2016 Issue 39 Creative Loafing by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | MARCH | NOV. 17 -17MARCH - NOV. 23, 2016 VOL. 30, NO. 04 39

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THIS FRIDAY

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EDITORIAL

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LEANDRO MANZO’S TODOS QUIEREN ESTAR ARRIBA DE LA PALMERA (PACIFIC TO ATLANTIC WATER COLOR SERIES)

Leandro Manzo’s Mar de Mares exhibit opens on Nov. 18 at LaCa Projects.

COVER STORY TALKING TURKEYS: What’s behind the high cost of locally farmed holiday birds?

BY ALISON LEININGER THIS WEEK’S COVER WAS DESIGNED BY DANA VINDIGNI.

NEWS&VIEWS CAN LOVE WIN IN CHARLOTTE?: Local organizations work to ease fears of those in crosshairs of new president-elect and his followers. BY RYAN PITKIN 12 THE BLOTTER 13 NEWS OF THE WEIRD 14 THANK ME LATER

FOOD A TERIYAKI TWIST: New spot offers comfortable

Asian-style grub.

BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

ARTS&ENT THREE BONE THEATRE’S GRAND CONCOURSE: Stirring the pot in a Bronx soup

kitchen.

BY PERRY TANNENBAUM 24 FILM REVIEWS

MUSIC

SLOAN OFFERS DEMOCRACY IN MUSIC:

Four singers and songwriters on 25 years and One Chord After Another. BY SAMIR SHUKLA

30 CD REVIEWS 32 SOUNDBOARD

ODDS&ENDS

20 TOP 10 THINGS TO DO 34 MARKETPLACE 34 NIGHTLIFE 35 CROSSWORD 36 SAVAGE LOVE 38 HOROSCOPE

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NEWS

FEATURE

CAN LOVE WIN IN CHARLOTTE? Local organizations work to ease fears of those in crosshairs of new president-elect and his followers BY RYAN PITKIN

N THE AFTERNOON of November 9, 2016, a group of Charlotte-area refugee and immigrant kids came streaming through the door of the ourBRIDGE for Kids offices, just as they do every afternoon. While the afternoon was off to a relatively normal start, Sil Ganzo sensed a different mood among the children compared to the countless other days she’d watched them trickle into the afterschool program she’d founded to help immigrant and refugee children in Charlotte. “We knew something was different,” Ganzo says. “Something happened today that was not a regular, normal day. So what happened?” What happened was that, just hours before, Donald Trump had become president-elect of the United States. A man whose campaign was based largely on denigrating families like those of the children at ourBRIDGE — along with a number of other already-marginalized American populations — would now be the leader of the country they live in. Around the country, organizations like ourBRIDGE for Kids and Time Out Youth (TOY), an LGBTQ youth support and advocacy center in Charlotte, offered safe spaces for the young people they serve to sift through the feelings of frustration, anxiety and fear felt by many in the days following Trump’s election; a feeling that’s yet to subside for most. After spending time on homework, playing soccer in a nearby field and eating cake custommade to read “Everything will be ok,” the kids sat down for their daily group discussion. During the discussions, ourBRIDGE staff asks kids to volunteer to discuss whether they had a good or bad day and explain why. The answers expressed that Wednesday were indicative of how ourBRIDGE kids often walk a line between the normal concerns of childhood and the anxieties reserved for those much older. The first girl to raise her hand said she had a bad day because her friend got gum stuck in 10 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

RYAN PITKIN

A cake awaits students from Oakhurst Elementary School at ourBRIDGE for Kids, an afterschool program for immigrant and refugee students, on the day following the election of Donald Trump. her hair, and somehow she was blamed for it. The next boy, a refugee whose family settled here from Iraq, said he was involved in a shoving match after someone made fun of his mother. This is a normal occurrence for the boy, whose mother wears a hijab and is active in school, leaving her son open to criticism from other children who see her as different. The third child to raise his hand said he had a bad day, “Because Donald Trump is now the president.” This hit a nerve;, as a knowing buzz grew around the circle and separate conversations broke out around the room. Once they quieted down, kids began to share their experiences. “Last time he was on the news, he said that all the Americans were gonna stay here, and everyone from other countries were going back,” said the boy who had originally raised his hand. Six hands shot up in response. “He;s nt sending me anywhere,” said another boy. The discussion grew from there, with

kids discussing how classmates had already begun telling them they’d all be sent “home” soon. Staff members like Ganzo assured kids that they wouldn’t be going anywhere. Shortly thereafter, a second group of kids who attend Oakhurst STEAM Academy arrived at the ourBRIDGE offices. Unlike the first group — many of whom are immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and southeast Asia — the Oakhurst group is made up mostly of Hispanic kids. Ganzo led a similar discussion with this group, and students reported hearing how all Mexican kids would have to leave America soon. Once again, Ganzo emphasized that each child had as much right to be in the country as any one of their peers, and also discussed respectability; the refusal to be intimidated by bullies but also the importance of not stooping to the sort of intimidation they were experiencing from others. “It’s horrible,” Ganzo said later. “A lot of people know that it’s a terrible situation but

they don’t see the fear that we see in these kids. They cry, ‘What if they take my parents away?’ They know they were born here, and they know they have a right that their parents don’t, and they’re scared.” Ganzo, who opened ourBRIDGE nearly seven years ago, has seen an increased need for discussions focused on bullying since Trump began running for president. She has witnessed multiple incidents in which mothers ask their daughters not to wear a hijab in school for fear of harassment or Hispanic families pull their children from afterschool programs because they fear they’ll be arrested by immigration agents when they go to pick them up. “I can’t even imagine how these kids feel,” she said. “They’re growing up in fear and they’re children. They should not. They should be worried who kissed who. It’s a whole different reality than what we grew up in.”

#LOVEWINSCLT Nov. 20, 2:30 p.m. ourBRIDGE For Kids, 1350 Central Avenue. joinourbridge.org.

DISCUSSION GROUPS AT Time Out Youth, which included youth much older than the elementary-aged kids at ourBRIDGE, went well into the night Wednesday as folks discussed the fears of Trump’s followers feeling empowered in their anti-LGBT and other hateful stances. Two people who planned to attend “Melanin & Magic,” a discussion group for LGBT people of color, backed out that night after experiencing incidents just before the group began. According to Shakira Clarke, who moderates that group, one person said they were on the way to attend the meeting when someone riding the same CATS bus began harassing them over a Black Lives Matter button they were wearing. The suspect allegedly used the N-word and stated that the election results would “keep black people in check.” The Southern Poverty Law Center recorded more than 300 incidents of intimidating and aggressive incidents toward minorities and women in the six days following Trump’s election. Anxiety only grew as stories of hate crimes and intimidation spread through social media during those days, and discussions at Time Out Youth have reflected that. “It became really a conversation less about what can or can’t Trump do, but more about what does his victory say to people who propagate or promote homophobic, racist or misogynistic ideology,” said O’Neale Atkinson, director of youth programs at Time Out Youth. “There was a lot of concern that, whether or not his direct action was going to impact them, they were more concerned about how his victory emboldens antiLGBTQ supporters to be more vocal about their aggression toward those communities.” Many of the students involved in Atkinson’s discussion group that Wednesday reported already hearing racist, misogynistic, homophobic and Islamophobic statements made on the school bus, seemingly justified to each aggressor by the election results. Each story Atkinson heard seemed to follow a pattern. “They’re all kind of saying, ‘We’re making America great again,’ then insert racist statement,” he said. Atkinson couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the last statement as he made it, but the reality of the situation has created

RYAN PITKIN

Students thank the ourBRIDGE staff at an event held last winter, the day before thenpresidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled his idea to ban all Muslims from traveling to the United States. context for he and Clarke to have the types of discussions nobody serving youth wants to have. “We talked about if someone were to come into this space and be aggressive; what is our protocol, how do we get out, how do we make sure everyone’s safe?” Atkinson said. “It’s a little scary even as a staff person to know that we have to have these conversations, but I would much rather our young people be equipped and prepared than blindsided in a moment.” The election has also put Ganzo in an uncomfortable spot with her students; before November 9, she couldn’t imagine being untruthful to a child under her care. However, on that Wednesday, a situation presented itself in which she felt she had no choice. A student asked Ganzo directly whether she had any concerns about what Trump’s presidency would mean for herself and those in the room. Ganzo felt that the need to be a strong example was greater than the need to be open about her fears. It was in that moment that Ganzo, an Argentinian immigrant, realized the importance of her role as a leader and an example for those that are often made to feel like others in their public schools. “It dawned on me yesterday why it’s so important for them to see a person like me — who is brown and Hispanic and has an accent and wasn’t born here or raised here — is in charge,” she said. “It’s like, ‘If she’s not worried then we shouldn’t be worried.’ We were talking about [kids in school] asking

people with accents to please go home. It sort of dawned on me then when they said, ‘Are you worried? No? Oh ok.’ It’s much more peaceful for them to hear that I wasn’t worried, although I am, but I will not tell them that.”

THE GROUP DISCUSSIONS can also be a great platform for children who felt helpless watching adults vote for a president that will affect their lives for years to come. While some of the kids at Atkinson’s discussion group on Wednesday were able to vote, most were not. “I think that sense of hopelessness or helplessness was a little more prevalent with young people that were not able to vote yet,” he says. “That feeling that they didn’t even have a say in this, but for the next four years now they’re going to have to be impacted by it and be affected by it.” He believes the experience will stick with those who were just on the verge of voting age and inspire them to be active voters through their adult lives. “One of the big messages that I was really inspired to hear young people talk through was this message that they were going to not forget this feeling. So when they can vote, they are going to be more apt to vote and vote consistently in all elections and to really be diligent in understanding the importance of voting and knowing beyond just party lines what do candidates stand for,” Atkinson said. It’s a message that Ganzo also tries to instill in her students at a very young age.

On Wednesday, she discussed with her young students the difference between a kingdom and a democracy, and emphasized the importance of being involved in civic life, from the national to local levels. In the shorter term, however, for those children lucky enough to be involved with organizations like ourBRIDGE and TOY and have a safe space to discuss the implications of Trump’s election, the experience has already begun to ease some of their anxieties. While countless conversations are taking place behind closed doors in the homes of immigrants, people of color, Muslims and LGBTQ folks around the country, being a part of the group discussions taking place at these two Charlotte support centers can be a valuable supplement to inform what kids are hearing from their parents, peers and teachers. Now, a group of adults are hoping to bring that same idea home for adults when they host a #LoveWinsCLT rally at the ourBRIDGE for Kids offices on Sunday, Nov. 20. The event originated with a Charlotte woman named Erika Lopez and her friends, all of whom were shocked at the results of the Nov. 8 election, and began discussing ways to do something about it. The group of mothers was active on a closed Facebook group called Pantsuit Nation, which they’ve now used to help promote the event. Organizers will have representatives from different nonprofits and advocacy groups so that people who feel disheartened by the country’s future will have a way to get involved and make a change in their own way. For Lopez, it was a way out of the “absolute desolation” she and her friends felt on the morning of Nov. 9. It’s also addresses a feeling of guilt that she could have done more before the election. “This happened, but we have a voice, and we didn’t use it before but we’re going to use it now.” she said. “I think that is a part of what happened: many of us held our feelings too close to the cuff and too close to our hearts and could only talk to people that felt the way that we did. So this is definitely meant to be inclusive. Let’s get people together.” Lopez said she hopes to have folks of all political stripes at the event on Sunday, which she said is not a protest but a familyfriendly event. “It’s something that you don’t have to fear any kind of violence or any kind of incitement of what we’re rooting against in this. It’s going to be a very positive event,” she said. “It’s a call to action, so we just really want people there to feel like there are tactical next steps.” As most people know, it’s that first step that can often be the hardest. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM

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NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

MUST SEE TV Police responded to a shoplifting call at a Walmart in north Charlotte last week after the suspect decided he had to get his TV turned on by any means necessary. Employees of the store first noticed the man when he approached the cashier lines with a television remote and a pack of eight AA batteries. He began telling people in line that he couldn’t pay for the items and asking them to buy the stuff for him. I would have the same reaction if my remote died while stuck on an episode of 2 Broke Girls. When all the potential paying customers refused, he began walking toward the exit with them, but was stopped by employees. He then became argumentative before calling 911 claiming to have been kidnapped. HEAVY SLEEPERS A man in his mid-

twenties must have been passed out hard on the couch in a home just north of Uptown last week to have slept through a home break-in. The man reportedly fell asleep on his buddies’ couch at about 1 a.m. and didn’t wake up until the two friends who live there returned home at about 9 a.m., probably asking him what the hell happened. What the group and investigators later decided happened was that someone tried to pry the front door open but couldn’t do so and then they went around to the back door and simply kicked the whole thing in. This still didn’t wake the sleeping man, however, but his presence alone must have been enough to scare the suspect away, because nothing was stolen.

