CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 VOL. 30, NO. 47
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Patrik Buckley (left) and Marcus Bates of Hip Hop Orchestrated
NEWS&VIEWS 8 CHARLOTTE SCHOOL OF LAW IS NOT DOING ITSELF ANY FAVORS How a prestigious law school becomes ‘hair chili.’
BY RHIANNON FIONN
10 STORMWATCH Was the first big snow all it was hyped
up to be?
7 EDITOR’S NOTE 7 THE BLOTTER 12 NEWS OF THE WEIRD
FOOD
14
14 WHO’S GOT THE JUICE? Where do connoisseurs of raw foods go for the healthiest juices in Charlotte? Try these five locally owned hot spots. BY MARK KEMP 19 THREE COURSE SPIEL: VIC THE CHILI MAN
22
ARTS&ENT 22 MURALS WITH MORALS New art installation confronts Catawba River coal ash issue.
BY RYAN PITKIN 26 FILM REVIEWS
54 28
MUSIC 28 ORCHESTRATING SOCIAL CHANGE Charlotte music collective Hip Hop Orchestrated obliterates boundaries.
BY PAT MORAN 30 MUSICMAKER: HUNGRY GIRL 32 SOUNDBOARD
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ODDS&ENDS 20 10 THINGS TO DO 34 MARKETPLACE 34 NIGHTLIFE 35 CROSSWORD 36 SAVAGE LOVE 38 HOROSCOPE
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7
NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE
A NEW LENS What’s so comforting about a comfort zone? PERSPECTIVES. We all have at least one
the past decade. Read about Lindquist’s years-long series Smoke and Water — which of them. continues at the Monroe Crossing Mall in There was a time when I would have Union County this week — on page 22. scoffed at the “big” snowstorm this past And speaking of Fionn: She takes a look weekend. After moving back to Charlotte this week at the Charlotte School of Law in 2002, having spent many years away in debacle, where students are being left out New York City, I would mindlessly jeer at all in the cold (literally and figuratively) when it the trumpeting of the first winter snowcomes to information about their status as storms here: “Humph. They don’t know snow prospective lawyers. Last month, the U.S. ‘storms’ in Charlotte.” Department of Education declined to recerThis year, I wasn’t so judgmental. Waktify the school’s federal loan program following up Saturday morning to below-freezing ing a two-year investigation of its persistent temperatures, slipping and sliding on the problems with admissions, curriculum, and frozen walkway leading to my car, having to passing rates. On Monday, the school’s scrape chunks of ice off the windshield as academic dean, Camille Davidson, resigned. whirlwinds of snow fell from the sky — these Read Fionn’s story on page 8. were not things I’ve been accustomed to Finally, in this week’s cover story, I living in the San Francisco Bay Area over the checked out at the different perspectives on past three and a half years. nutrient-rich juices at five juice bars It’s all about perspective. in the Charlotte area. Traveling In this issue of Creative from Uptown to Noda, South Loafing, we talked to several End to Myers Park, I sipped Charlotteans about what delicious, raw vegan elixirs they did during Charlotte’s made from fruits and much-hyped first winter vegetables ranging from storm of 2017. To a couple apples, oranges, and pineof guys who live on the apples to spinach, kale, streets, the snow wasn’t and carrots, some of them much fun. To other folks jolted by jalapeños, ginger who are fortunate to have MARK KEMP and garlic. I was delighted homes, it was either a bit of a to learn upon my recent return hassle or it was full-on fun. See to Charlotte that juice bars have what they had to say on page 10. popped up all across town as vegan and In keeping with the theme of perspecvegetarian lifestyles have become, for many, tives, Pat Moran spent time over the weekthe rule rather than the exception. end with CL contributor and tireless hip-hop Oh, and if you feel like taking a road trip evangelist Octavia (we know her as Kia) up to Asheboro on Saturday morning, you Moore. Her perspective on Charlotte comes can see me and my fellow Asheboro-born authrough the prism of music. Moore’s latest thor Thomas Rush do a community discusproject is Hip Hop Orchestrated, in which sion at 10 a.m. at the local library called “Pershe’s blended two of her great loves — classpectives: Growing Up in Post-Civil Rights sical music and hip-hop — into a soundtrack Asheboro,” about our different experiences for local activists. Read Pat’s story on page as white and black males born and raised in 28. And stay tuned to for more of Moore, that small mill town in the 1970s. Thomas who’s also the creative director of Charlotte’s and I both wrote about our experiences in Hip Hop University, when as a writer in an memoirs — his being Reality’s Pen: Reflections upcoming issue of CL, she will take a look at on Family, History & Culture, published in 2012, the state of the arts in this city this year. and mine Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race, Also in this issue, news editor Ryan & New Beginnings in a New South, published by Pitkin checks in with a visual artist whose Simon & Schuster in 2004. perspective on coal ash might surprise you. Did I mention that I’m thrilled to be back North Carolina artist Greg Lindquist has home? After a few years away, my perspective on this amazing city and state has found beauty in the muck of that dreaded changed. As long as I stay out of my comfort environmental waste that CL reporter Rhianzone, I don’t jeer nearly as much these days. non Fionn has extensively covered over
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY RYAN PITKIN
THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY Police responded to a call at a 7-Eleven in north Charlotte last week about larceny, but soon realized that they would be adding all sorts of new charges. Officers responded to a larceny call and were originally told that a female suspect had been caught trying to steal from the store. When she was confronted she allegedly began “half kicking” the front door, breaking the glass (damage to property). Further investigation also revealed that the woman threw a banana at the clerk, striking him (assault). While it would seem the clerk was the victim in all this, he got two identical charges of his own, for allegedly kicking the woman’s car when she tried to leave the store. He then allegedly “implemented a dose of pepper spray to her face,” according to the report. In the end, no larceny charges were filed. IN MEMORIAM When one chooses an
urn to place their ashes in for eternity, one expects it will serve as a memorial for coming generations, at least those that remember them. That was not the case for one man, however. In one of a slew of odd “found property” reports in the files last week, an urn had the undignified end of being found by city sanitation workers on the job just outside of Uptown recently and turned into the nearest police station. If anyone is missing the remains of a loved one who passed away on January 15, 2003, show them some respect and claim them at the CMPD’s Westover Division office.
STOP PRYING Police filed a found property report after responding to a home in northeast Charlotte last week, but the woman living at the house disagreed that no crime had taken place. The 30-year-old woman called officers to her home after walking out to her front porch and finding a kitchen knife that someone had left on the steps. The woman wanted to report it as an attempted break-in, although there were no signs of any such attempt. Perhaps it was just a late Christmas gift. PUT A BIRD ON IT In yet another odd
found property call, police responded to a call in east Charlotte that could have been handled quite easily by whomever called in the first place. Officers filed a report stating that a bag had been found on the side of Central Avenue and that it was believed to be “abandoned.” The bag, described as having birds on it, was found to have a pencil and a Band Aid inside, which leads one to ask the obvious question: Why in the hell would you let a bag like that go?
SHOT FIRED A man thought he was being
targeted last week when a bullet came flying into his southeast Charlotte apartment, but later investigation found that his neighbor
was just being careless. The 30-year-old man and his 37-year-old roommate had reported that someone had fired a shot through his wall into his apartment at around 9 p.m. one night. Police responded to investigate, and added to the report about nine hours later stating that it was determined the victims’ next door neighbor had accidentally detonated a bullet casing while trying to disassemble his gun.
COME GET IT If your company is going to go under, at least keep all the snacks you can. A woman filed a police report last week after a company seemed to be trying to bilk her out of her snack machines. The victim told officers that she had operated two vending machines in Ride Now Motors on E. Independence Boulevard until the business recently closed down. The woman said she has been trying to get in touch with the owners of the business since September 2016, both by going to the site and calling on the phone, to no avail. In total, the woman is out $8,000 worth of machinery and merchandise. RESIST A woman suddenly broke out into yelling at a Wells Fargo branch last week, but she wasn’t trying to rob the joint, just simply stand up to racism — real or perceived. According to witnesses in the bank, the woman became mad at some point during her business there and began yelling. She asked one employee for their business card, and when the employee tried to hand it to her she smacked the card out of her hand and claimed she was prejudiced against her. She then yelled that the woman and all of the people in the bank that were “like her” she be fired before leaving. TIMBER MYSTERY A 39-year-old woman had the shock of her life last week when she returned to her northwest Charlotte hoe to find that someone had taken liberties with her prized oak tree. The woman said that some unknown person had cut the entire tree down at some point between 6:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., and she had no clue as to who would want it gone. While these types of incidents often happen between neighbors when a tree sits on a property line, the report states that the large tree was sitting square in the middle of the woman’s front yard and could not have been thought to be on property owned by anyone else. RUB DOWN A prostitution investigation on
North Tryon Street last week ended in some charges being filed that are not only firsts for The Blotter, we didn’t even a couple of these were crimes. According to the crime, someone was arrested for the following charges: massaging without a license, massaging a person of the opposite sex, massaging private parts and prostitution. CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 7
Charlotte School of Law student Margaret Kocaj speaks to reporters in front of the school. She’s demanding the school’s president and head dean be fired following recent investigations.
