VOL. 40 | ISSUE 6 | NOVEMBER 13–19, 2019
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Vol. 40 | Issue 6 | Nov. 13-19, 2019
News & Views Feedback/Comics ............... 10 Informed Dissent ................ 12 News Hits ............................ 14
Feature Is it time for Michigan to have publicly owned utilities? .... 16
Food Yum Village ......................... 22
What’s Going On ............... 24 Livewire: Local picks ......... 30 Fast-Forward....................... 32
Music Fat Beats’ Detroit ties......... 34 20 years of Ghostly International........................ 36
Stage and Canvas .............. 38 Film ...................................... 40 Higher Ground .................... 44 Savage Love ........................ 50 Horoscopes .......................... 54
On the cover: Shutterstock
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metrotimes.com | November 13-19, 2019
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ON SALE FRIDAY
DUSTIN LYNCH with Travis Denning 1/30
IN THIS MOMENT AND BLACK VEIL BRIDES
with DED and Raven Black 4/10
FOALS & LOCAL NATIVES with Cherry Glazerr 6/9
COMING SOON
11/14 KING DIAMOND With UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS AND IDLE HANDS 11/15 YELAWOLF with THE OUTFIT, TX AND WILD THE COYOTE AND BADD WOLF 11/16 SHORELINE MAFIA with 1TAKEJAY AND AZCHIKE 11/17 JASON BONHAM’S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING * 11/20 SCHOOLBOY Q WITH NAV 11/21 NICK OFFERMAN * (SELL OUT ALERT) 11/22 CHON & BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME WITH INTERVALS * denotes a seated show
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on sale friday:
coming soon concert calendar:
11/15 – counterparts
@ the shelter w/ stray from the patch, varials, chamber & greyhaven
11/16 – domo wilson @ the shelter
feb. 3
the shelter
feb. 9
ali gatie
st. andrew’s
11/16 – la dispute w/ touche amore roddy ricch
& empath
11/17 – pj morton
w/ asiahn & brik.liam
11/18 – dreamers @ the shelter w/ arrested youth & irontom
11/20 – tobe nwigwe w/ the amours
11/21 – the dirty nil aug. 36 mar.
w/ single mothers
the acacia strain elohim w/ kublai khan
st. andrew’s the shelter w/ bahari & mehro on sale now
may 5
the shelter
barns courtney
11/22 – collie budz
w/ leaving lifted & keznamdi
11/24 – doobie @ the shelter
coming soon:
w/ bse count & krash minati
11/27 – sponge rotting pinata
25 year anniversary w/ voyager, solid frog and crud
11/29 – with confidence
@ the shelter w/ seaway, between you and me & doll skin
dec. 19
state champs
w/ grayscale, better love &
st. andrew’s teddy roberts
jan. 15 atmosphere w/ the lioness, nikki jean & st. andrew’s
dj keezy
11/29 – helmet 30th anniversary tour 30 years x 30 cities x 30 song set. no openers
metrotimes.com | November 13-19, 2019
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NEWS & VIEWS Feedback Readers react to stories from the Nov. 6 issue We received a lot of comments in response to our story about MOCAD’s Richard Prince exhibition, which sources from Instagram photos. The exhibition stirred controversy when Detroit sex activist Zöe Ligon objected to the use of her image in the exhibition. Craig Reynolds: Oh, piffle. If you post anything through any internet business — and they’re ALL businesses, deary, in it for the bucks and not for
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you — then invite followers, to the extent of that posting, you’ve lost all claim to privacy. Further wailing that “They don’t understand!” the presumed TRUE point of the posting that the poster wanted to make is at this point, pointless. MrFrobisher: The Crossing Night exhibition [currently on view] is really beautiful and you should go see that at MOCAD and that only. I didn’t even [set] foot in the Instagram room. It’s complete laziness misconstrued [as] “art.” Have an opinion? Of course you do! Send feedback to letters@metrotimes.com.
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NEWS & VIEWS Informed Dissent
OK, Bloomer By Jeffrey C. Billman
There are worse billionaires on the planet than Michael Bloomberg. Donald Trump, for starters (if you grant that he’s really a billionaire). Also, Sheldon Adelson and Rupert Murdoch and the Saudi ruling family and whichever Koch brother is still above ground. The three-term Republican New York City mayor has at least committed signi cant resources toward ghting climate change and for gun reform. And he made his mint — $57 billion — by founding a nancial services rm that turned into a mass media company, not from pillaging impoverished countries or poisoning politics or by virtue of inheritance. Still, it takes a special kind of entitlement to look at modern politics and assume that what Democratic voters really want is a 78-year-old patrician to swoop in and save them from themselves. Learn how to read a room, Mike. Last week, Bloomberg — who toyed with a run for president earlier this year before backing out — led paperwork to get on the Democratic ballot in, of all places, Alabama. His spokesman said Bloomberg was worried about the current candidates’ prospects against Trump. This is an odd assessment for any number of reasons. Begin with the fact that the top ve Dems are consistently beating Trump in polls. A recent Washington Post/ABC News survey had Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders besting him by between 14 and 17 points. To the degree the Democrats are weak, it’s in the Rust Belt states whose outsize say in the Electoral College cost Hillary Clinton the White House in 2016. But do you think white working-class Michiganders are clamoring to vote for Mike Bloomberg? Beyond giving some pundits and New York Times columnists a jolt in their nether regions, Bloomberg doesn’t have a built-in constituency. He’s Biden without the Obama shine and the Scranton roots. And he’s basically wearing a “Kick Me” sign for Warren and Sanders. As best I can tell, Bloomberg has one narrow path to the nomination. The Alabama primary takes place on Super
Tuesday, March 3, alongside primaries in 15 other states, including North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, and California, which, presumably, Bloomberg will also enter. By then, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina will have voted, and the Democratic eld will have winnowed. The bet, then, is that Biden will falter, and there will be no moderates left to face Warren and/or Sanders. Enter Bloomberg and his billions, the last stand of the centrists. There are easier and more e ective ways to accomplish this goal. Bloomberg could have, for instance, dropped $100 million into a super PAC to prop up Amy Klobuchar — a moderate who actually could win Rust Belt votes next year — without blinking. Instead, he’ll do it himself. Obscene wealth is a hell of a drug. To be clear, there’s no guarantee Bloomberg will follow through on this trial balloon. I rather doubt he does. The initial polling doesn’t show him blowing the doors o the oint — shocking, right? — and very rich, entitled men don’t like to lose, especially on a public stage. ut loomberg’s candidacy re ects a larger concern among Democratic donors and o cials. They can see the writing on the wall: Biden is a weak front-runner. If nothing changes, the Democratic nominee will either be a cantankerous 78-year-old Vermont socialist or a 70-year-old Massachusetts policy wonk, both of whom have pushed the party leftward on health care, immigration, wealth taxes, climate policy, criminal justice reform, and a host of other issues. For the party’s operatives, this is risky on many fronts. Deep pockets might stop giving, scared o by the higher taxes they’d pay to fund the Green ew Deal or Medicaid for All. el shly, the power structures from which they derive their incomes might erode in the coming realignment. The media will paint initiatives to curtail climate emissions and expand health care access — and asking rich people to pay for it — as Leninism 2.0. But mostly, it’s that Democrats have spent the generation since Ronald Rea-
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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg: Why so serious?
gan living in fear of their own shadows, assuming that the cards are stacked against them and that the best choice is the safest choice, the least divisive choice, the grown-up choice, even as the GOP reoriented itself radically rightward and its inmates took over the asylum. This risk-aversion is understandable: etter uali ed Democratic candidates lost to intellectual welterweights George W. Bush and Donald Trump while winning the popular vote. So if the American people want a generic, ino ensive Democrat — Any Functioning Adult 2020! — to defeat Trump, what the hell, give it to them. This is the unspoken calculus behind the Biden campaign. It’s the calculus behind the Bloomberg tease, too: 2020 isn’t about big ideas. This election is about a reset, about creating a postTrump space in which the Republican Party can come to its senses, about making democracy function again. This message is tailor-made for the centrist pundit, and perhaps for swing voters in a general election. But it’s
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focused on the wrong question: The key to 2020 won’t be wooing a shrinking pool of undecideds — people know whether they like Trump or not. The key is turnout: Trump’s zealots will vote. Will Democratic voters mobilize? Maybe restoring sanity is a goodenough incentive; maybe getting rid of Trump will do the trick, regardless of who replaces him. But even if the Democrat prevails, this election-asreset theory is built on the fantasy that Trump is the cause and not a symptom of the GOP’s embrace of white nationalism and authoritarianism, and that eliminating him will x it. More important, however: The world is burning right now, and climate change and inequality won’t wait for the GOP to get its shit together. What Bloomberg — and, I suspect, Biden, too — is about to discover is that progressives are tired of being told to make nice while Republicans ump o a cli . This election isn’t about accommodation. It’s about bludgeoning the MAGA right into irrelevance.
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metrotimes.com | November 13-19, 2019
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NEWS & VIEWS Opportunity for whom?
Rashida Tlaib joins calls to investigate whether political donations from Dan Gilbert influenced tax break By Lee DeVito
Rep. Rashida Tlaib joined calls for an investigation into whether political donations from billionaire Dan ilbert in uenced the designation of “opportunity zone” tax breaks in Detroit following a lengthy ProPublica report published last month. Three swaths of land where Gilbert owns dozens of properties got the opportunity zone designation after ilbert’s organization gave , to the Trump administration. Tlaib sent a letter last week to the ouse Committee on ays and Means, the Committee on Oversight and Reform’s ubcommittee on Economic and Consumer olicy, and the Committee on Financial ervices’ ubcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “This is yet another example of how corporate greed and the in uence of billionaires have infected our government like a disease,” Tlaib wrote. “Residents in my district have witnessed time and time again how the desires of wealthy individuals are put before their needs — enough is enough. This is not how our government, or our democracy should work. e must take action to uncover the truth.” The opportunity zone tax breaks were meant to spur development in impoverished communities, but the tracts selected in Detroit are among the most wealthy in the city. In fact, ProPublica found that one of the tracts should have been deemed ineligible, as its median income was . times what the program’s eligibility re uirements allow. It was inexplicably added to the list of eligible tracts after a Michigan economic development o cial sent an email saying ilbert’s company uicken Loans “worked with the hite ouse on it and want to be sure we are coordinated.” Furthermore, ilbert already had several large scale pro ects in the works in those tracts, including the udson’s site skyscraper pro ect, which is intended to be the largest building in
Michigan. ared Fleisher, the vice president of government a airs and economic development for ilbert’s Rock Family of Companies, penned an op ed defending the process, calling ProPublica’s story “simply not true.” “I stake my name, my reputation and the reputation of my organization on that,” he wrote. ilbert’s organization also launched a R campaign against the story, though it failed to debunk many of its ndings. In an interview with Forbes, Fleisher said that he was not sure if developments already underway would ualify for the opportunity zone funds, but if they did, that the company would take them. It would be “an example of them doing what they should be doing. Making development projects happen that otherwise have economic gaps and need tools like this viable,” he said. Regardless, ilbert would still stand to gain, as
Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
PHIL PASQUINI / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
ro ublica found property values tend to go up inside opportunity zones. As Tlaib’s letter notes, the report also found potentially un uali ed census tracts that were designated as opportunity zones in altimore, hiladelphia, and Oklahoma. “ ublic trust in our federal government is eroded when the rules are applied unevenly and seem to reward the
wealthiest and best connected amongst us,” Tlaib writes in the letter. “It appears that a tax program supposedly designed to bene t the poorest amongst us is now being used to reward political donors and wealthy investors.” On Oct. , en. Cory ooker, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, and Rep. Ron ind also signed a letter calling for an investigation following ProPublica’s report.
Eastpointe’s first Black woman mayor Last week, Eastpointe — the Macomb County city that renamed itself from “East Detroit” in 1992 to distance itself from the Motor City and align itself with the nearby wealthier and whiter Grosse Pointes — elected Monique Owens, a former sheriff’s deputy and the city’s first Black councilwoman, to be its new mayor. She beat her opponent by just 19 votes. But Owens says she had no doubt she would win. “It shows that Eastpointe wants to move forward,” Owens says. Eastpointe has a population of 32,000 and is more than 40% Black. Owens says she noticed a large Black attendance at the polls, but she believes people of all races supported her. “A lot of people have been bothered by the past and racism not only in Eastpointe, but in all of America,” she says. Owens first got into politics when she applied to finish an Eastpointe council member’s term after they died, but the city instead chose a white candidate. In another instance, Owens applied again when a council member resigned a month after they were elected. Again, the city chose a white candidate. Eventually, in 2017, Owens made history by becoming Eastpointe’s first Black councilwoman. Unlike Detroit, in which city council seats are created by dividing the city into districts, which then vote for a representative, Eastpointe has held city-wide votes for its city council seats. But this,
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the U.S. Justice Department argued in 2017, prevented Black candidates from winning, because white voters could vote as a bloc. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing it was a violaton of the Voting Rights Act. Owens supported the lawsuit. Earlier this year, the city settled. Instead of creating districts, as had been initially proposed, the city introduced a ranked-choice voting system — the first city to do so in Michigan. Under the system, voters rank the council candidates from their first preference to their fourth. A report by FairVote and the New America Foundation found racial minority populations prefer ranked-choice voting because it allows more diverse groups of voters to elect preferred candidates. On Tuesday, the city held its first city council election using the new method, though it did not elect any Black councilmembers. (Voters in New York City also approved ranked voting on Nov. 5.) To counter the racial inequalities in the city, Owens wants to dihelp educate Black people about politics and public policy that she was not taught as a child. “I want to write a children’s book to teach kids about public policy at a young age,” she says. “When they get to a certain age, they will know what a councilperson is, what a mayor is — and become that.” —Marisa Kalil-Barrino
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DTE and Consumers Energy are broken and dangerous. Is it time for publicly owned utilities?
