TCB March 16, 2016 — Dating duds

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com March 16 – 22, 2016

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DATING DUDS Does the Triad lack eligible bachelors?

PAGE 16

Best presidents PAGE 6

Losing faith in NC PAGE 14

Ansel Adams’ light PAGE 24

Election Results !

PAGE 8

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March 16 — 22, 2016

Darryl Hunt is finally free

UP FRONT 3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement

by Brian Clarey

NEWS 8 Top of the ticket 10 Forsyth results 12 Guilford results

OPINION 14 Editorial: Losing faith in NC 14 Citizen Green: Running 15 IJMW: The Connection Section 15 Fresh Eyes: Nelson Johnson’s legacy

COVER 16 Dating Duds: Does the Triad lack eligible bachelors?

CULTURE 20 Food: The dope on the W 21 Barstool: Wining 22 Music: Ben Singer’s mash-up 24 Art: Ansel Adams’ America

24 FUN & GAMES

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

26 Bracketology, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the stats

28 West Green Drive, High Point

GAMES

30 A star is born

ALL SHE WROTE

27 Jonesin’ Crossword

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I find it incredibly easy to meet people while traveling.

I guess there is some rhythm to life in Greensboro that favors small social groups that are tough to navigate. I usually end up dating people in Winston and [the Triangle] for some reason. I have friends who feel the same way.

— Kevin Smith, in the Cover, page 16

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CONTRIBUTORS

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Cover illustration by Jorge Maturino

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I first met Darryl Hunt eight years before his untimely death, four years after he had finished serving 19 years for the murder he did not commit, and 24 years after the body of Deborah Sykes was found one morning outside the Crystal Towers apartments in Winston-Salem. It was a year since he had accepted $2 million from the state of North Carolina and city of Winston-Salem as compensation for the failures of their systems.

His lawyer Mark Rabil told me Darryl could have sued for up to $500,000 for every year he had been falsely imprisoned — almost $10 million — but the two were understandably wary of the court system, and anyway Darryl was anxious to get on with his life.

I would have sued the living crap out of everyone involved, I told Darryl that day while we were driving in his car, a newish Lexus, and smoking cigarettes. I would have taken the money, kicked the dust of Winston-Salem from my boots and found the fastest road out of town. I would have driven off with my arm out the driver’s side window and my middle finger extended. I would never have come back.

Instead Darryl took the $2 mil. When, after seeing the HBO documentary about his life, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, an anonymous fan offered to pay his tuition for four years at a Colorado university, Darryl politely declined, saying at every point where he could have made his escape: “This is where I need to be.”

Darryl, through the foundation he started, helped young, black men acclimate after years in prison. He drove around in his car for hours smoking cigarettes. He watched the sun come up. Most recently he had been advocating for Kalvin Michael Smith, another local black man currently 18 years into a sentence built on shaky evidence.

But Darryl may have been unable to shake the effects of all those years — years in which those of us on the outside built careers, started families, bought homes, established matrices of friends, business contacts, marketable skills.

Darryl didn’t have any of those things.

After my story came out, I remember hitting up a downtown bar, where the manager had read the piece.

She relayed a tale of her own about Darryl: how, one night before the Sykes episode, he had robbed a restaurant where her brother had been working. The robbers tied up the restaurant crew in a back room.

“That’s the Darryl Hunt I remember,” she had said. I never bothered to check if it was true.

I knew Darryl for just a couple days, back when his bank account was newly flush and things were better. He told me he liked to smoke cigarettes and watch the sun come up, to drive around town in his car, no destination in mind.

“Just feeling free,” he had said.

Free.

And now, finally, I suppose he is.

triad-city-beat.com

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS

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March 16 — 22, 2016

CITY LIFE March 16 – 22

by Joanna Rutter

ALL WEEKEND 5th annual NC Beard and Moustache Competition @ downtown GSO If you see a proliferation of bushy-faced gentlemen on Elm Street this weekend, you are not experiencing a lumberjack hallucination. The bearding community (yes, actual thing) from all over North Carolina rolls into Greensboro to duke it out for the title of Most Glorious Beard. A Saturday pub crawl starts at noon at the Mellow Mushroom; all participating bars will be donating to BackPack Beginnings and Safe Alliance for the day, so you can feel good about getting buzzed on two levels.

The official competition’s at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Greene Street Club, and both women and men are invited to compete. For a complete schedule and tickets, check out the event on Facebook.

Lovesphere 21 Music Festival @ various locations (GSO) Gary Heidt and Lawrence “Lipbone” Redding founded Lovesphere in 1995 in New York City as a 67-year project to take place every year on the Spring Equinox, and its 21st iteration also happens to be its first year in Gate City.

Things get kicked off with at Scuppernong Books at 7 p.m. on Friday, proceed to Glenwood Community Books on Saturday afternoon starting at 3 p.m. (don’t miss the F-Art Ensemble, a Greensboro institution since 1979 that calls itself “uncategorizable orchestra of musical mayhem”) and concludes at PB & Java with sets from the Difficulties, Knives of Spain and Jizo, among others. All the events are free and open to the public. Probably come with flowers in your hair.

Visit lovesphere.net for a fascinating history of previous festivals and a full lineup.

THURSDAY St. Patrick’s Day (HP, W-S, GSO) Start drafting your Friday sick day email now, people. Due to a bummer ABC law, Finnegan’s Wake in Winston has to move its 10th anniversary Paddy’s Day revelries indoors, but it’ll still be a good time: The pub opens at 7 a.m. on March 17 with a traditional Irish breakfast, then showcases music throughout the day with no cover charge. Get jiggy in High Point at the Claddagh with live music outdoors — don’t miss celtic outfit Banna playing at noon — or watch Jamestown Pipes and Drums at the Centennial Arts Center at 7 p.m.

The Gibb’s shindig starting at 8 p.m. in Greensboro looks promising, with music by Mebanesville and a special Irish-inspired menu from Empanadas Borinquen (maybe corned beef tacos?); 1618 Wine Lounge is hosting a dance party deejayed by Jessica Mashburn featuring the music of “70’s, 80’s, 90’s & Beyoncé.”

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Poverty Thought Force Meeting @ St. Peter’s Church and World Outreach Center (W-S), 6 p.m.

Organizers from the Winston-Salem Poverty Thought Force seek input on two aspects of poverty: health and wellness, and jobs and workforce development. The meetings will be simultaneous, so you can only attend one. Those recently or currently living in poverty, those who work with the poor, policy experts who have studied these issues, and other interested members of the public are specifically encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served. Register at povertythoughtforce.com or 336.758.4021.

FRIDAY

Disability rights talk @ Wake Forest University (WS), 5:30 p.m.

If you’re a bona-fide theater kid, you’ll recognize “Glee” actor Lauren Potter from her role as Coach Sue’s sassy henchwoman, Becky Jackson (her signature phrase was a viciously delivered “bi-otch!”). She now advocates for the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as herself with organizations like Best Buddies; its Wake Forest chapter hosts her talk and a following Friendship Walk. The event is free. More details can be found at wfu.edu.

triad-city-beat.com

synerG Lunch & Learn: Pitching Greensboro @ the Coliseum (GSO), 12 p.m.

Panelists from the Greensboro Coliseum, the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Greensboro Partnership and RLF Communications will share strategies for attracting events and businesses to Greensboro. This talk is perfect for small businesses looking for talent recruiting tips or gossips who like to know before everyone else which businesses have their eye on the Triad. It’ll take place in the catchy sounding “Special Events Center MR 1-A” at 1921 W Gate City Blvd. Reserve a spot on Eventbrite.

SATURDAY

Strollin’ Colon @ Whole Foods (GSO), 11 a.m.

Have you ever seen a 12-foot-long, 10-foot-wide inflatable colon? If not, would you be interested in walking through one in an interactive exhibit? Well then. Your weekend plans are to visit the free event coordinated by the Cone Health Cancer Center at Wesley Long Hospital. Cancer experts will escort visitors through the exhibit to learn about polyps, ulcerative colitis and the various stages of colon cancer, along with providing info about colonoscopies. As silly as an inflatable colon may seem, colorectal cancer is common and deadly, and can be easily prevented if caught early, so, go walk through a colon, people! Details can be found at conehealth.com/news.

Bike Wheel Dreamcatchers @ Shelf Life Art + Supply Co. (GSO), 2 p.m.

Bicycling in Greensboro, a nonprofit dedicated to velocipede love, generously provide old bike wheels for crafty purposes. Supplies for the project can be purchased in-store. Ambitious dreamcatcher artists are invited to enter their creation into the Pop-A-Wheelie art show at Geeksboro by March 25. Follow RSVP instructions on Facebook to save your free spot.

Percussion Ensemble Concert @ High Point University (HP), 7:30 p.m.

The Percussion Ensemble is directed by percussionist and composer Nathan Daughtrey for this special evening of timpani, marimba and triangle. Be tickled pink that the college is trumpeting “a diverse mix of beats” regarding what to expect from the evening. Pieces by Scott Harding, Steve Riley, Lynn Glassock are on the program, including the world premiere of Daughtrey’s “Black Rainbow” for percussion ensemble and two pianists. This event is free, no ticket needed; visit highpoint.edu for more details.

TUESDAY Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company @ Guilford College (GSO), 8:30 p.m.

The touring arm of the legendary improv group Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and Los Angeles comes to Greensboro. Kudos to whatever Guilford event organizer managed to book this ticket, because this is a big deal.

Alumni of the UCB Theatre include Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Donald Glover and veritable “SNL” goddess Kate McKinnon. You also might have heard of Amy Poehler, one of its founders. UCB provides a direct pipeline of talent to shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” along with supplying writers to shows like Key and Peele and Inside Amy Schumer.

McKinnon and company were once scrappy young improv comedians starting out; you may see the next Poehler at Guilford. Get tickets at ucbtourco.com.

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Housing code switch Eric Ginsburg: Your series of articles on housing code enforcement in Greensboro was very informative. Please continue.

I chose not to comment on the City Beat webpage as some websites commercialize my personal information, interests and IP address. I don’t like using Facebook and Twitter. I don’t go out of my way to spread my personal life across the internet. But I do like your articles enough to write you this email and subscribe to City Beat. Thanks.

David A. Dalton, Greensboro What we have here is a failure of communication I am an avid reader of your newspaper and find it very helpful in a lot of ways. However, I noticed on page 5 [“City Life”] of the March 2-8 edition a strange comment: Under Monday you highlight a workshop called “Doing Our Work: Race and Law Enforcement.” In that paragraph it says, “The event targets a white audience, but all are welcome.” That seems very odd and quite out of place. I was wondering why that line was added, and is this even ethical for your business?

Would appreciate if you could help me understand this.

Troy Lawson, Greensboro Editors’ response: The article reported that the workshop was geared towards a white audience because that is, in fact, the case — it aimed in part to help white people understand racism and white privilege. And yes, it is ethical to report facts.

Feeling the Bern I like Sanders’ honesty, and his unwavering track record of working on behalf of regular people [“Unsolicited endorsement: Bernie Sanders”; by Anthony Harrison; March 9, 2016].

Many candidates shift their messages to match the trends of what polls say voters want to hear. Bernie’s message is constant and to me that means I can trust him to do what he says he is going to do. He always has. It is about time we had a leader who puts regular people, small businesses, seniors, veterans, minorities, young people and the middle class first!

I like your endorsement message!

Bettync, via triad-city-beat.com Nativism and its discontents Jordan: Thanks for a fair treatment of our conversation and coverage of varying opinions on the little shindig today [“Trump’s nativist appeals run against resistance in Hickory”;

by Jordan Green; March 14, 2016]. Nice report.

Vance Pollock, Asheville Best quote of the day: “Who’s building the wall?” Hugo Guerrero of Hickory shouted at Trump’s supporters. “Are you build the wall? You aren’t. We build everything.”

Joyce Rutherford Love, via triad-city-beat.com

6 presidents, ranked from best to worst

by Jordan Green Jimmy Carter Editor in Chief Brian Clarey and I came to a consensus about this ranking in 30 seconds, so take it with a grain of salt, but it does say something we agreed immediately without any argument, and trust me, it’s practically in my DNA to push back against my boss.

Jimmy Carter’s presidency is regarded as a political punchline by some. Introducing Donald Trump in January, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. drew a parallel to his father, televangelist Jerry Falwell’s support for Ronald Reagan. “After all, Jimmy Carter was a great Sunday school teacher,” the younger Falwell snickered, “but look what happened to our nation with him in the presidency. Sorry.”