NEWS
RHIANNON FIONN
FEATURE
CHARLOTTE SCHOOL OF LAW IS NOT DOING ITSELF ANY FAVORS How a prestigious law school became ‘hair chili’ BY RHIANNON FIONN
C
HARLOTTE’S ONLY LAW
school appears to be tanking, and it could take its students down with it. The American Bar Association’s November decision to put the Charlotte School of Law on probation for two years followed a two-year investigation and multiple warnings that the school did not disclose to students until November when it lost its appeal. CSL is the only school in the 8 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
country currently on ABA probation. The school stands accused of implementing lax admission policies, and, per the ABA, also lacks “a rigorous program of legal education.” The DOE is also accusing the school of making “substantial misrepresentations” to students regarding “the likelihood that its graduates would pass the bar exam.” Now, following the abrupt resignation of a dean and a delay of the spring semester,
students are supporting each other while the school’s administration hides behind computer screens and refuses to answer the phone. “They aren’t talking to anyone,” said third-year student Margaret Kocaj, who is one of the few to have managed to stay in touch with for-profit school’s leadership. “I just emailed the higher ups and asked that they post the number to NC Bar Cares, which is the counseling service offered to students and attorneys. I have seen some troubling
Facebook posts (from other students).” At publication time hadn’t returned any of Creative Loafing’s calls or responded to emailed questions with anything but unrelated answers that were already public knowledge. On Friday, Jan. 6, after 8 p.m., the school sent out an email to students indicating that classes would begin on Jan. 17, only adding that administrators would update students on Monday. On Monday evening, another
email informed students that the start of the semester had been moved to Jan. 23. Earlier that day, CSL’s head of academics told students in an email that she would resign after being asked to do so by the school’s head dean, Jay Conison. Kocaj said she and other students would like to see the school’s President Chidi Ogene and Conison fired. On Monday, instead of learning about the fate of the school loans awarded to her months ago, Kocaj said she learned of Davidson’s resignation. No reason was given. Depressed. Distressed. Angry. Devastated. Those are words students are using to describe the situation at CSL. Students have told Creative Loafing that they feel their goals and future are being “held hostage.” Kocaj said news that the school had been put on probation and lost its federal student aid ruined the holidays, too. “It was as if the school said, ‘Happy New Year! We’re not sure you’re going to graduate,’” said Kocaj. “We are given just enough attention to keep us hanging on yet not enough to stop the rage that is building,” said Kocaj. “The administration was asked to please send the emails during regular business hours because it is unfair to send them late when the students have waited with baited breath all day. The emails come when we are putting our children to bed or winding down for the night only to be reinvigorated with questions and frustrating confusion over the vague email we receive.”
