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Vol. 40 | Issue 33 | May 20-26, 2020
Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen
News & Views Feedback/Comics ................. 6 News ...................................... 8 JOSH COHEN
There is no alternative
Join the Metro Times Press Club and help us continue to bring alternative news to Detroit
EDITORIAL Editor in Chief - Lee DeVito Music and Listings Editor - Jerilyn Jordan Investigative Reporter - Steve Neavling Copy Boy - Dave Mesrey
ADVERTISING Regional Sales Director Danielle Smith-Elliott Multimedia Account Executive Jessica Frey Account Manager, Classifieds - Josh Cohen
Feature The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on Detroit’s hospitality and entertainment .............. 12
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By Lee DeVito
We’re not dead yet.
In March, Metro Times — like many other businesses in Michigan and beyond — was dealt a powerful blow by the arrival of the coronavirus. Officials ordered most of the economy shut down to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus, and as concerts were canceled and bars and restaurants were closed, we lost much of our advertising revenue. Soon, we were forced to lay off eight staff members, and our future looked uncertain. But we weren’t going down without a fight. I was told I could only keep one other writer. Instead, I was able to keep two by forgoing my own pay. To me, it was a no-brainer. I wanted to do whatever I could to help keep the paper — which first hit the streets in 1980 — alive long enough to see its 40th anniversary in October. We haven’t missed an issue yet. The CARES Act has helped keep us afloat, and I was eventually able to be rehired. But now we need more help. That’s where you come in. Today, we’re launching the Metro Times Press Club. Over the next six weeks, we’re aiming to raise $50,000 to keep Detroit’s alternative weekly running. Eventually, we hope to be able to rehire our staff and restore our freelance budget so we can continue to bring alternative news and views to metro Detroit. Your donation, either one-time or recurring, will help us do that.
Of course, things were rough for alt-weeklies even before the coronavirus crisis. The internet had siphoned away many of our traditional revenue streams, including ads and classifieds. But we think Metro Times remains vital. Now, more than ever, Detroit needs news — especially stories that the other outlets won’t cover. Our offbeat writers and editors have their fingers on the pulse of Detroit, including some of the most in-depth dining, arts, music, and culture coverage you’ll find in the city. And when the coronavirus crisis ends, and the city’s nightlife returns, we want to continue to be known for what our mission was when we first started nearly 40 years ago — to be a one-stop source for readers to find out what’s going on in Detroit each week. And best of all, whether you’re reading in print or online, Metro Times has always been and will remain free. Perhaps it’s not the most lucrative business model in the world, but we think it’s important. We wouldn’t have it any other way — and we’re hoping you agree. In exchange for your support, we’ll offer special access to our events, swag, a membership card, and other perks. But beyond that, you’ll know your contribution helped keep independent journalism alive in the Motor City. You can learn more about the Press Club at metrotimes.com/ SupportLocalJournalism. Thanks, as always, for reading.
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NEWS & VIEWS Feedback S tev e N ea v l in g ’ s a rtic l e in l a st w eek ’ s issu e, “ G ov . W h itmer b ec omes ta rg et of d oz en s of th rea ts on p riv a te F a c eb ook g rou p s a h ea d of a rmed ra l l y in La n sin g , ” h a d a n immed ia te a n d imp a c t. W h itmer a d d ressed th e rep ort a t a p ress c on f eren c e th a t d a y, c a l l in g on R ep u b l ic a n s to d en ou n c e th e a c tiv ity. Th e story w a s p ic k ed u p b y ou tl ets l ik e The Detroit F ree Press, Bloomberg, Newsweek, The G uardian, a n d The New York Times, which referenced it in a profile on Mark Z u c k erb erg a n d th e c h a l l en g es h is c omp a n y is f a c in g . A s a resu l t of Metro Times’ rep ortin g , F a c eb ook remov ed th e p a g es.
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TheAngryFag: “ G ov. Whitmer becomes target of doz ens of TER R OR IST threats on private F acebook groups ahead of armed rally in ansing. fi ed your headline for you. 4moreyears: While Whitmer is trying to take away Constitutional rights and refusing to work with the Michigan Legislature during COV ID-19, please remember that millions of Americans died during World War 1, World War 2 and other wars to protect the freedoms you now have right now. Yet so many Michiganders are willing to give up Constitutional rights so easily because the government is saying it is “ for your own safety.” Yet how do we know that once this outbreak is contained that they will not be lost forever?
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NEWS & VIEWS
Armed protesters in Lansing on Thursday.
STEVE NEAVLING
Sick of quarantine
Lansing’s armed protesters are a hot potato nobody knows how to deal with — except for Trump By Lee DeVito
On Thursday, dozens of protesters — some brandishing guns, and at least one brandishing an ax — gathered at the Capitol, demanding G ov. G retchen Whitmer end her coronavirus stay-at-home order, which they say is killing the economy and limiting their freedom. ( Or “ F R EEEDOM! ! ! ” as one large banner put it.) It was the third such gathering in recent weeks. he first, Operation ridlock on April 15, was meant to be a “ drivethru” social-distancing protest by car. Though the right-wing DeV os-connected Michigan F reedom F und claimed to not be organiz ing the event ( they were merely “ advertising it,” they said) , they nevertheless tried to contain the angry crowd by reminding them to stay in their vehicles. G iven the organiz ation’s l a issez f a ire approach to the protest, it was hardly surprising that they failed to control the group. Q uite a few protesters got out of their cars anyway, posing for dramatic photos on the stairs of the Capitol that made headlines across
drenched protesters’ grammatically challenged signs and biz arre fashion choices. But a larger, disturbing point got lost in all the kerfu e the egislature q uietly canceled its Thursday session due to the protest, opting to instead meet on Tuesday. On F riday, Whitmer criticiz ed the move, telling CNN, “ The Legislature apparently didn’t want to be around for this activity that many of them incited, frankly.” It’s hard not to count that as a win for the protesters. But what can be done? Disobeying the state’s stay-at-home order could result in a ,000 fine. Apparently, officials have no interest in enforcing it among these protesters. But would that infringe on their right to peaceably assemble and free speech? Then again, is it really “ negotiating” if you’re holding an assault rifle In the meantime, it’s likely this armed mob will return. But how much longer can we continue to pass along this hot potato? Nobody really seems to know what to do with it — except for Trump.
