Clclt.com | June 2 - June 8, 2016 Vol. 30, No. 15
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Jun
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presented by
rooftop 210 at the epicentre
1 | Date - Date, 2015 | clclt.com
2 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
A hilarious musical parody of the Queen City
Adult language and content. Not recommended for children.
JUNE 2-26 • BOOTH PLAYHOUSE
WITH SPECIAL GUEST FANTASTIC NEGRITO JUNE 20 • BELK THEATER
JULY 5-24 • BOOTH PLAYHOUSE
704.372.1000 • BlumenthalArts.org clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 3
OCT. 26 • OVENS AUDITORIUM 704.372.1000 • BlumenthalArts.org 4 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 5
Creative Loafing is Published by Womack Newspapers, Inc. Charlotte, NC 28206. Office: 704-522-8334 www.clclt.com Facebook: /CLCLT Twitter: @cl_charlotte Instagram: @creativeloafingcharlotte
Staff PUBLISHER • Charles A. Womack III publisher@yesweekly.com EDITOR • Anita Overcash aovercash@clclt.com
Editorial
NEWS EDITOR • Ryan Pitkin rpitkin@clclt.com STAFF WRITER • Madeline Lemieux FILM CRITIC Matt Brunson mattonmovies@gmail.com DINING CRITIC • Tricia Childress tchildress@clclt.com THEATER CRITIC • Perry Tannenbaum perrytannenbaum@gmail.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS • Ailen Arreaza, Erin TracyBlackwood, Vivian Carol, Charles Easley, Page Leggett, Alison Leininger, Kyle Mullin, Dan Savage, Aerin Spruill, Chuck Shepherd, Jeff Hahne
ART/DESIGN
GRAPHIC DESIGNER • Dana Vindigni CONTRIBUTING Artists and PHOTOGRAPHERS • Justin Driscoll, Brian Twitty
ADVERTISING
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Creative Loafing © is published by CL, LLC 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., Suite C-2, Charlotte, NC 28206. Periodicals Postage Paid at Charlotte, NC. Creative Loafing welcomes submissions of all kinds. Efforts will be made to return those with a self-addressed stamped envelope; however Creative Loafing assumes no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. Creative Loafing is published every Wednesday by Womack Newspapers, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. Copyright 2015 Womack Newspapers, Inc. Creative Loafing is printed on a 90% recycled stock. It may be recycled furtheR; please do your part.
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2o
Arthur Brouthers’ Chroma exhibit opens on June 4.
Katherine kirchner
cover story Writing on the wall: Author Sandra beasley’s lines are worthy of scribbling down. By corbie hill This week’s cover photo was shot by matthew worden.
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News&VIEWS Going it alone: Facing consumering, peddling marsupials and driving drunk down Speed Street with a skeptic. By ryan pitkin 12 Class is in session 12 blotter
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Food Raising the bar: Two June 2 openings make the happy hour crowd happier in Second Ward. By courtney mihocik 16 three-course spiel
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Arts&Ent Limited space, limited time, lots of art: Arthur Brouthers’ upcoming Chroma exhibit pops.
By anita overcash 22 film reviews
28
Music
Do the dew: Honey Dewdrops provide refreshing acoustics.
credit
By Anita Overcash 32 soundboard
18
Odds&Ends
18 Top 10 Things To Do 34 Marketplace 34 Nightlife 35 Crossword 36 Savage Love 38 Horoscope
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 7
2016 Summer Dates Libertymountaindrama.com
8 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
EDVENTURE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
RIVERBANKS ZOO AND GARDEN
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE MUSEUM
CoolPassTickets.com clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 9
News
Feature
Going It Alone Facing consumerism, peddling marsupials and driving drunk down Speed Street with a skeptic By Ryan Pitkin
D
o you want to go to Speed Street? I’m faced with this question at least once a year and every once in a blue moon I say, “Sure, why not.” Then — as surely as the reaction to one of the rare moments when I drink a Blue Moon, I regret it almost immediately. It’s not you, Speed Street, it’s me. My hipster heart — I’ll use the idiotic H word because this article will surely venture into ridiculous stereotypes of all sorts by the time I’m through — harbors a natural aversion to all things Uptown. From Speed Street to CIAA and every day in between, I’d rather stretch out on a patio in some outlying neighborhood than be crushed up against a handrail atop Epicentre during Alive After 5 while a Journey cover band plays. Over the years, I’ve attended multiple Speed Street festivals, waiting for performances from Staind or Kellie Pickler while wondering how I came to be paying $9 per Bud Light in some claustrophobic lot just to watch a band I’ve never once listened to on purpose. Trips to Speed Street are often similar to trips to Discovery Place as a full-grown adult: at some point the nostalgia (or your high) wears off and you’re just sitting there staring at a bunch of animals. This year, I decided to try something new. I was reading about the beginning of Speed Street festivities in Uptown and thought it could be a chance for new beginnings. I’ll be turning 30 in a few months and it’s time to look at this thing through a new lens: not as a drunken country music party but as a family street festival where it’s not frowned upon to fry food that was already unhealthy to begin with. I made the midday trek from our offices at the Music Factory to Third Ward to see what it would be like to live life amongst the true Speed Streeters; those who are there from the minute it opens on Thursday and stay through the heat of the afternoon. The experience was not an overall bad one: afternoon drinks, amazingly unhealthy food and opossum hustling. 10 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
For those who don’t know what Speed Street is, it’s a three-day “consumer event” leading up to the Coca-Cola 600 in which Tryon Street in Uptown is shut down to traffic and turned into one huge commercial. Before making my walk, I printed out a sheet I had seen posted on Facebook earlier in the day depicting a game of “Speed Street BINGO.” The game plays into the worst stereotypes of NASCAR fans, allowing players to check off boxes on the BINGO card when they see things like a “skullet” (a bald head up top and a mullet behind) or anyone missing their front teeth. I printed the sheet out, telling myself I’d ignore the more problematic boxes (Man or Woman?) and keep some semblance of a moral code while only pulling the card out in an emergency of boredom. I walked into Speed Street at what I found to be its perfect starting point, the intersection of Tryon and Trade streets. Entering here allows one to start with the food. Booth after booth sells the same festival foods: turkey legs, Italian sausage, steak and cheese, fried pickles, ribbon fries smothered in nacho cheese. In other words, the good stuff. I went all in, ordering a basket of fried mac-n-cheese followed by a basket of fried Oreos. I washed it all down with a Mello Yello, as that was the closest thing I could find to Sun Drop, and the old Dale Earnhardt, Sr., commercials may be the most fond childhood memory I have in regards to NASCAR. As I walked to a bench with my baskets of fried food, my Fitbit vibrated and the app on my phone told me I had reached my daily step goals before 1 p.m. It was a sick joke. Every bite I took was negating any running I had done for days and maybe weeks prior. “Fuck it. It’s Speed Street,” I told myself. After that display of gastrointestinal gallantry, I purchased my first frozen rum runner of the day and made my way onto the next few blocks between 4th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. These are the blocks that pay for Speed Street to happen. Sponsors like GEICO and Coca-Cola set
The GEICO Gecko watches over all at Speed Street. up large displays and vie for the attention of passersby. I assume this is what all those people I shared the journalistic dream with in college are now doing; standing in front of corporate displays asking people to register their email addresses and guess the amount of geckos in the jar for a chance to win something. Welp, here I am writing a first-person
Ryan Pitkin
essay on what it’s like to eat disgusting food and get day drunk at a family event. Whatever pays the bills. These blocks of Speed Street, in the end, are what NASCAR is all about. The sport survives because cars let companies splatter their cars with the largest logos possible so fans will have something to stare at while the cars drive in circles.
Plates of death.
Ryan Pitkin
Speed Street’s peddler’s row is not dissimilar. There are no purchases necessary, you just watch a loop of old GEICO commercials while waiting for a chance to go into the GEICO bus to sing karaoke with the GEICO gecko so they can send you a video of it, surely followed by an unending pile of GEICO emails. I sound like a communist protester in making my point, but I don’t really have a problem with it. I understand this is what makes the entire festival possible, all I’m saying is that I kept my distance from the folks working hard to get emails, phone numbers or whatever personal info they could get from those in the crowd. I don’t need any more spam coming at my inbox than what already comes after posting one of these articles. I participated in a game involving a less subtle form of capitalism that I’m more comfortable with: you give me money, I give you a gun with ammo (bottle corks) to shoot at cups for a prize. I won a plastic dart gun at the booth and shuffled off, feeling very Americana after winning a gun by shooting a gun. This is right about when shit got weird, after I came across a man on a street corner peddling wildlife. I approached him after seeing a cage he had set up and thinking, “Surely he can’t have an animal out in this heat.” At first, as he pitched the price of the cage, I seemed to be right, but sure enough, he then reached for a black pouch carrying two sugar gliders. He ensured me the small, nocturnal opossum was used to such weather, its ancestors being born and kept in a pouch in the Outback heat since birth, but the entire thing seemed odd to me. My thoughts on this find can be summed
up best in the words of our intern Courtney upon my return to the office soon thereafter: “Who walks around Speed Street with $600 to drop on a marsupial?” One does wonder. One nice couple approached and immediately began telling me about their five-year-old sugar glider, who apparently likes to crawl up to their cheek when they eat and try to climb in their mouth to get the food. No thanks. They also told me and anyone who would listen about their cousin’s pet monkey named Allison that “won’t get no bigger than a Coke can.” Even the family stories come with sponsors at Speed Street. I sat down with another frozen cocktail to beat the heat — my third of the day and they were making them surprisingly strong — to take it all in. A middle-aged woman behind me was giving her older companion a non-expert’s history on the sport of NASCAR. It was relatively accurate in its simplicity. “Racin’ started up in the mountains with the guys doin’ moonshine, when you’d better run like the devil if the law came,” she said after making it clear that she was not familiar with today’s NASCAR. “I think of Dale Earnhardt. Now I don’t know if he ever did moonshine but he just looked like a rascal.” As I eavesdropped I glanced at my BINGO card to see what I could mark off. I quickly scratched out the boxes for a chain wallet and camouflage attire. For quite a while after that, however, as I sat there beating the heat with more frozen drinks, I couldn’t see a single other square to check off. No rat tails, no barb-wire tattoos, no child over five in a stroller. Even less offensive ones like a Dale Earnhardt Jr., T-shirt proved elusive. The whole thing made me uncomfortable, as I’d be more at home with the folks it was looking to judge than the ones making up much of the crowd I was looking at, so I began my own mental game of “Banker BINGO.” See someone shoot an abhorrent glance at a panhandler on a nearby bench? Check a box off. A group of four guys out to lunch all wearing the same outfit with the same color coordination? Check it. This, too, became boring soon enough and I ventured off to find some real fun or call it a day. I was in luck, as I soon came across the coolest experience available along Speed Street by far: the Raceday Motorsports Mobile Racing Simulator. The RDM simulator is a bus upfitted with 10 screens inside, each one including a seat, steering wheel and the pedals to go with it. A group can race together along the Charlotte Motor Speedway track, minus all that pesky fear of death.
Ryan Pitkin
Folks posed for pictures with these headphones only after handing over their phone number.
For a cool $600 you can go home with a new pet. While the graphics didn’t necessarily match up with today’s game systems, the feel of the whole thing made up for it. The car reacted to each gear shift and pull of the wheel as a real stock car would at that speed, and for a man on his fourth liquor drink and probably a bit over the legal limit, driving near 200 miles per hour made for a tricky trip around The Beast of the Southeast. Nevertheless, I finished second in a group of seven, completing two laps despite wrecking and totaling my engine at least three times. According to my score sheet, some poor soul named Chrissy never made
Ryan Pitkin
it around the track. After the relative success of my race, I felt accomplished and became convinced that this trip to Speed Street — finally — was a success. Despite my bad experiences at concerts past, if you can find a way to convince your boss next year that a Thursday afternoon on Tryon drinking frozen rum drinks will help morale, I say you bring your whole team. As for me, I’m taking my gun and going home. rpitkin@clclt.com
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 11
News
class is in session
News
Blotter
The Root of the Cause
By Ryan Pitkin
It’s long been time to change the narrative
called police after one of her dirty friends decided to clean up his act one day. The woman told officers that at around 10:45 p.m. a man she knows kicked the door of her laundry room in and began cleaning his dirty clothes.
