JUL 8-14, 2020 NEWS, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM
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facebook.com/frontporchimprov/ Front Porch Improv: Live and Awesome Improv Live improv comedy session. The theme this week is “Bad Roommate.” July 11 9 p.m. facebook.com/frontporchimprov/ Friday Night Live with Mayor Van Johnson Savannah Mayor Van Johnson’s “fireside chat” about the state of the city. Fridays, 8 p.m. facebook.com/MayorJohnsonSAV/
Forsyth Farmers Market Enhanced social distancing between vendors. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays facebook.com/forsythfarmersmarket Islands Farmers Market Enhanced social distancing between vendors. Saturdays 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. , 401 Quarterman Dr. facebook.com/islandsfarmersmarket/ Tybee Island Farmers Market Mondays, 4-7 p.m. 30 Meddin Dr. facebook.com/tybeeislandfarmersmarket
Site Reopenings: Davenport House Museum Daily tours begin 10 a.m., last tour 4 p.m. except Sundays when hours are 1-4 p.m. Georgia State Railroad Museum Wed.-Sun. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Harper-Fowlkes House
Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Guided tours will be offered every half hour, with the first tour starting at 10 am and the last tour starting at 3:30 pm. Old Fort Jackson Wed.-Sun 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mars Theatre Friday/Saturday night movies at 7 p.m. Mercer-Williams House Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. 11:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m., closed Tuesday and Wednesday National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Tue.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m. Pin Point Heritage Museum Thu.-Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Telfair Museums 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays-Mondays. During initial reopening phase, they closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Admission to all sites $20 inclusive.
Live Concerts: Tell Scarlet at Coach’s Corner Live performance by local band in a courtyard setting. Fri. July 10, 7 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner/ Dueling Pianos at Coach’s Corner Live performance in a courtyard setting. Sat. July 11, 6 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner/
Livestreams:
American Prohibition Museum Daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m., last entry 4:15 p.m.
Front Porch Improv: Top Secret Comedy Live improv comedy sessions. July 10 8 p.m. facebook.com/frontporchimprov/
Savannah History Museum Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Front Porch Improv: Hot Takes Live improv “talk show.” July 10 9 p.m.
Quarantine Concert: Eric Culberson Trio Live show streamed from the Tybee Post Theatre. Sat. July 11, 9 p.m. facebook.com/quarantineconcerts/ Quarantine Concert: Sean McCarthy — Songwriter Session Live show streamed from the Tybee Post Theatre. Sun. July 12, 3 p.m. facebook.com/quarantineconcerts/ Seldom Sober Savannah’s only Irish music ensemble, Seldom Sober (Michael Corbett and Colleen Settle) perform a set spanning Trad Irish to American folk. Tuesdays, 8 p.m. facebook.com/seldomsober/ Savannah Performance Project - Chris Bass’ daily live stream show airs at 1:15 p.m. at Facebook.com/SPPAdmi
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
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Psychotronic Film Society Viewing Parties To receive the secret link to these hidden streaming playlists, people MUST join the PFS of SAV’s Private Facebook Group, at the link below. Each week, anyone who chooses to donate at least $5 via PayPal or Venmo receives a free high quality digital download of a movie from the archive, and is entered into a drawing to win a limited edition T-shirt. Wednesdays, Sundays, 8 p.m. facebook.com/ groups/2519522234807695/
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NEWS & OPINION EDITOR’S NOTE
Social contracts, broken
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MANY of us are advocating for a wide range of very important issues during this time. Major societal shifts are underway. But arguably the most important thing we can advocate for this particular month is for Congress to extend the $600 a week unemployment benefit, upon which really everything else currently depends. As I write this, Congress has yet to do so. It might be the most important thing no one is talking about.
Broken social contracts lead not only to a broken society, but often to literal breakage and violence, as a profound sense of betrayal causes extreme alienation and frustration. The list of broken social contracts this year is a long one — so long it’s difficult to keep up. There used to be a social contract that police wouldn’t murder people, for example, with police generally given a level of trust commensurate with the immense power they’re also given. But that’s a contract that’s been broken so many times, so egregiously, and in such a one-sided way, that it has spawned a global movement.
When a nation like Greece — in modern times probably the worst-governed nation in Europe — is vastly outperforming the United States in controlling the pandemic and is already moving on from it, you know we’ve got a problem! Not to take any credit away from the Greeks. What’s worse, with the huge spike in infection rates after “reopening” our economy, we see that the first 90-day shutdown was essentially a complete waste. All those businesses lost, all those lives disrupted — largely for nothing. We are now looking at probably the equivalent of another 90-day shutdown, potentially with financial relief being completely pulled out from under us this time.
You thought we had civil unrest? You haven’t seen civil unrest until maybe 8 out of 10 Americans are not only out of work, but broke, hungry AND evicted/foreclosed. It is hard to overstate the abyss this country faces if these payments aren’t extended past July 31. With the current trend, if the pandemic continues to worsen, most people reading this could be out of a job by the end of the year. You thought we had civil unrest? You haven’t seen civil unrest until maybe 8 out of 10 Americans are not only out of work, but broke, hungry AND evicted/ foreclosed. At the height of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was roughly 25 percent. At that time, the United States was primarily an agricultural nation, and your food supply chain might largely consist of local farms, or even your own farm. Today, if you count what are called “marginally attached job seekers,” we have already surpassed that unemployment rate. Most Americans today live in urban centers, completely dependent on, yet personally divorced from, an elaborate — and easily disrupted — supply chain for the most basic sustenance. If the pandemic continues to spike, as seems to be the case, we may have just seen the tip of the iceberg of business closures and layoffs. I don’t think many people sufficiently appreciate the economic catastrophe that will arrive if the virus isn’t contained, and soon. This is another example of broken social contracts, an idea I’ve become very interested in lately.
There used to be a social contract that people would be expected to do the baseline minimum to protect other people during a massive crisis — such as, say, an extremely contagious new virus. But as we can see from the number of people who not only refuse to wear a mask, but who seem to be almost sociopathically indifferent to the damage caused by not wearing masks, that contract is shattered. Many businesses are now so frustrated by the Great Mask Wars that some are closing — not because the government ordered them to, but because so many customers arrive not only refusing to wear a mask, but berating the staff for complying with mask orders. Service workers are some of the most vulnerable people in our society to the virus, given their line of work. And some members of the public are, essentially, actively trying to get them infected. This represents a horrendous societal breakdown, a lack of empathy so complete as to be terrifying. As bad as that is, to my mind the most fundamental and wide-ranging breaking of the social contract was when our government required the economy to shut down — a logical move— but refused to honor its end of the deal by providing adequate financial relief. People and businesses were required to sacrifice, in some cases, all they had, and got little to nothing in return. Meanwhile, most other countries long figured out the importance of that social contract.
The new shutdown will be even more haphazard as the last, as businesses frantically attempt to stay afloat while also keeping their staff alive. Some of the structural changes due to the shifting economy will probably be good ones, for example the realization that most work can be done from home just as efficiently, if not more so. The epiphany that productivity can actually rise when people don’t have to commute, get childcare, and spend all day in a cubicle — not to mention maybe facing sexual harassment in the workplace — is a powerful one. But in most other ways, unless our government steps up, we seem woefully underequipped for the new reality. The federal government is really the only entity that can fix this, as states are barred by law from deficit spending. Anytime you hear someone say “It will cost too much money,” remind them that at literally no time in U.S. history has a major government initiative been halted because there wasn’t enough money. Whether it’s the New Deal, the G.I. Bill, the Manhattan Project, the TVA, the space program, the Cold War, a massively expanded surveillance state, or several decades of continuous Middle Eastern wars, the federal government has never let money get in the way of something it wants. What’s missing now is not the money, but the will. CS
NEWS & OPINION FREE SPEECH
SINCE 2001 BREWING COFFEE & COMMUNITY
Now is the worst time to shrink the sociology curriculum BY NED RINALDUCCI I HAVE been pleased to see so many trying so hard to learn more about systemic racism, anti-racism, white privilege, and how we can collectively change the system. Amazon is out of stock of some of the most popular books on these topics. There is a hunger for knowledge and understanding that gives me hope for the future. However, one need only spend a little time on social media to see how many people remain ill-informed about these topics. I’ve also been surprised by how many college educated people seem to know so little about systemic racism, resulting in defensiveness and denial. It tells me their institution of higher education failed them. As someone who has been teaching about systemic racism, the history of racism, anti-racism, and other issues of racial and ethnic stratification for over a quarter of a century, my calling as a sociologist has renewed relevance. Sociology is the scientific study of human interaction, social phenomena, and social institutions. It is the field best equipped to expose social stratification, systemic inequality, and exploitative relationships within our institutions. Many have been saying we need to listen to black voices to understand the experiences of systemic racism. They’re right. Sociology does that, and much more, as it looks to both qualitative and quantitative data to empirically demonstrate how different the black experience is in our society, as compared to the white experience. For decades, sociologists have been
examining and exposing the reality that African American males are much more likely to be to be arrested, to be tried, to be sentenced, to be imprisoned, and to be killed by police than white Americans. And this brings me to my point. Higher education today continues to move away from the notion of education as preparation to be an informed and engaged citizen of our democracy and towards education as job training. Such narrowing of the educational experience and the human mind is doing a disservice to both students and our society by deprioritizing social sciences. Here in Georgia, rather than increase students’ exposure to the critical lessons of sociology and the other social sciences, the University System of Georgia’s proposal to shrink the required Core coursework will reduce students’ exposure to these fundamental disciplines at a time when our country and our citizens need this education most. Sociology is the primary discipline that examines issues of race, inequality, and social change, meaning a solid foundation in the area has never been more important. University administrators all over this country need to understand that their decisions will either hurt or help the movement towards social justice. Just as all college students are required to take classes in math, literature, government, and the biological sciences, all college students should be required to take a class in sociology. It is only the sociological perspective that scientifically exposes the realities of inequality and systemic racism. Now is not the time to lessen the impact of our discipline. Now is the time to mandate it. My own institution, Georgia Southern
University, has been plagued by expressions of racism on campus, yet our administration has never conferred with any of our talented sociologists with expertise in this area. There is no one way forward for our country to break from its racist past and present, but requiring that all undergraduates take at minimum an introduction to sociology class, is one powerful step in making tomorrow’s America a more educated, empowered, empathetic, and equal society. CS Dr. Ned Rinalducci is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Georgia Southern University. His work examines ethnic and religious political movements and identity.
