Connect Savannah September 2, 2020

SEP 2-8, 2020 NEWS, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

One of these Emily Earl’s ‘Late Night Polaroids’ series captures a vibrant — and changing — nightlife

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COMPILED BY RACHAEL FLORA TO HAVE AN EVENT LISTED EMAIL WAG@CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM. INCLUDE DATES, TIME, LOCATIONS WITH ADDRESSES, COST AND A CONTACT NUMBER. DEADLINE FOR INCLUSION IS 5PM FRIDAY, TO APPEAR IN NEXT WEDNESDAY’S EDITION.

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Livestreams: City Hotel performs at Service Brewing.

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Tybee Island Farmers MarPHOTO BY JON WAITS ket Mondays, 4-7 p.m.

National Museum of the Mighty 30 Meddin Dr. Eighth Air Force facebook.com/tybeeislandfarmersTue.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. noon-5 market p.m.

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

N Departure at Coach’s Corner Live performance in a courtyard setting.

Fri. Sept. 11, 7 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner

Forsyth Farmers Market Enhanced social distancing between vendors.

9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays facebook.com/forsythfarmersmarket

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Thurs., Sept. 10, 7 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner/

Markets:

Islands Farmers Market Enhanced social distancing between vendors.

Saturdays 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. , 401 Quarterman Dr. facebook.com/islandsfarmersmarket/

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Site Reopenings:

Pin Point Heritage Museum Thu.-Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Davenport House Museum Daily tours begin 10 a.m., last tour 4 p.m. except Sundays when hours are 1-4 p.m.

American Prohibition Museum Daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m., last entry 4:15 p.m.

Georgia State Railroad Museum Wed.-Sun. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Savannah History Museum Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 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.

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.

Old Fort Jackson Wed.-Sun 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mars Theatre Friday/Saturday night movies at 7 p.m.

Massie Heritage Center Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-4 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

Events: Savannah Bananas vs. Macon College summer league ball in a historic ballpark.

Thu. Sept. 3, 6:30 p.m., Grayson Stadium thesavannahbananas.com Front Porch Improv: Top Secret Comedy Live improv comedy, livestream available. Limited seating.

Fri. Sept. 4 8 p.m. facebook.com/frontporchimprov/

Front Porch Improv Live show, livestream also available.

Sat. Sept. 5 8 p.m. facebook.com/frontporchimprov/

Live Concerts: Bluegrass by the Pint City Hotel performs at Service Brewing.

Fri., Aug. 28 at 6 p.m.

Nashville Nights with Hunter Flanagan and Natalie Goodman at Coach’s Corner Live performance in a courtyard setting.

Thurs., Sept. 3, 7 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner/ Keith and Ross at Coach’s Corner Live performance in a courtyard setting.

Fri. Sept. 4, 7 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner Freebird at Coach’s Corner Live performance in a courtyard setting.

Sat., Sept. 5, 7 p.m. facebook.com/coachscorner Nashville Nights with Hunter Price at Coach’s Corner Live performance in a courtyard setting.

Quarantine Concert w/ Danielle Hicks and the Resistance Livestreamed from the historic Tybee Post Theatre.

Fri., Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. quarantineconcerts.org Quarantine Concert w/ Jason Bible Livestreamed from the historic Tybee Post Theatre.

Sat., Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. quarantineconcerts.org 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/ Psychotronic Film Society Viewing Parties To receive the link to these 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 T-shirt.

Wednesdays, Sundays, 8 p.m. facebook.com/ groups/2519522234807695/ 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/

NEWS & OPINION EDITOR’S NOTE

BY JIM MOREKIS

jim@connectsavannah.com

THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to understand about Savannah politics is that it’s always been about cliques, not ideology.

This is also true of the community at large, and this cliquishness applies to new arrivals and old-timers alike.

It’s as true now as it was back in the day.

The small size of Savannah, combined with its often outsized sense of itself, means that what’s most important to most people here is rarely issues or policy, but to see and be seen with the “right” group.

every year. Or should, anyway.

But, as is often the case in Savannah, personalities take precedence, and divisiveness for the sake of divisiveness rapidly becomes the order of the day.

Going back many years, Savannah Mayors and City Council members have often displayed an almost absurdly inflated sense of grandiose self-importance, as if they were Norman barons with a claim to a throne instead of part-time politicos in a small city on the Georgia coast.

Whether it’s Tom Bordeaux and Mary Osborne literally butting heads, or Tony Thomas’s outrageous antics, none of this is new here. We see it again today, just with a different cast of characters.

And it’s definitely not about ideology

Johnson has admitted the faulty and inequitable nature of the disbursements.

Luckily, another nearly $2 million will be available, and he has pledged that the disbursement criteria will be changed to make sure more minority-owned businesses qualify for and receive the money.

But the oversights that already happened — which some allege were more intentional than accidental — were a rare misstep for this Mayor known for savvy, PR-adept moves.

The fiasco has led not only to accusations and angry debate, but now two ethics complaints filed against Van Johnson’s most outspoken opponent, AlderwomanAt-Large Kesha Gibson-Carter.

The complaints are for alleged viola-

Savannah’s small size, combined with its often outsized sense of itself, means that what’s most important is rarely issues or policy, but to see and be seen with the “right” group.

This applies to elected officials as well.

Cliques drive local politics at all levels.

It may sound like a harsh or vapid criticism, but in over 20 years of covering Savannah politics, I’ve learned this to be true more often than not.

(I’m not the only one to come to this conclusion; a certain best-seller written by a certain John Berendt made quite a big splash making a similar observation.)

Sometimes it works in our favor, and becomes our elusive “charm” that so many other cities covet, but can’t achieve.

Sometimes, it doesn’t work in our favor.

Savannah isn’t big. We’re about the 139th largest metro area in the U.S. Augusta, Columbus and Macon, Ga., are all larger.

There are neighborhoods in Los Angeles with more people than live in the entire City of Savannah.

Savannah City Council members, even at-large posts, represent relatively small groups of voters. Members are paid very little in what are technically part-time jobs, and wield little legal power.

Under our system of government, the Savannah City Manager and staff are charged with much greater scopes of responsibility than any Council member.

The vast majority of votes by Savannah City Council are unanimous or near-unanimous, simply because most votes have to do with contracts, purchasing items, liquor licenses and such — things City staff have already done almost all the work on.

The number of meaningfully serious disagreements on City Council really revolves around just a handful of votes

this time around, as virtually all members of the current City Council share an almost identical worldview, loosely defined as “progressive.”

On national and social issues I’d say their opinions overlap 90 percent or more.

Yet, they have what often looks like an unbridgeable divide.

If they wanted to, this “progressive” City Council could lock hands and push through a truly paradigm-shifting number of local reforms. But that seems unlikely now, even though their true policy differences are marginal at most.

The cliques were in place before this Council’s first vote was taken. Before Johnson and the Council were even inaugurated, I heard talk that some people wanted to “make Van Johnson a one-term mayor.”

Politics isn’t for the weak of stomach, so people can say whatever they want. But that gives you an idea of how important cliquishness can become here.

I would say that most people give Van Johnson high marks for his first eight months in office, but he was bound to slip up at some point.

And in the unfolding debacle of how the City handled the disbursement of millions of dollars in coronavirus relief funds, he handed his opponents a boatload of ammunition.

Forty-two businesses received funds through the CARES Act, administered via the Small Business Assistance Corporation. But only two were African-American owned.

tions of protocol made by her during executive sessions (which are not open to the public). They allege that her actions and profane language have directly impacted the ability of Council and its appointed search firm to pick candidates for a permanent City Manager.

Because this is Savannah, and at some point most everything in Savannah ends up revolving around race, this has inevitably become a racial issue: The ethics complaints filed against Gibson-Carter, an African American woman, came from the two white males on Council, Nick Palumbo and Kurtis Purtee.

The optics, as they say, are bad.

This is just the culmination of extreme discord among Council members that’s existed literally since they were elected.

The feelings are so personal now that I expect the discord to continue unabated, though I do hope to be proven wrong.

And so City Council finds itself once again mired in ugly wars of personality.

Except this time, it’s during a genuine period of crisis, with the city still trying to recover from a pandemic and massive recession, and the heart of hurricane season now upon us.

There is a school of thought, supported by many people I respect, that says City Council members not only need to be paid more money, but that our whole system needs to be changed to give them more power, rather than the City Manager.

