2016 Issue 37 Creative Loafing by Creative Loafing Charlotte

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KENTARO

Kikagaku Moyo plays Snug Harbor on Nov. 4.

COVER STORY TAKING BACK THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD: Residents get proactive in the fight against gentrification on the west side.

BY VANESSA INFANZON THIS WEEK’S COVER WAS DESIGNED BY DANA VINDIGNI.

NEWS&VIEWS

FOOD

10 THE BLOTTER 11 THE QUERY 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

VIVIAN HOWARD’S LABOR OF LOVE: New book, Deep Run Roots, takes her out of the kitchen and on the road. BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

ARTS&ENT THE NERD WHO TERRORIZED NEW JERSEY: Reviews of The Toxic Avenger and Pride and Prejudice.

BY PERRY TANNENBAUM 18 FILM REVIEWS

MUSIC

ATMOSPHERIC APTITUDE: Japanese band,

Kikagaku Moyo, hits the east coast with new psych soundscapes.

BY ANITA OVERCASH

24 SOUNDBOARD

ODDS&ENDS

14 TOP 10 THINGS TO DO 26 MARKETPLACE 26 NIGHTLIFE 27 CROSSWORD 28 SAVAGE LOVE 30 HOROSCOPE

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NEWS

COVERSTORY

TAKING BACK THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD Residents get proactive in the fight against gentrification on the west side BY VANESSA INFANZON

T 86 YEARS old, Martha McAfee is known affectionately as “Granny” by her Enderly Park neighbors. Since 1976, she has raised 10 children in her home on Morson Street. She’s worked as a nurse’s assistant at Mercy Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital. Outside of her home sits a sign altered to read, “We are not to be bought.” McAfee’s cautiously optimistic feelings about plans for investment in the West End that seem to be coming from all directions now that rapid growth in Uptown has begun to expand outward are not uncommon in the area. “If they do what they say they are going to do, it’s going to be good,” she says. With all the newfound attention from investors on the west side, McAfee says she receives weekly offers to buy her house. “I am not fixing to sell it,” she says. “Good place to live as long as you are respectable between each other. I love my neighborhood. I don’t have to live here.” She’s not the only one sharing that message. This summer, signs like the one in McAfee’s yard began popping up alongside sidewalks and in yards throughout west Charlotte. Most of the signs are altered versions of the “We Buy Houses for Cash” signs that are all too familiar on the west side. The signs, plucked from the ground and reworked by artists and advocates within the neighborhood, read “Don’t Steal Our Neighborhood”; “Nope, we are strong, resilient”; “We are in this together”; and “We cannot be bought.” As urban sprawl has fixed its eyes upon the historic black neighborhoods of west Charlotte, planners have come out of the woodwork with ideas about how to make this part of town shine brighter, but many long-time residents worry that not enough is being done to preserve the history of the West End and make sure residents aren’t pushed out by overzealous home-buying companies or skyrocketing property taxes. Much of the resulting debate has revolved around a word that many use yet few know the definition of: gentrification. Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’ in 1964 to describe what was happening in neighborhoods in London, England. At the 8 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

time, she said, “One by one, many of the working class quarters have been invaded by the middle class — upper and lower … Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the working class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.” In America, this “invasion” has often occurred along racial lines, equaling a sort of reverse white flight in which a working-class, often majority-black neighborhood suddenly becomes hip among a city’s younger, white population, which begins to move in and eventually pushes out those who have had homes there for generations. Charlotte’s community leaders and residents have long been actively fighting against the gentrification that Glass spoke about in 1964. Displacement of whole communities, a disregard for culture and history and the racial and socio-economic divides that are created in these newly redeveloped neighborhoods are not new topics here. It happened recently in Cherry and as far back as the 1960s, when Brooklyn was developed over. Now in 2016, longtime residents of west Charlotte are at risk of being displaced from the neighborhoods they have lived in for decades. J’Tanya Adams, 53, is a native Charlottean. Adams moved to West End because she knew the neighborhoods needed help and she wanted to be an active participant in fostering change. She is president of the Seversville Community Organization and founder and president of Historic West End Partners, a group dedicated to celebrating and preserving the West End’s rich history. “I think there are a lot of dynamics around gentrification. When you look at gentrification from an investment perspective, thoughtful investment is always welcome, especially when you have been asking for it for over 20 years,” Adams said. “It’s not that no one desired or asked. Now it’s coming because possibly someone else moved into the neighborhood. The anger is, why is it only coming when somebody else comes? Why is it that the investment follows them?”

Martha McAfee in front of her Enderly Park home. Considerable strides have been made in improving the West End in recent years, but Adams is quick to acknowledge the many seniors in the neighborhood who have worked for the same thing for decades. “There’s nothing new under the sun. [Senior citizens] worked on trying to recruit retail in their own way, preserve history and culture, housing improvement. [They were] champions for fresh food, health and wellness,” she says. On one warm August evening, about 25 Charlotte residents gathered at the Levine Museum of the New South’s free monthly forum called Civic By Design. The topic, the future of Historic West End, drew a diverse crowd of young and old, black and white. Alysia Osborne, director of Historic West End for Charlotte Center City Partners, presented 22 slides outlining the history of the development plans and current tactical strategies. During the forum, Osborne explained why she doesn’t use the term gentrification. “I don’t use it. I don’t like it. It does have a negative connotation, but I think it is often used without consideration for solutions,” she said. “If we are going to talk about it, let’s talk about displacement. Are there people, communities and businesses being displaced in West End?” So the question is: are folks in charge taking a serious look at who’s really impacted by new development and investment? John Howard has been the planning manager for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department for 13 years. He wrote

RYAN PITKIN

the West End Land Use and Pedestrian Landscape (Pedscape) in 2005, taking into account previous plans developed in 1985. Howard surveyed the neighborhood associations, special-interest groups, business owners and public for feedback. Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) and Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT) were included in discussions about street conversions, bike lanes, road capacity and future growth. Dr. Ronald Carter, president of Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU), a historically black university, also worked with Howard to define the stakeholders and craft plans for off-campus projects. Dr. Carter has been president of JCSU since 2008 and will finish his tenure there in spring 2017. The school’s campus sits at ‘5 Points’ — where Beatties Ford Road, W. 5th Street, Rozelles Ferry Road and two sides of W. Trade Street (one now closed off) come together. The campus is in Biddleville, the oldest African American neighborhood in Charlotte with history dating back to 1867. It’s now at the forefront of the gentrification debate. “When [Dr. Carter] first came to Charlotte, he convened different types of groups that could talk about street cars and talk about future development, linking east and west,” Howard says. “He was really a catalyst in terms of honing in that conversation.” Mosaic Village — a mixed-use, 124,00-square-foot development that opened on W. Trade Street in October 2012 — was one direct outcome of that project. “Major concerns at that point in time

Mosaic Village. were displacement of seniors and lower income residents. On the flip side, it was attracting new development that people have been wanting for years,” said Howard. “We want to make sure we grow, but make sure that the people who have been here a long time can stay.” Howard explained that the discussion focused on improving safety, quality of life and economic conditions of the corridor. They discussed keeping the character of the buildings and the feel of the neighborhood intact. In an interview with Creative Loafing, Carter issued a challenge to the city of Charlotte: “If the city is really concerned to have strong corridors, then why not go the extra mile to ensure that as businesses are growing, that they find black Americans living in those communities who can run those businesses? Why not create a partnership that opens up that opportunity for them to move up that staircase of social mobility? I call that self-gentrification.”

WHILE RESIDENTS LIKE Adams enjoy

Mosaic Village, rather than sit back and hope their feedback is included in upcoming plans to revitalize the West End, she and others have been taking more active roles in educating their neighbors about what’s coming and working to affect those plans. The Five Points Community Collaborative (5PCC) is a project Adams has spearheaded with other community leaders. 5PCC was formed so that neighborhoods connected by the Irwin Creek and Stewart Creek Greenways could work together planning events and advocating for the neighborhood as a whole.

RYAN PITKIN

Justin Harlow, 28, grew up in Atlanta and moved to Charlotte after finishing dental school at UNC Chapel Hill. He’s now president of the Biddleville/Smallwood Neighborhood Association in the West End. Harlow, who works alongside Adams as a lead organizer with 5PCC, believes the group can leverage their collective efforts and influence change. His view of new growth and development, like McAfee’s, is both optimistic and cautious. “[We are] trying to present this unified West End as it continues to get rebranded,” he says. According to Harlow, it is mostly young middle- to upper-middle class white families that are moving into the neighborhoods. “There are a few black families like us here, but the majority of black people that live in this neighborhood are elderly. They have been here 30-plus years.” Harlow believes that association meetings, picnics, progressive dinners and community events are some ways to find common ground among residents. He’s not against the rising housing and land prices, but believes there needs to be a balance. “Some people would say that that’s the price of progress. That’s a one-sided or limited view of it,” he says. “I believe in free market economics. I believe that if a person is willing to pay a certain value and reset the market, then so be it. That is part of a capitalist market, but we have to figure out a way to respect history and understand that in this part of town, there’s so much more historical value that people moving over here don’t recognize. As bluntly as I can put it, a lot of white people don’t recognize that.” Harlow believes that people want a mixed community in a safe environment. Many

DANIELLE HILTON.

Signs that once read “We Buy Homes” have been repurposed and placed back on the streets to support the fight against gentrification happening in west Charlotte. elderly residents worked for decades to build the neighborhood and are thrilled to see the changes happening. Harlow explains that showing the respect to these older residents goes a long way, “I know you paved this path for us.” Harlow said, “There have been a lot of dreams deferred on the west side.” Harlow is well-aware of the displacement concerns. He has spoken with county commissioners about how to keep seniors in their homes. He mentioned grandfathering them into an earlier property assessment, starting an abatement program and/ or creating a flat tax with new residents realizing that they are supplementing the residents who have lived there for so long. “From a neighborhood association standpoint, there’s not much we can do,” says Harlow. There are government funds available for homeowners who meet the requirements. The county tax office administers the Homestead Exemption Act, a statewide program to reduce property taxes for homeowners who meet the age, income and/or disability requirements. Leaders in Historic West End are concerned that the $29,000 income limit is too low to help many of the long-time residents in the affected neighborhoods. Long-time residents whose homes face code enforcement penalties have become a point of contention in some West End neighborhoods. Some believe that the new residents are calling code enforcement on the older residents who may not be able to pay for costly repairs. Neighborhood and community associations are trying to make residents aware of established programs

that can help them with the cost of home maintenance. Charlotte’s Neighborhood Development has a Safe Home Housing Rehabilitation Program to fix code violations and to make general property improvements for those who meet the requirements.

