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Vol. 36 | Issue 10 | December 16, 2015

Group Publisher - Chris Keating Publisher - John Badanjek Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor - Vince Grzegorek

Upfront

Metro times

Editorial

Framed.......................................... 12 Retail Detail: Traveling Pants Co..14

Politics & Prejudices ................... 22

Feature: Behind the scenes of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s over-the-top tour.............................32

Bites.............................................. 48

Kash Doll....................................... 56

On Sale Now.................................. 64

Horoscopes with Cal Garrison................................. 90

National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-888-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com Detroit Metro Times 1200 Woodward Heights Ferndale, MI 48220-1427 www.metrotimes.com Editorial - (313) 202-8022 Advertising - (313) 961-4060 Fax - (313) 964-4849 The Detroit Metro Times is published every week by Euclid Media Group

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Savage Love................................. 80

Chief Executive Officer – Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers – Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Chief Financial Officer – Brian Painley Human Resources Director – Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator – Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com

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Hot Rod Detroit ........................... 70

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On the cover: Photo by Dorian Wilson, designed by Kristin Borden.

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Arts & Culture............................. 70

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Livewire........................................ 68

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Stirling reunites Liedernacht...... 60

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Raise the Bar: Inferno................. 54

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Drink............................................ 52

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Review: Vertical Detroit................... 44

Regional Sales Directors - Vinny Fontana, Danielle Smith-Elliott Senior Multimedia Account Executive Paul Biondi, Jeff Nutter Multimedia Account Executives Drew Franklin, Eric Holka, Cierra Wood Classified Multimedia Account Executive Bill Rigley Advertising Assistant - Pashka Micakaj

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Eat................................................ 44

Advertising

What’s Going On

What’s Going On........................ 32

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Stir it Up ....................................... 26

Big Story

News Hits..................................... 18

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News & Views............................. 18

News

Feedback........................................ 8

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Up Front........................................ 8

Managing Editor - Michael Jackman Associate Editor - Alysa Offman Music Editor - Mike McGonigal Dining Editor - Serena Maria Daniels Investigative Reporter - Allie Gross Web Editor - Alaina Nutile Contributing Editors - Larry Gabriel, Jack Lessenberry Staff Writer - Lee DeVito Copy Editor - Esther Gim Editorial Interns - Taylor Bembery, Laci Bills, Adam Woodhead Photography Interns - Sarah Rahal Contributors- Judy Adams, Brett Callwood, Kahn Santori Davison, Aaron Egan, Cornelius Fortune, Cal Garrison, Curt Guyette, Charles L. Latimer, Noelle Lothamer, Jim McFarlin, Jeff Milo, Marc Nader, Dan Savage, Miss Shela, Jane Slaughter, Doug Coombe, Tanya Moutzalias, Dontae Rockymore, Brian Rozman, Steve Sergent, Sean Bieri, Rob Widdis

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U p Front Whose Detroit?

In our Dec. 2 issue, we ran “How to make peace with the suburbs,” an excerpt from writer Aaron Foley’s new book, How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass.

It inspired others to comment with their own experiences: While I agree with some of the author’s thoughts (I have not read his book — only what was published in the Metro Times column), much of what I read was … just crap.

I’m a Jewish male, 40 years old, whose family (but for my generation) were all born, raised, educated in, and helped build the Detroit that the author talks about.

My family left after the riots — as the author spelled out in the feature. Their businesses were burned and their families no longer felt safe raising their families in the city.

The things that I remember about Detroit — from my parents’ eyes and echoes, grandparents alike, all long deceased — might help to illuminate a different perspective in regards to the author’s narrative.

1980: 5 years old and I’m already playing trumpet. My dad, a Detroit and Oak Park cop, drives me to the parking lot of Baker’s Keyboard Lounge on Livernois and Eight Mile Road. I can still hear his voice in my mind’s eye: “Kid — keep at it and play here one day ... Then you’ll know you’ve made it.”

1982: In Lafayette Coney Island. “If you ever eat next door I’ll never forgive you.”

1984: Tigers win the World Series and my father is the happiest man in the world — and via that so was I. Remember the peanut guy throwing us a bag — then one on the house for being regulars at the game.

1987: My dad drove me past a factory and told me that my grandfather used to own it, and that he was the manager. “Kid, your life — and mine — would be a lot different if they didn’t burn it down.” (We grew up in poverty.)

1990: I start sneaking into jazz clubs and finding musical mentors in the nightclubs of Detroit.

1991: Start valet job at Roma Cafe, which I kept for over five years — still like family to me.

1992: Marcus Belgrave and Donald Walden take me in as a student in their jazz program at CCS. 1993: My dad dies at the age of around 45.

1994: Mom, same.

1995: Move to Detroit for the first of many times on and off.

1998: I walk on the stage of Baker’s

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Keyboard as a headliner for the first time.

My father’s voice is clear in my mind and I had to suck up some real tears that I didn’t want the audience to see as I heard my father’s voice...

1999 or so: Ray Charles’ manager pulls me off stage (playing at the Michigan State Fair) in Detroit and brings me to meet Ray Charles, who tells me that he “always knows when he is in Detroit.”

When I tell him I didn’t understand, his manager whispered in my ear that Mr. Charles had thought his opening band (my group) based on our soundcheck was a black band. When he learned that we were all 20-something white kids he was shocked. He laughed and smiled like only he could. “I always know when I’m in Detroit” is what he said. He then asked for a copy of our CD. I will leave out all of the violence that I experienced while playing professionally in Detroit for many years.

Today: I live in Sylvan Lake, Mich. Not on the lake — yet.

I’m in Detroit every weekend as I take my boy there — just as my dad did for me.

Every time I see the high rises from the freeway I still get that feeling — electric and so special.

The same that my dad instilled in me.

He was proud of Detroit. He showed me everything that he could. He taught me how to act best he could while I was in the city — in case I ran into trouble.

(Which could happen anywhere, especially in any major city in the world.)

I am proud to call myself from Detroit. I consider myself from Detroit even though my family raised me in Oak Park. I am a Detroiter.

My father (bless his soul) would roll in his grave if I said or thought anything else.

As he should.

He put “Detroit” in me. Not through his words, but through his actions. As is what true Detroiters do. I am a Detroiter.

I don’t know, maybe the kind that the author speaks of in Metro Times? And there are a lot more like me ...

Who are moving back to the city that their fathers and forefathers grew up in and helped to build. To build the Detroit that they know, that the author quoted here knows: Give them a fucking break.

That would show that you are more “Detroit” than the almost 300 pages illuminated in part here.

Cary Heller Sylvan Lake (via Detroit)

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Before

After

The Truth about False Eyelash Extensions False eyelashes are a common thing in the beauty world and many women enjoy the benefits of having a constant mascara look at all times. Falsies make the wearer look youthful and refreshed whether they’re out on the town or just waking in the morning. But, not all false eyelashes are created equal. Of strip, cluster or bud, and individual eyelash extensions, the last is by far the best.

Individual eyelash extensions are a single silk lash adhered to a single individual lash. Medical grade adhesive is used to seamlessly bond the two lashes together. These lashes are not adhered to the skin or another natural lash. These lashes can be worn until you shed your natural lash when the extension will shed with it.

Lashes have follicles and must be able the breathe, they also have three stages in their cycle. Some of your lashes are new growth, some are mature, and some are ready to shed. When a mature lash is attached to a tiny new lash, it is often pulled from its follicle when the mature lash grows out. Lashes that are ready to shed must be able to fall out to allow new growth. That is why individual eyelash extensions are the best option.

If you’ve ever heard a false lash horror story, it is most likely from lashes that were put on with hair glue or some other adhesive not made for lashes. Perhaps the lash follicle was smothered by a heavy layer of adhesive for weeks or months or maybe an inexperienced lash tech applied these lashes and literally glued them together. Most people are not aware that an esthetician can take a weekend course and become a lash tech.

There are over 14 different lengths and six different profile curls for extensions, but you must have natural lashes to adhere the silk lashes to. Only lash-approved medical grade adhesive should be used and fill appointments should be made every three to four weeks, when approximately one-third to one-half of your extensions will be left. Extensions are water-friendly and shouldn’t be avoided, but following aftercare instructions is especially important. You’ll use an extension sealer instead of mascara to condition and seal your lashes.

Here’s what you need to know to avoid ruining your natural lashes when using falsies. An expert lash technician should be the only one to apply your lash extensions. The tech will give you the proper brushes and

advice to care for your lashes.

Caring for your lash extensions is simple — sleep on your back or side with a pillow propped to avoid grinding lashes into pillow, wash them daily and use brushes given to you by your tech. Avoid using oils, waterproof mascara, harshly rubbing your eyes, or using a washcloth to remove makeup. Follow the simple instructions provided by the tech and your lashes look beautiful until your next appointment.

At Con C Lash Lounge, the lash techs have almost one year of training before they are fully educated and ready for full price clientele. A lash tech in training will never work on a client without them being informed upon booking the appointment. Our techs don’t cut corners by using inferior products and they never rush appointments or use unhygienic practices. We are experts in individual eyelash extensions. We not only take extensions very seriously, but we absolutely love what we do. We have vast knowledge, experience, and confidence in the entire process.

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December 16-22, 2015

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framed

Brody Jenner @ V Nightclub (D. Rockymore)

Jason Bonham @ The Fillmore (Miss Shela)

Merry Market @ Detroit Mercantile (D. Rockymore)

Brillz @ Elektricity (M. Pfeiffer) n Luna

Brody Jenner @ V Nightclub (S. Spellman)

Santacon @ Downtown Royal Oak (D. Rockymore)

Sabrage (S. Spellman)

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Showcase D’Holidays (D. Rockymore)

Sleater-Kinney @ Royal Oak Music Theatre (M. Ferdinande)

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Steel Panther @ Royal Oak Music Theatre (M. Ferdinande)

Todd Rundgren @ The Fillmore (M. Ferdinande)

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December 16-22, 2015

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U p Front

retaildetail

Street style

Local retailer is always on the go

by Alysa Offman A few years ago food trucks were the thing and a rash of motorized eateries burst onto the scene. While a few still survive today, many seemed to have fizzled out. Now a new mobile business may be on the rise in Detroit.

By day, Deidra Hogue is a corporate financial analyst for an automotive supplier. But during her spare time she runs a mobile boutique. She got the idea after reading an article about Sloane Street Style in the Detroit Free Press. After endeavoring as a local

retro-fit FedEx truck, she is something of a personal stylist. She hand selects each item carried inside the Traveling Pants Co. and is mindful of her customers’ needs while also making sure to support other businesses owned by local women. Of the 200 items stocked on her truck, around 30 percent are from local designers and artists like Trish’s Garage and Sydney James.

Hogue carries on-trend dresses, skirts, and tops in sizes small through 3X, plus handbags and jewelry. While some are sourced from close to home, others come from as far away as Australia.

313-443-2573; travelingpantsco.com Items range from $20 to $100 and Hogue makes sure to keep price points reasonfashion blogger and a personal shopable. per and stylist, the natural progression “It’s a new way to shop and a lot of seemed to be to open a retail truck of her own, and in July the Traveling Pants people either assume that I make everything on the truck or that it’s resale, Co. made its debut. so I want to make sure there’s no sticker “I had started a fashion blog, but it shock,” she says. “I can keep my prices wasn’t serving me and I was bored,” low because I don’t have the overhead says Hogue. “Detroit isn’t the market of an actual store.” for hiring a personal shopper or a stylBut just because her store is mobile ist.” doesn’t mean she doesn’t have all the But for those who board Hogue’s

Traveling Pants Co.

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amenities of a brick and mortar location.

“People are amazed that I have a fitting room,” she says. The 10-foot-by16-foot truck also has a full-size mirror, and Hogue is constantly adding details to make it more inviting. Of course the brightly colored mobile boutique is eye-catching as is.

Hogue parks her truck at Eastern Market during the summer months through the end of the Christmas shopping season, but come January she’ll only be available for private events until the weather warms up again. The truck’s last public appearance of the year will be at the Urban Apothecary on Saturday, Dec. 19. The pop-up shopping event is being held at Exhalation Integrative Wellness at 18930 Greenfield Rd., Detroit.

During the winter months the truck is available for bridal parties, birthdays, and any event that serves a maximum of 10 ladies.

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news hits

Decommissioning Line 5 would not disrupt Midwest oil demand, report says Shutting down a controversial 62-year-old Great Lakes oil pipeline owned by Enbridge, Inc. would not disrupt Midwest energy needs, according to a report released Monday.

Commissioned by Traverse Citybased law and policy center FLOW (For Love of Water), the report was released in advance of the second public meeting of the Pipeline Safety Advisory Board, a state-appointed group tasked with analyzing the safety of Michigan’s pipeline system.

