NUVO: Indy's Alternative Voice - February 21, 2018

VOL. 29 ISSUE 49 ISSUE #1300

VOICES / 3 NEWS / 4 THE BIG STORY / 7 ARTS / 12 FOOD / 16 MUSIC / 18 // SOCIAL

What is your ideal taco?

AJ White

Kurt DeKemper

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Anything but Taco Bell

Paul Bunyan Taco from Roscoe’s Tacos Franklin

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Chicken, soft tortilla, onions, and cilantro with some hot sauce.

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Too Black

IN THIS ISSUE

SOUNDCHECK ....................................... 20 BARFLY ..................................................... 20 FREE WILL ASTROLOGY.................... 23

16

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Sorry, I’m just here for the margaritas.

A Korean barbecue taco

I’ll be joining Paul

One inserted into my mouth.

Black Eye Take Out

IN NEXT WEEK

INDIANA CONSIDERS INDUSTRIAL HEMP By: Abrahm Hurt

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Idk, I’m still singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ from last week

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A chocolate taco

FILM EDITOR: Ed Johnson-Ott, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: David Hoppe, CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Wayne Bertsch, Mark Sheldon, Mark A. Lee, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rita Kohn, Kyle Long, Dan Savage, Renee Sweany, Mark A. Lee, Alan Sculley DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT: Mel Baird, Lawrence Casey, Jr., Bob Covert, Mike Floyd, Zach Miles, Steve Reyes, Harold Smith, Bob Soots, Ron Whitsit, Dick Powell and Terry Whitthorne WANT A PRINT SUBSCRIPTION IN YOUR MAILBOX EVERY WEEK? Mailed subscriptions are available at $129/year or $70/6 months and may be obtained by emailing kfahavin@nuvo.net. // The current issue of NUVO is free and available every Wednesday. Past issues are at the NUVO office for $3 if you come in, $4.50 mailed.

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12

Laura McPhee

PRESS SINCE 1990

DAVID HOPPE has been writing columns for NUVO for over 20 years.

THE BEACH IS FOR US T

BY DAVID HOPPE // DHOPPE@NUVO.NET

he Indiana Supreme Court’s ruling that the state’s Lake Michigan beaches belong to the people — and not just those people with enough money to purchase property abutting those beaches — is a much-needed win for community.

The beach in question happens to be in the town where I live, with the appropriate (if unoriginal) name of Long Beach. Fewer than 1,200 people are fulltime residents here. The town was incorporated in the 1920s, when going to the beach was called “bathing.” Since then, generations of folks — many of them Chicagoans — have flocked to what, in summer, can feel uncannily like a Midwestern version of a Mediterranean atmosphere.

At a time when it increasingly seems as though there’s nothing in this country that money (lots of it) can’t buy, the Supreme Court’s unanimous 4-0 decision plants a flag on the side of commonwealth. The beach, the judges effectively said, belongs to all of us.

This was also a win for history. According to the court’s finding, written by Justice Mark Massa, the land between what’s considered the ordinary high water mark and continuing into and under the waters of Lake Michigan has been held in trust for the people of Indiana since the state’s inception in 1816. Justice Massa found the historical basis of this trust in ancient English common law, the U.S. Constitution and the Indiana Code. Until the state legislature decides otherwise, wrote Massa, the beach along Lake Michigan is community property.

This is what the Long Beach Community Alliance (LBCA), in league with one the state’s oldest environmental advocacy groups, Save the Dunes, Indiana University’s Conservation Law Center, and the Alliance for the Great Lakes, has argued from the start. It’s a big deal because as those who live along the lake have seen in recent years, the pressure for money to push history and

community values aside in favor of private interests, favoring the few at the expense of the many, has been unrelenting. Too often, local boards and governing bodies have acquiesced to this pressure for fear of incurring the financial burdens associated with the kind of bullying litigation that the deep pockets of private owners can bring to bear.

That’s what makes this ruling doubly sweet. Had it not been for the Long Beach Community Alliance, a local citizens’ uprising, funded by grassroots donations, the assertion of private control over public property would almost certainly have prevailed. Money, pure and simple, made the legal and historical baselessness of that assertion powerful. But public determination, over years, to not accept this affront has been rewarded.

My wife and I joined the LBCA in 2012, when we first heard about this fight. At first blush, it seemed the odds were stacked against us. This is Indiana, after all, a place where private property rights can, at times, seem the holiest of holies. But, in their ruling, the state’s Supremes honored a still higher principle: the rule of law.

It is important to note here that not once in this arduous journey through the courts was the fundamental issue of the public’s right to access the Lake Michigan beaches ever overturned by a judge. We won every time. It is also worth noting that the people didn’t ask for this fight. None of this would have happened had the Gundersons, the private property owners who originally brought the case, not felt emboldened to overreach, claiming a right to land that existed only in their imaginations.

There might, in other words, have been a way to resolve whatever issues prompted the original suit amicably. But, sadly, we live in an era when, to paraphrase an old saying, money doesn’t talk, it bludgeons.

And that’s yet another reason to celebrate the Indiana Supreme Court decision: Not this time. The beach is for everyone. N For more opinion pieces visit nuvo.net/voices

NUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // VOICES // 3

CITY COUNCIL DRAMA CONCLUDES Vop Osili elected new council president

BY MICHAEL DABNEY // NEWS@NUVO.NET

S

tephen Clay may have marched in with the roar of a lion, but he left with barely a whimper.

Now the Indianapolis City-County Council is looking to restore the public’s trust under the leadership of Vop Osili, a popular Democrat who was immediately congratulated by his Republican counterpart following his election Monday night as Council president.

Osili said the past six weeks had “shaken the confidence of constituents” following a palace coup staged by Clay. But he was looking to move the Council forward.

“I plan to sit down with my colleagues to set priorities for moving forward,” he said, adding that his focus would be on “public safety, infrastructure, and economic and workforce development.”

“There is hard work ahead, without a doubt. Our Council has shaken the confidence of our constituents,” Osili said. “But it’s time we move as one. It’s time to get back to business.”

Many in the clearly partisan crowd in Council chambers were ready to give Osili a chance.

“There are so many hot city issues we need to work on,” said Lamar Holliday, 30, of Indianapolis, who was attending his first City Council meeting. “But I feel that he (Osili) has the support from both sides to get things done.”

And at least initially, it appeared as if it could happen. Osili was elected unanimously. The crowd then gave him a standing ovation.

Afterwards, Democrats were failing over with praise for Osili, who is in his second term on City Council. “He has the respect of the older guys (in City Council) and is liked by the younger folks,” said one Democratic city worker who asked to remain anonymous.

Republicans seemed relieved that open

VOP OSILI, NEW CITY-COUNTY COUNCIL PRESIDENT // PHOTO BY ASHLEY SHULER

warfare in the Democratic caucus apFair representation had been a sticking peared to be over. point with GOP members in the last two “It’s been a crazy six weeks,” said Demyears, McQuillen said. ocrat Maggie Lewis, who for five years Democrats have a 14-11 City Council served as Council president until earlier advantage, and thus control business this year. “I believe it is important to take and committee appointments in Marion the time to heal.”

County’s generally quiet GOP Minority leader legislative body.

Michael McQuillen im“It’s time we move as But issues that had mediately shook Osili’s been simmering under one. It’s time to get hand and gave him a the surface for some hug after the election. back to business.” time exploded into pub“He (Osili) is a really — VOP OSILI, lic view on Jan. 8 when CITY-COUNCIL PRESIDENT good choice for DemoClay, also a Democrat, crats and Republicans,” staged a coup. With the McQuillen said. “He’s a hard worker and he’s aid of four of his fellow Democrats and fair-minded. He’s been sympathetic to our nine Republicans, Clay was elected Counconcerns and shown a willingness to work cil president, ousting Lewis. with us (Republicans) for fair representation.”

The reaction was both swift and severe.

4 // NEWS // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

Council Vice President Zach Adamson termed Clay’s actions as “morally bankrupt.”

Some Democratic insiders promised political retribution for the Council Democrats who supported Clay’s election and threatened to mount primary election challenges against them.

At first, Clay hunkered down, showing no signs he intended to give up without a fight. He appointed Republicans to chair three key committees and dismissed three Council staffers. One of those fired was Fred Biesecker, the Council’s parliamentarian who ruled that a motion by Democrats to vote on Clay’s removal as president could go forward.

Clay had sought to move the issue to the Ethics Committee, which was chaired

by McQuillen, a Republican whom Clay had appointed to the position. Democrats expelled Clay from their caucus and several filed suit against him regarding the dismissals.

Clay did not include a motion for his removal on the Feb. 19, meeting agenda, thus setting the stage for an ugly public battle. But 15 minutes before the Council meeting, Clay announced he was resigning his leadership position and would support Osili’s election for president.

“This is in the best interest of this Council,” he said, adding that he wanted an orderly transition of power.

While support for Osili’s election had been building behind the scenes for several weeks, it wasn’t until hours before the Council meeting that Clay reached out to Osili, indicating his intention to resign and support Osili.

And thus what could have been a nasty situation slipped by as Clay quietly walked away to allow Osili’s election.

Osili said a decision on committee assignments could come by the end of the week. N

NUVO.NET/NEWS

LOCAL WOMEN FOR POLITICAL REFORM New group stresses inclusion and civility

BY KATJA KRASNOVSKY // NEWS@NUVO.NET

T

here’s an African proverb that says, “If you want to walk fast, walk alone.

