stealing from my friends’ plates.

The “House” is one big room with bare tables and booths, lightly decorated a net, a little anchor, a few fish hung on the walls, signs reading “Seas the Day” and “Sea la ie.” Short staffing means a longish wait for y our food, though it’ s worth it. Dishes come from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the G ulf states.

M y stand-out choice, making me wish I weren’ t a restaurant reviewer so I could order the same thing on my second visit, was a whole grilled bronz ini ( branz ino, or M editerranean sea bass) . Full of tiny bones, y es, but think of that as a good thing, as they slow y ou down, the better to savor the rich yet delicate flesh, a tiny bit sweet.

It’ s grilled with a simple green sauce and served with a side of tahini, but I thought it was fine with no dipping.

O ne night all our dishes came with three tasty crisp quesadillas, another night not; perhaps the cook who does

Mexican was off that day. The kitchen produces lots of variations different rices and potatoes in addition to all the way s to cook shrimp, salmon, and at least seven other species.

If y ou want potatoes, y ou can get fries, wedges “loaded” with shrimp, cheese, or fish that also come in a spicy variety . I found the giant mound of spicy ones disappointing, too soft and cut too small, but they did impart a faint sensation reminiscent of cumin lamb. R ices were uniformly well executed, each grain distinct. O ne version is white with tinges of pink and orange, possibly saffron, another is yellow and cinnamon-inflected a third, sayyadiyah, is dark with fish oil, topped with carameliz ed onions and crunchy cashews.

B ut let’ s start at the beginning of the meal. I had two great soups, an anomalous tomato-basil and a white shrimp.

The latter is not a usual shrimp bisque; something subtle happens with the spices, though it’ s not hot at all. It’ s creamy and includes mushrooms.

The fattoush benefits from crisp pita and pomegranate seeds but I thought the pomegranate dressing could have been less generous; ask for it on the side. Hummus is average, not garlicky , and baba ghanoush is excellent, smokey and creamy with lovely

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pools of golden olive oil and a dust of paprika.

M oving into mains, those grilled whole fish are a top choice besides the bronz ini are red snapper, whiting, golden pomfret, sea bream — and sardine! They ’ re $28 , so if y ou want to go cheaper y ou can order a selection of skewers in various preparations, as my tablemates did, either fish morsels ( $6) or shrimp ( $7) : marinated, Provenç al, spicy , minced, tawook, M exican. O r the G rilled Platter for O ne includes fish, fish kafta, and shrimp skewers. It came with tartar, tabasco, and “cocktail” sauces, but believe me, y ou don’ t want these.

The casseroles are not what I think of as casseroles, not the M innesotan “hot dish.” They ’ re j ust perch or shrimp baked in one of three sauces: marinade, spicy , or white. I adored spicy fish and spicy shrimp, which came bubbling in the same hot, oily sauce — lots for soaking up with y our rice. The fish in white sauce was milder, of course, but still assertive. No fish is overcooked all have the right firm consistency .

After all these somewhat unfamiliar preparations, grilled salmon with herbs seemed almost pedestrian, with a normie melange of vegetables on the side, except that it was so good, with a

Aliz Seafood House 14507 W. Warren Ave., Dearborn 313-977-7787 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Monday Seafood $6-$29, sandwiches $6-$10

mustardy sauce that did not obscure the salmon flavor. Salmon is also possible salted or with spicy or white sauce.

Lemon mint j uice, in which the mint is not j ust a garnish, it’ s pulverized so that it suffuses the whole drink, is reason enough to return.

M ango j uice, not so much. There’ s no alcohol. The one dessert is kunafa, where melted moz z arella, warm, is encased in crisp browned shredded phy llo and drenched with sugar sy rup.

It’ s large, as is every dish at Aliz .

The name, by the way , is kind of a pun. The owner’ s name is Ali, so “Ali’ s.”

B ut when I plugged in G oogle Translate for aliz , I got “tastier” and “splendor.” Indeed.

When we saw the dreaded Q R code on our table, one of my friends remarked that “starting a meal on y our phone is not a good look.” So true. Y ou can ask for a paper menu. In any case, get past it and come hungry .

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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COURTESY PHOTO

FOOD

A RESTAURANT CALLED Tigerlily is set to open in the former Antihero space in downtown Ferndale after a maj or overhaul under new owners Hometown R estaurant G roup.

The restaurant, located at 23 1 W. Nine M ile R d., Ferndale, opens on Wednesday , Aug. 10 .

