2B — Thursday, February 18, 2016
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Though Myers refrains from 

any sort of push-marketing, 
assuring me he’ll never “be out 
on Ann Arbor street-corners 
blowing 
the 
Mighty 
Good 

horn,” the coffee shop is wildly 
popular — particularly for its 
brown sugar sea salt latte, an 
original creation.

“We came up with it four or 

five years ago,” Myers said. “It’s 
probably the most successful 
drink we’ve ever come up with. 
We make that all from scratch; 
everything we make here is 
from scratch.”

Among 
their 
scratch 

creations are slow jams, butters 
and 
apple 
compote. 
Other 

gourmet innovations include 
their unique adaptations of 
nitro cold brew and continually 
trending 
toast 
bars 
— 
my 

personal recommendation is 
the brie and apple compote 
toast; upon first bite I was 
weak, in love, crying, etc.

“I’d been looking at toast 

bars for a long time, ever since 
I started reading about them 
in San Francisco,” Myers said. 
“We started it here maybe a 
year or two ago and it was slow 
to pick up, but it’s really popular 
now.”

Mighty Good aims to provide 

as many local ingredients as 
possible. Bread and Sunday 
pastries come from Detroit’s 
Avalon Bakery, Tasty Bakery 
provides gluten-free treats and 
the Pastry Peddler supplies 
their beloved baked goods. 
Despite offering a diverse food 
menu, Myers regards the noms 
as secondary to the coffee.

“We’re careful not to dilute 

that we’re a coffee shop and 
that food has to complement 
that, not be who we become,” 
he said.

During the coffee shop’s 

infancy 
and 
original 
menu 

development, they offered only 
brewed coffee and flavorless 
lattes. Myers refers to the 
sparse drink menu days as 
the 
cafe’s 
“purist 
track.” 

Eventually, a barista mixed 
flavors from scratch on her own 
time and assembled a book of 
her creations. She presented 
her ideas to Myers, the staff 
chose five of them to sample 
and eventually narrowed it 
down to a few, which remain 
behind the bar.

“Any development is the 

work of collective intelligence,” 
Myers said. “It’s a way better 
way to work when everyone’s 
involved.”

The 
team-inclusive 
menu 

amendments typically occur 
with 
the 
changing 
of 
the 

seasons. The honey lavender 
latte, 
for 
example, 
was 
a 

springtime addition.

“At the end of the day, we’re 

coffee snobs to ourselves, but 
not to our customers,” Myers 
said.

Besides the fueling function 

of 
caffeine, 
Myers 
stays 

motivated by the creativity of 
the coffee industry, one that 
harkens back his memories 
of art school. He missed the 
artistic 
craftsmanship 
that 

once seemed a relic of a bygone 
era, but rediscovered it through 
the medium of coffee.

“When I was in art school I 

was doing hands-on craftwork,” 
Myers said. “Computers took 
over 
and 
digital 
art 
took 

over. The pace of everything 
compressed, so your output was 
more important than the craft 
of what you were doing and I 
missed that. This is more like 
what I went to art school for — 
it’s a craft business.”

But when he was plotting a 

career shift 10 years ago, Myers 
couldn’t foresee Mighty Good’s 
trajectory. What were once 
spreadsheet business goals as 
part of a 10-year plan quickly 
became realities within a few 
years.

“Ten years ago I wasn’t 

thinking about any of this, I 
was just figuring out how to 
start a business that could turn 
into something,” he said. “Now 
that I have an opportunity to 
do something for the people 
who work here and people in 
the community. Now it’s, like, 
how can I create stable jobs for 
people? How can I maintain 
our core business and not screw 
that up? How can I do more 
community involvement?”

When he’s not pondering 

Mighty Good’s progress or 
future projects, Myers makes 
a point to stop in the Main 
Street shop whenever he can — 
occasionally making himself a 
specialty drink or sipping black 
coffee, his drink of choice. 
During my visit on Valentine’s 
Day, he was waiting on a heart-
etched latte to Instagram.

Maybe it was his passion 

for the work talking, or the 
fact that his wife was working 
alongside him that day, but 
Myers divulged the best way to 
take your coffee.

“Just 
sharing 
it 
with 

someone. That’s a fantastic way 
to drink coffee every day.”

By MERIN MCDIVITT

Daily Arts Writer

Angela Flournoy writes 

about topics ranging from 
haunted houses and real estate 
prices to 
the Great 
Migration 
and not-
so-great 
marriages. 
While not 
everything 
in her novel, 
“The Turner 
House,” may 
be familiar 
to readers at 
the Univer-
sity of Mich-
igan, most of 
it probably 
should be. 
After all, 
it takes place just down the 
freeway, weaving in and out 
of Detroit and its suburbs and 
finding a home on the fictional 
Yarrow Street.

