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Vol. 37 | Issue 18 | Feb. 8-14, 2017
News & Views News Hits..................................... 12
Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor-In-Chief - Lee DeVito
EDITORIAL
Politics & Prejudices.................... 14 Stir It Up....................................... 18
What’s Going On........................ 22
Feature: The Lust Issue Dita Von Teese.................................26 Valentine’s Day Gift Guide.............30
Food Food feature.................................. 34 Review: Ima.................................. 40 Bites.............................................. 42 Quick service................................ 44
Managing Editor - Alysa Offman Senior Editor - Michael Jackman Music Editor - Mike McGonigal Staff Writer - Violet Ikonomova Dining Editor - Tom Perkins Web Editor - Jack Roskopp Contributing Editors - Larry Gabriel, Jack Lessenberry Copy Editor - Esther Gim Editorial Interns - Rachel Bidock, Chloe Michaels, Daniel Siwka, Kay Sumner Contributors - Sean Bieri, Stephanie Brothers, Doug Coombe, Kahn Santori Davison, Aaron Egan, Mike Ferdinande, Cal Garrison, Curt Guyette, Mike Pfeiffer, Sarah Rahal, Dontae Rockymore, Shelley Salant, Dan Savage, Sarah Rose Sharp, Rai Skotarczyk, Jane Slaughter
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Culture Arts: The Dirty Show.................. 58 Savage Love................................. 60
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NEWS & VIEWS
The battle for sanctuary Wayne State University rejects proposal to become a sanctuary campus by Violet Ikonomova
Wayne State University
President M. Roy Wilson says the school will not become a “sanctuary campus” following a petition effort by students and faculty at the school. In an email to the Midtown campus community sent Tuesday Feb. 7, Wilson said the “ill-defined and politically charged designation” is unnecessary because the school already does not ask for or share the immigrant status of students unless required to do so by subpoena or court order. More than 1,500 people signed the petition asking for the designation, among a dozen other demands. A PhD student who helped drafted the proposal says declaring Wayne State a sanctuary campus would have provided a powerful symbol. “Wayne State University, given its mission statement and its international identity as a diverse [and] inclusive school in an urban environment, should be a leader in the sanctuary movement,” said student Nate Kuehnl, who vowed to continue organizing. “It’s not enough to just have ‘diversity’ as a university value. We need to walk the walk.“ In denying the request of students, faculty and others, Wilson noted that no other Michigan universities have
JEFF DUNN (FLICKR)
adopted the designation, and that the majority of colleges and universities across the country have declined to do so as well. Still, as of December, at least 28 schools across the country had declared themselves sanctuaries, according to Yahoo! News. Wayne State said it could only identify a dozen, most of them private colleges. At issue is the potential loss of
Charles Parrish, president of the WSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors/American Federation of Teachers, said prior to Wilson’s email. “The president and the board are hesitant because of the political situation in Lansing and nationally.” Though he stopped short of declaring the campus a sanctuary, Wilson
‘It’s not enough to just have “diversity” as a university value. We need to walk the walk.’ federal funding that could accompany taking on such a label. President Donald Trump has already moved to deny federal funds to cities that won’t comply with federal officials in deporting undocumented immigrants. Congress introduced legislation last month to financially punish sanctuary campuses. And in Michigan, House lawmakers have introduced a bill that enacts financial penalties on local units of government who don’t comply with federal officials on immigration issues. “It’s a very difficult decision,”
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did heed the petitioners’ request that he sign a statement in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program protecting immigrants whose families illegally brought them to the U.S. as children. Wayne State had until now been absent from the list of 600 U.S. colleges and universities supporting DACA. The leaders of five other Michigan universities had signed the statement early on. While petitioner Kuehnl said he appreciates Wayne State’s joining the list, he says the university still “has not offered a public declaration sup-
porting its immigrant community and denouncing rhetoric that would mean it harm.” Indeed, Wilson’s Feb. 7 message was only sent internally and did not accompany the list of public statements on his website. Kuehnl said it shows the university’s “failure to lead on these issues.” Others who backed the petition described Wilson’s support for undocumented students as weak when compared with that of other Michigan universities. The University of Michigan’s president, for example, went a step further than Wayne State by coming out in support of legislation known as the BRIDGE Act, which would allow individuals in the U.S. who arrived as children to stay in the country for another three years without the threat of deportation. That school also said it would establish a working group to help it better understand the needs and concerns of international members of its campus community and to consider ideas for additional support.
news@metrotimes.com @violetikon
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The “Vari-Tips� bracelet in silver and 18k gold with interchangeable gemstones. Perfect for color coordinating your wardrobe and jewelry for a great fashion look.
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NEWS & VIEWS Politics & Prejudices: Donald Trump, ISIS recruiter by Jack Lessenberry
Years ago, this column oc-
casionally also ran on a website called The Smirking Chimp, whose motto was “in dishonor of the worst president in history.” Not surprisingly, the Chimp, born during the reign of George W. Bush, has dropped those words from its home page. Donald Trump clearly surpassed the Shrub as the nation’s most terrible president after less than a week in office. Nobody can predict how he will disgrace us next, and that has a certain inhibiting factor on this column, which is written several days before it appears. For example, I am tempted to say that Trump has yet to waste as many lives in an unjust war. But while those words are true as I write them, there’s no guarantee that they, or anything else, will be the case by the time you read them. After all, eight days into his presidency, Trump signed an order that removed the nation’s top military and intelligence advisers as regular attendees of the National Security Council’s Principals’ Committee, the interagency forum that deals with policy issues affecting national security. Know who will attend in their place? Trump’s chief political strategist, the media thug Steve Bannon. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence will be allowed only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.” That should scare the living piss out of all of us. Bush, by the way, would never have let Karl Rove into those meetings. But Donald Trump has no more respect for tradition, the separation of powers, or foreign nations than he does for any other human being not named Donald Trump. Everything he does shows that he has no idea whatever what he is doing, or its effect on people’s lives, with one exception: He knows how to get attention. Hitler, Mussolini, and a long suc-
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cession of circus clowns did too. What we don’t know yet is how we will remember this showboating menace, if we still have a country afterwards. Most clowns know that they can mug shamelessly for the camera, but while they might pretend, they can’t light matches around the crates marked DANGER! HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE!! However, the Donald has no such qualms. Suddenly, without warning, he signed an executive order a week after he took office banning people from seven mostly Muslim nations (Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Syria) from traveling to the United States, regardless of their visa or green card status. “It’s working our very nicely,” Trump said, even as traumatized people all over the globe found themselves separated from their wives, husbands and children. People got on airplanes before the order was signed, only to be detained when they landed. One West Bloomfield immigration attorney went to dinner at her in-laws home in Canada Friday night, and then found herself detained when she and her husband tried to get home. International students and their families panicked. Eventually, a federal judge overturned Trump’s fiat. Naturally, he couldn’t care less about messing with people.
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NEWS & VIEWS Why should he? He is Donald J. Trump. Well, there’s a politician in Michigan who doesn’t have nearly the power, fame or money of Carnival Barker Don. But when it comes to policy dealing with terrorists, I’d put my money on State Senator Dave Knezek (D-Dearborn Heights.) You see, Knezek knows something about fighting them. He dropped out of college after a couple of years, and ended up doing two tours of duty in Iraq. That was hard duty. There are things he won’t talk about. He had no idea how many medals he had earned (it was 25) till I asked him to count. But he knows what it means to be responsible for young men’s lives. The morning after Trump’s ban, Knezek read about a man named Hameed Darweesh, who had risked his own life more than once to help American military forces. That was back after we had invaded and occupied Iraq. Darweesh had served as an interpreter for a decade, something that almost cost him his life. He was eventually granted a special immigrant visa, and was in the air when Trump scrawled his name on his outrageous order. When he landed, Darweesh was detained for hours, unable to even call a lawyer until two congressmen got him out. That story brought tears to David Knezek’s eyes – and a flashback to when his own life was saved by such a man. The future politician left college and “boarded a plane to Iraq when I was 21. I was full of piss and vinegar and eager to serve my country … and improve the lives of the Iraqi people.” Soon he found what life there was really like. Eventually, he was sent to Fallujah, and told to go find a base of operations for a sniper team. He found a perfectly suited abandoned house. Or so he thought. The mission was just getting started when another Iraqi interpreter brought urgent advice: Call it off. In Iraq, the interpreters were the only ones who could move effortlessly between the worlds. This one had learned something. The next day, an infantry platoon inspected the house. A thin, almost invisible strand of trip wire was across the entrance, attached to an explosive device on a drum of oil. Had it not been for the interpreter, Knezek would have been blown to pieces if he was lucky. Otherwise he would have
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been burned to death. “My entire team could have been killed. But I wasn’t, and we weren’t, because of an Iraqi interpreter.” A man, that is, who Trump wouldn’t allow into this country today. That was nearly a decade ago. David Knezek is now a college graduate and a legislator. What does he think about Trump’s order banning people? “This makes America less safe,” he said without hesitation. “I look at this through a lens of national security. This will inevitably be a recruiting tool for ISIS. They tell people we hate them, and that America can’t be trusted. We promised those who helped us we’d give them asylum if needed.” He knows Trump is claiming this is all in the interest of national security. “But he isn’t extending the ban to any of the nations where any of the September 11 terrorists was born.” No, this is more clown show. Look for the eventual price of admission to be high indeed. Tamping down your taxes Were you aware that tampons and sanitary napkins are seen as a luxury item, not a necessity? Believe it or not, that’s the case under Michigan law. Tampons, unlike pure necessities like erectile dysfunction drugs, are therefore subject to both a luxury (“use”) tax as well as the Michigan sales tax. “Guess there weren’t a lot of women sitting around the table when they decided that,” State Rep. Winnie Brinks, (D-Grand Rapids), told me dryly. Now, in the interest of fairness, Brinks and Knezek have introduced identical bills to repeal this tax. “This may not be a big savings, but it could mean several thousand dollars to me and my daughters over the 30 to 40 years we need these products,” she told me. The two lawmakers estimate the total cost to the state at $5 million a year, which shouldn’t make a noticeable dent in the state’s nearly $10 billion general fund. The question is whether enough GOP lawmakers will agree to do the right thing. Hard to believe they wouldn’t. But any of them who think the luxury tax is justified might suggest that women who don’t want to pay it use some old rags or dried leaves instead. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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NEWS & VIEWS Stir It Up:
Hit Trump where it counts: the pocketbook by Larry Gabriel
People are panicking all
