Metro Times 03/19/2025

On the cover:

Photo by Brian Rozman

Feedback NEWS & VIEWS

On 313 Day, we received responses to an article from our archives, “Metro Detroit is running out of phone numbers for its iconic 313 area code.” The code is expected to be retired in October, to be replaced by 679.

I’m holding onto my 313 number for as long as I possibly can!! End of an era indeed.

—Joel Berger (joelberger313.bsky.social), Bluesky

“The proposal calls for applying 679 over the same geographic territory as 313. It would apply to new numbers only, and would not require people with existing 313 area codes to change their phone numbers.” - no longer accurate, as I recently received

notice my existing 313 I’ve had at least ten years will be changed to 679 ��

—Brian Kirchinger, Facebook

I’m old enough to remember when 313 covered all of SE lower Michigan. It covered 248 and 586.

—Russell Dunn, Instagram

Russell Dunn and Michigan had only 4 area codes in ’71 when I started at Ma Bell Marty Merz, Facebook

So, our city population is growing!!?? ����

—Christopher Davis, Facebook

In Holly, we’ve gone through THREE area codes in my lifetime.

—@wmcoale, Threads

Sound off: letters@metrotimes.com

NEWS & VIEWS

Detroit’s 313 Day concerts canceled

A planned two-day music festival meant to celebrate Detroit pride was canceled at the 11th hour.

Based on the city’s beloved area code, the 313 Day festival was supposed to feature two nights of live music at Detroit’s Masonic Temple with an R&B-themed concert on Thursday and a hip-hop show on Friday. But organizers canceled the R&B event the day before it was scheduled to start, and then on Friday scrambled to relocate the hip-hop show before it was also canceled at the last minute.

The festival resumed on Saturday with educational events and a basketball game.

In a tearful video message posted to Instagram, co-organizer Chanel Dominique denied responsibility for the festival’s collapse and instead said the venue was to blame.

“Unfortunately, I trusted to partner with a venue that didn’t trust this show, truly, because there’s absolutely no reason why we could not have made this happen,” she said. “This was not anything to do with the artists, this was not anything to do with us, the coordinators, or promoters. This is everything to do with what is happening in the market of Detroit right now with a lot of these venues, and when it comes to Detroit talent.”

Dominique referred to the cancelation of the R&B concert as a “business decision” but called the canceled hip-hop show “what occurs when you have people that say they want to believe in something, or say they want to be a part of something, or say that they respect what you’ve been doing, and then you get to the wire, you get there, and you are doing everything

you’re supposed to do, and they play in your face. … They literally lie.”

She added, “We worked tirelessly to try to keep this show on. To have to cancel two shows back to back is gutwrenching for me. It’s gut-wrenching for my team.”

Organizers did not respond to multiple requests for comment. AEG Presents, which operates the Masonic Temple, declined to comment.

Officials from the Detroit Police Department and the Detroit Fire Department told Metro Times that the decision to cancel the concert was not theirs.

“The Detroit Police Department had no involvement in this matter and did not shut the event down,” a DPD spokesperson said. “The management and promoters of the show made this decision prior to the

scheduled start time.”

While Detroit hip-hop has exploded in popularity in recent years, drawing fans from the city and far beyond, it has faced challenges when it comes to local concerts including multiple canceled shows. A 2024 Metro Times cover story looked at some of the problems with the local hip-hop scene, including allegations from police of threats of violence, improper permitting, and low ticket pre-sales.

In January, fans complained of production issues at a Little Caesars Arena concert presented by 97.9 WJLB called “The Big Show” that was set to feature national acts like Glorilla, Sexyy Red, and BossMan Dlow, as well as Detroit rappers Tee Grizzley, Tay B, and Snap Dogg.

Some have called for more Black-

Brooklyn Queen performs at the Tied in 313 Day Festival in 2023.

KAHN SANTORI DAVISON

owned venues in the city, believing they would be more friendly to local hip-hop music. In her message, Dominique echoed the complaint.

“These venues, I don’t want to say boycott them, but ... they ain’t always right,” she said. “They treat us the worst. They treat everybody outside of here the best.”

In a previous interview with Metro Times, Dominique said she wanted to grow the 313 Day festival “into our own version of Coachella in Detroit.” The event launched in 2022 at the Garden Theater drawing some 1,000 fans, followed by a “Tied in 313 Day” event at the Fillmore in 2023 with some 2,500 attendees. The event took a year off in 2024.

Problems with the 2025 festival were revealed Wednesday, when organizers announced the first night of the Masonic Temple shows had been postponed “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

The concert was to feature local R&B artists like Drey Skonie, Charity, Neisha Neshae, and others.

In announcing the canceled R&B show, organizers encouraged fans to buy tickets for Friday’s hip-hop show, which they said was nearly sold out.

“GET YOUR TICKETS NOW, IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!” organizers wrote.

The hip-hop bill featured nearly 30 acts including Babyface Ray, Boldy James, Detroit Diamond, Doughboyz Cashout, Icewear Vezzo, Lana Ladonna, Sada Baby, Tee Grizzley, and more.

On Friday, organizers announced that the Masonic Temple show was being relocated to the Eastern, a much smaller events space in the city’s Eastern Market district. The Masonic Temple has a capacity of about 4,600, while the Eastern can hold about 600.

“THE SHOW MUST GO ON,” the organizers wrote in an Instagram post, with the caption, “Thanks For Your Patience.”

Within hours it, too, was canceled.

In her video message, Dominique insisted that the 313 Day music festival will be rescheduled.

“We’re still figuring it out,” she said. “We’re not going to give up … one thing about it is, for me, I never give up.”

She added, “I was looking forward to it, all these artists was looking forward to it. I can’t imagine what the fans and the concertgoers and everybody that supports us … feels.”

—Lee DeVito

Detroit family sues city, police officers for killing chained dog

A Detroit family has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and a group of cops, alleging civil rights violations after an officer fatally shot their chained dog and unlawfully arrested them during a raid.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accuses Detroit police officer Austin Rymarz of excessive force and illegal seizure when he shot and killed Lashaye Taylor’s dog during a January 2023 raid of her home. The plaintiffs, who include Taylor and her adult children Desjuan Taylor and Saron Blanding, also claim they were wrongfully detained without probable cause in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.

According to the lawsuit, Rymarz and other officers executed a search warrant at Taylor’s home on Roosevelt Street. Taylor’s dog was chained to a fence and “posed no threat,” the complaint states. Despite this, Rymarz allegedly fired three shots, killing the dog.

“I could see it was attached to something,” Rymarz admitted under cross-examination in a separate case, according to the lawsuit.

City clerk candidate calls herself a ‘Trumplican’

Articia Bomer is no stranger to Detroit voters.

She ran for mayor in 2016, state representative in 2018, Congress in 2020, governor in 2022, and Wayne County sheriff in 2024. She lost each race.

Now the outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump says she wants to “make elections great again” and is launching a campaign to unseat longtime City Clerk Janice Winfrey.

Bomer, who describes herself as a “Trumplican” rather than a Republican, acknowledges she has a tough road ahead, but she says she has something to offer that Detroiters want most — honesty.

“I’m probably the poorest candidate, but I’m the most honest candidate,” Bomer tells Metro Times “That’s what matters in my heart.”

Bomer says she initially considered another run for governor before supporters urged her to run for city clerk. She believes Winfrey has had a difficult time in office, particularly after the death of her husband, and mishandled elections. Bomer says Detroiters need a fresh start.

incorporating braille for the visually impaired, foreign languages for immigrants, and photos of candidates next to their names. With Detroit’s high illiteracy rate and other factors, Bomer believes some voters are casting a ballot for the wrong candidates.

“Maybe they can’t read, have mental issues, or got high and smoked a blunt,” Bomer says. “I want them to see the candidates’ faces.”

Bomer embraces her support for Trump, but insists she isn’t bound to party labels.

“Republicans cheat as well and are very mean to Democrats,” she says. “Democrats are the ones who voted for me in the past.”

Still, Bomer believes Trump is misunderstood, and she praises his leadership and his outreach to Black voters.

“He has a heart,” Bomer says. “He saw that Democrats aren’t helping Black people. … We need to get our country back in order.”

To that end, Bomer has helped organize Trump rallies.

Her positions are a mix of conservative with a dash of some progressive views. She is pro-life and has 10 children, eight of whom are adults. Three serve in the U.S. Army, while others work in the auto industry and the nonprofit sector.

He also acknowledged that he “did not know how far the chair reached” before he pulled the trigger.

The lawsuit claims Rymarz falsely described the dog as aggressive and advancing toward officers. However, video footage contradicts this claim, showing that “the dog was in the same spot before and after the shooting,” the complaint states. The officers allegedly removed the dog’s remains without Taylor’s consent and failed to file required reports about the shooting, violating department policy.

The Detroit Police Department’s policy on dangerous animals states that officers should not use deadly force unless “there is no opportunity to retreat or other reasonable means to eliminate the threat.” It also requires officers to exhaust all reasonable options before shooting an animal. The lawsuit argues Rymarz disregarded these protocols.

Taylor was placed in a police vehicle during the raid and “was not free to leave,” according to the lawsuit. Her children Desjuan Taylor and Saron Blanding were arrested, held in custody for four days, and later released without being charged.

—Steve Neavling

“With all respect for Winfrey, she’s been through a lot,” Bomer says. “Let’s let her grieve properly.”

Bomer’s campaign is centered on election security and accessibility. She alleges that past elections in Detroit were tainted by irregularities, citing her own experiences observing vote counting.

“I was at the TCF Center in 2020,” she says, referring to the facility now known as Huntington Place where Detroit’s ballots are counted. “I saw ballots getting jammed, machines being sprayed with chemicals, and people overriding the system.”

Despite her claims, no credible evidence has been found to prove the election was stolen from Trump, who lost in Michigan in 2020. Still, says she wants to improve voting integrity in Detroit and supports voter ID laws to “make sure no one is stealing IDs and voting.”

“If it were up to me, I’d do handcounting,” Bomer says. “We need a bulletproof election.”

But not everything about her platform is about Trump’s election claims. She says she also wants to make ballots more accessible by

At the same time, she says she stands with the LGBTQ community, a stance that puts her at odds with many in the Republican Party.

“A lot of Republicans judge them, but a lot of them are my friends,” she says. “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”

Bomer’s path to politics has been unconventional. She was homeless two years ago, staying in Monroe County when she couldn’t find shelter in Wayne County. While there, she rang the bell for the Salvation Army.

She describes herself as a woman of faith who wants to help others. She regularly buys meals for the homeless at McDonald’s, where she says she “got my very first start.”

Now Bomer is running her campaign out of her home on the city’s west side, where she and her children sleep on inflated mattresses.

Despite the long odds, Bomer says she is determined to win.

“I’ve been behind the scenes for years trying to make this country great,” she says. “I’m a good-hearted person. I’m an honest person, and I don’t have a criminal record. I’m not going to let anyone tell me I can’t make it. With God, all things are possible.”

—Steve Neavling

After boycott calls, U-M president doubled down on Israeli investments

University of Michigan

President Santa Ono, who has come under fire for his response to proPalestinian protesters on campus, did nothing to tamper that criticism while speaking at an Anti-Defamation League conference in Manhatten earlier this month.