WARMER, WARMER A 53-year-old man called police last week after being surprised that his girlfriend looked as if she wanted to take their argument, and not their relationship, to the next level. The man said that he and his girlfriend were arguing when she picked up a knife and slowly started coming toward him. Then came the most obvious — if still observant — statement ever recorded in a police report, when the man told police that he was not concerned with the presence of the knife until she was close enough to reach him, at which time he relieved her of the weapon before anyone could be injured. BREAK ON THROUGH A group of

east Charlotte residents got to know their neighbor a little better last week when he invited himself into each of their apartments, although he’s apparently not the type to use the front door. The whole clusterfuck started when police responded to an apartment complex on Central Avenue in response to an assault call. When they arrived, the suspect fled from the parking lot into his apartment (apartment I). After going inside, he entered into a “common attic area” that he shares

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with his neighbors, and from there made entry into apartment J. While in J, he locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out at the request of the tenants there. He eventually came out and re-entered the attic area, and although folks had become wise and locked him out, he still dropped in on his neighbors in apartment E by creating a large hole in the ceiling area. After remaining in E for a while, he finally ran out into the parking lot and tried to escape police on foot, but was taken into custody and mentally evaluated before being booked in the county jail.

ROCK BAND While the man mentioned

above is clearly the worst apartment neighbor one could ask for, a man in South End had a more typical, yet irritating experience last week. The man reported to police that the neighbors who live above him not only shook his walls with all their stomping around, but damaged them to the point where he wanted to be sure they were structurally sound.

LIKE A CHIMNEY A man in South End is

prison rich after pulling off a caper at a gas station there last week. Police reported that someone threw a brick through the window of a Citgo station and, instead of going for the cash box, went straight for the cigs. The thief made off with 108 packs of Newport cigarettes, valued at $654 total.

SCAMMED A 33-year-old man in east Charlotte was scammed by con artists last week who were presumably taking advantage of the victim’s status as an immigrant who does not speak English as a first language. The victim told police that the two unknown men told him that if he paid them a handsome fee, they would pay off all of his debts, which equal more than the fee. He told police he gave the men $60,000 and when they returned to give him receipts proving they had paid off all his debts, they actually just left him with a bundle of blank papers wrapped inside of tin foil and tape.

SPICY FOOD Police and fire crews showed

up to a home in east Charlotte after a boy had to come to the rescue of his younger brother in the bathroom. A 33-year-old woman told rescue crews on the scene that her young son started a fire in the bathroom and quickly realized that he wasn’t going to be able to control it. He reportedly went down the hall and told his older brother, who was luckily still able to put it out with his shoe. All in all, about $300 in damage was done. 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

THE NANNY STATE New York City officially began licensing professional fire eaters earlier this year, and classes have sprung up to teach the art so that the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fire Department Explosives Unit can test for competence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if not judgment â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and issue the â&#x20AC;&#x153;E29â&#x20AC;? certificates. In the bad old (license-less) days, a veteran fire eater told The New York Times in October, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;bunch of usâ&#x20AC;? performed regularly for $50 a throw, largely oblivious of the dangers, though some admit that almost everyone eventually gets badly burned. For authenticity, the Times writer, a fire eater who dubbed herself Lady Aye, completed the licensing process herself â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;as sexy as applying for a mortgageâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but declined to say whether she is awaiting bookings. MONEY SHOT Prominent British radio host Dame Jenni Murray suggested in October that the U.K. scrap traditional â&#x20AC;&#x153;sex educationâ&#x20AC;? courses in school and instead show pornographic videos for classes to â&#x20AC;&#x153;analyze it in exactly the same way as (they analyze Jane Austen)â&#x20AC;? in order to encourage discussion of the role of sex. Younger students might explore why a boy should not look up a girlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skirt, but older students would view hardcore material to confront, for example, whether normal women should â&#x20AC;&#x153;shaveâ&#x20AC;? or make the typical screeching moans that sex workers in the videos make. Dame Jenni said simply condemning pornography is naive because too much money is at stake. MEDIC! At a World Cup qualifier match in

October in Quito, Ecuador, police arrived during the game to question star player Enner Valencia about an unpaid alimony complaint, and he saw them waiting on the sideline. Local media reported that Valencia then faked an on-field injury near the end of the match to â&#x20AC;&#x153;necessitateâ&#x20AC;? being taken away by ambulance, thus outmaneuvering the police. He settled the complaint in time for the next match.

ARE WE SAFE? The security firm Trend

Micro disclosed in October its â&#x20AC;&#x153;surpriseâ&#x20AC;? to find, in the course of a routine investigation, that firms in several crucial sectors â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nuclear power, electric utilities, defense contractors, computer chip makers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; send critical alert messages via old-style wireless pagers wholly unsecured against hacking. In fact, Trend Micro said the enormously popular WhatsApp message-exchange app has better security than the alert systems of nuclear power plants. Infrastructure engineers defended the outdated technology as useful where internet access was unavailable.

LIFE IMITATES ART Security experts hired

by the investment firm Muddy Waters, which is being sued for defamation by St. Jude

Medical Inc. over claims that St. Judeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cardiac implant device can be hacked, disclosed in an October court filing that they agree the devices are anonymously and maliciously hackable. They found that a popular control device (Merlin@Home) could be remotely turned off, or jiggered to carry a dangerous electrical charge from up to 100 feet away. A similar incident was part of a plot in Season 2 of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Homelandâ&#x20AC;? TV series, as the means by which the ailing U.S. vice president was assassinated.

WAIT, WHAT? New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prestigious

Bronx High School of Science enrolls some of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;best and brightestâ&#x20AC;? students in the city â&#x20AC;&#x201D; some of whom, perhaps rebelling against the nerd label, for the last two years have held unauthorized, consensual fistfights in a field near the school, according to an October New York Daily News report. Students at the school (which has produced eight Nobel Prize winners and eight National Medal of Science honorees) then bombarded the Daily News reporter by telephone and Facebook with acrimonious, vulgar messages for placing the school in a bad light.

TOO QUICKLY PROMOTED Nathan Lawwill, 32, from Lansing, Michigan, was arrested in Tunisia in October after emigrating as a recent Muslim convert. Lawwill spoke little Arabic, but that did not restrain him, a one-time Christian, from now being the Islamic Messiah, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;gift to Muslims,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mahdi to Muslims and Messiah to the Jews.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am going to be the center of the world very quickly,â&#x20AC;? he wrote on Facebook. He and his brother Patrick were found by police on Oct. 25 â&#x20AC;&#x153;unwashed,â&#x20AC;? and were detained on suspicion of terrorism. LEAST

COMPETENT

CRIMINALS

(1) Ms. Cana Greer, 29, was arrested in Sacramento, California, in October when police responded to a call to help her remove handcuffs she had accidentally engaged while fooling around with a friend. Police, routinely checking her ID, discovered an outstanding felony burglary warrant. As per procedure, officers took her to a fire station for removal of the cuffs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to make room on her wrists for their own pair. (2) A woman who will remain unnamed because she has not been charged with a crime almost produced major havoc at the Shuttle Car Wash in Titusville, Florida, in October when, while cleaning her car, she attempted to vacuum gas out of her trunk, causing the vacuum to explode.

UNDIGNIFIED DEATH Mr. Nigel Hobbs, 71,

passed away in Dawlish, England, in April, and an October coronerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inquest heard that his body was found by a neighbor â&#x20AC;&#x153;swaddledâ&#x20AC;? in bed linen and wearing numerous homemade dresses with his face covered by stockings pulled tight with eye holes. Underneath

the coverings, his face was wrapped in polyethylene, including his mouth but not his nose, and cotton or wool was stuffed into his ears and mouth. The coroner assumed the cause of death was accidental asphyxiation.

RECURRING THEMES Joining some classic cases of sentencing overkill that have populated News of the Weird through the years: In October in San Marcos, Texas, jurors apparently had enough of recidivist drunk driver Jose Marin, 64, who had just racked up conviction No. 8 and so sentenced him to spend the next 99 years in prison and â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps more horrifyingly â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sober. And in Fresno, California, Rene Lopez, 41, convicted of raping his daughter over a four-year period beginning when she was 16, was sentenced by a Fresno Superior Court judge to prison until the year 3519 (1,503 years from now). THE PASSING PARADE (1) The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

first constantly flowing (and free!) â&#x20AC;&#x153;wine fountainâ&#x20AC;? opened in Abruzzo, Italy, in October, to help draw tourists and pilgrims who make the trek south from the Vatican to view the cathedral where remains of the disciple Thomas are kept. Operators said they

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hope the fountain will not become a home to â&#x20AC;&#x153;drunkards.â&#x20AC;? (2) In September, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first legal beer pipeline opened, pumping 12,000 bottlesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; worth per hour from the Halve Maan brewery in Bruges, Belgium, to its bottling plant two miles away, and thus sparing visitors to the historic city the sight of tanker trucks cluttering the cobblestone streets. The pipeline was partly funded by private citizens offered â&#x20AC;&#x153;free beer for lifeâ&#x20AC;? for their donations.

NOTW CLASSIC (May 2012) William Todd, traveling by bus, faced a nine-hour layover in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 9 (2012) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and with time on his hands, managed to allegedly commit at least 11 felonies, one after another, while he waited: shooting up a restaurant, setting it on fire, robbing four people at a bar, carjacking, breaking into a law office and defecating on a desk, trolling hotel rooms seeking theft opportunities, and stealing a taxicab and robbing the driver. He was finally captured at Opryland, where he had hidden by submerging himself in water up to his nose.