The up-and-coming young 

writer will read from her debut 
novel at 5:30 p.m. Thursday as 
part of the Zell Writers Series 
at UMMA’s Helmut Stern Audi-
torium. Following her talk, she 
will be available to sign copies 
of the book, which emerged as 
an instant classic in 2015.

Heralded by major literary 

and news sources as one of the 
most promising new novelists 
of her day, Flournoy tells the 
story of 20th-century Detroit 
through the lens of the Turner 
family and their ups and downs 
— mirroring the city’s convul-
sions, shifts and changes.

As the state of Detroit has 

become more of a national 
issue, the facts and figures of 
urban decay in the city have 

become familiar, cited in 
everything from documentary 
films to political debates.

“There’s value in ‘macro’ 

kind of analysis because that’s 
how you find about trends and 
how things are happening on 
a large scale,” Flournoy said 
in a recent interview with The 
Michigan Daily.

But this singular focus left 

the human element out of the 
narrative completely.

“Most of it was non-fiction,” 

she said. “So it was like, ‘This 
is how many people lived here 
in 1947, how many people were 
here in 1978, etc.’ ”

Putting faces and relatable 

stories to the city’s decline was 
something Flournoy hoped 
would bring Detroit home for 
her readers.

“I read those books, and it 

was useful. But what was more 
useful was to imagine, ‘What 
does it actually feel like?’ ” she 
said. “The value of fiction is that 
it can make numbers come to 
life, because if you focus on the 
very, very particular of indi-
vidual people, you really look at 
something from the inside out.”

Flournoy’s extensive research 

and intuitive understanding of 
the city’s varied perspectives 
enriches her writing. But so did 
her point of view as an outsider. 
She grew up in Los Angeles, 
a city with some of the same 
strengths and problems, but 
also a very different atmosphere 
than the Motor City.

“For me, it was actually really 

exciting to write about a place 
that I had not lived, but that I 
had some experience with,” she 
said. “I think that for writers 
sometimes, the thing that is 
closest to your own experience 
is the thing that you don’t really 
have the right perspective to 

write about because you want 
to be loyal to what really hap-
pened. You have to figure out 
something that you’re familiar 
with, that you have an under-
standing of, but where there’s 
room to still explore and dis-
cover new things.”

As Flournoy’s work spans 

decades of American history, 
her life now zigzags the country 
as book tours, family and work 
pull her in different directions. 
The LA native teaches in New 
York City at Columbia Univer-
sity and The New School, when 
she’s not meeting fans of “The 
Turner House” all over the 
United States. What little free 
time she has is devoted to writ-
ing, a schedule that she finds 
challenging and inspiring at 
the same time.

“I actually think that the 

busier I am, the more excited 
I am to write,” Flournoy said. 
“Then the next part of that 
puzzle, though, is actually find-
ing the time. But I am slowly 
putting together the ideas, 
and some early, early pages of 
something new.”

New work and research will 

undoubtedly pull her into yet 
another community, captur-
ing its sense of place and indi-
vidual details with razor-sharp 
insight. But Flournoy will 
always keep a little space for 
Detroit, the inspiration for the 
novel that launched her career. 
Some Detroiters seem to think 
she’ll keep that inspiration, too.

“The most rewarding part 

of the process is, especially 
when I’m in Detroit, and I hear 
people say, ‘This is a book that 
feels like Detroit,’” she said. 
“That’s really your goal as a fic-
tion writer ... that’s what you’re 
trying to do.” 

Flournoy at UMMA

EPISODE REVIEW

Now in season 41, “Saturday 

Night Live” is like your cool old 
grandpa: sometimes cringe-
worthy, but ultimately still 
kicking and 
keeping up 
with the kids.

On this 

week’s 
episode, 
hosted by 
Melissa 
McCarthy 
(promoting 
her new 
movie, “The 
Boss”) and 
rapper Kanye West, the highlight 
of the show was the spoof movie 
trailer called “The Day Beyoncé 
Turned Black.” Created in 
response to last week’s media 
uproar about Beyoncé’s music 

video for “Formation” — the 
video hints at police brutality and 
the Black Lives Matter movement 
— the “SNL” trailer mocks “the 
day white people never saw 
coming,” as if Beyoncé’s race 
revelation is a disaster movie. 
There’s fire in the streets, 
cubicles collapsing and an office 
worker crying in agony, “I got a 
hot sauce in my bag, swag ... What 
does that mean?” (It means that 
everyone should seriously settle 
down about Queen Bey’s artistic 
choices.)

Keeping up the theme of music 

superstars, another pitch-perfect 
skit was “Kyle v. Kanye,” where 
Kyle Mooney of “SNL” challenges 
Kanye to a rap battle. Mooney is 
serious about it, too — he tells a 
dramatic backstory of his dream 
to be the best rapper alive, rather 

than just a “heartthrob on the 
rise” — and if he can out-rap 
Kanye, his dreams will come 
true.