Even for a state accustomed
to navigating heavy snow and frigid winters, the polar vortex that pushed over Michigan in late January jarred the region. Temperatures in metro Detroit plunged to record lows of -26 while a dangerous wind chill hit -43 degrees in some spots, forcing school and workplace closures while con ning residents to their homes. But as the region tried to stay warm, Consumers Energy blasted out a startling warning to Michiganders’ cell phones on Wednesday, Jan. 30. “Emergency alert,” the text read. “Due to extreme temps Consumers asks everyone to lower their heat to 65 or less through Fri.” A re at a compressor plant deeply stressed its system, and the company didn’t have the infrastructure in place to handle an emergency in extreme weather. Consumers placed its customers between a rock and a hard place: turn down the heat during the frigid weather — or risk a system collapse that would leave southeast Michigan without natural gas to keep people warm. Enough people cooperated that a crash was avoided, and the company said customers could turn their thermostats up on midnight on Friday. But months later, the utilities did fail. In July, powerful thunderstorms downed the region’s electric service, this time as heat peaked at 96 degrees. More than 800,000 customers lost electricity, and tens of thousands would be without power for up to a week. In another 45 days, more storms pummeled DTE Energy’s and Consumers’ lines — 100,000 lost power, and thousands sat in the dark for days. Public outrage followed each incident, and state leaders like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer raised questions about the utilities’ preparedness as she ordered a review of Michigan’s energy supply: “It’s important that we get a handle on what’s happened here,” she said.
A Metro Times analysis of the issues found the dangerous outages are a symptom of deeper problems at DTE and Consumers. State documents show both utility companies failed to upgrade aging infrastructure, despite collecting billions of dollars annually from Michiganders during recent decades. Now, equipment in the region’s decaying grid is as many as 40 years beyond its functional life. As a result, DTE and Consumers customers spend more time in the dark than those of most utilities statewide or nationally. Moreover, Michiganders pay some of the nation’s highest rates, and DTE is proposing $351 million in rate hikes — its largest yet — for 2020. A large piece of the high bills can be attributed to wasteful overhead. At DTE, customers pay an additional $650 million annually to the company’s investors, bloated executive salaries, and political contributions — that represents a 13-percent jump in costs for the average customer. “We’re stuck in this quandary with some of the fastest growing utility bills alongside the worst provision of services … and people are really angry with DTE,” says Michelle Martinez, an activist with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, which advocates for utility customers in low-income areas. While the situation is partly a result of gross mismanagement and regulatory failure, critics like State Rep. Yousef Rabhi say it’s an unavoidable result of the utilities’ awed investor based model. DTE and Consumers “exist to make money for shareholders,” he says, and not to provide Michiganders with clean, reliable energy at the lowest price possible. Rabhi says municipalization — or switching to publicly owned utilities, as opposed to investor-owned — is the answer. “If you have public control, then the
BY TOM PERKINS
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utilities are accountable to voters and ratepayers instead of investors,” he adds. “Right now, DTE and Consumers don’t care about customers — they care about pro ts and bottom lines.” The idea isn’t as radical as it might seem. About one-third of the nation’s power is generated by publicly owned utilities, and U.S. Department of Energy data shows their customers on average pay about $18 less each month and spend about 200 fewer minutes without power annually. As local leaders around the country grow frustrated with private energy companies, more are pushing for publicly owned utilities. Among those are San Francisco and San Jose, which are attempting to municipalize their respective grids after aci c as and Electric similarly failed to upgrade its infrastructure or trim trees near its lines. Its downed wires sparked destructive res that have killed dozens,
TOM PERKINS
burned entire cities, and resulted in ongoing power shuto s. In statements to Metro Times, DTE and Consumers defended their records on reliability and argued that their customers’ bills are below the national average. “The regulated utility model has never served our customers better,” Consumers spokesperson Katelyn Carey says. “ ecessary investments are required to maintain a safe and reliable system. A publicly traded, regulated utility is best equipped to raise capital in the most cost e cient way.” owever, federal data tells a di erent story. In Michigan, DTE’s and Consumers’ poor reliability and high prices are highlighted in reports from the ational Energy Information Agency, which tracks the nation’s utilities’ rates and performance. DTE and Consumers serve about 85 percent of the state, and Michiganders
had the nation’s 14th most expensive electric and gas bills in . ut the state ranked second worst in terms of time to restore power after an outage, according to an analysis of federal data by the Citizens Utility oard of Michigan, which advocates for residential customers. est irginia is o. . At the state level, CU found DTE and Consumers have among the state’s most expensive electric bills, but their customers on average spent the most time without power in 2017, the last year for which data is available. Advocates also say the current situation illustrates what happens when the state fails to adequately regulate power companies. The Michigan ublic Services Commission is a state agency charged with approving or rejecting rate increases while monitoring the utilities’ performance and service. The commission approved a whopping $779 million in DTE rate hikes over the
last four years. That accounts for the nation’s second-highest jump, yet the outages continue. ith the ublic ervices Commission’s blessing, DTE and Consumers successfully shifted the cost burden from industry to residents over the last years. hile residents’ electricity costs increased by about 50% statewide, industry’s costs remained about the same. Consumers and DTE also convinced Michigan’s Republican controlled legislature to kneecap the state’s rapidly growing home solar industry with a 2016 set of laws that devalued solar energy. Meanwhile, Michigan’s power plants are dirty. CU ’s analysis found the state’s plants emit more carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxide than the national average, while renewables account for only . of the state’s power — also below average. The litany of problems, Rabhi says,
DTE Energy’s particulate-belching coal plant in River Rouge.
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FEATURE all boils down to the investor-based model’s need for pro ts. “We are not well served by a system that puts investors rst and and ratepayers last,” he says. “ e need a system that does the opposite.”
As bills go up, wealthy investors get richer
DTE’s and Consumers’ monthly electric rates have increased each of the last years. The average Consumers customer paid $72 in 2007 and $102 in — a ump of about . Those gures don’t include large increases over the last two years. DTE customers saw similar increases while its next proposed hike would add about $10 more to the average residential customer’s bill as soon as May. “The report shows how residential rates have gone up steadily over the last decade … and residential customers have an overall feeling that they’re now paying really high bills and not getting the service that they paid for,” says CUB executive director Amy andyk. Part of what’s behind DTE’s and Consumers’ high bills are the million in pro ts that go to investors, as well as executives’ salaries and political spending. uch costs don’t exist or are much
lower at publicly owned utilities. “The large companies have some higher overhead costs that the municipal utilities and cooperatives don’t have,” says CU ’s Douglas e ers. While executive salaries don’t account for much of the overall costs, they’re a point of frustration among the companies’ critics. Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe’s compensation package topped million last year, while former DTE Energy CEO erry Anderson, who stepped down in uly, received a package worth nearly million. DTE’s combined top executive salaries total nearly million. y comparison, Mike ummel, general manager of hoenix’s alt River ro ect, one of the nation’s largest public utilities, earns . million, and its top executives’ salaries total less than million. Michigan’s loose campaign nance laws make it di cult to determine how much DTE and Consumers directly contribute to campaigns and dark money nonpro ts that attack politicians who opposed their agenda. ust several days before the polar vortex, the state ordered Consumers to stop giving money to dark money groups after it gave million to a dark money nonpro t, though the companies claim
Graph (left) shows System Average Interruption Duration Index, or how long it takes utilities to return service once the power goes out after a “Major Event Day.” The other shows the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index, or average number of minutes each utilities’ customers spend without power after an MED. Municipal utilities tend to perform best. CITIZENS UTILITY BOARD OF MICHIGAN
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ratepayers don’t fund political spending. To put that in perspective, the state in eptember approved million in rate increases for Consumers. ome campaign contributions are made via Consumers’ and DTE’s political PACs, which don’t use ratepayer money, but illustrate the length to which the companies spend to in uence the political process. A Metro Times analysis of state campaign nance records found DTE’s AC gave to nearly every member of the Michigan Legislature during the last three years, spending a total of about , . Consumers’ AC spent about , in the same period. The companies also spend big to win over residents with everything from barbecues in low-income communities to large charitable donations. The DTE Energy Foundation spent . million in , donating to a range of groups from the Michigan istorical ociety to the Arab American Civil Rights League. At the federal level, DTE’s and Consumers’ PACs each spent nearly million lobbying and on campaign contributions during the campaign cycle, according to Open ecrets, a nonpro t, nonpartisan ashington, D.C. based research group. ublicly owned utilities don’t contribute to
politicians. While there’s no way to calculate how much of Michigan’s sharply increasing utility costs are a result of DTE and Consumers’ failure to replace aging e uipment during prior decades, experts say it’s likely hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The high level of funding DTE sets aside for emergency repairs sheds some light on the issue, says Ariana onzalez, a senior policy director with the ational Resources Defense Council, which intervenes in DTE rate cases on behalf of residential consumers. DTE told the ublic ervices Commission that it spent million on emergency repairs in — nearly twice what it planned to pay. “If customers have already paid for this, then it should be hard for [DTE] to ask them to pay again for something that should’ve been xed a long time ago,” onzalez says. The private-utility business model also incentivizes spending on large pro ects over e ciency. tate law mandates a 10-percent return on investment for shareholders. If DTE spends billion on a gas plant, then customers spend an additional $100 million that goes to investors because half the investment is funded with debt. ince
Solar panels in Ypsilanti.
DTE’s investors are its rst priority, there’s more incentive for the company to spend on large, centralized factories instead of promoting, for example, efcient community solar production. hile DTE is planning several wind farms, it’s investing far more heavily in natural gas infrastructure, even though methane released from gas plants is a more destructive greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. That means Michiganders will largely be forced to buy natural gas in the coming decades, even if renewables like wind are cheaper in the long run. “ hat these business models are incentivizing isn’t an e cient service — it’s incentivizing more building and putting things in the ground,” onzalez says. rices are also high because DTE and Consumers are legally de ned as “regulated monopolies.” In many states, companies like DTE and Consumers would own the distribution infrastructure — the poles, lines, substations, generators, and other e uipment that gets power from the plant to a house — but customers choose the company from which they buy power, onzalez says. That means customers could buy electricity from a hypothetical wind farm in northern Michigan instead of DTE’s dirty, expensive coal plant. In Michigan, DTE and Consumers own the distribution networks and the power plants. ecause they own both and have a monopoly, most DTE and Consumers customers must buy from dirty gas and coal plants, and prices stay high.
TOM PERKINS
“There’s no competition to drive down cost, so it’s at the discretion of ublic ervices Commission to decide if what the utility is proposing is reasonable,” onzalez says.
Downed wires and toxic coal ash ponds
The power to iava tewart’s neighborhood near arren and outh eld roads on Detroit’s west side cuts out about three times annually. The blackouts are a part of life in the neighborhood, where many residents are low income and DTE’s infrastructure is in particularly bad shape. ut when storms blew through in , the lights at tewart’s neighbors’ homes stayed out for nearly two weeks. Among those living directly across the street was a family with nine kids, and the food in their refrigerators uickly went bad. tewart and the families in those homes pooled their resources, and she cooked big pots of spaghetti and chili for them while o ering up her outlets. ut she wasn’t done there. tewart also organized a social media campaign, called the lackoutChallenge, in which she solicited donations of candles, ashlights, and food from local residents, restaurants, and grocery stores. he calls working with her neighbors to help one another a “beautiful experience,” but also says it was a “severe time” that they shouldn’t have been forced to endure. The utility poles in her neighborhood look like “trees that are about
to fall over,” she says, and the lines are regularly on the ground. “It’s a ecting us,” tewart says. “ e care enough to take care of each other when this happens, but DTE should care about us enough to make sure we have what we need.” Federal data examined by CU shows DTE customers like those in west Detroit spent more time in the dark on average in than any other state utility — about , minutes for each of its . million users, while Consumers’ customers on average spent about minutes without power. Data also shows that once the power is out, it takes DTE and Consumers much longer to re establish service than the state’s other utilities, and the numbers have been consistently bad over the last ve years. On the whole, Michigan’s utilities are consistently performing worse than those in most other states, and DTE and Consumers are among the state’s worst. “ ou can see in the trends in our report that this isn’t a one o problem — it’s been continuing to get worse over the years,” CU ’s andyk says. In a statement to Metro Times, DTE claimed its poor performance was the result of wind storms in “Excluding ma or repairs, DTE power restoration times are actually better than the industry average.” owever, federal data shows its record when storms are excluded is also among the state’s worst. Residents in Detroit and the city’s
older suburbs bear the brunt of the companies’ abysmal service. Many of the newer suburbs built in the s and later have underground wires that aren’t impacted by storms, while the infrastructure in older neighborhoods hasn’t been replaced, e ers says. “That part of the distribution system is in fact very old and has a lot of de ciencies,” he adds. “Everyone pays the same rates for distribution but the reliability is di erent depending on where you are, and it’s lower income communities that have the worst service.” DTE acknowledged the infrastructure issues in its rate case, but said it won’t replace the old system for another years. It’s now planning to “harden” the grid in low income areas. That involves trimming trees and replacing some pieces of aging e uipment. owever, that solution doesn’t solve the problem — it’s basically a and Aid — and doesn’t include a legally binding commitment to replace the aging system in years, says ackson oeppel, director of oulardarity, a ighland ark based intervenor in DTE rate cases. “It’s a massive expenditure to harden, and for a whole decade everyone in that footprint has to deal with subpar service,” he says. Ultimately, the investor based model is inherently “classist and racist” because it disincentivizes investment in low income, minority areas, oeppel adds. Despite that DTE and Consumers are responsible for the poor service and skyrocketing rates, DTE is carrying out mass shut o s among those who can’t a ord to subsidize their blunders. Data that the Michigan Environmental ustice Coalition pulled from DTE’s latest rate case shows that the company regularly shuts o power to between , and , customers monthly. “The cost of energy is so high and the resources to be able to help those who are truly in need aren’t there,” says ME C’s Martinez. “If you can’t provide energy to poor people — which is a critical service — then the whole business model is broken.” Residents in poorer I codes also pay with their health. everal of the dirty coal plants DTE operates are in River Rouge, Trenton, and Monroe. The River Rouge plant belches particulates blocks from outhwest Detroit. Asthma rates in children in those neighborhoods are four times that of most neighborhoods on the city’s north side, according to a University of Michigan chool of ublic ealth study. tate utilities also built toxic coal ash ponds throughout the state that are contaminating groundwater. Testing near the sites found lead that’s six times federal limits and arsenic times the
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FEATURE federal limit. The state is now monitoring the sites and imposed fees on the utilities to cover cleanup costs. “So despite residents carrying the additional burden of the rate structures, there are also externalities that we’ve been carrying with the poisoning of water and air,” Martinez says.