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NEWS & OPINION VOICES ON THE PATH or not, as a non-black person navigating black spaces, people need to check their privilege and consider the effect of what they’re saying has on black folks. Because we know that no life matters more than others, but the way folx keep acting is telling us that black lives just don’t matter at all. What are some of your favorite resources that people can use to grow a deeper understanding?
Voices on the Path: Asli Shebe BY KRISTY EDENFIELD
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
ASLI SHEBE is a writing fellow at Deep Center in Savannah. She enjoys helping 6th-12th graders establish their voices through writing. Shebe is from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and moved to Savannah to attend SCAD; she also lived in the United States during her formative years of early elementary school. Shebe has a degree in English and plans to pursue a Master of Education. Last week, she wed her college sweetheart, Jeffrey Tindi, who is from Kenya. Family and friends from around the world watched the wedding on Zoom. The couple met while working at the Gryphon Tea Room. Tindi has a degree from SCAD in industrial design. Tindi and Shebe have a yearning to go 6 back to East Africa and share the skills
that they learned while at SCAD, and during their years in the United States. When she is not busy being a community organizer and activist, Shebe enjoys yoga, the beach, roller skating, and eating anything sweet. Why does it matter that people educate themselves about social and racial justice? It matters because black folx, POC, nonbinary, trans, immigrant folx, people with disabilities, womxn, etc. have to live through these injustices. It’s important to understand the role that you play in directly or indirectly discriminating against, and mistreating folx. Just in the past few months I have learned so much about the huge and very micro ways that people who are different from me have been mistreated and dehumanized. It’s not enough to only advocate and fight for yourself and your people. If you really are an ally or a comrade you will take the
Too many to list here but a big one during this fast-paced age is social media. Follow black women and femmes who are leading the way in this type of work. Rachel Cargle and Erika Hart have taught me so much. I follow them both on Instagram. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ books are amazing. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo is a good one for Left, Asli Shebe and her new husband, Jeffrey white folx. The biggest thing to note is that instead of requesting the free emoTindi. Above, Shebe at a protest. tional and mental labor of black folks and time to listen and learn and do the deep other minorities, people need to do the hard work of actively standing up against work themselves. In the age of the internet injustices. there is no excuse. Google it. And if you do learn from the prior labor of black folx, What changes are essential to bringing pay them! racial equality to Savannah? What is the most important thing that Defunding and then abolishing the police. people can do at this time? Investing in the youth, public schools, houseless folks, and stopping gentrificaIf you are black, rest. Rest is resistance. tion. Too many black folx, indigenous The Nap Ministry taught me this and it folx, and people of color do not get to is so true. We have so much work to still benefit from Savannah’s growing wealth. do. When you’re black the work is not just How many thriving businesses are black“work,” it is your life. We don’t get to go to owned? How many houseless folx are a protest and then come home and leave black? How many folx working minimum, that behind us. We are black black blackor below minimum wage jobs are black? ity black 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If Black people built Savannah and continue you are not black, keep up the momentum. to clean, upkeep, transport, protect, and Plan out how you are going to continue the serve Savannah but are still living below anti-racist work, continue to educate yourthe poverty line, and have little to no self, continue to uplift black voices for the access to education and free healthcare. long haul. It’s ridiculous to me that this narrative of Savannah being so liberal, progressive, up- Is there anything else that you want to and-coming, and flourishing keeps being add? perpetuated when there’s so much apparent racial inequality, racism, hatred, and It’s so important that you understand discrimination in Savannah. the intersections. None of this—the police brutality, the racism, the transphobia— What do you say to “all lives matter” happens in isolation. You can’t just say folks? black lives matter and then discriminate against black trans womxn. You cannot Black lives matter. Very few folx who say stand up against racism and then ignore “all lives matter” actually believe that all the fact that we are occupying stolen land. lives matter. They use that phrase as a When you start to pull the curtain back, way of shutting up minorities for speakdon’t just peel back as far as you are coming out. If you said to me, “I’m severely fortable. It’s about time we rip the whole depressed and suicidal,” and I replied, thing off and see things with our eyes wide “Well, a lot of people are,” can you see how open. It’s going to be uncomfortable and that is extremely flippant and dismissive you are going to have to reconcile with the and completely disregards what you said in role you have played in discriminating the first place? Saying “all lives matter” is against and contributing to the discrimidismissive and basically says to me, a black nation of certain folx. But that’s the work. woman, that you don’t care about what I The uncomfortable reckoning is such a said. Good intentions or not, well meaning huge and important part of the work. CS
NEWS & OPINION ENVIRONMENT
Plastic pollution crime scenes I RECENTLY read a letter in the local news that said the equivalent of a loaded garbage truck of plastic gets dumped in the ocean every sixty seconds. I thought this is surely a dramatic illustration caused to catch our attention. Well it did catch my attention. and I found out it’s true. Last I wrote, it was setting the stage to think about our relationship with the natural environment, and how we value it during the era of a pandemic. Now we are adding into the mix a global awakening to racial violence and oppression of communities of color. I arrive this month questioning, when did we begin framing issues like deforestation, offshore drilling, and plastic pollution as only environmental — when nature, wildlife and water, are all part of our indispensable planetary community. We will all need safe and healthy natural environments to return to once this public health crisis is behind us. We should also work to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color have equal access and safety in these natural spaces. I caution us to consider, when we frame things as only environmental; nature, wildlife and waters risk becoming deemed as 1. less important, 2. concerns of the privileged, and or 3. separate from our own life and health and wellness. When it comes to plastic pollution this is important to consider. Plastics for the market have been around since about 1907, when it was called Bakelite, invented by Leo Baekeland. You can see this material used to create plenty of early 1900s antique jewelry in bright fun colors. It was favored for its light weight, moldable quality and durability. Fast forward to the 1940s and plastics came into use for even more consumer goods. By mid-century we adopted a new culture of throw away consumerism. However, plastics were still synthetic and usually petroleum-based. This means we were ramping up the production of throw away objects, that would last for a very long time in landfills – or even forever. This total disregard for where discarded plastics would go is one of our most challenging issues we face today. This moment where we fell for the appeal of a throw away culture was when we took a useful invention and made it mass produced pollutant on our planet. Why would we utilize a material that lasts longer than our own lives, for something we only use for a moment? That’s an ouroboros of its own kind.
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CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
BY MAYA
Plastics do not go away. They move out of sight and out of mind, often floating off in wind and water. Plastics entangle all sorts of wildlife. Some plastics are ingested by birds, marine mammals, sea turtles and more. Scientists are even finding plastics in the fish we eat, and the air we breathe. Coming full circle, to this fact that plastic never goes away, it simply moves around polluting our planet. Sometimes plastics even break down into even smaller, more dangerous and harder to manage sizes. For years, public health researchers have linked problematic health conditions with plastics. It’s sad to use plastic pollution as an example of how we’re so connected, but it’s true. The connection between nature, wildlife, waters, and us is crystal clear. Plastic pollution can be found across oceans, rivers, forests, and streets. I call it pollution because that’s what it is. Some might call it litter or debris. I’d argue that it wouldn’t exist if we weren’t producing and consuming so much of it. Throw away objects mean so little to us; I can assure you nobody wants to be buried with their plastic straws or polystyrene takeout containers. So why does it get to take up so much space? Not only are disposable plastics problematic, the actual production of plastics is dangerous too. Production facilities developed in minority, rural, low income and blue-collar communities. This further exhausts any connections between healthy nature, water and wildlife and the people in these places. My places. This means plastic pollution is not simply an environmental issue, it’s a threat to our mental and physical health, and the health and future of other species. Is this toxic heritage what we want? I’ve looked at several reports to find out how large the scale of plastics is, and how the impacts of plastic pollution effect our lives. There are many good sources out there. Thankfully, there are organizations, many passionate people, and elected leaders who are finding ways to stop the destruction caused by this global industry of scale. This is the direction we need to go. When you reflect on life’s beauty it’s often derived from memories with family, friends and nature around us - which are all an extension of us. We are not separate. When we are outside connecting with our planet, it is the shells in the sand, the birds in the trees, and the fish in the sea which we should be counting and connecting with, not toxic plastic crime scenes. CS
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NEWS & OPINION BLOTTER 2020 Sav/Chatham County Crime Stats through Sunday July 5
HOMICIDES
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Savannah CARES committee formed to review use-of-force policies
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
Last week, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson announced the formation of the Savannah Citizens Accountability and Review of Emergency Services (Savannah CARES) committee, tasked among other things with reviewing the use-of-force policy of the Savannah Police Department. “This is the first step to making the powerful moment of Savannah unity that was displayed last month into a movement,” said Mayor Johnson, referring to the peaceful protests in Savannah surrounding the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. “This will be a public, inclusive process to get a good handle on things we’re doing well, and how we can do better in terms of public safety.” Savannah CARES will initially focus on the Mayor’s commitment to a review of the Savannah Police Department’s use of force policies. But the task force may be charged
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with other future emergency service reviews, which could include topics related to Savannah Fire. “The task force is expected to meet initially with police personnel and ultimately with stakeholders in communities throughout Savannah to gather input representative of the entire City,” Johnson said. “Each member was either appointed by myself as Mayor or by a member of City Council.” Saying the membership is a “cross section” of the community, the Mayor added that “we didn’t want politicians and law enforcement” to be primary members. Connect Savannah Editor in Chief Jim Morekis was one of those members appointed by the Mayor. Other members of Savannah CARES include: Attorney Diane Morrell McLeod, Chair Dawn Baker Attorney James Blackburn Professor Willie Brooks Rev. Katie Callaway Attorney Michael Edwards Kenneth Glover Michael Johnson Dr. Larinda King Officer Sharif Lockett Anthony Maben Pastor Ricardo Manuel David McDonald
Dr. Marie Miller Pam Miller David Minor Eugene Priester Natavia Sanders Attorney Abda Quillian “This is an important step for our community. This is a step where we go from moment to movement... to make Savannah a beloved community,” Johnson said. Stating specifically that Savannah CARES will not be in the position of reviewing individual arrests, the Mayor said one of its duties will be to follow up with citizens who have interacted with Savannah Police and make sure “they are treating citizens with respect and humanity during calls... this is an opportunity not only to be educated by the public, but to educate the public.” He said he hopes the public will “share their experience, not their perception. They will be asked very specific questions about their experience” interacting with Savannah Police. “It’s a very structured process, very narrowly defined,” Johnson said, stressing that “we recognize that not all of our police officers are breaking the rules.” Johnson said he has noticed when speaking to citizens that there is a fair amount of confusion over departments
and jurisdictions; one goal of the committee will be to help educate the public about the differences. “During this critical time I’ve received a lot of complaints from people about police officers. A little less than half of the complaints about police officers are not about members of the SPD,” Johnson said. “When I start asking more probing questions like, who stopped you? Where did they stop you? What did their car look like? What did their uniform look like? What does the ticket say? Many will answer, ‘I thought because it was in Savannah it was automatically the Savannah Police Department.’ We have to educate people that there are a lot of departments in this area.” Johnson also said that “we will also highlight the many, many interactions we have with citizens every single day that come out well and better than expected.” CS
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NEWS & OPINION NEWS OF THE WEIRD Aw, Snap!