If you want to walk far, walk together.” Walking together and going the distance are what a new civil rights group in Indiana says they’ve set out to do.

Rabbi Sandy Sasso and Jennifer Nelson Williams, co-founders of Women4Change Indiana, were struck by the rhetoric and hate that seemed to engulf the 2016 presidential election and the feelings of helplessness many women felt afterwards. So the two decided to take matters into their own hands and seek a solution.

Following the election, they held a panel discussion to gauge interest and options for forming a new coalition of women wanting to change the political landscape. Initially hoping for 50 attendees, Sasso and Williams were surprised to find approximately 900 people from all over the state interested in participating, ranging from Hoosier women to local politicians. The event even attracted coverage from the BBC. After that first event Sasso and Williams created Women4Change, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advocating for the “leadership, health, safety, and dignity of all women in Indiana.” A steering committee was formed and, eventually, a board of directors appointed.

Crucial to the organization’s mission and a core value it hopes to restore to political discussions is civility. It’s so important to the group, they incorporated a “Civility Pledge” for members to model within the group and as individuals based on four simple principles: “to be civil and respectful in my public discourse and behavior; to honor the dignity of others, whether in agreement or disagreement; to respond to incivility and speak up in the presence of name-calling, stereotypes, slander and slurs; and to do this for the sake of our children, for the healing of our country, for the future of democracy and for peace.”

EVENT // Women Like Us WHEN // Sunday, Feb. 25 WHERE // IMAX at Indiana State Museum Women4Change Indiana is co-sponsoring a screening of the documentary, Women Like

Us - Three Journeys. One Mission. To Change the World from Executive Producer Linda Rendleman and Co-Producer Catt Sadler this Sunday at the Indiana State Museum.

“This story follows three women on a moving journey of exploration, adversity, and evolution, in addition to witnessing the unimaginable social injustices women face around the globe. Award-winning jourWOMEN FOR CHANGE LEADERS AND SUPPORTERS AT THE WOMAN’S MARCH INDIANAPOLIS, JAN. 21, 2018 //

nalist Catt Sadler and activist/author and co-founder of Women Like Us Foundation, along with Sally Colon, film director, travel

“We believe we need to be together as women in order to make any kind of changes and to respect one another and to find ways we can link hands,” Sasso says.

“We strongly believe that when women’s voices come to the table — all women — there is a diplomacy, and a desire to compromise and negotiate so that everyone feels as though their voices have been heard,” says Williams.

“I think we need to walk far,” says Sasso, referring back to the proverb. “We have a lot to do and it’s not going to be done in a day, and the only way we’re going to do it is be together.”

The initial panel discussion uncovered four issues heavy on attendees’ minds: immigration, women’s health, civility and gerrymandering. These four pillars eventually became the number “4” in the organization’s title.

The group took on one of those issues this legislative session by advocating for the passage of a tangible Indiana Hate Crimes Bill - Senate Bill 418, which would provide tougher laws and stricter penalties for crimes in which a victim’s sexual orientation, race, religion or gender identification

makes them a target. Proponents argued that not just one person is threatened by hate crimes, but rather an entire group.

“These are all things that hold Indiana back. It is a human issue. It is a woman’s issue…But it’s also a fiscal issue,” Williams says. “One would be hesitant to select a state that is not friendly to all of its residents.”

“There’s a loss of civility,” says Rima Shahid, Executive Director of Women4Change, about the bill. “There’s a loss of that human connection. But even if you were just to strip that away, I think that by not protecting its citizens, Indiana loses economically, as well.

And until our state can protect all of her citizens, we will continue to be on the wrong side of history.”

In addition to being one of just five states without a hate crimes bill (the others being South Carolina, Georgia, Wyoming and Arkansas) Indiana also had one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the nation, ranks among the lowest in women representatives in government, and has one of the largest wage gaps in the nation.

“This is not something we should be proud of,” says Shahid. “These are not

the US and Kenya to engage in conversations with astounding women tackling unimaginable social injustices such as female genital mutilation, human trafficking, teen suicide, homelessness and more.”

Tickets are $15 for the film and $40 for the VIP Media Reception and are both available through the IMAX theater. Visit womenlikeusfoundation.org for more on the film.

things that put Indiana ahead.”

“To ignore something that is of critical importance to the majority of one’s residents, it’s short-sighted,” says Williams. “It’s misogynistic.”

Organizers say the response to Women4Change has been extremely positive and that energy is clear in the support they’ve already received. “There were so many incredible women in the state of Indiana who felt like their voices hadn’t been heard and who have dedicated themselves, their energy, their time, and their talent, to making sure we’re successful,” says Williams.

To learn more about Women4Change Indiana, visit women4changeindiana.org. N NUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // NEWS // 5

FACEBOOK’S REIGN OF TERROR Local news vs. Fake news: THE BATTLE CONTINUES STORY BY DANIEL WALTERS | ILLUSTRATIONS BY JEFF DREW // EDITOR@NUVO.NET

A

s with any toxic relationship, the possibility of a breakup sparks feelings of terror — and maybe a little bit of a relief.

That’s the spot that Facebook has put the news business in. Last month, the social media behemoth announced it would once again alter its News Feed algorithm to show users even more posts from their friends and family, and a lot fewer from media outlets.

The move isn’t all that surprising. Since the 2016 election, Facebook’s been under siege for creating a habitat where fake news stories flourished. Their executives were dragged before Congress last year to testify about how they sold ads to Russians who wanted to influence the U.S. election, and so, in some ways, it’s simply easier to get out of the news business altogether.

But for the many news outlets that have come to rely on Facebook funneling readers to their sites, the impact of a separation sounds catastrophic.

“The End of the Social News Era?” a New York Times headline asked. “Facebook is breaking up with news,” an ad for the new BuzzFeed app proclaimed.

When a giant like Facebook takes a step — until recently, the social media site had been sending more traffic to news outlets than Google — the resulting quake can cause an entire industry to crumble.

Consumers, meanwhile, have grimaced as their favorite media outlets have stooped to sensational headlines to lure Facebook’s web traffic. They’ve become disillusioned by the flood of hoaxes and conspiracy theories that have run rampant on the site.

A Knight Foundation/Gallup poll released last month revealed that only a third of Americans had a positive view of the me-

dia. About 57 percent said that websites or apps using algorithms to determine which news stories readers see was a major problem for democracy. Two-thirds believed the media being “dramatic or too sensational in order to attract more readers or viewers” was a major problem.

Now, sites that rely on Facebook’s algorithm have watched the floor drop out from under them when the algorithm is changed — all while Facebook has gobbled up chunks of print advertising revenue.

It’s all landed media outlets in a hell of a quandary: It sure seems like Facebook

is killing journalism. But can journalism survive without it?

It’s a question we’ve been facing here at NUVO. Like so many others we’ve used Facebook as a direct channel for reaching readers and sharing content. But with the constant changes to algorithms, Facebook is no longer a reliable tool for getting our message out.

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT When Facebook first launched its “News Feed” in 2006, it ironically didn’t have

anything to do with news. At least, not how we think of it. This was the website that still posted a little broken-heart icon when you changed your status from “In a Relationship” to “Single.”

The News Feed was intended to be a list of personalized updates from your friends.

When Facebook was talking about “news stories,” it meant, in the words of Facebook’s announcement, like “when Mark adds Britney Spears to his Favorites or when your crush is single again.”

But in 2009, Facebook introduced its iconic “like” button. Soon, instead of showing posts in chronological order, the News Feed began showing you the popular posts first.

And that made all the difference.

Facebook didn’t invent going viral — grandmas with AOL accounts were forwarding funny emails and chain letters when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was still in grade school — but its algorithm amplified it. Well-liked posts soared.

Unpopular posts simply went unseen.

Google had an algorithm too. So did YouTube.

Journalists were given a new directive: If you wanted readers to see your stories, you had to play by the algorithm’s rules. Faceless, mystery formulas had replaced the stodgy newspaper editor as the gatekeeper of information.

So when the McClatchy Company — a chain that owns 31 daily papers including the Tacoma News Tribune and the Bellingham Herald — launched its reinvention strategy last year, knowing how to get Facebook traffic was central.

“Facebook has allowed us to get our journalism out to hundreds of millions more people than it would have otherNUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // THE BIG STORY // 7

The Big Story Continued...

wise,” says McClatchy’s Vice President of News Tim Grieve, a fast-talking former Politico editor. “It has forced us, and all publishers, to sharpen our game to make sure we’re writing stories that connect with people.”

With digital ad rates tied to web traffic, the incentives in the modern media landscape could be especially perverse: Write short, write lots. Pluck heartstrings or stoke fury.

In short, be more like Upworthy. A site filled with multi-sentence emotion-baiting headlines, Upworthy begged you to click by promising that you would be shocked, outraged or inspired — but not telling you why. (One example: “His first 4 sentences are interesting. The 5th blew my mind. And made me a little sick.”)

By November of 2013, Upworthy was pulling in 88 million unique visitors a month.

With Facebook’s help, the formula spread.

Even magazines like Time and Newsweek — storied publications that sent photojournalists to war zones — began pumping out articles like, “Does Reese Witherspoon Have 3 Legs on Vanity Fair’s Cover?” and “Trump’s Hair Loss Drug Causes Erectile Dysfunction.”