Kneecapping solar
No city in Michigan and few across the country convert the sun into energy at the rate seen in Ypsilanti. The city’s solar arrays sit on residential rooftops, in city-owned land next to a graveyard, aside a high school, and on top of its city hall, re department, and more. All told, Ypsilanti generates 1.2 megawatts of clean, green energy across 51 installations — a per capita rate on par with San Francisco. “We’re booming,” says Dave Strenski, director of SolarYpsi, a group that promotes solar locally. While many residents generate solar energy because “it’s the right thing to do,” Strenski says, there’s always been a nancial incentive — a solar array could pay for itself after a few years and virtually eliminate one’s DTE bill after that. However, DTE- and Consumers-developed rules that the GOP-controlled legislature approved as part of a 2016 energy package are designed to seriously hobble the home solar industry blooming in Ypsilanti and around the state. In short, DTE and Consumers don’t want people generating their own power because the companies would lose money. The new rules devalue small-scale solar to the point that the nancial incentive is signi cantly reduced, and that eliminates the appeal for people who aren’t only in it for what’s best for the planet. “I think it’ll hurt a lot,” Strenski says of the changes. “It hurts the return on investment. It’s as simple as that.” In a hypothetical example, a solar array owner who used 100 units of power while generating 80 units of solar energy would only pay for 20 units. That system is called net metering. Under the new in ow out ow system, the same person sells the 80 units they generate to DTE or Consumers at a wholesale rate, then buys 100 units back at a retail rate. However, DTE buys at rates that vary depending on the time of day, so it’s still possible to earn full value, but it’s far more di cult. Regardless, it’s not a good deal, says State Rep. Rabhi, who along with a bipartisan group of legislators introduced in October a package of bills that would undo the 2016 changes. DTE and Consumers claim the
changes more accurately re ect the cost of producing solar. They contend those producing and distributing energy tap into the grid without paying for the infrastructure and maintenance. The companies also attempted to tack on a $15 per month charge just for solar users to tap into the grid, but the Public Services Commission shot that down. Rabhi says DTE and Consumers aren’t considering the bene ts of small-scale solar — for example, the arrays provide energy to the grid at peak times, such as on a hot summer day when the utilities have to kick on expensive “peaker plants” that provide the grid with extra power. The companies are also targeting other sources of similar “distributive generation,” or small-scale producers of renewable energy. DTE similarly devalued power generated by the city of Ann Arbor’s two hydroelectric dams in the Huron River. Prior to the changes, the city used the electricity it generated and put the money it saved aside so it could fund improvements to the dams. Now, the energy it generates is purchased by DTE for $.05 per kilowatt hour. Ann Arbor then buys back power for between $.07 and $.13 per kWh. At those rates, the city is no longer able to save as much money for dam repairs, so the dams could become a nancial burden, says ohn Fournier, Ann Arbor’s assistant city manager. “It could force a really hard conversation about the future of one or both of our dams,” he says. Despite what distributive generation proponents say are the obvious environmental bene ts of small scale wind, solar, hydroelectric, and biomass energy, the utility companies seem intent on destroying the industries. Rabhi says that’s because small-scale production is “a threat to the companies’ business model and corporate pro ts.” “They’re not concerned about the environment — they’re concerned about their bottom line,” he says.
‘We don’t want to end up like California’
The crew of about 12 employees in the city of Coldwater’s electric department provides power to the town’s approximately 7,000 meters, and do it better than most utilities around the state. CUB’s analysis of federal data shows Coldwater residents enjoy what are among the state’s lowest electric prices, while enduring among the lowest amount of time in the dark. The department is able to provide a reliable service at low prices for several
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DTE Energy’s downtown Detroit headquarters.
reasons, says utility director e udd. It’s a publicly owned utility, so there’s no pro t motive to consider during planning. The utility is a manageable size, and it’s proactive in replacing aging infrastructure and trimming trees. “We don’t have to have a return on investment, so when we’re planning for ve years out we make decisions that are best for us,” Budd says. “We know our customers a little better and their needs, so we can plan a little better.” Coldwater is hardly alone — about 2,000 publicly owned utilities operate nationwide, and their prices are on average about two cents per kWh lower than those at private utilities, which translates to roughly $18 per bill for an average Michigan customer, according to the American Public Power Association. Federal data shows customers of the nation’s largest publicly owned utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority, pay some of the nation’s lowest rates, as do those in Nebraska, which is the only state 100 percent served by publicly owned utilities. When New York formed the Long Island Power Authority in the late 1990s, its 1.6 million customers received a 30% rate cut. Meanwhile, public utilities are typically more reliable and are moving toward renewable energy much quicker than investor-owned utilities. An analysis of federal data by the Next System Project shows that public utility customers spend about 200 fewer minutes without power on average. Municipalization, while a challenging step and by no means a panacea, at the very least eliminates the pro t motive and makes utilities responsive to its customers instead of to its investors, Koeppel says. “Public utilities are far from perfect, but the decision makers can be accessed and there’s a way to get them out of power if they’re not acting in line with community needs,” he adds.
DANIEL J. MACY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
“The other piece is public utilities don’t have a pro t motive or an incentive to build as much big stu as they can to make as much money as possible.” While there’s nothing in the way of plans for new public utilities in and around metro Detroit, state leaders are taking some serious steps in pressuring DTE, Consumers, and other power companies to improve performance. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is regularly intervening in multiple rate cases, which has helped keep rates lower for customers around the state. Earlier this year, Gov. Whitmer announced the MIPowerGrid initiative, which asks residents and other stakeholders for input on how to improve the grid. Those intervening in the utilities’ rate cases also praised the Public Services Commission for being more responsive to residential customers’ needs in recent years. Part of that has to do with a transition from the Commission having a majority of former Gov. Rick Snyder appointees on its board to a majority of Whitmer appointees. Moreover, it’s only in recent years that the National Resources Defense Council, CUB, and Soulardarity began intervening in rate cases and advocating for customers and the environment. Before that, it was mostly industry and large corporate interests that steered the rate case process. But all the regulation in the world doesn’t change the simple, base equation that forces DTE and Consumers to put pro ts and investors before Michiganders’ needs. “If we don’t want to end up like California, then the state needs to get active fast and start thinking about” public utilities, Koeppel says. “We keep running up against this utility model that is fundamentally designed to do one thing — build a bunch of infrastructure, and this is a point in history where we need to do everything as e cient as possible.”
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FOOD Yum Village 6500 Woodward Ave., Detroit 313-334-6099 yumvillage.com Wheelchair accessible 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday ‘Hot bowls’ (one protein, one side) $11.25, sides $4.50
Suya fried chicken (bottom), lemon jerk chicken (left), corn cakes and plantain wontons (right).
TOM PERKINS
It takes a village By Jane Slaughter
Although Godwin Ihentuge (ee-hen-too-ghee) grew up
in Detroit and had his rst culinary experience working in ayne tate’s cafeteria, his Afro Caribbean cred is a igerian father and relatives in amaica. e says a goal of um illage, opened in March in Detroit’s ew Center, is to spread not only the food but other aspects of the two cultures, say, through art and through cooking classes. The south side of his building at rand oulevard and oodward Avenue is haunted by paintings of oruba Eyo “guardians” that walk spirits from one side of the life death divide to the other. The restaurant’s slogan, which you can get on a T shirt, is “African raised, Detroit made.” Ihentuge is serving familiar dishes like erk chicken, ollof rice, and plantains alongside some that may be less so akara, a fritter of black eyed peas maafe, a hot peanut stew from est Africa and African style cheesy bread. hen I expressed puzzlement about cheesy bread as an African or Carib-
bean dish, an employee told me, “They don’t eat much bread and they don’t eat much cheese, but it’s the igerian spices that let us call it that.” Its chunks of pretzel bread are deep fried crisp and then sprinkled with armesan and Romano — nearly as much cheese as bread — with the spice blend for garnish. I didn’t notice the spices, but the unmistakable doughnut like avor of fried dough was prominent. It was really hard to stop eating. ut my very favorite dish at um illage was ginger curry chickpeas. A companion remarked, “A nice little crust on the outside, creamy on the inside — it shows they know how to use heat.” The chickpeas are lightly fried, tossed with a house ginger curry blend and agave, and nally topped with coriander and cumin. I think the coriander is the hook. Also on the less hot end of the spectrum is curry chicken, with the intensity that stewing brings. My friend said it was “mild, but you know you’re eating curry.” erk chicken is, of course, high
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on the coville scale but not so hot you can’t taste it I hate it when that happens. Lemon pepper erk chicken is a good variation, nice and peppery, with little chunks of whole lemon cooked in the dish. uya fried chicken is a dish that’s fairly complicated to make but ends up tasting simple. It involves roasted peanut powder kuli kuli , cumin, ginger, Cameroonian peppers, and habaneros. Chicken is roasted with this suya mixture and garlic, then fried, then tossed in some more suya powder, then treated to an agave syrup. The bird is succulent, and there’s a very thin veneer of sweetness in the skin. enegalese maafe leaves the lips pleasantly tingly it includes corn kernels and the occasional ash of peanut avor. russels sprouts are roasted with garlic and then tossed with red onions and pickled yellow, orange, and red bell peppers, sort of like a bright warm salad. I would’ve let them roast longer to soften them more. Ihentuge says it’s the fact that he
never went to culinary school that leads him to try some unusual tricks, like braising a lamb shank in cranberry uice. The lamb is available ust on Fridays as a “special protein” for . e makes a house blend dry rub of orthern and estern African avors, including sumac, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, and the dried and ground kernels of the n angsa tree. “The fat when it melts into the cranberry uice — it gives a very intense, full bodied avor,” he says, and I agree. The huge mahogany brown shank is served in a cardboard take out box in which it does not t, so given those constraints and my plastic fork no knife , I picked the leg up and ate it with my hands. o satisfying. I doubt if there are many other spots you could get this much lamb for . Other Friday only proteins might be shrimp, salt sh fritters, or hot pepper beef short ribs. All meat is halal. All dishes are served in take out containers with plastic cutlery. I ordered a bottle of the ginger variety of itamalt, widely popular in the Caribbean, in the mistaken belief it would be akin to ginger beer. o. There’s way too little ginger bite, too much sugar and malt. The “classic” itamalt is said by its makers to be like sweet unfermented beer, so if that appeals to you, go for it. I preferred house brewed cold teas ginger lemon, hibiscus raspberry, or orange spice with cinnamon and nutmeg. Another possibility is co ee brewed with coconut water. A li uor license is hoped for. um illage sells the teas retail, along with bottled spices, sauces, marinades, dry rubs, and soaps and candles also made with seasonings. hen he was hiring, Ihentuge chose a novel way of making sure employees could get to work on time half his sta lives within a half mile of the store. e met prospective workers by walking around the neighborhood and noticing who was wearing chef’s whites. “I wanted people who would take an investment in the store because it’s bettering their own community,” he says.
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THIS WEEK
Gucci Mane, Fox Theatre, Nov. 16.
WEDNESDAY, 11/13 Showing Up, Showing Out premiere with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and more @ MOCAD
FILM + MORE This event has everything A lm premiere, clothing launch, performance by a legacy artist, and a performance by a future legacy artist. Oh, and it’s free. Carhartt I , T Radio, and Dazed magazine have come together to celebrate the th anniversary of Motown, starting with the premiere Showing Up, Showing Out, a lm about the “past, present, and future of Motown” directed by Margot owman, and written and narrated by Metro Times contributor Imani Mixon. Following the screening, Motown’s own Martha Reeves and the andellas will perform, along with resge Fellow and harpist Ahya imone. The event will also serve as a premiere for the piece Carhartt I x Motown collection, which reimagines Motown record covers and classic ts from Motown artists. Doors open at 7 p.m.; 4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-6622; mocadetroit. org. Admission is free.