AMALIA DELONEY, 42, lives in Seversville with her husband. They chose to live in the West End because they wanted to live in a place that reminded them of the black neighborhoods where they grew up, with lots of history and culture. According to Deloney, gentrification is already going strong in Historic West End, despite the involvement of organizations like Historic West End Partners and 5PCC. “I went to a neighborhood association meeting within the first two or three months [of living in the neighborhood] and it just confirmed all the things we had been noticing about where the tensions were,” she says. Deloney observed that the meetings were not representative of the neighborhood. Few people were original residents, and about 90 percent of the attendees were white and new to the neighborhood. “They were making decisions and holding conversations that were not at all representative of the community they live in. That disconnect was incredibly profound three years ago and has only grown,” she says. Deloney is a strong proponent of including renters, older residents and singleparent families in the discussion. While SEE

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NEWS

COVERSTORY

HOOD FROM P.9 t newer residents discuss walkability, safety, strollers and Montessori schools, Deloney thinks the conversations need to include school integration, busing, early childhood education and post-secondary opportunities for single parents. “The kind of robust conversations that are needed to improve the living conditions for everyone, they don’t exist,” she says. Greg Jarrell, co-founder of Queen City Family Tree, a non-profit community organization, also proudly displays one of the altered “We Buy Homes” signs in his Enderly Park home. He could only smile when asked directly if he was involved with creating the signs. Jarrell and his family have lived in the Enderly Park neighborhood for 10 years and have become a positive force there. Jarrell, 37 and white, has been outspoken in the Charlotte community about his feelings on gentrification and displacement. “I would say that gentrification is always injustice. It is about outside control determining the lives of poor people and people of color,” Jarrell says. “Rising rents is where the most harm is done. In Enderly Park, 70 percent of the people rent. The immediate harm is when the rent goes up, poor people get displaced.” Now, Deloney and a group of community advocates including Jarrell are in the process of forming a community land trust in an effort to balance the interests of homeowners and individuals with those of renters and the community. It’s the first of its kind in Charlotte. The idea of a community land trust is to form a collaborative similar to 5PCC but with the goal of acquiring land and holding that land’s value at a certain affordable point. The trust started out in Enderly Park but organizers soon saw the need to expand it to the entire West End. They now see the trust as the foundation from which groups like

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5PCC will be able to accomplish more. “All of the work up until this point has really been about getting here.” Deloney says. “You have to have the relationships, you have to have to the political education and understanding of what the power dynamics are. And through all of these processes, what continues to surface is that none of the other collaboratives, none of the other organizations will be able to execute their vision if we don’t have community control over our actual geography.” The trust is still in its preliminary stages. It’s still not been named (West Side Land Trust has been used as a working title) and organizers spent their most recent meeting breaking down what its board representation might look like and mapping out which neighborhoods may be represented. Deloney believes it will take two to three years of educating, fundraising and organizing before the trust will be able to begin acquiring land through purchase agreements and donations. “There’s nothing about this that’s easy, for sure, but it’s also the only option that we have in front of us to be able to put a dent in the development machine that is just kind of engulfing the community,” she says. For Deloney, a lawyer by training, the formation of the trust is an exciting new step in her longtime path of community organizing. It gives her confidence that longtime residents of the West End can effectively fight the type of gentrification that has done away with historically black Charlotte neighborhoods like Cherry and Brooklyn. “I’m optimistic about this because we have used good power analysis to surface what the real issue is, and the real issue is control over our natural resources and the territories within the communities we live in,” she says. “This gives us an opportunity to present a different form of ownership; ownership in the community’s interest. This is no Band-Aid solution.”

NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

TRACKED Police last week arrested four males, two of them juveniles, for a strong of robberies that occurred over the course of nine days. Reports of the arrest leave one to wonder not how they were caught, but how they were not caught sooner. According to a release following the arrests, the group had called delivery drivers to the same address to rob them on at least four occasions. It was later found that one of the ringleaders of this operation was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of the robberies, so it was clear that he was there on every occasion. Once he was picked up, he flipped on his buddies, and all four are now facing armed robbery charges. GREETINGS A 64-year-old man called police after he was taken by surprise in southwest Charlotte while waiting for a bus. The man filed a report stating that he was standing at the stop minding his own business when a man approached him and punched him in the face twice “then walked away without saying a word.” CARGO PANTS If you don’t know what

was stolen, did a theft ever occur? The answer is yes, according to a police report detailing a confusing shoplifting incident in east Charlotte last week. According to the report, employees at Roses Discount Store on The Plaza told police that a man stole some stuff but they’re not sure what it was. All they saw was a man running out the front door with all of the pants of his cargo pants seemingly filled to the brim, so they thought it necessary to report him.

WHO GETS WHAT A woman was probably upset to find out that her car was broken into near the airport recently, but it’s her kid who will suffer the most. The 24-year-old victim told police that the thief made off with her

rear-facing child seat and her last will and testament, leaving her child with no safe way to ride in the car and, worse, no inheritance.

CUT THE CORD A woman filed a missing

persons report for her mother last week after not speaking with her for a month and a half, although she hadn’t decided to do so until he actually saw her mom. The daughter told police that she became concerned about her mother when she saw her in traffic for the first time in over a month, but wasn’t able to catch up with her due to traffic. So… not missing then, just fast.

RAGE ON THE TRACKS A 33-year-old

man filed a police report after being the victim of road rage for wanting to protect his car’s undercarriage. The man said that he was parked in front of a Laundromat when a car who had been driving behind him pulled up in front of him. The man in that car exited his vehicle twice while yelling at the victim, then began punching the victim’s windshield with his fists while threatening him. So what raised this man’s ire? The victim believes it was because he had driven too slow over some nearby train tracks while the suspect was behind him.

SAVE THE KIDS Extra police officers

were called to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse last week after someone called in a bomb threat. The odd part about this one was that, as opposed to a certain courtroom or lobby, this time the threat was directed at the courthouse’s daycare room. What’s your beef with them, bomber? Luckily, no bombs or proof of anything resembling one were found. Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

VIEWS

THE QUERY

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

WHEN BIPARTISANSHIP BACKFIRES

BY CHUCK SHEPHERD

leaf.”

RELIGION ADAPTS TO TECHNOLOGY

NUMBERS IN THE NEWS (1) Charles

Will HRC learn new lesson with Kirk endorsement?

A network of freelance Buddhist priests in Japan last year began offering in-home, a la carte services through Amazon in Japan for those adherents who shun temples, quoting fixed fees and bypassing the usual awkward deliberation over “donations.” And in September, Pastor David Taylor of Joshua Media Ministries International (St. Louis, Missouri) announced, to great fanfare, that he had “resurrected” a diabetic woman, 40 minutes after her death, by sending the lady a text message through Facebook, though, of course, neither she nor any family member was available for an interview.

With less than a week before Election fever pitch, the organization rescinded their Day, we’re finally coming to the conclusion endorsement. of a long and historic, if frustrating election HRC President Chad Griffin chimed season. This particular election has taught in, too, writing an open letter calling us a lot about ourselves and our friends, Kirk’s comments “an affront to our most families, neighbors and communities. Even fundamental values.” in the waning days of the campaign, lessons Griffin’s explanations are difficult to take continued to be dished out, as one national seriously. If something is truly an offense to LGBTQ organization found itself hopefully “fundamental values,” one doesn’t continue learning a new lesson of its own. defending it. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s “They were waiting, praying for [Kirk] largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, was to offer an adequate apology — but he forced on Oct. 29 to rescind its endorsement didn’t, just some weak statements,” wrote of Illinois’ Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk. It Michelangelo Signorile, a longtime LGBTQ was the result of Kirk’s racist attack during a activist and one of the more outspoken debate with his opponent, Congresswoman critics of the Kirk endorsement. “Not Tammy Duckworth. Kirk’s debate sure why they expected something retort — “I had forgotten that stronger since he voted against your parents came all the people of color, said ugly way from Thailand to serve things before — and is part George Washington” — of a racist, anti-LGBT party came after Duckworth, that made Donald Trump whose mother is Thai its presidential nominee.” and father is American, Signorile called the cited her own military rescinded endorsement service, her membership “too little, too late,” adding, in the Daughters of the “HRC defied the wishes of American Revolution millions of LGBT people.” MATT COMER and her family’s history of In my column last month, uniformed service dating prior I argued that one cannot care to the Revolutionary War. about LGBTQ equality without HRC’s March endorsement of Kirk also caring about a broad range of had come under heavy criticism, which grew intersectional issues on race, gender, the louder after news circulated of Kirk’s own economy, healthcare, immigration and other personal endorsement of Donald Trump, topics which affect a large number of people which he later rescinded. At the time, HRC in our own LGBTQ communities. The long, praised Kirk’s relatively pro-equality stance winding story of HRC’s Kirk endorsement is a on LGBTQ issues and his more moderate perfect example of this lesson. track record as a Republican. They cited a HRC’s arguments for a bipartisan strategy bipartisan strategy and a need for making in this particular endorsement would have inroads with pro-equality-leaning lawmakers required ignoring the negative effect of regardless of party. Kirk’s leadership on women, people of color, Critics of the endorsement pointed to the poor, immigrants and others. Most HRC’s own 100 percent pro-LGBTQ rating Republicans, Kirk included, aren’t ready for for Duckworth, compared to Kirk’s 78 our support. They haven’t earned it. There percent. Critics also said any effort by HRC might come a time when, perhaps, the GOP to elect or re-elect a GOP senator could wises up and drops its dangerous culture war potentially result in maintaining a staunchly mentalities, but that time is not now. anti-queer Republican majority in the Senate History is full of examples of once— a majority that would also continue to problematic leaders who later turned new endanger or impede the rights of a large pages in their understanding of liberty portion of our own community, including and freedom. But until those new pages people of color, women, low-income people, are actually turned — not just considered immigrants and others. — we should not reward problematic No amount of criticism could sway HRC’s candidates with endorsements and the cash top brass, at least until the debate that finally contributions which often come with them forced their hand. Critics pounced again over far more qualified leaders and over the as HRC initially continued to defend their voiced concerns of the very people LGBTQ Kirk endorsement. After criticism reached a organizations claim to serve.