I’ve never been a fan of remakes. I viewed the film recently. I “acquired” the I was not impressed with the reboots of film, as I refused to pay and cosign what I popular franchises like Psycho, Poltergeist or already suspected would be a historical and The Day the Earth Stood Still. But those were culturally inaccurate hot mess. I was not movies, so imagine my surprise when I see mistaken. The film depicted the ancient the History Channel running trailers for, of Egyptian Gods as Caucasians ruling over all things, a miniseries remake of Roots. darker subjects. How do you bring yourself to contemplate I remember learning about Egypt in remaking Roots, a miniseries that changed not school and marveling at how folks talked only television but had an indelible imprint about it as some fairy tale place, never on our history and culture? I shook my head mentioning that the kingdom inspiring such in disbelief. This for me is another example of knowledge, wisdom and cultural advances mainstream media and Hollywood’s obsession was indeed in Africa. with “slave” narratives. This blatant rewriting of history is My discomfort for such work started in intentional. The obsession with the slave film school when I was one of the only black narrative is out of control. We have Amistad, students in a film theory class watching of Django Unchained, The Birth of a Nation, the The Birth of a Nation, the notorious 1915 series Underground and now a new Roots. silent film that casts the Klan in There is a tremendous toll placed a positive light. I got through on the psyche and spirit of the film because I needed to conscious black folks to have reference it as a film theorist to watch films where people but I vowed I would never who look like them are subject myself to sitting subjected to unspeakable through it again. This violence and horrors. Such ambivalence has stuck narratives also give folks in with me, although I the mainstream the false sometimes still — for the illusion that everything purposes of critique — is so much better now in Charles allow myself to be subjected comparison; a dangerous to such visuals. falsehood. Marginalized folks Easley But I became almost militant are still catching hell today. against not allowing another slave My mom required us to watch narrative to breach my defenses after Roots when it made its historical and viewing 12 Years A Slave. I battled with monumental debut on national television, still my conscious for weeks after the film was boasting as one of the most watched miniseries nominated for Best Picture and gave in, and programs of our time. I remember what an justifying my decision by stating it was my impact it was seeing how African-Americans duty as someone who critiques media and lived, endured and survived slavery. popular culture to watch a film recognized by A reboot of Roots just supports a running the Academy. Boy, was I wrong. theme of subjugation and conformity to a It took me weeks to shake off the system of oppression. I believe the obsession psychological funk that permeated my mind with slave narratives and keeping us looking after witnessing the brutality the characters back is an attempt to distract us from real in the film endured, especially the violence and present challenges. Those challenges inflicted on Lupita Nyong’o. The film left me include the disparity of violence against black feeling angry, defeated, disillusioned and offbodies by authority figures and the ugly truth balance. I felt like I needed to watch a marathon that our system will not protect us or hold of Disney movies just to get back to center. people accountable for said violence, like the As I often do while meditating on a recent decision to clear the officer charged subject, I recently queried my social networks in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. for thoughts on whether we really need The narrative also helps distract folks from another version of Roots. Many agree with the continued insult to Trayvon Martin’s my thoughts: that mainstream media has an family as they watch the sociopath George agenda to support and produce narratives Zimmerman over $100K selling the gun he that show black folks being subservient that used to slaughter their son. reinforce white supremacy. So I will pass on Roots the remix, a And if you think this is just folks being further distraction. I prefer to keep my focus paranoid, may I direct your attention to a on the very present challenges of the here recent Hollywood film, Gods of Egypt. To and now. backtalk@clclt.com place the power of visual suggestion to task 12 | jun. 2 - jun 8, 2016 | clclt.com
Laundry Day A 25-year-old woman
Blade Last week, we wrote about a
doomsday prepper who had his entire stash of weapons stolen by a thief. A 17-yearold boy prepping for a different type of doomsday is also out of luck this week after he brought his signature weapon out prematurely. Police responded to an assault call after the boy was involved in a fight with an 18-year-old man and allegedly brandished a weapon. The police seized the weapon, which was listed as a throwing hatchet called “Zombie Killer.”
On an Island A northwest Charlotte
man last week found himself running for his life, and he understandably didn’t care what he had to do to get away. The man later told officers that he was walking down the street to visit a friend in his neighborhood near Freedom Drive when a large dog suddenly began chasing him. The man ran and jumped on the nearest car, a 2006 Mercedes Benz. In the end, he got away but did $2,000 in damage to the car’s hood, windshield and roof. The owner called police, and the man who jumped onto the car admitted to doing the damage but said he would not pay for the repairs.
Just Browsing A man surfing the web for football cards last week was surprised to click on a card on eBay and see his own card staring back at him. He told police he had been displaying cards on a table at a convention recently when a man approached him and asked if he had two specific Jeremy Langford cards. He told the suspect that he did and let him see them, but the man declined to buy. Later, the victim saw the exact cards on eBay being sold in Charlotte and immediately remembered the inquiry. He followed his gut and went back to check his collection and, sure enough, both cards were missing. Messy A taxi driver in Charlotte ended his night with a bad ride last week that ended with an assault. The man told officers that he brought a man to an address on South Tryon Street and things went awry. The man told the driver he could not pay, and when he objected, the suspect assaulted him and poured beer on him. Accuracy A 46-year-old man on The
Plaza called police last week after he was pepper sprayed, but only half way. The man told officers on the scene that he was fighting
another man when the suspect sprayed him with mace in his left eye. Details are blurry on whether the mist affected the right eye at all.
Phone’s For You A south Charlotte
woman called police after someone dropped a call in front of her last week. The woman told police she was sitting on a bench at McAlpine Park when a car drove by and someone threw a $200 LTE phone out of the window and it landed in front of her. The car didn’t turn around, as whoever was on the other line must’ve really gotten on someone’s nerves.
Spare Me Police responded to a stolen car call in west Charlotte and found that an unfortunate spare key placement led to the incident. The victims told officers that someone broke into one vehicle when it was parked out front of a home off Sam Wilson Road. The thief only stole one thing from the first vehicle: the spare keys to a Chevy Malibu parked just feet away. Needless to say, the $18,000 vehicle was not there the next day.
Red Flag A man driving in west Charlotte learned last week why being a good Samaritan can sometimes backfire. The 22-year-old man told police he was driving by Lincoln Heights Academy when he saw someone flagging him down. Thinking the man was in trouble, he stopped, and the suspect immediately shot him. Good luck to the next person who asks this guy for help. Small Fries Management at a Food
Lion in east Charlotte filed a police report after finding that one of the employees had been hustling them. The reporting person told officers that one of the employees was performing illegal transactions over a five month period that resulted in the loss of $768. Just to make matters worse, one transaction ended in the loss of two White Castle burgers and two Monster drinks.
Stripped of Possessions One
south Charlotte exotic dancer stepped off stage and collected her cash only to find that she took a loss during that most recent dance. The Club ONYX dancer later found through reviewing surveillance footage that a man wearing a green shirt and white shorts had swiped a moneybag that she was keeping on stage while she danced. The bag contained $1,000 in cash, her phone and her car keys. The suspect fled the club in a silver car with an unknown California license plate. Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.
News
News of the weird
By Chuck Shepherd
People With Issues Ms. Pixee Fox
reported in May that she was recovering nicely from cosmetic rib-removal surgery, performed by one of the few doctors in the world who offers it, Dr. Barry Eppley of Carmel, Indiana. Though she has had more than a dozen “beautifying” procedures, she had trouble finding a surgeon who would agree to take out six “free-floating” ribs (ones not attached to the sternum). Born in Sweden, she gave up a career as a trained electrician to come to the United States to pursue her goal of looking “like a cartoon character” — which she has surely achieved with her now-16-inch waist.
Leading Economic Indicators
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah earned an estimated $8.6 million racing but, now retired, could earn as much as $35 million just by having sex. Stallions reportedly can breed into their 20s, and the horse, now barely age 4, will have 175 conquests by the end of this summer, according to a May report by CNBC. One industry worker said Pharoah has put on weight, spends his spare time peaceably eating grass, and “looks more like a relaxed horse.” A spokesman for the Kentucky farm now housing Pharoah said he “has proven to be very professional in the breeding shed.”
(and to collect on disability insurance he had purchased the week before). Egeland, scheduled to start a 10-year sentence for the 2014 conviction, told the judge he had been assaulted by gunfire when he stopped in traffic to help a pregnant woman, but in reality he had ordered his teenage son to shoot him in the legs with a 20-gauge shotgun.
New World Order (1) German soldiers
participating in a four-week NATO exercise in Norway earlier this year apparently had to abort their efforts days earlier than other countries — because Germany’s defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, had imposed strict rules on overtime pay. Soldiers are to work no more than 41 hours a week, she said, according to revelations by London’s Daily Telegraph. (2) Britain’s venerable Oxford University issued a formal suggestion to law lecturers recently that they give “trigger warnings” (and allow classroom absences) if the class subject matter might be unpleasant to some students. Complained one frustrated lecturer, “We can’t remove sexual offences from the criminal law syllabus — obviously.”
Latest Religious Messages The Keystone Fellowship Church in North Wales, Pennsylvania, has a tradition of congregants reserving pew seats by leaving Bibles in place, but worshipper Robert Braxton, 27, was having none of that on April 24 and took a saved seat anyway. Witnesses told Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV that when one church member gently tapped Braxton on the shoulder to inform him of the tradition, Braxton snapped at him and became disruptive. Congregant Mark Storms, 46, flashed a gun and confronted Braxton, who punched Storms, adding, “That’s not a real gun” and “What are you going to do, shoot me?” Storms, contending that he felt threatened, fired two shots, killing Braxton, and was charged with voluntary manslaughter.
Oops! (1) This correction appeared in The New York Times print edition of May 10: “Because of an editing error, an article on Monday (May 9) about a theological battle being fought by Muslim imams and scholars in the West against the Islamic State misstated the Snapchat handle used by Suhaib Webb, one of the Muslim leaders speaking out. It is imamsuhaibwebb, not Pimpin4Paradise786.” (2) Government agencies trying, legally or not, to hide details from public inquiries under freedomof-information demands usually resort to indelibly blackening out what they do not want revealed, but the Public Health Agency of Canada recently tried a unique method, according to an Associated Press correspondent. The AP had requested files on the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and, revealed reporter Raphael Satter, the documents finally arrived from the PHA with parts carefully “redacted” — using “Scotch tape and paper.” Satter reported that he got everything the AP had asked for by merely peeling the tape back.
Collections (1) The Moscow Times reported in May that bailiffs in Russia’s Perm region, employing originality as yet unseen in America in attempting to collect an overdue debt, arrested the debtor’s cat. The bailiffs listed the feline’s value at the equivalent of $23, and the man came up with that sum the next day and took the cat home. (2) Shannon Egeland, 41, already convicted in 2014 of running a mortgagefraud operation during the 2004-2008 realestate boom, pleaded guilty in May 2016 to the subsequent crime of deliberately having himself shot to gain his judge’s sympathy
Perspective King Cove, Alaska, population 923, lies between two massive volcanic mountains on one of the Aleutian Islands, unconnected to civilization and 625 miles from any medical facility (in Anchorage), accessible only by a weatherchallenging “puddle-jumper” airplane. About two-thirds of the residents have flying anxieties so severe that King Cove has a makeshift vending machine dispensing Valium. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has campaigned to build a road to Cold Bay to eliminate the nerve-wracking flights, but it would disturb a federally protected
wilderness, and the U.S. Interior Department has so far declined.
case.