MATTY ICE
What’s Going On
A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them THUR., 11/14-SAT., 11/16 Dave Attell @ Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle
COMEDY Earlier this year, New York Times writer and Dave Attell punching bag ason inoman declared Attell the “greatest club comic” we’ve got — and ew ork City’s hardest working, o color uick hitter. The year old has led a successful career, hosting T shows like Insomniac With Dave Attell, Dave’s Old Porn, and Comedy Underground, as well as a et ix series with fellow blue man e Ross, Bumping Mics. e’s described his aging genitalia as “a tent that no one knows how to fold up” and when he takes the stage during the winter, he has been known to refer to himself as someone who looks like they ust came to the club to get warm. ut the beauty of Attell is that no one is safe. ot cats they’re a
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hoarding gateway nor strippers, anta, dildos, drunk dads, the Amish, Florida, pider Man, Ohio, the cops, music, and probably you — if you nd yourself in the front row. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, 6:15 & 9 p.m., Friday, and 6 & 9 p.m. on Saturday; 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak; 248542-9900; comedycastle.com. Tickets are $3+.
FRIDAY, 11/15 Angel Olsen @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
MUSIC On her latest record, All Mirrors, Angel Olsen took a trip down the rabbit hole with producer and fre uent collaborator ohn Congleton, along with a piece string section. Inhibitions to the wind, the Asheville, orth Carolina based singer delivers a stunning, the-
atrical, and grandiose fth entry in her eclectic catalog. A far cry from the sparse and intimate bedroom folk of Olsen’s debut, Half Way Home, and a few steps to the left from ’s shimmery, guitar focused My Woman, All Mirrors, akin to a delightfully hellish mood ring, pushes her tumbling vibrato to soaring heights. hen Olsen spoke with Metro Times in , she suggested that feelings are not always based in reality. “ ou [try] to take your doubt or your depression or your happiness or everything that inspires you and make something out of it that is an example of the pinnacle of that feeling, you know ” e hear you, Angel. Doors open at 7 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; 248-399-2980; royaloakmusictheatre.com. Tickets are $29.50+.
FRI., 11/15-SAT., 11/16 Clueless @ State Theatre
FILM The year was . America was totally buggin’ over O. . impson’s ill tting glove and reeling over the tragic Oklahoma City bombing, and, to make matters worse, a little dance called the
Wednesday 11/13
FrUiTbAtS
WsG SkYwAy MaN
Friday 11/15
TrAvErS BrOtHeRsHiP
WsG RoYaL GrAnD BaNd
Saturday 11/16
ThE NoRtH 41 WsG MeLoPhObIx
Friday 11/22
Angel Olsen, Royal Oak Music Theatre, Nov. 15.
CAMERON MCCOOL
“Macarena” was all the rage. Amid the horror of the aforementioned cultural touchstones was a little movie that almost didn’t happen. Enter Clueless, the groundbreaking teen rom-com that gave us Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz, the Beverly Hills shopaholic and total romantic who proves she’s more than just a virgin who can’t drive. The lm, which revolves around Cher’s enviable wardrobe and inner-circle, including new girl Tai played by the late Brittany Murphy, Stacey Dash as bestie Dionne, and the vampiric, never-aging Paul Rudd as her stepbrother and love interest, Josh. OK — so, it’s only sort of totally weird that Cher and Josh end up together, but by the looks of Pornhub’s most popular searches, the lm was ahead of its time. More power to consensual step-sibling love.
Science’s month-long Dark Side of the Moon planetarium engagement is more of a visual interpretation of one of the most in uential records of all time. y the looks of the trailer, the planetarium show is more M.C. Escher meets the party lighting section of Spencer’s Gifts meets LSD — all of which make for a great trip into Pink Floyd’s magnum opus on depravity, human fragility, corporate greed, and mental illness.
LightSkinKeisha, and Trina.
Event begins at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday through Dec. 21; 39221 Woo war e. Bloom el ills 645-3200; science.cranbrook.edu. Tickets are $5.
Screenings begin at 10 p.m.;223 S. State St., Ann Arbor; 734-668-8397; michtheater.org/state. Tickets are $10.50 and $8.50 for students and seniors.
@ Fox Theatre
MUSIC Peace? Check. Love? Double check. Understanding? You bet. All are foundational to the musical legacy of Elvis Costello, who, after 42 years, is still pumping it up. For Costello’s latest outing, the 65-year-old will return with his long-standing backing band, the Imposters, in support of his 2018 release, Look Now. Marking the 30th studio record in his wild and winding archive, Look Now nds Costello refreshing his brand of robust and sophisitcated romanticism with frequent collaborator Burt Bacharach. The record also includes a song co-written by Carole ing years after the pair rst demoed it. Costello, who was diagnosed with cancer last year, had a minor surgical procedure and postponed some previously scheduled tour dates, but he’s proved he’s as resilient as his 1977 debut, My Aim Is True.
FRI.,11/15-SAT., 12/21 Planetarium show: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon @ Cranbrook Institute of Science
TRIPPY SHIT Per the program description, this is not the laser Floyd of yesteryear. In fact, there’s not a single laser to be found. Cranbrook Institute of
SATURDAY, 11/16 Gucci Mane MUSIC “Free Gucci’s Ferrari!” said no one ever, except perhaps rapper Gucci Mane who, after years of on and o incarceration, found himself ghting for yet another injustice: the towing of his precious $600,000 Ferrari Supercar while partying in Miami. Well, like most things in Gucci’s life, it ended up working out. Take his latest — and 15th — release, Woptober II, which nds the Atlanta trap artist celebrating the free life and going hard with Megan Thee Stallion, as he does on the ass-slapping banger “Big Booty.” Joining Gucci are Young Dolph,
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-471-6611; 313presents. com. Tickets are $49.
WEDNESDAY, 11/20 Elvis Costello and the Imposters @ Michigan Theater
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; 734-668-8397; michtheater.com. Tickets are $69.50.
FuNnY FrIdAyS
Saturday 11/23
RoOtS ViBrAtIoNs
Friday 11/29
RaIsInG ThE DeAd
Saturday 11/30
AlLmAn BrOs BaNd TrIbUtE
FeAt B. LuCaS & K. KuRzAwA
Friday 12/6
PiNk TaLkInG PhIsH
saturday 12/7
BlAcK MaRkEt
Sunday 12/8
KiTcHeN DwElLeRs
FoR TiCkEtS & DiNnEr ReSeRvAtIoNs
ViSiT OtUsSuPpLy.CoM 345 E 9 MILE RD
FeRnDaLe
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The
Old
Miami
OUR PATIO NIGHTLY BONFIRES ON
THIS WEEK Wednesday, Nov. 13
THANK YOU, VETERANS!
Anamanaguchi 8 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $23.50$25.50.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH
Aqueous 7 p.m.; Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $15+.
TRE LB (RECORD RELEASE), GUERILLA FIST RECORDS, ANT G, FURY, EGYPT, GOOFY MIKE, FLY YOUNG, EJ, BOSS BREAD, GOD ALLMIGHTY ENT., DOUGHBOYY, TRUTH HURTZ, HOSTED BY RUDE BOY + DJ CARLITO 9PM DOORS / $10 COVER
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH THE FRUITS, WALLY DOGGER, ROTTENMOUTH 9PM DOORS / $5 COVER (DETROIT INDIE-ALT)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH
FREE POOL ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRANK KOVE! ~
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND
COLIN & THE COUGARS, JACK OATS, JENN’S APARTMENT, JAKE WEBB & THE COMMITMENTS
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD ANCIENT LANGUAGE, JOBBALOON, (TBA)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27TH
THANKSGIVING EVE, WARHORSES, DAMIEN DONE, COSMIC LIGHT SHAPES
SESSIONS - Music Showcase & Live Murals 6 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; Free w/ RSVP.
MUSIC
Thursday, Nov. 14 Alex Cameron 7 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $16-$18. Bizarre (of D12) 8 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $10.
Brendan James 7:30 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $20. Cannibal Corpse 6:30 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $29. Fruit Bats 8 p.m.; Otus Supply, 345 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; $20-$25.
Freddie Gibbs: Album of the Year Tour 7 p.m.; Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $25-$85.
Jason Marsalis & the 21st Century Trad Band 7 & 9:30 p.m.; The Blue LLama Jazz Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $35+.
Hobo Johnson 7 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $25.
The Maine 6 p.m.; The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $25.
John Primer 7 p.m.; Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15.
Mephiskapheles, The Tellways, You Dirty Rat 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $12.
King Diamond 6 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.50-$75.
Friday, Nov. 15 .
Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals wsg Battlecross, Shitlife 6 p.m.; Harpo’s, 14238 Harper Avenue, Detroit; $25. Seratones 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $12. Serengeti, CURTA, Mister 8-11:30 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $10-$12.
Clairo 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $85. Delta Rae 7:30 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $35+.
Hamtramck Unplugged 2 p.m.; Trixie’s, 2656 Carpenter St., Hamtramck;
Nox Boys, Bobkat’65 Tour w/ Amino Acids 7 p.m.; Outer Limits Lounge, Cani t., amtramck
Chantae Cann 7 p.m.; Tangent Gallery & Hastings Street Ballroom, 715 E. Milwaukee Ave., Detroit; $15-$40.
Angel Olsen 7 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $29.50+. Aspen Jacobsen CD Release Party 7-9 p.m.; The Suzanne Haskew Arts Center (SHAC), 25 S. Main, Suite 700, Milford; $5. Citizen Smile, Patrick Davy & the Ghosts,The Ashleys, DJ’sHandgrenades 8-11:59 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $5. Counterparts 6 p.m.; The Shelter, 431
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH PROJECT 206, KOLTAY, AFTER HOURS
OPEN EVERY DAY INCLUDING HOLIDAYS INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK: THEOLDMIAMI CALL US FOR BOOKING! 313-831-3830
The Old Miami
3930 Cass • Cass Corridor • 313-831-3830
26 November 13-19, 2019 | metrotimes.com
Dark Side of the Moon, Cranbrook Acheson Planetarium, Nov. 15-Dec. 21.
Sunday, Nov. 17 Alex Anest Organ Trio 11:30 am; The Blue LLama Jazz Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; Bishop Briggs, with Miya Folick, and Jax Anderson 7 p.m.; Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $27.50+. Diamante 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $15. Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening Presented By Wcsx 6:30 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.50+. Jaymes Young 7 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $18-$20. Elvis Costello, Michigan Theater, Nov. 20.
E. Congress St., Detroit; $18. Deeper Dive: The Body Electric 6 p.m.; Belle Isle Aquarium, Inselruhe Avenue, Detroit; $40+. DIRTYSNATCHA 9:30 p.m.; Elektricity Nightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $12.50+. Free Dinner Show: Charles Ellsworth 6-8 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; No cover. Friday Night Live! Juxtatonal featuring Nick Zoulek 7 p.m.; Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; Gesaffelstein 8 p.m.; Masonic Temple, 500 Temple St., Detroit; $35. Gigs for Digs 8 p.m.; Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; $75+. Harlem 100 8 p.m.; The Whiting, 1241 E. Kearsley St., Flint; $28.50+. Myspace Emo Prom with Taking Back Emo 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $10. NOJO 7 7 & 9:30 p.m.; The Blue LLama Jazz Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $45+. Pete Yorn 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $35+. That BIG 80s Party 9 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $10. Yelawolf 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $25+.
Saturday, Nov. 16 Annie & Rod Caps Band 8 p.m.; Mama’s Co eehouse, . oodward Ave., loom eld ills . Bailey Bryan: The Perspective Tour 7:30 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $20. Beach Bunny, Another Michael 7 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $12-$14. Class of 98 Band, the 90s Party
STEPHEN DONE
Palooza 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $7. Danny Howard 9 p.m.; The Grasshopper Underground, 22757 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $5-$10. Deadbeats 8 p.m.; Masonic Temple, 500 Temple St., Detroit; $40+. Domo Wilson 6 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $18. Gucci Mane 8 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49. Isles of ESP, Dinner Music, B, Parallel People 9-11:59 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $6. La Dispute 7:30 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $28. Lin Rountree 7 p.m.; Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts, 12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $30-$35. Mikal Cronin 7 p.m.; Deluxx Fluxx, 1274 Library St., Detroit; $15-$17. NOJO 7 7 & 9:30 p.m.; The Blue LLama Jazz Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $45+. Pigface 7 p.m.; The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $23. Shoreline Mafia 6 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $25-$49.50. Tae Envy 9 p.m.; The Crofoot, 1 South Saginaw Street, Pontiac; $12-$15. The Daedalus 2 Mission: A Space Opera 8 p.m.; Small’s, 10339 Conant St., Hamtramck; $15. The North41 9 p.m.; Otus Supply, 345 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; $12-$15. Vena Morris, Mac Saturn, Bad Fashion, Seaholm 6 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $8. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons / Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed 8 p.m.; Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University St., Ann Arbor; $12+.
PJ Morton 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $28. Rapport 7 p.m.; Deluxx Fluxx, 1274 Library St., Detroit; $5. Royal Beasts, Ganser, No Fun Club, Propolis 8-11:59 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $5. The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s 16th Annual Christmas Rocks! 7 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $30-$50. WHFR.FM Benefit p.m. Cli 2030 Park Ave., Detroit; $10.
ell’s,
Monday, Nov. 18 Dreamers 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; Sold-out. Macseal, I’m Glad It’s You, Dogleg, Daddy&theLongLegs 7-11:30 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $8.
Tuesday, Nov. 19 Dennis Coffey 8 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; Free. Highly Suspect 7 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $35+. Moon Duo 7 p.m.; Café 78 inside MOCAD, 4454 Woodward Ave, Detroit; $15-$18.
