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Vol. 37 | Issue 13 | Jan. 4-10, 2017
News & Views Politics & Prejudices...................... 8
Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor-In-Chief - Lee DeVito
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Feature Trump Survival Guide.....................18
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NEWS &VIEWS Politics & Prejudices: The Snyder Follies by Jack Lessenberry
Late last year, two things
happened that I never would have dreamed possible: Rick Snyder, our off-kilter, emotionally deficient accountant of a governor, made me laugh out loud. Even more surprising, I found myself briefly sympathizing with Donald Trump, also known as the man who is about to do his best to destroy America. Here’s how both happened: A few days before Christmas, Snyder did a wide-ranging interview with the Detroit Free Press, in which he revealed he’d been calling the presidentelect, but that he hadn’t heard back. “I’ve put in messages, but I know he’s been very busy,” Snyder chirped brightly in his best Kermit voice. Yeah, Trump’s been so busy he’s had time to tweet constantly about Alec Baldwin’s imitation of him on Saturday Night Live. I disagree with virtually everything Trump has done throughout his rotten and sordid career, except for this: Why in the hell would he ever call Snyder back? Snyder didn’t even endorse Trump for president, even after he’d won his party’s nomination. Beyond that, Snyder is a man best known for his administration’s poisoning of an entire city. If there is a politician who cares less about humanity than Trump, it’s Rick Snyder. This is someone who has been behind efforts to severely limit medical benefits for people terribly injured in auto accidents. There’s plenty of money to cover all those unlucky folks for life, thanks to the Michigan Catastrophic Claims fund, which those of us with car insurance pay into every year. But a lot of people would just love to get their hands on those billions. Three years ago, Snyder tried to cap benefits for everybody, insured or uninsured, at a million dollars. In exchange, we would have gotten a one-year token cut in auto insurance rates. We were saved, however, by an unlikely angel: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who had been racked up badly in a 2012 car crash, and used his influence to stop
that outrage. Last month, as I’ve previously noted, they tried, almost at the last minute of a lame-duck session, to cap benefits for uninsured motorists at $400,000. That too died, but we need to stay on our toes. The forces of darkness will be back. Republicans have almost two more years of total control of state government. They’ve got plenty of time to screw us over at their leisure, and they’ll try. Snyder, however, may have other things to worry about. For the last two years, he’s had very little clout with his fellow Republicans in the legislature. Most of them ran ahead of him in 2014, and in any event, he became a liability after Flint. Now, however, Snyder may have reason to fear his least favorite fellow Republican, “Trust Fund Bill” Schuette, the state attorney general, may be coming after him. In late December, Big Bill charged Jerry Ambrose and Darnell Earley, two Snyder-appointed emergency managers, with various felonies that could get them both two decades in the can. Two high-ranking appointees, the city public works director, Howard Croft, and utility director, Daugherty Johnson, were similarly charged. Up till now, Schuette has mainly fingered middle-level bureaucrats. Suddenly, some of us who have been around for a long time had an image flash from our memories: one of a young, redheaded senator asking in a Tennessee accent, “What did the president know, and when did he know it? “ That was Howard Baker talking about Richard Nixon. Eventually, we got enough of an answer to drive old Tricky from office and lock up much of his administration. As for Snyder — there are, by the way, eerie similarities between Watergate and Flintwatergate. Back then, we looked for smoking guns in Nixon’s tapes; now, we have been searching for clues in the released emails of Snyder & Associates. We’ve been asked to believe that our governor knew nothing for months about concerns about lead contami-
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nation, though his chief of staff and counsel, who clearly were worried, talked about this all the time. Ditto with the sudden spike in Legionnaires’ disease cases that coincided with the switch to the poisonous Flint River. (A dozen people died, though it was hushed up for months before the public found out about it.) Everybody in government, however, seems to have known about it except our relentlessly positive governor. But the investigation is getting ever closer. Attorney General Schuette, who is one of the more nakedly ambitious politicians in a city full of ’em, has a problem: He clearly wants to be governor more than an addict wants a fix. He probably can power by Lt. Gov. Brian Calley to get the GOP nomination next year — but odds are that may not be worth much. After eight years of the poisoner-in-chief and two years of Trump, things are bound to favor the Democrats. Schuette has to do something to show Michigan he isn’t Snyder. The best way to do this would be by hauling Snyder over the coals, or at least bagging some of his top aides. Rumor was that the attorney general’s boys might be sweating Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s former chief of staff, and trying to get him to help finger his old boss. Others thought the logical next indictment might be Andy Dillon, the onetime Democrat who then served first as treasurer, then as an equally high-paid adviser, after his marital and alcohol problems got in the way. Nobody’s talking on the record. What we do know is that Schuette hasn’t ruled out charging the accountant-in-chief. When directly asked about that at a Dec. 20 news conference, he said, “We read the emails and put two and two together. Nobody’s on the table; nobody’s off the table. If there’s sufficient evidence, we charge.” You’d think that would have been enough to ruin New Year’s Eve at the governor’s mansion. But in what was either continuing wacky denial or a lie of Trumpian proportions, Snyder said in an interview he has “no reason to
be concerned.” Unfortunately, his actions indicate that’s probably bullshit. Some time ago, he asked the taxpayers to cough up little over a million or attorneys to defend him against potential lawsuits, both criminal and civil. Republicans, who control everything in Lansing, agreed. Former Attorney General Frank Kelley, who served in the office 37 years without a hint of scandal, thought that was outrageous. “I would have approved defending him once he was sued, but not in spending state money before,” he told me. But we live in a different era. In recent weeks, the amount we’ve been paying to shield Snyder from justice has ballooned to about $5 million, $3.5 million for criminal defense lawyers alone. Snyder made the absurd claim that “the bulk of their work is document production,” such as retrieving old emails to show the public in the interest of transparency. What a humanitarian. Incidentally, there was an attempt made in the legislature last month to subject the governor and our lawmakers’ communications to the same Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) standards that apply to other officials. Republicans in the state Senate, led by their truly odious majority leader, Arlan Meekhof, killed that. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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NEWS &VIEWS News Hits:
PR firm’s locker room humor falls flat by Michael Jackman
Media people in metro Detroit
can tell that the year is finally winding to a close when a certain mailpiece arrives. It’s the annual cartoon calendar released by Michigan PR firm Truscott Rossman. They usually lampoon the Michigan political scene with a light touch, and the cartoons generally get a giggle out of us before they go into the garbage. This year’s calendar, however, was a weird one. We got the main gag: It’s a locker room mostly featuring 2018’s gubernatorial aspirants warming up for the campaign season. The folks in red are from the GOP team, including Bill Schuette making some crack about the designation on what appears to be a bathroom door. In blue are the Dems, including Dan Kildee, who makes a quip about Donald Trump’s proposed “Muslim registry.” The two major presidential candidates of 2016 are in there too: Donald Trump is covering his locker with “caution” tape, apparently stuffed to overflowing with profanities, while candidate Clinton whacks her smartphone with the cleats on her running shoe. Over it all hover the faces of four apparent nonpoliticians, all nonwhite, looking down on the lockers with troubled, doubtful, or impassive faces, looking sort of like half-profile mugshots. All the politicians are white. (Well, Trump is sort of orange.) Oh, and flying over it all is a bat. We passed it around the office and got puzzled reactions. Some wondered if jokes about gender and ethnic profiling were funny. Others conceded that the gag writers were trying to play it down the middle and likely wound up amusing nobody. Many of the questions were about the portraits, or were they windows? Or were they portraits reacting as if they were alive? We got in touch with the cartoon’s illustrator, Jay P. Fosgitt, a Plymouth-based artist who has worked for such noted publishers as Marvel. A self-described person of “progressively left-leaning” politics, Fosgitt welcomed the chance to do a piece that poked fun at both sides of the aisle. His description of how the contract work played out is something almost anybody who’s ever taken on a design contract
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can relate to. “Every aspect of this art was dictated to me by a committee,” Fosgitt says, “with several rounds of revisions asked for before completion. I don’t particularly enjoy what I call ‘creativity by committee,’ but in this case, at least I can credit them with the content.” “I was stymied by some of the iconography they chose — the bat, evidently, is an inside joke amongst the firm,” he says. The portraits, he says, “were meant to be various minority groups peering down at the politicians.” While Fosgitt says he wasn’t sure what to infer from the request, he tried to make them the straight men of the gag, not the punch line. “The way I drew it,” he says, “I took it as they were disappointed in the politicians, particularly Trump.” But were they supposed to be portraits or windows or what? It sounds as though Fosgitt has been through one revision too many to remember which they were supposed to be. “Jeez,” he says. “I honestly don’t [know] at this point.” Fosgitt sounds like a good guy, and we believe him — especially when he stresses that he never meant to offend anybody. But, golly, wouldn’t you think that’s the job of his clients? After all, emblazoned on their website in 22-point type it reads: “Our award-winning team is filled with great writers, speakers, strategists and communicators.” You see, these Truscott Rossman guys are communications specialists. The person who receives the calendar should get the jokes, laugh, and put it on their wall, satisfied with an annual freebie. They should not be scratching their head. To the firm’s credit, we soon heard from no less than the CEO herself, Kelly Rossman-McKinney, who told us the people were actually looking into the locker room. “Our goal was simply to show that the minority community is still on the outside looking in at the political landscape in Michigan,” she said in an email. So the minority communities of Michigan are actually peeking into a locker room? That was the intent, RossmanMcKinney replied. We would say more, but … hey, they’re the communications experts.
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Docs from Duggan inner circle requested in Detroit demolition corruption probe by Lee DeVito The Friday before New Year’s Eve, the Detroit Land Bank Authority released two subpoenas related to the ongoing federal corruption probe into the city’s demolition program, which is investigating why the cost of demolitions increased 60 percent during Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration. The timing here could be considered curious. The unsealing of the documents was originally scheduled for Jan. 12 after Wayne County Circuit Judge David Allen determined the investigation to be a public matter, according to the Free Press. But just before noon on the Friday before a holiday — two weeks before the scheduled unsealing — the Land Bank posted the documents to its website. The subpoenas were originally served to the Detroit Land Bank and the Detroit Building Authority in May 19, 2016 by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled
Asset Relief Program, demanding documents including emails, phone records, voice mails, text messages, and work calendars from 32 people across the two authorities. They include Duggan’s group executive for operations David Manardo and former DBA deputy director James Wright. Both were handpicked by Duggan, their relationship with the mayor extending to Duggan’s time as CEO of the Detroit Medical Center. In April 2016, Manardo was found by Detroit auditors to have a conflict of interest for essentially reporting to himself. Wright abruptly resigned in August 2016. More than $250 million from the federal Hardest Hit Fund has been allocated to Detroit’s demolition program, with the city demolishing more than 10,000 properties during Duggan’s administration. Under Mayor Dave Bing, demolitions cost $8,500$10,000 per home. At one point under Duggan, costs surged to $16,400 per home. The subpoenas were posted following a lawsuit from activist Robert Davis, who sued the DLB after it denied his FOIA request for the subpoena. No one has yet been charged in the investigation.
