Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Sept. 14 – 20, 2017 triad-city-beat.com
Cop video PAGE 6 Folk fun PAGES 2 & 5 Bites & Pints PAGE 16
Full Cycle Cycling classic races forward PAGE 14
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September 14 – 20, 2017
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Second line at the National Folk Fest
CANDIDATES! next week, Sept 21, Triad City Beat publishes its 2017 primary election guide with info on every candidate on the ballot. Call Brian Clarey at 336.681.0704 or email brian@triad-city-beat.com to place your candidate ad!
We hear the blasts of the lone trumpet cutting through the rain-soaked air of downtown Greensboro on Saturday at dusk by Brian Clarey — ba-da-BAAAHHH… da — and muscle memory takes over from there. We instinctively shuffle into line behind the Tremé Brass Band, my wife and I, as the big bass drum begins to boom, the tuba adding soft pomp to the rhythm, both of us silently hoping that our feet still know what to do. We lived for a time in a third-floor French Quarter apartment that abutted against the legendary New Orleans neighborhood, particularly the blocks collectively known as Storyville, a notorious red-light district where jazz was born in the brothels and, later, Louis Armstrong in one of the tenements. Sometimes, while hanging on our balcony, we’d catch the strains of a brass band from around the corner, scoot down the stairs and follow the second line to wherever it led, testing out dance moves on the chunky pavement and trying not to
spill our drinks. That was a long time ago…. Now, as the Tremé Brass Band rolls its way west, then north on its path to the Wrangler Stage for its second set of the National Folk Fest, we create room for ourselves among the zombie-walk festivalgoers and the looky-loos on the sidelines and get stepping. A Greensboro second line is quite a different thing than the official version, created spontaneously on the streets of the Tremé, just like jazz music and, possibly, Louis Armstrong. Here the herd mentality seems to prevail, marchers falling in line like it’s their duty and not their pleasure, vacantly following the flow. But it will do. At the Wrangler Stage we get up close so we can steal moves from the band’s lone second-line dancer, bedecked in black funeral suit and spangled black umbrella. We shake our hips and spin each other around. On the even pavement of downtown Greensboro’s streets, our feet still know what to do.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
It’s discouraged me from going out, period. Every time I see the police I get worried and distressed. I don’t know the outcome. — Zared Jones, in the News, page 6
BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com
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EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com
SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com
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1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino jorge@triad-city-beat.com
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CONTRIBUTORS Lauren Barber Carolyn de Berry Spencer KM Brown
Cover photography by Todd Turner of the High Point Cycling Classic
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September 14 – 20, 2017
CITY LIFE Sept. 14 – 20 THURSDAY
Up Front
Shokunin Ramen pop-up dinner @ Hoots Roller Bar & Beer Co. (W-S), 6 p.m. Hoots Roller Bar hosts Shokunin Ramen for an evening of dinner and drinks. The pop-up sources local produce and prepares noodles by hand. Find the event on Facebook
News
Entanglements exhibit opening night @ SECCA (W-S), 6 p.m. Internationally renowned artist Sonya Clark’s upcoming exhibit, Entanglements: Stories Woven in Fiber, focuses on the cultural power of hair as a fiber as adornment and as a signifier of identity. Featured works include installations, photographs and sculptures made with hair and combs. Clark’s exhibit runs through Jan. 8. Learn more at secca.org.
Opinion
Zoolander screening @ the Yard at Revolution Mill (GSO), 7 p.m. Urban Grinders’ baristas craft orange mocha frappuccinos in honor of this 2001 comedy, and Wow What a Drink’s juices and teas are available for purchase alongside beer from Natty Greene’s Kitchen + Market. Flaunt your best Blue Steel in a photo booth before the movie begins at 8 p.m. Find the event on Facebook.
EVENTS
Culture
Thursday, September 14 @ 8pm
Open Mic Night
Friday, September 15 @ 8pm
Eastern Undergrounds Saturday, September 16 @ 8pm
In The Round Movie Nite
Wednesday, September 20 @ 8pm
Julian Sizemore
Crossword
Shot in the Triad
Monday, September 18 @ 8pm
602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro
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by Lauren Barber
(336) 698-3888
FRIDAY
20th anniversary celebration @ DeBeen Espresso (HP), 4 p.m. DeBeen Espresso celebrates its 20th year in business with a parking lot party including vendors, music, a photo booth and a cookout. Proceeds will benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Greater High Point. Find the event on Facebook. Songfarmers @ Scuppernong Books (GSO), 6 p.m. A medley of local musicians converge at Scuppernong for an evening of song. Others are encouraged to bring musical instruments — especially those evocative of rural folk music like the guitar, banjo and accordion — as well as their singing voices. Depending on the weather, this event could take place outside or inside. Learn more about the Songfarmers at songfarmers. org. Wake Forest women’s soccer @ Spry Soccer Stadium (W-S), 7 p.m. Cheer on Wake Forest’s (or Pittsburgh’s…) women’s soccer team, ranked No. 14 nationally, from the bleachers or the grassy hillside along the university’s Polo Road entrance. On-campus parking available. Purchase $5 bleacher tickets at wakeforestsports.com.
SATURDAY
Greensboro Pride Parade @ downtown (GSO), 11 a.m. Meet on South Elm Street between Washington and Market streets, rain or shine, for this annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community. The festival will feature live music, drag shows, art and dozens of educational booths. Learn more at greensboropride.org. Historical tour @ Oakwood Municipal Cemetery (HP), 11 a.m. Join local historian Phyllis Bridges for a free, one-hour historical tour of the Oakwood Municipal Cemetery as she shares overlooked stories of High Point’s early freed and enslaved black settlers. This will be the last tour of the season. Learn more at highpointnc.gov Greensboro Comicon @ Elm Street Center (GSO), 10 a.m. Participate in a dynamic weekend of comics, cosplay and gaming in the Elm Street Center on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17. Events include heralded creators and guests, pop-culture vendors, fan-inspired panels, interactive mini-events and a cosplay contest. For ticket prices and other information, visit greensborocomicon.com. Democracy Greensboro’s community platform conference @ Smith High School (GSO), 1 p.m. Democracy Greensboro, a registered political action committee (PAC), holds a conference to present ideas and issues deliberated over several months in the auditorium of this Greensboro high school. The group invited all city council candidates to address their views on the group’s official community platform and to answer audience questions. Learn more about the platform at democracygreensboro.org. George Hamilton IV: Folksy Music Festival @ Salem Square in Historic Old Salem (W-S), 3 p.m. Enjoy Americana, bluegrass, blues, gospel and folk-country music in memory of George Hamilton IV, a Winston-Salem Moravian sometimes referred to as the “international ambassador of country music.” Relax on picnic blankets and lawn chairs or go for an evening stroll through Old Salem’s cobblestone streets. Learn more at oldsalem.org.