over liberal circles, and rightly so, about how to respond to the Trump presidency. That reasonable, presidential Donald Trump that so many assured us would appear someday is nowhere to be seen. He’s having crazy phone calls with foreign heads of state — although his administration has denied that he hung up on the Australian prime minister and threatened to invade Mexico during a call with that president. In addition, Trump is mad at news that the cable station CNN has reported about him. He retaliated against CNN by not allowing any of his surrogates to appear on the station’s reports. A reporter at CNN said Trump is “trying to punish the network and force down its ratings.” Apparently Trump is trying to hurt them in the only way he cares about: in the pocketbook. And this should be no surprise. Trump banned various reporters or news outlets from his campaign events from time to time because he didn’t like their reporting. Threatening, bullying, and retaliation have worked for Trump thus far. I don’t know that it will work for the nation now, although it has in the past in a less sophisticated world. Trump’s biggest outrage so far has been a ban on immigrants or refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. The countries where the 9/11 attackers came from — Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon — were not on the list. The number of Americans killed by terrorists from the banned countries since 9/11 adds up to a big fat zero. Politics has gotten weirder than ever before in my lifetime. And maybe it’s because politics is tied more tightly than ever onto capitalism. It’s been creeping up for a long time, but Trump has thrown away all subterfuge about truth and justice. It’s a “my way or the highway” attitude that generally you can get
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away with when you are the CEO of a corporation. He’s telling other countries they’ll have to pay their own way in international relations, whether that’s NATO or the United Nations or whatever. It’s hard to argue with that, but the president approaches every issue as a scowling confrontation — not the way to get long-term cooperation. The United States formerly bought cooperation. That may no longer be the case, as other countries have been expressing their own opinions. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already expressed welcome to people from the Trump-banned countries. He tweeted out a message that includes the sentiment, “Diversity is our strength.” It used to be the strength of our nation. At least that’s what I was told in elementary school. That’s our neighbor to the north. Add to that the disintegrating relationship with Mexico. That “make them pay for the wall” thing is a dead cow in the middle of the road. You have to do something about it before you can get anywhere. In the face of all this and more, opposition to Trump in the streets is apoplectic to say the least. Calls to resist, refuse, and delay any Trump or Republican notions are coming from every corner. This is the same strategy that Republicans used against Obama for eight years. Apparently it has borne fruit. So I believe all that is useful. But there has to be more. Back
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NEWS & VIEWS ‘Every time you buy a product or service, you are supporting a company. Before you decide which sneakers to buy or financial services to use, consider its business practices.’ during the primaries, it was obvious that the electorate was pissed off and that politics as usual was questionable. Trump managed to beat the game regardless of what the majority of Americans claimed to want. Most of the media decrying Trump told us that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election. That includes me. We were told we could flip the Senate, and possibly the House, to the other party. None of that happened. That doesn’t mean I turn my back all the way against the political establishment. It’s only half turned, but it’s been that way a long time. Still, I have to admit that the Democrats are the best organized and have the best chance to achieve successes in resist strategies in the short run. But in the long term there has to be more. One of those “more” things has to be economic. That’s the only thing Trump understands. He used his campaign into an infomercial on his brand. His most salient statement on the Iraq War has been that we should have taken the country’s oil. He says that NATO and the United Nations cost too much. He fleeced his own campaign for the rent in Trump Tower. His people have pressured diplomats into staying at Trump hotels. There has to be a way to make Trump and his cabal feel the financial heat. Traditionally, the financial heat has been through a boycott. Such an action would include products of people who are enabling Trump’s policies. You have to bring economic heat because these people can’t be shamed. Trump is the most shameless president I know of. I mean, the guy brought up the size of his junk on the debate stage and made hate a centerpiece of his campaign. Unfortunately, enough voters were willing to look past that. Maybe that says something about our own shamelessness. The only shame Trump seems to know is defeat on the economic level. He is surrounded by others with different agendas, but all of them dance to
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the beat of the money men. There has to be an economic angle that brings them pain. There has to be an economic angle that lifts up our communities too, but that’s for another discussion. I’m not calling for a boycott of specific products here. I’ll leave that to the organizers of resistance efforts — plus there are many boycott lists to be found on a simple internet search. But it needs to be done. Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary General, recently published an article in The Guardian that encouraged people to “use your power as a consumer, which is now unparalleled in history. Every time you buy a product or service, you are supporting a company. Before you decide which sneakers to buy or financial services to use, consider its business practices.” Think about the impact that could have if more people use the economic clout in their own hands. It takes some effort, but not that much. And if you drop the offensive companies an email or phone call once in awhile to let them know why they aren’t getting your money, it helps. Pressure your pension boards to disinvest from companies that do bad things (like run for-profit prisons) and if you have the purchasing power at your job, make that work for you. The beauty of this is that it’s international and ongoing. The point is that the platitudes and posturing of politics aren’t enough. Even the marches and demonstrations aren’t enough. Hit them in the pocketbook, where it really hurts. One more thing here. The No. 1 thing that Annan wrote was necessary to bring about change is to vote. This note is for the folks who wanted to sneer at Clinton as not good enough and stayed home to sit on your hands on Election Day. Now’s the time to show us what you got.
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UP FRONT SATURDAY, 2/11 Cupid’s Undie Run @ The Fillmore
If you have an exhibitionist streak and also enjoy raising money to benefit scientific research that could cure deadly childhood diseases, then Cupid’s Undie Run is the perfect marriage of your interests. The not-quite-a-mile dash has runners sprinting through the cold February air wearing nothing more than boxer briefs and sports bras. While the quick race around Foxtown is the event’s headliner, a before-and-after party also takes place at the Fillmore. The party/run raises money for the Children’s Tumor Foundation and research for neurofibromatosis. The run, which takes place in several cities across the country, raised $3.5 million for their cause just last year.
What’s Going On:
A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them by MT staff
Starts at noon; 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; cupidsundierun. org; tickets are $25-$55. Cupid’s Undie Run. PHOTO BY MIKE FERDINANDE
FRI-SUN, 2/10-2/12
FRI-SAT, 2/10-11
FRI-SAT, 2/10-11
SATURDAY, 2/11
The Dirty Show
Cary Grant tribute weekend
VLNTNSDYMRKT 5
Adam Devine
@ Russell Industrial Center
@ Redford Theatre
@ Jam Handy
@ The Fillmore
Local prankster Jerry Vile’s annual erotic art exhibition has turned 18, which means it’s all grown up. Does that mean we should expect a grownup, more mature show? In some ways, yes. This year’s special guest artist is the Czech sculptor David Černý, who is known for provocative and daring installation work (see our Q&A in this issue). But don’t worry, the Dirty Show hasn’t gone entirely political — erotic artwork in every medium, burlesque shows, boylesque shows, drag, spanking booths, bondage demonstrations, go-go dancers, and more are sure to titillate. (And if you can’t catch it this weekend, catch it Feb. 17-18.)
Cary Grant was actually born Archibald Alexander Leach, which is kind of hard to believe because that name is so awful it has to be made up. Quite in the fashion of Old Hollywood, he changed his name to make himself more appealing to directors and moviegoers. Grant, who is widely accepted as one of the greatest leading men of all time, starred in films like Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, The Philidelphia Story, North by Northwest, and An Affair to Remember. Some of his greatest works (along with his greatest co-stars, Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman included) will be shown this weekend and the historic Redford Theatre.
If you’re looking for some locally made goods for your betrothed this Valentine’s Day, we encourage you to check out our guide of funny gifts as well as the VLNTNSDAYMRKT put on by Pot and Box. The event, now in its fifth year, invites local crafters and vendors to shill their wares in honor of the day of love. You’ll find creations by JKM Candles, Tree Trunk Arts, Rebel Nell, Dave’s Sweet Tooth, Stef-N-Ty, Jody Lynn’s Emporium of Doodles, Sfumato Fragrances, Drifter Coffee, and many more. And yes, of course, there will be a Lularoe vendor there too.
Our favorite Adam Devine role might be his spin as Bumper Allen in the widely popular if not unduly praised Pitch Perfect series. The narcissistic a cappella singer falls for the portly but hilarious Fat Amy, but our editor notes that we would be remiss to not mention his role on Comedy Central’s Workaholics, which our readers apparently care more about tha musical dramedy hybrids. Either way, the young comedian will be performing his “Weird Life” tour at the Fillmore this weekend.
Doors open at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday; 1600 Clay St., Detroit; dirtydetroit.com; tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door.
Arsenic and Old Lace starts at 8 p.m. on Friday night, Charade starts at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Notorious starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday; 17360 Lahser Rd., Detroit; 313-537-2560; redfordtheatre.com; tickets are $5 to all showings.
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Runs 6-10 p.m. on Friday night and 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. on Saturday; 2900 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit; potandbox.com.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313961-5451; thefillmoredetroit.com; tickets are $35.
SATURDAY, 2/11 Winter season opening @ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
MOCAD kicks off its winter season with four exhibitions. The Architectural Imagination showcases 12 speculative plans for the Motor City, Detroit City/Detroit Affinities features the work of Colombian artist Adriana Martínez, Five Rings looks at martial arts and the Detroit Police Athletic League, and Home features work of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. The evening also includes a curators talk and a performance by hip-hop unit the Black Opera.
Opening reception starts at 6 p.m., performance at 10 p.m.; 4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-6622; mocadetroit.org; admission before 9 p.m. is free, $12 after. Adriana Martínez, “Bananas!,” 2016. PHOTO BY SANTIAGO PINYOL, CARNE GALLERY.
SUNDAY, 2/12
TUESDAY, 2/14
TUESDAY, 2/14
WEDNESDAY, 2/15
Dilla Youth Day
Valentine’s Day Circus
Casablanca
@ The Charles H. Wright Museum
@ Flyhouse Detroit, The Eastern
@ Max M. Fisher Music Center
Michigan-made wine tasting
Now in its sixth year, Dilla Youth Day continues to expand its participatory programming to be ever more diverse and fun. The event, named of course for the pioneering Detroit hip-hop artist J Dilla, is a celebration of aesthetic and technological innovation and invention in Detroit. Hands-on workshops, jaw-dropping performances, informative lectures, and the best music you will hear anywhere near the city today — it’s all on hand.
Anyone who has ever seen the Flyhouse players perform know that plenty of aerial acrobatics, firedancing, stilt-walking, juggling, and more are in store. The troupe have two Valentine’s Day shows planned: a family-friendly version at 6 p.m., and an adult (18 and older only) version at 8:15 p.m. This show usually sells out, so get your tickets ahead of time.
Here’s looking at you kid! This special screening of the 1942 classic features Max Steiner’s Oscar-nominated score played live by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, adding an extra dramatic dimension. There’s a reason Casablanca is a gem. Valentine’s Day packages include Champagne, chocolate truffles, a long-stem rose, and a three-course menu. Whether you know the film by heart or haven’t seen it yet but are aware of its cinematic legacy, this screening is sure to be memorable.
@ The Farmer’s Hand
Starts at noon; 315 E. Warren, Detroit; 313-494-5800; admission is free.
Shows at 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.; doors open 30 minutes before show; 3434 Russell St., Detroit, Ste. 208; detroitcircus.info; tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children for the 6 p.m. show, and $15 for the 8:15 p.m. show.
Starts at 7:30 p.m.; 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313.576.5111; dso.org; tickets are $35-$100.
The Farmer’s Hand is arguably the coolest place in Corktown right now, so make it a point to hit this special special wine tasting on Wednesday if only to grant yourself the right to brag to your friends that you’ve visited the Michigan-made, lady-owned shop. Guests will get to sample four Michigan-made wines and hear the super important testimony of Brengman Brothers owner Robert Brengman and wine writer David Furer. There will also be cheese.
Starts at 6 p.m.; 1701 Trumbull St., Detroit; 313-377-8262; thefarmershand.com; tickets are $10.