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NEWS &VIEWS ‘When I walked into the room, people would walk out of the room for some reason. People would see me in the hallways and turn around and walk the other way.’ Victim of Royal Oak Middle School ‘build the wall’ chant says classmates made her ‘feel like an animal’ by Alysa Offman On Nov. 10, 2016, a video of Royal Oak Middle School students chanting “Build the wall” made waves on social media. It was viewed around the world and inspired a peaceful demonstration during a school basketball game. But until now, the students on the receiving end of the chant were mum about the experience. Josie Ramon was the student who captured the seven-second video. According to a CNN interview, she then sent it to her mother who began to share it with some friends who also had kids in Royal Oak Middle School. It was one of those parents who posted in on Facebook, according to the article. Isabelle Castilla, Josie’s best friend, was so upset by the chant that she ran to the bathroom in tears. That’s when Josie started filming. In the interview, Josie and Isabelle describe their reaction to the chant and the backlash they faced after the video was posted to social media. “You look around, and half the cafeteria is doing it,” Isabelle said. She and others felt that it was directed toward her and the other Hispanic students. They describe feeling scared, but also angry at their fellow classmates. Josie goes on to say she’s been the victim of several racist comments, but felt the school swept the allegations under the rug. She took the video in hoping of retaining some evidence. For standing up for herself, Josie says she was further victimized. “When I walked into the room, people would walk out of the room for some reason. People would see me in the hallways and turn around and walk the other way,” she said. “I felt like an animal.” Due to feeling of ostracization, Josie left Royal Oak Middle School and has enrolled in private school, a change her mother says is for the better.
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In Flint criminal charges, is Schuette indicting ... himself? by Lee DeVito Following the news that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is charging four more people in the Flint water crisis investigation — including two of Flint’s emergency managers — the Detroit Free Press brings up an interesting point: Schuette’s office was the the one that, in part, approved the administrative consent order issued by the Department of Environmental Quality central to the crisis. The administrative consent order was signed by Assistant Attorney General Robert Reichel of the AG’s environment, natural resources and agriculture division. But as the Free Press points out, in his investigation, Schuette and investigators are saying the MDEQ consent order never should have been issued in the first place, because “it was based on a ‘sham’ environmental calamity” manufactured in part by the former Flint emergency managers. So why did Schuette’s office OK a consent order that Schuette is now saying never should have been issued in the first place? A spokeswoman for Schuette says Reichel may have approved the order based on faulty information from the MDEQ. “While I can’t comment on the trial strategy going forward, we were aware of this when charges were filed,” spokeswoman Andrea Bitely told the Free Press. Assistant Attorney Generals rely on department experts like the DEQ in signing off on such documents. “If a department provides false or inaccurate information as the basis for a document like this, the AAG would have no way of knowing,” she said. The charges are certainly raising some interesting questions. Are they an indictment of the emergency management law? Are they merely an indictment of emergency managers? Is Schuette unintentionally indicting ... himself? letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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UP FRONT What’s Going On:
A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them by MT Staff
WEDNESDAY, 1/11 Phantom of the Opera @ Detroit Opera House
Phantom of the Opera — the longest running show on Broadway — is coming out of the shadows to make another appearance at the Detroit Opera House. The sordid love story is shrouded in mystery and suspense, and of course, amazing musical numbers. It follows the main character, Christine Daaé, who’s attracted the clandestine attention of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius and follows the wily antics and murderous lengths he’s willing to go to in order to have her to himself. Of course, a normal, handsome, rich guy is also in love with her, which further complicates things. First-timers and repeat attendees are sure to be dazzled and amazed. Show starts at 8 p.m.; 1526 Broadway, Detroit; 313-237-7464; michiganopera. org; tickets start at $35.
Phantom of the Opera. PHOTO COURTESY OF BROADWAY IN DETROIT
FRIDAY, 1/6
FRI 1/6-SAT 1/7
SATURDAY, 1/7
SAT 1/7-SUN 1/8
Mahogany Jones
Blazing Saddles
Nonsense Night
@ Manila Bay Cafe
@ Main Art Theatre
@ Tangent Gallery
Last Work: Batsheva Dance Company
Mahogany Jones — hip-hop activist described to embody hip-hop, femininity, spirituality, and passion in each commanding performance — is set to headline this open mic night, discussing her goals and inspirations for 2017. Jones’ music is said to uplift the spirit, body, and soul, and educate and the international artist has performed as a U.S. music ambassador in 13 countries, recorded three full-length albums, and has been featured on over 30 compilations, mixtapes, and CDs. Jones is also an adjunct instructor at the Detroit Institute of Music and a facilitator for one of Detroit’s largest literary arts nonprofits, Inside Out.
Mel Brooks’ satirical Western comedy Blazing Saddles is scheduled as the first midnight madness screening at the Main Art for 2017. This 1974 flick tackles the issues of racism in a stereotyped American west. The movie places Richard Pryor in an all-white town full of Johnsons — he’s the only black guy, plus he’s sheriff. If nothing else, the price of admission is well worth seeing the hilarity on the big screen and a man knocking out a horse with a single punch.
Do you have an antelope costume that just never seems to get enough play. Well, brush off those antlers because this month’s Nonsense Night at Tangent Gallery is all about the animals. The theme for the night is said to be animals, but apparently any costume will do. So, whether your favorite animal (or animal costume) is legitimate or not, come out dressed up as whatever “animal” you want and enjoy a night of nonsense with potential elves, cats, wolves, gnomes, unicorns, and whatever animals may exist or can be thought up.
Midnight showing; 118 N. Main St., Royal Oak; landmarktheatres.com; $7; handicap accessible.
Starts at 9 p.m.; 4731 Grand River, Detroit; 313-451-4731; cover is $10.
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Starts at 3 p.m.; 715 E. Milwaukee St., Detroit; 313-873-2955; tangentgallery.com; cover is $10.
@ Power Center for yhe Performing Arts
Spend an evening with Ohad Naharin and the Batsheva Dance Company as they bring Last Work to Ann Arbor’s Power Center for the Performing Arts. The 75-minute play presents you with a story through Naharin’s dance language, Gaga, which explores human motion and emotion to create an unforgettable performance of sustained movement and frenzied energy.
Starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday; 121 Fletcher St, Ann Arbor; 734-763-3333; ums.org/ performance/last-work; tickets start at $38 for Saturday and $34 for Sunday. org; tickets are $10.
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FEATURE
Simpler times: Then-candidate Donald Trump campaigning in Warren.
PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
In case of emergency, read this
A how-to guide for surviving four years of the Trump administration by MT staff
This should not have
happened. Either way, the 2016 presidential election was going to be an unprecedented, history-making event. From the Democrats, the firstever woman candidate for a major party in Hillary Clinton. From the Republicans, an outsider businessman with no political or military experience in Donald Trump. But that’s oversimplifying things, isn’t it? To pretend that the 2016 presidential election was an otherwise normal campaign between two
historic candidates with slightly different policy ideas is wrong at best and an obvious coping mechanism at worst. The fact is, 2016 was when the system — aka the great American experiment — revealed its fatal flaws. In a campaign in which the wisdom of the elites was called into question, the Democratic Party shut out rising populist Bernie Sanders and doubled down on its support for Clinton, a smug career politician backed by corporate money and Wall Street. But even more alarming was the rise of Trump, whose campaign
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began in June 2015 by calling Mexicans “rapists” and followed a phantasmagoria of increasingly more surreal episodes including, but not limited to, discussing a Muslim registry, attacking the parents of a fallen soldier, boasting about his penis size on national television, saying he could shoot someone and not lose any votes, and a leaked Access Hollywood tape in which he admitted that he liked to grab women “by the pussy.” This man is obviously unhinged. Yet people ate it up. The ratings were yuge. Somehow, even
Evangelicals were OK with all of this. And that’s the problem. Clinton versus Trump represented the culmination of the culture wars — that vague yet highly effective branding exercise meant to drive us apart by making us feel more different than alike — taken to its logical extreme, with both candidates coming to represent something bigger than themselves. Is it any surprise, then, that both polled among the least-liked in history? Yet it seems safe to say that nobody expected Trump to win — not even Trump himself.
FEATURE Trump’s win was only possible through a quirk of the Electoral College: trailing at nearly 2.9 million popular votes behind Clinton, Trump is the biggest popular vote loser in history. And it’s also safe to say that a Trump presidency is not the outcome America wanted. The fact is, Trump’s win was only possible through a quirk of the Electoral College: trailing at nearly 2.9 million popular votes behind Clinton, Trump is the biggest popular vote loser in history. Yet here we are. The pooch has been screwed. We have our president. There’s only one way out of this. If you thought the campaign season was long, just wait for the next four years. Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to get through them. — Lee DeVito
Welcome to the resistance Before offering a word or two about fighting an authoritarian government, I’d like to remind everybody of something really pertinent: In some ways, from the moment it won its freedom, America was always an authoritarian country. At the very beginning, democracy was limited to white, land-owning men, and was only revolutionary when you consider some people thought America should have a king, not a president. Through the ages, there have been strong, antidemocratic currents of thought and action. Our country has always had Know-Nothings, Ku Kluxers, Black Legionnaires, and John Birchers. Frankly, every country does. But what has made America a great country is another, concurrent story: Democracy is always being perfected. What makes America different is that we also have our Wobblies, our Freedom Riders, our Yippies, our Black Panthers, our Wall Street Occupiers, and a whole host of other people who fight authority and create space for voices against war, racism, sexism, violence, and environmental degradation. Don’t let the fact that a guy like
Trump got elected fool you. When you ask Americans questions without buzzwords and sound bites designed to elicit emotional reactions, their answers skew so far to the left of the contemporary political discourse you’d think the polling company screwed up and called Cuba. Polls have shown again and again that Americans are tired of war, want Canadian-style health insurance, don’t want the Trans-Pacific Partnership, loathe the Citizens United ruling, want the minimum wage raised, and are tired of economic inequality. What’s more, the forces of darkness are bound to lose in the end. Demographically, generationally, sociologically, and economically, you simply can’t force 325,000,000 people to line up behind programs that represent their collective suicide. You can for a while. Give them a good scare and you might be able to for another four years, but it can’t last forever. On the one hand, you have a federal government that has rapidly grown more authoritarian year after year, a trend going back into the 1990s. That means the disconnect between the state and the nation is greater than ever before. In a way, it’s good news: Talk about a situation tailor-made for rabble-rousing! And millennials are going to get their first taste of a president on the order of Bush 2 or Reagan. They’re going to have their first experiences with real, live protests, their first opportunities to meet the seasoned people fighting for a better world — even during Democratic administrations. So now the real learning experience can begin. Leave the vigils, freespeech zones, and Facebook “checkins” behind, put on your most anti-authoritarian T-shirt, grab some saline solution (to deal with the pepper spray), pull down the visor on your rubber-bulletproof mask, and
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FEATURE get out in the streets for a bit of direct action. It’s going to be a swinging time. — Michael Jackman
Get organized First things first: You are not alone. There are plenty of people who feel mobilized right now. You just need to find them. A good place to start is Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, compiled by former congressional staffers (indivisibleguide.com). The guide offers tips on how to effectively reach your local elected members of congress and make your voices heard. Attend town halls. Make coordinated calls. Ask tough questions at photo ops. Demand a sitin meeting with your representative at a district office. Another good idea is to donate money to established causes that have been fighting — and will continue to fight — against Trump’s agenda. Both Planned Parenthood (plannedparenthood.org) and the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu. org) have seen a surge in donations following the election. Almost immediately, the ACLU launched a campaign featuring a photo of Trump’s face with the headline “See you in court.” Can’t find a local group? Form your own. Start small. Other groups will become visible to you, and you will become visible to other groups. Are you a local group organized against Trump? We would like to hear from you. Send us news on protests, demonstrations, and other tips to resistance@metrotimes.com. — Lee DeVito
Speak out against racism and sexism Not all Trump supporters are a “basket of deplorables,” as Clinton famously quipped. But the thing is, the ones who are feel emboldened now, with instances of hate crimes reportedly spiking in the weeks following the election. Soon, photos of safety pins began circling social media, calling people who see themselves as an ally to minorities to simply wear a safety pin on their shirt to show a sign of solidarity. The trend began after
Anti-Trump protest in Detroit.