A police officer in West Yorkshire, England, shared the thoughts of many after being called to the scene of a wreck involving a $300,000 Lamborghini that lasted only 20 minutes on the road before it was totaled on June 24. “It’s only a car,” the officer tweeted, but he “could have cried.” According to the BBC, the car suffered a mechanical failure during its virgin drive and came to a stop in the outside land of the M1 motorway, where it was rear-ended by a van. The driver of the van suffered nonserious head injuries in the crash. The Lamborghini driver was not identified, nor was it clear whether he was hurt in the crash.
Idle Hands
TikTok user Kevin Wise told KSLA he was looking for his five minutes of fame when he jumped into a fish tank at Bass Pro Shop in Bossier, Louisiana, in late June. “I said that if I got 2,000 likes, I would jump in the tank,” Wise said. “I got way more than that and didn’t want to be a liar.” Shopper Treasure McGraw recorded video of Wise swimming around in the tank before he climbed out and ran through the store, soaking wet. “We heard a big splash, and I thought it was one of the fish,” McGraw said. Initially, Bass Pro
Shops said it would not press charges, but on June 26, the company filed a complaint with the Bossier City Police Department, noting that it had to empty the 13,000-gallon tank and clean it after Wise’s swim. Wise wouldn’t recommend the stunt to others. “Don’t do spur-of-the-moment crap like I do,” he warned.
Repeat Offender
Devin Roberts, 32, of Bardwell, Kentucky, caught the attention of local media after being arrested three times in one week. Carlisle County Sheriff’s deputies first encountered Roberts on June 23, WSIL reported, when he called the sheriff’s office to say he had taken a case he found next to a dumpster that turned out to contain items belonging to the city. When officers arrived, they determined the case had been removed from a city building. The following Saturday, Roberts was accused of fighting with a grocery store clerk and making lewd comments to female employees. Sheriff William Gilbert found Roberts at his home, passed out in a running vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He had also left his 3-year-old son at home with another inebriated person. Finally, on June 28, deputies pulling over a car on suspicion of drunken driving found Roberts in the passenger seat, drunk
and in possession of alcohol, which violated the terms of his earlier bonds. Roberts faces multiple charges related to all three encounters.
Questionable Judgments
• The Sun reported on June 29 that two Ryanair pilots are in the (chicken) soup after they recorded themselves getting silly with a rubber chicken in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-800. In the video, thought to be recorded as passengers boarded the plane in Birmingham, England, the first officer and pilot trade off using the chicken to operate the airplane’s throttle and making it squeak while mugging for the camera. Other crew members laugh in the background. A spokesperson for Ryanair commented: “These pictures and videos show crew on the ground in a parked aircraft with the engines shut down. While the images are unprofessional, the actions in them posed no risk and safety was never compromised. ... (Nevertheless) we are investigating the matter further.” CS BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
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CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
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9
MUSIC FAREWELL TO THE JINX
Left to right: Mike Wheeler, Igor Fiksman and Stacie Albano in the Velvet days. Susanne Guest Warnekros at a Jinx-O-Ween of the past. Sarah Wood and Gil Cruz at the Velvet Elvis.
From Velvet Elvis to The Jinx, looking bac k on the cultural impact of 127 West Cong ress
PHOTOS COURTESY OF STACIE ALBANO, GEOFF L. JOHNSON, AND SARAH WOOD.
BY RACHAEL FLORA
rachael@connectsavannah.com
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
IT MIGHT BE hard to imagine 127 West Congress Street as anything but the Jinx. After seventeen years, the Jinx has established itself as a legacy in this town. Its hallowed walls have seen thousands of talented musicians, and the feeling of community inside is unrivaled. But that community stretches back well before owner Susanne Guest Warnekros took over the lease. Back in the 90s, the space went by the name of Velvet Elvis, a vintage clothing store run by artist Laura DiNello. In addition to racks and racks of vintage clothing, Velvet had a stage. DiNello’s partner Jim Fletcher always dreamed of running a rock ’n’ roll bar, remembers Igor Fiksman, a renowned Savannah musician who got his start as a door guy at Velvet. “It was a very spacious area downtown, and downtown at that time was not very populated at all, so you got a lot of space for very little money,” says Fiksman, who plays pedal steel guitar in Jinx regulars Damon and the Shitkickers. Of course, back in the 90s, downtown Savannah was a completely different world. DiNello had opened Velvet in a ghost town. This was when Ellis Square was a parking garage, after all: long before any development of the downtown sector happened, before the movies came, before the tourists came. This was also when Savannah was dangerous, rife with gang-related crime. During orientation, SCAD kids were advised not to walk around downtown. As a result, most of the people who went to Velvet—or downtown at all—were service industry kids, fresh off their shifts at Vinnie’s or 606 or Sapphire Grill. Stacie Albano remembers vying for the first cut at Vinnie’s so she could go see the show at Velvet. And that, pretty much, was who Velvet was for, because Congress Street did not see nearly the amount of foot traffic it does 10 now.
“When we had Velvet Elvis, you could ride a motorcycle through City Market on a Saturday night and not hit a person,” remembers Sarah Wood. It was Wood, along with Jorge Cuartas, who took over the Velvet Elvis in 1995. Friends from a previous venture, they agreed that Cuartas would buy the bar and Wood would run it. An avid skater, Cuartas was the owner of Underworld, a skate shop that would take over venues and bring in musical acts. He was passionate about all-ages shows, so when he bought a bar with a stage in it, the lightbulb went off. “I was like, ‘Dude, we need to do all-ages shows,’” says Cuartas. “‘We need to do matinees, we need to do fun stuff where kids can get into music.’” Wood remembers it a little differently. “Our idea was that we were going to get rid of the music,” she says. “We were going to move away from live music and have this kind of hip-hop, acid jazz, DJ, lounge-y kind of place.” But the reputation stuck: Wood kept getting calls from bands asking if they could play the venue, and she’d receive piles of demos from people hoping for a spot onstage. She found it hard to say no, and Velvet’s musical legacy kept on. That musical legacy, by the way, is no
small potatoes. Fiksman remembers that one of the first bands to ever grace the stage was The Bouncing Souls from New Jersey. They were in town for a gig at Congress Street Station—today, it’s Club 51—but they arrived to the gig to find the doors locked. The bar had gone under, and the band hadn’t been informed. So they wandered two doors down to Velvet, who welcomed them in. Mastodon also played some of their first few shows on that stage, as did the DriveBy Truckers and Baroness, who are all now international touring acts. To enhance the place, Cuartas traded his ownership share of the Paper Moon Cafe on Oglethorpe for the sound system that was in the Spectrum, a live music venue on Broughton. They also took advantage of a very unique architectural element. “There’s a hole that goes through all three floors, and I don’t know why,” says Wood. “When Laura had it, she had a mannequin hanging over the stage. The fire marshal told us we couldn’t have the hole. We had Gerald [Schantz] do that stained glass and we put it in [the ceiling].” As time went on, Velvet became the spot to go to see live music in town. For his part, Cuartas dug through demos and listened to hours’ worth of music on cassettes.
But even today, he defers to Wood for any credit in making Velvet a successful music venue. “To be 100% honest, I think I was more of a detriment to it than anything else,” he laughs. “I was binging in straightedge punk rock bands, and if you’re trying to sell alcohol, going to capacity with minors who aren’t drinking isn’t necessarily the approach.” Wood remembers that Cuartas let her do pretty much whatever she wanted, which led to some pretty amazing moments. When Marlboro was banned from direct advertisement, they began sponsoring big-name shows in small music venues. One of those shows was David Allan Coe. Another was David Cross, pre-Arrested Development. As Wood began to book more, she leaned on her friend, musician Kevin Rose, for help with booking. She’d keep three piles of demos—a no, a maybe, and a definitely— and work out touring routes on her desk calendar. Velvet also began having set nights, like Salsa Night and Swing Night, which were swiftly copied by other venues. Though Velvet was the coolest place in town to be, the return on investment was not exactly lucrative.
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Left: GAM perform at Velvet Elvis. Right: Jason Statts at Statts Fest, a long-running benefit hosted by The Jinx. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SARAH WOOD AND GEOFF L. JOHNSON
“Playing in, running, owning a small live music venue is really a community service,” says Wood. “People that own and run bars do what they do out of love.” Wood left in 2000. She’d met her husband, musician Anders Thomsen, and she was burnt out from working so much. “I was just done,” she recalls. “When I left, I told [Cuartas], ‘You should get out.’ And he said, ‘No, I’m going to try and do it.’” He did, for a while. But Velvet incurred so much tax debt that the IRS put a lock on the door. Cuartas, who was starting a family and busy racing motocross, knew it was time to move on. “My wallet hurts every time I walk by that place,” he says. “I don’t have any regrets other than not being more involved at the end.” Velvet sat closed for a few months in 2003 as potential buyers mulled it over. The eventual buyer, of course, was Susanne Guest Warnekros. At the time, Warnekros was the first female piercer in Savannah. She worked at Planet Three and also owned a retail store next door. She remembers Tony Beasley, now a bartender at the Jinx, handing out flyers for Velvet that she put in her store windows. “I loved Velvet Elvis so much. It was the only bar in town I liked,” she recalled. “It was the only one I felt I could be myself in. I didn’t want Savannah to lose Velvet Elvis.” Warnekros and Cuartas had been in talks before Velvet was shut down, but she went to the property manager to see about buying the place. On the phone, he made it clear to her that he didn’t want it to be a “tattoo kind of place.” Warnekros, who has full tattoo sleeves, showed up to the viewing in a turtleneck sweater with tights in the August heat. “And at the end of the day, I’m the one that got the lease,” she says.