Enbridge, Inc. has maintained that its Line 5 pipeline, originally built in 1953 and located at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, is vital to the energy needs of the Midwest. In last week’s Metro Times feature story about Line 5, Enbridge spokesman Jason Manshum said, “rerouting Line 5 would be massively disruptive in many communities.”

But according to FLOW’s report, the capacity to meet the energy demand of the region exists in a larger pipeline system run by both Enbridge and its competitors, as only 5-10 percent of the crude oil in Line 5 goes to refineries in Detroit and Toledo (90 percent of Line 5’s products go to Canadian refineries). Those products, the report says, could be replaced by oil from pipelines from the south, in addition to crude from Northern Michigan oil fields.

“We are urging the state advisory board to look at the big picture and consider the existing capacity in oil pipelines that go around, not through, the Great Lakes,” says FLOW executive director Liz Kirkwood in a press release. “And while the studies proceed, the law requires that Gov. Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette take action to halt the oil flowing through the Mackinac Straits in order to protect the public trust uses of the Great Lakes, including for navigation, fishing, swimming, and drinking water supplies.”

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Former EAA principal indicted on bribery charges Nearly two months ago (time f lies, nuts) we reported that the FBI was looking into one Kenyetta “K.C.” Wilbourn, a former principal at Detroit’s Mumford High School. Since then, the former head of an Education Achievement Academy school has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy and bribery.

In addition to Wilbourn, the grand jury has indicted Glynis Thornton, who ran an after school tutoring company — Making a Difference Everyday (“M.A.D.E.”) — and Paulette Horton, an independent contractor who worked for M.A.D.E. The five-count indictment charges that between August 2012 and November 2014, Wilbourn, who ran Denby High School before Mumford, conspired to commit bribery and money laundering. The charges say that Wilbourn contracted M.A.D.E to provide after school tutoring services for both Denby and Mumford and then received payments (“kickbacks”) in return.

Horton, the independent contractor, is involved because Thornton would discreetly pay Wilbourn by making deposits to Horton’s company. Horton would then withdraw cash and give it directly to Wilbourn.

The whole debacle is, well, disappointing to say the least. Though not exactly a first. As we pointed out in October, the tale of public funds designated for the education of students lining the pockets of vendors and administrators is sort redundant at this point. In fact, the news of the original investigation into Wilbourn came out literally days after former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty to charges of fraud.

In that case Byrd-Bennett initiated a $20.5 million no-bid contract between CPS and her former employer SUPES Academy with the

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understanding that she would get a kickback in return.

Of course, Byrd-Bennett is not just an example of this sort of insidious behavior happening in another city — she has a close connection to Detroit as the former Chief Academic and Accountability Officer of DPS when the school was under the imposed emergency management of

expected that the university would walk away. “Is Tuesday the start of the end for the EA A?” the Free Press questioned before the anticipated meeting. Well, the answer is no.

On Dec. 8 EMU’s Board of Regents announced that it would not be voting on its relationship with the EA A, thereby keeping the district’s future somewhat intact. Without

How was Wilbourn able to sign off on these questionable deals without anyone taking notice?

Robert Bobb.

The EA A — which is a state-run “turnaround” district created by Gov. Rick Snyder — is trying to play the Wilbourn affair off as a singular incident. A “bad apple,” if you will. The whole problem with this stance is it ignores questions of accountability. How was Wilbourn able to sign off on these questionable deals without anyone taking notice? While the EA A may be arguing the Wilbourn’s transgressions took place in a vacuum and say little about the district at large, it’s important to consider the context.

This is not about individuals; this is about an undemocratic, unaccountable system that has allowed these people to prosper.

EAA continues limping into future The EA A, which was created in 2012 as a “recovery” district for 15 of Detroit’s lowest performing schools, has been the source of much attention as of late and in the past. Largely considered a failure — it’s first chancellor resigned in a cloud of shame, it’s test scores remain stagnate (if not dropping), and it’s been blasted for its use of a pretty green (read untested) learning management system — those in opposition to the EA A were hoping that Eastern Michigan University, who currently is partnered with the state as an authorizer of the district, would withdraw its sponsorship.

Last week, the EMU board was supposed to vote on its relationship with the EA A, and it was largely

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EMU or another partner the EA A would have dissolved; many believe the regents bowed under pressure.

(Talk about EMU dropping out was around last year too, with similar nonresults.)

“The only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that your decision is purely political, dictated from the governor’s office,” Judith Kullberg, vice president of the faculty Senate, said at the board meeting.

The odd thing about EMU’s decision not to vote on the EA A is that still everyone seems to agree the district shouldn’t exist. “I think everyone would like to find a way to gracefully put an end to the EA A,” State Board of Education President John Austin said at a separate meeting this week. The state board, however, had no control over the EA A. In away that’s sort off fitting considering elected boards tend to not have any say over anything Detroit schools related.

While Austin believes the EA A should end, it’s interesting to note that he believes that if the district ends it should be placed under the oversight of the state school reform office like all other failing schools.

Considering the failures of the EA A (a state run district) and DPS under state-appointed emergency management on and off for the past 15 years, it seems odd that individuals continue to believe districts under state management is the best option.

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politics&prejudices

Going to the dogs

by Jack Lessenberry Two weeks ago, on the same day terrorists murdered 24 people in California, Lucillie Strickland was walking her 4-year-old son Xavier to school when they were attacked by four pit bull-type dogs. They dragged him under a fence and ripped him apart in one of the most horrible deaths I can imagine.

The next day in Port Huron, Rebecca Hardy, a 22-year-old young mother, had a fight with her fiancé, went out to take a walk, and was killed in a backyard by a pit bull and another dog.

We have a major problem here. So what do we do?

Detroit Free Press writer Rochelle Riley led with emotion, writing a front-page column calling for Detroit City Council to ban all pit bulls now.

She quoted Charlie Beckham, who has served more mayors in more jobs than I am able to count.

“They are almost like lethal weapons on the loose,” said Beckham, who these days is responsible for animal control.

In fact, they are lethal weapons, which is why many people have them.

Banning them is, indeed, a tempting solution. Except, as H.L. Mencken said nearly a century ago, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

Pit bull-type dogs are uncannily like firearms in another way. Many people either fanatically love them or hate them. However, while the U.S. Supreme Court has unfortunately said the Second Amendment means individuals have a constitutional right to bear arms, that doesn’t include pit bulls.

Yet, anyway. Indeed, nobody knows what might happen if a few more justices were appointed by the wrong president.

As of now, however, the American Bar Association says the case law is pretty clear that communities can ban specific breeds of dog. But here’s the first problem with that: Pit bulls aren’t a breed, in the sense that Collies or Dachshunds are a breed. There are a number of dogs that have the same general characteristics — Staffordshire Bull Terriers; American Bulldogs, etc. Street pit

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bulls usually aren’t purebred anything. They are often crossbreeds, sometimes with mastiffs and other dogs. These days, the term “pit bull” is often used for any large muscular square-headed dog with strong jaws.

How do you find a formula to ban them all? Do we establish an Office of Dog Racial Purity? What about those heartrending cases of nice pit bulls who are family pets?

I’ve known a few of those, including a giant orange and white specimen that is exactly as aggressive as a throw pillow.

Jennifer Rowell, the principled, classy woman who runs the Detroit branch of the Michigan Humane Society, told me that one of the sweetest dog any of her folks have ever seen was Addie, a female pit bull they found nearly starved to death in some creep’s basement. Today, she’s happily living with a suburban family who adores her, as she does them.

Here’s what would happen if Detroit tried to ban pit bulls. Lots of lawsuits, especially involving dogs that are crossbreeds. Crying children whose family pets were ripped from their arms.

Many people would just go underground and hide their dogs. Somehow, it seems to be that without much more manpower, money, and time, the police won’t be too happy about the idea they have to also become the anti-dog Gestapo.

That doesn’t mean, however, that we should do nothing. This is largely an inner-city problem, fed by a macho culture that includes dog fighting and unwillingness to spay or neuter dogs, partly because of owners who

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So here’s a sensible solution: Forget making laws that go after the dogs: Deal with the humans who created this mess. think they can make a quick buck by breeding more pit bulls to sell as guard dogs.

So here’s a sensible solution: Forget making laws that go after the dogs: Deal with the humans who created this mess.

The state should enact laws specifying that the owner of any dog who commits a crime is just as responsible for that crime as if he or she had committed it themselves.

We should be able to charge the asshole who owned the dogs that killed Xavier Strickland with his death, and the law should treat him as if he had killed the child himself.

Detroit should immediately require any dog residing within the city to be spayed or neutered before it can breed, unless the owner pays for and is granted a license by the city, something that would be done only in special cases, such as if a show dog breeder wanted to establish a kennel.

Otherwise, adult dogs which haven’t been neutered should be confiscated and not returned unless the owner pays the city to sterilize the dog. Harsh penalties should be enacted and enforced for irresponsible dog ownership, such as allowing dangerous dogs — or any dogs — to escape and roam.

Doing this would indeed cost some money, but would be well worth it in the long run, if only in terms of the potential long-term social and economic benefits.

If Detroit is ever going to come back as a city, it needs more than hipsters and well-off retirees in riverfront condos.

It needs middle-class families, which often include dogs.

Full disclosure: I have had dogs all my adult life, and never want to live without one. But no city can afford to be a place where 4-year-olds walking with their mommies can be ripped to shreds by vicious dogs in broad daylight.

The Schuette watch On Oct. 7, I reported here that the board of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority had unanimously asked Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to look into the “legality and validity” of the contract with Matty Moroun that had been forced on them by Kwame Kilpatrick.

The deal, which is rotten to the core, gave Moroun essentially total control over the port, in return for a $2.1 million down loan that seems to be structured so the port authority gets to keep paying on it forever.

But when the port asked Schuette for a ruling, I giggled. Or as I wrote back then, “lots of luck with that,” since Moroun, as I observed, has also invested heavily in Schuette.

Matter of fact, Moroun and his family have given Schuette, himself a millionaire courtesy of his mother’s marriages, tens of thousands of dollars that we know about, and may have donated other funds that are harder to trace.

So imagine my surprise (not) when the Port Authority’s executive director reported a few days ago that Bill Schuette’s office wouldn’t look into the deal, or explain why.

“They looked into it but they will probably decline to provide a formal response,” said John Loftus, the port authority’s battered chieftain. “They declined to give a reason.”

Well, gee. Bet I could think of one...

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stiritup

When murder isn’t even newsworthy

by Larry Gabriel The first I knew of the murder that took place a couple of blocks from my house was an email from the Nextdoor Greenacres neighborhood website. A neighbor wrote that she’d been walking her dog and heard gunshots nearby.

A little later she heard ambulance and police sirens. A few minutes later I saw another note from Nextdoor Greenacres. It said that someone had been shot on Piccadilly just north of Bloomfield.

Feeling a little fearful, I sent my friend who lives on Piccadilly just north of Bloomfield an email asking if she was aware of the shooting.

When nothing came back within a few minutes I decided to go by the scene to see what was going on. The police were already there cordoning off the area with that bright yellow crime scene tape stretched all the way across the street. Some people were gathered watching the police. I approached a couple of women and asked what side of the street the shooting had taken place. I was trying to figure out if my friend had been shot.

One of the women turned to me and said, in a rather combative fashion, “That’s my sister’s house and I ain’t saying nothing else.”

I asked again, and she repeated her statement. I then explained that I just wanted to know if anything had happened at my friend’s house. Once I figured out it was across the street from my friend and didn’t involve her (she wasn’t home at the time) I went over to chat with another group of people.

There were a couple of women with kids watching. They didn’t know anything more than what I had found out. While talking I found that one of them had only been living here for six months. Another woman came over who had only been living there for three months. Both women were rather freaked out. They had just moved into what they believed to be a safe neighborhood — Greenacres is just south of Eight Mile between Woodward and Livernois — and pretty quickly someone gets killed in the middle of the afternoon.

26 26 December December 16-22, 16-22, 2015 2015 | metrotimes.com

A few days later the woman who had been living there only three months told me she had been sitting near a window in her home when the shots went off. “So I ducked and covered,” she says.

I went home expecting to see something about it on the evening news.

When the news came on, it led with the story about the 4-year-old boy who had been mauled to death by pit bulls. The next story was about the 7-year-old girl who was killed at the Taylor Sportsplex.

Both are horrific events worthy of coverage. There was nothing about the murder near my house.

The next day I looked for something in the daily papers. I was curious. Who had been killed and under what circumstances? There was nothing to be found. I did a Google search. Nothing.

Then I started asking neighbors what they knew. Somebody said he’d been killed inside his vehicle. Somebody else said it was in the house. I heard that a car drove up; someone got out and shot the man. I heard that someone had gone around the back of the house and laid in wait for the man. Some neighbors didn’t even know anything had happened.

My friend who lives across the street from the guy who was murdered is understandably shaken up. She liked the guy. She said the family had moved there a couple of years back and had put a lot of money into fixing up the house. She said that he played with his grandkids. She didn’t think he was a

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N ews bad guy. His or his wife’s mother had died recently as well as a close cousin.