Brexit happened across the Atlantic and quickly began here at home. While the idea of showing some sort of sign of support for the historically disenfranchised is a nice gesture, in the end a safety pin is not going to help. If wearing a safety pin makes you feel better, then sure, do what you need to do. But you also need to have real conversations with people. We need to call out racism, misogyny, and homophobia whenever we see it. Trump dismissed his Access Hollywood “pussy” comments as mere “locker room talk.” This premise needs to be dismantled. Men should not let other men talk about women this way, even if women aren’t around. But that can seem like an exercise in futility — especially online. I had an uncle (a huge Trump fan) call one of my friends the C-word on Facebook because she called out his sexist comments. I wish I could spend my energy trying to show him how wrong he is, but unfortunately, this man is stuck in his ways. So where do we start then? I don’t believe that every person who voted for Trump is a racist or sexist or homophobic because it’s just not true. Are they lacking some empathy? Of course. Can they not see beyond their own privilege? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean that they are not reachable. You can have thoughtful, intelligent conversations with these people and try to find some enlightenment. Much of this needs to happen offline, though. Point out that Clinton has to apologize for her emails endlessly, but Trump doesn’t have to apologize for anything. Point out that “locker room talk” is a terrible excuse for bragging about sexual assault. Hell, you may even have to explain what
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PHOTO BY GABRIEL GOODWIN
sexual assault is. Stay calm, cool, and collected. Do your research and bring facts to the table. Call out people who don’t even realize they are being racist or sexist. The other day I was waiting tables at my side job when I overheard one of my co-workers complain about getting a large party of black people. She thought she wasn’t going to get a good tip because of a shitty stereotype that sadly exists in the restaurant biz. I calmly pointed out to her that maybe if she didn’t go into the situation with an awful attitude, her guests wouldn’t feel like she didn’t want to wait on them and they would tip her 20 percent. What about the people who are unashamed of their racist or sexist or homophobic views and opinions? Arguing with them can be like arguing with a brick wall. Calling out their bullshit over the internet isn’t really a constructive idea. When you see hatred in a person, react accordingly. Obviously, don’t put yourself in harm’s way. But sitting back while blatant bullying is going on is not OK. Try to defuse the situation if you can by getting the person away from the bully. Make sure the victim is OK, make sure you’re OK, and move on. It’s not going to be an easy four years. We must resist at all costs, but we also need to educate, raise awareness, and enlighten the fuck out of these people. — Jack Roskopp
Support the press There’s a good chance fake news had a hand in putting Trump in the White House, but at this point that’s neither here nor there. The best
we can do is educate ourselves, our families, and our friends about what fake news is and how to avoid being seduced by it. Think back to the pre-internet world and “fake news” concerns were minimal. In those days, newspapers were the gatekeepers of truth and people trusted them as such. These days, things are a little more hazy. What is fake news? A working definition goes something like this: Fake news is created on hoax websites and is designed to mislead and misinform readers. At best, fake news is created as clickbait (and for websites, clicks equal cash). At worst, it’s a psychological tool of warfare. If you need an illustrated example of fake news, just Google “pizzagate.” Now that we have a clear understanding of what fake news is, let’s talk about what fake news is not. Fake news is not merely an opinion that you don’t agree with. Just because news organizations like the Detroit Free Press, The New York Times, or even Metro Times posts a story that you don’t agree with doesn’t make it fake news. And if you’re a person who likes to make such claims, you should think about a certain orange-faced rich guy who likes to call everyone who disagrees with him a liar — including the press. It’s not a good look. Here’s how to combat fake news: Say you post an op-ed from The New York Times and your sister-in-law calls it fake news. Kindly point out that the New York Times is a long-established media organization that employs real journalists who interview and quote real people and those three qualities immediately disqualify them from being fake news. OK, so what if your sister-in-law posts an article from ABCNews. com.co about the government’s involvement with the Sandy Hook hoax and how scripts were given to the media and death certificates were faked, all in order to perpetuate a narrative that Americans need stricter gun control laws? Here’s what you do: Kindly point out that this is a fake news site that has been listed as such on various watchlists (snopes.com’s “Field Guide to Fake News Sites and Hoax Purveyors” is a good one) and that you’d gladly read an article about it as long as she can find a legitimate source reporting on the matter. (And
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FEATURE Not every Trump voter is racist. The proof is in the numbers: states that voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 voted for Trump in 2016. The fact that they did so in spite of Trump’s general ickiness is disappointing. But the deciding factor was that he tapped into the frustrations of everyday Americans. consider subscribing to a trusted newspaper, like the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The New York Times, or The Washington Post, which has reportedly seen a surge in subscriptions since Election Day.) Now, more than ever, a strong press is crucially important in America. In spite of a public that has grown weary and mistrusting of the media, it’s all too important that good journalists and news organizations are lifted up — plus, it’s the last thing Trump wants. — Alysa Offman
Your art matters now, more than ever Of all the responses to the news that Trump will be the 45th president of the United States, the idea that “music will be better now — look how great it was when Nixon and Reagan were in power!” was among the most half-baked, and seriously sad. I mean, would you say that to the face of someone afraid they’ll get beaten in the streets now, just because of their religious, sexual, or racial identity? No, of course not. But hey, we all say dumb shit on social media, and there are many stages of grief when it comes to dealing with President Twitler and his creepy Cabinet of the Undead. The time to grieve is over, and now all creative people must take stock, regroup, and resist. You matter: First off, no matter what kind of art you make, perform or write, it’s important. You do not have to be didactic or overtly political. The arts will always be necessary, and as we will soon see, all art is inherently political. Those in power
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can find a way to devalue any creative act. The culture wars will first pit manufactured outrage of a few hand-picked “outrageous” artists or professors against the very concept of funding the arts, before going after free speech itself. (Also, please get your personal shit together if you have any prejudices or biases. We all have to work together and the other side is populated entirely by master manipulators of divide and conquer. Also, please stop making shitty vestfolk; that Starbucks soundtrack crap was tired back when Dubya stole his first election.) Tell your truth: This has always been crucial. But with our gaslighterin-chief ’s dominant narrative that no media’s to be trusted, and his many friends who excel at propaganda, it’s time for us to be as clear-eyed and bullshit-free as possible. As Garry Kasparov tweeted the other week, “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” We need to make ours sharp AF. Do not let the bully pulpit of patriotism keep you down, not even during the inevitable wars. Normalization equals sellout: Resist the urge to cash in, or go along. Don’t do a blandly patriotic window display for work — not this year. (If you have to, sneak as many baby hands in as possible.) Collaborators will be accounted for later, assuming we all do not perish in nuclear fallout first. How to fight back now against powerloving toadies? Do not give them a shred of attention. Let’s collectively ignore Kanye West, the way we all should have ignored Trump in the
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FEATURE
Anti-Trump protest in Detroit.
first place. Go underground: Borrow a copy machine and hand-staple your own zine. Wheat paste posters at night. Ignore the curfews. Stay off social media as much as you can; communicate in person, with those you trust. If you must be on Facebook, spread false information about madeup raves across town before you tell friends discreetly about your actual event. Take even more risks: Go ahead and make music even better, now. Get super, absolutely weird. And go for the jugular every time. Like all bullies and narcissists, Trump has paper-thin skin — use your wit. Be even funnier than Alec Baldwin. This asshole actually loses sleep over gentle parody. One caveat: writers of speculative fiction and every comedian? You guys are so fucked, sorry. I don’t know what to tell you, as the facts so far outpace fiction at this point; you all are on your own. — Mike McGonigal
Be empathetic Not every Trump voter is a closet or overt racist. The proof is in the numbers: states that voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 voted for Trump in 2016. The fact that they did so in spite of Trump’s general ickiness is disappointing to say the least. But the plain and simple deciding factor that led to Trump’s victory was that he tapped into the anxieties and very real frustrations of everyday Americans. This was especially true in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and here in Michigan, which turned from blue to red last year. At one point,
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the Democrats actually sold a hat emblazoned with the words “America Is Already Great.” Talk about tone deaf! America is not great. Trump acknowledged this, and people responded. Wages are stagnant. Good jobs have disappeared. An entire generation has the burden of exorbitant student loans with no way to pay for them. The middle class is eroding, while the 1 percent is getting wealthier. These were the same concerns that drove Sanders’ stunning rise (who won Michigan in the primaries — which should have set off alarms in the Clinton campaign). That Trump has the will or the capability to address these issues in any profound way is the question. Above all else, during the 2016 campaign Trump has revealed himself to be a textbook demagogue. He’s a reality TV star who knows how to say whatever he needs to say to get ratings, even if it means contradicting himself. We know he can talk the talk. We will soon see if he can walk the walk. It seems likely, though, that many of these Trump voters will feel buyer’s remorse — as Trump inevitably breaks his campaign promises, finds new groups to victimize, and proves to be, in the end, just as self-serving, clueless, and petty as he has indicated he is all along. And that is when we Americans may find that we have more in common with one another than the culture wars have led us to believe. At least, I hope so. — Lee DeVito letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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FOOD Expensive tastes
Review: Downtown Detroit spot dazzles by Jane Slaughter
When he opened the menu
at Parc and found no meat entrees south of $41, my companion huffed, “Welcome to Gilbertville.” Those surely weren’t Dan Gilbert’s fellow billionaires we were rubbing elbows with in Parc’s compact space, but the restaurant is indeed positioning itself for the wellheeled that Gilbert has vowed to bring back downtown. In Parc’s first weeks, flock there they did, making it hard to get a reservation. They found fresh flowers and heavy white linens, glowing candles in old-fashioned candlesticks, courtly if modern, ever-present service — teams of servers, mostly male — and a “unicorn list” of special wines ranging from $500 to $6,000 a bottle. Though prices are high — pasta $18-$38, reserve steaks running $27 for petite to $112 for 40 ounces — lucky early diners could also find bottles of wine starting at $24. A careful couple
Baby back ribs.
