Metro Times 10/05/22

NEWS & VIEWS

responses to last week’s cover story by freelancer Michaelangelo Matos, an oral history of EXAT, the experimental and ambient techno night at Detroit’s former Zoot’s Coffeehouse.

article was a time machine.

Hurst, Facebook

I discovered oot’s offee Shop in the Cass Corridor neighborhood of Detroit. At the time I was already exploring ambient/experimental electronic music and attending some of the infamous Plus 8 warehouse parties that exposed me to Detroit Techno. What Zoot’s brought to the table was discovery, community and conversation with some of the most interesting and educated music heads in the Detroit area.

News & Views

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was also the first time I ever dee ayed out publicly. Truly one of the most inspirational places and moments in my young adult life. Thank you Michaelangelo for this oral history of EXAT and Clark for being such a kind and patience steward to this young, bright-eyed, curious teen at a time when it mattered most. —Sean Horton, Facebook

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‘I didn’t know what I was going to do’

Detroiter starts nonpro t A Girl Like Me to help other teen moms

By Darlene A. White

Tyra Moore remembers all too well what it was like to be pregnant at 14.

At first, she tried to ignore the preg nancy signs and symptoms, but months later, she couldn’t deny the feeling any longer, and began to feel small ic s in her stomach. uring that time, Moore had only told two people her secret, her unborn child’s father and her best friend.

“I was scared and nervous, explains Moore. “My mom was ust tal ing to me about a friend at church who was pregnant and all along, I was pregnant too. I didn’t now what I was going to do.

Moore didn’t have much time to thin of a plan. he gave birth to her daughter amari on May 2 , 2 , the same wee her mother found out.

Right after delivery, Moore says that she had to grow up fast in order to raise her little girl.

ashamed of myself, thin ing suicidal thoughts because the closest people to me were telling me my life was over and I was always going to be a failure, not doing regular things teens my age could do.

Raising a child as a child was dif ficult, she says.

“I was not able to properly provide for my child on my own, she says. “I couldn’t finish high school with my friends. ut most of all I missed out on my teen years, because I had to grow up to ma e sure my id was well ta en care of and had everything she needed.

ut Moore didn’t struggle alone. he says her community wor ed together to help her provide for her newborn baby.

“My village all came together for me, she says. “I had everything you could thin of to raise a baby. I don’t even re member buying diapers for a long time.

ven though I was a teen, my mom would buy them.

closing my eyes, vibing during one of our drives, and it came to me A irl i e Me,’ Moore says. “I wanted to help irls i e Me.

At that moment, the former teen mom got the idea to create a safe space to help other girls and teens. “I wanted to help them with understanding their bodies, family friend relationships, their mental health, and how self care matters, life s ills, and more, she says. er nonprofit organi ation A irl i e Me Inc. helps young mothers between the ages of to 2 . The pro gram provides free diapers, wipes, baby formula, personal hygiene its, and food, along with new and gently used baby items, clothing, and shoes. It also provides resources and a mentoring program from girls between the ages of to .

“ or the teen moms, the organi a tion will help by providing them with necessities to ta e care of themselves and their babies, she explains. “The group will help them to stay in school by providing resources, and finding reliable childcare to help them get obs and not give up on their life.

birth rates for lac teens 2 . and ispanic teens 2 . were more than two times higher than for non ispanic white teens .4 .

arlier this year, the American Academy of ediatrics warned the . . upreme ourt’s 2 22 reversal of Roe v. Wade could have “grave conse uences for teen mothers, who already face high barriers to accessing health care services, including abortion. In Michi gan, voters will decide whether to eep abortion legal in the ov. general election after a group called Reproduc tive reedom for All turned in a record number of signatures to bring the issue to the ballot.

Moore says giving bac is one of the most important principles in life.

“Ma ing people smile because you have the resources to help them is the best feeling in the world, she says. “ veryone should give bac , and that may not be items. ust saying hi’ to someone is giving bac . ou don’t now what ind of day they may have had or having. e were all put on this earth to help one another, and it feels so good to do so.

er hope is that her program will help young women ma e it through life.

“I want to be a huge impact, so that the moms that we help will want to come bac to be a vessel for other moms in their shoes, she says.

Moore is determined to continue to grow her program. In the near fu ture, she wants to have an apartment building for homeless teens and young moms as a way to help them get on their feet. he also plans to provide classes to finish school and provide help with getting a ob, transporta tion, housing, and to provide a daycare center inside the apartments.

“I en oy showing the young moms I’ve been in their shoes before, showing them I’m not here to udge, I’m here to help in any way I can, she says. “ eing able to listen to them because they don’t have anyone that understands them or being able to provide items to help them when they don’t have anyone else to turn to ust brings oy to my spirit.

he adds, “I want moms to learn not to ever let anyone tell you can’t or won’t accomplish anything because you had a baby, your life isn’t over, you can tal to me, and I will help you with your goals and dreams. nsuring that moms receive ade uate social, emo tional, medical, and academic support is essential to the parent and the baby’s future.

“

eing a teen mom was very hard. I missed out on so much when it came to high school activities such as prom, says Moore. “I was 4 with a baby. I was

rom that moment, Moore made a promise to herself that she would pay it all forward. “ ne day me and my husband were driving, and I was ust

According to the enters for is ease ontrol and revention, the . . teen birth rate has been declining for decades, dropping 4 between and 2 , resulting in 4.4 billion in public savings in 2 . Teen birth rates continued to decline from .4 per , teens ages to in 2 , to . per , in 2 , and .4 in 2 2 , a record low. ut the also found racial dis parities in the teen birth rates in 2 ,

More information on Girl Like Me Inc. is available at 313-957-9952 or visit agirllikemeinc.org.

Founder Tyra Moore says she wants to help others in the situation she found herself in when she was just 14. COURTESY PHOTO

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Warranty Engineer, Brose North America, Auburn Hills, MI.

Monitor, analyze & assess warranty related engineering issues in NAFTA Drives Div. incl. cooling fan modules (CFM), HVAC motors, automatic transmission auxiliary oil pumps, engine airgates, PTC motors, eBB motors, ABS motors & tailgate spindles for mechatronic drives syss. Employ Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, & Control (DMAIC) data control driven methodology, based on statistical tools including process performance (Ppk), process capability (Cpk), Design of Experiments (DOE), & Pareto to identify & resolve root causes of warranty issues. Perform field returned parts analysis & warranty data performance monitoring & reporting. Trigger escalation process when warranty performance in CFM, pumps, airgates, motors, & spindles too meet Brose & Customer targets & KPIs, such as Incident (IPTV)/ Rejects (R/1000), Concerns Per thousand Vehicles (C/1000), Parts Per Million, & warranty costs. Bachelor, Industrial or Mechanical Engineering, or related. 24 mos exp as Warranty Engineer, Warranty Analyst, Quality Engineer-Warranty, or related, employing Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, & Control (DMAIC) data control driven methodology, based on statistical tools including Ppk, Cpk, DOE, & Pareto to identify & resolve root causes of warranty issues,or related. Mail resume to Ref#505, Brose, Human Resources, 3933 Automation Ave, Auburn Hills, MI 48326.

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Software in the Loop (SIL) Simulation Integration Engineer, Milford, MI, General Motors. Gather technical requirements, &design, using IBM DOORS/ Rhapsody, Battery Electric Vehicle embedded SW focusing on serial data communication &diagnostics for ECUs in Electronic Brake Control Module, External Object Calculation Module, Engine Control Module (ECM), Integrated Chassis Control Module, Processor Control Module, Transmission Control Module (TCM), Transfer Case Control Module &~10 related modules. Perform, validate &verify embedded ECU testing in SIL real time simulation environment, using GMSIM, ETAS INCA/MDA, &CAN Log Viewer. Verify functionality at Function, Controller &System levels prior to production release. Set technical objectives &tasks to implement production intent SW for infrastructure &platform SW cmpnts supporting communication for ECUs in Embedded C, using Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, Eclipse, IBM RTC tools, &following MISRA CERT C standards, &GM SW development process. Master, Electrical pr Software Engineering, or related. 12 mos exp as Engineer, modeling or simulating ECM or TCM, &validating or verifying features at vehicle level using SIL or HIL, or related. Mail resume to Ref#42333, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

NEWS & VIEWS

Activists call on WSU to demand its vendors stop donating to political extremists

By Steve Neavling

ACTIVISTS ARE URGING the Wayne State University Board of Governors to pass a measure that calls on companies that do business with the school to stop contributing to political candidates who are undermining democracy.

The idea is to discourage companies from donating to political candidates who push for restrictions on voting and spread lies about election fraud.

An hour before the board met Friday, supporters of the measure held signs on campus that read, “Defend Mi Vote” and “Don’t Suppress Mi Vote.”

One of the companies with a big Wayne State contract is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which contrib uted about $329,000 to politicians who pushed for “Jim Crow-style voter suppression” in Michigan since 2016, according to the Defend Black Voters Coalition. During the same period, BCBSM donated $355,000 to the party committees supporting these lawmak ers.

The analysis found that BCBSM is the “largest corporate contributor to the legislators pushing extreme legislation that could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters of color.”

In April 2021, the health insurance giant was among three dozen major Michigan-based employers that called on lawmakers to stop trying to restrict voting access.

“I can’t be silent on this,” Bryan C. Barnhill II, a member of the Board of Governors, said at a news conference before the meeting. “If we can’t call this what it is — racially targeted suppression and treat it accordingly — then why did our constituents put us in office? If we can’t intervene because university dollars are unconditionally supporting extremist lawmakers that are poised to suppress my commu nity’s voices, what is the limit? In these critical times, it is important that we marshal every man, woman, child, and institution in the effort to preserve and

enhance our democracy.”

The measure is similar to one ap proved by the Wayne County Board of Commissioners in July. The author of that resolution, Commissioner Jonathan C. Kinloch, said the county “sent a clear message that corporate bankrolling of extremist politics will no longer be tolerated.”

“This is about our civil rights,” Kinloch said. “This is about fight ing extremism and the slide toward fascism. Wayne State serves the same community I do, and that’s the commu nity whose rights are under attack. Our constituents need us to take action and take that action now.”

Since the 2020 presidential elec tion, the Republican-led state House and Senate have introduced dozens of bills that would restrict voting access in Michigan. To justify the restrictions, the lawmakers peddled baseless conspiracy theories about voting fraud, eroding residents’ faith in elections.

“The thinly veiled efforts, which the Legislature could vote on by the end of the year, uses the big lie as an excuse to push for a set of voter restrictions designed to make it disproportionately harder for Black and low-income Michiganders to exercise their freedom to vote,” said Scott Holiday, political director for Detroit Action.

Ken Whittaker, executive director of the Michigan People’s Campaign, said silence is no longer an option.