Tigerlily maintains the Asian influence of the izakayathemed Antihero, with a menu featuring sushi and small plates shareables. It also has kept the murals painted by Detroit-area pop artist Glenn B arr.

B ut the new restaurant also touts an authentic Japanese robatayaki or robata grill, a cooking sty le similar to barbecue that uses white oak, binchotan charcoal. The sushi menu is also unique, say s executive chef Chris asquez.

“This is a new kind of sushi that Detroit hasn’ t seen,” asquez says in a statement.

“We are taking an Edomae sty le of sushi and bringing in different contemporary flavors and techniques. We are creating a new style — not like New York sushi, but fusing it with different cultures while still being authentic to what sushi is. It’ s really an expression of a fun new concept that’ s a bit more sophisticated and unique.”

A metro Detroit native who has worked at local spots like M aru Sushi and Nippon Sushi Bar, asquez returns to Michigan following a stint working as head sushi chef at Chicago’ s acclaimed M omotaro restaurant.

The 4,000-square-foot Tigerlily space was redesigned

by B irmingham architects R on & R oman, including a marble sushi bar and a bamboo countertop. The new restaurant also includes a private “omakase” room where guests can dine on a multi-course meal designed by the chef.

An attached tiki bar called Mai Tiki is also planned to open in the near future, but an opening date has not been set.

Formerly owned by Working Class O utlaws, the restaurant group that owns Ferndale taco spot Imperial, Antihero has been closed since 20 20 . The restaurant was acquired by Hometown R estaurant G roup in 20 21, which also owns and operates Ferndale’ s Public House, One-Eyed Betty’s, Pop’s For Italian, and the former R osie O ’ G rady ’ s.

Tigerlily will be open 4-10 p.m., Monday-Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday, and 3-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday .

M ore information is available at tigerlily ferndale.com.

—Lee DeVito

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DANI MACHLIS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Ferndale’s Tigerlily opens in former Antihero space

Eastern Market fave Bert’s gets concession stand at Detroit’s Comerica Park EASTERN MARKET FAVE Bert’s Market Place is bringing the meat to Comerica Park.

The Black-owned staple will be serving its mouth-watering, barbecue sauce-slathered ribs, pulled pork, and sausages at a concession stand during weekend Detroit Tigers games and special events.

Bert’s Oh My Good Burger, a one-pound sirloin patty with a heap of pulled pork and barbeque sauce on top, is also on the menu — along with Bert’s spicy Kickn’ chicken sausage, mac and cheese, baked beans, cole slaw.

You’ll find Bert’s concession stand near the Fly Ball Ferris Wheel.

The new food offering comes after Bert’s did a weekend pop-up at Comerica Park in June that proved to be widely popular, the D etroit F ree P ress reports.

Several other local Black-owned businesses are slated for weekend appearances at the baseball stadium, including keto-friendly Breadless on Aug. 5-7 and Shell Shock’d Tacos from Aug. 19-21.

Yum illage’s Afro-Caribbean eats will be on-site two weekends, Sept. 2-4 and Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

—Randiah Camille Green

Michigan’s first Dick’s Last Resort restaurant is coming

NICK AMOSCATO/ FLICKR

IF YOU’RE IN the mood to be insulted and berated by waiters, the latest chain restaurant coming to M ichigan may be for y ou.

We don’t know why you’d be in the mood for those things, but that’s what Dick’s Last Resort will be serving up at its new location in Saginaw. The restaurant will open at 8 8 4 5 G ratiot Ave. on Aug. 8, and is Dick’s first Michigan outpost.

The restaurant is known for waiters who purposely provide bad service and make customers wear hats with hand-written insults on them. Its slogan is “Putting the F.U . in Fun since 19 8 5.”

We honestly can’t fathom eating at this place, as it sounds like a fight waiting to happen. It’s probably a good thing Dick’s is opening in Saginaw and not Detroit, because we don’ t play that over here. However, someone is obviously into it, as Dicks’s has 11 locations across the country, including one at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las egas.

The menu includes typical American fare like burgers, salads, tacos, and Dick’s Huge 12” Weiner. More info is at dickslastresort. com.

—Randiah Camille Green

COURTESY PHOTO

The Whitney launches limited-time seafood boil

Former Erwin Orchards cider mill to reopen as Blake’s South Lyon JUST AHEAD OF autumn, the former Erwin Orchards cider mill will reopen on Saturday , Aug. 20 under new management as Blake’s South Lyon.