Florida Man Michael Blevins, 37,
547-acre FBI Academy on the grounds of the Quantico (Virginia) Marine Base houses a firing range on which about a million bullets a month are shot by agents in training, but it also happens to be a de facto wildlife refuge for the simple fact that the academy is offlimits to Virginia hunters. Thus, according to a December (2011) ABC News dispatch, deer learn that, despite the gunfire (sometimes at astonishingly close range as they wander by the targets), none of them ever gets hit. The academy has also become a “sanctuary” for foxes, wild turkeys and other critters.
reported to Florida Hospital in Orange City (near Daytona Beach) in May after finally realizing, three days after the fact, that he had shot himself while cleaning his handgun. He said he was on pain medication and besides, was wearing a black shirt that obscured blood stains. He said he had felt a sharp pain but that, mainly, it had aggravated his back injury, causing him to fall and hit his head against a coffee table, and thus was not aware of the origin of the loud noise the .22-caliber handgun made. Deputies investigated briefly but closed the
NOTW Classic (March 2012) The
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 13
Food
Feature
Le Meridien’s City Lights is launching a line of summertime signature drinks called the Sparkle and Pop.
Raising the Bar Two June 2 openings make the happy hour crowd happier in Second Ward By Courtney Mihocik
C
harlotte is a city that is constantly expanding and reinventing its culture in regards to restaurants, music, neighborhoods and nightlife. With so many other establishments vying for the attention of an ever-growing population with an ever-shrinking attention span, bars 14 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
must get creative in order to keep the edge on the competition. That’s where City Lights and Craft City Social Club come in; two new bars opening June 2 at the neighboring Sheraton and Le Meridien hotels on South McDowell Street. John Thompson, general manager of both hotels, says City Lights, opening atop Le Meridien, will boast a vibrant, urban
garden space with summertime cocktails and a gorgeous view of Marshall Park and Uptown Charlotte behind it. By comparison, Craft City Social Club, part of the Sheraton Hotel, is a pool-side space where twentysomethings can socialize and play games. “Think of summertime,” Thompson said. “Think of something that will cool you off.” But what sets them apart from the
competition? Both bars, neither of which are open past midnight, are designed to draw crowds of Charlotteans seeking specialty cocktails before they hit the clubs on their weekend list. At 4 p.m., the Sheraton Hotel pool — only available to registered hotel guests during the day — will beome Craft City
The Spirit of Celebration - The Spirit of Friendship Taste the Spirit of Mayberry!
- Premium Sorghum Whiskey
Available in local ABC stores
Craft City Social Club, part of the Sheraton Hotel, opens on June 2. Social Club, open to the public. Groups or dates will enjoy cocktails while socializing over shuffleboard or shooting pool. “Maybe someone wants to take a quick swim,” Thompson said, “and they would be able to do that.” Oscar La Fuente, a Peru native and current executive chef at Evoke, created the Nuevo-Latino-inspired cuisine menu for the pool-side social club. “It’s a nod to lots of different countries that have Latin influences in their cooking,” Thompson said. The menu “crosses culinary borders” by including dishes from countries like Cuba and Chile. Craft City also has a specialty drink program that Thompson thinks gives it a one-up on other venues. They call it a “barrel program” in which their cocktails are aged in oak whiskey barrels for at least 30 days. Drinks like Manhattan and Negroni cocktails release the flavors of the oak as they age in the barrels. If there’s a cocktail that a customer would like aged, they just ask in advance and then return to Craft City with friends to enjoy their requested cocktails. While Craft City Social Club contrasts the heat of its Latino-inspired food and the cooling effects of their drinks, City Lights focuses on specialty beverages and maintaining an urban nightlife atmosphere. For example, City Lights will begin by launching a line of summertime signature drinks, the Sparkle and Pop. Each Sparkle and Pop option includes a Prosecco with a specialty popsicle that would, ideally, melt as the sun sets, infusing the flavor of the popsicle with the light and bubbly sparkling wine. Unlike other popular Uptown rooftop bars, such as Fahrenheit and Rooftop 210, City Lights is a completely open space. Guests arrive on the 18th floor, then ascend
stairs to the garden-style roof. “The landscape and seating arrangements provide opportunities for open-air conversations and meeting new people,” Thompson said. “Maybe the comfortable seating is next to someone you don’t know. The idea of getting people together to mingle and share experiences is what the vibe is about.” The al-fresco feel of the rooftop bar aims to set it apart from the few other area rooftop bars, which are trending in cities with a quickly-growing population of young professional (yuppies, you might say). It’s easy to compare the Queen City to other southern cities like Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee. All three have a quickly-growing population bringing new ideas and customs from around the country to add to the lingering traditional southern ideals lingering. But until recently, Charlotte has been lagging in the rooftop bar game. A quick look at Thrillist and Yelp shows that Austin and Nashville both host at least a dozen rooftop lounges and bars with gorgeous views of their own city skylines. So why now, Charlotte? Most obvious to anyone who has lived here over the last decade: Charlotte is a young city. When Austin was opening their first rooftop patio bar over a decade ago, Charlotte was a still-blossoming city just starting to grow into its own. Nashville long ago cultivated a culture perfect for sippin’ whiskey on porches and patios. What we have here in the Queen City that Austin and Nashville don’t is height. Sophisticated venues sitting atop condos and hotels, such as Fahrenheit and now City Lights, are helping raise the bar for the city’s nightlife scene.
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clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 15
Food
three-course spiel
fANNING THE FLAMES Marc Jacksina’s Order/Fire puts Charlotte culinary notables behind the camera BY Alison Leiniger
HOME ALL WEEK! THURS-SUN Charlotte Knights vs. Lehigh Valley
THURSDAY $3 $1 SODA
DOMESTIC DRAFT BEER
GAME AT 7:05 PM
SATURDAY LIVE MUSIC FOLLOWING THE GAME FEATURING THE MATT STRATFORD BAND
SOUTHEAST DAIRY NIGHT LIVE COWS WILL BE ON HAND AT FOR DAIRY NIGHT!
GAME AT 6:05 PM
FRIDAY FRIDAY NIGHT FIREWORKS GAME AT 7:05 PM
SUNDAY
SUPERHERO DAY MEET AND TAKE PICTURES WITH YOUR FAVORITE SUPERHEROS!
KIDS RUN THE BASES WASHER/DRYER GIVEAWAY GAME AT 2:05 PM
TO PURCHASE TICKETS VISIT: CHARLOTTEKNIGHTS.COM
charlotteknights.com 16 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
When chefs yell “Order, fire!” from the pass, they’re telling their crew to cook a full ticket immediately; no appetizers or timed courses. For Chef Marc Jacksina of Earl’s Grocery, the phrase conveys a sense of “no lull in the flow, like shop talk.” Thus he chose it to christen his ongoing film series, a documentary of intimate sitdowns with notable names in the North Carolina food and drink scene. Jacksina originally conceived Order/Fire as a written column, but it wasn’t until some prodding from photographer friend Peter Taylor that things started percolating. Taylor suggested filming Jacksina’s tête-à-têtes, and the rest is history. Their sixth episode (and the finale of season one) features Paul Verica of Heritage Food & Drink, and hits the screen this Sunday at Free Range Brewery. Creative Loafing: How do you choose your victims subjects? Marc Jacksina: Choosing our guests is easy, there’s so much dang talent in and around the food and beverage scene of Charlotte. Honestly, we could do a nightly show (hint hint, money having people), and have enough guests for a solid run. It’s really whittling it down to an interesting and representative brush stroke that’s the difficult part. I have some very close friends in this industry that I haven’t even had the “you are on our radar” talk with, but I can say that because of this show, I’ve made some great new friends in- and outside of the city. Ultimately we try our hardest to represent the diversity of talent this industry embraces. What do you think is so appealing about chef shop talk (as opposed to say, dental hygienist shop talk)? I think the fact that it’s chefs talking shop is inconsequential — look at the popularity of shows that have crab fishermen, truck drivers, duck call manufacturers. But Charlotte is really blossoming as a food city, people are much more sophisticated as diners then they were, say, five years ago, and chef-driven shops are hot. We knew that chefs, industry people and industry insiders
Marc Jacksina
Peter taylor
Order/Fire w/ Paul Verica of Heritage and Drink June 5, 1 p.m. Free Range Brewing, 2320 N. Davidson St. orderfireclt.com.
would get it, and obviously we hoped that the general public would get it, because, in my thinking, they were really our intended audience. I wanted them to see what I love about my peers, and their passions, heartbreaks, and motivators in this business and subsequently: life. It’s definitely an amazing time to be a chef and a consumer in Charlotte, but at the end of the day, Order/ Fire is really about the human element of telling a story, having a beer, shooting the shit...it’s a little salacious, and a really good peek behind the curtain. Plus, the beer at Free Range is a definite crowd draw. What did you want to accomplish with this series? I think I can speak for Peter and Darius [Evans, co-videographer], but documenting the coming of age of a food and beverage scene, with such a deep sense of community and dedication to local agriculture was all we could really hope to accomplish. Being part of that narrative, as a show, is a happy by-product. Personally, as a story-teller/ collector, getting to share it with a broader audience, who appreciates it, is a gift. When we first started out on this journey, it was only going to be a Charlotte-centric show. Season two will feature more traveling.
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clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 17
Thursday
2
friday
THINGS TO DO
TOP ten
Charlotte Squawks: 12 Angry Hens Thursday
LunahZon Photography
friday
3
friday
3
saturday
3
4
Swim in the Wild
ConCarolinas
Re-Action Show
David Childers
What: Now in it’s 12th year, the Charlotte Squawks is one of those kind of shows that never gets old. That’s because Charlotte if filled with people, places and things that make you scratch you head and go ‘huh?’. Will the HB2 controversy make its way into what’s being dubbed as “12 Angry Hens”? Probably. But so will a lot of silly things about the Q.C.
What: This band, local to Charlotte & Greensboro, made an appearance at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is slated to release its sophomore album at this Visulite show. Even better, you can get the new album for free with admission to the show. A blend of rock, folk and funk, the band is worth checking out and gives you the chance to show some support to good ol’ Carolina-based talent.
What: This new exhibit at Ciel Gallery features several mediums by three different artists — mixedmedia fabricator Kelly CarlsonReddig, book-artist Jackie Radford and painter Leigh B. Williams. 2-D and 3-D works, including the colorfully blended painting (pictured) will be featured. Come out during the opening reception on June 3, 6-9 p.m.
What: When it comes to singersongwriters in the region, David Childers is easily in the top 5 you should know. His talent is as great as his humility and it’s no surprise that he’s found longevity and success. When the Avett Brothers cover his songs, it’s out of respect, which should come as no surprise at this point. Seriously, this one’s free and under the stars by the waterside — you better have a good excuse if you’re not here.
When: June 2, 7:30 p.m. June 3-4, 8 p.m. Through June 26. Where: Booth Playhouse, 130 N. Tryon St. More: $24.50 and up. 704-3721000. blumenthalarts.org.
What: This annual convention provides Sci-fi nerds and lovers of fantasy and horror ficition with a home away from home. Every year, the event features costume contests, vendors, an assortment of events and special guests. Guests of honor for the 2016 gathering include Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (think: the Count of Saint-Germain series). Locals like DJ Spider and John Hairston will be there. But above all, this is one hell of an event for people-watching.
When: 9 p.m. Where: Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. More: $10-$15. 704-358-9200. visulite.com.
When: Through June 30. When: Ciel Gallery: A Fine Art Collective, 128 E. Park Ave., Suite C More: Free. 980-202-2435. cielcharlotte.com.
When: 7 p.m. Where: U.S. National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Pkwy. More: Free. usnwc.org.
