Northern Express - February 24, 2020

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NORTHERN

BILLY STRINGS COMES HOME + THE GRAVEL PIT NEXT DOOR + MORE

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THE KRATOM

EFFECT

A dangerous legal drug?

Or nature’s answer to opioid addiction?

NORTHERN MICHIGAN’S WEEKLY • February 24 - march 01, 2020 • Vol. 30 No. 08

2 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

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That’s it.

The Right?

I have been having trouble coping with the “right” to abort a living child. Seems as now not much is mentioned of the male partner. That surprises me. That partner “father” should be involved.

Also, maybe we could describe the ordeal itself — a live infant. What if you described the abortion of a cat or dog and the dismemberment of this animal? The sounds would be horrifying, and I’m sure you would say “Stop!” What about these poor live infants being detached? Painful and sinful murder. Lets stop killing these poor, live, helpless children.

question regarding guilt?

The argument that including witnesses would take too long was not supported by the facts. The Clinton impeachment lasted only one week longer, even when witnesses were included. Concluding that the president’s conduct did not rise to the level of removal is not possible when eyewitnesses are not permitted to testify.

Besides suppression of evidence, jury tampering appears to have occurred. As shown through the presidents past behavior, Republican Senators knew that an act of “disloyalty” would be held against them, therefore affecting how they voted.This belief has been supported, given how Senator Romney, who voted to remove, has been smeared for his actions. In addition, the president not only threatened subpoena witnesses but fired them for testifying under oath. In any other legal proceedings, jury tampering and retribution against subpoena witnesses would be a felony.

Ronald Marshall, Petoskey

Never Surrender I have come to the conclusion that all forms of government are corrupt, including ours. As checks and balances erode through partisanship, I see an awareness from many of us educated proletariats that corruption has many forms, with the most powerful deciding when to appear to appease us.

Do we continue to let our country become second rate, or try to return it to a position of integrity and envy in the world?

It means getting off the couch, countering false memes, donating time and money, continuing to debate (not giving up in to our frustrations with overwhelming illogical spin), and voting!

Socialism is not Communism, or Fascism, and no Democratic candidate is recommending being a Socialist state.

It’s ironic that the Republican candidate is pushing totalitarianism! We need to stand up to fight the corruption that erodes democratic freedoms.

Cool Rebuttal There is good reason not to trust NASA global warming advocates. NASA warmists “adjust” the data by cooling the past and warming the present to comport with their global warming theory. The leaked emails from their colleagues at the University of East Anglia (UEA) revealed plotting to erase the “1940s blip,” that is, the warming of the 1920–30s, and the subsequent cooling of 1940–1970s.

That blip was a problem for the warmists since the low-CO2 1930s were much hotter than subsequent years. So they erased “the blip.” Then UEA refused to release its data to outside scientists because, as Director Phil Jones said, “Your aim is to find something wrong with it.” Exactly! Scientific truthseeking demands rigorous peer-review and critique of data and methods.

Satellite temperature data are the most reliable data. According to the University of Alabama-Huntsville, the lower troposphere (where we live) shows a slight warming of approximately 0.1° C per decade since 1979 (when satellite measurements began), but temperatures have remained flat since 1998, and certainly show no acceleration of warming as computer models had predicted.

Jeff Manhardt, Watersmeet

Neal Stout, Charlevoix

Making America Great Again?

The suppression of evidence from eyewitnesses at the impeachment trial was not fair to the president or his political base.

Testimony from eyewitnesses, which can establish one’s guilt or innocence beyond a reasonable doubt, was suppressed so the president could not be exonerated.

The suppression of key evidence would constitute a mistrial in any other trial.

Given that each Senator took an oath of non-partisanship, then their final decision about removal should not have been reached until firsthand witnesses testified under oath. Any determination before that would violate their oath of objectivity, since evidence crucial to the case had not been heard. Like any other court, guilt needs to go beyond a reasonable doubt.

This is not the case since eye witnesses were excluded, so who could answer the

Take 2nd Amendment Sanctuary Further It is cool that our county of Wexford seems headed for the popular NRA-led Second Amendment Sanctuary label.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take it far enough. I propose we become a Constitution Sanctuary County, so that all articles of the Constitution will be supported and enforced in our county.

We have the Republicans stripping the right to vote from minorities at an unprecedented clip. Let’s not allow that here.

We have a president who has broken a large share of the Constitution, especially the emoluments clause. Gone. We have a Senate that refuses to even look at evidence even as they swore on the Constitution to do their job. We have a president, and two Senate leaders who seemingly are being told what to do by Putin. This is treason.

Note: Both Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham hated Trump — until

Mike Dolack, Cadillac

their emails were hacked by the Russians, the same Russians who delayed aid to Ukraine and now occupy three of our military bases.

Our current government is trying to do away with separation of church and state without understanding this lack of separation led to Puritanism and the witch trials. Of course, the religion they want in power is their version of Christianity — not necessarily yours. As a warning: Their version is really skewed.

And of course the government used to be “for the people.” Ever since Citizens United, again led by Republicans, our government is “for the wealthy who donate to our campaigns.” (And Larry Inman has showed us how far you can twist that law.)

Laws are now only for the little people who have no power. So let’s enforce the entire Constitution instead of just one amendment, and maybe we could begin to trust our government again. We need to become a Constitution Sanctuary County.

CONTENTS features Crime and Rescue Map......................................7 Neighbors Fight Gravel Threat...........................10 Billy Strings.....................................................12 The Kratom Effect..........................................14 Red + Blue = An Unlikely Pair..........................16 Seen..............................................................20

dates................................................18-19 music Four Score.....................................................34

Nightlife.........................................................36

columns & stuff Top Ten...........................................................5

Bruce Allen Loper, Waxford County Spectator/Stephen Tuttle....................................6 Opinion..............................................................8 Weird................................................................9 Principles First Thank you, Jack Lane, for speaking the Modern Rock/Kristi Kates................................21 truth to Northern Express readers in your Film................................................................22 recent letter. You are frank and honest, Advice..........................................................24 disregarding your business interests in the Crossword...................................................24 area. I wish all politicians could put obvious Freewill Astrology..........................................25 truth first and their re-election second.

Classifieds..................................................26 Thomas C. Christensen, Cedar Michigan Not Another Four Years I feel it coming. Drip, drip, drip. Trump is going to lose his election because he is Trump.

I am a hopeful soul, and I believe that our president will not have another four years in office. Because he is arrogant and believes he has done no wrong, he will not learn his lesson from the impeachment process.

His statements at the Prayer Breakfast were upsetting to me, an earnest believer.

I trust, in time, others sharing my belief will find it more and more difficult to go to church on Sunday morning and still take pride in their president on Monday.

Fact-checking his economic boasting in the State of the Union showed that other presidents before him have succeeded economically. Many others did better than he has. Already there is prediction of an economic slowdown. There will be a ceiling to the current stock market success.

The Republican Party has become a cult, supporting a narcissistic leader. In many ways some party members are concerned about policies that have led to an outrageous deficit. Trump’s decisions are not made with the advice and counsel of credible people.

I am sure some Republicans worry about a president and his family profiting from his brand in many ways.

His celebration of a Senate acquittal starts with removing all who have testified against him. That is what cults do: ostracize those who don’t go along. And it has been happening throughout his presidency. I trust that most Americans truly will not want four more years. Let him do what he thinks he can do best.

Northern Express Weekly is published by Eyes Only Media, LLC. Publisher: Luke Haase 135 W. State St. Traverse City, MI 49684 Phone: (231) 947-8787 Fax: 947-2425 email: info@northernexpress.com www.northernexpress.com Executive Editor: Lynda Twardowski Wheatley Finance & Distribution Manager: Brian Crouch Sales: Kathleen Johnson, Lisa Gillespie, Kaitlyn Nance, Michele Young, Randy Sills, Todd Norris For ad sales in Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Boyne & Charlevoix, call (231) 838-6948 Creative Director: Kyra Poehlman Distribution: Dave Anderson, Dave Courtad Kimberly Sills, Randy Sills, Roger Racine Matt Ritter, Gary Twardowski Listings Editor: Jamie Kauffold Reporter: Patrick Sullivan Contributors: Amy Alkon, Rob Brezsny, Ross Boissoneau, Jennifer Hodges, Michael Phillips, Steve Tuttle, Kristi Kates, Meg Weichman, Craig Manning, Todd VanSickle Copyright 2020, all rights reserved. Distribution: 36,000 copies at 600+ locations weekly. Northern Express Weekly is free of charge, but no person may take more than one copy of each weekly issue without written permission of Northern Express Weekly. Reproduction of all content without permission of the publisher is prohibited.

Bob McQuilkin, Frankfort

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 3

this week’s

top ten Mackinac State Historic Parks Turns 125

Mackinac State Historic Parks, a collection of attractions on Mackinac Island and around Mackinaw City, has a big birthday coming up this summer.

The park system was established in 1895 after the federal government abandoned what was then the country’s second national park, Mackinac National Park.

To celebrate the anniversary, the park system will hold 125 days of events throughout the 2020 season, spread across its family of sites and parks.

Events include “Movies by the Bridge” every Saturday in Mackinaw City, evening cannon-firings at Colonial Michilimackinac and Fort Mackinac, and a special gala day with free music and fireworks July 25, marking the actual anniversary.

“Mackinac has such a special place in the history of our state and the hearts of Michiganders,” said Phil Porter, the park director. “We look forward to sharing this 125th anniversary celebration with our visitors this summer through an exciting and engaging slate of activities and events.”

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gaylord boat show Explore over 75 watercraft on display at the Gaylord Boat Show, Fri., Feb. 28 through Sun., March 1 at The Ellison Place, Gaylord. Pontoons to ski boats to cruisers to personal watercraft, in addition to docks, boat lifts, paddle boards and boating accessories. Fri. 3-8pm; Sat. 10am-8pm; Sun. 10am-4pm. gaylordboatshow.com

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Few things satisfy like the humble breakfast sammie. A modest melding of egg, cheese, sausage, or bacon, and some sort of bread — English muffin or bagel, usually — it’s a reliably satisfying staple of the a.m. world, no matter how you choose to arrange yours. However, when the individual pieces of this no-frills mainstay are made, grown, and raised a few rungs above the usual standards, let’s just say your humble breakfast sammie becomes nothing short of a morning star. Which is why we don’t understand why Traverse City’s Cuppa Joe doesn’t rename its plainly-named Breakfast Sandwich to The Stupendous Sammie. Its pasture-raised egg is cooked frittata-style — a light and truly lovely texture — and blanketed under a thick, wellmelted slice of sharp white cheddar, a few slivers of red onion, and a maple aioli, all of which combine for a sublime blend of savory and (very lightly) sweet that brings richness with just a touch of zing. Rather than a small round, the layers are pressed between two slices of 9 Bean Rows’ focaccia bread that, despite a light toasting, remain immeasurably soft. Total cost for this eye-opening breakfast experience? $5. If you add Hi-Lo Farms’ organic sausage or a slice of Sanders’ thick-cut bacon, $7 or $8 respectively. Find it at Cuppa Joe Café inside Building 50 at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. (231) 947-7730, www.CuppaJoeTC.com

4 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

Such a fun age

A 20-something college grad, Emira Tucker’s lack of “adult” direction has left her in limbo. But, in a world of white privilege, there’s no ground for gray areas — least of all for ebony-skinned Emira; when she’s spotted at an upscale supermarket with a white toddler in tow, she’s cornered by a security guard and accused of kidnapping. The entire exchange is caught on camera, but as Emira is quick to discover, nothing is really black and white. In her stunning debut novel, “Such a Fun Age,” newcomer Kylie Reid nimbly navigates the topics of our time with prose so compact it could fit in your pocket. At once charming and challenging, this is astory we couldn’t set down.

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tastemaker Cuppa Joe’s Breakfast Sandwich

Hey, read it!

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Palmer Woods to Expand

A major expansion is coming to the Palmer Woods Forest Reserve in Leelanau County.

The natural area, which in just a couple of years has become a destination for crosscountry skiers and mountain bikers, is slated to grow by 350 acres, bringing the property’s total acreage to more than 1,000. With the new space, Palmer Woods is expected to eventually offer 40 miles of hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country ski trails.

The Leelanau Conservancy acquisition would also create a five-mile shared border with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that would serve as a wildlife corridor between Palmer Woods and the national park.

“When we found out about an opportunity to add 350 acres to our current Palmer Woods Forest Reserve, it was something we couldn’t pass up,” says Tom Nelson, the conservancy’s executive director.

The conservancy has launched a fundraising campaign to raise the final $325,000 to complete the purchase.

To promote the expansion, Nelson will lead hikes through the property starting 1pm Saturday, Feb. 29, and continuing monthly through August. Learn more at www.

LeelanauConservancy.org.

Contemporary Christian stars at New Hope

Stuff we love New Ways to Get Fit While Giving Back Paczki day waddles into town Feb. 25 and, just in time to help you atone for your Fat Tuesday binge, the Father Fred Foundation on Sunday, March 1, kicks off its Father Fred Fitness Series III. The series offers seven super-fun fitness experiences around Traverse City in exchange for donations; Father Fred will use that cash to buy fresh produce for its food pantry, i.e. your hungry neighbors. From March until May, you can try an indoor cycling class at Yen Yoga; a full-body strength circuit at Formative Fitness; a Footloose dance class at Dance Arts Academy; a tennis clinic; a boxing class with TC Iron Works; a barre, weights, cardio and core class at Modus; and a family walk on the Boardman Trail. Class sizes are limited; pre-registration is required. Search “Father Fred Fitness Series” on Facebook to sign up for individual classes.

As part of its 30th anniversary celebration, New Hope Community Church is hosting two contemporary Christian concerts — and one is a singalong. Steve Green is performing March 1, and Colton Dixon will be on hand April 24. Green is well known in contemporary Christian circles.

Over his 35-year career, he has released nearly 40 albums as a band member or solo act and guested or been a part of another 60-plus recordings. He’s written numerous songs that have become staples of the genre, had more than a dozen No. 1 songs, garnered four Grammy nominations, and is a seven-time Dove Award winner. He will be accompanied by pianist Dick Tunney, orchestral strings and a choir; sign up to sing along at www.NewHopecc.churchcenter.com. The 3pm concert is free of charge.

Dixon was a contestant on American Idol’s season 11, placing seventh. That led to his contract with Sparrow Records. His debut album hit No. 15 on the Billboard Top 200 and No. 1 on the Christian Album chart. He’s since released three more albums.

Tickets for Colton Dixon and Citizen Way’s 7pm April 24 show will be available online at UnityChristianEvents.com. For more information, go to www.NewHope.cc.

8 Bottoms up Silver Spruce Brewing’s Altbier Last week, Silver Spruce Brewing’s owners and husband-wife brewers made a big announcement: The brewery they opened on Traverse City’s Eighth Street in June 2018 — just one year before the street was closed for construction for five months (the height of the tourist season, no less) — is expanding. That the new, not-downtown brewery not only weathered the long street closure but is about to double in size is testament to what’s pouring out of Silver Spruce’s taps. Our favorite? The one they tapped right after the expansion hit the news: Altbier, their classic German-style beer that’s earned a local reputation for appealing even to folks who think they don’t like beer. It’s cold fermented, meaning the yeasts work slowly and steadily, creating a complex combo of flavor compounds — notes of malt and toffee here — and a low (4.2%) ABV. Despite its bright amber hue, Altbier is smooth, creamy, and malty, and a worthwhile winter sipper with which to raise your glass and toast the brewery’s latest success story. Find Silver Spruce Brewing inside the soon-to-be-former Family Video space at 439 E. Eighth St. (231) 252-3552, silversprucebrewing.com.

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 5

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THE CIRCUS IS COMING spectator

by Stephen Tuttle We’re two caucuses and a primary deep into the Democratic primary circus. This might be a good time to review the frontrunners.

Let’s start on the left. No, farther left. Keep going, and you’ll eventually arrive at Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sanders describes himself as a “Democratic Socialist,” an oxymoron of the highest order.

He ran in 2016 and has not stopped since, cobbling together a coalition of young idealists and lower-income working folks to build a vast and committed organization.

The Sanders’ platform is quite unlike that of any major presidential candidate in the past.

He calls for universal healthcare (“Medicare For All”), universal daycare, paid parental and medical leave for at least 12 weeks, tuition-free community and state colleges,

fense spending and require universal background checks for gun purchasers.

Pete Buttigieg would eliminate for-profit charter schools, Senator Amy Klobuchar wants to eliminate the Electoral College, Joe Biden would eliminate private prisons and pay for infrastructure with increased taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and Michael Bloomberg, who has not yet appeared on a ballot but is surging in the polls, would outlaw assault weapons. Those positions are not necessarily unique to those candidates but have been emphasized by them during the campaign.

What differentiates any of them? What is their downside?

Buttigieg is likely the smartest of the bunch, a Rhodes scholar who speaks eight languages

On Tuesday, March 10, Michiganders will have our chance to choose. forgiveness of all current student tuition debt, a $15/hour national minimum wage, significant tax increases for wealthy individuals and corporations, legalization of marijuana, reduced defense spending, and conversion to all renewable energy by 2030 with the so-called Green New Deal.

The downside of the Sanders agenda, aside from the practical and political impossibilities of it, is cost. Estimates of the increased spending required are in the $3.5–$4 trillion a year range.

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Senator Elizabeth Warren supports most of the same ideas but has recently backed off slightly on the timing. Unlike Sanders, she seemed to have had an epiphany, realizing this could not all be done at once.

Still, her plan would also add trillions to the annual budget. More troubling for her is that Sanders has successfully pulled supporters from her camp to his. There might not be room for two candidates on the far left.

There is scant evidence, or none, that their positions represent the majority of Democratic voters though their supporters are certainly the loudest. And members of Congress elected in traditionally Republican districts or bright red states would be unable to enthusiastically support a platform their constituents do not.