The family-owned, Armada-based Blake’s Orchard and Cider Mill purchased the 104-acre site at 61475 Silver Lake Rd., South Lyon in July from developer Lombardo Homes.

In a press release, the company says it will continue Erwin’s traditions like its signature doughnuts and cider, a petting zoo, u-pick apples, and tractor rides.

New additions will include a hard cider and wine bar, live music on the weekends, expanded baked goods, and a fresh produce farm stand.

That’s in addition to seasonal favorites like corn mazes, haunted houses, hay rides, a hard cider bar, and more.

“We are proud to carry on the Erwin’s traditions that have been part of South Lyon for so many years, maintaining that culture and bringing in several enhancements to create an

unforgettable experience for all,” Blake’s Family of Companies president Andrew Blake said in a statement. “The Blake family and our team of dedicated employees look forward to being part of the South Lyon and surrounding communities and welcoming new and returning guests this season.”

The company says it will employ 60 seasonal workers, including many returning staff.

Blake’s South Lyon will hold a “Welcome Weekend” on Saturday, Aug. 27 and Sunday, Aug. 28 with free cider and doughnuts, live music, family activities, and more.

Proceeds will go toward the South Lyon-based Active Faith Community Services food pantry .

Blake’s South Lyon will be open seven days a week 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday , through Halloween.

More information is available at blakefarms.com.

—Lee DeVito

THE WHITNEY RESTAURANT in Detroit is j oining the trendy seafood boil craze this summer.

For a limited time, the upscale restaurant is offering what it calls the Canfield Seafood Boil.

The item costs $4 9 .9 5 and includes crab legs, j umbo shrimp, mussels, and littleneck clams.

It also comes with Yukon Gold potatoes and a M ichigan sweet corn cob, flavored with Old Bay, garlic, and butter brother, as well as a side of house-made vinaigrette cole slaw.

The seafood boil is only available for guests in the restaurant’ s outdoor garden by reservation only from Wednesday , Aug. 3 through Sunday , Aug. 14 .

Based on the iet-Cajun seafood boil that originated in Houston about 20 y ears ago, the seafood boil trend has flourished in metro Detroit in recent y ears, with dozens of spots cropping up and local chefs putting their own spin on the dish.

—Lee DeVito

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

25

26 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

27

WEED

Cannabis activist Zahra Abbas.

CANNABIS CAUCUS OF THE MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY

R.I.P. Zahra Abbas

She became a cannabis advocate after finding out that it helped treat her epilepsy

By L ee D eV ito

Zahra Abbas — political

activist who became one of M ichigan’ s biggest advocates of cannabis legaliz ation after finding that it was a successful treatment for her epilepsy — died last Thursday. She was 35.

Her death was announced by the Michigan Democratic Party’s Cannabis Caucus, where she served as chair.

“Without ahra the Cannabis Caucus would not be what it is today and the world is a lonelier place without her presence,” the organization wrote in a Facebook post. “Our deepest condolences to her family and friends. We know she touched many all across this great state and beyond.”

It added, “ ahra was dedicated to teaching the world about the health

benefits of cannabis and helping lead the progressive movement action to remedy the catastrophic consequences of the war on drugs. ahra was frequently failed by our healthcare system and cannabis prohibition that would at times deny her the only medicine that could bring her seizures under control.”

A Muslim, Abbas previously told Metro Times that she had seizures every day, and brain surgery and a number of prescription drugs could not make them go away.

But cannabis had an almost immediate effect, she said. When she spoke to Metro Times in 2017, she said she had not had a seizure in more than two years after she started using cannabis.

28 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

“As soon as I started it, within a few days my seizures stopped,” Abbas told Metro Times. “Before I started looking into it for epilepsy I was very much against marijuana because there was so much misinformation around it. It came to the choice between using that and having another brain surgery to control my seizures. ... Turning to cannabis was kind of my last resort.”

Abbas went on to help gather signatures to put cannabis legalization on the ballot, which Michigan voters approved in 2018. “I’m doing this because I think more people should have access to cannabis because it helps all people,” she told Metro Times. “It should be everybody’s right to use it,” she added.

“It will help people. It’s a lot better than

other things that people do, drugs or medications that they turn to.”

Abbas eventually became vice chair and then chair of the Cannabis Caucus, as well as vice president of the Detroit chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Motor City NORML. According to the Cannabis Caucus, her advocacy extended to criminal justice, and said she played a pivotal role in setting up a meeting with Attorney General Dana Nessel that resulted in her writing a letter to Governor Gretchen Whitmer in support of commuting the sentence of Michael Thompson. In one of the longest sentences for a nonviolent offender in the U.S., Thompson was sentenced in 1996 for up to 60 years in prison after selling marijuana to an undercover cop.