Charlotte Squawks: 12 Angry Hens
— Anita Overcash
18 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
— Overcash
When: June 3-5. Where: Embassy Suites, 5400 John Q Hammons Drive, Concord. More: concarolinas.org. — Overcash
— Overcash
— Jeff Hahne
Shawn Peters
News Arts Food Music Odds
DNCE Tuesday
Re-Action Art Show Friday
Gregory Porter Sunday
saturday
Saturday
4
saturday
4
Dudeapalooza: Death to Potpourri What: Wilson from WCCB is hosting this pop-up market, which gives dudes the chance to embark on some shameless shopping shenanigans of their own. There will be “manly” arts and crafts (imagine things made of car parts and beer cans), sports memorabilia, vintage concert T-shirts and more. You can also expect craft beer. And though the title sounds pretty gender exclusive, ladies are also welcome. When: June 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Where: C3 Lab, 2525 Distribution St. More: Free. c3-lab.com. — Overcash
Andrew George
sunday
tuesday
5
4
7
Journey
2016 Warrior Dash
Gregory Porter
DNCE
What: Journey has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts ever since singer Arnel Pineda joined the group in 2007. Sure, Neal Schon has been there since the start, but Pineda, discovered via YouTube, is the one commanding attention. The Doobie Brothers are also on the bill and though the band members change as often as underwear, the songs are as catchy as ever. Opener Dave Mason is just as worthy of attention.
What: “Do something different with your weekend.” That’s one of the slogans on the website for this 5k obstacle race series. And while, for many of us, taking on the Warrior Dash seems like an insane feat, it is something that could be a very memorable and exhausting experience. I had a friend who broke her finger after trudging over a wall and taking a fast, hard fall to the muddy ground — does she regret attending? Not one bit.
What: Gregory Porter has a way of producing pop-jazz at it’s finest. After picking up a 2014 Grammy win — “best jazz vocal album” for 2013’s Liquid Spirit — he’s gone on to release a new album, Take Me To The Alley. Filled with slow, acoustic jazz numbers, the album has a personal touch since some of the song’s were inspired by members of the Porter clan — his mother and his son. Future Grammy number two? It could be in the cards.
What: On first listen, DNCE’s hit single “Cake by the Ocean” might be another one-hit wonder throwaway. Problem is, there’s a big name behind those capital letters. Joe Jonas, of the pop-rock group the Jonas Brothers is now making his mark with DNCE, which has a more soulful list of influences than the Brothers, while also featuring the Jonas Brothers’ drummer, Jack Lawless. Opening for Selena Gomez.
When: 7 p.m. Where: PNC Music Pavilion, 707 Pavilion Blvd. More: $37-$132. livenation.com.
When: Times vary. Where: Rural Hill, 4431 Neck Road, Huntersville. More: $90. warriordash.com.
When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. More:$47.75-$72.75. 704-372-1000. blumenthalarts.org.
When: 7:30 p.m Where: Time Warner Cable Arena, 333 E. Trade St. More: $35-$110. timewarnercablearena.com.
— Hahne
— Overcash
— Overcash
— Hahne
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 19
Arts
cover story
Writing on the wall Author Sandra Beasley’s lines are worthy of scribbling down By Corbie Hill
A
few weeks ago, Amy Bagwell was having lunch with a well-read friend. Bagwell was excited: she had booked Washington, DC poet and writer Sandra Beasley for New Frequencies at McColl Center, of which Bagwell is the literary events curator. Bagwell excitedly pulled up one some of Beasley’s work on her phone and handed it across the table. “My friend read the poem ‘Proposal,’ and she looked up, tears falling down her cheeks,” says Bagwell. “She looked at me and said, ‘How? How does she do this?’” “I don’t know,” Bagwell confessed. Within the next few months “Proposal” will adorn an Uptown wall, thanks to Bagwell and Wall Poems of Charlotte partner Graham Carew’s efforts: anyone walking by this wall, then, will have a chance to respond to its dozen lines. Bagwell, arts and literature booster and CPCC English teacher that she is, lives for this kind of egalitarian public art, and finds Beasley the perfect person for it. “She’s an incredible ambassador for gorgeous language,” Bagwell says. “She’s unbelievably smart and erudite, but she doesn’t have an ounce of pretension.” Friday night, Beasley reads at the McColl Center, with Bagwell excitedly starting the evening with a poetry reading of her own. Saturday, Beasley is teaching a master class on voice at Charlotte Lit: she lends two respectable skills, those as a poet and those as a teacher, to the Queen City. The author of poetry collections like Count the Waves and I was the Jukebox and the memoir Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life balances rigorous attention to form with rich imagination, all in approachable, accessible language. Her approach requires discipline, attention, research and time. Her result is poetry so masterful and approachable Bagwell wants to paint it on the side of a building. “Being an artist requires strategy. It requires tactics,” Beasley says. “You have to have a certain amount of discipline to get things done that keep the career of being a writer going and also make time for the new drafting and the experimentation.” 20 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
New Frequencies at McColl Center featuring Sandra Beasley $5-$7. June 3, 8 p.m.-9:30 p.m. McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 721 N. Tryon St. 704-332-5535. mccollcenter.org.
Master Class: What We Talk About When We Talk About Voice $95. June 4, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Charlotte Lit, 1817 Central Ave., Suite 302. eventbrite.com.
Her poems purposefully look both inward, toward emotion, and outward, toward the world she shares with others. The stereotype exists of the navel-gazing poet, she says, but she actively draws from the world around her. She devours nonfiction — nature, history, science — and builds her poems from these sources. Beasley craves specificity; she likes to give proper species names and explore the properties of the real world, so this kind of research naturally fits into her life as a poet. “Early on I realized that a goal with my poems was going to be writing about other lives and to capture just the strangeness of the world around us,” she says. A lifetime spent in Washington, DC prepared her for this mix of practicality and verse. When Beasley picks up the phone on a warm Tuesday morning, she mentions that her southwestern DC apartment is only a few miles from where she grew up. True, Beasley, 36, was born in Arlington, Virginia, but she moved with her family to suburban Vienna by the time she was 5 or 6. Mom was a visual artist and dad worked in the military, retiring as a brigadier general in 2005. It sounds like a dramatic binary or even a folktale setup from the outside — a child raised by an artist and
Milly West
Sandra Beasley reads during McColl’s Center for Art + Innovation’s New Frequencies on June 3. a general — but Beasley, in her fashion, explains the real-world complexity of her parents’ personalities, dashing stereotypes before they form. Beasley’s self-discipline and flexible thinking, for example, are both present in the general. “His job required creativity,” she says.
“It was not a matter of blunt force.” His specialties were in psychological operations, usually known by the acronym PSYOP, and civil affairs, which involves getting resources to civilians despite the interference of conflict or war. These duties couldn’t simply be bulldozed, but required innovation.
He traveled for work, but Beasley didn’t live the “Army brat” lifestyle: she, her artist mother, and a little sister ten years her junior remained in DC. They were immersed in the vibrant cultural scene, and young Beasley attended her share of concerts, plays and museums. Beasley absorbed art, but developed a love of form and structure through her dad. She grew up equal parts artist and general: the halves complement and strengthen each other. Through high school, college, and grad school, she was driven: she studied under poets Rita Dove and Gregory Orr and she was able to keep her momentum going. When she finally finished at American University, she found herself out of the suburbs and in DC proper. And there she remains: she’s compelled by the city’s energy, which is all its own. “ W h e n you use that rhetoric of the city that never sleeps, you’re usually talking about the social side,” Beasley explains. “That’s not the way in which DC is 24/7.” Sure, people are up at all hours, but not to party; DC is full of people of national and international sig nificance, and they’re constantly doing essential work. It’s the little things, Beasley says: sometimes the president has to go somewhere, so her drive home is interrupted by a police barricade; once she stopped by George Washington University and the surgeon general happened to be filming an announcement in the lobby; appropriately, it’s a great coffee town. It’s what she’s known her whole life, and it excites her far more than a healthy nightlife would. “I get frustrated when people say that the arts struggle to breathe in DC or that it’s
tough to be creative in this town,” she says. “That, to me, is like arguing that we can’t be at the top of our field in the same way.” Yet she resists drawing a hard binary or casting her lot completely with urban life: that would be too simple, too jingoistic for Beasley. She craves quiet, too, which leads her to writing retreats in Wyoming, in Florida, or in western North Carolina.
It’s Wednesday evening, and Rand Brandes just got back into town. The English professor at Hickory’s Lenoir-Rhyne University had been in New Orleans, where he’d gone with his 92-year-old mother-inlaw to visit her siblings. If he’s tired from the trip, it doesn’t show: he’s chipper and full of praise for Beasley, both as an artist and as a person. “There is an illusion of stream-ofconsciousness, but it’s highly constructed,” Brandes says. Beasley loves form and structure; really, the ease in reading comes from careful research and drafting on her part. In spring 2013, and at Brandes’ invitation, B e a s l e y was LenoirR h y n e ’ s writer-inresidence. The college gives their visiting writer an apartment in a house on campus, Beasley says, and she relished in the semester-long change of pace. At the time, she was finishing up her most recent book, 2015’s Count the Waves, and slower, quieter life in Hickory gave her the mental space she needed to go outside her comfort zone. “The Circus,” a long poem about the life of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, was written in that on-campus house where, downstairs, groups of gifted high school students played ping-pong. She was the
grumpy writer in the attic, she recalls with self-effacing fondness, the college’s pet poet. It was a good semester. “She was young and fresh and seemed like someone our students would enjoy and learn something f r o m , ” Brandes says. He, his wife and Beasley ate together and the three bonded over Lebanese food. “We try to keep our poets happy, fed and hy d ra t e d ,” Brandes says. During that semester B e a s l e y traveled to Charlotte, where writer and poet Nick Flynn was reading. There was an excellent crowd, Beasley saw, and one of Bagwell and Carew’s first wall poems had just gone up. She was impressed by the apparent depth of the larger North Carolina cultural community. “She makes me really, really hopeful for poetry,” says Bagwell, who met Beasley during her 2013 trip to Charlotte. Bagwell rejects the idea that poetry is over the heads of the average person. Rather, she thinks there’s just not enough access — one reason she and Carew work to paint mural-sized verses across building facades. She likes that Beasley’s poems are straightforward, human and accessible; She commands the English language, but doesn’t lord it over her readers. “We rarely get to rewrite ourselves. We say what we say,” says Davidson College English professor Alan Michael Parker, Beasley’s friend and colleague at a lowresidency MFA program at the University of Tampa. Beasley, though, has the awareness and quick intellect to edit herself while she talks. And she thinks about what it means to be a woman and a woman writer, but lightly, she says: readers should hear the poet’s voice first and realize it is an outspoken female voice second. “She lives and writes the kind of feminism
that is aware of and inclusive of desire as well as agency,” Parker says. “For a woman writer, the assumption is, ‘oh, this is going to be lots of lush observations on the beauty of the world,’” Bagwell says. She loves that Beasley writes powerfully and with practical, researched detail. And the poems are hungry: they don’t just catalog the world around, but reach out into it. As a p e r s o n , Beasley is sure to reach out, too, and mentor young women poets. They’re not always as aggressive as their male counterparts, she’s noticed: they’ll take one wave of feedback and not follow up. So she keeps the line of communication open: if she’s sent suggestions to a young poet, for instance, she’ll reach out again to check on her progress. Women don’t always ask for more from established poets, and she wants to close that gap. “We have to ask for more,” Beasley says.
If Beasley gives back to younger, newer poets, it’s likely because she’s always learning, too; always seeking new skills, new data, new details, new facts about the world around her. Once upon a time she stubbornly insisted she was only a poet, just to prove herself wrong when she realized she had stories to tell that were too big and complicated for verse. And there were imposing poetic forms to tackle, like The Golden Shovel: a hundred-line poem in that format recently won her the CP Cavafy prize. What she seeks, in all this, is the junction of creativity and strategy, of ideas and structure. “It never gets easier. It never gets faster,” Beasley says. “I get excited about unfettered creativity that at the same time has rigor.”