Wandering back toward the middle is everyone else, and their platforms are all quite similar. All support a $15/hour minimum wage and an expansion of Medicare and/or the Affordable Care Act, while opposing oil and gas drilling on federal land and offshore.

Each would like to impose a carbon emission tax and support negotiated Medicare drug prices, citizenship for Dreamers (those brought here illegally as children), and the increase of corporate taxes — but not to 2017 levels (corporate taxes were at 35 percent, but President Trump and Congress lowered them to 21 percent.) They would reassess de-

and is a crisp debater. But he’s also the least experienced of the group, having served as mayor of South Bend, Indiana. More troubling for him, according to a recent Gallup poll: Only 75 percent of voters indicated they would be willing to vote for a gay candidate.

Klobuchar has been an effective senator representing Minnesota and excelled in the final New Hampshire debate, which moved her from a single-digit candidate to the upper tier. But her time as a prosecutor included a lot of tough-on-crime activity — recommending tougher sentences, like jail or prison, for non-violent misdemeanors, including truancy — that resonates far less positively in an era of criminal justice reform than it did in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, is self-financing his campaign and generously so. He is the strongest gun control advocate in the group and the only candidate who has actually taken steps to accomplish that. He has a track record administering a major economy and creating jobs. But his support for stop-and-frisk policies (he eventually disavowed them), which were eventually determined to be unconstitutional racial profiling, is a problem.

Biden is, by far, the most experienced candidate and the one most likely able to work on both sides of the political aisle. But his campaign has been a mess, and one or both of his feet too often end up in his mouth.

Moderate Democrats believe Sanders is unelectable in a general election and will cost the party their majority in the House as well as more Senate seats. Progressives believe they are the new wave of the party, dismissing moderates as “corporate Democrats.”

On Tuesday, March 10, Michiganders will have our chance to choose. If you’re a Democrat, picking the candidate who can beat Donald Trump should outweigh any philosophical differences.

Crime & Rescue SERIAL SHOPLIFTERS CHARGED Two Cadillac men face prison on felony shoplifting charges after police said they walked out of Blain’s Farm & Fleet with $1,200 worth of power tools they hadn’t paid for.

Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s deputies investigated after a loss-control officer called police Jan. 31.

Investigators zeroed in on two suspects: a 45-year-old Cadillac man with at least 20 past felony convictions, many of them for first-degree retail fraud, and a 42-year-old Cadillac man with at least eight past felony convictions, many of those for shoplifting.

The 42-year-old suspect was connected to the crime when a parole officer recognized a description of the man’s neck tattoo, according to the charges.

TWO ARRESTED FOR METH Police raided a house in Grawn after an undercover officer arranged, over social media, to buy methamphetamine from a man who lives there.

Traverse Narcotics Team officers executed a search warrant at a house on State Street, where they found 60 grams of meth, as well as Xanax bars (pill-sized Xanax tablets designed to be broken into quarters and taken individually), according to charges.

Police arrested two people at the house: 42-year-old Charles “Chuck” Culberston, on charges including possession with intent to deliver and maintaining a drug house, and Nicole Shamblin, a 36-year-old who returned home during the raid. She faces charges of possession of meth and a probation violation.

Child Protective Services was called to take care of a child who lived at the house.

by patrick sullivan psullivan@northernexpress.com

TEENS ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT A pair of teenagers attacked another teenager outside a Garfield Township home.

Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s deputies were called at 11am Feb. 17 to the home of a 17-year-old female who was being attacked by two 19-years-olds.

The 19-year-olds, a man and woman who live together in Long Lake Township, beat the younger teen, and the man pointed a silver handgun at her before the pair fled in a car.

After deputies spotted the suspects’ car at 8:30pm in Blair Township, they were arrested on assault with intent to commit great bodily harm charges. The handgun turned out to be a semiautomatic BB pistol.

COUPLE ACCUSED OF ATTEMPTED MURDER A man and woman were charged with attempted murder after they allegedly attempted to run a man over and then fired a weapon at him amid a dispute over drugs in Grayling.

Crawford County Sheriff’s deputies responded Feb. 15 after a man called 911 to report an assault and ask for medical attention.

The man told deputies that two people in a truck tried to run him over but got stuck. Then they chased him, firing a weapon at him as he fled. Inside the suspects’ vehicle, deputies found numerous weapons.

Deputies later arrested a man and a woman, both of whom face charges of attempted murder and carrying a concealed weapon.

TIMBER CO. OWNER CHARGED A timber company owner is accused of cheating landowners by lying about the number of trees he took from their properties.

Norman Kasubowski, 53, of Petoskey, was arrested by Michigan State Police Feb. 19 and charged in Otsego County with eight counts of embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000.

Each charge is punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine, or three times the amount embezzled, whichever is greater.

Kasubowski is the owner of two timber harvesting companies — Great Lakes Forest Products and Northern Timber Producers Inc. “Anyone who enters into a contract with the operator of a business should be treated fairly by that business — not cheated out of what’s rightfully theirs,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in a press release. “When Michigan companies fail in their obligation to tell the truth to their customers, they must answer for their actions.”

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HOUSE STRUCK BY VEHICLE An intersection at the bottom of a hill near the Glen Lake narrows, which is a frequent scene of car crashes, was the site of another car crash last week.

Leelanau County Sheriff’s deputies responded after a driver crashed into a house in Empire Township at 3:45pm Feb. 15. The crash occurred at the intersection of West Glenmere Road and Benzonia Trail.

The driver, a 27-year-old woman from Fenton, was heading north on Benzonia Trail when she lost control and slid through the intersection, crashing into a garage. No one was injured; the driver was cited for speeding.

SCRAPPER GUILTY OF MURDER A Crawford County jury found a downstate man guilty of first-degree murder, torture, and unlawful imprisonment.

Matthew Smith faces life in prison for the July 2018 death of 64-year-old Dennis Everson in Frederic.

Smith, 37, and 19-year-old Dylan Zielger were charged in Everson’s death; Ziegler pled guilty to lesser charges last year and agreed to cooperate with investigators.

The three worked together as metal scrappers.

Smith killed Everson after an evening of drinking at Everson’s Fredric home led to hostility between the two men; Ziegler abetted the crime, according to investigators.

Northern Express featured the case in last year’s March 16 edition. You can read it online at www.northernexpress.com.

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Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 7

FAIRNESS, OPPORTUNITY, AND COMPASSION opinion

bY Tom Gutowski Thirty-eight million Americans live in poverty. Those of us not among that number should stop lecturing these people about their values and start re-examining our own. The majority of poor who are able to work do so, but even with public assistance don’t make enough money to live what most of us would consider tolerable and reasonably secure lives.

The various anti-poverty programs do lots of good, but contrary to popular mythology, they don’t coddle the poor, and there are gaps. For example, food stamp benefits average about $1.40 per person per meal. Medicaid saves lives, but not all who need it qualify for it, and it doesn’t cover routine vision or dental for adults in many states. The Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit lift many families

countries, and advances in technology put a premium on technical education; those who don’t have it lose out. These explanations are true, but there’s much more to the story. Europe faces the same issues yet has substantially less inequality and more social mobility than the U.S. To understand why poor people are poor, it helps to look at why rich people are rich. It’s all one integrated system. There is no totally free market operating by natural law wherein all participants magically get what they deserve, be it wealth, misery or something in between.

Governments set and enforce the rules of the market, and corporations and wealthy individuals use their wealth and influence to bend those rules in their favor.

The various anti-poverty programs do lots of good, but contrary to popular mythology, they don’t coddle the poor, and there are gaps. For example, food stamp benefits average about $1.40 per person per meal. with children out of poverty, but benefits are less generous for those without children, and one out of five people who qualify for the EITC don’t claim it.

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Many of the poor — and some of those above the poverty level — are one hiccup away from homelessness. An illness or injury, a fire, getting one’s car towed, losing a job, even a roommate losing a job, can spell disaster. Huge numbers of Americans report skipping recommended medical tests or treatments due to the cost. Diabetics have died while trying to ration insulin. Thirtyseven million Americans are “food insecure.”

A half-million people sleep on the street or in shelters every night; many of these people are employed but still can’t afford housing. Over 100,000 school children are “unsheltered homeless.” The suicide rate has risen by 40 percent in less than two decades, with blue collar workers and veterans the most heavily affected.

This situation is unacceptable. Even Adam Smith, the darling of those who worship at the altar of free markets and who often blame the poor for their plight, said as much in his classic book “The Wealth Of Nations”: “It is but equity … that they who feed, cloath [sic], and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, cloathed and lodged.”

That’s why drug prices are so high, why the minimum wage hasn’t been raised in years, and why there’s always money for corporate welfare or another war but not for universal healthcare. It’s why workers’ bargaining power and voice in corporate governance has severely declined. It’s why big agribusiness thrives while family farms go bankrupt. It explains the succession of massive tax cuts for corporations and the rich. It’s why some putatively not-for-profit charter schools generate huge profits for the companies that run them, at taxpayers’ expense. It’s why the “surprise medical bill” problem hasn’t been fixed. And it’s one of the reasons immigration laws are enforced against undocumented immigrants but rarely enforced against companies that hire undocumented immigrants.

These sorts of things make it harder for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder to pull themselves out of poverty. Of course, individual initiative is extremely important, but so is the tilt of the playing field and the quality of the officiating. We’ll never have, and ought never have, absolute economic equality. Successful innovators and risk takers deserve to reap financial rewards. But they also have an ethical obligation to pay a living wage, pay their share of taxes, and not use their wealth to seek unfair advantages over competitors or customers.

At the other end of the spectrum, the richest 1 percent of Americans own as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. In 2018, 60 of the nation’s largest companies paid zero federal income tax on $79 billion in profits. Wall Street bonuses that year totaled $27.5 billion.

The ousted head of Boeing, who presided over the 737Max fiasco, got $62 million in various benefits on his way out the door.

Instead of giving more money to the rich in the hopes that some of it will “trickle down,” we should rededicate ourselves to creating an economy characterized by fairness, opportunity, and compassion. The more energy we put into that, the less we have to invest in mitigating the effects of extreme inequality. Think of it not as a redistribution of wealth but as a redistribution of opportunity.

Or maybe just common decency.

Why the extreme gap between rich and poor? Other than the “poor people are lazy” explanation, the two most often cited reasons are globalization and technological change.

Globalization forces American workers to compete against lower paid workers in other

Tom Gutowski holds bachelor degrees in economics and history, and a masters and a PhD in history. He retired from the insurance industry a few years ago. A suggestion for further reading about poverty and its causes: “Tightrope” by Nichlos Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

From Bad to Worse A well-meaning neighbor’s attempt to save his friend from a dog attack went south on Feb. 5 in Adams, Massachusetts. Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington told the Associated Press the neighbor heard yelling shortly after noon and discovered his friend being attacked by his own dog and his girlfriend’s dog. The good Samaritan returned to his apartment, got the crossbow he used for hunting and fired it up a stairwell at one of the dogs. But the bolt glanced off the dog and went through the door into the apartment where it struck and killed the victim. Harrington said the dogs had a history of aggression and were usually kept in separate kennels. She described the man as “very distraught” and did not expect criminal charges to be filed. Officers responding to the scene shot both dogs.

Prespective Juan Zamora, 63, of Kissimmee, Florida, needed directions on Feb. 8 and flashed his headlights at a Marion County Sheriff ’s squad car to ask for help, the Ocala StarBanner reported. Deputy Calvin Batts obliged, but during the conversation, he noticed Zamora smelled like alcohol and was unsteady on his feet, according to the arrest report. Zamora then resisted Batts’ request to take a breath test, saying, “You didn’t pull me over. I pulled you over,” and told the officer he is “legally disabled,” which would account for his instability. However, it wouldn’t explain the bag of white powder found in Zamora’s shirt pocket, which fieldtested positive for cocaine, according to the report. Batts also reported finding a twothirds-full bottle of Canadian whiskey and a 15-year-old passenger in the vehicle. Zamora was arrested and charged with DUI and possession of cocaine.

Police Report Shareeka Strawn, 28, must have panicked when the car she was riding in was pulled over by police in Wichita Falls, Texas, on Jan. 15 for a minor traffic violation.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Strawn, who had several outstanding warrants, identified herself as Porshala Strawn, but was apparently unaware that a records check revealed Porshala also had an outstanding warrant. The Times Record News reported Shareeka was arrested and is facing a number of charges, including allegedly giving a false name.

What’s in a Name?

A former employee of a finance firm is behind bars in Macon County, Tennessee, after allegedly stealing $51,000 in customer loan payments, WATE reported. Serena Swindle, 41, was arrested on Feb. 5 after a yearlong investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. She was held on $3,500 bond at the Macon County Jail.

Bright Idea Ryan Sentelle State, 37, has been arrested in Salt Lake City after police said he admitted using mice and hamsters to get free hotel rooms. KUTV reported on Jan. 30 that authorities allege State would release the rodents in a hotel room, then complain about them, prompting hotel workers to offer the room for free. State faces charges of theft by deception and criminal mischief.

Chutzpah!

On Dec. 19, five prisoners in Belgium’s Turnhout Prison escaped by climbing over a wall and jumping into a getaway car waiting nearby, Newsweek reported.

Four of the men were captured within a few weeks, but officials failed to track down Oualid Sekkaki, 26, who was serving time for drug possession. Sekkaki added insult to injury when a letter arrived at the prison on Jan. 20. Inside was Sekkaki’s prison badge and a card saying “Greetings from Thailand.” Sekkaki, who hails from an infamous Moroccan prison-escaping family, is still at large.

Awesome!

Residents of an apartment building in Kerala, India, were surprised on Feb. 3 when a pungent mixture of beer, brandy and rum began flowing from their faucets instead of water. Officials told the BBC that about 6,000 liters of alcohol confiscated on court orders had been buried in a pit nearby, but it seeped through the soil into the well used as a water source for the building. “The children couldn’t go to school, and even their parents couldn’t go to work,” Joshy Malyiekkal, the building owner, said.

Sweet Revenge Housepainter Dean Reeves of Bolsover, England, came to a slow realization that his client, Terry Taylor, was never going to pay him the rest of what he says he is owed for painting Taylor’s building. So in January, Reeves took his complaint public and painted a graffiti message on the building’s exterior: “Want your house painting? Don’t be like Terry. Pay the bill! Now you will!”

According to Oddity Central, Reeves said Taylor “changed the job, kept asking me to do extra work. ... He kept saying, ‘I’ll pay you tomorrow,’ but tomorrow never came.” For his part, Taylor denies Reeves’ accusations and is threatening to press criminal charges.

Government in Action The Washington, D.C., Metro has spent five years and $3.8 million building two stillunfinished bike racks at two of its stations, WJLA reported on Feb. 12. The original budget for the two covered racks, which each will house 92 bikes, was $600,000 apiece.

“Quality control issues with contractors can take time to sort out,” the Metro said in a statement, “but Metro determined it was important to get the project done right rather than get it done quickly.” It hopes the projects, first set to be completed in December of 2015, will be finished in the next few months.

Giovanni Palmiero, 101, has been living in the United Kingdom since 1966, so logically, he applied to remain there after Brexit. Alarmingly, the Home Office demanded that Palmiero’s parents confirm his identity and accompany him to an office in north London to make his application. Dimitri Scarlato, a volunteer helping Palmiero, immediately realized the computer had read his birth year as 2019 instead of 1919. “I phoned the Home Office and it took two calls and a half an hour for them to understand,” Scarlato told The Guardian. Palmiero has been married to his 92-year-old wife, Lucia, for 75 years. They will be able to remain in the U.K.

Our February Patient of the Month is Ivy Coe for great oral hygiene and good cooperation throughout treatment!

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Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 9

NEIGHBORS FIGHT GRAVEL THREAT

Just as opponents of a proposed gravel mine in Benzie County’s Inland Township started to believe they might prevail, Senate Bill 431 was introduced, a measure that would tip the scales in favor of the aggregate industry, making gravel pits possible throughout the region, no matter what neighboring property owners want.

By Patrick Sullivan Little did Jim Brouwer know when he opened his mail one day last August that a the legal notice he held in his hand would virtually take over his life in the coming months, sending him door to door to warn neighbors and to enlist others to join his cause.

When Brouwer and his wife, Carol, had retired to 25 acres of rolling, wildlife-filled forest off of a dirt road in the middle of Benzie County in 2007, the couple had no idea that someone could start a gravel pit mine next door.

“I looked at [the legal notice], and my wife looked at it, and we kind of thought, ‘What do we do now?’” he said. “We purchased here, as did a lot of other people, because we like the nature, the peace and quiet, and so forth.”

Andrea Struble, a Michigan native now living in Texas, had just months earlier bought 25 acres next to the Brouwers, intending to build a summer cottage there.

She suffered the same shocked reaction to the

notice, which was sent to property owners within 300 feet of the proposed mine.

“I bought this property because it was zoned rural-residential, and it has always been zoned rural-residential,” Struble said.

“I definitively had the carpet pulled out from under me.”

A bigger shock was yet to come, however.

As the neighbors set out to fight the gravel pit, Brouwer and Struble said they soon realized that the law was stacked against them, but in doing so discovered something else: They had a chance to stop it.

That is, they thought they did — until they learned about Senate Bill 431, introduced last August. That proposed legislation, currently pending in Lansing, could make it virtually impossible for anyone in Michigan to prevent a gravel pit going in next door to their home.

BUILDING A CASE AGAINST A PIT After receiving the notice, Brouwer went door to door around his rural neighborhood and collected 278 signatures opposing the

10 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

gravel pit. It would be a symbolic petition that he would submit to the township’s planning commission.