So it seemed as though bad fortune was raining down on the family.

She was also impressed with what she thought was the thoroughness and politeness of the police at the crime scene.

Some of them had used her bathroom during the investigation.

A couple of days later, a neighbor who had not known about it until I asked him sent me an entry from a Detroit police Facebook page. After identifying the location, it read, “The 49-year-old male victim was inside of his vehicle when the suspect walked up to him, said some words, and fired shots, fatally wounding the victim.”

I asked another neighbor who sometimes sends out neighborhood crime reports. She told me that she’d heard from someone who talked to the police that the victim was shot 16 times in his vehicle and was dead on arrival at the hospital, where they found a “great deal of drugs on his person.”

The murder took place on Thursday.

On Sunday police descended on the block to interview neighbors. I heard that one neighbor was told by police that the deceased was “a bad guy who moved into a good neighborhood.” I heard that police were going to come to a community association meeting to explain what happened. There also seems to be a sense among some neighbors that they don’t want much publicity about the killing because they didn’t want to besmirch the neighborhood and cause the housing values to go down. Hmmm … I thought it might be helpful for folks to know there was a killing on the next block.

One week after the murder I went back to the area and knocked on a few doors to find out what they knew. I found it interesting that one of those green “Create Peace” lawn signs sat in front of a house a couple of doors away.

One woman taid she and her son were in their house when she heard shots. They hit the floor. She also said that after the shooting, as they lay on the floor waiting to be sure it was safe, that she felt a bit of guilt that she was hiding rather than going out to see if she could help someone that may be injured.

She said that a car had driven up and two men got out and shot the victim in his car. She told me that through the evening of the murder while the police gathered evidence the wife and her sister were there and that they never seemed to display what she thought was sorrow or grief about the man’s

28 28 December December 16-22, 16-22, 2015 2015 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com

stiritup death.

She added that the wife moved out the next day and that made her feel much better about living there. “When she moved out, then I was fine,” the woman said. “She took all that bad energy away.”

From what I can ascertain, the last time someone got killed in this neighborhood was about 25 years ago. So it’s not like that stuff happens around here that often. And this murder seems to be a very specific, targeted event. Somebody came to get this guy for whatever reason they had.

I know this is the sort of thing that haunts some other neighborhoods.

There were 298 reported murders in Detroit in 2014, and 163 reported through July. And apparently they don’t all make the news.

It’s interesting to me that just the void of news on the subject can be unsettling. I called a detective at the local precinct and he told me maybe someone from community relations could tell me something. I left a voice mail at that office.

So there is no easy answer here. Police put their reports out and it’s up to the media to make their choice on what to cover. Apparently there were more “interesting” killings that took place that day. Based on the news we’ve been getting, from Paris to San Bernardino, this was small potatoes. And that is the pity that a guy gets loaded up with bullets and it’s no big deal.

Speaking of media voids Newspapers such as the Metro Times first sprang up to fill in voids for alternative voices. That’s how the Fifth Estate, Detroit’s irreverent publication, started in 1965 by Harvey Ovshinsky.

“It’s an anarchist paper. It evolved to that. In the beginning it was a newspaper that was talking about things that young people wanted to read about and discuss that mainstream newspapers weren’t discussing — music, war, protest,” say Barb Logan, co-curator with Peter Werbe of the exhibit “You Can’t Print That! 50 Years of the Fifth Estate,” still on exhibit through Jan. 3, at the Mobile Homestead behind MOCAD in Midtown. Fifth Estate folks once pasted “Easter Canceled” posts on church doors, and enraged Maoist with a paint-splattered image of their hero.

“It was always a way of thumbing their noses at people who took themselves too seriously,” says Logan.

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what’sgoingon

Art | Dance | Comedy | Eat | Theater

Friday, 12/18 Newsies @ Detroit Opera House

Adapted from the Disney film of the same name, this musical stage performance loosely follows the historical New York City newsboy strike of 1899 through Jack “Cowboy” Kelly and his friends and fellow newsboys. Though the 1992 flick didn’t do well in theaters, it later gained a cult following, and thus the musical was born. While the stage performance varies a little from the movie, fans will still be treated to the Alan Menken-composed musical numbers they have come to know and love, plus a couple new tunes.

Starts at 8 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; 313-872-1000; broadwayindetroit.com; tickets start at $35. Through Dec. 27.

Wednesday, 12/18

Thursday, 12/17

Thur-Wed, 12/17-23

Thursday, 12/17

It’s a Wonderful Life

How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass release party

Holiday Nights

After Dark: Holiday Mixology

@ Redford Theatre

Even if you’ve never seen It’s a Wonderful Life, you likely know the plot.

George Bailey is on the verge of suicide on Christmas Eve when his guardian angel shows up (does anyone else think Clarence is an odd name for a guardian angel?). The spirit shows Bailey the important impact he’s had on the lives of those around him and everyone feels all the good feels. Like many classic films, this 1946 flick wasn’t that well received in theaters. It wasn’t until it got a ton of TV play in the ’80s that it became the holiday tradition it is today. Catch this Christmas classic inside the beautiful and fully restored Redford Theatre.

Starts at 8 p.m.; 17360 Lahser Rd., Detroit; 313-537-2560; redfordtheatre.com; tickets are $7.

@ Signal-Return

If you’re looking for a summary of Aaron Foley’s new tome, we’d say the title is pretty damn descriptive. Foley, a lifelong resident of Detroit and the new editor of BLAC magazine, wants to help Detroiters new and old navigate the city’s renaissance without coming off all fulsome and smarmy. A couple weeks ago we ran an excerpt from the insightful new text, “How to make peace with the suburbs,” and gave our readers a little glimpse into what they can expect from the rest of the book. Take an opportunity to grab a copy and shake Foley’s hand at the book’s release party.

Just don’t mention what a blank slate Detroit is.

Starts at 7 p.m.; 1345 Division St., Detroit; 313-567-8970; signalreturnpress.org; free.

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@ Greenfield Village

@ Michigan Science Center

Reader’s Digest and USA Today voted this one of the best holiday events in the country, so if you’re a metro Detroiter and you haven’t made it to Greenfield Village to celebrate the holidays, well, you’re missing out. The old-timey town offers ice skating, carolers, live music and dramatic performances, horsedrawn wagons, Christmas trees and greens for sale, holiday cooking, dining, and treats, and homes and shops all decked out for the holidays. You’ll catch the smell of roasting chestnuts in the air and hear the jingle of Santa’s sleigh (Old Saint Nick and his reindeer will be there too). Each evening ends with a fireworks finale and a Christmas sing-along.

Runs from 6:30-10 p.m.; 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn; 313982-6001; thehenryford.org/ holidaynights; admission are $24 for adults.

The Michigan Science Center isn’t just for kids. Every third Thursday of the month, they host After Dark, an adultsonly event that mixes drinking and science. The happy hour event takes place inside Toytopia, a new 9,700-squarefoot exhibit made up of lifesized toys and vintage games where guests can challenge each other to vintage video competitions and extreme dot-to-dot challenges. There will be holiday cocktails plus a demonstration about the chemistry of color changing liquids.

Starts at 5 p.m.; 5020 John R St., Detroit; 313-577-8400; mi-sci.org; tickets are $10.

Art | Dance | Comedy | Eat | Theater

UpFront

what’sgoingon

| News | Feature

Tuesday, 12/22

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An Evening with Keegan-Michael Key and the 313

What’s Going On

@ Detroit Film Theatre

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You’ve seen Key’s face on MADtv, Parks and Recreation, and in Wanderlust, Let’s Be Cops, and Horrible Bosses 2, but you might not have realized that the actor and comedian is a Detroit native. In fact, he helped found Hamtramck’s Plant Ant Theater and the Detroit Creativity Project. He was also a member of Second City Detroit’s mainstage cast before he left for Chicago. He’ll appear at the Detroit Film Theatre with the 313, an improv troupe of performers who started their careers in Detroit. Nyima Funk, Marc Evan Jackson, Maribeth Monroe, and Sam Richardson will perform improvisational skits based on Key’s monologues.

Eat

Starts at 8 p.m.; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-3237; dia.org/dft; tickets start at $23.50.

| Drink |

@ Fox Theatre

@ Andiamo Celebrity Showroom

A secular holiday popularized by the Seinfeld episode, “The Strike,” Festivus offers a low-key alternative to the over-the-top commercialism of the Christmas season. The celebration will begin with the unveiling of the official Festivus pole. There will be an Airing of Grievances and an award will be given to the best grievance and the ever-popular Feats of Strength will include a beer-hoisting contest. There will be live music from the Detroit Cobras, Howling Diablos, and Royal Blackbirds plus plenty of local beer and food. The whole thing is a benefit for the South Oakland Shelter.

We know what you’re thinking: another holiday market? But shopping local is really important, especially this time of year. Support local businesses, crafters, and makers, and buy everyone on your list something unique this year at the Lodge. The new holiday pop-up market is featuring local vendors including Rebel Nell, Alchemy Detroit, Chez Chloe, Dolly Rockers, City Girl Soaps, Old White House, Armageddon Beach Party, Kitsch Lab, Kept Adornments, and more. Plus there will be food trucks and a Wild Turkey bourbon bar. A portion of proceeds will go toward 826 Michigan, a community organization that offers writing and tutoring programs to local students.

This holiday spectacular features over 300 costumes, 20 acts, and 30 artists from around the world. Snowmen, penguins, angels, reindeer, toy soldiers, and even Old Saint Nick perform soaring acrobatics, illusions, and other elaborate performances all with a winter wonderland backdrop.

Festive, fun, and full-entertaining, it’s a show the whole family will enjoy.

The holiday variety show also features both original musical numbers and your favorite Christmas tunes. The show’s been heralded as a rival of the Rockettes’ Radio City Christmas Spectacular in terms of production quality and entertainment value.

You know what Christmas has been missing all these years? Drag queens.

So fill up your holiday season with enormous hair, fake eyelashes, over-the-top contouring, and tons of sass at Christmas Queens. RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants WILLAM, Katya Zamolodchikova, Jinkx Monsoon, Ginger Minj, and Sharon Needles recently released a Christmas album and they’ll be singing holiday favorites like “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” and “12 Days of Christmas” plus originals like “Christma-Hannu-Kwanzaa-Ka,” “Ratchet Christmas,” and “This is How We Jew It.”

Doors open at 5 p.m.; 316 11 Mile Rd., Royal Oak; festivustix.com; tickets start at $15.

Runs 9 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday; 3434 Russell St., Detroit; free.

Starts at 7:30 p.m.; 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-471-3200; olympiaentertainment.com; tickets start at $25.

Starts at 8 p.m.; 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; andiamoitalia. com/showroom; 248-268-2840; tickets are $25.

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| December 16-22, 2015

Classifieds

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Christmas Queens

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Cirque Dreams: Holidaze

Culture

@ The Eastern

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The Lodge

@ Royal Oak Farmers Market

Arts

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Wednesday, 12/23

Watch

Tuesday, 12/22

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Sat-Sun, 12/19-20

Music

Saturday, 12/19

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feature

From somewhere in middle America to an arena near you A behind-the-scenes look at Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s latest over-the-top tour

Photos by Samantha Fryberger

by Jeff Niesel “We have stuff everywhere,” says Adam Lind, the self-proclaimed “guy who’s responsible for everything that goes wrong.” Lind heads up Night Castle Management, the firm that handles all of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “artistic endeavors.” He makes the remark as he walks through the cluttered hallways of the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, a small town just across a bridge from Omaha, Nebraska, where the prog rock band rehearses each year in preparation for its annual winter tour.

To say TSO has taken over the venue would be an understatement.

At the arena’s entrance there’s a table full of old, brightly colored crew T-shirts from nearly two decades of touring.

They’re spread out on a table, free for the taking. One bright orange T-shirt displays the logo for 2012’s “Beethoven’s Last Night” tour — a drawing of Beethoven with disheveled hair — and a purple shirt features an image of a fire-

breathing dragon and an electric guitar.

A plastic gargoyle stands watch in a hallway as members of the crew whir by on Segways and electric scooters.

You can hear wailing guitars and operatic vocals emanating from behind the closed arena doors as the band practices tunes such as “What Child Is This?” and “Music Box Blues.” Inside those doors, roadies walk the empty arena floor while carrying open laptops. A giant pyramidlike contraption sits under a black tarp as if it’s a modern-day Batmobile, ready to shock and awe once the tarp comes off.

On the back loading dock, forklifts bring in the heavy equipment, and somewhere in the arena’s bowels, a crew works at cutting sheet metal and drilling the gigantic metallic structures that hold the array of lights and pyrotechnical gear together. A rehearsal stage for the East Coast version of the tour sits on one side of the arena floor while a stage for the West Coast version of the tour has been erected on the other end.

