Metro Times 021517 by Chava Communications

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February 15-21, 2017

Vol. 37 | Issue 19 | Feb. 15-21, 2017

PrOuDlY PrEsEnTs

News & Views Feedback........................................ 8

Feb the rupple

15 brothers FeB bill bynum & company 16 FeB deep greens & blues 17 FeB head for the hills 18 FeB james 21anthony

Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor-In-Chief - Lee DeVito

EDITORIAL

News Hits..................................... 10 Politics & Prejudices.................... 12

What’s Going On........................ 16

Feature Remembering Susanne Hilberry...20

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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NEWS & VIEWS Feedback Reader Susan Newell of Detroit writes: Violet Ikonomova’s blog post “Detroit police official on racial tensions with the department: ‘Get over it” implies that the DPD routinely makes light of complaints of racism and discrimination in the department. Although I can’t speak to the overall conclusions of her article, I’m familiar with the incident that led to the formation of CORE (Committee on Race and Equality). Last year a white DPD officer posted a message on his Facebook page comparing the Black Panthers to the Ku Klux Klan, implying that both were hate groups. A few days after the incident was made public, I attended a meeting with the command staff — which included whites and African-Americans — at the officer’s precinct. All of them were angry and offended by the officer’s posting. To my surprise, the AfricanAmerican lieutenants at the meeting said that this veteran officer’s posting seemed very out of character. They said they thought he was a good person and officer who’d done something that reflected real ignorance of our nation’s history rather than deep prejudice. In addition to receiving disciplinary action, this white officer was “taken to the woodshed” so to speak, by the African-American officers. They told him about their own and their families’ experiences with racism over several generations. And guess what — the white officer got it! Because the purpose of those talks was to achieve genuine understanding and reconciliation rather than just punishment, the white officer listened and was enlightened and changed by the experience. At a larger monthly community meeting a week later, the captain of the precinct didn’t just ignore the incident and hope that no one in the community would bring it up. He brought it up himself and apologized to the largely African-American group for the breach of trust, saying that things like this should never happen in our community. My impression was that people really appreciated the precinct leadership’s willingness to acknowledge the problem and act to resolve it in a way that united rather than divided. I don’t know how the DPD generally handles such problems, but I can say that how they handled this situation

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was a model for how a police department can develop better relations between the police and the community they serve. In response to Metro Times’ coverage of Detroit’s dining scene, Tim Flucht writes: I’d like to compliment you and your staff on your fantastic coverage of Detroit’s food scene. Frankly, you beat both The Detroit News and Free Press, hands down. The MT restaurant reviews are more relevant, focusing more on the food than the décor (I don’t care if it’s yet another Ron Rea design. That has yet to ever be a factor in where I choose to dine.) I also appreciate the reviews cover a range of restaurants and price points, rather than just the latest “see and be seen” to open in Birmingham. In a city with one of the nation’s most exciting food scenes (I do my best to get the word out), MT is the best coverage by far. Tom Perkins’ “Bistro bubble” article and Michael Jackman’s take on “critics needed” are two of the more recent examples of going beyond the reviews (Jane Slaughter kills it) and scene reportage to analyze what’s actually going on. The recipe from Zingerman’s Roadhouse seems a new feature — I really like it, and hope this continues. One request though, if you show something on the plate, please include it in the recipe. Those collards look good as well, and I’d make both if I were doing the chops. We can, and do, print the word “fuck.” Not everyone appreciates that. Bob Z. from Detroit writes: In the need to demonstrate how “cutting edge” they are, the Metro Times writers must feel they need to throw the word “fuck” into every column. Believe me, the word has lost its shock value. Try to articulate your point without the overused profanity. It only shows your immaturity. Errata: Our “What’s Going On” calendar listing in our Feb. 1-7 issue for the Mixology Fundemantals class at Sugar House featured the wrong address and price. We regret the error. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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February 15-21, 2017

NEWS & VIEWS

Digital redering of proposed mixed-use development. COURTESY OF ROCK VENTURES

Detroit sports city?

The unknown cost of putting a fourth pro sports facility downtown by Violet Ikonomova

Nearly a decade into the saga

surrounding Wayne County’s costly botched effort to build a new jail in downtown Detroit, taxpayers are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only it’s not yet clear what will emerge on Gratiot Avenue: a completed jail at the original site of the long-halted project, or a shiny new soccer stadium that would saturate a 2-square-mile swath of an American city’s downtown with an unprecedented four professional sports facilities and five professional teams. In a complicated trade proposed early this month by Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures, the county would give up the site of the “fail jail” and four other downtown buildings in exchange for a to-be-built criminal justice complex east of I-75 near Warren Avenue. Rock would build this “state-of-the-art” facility worth an estimated $420 million and sell it to Wayne County for $300 million — as much money as the county expects it would cost to finish building the jail at its existing location and renovate the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. Gilbert would wind up with the “fail jail” site, the courthouse, two jail facilities, and a juvenile detention center in the swap. In the Gratiot jail

site’s place, he would put a $1 billion mixed-use development that would include a roughly 20,000-seat soccer stadium if a bid to buy an MLS franchise with Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores goes through. On its face, the proposal would not require taxpayers to foot the bill for the potential sports facility, but that could change if Gilbert-backed legislation to allow “transformational” development projects to capture tens of millions in tax dollars is approved in Lansing. Also at issue is the proposed soccer stadium’s location within the Downtown Development Authority district. And a provision that would have Wayne County paying Rock an unspecified “credit” for money saved through the jail consolidation could tip the delicate balance of what Gilbert’s folks are billing as a win-win against the county. Under the current deal, the county will “literally be paying the developer some amount of money for some undefined period of time based on how much they think they might save with the new jail complex,” said John Mozena, of the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Since the jail line item in the county’s budget

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is something like $116 million, that credit could be pretty significant. There’s also nothing in the proposal for over how long that credit will be calculated.” It’s an issue Wayne County Executive Warren Evans has said he’s carefully considering as he mulls whether to accept Rock’s initial offer. “While I want closure on this mess as badly as all of you do, we have to get it right,” Evans told reporters at a Feb. 13 news conference. Thorough vetting of the deal comes with a price, however, and Evans has requested that the Wayne County Commission approve $500,000 for the county to pursue a “dual-track approach” by covering the cost for a separate company to prepare a proposal to complete the jail as well. The county on Feb. 10 issued an RFP to Chicago-based Walsh Construction — the only company that has expressed interest in finishing the project. Which track Evans will ultimately decide to pursue may not be known until May. It behooves county officials to proceed with caution. Construction of the half-built jail is already way over budget, and the county was on track

to spend $90 million more than the $300 million it had originally intended before it halted the effort in June 2013. But as the jail site sits idle, maintenance bills are piling up. The Detroit Free Press reported in 2015 that the county was paying $1.2 million a month on upkeep of the site — and as the pause approaches the four-year mark this spring —that cost will be somewhere near $60 million. Building the site elsewhere, however, could force the county to repay $51 million in federal bonds that it has already received for the jail and could jeopardize future subsidies. Evans said on Feb. 13 that the county is working to find out how much it may be on the hook for, and Wayne County Commission Chairman Gary Woronchak indicated that any potential bond penalty would scuttle the Gilbert deal, which will need final approval from the commission. Supporters of the swap argue that positioning a jail off a key entry point to a resurgent downtown sends the wrong message to guests. A stadium, they argue, would not only be a better option visually, it would a boon for the economy. Rock Ventures has said the mixed-use development that would

include the soccer facility would produce up to $2 billion dollars in economic impact. It’s unclear how Rock Ventures arrived at that estimate, however, because the company will not release the economic impact report it hired the University of Michigan’s Center for Sports Policy to compile. Many economists have determined that stadiums do not generate significant local economic growth; a 2008 look at almost 20 years of peer-reviewed studies on the economic impact of stadiums, arenas, and sports franchises found no substantial evidence of increased jobs, incomes, or tax revenues in communities associated with these things. The Brookings Institution has separately found that most of the arguments to support the construction of stadiums — jobs, new spending by people who attend games — are based on bad economic reasoning that leads to overstated benefits. “The problem with economic impact is that you can kind of make up any number,” says Neil deMause, a journalist and author who’s been researching sports stadium deals for two decades. “You’re projecting how many tickets you think you’re going to sell and how much people are going to spend in the stadium and outside the stadium and if you put on glasses that are rose-colored enough you can make up pretty much any number and people do. “The other part is that economic impact is … just the amount of money that changes hands by people who are spending money. You want to look at actual tax receipts to determine what [benefit a stadium will bring] and that number is way, way, way smaller than the actual money that changes hands.” Still, adding one more stadium downtown will at the very least mean more money for downtown businesses, says Wayne State University development law professor John Mogk. “Those who attend the games branch out and connect with other kinds of venues and commercial operations when they come to visit,” Mogk says. “[They] go to restaurants thereafter, do some shopping thereafter, stay in the local hotels.” But deMause says that theory might not hold true in a city where there will be four professional sports facilities vying for fan dollars. He points to a 2012 study published in the Journal of Urban Affairs that focused on the impact of basketball arenas on personal incomes and found that incomes only seem to get a boost in single-sport towns. “If a soccer team comes to Detroit

and is successful, but all it means is that people start buying soccer tickets and drop their Tigers ticket plan because the Tigers are doing lousy, then that doesn’t create anything additional at all,” deMause says. “The more teams you get, the more concern there is that you’re just cannibalizing sports spending that would go to something else.” Of course, revenue generation matters very little if the public isn’t bearing the burden of stadium development. But there are those who fear Gilbert and Gores will find a way to steer taxpayer dollars toward the soccer project, whether it be through approval of a bill to capture up to $40 million in Michigan income tax to offset the cost of large development projects, or through tax-capture mechanisms through the Detroit Downtown Development Authority. Gilbert and Gores could theoretically ask the DDA to create the stadium a special tax increment-financing district like it did for the Little Caesars Arena. “It’s a very complicated offer to get a handle on what the cost is actually going to be to the public,” says Wayne County Commissioner Glenn Anderson, who notes the proposed stadium already falls within the general DDA area. “Taxes are captured and they’re not going into the coffers of the county or the coffers of the city of Detroit, so it’s going to wind up being a cost to the city to provide security, traffic control [and] other things — and yet all the money would go to the DDA for future development or enhancing that area and that, to me, is a problem.” And the stadium could also avoid a tax bill depending on who technically owns it. For instance, the Little Caesars Arena is owned by the DDA, which is considered a public entity. Rock Ventures Principal Matt Cullen has told Crain’s Detroit Business that Gilbert and Gores have not yet determined who would own the soccer site. Public financing issues, however, are not at the forefront of the minds of county officials as they consider how to close the curtain on the “fail jail” saga. Evans on Feb. 13 seemed to be leaning toward finishing the jail and described Gilbert’s offer as a starting point for negotiation. “Make no mistake, this is not an act of philanthropy by Rock Ventures, it’s a business deal,” said Woronchak. “Some people have a kneejerk reaction that this is too good to be true ... and Rock is saving us. That’s not quite the case yet.” news@metrotimes.com @violetikon

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NEWS & VIEWS Politics & Prejudices: Sick leader, healthy community by Jack Lessenberry