Whitmer commuted his sentence in 2020.

According to the Cannabis Caucus website, Abbas worked as a medical assistant and wanted to go back to school to get a degree in public health to help shape rules and regulations around health care, drug policy, and disability issues.

Jamie Lowell, a friend and fellow long-time cannabis advocate, says Abbas’s seizures returned after she had temporarily quit using cannabis in anticipation of a drug test for a prospective new job. “She soon had a major seizure and vowed to not quit again for anything,” he says. “After resuming, she was again seizure-free. This was her powerful and amazing testimony.”

During a Friday rally in Pontiac for local progressive candidates attended

by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a number of speakers memorialized Abbas.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib held a moment of silence in Abbas’s honor, calling her “an incredible warrior.”

“Her heart was full of love for community, and there wasn’t a cause that she did not take on ... 100%,” Tlaib said.

“She was one of our biggest advocates for health care and access to alternative approaches, including cannabis and she never gave up the fight,” she added.

“She will be sorely missed. I know that she is with us today.”

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a physician who ran for governor in 20 18 and is now a Metro Times contributor, said Abbas should serve as a role model for all progressives.

“She took her pain and she used it to bring people together, to fight for all of the things that she herself was denied, recognizing that it could have been anyone else,” he said at the rally. “She took that pain and decided to make the world that much better.”

He added, “ ahra didn’t have very much time, but ahra put all of herself into the time she had.”

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

29

CULTURE

Prey Rated: R Run-time: 100 minutes

Amber Midthunder stars as Naru in Prey.

COURTESY PHOTO

Familiar action recast as colonial allegory

By George Elkind

Even as the original Predator,

released in 19 8 7, still feels impeccable for its sly script and cast, and for its abundance of visual and choreographic pleasures, the bar of “decency ” its successors should have to meet doesn’ t seem staggeringly high. Prey, a new prequel ( not that chronology matters) directed by Dan Trachtenberg and now available to stream on Hulu clears it and then some, competently pitting a band of 18 th-century Comanche trackers against an alien sport hunter.

At the same time, it works in dialogue with the first through this transplantation, spotlighting a tribe with a case to hold and defend the land they fight on rather than the choppered-in band of interventionist outsiders from the franchise’s first entry. Despite this allegory of challenged colonial hierarchy thickening its solid-enough action proceedings, Prey’s sty le still often feels hollow and received, with a bevy of drone work, CG creatures, and unimaginative framing and blocking holding it back.

With Amber M idthunder starring as Naru, an aspiring female hunter whose brother Taabe ( Dakota B eavers) roams the G reat Plains with the kind of freedom she covets, Prey makes hierarchies — of gender, of food chains, and of colonial and alien intrusion — its central subject. (Speaking of, Hulu offers a Comanche-language dub: strongly recommended over the E nglish, which

often comes off as stiff.) As an injured, largely unseen chief quietly ails and a generation of adults seems preoccupied with their own duties, the tribe’ s y oung people — mostly boisterous men — compete for prestige as they hunt game amid the forests and plains they call home. B ut Naru, dismissed for her sex often by her brother’ s friends, finds herself left largely to pursue game solo, appearing self-taught to a greater degree than her male peers. Though acknowledged as an able tracker, she’ s implied to have had to make her own education, counting her dog Sarii as a key hunting partner.

E nter, then, the Predator: a dreadlock alien whose advanced weaponry , infrared gaz e, obscene height, and profound strength place it at the top of the heap among those who’ d call hunting their vocation. As in nature, the creature makes those lesser creatures it can best its prey , its pursuit of humans here bestowing the film with a franchise-familiar kind of gladiatorial wrinkle. Arriving on Comanche land, the Predator sets itself upon pursuing a menagerie of creatures for sport before turning its attention to the humans who would hunt them.

The parallels to colonialism here are obvious, barely requiring explanation; a previously unknown entity arrives in the Americas by ship, wielding novel weaponry and structural advantages

30 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

in pursuit of knowledge and resources long stewarded by native inhabitants.

When challenged in that same pursuit by this indigenous presence and ( at least a perception of) competing aims, the invader embraces violence against them, a new quarry it regards as lesser than itself. This makes the question of Prey, then, whether — at least in this instance — such a “food chain” or a string of apparent hierarchies can be disrupted, and how this might be achieved.