SUNDAY
Winston-Salem Symphony @ Stevens Center (W-S), 3 p.m. Music Director Robert Moody opens the 2017-18 season with Classics Series concerts entitled Enigma Variations, featuring guest cellists Brant Taylor and Brooks Whitehouse. The symphony will perform Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, David Ott’s Concerto for Two Cellos and Orchestra and Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Call the symphony box office in advance or visit wssymphony.org for ticket information. Greensboro Fashion Week kick-off @ Elizabella’s Bridal & Boutique (GSO), 6 p.m. Don your favorite shade of red cocktail attire in celebration of this year’s Paint the Town Red theme. Attendees indulge in hors d’oeuvres, mingle and shop at Elizabella’s Boutique. Learn more about Fashion Week and reserve your spot on the evening’s guest list at greensborofashionweek.com. Suzy McCalley album launch @ Muddy Creek Music Hall (W-S), 6 p.m. Suzy McCalley, founder of the Breathing Room in Winston-Salem, debuts her first solo album, Into the Flame. Her music reflects her Brazilian heritage but incorporates local folk flavor and modern pop. Musical director and producer John Ray joins her on bass, with Jonathan Green on drums and Russell Kelly on guitar. Learn more at suzymccalley.com.
by Jordan Green
the “clop-clop” rhythm of the music suggested cowboy music. As a Western corollary, imagine the spare country soul of Sun Records-era Johnny Cash & the Tennessee Three.
4. Kentucky country pride 3. Tuvan throat singers While Kelsey Waldon drew a While I probably only caught large and appreciative audia third of the acts at the threeence at the Wrangler Stage on day festival, I feel reasonably Saturday evening, the response confident that Alash, better was nothing like the ecstatic The author’s daughter dances JORDAN GREEN known as “the Tuvan throat reaction garnered by the Tuvan wildly to Cajun music. singers,” was the crowd favorite. throat singers. Still, Waldon’s The droning sound of throat set hit me in the heart. A classic singing is technically mind-blowing, but can sound a country chanteuse from Monkeys Eyebrow, Ky. flanked little tedious without the right execution. Yet Alash by a crack honky-tonk combo, Waldon does her home brought a striking knack for melodic interplay and soulstate — and mine — proud. fulness to their set. Hailing from a remote central Asian republic in the Russian Federation, Alash’s songs about horses proved the festival’s point that culture can break down barriers between people. My cousin remarked that
News
2. The beat-boxers at the Dance Pavilion On Saturday, my cousin Gabe and I attempted to organize a migration from CityStage as the Ethio-jazz combo Feedel Band transitioned to Dale Ann Bradley’s bluegrass set so that we could check out beat-boxing at the Dance Pavilion. Launching with Rahzel, a one-time member of the Roots, and then moving into “the team
of rising star Nicole Paris and her father/mentor Ed Cage,” the set not only delivered jaw-dropping vocal pyrotechnics but set the proverbial room on fire like no other act I saw the whole weekend.
Up Front
1. Dancing with hipsters to Cajun music The National Folk Festival, which concluded its third and final appearance in Greensboro on Sunday, was rife with examples of stellar musicianship and openhearted cultural ambassadorship, but the event is really about spontaneous moments of community. It’s subjective, of course, but for me the magic happened when my 4-year-old daughter spotted a group of hipster millennials dancing on the East Market Street sidewalk with exaggerated elbow thrusts to the exuberant strains of the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band. Thrusting herself in front of them, she let loose with a joyous “Yea-ah-ahah!,” executed a couple vigorous jumps and began to spin like a crazy person. The hipsters were delighted, of course, and reciprocated by upping their own dance moves.
triad-city-beat.com
My four folk fest highlights
Opinion
3 questions for A&T professor Lauren Davis By Lauren Barber
Crossword
Not everyone gets excited about big data. Why should people care about this project? I think it’s exciting because this is a situation where
How is this research relevant to food-insecure communities in the Triad? First, we need to identify additional partners in the region and then identify what their needs are relative to what we’re trying to accomplish. They’re trying to get as much food as they can to distribute to the people in need but what are some of the challenges they’re facing as they try to do that, and what specific challenges are driven by lack of information, lack of visibility or not having a good understanding of what the needs of the population are? If we understand those challenges and where they can be overcome by data, that’s where this project has benefit.
Shot in the Triad
Why is this one-year training program unique? It’s highly interdisciplinary; the supply-chain part is something that most industrial-systems engineering students would be exposed to but not so much inner workings of a food bank or the public policy implications, which is why we have people from all those disciplines represented… to help us develop a holistic understanding of not just the food bank supply chains but food insecurity relief at a much larger scale. Students that enroll in the program are going to get professional development to get all the skills they need to work with big data and do data-mining and predictive modeling as well as training from a sociological perspective as it relates to food insecurity and hunger relief.
you can have a direct impact on society. A lot of students are interested in big data… so it seems like a good match to marry that training with something where the output of what they’re doing from a research perspective could be used to help someone else. We’ve got these students who… understand how to capture data to tell a story about what’s happening so that if the agency wants to do some additional fundraising, this story can help justify why they need additional funds. I think that’s where we can really make an impact in the community.
Culture
Lauren Davis is an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at NC A&T State University and the principal investigator for a research project that will train 50 masters and doctoral students to use big data to help organizations that are addressing food insecurity make evidence-based decisions and improve provision of food aid. Her team recently secured a five-year, $3 million grant through the National Science Foundation’s Research Traineeship Program.