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A Midwest makeover
How Heather Sweet from West Branch became burlesque queen Dita Von Teese by Lee DeVito
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FEATURE Calling from her home in Los Angeles, Dita Von Teese is excited for her upcoming trip to Michigan. The burlesque superstar is getting ready to take her The Art of the Teese show on the road, which includes its first-ever stop in Detroit. In a way, though, Michigan is still her real home, and her rabid fan base here seems to confirm that. According to Von Teese, the Detroit presale was one of the fastest-selling cities on the tour. Von Teese was genuinely shocked by the warm reception. “It’s my first time doing a show there since ... ever, basically,” Von Teese says. “Actually, I did one strip club in Flint in like, 1993. There were like five random fans.” Today, 44-year-old Von Teese is probably the world’s premier burlesque performer, a modernday beauty icon in the vein of the archetypal Old Hollywood femme fatale: alabaster skin, ruby red lips, jet black hair, and voluptuous curves. Since her start in 1992, Von Teese has appeared in magazines from Playboy to Vogue, launched her own clothing line and makeup collection, wrote a New York Times best-selling book, and was briefly married to goth rocker Marilyn Manson (more on that later). LA Weekly declared her to be “the most famous stripper in America.” But long before she was Dita Von Teese from Los Angeles, she was shy, blonde Heather Sweet from a farming town in Michigan. West Branch to be precise. “You’re from Michigan, right?” she asks. “I can actually say, ‘West Branch, Michigan,’ and people might read this and know where that is.” Born in Rochester to a machinist father and a manicurist mother, Von Teese moved to West Branch when she was 5, and lived there until she was 12. Von Teese describes Heather Sweet as a “dishwater blonde, mediocre-looking girl,” a middle child who studied ballet from an early age and used to love watching Golden Age Hollywood movies with her antique-collecting mother. That was when she says she saw the woman she wanted to become. “My early childhood experiences were seeing ladies I wanted to be like — ladies like Hedy Lamarr and Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe,” she says. “I grew up thinking, ‘I’m gonna be like that when I’m big!’” By her tween years, her father’s Opposite page: Dita Von Teese.
ALI MAHDAVI
Dita Von Teese’s burlesque act has evolved into an elaborate stage show.
KAYLIN IDORA
‘I’m not here to change people’s minds about what it is to be a stripper. I’m not trying to tell people I’m better than a stripper or any of those things.’ job took forced the family to move to Orange County, Calif., for work. “It was a huge culture shock,” Von Teese says. “I was just thrown into the thick it. It took a long time before I had any friends.” By 15, she quit ballet and started working in a lingerie store so she could buy her own clothes. That was when she began to develop her retro fashion sense. “I didn’t have money like a lot of my friends, so I always had to work,” she says. “I would shop for vintage because my friends would have all
the cool jeans and sneakers and stuff, and I never got to have that sort of thing, so I started buying vintage because I felt like I could emulate designer looks that I liked that I’d see in Vogue.” Von Teese started dying her hair black, and dressing like an Old Hollywood star — corsets and bullet bras and vintage suits. “That’s when my life changed, and where I felt like I finally had my confidence,” she says. “Dita” wasn’t officially born until Von Teese started stripping at age
19, and chose it as her stage name. In the early days of the internet, Von Teese had one of the first fetish websites, where she posed for BDSM pin-up photos. By 1994, she had set herself apart from the bleach-blonde set with her distinct looks, and started posing for Playboy — “back when people used to buy magazines,” she says. When Playboy asked her for her last name, she chose “Von Treese” out of a phone book: A typo rendered it “Von Teese.” The transformation was complete. By the late ’90s, Von Teese says burlesque revival was still very much underground. Most of what Von Teese knew about it, she says, she gleaned from magazines from its heyday in the 1930s and ’40s. “There were a few performers in LA, like there was this show the Velvet Hammer, and my friend Catherine D’Lish, and a few performers in the U.K.,” she says. “But it wasn’t much of a scene. So it kind of started there for me.” For Von Teese, the transition from stripper to burlesque revivalist was seamless. Her Playboy notoriety enabled her to perform in strip clubs across the country, and the shows kept growing from there. “I used to do burlesque in strip clubs, so I don’t have the same indignant need to tell people that what I’m doing is different than what strippers are doing,” she says. “I’m not here to change people’s minds about what it is to be a stripper. I’m not trying to tell people I’m better than a stripper or any of those things.” She points out that the word “stripper” was coined in burlesque’s heyday in 1930s. “It’s not like it’s a bad word, in my opinion,” she says. But as Von Teese’s show grew from headlining strip clubs to the elaborate stage show it is today, she says she noticed her audience change: from primarily straight males to primarily females and gay men. Von Teese calls her new audience part of “an unlikely feminist movement” — “something that’s vastly different than what it was during burlesque’s heyday ... and definitely different than what I think strip clubs are known for.” Von Teese thinks the reason her show resonates with other women and gay men is the same reason she started doing burlesque and pin-up photos in the first place: a liberating sense of control of her own image,
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FEATURE ‘I think people seeing a part of shy Heather Sweet from Michigan is an important part of what I do. I’m not trying to be a completely different person.’ citing “irreconcilable differences.” Von and the idea of glamorous reinvention. Teese says she and her former husband Von Teese touches on the subject are good friends now (he even blurbed in her book, Your Beauty Mark: The her book). “We have a lot in common, Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour, I feel,” she says. “But we had a lot of published in 2015. “It was about differences as well. creating beauty He is someone and glamour who doesn’t want from a different to reference his perspective,” past. He doesn’t she says. “Like want to be who he Sports Illustrated was from Ohio. swimsuit models I think people — I don’t look like seeing a part of that. I’ll never look shy Heather Sweet like that. That’s from Michigan the kind of beauty is an important that modern part of what I do. media holds in I’m not trying to high regard. And be a completely I’m not like that. different person.” So I thought, Von Teese well, I can have says she still other symbols of visits Michigan sensuality and A young Heather Sweet, from West occasionally. beauty that are Branch. COURTESY PHOTO (Mackinac Island’s more creative. So Grand Hotel, she says, is “one of her that’s why I always loved pin-up and burlesque, and I think that’s something favorite places on the planet.”) Before our phone call is over, we have one that other women are getting the last question — what’s the best gift a message that I got from finding other man could get a woman for Valentine’s idols of beauty and glamour and Day? “Tickets to my show,” Von Teese sensuality.” deadpans. So you could say Dita Von Teese is a But then her tone softens, and creation of Heather Sweet — the Holly suddenly Heather Sweet appears. “I Golightly to her Lulamae Barnes. Does just like doing fun things with my that make her an artist, then? Von friends. Like, get us tickets for the Teese isn’t going to call herself one. “I roller rink, or let’s go have a dinner, don’t mind if other people call me an or let’s plan things,” she says. “I don’t artist, but I’m certainly not going to do want people to spend money on things. it,” she says. “It’s too pretentious!” Let’s do things that matter that create Like other Midwestern artists, experiences and moments. That’s the though, Von Teese has reinvented kind of gift I would want to get from herself not unlike the way that, my boyfriend.” say, John Gillis became Jack White, She deadpans again: “Or a big fat Marshall Mathers became Eminem, diamond. I mean, you know, we all do Robert Ritchie became Kid Rock, what we can, right?” Joe Bruce and Joey Utsler became Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, or even Doors at 7:30 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 how Madonna Louise Ciccone simply Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-961-5451; became Madonna. thefillmoredetroit.com; tickets are $35Or Brian Hugh Warner from $100. Canton, Ohio — better known as Marilyn Manson, to whom Von Teese ldevito@metrotimes.com was briefly married in the mid-2000s. @leedevito Eventually, Von Teese filed for divorce,
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SHOP WHERE YOUR BUSINESS MATTERS
Mount n Repair AFFORDABLE LUXURY
S I LV E R
JEWELRY
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
Mount n Repair METRO DETROIT’S LARGEST SELECTION OF STERLING SILVER JEWELRY 205 PIERCE ST | BIRMINGHAM | 248.647.8670 M O U N T N R E PA I R . C O M metrotimes.com
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GIFT GUIDE My funny Valentine 7 gump gifts that’ll make your beloved grin by Alysa Offman
The idea that
Valentine’s Day is some ultra romantic holiday that inspires women to purchase expensive lingerie and cavort around in feather boas to the pleasure of their male paramours seems so… blithe and, quite frankly, passe. These days the Hallmark holiday is either blatantly ignored by lovers or given the goofy treatment by folks who just like to give a gift every once in awhile. Luckily, the number of peculiar presents out there are tantamount to innumerable. Here’s a list of some lighthearted gifts we plan to share with our lovers this Feb. 14. Lose Yourself valentine, $4.68 This Eminem-themed card is perfect for your pop culture-loving lover who’s remained a Slim Shady fan throughout the years. Surprisingly, this Valentine isn’t made in the U.S. — you’d have to import it all the way from Perth, Australia, where it’s produced by a little company called Greet Yo Self. The card is blank inside but for a little less than a dollar, the company will print a personal message inside. Passing through a screen door cross stitch, $20 Like many millennials, there is a chance your boo thang is still enduring a prolonged affinity with pop punk, despite having matured beyond the scope of the music’s teen angst message. Detroit native Carmen Bojanowski cross stitches the lyrics to some of the genre’s most prolific tunes (including jams by New Found Glory, the Wonder Years, and Taking Back Sunday) while including some
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I hate everyone too oven mitt. STOCK PHOTO
whimsical floral flourishes that add a whole new level of nostalgia. The best part? Bojanowski also takes custom orders, so if you and your betrothed share a love for a particular song, she can craft a special cross stitch just for you. You can find her works in her Etsy shop, xStitchesandStones. I hate everyone too oven mitt, $12 Not every Valentine’s Day gift has to be for someone you (hope to) bang. This oven mitt — the likes of which can be purchased at Glow Fish Studios, Wyandotte’s emporium of all things whimsical and a little bit snarky — can be given to that girlfriend with whom you love to commiserate. It’s a little nostalgic, totally cute, and won’t break the bank. Glow Fish also carries other styles, including a bubble gum pink version that couples the words “I’ve got a knife” with a retro drawing of the perfect housewife.
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Passing through a screen door cross stitch. COURTESY PHOTO
Let’s get weird motel-style keychain, $6 When discussing Eastern Market’s newest retail incarnation, Well Done Goods, it’s hard to keep from stepping into fangirl territory, but we will give it a go. Bethany Shorb stocks all sorts of fun and offbeat gifts that your paramour will love — we just picked out this vintage motelstyle keychain because the message is so romantic. You’ll find other Valentine-friendly incarnations that read, “Wine me, dine me, 69,” and “Bite me,” plus 27 other versions, some of which would be great to give to friends (‘Nasty Woman” and “Best Fucking Friends”) this Feb. 14. Heart mug, $15 Who says Valentine’s Day has to be all about red and pink and metaphorically shaped hearts? If you don’t have time for any of that sappy ass bullshit, give the one you love this anatomically correct heart mug and call it a day. They’ll appreciate your unconventional take on the whole “day of love” thing, but will also be secretly wondering if that means you just gave them your heart. Aw! You can pick up this mug at Well Done Goods in Eastern Market.
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Butt-naked JKM candle, $16 According to Jenny Rustokowski, the creator and stay-at-home mom behind JKM Candles, the Butt Naked candle is “a combination of tropical fruits, sandy beaches, and tanning lotion — scents that might make you want to be ‘butt naked.’” We suggest giving one to your swain as a subtle indication of how you’d like to spend the evening. You can buy one off the JKM website or pick one up are her various stockists around town — City Bird, Kitty Deluxe, Rail and Anchor, Poesy, and the Eyrie to name a few. Glass action stained glass night light, $105 Full disclosure, a friend once commissioned Carey Gustafson to make a custom night light in the likeness of my husband and I and it is still one of my most treasured household items. I keep it in my bathroom, and after guests exit the potty they almost always comment on its glory. Gustafson, the one-woman show that is Glass Action, crafts these glass effigies inside her Ferndale inhome studio and if the price seems exorbitant for a night light, consider she constructs and paints them all by hand, plus this is something you’re likely to keep for a lifetime. She also crafts jewelry, cake toppers, and other speciality items. Check out her goods on her Etsy page, etsy.com/ shop/GlassAction.