REDNECK CHRONICLES (1) As a dispute escalated between two brothers at their recycling plant in Bow, New Hampshire, in October, Peter Emanuel used his front-end loader to tip over the crane being operated by Stanley Emanuel, who managed to jump out just in time. Peter was arrested. (2) Thousands flocked to the annual Roadkill Cooking Festival in Marlinton, West Virginia, in September, featuring an array of “tasting” dishes — e.g., black bear, possum, elk, snapping turtle — with a competition in which judges deducted points if the “chef” had not managed to remove all gravel or asphalt. THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS Who is the most at fault when (a) a mother provides beer to her underage son, (b) who then, with a pal, gulps down a bottle of vodka and steals a car from a dealer’s lot, and (c) drunkenly crashes, leaving the pal with a catastrophic brain injury? In October, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a jury verdict that parceled out “fault,” but assigned more to the victim of the 2006 car theft, Rankin’s Garage of Paisley, Ontario, than to the mother or the driver — because Rankin’s having left the key in the car overnight made it irresistible to “teenage car thieves.” THE JOB OF THE RESEARCHER Charles

Foster, recent recipient of the “Ig Nobel” prize in biology and a fellow at Oxford University, has recently lived as a badger inside a hole in Wales, an otter playing in rivers, and an “urban fox” rummaging through garbage bins in London, in addition to a red deer and — “ridiculously,” he admits — a migratory bird mapping treetop air currents — all in order to authentically experience those creatures’ lives apart from their physical appearance, which is generally all that humans know. “We have five glorious senses,” he told the Ig Nobel audience, and need to “escape the tyranny” of the visual. “Drop onto all fours,” he recommended. “Sniff the ground. Lick a

Diggs, facing child pornography charges, was found with supposedly a record haul for New Jersey — 325,000 child-porn images and files at his Roselle home in October. (2) The Justice Department revealed in an October court filing that former National Security Agency contractor Harold Martin III, 51, had stolen at least 500 million pages of “sensitive government files,” bit by bit over two decades.

LEADING ECONOMIC INDICATORS In

October, as in supposedly every previous October since the 13th century, some British official arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and paid rent to the queen for use of two properties — for the sum of “a knife, an axe, six oversized horseshoes and 61 nails,” according to reporting by Atlas Obscura. “No one knows exactly where these two pieces of land are,” the website reported, but one is in Shropshire County, and the other near the Royal Courts.

GREAT ART New York City sculptor

Bryan Zanisnik, operating on a grant from an emerging-artist program of Socrates Sculpture Park in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, recently created a 10-piece “garden” of concrete Christopher Walken heads to honor the actor, who grew up in Astoria. Said Zanisnik, “Perhaps the project suggests that Walken’s DNA was imbued into the soil of Astoria, and now Walken mushrooms are growing everywhere.”

RECURRING THEMES Most old-time

liquor restrictions have fallen in America, but Utah continues to hold out. The new Eccles Theater in downtown Salt Lake City, opened in October, has an elegant lobby with several floors of balconies overlooking it, but its liquor license was delayed briefly when it was realized that visitors on the upper floors could peer down at the lobby and witness beer and wine actually being poured from beer and wine bottles — a violation of state law, which allows serving only in ordinary glassware. At lobby level, there was a “Zion Curtain” to shield drink preparation, but the theater realized it would also need a “Zion Ceiling.”)

TRUE FLORIDA In October, sheriff’s

deputies in Pinellas County, detaining the 350-pound Columbus Henderson, 45, discovered in one of Henderson’s “orifices” a glass crack pipe stuffed with steel wool. A week earlier, Henderson had shoplifted two 40-inch TV sets from a Wal-Mart in Fort Lauderdale, and fled, though he was identified when his loosely worn pants, containing his ID, fell completely off as he “dashed” through the parking lot. CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 11

FOOD

FEATURE

VIVIAN HOWARD’S LABOR OF LOVE Deep Run Roots takes her out of the kitchen and on the road BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

HEF VIVIAN HOWARD

and her husband Ben Knight like to say they had their first child in 2006. That first child was the restaurant, Chef and the Farmer in Kinston, North Carolina. Then their family grew from a wifehusband operated restaurant with 18 employees to a family with two kids, two restaurants with approximately 80 employees, a PBS-hosted show and most recently, a book with a nine-week-long food truck tour. But juggling all of the responsibilities doesn’t come without help. “I have a lot of help. I have a chef de cuisine at both restaurants, really active grandparents, a nanny and a really supportive husband,” Howard says. “I have a strong team on this food truck adventure. I’m just one piece of all of it.” Howard and Knight’s restaurants in Kinston have two different personalities but the same purpose of filling a cuisinetype need that otherwise was empty with North Carolinian food traditions rooted in the South. Chef and the Farmer’s menu, as Howard says, is inspired by the region around her but includes her own contemporary vision integrated in age-old favorites like collards, sweet potatoes, turnips and sausage. “Chef and the Farmer’s menu is really rooted in the region’s ingredients. We work with things that are traditionally grown there and ingredients that people who live there understand, and we put our own spin on things,” Howard says. But Howard and Knight were aware that a child’s food palate may not be sophisticated enough for seared yellowfin tartare or a pan roasted chicken breast with sorghum grain and glazed figs. Howard remembers, as a child, grumpily pouting in oyster bars as her parents enjoyed raw and steamed oysters, but there was nothing on the menu fit for a picky eater. Enter: The Boiler Room, just down the street from Chef and the Farmer. It serves 12 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

FOOD TRUCK TOUR WITH VIVIAN HOWARD

Vivian Howard will visit Park Road Books in Charlotte on Nov. 6. to fill another need: a family-oriented neighborhood eatery with something for everyone, even kids. Oysters are ordered by the half or whole peck and come raw or steamed. Howard has stuck to the rituals of oyster bars that she grew up with. “The Boiler Room is inspired by this steamed oyster bar tradition in the Carolinas where you order oysters by the peck or the half-peck, rare, medium or well. They come to you steamed and someone shucks them in front of you while they’re still warm and you eat them with cocktail sauce, saltines and drawn butter,” Howard says. “And I love that whole ritual.” So after a decade of operating restaurants, Howard and Knight have grown as restaurateurs and managers and continue to strive for greatness. “Over the years we’ve developed an identity a more a clear mission, better staff,” Knight says. “At this point the process is not so much opening a great new restaurant it’s trying to join the small number of great restaurants that’s been around for a generation or two.” Howard has since ventured into writing and publishing. Her new book, Deep Run Roots, is, as she states on her website,

part story, part history and part recipes. Each chapter opens up with a story about a different food, integrated with personal anecdotes and important messages. “I really love the oyster opening. I love the rice opening as well as the apple opening,” Howard says. “Then the rice story is a really personal story with a universal message about daughters’ relationships with their mothers. The apple chapter opener is about apple jacks and the woman who taught me how to make them.” But it wasn’t all fun and games for Howard as she had to remove herself from her restaurants and place others in charge while writing and editing the manuscript. However, her labor of love resulted in a touching and personally-applicable book that’s now being followed up with a 20-city, nine-week food truck tour up and down the eastern United States. With truck manager Casey Atwater and a dedicated team, Howard has embarked on a trip that no cookbook-touring chef has done. Instead of cooking out of unfamiliar kitchens and producing $60-$100 meals, Howard has taken matters into her own hands. “The thought was one, she would have the kitchen with her that she would know,

Nov. 6, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road. parkroadbooks.com. Nov. 7, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Main Street Book, 126 S Main St., Davidson. mainstreetbooksdavidson.com.

what capability it had,” Atwater says. “Two, it’s a novel idea. Nobody’s ever done it. Food trucks seem to remain really popular throughout everywhere we’ve been. It’s a tangible thing that people can look at and it’s got beautiful graphics on the side of it that help tell the story she’s trying to tell.” At each stop of the tour, Howard and her team are teaming up with bookstores and grocery stores and doling out the dishes most representative of their neck of the woods. Atwater says that she’s presenting food that matters; it’s comes from a good place while being humble, yet elegant. Then Howard and her team return home from the tour in late November. So far, it’s been wildly successful. “She [Howard] has high expectation with what we’re all doing but they’re realistic and honestly once we all have everything done and we’ve worked hard and accomplished what we’ve set out to do each day, she’s a lot of fun,” Atwater says. “She’s great to work with. She’s a driver-type personality but I think that’s required with the work she does and she does that gracefully.”

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155 Pinnacle Ln. Mooresville, NC (704) 677-7648 CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 13

FRIDAY

100 WORDS FILM FESTIVAL What: This annual film festival is unique in the sense that filmmakers have been challenged to create a short flick that tells a story by using only 100 words. This is where the importance of visual elements and context comes into play, but you’ll be amazed at the techniques that these filmmakers have come up with so that you get a compelling tale out of the experience. In its third year, the fest showcases flicks from around the world. When: Nov. 4-5, 8 p.m. Where: McGlohon Theater, 345 N. College St. More: $15. 704-372-1000. 100wordsfilmfestival.com. — ANITA OVERCASH

14 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

FRIDAY

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Valient Thorr SATURDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

INTERSECTION

KISS THE CHEF

What: The Q.C.’s art scene has flourished in recent years, despite gallery closings. Artists are finding new ways to showcase works publically and in new art fostering atmospheres — cough, cough, like C3 Lab. This new exhibit, titled Intersection, honors local artists and their works. Participating artists include Hollis Austin, Chad Cartwright, Sharon Dowell, April Marten, Freddie Rivera, Bree Stallings, Karla Sosa and more. Come early for food and drink.

What: Billed as a food-tasting, networking event and art expo all rolled into one, Kiss the Chef will bring a number of Charlotte-area gentlemen to the Music Factory to cook their signature entrees, appetizers or desserts. At the end of the night, a Culinary Maestro will be crowned in each of the three categories. Money raised will benefit City Startup Labs, so go get your eat & greet on for a good cause.