“We’re at a pivotal moment in our democracy and civil rights, and corpo rations like Blue Cross and Blue Shield and clients like Wayne State University must choose to stand on the right side of history,” Whittaker said. “These corporations can no longer declare that Black lives matter while also funding the lawmakers that are trying to silence our voices.”

It’s not yet clear when the Wayne County Board of Governors will take up the measure.

‘These corporations can no longer declare that Black lives matter while also funding the lawmakers that are trying to silence our voices,’ activist says

Wayne State University in Detroit.

STEVE NEAVLING

City of Detroit begins demolishing a portion of the sprawling, storied Packard Plant

THE CITY OF Detroit is demolishing a two-block portion of the storied and sprawling Packard Plant on Thursday after the negligent owner failed to do it himself.

The $1.6 million emergency demoli tion is taking place on a section of the long-abandoned auto plant that is next to an operating business, Display Group, north of Grand Boulevard.

“This day has been a long time com ing,” Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference in the shadow of the build ing. “The abandoned Packard Plant has been the source of national embarrass ment for the city of Detroit for many years. It’s been a source of personal pain for people in this community.”

Peru-based developer Fernando Palazuelo bought the concrete ruins for $405,000 in December 2013 and pledged to turn the plant into a mixeduse space with lofts, offices, restau rants, and retailers. The estimated price of the project was $350 million.

But since the purchase, Palazuelo has failed to find future tenants for the building and has accumulated nearly $785,000 in unpaid taxes and water fees. He could soon lose ownership rights to more than 30 parcels and buildings at the Packard.

He was ordered to demolish the structure in March after the city declared the 35-acre plant a public nuisance.

“We had an owner that gave us noth ing but basically decades of false and broken promises,” Duggan said.

“It took a lot of legal action” to get it demolished, the mayor added.

In the early 1900s, the Packard Plant, designed by the famed architect Albert Kahn, became a proud symbol of De troit’s industrial rise as it churned out luxury automobiles and decent wages to thousand of workers. It is now one of the largest abandoned auto plants in the world, and has become a lawless wasteland.

Thursday’s emergency demolition only addresses a small portion of the 3.5 million square feet of crumbling concrete, broken glass, and twisted metal. Over the next two years, Duggan said the city is going to demolish a section south of Grand Boulevard and determine what parts of the building are salvageable.

“We’re going to analyze every single section of this,” Duggan said. “We are going to reuse what we can, and we are going to take down what we can’t.”

As the city tries to recruit new busi

nesses, Duggan said he hopes some of the building will be used in the future.

“I want to get this site back to putting people back to work as soon as pos sible,” the mayor said.

The city started with Thursday’s sec tion because of its proximity to Display Group, which bought a Packard Plant building in 2015 and relocated its headquarters from Corktown.

“These are folks who are trying to operate a business and have to worry

Youth pastor sentenced to 13 years in prison for sexual abuse involving Michigan Christian camp

A FORMER YOUTH pastor from New York was sentenced in federal court in St. Louis to more than 13 years in prison for two felonies stemming from his crossing state lines to engage in a sexual act with a person under 16.

In 2013 when Jesse Vargas was 29, he had sexual contact with then 15-year-old Molly Rodgers, of St. Louis.

Rodgers spoke at length during and after Vargas’ sentencing, both to shine a light on the damage the former youth pastor had done and to encourage others in a similar situation as she was in to trust their instincts when they feel something about an authority figure’s attention is not right.

Rodgers, now 24, first met Vargas when she was 11 and attended the Incredible Journey Christian camp in Michigan. In her victim impact state ment, which she read in court in front of Vargas, Rodgers recounted their initial meeting as Vargas worked the camp’s check-in table.

“Molly Rodgers? The Molly Rodgers?

I’ve been waiting for you all day,” Vargas said.

Rodgers said that at age 11 she was immediately “charmed” and that his manipulation and grooming began instantly.

“Over the course of the next four years, Jesse played with my family and I like frogs in a pot, slowly increasing the temperature of his manipulation until we each were unaware of the water we had been submerged in, let alone its suddenly scalding temperature,” she said.

After that first meeting at camp, Vargas asked for Rodgers’ phone number and would text her and send her gifts.

He was a youth pastor at a church in New York with a fantastic reputation, she said. She trusted him as an authority figure.

He enticed Rodgers to travel to New York to visit him. Vargas also traveled to Missouri to stay with Rodgers’ family. The two continued to meet at the sum

mer camp in Michigan as well.

The first sexual contact occurred when Rodgers was 15. Vargas was married with a child at the time.

Vargas manipulated not only her but her family, Rodgers says. He repeatedly told her not to tell her parents about what he’d done. He “remorselessly stole” her childhood, she said.

Vargas referred to Rodgers’ body as “God’s gift to him.” He manipulated her into forsaking her friends in favor of him.

“By age 13 I [had] abandoned most of my spiritual leaders and friendships at his suggestion. By 14 he [had] even guided me to push away my two closest friends,” she said.

“I would ask [Vargas], from time to time, God’s opinion on what it was we were doing. In answering, he was unwav eringly careful and calm,” Rodgers said.

Prior to his sentencing, Vargas himself addressed the court saying that he was responsible for Rodgers’ pain.

“I am possibly, or probably, the worst

every day that the pieces from the abandoned plant are going to fall on their business,” Duggan said.

Detroit Councilman Scott Benson called the Packard Plant “ruin porn” and said demolition is an essential part of revamping the city.

“This is what a city does to improve the quality of life,” Benson said. “This is also part of a revitalization of our city and our industrial corridors.”

— Steve Neavling

thing that ever happened to this person,” he said, referring to Rodgers.

Vargas’ attorney, New York City-based Edward Sapone, referred to Vargas’ crime as one that “could not be more serious.”

However he requested that the well-be ing of Vargas’ son be taken in account, as well as Vargas’ Apserger’s diagnosis and his claim he himself had been sexually abused as a young person.

Sapone asked for a sentence of a little over eight years.

After Vargas spoke, Assistant U.S. At torney Jillian Anderson said in court that throughout his life Vargas had demon strated a “striking ability to behave in a duplicitous way.”

Vargas had entered his guilty plea March 22.

In addition to the 13 years and 4 months in prison, Vargas must pay $146,000 in restitution and upon release will be on lifetime supervision.

He still faces charges in Nassau County, New York.

—Ryan Krull

Originally published by our sister paper, Riverfront Times.

Demolition begins on the abandoned Packard Plant.

STEVE NEAVLING

NEWS & VIEWS

What happens if Republicans reclaim the U.S. House in November?

effre C. man

CBS News recently estimated that Republicans are on track to win 223 seats in the House in November. There’s a decent margin of error, enough that Democrats could hold onto a narrow majority or — more likely — Republicans could build a comfortable cushion, and the estimate would still be accurate.

But assume it’s 223.

Dear readers, there could be no bigger boost to Joe Biden’s re-elect if Elon Mus and eff e os’ ban accounts made an evil money baby and gave it to that crypto billionaire’s weird Demo cratic super PAC. (Let’s also assume that Biden runs again, which I suspect he will.)

A scant five vote ma ority is a mas sive miss on expectations, for starters. It probably means that Democrats keep the Senate, limiting House Republicans’ ability to do anything more than hold six months of hearings into Hunter’s laptop and indict Biden for, like, breathing wrong.

It leads to a circular firing s uad. What’s left of the establishment correctly recogni es that the party s uandered an opportunity by running fringe candidates and wants to sever ties with all things Trump; the MAGA crew blames the establishment for not being MAGA enough.

House Republicans also give Biden a

foil, the same way Bill Clinton turned Newt Gingrich and company into cartoon villains ahead of the 1996 campaign. (To be fair, not hard.) When they pass abortion bans and manifest other right-wing fever dreams, Biden can remind voters that this is what a Republican presidency will look like.

But most importantly, and most conse uentially, there’s probably an chance that a small, radical GOP majority leads to an economic catastrophe, and iden will walt past the burning carcass of America into a second term.

If he wants it anymore. If anyone does.

To explain: Kevin McCarthy has proven an exceptionally weak Repub lican majority leader, easily brought to heel by Donald Trump and the far-right members of his caucus. He’s shown no ability to twist arms. He would be a weak speaker under any circumstances. With five votes to spare, he’ll be the wea est speaker in generations, at the mercy of the Freedom Caucus: Jim Jordan, Matt aet , auren oehert, Mar orie Taylor Greene, and so on.

He will become speaker because they allow it. If they get the rule changes they want, allowing them to evict the speaker mid-session — McCarthy will be in a groveling mood before the leadership vote, so there’s a good chance — he’ll remain speaker because they permit it.

The Freedom Caucus is also demanding that he commit to only bringing to the oor legislation that has ma or ity support from House Republicans, severely restricting McCarthy’s ability to cut deals. Again, he’ll go along.

At the same time, he’ll need House Republicans to do what they haven’t done in, well, a long time: govern like grown-ups.

McCarthy’s caucus is inherently oppositional and ideologically ortho dox. Most of its members come from gerrymandered, deep-red districts, and many have no interest in or understand ing of policy. Even when Republicans controlled Washington, they couldn’t pass meaningful legislation that wasn’t a tax cut.

They make grandiose promises about what they’d do with power. In power, they’re the proverbial dog that caught the car (cf., the congressional shitshows of 2 2 and 2 2 .

And in this iteration, Kevin McCarthy will be on Jim Jordan’s very short leash.

With that as background, next summer we will return to the stupid est of American political traditions: the debt ceiling crisis, the pointless yet potentially disastrous exercise in which Congress must increase the amount the government can borrow to prevent a debt default, which would be well, bad doesn’t uite capture it.

Pension funds would implode, the stock market would collapse, credit mar ets would free e, businesses would fall, the dollar would go into freefall, in ation would surge, and the U.S. would lose its primacy in the global economy.

A recession is a given. A global de pression is possible.

As we always do during a Democratic presidency, we meandered to the brink in 2 2 before Mitch Mc onnell agreed not to tank the economy for no good reason. This became a normal practice after the Obama administration ransomed spending cuts in exchange for McConnell agreeing not to tank the economy for no good reason in 2 .

The kidnappers kept taking hostages until Democrats stopped playing along.

Last year, Republicans did a per formative dance before folding. But McConnell is cynical, not insane. I’m not sure the same can be said of the Freedom Caucus.

os reported on Wednesday that Republicans and their business patrons are starting to freak out about how Speaker McCarthy would handle a debt ceiling crisis. In no small part, it’s because Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri hardliner, might take over a key com mittee.

And Smith believes he can force Biden to “reverse” his “radical” policies by threatening to default. “If Republi cans are trying to cut spending, surely [Biden] wouldn’t try to default,” Smith told os

When this gambit inevitably fails — when Biden doesn’t budge, when Senate ems tell mith to piss off, when the few House Republican moderates go weak in the face of terrible poll numbers — will the Freedom Caucus back down?

Will McCarthy go around them even when Trump and Taylor Greene and the Fox News crowd call him a RINO sellout — even if it costs him his job? verything in Mc arthy’s uisling history says he won’t.