Let’s get weird motel-style keychain. COURTESY PHOTO
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Shake Shack’s downtown Detroit location, slated to open soon. TOM PERKINS
Bistro bubble
Is downtown Detroit’s restaurant scene oversaturated? by Tom Perkins
Like the larger landscape,
downtown Detroit’s foodscape looks much different than it did five or six years ago. To get an idea of just how far the restaurant scene has come, drive down Michigan Avenue in Corktown and count the number of restaurants that weren’t there in 2011. Do the same in and around the Cass Corridor or downtown, and consider that the whole area was, not too long ago, considered by some to be a food desert. And, as in the previous few years, the restaurant scene is expected to continue shifting, growing, multiplying, and blooming in 2017. Just look at the list of establishments preparing to come online: Prime + Proper, Flowers of Vietnam, Lady of the House, Gather, Wilda’s, Atomic Chicken, and on and on.
Indeed, there’s something of a gold rush playing out, but there’s also discussion in the bars and bistros about Detroit’s restaurateurs pumping a soon-to-burst “restaurant bubble.” The theory, in short, is that seats are outpacing demand. For nearly 50 years, Detroit’s population declined. It’s only in recent years that the city managed to turn that ship around, so it’s worth asking whether there’s a critical mass of residents who can support so many new eateries. Could 2017 be the year that restaurants that opened to so much fanfare two or three years ago start dropping? Is the bubble real? Or is it a crackpot theory? We asked some of Detroit’s restaurateurs to weigh in on the topic, and received a range of responses. Mabel Gray owner James Rigato
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views it as not so much of an oversaturation of restaurants, but a lack of quality, original ideas, and execution in many of the new ventures. “There’s a formula that a lot of people are following: How many restaurants are going to open up and rip off Selden Standard’s menu?” he says. “We’re starting to see a rinse and repeat, and this multiplicity is going to get dumber and dumber, and it’s a poorer version of its original form. Every time a good restaurant opens up, a few shitty ones open up, so it’s not ‘too many restaurants,’ but a lack of quality.” Jessi Nigl is a former manager at Selden Standard and Slow’s, and bartended at the Detroiter and Nancy Whiskey’s in the 1990s, long before downtown’s revival. She says some of the older restaurants, and perhaps
some of the institutions, are perhaps most vulnerable. “The bulk of the business models previously lived and died on sporting events, summer festivals, and those sorts of things, and that’s not really true anymore for downtown restaurants,” she says. “But older restaurants that people see as out of date and irrelevant could potentially close. I don’t know if there’s room for new restaurants to reinvent and reoccupy those businesses. It seems like there will be given the demand for residential property. Detroit is at full occupancy — there’s no room in the inn.” Dave Kwiatkowski says that’s a situation that developers are addressing. His group, the Detroit Optimist Society, opened Wright & Co., Sugar House, Bad Luck, and more. He’s also
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FOOD ‘For the first time, suburban people are looking at Detroit as a better place to go out to eat than the suburbs.’ planning several new projects, so the “too many restaurants” question is one he says he regularly ponders. But he notes demand to live downtown is still strong, Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services is turning its attention to housing, and residential projects are in the works. He also sees evidence of sustainability in his books. Sugar House’s revenues used to be split 50-50 between Friday and Saturday nights and the rest of the week. Friday and Saturday now account for 40 percent of his revenues, and the split is continuing to trend that direction. “I attribute it partly to greater awareness of the bar, but mostly to more people living downtown, and what keeps you open is your Monday crowd, your Tuesday crowd, and crowd during the weekdays, and I think that’s really growing for us,” Kwiatkowski says. “That helps me sleep at night.” Sweet Lorraine’s owner Lorraine Platman ran a restaurant out of the Millender Center between 2002 and 2009 before opening several locations in the burbs. She returned to the city last year with Sweet Lorraine’s Fabulous Mac n’ Brewz near Wayne State University. Platman says she partly left the city because investors had a grip on the best downtown property and wouldn’t sell or lease to her. The only unfortunate byproduct to the boom she finds is its impact on the employee pool, which is presenting a new challenge. But in terms of volume, she’s serving more and more new customers downtown. “The amount of people living in Detroit wouldn’t be able to sustain amount of growth in the restaurant industry, but it’s attracting people from the suburbs to Detroit,” Plattman says. “For the first time, suburban people are looking at Detroit as a better place to go out to eat than the suburbs.” Kwiatkowski also sees an effect on customer service. “Great places will stay great and maintain their customer base, but at the same time, when you have a lot of new places opening, everyone is
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fighting for the same slice of pie, and that’s definitely forcing us to step up our game and provide phenomenal customer service,” he says. “It’s an important and healthy part of the development of a dining scene, and this is sort of a revitalization of it. I think we will see a lot of mid-level guys falling to the wayside.” Rigato says it’s up to customers to decide which restaurants that may include. “It’s a call to arms to the diners,” he says. “Do a little research and hold restaurants accountable. Support the restaurants you believe in, and vote with your dollars.” In the West Village — where restaurants like Rose’s Fine Food, Craftwork, Detroit Vegan Soul, and Red Hook are going strong — Nigl sees the best of the local restaurant industry’s growth. “That’s the first neighborhood that doesn’t have the benefit of being real close to downtown that has successfully created a little district for members of their community to enjoy,” she says. “When you’re in those establishments, look around: 75 percent of the people are from the neighborhood.” Larry Mongo, owner of Café D’Mongo’s, offers a different perspective. He says satisfaction with the number of restaurants downtown is a product of the city’s ingrained bluecollar way of thinking. Detroiters shouldn’t tolerate limited options, Mongo says, and he recalls the days of 1950s and 1960s Detroit, when he used to “follow the smells” of good food around downtown. “We need 40 more restaurants in Detroit,” he says. “I used to travel just to eat. Go to Toronto, Montreal, Paris, Amsterdam, or Cancun before it became a resort town. Every 20 steps you go in here or go upstairs there, because there’s some place to eat. “If we’re going to grow, we need to change the way we think, and change our taste buds.”
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Boombap. TOM PERKINS
Heat of the moment
Japanese eatery brings new flavors to Corktown by Jane Slaughter
You could argue that the short
strip of Michigan Avenue in Corktown needed another restaurant like it needed a pothole in the street. But that’s not how capitalism works. Money flocks to where money is already succeeding, competition increases, some entrepreneurs are driven out, the cycle repeats. Of course, as patrons of said restaurants, we can just stand back and enjoy the fray. Let the barbecue, the pasta, the scallops and burgers and scones duke it out for customers on Michigan Ave. If udon noodles can give any of them a run for the money, more power to them. From its debut the first week of January, chef-owner Mike Ransom’s Ima was already doing so, packing in a young crowd even without a drop of alcohol on the premises (a license is hoped for by spring when the patio opens). It’s hard to say the spot’s name without thinking of the unfortunate Ima Hogg, daughter of a Texas governor of the last century. But Ransom says “eema,” meaning “now” in Japanese — or “in the moment,” he says. Ima is small, with two long communal tables and blond-wood counters with high stools along three sides. It’s a bit crowded — we wished we weren’t nose to nose with the white cinderblock
wall — but popularity is a good thing. Starters are edamame; a romaine salad with refreshing jicama and pretty circles of paper-thin radish, in a green goddess dressing; and cold tacos of wakame (dried seaweed) slaw and shiso in an impossibly delicate jicama shell. One blogger wrote about the taste of shiso leaf, “Herbaceous? Citrusy? A hint of mint? Or is that basil? I might say cilantro...” Whatever, it works with the green chili hot sauce that reminded us of wasabi; we added shrimp and were satisfied. The salad too was substantial and gratifying, with cubes of avocado. Main dishes are based on either udon or rice. I am prejudiced in favor of udon anything (or bucatini or spaghettoni); I like the slurpability of the long, thick strands, and the Japanese make some mighty good soups to show them off in. So does Ransom. His vegan forest udon is intensely mushroomy, made with both porcini broth and smoked trumpets, plus garlic oil and sheets of nori (pulped and dried seaweed). It’s hard to make the texture of tofu appealing, but the smoked triangles in my bowl stayed unleathery for quite a while. Tori (chicken) udon is more complex — it’s got levels of smoky flavors in its bone broth, and uses the bird’s egg as well as its meat. Other udons are a
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vegetarian curry and a spicy pork in miso-ginger broth. Though I was quite happy with the udons, on my next visit I took a long time to decide among the four rice options; each sounded perfect. Finally settling on “boombap,” a version of Korean bibimbap, and adding ginger beef for an extra $3, I tasted each element separately first, arrayed neatly around the edge of the pretty bowl, before swirling them into the mix that bibimbap is supposed to be. Each was flawless on its own and even better with its friends. Pickle slices were ultra-thin; they’re made in-house by processing cucumber in rice vinegar and mirin in a vacuum seal machine, for just 10 seconds. Slaw was made of cabbage and wakame rehydrated in dashi broth. Shiitakes were musky, and the crispedged fried egg helped them all to play nicely together; a not-super-hot chili sauce did the same. My companion offered a bit of her house-smoked salmon over rice, and we agreed that the smoke was ultrasubtle, the texture silky. It came with a sesame and yuzu (citrus) sauce, and radish sprouts offered a little counterpoint bite. I’ll order this next time. The other rice bowls are barbecued eel and curry with a choice of protein. One night we shared a $5 pot of gen-
Ima
2015 Michigan Ave., Corktown, Detroit 313-502-5959 imanoodles.com Handicap accessible 5 p.m.–10 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday Noodle and rice bowls $10-$14
maicha (green tea made with roasted brown rice), flavored with ginger. I liked the ginger but it seemed a tiny bit of unnecessary sweetener had been added. Another night my friend asked for iced cappuccino and it turned out to be a mini-can of Mr. Brown brand, from Taiwan, tasting like chocolate milk. Other beverages are the ubiquitous Mexican Coke (I believe U.S. Coke would get a restaurateur expelled from Corktown) and Topo Chico mineral water. The one dessert is vegan: mandarin orange slices in vanilla tofu custard, with mint. It’s light — just OK — nothing to order a second time. Ransom says his idea was to make the restaurant appealing to all sorts of diners by starting some of the dishes vegetarian and letting meat-eaters add as they chose. Any dish can be enhanced with tofu, smoked pork, garlic chicken, chili shrimp, ginger beef, mushrooms, or an egg. Quite a few choices are vegan too. A former Corktown resident, Ransom is happy to be back. Me too. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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Bites:
Cafe D’Mongo’s owner talks new hours, ‘high end’ second story concept by Tom Perkins Larry Mongo and Cafe D’Mongo’s manager, Christine Passerini.