But if this is what they do with not much power or money, I’m not so sure they should be rewarded with more of either. CS

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Connect Savannah is published every Wednesday by Morris Multimedia, Inc 611 East Bay Street Savannah, GA, 31401 Phone: 912.231.0250 Fax: 912.238.2041 www.connectsavannah.com twitter: @ConnectSavannah Facebook.com/connectsav ADMINISTRATIVE Erica Baskin, Publisher erica@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4378 EDITORIAL Jim Morekis, Editor-in-Chief jim@connectsavannah.com Rachael Flora, Community/Events Editor rachael@connectsavannah.com Sean Kelly, A&E Editor sean@connectsavannah.com CONTRIBUTORS John Bennett, Brittany Curry, Kristy Edenfield, Jessica Farthing, Brittany Herren, Geoff L. Johnson, Lindy Moody, Jim Reed ADVERTISING Information: (912) 721-4378 sales@connectsavannah.com Chris Griffin, Senior Account Executive chris@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4388 Bucky Bryant, Senior Account Executive bucky@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4381 DESIGN & PRODUCTION Brandon Blatcher, Art Director artdirector@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4379 Loretta Calhoun, Graphic Designer ads@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4380 DISTRIBUTION Wayne Franklin, Distribution Manager (912) 721-4376 CLASSIFIEDS Call (912) 231-0250

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

Another year, another divided Council

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NEWS & OPINION CITY NOTEBOOK

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may have, which include logging on. Ruehl notes that the various learning platforms

BY RACHAEL FLORA can cause a bit of a snag. rachael@connectsavannah.com “It’s not going to go well. It’s just not,” says Ruehl. “We have to reconcile with that THIS school year has been off to a bit of a and try our best to improve as we go. This rough start. isn’t how things are supposed to be, but With SCCPSS schools online for the this is the reality. What we’re trying to do foreseeable future, students will trade the is adjust to overwhelming circumstances classroom for the living room. and make the best out of a difficult hand.

Of course, this doesn’t come without It’s pushing churches, too—it’s pushing challenges. Many parents and teachers faith communities to step forward in ways reported Zoom outages and weak WiFi the that we’re provoked and called to. We’re first few days of school, likely due to overnot looking to replace education or teachexerted servers. ers, but we will be there to support the As Kristy Edenfield wrote in last week’s learning that the school system is investissue, schooling from home is a major chal- ing themselves in.” lenge for some parents, who have more The churches that are currently a part of kids than devices, or who might not be R.I.S.E. represent a wide swath of denomiable to afford to miss work to school their nations. Ruehl is ordained in the Christian children. tradition but would like to bring in any This is a stressful situation for parents churches that are interested, mentioning and students alike. New group R.I.S.E. the Islamic Center of Savannah and the aims to help alleviate the stress by offerBaha’i Unity Center as groups he’d like to ing virtual learning centers hosted by reli- work with. gious institution and other groups in town.

By offering resources and a physical The effort, which is short for Religious space to students in need, R.I.S.E. partners Institutions Supporting Education, is are fulfilling the mission they’re called to headed by John Ruehl, who was tapped in do in serving others. a Zoom meeting with Mayor Van JohnSo far, Ruehl estimates that 100 to 150 son and SCCPSS Superintendent Dr. Ann students are utilizing the virtual learning Levett to convene the conversation. centers, but only some sites are currently Ruehl had spoken with Dr. Eric Mason operating. That number may go up as more about the idea of virtual learning centers sites open. in churches across the city, and the idea R.I.S.E. is also accepting more spaces resonated with Johnson and Levett. and volunteers; any church leaders can “The practical side of it is that churches contact Ruehl at john.ruehl@gmail.com have been not meeting for worship in many for more information. cases, so there’s space available, and there’s Volunteers are subject to background anxiety about parents and students going checks, so parents can feel safe when sendback to school,” explains Ruehl. “Why not ing their kids to a virtual learning center. pull various resources together and try It’s inspiring to see faith leaders come to alleviate some anxiety, and do it in the together to do good things for our comname of what we profess to believe in?” munity, and Ruehl is proud to see what’s R.I.S.E. will allow small groups of stuhappening. dents to convene in churches and other “Savannah has a reason to be proud and community centers to complete their virencouraged by how many faith leaders tual learning there. Each space will follow have jumped in and really created a true CDC guidelines: students will be six feet coalition of religious institutions to help apart with no more than 10 in a room, and the community rise up to face a challenge sanitization procedures will be in place. that we share,” says Ruehl. CS While R.I.S.E. is comprised of churches, students don’t have to belong to the congregation to utilize the learning space.

There will also be volunteers on hand to help the students with any issues they

NEWS & OPINION ENVIRONMENT

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Climate is still a priority, amid an array of critical problems A CRUCIALLY important issue has been overlooked in the deluge of news about COVID, the presidential election, and delayed economic recovery. Controls on methane leaks are being withdrawn by the Trump Administration, which will greatly worsen the already ominous climate crisis.

In fact, left unchecked, these leaks will make climate overheating so much worse that all other threats will become moot.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas, and most of the leaks are caused when fossil fuels are extracted, transported, and processed by the oiland-gas industry. When leaked into the atmosphere, proportionally methane traps some eighty times more heat than the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

Given the enormous volumes of gas handled, relatively small portions of leaked gas can greatly intensify climate impacts.

Experts estimate that if U.S. methane leaks are allowed to continue unabated, resulting emissions will be worse than allowing all America’s remaining coalfired power plants to keep operating.

Yet, because so few people are aware of the serious problem of methane leaks, due to gas-producer misinformation, natural gas is falsely perceived to be cleaner and more environmentally responsible than burning oil and coal.

The Environmental Defense Fund reports scientific findings that the fossilfuel industry emits some 13 million tons of methane annually, 80% more than EPA had previously estimated. Accordingly, mandatory requirements for carefully preventing these leaks were adopted in 2016, yet they’re now under attack.

Until a nearly complete conversion to emission-free clean energy – at least 15 years into the future – unfettered emission of greenhouse gases will catapult our climate into recklessly higher temperatures – beyond anything humans have experienced since our evolution as a species, tens-of-thousands of years ago.

The interrelated catastrophic impacts brought by an over-heated world are truly alarming: • Accelerated melting of glaciers, producing trillions of dollars in property damage from flooding due to rising sea-level.

• Extreme drought, causing megawildfires, uninhabitable communities,

with U.S. controls on methane leaks.

Ironically, representatives of American oil and gas producers have spoken in favor of the methane-leak restrictions, supported by energy companies such as Shell, BP and ExxonMobil. Recognizing) that methane leaks compounded the negative public opinion caused by the industry’s controversial and environmentally destructive fracking techniques, they were compelled to address the problem.

As of 2019, about two-thirds of U.S. natural gas came from fracking, though before the fracking boom began less than 15 years ago, the U.S. was a major gas importer.

“We need to control methane emissions now to maximize the advantages of gas and secure a role for decarbonized gas in the future energy system,” BP wrote in a public comment issued last year. “Otherwise, we risk losing the confidence of investors, consumers, policymakers and other stakeholders,” he added.

Whether the fossil-fuel industry continues supporting these measures or not, responsible leaders and their constituents must demand timely, undeviating, and accountable actions to reduce greenhouse gases. Such policies will not only help avert a disastrous future, but economic benefits will flourish as clean energy development provides sustainable opportunities for good jobs and small business development.

Over the past decade the cost of solar power has plummeted and related employment has skyrocketed– creating far more jobs than fossil fuels. The main impediment to clean-energy conversion isn’t financial or technological, but political.

One of our top priorities must be adopting energy-sector regulations that support expanded use of rooftop solar for homes and small businesses, while also ensuring near-term investment in regional transmission systems that include “smart-grid” capabilities, essential to efficient and reliable management of clean electrical power.

To build upon Savannah’s leadership on the climate issue, we must concurrently reinstate regulatory reductions on greenhouse gases – foremost methane controls – and support policy initiatives that will create the incentives and infrastructure needed to facilitate rapid transformation to a clean-energy economy. We cannot afford to delay these priorities, because further negligence will irreversibly magnify existential threats that imperil our future. CS David Kyler is executive director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast.

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destruction of crops and famine.

• Irreversibly high fatalities related to heat-exhaustion, compromised immune systems, and COVID-like pandemics.

• Mass migration of human populations fleeing famine and seeking more tolerable living conditions, • Rapid extinction of wildlife as habitat is destroyed by extreme conditions, destabilizing entire ecosystems.

Obviously, (socio-)economic consequences will be equally disastrous. Energy demand for cooling will overload power systems, disrupted or depleted critical materials will break supply-chains, and diseased or disabled skilled workers will cripple production capacity.

At the same time, governments will be unable to keep up with the consequences of controlling disease, civil unrest, international disputes over natural resources, and mass migrations.

For all these reasons and more, over 15 years ago, the Department of Defense warned the Bush Administration that climate change was a growing threat to America’s national security.

Yet, since then the issue has been marginalized, addressed with half-hearted and erratic patchwork policies that accommodated politically influential Big-Oil profit-making.

During that period of escalating negligence, for the first time in history the U.S. became one of the world’s largest exporters of fossil-fuels, spurred by contradictory claims that such expanded production was improving our “energy independence” – while selling our vital resources to foreign markets and significantly accelerating the climate crisis.

Though the U.S. participated in the 2015 Paris Accord on the Global Climate, the Trump Administration withdrew America and has dismantled vital restrictions on the fossil-fuel industry, including critically important controls on methane emissions.

To Savannah’s credit, despite these grossly irresponsible national policy rollbacks, last March the City Council adopted a resolution to reduce dependency on carbon-emitting energy sources, pledging to become “carbon neutral” by 2035.

This action paralleled similar steps taken by Atlanta, Athens-Clark County, and other local governments in Georgia and around the nation.

If Savannah and fellow forward-looking communities hope to achieve the important goals they share in reducing climate threats, we must resolve to aggressively endorse emission restrictions, beginning

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NEWS & OPINION WRUU SPOTLIGHT

WRUU Spotlight:

‘We The People’

Panel of profs has lively radio discussion of the Constitution, and what it means today

BY JIM MOREKIS

jim@connectsavannah.com

OUR SERIES profiling WRUU show hosts hits the trifecta this week. We speak with Georgia Southern University professors Dr. Barbara Fertig, Dr. Christopher Hendricks, and Dr. Daniel Skidmore-Hess about their ambitious panel show, “We The People: The Constitution Today.”