I crawled out of bed Saturday morning to discover I had a flat tire, courtesy this time not of potholes, but a roadside nail. I had a meeting, but wasn’t worried. I knew George would save me, and he did. George, who owns Henley Auto Service on 11 Mile Road in Berkley, has been fixing my cars with great skill and never overcharging me for years. One of the nice things about living in a place for a long time is that you build up your own set of reliable go-to people; tailors, plumbers, etc. Many of the ones I’ve been happiest with are immigrants. Donald Trump wouldn’t allow George to enter our country today; he is originally from Iran, where he was an accountant for a French multinational. When things started going to hell in 1978, he left with his wife, small son, and daughter. Getting certified as an accountant here would have taken time, and he needed to keep his family eating. He always had a mechanical aptitude and grew up fixing cars, so this was a natural. “I thought I’d go back eventually, but when they took the hostages, I said, no way,” George told me, meaning those at our embassy in Tehran back in 1979-’80. But when I showed up, I found him in an intense mock argument with another customer, who turned out to be Israeli. “You shouldn’t even be here in this country!” the customer said. “You wouldn’t be, except for that idiot who let the shah of Iran come here,” an action that turned Muslim fundamentalists sharply against Washington. “That’s true. Who was that guy, that president?” George said. “Yeah — do you know who it was?” said the Israeli, who appeared to notice me for the first time. “Jimmy Carter.” I said. “Yeah, Carter. What a prize,” he said sourly, before one of them added softly: “But even he was better than what we have now.” Neither knew anything about my politics, but they seemed to be in a truth-telling mode. Not everyone fits the stereotype of the angry blue-collar worker who can’t 12 12 February February 15-21, 15-21, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com

wait to throw them Muslims out and bring all those good-payin’ jobs back. Those folks do indeed exist, and I have a morbid fascination about what they’ll do when they find out that their hero is just a flim-flam gasbag, and the abandoned Pontiac plant isn’t going to open up again. But regardless of that, there are some good people quietly working every day to make this a better world. Here’s one little-known example, of how a bunch of Jews and one amazing Muslim woman are working with black pastors, kids, and parents to save a neighborhood. The daily newspapers, such as they are, are filled with the latest megaproject plans of Dan Gilbert. You can read all about bustling Midtown, and the latest hipster cafe. But you’ll see damned little about the neighborhoods where most Detroiters live. Everyone knows there are still places where the cops only like going in the daytime, and then in force. There are lots of places where liquor and party stores are the only grocery stores most kids know. But that’s not the case in a chunk of Northwest Detroit, in the WyomingMeyers-Curtis area, where something called Project Healthy Community is not only feeding people, but teaching them about proper nutrition and running an afterschool program that’s giving a bunch of 5- to 11-year-olds the tools they need to succeed. The founders assured me they don’t see themselves as bunch of folks riding in from the suburbs to save the

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NEWS & VIEWS poor blacks, but a true community partnership. If anyone is most responsible for this, it’s an older Jewish physician named Melvyn Rubenfire who grew up in this neighborhood when it was bustling and multiracial, and Jews and blacks were fighting the same enemies, and were much closer than they are now. “They had racism; anti-Semitism is what I had to deal with,” Rubenfire, who was born in 1940, told me. He ended up dealing with it pretty well; he’s now an esteemed cardiologist with the University of Michigan hospitals. But when he was a kid nobody in the neighborhood, black or white, had any money to speak of. As a child, he lived with his grandparents until his father, who joined the Marines at 32, returned from World War II and built a tiny, 750-foot house for his family. Time passed, and the Jewish community moved away. For years Rubenfire wondered about the old neighborhood, but between family and a demanding practice, “I never had time to do anything.” Then, five years ago, he and his wife

Diane went to see what had become of the old Jewish Community Center, which had long since been renamed the Northwest Activities Center. They arrived and were looking around when they discovered there was a board meeting in progress, and those running it were close to concluding they would have to close the place down. “When I told (the Northwest Activities Center CEO) that I and the folks at Temple Israel might be interested in helping, I saw a tear in his eye,” Rubenfire says. “He said, ‘We had talked about trying to reach out to the Jewish community, but we didn’t know how.’” Talk about the right man at the right moment. Fast-forward five years. Today the activities center, which had been in wretched shape, “looks better than it did when we were kids.” Temple Israel, where Dr. Rubenfire is a member, got heavily involved — but so did the community. The Revs. Charles Adams, father and son, of the nearby and famous Hartford Baptist Church, gave Project Healthy Community their blessing. A few months ago, they hired a part-

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time executive director who is neither Jewish nor African-American — but who everyone thinks is great. Amina Iqbal is a Muslim who was born and grew up Downriver, in Brownstown Township. She has four children and wears a hijab and dresses in traditional modest fashion. She speaks Urdu as fluently as she does English — and is both compassionate and intellectual, with advanced degrees in professional childhood development and global education policy. Amina lives to reach kids; to “turn frowns upside down,” she says. She helps educate 10-year-old children who have 23-year-old mothers, and sees that kids who have never seen fresh fruits and vegetables get some. When one child told her he had no interest in reading, she persuaded him it would be useful to be able to make out street signs if he wanted to get around. “We hope to teach everyday values, including respecting ourselves and one another,” she told me. “Amina is exactly what we needed,” Rubenfire told me. What he most

wants is for this not to be unique, a little neighborhood island in a sea of despair. “Our mission is to have this be a model that can be used anywhere there is a community in need,” he told me. Iqbal told me they are hoping to expand their afterschool programs slowly, adding perhaps a school a year. They had hoped to have moved into Bagley, an iconic neighborhood elementary school by now, but they are still waiting for a go-ahead from the bureaucracy at the Detroit Public Schools Community District. There are millions who would say that Amina isn’t really one of us because she wears a hijab, and Trump wouldn’t have allowed my mechanic George in. The fact is that if this nation still means anything, both Amina and George are far better Americans than our tweeter-in-chief. Someday, if there is any hope, we’ll all be profoundly embarrassed at what is going on now.

letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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February 15-21, 2017

UP FRONT What’s Going On:

A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them by MT staff

THURSDAY, 2/16 Naked Magicians @ the Fillmore

Because we live in an age of across-theboard objectification and sexualization of the human body there is now a thing called Naked Magicians. Two Australian guys perform sleight of hand, yank rabbits from hats, and pull off grand illusions all while in the nude. While some folks will surely, uhm, get off on such a thing, we have our reservations about this whole scheme. Although, we have been wondering where they’re hiding those things that typically go up a magician’s sleeve. Wash your hands, that’s all we’re saying.

Doors open at 7 p.m.; 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; thefillmoredetroit.com; 313-9615451; tickets start at $22.50.

Naked Magicians. COURTESY PHOTO

THURSDAY, 2/16

THURS-SUN, 2/16-19

FRIDAY, 2/17

Mix @ the Max: Chargaux

Married But Single Too

Deeper Dive: Albert Kahn

The Unseen + All Ears

@ Music Hall

@ Detroit Center for Design + Technology

@ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

Architects, students, and fans of Albert Kahn would be remiss to skip out on this rare opportunity to view early work from the iconic architect. The exhibit will be open until March 10, but this special evening will include a gallery talk at 7:30 p.m. that will put the Victorian roots of the Belle Isle Aquarium and Horticultural Building into context as well as discussing the significance of Kahn’s design. The exhibit itself will feature blueprints from the “lost” Belle Isle Aquarium and Horticultural Building.

If you missed it the first time around, MOCAD is going to do you a favor. They’re once again screening Gus Sutherland’s crucial film on Detroit’s underground hip-hop music scene, The Unseen, but this time they’re making it a double feature. They’ll also be playing Sutherland’s documentary on the West Coast’s hip-hop scene, a film called All Ears. With common themes, the films employ interview with the likes of Slum Village, Proof, Wajeed, J Dilla, Flying Lotus, and more. With the Unseen serving as a prequel of sorts to All Ears, the two make a great pair.

@ Max M. Fisher Music Center

A photo of Charly and Margaux — the two badass and beautiful women who make up Chargaux — is striking, but when you hear their music you’ll see why people are paying attention to the viola and violin players. Kismet brought the pair together, but a passion for forward-thinking classically inspired music fused their bond. The Huffington Post described their sound as, “bubbling, boiling liquid sounds, somewhere between the brashness of jazz and the mellowness of R&B.” If you’re intrigued you can watch the former buskers perform in the Cube at the Max this Thursday.

Starts at 7 p.m.; 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-576-5111; dso. org; tickets are $15 for general admission and $49 for VIP.

A follow up to Je’Caryous Johnson’s popular Married but Single play, this stage production packs even more star power than the original. LisaRaye McCoy returns as Sharon Wilson, who’s unhappy despite duping her beau into marriage and comedian Bill Bellamy joins the cast as Wilson’s former flame. As you would assume, scandal ensues. Carl Payne, La’Myia Good, and Chante Moore also star in the production. This touring production kicked off at Music Hall, with its first run taking place on Valentine’s Day. You have until Sunday before the show moves on to Brooklyn. N.Y.

Shows at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. on Sunday with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday; 350 Madison St., Detroit; musichall. org; 313-887-8500; tickets start at $65.50.

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Doors open at 6 p.m.; 4219 Woodward Ave., Detroit; belleisleconservancy.org/ deeperdive; 313-331-7760; tickets are $40, $20 for students; no tickets will be available at the door.

Doors open at 6 p.m.; 4454 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 313.832.6622; mocadetroit.org; tickets are $5 for guests, free for members.

TUESDAY, 2/21 Hedwig and the Angry Inch @ Fisher Theatre

This show is all about gender identity, gender bending, and gender fluidity — without taking itself too seriously, of course. Those familiar will already know the musical’s infectious tunes like, the mythologically based “Origin of Love,” “Tear Me Down,” the titular “Angry Inch,” and my personal favorite, “Wig in a Box” as well as the storyline, which follows transgender Hedwig Robinson as she tries to make it big as a rock star while riding the coattails of another successful singer. This traveling show stars Tony and Olivier Award nominee Euan Morton, who is a little burlier than we’re used to in a Hedwig, but we’re willing to give him a shot.

Euan Morton as Hedwig

Show starts at 8 p.m.; 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; 313-8721000; broadwayindetroit.com; tickets start at $39.

JOAN MARCUS

FRI-SAT, 2/17-18

FRI-SUN, 2/17-19

SATURDAY, 2/18

MONDAY, 2/20

Annie

Academy Award nominated short films

GALentine’s Day

Vault of Midnight Game Night

@ Fox Theatre

@ Jam Handy

@ Detroit Film Theatre

Do you really need a synopsis of Annie? You know, she’s an orphan with some Ronald McDonald-looking mop of red curls, all mistreated by some mean AF orphanage mistress named Miss Hannigan. Then swoops in the great white hope Daddy Warbucks who adopts her and her mangy dog. Life would be grand, but Miss Hannigan wants that sweet government green she gets for keeping Annie alive in her hideous institution, so she sends her brother and his wife to pretend their Annie’s long-lost parents, which inspires a some song and dance, I’m sure. The show also features a version of Jay Z’s “Hard Knock Life.”

Shows start at 7:30 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday; 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-4713200; olympiaentertainment.com; tickets are $30, $45, $55 and $70.

In preparation for the 2017 Academy Awards (Sunday, Feb. 26), the Detroit Film Theatre will screen 10 short films, any of which could take home an award at this year’s ceremony. The films will be separated into two categories — animated shorts and live action shorts — with a 25-minute intermission in between. They range in length from six to 35 minutes. Titles include Borrowed Time, Timecode, Silent Nights, and Pixar’s Piper. Of the 10 films, seven are foreign.

Starts at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday; 5100 Woodward Ave., Detroit; dia.org; tickets are $9.

@ Queen’s Bar

GALentine’s Day is a holiday that could have been created by Taylor Swift in her never ending quest to prove she’s feminist. You see, the day is all about women supporting and celebrating other women, plus eating brunch because that’s what women like to do. Of course, unlike Swifty, this event will support Planned Parenthood. Even if you can’t make it, organizers encourage you to make a monetary donation to the family planner organization. There will be an omelette station, turkey sausage links (hooray?), breakfast quiche, vegetable quiche, homestyle grits, homefries, a “fruit display” (edible or no?), assorted pastries, plus juice, water, and coffee.

Have you tried desperately to institute a weekly board game night but your family is like, “nah”? We have just the thing for you. Comic book store Vault of Midnight, which opened a location in Detroit last year, is hosting a game night at Queen’s Bar and all board game lovers are welcome to nerd out over the tactile pastime. There will be game masters on hand to help you learn new board games. You can purchase tickets at the store’s Detroit location, and space is limited, so you’ll need to get your ticket ahead of time.

Runs 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; 2900 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit; visit eventbrite.com for more info; tickets are $50; 18 and older only.

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Runs from 7-9 p.m.; 35 E. Grand River Ave., Detroit; 313-481-2165; vaultofmidnight.com; tickets are $10.