the world. Some held signs comparing Whitmer to H itler and waved Confederate flags. resident Donald rump egged them on, tweeting, “ LIBER ATE MICH IG AN! ” The armed protesters returned to the Capitol during a Congressional debate over Whitmer’s emergency powers on April 3 0, growing in siz e. They brought more signs, some calling for violence against Whitmer. Some even forced their way into the Capitol Building, making for even more dramatic photos that made headlines across the globe — rattling both Democrats and R epublicans. “ You shouldn’t be intimidated going to be the voice of the people who elected you,” Whitmer told NBC News. Even R epublican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who has been leading the Congressional fight against Whitmer over her emergency powers, called the protesters “ a bunch of jackasses” and “ thugs.” Trump once again encouraged them, calling them “ very good people” and telling Whitmer
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she needs to negotiate with them. The move prompted a bipartisan debate over why guns are even allowed in the Capitol at all. Days later, a security detail of armed, mostly Black men even escorted State R ep. Sarah Anthony, a Lansing Democrat, to the Capitol to prove a point about racial double standards. ( U narmed Black men, of course, have been shot and killed by police for far less.) John Truscott, the vice chairman of the Michigan State Capitol Commission Capitol Building Commission, which runs the building, and a gun-owning R epublican himself, said they likely couldn’t ban guns without legislative action. Attorney G eneral Dana Nessel, who called the protesters a “ powder keg,” issued a formal opinion saying they could. The Capitol Commission’s legal counsel basically responded with, “ well, that’s just your opinion, man.” The issue remains unclear. Meanwhile, Metro Times infiltrated several private F acebook groups whose members graphically called for Whitmer’s assassination, in violation of the company’s policy against hate speech. F acebook eventually removed the groups after Metro Times started reporting on them, ahead of Thursday. After weeks of escalating tensions, Thursday’s protest landed with a bit of a thud — likely thanks, in part, to the rain. It was perhaps too easy for certain smug liberals ( * ahem* ) to laugh at the
Detroit man charged with making alleged death threats against Gov. Whitmer and AG Nessel By S tev e N ea v l in g
A 32-year-old Detroit man was arrested and charged for allegedly threatening to kill G ov. G retchen Whitmer and Attorney G eneral Dana Nessel. R obert Sinclair Tesh was charged on April 2 2 with false report of threat of terrorism, a felony that carries up to 2 0 years in prison, the Wayne County rosecutor’s Office announced riday. rosecutors allege esh made a credible threat to kill” Whitmer and Nessel on a social media messenger. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the threat. “ The alleged facts in this case lay out a very disturbing scenario, rosecutor K ym Worthy said in a statement F riday. “ We understand that these times can be stressful and upsetting for many people. But we will not and cannot tolerate threats like these against any public official who are carrying out their duties as efficiently as they can. You can disagree with their positions or their methodology, but you absolutely cannot act as this defendant allegedly acted or you will be charged criminally.” Tesh was released on bond on April with a S tether. A probable cause hearing is set for June 3 .
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NEWS & VIEWS
EVAN EL-AMIN, SHUTTERSTOCK
Informed Dissent
Unmasking Obamagate e re
Michael Flynn is neither the hero nor the victim in this story. R ather, like so many in President Donald Trump’s orbit, he’s a means to an end — in this case, the White H ouse’s attempt to rewrite its history of failure. lynn was rump’s first national security adviser for 2 4 days before being fired. e later pleaded guilty to lying to the F BI about his contacts with a R ussian ambassador. Last year, however, he began claiming that he’d been set up by the deep state, and he found a sympathetic ear in new attorney general and Trump sycophant William Barr. On May 7 , the Department of Justice moved to dismiss charges against F lynn, claiming that the government could not prove he lied ( though he admitted it) , and even if he did, his lies weren’t “ material.” More than that, the DO ’s filing was a searing attack on both the F BI and the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation itself. The two were connected, after all. he day after rump fired lynn, he pressured then-F BI director James Comey to drop the case against him. Comey refused, and Trump’s later decision to fire Comey led to Robert ueller’s appointment and an investigation that consumed two years of Trump’s term. No sooner had DOJ brass intervened
ill an
in the F lynn case than Trump promised recriminations: “ I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price because they’re dishonest, crooked people. They’re scum — and I say it a lot, they’re scum, they’re human scum.” H e didn’t identify the “ scum,” but within days, the hashtag # Obamagate began trending, promoted by Trump himself. In Trump’s words, it was the “ biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the U SA, by F AR ,” though he never articulated what that crime was. No matter. The overarching idea is that the Obama administration engaged in an elaborate anti-Trump conspiracy, beginning with an investigation into R ussian interference during the 2 016 campaign. The proof, Trump and his allies say, lies in F lynn’s “ unmasking,” a term opaq ue enough to sound sinister. U nmasking works like this: The U .S. government can’t spy on citiz ens without a warrant. But when it surveils foreign targets, it records their conversations with Americans. In intelligence reports, Americans’ names are replaced by “ a U .S. person.” Administration officials can seek to unmask the name if they think it’s important; this happens thousands of times a year. Last week, three R epublican senators released a list of 0 officials who had unmasked F lynn between the 2 016
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election and the inauguration. Some were lower-level intelligence agents or individuals attached to NATO. Other req uests came from the administration’s upper echelon, including the CIA and F BI directors, Obama’s chief of staff, and ice resident oe iden. These seem tied to conversations F lynn had with Sergey K islyak, the R ussian ambassador to the U .S., on December 2 9, 2 016 . That day, Obama had expelled 3 5 R ussian agents in retaliation for election interference. n five calls with K islyak, F lynn assured him that the next administration would ease sanctions and urged R ussia not to retaliate in kind. ntelligence officials re uested that the U .S. person be unmasked. These req uests went through the proper channels. There was nothing illegal or improper about them. The crime, such as it is, was that someone leaked news of F lynn’s conversation with K islyak to The Washington Post. Leaks happen every day, and this wasn’t exactly the Pentagon Papers. ut it set things in motion. ice resident-elect Mike Pence and Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer said that F lynn denied speaking to K islyak about sanctions. ntelligence officials knew that wasn’t true. At this point, the F BI was about to close its counterintelligence investiga-