Unfortunately, Mooney’s best 

rhyme is “Kanye West, you need 
a mint for your Kanye breath,” 
and Kanye crushes him. But like 
most “SNL” skits, the humor’s in 
miscommunication: after their 
showdown, Mooney confesses, 
“That was the biggest mistake of 
my life ... I just destroyed Kanye 
in a rap battle and now he’s 
probably really sad.”

Onstage, McCarthy’s 

monologue was forgettable, but 
Leslie Jones slayed Weekend 
Update by describing her perfect 
valentine, giving hope to picky 
singles everywhere. Cheers to 
love, rap and Queen Bey.

- HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK

A

SNL

Season 41, 
Episode 13 

Saturdays at 
11:30 p.m.

NBC

Angela 
Flournoy 
Reads “The 
Turner 
House”

Thurs. Feb. 18 
at 5:30 p.m.

UMMA Helmut 
Stern Audi-
torium

Free

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

By JOEY SCHUMAN

For the Daily

It’s not that ridiculous to label 

Kanye West as the best musi-
cian ever. His creative potential 
knows no boundaries, his flow 
knows no hesitation and his ego 
knows no flaws. His status seems 
bulletproof. But in honor of the 
release of The Life of Pablo, his sev-
enth solo studio album, it seems 
appropriate to take a look at a 
crucial, uninvestigated issue: just 
how playable is Kanye at bar/bat 
mitzvahs? We know Kanye can 
hold the summer down, but can 
he hold down the basement of the 
local Doubletree hotel on Satur-
day nights from 6:30-10:30? Let’s 
speculate.

Any bar mitzvah vet knows 

the night starts off with some 
speeches from friends. No doubt 
the spotlight is on the bar mitzvee 
during this time, but at least a 
little background music is needed 
to distract from the revolving 
panel of pre-pubescent hypes. 
Enter “Runaway,” off Kanye’s 
2010 masterpiece, My Beautiful 
Dark Twisted Fantasy. Now’s the 
time to forget all those bro fights 
over the Xbox — all douchebags, 
assholes and scumbags are forgiv-
en here. Introspective, apologetic 
and triumphant, the record per-
fectly encapsulates the emotions 
of the made-for-Insta moment.

After a routine game of “Coke 

& Pepsi,” it’s time for the grand 
entrance. And is there any better 
soundtrack for the moment than 
“Touch the Sky?” The schmoozing 
is over, the Torah has been read 

and the challah has been blessed. 
This moment calls for self-admi-
ration, and ’Ye’s 2005 hit serves 
as the ultimate mazel tov.

Now it’s time for the real 

party to start, which is where it 
gets tricky. Kanye has bonafide 
bangers, there’s no doubt about 
that, but what the party needs 
most are kid-friendly bangers, 
the type of banger you’d feel com-
fortable playing with your Rabbi 
in attendance. This methodology 
eliminates “Blood on the Leaves” 
(lots of Molly references) and 
“N****s in Paris” (self-explana-
tory), thus spurring a fallback to 
more appropriate classics such as 
“Stronger” and “Gold Digger.” In 
a room with such a broad range 
of personality, time-tested jams 
prove both versatile and nostal-
gic.

The adults want to turn up as 

well, and during the kids’ dinner 
break “Slow Jamz” seems like the 
perfect answer to that. The song, 
with its soulful tone and refer-
ences to Marvin Gaye, Luther 
Vandross and Anita Baker, is 
most likely to resonate most with 
the 40-and-over crowd. It’s really 
just a desperate grasp to play 
classic-sounding shit in the hopes 
that old people like it.

Soon, everyone realizes that 

old people can’t really dance, the 
catered chicken nuggets are way 
too rubbery, the seating arrange-
ment is pretty awkward and 
the seventh graders are way too 
hormonal to be dealing with any 
of this. Besides, is anyone feeling 
the love? It’s time for the Snow-
ball, and one overly-Old Spiced 

bar mitzvah boy is ready to make 
his first pick, something that 
he totally hasn’t been thinking 
about for weeks. Cue up “Devil 
in a New Dress” to set the mood. 
For everything the dude is too 
awkward to say, Kanye is there: 
“Put your hands to the constel-
lations / the way you look should 
be a sin, you my sensation.” ’Ye 
inserts a bit of romanticism into 
a situation that clearly needs it. 
He plays matchmaker with his 
intimate bars. Who knows? If the 
lucky lady is Jewish, she could be 
a keeper.