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VIEWS

THANK ME LATER

ELEPHANT IN MY ROOM The weight of four years of fear The day after the election, I woke up with real understanding of how dangerous it is to new eyes. be black and brown on this day and moving Apologetic to the decades of marches, forward through the next four years. protests and movements my great I am angry at America for doing its grandmothers and fathers retold in church best to help me forget that this bubble of houses so that their future generations freedom, tolerance and understanding I live wouldn’t have to see such waste of human in is not guaranteed to extend itself to those intellect and appetite. I associate with professionally or in my social Like many that covered their voting media feeds. record with hashtags and selfies with oval I am angry that my naiveté got the best stickers posted on social media, I exercised of me to the point where I not only let my my right to vote at an age my mother’s father guard down but tossed it away. could only dream of, asking in return for a This weight, this oppression has existed constitution that delivers to me the safety before, but it feels heavier now that I’m promised to all “equal” people. Four days later, I’m still finding the adopting this body in its entirety: Female. broken pieces of myself and my community Black. Educated. Raised by a single parent. scattered through filters and lenses of both Fatherless. Middle Class. Capable. rage and disdain. And yet, despite all this, I am Reverberating across still inadequate enough to be Facebook posts tied to a discounted in the election country of those experiencing of someone rich. Someone signals of post-traumatic white. Someone male. stress disorder for the very Someone privileged. first time. Someone so clearly filled This sudden fear is with hate. unfamiliar, unfitting and What are the without permission holds exponents of hatred and its weight in the corner of at which level must we my bedroom. And suddenly, SHERRELL I no longer felt compelled to arrive before these outcries pray. DORSEY are comprehended with I no longer feel safe in this empathy and course correction? skin, in this body, when hidden Perhaps we’ll go back to praying agendas and a sheer contempt for those that one day, taking pride in our integrated are called a nuisance to society take priority. churches once again, enjoying trivia night To live in a country where the “others” must with our friends whom we hadn’t questioned cower before a presidential administration in our minds about their political choices that trickles down into the hearts of those before now. we walk past every day; people who hate our Perhaps we’ll feel safe again showing existence. up as ourselves, in these bodies, with I feel useless in this new lens. It extends these identities, wearing ourselves in our far beyond Charlotte, the residents of which workplaces and grocery stores with agency. decidedly made good on promises of voting Maybe these words won’t need to make in favor of affordable housing, transit, and against a governor who vehemently used his their way across storylines and obscure leadership and taxpayer resources to defend media outlets to be read and considered for a discriminatory law that drove away both audiences that have been left out of nuanced business and citizen trust. histories and observations on how the other The small wins and the silver linings, side lives. however, have not helped to move this My words are weary. My resolve a mess. weight from my bedroom and back into the So I’ll rest in this bedroom with this weight crevices of hope I reach for. sitting in the corner. And I won’t apologize Many of us are uncomfortable in this for it. new lens. We see our white peers differently Many of us are weeping with just cause. based on their voting record. The lives of our children and spouses and Arguing the same talking points between neighbors are at risk. media analysts judging the dichotomy I know that dream my grandfather of data, income, race and place — as envisioned never included a time like this. though understanding the plight of those BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM overlooked and left out negates our very 14 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

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FOOD

COVER STORY

Bronze turkeys from Middle Ground Farm in Monroe.

TALKING TURKEYS What’s behind the high cost of locally farmed holiday birds? BY ALISON LEININGER

T HAS BEGUN.

Every week, grocery store ads push holiday turkey prices ever lower; 99 cents a pound here, 89 cents a pound there. Walmart has had whole birds selling for 69 cents a pound since the beginning of the 16 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

month. Eventually some stores will just give birds away as a promotion. The next logical step will be to have Harris Teeter pay us to take home the plumpest, juiciest Butterball to grace our Thanksgiving tables. Meanwhile, in the calm green swath of Waxhaw that is New Town Farm, Sammy

Koenigsberg gazes over his small flock of broad-breasted whites and quietly says, “I think we’re at $7 [a pound] now.” All of his 60 plus birds are spoken for, reserved with $40 deposits and a waiting list to boot. Many will cost over $100 when delivered fresh during Thanksgiving week.

The typical American shopper hunts down the most food for the fewest dollars, but a growing collection of local eaters spring for the gold standard at the holidays, paying big bucks for locally pastured birds. With such a wide divide in prices, this annual turkey fest serves as a prime example of

Sammy Koenigsberg of New Town Farm in Waxhaw.

the disparity between commercially grown food, and that raised on smaller, sustainablyminded farms. Google “turkey barn,” and you’ll pull up image after image of vast manmade caverns carpeted with white-feathered bodies standing wing-to-wattle — and not doing much else. As with other meats, modern commercial turkey growers practice confinement farming, factoring out weather, predators and other natural risks while pursuing established formulas for pounds of feed in, pounds of meat out. Anyone following the country’s food debates knows there are disadvantages here: crowded birds get sick, so prophylactic antibiotics are added to the feed, facilitating the development of super-resistant diseases

transferable to humans. Hormones boost growth, creating behemoth bids incapable of supporting their own weight. Injured birds are often trampled by their flock-mates, lost to the crowded conditions. Yet the system does what it’s designed to do, pumping out over five billion pounds of affordable turkey every year, according to the USDA.

ON KOENIGSBERG’S FARM, five dozen turkeys spread out across a small sunlit pasture, chirruping in surprisingly musical tones as they explore the grass, their feeders, or visitors crouching down for a photograph. These may be happy birds, but the bucolic scene carries its own risks. Predators,

weather and the birds themselves all pose threats at different stages of development. Down the road in Monroe, “Farmer Dan” Kypena is only on his second year of turkey raising. Before adding them to Middle Ground Farm, he turned for advice to Koenigsberg and his 20 years of experience. “He told me, ‘Look, if you wind up with better than 50 or 60 percent surviving, job well done,’” says Kypena. True to form, Kypena started out with 24 birds, and a week prior to processing them, was down to 13. “In the early stages, when you’re brooding them, they’re really fragile,” he says. When the day-old chicks arrive in July or August, they spend two or three weeks in brooders, small enclosures equipped

with heat lamps keeping the temperature around 90 degrees. Anything colder can be deadly. Koenigsberg recalls standing outside his roofed brooding shed blocking a hard September rain with tarps, but still incurring heavy losses. Post-brooder, the turkeys go through a two-stage graduation onto pasture, first inside open-bottomed mobile coops, and then onto open grass hemmed by movable electric netting. Both are relocated every day, sometimes twice a day, making them more labor-intensive than large-scale commercial barns. This open-air housing also exposes the flock to possible predator attacks, especially from coyotes and raptors. Inside the larger pasture, Koenigsberg points to netting CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 17

FOOD

COVER STORY

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hanging down one open end of a high arched shelter, designed to deter nighttime owl raids. “We had one move where we had left both sides open,” he says, “and that night we lost three birds.” Even if the predators don’t succeed in catching a turkey, they can send the flock into such a panic that some birds are crushed in a pileup or a stampede. Middle Ground Farm uses livestock guardian dogs to protect all its livestock. Inside the turkey pasture, a large white Great Pyrenees-Anatolian mix named Chunk keeps watch day and night. An innocuous great blue heron cruising over the neighbor’s land sends every dog on the farm to that end of the property with echoing barks. “We have not lost a single animal to predators,” Kypena says. Aside from the greater risks and labor involved in raising turkeys on pasture, both these farmers have assumed additional costs in using certified organic feed — even

foraging birds need additional feed to reach weight in time for Thanksgiving. Kypena quotes a price of $30 per 50-pound bag, while he says a hog farmer he knows buys conventional feed by the ton — 2,000 pounds — for $160. Still, Koenigsberg finds turkeys to be a profitable late-season addition to his farm’s revenue, providing a “getcha through the winter” cash infusion. But for both men, the birds provide other important, if less tangible benefits to the small farmer. “Turkeys are a very enjoyable creature to raise,” says Koenigsberg. “They sing when they get to new pastures; they come running to you when you walk out to them, and not just for food. They would follow us back to the house if there weren’t a fence.” The two farmers also find satisfaction in raising turkeys “the right way,” as Kypena says. He enjoys watching the birds live a healthy lifestyle, even posting a video online demonstrating their ability to run. “You show me a factory-farmed bird that can run like that,” he says. And, as Koenigsberg says, in addition to more flavorful meat, pasture-raised birds also provide the consumer “the knowledge that this bird lived a good life, and was treated with compassion as a creature. This is perhaps the most important ingredient in a meal.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

FOOD

THREE COURSE SPIEL

A TERIYAKI TWIST New spot offers comfortable Asian staples BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

OVE OVER PANDA Express, there’s another customizable and fresh-rolling Asian spot in town. The new Teriyaki Madness, opened by Stephen Deutsch on Mallard Creek Church Road, just a mile off I-85, boasts fresh food and sauces made in-house. The bowls and plates are customizable with white or brown rice, chicken thighs or breasts, fresh sauces and big portions. Options include yakisoba noodles (stirfried noodles in yakisoba sauce with your choice of protein), teriyaki dishes (with your choice of protein, rice and an assortment of veggies) and plenty more. The new Charlotte location has been received well, with another location opening on Metropolitan Avenue soon. Deutsch states that, of course, the most popular dishes on the menu are the chicken or beef teriyaki dishes but the breaded and lightly-fried orange chicken is also in popular demand. Teriyaki Madness provides bang for your buck with the highest quality food that surpasses other food concepts. Creative Loafing caught up with Deutsch and discussed the “vibrant and fun” concept behind the new Teriyaki Madness in north Charlotte. Creative Loafing: What made you decide to open a Teriyaki Madness and were there any specific concepts that appealed more to you about this business venture? Stephen Deutsch: I’ve been in my own business before and I wanted to be a franchise person. I was pitched on a number of different things and a lot of food concepts. But when I saw Teriyaki Madness’ concept, I didn’t think there was anything like that in Charlotte. It was very cool and innovative to me. I wanted to do all the other due diligence first, and when I did all that and I finally tasted the food, I was hooked.

Stephen Deutsch of Teriyaki Madness

TERIYAKI MADNESS 2700 W. Mallard Creek Church Road, Suite 420. 704-266-8213. teriyakimadness.com. Also, coming soon to 1111 Metropolitan Ave., Suite 130.

What are you bringing to Charlotte that otherwise lacking? I’ve been coming to Charlotte since ’88 and I’ve lived here since ’98 and I’ve seen the city grow in a lot of different ways. I don’t know if we’re bringing anything that it lacks, I think that our concept is something that differs from anything around the Mallard Creek area, but I think that we’re bringing a vibrant and alive concept. Big bowls of food that most people can’t finish so you’ve got some leftovers, it tastes just as good the next day. It’s good, fresh food. How would you describe your niche? I think it offers fresh, fun food in a bright, fun environment that’s cooked to order. If you’re on the run, you can call ahead. It’s great takeout and if you have a little bit of a drive, it stays hot for at least half an hour. I think we offer great value and tasty food you can customize. You can customize the bowls anyway you want. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 19

THURSDAY

LEANNA EDEN & THE GARDEN OF

What: When she’s not serving as one of Charlotte’s regular activists — both on LGBTQ issues and with the Movement for Black Lives — or contributing to Creative Loafing as a writer and photographer, Americo is playing shows and making music. At this show, she’ll have copies of her new album She/They. She’ll perform with Megan Jean & the KFB and Namoli Brennet.

What: Right about now hearing LeAnna Eden & The Garden Of’s “Protest Song” sounds therapeutic. It’s something we all need to hear. Eden and her ‘garden’ create elements of folk, soul and alternative rock. She picked up “Best Up and Coming Singer/ Songwriter in this year’s Best Of Charlotte — CL critics’ picks. Performing with Charlotte’s Blame the Youth and Maryland-based Signs Point East.