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 21
Arts
film
The Mirror Crack’d Alice sequel nothing but shattered Glass By Matt Brunson
T
he Walrus and the Carpenter are nowhere to be found in Alice Through the Looking Glass (*1/2 out of four), meaning audiences will have to make do with the addition of Marty McFly and Captain Jack Sparrow. Those popular celluloid characters are present in spirit (if not body) in this followup to 2010’s phenomenally successful Alice in Wonderland, with Linda Woolverton again taking on mangling — I mean, screenwriting — duties but Tim Burton stepping aside as director for Flight of the Conchords’ James Bobin (Burton retains producer credit). The title suggests that this is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, the author’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but don’t you believe it — Bobin, Woolverton and company have as much use for Carroll’s wondrous text as a white rabbit does for a Wall Street Journal subscription. That’s a real shame, because true innovation is often in short supply when it comes to family features. Yet the profiteers behind this picture couldn’t care less, preferring instead to lazily trigger memories of past hits rather than offer anything that might challenge or ruffle audiences. So why not open with a sea battle straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean? And why not make the central storyline a twist on Back to the Future (particularly Part II), with Alice (Mia Wasikowska) called upon to traverse the years in a time machine in an effort to save her own eccentric Doc Brown, the perpetually annoying Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp in his now-standard jack-in-the-box mode)? If the previous movie gave us a few pages of needless backstory, then this one offers a War and Peace-sized volume of similar nonsense. It turns out that The Hatter (not named by Carroll but here called Tarrant Hightopp) suffers from even more daddy issues than George W. Bush, while the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) harbors a terrible secret (no, she doesn’t hide a Crying Gamesized penis; that sort of audacity would have been worth an extra star or two). Even Alice, a curious child in the books but now a 22 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
Disney
Johnny Depp in Alice Through the Looking Glass. colorless adult, has to deal with the daunting legacy of her late father and the crippling interference of her well-meaning mother (Lindsay Duncan). It’s all so ... 2016. As the Red Queen, Helena Bonham Carter easily gave the best performance in Alice in Wonderland, and she’s effective here as well. Also back is Alan Rickman, briefly lending his vocals to the CGI-birthed Caterpillar. This marks the late actor’s final screen performance, a depressing thought considering his otherwise vibrant resume. And as the physical manifestation of Time itself, a jumpy Sacha Baron Cohen joins the cast and delivers a take-it-or-leave-it performance that will delight some and bore others. Since I’m given the choice, I’m gonna leave it. Still, Cohen does turn up in one of the film’s few delightful scenes, a tea party in which Time punishes the attendants for their rudeness with a unique torture. Why does this scene work? Could it be because it drew its inspiration from Carroll’s actual source material? And just think, there was plenty more where that came from!
The third time’s certainly not the charm when it comes to the X-Men film franchise. After the giddy heights of 2000’s
X-Men and 2003’s X2, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand registered as a major disappointment. And after the brainy thrills of the quasireboot, 2011’s X-Men: First Class, and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, the same sort of letdown can be experienced with X-Men: Apocalypse (**1/2 out of four). If anything, X-Men: Apocalypse reminded me of those loooong-ago teen years when I not only read comic books but subscribed to a trio of team titles (to be specific, The Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers and Justice League of America). The best issues were always the ones which found the superheroes showcasing their distinct personalities and working through their personal problems; the weakest were the ones where the good guys spent the entire story pummeling some generic megalomaniac-of-the-month (The Avengers was the most guilty of this). More than any other picture in the X-series, Apocalypse skews toward the latter sort of tale, with too much emphasis spent on the dullest villain yet seen in this mutantpopulated universe. That’s not to say there isn’t still plenty to enjoy in this outing, but the overriding sense is one of missed opportunities. The evildoer in this case is En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), a mutant who made his presence known in Ancient Egypt but
who has since been laying dormant over the millennia. Awakened in the 1980s, he watches some TV, realizes humankind is a lost cause (presumably, he caught episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard and Joanie Loves Chachi to help him come to this conclusion), and decides to destroy the world in order to rebuild it. Aiding him in his global cleansing are Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who just suffered a personal tragedy at the hands of yahoos, and various teenage mutants; standing against him are Professor Xavier (James McAvoy), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and more teenage mutants. As always, individual scenes offer some familiar faces (you-know-who turns up as a Weapon X of mass destruction) as well as some unexpected ones (The Breakfast Club represented!). And as in Days of Future Past, there’s some scene-stealing being perpetrated by Evan Peters as Quicksilver — director Bryan Singer returns to the same slo-mo well, but it still yields multiple chuckles. Singer and his three co-scripters also do a fine job of introducing Teen Beat versions of iconic X-characters like Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee, who co-starred opposite Fassbender in last year’s quirky Slow West).
Jennifer Lawrence and Evan Peters in X-Men: Apocalypse. But all engaging activity comes to an abrupt halt whenever En Sabah Nur (aka Apocalypse) takes center stage. Isaac is an excellent actor, but he can do little with a part as parched as this one. Glowering under buckets of gloppy blue makeup, he doesn’t seem to be playing a godlike figure capable of destroying the world as much as the sort of grumpy uncle who always complains at barbecues that there’s not enough mayonnaise in the cole slaw. Even more surprising than Isaac’s impotence in this role is Singer’s inability to make the action set-pieces as kinetic and kicky as the ones he orchestrated in past installments. Like much else in this overreaching underachiever, these scenes deliver the goods only in fits and starts, resulting in a movie where the excitement doesn’t build as much as it ebbs and flows.
If I’m feeling particularly lazy next week when Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster opens locally, I might just cut and paste the line I’ve assigned to Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash (**1/2 out of four): “An English-language art-house effort that’s positively drenched in thick, tasty Euroambiance, the film serves up tantalizing characters and even more tantalizing ideas before turning shockingly tame, predictable and, well, American during the second half.” In the case of The Lobster, it’s the story that loses its fizz (more on that when it opens). But in the case of A Bigger Splash, it’s the characters. Set on the Italian island of Pantelleria, the picture takes a fly-onthe-wall approach to dissecting the lives of its principal players. Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is a rock star resting her damaged vocal chords in the company of
Fox
her documentarian boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts). Their days of snogging, shagging and sunbathing are interrupted by the arrival of Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes), a music producer (he once worked with the Rolling Stones) and Marianne’s former lover. Accompanying Harry is the aloof Penelope (Dakota Johnson), the daughter Harry just learned he had. All of the performances are excellent, although this is primarily Fiennes’ show. Often buttoned-up on screen, he really cuts loose here, playing a self-centered blowhard who talks nonstop and is prone to start dancing at any given moment. Harry often makes those around him uncomfortable, whether by his actions (he still flirts with Marianne) or by his words (he talks about his attraction to his own daughter, which led me to snort to the only other critic who bothered to attend the local screening, “Is Ralph Fiennes supposed to be playing Donald Trump?”). A Bigger Splash is utterly compelling as long as it focuses on its players and the way they all circle each other. But a late-inning infidelity and a late-inning crime — neither of which I bought for one millisecond — fly in the face of the carefully cultivated scenario, and it all culminates with a risible scene set in the rain. (Since Guadagnino reportedly isn’t a fan of his source material, a 60s French flick starring Alain Delon, he would have been forgiven for jettisoning even more of it.) It’s a shame, because a unique picture focused on conversation ends up getting compromised by the sort of humdrum plotting found weekly in multiplex fodder — yet another example of the gift of gab getting trumped by the gift of drab.
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 23
Arts
visual art
limited space, limited time, lots of art Arthur Brouthers’ upcoming Chroma exhibit pops By Anita Overcash
C
all Arthur Brouthers an artist, a
technician or a little of both. In his laboratory of color, the local artist mixes acrylics — taking notes and logging each and every concoction into a reference notebook that tracks what works and what doesn’t. This tedious tracking and a creative drive that longs for color, texture and detail has allowed him to formulate shapes and swirls, drips and splatters that resemble something vaguely familiar — an organism, a landscape, and/or some type of unseen body of motion brought to life. If you’ve seen his work, you’ll remember it. His paintings pop with acrylics that are poured, layered and meticulously placed to leave a lasting impression. You can check out his latest work, and his biggest solo exhibit to date, in Chroma, a one-day-only (though private showings are available) exhibit and reception showcasing in an empty warehouse space in South End. The exhibit will feature around 60 pieces of artwork by Brouthers, the smallest measuring in at six by six inches and the largest at eight by eight feet. (side note: if you’re curious, prices also vary from $150-$22,000, but he’ll also be selling limited edition prints that run lower and 50 percent of proceeds from those will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation). For this show, Bouthers — who typically displays his work regularly in Charlotte’s Sozo Gallery as well as other regional galleries like Asheville’s Surface Galley and Charleston’s Rebekah Jacob Gallery — wanted a larger space for showcasing and for studio purposes. “In the past, some of the studios that I have had wouldn’t allow me to fit the larger paintings through the doors once they were completed,” he says. That’s why when Greg Pappanastos, the president of Argos Real Estate Advisors, Inc., and an old DJ friend of Brouthers (also a former DJ), offered him a warehouse space to use as a studio temporary viewing room, Brouthers jumped at the opportunity. 24 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
Arthur Brouthers’ Chroma exhibit is viewable on June 4. The space, currently in a transition period before further development, punctuates the increasing dynamic between artists and business owners to collaborate for community benefit. “It gives them an opportunity to kind of give back to the arts community,” says Brouthers. “Now, if you approach the right person and have the right vision, I think people are becoming more open to these things.” He refers to Crescent Communities’ Skyline series, which took over the defunct Goodyear Tire Center building in Uptown before its demolition, as helping to launch the changing resources for artists. But Brouthers admits that more needs to be done. He was once a starving artist, trading his paintings off for free rent. Spaces in artsy neighborhoods are rarely affordable for artists and areas outside of the urban sprawls are mostly
only affordable while urban development is stagnant. That’s where business partnerships and collaborations can come in handy. At the upcoming show in South End, Brouthers has ample space to showcase his newest works, some of which have moved in a different direction. For Chroma, some of the works make use of brighter colors (fluorescent reds and pinks) but there’s also mixed media — combining painting, photography and Plexiglass — works and a video projection of his oversized 16-feet wide painting, shot while it was in the works. “It’s my idea of a breathing canvas. The purpose is to show what the paint does before its drying,” says Brouthers. “I feel like it helps people relate a little better to my process, without me giving too much away, because it’s a complicated process.” For his fine art pieces, acrylic paint on wood canvasses; he uses two to 10 coats of
Katherine kirchner
Chroma: A Contemporary Exhibit by Arthur Brouthers Free admission. June 4, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. 2322 Dunavant St. Private showings available by appointment June 5-6. arthurbrouthers.com/chromashow.
paint, causing his largest work in the exhibit to weigh in at around 250 pounds. Though past and some current works have been inspired by rock formations, aerial views and/or a combination of the two, his newest works have been influenced by vibrations and frequencies, as well as how the brain processes color. “A lot of this is my interpretations of how these energies can look from a different perspective,” says Brouthers.
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 25
Arts
Happenings
Comedy Bonkerz Comedy Club Jeff Jones. June 3-4. 5624 Westpark Drive. 980-288-5653. bonkerzcomedyproductions.com. The Comedy Zone Charlotte Bruce Bruce. June 2, 8 p.m.; June 3, 7:30 and 9:45 p.m.; June 4, 7 and 9:30 p.m.; June 5, 7 p.m. 180 Seconds Comedy Show. June 7, 8 p.m.; June 8, 8 p.m. The Pump and Dump Show. June 8, 7:30 p.m. 900 N.C. Music Factory Blvd., Suite B3. 980321-4702. cltcomedyzone.com. Jackalope Jacks Comedy Open Mic. Open to comics who want to show their stuff. Tuesdays, 10 p.m. 1936 East 7th St.. 704-347-1918. jackalopejacks.com. The Evening Muse All Organic Comedy Show. June 8, 9:30 p.m. 3227 N Davidson St. 704-3763737. eveningmuse.com. UpStage Improv Charlotte Comedy. June 3, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Proceeds benefit local and international charities. First Friday of every month, 7:30 p.m. $5. 3306 N. Davidson St., Suite C. 704-430-4821. upstagenoda.com. Wet Willie’s Charlotte Comedy Theater. Improv performance by Charlotte Comedy Theater. For more information, visit charlottecomedytheater. com. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m. $10. 900 N.C. Music Factory Blvd., Suite C-1. 704-716-5650. wetwillies.com.