THEATER A Christmas Carol Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday 2 & 6:30 p.m.; Meadow Brook Theatre, 207 Wilson Hall, Rochester; $35+. August Wilson’s “Jitney” Wednesday, 8 p.m., Thursday, 1 & 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m. and Saturday 2 & 8 p.m.; The Music Hall, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit; $25. Broke-ology Saturday- Monday, 8 p.m.; The Blueprint Theatre, 892 W. Baltimore, Detroit; $15-$25. Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!)Through Dec.
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THIS WEEK
Clueless, State Theatre, Nov. 15-16.
22. Wednesday-Sunday, 8 p.m.; Tipping Point Theatre, 361 E. Cady St., Northville; $47. FOLLIES IN CONCERT by Stephen Sondheim & James Goldman Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 2 p.m.; Theatre Nova, 416 W. Huron, Ann Arbor; $30.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Cocktail Comedy Hour Fridays, Saturdays, 8-9 p.m.; The Independent Comedy Club at lanet Ant, Cani Ave., Hamtramck; $10. Detroit to LA Comedy Challenge - SEMI FINALS - Special Event Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.; Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak; $10.
Hello, Dolly! (Touring) Tuesday, 8 p.m.; Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd, Detroit; $39-$130.
Fresh Sauce Sundays, 9 p.m.; Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; Free.
Loch na hEala (Swan Lake) Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Power Center for the Performing Arts, 121 Fletcher St., Ann Arbor; $36.
John Crist Immature Thoughts Tour Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; The Whiting, 1241 E. Kearsley St., Flint; $23.50+.
Love, Hate and Other Oddities Again Friday, 8 p.m.; Oakland Community College, Royal Oak Campus, 739 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak; $5+. Sweeney Todd Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Cadillac Cafe, 1526 Broadway, Detroit; $31-$176.
COMEDY 313 Comedy Night Sunday, 8 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; Free. 313 Comedy Presents: SHANE TORRES Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; $15. All-Star Showdown Fridays, Saturdays, 8 & 10 p.m.; Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; $15. Ari Shaffir Thursday, 6 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $30. Brewing For Comedy Every other Tuesday, 9-11 p.m.; Craft Heads Brewing Company, 89 University Avenue West, Windsor; Free.
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John Leguizamo - Latin History For Morons Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $51+. Monday Night Improv Mondays, 8-10 p.m.; Planet Ant Black Box, 2357 Cani treet, amtramck . Name This Show Fridays, Saturdays, 11:45 p.m.; Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; Free. Netfl*x Spec*al: Super Adult Family Game Night Thursday, 8:30 p.m.; Trixie’s Bar, 2656 Carpenter Avenue, Hamtramck; $5. Open Mic Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.; Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak; $5. Sunday Buffet Sundays, 7 p.m.; Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; $10. Thursday Night Live! Thursdays, p.m. Ant all, Cani t., amtramck; $5.
DANCE Loving the Sacred Self: A Body Positivity Workshop w/ Lilith Von Tal Saturday 2:15 p.m.; Detroit
School of Burlesque, 483 W. Marshall, Ferndale; $45. Mistakes are Your Best Friend w/ Lilith Von Tal Saturday, 1 p.m.; Detroit School of Burlesque, 483 W. Marshall St., Ferndale; $25. The Magic Mike Experience Wednesday 8 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $14.95-$39.95. Australia’s Thunder From Down Under Thursday 8 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $23-$40. World Of Dance Live! Tour Wednesday 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $39.50-$85.
FILM A Fine Line Film, Food & Female Heroes in Detroit Wednesday, 6-9:30 p.m.; The Jam Handy, 2900 E Grand Blvd, Detroit; $30. Angels Are Made of Light Friday, 7 p.m. and Saturday, 4 & 7 p.m.; Detroit Film Theatre at the DIA, 5200 John R Street, Detroit; $7.50+. Piranhas Sunday, 2 & 4 p.m.; Detroit Film Theatre at the DIA, 5200 John R Street, Detroit; $7.50+. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Friday 8 p.m. and Saturday 8 p.m.; Redford Theatre, 17360 Lahser Rd, Detroit; $5. South Pacific Saturday, 2-5 p.m.; Redford Theatre, 17360 Lahser Rd, Detroit; $5.. Stratford Festival on Film: The Temptest Sunday 2 p.m.; Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; $16. Up There Sunday, 7:30-9 p.m.; Maple Theater, Maple Rd., loom eld Twp.; $12.
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THIS WEEK that a nice thought in a sea of shitty thoughts ell, for this hip hop packed evening presented by Open Eye Detroit, rap mainstay Leaf Erikson will celebrate his latest orbit around the sun with a special set oined by L.A. . of Clear oul Forces, Deon amar, ill, and alter lasshouse, who performs as AudioLogical. Erikson, who has been an active member of Detroit’s hip hop scene for more than years, released A Canvas of Hope earlier this year. The record is the rst in a series of pro ects dedicated to the resilience of his hometown, including commentary on the city’s rapid gentrication. “ ex, lies, and videotapes and handshakes all became a factor in the downtown landscape ot before property value fell to a low to recoup time to build they escrow They let the building collect dust, an eyesore trategize, so they didn’t have to pay more taxes on the backend while we became casualties in deals orchestrated by the Ilitch family,” he muses n “Foreclosure.” ut, like so much of Erikson’s work, it starts with hope. Doors open at 9 p.m.; 11474 Joseph Cam a t. amtram k thehighdivedetroit.com. No cover.
SATURDAY, 11/16 Wrëking Crüe’s 5th Anniversary @ Token Lounge Daniel Johnston Tribute; Magic Stick, Nov. 15.
Livewire
Local music picks By Jerilyn Jordan
FRIDAY, 11/15 I’m OK: A Tribute to Daniel Johnston @ Magic Stick
Beloved Austin-based singer-songwriter and master archivist Daniel Johnston is getting a proper Detroit sonic salute. The proli c artist died of a heart attack in eptember at the age of , and was known for his endearing body of work as much as he was known for his ongoing struggles with mental and physical health — namely schizophrenia and bipolar disorder — as his work was an extension of his struggles. ust listen to fan favorite “True Love ill Find ou in the End,” on which ohnston’s fragile voice ghts to believe every word. e also
really loved the eatles and McDonald’s. All this can be gleaned by watching the un inching documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Detroit’s “I’m O A Tribute to Daniel ohnston” will o er performances by Matt Milia, tef Chura, en Collins Minihorse , Anna urch, Marlon Morton Remnose , reater Alexander, Libby Decamp, Craig rown, and esse hepherd ates andgrenades . A portion of the proceeds will bene t ohnston’s i ow Are ou ro ect, which aims to provide mental health awareness by funding various art and music events. Doors open at 7 p.m.; 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700; majesticdetroit.com. Tickets are $10.
FRIDAY, 11/15 Vespre, Dave Toennies, Dos Argentés: A Benefit Concert for DXF @ Ant Hall
PETER JUHL
and visitors alike to Detroit and its story by leading more than , people through experiential tours of the city. To help D F continue its work, fellow nonpro t lanet Ant has enlisted the sounds of aylan aterman, who makes chillwave as espre, as well as Dave Toennies, of Detroit indsor’s order atrol, who dives into Loudon ainwright III territory with conversational folk, and Arizona transplant rian ottshall’s pro ect Dos Argent s, which could be the lovechild of on Iver and ance oy. The event includes appetizers, troh’s beer, and access to a silent auction with donations provided by community partners. oors o en at .m. Caniff t. Hamtramck; 313-365-4948; planetant. com. Tickets are $30-$35.
SATURDAY, 11/16 Leaf Erikson, L.A.Z., BHill, Deon Jamar, and more @ The High Dive
ince , the nonpro t Detroit Experience Factory has helped connect locals
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Every day is somebody’s birthday. Isn’t
M tley Cr e is, uh, having a moment. ell, technically a “moment” for ikki ixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, and ince eil is a bit loaded as saw the release of the et ix biopic The Dirt, which airs out all the band’s dirty, TD laden, heroin encrusted laundry, as depicted in the band’s co authored autobiography. Though rumors that the band that gave the world “ irls, irls, irls,” “ ickstart My eart,” and a patented “titty cam” at live shows is ramping up for a ma or reunion, there is one way for metro Detroiters to get their x. Celebrating ve years as Detroit’s premier M tley Cr e is r king Cr e. Comprised of four lifelong fans, r king Cr e has been delivering high energy tributes to the hits and hedonism that put M tley Cr e on the map. oining the party are local cover artists Fallen Angel oison tribute , ins of Madman Ozzy Osbourne tribute , The ightmare Alice Cooper tribute , loodstone udas riest tribute , and others. Doors open at 7 p.m.; 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; 734-513-5030; tokenlounge. com. Tickets are $15.
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Bikini Kill Royal Oak Music Theatre, May 23, 8 p.m., $39
Fast-Forward Schoolboy Q The Fillmore, Nov. 20, 6:30 p.m., $25 Nick Offerman The Fillmore, Nov. 21, 7:30 p.m., $59.50+ Neon Indian El Club, Nov. 22, 7 p.m., $17-20 Ski Mask Tha Slump God The Fillmore, Nov. 27, 7 p.m., $32 Brockhampton Masonic Temple, Nov. 30, 7 p.m., $45 Devendra Banhart MOCAD, Nov. 31, 8 p.m., $31
p.m., $20 Chance the Rapper Little Caesars Arena, Feb. 6, 7 p.m.; $59.95 King Princess Royal Oak Music Theatre, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., $29+ The Lumineers Little Caesars Arena, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., $37+ Tove Lo St. Andrews Hall, Feb. 18, 7 p.m., $28 Tim & Eric Masonic Temple, Feb. 19, 7 p.m., $47.50+ 070 Shake El Club, Feb. 27, 7 p.m., $15+
Eric B and Rakim Sound Board, Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m, $42+ The Last Podcast on the Left Masonic Temple, Dec. 6, 7 p.m., $35+ Grizmas Masonic Temple, Dec. 13-14, 7 p.m., $75+ Atmosphere St. Andrews Hall, Jan. 15, 7 p.m., $27.50+ Snoop Dogg The Fillmore, Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $57+ Umphrey’s McGee The Fillmore, Jan. 31, 6 p.m., $25 Too Many Zoos El Club, Feb. 4, 7
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Sturgill Simpson Masonic Temple, Feb. 29 & March 1, 7:30 p.m., $49.50+ Blake Shelton Little Caesars Arena, March 21, 7 p.m.; $64+ Billie Eilish Little Caesars Arena, March 23, 7 p.m., Sold out Elton John Little Caesars Arena, May 1-2, 7 p.m., $266 Journey DTE Energy Music Theater, July 5, 7 p.m., $35+ Green Day, Weezer, Fall Out Boy Comerica Park, Aug. 19. 7 p.m., $47.50+
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33
MUSIC
T3, J Dilla, and Baatin in front of Fat Beats Amsterdam.
COURTESY OF FAT BEATS
25 years of Fat Beats
The Detroit roots of storied hip-hop label run deep By Gus Navarro
In the early ’90s, hip-hop wasn’t
the mainstream cultural behemoth it is today. Back then, hip-hop was still largely a non-commercial art form found in Black and brown communities in cities across the United States. Founded in 1994 by Joe Abajian (aka DJ Jab) in New York City, Fat Beats was a record store that brought these communities together — and quickly became a nerve center for all things hip-hop. Originally located on Manhattan’s lower east side, Fat Beats has played an enormous role in celebrating hip-hop culture in its purest form for the last 25 years. Throughout the ’90s and 2000s, Fat Beats was where you went to cop the latest must-have 12-inch single, chat with fellow hip-hop heads, and catch legendary in-store performances from artists such as
Black Star, Organized Konfusion, Outkast, and Common. As the business got going, it didn’t take long for Fat Beats to establish itself as a distribution company and, eventually, a record label. At its height, Fat Beats also had storefronts in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Amsterdam, and Tokyo. As an epicenter for underground hip-hop, Fat Beats is correctly linked to New York City and Los Angeles. But Fat Beats is also tied to another hip-hop city: Detroit. One of the first records from Detroit to make it on the shelves at Fat Beats was “Just Don’t Give a Fuck,” an early Eminem single from 1997. That, as it turns out, was only the beginning. Fat Beats has played a central role in bringing Detroit hip-hop to the world, from the legendary producer J Dilla, his group Slum Village (and the many collaborations he was
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involved with), to producer-MC Black Milk, upstart rap group Clear Soul Forces, funk band Will Sessions, and more. In the mid-’90s, Amir Abdullah (DJ Amir) was working in sales for Fat Beats. “We did this exclusive mixtape with DJ Babu and J Rocc,” he says. “It was only being released in Japan. The mixtape had ‘I Don’t Know’ by Slum Village on there. I had never even heard of Slum Village, but we were all like, ‘What the fuck is this? This is crazy!’ It just blew my mind.” As a sales rep, Abdullah developed relationships with record store buyers across the country. In Detroit, he regularly spoke with DJ-producer Waajeed (an original member of Slum Village), Eric Ramos of Kaboodlz Record Store, and DJ House Shoes. “They put me on to so much stuff,” says Abdullah. “Shoes called me one day and he’s like, ‘I got this record that
Dilla produced by this dude named Phat Kat. I’m pressing them myself. You want them?’ He sent me the record, and it was crazy. It sold out super quick. We also did two Frank-n-Dank records. That was really my introduction to hip-hop coming out of Detroit.” Through Abdullah, Fat Beats built a strong relationship with J Dilla that lasted through his move from Detroit to Los Angeles and when he signed with indie heavyweight Stones Throw Records, which is also linked to Fat Beats. Some of the records released over that time included Slum Village’s Fantastic Vol. 2, Welcome 2 Detroit, Champion Sound, and Donuts. Tragically, Dilla died from Lupus in 2006 the same week Donuts was released. Dilla’s passing, a catastrophic event in and of itself, came amid one of the darkest periods in Detroit hip-hop.