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February 15-21, 2017

FEATURE A room of one’s own Reflecting on the life of Susanne Hilberry by Rebecca Mazzei

In the late autumn of 2016, a large and mysterious body of water appeared inside the bright, expansive Susanne Hilberry Gallery in Ferndale. Artist Ivin Ballen’s “Reflecting Pool,” a 32-by20-foot black tarp filled only about ankle-high with water, presented itself as the largest painting the gallery had ever installed. It was a portrait of the room. When you looked down inside it, you saw the ceiling with its Midwestern flat roof

design and the lovely architectural detail of lighting scaffold. During the day, from the vantage point of the back of the gallery, facing the windows at front, the floor painting invited the outside indoors. Leaves that fell in the wind danced on its mirrored surface. The painting seeped into the atmosphere. It hung in the room at 80-percent humidity. Ballen’s artwork became one with the space. His solo exhibition also featured abstract mixed-media paintings. A par“Susanne and Ida,” 2011. CORINE VERMEULEN

Artist and Cranbrook graduate Ivin Ballen’s “Reflecting Pool,” 32 x 20 feet, 2015. COURTESY SUSANNE HILBERRY GALLERY

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FEATURE ticular pair, entitled “Discussion with a Mitten” and “Discussion with a Paw,” were brushed white and beige with coffee mugs glued to them — Warren MacKenzie’s pottery, which Ballen had bought from a previous exhibition at the gallery. Molded black blobs at the bottom of each piece mimicked “Reflecting Pool.” Ballin describes these experiments as “kind of like taking a painting and making it a table,” where you lay out all the incidental elements of your past to sort through. In August 2015, Susanne Hilberry passed away at age 72 from complications associated with a brain tumor. While nostalgia is usually one of Ballen’s least favorite subjects for art-making, this exhibition had opened a little over a year after Hilberry’s passing. “It was about looking back and looking forward,” he says. “The show had all these points of collaboration with the gallery.” At the end of February, the gallery will close its doors, ending a four-

decade run presenting both leading artists of the 20th and 21st centuries as well as emerging unknowns. That puts Hilberry in the company of this country’s most venerable and pioneering dealers, such as New York’s Mary Boone, Barbara Gladstone, or Paula Cooper. You could call Ballen’s exhibition a metaphor or an homage, but the truth isn’t so basic. Ballen landed there because Hilberry was an intuitive visionary. “When I first moved to Detroit a decade ago and started grad school at Cranbrook, I saw an Alex Katz show at the gallery,” Ballen says. “I remember thinking to myself, I will never show in a space this beautiful.” Shortly thereafter, Hilberry visited his studio. The gallerist and her staff had been poking around Cranbrook’s corridors during a late-night dance party and discovered his work. It’s easy to become myopic about the people and places that matter to a community. Maybe there’s a Susanne Hilberry in Kansas City, Chicago, or St. Louis. New York Times writer and author Philip Gefter certainly has a sense of whether there’s truth in that. “I loved Susanne,” he says. “I often said about her: Who knew that the chic-est woman in New York lived in Detroit?” A Devoted Life Hilberry was a rare woman with agency and self-determination. She built the world around her. She was an imposing figure. If she liked you, it was incredible. If she didn’t, you felt awful. And if you didn’t know her well, she could seem inaccessible. “Like a queen,” says artist Scott Hocking. (“Scotland,” she called him.) He exhibited at the gallery and worked there for 16 years, despite the fact that right around his first day on the job he accidently tore a huge hole through a $100,000 painting by one of her oldest and dearest friends, Ellen Phelan. Hazel Blake, the gallery’s longtime director, admits she almost didn’t walk through the front door for an interview more than a decade ago. “I drove by in my husband’s beaten pick-up and saw her sitting there, through the windows. I think I circled the block a few times before going in.” It’s a good thing Blake did walk in. The pair sat down on the couch and chatted. They both felt at ease so there wasn’t any formal interview. Hilberry was compelled to be around original spirits who feel comfortable in their own skin. The gallery is a formidable space, but within it you get a sense of the familial. The staff of Blake, Hocking, Sara Blakeman, and Angela Pham know the perfumes Hilberry wore — no more than four at once, comprised of a patchouli scent made by

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February 15-21, 2017

FEATURE the Florentine monks of Santa Maria Novella, and accents of fig. “She would come out in this cloud of perfume and you’d have this experience like, where am I?” Blake recalls. “There’s another mix we’re not going to talk about. The Hilberry Gallery mix.” They all gave each other haircuts. Hocking introduced Hilberry to T. Rex, which she enjoyed as much as an Easter choral or silence. Every day the staff prepared “gallery lunch” together. The crew collaborated on exhibition invitations, either huddled around a computer, stenciling, stickering, stamping out a woodblock print or, for Hocking’s first solo show, stuffing envelopes with caramel corn. Her own little cottage industry, as Hilberry called it. She weighed in on their silly little dramas. “Susanne was a good listener,” Blakeman says. “She would have these Yoda moments. I’d tell her something in the morning and before walking out at the end of the day, she might say, ‘Sara, you know, I have this feeling …’” She had an almost maudlin way of expressing herself. She was a voracious reader of novels and referred to all plants by their Latin name. Her intelligence could be incisive, which was part of what was intimidating — that, and a striking visage to rival any Gustav Klimt muse. Hilberry was born on the south side of Chicago in 1943. Her father, David

Feld, was a prominent obstetrician whom his daughter adored. Her warm and loving mother, Barbara, studied English literature and wrote poetry. Both parents were native Detroiters, so the family moved back to the city when she was 5. With her two younger brothers, they lived between 7 and 8 Mile Road, near Palmer Park, close to the posh “Avenue of Fashion.” Susie Feld, as she was known, went to Mumford High School on the near northwest side. After brief stints at University of California in Berkley and University of Michigan, she enrolled at Wayne State University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in art history. Later she received her master’s degree in architectural history from Yale University. Her next move aligned her toward her destiny. “I wormed my way into working with Sam Wagstaff,” she recounted in a 2010 interview with Aimee Ergas, then a Wayne State graduate student. As Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Wagstaff was a dashing new force in town, a debonair intellectual from the East Coast, an elite with a wild side. He started at the DIA in 1968, following his time as a curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, where he produced a landmark exhibition on minimal art. For approximately three years, Hilberry worked under

him as a junior curator, when she was just a twentysomething. His interest in Detroit’s underground scene made an impression. “Wagstaff brought the New York avant-garde to a conservative institution,” writes Gefter in his biography Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe (Liveright, 2015). On the streets of Detroit, he uncovered art that had a lot to do with the post-minimalism, feminism, and radical performance he knew. He made himself equally at home inside the hallowed Grande Ballroom, Reverend C.L. Franklin’s church, and Cobb’s Corner bar. At the museum, alongside her mentor, Hilberry realized what had become accessible to her. Glancing back decades later, she told Ergas: “There were exhibitions where people needed assistants, and friendships were formed as a result of that. Studios were offered in summertime if somebody was going someplace so you got a feeling about New York. It became a real dialogue. And that’s what Sam did. Sam provided you with a dialogue with the world. And everybody else who came here, it was kind of — I’m being sloppy — but it was kind of academia. This was like people in the world, caring about something, being willing to devote their life to it. And you could talk to them. It didn’t matter who they were.”

In 1971, Wagstaff resigned from his position, following a fiasco with a 26-year-old artist he commissioned named Michael Heizer, whose transport and placement of a 30-ton block of granite dug a gargantuan divot in the DIA’s front lawn. A DIA Annual Report documents that, in the absence of a curator, Hilberry coordinated most of the activities in the busy department, until a new lead curator was hired in 1974. This chapter in her life was pivotal because she met Cass Corridor artists and lifelong friends Ellen Phelan and Nancy Mitchnick, two painters who would eventually leave Detroit and become high-profile names in New York. “I knew Susanne way before I even knew I could be a serious artist, and way before she knew she could be a big art dealer,” says Mitchnick now. “My relationship with Susanne had a profound impact on my life. Susanne was a different person when we met her. Her clothes quoted the nineteenth century. She wore her hair up in a complicated circle. She was always wildly beautiful, but in the early ‘70s her vision came from literature. Susanne and (prominent Detroit art dealer) Ron Winokur and I read all of Henry James together, all of Virginia Woolf, as well as Lytton Strachey, and Leonard Woolf.” According to Mitchnick, after months of conversations with Phelan in particular, Hilberry opened her gallery

Gallery director Hazel Blake (at left) installs an exhibition by artist Judy Linn with Susanne Hilberry (right), 2008. COURTESY SUSANNE HILBERRY GALLERY

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February 15-21, 2017

FEATURE

Susanne Hilberry at the opening night of her gallery at 555 Woodward in Birmingham, December 1976.

in 1976, at age 31. Located in the basement of Birmingham’s 555 building on Woodward Avenue, Hilberry’s gallery showcased work by both Phelan and Mitchnick. Their growing reputations lent credibility to her project. At that time she also met sculptor Joel Shapiro, Phelan’s husband, and they became close friends. Artist Valerie Parks, who has known Hilberry since then, says, “Susanne spoke to Joel every week. And when she was in the hospital for treatment later in life, he was her sweet and caring defender. Joel was a rock for her in many ways.” The gallery, of course, had precedents. From 1965 to 1977, Gerturde Kasle Gallery, located in the Fisher Building in New Center, presented stars of the abstract expressionist movement and introduced the region to a younger crowd. Jackie Feigenson did the same. From 1963 to 1974, the J.L. Hudson Gallery inside the downtown department store showcased Andy Warhol prints and sculpture by feminist artist Louise Nevelson. In addition to those commercial spaces bringing in the upper echelon, Hilberry’s eye wandered to that Cass Corridor co-op, Willis Gallery. Charles McGee’s Gallery 7 also set the bar high for its energy and dedication to talented locals. For 25 years, in her Birmingham space, she showed art by top international figures, such as Donald Judd, Lee Krasner, Robert Rauschenberg, Willem De Kooning, Frank Stella, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Tuttle,

Lynda Benglis, and Judy Pfaff, among many others, and promoted such Detroit mainstays as Gordon Newton, Michael Luchs, and Cay Bahnmiller. But the staid environs eventually got too predictable for her taste. In 1994, Hilberry and George N’Namdi, another Birmingham-based dealer, set their eyes on Detroit’s downtown, hatching a plan to relocate together. “We ran into each other at a dry cleaners,” N’Namdi recalls. “OJ was in his Bronco on the television screen. We decided to start looking around because we both believed in Detroit. So we met every Friday downtown for breakfast at Harmonie Garden (then in Harmonie Park). Her dogs came with us, those damn dogs, always in the backseat. I got to know her really well through that process.” N’Namdi was anxious to move. “You know how some people say ‘location, location, location?’ Susanne was always about aesthetics, aesthetics, aesthetics. I’d be impatient to close a deal and she’d be like, ‘What color are the window frames?’” He ended up going solo, settling on a building located on Forest Avenue, east of Woodward in Detroit’s Cultural Center, to her chagrin. His gallery has since expanded into N’Namdi Center for the Arts. N’Namdi emphasizes they shared an understanding that art has the power to widen the consciousness of a community. “For me, it’s about coming together,” he says. “For her, it’s the purity, the peace of mind. That’s where she thrived. In the end, it was

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COURTESY SUSANNE HILBERRY GALLERY

good the way it worked out. My place is always going to have my coat lying around somewhere. She wouldn’t want that.” Hilberry continued searching for something that spoke to her. Guided by the counsel of her husband, Richard Kandarian, a successful businessman in the cutting tool business who she married in the late 1980s, Hilberry sought to invest in a property. On a quiet commercial-industrial strip, shaded by curbside trees and within two miles of where she grew up, she found a place to call home, almost literally. She once told former MT arts editor George Tysh that she might end up living there. In 2000, the Birmingham location closed. The following year, renovations began at 700 Livernois in Ferndale, a modest single-story building circa 1955 and formerly occupied by Peterson Glass Company. Her passion for architecture returned as she worked with Birmingham architect Tamas von Staden to transform a 4,500-squarefoot building — ordinary from drop ceiling to tiled floor — into a showroom with an aura glowing so bright it set a standard for the region as the bold, confident decision of a purist. The space is lit by a grid of inexpensive outdoor security lamps, sandblasted down to galvanized metal. The walls aren’t painted; they’re skimmed with uncoated plaster over cinderblock. These choices were made on the basis of authenticity and integrity. She made that building into its best self. The public was welcomed to that sleepy

street in 2002 with solo exhibitions by both Phelan and American conceptualist Richard Artschwager. Increasingly in the years to come, Hilberry introduced brave and heady young artists into her program. To name a few: Zak Prekop, who was a graduate of Frankfurt’s esteemed Städelschule; Russian-born painter Elena Pankova; French artist Anna-Lise Coste; sculptor Shannon Goff, and Detroit native Michael E. Smith, who met Hilberry when he was still a student at College for Creative Studies. “I screened a weird, long video at Motor City Brewing Works,” Smith says. “I remember standing in the parking lot looking in, giddy and totally floored that Susanne Hilberry was in the bar watching the entire thing — and it was a tough piece in both content and duration.” His first exhibition at the gallery came a couple years later, during his first two semesters in grad school at Yale. Smith lives with his wife and two children in Providence, Rhode Island. He’s just returned from Paris where he’s featured in an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo. The artist is represented by galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Milan and has been included in museum exhibitions nationally and overseas. “My work is defensive,” he explains. “I find myself being afraid most of the time. From the get-go, I was interested in challenging myself, so I’d get into the gallery two days before the opening, and nobody, including me, would have