With a huge assist from WRUU station manager Dave Lake, the show — airing Sunday nights at 8 p.m. — features a discussion of the Constitution of the United States, its origin, its content and the application of the Constitution to what’s happening in the news.

Each episode features an introduction

by Skidmore-Hess, professor of Political Science at Georgia Southern University followed by a discussion by Skidmore-Hess with Hendricks, professor of History, and Fertig, professor emeritus of History at Georgia Southern University.

The League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia underwrites the series.

While three of the planned six episodes have already aired, you can access the archived previous shows anytime at WRUU’s website, wruu.org.

We had a round-robin chat with all three professors.

What prompted the original idea for the show? Why this, why now?

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

Hendricks: Barbara approached me with the idea, thinking that in light of the upcoming election this would be an extremely important and timely topic. We met for lunch at Sly’s one day and talked about how it might come together and based on that conversation, I suggested we bring in Dan because as a political scientist, he would offer a different perspective.

Fertig: I got the idea back when Trump was worrying and annoying, but not yet as hyper as he is now. I thought, what can we do to remind people of what the president’s constitutional duties are, and why aren’t they being followed? I wanted to do what I could without calling out names — but of course eventually we have to call out names!

I talked to Chris, who then brought Dan on board. It’s a perfect match. Dave got 8 really excited about it. I guess it was my

idea, but it kind of grew. I didn’t have to coax either one of them! Dan teaches constitutional law, and I knew Chris was sort of the American historian on duty, and needed to be a part of it.

Skidmore-Hess: When I was approached, it was my understanding that a political scientist was specifically being sought. In the University System of Georgia nearly every political scientist is engaged in teaching a state-mandated course on the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. I have known both Barbara and Chris for over 27 years as Armstrong faculty and was eager to work with them on this project.

the debates are baked in the cake and were never intended to be permanently reconciled?

Hendricks: One of the reasons the US Constitution — the second oldest written constitution in the world — has functioned so successfully for the last 231 years is because it is a living document. It is the basic rulebook for American govAside from your personalities, what ernment, but unlike state constitutions makes this particular group the right is fairly general, lacking many proscripfit for this project? tions. That means it can function in 2020 just as well as it did in 1820 or 1920. But Hendricks: I think the group works well that also means that people can interpret because of the difference in our disciin many different ways. That is nothing plines. Barbara and I are both American new. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefhistorians, but she specializes in the 20th ferson were reading the Constitution difCentury and folk culture, while I focus on ferently almost as soon as the ink was dry. the colonial and early national periods.

Essentially, each new generation is I have really enjoyed our conversaforced to grapple with the issues of the day tions because we have expertise in differand decide how it believes the Constitution ent areas and offer unique examples and applies. I personally believe that debate points of view. After Dan’s introductory remarks at the beginning of each program, is part of the process, part of the Constitution. The document is the frame upon our conversations have been off the cuff which we shape our government, not a and unscripted, and I’ve learned a great prison we use to entrap it. deal. It’s been thought provoking for me Skidmore-Hess: There is always someand a lot of fun. thing new to debate about the U.S. ConstiFertig: I’ve always taught Constitutution as new issues and problems arise. tional law, though I don’t always teach it the same way as others. Any American his- The expansion of executive power is a modern and contemporary concern, and tory professor today is increasingly interested in why our government is structured how does the concept of checks and balthe way it is. It leads you to some incredible ances apply and adapt? Can we maintain the principles of limited government and things. Of course, everyone tries to sway rule of law and how to do so? the Constitution in one way or another.

Debate is definitely baked in as the ConNot a lot of people are aware of Trump’s stitution itself is a result of complex interrelationship with Andrew Jackson, for action of conflicting interests. The result example. Most historians have stopped was sometimes brutal (for example, the praising Andrew Jackson for the part he had in democratization of the government. 3/5s compromise) and also could be vague (for example, the “elastic clause”). The Jackson’s activities regarding taking over structure served and still serves to protect the government happen entirely at the point he’s running for reelection. All those property and established institutions yet things happen the year before and the year the document also has intellectual depth behind it that needs to be better underafter he’s reelected. stood if we are to live in it and improve it.

I have learned much from Barbara and People are always trying to “solve” constitutional debates. Is this a worth- Chris in these discussions, I hope listeners while effort or is the whole point that have the same kind of experience.

Is there one particular area of the Constitution that you think is particularly misunderstood or ignored by the American public at large?

Hendricks: I am often shocked and saddened by how ignorant people are of their own government. People frequently make bold proclamations about what is in the Constitution that are simply wrong. And it turns out that often they are just spouting off viewpoints they’ve heard from their particular newsfeed of choice. Most Americans have never even read the Constitution, and frankly, that’s criminal.

Skidmore-Hess: I think the most common misunderstanding is that the three branches are intended to be equal. Not so, the legislative branch is primary. I explain this is in the second episode.

Also, more subtly, “We the People” are also checked and balanced. That principle is pervasive in the document. The republican form of government ultimately places deliberation over efficient and quick responses to public opinion, and that becomes less frustrating when better understood.

Fertig: The legislative branch was supposed to be the primary branch of American government. The executive branch was really intended to execute what Congress tells it to do.

I’m afraid there’s a long line of 20th Century decisions monkeying around with the three branches. As a primarily 20th Century historian, I’m focused for example on how Woodrow Wilson decided to reshape the relationships between the three branches of government.

But Ronald Reagan was the worst in that regard — until Trump came along. CS WRUU Savannah Soundings radio focus is on celebrating Savannah’s creative depth and diversity, and providing programming to unserved or underserved community groups. WRUU is an all-volunteer station. Stream them at wruu. org or listen at 107.5 FM

NEWS

Morris Multimedia names Erica Baskin as publisher of Connect Savannah ability to lead,” said Joe McGlamery, regional vice president for Morris Multimedia papers in Southeast Georgia. “Connect Savannah is in very capable hands with Erica at the helm.”

In her role as publisher of Connect Savannah, Baskin will be responsible for all aspects of its print, digital and events portfolio.

“I am very excited to lead the Connect Savannah team in a diverse city steeped in history,” said Baskin. “I am looking forward to immersing myself into the community and meeting the people that make Savannah such a great city.”

Baskin can be reached at erica@ connectsavannah.com or at 912-721-4378.

Morris Multimedia Inc. is among the largest privately held media companies in the United States. Founded in 1970 in Savannah, Georgia

by Charles H. Morris, the company today owns and operates more than 65 publications, network affiliate television stations, and other media related ventures in nine states and the Caribbean. Morris is headquartered in the Historic Oliver Sturges House in Savannah.

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CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

MORRIS MULTIMEDIA announces the appointment of newspaper veteran Erica Baskin as the new publisher of Connect Savannah.

“We are excited about bringing someone of Erica’s experience to Savannah,” said Charles H. Morris, Chairman and CEO of Morris Multimedia. “Her diverse experiences will help to take Connect Savannah to another level.”

Baskin comes to Savannah after serving in various roles for Fenice Community Media in Texas and Boone Newspapers in Alabama. In Texas, Baskin served as publisher of the weekly newspapers in Katy and Sealy. In Alabama, she served as the advertising director of the daily in Selma and as the publisher of the weekly in Madison.

“As we went through the interviewing process with Erica, several things impressed me. First, she and her husband fell in love with Savannah – with its history, with its people and as a place where they wanted to live. Second, she is a confident person who has a demonstrated

9

NEWS & OPINION CRIME

Halting Chatham County’s child sex trade

BY BRITTANY HERREN A FEW years ago, I read a particularly horrifying account of three girls who had been living in a Chatham County motel room and engaging in prostitution activities and drug use under the leadership of a man who was their purported pimp.

One of the girls, 13 at the time, had been made to have sex, on average, about ten times per day.

She was a United States citizen and did not come from an impoverished household. At that time, she was just like any other teenage girl in Savannah who tended to spar with her mom from time to time.

It was one particular verbal altercation with her mom at a mall that grabbed the

attention of Timothy Lewis.

Lewis, an attractive man in terms of conventional measures, was in his late twenties and, unknown to the young girl at the time, was known on the streets as “Maintain.” Prior to being found guilty of 19 of the 20 counts listed in a 2015 indictment connecting him to the sex trafficking of six underage girls whom he sold for sex throughout Savannah, he had been arrested no less than 14 times for charges ranging from battery to cruelty of children.

While anyone with the ability to run a background check would know that this man had a particular fanaticism towards violence and control, to an unassuming girl, he was just a nice guy offering a place to live and some money for a hair appointment.

In speaking with Captain Gene Harley, Criminal Investigations Division Commander for the Chatham County Police Department and former Assistant Deputy Director of the Chatham-Savannah Narcotics Team (CNT), this sort of scenario is not uncommon.

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“During my CNT days, there were countless interviews with young girls who would meet up with a guy who would eventually get them hooked on drugs,” said Harley. “These girls would just get stuck in this cycle of drugs and prostitution that they could not get out of.”