tion into the Trump campaign’s ties to R ussia. F lynn’s calls, however, opened a new line of inq uiry. And if F lynn was freelancing, they thought he might be vulnerable to blackmail. When they q uestioned him, he lied. The DOJ now says his lies are irrelevant because the entire investigation was illegitimate. So committed is Barr to Trump’s exoneration that he handpicked a U .S. attorney, John Durham, to investigate the investigators, undercut Mueller’s findings, and — fingers crossed — charge some of those who handled the investigation. ( Barr said Monday that Durham was unlikely to go after Obama or Biden, but he’s proved pusillanimous in the face of Trump’s tantrums.) If you don’t think this a conclusion in search of evidence, consider what a DOJ spokesperson told F ox News about unmasking: “ I can tell you that [ Durham’s] team is working diligently to get to the bottom of what happened. Because, Martha, what happened to candidate Trump and then President Trump was one of the greatest political injustices in American history and should never happen again.” Trump wants vindication — and vengeance. It’s not just that his election carries the asterisk of R ussian interference. It’s that Obama has been renting space in his head since his 2 011 White H ouse Correspondents Dinner mockery. Try as Trump might to erase his predecessor’s legacy and diminish his record, Obama is still the most popular politician in the country. Trump is already running the most vicious campaign in modern history: pushing conspiracy theories, calling Biden senile, attacking whistleblowers, threatening tech companies, attacking journalists. This week, two of Trump’s sons insinuated that Biden was a pedophile. ( U nlike Trump, Biden has never been sued for allegedly raping a child.) By associating Obama with an opaq ue but ominous-sounding pseudoscandal, Trump probably hopes to bring Joe Biden’s best surrogate down a notch or two. The ginned-up indignation over H illary Clinton’s email server showed how effective these attacks can be, and how willing the media is to play along. But the martyrdom of Michael F lynn is about more than that. It’s fuel for the white grievance that Trump believes will animate his base, a way to stoke resentment against the African American president whom he blames for his problems. This is Trump’s comfort z one. With more than 90,000 Americans dead and 3 6 million out of work, it’s also the only card he has to play.
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FEATURE
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all dine-in restaurants and bars, like Detroit’s Slow’s Bar-B-Q, to close in March.
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HANNAH ERVIN, DETROIT STOCK CITY
The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on Detroit’s hospitality and entertainment industries — and owners say a federal bailout isn’t helping BY LEE DEVITO
A
year ago, when Detroit started a massive construction project on Livernois Avenue, former Detroit Lions cornerback Ron Bartell decided he would take the opportunity to invest in his popular Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles restaurant. The $17 million project reduced traffic and parking spots along the historic Avenue of Fashion, so Bartell figured he’d use the opportunity to temporarily close his shop, which first opened in 2015, to “update, renovate, and recalibrate,” he says. He spent nearly $350,000 on a new kitchen with plans to re-open in November, but restaurant projects like these almost always take longer than expected. When Kuzzo’s finally reopened on March 14, it did so with much fanfare. The timing couldn’t have been worse, however. Just two days earlier, Michigan reported its first cases of the coronavirus. Two days later, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all dine-in restaurants and bars to temporarily close — among the first of several executive orders she signed to shut down sectors of the economy to contain the spread of the virus. “It’s been a rough year for us,” Bartell says. Undeterred, Bartell quickly recalibrated again, pivoting Kuzzo’s from a dine-in restaurant to takeout, and partnered with food-delivery services. Though he was forced to lay off some employees, he was able to keep about 15, and installed removable plexiglass window panes in front of the cash register to help keep them and his customers safe. “We’re listening to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], we’re talking to all the other restaurants and seeing what they’re doing, we’re listening to the state, and listening to the city,” he says. “We’re just trying to gather all the information that we can while also keeping our staff included in any decisions we make because ultimately, you know, their health is paramount. Everybody’s health is paramount in this.” Though Bartell says the support from the com-
munity has been overwhelming, it’s still tough — even for a popular restaurant. He estimates sales are down to 30-40% of what they once were. “I’m just battening down the hatches and just trying to make it — just like everybody else in this country,” he says. “You know, it’s a tough task for everybody. I don’t think anybody is excluded from this.” The financial toll of the coronavirus has quickly become perhaps America’s most important political issue, as the nation stares down the largest economic disruption since the Great Depression. In smalltown Owosso, 77-year-old barber Karl Manke has become a cultural flashpoint, insisting on continuing to cut hair, coronavirus be damned. In response, Manke has been served multiple misdemeanors for continuing to operate, and the state suspended his license. In capitals across the country, protesters, egged on by businessman President Donald Trump, have gathered to demand the economy be reopened — many defiantly flouting executive orders to wear face masks outdoors and maintain six feet of distance between other people. In Lansing, the protests have turned ugly, with armed militias, Confederate flags, and hand-drawn signs calling for violence. Metro Times reported on a number of private Facebook groups where people called for violence against Whitmer, a violation of the social media’s company’s policy. (The company has since shut the groups down.) In a statement, Michigan United for Liberty, which ran one of the Facebook pages, accused Metro Times of colluding with Facebook “to support the ongoing destruction of Michigan’s economy and the devastation of its great people.” “We encourage everyone in the nightlife business to remember where the Metro Times stood on this,” they wrote. Suffice it to say, Metro Times does not wish for the destruction of Michigan. Of course, Whitmer’s executive orders have been hard on us too. The prohibition of large gatherings and closures of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs have caused us to lose most of our advertisers, and we were forced
to lay off eight employees and launch a fundraiser to try and stay afloat. We’re trying to strike a balance between keeping people safe and staying in business. COVID-19 has already claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Michiganders — or, in a point Whitmer dramatically made at a recent press conference by projecting a photo behind her, the entire capacity of Detroit’s majestic Fox Theatre. “You look at that stage, and you know that nearly every empty chair represents a lost loved one of someone here in Michigan,” Whitmer said. “Someone with a story, someone with children or parents, someone with colleagues. These are people who were a part of the fabric of our state. And it’s so easy to look past this loss if it hasn’t hit close to home.” “It’s just such a precarious situation to be in,” Bartell agrees. “You have people that want to work and, you know, you just want to provide a level of protection not only for the staff, but also the customers themselves.” Still, he says, he’s grateful to still be in business at all. “We can’t complain,” he says. “We’re still here. We’re still able to provide a service to the public, we’re still able to keep people employed. That’s the big thing for us, to be able to make it out of this and still be that place in the community that people could come patronize and have a good time and employ people. That’s why I got into this — to be able to provide employment in the neighborhoods.” In the meantime, the federal government has taken unprecedented steps to attempt to keep the economy from completely crashing, approving more than $2 trillion in aid so far. A staggering 36 million Americans, including more than 1 million in Michigan, or a quarter of the state’s workforce, have applied for unemployment. Delays in receiving unemployment benefits have pressured many into heading back to work, however, and governors, including Whitmer, have begun to reopen some sectors of the economy, like construction and manufacturing. On Monday, Whitmer an-