“That was a weird time,” remembers Ironside Hex, a linchpin of Detroit music. As an A& R manager, Hex has worked alongside Danny Brown, Guilty Simpson, Elzhi, Slum Village, Apollo Brown, and many others. “Blade from the Street Lord’z passed in 2005, t hen of course the great J Dilla, and the heart of the city, Proof, died within months of each other in 2006. Music didn’t seem that important anymore, but some of the best Detroit hiphop came after that.” Earlier in the decade, around 2004, Hex was hired to be Slum Village’s road manager. At the time, Black Milk, who is now a staple in Detroit hip-hop, was “a roadie on that tour,” recalls Hex. “When Fat Beats showed interest in Black after
first met hen e si ned c i says Sharp. “Hex was the one who connected us with Elzhi. T he P ref ace was a really good under-the-radar project that we put out a little hastily. Given the nature of the business at that time, we were able to get something done that’s held up pretty well. There’s a lot of dudes from Detroit that are completely out of this world talented, and Elzhi is one of them.” In the mid-2000s, the introduction of digital music rocked the music industry. Record stores closed around the country, and there was real uncertainty about the future of the business. By 2010, Fat Beats’ sho in e or the first of their record stores and the last one standing, shut down. This was lamented as the end of an era, and
‘I had never even heard of Slum Village, but we were all like, “What the fuck is this? This is crazy!” It just blew my mind.’ hearing his Sound of the City project, he conferred with T3 f rom Slum Village and tapped me to quarterback the deal.” This was the beginning of Hex’s role as Black Milk’s manager and the start of their relationship with Fat Beats. Around that time, Bill Sharp was running Fat Beats’ retail website. “The way it worked was that everyone who was working there was encouraged to seek out projects and artists they were interested in. Everyone there was predictably a passionate hip-hop head,” says Sharp. “Black i s one of the first rtists ot ehind and boosted up. He was an incredible artist. That was a big part of getting more of a Detroit connection for Fat Beats, not that there wasn’t one before.” As an artist signed to Fat Beats’ record label, Black Milk dropped P opular Demand (2007), T ronic (2008) , and A lbum of the Y ear (2010). “I was already familiar with Fat Beats as a label and distribution company,” Black Milk says. “That was at a time when the underground independent rap scene was thriving more than ever. It’s hard to compare now because of digital music versus the actual, phy sical records being sold back then. Bill Sharp reached out, and getting a deal done was pretty easy. Fat Beats really helped establish me as an indie artist and grow my audience.” As Hex and other hip-hop scholars have posited, 2008 w as one of the great years for Detroit hip-hop. Along with Black Milk’s T ronic, Guilty Simpson, one of the cit s finest ricists dro ed his m O de to the G hetto on Stones Throw. The album that completes this argument is Elzhi’s T he P ref ace. “I was working closely with Hex, who
in many ways, it was. Fat Beats, however, didn’t go out of business. To cut back on costs, they moved their headquarters to Los Angeles and embraced selling records online. A new era was taking shape. More than 10 years removed from the initial digital music scare, the industry has st rted to fi re o t ho to moneti e itse f through streaming platforms and downloads. Physical record sales, although they’ll never be what they were, are on the rise once again. In 2018, a fter almost a decade of relying solely on e-commerce, Fat Beats opened a new storefront in Los Angeles. This summer, Fat Beats celebrated its 25t h anniversary with parties in New York City and Los Angeles. “It was incredible,” says DJ House Shoes, who hosted the L.A. celebration. Originally from Detroit, House Shoes now lives in L.A., where he runs the record label Street Corner Music and works with Fat Beats. “I’ve hosted shit before, but it’s usually in smaller rooms,” he says. “There was probably 800 pe ople in that joint. I was a little sketched out. It was an honor to be able to set people up and give some history on the situation. It was an incredible night. Just to be in the room was enough, but to be there tying it all together was amazing.” Looking back, there aren’t many in the record business who made it through the drastic changes wrought by digital music. But after 25 years, Fat Beats remains. “I like to think Fat Beats is still around because they’re still the gatekeeper of quality in hip-hop,” says Amir Abdullah. And just as other cities have been a part of building that legacy, Detroit has been there every step of the way.
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MUSIC
Matthew Dear.
COURTESY PHOTO
Walking with the ghost
Matthew Dear looks back on 20 years of Ann Arbor-born label and lifestyle brand Ghostly International By Jerilyn Jordan
Matthew Dear could win an
award for cutest voicemail of all time. Should you reach the voicemail box of the 40-year-old producer, musician, Twitter god, father of three, and co-founder of Ghostly International — the independent label that celebrates its 20th anniversary this Friday at TV Lounge — it’s clear that he’s enlisted the adorable stylings of his children, all of whom are under the age of 10 and who ever so politely will tell you that “Mat-chew D-hear” cannot come to the phone right now. If this were 20 years ago, this type of voicemail message might seem ironic, or perhaps a nod to Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada, and the message would have likely been recorded on a Radio Shack-brand machine collecting dust in a dorm room while Dear fussed with chords, boards, and pedals, in between class and late-night Detroit raves.
Things are di erent for Dear now. “I live on 10 acres in Ann Arbor. Like, I’m set, you know?” he says. “I don’t go out. Unless I’m playing, I’m not going out. I’m not really partaking in the scene. And I’m not the one that could tell anybody, like, this is where you need to go and who you should see. I’d probably just text some of my cooler friends and be like, where do people go right now?” Life has indeed calmed down in the years since Dear rst found himself at “the right place and right time,” which was sometime during 1999 when he crossed paths with fellow University of Michigan student Sam Valenti IV at a house party. At the time, Dear had been making music independently for ve years. It was only when he met alenti, who was DJing under the moniker Spaceghost, that he was at the point where he felt he had a modest stockpile of songs that were “presentable,” the
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result of having spent the majority of his teenage years playing around with whatever equipment he could get his hands on, making hip-hop beats for his high school friends and riding the early waves of the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. “I didn’t know that that’s what I was going to do,” he says of electronic music. “Sam was eager to represent a form of music and put it out as a label and start the house of Ghostly. And I was eager and chomping at the bit to release all this music that I had been piling up, so it was a cool split I think for both of us to be able to bring both of our drives, like, together, and there’s no way I could be the label manager like he had been. That was never in me. I think he kind of realized his role and I realized my role, so we allowed each other a bit of exibility, as well — like to lean on each
other’s talents and strengths.” The partnership led to both Ghostly International and Dear’s rst inch single, “Hands Up For Detroit,” which was produced alongside the late Disco D. The song gained notable traction in 2006 when Fedde Le Grand heavily sampled the track for “Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit.” The single would be the rst of many for Dear, who has six studio records and more than two dozen EPs under his collective four musical aliases, including last year’s Bunny, which found Dear breaking a severalyear hiatus with a return to candid storytelling, pastoral synths, humor, seduction, and frequent collaborators Tegan & Sara. A year into Ghostly, Dear founded the label’s dance oor oriented o shoot, pectral ound, which represents Seth Troxler, Hieroglyphic Being, Kate Simko, Avalon Emerson, Patricia, and Benoit & Sergio.
“I started Ghostly with the hopes of bringing local talent forward,” says Valenti. “Matthew, being the rst artist on the label, has set the tone for how to be bold and ambitious without sacri cing your true voice. We’ve been fortunate to nd some success in music that isn’t traditionally seen as commercial, and Matthew deserves a ton of credit for showing how it’s done.” Before Ghostly and before Valenti, Dear had scored a meeting with Detroit techno icon Carl Craig through a peripheral music friend who insisted this meeting would change the course of Dear’s career, suggesting that he could be the next Recloose — the electronic producer who Craig signed to his Planet E Communications label in 1997. “I went and saw Carl, I had this meeting and here I am with my Kikwear rave pants and big sweater. And bless his heart, Carl was very, very cordial and polite, but basically he was saying, come back in ve years. I ust wasn’t ready.” Next year, 21 years after his meeting with Craig, Dear will see his rst lanet
power or anything, but drive — you can ust tell,” he says. “I’m sure am had it, I had it, Tiga had it, and there’s kids in my class, like I’m thinking of one guy, he had it. ou ust see it. It’s in the way they ask questions. It’s in the way their eyes, like, lock into a thought. I don’t think you need that, but if you’re going to be a performer and entertainer, if you’re going to put your heart and soul on the line and try to be honest, you do have to be a little bit, like, crazy in that belief that you can pull it o , you know?” Now headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Ghostly represents more than 70 artists, spanning all electronic mediums, including Tycho, Shigeto, Dabrye, and ADULT. But it’s more than ust a label, too — a New York Times pro le on alenti describes Ghostly as a “Goop for the Pitchfork set.” As of right now, you can by a Ghostly-themed or an all-white analog Super Nintendo, a graphic tee that reads “Things of quality have no fear of time,” in addition to a slew of vinyl releases, including Dear’s Bunny, which
‘If you’re going to be a performer and entertainer ... you do have to be a little bit, like, crazy in that belief that you can pull it off.’ E release, which Dear says is a huge accomplishment for him and is reason to give pause to a slew of re ective hypotheticals. “What in the hell would have happened if we never met?” he says. “ I don’t know. What if I hadn’t met Sam and I had more of those type of meetings — what would I have done? Would I have been persistent? Would I have carried on? Would the parental voice telling me to get my college degree persisted? I did get a degree in cultural anthropology, Thanks, Mom. But the whole time I was like, when can I be done with this so I could tour and be a musician?” Dear now teaches an eight-week mini-course at the University of Michigan’s School of Music each fall, where he discusses how to navigate the modern perils of the recording industry and the ever-changing licensing labyrinth of digital streaming services. Dear shares his experiences and invites special guests, too. Most recently he invited Montreal DJ and producer Tiga. “What I’ve noticed is that people either have … I don’t want to say ‘it,’ because I’m not talking about, like, star
comes in a delicious, rainbow-splattered pressing. For Valenti, the next 20 years of Ghostly is more of the same — which is a good thing. “I’m not saying Sam knew from Day One what Ghostly would be like in 20 years, but he’s never wavered in his commitment to nding what that would be,” Dear says. “I know a lot of people that have ups and downs and they cool o and they maybe take a break from something, myself included. But Sam has never taken a break from Ghostly. That’s why I think it is what it is. It’s more than a label to him. It’s more than a licensing department. It’s more than a clothing store or a brand. It’s a genuine lifestyle for a group of people that met each other in our late teens and had dreams. And because of Sam, we’ve had a place to hang our hat and coat for the last 20 years and feel safe in our ability to present art to the world.”
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Matthew Dear will perform as part of Ghostly’s 20th anniversary at TV Lounge at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16; 2548 Grand River Ave., Detroit; 313-9654789; seetickets.us. Tickets are $15.
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CULTURE Stage and Canvas By
T staff
THROUGH MARCH 1 Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections @ Detroit Institute of Arts
Opened to the public on Tuesday, Detroit Collects exhibits 60 works of all mediums from 19 Detroit-area art collectors, some of which are now available to the public for the rst time ever. All are focused on Black artists, including works by Carrie Mae Weems, Romare Bearden, Nick Cave, Alison aar, Rashid ohnson, as well as artists with Detroit connections, like Charles McGee, Mario Moore, Tylonn awyer, Allie Mc hee, and others. The DIA’s eneral Motors Center for African American Art bills itself as the rst curatorial department dedicated to Black art in the U. . —Lee DeVito See DIA website for schedule; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-7900; dia.org. Free with general admission, which is free for residents of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.
FRIDAY, 11/15 Annual Holiday Card Jam @ Signal-Return
ignal Return continues its On ress rints for onpro ts series, in which local artists create a limited-edition print to promote local nonpro ts. The latest edition, which debuts on Friday, pairs ue Carman ian with Alternatives for irls, Tyanna uie with the Avalon illage, Ryan tandfest with the uild Institute, Mary Fortuna with the Detroit Food Academy, ubert Massey with eighborhood ervices Organization, and Charles McGee with the North Rosedale ark Civic Association. Original signed prints will be on sale for $80, with proceeds going toward the nonpro ts. At p.m., the annual oliday Card am begins, where you can print ve holiday
“After Manet, from May Days Long Forgotten,” 2002, Carrie Mae Weems, American; digital chromogenic print. Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections runs through March 1 at the DIA. SHIRLEY WOODSON AND EDSEL REID COLLECTION; COURTESY OF THE DIA
greetings cards on ignal Return’s old school printing press for . Music and refreshments will be provided. —Lee DeVito From 5:30-9:30 p.m.; 1345 Division St., Detroit; 313-567-8970; signalreturnpress. org. Admission is free.
SATURDAY, 11/16 Beverly Fishman: Fantastic Voyage @ Library Street Collective
You might know Beverly Fishman from “Rise,” the neon-colored, 175-foot-tall mural that went up on Detroit City Club Apartments last year. ut between and , the ne artist was thinking small. In Fantastic Voyage, which pulls art from that era, Fishman rendered expressionistic, large-scale pastel drawings inspired by the inner environments of the human body — “ bodyscapes’ fraught with con ict and violence,” as Library treet Collective describes them. Fishman would continue to play with size and the human body in her art career a show at asserman ro ects featured
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giant pills made of glass, a critique of Big harma. —Lee DeVito From 6-8 p.m.; Library Street Collective; 1260 Library St., Detroit; 313-600-7443; lscgallery.com. Admission is free.