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The reason for the two stages is simple: TSO’s concerts have become so gigantic that they require two incarnations.

“The rehearsal process is the hardest part of the whole tour,” says raspy-voiced backing singer Kayla Reeves, who joined the group six years ago when she was only 17 years old. “Once we’re on the road, it’s like Groundhog Day, and everything is second nature. Picture an iceberg. The top of it is just barely sticking out. Underneath it you have this huge chunk of ice. That’s like rehearsal. The show is the little top above the water.

Every year, [show creator] Paul [O’Neill] keeps putting more and more chips on the table. I remember how overwhelmed I was the first year I came into the arena and saw the two stages. I’ve never seen anything like it. Every year, I’m just blown away. Paul never ceases to turn it up a notch.”

For the past seven years, the group has rehearsed in this small, centrally located town that puts the East and West Coast versions of the tour in prime

launching position. A fleet of trucks and tour buses are already positioned in the arena’s parking lot. Soon, they’ll roll out and haul crew and gear across the country for the next eight weeks to bring the biggest, baddest, most over-the-top and extravagant Christmas rock show you’ll ever see to an arena near you.

Paul O’Neill: A man of letters When he was young, O’Neill, the group’s mastermind, had trouble reading anything more sophisticated than Cat in the Hat. In the first grade, he was in danger of falling behind. But then his mother spent a summer teaching him phonetics and the floodgates opened as O’Neill, whose parents forbid him to watch TV, started devouring the books around the family’s home. Now, he easily recites facts from European history and quotes Cicero.

As he was learning to play guitar, he went to see the Who perform at Madison Square Garden in the late ’60s,

F something he describes as a pivotal moment.

“The Who were the only band that I walked out on because they were so good I couldn’t stand watching them,” says O’Neill, who, with his black leather jacket, dark Italian sunglasses, speckled gray beard and shoulder length hair, looks like a cross between a member of the Ramones and a Lord of the Rings wizard. His dressing room includes a keyboard, two guitars, and a KISSthemed pinball machine. For guests, the room also contains a few cases of Trans-Siberian swag — a stack of denim jackets with the TSO emblem on the back and CDs of the band’s new album, Letters From the Labyrinth. He gives the stuff away at such a rapid pace, the cases have to regularly be replenished.

The Who “were so good, I was about to throw up,” O’Neill says. “I walked around New York City really depressed for about two hours. To me, the Who were the ones who invented the rock opera. When I first heard ‘Pinball Wizard’ on the radio, I thought, ‘Whoa!’ When I heard it on the album Tommy, it was a whole different thing.”

Later, as he toured with Aerosmith in the ’70s, he started collecting letters and developing his esoteric sense of the world. He has every letter from Thomas Edison. He bought the letters through the auction house Christie’s and at various estate sales.

“I have every letter from Thomas Edison to his tool and die guy about how to build the first record player — I have every single one,” he says. “I have a lot of letters from Lincoln, from Churchill, from Oscar Wilde, because when you’re holding letters that Lincoln held, that Churchill held, that Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote when he was a teenager, you feel a connection. Like I tell my daughter, ‘We don’t own these, we’re just the caretakers of them for the next generation.’

“I have one letter from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, from December 1779. He thought he was going to lose the war. It’s fascinating stuff.”

Those literary sensibilities would inform the prog band Savatage, which originally recorded “Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24” in 1995. The song would reappear on TSO’s debut, 1996’s Christmas Eve and Other Stories, and launch the band into the behemoth that it is today.

Al Pitrelli, the West Coast musical director, describes the informal nature of that album’s initial songwriting sessions.

“Me, Paul O’Neill, Jon Oliva, and Bob Kinkel got together at what we called the kitchen table in Paul’s apartment,”

feature says the slender, long-haired Pitrelli from his dressing room where he’s plastered a sticker that reads “roadie for life” on a black case full of clothes and gear.

“We would throw ideas in the middle of the table, literally and figuratively. We were just having fun. We didn’t think it would ever sell. Who the hell would buy a Christmas record by a bunch of long hairs from Queens? Don’t ever tell the bumblebee it can’t fly. It was really that simple.”

The first-ever TSO show took place in 1996 at a New York hospital. New York DJ Scott Shannon, whom O’Neill describes as “the most powerful DJ in America at the time,” invited the band to play Blythedale Children’s Hospital just north of New York City. O’Neill initially didn’t want to play the show, but once he visited the hospital, he couldn’t resist.

“It’s a fabulous hospital that helps critically hurt children,” says Lind.

“Every year, they put on a concert for them. They built a stage and the kids were heartbreaking cases. Some of them even had gunshot wounds. It was really amazing.”

Pitrelli says that show “changed my life forever.” He had walked out of an

ing drinking an 18-year-old Scotch. “I thought, ‘Man, it’s early in the morning for this kind of concert.’ I quickly realized it wasn’t a ‘I have a boo-boo’ concert. I realized it was serious stuff, and we would have an impact. I was watching people crying, and I thought it was more special. I just thought we have a song on the radio — that’s awesome.

I realized it wasn’t just a rock band anymore.”

Then, in 1998, the band recorded a TV show before it had ever toured. O’Neill has described it as the band’s “first show.”

“Paul didn’t want to do the typical video,” says Lind. “He turned what would have been shown only once on TV into this story that’s been on TV every year since. In typical Paul fashion, he threw everyone a curveball.”

Filmed in an old Jersey City theater, the show features Ossie Davis, Jewel, and Michael Crawford. O’Neill has said the band, though still in the early stages, captured a certain “magic,” as the special features some of the best songs from the band’s catalog at the time.

At the urging of Cleveland disc jockey Bill Louis, the group took its 1996 Christmas rock opera Christmas Eve and Other Stories, the first part of a trilogy of

Lewis. “Turns out, he was right. The first show sold out in four hours.”

The group then added another Cleveland show and that sold out. A third was added. It also sold out.

“Cleveland was pandemonium,” Pitrelli says.

Cleveland-based Belkin Productions also booked gigs in Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. With the exception of Chicago, each show exceeded expectations. The following year, the band hired Elliot Saltzman to be its tour director as it expanded to about 30 shows with two different installations traipsing across the country.

“Adam Lind suckered me into it,” says Saltzman, while sitting on the swanky leather sofa in his dimly lit office, the walls of which are festooned with Indian tapestries to give off the proper “vibe.”

“He said it would be really easy. Once I said yes, he then added that he wanted to have a second tour go out. I had to scramble to hire other people. That year, it was really crazy.”

Saltzman also hired lighting designer Bryan Hartley to help the band come up with a product that Saltzman says is better than everything else on the road.

Hartley had known O’Neill for years and was happy to come on the tour. He still

Irish bar in Astoria, in Queens, at 4 a.m., oblivious to the concert’s significance.

But once he arrived at the venue, he realized the show would be something special.

“We were just killing time the night before the show,” he says, adding that he had spent the wee hours of the morn-

prog rock-influenced Christmas albums, on the road in 1999. Lewis had been playing the album’s single, “Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24,” on WNCX and had gotten great feedback from fans.

“He said, ‘You can do a show in New York, but not in Cleveland?’ So he nagged me to death,” O’Neill says of

does all the band’s lighting.

That incarnation of the tour had a good 13-year run before O’Neill decided to mix things up, often playing new albums in their entirety while still incorporating the “hits.” Now, it’s consistently one of the highest grossing tours in the world. When asked about how he deals

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F with the pressure to outdo each previous tour, Pitrelli uses a sports metaphor.

“The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls and they’re not counting their rings,” he says. “[Former St. Louis Cardinals’ manager] Tony LaRussa, who’s a big fan of the band, comes every year. We’d ask him if he was done, he always says no. In sports, you go back to square one at the start of every season. It’s like that with Trans-Siberian Orchestra.”

Lights, lasers, pyro!

In its 19-year history, TSO has played more than 1,600 shows for more than 11 million fans, officially making it one of the world’s biggest arena rock acts. For the past several years, the band’s winter tours have consistently ranked in the top 10 for attendance and grosses; back in 2009, Billboard called it one of the “top touring artists of the decade.” Last year’s 2014 Winter Tour grossed more than $51 million in 52 days; it played to nearly 1

2015 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com 38 December 16-22, 2015

feature million fans.

This year’s Ghosts of Christmas Eve production will hit 60 cities across North America to perform 100 shows.

Based on TSO’s multiplatinum DVD and long-running PBS fundraiser, the concert follows the journey of a young runaway who, on Christmas Eve, breaks into an abandoned vaudeville theater seeking shelter from the cold. She then experiences “ghostly visions” from that concert hall’s past. The band will also play past hits such as “Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24,” “O’ Come All Ye Faithful,” “Good King Joy,” “Christmas Canon,” “Music Box Blues,” “Promises to Keep,” and “This Christmas Day” during the two-hour concert.

“Some of the vocals and instrumentals from the new album are amazing,” Pitrelli says. “The film from the original TV special is part of the backdrop, and when you see that, you feel like you’re in the old 19th century theater where we filmed that first special.”

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The show also features a new highdefinition video screen that’s about the size of half a football field. The production involves 40 trucks, 20 buses, 240 touring personnel, 276 local stagehands per date, 256 rigging points, 256 oneton motors, 1,248 intelligent lighting fixtures, 36 full color lasers including audience scanners, 6,352 video panels, 1,552 pyrotechnic effects, 596 flame/fire modules, 112 speaker boxes, and four mixing boards (the boards alone cost $1 million).

As a dress rehearsal of the current show commences, which O’Neill says hearkens back to TSO’s beginnings, O’Neill arrives on stage, black guitar strapped across his chest. He unleashes one meaty riff after another while a tender Christmas tune featuring children singing plays over the house PA. Huge flames shoot from the rear of the stage as a crew of sound guys hovers over mixing boards and computers, adjusting the sound levels and positioning the tresses near the arena’s roof. “Freebird!” yells one roadie, causing O’Neill to break into a smile. And when the crew cranks up the pyro, O’Neill responds favorably.

“Fuck, yeah!” he screams.

As the show begins, a cadre of backing singers belt out the operatic “Time and Distance” as the stage’s ginormous video screens project the image of an animated rendition of a castle that looks like it was taken from a video game. It’s the kind of trippy imagery that’s often only seen in today’s EDM concerts.

It’s not long before the pyro kicks in, making the stage look like an oversized outdoor fireplace. Soon, crisp blue and white lasers flicker through the arena as the band launches into the power ballad “Lost Christmas Eve.” The video screens flicker with old news reports and white noise as the band sinks its teeth into “Christmas Eve Sarajevo,” TSO’s signature tune that finds the group of guitarists standing side by side at the front of the stage, guitars hoisted high over their heads for the song’s climactic crescendo.

Sitting back in his dressing room, O’Neill describes TSO as “an ideal and an idea.” He says he wants to continue to “break down the wall” between band and audience and envisions that, at some point, the show will populate two stages on the arena floor connected by a catwalk for what he calls “end-to-end arena rock.” Performers will sing and play in unison so that “no matter where you turn, you’re surrounded by the music.” He’s not sure if that sort of setup will work in venues where the stages can only be situated on one side of the

feature floor, but he comes off as the kind of guy who doesn’t take “no” for an answer. You get the sense he’ll find a way to make it work.

Saltzman agrees that the game plan remains to keep getting bigger and better.

“TSO is all about walking out of the show and saying, ‘That’s the best show I’ve ever seen,’” he says. “The firepower we have out there is unparalleled. We spend in the millions of dollars for lighting and pyro. For us, it’s full blown.

It’s a risk, though not so much now that we have a dedicated fan base. But these are lighting and pyro effects that people have never seen before. You will never see this many lasers in your life. At one point, it looks like the whole stage is morphing and coming off its tracks and moving toward you. It’s an onslaught.

It’s visual and sensual experiences you’ve never had before. It’s like putting on a new dress.”

The fact that TSO has become such a huge production means it has outlived O’Neill’s initial expectations.

“We hoped it would do OK,” he says.

“When the first album came out in 1996, it didn’t sell, but then Aerosmith wasn’t a hit out of the box either. But I wouldn’t ever want to change this, even though it threw off the whole rhythm of our whole lives. Because of how popular the Christmas rock operas are, no matter what we were doing, come October, we have to stop and build these monstrous systems. I want people to experience emotions they’ve never felt before. I realize if I can change a key and make a song 1-tenth of one percent better, I will. Simply singing isn’t acceptable in TSO. The singers need to become the characters.”

Saltzman concurs as he watches a dress rehearsal of the 140-minute show come to an end.

“This passes the shiver test,” he says emphatically, pointing at the stage. “If you get the shivers from the singing and then the shivers from watching the production, it’s the double shivers. And if you have that, then you have the audience in the palm of your hand.”

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, 3 and 8 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 29, Palace of Auburn Hills, 6 Championship Dr., Auburn Hills. Tickets: $34-$74, trans-siberian. com/tour.