Even under current Michigan law, the people who live nearby don’t get to vote yea or nay over whether a gravel pit should be allowed in their midst. It’s up to township officials to decide whether to issue a special use permit, and they’ve got to consider whether there is a need for gravel and whether that need outweighs the adverse effects the operation could have for neighboring property owners.

Brouwer, who has since become the president of Friends of the Platte River Watershed, a group created to oppose the gravel pit, argues that the impacts of the proposed gravel mine would be severe, while the need for the mine is questionable.

For example, Brouwer questions that there is a need for more gravel in northern Lower Michigan. Indeed, he said, there have been studies that show this part of the state is sitting on decades of gravel supply.

He has compiled a list of adverse effects

and has submitted reports to planning commissioners on the impact a gravel pit can have on neighboring property values and on the negative health impacts of silica dust, a byproduct of gravel mining that can make air quality conditions dangerous and cause breathing problems for people who live nearby.

Proponents of S.B. 431 decry these kinds of tactics as a means to cause delays, but Brouwer and the Friends group believe they’ve raised some critical issues that need to be considered before a permit is issued.

Brouwer said he believes he’s developed a good case against the gravel pit, albeit one that would be irrelevant if S.B. 431 passed.

“As we started looking into it, we said, ‘Jeez, [the proposed pit is] 2,000 feet from the Platte River, it’s a mile north of the state fish hatchery, we don’t know what the water runoff is going to be,’” Brouwer said. “This guy [the applicant, Alan Leman of Traverse City] has continually not provided enough detail to make anyone that is seriously familiar with mining say, A) that he knows what he is doing, or, B) can express what he wants to do.”

Opponents of the Benzie County gravel mine fear heavy truck traffic turning out of this partially blind intersection.

Despite multiple attempts, Northern Express was unable to reach Leman for comment.

“VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES” Brouwer’s property abuts the southern edge of the proposed gravel pit property, and his house is within 300 feet of where mining activity would take place, he said. Struble is to the west of Brouwer. The gravel pit would be bordered on the west by the Pere Marquette State Forest and on the east and north by a handful of private neighbors and more state land.

In addition to noise and reduced property values, the Friends worry about pollution. The Leman gravel pit would sit on a plateau high above the Platte River; opponents worry about the consequences of surface water runoff and groundwater migration from the site.

Brouwer said that he and other volunteers knocked on 150 to 200 doors in the surrounding area, and the sentiment was overwhelmingly against the gravel mine.

“Literally, there’s a handful of people, four, maybe five, who said, ‘Well, it’s his [Leman’s] property. If he wants to do that, that’s fine.’

And this was before we understood all the issues,” Brouwer said.

In August and September, the joint planning commission for Inland and Homestead townships took up the special use permit request at two meetings. Brouwer said there was a standing-room-only crowd of neighbors who opposed the gravel pitwaiting in line to speak against it at each meeting — a turnout that perhaps caught planning commissioners and Leman off guard.

“As the chair of the commission said, usually no one shows up, or if there is somebody, if there’s an application, there are two, three, four people that are involved in that,” he said. “They’ve been kind of stunned by this whole thing.”

Over the course of those and several other meetings, planning commissioners have requested more information about environmental and property value impacts, and the application has languished.

Struble, who grew up in Gratiot County downstate, said she always wanted to have a place Up North, and she thought she’d

found the perfect location, but if the gravel pit is allowed to go in, she said she’s going to findsomeplace else to build her cottage.

Struble, a television commercial producer, can afford to build her cabin elsewhere. She said she wouldn’t even consider taking the chance of exposing herself to silica dust from a gravel mine. She said she’s worried about her neighbors who won’t be able to afford to move.

“I don’t need to get COPD; I can go someplace else,” she said. “I really worry about my neighbors. Some people are effectively going to be trapped.”

LESSON FROM KASSON TOWNSHIP There is perhaps no one in the state of Michigan more familiar with the tension between the economy’s demand for gravel and the property rights of people who live near proposed gravel pits than Greg Julian, supervisor of Kasson Township in Leelanau County, a dozen miles north of Leman’s proposed gravel mine.

Beginning in the 1980s, gravel-rich Kasson Township saw skirmishes erupt between gravel companies and the people who lived near proposed gravel sites.

Those conflicts led to years of lawsuits and, ultimately, the creation of a “gravel district” in Kasson Township, a measure that afforded gravel companies five square miles of territory and reassured township residents living outside of the district that their peace and quiet would be protected.

“The citizens said, ‘Enough is enough, we don’t want to have these battles,’” Julian said.

That wouldn’t be the end of it, however. All along, gravel company interests, represented by the Michigan Aggregate Association, have fought to stretch or disband the district.

Opponents have challenged it with lawsuits and legislation. Throughout the years, repeated court decisions — including an opinion written by the Michigan Supreme Court — have upheld the legality of the gravel district.

Today, however, S.B. 431 represents the latest, and perhaps most dangerous, threat to the gravel district yet.

Julian said he believes S.B. 432 is illconceived and unnecessary. He said that the Kasson gravel district holds enough gravel to supply the five-county area for 75 years, and

there is no need to expand it. He has testified before the state Senate against S.B. 431, warning of the “land-use instability” that would result, and the strife that comes with it.

“I recall one family with small children who purchased a home without knowing that a gravel mine was going to commence operating within a few hundred feet of their home,” Julian told the senators in January. “The family later found the home unlivable because of its proximity to mining and sued their real estate company to buy the home back.”

Julian is frustrated that the legislation now under consideration in Lansing could undo all those years of struggle and the many court decisions that have been made to protect people and their property from aggregate industry creep.

“We defended our line, our boundary all the way to the [state] Supreme Court,” he said.

“The current legislation would eliminate those provisions that we use to defend our gravel district and, essentially, it would eliminate our boundaries. … People have banked their lifesavings on homes and businesses to live in the community, knowing that that boundary is there.”

The law would also eliminate the local government’s ability to regulate a gravel pit, which Julian said he believes is also shortsighted. No two gravel pits are the same, due to topographical features and how they’re situated among neighboring properties. It takes someone at the local level, with local expertise, to adequately regulate something like that, he said.

S.B. 431 might be quietly making its way through the legislature without much fanfare, but there are already signs of what its implications could be for Leelanau County: A 40-acre lot on Coleman Road, just outside of the gravel district, was recently clear-cut, apparently in anticipation of being able to open a gravel pit there once the law passes.

“It disturbs me,” Julian said. “Gravel extraction and gravel mining is not a light activity. It’s intrusive — there’s noise, there’s dust, there’s truck traffic, there’s vibrations from the equipment operating. There is only so much of that a community should have to tolerate.”

CRITICAL NEED FOR GRAVEL? The gravel debate was turned on its head last June when the Detroit Free Press discovered that a 2016 Michigan Department of Transportation study, which reported a dire need for gravel in Michigan, was secretly influenced by the Michigan Aggregate Association. The MAA was somehow able to select the study’s author, define the scope of their work, and set out the expected findings.

Those revelations led the Michigan Township Association to release a statement against S.B. 431, noting that its backers justified the bill based on a flawed study.

The statement concludes: “While few would argue against the need to fix our roads, such efforts cannot be driven by manipulated data influenced by the very industry that seeks preferential treatment to profit from these unnecessary, unwarranted changes in state law.”

John Sellek, MAA spokesman, said that despite questions over how the study was conducted, its findings were true, and there is a need for more gravel in Michigan.

“The vast majority of our membership is struggling to meet demand,” Sellek said. “Local governments and others are struggling to make sure they have the right kind of material on hand.”

He said gravel should be considered a critical resource, and local governments should not be allowed to arbitrarily limit access to it.

“Local government and activists’ groups

have learned how to use the law to prevent all mines; local governments delay or drag out or limit things to make it impractical,” Sellek said. “If we can’t access the gravel we need, then our state is going to fall backwards economically. It’s not a luxury — it’s a necessity.”

Sellek said that gravel mining, unlike other industrial land uses, should not be limited to certain areas.

“You can zone where a manufacturing plant should be located a lot of times, but Mother Nature decided where the gravel is,” he said. “It doesn’t fit the normal mold of zoning.”

While it might sound like a niche issue unless you work in the industry or live near a gravel pit, Sellek said aggregate mining should be important to all residents of the state because we need sand and gravel to fix roads. If the gravel supply increases, he theorized, the cost of fixing the state’s dangerous roads and bridges will go down.

He added that gravel mines would still have to follow state and federal environmental rules governing air and water quality.

Sellek is optimistic that S.B. 431 will become law. He said the stories of people who are bothered by living too close to a gravel operation can be moving, but they obscure just how critical gravel is to the state’s economy.

“Having a home near a manufacturing site or a gravel mine or another entity crucial to our economy is an emotional thing,” Sellek said. “Sometimes the hard facts get tossed out the window.”

“TWO SIDES TO THE STORY” The proposed Senate bill could come up for a vote by the full Senate sometime this spring. If it passes, it will go to the House, where it will be taken up for debate by the House Transportation Committee, which happens to be chaired by Rep. Jack O’Malley, whose district includes Inland and Kasson townships.

Opponents of the Inland Township gravel pit invited O’Malley to a town hall meeting last year to discuss gravel, and S.B. 431 in particular.

Struble, who helped organize the event and traveled from Texas to attend, said she thought that O’Malley made it clear at that meeting that he was on the side of the gravel companies.

O’Malley said that’s not true. He said he takes a moderate stance on gravel mining, and if people thought he was on the side of the MAA, they were mistaken.

“They wanted me to come out against 431, and I said, ‘You gotta understand the process,” O’Malley said. “I didn’t feel that that was my place at that moment. … At the time, that bill hadn’t even been brought up.”

O’Malley said he does support the aggregate industry, and he believes there is a need for more access to gravel in the state, but he said he hopes that if legislation is crafted in the House, he and his fellow legislators will be able to come up with a compromise that will satisfy the industry, township officials, and citizens’ groups like Friends of the Platte River Watershed.

It’s unclear what that would look like, but O’Malley said he understands Kasson Township’s gravel saga and that he understands the fears Julian and others have of S.B. 431. He said a compromise would keep some local control intact.

“I’m trying to be the person that can help work this to a compromise, so it isn’t just one way. I think there’s a way to get to the middle so that everyone is okay,” O’Malley said. “What I tried to explain to those folks in Lake Ann, way back when, is that there are two sides to the story.”

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 11

“Because he’s the master, man. He’s the whole reason that I do this.”

For one night only, bluegrass prodigy Billy Strings is coming home, and this time, he’s bringing the musician who put his fingers in mind-blowing motion decades ago: his dad.

Billy Strings

By Craig Manning Five months ago, Billy Strings was standing on the stage of Colorado’s legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre, playing to nearly 10,000 bluegrass fans. On Friday, Feb. 28, he’ll stroll onto the stage at the City Opera House in Traverse City to play to a slightly smaller soldout crowd of 710 people. But where the Red Rocks show was a career highlight for Strings due to the sheer scope of the venue and the crowd, Friday evening’s show will be special for a different reason: It’s a two-hander, and his duet partner for the night is none other than his stepfather, noted Michigan bluegrass picker Terry Barber.

Strings, a 27-year-old rising bluegrass star, former Traverse Citian, and Michigan native, wanted to do something special for his home state this winter. Last fall, he released an album called Home, which topped the Billboard bluegrass chart. Following the Red Rocks show — an opening slot for veteran bluegrass band (and fellow Michiganders) Greensky Bluegrass — Strings and his band went on a marathon 11-week headlining tour in support of Home.

In the aftermath of a chaotic year, Strings wanted to get back to basics and play some shows with Barber, the man who introduced him to the music that would change his life and launch his career.

“It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” Strings told Northern Express.

“I grew up playing music with my dad, and he’s just an incredible musician. So I’ve always wanted to do some gigs with him — just me and him — and play all the songs that I grew up listening to. So I put this tour together. I told my agent, ‘Look, it would be awesome to do this, and to do it in Michigan, and I want to hit up Traverse City.’ And it worked out.”

For the tour, Strings and Barber are playing under the moniker of “Family Strings.” Unlike Strings’ last cross-country run of dates, this tour is a limited engagement: four dates only, across consecutive nights in Bay City,

Traverse City, Ionia, and Ann Arbor. All four shows sold out rapidly.

While Strings and Barber have performed side-by-side in the past, this tour marks the first time they’ve ever gone out on the road together. “We’ll see how Dad likes being on the road,” Strings says, when asked whether the tour might be extended to include additional cities or states. “Maybe we’ll do it again sometime.”

Where Red Rocks is a towering outdoor amphitheater known for its unique, picturesque beauty, Strings is looking forward to establishing an entirely different kind of atmosphere on the Family Strings tour. The average concert tour involves considerable rehearsal time, set-list planning, and other production design elements, but Strings says he and Barber have done none of the above in preparation for their brief jaunt across Michigan. Instead, he’s hoping for a spontaneous, off-the-cuff experience that will mirror his earliest music memories.

“I’ve played with my dad so much that I think the whole idea [for this tour] is just to get together onstage and have it be natural, as if we were sitting there in the living room,” Strings said. “That’s how I learned to play in the first.

We’d just play guitar around the house, in the living room or in Dad’s bedroom, or we’d hang out at this campground called Barkus Park [in Lyons, Michigan] and sit around the campfire and play music all night. So we’ll go onstage, we’ll sit down together, we’ll pick some tunes, and we’ll play some of those old songs that I just love so much and really cut my teeth on.

Because Dad sings them the best.”

“I’m not going to make my dad learn any of my tunes,” Strings added. “I’m just going to ask him what he wants to play and play along with him. Because he’s the master, man. He’s the whole reason that I do this.”

In addition to serving as a reunion with his dad and his musical roots, Strings says the Family Strings tour will also play another role: that of homecoming. While Strings grew up in the Ionia area, it was in Traverse

12 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

Terry Barber

City that he earned his bona-fides as a professional musician. He moved to the area after graduating from high school in 2011, eventually linking up with local mandolinist (and author of “Mandolin for Dummies”), Don Julin. For four years, the two — along with bassist Kevin Gills — worked together to carve out a northern Michigan niche for their bluegrass sound. Locals could catch Strings every Thursday night at Little Bohemia, or hear him play regularly at other area venues such as Union Street Station, Left Foot Charley, Inside Out Gallery, and even Horizon Books.

Then in 2016, Strings decided to bet on himself. He packed his bags and relocated to Nashville. Still, he considers Traverse City one of his true homes, as well as the launching point for his musical career.

“Traverse City is kind of where it started,” Strings said. “It’s where I got my start playing professionally, and it’s where I met this whole huge, wonderful, supportive community of people who encouraged me. I feel like those were the people who pushed me out on this little boat, and kind of shoved me off, and said ‘OK, go, Billy!’ I love all the folks there, and I can’t wait to come back and see them.”

For his part, Strings can hardly remember the last time he made his way up to northern Michigan for a visit. But he does have plenty of fond memories of his time in Traverse City, from hanging out on Front Street, picking the banjo for passersby, to spending beautiful days at West End Beach in the summer. “I miss Traverse City something fierce,” he says wistfully. “I haven’t been able to come back and play for those folks enough.”

In defense of Strings, he’s too in demand to belong to one town any longer. Since moving to Nashville, he’s earned writeups in Rolling Stone, shared the stage with noted artists ranging from bluegrass heavyweights The Infamous Stringdusters to country music superstar Dierks Bentley, and even earned an “Instrumentalist of the Year” award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. In 2019, the website Saving Country Music dubbed him “the best musician you will witness live in our generation.”

“It’s been everything I ever dreamed of, somehow coming true,” Strings said of his rise to fame. “Sometimes I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude, because I don’t know how I got so much love and so many amazing people supporting me. It blows me away.”

By Clark Miller Author and world traveler Peter Heller, who comes to the National Writers Series in Traverse City on March 5, has the singular ability to turn what he’s seen and heard into bestselling novels.

“The River,” his fourth work of fiction, tells the tale of two college friends, both seasoned outdoorsmen who canoe through a series of lakes and river rapids north toward Hudson Bay. The setting is based on a real-life trip Heller took years earlier on Canada’s Winisk River — a 200-mile, 18-day wilderness paddle.

Wynn and Jack are tested in ways they couldn’t have imagined. Early on, they hear — but because of dense fog, cannot see — a man and a woman arguing. Further downstream, they meet up with a couple of aggressive, wellarmed drunks who seem to be itching for a fight.

Man-made dangers aren’t the only challenge. Wynn and Jack realize that an immense wildfire is headed toward them.

From Jack’s experience growing up on a ranch in Colorado, he knows that a fire of that size can jump over creeks, even mid-sized rivers.

What was to be a long, quiet paddle suddenly turns into a race to survive. Just then, a lone paddler appears. It turns out to be the husband they heard arguing. He is distraught. He says his wife has gone missing.

Northern Express interviewed Heller about “The River.”

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Express: What was your reaction then?

Heller: I was just in my teens, but I knew he was lying. I thought— this SOB killed his wife.

I forgot about the whole thing until I started writing “The River.”

Express: Your many magazine articles make it clear that you’ve paddled in dangerous waters on pretty much every continent. Is it fair to ask why?

Heller: I’ve had my head cracked, been pushed up against a boulder in big rapids many times. And every time I thought, This is it!

Things like that hone your appreciation for life.

Express: So rivers are good teachers?

Heller: Near-death experiences show how pitiless nature can be. But it also makes us feel so alive, free. That’s because in our dayto-day lives, so much of our environment is controlled. Nature will always surprise us, make us feel small. And in that smallness, we suddenly feel unburdened. We see that we don’t have to be at the top of the food chain.

We see things greater than ourselves. We become citizens of the universe, open to the deepest of connections.

Express: Your novels — “The Dog Stars,” “The Painter”, and “Celine”, — have been well received. Give me a sense of how you work.

Heller: I start writing by concentrating on the first line.