Speaking on the main stage on March 3, Ono admitted he doubled down and invested more in Israel-connected institutions after pro-Palestinian supporters called for a boycott.

“My response and the board’s response to this call to divest and to cut those relationships was to actually invest even more,” Ono said, adding “great things have come out of these relationships, and more great things will come in the future.”

Ono also boasted that he stopped the Central Student Government from calling for divestment from Israel.

“I personally stepped in to stop the vote,” Ono said. “And, that’s because I thought it was wrong.”

Pro-Palestinian activists have long complained that Ono and the school’s Board of Regents have sided with Israel’s right-wing government while its military killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, about 80% of whom were civilians. Ono’s discussion at the ADL conference only amplified those concerns.

Ono, who also said he’s been involved with pro-Israel groups, suggested the pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the campus green space known as the Diag that was torn down by campus police in May could have been organized by powerful outsiders, a conspiracy theory that has been repeated by many supporters of Israel without much evidence.

Hosting the discussion was Dan Senor, a staunch advocate of Israel who served as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. Senor drew criticism after telling journalists that if Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities, Romney “would respect” the decision.

During the discussion, Senor asked Ono if the protests were “organic, grassroots, spontaneous, or semi-spontaneous uprising, or is there something else going on here?”

“Are there influences from outside the university that are stroking, organizing, resourcing?” Senor asked.

Ono tried to claim outsiders were to blame.

“Near the end of the encampment on the Diag, the vast majority of people had no affiliation with the university,” Ono said. “The second thing is that if you look at what’s in the encampments, the kind of materials that are there, they’re clearly not from the United States in many cases. And so, what I’ve said to a lot of my friends in government and the media is, ‘follow the money.’ There’s something behind what’s happening. And you got to find those people to actually stop this from happening.”

Over the past year, the University of Michigan has been accused of suppressing student protests, and the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of students who were banned from campus after demonstrating in support of Palestinians. The bans, which restrict students’ access to university property, drew accusations of free speech violations.

Pro-Palestinian students and alumni also filed a federal lawsuit against the university in December, alleging the school violated their constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and equal protection by silencing them.

During the ADL conference, Senor also downplayed islamophobia, saying hatred against Jewish people is far more prevalent.

“There’s a tendency, I think, especially since Oct 7, to try to universal-

ize the outsized hate, violence, and discrimination applied to Jews and, sort of universalize it in a way that dilutes the significance of the Jewish experience,” Senor said. “You know, according to the FBI, the Jewish population in the United States is roughly 2.4% of the entire U.S. population, but accounts for 68% of hate crimes. So, there is something different going on with the Jewish community than other groups are experiencing.”

Ono responded, “I agree 100%.”

It’s unclear where Senor is getting that data, and he fails to mention that hate crimes against Muslims are increasing at a faster rate than those against Jewish people. According to preliminary data from the Crime and Justice Research Alliance, hate crimes declined last year. Still, anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 18% in 28 cities, while hate crimes against Jews increased about 11% in 35 cities.

Ono also praised Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel after she filed criminal charges against nine people involved in the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Michigan. Nessel is the first Jewish person to serve as attorney general in Michigan, and she was booed at the Michigan Democratic Convention in Detroit last month.

“The Attorney General, Dana Nessel, has been amazing,” Ono said. “And our regents, by the way, have been amazing. They are lockstep.”

Nessel’s office was unable to cite another instance in which the AG filed charges against protesters in the

last six years.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, slammed Ono for his ties to the ADL. In a letter to Ono, Tlaib called the organization an “extremist group” with a “decades-long history of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Black racism.”

The ADL has been accused of racism and surveillance of Black activists since the 1990s. The ADL has also faced growing criticism in recent years for labeling left-wing Jewish groups, Black Lives Matter, and Palestinian rights organizations as antisemitic. In addition, the group has pushed for federal antisemitism legislation, which critics argue is designed to silence left-wing Jewish activists and pro-Palestinian advocates.

All of this comes as Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist at Columbia University, was arrested on March 8 and transferred to a detention center in Louisiana for his role in organizing pro-Palestinian protests. The arrest of a legal permanent resident of the U.S. without due process has alarmed civil rights advocates.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Tlaib and just 13 other Democrats called for the Trump administration to release Khalil.

Last week, President Donald Trump said Khalil’s arrest and possible deportation will be the first “of many to come,” pledging to crack down on campus protests against Israel and the war in Gaza.

—Steve Neavling

A pro-Palestine protest at the University of Michigan in May 2024.

DOUG COOMBE

NEWS & VIEWS

Is this ‘Sunset’ for ‘Hollywood’ Craig?

By Joe Lapointe

I first met James Craig seven years ago when he was riding high as Detroit’s popular chief of police. Reporting a profile, I watched him interact with cops, citizens, and the media. You couldn’t help but notice his people skills and self-confidence.

“I’ve always been one who gravitates to leadership positions,” Craig told me.

Strangers greeted him in his favorite restaurant, hugging him and thanking him for his work. “Deputy mayor” already graced his official title. It seemed as if Craig could be Detroit’s next mayor.

That hunch may yet prove true. Craig announced last week he will run for mayor in the August 5 primary. He spoke at an East Side barber shop while displaying a trim beard like that of Vice President JD Vance.

But Craig’s beard is gray. At age 69, he is one of nine candidates — so far. At his age and this stage of his political career, one wonders whether Craig has maybe missed his moment. Oh, no, not so, he says. His grateful citizens remember him.

“Ask the average Joe who lives out here in Detroit and they’ll tell you ‘I appreciate what he did,’” Craig said of his eight years as top cop from 2013 to 2021. He said if Detroiters liked his work then, his election to mayor would mean: “More to come.”

Ideally for Craig, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan would have left the job after two terms in 2021 instead of after three terms in 2025. Duggan is running for governor not as a Democrat but as an independent.

When Duggan stayed on for a third term, Craig left his police position and ran unsuccessfully — as a Republican — for governor of Michigan in 2022 and for Michigan’s vacant U.S. Senate seat in 2024.

Both tries fizzled, for different reasons. In both cases, it seemed as if Craig’s reach had exceeded his grasp. But Craig also gradually presented himself as a Republican conservative who briefly caught the eye of President Donald Trump and may do so again. Are they allies?

“If you look across the country, I don’t know how many mayors will have the ability to touch this administration,” Craig said. A frequent guest on Fox News Channel, Craig has defended his department’s harsh treatment of Black Lives Matter demonstrators in 2020.

He often stresses that Detroit didn’t suffer riots as some cities did after the police murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd, although the Motor City had to pay out $1 million in 2022 to a group called “Detroit Will Breathe” which sued for mistreatment during the demonstrations.

Since then, culture wars have grown harsher. Despite Trump’s promise to deport only “the worst of the worst” in his purge of undocumented immigrants, his enforcers in Trenton this month snatched Jose Guadalupe Jaimes, a Mexican-born father of five who has lived here for 30 years.

Despite a work permit and no criminal record, he was captured after dropping off a child for school. Amidst this spirit of crackdown, how might a Mayor Craig and his cops cooperate with the harsh demands of ICE and Homeland Security?

Detroit, after all, includes immigrants from Latin America and the Middle East. Here’s what Craig told me in 2018.

“We are not a sanctuary city,” Craig

said then. “We will cooperate with Homeland Security or ICE if we’re talking about someone who is a felon.”

At that time, Craig seemed to suggest Detroit authorities practiced discretion and restraint. “We don’t make traffic stops and initiate a conversation about your immigration status,” he said.

He took that same tone last Thursday, in a radio conversation on WJR (760-AM) with host Kevin Dietz on All Talk. Craig proclaimed himself a “servant leader” who came from a Democratic family and understands both sides of the divide.

“I was a long-time Democrat, a conservative Democrat, a JFK Democrat,” Craig said in the radio interview. “My parents were Democrats, my whole family, but we were conservative . . . The Democrat party left me and, frankly, a lot of long-time Democrats are feeling the same way.”

Reflecting on Trump winning the state in two of the last three presidential elections, Craig told Dietz, “It’s not an accident that the state turned red.” While that is true on the presidential level, top statewide offices remain Democratic blue.

Perhaps Craig’s mayoral try will predict Michigan’s 2026 mid-terms, when voters in the Great Lakes State will fill positions vacated by Demo -

crats like Governor Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Senator Gary Peters. For the moment, Craig prefers to keep it local and non-partisan.

“I’m not running as a Republican, I’m running as a Detroiter,” he said in the radio interview. “Detroiters come up to me on a regular basis and say, ‘I miss you, Chief, I appreciate you and, oh, by the way, if you run for mayor, I’m supporting you.’”

Yes, but — in this fraught moment — how will a city with a vastly Democratic majority react to Trump’s gleeful attacks on immigrants and his spasmodic tariff wars that endanger the economy of the Motor City?

On the campaign trail, will Craig back Trump and risk the wrath of disaffected Detroit Democrats? Or does he criticize Trump and risk the wrath of a vengeful Republican chief executive?

Because he matured in police work in Los Angeles and because he loves publicity, Craig enjoys his nickname “Hollywood” Craig.

Should he finish in the top two in the August primary, he’ll get plenty of camera and microphone minutes to explain himself further before the election on November 4. Think of it as a screen test for “Hollywood” Craig.

Is he ready for his close-up or, like Norma Desmond, past his prime?

Former top cop runs for mayor of Detroit.

CITY OF DETROIT, FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

The 2025 Foilies

Recognizing

the worst in government transparency

By Dave Maass, Aaron Mackey, Beryl Lipton, Michael Morisy, Dillon Bergin, and Kelly Kauffman

The public’s right to access government information is constantly under siege across the United States, from both sides of the political aisle. In Maryland, where Democrats hold majorities, the attorney general and state legislature are pushing a bill to allow agencies to reject public records requests that they consider “harassing.” At the same time, President Donald Trump’s administration has moved its most aggressive government reform effort — the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — outside the reach of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), while also beginning the mass removal of public data sets.

One of the most powerful tools to fight back against bad governance is public ridicule. That’s where we come in: Every year during Sunshine Week (March 16-22) the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), MuckRock, and AAN Publishers team up to publish The Foilies. This annual report — now a decade old — names and shames the most repugnant, absurd, and incompetent responses to public records requests under FOIA and state transparency laws.

Sometimes the good guys win. For example, last year we highlighted the Los Angeles Police Department for using the courts to retaliate against advocates and a journalist who had rightfully received and published official photographs of police officers. The happy ending (at least for transparency): LAPD has since lost the case, and the city paid the advocates $300,000 to cover their legal bills.

Here are this year’s “winners.” While they may not all pay up, at least we can make sure they get the negative publicity they’re owed.

The Exorbitant FOIA Fee of the Year: Rapides Parish School District

After a church distributed a religious tract at Lessie Moore Elementary School School in Pineville, Louisiana, young students quickly dubbed its frank discussion of mature themes as “the sex book.” Hirsh M. Joshi from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a lawyer representing a parent, filed a request with the Rapides Parish School District to try to get some basic information: How much did the school coordinate with the church distributing the material? Did other parents complain? What was the internal reaction? Joshi was stunned when the school district responded with an initial estimate of $2 million to cover the cost of processing the request. After local media picked up the story and a bit of negotiating, the school ultimately waived the charges and responded with a mere nine pages of responsive material.