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E at Rising up

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Vertical Detroit elevates downtown’s food and drink experience

by Serena Maria Daniels While the growing number of restaurants surrounding the Campus Martius district of downtown Detroit have largely dominated the narrative over the past several months this year, what we’re most excited about is a few blocks away in the Harmonie Park section of town.

We’re talking about the Vertical Detroit restaurant and wine bar, perhaps the most innovative new establishment to hit the scene. Gone is the gutted, industrial storefront feel that many of the downtown gastropubs have favored as of late.

Instead the space, situated on the garden level of the Ashley apartment building, pays meticulous attention to design and showmanship.

That has a lot to do with the people behind Vertical. The owners — fatherdaughter team Jim and Remy Lufty — have a long history in the wine business.

Jim Lufty got his start in the 1980s, selling wine in the family’s Cloverleaf Market.

He went on to open Fine Wine Source in Livonia, while Remy studied winemaking at the University of California, Davis, and Napa Valley. The duo spent the past 18 months obsessing over everything, from transforming what would ordinarily be a drafty, cold, below-street-level space into a warm, inviting dining room and bar, as well as conducting a nationwide search for knowledgeable sommeliers.

Architectural firm Rossetti Associates was brought on to design the space, making use of rich colors and textures to highlight the building’s historical charm, while giving the space a sleek, modern finish. Unlike other apartment or hotel lobby restaurants around, this place is uniquely independent. The 75-seat restaurant is broken up into two parts, a spread-out dining room with tables made out of reclaimed wood and a cozy bar in the back. The spot’s happy hours are already a favorite for downtown dwellers, DJ sessions every Thursday add to the spot’s lively spirit, and a built-in wine shop offers a collection of some 325 to 350 bottles from around the world.

Servers are seasoned veterans in the wine business and know how to approach the indecisive customer who may not be well versed in what to order. They’re eager to field questions about which reds or whites pair well with the dishes. The biggest draw on the wine menu are the verti-

cal flights, in which guests are given three small pours of three different vintages of the same wine from the same vineyard, giving them a taste of its evolution. We tried the 2010, 2011, and 2012 vintages of the Cabernet Sauvignon by Alpha Omega in the Napa Valley, priced at $55, on the higher end of the vertical menu. Consistently dark and layered, each had notes of smokiness from tobacco, with hints of sweet found in plum and black cherry.

Of the three, the 2011 vintage seemed the most balanced — not too dry, not too sweet, with a lingering, generous finish.

Guests can also choose from more than 40 by-the-glass wines, many of which come from Italy and California.

Now on to the food. The menu leads diners on an epicurean journey, with choices for any appetite and price level.

For starters, we sampled the grapes that, covered in Brie, red wine gastrique, and pistachio tuille, were the perfect sweet accompaniment to another glass of red we tried, a 2013 Etude “Lyric” Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara. We found an earthy, umami balance in the form of the asparagus, with a rich, smooth porcini cream, topped off with mushrooms.

Small-plate selections are meatier and designed for sharing. Large squares of butternut squash, topped with tiny greens, candied walnut, and Parmesan sage “cavier,” are elevated with brown butter that helps lock in a rich flavor. The tuna crudo made with a gribiche sauce with avocado has a ceviche kick to it, and is served with toasted bread slices.

Though this dish aspires to be complex in its preparation, it fell flat with our dinner guests. The charcuterie and cheese board, which like the dinner tables comes from reclaimed wood, on the other hand, was the winner here, with a heavenly spread of triple cream Brie, thin, salty slices of jamon serrano, spicy chorizo sourced locally from Corridor Sausage Co., a very sharp cheddar, figs, grapes, honeycomb, candied walnuts, and roasted pepper.

Each ingredient complements the other, and if what you’re seeking is an ideal companion for your wine, this is highly recommended.

Next come some decisions. You can go with a heartier choice of composed small plates that consist of choices like a rack of lamb, the Vertical Grind burger,

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Vertical Detroit 1568 Centre St. 313-732-WINE (9463) www.verticaldetroit.com

4 p.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, 4 p.m.-12 a.m.- Thursday-Saturday; Retail hours, 2 p.m.-close MondaySaturday, 4 p.m.-close Sundays Food menu: $6-$24, specials vary; Wine by the glass: $9-$35

or the Amish farm chicken. Or you can steer for one of Vertical’s daily specials.

We couldn’t resist the charm of general manager Todd Allen, who suggested two specials, both of which included impressive cuts of filet mignon. One came accompanied with scallops (which can also be found alone, on the sharable section of the menu), the other was topped with foie gras. The beef comes daily from Eastern Market and the freshness is abundantly apparent. The center is perfectly red and juicy, while the outside has an almost crispy, sweet texture. The scallops are a seared treat, and a side of savory diced potatoes and a quail egg atop the filet round out the dish. The foie gras, also available as a small plate, sits on top of the other filet special, making for an overload of senses.

Chef Alex Knezevic prepares many of the entrees sous-vide, a method of

cooking in which food is sealed in an airtight bag and placed in a temperaturecontrolled bath of water for an extended period of time before being seared. This French style of cooking ensures the inside is properly cooked, while retaining moisture.

If all this isn’t enough, the dessert menu also has a wine-centric twist, with a variety to choose from, to add to a selection of sweets. While that triple cream Brie with a bit of honeycomb could easily stand alone as an ideal dessert, we also opted for a poached pear. The accompanying curried mascapone could have used a touch of lightening up, but no worries, we’re already fully intoxicated by this unique addition to downtown.

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Bites E at West Village bank reimagined

by Serena Maria Daniels West Village continues its push as the next “it” neighborhood with the introduction of a wine bar (to be called Brix), sushi restaurant, and florist to occupy the newly rehabbed Bank Building at 7960 Kercheval at Van Dyke, Model D reports. The restaurant and retail space is expected to join two loft apartments, with renovations to be completed by spring.

Behind the redevelopment project, which was touted earlier this month by Mayor Mike Duggan as an example of the good investors are doing outside of the city’s trendy, core neighborhoods, is Banyan Investments. The Detroitbased firm restored West Village Manor a few blocks away, where the popular Detroit Vegan Soul, Red Hook Coffee, and Tarot & Tea are already established.

Model D reports that in addition to the retail and residential space, Banyan is building another structure that will house a restored Detroit streetcar that will fit additional retail, as well as parking, and a landscaped piazza.

Harlem nights at Revolver Celebrated New York native and chef Maxcel Hardy is hitting up Hamtramck’s Revolver pop-up venue in a big way this weekend. His “Taste of Harlem” dinner taking place Saturday, Dec. 19 quickly sold out, so he’s added a second seating Sunday, this time bringing on fellow New Yorker, chef J.R. Robinson.

Hardy’s appearance in the Revolver kitchen comes as a special treat for metro Detroiters. His achievements are many and include cooking for a number of hip-hop and R&B artists, collaborating on the cookbook, Cooking With Amar’e, with New York Knicks superstar Amar’e Stoudemire, and write-ups from the likes of Bon Appetit and Essence.

For Robinson’s part, his culinary style is inspired by his grandmother, who raised him in Harlem (Hardy also hails from Harlem). His work has taken him to several kitchens in Washington, D.C., including the Washington Marriott International, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Indulj restaurant.

He also made an appearance on Gordon

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Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen.

Both Hardy and Robinson are deeply invested in their communities, with Hardy having created the One Chef Can 86 Hunger foundation, which raises awareness of and helps combat hunger. Robinson runs the Community Chef Experience and Kitchen Cray Kids, both of which teach young families about nutrition and healthy eating.

Proceeds of the dinners go to Hardy’s foundation.

As mentioned, tickets for the Saturday dinner sold out quickly (in keeping with most Revolver events), so we recommend snagging tickets, at $75 per person, ASAP. As usually, booze is BYOB and cash tips are on you.

Novi welcomes Michigan Beer Co. Dan Linnen, who helped launch Rojo Mexican Bistro, has introduced his newest concept, the Michigan Beer Co. in Novi.

In following with the growing demand for locally sourced ingredients, the beer menu at Michigan Beer Company will be ever changing, serving up as many Michigan-made beers as possible. The food will be Michiganmade, including shrimp from Farm Fresh Seafood in Okemos, venison sourced from the Thumb area, and rabbit from Hoppin Good Farms.

To head the kitchen, Linnen recruited chef Jeff Krulikowski, a former sous chef at Toasted Oak Grill and Market, also in Novi. In designing the menu, Krulikowski plays up the Mitten State theme, with entrees like the Bad Axe Venison Burger, New Holland Cabin Fever Braised Pork Belly, and the Michigan trout with butternut squash hash.

As for beer, Linnen says he wanted to give Michigan craft brew lovers a place to call home, and that if a brewery has a distributor, he will make sure it’s on the menu. And if guests find something they want to enjoy later, they can purchase brews to go at a growler station.

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D RINK Ultimat Vodka 40% ABV Poland has long been considered the birthplace of vodka, and the clear liquor is arguably the most popular in the world. And like any other liquor, some brands are better than others.

You can probably guess where Patron Spirits Co.’s Ultimat Vodka lands on the spectrum.

Crafted with wheat for smoothness, rye for complexity, and potatoes for richness, Ultimat Vodka is made in Poland where it’s triple distilled by a master distiller to yield a smooth flavor that’s pleasantly heavy in its body and has just a hint of vanilla in its flavor.

Lovers of Patron’s silver tequila will likely admire Ultimat Vodka’s spicy finish.

As a premium vodka, Ultimat certainly is enjoyable straight thanks to its smooth flavor and ever-so-lightly minty aftertaste. Mix it with a dash of dry vermouth and garnish it with three green olives for the ultimate classic martini.

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D RINK

raisethebar

Temperature’s rising

Former lesbian bar is burning up as a LGBTQS club

by Alysa Offman there’s a themed party. Starting Dec. 20 Sideshow Sundays with Pollyanna High-Gloss will feature a bearded singing lady, sword-balancing acts, and the elastic Miss Minnie Darlin.

The club hosts nights for both drag queens and kings and throws parties to celebrate every holiday from Halloween to Valentine’s Day. They throw glow and foam parties and will soon be having goth and steampunk nights, according to Brisson.

“Inferno is an experience, it’s not just a night out,” he says. “You can dance, you can play games, you can watch a show. We’re covering every base we can and we make improvements every 1641 Middlebelt Rd., Inkster; 734-729- week.”

0345; infernodetroit.com On nights with live entertainment there is a cover, but Open: 7 p.m.-2 a.m. Wednesdayaccording to Sanchez, every Saturday, 2 p.m.-10 p.m. Sunday dollar goes to the performers.

The partners work to take care of their staff as well as their customWhen Brisson and Sanchez took ers and it shows. over last February they did just that, “We’re your caretaker and your along with a slew of renovations.

They tore down walls and an old drop chaperone when you walk through that door,” says Brisson, who is ceiling, and they added a state-ofknown to drive customers home if the-art sound system. And before they’ve had a little too much to drink. they reopened the club in March as “We want this bar to be a place Inferno, they decided the place wasn’t where people can come be themgoing to just be a lesbian bar. selves and feel safe and feel happy “When we opened it back up, we and create friendships and relationwanted it to be more evolved,” says ships,” says Sanchez.

Sanchez. “It’s 2015, we didn’t want it Taking care of others is important to be a designated gay bar or straight to both Sanchez and Brisson, and bar. We call it an ‘open concept they like to have fun while they’re bar’ — if you’re open-minded you’re doing it. Recently they implemented welcome to come in.”

“We consider ourselves an LGBTQS a tradition at Inferno to help a local bar,” says Brisson. “We added straight victim of tragedy. At the Weekly Inferno Crap Auction they’ll be selling people on the end there.” leftover, unique, and otherwise interIn order to cater to everyone, esting items and sending the money Brisson and Sanchez make sure that to Sharon Watson, the 37-year-old every week they’re offering proTaylor mother whose daughter was gramming that will attract men and shot and killed Dec. 3 in the Taylor women, gay and straight.

Sportsplex parking lot.

Wednesday is men’s day, with unlimited draft beer for $10. Every Friday night there’s an all-male revue that Brisson says is for straight womletters@metrotimes.com en and gay men. Every Saturday night @metrotimes John Brisson and Alex Sanchez were a little wary when a friend told them metro Detroit’s only lesbian bar, Stilettos, was up for sale, but the couple decided to take a tour of the place anyway.

“The first night we went there was a great show, but it was all women except for us,” says Brisson. “It needed a little bit of work, and I’m being kind when I say that. The owner had it for 20 years and was just burnt out. She wanted to hand it over to someone who was going to take care of it and keep it open to the gay community.”

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Upfront | News | |

Brash, bold, and beautiful, Kash Doll emerged on Detroit’s underground hip-hop scene in early 2014 like a thunderbolt clap.