IT’S HARD for Warnekros to name her favorite Jinx shows, and understandably so. It’s much easier for her to tell you her favorite moment in the bar. “This would only happen maybe three times a year,” she raves, her voice full of excitement. “It’s a packed house. The first note of the first band starts. You can just feel the energy in the room totally shift. I would look around the room and see all of these music fans that were so into it and so devoted to the music. It’s a feeling I can’t really explain.” Moments like that, and Warnekros’ passion, is what made the Jinx so special. Anyone who has ever attended a show in that room knows exactly what she’s talking about. Two weeks ago, Warnekros announced via the Jinx’s Facebook page that they were being evicted from 127 West Congress. As this is Savannah, the rumors started to fly. This move, Warnekros says, has been in the works for a while. They’d been looking at spots for over a year with no luck. A new owner bought the building, and after some back-and-forth, he decided not to renew the Jinx’s lease, putting their end date at New Year’s Eve. But then, the pandemic hit, and the Jinx was just not able to make rent. That’s a tall order even in normal times, says Wood. “Trying to keep a live music club like the Jinx, like Velvet Elvis, open in downtown Savannah, which is hostile to small business owners because it’s become so expensive and is so corporate—in the best times, it’s hard to do that,” says Wood. “Now? There’s no way.” The Jinx’s last day of operation at that location will be July 11. But don’t you dare think this is over. “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Warnekros confides. “The only thing I know for sure is that I’m not done with the Jinx. And I am extremely stubborn and I
will get it done.” As of now, the plan for the Jinx is that it will reopen in another venue. Warnekros is thinking a neighborhoodtype spot at first, then easing her way back into a live music venue. The pandemic’s uncertainty makes it difficult to pin down a timeline for reopening. Wherever the Jinx ends up, it will probably not be downtown. “I don’t really see us staying downtown, but that’s a bigger problem,” says Warnekros. “That’s gentrification. That’s corporate takeover. That’s skyrocketing rent and property taxes. And that’s all pre-COVID.” Downtown has been on a downward spiral for a while now. It’s hard to tell when exactly it happened. Cuartas pinpoints one weird turn around ’96, when the Olympics came to Atlanta and rents here skyrocketed. Wood estimates it happened between 2000 and 2008, when she was away from the city and returned to a place she didn’t recognize. Gil Cruz remembers watching the groundbreaking ceremony for Ellis Square in 2005 as he worked a happy hour shift. “Downtown is not our town. Downtown has slowly been losing its soul,” laments Wood. “I think that greed has played a huge part in that. I think Savannah sold its soul.” 127 West Congress is a fatality of that, but Warnekros doesn’t want the new landlord to be villainized. “It’s his building. He bought it, I tried to buy it, I couldn’t,” she says. “This sucks that he’s taking our home, but it was inevitable.” “He’s uprooted a cultural landmark as far as I’m concerned,” says Fiksman. “It’d be nice if we had some means for protecting it, for being its own cultural landmark. Maybe we’ll realize in a hundred years that it was important.” The ship has sailed there, in Cruz’s eyes. He’s known Warnekros since 1995 and got his start as a door guy at Velvet, but most recently he booked bands for the Jinx. He frequently got requests for shows, but when he booked them, nobody came. “It’s very frustrating,” says Cruz. “When it’s gone and closed down and moved, people are going to realize. A lot of people took that place for granted.” That’s precisely what Wood experienced
when she ran Velvet. She once booked Ronnie Dawson, a legend in the rockabilly genre, but had an audience of about ten people. “That’s why Velvet closed: because y’all didn’t come out and see music enough,” she says. “And don’t complain when you have to pay a cover. If you want there to be a live music club in this town, then you need to go out and see live music. You need to make a commitment to go and see a band once a week, because otherwise it won’t be there for you.” For years, Velvet Elvis and the Jinx were there for so many people. All of the current staff hung out at the Jinx before they worked there. Scott Johansen went to see his brother play at Velvet. Tony Beasley started as a Velvet door guy and asked the bartenders how he could get their job. James May and his band, Black Tusk, were among the opening night bands for Jinx. Rich Krauss’ first job in a bar was as door guy there in 2011. “We’ve buried so many of our friends. We had their wakes at that place,” remembers Fiksman. “We’re not churchgoing folks, we’re a bunch of drunks and punks and hippies. And that’s our community center.” Of course, the stained glass in the ceiling helps exalt it to a holy status. But just like a real church, it’s not about the building—it’s about who’s inside. Everyone who frequented 127 West Congress was part of a family, for better or for worse, and everyone who ever went has a story. Ask Albano about winning Miss Velvet A-Go-Go. Ask Beasley about the sumo wrestling contest that got him his job. Ask Cruz about the SCAD baseball coaches who watched their guy get drafted to the Yankees. Ask Steve Baumgardner about Hip Hop Night, one of the longest running weekly events in town for 16 years. Ask Rita D’LaVane about the Savannah Sweet Tease Burlesque Revue, whogot their start on the Jinx stage. Ask about Jinx-O-Ween, or Rock ’n’ Roll Bingo, or Swing Night, or GAM, or Black Tusk, or Athon, or Robyn, or Niema, or about anything, really. Everyone will tell you the same: the Jinx was special. “You still have places doing live music,” says Cruz, “but Jinx was more than that.” “Keep the dream alive,” urges Warnekros. “Don’t give up. Things will return to normal—we’ll get through this. Murder By Death will play here again one day, I assure you.” Regardless of what the next chapter of the Jinx looks like, or when it starts, one thing is certain: Warnekros is staying the hell away from 127 West Congress. “I’ll never walk in there again,” she laughs. “I’ll never be able to.” CS 11
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
FAREWELL TO THE JINX
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
2003 2020
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.357 string band . 2 slices . 6 day bender . 100 watt horse . 1349 . aaron woody wood . aaron zimmer . abandoned pools . abe partridge . acid dad . the accomplices . the accused . adverts . against the grain . agent orange . aggaloch . AJ davila . alabama thunderpussy . alanna royale . alex bleekler & the freaks . alex culbreth . all night drug prowling wolves . all them witches . allison crutchfield & the fizz . AM rodriguez . ambrose . american aquarium . american gun . american hologram . amethyst kiah & her chest of glass . amigos . anchor bends . the anders thomsen trio . angry johnny & the killbillies . anxiety junkies . ape machine . appetite for destruction . appleseed cast . artimus pyledriver . the artisanals . arum rae . ASG . the attack . audiodrive . auroboras . baby baby . the back row baptists . bally hoo . barbed wire dolls . baroness . basik lee . bask . bastard brigade . bastard feast . bat fangs . BB palmerbeach day . bear fight ! . becca mancari . beitthemeans . ben nichols . bero bero . best . between symmetries . beyonce (not that one) . big business . big sandy . big shot shot down . big ups . billy joe shaver . bindlestiff family circus . bird cloud . bitchmouth . BJ barham . black beach . black diamond heavies . black eyed vermillion . black lips . black pussy . blackrune . black tusk . blackwurm . blank range . bleach garden . blis . blitzen trapper . bloodshot bill . blouses . blowfly . blue mountain . bob wayne . bond st. district . the bones of J.R. jones . bone shakers ball . bottles and cans . bottled violence . bradford lee folk . brady and the bazookas . brandon nelson mccoy . brass monkey . brave baby . breakers . brett the hitman blues band . brian olive . the bricks . britt scott band . the bronx . the bronzed chorus . brooks hubbard . brotherhawk . bubble boys . bullmoose . bully pulpit . bummerville . the bunny gang . buried beds . burning mansions . burnt books . the business . butts . caleb warren . call me bronco . caltrop . calvin love . canker blossom . capital city playboys . capsula . captured by robots . carpet coats . cashʼd out . casket girls . castle . the cave singers . CC witt . cedric burnside project . chain of flowers . charles bradley . chastity . the cherry valance . cheyenne marie mike . chief scout . choptops . chris willard and the ship thieves . christopher paul stelling . chronicle AD . circle takes the square . city hotel . . cloak . clouds & satellites . the coathangers . coeds . cold heart canyon . colin gilmore . coliseum . coney island freakshow . conquer/devour . continental . the continentals . coon dogginʼ outlaws . cory branan . cory chambers jazz band . cough . country mice . . the cowboys . the c-port monsters . cranford n sons . crawl . crazy bag lady . craybags . crazy man crazy . cream abdul babar . creech holler . creepoid . crocodiles . . cro-mags . crowbar . crowfield . crud . culture vulture . curbdogs . curleys . cusses . cutthroat freak show . DJ beatkeeper . DJ captain . DJ D-frost . DJ kenny watkins . DJ kiah . DJ lord (public enemy) . DJ selvis . DJ square one . daddy issues . damad . damon and the shitkickers . danielle hicks and the resistance . danny b harvey . dark entries . darling sweet . darsombra . das racist . day old man . the dead boys . dead confederate . deadhand . dead oak . dead register . dead yet ? . deadly lo-fi . delicious . the death hour . death of kings . del the funky homosapien . demonaut . destroyer of light . dethlehem . the detroit cobras . devil at my side . dex romwebber . duo . dial drive . diarrhea planet . die alps ! . dinosaur feathers . dirty dishes . dirty . fuss . dirty streets . the discussion . district attorneys . dodd ferrell . don merckle . donna savage . dope knife . dope sandwich . donʼt . double ferrari . drag the river . dreamend . dropout . the dumps . the duppies . dustin price . the dwarves . dylan leblanc and the pollies . dylan swinson . each other . early graves . easter island . ed schraderʼs music beat . elder . ember city . emoticon . empath . eric britt . eric culberson . ether . evan step and the pincers . every time i die . everymen . exhumed . exit ghost . eyehategod . f-bombs . fable cry . fabulous equinox orchestra . face down in shit . face first . fake problems . family and friends . fancy pants & the evil doerʼs . fat tony . fatso jetson . faux ferocious . feeding tube . fight amp . filthy still . fiona silver . flaminʼ yawn . film flam films . floor . foie gras . forced entry . forrest evil . free candy . fuck the facts . full of hell . fur elise . the futbolbatts . gam . garden . giant . general oglethorpe & the panhandlers . genital mousetrap circus . genocide pact . genrevolta . georgia dishboys . get rad . gino & the goons . glove . the goddamn gallows . goatwhore . go!zilla . golden pelicans . gonazlez . the grand gestures . grand wizard . greta o and the toxic shock . grimsel . gringo starr . the gumps . gunpowder . gray . guttermouth . guzik . hailshot . hall monitor . hammurd shit . hank III . hardship anchors . hardy and the hardknocks . have gun will travel . havok . hawg jaw . heavy books . hematavore . henrietta . hermits of suburbia . high lonesome . high on fire . highly suspect . hightower . hillbilly casino . hiss golden messenger . hollow leg . holly golightly . holy ghost tent revival . honky . hoops . hooten hallers . horrisant . hot pink interior . hotel . . hotplate . house of gunt . howler . HR (bad brains) . hull . humungusrva . husky burnette . hyaenna . the hypnotics . i am intestine . i am not a little bus . illiterate light . immortal avenger . immortal lee county killers . in for a penny . indian handcrafts . indian giver . inter arma . irata . iron reagan . isaac smith . the independents . JD pinkus (butthole surfers) . jack + eliza . j roddy waltson . james hunnicut . james pittman . jeff the brotherhood . jeff two names and the born agains . jeff x goldblum . jeff zagers . jess ray carter trio . jewop . jezebel heart . jimmy dale . jimmy & the teasers . joe buck . joe nelson . joey allcorn . joey cape . john denver death plan . john stickley trio . johnny angel . johnny fritz . jon snodgrass . jucifer . the judge & jury . justin collins . justin osborne .