MORE BAD NEWS came in December, as the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) declined to recertify the school’s federal school loan program. That means many students may not be able to afford to attend during the spring semester, slated to begin on Jan. 17. “I work full time,” said third-year student Matt Blevins, “I don’t have another $22,000-something a semester. Even with scholarship money, you have to take outside loans. There is no way to do this without federal funding.” The school has an estimated 1,300 students, nearly 1,000 of which rely on federal student aid. The school published a press release following the DOE’s decision stating, “We strongly disagree with this determination and are evaluating all available options to challenge the decision, particularly the Department of Education’s mischaracterization of Charlotte Law’s academic accreditation from the American Bar Association and our representation of that status.” Kocaj said she didn’t panic about the school’s snafu until she learned that CSL had not turned in a “teach-out plan” with the ABA. “It’s the contingency plan that allows you to finish your degree,” Kocaj said. “Why didn’t they start working on that back in November?” Kocaj asked, noting that the plan must be approved by the ABA which doesn’t meet again until March. “I was given an offer to join a firm,” Kocaj said, “but at this point if I don’t get a degree and I don’t get to sit for the bar and pass the bar then how in the world can I be an attorney?” Kocaj, who thought she would graduate
this year, led a demonstration at the school last week before meeting with CSL’s President Chidi Ogene and Conison. Afterward, she posted an update via Facebook live offering information to her fellow students who had been kept in the dark. Blevins also thought he’d graduate in May and said the school’s troubles seem to come “out of thin air,” adding, “I read about it online first. Some time later they sent us an email.” He said the school has a habit of “skating over” bad news in its messages and that “it’s kind of insulting to think that law students would overlook something like that.” The school was updating students via Facebook, though at publication time, its last post was published an hour before Kocaj’s demonstration on Jan. 4. Messages sent to students remain relatively vague and include lackluster options for students like transferring to a law school in Florida which is also owned by Infilaw, Charlotte Law’s parent company. “I can’t pick up and move,” said Kocaj who owns an accounting firm in Charlotte. “Moreover,” she added, “if you get served a bowl of chili and it has a piece of hair in it and the waiter says, ‘Would you like another bowl of chili?’ – do you want another bowl of the hair chili? I don’t want to go to another Infilaw school; it’s the hair chili.” Kocaj said that she could be on the hook for her student loans even if the school closes and that it’s too late for her to transfer. “Most universities will allow you to transfer up to 30 credits,” she said, “The problem is I have 75.” On top of that, she said, “The Department of Education will only fund 90 credit hours.” The students are considering an option called “defense of repayment,” or loan forgiveness. Kocaj said students could qualify if “it looks like if there’s fraud or misrepresentation – which, if you read the Department of Education’s 14-page letter they clearly state that there’s been, they believe, fraud and misrepresentation.” However, she said, “If you get your loans forgiven, you relinquish the credits you’ve taken; that’s my understanding.” As of Creative Loafing’s press deadline, CSL officials said a detailed plan for the spring semester, including funding options, had been drafted and was awaiting approval by the DOE.
WHEN YOU CALL CSL and wait for no
one to answer a woman’s voice says, “We are different by design.” Surely all can agree that being sued by your students is “different.” Two lawsuits are already in the works. Neither Blevins nor Kocaj are party to either of the lawsuits, but they could be involved by default if the lawsuits become class action suits. “I think that there’s an implied warranty between a law school and its students,” Blevins said. “That warranty is that the law school has to provide accreditation and federal funding. And the students, we are required to work hard, pay our tuition and be prepared to pass the bar. We’ve done our part.” In January, Ed Hinson, a Charlotte lawyer, wrote a letter to The Charlotte Observer suggesting that UNC Charlotte take over CSL. “I think that would obviously be favorable,” Blevins said. “First off, the fact that it becomes a public school takes away all of this for-profit nonsense. Also, being
Margaret Kocaj. a public institution makes you a lot more transparent in the way you handle business, and that’s something Charlotte School of Law just has not done; they have not been transparent at all.” “In order to make things right, we think that they should take care of our tuition for the upcoming spring,” he said. “They have the money; they’re required to have money on reserve by the ABA and the DOE,” Kocaj said, “So, surely there’s money there to help pay for the rest of the semester if the Department of Education
RHIANNON FIONN
doesn’t reinstate the funding.” Blevins also pointed out that it isn’t only students who are affected. CSL offers several clinics that assist low-income citizens and small businesses. “There are a lot of people who count on that pro bono support. It’s got to be a negative effect on the indigent who can’t afford council,” he said. As for himself, he said, “I’ve come this far; I’ll have to do whatever I have to do to finish.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 9
NEWS
NEWSMAKER
SNOWMAGEDDON 2017 Was the first big snow all it was hyped up to be?
The “big” snowstorm of 2017. For some, it was a whimper. For others, it was hell. Creative Loafing took to the streets of Plaza Midwood, Noda, and spaces in between earlier this week to talk with Charlotteans about how they spent the year’s first snow. “It was pretty bad,” said Carl Hall. He was hanging out with friends in below-freezing temperatures Monday afternoon next to This & That Home Mall at the corner of North Tryon Street and Dalton Avenue, trying to stay warm. Over the weekend, Hall waited out the storm at the nearby Men’s Shelter of Charlotte. Hall’s cohort James Delford was laid up in the hospital during the storm, having a leg treated for a bite that became infected. He was glad to be there. Delford said that even in foul weather he avoids the shelter, where insect bites are the least of his worries.
“I’ve had some bad experiences at that shelter in the past when I first came to Charlotte,” Delford said. “I don’t deal with it. It’s open war. When the weather gets bad, I got some friends I can stay with.”