Actually, Carter was the best president of my lifetime. He brought humility to the office, walking barefoot on the White House grounds with the Allman Brothers. He brought a human-rights emphasis to US foreign policy, and while the energy crisis was admittedly a difficult period for the country, Carter called for a new spirit of modesty that sounds prophetic more than 30 years later. The peace agreement Carter brokered between Israel and Egypt was monumental. And his post-presidential advocacy for international human rights and free elections is a model.

Barack Obama Obama runs a close second to Carter. He is one of the smartest presidents in recent history, and his intellectualism was a refreshing change from the national dumbing-down of the previous eight years with W in the White House. Beyond the significance of being the first black president, Obama promoted a sense of inclusion that redefined patriotism, building a political coalition of Americans of color, women and young people. LGBTQ people made significant advances under Obama’s leadership, with the lifting of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the president’s declaration of support for same-sex marriage. Obama’s use of drones to liquidate suspected terrorists is somewhat troubling, and muddled economic policies did nothing to curb the excesses of Wall Street or halt the march of income inequality, but the most of the failures of Obama’s presidency can be laid at the feet of the obstructionist Republican Congress.

George HW Bush The elder Bush doesn’t get a lot of love from either Republicans or Democrats, and I for one was not a fan of the Panama and Iraq invasions. That said, he deserves credit for skillfully managing the transition from the end of the Cold War, and promoting a

multilateral approach to foreign policy that was sadly discarded by his son.

Bill Clinton Let’s see: The North American Free Trade Agreement hastened the deterioration of manufacturing jobs. The 1994 crime bill ramped up mass incarceration. The 1996 welfare-reform bill slashed the social safety net for people who were already reeling from the transition from manufacturing to the service economy. Also in 1996, Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, barring same-sex married couples from receiving federal benefits; it was thankfully struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013. Yes, it’s true that the 1990s were a time of unprecedented prosperity, but the tech bubble set the stage for a recession that would hit shortly after Clinton left office.

Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan promoted a bellicose foreign policy that risked a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union. His mean-spirited stance towards the poor coincided with an epidemic of homelessness. And his refusal to publicly acknowledge and address HIV/ AIDS makes him complicit in the deaths of thousands of homosexuals and intravenous-drug users. The national debt soared, while households ran up unsustainable personal debt as part of a national culture of immediate gratification and conspicuous consumption. Meanwhile, masses of white working-class voters defected from the Democratic Party, attracted by the feel-good, rah-rah, “we’re No. 1!” sentiment of the Reagan brand. Much of the empty symbolism of the 2016 Republican primary contest can be traced back to the political currents that swept Reagan into office.

George W. Bush Until the emergence of Donald Trump, George W. Bush represented the ultimate dumbing down of American politics, playing the role of the Methodist church tee-ball coach, mildly religious with and with a slight temper. As the ultimately political cipher, Bush said during the 2000 election: “If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us; if we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us,” adding that the United States needed to maintain a humble posture. And then, of course, he plunged the United States into a disastrous and unnecessary war in Iraq that ran up the national debt, weakened our international standing and needlessly spilled the blood of American service members and Iraqi civilians. And the Bush administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina was a national scandal.

80 70

50 40

20 10

UNC Chapel Hill

14% Duke

14%

Virginia

9%

Notre Dame

4%

Miami

4%

Other

Watch “World of Tomorrow” and It’s Such a Beautiful Day on Netflix.

All She Wrote

55%

Shot in the Triad

30

Games

60

Fun & Games

90

Culture

New question: What is the most transformative project running in the Triad this year?

Cover Story

Readers: Maybe it’s the No. 1 seed or maybe argyle fans just flock to TCB for some reason, but 55 percent of you chose UNC Chapel Hill. Duke, unsurprisingly, came in second, but far lower in the polling (14 percent) and tied with Virginia, the No. 2 seed that would ultimately lose to UNC in the championship. Notre Dame (9 percent) came next, but Miami (4 percent) tied with “Other” for last place.

Opinion

Jordan Green: I am unable to make any predictions in the men’s ACC tournament. As a native Kentuckian, I’ve always retained some measure of loyalty to my home-state team, preventing me from getting behind any of the Tobacco Road teams. Like Brian, I could never root for Duke, and might be more inclined to root for the team “people’s university,” but when I lived in Durham, Chapel Hill always struck me as a bastion

Eric Ginsburg: Carolina is the only college basketball team I’ve ever truly loved, and I’m not about to predict against them. Especially after they beat Duke at home. This year’s team looked so good, they were top-ranked going into the ACC tourney anyway.

(Since I am writing this after the fact I can tell you that while I enjoyed watching UNC win it on March 12, there were moments where I doubted they’d overcome Virginia. Watching the guys trounce Notre Dame the night before proved far more fun.)

by Anthony Harrison You may not recognize Don Hertzfeldt’s name, but his work is the most compelling animation of the 21st Century.

Hertzfeldt first caught my attention when I was a freshman in high school. My friend Jack showed me “Rejected,” a 10-minute odyssey portraying a struggling artist’s creative collapse. I felt an immediate affinity to the offbeat style — a surreal, satirical mashup, simultaneously dark and hilarious, philosophical and absurd. One-liners like “My spoon is too big,” and “I’m feeling fat and sassy!” entered my obscurely allusive lexicon.

Aesthetically, Hertzfeldt juxtaposes stick figures with inventive practical effects, like shockwaves of crumpling paper crashing in on an anthropomorphic rabbit, resulting in a surprisingly distinctive style.

I later learned this quirky short had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 2000, when Hertzfeldt was only 23.

“Rejected” sat on my mental back burner until 2012, when I bought Hertzfeldt’s two box sets: an anthology of his early work including “Rejected,” and the short trilogy It’s Such a Beautiful Day. I discovered I’d been laughing with a complete genius.

“Rejected” may be the quintessential Hertzfeldt short, but his 1997 student film “Lily and Jim” — the story of a blind date full of fumbles and missed connections — resembles a condensed Annie Hall in its poignant awkwardness, representing a shift between wacky apprentice and wunderkind auteur.

“The Meaning of Life” — a 2005 Sundance Film Festival selection — takes his deceptively simple technique to a higher plane with its meticulous multitudes of jiggly stick people and pans of shimmering star fields, composed from hundreds of points of light, rotated by hand.

And then there’s It’s Such a Beautiful Day. The three shorts — “Everything Will Be OK,” “I’m So Proud of You” and “It’s Such a Beautiful Day” — collectively tell the story of Bill, an everyman mysteriously deteriorating in relative youth. It’s an existential masterpiece, morbid yet comical. I’m unashamed to admit it moves me to tears. It’s Such a Beautiful Day stands alongside Fantasia as my favorite animated film.

Following “Rejected,” Hertzfeldt maintained cult status, with a memorable “couch gag” for “The Simpsons” as his closest flirtation with the mainstream. Then, his first foray with digital animation, “World of Tomorrow” in 2015, again put him in the running to win an Oscar this year.

Typical Hertzfeldt brilliance: Four-year-old Emily receives a visit from a future clone of herself, who presses her to appreciate the present. It’s visually stunning and features some of the best voice acting ever coaxed from a toddler.

Again, the Academy passed over Hertzfeldt. But hopefully a new generation will admire his talent until his next inevitable nomination.

News

Brian Clarey: When it comes to the ACC, I am straight-up hater who takes joy in seeing the favorites — Duke and UNC — lose early. I’ll never understand why so many blue-collar North Carolinians would root for a team like Duke, which would absolutely eject them all from campus if they came strolling through.

And though Carolina bills itself as the people’s university, the basketball team exists in a completely different universe than the regular students, making a mockery of the university’s mission and the state motto. I pull every year for Wake Forest. At least they’re local. And sooner or later they’ve got to win something.

of privilege. I remember watching the Final Four at a bar in Durham in 1997, when Kentucky lost the national championship to Arizona. At least I could make common cause with the North Carolina fans, who had just seen their team fall to Arizona in the semifinals.

Up Front

Even though the men’s ACC tournament moved to Washington DC this year, it’s still such a North Carolina affair. After the women’s tourney here in Greensboro (which we put on the cover), we wanted to ask readers and our editors who they thought would win this year’s contest. Turns out there are a lot of Tar Heels in the audience.

Don Hertzfeldt

triad-city-beat.com

Who will win the men’s ACC tournament?

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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NEWS

Cruz takes Triad counties as Trump wins state, Clinton holds on

by Brian Clarey

As the polls closed at G68 on the campus of North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, the doors closed on more than 50 students still inside the polling place who were trying to sort out their ballots.

Precinct Judge Chakeemia Shoulars took a new stack of provisional ballots and impediment-of-declaration forms for students with out-of-state IDs. Outside, Greensboro’s Mazie Ferguson, on the Democratic ballot for commissioner of labor, assessed her first campaign. She spent a worthwhile morning in Asheville — she’d take Buncombe County before the night was through.

Before she went off to watch returns, Ferguson professed support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“I feel the Bern,” she said. “Bernie and I started out at the same time, in the ’60s. We were both sent to college by the same organization — the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality.

“Bernie has maintained the principles,” she continued. “He has not changed one iota. And neither have I.” Both she and the senator had a rough night in North Carolina.

Sanders took a beating in all but a few counties on the western border of the state, plus Orange in the interior. Hillary Clinton took Guilford and Forsyth by 20 points apiece, and won the state’s Democratic primary overall by 15.

Dana Rucker, who voted in Forsyth County, went for Clinton.

“I spoke to a lot of people and I did a lot of research on my own,” she said.

“It’s a very important election for minorities, especially with police brutality and authority misuse.”

Clinton’s win in North Carolina came with victories in Florida, Ohio and likely Illinois, which was too close to call at press time. Sanders took a lone victory in Missouri — a 3-point squeaker — making Clinton’s lead in the national Democratic primary more or less insurmountable.

Republican frontrunner Donald

Volunteer Caroline Warren made phone calls for the Bernie Sanders campaign a couple hours before the polls closed.

Trump’s victory was less definitive.

He finished with 41 percent of the vote, with Sen. Ted Cruz trailing by just four points. Ohio Gov. John Kasich took 18 percent, while Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race, finished with 8.

While Trump took great swaths of the state, Cruz won a cluster of urban districts in the North Carolina heartland: Wake, Durham, Chatham, Orange, Alamance, Guilford and Forsyth.

In Forsyth County, voter Toni Holiday, who said she didn’t vote for Trump, said of the Republican ballot: “It’s like a three-ring circus. The name-calling. It’s not like it was years ago when people spoke about issues. Very childish. If this person gets elected, if the nation goes into a crisis like 9/11, I want someone I can rely on…

“The name-calling, the bullying, that’s not right,” she continued. “I want to be able to turn on the TV when our nation’s in crisis and feel like they’re going to do the right thing for our country.

I just don’t feel like Trump can do it.”

Along with North Carolina, Trump won the prized states of Florida and Illinois, while Kasich carried his home state of Ohio.

JORDAN GREEN

In the North Carolina Senate race, incumbent Republican Richard Burr easily kept his slot, and will face Democrat Deborah K. Ross in November.

The governor’s race fell along predictable lines, with incumbent Republican Pat McCrory easily outpacing his nearest challenger, C. Robert Brawley, by hundreds of thousands of votes. On the Democrat side, Attorney General Roy Cooper, who announced his candidacy last year, took 70 percent of the vote over challenger Ken Spaulding.

The council-of-state races likewise held few surprises.

Cooper’s hand-picked successor for the AG seat, Josh Stein, won the night by 10 points on the Democrat side.

Republican favorite Buck Newton got almost as many votes as Stein, which should make for an interesting race in the fall. Linda Coleman easily won the Democrat nomination to face incumbent Lt. Gov. Dan Forrest in November.

Greensboro resident Andy Stevens managed 30 percent of the vote in his underdog race against incumbent Republican Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler. He watched early returns come in at the Guilford County

Courthouse.

“I guess I probably put a dent in his election campaign chest for sure,” said Stevens, who elaborated that he spent just $7,500 in this race.

In the general election, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall will face Republican challenger Michael LaPaglia.