A five vote cushion means he’ll have very little room to maneuver. If he can’t whip votes from his own side — including from hard-right members who promised to never raise the debt ceiling — he has to make a deal with Democrats. If he can’t bring himself to do that, default is coming.

The alternative, of course, is that we don’t hand petulant children the codes to nuclear weapons they don’t under stand. Then again, by a 4 margin, Americans apparently think Republi cans will be better for the economy.

So maybe we’ll get the default we deserve.

Get more at billman.substack.com.

Kevin McCarthy has proven an exceptionally weak Republican majority leader. SHUTTERSTOCK Informed Dissent

Iran’s regime must be held accountable — by Iranians themselves

By Abdul El-Sayed

The Iranian government is one of the world’s most repressive autocracies. It uses religion as a cudgel to repress freedom of speech, thought, dress, and opportunity. And one of its tricks is framing any dissent as an attack from anti-Muslim elements abroad, rather than the organic move ments for freedom they truly represent.

On Sept. 16, Mahsa Amini, a 22-yearold woman, was murdered at the hands of the government’s morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab — required in public by Iranian law — too loosely. The notion that a govern ment should be able to dictate religious dress violates both the most nominal standards of human rights — and the very faith it claims to uphold. Indeed, the Quran itself precludes compulsion in matters of faith it identifies the self-defeating contradiction at its heart. What is faith, after all, without the freedom to choose it?

But Tehran’s morality police were never really about faith. They are about control in the name of the state. Which is why Amini’s murder ignited the largest protests Iran has seen in years. Women are burning their hijabs in an act of defiance against the regime, supported by men who recognize that

violating women in the name of faith is a tool of division — designed to keep them from uniting against a regime that has denied Iranians even the most basic rights. We all should stand with Iranians protesting against the regime for their dignity and freedom.

The crackdown has been fast and brutal. The regime has blacked out internet access to keep the world from seeing their fury, which has claimed 76 lives already. Iranians in exile have watched helplessly as their sisters and brothers are killed for standing against the regime. This has led many to call for international action from Western gov ernments. But nothing could hurt their cause more than Western interference.

First, I understand the instinct in times like these to call upon Western governments to stand for their stated beliefs in freedom, democracy, and human rights abroad. When Egyptians rose up against the Mubarak regime in Egypt in 2011, I called for President Obama to raise his voice in solidarity with the protestors. As an Egyptian American, I wanted desperately for the Egyptian people to taste the same freedoms, the same right to self-deter mination that I had taken for granted as an American. Yet nearly 11 years on,

I cannot say that Egypt is in a better place than it was. While Egyptians had a taste of democracy for a few short years, it was just that: a taste. Today, the U.S. all but openly backs an even more brutal form of military dictator ship than the one Egyptian people overthrew during the Arab Spring. U.S. taxpayers backstop the Sisi regime to the tune of $1.3 billion every year.

Not that it would have made a dif ference, but I wish I would have called for American nonengagement in the national affairs of the country for the U.S. simply to stop tipping the scales in Egypt in one direction or another.

Rather than ride in on a white horse during visible uprisings, the U.S. com mitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights is most critical when the world is not watching. It means doing things like pulling military aid from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel that routinely violate human rights and skirt international law.

Iran’s relationship to the West is even more fraught. Egypt’s relationship with the U.S. rests on their long history of clientelism. But the U.S. involvement in Iran has been far more hostile. From the CIA’s overthrow of Iran’s elected prime minister in 1953 to the U.S.’s uni-

lateral pullout of the Iran nuclear deal and assassination of General Qassim Soleimani under Trump, our country has engaged in a pattern of frank sabo tage and hostility.

Their regime leverages that history to wield the threat of Western force as a domestic tool of power. Understanding the implications of this requires us to be far more nuanced about the various factions in Iranian political life. There are, of course, those rising up against the regime’s tyranny. On the other side, there are those who benefit from, and therefore support, the regime. But there’s also the critical middle — those who understand the regime for the tyrannous autocracy that it is, but are rightly dubious of threats from abroad. Should the West intervene, the regime would immediately paint these organic uprisings as a tool of Western interfer ence, placing the regime in this narra tive as protectors of Iranian indepen dence from that in uence. Rather than tipping the scales toward those rising up for freedom and democracy in Iran, Western interference would undercut their legitimacy in the eyes of that criti cal middle.

Here, I probably don’t have to remind you of our country’s disastrous history of foreign intervention for “democracy” in Afghanistan and Iraq. While there’s a lot of space between weighing in on the side of the protestors and all-out war, tensions have a way of escalating quickly when regimes are existentially threatened. Iran’s autocrats understand that there would be no more effective a way to unify a divided public than through war. Better not to give them any pretext.

The irony, of course, is that the loudest American voices for U.S. intervention are the same ones calling for our government to violate women’s bodies, too. Take Sen. Lindsey Graham. One week, he was proposing a nationwide abortion ban. The next week, he’s taunting the Biden administration for doing too little on behalf of the women of Iran.

Mind you, this is the same Lindsey Graham who thinks that the best we can do are “thoughts and prayers” when people are killed by gun violence in America.

Perhaps rather than demanding action that could undermine the righteous protests of Iranians in Iran, our politicians could demonstrate how effective democracy is here at home by protecting the rights of American women rather than American guns here in America.

Originally published Sept. 28 in The Incision. Get more at abdulelsayed. substack.com.

Organic uprisings following the murder of Mahsa Amini in police custody threaten the regime. But foreign interference won’t help their movement — instead, it could throttle it. SHUTTERSTOCK

OPEN LETTER TO MARY BARRA

September 30, 2022

I have authored a book titled “Old General Motors on the Down Low”. is book is about Racism, Classism, Genderism, and those who wielded power at GM.

Following the death of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, who all died at the hands of police o cers, nancial institutions and other corporations have pledged to ght racism and some, even pledged to ght the wealth gap.

GM’s CEO, Mary Barra stated on June 2, 2020, that “We stand up against injustice – that means taking the risk of expressing unpopular or polarizing points of view, because complacency and complicity sit in the shadow of silence.”

Mary, also stated in that same message to America “My personal commitment is to ensure that the leadership of GM and by extension, the entire GM family, consistently remains aware of our responsibility to bring awareness to injustice. Because awareness leads to dialogue… dialogue leads to understanding…and understanding leads to change.” My book complies with Mary’s personal commitment to the leadership of GM and the entire GM family, which I am a member of.

It is extremely hard for Black writers to get published. A very accomplished white writer (James Patterson) wrote that white male writers are facing racism, however according to a “Penguin Random House” study (2019 – 2021) found that 74.9 percent of writers published were white. e “New York Times” did a similar study and found that 89 percent of writers published were white.

I am asking Mary Barra and General Motors to assist me through their (Business Round table initiative) in getting my book published. If there any other corporations that want to help, I welcome your input. In fact, if there are any serious local book agents, attorneys and public relations person who want to assist me, I can be reached at: omas Givens (tomcatgivens@comcast.net)

Roland Coit and his staff at sneaker boutique Two 18 were tapped to release a special Detroit edition of the Nike Air Jordan 2.

FEATURE

SHOE GAME DETROIT’S FIRST THEMED NIKE AIR JORDAN RELEASE SOLIDIFIES ITS PLACE IN SNEAKER CULTURE BY KAHN SANTORI DAVISON

IT’S 7 P.M. AND ROLAND COIT AND HIS STAFF AT TWO 18 ARE shutting the store down for the night. The cash drawer is being counted, the oor is being swept, hoodies and T shirts are being folded and hung.

The store is a carefully curated snea er bouti ue that opened earlier this year, posted on the corner of Russell treet and the ast isher ervice rive in etroit’s astern Mar et district. These days, snea er stores are much more than ust a place to buy a pair of shoes they’re a consumer compass for snea er and fashion trends. Along with its sister store urn Rubber in Royal a , Two has evolved into etroit’s agship for freshness.

“In the fashion snea ers business world, dope is dope and fresh is fresh, says oit.

And now, the two brands are being recogni ed by snea er giant i e. ater this month, Two and urn Rubber will be among the retail stores to exclusively sell a new Air ordan 2 that i e invited oit and his team to design.

oit has been passionate about snea ers for as long as he can remember. “ ome of my oldest memories involve snea ers, he says. “ hen I thin bac to when I was or years old, it was me doing chores around the house to get a pair of snea ers. I ind of developed this reputation of being the first guy with whatever the shoe was. It could have been eion anders or arry anders i es or whatever.

e adds with a laugh, “ ut with me, I would wear them out the store.

The i e Air ordan snea er was first released in , but it too several years for the shoe and the brand to ma e a significant impact in etroit due to the Motor ity’s own diverse shoe culture. etroiters have always been trendsetters, not followers In the ’ s a crew of hustlers called ony own populari ed ony snea ers, while Adidas orums and Top Tens were exclusively worn by many teens. ila snea ers were also hot in the mid ’ s and again in the ’ s spar ed by iston rant ill . And on the otorious .I. .’s song, “ ypnoti e, he rapped “...stin pin gators, my etroit players, a nod to etroit’s exotic s in shoe wearers.

ut by the early 2 s “streetwear was starting to evolve into the most dominant force in urban fashion, and for many enthusiasts their wardrobe had to be built around a pair of Air ordan snea ers.

“ etroit has always curved fashion, and once snea ers came along the street sense of it ust made it even better, says celebrity stylist Marv eal. “ e now how to match the color way perfectly to the perfect tee or ersey

or hoodie. When Detroiters move or visit other cities, they see how we rock and they adopt our style.”

“I think it’s the way we rock our clothes, pe riod,” says Coit. “What we rock them with and the diversity in it. I know so many people from the east side of Pontiac that had never purchased anything but Adidas. I think it ties into what De troit is. It’s a mixing pot, it’s a jambalaya of these amazing fresh things.”

Like other kids, Coit had college hoop dreams and musical aspirations, but he never stopped loving sneakers. While attending Eastern Michi gan niversity, he wor ed at uffer Reds, an es tablished Black-owned sneaker and apparel store. “ eeing owners ric and Tandra, it was the first time I saw a successful Black man and woman that owned something I was into,” he says. “It kind of made me see like, wow, this was a regular guy that pulled himself up and he’d been there for 20 or 30 years.”

uring this same time oit went into his first entrepreneurial foray as a sneaker reseller. He had fallen in love with Bapesta sneakers and started taking trips to New York to buy a pair for himself and another pair to sell. His motivation was not driven by profit, he says, but rather as a way to cover his expenses to and from New York.

“All I was trying to do was get my pair for free,” he says. “It just became a way of life.”

The trips to ew or and wor ing at uffer Reds had lit a fire within him. In 2 4 he wrote a comprehensive business proposal detailing a

snea er store he wanted to open. At first he called it “Sneaker Heaven,” but changed it to “Burn Rubber. owever, his dreams were temporar ily deferred when his then-girlfriend (now wife) stumbled on a snea er store in Royal a with the exact same name.