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September 14 – 20, 2017 Up Front News Opinion
NEWS
Complaint: GPD profiled, escalated conflict with young black men by Jordan Green Zared Jones, a 29-year-old nursing assistant, and three friends drove to downtown Greensboro on the evening of Sept. 10, 2016. According to Jones, it was the rare occasion when their busy work schedules aligned for them to get together, and they were looking forward to a fun night on the town. Almost from the moment they parked their car in front of Cheesecakes by Alex on South Elm Street, the four, young black men attracted the attention of the Greensboro police downtown bike patrol, Jones said. “Immediately, we were surrounded by police officers, maybe seven of them,” Jones recalled. “They started asking us what we were doing, where we were going. We asked them why they were asking all these questions. The best answer they could give us is that they were the community resource team, and it was their
job to go out in the community and ask questions.” They soon encountered the bike patrol again, this time on the 100 block of West McGee Street bustling with raucous late-night revelers in a confusing situation that quickly spun out of control, ending with Jones’ friend, Aaron Garrett, getting Tased and all four arrested and hauled down to the Guilford County Jail. Graham Holt, Jones’ lawyer, contends that the four men became the target of the police’s attention solely because of their race, and that the officers unnecessarily escalated the situation. The incident is currently under administrative investigation by the department’s professional standards division in response to a complaint filed by Jones and Holt on Aug. 24. Capt. Teresa Biffle, who supervises the professional standards division, said the department would not
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be able to comment on the matter while it was under investigation — typically a process that takes about 45 days. After conferring about where to go, Jones and his friends settled on the Boiler Room, a bar on the 100 block of West McGee Street. His cousin was not allowed in the bar and left, so Jones said he went Zared Jones outside in by himself to try to the Boiler Room order a beer. Jones said the bartender took his money, but didn’t give him a beer, and while he was trying to talk to an employee who looked like a manager, a security guard came over, picked him up by the neck and carried him out of the bar. A voicemail message left at the Boiler Room for this story was not returned. As soon as he was dropped on the sidewalk, Jones said he found himself surrounded by some of the same officers who had questioned him and his friends outside Cheesecakes by Alex. Believing that he had been assaulted, Jones approached one of the officers, whom he learned later was Cpl. Korey R. Johnson. “I went and asked Cpl. Johnson to help me with the assault,” Jones said. “He tried his best to persuade me it was pointless to pursue it. I asked him: ‘Are you going to do your job?’ He took my ID and went into the Boiler Room to investigate.” Jones said that while he and his friends were waiting for Cpl. Johnson to return with his ID, another officer “came up on a bike and proceeded to escalate the situation.” Jones said, “He got off the bike and asked, ‘Have these people here been kicked out of the club?’” A video taken by one of Jones’ friends captures a tense scene. A voice off camera says, “That s***’s stupid as hell. I ain’t even did nothing. I’m trying to stop my man from goddamn getting in trouble…. See, now he try to tell me I got to step over here.” Sgt. Steven Kory Flowers, a member of the street crimes unit, can be seen walking past Jones and pointing to Jones’ friend while declaring, “He’s already been kicked out.” Jones walks over and interjects: “He has not been kicked out. He has not been inside of that club…. I’m being kicked out.” “You have to leave, do you understand?” Flowers says, still focused on Jones’ friend. “We’re not going to talk anymore. Go away. You’ve been kicked out. Go away.” Within seconds of the exchange, Jones said Flowers grabbed him by the wrist and
slammed a handcuff on him. Aaron Garrett, also 29, made a swiping motion at Flowers’ hand, and asked, “What are you doing?” The video then shows Officer Samuel A. Alvarez move in on Garrett, commencing a 35-second scuffle that ends with Garrett being Tased. COURTESY After Garrett turns to face Alvarez, the officer charges him and grabs him by the neck from behind. Alvarez pushes Garrett against a car as Garrett attempts to free himself. Two other officers grab Garrett by the hands, and Alvarez grabs Garrett’s ankles and flips him forward. Jones said his friend was able to catch himself, avoiding a painful face-plant on the sidewalk. The video shows Garrett rise to his feet and back away as the officers advance on him, and then begin firing their Tasers at him, laying him out on the ground. All three men were taken into custody, and Jones said his cousin, who had left the area after being denied admittance to the Boiler Room, was also picked up by the police and arrested. Jones was charged with misdemeanor second degree trespassing and misdemeanor intoxicated and disruptive. Court records indicate that Garrett was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and second-degree trespassing, while Alfonzo Thomas III, 28, was charged with second-degree trespassing, and Clifton Donnell Ruffin, 22, was charged with second-degree trespassing and intoxicated and disruptive. “All Zared did was ask for help, and he got arrested,” Holt said, adding that the bike patrol officers set the stage for the arrests by profiling the four young men as soon as they got out of their car. “They were targeted, and it’s because they’re black,” Holt said. “That’s the only reason they were targeted. They were questioned just for arriving downtown. It was an interrogation, not a reaching out of a community officer.” Then, according to Holt, the officers who arrived on the scene after Jones was ejected from the Boiler Room manufactured a crisis. “It’s textbook police escalation of the situation,” he said. This is not the first time Alvarez, the officer who tackled Aaron Garrett, has been the subject of a complaint. Jose Charles, a 15-year-old boy who had been attacked by a group of teenagers at the
Up Front
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The magistrate’s order for Zared Jones’ misdemeanor charges, which lists Alvarez and Officer Jose M. Chavez as the arresting officers, alleges that he “[remained] on the premises of the Boiler Room bar… after being notified not to enter or remain there by a person in charge of the premises” and that he appeared “intoxicated and disruptive in that the defendant did interfere with passage across a sidewalk.” Jones’ complaint accuses Alvarez of perjury. “Alvarez had to swear that warrant before a magistrate, so it’s perjury,” said Graham Holt, Jones’ lawyer. “The warrants says things that are untrue. The video shows it’s not true. The warrant says he was obstructing a sidewalk, and he was not.” Capt. Teresa Biffle said the department could not grant interviews with Alvarez and Flowers because the matter remains under administrative investigation. In May, prosecutors dropped both of the charges against Jones. Court records indicate that they also dropped the second-degree trespassing charges against Aaron Garrett and Alfonzo Thomas III, while Clifton Donell Ruffin’s charges for second-degree trespassing and intoxicated and disruptive remain pending. The shuck on the case file for Garrett’s assault charge indicates that the YouTube video was introduced as evidence. The magistrate’s order alleged that Garrett pushed and punched Officer Alvarez at least two times while Alvarez was attempting to arrest him. The order also alleges that Garrett resisted arrest “by fighting with the officer and hitting him by throwing punches. At the time, the officer was discharging and attempting to discharge a duty of his office by arresting the defendant for trespassing.” Garrett was found guilty of assaulting an officer but not guilty of resisting arrest. A judge ordered him to attend an anger management class. Jones said his experience with the downtown bike patrol on McGee Street last September has “discouraged me from going out, period,” he said. “Every time I see the police I get worried and distressed. I don’t know the outcome.” “I don’t understand why there’s no rules and bylaws to keep this situation from happening,” he continued. “From asking the question, the information I got is you can only let it happen, and accept the abuse.” Watch video of the incident at triad-city-beat.com.