Republican Mark Johnson will face Democrat June Atkinson for superintendent of public instruction. Dan Blue III won the Demcoratic primary for state treasurer, and will face Republican Dale Folwell in the general election.

And Mazie Ferguson’s name will not be on the ballot. Despite winning Buncombe, Guilford and Forsyth counties, she was unable to overcome former Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, who will take on Republican incumbent Cherie Berie in the fall.

As she watched the final numbers roll in with supporters at the Greensboro VFW hall on Eugene Street, Ferguson said, “I really believe he didn’t think it would be this close.”

Jordan Green contributed reporting to this story.

BRIAN CLAREY Greensboro’s Mazie Ferguson lost her bid for secretary of labor on the Democrat side.

triad-city-beat.com Up Front

News Opinion

Cover Story Culture

Fun & Games

Games

Shot in the Triad

All She Wrote

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Guilford primaries for school board and state house upset status quo

by Joanna Rutter

Early in Greensboro on Tuesday morning at G-74, Bluford Elementary School, Precinct Judge Ronald Tuck wasn’t confident incumbent state Rep. Ralph Johnson could keep his seat in state House District 58.

“It doesn’t look good for my boy Ralph Johnson,” he said.

After Johnson had suffered a mild stroke in late February, Tuck said, none of their mutual friends had seen him.

“Normally he’d be out here campaigning … He never returns my calls.

Facebook ain’t got nothing. I went to the house, he ain’t there.” he said.

“I said to him: ‘Ralph, why don’t you retire? You don’t need this.’”

Newcomer Rev. Amos Quick III won against Johnson with 71.42 percent of the vote.

In the race for this large swath of Greensboro, both Democrat candidates were aligned on nearly all pertinent issues; Johnson emphasizes Medicaid, and Quick focuses on school improvement.

Johnson won only two precincts, one of which by only one vote. Quick faces no Republican challenger in November.

Around 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday at Chandlar’s Florist in east Greensboro, a largely black crowd in “Pick Quick” T-shirts listened as one supporter read definitive results from his phone.

Quick addressed the group with a preacher’s gravitas, emphasizing “respect for everybody,” including his incumbent opponent.

“We have, since the beginning, prayed for Mr. Ralph Johnson,” Quick said.

“Never did we — nor ever will we — disrespect his service. And now that he is ill, we certainly will lift in prayer tonight Mr. Johnson, his loved ones, and his supporters as we also pray for our success tonight.”

“Listen: In Raleigh, it’s not easy right now for anybody,” Quick added, “and so for him to be down there representing me and us who live in this district, I certainly appreciate that.”

Late on Tuesday afternoon, there was a steady drip of voters here and there at Rocky Knoll Baptist Church, where Dionne Battle voted for Quick.

“He’s been here in North Carolina for a long time, and he knows what North

The Rev. Amos Quick III addressed his supporters at Chandlar’s Florist in east Greensboro after winning the District 58 state house seat over incumbent Ralph Johnson.

Carolina needs,” she said.

“He’ll be good for both sides — to bring both sides together.”

Before heading in to vote at Mendenhall Middle School in Greensboro, Adrian Jackson was still deciding between District 58 candidates.

“I’m kind of divided, to be honest,” Jackson said.

“I have almost a lifetime of experience with [Quick] in the Boys and Girls Club. I’m highly critical of a lack of businesses in the district’s ZIP code.

Maybe if we get the incumbent [Johnson] out, we could shake things up.”

At the Lindley Park Recreation Center in Greensboro around 7:15 p.m., there was still a decent amount of traffic with the post-work voting crowd.

Among them was Darlene McClinton, a teacher and an artist with the Artist Bloc, who also voted for Quick.

“As an artist and an educator, what’s most important to me is making sure the education system, the school board is running smoothly and is fair,” she said, adding that she gave her students extra credit for voting.

She paused when recalling her pick for school board. “Honestly, I don’t even remember.”

Other voters had trouble remembering their school board choices as well.

Cagle asked after voting, “School board? Who’s running again?”

A general forgetfulness may have been partially caused by a complete redistricting, which opened up all nine

seats.

In school board District 1, former city council member Diane Bellamy-Small beat out incumbent Aaron Keith McCullough of High Point, who had been appointed in a scramble to fill the vacant seat after its former occupant won election to the Guilford County Commission.

In District 2, longtime school board veteran Anita Sharpe beat out a newcomer, real estate businessman John Bradley Nosek; Deena Hayes won overwhelmingly in District 8 over Matt Stafford.

James Burton voted for Pat Tillman in the race for the Republican nomination for School Board District 3 against Brian Pearce. Tillman won with 62.9 percent.

“I have a kid in school... it’s almost like an abstraction,” he said. “I’m sorry, I don’t really pay that close attention to it. My vote was uninformed, to be honest.”

While Tillman’s victory proved a landslide, that wasn’t so clear at first.

“The results go from the county to the state, the state verifies numbers, then it comes back to the county,” Tillman explained in a phone interview. “That was really mixed up for a while, there was a glitch, and we didn’t know the results for a long time.”

Tillman’s confident win at first seemed standing on thin ice.

“We knew our early voting numbers up two-to-one, but there was never

JOANNA RUTTER

a sense of comfort at any point until the last half-hour, so I’m really just grateful,” he said. “It’s a humbling experience when you have so many people helping you, supporting you and believing in you. I have people believing I’ll attack problems.”

School board redistricting didn’t affect Republican incumbent Linda Welborn in holding her seat against Paul Daniels. She had ended Daniels’ tenure on the Guilford County School Board after just one term in 2012; he was unable to return the favor.

Campaign workers for Welborn congregated at her home in Greensboro following poll closure.

“I’ve got people here just celebrating that it’s done,” Welborn said in a phone interview. “We’re just having a fine pizza celebration [...] Just a ‘Woo!’ letloose, deflate moment.”

“We’re excited,” Welborn added.

“We’re optimistic.”

At Chandlar Florist, Quick’s celebratory gathering immediately turned spiritual after his victory speech; the Rev. Johnny Pearson gave a benediction over Quick’s term as supporters in the room stood to hold hands and bow their heads.

“We want to move forward, God, we want to look to the future,” said Pearson.

“As they danced as they crossed the Red Sea, God, we are dancing now.”

Anthony Harrison and Brian Clarey contributed reporting to this article.

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Incumbents hold commission; South Ward race too close to call

by Jordan Green

With heavy turnout across Forsyth County, suburban and rural voters appear to have returned incumbent Republicans to the county commission, including moderate Dave Plyler, part of a cross-party coalition in support of raising the county’s debt limit and green-lighting a school-bond referendum.

With 63 out of 67 precincts in County Commission District B reporting, Chairman Dave Plyler appeared to have held off a challenge from conservative Bill Whiteheart in the Republican primary, with Plyler banking 17,478 votes to Whiteheart’s 15,803. Whiteheart had attacked Plyler as a “liberal Democrat” in a billboard campaign.

“The difference in this election is Bill Whiteheart never talked about the issues,” Plyler said. “He talked about me.

He said at three meetings that he wanted the Republican conservative message to be heard through him, and he was the one to deliver it. For him to say, ‘I’m the only real Republican’ — I think if you listen to the people and do what they want you to do, you’re all right.

Two thirds of the voters voted for new libraries in Winston-Salem, Clemmons and Kernersville [in 2006]. He and his colleagues decide that was more than the county could afford to borrow. They delayed the construction for the three libraries for over three years until I was put back in power. People have asked for things with their ballots. Let’s get on with the business of government rather than cater to the whims of people who say, ‘I will never raise your taxes.’”

The results of the Republican primary for the three seats in county commission District B were a replay of the 2008 primary, with Plyler placing in the top three, along with conservatives Richard Linville and Gloria Whisenhunt, while Whiteheart lost out in the game of musical chairs.

The Democratic primary for the South Ward seat on Winston-Salem City Council was too close to call at press time, with John Larson leading Carolyn Highsmith, 1,777 to 1,764, with incomplete reporting in one precinct, First Alliance Church. Larson said some voters had to wait 90 min-

utes to vote at First Alliance Church, while Highsmith observed that pollworkers were still accepting voters 30 minutes after the polling place officially closed.

Highsmith was leading in the precinct, with early voting returns of 159 to 102, suggesting she could end up closing the 13-point gap with Larson in final balloting.

A neighborhood leader, Highsmith ran a populist campaign.

“What I was hearing on the ground was that people are ready for a change,” she said.

“They want the voice of the people to be heard.

During early voting at Southside Library I was presenting myself as a candidate of and for the A pensive John Larson waited for returns in the South Ward city council race with JORDAN GREEN Anne Wilson (left) and Susan Campbell at Washington Perk & Provision. people. I really cared about their issues and King in the Democratic primary for the Northwest Ward seat on city council, the entire South Ward. I don’t think that Northeast Ward seat on city council, Eric Henderson was leading Jimmy had happened before. That resonated. with 18 or 19 precincts reporting. Burke Hodson, with 51.4 percent and 48.6 I think that’s resonating all over the has served on city council since 1977. percent of the vote respectively and country.”

“I feel great that so many people 14 out of 16 precincts reporting. The Larson, who is retiring from a senior volunteered their time and just daily, winner will face Democratic incumbent position at Old Salem Museums and weekly worked to make sure we won the Jeff MacIntosh in the November general Gardens, earned the endorsement of election,” an elated Burke said. “I was election.

Councilwoman Molly Leight, who is so grateful that they came to the polls In the Democratic primary for regretiring from the South Ward seat on where there was early voting. They said, ister of deeds, Lynne Johnson pulled city council. Larson watched the returns ‘We’re with you; we wouldn’t leave you out a stunning upset against incumcome with Leight and other local Demnow.’ I got telephone calls. I was in the bent Norman Holleman, with Johnson ocratic Party stalwarts at Washington grocery store, at church, they were so winning 69.2 percent of the vote to Perk & Provision. encouraging. I’m grateful to God that Holleman’s 30.3 percent, with 95 of 101 “I’ve enjoyed the conversations I’ve He’s going to allow me to continue my precincts reporting. Johnson worked in had,” Larson said. “Clearly people are service to the community.” the register of deeds office for 27 years concerned about issues like neighborA downcast King kept his own counand now works in the county clerk of hoods and jobs. People are anxious to sel in a darkened alleyway next door courts office. protect the investments of their homes to smoothie shop on Liberty Street in “I figured after 25 years I was very exfrom economic as well as criminal forcdowntown Winston-Salem where his perienced and it was time for me to try es. There is a pride. People are proud of supporters were gathered to await the to do it,” Johnson said, attributing her Winston-Salem as a whole. There is a results. With early-voting returns showvictory to “the very many supporters I concern about affordable housing.” ing the disappointing results that would had who encouraged me to run, stuck Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke hold for the rest of the night, King with me and showed up at the polls to celebrated a resounding win with her reflected, “We did robocalls. We did show that they did support me.” supporters at the local NAACP headmailers. A lot of people probably didn’t quarters, nailing down 63.9 percent come out to vote.” of the vote against challenger Keith In the Republican primary for the

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

14

OPINION EDITORIAL

Losing faith in NC Perhaps it’s fitting that two days before the North Carolina primary — the results of which are reported on page 8 — more than 130 cars were involved in a series of wrecks on the busiest highway in the state, between its first- and third-largest metropolitan areas.

Like the cars that piled up on the side of the road, we in North Carolina have lost our way. We’ve been moving too quickly without knowing where we’re headed, without regard for the others on the road. And all it takes is a little bit of fog or rain to throw everything into turmoil.

We’ve been wasting our time arguing about who can marry whom, demonizing the poorest among us while lionizing the wealthiest, manipulating elections and passing illegal laws. Meanwhile our biggest problems remain untouched.

No matter who won the presidential primaries this week, we in North Carolina will still suffer under a healthcare system administered by the insurance companies, without the benefit of federal Medicaid expansion. The health of our citizens, it seems, does not matter as much to our leaders as insurance-industry profits.

High Point is at the center of a heroin and opiate epidemic that’s ravaging our state, and yet the only legislation passed last term regarding heroin was a Good Samaritan law stipulating that the police can only slap felony charges on people seeking medical treatment for overdose if they have more than a gram of the drug on them or if they gave the 911 operator a fake name.

Our public school system, never the best in the country, has dropped precipitously in the rankings due in part to a starvation of resources, and also to a deliberate fracturing of the system by privately run charter schools that have demanded access to the budget.