When talking about sex trafficking, this scenario is typically the one that may play out in your head, in large part thanks to Hollywood blockbusters such as Taken, where Liam Neeson plays a bruting, exgovernment operative whose daughter and friend are kidnapped and shuffled into the sex trade while on a visit to Paris.

Unlike Neeson’s memorable “I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you,” line in the franchise’s first movie, many of these cases do not look like this, do not have a single person hunting perpetrators and don’t usually resolve with a happy ending.

As Harley points out, the child sex trafficking pandemic of the 21st century (coined as such by Forbes as far back as 2018) is a global issue as well as a local one that has multiple facets.

“Trafficking for the child sex trade can be children smuggled into the country illegally for the sole purpose of sexual exploitation; it can be young drug addicts who become dependent on a supplier who then uses drugs as a way to control them and prostitute them out for money; it can be a drug addicted mother who is pimping out her own children for money and drugs; and in some cases, it is minors as young as infants to 5-years-old who are being viewed digitally through photos or sexually assaulted in person,” explained Harley.

Child sex trafficking and the overarching human trafficking is a profitable business. In Georgia alone, it brings in an estimated $290 million to the industry annually, according to Georgia Cares, the single, statewide coordinating agency for child victims of sexual exploitation and

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @connectsavannah

trafficking.

So, reading this as a parent, what can you do to combat this mammoth problem?

According to Harley, the answer starts at home.

“Parents are the frontline defense,” said Harley. “Be overly involved in your child’s life and be engaged.”

Harley can recount countless times where parents or authorities discover secret social media pages that victims of sexual exploitation used to post risqué pictures and communicate with strangers.

“A lot of this starts on social media,” explained Harley. “A minor starts talking to a would-be predator and that leads to a relationship, which eventually leads to a meetup, which usually ends with a sexual assault of some type or an abduction.”

In addition to monitoring your child’s internet and social media usage, Harley also stresses the importance of education for children and for parents.

“You have to know the potential dangers so that you can make informed decisions about your behavior and your approach,” said Harley.

However, as Harley pointed out, some of these local cases start the old-fashioned way with incidents like a predator abducting a child right out of their parent’s car in a busy parking lot.

“It’s tempting to just run inside the store for a quick errand and leave your child in the car, but make your children come inside with you,” explained Harley. “All too often, we see an abduction or an attempted abduction that occurred because a child was deep in their cell phone and sitting in an unattended, running car.”

In addition to a vigilance that boils down to accountability and awareness, Crime Stoppers of Savannah-Chatham County provides a service that makes it easy for all citizens to report even the suspicion of these types of crimes anonymously. By calling the 24/7 crime tip line, you can submit an anonymous tip regarding a suspicion of human trafficking or you can go online to SavannahChathamCrimeStoppers.org and click “Submit Online Tip.” While dedicated law enforcement officers continue to tirelessly work to expel entire human trafficking operations locally and around the world, it somehow feels like it is never enough. Lewis, for example, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2017. When he is released in 2037, he will be 54; a presumably light sentence for a man whose infernal subsistence will haunt his victims for the rest of their lives. CS Brittany Herren is Assistant Executive Director of Crime Stoppers of Savannah-Chatham

NEWS & OPINION NEWS OF THE WEIRD The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 5.1-magnitude earthquake in Alleghany County, N.C., on Sunday, Aug. 9, at 8:07 a.m., about the same time parishioners at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Charlotte, 100 miles to the south, gathered at Mass and heard this among the morning’s Bible readings: “After the wind there was an earthquake -- but the Lord was not in the earthquake.” Father Richard Sutter, pastor at St. Gabriel, later told The Charlotte Observer he didn’t feel the rumble himself, but several worshippers approached him after the outdoor service to share the “God-incidence.” Father Cory Catron, closer to the epicenter near Sparta, also felt the quake and said it made for “good homily material.” As services ended that morning, an aftershock rattled his church.

The Mother of Invention

As wildfires tore through parts of California on Aug. 19, Chad Little of Vacaville and his family prepared to evacuate, but Little changed his mind and decided to stay, he told KCRA. The family is in the process of rebuilding the home they lost five years ago in an attic fire, and “I can’t let it go,” he said. Little had hoses ready, but when the electricity went out, the water was cut off, so he grabbed a rake to clear away dry grass. As his cars and then his shop began to catch fire, he reached for the only liquid he had -- cans of Bud Light, shaking and spraying them at the fire, dousing the flames just before firefighters arrived. “My buddies all tease me about drinking water-beer,” he said. “I say, ‘Hey, it saved my shop.’” He also managed to save his home.

Rude

Sonja Lee has been struggling to make rent on her Houston apartment since losing her job in March, and has talked with her landlord about payment arrangements, but on Aug. 17, she received an eviction notice in the form of a piece of paper taped to her door that read, “Guess who’s moving? You!!!” accompanied by a smiley face emoji and a demand to turn in her keys by 6 o’clock that night. “So y’all think it’s funny,” Lee told ABC 13 News. “There was nothing funny about that.” The apartment complex owner said the manager has been disciplined and has apologized.

Questionable Judgment

Balladeer James Blunt recently revealed that early in his college years at the University of Bristol, he adopted a completely carnivorous diet in order to prove his manliness, according to Men’s Health. “I just lived on mince, some chicken, maybe with some mayonnaise, and it took me about six to eight weeks to get very, very unhealthy and see a doctor, who said, ‘I think you’ve got the symptoms of scurvy,’” he confessed

in a podcast. In response, Blunt tried to reverse the vitamin C deficiency that causes scurvy by drinking a liter of orange juice every night, which caused him to develop acid reflux. “So as you can see, yeah, food is not necessarily my forte.”

Government in Action

Kelly Eroglu in Cwmbran, Wales, was disappointed when her petition to open a coffee shop catering to bicyclists, and including parking spaces for bikes, was turned down by the local planning board because it lacked sufficient parking for cars. “It’s crazy,” Eroglu told The Guardian in mid-August, “because the Welsh government have prioritized (about $450 million) to improve walking and cycling within Wales.” Eroglu is planning to appeal. “No way am I giving up,” she said.

News You Can Use

Police in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, say a homeowner ignored a warning from his pet parrot on Aug. 17 because the bird “isn’t always a reliable source of information,” CTV reported. As a thief entered the home through an unlocked door, authorities said, the parrot issued a friendly “hello,” which didn’t alert the homeowner or deter the man from taking a credit card from a wallet. A neighbor photographed the suspect leaving the scene and security cameras later caught a 33-year-old man using the stolen card at a store, said police, who arrested him.

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Least Competent Criminals

• Herbert McClellan, 27, took advantage of a distracted clerk at a Speedway gas station in Clearwater, Florida, on Aug. 18 to snatch about $100 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets, according to police, who were alerted by store employees a few hours later when McClellan returned to the store to claim the $30 prize offered by one of the tickets. Fox13 reported McClellan was charged with petit theft and dealing in stolen property.

• Police in Hollywood, Florida, had little trouble tracking down a trio of thieves who broke into nearly 30 homes, stealing more than $150,000 in cash, weapons, mobile phones, electronics, jewelry, a vehicle and more, because all three were “already on pretrial release for previous crimes and ... wearing court-ordered GPS ankle bracelet monitors,” Officer Christian Lata said. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Zion Odain Denvor Hall, 21; Tyrek Davontae Williams, 19; and Tremaine Raekwon Hill, 18, were arrested on Aug. 14 and charged with charged with burglary, grand theft and racketeering. Police believe they’re part of a larger organization committing criminal acts throughout South Florida.

Additional charges are to come. CS

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MUSIC INTERVIEW

With Freebird, no request is necessary to hear your Skynyrd favorite Chris Howard talks his Atlanta-based tribute to the rock and roll greats

BY SEAN KELLY

sean@connectsavannah.com

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

PULLING OFF Lynyrd Skynyrd tastefully isn’t easy, but Freebird has done it. Often hailed as the greatest Skynyrd tribute on earth, the band’s upcoming Coach’s Corner show on Saturday, Sep. 5 is sure to be a can’t miss performance.

The band plays, as you’d expect, all of the Lynyrd Skynyrd hits and then some.

They’re all big fans, but the band’s founder Chris Howard has been since he was a teenager.

He actually got the idea for the band after randomly coming across a hat that looked eerily similar to the one famously worn by the band’s singer Ronnie Van Zandt.

“I’d found a hat in a thrift store that was very resemblant of Ronnie’s, and it sat in the back of my car for about a week, but I hadn’t thought of anything to do with a 12 Skynyrd tribute. I looked at it and said, ‘If

I’m going to have that, I’ll need to do a Skynyrd tribute,’” Howard tells Connect.

“I’d already done a Rolling Stones tribute, and it just seemed to fit perfectly. I just called up some people and they were like, ‘Sure, let’s do it.’ We had to go through some people to find the right group, but we finally put it together and came out of the gate guns blazing. We got to play big shows and festivals, and had graduated up to the theater level right when COVID began.

It’s knocked us down a couple of steps, but we’ve got it a lot better than some of other bands I’ve seen.”

Howard says he was 14 years old when he first got into the band, through cassette tapes he got from a friend.

“I’d grown up on The Beatles, Hendrix, and The Who, and Lynyrd Skynyrd just fit right in there in its own way. It’s really diggable music, and it’s easy to groove to.