While Rapides Parish’s sky-high estimate ultimately took home the gold this year, there was fierce competition. The Massachusetts State Police wanted $176,431 just to review — and potentially not even release — materials about recruits who leave the state’s training program early. Back in Louisiana, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s office insisted on charging a grieving father more than $5,000 for records on the suspicious death of his own son.

The Now You See It, Now You Don’t Award: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sports reporter Daniel Libit’s public records request is at the heart of a lawsuit that looks a lot like the SpiderMan pointing meme. In 2023, Libit filed the request for a contract between the University of Wisconsin and Altius Sports Partners, a firm that consults college athletic programs on payment strategies for college athletes (“Name, Image, Likeness” or NIL deals), after reading a university press release about the partnership.The university denied the request, claiming that Altius was actually contracted by the University of Wisconsin Foundation, a separate 501(c) (3). So, Libit asked the foundation for the contract. The foundation then denied the request, claiming it was exempt from Wisconsin’s open records laws. After the denial, Libit filed a lawsuit for the records, which was then dismissed, because the university and foundation argued that Libit had incorrectly asked for a contract between the university and Altius, as opposed to the foundation and Altius.

The foundation did produce a copy of the contract in the lawsuit, but the game of hiding the ball makes one thing clear, as Libit wrote after: “If it requires this kind of effort to get a relatively prosaic NIL consultant contract, imagine the lengths schools are willing to go to keep the really interesting stuff hidden.”

The Fudged Up Beyond All Recognition Award: Central Intelligence Agency

There are state secrets, and there are family secrets, and sometimes they mix … like a creamy, gooey confectionary.

After Mike Pompeo finished his first year as Trump’s CIA director in 2017, investigative reporter Jason Leopold sent a FOIA request asking for all of the memos Pompeo sent to staff. Seven years later, the agency finally produced the records, including a “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” message recounting the annual holiday reception and gingerbread competition, which was won by a Game of Thrones-themed entry. (“And good use of ice cream cones!” Pompeo wrote.) At the party, Pompeo handed out cards with his mom’s “secret” recipe for fudge, and for those who couldn’t make it, he also sent it out as an email attachment.

But the CIA redacted the whole thing, vaguely claiming it was protected from disclosure under federal law. This isn’t the first time the federal government has protected Pompeo’s culinary secrets: In 2021, the State Department redacted Pompeo’s pizza toppings and favorite sandwich from emails.

The You Can’t Handle the Truth Award: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin

In Virginia, state officials have come under fire in the past few years for shielding records from the public under the broad use of a “working papers and correspondence” FOIA exemption. When a public records request came in for internal communications on the state’s Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, which provides tuition-free college to spouses and children of military veterans killed or disabled as a result of their service, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office used this “working papers” exemption to reject the FOIA request.

The twist is the request was made by Kayla Owen, a military spouse and a member of the governor’s own task force studying the program. Despite Owen’s attempts to correct the parameters of the request, Youngkin’s office made the final decision in July to withhold more than two folders worth of communications with officials who have been involved with policy discussions about the program.

The Courts Cloaked in Secrecy Award (Tie): Solano County Superior Court, California, and Washoe County District Court, Nevada

Courts are usually the last place the public can go to vindicate their rights to government records when agencies flout them. When agencies lock down records, courts usually provide the key to open them up.

Except in Vallejo, California, where a state trial court judge decided to lock his own courtroom during a public records lawsuit — a move that even Franz Kafka would have dismissed as too surreal and ironic. The suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union sought a report detailing a disturbing ritual in which officers bent their badges to celebrate their on-duty killings of local residents.

When public access advocates filed an emergency motion to protest the court closure, the court denied it without even letting them in to argue their case. This was not just a bad look; it violated the California and U.S. constitutions, which guarantee public access to court proceedings and a public hearing prior to barring the courtroom doors.

Not to be outdone, a Nevada trial court judge has twice barred a local group from filming hearings concerning a public records lawsuit. The request sought records of an alleged domestic violence incident at the Reno city manager’s house. Despite the Nevada Supreme Court rebuking the judge for prohibiting cameras in her courtroom, she later denied the same

group from filming another hearing. The transparency group continues to fight for camera access, but its persistence should not be necessary: The court should have let them record from the get-go.

The No Tech Support Award: National Security Agency

In 1982, Rear Adm. Grace Hopper (then a captain) presented a lecture to the National Security Agency entitled “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People.” One can only imagine Hopper’s disappointment if she had lived long enough to learn that in the future, the NSA would claim it was impossible for its people to access the recording of the talk.

Hopper is undoubtedly a major figure in the history of computing whose records and lectures are of undeniable historical value, and Michael Ravnitzky, frequent FOIA requester and founder of Government Attic, requested this particular lecture back in 2021. Three years later, the NSA responded to tell him that they had no responsive documents.

Befuddled, Ravnitzky pointed out the lecture had been listed in the NSA’s own Television Center Catalogue. At that point, the agency copped to the actual issue. Yes, it had the record, but it was captured on AMPEX 1-inch open reel tapes, as was more common in the 1980s. Despite being a major intelligence agency with high-tech surveillance and communication capabilities, it claimed it could not find any way to access the recording.

Let’s unpack the multi-layered egregiousness of the NSA’s actions here. It took the agency three years to respond to this FOIA. When it did, the NSA claimed that it had nothing responsive, which was a lie. But the most colossal failure by the NSA was its claim that it couldn’t find a way to make accessible to the public important moments from our history because of technical difficulties.

But leave it to librarians to put spies to shame: The National Archives stepped in to help, and now you can watch the lecture in two parts.

Ten years of the Foilies

In the year 2015, we witnessed the launch of OpenAI, a debate over the color of a dress going viral, and a Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples have the right to get married. It was also the year that the Electronic Frontier Foundation first published The Foilies, an annual report that hands out tonguein-cheek “awards” to government agencies and officials that respond outrageously when a member of the public tries to access public records through the Freedom of Information Act or similar laws.

A lot has changed over the last decade, but one thing that hasn’t is the steady flow of attempts by authorities to avoid their legal and ethical obligations to be open and accountable. Sometimes, these cases are intentional, but just as often, they are due to incompetence or straight-up halfassedness.

Over the years, EFF has teamed up with MuckRock to document and ridicule these FOIA fails and transparency trip-ups. And through a partnership with AAN Publishers, we have named-and-shamed the culprits in weekly newspapers and on indie news sites across the United States in celebration of Sunshine Week, an annual event raising awareness of the role access to public records plays in a democracy.

This year, we reflect on the most absurd and frustrating winners from the last 10 years as we prepare for the next decade, which may even be more terrible for government transparency. —Dave Maass, the Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Most Infuriating FOIA Fee: U.S. Department of Defense (2016 Winner)

Under FOIA, federal agencies are able to charge “reasonable” fees for producing copies of records. But sometimes agencies fabricate enormous price tags to pressure the requester to drop the query.

In 2015, Martin Peck asked the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to disclose the number of “HotPlug” devices (tools used to preserve data on seized computers) it had purchased. The DOD said it would cost $660 million and 15 million labor hours (over 1,712 years), because its document system wasn’t searchable by keyword, and staff would have to comb through 30 million contracts by hand.

Runners-up

City of Seattle (2019 Winner): City officials quoted a member of the public $33 million for metadata for every email sent in 2017, but ultimately reduced the fee to $40.

Rochester (Michigan) Community Schools District (2023 Winner): A group of parents critical of the district’s remotelearning plan requested records to see if the district was spying on their social media. One parent was told they would have to cough up $18,641,345 for the records, because the district would have to sift through every email.

Willacy County (Texas) Sheriff’s Of-

fice (2016 Winner): When the Houston Chronicle asked for crime data, the sheriff sent them an itemized invoice that included $98.40 worth of Wite-Out — the equivalent of 55 bottles — to redact 1,016 pages of records.

The Most Ridiculous Redaction: Federal Bureau of Investigation (2015 Winner)

Brad Heath, who in 2014 was a reporter at USA Today, got a tip that a shady figure had possibly attended an FBI retirement party. So he filed a request for the guest list and pictures taken at the event. In response, the FBI sent a series of surreal photos of the attendees, hugging, toasting, and posing awkwardly, but all with polygonal redactions covering their faces like some sort of mutant, Minecraft family reunion.

Runner-up

U.S. Southern Command (2023 Winner): Investigative journalist Jason Leopold obtained scans of paintings by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which were heavily redacted under the claim that the art would disclose law enforcement information that could “reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.”

The Most Reprehensible Reprisal Against a Requester: White Castle, Louisiana (2017 Winner)

Chris Nakamoto, at the time a reporter for WBRZ, filed a public records request to probe the White Castle mayor’s salary. But when he went down to check on some of the missing records, he was handcuffed, placed in a holding cell, and charged with the crime of “remaining after being forbidden.” He was summoned to appear before the “Mayor’s Court” in a judicial proceeding presided over by none other than the same mayor he was investigating. The charges were dropped two months later.

Runners-up

Jack White (2015 Winner): One of the rare non-government Foilies winners, the White Stripes guitarist verbally abused University of Oklahoma student journalists and announced he wouldn’t play at the school anymore. The reason? The student newspaper, OU Daily, obtained and published White’s contract for a campus performance, which included his no-longer-secret guacamole recipe, a bowl of which was demanded in his rider.

Richlands, Virginia (2024 Winner): Resident Laura Mollo used public records laws to investigate problems with the 911 system and, in response, experienced intense harassment from the city and its contractors, including the police pulling her over and the city appointing a special prosecutor to investigate her. On separate occasions, Morro even says she found her mailbox filled with spaghetti and manure.

Worst Federal Agency of the Decade: Federal Bureau of Investigation

Bashing the FBI has come back into vogue among certain partisan circles in recent years, but we’ve been slamming the feds long before it was trendy.

The agency received eight Foilies over the last decade, more than any other entity, but the FBI’s hostility towards FOIA goes back much further. In 2021, the Cato Institute uncovered records showing that, since at least 1989, the FBI had been spying on the National Security Archive, a non-profit watchdog that keeps an eye on the intelligence community. The FBI’s methods included both physical and electronic surveillance, and the records show the FBI specifically cited the organization’s “tenacity” in using FOIA.

Cato’s Patrick G. Eddington reported it took 11 months for the FBI to produce those records, but that’s actually relatively fast for the agency. We highlighted a 2009 FOIA request that the FBI took 12 years to fulfill: Bruce Alpert of the Times-Picayune had asked for records regarding the corruption case of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, but by the time he received the 84 pages in 2021, the reporter had retired. Similarly, when George Washington University professor and documentary filmmaker Nina Seavey asked the FBI for records related to surveillance of antiwar and civil rights activists, the FBI told her it would take 17 years to provide the documents. When the agency launched an online system for accepting FOIA requests, it somehow made the process even more difficult.