Express: You have a good one in “The River” — “They had been smelling smoke for two days.”

IN CLINCH PARK JuLIA LOuIS-DREYfuS WILL fERRELL

Express: Besides the setting, what story lines were drawn from experience?

Heller: Forty years ago, when I was 17, attending boarding school in Vermont, I went to a party. There was an older guy there, standing in the corner, not talking. I’d describe him as charismatic and sad. He was probably in his late 20s. I’d been told he made his living in a canoe. That interested me. So I talked to him. He said he and his wife were geochemists, and their work included long expeditions on remote rivers. On the last trip, his wife had gone missing, he explained. There was no sign of bear attack. She needed to pee, he said. She walked over a berm and just disappeared. He said he looked for three days but never found her.

TRAVERSE CITY

Wild Rivers, Wildfires, and Disappearing Wives The wild imagination of author Peter Heller

SUNDAY 1 • 3:15 • 5:30 • 7:30 PM MONDAY 2:30 • 5 • 7:30 PM TUE & WED 2 • 4:15 • 6:30 • 8:30 PM THURSDAY 2 • 4:15 • 6:30 • 8:45 PM 231-947-4800

Heller: I don’t plot it out if I can help it. You discover stuff that way … things that flutter out of the universe and land on your keyboard.

I don’t spend a lot of time in libraries. I want to travel, be immersed, be transported, stay in the story. I am like a whale. I collect stuff, then sift through it. On one level, I live my life. On another one, I get to live it again, recreate it. I love the art of creating.

Express: Wild rivers seem like anything but a static stage.

Heller: I’ve always thought of my narrative as a river. You don’t know what’s up ahead. It could be a waterfall. Or a cougar. I like letting it rip. I usually wind up with what’s in my heart.

Express: Your description of the wildfire in “The River” was riveting — the smoke, the explosions, flames jumping rivers. So full of detail. Did you draw on personal experience?

Heller: I was living in Colorado in 1994, the year of the Glenwood Springs Fire. I looked down the valley, saw dark smoke at a friend’s house, and threw a chainsaw in my truck. By the time I got there, maybe a half-dozen guys were cutting trees to control the fire. Then suddenly a gust of wind came. Trees began exploding. Ninety seconds later, the slope was all flames. We barely managed to get out of there in time. I’d never written about this.

It was terrifying experience ... the kind that makes a deep impression.

Express: The two main characters, Jack and Wynn, are best friends. They have many similarities. But they also have their differences.

Heller: They’re both tough and really game.

They’re happiest out in the wild country. They love books of all kinds and can talk about them endlessly. Wynn is based on a friend of mine,

TRAVERSE CITY

231-929-3200 • 4952 Skyview Ct. [Vermont artist] Jay Mead, a gentle giant.

You can’t keep up with him in the woods.

Like Mead, Wynn also expects the best of everybody. On the other hand, Jack shares a worldview with me — he’s a bit more wary of people. He shoots first and ask questions later.

I love that dynamic.

TICKETS The March 5 event starts at 7pm at the City Opera House in Traverse City. Doors open at 6pm. For tickets, go to www.cityoperahouse.org; call (231) 941-8082, ext. 201, Monday–Friday; or visit the City Opera House box office at 106 E. Front St.

CHARLEVOIX

231-237-0955 • 106 E. Garfield Ave.

www.schulzortho.com

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 13

Veronica James, co-owner of AllWell Natural Health in Gaylord, shows off a bottle of kratom. (Photo courtesy of Todd VanSickle)

THE KRATOM

EFFECT Beneficial or dangerous? Addictive or not? Or an opiateaddicted person’s best hope? Northern Express’ Todd VanSickle interviews users, a seller, and police about the potent green powder that’s illegal in six states and part of pending legislation in 12 — including Michigan — then tries the stuff himself.

14 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

By Todd VanSickle Ron Porritt remembers waking up in January 2017 with a sheriff ’s deputy standing over him. He had overdosed on heroin, and a friend had called the police. It was at that moment he realized his life needed to change.

Porritt’s addiction to opiates began after a series of back surgeries.

He was prescribed Percocet and various versions of Hydrocodone.

He spent most of the 1990s and 2000s on opiate medications, and when doctors started cutting back on his prescriptions, he turned to heroin.

“I got into legal trouble. I lost my marriage. I lost everything,” Porritt said. “I wanted to get my life back.”

He went through a detox program and managed to stay off the opiates but found himself in pain from his arthritis and still struggled with his urges for opiates.

“I was willing to try anything,” Porritt said.

In March 2019 he found something that gave him relief and helped him take back control of his life, he said: kratom.

He had read about kratom on the internet and decided one day to stop at AllWell Natural Health store in Gaylord, where he had seen it advertised.

Now, he buys 250 grams of kratom each week. He takes it twice a day by mixing it with his tea in the morning and in the afternoon.

“It is not the first thing I tried; it is the best thing I tried,” Porritt said.

Porritt, who is in his 50s and lives in Otsego County, says kratom has given him more energy during the day, and he is able to sleep better at night “I can’t say it is all the kratom, but it has helped get my life back.

I can actually function like a person should function. I started using it because I was desperate to find something else than opiate medication,” he said.

SOURCE & EFFECT Kratom comes from a tree, Mitragyna Speciosa, that grows in tropical regions of Southeast Asia. It is a cousin of the region’s coffee plants. Traditionally, its leaves and extracts have been used within the tree’s home countries for what is thought to be its medicinal properties — to increase energy and appetite, for intestinal deworming, and as a mood enhancer and pain reliever. Most commonly today, its leaves are harvested and turned into a powder that can be ingested as is, or in a capsule.

According to the American Kratom Association, about five million Americans consume kratom.

In recent years, as the opioid crisis has ballooned, kratom has grown in popularity as an alternative to opiates. Former addicts say kratom helps stave off withdrawal symptoms, which, ultimately, keeps them drug-free.

However, kratom is not tested or approved by the FDA, and some question its consistency and effects on the user. Additionally, there have been reports of deaths linked to kratom.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 2019 study found kratom was the cause of 91 deaths during a 17-month period. However, about 80 percent of those who died had other substances in their system, including fentanyl, heroin, benzodiazepines, prescription opioids, and cocaine.

The Drug Enforcement Administration lists kratom as a drug of concern, but in 2016 dropped a plan to classify it as a controlled substance.

From 2011 through 2017, 1,807 kratom exposures were reported to the United States Poison Control Centers. Almost 65 percent of the exposures occurred in 2016 and 2017. Most occurred among adults older than 20 years old.

“Kratom is associated with a variety of serious medical outcomes, especially when used with other substances,” according to a report by the Poison Center Research. “More research is needed to define the human response to kratom. Increased regulation of kratom products would help guarantee product quality and safety.

Individuals who choose to use kratom should be educated about its potential risks, including the dangers of using it in combination with other substances.”

THE ADDICTION ISSUE There are three main strains of kratom — white, red, and green — that have different effects on the user and vary in potency. The white strain is considered to be the strongest, with a mild stimulant effect. The strains are determined by how the leaves are processed and prepared.

Porritt said he gets the opposite desired effect from the kratom that he uses. For example, if the kratom is known for its stimulant effect, it usually puts him to sleep. And the same is true for kratom that produces a sedative effect, which he said gives him more energy.

Prior to taking kratom, Porritt struggled to put in six hours of work a day.

“I was just dragging, and I hurt,” said Porritt, who works as a general labor and now uses CBD oil as well. “I tried kratom, and it was like it brought me back to when I was 20.”

Porritt said he has gone for four or five days without any kratom and hasn’t felt sick or experienced any side effects.

“I don’t know if it is addictive or not, but it works,” Porritt said.

“You can’t have a cookie cutter approach for this addiction problem we have. There are many different paths. This works for me, but this might not work for the next person. If it is able to help one person,

or five percent of the people who might end up in the ground, why would they take something like that away?”

However, kratom didn’t work for Steve, 33, whose name has been changed to protect his identity.

“In the beginning it worked great,” he said.

“I am very active. I run, and I work out. It gave me a lot of energy for that, and the muscle soreness wasn’t there.”

Steve first started taking kratom in December 2018. The avid runner was seeking out a pain reliever alternative to Ibuprofen for an injury he sustained while working out. He turned to the internet and found kratom, but the results were mixed.

“There were some things that were bad from the Mayo Clinic, but then there was this guy who was a writer from Forbes, and most of the things he wrote were positive,” Steve said. “I thought it must be relatively harmless if it’s still legal.”

He started taking it once a week in a tea, but couldn’t tolerate the taste, so he went to the toss-and-wash method, which involves gulping down a spoonful of kratom with a mouthful of water.

“The first time I took it, I was surprised how effective it was with pain, and it got me a little high, like Vicodin,” Steve said, noting he does not have an opiate addiction.

In the back of his mind he worried about becoming addicted, so he initially limited his use and purposefully took breaks that lasted days. He admits to having past addiction issues, especially with alcohol, but he had been sober for about three years prior to taking kratom. Nevertheless, because the high from the kratom made him feel like he was violating his sobriety, he hid his use from his wife.

He remembers taking kratom for about a week straight, and then going on vacation and not having it.

“I started noticing I couldn’t sleep very well. I was agitated, and I didn’t have any energy without it,” Steve said.

When he returned from vacation, he began taking it every day for about two weeks straight.

“I tried to stop, but the withdrawals were hell at that point,” Steve said, who was using between nine and 12 grams a day.

“There was this aching pain that spread all over my legs — not just in my muscles but it was in every inch of my bones too. There was also this very uncomfortable and painful skincrawling and tingling sensation all over my body. I had extreme swings in body temperature, especially at night, and would get cold sweats. I could only sleep for about four hours a night, and that was interrupted every hour or so.

“I was also having extreme anxiety and depression, and I felt like I was never going to be normal again. I would get these waves of emotions that would just hit me, and I’d freak out and just want to start my life over. There was also an extreme lethargy that made easy tasks seem insurmountable — like taking the trash out or trying to remember a password just seemed impossible.”

Ultimately, the withdrawls were such a hindrance, Steve said he felt he had no choice but to go back to taking kratom for the sake of his job and family.

“I was so afraid I was going to have to miss work, or basically just drop all my responsibilities of being a husband and a father.”

Steve began working to taper down his usage to ease off the Kratom over the course of serveral weeks. By Christmas day, he had quit, cold turkey.

However, the day after quitting, he began having heart palpitations. The withdrawl symptoms not only returned but also — the heart palpitations and anxiety especially — got worse.

“I had to be hospitalized,” he said. “I thought I was going to die from quitting cold turkey like that.”

Today, more than two months later, Steve remains free of kratom but not of withdrawl symptoms. He said the lethargy still lingers a bit.

LEGAL ISSUES Kratom typically does not show up on a drug test, according to Michigan State Police

Lieutenant Travis House.

“It has to be something that has to be specifically tested for,” House said. “Since kratom isn’t illegal [in Michigan], it would have to be something a probation officer or employer would require.”

Kratom is somewhat new for Lieutenant House. About a year ago, he did some research into kratom when a journalist asked him about it. He said kratom is not considered contraband, and he can’t recall any incidents involving kratom where the Michigan State Police responded.

“The truth is, our narcotics officers aren’t dealing with plant-based substances like that very often anymore because of the legalization of marijuana,” House said. “What people should know is that it has not been approved as an FDA drug or food item. There is some inherent risk of the use of a product that hasn’t been approved. People should be cautious putting anything in their body that has not been vetted by officials.”

A request to speak to a doctor at Munson Medical Center about kratom was declined.

“Since Kratom is not something we deal with at the hospital, and it’s not part of our formulary, we would not have anything to offer,” said a Munson representative in an email.

TREATMENT TOOL Adam DeVaney is a licensed clinical social worker at Life’s Work, a behavioral health and opioid-addiction medicine clinic in Kalkaska.

The facility has only been open for about nine months, but is seeing some success.

“We help a lot of different people who have a lot of different struggles,” DeVaney said. “We are finding that Kalkaska has a lot more heroin and intravenous use than Traverse City.”

Often, patients are already using kratom prior to coming to the clinic for Buprenorphine — a pharmaceutical drug used to wean addicts off opiates.

“Many of the patients found [kratom] does help,” DeVaney said. “But it is a lot less stable than Suboxone or other types of drugs like that. A lot of patients use it to tamp down their withdrawals from opiates.”

He warns that the consistency in kratom can be very unreliable, and people should research which strain of kratom is best for them before taking it. Additionally, he suggests taking smaller doses at first.

DeVaney has another warning; “From one bag to another, kratom can be quite different.

The challenge with a plant-based product that is grown from the same strain of kratom overseas, in the same field, produces a different result every year. It is not as consistent as a pharmaceutical, but many people feel that it is more affordable and more accessible than medical assisted treatment for opioid abuse and disorders.”

DeVaney doesn’t discourage anyone from using kratom but said a successful recovery often requires a team of professionals that are looking out for them and can address behavioral issues.

“One of the challenges of people medicating themselves is that there is nobody there to help with course correction, support ,and advice,” DeVaney said. “There are many different approaches to recovery. For some, a product like kratom will get them through the worst of it and maintain them.”

INCONSISTENCY Kratom can easily be found on the internet and ordered with ease. A quick search on Google produced several websites offering kratom for sale and free shipping. On average, one ounce of the green powder goes for about $10. An additional search lists more than 10 places in Traverse City that carry the product.

On several occasions, Steve noticed inconsistency in the kratom he bought. For the most part, he only bought it from a head shop in Traverse City. He described it as “very powerful” and was unsure if he was taking an extract.

“The place I got it in town is kind of shady,” Steve said. “He buys it wholesale and then puts it into unlabeled packaging. So, I don’t know what it exactly was. Maybe, that nine to 12 grams I was taking was equivalent to a lot more.”

Not having any guidance or information about how to take it worried Steve.

“So I called the [head shop] and asked them, and he told me that he couldn’t tell me that, and I would have to look it up on the internet,” Steve said. “I don’t know why he couldn’t tell me how to take it. I guess to protect himself if I did overdose.”

He did get receive some basic information about the different strains and effects, but it was limited. He also tried buying kratom from a different source but was disappointed.

“I got it from somewhere else one other time, and it was bogus,” Steve said.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE At AllWell Natural Health, where Porritt was introduced to kratom, Veronica James, co-owner, sits behind a desk in front of a wall lined with shelves of kratom, CBD, and other health supplement products.

When customers come through the door, James greets them in her friendly Texan accent.

“Hi honey, how can I help you?” she says.

She has extensive knowledgeable about kratom and good bedside manner, something that impressed Porritt the first time he met her, whom he refers to as Ms. V. “I think she cared more about my wellbeing and listened to me more than any doctor ever had,” Porritt said.

The health store has been open for about six years and has carried kratom for five years.

On AllWell Natural Health’s website, a red banner across the top of the site proclaims that the store’s products are “All 3rd Party Tested!”

Before James began selling kratom at her store, she tried different strains in the capsule form to see if the effects were accurate to the information that was available.

“We learn from the information that is out there, and we share it with others. It is very beneficial,” James said. “We also learned about how to get the best vendors. That is very important.”

She doesn’t advise people what kratom to take or how to take it, but gives customers information that she knows to be accurate about the strains, and then leaves the customer to make his or her own decision.

“What makes us unique from most people who sell kratom is that we offer guidance,” James said. “We can do the same for you.”

I had never tried kratom, but thought this would be a good place to start. I opted for something that gives me more energy and selected a strain called White Horn. It was in an orange medicine bottle sporting an AllWell Natural Health label. There were no instructions or warnings on the label.

For 10 days straight I mixed a teaspoon into my morning coffee. The bitter green powder masked the coffee’s flavor and rendered my cup of Joe into something that tasted like a green tea you would drink at a Chinese Buffet. Beginners tip: Stir it constantly, or you will end up with a glob of green sludge at the bottom of the cup.

The effects were immediately noticeable. I felt a boost of energy. It was a different feeling than I normally would have had after drinking coffee. I wasn’t jittery or nauseous. So, every morning I continued the routine, eventually upping my dosage to two teaspoons per cup.

Early one evening, a few hours before bedtime, I drank some kratom with a cup of dandelion tea. I had trouble falling sleeping, but this was to be expected with the white strain of kratom, which is known for its stimulant effects. The only other noticeable side effect was a loss of appetite. I didn’t feel hungry and had to remind myself to eat.

A little more than a week after meeting James, she sent an email checking up on me.

“Howdy Todd, I hope you don’t mind if I follow up on your personal experience with the Kratom you took to try,” she wrote. “Would always like to hear from those new to kratom in particular. The information may help me with the next person new to kratom.”

I replied and told her about my experience and Steve’s. She responded quickly.

“It has stimulation appeal,” James wrote.

“Since it is stimulating the same cell receptors

opioids stimulate, a person can wean off said opioid a lot easier. [There is] less body discomfort when taking the kratom tea.

Unlike coffee, it doesn’t offer the eye popping or shaking hands symptoms. However, it can be noticed when the stimulation is absent.

Stimulation can have many feeling an “up” sensation and improved energy level. And what goes up, can make you feel down when absent.”

As I write, I haven’t had any kratom in about three days and haven’t had any withdrawals or cravings. And I am happy to report that my coffee tastes like coffee and not like green tea.

Dispelling misinformation is imperative for James, who said people can’t overdose on kratom and that it has no addictive properties.

“Kratom does not have any addictive properties,” James said in the email. “However, customers sometimes are aware or reminded that kratom comes from a coffee family plant.

Many times you will read that kratom does not offer withdrawals as it is utilizing alkaloids for effect and stimulation.”

She warns people to stay away from certain brands that have been known to use “fillers” in their products. She also recommends not mixing it with energy drinks, and that pregnant women should use extreme caution or not use it at all. Mixing it with other medications is also a concern, because there isn’t enough research, she said.