There is something about Lynyrd Skynyrd that people really love,” he says.

One thing that always made the band stand out was their ability to be tasteful

and really serve the song, despite having a rather large lineup. Freebird takes these careful arrangements to heart and plays the songs passionately and meticulously, like the original recordings.

“We went in thinking that we knew it all as it is on the album, but we found out we were wrong,” he says.

“It took some practicing and some really hard listening. If we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it to its fullest extent. And Lynyrd Skynyrd fans know the difference. We took that into consideration when doing this, from day one. We’ve really come to the point we’re at now, where we’ve duplicated their sound. These people are paying the money to see this, and we’re going to give them everything and more that they paid for.”

In fact, the band has often been approached by diehard Skynyrd fans to thank them and show their appreciation.

“One thing we get a lot is, ‘I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd in the 70s, and all I have to do is close my eyes to feel like I’m there [again],”

Howard says.

“That’s the biggest compliment. It’s about as big of a compliment as you can get.”

From Howard’s perspective, there’s one thing about Skynyrd that he feels is often misunderstood by the casual fan or general music listener.

“The idea that they were just a southern rock band—they were very versatile. No one sounds like them. They have something that belongs to them, and not many bands have that. They created their own sound, and it’s truly amazing what they accomplished in just a small amount of time as a band,” he says.

“It’s a proven product,” Howard adds with a laugh, “and I’m glad I chose to do it after I got that hat.” CS

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Plant Riverside announces regular music lineup Performances will take place across multiple venues at the district

BY SEAN KELLY

sean@connectsavannah.com

SAVANNAH’S NEWEST entertainment district, Plant Riverside, is getting seriously musical. The expansive new attraction features several venues across the property, and each venue will host a regular lineup of live music on outdoor stages.

The vision was that of Richard Kessler, the brains behind the project. But the music is being overseen by Jeremy Davis, best known as the leader of the Fabulous Equinox Orchestra.

“We’re super thankful to Mr. Kessler for having an amazing vision for live music entertainment here,” Davis tells Connect.

“He’s invested a lot in making this the biggest and best place to enjoy food and live music. And it’s literally around the clock.

We have music seven days a week.” On any given day, you’ll find piano players, organ players, and other talented artists taking one of the stages to entertain patrons.

So far, Plant Riverside has seen live music from the likes of Kenny Munshaw, Eric Jones, and Davis himself in a pared down version of the orchestra. Working to bring music to the district has been a labor of love, especially during these uncertain times where everyone is trying to figure out how to move forward safely.

Response to the live music offerings has been warm so far, with Davis saying he’s gotten good feedback from locals.

“I had one guy come up to me who’s lived in Savannah his whole life, and he said, ‘I cannot believe that this is in my city.’ Any night of the week, you can come down here and experience something that’s on par with what you’d experience in Las Vegas,” Davis says.

Jeremy Davis and the Fabulous Equinox Orchestra are key to the efforts at Plant Riverside.

Savannah Cirque, Davis reveals, is even staging performances with some of its members on Plant Riverside’s stages.

“They have all kinds of really cool artists that are performing down here,” he says.

“There’s really something for everybody.”

Of course, there’s the going concern of safety precautions given the pandemic, which Davis says they’re taking very seriously. One major plus to Plant Riverside’s setup is that both major venues on the property are open air.

“We are trying to be very careful,” he says. “We’re trying to be safe and responsible adults, so anytime you can do anything outside is kind of a win. The Orchestra is doing outdoor shows; almost one a week.

So the fact that we’ve got two open air venues is a huge blessing—the Electric Moon and the Plant Riverside District stage.”

Tables and tickets moved particularly fast for the Orchestra’s first major gig at the venue, which is also their first major Monday night performance since the pandemic began.

“There’s a venue here called Beethoven’s Terrace, which is overlooking Generator Hall, which is a pretty spectacular location. The second we launched that show, the tables were sold out in 48 hours. I think it’s a testament to the fact that people are ready to get back together. They’ll have their mask and be safe, and enjoy dinner before the show,” he says of the show.

“We also scaled the band down, and we spaced the tables with a little more social distancing than normal.” CS For a full schedule of upcoming performances, visit plantriverside.com

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MUSIC REVIEWS

BY SEAN KELLY

sean@connectsavannah.com

Cusses - Golden Rat (2018)

Released exactly two years ago, the former Savannah band Cusses released their excellent sophomore album Golden Rat. It was a long time coming for the localsturned Nashvillians, who went through a hiatus and several personal challenges before reuniting to record and release what remains their latest album.

Golden Rat is an all killer no filler kind of album in the best possible sense of the phrase. I know this is a cliche phrase that’s thrown around a lot about; in some cases, it’s not necessarily true for the album in question. In this case, it couldn’t be a more perfect description.

The unforgiving, hard-hitting “Pops Racer” opens the record with a clear statement of what this band was in 2018 and still is today. It’s a heavy riff-driven song that’s rather challenging, especially in comparison to the few songs that come after it. Singer Angel Bond is at her absolute best on this record, but “Racer” is proof that she’s pretty unmatched from a melodic standpoint.

“Critical” might be my personal favorite on the record, with it’s gigantic-sounding guitars enhanced by a thrashy, roomy drum kit. It rides the line of going into heavy shoegaze territory, but remains in the hard rock and alternative realm

especially during the chorus. Arrangement-wise, it’s a beautifully-crafted song that could have worked well on rock radio in the 90s but has as much potential to usher in a new era of rock and roll today.

“Visitor” is another song that follows in this vein, but it’s a bit heavier and edgier, and it works really well as a mid-album recharge. The tite track, “Golden Rat,” comes in right after this one and delivers a bit of a call and response arrangement that sounds like a hard rock take on blues. It wouldn’t be out of place by some of the greats from the late 80s Sunset Strip scene, but it’s not pretentious like some of those bands can seem in today’s musical landscape.

The great thing about Cusses is that they seem to go to great lengths to evolve their sound and push themselves further.

They’ve always seemed to do that, but it hasn’t been more evident than on this record. Whatever happens next with the trio, they can at least say they’ve accomplished serious musical and sonic growth.

This is an album that isn’t afraid to explore mid-tempo rock songs, rather than pack the album with fast-paced guitar riffs. That isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty of that aside from the opening song; in fact, the closing song “Teenage Monster” expertly bookends the album with the same energy as the opener. It makes this a really great listen front to back, but one that can also work song-by-song. That’s a hard thing to accomplish when making a record. But as I said—all killer, no filler. CS

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MUSIC THE BAND PAGE

BY SEAN KELLY

HUNTER FLANAGAN AND NATALIE GOODMAN

@COACH’S CORNER

Two talented songwriters and singers take the Coach’s stage as part of their Nashville Nights series. Natalie Goodman, a local, will open the night and warm up the stage for Hunger Flanagan. Flanagan is a really powerful writer who’s also a multi-instrumentalist. Don’t miss this unique chance to see two greats in the singer/songwriter world come together.

THURS., SEP. 3, 7 P.M., $10

JASON BIBLE @QUARANTINE CONCERTS

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

Something of a local legend, Jason Bible will return to Quarantine Concerts after being one of the first shows on the books. This actually marks the 50th Quarantine Concert, and it’s sure to be a great one. Whether it’s his masterful solo work or equally brilliant catalog with The Train Wrecks, there’s truly something for everyone with the work of Jason Bible.

SAT., SEP. 5, 8 P.M., QUARANTINECONCERTS.ORG

16

DAMON & THE SHITKICKERS @THE PIER

Join Damon & the Shitkickers for a night of real, palpable country rock at The Pier on Tybee. Undoubtedly one of the best bands around, and a true example of what country music should be, Damon and company have been rocking in our area for years and continue to fly the flag for great music all over the place. Do not miss this one.

SUN., SEP. 6, 4 P.M.

KEITH AND ROSS @COACH’S CORNER

Locals Keith and Ross play self-described “alt-country emograss.” If that isn’t enough to make you even the least bit curious, then we can’t help you. These guys undoubtedly put on a great show, so if you’re looking for an excuse to go out and dance, here it is. Coach’s shows are outside in their sound garden, and there are social distancing measures in place so you can dance in your own space.

FRI, SEP. 4, 7 P.M., $10

Soundboard MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD IS A FREE SERVICE - TO BE INCLUDED, PLEASE SEND YOUR LIVE MUSIC INFORMATION WEEKLY TO SOUNDBOARD@CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM. DEADLINE IS NOON MONDAY, TO APPEAR IN WEDNESDAY’S EDITION. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO EDIT OR CUT LISTINGS DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS.

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DRAUCKER @MOLLY MCGUIRE’S

Live music is making a comeback, folks, and our Soundboard is back to help you navigate the scene. This weekend sees local band DRAUCKER hit the stage at Molly’s for a night of bluesy rock ‘n’ roll.

FRI., SEPT. 4, 8 P.M.

LIVE MUSIC

Plant Riverside District Live Piano Music, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Starland Yard Josephine Johnson, 6 p.m.

The Warehouse Jubal Kane, 8 p.m.

The Wormhole Open Jam, 9 p.m.

THURSDAY 9. 3 LIVE MUSIC

Coach’s Corner Nashville Nights with Hunter Flanagan, 7 p.m.