Few spaces in Detroit are as well-loved as the little corner of downtown Larry Mongo created in Café D’Mongo’s Speakeasy. After reopening 10 years ago, the quirky but still accessible bar is nearly iconic, yet still feels like sort of a secret. The latter is partly the result of it only opening Thursday through Saturday evenings, and, naturally, everyone wants more of a good thing. Good news: Mongo tells MT that extended weekend hours are likely this year. He declined to offer more details but did say he doesn’t expect to be open seven days a week. “I’m retired,” Mongo says. “I’m happy with my life. I’ve been working since I was 14. I was married at 18, and I’m still with the same wife. I’ll be 67 in March. It’s time to enjoy what they promised me as a young person. I want to spend more time with my wife — quality time. “I don’t care if I’ll make $1 million — I’m not opening more than a few days.” So what does that mean? Mongo says to stay tuned for more news. And while we’re talking about
Cafe D’Mongo’s rumors, we’ve been hearing that the club will expand to the building’s now largely unused second story and rooftop. Not so, says Mongo. Instead, he plans to lease the 1,700-square-foot space to a group of investors who envision a “high end” exclusive concept. Mongo says he is bound by a confidentially agreement and remains tight-lipped on details. “I own my building,” he says. “Certain people visited this space, and they have this confidence in Detroit … and they made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. I like the people who I’m going to partner with, and they made me an offer I couldn’t say no to. “That’s it. I can’t tell you more. If I do, then I’ll get sued and sued. They’ll have my body in court even after I die.” No one wants to see his corpse in court, so we’ll respect his wishes and wait for an official announcement, but it appears 2017 is shaping up to be a big year for the D’Mongo’s family. And all that comes after a highly successful conclusion to 2016. In November, Mongo, his wife, Dianne,
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TOM PERKINS
and Sanford Nelson, a customerturned-friend and business partner, launched a grilled cheese menu that far exceeded expectations in popularity — they grill around 100 sandwiches each evening. Sanford selects the bread and cheeses from Avalon and DeVries, respectively, and the simple menu is composed of two fixed items and a weekly special. The fixed options include the “government cheese” made with American and challah; and the “White Boy Rick” made with fontina, white cheddar, and Havarti on white bread. Each comes with tomato soup, ranch, an old-style pickle, and an apple slice. A recent special was the Red Hot Chili Pepper (in celebration of the band’s show at Joe Louis Arena on Feb. 2, and their rumored Feb. 3 visit to D’Mongo’s). It’s made with habanero jack cheese, jalapeño Havarti, and guacamole between two pieces of farm bread, and is delicious. “My wife has always told me about pairing these different cheese varieties … and she and Sanford started pairing
all them and they were good,” Mongo says. “I had no idea! Then I come to my club one day and (Sanford) is standing there with a big, giant grill, and he said ‘I talked to your wife. I’m cooking grilled cheese,’ and I just sort of looked at him. “But I swear this thing is taking off. I had no idea that grilled cheese was that popular! The only time I seen one before is the lockup in jail, and I didn’t like it.” Also in November, a portrait of Mongo shot by Detroit photographers Chris and Michelle Gerard was included in a collection of large photos in the Fisher Building arcade meant to honor the city’s “everyday heroes.” How’d Mongo react to being labeled an “everyday hero?” “I looked at my wife and kissed her and told her ‘thank you,’” he says. “My wife made me who I am. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
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El Club.
SARAH RAHAL
Quick service
A recap of our latest restaurant reviews by MT staff El Club/Pepe Z’s 4114 W. Vernor Hwy, Detroit; 313-4361793; elclubdetroit.com You’re probably going to El Club for the music, not the food — but Matt Ziolkowski wants to change that. The sculptor-guitarist-drummer-singer, who as his chef persona goes by “Pepe Z,” was recruited to run the kitchen at the nine-month-old club on the basis of 20 years of home practice perfecting the pizza art. The kitchen and bar are open daily and starting at 5 p.m., not just when the music is on; the idea is to make the place a part of the community. Thus, it’s hosted events like vinyasa yoga one Sunday in December, or a Thanksgiving meal for those without resources. Happy hour will get you a pizza and two beers for $12. — Jane Slaughter Avalon Hearth and Soul Cafe and Kitchen 120 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; 734-2632996; avalonbreads.net The offshoot from the popular Willis Street bakery and cafe opened in late 2016 with a full liquor license and a seven-day breakfast-lunch-anddinner menu that draws heavily on the organic-flour breads that have made Avalon a mainstay in Detroit. All breads and pastries are prepared in the company’s eastside bakehouse and trucked west in the small hours. Jackie Victor’s new Avalon Hearth and Soul Café makes a commitment to “organic ingredients when possible, local ingredients whenever feasible, and environmentally friendly practices at every opportunity.” Ann Arbor is a “hotbed of farms and young farmers,” chef Maggie Long says. “Jackie took everything she does in Detroit and just moved it here. Except that now she has a restaurant.” — Jane Slaughter
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Ye Olde Saloon 1023 S. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-5425900 At a dive bar, you might expect that most of the food comes out of the deep fryer — and there are a few fried things, including the bacon on a stick and a Scotch egg served with tater tots, but it’s not the majority of the menu. In fact, a lot of Ye Olde’s offerings are made in-house, which is a big part of why they’re so good. Ye Olde also serves a great burger using fresh ground beef bought from Eastern Market. Take your pick of several special burgers, or you can order it how you like from a somewhat overwhelming list of toppings. On Sundays, the job of ordering is made easier, as the bartender will hand you a checklist order form for your burger, available for a lower price — and therefore twice as tasty. We always prefer raw onions, pickles, and mustard, but your mileage may vary. — Aaron Egan Cafe Succo 304 N. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-2120555 and 600 N. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham; 248-385-5705; cafesucco. com With two stores, one in Birmingham, the other in Royal Oak, Cafe Succo calls itself a “energizing, guilt-free eatery” dedicated to “invigorating your body and leaving you with a healthy feeling.” The Birmingham store has an industrial-strength cold-press juicer and offers one-, two-, or three-day “cleanse packages” made up solely of juices and shots of wheat grass and ginger. We tried a 20-ounce bottle of Uplift for $11 — carrots, red apple, ginger, and lemon — and found to our delight that you could taste each ingredient distinctly. They also offer sandwiches, of which there is a
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FOOD vegetarian option, açai bowls, salads, smoothies, and soups. — Jane Slaughter Parc 800 Woodward Ave., Campus Martius Park, Detroit; 313-922-7272; parcdetroit. com Well-heeled diners will find fresh flowers and heavy white linens, glowing candles in old-fashioned candlesticks, courtly if modern, ever-present service — teams of servers, mostly male — and a “unicorn list” of special wines ranging from $500 to $6,000 a bottle at Campus Martius’ new fine dining establishment. Though prices are high — pasta $18-$38, reserve steaks running $27 for petite to $112 for 40 ounces — lucky early diners could also find bottles of wine starting at $24. A careful couple could get out of Parc for less than $100. If they skipped dessert. — Jane Slaughter O.W.L. 27302 Woodward Ave., Royal Oak; 248808-6244 There’s little to complain about at O.W.L., where you’ll find a good greasy spoon-style burger alongside Mexicaninspired options, but we’ve heard folks say the food’s price is on the high end for a diner. But I dismiss that as people in the Midwest still failing to understand that — as with everything under the sun — one has to pay a little more for well-designed plates and new flavors. Most of the menu is under $10, and it sure beats whatever your neighborhood Sysco peddler is offering for $2 less. So pay the extra couple bucks. It’s worth the wait to get into the parking lot. — Tom Perkins Al Saha 14246 W. Warren Ave., Dearborn; 313908-7807; alsaharestaurant.com It’s hospitality in simple acts that signal the food here is to be enjoyed. There’s nothing on the menu to really surprise anyone. It’s the staples of regional cuisine you see at most any similar place: kebabs, shawarma, grape leaves, hummus, and a particularly refreshing lemonade slush. The offerings at Al Saha are simply executed with care and love, and that enables them to offer a better plate of food to each and every guest. The hummus is silky smooth, sieved and worked into a flavor-rich accompaniment to everything on the menu. Order a dish and keep it around to dip your shawarma, sandwich, kefta, or just the stray pita that you’re bound to keep eating. The fried kibbee came highly
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recommended, and did not disappoint — but we also suggest considering the kibbee nayee, which fulfills our love of tartare and carpaccio in yet another delightful manner. — Aaron Egan Maru Sushi 160 Fort St., Detroit; 313-315-3100; marurestaurant.com/detroit Detroit’s is the fifth Maru in Michigan by owner Robert Song and executive chef Moon Yang, who began their empire in Okemos in 2009. Occupying the ground floor of the Federal Reserve Building with its floor-to-ceiling glass on Fort Street, it’s spacious and airy and already filling up on weekend nights. Decor featuring abstract splashes of paint high above the dining room signal that this is not your grandmother’s intimate teahouse. Of course, most of our grandmothers didn’t eat sushi. We had to learn to love eel sauce and tobiko on our own. Maru Sushi attempts to wow the diner with every roll, and succeeds. Portions are large, and ingredients like bacon, guacamole, and deep-fried sweet potato shout “go for it!” — Jane Slaughter Whiskey Six 646 St. Clair Ave., Grosse Pointe; 313939-2403; thewhiskeysix.com Casual fare is the best option at Whiskey Six, and in an area where dining seems to lean toward a long evening of drinking and snacking rather than a short meal, it’s important to have a good offering of what’s currently popular to call “small plates.” The Whiskey Six advises on its menu that you can order one or two to snack on, or make a meal out of several plates. It’s not the worst approach, and probably makes you eat less than you might if you coursed out with entrees and appetizers. The lamb sliders drew attention from early visits, and are perennially tasty. It’s the familiar flavors: pickled onions and tzatziki sauce on a little bun. The rice balls are a good choice with light and hoppy beers, and the poutine and loaded chips are perfect for that late night, several-beers-in starchy craving. There’s not a lot of revolutionary food on the menu — the Brussels sprouts dish is the same dish you find all over the Detroit area these days, for example, but it’s solid food for what amounts to a big neighborhood bar. — Aaron Egan
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MUSIC Dance to the beat of ESG
The most-sampled group you’ve never heard of headlines El Club’s Almost Human fest by Ana Gavrilovska
ESG today. COURTESY PHOTO
The year is 1980 and Renee Scroggins is watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “I was amazed at the part where they communicate with the alien ship with music,” Renee says. “I started looking out my window in the projects and wondered what it would be like if the ship landed in our playground area.” Thus was born “UFO,” a song you have almost assuredly heard at some point in your life, whether you knew it or not. Scroggins is original vocalist and de facto leader of ESG, a group of sisters that formed one of the most influential post-punk/funk/no wave bands to emerge out of New York in the early
’80s. ESG stood for Emerald, Sapphire, and Gold — two of their birthstones, plus the status they hoped to reach with their records. The sisters — Renee, Valerie, Debo-
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rah, and Marie Scroggins — originally started playing music to stay off the South Bronx streets and out of trouble. Their mother saw great potential in what music could do for them, so she got the money to buy her daughters some instruments. Then she held them to a weekly performance schedule in order to keep their practice consistent; sure enough, her encouragement and persistence paid off, and they were eventually discovered at a talent show by Ed Bahlman, founder of the shortlived and influential downtown New York City label 99 Records (Liquid Liquid, Glenn Branca). To form in New York in the early ’80s is to be at the epicenter of so much, and
yet ESG were able to forge something completely their own. As much as that was the case, they also happened to fit right into the arty no-wave dance punk scene that was having its heyday at the time; the ESG sound, bare bones yet pulsing with rhythm, the most genuine mixture of punk and funk imaginable, became vital not only in New York but the U.K. as well, thanks to the fact that three of their earliest studio songs were produced by post-punk producer Martin Hannett, while the 7-inch “You’re No Good” was released by associated British label Factory Records (Joy Division, New Order, Magazine). The group’s unique music was deeply influenced by the neighborhood they