THANK
karma to burn . kenneth brian . kevin seconds . kid syc & brandywine . kid you not . king django . king dude . kings destroy . kings of hell . knightsquatch . koffin kats . kumite . kylesa . lady creation . lafayette . las rosas . the last vegas . lazerwulf . les baton rouge . leslie . lies in stone . lilakk . lion slicer . lions of tsavo . the lipschitz . little bird . little hustle . little john robertson . little tybee . little vicious . the living deadʼs . liz cooper & the stampede . lonely teardrops . lo-pan . lonesome swagger . lords . los colognes . lost in society . the love cats . the love language . lovely locks . lucero . lucidea . lullwater . lulu the giant . lydia loveless . mac demarco . mack the knife . the maggie valley band . the magic rocks . malefactor . mammabear . man man . manic & the depressors . manray . mark lanky .maritime . mars ill . mass gothic . mass plastic . masta killa (wu tang) . matt butcher . matt eckstine . matt mefrue & the daisy chains . matty troubles . meatjack . meatwound . megan jean & the kfb . mercy mercy . michael nau . michigan rattlers . midriffs . the might could . mike krol . minority party . misery signals . missionary two . mississippi john doude . modern skirts . mold . monks of doom . monsters of japan . the motherfucking kick ass . the mothership . the mountain goats . mr. wait . mtn isl . mudtown . muuey biien . mumzees . municipal waste . murder by death . murphyʼs law . nancy druid . naomi punk . narcos . nate hall . natural causes . neighbor lady . new york disco villains . niche . nick dittmeier . nick oliveri . nightingale news . no BS! brass band . nocturnal animals . nordista freeze . NOTS . nude party . oakskin . oberhoffer . the obsessed . occultist . of feather & bone . omingnome . omni . on the cinder . opossum hollar . order of the owl . the ordinary boys . origin . oxen free . the pack A.D. . pale face . palm palm . parket gispert . passafire . peelander z . the peelers . peewee moore & the awful dreadful snakes . pelican johnny . pentagram . the peopleʼs temple . perpetual care . peristalis . the phantom playboys . pierce evans . the pietasters . pile . the pilgrim . pilot scott tracy . pine box boys . pink stones . pinky doodle poodle . pitchblack brass band . polemic . the pollies . ponderosa . the porch sessions . portrayal of guilt . the powder room . pretty please . priests . primitive man . prong . protomartyr . the psycho devilleʼs . pujol . pussy launcher . pylon reenactment society . qualone . que lastima . the queers . quintron & miss pussycat . rachel kate . radiation risk . the ramages . ra zormaze . R-dent . reason to fight . reconciler . red city radio . the red clay strays . redmouth . reigning sound . the rent boys . reptar . reverend bro diddley & the hips . the reverend horton heat . richie ramone (the ramoneʼs) . river whyless . the riverboat gamblers . road kill ghost choir . rod hamdallah . rolling nowhere . rottenblush . royal thunder . rude dude & the creek freaks . the ruen brothers . the rum jacks . rwake . s.s. web . saintseneca . same as it ever was . sarah shook & the disarmers . sauna heat . savagist . savannah sweet tease burlesque review . saviours . saw black . sawyer family band . say brother . scarlet . scott h. biram . seagulls . seldom seen . set and setting . seven year witch . sex work is real work . shaken nature . shaniqua brown band . shantih shantih . shark ? . shehehe . shermanʼs boot . shoplifters . shovels n rope . shroudeater . sick ride . silver machine . silver tongue devils . single mothers . sinister moustache . sinners & saints . sins of godless men . sir prize fighter . skeletonwitch . skippy spiral . the slackers . slave grave . slothrust . social infestation . soft kill . sons of tonatiuh . souls harbor . southern culture on the skids . speedy ortiz . spiderbags . spirit animal . spodee boy . spray paint . squadron . squalid . star period star . starbenders . starchild . stinking lizavetta . stoneriders . stoop kids . streetclothes . summer cannonballs . stretch armstrong . superhorse . supersuckers . surt the destroyer . susto . the suzan . swimming pool qʼs . the sword . sylvia rose novak . tail light rebellion . tan motel trio . tall tall trees . tape waves . ted stykerʼs drinking problem . teddy and the rough riders . the tennesee rounders . tennis system . T. hardy morris . this bike is a pipe bomb . this mountain . thomas wayne and the believers . though . thunderclap . thunderlip . tiger tiger . tim barry . today the moon tomorrow the sun . tokalos . toke . tonto . tony beasley . torche . toro . toxic oscar . toxic shock . the trainwrecks . trances are . trephine . triathalon . the trongone band . truckfighters . turbofruits . turkey callers . twelve tribes . twisty cats . two days of freedom . two takes . U.S. christmas . umanita nova . the underhill family orchestra . unholy four . unknown hinson . unnamed . unpersons . unstoppable death machine . urban pioneers . urge overkill . utah . . vagabon . valient thorr . velvet caravan . version city . the vibrators . victor krummenach . vietnam . vincas . viva le vox . wage slave . waits & co . washer . the wave slaves . wayne “the train” hancock . weakened friends . the weary boys . webb wilder . weedeater . the weeks . the well . well wishers . west end motel . wet socks . whaleboat . the whigs . whiskey & bible . whiskey diablo . whiskey dick . the whiskey gentry . whiskey train . whiskey wolves of the west . white reaper . white treasure . whores . . wiegedood . wild child . wild powwers . the wild feathers . willie heath neal . willie jackson . windhand . winston finals . the winter sounds . witchcraft . witch hazel . wizard rifle . the . woggles . wolf . wolves, wolves, wolves, wolves . woolfolk . wolvhammer . wonky tonk . wooly bushmen . worldwide friendship society . wvrm . wreckeless eric . xray eyeballs . xuluprophet . yamacraw . you vandal . young antiques . zac oehler. zao . zoo peculiar . zoroaster
YOU ! to be continued.....