triad-city-beat.com
Fun Fourth Festival at Center City Park on July 4, 2016, wound up in a melee with downtown bike patrol officers that resulted in criminal charges against him and a hospital visit. While Charles was using his T-shirt to stanch blood from a cut above his eye, Officer Alvarez approached him and asked him what he was doing. Tamara Figueroa, Charles’ mother, alleged in an interview with Triad City Beat earlier this year that Alvarez reacted to her son’s profane response by grabbing him, lifting him “in the air with all the force they could, and slam[ming] him on his head.” The administrative investigation by the department’s professional standards division cleared the officers of wrongdoing in the Charles incident, but the police community review board, a citizen panel, disagreed with the finding. Lindy Perry-Garnette, a member of the police community review board, was forced to resign after she publicly expressed concern about what she saw in police body camera video of the incident. After reviewing the video, Mayor Nancy Vaughan, along with council members Marikay Abuzuaiter, Justin Outling and Nancy Hoffmann, said in a prepared statement that they supported City Manager Jim Westmoreland’s decision to uphold the police department’s initial determination clearing the officers of wrongdoing. “In my mind, it’s not a close call,” Outling told reporters at a May 3 press conference. “At times, there are close calls. In my mind, this isn’t a close call, and I fully support the findings and conclusions of the city manager and the chief of police.” Outling and Abuzuaiter have both publicized endorsements from the Greensboro Police Officers Association for their 2017 reelection bids. Perry-Garnette, who is now running for an at-large seat on city council, questioned whether she saw the same video as the current council members during a candidate forum at Scuppernong Books on Sunday. “It’s very hard for me to believe that they saw what I saw, and then stood in front of TV cameras and said to the public: ‘There’s no problem here whatsoever.’ Trust me: There was a problem there, and a big problem there.” Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson has attempted to distance herself from her colleagues who supported the city manager’s determination. “I saw something that I thought could have been handled a lot better,” Johnson said at the candidate forum.
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September 14 – 20, 2017 Up Front News Opinion
WSSU still working to acquire Bowman Gray despite state hurdles by Jordan Green
The state of North Carolina has thrown up obstacles to Winston-Salem State University’s acquisition of Bowman Gray Stadium, a facility with a proud tradition of stock-car racing. But the restrictions placed on the facility by the Republican-controlled General Assembly also limit the value of the facility. The city of Winston-Salem’s decision in 2013 to offload two major athletics facilities is a tale of two universities. Winston-Salem City Council approved a resolution of intent to sell Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum to Wake Forest University and Bowman Gray Stadium to Winston-Salem State University in May 2013. Wake Forest, a private institution, completed the purchase of the Joel on Aug. 1 of that year, and two months later the university announced that Greensboro Coliseum would take over bookings at the Winston-Salem facility. Bowman Gray Stadium is another story. Four years after the sale of the Joel, the Bowman Gray deal has yet to be consummated. Two significant
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differences account for the varying fate of Bowman Gray. In contrast to Wake Forest, Winston-Salem State is a public university, and at that a historically black institution with closer ties to the state’s Democratic establishment. And secondly, the stadium hosts stock-car racing — a tradition jealously guarded by a largely white fanbase in Winston-Salem, along with rural Davidson and Stokes counties, that has the ear of conservative lawmakers in Raleigh. Rosalba Ledezma, associate vice president for facilities management at Winston-Salem State, told a panel of city council members on Monday evening that once the state Department of Environmental Quality signs off on an environmental review of the 85.7-acre site, a resolution to complete the sale of Bowman Gray Stadium and Civitan Park could come before city council by November or December 2018. But that’s only if the UNC Board of Governors approves financing — a move that’s far from certain. The fraught dynamics surrounding the sale of Bowman Gray Stadium is the legacy of the intertwined class and racial politics of Winston-Salem. The site previously served as a landfill south of the historically black institution founded as Slater Industrial Academy in 1892. The stadium was built in 1937 with a $30,000 gift — covering slightly less than a third of the cost — from the wife of tobacco financier Bowman Gray, Assistant City Manager Ben Rowe told council members. In 1949, NASCAR founders Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins inaugurated weekly stock-car racing on the quarter-mile track inside the stadium. And in 1956, Winston-Salem State began to hold its home football games there as well. In 2006, the city and the university entered into a joint partnership to finance a fieldhouse at the stadium. The purchase price proposed by the city in 2013 totaling $7.1 million included $4.3 million for the property as is, and $2.8 million to retire the university’s portion of the debt, Rowe said. Since then, he said the university’s portion of the debt has been paid down to $2.4 million. During environmental assessments of the site in anticipation of purchasing
the stadium from the city, the university discovered methane gas — a legacy of the landfill — in the residential neighborhoods to the west and south of the facility. The city installed a remediation system to vent the gas. Keith Huff, the city’s stormwater and erosion director, said the system cost $85,000 in its first year, but the annual cost JORDAN GREEN Bowman Gray Stadium is a racing will likely decrease to landmark in Winston-Salem. about $47,000. He added baseline for the sale price, but ultimately that the city is committed the state could offer any amount for the to maintaining the system as long as it property. takes to remediate the gas. While the General Assembly’s interIn July 2013, two months after vention in the sale is widely viewed as Winston-Salem City Council approved a slap in the face to the university, not the resolution of intent to sell Bowman everyone in the Winston-Salem State Gray Stadium, the Republican-conUniversity family is enthusiastic about trolled General Assembly passed a law the acquisition. imposing a number of conditions on “As a graduate and as someone the sale, including requirements that the whose children have graduated from university not charge parking fees for Winston-Salem State and as someone racing events and allow racing patrons who has strongly supported the school to bring their own food and non-alcofinancially, I think they should reject holic beverages into the stadium. The the whole deal,” said Beaufort Bailey, a General Assembly also forbade the unipast president of the alumni association versity from renaming the stadium and and former Democratic member of the mandated that the property continue to Forsyth County Commission. be available for racing events. Bailey said it stings that from midThe slow pace of the transaction is April through mid-August, Winston-Sanot lost on city council members, and lem State University would be obliged although race did not come up in the to vacate the stadium beginning at 5 discussion, it