MUSIC grew up in. Latin sounds would trickle in through their windows on warm summer nights; instruments like maracas, bongos, and congas were naturally absorbed into their songs. On top of that, the deeply funky grooves of James Brown made a lasting impression, particularly — and somewhat obviously — with regard to both the importance and prominence of the drums and bass. But ESG was also heavily influenced by a part of music history in Detroit: Motown. The girls were enthralled by the Jackson 5 on TV and loved virtually everything they heard from the prolific label. Detroit, in turn, equally loves the band. One of the more famous instances of the “UFO” sample includes the late local hip-hop legend J Dilla’s track “Geek Down”; garage heroes the Dirtbombs covered “My Love For You,” which also happens to be the favorite ESG track of Casual Sweetheart drummer Dina Bankole (also of Skinny Wrists, Secret Twins, and Seraphine Collective), who told us, “I first heard the Dirtbombs’ version and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was an ESG song. It’s just such a dancey, Motown-y, groovy, funkified jam.” The band’s influence on Detroit casts a wider net than through samples and covers too, well-articulated by Dave Buick (Third Man Records, the Go, Feelings, Italy Records) when he says, “Every time I don’t play anything on my bass when most people would add a ton of goofy unnecessary notes and crap, I am covering ESG.” ESG, of course, is important not just because of what they sound like, but who they are. “Legendary, pioneering, and most importantly women-led, ESG at its core is a band of all black women,” Bankole says. “As a black woman myself, they are a band I particularly revere and look up to. Visibility is so important. A lot of people don’t realize just how important it is to see people who look just like you do their thing in the spotlight, especially when you’re female and brown. In the ‘America’ we currently find ourselves in, it’s become even harder to just be if you’re female and even more so if you’re brown, let alone female and brown. I’m so glad that ESG is still doing its thing.” As much as their music was embraced by certain sectors, however, the larger world never really quite gave ESG their due. Sure, their sound made perfect sense in the arty avenues of post-punk, but thanks to the four otherworldly guitar notes of “UFO” that
have now been sampled over 450 times, they were unwittingly thrown into the hip-hop sphere as well, with everyone from the Notorious B.I.G. and Public Enemy to Mobb Deep and MF Doom having sampled “UFO.” The song is so singular, so strange, that samples have truly popped up everywhere — from Miles Davis to Nine Inch Nails to Liars and Prefuse 73. Amid all this sampling, the original creators were left in the dust. In 1992, ESG made their feelings loud and clear with an EP titled Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills; here they were, toiling away at their day jobs while artists sampled their work left and right without permission or payment. It left quite a bitter taste, but some of the sourness has since dissipated as a company was eventually hired to help them track down royalties owed throughout the years. The process has been successful, but not without its challenges. Throughout all this, the band never stopped making and performing music in various incarnations. Apart from the quintessential early singles, various just-as-necessary works have come out, including two albums and two compilations in the 2000s on London-based label Soul Jazz Records and their most recent album, 2013’s self-released Closure. In addition to that, a documentary about the history of ESG (which will also give a glimpse into recording and touring) is in the works, which Renee hopes to get off the ground this year. ESG continues to tour the world over, bringing their Latin-influenced polyrhythms and minimalistic funk to new and old audiences alike, landing in Detroit at the inaugural Barely Human Festival at El Club on Feb. 10. The band began as a family affair and continues so to this day; the incarnation at Barely Human will include original vocalist Renee, joined by her daughter Nicole (who has been playing bass and doing background vocals for 18-plus years), son Nicholas (who has been doing percussion/back vocals for seven years), and a cousin on drums. In advance of the performance, Metro Times spoke with Renee about the legacy of the band, her experience in the music industry, and more. Metro Times: What was it like as a black woman making music in the ’80s in the South Bronx? Renee Scroggins: In most cases it was actually an advantage, but every now and then I would run into a club promoter or stage manager that was really sexist or racist. Coming from
the South Bronx, and how my mother brought us up, I did not allow them to disrespect us! MT: You have spoken a few times in the past couple years about not performing, but you’re back out again. I hope this is because you’re feeling well? How does your body handle the work these days? Scroggins: This year is our 39th year performing (maybe next year at 40 should be it) but people want to hear the music and it truly gives me great pleasure to perform. I had to have surgery on one knee, and even after surgery, it still gives me a little trouble now and then. I am feeling OK, and hope to stay in good health. MT: What is like to have been a family band your entire life? What does family mean to you? What was it like to be pregnant while in the band? Scroggins: It is very hard to work with your family because you will have disagreements and that can be hard to deal with if you are touring. Family to me means love, and someone that always has your back. It was not a big issue being pregnant in the band once I got over the morning sickness. MT: What’s your own favorite ESG song? Scroggins: I actually have two: “Everything Goes” from the Keep on Moving album and “You Did Me Wrong” from the Closure album. MT: As the creator of one of the most heavily sampled songs in music history, can you tell me a little bit about what it is like to see people hear this song, which they recognize from somewhere else, being performed by the original musicians? Scroggins: It was an interesting experience. I had no problem until somebody would say to me, “You’re playing this artist’s song,” and I would tell them, “No, he is playing my song!” MT: How do you feel about the way ESG was embraced by the worlds of punk and art? Scroggins: I loved it. It certainly took us into a different world. MT: I read that you don’t like the term no wave. Why not? What do you think of post-punk and all the other terms that get applied to your music? Scroggins: I just don’t like labels. I consider our music dance music, if we have to use terms or labels.
MT: What do you yourself think was so distinctive about the ESG sound? Scroggins: It was just simple vocals, bass, drums, and percussion with a pinch of guitar here and there. I think that’s what keeps it so timeless. MT: How successful have you been at hunting down money owed to you via sampling? Scroggins: It’s much better now. When it first occurred we did not have laws that protected this issue. I don’t like reflecting on the sampling as sometimes it’s still a problem. MT: Have you ever personally spoken with anyone who has sampled you? Do you have any positive memories about connecting with any artists that have sampled your work? Scroggins: Yes I did, and he thought it was amusing. That turned out to be a real “colorful” conversation. I have not had any positive experiences with anyone that has sampled my work. MT: Can you discuss your favorite tour story that stands out in your mind? Scroggins: We were in a small city in Spain and we were hungry after our performance. Our tour guide family had a restaurant there, and they opened it for us and fed us, but everyone in the band had to sing show tunes, and the tour guide and her family did too! I have never in my life had so much fun. That will stay in my memories forever. MT: What is your relationship with the city of Detroit? Scroggins: We have played Detroit twice before, but it has been quite awhile. Of course I have Detroit influences — the Motown sound! I grew up listening to the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas … I would have to name about every performer on the label. MT: What can we expect to see at your performance at El Club? Scroggins: You can expect to have a good time and dance! ESG hits El Club for Barely Human Festival with Casual Sweetheart, Paint Thinner, and more on Friday, February 10th; music at 8 p.m.; 4114 Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com; $20 advance, $25 door, $50 three-day-passes.
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MUSIC Beep squeak hum squawk 10 reasons to not miss John Bender at El Club this weekend by David Shettler 1. He was first. That minimal electric body music that has all the cool/weird kids wandering blind through fog to envelope their hearts with distorted waves pulled toward some cosmic magnet? The ever present drug-like drive to spend your hard-earned tip money and overseas medical industry plasma payout on euro-crack synth modules to make your 16-step sequences sound weirder? Bender did it first, on his own terms. Minimal, abstract, beautiful. A pioneer. 2. He’s not faking it. At a time when the monster polyphonic keyboards were becoming the norm, Bender took out a $2,400 loan to obtain an ARP 2600 and EML 401 in order get the most bent microtonal riffs you’ve ever heard (He passed on the Prophet 5). When drum machines were reaching their plateau (808, Linn), he made his beats with the same hodgepodge electronics. 3. He only recently started performing after a 30-year hiatus. Right around when Bender started a family in the mid- to late 1980s, he stored his synths in a closet and settled into an honorable life as a father and therapist. His return to form was spurred by a rediscovery of his music by the minimal outsiders coming up in the golden age of synthesizers we’re now experiencing. 4. Those dubbed-out vocals Ever wonder where the muddy, echoed, psychedelic vocals movement began? Dub. Then Bender. He’s on record saying he was heavily influenced by dub when it came to vocals, back in the 1970s. 5. He was his own label. Bender released three albums via his DIY label Record Sluts at the height of corporate excess in the music indus-
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The only available press image for John Bender is a tiny selfie. COURTESY PHOTO
try. He sent the art objects to zines in hopes of review. He sold them, in person, to record stores that dealt in “imports” around the Midwest. Coming off Frampton Comes Alive, Star Wars, and all manner of success-based expansion of corporate control over the arts, Bender strived for fierce independence even if that meant stamping his own card stock covers or executing elaborate production experiments involving cellophane and plaster of Paris. 6. A sense of unpredictability Bender has admitted to never performing without some sort of technical difficulty, planned or otherwise. If you’re all in for some flashy, puttogether brain drain, then get to your local EDM festival to have your mind wiped clean of true live underground DIY art. If you want authentic, realtime execution of ideas centered on complexity and chaos, don’t miss this set. 7. He was (heavily) into krautrock before you. A list of acts that Bender dug when they were actually happening will make the Spotify playlist your romantic interest was so impressed with seem pedestrian. Velvet Underground, Can, Faust, Suicide, Pere Ubu, Swell Maps all held their sway with Bender’s inspiration decades before it was hip in the blogosphere. He famously covered a Faust song on his I Don’t Remember Now LP. When pressed for information on his father years ago, Max Bender shared how, growing up, his friends would often ask him why his dad had the vanity license plates NEU and NEU 2 in succession. 8. He opened for Nico. Bender is quick to declare his 10-minute set a disaster with some regret, but doesn’t forget to mention she wasn’t exactly on the positive side of put together either.
9. This is not your parents’ overlooked legend. Rediscovered folk-rock legend Rodriguez, fairly recently, captivated the minds of middle-aged white people in the United States who felt sub-conscious guilt over injustice and longed for a catchy tune and a captivating yet tragic story of a Mexican immigrant’s son who spoke to those guilts with psych-folk music that they felt like they had discovered themselves. This is not that. This is a man who made art because he had to. He made music and records that haven’t been overlooked because “success” eluded it. Success was wrought in the forging of his ideas. Bender remains the same man had no one outside of his family ever heard his music. This music was born from the fascination with progressive artistic achievement. The search for that “something new.” He continues this search to this day, posting sonic experiments on his SoundCloud almost weekly that rival the most abstract of sounds today’s patcher jacks are uploading. 10. Barely Human Fest If you’re not already on this trip you must be residing under a rock. ESG, Adult, Pylon, and many other colder, synthetic yet vibrant acts, all under one special Mexicantown roof through a $100,000 sound system, an imported Italian pizza oven, and Club Mate?! How could you miss it? (Full disclosure: My own band plays Saturday.) With this and Trip Metal Fest last year, I’m beginning to feel extra excited about this muchneeded trend for live music in Detroit. John Bender plays El Club for Barely Human Festival with Pylon and more on Sunday, Feb. 12; music at 8 p.m.; 4114 Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com; $20 advance, $25 door, $50 three-day-passes. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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MUSIC
Lady Gaga.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Recently added
Mark your calendars for these upcoming shows by MT staff
Tickets are now on sale for these events.
May 3, Royal Trux and Negative Approach at El Club; elclubdetroit.com; Tickets are $25 in advance.
Mar. 3, Barenaked Ladies at Motor City Sound Board; soundboarddetroit. com; Tickets are $50-$60.
May 12, Omar Souleyman and Black Lips at El Club; elclubdetroit. com; Tickets are $26 in advance.
Mar. 11, Patti Smith at Royal Oak Music; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $45-$75.
May 27-29, Movement Festival with Testpilot, Richie Hawtin, Carl Cox and dozens more, at Hart Plaza; movement.us; Three-day general admission passes are $155; VIP passes are sold out at the ‘Wave One’ level, but will soon be available at the ‘Wave Two’ price; ‘Club 313’ VIP three-day passes are $399.