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FEATURE

Hilberry admiring the wildflowers in her Ferndale gallery’s backyard, 2011.

any idea what the work would look like. I would just deal with the fallout afterwards. With her, there was no pressure — and I was quite naïve at the time. But that’s how I still work. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think that process wouldn’t have been able to fully develop. The fact that she paid such close attention meant that I could make very subtle moves. She would read every note I wrote to her. It was a slow, freeflowing relationship around ideas.” For the exhibition 39 Years, which coincided with Hilberry’s memorial in 2015, Blake and her staff installed a captivating and challenging selection from the gallery’s collection. Smith made a sculpture for that show with Hilberry in mind. “It’s the closest I have ever come to a portrait,” he says. “I found a really skinny door, and mounted it on a cow bell.” “I think perhaps the most interesting work doesn’t look like “ – Susanne Hilberry, 2010 Artist John Corbin attempts to summarize his experience looking at work

SCOTT HOCKING

with Hilberry, who wouldn’t pontificate about art in theoretical or historical terms. “It took me a very long time to realize Susanne wasn’t pretending when she would say to me, ‘I don’t have any idea what you are talking about.’” “I would say something like, ‘This work has a completely modernist sensibility,’ and she would literally say to me ‘I don’t know what you mean.’ I got a lot out of that. I make connections. For her it was this visceral thing.” The gallerist’s point of view was informed by many years of looking; in New York, certainly, but also across the state, the Midwest, and overseas. Her family of artists (she hated the terms “stable” or “roster”) was multigenerational and vast. She was invested in giving an artist their first solo show and in exhibiting less-popular work by a well-known name. Art on view ranged in price from $300 to $300,000. Layaway was always accepted. Even Blake and Blakeman bought work in $50 installments. “The business side of art didn’t equate for her,” says Ivin Ballen. “It’s

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easier to talk about what Susanne wasn’t interested in. She wasn’t interested in talking about ‘sales.’ It was more about getting someone to take the work home with them. That’s how she would describe it — ‘we found a home’ for such and such piece. For her, there was a value to art but she didn’t monetize it.” Hilberry engaged with art like one might see a lover. She would stare at something until it revealed itself to her (or didn’t). She didn’t care about trends and she was disappointed in people who couldn’t get past what they are looking at, to see something more meaningful. Ballen lives and works in Brooklyn now. “As an abstract painter, my work isn’t very topical. Sadly, I have yet to find the support that she gave me. All the artists who show at Susanne’s are the same people who show in New York, yet I can’t even get a studio visit with those galleries. Different cities have different trends. One of the lessons I learned from Susanne is that she fell for what I was doing. There

is a romantic element to that. I can’t approach a gallery and convince them. They have to do it on their own.” A divine intervention — that’s how Nancy Mitcnick characterizes a studio visit with her. “She loved painting. The intimacy of a studio visit meant the world to her. If she was moved by something she would weep. I thought all art dealers would be sublime. She was a hard act to follow.” Emphasizing Hilberry ’s finelyhoned instincts without any frills would be to tell you that she never used a level, that instrument used to hang art straight. While it could be maddening to some, she didn’t trust the tool. She didn’t believe it. She claimed to know when art was balanced at a deeper level because her own center was correct. At Hilberry’s memorial, John Corbin spoke to a large crowd squeezed inside the gallery. He gave a moving eulogy. “There might be one or two of you here that didn’t know Susanne for as long as you might have liked to. I can assure you that you will carry her with you

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FEATURE

Susanne Hilberry with artist Richard Artschwager at the opening of her gallery at 700 Livernois in Ferndale, 2002. COURTESY SUSANNE HILBERRY GALLERY

in ways that you might not perceive,” he said. “When you get up in the morning and put the same clothes on from the day before and look as smashing on Wednesday as you did on Tuesday, that’s Susanne. When you change tables at a restaurant for the third time because the painting hanging over the banquet isn’t anything that anyone should have to look at while eating, that’s Susanne.” Her legacy is also inscribed on a plaque recognizing the newly-named position of Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at Large, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), an institution that was the result of conversations starting in 1995 and lasting 11 years between several patrons and leaders in the art community. “Susanne felt the city needed a contemporary museum and asked me if I would work on it with her,” says MOCAD founding director and board president Marsha Miro, a former newspaper critic and historian. “Because of her gallery, she then turned the project over to me. But she was always there coming up with ideas, helping me when there were roadblocks, suggesting the curator, or contributing funds ... She was active in so many ways.” MOCAD opened its doors to the public in October 2006. The curatorial position, held by Jens Hoffmann, is supported by the Susanne Feld Hilberry Endowment for the Arts, which was created by the trustees of Hilberry’s estate to support her interest in contemporary art. During the interview with Ergas in 2010, Hilberry was asked about connections between today’s art scene and the legacy of Cass Corridor artists. She paused before summating, “I just don’t know if I’m a good person to ask. I don’t see connections necessarily or very much in terms of actual visual vocabulary influence. It may be what I’m looking at. I mean it’s obviously

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what I’m looking at. What you look at and what you don’t look at. I’m sure there are people who are very influenced by Ellen’s [Phelan] unbelievably able, exciting painting and the whole kind of modulation between abstraction and representation. Or the permission that Gordon [Newton] gave people to use certain kinds of materials.” As against generalities as she was absolutes, her reluctance to characterize her taste or to comment on the trajectory of contemporary art was in part an expression of noncomformity. “The smartest people that I know right now? You can be influenced by peoples’ work, right? And it doesn’t look anything like the work. When people say ‘the Cass Corridor’ and connections, often it seems to me what they mean is that there’s somebody who kind of ‘looks like,’ and I think perhaps the most interesting work doesn’t look like.” In the interview she continues, paying respect to the tenacious young artists of the 1960s and ‘70s who “evolved in public” and went through “both the excitement and the agony of putting work on view,” staking their claim and making their voices heard by the establishment. She told Ergas, “I think the real belief that somebody would take you seriously in this community at that time was Sam, now this is me.” The Susanne Hilberry Gallery is located at 700 Livernois St., Ferndale; 248-541-4700; susannehilberrygallery. com. There are no further exhibitions, but staff will be on site through February. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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February 15-21, 2017

FOOD

Small plates, big dreams

Zatar rubbed octopus. JANNA COUMOUNDOUROS, LILACPOP STUDIO

Ferndale spot offers rich, inventive menu by Jane Slaughter

If it’s the little things that make

the difference, Conserva chef and owner Matthew Baldridge is making sure to cover those small bases that make diners and drinkers want to return. Purse hooks are installed underneath the bar. Servers leave the menus on the table so you can remind yourself what you asked for and what the many components of each dish are — this is important in a small-plates place where you’re ordering many items. The music playlist is inventive and eclectic; our happy server says, “This is the first place I’ve worked where I don’t have to try to consciously not hear the music.” And the small space, designed by artist Janna Coumoundouros, is sparsely but thoughtfully decorated: a collage of portraits of eyes, a colorful rooster. It does not have the hodgepodge-of -branded-nostalgia-items-hangingfrom-ceiling look that set the standard for cool around here for a while. All this is in addition to attentive and professional service, and some dishes that strain the limits of creative deliciousness. Conserva opened in mid-December, and as of early January, the drinks list was short — four cocktails, six wines, and eight beers. That is scheduled to change as partner Jarrod Kassis implements his “aggressive and weird

program,” defined as “no one in town has it yet, or if they do, it’s someone I trust.” He’s interested in skin-contact wines from the Georgian Republic, for example (that’s grape skins, not human skins). He’s proud of a Swedishinspired Collins with dill and caraway, and I liked a summery Octo-Daq: Daq for Daiquiri and Octo because octopi are the unofficial mascot of the place; look for the tentacles on the door. It blends a violet liqueur with rum, sugar, and lime for a pleasant sweetish concoction. Other early possibles, to give you a sense, were a raspberry-balsamic gin and tonic and “Irish Handcuffs” with whiskey and Pimms. This is the third restaurant I’ve seen in a couple of weeks to put cava, the Spanish sparkling wine, on the menu; let’s hope that’s a trend. Beers are described in detail (“initial candied apple flavors,” “erupts with monumental passionfruit aroma,” “a sublimely succulent finish”) and range from a $3 Lake Brothers Lager from Corktown, to a cranberry-blood orange radler (part beer, part fruit soda) from Kansas City, to a “stoutish porter” from Greenbush Brewing in Sawyer, near the Indiana border. To eat with these delights is an odd assortment of snacks. Popcorn with duck fat and rosemary is ample and

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cheap at $2. I couldn’t see any reason, though, for tuna served in its can, even a fancy Spanish brand of individually line-caught fish. Spanish sardines are presented this way too. Best to go straight to the longer “food” list — which will change frequently. Plates are brought out one at a time, at a nice pace. All are on the large side for small plates, and Baldridge seems to specialize in rich flavors (don’t be thinking light and salad-y), including some of my favorite things, all of which are accessible to any chef but which are not super common. The recurring theme was some fairly outrageous richness in the main event with just a hint of contrast from an acidic element. By far the most outrageous item we tried was a marrow special: roasted six-inch bones (think Flintstones) with wild royal trumpet mushrooms for a tapenade heaped on top. If your only association with bone marrow is transplants, revise your thinking here. Duck thighs, two of ‘em, had luscious crisp skin (the whole point of duck), with more lusciousness supplied by heaps of cream in the the sauce. Pickled grapes provided the tart contrast. A dish of cute ear-type pasta with oxtails went a similar route, bits of meat with cashews and coconut, then piquant

The Conserva 201 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale 248-291-6133 theconserva.com

Handicap accessible 4 p.m.-midnight Wednesday-Saturday (kitchen closes at 10 p.m.) Small plates $8-$16, cocktails $9

currants for balance; it could have used more of the tails. Two big avocado halves — more creamy richness — were roasted and topped with an egg yolk, then lightened up a bit with gremolata, which contains lemon peel. Breadcrumbs added texture. Goat cheese was served warm in a glass jar, topped with cranberries. I liked an octopus with big, thick tentacles, rubbed with zatar, the Middle Eastern spice mixture. Likewise a goodsized bowl of Brussels sprouts, cooked with what sounds an unlikely combo: raisins, almonds, olives, and coconut milk, sweet, nutty, and salty against the bitterness of the sprouts. Desserts will also change with the chef’s whims. We got a warm coconut gelatin with bits of pineapple and crumbled lemon cookie, worth saving room for. One plan is to automatically pair a sweet with a corresponding dessert wine, though diners will have the choice to separate the two. “I’m just gonna cook and stay away from normalcy,” Baldridge says. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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February 15-21, 2017

FOOD

John Muster, a modern meat man. TOM PERKINS

Side Dish:

Meet the guy delivering meat to your favorite Detroit restaurants by Tom Perkins

Bite into a slider at Green Dot

Stables, nibble the beef carpaccio at Wright & Co., nosh on the curry lamb at Standby, and you’re tasting meat sourced by John Muster. The longtime Detroit meat man has procured the Motor City’s proteins for over two decades for Mark’s Quality Meats, thus witnessing from the inside the shifts in and blooming of downtown’s dining scene. We sat down for a conversation over a plate of short ribs at Ottava Via. Metro Times: How many restaurants are on your account? John Muster: About 20. I used to

have over 100. It’s funny because in sales they always talk about the 80-20 rule: 20 percent of your customers are 80 percent of your business. Well, I used to have 100, now I have 20. I cut loose the extra and my 20 customers — I’m very close and tight with them. I work with Les (Molnar) and them so Green Dot, Huron Room, and Johnny Noodle King. Ottava Via, Mercury, Gold Cash Gold, Peterboro, Wright and Company, Sugar House, Standby, Cliff Bells, Bronx Bar, Avalon Bakery, and I’ll be selling to chef Kate (Williams) at Lady of the House when she opens. Jon Kung (of Eastern Market’s Kung Food) — I

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drop stuff by his studio. MT: Is there a meat that you won’t touch? Muster: I’ll try everything, but I’m not fan of brains. The texture is what it is. The other would be kidneys. Outside of that, I’m pretty much wide open. Lamb fries; tongue. You name it. I’ve had it, and I’ve enjoyed most of it. MT: What does the modern meat man look like? Muster: If they had to rely on me, someone my age (59), then they’d be out of business. Chefs want to talk to

someone who can relate to their experiences, and while I have a lot to offer and I’ve been successful, we’re breaking the mold by hiring younger people like Brennan Calnin, (former chef at Imperial and Townhouse). He decided he didn’t want to work in restaurants anymore, but he still has a passion for food, he’s a good chef, so I talked him into coming to work for us and he’s doing a phenomenal job. And we did the same thing with my daughter, Nicole, who just started with us a month ago. They’re starting at 29, 30, so they’re in that sweet spot. They’re socially connected, passionate about food, and

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February 15-21, 2017

FOOD there’s that combination of ego and empathy. They want to succeed; and the empathy — they can grasp what the chef needs, and they’re able to fill the need. MT: The local food scene is much different than it was 10-15 years ago. How is that playing out in the local meat industry and how does that change what you do as a meat man? Muster: Before, you tried to sell someone the commodity item, then follow up with a specialty item. That’s the way it was done. Now, it’s the opposite: You lead with niche item, and the other stuff kind of follows. For example, we have a chef we’ve been trying to sell for a while … but we couldn’t break the ice. We found out he was trying to dry age ducks, and nobody was doing that, and I had never had dry aged ducks. But then he asked if we could do it I said, “Yeah, of course we can! No problem!” Not knowing if we could or couldn’t. It turned out we could, we did, and because of that we’ve developed a relationship, and we’re selling him dry aged ducks, among other things. MT: So there’s a lot more demand for specialty items? Muster: Back in the day, especially in Detroit, it was not uncommon for chefs to come up through the ranks. Maybe they were a bus guy, prep cook, now they’re the chef. Today, more chefs are culinary trained so they’re smarter, more demanding, and it’s not just a way to collect a check. They’ll ask you about free-trade chocolate, which is a great story in itself, or the dry age ducks, or can you butcher or pack something a particular way. A chef might ask me about a product he had while on the other side of the country and you need to find a way to source it. MT: Are there specific meats that are far more popular now than they were a few years ago? Muster: Commodities like strip loins, rib-eyes, those don’t go away. Dry age has been big and we’re doing that now … and we’ve been really successful. What we do that others don’t is we don’t have a stock supply that we pull from. We custom age for the chef. If you tell me that you want regular choice to prime to a A5 Wagyu, then we pull them and specifically age them to spec. MT: What’s a typical day like for a meat salesman? You seem to be one of those guys that everyone likes chatting

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with. Muster: I’m up at 4:30, 5 a.m., and I’m a big social media guy so I’m on Instagram, Facebook seeing what chefs are posting. I follow people on Instagram that are a little ahead of the curve on what we’re seeing here, so they give a little exposure and I get my ideas from some of that. I meet people, and I talk about food. I eat and I hang out, to oversimplify it. If I was here with you at the bar and this is the place that I’m trying to sell, then I overhear the chef talking or a comment from the table, then I can use that information to offer them more. You can’t do that if you walk in, get on your laptop, do an order entry, and once your task is done, get up and leave. Lingering is worth its wait. It’s fascinating, and on a selfish level, I learn. It’s not only going out one way. Even if there’s a chef that’s demanding — I get home at the end of the day I’m pumped about that experience. When I see the chefs that I work with, I’m always excited to excited to tell them what I know and hear what they have to tell me. MT: What’s the best dish in Detroit at this very moment? Muster: Bowls at Johnny Noodle King. I’m a big slider fan. Any special at Ottava Via is my favorite that day; the sticky ribs at Katoi …. it’s hard to say — there’s a lot of good stuff. MT: What’s your favorite part of Detroit’s food scene? Muster: It used to be that if a restaurant closed, it was the death of the Detroit food scene. What I’m most happy about ... is I think we’re almost getting to a place where certain attrition will happen but no one is going to be devastated. The variety is great. It used to be if you bring someone in from out of town and they say, “Where do you go for good food?” Well, there are one to two good restaurants. Now … the opportunity to satisfy a variety of tastes is spectacular. And the chefs are fucking great. They’re exciting. They’re intense. They’re pushing the boundaries. And they’re making guys like us work hard. MT: What do you think of vegetarians? Muster: I dated one once. I had to break up with her, and the first thing I did after was have a carpaccio. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

FOOD

Forest Udon from Ima. TOM PERKINS

Quick service

A recap of our latest restaurant reviews by MT staff Ima 2015 Michigan Ave., Corktown, Detroit; 313-502-5959; imanoodles.com Mike 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. 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. The 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 our 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. —Jane Slaughter 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

38 38 February February 15-21, 15-21, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com

make the place a part of the community. Thus, it’s hosted events like vinyasa yoga one Sunday in December, and 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 off-shoot from the popular Willis Street bakery and cafe opened in late 2016 with a full liquor license and a seven-day breakfast-lunch-and-dinner 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 Cafe 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 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

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

FOOD 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, Birmingham; 248-385-5705; cafesucco.com With two stores, one in Birmingham, the other in Royal Oak, Cafe Succo calls itself an “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 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

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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 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 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. Opened downtown in November, 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 eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

MUSIC

The last band that matters Killer Mike and El-P argue that the post-political is the most political by Adam Woodhead Killer Mike and El-P are Run the Jewels. COURTESY PHOTO

When we last left our heroes, hip-hop duo Run the Jewels had appeared at the Royal Oak Music Theater in support of their entirely reluctant, crowdsourced remix of RTJ2 set to cat sounds, Meow the Jewels. Michael Render aka Killer Mike had embarked on a national media tour, making appearances on numerous mainstream media outlets in support of Bernie Sanders’ run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Cut to present day, and Render has loudly declared in front of an audience of NPR employees that politics are dead. Earlier this month, Render and partner Jaime Meline aka El-P appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and the coastal media crowd completely lost their shit. After delivering three tracks from their Christmas Eve release RTJ3, music journalists across the country were chomping at the bit to blurb and repost the heck out of what seems to have become a fantastic if somewhat unlikely platform for hip-hop performers to re-create more intimate, studio-like chemistry in a public setting (see also Gucci Mane and producer Zaytoven’s great performance late last year). But one thing no one dared to touch were Render’s closing remarks. “At some point in the future they’re going to try to label us a political rap group, and that we are not,” he said. “We don’t care what party you belong to. We don’t care who you supported. We don’t care what you’re doing tomorrow politically. We care that so42 February 15-21, 2017 | metrotimes.com

cially, every one of you know you are absolutely born free, and nothing has a right to interrupt that freedom.” His words seemed directly at odds with the most prominent analysis of RTJ3, most notably Hua Hsu’s recent work for The New Yorker, and Robert Christgau in Noisey. But as perhaps one of the more astute public intellectuals of our time, it is no surprise that Render’s thinking is more in line with analysts like the BBC’s Adam Curtis, who have observed that even politicians themselves seem to have moved beyond 20th century ideological precepts and into a role that more closely resembles mere managers of society. And as someone with a clearly advanced understanding of nuance, Render’s remarks will ring true to anyone who has found themselves having to beat the dead horse, in 2017, of explaining to people who say that heavy bass and B-words make them uncomfortable, that sometimes art can be seen a reflection of life and the world around us, rather than simply a declaration of one’s beliefs. Just as his opening line from RTJ3 (“I hope with the highest of hopes/that I never have to go back to the trap and my days of dealing with dope”) might tug at the heartstrings of anyone who has ever felt themselves slip into the quicksand of criminality. Meline has described the group’s approach to RTJ3 as “the anatomy of a riot,” and presumably, the pair belong to a school of thought that see this and other facets of life on the fringes — like its soundtrack — as the

byproduct of our surroundings, if not political per se. When we rejoin Render, he is back where we last saw him on RTJ2, posted up at his usual observation point on “very scary” MLK, with a Kalashnikov rifle by his side out of sheer necessity. But the pair have both said they reject the dread many of us enter into 2017 with, and the album’s tone is characteristically defiant, rather than defeatist. The supporting cast of RTJ3 is strong. Zack de la Rocha and singer BOOTS both make follow-up appearances after lending their talents on some of the most memorable tracks from RTJ2, and Detroit listeners will undoubtedly be pleased to see Danny Brown’s name on the credits for “Hey Kids (Bumaye).” Hsu of The New Yorker has noted how dense the album seems at times, and if it were possible, RTJ3 does seem to live up to promises of being even “darker” and “angrier” than previous work. In the present day, it is hard to imagine music that more effectively captures the spirit of those who feel little if any connection to politics as usual. And few, if any, have come as close to articulating a way out. Run the Jewels perform at the at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 18; doors at 7 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; 248-399-2980; royaloakmusictheatre.com; tickets are $30, $40 at the door.

letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

MUSIC Deep, man

Mike Dutkewych celebrates 7 years of his Downriver dance night by Mike McGonigal

Mike Dutkewych is a tall

and well-sideburned gentleman who you’ve seen around town — at shows, at record stores, or perhaps DJing your friend’s wedding. He also runs a down and dirty monthly soul dance party in Wyandotte. Soul Deep happens every third Friday at the Rockery. Last month, the night celebrated its lucky seven-year anniversary, so we caught up with Dutkewych, who grew up Downriver, who “was a musician in a former life,” and fell in live with soul music when he heard “Heat Wave” as a teen (a story he relayed to us last month when we posted a list of top dance-floor movers from his night). Metro Times: How did the night get started? Mike Dutkewych: Soul Deep actually started by accident, as the best things often do. My friend Marybeth was bartending Sunday nights at this dive in Wyandotte. It was her slowest shift so she invited me to come play some soul records, so long as I promised to drag all of our friends out to her bar. That was January 2010 and what was supposed to be this one-off soul night has been going on in Wyandotte ever since. In 2012 I moved from that shithole dive bar to a way cooler one a few blocks away called the Rockery, where I host Soul Deep every third Friday. MT: What kind of music do you play at your night? Dutkewych: 1950s and ’60s soul, rhythm and blues, early rock ‘n’ roll. Some garage. Of course, a lot of Motown. All played at glorious 45 rpm. MT: Why did you choose that name? Dutkewych: I put basically zero thought into the name. It’s actually not in reference to the Box Tops song, but a BBC documentary series on black music I’d seen a few years earlier. I just needed a title for that first Sunday night so I could promote it, and somehow “soul deep” was the first thing that came to mind. I had no idea it would even go ’til last call, let alone seven years and counting. I might’ve chosen a name more carefully.