She was instantly crowned “Detroit’s next big thing.” Doll, born Arkeisha Knight, is renowned for being such a successful dancer that she made as much as $26,000 per night. She later opened salons called Kasa de Doll — first in Detroit and then in Columbus. And while she’s released popular singles and remixes since, the “femcee” has taken her time in crafting a full-length statement, Keisha vs. Kash Doll, which is out this week.

With millions of YouTube views attached to those singles and remixes, and sold-out shows across the country, this “femcee” and businesswoman seems ready leave the underground behind.

She has temporarily relocated to Atlanta (with rumors that it might be because of a certain reality TV show) but still spends plenty of time in Detroit.

She’s here this week for a release party for the full-length, so we sat down with Knight to catch up with her beforehand.

MT: When did you know it was time to leave your job as an exotic dancer?

Arkeisha Knight: When I was dancing, I was stressed out, because I knew that was something I didn’t want to do. I wanted to stop because I just wasn’t comfortable. But I kept my faith in God, and prayed that he would help me figure out what to do next. The money was good, and I kind of liked the lifestyle. And I started to get a lot of little fans for my music, and it was a lot of high school girls. I didn’t want them to think that stripping was a way out.

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by Taylor Bembery

Classifieds

feature

Rapper Kash Doll on her first mixtape, and why she’s still the next big thing out of Detroit (even though she just moved to Atlanta)

What’s Going On

Big Story

M usic Welcome to the dollhouse

MT: When do you pinpoint things starting to take off for you?

Knight: When Tinashe came out with that song “2 On,” I liked it so much. So I said, “Let me try to put my own little twist to it. Something for the ladies because we all can relate to being ‘on.’” I did my remix, and baby did that take off! I did a video with Joseph McFashion and Mula Films. We put it out, and it went crazy, viral on the Internet.

The radio station even started playing it.

Jay Hicks on 107.5, I love him so much. I was played on air at least six times a day.

I’m like, “Hold on, wait, what?”

People started booking me to come out to perform. It was no more getting booked to dance or to be a vixen. People n Derrick Thompson

wanted to hear me perform. I didn’t even think about the retirement party at the strip club, and leaving dancing alone; I just left it alone.

MT: So how did you get into rapping in the first place?

Knight: I’ve wanted to rap ever since I was a little girl. I always wanted to be an entertainer — not even just rap, because I can sing too. That’s just my life.

I wake up, and I love getting my hair and makeup done for videos, and going shopping, all of that. First I told a guy, Dex Osama, that I wanted to be a rapper. Me and him were kickin’ it at the time and he was like, “Aww man you can do that; you got the look, let’s go the studio.” We went to the studio and did a freestyle to a Notorious B.I.G. beat and we put it out. The response was good.

At that point, I was geeked because someone asked for a feature [rap appearance on another song] and wanted to pay me $2,500 for it. Later Dex passed on, and I’ve kept his encouragement in my heart.

MT: And now, you are finally releasing a full-length mixtape. What’s behind the title for it, Keisha vs. Kash Doll?

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Knight: Keisha is the real me.

Keisha vs. Kash Doll will give people a little bit about Keisha. They know about Kash Doll, but I feel like Keisha balances it out. Keisha is more humble and down to earth; she’s going to talk about things she’s been through in life. Kash Doll is going to give you the mentality of “I’m a bad chick and I’m going to always be that chick and no one can tell me nothing.”

Keisha is going to give you those love songs and Kash Doll is going to come back with some “Fuck these dudes and get money” songs. [Laughs] It’s all going to balance itself out. I just wanted to give people a variety. Every song that I have put out so far has been my alter ego — nobody knows the real me and how I grew up.

MT: Alright then, where and how did you grow up?

Knight: My father passed away on my first birthday. I never got the chance to meet him or know my father.

I want to make him proud and keep watching over me. I always wanted that love from a father figure, but I never got it.

I grew up on the west side of Detroit.

I was kind of bad in high school. Henry Ford is where I started off at, and then I went to another school. I got kicked out of there; then I went to Detroit City High. I used to fight, but I did come out on time. I went to college and everything. People need to understand that. I got my diploma and I have a degree. I’m not “ignant.” [Laughs]

MT: How long had you been working on this project?

Knight: I just started working on it really in October, and I just felt like it was time because I had been holding on for so long, and I’m ready. I met a couple of people, great producers like Timbaland and Zaytoven. I was mostly in the studio during the week, and on the weekends I would do my shows. I do have two businesses; I have two boutiques. Everything pulls me in different directions, but I always make time for the studio. It is important to make sure I have the record done, because my fans were going to kick my butt.

MT: What is your favorite song on there?

Knight: All of them are my favorite songs because they mean something but “I Hate Cheap Shit” is my favorite because I had everything to do with that [track]. I love it so much, it’s fun.

It’s versatile — that’s my shit!

MT: How was it working with Timbaland?

Knight: Timbaland was such a ball of positive energy. He made me feel so good about what I have going on and what I am trying to do, just with supporting it. He was just giving me pointers with my growth and what I have going on. He was telling me older people expect the new generation to do the same thing they did, but they have to understand there are different ways.

MT: Will there be any featured

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guest spots on the mixtape?

Knight: I’m really trying to make it more about me. There are a lot of big artists ready to work with me, but I feel like [for] my first project I want to be able to let people know about me. So, I wasn’t pressed on like trying to get features on there. I do have people singing hooks, but I don’t want to talk about it — it’s a surprise.

MT: What artist would you to collaborate with the most?

Knight: Rihanna — that’s somebody who I would love to work with.

MT: Often in the industry, they pit female rappers against each other. How do you feel about that?

Knight: It’s petty. There is room for more than one female rap artist. All women are not the same just like all men are not the same, so why does there have to be one dominating female rapper?

There are a lot of talented women out here, and I feel like we all should come together. I don’t have nothing against these girl artists. I’m excited for all of them; I give them all of their props.

MT: You are still an independent artist.

Do you have a desire to go more mainstream?

Knight: I don’t want to separate myself from the mainstream just because I want to be independent. I feel like anything is possible — you can create your own label and put your own stuff together. I would love to be mainstream, but I feel like I have time and I’m not really going to rush it. I feel like it will happen.

MT: Who else has asked you to collaborate?

Knight: People that are up, and coming like Migos, Shy Glizzy, Zaytoven, and DJ Mustard who actually made the beat for Tinashe’s “2 On.” Mainstream people seem to have this little pride about them, but I know Drake follows me on Instagram. So he likes the movement obviously. Also people like Lil Boosie and Yo Gotti, they know about me and they respect and like what I’m doing.

MT: Why do you feel like your fans gravitate to you so much?

Knight: Because I’m 100 percent real, I’m myself. You can tell when someone is genuine, and you can tell when someone is not and just trying to please their audience or the media. My fans know that and appreciate it. Can’t nobody change me; I will never let nobody come around and change the person that I am.

I’m not going to feed the negative stuff

anymore, I’m going to feed my audience, my “baes,” with positivity. I’m going to starve all the negative stuff. Whether you’re doing good or bad, somebody is going to have something to say. So I’m happy that I am doing good and I know that I’m the shit and everybody else is supposed to feel like they’re the shit, and if you don’t it’s something wrong with your self-esteem. Not mine.

MT: Why do you call your fans “baes”?

Knight: Because they call me “bae”; ever since day one, even when I was a dancer, they used to call me that.

MT: What is one of the craziest things a “bae” has done?

Knight: I was at Red Lobster one day, in Columbus, Ohio, and a girl

couldn’t make it to the grand opening of one of my stores. She went to every place I was at, trying to meet me. I had posted something on Snapchat saying I was at Red Lobster. She came there and walked over to me and gave me a hug because she wanted to see me real bad. She just started crying. Some of my baes even have tattoos, and they also put me on their birthday cakes, get shirts made, all that stuff. It’s just mind-blowing to me.

MT: What’s next on the business tip?

Knight: Let me tell you a little something about me: I’m a boss chick straight up out the 313. [Laughs] I’m going to open up more Kasa de Doll Boutiques in Atlanta, Miami, and Houston, just to name a few. I can’t wait. I love the grind; it’s going to be real big.

I’m going to get some Barbie dolls made, just like the Barbie doll I had uploaded. It’s definitely in the making and it’s definitely going to be done for sure. I don’t know if I am going to do a tour and pass them out and sell a couple of them in each city, but I know I want to give one person one in every state I go to. It’s going to be limited edition. I don’t want that many out. They are going to be limited edition, and I’m going to get a good 65 made.

Keisha vs. Kash Doll has a release party Friday, Dec. 18 at Post Bar, 22065 Michigan Ave., Dearborn.

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M usic

feature

A Stirling example

‘Liedernacht’ reunion gathers Detroit nightclubbers for a good cause Photo by Luis G.

by Lee DeVito Anyone who’s spent any time in Detroit’s underground music scene in the past several decades has most likely encountered the man known as Stirling at one time or another. A gaunt and seemingly ubiquitous presence, Stirling made a name for himself as a club owner and promoter, whose dance nights at the now defunct gay bar Todd’s and what is now known as Leland City Club drew a dedicated following from metropolitan Detroit’s various alternative communities in the ’80s.

Today, Stirling uses his birthday celebration as an excuse for an annual reunion of the scenes. And this year, the shindig is helping to raise money for a documentary that pays respects to the gay community, which was an earlier supporter of his music career.

According to Stirling, it all started with a plate of spaghetti.

He says he accompanied a friend of his from high school who had recently come out as gay to Todd’s, a gay-friendly bar on Seven Mile. “He said, ‘Let’s go over there, they have $1 spaghetti nights on Wednesday,’” Stirling says. “They just gave you a dollop of spaghetti on a paper plate.”

Stirling says he quickly became enamored with the bar’s art deco stylings as well as the people who worked there.

That’s when he got the idea to ask the management about hosting a dance night. Not wanting to hear “no” for an answer, Stirling asked if he could try his event out on the typically sluggish Monday nights.

Stirling and Charles English served as the initial DJs. “I think two people showed up, or maybe three,” Stirling says of their first event. “Then the next week there was like eight. And the next week there was like 20. Then 60. It really just completely projected like that within about six months there was hundreds of people there.”

The nights grew a reputation for an eclectic and danceable playlist, featuring mostly British New Wave, synth-pop, and punk. The event soon expanded to Thursdays.

Another factor Stirling says contributed to Todd’s charm was its dance floor. Previously, Todd’s was adjacent to a bowling alley. When the bowling alley was razed,

n Striling and friends in an ad for Liedernacht (originally appearing in Metro Times in February 1985). the lanes were ripped up and the wood was put together to make what Stirling says was one of the better dance floors in town. “There was sort of a spring-y vibe to it,” he says. “Plus it had the bowling marks on there, you know how you line up your ball for the pins. It was kind of cool.”

Todd’s eventually shuttered. When it came time for his next endeavor, Stirling says he was inspired by a trip he took to Berlin in the late ’70s to visit his friend Iggy Pop. “I was so blown away,” he says.

“I just hung out there and met a lot of people, and went to the radio station, and went to the Hansa Tonstudio by the Wall, where David Bowie did ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes.’ It was a beautiful studio, riddled with bullet holes and shell holes, and it was right by the wall.”

That’s when he came up with the name for his next club: “Liedernacht” (translated as “night song.”) “I thought it was a fantastic name, but people said I shouldn’t call it that,” Stirling says. He thought a mysterious name might intrigue people to come, and approached Mike Higgins, a developer who purchased the Leland House hotel at Cass and Bagley, with his idea for a nightclub.

Liedernacht officially opened its doors on Dec. 7, 1984 — “a day that will go down in infamy,” Stirling recounts (it was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor day).

Liedernacht maintained Stirling’s

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penchant for eclectic programming.

Friday nights featured an early residency by techno grandfather Derrick May, while Sundays featured punk rock music. “It was a different crowd every night,” Stirling says. The venue even hosted a performance by John Waters’ muse, the drag queen Divine. (“It was kind of like Dead or Alive,” Stirling says of Divine’s music.

“You remember that band? ‘You spin me right round, baby, right round?’ Now they use it in ads for washing machines.”)

As the burgeoning goth movement grew, Liedernacht’s DJs began playing more of that kind of music. “We liked the music, so we embraced that culture,” Stirling says. “But it wasn’t really in the so-called ‘business plan.’ The common denominator was the music had to be good.”

However, Stirling’s involvement with Higgins didn’t last a year. Citing monetary disagreements, Stirling left, taking the Liedernacht name with him. Higgins switched to the name “City Club,” a reference to the Women’s City Club building that he previously owned and ran as a venue.

Today, Leland City Club has maintained its reputation as one of Detroit’s grimiest nightspots, a meeting place for seemingly every imaginable alternative subculture lured by the cheap cover, 4 a.m. closing time, and eclectic soundtrack

heavy on industrial, goth, New Wave, and techno. Stirling says he still visits occasionally.