The biggest worry for Davidson College student Lexi Wombwell, 19, was whether her boyfriend Josh Sawyer would be able to make it down from Durham. He did. Sawyer, 21, who sat “I drove two hours through the snow,” said day in the atrium with Wombwell over steaming coffee Mon on the back behind Amelie’s. “It was pretty treacherous p was fishtailing. streets, even with four-wheel drive. My Jee n to visit Lexi.” But I was determined. I was gonna come dow him to come,” Did she expect him e? “No, I didn’t expect p that fishtailed six Wombwell said with a laugh. “Not in a Jee times on the way here!”
When Tajanee Johnson heard school was canceled on Friday, she took it in stride. “I didn’t have any plans,” said the 12-year-old, sitting at a table in the atrium across from a friend, both deep into their school work. “I just worked all day.” And what is work for a Middle Schooler on a snow day?
“I expected to go to school, so I spent the day studying,” Johnson said. Studying what? “Oh, social studies, English, science. . .” What, no snow cream?
10 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Two of the more dependable Noda/Plaza Midwood hotspots — Amelie’s French Bakery in the Noda at 28th complex in Villa Heights, and Common Market on Commonwealth Avenue — remained open despite the slick roads and pouring snow Saturday morning. And customers flocked in, said Garrett Ballard, a manager at Amelie’s. While other Amelie’s locations closed, the one in Villa Heights kept the lights on and coffee flowing.
ld be ys said it wou a lw a s a h n o ati mise,” “The Noda loc keep that pro e w d n a , /7 4 le 2 ’s civil unrest re e open for peop th , e rs u o nless, of c or something e s lo Ballard said. “U c s u s e k n, ment ma oing to be ope g and the govern e ’r e w , e is t. Otherw crazy like tha at. no matter wh e rd added. “Th a ll a B ,” d e m slam s “And we were : ‘Are you guy y a d ll a k o o h the d a line phone rang off close?’ We ha a n n o g u o y n are ” opened? Whe g room all day. in in d e th to all the way in
You wouldn’t have found Blair Bowman studying science on a snowy weekend. Bowman, who works at House of Pizza, knows snow, and she knows what to do in it. After all, Bowman is from the upper Midwest, where snow is real.
“My friend picked me up and we went to a baseball field and attached a sled to the back of his truck and he pulled me around,” said Bowman, sitting with Dustin Cape on the front patio at Common Market. The 32-degree temperature didn’t seem to be bothering Bowman at all. “Although I will say that, being from Michigan, they don’t do a very good job here of salting the sidewalks.” Go on. “I had to walk home from work on Saturday morning and I…” She busts out into laughter. “This is not a good story.” In short: Bowman busted her ass.
Sitting on a picnic table next to Bowman, a smirk on his face and angst in his soul, Cape suffered an existential crisis when he got up on Saturday after all the snow-warning hype the day before.
. “I was disappointed,” he said Why? “I expected more.”
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NEWS
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
BY CHUCK SHEPHERD
TOO-MUCH-REALITY TV Russian producers are planning the so-far-ultimate survivors’ show — in the Siberian wilderness for nine months with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit — with 30 contestants selected after signing liability waivers that protect the show even if someone is raped or murdered. Police may come arrest the perpetrators, but the producers are not responsible for intervening. The show (“Game2: Winter”) will be telecast live, around the clock, beginning July 2017 via 2,000 cameras placed in a large area full of bears and treacherous forest. Producers told Siberian Times in December that 60 prospects had already signed up for the last-personstanding prize: the equivalent of $1.6 million (only requirements: be 18 and “sane”). Bonus: The production company’s advertising lists the “dangerous” behaviors they allow, including “fighting,” “murder,” “rape,” “smoking.” REGISTRY With car-camel collisions increasing in Iran’s two southern provinces, an Iranian government ministry is in the process of issuing identification cards to each camel, supposedly leading to outerwear license “plates” on each of the animals. Authorities told the Islamic Republic News Agency the registration numbers are needed if an accident victim needs to report the camel or to help trace smugglers. No actual U.S.-style license plates on camels have yet made the world’s news photographs. THE YOUTH WILL RISE Martin Shkreli
became the Wall Street bad boy in 2015 when his company Turing Pharmaceuticals bought the right to market the lifesaving drug Daraprim and promptly raised its typical price of $18 a pill to $750, but in November, high schoolers in the chemistry lab at Sydney Grammar in Australia created a molecular knockoff of Daraprim for about $2 a tablet. Their sample of “pyrimethamine” (Daraprim’s chemical name) was judged authentic by a University of Sydney chemistry professor. Daraprim, among other uses, fights deadly attacks on immune systems, such as for HIV patients.