COMING AND GOING CLEAN When Steve told his wife, who knew very little about the substance, that he was using kratom, he said she was shocked and very disappointed.

At the time, Steve’s sister was living with him and his wife. His sister, who takes kratom openly, is a recovering opiate addict after being prescribed opiates to deal with her chronic pain from a car accident.

“She takes a lot of it [kratom],” Steve said.

“She has to know she is addicted.”

Steve’s relationship with kratom is complicated. Although his experience with it wasn’t positive, he admits he would rather see his sister taking kratom than opiates.

“I have seen so much evidence that it gets people off opiates,” he said. “The overdoses I have seen on the internet are when people are taking it with a million things. … I kind of justified it because it’s like marijuana: You can almost take an insane amount, and you’re not going to overdose. You might have a bad time. … I would definitely prefer [my sister] to take kratom than opiates.”

He said kratom also helped him and his sister abstain from drinking, but he still has concerns about it.

“There are some benefits,” Steve said. “But one concern I have about kratom is the way that it is sold to people. It should be regulated, because it is so addictive. But I realize, with the opiate crisis, it could cause more harm to make it [kratom] illegal. But who knows what people are mixing it with or cutting it with. All along the chain, from where they’re making it in Asia to selling it in the store. Are they spraying it with nicotine to make it super addictive, or spraying it with a fertilizer? Who knows?”

Steve said today he doesn’t have any fears of going back to kratom, because of how bad the withdrawals were.

“I am 99 percent sure I won’t take it again,” he said.

James is adamant about kratom’s benefits and said she enjoys hearing all the success stories that come through her doors. “[Hearing the success people have with kratom] is very addicting. Maybe that isn’t the best word,” she joked. “I think it’s the hugs that are so addicting.”

Porritt hasn’t given James a hug yet but credits her for helping him change his life for the better.

“It has been night and day,” he said. “It is something I would hate to live without, but it is to the point where if I miss it for a day I might feel a little sluggish, but it isn’t anything like the awful withdrawals I had with opiates. … You got to find something that gives you hope again.”

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 15

Gurian: Let me give you my favorite example for how money makes politics more extreme. Let’s talk about education. I believe any kind of legislation for education should be about what’s best for the students. But you have, on one side, teachers supported by the teachers’ unions, since teachers’ unions are paying to lobby for politicians who will support them. And then you have the DeVos Foundation on the other side, trying to increase charter schools in Michigan and cutting funding for public education to give it to charter. If you’re a politician, and you’re receiving that money, the money is extreme: It leans very far in one direction or another.

The money doesn’t compromise. And when you can’t compromise, that means you can’t talk, and if you can’t talk, the students get hurt. I believe both sides should be together talking about what’s best for the students, but those conversations aren’t happening because of campaign finance.

By Craig Manning Hal Gurian and John DeSpelder have a lot in common. They’re both Traverse City locals who share a deep love for the northern Michigan area. They are both civically minded individuals who are passionate about politics. And they’re good friends who have worked together to build American Promise Grand Traverse, a local branch of the national organization that seek to create nationwide change in the area of political campaign finance.

Yet, for all they share, Gurian and DeSpelder have one crucial difference: Gurian is a dyed-in-the-wool republican, while DeSpelder is a lifelong progressive democrat.

As the nation hurtles toward what could prove to be its most divisive presidential election ever, Gurian and DeSpelder acknowledge that their friendship is a bit unlikely.

“We’re a bit of an odd couple,” DeSpelder says, which might be putting it lightly in a political environment where the long-held disagreements between the two major political parties have escalated to deep distrust and unguarded animosity.

Amidst all the partisan division, though, Gurian and DeSpelder have been working together to lobby for H.J.Res. 2, a piece of pending legislation in the United States House of Representatives that would add a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

That amendment would “authorize Congress and the states to set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections.”

Specifically, the amendment would preempt the U.S. Supreme Court decision known as “Citizens United,” which prohibits any laws that restrict or limit corporate entities and major unions in their ability to contribute money to political campaigns.

The goal for both Gurian and DeSpelder: Get big money out of politics and eliminate the corruption they believe big money causes. To do so, they have forged an across-the-aisle partnership that defies the expectations of the current political climate. To learn more, Northern Express sat down with Gurian and DeSpelder to talk about their backgrounds, their goals, and why a 28th amendment could help fundamentally change the game for United States politics.

Express: Tell us a little bit about yourselves.

Gurian: I am a registered Republican. I lived in Maryland for over 40 years of my life, which is a blue state that discriminated against Republicans [with gerrymandering].

Right now, their gerrymandering is 7–1 Democrat-Republican; it should be 5–3.

When I moved here, it was just the opposite in gerrymandering, so I got involved. I lean nonpartisan, and I like to see things fair, period. In gerrymandering, I like it to be fair to both parties. So that’s how I got involved in [the anti-gerrymandering campaign] Voters Not Politicians. Through that, I met John, and for some strange reason we like each other. We don’t agree on some issues, but we disagree respectfully. I believe that’s how it should be.

Money in politics, I believe, is the most corrupting force that this country has. It prevents legislation that helps the people.

Rather, it helps the contributor, which is either unions or corporations.

DeSpelder: My background is similar in some ways. I don’t think Hal mentioned, but he was in the private sector. He had a

Express: Walk me through Citizens United and what you two are hoping to change.

Red + Blue = An Unlikely

Pair Lobbying

for a 28th Amendment TC pals and political opposites Hal Gurian and John DeSpelder have joined forces in an effort to undo the aftermath of “Citizens United”

business that he ran for many years, and I think that made him more inclined to lean financially and fiscally conservative. I was an administrator for the Social Security Disability Insurance program, and I worked on that program for 40 years. I had a lot of responsibility for, in a sense, running a business with a lot of employees. Hal and I had that in common. But I also really had a public-sector perspective and dove deep into the problems of the people that had real disabilities and the people that maybe didn’t have real disabilities but were going through the disability insurance process.

We had to make decisions about who qualified and who didn’t.

Hal and I met after the Trump election, and I think we both felt a need to get more involved at a root level. I think that’s why we ended up today doing so much with American Promise, trying to overturn

16 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

Citizens United, because we see that as one of the root causes [for the problems this country has in politics].

Express: You two have a surprising collaborative partnership. The two parties are extremely divided right now, to the point of hostility or even hate. Can you comment on working together across the aisle, versus what seems to be an increasingly partisan political climate?

DeSpelder: It’s been tough sometimes, because there are people on both sides that haven’t really liked us going to the center on things. But we’re very pragmatic, and I think that’s one of the things that the two of us share. We know that you can do all you want from one side of the spectrum or the other, but the kind of government we want to see is one where both sides get a take.

DeSpelder: Citizens United was a 2010 Supreme Court decision that found that free speech included money, so financial contributions are free speech. It also found that corporations had a right to free speech. So, what [the decision] did was really tip the balance drastically [in favor of wealthy corporations]. The effect was that any laws that were written to regulate campaign finance could not limit the spending of corporate money or big union money. Governments could no longer write laws that limit those kinds of campaign finance expenditures.

I think what both of us would like to see are laws that would reasonably regulate campaign finance. But because of Citizens United, nothing can happen until there’s a constitutional amendment that would allow that legislation to be written.

Gurian: And that’s a difficult road.

Express: Is there much support for a constitutional amendment within the political system right now?

DeSpelder: In the U.S. Congress, there are some bills pending — including H.J.Res. 2 and a similar bill in the Senate — that would basically authorize a constitutional amendment process to start.

Gurian: Unfortunately, there is only one Republican person supporting this. John and I recently went to Washington, D.C., and we tried to speak primarily to Republican representatives to persuade them at least to listen to our argument for why we need to change this Supreme Court ruling and have a constitutional amendment. We’re hoping that our representative, Jack Bergman, will be open. We give him an A+ because he at least sat down and listened to us respectfully.

DeSpelder: This legislation has been labeled as a Democrat issue, but it’s really not. It’s very non-partisan. When we sat down with Jack Bergman, we were joined

by Jeff Clemons, who’s the founder of American Promise, as well as by a guy from New Hampshire named Jim Rubens.

Rubens was a state legislator who’d run for governor of New Hampshire in 1998. He lost the race, and he attributes a great deal of the reason for his losing to the amount of money that came in from outside New Hampshire to influence the election. In a state of 1.3 million people, $13 million came into that election — and 90 percent of it was from out of state.

I think before Rubens spoke, Bergman was mostly just being pleasant and courteous [in meeting with us]. But when he heard from Rubens, who is a Libertarian that ran for governor as a Republican, I think Bergman started to see that there is another side to the money issue.

Gurian: Bergman also acknowledged that a congressman or congresswoman, especially a newly elected one, is going to spend up to 60 percent of their time trying to raise money for the next election. Can you imagine hiring someone to your staff, only for them to spend 60 percent of their time talking to their girlfriend? They would be fired. But we are electing congresspeople who spend anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of their time trying to raise money. And money is corrupting, because if I give you $5,000, I expect something. There’s also a thing called dark money, and that’s the scariest part, because politicians don’t have to list who gave them that money. That’s scary. John and I believe in transparency, and that, to me, is nonpartisan.

DeSpalder: Recently, Hal and I also went to Lansing, and we spoke to five or six Republican legislators, including Wayne Schmidt. We had very similar kinds of conversations with them. Nobody said, “Yes, we’ll sign on,” but nobody ruled it out either.

So I think it’s on citizens to reach out to their representatives or senators and make it clear that this is something that we really need to have if we are going to move on as a country.

Express: What can regular people do if they agree that the corporate finance side of politics is a problem?

DeSpalder: We have a local group, a branch of the national American Promise

group called American Promise Grand Traverse. We’ve had meetings for years — really since the Trump election — looking at the issues that are the most important to work on. There was a huge group of us that said, “If we do nothing else, we have to get big money out of our political process.”

People are welcome to join us. We hold meetings every second and fourth Tuesday around 12:30pm. People can learn about us on Facebook [by searching “American Promise Grand Traverse”].

There are also all kinds of things people can do in terms of contacting legislators, letter writing, and just spreading the word to friends and family. People talking to friends and family is particularly helpful, because it’s very different from talking to legislators.

From our experience, it’s very hard to find anyone of any political stripe that isn’t in favor of something like this constitutional amendment.

amendment is to get resolutions from each of the states. When Hal and I were in Washington, New Hampshire was celebrating being the 20th state to pass a resolution calling for this constitutional amendment. We’re going around to state legislators asking that Michigan be the 21st state. Part of that process is getting the word out to citizens and to municipalities so that those state legislators can hear from us.

That’s why we are going to ask the Traverse City commission to pass a resolution saying we need to have a state resolution that calls for this amendment. A number of other municipalities in Michigan have already passed similar resolutions, including Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Ferndale, and Cedar Springs. Traverse City wouldn’t be the first.

Express: How much progress are voters likely to make just by contacting their representatives if the representative in question is indebted to corporate or union funding?

DeSpalder: It could be simple. It could be that there are bill sponsors who are willing to sign on in both the House and the Senate.

They realize what a great bipartisan thing this is, and they pass it. Honestly, I think we’re in for a longer battle than that. Our approach is that we devoutly want this push to be nonpartisan. We really see this issue as absolutely something that is in the best interest of our state and our country. I think that’s one of the things that interests people about me and Hal. Hal is a Republican, and I’m a Democrat, but we’re both saying “Look, we need to come together on a lot of things, and this is one of the root things that we need to work on first.”

DeSpalder: That’s an excellent question. We will make more progress the more politicians hear from us. This is absolutely a grassroots effort, as are most constitutional amendments. It takes everybody, regardless of what their political beliefs are, just to make enough noise to level the playing field again.

Express: What are the next steps for you guys?

DeSpalder: We have a date set to make a presentation to the Traverse City Commission on March 16. Part of the process for getting support for a constitutional

Express: What does that process look like, for getting a state resolution?

Gurian: This entire issue is nonpartisan.

Legislation should be passed that benefits the people, period.

DeSpalder: I like to use a visual of a butcher weighing some meat to be sold, with a thumb on the scales. That action gives the advantage to the butcher because he can make his product seem bigger than it really is. And that situation is really similar to what’s going on with corporate money and big union money right now.

They own the microphones. They own the megaphones. They own the airwaves. They own the lobbyists. They own the process in a way that completely tips the scales in favor of big money. And make no bones about, corporations are not people.

Express: Will making this push in a big election year help it get exposure and support, or will it be more of an uphill battle given how combative this election is likely to be?

DeSpalder: To be candid, I don’t see the state passing a resolution this year. I do think that the election cycle gives us an opportunity to take the case to the people in a way that it hasn’t been taken to them before. But we don’t have that much time this year, and things are really out of whack [with the two parties].

We’re hoping that maybe an off-year election will allow us to get the parties settled down to focus on this issue as something that they both need to work on.

But I think politicians in both the republican and democratic parties are starting to recognize that people are not happy with government in general.

Republicans maybe have the upper hand in some places, like in Michigan, but in others, it’s Democrats. People are tired of going back and forth. You look around the world at how some of the other developed nations’ election systems work, and they don’t have these kinds of issues. And that’s because of campaign finance.

A gorgeous view and wonderful setting Wedding receptions and gatherings

noverrfarms.com

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 17

feb 22

saturday

ART EXHIBITION: MARK BONANNI & GLORY WOOD: 12-5pm, Feb. 22-23, Lee-lanau Studios, Studio 10, TC. 231-881-5198. garwoodgallery.com

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COMMUNITY YOGA FOR EVERY BODY: 9am, 206 S. Oak St., TC. Love your body through gentle breath/body movement. Donation based class. Find on Facebook.

---------------------FREE COMMUNITY INTRO TO FLY-TYING: 9am, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. The Adams Chapter of Trout Unlimited will hold a flytying workshop for beginners. For ages 7 & older. RSVPs required: 941.0960, ext. 16. Free. natureiscalling.org/event/fly-tying-for-beginners-3

---------------------39TH ANNUAL SNO-BLAST: 10am, East Jordan. Featuring a Sno-Sculpture Contest, Crowning of the Belle of the Blizzard & Winter Knight, Blessing of the Sleds, Taco Din-ner, Antique Snowmobile Show & much more. ejchamber. org/events/winter/sno-blast

---------------------HIKE FOR HEALTH AT DUNCAN BAY: 10:30am, Duncan Bay Nature Preserve, Cheboygan. Join Little Traverse Conservancy staff on a winter hiking excursion to the overlook on the shores of Lake Huron. After the hike, meet to order lunch at Nourish in downtown Cheboygan. Pre-registration is requested by calling 231.347.0991. Free. landtrust.org

---------------------MICHIGAN SNOWMOBILE FESTIVAL: Gaylord, Feb. 21-22. This year’s stops include Beaver Creek Resort, Treetops Resort, Paul’s Pub, Big Buck Brewery, Belle Iron Grille, Porter Haus, Mama Leone’s, Corwith Station, The Keg Bar & Elkhorn Grill. gaylordmichigan.net

---------------------SIGNS OF RIVER OTTER: 1-2:30pm, Grass River Natural Area, Bellaire. Learn some signs that river otter have been nearby & take a walk on the trails to see if you can spot some for yourself. Also look for signs of other elusive mammals like bobcat, coyote or mink. $5. grassriver.org

---------------------CELEBRATION OF WELL-BEING: 3-6pm, New Moon Yoga, TC. Enjoy free class de-mos, refreshments, discounted class packs & enter a raffle drawing to win a 1 year paid membership.

Free. newmoonyogastudio.com

---------------------THE BLUES BUFFET MARDI GRAS PARTY: 5-8pm, The Presbyterian Church, TC. Hosted by the TC West Senior High School Choirs. Featuring student performances, a buffet, silent auction & raffle. General seating: $25/person, two tickets for $45, or four for $80.

---------------------6TH ANNUAL GUNS-N-HOSES BENEFIT HOCKEY GAME: 6-10pm, Centre Ice Are-na, TC. Watch local firefighters face off against police officers in this annual game to raise funds for a selected family in need. $5. gtgunsnhoses. com/guns-n-hoses-hockey-game

---------------------GOPHERWOOD CONCERT: EMILEE PETERSMARK: 7pm, Cadillac Elks Lodge. Known as part of The Crane Wives, Emilee will be performing solo with her unre-leased collection of songs. $7-$15. mynorthtickets.com/events/ emilee-petersmark-2-22-2020

---------------------LOVE, LOSS & WHAT I WORE: 7:30pm, Old Town Playhouse Studio Theatre @ the Depot, TC. A play about women’s love/hate relationships with their wardrobes. $17 plus fees. oldtownplayhouse.com

---------------------THE TAP PACK: 7:30pm, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Corson Auditorium. This comedy ensemble mixes tap dance with swing music & witty banter. They are inspired by Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jr. $42 pit, $37 orches-tra. tickets.interlochen.org/events/tappack/february-22-2020-730pm

LIVE FROM CHARLEVOIX: JILL JACK: 8pm, Charlevoix Cinema III. $25. livefromcharlevoix.com

feb/mar

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22-01

CATS: THE JELLICLE YELLICLE BALL: 9:30pm, State Theatre, TC. One night on-ly. $7. stateandbijou.org/movies/cats-jellicle-yellicle-ball

feb 23

sunday

ART EXHIBITION: MARK BONANNI & GLORY WOOD: (See Sat., Feb. 22)

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send your dates to: events@traverseticker.com

LOVE BODY: 10:30am, Table Health, GT Commons, TC. Women can join to chat about Love Body, what it means, the power of community, women as collaborators ra-ther than competitors & more. Free. lovebodywisdom.com/engage.html

---------------------2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: Feb. 23-29.