Newsweek’s publisher went beyond clickbait; the magazine was actually buying traffic through pirated video sites, allegedly engaging in ad fraud.

On Monday this week, Newsweek senior writer Matthew Cooper resigned in disgust after several Newsweek editors and reporters who’d written about the publisher’s series of scandals were fired. He heaped contempt on an organization that had installed editors who “recklessly sought clicks at the expense of accuracy, retweets over fairness” and left him “despondent not only for Newsweek but for the other publications that don’t heed the lessons of this publication’s fall.”

Mathew Ingram, who covers digital media for Columbia Journalism Review, says such tactics might increase traffic for a while.

But readers hate it. Sleazy tabloid shortcuts gives you a sleazy tabloid reputation.

“Short-term you can make a certain amount of money,” Ingram says. “Longterm you’re basically setting fire to your brand.”

One strategy throughout the industry CLICKBAIT AND SWITCH is to downplay the location of a story: Plenty of media outlets have tried to readers in other markets are more likely build their business on the foundation of to click if they don’t know it happened the News Feed algorithm. But they quickly thousands of miles away. got a nasty surprise: That foundation can Robinson, the veteran Tacoma News collapse in an instant.

Tribune reporter, says local cops have comAs Facebook’s News Feed became plained about crime stories from elsewhere choked with links to Upworthy and its that were being horde of imitators, shared on Facebook the social network by local TV stations “Facebook has allowed us declared war on without context It tweaked to get our journalism out to clickbait.

— worrying local its algorithms, which readers were being hundreds of millions more proved catastrophic misled into thinking people than it would have for“ItUpworthy. they happened in keeps changTacoma. otherwise.” “It has forced ing,” Ingram says, Grieve, the Mc“Even if the algous, and all publishers, to Clatchy executive, rithm was bad in says that he doesn’t sharpen our game.” some way, at least if ever want to senit’s predictable, you sationalize a story.

— TIM GRIEVE could adapt.”

But he also says that Much of the time, “internet and social media are noisy placFacebook and Google don’t announce their es,” and papers have to sell their stories shifts up front. Media outlets often have aggressively to be heard over the din. had to reverse-engineer the changes, be“If you’re writing stories that aren’t fore issuing new commands to their troops getting read,” Grieve says, “you’re not a in the field. journalist — you’re keeping a journal.”

“Oh, they changed their algorithm again?” Robinson says. “Oh, what is it today, coach? OK, it’s 50-word [headlines] instead of 60?”

A pattern emerged. Step 1: Media outlets reinvent themselves for Facebook. Step 2: Facebook makes that reinvention obsolete.

Big publishers leaped at the chance to publish “Instant Articles” directly on Facebook, only to find that the algorithm soon changed, rewarding videos more than posts and rendering Instant Articles largely obsolete. So publishers like Mic. com, Mashable and Vice News “pivoted to video,” laying off dozens of journalists in the process.

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“Then Facebook said they weren’t as interested in video anymore,” Ingram says.

“Classic bait and switch.”

Which brings us to the latest string of announcements: The News Feed, Zuckerberg announced last month, had skewed too far in the direction of social video posts from national media pages and too far away from personal posts from friends and family.

They were getting back to their roots.

And now, news organizations who’d dumped a lot of money into eye-catching pre-recorded video would suffer the most under the latest algorithm changes, Facebook’s News Feed VP Adam Mosseri told TechCrunch last month, because “video is such a passive experience.”

Even before the announcement, news sites had seen their articles get fewer and fewer hits from Facebook. Last year, Google once again became the biggest referrer of news traffic as Facebook referrals decreased.

Many sites published tutorials pleading with their readers to manually change their Facebook settings to guarantee the site’s appearance in their news feeds.

“Some media outlets saw their [Facebook] traffic decline by as much as 30 to 40 percent,” Ingram says. “Everybody knew something was happening, but we didn’t know what.”

It might be easy to mock those who chased the algorithm from one trend to another with little to show for it. But the reality, Ingram says, is that many of them didn’t really have a choice.

“You pretty much have to do something with Facebook,” Ingram says. “You have to.

It’s like gravity. You can’t avoid it.”

Zuckerberg’s comments that stories that sparked “meaningful social interactions” would do the best on Facebook caused some to scoff.

“For Facebook, it’s bad if you read or watch content without reacting to it on Facebook. Let that sink in for a moment,” tech journalist Joshua Topolsky wrote at The Outline. “This notion is so corrupt it’s almost comical.”

In subsequent announcements, Facebook gave nervous local news outlets some better news: They’d rank local community news outlets higher in the feed than

NUVO.NET/THEBIGSTORY national ones. They were also launching an better on Facebook than stories from maexperiment for a new section called “Today jor trusted outlets like the New York Times.

In,” focusing on local news and announceThat, experts speculated, is another ments, beta-testing the concept in cities reason why Facebook, despite its massive like Olympia, WA. profits, might be pulling back from its But in early tests, the site seemed to focus on news. have trouble determining what’s local.

“As unprecedented numbers of people Seattle Times’ reporter Joe O’Sullivan channel their political energy through noted on Twitter that of the five stories fea- [Facebook], it’s being used in unforeseen tured in a screenshot of Facebook’s Olymways with societal repercussions that pia test, “NONE OF THEM ARE OLYMPIA were never anticipated,” writes Samidh STORIES. ZERO.” Chakrabarti, Facebook’s product manager The Seattle Times and other outlets say for civic engagement, in a recent blog post. they’re taking a “waitThe exposure and-see” approach to was widespread. A the latest algorithm, “As unprecedented Dartmouth study analyzing how the found about a fourth numbers of people impact shakes out of Americans visited before making changes. channel their political at least one fake-news They’ve learned to not website — and Faceenergy through get excited. book was the primary “It just, more and [Facebook], it’s being vector of misinformamore, seems like Facetion. While researchers used in unforeseen book and news are not didn’t find fake news super compatible,” says ways with societal swung the election — Shan Wang, staff writer about 80,000 repercussions that were though at Harvard University’s votes in three states is Nieman Journalism Lab. never anticipated.” a pretty small margin At least not for real to swing — the effect news. For fake news, — SAMIDH CHAKRABARTI has endured.

Facebook’s been a Donald Trump has perfect match. played a role. He snatched away the term used to describe hoax websites and wieldFAKING IT ed it as a blunderbuss against the press, There was a time Facebook was positively blasting away at any negative reporting as smug about their impact on the world. After “fake news.” all, they’d seen their platform fan the flames By last May, a Harvard-Harris poll found of popular uprisings during the Arab Spring that almost two-thirds of voters believed in places like Tunisia, Iran and Egypt. that mainstream news outlets were full of “By giving people the power to share, we fake news stories. are starting to see people make their voices The danger of fake news, after all, wasn’t heard on a different scale from what has just that we’d be tricked with bogus claims. historically been possible,” Zuckerberg It was that we’d be pummeled with so bragged in a 2012 letter to investors under many different contradictory stories, with the header, “we hope to change how peoso many different angles, the task of trying ple relate to their governments and social to sort truth from fiction just becomes institutions.” exhausting.

And Facebook certainly has — though So you choose your own truth. Or Facenot the way it intended. book’s algorithm chooses it for you.

A BuzzFeed investigation before the Every time you like a comment, chat 2016 presidential election found that “fake or click on Facebook, the site uses that to news” stories on Facebook, hoaxes or hyfigure out what you actually want to see: perpartisan falsehoods actually performed It inflates your own bubble, protecting NUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // THE BIG STORY // 9

The Big Story Continued...

you from facts or opinions you might disagree with.

And when it does expose you to views from the other side, it’s most likely going to be the worst examples, the trolls eager to make people mad online, or the infuriating op-ed that all your friends are sharing.

That’s partly why many of the 3,000 Facebook ads that Russian trolls bought to influence the election weren’t aimed at promoting Trump directly. They were aimed at inflaming division in American life by focusing on such issues as race and religion.

Facebook has tried to address the fake news problem — hiring fact checkers to examine stories, slapping “disputed” tags on suspect claims, putting counterpoints in related article boxes — but with mixed results.

The recent Knight Foundation/Gallup poll, meanwhile, found that those surveyed believed that the broader array of news sources actually made it harder to stay well-informed.

And those who grew up soaking in the brine of social media aren’t necessarily better at sorting truth from fiction. Far from it.

“Overall, young people’s ability to reason about the information on the internet can be summed up in one word: bleak,” Stanford researchers concluded in a 2016 study of over 7,800 students. More than 80 percent of middle schoolers surveyed didn’t know the difference between sponsored content and a news article.

It’s why like groups like Media Literacy Now have successfully pushed legislatures in states like Washington to put media literacy programs in schools.

That includes teaching students how information was being manipulated behind the scenes, says the organization’s president Erin McNeill.

“With Facebook, for example, why am I seeing this story on the top of the page?” she asks. “Is it because it’s the most important story, or is it because of another reason?”

But Facebook’s new algorithm threatens to make existing fake news

problems even worse, Ingram says. By the censor. In fact, it’s gone in the opposite focusing on friends and family, it could direction. After Facebook was accused of strengthen the filter bubble even further. suppressing conservative news sites in its Rewarding “engagement” Trending Topics section can just as easily incenin 2016, it fired its human tivize the worst aspects of Stanford researchers editors. (Today, conspirthe internet. theories continue to concluded in a 2016 acy You know what’s really show up in Facebook’s good at getting engagestudy of over 7,800 Trending Topics.) ment? Hoaxes. Conspirto determine students. More than theInstead, acy theories. Idiots who quality of news sites, start fights in comments 80 percent of middle Facebook is rolling out sections. Nuance doesn’t a two-question survey schoolers surveyed get engagement. Outabout whether users rage does. didn’t know the recognized certain media “Meaningful social and whether they difference between outlets, interactions” is a hard found them trustworthy. concept for algorithms to sponsored content The problem, as many grasp. tech writers pointed out, and a news article.