When: 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Where: C3 Lab, 2323 Distribution St. More: c3-lab.com. — OVERCASH

SATURDAY

When: 6 p.m. Where: The Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: $50-95. fillmorecharlottenc. com — RYAN PITKIN

CHARLOTTE DOES AL GREEN

INSANE INFLATABLE 5K

What: Antonio Diaz (think: Groove 8 and 15 Short Film Festival) and Charlotte Music Heroes have come together to present this showcase of Charlotte area musicians performing music by Al Green. It’s the third in an ongoing series that kicked off with covers of Bill Withers and then, Marvin Gaye, material. The group will continue its series by honoring the Rolling Stones in January.

What: For a softer, friendlier 5k and obstacle course, try hitting up the Insane Inflatable 5K at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Blowup slides and hurdles can certainly beat getting mud and color all over the place. Plus, there’s something nostalgic in the whole process of getting to bounce around a bit without freaking out the kids next door. It’s all still a big challenge, but at least if you fall there’s a bit of fluff there for support.

When: 8 p.m. Where: The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: $7-$10. 704-376-3737. eveningmuse.com.

When: 8:30 a.m. Where: Charlotte Motor Speedway, 5555 Concord Parkway S. More: insaneinflatable5k.com.

— OVERCASH

Insane Inflatable 5K SATURDAY

Fitz and the Tantrums WEDNESDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

PHOTOS COURTESY INSANE INFLABLE 5K

SUNDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

WEDNESDAY

SAUSAGEFEST

STAR BINGO

VALIENT THORR

BOB DYLAN

FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS

What: This annual festival, held in the parking lot and along the rooftop deck of JJ’s Red Hots in Dilworth, is the ultimate event for partaking in the consumption of sausage and beer. The eatery is breaking out some special varieties of sausages and there will be beer tastings throughout the event. On the edible side, there’s also corn chowder and on the musical side there are performances by The Whisky Dollars and Time Sawyer.

What: This is not an old ladies style Bingo game. Gay Bingo Charlotte hosts this event with lots of playful antics along the way. Between the costumes, music and dancing, there’s plenty to distract you from those cards, but pay attention because there are some damn good prizes up for grabs. May the force be with you for this Bingo bout that’s also the annual fundraiser that raises money for RAINN.

What: The legendary singer/ songwriter has been in the news recently for winning and seemingly rejecting a Nobel Prize. Now that his website at least mentions the honor, people can get back to figuring out which songs he’s playing live. Never one to let things get stale, Dylan is known for presenting his music in different ways at live shows — you’ll recognize them halfway through. Even if you’re not a fan — it’s Dylan.

What: This pop and neo-soul band knows how to throw a party. Led by singers Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs, the enthralling L.A.-based outfit gets a room’s energy up in an instant. The band’s self-titled third album was released in June and features the infectious single, “HandClap.” Be sure to get there early to check out English singer-songwriter Barns Courtney.

When: 3 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: JJ’s Red Hots, 1514 East Blvd. More: $25-$40. sausagefest16. eventbrite.com.

When: 6:30 p.m.-10 p.m. Where: Grady Cole Center, 310 N. Kings Drive. More: $35. gaybingo.ticketleap. com.

What: Hard rockers Valient Thorr have been hammering the Charlotte music scene via venues of all sizes. They’ve pummeled crowds everywhere from the Fillmore to the Milestone. While the Chapel Hill-based quintet can easily command a big stage, seeing their energetic sets in a more intimate, sweaty setting shouldn’t be missed. The band’s most recent album, Old Salt, was released in July. Charlotte’s own attention-grabbing No Anger Control opens.

— OVERCASH

When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $8. snugrock.com — JEFF HAHNE

When: 8 p.m. Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. More: $59.50-$425. 704-372-1000. blumenthalarts.org. — HAHNE

When: 8 p.m. Where: The Fillmore, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd. More: $27.50. livenation.com — HAHNE

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 15

ARTS

THEATER

THE NERD WHO TERRORIZED NEW JERSEY Reviews of The Toxic Avenger and Pride and Prejudice BY PERRY TANNENBAUM

‘M NOT SURE how or when such epithets as “Armpit of the East” or “Scrotum of the Nation” rained down on New Jersey, but they were certainly commonplace before the onset of The Sopranos or Chris Christie. It’s also clear that when Lloyd Kaufman and Joe Ritter cooked up their 1984 screenplay for The Toxic Avenger, they weren’t intending to prettify the Garden State’s battered image. About the only love they showed for Jersey was shooting the film there. A mere 24 years elapsed before Joe DiPietro and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, following their successful collaboration on Memphis, hooked up on a Toxic musical adaptation. The recordbreaking reception of the show in New Brunswick, before its off-Broadway transfer in 2009, only underscored how highly Jerseyites cherish their notoriety. DiPietro liberally refashions Kaufman’s original plot, but political corruption, organized crime, unconscionable pollution and unchecked violence are still among its hallmarks. Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, newly resurrected on Freedom Drive after its recent homelessness, embraces all of these horrors with the merry glee it applied to Evil Dead The Musical seven years ago. Billy Ensley directed that 2009 gorefest on Stonewall Street, but ATC artistic director Chip Decker takes the reins here, reminding us that crass sci-fi musical parodies are at the core of this company’s DNA. Journeying from screen to stage, Melvin Ferd the Third has lost his signature janitorial mop, but he’s still a hopeless nerd and still smitten by the blind Sarah, who is now a librarian. The new Melvin is an environmental crusader from the get-go, and his plunge into an oozing drum of green toxic goo is far more malignant, ordered by corrupt Tromaville mayor Babs Belgoody. Where does Melvin find the goods on Mayor Belgoody’s polluting schemes? At the library, of course, cleverly filed away by Sarah where 16 | NOV. 3 - MOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

The Toxic Avenger runs through Nov. 12 at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. they are least likely to be found: among the important policy speeches of Michele Bachmann. Something underhanded seems to have occurred here, since Bachmann didn’t achieve her peak infamy until the 2012 election cycle. Suspicion falls on the prankish Decker, who compounds his violations of DiPietro’s script by introducing the image of Donald Trump later in the evening. Hopefully, that glorified groper will be forgotten by the time the Avenger concludes his rampages on November 12. Yes, if you didn’t already know, what doesn’t kill Melvin makes him Toxie, the avenging mutant monster. This is exactly where Actor’s Theatre upstages the offBroadway production once again. In 2009, Ensley simply had the luxury of a better pool of actors to choose from for Evil Dead. This year, Decker enjoys no luxuries whatsoever. ATC and City Hall couldn’t dot all the i’s on permits for the new location at 2219 Freedom Drive in time for opening night last Wednesday, so Decker & Co. were obliged to move next door to Center City Church & The Movement Center on very short notice. So the set designer is listed as Dire Circumstance in the playbill while other

members of the design team have vanished altogether. Whether by accident or design, then, Decker doesn’t make the mistake that plagued the off-Broadway show: overproduction. In the New York version, when Melvin emerged from the chemical dumpsite as Toxie, the green carbuncled mask that covered his head was not only horrific, it robbed actor Nick Cordero of all further facial expression. Jeremy DeCarlos doesn’t have to combat that handicap. As cool, graceful, and intelligent as DeCarlos has always seemed onstage, I expected both the nerdy Melvin and the homicidal Toxie to be difficult stretches for him. Clearly, I had no idea how well DeCarlos could channel the dopey sound and body language of Jerry Lewis as the socially inept earth scientist. When he emerged from the flimsy façade of chemical drums as Toxie, there were some wrappings on his arms to offer a semblance of might, but it was Decker at the soundboard who offered the more telling boost, amping up DeCarlos’ voice and synthesizing his monster roar. No, the wrappings and the roars don’t close the gap between DeCarlos and fearsomeness — but that’s another reason

why his Toxie is so much more hilarious than the more technically polished offBroadway version, which often forgot it was a spoof. Leslie Giles certainly isn’t forgetting her spoofery as Sarah, helpless ingénue or aggressive vamp as the occasion demands — and her blind stick shtick with the hapless Melvin is a corny gift that keeps on giving. Sarah’s big number, “My Big French Boyfriend,” struck me as the best in the show. Lisa Hugo, who was so precisely calibrated in the complex leading role of Stage Kiss earlier this year, the last ATC production at Stonewall Street, gets to loosen up in multiple roles. When she isn’t the melodramatic, megalomaniacal Mayor, she’s usually Melvin’s disapproving Mom. These two nasty women turn out to be old enemies from their school days, so their “Bitch/Slut/Liar/Whore” confrontation deep in Act 2 was a manic reminder of a similar duet in the Jekyll & Hyde musical. Ma Ferd also gets an effective “All Men Are Freaks” duet with Sarah. Ryan Stamey and Dominique Atwater divvy up nearly all the remaining roles, more than I could keep track of, with Matthew Blake Johnson subbing for Atwater on

The Toxic Avenger

THE TOXIC AVENGER $28-$50. Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 4-5, 8 p.m.; Nov. 6, 2:30 p.m.; Nov. 9-10, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 11-12, 8 p.m. Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, 2219 Freedom Drive. 704-342-2251. atcharlotte.org.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE $10-$18. Nov. 3-5, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 6, 2:30 p.m. CPCC’s Pease Auditorium, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. 704-330-6534. http://tix.cpcc.edu.

opening night. Somebody needs to terrorize Sarah, toss Melvin into the toxic goo, get their asses kicked by Toxie, scurry around with missing limbs, and represent the hordes of Tromavillians who idolize the grotesque mutant. Stamey and Johnson performed every one of these worthy missions, and more, with the suave sophistication you would expect. Yes, the middle school auditorium atmospherics of the Movement Center hall are somewhat against the grain of the gorey Toxic Avenger irreverence, but it served better than expected for what turns out to be a unique guerilla theater project. If you arrive early for one of the remaining performances, you might get a brief tour of the new ATC space next door. What’s going on now on Freedom Drive bodes well for the company and the resourceful artists who make it go. Jon Jory is best known as the artistic

director who brought renown to the Humana Festival and the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville — and widely believed to have penned Keely and Du, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage, and Anton in Show Business under the penname of Jane Martin. When it comes to adapting Jane Austen, whose Pride and Prejudice is currently on view at Pease Auditorium in a CPCC Theatre production, Jory is no dilettante. He has also adapted Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Even if all the subtleties aren’t always pointed under Heather Wilson-Bowlby’s poised direction, it becomes obvious that Jory’s adaptation preserves the style and thrust of Austen’s liveliest masterwork. Most of the credit goes to Moriah Thomason as Austen’s prejudging heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, though it’s hard to deny she is amply counterbalanced by the hauteur of Brian Logsdon as Fitzwilliam Darcy. Thomason unveiled her elegance in the ATC production of Stick Fly back in February. Here she adds vivacity and wit, so I couldn’t get enough of her. We see where Elizabeth gets her wit from in Tony Wright’s slightly jaundiced portrait of her father, and Anne Lambert’s rendition of Mrs. Bennet has more than enough vanity, giddiness, and silliness to distribute among the younger Bennet sibs. My chief disappointment was the hoarseness that afflicted Lexie Simerly as Liz’s elder sister Jane. If only she could have borrowed some extra decibels from Iris DeWitt, whose towering presence made the imperious Lady Catherine De Bourgh a perfect victim of Elizabeth’s punctiliously polite sass.