wasn’t hard to read bep.m. on Friday until Monday. tween the lines. “As long as the racing is involved, we “We’ve been having this conversation will never own that stadium,” he said. now for four years, and it will extend to Despite the liabilities and restrictions five years, and no one can argue with on the property, Ledezma said universigreat logic to me that there’s not somety officials still view the acquisition as a thing else going on within this process,” good investment. said Councilman Derwin Montgomery, “We currently lease Bowman Field a Winston-Salem State graduate who and Civitan Park, so we’re already represents the East Ward, where the spending the money,” she said. “We’re university is located. Montgomery alludlandlocked and we have no way to ed to “those who are behind the scenes expand. We’d like to invest in our own and pulling strings and levers, slowing property. We’d like to invest in athletic this process down,” adding that citizens facilities, and there’s a possibility we should know that it’s the state not the could do that at Civitan Park. With the city that’s holding up the sale. city’s agreement to mitigate the methMayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke, who ane gas, that’s a big improvement that’s represents the Northeast Ward, added, making the property a better property.” “Something is not like it ought to be.” Rowe said a new appraisal will set a
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September 14 – 20, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword
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EDITORIAL
Nido’s big play The High Point stadium project and its attendant discussion has set up one of those most rare instances in the physical world: an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. Cast as the immovable object, the Guilford County Commission acted predictably in spurning the deal, which would have the county forego any extra tax revenue for the next 20 years from the project. It’s a $30 million arena on $15 million worth of land encompassing about 650 acres, the most significant investment outside of furniture showrooms and High Point University the city has seen in years. Playing the role of the irresistible force is Nido Qubein, charismatic president of High Point University and architect of the deal. Qubein, who has transformed his corner of the city into a purple wonderland, has put together a pretty sweet one: He’s already raised $50 million of the $45 million price tag and secured a team from the Atlantic League — a AAA league, a couple steps below the majors and several notches above both the Greensboro Grasshoppers and the Winston-Salem Dash. He’s got commitments to build apartments and a $50 million events center and children’s museum. Roy Carroll has pledged to build a hotel there. Qubein’s even sold the naming rights to BB&T for the next 15 years. That wasn’t good enough for the cantankerous commission, which in their rebuttals seemed to accomplish nothing but the majority’s desire to stand athwart the pages of history shouting, “Stop!” Among the litany of poorly executed protestations, the only one that stands to the light of reason is a math problem: Without the tax revenue from the district, the county might not be able to extend services to it. But High Point, with its own police and fire departments and even its own electric utility, should be able to survive. More problematic for the conservatives on the commission is that they are facing Qubein, a man who has built his entire empire by not taking no for an answer. The only question is how long these malcontents can hold up against the man who just conjured $100 million out of thin air. The Guilford County Commission will hold a public hearing on the High Point Stadium project on Sept. 21.
CITIZEN GREEN
OPINION
Political adversaries and extreme weather
One of the silver linings of the deadly storms that have battered the Gulf Coast and Florida, figuratively speaking, is that the charged energy of anger and fear generated by Charlottesville has been redirected into volunteer relief efforts, at least by Jordan Green to some extent. Redneck Revolt, a left-wing militia whose members patrolled a public park in Charlottesville, Va. to protect counter-protesters during the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, fielded teams from around the country to rescue Houstonians stranded in the floodwaters, and started soliciting donations to World on My Shoulders and Black Women’s Defense League, two Texas organizations that are coordinating relief efforts for under-served communities on the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile American Pit Vipers, a pro-Trump, rightwing patriot group based in western North Carolina whose members were also in Charlottesville, filled a trailer with bottled water, canned food and diapers, and delivered it to Coldspring, a small town in southeast Texas, over the past weekend. It’s not altogether surprising that people who are willing to take direct action to defend their communities and who view the government as either irrelevant or an obstacle would jump in to provide direct support in response to a hurricane. These are not the type of folks who make donations to large aid organizations like the Red Cross and United Way, or wait on cumbersome bureaucracies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come to the rescue. (Notably, I could find no reports of white supremacists mobilizing in response to hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and despite the white supremacist Traditionalist Worker Party’s appeal to the struggling white, working-class people of eastern Kentucky this past spring, there’s no supremacist brigade that I know of handing out diapers in Beaumont.) Of course, plenty of people without any apparent political agenda are pitching in to help their fellow Americans on the Gulf Coast, and no doubt they’ll expand their efforts to Florida once Irma concludes its deadly business. As an example of how ordinary people can display remarkable resourcefulness and creativity in the face of crisis, Holly Hartman, a high school journalism teacher in Houston, described her experience working with the Cajun Navy to coordinate rescues in an Aug. 31 Facebook post. Unable to tear herself away from nonstop television coverage of the hurricane and having read about how the volunteer Cajun Navy from Louisiana used a walkie-talkietype app called Zello to communicate, Hartman downloaded the app and started channel surfing. “I was completely enthralled,” Hartman wrote. “Voice after voice after voice coming through my phone in the dark, some asking for help, some saying they were on their way. Most of the transmissions I was hearing when I first tuned in