“It’s like getting is that a lot of Facebook algorithms to filter out users, like Trump, conporn,” Ingram says. “You sider the Washington Post and I know it when we see it. [But] algoand the New York Times to be “fake news.” rithms are constantly filtering out photos The other problem? There are a lot of women breastfeeding.” fewer trustworthy news sources out there.

Facebook hasn’t wanted to push And Facebook bears some of the blame beyond the algorithm and play for that, too.

10 // THE BIG STORY // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

FEAST AND FAMINE It’s not fair, exactly, to say that Facebook killed the alt-weekly in Knoxville, Tennessee. But it probably landed the final blow.

The internet, obviously, has been killing newspapers for a very long time. Why, say, would you pay a monthly subscription to the Daily Cow, when you can get the milk online for free?

It killed other revenue sources as well.

Craigslist cut out classified sections. Online dating killed personal ads. Amazon put many local mom-and-pop advertisers out of business.

Yet the Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s longtime alt-weekly, was still turning a slight profit in 2014 when the E.W. Scripps Company shut it down. So editor, Coury Turczyn, and a few other staffers set out to start their own paper.

But in the six months it took to get the Knoxville Mercury off the ground, the market had changed.

“We lost a lot more small-business advertisers than we expected,” Turczyn says.

Facebook had captured them.

At one time, alt-weeklies could rake in advertising money by selling cheaper rates and guaranteeing advertisers to hit a younger, hipper, edgier audience. But then Facebook came along. The site let businesses micro-target their advertisements at incredibly specific audiences.

Like Google, Facebook tracks you across the web, digging deep into your private messages to figure out whether to sell you wedding dresses, running shoes or baby formula.

“You go to Facebook, you can try to pick your audience based on their geographic location, their interests,” Turczyn says.

It’s cheaper. It’s easier. And it comes with a report chock-full of stats on who the ad reached.

“Even if it doesn’t result in any sales and foot traffic, it at least has this report,” Turczyn says.

Mercury ad reps would cite examples of businesses who advertised in print and saw their foot traffic double the next day — but the small businesses wouldn’t bite.

Attempts to rally reader donations weren’t enough. The Mercury shut down in July.

“It’s just more of the same sad story,” Turczyn says. “It’s a slaughter, there’s no doubt about it.”

Turczyn says two decades of journalism experience hasn’t helped much with the job search. Journalists aren’t what outlets are looking for.

“The single biggest job opening I see consistently is social media manager. Or ‘digital brand manager,’” Turczyn says.

“Those are the jobs on the marketplace right now.’

It’s not that nobody’s making massive amounts of money on advertising online.

It’s just that only two are: Facebook and Google — and they’re both destroying print advertising.

The decline in print advertising has ravaged the world of alt-weeklies, killing icons like the Boston Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Philadelphia City Paper and the Baltimore City Paper.

Dailies keep suffering, too, no matter how prestigious or internet-savvy.

The West Virginia Gazette-Mail won a

NUVO.NET/THEBIGSTORY Pulitzer Prize last year for reporting on the opioid crisis. It filed for bankruptcy last month. Eleven staffers were cut from the Oregonian on Jan. 31, the same day Silicon Valley’s San Jose Mercury News slashed staff.

McClatchy’s made a lot of cuts in the last year, too, though Grieve declined to say exactly how many positions have been eliminated. He, for one, doesn’t blame Facebook.

“Our newsrooms are smaller than they once were, but because we’re so focused on serving the needs of our communities, we’re actually reaching more readers than we ever have before,” says Grieve.

Yet the convergence of layoffs with the pressure to get web traffic, Robinson says, has influenced coverage. When potential traffic numbers are an explicit factor in story selection and you’re shortstaffed, you have to make choices. Stories about schools don’t get many clicks. Weird

crime stories do.

But as a long-time reporter, Robinson knows that bombshell scoops can sometimes begin with mundane reporting. Fail to report on the dull stuff, and you don’t

know what else you’re missing.

“The media companies want the traffic, the traffic, the traffic,” Robinson says. “The stuff [readers] need to know — but don’t know they need to know — disappears.”

Asked if there’s any reason for optimism, Ingram, at the Columbia Journalism Review, lets out a wry laugh.

If you’re not a behemoth like BuzzFeed, he says, your best bet is to be small enough to be supported by die-hard readers.

“If you’re really, really hyper-focused — geographically or on a topic — then you have a chance,” Ingram says. “Your readership will be passionate enough to support

you in some way.”

That’s one reason some actually welcome the prospect of less Facebook traffic.

Slate’s Will Oremus recently wrote that less news on Facebook would eventually cleanse news of “the toxic incentives of the algorithm on journalism.”

Maybe, the thinking goes, without a reliance on Facebook clicks, newspapers would once again be able to build trust with their readers. Maybe, the hope goes, readers would start seeking out newspapers directly again.

But even if Facebook suddenly ceased to exist, there are other sites with other algorithms that can drive traffic and shape coverage. As traffic referred by Facebook falls, the focus at McClatchy is already shifting.

You can optimize your news coverage to appear high in the Facebook News Feed — but you can also optimize it to appear higher in the Google search results.

“We’re all about Google, again,” Robinson says. “Google, Google, Google.” N

NUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // THE BIG STORY // 11

FEB.

GO DO THIS TOO BLACK AT CENTRAL LIBRARY // PHOTO BY DAN GROSSMAN

PAINTING THE WORLD WITH SPOKEN WORD Too Black comes to Art & Soul at Indianapolis Artsgarden

BY DAN GROSSMAN // DGROSSMAN@NUVO.NET 12 // SPOKEN WORD // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

S

poken word artist Too Black has a lot to say about being Black in America.

But the story of how he first started as a poet might have as much to do with pizza delivery as with race.

You’ll be able to catch him in performance at the Indianapolis Artsgarden on February 23 at 12:15 p.m. as part of the “Art & Soul” series of Black History Month events.

Too Black didn’t get a lot of tips when delivering pizzas on the Ball State University campus in Muncie. (He graduated in 2012.) So he wrote about it in a piece called “Fuckstrated” that relates to the stinginess of many of his customers but also to a certain Chris Rock routine.

“The [routine] is about old Black men who grew up with really hard racism not as hidden as it is today,” says Too Black.

Chris Rock talks in his stand-up routine about the service positions previous generations of Black men had, as janitors and butlers, and how they were forced to act a certain way if they wanted to make a living.

“We call it cooning,” says Too Black.

“You say, ‘Yeah… how are you doing boss?’

But as soon as the boss walked away you cussed him out and hated him but you didn’t tell anyone because you wanted to make your money. I brought that to delivering pizzas. I’m like, ‘Thank you,’ and as soon as they close the door I’m like, ‘Fuck you.’” I hope you choke on your food. Because they didn’t tip me, right?

I pulled from that legacy to write about this frustrated worker who’s also trying to better himself.”

Too Black was able to articulate the feeling of fuckstration, as it were, in spoken word in a way that was poetic and funny.

(Too Black’s stage name has something to do with both a quotation from a Malcolm X speech and conversations in the media during Obama’s presidential run about whether he was too Black, or not Black enough.)

And it turned out that it wasn’t just African Americans who appreciated his perspective. Once, he says, a white guy came up to him and bought him a beer after hearing Too Black do “Fuckstrated” in a spoken word event. He was a former pizza delivery driver.

22

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WHAT // Art & Soul featured artist Too Black WHEN // Friday, Feb. 23, 12:15 p.m.

WHERE // Indianapolis Artsgarden TICKETS // FREE

Too Black, 29, grew up in Muncie, where his family still lives.

“My father was the one who put me on about how the Patriot Act operated, who told me about the discretionary power that it gives the government to collect data on all of us and also how America used 9/11 as a proxy to enter the Iraq War,” he says. “So these are the things I’m thinking about at that age.”

That’s when he started writing a lot, when he was in middle school, around the time of the start of the Gulf War. And he had some teachers who helped him along the way.

“I had an art teacher,” he says. “He really pushed me to write poems… He even shared them with the teachers.”

He also had the encouragement of friends who not only sent him recordings of beats but also concepts to write about.

“One time he sent me a beat,” says Too Black. “It was called ‘Disconnected.’ It starts with a phone operator; you can’t get through. So the idea is how to get through to someone who won’t pick up and how do you play that off metaphorically. So I wrote that to my brother who was in prison.

Because you just get disconnected on the actual phone lines a lot of times. You only have so many minutes to talk to someone you haven’t seen in months or years.”

Coming up with that piece in particular, Too Black says, taught him how to write in concepts and he started regularly coming down to spoken word events in Indianapolis in late 2010 to communicate said concepts.

And coming down to Indy allowed him to check out the local spoken word scene where Gabrielle Patterson, Tony Styxx, and Januarie York among other African American wordsmiths were reading their work at various venues around town. Their work influenced Too Black.