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
the doors may close but The Good times will live forever
13
MUSIC FAREWELL TO THE JINX
‘More than a music venue’ Local musicians and promoters share memories and speak of the ‘lifelong bonds’ formed at The Jinx
BY SEAN KELLY
sean@connectsavannah.com
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
AFTER 17 YEARS (and longer, including the Velvet Elvis years), The Jinx is closing its doors. The celebrated music venue has survived the ups and downs of the Savannah music scene over the course of that time, and has weathered many storms as well. They’ve hosted almost any band you can think of whether local, regional, or national. They’ve become the home base for local bands like Black Tusk whose careers have exploded past the city limits, and there’s no doubt that they’ve played a role in at least a few stories in many Savannahians’ lives. “It would be hard to actually put a number on the amount of times myself or Black Tusk has played at The Jinx or the Velvet before that,” Black Tusk’s Andrew Fidler tells Connect. That seems to be the case for many, many bands in the area. “Too numerous to count,” Kevin Rose of GAM and Superhorse says. “From opening the space as a music 14 venue when it was Velvet Elvis to playing
the The Jinx’s 15th anniversary party, the space has been the stage of choice in Savannah for projects I’m involved with.” Almost inevitably, due to the economic hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Jinx will be closing the doors at 127 W Congress St., with the promise of ultimately opening a new space at another location. It’s truly the end of an era for a venue that is perhaps more legendary than any other that has existed throughout the city’s history. “I’ll remember it as The Velvet Elvis and The Jinx. Even whatever comes next, that building will always be remembered by those names. For me, I feel like I partially grew up there spending a few years booking bands and performing in my old band in the early 2000’s,” AURA Fest’s Tim Walls tells Connect, adding that he’s seen, played, and booked countless shows there over the years. “Some of the bands I’ve had the great pleasure seeing in that building include Hatebreed, Kylesa, Baroness, Coheed and Cambria, Fall Out Boy, Bayside, Underoath, The Casualties, Superdrag, Zao, Voodoo Glowskulls, Torche, Mastodon, Every Time I Die, and so many more.” The earliest days of The Jinx, starting in
2003, were full of camaraderie and some serious fun. Friendships were solidified there—ones that remain to this day. “You could go in at any point of the day/ night/week and one of your friends would be bartending and other friends would be there ready to talk and hang out. We all practically lived there back then. I have formed lifelong bonds with people there, and it’s the place we all go when a friend of ours passes on to celebrate their lives because it’s a space that we all have in common,” Fidler says. The reputation that The Jinx has cultivated over the years is thanks, in part, to its involvement in the early days of things like Savannah Stopover Music Festival—which has now become a staple in the local scene. “There wouldn’t be a Savannah Stopover without The Jinx. They were the first venue to say yes to the idea in 2011 and have been an integral part of the festival every year. It wouldn’t be Stopover without a line snaking down Congress street with people waiting to get into The Jinx,” Stopover founder Kayne Lanahan tells Connect in a statement. “There isn’t a band on tour (or local!) that doesn’t love the vibe of this room from the minute they walk in the door and we
were lucky over the years to get some bigger draw bands into this space that normally won’t play small clubs because of The Jinx’s legendary reputation.” Lanahan says some of her favorite shows at the venue include ones from The Mountain Goats, Charles Bradley, Blitzen Trapper, and J.D. McPherson, to name a few. “So many Jinx moments and stories and friendships. We wouldn’t trade one of them—they have just been incredible to work with and amazing partners. We’ll be there when they re-open; whenever and wherever that may be,” she adds. All of that history begs the question; for those who have graced the stage, what show stands out the most? “The show where we (GAM) dropped onto the stage through the ceiling and took over our imposter band and then did a call and response with them when they started playing in the front window,” Rose says. “Also, opening for The Dead Boys in 2018 was pretty amazing.” For a venue that has been so embedded in the history of Savannah for so long, there’s a legacy at 127 W. Congress that will never be erased—no matter what occupies the space next. “The musical history in its foundation is
FAREWELL TO THE JINX
100 Watt Horse. Acid Dad. AJ Davila. Alana Royale. Alex Bleeker & The Freaks. All Them Witches. Allison Crutchfield & The Fizz. Ambrose. Amythyst Kiah & Her Chest of Glass. Avers. Babe Club. Bat Fangs. Beach Day. Bear Fight! Becca Mancari. Big Ups. Black Cadillacs. Blitzen Trapper. Bond St. District. Brave Baby. Breakers. Buried Beds. Burnt Books. Calvin Love. Capsula. Carpet Coats. CC Witt. Chain of Flowers. Charles Bradley. Chastity. Cheyenne Marie Mize. Chief Scout. Christopher Paul Stelling. Chrome Pony. City Hotel. Clouds & Satellites. COEDS. Cory Chambers Jazz Band. Country Mice. Crazy Bag Lady. Crocodiles. Curbdogs. Cusses. Daddy Issues. Damon & The Shitkickers. Danielle Hicks and the Resistance. Darkentries. Das Racist. Diarrhea Planet. Dirty Dishes. Dive. Donna Savage. Dylan LeBlanc. Each Other. Ed Schrader's Music Beat. Empath. Eric Britt. Fake Problems. Family and Friends. Fat Tony. Faux Ferocious. Foi Gras. Free Candy. Futurebirds. Garden Giant. Gemma Ray. Glove. Go!Zilla. Gringo Star. Guards. Hardy and the Hardknocks. Have Gun Will Travel. Highly Suspect. Hiss Golden Messenger. Holy Ghost Tent Revival. Hoops. Hurray For The Riff Raff. Illiterate Light. Indian Giver. Irata. Isaac Smith. J Roddy Walston & The Business. Jack + Eliza. Jake Xerxes Fussell. JD McPherson. JEFF the Brotherhood. Jeff Zagers. John Stickley Trio. Justin Collins. Justin Osborne (SUSTO). KidSyc@Brandywine. King Dude. Kylesa. Las Rosas. Liz Cooper & The Stampede. Los Colognes. Mac DeMarco. MammaBear. Man Man. Martin Sexton. Mass Gothic. Michael Nau. Michigan Rattlers. Mike Krol. Missionary Two. Mothers. Mount Moriah. Mountain Goats. Top: Black Tusk. Bottom: Damon And The Shitkickers at Savannah Stopover Murder by Death. Muuy Biien. Naomi Punk. Neighbor Lady. PHOTOS BY GEOFF L. JOHNSON New Madrid. Nightingale News. No BS! Brass Band. Nordista nearly 3 decades deep,” Walls says. “I hope a new midsize venue opens up Freeze. NOTS. Okey Dokey. Omni. OxenFree. Palm Palm. Parker “It was an incubator of so many great soon, but this could be it for a venue that Gispert. Peelander-Z. Pile. PitchBlak Brass Band. Preacher & Savannah bands and the adopted parent of caters to underground music in City MarThe Knife. Priests. Pujol. Pylon Reenactment Society. Reptar. so many amazing souls. It was more than a ket/downtown for a while to come. The Reverend Bro Diddley & The Hips. River Whyless. Roadkill Ghost music venue and although this may sound Jinx was the bastion that weathered every simple, those of us who know it will under- storm, but coronavirus and the greed of the Choir. Rude Dude & The Creek Freaks. Sarah Shook & The stand: it was a home,” Rose adds. building’s new owners finally put the last Disarmers. Saw Black. Say Borther. Shaken Nature. Single “The Jinx helped define my generation nail in the coffin for the room that we have Mothers. Slothrust. Son Little. Southern Culture On The Skids. just as the Velvet did the generation before come to know and love as The Jinx on 127 Speedy Ortiz. Spider Bags. Spirit Animal. Street Clothes. us. Ben Carter and those that followed W. Congress St.,” he adds. him have done irreparable damage to local “So raise your glasses and have a drink, Sunglow. Surfer Blood. SUSTO. Tall Tall Trees. Teddy and the business downtown, bringing in the chains and we will close this chapter on SavanRough Riders. The Artisanals. The Bones of J.R. Jones. The Cave and tourists and pricing out the locals,” nah’s music scene and start writing the Singers. The Coat Hangers. The Cowboys. The Love Language. Fidler says. “That’s what’s happening to next.” CS The Maggie Valley Band. The Men. The People's Temple. The the Jinx; I can’t wait to see what trash the new owner puts in there.” Pollies. The Red Clay Strays. The Ruen Brothers. The Shaniqua Brown. The Suzan. The Train Wrecks. The Trongone Band. The Underhill Family Orchestra. The Weeks. The Whiskey Gentry. The Wild Feathers. Thomas Wynn & The Believers. Those Darlins. Tony Beasley. Triathalon. Turbo Fruits. Twisty Cats. Vagabon. VietNam. Washer. Weakened Friends. Well Wisher. Wet Socks. Whaleboat. Whiskey Dick. Whiskey Shivers. Whiskey Wolves of Susanne and the the West. White Reaper. Wild Moccoasins. Wild Powwers. entire Jinx crew for WoolFolk. Wreckless Eric. Xray Eyeballs. Yip Deceiver. CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Thank you to
THE JINX
THANK YOU
being such a huge part of the Savannah music scene, and welcoming us into the family.
UNTIL NEXT TIME...
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
for 10+ amazing years
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CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
MUSIC REMEMBER WHEN
Remember When: The Suffers at Ships of the Sea, 2016
LIVE MUSIC IN THE SOUNDGARDEN WED, JUL 8 7:30PM
Veteran local singer Laiken Williams looks back BY SEAN KELLY
sean@connectsavannah.com
What about this gig stays with you after four years? I had just found out about this group on Spotify the summer before the festival. I was flipping through SMF’s catalog and saw they were coming to Savannah. I had to get a ticket! Soul music is near and dear to my heart. I was fully sold when I saw this plus size chick with big hair singing with a BIG horn section. #goals #goals #goals. I’ve been trying to figure out a direction that I want to go in when I finally decide to make original music. Discovering this group along with my other faves Alabama Shakes, Sharon Jones, and Amy
FRI, JUL 10 7PM
TELL SCARLET
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SAVANNAH MUSIC FESTIVAL /SHOT BY SOMI
Winehouse, I have a good feeling for where I’m heading. At that time in Savannah, what was the music scene like? At this particular time it was during the Savannah Music Festival. You can’t beat three weeks of music from around the world. The local scene was (and still is, minus the pandemic) pretty vibrant as well. Savannah’s music scene has a variety of acts that locals and tourists can see seven days a week. Where were you in your career and life at that point? In 2016, I was pretty heavy on the bar scene. I had a full Friday rotation between Kessler’s Rocks on the Roof and Casimir Lounge, and a variety of other places. I also made some big leaps onto the music scene with tributes spanning from The Lucas Theater (Songs in the Key of Wonder) to Tybee Post Theater (Women of Blues).
At this time I was still very active with the Savannah Philharmonic Chorus. The Suffers concert was a gift to myself. It was hella inspiring. I sat there most of the time with my eyes closed absorbing every instrument as tears rolled down my face. Music is my drug of choice. Is there one moment from the festival that you remember most fondly? The band was on stage jamming and I started to hear a familiar tune. They started jamming to “Back in the Day” by Erykah Badu. I was literally the only person in the audience who knew the song. It was a little too obvious when the horn section gave me props from the stage. We had a moment! I got to meet the band after the concert and had an amazing conversation with them about their journey. What an impression! CS Visit laikenlove.com for more info on Laiken Williams and her music.
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WELCOME TO ‘Remember When.’ This is a chance for Savannah art veterans to reminisce on some of their favorite events in the city’s history. Whether it’s a concert, theater production, festival, visual art show, dance production, or comedy show, Savannah has a long history of memorable art and now is as good a time as any to look back on some of the best. Today, we’re catching up with Laiken Williams, a local singing powerhouse who has been a crucial part of the music community in our city for years. In the preCOVID world, you could find her all over Savannah at any number of venues and gigs. Rather than reflect on a gig of her own, Laiken decided to look back on a Savannah Music Festival performance from The Suffers in 2016 at Ships of the Sea Museum. It’s a performance that stuck with her from that day forward, and was particularly inspiring and energizing for her as an artist.