MT: What separates your night from other soul nights? Dutkewych: First, let me say I’m really happy to be a part of this tight community of music enthusiasts and collectors in Detroit. How lucky are we to live in a place that was not only ground zero for some of the best, most important American music of the 20th century, but one that still has multiple events every month dedicated to showcasing and celebrating it? Pretty lucky, I think. So, shout out to Stokeon-Campau Soul Club and Motor City Soul Club. Richie and Adam from Stoke play records with me at Soul Deep quite often. Brad and Erica from MCSC have too. As far as what makes Soul Deep different, I think the key component is Downriver. It’s hard to explain the singularity and steely charm of that area, especially to people from other parts of town who wouldn’t normally drive that far south on 75. Downriver is no frills. The working-class, underdog thing just permeates everything — even a bar full of twentysomethings dancing to some dude’s soul record collection. After having grown up there and escaped it, I’ve developed a more romantic perspective on the place. The things I love about the MC5 or the Bad Boys-era Pistons are the same things I love about Downriver. And I hadn’t really considered this before, but I think the records I play at Soul Deep are a total reflection of the environment it’s grown in over the last seven years. You hear a lot more downand-dirty, one-wailing-sax R&B at Soul Deep than you would at one of the other soul nights in Detroit. I don’t play much Northern Soul. Not a lot of pretty strings or polished horn sections on my records. I mean, that stuff is great, but it doesn’t often hit me on that primordial level, so I usually don’t reach for it. My playbox is Downriver as hell. MT: Are DJs musicians? Dutkewych: Well, let me make one obvious distinction: Even though what I do falls in line with the traditional definition of a disc jockey — selecting and playing recorded music for

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Mike Dutkewych. ROD FIORI

an audience — I think now the term applies more to hip-hop artists, turntablists, etc. I would definitely consider those DJs to be musicians. Me and my friends, not so much. Having good taste in music and the equipment to play somebody else’s song in front of a crowd doesn’t really make you a musician. MT: How does your work in the field of archives relate to music work for you? Dutkewych: By day I work for Wayne State University Libraries, where I recently earned a master’s degree in information science. I landed there in large part due to these extracurricular pursuits in music. Very quickly, collecting records expanded into a serious interest in preservation, particularly the digitization of analog formats like vinyl and magnetic tape. Even though these days most anything is a few clicks away online, there is still an immeasurable amount of audio history that is sitting locked on old media that is rapidly deteriorating. Tape in particular is reaching the point

of no return, not only because the physical artifacts are degrading more with each passing day, but because there are fewer and fewer people who can operate and maintain the obsolete equipment required to play them. So digitization is vital to the long-term preservation of this material. For me, there are few things as fulfilling as being able to contribute in some small way to the protection of these cultural works that I find so much value in. Preserving them and making them accessible to people who couldn’t have appreciated them otherwise, it’s a great feeling. It’s the same feeling I get watching a bar full of strangers dance to my favorite forgotten soul records. Soul Deep dance parties take place the third Friday of every month at the Rockery; Starts at 10 p.m.; 1175 Eureka Rd., Wyandotte; facebook.com/souldeepsunday; no cover. The next one is this Friday, Feb. 17. music@metrotimes.com @mikemcgonigal

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

MUSIC A message to humonity

Humons presents an atypical dance evolution by Rai Skotarczyk

Ardalan Sedghi, aka Ardi, of Humons. COURTESY PHOTO

El Club in Southwest Detroit is littered with glow sticks, blow-up palm trees, and balloons. A pair of DJs with skipper hats on are warming up the room with tech-house jams. A few people are already dancing. Unaware this was a themed party, I’ve got a tiny umbrella in my gin and tonic. The vibes are warm and fresh, and for a minute, I forget we’re in the middle of a Detroit winter. My friend picks up a balloon to volley across the room. The balloon says “Humons.” We smile to each other and watch it bounce from human to human until it finds an empty, human-less zone. Both of us track its slow and graceful surrender to the floor while activity whirls around us. So far this is what the night is — observing, human-watching — girls dressed in smart ’90s rave garb, and boys in sweaters, Hawaiian leis, and knit caps. Washed in a zig-zagging row of bright white lights, two figures emerge onstage. My focus locks on the mic

where the man behind the music stands in a royal blue bomber jacket, accompanied by a drummer, who wears a neon green cap on top of a mess of long curly hair. Starting from their single, “Underneath,” the show progresses seamlessly, and by the end I’m elbowing my friend, going, “Who knew this would turn into a house show!” Humons is the creation of Ardalan Sedghi aka Ardi. He’s unassuming, with an honest face and an effortlessness about him. He’s not trying to win your affection; he’s here the same reason you are, to share something with the community he moves within. There’s a feeling it was never his intention to get attention, yet here we are. “I’ve been writing music since I was a young lad in middle school… that would be around 2003,” Ardi says. “Humons started in 2013 and that is the first time I had set to write and release music with some sort of intention or coherent theme.” His setup is simple: a laptop for some

46 February 15-21, 2017 | metrotimes.com

backing tracks, a keyboard, a controller designated to a drum machine, and a small vocal effects box that’s locked on the mic stand. Oh yeah, and there’s the mic. Humons would be a complete one-man live operation if not for the addition of drummer Mike Higgins, which Ardi says, “definitely stepped the live show up a notch. I’m grateful to have his talent and energy onstage.” An eclectic mix of minimal electronic, pop, and experimental sonic animation — born from a process and method that continues to evolve with each track — Humons draws most of their influence from Detroit. “We are blessed with some of the world’s best electronic music be it at Movement or at TV Lounge on any weekend,” Ardi says. At this El Club show, the material Humons is sharing is the recently released Spectrum EP — most of which was recorded at Ardi’s home studio, “aka my bedroom,” he says, “but I did some additional recording at As-

semble.” The mixing and mastering for Spectrum EP were done at Assemble with producer/engineer Jon Zott (Tunde Olaniran, JRJR, BØRNS, ect.). “He is absolutely great to work with,” Ardi says of Zott. “He took the EP to the next level with his production prowess.” The album, while pristine in its original form, will be reimagined into a full package of remixes that will come out each week over the next five weeks. The first, a remix of “Underneath” by Detroit-based Mega Powers already dropped at the beginning of the month. Other Detroiters who will join the party are Jon Zott and Monty Luke. Elsewhere, there is Color War from New York and Diamondstein from Los Angeles. “It’s a cool project for me,” Ardi says, “not only because I’m a fan of what all of them are doing musically, but also because three of the five artists were involved with either Spectra EP itself or were a part of the EP release party.” Having lived in Detroit for the last

MUSIC five years, Ardi is cognizant of the limitations of such a city, as well as the undeniable benefits, which, at times feel like intangible energies rather than citable stats supporting the fact that Detroit is indeed growing from more of an artist “launching pad” to something of a viable “home” — meaning that artists won’t have to keep leaving to expand their reach, their creativity, their income. But maybe leaving is also part of a necessary process, an experience that any creative might eventually embark upon. One has to remain open, become cultured, grown in a scope that is not always accessible so far removed from the entertainment capitals of the world. We’ve all noticed a definite shift, growth, and rebirth in Detroit over the years, but I was curious of Ardi’s thoughts on what has changed to alter the struggle. The fan base? Raise the ceiling? I had to ask.

side. That said, sometimes that parttime job is fuel too — offers balance. We’ve always been a working-class city. Maybe that balance of jobby-job and artist is unique to what makes Detroit artists such an impressive breed — as it’s a lifestyle that begs respect rather than the opposite. “I have been putting in more energy and time into it since about last October leading up to the release of Spectra EP,” Ardi says. The opportunity was there to keep on keeping on — a natural progression of well-timed successes and good live shows that has allowed Humons the pleasure of riding out that wave. As for the future, Ardi isn’t making any predictions, just figuring out his personal evolution as it goes. “I’m getting more and more interested in dance being a main goal as it relates to live shows,” he says. “There is such a great energy that comes with a group of

‘There is such a great energy that comes with a group of people dancing together.’ “As with most places there’s definitely pros and cons,” Adri says. “It’s easy to survive as an artist financially and there is a lot of hidden talent here, but it’s hard to grow beyond a certain level because the industry hasn’t been around for a while and there simply aren’t that many folks living in the city to build a local following.” If that sounds like the same old problems, well they are, but Ardi seems confident that things are gaining important momentum. “In the past, it’s felt a bit isolated in terms of everybody just doing their own thing, but I think that’s starting to change, especially with groups like Assemble Sound,” he says. “I’m definitely hopeful about the music scene here, as we start building resources and connections — helping our local talent develop into its potential.” That said, Ardi is playing it safe — Humons isn’t a full-time gig. “Both from a financial and a personal standpoint, I don’t think it’s the move for me right now,” he says. Not surprisingly, being able to support yourself as a full-time artist is one of those unicorns of the industry — a fantasy for most, rare way of life for some — those who have talent, luck, dedication, and an amazing work ethic on their

people dancing together.” This interest will likely translate to the next batch of songs he’s writing alongside aforementioned co-producer Jon Zott and drummer Michael Higgins. This year they’ll all be in the midst of creation, getting heady in the studio, having fun, vetting out ideas, and learning in the process. “It’s a good challenge,” Ardi says, “and I think the result will be great with the live drums and synth takes.” He hopes to have a new album available by the end of the year. Other than that, Humons is working on designing some T-shirts. As to his long-term plans, he’s keeping it pretty loose. Ardi doesn’t imagine a typical music career for himself — atypical is more of his flavor anyway, but his goal maintains a basic simplicity. “I want to keep writing music, getting better, playing live shows, and building an audience so that the music is being heard and enjoyed.” The tracks mentioned in this article can be found at soundcloud.com/ humons.

music@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

metrotimes.com metrotimes.com | | February February15-21, 15-21,2017 2017

MUSIC

Livewire

This week’s suggested musical events by MT staff

FRIDAY, 2/17 Tribute to John Coltrane @ Baker’s Keyboard Lounge

Coltrane. It’s a name that’s introduced many people to jazz. It’s a name that’s inspired many a musician, including those of the Shawn “Thunder” Wallace Quartet. Presented by the new record listening lounge Detroit Griot, “Acknowledgement Vol. 1: A tribute to John Coltrane” is the first step in a concert series dedicated to John Coltrane and Detroit’s long history with jazz as a whole. The Shawn “Thunder” Wallace Quartet is definitely the right choice for the job. He’s had eight marvelous albums, and has been featured on a vast array of networks, including CBS and NBC. Working with Wallace to produce the set list is the man behind the Griot Music Lounge, John Taylor, whose dedication to jazz and to Detroit is notable. Taylor hopes to inspire people to care more about jazz’s history in Detroit, and this concert series in honor of John Coltrane is certainly a decent start.

Doors open at 8 p.m.; 20510 Livernois Ave., Detroit; theofficialbakerskeyboardlounge.com; Tickets are $15.

Coltrane icon at the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church in San Francisco. COURTESY PHOTO

THURSDAY, 2/16

FRIDAY, 2/17

SonReal

Mykki Blanco

Greg Brown

@ The Shelter

@ El Club

@ The Ark

There’s a lot of rap and hip-hop coming out of Canada, and SonReal is an example of the nation’s most determined up-and-comers. He built up a loyal fan base thanks to the wonders of the internet, and SonReal released his first mixtape in 2011. After the release of 2012’s Words I Said, he signed with Black Box Recordings, and was nominated for two Juno Awards, which are basically Canadian Grammys. As the supporting act for Jon Bellion in Detroit, he’s met a lot of praise, and if you were impressed with him then, you’ll certainly be into seeing him headline.

Mykki Blanco is an androgynous activist and artist whose alternative hiphop has made some pretty cool waves. He’s a fan of riot grrrl and queercore, and his mixtapes have been fantastic. 2014’s Gay Dog Food featured contributions from the ultimate riot grrrl, Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre). In 2016, Mykki Blanco, whose persona began as a female role for a YouTube video, released his first solo album, which is pretty sweet and really showcases just how much talent he has.

Greg Brown started off at 18 years old singing at the fabled Gerdes Folk City in the Big Apple. Now, 40 years later, Brown has an impressive portfolio when it comes to music, having worked as the ghostwriter for Buck Ram (The Platters) and establishing his own brilliant folk music career. Brown knows just how to milk the intimacy of folk music to enchant audiences.

Doors open at 6 p.m.; 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; saintandrewsdetroit.com; Tickets are $13.

48 February 15-21, 2017 | metrotimes.com

Doors open at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com; Tickets are $14.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; theark.org; Tickets are $35.

SATURDAY, 2/18 Prude Boys Cass records single party @ UFO Factory

The Prude Boys (formerly the Lost Boys) are one of our favorite garagepunk bands. They’re celebrating their first vinyl release on the recently rejuvenated Cass label, so you should definitely join in. Double Winter and AM People will perform, while DJ Richie Wolfheil will play records, so there’s no reason to do anything else all evening.