His goal at first was to be a headliner for

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WITH LOCAL DJ AND NUVO COLUMNIST KyleLong PHOTO BY JENN GOODMAN

the various spoken word events in Downupon learning that he was American. The town Indy. Once he achieved that goal, experience was highly instructive.

Too Black set his eyes on wider horizons.

“As a Black person I’m not privileged He began to think that it just might be by my race in America,” he says. “So to go possible to go on the touring circuit — to South Africa and have those privilegvisiting various colleges and conferences es attributed to me for being born an as a spoken word performer — as a means American, it’s an upside down world view. to support himself while doing what he There’s a cognitive dissonance.” loved. (As a student he had organized If you listen to Kyle Long’s Cultural Manvarious events that brought in nationalifesto on WFYI 90.1, you may have already ly-touring spoken word poets at BSU.) heard a piece informed by Too Black’s stay And soon enough he was travelling not in South Africa; “Blood Splatter.” just to various colleges and conferences The work was recorded to the Gil Scott around the U.S., but around the world to — Heron meets Bitches Brew jazz backing recite his work. of Clint Breeze and One such tour was the Groove. a poetry slam and “As a Black person I’m not “Something like book festival in Cape “Blood Splatter” was privileged by my race in Town, South Africa. written around the Too Black was there America. So to go to South concept of Eurowhen San Francisco peans conquering Africa and have those quarterback Colin other nations and Kaepernick was regprivileges attributed to just the effortlessularly taking a knee ness in which it was me for being born an at football games promoted,” says Too to protest police American its an upside Black, “like the idea violence. it was almost ardown world view. There’s that And white Amertistic to conquer the icans — Donald a cognitive dissonance.” world, that was what Trump among them I was going for. So — responded with — TOO BLACK painting the world in tweets, epithets, and blood splatter has a cable news rants. (And Kaepernick lost his ringing irony....” job shortly afterwards.)

It’s an ironic tone that he probably “I found it interesting that one of the wouldn’t have been able to achieve as a biggest retorts to Kaepernick was ‘Go back middle school student, when he first startto Africa,” says Too Black. “If you don’t like ed writing about the state of the world. it here, go back, because we clearly chose And to 12-year-olds out there wanting to to come here. Slavery just happened right? perform spoken word, he has a message.

But when I’m over in South Africa, there’s “Just keep writing man,” he says. “As a sense of you don’t necessarily feel at simple as it sounds, just keep writing and home. Because you still are an American. write whatever you want to say. Don’t feel In a way, Americans are viewed as white, confined, get it all out. There’s no one way privileged in a sense. So there’s still this to do it. I would say I didn’t have the privdividing line.” ilege of doing these things in my area but In South Africa, says Too Black, he I would say go to talent shows. Go to open sometimes felt like he was being put on a mics, go hear other people perform, go pedestal because he was born an Amerread other people’s stuff. Expose yourself ican. Some people thought that he was to a wide variety of literature and knowlsmarter and had more money just because edge. Don’t think automatically that you he was born in America. It worked the have the best stuff. You’d be surprised how opposite way too: once someone called much is out there if you open yourself up him a “corrupt motherfucker,” simply to it.” N

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STILL CONNECTED TO THE WORLD

Alzheimer’s Association and Dance Kaleidoscope team up to interpret personal stories

BY SETH JOHNSON // ARTS@NUVO.NET

O

n an unusually mild day in mid-February, I give Faye and Howard Silverstein a call. Having been married over 50 years, the husband and wife answer.

Each greets me warmly on separate lines of their landline phone. Actively involved in the day-to-day lives of their four grandchildren, they both like to keep busy, are sociable, and thoroughly enjoy the arts.

“I know who I am,” Faye says nimbly. “I know what I have. I know what I don’t have.

And, I’m going to make the best of every day in my life, which is what I’ve always done before.”

These words are a good reminder to anyone, but especially to Faye, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2015 while living in Georgia. Having recently moved back to Indianapolis with Howard to be near their daughter, she refuses to let the disease bring her down.

“Instead of saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got something that’s terrible, and I’m never going to be good again,’ I’m trying to figure out how every day in my life is going to be as good as I can make it,” Faye says.

Through participating in early-stage programs with the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Indiana Chapter, Faye has found a way to live an active, vibrant life.

From attending concerts to exploring art galleries, the programs give those diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s and their families a unique chance to connect and socialize with each other in a friendly and safe environment. Recently, in fact, participants in the programs have teamed up with Indianapolis’ Dance Kaleidoscope for a one-of-a-kind opportunity.

On Friday, Feb. 23 at the Arthur M. Glick JCC Laikin Auditorium, Dance Kaleidoscope and the Alzheimer’s Association are teaming up to present Sharing My Story: Still Connected, a one-hour

FAYE AND HOWARD SILVERSTEIN //

performance showcasing interpretive dances of 10 personal stories written by Alzheimer’s Association early-stage program participants.

The free performance is a part of Dance Kaleidoscope’s Turning Points programming, which will foster similar collaborations between the dance company and community groups throughout the year.

In order for Sharing My Story: Still Connected to come together, the Alzheimer’s Association first had to gather written stories from participants in their early-stage programs, while also deciding upon the show’s “Still Connected” theme. After receiving this information, the organization then handed things over to Dance Kaleidoscope. Then dancers choreographed dances for stories they handpicked. For Dance Kaleidoscope dancer Brandon Comer, this task seemed particularly diffi-

14 // STAGE // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

WHAT // Sharing My Story: Still Connected WHEN // Friday, Feb. 23, 6 - 7 p.m.

WHERE // Arthur M. Glick JCC, 6701 Hoover Road TICKETS // FREE

cult at first considering his own personal experience with dementia in the family.

“My mother recently passed about two years ago, and for the last year to year-and-a-half of her life, she started getting dementia really bad,” Comer says.

“Reading these stories that these people with Alzheimer’s wrote really hit home for me.”

Upon coming to terms with everything, however, he was able to realize that this show granted him a unique opportunity.

“For me personally, it’s not a tribute to my mom exactly, but something I can do to represent her and represent people with

this disease in the world and in our city especially,” Comer says. For fellow Dance Kaleidoscope dancer Jillian Godwin, the experience has also hit close to home, because her fiancé’s grandmother had Alzheimer’s and dementia. Nevertheless, she sees the show as a once-in-a-lifetime moment to pay tribute to an individual’s life through dance.

“These people are entrusting me to tell this very, very important story,” Godwin says. “It’s a big challenge, but also a big honor.”

For the Alzheimer’s Association, this opportunity is not unlike others that they pursue as part of their early-stage programs.

“We hope the programs we provide help people find that there’s still life to be lived and you can still do things on your bucket list and you can still have fun,” says Maria Holmes, Alzheimer’s Association care consultant and early-stage program coordinator. Ultimately, this is why she was drawn to the partnership with Dance Kaleidoscope in the first place.

“Our folks are keen to share their stories, but as they have memory loss, it becomes more important for them to feel they’re validated and heard,” Holmes says.

“In some ways, it becomes really important to them to get their ideas, thoughts, and stories down on paper, but then to have it interpreted into dance is just completely unique.”

This is why she hopes Faye and all of the other early-stage program participants leave Friday’s show feeling even more empowered than they did before.

“For the folks that are sharing their stories and their care partners and their families, I hope that they feel really valued — that they do feel heard and they do feel validated,” Holmes says. “For the rest of us, I’m hoping that we will feel more connected.” N

NUVO.NET/STAGE

BEER AND BALLET

BY DAN GROSSMAN // DGROSSMAN@NUVO.NET

T

he Ballet Theatre of Indiana joined forces with Sun King Brewing on Valentine’s Day weekend for the fourth annual “Beer and Ballet” show at the Athenaeum.

This year’s show was a pop-inspired extravaganza that opened to three cupids sitting on rings of fabric hanging from the stage ceiling and swinging to the tune of Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” When the three ballerinas came down to earth, they helped a bachelor (played by dancer Simon Pawlak) get ready for his big date. At this point, alcoholic beverages were all being imbibed by the audience, offstage.

The next piece entitled “Take Me Back” — performed and choreographed by Kristen Noonan — began with her reminiscence over a glass of wine. Her performance was less ballet and more Cirque du Soleil. That is, she spent most of her time not on pointe but doing acrobatics in a ceiling-hanging ring. (Noonan is part of Cirque Indy) The aerial acrobatics seemed like a remembrance of a long lost love. It was set to the music of Lord Huron (and her own live vocals).

The next set, choreographed by Audrey Robson — who also dances in this performance — boggles the mind. I mean, who in the world would expect anyone to be able to dance ballet to Billy Joel? (Actually, maybe this isn’t much of a stretch as so many of his songs seem like Guys and Dolls and West Side Story stuffed in a blender.) If you’re ever gonna dance to “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” you might want to take your cue from the necessarily spastic choreography for this song.

The choreography for “Under the Bridge” was less jittery but more aggressive. And that was okay, considering the heroin-addled subject matter of this particular Red Hot Chili Peppers song. And it made perfect sense somehow that a gun went off during this performance. That is, Ballet Master Cole Companion shot choreogra-

CHRISTINA VOREIS // PHOTO BY MARK ABARCA

DAN SAYS // e

pher Stirling Matheson. (If these dudes are shooting each other on stage, I wonder, what are their rehearsals like?)