Our state university system, once the envy of the nation, can still produce basketball champions but not enough skilled workers to fill the jobs that do open in fits and drabs — and our public schools are not preparing enough kids for college.

Decades after the demise of the manufacturing and agricultural industries upon which the Old North State was built, there is still no real statewide plan to replace these lost jobs.

Our coastline is eroding; coal ash and pig feces contaminate our waterways. We are poor — No. 40 in the US ranking — and we are hungry — the Triad is the hungriest place in the nation.

Even Interstate 40, the site of the mile-long wreck, hasn’t been built up fast enough to keep with demand.

None of these problems matter at the top of the election ticket. And it’s getting harder to believe they mean anything to the candidates further down.

CITIZEN GREEN

Distance running, metaphor for journalism and life The light rain on Sunday afternoon tamped down the temperature to the mid-sixties, just enough to dampen the sidewalks in downtown Greensboro and suppress the new pollen. I felt truly alive for the first time in weeks as I felt

by Jordan Green my feet strike the pavement and my lungs expand to take in the springtime air.

I’d been out of practice, letting the cold weather and work obligations deter me from running, but the mental sluggishness and irritability I’d been experiencing told me it was time to get back in shape. I like to think of long-distance running as a metaphor, almost a physical manifestation, for the discipline of journalism — certainly investigative reporting, but really any kind of insightful, value-added journalism. The race goes to the persistent, not to the swift. Like journalism, guitar playing, singing — really any worthwhile pursuit — it really gets good when you learn to relax and fall into the rhythm. The magic for me comes from putting everything else aside and deciding to go the distance, forgetting for the moment about the time. It’s a clean-living psychedelic experience, if you will, aided by a mind-altering substance called endorphins.

Rounding the curve of Davie Street and heading along a familiar route around downtown, I thought back to this time eight years ago when, similarly inspired by the thaw of spring, I started running a couple times a week, each time pushing myself to go a little further, until eventually I felt confident that I could run a half-marathon. I remember finishing the course around 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday in early May right before the presidential primary, and then limping from strained leg muscles but exhilarated, driving to Mooresville to see a campaign appearance by candidate Hillary Clinton. For what it’s worth, the candidate shared the stage that day with retired NASCAR driver Junior Johnson and then-Gov. Mike Easley.

Putting aside the sense of accomplishment and excitement from finishing a half-marathon and covering a presidential candidate in the same day, the experience reminds me that campaigns come and go, and that most of life happens in small increments instead of monumental contests. I’ve run when I was wracking my brains for a key piece of information or trying to figure out how to approach a sensitive source to unlock the riddle of a major investigative piece. I’ve run when the data I need to review to create an illuminating composite seemed overwhelming. I’ve run when I simply needed to jolt my perspective and look at a subject differently.

Running functions as a reminder that nothing happens immediately or without hard work. Many days I’ve tried

to will my career and our weekly newspaper to make dramatic leaps forward. I want to improve my own work and to produce stories with more impact. And together with my colleagues, Brian Clarey and Eric Ginsburg, I want to increase the stature of our newspaper and increase our readership. If we get all those things right, I know no one in our shop would mind earning a little more money as a byproduct of producing quality journalism. We may have significant breakthroughs from herculean efforts here and there, but ultimately I have to remind myself that our success will come from simply doing good work week after week.

As my particular form of meditation, running makes me mindful and present in the moment. It focuses me on my breath and simply putting one foot in front of the other. I can stop dwelling on the past and worrying about the future, but at the subconscious level I am thinking about the small increments that add up to something worthwhile.

About the small stories that ferret out some significant fact, illuminate some person’s challenges or reveal some poignant, heartbreaking or uplifting aspect of humanity.

About the monthly house payments my wife and I make that slowly but surely build equity, and about tearing out the ivy from the hardwood trees and sweeping the sidewalk along the side of our house to contribute to our neighborhood’s quality of life. About joining my wife and 2-year-old daughter at Bur-Mil Park and putting together a $6 kite to entertain our daughter, even though she cried because she thought I was running away from her when I tried to put it in the air. About broadening my base of knowledge by checking a book out of the library or subscribing to a new magazine, and holding my daughter in my lap as she names letters and colors in a picture book.

No, they’re not dramatic gestures or accomplishments, just small things that I hope are right for the moment and will accumulate into something decent over the long run.

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The Rev. Nelson Johnson, be reminded by Black Lives Matter activists that the the embattled civil rights police department has yet to officially apologize for the leader, has committed his incident. life’s work to serving people.

As we face a policing crisis in our country, two weeks Whether through the ago at an event on policing and race, starring renowned Greensboro Association of author Michelle Alexander, our mayor started dreaming Poor People, the National about this same corrupt department being able to poBlack Student Movement, lice communities of color with compassion. This event

by CJ Brinson the Pan Africanist Movewas born out of a community-city working group of ment or the Communist Workers Party, Johnson has middle-class officials, black and white, and even clergy. sacrificed his self, career and family serving the opIt was also at this same event that Johnson ridiculed the pressed. If one was to find the oppressed in the 21st assertion of the mayor, based on the historical culture Century, we would look to communities of color, the of policing in this city. He offered evidence in the form poor, women, children, the LGBTQIA community, Musof federal documents suggesting the Greensboro lims and any other person experiencing the very worst Police Department was involved in further assassination society has to offer. attempts of this civil rights hero’s life. Johnson said the It is no secret that Johnson has been controversial in culture has to change within in the police department some respects, but it has always been clear that he is in order to rescue marginalized communities from an undeniably committed to serving. However, a person institution that is intent on feeding the beast of mass with such a track record as Johnson, a person whose incarceration. being is rooted in the movement, has experienced an Unfortunately, what should have been met with praise existence in the community that has been akin to that of and admiration was met with contempt and backlash Jesus and his ministry in Nazareth. Jesus finds himself against Johnson. Some even had the nerve to accuse being rejected in his own community like Johnson, and this hero of self-aggrandizement. Nevertheless, the fact says that “a prophet is not without honor, but in his own remains the same for those who accuse this humble country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” servant; and that is that you can’t have a conversation The words of Jesus resonate with me deeply, because in this community about the perils of corrupt policing here is a man like Jesus, who at the drop of hat puts without uttering the name of the Rev. Johnson. To those his neck out on the line for others. Yet, there are still historical revisionists, you can’t erase Johnson’s name members of Johnson’s community, and members who from the history of the culture of police violence in this reside in this city, who have city, because Johnson’s experiinvolved themselves in a camence is tied to the truth. paign to discredit his life’s work.

So as we build upon the work The Community-City Working Supposed servants, such as of the community-city workpolitical officials, both black and ing group on Thursday at our Groups is hosting two simultanewhite, police officers, and even very first district meetings on ous discussions on the theme of members of the clergy, all of policing and race, it is my hope Policing and Race: A Time for Real whom claim to serve the people, that those who have taken the Change at Congregational United are unwilling to stick their necks correct step in path of justice Church of Christ, located at 400 out with Johnson when it really won’t turn their backs on the matters the most. opportunity to bring this city W Radiance Drive, and at Trinity Where is his banquet, or to its knees in regards to police AME Zion Church, located at 631 E. street named in his honor? We abuse of power. Please don’t Florida St., from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. have a civil rights museum, right abort the mission now because on Thursday in Greensboro. here in this city and you couldn’t things are getting hard. Let us find a pamphlet, let alone an exnot become so complacent in hibit that highlights the Greensour middle-class homes, or our boro Massacre in 1979. A massacre in which Johnson identities as Americans, that we lose sight of being free. and five other organizers were viciously attacked by the Let us continue to stand with our prophet. We must put Klan and Nazis. Not only were they attacked like prey, our necks out there, as the Rev. Johnson does, and align but those other five organizers were assassinated and with the prophetic tradition, because… the time is now. others severely wounded for simply trying to organize textile workers. Then again the scandal is not in the CJ Brinson is a concerned citizen of Greensboro, youth attack per se, but in the fact that the Greensboro Police pastor at Faith Community Church and student at Hood Department didn’t provide proper security to prevent Theological Seminary. the attack. The community has even had to recently

Up Front

Let us find you love, TCB readers.

Diabolical romantic mastermind and gleeful matchmaker Eric Ginsburg — also TCB’s associate editor, but “gleeful matchmaker” is what I wish he put

by Joanna Rutter on his business cards — is exploring the supposed scarcity of eligible bachelors in the Triad hetero dating scene in this week’s cover story.

In one of the many Facebook message conversations in which Eric regretted hiring me as an intern, he and I discussed the possible mass riots of single people that could follow this story, potentially entailing outcry from vindicated women at having their worst suspicions confirmed, and self-proclaimed “decent guys” indignantly broadcasting their availability.

So, to avoid a romantic apocalypse, we thought it’d be a good idea to not only give a home to all of those frustrations outside of a comments section, but to harness the excellence of our readership to pair you all up, as friends, or as so much more.

We propose to you: the Connection Section, an irregular column for good people to connect to other good people. A classy classifieds.

Though the impetus for this special matchmaking section is hetero dating woes, this Connection Section would be all-inclusive for anyone on a spectrum of gender, orientation, or level of romantic/platonic interest. Want to go get a beer at that new brewery in High Point? Like going to art galleries with someone who doesn’t speed through an exhibition? Wanna talk politics with someone not on the internet? There’s a really good chance a fellow unattached TCB reader out there is willing.

After all, if you’re reading this, you both probably share an interest in caring about your local community and being engaged citizens. That’s not something you could glean from a Tinder profile.

We’ve set up a private email, tcbconnectionsection@ gmail.com, for any interested parties; You can write in telling the world a little bit about yourself, which Triad city you live in, and what you’re looking for, (“I’m a 20-something woman interested in marathoning “Firefly” with someone who would hold my hand during those creepy Reaver scenes”), along with a title for your submission (“W-S gal in search of a canoodling buddy”). We’ll take it from there.

If we get enough decent submissions, it could be enough to convince the rest of our team that we should print them in an upcoming issue. So the rest, readers, is up to you.

Honor the prophet… the time is now!

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March 16 — 22, 2016

DATING DUDS Does the Triad lack eligible bachelors?

Cover Story

by Eric Ginsburg

When Bekah Hilburn-Trenkle recently saw a cute guy at Westerwood dive bar, she asked a mutual friend if he was single.

She should’ve anticipated the response: “Of course not.”

16

And Hilburn-Trenkle, a 26-year old who works at Crafted in Greensboro, isn’t exactly alone in this experience.

The refrain is so common among single, straight women that it could be the Triad’s unofficial motto: There’s a huge lack of eligible bachelors here. The perceived imbalance between straight women and men, particularly among those in their twenties and thirties, is frequently

described as a seismic rift; it’s practically a truism.

But is it actually true? And why is it that some women talk about the need for a few good men like they’re an endangered species, most of whom are already locked down in captivity?

A disinterest in sex, relationships, marriage and reproducing that’s swept Japan — as chronicled in comedian Aziz Ansari’s book Modern Love — scared the government so much that it began investing in solutions to bring singles together. Some have suggested a similar concern should preoccupy local municipalities, particularly Greensboro, prompting ideas like a singles bus shipping in charmers from the Triangle and Queen City. But before that happens, let’s explore some theories about the root problem here, take a look at relevant data, hear from sin-

gle, straight women experiencing it firsthand and see what a few single, straight men have to say in their defense.

Some acknowledgments up front: For the sake of narrowing down to a particular phenomenon, this exploration is limited to people seeking heterosexual relationships.

That leaves out a significant number of Triadians, whose experiences are no less valid, but nonetheless unique. It is also limited to those who were open to talking about their experiences and a relatively small pool of formal interviews, though countless conversations over many years pertaining to this alleged dating reality informed the piece. And for simplicity’s sake, we’re talking about folks looking for lasting monogamous relationships, which may not be what Triadians want.

Before diving into what might be wrong with the pool of single guys in the Triad, there’s a more elemental possibility to consider: Is the pool itself too small?

The short answer in Greensboro is yes. According to 2014 data from the Pew Research Center, there are 97 single men per 100 single women in the Greensboro-High Point metro area, though it isn’t clear how much the Third City is dragging down Greensboro’s numbers. That may not sound like much of a difference, even when considering that this came out to 29,869 single adult men and 30,680 single adult women for the metro area. But it looks more imbalanced when compared to Winston-Salem, where there are 109 single men for every 100 women, or nearly 2,000 more in total.