Cohen’s Retreat Munchies and Music, 5-9 p.m.

Namaste Savannah Himalayan Nights The Perch at Local 11 ten Billy Brennan, 5:30 p.m.

Plant Riverside District Live Piano Music, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Rancho Alegre Cuban Restaurant Gypsy Jazz, 7 p.m.

Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos, 7 p.m.

The Warehouse Jon Lee’s Apparitions, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY 9. 4 LIVE MUSIC

Coach’s Corner Keith and Ross, 7 p.m.

Driftaway Cafe Gordon Perry, 6 p.m.

The DeSoto Jacob Evans, 6:30 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Whiskey & Wine Mansion on Forsyth Park Voodoo Soup, 7 p.m.

Molly McGuire’s Draucker, 6:30 p.m.

Online First Friday for Folk Music, 7:30 p.m.

Online Quarantine Concert w/ Danielle Hicks and the Resistance, 8 p.m.

Plant Riverside District Live Piano Music, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Rancho Alegre Cuban Restaurant Live Jazz Music, 6:30 p.m.

Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos, 7 p.m.

Service Brewing Company Bluegrass By The Pint, 5:30 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe Free Spirits, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY 9. 5 LIVE MUSIC

Coach’s Corner Freebird - The Ultimate Lynyrd Skynyrd Experience, 7 p.m.

Driftaway Cafe Gordon Perry, 6 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Free Spirits Online Quarantine Concert w/ Jason Bible, 8 p.m.

Plant Riverside District Live Piano Music, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., LaFaye and the Fellas, 7 p.m.

Rancho Alegre Cuban Restaurant Live Jazz Music, 6:30 p.m.

Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos, 7 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe Matt Hill, Hunter

Price, 3 p.m.

SUNDAY 9. 6 LIVE MUSIC

Collins Quarter at Forsyth Laiken Love and the Fellowship of Love, 3 p.m.

Congress Street Social Club Voodoo Soup, 10:30 p.m.

Edgar’s Proof and Provisions Live Music and Mimosas, 11 a.m.

The Perch at Local 11 ten Markus Kuhlmann, 5:30 p.m.

Plant Riverside District Sunday Jazz Brunch w/ the Equinox Krewe, 11 a.m.

Starland Yard Voodoo Soup, 6 p.m.

Tybee Pier Pavilion Damon and the Shitkickers, 4 p.m.

The Warehouse Thomas Claxton Wild Wing Cafe Jason Courtenay

MONDAY 9. 7 LIVE MUSIC

Plant Riverside District Live Piano Music, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Wormhole Open Mic, 8 p.m.

TUESDAY 9. 8 LIVE MUSIC

Plant Riverside District Live Piano Music, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Warehouse Brett Barnard, 8 p.m.

investment provided by:

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

WEDNESDAY 9. 2

17

CULTURE THE ART•BEAT OF SAVANNAH

Left: Couple at Persepolis Lounge. Above: Blake.

her down Congress, duck into the Rail or the Jinx, then hang a right on Whitaker and catch the show at Hang Fire before turning down Broughton and working her way back to where she started.

“I’d do that eight times a night,” she remembers.

All the while, she’d pick the characters out of the crowd and photographing them, either by pulling them to the side for a portrait or capturing the moment as it was.

She captured what it looked like to be a part of the downtown scene.

The result is a stunning series of black and white photography, at times moody, almost feeling suspended in time. Some of the people and places are instantly recognizable, and some less so, but the photos all still feel familiar somehow.

Earl’s street-style photography is influenced by the likes of Weegee and Jill Freedman, but her interest in that genre has been there for quite a while.

Earl’s parents were both photographers: her dad shot nature, her mom took portraits. flash,” Earl says. “It’s not that old of a cam“My mom is one of my favorite photographers to this day,” she gushes. “I think she era, but to most people, it’s a very exotic was always showing me a little more porthing.” trait work, street photography.”

It’s not the Polaroid that younger genShe received a disposable camera when erations remember, where you press a butshe was four or five, and she surprised her ton and the camera spits out a photo that parents by taking some pretty decent picdevelops in minutes. This camera uses a more physical process: after each shot, Earl tures. They taught her the basics, and she’s pulls the film through rollers in the back of been into it ever since.

But perhaps the moment that stuck the the camera, where the chemistry is distribmost happened when Earl was in high uted onto the image. school at Savannah Arts Academy.

Two years after she bought the camera, “We had one roll of film, and we had to Earl took it out for a spin. Back then, before go out on the streets, and every image on she helped found Sulfur Studios, she was working at a photo lab and at a coffee shop. the roll had to be of a different stranger,” she says.

She had the freedom to go out late: “it was Earl, who was shy in high school, just what everyone was doing.” remembers being terrified to do the assignEarl would start at one of her favorite bars, The Sparetime, on the corner of Con- ment, but once she got over her nerves, she gress and MLK. She’d let the current take enjoyed it.

Emily Earl’s ‘Late Night Polaroids’ series captures a vibrant—and changing—nightlife

BY RACHAEL FLORA

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

rachael@connectsavannah.com

UP UNTIL RECENTLY, if you went out downtown, you’d almost certainly find yourself pulled along Congress Street.

People flowed up and down the street, dipping in and out of the bars, moving with the crowd like a current. And the crowd was full of characters, especially on a busy night. The members of Savannah’s nightlife scene do not come to play; they dress up and show out every night.

You probably also caught Emily Earl, moving through the current, with her Polaroid ProPack camera in tow.

18 Earl was just as part of the crowd, and

the sights she saw have turned into Late Night Polaroids, the photographic series she’s worked on since 2012. It’s also the subject and title of her first solo museum show, now on display at the Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center as part of their #art912 program.

A longtime photographer, Earl bought the titular Polaroid for $2 at a yard sale in 2010.

“There were a couple years where I was super into yard sales,” she remembers. “I would just go every weekend, and it was the luckiest one of them all.”

At this serendipitous sale, a female photographer was selling everything she had to move to Europe. Earl bought the camera, a rangefinder that has a decidedly vintage look.

“It folds out, it has a bellows, it’s got a big

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Senior Girls.

“It was just this incredible experience for me,” she says. “I always think back to that; that really pointed me in a little bit of a different direction.”

In the assignment, Earl had to ask the strangers’ permission before taking their photo, but in actual street photography, there isn’t always time. Earl recalls walking past Persepolis Lounge on Whitaker and looking through the open French doors to see a couple on a date. They were hitting it off so well that Earl had to stop in her tracks.

“That was the moment—I’m not going to interrupt that moment to ask them for a picture,” she says. “So I took the picture, and then the flash is so bright that they right away were like, ‘Oh! Hi!’” Late Night Polaroids has been garnering local attention for years, and the #art912 exhibition is no different. The

collaboration has been in the works for over a year, when Earl was approached by Telfair’s curators Erin Dunn and Rachel Reese.

“They’re always big supporters of [Sulfur] Studios in general, so they were around a lot and paying attention to what I was doing, which was very nice,” says Earl.

After an official studio visit, Earl was officially presented with the opportunity for the exhibition.

“I feel like I had a lot of freedom,” she said of the curation process. “I pitched them a couple different ideas as I was going through them, and they were super open to everything I wanted to do.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, Earl also published her first monograph, which has been a goal of hers for a while.

The book is available for purchase through Aint-Bad, and $5 from each sale will go to

Alycia.

Ondre.

National Bail Out, a group of organizers working to end mass incarceration.

It’s definitely a great moment for the Late Night Polaroids series—and it’s also ending. Talk about ending on a high note.

The main reason for the closure of the series is because the camera’s film is no longer being made. But even before that, the price of the film increased almost exponentially, which naturally led to a drop-off in shooting. “[In the first three years] the film was 80 cents a shot. By the end of the project, it was $10 a shot,” says Earl. “In the beginning, I could go out and shoot 60 Polaroids in a night and not feel too bad about that, but then once it’s $10 a shot I’m doing, like, five.”

Earl loves film photography for its meditative quality and how it requires attention to what you’re shooting, so skyrocketing film prices was a bit of a deal breaker.

“With digital, you can shoot 3,000 photos and you don’t have to think about it so much. With film, you’ve only got so much, and you really have to think and be there to make sure you’re getting the shot,” she says. “Once it started to get so expensive, there were a lot of moments I was like, ‘Well, it’s not worth it, I’ve got to pass that one up because I only have three [shots.]’

It was very challenging towards the end, for sure.”

But one major factor, either conscious or not, is the dissolution of the familiar downtown landscape. Many of the places Earl photographed, from the Sparetime (and then Ampersand) to Hang Fire to the Jinx, are now closed.

Earl never expected herself to shoot Late Night Polaroids for eight years, much less capture a rapidly changing cultural scene.

“It’s been a lot of changes in the past five years, and a lot of those locally owned businesses that these photos were taken at don’t exist, or maybe the owners end

that business and open another one a little further south,” says Earl. “I don’t think it’s shocking for me to say that there’s less and less small business on Congress and Broughton.”

The southward trend pushes business towards the Starland district, and that change is reflected in the series. One of the last photos was taken at Lone Wolf Lounge, which is three streets down from Victory Drive.

While there may be more bars and restaurants popping up in the Starland district, the Congress Street current can’t be replicated in a new location. The magic of a night downtown was in knowing that you’d bump into people you knew on the main drag, making new friends and following each other to different places.