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 17

ARTS

FILM

THAT BURNING SENSATION Thriller maintains fever pitch of ludicrousness BY MATT BRUNSON

T’S A SHAME that the once-vibrant career of Joe Dante has gone nowhere in recent years, because Dante’s Inferno would have been preferable to Ron Howard’s Inferno (*1/2 out of four). With such efforts as The Howling, Gremlins and Piranha, Dante was efficient at adding welcome strains of tongue-in-cheek humor to further distinguish his outlandish yet consistently amusing fantasy flicks. Howard, on the other hand, is at that post-Oscar point in his career where most of his projects are weighted down with misplaced import, and nowhere is this more evident than in this daft and humorless adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel. This is the third Brown book to be turned into a major motion picture directed by Howard and starring Tom Hanks, and it’s the lamest one yet. Like those ridiculous National Treasure flicks featuring Nicolas Cage as a nerdy Indiana Jones, the three films showcasing Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon position themselves as brainy action yarns, with the hero pausing during lengthy chases to rattle off historical tidbits regarding Leonardo Da Vinci (2006’s The Da Vinci Code) or the Catholic Church (2009’s Angels & Demons) or Dante Alighieri (this entry). But as a character, Langdon has even less dimensions than the more animated sleuths Carmen Sandiego and Dora the Explorer, and it’s sad seeing Hanks wasting his talents in such a gossamery role. The central thrust of Inferno is that Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), a wealthy motivational speaker who comes off like a cross between conspiracy nut Alex Jones and Elevation Church con man Steven Furtick, decides that the only way this overpopulated planet can be saved is by unleashing his own moonshine mix of a virus, one designed to serve as another Black Plague and kill off half the world’s citizenry. Since the movie would only run 10 minutes if Zobrist did the logical thing and released it ASAP, he instead plots out an alternate course of action that his groupies are to follow if he dies (which he does within the film’s 18 | NOV. 3 - MOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

COLUMBIA

Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones in Inferno.

first few minutes). But he illogically crafts a needlessly complicated puzzle wherein even his followers have to piece together clues to ascertain the whereabouts of the deadly strain. (Wouldn’t instant, easy access make more sense? Or did his followers decide they’d be too busy watching the current season of The Walking Dead so no real rush on destroying the world?) This protracted plan allows not only Langdon and World Health Organization

suits to have a shot at locating and neutralizing the virus but also opens the door for nefarious characters to nab it first and sell it to the highest bidder (this doesn’t really make sense, given the indiscriminate and widespread nature of this uncontrollable disease, but there ya go). When it’s not being dense, Inferno settles for being dull, since the pattern has been largely the same in all three films: See Langdon run! See Langdon solve puzzles!

See a hottie (in this case, Felicity Jones) trot along behind Langdon, breathlessly hanging onto his every word! At least the locales are lovely (lots of shots of Venice), and there’s an interesting performance by reliable Irrfan Khan as the head of a clandestine outfit that traffics in assassinations as well as in sleightof-hand scenarios more suited to a Now You See Me romp. In all other respects, though, Inferno quickly goes down in flames.

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 19

ARTS

HAPPENINGS

THEATER/DANCE/ PERFORMING ARTS Cabaret The Roundabout Company celebrates their 50th Anniversary with the Broadway masterpiece, Cabaret, a tale of Berlin nightlife in pre-WWII Germany. Nov. 8-10, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 11, 8 p.m.; Nov. 12, 2 and 8 p.m.; Nov. 13, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-3721000. blumenthalarts.org. Shrek, The Musical Jr. Based on the DreamWorks animation motion picture and the book by William Steig. Nov. 4, 7 p.m.; Nov. 5, 1 and 4 p.m.; Nov. 6, 1 and 4 p.m.; Nov. 11, 7 p.m.; Nov. 12, 1 and 4 p.m.; Nov. 13, 1 p.m. Armour Street Theatre, 307 Armour St., Davidson. 704892-7953. davidsoncommunityplayers.org. To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday Widower David still mourns the death of his wife Gillian and lives out the rest of their romance with walks on the beach accompanied by her ghost. Their daughter needs her father to snap out of living in the past to address the family problems popping up in the present. Nov. 4-19. Warehouse Performing Arts Center, 9216 Westmoreland Road, Suite A, Cornelius. 704859-5930. warehousepac.com. Day of Absence and Kiss My Black Angst OnQ Productions is doing it big for its 10 year anniversary. This “black-to-black” double feature includes performances of Kiss My Black Angst and Day of Absence. The latter, penned by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, is set during the civil rights era and is a wake up call for white residents who find all the town’s black folks missing. $28. Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. 704-3721000. blumenthalarts.org.

let’s see how an uptight, normal bunch takes to all that. $27. Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 4-5, 8 p.m.; Nov. 6, 2:30 p.m.; Nov. 9-10, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 11-12, 8 p.m.; Nov. 13, 2:30 p.m. Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road. 704-376-3777. theatrecharlotte.org. Heathers The Musical A satirical dark comedy that focuses on the all too real danger of cliques in high school. Mature language and content. $10 with Winthrop ID/$15 general public. Nov. 4-5, 8 p.m., Nov. 6, 2 p.m. Winthrop University’s Johnson Theatre, 115 Johnson Hall. winthrop.edu/arts/. The WIP Show Charlotte based choreographers Audrey Baran, Megan Payne, and Sarah Ingel are joining forces to bring you an evening of dance and art. Each will be showing a new work in progress and would love to hear your thoughts. Round off the night with accompanying visual art installations and some rad musical guests, all at new home of Goodyear Arts. Tasty beverages will be provided while they last and admission is free. Nov. 5, 7-10 p.m. Goodyear Arts, 516 N. College St. barandance.com/event/goodyear-arts-wipshow/.

MORE EVENTS 23rd Annual Carolina Renaissance Festival The annual Carolina Renaissance Festival presents a full day of entertainment. You’ll find music, comedy and theater, food and drink, fine hand-made arts and crafts, artisan demonstrations, games and rides. Visit carolina. renfestinfo.com for more information. $14-$24. Carolina Renaissance Festival, 16445 Poplar Tent Road. Saturdays, Sundays, 10:30 a.m.5:30 p.m. Continues through Nov. 20. carolina. renfestinfo.com.

Grace for President Children’s Theatre of Charlotte presents this show about an ambitious young girl. For more information, visit ctcharlotte.org. $12-$28. Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 5, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.; Nov. 6, 2 and 4 p.m. ImaginOn’s Wells Fargo Playhouse, 300 E. 7th St. 704-416-4600. imaginon.org.

Rural Hill Amazing Maize Maze Historic Rural Hill presents its Amazing Maize Maze, with other two miles of interconnecting paths on the 265-acre spread. Get lost and then found again or creep yourself out during nighttime maze hours on select nights. $8-$16. Through Nov. 6. Historic Rural Hill Farm, 4431 Neck Road, Huntersville. 704-875-3113. ruralhill.net.

You Can’t Take It With You When the time comes to introduce the significant other to the parents, there’s no stress for some and dread for others. Sounding similar to The Addams Family and The Birdcage, this comedy involves a grandfather who collects snakes and a family driven by passion rather than finances. Now,

Underexposed Film Festival yc Celebrating its fifth season, the Underexposed Film Festival yc focuses its attention on encouraging, nurturing, and supporting the creativity and vision of independent short filmmakers, and providing a forum where their work can be viewed. $5-$75. Old Town Rock Hill at the

20 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

Gettys Art Center Courtroom, 201 E. Main St. and at Dina’s Place in Winthrop University’s DiGiorgio Campus Center, 2020 Alumni Drive, Rock Hill, SC. Nov. 3-5, 7-9:30 & 8-10:30 p.m., Nov. 4-5, 3-5:30 & 7-9:30 p.m. and Nov. 5, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 2-4:30 & 7-9:30 p.m. underexposedfilmfestivalyc.org. Hawthorne Lane United Methodist Church Annual BBQ and Bake Sale All proceeds go to mission projects. Nov. 3, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Hawthorne Lane United Methodist Church, 501 Hawthorne Lane. Community Blood Drive More public drives can be found at Community Blood Center of the Carolinas’ website cbcc.us. Call 704-9724700 to make an appointment. Nov. 3, 12-3:30 p.m. Queen’s University’s Dana Auditorium, 1900 Selwyn Ave. Verse & Vino An evening of storytelling, cuisine, conversation, book signings, fine wine and laughter with five award-winning, best-selling authors, to benefit the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Featured authors are H.W. Brands, Candice Millard, Rumaan Alam, Lisa Turner and Tom Rinaldi. $125 individual tickets. Price includes dinner, wine, and program. Nov. 3, 6-9:30 p.m. Charlotte Convention Center, 501 S. College St. foundation.cmlibrary.org/events/ verse-vino.