But it wasn't all mayhem, drunken reveries, and violence in Beer and Ballet IV. There was a lovely pas de deux (or two) involving Megan Noonan and Simon Pawlak, dancing to Elvis, and Cole Companion generating orgasmic audience applause to the nth degree while spinning on one foot faster than a top for what seemed like an eternity.

And then there was the climax, the finale — “Red Solo Cup” — where the ballet dancers danced with their red cups clenched in their teeth and let them drop in a final cataclysm. But before this happened, one (apparently) drunk, stumbling female baller dancer had to be whisked off the floor. It was pure poetry on pointe. It was chemistry and chaos in ballet shoes. N

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“T

here’s something so satisfying about a good bowl of ramen,” says Adam Perry, while sitting in his donut shop, General American Donut Co. Perry and his partner, Kari Nickander, own the popular donut shop and formerly owned two food trucks in Indianapolis, an Indian taco truck named Taco Lassi, and a banh mi and pho truck, Pho Mi. “We always thought we would do a takeout only, standing room only pho shop before we ever did the donut shop,” Perry says.

The couple came together over a shared love of food, especially Asian cuisines.

“We met in Seattle, and when we were dating, food was the whole deal,” he says.

“So we kind of fell in love with Asian food, especially banh mis. I was eating them every day when I was working out there.”

The pho and banh mi shop was on their minds, but with the space for the donut shop opening, they dove into that passion project first. They spent years perfecting that donut shop model, which, according to Perry, is “a brutal model for food” — citing the woes of finding steady employees to bake every day at 2 a.m., estimating how WHAT // Black Eye Take Out WHERE // 1006 Virginia Ave. COST // $

THE ZAMEN AT BLACK EYE TAKE OUT CAN BE MADE VEGAN OR VEGETARIAN //

KNOCKOUT RAMEN

The owners of General American Donut Co. are opening a take-out ramen shop

BY CAVAN McGINSIE // CMCGINSIE@NUVO.NET

16 // FOOD+DRINK // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

many donuts to bake for the day, finding ethical ways to get rid of any excess product, dealing with the limited hours, and the list goes on.

But, after four years, they have a crew they’re happy with and they are excited to branch out into their next passion project.

They’ve had a space on Virginia Ave in Fountain Square, and while it was initially supposed to be a pho and banh mi spot, fate changed those initial plans.

“For some medical reasons we were driving to D.C.,” Perry says. “In D.C. we started going to these ramen shops and just loved them.” He shares that on a trip back from D.C., a tedious nine hour trek, he mentioned that maybe they should do ramen.

“So it changed to ramen,” he says with a laugh.

With ramen on their minds they set out to find a name that stood out. On one of

EVENT // Pies & Pints WHAT // A celebration of pizza and beer WHEN // Friday, Feb. 23 WHERE // Ivy Tech Culinary Center

those long D.C. trips, a name came to Perry.

“I was thinking of something dangerous, but not too dangerous and somewhat funny,” he says, and then he landed on Black Eye. While they liked it, his 10-year-old daughter cemented it as the name.

He says his daughter “is totally into anime and manga. She did a drawing of a little androgynous anime character looking sad with a black eye, and at the time we were like, ‘That’ll be it, that’s our logo.’ Then we thought, ‘A picture of a kid with a black eye, that’s maybe not the best image.’ But, because she made that image, she made it personal and it stuck.”

And thus was born, Black Eye Take Out. “As soon as it changed to ramen we were excited again, just about how fun ramen is and how many things you can do with it.”

This aspect, all the different preparations, is something that will set Black Eye — set to open before the end of February — apart from many of the other ramen shops around Indianapolis.

First off, they will be doing three different styles of ramen, including a relatively new style of ramen, iekei ramen (pronounces e.a.k.). Iekei blends two traditional styles of ramen together — shoyu and tonkotsu — into something completely unique.

The broth is a fatty mixture of pork and chicken broths and the noodles are thick and straight instead of the wavy ones that people are accustomed to.

They will also offer classic shoyu ramen, which Perry says will be very standard and a good option for kids. “If you like Maruchan you’ll like this,” he says. Finally, they will also have a vegan preparation.

He says the noodles “will be zamen — it’s zucchini that is julienned with an industrial slicer.”

“It eats almost exactly like good ramen noodles,” he says, saying he sometimes prefers to have a bowl with zamen over traditional noodles. “We don’t cook them, we leave them raw, pour on the broth, leave them for three minutes and then they eat just like noodles; it’s cool.”

Not only will they have numerous options of ramen, they will also have 10 to 15 toppings available. “For $10 you can get the basic with stewed chicken, noodles and spring

NUVO.NET/FOOD+DRINK

THIS DRAWING BY THE OWNER’S DAUGHTER CEMENTED THE NAME (L), SOME ARTWORK FROM THE FOUNTAIN SQUARE SHOP (R). //

onions,” Perry says. “Then, for a $1 or $1.50, depending, you can add on corn and the soft boiled egg, all the normal stuff.”

They will also have some out-of-the-box options that they have found through their research on ramen over the past year. Perry says he has been most influenced by Ivan Orkin, the owner of Ivan Ramen in Tokyo and New York City, who was profiled in the Netflix series, Chef’s Table. He also says they were inspired by meals at Bantum King in Washington D.C. and Furious Spoon and Strings in Chicago.

He’s quick to point out, “We’re not these ramen purists, we’re not trying to appropriate ramen from Japan, we’re not trying to be super authentic, we just want to be good…

We are not chefs, we are just people who love food and aren’t afraid to cook.”

While the ramen is a huge point, and something they’re excited about, they will also have rice bowls with various toppings, and the banh mis are something they’re pretty proud of as well. He says the sandwiches will have options like lemongrass tofu. They will also be using Asian sausage on the sandwiches and in the ramen (as opposed to classic chashu pork). He also points out the key to great banh mis, “We’re getting our bread from a Vietnamese bakery in Chicago, so we will have actual banh mi bread. A lot of people do it on a baguette and that’s not right, that’s not a banh mi.”

And while the food is the focus, the space

will be unlike anything else in the city. First off, it’s 350-square feet. Due to the small space, “It will be just pure take-out and delivery,” says Perry. They will be doing all of the prep in a commercial kitchen at General American Donut and will be running deliveries directly from that building. Delivery will be carried out by third-party companies like UberEats, OrderUp, PostMates and DoorDash, at least initially; if it’s popular enough they would think about having their own delivery team.

While the actual space will be purely take-out, once the warmer months roll around, they’re planning on putting two benches out front. Perry says in addition to the benches, “We’re going to put a reverse projection film on the window and show movies onto the window. So, theoretically, by the time it gets nice out you’ll be able to sit on the benches, eat ramen and watch movies like Kung Fu movies, and Godzilla, and great stuff like that.”

“We’re seeing it like an art project,” he says. “It’s an art project you can walk into, you can eat it and smell it and watch movies at it, it’s like a cross between a punk rock bar and a drive-in movie.”

“If all goes to plan it’s going to be a really cool vibe in this place, we just want day and night for it to be fun, like you want to go in there because it makes you smile...We wanted to do something with take-out, you sit outside and hangout and it’s cool and fun and isn’t too serious.” N

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NUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // FOOD+DRINK // 17

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A CHANGE IN TONE, NOT DIRECTION Ani Difranco on growing and changing over 20 albums

BY MATT CONNER // EDITORS@NUVO.NET

I

t’s the tone that’s changed for Ani Difranco.

Long known as a feminist icon and fiery singer-songwriter, Difranco has carried a musical torch for social concerns around the globe — raising awareness and advocacy for a wide range of causes. These days, however, her songs are more nuanced, less pointed, as the Grammy winning artist says she’s tempered some emotions for the sake of reaching across the divide.

As her Binary tour hits Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington on Wednesday, Feb. 28, (with the beautiful duo Gracie & Rachel), we spoke with Difranco about her motivations for making music in 2018, the lack of protest music these days and her forthcoming new memoir.

WHAT // Ani Difranco WHEN // Feb. 28, 8 p.m.

WHERE // Buskirk-Chumley Theater TICKETS // $45-$50

ANI DIFRANCO //

I think I’m singing from a slightly different place, even if the things I’m singing about remain the same.

my 200th song and find something new in myself or in the world to bring through. It is ever challenging for sure.

MATT CONNER: Your latest album, Binary, is interesting because the title speaks of being black or white about an issue, and yet the album itself feels more mature and nuanced. Does it feel that way from your perspective?

ANI DIFRANCO: I have an ever-increasing will to not just preach to the choir, but I really want to build bridges between people. That’s been a terrific by-product of my life in art, building community between myself and other people as well as between others. I have this wonderful community around me now, which is super cool and keeps me full of hope and inspiration.

Like any of us, I’m always trying to put my thoughts out there in a way that can be received by people who even come from a different place, a different culture, with different thoughts about everything.

So maybe that’s what you’re talking about hearing on this one versus some of my older records. I’m not your enemy. This is how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking about right now, but there’s room for all of us. So

MATT: Is that necessary for such longevity?