Theater/Dance/ Performance Art Annie CPCC Summer theatre presents Annie. June 3-4, 7:30 p.m.; June 5, 2:30 p.m.; June 8, 7 p.m.; June 9-10, 7:30 p.m.; June 11, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. CPCC’s Halton Theater, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. The Bluest Eye The scene is 1940’s Ohio. The tale is of a young, black girl who wishes to have blue eyes so that she may be spared from the tragic life of racism that she has been so unfortunate to have. $28. June 2, 7:30 p.m.; June 3, 8 p.m.; June 5, 3 p.m.; June 8-9, 7:30 p.m.; June 10-11, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. 704-372-1000. blumenthalarts.org. Charlotte Ballet Academy Festival Spring performance and culmination to students 26 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
training this year. June 3-4, 7:30 p.m. Patricia McBride & Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Center for Dance, 701 N. Tryon St. 704-372-0101. charlotteballet.org. Charlotte Squawks: 12 Angry Hens It’s Saturday Night Live meets Broadway meets the Queen City. Celebrating the twelfth edition of Squawks, 12 Angry Hens, the creative team of Mike Collins and Brian Kahn collaborate with the area’s most talented performers to parody current issues in pop culture, sports, life and politics, both local and national. June 2, 7:30 p.m.; June 3-4, 8 p.m.; June 7-9, 7:30 p.m.; June 10-11, 8 p.m.; June 14-16, 7:30 p.m.; June 17-18, 8 p.m.; June 21-23, 7:30 p.m.; June 24-25, 8 p.m.; June 26, 3 p.m. Booth Playhouse, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-372-1000. blumenthalarts.org. Mi Casa Home and family are the foundation of every culture. Come explore the beauty of the Spanish language with PlayPlay in collaboration with Mexican artist and Charlotte resident Rosalia Torres-Weiner. Full of captivating colores y sonidos (colors and sounds), Mi Casa will delight the littlest theatre-goers and their loved ones. June 2-3, 10 a.m. and noon; June 4, 10 a.m., 12 and 4 p.m.; June 8, 4 and 6:30 p.m.; June 9, 10 a.m. and noon; June 10, 10 a.m. and noon; June 11, 10 a.m., 12 and 4 p.m. Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, 300 East 7th St. 704-9732828. ctcharlotte.org. Samson: The Last Judge June 3-5, 6:30 p.m.; June 6-10, 6:30 p.m. NarroWay Productions, 3327 Highway 51, Fort Mill. 803-802-2300. Stage Kiss Two actors with a history are given leading roles in a romantic play. Things get weird when their lives start to follow the lives of the characters in the play. June 2, 7:30 p.m.; June 3-4, 8 p.m.; June 8-9, 7:30 p.m.; June 10-11, 8 p.m.; June 12, 2:30 p.m.; June 15-16, 7:30 p.m.; June 17-18, 8 p.m.; June 19, 2:30 p.m.; June 22-23, 7:30 p.m.; June 24-25, 8 p.m. Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, 650 E. Stonewall St. 704342-2251. actorstheatrecharlotte.org. Storytellers Dance Academy’s 3rd Annual End of Year Revue: Life’s An Adventure! Celebrating life’s adventures, in addition to 2015-2016 competition routines and brand new recreational classes. June 5, 3 p.m. Queen’s University’s Dana Auditorium, 1900 Selwyn Ave. 704-337-2213. queens.edu.
More Events 2016 Warrior Dash Obstacle course and race. June 4. Historic Rural Hill Farm, 4431 Neck Road, Huntersville. 704-875-3113. ruralhill.net. Charlotte Knights vs. Lehigh Valley IronPigs June 2, 7:05 p.m.; June 3, 7:05 p.m.; June 4, 6:05 p.m.; June 5, 2:05 p.m. BB&T Ballpark, 324 South Mint St. milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t494. NoDa 5K In addition to the 5k, there’s beer, live music and food trucks. $30-$40. June 4, 6 p.m. NoDa Brewing Company, 2229 N Davidson St. nodabrewing.com. 40th Anniversary Paws for Life Celebration Silent and live auction with HSYC adoptable pets. June 4, 6 p.m. Palmetto Room, 147 E. Main St., Rock Hill. Strides for Shelter 5K Walk/Run Proceeds from the Strides for Shelter will benefit the creation of a new 120-unit apartment complex for chronically homeless individuals. $15-$35. June 5, 12:30 p.m. Carowinds BrewFest Try samples from a plethora of breweries and micro brews from across the Carolinas. June 4- 5. Carowinds, 14523 Carowinds Blvd. 704-588-2600. carowinds.com. Civil War Battle Re-Enactment Living history exhibits, ladies antebellum tea party, food vendors and a battle re-enactment each day at 2 p.m. $7-$8; free for children under 5. Historic Latta Plantation, 5225 Sample Road, Huntersville. 704-875-2312. lattaplantation.org. ConCarolinas 2016 A sci-fi convention that also covers genres like fantasy and horror. Featuring fandom related events and guests, including gaming, discussion panels, costume events, music events like SciFi Karaoke, concerts, vendors, a charity auction, a short film festival, and groups celebrating fandoms like Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and more. June 3-5. Embassy Suites Concord, 5400 John Q. Hammons Dr. NW, Concord. Con A de Arte (“A” Is For Art) Con A de Arte is an annual event that seeks to showcase the work of local artists from the Latin American community in the Charlotte Area. June 8, 6 p.m. Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St. 704337-2000. mintmuseum.org. Dudeapalooza 3: Death to Potpurri Shop
for all the cool guys in your life. Wilson from WCCB-TV hosts this event with local craft beer, food, vintage concert T-shirts, sports memorabilia, and more. June 4, noon. C3 Lab, 2525 Distribution St. Metrolina Antique & Vintage Market The market features an assortment of vintage items and antiques for all areas of the home. June 2-4, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri., June 3, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; June 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Charlotte Metrolina Expo Center & Fairgrounds, 7100 Statesville Road. New Frequencies: Sandra Beasley Featuring poet, memoirist and essayist Sandra Beasley. $5-$7. June 3, 8-9:30 p.m. McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 721 N. Tryon St. 704-332-5535. mccollcenter.org. Repticon Charlotte Reptile & Exotic Animal Expo A reptile event featuring vendors offering reptile pets, supplies, feeders, cages and merchandise as well as live animal seminars and raffles for prizes. $5-$10. June 4, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Cabarrus Arena & Events Center, 4751 Highway 49 North, Concord. Berewick Food Truck Festival Featuring food trucks and family-friendly activities and entertainment. June 4, 4 p.m. Future Berewick Town Center, 9500 Steele Creek Road. Microbrew Cruise Microbrews Cruise begins with a guided group flatwater paddle along the Catawba River. As the sun starts to set on the river, the group returns to the shore for a chefprepared, fireside dinner at the Ridge Pavilion. Each cruise features a select craft brewery. $55 a person. June 3; June 8; June 10; June 22; June 24; June 29. U.S. National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Parkway. 704-3913900. usnwc.org. Three Spirits Brewery Brew and Bake An event featuring five craft beers paired with eight baked goods from Suarez Bakery. $15. June 4, 2 p.m. Three Spirits Brewery, 5046 Old Pineville Road. Unwined Stand-up paddle boarding on the Catawba River, followed by a chef-prepared, fireside dinner back on shore at the Ridge Landing with one local, regional, or national winery, providing a tasting of their signature wines. $55. June 3; June 8; June 10; June 22; June 24; June 29. U.S. National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Parkway. 704391-3900. usnwc.org.
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 27
Music
Feature
The Honey Dewdrops perform at The Evening Muse on June 8.
Do the dew Honey Dewdrops provide refreshing acoustics By Anita Overcash
N
ames are everything — or, they can
seem like it anyway. In coming up with a name for their musical union, the husband-and-wife duo known as The Honey Dewdrops looked on the Internet and all around them. Uncle Dave Macon, 28 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
aka the “Dixie Dewdrop,” was an early star of the Grand Ole Opry. Then, there’s The Waltons. On the TV series, the Dew Drop Inn was a club that later came to life in the real world as a bed and breakfast in Scottsville, Virginia. For Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish
of The Honey Dewdrops, who lived nearby, these were reasons enough to adopt the “Dewdrops” portion of their name. The “honey” was added in relation to the pair’s matrimony union. It was also reflective of the sweet sounds that the two are capable of conjuring together. The Honey Dewdrops
produce layered harmonies that glimmer with acoustic guitars and compatible, harmonious altos. The couple met while they were in college; on the side they both enjoyed playing music and later found themselves in the same band. Fast forward to 2008 when they were
The Honey Dewdrops $6. June 8, 7:30 p.m. The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. 704-3763737. eveningmuse.com.