The FBI was at its worst when it was attempting to use non-disclosure agreements to keep local law enforcement agencies from responding to public records requests regarding the use of cell phone surveillance technologies called cell-site simulators, or “stingrays.” The agency even went so far as to threaten agencies that release technical information to media organizations with up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, claiming it would be a violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

But you don’t have to take our word for it: Even Micky Dolenz of the Monkees had

to sue the FBI to get records on how agents collected intelligence on the 1960s band.

Worst Local Jurisdiction of the Decade: Chicago, Illinois

Over the last decade, the Foilies have called out officials at all levels of government and in every part of the country (and even in several other countries), but time and time again, one city keeps demonstrating special antagonism to the idea of freedom of information: the Windy City. In fact, the most ridiculous justification for ignoring transparency obligations we ever encountered was proudly championed by now-former Mayor Lori Lightfoot during the COVID-19 lockdown in April 2020. She offered a bogus choice to Chicagoans: the city could either process public records requests or provide pandemic response, falsely claiming that answering these requests would pull epidemiologists off the job. According to the Chicago Tribune, she implied that responding to FOIA requests would result in people having to “bury another grandmother.” She even invoked the story of Passover, claiming that the “angel of death is right here in our midst every single day” as a reason to suspend FOIA deadlines.

If we drill down on Chicago, there’s one particular department that seems to take particular pleasure in screwing the public: the Chicago Police Department (CPD). In 2021, CPD was nominated so many times (for withholding records of search warrants, a list of names of police officers, and body-worn camera footage from a botched raid) that we just threw up our hands and named them “The Hardest Department to FOIA” of the year.

In one particularly nasty case, CPD had mistakenly raided the home of an innocent woman and handcuffed her while she was naked and did not allow her to dress. Later, the woman filed a FOIA request for the body-worn camera footage and had to sue to get it. But CPD didn’t leave it there: the city’s lawyers tried to block a TV station from airing the video and then sought sanctions against the woman’s attorney.

WHAT’S GOING ON

United We Brunch

Metro Times’s annual celebration of the best in Detroit brunching is back! This Saturday, we’re bringing together a select group of the city’s finest brunch spots for an unmissable feast. You’ll sample favorite brunch dishes from participating restaurants, build your own bloody marys with all the fixins from Joe’s Fresh Produce, get after mimosas featuring Korbel Brut Champagne, and otherwise have a ball. This year’s menu includes Cornbread Restaurant & Bar’s famous chicken and waffles, Toast Birmingham with their Eggs in Purgatory, Brown Iron Brewhouse’s Nutella French Toast Bake, and much, much more. All you need is your appetite, so join us at The Norwood. Limited tickets remain!

—Josh

Cohen

Starts noon (early entry for V.I.P) on Saturday; The Norwood, 6531 Woodward Ave., Detroit; mtbrunch.com. Tickets start at $50.

Birmingham Legion FC vs. Detroit City FC

Fresh off their big win at the defending USL champion Colorado Springs Switchbacks, Le Rouge look to continue their hot start in their home opener this Saturday against Birmingham Legion FC. Grab your scarves and get a head start on the action at the New Dodge, where the Northern Guard will be pregaming and then marching through Hamtown to the game at 3 p.m.

Josh Cohen

Party starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday; New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck. No cover. Game starts 4 p.m. at Keyworth Stadium, 3201 Roosevelt St., Hamtramck; detcityfc.com. Tickets start at $15.

Elevation

New York’s Ralph Session joins Detroit’s Ladymonix and Donavan Glover for Elevation, a night of dance music at Northern Lights Lounge.

—Lee DeVito

Doors at 8 p.m. on Saturday; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; residentadvisor.com. Tickets are $17.15-$28.55.

Marche du Nain Rouge

Since 2010, Detroit has a tradition of welcoming spring with the Nain Rouge, or “Red Dwarf” — a mythical creature said to be a harbinger of doom ever since cursing the city’s founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Inspired by the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, the first version of the Marche du Nain Rouge encouraged attendees to don red disguises and chase the imp out of the city, even culminating in the burning of an effigy. But like any good folklore tale, it has changed through the years and now it seems many people have a different view. In the first recorded version of the tale dating to 1883, a witch warns Cadillac to “appease the Nain Rouge” and historians have made the case that the story could have origins in Native

United We Brunch is Saturday!

American legends and even be seen as a representation of the need to respect the first stewards of this land. Now, the Marche du Nain Rouge’s official website makes clear “remember, we don’t chase the Nain!” and adds, “We welcome all views on the legend of the Nain Rouge.” Whatever side of the debate you fall on, there’s no denying that the Marche du Nain Rouge is a fun event that keeps Detroit history alive.

—Lee DeVito

Starts at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, with a procession starting at 1:30 p.m. at Canfield and Second Streets and an afterparty from 2:30-5 p.m. at the Masonic Temple’s Fountain Ballroom, 500 Temple St., Detroit; marchedunainrouge.com. No cover.

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Detroit Pistons

The Pelicans might not have anything to play for, having already been eliminated from playoff contention, unable to overcome another injury-plagued season that saw Zion Williamson miss most of November and all of December to a hamstring strain. But make no mistake — Williamson is healthy now and playing some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 25/7/6 splits since the start of February and displaying the speed and explosiveness that made him such a tantalizing prospect coming out of Duke, and makes this game more than worth the price of admission. The home stretch of the regular season sees the Pistons’ schedule get hellishly difficult, making the task of containing Williamson all the more important. The Pistons need to bank this win if they want to stay comfortable in the 6 seed and out of the play-in tournament.

—Josh Cohen

Starts 3 p.m. on Sunday; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit;

Detroit’s Marche du Nain Rouge is a unique, local tradition.

JOE MAROON

WHAT’S GOING ON CONTD

Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Be sure to check venue websites before all events for the latest information. Add your event to our online calendar: metrotimes.com/AddEvent.

MUSIC

Wednesday, March 19 Live/Concert

Alcest, MONO, Kælan Mikla 6:30 p.m.; Majestic Theatre, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $27.50-$54.50.

Brant Bjork Trio, Carbon Decoy, Cullossus 7 p.m.; Small’s, 10339 Conant St., Hamtramck; $20.

Fleshbore, Illusion of Fate, Syphoned, Phyrxian Sun 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.

Magic Bag Presents: Charlie Parr 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Mary J. Blige: The For My Fans Tour with NE-YO and Mario 7 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $79.50-$275.

The Main Squeeze, The Free Label 6:30 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $22.50.

Matt Larusso Trio and guests 8-11 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.

Thursday, March 20 Live/Concert

The Jerome Clark Trio 6-10 p.m.; Bert’s Music Cafe, 2458 Brush St., Detroit, MI; $15.

Chiodos, Hawthorne Heights, Emmure, The Callous Daoboys 6 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $39.50-$79.50.

Jade Eagleson 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $28-$68.

Leela James 8 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $41-$53.

Libby DeCamp 7-8 p.m.; Alpino, 1426 Bagley St, Detroit; $10.

Magic Bag Presents: Joey Harkum, Russ Baum 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Paleface Swiss, Stick to Your Guns, Nasty 6 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

RCS Jazz Bands 6 p.m.; Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts,

12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $30.

Role Model, Debbii Dawson 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $35-$75.

Shinola Hotel Birdy Sessions: Jazz in The Birdy Room 7-9:30 p.m.; Shinola Hotel, 1400 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $45.

Continuing This Week Karaoke/ Open Mic

Drag Queen Karaoke 8 p.m.-2 a.m.; Woodward Avenue Brewers, 22646 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; no cover.

Introduction: DJs John Ryan and Geo 9 p.m.-midnight; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.

Friday, March 21

Live/Concert

Chiodos, Hawthorne Heights, Emmure, The Callous Daoboys 6 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $39.50-$79.50.

Burton Cummings 8 p.m.; The Music Hall, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit; $69-$79.

Gully Boys, Skating Polly, Former Critics 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $18.

Legacy Five Concert 7-8:30 p.m.; Bethany Bible Church, 810 E. Huron River Dr., Belleville; Artist Circle $20 GenSeating $15 pre sale $16 door.

Magic Bag Presents: Hallowed Hearts — An Emo Night 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $12.

Material Girls (tributes to Adele, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Cher) 8 p.m.; Emerald Theatre, 31 N. Walnut St., Mount Clemens; $20-$220.

Movements, Citizen, Scowl, Downward 6:30 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $39.50$59.50.

Pamela Wise presents Women in Jazz feauturing Sky Covington 7:30-8:30 p.m.; Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit; $25.

Party 101 with DJ Matt Bennett (18+) 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $20-$30. Qrion, PRIM, Soular Spice 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $10-$20.

Saddle Up Country Line Dance Party! 8 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; $0-$15.

The Simon & Garfunkel Story 8-10 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$79. DJ/Dance

Disco Night with DJ DEADSET 8 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; $15-$25.

Saddle Up Country Line Dance Party! 8 p.m.-2 a.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; ladies free with advance rsvp!.

Saturday, March 22 Live/Concert

Pamela Wise presents Women In Jazz featuring Sky Covington 7:30-8:30 pm; Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit; $25.

Catherine Russell: Swing, Soul, and Stories 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.;

Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $60. Cloakroom, Brain Cave, Gripthumb, Shobijan 6:30 p.m.; Edgemen, 19757 15 Mile Rd., Clinton Twp.; $15.

Cooper Alan 7 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $25-$65.

Counterparts, Pain Of Truth, Malevolence, Foreign Hands 6 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $27.50.

Country Hoedown 2025 9 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; $10-$15. DANCING QUEEN (ABBA tribute) 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $18-$28.

Eslabón Armado 9 p.m.; The Crofooot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $60.

Experience Hendrix (Jimi Hendrix tribute) 7:30 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $35-$125.

Magic Bag Presents: Peace Frog 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $25.

Mike Ward: Psychosongs Duo with Sara Gibson at the North Star Lounge 6:30-7:45 p.m.; North Star Lounge, 301 N 5th Ave., Ann Arbor; $15.

Pamela Wise presents Women in Jazz feauturing Sky Covington 9:30-10:30 p.m.; Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit; $25.

Sally Rogers & Maggie Ferguson opens 7:30 p.m.; MAMA’s Coffeehouse at the Birmingham Unitarian Church,

38651 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills; $1-$17.

Steinway Piano Recital: Ravel Festival Day One 6:30-8 p.m.; Cranbrook House & Gardens, 380 Lone Pine Rd, Bloomfield Hills; $25-$50.

The Dollyrots, The Boreouts 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $20.

The Spinners 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$79.

Tusk (Fleetwood Mac tribute) 8 p.m.; Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts, 12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $30-$55.

Vampires Everywhere, Dreamwake, Cultus Black 7 p.m.; Harpos, 14238 Harper Ave., Detroit; $28.

DJ/Dance

Contra Dance 2-5 p.m.; First United Methodist Church of Troy, 6363 Livernois Road, Troy; pay what you can.

Country Hoedown 2025 9 p.m.-2 a.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; EarlyBird Starting at $10.