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nounced that dine-in restaurants and bars in Northern Michigan will be able to reopen on Friday, with some asterisks. They’ll have to limit their capacity to 50%, with groups of customers maintaining six feet of distance, and servers will have to wear face masks. One of the federal measures is the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan program implemented by the Small Business Administration and the Department of Treasury. The SBA will forgive loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities. However, Bartell and other business owners Metro Times spoke with say that the loan is especially ill-suited for the hospitality industry — one of the largest sectors of the economy. “We’re kind of trying to figure out how we’re going to be able to use it because the requirement to bring staff back — it’s a little funky for restaurants,” Bartell says. “If we’re only able to operate at [a reduced] capacity, how are you able to bring back a full staff operating under those conditions?” Those complaints are echoed by Jackie Victor, co-founder of Detroit’s Avalon International Breads bakery, who penned an April 28 op-ed in the New York Times. “It’s difficult to successfully use the Paycheck Protection Program loan,” Victor wrote. “The hurdles are high. Besides rent and utilities, the loan is meant to be spent on payroll within 60 days. If employers reach the same number of employees by the end of the period, then the amount spent on pay is forgiven. Any unforgiven portion turns into a loan to be paid back fully in 18 months. Even if we do manage to hire 135 employees and pay them for the next 60 days, it will be impossible for us to retain those employees while revenue is down 50 to 80 percent.” Victor called for the loan’s shelf-life to be extended for 120 days, for the number of retained employees to be lowered to 70 percent, for the loan to be able to be used for other purposes like unpaid bills, and to extend the term to repay the unforgiven portion of the loan to anywhere between five to 10 years. Bartell’s frustrations are compounded by the fact that it wasn’t easy to get the loan in the first place. His usual bank, Comerica, “FUBAR’d” the application process during the first round of loans, he says. “I think the information that was coming from Congress, to the SBA, to the banks — it just wasn’t a coordinated effort,” he says. He wound up securing a loan through his personal relationships and was able to catch a second round of loans. “But you know,
Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles, which reopened in March, was forced to quickly adapt to the coronavirus.
there’s a lot of small businesses out there who missed out on that first round of funding for whatever reason, and are closed now,” he says. Like Bartell, Sean Patrick — coowner of Detroit’s Willis Show Bar, a historic Cass Corridor spot known for jazz, burlesque, and high-end cocktails — also invested a lot of money into his dream. Patrick, along with L.A.based investors, spent at least $750,000 restoring the small club to its Art Moderne glory, and the spot opened in 2018 nearly 40 years after the city famously padlocked its doors as the Cass Corridor became a hotbed for crime. “This was hopefully going to be the first quarter since we opened where there would have been some profits that would have gone back to paying off our investment,” atrick says. “We opened this place to be a part of Detroit, to be very much a part of the history of Detroit by reopening a place that sat [vacant] for 40 years. We came into this just because we were so excited by the renaissance of Detroit, wanting to be a part of pushing it forward this time.” rofit margins are already razor-thin in the hospitality industry. Patrick says due to the coronavirus, “any kind of savings we had built pretty much evaporated within the first three weeks” of the coronavirus crisis. Like Bartell, Patrick is also confused by what the PPP means for his business. “The reality is, the majority of it would need to go to staff and hiring back the full staff as we were existing before,” he says. “But staff counts for less than 20% of our expenses. So it’s kind of a tricky one, and we don’t know what our future really holds because,
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as it stands right now, there’s no telling when we’re going to be able to reopen.” That the federal bailout isn’t helping the food and beverage industry is perhaps surprising, considering the hospitality industry was one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country. According to the National Restaurant Association, jobs in the industry grew 84% from 2010 to 2018, and as small businesses, the industry employs nearly 8 million people — the second-largest number of any industry. Or at least it did. Now, restaurant and bar jobs represent more than half of the jobs lost since the coronavirus crisis began. A survey from the National Restaurant Association in conjunction with the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association painted a grim picture, estimating that one in three businesses could close permanently due to the virus. There’s also a multiplying effect that even an intimate club like Willis Show Bar, where the band performs on a small stage behind the bar, has. A recent Chicago-based study showed that for every $1 spent on tickets to a small theater, an additional $12 was spent at nearby businesses like dining, shopping, and parking. Patrick says in a given month before the coronavirus crisis, Willis Show Bar employed five full-time and seven part-time employees, about a hundred musicians and singers, 24 people involved in pop-up dining events, six dancers, and at least 10 DJs. That’s a combination of 150 people. Plus, he estimates that the club has hosted more than 500 musicians and singers over the past two years. Once the coronavirus crisis hit, he and others quickly started an online fundraiser, “Willis at Home,” a weekly
DAVID RUDOLPH PR
show streamed on social media featuring cocktail tutorials and musical performances. The campaign helped raise money to pay for the club’s staff and roster of musicians. “They’re vital to the community,” Patrick says. “They’re a part of the heartbeat of the city.” Patrick says he worries about what the toll of losing small venues will do to the fabric of a city. “When you look at the larger venues, they’re important — obviously they’re a big part of the ecosystem,” he says. “But those are special events, right? You go see a big concert, you go to a sporting event. But the places that you go in and out of each week — that’s what makes a town, especially a town like Detroit.” Daniel McGowan, owner of the Crofoot entertainment complex in Pontiac, says that even though he was keeping his eye on the coronavirus situation, he was still blindsided by its impact. The weekend before Whitmer ordered a ban on large gatherings, he booked sold-out shows at the Crofoot Ballroom and smaller upstairs Pike Room. But that Friday, a national act coming from the West Coast preemptively canceled a show at the ballroom, out of concerns for the coronavirus. It was a taste of things to come. “From our standpoint, it became real serious,” he says. “We didn’t anticipate having entire quarters worth of business just wiped off our books.” McGowan also applied for federal aid through the PPP, but like others, he’s not sure if he can use it. “One of the key challenges is that you have to spend the money in a short period in order to take full advantage of the federal program,” he says. “If you’re running, say,
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After a grand renovation, Willis Show Bar planned to turn a profit this year — before the coronavirus hit.