“She called me like, ‘You’re not gonna believe this,’ and I was crushed,” he says. “I wanted to be the first person, the first independent bouti ue in this area, to really do that. My dream was crushed. I put my business plan in the closet.”

Coit shifted the focus back to his music career, where he met fellow snea er enthusiast Ric Williams in a band they were both in. Coit (who goes by the moni er Ro pit when he’s behind the mic) was the lead emcee, Williams was the tap dancer, and they both had a shared passion for sneakers and fashion. Eventually, Williams too an internship type position at urn Rubber, and when the owners decided to sell, he had put himself and Coit in a prime position to capitalize on the opportunity to buy it.

“Ric reached out to me because he new I already had a business proposal,” Coit says. “The

first couple of people that wanted to buy it fell through, and next it came to us. We went for it, we signed on the dotted line February, Valentines Day, 2007.”

nce they had the eys to urn Rubber in their hands, they took to the business of sneakerselling at a scorched-earth pace. The timing was impeccable: The sneaker industry was starting to see the emergence of “hypebeasts,” or fans who always buy the newest and most hyped sneakers, no matter the cost. Then there are the sneaker heads, collectors who own copious amounts of snea ers and have an e ual amount of snea er knowledge. Throw in the rise of social media snea er pages and snea er in uencers, and things couldn’t have worked out better.

urn Rubber outgrew its location twice, had their own reality show called etroit Rubber (which was produced by Eminen’s Shady Films), and then established the Two 18 brand in 2013, opening a Two 18 storefront in Eastern Market this past February. (The name “Two 18” is a nod to urn Rubber the “two is because the letter “ in “Burn” is the second letter in the alphabet, and “ is because the letter “R in “Rubber is the 18th letter.)

“ e put a ag and a sta e in doing good busi ness, oit says. “ ver the years we’ve done to 2 collabs with Reebo , with uma, ew alance, to name a few. They’ve all been successful and we’ve always tried to tell a story that put Detroit in a positive light, because we knew the shoes were going to the world.”

“IT’S LIKE BILL FORD JR. LETTING A CREW OF LOCAL GEARHEADS REDESIGN A FORD MUSTANG.”

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Amid the pandemic in 2020, Coit received a call from his Nike rep informing him that the Jordan brand would like to collaborate with Coit and Two 18 to redesign the Air Jordan 2 colorway.

“I hung up on him, but at the time I didn’t realize I hung up on him!” Coit says. “He called back and said, ‘I’m serious, you put the work in. You’ve earned this.’ He was just as proud as I was.”

For those unfamiliar with sneaker culture, it can be hard to wrap one’s head around the magnitude of this. To put it in more familiar terms, it’s the e uivalent of your local hevy dealership getting a call from M’s executive office to redesign the new Corvette, or Bill Ford Jr. letting a crew of local gearheads redesign a Ford Mustang. Nike rarely does collabs with independent storefronts, as there have been less than five so far. Most high profile collaborations involve a rockstar designer from the fashion world, an athlete, other fashion brands, or a pop star.

“Here I am driving to Meijer to pick up muchneeded ingredients for smoothies when I get a aceTime call from Ro, says Mario “Rio utter field, creative director for urn Rubber and Two . “ e was li e, igga, are you sitting down?’ nce he was actually able to get it out I felt this child like excitement, and it remained for the duration of the process.”

“Rio is a etroit legend who doesn’t get the cred it he deserves,” Coit says. “His lineage in Detroit fashion goes back to Maurice Malone. He worked at the Hip-Hop Shop and helped with designs. He was Big Proof’s hype man, he toured with D-12.”

Along with utterfield, oit pulled in Alex ol lins and ay ohn enry from his urn Rubber and Two 18 team. “We kind of got on a call and started spitballing, just brainstorming, really,” Coit says. “The first thing I wanted to convey to people was that, yes, this is a urn Rubber Two shoe, but more importantly, it’s a Detroit shoe.”

Designing the colorway for the Air Jordan 2 was a lot more intricate than logging onto the Nike website and customizing a pair of Air Force 1s by slapping your favorite colors on it. The first step was obtaining an Auto A file, or the software used to create digital diagrams, of the Air Jordan 2 from Nike.

“Rio was so excited he couldn’t wait for i e to send it, he found pics online and made his own CAD,” Coit says.

Coit also decided he wanted the shoes to be functional and not so much of a trophy shoe that buyers would be afraid to wear them. Next were the colors.

“ e setted on three different colors blac , white, and brown,” Coit says. “It was extremely close. To me the fire one was the blac one. I’m just looking at the suede on it, it was just perfect, but the white one almost looked like a Bally shoe or a high-end fashion shoe. And then there was this brown one. Jay John and even the people at Jordan liked the brown one.”

Eventually, the brown colorway was declared the winner and the Two 18 team started adding small design elements, which are odes to Michigan.

“The insole is a picture of a map of Southeastern Michigan,” says Coit. “It goes from Flint to Detroit. It has a heart around Flint, lines under Pontiac, a

circle around Detroit. I tried to take [places] on that map li e outhwest etroit, a ar , In ster, outhfield, so that id that has never seen his city on a map now sees it on a pair of Jordans.” The shoe also features red and blue stripes, an echo of Two 18’s logo.

This is not the first time i e has reached out to a Detroiter for a shoe collab. In 2005 Nike teamed up with Eminem to release the Eminem x Jordan 4 “ ncore, then the ordan 2 minem “The ay I Am in 2 , and then ordan 4 minem x Carhartt in 2015. Although the Eminem-inspired snea ers were some of the first collabs that i e had done with celebrities outside of athletes, they were Eminem-inspired sneakers, not Detroit-inspired sneakers. Also you have to throw in the fact that the Eminem-themed Jordans were close to impossible to purchase. (A size 9 for the Eminem x arhartt 4 currently has an as ing price of ,4 2 on StockX, the sneaker resale company co-founded by local billionaire Dan Gilbert, whose son is a sneaker collector.)

In fact, over the last several years, many other Jordan releases have been impossible to purchase at their standard retail price between 2 because they either aren’t available at a physical store or they get gobbled up by resellers. It’s led to buying snea ers at in ated resale prices to become commonplace, which has left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths toward a company that makes billions a year and has doubled its revenue over the last decade.

fore the ct. 2 national release . oit is confident that there will be plenty of shoes for everyone who wants a pair.

“This is an SMU (or “Special Make Up”), everyone will be able to get a pair,” he adds. “This is our shoe, it’s for Detroit, it’s for us. We’re going to have thousands of pairs. There’s going to be some really special things going on in the city of Detroit for this release, community based stuff, teachable moments, giving back.”

‘A MONUMENTAL TIME FOR THE CITY’

Ultimately, the Two 18 x Air Jordan 2 arrives at a time where Detroit’s creatives have been on an un paralleled winning streak lately. Detroit’s culture is being told through the voices of its very own filmma ers, hip hop artists, and fashion designers. They’ve all received more national notoriety than they have in years past, and have helped Detroit evolve from being a destination where other artists came to profit to etroit in uencing every aspect in art, music, and fashion.

“For a Detroit native, Puritan Avenue, to be exact, it’s so much larger than a shoe,” says Henry. “Just to be represented, to be seen, and for some thing highlighting the creativity that I know we’re known for is beyond what I am able to put into words.”

“I love to see etroit get a specific release or colorway, because stylistically it’s deserving,” adds Neal.

Along with the sneakers there are T-shirts with the same Michigan map that’s inside the insoles of the sneakers. There are also hoodies, shorts, and sweatpants that accompany the collection.

The lasting impact of the Two 18 x Air Jordan 2 will be heavier than sneakers and hoodies, says Collins. It will be with the youth who get to grow up with the memory of opening their first box of a Detroit-themed Jordans.

“This will be a monumental time for the city,” Collins says. “I think Detroit has always been in the forefront, but for some reason the city has been overloo ed, and that will always ba e me. Thin about music with the historic Motown artists, to some of the biggest rappers in hip-hop history, sports with the Red ings and istons, even style, fashion, etc. The city of Detroit has always been here. I think it will be an historic day that no one will ever forget, and something the city will take pride in.”

Although Coit’s focus is sneakers, he has not totally abandoned music. You can often catch him spinning at one of his many DJing gigs, and this past April he collaborated with superstar producer Nick Speed to release the album Coney Island.

“

ff hite ordans don’t come to Michigan, says Coit. “If you’re here you have to go to Chicago to get it. So just talking to the sneaker community here, they feel like, ‘Does that brand I put all my time and energy into even care about me?’”

Nike is allowing Coit to start selling the shoes on riday, ct. 4 at 2 p.m. at Two in etroit and at p.m. at urn Rubber and online one wee be

“ urn Rubber is the bottom line, though, oit says. “I was going to be whatever I was going to be musically. Whether that’s this local hero or this lo cal legend, it’s a level better than some people, but not a major level. But I’m here for it. I’m an open book, I want the world to know my story, I want the world to know where I come from, and I want the world to know why I haven’t left Detroit.”

Two 18 is located at 1400 E. Fisher Service Dr., Detroit; 313-974-6955; two18.com. Burn Rubber is located at 512 N. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-5433000; burnrubbersneakers.com.

Left and above: The Two 18 x Air Jordan 2 is designed in earth tones, with insoles featuring a map of Michigan cities.

WHAT’S GOING ON

metro

FRI-SUN 10/7-10/9

Greater Detroit Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show

The 77th Greater Detroit Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show is this weekend, and one of the rocks taking the spotlight is called Yooperlite.

You’re probably asking what the heck is Yooperlite, and whether it’s a real thing or just a made-up name. Technically, it’s a real thing with a made-up name. Yooperlites were discovered on the shores of Lake Superior by a local dude named Erik Rintamaki.

They look like regular old rocks to the naked eye, but under UV light they glow like some kind of freaky space rock burning inside with lava. Rintamaki dubbed them “Yooperlites” because he’s a Yooper (someone from the U.P., obviously). The rocks are found in Michigan’s pper eninsula, specifi cally along the coast of Lake Superior. Technically it’s uorescent sodalite bearing syenite, but that’s a mouthful, so Yooperlite it is.

Rintamaki will be at the gem and mineral show at Macomb Community College in Warren Oct. 7-9 with tons of the stuff. The gem show will also have nearly 70 vendors selling crystals, minerals, authentic fossils, jewelry, and more.

Dave Lurie, president of the Michigan mineralogical society, says there will be more hands-on activities this year. The event was canceled in 2020 and had fewer interactive exhibits last year due to COVID-19.

This year, visitors can get up close

and personal with the minerals, ob serve them under a microscope, dig for fossils, and fill up grab bags with as many gemstones as they can. There will also be wire wrapping jewelry demon strations and door prizes.