The demographic is reminiscent of the crowd that found solace at Todd’s. “It’s gay, straight, older people, young people, every kind of person,” he says. “Black, white — every race, every expression of subculture is visualized there, hanging out in the stairwells or whatever. It’s really trippy.”

Since City Club has its own audience today, Stirling typically hosts the reunions at other venues around town. This year, it will be held at the Northern Lights Lounge. In a throwback to the Todd’s days, English is returning as the night’s DJ. And also in homage to his success in the gay club scene, Stirling says that money raised at his birthday bash and reunion will go toward funding America You Kill Me, a feature-length documentary film about his friend, the gay rights activist Jeffrey Montgomery, set to be completed in 2016.

The party starts at 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19 at Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore, Detroit; 313-873-1739; northernlightslounge.com; 21 and up only; $6 cover.

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M

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n Best Coast

Recently added

Mark your calendar today for these upcoming shows Tickets are now on sale for these events.

Jan. 2, 2016, Ne-Yo at the Fox Theatre; olympiaentertainment.com; Tickets from $69 to $125.

Jan. 29-30, 2016, Ann Arbor Folk Fest with Richard Thompson, Yo La Tengo, Joan Baez, and many more at the Hill Auditorium; theark. org; General public tickets are $37.50 and $50 for a single night; $67.50 and $90 for series tickets.

April 25, 2016, Justin Bieber at the Palace of Auburn Hills; aeglive.com; Tickets from $50.50 to $126.

May 4, 2016, Animal Collective at Royal Oak Music Theatre; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show; Reserved seating $45.

Feb. 12, 2016, Jim Norton at Royal Oak Music Theatre; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $29.50 in advance, $35 day of show.

May 21, 2016, the 1975 at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre; palacenet.com; Tickets are $49.95 and $39.95 in the pavilion and $29.95 on the lawn.

Feb. 16, 2016, Disappears at PJ’s Lager House; pjslagerhouse.com; Cover is $8.

May 23, 2016, First Annual Trip Metal Fest; tripmetalfest.com.

Feb. 23, 2016, Wavves, Best Coast at the Majestic Theatre; majesticdetroit.com; Tickets are $27.50 in advance, $30 day of show.

March 16, 2016, Greg Dulli at Marble Bar; brownpapertickets.com; $22.

March 24, 2016, Rihanna at the Palace of Auburn Hills; aeglive.com; Tickets from $30.50 to $151.

April 9, 2016, St Germain at the Fillmore; thefillmoredetroit.com; Tickets at $33, $58.

April 15, 2016, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals at Royal Oak Music Theatre; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $45 in advance, $50 day of show;

64 December December 16-22, 16-22, 2015 2015 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com

Reserved seating $75.

May 28-30, 2016, Movement Detroit 2016; www.Movement.us; General admission tickets for the weekend are $135; VIP weekend tickets are $300.

June 24, 2016, Selena Gomez at The Palace of Auburn Hills; palacenet. com; Tickets are $34.95, $66.95, and $89.95.

July 30, 2016, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas at The Palace of Auburn Hills; palacenet.com; Tickets go on sale Sat., Nov. 7.

Aug. 13, 2016, Josh Groban at DTE Energy Music Theatre; livenation.com; Tickets on sale Dec. 11.

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Livewire

This week’s suggested musical events

by MT Staff

Saturday, 12/19 Festivus Benefit Concert: Detroit Cobras, Howling Diablos, and Royal Blackbirds @ Royal Oak Farmers Market

The Festivus benefit concert is off the hook with absolutely soulful and blistering rock ’n’ roll music this year, with the Detroit Cobras, the Howling Diablos, and the Royal Blackbirds. Many Detroiters look forward to holiday times so that they can unwind from the myriad pressures of the holiday season with at least one local set by the Cobras. They’re so much fun, it’s hard to believe the experience is legal. The Diablos and Blackbirds are nothing to sneeze at, of course — what a show! There’s also a market, drinks, food, and activities for the young ones. The concert is a benefit for South Oakland Shelter to support their programs that provide realistic options for homeless and at-risk.

Doors at 5 p.m.; 316 E. 11 Mile Rd., Royal Oak; festivustix.com; $15.

Friday, 12/18 Siegel-Schwall Band @ The Magic Bag

For more than 50 years, the duo of Jim Schwall on guitar and Corky Siegel on piano/harmonica has been churning out its own brand of electric blues. In the catalogue of iconic songs about drinker’s remorse, their own “I Think It Was the Wine” surely ranks along with the all-time greats. (It is hard to imagine the jovial Schwall hitting anyone with a 2-by-4, however.) The pair appears alongside an all-star rhythm section that includes Sun Ra alumnus Rollo Radford on bass and drummer Sam Lay, who has lent the beat for both Muddy Waters and Paul Butterfield.

Doors at 8 p.m.; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; themagicbag.com; $25.

Friday, 12/18

Friday, 12/18

Fri, 12/18- Sat, 12/19

‘Home for the Holidaze 13’

New Fortune Records Holiday Party

The Night 89x Stole Christmas

@ Cadieux Café

@ PJ’s Lager House

@ The Fillmore

Christmas is a great time for family and friends, but it is also the time of year the less fortunate are at their most vulnerable. For 13 years, the Static Network has hosted its annual benefit in support of Detroit’s homeless. Along with Outcry Youth and Street Ministry, and Congregation of Every 1, the “Home for the Holidaze 13: Songwriter Showcase & Charity Drive” will raise money for animal rescue shelter Hater Kitty Rescue Army. Six performers appear for an acoustic set.

With nearly four years on the scene, New Fortune Records have come together to offer Christmas audiences at their holiday party an assortment of some of the most stirring, old-fashioned Detroit rock ’n’ roll around right now.

Headliners New Fortune Records’ holiday party encompasses the entire spectrum of what we think of as roots music. After opening for several prominent national acts across the country, their debut full-length is set to drop this year. Gold Crayon, Payback the Thief, and the Old Shatterhand provide even more festively overdriven, guitar-forward tunes.

This year, 89x have organized two whole nights of indie and alternative for their highly anticipated Christmas blowout.

Awolnation headline the first evening on Friday, Dec. 18, still hot off the success of their massive 2014 single “Sail.”

Intense, female-fronted, and forwardthinking acts Metric and Pvris also appear on the bill. The following night’s festivities on Saturday, Dec. 19 should prove considerably more chillaxed, owing to headliners Sublime with Rome.

Bust out the Christmas trees for their stoney new jam “Wherever You Go.”

Doors at 9 p.m.; 4300 Cadieux Rd., Detroit; cadieuxcafe.com; $6 or $5 with one clothing item, can of food or can of pet food.

68 December 16-22, 2015 | metrotimes.com

Doors at 5 p.m.; 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; pjslagerhouse.com; $10.

Doors at 6:30 p.m.; 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 89xradio.com; $8.90-$49.50.

Sunday, 12/20 Will Downing’s Soulful Sounds of Christmas @ Sound Board

Many of us love Christmas music, but hearing the same songs over and over can get a tad repetitive. As an answer to this Christmas conundrum, check out Will Downing’s album Christmas, Love and You, which features many originals as well as down-tempo renditions of the standards in his trademark vocal style. Solo artists Kenny Lattimore, who audiences will remember for his 1996 hit “For You,” and Maysa complete a solid line up of smooth, mature R&B.

Doors at 7:30; 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; soundboarddetroit.com; $3545.

Friday, 12/18 T.Rexmas @ Donovan’s Pub

If you would like to hear different Christmas songs from the ones that are already drilled into your heads, perhaps even ones that have crunch, bite, and grit to them, head to this off-the-hook DJ night. Also it’s free, so you should take a date here if you are cheap. Let out some holiday aggression and frustration with great crunchy punk mixed with glam and disco. Please note that dressing up is a must. Donovan’s just feels like your cool uncle’s basement anyway, so it only seems right to celebrate the good cheer over here at this weird and fun evening.

Starts at 10 p.m.; 3003 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; Free, 21 and over.

Saturday, 12/19

Saturday, 12/19

Sunday, 12/20

We Wish You An Ugly Christmas

Tony Valla and the Alamos

Jorma Kaukonen

@ The Ritz Detroit

@ UFO Factory

The second annual “We Wish You An Ugly Christmas” is a concert featuring mostly 1980s Detroit thrash metal bands at the Ritz. A portion of the proceeds will benefit local charities All About Animals and the Warren chapter of Goodfellows.

Headliners Ugly But Proud are celebrating their 30th anniversary; as we all are well aware by now that band was a major force in Detroit’s thrash metal scene of the 1980s and ’90s. “Renowned for their high energy, theatrical live performances, Ugly But Proud will also be debuting two new songs at the show,” according to the press release. Heresy, Gore, Blasphemous, and Raw Image open the show.

Detroit is blessed to have so many musical legends still among us. Some are a bit more on the obscure side, and do not play out too often — Fortune Records’ recording artist Tony Valla is tops among that category, as he hasn’t performed since the 1980s. He’s still going strong at 80 years old, and this is absolutely a show to not miss, especially because two of the finest genre recombinant acts around — Michael Hurtt’s Haunted Hearts and the Britemores — are joining Valla. Valla led the Orbits on Dr. Ross’ killer “Cat Squirrel,” backed Nolan Strong and the Diablos on their scorching “I Want to Be Your Happiness”, and of course cut his own awesome 45s, “Maria Christina,” “La Bomba,” and “Donkey Walk.” Whew.

See you there.

Doors at 7 p.m.; 24300 Hoover Rd., Warren; theritzvenue. com; Admission is $5 with an unwrapped toy or four-five canned goods, regular admission is $10.

@ the Ark

Quah is one of the greatest solo folk guitar dude records of the last five centuries. It’s in fact preferable to many venerated loner psych weirdo guitar dude records that fetch hundreds of dollars online. It’s certainly preferable to hear Kaukonen’s warm voice to Basho’s cracked crooning. But those are clearly apples and oranges, and while Basho and many of his contemporaries are long gone, Kaukonen is still here, and going super strong. He is always entertaining; dude’s a great storyteller.

I’ve seen him a handful of times in the past thirty years, and he’s always nimble with that fingerpicking and nuanced in the way he approaches Piedmont and country blues and folk.

Doors at 7:30 p.m.; 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; theark.org; $30.

Doors at 9 p.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; $10. metrotimes.com

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A rts

feature

The art of the hot rod

New book chronicles Detroit’s seminal custom car scene

by Lee DeVito

n Bob Larivee Sr. and his custom “Red Baron” in the ’70s.

70 December 16-22, 2015 | metrotimes.com

Despite its Motor City moniker, Detroit has found itself unfairly written out of the history of hot rod culture. At least that’s what Bob Larivee Sr. wants to prevent from happening. Larivee is a lifelong auto aficionado from Detroit — a custom car collector and racer for decades who has been involved with Detroit’s famous Autorama car show since its inception. To help secure Detroit’s place in hot rod history, Larivee set out to chronicle as much as he could in his recently released book, Hot Rod Detroit: A Complete History of Hot Rodding in the Motor City (GP Publishing, 298 pages). The book is filled with

plenty of eye-popping visuals, from the winners of Autorama’s coveted Don Ridler Memorial Trophy for the hottest hot rods, posters, Detroit’s flashy speed shop signs, pinstriping, and more. We sat down with Larivee to flip through the book.

Metro Times: When did the

book project start?

Bob Larivee: I was born in Detroit on the east side. I went to Cass Tech. I’ve always been proud of that. I have a lot of California friends through business, and I told them, sort of tongue in cheek, that through this book I’m trying to prove that the hot

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A rts rod sport started in Detroit. Of course, if you wanted to say Henry Ford was a hot rodder when he raced on the ice on Lake St. Clair, you could make that analogy — really, the hot rod sport for the most part started in California. But I think Detroit’s always been shortchanged because most of the magazines were California-based.

And so I spent my whole life in the business. I ran custom car shows for 51 years. My last book before this had been a big 500-page book on the history of custom car shows. When I got looking at all the pictures, I realized that there was so much Detroit stuff. My heart was in Detroit. I’d been involved with Detroit’s Autorama since its first year in 1953. I thought that something should be done to make a statement for what had transpired in Detroit. Everybody who worked on the book — basically one way or another, they were from Detroit. We tried to cover everything — the speed shops, the race tracks, the drag strips, the custom car builders.

MT: Would you say hot rodding is

an art?

Larivee: It absolutely is an art form. That’s what it’s all about. And it’s not just restricted to hot rods — it’s the custom cars. The way that whole thing evolved was because people were unhappy with what they bought, or they thought they could make it look better — or look better in their own mind.

Guys weren’t happy with the wheels that came on their car, so they wanted a set of custom wheels, or a custom paint job, or interior, or whatever. Everybody has a different idea of what they want, but that’s what makes it so interesting.

It’s so individualized.

MT: What’s the difference between

hot rods and custom cars?