Congress is still a hotspot for foot traffic—at least it was before the pandemic— but with many of the locally-owned joints slowly falling by the wayside, downtown just has a different feeling. The current flows differently now.

“There’s just not a circuit quite like that,” she says.

Plus, the only film Earl has left for her ProPack is in color.

“They make color film, so I have some of the color left. I’ve got to use those because they don’t stay good forever,” says Earl.

“But I definitely have a deep love for black and white photography. A lot of people are like, ‘Oh my God, I saw a color photograph of yours the other day! I didn’t know that you did that!’” CS “Late Night Polaroids: Photographs by Emily Earl” is on display at the Jepson Center through April 2021. For hours and other viewing information, visit Telfair.org. To purchase the “Late Night Polaroids” monograph, visit aint-bad. com.

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

THE ART•BEAT

19

CULTURE VISUAL ARTS

QUESTIONS

WITH

J’Aaron Merchant

BY RACHAEL FLORA

rachael@connectsavannah.com

ARKANSAS native J’Aaron Merchant came to Savannah to attend the renowned Savannah State University. There, she was able to explore a variety of artistic media, which has contributed to her success as a freelance artist.

Merchant is an illustrator, character designer, and storyboard artist. She counts it as her mission to help others tell their stories and help children of color feel more represented in visual media.

Her illustration style includes bold colors that complement and celebrate darker skin tones, and she’s been praised for creating realistic-looking characters.

We talked with Merchant last week.

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

1.

How did you get your start being creative?

I was always creative. I was a bit of an Army brat, and we moved around, so my way to pass time was drawing. I was the kid in class that just drew in notebooks.

People would be like, “Dang, girl, what you drawing?”

I did my undergrad at the illustrious Savannah State University. I love my HBCU experience; I talk about it all the time. If you can go, definitely go. I got exposed to so much there. A lot of the art community in Savannah overlaps, so it was 20 interesting to see how that worked out.

At Savannah State, I got to dabble in a little bit of everything. I think that’s what helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to do in art. I got to do theater, photography, sculpture, painting, illustration, some of everything. I came out pretty diverse.

I got into freelancing and basically figured it out: “This is what I really want to do. I’m not going to let the fact that I didn’t finish [grad school] stop me from doing it.”

I basically jumped off the cliff and flew the plane on the way down. If you really want to do something, there’s the University of YouTube.

2. What are you doing now?

I’m a freelance illustrator and animator.

These days, I’m doing a lot of visual development. There’s been an uptick in need for diversity in visual entertainment, so a lot of people are hitting me up to help them design different characters for shows and giving feedback on how characters look.

Some of the feedback I got was that my Black characters look Black, my Asian characters look Asian. They love the variety of skin tones I do. With everything that’s been happening, some studios are really trying to make strides, which is cool.

We’ve got some work to do, but we’re getting there.

People just reach out to me [for projects].

I post a lot of my art online and then people eventually reach out saying, “Hey, I want to do a children’s book and I’d love for you to be my illustrator.” Or, “I’m working on this show, I’d love for you to help me with

some characters.” I usually jump on board; I’m usually down.

Most of the work you see on my site, they found me. Always be consistent, always post your work, and make sure you’re easy to find.

3.

How do you avoid creative burnout and find the balance?

I feel like, as a creator, there isn’t really a balance. It’s just a matter of if you want to work or not. I would love to say I have the perfect work style, but I don’t. I’m learning that I’m a bit of a workaholic. I do a little bit too much; I need to scale back.

But if you’ve got a really great story, I want to do what I can to help you. Right now, children of color in general are not represented in children’s literature. My mission right now is to widen the gap.

Bruce W. Smith is one of my favorite animators. He’s known for the Proud Family, and he also used to do this show called Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. It was different spins on traditional stories, so it’d be Rapunzel, but she’d be Puerto Rican. It was cool to see those different kinds of spins on those stories. I’ve been wanting to figure out how to do my own version of that.

4. What’s your work process like?

I work on a lot of projects at once. A lot of people do one or two projects at a time; I tend to do four or five. It’s very busy and very hectic, but it’s just how I work.

I usually have three children’s book projects, an animation project, and maybe a storyboard project I’m working on all at once.

I’m more productive at night, so during the day I do my administrative things, like my invoices, my emails, my follow-ups, any meetings or calls I might have with anybody. Then, closer to the evening, I draw into the night. I have a couple of projects open at once and just jump back and forth between all of them. I usually stop around 6 or 7 a.m., take a shower, get breakfast, lay down, take a two or three hour nap, and I get up and I’m back at it again.

I’m still trying to learn the business side of it. My big thing is I’m trying to figure out how to make art, but not always have to be working. There are some artists who put out collections and that’s all they’ve got to do. I’m very service based: if I’m not providing the service, I’m not making any money, and I want to get away from that.

5. What are your future plans?

Stick with me here: if Oprah and Disney had a baby, it would be me.

I have a very world domination, Pinky and the Brain approach to what I do. In five years, I want to have a fully functioning production studio up and running, creating and producing our own original content. And yeah, that’s it. That’s the goal. CS Follow J’Aaron on Instagram at @jaaronmerchant, and visit her website at jaaronmerchant. com.

CULTURE BOOKS

Randy Wood: The Lore of the Luthier The list of his clients and their instruments over the years is mind-boggling: jim@connectsavannah.com Elvis Presley’s inlaid black Gibson Dove from the Aloha From Hawaii concert.

Eric Clapton’s guitar on Unplugged. Bill RANDY WOOD might be the most imporMonroe’s and Marty Stuart’s favorite tant Savannahian many of you haven’t heard of. A new book by Daniel Wile hopes mandolins.

Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Emmylou to get the word out.

Harris, Keith Richards, Ricky Skaggs….

Though well-known and loved by generations of locals, luthier-to-the-stars Wood And that’s just a partial list.

Wile’s book is no mere catalog of the isn’t mentioned in the stars, however. It takes hype or brochures seekyou back to Randy’s early ing to bring new people to boyhood outside Douglas, Savannah to buy houses in Ga., to his teen years in Ardsley Park or patronize Brunswick, to his stint in establishments in the Histhe Army, to late nights at toric District. jukejoints in Atlanta, to From his current home Muscle Shoals, and into base in Bloomingdale in the very epicenter of the semi-rural West Chatham great Nashville country County, Wood has brought music revival of the ‘70s. in the premier names in The key turning point bluegrass to his Old Time in Randy’s life comes in Picking Parlor, a humble Milledgeville, when he spot right off Highway becomes an apprentice at 80 (and itself named for the wood shop of Robert Wood’s first such venue in “Tut” Taylor.

Nashville).

Tut not only had extenPre-pandemic, his gigs sive experience in needed little promowoodworking to tion, as Randy has teach Randy, he had developed such a connections. devoted client base Wile describes a over the years that visit to the shop by they’d sell out almost the great Roy Acuff, immediately. who was trying to And Randy’s permake a deal on a sonality – underbatch of Dobros. stated, practical, “The deal never down-to-earth – materialized, but means he doesn’t because of the visit, always seek the Randy befriended limelight.

Acuff and ‘BashAs Wile puts it, ful Brother Oswald’ “One of the great iroKirby, the Dobro nies in Randy’s life player in Acuff’s is that this Georgia band,” Wile writes. farm boy, with masWile’s book is also sive hands and pickle a great micro-history fingers, is capable of of country music’s exquisite, intricate Randy, left, playing with Dick Smith and Edartistic expression, be die Hoover in his Bloomingdale workshop. glory days, when social crosscurrents met it with pencil on paper PHOTO BY DANIEL WILE in the ‘60s and ‘70s. or mother-of-pearl on Classic bluegrass met ebony.” the Bakersfield sound met the Nashville But before becoming a leading national revival, and Randy Wood found himself in impresario in the bluegrass world, Randy the middle of it all.

Wood built a reputation as literally one of After moving to Nashville, Wood, the world’s best luthiers — the craftsmen Tut, and a Yankee named George Gruhn who build one-of-a-kind acoustic musical instruments, or “coercing a tree to sing,” as opened up a music shop and performance

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

BY MATT JONES © 2004, 2020 Matt Jones Answers on page 23

“MENTAL BLOCKS” -- THE ANSWERS WILL FALL IN LINE. [#177, NOV. 2004]

the author describes it.

CONTINUES ON P. 22

ACROSS

1 Like blue material 5 More up to the task 10 Curtain holder 13 Cookie with a Thin Crisps variety 14 Really bad invitation turnout 15 “H to the ___ ...” (Jay-Z lyric) 16 Farm structure 17 Destines to destruction 18 Deride loudly 19 Set of which all seven elements are fittingly hidden in the grid 22 Org. taken over by Mahmoud Abbas in November 2004 23 Those, in Toledo 24 Campus activist gp. of the 1960s 27 Problem for a valet 31 Popular place to hang out 33 Base x height / 2, for a triangle 34 Bread served with vindaloo 36 He said “Say hello to my little friend!”

37 Heavy president and family 39 Court figure 41 Drill bit, usually 42 Mean 44 Big galoot 46 Namer of Einstein as Person of the Century 47 She played Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend 49 One who gives up too

easily 51 It may be hard to follow 52 Own (up) 54 Get to the poi?