The Pew Research Data is flawed for several reasons.

For starters, it’s analyzing Census data, which means that it defines “single” as unmarried. So most of those single men in the Triad might be in long-term relationships.

The data makes no differentiation between respondents’ sexuality, so there’s no way of knowing if a larger portion of the single men don’t identify as heterosexual. And it only takes into consideration those between 25 and 34, cutting off singles on both ends who are looking. That said, it does provide some foundational understanding and evidence that — at least in Greensboro — the pool may in fact be too small.

There’s more evidence that single women outnumber men: the colleges.

Excluding the Triad’s community colleges, more women were admitted to every local college or university for the fall 2014 semester, with the exception of Greensboro College, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Add to that the students at Bennett and Salem colleges, two women’s institutions, and female students far outnumber their male counterparts.

These figures don’t factor in trans or gender non-conforming students, but there’s enough of a gulf to extrapolate. At almost every college, women dramatically outnumber men — here are the figures for admitted students for Fall 2014 (the most recent figure available): Greensboro: Guilford College enrolled 1,009 women to 857 men; NC A&T University compared 2,350 to 1,683, UNCG had 4,218 to 1,879, Greensboro College, the outlier, listed 303 women to 404 men and Bennett College admitted 1,432 women.

Winston-Salem: Wake Forest runs 2,040 to 1,786, UNC School of the Arts had 230 to 145, Winston-Salem State placed 1,934 to 733 and Salem College admitted 556 women.

High Point University followed the trend too, with 3,775 women to 2,167 men.

Oh, and of those students, women generally graduate at higher rates. Take UNCG for example, home to the highest admittance difference, where an average of 57 percent of female students graduate compared to 52 percent of men, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The gap is worse at some schools too, such as Guilford College (66 percent of women and 55 percent of men).

That means not only more female students, but also more educated women than men in the dating pool.

Considering that the Pew Research Center’s analysis of Census data excludes anyone from 18 to 24, the overall disparity between single, straight men and women is likely even higher, particularly in college-heavy Greensboro.

Other factors contribute to the balance or imbalance in population, most notably the availability of employment.

That sort of analysis is beyond the timeframe of this piece, but is certainly worth exploring and undoubtedly a considerable component. Incarceration rates also figure into the equation, and though it isn’t immediately clear how many local residents are in prison, it’s undoubtedly more men than women.

Theory: They aren’t eligible

But a smaller pool can’t be the entire problem — after all, the abundance of unmarried men should more than offset any imbalance in Greensboro or High Point. (Or at least it would stand a good chance with a better public transit system between the cities, but the lack of infrastructure as an inhibitor to dating is another conversation altogether .)

Maybe there’s just something wrong with the guys here.

That’s what several single women suggested, and there are many stupid surveys to back it up.

Only recently did people stop referencing a 2009 ranking published in local newspapers listing Greensboro as the No. 4 on totalbeauty.com’s “Eight Cities with the Ugliest Guys.” Never mind the fact that nobody’s ever heard of this website, the ranking analyzed educational stats, exercise habits, obesity and smoking rates and sales of contraceptives and erotica.

It doesn’t help that three years earlier, Old Spice named the Gate City to its list of sweatiest American cities. And then, like clockwork, another random site listed Greensboro as No. 54 on “The top US cities for douchebags” (Winston-Salem came in at No. 72). The ranking is kind of hilarious, judging men’s Facebook interests including an interest in things such as Nickelback, Tosh.0 and Bluetooths. Greensboro ranked highly thanks especially to men liking Ed Hardy, Axe body spray and mixed martial arts.

The list of complaints from single women is seemingly endless, but 31-year-old Janna Swartz put it most bluntly.

“I think that there’s definitely single guys, but with Greensboro, they have so many more options with pretty girls,” said Swartz, who lives in Greensboro but has worked in Winston-Salem. “It’s like a service-industry job; you know if you lost one today you could have another one tomorrow. That’s kind of how guys view dating.”

Guys don’t take things seriously, and Swartz broke things off with one guy who still had the Tinder dating app on his phone.

Lindsay Burkhart, 29, has run into the same problem. “Overall it’s hard to meet single guys in this city,” she said. “I’ve met a few cute ones, but after a few dates they either have another girl they are dating or are moving to another city for a job.”

Hilburn-Trenkle has also encountered several men who

likewise don’t seem to know what they want. A few have pursued her, overcoming her initial disinterest or skepticism until she gives them a chance only to back out and say things like, “I haven’t been honest with myself,” and get back with an ex. It speaks to a larger social trend of complacency in a city where it’s easy for anyone to remain in a sustained state of immaturity, she said.

Heather Jaynes, a 31-year-old in Greensboro, said that like Swartz, she’s run into the problem, and dated someone in the Gate City who “had no intention of moving out and adulting” but would rather keep living with his parents.

It isn’t just that this guy lived at home — Jaynes lives with her dad — but his lack of ambition. She’s dated guys in Winston-Salem, High Point, Greensboro and Kernersville, and similar issues arise.

Burkhart and Hilburn-Trenkle both raised another significant factor: Some men appear to be intimidated by their female peers.

“Most of the single girls I know are the smartest, most ambitious women you could imagine,” said Burkhart, who works at UNCG. “Is that scaring men away?”

In some cases, yes. At least that’s what several guys have told Hilburn-Trenkle. She’s independent, smart and has it together, more than one potential suitor has told her, and apparently that’s threatening.

That attitude would contribute to a significant disconnect.

Remember the Pew Research Center data that there are 97 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women in Greensboro-High Point? Well, there are only 71 employed men for every 100 employed women in the two cities (and the same is true in Winston-Salem). And the education gap between men and women who have never married has risen dramatically over time — as of 2012, the only educational level where men outnumbered women was “high school graduate or less,” and the gap at the top has risen, according to Pew. This could be creating a two-sided problem; if women define eligible men as those with a similar level of education, employment or income, some will inherently be in for a disappointment (more on that later). And if men are threatened by women who don’t need them (but want them), they too won’t find what they’re looking for, either.

triad-city-beat.com

Theory: A lack of single dudes

Theory: It’s true everywhere

Maybe none of this is unique to Greensboro or the Triad. Indeed, former residents who’ve left for cities including Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia reported similar experiences. One Guilford College grad who moved to the capital said her female friends regularly cite the same mantra about the lack of a few good men.

Another Quaker graduate pointed out that the demographics are opposite for cities near him in the Pacific Northwest, where men outnumber women much more dramatically than women do in Greensboro.

The Pew Research Center ranked the 10 worst large metros for single, employed women from 25 to 34 to find men of the same pool. Memphis topped the list and the Charlotte area actually came in fourth, followed by the Philly area. Nashville and New Orleans appeared as well.

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Cover Story

But Greensboro-High Point and Winston-Salem were too small to be considered, and given that both were 71:100 as of 2014, both Triad dating markets are on par with Detroit, which came in third.

Still, the experiences of local women could be part of a national phenomenon.

“Nationwide, single young men outnumber their female counterparts,” senior researcher Wendy Wang wrote for the Pew Research Center. “The overall male-to-female ratio is 115:100 among single adults ages 25 to 34. But when we limit the young men to those who are currently employed, the ratio falls to 84 employed single men for every 100 single women.”

Are you a single, straight woman looking for something more serious? Wang suggests you try San Jose, Calif. or Denver. And despite one Guilford grad’s qualms about the DC area, Pew ranked it as No. 7 on its 10 best list (along with San Diego, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Pittsburgh and Orlando, in case you’re wondering).

There may be a national trend, but Triadians believe it’s worse here. Bekah Hilburn-Trenkle said if she lived in a bigger city, she’s pretty sure she wouldn’t be single, an estimation borne out by her experience being hit on while visiting friends in cities such as Chicago.

Heather Jaynes has dated people in five cities crossing three states in the last decade, and the “worst is here, hands down.” She suggested it may have something to do with how men are raised here.

“Down south, everyone is taught to lie or present better versions of themselves because that’s what their loved ones do to cope with whatever,” she said, adding that she found people who were more honest in New York City.

And while finding a date in Greensboro may be easier than Wilmington, where she also lived, the quality is better in the coastal city.

Plus, Jaynes said, men in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach of all places are more physically attractive then men in Greensboro.

Jaynes wondered if higher drug use or alcoholism rates might also disqualify more men than women in the Triad. While detailed information isn’t immediately available, a cursory check suggests otherwise; according to a 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health report from the US Department of Health & Human Services, illicit drug use is lowest in the South of any region, and dramatically lower than the West (8.3 percent compared to 11.8). The same study did find that in general, men use illicit drugs more than women overall (11.5 percent to 7.3 percent) and outpace women in each individual drug category as well.

Theory: Technically eligible, but hiding

18

What if there are more eligible men than women realize, but they’re just not easy to find?

Peyton Smith, who owns Mission Pizza Neopolitana in downtown Winston-Salem, is so consumed with running his business that he doesn’t have much time for dating.

Plus, running the infant restaurant requires him to be there during hours that other people would typically go on dates.

Smith, who is 40 and who’s never been married, said the problem is exacerbated by his age, and while he isn’t against dating a divorcee or someone with kids, he wants to avoid it if he can.

“I don’t see many of those types of people in Winston-Salem at all,” Smith said, adding that he’s looking for a woman who is 35 or older. “If I had a different job, Durham might not be too far, but at this stage of the business, I need to be there all the time.”

Like single women, Smith wondered aloud how he is supposed to meet people.

Lindsay Burkart said something similar.

“I’m 29, which is a weird age for dating,” Burkart said.

“Most of the guys downtown seem too young for me and if you go to the more low-key, ‘sophisticated’ bars it’s all married men. I know cute single guys between 26 and 36 exist in Greensboro but I can’t figure out where they hang out.”

Bekah Hilburn-Trenkle said she and her friends often assume they know what kind of people hang out where, admitting that it’s an isolating approach that leads her to go out where she’s comfortable and runs into the same people rather than exploring new places. In a bigger city, she said, that might not happen as easily.

Kevin Smith, a 30-year-old freelance photographer and videographer who lives in Greensboro (no relation to Peyton Smith), also said he believes that dating in other cities would be easier, calling Greensboro insular.

“I find it incredibly easy to meet people while traveling,” Smith said. “I guess there is some rhythm to life in Greensboro that favors small social groups that are tough to navigate. I usually end up dating people in Winston and [the Triangle] for some reason. I have friends who feel the same way.”

Smith said he doesn’t use dating sites much, and Swartz, 31, said she is too old for them. But for others, they dramatically change the dating landscape.

Dating sites like OkCupid enable men to bombard women with obnoxious, lurid messages. (Don’t believe it? Ask a single female friend on the site and ask to see her inbox.) Apps like Tinder allow for some filtering, as both parties have to “swipe right” on each other before a conversation starts, but that doesn’t weed out all the disgusting and overly forward men. Those guys who stay in women’s faces contribute to the idea that the entire dating pool is gross, Hilburn-Trenkle said, adding that on the flipside, there are plenty of “self-proclaimed ‘good guys’ that use the label as an excuse to make inconsiderate decisions.”

In other words, plenty of dudes that might otherwise be eligible bachelors are blatant jerks or manipulative dicks (not her words, but the likes of which could be easily overheard at plenty of bars on a Friday night).

Bumble, a dating site that also involves matching like

Tinder but only lets women initiate conversation, might help. Burkart said so few people use it that she swiped a few times and had exhausted all her options, but Jaynes said she had a date set up via the site over the weekend.

Sean Bueter, a 31-year-old reporter at 88.5 WFDD FM, the Winston-Salem public radio station, has exclusively used online dating to meet women since moving to the Camel City last August. He sees a lot of single women on different sites, but said they aren’t necessarily good matches for him.

“While I’ve seen a lot of folks available, there might be a lot of personality mismatch,” he said, adding that 90 percent of the time he doesn’t hear back from women he’s already matched with on Tinder or Bumble. But overall, the outlook is better here than Fort Wayne, Ind., where he moved from, and Bueter said he’s hopeful that a site like Bumble will help cut out some of the noise in the future.

“Dating is hard and it’s probably hard anywhere,” he said, “but I am finding this area to be more hopeful than northeast Indiana.”

Theory: You’re too picky

What if the problem isn’t men at all, but women’s expectations?