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MUSIC FEATURE
Savannah Jazz Festival goes ‘Savannah Safe’ This year’s event will lean heavily on live broadcasts
BY SEAN KELLY
sean@connectsavannah.com
JAZZ FANS, rejoice! Savannah Jazz Festival announced recently its first ever Savannah Safe Jazz Festival, which will be held from September 23-27. Amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, it has remained unclear as to what major festivals like Savannah Jazz would do going forward. The Savannah Safe festival gives an answer to that uncertainty—shows will take place at Ships of the Sea Museum during the aforementioned dates; completely outdoors but covered, with controlled access and limited seating. Those shows, however, will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube and be broadcast on WSAV-TV and Dick
Broadcasting Radio stations. Watch parties will take place at various locations if deemed safe enough, and those at home are encouraged to hold contained watch parties as well. “The City of Savannah is proud to support the 39th annual Savannah Jazz Festival. In a year with circumstances that no one saw coming, the arts are more important than ever to raise our spirits and build a sense of community. We applaud the efforts of Savannah Jazz to keep the music playing and look forward to being a socially-distanced member of this year’s audience,” Stuart Miller, the city’s Director of Cultural Resources, said in a statement. Between the 23rd and 27th, sixteen live performances will take place with various jazz artists, continuing in the Savannah Jazz Festival tradition of high-caliber jazz from around the world. The lineup has yet
Scene from a previous year’s Jazzfest.
to be announced. “We are beyond thrilled that the City is 100% supportive of our rigorous plan to produce the 39th free Jazz Festival,” interim Executive Director Paula Fogarty said in a press release. The live audience will be selected through a lottery system that will rotate people from show to show, in order to comply with safety measures and give the Jazz Festival’s devoted audience the chance to
see performances in person. To help support the festival and its continued efforts, SJF is encouraging donations. More info on donations and Savannah Jazz Festival’s 30-year history can be found at savannahjazz.org. CS
SAVANNAH SAFE JAZZ FESTIVAL 2020 Sep. 23-27, lineup and ticket info TBA Savannahjazz.org
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CULTURE VISUAL ARTS
PHOTO COURTESY OF TATIANA VON TAUBER
The Studio School comes full circle: then and now BY TATIANA VON TAUBER THE moment is always now, but many forget the true value of that offering from life. When I sat in my hairdresser’s chair one afternoon in Dec. 2015 I had no idea my life was about to drastically change. I noticed a Facebook post from artist Melinda Borysevicz, a SCAD alumni who has since moved overseas but at the time was the owner of The Studio School, a small independent art school in downtown Savannah. I wanted to attend their classes since I learned they existed but made excuses: “one day” I’ll make time. The opportunity for “one day” ended the day I was in that hairdresser chair, as the only line I recalled from the online post was, “The Studio School is closing permanently.” Within a second my heart dropped immediately into a painful feeling of loss and regret. Suddenly an inner voice yelled, “Oh no! It can’t close! You have to buy it!” I sat for a moment fully stunned at this brave and crazy suggestion from the
wildest part of my imagination. While I had been a small business owner in one form or another since my early 20s, I had never even attended art school and now I was going to buy one? The audacity of my dreaming self, I thought. “I didn’t even go to art school!” I yelled back and tried to not think further. Five years later I am proud to say that I not only bought that business within 48 hours of that Facebook post but I doubled business in a three year span and stayed strong growing until COVID-19 hit. I am deeply saddened and pained to announce the official closure of a business that has served the community since its founding year of 2012. While The Studio School art programming has transitioned to a Zoom online platform for an indefinite period, it would be wonderful to reopen in the future in a better space and location. I dream that, but realistically, the future for us all is unknown and the moment of what “now” brings today will be different than a year from now because the point of all of this, this thing called life, is to grow, change, improve, reach further than we
did before, impress ourselves and our God I didn’t think the school would last a and not necessarily those around us who year when I bought it and I certainly didn’t do not understand the work we put into think a pandemic would be what finally our journey, those who judge our passions, closed the brick and mortar business, but crazy ideas and jumps into “the now.” that’s the interesting thing about life: we What is better than a moment of gratinever know what tomorrow holds for us or tude for your own success and all that it what we can accomplish until we must. brought to others? This has been my greatJumping into the unknown is scary but est gift. If closing the studio location on it’s also thrilling if you have faith in the Bull Street could be bittersweet like choco- good rather than fear the bad. late, this would be easier to handle. The past five years have been the most I cannot extend a greater rewarding experience of my thank you to those who have life, and it was the people themstepped into my business, who selves, the community that believed in me, my art instrucmade it worth all the struggles. tors and The Studio School The Studio School was there for enough to give us a try. them, never me personally, and I wasn’t the best or the most I have been blessed to serve the qualified for the job initially but community. no one could beat my desire to COVID-19’s reality has provide a service to the comforced much unwanted results munity that I wanted to keep for many small business ownalive, specifically for others like ers in Savannah. To those who me who didn’t go to art school, Tatiana von Tauber. are closing and having to start who didn’t have money to go to SCAD or new or choosing to modify their business Georgia Southern or didn’t really know like I am, opportunities are always abunwhere to go without a large investment of dant if you are open to them and all you time and money. have is this moment of now to see it, dream That’s what was special about The Stuit and do it. dio School. It was a place that provided The pandemic, social unrest, financial instruction as top notch as any high-priced burdens of millions, the hundreds of thoucollege but without the weights. sands of families hurt from COVID-19 That’s a novel idea right there and casualties, all this is heavy. We must move COVID-19 has changed the way we view forward if we are to survive. our education process and the way we will I give thanks for all I’ve been able to spend our money on it. learn and give and to the people I’ve come Different levels of artists taught at The to know as students and friends, but I also Studio School, from newly emerged SCAD shed a few tears because just like that day grads to seasoned local working artists to in the hairdresser’s chair when I didn’t masters in their field such as Jeff Hein and know my life was about to drastically Angela Cunningham, artists with incredchange, the same is true for myself and The ible skill and training. Studio School’s future. We provided weekly life drawing sesIn this “woke” world there will be sions for artists for 8 years, job opportuchances for new opportunities for all of us. nities to many local models and artists, Life is consistent on change and the sooner hosted art shows no one else in the city we embrace it, the sooner we attract rather would invest in, and we built a small comthan repel the goodness that is there for us munity for people who truly empowered when it feels like there is no hope. each other. The Studio School still lives on virtually My goal had always been to provide a lit- so we can social distance, trade face masks tle bit for everyone because Savannah has for a smile and still connect with others a very broad group of artists and I wanted while we learn how to nurture a creative to offer the best I could with what I had soul. Now is all we have. to those who wanted what I served. The If you missed your chance to attend The greatest measure of success is the success Studio School, I empathize. Online learnof others via your offering. ing is a good option and for many, the only To know The Studio School’s existence option. helped someone smile, make a new friend, You’ve heard it before: feel the fear and learn, grow, become inspired, or go out of do it anyway. This is what I teach my stutheir comfort zone to find a sense of sucdents, just make the mistake. cess within themselves, while I maintained Make that incorrect mark or line. Do it! the opportunities and location for others to Stop judging yourself. Stop expecting percongregate and discover each other as well fection. Expect to mess up but also expect as uncover their own hidden talents, is to that through that process, you will find claim success. ways to succeed and as you do, your selfThrough the ups and downs of running confidence and skill sets grow. an art school, I became a better person, Jump and go for the Now in life while businesswoman and artist and I know oth- you still have your breath and life, respecters have been positively affected too. fully. CS 19
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
A life drawing class at the Studio School.
CULTURE MAGIC MAKERS
Charisse styles Savannah
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
BY BRITTANY CURRY
Inkybrittany.com
CHARISSE BRUIN is changing the game in Savannah’s style & beauty community. Her passion for fashion has turned into business that helps working professionals who rely on her as a personal shopper and folks in the beauty world who look to her for insight. Charisse has been hustling as hard or harder than any local, young entrepreneur in the last few years launching her brand, 20 Charisse Styles. Her business story starts
as she’s approached by professional women working in economic development seeking fashion and style advice. After finding no challenge or purpose working in the corporate world, she started aiming her intentions and efforts toward fashion blogging and personal shopping for working men and women with hectic schedules. Charisse has shared her ventures and triumphs on social media, all the while staying candid and transparent about the everyday struggles and the chaotic, exhausting, less glamorous things that go on behind the changing curtain. She highlights the best places to shop, dine, and
enjoy Savannah, and shares her favorite brands and products with her followers. Savannah Magazine featured Charisse on the cover of their March issue. When she’s not in front of the camera, she’s styling shoots for Visit Savannah, Visit Tybee Island, and collaborating with photographers and editors in the industry. Through her regular contributions to DoSavannah and numerous features and interviews in online publications, Charisse is making a huge impact right here at home as well as positioning herself in a national network of creatives who are trying to bring about empowerment and change through fashion, entertainment,
and media. She is a voice of Truth when it comes to straight talk about tokenism, colorism, cultural appropriation, and the lack of representation of dark-skinned Black women and people of color in the beauty community. In this week’s edition of Magic Makers, I’m sharing a graphic of Charisse’s story based on excerpts from two recent interviews where she was highlighted for her business and influence. Check out the full interviews from Voyage LA Magazine and WSAV at https://linktr.ee/charissestyles & connect with her via her Web site at www. charissestyles.com.
JONESIN’ CROSSWORD
CULTURE VISUAL ARTS
QUESTIONS
BY MATT JONES ©2020 Answers on page 23
WITH
“THAT’S THE JOINT” --TAKING A FEW.
Kam O’Neal BY RACHAEL FLORA
rachael@connectsavannah.com
1. What’s the market for your creative services like in Savannah?
I’m definitely having to push boundaries. I’m a photographer, and the market is very oversaturated. However, what I’m really having to hone in on is my niche. In Savannah, everybody’s in a category of what it is they do, and everybody does it the same. That’s not where I want to be. I want to do everything different. The market is a little hard to tap into because it’s so oversaturated, and if you don’t network properly or get the right resources, Savannah’s really about politics and that can make it hard to get a leg up. Tarot readings, surprisingly, were very welcome in a way that I had no idea they would be. Tarot is not something I had ever dreamed of doing—photography was what I’d always dreamed of. Funny thing, I want to be a psychologist, and tarot trading gives me a leg up on that. It gives me the opportunity to practice and get those energies flowing and understand the human empathy and compassion before even going to school and getting brainwashed. I’ll put the two together and that will make me a better person, regardless.
2. How do you handle that pressure to tap into the market?
That’s what makes me want to get away. Savannah didn’t become an art city until SCAD. I want to go to an art city that’s always been an art city, because the appreciation for art is different. Now in
Kam O’Neal. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.
Savannah, I feel like art has been so tied to money that the value of art is being taken for granted. I feel like more than anything, SCAD being there affected it because sometimes those kids get stuck in Savannah because they’re not given many options to get out. That creates a lot of over saturation in this one spot. Savannah’s cheaper than a lot of competing artist cities. You’re creating a lot of competition and that’s making people discouraged and to go back to the 9 to 5 structure. I promised myself I wouldn’t do that again. I sacrificed way too much already to go back into that structure. I just feel like I have to work relentlessly to make sure that I never have to go back. Whatever that takes, if I can figure out a cheat code, I want to give it to whoever I can.
3.