55 What you should hear in the background as you’re solving/playing 60 Pilgrimage to Mecca 63 Kirsten of “Wimbledon” 64 Word after guard or third 65 Gore, as distinguished from his father 66 Clear a videotape 67 Mixture 68 Rule opposed by Gandhi 69 German dissents 70 Word repeated in an NPR game show title

DOWN

1 Dominic Monaghan TV show 2 Buffalo’s lake 3 Whipping reminder 4 They may show actors’ or doctors’ names 5 Et cetera 6 Betty of cartoons 7 King of Katzenstein, in a Dr. Seuss story 8 Fit together 9 Fix a botched job at Baskin-Robbins, e.g.

10 Wu-Tang member aka Bobby Digital 11 ___fest (Osbournehosted tour) 12 Egg carton amt.

15 1040 org.

20 Under the weather 21 Abbr. on a cornerstone 24 Pep rally intangible

25 “She ___ Wrong” 26 Closet organizer, maybe 27 Daughter of Muhammad 28 Pertaining to a radioactive element 29 ___ the altar 30 Roofing goo 32 Lawyer/novelist who wrote “Presumed Innocent” 35 Keanu, in “The Matrix” 38 Screw-up 40 Web page for newbies 43 The ___ Dolls (cabaret/ punk band) 45 Former MTV personality Daisy 48 Guarantee 50 “Who’s ready?” response 53 Cedars-___ (L.A. hospital) 55 ___ Nabisco (bygone corporation) 56 Part of AMA 57 Room in a Spanish house 58 4, on some clocks 59 Form a scab 60 Belly laugh sound 61 Pie ___ mode 62 Monogram of Peter Parker’s publisher boss, in “Spider-Man”

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

BY JIM MOREKIS

21

BOOKS

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

space called GTR, downtown right near the iconic Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry itself.

How near to the Ryman?

“Randy says, the back door of their building ‘almost opened up to the Opry back door,’” Wile writes.

With the Johnny Cash Show filming inside the Ryman, GTR was soon frequented by some of the greatest instrumentalists in country and bluegrass.

Because at the time the Ryman had no air-conditioning, visiting musicians didn’t want to hang out there any longer than

they had to to film the show— and that meant GTR and its welcoming, musicianfriendly space was their go-to spot.

In time, the group opened a new business nearby, the Old Time Picking Parlor.

Wile writes: “Randy maintains that their aim was to open a music shop that would sell and repair instruments. However, the chosen name insinuated this shop would be more than just a place to buy and sell. It was meant to be a place for hanging out and playing music.”

And that it was, becoming Wood’s peak

presence in the scene. It was there that none other than the literal inventor of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, befriended Wood and allowed him to work on his mandolins.

Wile devotes an entire section to Wood’s friendship with Monroe, with a breakdown of individual instruments that passed through Monroe’s talented hands.

By the late ‘70s, Randy and family returned to his native Georgia, setting up shop – literally – at Isle of Hope.

For 22 years he lived and worked there, finally moving to Bloomingdale and the

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19)

“A new idea is rarely born like Venus attended by graces. More commonly it’s modeled of baling wire and acne. More commonly it wheezes and tips over.”

Those words were written by Aries author Marge Piercy, who has been a fount of good new ideas in the course of her career.

I regard her as an expert in generating wheezy, fragile breakthroughs and ultimately turning them into shiny, solid beacons of revelation. Your assignment in the coming weeks, Aries, is to do as Piercy has done so well.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

“Every day I discover even more beautiful things,” said painter Claude Monet. “It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all.

My head is bursting.” That might seem like an extreme state to many of us. But Monet was a specialist in the art of seeing.

He trained himself to be alert for exquisite sights. So his receptivity to the constant flow of loveliness came naturally to him.

I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because I think that in the coming weeks, you could rise closer to a Monet-like level of sensitivity to beauty. Would that be interesting to you? If so, unleash yourself! Make it a priority to look for charm, elegance, grace, delight, and dazzlement.

CONNECT SAVANNAH | SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2020

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

22

Author Renata Adler describes a time in her life when she began to notice blue triangles on her feet. She was wracked with fear that they were a symptom of leukemia. But after a period of intense anxiety, she realized one fine day that they had a different cause. She writes: “Whenever I, walking barefoot, put out the garbage on the landing, I held the apartment door open, bending over from the rear. The door would cross a bit over the tops of my feet”—leaving triangular bruises. Upon realizing this very good news, she says, “I took a celebrational nap.” From what I can tell, Gemini, you’re due for a series of celebrational naps—both because of worries that turn out to be unfounded and because you need a concentrated period of recharging your energy reserves.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

“I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak,” proclaimed Cancerian author Lillian Hellman. I feel the same way. So often people have nothing interesting or important to say, but say it anyway. I’ve done that myself! The uninteresting and unimportant words I have uttered are too numerous to count.

The good news for me and all of my fellow Cancerians is that in the coming weeks we are far more likely than usual to not speak until we are ready to speak. According to my analysis of the astrological potentials, we are poised to express ourselves with clarity, authenticity, and maximum impact.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

Of all the mournful impacts the pandemic has had, one of the most devastating is that it has diminished our opportunities to touch and be touched by other humans.

Many of us are starved of the routine, regular contact we had previously taken for granted. I look forward to the time when we can again feel uninhibited about shaking hands, hugging, and patting friends on the arm or shoulder. In the meantime, how can you cope? This issue is extra crucial for you Leos to meditate on right now.

Can you massage yourself? Seek extra tactile contact with animals? Hug trees?

Figure out how to physically connect with people while wearing hazmat suits, gloves, masks, and face shields? What else?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

“Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible,” says singer-songwriter Holly Near. “It requires training as well as magic.” How are you doing on that score, Virgo? Now is a favorable time to intensify your long-term art project of creating the healthiest, smartest version of yourself. I think it will feel quite natural and not-at-all impossible.

In the coming weeks, you’ll have a finely tuned intuitive sense of how to proceed with flair. Start by imagining the Most Beautiful You.

current location of the Picking Parlor in 1999.

When the pandemic is over, be sure and head out to Bloomingdale to catch a show, and hopefully meet Randy while you’re there.

Until then, Daniel Wile’s book is a highly recommended look at the life and times of this influential local resident. CS Randy Wood: The Lore of the Luthier by Daniel Wile is published by University of Tennessee Press. Randy’s website is randywoodmusic. com

BY ROB BREZSNY

beautyandtruth@freewillastrology.com

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

I propose we resurrect the old English word “museful.” First used in the 17th century but then forgotten, it meant “deeply thoughtful; pensive.” In our newly coined use, it refers to a condition wherein a person is abundantly inspired by the presence of the muse. I further suggest that we invoke this term to apply to you Libras in the coming weeks. You potentially have a high likelihood of intense communion with your muses. There’s also a good chance you’ll engage with a new muse or two. What will you do with all of this illumination and stimulation?

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Each of us has a “soul’s code”: a metaphorical blueprint of the beautiful person we could become by fulfilling our destiny. If our soul’s code remains largely dormant, it will agitate and disorient us. If, on the other hand, we perfectly actualize our soul’s code, we will feel at home in the world; all our experiences will feel meaningful. The practical fact is that most of us have made some progress in manifesting our soul’s code, but still have a way to go before we fully actualize it. Here’s the good news: You Scorpios are in a phase of your cycle when you could make dramatic advances in this glorious work.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

“Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules,” observes Sagittarian author Ashleigh Brilliant.

According to my research, you have made excellent progress in this quest during the last few weeks—and will continue your good work in the next six weeks. Give yourself an award! Buy yourself a trophy!

You have discovered at least two rules that were previously unknown to you, and you have also ripened your understanding of another rule that had previously been barely comprehensible. Be alert for more breakthroughs.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

“If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer,” said rambunctious activist and author John Perry Barlow. Adding to his

formulation, I’ll say that if you want to be a successful explorer, it’s crucial to get lost on some occasions. And according to my analysis, now is just such a time for you Capricorns. The new territory you have been brave enough to reconnoiter should be richly unfamiliar. The possibilities you have been daring enough to consider should be provocatively unpredictable.

Keep going, my dear! That’s the best way to become un-lost.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

“Dreams really tell you about yourself more than anything else in this world could ever tell you,” said psychic Sylvia Browne. She was referring to the mysterious stories that unfold in our minds as we sleep. I agree with her assessment of dreams’ power to show us who we really are all the way down to the core of our souls. What Browne didn’t mention, however, is that it takes knowledge and training to become proficient in deciphering dreams’ revelations. Their mode of communication is unique—and unlike every other source of teaching. I bring this up, Aquarius, because the coming months will be a favorable time for you to become more skilled in understanding your dreams.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

In June 1876, warriors from three Indian tribes defeated U.S. troops led by General George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. It was an iconic victory in what was ultimately a losing battle to prevent conquest by the ever-expanding American empire. One of the tribes that fought that day was the Northern Cheyenne. Out of fear of punishment by the U.S. government, its leaders waited 130 years to tell its side of the story about what happened. New evidence emerged then, such as the fact that the only woman warrior in the fight, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, killed Custer himself. I offer this tale as an inspiration for you Pisceans to tell your story about events that you’ve kept silent about for too long.

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