could get out of Parc for less than $100. If they skipped dessert. But the vibe at Parc is not cautious; this frozen season, it’s “watch the skaters on the ice rink just outside and celebrate being warm, big time.” I saw a family there with three stair-step little girls about 5 to 8 years old, and wondered who had money to throw away on those who prefer chicken tenders.
squash is “maple roasted,” whatever that means, but I can testify it’s mellow, and again, just sweet enough. Hoffman knows how to deploy his crowd-pleasing sugar without ruining the effect. Both pastas I tried at Parc were scrumptious, but not very meaty. Carbonara was made with my favorite pasta, bucatini — thick spaghetti — and coated with a creamy, almost vanilla-y sauce with bacon, guanciale, and pancetta. Wild boar Bolognese was over rigatoni. Any scrimping on the protein was made up for by the complexity of the sauce. A nontraditional minestrone was disappointing: Your server pours thick, weak-flavored, tomatoy sauce (unaccountably called “broth”) over a tiny heap of vegetables. A yellowtail crudo starter is on the small side, set off with ruby red grapefruit and pink salmon roe. Some “puffed grains” were not an addition. A lemon and olive oil cake is a dessert to try once, or if you crave olive oil in your desserts. It’s a masterpiece of contrasting textures, with spongy cake, tart lemon curd, creamy mascarpone, luscious blueberry compote, and slick gelato that indeed tastes like olive oil. A sprig of basil is a stroke of genius. Two complaints: As at so many restaurants, no one at Parc seems to have given any thought to the music. It’s eclectic, uninteresting, hard even to describe — and loud. Why assume that people who care PHOTOS BY SARAH RAHAL enough to pay for old-fashioned service and top-notch food don’t care Equal hymns of praise go to pinkabout the ambiance too? And were the gold Scottish salmon, flaky with a perfect crisp skin. Rapini grilled in olive oil Photoshopped images of rock stars grabbing their crotches really so comand garlic comes with it, and couscous, and puree of curried carrots — it’s a pelling that they had to be exhibited visual feast as well as a culinary one. larger-than-life size? General manager A butternut squash salad combines Theo Oresky opines that because the tender baby kale (such a better mouthphotos include a bottle of Dom Perifeel than adult kale) with goat cheese, gnon and a Fendi bag, they’re meant to walnuts, and slivers of red onion. The match Parc’s aesthetic: “Live life to the Let me assure you that the food at Parc is fabulous. I was disappointed in a couple of dishes on my first visit but found 100 percent excellence on the second. Each plate has a lot going on, but in each case the elements combine to make a whole greater than the sum. Take steak and eggs. The dish is kind of ugly, resting as it does in a foamy green sludge (parsley puree). But what has chef Jordan Hoffman done to the braised short ribs to make them so tender, and even to the poached egg that lends more magic than any egg I’ve known? Baby back ribs are the apotheosis of the ribsters’ art: Crusty yet tender, they are dry-rubbed and honey-glazed, adding just the right touch of sweet, and if the ribs showed any danger of being cloying (they don’t), the apple-Brussels sprout slaw on the side counteracts with its combination of bitter, tart, and sweet.
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Executive chef Jordan Hoffman.
Parc
800 Woodward Ave., Campus Martius Park, Detroit 313-922-7272 parcdetroit.com Accessible 3 p.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 3 p.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 5 p.m.11 p.m. Saturday, 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday (appetizers only 3-5 p.m.). Lunch service is set to begin Jan. 3. Entrees $18-$48 Soup $4, plates $6-$11
extreme.” Parc’s wine list is long and eclectic. A Malbec by the glass was ordinary; next time I would try the $32 bottle of cava if I’m with a partner who likes a subtle bubbly. But anyone who doesn’t mind being seen with a pink martini in his or her hand should try the house specialty (think of Zsa Zsa Gabor, who died in December). Mild, just a bit tart, you feel you could drink it all evening, and soon find you’d better not. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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FOOD
Moo Cluck Moo’s food truck.
PHOTO VIA SERENA MARIA DANIELS
Downsized
Moo Cluck Moo hoping to drive mobile kitchen trend by Serena Maria Daniels
The idea was revolutionary in fast food. Start workers at $12 in job-hungry metro Detroit where unemployment ran rampant. Keep the menu brief — burgers, chicken, fries, shakes — and use only hormone-free, never frozen meat. It was this strategy that caught national headlines when Moo Cluck Moo opened its first location in Dearborn Heights four years ago. The Daily Beast called the co-owners Brian Parker and Harry Moorhouse’s insistence on paying a living wage “radical.” Though met with their share of criticism for the bold move, the duo bumped up the pay to $15 an hour — unheard in the fast-food industry, which at the time was trying to answer to nationwide walkouts over low pay. A second location in Canton followed, as well as a spot in Ford Field — suggesting the partners’ brash disregard for the status quo was actually smart for business. That was until earlier in the fall
fall, when the ownership ditched their brick and mortar business model and downsized operations. For the past several weeks, a small crew has been dispatched in a rented food truck, parking outside business parks and high-rises all over the region to bring Moo Cluck Moo’s wares to harried office workers or hungry bar-flies. “This makes too much sense,” Moorhouse says. “People don’t want to travel 20 to 30 minutes for lunch… We’re doing more for lunch, mobile, than we ever did with brick and mortar.” Food trucks are cheaper than renting or owning a physical property, and can spread a restaurant’s reach farther than a single location. And while we’re more accustomed to seeing food truck operations evolve into full-scaled eateries (Katoi, for example), traditional restaurants are starting to see the value in having a mobile kitchen. Chains like Andiamo, Big Boy, and even Motor City Casino all feature food trucks used mostly for promotional purposes or
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special events. Moorhouse sees the business model not just as a complement to a chain, but as a promising new enterprise by itself — after all, a recent CNBC report says that food trucks are an estimated $2.7 billion business. When leases for both locations ended, Parker and Moorhouse were already prepared to make the switch. They had spent the summer researching other food truck operations and crunching the numbers, comparing operation costs. Instead of paying rent for two stores, Moo Cluck Moo now uses a commissary kitchen in Plymouth. Each morning a team of employees stocks the truck with enough food for each stop. In December alone, the truck was booked in 14 locations throughout metro Detroit. The shift has affected labor costs, though. Moorhouse says employees are paid between $14-$18, but new outfit requires only about half the staff, down to about seven or eight employees. That
could change. Over the next several months, the company plans to purchase a small fleet of its own trucks. Whether the shift to all-mobile is a win for efficiency or a loss for employees who were displaced after the closures is up for debate, though Moorhouse says with the smaller staff, he can afford to pay the remaining crew more. “We can’t expect loyalty or hustle at work if we don’t pay them fair,” Moorhouse says. “This notion that we’ve heard in the past four years, that these jobs are unskilled, that they don’t deserve that much is just hog wash. These people work hard, and requires a heck of a lot of skills.” Information about the Moo Cluck Moo’s food truck schedule can be found at moocluckmoo.com.
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FOOD
Side Dish:
Antonio Lopez is in Detroit’s royal tequila family by Serena Maria Daniels Antonio Lopez with his father, Silverio, in the background on their agave farm in the Los Altos region in the Mexican state
Antonio Lopez can sometimes be hard to get a hold of. That’s because when he’s not getting his hands dirty at his family’s Lopez Tire shop in Southwest Detroit, he’s rubbing elbows with the owners of bars, restaurants, and party stores — all to get his family’s Tequila Cabresto into the Detroit craft distilling lexicon. It’s part of a hustle the Lopez family knows well. The Lopezes got started in the tequila game more than a decade ago when the family’s patriarch Silverio Lopez used the money raised from the tire shop to fulfill a lifelong dream: to purchase a farm in his homeland, the Los Altos region of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Initially, the plan was to grow and sell agave, the ingredient needed to make tequila, to Mexican distilleries (by law, tequila can only be made in Mexico), while the family continued in the tire business. When a crash in agave demand wouldn’t allow for that, the Lopezes decided to figure out how to make the spirit themselves. Silverio Lopez tends to details over the farming, and Antonio handles distribution and marketing and continues to work at the tire shop. His sister, Sonia, uses her accounting degree from Wayne State University to deal with finances. Their brother, Eduardo, manages the shop full time. In the 10 years or so since the first
bottle of Cabresto was manufactured and bottled in Mexico, the Lopezes have introduced the spirit to their adopted hometown of Detroit. Fans appreciate the smoothness of their awardwinning reposado, silver, as well as their newer line of añejo and their use of 100 percent blue agave (no hangoverinducing fillers or additives). We managed to get Antonio Lopez away from his work for a few moments to talk about his dual life in the mechanic’s shop and spirits, who to look out for in his Southwest Detroit neighborhood, and what he’d be doing if he weren’t in the family tequila biz. Metro Times: What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? Antonio Lopez: I live two different worlds. When at the shop, I get my hands dirty. But when I’m out at an event for Cabresto, someone from there wouldn’t even recognize me. There’s very little time when the two worlds interact. MT: What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Lopez: I always gotta have my café de olla in the morning. MT: If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Lopez: I guess teleportation. MT: What is the most positive thing
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PHOTO BY CYBELLE CODISH
in food or drink that you’ve noticed in Detroit over the past year? Lopez: I see more and more places coming in and opening up and there’s a variety of different foods now. There weren’t that many options before. All these bars and restaurants are bringing Detroit back to life. If you would have been here 15 years ago, it was a ghost town downtown.
would you be doing? Lopez: I would still be 100 percent in the tire shop business.
MT: Who is your Detroit food crush? Lopez: Bucharest Grill owner Bogdan Tarasov. I’ve met him; he’s a really humble guy. He’s doing it right, his food is cheap, and it’s really good. Also have a food crush on the people selling food at Patton Park. You’ll find tacos, elote, camarones, anything you can think of… It’s only available on Sundays, but it’s worth waiting for.
MT: What is your after-work hangout? Lopez: Besides hanging out at the shop and having a few Cabrestos, probably Detroit City Distillery or Thomas Magee’s.
MT: Who’s the one person to watch right now in the Detroit dining scene? Lopez: George Azar from Flowers of Vietnam, but also the Garita family from El Barzon. They’re about to open up their pizza joint pretty soon. MT: Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Lopez: Anything hot, spicy. I always like my food with a lot of spice, chilies, salsa. MT: If you weren’t working in the restaurant or drink business, what
MT: Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen. Lopez: I like everything… Oh, but I hate liver, I’ve always had a beef with liver. There’s just something about the texture that I’ve never liked.
MT: What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? Lopez: Micheladas for drinks. And for food, I’ve been hooked on these snacks, my mom makes them. She cuts up a few Slim Jims into little pieces, then cooks them up in a frying pan, and adds limón. I guarantee once you’ve tried them, you’ll be hooked. MT: What would be your last meal on Earth? Lopez: A fat, juicy steak with a loaded potato, with some hot sauce, like Tapatio or a homemade salsa.