Participating restaurants will offer three course meals for $25 or $35. Reservations encouraged. downtowntc.com/traverse-city-restaurant-week

---------------------CHILI COOK-OFF: 11:15am, Presbyterian Church of TC. Presented by The Children & Youth Ministries. $10 per person or $30 per family.

---------------------12TH ANNUAL GREAT INDOOR FOLK FESTIVAL: 12-5:30pm, The Mercado @ Building 50, The Village at GT Commons, TC. More than 75 musicians from northern MI’s folk, bluegrass & acoustic music scene will perform at the festival, offering CDs of their music for sale. Featuring eight stages, including a satellite stage at Left Foot Charley & Higher Grounds. Newcomers this year include Kevin Johnson, Eliza Thorp, Bruce Matthews, Bob Fawcett, Troll for Trout, FlyLiteGemini, Buckrooster Highground, Boundarywater & several Interlochen Student Singer Songwriters. Returning perform-ers include Crockett, Smith, and Armstrong, New Third Coast, Runaway Mule, Saldaje & many others. Free. thevillagetc.com/12th-annualgreat-indoor-folk-festival

---------------------“ARMOR OF LIGHT” MOVIE SCREENING: 2pm, The Garden Theater, Frankfort. The Northern Michigan group of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America will host a free movie screening & community discussion around gun violence in our communi-ties. every.tw/2RoXohc

---------------------REMEMBERING PATSY CLINE - A BENEFIT FOR CITY OPERA HOUSE: 3pm, City Opera House, TC. A tribute to the iconic music legend, Patsy Cline, featuring Judy Har-rison & ReBooted. $22, $32, $50; students, $15. cityoperahouse.org/remembering-patsy-cline

---------------------GLCO SUNDAY SERIES: VIOLIN, HORN, PIANO TRIO: 4pm, First Presbyterian Church, Petoskey. Free. glchorchestra.org

feb 24

monday

2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sun., Feb. 23)

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FRIENDS @ THE CARNEGIE: KING HOUSE: 7pm, Petoskey District Library, Carne-gie Building. Join Professor of Anthropology and Sociology Kerri Finlayson for a presentation on the archaeological excavations at an Odawa log cabin at the village site.

feb 25

tuesday

PEEPERS PROGRAM: TERRIFIC TRACKS!: 10am, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. For ages 3-5. This 90-minute nature program includes stories, crafts, music & dis-covery activities. Ends with an outside portion. Pre-register. $5. natureiscalling.org/event/peepers-programterrific-turkeys

18 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

Watch 3,000 pounds of ice being transformed into sculptures by regional culinary artists, students of Henry Ford College Culinary Program and Macomb Community College at Art In Ice, Sweet & Nice in downtown Bellaire on Sat., Feb. 29 from 12-4pm. Also featuring the Sweet Treats Bake Off, including samples from area pastry chefs. A $5 ticket lets you taste eight baked sweet treats that include a pie dough ingredient.

2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sun., Feb. 23)

---------------------GET CRAFTY: Great Lakes Children’s Museum, TC. Have fun making a shark puppet. Held from 11am-noon & 2-3pm. greatlakeskids.org

---------------------HEMLOCK HIKE: Noon, Antrim Conservation District Office, 4820 Stover Rd., Bellaire. Join Antrim Conservation District & CAKE CISMA for a #TrailTuesday hike. CAKE CISMA will teach you about the threat of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) & how to survey for it by actively looking for it on the hemlock trees at the Cedar River Natural Area. Bring snowshoes if you have them. 231-533-8363, x5. Free. antrimcd.com/ hemlock-hike.html

---------------------TC SHAREPINTS: 5pm, Earthen Ales, TC. SharePoint user group. Free. meetup.com/TCSharePints/events/268473804

---------------------MOVIE NIGHT: 6:30pm, Bellaire Public Library.

Enjoy watching “RBG,” a 2018 TC Film Festival Movie. It’s the life story of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, hero, icon & dissenter. Free. bellairelibrary.org

feb 26

wednesday

PARKINSON’S NETWORK NORTH DAY SUPPORT GROUP: 10:30am, TC Senior Center. 947-7389. Free. pnntc.org

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2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sun., Feb. 23)

---------------------INTRO TO WATERCOLOR PAINTING FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE: 1-3pm, Interlochen Public Library, Community Room. For adults. Learn techniques profes-sional painters use. Bring your own watercolor brushes, paints & paper. Sign up: 231-276-6767. Free.

---------------------MONEY SERIES: THE NEW TAX LAW, REVISITED: 3pm, Leland Township Library, Munnecke Room. Explore how the latest changes in today’s tax laws, including the new SECURE

Act, may affect you & your planning. Presented

by Money Series: Front Street Foundation. Free. lelandlibrary.org

feb 27

thursday

2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sun., Feb. 23) INTERACTIVE STORYTIME: 11am, Great Lakes Children’s Museum, TC. Featuring “Knuffle Bunny” by Mo Willems, followed by an activity. greatlakeskids.org

---------------------KIDS ON THE GO FUNDRAISER PEDIATRIC PIZZA PARTY: 5-11pm, The Filling Station Microbrewery, TC. Kids On The Go is a Michigan-based pediatric non-profit pro-gram that provides physical, occupational & speech therapy during the summer months for children with special needs. pourformore.org

---------------------FEBRUARY SWIRL - CANTINA: 5:30-7pm, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey. Chef Chris Rutkowski, the new chef & owner at Cantina, is creating a menu featuring mod-ern Mexican cuisine with farm-to-table roots. Check out The Guild Member Salon Show & enjoy live music by Botala. $15. crookedtree.org/event/ctac-petoskey/ february-swirl-cantina

---------------------UKULELE JAM SESSION FEATURING S.T.R.U.M.: 6pm, Interlochen Public Library, Community Room. Bring your instrument or borrow one from the library. Free. interlochenpubliclibrary.org

---------------------THE JOY OF BLUE BIRDS: 7pm, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. Greg Miller will present “The Joy of Blue Birds” at the Grand Traverse Audubon Club meeting. He will also discuss the upcoming Blue Bird Festival to be held in TC on March 21. Free. grandtraverseaudubon.org

feb 28

friday

DISCOVER WITH ME: 10amnoon, Great Lakes Children’s Museum, TC. Play farmer’s market! greatlakeskids.org

2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sun., Feb. 23)

---------------------HARBOR SPRINGS RESTAURANT WEEK: Feb. 28 - March 8. Enjoy special menus at each participating restaurant.

---------------------LEADING IN TIMES OF CHANGE BY WARREN CALL, CEO, TRAVERSE CON-NECT: 11am, TC Country Club. The Leadership Lunch Club speaker series includes networking, lunch, an educational presentation & a Q & A time with the presenter. $50 per person. leadershiplunchclub.com/eventbrite-event/february-28th-warren-call-leading-in-times-of-change

---------------------NMC MUSIC STUDENT CONVOCATION: 1pm, NMC, Fine Arts #115, TC. Enjoy stu-dent performances & faculty lectures & performances. Free.

---------------------NEW HOMESCHOOL PROGRAM: 1pm, Boardman River Nature Center, TC. Students will study topics related to the area’s natural ecology, geology, history & more. In-cludes themes based on curriculum topics for ages 7-11. Indoor & outdoor activities. Register. $5. natureiscalling.org/event/new-homeschool-program-2

---------------------GAYLORD BOAT SHOW: 3-8pm, The Ellison Place, Gaylord. Feb. 28 - March 1. Fea-turing over 75 watercraft on display. Pontoons to ski boats… cruisers to personal wa-tercraft, in addition to docks, boat lifts, paddle boards & boating accesso-ries. gaylordboatshow.com

---------------------‘TALES OF THE INDUSTRY’: 5-9pm, Shanty Creek Resort, Bellaire. Chefs & guest speakers will share their story of how they were introduced to the culinary arts & how they got to where they are today. Also, mingle with local chefs while enjoying compli-mentary hors d’oeuvres. $15. shantycreek.com

---------------------TIBETAN SINGING BOWLS WITH MARK HANDLER: 6pm, Elk Rapids Library, porch.

Mark is a singing bowl master who has performed nationally. Please dress in comfort-able attire. Free. elkrapidslibrary.org/news-events/ tibetan-singing-bowls-with-mark-handler

---------------------UP NORTH BIG BAND: 7-10pm, Red Sky Stage, Bay Harbor. Enjoy 30’s & 40’s swing & big band dancing. Dance lesson held from 6:457:30pm. $10; includes les-son. redskystage.com

---------------------INTERLOCHEN ARTS ACADEMY DANCE COMPANY’S THE SLEEPING BEAU-TY: 7:30pm, Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Bay Harbor. Accompanied by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s beloved score & costumed by the Academy’s professional designers, the company brings you a ballet featuring a fresh adaptation of Marius Petipa’s origi-nal choreography. $25, $20, $15. greatlakescfa.org/event-detail/interlochen-artsacademy-dance-companys-the-sleeping-beauty

---------------------LIVE MUSIC WITH JIM CROCKETT: 7:309pm, Horizon Books, TC. horizonbooks.com/ event/jim-crocket-live-music

---------------------FAMILY STRINGS: SOLD OUT: 8:30pm, City Opera House, TC. Featuring Billy Strings & his dad & Terry Barber. $35. cityoperahouse.org/ family-strings

feb 29

saturday

NASTAR MIDWEST CHAMPIONSHIPS: 8am, Crystal Mountain, Thompsonville.

Feb. 29 - March 1. crystalmountain.com/event/nastarmidwest-championships

---------------------COMMUNITY YOGA FOR EVERY BODY: (See Sat., Feb. 22)

---------------------WINTER GUIDED HIKE: 9:30am-noon. Join Grand Traverse Conservation District staff on a guided hike through Brown Bridge Quiet Area, TC to explore new trails, view wild-life, & learn

about new & upcoming parkland projects on the property. A limited amount of snowshoes are available to borrow. RSVP’s required: 941-0960.

Free. natureiscalling.org/event/winter-guidedhike-at-brown-bridge-quiet-area-3

---------------------GAYLORD BOAT SHOW: 10am-8pm, The Ellison Place, Gaylord. Feb. 28 - March 1. Featuring over 75 watercraft on display. Pontoons to ski boats… cruisers to personal watercraft, in addition to docks, boat lifts, paddle boards & boating accesso-ries. gaylordboatshow.com

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docks, boat lifts, paddle boards & boating accesso-ries. gaylordboatshow.com

---------------------HARBOR SPRINGS RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Fri., Feb. 28)

---------------------STEVE GREEN CONCERT: 3pm, New Hope Community Church, Sanctuary, TC. This Christian music vocalist will perform with concert pianist Dick Tunney, orchestral strings & the Community Concert Choir. Free. newhope.cc

PLUSH PUPPY ADOPTION PARTY: 10amnoon, Petoskey District Library, Children’s Department. Choose a plush puppy to call your own. Make a toy for your new puppy & bring it to the veterinarian for its first checkup. petoskeylibrary.org

art

TADL MAKERFEST: 10am, GT Resort, Michigan Ballroom, Acme. Join TADL & the STEAM/ Maker Alliance of Northwestern MI as over 30 regional Makers & STEAM afi-cionados are brought together for hands-on exploration of the arts, crafting & technol-ogy. Free. tadl. org/2020makerfest

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----------------------

---------------------2020 TC RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Sun., Feb. 23)

---------------------HARBOR SPRINGS RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Fri., Feb. 28)

---------------------ART IN ICE, SWEET & NICE: 12-4pm, Downtown Bellaire. Watch 3,000 pounds of ice transformed into sculptures by regional culinary artists, students of Henry Ford College Culinary Program & Macomb Community College. Also featuring the Sweet Treats Bake Off, including samples from area pastry chefs. A $5 ticket lets you taste eight baked sweet treats that include a pie dough ingredient.

---------------------FUN IN THE SNOW TO BENEFIT TART TRAILS: 1-6pm, Brengman Brothers, TC. Explore Brengman Brothers’ property trails while fat tire biking, snowshoeing & cross-country skiing. Warm-up & refuel afterwards with chili & soup, wine, hot chocolate & coffee. All donations for chili & soup & a portion of all wine & tasting sales will go to TART Trails. brengmanbrothers. com/events/fun-in-the-snow

---------------------“THAT FUNNY PUPPET GUY”: 2pm & 7pm, Old Town Playhouse, TC. Featuring ven-triloquist Richard Paul. A Family Fun Show at 2pm ($15 adults, $8 youth under 18 + fees) & an Adults Only Show at 7pm ($20 advance, $25 door + fees). oldtownplayhouse.com

---------------------GALLERY TALK: A COLOR TOUR: 2pm, Glen Arbor Arts Center. Art educator Linda Young leads a conversational tour of COLOR, an exhibition of 2D & 3D color art work. The GAAC’s COLOR exhibition continues through March 26. Free. glenarborart.org

---------------------BEARCUB OUTFITTERS TORCHLIGHT SNOWSHOE OUTING: 5-9pm, Camp Daggett, Walloon Lake, Petoskey. Also enjoy hot chocolate & cookies by a fire. Free; snowshoes available. bearcuboutfitters.com

---------------------HIP-HOP CONCERT: LEAP YEAR EXTRAVAGANZA: 8pm, Red Sky Stage, Bay Har-bor.

Performers include Drebb, Letter B, Faux, Adams Avenue, & Clay Meadows. $10 advance. mynorthtickets.com/events/hip-hop-concertleap-year-extravaganza-2-29-2020

mar 01

sunday

NASTAR MIDWEST CHAMPIONSHIPS: (See Sat., Feb. 29)

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GAYLORD BOAT SHOW: 10am-4pm, The Ellison Place, Gaylord. Feb. 28 - March 1. Featuring over 75 watercraft on display. Pontoons to ski boats… cruisers to personal watercraft, in addition to

MUST LOVE BLUE AT BLK\MRKT ART SPACE, TC: Eleven artists offer works focusing on the color BLUE, Feb. - March. Meet the artists at a reception, Feb. 23 from 4-6 pm.

Hours: M-Sat., 7am-5pm; Sun., 9am-3pm. instagram.com/blkmrktartspace YOUTH ARTS EXHIBIT: Crooked Tree Arts Center, TC. Celebrating the work of area K-12 art students & educators. On display through March 14. crooked-tree.org/event/ctac-traversecity/2020-youth-art

---------------------BEST OF THE CHARLEVOIX PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB: Charlevoix Circle of Arts. This show highlights the collection of photographs featured in the 2020 CPC calendar in-cluding additional photos by CPC members. Runs through March 7. Open Mon. - Fri., 11am-5pm & Sat., 11am3pm. charlevoixcircle.org/exhibits-2020

---------------------100 YEARS OF POLISH INDEPENDENCE: ZAKOPANE 1918: Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts, Manistee. Runs through March 27 from 10am-5pm on Mon., Tues., Thurs., & Fri. ramsdelltheatre.org/art-exhibits

---------------------“GUILD MEMBER SALON SHOW”: Feb. 8 Mar. 28, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Gal-leries, Petoskey. This invitational exhibit showcases work created by current CTAC Art-ist Guild Members. Over 100 artists from 34 cities are participating in this event. crook-edtree.org

---------------------2020 WINE LABEL ART COMPETITION: Mission Point Lighthouse, in conjunction with Bowers Harbor Vineyards, is sponsoring this competition to design the bottle label of the 2020 season Mission Point Lighthouse Wine. It is the 150th Anniversary of Mis-sion Point Lighthouse.

The winner will have his or her name & artwork featured on a special release of Bowers Harbor Vineyards Pinot Grigio for one year & will receive $250 cash. Art submission deadline is March 17. missionpointlighthouse.com/specialeventsweddings.html

---------------------DENNOS MUSEUM CENTER, NMC, TC: - 40 CHANCES: FINDING HOPE IN A HUNGRY WORLD: Featuring the photography of Howard G. Buffett. Forty photographs document the world hunger crisis as part of a global awareness campaign. Runs through April 26.

- ERGO SUM: A CROW A DAY: On Aug. 1, 2014 artist Karen Bondarchuk set out to mark the passing time that her mother – diagnosed with dementia in 2010 – no longer could. For 365 days, she produced a crow a day on a hand-cut, hand-gessoed panel, remembering her mother as she once was & grieving her loss.

Runs through May 24.

- PULPED UNDER PRESSURE: THE ART OF HANDMADE PAPER: With traditional hand papermaking at its core, this exhibit underscores important contemporary issues steeped in history & craft. Runs through May 24. Hours are 10am-5pm daily & 1-5pm on Sundays. dennosmuseum.org

---------------------GAYLORD AREA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS, GAYLORD: - BLACK & WHITE WITH A HINT OF COLOR EXHIBIT: Runs through Feb. 29.

- CALL FOR ENTRIES--INSPIRED BY THE MASTERS: Inspired by the Masters Exhib-it will run March 4 - April 11, 2020. All Michigan artists 16 years old or older (including part-time residents) may enter this exhibit. Entries can be of any medium but must be in good condition &

of the artist’s own creation. Art work will be accepted from Feb. 5-29 during normal business hours (11am-3pm, Tues.-Fri. & 12-2pm, Sat).