— ANITA OVERCASH

20 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

FRIDAY

LARA AMERICO CD RELEASE PARTY

When: 8 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $8. 704-332-6608. petraspianobar.com.

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN When: 8:30 p.m. Where: The Station, 2131 Central Ave. More: $6. — OVERCASH

The Hunna SATURDAY

18 STEVE VAI What: A who’s who in the world of guitar slingers, Steve Vai got started at an early age by taking guitar lessons from Joe Satriani. At age 18, he was playing with Frank Zappa. He later played with David Lee Roth. Though it was released 26 years ago, Vai, who is now 56 years old, is continuing his Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary tour with this stop. His instrumental work puts his guitar front-andcenter with ease. When: 8 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. More: $38.50-$40. 704-942-7997. neighborhoodtheatre.com. — JEFF HAHNE

HARIS NUKEM

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

LEANDRO MANZO: MAR DE MARES What: This is the second solo exhibition featuring works by Argentinian artist Leandro Manzo at LaCa Projects. A figurative expressionist whose work spans over 30 years, Manzo uses thick brushstrokes and vibrant color to create striking landscape paintings. His new body of work will also feature portraits and black and white images. When: 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Exhibit runs through Jan. 14, 2017. Where: LaCa Projects, 1429 Bryant St. More: Free admission. 704-8371688. lacaprojects.com. — OVERCASH

FALL BALL What: This event isn’t just for the artsy fartsy folks — though you do have to pay the admission, as the Red Queen wouldn’t have it any other way. The Mint Museum’s Young Affiliates are hosting this gala to raise money for the museum’s student tours. The party is themed around Alice in Wonderland and there will be heavy hor d’oeuvres, an open bar, live music and a DJ on the scenic fifth floor of the Uptown location. When: 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Where: Mint Museum Uptown, 500 South Tryon St. More: $100-$120. universe.com/ mintmadness. — OVERCASH

ERIC JOHNSON

LEANDRO MANZO’S “TAMING THE BULL”

Vintage Charlotte Winter Market SUNDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Leandro Manzo: Mar de Mares FRIDAY

Maxwell TUESDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MEN OF THE THIRSTY BEAVER CALENDAR RELEASE What: The boys of the Beaver have put their bodies out there for a good cause, and now comes the payoff. The pin-up calendar, featuring the owners, bartenders and regulars of Thirsty Beaver Saloon will benefit Be the Match in Charlotte. The party will feature performances from Temperance League and Hank Sinatra and there will be raffle prizes, too.

When: 7 p.m. Where: Tipsy Burro Saloon & Cantina, 2711 Monroe Road More: Free. Calendars $20. —RYAN PITKIN

SUNDAY

THE HUNNA

#LOVEWINSCLT

What: English rock quartet The Hunna falls into a category of faceless, straight-forward indierock bands that are working hard to get their name out while there’s just too many to separate at first glace. A hit radio single, “You & Me,” will certainly help, as will a headlining spot on the Sirius XM Advanced Placement Tour with Night Riots and Knox Hamilton. The band’s debut album was only released in August, so give them some time to catch on.

What: This event, started by Erika Lopez and other local members of “Pantsuit Nation,” was planned as a way to move forward after the election of Donald Trump. Organizers are inviting people of all political leanings to attend in order to create a much-needed dialogue, while nonprofits will have representatives on site to discuss how folks feeling helpless can make a change on the local level.

When: 9 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: $15. fillmorecharlottenc.com. — HAHNE

TUESDAY

When: 2:30-5 p.m. Where: ourBRIDGE for Kids, 1350 Central Ave. More: Free. joinourbridge.com. — PITKIN

VINTAGE CHARLOTTE WINTER MARKET What: With more than 60 vendors selling handmade and vintage items, not attending this pop-up is a big mistake. That’s especially the case if you like to give special gifts as opposed to hitting up the big boy consumer shops for a surplus of unoriginal items. Save yourself the trouble and buy something that’s local and/or old enough to be your grandma. When: 10 a.m. (early bird); 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (general) Where: The Fillmore, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $2-$7. vintage-charlotte. com. — OVERCASH

MARY J. BLIGE/MAXWELL What: They likely won’t share the stage together, but this doubleheader of soul and R&B is a can’t miss for fans of either artist as the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul and one of the kings of neo-soul hit the road together. Maxwell is touring in support of his July release, BLACKsummers’night. Blige has had a busy year, recording the new theme song for The View, performing for Hillary Clinton and appearing on ABC TV shows. When: 7 p.m. Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St. More: $49.50-$144.50. timewarnercablearena.com. — HAHNE

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 21

ARTS

THEATER

COURTESY OF THREE BONE THEATRE

Three Bone Theatre performances of Grand Concourse continue through Nov. 19.

THREE BONE THEATRE’S GRAND CONCOURSE Stirring the pot in a Bronx soup kitchen BY PERRY TANNENBAUM

OST PEOPLE, the PARTICULARLY

homeless and the poor, don’t need to be told that soup kitchens are all about feeding the hungry who are beaten down — temporarily or permanently — by the harsh realities of our teeming cities. But to an unexpected degree, Heidi Schreck’s Grand Concourse, set in one of these missions of mercy at a Bronx church, struck me as a play about soup. Not to worry, the current Three Bone 22 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

Theatre production, at Spirit Square through Saturday, occasionally delves into the question of how to best serve the poor. Yet we aren’t out there among the hungry who are gratefully lapping up their free lunches. Instead, we’re behind the scenes — in the actual kitchen of the soup kitchen — so we’re mostly involved with the providers of the meals, not the recipients. Sister Shelley runs the kitchen, a nun who has chosen to discard the traditional costume and struggles to sustain another habit: prayer. Setting the kitchen timer on

her microwave to one minute, she can’t nearly fill it with 60 seconds of earnest supplications. A new volunteer, Emma, enters in the next scene, and it’s really her time at the kitchen — first as a volunteer and then as a salaried worker — that shapes the arc of our story. About two-thirds through the action, which clocks in at 95 minutes, I had the feeling — can I admit it was a worry? — that we were watching one of those incubator stories about a flawed, wounded, immature young person who experiences growth and

healing via the subtle balms of acceptance and friendship. We’ve seen a few of these, haven’t we? Lovely Emma turns out to be a different kind of apprentice, partly warm-hearted and enterprising but also partly toxic. The two men in this tragicomedy, Oscar and Frog, help in sharply defining the best and worst of Emma. Among her initiatives, the boldest is to expand the mission of the soup kitchen into helping the regulars get on their feet and find jobs. Appropriately, the first beneficiary of these attentions is Frog,

GRAND CONCOURSE $22-$28. Nov. 17-19, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. 704-372-1000. threebonetheatre.com.

Three Bone Theatre’s Grand Concourse. who has long disregarded the taboos against camping out by the church and fraternizing with the kitchen folk. Her effect isn’t so benign in her various interactions with Oscar, the maintenance/ muscle guy who regularly drops by for sandwiches kept in the fridge, usually lingering to lend the women a helping hand. Emma works on Oscar’s eyes with her good looks, then on his sympathies with her big lies. Everyone around Emma is hoodwinked as she spins plausible yarns to her mother, about her mother, and about herself. There is more complexity with Sister Shelley, who is dealing with her crisis in faith and the oncoming death of her dad. Unlike most volunteers, Emma returns for a second day, becoming a standout simply by persevering. Continuing to volunteer, Emma introduces new variations to the daily soup — a whole eggplant one day, maybe a few pinches of fennel the next. But she’s stirring the pot at a deeper level when she starts helping Frog to hop out of hopelessness. Why haven’t the sisters thought of doing that before? It makes Shelley start wondering. It also starts to make it obvious that Schreck isn’t primarily concerned about Emma’s apprenticeship. This playwright’s eyes are trained most diligently on how all the characters are affecting one another. What’s simmering up in the Bronx, workday after workday, is a human soup of interaction and influence — and this humble little soup kitchen is a microcosm for the Grand Concourse that is humanity. It’s a volatile stew without any pat or easy endings. It keeps on boiling along. There are plenty of energies distributed among this unpredictable foursome, and director Robin Tynes does a fine job in making sure we see how different — and how unevenly distributed — these energies

COURTESY OF THREE BONE THEATRE

are. Shawna Pledger hasn’t been this wired onstage since she made her first Charlotte splash in the title role of Sylvia four years ago at CPCC. Here she’s rechanneling that restless energy into Shelley, a neurotic and indecisive nun whose ultimate crucible will be forgiveness when young Emma pushes her to her limits. Pledger’s is an intense energy pent up in a pressure cooker of religious tolerance and discipline. Even when she stumbled on a line on opening night, it came out like part of Sister’s high-strung struggles. Emma’s confusions are on a more elemental, hormonal level than Shelley’s, and Callie Richards gives her a variety of erratic, moody and sensitive shadings. Nothing about Richards’ demeanor suggests that Emma is a temptress. Nor are Jason Estrada’s costume designs spurring her in that direction. She’s sneaky and deceptive, and her conquest of Oscar is like a raccoon invading your attic in the middle of the night. Suddenly, she’s just there. Watching things unravel, we don’t know exactly how to analyze Emma’s ultimate violence. It’s passive-aggressive, to be sure, and its effect is irreversible, but Richards is careful not to give away how intentional it may have been. Life is often messy precisely because we encounter chaotic, messed-up people like Emma behaving irresponsibly. As portrayed by Nicholas Enrique Pardo, it’s easy to come away thinking of Oscar as a genial sacrificial lamb, pounced upon by both Emma and Frog. But his victimhood is more complex and unique than that, for he had trained to be a dentist in the Dominican Republic before the process of immigrating to the US effectively stripped him of his credentials. Now he holds down a day job to survive and attends a community college to improve his employment prospects. Pardo

just struck me as too young to have all that mileage and dentistry in his rearview mirror — but I didn’t detect much in Schreck’s script that exposed this shortfall. Likewise, Bill Reilly may be a wee bit young to comfortably fit the aging hippy profile sketched for Frog, but he turns in such a compelling performance as this eccentric loose cannon that all incongruities quickly cease to matter. Reilly’s entrance at the dawning of his reclamation is delightful, largely because he himself seems shocked and disoriented by his new attire. The whole outing would have been even more extraordinary if Steven Levine’s fight choreography had been more meticulous.

Notably more shabby and less clinical than the Playwrights Horizons’ offBroadway production, Ryan Maloney’s set design jibes better with the way most outof-towners think of the Bronx. This kitchen is more welcoming and, with Jackie and Peter Hohenstein’s prop designs, still richly detailed. The carefully crafted clutter and slovenliness of the kitchen also accords with the episodic manner that Schreck relies on in telling her story. Watching the jagged sequence of scenes unfold, it seemed that the playwright may have pieced them together like journal entries, maybe shuffling the order, discarding numerous scenes, and cutting out minor characters — the mother, the head nun, a pesky teen delinquent — along the way. We sift through a cunningly calculated iness to get at Schreck’s takeaway, with a few loose ends purposely left dangling. You won’t be as sure of what to make of Grand Concourse as the many tidier comedies and dramas you’ve seen before, but you’ll likely be more convinced of its authenticity.

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ARTS

FILM REVIEWS

PARAMOUNT

Amy Adams in Arrival.