a manufacturing facility, the federal government is giving you funds to help cover staff and help weather the losses that you incurred.” But there’s no work for his staff to do now, because there are no acts on tour. And besides, large gatherings are still banned, and likely will be for a long time. “We were one of the first industries to close down, and we’ll be one of the last industries to come back online,” he says. McGowan imagines the live music industry might slowly return incrementally, by perhaps initially limiting crowd sizes and slowly ratcheting them up. He points to a recent baseball game in South Korea, where officials limited capacity in the stadium (and helped create the illusion of normalcy) by placing cardboard cutouts of people in seats. In a general-admission setting, like the Crofoot and ike oom, McGowan says he can imagine something like what industry folks are calling “fan pods,” or limited sections of the floor roped off to isolate people from each other. He also imagines staff would have to be hired to continuously clean the venues. Of course, sitting next to cardboard cutouts or being sequestered from other fans in a “pod” doesn’t quite recreate the magic of experiencing live entertainment in a crowd. But beyond that, McGowan is also skeptical that an independent venue like his could even make it work financially. The added safety precautions will add expenses, while the lower crowd capacities will reduce revenue. Venues like his “survive because we can bring a thousand people into a venue, or 5,000 people
into a venue, and that covers the cost of the act,” he says. “If all of a sudden it’s turned upside down and, you know, a 1,000-capacity room is now legally allowed to only hold, say 200, we’re not going to be able to pay the acts what they need to perform.” Some health experts say that largescale events will likely not return until at least 2021. And even as the crisis subsides, many music fans will likely still be hesitant to return to large crowds out of fear. After suffering financial hardship during the coronavirus economic shutdown, many will likely be unable or unwilling to spend money on entertainment when there bills to pay. The industry has always had to adapt to new threats to keep people safe. In 2015, when a van crashed into a line of people at the S SW festival in Texas, McGowan says he was forced to take a look at how the line wraps around the Crofoot. After terrorist attacks, like the shooting at an Eagles of Death Metal concert at a aris nightclub in 2015, the oute 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas in 2017, and the bombing at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in 2017, officials have been forced to consider ramping up security. “You have a shooting and all of a sudden we have to reevaluate everything we do from a safety standpoint, bringing in extra security, bringing in police officers, bringing in metal detectors,” McGowan says. “Every time this happens, we layer on another set of expenses. It’s just the nature of what we do.” In response to the economic toll of the coronavirus, the Crofoot and Willis
16 May 20-26, 2020 | metrotimes.com
MICHELLE GERARD
Show Bar have joined a new organization called the National Independent Venue Association. The group has started an awareness campaign, SaveOurStages, and is also writing letters to lawmakers to explain their predicament. They’re hoping for another bailout, this one specifically tailored to their industry. Without it, they estimate 90% of independent venues could be forced to close. In all, more than 1,600 venues in all 50 states have signed on. Everyone Metro Times spoke with believes that when it comes to the hospitality industry, Congress simply failed to consider these issues in the scramble to inject federal aid into the economy. “I think they were rushing, and something is better than nothing,” McGowan says. “I don’t want [to slam the SBA because I think ultimately the SBA has been an underfunded organization for a long time and what they’re attempting to pull off is a miracle. So I don’t blame the SBA by any means. I think they’re doing the best they can.” Bartell says he wishes the government thought about the hospitality industry as much as they considered other sectors, however. “I think the government would be doing a huge disservice if they didn’t come up with something specifically for the hospitality industry in itself,” he says. “I mean, we bail out airlines, we bail out banks, we bail out all of these big corporations. There needs to be something that’s geared towards hospitality. This is one of the largest business models that’s affected by this.” Everyone interviewed says they don’t
want to rush back to the way things used to be too quickly. Safety, they say, is the most important thing they don’t want to do anything that could spread the coronavirus further. Health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have warned that reopening too fast will create a second, possibly deadlier wave of coronavirus infections. Bartell has considered that things might never return to the way they used to be just a few months ago. atrick thinks things might not go back to normal until a coronavirus vaccine or treatment is developed. McGowan says he’s received harsh words from one customer on social media who criticized him for taking federal aid. Live music, the customer said, is not an essential service. McGowan disagrees. “We’re not asking for special treatment,” McGowan says. “We’re not asking for free money. But what we are asking for is the conscientious and thoughtful approach, and that needs to be considered.” McGowan says he wishes people could be more empathetic — just like, for example, the protesters who refuse to wear face masks and are demanding to reopen the economy. “I think people are not spending enough time putting themselves in other people’s shoes,” he says. “You know, you have these protesters going to the Capitol, and what I would say to them is you should go visit a hospital. I mean you can’t — you shouldn’t, from a health perspective. But I mean you need to talk to people, the nurses, the doctors, that are experiencing this firsthand. This is a serious matter, and just because it hasn’t affected you doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting the culture at large. You’re not wearing a mask to protect yourself — you’re wearing a mask to protect other people. And it causes me a lot of pain and frustration where people are in their bubble and they’re not looking outside and taking a second to consider the other people around them.” But ultimately, McGowan is hopeful. “I don’t think the message is one of fear. I think it’s a message of overcoming fear,” he says. “That’s, in part, what music really is. It’s about hope, and it’s about positivity, and it’s about exploring pure emotions. And I think our business, by and large, is not considered essential, but in a different way of looking at it, it’s absolutely essential. What would life be without gatherings and without music ” Bartell says he’s also optimistic. “My father always told me, Don’t run from a challenge, run to it,’” he says. “So that’s the mindset that I’m going to take.”
metrotimes.com | May 20-26, 2020
17
CULTURE
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip to Greece.