To illustrate ( or one might say underline) this, Trachtenberg spotlights sequences of various wild game being felled, many rendered in CG . E agles, snakes, wolves, cougars, deer, and more meet the threat of or fall to both Comanches’ and Predators’ weapons in confrontations with ping-ponging levels of success in dramatic impact.

While I’ m not here to ask for any of these animals to be killed or phy sically wrestled with for drama’ s sake, it’ s long past time filmmakers realize that our endless exposure to unimaginative CG renderings — and our consciousness of them as such — has some impact on their emotional effect. Cutting from real actors to a pair of CG birds and back creates an experience ( unless it’ s well-finessed, as happens occasionally here) about as continuous as switching between a movie and a video game, or even a movie and one’ s phone. The

experience is more interruptive than engaging, a distraction akin to being gnawed at by a mouth lined with toothless gums. Whether through puppets, prosthetics, or better-integrated renderings, some alternative needs to be pursued for movies featuring this stuff to succeed.

Thankfully , the scenes with the Predator itself track better. With the creature play ed here by Dane DiLiegro in elaborate prosthetics, Prey finds echoes of K evin Peter Hall’ s embodiment of the original Predator through fidelity to his movement style. With gestures pivoting on a dramatic turn from the considered and methodical to the decisive and severe, there’ s a satisfaction to watching Prey’ s predator mete out asy mmetric violence, particularly when it encounters parties who (at least in the film’s narrative schema) seem to merit it. B oth coolly professional and intensely embodied, there’ s blood pumping beneath the action work here in a way that’ s rarer with the film’s purely CG-driven scenes the Predator is all the better to watch for seeming genuinely athletic.

All this makes Naru a credible underdog, if an underestimated one. In going against the Predator ( as well as competing against her brother and his peers) , her air is skillful without bearing the satisfied air of a credentialed expert.

As a result of this and her gendered position, her emotional tenor skews a bit self-conscious: striving, deliberate, defiant. The script doesn’t give Midthunder a tremendous amount more than this to play on, but she fares well enough with what she has. E mbody ing a hunter who’ s still learning her trade, getting by through a mixture of discipline, skill, and invention, her performance is key in outlining what allows her even a hope of success.

The film’s action evokes this perspective, using grass-high, low-angled camerawork to capture faceoffs amid Alberta’s rivers, cliffs, and fens. Despite this, it can also often feel schematic, with expected reversals of fortune in many faceoffs themselves punctuated by predictable dialogue, interspersed with wheeling drone photography . Shot by veteran cinematographer Jeff Cutter with a bright sense of visual clarity and no shortage of tricks, Prey basks in a visual sty le that’ s attractive but rarely expressive: a capable sort of commercial work. That’ s in some sense Prey wrapped in a nutshell: a product less of a voice or even an experience than of the sy stem we inhabit.

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metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

31

CULTURE Savage Love Choke hold

By Dan Savage This is a preview of this week’s Savage Love. The full version is now exclusively available on Dan’s website Savage.Love.

Q: I

h av e a q u estion ab ou t c h oking.

O r sh ou ld th at b e sim u lated c h oking?

I ’v e rec ently disc ov ered th at b eing p inned dow n b y m y nec k is a h u ge tu rn on f or m e. I lov e th e f eeling of b eing dom inated and c ontrolled, and of f eeling m y p artner’s strength on th is p art of m y b ody.

I ’m m u c h m ore interested in th is f eeling th an in ac tu al b reath c ontrol or ox ygen dep riv ation. I ’v e b een reading u p on c h oking b ec au se I ’m trying to m ake su re I c an b e m anh andled in th e w ay I like as saf ely as p ossib le. H ow ev er, all th e adv ic e ab ou t c h oking is ab ou t h ow dangerou s it is. Bu t m ost of th e adv ic e c onc entrates on th e dangers of restric ting ox ygen ( w h ic h is not w h at I am going f or) or on dam aging th e w indp ip e b y p u tting p ressu re on th e f ront of th e th roat ( w h ic h m y p artners av oid) . S o, m y q u estion is… h ow dangerou s is th is kind of sim u lated c h oking p lay really? Play w h ere one p erson is b eing h eld dow n b y th eir th roat w ith only m ild p ressu re? W h at c an w e do to m ake it as saf e as p ossib le? I ’m h av ing a h ard tim e a s s a t th is m akes m y p u ssy, ab staining f rom th is ac tiv ity is not an op tion f or m e.