DIVINE EXPERIENCE Arrival is superior sci-fi BY MATT BRUNSON

FRIEND ONCE quipped that, given my reluctance to hand out four stars to more than just a couple of movies each year, I only award the highest rating if I “personally see God walking across the auditorium.” Honestly, he’s not far off when 24 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

it comes to the magnificent new movie Arrival (**** out of four). While there may have been no divine presence in the theater, there was certainly a religious movement taking place on the screen. A motion picture that turns out to be far more focused on humanity than on otherworldly visitors,

it’s a transcendent viewing experience that gets under the skin and into the heart. As a bonus, it’s also the right movie at the right time. In an election week which saw millions of gullible Americans embrace transparent evil, ignorance and bigotry, here’s a welcoming film that celebrates the

best among us, those who gaze open-eyed at the horizon and invite the unknown rather than recoil from it. In Arrival, the heroes are the visionaries who throw open their arms to embrace the aliens who have entered our borders, not the weaklings who seek to repel them with walls, weaponry or what-

Alex Hibbert in Moonlight. have-you. Presented in a fragmented manner that perpetually keeps viewers off balance, the film centers on Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a college professor and linguist who’s approached by the military (repped by Forest Whitaker) to help communicate with the extra-terrestrials whose enormous ships have taken root at 12 spots across the globe. Louise and scientist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) are transported to the one vessel that’s stateside, whereupon they seek to decipher the inky blots (basically Rorschach meets Ringu) squirted from the aliens’ appendages. Meanwhile, other colleagues and other countries (particularly China) are growing more nervous by the minute, convinced that the invaders are of the Independence Day variety and are planning to decimate at will. For her part, Louise is filtering everything through scattered memories, most focusing on her young daughter. Arrival is based on Ted Chiang’s short piece “Story of Your Life,” the type of work that sounds unfilmable. Yet scripter Eric Heisserer (who before now was best known for penning the lamentable remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the lamentable prequel to The Thing) has contributed a screenplay that’s both literate and lyrical, one that moves with grace and provides plenty of catharsis along the way. Director Denis Villeneuve, who’s about to have his third consecutive feature land in my year-end Top 12 (his last two gems were Sicario and Prisoners), never overplays

A24

periods in the life of Chiron, a boy coming of age in a rough Miami neighborhood. The first chapter centers on Chiron when he’s particularly young and sporting the nickname “Little” (played at this age by Alex Hibbert). Tormented by both schoolyard bullies and his own drug-addled single mom (an almost unrecognizable Naomie Harris, far removed from her work as Moneypenny in the latest Bonds), Little finds comfort from the softspoken drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend Teresa (music star Janelle Monáe). The second act finds the now teenaged Chiron (Ashton Sanders) coping with his burgeoning homosexuality, still being harassed by bullies, and hanging out with his longtime friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), a relationship that unfortunately isn’t above the demands of peer pressure. The final stretch catches up with Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) as a grown man now living in Atlanta, calling himself “Black” and making money as a drug dealer. Restless and dissatisfied, Black finds himself deciding whether to make peace with his once-abusive mother, now parked at a nursing home, and

with Kevin (André Holland), still living in Miami and working as a cook. Although stylistically different than Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Moonlight is similar in that it also tracks the life of a young male and shows how he’s shaped not only by his environment and the actions of those around him but by his own strengths, his own weaknesses, and his own understanding (or lack thereof) of what makes him tick as a human being. The first two acts are especially strong in conveying this, bolstered by a unique outlook and several formidable performances (especially Ali, who brings unexpected complexity to the role of a sentient, saintly man who, at the end of the day, is still helping to destroy his own community). The first two-thirds are so strong, in fact, that the film noticeably tapers off during its final chapter, which houses a few potent moments but feels far more structurally conventional and dramatically incomplete. Nevertheless, the movie continues to move forward as it should, with cautious steps toward hope and change.

his hand, and he requests the same from others working on this production. The visual effects are magnificent but never in your face, and while it’s apparent that the score comes from the same guy who crafted the superb one for Sicario, composer Jóhann Jóhannsson nevertheless uses the nerve-jangling refrains more sparingly, mixing it up with calmer if still somber stretches. Adams is excellent in the central role, a part not unlike the one essayed by Sandra Bullock in Gravity. Indeed, Arrival stirs memories of several heady sci-fi outings, among them Gravity, Interstellar, Contact and, of course, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’m not going to allow my adoration to render me so flippant as to idiotically state that it makes all those A-games look as insipid as The Adventures of Pluto Nash by comparison, but in many ways, it really is in a class by its beautiful self.

BLACK LIVES MATTER in the quiet, contemplative Moonlight (*** out of four), but let’s not stop there. Gay lives matter as well, to say nothing of the lives of those seeking identity, companionship and direction. Simply put, all lives matter in this impressive indie effort, though not in the dismissive, divisive manner espoused by hashtag-loving racists, rednecks and Trump supporters. In bringing Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue to the screen, writer-director Barry Jenkins has employed a three-act structure that examines three CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 25

ARTS

HAPPENINGS

COMEDY Bonkerz Eric Hunter. Nov. 18-19. 5624 Westpark Drive. bonkerzcomedyproductions.com. The Comedy Zone Janet Williams aka Tennessee Tramp. Nov. 17. Al Madrigal. Nov. 18-20. Tone X and Friends. Nov. 20. 900 N.C. Music Factory Blvd., Suite B3. 980-321-4702. cltcomedyzone.com.

THEATER/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE ART 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. Through Nov. 19. Warehouse Performing Arts Center, 9216 Westmoreland Road, Suite A, Cornelius. 704859-5930. warehousepac.com. Charlotte Ballet: Dance Interactive Dance Interactive offers a unique insider’s view of Charlotte Ballet. The informal evening combines a choreographer showcase and interactive performance. $9-$10. Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m. Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Center for Dance, 701 N Tryon St. 704-372-1000. carolinatix.org. A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Gentleman’s Guide tells the uproarious story of Monty Navarro, a distant heir to a family fortune who sets out to jump the line of succession, by any means necessary. All the while, he’s got to juggle his mistress, his fiancée, and the constant threat of landing behind bars. Nov. 22-23, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 25-26, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. Continues through Dec. 4. Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. 704-372-1000. blumenthalarts.org. Mo’ Betta Mo’ Betta is contemporary take on classic cabaret, vaudeville, and variety shows popular in the 30’s and inspired by the Spike Lee original film of the same name. $10. Nov. 21. The Tavern, 300 East Morehead St. 704-3721000. carolinatix.org. Skin Naomi Iizuka’s riff on Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck tells the story of a young couple working desperately to make sense of their 26 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

relationship while toiling to survive. Skin moves with supernatural fluidity, creating a beautiful play in which we feel the world squeezing tighter and tighter. Contains adult situations and strong language. Recommended for ages 16 and up. $6-$12. Nov. 16-19, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 20, 2 p.m. Barber Theatre of the Cunningham Theatre Center at Davidson College. Grand Concourse Three Bone Theatre presents this show by Heidi Schreck, directed by Robin Tynes. Having dedicated her life to religious service, Shelley runs a Bronx soup kitchen with unsentimental efficiency, but lately her heart’s not quite in it. When Emma — an idealistic but confused college dropout — arrives to volunteer, her reckless mix of generosity and self-involvement pushes Shelley to the breaking point. With keen humor and startling compassion, Heidi Schreck’s play navigates the mystery of faith, the limits of forgiveness, and the pursuit of something resembling joy. Rated R for adult language and sexual content, not recommended for those under 18. Tickets: $22$28. Nov. 17-19, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. threebonetheatre.com. current-production. Letters Home Griffin Theater’s Letters Home puts the recent wars in Afghanistan & Iraq front and center by bringing to life actual letters written by soldiers serving in those countries. Please note: Elements of this performance can be graphic and contain explicit language. $25 Adult, $15 Student. Nov. 18, 8 p.m. George A. Batte, Jr. Fine Arts Center at Wingate University, 403 N. Camden Road. http:// battecenter.org/event-details/?_eid=98. Fall One-Act Festival A lively, entertaining and eclectic mix of one-act plays directed by advanced theater students. *Mature content. Limited seating. No late seating once the show begins. $5 with Winthrop ID/$10 general public. Nov. 18, 8 p.m., Nov. 19, 2 & 8 p.m. and Nov. 20, 2 p.m. Winthrop University’s Johnson Theatre, 115 Johnson Hall. winthrop.edu/arts/ default.aspx?id=35934.

MORE EVENTS Burn and Brew Enjoy food, fun and fitness (plus drinks) at the Steele Creek Burn and Brew at Ayrsley Green. YMCA fitness activities, 5-8 p.m. Cycle on the Green, 5:30-6:15 p.m. Run/ walk through Ayrsley, 6-6:30 p.m. Athletic Conditioning on the Green, 6:30-7:15 p.m. Enjoy food, drinks, music and cornhole outside

Piedmont Social House. Free admission; food/ drink at a cost. Ayrsley Town Center, Ayrsley Town Blvd. The Hip-Hop Fellow Grammy Award-Winning Producer, DJ and Record Executive 9th Wonder will be hosting The Hip Hop Fellow a three part event. The evening will consist of three parts (Film, Talk, Beats) beginning at 6 p.m. with the screening of the documentary The Hip Hop Fellow released in 2014. Wonder is the subject of the documentary which was filmed during his 2012-15 tenure as a Fellow at Du Bois Institute at Harvard University where he taught and explored hip-hop’s role in academia. Following the screening of $20 for general public, $15 for members/students. Nov. 17, 6-9 p.m. The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. ganttcenter.org/calendar/the-hip-hop-fellow/. Meet the Brewer at Flying Saucer - Highland Brewing Co. Join Flying Saucer for their Meet the Brewer event featuring owner of Highland Brewing Co., Leah Wong. Release of Highland’s Cold Mountain Winter Ale. Free. Nov. 17, 6-8 p.m. Flying Saucer, 9605 N. Tryon St. beerknurd.com. Awaking: Collages by Catherine Rains An evening of movement and beauty! Try Flow Into Yin class at 6 p.m. for $10. At 7:30 there will be light refreshments and Catherine will share insights into the creation of her work. Nov. 18, 6-9 p.m. Centered Wellness, 1410 West Morehead St. yogaforlifecharlotte.com. Third Annual Charlotte Moonshine Festival Featuring different moonshine flavors, mixology and sampling. General admission: Sampling cup, 10 sampling tickets; VIP Admission: gets in one hour early entry, sampling cup, 15 sampling tickets, $15. Nov. 18, 7-11 p.m. Rooftop 210, 210 E. Trade St, Suite 230B. https:// moonshinefestclt.eventbrite.com/?aff=FL. November Girls Night Out - Watercolor November Fall Leaf Watercolor with Janis Time: 7 p.m.-8:30(ish) Cost: $40. All supplies included. Refreshments served. 21 and up. Pre-registration required for all GNOs. $40. Nov. 18, 7-8:30 p.m. Charlotte Fine Art Gallery, 7510 Pineville-Matthews Road, Suite 9A charlottefineart.com. Shake.Stir.Sip.Socialize: Fall Cocktail Classes Join Liberate Your Palate for a weekend full of hands-on cocktails classes at Doc Porter’s Distillery. What better place than the middle of