were from Houston, but within 30 minutes or so, calls started coming in from Port Arthur and Orange. Harvey had moved east from Houston and was pummeling East Texas. “Call after call from citizens saying they were trapped in their houses and needed boat rescue,” Hartman’s post continued. “None of the volunteer rescuers had made it to that area from Houston, but as soon as the calls started coming in, they were moving out, driving as fast as they could into the middle of Harvey.” The Oath Keepers, a patriot militia group comprised of retired law enforcement and military veterans, is representative of the movement’s response to the hurricanes lashing the Gulf Coast. Notably, the Oath Keepers did not show up in Charlottesville, but the organization’s paranoid view of Islam, support for restrictive immigration policies and nationalist outlook makes it an appealing recruitment target for white supremacists. Ordinarily, the Oath Keeper website brims with screeds against Black Lives Matter, Islamophobic treatises and baseless conspiracy mongering about George Soros directing antifa. Over the past couple weeks, those have been replaced by appeals for volunteers to provide security at transit points where truck drivers are delivering relief supplies. A recent post, on Sept. 9, shows a picture of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner draping his hand over the neck of Oath Keepers Founder and Executive Director Stewart Rhodes during a visit to the hurricane relief warehouse to express gratitude. This past spring, I watched hours of YouTube videos of Rhodes articulating a view that a shadowy globalist cabal is manipulating hardcore communists (translation: antifa) and radical Islamists to destabilize America — a threat that he believes Oath Keepers must be prepared to meet. I got the chance to meet Rhodes when he came to Stokes County for a North Carolina recruitment drive. I was fascinated by the way he pitched the organization as being primarily a disaster response network. I asked him how he prioritized the threats that Oath Keepers faced, and he surprised me by saying that it depends on the region of the country where the chapters are located. He added that in Montana where he lives, wildfires would be considered a more proximate threat than terrorist attacks by ISIS. It crossed my mind that I should ask whether the worsening drought conditions that increase the risk of wildfires has prompted him to consider that climate change might be a more grave root cause of instability than radical Islam. I ended up keeping my mouth shut, figuring the question would likely inhibit rather than encourage a frank and thoughtful discussion. It’s a serious question, though. With scientists uncovering evidence that increasingly suggests that the earth’s warming atmosphere intensifies storms, I keep wondering if the escalating destruction wrought by Katrina, Sandy, and now Harvey and Irma will make climate converts out of patriots yet.
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The 2018 2017 & on Seas
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Introducing another exciting season from the High Point Theatre Summer Brooke and the Mountain Faith Band with Emi Sunshine: September 22
MUSICAL THRONES: A Parody of Ice and Fire: January 18
The Suffers: September 24
John Sebastian & David Grisman: January 20
Mojo & The Bayou Gypsies: November 4
American Spiritual Ensemble: January 27
Masters of the Mind Featuring Guy Bavli & Friends: November 11
Kit & the Kats: February 3
High Point Ballet: The Nutcracker: December 20-22
Al Stewart: The Year of the Cat Tour: February 16
For Tickets, call 336-887-3001 or visit HighPointTheatre.com Black Violin: Back by Popular Demand!
Acts and dates subject to change. For the latest news, go to HighPointTheatre.com
Emile Pandolfi with Dana Russell: February 14 Heart Behind the Music with Alabama’s Teddy Gentry, John Berry, Lenny LeBlanc & Linda Davis: March 9 Shaun Hopper & Joe Smothers: March 23 On Golden Pond: April 5
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High Point Ballet: Land of the Sweets: December 23
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Black Violin: Back by Popular Demand!: April 24 Dawn Wells: What Would Mary Ann Do? April 28 Crossword
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September 14 – 20, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword
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CULTURE Bookmarks conference binds lit lovers
by Spencer KM Brown
A
warm breeze flapped the ends of the tents that were stationed around the city block of Holly, Poplar and Spruce streets in downtown Winston-Salem. As booths were still being set and stocked, the pavement and sidewalks felt the footfalls of hundreds of festivalgoers. Moving from tent to tent, waiting on seminars and panels to begin, there was a feeling of anticipation in the air. Since its inception 13 years ago, the literary non-profit festival has made an impressive name for itself in the North Carolina literary and arts community, hailed as the largest book festival in the Carolinas. Having brought more than 600 award-winning authors, illustrators and storytellers to Winston-Salem for the annual festival to date, the 2017 festival delivered an expansive day of panels and readings all given by a stellar line-up of authors and editors. Any bibliophile could easily fill several hours at the festival, which ran from Sept. 7-10 with over 30 readings, discussions and panels scattered throughout the day for their choosing. From how to properly create and imagine fantastical characters or develop worlds in Southern literature to writing about race and Civil War fiction, dozens of prize-winning authors guided fans and aspiring writers through their own books, as well as the body of literature throughout history. With specific panels geared toward would-be authors, Bookmarks, in association with the NC Writer’s Network, held its much-loved event Slush Pile Live, a panel of three prominent North Carolina book and magazine editors who hear anonymous story pitches read
aloud and give feedback and criticism. As this years’ panel of editors, comprised of Steve Kirk (formerly of John F. Blair publishers), Robin Miura (Carolina Wren Press) and Julia Smith (Bull City Press), took the stage, the tent was nearly full, as first pages of novels and stories were read with the authors sitting nameless in the crowd. Host Ed Southern of NC Writers Network read the pitches aloud. When something struck one of the editors — poor dialogue, choppy language, cliché metaphors — they raised a hand. The crowd sat listening to one of the better pitches, one of a fantastical world, and the tent seemed to grow smaller and smaller as each editor’s hand shot up. Whomever the author was is unknown, but A packed house for Bookmarks panel on Southern literature. the event drew sympathy from audience members who hoped to see pitches succeed. But in the end, perhaps it’s better to cruel to be kind. “We’ve been here before,” Julia Ridley Smith said in response to one of the pitches. “There were a lot of cliché moments and adjectives here. The flow felt choppy and I was lost from the beginning.” While some pitches received harsher response than others, all were given ways they could be improved and tightened in order to tell the story better. On the hands-on side of writing, a flash-fiction workshop hosted by Steve Cushman guided authors through a workshop of their fiction and opened a dialogue between author and student that is usually reserved for college classrooms or private writers groups. Most of the panels were held at least twice over the course of the festival, giving all a chance to hear all of the authors they wished. One downside to most festivals is the sea of unknown authors and featured guests who spark little interest in audiences, but Bookmarks proved expert in bringing such contemporary giants as Diana Gabaldon (author of the Outlander series), Jamie Ford, Stephanie Powell Watts, Robert Hicks and Jancee Dunn. “I attend a lot of book festivals throughout the year,” editor Robin Miura said after hosting Slush Pile Live. “And this is truly one of the best designed events I’ve ever been to.” From curating a summer reading program for students in the community and bringing authors to local schools to hosting North Carolina’s largest festival of books, Bookmarks continues to satisfy the need and craving for literature in the Triad. In a time where books seem a distant thought behind Netflix, iPhones and technology, festivals and independent booksellers like Bookmarks aim to keep literature alive, fostering the love of books and writing. The hundreds of festivalgoers at the annual Bookmarks festival prove that it isn’t all for naught.