“What draws people in is the beauty of nature,” Lurie tells us. “It’s the fascina tion with having a mineral formed mil lions of years ago that’s perfect in shape and beautiful in color. Kids especially tend to like fossils a lot because they’re 300 or 400 million years old, and just the idea of something being that old right in front of you is fascinating.”

Even if you’re not the type to get excited by fossils or understands the healing properties of crystals, Lurie says the gem and mineral show is a fun educational outing for families.

“We’ve also been giving out a schol arship to a geology student who’s a se nior at Wayne State [University] in the geology program and we’re very excited about that because it’s giving back to the city,” he adds.

The first 2 attendees each day will get a free quartz crystal, so get there early.

—Randiah Camille Green

From 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7; 10 a.m-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9 at the Macomb Community College South Campus/ Expo Center; 14500 E. 12 Mile Rd., Warren. More information is available at michmin.org. Tickets range from $3-$9.

THROUGH 10/22, 2023

Van Gogh in America

A century ago, the Detroit Institute of Arts was way ahead of the curve when

it became the first . . museum to purchase a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. That was his 1887 “Self-Portrait,” a . inch by . inch oil painting made several years before the painter would die by suicide.

That fateful purchase a century ago helped set the stage for Van Gogh in America, a retrospective of the iconic artist’s career that opened to the public on Sunday. “Not everyone can go to Paris. Not everyone can go to Amster dam,” DIA director Salvador SalortPons said during opening remarks at a media preview event on Thursday, add ing, “We have a phenomenal assembly of paintings by Van Gogh. And also, we have ‘Starry Night’ from Paris.”

“Starry Night,” on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, was an 11th-hour addition to the years-in-the-making exhibition, which was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. It was also eclipsed in the past year by two dueling “immersive digital exhibitions profiting off of Van ogh’s wor . The IA show, however, is the largest Van Gogh exhibi tion in years, and includes more than 70 works on loan from roughly 60 muse ums and collections all over the world.

At first, the art world did not seem to know what to make of Van Gogh. He reportedly sold very few paintings in his life, but was eventually embraced after death, after museums like the DIA helped boost his profile. And there was something about his paintings that seemed to really resonate with Ameri cans, especially from the heartland. The next U.S. museums to purchase Van Goghs were also in the Midwest, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Toledo Museum of Art.

“Van Gogh in America tells the story of how Americans shaped in their hearts and minds the image of Van Gogh,” Salort-Pons said.

If you go — and you should — take your time. No photograph or digital reproduction can do Van Gogh’s radi ant brushstrokes justice, so it’s best to experience them in person.

—Lee DeVito

Van Gogh in America is on view through Jan. 22, 2023 at the Detroit Institute of Arts; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-7900; dia.org. Tickets are $7-$29, with discounted tickets for residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, and free for DIA members.

ONGOING

Belle Isle Nature Center

An interactive pollinator habitat, snakes, frogs, and salamanders await the return of visitors to the Belle Isle Nature Center.

The center has been closed since March 2020, and has undergone extensive renovation both inside and out. It reopened last month.

Additions to the nature center include an expansive play area for kids, better habitats for turtles, bullfrogs, snakes, and reptiles, and a sewer-tun nel walk-through that allows “visitors to learn about and explore the areas where city infrastructure and wildlife connect.”

“We’ve completely reimagined a new nature center that puts the focus on ur ban wildlife,” said Amy Greene, nature centers director for the Detroit Zoologi cal Society, in a press release. “Our intention is to reinforce the connections people have and the spaces they share with the nature that surrounds us. We want people to feel that nature is where we already are — we just have to notice and appreciate it.”

A newly renovated lobby will also feature reclaimed materials from the original Belle Isle Zoo, which disgraced former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick opted to close in 2002. The Belle Isle Nature Center then opened to replace the zoo, with bond money granted by the city council to fund the zoo’s reopening.

ther renovations include a oor to-ceiling bird viewing bay and an immersive frog and toad crawl-through that allows visitors to get up close and personal with see-through domes inside the habitat.

——Randiah Camille Green

The Belle Isle Nature Center is located at 176 Lakeside Dr., Detroit; 313-852-4056; belleislenaturecenter.detroitzoo.org. Admission is free.

Select events happening

“Fluorescent sodalite-bearing syenite” is a mouthful, but these glowing rocks from the U.P. are also known as Yooperlite.

COURTESY PHOTO

MUSIC

Secret concert series Sofar Sounds is still going strong in Detroit

The intimate music pop-up could be coming to a house, art gallery, or retail space near you

By Randiah Camille Green

You never know what you’re going to get at a Sofar Sounds concert. The evening could bring rappers, metal bands, country singers, or all three on the same night.

That’s by design. The global secret concert series takes place at undis closed locations that are only revealed 36 hours prior to the show, and you won’t know who’s even performing until you arrive.

The secret gigs began in London in 2009 and have since spread to more than 430 cities across the globe. Sofar ounds officially came to etroit in ecember of 2 2 , and has been going strong ever since.

“Each show has three acts from diverse genres that each play around a 2 minute set, Kindra ar er, etroit city lead for Sofar Sounds, tells Metro Times. “One time I had a harpist, a rap-

per, and a folk artist.”

She adds, “The people that come are music lovers. They don’t know what they’re going to get. I curate the show pretty tightly.”

ar er is a etroit based event cura tor who also does marketing and public relations for musicians. It’s up to her to choose the acts, and she doesn’t limit it to just music or local talent. National acts including comedians and spoken word poets have performed at Solar etroit events as well.

Venues aren’t large-scale arenas or concert halls, either. ofar etroit gigs take over retail spaces, art galleries, and even residential homes, with attendees co ying up on the oor for an intimate experience. In etroit, ofar ounds has taken over unexpected spaces like Norwest Gallery of Art, co-working space eat etroit, men’s clothing

store eorge regory, and coffee shop etroit ip, among others.

“I’ve done the shows downtown, Midtown, west side, all over,” Parker says, noting the venues are always with in etroit city limits with an emphasis on small, local businesses.

The next ofar etroit gigs are scheduled for Friday, Sept. 30 in the Mc ougall unt neighborhood, ri day, Oct. 7 in Grandmont, and Saturday, ct. in the niversity istrict. If you want more details, you’ll have to buy a ticket and wait. The Sofar Sounds website only lists the neighborhood, venue type, and whether the show is BYOB.

As a self-described music snob, ar er is confident in her ability to put together a captivating show. She has performed as a jazz vocalist and studied music production and engineering

at Berklee College of Music. In other words, she knows good music when she hears it.

She says no one has walked away dis appointed from a etroit ofar series concert yet, or complained they didn’t like the performers.

“It might not be everyone’s cup of tea as far as the genre, but the musician ship is always good,” she says. “They may not be the best, well-known acts, but whether they have heart or just a crazy good groove, they all have that thing.”

The concert series prides itself on hosting previously “undiscovered” art ists. Pop star Billie Eilish performed at a ofar os Angeles gig in 2 before she gained mass popularity. And Ed Sheeran gave a Sofar Sounds concert in a small living room in Washington, . ., in 2 as part of a refugee sup port campaign with Amnesty Interna tional. e wasn’t an un nown artist at the time, but imagine seeing him play in a living room.

revious ofar etroit acts have included Eastside rapper Marv Won, singer-songwriter Rachel Curtis, R&B singer Monique Ella Rose, and Kym rady, “The rban Violinist.

ar er says ofar etroit is all about creating a unique atmosphere for live music.

“The venues donate their space and host us so I look for venues that are supporters of the arts or are just look ing to do fun, cool stuff, she says. “It’s mostly oor seating, so we put tapes tries on the oor and people bring their blankets and cushions. We have really ambient lighting and it’s just a vibe.”

Sofar Sounds hosted a few shows in etroit before the VI pandem ic, but etroit didn’t become a full time “Sofar city” until they scouted Parker on LinkedIn to curate the gigs.

“I had a chance to speak with the CEO and he actually knew so much about etroit music, it was cra y, she recalls. “ e new everything from Mo town to illa, which is so cool because he’s this billionaire and I didn’t expect that. I think when you think music, everybody thin s of etroit.

pea ing of Motown, ofar etroit has a partnership with the Motown Museum where it donates of the ticket cost to the museum when you use the code “ itsville ext at chec out.

Parker tells us the concert series will continue indefinitely and says that she’s always on the hunt for distinctive venues that want to host Sofar Sounds concerts.

For more information, see sofarsounds. com.

Sofar Sounds gigs take place at intimate venues that aren’t disclosed until 36 hours before showtime. LUDOVIC FARINE/SHUTTERSTOCK

We, we like pupusas

By Jane Slaughter

When I lived in Guatemala in the last century, the song you’d hear constantly on the radio was “A mi me gustan las pupusas” (“Me, I like pupusas”). The tune has stayed with me ever since, and you can catch a manic version by Espiritu Libre on YouTube, complete with some Motown-ish dance moves. “Are they empanadas? No! Are they tamales? No, no, no…”

The pupusa is the national dish and comfort food of El Salvador, but the song was intended and received as a bit naughty.

There’s a reason why we like pupu sas, and why so many cultures have their versions: empanada, pasty, arepa, pierogi, pastelito, samosa, turnover, panzerotti. “Me, I like any dough-based product,” as a gringo-based friend of mine explained.

I’m a fan of Southwest Detroit’s long-standing Pupuseria for its thick, handmade, lightly browned corn tortillas, which are the outside of a pupusa. They’re as different as day and night from the thin, bendy tortillas from the factory (don’t even talk to me about our tortillas, unless we’re discussing the avor of library paste . ou can taste the corn! They’re a quarter-inch tall!

The cooks at the Pupuseria start with Maseca brand corn our, which is mixed with water to form the dough, or masa. They go through 100 lbs a day, and 250 lbs on weekends. If a plain tor

tilla is wanted, a circle is quickly patted out by hand (no tortilla press is used) and cooked on a huge electric plancha If the goal is a pupusa, a filling is po ed in while the masa is still in ball form, and it’s then attened and coo ed.

Every pupusa at the Pupuseria includes mozzarella, and that’s usually the main avor s uash and loroco (a vine with edible owers , even small amounts of shrimp or beans don’t re ally make an impression on the gooey cheesiness and the warm corn-ness. Jalapeño does add bite, so order that if your idea of comfort food needn’t be bland. In any case, the focus is on the tortilla, not the filling. The pupusas are always served, as the song speci fies, with crunchy curtido, a good-sized bowl of purple-and-green non-mayo cabbage slaw with plenty of jalapeños.

The other specialty, to my mind, of Salvadoran cuisine is horchata, which is made from morro seeds rather than rice as in Mexico. The morro tree has hard, “cannonball-like” fruit that are difficult to brea into, but it’s worth the effort. At the upuseria they order a powder that includes toasted morro seeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, rice, and toasted corn, and mix it with milk and sugar. The result is sweet and rich and very slightly nutty.