Live Band Karaoke with Eastside Still Alive, DJ Stashu 9 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Sunday, March 23

Live/Concert

American Idol finalist Casey James, Danny Wilde (formerly of Steppenwolf), Brad Russell 6:30 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15.

Justin Furstenfeld (Blue October) 8 p.m.; Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts, 12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $49.50-$99.50.

Cancerslug, Zanzibar, Devil Bat 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.

Dwele, Conya Doss 7:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $44-$56.

Phil Ogilvie’s Rhythm Kings 5-8 p.m.; Zal Gaz Grotto Club, 2070 W. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor; no cover (tip jar for the band).

Steinway Piano Recital: Ravel Festival Day Two 3-5:30 pm; Cranbrook House & Gardens, 380 Lone Pine Rd, Bloomfield Hills; $25-$50.

Sunday Karaoke in the Lounge 5-9 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Monday, March 24

Live/Concert

Kickstand Productions Presents

Quicksand 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $30. DJ/Dance

Adult Skate Night 8:30-11 p.m.; Lexus Velodrome, 601 Mack Ave., Detroit; $5. Karaoke/Open Mic Opening

Preservation of Jazz Monday Night Music Series Presents: “A Tribute to Original Music” featuring Ms. Irene Renee 7-10 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $35.

Tuesday, March 25

Live/Concert

101 WRIF Presents: Poppy 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $39.50.

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass 7 p.m.; Cathedral Theatre at the Masonic Temple, 500 Temple St., Detroit.

Magic Bag Presents: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Sean Blackman’s In Transit 7-10 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover. Karaoke/Open Mic

Open Mic : Art in a Fly Space 7-10 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; no cover.

Tuesday Karaoke in the Lounge 8 p.m.-midnight; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

THEATER

Performance

Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest The Dinner Detective Comedy Mystery Dinner Show - Ann Arbor, MI America’s largest interactive comedy mystery dinner theatre show is now playing in Ann Arbor, MI $69.95 Saturday 6:30-9 pm.

Birmingham Village Players Steel Magnolias Opens March 14 at Birmingham Village Players “Smile – It Increases Your Face Value,” says Truvy in Steel Magnolias. You’ll find plenty of reasons to smile in the Birmingham Village Players production running March 14 – 30. Truvy is the owner of Truvy’s Beauty Spot where six women from a small town gather to share their laughter, tears, and friendship. Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling runs March 14-30, 2025. Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows begin at 8PM. Sunday matinees start at 2PM. Steel Magnolias is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.

Tickets cost $30. Call 248-644-2075 or buy online $30 Friday 8-10:30 pm, Saturday 8-10:30 pm and Sunday 2-4:30 pm.

FIM Elgood Theatre A Driving Beat By Jordan Ramirez Puckett Mateo, a 14-year-old boy with brown skin, ad Diane, his white adoptive mother, take a road trip from their home in Ohio to his birthplace in San Diego. Throughout the journey, they are forced to reconcile their differing identities and what it means to be a family. Developed in Flint Rep’s 2023 New Works Festival. Tickets start at $27; Genesee County residents save 30% Wednesday 10 am, Thursday 10 am, Friday 7:30 pm, Saturday 7:30 pm and Sunday 2 pm.

Fisher Theatre - Detroit Kimberly Akimbo Wednesday 7:30 pm, Thursday 7:30 pm, Friday 7:30 pm, Saturday 2 & 7:30 pm and Sunday 1 & 6:30 pm.

Max M. Fisher Music Center Detroit Symphony Orchestra w/ Beethoven and Brahms Friday 10:45 am, Saturday 8 pm and Sunday 3 pm.

Tipping Point Theatre English

Tipping Point Theatre’s 17th theatrical season continues beginning March 12th with English, by Sanaz Toossi, another Michigan premiere production! In an Iranian classroom for adult English learners, the teacher, Marjan, leads four students through a linguistic playground as they prepare for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam. Their dreams, frustrations and secrets come to the forefront. Will “English only” expand or limit what they truly want to say? This comic and heartfelt play about language and identity won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. “A rich new play … both contemplative and comic” declares The New York Times. $25 - $55 Wednesday 2-3:30 pm, Thursday 7:30-9 pm, Friday 7:30-9 pm, Saturday 7:30-9 pm and Sunday 2-3:30 pm.

Musical

Fox Theatre Rain: A Tribute To the Beatles (Touring) $25-$65 Friday 7:30 pm.

Meadow Brook Theatre Vanities: The Musical $46 Wednesday 8 pm, Thursday 8 pm, Friday 8 pm, Saturday 6 pm and Sunday 2 & 6:30 pm.

COMEDY

Improv

Embassy Suites Troy The Dinner

Detective Comedy Mystery Dinner Show

– Detroit, MI (Troy, MI) America’s largest interactive comedy mystery dinner theatre show is now playing in Detroit, MI (Troy, MI) Happens on the following Dates: Mar 22, 2025, 6:00pm to 9:00pm Mar 29, 2025, 6:00pm to 9:00pm $69.95 Saturdays, 6-9 pm.

Go Comedy! Improv Theater

Pandemonia The Allstar Showdown is a highly interactive improvised game show. With suggestions from the audience, our two teams will battle for your laughs. The Showdown is like “Whose Line is it Anyway,” featuring a series of short improv games, challenges and more. Fridays and Saturdays 7:30pm & 9:30pm 25.00 Fridays, Saturdays.; $20 Every other Friday, 8 & 10 pm.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle

Matt McCusker Matt McCusker is a comedian, writer, and proud co-host of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast. After spending much of his young life engaging in mostly non-violent criminal activity. Matt has dedicated the rest of his days toward the pursuit of peace and harmony. He wrote the novel Overlook: A Story About Drugs, Disappointment, and the American Dream. He was also supposed to be on a local TV news show once, but they scrapped the segment.

$35.00 Thursday 7:30-9 & 10-11:30 pm, Friday 7:15-8:45 & 9:45-11:15 pm and Saturday 7-8:30 & 9:30-11 pm.

Stand-up

Opening

The Fillmore Trevor Wallace: The Alpha Beta Male $47-$57 Saturday 7 pm. Little Caesars Arena Sebastian Maniscalco: It Ain’t Right Tour $39.50$175 Saturday 7 pm.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle 101 Comedy Class Showcase Tickets: $10 Online $15 General Admission at the door - Reservations required Special Showcase for the graduating 101 Comedy Class. Come see the future of Detroit’s comdy scene. $10.00 Tuesday 7:30-9 pm.

Pike Room Luis J. Gomez $25 Saturday 6:30 pm.

St. Clair Centre for the Arts I Skyline Room A Sugar Sammy Friday 8 pm.

Woodbridge Pub Comedy Night at Woodbridge Pub - Featuring Toi Too Tall March is Women’s History Month & we’ll be celebrating with the funniest stand-up comedians in the area! You don’t want to miss this unique comedy show - a blend of all experience levels in relaxed surrounds. Featuring the hilarious local stand-up superstar Toi Too Tall, whose performances leave you in tears & then giggling to yourself into the next day. Host Lisa Green is gracing the mic from Ypsilanti - sure to run the night like a true boss. She’s also the producer of Depot Town Comedy. Limited open mic spots available at 9:30. Good food, good drinks, good vibes. Free Tuesday 10 pmmidnight.

Continuing This Week Stand-up

Blind Pig Blind Pig Comedy FREE

Mondays, 8 pm.

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant The Sh*t Show Open Mic: Every Friday & Saturday at The Independent A weekly open mic featuring both local amateurs and touring professionals. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and the show begins at 9 pm.. The evening always ends with karaoke in the attached Ghost Light Bar! Doors and Sign up 8:30 p.m. Show at 9 p.m. $5 suggested donation. Attached bar Ghost Light opens at 7 p.m. $5 Suggested Donation Thursdays, 9-10:30 pm.; A late night, heckle encouraged, show up, go up stand-up open mic featuring both local amateurs and touring professionals. Sign up starts at 10:30 and the show begins at 11p. Doors and Sign Up 10:30p | Show at 11p | $5 Suggested Donation* Attached bar Ghost Light opens at 7p The independent Comedy Club is a comedy club run by comics for comics inside Planet Ant Theatre. The club runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, offering independently produced comedy shows from 8p-12a. Presented by Planet Ant *Planet Ant Theatre, Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization; no ticket or reservation is required $5 Suggested Donation Fridays, Saturdays, 11 pm-1:30 am.

Pike Room Comedy Night $15 Saturday 7 pm.

Sound Board Rickey Smiley $47-$58 Saturday 8 pm.

Dance lessons

Opening

Packard

Proving Grounds

Historic Site Dance Workshop Get Ready to Dance at the Packard Proving Grounds! Step onto the dance floor with confidence at our Dance Workshop with Terry Hasty of Dancing Under the Stars on Thursday, March 20, 2025, from 7–9 PM at the Packard Proving Grounds! Whether you’re preparing for a wedding, a special event, or just want to sharpen your dance skills, this is your chance to learn traditional moves in a fun and welcoming atmosphere. Plus, if you’re attending the Great Gatsby Gala, this is the perfect opportunity to refine your steps before the big night! Cost: $10 per person donation $10.00 Thursday 7-9 pm.

Continuing This Week Dance lessons

Diamondback Music Hall

Wednesday Line Dancing Lessons at Diamondback Music Hall Looking to learn line dancing? <0x1F57A> <0x1F483><0x1F3FD> Mark your calendars for EVERY Wednesday in March, and head over to Diamondback Music Hall for exciting line dance lessons taught by Amanda and Ashley! You don’t need any prior experience—just bring your enthusiasm and get ready to have a blast! This class is perfect for everyone.

MUSIC

Hamtramck Blowout is back

Meet the local music scene at the return of Hamtramck’s music festival

By Jeff Milo

Blowout. It’s a long story, but I’ll try to be brief. The Hamtramck Blowout is a multi-day local music festival and it’s happening this weekend; as the elongated legend goes, a festival of this scale and focus has pretty long happened around this time of year, but we’ll get to that later.

The basics

Over the course of three uproarious nights, there will be more than 150 bands performing at staggered set times, loaded into 26 unique venues situated within relative walking distance across the city of Hamtramck. You can purchase an all-access wristband, allowing you to enter any venue of your choosing — meaning you can stay at one spot all night, for example,

or dip in and out for just a furious 15 minutes. The Hamtramck Blowout presents you with the opportunity to discover, meet, experience, observe and absorb as many bands and artists (and genres and creative personalities) as possible between the hours of, roughly, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. My own personal record, for one night, was 13, and I think you can beat that.

For the local music scene, it’s sort of like New Year’s Eve, Mardi Gras, and Halloween all rolled into one. You can get yourself a special Blowout-produced map to every venue’s location so that you can effectively choose your own adventure. It can be overwhelming, but it’s also supposed to be — because, by design, it’s a chance for you to dive into the literal deep end of the

local music scene. You can go see the bands you’ve already heard of or are familiar with, or you can purposefully pick out a random sample of names unknown to you to thus expose yourself to something fresh, something pleasing, or something peculiar.