Peyton Smith suggested that women should be more proactive.

“Women sit around and wait for guys to talk to them,” he said, adding that if women broke with convention and approached men more often, they would be more likely to find someone.

Bekah Hilburn-Trenkle countered if women behaved the way men do, they’d be painted as crazy. Plus, guys often like to think they can take care of women, she said, and she is forced to walk the line between showing interest and avoiding the perception that she’s overly eager to settle down or define the relationship.

There is data, however, that suggests that in general, women are pickier than men when it comes to dating, and may be defining who is “eligible” much more narrowly.

Pew Research Center asked never-married adults about the traits that would be “very important” in choosing a spouse or partner in a 2014 survey and found that in nearly every category, women had higher expectations.

Men and women said having “at least as much education” would be very important at equal rates — 28 percent — but considering the education gap explained above, this is bound to create problems. Higher percentages of women ranked “same moral and religious beliefs” and “similar ideas about having and raising children” as very important than men, but the biggest gap arose around the question of “a steady job.” A whopping 78 percent of women said it’s very important, while less than half of men — 46 percent — said the same.

One could argue that high expectations are a good thing. A counterpoint could be that women are setting themselves up for failure, and that men are more open-minded. Though very few never-married adults said finding someone of the “same racial or ethnic background” was very important, women did outnumber men in this category too, 10 percent to 7. Could a portion of

triad-city-beat.com

‘It’s like a service-industry job; you know if you lost one today you could have another one tomorrow.

That’s kind of how guys view dating.’ ­— Janna Swartz

the problem be that some of these desires are classist and racist?

Janna Swartz said she doesn’t have a rule about employment, and has dated people who didn’t make as much money as her. And Swartz, a part-time college student, said she’s dated people who hadn’t finished high school but who were “super smart in other ways.”

“Intelligence and street smarts is important,” she said, adding that it’s “more about holding an intelligent conversation” and that she looks for people “who work hard to be where they are” like she has.

Hilburn-Trenkle said Greensboro’s affordability can allow some people to abort their dreams, drifting around in limbo with stunted ambitions. In some ways, it’s hard to argue with her premise that Greensboro is a city people leave, generally, rather than moving to, except maybe once they’ve already found someone they want to start a family with.

But some women narrow the existing pool of eligible bachelors — people they might genuinely like, or could feasibly end up with — because of their friends.

“I have a strict rule about not dating and/or sleeping with someone who has dated or slept with someone I know and at least consider a friendly acquaintance,” Heather Jaynes said, “so that could be diminishing my pool.”

Burkart said that she will match with the same guy on Tinder as a friend, which causes problems.

“If they are talking to a specific guy that I’ve matched with, that makes some of the guys off limits, so the pool gets even smaller and/or I’m talking to two guys on Tinder that are friends and it all falls apart,” she said. “Or I can’t get to know a guy because last year he rejected one of my friends after a date or two. Most of the time, my friend will go on a date with a guy and I won’t know who it is until all of a sudden I’m planning on going on a date with a guy and we realize it’s the same person. Then I get all the scoop before the date and usually cancel.”

That’s part of the reason Swartz is excited when she meets someone interesting from an outlying town like Randleman — everyone won’t already know his business, and it’s less likely that she’ll feel like she’s recycling dates with friends.

Hilburn-Trinkle said that incestuousness might be one of the biggest problems with dating in the Triad.

“You don’t get the luxury of meeting someone and not hearing anything from someone else,” she said, adding that it diminishes the getting-to-know-you process.

“There’s no clean slate.”

Theory: A little bit of everything

In reality, these are all factors that contribute to the

perceived lack of eligible bachelors. Though aspects of dating in the Triad may not be as dire as some feel, at least in comparison to the rest of the country, there are very real reasons that the idea Greensboro in particular lacks eligible bachelors persists.

Even if the idea weren’t inherently true — let’s discount the studies claiming Gate City residents are excessively ugly or have an inexplicable fondness for Ed Hardy or wear too much Axe body spray — it affects reality. Swartz and Hilburn-Trenkle said they know women here who stay in relationships they aren’t happy in because it seems like there aren’t better options nearby. In a bigger city, those couples might split up and more people would be on the market; instead, some women settle.

There are probably countless additional reasons that dating sucks for single, straight women in the Triad. But straight, single men aren’t exactly celebrating their odds either, even the ones many would consider a catch.

Take Kevin Smith, for example; how would he rate the dating scene for single straight guys in the Triad? “I give it three mehs,” he said.

“It’s definitely not a strength of the Triad’s,” Smith said.

“I just got back from Miami last week so I saw the contrast.

Will Smith was right about Miami.”

19

March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

20

CULTURE A taste of Atlanta, Miami at the W on Elm

by Eric Ginsburg

I

t may be because he’d just stepped out of his car point, and gives a glimpse after the five-hour drive up from his new home of the W on Elm’s target in the Atlanta metro area, but when my friend audience as well.

Michael met us at the W on Elm on a recent Friday But the W isn’t all glitz night, he quickly compared the new Greensboro venue and it isn’t overpriced to a bougie Atlanta cocktail bar. (though a few dishes pass About a week later, as she sat at a table looking the $30 mark). Think fine at the sleek, back bar and the tender with the top of dining made more sociable. his shirt open as he shook a drink vigorously over his It’s a place for a double shoulder, my friend Erin suggested the bar area of the date with your old friends W felt like Miami. who would tap their feet to Having never been to a bar in either city, I still readily “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” agreed with both comparisons. or “Tainted Love.” You’ll orThe W on Elm aligns with the sophisticated vibe der the Sizzling Tuna appeassociated with places where people with flush pocktizer to share, a Bluefin dish ets in larger metros imbibe, the sort of urbane, lively served on a 500-degree salt joint that could serve as the backdrop for an episode stone that cooks the meat of “Casual.” With one side wall consisting of windows that comes with ginger and another covered in reclaimed, unfinished wood a mostarda, wasabi, sesala Small Batch Beer Co. in Winston-Salem, the newly me caramel and a shrimp opened W is the kind of venue that attracts married cracker as a hat. It’s visually thirtysomethings who don’t blink at shelling out for a compelling, unique, and babysitter. also delicious.

ERIC GINSBURG The porchetta sandwich and the olive oil flatbread with pesto are It’s of a piece with recent forerunners La Rue and It’s the only place I’ve both worthwhile entreés, but don’t miss the Sizzling Tuna app.

1618 Downtown, both within a block, signaling a new ever seen a local TV anchor this, with lacquered beef ribs, black bass and pricey era for downtown some have long awaited. without a camera and ribeyes.

For Michael, a Greensboro native who left a year lights set up in front of them — the first time I walked On a follow-up visit, I’d be tempted to stick to the ago, the experience was a little unsettling. If anyin, Lauren Melvin from WFMY and a colleague of hers small plates, not out of malice towards the entreés thing, the Gate City’s been a humble place for the last sat at a table near the front door. but because the more affordable apps would allow exdecade. Nothing to be pretentious about here. When Servers are well trained and attentive; it’s the sort perimentation and sound appealing: a turkey meatball someone opened a martini bar adjacent to the W’s of place where no matter what you order, the server with gouda burrata, chicken skins with plum mayo, storefront a few years back — a place with a futuriswill respond with, “Excellent choice.” Bumping music beff tataki with wagyu, orange miso mayo, dashi and tic-underwater-Miami theme and a ridiculous bar-top masks the sound of voices ricocheting around the concharred pickle shiitake. And there’s poutine — the dish that a bartender once told me would mess up my densed and completely refurbished space — the second Greensboro just discovered and that recently appeared phone if I put it down — Greensboro kinda laughed, floor hasn’t opened yet, but will soon, the host said. at Crafted, Freeman’s and Marshall Free House — with and I’ve never once seen it even half full. But the future Here you can order chicken and gnocchi with pulled chicken, country ham gravy and a fried egg. is now for downtown Greensboro, which some feel is fiddlehead fern, artichoke, country ham and lemony The next time Michael visits, I know he won’t be long awaited. pea puree. Or perhaps you’d prefer the blueberry BBQ asking to go back to the W. It doesn’t suit him. But I’ll The tenancy at 324 S. Elm St., the slim, tall building duck legs with smoked peach applesauce, a peppered, likely return, albeit infrequently, without him. He’s at the edge of the parking lot in front of the Green bacon-wrapped pork filet or the lobster buccatini with vegan anyway.

Bean coffee shop downtown has always been fitblistered corn and roasted asparagus. ful. The pastel painting on the Erin and I kept it simpler, ordermulti-story wall and the forlorn ing cheaper options including the Pick of the Week Visit the W on Elm at 324 grassy area on the north side of dried tomato and pesto flatbread Cloudy with a chance of change S. Elm Street (GSO) or the lot were long ago relegated and the porchetta sandwich with Local Foodstorm @ HQ Greensboro, all weekend to memory, replaced by restaucheck out thewonelm.com. kale, tomato and pear-and-jalaCommunity members, artists, coders, entreprerants pursuing markedly different peño jam to hold down the cost. neurs, foodies and students from across Greensclienteles. Most recently, a Hams Both were tasty, especially the boro’s colleges and universities get together for chain, a disappointing addition despite a pretty bangin’ pork sandwich on sourdough, though given its size, I this second annual Local Foodstorm. Greensboro is cookie skillet. was glad I ordered the Sizzling Tuna as well. among the most food-insecure communities in the And now, the W on Elm. Vegetarians like Erin can find a few things on the Unite States, which is why these folks are getting toIf you’ve been to the Kress Terrace or Suite 300 in the menu, including a parsnip tostone sandwich with apple gether to brainstorm about local food and develop same building, just a block from the W, you’ve already slaw, avocado, mojo and “farm cheese,” another flatcommunity-based solutions to hunger. GSOHacks will create maps, apps, websites and infographics seen the work of the new venue’s owners, Karen and bread with roasted mushrooms, garlic sauce, arugula that build on the ideas developed at the first FoodJason Willette. Even if you’ve never been inside, your and cheese, a dip plate or deviled eggs to share that storm. Join a team and compete, observe or advise assumptions about the décor and tone at the venues are described as “whipped and good” on the menu. But via the event on GSOHacks’ Facebook page. that often host wedding receptions is still pretty on mostly it’s the surf and turf you’d expect at a place like

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Joseph Mills laughs at something his daughter said after he enjoyed a beer on the porch at Krankies. ERIC GINSBURG

Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

find themselves immersed in.

Bear, which Mills said will be his final book of poetry.

“If only people wore labels,/their foreheads clearly He’s not entirely sure that’s true, he admitted, but the displaying/ their appellation, their varietal,/ their alideas aren’t flowing. A work of fiction, taking place on cohol content,/ think of the time it would save,” Mills the bleachers of a children’s soccer match, will follow, writes in the opening poem. “…We would have a better possibly signaling more fiction — or hell, nonfiction — idea/ who might improve with age/ and who we should to come, Mills said. enjoy right now.”

The balding yet spry professor likes to try new things There are pieces that are lighthearted, as suggested when he’s out for the evening, admitting that he sucby names like “The Gospel According to Bob” or “Wile cumbs to habit and patterns at home with wine and E. Coyote Circles the Winery Aisles, His Optimism a beer. Those same tendencies lead him to experiment Pure Distillation of the American Dream.” Winemakers creatively as well, but the desire to avoid repeating even includes a poem called “Dirt” in which the words himself could keep him away from poetry for a while. form a wine glass on the page.

It’s quite possible the well Others are deeply moving, or has truly run dry, or that his transporting, whisking readers prose will merit the same Join Joseph Mills for the launch to a moment where a bottle is as his poetry. But Mills of his new book Exit, Pursued by acclaim upended in the French coundoes carry a small, black a Bear at ArtWorks Gallery in tryside or two lovers lace their UNCSA notebook around with fingers together and silently Winston-Salem on April 7. More him wherever he goes, pulling float upstairs. it out of his pocket to jot down info at josephrobertmills.com.

The tone is lighter than This lines of overheard dialogue, Miraculous Turning, which came drafts of poems, notes, lists out between the first and second edition of this collecand a smattering of other ideas. That’s the sort of tion, giving both their place without diminishing the creative mind that will likely never fully be at rest, and quality of either. Like two wines, maybe, both deeply though it may be a while before Mills uncorks another satisfying and yet pairing better with differing moods. round, I have to believe that the bacchanalia isn’t over.