featured on Prairie Home Companion. After starring on the public radio show’s “People in their Twenties Talent Show,” they began taking a career in music more seriously. Living outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, at the time, the positive reinforcement lured them into further honing in on their craft. Could they establish a music career that went beyond the here and there oddball gigs? Could touring become a full-time job? The answer was yes. It led Wortman and Parrish to quitting their teaching jobs in a risky effort to turn a dream into a reality. Now, they’re glad they did. Parrish admits that a life on the road poses plenty of challenges. But they wouldn’t do anything differently. Just last year, the duo released its fourth studio album, Tangled Country. This album was unlike past Honey Dewdrops albums in that they featured guest musicians who added more instruments and sounds to the group’s more stripped and simplistic soundscapes. Yet, the extra sounds don’t seem to diminish the couple’s force as a two-piece. In fact, the recordings seem to capture the sounds that they make as two people without any noticeable flashiness of extra people, places and things. “We thought it would be really cool to bring the songs alive on the record in a way that would be a little different than we play most of the shows. Our ideas about recordings have really changed with us over time,” says Parrish. “At times, we felt like this should be a pure documentation of what we sound like with no overdubs and just the two of us, which is how we tour 100 percent of the time. But with this one we thought, ‘Hey let’s make the record a little different.’ We made it different in a way that’s subtle.” In that retrospect, there’s pedal steel and a lot more instrumental flare, without any drowning out of the dynamic that the two have going on their own. Drawn to male/female duets from bluegrass and old-time sounds from Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin, which they listened to often during the early formation of the Honey Dewdrops, Parrish also attributes Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz as strong duet-style voices coupled with guitars who served as encouragement and swayed their sound in the acoustic direction. These old-time acts introduced the idea of just how profound the effects of a couple
guitars and a couple voices can be. They liked stripped down, spare and quiet vibe. “That’s a big part of the music,” says Parrish. “It allows the nuances of the song to really come through.” Hearing those details and the powerful force that just two people could have in the music realm convinced the pair to take acoustic music more seriously. They didn’t need the frills of a full band and lots of instruments on the road, but they aren’t opposed to it in the studio — at least, not anymore. As former special education teachers who taught at different schools and had limited access to one another after long days, this couple tredged off the typical path of married living. On “Same Old,” the couple touches on that idea of day-to-day life and the feeling that it’s getting stale. “Maybe there’s some thought that has to go into why it feels stale and how it might be changed up so that you feel a little better about it,” says Parrish. The song, written largely about some friends of the couple and their ballsy move to buy a plot of land and build the house of their dreams, left them inspired. “It’s really good that people are doing what they want to do,” says Parrish. Yet, despite the positive outlook there’s a tinge of sadness and doubt in songs recorded on much of the band’s work. They even admit that, to a certain degree, sad songs make them happy. “It could be an overtly sad song — like going through break up or loosing a loved one — but it can run the gamit between that far side of being a sad song and being between that and not quite knowing how you feel. Tension is interesting to us,” says Parrish. “It’s what we’re trying to get at. A lot of times it’s sort of murky as to what we’re trying to get at when the process begins and you go through this journey of figuring out what you’re trying to say.” Most often, they look beneath the surface and try to take heavy issues off the chest. The band’s “Loneliest Song,” is actually a sad song about sad songs. One line in the song reads, “The loneliest songs are the most beautiful things.” Now 35 and 32, respectively, Parrish and Wortman continue to mature in new and exciting ways. After living in Baltimore, Maryland for the past two years, they’ve been influenced by the ‘Charm City’ and by a new lifestyle guided by city life versus their small town living back in Virginia. “Certainly the riots that happened almost a year ago in Baltimore have been percolating and living underneath the surface,” Parrish says in regards to the change in atmosphere and what could, someday, be a source of inspiration behind another song. aovercash@clclt.com
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 29
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4548 Old Pineville Rd 30 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
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clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 31
ONE VOICE CHORUS
Charlotte’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning & Allied Chorus proudly presents
Music
Soundboard
JUNE 2 Blues/Roots/International River Jam Series w/ John Nemeth (U.S. National Whitewater Center)
Classical/Jazz/Smooth Holy Ghost Tent Revival (The Evening Muse)
Country/Folk Chris Sanchez (Tin Roof) Jim Garett (Comet Grill) Thursdays on Main Series w/ Chris Marks Band (Veterans Park, Kannapolis)
June 17 & 18 - 8:00 PM Charlotte Ballet 701 N Tryon St | Charlotte, NC
General Admission $30 Sales tax included For VIP ticket information, visit www.onevoicechorus.com
Pop/Rock Alive After Five w/ Smokin’ Js (EpiCentre) Alive After Five w/ We Got The Beat (Rooftop 210) Gang of Thieves w/ Flat Tire Trio (Visulite Theatre) The Hooliganz w/ The Commonwealth, The Genuine OK, Smelly Felly, NO BRAINER, Stray Cat Sideshow (Milestone) Josh Brannon Band (Double Door Inn) Late Night Special (RiRa Irish Pub) Run Engine w/ Poor Blue, Kevin Marshall and The J-Walkers (Petra’s) Save The Milestone Fundraiser Feat. The Hooliganz, The CommonWealth, The Genuine OK, Smelly Felly and No Brainer $5. (Milestone) Shiprocked (Snug Harbor)
JUNE 3 Blues/Roots/International Gigi Dover & The Big Love w/ Māya Beth Atkins (Double Door Inn)
Country/Folk Ezra Root (Tin Roof) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) Oh Jeremiah w/Alexis Marceaux and the Samurai (The Evening Muse) Out Of The Blue (Coyote Joe’s)
Hip-Hop/Soul/R&B Electric Relaxation f. DJ Skillz (‘Stache House Bar & Lounge)
Pop/Rock Blakeney Summer Music Series w/ Tony Barnes Band (Blakeney) Blanket Fort w/ JPH, The Kneads (Snug Harbor) Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) 32 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
The Sawyer Soiree w/ Time Sawyer (The Evening Muse) Stonecrest Summer Concert Series w/ Randy Paul & the Revelry (Stonecrest Shopping Center) Swim in the Wild (Visulite Theatre) Take the Fall w/ The Menders, Wolves and Wolves and Wolves and Wolves, Rothschild, Between Symmetries, Dear Kavalier (Milestone)
JUNE 4 Blues/Roots/International The Chris Duarte Group (Double Door Inn)
Classical/Jazz/Smooth June Tunes Mint Hill w/ Lindsey Nicole & Hwy 74 (Mint Hill Town Hall, Mint Hill) Matthews Summer Concert Series w/ Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (Stumptown Park, Matthews)
Country/Folk Billy Joe Shaver w/ Ashleigh Flynn (Neighborhood Theatre) Gene Watson (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Jerry Jacobs (Tin Roof) Kannapolis Summer Entertainment Series w/ LoneStar (downtown Kannapolis) Out Of The Blue (Coyote Joe’s) River Jam Series w/ David Childers (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Ryan Melquist Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Silver Wings (Comet Grill)
Hip-Hop/Soul/R&B R&B Icons... The Reunion (Belk Theater)
Pop/Rock Another Lost Year w/ Scott Bartlett (The Rabbit Hole) Blakeney Summer Music Series w/ Tony Barnes Band (Blakeney) The Business People w/ Little War Twins, Starbenders (Snug Harbor) Chalkies w/ Sink Tapes, Lost In Society, Anchor Detail (Milestone) Jon Linker Band (Tin Roof) Journey w/ The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason (PNC Music Pavilion) Matt Ferranti (Tin Roof) Matthew Mayfield (The Evening Muse) Stonecrest Summer Concert Series w/ Randy Paul & the Revelry (Stonecrest Shopping Center)
JUNE 5 Blues/Roots/International The Charlotte Blues Society Meeting w/ Dangerous Gentlemen (Double Door Inn)
Classical/Jazz/Smooth Gregory Porter (Knight Theater)
DJ/Electronic DJ A-ROD (Tin Roof)
Pop/Rock Concerts on the Green Series w/ Matt Stratford Band (Davidson Village Green, Davidson) David J (Petra’s) The Early Dismissal w/ October Sky, Camori, Lions and Liars (Milestone) Omari and the Hellraisers (Comet Grill) Sense of Purpose f. Paul Agee, Chris Allen, Joe Lindsay, Jody Gholson (Tyber Creek Pub)
JUNE 6 Classical/Jazz/Smooth The Monday Night Allstars (The Double Door Inn)
DJ/Electronic Knockturnal (Snug Harbor)
Fairplay & Special Guests (Lucky Lou’s Tavern) Nothing Feels Good - Emo Night (Noda 101) Selena Gomez w/ DNCE (Time Warner Cable Arena)
Country/Folk The Honey Dewdrops (The Evening Muse) Midweek Matinee Songwriter Showcase w/ Caveman Dave (Petra’s) Open Mic (Comet Grill)
Hip-Hop/Soul/R&B Romare Bearden’s Party in the Park Series w/ The Entertainers (Romare Bearden Park)
Pop/Rock Dollar Signs (Snug Harbor) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open Mic Night (Comet Grill) Party in the Park w/ Entertainers (Romare Bearden Park) The Radio Silent w/ Morningside Lane, Cherbough Way, Fear Until Fury, ISH (Milestone)
COMING Soon
Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
Hip-Hop/Soul/R&B
Need directions? Check out our website at clclt.
#MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)
Pop/Rock Locals Live (Tin Roof) Open Mic Night w/ Joshua Powell (The Evening Muse) Wicked Powers (Comet Grill)
JUNE 7 Classical/Jazz/Smooth Bill Hanna Jazz Jam $7. (Double Door Inn) Celebrating the Life of Prince Through Jazz w/ Purple Note (The Evening Muse)
Country/Folk
The Sana Blake Band (Snug Harbor)
Pop/Rock Craig Veltri (Tin Roof)
Email backtalk@clclt.com
JUNE 8
Ellie Goulding (June 9; CMCU Amphitheatre) R Kelly (June 9; Time Warner Cable Arena) Weezer, Panic at the Disco (June 10; PNC Music Pavilion) Kurt Vile (June 11; Amos’ Southend) Lucius (June 13; Visulite Theatre) Death Cab for Cutie, Chvrches (June 16; CMCU Amphitheatre) Lake Street Dive (June 17; The Fillmore) Weezer, Panic at the Disco (June 20; PNC Music Pavilion) The Cure (June 23; PNC Music Pavilion) Aesop Rock (July 1; Visulite Theatre) Vans Warped Tour (July 5; PNC Music Pavilion) Garbage (July 23; The Fillmore) Gwen Stefani (July 23; PNC Music Pavilion) Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Of Mice & Men (Aug. 2; PNC Music Pavilion) Puff Daddy (Sept. 20; Time Warner Cable Arena) * - CL Recommends
Hip-Hop/Soul/R&B
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com. CL online provides addresses, maps and directions from your location. Send us your concert listings: E-mail us at aovercash@clclt. com or fax it to 704-522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication.
THU 6/2 FRI 6/3
SWIM IN THE WILD - CD Release
C2 & THE BROTHERS REED & JAGGERMOUTH
SAT 6/4
DUST & ASHES - LAUREN JENKINS LEANNA EDEN -KELLY SUMMERS - ERIN MAYNOR MON 6/13
THU 6/16
BASSH + Vita and the Woolf FRI 7/8
EMILY KING FRI 8/5 JAY BRANNAN TUE 8/9
Jelly Roll and Whitney Peyton clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 33
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Nightlife
Celebrating a third Memorial Day in the Q.C. that’s when one of my closest childhood As I sat on a boat, out of gas, on Lake friends hit me up. We rarely get to spend Wylie, staring at the dock where we were supposed to be filling up I thought, “Every time together on the weekends so I was Memorial Day that I’ve celebrated in the ecstatic when she asked me to meet her at Queen City has been beyond memorable to Petra’s for an event called, Su Casa. say the least.” Located in between Diamond and Two years ago my friends and I thought it The Common Market on Commonwealth would be fun to rent a boat on Lake Norman. Avenue, Petra’s is a cozy venue that features a None of us had ever driven a boat before but seating area, dance floor, bar, front and back were told that the basics could be learned in a tutorial that the designated driver watched patios. When I arrived, there was a line of prior to pulling away from the dock. And people waiting to get in and the familiar so we did. A couple hours later, rhythms of Afrobeat spilled into four of us were fighting for our the front patio. I could barely lives — and from becoming keep my composure when a statistic after getting I stepped through the separated from the boat. door to pay as I watched Talk about a nightmare, I never thought I’d be on a everyone getting down on lake again. the dance floor. Last year, I had Dreads, natural hair started talking to the and lots of melanin — I current boyfriend and felt like I was dreaming and while no real near death had finally found a venue Aerin Spruill experiences have occurred, that felt like home. “Charlotte’s getting in a relationship has definitely brought about the monthly oasis for the culturally death of an era partying in the Q.C. starved,” that’s how the event was This past weekend had started no different perfectly described on Petra’s website. For as I thought about yet another eventful $10, you too can experience an urban vibe Memorial Day coming to a close — with centered around photography, dancing, film excitement at the office. On Friday, it was and art on the fourth Saturday of every difficult for everyone to concentrate — it month. My only regret? Drinking the last of didn’t help Speed Street was camped out right in front of our office. A lot of us were my four vodka cranberry’s and not getting already anticipating a shorter workday and my face painted. Needless to say, I’ll be there by 3 p.m. I was racing through my last little again next month. bit of work before heading out the door. The next day was rainy and cloudy, My boyfriend and I already had plans to which meant Sunday fun day without a go out of town early so we geared up for a boat day. So my boyfriend, a few friends night of “Netflix and chill” after grabbing a and myself camped out on the patio of quick dinner. The next morning we were up Draught for brunch. After having gone once bright an early and packing for our overnight trips. this summer already, this spot has officially I hopped in the car and headed home solidified itself as the place to be for Sunday to the 336 for yet another graduation shenanigans in my book. If you’re looking for celebration. Tasked with only one job — great food and music in a party atmosphere, showing up before the party started — I you’ll enjoy it too! made way down I-85 to help set-up for a hot “Not too shabby of a weekend,” I thought fish fry. After getting my fill on food and as we finally coasted our way up to the dock family time I headed back to the Q.C. Almost all of my friends had been where we filled up and hoped the engine partying all day long so by the time I was would start. And it did. We spent the day back in town I had two options — go to bed on the lake basking in the sun enjoying and call it a night or grab drinks by myself the company of Apple Music and PBR. And and hope that someone hit me up later. I’ll just like that, another Memorial Day was give you one guess as to which one I chose. in the books. How was your Memorial Day An hour later I was chatting up a couple weekend? Share it with me! at Hattie’s Tap and Tavern about babies (don’t ask, I’m going through a phase.). And backtalk@clclt.com
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Crossword
CELEBRITY SYNONYMY ACROSS
1 Swim a few pool lengths 7 Workplace of Colonel Klink 13 Exact model 20 Madison Ave. bigwig 21 Clandestine 22 FDR’s first lady 23 Master of impressions, to Roget? 25 Forbearing 26 Abbr. on a bad check 27 Stately shade tree 28 “Chinatown” director, to Roget? 30 Build 32 The NFL’s Cowboys, on scoreboards 33 The, to Yves 34 “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” singer, to Roget? 42 Paranormal skill, briefly 45 Right-hand page 46 Grow sick of 47 Under state? 50 Wisdom deity 52 Actress who played Peter Pan on Broadway, to Roget? 56 Contestant 57 Dungeons & Dragons is one, in brief 59 Earlier 60 Active people 61 Freddie the Freeloader portrayer, to Roget? 68 Grant’s foe 69 Brick carrier 70 Make jubilant 71 IM offerer 72 Rio’s make 75 “Son of a Preacher Man” singer, to Roget? 79 Keep clear of 82 Daily record 83 Jerry Lewis telethon org., for years 84 Actor Lugosi 85 “My Way” singer, to Roget? 91 Align 93 Of no use 94 One-celled swimmer 96 “- my case” 97 - Schwarz 98 Swimmer with three Olympic gold medals, to Roget?