a distillery to have fun learning how to prepare, measure, mix and garnish cocktails using Doc Porter’s locally distilled handcrafted Bourbon, Vodka and Gin. Bar consultant, The Crazy Bar Lady, (Emily Elda) will lead the class and cover proper techniques to make the perfect classic cocktails with a sophisticated twist for fall. The class will be filled with great ideas to delightfully entertain guests at home for this season’s holiday dinners and parties. $55. Nov. 18, 7:30-9:30 p.m. and Nov. 19, 12:30-2:30 & 7:30-9:30 p.m. Doc Porter’s Distillery, 232 East Peterson Drive. liberateyourpalate.com/events. RocksGiving Shadow Gate Entertainment presents Rocksgiving. The Coming Dawn w/ Aveneuedrive. Support the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, local business, and local music at one event. $10-$15. Nov. 18, 9-11:30 p.m. Sylvia Theater, 27 N. Congress St., York. thecomingdawnband.com/index.php/ rocksgiving/. WBT Holiday on Ice Charlotte’s outdoor ice rink returns with a breathtaking skyline backdrop. About Holidays at the Hall: The NASCAR Hall of Fame is revved up for the season with a full lineup of high-octane holiday fun during Holidays at the Hall Nov. 18 to Jan. 8. Lace up those skates for WBT Holiday on Ice, experience the wonder of the Hall’s 39-foot-tall tree during the second annual tree lighting and enjoy breakfast with Santa. Race over to the Hall to fuel up on festive fun throughout the holiday season. $10-$14. Nov. 18-Jan. 8, 5-10 p.m. NASCAR Hall of Fame Plaza, 400 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. holidaysatthehall.com. Backcountry Beer Fest Featuring local breweries, live music and food trucks. A corn-hole tournament, Charlotte and soccer trivia contests and home site tours are among the included festivities. Ticket prices: $15 public tickets $10 Member Tickets $5 Nondrinking guests. Nov. 19, 1-5 p.m. The Charlotte Museum of History, 3500 Shamrock Drive. charlottemuseum.org. Charlotte NORML Welcoming new members, reporting about recent reform efforts and making various presentations about recent political events and their impact on legal cannabis reform. Free. Nov. 19, 1-3 p.m. South County Regional Library, 5801 Rea Road. https://charlottenorml.org/2016/10/21/ november-19-meeting-1pm-3pm/.

Craft Cocktail Series...A Hands On Cocktail Pop Up Class...With a Holiday Twist An entertaining, highly informative, hands-on learning experience in the world of spirits and cocktails with a Holiday twist. Full bar stations will be set up for you to learn how to make three cocktails inspired by the holidays. Not only do you get to learn how to make they, you get to drink them. The kitchen of King Cashew will be sending out bites to pair with each cocktail. $50 per person or $90 per pair. Nov. 19, 3-6 p.m. Kid Cashew, 1608 East Blvd. https:// cltcraftcocktailseries.eventbrite.com. Beergiving at Flying Saucer Draught Emporium Tapping 10 specialty beers including Founders’ Backwoods Bastard, Uinta’s Jack Be Nimble, Great Lakes’ Christmas, Bell’s Christmas, Bell’s Traverse City 355 East Stout, Stone’s Stone Xocoveza and more. Come hungry because dinner starts at 4 p.m. Thanksgiving meals include deep fried turkey injected with Founders Backwoods Bastard, alongside green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie. Nov. 19, 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Flying Saucer, 9605 N. Tryon St. beerknurd.com/locations/charlotteflying-saucer Care Ring for B4: Beer, Bands, Brats & Bourbon Proceeds to benefit Care Ring. Ticket includes: Entertainment from two bands Charlotte’s own Simplified and The Fidgets, as well as food, two adult beverages. Validated

parking at the Hearst Tower parking deck, courtesy of FLIGHT. $35. Flight, 314 N College St careringnc.com/events/. Shopaholic City Presents..Success Diaries Charlotte Edition The third installment of the Success Diaries event series which launched in Washington, DC and just wrapped up in Atlanta. Enjoy a Chat & Chew with some Amazing Speakers from various professional backgrounds, light bites, cocktails, a social hour, shopping. DMV Fitness LLC will sponsor a live cooking demo and tasting station and Celebrity MUA Shonnett Terralyn will offer on the spot lip and lash demos featuring products from her new cosmetics line. Come network and collaborate with magazines, legal officials, radio stations, media personalities, & talent scouts. $5-$10. Nov. 19, 4-7 p.m. Advent Coworking, 933 Louise Ave. http://shopaholiccity.com/ pages/upcoming-events. Singles Life Event A delicious dinner and an insightful night at different snapshots of singleness. Singles of all ages and stages (dating, divorced, never married or widowed) will enjoy a night out with other singles in our community and are challenged by Dr. Ronald Hall. $20/person, To register go to: gsumc. org/get-involved/upcoming-events/singlelifeevent. $20. Nov. 19, 6-8:30 p.m. Good Shepherd Church, 13110 Moss Road. Give Thanks for Wildlife Kick off the season of

gratitude by supporting and celebrating North Carolina’s wildlife. AN informative evening to give thanks for our state’s rich and diverse wildlife and habitat. Highlights include: buffet and tasting stations, wine, beer, live music, silent auction and art display, discussion centers and raffle. All proceeds benefit NCWF. Cocktail attire. $85-$300. Nov. 19, 6:30-9:30 p.m. The Urban Garden, 150 N. College St. facebook.com/events/657934004360534/. AfroPop! Charlotte Vol. 6: Afrobeats, Soca, Fashion & Vendors In addition to vendors and fashion, there’s music by The Dynamic DJ Kato (Ifeanyi Ibeto) + DJ Steel Wheel. Doors open 9 p.m., goes until 2 a.m.; $10 at the door; $5 online. Nov. 19, 9 p.m.-2:15 a.m. Morehead Street Tavern, 300 East Morehead St. Southern Christmas Show An Olde Town filled with charming shops, festive music, crafts, food, holiday decor, local wines, and Santa. Over 400 holiday merchants with gifts for all ages. $12 at the door. Nov. 16-19, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Nov. 20-19, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. The Park Expo & Conference Center (formerly The Charlotte Merchandise Mart), 2500 Independence Blvd. southernshows.com/scs. 23rd Annual Carolina Renaissance Festival The annual Carolina Renaissance Festival presents a full day of entertainment and pageantry as history comes alive with hundreds of costumed characters re-creating a 16th

Century European Marketplace. It’s a 22-acre village nestled in the forest and meadows, complete with castles, cottages, kitchens and pubs, filled with activities. You’ll find music, comedy and theater, food and drink, fine handmade arts and crafts, artisan demonstrations, games and rides. Visit carolina.renfestinfo. com for more information. $14-$24. Saturdays, Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Continues through Nov. 20. Carolina Renaissance Festival, 16445 Poplar Tent Road. carolina.renfestinfo. com. Vintage Charlotte Winter Market VTGCLT is popping up at The Fillmore Charlotte for the fifth annual Winter Market! Come out and spend the day shopping with over 60 of the region’s best vintage & handmade vendors. The Daily Press CLT will be on hand keeping folks caffeinated, Yelp Charlotte is supplying shopping bags for the first 500 customers, King of Pops Charlotte and Hart’s Soda Shop will be there for a sugar rush and Bleu Barn Bistro and New Wrap Order will be filling tummies. $7 early bird entry at 10 a.m.; $2 general admission 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 20, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. The Fillmore Charlotte, 820 Hamilton St. The Carolina Shout: Piano Podcast Launch Party Launching of podcast, The Carolina Shout. For folks who love jazz, piano, humor, stories, music history and/or podcasts. $5. Nov. 21, 9-10:30 p.m. Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave.

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MUSIC

FEATURE

Sloan plays Visulite Theatre on Nov. 17.

SLOAN OFFERS DEMOCRACY IN MUSIC Four singers and songwriters on 25 years and One Chord to Another BY SAMIR SHUKLA

LL FOUR MEMBERS of the Canadian rock combo Sloan are singers and songwriters. It’s a collaborative effort that’s democratic and creative. Andrew Scott (drums), Chris Murphy 28 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

(bass, vocals), Patrick Pentland (guitar, vocals), and Jay Ferguson (guitar, vocals) formed Sloan in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1991. These musicians have made fab records over the past 25 years while maintaining this creative partnership. It’s a lesson we should

learn while the band is on their current tour through our unhinged post-election America. They are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album One Chord to Another with a tour and specially-packaged vinyl box set. The guys will play the entire album in the first set

and then launch into a second set of hits and fan favorites. Sloan’s democratic creativity was fully showcased on their last recording, the double LP Commonwealth released in 2014 on NCbased Yep Roc Records, which featured the

SLOAN $17-$20. Nov. 17, 9 p.m. Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. 704-3589200. visulite.com.

songwriting prowess of each band member once per side on the vinyl — for CD and digital, just think a quarter of the recording each. The record is a prime example of the diverse voices that gel so well, the fluid individuality merging into one. There are feedback-laden songs, pure three-minute pop ditties, jangly guitars, sweet harmonizing and experimentation. Scott’s side is a single 18-minute song while the other three sides highlight each persona that becomes one with their interplay. I asked Jay Ferguson recently how four songwriters work so well together. “(Commonwealth) was kind of an anomaly in our career, we are probably one of the few bands that can do that because everyone is a singer and a songwriter. Generally, when we make a record, everybody kind of writes and contributes,” he said. “We usually try to make it that if there’s 12 songs on the album, everyone gets three songs. If anyone is like ‘I only have two songs,’ then usually someone can pick up the slack. It doesn’t really go through a process like a vote or anything amongst ourselves, everybody kind of brings forward the songs they want to do the most. “Chris and I get together the most ahead of time so he would know my demos and I would know his and we would chime in like ‘You know I really like that song’ and Chris would be ‘I like this one of yours or less of this one,’ and that’s sort of an encouraging way to go. Other than that it’s sort of like here’s your quarter of the real estate of the record and you can do what you want and we just try and sequence it after that happens in the best way possible.” Ferguson explained how the bandmates might come into the recording process with ideas on how one song might flow into the next, but for the most part, they’re in charge of their own specific projects. “We’re not all in the studio at the same time, sometimes in groups of two or groups of three. So often it’s very Beatles’ White Album where Paul’s in one studio doing ‘Why don’t we do it in the road?’ and John is in another studio with Yoko cutting up tapes. It works a little bit like that, although we only have one studio. So it’s democratic but everyone still gets to rule the roost on their quarter of the real estate.” For this tour, the focus is on the album

One Chord to Another. That album was first released on the band’s own Murder Records two decades ago when they parted ways with major label Geffen after a couple of records and went the indie route. It was soon picked up by The Enclave label and became a smash in Canada, while bringing Sloan further attention in the States as a power pop combo to be reckoned with. The have steadily released music ever

since, including a just-released Christmas 7” with two original songs. Although I sold their records in the ‘90s at my record shop, Sloan flew under my radar. I played their records but didn’t quite dig into them as I should have. Now, as I flip through killer song after song on the eleven studio albums that stream on their website, I realize how much of shame that was. However, it’s never too late for you.

DISHING FRESH FOOD AND BEVERAGE NEWS WEEKLY.