Larivee: That’s a question that’s asked all the time. It’s a really hard question to answer. When you get into those questions — “What’s a hot rod?” or “What’s a custom car?” — you get into a real technical thing. By National Street Rod Association standards, a hot rod is a vehicle that was pretty much built prior to WWII. If it was built after WWII, it’s a “custom car.”

“Hot rod” in the ’50s was a derogatory term. That’s why when I started my business at the shows my guys had to wear suits and ties and show that it was respectable. It was just a negative term.

If a kid got in an accident it was really played up — “Oh, he was just a hot rodder.” So we had to turn that term into a term that was accepted by the general public.

72 December 16-22, 2015 2015 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com

feature MT: What’s the difference between the custom car scene in Detroit versus California?

Larivee: I don’t think there’s any difference. The biggest difference in the hot rod sport is that they have good weather year-round and we don’t.

That was why many of the shows in the East were successful. There were many more shows in the East than the West because in the West a lot of the activity is outdoors. In the East, people look forward to the winter because of the indoor custom car shows. I think the shows in the East were bigger for the most part.

MT: Is there overlap between the custom cars and the racing?

Larivee: No, they’re separate. A custom car is a custom car — you’re not going to race that.

That was my life: the hot rod scene, and racing. I raced for 25 years on a circle track. I did a little bit of drag racing, but it never seemed as exciting to me. I don’t know why. I didn’t like the crash and burn aspect of circle track racing, but it just seemed a lot more exciting to me.

I ended up with two Camaros, the ’70 Camaros that we ran. We raced all across Canada, from Windsor to Halifax in 24 races of 100 laps or more for two or three years. It was great fun. But, you know, life changes. I was going to race until I was 50. I quit when I was about 46. I had a new wife, I had a 2-year-old daughter. Right after I quit racing I built a log house in the mountains in Colorado. It just seemed like my life was going in a different direction.

MT: What do you hope to accomplish with this book?

Larivee: What I wanted to do was put everything I could think of in writing, so that it would be there for somebody. Especially I’m thinking of young people, 10 years down the road, saying, “Gee, how did this happen?”

Well, read the book.

Larivee will sign copies of Hot Rod Detroit at Barnes & Noble locations from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19 at 19221 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe and 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20 at 2800 S. Rochester Rd., Rochester Hills. The book is also available for sale at Vinsetta Garage, 27799 Woodward Ave., Berkley.

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ldevito@metrotimes.com @leedevito

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I’m a straight 26-year-old man who wants advice on helping my fiancée realize a particular fantasy. We have been dating for three years and are in a happy monogamous relationship. I was always vanilla, but she enjoys rougher sex and light bondage. We’ve incorporated some of this into our sex lives, and we are both happy with how fun it is.

She has expressed interest in a rape fantasy. Both of us want to be safe when we do this, and we trust each other completely. But I cannot think of a way in which she can get the experience she desires while still maintaining a safe dynamic. I am wondering if you have advice on how I can help act out her fantasy in a way that we both have fun. —Seeking Erotic Advice Now

A

You and the fiancée are obviously capable of communicating about varsity-level sex play, SEAN; your track record with bondage and rougher sex demonstrates that. Now you just have to use the same interpersonal skills that made your past kinky fuckfests possible — along with the same respect for limits, boundaries, and each other — to negotiate and realize your girlfriend’s edgy-but-thoroughlycommon fantasy.

I recommend reading “Rape fantasy: How to carry it out safely,” a long and thoughtful post at Slut Lessons (slutlessons.wordpress.com), an engaging sex blog that’s sadly no longer being updated. The first recommendation from Educated Slut, the site’s anonymous author: Maybe we shouldn’t call them “rape fantasies” at all.

“A rape fantasy is almost invariably more about forced sex and not a desire to actually BE raped by someone,” writes Educated Slut. “Very few people have the desire to be put through the physical and emotional trauma of a real rape. This is the primary reason I refer to this as ‘forced sex fantasy’ rather than rape fantasy; it just gives the wrong impression to some people.”

You might to be one of those people, SEAN. You seem to be under the impression that there’s something inherently more dangerous about realizing/ role-playing your way through a forced-sex scenario.

And it may be more dangerous and/or triggering on an emotional level — talking through any past traumas or fears will be important — but slapping the label “rape fantasy” on rough(er) sex shouldn’t result in you having some sort of out-of-body experience that leads you to go apeshit on your helpless fiancée.

Talk things through in advance, just like you have before, agree on a safe word — a word that stops the action cold should either of you utter it — and take it slow the first few times you go for it.

Q

I’m a single straight guy and this is probably going to sound really stupid, but… I basically stumbled over the cuckold fetish and I can’t get it out of my mind. I’ve tried to stay away from it because I’m pretty sure you aren’t supposed to feel like garbage after enjoying porn. But I can’t get it out of my head. It’s worrying, since I fear that one day it might end up spoiling things when I fall in love

with someone since I’m a bit of a jealous person. The idea of a cheating woman is really hot in spite of all of that. But there’s this lingering feeling of disgust surrounding the whole thing. Is it possible to have a fetish you hate? —Baffled About Romantic Future

A

Don’t you just hate it when someone leaves a fetish sitting on the steps and then you come along and stumble over it and — bam! — you fall and hit your head and when you come to you’ve got a brandnew fetish?

Yeah, no. We don’t know exactly where people’s fetishes and kinks come from — how or why someone’s erotic imagination snaps on an inanimate object (high heels, leather gear, rubber masks) or a particular sexual scenario (cuckolding, roleplay, outdoor sex) — but we can safely say that people don’t stumble into their fetishes or kinks.

Forgive me for being a pedantic asshole, BARF — I’m sure you didn’t mean you literally stumbled over a cuckold. But misinformed, sex-negative, kink-negative pornophobes routinely talk about fetishes and kinks — and fetish/kink porn — like a moment’s exposure can transform an innocent person with purely vanilla tastes into a horned-up, slobbering, gimp-outfit-wearing kink monster. And that’s not the way it happens.

So what did happen to you, BARF? You found some cuckold porn online, and your dick said: “DUDE. THIS IS IT. THIS IS WHAT WE’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. RUN WITH THIS.” Your particular kink was already in there somewhere, already rattling around in your erotic subconscious, but you couldn’t articulate it — it didn’t take shape — until you finally “stumbled over” the images and narratives you were looking for all along. And your kink, like the kinks of so many other people (see SEAN’s fiancée, above), seems to be grounded in insecurity and fear — you’re the jealous type, you fear being cheated on, and your erotic imagination/reptile brain took your fears and spun them into a kink.

Congrats.

On to your question: Yes, you can have a fetish you hate, i.e., you can have a kink you don’t want to act on because the fantasy can’t be realized for moral or ethical reasons (it involves children, nonconsensual acts, Donald Trump) or because you’re fairly certain doing so would suck for emotional or physical reasons (potentially traumatizing, physically dangerous, Donald Trump).

But if your only issue with your kink are those lingering feelings of disgust, BARF, those feelings may diminish the more time you spend thinking/ jacking about your newly revealed kink. Time will determine if your feelings of disgust are merely your run-of-the-mill, beneficial-to-overcome kink negativity or if they’re a sign cuckolding should remain a go-to masturbatory fantasy for you, BARF, without ever become a cheating-woman reality.

Read the full column at metrotimes.com.

C mail@savagelove.net L@fakedansavage

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C ulture ARIES (March 21 – April 20): The next few weeks are loaded with uncertainty.

Strap yourself in and throw your expectations to the wind. Fortunately, you shine in situations where the only solution is to turn into a flame and sear a path toward whatever the aim is. You are riding on the wind. Get used to it. There are issues with others that you don’t have the time or the inclination to address. In those situations you are being tested — not by the people themselves, but by the universe. You have no idea how much your reactions matter.

Keep a close eye on the ways in which you take people for granted.

horoscopes

by Cal Garrison LEO (July 21 – August 20): You are past the point of expecting any of this to be easy. You’ve seen and done enough to be strong and resilient at the same time. Mixed messages, in situations with people who don’t know enough to be straight with you is making it hard to keep your mouth shut. At a time when every particle of your being is ready to ascend beyond the confines of your current scenario, it comes down to knowing what you want and knowing what matters at the end of the day. You’ve looked at this many times before. Let yourself off the hook, if need be. No one said you had to stay here.

SAGITTARIUS (November 21 – December 20): There is a stroke of good luck wafting over a situation that has been hanging by a thread. If you are relieved, it’s because you have finally made sense of your suffering. It would help to “get away,” in body, mind, and/or spirit. New people and surroundings will put a novel spin on what has gotten kinda stale. As far as that goes you’d do just as well to go back to school or sign up for a seminar. In or out of the box, learning more about yourself is on top of the stack. Why? Because wherever you are seeking your knowledge, it’s really about stretching beyond your limits.

TAURUS (April 21 – May 20): What goes

around comes around. You know how it works. Don’t be too quick to assume that you can ever get around that principle. At the moment things appear to be under control because you’ve managed to come out on top in a situation that is subject to too much change for you to feel this comfortable. Temporary support from Jupiter is making things seem like a big bowl of cherries. Underneath it all? Only you know what the story is there. And the bigger part of you has a right to be nervous about the fact that you have no idea what others want out of this.

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20): You’ve got

more than enough to carry you through whatever this passage entails. I see many things needing to fall off the wagon. With enough planetary support to make it through the night, the only thing you need to consider is how much karma will have to say about you and your future plans. What isn’t made conscious surfaces as fate, and you have a truck load of stuff that’s been shoved under the rug.

Bringing it to light could get interesting.

As much as the thought of getting to the bottom of things disturbs you, not getting to the bottom of them will disturb you more.

CANCER (June 21 – July 20): Things are looking up. It’s been nuts for a while but you’re beginning to see that all this chaos is sourcing your next trick. No need to micro-manage what is better left to the laws of serendipity. You’ve been through enough to see what it takes to navigate change. As waves of acceptance allow you to flow through anything, openings will occur. And it is via those channels that you will see your way clear to things that will surprise you. Your security concerns are only founded up to a point, money will only get you to the bank; faith and trust are more precious commodities.

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VIRGO (August 21 – September 20):

As you contemplate the need to refurbish things that got set in motion six or seven years ago, get as real as you can about what you can live with. If things have out grown your interest, and there’s nothing but money keeping you here, you got a lot of soul searching to do. Weighing the good with the bad, you want to have your cake and eat it too. Wrapping your mind around the idea that this is actually possible is where it’s at right now.

If you can break things down, and keep what only appear to be opposing forces in check, having it all will manifest with no sacrifice on your part.

LIBRA (September 21 – October 20):

Long drawn-out endings and issues that require more time for recuperation are slowing things down and showing you how to take better care of yourself. It’s hard to make plans because the idea that “you can’t start this till you’ve finished that” is all over the place. On top of all of that your energy and your aims are fluctuating too much for you to know how to be more reliable. Anything could happen.

Something in you knows this. And the sense of being on tenterhooks competes with the need to pray that calmer waters will free you of the need to keep on trucking.

SCORPIO (October 21 – November 20):You are back in the saddle again, trying to figure out how to justify the need to be the “personal assistant” in a situation that is totally wacky. Don’t be too hard on yourself. After all, you meant well, but you know what they say about “the road to Hell.” As you sit here learning how to live with the fact that you might have been in error when you agreed to all of this, thank God you have enough integrity to be accountable for things that could turn out to be a total waste of time. Your next trick could involve backing out of a tight spot before you get stuck in the middle.

CAPRICORN (December 21 - January 20):

How far you are willing to go has been an issue for quite some time. With every reason to believe that you could get around anything, three years down the road, you have reached a point where there may be nowhere to turn. Thrown back on your own resources, the sense that you’ve lost your touch needs to be replaced with the thought that all of this is bringing you back to center. Don’t get overwhelmed by the forces that say you will never get it back. Trust me: If you can remain in/return to integrity, whatever’s out of alignment will automatically come out in the wash.

AQUARIUS (January 21 – February 20): So

much has taken off on a whole new track. You are blown away by the fact that all of your experience up until now has prepared you for things that are way more stimulating than your last movie. As you get used to the idea that the master plan is always subject to change, be prepared to meet up with people and things that affirm your desire to remain true to yourself. There are too many unknown factors impinging on choices that only appear to be up to you. It’s your job to stay centered enough to know what you need out of this, and allow fate to handle the rest of it.

PISCES (Feb. 21-March 20): You’ve figured out it’s your job to know what’s going to happen next. What you are also aware of is that you are dealing with people who need to think that everything is “their idea.” Getting this situation into gear will require you to find a strategy that works, and that allows you to live with yourself at the same time. Others are of the mind that all of this is hunky-dory.

If they are in their right mind there is no problem. If there is any lack of awareness, or unconsciousness about things that only you can handle, it’s time to give everyone else a good reason to see it your way.

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