—P lease I N eed M ore E xp ertise

A: “Choking and other forms of breath

play used to be very uncommon,” said Dr. Debby Herbenick. “B ut over the past decade, choking has become extremely common, especially among people under 4 0 .”

Dr. Herbenick is a professor at Indiana U niversity School of Public Health, a prolific and widely published sex researcher, and the author of many books, including T h e C oregasm W orkou t: T h e R ev olu tionary M eth od f or Better S ex T h rou gh Ex erc ise. A few years ago, Dr. Herbenick’ s students began asking her about choking, with some sharing harrowing stories of being choked by sex partners without their consent. There was very little data out there about choking, which was all over porn sites, and

32 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

that inspired Dr. Herbenick and some colleagues to undertake the first serious and scientifically rigorous studies of sexual choking.

Disturbingly , Dr. Herbenick found that a lot of people — mostly male people — were choking their partners during sex without discussing it first.

Meaning, they weren’t establishing mutual interest, they weren’t obtaining unambiguously enthusiastic consent, and they weren’t discussing the inherent risks and how to minimize them.

(Minimize eliminate.) Many weren’t even cognizant of the risks, which makes sense given the dearth of research on choking (and, again, why Dr. Herbenick has been researching this now-mainstream practice).

“The reason that so many sites say choking is dangerous is because it is dangerous,” said Dr. Herbenick. “That’s not a scare tactic. Although rare, people do occasionally die from being choked, which is technically a form of strangulation, and people have gone to j ail for accidentally inj uring or killing a partner during consensual choking.”

Most people who’ve experimented with choking describe the act as “consensual, wanted, and pleasurable,” according to Dr. Herbenick’ s research.

Which raises another concern: the false sense of security many have about it.

“Because most people experiment with choking without any obvious negative repercussions, they often think they ’ re doing it ‘ safely ,’ and that may not be the case,” said Dr. Herbenick. “And because people sometimes engage in choking frequently , there may be cumulative effects on the brain — in other words, negative effects that build up over time rather than from a single incident of being choked. Cumulative incidents are difficult to notice as they’re happening.

However, even mild pressure on the neck/ throat is likely to reduce oxy gen to the brain because it involves compressing blood vessels. The kinds of cumulative effects that may occur include greater likelihood of depression, anxiety , ringing in the ears, headaches, and memory issues, among others, though we need more research to say for sure.”

So, is there a safe way to create the sensation of being choked — or pinned down by your neck — without the risk “Some people who are into choking but who don’t want to take on these risks ask their partner to lightly press against their collarbone but not their throat,” said Dr. Herbenick. “And PINM E is correct that any pressure to the front of the throat is particularly risky , given

how vulnerable the windpipe is to injury.

O ther people decide to ask their partner to choke them anyway but only rarely, to reduce the likelihood of cumulative risk.”

O bviously , consent to a sex practice as risky as choking is only meaningful if every one involved is fully informed of the risks. Someone who asks to be choked — when a person like you, PINME, requests to be choked during sex — has a duty to fully inform their partner of the risks they ’ ll be running.

“It’ s not fair to put someone in the position of doing something that could accidentally hurt or kill y ou, and making them potentially criminally or legally responsible, without their full understanding of the risks they ’ re taking,” said Dr. Herbenick. “All that said, adults can consent and opt into all sorts of risky things — flogging, barebacking, sex with strangers, unprotected vaginal intercourse after forgetting a week’s worth of birth control pills, sky diving, rock climbing, and various watersports. Whatever risky activity we enjoy — whether it involves sex or not — we need to learn about potential risks, think through potential harm reduction strategies, and proceed with caution.”

And what would harm reduction and/ or worst-case-scenario reduction strategies look like where erotic choking was concerned “If mild pressure is being used, make sure she can fully breathe, speak, has a safe word AND gesture — in case she does lose ability to speak — and that her desire for mild pressure — v ery mild pressure — is clearly understood by her partner,” said Dr. Herbenick. “Further, if PINM E starts to experience visual changes, lightheadedness, dizziness, or euphoria, then that suggests she is likely experiencing lower oxygen levels and potential neurological effects.”

And that’s definitely a moment when you’ll want to use your safeword or gesture, PINME, while you still can.

You can follow Dr. Debby Herbenick on Twitter @DebbyHerbenick and find out more about her research into choking — and sexual pleasure and communication and vibrator use and more — at her website debbyherbenick.com.