ANDY HALL/SKY
It’s all Greek to them By C a meron Meier
In The Odyssey,
Odysseus takes 10 years to return home from the Trojan Wars. Though no one would argue that director Michael Winterbottom’s Trip series is on the same aesthetic level as H omer’s epic G reek poem, it has also taken his protagonists — slightly fictionali ed versions of the actors Steve Coogan and R ob Brydon — a decade to complete their journey. And they end their adventure, fittingly, by attempting to retrace Odysseus’s voyage from Troy to Ithaca, in Th e Trip to G reec e. The franchise began on the small screen in 2 010 with a British holiday travel series simply titled Th e Trip . It featured Coogan and Brydon, in six BBC episodes, as actors-turned-foodcritics, touring restaurants in northern England. Those shows were then edited together into a feature film. That formula continued in 2 014
with Th e Trip to I ta l y, in 2 017 with Th e Trip to S p a in , and now with The Trip to G reec e, which first aired, in six episodes, on Britain’s Sky One in March. Though the whip-smart banter, self-deprecating humor, and celebrity impersonations have occasionally grown tedious, especially in the Spanish sojourn, the series has maintained a good deal of its charm, if not its originality. But, as Coogan says in the latest edition, “ Originality is overrated. Everything is derivative.” That doesn’t mean there aren’t new vistas and even fresh storylines to en oy in the new film, which its creators confirm will be the last. And, as usual, famous sights and scrumptious cuisine abound, though this latest film focuses more on Coogan’s and Brydon’s characters, and their family, colleagues, and romantic interests. Yes, you will hear plenty of dia-
18 May 20-26, 2020 | metrotimes.com
lects, accents, and impressions, but you won’t see as much of Athens as you might expect. Still, you will get glimpses of that city’s Ancient Agora, not to mention the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the ancient theater of Epidaurus, the Caves of Diros, the Palace of Nestor and the island of H ydra. If you haven’t been to G reece, it’s a bit difficult to follow the film geographically, but, at the end of the six-day trip, we discover that the film’s raison d’etre lies not in the G reek Isles but in the hearts of its characters. “ In a macro sense, we’ve been on the odyssey for 10 years,” Brydon reminds Coogan. Yet Coogan’s collaboration with Winterbottom goes back a decade further and includes last year’s G reed also filmed in reece , as well as A C oc k a n d Bu l l S tory from 2 005. ( That metatheatrical, largely improvisational movie also co-starred Brydon
The Trip to Greece Not rated Run-time:110 minutes
and partially inspired Th e Trip . The oddest thing about the Trip movies is that they are food films, travelogues, personal essays, comedies and dramas — sometimes one at a time and sometimes simultaneously. Indeed, Winterbottom’s odd, genrebusting formula really shouldn’t work, at least not in a feature film format. But it usually does, thanks mostly to the two actors’ chemistry. And by the end of the latest chapter, the film flirts with another, even more appropriate genre: G reek tragedy. I guess not much has changed in 2 ,880 years.
metrotimes.com | May 20-26, 2020
19
CULTURE Hey, everyone! Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a fashion contest for our DIY masks? We’ve been busy primping and preparing the grounds, refining our procedures to keep everyone safe and comfortable, and desperately hoping that we will be able to watch some Tigers baseball this season! Fingers crossed. If you don’t have your homemade masks ready, hurry up, because it’s only a matter of time before we are all soaking up the sun (or airconditioning) and drinking a cold one. Be well everyone, we’re almost there and anxious to be seeing you back at the bar!
Go Michiganders!! Go Tigers!!
Saturday, May 23rd Happy Birthday, Sunny May! Tuesday, May 26th In Memory of Francesco “Franny” Happy Birthday!
Horoscopes By C a l G a rrison
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 So much hinges on the need to lose your fi ed ideas about what needs to happen ne t. All of your pictures are based on notions that come from past life e periences of having everything work out like a fairy tale. t’s not what you need this time. otice what happens when you make recognition too important. eeding all of the light to shine on you and wanting to suck up and bask in that warmth is your Achilles’ heel. ry to figure out how to let the light flow th rou g h you. Everything works out better when you let it pour out and enrich and enlighten other people’s lives.
LEO: July 21 – August 20 ou took the whole hog and ran right over the top with something that has gone way out of control. efore the solstice rolls around, you’ll have the short run all figured out. ut the long run will suffer if you don’t back up and put on the brakes. oo much of everything and too many nearsighted choices will find you up a creek if you aren’t willing to breathe deep and look at what it’s getting you. hen things overflow, the ermetic A iom would suggest that you’re in too far over your head to know how to stem the tide and reverse engineer some of your recent choices.
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 21 – Dec. 20 he gap between the inner and outer realities measures the e tent to which we’re separated from ourselves. At the moment, having that covered is your primary concern. hy ecause it’s so easy to fly off in opposite directions and tear yourself apart. t doesn’t matter how you decide to meet yourself in the middle. n the crosshairs of life, changes that are here to determine how the rest of it goes, getting real, and eliminating every form of pretense is where it’s at. A vision uest could be ust what the doctor ordered. n lieu of that, enough time alone to ga e at the stars might do the trick.
A R S April ay 0 he weight of things leads you to believe that you’re going under. his is what happens when we’re plowing through the wreckage we get so overwhelmed, it’s easy to forget that the universe is supporting us. ough decisions that have left you feeling like you should’ve done things differently were n ot in error. t takes time for things like this to reveal their true purpose, so ease up — you did the right thing. esser beings are bound to rattle your cage. et their slings and arrow roll off your back and remind yourself that all of this is clearing the path to a better tomorrow.