103 Org. for the 53-Downs 106 The - degree 107 Island south of Sicily 108 “Annie Hall” co-star, to Roget? 115 “- know you?” 116 Game aim 119 Skipped past 120 Former world heavyweight champion, to Roget? 123 Leasing 124 More banal 125 Sean Penn film of 2001 126 Fencing cry 127 Put in groups 128 Kind of skiing
DOWN
1 Break of day 2 Lyrical works 3 Bit of a tree 4 Rose of Guns N’ Roses 5 Jazz pianist Oscar 6 Lug 7 1975 NBC debut, briefly 8 Work hard 9 “- boy!” 10 Riga native, old-style 11 “That’s - ask” 12 “Hedda” star Jackson 13 Survey anew 14 Israeli carrier 15 Bloom part 16 Cleo of jazz 17 Intrinsically 18 Bean 19 Intro studio class 24 Some rec centers 29 Foot the bill 30 - plea (say “guilty,” say) 31 “Wild Thing” band, with “the” 34 Take a trip 35 Clock again 36 “Things Fall Apart” writer Chinua 37 Ire. land 38 Gun lobby: Abbr. 39 Heavy load 40 Antelope with a long head 41 Takeoff stat 43 Mark for life 44 Sties, e.g. 48 Bing of opera 49 Quotation book abbr.
51 Bow missile 53 L.A. hoopster 54 Go gray, say 55 - Garros (French Open) 58 Oar’s cousin 62 - Scholar 63 1994 French Open winner Bruguera 64 England’s Isle of 65 Trial VIPs 66 Big Indy inits. 67 Colosseum garments 72 Actor - Ivory Wayans 73 Mistreatment 74 Acclimatizes 75 One trillionth: Prefix 76 Canon camera line 77 Title song lyric after “Hallelujah” 78 Spain locale 79 Dating from 80 “Ars longa, - brevis” 81 Alternative to a steak fry 86 Soldier for 68-Across 87 - Geo 88 “Botch- -” (1952 song) 89 Craggy crest 90 - Speed Wagon (old truck) 92 Pertaining to a road or traveling 95 Carne - (burrito filler) 99 Tense 100 “- be a shame if ...” 101 Kind of daisy 102 Feminist Steinem 104 Siamese fighting fish 105 Moving about 108 Golfer’s cry 109 Eerie sign 110 Baby-sit, e.g. 111 P.O. stack 112 Clark’s love 113 Inner: Prefix 114 Brooklynite, e.g., briefly 116 “What - to think?” 117 - instant 118 Alaska port 121 “The A-Team” co-star 122 Acting-up kid
Solution found on p. 38.
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There’s this boy — he’s 29; I’m 46 and that you’re not ready to let go of him, either. female. We met when we were 23 and 41. If you really wanted to encourage the Kid I was not and am not into little boys. to work things out with whatever woman The Kid chased me, and I turned him he happens to be seeing, DCMC, you would down for months — until I got drunk offer him your make-it-work advice without one night and caved. It was supposed fucking him first. to be a one-night stand, but it isn’t Fucking someone who has a girlfriend — anymore. We’ve never been “together,” especially someone who has a girlfriend he’s because the Kid wants kids and happily supposed to be with exclusively — doesn’t ever after and all that horseshit, and I exactly telegraph “I think you two should don’t (and I’m too old even if I did). The work it out.” So going forward, maybe you Kid has been in several relationships should offer the Kid your advice when he’s over the years, looking for “the one,” seeing someone, fuck the shit out of him and I genuinely hope he finds her. In when he’s single, and don’t waste too much my wildest dreams, I’m invited to their time worrying about whether fucking you wedding and their children call me incentivizes being single. Because single/you auntie. But in the meantime, the Kid may be what he wants right now. runs to me when he hits a hiccup in a relationship, and I let him — meaning, If I first met someone on a hookup he gets mad at her and fucks me madly. site or at a sex party and then we start Afterward, I get him to talk about seeing each other, what’s the best it — he tells me what happened, way to explain how we met and I always try to advise when we’re at a social event him how to make it better, and people ask? how to make it work. Torrid Revelations But so far it hasn’t, and Undermining Totally we’re “us” again until Honesty he meets another girl. I do love this Kid, for The truth is always what it’s worth. But nice — and in your case, I’m afraid I’m ruining TRUTH, telling the truth his chances. I’m afraid about your relationship that by being an escape could be constructive. Dan Savage hatch, I’m giving him a There are a lot of people reason not to work on these out there in loving committed relationships and he will never relationships (LCR) that had crazy find the kids/forever thing he’s sleazy starts (CSS). But very few people looking for. Should I let him go for his in a LCR with a CSS tell the truth when own sake? If I tell him honestly why, asked how they met. A couple who met at he won’t accept it, so I’d have to just a sex party will say they met at a dinner vanish. I’d hate that. It would be worth party, a couple that met inside a cage in a it if I knew he met someone and got to sex dungeon will say they met doing a teamlive happily ever after. But I’d spend my building exercise at a work retreat, a couple life feeling bad for disappearing on him, that met during an impulsive, drunken and I’d always wonder if the Kid wound threesome will say they met at a riotous up alone. protest outside a Trump rally. Don’t Call Me Cougar These lies are understandable: People don’t want to be judged or shamed. But I don’t see any conflict between what the when a CSS couple lies about how they met, Kid says he wants in the long run — kids and TRUTH, they reinforce the very shame and happily ever after and all that horseshit — stigma that made them feel like they had and the things his actions indicate he wants to lie in the first place. And they play into now, i.e., your rear and your ear. He’s young, the sex-negative, self-defeating, and superhe hasn’t met a woman he could see himself hypocritical assumption made by singles with for the long haul, and he appears to be who attend sex parties, spend time in cages, in no rush — he can have his first kid next and have impulsive threesomes — these year or 20 years from now. single people who do sleazy things often And the meantime, DCMC, he has you. refuse to date the people they meet at sex Here’s where I detect some conflict parties, etc., because they believe no LCR between statements and actions: The fact ever had a CSS. If couples that had sleazy that you keep fucking the Kid while he’s starts told the truth about themselves, technically still with other women — first single people would be less likely to rule out you fuck him (madly) and then you advise dating people they met sleazily. backtalk@clclt.com him (sagely) — is a pretty good indication
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 37
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For all signs: On June 17, there will
be an exact square of Saturn and Neptune. Saturn rules hard core reality, the rules, and limits of our lives. Neptune rules the spiritual, the ethereal, that which is illusive, lacking clear boundaries, and may be addictive and deceptive. A micro view of this aspect’s dilemma is symbolized by the current hysteria over bathroom choices. In and of itself, the issue is really moot and an illusory sham. It is more about the need of the far right to control the great unwashed at every possible level. So the right generates terror over an issue that has always been extant. If the public buys the fear, they will allow extremely conservative rule over everyone. Neptune is the equivalent of water, which will eventually erode stone. This will all go away in due time. The Saturnine among us who accept this “terror,” will sooner or later lock themselves into an isolated box of rules or give up entirely.
Aries: You have no new aspects this week. However, your planetary avatar, Mars, continues to be retrograde. As the ancient god of war, he represents a struggle occurring within you. The battle may be represented by a conflict of internal values or an impasse about how to access what you want. The material, moral or ethical cost of moving forward could be causing your hesitation. Taurus: You may be taking a sober look
at one or more relationships. Even the very closest friends cannot know each other from the inside. Sometimes we forget this fact and need to become aware that we are actually separate beings, helping when we can. Sometimes our energy is too low to be there for one another.
Gemini: You are in a reasonably good place with yourself at this time. Your heart and mind are flowing together. You have no conflict between your feelings and your thoughts about those feelings. This is a time for reflection on important subjects. You can make good decisions now. Family activities and traditions are comforting now. Cancer: Day to day life is favorable at
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38 | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | clclt.com
present. There are no big conflicts between you and anyone of importance. Social life is favored with partner, friends, and neighbors. Short trips to interesting nearby places could prove refreshing and educational. Contractual agreements are favored now.
Leo: There is the possibility that you will attract someone who is needy, causing you to feel that you should help. Before you go very far, talk to your friends and ask who this person is. He or she might be a “vampire,” one who takes far more than he can give. Outside of that, there is also the possibility of an encounter with the ethereal world.
Virgo: This is a time in which your exuberance and enthusiasm may carry you farther than you really intended to go. You will certainly have more energy to do whatever you choose, but take care that you don’t promise way more than you can deliver. Your warm and generous heart will have a heyday. If money is an issue, leave the credit card(s) at home. Libra: For any number of reasons,
circumstances may leave you out of the social loop. It’s possible that you do not feel well. Astrologically this is a time for self-reflection and not self-condemnation. Having a quiet week is appropriate at this time. Don’t turn this into a negative belief about yourself. Enjoy the time to be still and enjoy the quiet.
Scorpio: Your ruling planet, Mars, is
retrograding in your sign. Your physical and libidinal energy may go into a dip for a while. You may be surprised to find that you have changed your mind about circumstances and people in your life. Do not worry. You haven’t lost your mind. Your desire to back away is a signal that you are burning out. Rest for now.
Sagittarius: Don’t allow fear and
pessimism to interfere with your pleasure in life. If something is nagging at you, take a clear and direct look at it. Is there really anything there, or have you invented your own worry? The blues may be your companion for a couple of days over the weekend, but the cloudy time is short.
Capricorn: Issues among people in the
workplace may be prominent now. This is the time to seek out win-win solutions. If you have been focused on a physical selfimprovement program in recent months, now is the time for display of the outcome. You will be compensated as you deserve.
Aquarius: Aspects are not the best for
the Waterbearers at this time. You may feel isolated or as though no one around you can possibly understand who or what you are. In some way life circumstances may be preventing you from communicating. This is a test of faith. The inner critic could overrun your mind if you allow it. Remember that feelings come and go like waves. They never remain the same.
Pisces: It is possible you will feel a sense
of fatigue this week. Maybe something has caused you to be disappointed. Don’t take the blues seriously or worry about yourself. In a few days you will feel much better. It is a temporary mood swing. Get some extra rest. Stay in touch with good friends.
Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Vivian Carol may be reached at 704-366-3777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments. Website: www.horoscopesbyvivian.com.
clclt.com | jun. 2 - jun. 8, 2016 | 39
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