Next month, Press 53 releases Exit, Pursued By a

Culture

In most respects, professor and poet Joseph Mills is a wine guy. He and his wife Danielle — who he met while teaching in Bordeaux, France — wrote a guidebook to North Carolina wine, and he’s published two editions

by Eric Ginsburg of a poetry book thanks to local outfit Press 53.

But when Mills looked over the extensive wine list at Krankies coffee on an unseasonably warm mid-afternoon recently, he asked the bartender for the new pale ale from Hoots instead.

Mills said he’s constantly disappointing people who’ve discovered his extensive wine knowledge, saying he doesn’t like when people ask him what they should be drinking or obsess over tasting notes.

The wine world can be overly snobby and descriptive, he said, mimicking people describing a wine as tasting “like a cherry left in the sun with hints of football.”

That’s just not his style of writing or enjoyment, Mills said, comparing it to the lack of interest he has in picking out paint swatches with names such as “sea foam at dawn on the river.”

Mills, a professor at UNC School of the Arts who has published several books of poetry with WinstonSalem’s Press 53, grew up in a beer-drinking family in Indiana. The kind where his dad’s can might say “BEER” on it, he said, adding that his father would scoff at even a relatively straightforward craft beer like the pint of Hoots he was holding.

Mills began nurturing his interests in wine and poetry in college, the former with the help of wine and cheese events in his University of Chicago dorm.

There, he realized nobody would drink the reds, and if he could train himself to like the darker wines, he could elope with a bottle or two. Later spending a year teaching in France during his English PhD program, Mills and his future wife spent as much time as they could exploring wine regions and enjoying picnics.

From there, his interest picked up.

Press 53 published the second edition of his book, Angels, Thieves and Winemakers in 2015, though Mills radically reworked the collection before its rerelease.

For those familiar with his work, such as the 2014 poetry book called This Miraculous Turning, the winethemed anthology provides the same level of astute and profound commentary and storytelling. For the uninitiated, Mills is absolutely a must read.

Given his lack of pretension — wine snobs are generally not experts but rather the ego-driven middle ground with something to prove, Mills said — Winemakers is readily accessible for those with no knowledge of, or even interest in, wine. Throughout the well paced book, Mills provides moving analogies between wine and human relationships that readers will easily

triad-city-beat.com

The poetry of wine

21

March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

22

CULTURE Ben Singer’s mash-up of the current political moment

by Jordan Green

A

sense of foreboding hung in the air at Greensboro’s New York Pizza three days before North Carolina’s presidential primary despite the festivities surrounding musician Matty Sheets’ 40th birthday.

Cue Episode 2 in Season 1 of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” which originally screened in October 1955, with the master of cinematic suspense intoning at the opening: “Good evening. Have you ever had a premonition? A feeling that something dreadful was about to happen?”

Drummer Nic Stott tapped out a lean, staccato signature, like the beginning of a bebop jazz solo or exposition of an early ’70s Blaxploitation film.

Then, as Stott settled into a trap groove and Ben Singer sketched single-note patterns on an electric piano, the video cut away from Alfred Hitchcock to “Confessions of a Republican,” a four-minute campaign ad featuring the actor William Bogert explaining why he couldn’t vote for Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for president, who famously opposed the Civil Rights Act and said: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.”

“When the head of the Ku Klux Klan, when all these weird groups come out in favor of the candidate of my party; either they’re not RepubJORDAN GREEN Modern Robot’s Ben Singer crafted a multi-media music show around some newscasts and an episode of “Alfred licans or I’m not,” Bogert says in Hitchcock Presents.” the film, which eerily parallels the current GOP anxiety about the rise of immersed himself in bluegrass and old-time music. He anything. Here was the passage of the Voting Rights Donald Trump and his unconvincing disavowal of white also plunged into the open-mic scene and developed Act, which would be significantly unraveled by the supremacist David Duke. his chops as an accompanist with singer-songwriters Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision. Here Stott’s restrained drumming, tight as a steel trap, like Sheets. He started Modern Robot as a separate was the creation of Medicare and Medicaid prompting intensified while Singer added bass tones from his piaand parallel endeavor to play almost completely hysterical right-wing charges of socialism — a precurno; the music swelled with a sense of history pulsating improvised music, in contrast to the traditional song sor to similar charges against President Obama. Here into a new and unexpected dimension. structures of his other work. In the process, he taught Singer, the creative author of Modern Robot, has himself how to record and edit sound and video, plying produced about 50 performances over the past six Pick of the Week his talents with musicians such as Laurelyn Dossett years. Starting with Sita Sings the Blues, and then workThirsty for justice and Rhiannon Giddens and filmmakers including Haring through a series of B-movies like Plan 9 From Outer Aguafest @ New York Pizza (GSO), Saturday, 2 p.m. vey Robinson and Andrew Rodgers.

Space and Barbarella, Singer and typically one or two Local outfits like Time Machine Drive By and Inspired by a vinyl LP, The World in Sound 1965 collaborators would improvise a musical soundtrack Giant Red Panda camp out for a day-long affair on Produced by the Associated Press, the March 12 show as the films played. With the exception of the show Tate Street to raise money for to address the pollutoriginated somewhat differently. Listening to the news built around the 1926 film Faust, which Singer took ed water crisis Flint, Mich. It’s all ages until 7 p.m., items on the vinyl recording, Singer was amazed to disto Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland last year, the after which the event is 21 and over. The cover’s $3 cover how deeply they resonated with the current hisperformances have been one-offs. but extra donations are welcomed, and all proceeds torical moment: Here was President Johnson speaking A trained euphonium player and pianist, Singer took go to United Way of Genesee County. Find the about an ambitious legislative agenda, contrasted with up guitar when he moved to Greensboro in 2005 and event on Facebook for more info. current times when Congress can’t seem to accomplish

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nals a faith that the system will right itself, the artist screened parts of Night of the Living Dead at the beginning of the program. The classic 1968 horror movie directed by George Romero is widely viewed as an allegory for the anxiety provoked by urban rioting during the Johnson administration, which set the stage for a conservative resurgence under the theme of law and order, giving rise to the war on drugs and mass incarceration. And if any proof were needed that political history is cyclical, conservative columnist George F. Will would later write that Goldwater “sensed that he had won the future.” He added, “We — 27,178,188 of us — who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes.”

Which brings us back to the swirling layers of unreality in the disbelief by the modern GOP that Trump has taken over their party, and Kim Stanger’s horrific realization about the true circumstances of his father’s death.

“You’ve never been in Paris,” his brother’s wife and his former girlfriend Susan — played by Cloris Leachman — tells him. “You’ve been in a hospital in Arizona.”

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was the Watts riots, foreshadowing militant anger today about unarmed black men killed by the police and mass incarceration.

Singer scrambled to find a film to accompany the musical performance in the 30 hours leading up to the event, describing the task as the most creative aspect of the process. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Premonition” proved to be an uncanny choice for animating the political themes that Singer is exploring.

The 1955 episode created a feverish and surreal narrative framework for the music as pianist Kim Stanger, portrayed

by John Forsythe, returns from Paris seeking to reunite with his estranged father. His family and friends seem deeply uncomfortable to see him and tell him that his father died four years ago of a heart attack while playing tennis, but the story doesn’t add up and Forsythe’s character tumbles into a psychological rabbit hole trying to unravel the contradictions.

Although The World In Sound 1965 provided the inspiration for the performance, “Premonition” wound up taking a more prominent role, although snatches of the audio news clips cropped up here and there, including President Johnson’s State of the Union (“I propose that we carry out a new program to develop regions of our country that are now suffering from distress and depression; I propose that we make new efforts to control and prevent crime and delinquency; I propose that we eliminate every remaining obstacle to the right and the opportunity to vote.”) amidst the dialogue in “Premonition” and the swell of Singer and Stott’s music.

Singer may have inadvertently upstaged himself by helping to organize a surprise tribute to Matty Sheets, a longtime musical collaborator. As an opening act to the Modern Robot show, about a dozen friends, including Singer, performed covers of Sheets’ songs to the songwriter and bandleader’s delight. The celebratory atmosphere, with Singer and Stott embracing Sheets at the bar during the changeover, carried into Modern Robot’s set. Whether they were in on the conceit or just familiar with their Hitchcock, Sheets and his friends raucously yelled lines of dialogue from the bar during the Modern Robot performance.

Lest there be any misunderstanding that Singer’s choice to highlight the failed Goldwater campaign of 1964 sig-

23

March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

24

CULTURE The savage beauty of Ansel Adams’ America

by Joanna Rutter

I

n the airy, unfussy space of Reynolda House’s touring gallery, it’s possible to stand in the figurative shoes of Ansel Adams, a quirky, prolific photographer renowned for his ability to capture the tangible holiness of an untouched, vast, terrifying and beautiful wilderness. His photos from the Tetons and Sierras are transporting windows to a less plundered world.

“The exhibit expresses itself in just two words: his name,” Philip Archer, director of programs and interpretation at Reynolda House, said in a phone interview. “The show is going to expand people’s sense of him.”

The exclusive collection came to Reynolda House in Winston-Salem out of a fortunate connection between museum Director Allison Perkins, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, its sole previous home.

Eloquent Light, a title borrowed from a 1980 book on Adams’ work of the same name, is fitting for the shimmering rivers and opaque clouds found in the almost 40 photographs in the exhibition, a viewing exclusive to Reynolda.

Adams is known for his technical ANSEL ADAMS In works such as “Oak Tree, Snowstorm, Yosemite Valley, California, 1948” and “Vernal Fall, Yosemite Valley, use of light in capturing Western California, 1948,” Adams used focus to capture awe. (©2015 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust) landscapes as he emotionally experienced them, using methodology landscape, [that’s] their heritage.” usually begin in advance with pre-visualizing the shot that was revolutionary at the time of his work, yet still The Hudson River group, landscape-minded artists and planning his strategy for the photo using a light remains timeless. including Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt, would meter, then often leaving before dawn carrying heavy “He saw the snapping of a shutter like composing often join geological expedition groups to paint mounequipment and battling mosquitoes for a perfect view a piece of music, and the way it gets performed and he had scoped out earlier. conducted, that’s the process in the developing room,” “Adams wouldn’t say ‘I took [a photo],’ he’d say, ‘I Pick of the Week Archer said. made it,’” Archer said.

“One of his assistants called it a ballet.”

More than friends His progression is traceable from small prints early The dance and the music of his work is visible in the ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ @ SECCA (W-S), Thursday, in his career — to draw the viewer in close, forcing broad array of almost 40 works spanning his lifetime 7:30 p.m. them to pay attention — to larger ones that could fully in Eloquent Light, in delicate, gentle captures of snowy Stroll the exhibition halls of SECCA before an capture panoramic views trees, almost as if they are exciting presentation of Russian composer Modof mountains and sky. That sitting for formal portraits; est Mussorgsky’s most famous work, Pictures at an evolution began in his early Eloquent Light runs at Reynolda in fine-art shots in exacting Exhibition, a tribute to the life of his close friend, teens with his first camera, a House in Winston-Salem through detail that fools the eye into artist Viktor Hartmaan, who passed away at the age Kodak Brownie. thinking his photographs are July 17. Tickets are available online of 39 to the despair of Mussorgsky; he wrote the “In 1915, what photography actually pencil and charat reynoldahouse.org/anseladams. piece imagining “roving through the exhibition, now was, was sort of an imitacoal drawings; in haunting leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a pictive art, trying to seem like redwood trees shrouded in ture that had attracted his attention, and at times romantic, gauzy paintings,” darkness; and, most obvioussadly thinking of his departed friend.” The Piedmont Archer said. “Adams made a break from that tradition ly, in mountaintop shots of lush Western valleys and Wind Symphony under the direction of Maestro with deep focus.” ranges, so raw and beautiful they evoke an immediate, Matthew Troy presents that tribute, along with Even though he distanced himself from that style, he visceral love for the earth.

“Symphony No. 2” by composer John Barnes Chance. still owes the romantics plenty.

Archer said Adams would use boards in the darkKenneth Frazzelle will be live painting during the “He’s definitely in a long, romantic tradition,” Archer room to give different sections of his photographs performance. Purchase tickets via uncsa.edu. said. “The Hudson River artists were concerned with longer or short light; his process for each photo would

triad-city-beat.com Up Front News

Phil Archer, director of programs and interpretation at Reynolda House in Winston-Salem, says the exhibition will “expand people’s sense” of this legendary photographer.

vation.” said Archer.