VIRGO: August 21 – Sept. 20 eople mean well and they appear to have your best interests in mind — but they have no idea who you really are or what you need at this point in your life. t’s time to sit them down and say, hanks anyway — ’ve got myself covered. On a certain level, you’re on a totally different bandwidth than most people. ith this in mind, it’s ridiculous to think you can structure your life the way other people do. At the moment, the more you’re willing to bust out of the status uo and set a new standard for whatever it means to be you, the better it will go — all the way around.
CAPRICORN: Dec. 21 – Jan. 20 here’s a huge amount of change bubbling up from within. ry rewinding back to the beginning of time and reflecting upon what happened before life instructed you to turn yourself inside out. he person who evolved out of that has it all together — on the outside, at least. ou’re approaching a bend in the road. here’s pressure to keep your persona intact your ego and your security trips seem to depend on this. ’m here to tell you that it’s totally O to step out of those traces and reclaim yourself. t’s your choice, but trust me — it does no good to be anything but who you are.
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20 t’s mind blowing to see how you manage to always come out on top. As the prospect of more intense forms of interference looms on the hori on, you’d do well to stay one step ahead of the game. Chances are you’ve already sharpened your sword and your wits, and you’re well aware of the odds that are stacked against you. lay your cards closer to the vest. Don’t broadcast your feelings or fall apart at the seams. t’ll take three more months for what’s blowing in the wind right now to be replaced by what you con ure up in the meantime. ortify the inner stuff and keep the light on.
LIBRA: Sept. 21 – Oct. 20 nstead of milking the past, consider the virtues of moving on to whatever’s ne t. f you had a better sense of your own worth, you’d reali e that whoever lied, cheated, and or sold you out didn’t even deserve to talk to you. ow that they’re gone, take this as a sign that being immersed in that fre uency was holding you up. hich gets me to another thing ou’ve got ama ing opportunities brewing and better things to do. et with the program. he writing’s on the wall. t’s time to pour your heart into the seas of change that are about to give birth to a whole new life.
AQUARIUS: Jan. 21 – Feb. 20 ou have to figure out how to get around an issue or a person that isn’t going to change. o keep beating your head against the wall will drive you nuts until you remember what water can do to a rock. ressing the issue has compressed this conflict into a stand off. ay back and go about your business as if none of this mattered. he truth is, whoever or whatever this is about is providing you with ust enough resistance to postpone actions that you could easily come to regret. Don’t minimi e their role in this. n a few months, you could be eternally grateful to them for holding things up.
CANCER: June 21 – July 20 he codependent urge is huge with you guys. aving ust released yourself from playing that role in one situation, you’ve gone from the frying pan into the fire. e aware of the fact that over and over again, the same old thing will show up in different clothing to remind us that we have more work to do. eep an eye on the dynamics in all of your relationships. he need to please, combined with the belief that whoever you’re attached to knows more about things than you do, is your downfall. t’s time to stop the madness and get in touch with who you are and what you want.
SCORPIO: Oct. 21 – Nov. 20 Don’t be misled by the thought that you need to remain affiliated with people and situations that make it seem as if you need them. here are times when it’s best to fly solo. f fear is what keeps you oined at the hip, it’s for sure that this won’t work out. n your shoes would consider the virtues of independence and work on the faith factor. ry putting your money where your mouth is. ith big transits indicating that you’ll fall off the pier if you keep moving in the same direction, a sharp right or a sharp left will change the scenery and save you from the brink of disaster.
PISCES: Feb. 21 – March 20 ou want to keep things simple. t’s a good idea, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that doing everything yourself is the way to go. ou’re at a point where a little help would be worth whatever it costs you. or many of you, this could translate as, ou want to get by without needing to depend on the system or upon others whose support comes with too many strings attached. Don’t complicate everything you have on your plate with some misbegotten urge to be a superhero, and don’t assume that others are here to take advantage of the fact that you need them.
20 May 20-26, 2020 | metrotimes.com
metrotimes.com | May 20-26, 2020
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22 May 20-26, 2020 | metrotimes.com
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Savage Love
CULTURE
an a a e
Q:
H ere’ s a n on - C O VI D q u estion f or you : I ’ m a q u eer w h ite f ema l e in a mon og a mish ma rria g e. I v ote l ef t, I a b h or h a tred a n d op p ression , a n d I en g a g e in a c tiv ism w h en I c a n . I ’ m a l so tu rn ed on power di erential a thorit fi re u n if orms, h ot g u ys d oin g ea c h oth er. Mu c h to my h orror, th is th in g f or p ow er di erential pl too an o ie a a kid ha alwa eant th a t f or my b ra in ( or f or my p u ssy) N a z is a re h ot. F u c k me, rig h t? O th er ma yb e rel ev a n t b its of in f o: I ’ m n ot in terested in rol e- p l a yin g w ith a c tu a l p a rtn ers, I ’ m f a irl y su re th is procli it i not re ecti e of an deeper issu es, a n d I ’ m b oth sex u a l l y a n d emotion a l l y f a irl y w el l - sorted . N ot p erf ec t, t fine workin order and all that nd I g et it: P eop l e l ik e w h a t th ey l ik e, d on ’ t j u d g e you rsel f f or you r f etish es, j u st g et o witho t ein an a hole to an one Th e p rob l em is th a t my u su a l w a y of ettin o on ind l in fanta ie i to read erotic fiction on the internet d l ov e you r in p u t on w h eth er seek in g ou t N a z i p orn is p rob l ema tic f or some of th e sa me rea son s th a t p orn d ep ic tin g sex with kid i pro le atic nor aliz in g a n d triv ia l iz in g f a sc ism? reakin o t earch i torie
A : Seeking out child porn — search-
ing for it online, downloading it, collecting images of children being raped and sexually abused — is problematic ( and illegal) because it creates demand for more child porn, which results in more children being raped and sexually abused. he cause and effect is obvious, AS , the victims are real, and the harm done is incalculable. But while it may discomfort someone to know a nice married lady who donates to all the right causes is furiously masturbating to dirty stories about hot guys in Naz i uniforms doing each other, AS , no one ever has to know that. So you do no harm — not even the supposed harm of discomforting someone — when you privately en oy the fucked up stories you en oy. And while there are doubtless some actual a is who en oy reading dirty stories about other Naz is, most people turned on by dirty stories about Naz is are turned on despite themselves and their politics. ransgressive se ual fantasies don’t arouse us because they violate societal norms and expectations ( in safe and controlled manner) , F ASH , but because they allow us to violate our sense of ourselves too ditto . ust as a feminist can have rape fantasies without actually wanting to be raped herself or for anyone else to be raped, a
JOE NEWTON
person can have se ual fantasies about hot guys in Naz i uniforms doing each other without wanting Naz is to come to power. have to say it was a easier to give anti-Naz i Naz i fetishists like you a pass — to shrug and say “ you do you,” but please keep it to yourself — before racist demagogues, white supremacists, and anti-Semites started marching around waving rump flags. ut no one picks their kinks and being told “ that shouldn’t turn you on has never made a problematic or transgressive kink less arousing. And when you consider the number of non erotic novels, movies, and television shows the culture cranks out year after year — and how many actually triviali e fascism ’m talking to you, H u n ters) — it seems insane to draw a line and say, “ OK , this story about Naz is isn’t OK because that lady over there masturbated while reading it in private.