SPENCER KM BROWN
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September 14 – 20, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword
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CULTURE Eighty years and a half a second usher in cycling classic
by Joel Sronce
I
t’s dark on the course. Lap after lap, the riders have jostled less because of it, being more cautious in obscurity. But a crowd of six turns the final corner together. Now it’s a sprint. Downtown High Point has proved a fast course; they’ve averaged 27 miles per hour, and nearly an hour has gone by. The physical anguish withdraws. It’s a mental game. This is awareness, reaction, savvy. Now it’s just chess. Have you been paying attention? Who’s a pawn, who’s a queen? What does each rider have left in him? Alder Martz has a hunch, he hopes. This year he’s spent five months racing in Europe and Asia. His team is international — registered in Slovenia, owned by an Australian and landing important Asian sponsors. But now the Charlotte native is home, supporting local racing. With the finish line in sight, if Martz goes, if he dares the lead, how will the others act? “I passed [the leader] with 100 meters to go,” Martz later described. “I thought I’d overtaken him too soon.” The final race of the 2017 High Point Cycling Classic came to a furious end just before 10 p.m. on Sept. 9. The classic, which included several criterium races coupled with charity rides and other fundraising events, brought professional cycling back to High Point for the first time since the city hosted the USA Cycling Professional Criterium National Championships three years ago.
Cyclists prepare for the beginning of the High Point Cycling Classic.
And in the weeks enveloping the classic’s races, art and history welcome the sport’s return. A divide between professional and recreational endeavors accompanies all athletics. Sports descend from their heights of fandom, commodity and even propaganda to become tools for participants to transcend the challenges of life. At their best, they provide community, uniting an otherwise divided people onto the same side of an existential fight; they level the playing fields and steady the rules; they can defer us from life’s corruptions, presenting the chance to turn defeat into victory. But nothing permits transcendance quite like the bicycle. It was a vehicle for human movement before it was involved in competition. Though we may cherish the objects of our favorite activities — an old tennis racquet, a beloved basketball, a grandfather’s baseball glove — nothing emancipates, nothing
TODD TURNER
comes alive like the bicycle. Enabling real journeys, as some philosophers contend, it becomes an animated, vibrant thing. And while the professionals flourished to the finish line out in the street, a more calm and contemplative examination of the bicycle enlivens the nearby walls of the High Point Theatre. Within the grand theater in downtown High Point, Theatre Art Galleries displays visual art that usually embellishes the theater’s performances. But from Aug. 29 to Sept. 22, the exhibits complement the races outside. The main gallery hosts The Bicycle: Art Meets Form — an invitational exhibit curated by Scott Raynor, an art professor at High Point University. Through photography, watercolor, acrylics, linocut prints and mixed-media that incorporates old bicycle parts, many of the artists’ works represent the elations of freedom, motion and solitude so often tied to the experience of cycling. Julie
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lightweight vintage bicycles for more Paisant’s photograph, “A Moment to than 35 years. The dozens of bicycles Breathe,” as well as Victoria Alger’s wadisplay the inventiveness and ingenuity tercolor, “Girl with the Red Sweater” — of 20th Century designers, including a in which a young woman’s bike (with a red sweater in its basket) leans against 1930s “Garibaldina” model from Alfredo a signpost in the foreground as she Forcesi’s famous factory, Gloria. wades into the ocean in the distance — Like the marriage of aesthetics and invoke the happiness and emancipation aerodynamics in a bicycle design, or the that bring so many to biking. brushstroke that enriches a painting Yet some of the works incorporate with depth and emotion, a cyclist must the opposite effects — broken opporalso devise the right lines and the right tunities, or the sequence. sensations of being In the Classic’s grounded and final race, 80 years The bicycle exhibits at Thealone. Matthew after the galatre Art Galleries — 220 East Myers’ acrylic lery’s Garibaldina on wood panel, model first spun its Commerce Avenue, High “Gravel to Grovel,” wheels on Italian Point — stays up until Sept. portrays a bicycle earth, six riders 22. More info at tagart.org. lying on its side rushed for the on a dirt road that finish line. stretches endlessly Alder Martz into the distance. No one can be seen made the right move, outmaneuvering in the vast landscape, and stormclouds the others in speed and savvy to surge gather overhead. ahead at just the right instance. He won Upstairs in the Theatre Art Galleries, by a hairsbreadth, less than one second, another exhibit displays the historical as the six riders finished within four rather than the personal. It features vinseconds of one another. tage Italian and American racing bikes Cycling is back in High Point, and with from the collection of Chip Duckett, its return come the decades of history a founder of the High Point Cycling and the fractions of seconds that allow Classic who has collected and restored the thrill of the sport to endure.