Mar. 11, Dinosaur Jr. at St. Andrew’s Hall; standrewsdetroit.com; $25. Apr. 7, Modern English at the Loving Touch; lovingtouchferndale.com; Tickets are $20. Apr. 13, Suzanne Ciani at MOCAD; mocadetroit.org; Tickets are $12 ($7 for members). Apr. 21-22, John Waters’ birthday celebration at El Club; elclubdetroit. com; General admission is $40; special meet-and-greet VIP tickets are $75; breakfast with John Waters is $200. Apr. 24, PJ Harvey at Royal Oak Music; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $55-$99.50. Apr. 28, Testament at the Majestic Theatre; majesticdetroit.com; Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. Apr. 29, the Damned at Saint Andrew’s Hall; standrewsdetroit.com; $23.
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July 1, Steve Miller Band and Peter Frampton at Freedom Hill Amphitheatre; palacenet.com; Tickets are $29.50, $45, and $79.50. July 10, Deftones and Rise Against at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill; Tickets are $25.50 and $65.50. Aug. 1, Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart at DTE Energy Music Theatre; palacenet.com; Tickets are $26-$299. Nov. 7, Lady Gaga at the Little Caesars Arena; olympiaentertainment. com; Ticket prices to be announced; Tickets on sale Feb. 20 at 10 a.m. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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MUSIC
Livewire
This week’s suggested musical events by MT staff
SATURDAY, 2/11 Black Tiger Sex Machine @ Saint Andrews Hall
If you like how Daft Punk wears those masks while making your booty move around, then you’ll love Black Tiger Sex Machine. The Canadian electronic trio dons tiger masks fitted with LED lights that is synced to their music during performances. The group, which has been active since 2011, has performed at Lollapalooza, SXSW, Electric Forest, and more. They’ve brought their aggressive electro house to the world, and they’ve released 10 albums that have brought them a considerable amount of critical acclaim. 2016’s Welcome to Our Church didn’t disappoint, and fans will want to hear it live. Their last show in Detroit, at Populux, sold out pretty quickly. So those who want to go see the animalistic electronic trio live should make their plans soon. Doors open at 8 p.m.; 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; saintandrewsdetroit.com; Tickets are $20.
Black Tiger Sex Machine. COURTESY PHOTO
THURSDAY, 2/9
FRIDAY, 2/10
FRIDAY, 2/10
Pepper, Less Than Jake
Dirty Heads
Pokey LaFarge
@ Royal Oak Music Theatre
@ The Fillmore
@ The Ark
Pepper has been around since 1997, and has released seven pretty awesome alternative rock/ska albums in that time span. Since the Hawaiian band moved to the mainland, they’ve had a pretty spectacular career, and most people have probably heard them without recognizing them, since the band has been featured in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Good Luck Chuck, and some video game soundtracks. Their latest release, 2010’s Stitches EP, followed a two-year hiatus that brought a fantastic growth in songwriting to the EP.
From sunny California, the Dirty Heads are bringing their reggae fusion across the country. They’ve performed with O.A.R., Pepper, Kottonmouth Kings, and more. Since their inception in 2006 by Jared “Dirty J” Watson and Dustin “Duddy B” Bushnell, they’ve released five albums. Their major influences include Sublime and the Beastie Boys, but it’s all with their own twist on the alternative hip-hop/reggae genre. This show, presented by Cal & Co from 89X, is sure to rock.
Pokey LaFarge, born Andrew Heissler, grew up in Illinois immersing himself in Civil War and World War II history, and through his love of history, he developed an affinity for classic jazz and blues. After figuring out his way around guitars and mandolins, LaFarge developed his own modern brand of blues, jazz, and Western swing. His music is refreshingly current while classic at its heart. Seeing him life is sure to be a treat to all fans of the genre.
Doors open at 7 p.m.; 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; thefillmoredetroit.com; Tickets are $8.90-$70.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; theark.org; Tickets are sold out, but available through resellers.
Doors open at 6 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of.
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WEDNESDAY, 2/15 Craig Brown Band @ UFO Factory Craig Brown. COURTESY PHOTO
FRIDAY, 2/10
SATURDAY, 2/11
TUESDAY, 2/14
Perlon night
Dead Again
Aaron Carter
@ Marble Bar
@ Otus Supply
@ The Loving Touch
Sammy Dee first made his name known in his hometown of Berlin, where he began experimenting as a DJ. He’s considered a veteran of the electronic scene because he’s been with it for so long, but he’s as active and innovative as ever. Keith Kemp, a Detroiter, found inspiration from Skinny Puppy and Brian Eno in his youth, and from that point forward, he began to make experimental, technical electronic music. Kemp has focused not just on DJing, but on other aspects of electronic music as well, like manipulating computers, samplers, and synths.
Dead Again is easily the best Grateful Dead cover band around. Their shows are coveted and sell out fast because Deadheads take this stuff seriously. The good news is, if you can’t score a ticket to this show and you just have to pay your respects to Jerry Garcia and the gang, there’s always the band’s annual 4/20 show. So, go find a tie-dye shirt and maybe some sort of fringed leather accessory, and find a ticket to this show as quickly as you can.
He beat Shaq at basketball and he banged Hillary Duff, so you can’t be too mad at Nick Carter’s little bro for continuing his quest to do the damn thing. And let’s be honest, if there were no Aaron Carter, there would be no Justin Beiber, and that’s just not a world we want to live in (we’ve admitted it, it’s fine). He’s got a new album called Love due out on Feb. 10 (for real) and is hitting the stage at The Loving Touch on Valentine’s Day for what’s sure to be either the most depressing or most entertaining thing to ever happen to you.
Doors open at 9 p.m.; 1501 Holden St., Detroit; facebook. com/marblebar; Tickets are $10 in advance.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 345 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; facebook. com/otussupply; Tickets are $12.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-8205596; thelovingtouchferndale.com; tickets are $17-$50.
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Craig Brown has been around in Detroit for years now, starting with his time in the punk band, Terrible Twos. In a solo departure from that band is Craig Brown Band, a countryrock band chock-full of honky tonk twang. The band’s first album, The Lucky Ones Forget, was produced by Warren Defever (Thurston Moore, Iggy and the Stooges). The rest of the band, Eric Allen, Jeff Perry, Andrew Hecker, Caitlyn Drinkard, and Bonnie Drinkard, all provide their unique talents, making sure to keep the hillbilly sound of the group polished and tuned in nature. Their single release show at UFO Factory is going to be excellent, and they’ll be joined by Birdcloud, a Tennessean duo whose lyrics alone will definitely win over your heart. Doors open at 9 p.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; ufofactory.com; Tickets are $10.
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ARTS ˇ Feel the Cern
Czech provocateur is this year’s Dirty Show guest artist by Lee DeVito
The Czech artist David Černý is many things: Sculptor. Street artist. Airplane pilot. Playboy. Political dissident. Infamously, he was jailed for painting a Soviet tank pink. Since then, he has made a name for himself with his kinetic and thought-provoking sculptural work — such as the giant, mutating bust of Franz Kafka (look it up on YouTube) or a water fountain of two peeing men (they’ll spell your name if you text it to them), both located in his native Prague. This year, Černý (pronounced “Churney”) serves as the special international guest artist for the Dirty Show. We caught up with him via Skype during Donald Trump’s inauguration, where we asked him about the political and erotic power of art. Metro Times: How are you today? ˇČ David Cerný: It’s been fucking cold. MT: Same here. ˇ Cerný: It’s like, global warming is not coming. Maybe it’s because of Trump... MT: Yeah, it’s a weird day today. What do you think about that in the Czech Republic? ˇČ Cerný: We have actually perfect comparison as the president. The guy who is president here is not a businessman, but he is the same. He is a Putin-lover. MT: People are saying it’s the rise of fascism here in the U.S. ˇ Cerný: It’s obviously very similar. If you look at what’s going on in Europe, it’s gotten worse. Look at France, look at Dutch. They are a lot of examples. MT: You got your start as an artist during a time of protest. What was that like? I feel like we’re going to see something like that here in the U.S. ˇ Cerný: [Laughs] Well, it would be cool, but I wouldn’t expect anything like that in the States. During Communism, I was 20. So it’s been a while. It’s completely different. It’s completely different, because we were really under a serious Communist dictator — when you can end up in prison whenever they
wanted to basically lock you up. Eighties were a bit different. That was when Gorbachev came into power. That was basically the beginning of all changes in East Europe. It’s hard to believe now that one guy was able to do it, but in fact it is true. The beginning was when the East Germans began to climb over the German Embassy in Prague. That was the beginning of the Velvet Revolution. MT: So by the time you painted the tank pink… ˇ ČCerný: That was 1991, one year after the end of Communism. MT: Did you know that you were creating the work that would define your career? ˇ Cerný: I wouldn’t say that it defined my career. I’m a sculptor. And that was just a joke for one morning. MT: Well, your work now is very much into being integrated into the environment, and making people think about their environment. In that way, do you feel like what you do now with sculpture and installation may have come from the tank prank? ˇ ČCerný: I mostly work on the street. Even I don’t call myself a street artist. But the public space is my playground. MT: Do you have collaborators? ˇ ČCerný: Of course I do. My parents were both artists. I have a bit of a split brain. On the one side, I am very technically skilled. I have a professional flight license. The second is artistic. So of course I have a lot of collaborators. I know what I want to do. I go to the engineers telling them, "OK, this is the idea," and I have those ideas on how to construct it. MT: When did you start to take your work in a more kinetic direction? ˇ Cerný: I don’t know how to distinguish traditional or nontraditional. Look at the piece I did, those peeing guys. It’s traditional technique of casting bronze on loose wax. It’s a technique that has been used for, like, 10,000 years. But then I did the 3-D scanning for
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ˇ David Cerný. COURTESY PHOTO
making the sculpture, and at that time I employed the GSM technology, which was two years old at that time. So it’s really hard to say what is traditional and what is nontraditional. But it is a figurative piece. MT: When did you get your pilot license? Did you think you would do that as a career? ˇ Cerný: I was flying as a youngster on a hang glider. Not as a career, but maybe ... to relax. [Laughs.] MT: Is it very relaxing? ˇ Cerný: Well, I try to explain that I’m actually having a holiday going to fly because you getting into precise system. You really have to obey a lot of rules, actually. So it’s the total opposite of going with your pals to the bar to get fucked up. That’s one way of the brain holiday: This one is the opposite. You’re running out of the artistic environment, where nothing is exact, back to the precise part of the brain. MT: It seems like with your art you try to break the rules, or push against the rules. ˇ Cerný: I never cared about the rules. MT: I read that you painted the tank pink for a woman. Is that true? ˇ Cerný: It was a bunch of things, why I
did it. Of course, I wanted to piss off the Russians, which happened pretty well. And then, yes, I wanted to screw her, and I succeeded. MT: Can you tell me about the art that will be in the Dirty Show? ˇ Cerný: They brought a piece from a private collection in New York. It’s called “Eve.” It’s a piece which consists of sculpture. Have you ever built the Airfix planes? As a kid, I was building those things. So I decided to make a sculpture. It is a sculpture of a friend of mine who lives in New York. She lived at that time in Prague. I made a sculpture of her standing. And then I chopped it and installed it into a frame similar to the Airfix kits. And of course it’s blown up, the frame is like 2 meters by 2 meters. MT: Would you ever create art in Detroit? ˇ Cerný: I’m open to anything except Moscow. But yes. That would be cool. The Dirty Show is Feb. 10-12 and 17-18 at the Russell Industrial Center; 1600 Clay St., Detroit; dirtydetroit.com; tickets are $30.
ldevito@metrotimes.com @leedevito
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CULTURE Savage Love: Wilbur & Rensselaer by Dan Savage
Last week, I spoke at the Wilbur
Theatre in Boston and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Audience members submitted their questions on tiny cards before the show, allowing them to remain anonymous while forcing them to be succinct. Here are some of the questions I didn’t have time to get to at both events…
A:
Your friend’s head is what’s up — up his own ass. Stop letting him stick his dick up yours. (P.S. His regret has me wondering if his marriage is actually open or if he’s cheating on his wife. If you’ve never discussed their polyamorous arrangement with her, that probably what’s up.)