SATURDAY, 11/16 New works by Susan Okla @ UFO Factory
A usan Okla painting has the ability to transport you. ot to another world or even another time, but somewhere in the very bottom of your gut, ust above your genitals, like a Magic chool us trip through the very things you try to hide but can’t and won’t. The year old outh eld native graduated from the College for Creative tudies in with a bachelor of ne arts. Okla’s images are rife with primal strokes, bold colors, and uses the human body marred and overcome by nature as a vessel to explore sexuality, trauma, and fear. For her latest collection of collage-drawings, Okla examines memory and psychoanalysis. —Jerilyn Jordan
Doors open at 7 p.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; facebook.com/ufofactorydetroit. Free.
SATURDAY, 11/16 Stupor: Junkyard Farm issue release @ Public Pool
illed as Detroit’s longest running zine, Stupor is the brainchild of teve ughes, who collects stories — “true stories from people ughes meets, mostly from a barstool, mostly in the Detroit area” — and then collaborates with an artist to bring them to life. The latest issue, Junkyard Farm, illustrated by Alice . chneider, gets a release show at Ant all this weekend with a special live staged reading of the stories, with a di erent actor telling the stories as monologues. aturday’s show is directed by aitlyn alor our ue, and features actors Myles De Leeuw, hil Leslie, evin Minor, ared cott Morin, Devin Rosni, Tia a abrie, and Rashi arwar. Doors at 7 p.m., reading at 7:30 p.m.; Ant all Caniff t. amtram k 365-4255; planetant.com. Tickets are $5.
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CULTURE
Linda Hamilton stars in Terminator: Dark Fate.
This machine kills By George Elkind
Though an admirably
solid work of ollywood lmmaking, Terminator: Dark Fate can’t match the style, wit, or heft of its best predecessors — but was anyone expecting it to An update to the Terminator franchise that canonically erases the other se uels made since ’s T2, Dark Fate manages to be both part of a franchise and a work with more than a little of its own voice. That voice is more audible politically than aesthetically the besoiled, grungy splendor of the other Terminator lms is mostly absent, replaced by capable if not transcendent action choreography, dusty roadside landscapes interspersed with industrial interiors, and an approach to scripting that’s su cient and fairly clever. ince movies are made from a sum of their parts, Dark Fate’s mostly ade uate pieces seem to materialize in a way that manages to be satisfying — one of the mysteries of the form. Like last year’s Halloween, which also brought back its franchise’s foundational leading woman, Dark Fate’s re deployment of Linda amilton as arah Connor allows her to carry much of the lm’s load, salvaging emotional resonance, history, and memories of a long past life from her previous lms. er grit, carriage, and sparky a ect helped change how women behave on screen, ust as director and her former
spouse ames Cameron altered the nature of action lms. ut as she appears here, amilton seems to be more at service of the script than in possession of the movie’s story, spouting one liners that seem engineered to underline her character’s toughness. art of the trouble may be that the movie leaves her largely without an anchor. In a ashback that takes place around the opening credits, her son’s gunned down before her eyes the culprit is a T , creating an entree for Arnold chwarzenegger to revisit the franchise. elcome though that is, arah’s character is cast adrift, enacting a barely motivated biannual mission of vengeance in which she terminates Terminators as they appear. Though much could be made of the way grief numbs it’s brie y mentioned she’s turned to drink and renders her a violent machine, this subtext is basically overlooked in favor of the movie’s broad, apocalyptic plotline. Its story is at once an echo and a kind of revision, not unlike the new Terminator model. race Mackenzie Davis , an “augmented” human with enhanced capabilities, is sent back to safeguard Dani atalia Reyes , a Mexico City native humanity’s fate somehow depends on, from a shapeshifting, self duplicating Terminator sent back in time played by abriel Luna . The result is a series
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KERRY BROWN, PARAMOUNT PICTURES
of chase scenes, ghts in industrial settings, respites in dingy hamlets, and gradual relationship building. It doesn’t take long for arah to oin up with the pair the trio of women, alternating between ght, ight, and sparring with one another, serve as the focus of the lm. In this lie the movie’s politics. To its credit, Dark Fate doesn’t pretend to be apolitical, nor does it cry out its politics in expectation. Instead, it presents three tough women casually and integrates a point of view into its story. Though a few male characters appear, they’re dispensed with as easily as worn out garments. The good ones are weak or victims, the bad pitiable and immoral a fair play inversion of how women are so often depicted on screen. The lm’s only potent men are themselves in fact weapons, not human men at all, and so prone to being used in any number of ways. As was always the subtext in Terminator, these creatures are brutes, emotionally stunted killing machines — and subtextually curious for the thinness of their displays of “soft” humanity, which exist only as a kind of eshy veneer. hen chwarzenegger’s T appears, he’s attempted to reform, to help others, and to live with some sense of purpose. e serves, too, as a nihilistic observing voice, passively remarking on humanity’s weakness and tendency toward self destruction. Though speaking in a at a ect, his existence on the sidelines feels oddly poignant here. It’s a sorry, uphill battle to try to get humanity to help them-
Terminator: Dark Fate Rated: R Run-time: 128 min. selves — a motive and a struggle more convincingly elaborated on than arah’s vengeful streak of grieving, which it’s a bit hard to believe would persist over as long a time as it has. Though the lm ardently attempts to center women, chwarzenegger’s character’s being and manner still lie close to the story’s core. peaking after the movie with a friend about the franchise, he described Terminator as a brand as “a fantasy of individuals standing up to the machine.” In this, as in Mad Max: Fury Road, the lm’s makers trust chie y in women to be the ones who stand up, ostensibly with the understanding that men have erred — and had their chance. Though put together well, Dark Fate’s script sees, positions, and acknowledges its lead actresses, depicting trauma and strain without really living with and inhabiting it its male directors and producers may be some part of this. In ames Cameron’s Terminator lms, the story felt less busy, more strongly honed and focused. A space was made for exploring personal trauma, romance, and paranoid visions of future hellscapes all within a broader fantasy of control. Lacking room for these in its careful maneuvering, Dark Fate fails to sing, but still purrs along, part of a machine unlikely to ever die.
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CULTURE
Juan Barberini and Ramon Pujol in End of the Century.
A sexy trip By George Elkind
End of the Century, the rst feature from Argentine lmmaker Lucio Castro, revolves around a hookup and — at rst blush — seems slight. The lm nds Ocho played by uan arberini visiting arcelona from ew ork, where he wanders the city alone before looking for someone to meet. e spots a man from his Airbnb balcony, erks o in his room, sees some sights, and reads a paperback on the beach. Castro’s direction and cinematographer ernat Mestres’ shooting frame the city as largely empty, a sparse landscape that feels psychologically interior, in which any human encounter ac uires additional weight. In this sort of world, a chance encounter is made to feel fated, enlarged in its signi cance. Chance plays a ma or role here in a romantic conceit alien to so much of modern dating, End’s central meeting takes place without apps. The man Ocho spotted previously, named avi Ramon u ol , turns out to be one he runs into again, twice more. The second time Ocho sees him, he invites him up to his room. Truer to life as we know it now, the lm’s leads both around fuck basically as an introduction and get to know each other
after. Though avi’s trip is ostensibly for work, its air seems aimless, and the two pass more time together in a city that still seems nearly empty of others. They’re both in limbo, at least for a few days Ocho reveals he’s on a break from a year relationship, and avi shares that he’s in an open marriage but has a daughter and husband in his adoptive home of erlin. efore long, the two realize they’ve met already, some years earlier in arcelona. avi reminds Ocho that they shared an a air together then, as well as an ac uaintance with avi’s ex girlfriend onia M a Maestro . From there, the lm unspools for a while in ashback before returning to a contemporary setting beneath the latter lies an amicably waged, long buried love triangle that evokes possibilities of what might have been and reshapes the encounter we’ve seen so far. End’s early introductions are reframed as newly signi cant, ritual repetitions Ocho and avi pass through similar spaces as before, pick up food at the same stores and drink te uila and beer on the same sorts of scenic rooftops. Across the movie’s years, they basically do the same, making their new encounter feel at times like a revision of the old one, even as it can’t be.
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CINEMA GUILD
This sense is made a little more uncanny in Castro’s rendering, for the space between its temporal settings doesn’t feel too vast. In End’s ashbacked lmic past implied to be , there were more books in homes, the technology was a bit di erent, but the people somewhat distractingly look about the same. Foregoing recasting, aging makeup, or the increasingly popular trend of de aging C I for reasons likely due to budget, End of the Century treats memory as slippery and sub ective, time as eerily cyclical — and has uite a bit thematically up its sleeve. The result of this underemphasized distance whatever nancial reasons might have factored in is a heightening of End’s uestions as to possibility in life. Things that can’t or shouldn’t happen feel more like they could or ought to what felt trivial years back can feel somehow monumental now. Memories, it seems, can have a way of undermining one another. What End of the Century doesn’t bring in drama it o ers up in patient attention to life’s unexpected turns and movements and the heft they ac uire over time. Though most romances all but ask viewers to engage in acts of pro ection, casting themselves or their own fantasies atop the principal characters, End’s two leads feel throughout like well rounded people — and it’s to the lm’s credit that the ueer nature of
End of the Century
Rated: N/A Run-time: 84 minutes their relationship is never dramatized as such. The uestions raised and feelings evoked are transferable to anyone in and out of romantic contexts, but never at the expense of its characters’ personhood. Though End addresses identity convincingly, it’s concerned more with its characters’ feelings in a way that feels usti ably light on social history or politics it would take a longer movie to get into how those change over years’ time — as well as the interactions between chance and choice, memory, and history. Its thematic breadth and risk of vagueness — as in, say, Before Sunrise, which it at times resembles — are counterbalanced as in that story by speci city in character and setting, as well as the energy of its performances. Making much of the gap between lives imagined, remembered, and actually lived, End of the Century engages fantasy without ever feeling false. End of the Century has screenings at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 17 at Film Lab, 3105 ol rook e. amtram k the lmla . org. Tickets are $8.
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Michigan Congressman John Conyers at the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Aug. 24, 2013. JOSEPH SOHM / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Higher Ground
John Conyers, weed warrior By Larry Gabriel
The many great accomplishments of Rep. John Conyers Jr., who died on Oct 27, have been recalled in memorials these past few weeks. The list of Conyers’ accomplishments is long, as is tting for someone who lived to be 90 years and became a household name in local politics. But amid all that eulogizing and memorializing by politicians, entertainers, and religious leaders, it seems that no one remembered to mention his long struggle in support of ending marijuana prohibition. For example, during last week’s memorial, Mayor Mike Duggan mentioned that Conyers had sponsored the Medicare for All bill (the National Health Care Act). But, as has been typical throughout this process, Duggan didn’t mention that Conyers co-sponsored Barney Frank’s Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act in 2011, or any of the many things the representative did in support of marijuana legalization. Conyers was a warrior for human rights, which made him a warrior for cannabis legalization and ending the war on drugs with its enforcement bias against people of color, feeding the prison system and disenfranchising the rights and opportunities of anyone who gets caught up in the system. 44 November 13-19, 2019 | metrotimes.com
“I don’t think Conyers wanted people to use marijuana,” says Brandy Zink, who met him years ago while lobbying Congress. Zink has worked on issues such as violence against women, gun violence, and medical marijuana campaigns over the years. “Social justice — that was the basis of his support for marijuana reform, because of the harms of the drug war.” If it was an outgrowth of Conyers’ social justice beliefs, he took it seriously in the legislative process and voted accordingly. In 1999, he voted against subjecting federal employees to random drug tests. The same year he voted against prohibiting needle exchange and medical marijuana in Washington, D.C. In 2001, he co-sponsored the States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act. In 2003, he received an award from the Drug Policy Alliance for his tireless work toward drug policy reform at the group’s biennial conference against the war on drugs. Conyers sat on the DPA board in support of repealing prohibition for more than a decade. In 2008, he voted to allow rehabilitated drug convicts to get student loans. He also questioned the Drug Enforcement Agency administrator regarding raids on facilities in medical marijuana states. “Please explain what role, if any, emerging scienti c data plays in your decision-making process to conduct enforcement raids on individuals authorized to use or provide medical cannabis under state law,” he wrote in a letter to DEA o cials. That same year, he took aim at the war on drugs in voting against funding for Mexico to ght drugs.