The backstory

It was first held in early March of 1998, produced by Metro Times and spanning two nights with just 74 bands and featuring soon-to-be-big names like the White Stripes and Eminem. The festival steadily expanded in scale over the years, then ambitiously spread outside of Hamtramck to include venues in Ferndale and Detroit. After MT decided to let it be, it was picked up by volunteer Hamtramck

residents (many of them musicians) and was indirectly reborn as the Hamtramck Music Fest — which existed from 2016 to the end of 2022. In 2024, Blowout regenerated once again as the Hamtramck Blowout, now as a fundraiser for the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival.

A lot of local love obviously sustains this madcap music tradition. Konrad Maziarz is co-chair of the Labor Day Festival and part of this year’s Blowout committee, and says organizing something like this is “a surprisingly large task that somehow comes together each year.”

Maziarz adds, “there’s a small-ish group of dedicated volunteers who are mostly musicians — I say mostly because I’m there and I’m not a musi-

Catch Characteristics (pictured above and right) on Thursday at Club Coyote.

cian — who all love the event and we wanted to help fundraise for the Labor Day Festival. It’s an event that so many people have fond memories of, and we wanted others to experience it. It brings many people into Hamtramck and into the venues, and we hope that they become repeat visitors to the city.”

Hamtramck Blowout dates and details

Festivities kick off Thursday, with 11 host venues, then expanding to more than 20 on Friday and Saturday night. You can purchase or pick up wristbands at the Fowling Warehouse (3901 Christopher St., Hamtramck), where there will also be 10 bands performing. You can find other wristband pick-up locations at hamtramckblowout.com or by following the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival on Instagram, @hamtramcklabordayfestival. You also have the option to pay a one-off cover charge at a single venue if there happens to be only one lineup you’d like to see.

Bands to catch

There are too many to choose from! Here’s a fun random sample for you:

Indie rock and beyond:

• Elspeth Tremblay &and the Treatment (Thursday, Fowling Warehouse, 11 p.m.)

• Phased Out (Thursday, Polish Sea League, 11:15 p.m.)

• Tears of a Martian (Saturday, PLAV Post # 10, 9:45 p.m.)

Post-punk and beyond

• Eck! (Friday, Polish Sea League, 12:30 a.m.)

• Double Winter (Friday, Painted Lady, 12:45 a.m.)

• Day Residue (Saturday, Bumbo’s, midnight) Country, Americana

• Fangs & Twang (Thursday, Fowling, midnight)

• The Going Gones (Friday, Ghost Light, 11:45 p.m.)

• Loose Koozies (Friday, Port Bar, 12:30 a.m.)

Punk, experimental, avant-garde, etc

• The Anti-Buddies (Friday, Outer Limits Lounge, 10:15 p.m.)

• Fen Fen (Friday, Club Coyotes, 12:30 a.m.)

• Big Life (Saturday, Polka Dot Bar, midnight)

Early sets

• Dyzioek (Friday, Book Suey, 7 p.m.)

• Emily Rose (Saturday, Cafe 1923, 5:30 p.m.)

For more information, including the full line up and schedule, see hamtramckblowout.com. Happy Blowout!

BRIAN ROZMAN

BRIAN ROZMAN

The Antibuddies play at Outer Limits Lounge on Friday. BRIAN ROZMAN

FOOD

Bites

Dirty Shake opens in the Cass Corridor

A new bar has opened in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, offering a mix of cocktails, beer, and familiar bar food in a casual setting.

Dirty Shake, at Forest and Second Avenue near Wayne State University, is the latest project from the team behind Freya & Dragonfly, Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails, and The Oakland.

The bar takes a different approach from the group’s other establishments, focusing on a more relaxed and straightforward concept.

“We’re just happy to be here,” Sandy Levine, co-owner of Dirty Shake, said. “This part of Midtown is one of the few neighborhoods where people who lived here 15 or 20 years ago are still around. We want to honor that history while also welcoming students and newcomers. This is a place where all kinds of people can gather, have a good time, and make it their own.”

The drink menu, led by Kamalani Overall, includes beer, non-alcoholic beverages such as Faygo and Hi-C Pink Lemonade, and cocktails with twists on classic drinks. The Strong

Island Iced Tea is made with overproof rum, navy strength gin, whiskey, honey liqueur, house sour, and a vanilla Coke float, with a limit of two per guest. Other options include the Daily Rind, a mezcal-based cocktail with watermelon liqueur and a homemade kimchi watermelon rind garnish, and Green Tea, featuring peach tea infused with Jameson and amaretto.

Dirty Shake also serves boozy shakes, including a version of Detroit’s Hummer cocktail, made with rum, coffee liqueur, and Heath dust, as well as a Dole Pineapple Whip with pineapple rum and frozen pineapple.

The food menu, developed by chef-partner Doug Hewitt and overseen by Brian Christie of Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails, includes an $11 double-patty burger with sharp cheddar, pickles, grilled onions, and mayo-mustard on a potato bun. Smoked chicken wings undergo a three-day process that includes brining, curing, smoking, and frying. Other dishes include a house sausage

Octopus’ Beer Garden reopens for extended season

Thanks to the installation of new retractable glass screens, Octopus’ Beer Garden in Mount Clemens is celebrating the firstever extended season for the Beatles-themed riverfront bar.

Well, the beer garden itself is technically on a barge that floats on the Clinton River. There’s a stage for live music built on a pontoon, and even a yellow submarine in the style of Beatles illustrator Heinz Edelmann painted on the side of the bar’s offices.

In the past, the largely outdoor bar was open from around Mother’s Day to Halloween. The new enclosure means it can open from St. Patrick’s Day to New Year’s Eve.

“This is the first year we’ve been able to be open during the colder months,” owner Bob Halaas tells Metro Times. “This past summer we contracted a company called Skyview Detroit, and they came in and put in these beautiful remote-control, magnetic glass screens that roll up and down with the click of a button.”

Halaas and his family acquired the bar in 2019. Before that, it was known as The Captain’s Landing and served food and drinks to guests before they embarked on riverboat tours of the Clinton River. The previous owner offered to include the boat when he sold the bar, but Halaas turned it down.

“I’m a chef,” he says. “I know the restaurant business and the bar business, but I really don’t know the charter boat business, so I declined.” (The boat is now in Chicago, he says, where it hosts architectural tours of the city by river.)

served with kraut and pickles, and a vegan, gluten-free cauliflower dish with pepper jam and cilantro.

“We’re not reinventing bar food, just paying attention to the details,” Hewitt said. “Take our wings — between the brine, the cure, the smoke, and the fry, it’s a three-day process. But at the end of the day, it’s still chicken wings. It’s something that just goes great with a beer or cocktail.”

The bar seats 40 inside, with additional seating for 50 on a patio that wraps around the building. The space features a roll-up garage door, a lounge area with an inactive fireplace, and three TVs that show Detroit sports games or other programming. The bar also includes a Polaroid wall where guests can take and display photos.

Dirty Shake is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and Sunday, and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The bar is located at 4642 Second Ave.

—Steve Neavling

Halaas says going forward, he plans to open up the bar back up for the season every year starting on St. Patrick’s Day and make a tradition out of it.

“I don’t have permission this year,” he says, “but I’m working on getting permission to dye the Clinton River emerald green, just like they do in Chicago, for a nice, big thing for people to come out to with spring arriving.”

On Thursday, March 27, the bar will host Bell’s Brewery to celebrate the release of its new Oberon Light, a low-calorie ale.

From St. Patrick’s Day to Mother’s Day, the bar will be open Thursdays through Sundays, with live entertainment every day.

In the warmer season when business picks up, Halaas says there will be live entertainment on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays only.

Beyond that, not much else has changed, Halaas says.

“My vision is honestly as it is, a Beatlesthemed beer garden,” he says. “Beatles, baseball, and beer — that’s my three jams, you know, other than my wife and my kids, my family.”

He adds, “The idea behind that design is when you come in here, you’re in an octopus’s beer garden under the sea.” The bar is located at 152 N. River Rd., Mount Clemens.

—Lee DeVito

Dirty Shake serves a version of Detroit’s boozy Hummer cocktail.

COURTESY PHOTO

CULTURE

Film Class warfare and capitalism — but in space

Mickey 17

Rated: R

Run-time: 137 minutes

I’ve been saying this for a long time and feel no need to refute myself now or at any time in the near future: South Koreans make the best movies in the world. In the 1960s, we had filmmaking innovators like Han Hyungmo and his melodramatic throwback Madame Freedom, Yu Hyun-mok’s post-war neorealist downer Aimless Bullet, and Kim Ki-young’s masterpiece The Housemaid, which brought South Korean cinema to the eyes of the world. But it was in the early 2000s when American audiences (myself included) began to take notice that truly remarkable filmmaking was coming out of South Korea. Three absolute masters led the pack of those early South Korean auteurs: Park Chan-wook took a hammer to genre cinema with 2003’s Oldboy, Kim Jee-woon perfected the ghost story with 2003’s A Tale of Two Sisters, and Bong Joon-ho crafted one

By Jared Rasic, Last Word Features

of the finest serial killer films of all time with 2003’s Memories of Murder

While all three have had varying levels of success in the states (Park’s 2016 flawless The Handmaiden and Kim’s 2010 neo-noir classic I Saw the Devil just to name a couple), it’s Bong Joonho who seems to have really broken away from the pack with his pitchblack modern classic Parasite

Most of Bong’s films are madcap and scathing indictments of classicism, capitalism, and human stupidity, but told through differing genres and wildly inventive technical approaches to storytelling. While The Host looked at a financially struggling but loving family as they have to survive the attack of a giant monster, Snowpiercerdivides the haves from the have nots across a speeding train barreling through the remnants of a destroyed world. His newest English-language film Mickey 17 takes his disgust of late-stage capitalism and combines it with a bone-weary look at how humanity treats itself, its planet, and the animals that live on it — and stirs it together with a slapstick

Toni Collette (as his casually cruel wife obsessed with sauces) channels the spirit of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. All of the film’s big opinions on climate change, greed, class warfare, and capitalism are lampshaded, underlined, and as obvious as possible… and at this stage in our social and political climate, that’s a feature and not a bug.

Don’t get me wrong, I love subtlety and subtext in movies, but there’s a reason why Bong’s English movies jettison any and all moments of understatement: he thinks a majority of western audiences won’t get what he’s trying to say and I can’t really fault him for that. The time for subtlety in art is paused. These days, if you leave any room for interpretation in what you’re saying, someone else will tell you what you meant and sell it as fact. So, instead of letting us decide what he’s trying to say, Bong instead grabs his audience by their face and screams “late-stage capitalism and the loss of basic human empathy will lead you to this!!!”

sci-fi comedy that revels in its own ridiculousness.

Mickey 17 tells the story of Mickey Barnes (played by bottomlessly brilliant Robert Pattinson), a destitute young man drowning in debt and self loathing on an earth that is very quickly getting ready to give up the ghost. After getting in trouble with a cartoonishly dangerous loan shark, he applies to become an “Expendable” on a spaceship (led by a failed politician and his wife) headed four years out into the unknown to colonize a cold and remote planet known as Niflheim. As the only Expendable onboard, his job is simple: to do all the dangerous things that no one else can do because they equal certain death. He dies horribly, is cloned with all his memories intact, then does it all over again.