Q:
Q:
Why are liberals OK with people self-identifying their gender but not their race? Aren’t both considered social constructs?
A:
“If race and gender are both social constructs,” Evan Urquhart writes at Slate, “and if both have been built around observable biological traits, then what is the crucial difference that makes a felt gender identity a true one, but a felt racial identity fraudulent? The short answer is that most trans people and their allies suspect that transgender people are born that way.” (Google “Evan Urquhart,” “trans,” and “race” to read the rest of his essay.)
My girlfriend wants to explore her sexuality with another woman but be “heterosexually exclusive” with me. She wants me to have equal freedom but doesn’t think it’s fair for me to be with another woman. I am a heterosexual man. How can we achieve sexual equality? An open relationship for her but a closed-on-a-technicality relationship for you? Yeah, no. Want to achieve sexual equality? Explore your sexuality with other women — as a single man.
Q:
I am a 50-year-old queer man who never really came out — except to people I’m cruising or fucking. Oh, and to my wife. Is there any social or political value to coming out now, in the shadow of a Trump presidency?
A:
There’s tremendous social and political value to being out, whoever the president is. There’s also social and political risk, whoever the president is. If you’re in a position to come out — and you must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking — not coming out is a moral failing.
Q:
When I’ve tried to do the fuck buddy thing, I’ve gotten attached. Any way to avoid that?
A:
Only do the fuck buddy thing with Republicans.
Q:
I’m a 31-year-old straight female. I have an intermittent sexual relationship with a married polyamorous friend. Each time we hook up, he says he regrets it. But several months later, he will contact me and we will hook up again. Should I say no? What do you think is up?
A:
Q:
We just legalized weed here in Massachusetts! Yay! How can I, as a consumer but industry outsider, help to ensure more diversity in the legal selling business?
A:
Before the shops open, get in the face of your elected officials to make sure licenses are made available to pot entrepreneurs of color. Once legal weed shops are open, go out of your way to patronize pot shops owned by people of color and insist all legal weed shops employ people of color and pay a living wage. And once the profits start rolling in, demand that pot activists and shop owners stay in the fight to demand that people convicted of possessing or selling pot in the past — primarily POC — get full pardons and restitution.
Q:
Please elaborate on your suggestion that an open relationship could save a marriage.
A:
Here’s an example: married couple, together a long time, lowconflict relationship, good partners.
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Spouse No. 1 is done with sex — libido gone, no interest in taking steps to restore it — but Spouse No. 2 isn’t done with sex. This can play out two ways: 1) Spouse No. 1 insists on keeping the marriage closed, and Spouse No. 2 opts for divorce over celibacy. 2) Spouse No. 1 allows for outside contact — they open the marriage up — and monogamy is sacrificed but the marriage is saved.
Q:
How do you get over the guilt of being a straight guy? I used to feel a lot of sexual shame from hearing that men are pigs all the time. I got over most of it, but I still have leftover shame. I want to be respectful of women without having to take responsibility for the actions of every asshole straight man out there.
A:
As a gay man, I’m not responsible for the actions of Roy Cohn, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Peter Thiel. Likewise, I deserve no credit for the accomplishments of Michelangelo, Alan Turing, and Stephen Sondheim. When you feel the shame and guilt welling up, all you can do is remind yourself that you’re not responsible for the piggishness of Donald Trump or the awesomeness of Chris Kluwe. (And just to complicate things: While most straight women hate straight male pigs, most straight women want their men to be pigs — but only now and then, and only for them. A dash of controlled/vestigial piggishness is a desirable trait, not a disqualifying one.)
Q:
What’s the healthiest way to address jealousy in a relationship with a jealous and confrontational partner?
A:
The healthiest thing would be for your jealous and confrontational partner to address their issues with a therapist after you’ve dumped them.
Q:
Fuck, marry, kill: Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Mike Pence.
ITMFA campaign. (Bragging rights: I got the Mass. license plate ITMFA. The DMV tried to take it back when someone complained, and the ACLU won the case for me! I removed the plate, of course, after Obama won.) My question: If Trump is removed from office — if we “impeach the motherfucker already” — we’ll have Mike Pence. Do you really think he’d be any better?
A:
We already have Mike Pence. And Pence, as awful as he is, oscillates within a predictable band of Republican awfulness. With a President Pence, we’ll get shitty Supreme Court nominees, attacks on queers and people of color, and fiscal mismanagement. With President Trump, we get all that plus war with Mexico and Australia. And you don’t have to remove your ITMFA buttons once Trump is removed from office — keep ’em on until Pence is impeached too. Speaking of impeachment: 4 in 10 Americans support impeaching Trump. Nixon didn’t hit that number until 18 months into the Watergate scandal. And speaking of my ITMFA campaign: We’ve already raised $100,000 at ITMFA.org, with all proceeds going to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the International Refugee Assistance Project. Get your ITMFA hats, buttons, and T-shirts at ITMFA.org! (Coming soon: coffee mugs and stickers!) Dear readers: Valentine’s Day is coming up. This is your annual reminder to #FuckFirst — have sex and then go out to dinner. Don’t have a heavy meal, drink, eat some chocolate gut bomb of a dessert, and then write to me on the 15th whining about how you didn’t get laid on the 14th. Fuck first! Or better yet, stay home and fuck all night on the 14th and go out to dinner on the 15th. You’re welcome. On the Lovecast, Dan chats with polyamory luminary Cunning Minx: savagelovecast.com.
A:
Fuck everything, call off the wedding, kill myself.
Q:
I see you’ve resurrected your
mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage
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CULTURE
Horoscopes by Cal Garrison
ARIES (March 21- April 20):
The last few weeks have rinsed out your brain. Sitting here, contemplating what lies ahead, you are acutely aware of how the politics of living gets more complex as we age. As you approach a situation that is bound to resemble scenarios that took place seven years ago, you will see that there is a huge need to forgive and forget. If you are less open to letting go of all the blood on the tracks, your sense of injustice and/ or rage will keep you stuck in a place that increases your sense of alienation. There are only two choices here. With everything riding on this, let’s hope you choose love. TAURUS (April 21 -May 20):
If it’s hard to figure out why you can’t pull it together is because you’re in the middle of a huge transformation. What good would it do to think you know what’s going on, at a time like this? If there’s a lull, consider it a sign, sort of like the calm before the storm. And don’t get too wound up by what others have to say about it. Conversations with those who see right through you have rattled you up enough to make you want to break out and go your own way. Shedding your skin will require to lose the idea that your security relies upon having anything stay the same. GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The idea that you’re right about all of this competes with the feeling that you could easily be wrong. When your own sense of authority fails you, the need to seek guidance outside of yourself can lead you into situations that take you too far away from your core to know what is true for you. Lately, everyone has something to say about what you get to do and who you get to be. Reclaiming your sense of sovereignty will be a big part of the deal for the next few months. Don’t take any wooden nickels and whatever you do, respect your right to do things your way.
CANCER (June 21-July 20):
You finally got over yourself enough to see beyond the limits that were there before. It’s blowing your mind to realize that life isn’t about having all your ducks in a row. These new parameters have opened up so many options. Before you chalk it all up to luck, you need to stop and realize that something in you had to change in order to draw all of this goodness to you. As life opens up, and you learn more about what gives you joy, give yourself all the time in the world to connect with the voice that speaks to you from within; let it be the master of all of your choices.
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LEO (July 21-Aug. 20):
You have all kinds of good stuff coming together. If this is hard to appreciate it’s because you don’t take enough time to look at what’s going on. Every now and then it helps to congratulate yourself for getting things to work. As much as you still have to make ends meet you are at a point where at least everything is on your terms. The next thing to pop up will probably take the form of a relationship situation that makes you wish there was some kind of map to tell you where to go with things. Between love and money you’ll be on your toes for the next few weeks. VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 20):
You wish you could make it all work the way you want it to. In the course of pushing that envelope, sometimes you push people away. Reckoning with this, you’re beginning to see how self limiting it is to be, such a perfectionist — or so obsessed with your vision of reality that your comfort zone shrinks down to nothing. As much as it’s time to lighten up, your schedule won’t allow for that for another few weeks. Maintaining yourself between now and then will require you to soften your gaze, and be as gentle as you can with yourself and with those close to you. LIBRA (Sept. 21-Oct. 20):
There’s not much you can do about other people and their issues. If someone seems to need a little more than you have to give, they will keep expecting you to come through until they understand that their life is their business. If you really care about them, don’t keep trying to reform them and stop pretending that you have no investment in what they choose to do with themselves. Time and experience will teach them what they need to know. Stay true to yourself, and love them for who they are until they figure out what it will take to make their life work. SCORPIO (Oct. 21-Nov. 20):
You aren’t as sure about your situation as you were a few months ago. All of a sudden there are doubts about whether your best-laid plans are going to work out. It’s always hard to admit that we might have missed the boat — and even harder to admit that we invested everything into something that didn’t pan out. You’ve got your hands full. In the midst of not knowing what’s going to happen you are being called to “perform” and/or work harder than usual. Keep your attitude positive and be sharp enough to outwit anyone who tries to mess with your sense of self.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 21-Dec. 20):
High levels of third-party interference along with a lot of pie-in-the-sky deals that never seem to turn into anything concrete are making you wonder why you are even involved in this situation. What made so much sense, and seemed so clear is now looking like it could turn into a train wreck, and you have no clue where to go with it. At times like this there’s no way to rely upon anything but the signals that come from within and get as real as you can about what’s going on with the rest of it. Stay in the moment and be mindful where you place the benefit of the doubt. CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 20):
You guys are up and down. It’s tough to predict for a wide range of issues when it comes to your sign. You’re getting hit with the good, the bad, and the gnarly. It seems like there’s a reprieve that is about to arrive hand in hand with an opportunity to heal old wounds, or ailments that have been hanging you up longer than usual. There could be good work opportunities that arrive with a benefit package of one sort or another. The right people appear to be there for you — and everything hinges on your willingness to stay joyful, and move or change at the drop of a hat. AQUARIUS (Jan. 21-Feb. 20):
Timing difficulties have turned your life into a bit of a circus. It seems as if you can’t start something until other things are finished up and those things are reliant on the actions of other people. Other people happen to be elsewhere, or in no mood to focus on you and your needs. Instead of trying to micromanage things that aren’t beholden to your schedule, give yourself a break and wait for this to fall into place by itself. Soon enough there will be news that will alter things enough for you to see that life always has a better plan than the one we had in mind. PISCES (Feb. 21-March 20):
Getting others to see it your way is tricky business. This is one of those situations where you just might learn something if you can find a way to stop putting the pressure on. Did it ever occur to you that there is more than one way to do things? Whoever you’re trying to reform has a right to approach their life any way they wish to. If what they’re about to do doesn’t fly with you, lighten up; hair shirts and hard knocks aren’t the only way to go — and the one who appears to need so much correction is about to teach you that life works better when joy is the operative word.
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