Maximum en-tries: 4 pieces due to space limitations. gaylordarts.org - FUNDAY MONDAYS: Held every Mon. through April 27 at 10am. Try a different art or craft each week. All supplies provided. gacaevents.weebly.com

---------------------HIGHER ART GALLERY, TC: - OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: “CITIZEN’S COPING” - ARTISTS RESPOND TO 4 YEARS OF AN ADMINISTRATION: Higher Art Gallery is the incubator to new Non-Profit Art Organization: Project Civilization which is having its first Open Call to All Art-ists for its Annual Juried show. Deadline to apply & enter submission is: 9/1/2020. Show Opens: 10/9/2020. higherartgallery.com/calls-for-art - CALL FOR ARTISTS: “SENSE OF HOME” ANNUAL COMMUNITY FUNDRAISER EXHIBIT: Presented by Higher Art Gallery to benefit Pete’s Place, which is a branch of Child & Family Services & is TC’s only homeless youth shelter. The open call for this show has a theme of art called: “To Comfort.” Artists are asked to respond with pieces that invoke comfort, a sense of home & what brings you comfort. The deadline to sub-mit images is Aug. 1, 2020. higherartgallery.com/calls-for-art

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NORTHPORT ARTS ASSOCIATION, NORTHPORT: - NORTHPORT PHOTO EXHIBITION: CALL TO ARTISTS: Now through April 30: Pho-tographers of all skill levels are invited to submit their work to the Northport Photo Ex-hibition, which will take place from May 22-31. $30/ member; $40/non-member. northportartsassociation.org/ all-happenings/2020/5/22/northport-photo-exhibit-2020 - DARK SKIES: CALL FOR ARTISTS: Jan. 18 - Feb. 28: Submit up to three pieces in the medium/media of your choosing that celebrate the night sky. northportartsassociation.org/allhappenings/2020/4/16/call-for-artists-dark-skies - PLEIN AIR: CALL TO ARTISTS: Jan. 18 Feb. 29. Northport’s 2020 Plein Air event takes place from Sat., July 25 at 7am through Sun., July 26 at 8:30pm. Sat. & Sun. Paint Out: $30/ member; $40/non-member. Dark Skies Paint Out: $15/member; $20/non-member. northportartsassociation.org/all-happenings/2020/7/25/ northport-2020-plein-air-paint-out - ARTS! FOR KIDS WINTER SATURDAYS: Saturdays, 1pm, Feb. 1 - Mar. 21, Village Arts Building, Northport. Experience different media at three different art stations. Kids make creative art choices, interspersed with teacher directed les-sons. northportartsassociation.org

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OLIVER ART CENTER, FRANKFORT: - PRINTMAKING & INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION: This exhibition features three printmakers: Andrew Jagniecki, Lauren Everett Finn & L.C. Lim. Runs through March 13. Hours are 10am-4:30pm, Mon. through Fri., 10am-4pm, Sat. & 12-4pm, Sun. - ‘MAKE MINE ABSTRACT!’ INVITATIONAL & OPEN CALL EXHIBITION: Featuring artists Skye Gentle, Carol C Spaulding & Susan Thompson. OAC is asking artists to submit up to two pieces of artwork for display. Cost is free for art center members & $5 for non-members.

Artwork drop off is March 14-15 & the exhibition runs March 20 - April 17, with an opening reception from 5-7pm on March 20. oliverartcenterfrankfort.org

Deadline for Dates information is Tuesday for the following week.

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 19

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NORTHERN SEEN 1. Odawa Casino & Hotel’s Barry Laughlin, Marty Van De Car, and Michael Bodjiak at Petoskey’s 2020 State of the Community Luncheon hosted at their casino’s Ovation Hall.

2. Patrick Schulte, Julie Hanko, Shari Schult, and Sara Couture celebrate all the community good going on at the Petoskey Chamber’s 2020 State of the Community Luncheon.

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3. Stuart Hickman, general manager of Mammoth Distilling, poses with Allie Muma at the February cocktail dinner pairing at TC’s Mammoth Distilling tasting room.

4. An Interlochen Arts Academy Dance Company ballerina prepares to take the stage during The Sleeping Beauty performance at the school’s free annual Winterlochen event.

(Photo courtesy of Interlochen Center for the Arts.)

5. Sara Lucus and Annie Olds hanging tight to Carlin Smith at Petoskey’s recent community luncheon.

6. Real Estate One disco dynamo Jon Zickert dove deep to support Special Olympics Michigan at the Polar Plunge at TC’s North Peak Brewing Company.

7. Kevin Christman, Billy Hansen, Schott Shearer, and Dan Ledingham looking dapper at the Petoskey Chamber’s annual luncheon.

20 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

8. Author Steve Luxenberg chats with Susan Odgers after his National Writers Series appearance at the City Opera House in TC.

Swift, Vincent, Go-Go’s On the Big Screen Three female-focused rockumentaries are making their way to various outlets.

The first, Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana, is already streaming on Netflix. The Lana Wilson-directed doc, which was coproduced by the team behind 20 Feet From Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary about backup singers, follows Swift during a transitional period in her life while giving sneak peeks into her touring and studio work. The second doc, titled The Nowhere Inn, was recently screened at Sundance.

It’s Annie Clark’s, aka St. Vincent’s, own efforts to make a documentary about herself and her onstage persona. And the third, directed by Alison Ellwood, is a feature about The Go-Go’s (simply titled The Go-Go’s), from their beginnings in the Los Angeles punk scene to their heyday as one of the top bands of the 1980s. It will be available on Showtime, though no date has been announced …

The annual Moogfest event, a synth extravaganza honoring Moog synthesizer inventor Robert “Bob” Moog, has long been a destination for keyboard players of a wide range of genres — until now. Canceled for 2020 due to “logistical reasons,” the fest was supposed to happen in Durham, North Carolina, this April. Organizers didn’t offer

MODERN

ROCK

BY KRISTI KATES

further reasons for the cancellation but said those with pre-purchased tickets can email the link at moogfest.com to receive a refund.

The organization behind the event also said they’re working on a future Moogfest event, but it’s not confirmed whether that will be a full festival or something in a smaller format …

Singer-songwriter M. Ward is returning this spring with his 10th solo album, Migration Stories, which will serve as the followup to his 2018 set, What a Wonderful Industry. The first single, “Migration of Souls,” features Ward singing over layered acoustic guitars and light saxophone riffs. The album, which features a plethora of instrumental breaks, was recorded in Quebec, Canada, with producers Craig Silvey and Teddy Impakt, as well as members of Arcade Fire.

Migration Stories will be in outlets on April 3 on Anti Records …

Brandon Flowers and The Killers have a new album on the way: Imploding the Mirage is due out this spring, just ahead of their biggest set of tour dates yet, throughout the U.K. and Ireland. The band’s also been sharing some of the album’s potential song titles on social media, with some of those being “Running Towards a Place,” “Lightning Fields,” “My Own Soul’s Warning,” and “Caution” …

Taylor Swift

LINK OF THE WEEK Gorillaz have launched a new music and video series called Song Machine, through which they’ll release new tunes throughout the year, as opposed to releasing a traditional album.

The first single of the project is “Momentary Bliss,” which you can hear (and see) for yourself at https://youtu.be/QTt7301PR5k …

THE BUZZ Rockford, Michigan singer-songwriter Tony Halchak has released his sixth album, Sing If You’re Willin’, which he calls his “own spin on Americana” …

Hayley Kiyoko is prepping for an

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Comments, questions, rants, raves, suggestions on this column? Send ’em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com.

REC

WEDNESDAY MARCH 4 • 5PM-7PM

upcoming concert appearance on Feb. 26 at The Fillmore in Detroit …

Fitz and the Tantrums will perform, with Twin XL as opening act, on March 1 at 20 Monroe Live in Grand Rapids …

Ann Arbor guitarist-singer and former The Voice finalist Laith Al-Saadi just performed his first-ever solo acoustic shows in Grand Rapids at the city’s new Listening Room venue … and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

HAPP

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Recess is brought to you by

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 21

The reel

by meg weichman

sonic the hedgehog birds of prey

W

hile DC Comic’s Suicide Squad was a film I think we all would rather forget, we can also probably agree that the only thing worth saving from that cinematic disaster was Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. And that she’s become such an overly sexualized, omnipresent pop culture icon also means that she’s ripe for her own expanding spinoff — especially one with a female gaze (courtesy of director Cathy Yan). The film finds Harley broken up from the Joker, and without his protection, all of Gotham is now coming after her.

This leads to Harley coming together with a very alternative girl gang of crime fighters. With a madcap energy, this goofy girl’s movie combines a nutso appeal with gory violence, and perhaps flies in the face of what DC devotees want from their Harley Quinn, but at the same time, I think that is precisely why it will be so enjoyable for everyone else.

So they actually did it. Those animators who slaved over a rushed redesign following outcry from Twitter upon release of the film’s first trailer, successfully transformed a very creepy and very human looking (those teeth!) Sonic the Hedgehog into something far more cuddly and friendly — and way less unsettling.

And then, through a series of ridiculous plot happenstance that involves a bear tranquilizer and the loss of Sonic’s magic rings, the film becomes a boring road-trip buddy comedy, wherein Sonic convinces small-town cop Tom to drive him to San Francisco (no matter that Sonic has the power to get there himself in the span of mere minutes).

Yet all that work was seemingly for naught, because while they might have fixed the CGI animation issue, I guess it was too much to ask that a similar amount of attention be put on the actual story. We have a more palatable Sonic, but we are left with a film that is nearly unwatchable. It is, in fact, unremarkably bad and bland, from its lame Uber jokes to its painful product placement (Olive Garden! Zillow!).

Yes, for a film supposedly about a super fast and inherently dynamic creature, the story is instead focused on two guys in a truck — one a babbling, unlikeable alien Hedgehog, the other a lame cop — making strained conversation as the miles slowly roll by. Poor Marsden, who is filling a role nearly identical to that of his work in the equally valueless CGI/live-action hybrid film Hop. He really seems to have all but given up. What I would give to see that raw footage without the CGI Sonic.

From its opening moments, it is clear from Sonic’s smart-alecky irreverence and ataudience winking that the film is very much trying to be in the vein of another video game adaptation, Ryan Reynolds’ Detective Pikachu.

But Ben Schwartz (voice of Sonic) is clearly no Reynolds, and while he is fine enough, when combined with the script’s canned jokes, he lacks the charisma to pull it off.

And so we get to know only a little about this incarnation of the popular SEGA video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. Differing from nearly every other piece of lore surrounding the speedy hero, this Sonic apparently is an alien. He was zooming around happily on some planet when evil beings descended upon his home in search of his speedy power.

A random owl named Longclaw, who seemed to be a mother figure of sorts, despite her never being seen or heard from again, gives Sonic some magic rings that will transport him to any place in the galaxy, then leaves him with these sage final words: “Never stop running.”

After years of jumping around the galaxy, Sonic has made a home in Green Hills, Montana.

And while he lives there in secret, known only to locals as a mythical “Blue Devil,” he believes himself to be friends with the sheriff, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), whom Sonic refers to as Donut Lord, even though Tom doesn’t know he exists.

One day Sonic unintentionally releases a surge of energy that causes a regional blackout, which catches the attention of the federal government.

Enter crazed genius Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), who will stop at nothing to find Sonic so he can uncover the source of Sonic’s power.

Sonic also creates a bucket list for the human experiences he wants to have before he leaves earth, featuring, of all things, starting a bar fight. And wouldn’t you know it, they happen to have one at a biker bar, which is about the last thing I was expecting from a kiddie videogame movie.

downhill

A

foreign film might have won the Academy Award for Best Picture (Parasite), but Hollywood still thinks mainstream audiences can’t overcome — as director Bong Joon Ho puts it — “the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles.” And so comes directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s (The Way, Way Back) remake of the dark Swedish comedy Force Majeure.

Ruben Östlund’s original film was a masterful look at the fragile male ego — gripping and subtle and brilliant. And through a process of adaptation for American audiences, you get a film with big stars, but that goes soft. Here, the comedy takes a broad, friendly, and much less incisive approach.

But the premise remains essentially the same. A well-to-do American couple (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell) and their two tween boys are taking a ski vacation in the Austrian Alps when a near-death experience causes their trip to take a very different turn. (In the face of what appeared to be an oncoming avalanche, Dad Pete basically grabbed his phone and ran, leaving his family alone.) But differences from the original aside, there are still a lot of very strong ingredients at work, with the film offering some penetrating moments of truth — and even more moments of laughter.

And to be clear, this is very much a children’s film. It panders way too much to kids and is not the work of millennial nostalgia you might have been expecting. There is very little in this film for anyone over the age of 13 to enjoy.

Things get a little less mundane in the action sequences, but those still play out like a derivative and creatively bankrupt take on X-Men: Days of Future Past’s “Time in Bottle” sequence, which so memorably played with the notion of a character with lightning speed skills in a fight.

In his first major film role since 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To, Jim Carrey really hams it up as a mustachioed Robotnik. He plays Robotnik like a guy who would tie a damsel to a train track, but armed with a drone army. It feels very much like the performances Carrey gave in the 1990s, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective, but it mostly just made me sad.

This is a film with very little joy and very little redeeming value. It’s unoriginal, uninspired, and, worse yet, ends with a setup for a sequel.

Which it will likely get. ’Cause, again, that this film is so unremarkably and merely par-for-thecourse bad, means it will probably be a big hit.

Meg Weichman is a perma-intern at the Traverse City Film Festival and a trained film archivist.

22 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

the assistant

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erhaps the first truly great movie of the #MeToo era, The Assistant follows one day in the office for the young female assistant of a high-powered Hollywood mogul who is clearly a stand-in for disgraced accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein. And while I will never be able to shake his victims’ testimony in Untouchable (the documentary about his rise and fall) for me The Assistant was even more effective in condemning not just the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, but everyone else who allowed it to happen and the systems and structure under which this behavior thrives. Director Kitty Green, known more for her documentary filmmaking in work like Casting Jon Benet, takes the focus off the idea of the “bad man.” You don’t even see or really hear “the boss” and we don’t know his name. Instead the focus is on Jane (the incredible Julia Gardner, fresh off a Golden Globe win for Ozark) on what at first seems like a rather standard day at the office. Her experience builds through some of the subtlest of details to something completely damning, ultimately revealing why it took so long for someone like Weinstein to be exposed.

nitelife

feb 22 - mar 01 edited by jamie kauffold

Send Nitelife to: events@traverseticker.com

Grand Traverse & Kalkaska

ACOUSTIC TAP ROOM, TC 2/22 -- Chris Michels, 8 2/24 -- Poets Meet Musicians, 6 2/28 -- The Pistil Whips, 8 GT DISTILLERY, TC 2/22 -- LYNN & the Moonshine Runners, 7-9 2/28 -- Dags und Timmah!, 7-9 HOTEL INDIGO, TC 2/22 -- Blake Elliott, 7-10 2/28 -- Elizabeth Landry, 7-10 2/29 -- Zeke Clemons, 7-10 KILKENNY'S, TC 2/22 -- Off Beat Band, 9:30 2/25 -- Levi Britton, 8 2/26 -- The Pocket, 8 2/27 -- 2Bays DJs, 9:30 2/28 -- Scarkazm, 9:30 2/29 -- Drew Hale, 9:30 LEFT FOOT CHARLEY, TC 2/24 -- Open Mic Night w/ Rob Coonrod, 6-9 2/28 -- John Piatek, 6-8 PARK PLACE HOTEL, TC BEACON LOUNGE: Thurs,Fri,Sat -- Tom Kaufmann, 8:30 PEARL'S, ELK RAPIDS 2/23 -- Mardi Gras w/ Toronzo Cannon, 6-9 2/24 -- Mardi Gras w/ The Drew

Hale Band, 6-9 2/25 – Fat Tuesday w/ Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials, 6-9 ROVE ESTATE VINEYARD & WINERY, TC 2/28 -- Drew Hale, 5-8 SAIL INN BAR & GRILL, TC Thurs. & Sat. -- Phattrax DJs & Karaoke, 9 STATE STREET MARKET, TC Thu -- Open Mic Night, 6-9 TAPROOT CIDER HOUSE, TC Fri. – Jazz Cabbage, 7-9 THE DISH CAFÉ, TC 2/22 – Mitch McKolay, 6 THE LITTLE FLEET, TC THE YURT: 2/24 -- Crane Wives (Duo), 6:309:30 THE PARLOR, TC 2/21-22 -- John Pomeroy, 8 2/25 -- Jimmy Olson, 4 2/26 -- Wink Solo, 8 2/27 -- Chris Smith, 8 2/29 -- Miriam Pico, 8 THE WORKSHOP BREWING CO., TC 2/22 -- Flylite Gemini, 8

Tue -- TC Celtic, 6:30 Wed -- Jazz Jam, 6-10 2/27 -- Big Fun Jam Band, 6; Rotten Cherries Comedy Open Mic, 8:30 2/28 -- Botala, 8 2/29 -- Leap Year Party feat. Jack Pine, 8 TURTLE CREEK CASINO, WILLIAMSBURG 2/22 -- Tim Thayer & Guests, 6 2/29 -- Chris Smith, 5; The Square Pegz, 8 UNION STREET STATION, TC 2/22 -- DJ Coven, 10 2/23 -- Head for the Hills Live Show, 10am-noon; then Karaoke, 10pm-2am 2/25 -- TC Comedy Collective, 8-9:30; then Open Mic w/ Kalvin Cronn & Jon Mangrum 2/26 -- DJ DomiNate, 10 2/27 -- The Chris Michels Band, 10 2/28 -- Happy Hour w/ Aaron Johnson; then Skin & Marshall Dance Party 2/29 -- Avid Kain, 10 3/1 -- Karaoke, 10 WEST BAY BEACH, A DELAMAR RESORT, TC 2/26 -- David Chown, 6:30-8:30 2/27 -- Jeff Haas Trio, 6-8:30

Emmet & Cheboygan BEARDS BREWERY, PETOSKEY 2/22 -- Vermeers Retrospective Show, 8-11 2/23 -- BB Celtic & Traditional Irish Session Players, 6-9 2/27 -- Open Mic Nite w/ Host Charlie Millard, 6-10 2/29 -- The Lavender Lions, 8-11 3/1 -- Katherine Ryan wsg John & Howard Ryan, 6-9 CITY PARK GRILL, PETOSKEY 2/22 -- Distant Stars/Jake Waire, 10 2/28 -- Annex Karaoke, 10