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September 14 – 20, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword
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CULTURE Kris Fuller, Mike Bosco unite for Bites & Pints
by Eric Ginsburg
O
n the surface, there isn’t much toppings, the pairings, the sauces and remarkable about Bites & Pints. the execution that earn Bites & Pints its One burger bar replaces another, proclaimed title of “gastropub.” moving in next to a third burger bar, in For one, the beef patties are ground an area heavily populated by college short rib and brisket. Patrons can sub students and around the corner from a chicken, tofu, a portabella mushroom fourth burger bar. cap or even a loaded hashbrown patty But that surface-level analysis misses for the beef. There’s a burger with queso the point. fresco, lime sour cream, green chilis and Greensboro foodies are talking about more. There are four hot dog choices, Bites & Pints because it’s the latest including one with pickled cabbage, brainchild of Kris Fuller, the vaunted Korean red pepper ketchup and spicy chef behind Crafted, who’s responsible Asian mustard. There’s a spicy PB&J for writing the celebrated menu at Hops melt with cream cheese, jalapeños and Burger Bar next door. The restaurant red onion jam. steps into the void left by Fat Dogs, The tots aren’t quite as good as Fat a beloved and divey sports bar that Dogs’ were, and the restaurant is noisy moved down the road, as hell even without a and brings Westerwood game on the fleet of Tavern owner and bald televisions or anyone Visit Bites & Pints bartender Mike Bosco sitting at the bar. But seven days a week at into the restaurant with an assortment of 2503 Spring Garden realm. more interesting sauces St. (GSO) or find it That backstory to dip curly fries or explains why Bites & tater tots, the former on Facebook. Pints isn’t just one more doesn’t matter much. burger hut slinging beef (The latter will require patties. But it would be inconsequensome work.) tial if the food tasted the same as any The most exciting burger might be old spot or too closely pandered to the the breakfast option, with American boring, white-bread, lowest common cheese, a fried egg that’s still approdenominator. Good news — that’s not priately runny, bacon, lettuce, tomato what is happening at this burger bar, in and a wild card: Cajun Béarnaise sauce. the slightest. Order a double two quarter-pound Yes, there’s a burger section and a patties — and it will take over the rest flight of hot dog options. At first blush, of the day. some of the other options read as a litThe aforementioned green chili tle generic as well. But it’s the choice of burger, which comes dripping in a beer
Bites & Pints specializes in slightly upscale burgers and hot dogs, offering other specials including chicken & waffles (top left), too.
cheese sauce, may technically be more out of left field than the breakfast burger, a much more common item with a twist applied here. While tasty, the green chili burger pales in comparison, though it could pull closer with the addition of a crunchy element to give it some depth. What makes Bites & Pints great is that its uniqueness isn’t heavy-handed, instead showing up in more nuanced alterations that are the mark of an experienced chef rather than someone who is just slapping extra items onto food in order to pass as cutting edge. Take the chicken and waffles, for example. Though it’s a little strange that it’s described as a sandwich despite being served open-faced — making it just chicken and waffles with extra toppings it’s the interplay of a honey Dijon glaze, a little cream cheese, pickled red onion, bacon and a fried egg that make this entrée soar. It’s a lot, to be sure, but the meal isn’t as over the top as foodie trends in other cities, instead counting on execution rather than hare-brained ingredients to make its case. Same with the breakfast burger, a pretty straightforward proposition that excels because of the addition of the
ERIC GINSBURG
Cajun Béarnaise, the slight pinkness of the burger and the still-runny yolk. For the most part, the menu is pretty cheap, considering the quality of the food. Single-patty burgers clock in around $7 with doubles staying under $11. The loaded and creative hot dogs are slightly less, though more certainly more than a run-of-the-mill (and far inferior) alternative. Most else is in line with the market, save for the salads, which run $13 minimum with meat added and as high as $16 for the Southwest salad with shrimp, which is a little unreasonable. The venue’s facelift dramatically improves how welcoming it feels. Brighter colors and lighting eliminate the quasi-biker vibe. There are no pool table or huge screen, but a contingent of surrounding TVs still broadcast sports replays. And Bites & Pints appears to have eliminated some climate control issues of its predecessor, which at least once had yours truly shivering incessantly. (I did still love the unpretentious Fat Dogs anyway, often watching Carolina Panthers games there, and I’m glad that it’s relocated rather than closed.) Bites & Pints isn’t earth shaking, or even that far a cry from what Greensboro already has. Yet it holds its own
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as a burger spot, despite opening next door to Hops (my favorite, and most of yours, too). It pulls off dishes with flavors ranging from Southern to Latin to Asian, often with appreciated subtlety. The menu doesn’t stretch too far, but still provides variance, making it appropriate for various moods and divergent group tastes. I can definitely picture myself coming back regularly to catch a game like I used to, but looking forward to the meal. And if they can dial down the din, I’d be back for a casual lunch or dinner date regularly, too.
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Opening night of the National Folk Festival with the Tremé Brass Band.
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56 Shiraz, for one 57 Egger-on 58 “Garfield” beagle 59 Musical Redding 60 Make amends (for) 61 “Livin’ La Vida ___” (#1 hit of 1999) 62 Brightness measure 63 “Siddhartha” author Hermann 64 Ran away
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Down 1 “The Wire” character Little 2 Bamako’s country 3 Computer program symbol 4 Epithet for Alexander, Peter, or Gonzo ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 5 Mass confusion 6 Barilla rival 26 Arcade console pioneer 7 Have ___ to pick 27 1983 Woody Allen mockumentary 8 Times New Roman, e.g. 28 Isabella II, por ejemplo 9 Uses an Allen wrench, maybe 29 “Let’s do this!” 10 Suck up 30 Cast ballots 11 Shagger’s collectible 31 Decathlon tenth 12 Country singer Paisley 32 Moms’ moms, affectionately 13 Archery bow wood 33 In a boring way 21 Caramel addition, in some ice cream flavors 38 “Well, ain’t that just something!” 22 Corn purchases 39 Ice Age canid that shows up on “Game of 25 “Horrible” Viking of the comics Thrones”
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Across 1 Leave out 5 Manufacture skillfully 10 “Dear” columnist 14 Austrian physicist Ernst 15 Vietnam’s capital 16 Like leafless trees 17 Burn-soothing plant 18 Beermaking phase 19 BBQ side dish 20 Puts the past behind with fond memories 23 Dorm floor supervisors, for short 24 Driveway goo 25 Brownish eye color 28 Curve in the water? 34 Annoyed persistently 35 Certain collars or jackets 36 Dict. spelling designation 37 “Who is John ___?” (“Atlas Shrugged” opener) 38 Rattles off 39 Say nay 40 Jackie O’s husband 41 It’s propelled by a paddle 42 Europe’s “The ___ Countdown” 43 It’s usually used to cross your heart 45 Bohemian 46 Chicago hub, on luggage tags 47 Green Day drummer ___ Cool 48 Hightail it
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