There’s plenty else on the menu, of course: guisados, caldos, tamales, eggs (served anytime), fried dishes. I ordered a caldo de pollo, which to me

meant chicken soup, and was surprised to have it appear in two stages: fried chicken with salad and rice on a plate, then a big bowl of rich, fatty chicken broth replete with carrots, yuca, squash, and chayote. I asked the server if it was OK to put the former into the latter, and she replied, more or less, that it was a free country. I thought the chicken, which was sort of dry, with a crisp crust, needed the moisture. The rice was succulent, studded with little dots of carrots, peas, and corn.

Confusing me again, the two guisados I tried were not stews, though that’s the translation on the menu. Chicken guisado is marinated before it’s roasted but the two big pieces of moist dark meat are presented just with lots of rice, a little salad, and puréed beans (red and pinto mixed).

The beef guisado is somewhat more stew li e but less interesting in avor. Seafood guisados and caldos are also possible.

I found the chicken tamal too bland, with the masa undercoo ed it’s differ ent from either the small dry cylinders that pass for tamales in Mexicantown or the huge, luscious Guatemalan ones you can get at El Chapin on Junction, with moist masa and plenty of filling.

For dessert are fried plátanos, served traditionally with a pool of warm pu réed beans and another pool of cooler, tangy crema. Be sure to get all three in each bite.

Pupuseria y Restaurante Salvadoreño

3149 Livernois Ave., Detroit

pupuseriayrestaurantesalvadoreno.negocio.site Pupusas $3.25-$4.25, dinners $12.95-$22.95

The licuados (milkshakes) could also be dessert: strawberry, banana, or papaya, topped with lots of cinnamon.

Other beverages are hot chocolate, jamaica, or tamarindo, or natural juices of passion fruit, pineapple, melon, nance (a yellow berry), coco nut, or lime. Pops are Mexican Jarritos, Salvadoran Cola Champan, or Hondu ran Banana Tropical. There’s no liquor license.

Décor is basic, with some large hangings showing Salvadoran village scenes (man with machete, woman carrying chicks on a head-tray). A large TV is tuned to telenovelas. A patio was added during the pandemic.

panish is definitely the main language in use here, but the menu includes translations. No prices, though, as if this were the lady’s menu in a fancy restaurant a century ago. If you have any trouble communicating, which I don’t predict, server Sandra will fetch someone. She and her sister Milagro work with their brother Miguel Hernandez, the owner.

Southwest Detroit’s long-standing Pupuseria is beloved for its thick, handmade, lightly browned corn tortillas.

VIOLA KLOCKO

Underground cocktail bar opens in Detroit

DETROIT’S MILWAUKEE JUNC TION neighborhood is getting an underground cocktail bar.

The Upright, located beneath Oak Reel, a seafood-focused Italian restau rant, opened last Friday at 2921 East Grand Blvd.

It’s the latest concept by Jared and Abby Gadbaw, the owners of Oak Reel.

The Upright will serve craft cocktails and small plates in an intimate, cozy setting.

The cocktail menu, created by bar manager Jacob Feitler, pays homage to classic drinks from decades ago and also offers hand crafted originals.

There’s the Beach Derby featuring Elijah Craig bourbon, cinnamon orgeat,

honey, grapefruit juice, Cappelletti aperitivo and lemon juice.

For a bold but balanced sipper, try The Sonny, a mix of cacao nib-infused Mount Gay rum, Cynar, pineapple juice, lemon juice, and demerara.

Want to pair your drink with some tasty bites? The Upright’s menu in cludes Italian snacks and small plates like Bolognese Arancini and Cacio e Pepe Pasta Fritti, crispy pasta bites with parmesan and pepper.

The Upright opens at 7 p.m. Friday and will serve guests every Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to midnight.

Reservations are available for parties of six or more by calling 313-270-9600.

—Steve Neavling

Lincoln Tap will let you pour your own beer in Royal Oak

COME OCTOBER, GET ready to pour yourself a round in Royal Oak.

Lincoln Tap, a new venture by Eastern Market Brewing Co., will be the first of its ind in Michigan, following legislation allowing selfserve booze at bars and restaurants in July.

An exact opening date for Lincoln Tap hasn’t been announced, but a press release says a grand opening is slated for October.

incoln Tap will offer a rotating mix of beers, wine, and cold brew coffee, and serve as an “interactive showroom” for Eastern Market Brewing Co. and sister businesses Ferndale Project and Dooped Donuts.

It works via a 30-tap system with technology from self-serve tap

manufacturer iPourIt. Patrons will use touchscreens and RFID-enabled wristbands to activate the taps and track the ounces being poured.

“This has been in the wor s for some time and we’re excited to be able to partner with business owners and entrepreneurs to bring the selfpour experience to Michigan,” VP of sales at iPourIt Darren Nicholson said in the release. “The new legisla tion requires that patrons have their R I to en affixed to their bodies while using the tap wall so our sys tem’s built-in wristband solution is perfect for this market.”

Lincoln Tap is located at 330 E Lincoln Ave., Royal Oak; lincolntap. com.

—Randiah Camille Green

Rocky’s in Detroit’s Eastern Market to reopen after closing due to ooding

THE CANDY AND nut superstore

Rocky’s in the Historic Eastern Market in Detroit quietly closed over the sum mer, but could soon reopen.

First opened in 1969, Rocky’s was forced to close in recent weeks after a broken sump pump caused 3-anda half feet of ooding in the store’s hydronic elevator, Patricia Russo, whose family owns Rocky’s, tells Metro Times

Russo says she hopes the store at 2489 Russell St. will open in early October.

“That’s what I’m shooting for any ways, Russo says in an email. “Roc y’s will be open!”

In addition to candy and nuts, Rocky’s sells spices, oils, dried fruit,

specialty cooking items, and made-inMichigan products such as McClure’s Pickles.

In a Google post on Aug. 29, Rocky’s referenced a tiff with the astern Market.

“It has been a struggle ever since the Eastern Market chose to exclude Rocky’s from Flower Day 2022, without notice, the post read. “ lower ay is a profitable day, which we prepare for. Covid also hit us. We are having the store cleaned and sanitized top to bottom, getting new stock and are looking to open late September to beginning of October.”

Russo did not respond to follow-up questions.

—Steve Neavling

STEVE NEAVLING

COURTESY

PHOTO

WEED

A new leaf

Ypsi’s CannaJam Fest performer Laith

Al-Saadi: ‘It’s time we stopped putting people in cages for using a plant’

By Jim McFarlin

For Laith Al-Saadi this is the best of times, it is the worst of times. One of southeast Michigan’s bestknown and hardest-working musicians, the Ann Arbor native will combine his annual pre-COVID birthday bash with a performance at 5:15 p.m. Saturday during the second CannaJam Festival at Riverside Park near Ypsilanti.

“This is the first event I’m playing where a public park has a permit for cannabis consumption on site while I’m performing, so I’m excited about that,” says Al-Saadi, long a vocal advocate for legalization. “I mean, I’m the guy who plays the ational Anthem to ic off every Hash Bash. It’s time we stopped putting people in cages for using a plant.”

Sounds like it could be one of his best times. But what kind of audience response does he expect? “It’s not going to be any different than normal, he predicts, sounding mildly offended. “Honestly, cannabis makes music more enjoyable, so I think people are going to be just like they would be at any gig. Depending upon who you go to see, everybody’s smoking anyway and have been for years.”

It’s been six years since Al-Saadi, who majored in jazz guitar and bass at the University of Michigan, wowed viewers around the world with his blues-drenched musical gifts by making it to the eason finale of ’s competition series The Voice. As you might imagine, that kind of exposure led to some of the best times for his career.

“I was a finalist on a show that had over 16 million viewers watching it live every week, not including people from other countries and those who just watched the highlights online,” he recalls. “I was finally hitting a stride where I was able to work at a profes sional level that was not only national, but pretty high.”

Al-Saadi, who played more than 300 gigs a year for 20 years and was once singer for the Detroit Lions pep band, couldn’t help reveling in his Voice rec ognition. “People were paying for

tickets to see me, and I could curate a show the way I wanted to as an artist,” he says. “I was no longer playing where drunk people were yelling over me. If I played a cover (song), it’s because I wanted to do so artistically. I could play all original songs and it was well received because they were there to see my music. As an artist, that is a level to graduate to that you don’t want to give up.”

Unless it gets ripped away from you. Like in 2020, after our former president, Mar-a-Lardo, assured us that a minor viral strain from overseas would disappear by spring, li e the u. Three years and over 1 million U.S. deaths later, many segments of American life are still in shambles today — maybe none more obvious than the live music scene in clubs and concert halls across the country.

Cue that “worst of times” part.

“You know, these last three years have probably been the worst of my life, Al aadi re ects. “The world shut down. COVID so decimated the industry that it’s hard to keep going when people aren’t showing up.”

ecause he ma es his living off playing music, Al-Saadi was forced to be on unemployment. “I’ve known nothing else but performing since I was 16 years old,” he says. “And streaming has ruined physical sales so much that we can’t ma e revenue offof being studio musicians, either. As they say in the music industry now, you no longer tour to support your album; you make the album to support your tour. And when you’re locked in your basement, no one’s going to buy a ticket to see you play.”

Al-Saadi’s last album, Real, hit No. 1 on the iTunes blues chart and stayed there for five wee s. is next album, the ironically titled Don’t You Give Up On Me, featuring such studio legends as drummer Jim Keltner (“my hero,” AlSaadi enthuses), New Orleans bassist Kenny Gradney, and the late keyboardist Mike Finnigan (Big Brother the Holding Company), has been under wraps for years. “I’ve invested more

than $40,000 of my own money, and I can’t release it and not tour behind it to make some money,” he explains.

As his semi-milestone birthday, the 45th, approaches, Al-Saadi is philo sophical. “Life has already passed us by too much,” he muses. “I’m not willing to give up more of it to fear, because you never know how long you have. That’s what turning 45 really makes me lament, that there was so much more I would have liked to accomplish the past few years.”

He adds, “Again, I can’t encourage people enough to go out and support live music. Just remember that except for the really big acts, artists have not bounced bac who ma e a living offof touring. That’s why I’m really excited for live music to return.”

In addition to the CannaJam ap pearance, Al-Saadi has a date with his “Large Band,” featuring the Motor City Horns and fabled Nashville blues instrumentalist Al Hill, at 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 22 at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts. His website, laithalsaadi.com, has more information.

Oh, and in case you’re considering sending a card or a social media wish, Al-Saadi’s 45th birthday is actually Wednesday, Oct. 5. “But for the CannaJam,” he smiles, “it’s close enough.”

Besides Al-Saadi’s soulful per formance, CannaJam 2 will feature appearances by the cover bands Echoes of Pink Floyd (complete with laser light show) and Thumbs Up (think Velvet Underground on ukulele), hip-hop bass legend T. Money Green and Roadwork, Detroit-born country artist Austin Scott, and DJ Joey Pistols. Cannabis, food, beverages, and merchandise will be available for purchase.