Just like Bong’s two other English language features, Okja and Snowpiercer, there’s no room for subtlety in Mickey 17. Mark Ruffalo (as the politician leading the colonizers to Niflheim) does a fearlessly broad President Donald Trump impersonation while

As a follow-up to a modern classic like Parasite, there’s no way something as goofy and overstuffed as Mickey 17 could be anything other than disappointing. Still, the film so enjoyably conjures silly existentialist dread while moonlighting as a sci-fi comedy that, even when losing way in its second half by focusing on a thinly sketched romance featuring the luminously badass Naomi Ackie — and having a solid 15 minutes that could be excised without losing any of its power — it’s still a subversively intelligent and absurdist work from one of South Korea’s finest. It’s imperfect, but it might be what we need at this exact moment in time.

Grade: B+

A South Korean film primer

If you want to dip your toes into the brilliance that is the cinema of South Korea, here are five great places to start:

Mother (2009) by Bong Joon-ho

Burning (2018) by Lee Chang-dong

The Handmaiden (2016) by Park Chan-wook

The Wailing (2016) by Na Hong-Jin

I Saw the Devil (2010) by Kim Jee-woon

Robert Pattinson plays an “Expendable,” or someone who is cloned in order to work dangerous jobs.

WARNER BROS.

WEED

The Straight Dope

DogHouse Farms proves patience pays off

By Steve Neavling

Welcome to The Straight Dope, our weekly series that explores the best cannabis products in Michigan.

DogHouse Farms in Detroit has come a long way since it began growing cannabis for medical patients in 2020.

The city’s drawn-out process of approving recreational marijuana businesses put DogHouse Farms and other cultivators in Detroit at a big disadvantage. While hundreds of cannabis businesses opened elsewhere in Michigan after adult-use sales became legal in December 2019, growers like DogHouse Farms were forced to wait and wait.

Nearly three years later, the city finally began doling out the first licenses to cultivators and dispensaries, and DogHouse Farms was the first one.

And it hasn’t looked back since.

DogHouse grows about 5,000 plants in 10 large rooms inside a 25,000-square-foot building on the city’s east side. The cannabis includes unique strains like Sex Tape, Gratiot Gold, and Purple Panties, and it’s sold in as many as 150 dispensaries in Michigan, some as far away as the Upper Peninsula.

Justin Van Fleet, director of cultivation, is constantly on the hunt for new phenotypes and strains, a laborious process intended to keep DogHouse’s product lineup fresh, fun, and high-

quality.

When I first smoked DogHouse’s weed a few years ago, I wasn’t very impressed. The cannabis was good, but it didn’t have the wow factor that cultivators like MI Loud, 710 Labs, Michigrown, Hytek, and Tip Top Crop have.

After touring DogHouse’s pristine facility and sampling three strains recently, I can now say with confidence that this is high-quality cannabis that is both flavorful and potent. Maybe I had a bad batch back then or the cultivation team wasn’t as good as it is today.

Van Fleet, who grew weed in college, started at DogHouse as a garden tech pulling weeds before climbing his way to top grower.

“It has been a big, long process of building a team, and that’s really what my entire goal has been here — building and educating a team,” Van Fleet tells me. “I’m very, very thrilled that we are at a great spot with that. We can make changes on the fly. We can pretty much handle anything thrown our way. I gave them the tools and they ran with it.”

Van Fleet focuses on rich, flavorful strains, and it shows. The flower is packed with bold, vibrant flavors.

And unlike many cultivators, DogHouse hand trims all of its flower.

“We’re careful to preserve the trichomes and the integrity of the plant,” Chelsea Cooper, director of marketing for DogHouse, tells me.

heading outdoors, hitting a bar, or want a boost during the day, Sex Tape keeps the energy high and the mind clear.

The dominant terpene is myrcene, which some users say helps with pain relief, stress reduction, and muscle relaxation.

The terpene content is 3.38%.

Papa Burger

An indica-dominant cross of Donny Burger and (Papaya x Modified Banana), Papa Burger delivers a rich, creamy tropical flavor with a savory, funky undertone. Its dense, frosty buds are packed with trichomes, making it the heaviest hitter of the strains I tried.

This one sharpened my senses, making music and movies more fun, while still locking me into a deep body high. Relaxing but not mind-numbing, it’s a great choice for unwinding without checking out completely.

The dominant terpene is myrcene, and the terpene content is 3.15%.

Blue Runtz

An indica-dominant cross of Blue Power and Runtz, Blue Runtz bursts with sweet blueberry and grape flavors, rounded out by hints of citrus and spice. Its smooth, fruity aroma matches the tastes.

Instead of using harsh pesticides, DogHouse uses beneficial insects to attack spider mites, thrips, and other pain-in-the-ass bugs that can ruin a harvest.

“It keeps the garden protected, so I don’t have a lot of worries,” Van Fleet says. “It’s a little more expensive, but it’s natural. I don’t want to grow something I don’t want to smoke.”

In the 2024 Zalympix contest, DogHouse won third place for best terps for Pink Passion, a cross of Apples & Bananas and Grape Gas.

DogHouse is expanding its lineup and plans to start making its own live rosin, a solventless cannabis concentrate that is prized for its purity, potency, and robust flavor profile, and its natural process. In the past, DogHouse has collaborated with other companies, including Eastside Alchemy, to offer live rosin.

Without further ado, let’s check out these strains.

Sex Tape

A sativa-leaning cross of Jealousy and Pink Lady, Sex Tape delivers dense, frosty buds with deep green and purple hues. The aroma is a mix of sweet fruit and subtle earthiness, while the flavor blends citrus and creamy undertones

For me, this is an ideal daytime strain. It’s energizing and euphoric without the burnout. Whether you’re

For me, this strain hit the sweet spot, lifting my mood and making everything feel just a little more fun. Relaxing without weighing me down, it’s the perfect choice for socializing or just sinking into a good time.

The dominant terpene is limonene, known for boosting mood and easing stress.

The straight dope

DogHouse Farms has clearly stepped up its game. The improvements in cultivation, the commitment to unique and flavorful strains, and the upcoming expansion into live rosin production all point to a brand that’s not just growing cannabis. It’s also evolving with the market.

DogHouse is proving that Detroitgrown flower can hold its own against some of the best in Michigan.

Cooper says Van Fleet and the growing team are focused on growing high-quality cannabis that is as good as anything else on the market.

“He’s always on the hunt for what’s the best,” Cooper says of Van Fleet. “He wants you to have an enjoyable experience. … We grow all of our plants to medical-grade standards”

DogHouse also operates in Oregon, Washington, and Florida.

If you want us to sample your cannabis products, send us an email at steve@metrointhed.com.

This Detroit cultivator grows pungent, flavorful flower packed with trichomes.

STEVE NEAVLING

CULTURE

Savage Love

Off the Table

By Dan Savage

: Q I’m a 28-year-old woman married tI’ve been happily married to my wife for fifteen years. I’m a 54-year-old man, she’s a 55-yearold woman. While sex has never been our strongest suit, we’ve made the effort. But she now finds sex too painful and no longer wants to have intercourse. I’m on the larger side, which may or may not be relevant. She’s still willing to do oral sex, which we do maybe once a month. I don’t want to go without intercourse for the rest of my life and have told her as much. Recently, in couples therapy, I proposed opening things up in a variety of ways, all of which she refused to do, saying it would cause her shame and that she’s too afraid it would lead to me falling for someone else.

I sort of feel like we’re at a dead end. I love her and our life and our teenage kid too much to leave her over this. I looked online for a sex toy that would simulate vaginal intercourse, of which I found a few, but I’m looking for something that we could use together, something that would get as close to the experience (for me) as possible. I assume you’ve gotten hundreds of variations on this question over the years and thought you might have a good suggestion. —Not Ready To Go Without

A: If this is a problem your wife is interested in solving — pain during intercourse after (presumably) menopause — she could talk to her doctor about low-dose vaginal estrogen, a safe and effective treatment for thinning vaginal tissues due to falling estrogen levels. If your wife isn’t open to talking about this treatment with her doctor, NRTGW, this may not be a problem she’s interested in solving. She may not even regard it as a problem.

If PIV sex was never about your wife’s pleasure — and her pleasure isn’t mentioned anywhere in your letter — she might not feel motivated to seek treatment. And if all she’s missing out on is providing you with maintenance sex, NRTGW, then she’s not missing out on much. It’s also possible that she lost interest in sex as she aged (some people do), and vaginal atrophy — and the pain she now experiences during intercourse — gave her the excuse she needed to pull a plug she wanted to pull for years. (Still, for her own sake, your wife should talk to her doctor, as untreated vaginal atrophy is a risk factor for bladder infections, overactive bladder, and other conditions.)

As to your specific question… You’re in luck! There are lots of masturbation toys for men that simulate the sensations of intercourse, such as Fleshlight-style

toys with hard plastic shells and softer silicone sleeves. If your wife is willing to hold one of those Fleshlight-style toys between her thighs, you could simulate missionary position PIV. But you would have to be careful the toy didn’t chafe and/or slide up and/or grind uncomfortably against your wife’s sensitive vulva. Intercrural sex is another good option — you put that big dick between her upper thighs, she clenches her legs together, you thrust until you come and it’s one that wouldn’t require your wife to hold a hardshell plastic sex toy as you hammered away at it and her.

And while you’re ordering sex toys for yourself, NRTGW, why not order a couple of toys you think your wife might like to try? Even better, you could invite your wife to join you while you browse and encourage her to pick one or two toys just for her. Who knows? With a Fleshlight for you and a Magic Wand for her — simulated intercourse for you, stimulating outercourse for her — sex could suddenly become, well, maybe not your strongest suit, NRTGW, but a much sturdier one.

: Q Is it possible to forgive my “straight” husband for cheating on me with trans women? We have been married for eight years and together for ten. In 2023 he became hyper-focused on his appearance, withdrew from me emotionally, and developed a phone addiction. I began to worry he was cheating and decided to snoop and HOLY SHIT. Here’s what I found on his phone: Grindr, Trans-Dating, Signal, Scruff, Seeking, etc., along with very questionable credit card charges (hotels, late-night Lyft rides, etc.) He said he never actually met up with anyone. He said he was confused about his sexual identity because he suddenly found himself attracted to trans women and wanted to unpack what was going on without blowing up our marriage. I get that. My own sexual desires and fantasies have evolved throughout the years as well, but I would NEVER go behind my monogamous partner’s back to explore them!

I eventually found undeniable evidence that he cheated. He vomited, and then revealed he met three different trans women from the apps and fooled around with them. Three times total, two years ago. Nothing since. He claims there were no repeat meetings and no penetration. He justified cheating because we were no longer intimate, and he thought I’d never accept that he was bisexual. He assumed that I’d never want to try kinky shit or help him fulfill his fantasies. I am actually pretty open minded and would have been willing to try things out in the bedroom. But now? Now I am feeling so fucking wounded and betrayed. We are in therapy. He does seem genuinely remorseful and ashamed. I know it’s possible to forgive, but I won’t forget. So, how do we rebuild trust? Should I even give him a second chance?