22nd Annual St. Stephen United Methodist Fall Craft Festival Featuring more than 60 vendors from Charlotte and surrounding areas. Handmade crafts, holiday gifts, huge bake sale, free door prizes, barbecue eat in or take out. Proceeds to benefit local, national, and international missions. Free admission. Nov. 5, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. St. Stephen United Methodist Church, 6800 Sardis Road. ststephenumc.net. Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes Enjoy a special opening ceremony, a one or three mile route through Uptown Charlotte, and a final lap on the field of BB&T Ballpark, with photo opportunities on home plate. Register to support the American Diabetes Association AT diabetes.org/stepoutcharlotte. Free. Nov. 5, 9-11:30 a.m. BB&T Ballpark, 324 South Mint St. EpicFest Literary Festival Nationally recognized children’s and young adult authors will visit Charlotte to participate as featured guests. Throughout the day, children and families will engage in story-times, author discussions, book signings, and literary-based live and digital activities. Featured authors and illustrators include: Tom Angleberger, Linda Ashman, Nancy Cavanaugh, Matt Myers, LeUyen Pham, Adam Silvera, Tui T. Sutherland, Kathleen Burkinshaw, and more. Free. Nov. 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ImaginOn, 300 E 7th St.

David Raymond Interview The Light Factory will host a public interview with internationally recognized photography collector, artist, and filmmaker/producer David Raymond. The talk will focus on the practice of building an art collection. Free. Nov. 3, 7-8:15 p.m. The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave.

President James K. Polk Birthday Celebration Visitors will experience the fervor of the 1844 election. This year’s celebration will also coincide with the opening of a new temporary exhibit: Vote: The History of Voting in North Carolina. $5 per vehicle. Nov. 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. President James K. Polk Historic Site, 10231 Lancaster Highway.

The Tinder Opera Come to D9 Brewing Co and watch three one-act operas be performed: Barber’s A Hand of a Bridge, Menotti’s The Telephone and lastly the stage premiere of Scott Joiner’s Connection Lost (The Tinder Opera). Nov. 3, 7-8:30 p.m. D9 Brewing Company, 11138-C Treynorth Drive, Cornelius. operacarolina.org

Plein Air Paintings - from the Carolinas and Beyond Artist Paul Keysar of Charlotte, North Carolina, will share over twenty recent oil paintings in his solo exhibit at the UNC Charlotte Student Union Art Gallery. Opening reception on Nov. 5, from 6-8 pm. UNC Charlotte Student Union, 9201 University City Blvd. https://studentunion.uncc.edu/gallery.

Craft Beer Crawl Participating in the Beer Crawl are your favorite Epicentre bars: Rooftop 210, Blackfinn, Strike City, Vida Cantina, Vida Vida, Bubble, Whisky River, Suite, and more to be announced. Check-in at Rooftop 210 from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. $10. Nov. 4, 7-10 p.m. Rooftop 210, 210 E. Trade St., Suite 230B. eventbrite.com.

The Light Factory’s 34th Annual Art Auction The Light Factory’s 34th Annual Art Auction is presented by Bank of America & Barings. It will be a fun night filled with delicious food, beer, wine, raffle and a little friendly competition with the silent auction beginning at 6:30 and the live auction beginning at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 5, 6:30-9 p.m. The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave. 501auctions.com/thelightfactory.

Get Paid to Fight HB 2!

Planned Parenthood Votes is hiring staff immediately to knock on doors so we can win elections - No Sales Required. Pay starts at $15/hr with bonuses and opportunity for advancement available. Apply today! Call (980) 500-9264 or email josie.karout@communityoutreachgroup.net. You can also apply in person at 11am or 5pm at our office, located at 6303 Carmel Rd. #104 in Charlotte.

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 21

MUSIC

FEATURE

JAMIE WDZIEKONSKI

Kikagaku Moyo performs at Snug Harbor on Nov. 4.

ATMOSPHERIC APTITUDE Japanese band, Kikagaku Moyo, hits the East Coast with new psych soundscapes BY ANITA OVERCASH

EMBERS OF THE Tokyobased psychedelic rock band Kikagaku Moyo — the name is Japanese for “geometric patterns” — have just finished playing their 20th show on 22 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

their current North American Tour when I ring them to chat while they’re in transit to their next gig. Go Kurosawa, the band’s drummer, is disoriented, at first stating they’re still in Louisiana (where they played

a New Orleans set the night before) and then being corrected by a tour manager who informs him they’ve actually crossed over into Alabama. State lines run together as the band experiences a new terrain. Prior to this

tour, they’ve only been to the states once and at that time they played mostly West Coast gigs. This go-round, the five-piece is hitting up the South and, for the first time, the rest of the East Coast. Kikagaku Moyo performs

KIKAGAKU MOYO W/ NAKED GODS AND GHOST TREES $8-$10. Nov. 4, 10 p.m. Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. 704-561-1781. snugrock.com.

on Friday, Nov. 4 with Naked Gods and local avant-garde jazz duo Ghost Trees at Snug Harbor. “I love the South actually. It’s really cool. I like the people and I feel like they are much more friendly. You see people hugging, touching your arms and shoulders, they are really warm,” says Kurosawa, one of the band’s founding members along with guitarist Tomo Katsurada. The two formed the band while they were students in Tokyo, though they initially had plans for it to be an arts collective with music being one of the many creative endeavors. That all changed when the band recruited additional members and began to hone in on music. They released their debut, self-titled album, in 2013, which was followed up with an EP, Mammatus Clouds, and a sophomore album, Forest of Lost Children, in 2014. The band’s third full-length album, House in the Tall Grass was released this year. The album launches with “Green Sugar,” the disc’s first single. It’s a transient track that kicks off with a clamor of noise and transitions into a refreshing mesh of calming bells and sitar melodies with harmonizing guitars and jingling drums. This track is Kurosawa’s favorite to play live. “The last part of the song fades out ... we can play it however we feel like it,” he says. This visceral, somewhat instinctive approach to performing shines through on other tracks. It’s given the band a chance to mold sets and soundscapes that vary from one show to the next. Though they’ve been known to play some softer, more melancholy sets, they’ve mostly been playing harder, punk-fused, psychedelic rock arrangements on this tour. That’s partly because of the audience chemistry. “We’ve done some quiet shows but most shows are more louder. The smaller venues have more punk rock energy. The audiences here are much more energetic,” says Kurosawa. “They show how excited they are and it’s really inspiring.” One of the band’s softer, more ambient and meditative tracks is “Fata Morgana,” a track inspired by Popol Vuh, an avant-garde German psychedelic rock band from the ‘70s, and a film by the same name that was shot in South America. The complexity of mirages are subdued in this sequence of light sounds that come together in a Sigur Ros kind

Kikagaku Moyo of melodic experience. Kurosawa says this track is good for breaks between songs, as it adds an element of rest to the setlist. Other tracks like “Melted Crystal” also add to the softer, melodic soundscapes though drum rolls and bells give the track a solemn yet climatic approach. House in the Tall Grass was recorded during winter months in a remote part of Japan that was then covered in snow. The coldness seems to creep in on some of the music, going along with the song titles that are reminiscent of the season — “Old Snow, White Sun,” “Cardigan Song,” are two

JAMIE WDZIEKONSKI

of the most noticable. Kurosawa admits that scenery plays a role in the band’s music and hopes that the current tour across the states will lend to a collection of new ideas. As for the band’s psychedelic disposition, they have largely been inspired by bands in the West and Europe. In regards to Japan’s psychedelic music scene, Kurosawa says “It’s not big to be honest. The U.S. and Europe have a bigger scene,” he says. “But in Japan there are some punk bands that are psychedelic without really knowing they are psychedelic.” CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 23

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

NOV. 3 Don DiLego w/ Cashavelly Morrison and Tyler Nail (The Evening Muse)

Charlotte Symphony: Mendelssohn “Scottish” (Belk Theater) *Charlotte Does Al Green (early show) (The Evening Muse) Nita B and the swinging soirée (Comet Grill)

POP/ROCK

COUNTRY/FOLK

Igor & Red Elvises (Double Door Inn) Kevin Devine & the Goddamn Band, Julien Baker, Pinegrove, Petal, Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band, Julien Baker, Pinegrove, Petal (The Underground) Rainbow Kitten Surprise with Caamp (Visulite Theatre) *Shiprocked (Snug Harbor) Such Gold, Pkew Pkew Pkew, Minimums, Rothschild (Milestone) Team Rowland Tour - Powered by DIGI (Neighborhood Theatre)

NOV. 4 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Austin Piazzolla Quintet (early show) (The Evening Muse) Charlotte Symphony: Mendelssohn “Scottish” (Belk Theater)

WED 11/2

LADY PARTS JUSTICE LEAGUE THU 11/3

RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE FRI 11/4 SOL DRIVEN TRAIN SUN 11/6 Great Good Fine OK WED 11/9

SAT 11/12 WED 11/16 THU 11/17

COUNTRY/FOLK

NOW HIRING INTERNS. THE BRIGHTER, THE BETTER. EMAIL BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) Roger Creager with Tyler Hatley & The Little Mountain (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) *Truckstop Preachers w/ The Mike Strauss Band (Double Door Inn)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Liquid Stranger w/ Bleep Bloop, Perkulat0r, shlump (Neighborhood Theatre)

POP/ROCK Deep Sky w/ Kelen Heller, Skinn Jackett, Soapbox Arson, English (Amos’ Southend) *Flagship w/ Numbo & Landless (The Underground) Hardsoul Poets (late show) (The Evening Muse) *Kikagaku Moyo w/ Naked Gods, Ghost Trees (Snug Harbor) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) Scythia, The Seduction, Avalon Steel, Knightmare, Good Good Grief (Milestone) *Sol Driven Train with Sally and George (Visulite Theatre)

NOV. 5 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH 24 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

Brett Young (Coyote Joe’s) Flat Blak Caddilac (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Sam Lewis (late show) (The Evening Muse)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B *I Love NY Series w/ Mobb Deep & Mr. Cheeks (Amos’ Southend)

POP/ROCK *Ghost w/ Marissa Nadler (The Fillmore) Off With Their Heads (Acoustic), Dollar Signs, Magic Mike Casey, Normal Dennis (Milestone) Skip Castro Band (Double Door Inn) *Valient Thorr w/ No Anger Control, Planet Creep (Snug Harbor)