MATT: Are you ever taken back that the I read Binary was your 20th studio album. songs are still there even after 200, as you ANI: Yes, longevity demands things mentioned? you’ve never ANI: Yeah, but at dreamed of. When least now I’ve come you become a part “I’ve longed for to know that feeling. of a society that’s As soon as I finish a more company, more so messed up, you record, I feel like I’m should be outraged. comrades in politically done. I’m spent. I’ll All of that energy of think, “There’s no radical music and art.” youth is so valuable way I’ll ever write anand potent, and that’s — ANI DIFRANCO other song, let alone where a lot of art, another record, and especially rock and roll, comes from, that if I did, it wouldn’t be as good as this one.” rebellion. But if you want to age and maThen somehow I do. If anything, I’ve taught ture and still be an artist, where do you go myself to just relax. If I do or don’t, just from there? I mean, to sustain that youthful fuckin’ relax. What will be will be. rebellion or strutting the same kind of sexual energy into your seventies... [Laughs] I MATT: Are you surprised at the lack of don’t know about that. protest music these days given the extreme I think it’s probably more interesting and divided times we’re in? and valuable to learn some new tricks, to ANI: I agree with you. Where is our evolve, to find something else to drive your protest music? There’s a bit of a lag ocmusic. So it has been tricky for me to write curring. I’ve longed for more company,

18 // MUSIC // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

more comrades in politically radical music and art. Political songs are hard to write, so I understand why you would stick to angels and trains and love and heartbreak.

[Laughs] But really, how bad does it have to get before our musicians are pushed into this dicey territory?

That being said, in rap and hip-hop, there’s been a lot of envelope pushing and political expression, so I think that’s the vanguard of political music. But in terms of acoustic music or the folk scene, which has been so traditionally connected with radical movements and social consciousness, I feel like I’m saying hello and hearing my own echo.

MATT: How much are you writing in response to current events these days?

ANI: For me, it’s been an ironic year because I’ve been writing a book. I haven’t been churning out songs. This book has eaten my head. I can barely create art and write while raising kids and touring, so all of it is going into this book. So yes, this is a moment when we’re all hungry for a song to sing while we put our fist in the air and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ I’ve been feeling pressure from the outside asking, ‘Where are our songs? Hand ‘em over.’ But I’m just fully immersed in this memoir.

I’m just hoping this memoir will, in its way, will relate to what’s happening now and not just what happened many years ago. I have to be sincere to where my work is going right now. I also hope that out there is a lot of political music brewing that I just don’t know is happening. If anybody knows of any, let me know. We need it. N

KYLE LONG is a longtime NUVO columnist and host of WFYI’s A Cultural Manifesto.

NUVO.NET/MUSIC

BAD ASS AND BLIND

Famed guitarist Raul Midón bring his jazziest album to The Jazz Kitchen

BY KYLE LONG // EDITORS@NUVO.NET

R

aul Midón entered the music business in the early ’90s as a backup singer, working with a wide array of artists from Shakira to Johnny Mathis. But Midón’s immense musical talents couldn’t be relegated to the background for long.

Midón is a one-man musical whirlwind, possessing remarkable vocal and songwriting skills alongside a prodigious talent on the guitar. By 2005 Midón had scored his solo breakthrough with the Arif Mardin produced LP State of Mind. He’s been flying high ever since.

Midón’s latest LP is titled Bad Ass and Blind, a nod to the fact that Midón has been blind since infancy. Midón calls the album his jazziest effort yet, and he’ll bring the record’s tour to The Jazz Kitchen this Sunday, Feb. 25.

A

“O

RA NE UL -M MID AN Ó OR N H CH AS ES BE E TR A” N D

BY E E M NP E R. D //

KYLE LONG: I know you grew up in the United States, but I’ve read your father was a folkloric dancer from Argentina. I’m curious what sort of music you heard at home while growing up?

RAUL MIDÓN: All kinds of music.

My dad was very wide ranging in his tastes. We heard folkloric music from Argentina, things like Los Chalchaleros. But we also heard things like Schoenberg, Xenakis, Webern, and Harry Partch. My dad was a huge contemporary classical music listener. My dad loved jazz and opera

too. So we were really soaked in all kinds of music despite living in a pretty rural area.

KYLE: Your solo career started in 1999 with the release of the album Gracias a la Vida. I don’t want to put any labels on your work, but most people think of you as an artist making music deeply informed by soul and jazz. However on Gracias a la Vida you were singing songs from the Latin American tradition.

I’m curious if that was where you wanted to go with your music at the time, or were outside forces pushing you in that direction?

RAUL: Actually that album is very tame compared to what I wanted to do. But I was very much reigned in by the powers that be in the music industry. If I’d had my druthers that album would’ve been a lot more R&B. It would’ve been a lot more adventurous in terms of the arrangements.

So that was sort of me chomping at the bit. It was a record of me saying, “So this is how I’m going to get into the industry, considering where I am and what I’m doing.”

WHAT // Raul Midón WHEN // Feb. 25, 7 p.m.

WHERE // The Jazz Kitchen TICKETS // $25 - $35

KYLE: In 2003 you were featured on an important electronic Afro-Latin album Louie Vega released titled Elements Of Life. I’m curious what you made of that project, and how you first became acquainted with Vega?

RAUL: It was a lifesaver for me when I first moved to New York. It was something to do. When I moved to New York I was working with Shakira, and that’s how I got to know Louie. One of the musicians that worked with Shakira knew Louie and introduced me. Louie had me sing on a track, and when I moved to New York I started working with him regularly for about a year-and-a-half. I was involved in the Elements Of Life record and some other things that he did. I was also on a record of his called “Let the Children Play” and some remixes and other things that were pretty cool.

For me, it was a scene I wasn’t really familiar with...

But it was cool, because Louie gave me a certain amount of freedom to do what I wanted over the tracks. It was a transition for me to make my way in New York and make a living.

KYLE: I think it’s safe to say your breakout album as a solo artist was State of Mind, which was released in 2005. State of Mind was produced by the legendary Arif Mardin, who helped create some of the greatest music in American history with

artists like Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, and so many others. What did you learn about making records from working with Arif Mardin?

RAUL: I learned more than I can put into words actually. That’s why I now produce my own records. I learned how to mic guitars. I learned that Arif had a certain way of comping vocals. Arif was the kind of person you don’t even run into anymore. You don’t have producers with the kind of knowledge he had. That’s one of the things that’s kind of depressing for me these days. You have people working in a studio who don’t know about music. They don’t know the craft of music. They don’t know what a chord is, or anything about harmony.

Arif was an all-in-one. He knew about expressing emotion, and about getting a vocal that makes somebody feel something. But he also knew about voicing and harmony. So I felt like I could trust Arif.

I’m somebody who comes from a deep background of music, and I went to music school and all of that. That’s why I produce my own records now. I’ve never run into anyone as good, hardworking, and knowledgeable as Arif.

KYLE: Your new record is Bad Ass and Blind, anything you want to say about the record?

RAUL: It is probably the deepest jazz record I’ve done. In some ways it’s an homage to Wayne Shorter, because of the harmonic content. It’s me writing songs in the style of Wayne Shorter, from a harmonic standpoint. It was something I did as a songwriter because I found myself working with these great musicians Joe Sanders, Gregory Hutchinson, Gerald Clayton, and Nicholas Payton. I wanted to write songs that would showcase what these guys can do. N NUVO.NET // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // MUSIC // 19

DROPKICK MURPHYS KEEP IT FRESH

BY ALAN SCULLEY // MUSIC@NUVO.NET

N

ot much is guaranteed in this world. But one thing Dropkick Murphys singer, Al Barr, can promise is his band will never do anything half-hearted when it comes to making new music.

And two decades into the Dropkick Murphys’ career — a point where many groups fortunate enough to have that kind of longevity seem to be resting on the laurels of their back catalogs — the Dropkick Murphys sound as inspired and hungry as ever on their ninth studio album, the recently released 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory.

“We’re lucky that we have such loyal and rabid fans across the world that come out and support us,” Barr said in a recent phone interview. “Without them, obviously, we’re nothing. So we’re not going to just suddenly start making a pile of shit because it’s an insult to our fans. Plus, we have our standards as well. There’s never been a time in the band where we have flipped on the auto pilot and gone and taken a nap. We’re always driving this ship.”

Formed in 1996 in Boston, the band worked and toured hard through its first decade, slowly but surely gaining an audience that liked the band’s roughand-ready Irish-accented brand of punk. The momentum has only grown since then. The band’s last two studio albums, Going Out in Style (2011) and Signed and Sealed in Blood (2012) both debuted in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart.

Their latest release, 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory, extended that streak, opening at No. 8 on the Top 200, and it’s being greeted as one of the strongest albums yet from the group.

WHAT // Dropkick Murphys WHEN // Feb. 28 WHERE // Egyptian Room

The new album features plenty of raucous rocking anthems (“Blood,” “Rebels With A Cause” and “I Had A Hat”) that fit the Irish punk sound that has long defined the band. But there are a few curveballs as well. “Sandlot” echoes a bit of Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands” with its driving beat, ringing guitar chords and determined spirit. “Kicked To The Curb,” a standout song on the album, is a different kind of rocker for the band, with a great stop-and-start guitar riff that’s plenty crisp, but a bit poppier than most of the group’s music. “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” a cover of the 1940s Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the musical “Carousel,” gets a rousing Irishtinged treatment.

“Our mode is attack, attack the audience with our passion, our vim and vigor, if you will,” Barr said of the live show. “We just kind of light ourselves on fire, if you will, and hope for the best.” On the new tour, the band, naturally enough, is playing several songs from the new album, but varying its career-spanning set list from show to show.