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CULTURE In 2009, he supported distribution of sterile syringes among drug users to reduce the incidence of hepatitis and AIDS. In , Conyers supported e orts to expunge the records of rst time drug o enders after they completed proba tion and joined in a DPA press confer ence calling for the decriminalization of marijuana. In 2014, he received the highest pos sible ranking from NORML, indicating a pro legalization stance. Conyers’ commitment to the issue was strong enough that, during his last few years in o ce, he brought lawyer and former DPA director of federal policy Dan Riffle onto his sta as a legislative aide. Riffle currently works
co opted local leadership that, even as it falls apart around them, even as the devastation in the local community caused by the drug war is so apparent, it is a rare occasion for someone to break ranks about relaxing those laws and the anti cannabis attitude. Former Detroit City Council Member George Cushingberry tried to stand up and be a cannabis hero in the city. He got drummed o of council after one term because he openly and vociferous ly supported the brand new industry when nobody else in city government wanted to talk about it — which is pretty much still the case. Conyers is the gure who could talk that talk and still maintain his position in local politics. Maybe it was because
Conyers was a warrior for human rights, which made him a warrior for cannabis legalization and ending the war on drugs. on sta for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. This capped o a career com mitment to ghting for social ustice. Anyone truly engaged in these struggles soon comes to understand that one is sue leads to another. “The roots of Conyers’ interest and conviction grow from his lifelong con cern for civil liberties, and civil liberties goes along with civil rights concerns for police pro ling and targeting of minorities — what I call the racist drug war,” says Mike Whitty, a retired labor relations professor from the University of Detroit Mercy. Whitty has worked as a volunteer on Conyers’ campaigns and is active around cannabis legalization issues. “John Conyers was one of the earliest champions of prison reform,” Whitty says. “ e often hired people on his sta who had convictions, and he helped many people who got out of jail get established and on their feet. He was a big champion of prison reform way before it got mainstream during the last few years.” Conyers stood out in Congress for his un inching support of mari uana reform. He stood out in the Detroit po litical rmament for the same reason. It was no surprise that his support for marijuana reform was not part of his memorials. Marijuana reform is not part of the agenda for most local politi cal and religious leaders. The war on drugs has so completely
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he had been around forever, just like his father before him. More likely, Conyers’ grounding in social justice issues and an underlying understand ing of how the tools of oppression are interconnected led him to what is still a revolutionary position on the subject. John Conyers, weed warrior? Damn right!
New MRA rules
The Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency has issued new rules for medi cal mari uana certi cation The patient application fee (for a two year card has been reduced from $60 to $40. The $25 caregiver criminal back ground check processing fee has been eliminated. The $10 fee has been eliminated for the following services updat ing name or address on a registry card, add or remove a caregiver, and requesting a replacement card. The renewal period for patients has increased from 60 to 90 days. A provision is now in e ect that authorizes patients to change the person designated to be in posses sion of the plants. Email is now included as a method by which the Michigan Medical Mari juana Program (MMMP) may contact a patient, caregiver, or physician. MRA information can be found at michigan.gov/mmp.
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Savage Love
CULTURE Q:
My boyfriend and I met online to explore our kinks. We’d both been in relationships with kink-shaming people who screwed with our heads. Since we weren’t thinking it was more than a hookup, we put all our baggage on the table early and wound up becoming friends. Eventually we realized we had a real connection and started a relationship where we supported our desire to explore. I’ve never been happier. The only issue is how he gets down on himself if I get more attention than he does. ter the rst kink arty we went to he would not stop trying to convince me that no one looked at him all evening. trie to oost his on en e an also brought up things like “You were
on a leash, so maybe people assumed yo were off limits. No i e. o l n t get him to even entertain the notion that anyone even looked at him. He’s a cross-dressing sissy who loves to be used by men — heterosuckual — and he has a lot of baggage with every last one of his exes citing his cross-dressing as a reason to lea e him or a real man. To make things worse, we have had issues with g ys oming o er or him n ing out there’s a Domme female in the picture, and switching focus to me. I feel like I wind up avoiding kinky sexual situations (which I love!) because I’m so concerned about protecting his ego. I’ve tried using my words and we generally communicate well, but he is unwilling to entertain any interpretations that don’t mesh with his theory that he’s obviously undesirable. The breaking point for me was this past weekend. He encouraged me to go to a swingers party with a friend, and I had a blast. It was superempowering, and all I wanted to do was tell him every detail — the way he will
By Dan Savage
when he services cock — and he was so ealo s that was a le to effortlessly get so much attention, he wasn’t ready to hear it. It made me feel the same sex shame I felt with my ex. It also made me feel like he was insinuating how could I get so lucky, which hit all my chubby girl self-conscious places hard. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated! —Seeking Insightful Stress Solution, Yup
ably turn their attention back to him at some point, particularly if you encouraged/gave them permission to do so. (You could — and perhaps should — also make it clear to anyone who approaches you at some-if-not-all kink parties that you’re a package deal: You play together or you don’t play at all. But even then, your boyfriend has to accept that you’ll be leveraging your desirability on both your behalves and be at peace with it. Usually when I advise readers to Tell that sissy to get over herself. “use their words,” it’s about making Your boyfriend is making you feel sexual needs clear, i.e., asking for what guilty about something you have no we want with the understanding that control over: Women get more attenwe may not always get what we want. tion at mixed-gender sex/play parties But what you need (and you need to than men do. And as far as your respecuse your words to get), SISSY, is for your boyfriend to knock this petty, hypocritical, slut-shaming shit o . e’s essentially shaming you for being the slut he’d like to be.) It might help if you got him to recognize and grieve and accept not just the reality of the situation — women with more mainstream kinks are more in demand at mixed-gender kink parties than men with niche kinks — but also the risk he’s running here is insecurities SHUTTERSTOCK.COM are sabotaging your relationship. im setting traps for you — tive kinks go, SISSY, there are always like encouraging you to go out and play going to be more people out there who only to make you feel terrible about want to get with Domme women than it afterward — and making hurting guys who want to get with/be serviced insinuations about your attractiveness by submissive heterosuckual crossis making this relationship untenable. dressers. Your boyfriend will always Tell him that you’re going to dump him attract less interest than you do at a kink party, just as someone who goes to if he can’t get a grip. And then ask him what will be worse — being partnered a BDSM play party hoping to do a little with someone who gets more attenknife play will attract less interest than tion than he does in kink and swinger someone who’s looking for a little light spaces or being a single male in those bondage. Instead of counting the number of guys who approach you at a party spaces. (It’s a trick question, at least partly, as many of those spaces don’t and then trying to ruin your night for allow single males.) getting more attention than he does, your boyfriend has to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way. Straight woman here with a And if some guy approaches him penis question: My current partner is at a play party only to realize he’s on uncircumcised, which I am completely a leash, SISSY, isn’t that guy supposed ne with. owe er his oreskin is so to turn his attention to the Dominant tight that it can’t be pulled back over the partner? If your boyfriend could resist head of his penis. I did my research and the urge to spiral down at those modiscovered the issue is phimosis. I asked ments — if he could resist the urge to him about it, and he said it’s always make himself the center of negative been this way and that sometimes it attention — those men would probis ain l. None o his o tors ha e
A:
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Q:
seemed to notice it during exams, and he’s never brought it up. Oddly enough, this is something that I’ve come across with two ifferent artners an in both situations, they had issues with maintaining an erection. Is this a thing? —My Boyfriend’s Penis
A:
himosis is de nitely a thing, MBP, and when it makes erections a painful thing, as it often does, then erections are going to be harder to obtain and sustain. And unless a doctor was examining your boyfriend’s erect penis, it’s not something a doctor would notice. A good doctor will ask their patients about their sexual health and function, but — based on the mail I get — it seems very few people have good doctors. Looking on the bright side: Phimosis is easily treated, if you can persuade your boyfriend to ask his doctor about it. Smearing a steroid cream on his cock could stretch and loosen the foreskin. And if the cream doesn’t work, then a full or partial circumcision will do the trick.
Q:
I love my boyfriend, and he knows I like women, too. Our sex life was okay, a little boring and routine and always oggy style. n he har ly e er goes down on me — like, at all. I can count on one hand the number of times he’s done it in four years! So I agreed to have a threesome to spice things up, and we bought condoms. When we got down with another woman, he decided to have sex with her after me and he also decided to go down on her. You know, the thing he never does for me. I’m so upset now, I can’t even have sex with him. I feel like it was a betrayal of my trust for him to eat out a woman he barely knows when he won’t do that for me. He also didn’t use the condoms — he says he i n t ha e time. e sai it meant nothing. But it’s really got me upset. Now erlooking y Nee Munching
A : Not only would I have been upset
during that threesome, NOMNOM, I would have been single very shortly after it. Dude doesn’t eat pussy — dude doesn’t eat your pussy — and can’t nd the time to put a condom on when he wants to (gets to!) have sex with another woman in front of you? DTMFA. On the Lovecast, sex workers’ rights advocate Elle Stanger: savagelovecast. com. Questions? mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. Impeach the mofo already: ITMFA. org.
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CULTURE
Horoscopes By Cal Garrison
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 To have a clue about what’s really going on right now, you’ll have to stretch your mind outside normal limits. These changes are bigger than they appear. Issues that have their roots in ancient stories are coming home to roost in experiences that only seem to have something to do with the present time frame. All of this is a replay of unresolved experiences that have dictated too much of your behavior up until now. If you can connect the dots and shake loose from the need to keep responding to things the way you did as a kid, everything will turn around and change for the better.
LEO: July 21 – August 20 There needs to be a dose of radical change. Even if you can’t gure out why it has to be this way, part of you knows that the momentum of things that you thought would support you forever has totally run out of steam. Whenever anything reaches this point, there are always external forces that challenge our weak spots and pose some sort of threat to what we hold dear. You’ve got a choice. In my experience, it’s always best to make the one you can live with. So lose your fears and drop all of your petty considerations; it’s time to go for the gold and set yourself free.
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 21 – Dec. 20 Things are slowing down a bit. After a high run, you’ve nally got a little time to think. At this point, there are “Should I stay, or should I go?” issues that require a decision. Things are good enough to stay where you are. On the other hand, something beckons you to go. So how do you make this call? In your world, the intuitive factor is always reliable. The voice that speaks to you from within is your higher guidance pointing the way. Weighing the odds, whatever it took to make things work out here is a portable entity. It’s not up to me, but maybe life is calling you to move on.
TAURUS: April 21 – May 20 Well, you’ve opened the space for things that have been tied up in limbo to expand beyond the sense of limitation that has fenced you in. Many of you are in the process of moving. Others are “moving on” at the emotional level. omething has blown the lid o whatever has blocked your ability to change. Feeling overwhelmed could be part of the deal. If that’s the case, don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Realize that whatever it is that appears to be too much will take care of itself if you stop fretting over it and remember that everything comes together in its own good time.
VIRGO: August 21 – Sept. 20 You’re halfway between one thing and another. As things proceed, what’s kept you restricted to certain limits will meet with a need to change your pace or your tune. ome of you nd it hard to believe that there’s such a thing as a new horizon. Others are thanking God that the tide is turning. As you embrace the possibility of a rebirth and/or a totally di erent pathway, it will help to re ect upon what the last year or so has taught you about faith, and about humility. Who you are now is much different than who you were then — and yes, this is a whole new ballgame.
CAPRICORN: Dec. 21 – Jan. 20 You’re going to have to trust that all of this will work out perfectly. Part of you knows this, but the part of you that feels like you can’t get on with your life till it’s over and done with is wondering how to move things along. Once you realize that nothing can happen unless people come to closure or until certain things are nished, you’ll stop wasting energy forcing whatever’s about to change into a premature birth. For now, it would help if you continued to show up with a whole heart, knowing that life has its own way of making sure that we get what we need.
LIBRA: Sept. 21 – Oct. 20 ou’ve nally gured out that life goes better when you take one thing at a time. It’s not like you can’t multitask, but the “all at once” routine only works when you’ve got eight arms and eight legs! Being able to keep yourself on track has involved eliminating a lot of mindless social interactions. You don’t have time for it, and you’re noticing that you feel a Hell of a lot better when you take care of yourself rst. For the next few weeks, knowing this will serve you well and keep you from running to the rescue when the usual suspects expect you to x what’s broken.
AQUARIUS: Jan. 21 – Feb. 20 A lot of things are on the line over the next few weeks. This isn’t anything you can’t handle, but in some cases, it could be a real gamechanger. If that rings a bell, it’s time to get centered and focus 95% of your energy on the main priority. There’s no doubt that all kinds of Mickey Mouse nonsense will pop up to divert your attention away from it. Don’t let yourself be distracted. Delegate the small stu , and keep your eye on the prize. By the time what’s truly important is right in your face, you’ll shine brightly enough to be rewarded with the opportunity of a lifetime.
SCORPIO: Oct. 21 – Nov. 20 Handling your life has gotten to be more like a job than whatever you’re doing for a living. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll be home free before the seasons change. Between now and then, you’re going to have to maintain a high level of performance. Whatever that requires, you can do it with your eyes closed. The main thing right now has to do with nding oy in a routine that has gotten stale in the midst of a personal or family crisis that would give anyone cause to ip out. eep holding your own. It’ll get easier. Find a way to fall in love with this.
PISCES: Feb. 21 – March 20 Things are lining up in ways that give you a chance to spread your wings. After an overdose of restriction, this feels pretty good. The heat is o , and there appears to be more help and a more positive attitude. Suck it up while you can. Do whatever it takes to replenish yourself. The fact that so many people depend on you to be the one with all the strength and all the answers is still a factor; don’t expect that to go away. But for now, take advantage of the fact that there is a window, and the door of your cage is open enough to allow you a little time to re ll your inner resources.
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20 You’re in the middle of a story that can’t be easily unraveled. Surrounded by people and things that have question marks written all over them, it seems to be your job to employ the isdom of olomon to nd a way out. The only thing that’s clear about this is the fact that the forces that assail you aren’t half as smart as you are. I don’t know what you’ve got up your sleeve, but it’s a good thing that your detractors have no idea what you’re up to. This week will call you to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Good luck with that. If you continue to stay cool, the odds are that you will be successful. CANCER: June 21 – July 20 ou’ve nally seen the light. After a long stretch of making believe you had it all gured out, you’ve gotten out of the box far enough to have a more objective sense of where you stand with life and yourself. This in no way implies that you know what you want to do next, but at least you know what you don’t want. What you’re unwilling to live with has been your constant companion up until this point. Think about that. And think about how long it takes for any of us to release what no longer serves us. Be patient, lighten up, and trust that it’s safe to outgrow the past.
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metrotimes.com | November 13-19, 2019
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