NOV. 6 POP/ROCK Anagnorisis, Cryptic Hymn, Funeral Chic, Baasthyrian (Milestone) *Bob Dylan (Belk Theater) Bone Snugs-N-Harmony Karaoke Party (Snug Harbor) Chris Trapper (The Evening Muse) Doyle Bramhall II (Neighborhood Theatre) Great Good Fine OK (Visulite Theatre) Omari & The Hellraisers (Comet Grill) *Sonata Arctica w/ Leaves’ Eyes, Omnium Gatherum (The Fillmore)

NOV. 7 DJ/ELECTRONIC Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic w/ Zak Trojano (The Evening Muse) Locals Live: The Best in Local Live Music & Local Craft Beers (Tin Roof) *The Monday Night Allstars (Double Door Inn) Wicked Powers (Comet Grill)

NOV. 8 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Double Door Inn)

COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic with Jeff & Al (Puckett’s Farm

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THIS SATURDAY

BRET T YOUNG

LIMITED ADVANCE TICKETS $12 ALL OTHERS $15

Equipment) Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)

POP/ROCK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Tab Benoit (Double Door Inn)

NOV. 9 COUNTRY/FOLK CFS Folk Jubilee (The Evening Muse) Mac Powell (Amos’ Southend)

POP/ROCK All Get Out with Gates and Microwave (Visulite Theatre) *El Malpais (Snug Harbor) Eric Johnson (McGlohon Theater) Fitz and The Tantrums w/ Barns Courtney (The Fillmore) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill) *Reel Big Fish w/ Masked Intruder, & Stacked Like Pancakes (The Underground) Tab Benoit (Double Door Inn)

COMING SOON  Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders (Nov. 10, Time Warner Cable Arena) Keller Williams (Nov. 11, Neighborhood Theatre) Drive-By Truckers (Nov. 12, The Fillmore) Skinny Lister, Lincoln Durham, Trapper Schoepp & The Shades (Nov. 12, Evening Muse) The Marshall Tucker Band (Nov. 13, Bank of America Stadium) Evanescence (Nov. 15, The Fillmore) Local H (Nov. 16, Visulite Theatre) Russ (Nov. 16, The Underground) Sloan (Nov. 17, Visulite Theatre) The Bellamy Brothers (Nov. 17, Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Yellowcard: The Final World Tour (Nov. 17, The Fillmore) Steve Vai (Nov. 18, Neighborhood Theatre) Good Charlotte (Nov. 18, The Fillmore) Night Riots w/ The Hunna and Knox Hamilton (Nov. 19, The Underground) Samantha Fish w/ Lightnin’ Malcolm (Nov. 19, Neighborhood Theatre) A$AP Ferg and Playboi Carti (Nov. 21, The Underground) Maxwell, Mary J. Blige and Ro James (Nov. 22,

Spectrum Center) Mannheim Steamroller (Nov. 25, Belk Theater) An Evening with David Crosby and Friends (Nov. 29, McGlohon Theater) The Black Lillies (Dec. 1, Visulite Theatre) Josh Ritter (Dec. 2, McGlohon Theater) I Love The 90s w/ Vanilla Ice, Salt-N-Pepa, Color Me Badd, Coolio, Tone Loc, Rob Base (Dec. 4, Spectrum Center) The Hot Sardines: Holiday Stomp (Dec. 5, McGlohon Theater) Jazz Room Holiday Edition: A Preservation Hall All-Stars Christmas (Dec. 6, Booth Playhouse) Mark O’Connor: An Appalachian Christmas (Dec. 7, McGlohon Theater) Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Dec. 8, Spectrum Center) Southern Culture on the Skids (Dec. 9, Visulite Theatre) Jack Ingram (Dec. 9, Neighborhood Theatre) Charlotte Symphony Pops: Magic of Christmas (Dec. 9-11, Belk Theater) Gina’s Gospel Christmas Concert (Dec. 10, Duke Energy Theater) Tosco Music Holiday Party (Dec. 10, McGlohon Theater) An Evening with George Winston (Dec. 11, McGlohon Theater) The 62nd Annual Singing Christmas Tree & The Singing Christmas Tree For Kids (Dec. 10-11, Knight Theater) Chatham County Line (Dec. 16, Neighborhood Theatre Serfs (Dec. 12, Snug Harbor) California Guitar Trio (Nov. 18, Neighborhood Theatre) Tony Lanez, A Boogie, Kranium, Kurt Rockmore (Dec. 20, The Underground) Holy Ghost Tent Revival (Dec. 22, Visulite Theatre) Boy Named Banjo (Dec. 23, Visulite Theatre) Benji Hughes (Dec. 24, Snug Harbor) The Avett Brothers (Dec. 31, Bojangles’ Coliseum) Steep Canyon Rangers (Jan. 7, Knight Theater) Circa Survive w/ Mewithoutyou and Turnover (Jan. 25, Amos’ Southend) * - CL Recommends

NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.

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.

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NOVEMBER 11

MICHAEL RAY

TICKETS ON SALE NOW $10

NOVEMBER 19

RUSSELL DICKERSON TICKETS $10 AT DOOR 1-2-3 NIGHT

NOVEMBER 26

CHRIS LANE WITH MORGAN WALLEN

LIMITED ADVANCE TICKETS $15 ALL OTHERS $18

DECEMBER 3

TYLER FARR SPECIAL GUEST BEN GALLAHER LIMITED ADVANCE TICKETS $22 ALL OTHERS $25

DECEMBER 17

COLE SWINDELL SPECIAL GUESTS TRAVIS DENNING AND COLE TAYLOR LIMITED ADVANCE TICKETS $22 ALL OTHERS $25 JANUARY 6

OLD DOMINION

LIMITED ADVANCE TICKETS $20 ALL OTHERS $23

JANUARY 14

AARON LEWIS

LIMITED ADVANCE TICKETS $22.50 ALL OTHERS $25.50

WILD1-2-3 NIGHTS

NOV. 4, 12, 19 & 25 DEC. 2, 9, 16 & 23

ON SALE AT COYOTE JOES AND COYOTE-JOES.COM COYOTE JOE’S : 4621 WILKINSON BLVD

704-399-4946

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | 25

ENDS

MARKETPLACE

JOBS | POSTINGS | LISTINGS | RENTALS

ENDS

NIGHTLIFE

HALLOWEEN IN THE Q.C. WAS A BUST But meeting the mayor was cool

PHOTOGRAPHY Family Engagement Real Estate Events and more

www.JeffHahnePhotography.com

704-737-2145

The Perfect Combo.

26 | NOV. 3 - NOV. 9, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

RECYCLE ME, PLEASE (Only after you’re done reading me)

I overheard chatting with visitors.) Politics I MET JENNIFER Roberts, the mayor and pumpkins? I had to see it. of Charlotte. I shook hands with the mayor Even though I was bummed that a few of of Charlotte. I conversed with the mayor of my friends had already witnessed the beauty Charlotte. of the wall — as well as every person following Juvenile, I know, but given the current one of the many highly popular Charlotte political and social environment that is Instagram pages — I forced myself to make in Charlotte and the United States, it was the trek on my own. And boy was it a trek. definitely the highlight of my Halloween. And After taking a wrong turn, walking almost I’d only had one glass of wine, believe it or not. a mile in the wrong direction and straining a Now that that’s out of the way, let’s rewind. calf muscle, I decided to take an Uber. Four My Halloween weekend in the Queen City minutes later, I was standing in front of a was a bust. Not a bust in the sense that I beautifully-lit wall of pumpkins featuring secluded myself in the corner of my bed for the the word, “Evolve.” It was so breathtaking, entire weekend, but in the sense that I didn’t and I was so tired, that I decided to sit and decorate, dress up or really even celebrate one take it all in. of my favorite holidays of the year. A few minutes later, I heard the same If you’ve followed my column since the volunteer — who seemed to have beginning, you may remember I’ve a large hand in the creation of had some pretty epic Halloween the wall — announce, “The adventures in Charlotte. Two Mayor, everybody!” I’d years ago, a pretty large already missed out on crew and I hit up Rich and an opportunity to chat Bennett’s 14th Annual with the knowledgeable Halloween Pub Crawl. spokesman as he scurried Decked out in everything off to open the street back from Rosie the Riveter up, so I wasn’t going to to The Addams Family, miss out on this. the day and night were After contemplating filled with too much what I would say to her, I adventure — and drinks — AERIN SPRUILL decided to just walk up, shake to recount. her hand and introduce myself. The year after that my I bet you’re wondering if I asked parents joined in the on the her about the upcoming election? Her festivities and they actually dressed thoughts on social issues and tensions in up — makeup and all. They finally got to Charlotte? The most important issues for us experience what it was like to party with to tackle in the Queen City? Nope. I know, their only daughter, and after Ubering home I know, an amateur writer’s faux pas right? early, I think they would co-sign that they I thought to myself, “If I were her, at a had a great time. beautiful pumpkin wall, with my husband This year, however, nada. Don’t get me on Halloween, would I want to talk politics?” wrong, I still partied. I drank my fair share Hell no. So I kept it simple, I told her I write after a long day of work on Friday. Saturday, for Creative Loafing. Then, we chatted about I went out with friends to celebrate one of her receiving the Best of Charlotte award for my boyfriend’s friends’ birthdays. And on “Best Member of Government” and I told Sunday, I was uplifted at the Living No Lye her about my blunder on my way to check Tour in Concord — an interactive series of out the wall. workshops on all things healthy hair — on The big question I asked? “In the spirit of behalf of Revolution Ego. Halloween, if you were a candy, what candy Nevertheless, on Monday, after working would you be?” She laughed and responded, eight hours behind a desk and a “spooky “Well, it would have to be healthy...some potluck” with co-workers, I felt unfulfilled. All kind of fruit...or maybe, dark chocolate weekend I’d talked to friends about rumors of covered coffee beans.” Not my first or second “The Great Elizabeth Pumpkin Wall.” choice, Jenn (can I call you Jenn?), but, I Apparently, it’s a popular tradition for loved that you were willing to play along and volunteers in the area to build a wooden wall chat with me in such a casual way. We’ll talk and decorate it with pumpkins carved by about politics and social issues next time. members of the community. Over the years, So there’s that. Now I’m home, eating it’s captivating beauty and political messages leftover purple potluck spaghetti, streaming have drawn Charlotteans time and time Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride on Netflix, while again. (And even sparked controversy from Hocus Pocus is in the DVD player. Talk about what I hear. Enough so that the wall was a great end to a Halloween weekend! allegedly set afire according to a volunteer