“We don’t go on a tour and just play the same set,” Barr said. “That’s kind of old for us and there are always people that like to follow us to multiple shows. We think about how boring that must be for them as well, so we like to challenge ourselves. We like to keep it interesting.” N

20 // SOUNDCHECK // 02.21.18 - 02.28.18 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET

WEDNESDAY // 2.21 John 5, The Creatures, The Vogue, 21+ Powderkeg, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Darkest Hour, Whores, Extinction A.D., Catalytics, The Iron Gates, Emerson Theater, all-ages House of Waters, The Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Chris Burch, Mascraft on Delaware, 21+ Small Houses, Flat 12 Bierwerks, 21+

THURSDAY // 2.22 Big Gigantics, The Floozies, Old National Centre, all-ages Big Something, Max Allen Band, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Iced Earth, Sanctuary, Old National Centre, all-ages Altered Thurzdaz, ft. Willie Grimez, The Mousetrap, 21+ Hip Hop Night, Square Cat Vinyl, all-ages Uniiqu3, Dai Burger, Pioneer, 21+ Drunken Guns, Those Dirty Horse, Melody Inn, 21+ Latin Dance Party, The Jazz Kitchen, 21+

FRIDAY // 2.23 Jeezy, Tee Grizzley, Old National Centre, all-ages Terrapin Flyer, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Versus Party: Bad Boy vs. Death Row, Epic Ultra Lounge, 21+

BARFLY

Ying Yang Twins, The Bluebird (Bloomington), 21+ Circle City Battle League 3, White Rabbit Cabaret, 21+ Medium Sound 10 Tape Compilation Party, State Street Pub, 21+ The John Kadlecik Band, The Mousetrap, 21+ Wood Chickens, The Resource Network, Pioneer, 21+ Occidental Gypsy, The Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Tad Robinson, Slippery Noodle Inn, 21+ Alaina Renae, Madame Walker Theatre, all-ages Future Thieves, My Yellow Rickshaw, The Rathskeller, 21+ Shame, The Bishop (Bloomington), 18+ Too Black, Indianapolis Artsgarden, all-ages The Midtown Men, The Palladium (Carmel), all-ages

Archers, Black Recluse, Shroud of Vulture, Orga, State Street Pub, 21+ Jon Strahl Band, Slippery Noodle Inn, 21+ Michael Barr, Apache Chief, Hoosier Dome, all-ages Butler Symphony Orchestra, Howard L. Schrott Center for the Performing Arts, all-ages Bakersfield Band, Frank Dean, Radio Radio, 21+ Black Voodoo, The Rathskeller, 21+

SATURDAY // 2.24

MONDAY // 2.26

Cdot Honcho, Emerson Theater, all-ages Carbon Leaf, Sister Hazel, The Vogue, 21+ Two Feet, Absofacto, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Chase Rice, The Bluebird (Bloomington), 21+ Brett Young, 8 Seconds Saloon, 21+ Soulelujah Vintage Dance Party, Square Cat Vinyl, all-ages Punk Rock Night: Money Shot, She She Allin, Without MF Order, Methmatics, The Melody Inn, 21+

The Mowgli’s, Mainland, The Hi-Fi, 21+ The Warrior Kings, Slippery Noodle Inn, 21+

SUNDAY // 2.25 Noel Gallagher, Old National Centre, all-ages Girls Rock! Fundraising Concert, Books and Brews, 21+ Raul Midon, The Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Maravich, The Melody Inn, 21+ Phil Pierle & Friends, Slippery Noodle Inn, 21+

TUESDAY // 2.27 Ezra Furman, Anna Burch, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Watain, Destroyer 666, Orga, Emerson Theater, all-ages Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers, The Bluebird (Bloomington), 21+

BY WAYNE BERTSCH

Complete Listings Online: nuvo.net/soundcheck

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): When you’re playing poker, a wild card refers to a card that can be used as any card the cardholder wants it to be. If the two of hearts is deemed wild before the game begins, it can be used as an ace of diamonds, jack of clubs, queen of spades, or anything else.

That’s always a good thing! In the game of life, a wild card is the arrival of an unforeseen element that affects the flow of events unpredictably. It might derail your plans, or alter them in ways that are at first inconvenient but ultimately beneficial. It may even cause them to succeed in an even more interesting fashion than you imagined they could. I bring this up, Aries, because I suspect that you’ll be in the Wild Card Season during the next four weeks.

Any and all of the above definitions may apply. Be alert for unusual luck.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If you gorge on ten pounds of chocolate in the next 24 hours, you will get sick. Please don’t do that. Limit your intake to no more than a pound. Follow a similar policy with any other pleasurable activity. Feel emboldened to surpass your normal dosage, yes, but avoid ridiculous overindulgence. Now is one of the rare times when visionary artist William Blake’s maxim is applicable: “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” So is his corollary, “You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.” But keep in mind that Blake didn’t say, “The road of foolish, reckless exorbitance leads to the palace of wisdom.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Have you ever had a rousing insight about an action that would improve your life, but then you failed to summon the willpower to actually take that action? Have you resolved to embark on some new behavior that would be good for you, but then found yourself unable to carry it out? Most of us have experienced these frustrations. The ancient Greeks had a word for it: akrasia. I bring it up, Gemini, because I suspect you may be less susceptible to akrasia in the next four weeks than you have ever been. I bet you will consistently have the courage and command to actually follow through on what your intuition tells you is in your best interests.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “There is no such thing as a failed experiment,” said inventor Buckminster Fuller, “only experiments with unexpected outcomes.” That’s an excellent guideline for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks.

You’re entering a phase of your astrological cycle when questions are more important than answers, when explorations are more essential than discoveries, and when curiosity is more useful than knowledge. There will be minimal value in formulating a definitive concept of success and then trying to achieve it. You will have more fun and you will learn more by continually redefining success as you wander and ramble.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): During World War II, British code-breakers regularly intercepted and deciphered top-secret radio messages that highranking German soldiers sent to each other.

Historians have concluded that these heroes shortened the war by at least two years. I bring this to your attention, Leo, in the hope that it will inspire you. I believe your own metaphorical code-breaking skills will be acute in the coming weeks. You’ll be able to decrypt messages that have different meanings from what they appear to mean. You won’t get fooled by deception and misdirection.

This knack will enable you to home in on the elusive truths that are circulating — thus saving you from unnecessary and irrelevant turmoil.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In April 1972, three American astronauts climbed into a spacecraft and took a trip to the moon and back. On the second day of the 11-day jaunt, pilot Ken Mattingly removed and misplaced his wedding ring. In the zero-gravity

conditions, it drifted off and disappeared somewhere in the cabin. Nine days later, on the way home, Mattingly and Charlie Duke did a space walk. When they opened the hatch and slipped outside, they found the wedding ring floating in the blackness of space.

Duke was able to grab it and bring it in. I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will recover a lost or missing item in an equally unlikely location, Virgo. Or perhaps your retrieval will be of a more metaphorical kind: a dream, a friendship, an opportunity.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): According to British philosopher Alain de Botton, “Maturity begins with the capacity to sense and, in good time and without defensiveness, admit to our own craziness.”

He says that our humble willingness to be embarrassed by our confusion and mistakes and doubts is key to understanding ourselves. I believe these meditations will be especially useful for you in the coming weeks, Libra. They could lead you to learn and make use of robust new secrets of self-mastery.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): During the next four weeks, there are three activities I suspect you should indulge in at an elevated rate: laughter, dancing, and sex. The astrological omens suggest that these pursuits will bring you even more health benefits than usual. They will not only give your body, mind, and soul the precise exercise they need most; they will also make you smarter and kinder and wilder. Fortunately, the astrological omens also suggest that laughter, dancing, and sex will be even more easily available to you than they normally are.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The little voices in your head may have laryngitis, but they’re still spouting their cracked advice. Here’s another curiosity: You are extra-attuned to the feelings and thoughts of other people. I’m tempted to speculate that you’re at least temporarily telepathic.

There’s a third factor contributing to the riot in your head: People you were close to earlier in your life are showing up to kibitz you in your nightly dreams. In response, I bid you to bark “Enough!” at all these meddlers. You have astrological permission to tell them to pipe down so you can hear yourself think.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Paleontologist Jack Horner says that developmental biologists are halfway toward being able to create a chickenosaurus — a creature that is genetically a blend of a chicken and a dinosaur. This project is conceivable because there’s an evolutionary link between the ancient reptile and the modern bird.

Now is a favorable time for you to contemplate metaphorically similar juxtapositions and combinations, Capricorn. For the foreseeable future, you’ll have extra skill and savvy in the art of amalgamation.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Be stubborn about your goals but flexible about your methods.” That’s the message I saw on a woman’s t-shirt today. It’s the best possible advice for you to hear right now. To further drive home the point, I’ll add a quote from productivity consultant David Allen: “Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.” Are you willing to be loyal and true to your high standards, Aquarius, even as you improvise to uphold and fulfill them?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In her novel The Round House, writer Louise Erdrich reminisces about how hard it was, earlier in her life, to yank out the trees whose roots had grown into the foundation of her family’s house. “How funny, strange, that a thing can grow so powerful even when planted in the wrong place,” she says. Then she adds, “ideas, too.” Your first assignment in the coming weeks, my dear Pisces, is to make sure that nothing gets planted in the wrong place. Your second assignment is to focus all your intelligence and love on locating the right places for new seeds to be planted.

HOMEWORK: Is it possible there’s something you really need but you don’t know what it is?

Can you guess what it might be? Go to Freewillastrology.com and click on “Email Rob.”

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