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 29

MUSIC

REVIEW

MUSIC

REVIEW

WELL$

LAMBCHOP

THE WAY I’M LIVING MAKES MY MOM NERVOUS

FLOTUS

IMMACULATE TASTE; RELEASE DATE: OCT. 21, 2016

MERGE RECORDS; RELEASE DATE: NOV. 4, 2016

It would be easy to jump to assumptions about what Well$ meant when he titled his newest album The Way I’m Living Make My Mom Nervous, especially with a quick glance at the CD cover. Might his mom be made nervous by the underdressed woman with her eyes on her son? Or perhaps by the guy passed out with an assault rifle in front of him? A deeper look at the album, however, gives a better glimpse of the anxieties felt by a woman who brought her son to America with dreams of education and a stable job only to watch him drop school and gamble on the music business. The Way I’m Living is the follow-up to Well$’s 2014 debut, MTSYD: The Revenge of the African Booty Scratcher, an album that placed him on the Billboard charts and introduced his dark but witty style to rap fans in Charlotte and beyond. According to Well$, the new album is about completing his adaptation to life in America and going for broke by striking out on his own. He dropped out of school and left home on bad terms at the age of 17, and has been doing his own thing since. This album touches on why, despite that being the right choice for him, to his mother, it was unfathomable. Musically, the album is helped along by the appearance of Metro Boomin on Heaven’s Doors, one of the most darkly intense but strangely uplifting songs on the album. However, even without the nationally acclaimed Metro, North Carolina shines bright on The Way I’m Living. Well$ brought on NC rappers like Deniro Ferrar (Charlotte), JK the Reaper (Greensboro) and even brought along Durhambased indie-pop duo Sylvan Esso for a track. He still hasn’t forgotten where he came from, as South African rapper/producer and Immaculate Taste labelmate Sipho the Gift makes an appearance on the boards and on the mic. All in all, the album is a great mix of introspection and bipolar fury that’s reminiscent of Childish Gambino with zero fucks left to give. I recommend it, but you should buy the album regardless, just for his mom’s sake.

This album kicks off with “In Case of 8675309,” — surely a nod to the infectious ‘80s hit — a classic sounding Lambchop tune with slow and steady twang. The tune runs long at 12 minutes, matching “The Hustle,” the album’s 18-minute final track in timely accordance. But the latter strays from traditional Lambchop, venturing into more electronic, krautrock territory. You’ll find other examples of this new musical approach throughout the album. It easily draws comparisons to HeCTA, a side project formed by members of the band last year. Kurt Wagner of Lambchop uses electronic elements, along with vocal harmonizers and distorters to cross into a new realm of songwriting. It’s also evident on “Directions to the Can,” a song co-written by Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo — the two are longtime friends and even performed together at this year’s Big Ears music festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. The bass lines jump out, lending to a house music feel — electronic beats and drum machines, piano and hypnotic Auto-Tune is all there. You don’t have to always know what Wagner is saying to get into these vibes. On “JFK” he says: “I talk to much.” But a lot of the rest is jibber jabber amidst spacey fragments and synchronized harmonies. There’s something hypnotic about these tracks, and it all lends to the experimental nature of this disc. Lambchop’s folk elements have shifted towards electronics, hip-hop, blues and jazz. “Howe,” “Old Masters,” “Relatives 2,” have mellow melodies that mix with robotic, beat-driven electronics and spontaneous keys and guitar/bass arrangments. It’s a kick back and relax sort of album. Gone are the ornate string arrangements that have appeared on several of the band’s previous releases, including their last album, 2012’s Mr. M. Lambchop has found the benefits that obscure sounds — verbal and musical — can bring to the table. These new soundscapes are very well the beginning of a new marinade added to an already juicy product.

— RYAN PITKIN 30 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

— ANITA OVERCASH

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 31

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

WED 11/16

THU 11/17 FRI 11/18

THE SHACK BAND & THE GET RIGHT BAND SAT 11/19 FRI 11/25

LEVON HELM TRIBUTE DANGERMUFFIN FUTUREBIRDS SAT 11/26

NEW YEARS EVE

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

NOV. 17 COUNTRY/FOLK Beavergrass Bluegrass Jam f. Jim Garrett (Thirsty Beaver) *Bellamy Brothers (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby)

POP/ROCK Driftwood (Double Door Inn) Earworms w/ Green Fiend, Black Fleet, Greevace (Milestone) Hands Like Houses + Our Last Night w/ The Color Morale, Out Came The Wolves (Neighborhood Theatre) *Lara Americo CD Release Party w/ Megan Jean & the KFB, Namoli Brennet (Petra’s) *Mike Strauss Trio (Comet Grill) *Shiprocked (Snug Harbor) *Sloan (Visulite Theatre) Villa Nova (Tin Roof) *Yellowcard w/ Like Torches, Dryjacket (The Fillmore Charlotte)

NOV. 18 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH *Charlotte Symphony: Wagner, Strauss & Bruckner (Belk Theater) The Jazz Room (Stage Door Theater) Straight No Chaser (Ovens Auditorium)

COUNTRY/FOLK *The Business People w/ Holy Smokes & The Godforsaken Rollers, The House Cats (Petra’s) Jerry Jacobs (Tin Roof) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) Tyler Hatley w/ Corey Hunt (Coyote Joe’s)

POP/ROCK Departure ( a Journey tribute) (Amos’ Southend) *Dust & Ashes w/ Mike Strauss Band, Midnight Snack, Em Young (Snug Harbor) Eliot Bronson w/ Cory Wells (of Subliminal Confession) (early show) (The Evening Muse) *Good Charlotte w/ The Story So Far, Hit the Lights, Big Jesus (The Fillmore Charlotte) The Kyle Perkins Band w/ Aloha Broha, Farewell Albatross, Fire Marshall BIll, Amity Pointe (Milestone) *Lisa De Novo (Tin Roof) Luke Edwards (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) The Shack Band w/ The Get Right Band (Visulite Theatre) *Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare 25th 32 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

Anniversary Tour (Neighborhood Theatre) STOLAR (late show) (The Evening Muse) Webb Wilder (Double Door Inn)

NOV. 19 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL *Armaan Malik (Ovens Auditorium) Donna Duncan & Skatfish (Double Door Inn)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH *Charlotte Symphony: Wagner, Strauss & Bruckner (Belk Theater) The Jazz Room (Stage Door Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK 123 Night w/ Russell Dickerson and Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s) Blue Dogs w/ Vegabonds (Visulite Theatre) *Dolly Parton (Spectrum Center) The Hey Joes (Comet Grill)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Zackey Force Funk w/ Elevator Jay and Party Dad (Petra’s)

POP/ROCK Asking Alexandria w/ Born Of Osiris, I See Stars, After The Burial, Upon A Burning Body, Bad Omens (Amos’ Southend) Blackstone Mountain (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Blue Monday (Tin Roof) *The Business People w/ Youth League, MYFEVER (Snug Harbor) The Fab Four Tribute Band (Knight Theater) The Give & the Take w/ Cole Collins Us & Them (The Evening Muse) Samantha Fish w/ Lightnin Malcolm (Neighborhood Theatre) SiriusXM Presents Alt Nation’s Advanced Placement Tour w/ Night Riots, The Hunna (The Underground) Van Huskins w/ Lewis Turn Out, Hearts on Fire, The Commonwealth (Milestone)

NOV. 20 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Fourplay (Knight Theater)

POP/ROCK ISH w/ Venus Invictus, Fear Until Fury, Butterfly Corpse (Milestone) Omari & The Hellraisers (Comet Grill) The Wonder Years and Real Friends w/

Knuckle Puck, Moose Blood, Seaway (Amos’ Southend)

NOV. 21 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Carolina Shout with Ethan Uslan (Petra’s)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Matt B (Tin Roof)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Fela! The Concert (Belk Theater) A$ap Ferg With Playboi Carti (The Underground) Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic featuring Shaina Rhodes (The Evening Muse) *The Monday Night Allstars (Double Door Inn) Wicked Powers (Comet Grill)

NOV. 22 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Double Door Inn)

COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B *Maxwell & Mary J. Blige (Spectrum Center)

POP/ROCK Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Double Door Inn) *Lisa De Novo (Tin Roof) Open Mic with Jeff & Al (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Sound Of Ceres w/ Brothertiger, Landless (Snug Harbor) Wes Stromberg (of Emblem3) w/ Spencer Sutherland, Alec Benjamin (The Evening Muse)

NOV. 23 COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill, Charlotte)

POP/ROCK *El Malpais w/ Minimums, Justin Aswell, The Piazolla Tangos (Snug Harbor) Fundraiser for Levine Children’s Hospital and Live Music w/ The Holdouts and guests

(Double Door Inn) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open Mic Open Jam (Comet Grill) Songwriter Open Mic (Petra’s)

COMING SOON  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 California Guitar Trio (Nov. 18, Neighborhood 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. CLCLT.COM | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | 33

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

grabbed a drink while I waited. IT’S COMPLETELY NORMAL to A late-night gyro at Nefelie’s was the best fall into a routine every weekend. (*Cues I’ve had in Charlotte. And to top it off? The Kendrick Lamar* “Pour up, drank, head shot, side of fries were good down to the very last drank, sit down, drank.”) The same goes for venue choice. You crumb. When the clock struck 2 a.m., you’d find a place that’s comfortable and the next think we’d had enough. Nope, our crew, many thing you know you’re going to the same of whom were jealous of our gyro, decided to handful of places you’ve been going to for grab a pizza each at Zablong Peculiar Pizza. years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have Pro tip: my fave pizza spot stays open until your favorites, but this weekend I was bored 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. All pies are of my usual routine and was dead set on oblong-shaped and no matter how many breaking it. toppings you get you pay $10! On Thursday, I failed. I drank a little If you’ve been in Charlotte for the fall/ too much and woke up on Friday playing winter, you know Sundays are reserved for a dangerous Walking Dead version of Panthers football. But this past Sunday, we “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” on whether or switched up the venue and hopped in not I needed to have a 9-to-5 day. an Uber to Ink N Ivy. Brought That’s when I realized that I to you by the owners of was working from home for other local favorites such the day. Friday night was as Whiskey Warehouse, moving slow and by the Slate and All American, time I got my boyfriend Ink N Ivy represents out of the house and was the perfect marriage of two drinks deep at Flight sports entertainment Beer Garden & Music and aesthetic in Uptown Hall, he was suggesting Charlotte and I’m all for it. that we call it a night. While my boyfriend Responsible, I know, but was surveying the landscape, unsurprisingly, also very AERIN SPRUILL stressed about finding a taxing. good spot for a perfect view Saturday we started switching it up. His mom was of the game, I was obsessing over having a fish fry and I hadn’t been to one the eclectic décor — chandeliers, raw edge in quite some time. If you’re wondering if furniture, skulls and of course, “tattoo ink” it resembled a Tyler Perry’s Madea movie, stencils on the walls. Oh, and I can’t forget you pictured it right. Good ol’ fashioned the beautifully-tattooed waitress and barcookouts are lit — old school music, line back with a manbun. dancing, mac and cheese, golden brown fish Even though the venue was packed, I and family (including relatives sneaking a put our name down and grabbed a drink. few sips of adult beverages in, of course). Somehow, just 20 minutes later, we managed After the fish fry, I hopped in the car to to snag the perfect high-top table, right by head to Concord. Even though I was already the door, away from the congestion and stuffed, the parental units were coming into directly below a TV labeled “Panthers vs. town for a family friend’s 50th birthday Chiefs.” dinner at Carrabba’s. We talked politics, We ended up taking over the spot with sabotage and television shows; a welcomed my partner-in-crime, her sister and their change from my usual Saturday night early friend for hours. And while we’ve heard evening drinking turned Sunday morning many friends haven’t been captivated by hangover. the menu, we tried the classic nachos with After dinner, the night went from pulled pork with barbecue sauce and were low-key drinks and hookah to the French impressed. (The cilantro cream sauce easily Quarter, also referred to as Latta Arcade. I moved them to the top of my Q.C. nacho hadn’t visited the area in a while so I was list.) Did I mention they have an epic patio excited to see what craziness awaited me. complete with its own bar? You’re welcome. While hobnobbing with some Jersey boys at If you’re craving some new “ink” in Belfast Mill Irish Pub, someone decided to Charlotte, you’ll be itching with withdrawals bring in a gyro from Nefelie’s across the alley. Needless to say, that meant my boyfriend after visiting this spot. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM and I were going to grub. I ordered a gyro and