CannaJam Fest runs from noon-10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 8 at Riverside Park; 2 E. Cross St., Ypsilanti; cannajamfest. com. Tickets start at $35; 21 and over only.

Laith Al-Saadi performs at Ypsilanti’s CannaJam Festival on Saturday. DOUG COOMBE

CULTURE

Try not to get offended

Detroit artist paints Jesus Christ and angels in blackface, but there’s more to question underneath the surface

By Randiah Camille Green

Sometimes it seems as if racial tension fueled by stereotypes is by design. The very words “black” and “white” are polar opposites contrasting darkness and evil with angelic purity.

Detroit artist Tony Rave has had enough of it.

In his first solo gallery exhibition Michael Jesus Crisis, Rave paints the white facades of ceramic angels and depictions of Jesus Christ in blackface. Rather than the racist mockery of Af rican Americans blackface has evoked throughout history, Rave’s work aims to reframe these images as beautiful.

With that, he challenges visitors to Ferndale’s M Contemporary Art gallery, where his work is displayed, to ques tion the association of whiteness with righteousness.

A piece called “The Birth of Gucci” shows a pair of (white) angels hold ing another angel on a pedestal as two ambo es ue figurines eating water melon surround it. Atop their heads, the blac faced figures wear the ucci insignia fashioned as halos.

Rave tells us the blac figurines are actually salt and pepper shakers he found in a Detroit vintage shop (kinky hair, watermelon, and all) that he wanted to put to better use.

“I felt bad for them like they were actually human,” he says. “Whoever created them, actually made some thing beautiful. I think they’re really beautiful, but I know the intention was wrong. So what I’m trying to do is put them on here to create a better story and to have them live on in a better way.”

There’s a lot going on here. On one hand, the piece stands in hostile defiance against the notion of white ness alone holding more value — the wings of the angels have been broken and placed on the backs of the black faced figures instead. n the other, it critiques facets of Black culture that praise materialism.

“Think about how people worship material items,” he says. “The Gucci symbols are the lust, and that’s point ing the finger at lac fol s. pecifical

ly, the niche of Black people that spend outside of our means.”

I can’t help but wonder if the piece was in uenced by the ucci store that recently opened in downtown Detroit.

“It’s just it is what it is, you know,” Rave says about the store. “I think we all have certain things that we desire, and they may not always make sense but we desire them. I don’t agree with a lot of what’s going on. I don’t agree with preachers driving really expensive cars and living such lavish lifestyles either. I grew up in churches like that.”

Rave’s disdain for Christianity echoes through the exhibit as he defaces the religion’s iconography. He tells us he grew up in a “stereotypical Black church.”

“We go to church, my mom’s crying in church, [with her] hands up and the whole church is rocking,” he recalls. “We packed in there. It’s hot. We can’t leave until three o clock. I hated it. I just made up my mind (at 11 years old) like, I’m not doing this. At the same time, I’m still religious. I believe in

God. I knew God was real, but I knew it wasn’t this God.”

Rave recently converted to Islam, a religion that he says “doesn’t put an image on God.”

ther pieces in the exhibit address the toxicity of fast food and the mar et ing tactics that make it addicting.

Rave says about a K buc et filled with bro en wings, crucified esus, and a blackfaced angel with Swarovski crystals as eyes, “if you look deeply into it, I’m layering this white image that was created for white people — this innocent white angel on top of this not-so-innocent blackface that they also created. It’s showing the truth on top of the truth with the disguise of this glittery thing.”

He continues, “[companies] make [fast food] look aesthetically pleasing. It smells good, it draws you in, you get this deal. These are images that collect in our lower-income and urban communities. When we speak of our ghettos and our hoods we’re not talking about it like it’s the entire Black community, but I’m talking about directly where I’m from — the Eastside of Detroit where you got Little Caesars, KFC, the corner store, and that’s it. It’s no good food around you. The government keeps us spending on these material things and poisoning our bodies so that we’re dependent.”

Elsewhere an angel is desperately try ing to escape the shoelaces of a Jordan (the shoe) which have him trapped like a Japanese rope bondage scene.

Some of Rave’s work is just plain silly by his own admission. One piece, for instance, is a jar of mayonnaise with the label replaced by a photo of Jesus that’s encased in a block of resin.

It’s easy to misunderstand or even be offended by the body of wor , which Rave acknowledges.

“That’s the thing. When people look at this, I’m not going to always be here,” he explains. “ epending on the person that they are, they can take [it how] they want… Some people may think it’s racist. That’s what they have to deal with if they don’t want to look deeper. This is something I know that is very complicated and controversial but it’s not my intention to be negative. It’s to fight bac against this subconscious war — this psychological warfare.”

Looking underneath the surface to uestion how certain imagery affects our understanding of black and white can be taxing, but Rave forces viewers to do it — no matter how uncomfortable it may make them.

Tony Rave’s “Michael Jesus Crisis” is up until Oct. 8 at M Contemporary Art, 205 East Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; mcontemporaryart.com.

Detroit artist Tony Rave.

CJ BENNINGER/ COURTESY PHOTO

CULTURE

Lust for Life

A lm that paints Van Gogh — convincingly — as a realist

By George Elkind

Screening in conjunction with the DIA’s Van Gogh in America exhibition, the 1956 biopic Lust for Life chronicles the artist’s entry and sub sequent immersion into painting, and his notorious careening between solace and agony in the process. As directed by Vincente Minnelli, best known for bright technicolor musicals like Brigadoon and An American in Paris, Lust for Life moves from intense shadow to bright fields of color and light and back again, with a studiously controlled palette allowing Kirk Douglas’s jittery central performance to come to the fore. Depicting the Dutch painter less as a manic outsider artist but than as an emotionally sensitive social realist, its perspective on the man feels rare and welcome even now.

“Did you ever see a single man or woman at work?” Douglas’s Van Gogh asks early on of the paintings he sees around him, decrying the art world’s lack of attention to more terrestrial, wor ing class concerns. After finding inspiration in documenting working people after his failed efforts at minis tering to coal miners early in his career, Van Gogh labors in precarity but with conviction, and against the grain of his peers. Framing the artist as pursuing

a kind of subjectivized sensuality that grasps at fidelity to his and his sub ects’ feelings, Minnelli depicts Van Gogh not as distorting reality but instead as honoring it through a kind of intimate proximity.

Douglas renders Van Gogh on some essential level as himself — and thus as a bit of a pistol, firm in his convic tions, and endearingly defiant as ever. (His manner, it must be said, forecasts the position of plenty of other biopic film leads portraying brilliant figures underappreciated in their time). But Douglas also, especially when silent, allows his feelings to percolate in a way that largely stays internal, becoming visible anyway even when shot through the wide framings Minnelli tends to favor here and more generally. Scarce (for being carefully deployed) are the kinds of sensationalizing, dramatically shadowy closeups one might expect of Van Gogh all but tweaking, running hands over his hair or face to suggest ailing mental health. Instead, Minnelli’s film lives largely in a more open, carefully studied space resembling the artist’s plein air paintings, cultivating alignment with the artist via a shared perspective instead of imposing more forced varieties of intimacy. Photo-

graphing holdings of Van Gogh’s work from a staggering array of museums around the globe (including the DIA), Minnelli allows them to pepper the film’s structure as part of this, too and without furnishing them with coy origin stories.

The film’s form largely follows the artist’s halting career progress, tracing the increasingly orid and eventu ally distressing) path of the scenes he’s taking in and putting to canvas. The progression proves both natural and engaging, promising a sequence of fine things call it a string of pearls — with an emotional thread running through them. But there’s a tension running through it, too: one that Douglas, in bright yet ominous bursts of enthusiasm, provides despite the internalized bent of the performance. Through it, even as Lust centers on the arguably mundane — conversations around art and its presentation, both modest and splashy exhibitions, and many scenes of painting in meadows the film retains a carefully deployed sort of charge.

This sensation is amplified through Van Gogh’s intermittent collisions with peers. Lecturing his dear, far more peaceable friend Paul Gauguin

Anthony uinn over their differences in priorities and taste, temperamen tal ares emerge. Knowing that we as self-selecting viewers know the grim places the film must go, Minnelli has the sense to not play up the events of its story — really, of Van Gogh’s life story — with the kind of emphasis on suspense a lesser director might. Instead, his touch is often musing and meditative, re ecting upon indoor and outdoor painting in a manner that plainly mirrors filmic concerns around studio versus location-based shooting. When Van Gogh accuses Gauguin of painting “too at, he means it both visually and emotionally, arguing that Gauguin is failing to capture some es sential dimension of both the look and feeling of the world. In pitching Van ogh’s fixation on close intimacy with what he sees as compulsive, invigorat ing, and overwhelming, Minnelli’s work admits some modest self re ection on his craft. So, too, does he do this in retaining Gauguin’s subsequent sugges tion: that Van Gogh’s technique is ulti mately alienated from his subjects and ultimately secondhand, inadequate to capturing the experience of real life (as lived, say, by laborers). In welcoming these con icting viewpoints, Minnelli nods to the fact that in terms of artistic production — and what ultimately ma es a wor sing differing meth ods and the personalities that produce them must necessarily sit alongside one another without easy explanation.

Often, Lust for Life — like most films, really embodies the criticisms these two artists level at one another. In places, it can feel touristic, sweep ing through pastoral rural European settings and a kind of context-rich museum tour, too — both in a space of just two hours. Likewise, it can feel — as Minnelli’s POV-light, wide-angle shooting style suggests — some degree of distance from its protagonist, not presuming to inhabit or exactly evoke the workings of Van Gogh’s mind. But in so many cases, assuming that kind of intimacy on the part of a filmma er can be a type of obscene presumption, one typical of biopics — and so here it feels more than right to leave that work to Douglas. And it’s precisely that kind of measure and reserve that makes Minnelli a realist artist himself — albeit a realist of a different ind.

Lust for Life screens at p.m. on Saturday, Oct. at the Detroit Film Theatre; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-8337900; dia.org. Tickets are $9.50.

Kirk Douglas on-set in Lust for Life.

GLASSHOUSE IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

CULTURE

Savage Love

Done wrong

By Dan Savage

There is more to this week’s Savage Love. To read the entire column, go to Savage.Love.

:Q I’m a gay Black man in my early 30s. When was a teen, was called fat and ugly by family and friends. should also point out that was in an all-white community with white parents. When was coming to terms with my sexuality as a teenager, began working out. built a lot of muscle and have kept it on for the past 17 years, and working out really helps with my anxiety issues. get a lot of attention from guys, and I’m frequently told how good looking am. used to revel in this because thought was ugly. But what thought would bring me happiness really hasn’t. I’ve wanted to have a monogamous romantic relationship with someone where we both love and respect each other. It hasn’t happened. I’ve gone out on dates with guys who shoved their hands down my pants in public. One time when a guy asked for my number in Target, he began to fondle my nipple when was putting it in his phone. I’ve been sexually harassed at work and pressured to have sex after saying no.