Doors open at 9 p.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; ufofactory.com; $8.

Prude Boys. COURTESY PHOTO

FRIDAY, 2/17

SATURDAY, 2/18

TUESDAY, 2/21

Naomi Punk and PC Worship

Frontier Ruckus

Head for the Hills

The Necks

@ The Loving Touch

@ Otus Supply

@ Trinosophes

Frontier Ruckus returns home with their jangly, lo-fi folk music. The band, which formed at Brother Rice High School in 2003, has achieved its fair share of success. Every album, starting with The Orion Songbook in 2008 has been fantastic. Their lyrics are intense, their music is awesome, and, as The A.V. Club proved, they can even make Third Eye Blind’s “SemiCharmed Life” genuinely likable, which is a pretty difficult feat. The band is not pigeonholed by the folk label, so anyone on the fence about going should know that they’re going to hear some pretty eclectic music.

Everybody loves Head for the Hills, from Bluegrass Today to NPR. They’re versatile for a bluegrass string music, and they keep it accessible to pretty much anyone. Blue Ruin is definitely their best album. It blends traditional bluegrass sounds with progressive, modern acoustic sensibilities. Head for the Hills has been around for quite some time now, and they’ve never found themselves falling into any tropes of the genre or becoming stagnant. They’re easily one of the most forward-thinking bluegrass bands around.

The Necks are probably one of the best bands in the world (we mean, The New York Times thinks so), and definitely the most unique band from Australia. Since the late 1980s the Necks have produced original postrock-ish type music that holds its own and rewards repeated listening. Their debut album, Sex, consisted of one nonstop track, and that’s what they do best: long tracks with little nuances throughout the piece that keep listeners on their toes. It took some time for North America to buy in, and thankfully we haven’t gone to war with Australia yet so they’ve been allowed in the country. The band is touring behind its 19th studio album, Unfold, which promises to be just as expertly crafted as the rest, blending tradition with experimentation.

@ UFO Factory

Naomi Punk is one of those bands defying those who say that grunge died with the ’90s, and they’re doing it pretty well. Grunge is one of those genres where it’s easy for young bands trying to do it can come off a little too much like a rehashing of Mudhoney. Naomi Punk, straight from Olympia, keeps their music fresh by consciously making an effort to stay unique. PC Worship is awesome drone-rock that Stereogum has praised, and rightly so.

Doors open at 9 p.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; ufofactory. com; Tickets are $10-$12.

Doors open at 6 p.m.; 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; thetokenlounge. com; Tickets are $14.50.

Doors open at 8 p.m.; 345 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; otussupply. com; Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Show starts at 8 p.m.; 1464 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; trinosophes.com; Entrance is $15. metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

ARTS Art history remixed

Kehinde Wiley exhibit comes to Toledo by Andrea Penman-Lomeli

Detroiters may likely already be familiar with fine artist Kehinde Wiley’s work. His painting “Officer of the Hussars” hangs prominently in the hallway of the Contemporary Art section at the Detroit Institute of Arts. It features a young black man wearing jeans and Timbs, heroically holding a sword on the back of a galloping horse, all set against a backdrop that resembles an ornate rug. Wiley, who has quickly become one of our generation’s most important contemporary artists, is known for portraits like that, placing black protagonists within settings that mimic the classic European paintings of the Old Masters. A New Republic, a traveling exhibition of Wiley’s work, opened Friday at the Toledo Museum of Art. The traveling exhibition includes 60 paintings, sculptures, and stained glass paintings drawn from Wiley’s past 15 years of work. The show is curated by Eugenie Tsai, the John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, where it originally opened. Tsai tells Metro Times that the images show the sitters as empowered individuals, and gives them agency in their depiction. “The mashup of cultural and art historical traditions in his work, the fluidity of gender, the exuberance of the colors and patterns suggests the possibility of an open and inclusive future,” she says. Wiley’s work takes classic European forms — oil paintings, stained glass, and sculpture from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic periods — and replaces the European noblemen and barons with black individuals he meets and recruits from the street in a process he calls “street casting.” He has described his work as an “intervention,” where once the wealthiest European men were depicted sitting on their thrones, Wiley places contemporary black individuals dressed in their everyday wear. After graduating from Yale with a Master of Arts in 2000, Wiley moved to New York, where he became the artistin-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. In New York, he re-examined his academic instruction, which for him meant both questioning the values he learned in the academy and going back

to the basics — portraiture. His classically trained skills remained central to his practice, but he moved to different processes and subject matter, unlearning the Eurocentric aesthetic he had been inundated with in the academy, and in doing so, developing a collaborative relationship with his surroundings. Central to his paintings is the experience of his models. He mines his urban landscape — both in the U.S. and, lately, internationally — for charismatic models and invites them into his studio to scour art books and choose poses. In asking strangers to participate, Wiley allows for a black public to be seen in these erstwhile exclusionary art forms and makes the paintings a reflection of their desires in representation. Wiley challenges Eurocentrism while exploring modern notions of wealth, power, and status, pointing to a harrowing lack of black bodies in historical and cultural narratives. In an interview with NPR he says he wanted to better understand “this dissonance between the world that you know [as a black individual], and then what you mean as a symbol in public, that strange, uncanny feeling of having to adjust for ... this double consciousness.” While the black identity is central to his critique of the art canon, he also challenges the spectacle of contemporary black masculinity. In fact, most of his earlier paintings exclusively feature men. He uses an urban visual vernacular to articulate masculinity in such a way as to present gender as fluid and moving, often feminizing men in his paintings with elaborate flower patterns and vivid colors. The images unabashedly evoke glamour, excess, and wealth. Highcontrast colors glimmering over lush, intricate patterns are the backgrounds for ornate gold furniture and individuals in languid poses. With many of the

50 February 15-21, 2017 | metrotimes.com

Kehinde Wiley, "Shantavia Beale II." COURTESY PHOTO

paintings measuring an overwhelming 9 feet tall, the scale also adds drama to the paintings. Always juxtaposing the regal with the quotidian, Wiley uses the visual vocabulary of a pre-1800 European aristocracy with signs and symbols of contemporary black America to create a new, visually compelling aesthetic language. The exhibit moves from his earliest oil painting portraits of male figures, into his Old Master portraiture and then his later explorations of sculpture — bronze portrait busts and stained glass “painting” and iconography — yet always affirming his firm focus on the black and brown bodies he depicts.

This show marks somewhat of a halfway point in his career, beginning with Wiley’s work at the Studio Museum, but perhaps comes at a decisive moment. Tsai believes “his work offers a bit of hope at this moment of political change.” Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic runs through May 14 at the Toledo Museum of Art; 2445 Monroe St, Toledo; 419-2558000; toledomuseum.org; free admission.

letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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February 15-21, 2017

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February 15-21, 2017

CULTURE Higher Ground: Marijuana fighters by Larry Gabriel

One of the reasons the state leg-

islature changed the rules to help keep the question of legalizing marijuana in Michigan off the ballot was because legislators believed voters would approve it. Results of a new EPIC-MRA statewide survey pretty much double down on that sentiment. The poll found that support for legalization leads with 57 percent of voters. The naysayers were at 40 percent. Those numbers are up 4 percent from last year, and last year’s numbers were up 3 percent from the year before. That pretty much shows the trend. That’s why MI Legalize, which ran the petition drive the state rejected last year, hasn’t given up. Most of the members of the group are longtime activists and remember a day when no one outside of their circle would even talk to them about marijuana. Now there is majority public opinion and a real chance at success. There are actually several lobbyists for different interests in Lansing working with legislators on the issue. What a difference a couple of decades make — that is, if you haven’t had your life run over by the prohibition bulldozer in the in the meantime. People are still getting killed, having their property confiscated, getting their families torn apart, and enriching foreign drug lords — all at the cost of trillions of tax dollars for a failed policy. So MI Legalize is still at it. The group is pursuing a challenge to the state’s rejection of its petition in federal court. But first and foremost, it’s working with a coalition to bring a new ballot proposal to voters for 2018. That was the target year, based on public opinion, that many experienced activists were aiming for in the first place. So did most national marijuana organizations. The effort for the 2016 ballot came about in part because a couple of groups backed by investors were exploring initiatives. MI Legalize people felt the need to jump in now or get beat to the punch. It was a good effort, and it probably set things up for an even better one to come. “There are people from a lot of groups working together to work out language that is acceptable to the greater community,” says attorney Matt

54 February February 15-21, 15-21, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com 54

Abel, executive director of Michigan NORML, the local chapter of the national marijuana rights organization. “This will become public and there will be a draft available for people to comment on. We want this legislation to be done right, proper, and not susceptible to challenge.” The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which backed campaigns in California and elsewhere last time around, was not behind the MI Legalize effort other than giving it a late-in-the-game vocal endorsement. That’s changed. The MPP now has a staff member living in Michigan who is meeting with people around the state trying to help figure it all out. That should be a sign that the time is now to change state laws. The MPP is pretty stringent about where it will get fully behind an effort with people and fundraising. One of the things the organization’s staff looks for is a strong and dedicated contingent on the ground in a state. It doesn’t like major infighting between groups — there has to be unity. The MPP has been here before. It was a major player in helping the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act get passed in 2008. I’m hoping the return visit will be just as fruitful. The language in the EPIC-MRA poll was pretty specific to voters about what they were asking: “The proposal would make the possession and cultivation of limited amounts marijuana legal in the state of Michigan for adults age 21 or older. Also, it would allow the sale of marijuana to adults age 21 or older only by stores that would be licensed by the state, and finally, it would tax the sale of marijuana by these state-licensed stores. If this proposal were to appear on a future election ballot, if the election were held today, would you vote yes to approve the proposal, or would

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

CULTURE you vote no to oppose it?” That’s to the point. One of the big things that people who want to roll back the MMMA is that people didn’t know what they were voting for when they voted for medical marijuana. Another issue is that the MMMA doesn’t specifically say that it can be sold in “stores.” This new recreational legalization language doesn’t leave that to chance. It may not matter much; if polling trends continue their direction by the time we’re voting in 2018, support should be well over 60 percent.

Detroit challenge While the city of Detroit is methodically denying variances to its caretaker center ordinance and shutting them down, the group that pressured the City Council to do this is casting another net. They’ve targeted councilmember George Cushingberry in this fall’s election. Winfred Blackmon, who dubs himself “the marijuana fighter,” is soliciting supporters to fight the District 2 representative “who voted against Ordinance No. 61 to have regulation and to curtail the expansion of the il-

legal marijuana dispensaries.” (The bold emphases are Blackmon’s.) Blackmon writes that several community organizations “are banning (sic) together to support a candidate

Coalition (MCDAC), which Blackmon chairs, is alarmed. For one thing they’ve been hearing anti-marijuana propaganda their whole lives and blame a lot of social ills on it. Another thing is that

For one thing they’ve been hearing anti-marijuana propaganda their whole lives and blame a lot of social ills on it. who has sworn to be a councilmember for the entire district and not just representing the Downtown District, Midtown District, and the Marijuana Industry. That candidate is Roy McCalister Jr.” McCalister, a former police lieutenant, lost bids for at-large council seats in 2013 and 2014, and a state representative try in 2014. It looks like he’s back. So the fight is on for the Detroit election season. And apparently marijuana is going to be one of the issues. That’s fine, we need to be talking about it openly. And I understand why the Metropolitan Detroit Community Action

56 February February 15-21, 15-21, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com 56

the proliferation of dispensaries in Detroit, partly driven by Oakland County’s absolute ban on them, is a reminder of a dynamic that has not boded well for the city. As I once heard a judge in a courtroom admonish a defendant that suburbanites come into Detroit to “do your dirt” then head back home. I don’t equate buying marijuana to doing dirt, but I can understand that those who fear marijuana don’t want Detroit to be sin city. I’ve seen my share of folks who hit the Eight Mile Road dispensary strip and head back out to the suburbs. However, the “marijuana fighter” is just a typical marijuana hater. In his

group’s first couple of meetings it took them a while to accept that medical marijuana is legal and they couldn’t just close down all the dispensaries. Then they decided to try to restrict them out of existence, or at least out of sight. Now they’re going after politicians who support a non-prohibitionist attitude. Maybe a small, dedicated band can block things for a while, but the numbers are against them in the big picture in the long run. Politicians respond to forces that can get them elected. In 2012 decriminalization passed in Detroit with 65 percent of the vote. Unless public opinion turns around, and polls don’t show that, politicians mostly aren’t going to have a strong prohibition stance. Particularly when they look at the economic benefits in tax and regulate states. MCDAC members have problems with medical marijuana. Their heads will really explode when recreational legalization comes and stores sell it to anybody who’s old enough to buy.

letters@metrotimes.com @gumbogabe

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

CULTURE

PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

Savage Love: Pair of aces by Dan Savage

I’ve been reading your advice column in the Coast in Halifax for a while, and it seems that most solutions to relationship problems revolve around sex. Everyone wants it or needs it, we should fuck before dinner, or we can spice up our sex life in this certain way to be happy. What about someone who doesn’t want to have sex, ever? I’ve asked other people for advice, and the answer is usually “take one for the team,” have sex to keep them happy. Is that the only way I could find happiness in a relationship? It’s not something I want to do — but at this point, I don’t see any other options. — All Alone Ace

I’m a sex-advice columnist. Consequently, AAA, people tend to write me when sex (needing it, wanting it, getting it but not the kind you want, etc.) is the problem, and sex (in some new and improved form) is often-butnot-always the solution. I also get and respond to questions from asexuals, and I’ve urged sexuals not to regard asexuals as defective — or, for that matter, to view committed-but-sexless relationships as defective. So long as both people in the relationship are content and happy, it’s a good and healthy and functional relationship, whether the sex is vanilla or spicy or nonexistent. Strictly companionate marriages can be good marriages.