—Cheating Husband’s Egregious Actions Torment Spouse

A: You can forgive your cheating husband and give him a second chance — that’s defi-

nitely possible — but there’s no guarantee you won’t come to regret it. Studies have shown that a person who’s cheated on a partner is (roughly) three times more likely to cheat again. So, although it’s inaccurate to say, “once a cheater, always a cheater,” staying with someone who’s cheated on you ups your chances of being cheated on again. Which is why whenever someone is thinking about forgiving a cheater, I encourage that person to consider the (presumably) worst-case scenario — getting cheated on again — and if the thought is devastating, consider ending the relationship.

As for rebuilding trust, CHEATS, that takes time. Simply put, the only way your husband can prove he’s not going to cheat on you ever again is by not cheating on you ever again… and you won’t feel certain of that (or certain enough of that) to fully trust him until he’s refrained from cheating on you again for at least a year or two.

Zooming out for a second…

I think the fact that you weren’t having sex when your husband cheated on you is a mitigating factor. The collapse of your sex life made it easier for him to rationalize his behavior, particularly if he had no way of knowing it was temporary. He should’ve been honest with you about seeking sex elsewhere, CHEATS, and the things he was discovering about himself. But the higher the stakes, the harder being honest — and stakes don’t get much higher than divorce. If he truly thought your marriage had become a companionate one, he may have convinced himself that he was not only free to get his sexual needs met elsewhere (including ones he may not have been consciously aware of when you married), but that you might prefer him to discreetly do so. And did your husband know you would’ve been willing to explore new things with him before this all came out or is that something he knows now?

Look, I’m not trying to make excuses for your husband’s behavior. He has a lot of things to apologize for, including the expenses he hid from you, and you two have a lot to unpack with your couples’ counselor. But it’s almost impossible to forgive someone if you can’t understand — on some level — why they made the choices they did.

: Q I’m a 44-year-old heterosexual female. I have been with my husband since the age of 18, we’ve been married for twenty years, and we have a few kids. We have a good and mostly monogamous marriage, and I don’t want a divorce. I say mostly because over the years I have cheated, mostly just hookups but occasionally longer things. When our kids were little, I didn’t cheat for over 10 years. I’m now in a place where I feel so good about my body and am honestly so horny! My husband can always make me orgasm and the sex we have is fine, but I am really itching to fuck other people. I have talked to him about this, but he is not interested in opening up our relationship at all. He says any interest in doing that must mean something is lacking in our relationship. I don’t see it that way and would love to have a threesome, try swinging, and have an occasional don’t-ask-don’t-tell hookup. Can you please help with the right verbiage or resource to somehow normalize this for him? When I last broached this topic with him it

was too soon after him finding out about me cheating and he said we needed to rebuild trust. That was almost two years ago. I have been super close with my vibrator since then and things are good between us, and I want to revisit this. What can I say to convince him? Or do I need to give up this fantasy of allowable alternate sex partners?

—Getting Real About Craving Extra

A: The way you phrased your last question was telling, GRACE, in the telling-onyourself sense: You asked whether your husband’s “no” meant giving up on the fantasy of allowable alternative sex partners. Disallowable alternative sex partners, i.e. men you might cheat with, are still on the table, it seems.

Look, you could get your husband to read Jessica Fern’s Polysecure, the bible for ethical non-monogamists under 40, or you could get him to read Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy’s The Ethical Slut, the bible for ethical non-monogamists over 40, or you could get him to listen to Multiamory or Evolving Love or one of the dozens of podcasts out there for people who are interested in opening up their marriages. But your husband has already told you — pretty emphatically — that he’s not one of those people. He doesn’t want an open relationship. He doesn’t want a “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” arrangement. He doesn’t want you out there fucking other people. (Your husband may think things are good between you precisely because you haven’t been out there fucking other people.)

But you know — and he needs to know that you are going to fuck other people. You know now that you aren’t capable of honoring the monogamous commitment you made when you were a teenager. Maybe if you’d known yourself a little better before you got married — if you’d been a little older and had a little experience — you probably wouldn’t have made a monogamous commitment to him or anyone else. To be blunt, GRACE, you’re always going to be a cheater.

So, the question you need to risk asking your husband — a question that could end your marriage — isn’t whether he wants to be in a non-monogamous relationship, GRACE, but what kind of non-monogamous relationship he wants to be in. Does he want to be in an ethically non-monogamous relationship? Or does he want to be in an unethically non-monogamous relationship? If it’s monogamy he wants, he’s gonna have to leave you. If it’s you he wants, he’s gonna have to let you.

P.S. “Once a cheater, always a cheater” isn’t true in every case, GRACE, but I feel safe saying it’s true in yours, given your record. And you know what? There’s no shame in needing more than one sex partner — so long as you’re not lying to yourself or anyone else.

Read the full column online at savage. love.

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CULTURE Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

Cheetahs are the fastest land animals. From standing still, they can be running at 70 miles per hour three seconds later. But they can’t sustain that intensity. After a 20-second burst, they need to relax and recover. This approach serves them well, enabling them to prey on the small creatures they like to eat. I encourage you to be like a metaphorical cheetah in the coming weeks, Aries. Capitalize on the power of focused, energetic spurts. Aim for bursts of dedicated effort, followed by purposeful rest. You don’t need to pursue a relentless pace to succeed. Recognize when it’s right to push hard and when it’s time to recharge.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

Inside a kaleidoscope, the colored shards of glass are in an ever-shifting chaotic jumble. But internal mirrors present pleasing symmetrical designs to the person gazing into the kaleidoscope. I see a similar phenomenon going on in

your life. Some deep intelligence within you (your higher self?) is creating intriguing patterns out of an apparent mess of fragments. I foresee this continuing for several weeks. So don’t be quick to jump to conclusions about your complicated life. A hidden order is there, and you can see its beauty if you’re patient and poised.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

Spiders spin their webs with meticulous care, crafting structures that are delicate, strong, and useful. Their silk is five times more robust than steel of the same diameter. It’s waterproof, can stretch 140% of its length without splitting, and maintains its sturdiness at temperatures as low as -40 degrees. With that in mind, Gemini, I bid you to work on fortifying and expanding your own web in the coming weeks — by which I mean your network of connections and support. It’s an excellent time to deepen and refine your relationships with the resources and influences that help hold your world together.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

Brazil nut trees grow in the Amazon — but if only they are in the vicinity of orchid bees, their sole pollinators. And orchid bees thrive in no other place except where there are lots of blooming orchids. So the Brazil nut tree has very specific requirements for its growth and well-being. You Virgos aren’t quite so picky about the influences that keep you fertile and flourishing — though sometimes I do worry about it. The good news is that in the coming months, you will be casting a wider net in quest of inspiration and support. I suspect you will gather most, maybe all, of the inspiration and support you need.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

might cultivate. So, in the hope you’re as intrigued by the experimental possibilities as I am, I invite you to memorize the following words by author Maya Angelou and express them to a person with whom you want to play deeper and wilder: “You are my living poem, my symphony of the untold, my golden horizon stretched beyond what the eye can see. You rise in me like courage, fierce and unyielding, yet soft as a lullaby sung to a weary soul. You are my promise kept, my hope reborn, the infinite melody in the heart of silence. I hold you in the marrow of my joy, where you are home.”

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

To all our plump portly patrons, I would put off dieting for the foreseeable future. Between food prices, tariffs and the soon to be, run on the banks, you may have the upper hand…cheers!

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

Chichén Itzá was a large preColumbian city from around 600 to 1200 CE. It was built by Mayan people in what’s now Mexico. At the city center was a pyramid, The Temple of Kukulcán. During the equinoxes, and only on the equinoxes, sunlight fell on its steps in such a way as to suggest a snake descending the stairs. The mathematical, architectural, and astronomical knowledge necessary to create this entertaining illusion was phenomenal. In that spirit, I am pleased to tell you that you are now capable of creating potent effects through careful planning. Your strategic thinking will be enhanced, especially in projects that require long-term vision. The coming weeks will be a favorable time for initiatives that coordinate multiple elements to generate fun and useful outcomes.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

HAPPY SPRING!!

OBERON IS NIGH…

Fireflies produce very efficient light. Nearly all the energy expended in their internal chemical reactions is turned directly into their intense glow. By contrast, light bulbs are highly inefficient. In accordance with astrological omens, Leo, I urge you to be like a firefly in the coming weeks, not a light bulb. You will have dynamic power to convert your inner beauty into outer beauty. Be audacious! Be uninhibited! Shower the world with full doses of your radiant gifts.

In 1858, businessperson James Miller Williams was digging a new water well on his land in Ontario, hoping to compensate for a local drought. He noticed oil was seeping out of the hole he had scooped. Soon, he became the first person in North America to develop a commercial oil well. I suspect that you, too, may soon stumble upon valuable fuels or resources, Libra — and they may be different from what you imagined you were looking for. Be alert and openminded for unexpected discoveries.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21:

I›ve been through the U.S. education system, and I can testify that our textbooks don’t give the French enough of the credit they deserve for helping our fledging nation gain independence from Great Britain. The 18th-century American Revolution would not have succeeded without extensive aid from France. So I’m a little late, but I am hereby showering France with praise and gratitude for its intervention. Now I encourage you, too, to compensate for your past lack of full appreciation for people and influences that have been essential to you becoming yourself. It’s a different kind of atonement: not apologizing for sins, but offering symbolic and even literal rewards to underestimated helpers and supporters.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

As I survey the astrological aspects, I am tempted to encourage you to be extra expansive about love. I am curious to see the scintillating intimacy you

Four facts about a mountain goat as it navigates along steep and rocky terrain: 1. It’s strong and vigorous; 2. it’s determined and unflappable; 3. it’s precise and disciplined; 4. it calls on enormous stamina and resilience. According to my astrological analysis, you Capricorns will have maximum access to all these capacities during the coming weeks. You can use them to either ascend to seemingly impossible heights or descend to fantastically interesting depths. Trust in your power to persevere. Love the interesting journey as much as the satisfaction of reaching the goal of the journey.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

The Swiss Army knife is a compact assemblage of tools. These may include a nail file, scissors, magnifying glass, screwdriver, pliers, blade, can opener, and many others. Is there a better symbol for adaptability and preparedness? I urge you to make it your metaphorical power object during the coming weeks, Aquarius. Explore new frontiers of flexibility, please. Be ready to shift perspective and approach quickly and smoothly. Be as agile and multifaceted as you dare.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

Coast redwoods are the tallest trees on the planet. If, Goddess forbid, lumber harvesters cut down one of these beauties, it can be used to build more than 20 houses. And yet each mature tree begins as a seed the size of a coat button. Its monumental growth is steady and slow, relying on robust roots and a symbiotic relationship with a fungus that enables it to absorb water from fog. I propose we make the redwood your power symbol for now, Pisces. Inspired by its process, I hope you implement the magic of persistent, incremental growth. Treasure the fact that a fertile possibility has the potential, with patience and nurturing, to ripen into a long-term asset. Trust that small efforts, fueled by collaboration, will lead to gratifying achievements.

Homework: Henry James said, “Excellence does not require perfection.” Give an example from your own life.

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