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MUSIC Almost famous
Benny Reeves, a Motown original, is still hustlin’ — in between Uber gigs by Colin Maloney
Benny Reeves is having car trouble. Several hours ago, his Lincoln nearly caught fire. Several decades earlier, his music career nearly did. In 1959, a 21-year-old Reeves moved back to Detroit after a four-year “kitty cruise” in the Navy. While home, a then-little-known vocal group called the Contours recruited him for a couple basement rehearsals at the corner of Blaine and Woodrow Wilson in the city’s Virginia Park neighborhood. The band, whose debut single “Whole Lotta Woman” fizzled upon its initial release in February 1961, was down a baritone singer (“because he couldn’t dance,” says original Contour Joe Billingslea) when a personnel tip came from an unlikely source: Reeves’ sister, Martha Reeves, who at the time was the receptionist for record label Motown. “We talked about it down at the studio and Martha overheard us and said that her brother Benny could sing,” Billingslea says. “So I got in touch with Benny and had Benny come to a rehearsal. And he was hitting it so we added him to the group. He really can sing. He was singing baritone and bass. And if he hadn’t been in the military, he would’ve been with the Contours.” Reeves was chiefly concerned with the financial well-being of his family, so he returned to military service in Norfolk, Va., shortly after those sessions. Much of his small but steady paychecks were sent back home to his parents in Detroit. “When I was back in the military, I met the Contours in D.C. and they said that I was fired,” Reeves says. “Then when I saw Joe [Billingslea] a couple times after that, the group had split. There’s two different Contours now. So I said, ‘Well hell, I’ll just start me one.’ And he said, ‘No you can’t; I’ll sue you.’ Well, I’d rather work alone anyway. All those different personalities to fool with.” Reeves watched from a distance as the label’s ambitious young founder, Berry Gordy Jr., swapped the steel studs and rubber treads of the Ford Motor Co.
manufacturing process for more lasting components. The final product of the Motown machine was music immortality, and the Contours were going to live forever. Within a year and a half of Reeves’ departure, Gordy wrote and produced the group’s platinum hit, “Do You Love Me.” A jittery amalgam of contemporary dance music supposedly intended for the pre-David Ruffin Temptations, the track was recorded using the same enchanted sound equipment still housed at Hitsville U.S.A.’s Studio A today. Four months after its release on Motown subsidiary Gordy, with the Cuban Missile Crisis still raging, a country on the verge of nuclear catastrophe found shelter in the Funk Brothers’ groove. “Do You Love Me” hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart on Oct. 20, 1962. “Of course, you know they all got rich and shit,” Reeves says. “But the money? They had a problem too. There’s very few of them left. [Three of the five original Contours have died.] Well, I learned a bunch. I learned a whole bunch just from being in the military. It was a good career. I wouldn’t trade that for nothing in the world.” Born in tiny Baker Hill, Ala., in 1938, Reeves is the oldest of Elijah and Ruby Reeves’ dozen children. A few years after his birth, the parents (“still making babies like mad,” Reeves says) moved the growing young family from the Heart of Dixie to the Motor City, where his grandfather was a minister at Detroit’s Metropolitan AME Church. There, Reeves honed his immense, gale-force voice into an on-demand hurricane, winning local church talent contests by injecting soul-shaking power into the trademark close harmonies of a cappella gospel music. Even so, precocious talent wasn’t an exemption from familial duty for the Reeves’ eldest son. He was the family’s “built-in baby sitter,” changing dirty diapers and mediating sibling friction; maintaining his parents’ sanity by maintaining household order.
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Benny Reeves performing live.
Still a year shy of his 18th birthday and acutely aware of the fact that the family home was becoming overcrowded, Reeves first joined the Navy in 1955. Characteristically matter-of-fact when explaining the life-altering decision, he chuckles at what was crystal-clearly self-evident to him: “There was 12 [kids] in the family; somebody had to get the hell out of the house,” Reeves says. And so he did. First as a means of supporting his parents, then as a means of supporting himself, Reeves served in the U.S. military for 25 years. The constant during that period of forced transience was music. Of his first post-bootcamp duty station in Oppama, Japan, Reeves recalls, “I knew absolutely nothing, but I could always sing.” “Seemed like everywhere I went, somebody wanted to start a group,” he says. “You sit in with a group and the next thing you know, you’re in the band. I went into the military and first thing I did was get a band together.”
COURTESY PHOTO
At the time, informal military rock bands historically played in packed officers’ clubs or “O clubs,” social venues exclusively open to those with a rank of lieutenant or higher. So while his former band mates crisscrossed the country as part of the Motortown Revue — a series of concerts showcasing major Motown talents, including Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Miracles, and Little Stevie Wonder — Reeves sang his ass off for midshipmen, enlisted sailors, and commissioned officers in the Navy’s officers’ clubs and enlisted clubs until his retirement from the armed forces in 1980. A working-class man with a world-class talent, he then headed back to the Midwest in search of a new audience. It wasn’t easy. “If you didn’t have a college education, you couldn’t get work because everything was [becoming] computerized,” Reeves says. “Everything shined like buffalo nickels and you had to know how to punch all the buttons.”
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MUSIC Still, Reeves, who refers to his brother Thomas as “the smart one,” found a formula. In the ’80s and ’90s, he played approximately 750 gigs with the United Show Band and Groove Company, while simultaneously working as a warehouse supervisor for the Detroit Department of Transportation. You’ve likely never heard of either band. But that doesn’t matter to Reeves, who confidently says he’s never once had a bad day onstage. Not even when a Ku Klux Klan rally was happening a few blocks from a performance in Howell in the ’80s. “The Klan was parading up there and we played right down the street,” Reeves says. “Right down the street from City Hall. I don’t know what they was clowning about. I have no idea.” Howell, formerly the home of Robert E. Miles, a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, was then “branded as a haven of white supremacist activity,” according to The New York Times. Yet Reeves kept performing there, kept grinding, kept hustlin’. There was no other option. Reeves, to borrow a phrase, hustles harder. Whether a sailor, a singer — or today, an Uber driver — Reeves has never lifted his nose from the proverbial grindstone. That approach, it seems, is emulative of his father’s values. “Dad always had a job,” Reeves says. “He worked for the water department, Packard, Hudson’s. He always had a job, but he was the only one [in the family with a job].” With that hardship in mind, the motivation for Reeves’ permanent return to the city of Detroit in 1982 mirrored that of his departure 27 years earlier: family business. “I came back when Mom and Pop got sick,” he says. “I was living in Illinois at the time. Dad called me up and said he had six months to live. And mom was sick too. Being the oldest, he wanted me to come home. So I did.” Within a few months, Reeves assumed the familiar position of family caretaker, moving in with his parents in Detroit. His memories of the somber time flutter between a noble sense of obligation (“I had to help”) and sober assessment (“you know, you get stuck”), but he seemingly harbors no retrospective ambivalence. Family always came first, even when it meant uprooting his own life. That’s what Reeves did. The straightforward narrative of missed opportunity — of a man tantalizingly close to stardom — is incomplete. After all, it assumes that Reeves craved the byproducts of fame and fortune. It assumes that envy is the obvious response to
36 36 January January 4-10, 4-10, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com
the success of others. And it assumes a cookie-cutter treatise on the materialistic nature of human ambition. More, more, more. As we all know, reductive assumptions and judgments often reveal more of the observer than the subject. That’s why a gifted, charismatic singer content with a blue-collar life seems like an impossibility. Reeves doesn’t regret joining the Navy a lifetime ago (“absolutely not”). He doesn’t resent his younger sister Martha’s success (“I’m her biggest fan”). Reeves, now 78, doesn’t define himself by what ifs and should haves. Family mattered first and foremost. Then music mattered. Trade-offs were always an accepted part of the equation. So there’s Reeves the everyman, a character whose tough luck you immediately identify with. Then there’s Reeves the frontman, who cocksurely says “nobody can do what I do [onstage].” There’s Reeves the dedicated family man, the loyal military man, the tireless working man, and a hundred other shorthand versions of the man. The braided helixes of these characters make Reeves a living, breathing human being who never desired deification or immortality because he plainly recognizes them as fabrication. Nobody — famous or anonymous, wealthy or working class — lives forever. The next time I see Reeves, his Lincoln is fixed. He jokingly scolds me for “grilling” him again, over lunch. Then, as we’re saying our goodbyes in the parking lot, he pulls a compact disc out of the car’s trunk. He hands it to me. My eyes fix on the cover: The Paul Carey Organ Trio Featuring Benny Reeves. He says he’s going to make a few calls — hopefully get another band together for some shows. Reeves is still hustlin’. Always hustlin’. He remains available for shows, and can be reached at facebook.com/benny. reeves1.