He added, “It’s nice to study an artist you like more, the more you read about him.”

Cover Story

made it easier for westward expansion. The easy access presented conflicting emotions apparent in Adams’ work, Archer said.

“There’s a duality of mind there, of wanting to share beauties, but a concern about what would happen,” Archer continued. “His answer was to push for conser-

PHOTO COURTESY REYNOLDA HOUSE

Opinion

tains and prairies, then bring their work back east to educate audiences about the still-mysterious west.

Adams shared their love for manipulating light in order to perfectly capture the emotions that landscapes inspired in them.

A necessary detour for visitors, then, would be to go searching for similar mountainous landscapes on view in the permanent collection by Church and Bierstadt to experience the common reverence that guided all three artists.

Adams also had an environmentalist forefather in John Muir (whose work can be perfectly summed up in his quote, “All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild”), who founded the Sierra Club. The conservationist society eventually shaped a teenaged Adams’ love for nature and gave him a place on its expeditions to exercise his newfound love of photography.

“He was searching for something that correlated with his emotional needs,” Archer said.

“He was seeking oneness with the world.”

As a quirky young loner in San Francisco with a lineage of financial strain and relational tension in his family, some historians speculate that the outdoors may have been a powerful form of escapism and reformation for Adams at the beginning of his career, despite having terrifying trip responsibilities like stringing a cable for trekkers up the sheer face of Half Dome in Yosemite.

The power of nature’s splendor haunted his work for the rest of his life, and just at the right point in American history, too: The laying down of railroads

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

26

FUN & GAMES Bracketology, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the stats

I

have a system.

I can’t recall exactly when I came up with it — more than six, less than 12 years ago. But I’ve won unofficial bracket challenges with it, and I feel like it fundamentally works.

by Anthony Harrison Everyone who participates in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket-filling bonanza probably has their own approach, but I’ve never met anyone who puts as much science, critical thought and work into their bracket as I do.

Granted, you’re free to tell me all about yours, but this one’s mine.

It never hurts to actually see some games during the regular season. That’s really where you gain knowledge — from watching as many teams play as possible.

But honestly, do you ever watch Iona or Yale University games?

After all the conferences hold their championship games, deciding their automatic bids to the tournament, there’s a lull before the greatest Sunday in secularism: Selection Sunday.

For those not in the know, Selection Sunday is when the NCAA gets together and deems a few things: Which seeds the automatic champions receive and which other teams — called at-large bids — get a ticket to the Big Dance.

I love Selection Sunday.

Selection Sunday resembles Christmas Eve in my view, because March Madness is the most wonderful time of the year — everyone getting excited about their placement, all the teams nestled in their seeds, waiting for the games to open.

The tourney is Christmas, and these games are gifts.

Anyway, once that song-and-dance routine wraps up, that’s when my process really begins.

I compose spreadsheets. I typically do them on paper, because I am insane, but I’ve also used Microsoft Excel. On these spreadsheets, I arrange all the significant statistics compiled on all the teams selected for the tournament — no stones unturned.

Then, after drawing out some presumably clear winners, I undergo the tortuous work of comparing teams, stat by stat, and decide who’s going how deep.

Total offense factors in, as does free-throw and three-point shooting — especially regarding underdogs and possible Cinderellas — and rebounding.

But here’s my go-to stat, my secret ingredient to this formula: Offensive rebounds.

I believe offensive rebounds, while a tangible stat, are the best indicator of important intangibles: Hustle.

Heart. Persistence. Tenacity.

Case in point: You watch the Carolina-Duke game on March 5? Did you catch when Carolina pulled down something like nine offensive rebounds in one possession?

Sure, it also pointed to the fact Carolina couldn’t hit the ocean if they were a team of dolphins on that possession.

But it also showed those intangibles.

And guess who won.

Intangibles win games in postseason basketball.

Based on all this mess, I tend to make two brackets — Safety and Wild Card. If I only fill out one for a pool, I try to mix them both.

All there’s left to do is watch the tournament unfold and see who shows up.

Here’s the thing, though: There’s never going to be a perfect bracket. That’s why Warren Buffett’s content with offering a billion dollars to whoever can prove they filled one out perfectly.

You’re gonna take losses, but you’ll want them done in the early rounds. The Elite Eight, the Final Four —

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that’s where brackets really get made or busted.

I should know.

The first time I ever filled out a bracket, I won a pool.

The year: 2002. College basketball ran thick through my eighth-grader veins. But my team — full disclosure, I’m a Tar Heel — wasn’t doing so hot under Head Coach Matt Doherty.

While I still loved my Heels, my attention had shifted elsewhere, towards an intriguing University of Maryland Terrapins squad, coached by Gary Williams.

The Terps, at that time perennial NCAA tourney attendees, ranked No. 2 in the preseason and made good on those predictions. Senior talent drove the team — center Lonny Baxter, swingman Byron Mouton and impeccable point guard Juan Dixon.

At this time, I didn’t have an elaborate system. I didn’t even really think about it. But I filled out my bracket anyway, and I had Maryland winning it all against Indiana University.

My late father scoffed. No one in his office pool could believe it.

But I thought the Terrapins could pull it out. I needed a way to make that happen.

My thinking went like this: Looking at the seeding, I figured Duke University would be the only team that could beat them — they had once during conference play. So I did some guesswork, and I decided the Hoosiers would knock out the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16.

Sure enough, Indiana shot the lights out — 57 percent from the floor. The Hoosiers won, 74-73.

Long story short: I clinched the Final Four, Maryland met Indiana in the championship and took home their first and only NCAA championship.

I’d been demolished in the early rounds. But I was the only one to pick Maryland.

I won $210.

Therein lies the rub. You can do crazy statistical analysis to your little heart’s content, but what really matters, at the end of the day, is taking chances on your hunches.

After all, it’s gambling — all you need’s a little luck.

The tourney is Christmas, and these games are gifts.

Pick of the Week Tennis twofer University of Virginia Cavaliers and East Carolina University Pirates @ Wake Forest University Demon Deacons (W-S), March 20, 10 a.m.

The No. 22 Demon Deacons women’s tennis team (12-4) looks fine — especially with a home record of 7-1 — but they’ve stumbled a bit in conference play. This should be a big weekend for them. After a trip to Notre Dame, they’ll host the No. 10 UVA Cavaliers and ECU’s Pirates on Sunday. They face the Wahoos at 10 a.m. and the Pirates at 4:30 p.m. For tickets and more info, visit wakeforestsports.com.

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GAMES

‘South by What?’ a lack of direction.

by Matt Jones Across

Down

Cover Story

Mother Goose dieters 1984 Cyndi Lauper song “That’s a lie!”

Slurpee competitors Sought damages from Give (out) “Thus ___ Zarathustra” Perfumery word Crafts’ counterparts Famed escapologist “___ American Cousin” Letters near 7, on some phones

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

16 Synth instrument with a shoulder strap 18 Fingerprint pattern 21 “___ n’est pas une pipe”: Magritte 25 “Fiddler on the Roof” toast 27 Former “Tonight Show” announcer Hall 28 Jane in a court case 30 Aperture settings 31 “___ the night before Christmas ...”

33 Not more than 35 Rapper ___ Fiasco 36 Band who felt the rains down in Africa 39 Eminem’s “The Way ___” 40 Letters seen in airports 41 Cereal bunch 42 “S.O.S.!”

43 Germ for an invention 44 Inexperienced 45 Dinner hour 49 Do a crop rotation chore 50 Some blenders 53 Poker players look for them 54 Sorrow 56 Playwright Yasmina 58 “Look what I’ve done!”

59 Hebrew month before Tishrei 60 Most TVs, these days 61 Have a payment

News

52 ___-Therese, Quebec 54 Donates 55 Apr. season 57 Sleeveless garment it’s OK to spill food on?

60 Home-cooked offering 63 Heir, in legal terminology 64 Zappa with the given name Ian 65 Expected to come in 66 Miles ___ gallon 67 Sun. discourse 68 Paid promos 69 Cat consumer of ‘80s TV 70 Docs

Up Front

1 IRS Form 1040 figure 4 Imperial follower?

7 Baltic, e.g.

10 Bunny bounce 13 Vietnamese soup 14 It’s chalked before a shot 15 Efficient movements 17 Share, sometimes 19 Influential filmmakers 20 Cut cards with your stomach muscles?

22 Barrett once in Pink Floyd 23 Barcelona bulls 24 “Electric” fish 26 Dead even 29 ___-of-the-moment 30 Agcy. concerned with fraud 32 When, in Spanish 34 Right-angled pipes used for gay parade floats?

37 Broadway star Hagen 38 Feedbag bit 39 Nose, bottom of your foot, that spot you can’t reach on your back, e.g.?

46 Out like a light 47 DeLuise in Burt Reynolds outtakes 48 Prefix for space 51 Scratch up like a cougar

Culture

Answers from previous publication.

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March 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story

S

he’s 17. She’s gorgeous and outrageous. And she’s Greensboro born and bred. Of course I’m talking about the Guilford Green Foundation’s annual gala that has emerged from a club kid to become the “it”

by Nicole Crews girl of Greensboro’s social season.

In 1995, a group of Greensboro community members banded together to help Triad Health Project — the local AIDS service organization — raise funds. By the next year they’d come up with a plan to host a Green Party at Club Babylon. The event was such a hit it launched the formation of what we know as today’s Guilford Green Foundation. In 1998, the Green Party’s founders and organizers expanded their repertoire to help fund other organizations affiliated with the LGBT community and formed the nonprofit.

The organization’s biggest annual fundraiser, the gala brought in $58,000 last year for grant recipients Equality NC, FaithAction (immigrant outreach for those identifying as LGBTQ), Community Theater of Greensboro (West Side Story performance sponsorship with LGBTQ Latino-focus), Bayard Rustin Conference (activism conference for LGBTQ people of color), Interactive Resource Center, Kaleidoscope (providing therapy for LGBTQ youth in rural areas), NC Trans Pride, PFLAG Leadership, Triad Friends (providing meeting space for LGBTQ organizations), Triad Health Project, Triad Pride Men’s Chorus, UNCG Queer Student Union, UNCG Speech and Hearing (for those in transition to achieve gender neutral voices), Alamance Pride and

A star is born

Youth Safe.

To date, the Guilford Green Foundation has invested more than $800,000 to support these programs and alike organizations — but come Saturday at Proximity Hotel it’s all about the party.

This year’s theme — “Hollywood: Everyone’s a Star!”

— has taken on a life of it’s own with promotional and event informational videos featuring parodies of film and starring Greensboro luminaries. Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who was also recently named executive director of Guilford Green Foundation, glides down a staircase as Scarlett O’Hara in a Gone with the Wind clip and into the arms of foundation board member Sarah Catherine Poole as Rhett Butler. Same-gender marriage celebs Frank Slate Brooks and Brad Newton as Joan and Christina Crawford, respectively, terrify with a wire-hanger spoof. Wonder Woman makes an appearance and there’s a nod to Fight Club starring Evan Olson and even a Showgirls reference.

Foundation board member and senior co-chair of this year’s gala Jessica Mashburn is the mastermind behind this year’s event and has served as the creative driving force behind these promotional videos (available on Youtube) and the gala itself. Tigermoth Creative pitched in their services to bring the videos to life.

Poole and Evelyn Day are junior co-chairs of the event and the rest of the planning committee is made up of board chairs Jeff Smith and Melissa Greer, Tony Doles, Leigh Anne Kincaid, Aaron Tyler, Lyna Urmos, Dennis Quaintance and Martha Bryant of Quaintance Weaver Restaurants and Hotels.

Stay tuned next week for coverage of the party of the year.

Evan Olson (right) and Ivey Ghee (Tigermoth Creative) Fight Club parody

From left, a partygoer with 1618’s Nick Wilson and event chair Jessica Mashburn.

Dr. Ranjan Sharma and Mashburn “Sponsor Appreciation Video”

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Sarah Poole as Rhett Butler, Mayor Nancy Vaughan as Scarlett O’Hara. Filmed in the home of Dr. Ranjan Sharma & Stacy Lawson. (courtesy Tigermoth Creative)

Jessica Mashburn “What to Wear Video” at the Ritz Costume Shop.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan descending.

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