Q:
I ’ m a n a p a rtmen t- d w el l er in a d en se u rb a n a rea . La st n ig h t, I ov erheard nei h or ha in e no b ig d ea l , rig h t? I c on sid er mysel f a sex p ositiv e p erson , a n d h a v e a l w a ys h el d a n d esp ou sed th e b el ief th a t if you c a n ’ t h a v e l ou d sex in you r ow n h ome, w h ere c a n you h a v e it? Bu t th e sex I ov erh ea rd la t ni ht wa fairl kink o eone I rea d a s a c is ma n w a s d omin a tin g someon e I rea d a s a c is w oma n . Th ey w ere in th e a p a rtmen t rig h t a c ross f rom ine a o t feet awa and b ed room w in d ow f a c es th eirs. Th ere w a s
a LO T of d erog a tory ta l k , h ittin g , n a mec a l l in g , g iv in g ord ers, a n d some c ryin g . co ld tell it wa con en al he wa er clearl ha in a ood ti e and I ea v esd rop p ed l on g en ou g h to w itn ess th e p ost- c oita l retu rn to eq u il ib riu m. E v eryth in g seemed g rea t. Bu t p h ysic a l l y I ex p erien c ed th is a s ov erh ea rd v iol en c e. I w a s sh a k in g a n d h a d a h a rd time g ettin g to sl eep a f terw a rd . I ’ m g l a d I stu c k a rou n d u n til th e en d . I t h el p ed me f eel b etter. I g u ess w h a t I ’ m sa yin g is th a t I n eed ed some a f terc a re. I ’ m stil l th in k in g a b ou t it th is morn in g , a n d I ’ m c on c ern ed th a t b ein g trig g ered b y my n eig h b or’ s sex is g oin g to b ec ome a reg u l a r p a rt of my l if e. I ’ m w on d erin g a b ou t th e eth ic s of th e situ a tion : Do kink folk ha e an o li ation to e p oten tia l l y trig g erin g sou n d s? O r is a n y ov erh ea rd sex p oten tia l l y trig g erin g to someon e, a n d a m I th eref ore a p p l yin g a do le tandard here hat do o th in k ? he anilla ei h or
A:
ou went from overhearing kinky se to eavesdropping on it — meaning, you went from accidentally hearing your neighbors fucking to intently listening as your neighbors fucked. And you needed to do that. You heard something that sounded violent, but hearing more led you to guess it was consensual sex, and listening all the way to the end — all the way through the aftercare — confirmed your guess was correct. So for your own peace of mind, TV N, you needed to keep
listening. But you don’t need to listen next time. If it triggers you to hear your neighbors fucking, d on ’ t l isten . Close the window and crank up some music or go for a walk and listen to a podcast. That said, TV N, you raise an interesting ethical q uestion: Are kinksters — particularly the kind of kinksters who en oy verbal abuse and impact play — obligated to keep it down? While I think people should be considerate of their neighbors, people are allowed to have se in their own homes, , and it’s not like vanilla se is always uiet. ut if the se a couple en oys could easily be misinterpreted as abuse or violence by someone who accidentally overhears it, that couple might wanna close the window and turn up some music themselves — not only to avoid alarming the neighbors, but to spare themselves the hassle of e plaining their kinks to a cop. F or the record, I would tell a person who en oys a good single tail whipping to find a soundproof dungeon to en oy that in ( because that shit is l ou d ) , but I wouldn’t tell a person who screams her head off during intercourse to find a soundproof bo even though her shit is ust a s l ou d ) . Instead, I would urge her fuck at 8 p.m., when most people are awake, rather than 2 a.m., when most people are asleep. ( It can be annoying listening to someone screamfuck, but it’s even more annoying to have your sleep ruined by a screamfucker. s this a double standard erhaps. But it’s one I’m willing to endorse.
Q:
1. Is it safe to hook up again? 2 . Will it be safe to hook up again soon? 3 . You’ll tell us when it’s safe to hook up again, right? —G etting R eally Impatient. Need Dick. R eally.
A : 1. It isn’t. 2 . At some point. 3 . I
will. ey, Everybody e and ancy and the tech savvy at risk youth will be doing a special Savage ove ivestream on hursday, une 4 at p.m. S . ou can send your uestions to livestream savagelovecast.com or ask them live during the event. ’ll answer as many as can in one fun filled oom meeting Tickets are $10 and all proceeds from the Savage ove ivestream will be donated to orthwest arvest, a nonprofit that distributes food to more than 0 food banks in ashington state. o to savagelovecast.com events to get tickets Q u estion s? ma il @ sa v a g el ov e. n et. F ol low an a a e on witter fakedan a a g e.
metrotimes.com | May 20-26, 2020
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