58 February 15-21, 2017 | metrotimes.com

As for “taking one for the team,” that’s not advice given only to asexuals. A woman who’s married to a foot fetishist, for instance, may be advised to “take one for the team” and let her husband perv on her feet. A vanilla guy married to a woman corrupted by Fifty Shades of Grey (it’s baaaaaack) may be advised to “take one for the team” and tie the wife up once in awhile. And while there are certainly lots of asexuals out there taking one for the team — having sex to please/keep/shut up their partners (or allowing their partners to seek sex elsewhere) — you know who doesn’t have to take one for the team, ever? Asexuals with other asexuals. Dating another asexual is the other option, the obvious option, and may be the best option for you, AAA. (Don’t want to take one for the team, ever? Don’t draft anyone onto your team who wants one, ever.) A quick Google search brings up several asexual dating sites: Asexualitic.com, AsexualMatch.com, Ace-Book.net, AsexualPals.com. You can also choose to identify as asexual — and search for other asexuals — on mainstream dating sites like OkCupid and Match. I can already hear you composing your response, AAA: Asexuals are just 1 percent of the population. There are 400,000 people in Halifax, which means there are 3,999 other asexuals. Sounds like a lot, but most will be too young,

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017

CLASSIFIEDS CULTURE too old, or unappealing for political or personal reasons (loves Kevin O’Leary, hasn’t seen Moonlight, picks their nose with an oyster fork). And a significant chunk of that number may not be aware — yet — that they’re asexual. So realistically, AAA, your local dating pool is much smaller than 3,999. But! Good news! There are 7.5 billion people on the planet! And 75 million of them are asexual! I have a good friend with a unique array of kinks — a crazy, specific, and rare constellation of kinks — and he cast a wide net on kink dating apps. After he met someone on the other side of the world with all the same kinks and they hit it off via Skype and the guy provided my friend with references (put my friend in touch with friends who could vouch for him), my friend flew to the other side of the world to go on a first date. Two months later, he went back, stayed for a few months, and then moved abroad to be with Mr. Kink Match On The Other Side Of The World. My friend did things people are typically advised against — who gets on a 12-hour flight to go on a first date? — because he knew there weren’t many lids out there for his particular pot. Asexuality isn’t a kink, I realize, but you can and should cast a wide net, AAA, like my kinky expat friend. Don’t let geography limit you in your search. You may not be able to afford to do what my friend did — fly halfway around the world for a first date — but you can get your ass to the next province over if you hit it off with an asexual in New Brunswick or Quebec. Good luck.

I’m a 22-year-old lesbian living in Utah. I’m finally going back to college this fall. I have autism (high functioning), and I couldn’t handle going to school full-time while working. Thus I will be stuck living at my parents’ house, as I couldn’t afford rent and living expenses on my own. The problem is, my parents are super Republican and religious. While I live at home, I can’t date (they are against me being gay), I can’t drink, and I can’t watch movies with swears. They also force me to participate in daily scripture study, which I hate. I don’t know what to do. I can’t be myself or have any fun while I live at home because I’m afraid my parents will kick me out. But I can’t afford to move out, either. I’m shy and socially nervous, so I don’t have any friends who could help me out, and I can’t see living with roommates who are strangers. I’ll be 29 by the time I graduate, and I don’t want to live like this for that long. Any

60 February 15-21, 2017 | metrotimes.com

advice? Maybe I could work something out with my parents, but they are set in their ways and I don’t want to hurt them. — Under Their Authoritarian Homophobia

If they were just enforcing “their rules” about booze in their house, that would be one thing. But requiring your adult daughter not to date anyone, or not to be a lesbian at all, is just mean. (A lot of insane religious people believe homosexuality is an act, not an identity, so someone who isn’t currently having gay or lesbian sex isn’t actually gay or lesbian. By that standard, I haven’t been gay for hours.) And leveraging their daughter’s autism and social isolation and economic dependence against her in order to control her? Meaner still. You say you don’t want to hurt your parents — you’re a good daughter — but it’s clear your shitty parents don’t care if they hurt you. Typically my advice would be to tell your mean and shitty parents what they want to hear — to feel free to lie to them under duress — and then lean on your friends, do your own thing outside of the house, and be careful not to get caught. But that’s not an option for you. So you’ll have to ask yourself what you value more: freedom now or getting your degree sooner rather than later. If it’s your freedom, move out, get a job, go to community college, and take your time getting that degree. If it’s getting your degree before turning 30, knuckle under, spend a lot of late nights “studying in the library,” and go to the student resource center on your campus and ask if there are any campus services/support groups for students with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Who knows? You might meet some people who you could see yourself living with, as roommates and friends, and be able to get out of your parents’ house sooner rather than later. P.S. You’re in Utah, UTAH. If there’s an LGBT student group on your campus, go to the meetings and share your story. You might meet a gay Mormon boy with parents like yours — shitty and mean — who could use a fake girlfriend until he graduates, and you could use a fake boyfriend until you move out of mom and dad’s. On the Lovecast, two tricky pregnancies: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

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CULTURE

Horoscopes by Cal Garrison

ARIES (March 21- April 20):

Balancing things is less about going up and down than it is about finding your center. You bring more to this situation than anyone in it. If you are thinking in terms of balance, you might start by leveling off with the need to overdo everything. And if this has anything to do with finding your center, do you know where it lies? It doesn’t matter which mast you decide to tie yourself to, the road ahead is opening up, but there is no guarantee that it will be paved with gold, or love, or whatever it is that you’re shooting for. Like I said; find your center. It knows what you want. TAURUS (April 21 -May 20):

The pressure to conform is feeling like a weight that you haven’t had to deal with since you came of age. I don’t know how it’s working out for you on an individual basis, but the themes that were active about five years ago are needing a few adjustments — or at least a little review — because life has gotten too small. Either that or you’re getting to big for whatever’s going on, and whoever or whatever is trying to contain you doesn’t want to things to change. This is your life. Ask anyone who tries to keep you in your place if they have enough love in their hearts to set you free. GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

You have more than one option. It doesn’t matter which one you choose because they carry an equal amount of opportunity. Don’t rush into decisions. Within a week or two the dynamics in your situation will change and you will be looking at a different set of variables. If others try to pressure you to go one way or another, ask them to give you a reason why. It looks to me like a few of your associates keep stacking the deck in their favor. Their machinations could lure you into thinking that you need their support when in fact they have more to gain from this than you. CANCER (June 21-July 20):

You can do this with your eyes closed, so stop worrying about how it’s all going to turn out. Your dexterity applies to a million different things. Your best qualities get axed when it comes time to focus. As far as what’s up right now is concerned, you have to figure out how to do it all and stay clear. If I were you I’d keep my nose to the grindstone and be careful not to sink into a sense of overconfidence. You’ve got tons of support and you’ve earned the trust of people who count, but what really matters at the moment is your ability to stay humble and keep the light on.

66 66 February February15-21, 15-21,2017 2017 | | metrotimes.com metrotimes.com

LEO (July 21-Aug. 20):

You’ve got a lot of well-meant advice, making it very difficult for you to see what you need to do. In the course of looking at things from every possible angle, you forgot about your own! The truth is you don’t know what you want. Somehow or other that concept got lost under a pile of distractions that have left you confused. For someone who thought they had it all figured out, you are now wondering how much you will have to sacrifice before this is over. This never needed to get nuts. Maybe it’s time to go back to square one and tune in to what’s true for you. VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 20):

You fret too much over things that make you wish you hadn’t taken on all this responsibility. Don’t get all worked up about it. The weight of things doesn’t have to be a burden. As far as other people go, you can’t ignore them and you can’t afford to spend too much time making them feel OK about driving you nuts. Tough love might be in order. Just enough to make everyone understand that you are in no mood to be messed with. Opportunities for travel and healing, or for educational purposes, are lining up to give your mind a boost and take your spirit for a ride. LIBRA (Sept. 21-Oct. 20):

The fact that you’ve been able to stretch yourself this far has something to do with expedience. Many of you had no choice but to take on more than your share of the work; either that or there was no way you could say “no.” For the next few weeks you need to put your time in and stop wishing you were somewhere else. In and around the repetition you’ll be able to carve out a place for the part of you that needs something other than your responsibilities to give your life meaning. Look for this in the small things and remind yourself that every moment is perfect. SCORPIO (Oct. 21-Nov. 20):

You keep looking at this from every possible angle. If it never seems to work, it’s not necessarily due to any lack of desire. Sometimes circumstances and timing issues make it nearly impossible to connect. In your current situation a choice needs to be made. Instead of calculating the odds, or continuing to fret over what’s going to happen if you wind up seeing the worst of it, start picturing what it is that you really want out of this. If you can do that, you just might be able to work around the obstacles — and if you can’t, or are no longer willing to push it, that’s OK too.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 21-Dec. 20):

You’re not exactly delighted with the way things are going. If you’ve got half a brain you are aware that all of this is in divine order. No matter how it looks, on some level it works for you to have it be the way it is. Those who know you well could tell you that you keep repeating this pattern again and again. By now it has to be clear to you that your dissatisfaction has more to do with the idea that nothing can ever measure up than it does with the thought that there’s any sort of problem. You need to calm down enough to restore a sense of peace to your “too big” life. CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 20):

Anxious by nature, the bigger part of you thinks you need to hold the reins and keep everything under control. You understand that it would be better for you to chill out every now and then, but you’re hardwired into thoughts that make productivity more sacred in your world than anywhere else. The burning desire to stay busy, work your butt off, and play “roundand-round we go” is a great way to connect with yourself. But there are times when it’s where you go to hide. The greater part of you could use a break. It shouldn’t take much; give yourself a day or two of rest. AQUARIUS (Jan. 21-Feb. 20):

Moving on to bigger and better things has altered the scenery just enough for you to see how much things have changed since all of this began. It’s feeling good or bad, depending on how you’ve conducted yourself in the last nine or 10 months. Those of you who know what it means to be accountable are most likely being held high by your friends, your connections, and your efforts to make what’s good about life even better. Those of you who are prone to self-deception are mired in a crisis that won’t abate until you come to terms with your toughest blind spots. PISCES (Feb. 21-March 20):

The web of intrigue gets more interesting by the day. You have wound up in a situation where the direct approach isn’t going to work. Too many complexities make it hard to have any certainty about where others want this to go. Before you decide to hook up, consider any elements that might lead you to believe you’re being exploited. In the long run all of your actions will benefit through a policy of restraint. In your human relations, there should be no rush either. It takes a wise soul to see past appearances to the truth of where others’ motivations really lie.

metrotimes.com

February 15-21, 2017