Q: I ’m

a 2 3 - year- old gay b oy and m y b est f riend is a straigh t girl m y sam e age. S h e likes to say w e sh are ev eryth ing ab ou t ou r lov e liv es…

Go to Savage.Love to read the rest.

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

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

33

CULTURE

Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19 Tips to get the most out of the coming weeks: 1. E xercise y our willpower at random moments j ust to keep it limber. 2. Be adept at fulfilling your own hy pe. 3 . Argue for fun. B e play ful and frisky as y ou banter. Disagree for the sport of it, without feeling attached to being right or needing the last word.

4 . B e unable to understand how any one can resist you or not find you alluring.

5. Declare y ourself President of E very thing, then stage a coup d’ état. 6. Smile often when y ou have no reason to. 7. If y ou come upon a “square peg, round hole” situation, change the shape of the hole.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20 If I had to choose a my thic deity to be y our sy mbolic helper, I would pick V enus. The planet V enus is ruler of y our sign, and the goddess V enus is the maven of beauty and love, which are key to y our happiness. B ut I would also assign Hephaestus to y ou Tauruses. He was the G reek god of the metalworking forge. He created Z eus’ s thunderbolts, Hermes’ winged helmet, Aphrodite’ s magic bra, Achilles’ armor, E ros’ bow and arrows, and the thrones for all the

So Alex Jones and Kevin Spacey owe a shit ton of dough. Spacey can star in a movie playing Jones to make his nut. Jones is going to have a harder time of it, playing Harvey Weinstein in a dunk tank, at three balls for a dollar.

Open 3pm-2am Everyday

of further marvels that y ou will wish on.

It’ s the M agic Wish season of the y ear for y ou: a time when y ou’ re more likely than usual to encounter and generate miracles. B e proactive! O h, and very important: What are y our three top wishes?

deities in O ly mpus. The things he made were elegant and useful. I nominate him to be y our spirit guide during the next ten months. M ay he inspire y ou to be a generous source of practical beauty .

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20 To be a true G emini, y ou must y earn for knowledge— whether it’ s about coral reefs, ancient maps of Sumer, sex among jellyfish, mini-black holes, your friends’ secrets, or celebrity gossip. Y ou need to be an eternal student who craves education. Are some things more important to learn than others? O f course, but that gauge is not alway s apparent in the present. A seemingly minor clue or trick y ou glean today may become unexpectedly helpful a month from now.

With that perspective in mind, I encourage y ou to be promiscuous in y our lust for new information and teachings in the coming weeks.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22 Cancerian drummer R ingo Starr is in the R ock and R oll Hall of Fame.

Though he has received less acclaim than his fellow B eatles, many critics recogniz e him as a skillful and original drummer. How did he get started? At age 13 , he contracted tuberculosis and lived in a sanatorium for two y ears.

The medical staff encouraged him to j oin the hospital band, hoping it would stimulate his motor skills and alleviate boredom. R ingo used a makeshift mallet to bang the cabinet near his bed. G ood practice! That’ s how his misfortune led to his j oy and success. Is there an equivalent story in y our life, Cancerian? The coming months will be a good time to take that story to its next level.

LEO: July 23 – August 22 O ne of the inspiring experiments I hope y ou will attempt in the coming months is to work on loving another person as wildly and deeply and smartly as y ou love y ourself. In urging y ou to try this exercise, I don’ t mean to imply that I have a problem with y ou loving y ourself wildly and deeply and smartly .

I endorse your efforts to keep increasing the intensity and ingenuity with which y ou adore and care for y ourself. B ut here’ s a secret: Learning to summon a monumental passion for another soul may have the magic power of enhancing y our love for y ourself.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22 M usician V iv Albertine has recorded four albums and play ed guitar for the Slits, a famous punk band. She has also written two books and worked as a TV director for 20 y ears. Her accomplishments are impressive. Y et she also acknowledges that she has spent a lot of time in bed for many reasons:

34 August 10-16, 2022 | metrotimes.com

JAMES NOELLERT

needing to rest, seeking refuge to think and meditate, recovering from illness, feeling overwhelmed or lonely or sad.

She admiringly cites other creative people who, like her, have worked in their beds: E mily Dickinson, Patti Smith, E dith Sitwell, and Frida K ahlo. I mention this, V irgo, because the coming day s will be an excellent time for y ou to seek sanctuary and healing and creativity in bed.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22 Libran author K atherine M ansfield wrote, “The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, and a pool that nobody ’ s fathomed the depth of.” B e inspired by her in the coming weeks, Libra. I suspect you will flourish if you give yourself the luxury of exploring y our untamed side.