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 12 HIP HOP PIONEERS
THIS WEEK • FRIDAY, JANUARY 6
BLACKALICIOUS WITH LUSHLIFE
FEATURES
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21
GIMME DANGER THE TREWS
ANTI-FREEZE BLUES FESTIVAL
A JIM JARMUSCH FILM
LURRIE BELL THORNETTA DAVIS, with
A MOVIE ABOUT THE STOOGES
JOHNNY RHOADES & JEFF GRAND SATURDAY, JANUARY 21 SATURDAY, JANUARY 7 ANTI-FREEZE BLUES FESTIVAL
JOEJIMLOUIS WALKER M CARTY'S MYSTERY TRAIN, with
c
TOSHA OWENS & BRETT LUCAS
CRASHING CAIRO
FRIDAY, MARCH 17
ALSO PLAYING FEB 4 & 10
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3
SATURDAY, APRIL 1 ROCKABILLY LEGEND
ROBERT GORDON SATURDAY, JULY 15 LEGENDARY TRIUMPH GUITARIST
RIK EMMETT
WITH
101.1 WRIF PRESENTS
OVERCOATS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15
DAVE & CHUCK THE FREAK'S PEEP SHOW LIVE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9
ALL THEM WITCHES WITH
IRATA
GUITARIST EXTRAORDINAIRE THURSDAY, MARCH 16
DOYLE BRAMHALL I PEACE FROG
THE DOORS TRIBUTE
FEATURING DAVE WAKELING
REVEREND PEYTON'S BIG DAMN BAND
A JAMTASTIC EVENING WITH
FRIDAY, MARCH 10
ENGLISH BEAT
SATURDAY, MARCH 18
THE ACCIDENTALS
MICHIGAN AND AGAIN
THE ULTIMATE RETRO PARTY
THE ULTIMATE RETRO PARTY
JUST ANNOUNCED
THURSDAY, MARCH 2
PINK TALKING FISH THE MEGA 80'S TENNIS FRI, JAN 27 & SAT, JAN 28
FRI, JAN 13 & SAT , JAN 14
JAN 13 with BOOGIE DYNOMITE
WITH WATCHING FOR FOXES
THURSDAY, MARCH 9
with THE SCIENCE FAIR
COMING SOON
THE MEGA 80'S
• UPCOMING
THURSDAY, APRIL 27
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11
HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF
VANHALENTINES DAY VII
PANAMA with
WITH
THE BEGGARS
RON GALLO
FRIDAY, MAY 5
DAVE ALVIN RE-CURE & THE GUILTY ONES FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 THE CURE vs DEPECHE MODE
& MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
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January 4-10, 2017
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MUSIC Music is our currency
Beats and Pieces, a column about dance and electronic music
We all use those streaming services to listen to music these days, rotating around giants like Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and Apple music. We are users of them even when we don’t know it; step into any restaurant, store, or gym and they’ll have some type playlist churning out tune after oh-so-suitable tune. Naturally, the way we listen to, select, and maybe even purchase music — the way we connect over music — has evolved in this shifting musical paradigm. And while technology can take full credit for getting the music you love from Spotify to your phone, have you ever paused to wonder how that music, those random playlists that generate “similar music” and “suggestions,” actually get created? Maybe you reasoned it a magical anomaly of the internet. Maybe you thought it a coding thing, SEO, or tag words. To a certain extent, it is that, but to a greater one it’s not that at all. Truth is, Silicon Valley has yet to develop an algorithm that can judge why Rihanna’s “You Da One” might be followed by say, Stefan’s “After You.” Until that day, this delicate job has fallen on “an elite class of veteran music nerds,” to quote BuzzFeed, “fewer than 100 working full time who are responsible for assembling, naming, and updating nearly every commute, dinner party, or TGIF playlist on your phone.” The playlist makers tend to be bloggers and ex-DJs, an entire network of digital vibe curators connecting over music. Perfectly suited for this digital environment, electronic music continues to thrive. And isn’t it nice to know that there is still a very human core to all this digital stuff? The following reviews are all recent electronic music discoveries made in interactive and surprising ways that stemmed from or led to actual human connection. No algorithms involved. Artist: Nydge featuring Kim Vi
Title: El Segundo (self-released) Location: Detroit Genre: Podcast, Future pop When you ask a valued friend, “Who’s a local guy I should give a shout out to” and the first thing they say is, “Nydge,” you listen. Especially when said artist is described to you as “Assemble Sound’s secret weapon.” Nydge’s tracks are masterful. And his podcasts, which consist of the artist talking to the people he works with about the music they collaborate on together, really make the listener that much more emotionally invested. This is pop with integrity: soundcloud.com/ nydge. Artist: Mad Villains feat. Aisha Zoe Title: Senses EP (Love & Other) Location: Leeds, U.K. Genre: House, U.K. bass Mad Villains, aka Adriane Jackson, was born in San Bernardino, Calif., but is now a full-time citizen of the U.K. He’s someone I befriended because I wanted to ask him a random question. I wasn’t aware of his talents until after I asked that random question. So I’m asking, we’re talking, and then I’m jamming his recent Senses EP, and thinking that I’ve just made it to house heaven. One week later, on Christmas Day, we’re still talking. He’s in Jamaica and I’ve locked myself in my room in full protest of family gatherings, because Mad Villains and I are working together on a track. Best Christmas ever? Artist: Othalah Title: We Forgot Balance (selfreleased) Location: Australia Genre: Chill beat, Sample-based, Epic From what a blogger friend says, Othalah has gone through many incarnations. When you head to his SoundCloud and see only one track and
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37 followers, you know it’s not really his first rodeo. It’s just his first as Othalah. “His most true form,” as I’m told. That one track is called “We Forgot Balance.” It’s a sample-based, Studio Ghibli inspired, mystical, lo-fi production. It’s raw and wonderful. And especially if you’ve seen Princess Mononoke, you will love what you hear. Artist: Chris Stussy Title: Wanna Dance EP (PIV) Location: Leiden, Netherlands Genre: House Order this album and you might need to pat it dry. Released via the Amsterdam-baed PIV, a label that continually drops great material, the Wanna Dance EP might be its best offering yet. The four-track EP is dripping with classic sounds, the proven and the pure. My favorite, “Way of Life,” is so on point with the vocal narration, it leaves you thinking about your own vision, what you envision as a way of life. The title track “Wanna Dance” is paired with a remix from a solid Manchester duo called Studiohiest who step up the pace just right. All in all, Chris Stussy’s productions are as damp, lush, warm, and acid-infused as a rainforest on planet Venus. Artist: TronSick Title: Distant Memories EP Location: Texas
TO
by Rai Skotarczyk
s Stu s i r Ch
C sy.
O
S TE UR
Y
O PH
Genre: Ambient, Electro, Nintendo Distant Memories might not seem so impressive at first. But if you really need a vibe, a raw one not entirely tailored to any trend, this is for you. The Distant Memories EP is explorative, vulnerable, and brave. It was made by an artist who is by his own definition, “just a kid in my feels making emotional music.” He’d likely be stoked if you headed to his SoundCloud and told him how much you like those “feels.” soundcloud.com/dj-tronsick Artist: Geist Ex Bibliotecha Title: Apollo Moon Phase Location: Detroit Genre: Ambient, Progressive True to what the name implies, Apollo Moon Phase sounds true to what its title implies — a crunchy, sometimes chaotic, progressive trip to the moon. A solid listen through will take you places. Search from them on bandcamp. I think that might be the only spot the album exists. These guys were of the few truly electronic artists who submitted a demo, so follow their lead, submit demos to me at rskdetroit@ gmail.com. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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MUSIC
Patti Smith performing in 2007.
PHOTO FROM WIKIPEDIA
Recently added
Mark your calendars for these upcoming shows by MT Staff Tickets are now on sale for these events. Jan. 27, Stacey Pullen at Grasshopper Underground; Tickets are $10. Feb. 3, Drive-By Truckers at the Majestic Theatre; majesticdetroit.com; Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. Feb. 10-12. Barely Human Festival with ESG, John Bender, ADULT. and more, elclubdetroit.com; Individual shows are $20 per night. Feb. 25, Musiq Soulchild at the Fox Theatre; ticketmaster.com; Tickets are $56.50-$102.50. Feb. 3, Insane Clown Posse at the Majestic Theatre; majesticdetroit.com; Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. Feb. 18, Run the Jewels at Royal Oak Music; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $30 in advance, $40 day of show. Mar. 3, Barenaked Ladies at Motor City Sound Board; soundboarddetroit. com; Tickets are $50-$60. Mar. 11, Patti Smith at Royal Oak Music; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $45-$75.
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Mar. 11, Dinosaur Jr. at St. Andrew’s Hall; standrewsdetroit.com; $25. Apr. 7, Modern English at the Loving Touch; lovingtouchferndale.com; Tickets are $20. Apr. 13, Suzanne Ciani at MOCAD; mocadetroit.org; Tickets are $12 ($7 for members). Apr. 21-22, John Waters’ birthday celebration at El Club; elclubdetroit. com; General admission is $40; special meet-and-greet VIP tickets are $75; breakfast with John Waters is $200. Apr. 24, PJ Harvey at Royal Oak Music; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $55-$99.50. Apr. 28, Testament at the Majestic Theatre; majesticdetroit.com; Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. Apr. 29, the Damned at St. Andrew’s Hall; standrewsdetroit.com; $23. May 27-29, Movement Festival with Carl Cox and dozens more, at Hart Plaza; movement.us; Three-day general admission passes are $155; VIP passes are sold out at the ‘Wave One’ level, but will soon be available at the ‘Wave Two’ price; ‘Club 313’ VIP threeday passes are $399. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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MUSIC Livewire
This week’s suggested musical events by MT Staff
FRIDAY, 1/6 PJ’s Lager House 10Year Anniversary and Grand Reopening @ PJ’s Lager House
To celebrate a decade of being one of the most important and fun and least pretentious venues in the Midwest, PJ’s Lager House has organized a pretty fantastic party. It’s going to be chock-full of New Orleans-style food (and we all know their food is stellar), plus, naturally, some of the area’s best rock and roots-based sounds. Performers will include Stone Clover, the Craig Brown Band, Willie Rae and the Minor Arcana, Lac La Belle, and DJ Nelly Birdwell. The lineup is sure to stun, so arrive early and stay late, OK. Here is to hoping that PJ’s friendly, affordable, bar/ venue/restaurant/record store continues to thrive for many more years.
Event starts at 8 p.m.; 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; pjslagerhouse.com; Tickets are $10.
Lac La Belle. COURTESY PHOTO
THURSDAY, 1/5
FRIDAY, 1/6
FRIDAY, 1/6
Pancho Villa’s Skull
Hip in Detroit’s Five Year Anniversary
Blackbear
@ The Loving Touch
@ Saint Andrew’s Hall
@ El Club
Pontiac native Tino Ybarra was used to playing Detroit’s ska and punk scenes, but he felt like something was missing. Enter: Pancho Villa’s Skull. Ybarra wanted to connect more with the music he was playing, and the answer became clear. He wanted to play mariachi punk. There’s no denying that Pancho Villa’s Skull is one of the most interesting bands in Detroit right now, and there’s also no denying how surprisingly good the combination of mariachi music is with punk rock. The band cites both Gogol Bordello and the Pogues as influences, and if that doesn’t tip you off to how versatile they are, nothing will. Doors open at 8 p.m.; 226234 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; ticketweb. com; Tickets are $5.
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To celebrate five successful years, Hip in Detroit has invited local artists Against the Grain, James Linck, the Messenger Birds, and Go Tiger Go to rock your socks off. To make it even better, there’s going to be prize packs from businesses like Rock City Eatery, the Michigan Science Center, Saint Andrew’s Hall, Camera Jesus, and more. Five years is a pretty big deal, and it looks like Hip in Detroit has many more anniversaries to come. Doors open at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclub.com; Tickets are $8.
Vibe musician Blackbear, a young, tatted up kid all the way from Hollywood, has attained a substantial fan base across the country. He’s pretty new and pretty young, but tracks like “Shower Music” show real talent starting to bud. His latest release, Sex the Mixtape, was released on Halloween, and is available for purchase on iTunes for your listening pleasure, and to prepare for the show. Doors open at 6 p.m.; 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; saintandrewsdetroit.com; Tickets are $16.
FRI 1/6-SAT 1/7 Anti-Freeze Blues Festival @ The Magic Bag
Joe Louis Walker. COURTESY PHOTO
FRIDAY, 1/6
SUNDAY, 1/8
THURSDAY, 1/12
Kaleido
Nathan Bell
Blackalicious
@ Grasshopper Underground
@ The Ark
@ The Magic Bag
He’s performed with Townes Van Zandt, Emmylou Harris, Norman Blake, and more. He’s traveled across the country, using folk music to tell his story, and has let it flow out of him with incredibly poetic lyrics that are matched with beautiful harmonies. Nathan Bell tells the stories surrounding blue- and white-collar workers in America, including his own tale of losing his corporate job at AT&T. When this happened, turning to music full time seemed like the best option. Bell, who picked up a guitar at 15 because he wanted to be like Hendrix, didn’t hesitate to jump in, no holds barred, to the sometimes crazy, and sometimes magical, world of bluegrass and folk.
Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel are back at it again. Since the ’90s, the Sacramento hip-hop duo has stayed at the forefront of music thanks to Gift of Gab’s intricate rhymes and Chief Xcel’s dance-able beats. Just because they’re from the West Coast doesn’t mean you should go expecting to see N.W.A. Blackalicious is known for their uplifting, often spiritual lyrics “rather than violent and misogynous.” They’re not like radio rap in terms of what they’re doing musically, and they aren’t afraid to try things that radio rappers might shy away from, which is why seeing the duo live is totally worth it.
After wrapping up a nationwide tour with In Living Color, Kaleido, one of Detroit’s newest and most promising rock bands, hits the road on their own. Blending together punk, funk, pop, rock, and everything in between, Kaleido has become a favorite on 89X and around metro Detroit. The band has been compared to an early Guns ‘n Roses, along with early No Doubt. With the release of their latest album Experience coming in 2017, fans can expect to be among the first to hear their newest music live at this show. Doors open at 9 p.m.; 22757 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; ticketweb. com; Tickets are $10.
Doors open at 7 p.m.; 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; theark.org; Tickets are $15.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; themagicbag.com; Tickets are $17 in advance.
This year’s Anti-Freeze fest (a benefit for our friends at the essential Detroit Blues Society) does not disappoint. We have two Grammy-nominated headliners, beginning with living Chicago blues legend Lurrie Bell on Friday. On Saturday, we have Joe Louis Walker , who has been in the biz for more than 50 years, and his career in blues has never faltered in excellence. He’s had 23 albums, two DVD specials, and has collaborated with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Ike Turner. Thanks to his great musical abilities and poignant lyrics, he’s won four Blues Music Awards, and is a Blues Hall of Fame inductee. His live performances are coveted, thanks to his incredible showmanship. His most recent album, Everybody Wants a Piece, follows all of the rest with impeccable quality.
Doors open at 7 p.m. both nights; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, themagicbag.com; Tickets for each night are $25 in advance.
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January 4-10, 2017
43
CULTURE
COURTESY PHOTO
Sarey tales
Sarey Ruden takes the weird messages she receives on online dating and turns them into coasters, left, and posters, above.
COURTESY PHOTO
The art of name calling by Alexandra Fluegel
The world of online dating is a chasm of shenanigans — swiping, selfies, unsolicited images of genitalia, and occasionally messages like this one: “You’re a drunk single angry mean loser who will never have children.” Detroiter Sarey Ruden knows this ugly side of online dating all too well; she’s been collecting messages like the one above for years — yes, years — and recently decided to do something about it. Ruden, a designer, began to create stylized images of the quotes and posted them on Instagram and Twitter under the moniker @SareyTales. She says she’s always loved typography, and after receiving a particularly brutal message, she wanted to turn it into something beautiful. “I wasn’t even hurt, I was just astounded that someone had that ready to go,” Ruden says of the message, which came from someone she’d gone on a date with but ultimately expressed her disinterest in. “He intended for it to hurt me and make me feel little, and I knew that second it had to be made into something.”
In addition to the cheeky social media accounts, Ruden creates postersize prints of the messages, and on her Etsy site, they are showcased hanging prominently over beds and couches. They are simple, modern typefaces, usually black on a white background, with the quotes in bold proclamation. Underneath, the name of a man and a date. Ruden says it was important for her to include the names (though those are changed) and dates to convey that these are real messages from real people. “This isn’t stuff I’m making up,” she says. “It’s a direct quote. “I want there to be friction and tension, just enough to make you look and think about it.” And unfortunately, Ruden says, there’s no shortage of content. “One guy messaged me, ‘You have one more year to get pregnant,’ — really? Is that all I’m here for?” she says. And yes, there are others, which run the gamut between oddly amusing (“Still searching desperately for a cucumber to fill you online?”) to profane haikus (“Oh you would be so/ Addicted
44 January 4-10, 2017 | metrotimes.com
if I gave you/ A taste of my cum.”) “People didn’t believe me,” Ruden says. She’d often take screenshots of the messages and share them with friends. Ruden says she’s often asked what she’d said in order to make the other person say such disrespectful things. “Of course people say, ‘Well maybe you did say something shitty.’” Ruden admits to occasionally clapping back, but says it was a futile effort. “Most of the time, there is no beginning,” she says. “They’re just authentic, unsolicited crappy thing. If you don’t reply, you’re ‘stuck up.’ If you reply and say you’re not interested, they yell at you.” Ruden suggests the perceived anonymity of online dating gives men a sense of entitlement and the freedom to say things they would never say face to face. “You’re just a picture, and if they don’t get the response they want, they say things that no one would tolerate in real life,” Ruden says. Ruden says she feels the men would not want people to know what they’ve said, and her work is an effort to expose it.
Ruden also says she has felt like somehow the messages she received were her fault, or that it would somehow reflect poorly on her. “It’s rape culture,” she says, something even older generations have the tendency to play into. “My parents don’t understand. They said, ‘Why do you want people to see this?’ and it’s because I know I’m not those things men have said to me.” The people who have sent the messages may never see it, but Ruden says the catharsis of creating the work is more than enough reward. Although, remember the guy who told her she was a money-hungry drunk cunt? Last week, Ruden received an email from him with an apology. Ruden’s work is also available as greeting cards and coasters (available at Leon & Lulu in Clawson) and she welcomes submissions for personalized works and “guest tales” on her social media sites.
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CULTURE Higher Ground: Six things to consider by Larry Gabriel
While last year seemed a good year for cannabis activists and users on the national scene — four more states legalized recreational use and other states legalized medical — there is still plenty to fight about in Michigan and across the nation. Although there are now 28 legal medical marijuana states, we still don’t know how a Trump administration in Washington, populated with drug warriors such as attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, will approach the issue. With about 60 percent of Americans supporting legalization, it seems that ramping up the war on drugs would be pretty tough to pull off. On the other hand, the majority of Americans didn’t want Donald Trump to be president, and look at what we got. As we move into 2017, here are six things to think about as you gird yourself for another year of struggle on the cannabis front. 1. One of the biggest scare factors that marijuana prohibitionists use is that legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message to vulnerable young people whose bodies and brains (actually a part of their bodies, but singled out for extra fear factor) are still developing that it’s safe to use. It’s not clear what message young people are getting regarding marijuana, but it doesn’t seem to be drawing them toward the evil weed in droves. According to federally commissioned national survey data compiled by the University of Michigan (you know, in Ann Arbor, where visitors are issued a bong and a bud when they arrive) marijuana use has dropped among eighth grade and 10th-grade students. Use by 12th-grade students (apparently celebrating their pending liberation from high school) has held steady since 2011. In Colorado, the first state to sell recreational marijuana, teen use in 2014 and 2015 clocked in below national averages and lower than it was before legalization. In addition, teenagers say that it’s harder to get their hands on the bud. Could it be that procuring your marijuana at a store where they check
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your ID instead of in the neighbor’s basement where they don’t check anything is a better deterrent than “just say no”? 2. While we’re debunking dire predictions about the effect of legalizing marijuana, let’s take it to the roads. Prohibitionists also claim that legalizing marijuana will lead to gazillions of stoned drivers bumping into others and killing them on the road. Apparently that’s not true. A study from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that states with medical marijuana laws have a lower rate of traffic fatalities, especially among younger drivers. That doesn’t necessarily mean that marijuana causes traffic fatalities to go down, but it belies the assertion that it will make traffic fatalities go up. The study’s senior writer, Silvia Martins, theorized that the drop could be due to people substituting marijuana for alcohol use and putting fewer drunk drivers on the road. 3. As we merrily march toward legalization, lawyers have a pretty big role. This past year several in Michigan have stood out in chipping away at the constraints on medical and recreational use of marijuana. The most recent judicial victory came through attorney Joshua M. Covert and the Nichols Law Firm in East Lansing, who have won a state appeals court decision on the state’s Improper Transport law. Basically those who fear marijuana believe it must be treated like kryptonite and transported in a thick lead container with multiple locks on it and guarded
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CULTURE Those who fear marijuana believe it must be treated like kryptonite and transported in a thick lead container. by numerous burly soldiers. Well, our transport statute doesn’t go that far, but it does say medical marijuana should be enclosed in a case and in the trunk of the car. If the vehicle has no trunk then it must be locked up and out of the driver’s reach. Apparently the goodies are so tempting that if left within reach, the driver would have no selfcontrol and indulge in this stuff while in transit. This totally ignores the fact that anyone could easily set some aside for imbibing while driving regardless of where the lockbox is. In a 2-1 decision in People v. Latz, the appeals court ruled that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act “holds authority” over the legislature’s rule. In a press release the Nichols firm said: The court’s ruling cited the broad protections from prosecution that are afforded to Michigan’s medical marijuana patients in the MMMA as its reason for curtailing the use of the Improper Transport law against those patients. 4. Another lawyer who has made a difference is attorney Mike Komorn, whose Komorn Law office is in Farmington Hills. Komorn blew the lid off a scandal in which the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan pressured Michigan Crime Lab scientists to label the THC in infused medical marijuana products as “origin unknown” as part of the state’s case against Max Lorincz. This technicality opened patients to prosecution because while medical marijuana is legal, synthetic marijuana is not. By listing the product as “origin unknown,” the report left legal patients open to prosecution for possession of an illegal substance. Some scientists resigned from their jobs rather than to make the scientifically untrue classification that could lead to felony charges. Komorn filed a Freedom of Information Act request that uncovered a series of communications detailing prosecutorial influence over the scientific process. Before Lorincz had his case thrown out, his 6-year-old son was placed in foster care for 18 months. However the state still hasn’t changed its policy. Lorincz is one of four plaintiffs in a federal class-action suit claiming that the
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policy violates due process and Fourth Amendment rights. 5: There is a federal lawsuit against the state of Michigan regarding the mostly forgotten MILegalize petition to put the question of legalization on the state ballot. Various state agencies, including the state Supreme Court, denied the petition, claiming that the signatures were not gathered in a timely fashion and kept it off the ballot this fall. Strangely enough, this opinion hangs heavily on a spring 2016 law enacted nearly a year after the petition drive was registered. A group of signers and circulators of the petition claim that their rights were violated by the refusal. Attorneys Thomas Lavigne of Detroit’s Cannabis Counsel and Jeff Frazier of Komorn Law are the principals pursuing this action. 6. Finally, as we swing through the NFL playoffs, it’s timely to note that pro football players and former pros are seeking an alternative to highly addictive opioid painkillers and to protect their brains after concussions. All it takes is a few minutes of viewing a football game to know that football is a violent game that results in injury. Marijuana is a banned substance under the NFL’s official policy, and agreement with the NFL Players Association even in states where it is legal. A recent ESPN poll shows that nearly two-thirds of active players believe that relaxing that rule will reduce the use of chemical painkillers and addiction. The players association is developing a pain management committee that will explore, among other things, the use of marijuana. Retired players, such as Randy Moss and Jake Plummer, are speaking up in support of its use by players. In my next Higher Ground column I’ll be speaking to some former NFL players, members of the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition, who are taking part in a pain management study using marijuana extracts from California’s Constance Therapeutics.