Enough with the young love, 

though. The first notes of “Hava 
Nagila” ring out, and that means 
it’s time for the Horah, a Jewish 
dance traditionally done during 
joyous times. When it’s time for 
bar mitzvah boy to be hoisted, 
“Celebration,” a fun jam off Late 
Registration (2005) takes over 
the speakers. Mr. West knows 
how to set the mood, and this one 
is of regality and commemora-
tion. Grab a drink, grab a glass of 
Manischewitz. Everyone in atten-
dance needs to know what this is. 
It’s a celebration, bitches.

Following all of the mishigas, 

the giveaway is distributed and 
regular sweatpants appear to be 
the move over joggers. Such a dis-
appointment is the most tangible 
evidence to all fuccbois in atten-
dance that it’s time to go home.

“I Am a God” plays on the way 

out. Rites of passage! Emotions! 
Yeezus! His divine influence 
transcends religion. His holy 
music defies traditional strictures. 
L’chaim, indeed.

Kanye at my mitzvah

GOOD MUSIC

“Worst bar mitzvah ever.”

KANYE WEEK

COFFEE
From Page 1B

By CATHERINE BAKER

Daily Arts Writer

For me, 2016 is the year of the 

singer/songwriters. After spend-
ing most of the last few months 
listening to “Hamilton” on repeat 
(allowing for a small break to 
learn all the words to Adele’s 25, 
of course), I have missed many 
of the major musical movements. 
(Try saying that five times fast.) 
Now that I am emerging from my 
Lin-Manuel Miranda-induced 
haze, I finally have ears for some-
thing other than “Satisfied” and 
“Aaron Burr, Sir.”

At the forefront of this new 

movement in my life is Evan 
Blum. While there’s very little 
available information on Blum 
himself, I know he has very few 
Spotify followers, no website 
other than his YouTube homep-
age and no active Twitter to 
speak of. His musical style ranges 
from acoustic to electronica, yet 
remains extremely self-reflective 
and lyric-based without sounding 
overdone.

Blum’s debut album, Cloudy 

Head, was released in 2015 and 
contains seven songs, each of 
which utilize their own style 
and genre to create a diverse, yet 
cohesive lineup. Opening with 
“Everyone’s Got a Story,” Blum 
channels his inner-Mat Kearney 
with echoing vocals and a rap 

verse that criticizes society’s 
perceptions of people. Blum is 
aware of other’s struggles and 
notes that, “I cannot judge when 
I know so little.” It is a reminder 
that even in a divisive and judg-
mental culture, it is important to 
be cognizant of everyone’s dif-
ficulties.

“Two Girls” is a steady, guitar-

based song with a heavy bass. 
No major swells make it either 
boring or soothing depending on 
your perspective, but the search-
ing and questioning lyrics, “What 
about all the plans we made 
together?” hope to find a lost love. 
Switching gears, “See Where It 
Goes” starts with featured artist 
Katherine Eva ethereally vocaliz-
ing before bringing in elements of 
light electronica such as syntheti-
cally produced sounds. Eva and 
Blum’s harmonies are light and 
airy, asking again, “Is it too soon? 
/ Is it too fast? / Is it too much? / 
Can we make it last?”

“Growing Up” brings back 

the electronic vibes again and 
soothes the previous song’s ques-
tions, reassuring that as we grow 
older some things will change 
and some will not. Blum sings, 
“Baby, baby, tell me it’s alright / 
We’re gonna be okay.” Bringing 
out a heavier beat, Latin-flared 
guitar and quick syncopation, 
“Down to Your Street” is seduc-
tive and quick-witted with echo-

ing and smooth vocals crooning, 
“Baby, it’s simple / Roll down the 
window / Crank up the bass real 
loud.”

The first song of Blum’s I lis-

tened to, and also my favorite 
from the album, was “Some-
body.” Reminiscent of Andy 
Grammer, the recurring, simple 
piano tune and internal rhymes 
only serve to emphasize Blum’s 
talent as a songwriter. It brings 
the story Cloudy Head has been 
telling to a close, urging some-
one to “Tell her that I love her / 
Tell her that I need her tonight.”

The closing song, “Someone 

for Sam” describes a man named 
Sam by listing his characteris-
tics, but in doing so, creates a 
persona that we can all relate to. 
The final lyrics are poignant and 
intrinsically reflective, musing, 
“I heard there’s a fish in the sea 
for everyone / Just swimming 
around feeling sad and blue / 
But if those fish only knew / Sam 
feels lonely too.”

Evan Blum may be an 

unknown singer/songwriter, but 
the universality of emotions and 
situations described throughout 
Cloudy Head allow everyone to 
take a piece of the music with 
them. Jam-packed in just seven 
songs, Blum does what many 
struggle to do in half the time — 
he connects with his listeners 
and sends them away changed.

Up and coming Evan 
Blum worth a listen

MUSIC NOTEBOOK