ENDS

CROSSWORD

BETWEEN THE EXTREMES ACROSS

1 Like humans 7 Turn about 13 Bundt holder 20 Extreme folly 21 86-Across in eastern Kansas 22 Constructed in advance 23 Site of many a yoga class 25 Fiji’s part of the world 26 Like some braking systems 27 Freezing cold 29 One adding seasonings 30 Gentle -- lamb 31 Mumbai, vis-a-vis India 33 “Blow” co-star Johnny 37 Bicolor whale 39 Reprieve 40 Clearasil competitor 41 Selfishness 43 Forget to include 45 Papyrus plants, e.g. 48 Bit attached to a cob 50 Civil War prez 52 Fictional Scarlett 56 Pitch-perfect 57 Science also known as bionomics 59 Fire on 61 Comic actor Kevin 63 What melts in a meltdown 65 Lawyer’s assignment 68 Airport rental 69 Stir in, say 70 “Listen up!” 71 Patella site 72 Like the social class that includes managers 75 Move beyond 77 Prepared 78 Razor brand 80 Subs in offices 84 Give a coif to 85 Comic actress Charlotte 86 San Rafael, vis-a-vis Marin 88 Invest (with) 91 Furnace fuel 92 Different: Prefix 93 Slap cuffs on 96 Actor/singer Jerry 99 Enchilada kin 101 Gumbo, e.g. 102 Proton’s place 106 Drillmaster’s syllable

108 Rent payer 109 Hogs’ pens 110 Simple exercise to work the abs 115 Coifs 117 Card that’s an apt alternate title for this puzzle 119 “Swing Time” co-star Fred 120 Lifelessness 121 Totally ripped 122 Least sloppy 123 Brook, e.g. 124 Passed quickly

DOWN

1 Notes following re 2 Major Norse deity 3 Film director Martin 4 Literature Nobelist Morrison 5 Fast Amtrak offering 6 Enzyme-filled cell organelle 7 U2’s genre 8 Flamenco dance cry 9 Dance from Buenos Aires 10 Take a stab at 11 Louise’s film sidekick 12 More weird 13 “-- Sharkey” (old sitcom) 14 Inverse trig function 15 -- cool head 16 Online missives 17 Mexico’s -- Villa 18 Farewells, to Francois 19 Close 24 Wound result 28 Producer for Eminem 31 Began airing 32 Runner-turned-baron Sebastian 33 Erte’s genre 34 Designer von Furstenberg 35 Bacon, e.g. 36 Certain evergreen dropping 38 Capital of New Hampshire 42 Terrier type 44 With 94-Down, restless 46 Mail-slot spot 47 Evaluations of resistance to sudden impact 49 Adjusted, as floor tiles 50 Up in years 51 Win -- hair

53 Oodles 54 One-in-a-million 55 Suit to -58 Mandate 59 Climb aboard 60 Oscar de la -62 Vertex 64 Count -- (cereal brand) 65 Snarly dogs 66 Adopt- -- (kennel program) 67 Fix, as a dog 69 Balm plant 73 French for “nothing” 74 Biotech material 75 Says “I told you so!” 76 Eyelid woe 79 Writer Umberto 81 Satisfy 82 Trim (down) 83 Pack away 85 Puzzle with pictures 87 Ideas 89 “ER” extras 90 Samovar 91 “The Swimmer” author John 93 Detroit of “Guys and Dolls” 94 See 44-Down 95 “La Isla --” (Madonna hit) 97 Pretends to be 98 Patron 100 Master cook 103 “--/Sade” (1967 film) 104 Not from a major studio 105 “Please, I’d like to help” 107 Before-surgery 110 Potting soil 111 Swiss river to the Rhine 112 Made angry 113 Ticket leftover 114 Notice 116 In position 118 Vardalos of the screen

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“Most women, even My ex-three-exesdominant women, are ago was a cuckold. I still looking for guys swore I would never who look like they ‘kick date another cuckold ass and take names’ in after he blew up at me every other aspect of their for not cheating on lives,” said FleeMarket (u/ him juuuuuust right. I flee_market), one of the was just a prop, and I moderators of r/cuckold DAN SAVAGE came to hate him. I also on Reddit. “As for how to hated you, Dan, because he find dominant women, I raised the subject by giving me see a lot of submissive guys on some of your columns to read. Fastvarious websites — OkCupid, Reddit, forward five years, and my brand-new Tinder, FetLife — and something they don’t boyfriend tells me being cuckolded is understand is that women looking for sex or his ultimate fantasy. I literally started love online tend to get buried in unsolicited to cry. He held me, he apologized on PMs from thirsty guys. That makes it hard behalf of all cuckolds everywhere, we to find that one that’s respectful. The signal laughed, and then he dropped it. He gets lost in the noise.” didn’t pressure me, and about a year Before we get to some practical advice for later, we gave it a try on his birthday. ALPHA, a quick word about the term “cuck.” It turns out my boyfriend — fiancé While it has long been an affectionate/horny now — is much better at this kink than term embraced by self-identified cuckold my ex was. He’s open and honest, he fetishists, the alt-right has attempted to communicates constructively, and he turn “cuck” into a term of abuse, hurling it was willing to step outside his comfort at any straight white man who gives a shit zone to accommodate my needs. (He about racial justice, police brutality, and the wanted the other guys to be strangers, plight of undocumented immigrants. In an but I need to know someone before effort to wrest “cuck” back from the bigots, letting him in my body.) I have a regular and to mark the waning days of the Trump thing with an ex-FWB, and sex with campaign, I’m dedicating this week’s column to “cuck” as properly understood: a guy who my cuck is frequent and hot. Things wants his partner to sleep with other men. couldn’t be better. So I’m not mad at you So, ALPHA, how can you attract a woman anymore, Dan! All is forgiven! who wants a cuck? Cheating Happily Ever After, “What’s worked for me is using the Thanks! internet not to find people but to find kinky events where dominant women gather in Congrats on your upcoming wedding, real life,” said FleeMarket. “I’m on my second CHEAT! And ALPHA? It would appear some openly dominant female partner in four vanilla women can be turned.

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FOR ALL SIGNS: This is it — election time

is finally here. I, for one, will be relieved to see it come and go. I have already written that I think Hillary Clinton’s horoscope is the winner. Donald Trump has nowhere to go in an astrological sense. I hasten to add that I am not promoting anyone, just reading charts. Now we need only to look at the day of the election, Nov. 8. It so happens that the moon is “void of course” throughout the day until 4:45 p.m. EST. That phrase means that the matter has been decided; there is nothing new to happen. The moon shifts to Pisces in the late afternoon, which suggests there may be a vagueness or shrouding over the evening’s developments. Some question or confusion may disallow a final verdict for a day or two, but nevertheless it is Clinton’s win. Unfortunately, she has aspects during 2017 that suggest ill health and the VP might have to work double-time.

ARIES: There is a lot of chatter all around you. Some of it may be disturbing to your sense of comfort. It is like nibbling ducks at your ankles. Don’t buy into it or worry overmuch. The dust will settle soon and whatever the event, it will be over in a few days’ time. It’s possible you will have a short bout of a health problem. TAURUS: A second tier friend may hurt

your feelings this week. It’s old stuff. Try to let it go. You are feeling restless and need to try something new. Commute by a different route or go somewhere you have never visited before. It is important to make note of these restless feelings and do something about them. Otherwise you can become hard to live with, even for yourself.

GEMINI: This week offers a good opportunity to refresh your self-care regimen. Perhaps you will start a new program of diet and exercise. Helping yourself to better health is on your mind so don’t ignore it. We need to take advantage of the moment when it comes. CANCER: Your partner may be a source

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of irritation this week. There’s no point in nagging or engaging in meaningless tiffs. Take some time for yourself and do something enjoyable on your own. If you think about it, you probably need some alone time anyway. Maybe that is why the Other feels irritating.

LEO: This week you probably have the pleasure of opening your home to others. You are serving as guide and negotiator to help people become acquainted and share ideas. Your creativity is readily available and you can easily solve any problems that may arise. VIRGO: This is an opportune time to clarify your personal feelings and convey them

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to loved ones without creating a fuss or controversy. It is also a good time to use your creative talent. You probably don’t realize how creative you can be since you don’t paint or write music. But it is there. Your problem solving ability is great.

LIBRA: You may not feel physically your best this week. Even so, this is a time of pleasure and maybe a little excitement concerning a significant other. Let your mind be open to unusual suggestions. Make it a point to interject new spark into the usual routine. Try something new over the weekend. SCORPIO: You may feel a sense of tension and irritation as this week begins. Give careful attention to your vehicle, which may be subject to minor breakdown. You may have issues with a friend(s), sibling, or roommate this week. Don’t make a big thing of it. The tension passes by within a few days.

SAGITTARIUS: An ancient issue resurfaces between yourself and a family member. Try not to overreact. This is old stuff. Meanwhile there is a sparkle in the works concerning a lover or a creative project. Your eye for the artistic is working with flair. It is upbeat and contemporary.

CAPRICORN: You may feel stressed by time. There appears to be a communications project, perhaps concerning the law, publishing, the Internet, or a paper to write that nags at your backside. There is no doubt you will accomplish the goal immediately in front of you, but it will feel like pulling teeth as you do so.

AQUARIUS: A career or life direction project is put on hold for reasons beyond your control. This is likely temporary. A casual friend or a group involvement offers something interesting and unusual to do. You need a break from the routine. Try a new restaurant or go for a walk somewhere that you’ve never been.

PISCES: This is a relatively quiet period. It may be a good time to organize your estate, or clean out closets and do a give-away that will cheer your soul. Spend some time in the quiet and concentrate on connecting to your deeper self — the side of you who doesn’t often get a word into your thoughts.

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.

FIGHT NIGHTS Nov.5th 2016

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