I’ve looked to some older, wiser friends and mentors for support about some of these experiences, but am often told that should “enjoy the attention while I’m young” or that should expect this behavior because of how my body looks and how dress. Some of my friends have told me not to take things so personally and that some guys just see me as their gay Black fantasy come to life. Is this really what have to look forward to in my romantic journey? Parts of me wonder if some of my challenges are about my blackness. know this is not always the case, and honestly there’s a feeling of shame to even bring this up as if I’m using my race as an excuse for my problems. But my experiences ha e been so d fferent from m wh te friends and mentors that I’m unsure. I’m seeing a therapist who is a person of color who has been helping me with my blackness and sexuality. But my big question for you is this: Am doing

A:

something wrong? Or am navigating the same challenges other queer people of color face?

—All Around Confused

Your therapist is both better qualified and in a better position to help you parse the challenges imposed on you as a ueer person of color, the challenges imposed on you by your experiences growing up, and the challenges you may be imposing on yourself. ut I will say this there’s nothing shameful about wondering whether your blac ness along with other people’s racism, your own internali ed antiblac ness, and other forces beyond your control may be interfering with your happiness.

ut I will say this, AA ou de served better from your family and friends growing up you deserve better from your friends, mentors, romantic partners, sex partners, and strangers at Target now. ou should be able to wear what you want without guys touch ing you without your consent. o one should be pressuring you to have sex you didn’t explicitly say yes to and or have already explicitly said no to. And if being someone else’s “gay lac fan tasy come to life was something you en oyed doing if stepping in and out of that role was something you wanted to do for yourself that would be one thing. ut you shouldn’t be consigned to that role by strangers, AA , and it troubles me that your friends thin you should have to tolerate it, much less embrace it.

As for whether you’re doing some thing wrong

There are guys out there who’ve done everything right and still haven’t man aged to find into their mid s a relationship they want. Remember, AA , it’s not as simple as finding a guy who wants the same relationship model you do, i.e., the loving and monoga mous model over the loving and non monogamous model. ou have to find someone who wants what you want and that you’re sexually compatible with. It should go without saying that sexual compatibility is hugely important in sexually exclusive relationships, but I’m saying it because people enter into sexually exclusive relationships with people they don’t clic with sexually all the fucking time. eriously, some wee s it’s half the mail. ut sexual compatibility by itself isn’t enough. ou also have to find someone whose career, life, and family goals align with your own. And at some point, AA , you will have to compromise. ou may find

a guy who wants monogamy but also other things ids? poodles? tit rings? that you do not. r you may find a guy you clic with sexually, emotion ally, and socially but who doesn’t want monogamy or won’t want it forever. ou may not want it forever. To ma e a relationship wor over the short term, you will have to negotiate and ma e compromises to ma e one wor over the long term, you will have to renego tiate and revisit those compromises.

Two final things

irst, I’d li e to invite gay or ueer lac readers to ump into the com ments thread and share your experi ences and insights with AA . And if you’ve never seen the film Tongues Untied, AA , you might want to sit down to watch it. Marlon T. Rigg’s documentary about what it means to be lac and gay in our culture is ust as relevant now as it was years ago. veryone should watch it.

:Q Would you mind reminding your gay male readers that it’s rude to take pictures of strangers in public? (I guess men do this to masturbate to them later?) I’m a straight man who has lived in Seattle for four years and what gay men do to random male pedestrians here ranges from nuisance to battery. It’s usually innocuous: I’m walking down the sidewalk, a gay man and his friends see me, whisper together, start giggling, then one of them pretends to take a photo of their group when they’re really taking a photo of me. This happens every half mile. Other times, gay men straight up just take my picture. Sometimes one will step directly in front of me, hoping to bump into me for a “meet cute.” Yesterday, was walking, and see three 50-year-old men huddling together, and when looked up all three were taking my picture. ignored it, but hate it. kept walking but three other gay men were up ahead, and they stepped directly in front of me to block my way. One of them intentionally took a big step to the side, and when was still passing, elbowed me “accidentally,” then turned to me laughing and said, “Oh, sorry!”

I’m sure most gay men would claim to never engage in such behavior. But when they get in groups, they allow their friends to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. It’s cowardly and it needs to stop.

—Sneakily Taking Other Peoples Pics Is Completely Shitty

ay men in eattle Go to Savage.Love to read the rest.

As uestions savagelove.net. isten to an on the avage ovecast. ollow an on Twitter a e an avage.

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

When you Aries folks are at your best, you are drawn to people who tell you exactly what they think, who aren’t intimidated by your high energy, and who dare to be as vigorous as you. I hope you have an array of allies like that in your sphere right now. In my astrological opinion, you especially need their kind of stimulation. It’s an excellent time to invite in uences that will nudge you out of your status quo and help you glide into a new groove. Are you willing to be challenged and changed?

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

Author Toni Morrison thought that beauty was “an absolute necessity” and not “a privilege or an indulgence.” he said that “finding, incorporating, and then representing beauty is what humans do.” In her view, we can’t live without beauty “any more than we can do without dreams or oxygen.” All she said is even truer for Tauruses and Libras than the other signs. And you Bulls have an extra wrinkle: It’s optimal if at least some of the beauty in your life is useful. Your mandate is summed up well by author Anne Michaels: “Find

a way to ma e beauty necessary find a way to make necessity beautiful.” I hope you’ll do a lot of that in the com ing weeks.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

Philosopher Alfred North White head said, “It requires a very unusual mind to make an analysis of the obvi ous.” I nominate you to perform that service in the coming days, both for yourself and your allies. No one will be better able than you to discern the com plexities of seemingly simple situations. You will also have extraordinary power to help people appreciate and even embrace paradox. So be a crafty master of candor and transparency, Gemini. emonstrate the benefits of being loyal to the objective evidence rather than to the easy and popular delusions. Tell the interesting truths.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

Cancerian poet Lucille Clifton sent us all an invitation: “Won’t you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand hold ing tight my other hand.” During October, fellow Cancerian, I propose you draw inspiration from her heroic efforts to create herself. The coming weeks will be a time when you can achieve small miracles as you bolster your roots, nourish your soulful confidence, and ripen your uniqueness.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

Well my fickle friends of weather you have less than 30 days to enjoy what can only be enjoyed for a very brief time. You’re damn right I got the windows open. Last call for Oktoberfest

“Dear Rob the Astrologer: This morning I put extra mousse on my hair and blow-dried the hell out of it, so now it is huge and curly and impossibly irresistible. I’m wearing bright orange shoes so everyone will stare at my feet, and a blue silk blouse that is much too high-fashion to wear to work. It has princess seams and matches my eyes. I look fantastic. How could anyone of any gender resist drinking in my magnificence? I reali e you’re a spiritual type and may not approve of my show manship, but I wanted you to know that what I’m doing is a totally valid way to be a Leo. —Your Leo teacher Brooke.” Dear Brooke: Thank you for your helpful instruction! It’s true that I periodically need to loosen my tight grip on my high principles. I must be more open to appreciating life’s raw feed. I hope you will perform a similar service for everyone you encounter in the coming weeks.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

How to be the best Virgo you can be during the coming weeks: 1. You must relish, not apologi e for, your precise obsessions. 2. Be as nosy as you

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

JAMES NOELLERT

need to be to discover the core truths hidden beneath the surface. Risk asking almost too many questions in your subtle drive to know everything. 3. Help loved ones and allies shrink and heal their insecurities. 4. Generate beauty and truth through your skill at knowing what needs to be purged and shed. 5. Always have your Bullshit Detector with you. Use it liberally. 6. Keep in close touch with the conversations between your mind and body.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

The ibran approach to fight ing for what’s right shouldn’t involve getting into loud arguments or trying to manipulate people into seeing things your way. If you’re doing what you were born to do, you rely on gentler styles of persuasion. Are you doing what you were born to do? Have you become skilled at using clear, elegant language to say what you mean? Do you work in behalf of the best outcome rather than merely serving your ego? Do you try to understand why others feel the way they do, even if you disagree with their conclusions? I hope you call on these superpowers in the coming weeks. We all need you to be at the height of your potency.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

“One bad apple spoils the rest” is an idiom in the English language. It refers to the idea that if one apple rots as it rests in a pile of apples, the rest will quickly rot, too. It’s based on a scien tific fact. As an apple decays, it ema nates the gas ethylene, which speeds up decay in nearby apples. A variant of this idiom has recently evolved in relation to police misconduct, however. When law enforcement officials respond to such allegations, they say that a few “bad apples” in the police force aren’t representative of all the other cops. So I’m wondering which side of the metaphor is at work for you right now, Scorpio. Should you immediately expunge the bad apple in your life? Or should you critique and tolerate it? Should you worry about the possibility of contamination, or can you success fully enforce damage control? Only you know the correct answer.

f all the signs in the odiac, you Sagittarians know best how to have fun even when life sucks. Your daily rhythm may temporarily become a tangle of boring or annoying tasks, yet you can still summon a knack for enjoying yourself. But let me ask you this: How are your instincts for drumming up amusement when life doesn’t suck? Are you as talented at whipping up glee and inspiration when the daily rhythm is smooth and groovy? I suspect we will gather evidence to answer those ques tions in the coming weeks. Here’s my prediction: The good times will spur you to new heights of creating even more good times.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

More than you might reali e, people look to you for leadership and regard you as a role model. This will be extra true in the coming weeks. Your statements and actions will have an even bigger impact than usual. Your inuence will ripple out far beyond your sphere. In light of these developments, which may sometimes be subtle, I encourage you to upgrade your sense of responsibility. Make sure your integrity is impeccable. Another piece of advice, too: Be an inspiring example to people without making them feel like they owe you anything.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 Feb. 18

Rapper-songwriter Nicki Minaj says, “You should never feel afraid to become a piece of art. It’s exhilarating.” I will go further, Aquarius. I invite you to summon ingenuity and oy in your efforts to be a work of art. The coming weeks will be an ideal time for you to tease out more of your inner beauty so that more people can benefit from it. I hope you will be dramatic and expressive about showing the world the full array of your interesting qualities. P.S.: Please call on the entertainment value of surprise and unpredictability.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

Author Robertson Davies declared, “One learns one’s mystery at the price of one’s innocence.” It sounds poetic, but it doesn’t apply to most of you Pisceans — especially now. Here’s what I’ve conclud ed: The more you learn your mystery, the more innocent you become. Please note I’m using the word “innocence” in the sense defined by author larissa in ola Estés. She wrote: “Ignorance is not know ing anything and being attracted to the good. Innocence is knowing everything and still being attracted to the good.”

This week’s homework: Reward yourself with a gift for an accomplishment few people know about.

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