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CROSSWORD

STARTING SOUND-ALIKES ACROSS

1 Modify, as a bill 6 With 68-Across, deli container 12 “Bewitched” witch 20 Stinky stream system 21 Confession 22 Acquired 23 They have bases of romaine 25 Common way to sell goods 26 Boxing double-whammy 27 Prefix with hazardous 28 What cleats improve 29 Article of Cologne 30 Young ‘un 31 Leading 33 Try to find a safe place 36 Irishmen, e.g. 38 Jokester Jay 39 Skit show since ‘75 40 Onetime popular pair in Vegas 46 Spring in a dry stretch 50 Doctrine suffix 51 Nunnery 52 Lawn stuff 54 Ending for duct 55 Shampoo additive 57 Embellish richly 58 Book by a bed 59 The Bruins of the NCAA 60 Hardly harsh 63 Halt, legally 66 Pale violet 68 See 6-Across 69 Socialist philosopher Georges 70 Live for right now 76 Less trustful 79 Place 80 Chocolate stand-in 81 Petty of Hollywood 83 “I never -- purple cow ...” 84 -- Taylor (clothing retailer) 85 Matthews of “Hardball” 86 They’re hit at parties 89 NSFW part 90 Bungle 92 Vista points 95 Was in command of 97 Royals manager Ned

98 Qatari chiefs 99 It began with the Tertiary Period 104 Plus 105 Tar’s spar 109 Line crossing the origin 110 One with a B.A., say 111 Jazz band’s engagement 112 Appease 114 Guy hawking 116 Alternate title for this puzzle 119 Geico alternative 120 Grosset & -- (book publisher) 121 Denoted 122 Social climbers’ concerns 123 Smiles derisively 124 Old politico Kefauver

DOWN

1 Foppish tie 2 Spiteful type 3 Tech mag 4 Retirement savings 5 No-win situation 6 Ballet step 7 Goran of tennis 8 Two-dot mark 9 Michelle of figure skating 10 Young ‘un 11 Letters before ems 12 Flash 13 MGM motto ender 14 Changes gradually 15 One, in Yahtzee 16 Sweet bread spread 17 Property 18 German poet Heinrich 19 Actress Stella 24 “Night of the Living Dead” director 28 Atlanta locale 32 Ding- -33 Email folder heading 34 Last part 35 905-year-old in Genesis 37 N.Y. Jets’ gp. 38 Get hired 40 Chang and Eng’s land 41 Capri or Ely 42 Skin softener 43 Proof mark 44 City in Algeria

45 Prison parts 47 Pastoral folk dance of Italy 48 Troubles 49 See 104-Down 53 “The Exorcist” actor Max von -56 Doolittle of “Pygmalion” 58 Run-down 59 Exploitative sorts 61 Shout to a matador 62 Timepiece 64 Cooke with soul 65 MLB stat 67 Burns partly 70 Car from Sweden 71 Rubik of Rubik’s Cube 72 Funny Idle 73 Sauntered 74 It’s prohibited 75 Trip-taking equipment 77 “Star Wars” furball 78 “Shoot!” 82 Bullet points 85 At the home of, to Henri 86 Galileo’s birthplace 87 Songlike 88 35mm camera choice 91 Least far-off 93 --’wester 94 Diffuses gradually 96 Sets of doctrines 99 Houses, in Havana 100 Praise highly 101 -- Wafers 102 Plenty angry 103 Alternatives to walkers 104 With 49-Down, option for an air passenger 106 Really irked 107 1953 Alan Ladd film 108 Lab activities 111 Heredity unit 113 “My treat” 115 Role in “The Hangover” 116 NFL coups 117 Savage sort 118 Corp. execs

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.

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I’m a longtime fan — reader and to defending our friends, neighbors, listener — and part of the 47 percent and coworkers who are immigrants of white women who did NOT vote for (documented or not), Muslims (American Donald Trump. To say I’m disappointed, born, immigrants, or refugees), people of horrified, scared, and mad about the color, women seeking reproductive health election is woefully insufficient. I care, trans men and women seeking safety, donated $100 to Planned Parenthood lesbian and gay men seeking to protect their this morning because I honestly felt families, and everyone and everything else like there was nothing else I could do. Trump has threatened to harm, up to and That being said, I wanted to share that including the planet we all live on. I had one of the most weirdly charged, hottest, and sexiest orgasms. A little My boyfriend is undocumented. His buzzed (dealing with those election sister married a US citizen and may results) and sad, my boyfriend and I receive a green card. We had hoped to turned to each other for consolation. someday do the same. But next year, One thing led to another, and before I the extreme right will control all three knew it, we were fucking as Trump came branches of the federal government. on the TV to give his acceptance speech. Deportation will surely come for my As that orange blowhard spewed more boyfriend. Additionally, we’re a gay bullshit about being our president, couple, and Donald Trump has I rode my boyfriend’s big, pledged to repeal marriage beautiful dick until I came. equality, if not ban it It was the perfect way outright. So if we were to to say, “Fuck this. Now marry now, the timing fuck me.” I encourage would look suspicious. all your readers to fuck And even if we did out the stress from marry, that marriage is this election. Yes, we likely to be invalidated should donate and in the coming years. volunteer and speak Is it still worth it to up and protest and vote try? What do I do if the DAN SAVAGE and not give up hope, government takes away but we should also keep the love of my life? doing it and taking care of Keep Him Home each other. Because love trumps hate, and fucking trumps… well, I’m You should marry your boyfriend not sure what fucking trumps. But it immediately, KHH, and do so with sure makes life better. confidence. Justifiably Unsettled Lass Intensely “There is no realistic possibility that Emoting anyone’s marriage will be invalidated,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the It’s important to practice good self-care National Center for Lesbian Rights, which in the wake of a traumatic event — the has taken marriage-rights cases to the US election qualifies as a traumatic event — Supreme Court (and won). and going by the definition of self-care at Minter also says the court is unlikely GoodTherapy.org, fucking the living shit to overturn Obergefell, the decision that out of someone qualifies as self-care: legalized same-sex marriage across the “Actions that an individual might take in country. order to reach optimal physical and mental “The doctrine of stare decisis — which health… Self-care [includes] activities that means that courts will respect and follow an individual engages in to relax or attain their own prior rulings — is also very strong, emotional well-being, such as meditating, and the Supreme Court very rarely overturns journaling, or visiting a counselor.” They’re an important constitutional ruling so soon too polite over at GoodTherapy.org to after issuing it,” said Minter. “Even the include “fucking the shit out of someone” appointment of an anti-marriage-equality on their list of examples, JULIE, but what justice to replace Justice Scalia would not you did on election night certainly meets all jeopardize the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling the criteria. on marriage equality, and the great majority We must also donate and volunteer of Americans still strongly support the and protest and vote, all while reminding freedom of same-sex couples to marry.” ourselves daily that Hillary Clinton won To contact Dan Savage, email mail@ the popular vote. And we must commit savagelove.net.

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BY VIVIAN CAROL

FOR ALL SIGNS: The planet Neptune,

original god of the sea, was known as Poseidon in ancient lore. At this time Neptune’s position is like that of a bathtub drain, drawing everyone’s energy into a hole. The political situation is post-election, after a long and arduous 1.5 years of campaign rhetoric. Many of us feel wiped out, even those who are not politically minded. In the large picture, this represents a global letdown that resembles the day after Christmas. For individuals many are in a state of doldrums, lacking the energy to move forward. Under these conditions it is easy to slide into old habit patterns of thought, the ones we left behind when we learned better behaviors. These habits are like sludge in the drain, so it is a good idea to remain aware of this and hold onto enough consciousness to avoid them. Don’t allow old issues to carry you off into previous fears.

ARIES: News from distant sources,

educators, publishers, church, or legal interests may be startling this week. A friend or acquaintance may trigger an old emotional injury. See the lead paragraph for help. Give yourself time to heal, but don’t allow it to carry you down that drain.

TAURUS: Encounters with people at a distance flow especially well at this time. Love life and romance are improving. Those who are into online dating may find a positive candidate this week. Activities involving the arts and things of beauty are inspiring and bring pleasure. Don’t forget to take some time to do things that are fun and calming to you during this period.

GEMINI: You are probably much more sensitive to what others think right now. Don’t ask anyone else to evaluate you or critique your work. Instead, wait until you are completely finished with your creative efforts. On this same theme, avoid critiquing others. You do not have all the facts and your rationale may be flawed. CANCER: Your romantic side is cooperating

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38 | NOV. 17 - NOV. 23, 2016 | CLCLT.COM

well with your nurturing side at this time. This is especially good for female friendships. Make a date for lunch and reconnect with people you like. Work, health, or matters of life routine may seem to be in your way at this time. This is short-lived.

LEO: Early in the week you are completing one or more projects related to family and home. Later your attention shifts to the areas of romance and personal creativity. An idea original to you alone may drop onto your radar. It will require skills that many others do not have. It may seem to them as if you are a magician.

VIRGO: Please read the leading paragraph.

You are one who might slip down the drain, as described there. This is because you are so prone to worry, often over things that never happen. When you are tired, this old habit is more problematic. Dealing with others is a challenge right now. Try to follow your own path until this is over.

LIBRA: Events of this week trigger your

sense of compassion and draw you into the need to assist in the healing of another. As you live into this experience, you will discover that having compassion also heals you. Your spirit is lifted. Don’t ignore the call and don’t give up if, at first, you aren’t sure you are making a difference. Impact sometimes comes in time.

SCORPIO: Your sign is endowed with

especially deep feelings. Your empathy for others is greater than most. See the lead paragraph and be especially cautious about absorbing the pain of the world around you at this time. It could affect you on a physical level.

SAGITTARIUS: You may have discovered

that the foundation of your current project has some flaws. Don’t let that throw you off track. Take a deep breath. You can repair or redesign around it if you so wish. It is possible that family attitudes are undermining you. Listen with discernment for the truth and throw away the rest.

CAPRICORN: Activities involving the law,

publishing, travel, education or the church are favored during this season. A person or persons who enter your life may bring you inspiration to proceed with your plans. This contact may be instrumental in opening doors that will be helpful to you in the future.

AQUARIUS: You may feel angry about

finances, whether that be your own or things you share with another. At this point you can do nothing about it, so don’t let the anger make you ill. Take another look at this later, when you have more clarity and are not caught by the adrenaline fear. You will find a solution.

PISCES: Please read the leading paragraph.

Neptune (Poseidon) is in your sign. You may be more reactive than others to the drain on your energy at this time. Be good to yourself and avoid wallowing in old issues or hurt feelings. If you can do nothing else, watch good movies and read inspiring articles/ books.

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.

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