When did you first become interested in the work you make now? I’ve always been into photography. I didn’t realize it, but it was something my parents pointed out to me. I always liked to take pictures with flowers. In high school, you can take electives, but I was homeschooled. I really wanted to do something that was going to get me out of the house. I saw a class for photography, so I took it and fell in love with it. My mom was like, “No, you don’t need a camera; you can just use this point-andshoot we have at home.” I was like, uh uh. My dad was like, “We’re going to go get you a camera.” From that moment forward, I’ve been inseparable from it. After I graduated high school, I was like, “Yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” When it comes to creatively shooting, it’s based on my inspiration. I’ll come up with different concepts of things based on something I felt or a transition in my life I’ve gone through and needed to express myself in one way or another. My sunflower pictures were based on my transition into this newer woman coming into contact with my spirituality and identifying myself as an energy rather than just a person.
CONTINUES ON P. 22
ACROSS
1 Activity that may use multiple dice, for short 4 Friedlander of “30 Rock” 9 Former Soviet spy org. 12 What the snooty put on 14 “Fingers crossed!” 15 “The Matrix Reloaded” role 16 Esoteric bit of pop culture that’s mired? 18 Do a sub service? 19 Keen observer of surroundings 20 Twitch subscription levels, e.g. 22 “Well, ___-di-dah!” 23 Burger topper 26 Concave cooker 29 Ill-mannered guy 31 Decent stand-in 34 Novelist Patchett 35 MLB figures 37 Entertainment awards acronym 38 Use as a bed 40 Carte lead-in 41 Put on ___ 42 “Stay (I Missed You)” singer Lisa 43 “Angels and Earthly Creatures” poet Wylie 45 Tax preparer busy in Apr. (but later this year) 46 Defunct Microsoft encyclopedia made obsolete by Wikipedia 48 “Tic ___ Dough” 49 Georgia, from 1921 to 1991 (abbr.)
50 Creature on a slide 52 Word ignored when alphabetizing 54 Rapper whose hologram appeared at Coachella 56 Improve 61 Abbr. at the bottom of some applications 62 Noodle dish that gears up for skateboarding? 65 Bustle of activity 66 “Layer Cake” actress Sienna 67 Kirlian photography phenomenon, supposedly 68 May celebrant 69 Facilitated 70 Tax form ID
DOWN
1 Shed tool 2 “Escape (The ___ Colada Song)” 3 Bryant Gumbel’s brother 4 “Friends” spinoff 5 Bunk-bed choice 6 12 of 12, briefly 7 Sch. that’s home to the Sun Devils 8 Racetrack advantage, theoretically 9 Notes for sopranos that are only so tall? 10 Equipment 11 Automated programs 13 Move merchandise 14 Country/comedy series with Buck Owens 17 Clergy official 21 Archipelago components
24 Roving adventurously 25 Electric guitar pioneer Paul 26 2008 Pixar film about a robot 27 Ring-making material? 28 Protective covering that released Mega Man and Street Fighter? 30 Place for paternity testing 32 Backyard buildings popping up now that people have chickens for pets 33 Battling 36 Pharmaceutical founder Lilly 39 One of two presidents with two Ivy League degrees 41 Like an angry cat’s back 43 Summer, in France 44 Granola concoction, in some places 47 Falco’s request to Amadeus 51 “Hello” singer 53 “Let’s Roll” jazz singer James 54 Giants or Titans 55 Backtracking computer command 57 Commentator’s page 58 Consequently 59 Some Mr. Potato Head parts 60 “Knives Out” director Johnson 63 “Boyz N the Hood” actress Long 64 Chicago Loop carriers
CONNECT SAVANNAH | JULY 8 - 14, 2020
KAM O’NEAL COUNTS herself blessed to make a living doing what she loves: photography and tarot reading. The daughter of two military members, O’Neal moved around in her younger years—at one point even living in Dubai— before settling in Savannah. She took one photography class in high school, but besides that, she’s completely self-taught. Her photos speak to her inner inspirations, and she also works with clients for shoots. A true creative, O’Neal got out of the 9-to-5 life and wants to share that freedom with others. We talked with O’Neal last week.
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VISUAL ARTS
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
4. Tell me more about your tarot. My tarot readings are really an energetic thing for me. I don’t really need the tarot cards anymore; they’re more so a formality and entertainment for my client. It’s really about reading energy, and that’s what usually freaks people out.
We work on manifesting what it is you want. I know how to read energy, I know what the higher power is trying to tell me. A lot of times, I can tell you what you need to hear before I shuffle the cards. It’s an energy thing, it really is. People always ask me, “Did I manifest it because you said it?” Honestly, we work together.
5. What do you see in your future? I want to be financially abundant and set up a structure so generations after me don’t have to worry about finances. If they want to be an artist, they should be able to decide one day that they want to do that. I want generations after me to have options.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19):
“As beautiful as simplicity is, it can become a tradition that stands in the way of exploration,” said singer Laura Nyro. This is practical advice for you to heed in the coming weeks. According to my analysis, you’re scheduled to enjoy an extended engagement with rich, fertile complexity. The best teachings won’t be reducible to a few basic lessons; rather, they’ll be rife with soulful nuances. The same is true about the splendid dilemmas that bring you stimulating amusements: They can’t and shouldn’t be forced into pigeonholes. As a general rule, anything that seems easy and smooth and straightforward will probably not be useful. Your power will come from what’s crooked, dense, and labyrinthine.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
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You may think that playing heavy metal music and knitting with yarn don’t have much in common. And yet there is an annual contest in Joensuu, Finland where people with expertise in needlework join heavy metal musicians on stage, plying their craft in rhythm to the beat. The next Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship will be July 15-16, 2021. This year’s event was canceled due to the pandemic. If it had been staged, I bet multiple Tauruses would have been among the top ten competitors. Why? Because you Bulls are at the peak of your ability to combine things that aren’t often combined. You have the potential to excel at making unexpected connections, linking influences that haven’t been linked before, and being successful at comparing apples and oranges.
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
In 1848, Danish King Frederick VII agreed, under pressure from liberal agitators, to relinquish some of his absolute power. Thereafter, he shared his decisionmaking with a newly formed parliament. He was pleased with this big change because it lightened his workload. “That was nice,” he remarked after signing the new constitution. “Now I can sleep in every morning.” I recommend him to you as
beautyandtruth@freewillastrology.com
other hand, the homework has been at least as pleasurable as it has been painful. I expect these trends to continue for the foreseeable future. What teachings about intimacy, communion, tenderness, and compassion would you like to study next?
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Some night soon, I predict you’ll have an agitated dream while you’re asleep: a nightmare that symbolizes an unresolved conflict you’re wrestling with in your waking life. Here’s a possible example: A repulsive politician you dislike may threaten to break a toy you loved when you were a kid. But surprise! There’ll be a happy ending. A good monster will appear in your dream and fix the problem; in my example, the benevolent beast will scare away the politician who’s about to break your beloved toy. Now here’s the great news: In the days after your dream, you’ll solve the conflict you’ve been wrestling with in your waking life.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
“Love is the best school, but the tuition is high and the homework can be painful,” writes author Diane Ackerman. I’m guessing that in recent months, her description has been partially true for you Virgos. From what I can tell, love has indeed been a rigorous school. And the tuition has been rather high. But on the
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BY ROB BREZSNY
an inspirational role model in the coming weeks. What so-called advantages in your life are more boring or burdensome than fun and interesting? Consider the possibility of shedding dubious “privileges” and status symbols. Cancerian author Mary McCarthy provides you with a challenge you’ll be wise to relish during the rest of 2020. She writes, “Everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you’re older is that you really must make the self.” McCarthy implies that this epic reorientation isn’t likely until you’ve been on earth for at least four decades. But judging from the astrological omens, I think you’re ready for it now—no matter what your age is. To drive home the point, I’ll say it in different words. Your task isn’t to find yourself, but rather to create yourself. Don’t wait around passively for life to show you who you are. Show life who you are.
Mental health is the biggest objective for me. Breaking generations of that—that’s my biggest goal. Living my best life, living an active and creative life. I really see myself constantly being creative and bringing that love and light to people. CS
“A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible,” wrote Libran novelist Graham Greene. His words can serve as a stirring motto for you in the coming weeks. I sense you’re close to summoning a burst of courage—a bigger supply of audacity than you’ve had access to in a while. I hope you’ll harness this raw power to fuel a daring feat that will expand your conception of what is possible.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
“It’s not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out of the window,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens. That’s a problem you won’t have to worry about anytime soon. The coming weeks will be a favorable phase for you to both think and gaze out the window—as well as to explore all the states in-between. In other words, you’ll have the right and the need to indulge in a leisurely series of dreamy ruminations and meandering fantasies and playful explorations of your deepest depths and your highest heights. Don’t rush the process. Allow yourself to linger in the gray areas and the vast stretches of inner wildness.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
The coming weeks will be a favorable time to undertake a transformative vision quest, even if the exigencies of the pandemic require your quest to unfold primarily in your inner realms. The near future will also bring you good fortune if you focus on creating more sacredness in your rhythm and if you make a focused effort to seek out songs, texts, inspirations, natural places, and teachers that infuse you with a reverence for life. I’m trying to help you to see, Sagittarius, that you’re in a phase when you can attract healing synchronicities into your world by deep-
ening your sense of awe and communing with experiences that galvanize you to feel worshipful.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
“To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.” The author and activist bell hooks wrote that. (She doesn’t capitalize her name.) In accordance with the highest astrological potentials, I’m inviting you Capricorns to be inspired by her wisdom as you upgrade your meaningful relationships during the next six weeks. I think it’s in your selfinterest to give them even more focus and respect and appreciation than you already do. Be ingenious as you boost the generosity of spirit you bestow on your allies. Be resourceful as you do this impeccable work in the midst of a pandemic!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
“One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it,” wrote author Sydney Howard. Now would be a perfect time to act on that excellent advice. Is there any obstacle standing in the way of your ability to achieve a beloved dream? Is there a pretty good thing that’s distracting you from devoting yourself wholeheartedly to a really great thing? I invite you to be a bit ruthless as you clear the way to pursue your heart’s desire.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
Author Ellen Goodman writes, “The truth is that we can overhaul our surroundings, renovate our environment, talk a new game, join a new club, far more easily than we can change the way we respond emotionally. It is easier to change behavior than feelings about that behavior.” I think she’s correct in her assessment. But I also suspect that you’re in a prime position to be an exception to the rule. In the coming weeks, you will have exceptional power to transform the way you feel—especially if those feelings have previously been based on a misunderstanding of reality and especially if those feelings have been detrimental to your mental and physical health.
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