The time is ripe to wander in nature and commune with exciting influences outside y our comfort z one. What uncharted frontier would y ou enj oy visiting?

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21 When y ou are functioning at y our best, you Scorpios crave only the finest, top-quality highs. Y ou embrace j oy s and pleasures that generate epiphanies and vitaliz ing transformations. M ediocre varieties of fun don’ t interest y ou. Y ou avoid debilitating indulgences that provide brief excitement but spawn longterm problems. In the coming weeks, dear Scorpio, I hope y ou will embody these descriptions. It’ s crucial that y ou seek gratifications and delectations that uplift y ou, ennoble y ou, and bless y our future.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21 “Wish on every thing,” advises Sagittarian author Francesca Lia B lock.

“Pink cars are good, especially old ones.

And first stars and shooting stars. Planes will do if they are the first light in the sky and look like stars. Wish in tunnels, holding y our breath and lifting y our feet off the ground. Birthday candles. Baby teeth.” Y our homework during the next two weeks, Sagittarius, is to build a list

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19 Author Aldous Huxley wrote, “That people do not learn much from the lessons of history is the most important lesson that history has to teach.”

While his observation is true much of the time, I don’ t think it will be so for y ou in the coming weeks. I suspect y ou will triumph over past patterns that have repeated and repeated themselves.

You will study your life story and figure out what y ou must do to graduate from lessons you have finally, completely learned.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18 In the film I O rigins, a scientist say s this to a lover: “When the B ig B ang happened, all the atoms in the universe were smashed together into one little dot that exploded outward. So my atoms and y our atoms were together then . . . my atoms have alway s known y our atoms.” Although this sounds poetic, it’ s true in a literal sense: The atoms that compose y ou and me and every one else were originally all squeez ed together in a tiny space. We knew each other intimately ! The coming day s will be an excellent time to celebrate y our fundamental link with the rest of the universe. Y ou’ ll be extra receptive to feeling connection. Y ou’ ll be especially adept at fitting your energy together with others’.

Y ou’ ll love the sensation of being united, merged, blended.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20 M y Piscean friend Luna sent me a message that sums up how I feel about y ou these day s. I’ ll repeat it here in the hope it will inspire y ou to be perfectly y ourself. Luna said, “E very time I meet someone who was born within like two weeks of my birthday , I end up with the impression that they are the loopiest and wisest person I’ ve met in a long time. They are totally ridiculous and worthy of profound respect. They are unhinged and brilliantly focused. They are fuz z y -headed dreamers who couldn’ t possibly ever get any thing practical accomplished and they are ly rical thinkers who charm me with their attunement to the world’ s beauty and impress me with their understanding of how the world works. Hahahahaha. Luckily for me, I know the fool is sacred.”

T his w eek ’ s homew ork : I magine w hat you w ill b e doing ex actly one year f rom today.

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MOVING

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HEALTH

VIAGRA AND CIALIS USERS! 0 Pills SPECIAL $99.00 FREE Shipping! 100% guaranteed.

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AUTOMOTIVE

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

AUTOMOTIVE

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

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

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TV/CABLE/INTERNET

HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET Finally, no hard data limits!

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TV/CABLE/INTERNET

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PUBLISHING

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(INDEPENDENT) DRAPING IS REQUIRED INTAKE FORM is given COVID -19 READY Enjoy a calm and soothing massage HEALTHY BENEFIT HEALTHY MASSAGE 734 447 7895 Early and late appointments are available must be left on Credit Card on file.

MASSAGE

RELAXING NURU MASSAGE

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ADULT ADULT ENTERTAINMENT

HIRING SEXY WOMEN!!!

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TO ADVERTISE IN METRO TIMES CLASSIFIEDS CALL (313)961-4060

LONG DISTANCE MOVING

Call today for a FREE QUOTE from America’s Most Trusted Interstate Movers.

Let us take the stress out of moving! Speak to a Relocation Specialist, call 855-947-2919 (AAN CAN)

TRAINING / EDUCATION / MISC.

COMPUTER & IT TRAINING PROGRAM!

Train ONLINE to get the skills to become a Computer & Help Desk Professional now! Grants and Scholarships available for certain programs for qualified applicants. Call CTI for details! 1-855-554-4616 (AAN CAN)

metrotimes.com | August 10-16, 2022

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