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CULTURE Savage Love: Revolution Hall by Dan Savage
Q:
My brother is a virgin and turning 30 in a few weeks. He said he wants to hire an escort just for drinks and conversation for his birthday, but he doesn’t really know how to tell what’s a reliable service or what criteria he should be looking for to tell whether an agency is legit, reliable, etc. I’m very happy he came to me with this because I can tell it’s not something he wants to share with many people — but I don’t have any advice or knowledge to pass on regarding this and I want to respect his privacy by not discussing it with everyone in our social circles. Do you have any advice in regards to what he should be looking for? — My Younger Brother’s Romantic Order
A:
“Look to social media,” says Mistress Matisse, a writer, sex worker, and sex-workers-rights activist. “Now that so many review boards have been taken down, social media is the best way to find a good independent escort.” About those review boards: Law enforcement agencies, always on the lookout for ways to “save” sex workers by making their jobs more dangerous, have gone after online sites, aka review boards, where clients rated and ranked escorts and — more importantly — escorts communicated with each other about safety, clients to avoid (flaky, rude, unhygienic), and clients they absolutely shouldn’t see (erratic, threatening, violent). Elizabeth Nolan Brown wrote a great piece for Reason about the issue last fall (“The truth about the biggest U.S. sex trafficking story of the year,” Sept. 9), and everyone should go read it at Reason.com. Anyway, MYBRO, back to your brother and Matisse’s advice. “I’m not saying ‘no social media’ equals ‘bad escort,’” Matisse says. “There are lots of good escorts who don’t have much of a social media presence. But if you want to get to know a little about who someone is before you
meet them, that’s just how you do it now.” Another rarely discussed, perfectly legal alternative to figuring out if an escort is for real: Pay them to meet up for drinks and conversation, which just so happens to be all your brother wants (or all he’s willing to tell you he wants). “Obviously, this is not a good option for the budget-conscious,” Matisse says. “But if you want to test your chemistry and create some trust on both sides before booking a private date, it’s a solid way to go. Note the keyword, though: PAY her for her time. (Most ladies have a public social meeting fee that’s lower than private-time rates.) And remember the basic rules when you do decide to set a privatetime date: Don’t ask about sex and don’t talk about money other than to briefly acknowledge that you have seen her rates and agree to pay for her time. Expect to use condoms and to abide by the rules of whoever you’re seeing.” You can follow Mistress Matisse on Twitter @mistressmatisse.
Q:
I’ve been reading your column for years, and it has definitely helped me develop a sex-positive view of dating, relationships, sex, and otherwise. I’ve been seeing a girl recently who revealed to me she’s a cam girl. I’m totally OK with it. She makes a great living, it’s important to her, and it turns her on — all great things! But it’s something she likes to keep to herself, and for good reason, obviously. People, however, are obsessed with what other people do for a living. So what’s the best answer for when I’m asked what she does? She’s as unsure of what to say as I am. I’m bringing her to a company event (I work in finance), and both of us are sure everyone is going to ask what she does (cocktail party small talk is the worst!). What are your thoughts on this subject and other things in a relationship like this? — Man Behind The Cam Girl
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A:
Say this: “She’s an independent contractor with a video production company — she makes her own hours and works from home. It’s a great gig. Oh hey, how about them Bears/ Colts/Cubs/Broncos/Braves/WhateverTheFucks.”
Q:
I’m a tall, slender, attractive, fit, artistic, female 65-year-old, taking testosterone, and now without a partner. I’m not sure how to go about engaging in noncommittal quick sex dates. I don’t know of any escort services for the ladies, but I would be interested. I’m also interested in exploring the bisexual side of life. Where would you advise I go? — Curious And Wondering
A:
I’m going to echo Mistress Matisse and suggest diving into Sex Work Twitter. Most male sex workers target their ads/online presence to other males, since men are likelier to buy sex, but many male escorts are bisexual or straight but gay-for-pay. They’ll happily see female clients, as will many female sex workers, you just gotta ask — politely and, again, without talking about sex explicitly. Remember: You’re paying for the escort’s time, CAW, anything else that happens is just consenting adults doing consenting adult things.
Q:
I have a suggestion for GAYMAN, the guy who just got out of an abusive relationship and wanted to know how to reconnect with his sexuality and other gay men. I came out three years ago, and I must say that joining the organization Frontrunners changed my life. It’s an LGBTQ-friendly running group, and I found so much support there as a man coming out late in life. I’ve met so many LGBTQ people, from all backgrounds, with extremely varied interests, and it really opened me up socially. I’m happy to say I’ve made some great friends in the year that I
have participated. — Running While Queer Love your column. Often you get questions on how to meet people/find partners, and you respond, “Get out of the house, go to the gym, volunteer.” Here’s one activity you haven’t mentioned: Sign up for dance lessons, e.g., salsa, swing, tango, ballroom, etc. It’s not hard to find a dance studio that offers group lessons, and partners aren’t required. Anyone can join a class. A group dance class will expose you to many people and put them right in your arms as an introduction. I can’t think of a better way to meet people. I’m a straight guy who met his last six girlfriends — the latest at nine years and counting — in dance classes. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do at a bar. Obviously, partner dance isn’t for everyone, but skeptics might be surprised. It’s a pretty great environment, and people seem at ease because everyone is focused on having fun. — Strictly Come Dancing
A:
Thanks for sharing, RWQ and
SCD.
Readers: Psychotherapist, author, and friend Esther Perel (Mating in Captivity) is seeking couples to be featured on her upcoming original audio series. Couples can be married or in a longterm committed relationship, and from all sexual orientations and cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds. Gay male couples are particularly encouraged to apply. For more info, go to tinyurl.com/perelaudio. Listen to the Savage Lovecast every week at savagelovecast.com.
mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage
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CULTURE
Horoscopes by Cal Garrison
ARIES (March 21- April 20):
You can’t be expected to go along with the program at a time like this. Before you start coloring outside the lines getting clear about a) what it will cost you, and b) what it means to be strong enough to go there. All of your tests have made it clear enough that you didn’t come here to play potsie, and you can’t force yourself to play games. The need to live according to your own truth competes with the fear that you will lose it all if you do. Don’t be too sure, and don’t allow your fears to dictate your next move. Who knows? Things might actually improve if you break loose. TAURUS (April 21 -May 20):
You’re OK with this but it would feel so much better if it didn’t involve so many compromises. You have good reasons to feel like you need to get on board. If they’re working for you now it’s because you think this is how it’s supposed to be — but time is the mother of truth and you haven’t learned enough to see that too many compromises are usually a sign that you’re in the wrong place. Check this out in your own heart before you listen to me; or give it time to play out with the knowledge that experience is the only teacher and time will tell if you need to keep it up. GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Stepping up, or stepping out of the box is a hell of a lot easier than whatever you were doing before you woke up! Those who know you well aren’t quite sure what to make of the way your behavior is making them stop and think about their own life. The idea that when one thing changes, everything changes is running full tilt. You are no longer feeling subject to the things that kept you down. This sense of upliftment will buoy you up until it confronts you with the same choice that all of us face when things change enough to call us to turn everything around.
CANCER (June 21-July 20):
How far this will go is hard to say. You aren’t so sure where you stand with things so forget about where they’re going; focus your attention on what’s here right now. Whatever this is about, if your attention is on the outcome, you’ll miss the point. There are things that haven’t been factored in so you can expect the next phase of the process to be full of surprises. Throw your fixed ideas out the window. The more you are able to adjust your expectations the more you will see that every time you stretch your limits the better you feel and the better things go.
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LEO (July 21-Aug. 20):
Something else may need to take the place of whatever you’ve got going on. As much as it all looks and feels OK, bliss gets boring, and too much of everything is no longer giving you what you need. The idea that it’s time to get on with the show has less to do with ambition than it does with your passion wishing it had something to attach itself to. The irony of getting to the place that you’ve always wanted to be and finding out that there’s nothing to do when you get there, is about to show you that there’s always more to life than this, and what’s next is on its way. VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 20):
You have whatever it takes to do whatever it takes — and right now, the idea that all of your best effort needs to come to the fore requires you to stay on top of every little thing. There’s no way you can get anything to fly if half of your energy is getting siphoned off by people and things that are more confused than you are. In the midst of a process, or a milestone that is about to bring the future into view, it’s your own sense of direction that you need to come to terms with. Don’t let fear and/or guilt keep you from stepping out, if that’s what life is calling you to do. LIBRA (Sept. 21-Oct. 20):
You have gone through the mill and appear to have come out on the other side of a long string of changes. If these experiences have had an impact it’s for sure that you are looking back on the past with a new pair of eyes. With any luck you have come to terms with why things happened the way they did. No matter where you stand with it, the bottom line is the slate is clear enough for you to begin again. And the question is; who do you want to be when you grow up and how long do you need to stay here? Give yourself a month or three to come up with the answer. SCORPIO (Oct. 21-Nov. 20):
You have more going on than the average bear. It’s interesting that others have so much to say about it. Before you give all of your power away, it would be great if you could review the ways in which you continue to let everyone else run the show. For some of you, the thought that you might be getting taken for a ride competes with the need to believe that whoever claims to have your best interests in mind is indeed there for you. Delusion is such a huge pitfall with you guys. For your own sake, sit down with someone you trust and get their take on what’s happening here.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 21-Dec. 20):
You aren’t quite sure where this is going but you have a feeling it could be awesome. Any one of a number of things are about to come together to show you that sometimes it makes more sense to color outside the lines than it does to stay in them. It would be great if you had more confidence and even better if you could realize that you don’t have to overcompensate for not being 100 percent sure as to what this is all about. Stop second guessing yourself and be careful when it comes to micromanaging things that will respond better if you let nature take its course. CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 20):
The one who seems to be giving you the most trouble is going at it full bore, trying to get you to dance to their tune. If you can’t see this, look twice. There are a million ways to get manipulated. As far as you are concerned, it is a question of coming to terms with your own truth, and sticking to it. The games that others play will be a nonissue once you get clear and strong enough to come back to yourself and stop going along with it. At that point, they will be OK with it, or not, and you will either keep this up, or get on with a program that sets you free to express yourself. AQUARIUS (Jan. 21-Feb. 20):
You keep coming up against the same old thing. Not that it makes you any different than the rest of us — but in your case it’s creating levels of frustration that are making you question everything about yourself. There’s no way to say for sure what’s up with this. You keep showing up with all the right stuff and wind up getting whacked by the way things go, or by the way people never see anything the way you do. Your light is so bright and your hopes are so high they get dashed more easily. Calming down enough to take life as it comes will keep you from driving yourself nuts. PISCES (Feb. 21-March 20):
The relationship area is in high focus, but what else is new? You’re waking up to things that are blowing your mind and begging you to make a choice. This could be in your main partnership, or it is taking place with your relationship to life in general. Everything is calling you to re-evaluate choices that were made when you didn’t know enough about what was happening to be faced with those decisions. Waiting for the other shoe to drop could be a strong theme for some of you. In a few months the scenery will change in ways that allow you to finally get your life back.
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