ETHANOLOGY, ELK RAPIDS 2/22 -- Flower Isle, 8 2/29 -- 80's Dance Party w/ DJ Franck, 8-11 HELLO VINO, BELLAIRE 2/23 -- The Winery Comedy Tour, 7 2/25-26 -- Doc Woodward, 7 LAKE STREET PUB, BOYNE CITY Weds. -- Mastermind's Trivia, 7-9

MAMMOTH DISTILLING, BELLAIRE 2/28 – Atwood Green Band, 7-10 PEARL'S, ELK RAPIDS 2/23 – Mardi Gras w/ Toronzo Cannon, 6-9 2/24 – Mardi Gras w/ The Drew Hale Band, 6-9 2/25 – Fat Tuesday w/ Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials, 6-9 SHORT'S BREWING CO., BELLAIRE 2/22 -- Bootstrap Boys, 8:30-11 2/28 -- Charlie Millard Band, 8:30-11 2/29 -- Myron Elkins, 8:30-11

ERNESTO'S CIGAR LOUNGE & BAR, PETOSKEY 2/28 -- Crosscut Kings, 8-11 KNOT JUST A BAR, BAY HARBOR Mon,Tues,Thurs — Live music

THE SIDE DOOR SALOON, PETOSKEY Sat. – Karaoke, 8

LEO’S NEIGHBORHOOD TAVERN, PETOSKEY Thurs — Karaoke w/ DJ Michael Willford, 10

Leelanau & Benzie THE 231 BAR & GRILL, THOMPSONVILLE 2/22 -- Roksavant, 8 BIG CAT BREWING CO., CEDAR 2/26 -- Elizabeth Landry, 6:308:30 CHERRY REPUBLIC, GLEN ARBOR PUBLIC HOUSE 2/28 -- Chris Skellenger & Doug Zernow, 5-8 CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, THOMPSONVILLE VISTA LOUNGE: 2/22 -- Drew Hale Band, 7-11 2/28-29 -- Treetops, 7-11 DICK’S POUR HOUSE, LAKE LEELANAU Sat. — Karaoke, 10-2

Antrim & Charlevoix CELLAR 152, ELK RAPIDS 2/22 -- Jazz Cabbage, 7-10 2/28 -- Blair Miller, 7-9 2/29 -- Leap Year Party w/ Abigail Stauffer, 7-10

NUB'S NOB, HARBOR SPRINGS NUB'S PUB: 2/22 -- Owen James, 3-6 2/29 -- Patrick Ryan, 3-6

2/29-3/1 -- Straits Shooters, 10

IRON FISH DISTILLERY, THOMPSONVILLE 2/22 -- Paul Livingston, 7-9 2/28 -- Steve Leaf, 7-9:30 2/29 -- Wink (Solo), 7-9:30 LAKE ANN BREWING CO. 2/25 -- Jim Hawley & Co., 6:309:30 2/26 -- Trivia Night, 7-9 2/27 -- Hugh Surname & the Passwords - Empire Emergency Fund Concert, 6:30-9:30 LEELANAU SANDS CASINO, PESHAWBESTOWN BIRCH ROOM: 2/22 -- Denise Davis & The Motor City Sensations, 8 SHOWROOM: 2/29 -- Boogie Dynomite, 8

LUMBERJACK'S BAR & GRILL, HONOR Fri & Sat -- Phattrax DJs & Karaoke, 9 ST. AMBROSE CELLARS, BEULAH 2/22 -- Chelsea Marsh, 6-9 2/25 -- Acoustic Open Jam, 5-7 2/27 -- Open Mic w/ Jim & Wanda Curtis, 6 2/28 -- Blake Elliott, 6-9 2/29 -- Maggie McCabe, 6-9 STORMCLOUD BREWING CO., FRANKFORT 2/22 -- A Brighter Bloom, 8-10 2/28 -- Chris Smith, 8-10 2/29 -- The Real Ingredients, 8-10

Otsego, Crawford & Central STIGGS BREWERY & KITCHEN, BOYNE CITY 2/22 – Under the Moon, 7 2/26 -- Open Mic, 7 2/28 -- Nelson Olstrom, 7 2/29 -- Holly Keller-Thompson, 7 TORCH LAKE CAFÉ, CENTRAL LAKE 1st & 3rd Mon. – Trivia, 7 Weds. -- Lee Malone Thurs. -- Open mic Fri. & Sat. – Ivan Greilick & Leanna Collins 2nd Sun. -- Pine River Jazz

ALPINE TAVERN & EATERY, GAYLORD Sat -- Live Music, 6-9 BELLE IRON GRILLE, GAYLORD 2/22 -- Darrell Boger Solo, 8 2/29 -- Yankee Station, 8:30

BENNETHUM'S NORTHERN INN, GAYLORD 2/25 -- Nelson Olstrom, 5-8 2/26 -- Greg Vadnais Quartet, 5-8

GAYLORD Wed -- Karaoke, 7 TAP ROOM 32, GAYLORD 2/28 -- Wixie Harrington, 7

IRON PIG SMOKEHOUSE,

Manistee, Wexford & Missaukee NORTH CHANNEL BREWING CO., MANISTEE 2/25 -- Mardi Gras Celebration, 4 2/28 -- The Real Ingredients, 7 Mon Feb 24- $5 martinis, $5 domestic

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Tues - $2 well drinks & shots 8-9:30 TC Comedy Collective

Then: Open Mic w/Kalvin Cronn & Jon Mangrum

Wed - Get it in the can night - $1 domestic, $3 craft w/DJ DomiNate

Thurs -$2 off all drinks and $2 Labatt drafts w/The Chris Michels Band

Fri Feb 28 - Buckets of Beer starting at $8 (2-8pm) Happy Hour: Aaron Johnson Then: Skin & Marshall Dance Party

Sat Feb 29 - Avid Kain Sunday March 1

KARAOKE ( 10pm-2am) 941-1930 downtown TC check us out at unionstreetstationtc.net

Northern Express Weekly • february 24, 2020 • 23

aSTRO

lOGY

harbor desires for experiences that might be gratifying in some ways but draining in others. If you’re like most of us, you may on occasion get attached to situations that are mildly interesting, but divert you from situations that could be amazingly interesting and enriching. The good news, Pisces, is that you are now in a phase when you have maximum power to wean yourself from these wasteful tendencies. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to identify your two or three most important and exciting longings—and take a sacred oath to devote yourself to them above all other wishes and hopes.

was 29 years old, Sagittarian composer Ludwig Beethoven published his String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4. Most scholars believe that the piece was an assemblage of older material he had created as a young man. A similar approach might work well for you in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. I invite you to consider the possibility of repurposing tricks and ideas that weren’t quite ripe when you first used them. Recycling yourself makes good sense.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Are there

"I'm No Saint"--shot out of the canon. by Matt Jones

ACROSS

1 “You’re the Worst” star Chris 6 Gadot of “Wonder Woman” 9 DJ’s output 14 Pentium company 15 Have regret 16 Positive terminal 17 Liquid extracted from beer brewed by quarterback Elway?

19 Be indecisive 20 Margarine substitute 21 Dodge 23 Quagmire 24 Musical ability 25 Recognize 26 Cookies in sleeves 28 British actor Garfield is angry?

32 Item thrown by Olympic athletes 35 They’re attracted to sugar 36 Compete 37 Work badge, e.g.

38 NBA tiebreakers 39 “That should do it” 41 Abbr. in want ads denoting fair hiring 42 Clothing company founded in Queens 44 Disallowed 45 Sandwich grill belonging to comedian Short?

48 Movement started on social media in 2006 49 Bale stuff 50 Mini-menace 53 “No Ordinary Love” singer 55 ___-Kettering Institute 57 “Million Dollar ___” (2006 “Simpsons” episode featuring Homer’s dad) 58 Desktop images 60 Result of an arson investigation on Sesame Street?

62 Got up 63 20-20, e.g.

64 Brownish eye color 65 “The Post” star Streep 66 Ken Jennings has four of them 67 Rub out

DOWN 1 Action figure with kung-fu grip 2 “Waterworld” girl with a map on her back 3 It’ll knock you out 4 Slot machine city 5 Chicago transit trains 6 President Cleveland 7 Invisible vibes 8 Disappointments 9 Like some sugar 10 Beguile 11 Gets out of the way 12 Time to “beware” 13 Gen ___ (post-boom kids) 18 Mary Louise Parker Showtime series 22 Lead-in to “while” 25 Like some shirts or pajamas 27 Molly’s cousin 28 Healthcare.gov statute, briefly 29 Completely consume 30 “Your Majesty” 31 Everything bagel bit 32 Per ___ 33 Notion 34 Winter house protection 38 Antiquated 40 Day planner divs.

43 Ones, in Juarez 44 “Helps stop gas before it starts” product 46 Microscopic 47 Actor Ving of “Pulp Fiction” 50 Resort island near Majorca 51 Boggy areas 52 “Get Out” director Jordan 53 “Anna and the King of ___” 54 Part of a parcel, perhaps 56 “Chocolat” actress Lena 57 “Bearing gifts, we traverse ___” 59 Poutine seasoning?

61 “___-Hulk” (upcoming Disney+ series)

24 • february 24, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

BY ROB BREZSNY

PISCES (Feb 19-March 20): If you’re like most of us, you

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) When he

“Jonesin” Crosswords

FEB 24 - MARCH 01

parts of your life that seem to undermine other parts of your life? Do you wish there was greater harmony between your heart and your head, between your giving and your taking, between your past and your future? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could infuse your cautiousness with the wildness of your secret self? I bring these questions to your attention, Capricorn, because I suspect you’re primed to address them with a surge of innovative energy. Here’s my prediction: Healing will come as you juxtapose apparent opposites and unite elements that have previously been unconnected.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When he was 19, the young poet Robert Graves joined the British army to fight in World War I. Two years later, the Times of London newspaper reported that he had been killed at the Battle of the Somme in France. But it wasn’t true. Graves was very much alive, and continued to be for another 69 years. During that time, he wrote 55 books of poetry, 18 novels, and 55 other books. I’m going to be bold and predict that this story can serve as an apt metaphor for your destiny in the coming weeks and months. Some dream or situation or influence that you believed to be gone will in fact have a very long second life filled with interesting developments.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may sometimes

reach a point where you worry that conditions are not exactly right to pursue your dreams or fulfill your holy quest. Does that describe your current situation? If so, I invite you to draw inspiration from Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), who’s regarded as one of history’s foremost novelists. Here’s how one observer described Cervantes during the time he was working on his masterpiece, the novel titled Don Quixote: “shabby, obscure, disreputable, pursued by debts, with only a noisy tenement room to work in.” Cervantes dealt with imperfect conditions just fine.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “True success is

figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks,” says Taurus filmmaker, actor, and author John Waters. I trust that you have been intensely cultivating that kind of success in the last few weeks, Taurus—and that you will climax this wondrous accomplishment with a flourish during the next few weeks. You’re on the verge of achieving a new level of mastery in the art of immersing yourself in environments that bring out the best in you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I would love for

you to become more powerful, Gemini—not necessarily in the sense of influencing the lives of others, but rather in the sense of managing your own affairs with relaxed confidence and crisp competence. What comes to mind when I urge you to expand your self-command and embolden your ambition? Is there an adventure you could initiate that would bring out more of the swashbuckler in you?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): For my

Cancerian readers in the Southern Hemisphere, this oracle will be in righteous alignment with the natural flow of the seasons. That’s because February is the hottest, laziest, most spacious time of year in that part of the world—a logical moment to take a lavish break from the daily rhythm and escape on a vacation or pilgrimage designed to provide relaxation and renewal. Which is exactly what I’m advising for all of the earth’s Cancerians, including those in the Northern Hemisphere. So for those of you above the equator, I urge you to consider thinking like those below the equator. If you can’t get away, make a blanket fort in your home and pretend. Or read a book that takes you on an imaginary journey. Or hang out at an exotic sanctuary in your hometown.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo author Walter Scott

(1771–1832) was a pioneer in the genre of the historical novel. His stories were set in various eras of the Scottish past. In those pre-telephone and pre-Internet days, research was a demanding task. Scott traveled widely to gather tales from keepers of the oral tradition. In accordance with current astrological omens, Leo, I recommend that you draw inspiration from Scott’s old-fashioned approach. Seek out direct contact with the past. Put yourself in the physical presence of storytellers and elders. Get first-hand knowledge about historical events that will inspire your thoughts about the future of your life story.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Over a period of 40 years, the artist Rembrandt (1606–1663) gazed into a mirror as he created more than ninety self-portraits—about ten percent of his total work. Why? Art scholars don’t have a definitive answer. Some think he did self-portraits because they sold well. Others say that because he worked so slowly, he himself was the only person he could get to model for long periods. Still others believe this was his way of cultivating selfknowledge, equivalent to an author writing an autobiography. In the coming weeks, I highly recommend that you engage in your personal equivalent of extended mirror-gazing. It’s a favorable time to understand yourself better.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): From author Don

DeLillo’s many literary works, I’ve gathered five quotes to serve as your guideposts in the coming weeks. These observations are all in synchronistic alignment with your current needs.

1. Sometimes a thing that’s hard is hard because you’re doing it wrong. 2. You have to break through the structure of your own stonework habit just to make yourself listen. 3. Something is always happening, even on the quietest days and deep into the night, if you stand a while and look. 4. The world is full of abandoned meanings. In the commonplace, I find unexpected themes and intensities. 5. What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

ScORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I remember

a time when a cabbage could sell itself just by being a cabbage,” wrote Scorpio author Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944). “Nowadays it’s no good being a cabbage—unless you have an agent and pay him a commission.” He was making the point that for us humans, it’s not enough to simply become good at a skill and express that skill; we need to hire a publicist or marketing wizard or distributor to make sure the world knows about our offerings.

Generally, I agree with Giradoux’s assessment. But I think that right now it applies to you only minimally. The coming weeks will be one of those rare times when your interestingness will shine so brightly, it will naturally attract its deserved attention.

Your motto, from industrialist Henry J. Kaiser: “When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.”

the ADViCE GOddESS Grisly Bare

Q

: I hooked up with a really good friend a few times. We both agreed to forget about it to preserve our friendship, but he’s been really distant. I don’t want to be the one to reach out and say something. How do I get things back to normal?

— Upset Woman

A

: Sure, they say a really good friend is someone who knows everything about you — though, ideally, stopping short of how your sex face is a ringer for a pug having a seizure.

Chances are, this stretch of awkward silence between you has two interconnected causes: 1. “Eek, too much naked!” with somebody who isn’t a romantic partner, and 2. The fog of uncertainty over what sort of relationship you and he now have.

Problem 1, “Eek, too much naked!” comes out of how, when you two “just friends” hooked up, you abruptly and unwittingly vaulted across the boundaries of friendship into romantic territory. Major features of a romantic relationship — an intimate relationship — are vulnerability and openness. We look to find someone we can trust with our most embarrassing flaws and deepest fears, along with other stuff we don’t put out to the world with a bullhorn: “Hey, everybody on this bus, let’s have a chat about what I like in bed!”

Sex tends to feel less like sexual overshare after the fact if it was preceded by some starter romance — talking flirty, lite touchyfeely, making cartoon heart eyes at each other.

This stuff signals a transition to a deeper relationship (or at least sincere hopes of one).

However, when we get naked without any romantic prep, our feeling weirded out — overly exposed — probably comes out of our evolved motivation to protect our reputation: our public image, the sort of person others perceive us to be. Back in the harsh, 7-Elevenand Airbnb-free ancestral environment that shaped the psychology still driving us today, our social survival and, in turn, our physical survival were dependent on whether people believed we were a good person and somebody good to keep around.

Welcome to the origins of our longing for privacy — to keep some info about ourselves out of the public eye (everyone we don’t) have intimate relationships with) and to manicure

BY Amy Alkon

the info we do release. Social psychologist Mark Leary refers to this as “impression management.” Others’ evaluations of us affect how we’re perceived and treated, so, Leary explains, we’re driven to “behave in ways that will create certain impressions in others’ eyes.” Regrettably, it’s difficult to keep up the role of steely image manager while naked and barking like a coked-up elephant seal.

Moving on to problem 2, the fog of uncertainty over what sort of relationship you and this guy now have, getting naked together is also a defining act of sorts — or rather, a possibly redefining one. Before you two had sex, your relationship was clearly defined as a friendship.

There’s comfort in this sort of clarity. It’s like a sign over a business. When we see “Laundromat,” we know what to expect, and it isn’t Thai takeout or stripper poles, watereddown $20 drinks, and loose glitter.

SANDWICHES • SALADS • SOUPS

Right now, there’s probably an uncomfortable question looming over the two of you: Does one want more of a relationship -— a romantic relationship — than the other’s up for providing? Psychologist Steven Pinker explains that people get uneasy when they’ve had one type of relationship with somebody — say, a friendship — and they aren’t sure whether that person wants a different type of relationship. A changed relationship has changed terms and behaviors that go with it, and they need to know which set they’re supposed adhere to.

And sure, you do say you both agreed to ditch the sex to preserve the friendship, but people say lots of things, because it’s not like a dude in some control room somewhere gives us an electric shock whenever we tell a lie.

Ask yourself whether you might want more than a friendship. If so, figure out whether you want it enough (and whether it’s possible enough) to risk making it too uncomfortable to remain friends — which could happen.

If friendship is really all you want, you don’t have to “reach out and say something.” In general, guys don’t want to talk about it; they just want life to go on. And there’s your answer.

Start asking this guy to do “just friends” things, like hanging out with you and other amigos. To stay on the clothed and narrow, schedule these outings at “just friends” times — in unsexy bright daylight — and in “just friends” locations: places you’d get arrested if you stripped down to “Yo...check out the wild birthmark that looks like Lawrence of Arabia crossing my labia on a camel!”

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