WHEN NATURE CALLS To serve restroom
users in a public park in China’s Hunan Province’s picturesque Shiyan Lake area, architects gave users in toilet cubicles a view of the forest through ceiling-to-floor windows. To discourage sightseers who believe the better view is not from the cubicles but into them, the bottom portion, up to the level of the toilet, is frosted — though that stratagem probably blurs only a pair of legs, seated. CNN reported in October that China has at least one other such restroom, in Guilin province, viewing distant mountains.
OOPS! Organizers of the Christmas Day
caroling program at the Nelum Pokuna theater in Colombo, Sri Lanka, drawing thousands of devout celebrants, were apparently confused by one song title and innocently included it in the book for the carolers. No, it wasn’t “Inna Gadda Da Vida” from a famous “Simpsons” episode. It was “Hail Mary” by the late rapper Tupac Shakur — likely resulting in the very first appearance of certain words in any Christmas service publication anywhere.
URINE TROUBLE Officials of the Ulm Minster in Ulm, Germany, the world’s tallest church at 530 feet high, said in October that they fear it might eventually be brought down — by visitors who make the long trek up with a full bladder and no place to relieve themselves except in dark alcoves, thus eroding the structure’s sandstone. A building preservation representative also cited vomit in the alcoves, perhaps as a result of the dizzying height of the view from the top. News of the Weird has previously reported on erosion damage to a bridge, from spitting, in Mumbai, India, and at the Taj Mahal, from bug droppings. WITH PAY The Dubai-based Gulf News reported in November that 900 Kuwaiti government workers had their pay frozen during the current investigation into no-shows, including one unidentified man on the payroll who reportedly had not actually worked in 10 years. Another, who had been living abroad for 18 months while drawing his Kuwaiti pay, was reduced to half-pay, but insisted he had asked several times for assignments but was told nothing was available. Gulf News reported that the 10-year man is appealing the freeze. GASSED UP Prosecutors in Darlington,
England, obviously take child “cruelty” seriously because Gary McKenzie, 22, was hauled into court in October on four charges against a boy whose name and age were not published, including passing gas in the boy’s face. The charge was described as “in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health.” He was on trial for two other slightly harsher acts — and another gas-passing, against a different boy — but the judgment has not been reported.
FUN(BAGS) POLICE World-class chess
players are famous for intense powers of concentration, but a chess journal reported in October that top-flight female players have actually been disqualified from matches for showing too much cleavage as they play, thus distracting their opponent, according to Ms. Sava Stoisavljevic, head of the European Chess Union. In fact, the Women’s World Chess Championship, scheduled for February, has decreed that, since the matches will be held in Tehran, all contestants must wear hijabs, leading a U.S. women’s champion to announce she is boycotting.
NEWS YOU CAN USE German Horst Wenzel, “Mr. Flirt,” fancies himself a smoothtalking maestro, teaching mostly wealthy but tongue-tied German men lessons — at about $1,500 a day — in how to approach women . But this year Mr. Flirt has decided to “give back” to the community by offering his expertise pro-bono to lonely Syrian and Iraqi refugees who have flooded the country. At one class in Dortmund in November, observed by an Associated Press reporter, most “students” were hesitant, apparently divided between the embarrassed (when Wenzel informed them it’s “normal” to have sex on the first or second date) and the awkwardly confident (opening line: “I love you. Can I sleep over at your place?”). But, advised Wenzel, “Don’t tell (a German woman) that you love (her) at least for the first three months (because) German women don’t like clinginess.” NOT A BAD WAY TO GO A 24-year-old woman who worked at a confectionary factory in Fedortsovo, Russia, was killed in December when she fell into a vat of chocolate. Some witnesses said she was pouring flour when she fell; others say she fell while trying to retrieve her dropped cellphone. USE YOUR HEAD A 24-year-old man was decapitated in London in August when he leaned too far out the window of one train and struck an extension on a passing train. Next to the window he leaned from was a sign warning people not to stick their heads out. THE PASSING PARADE A poll revealed in
December and sponsored by University of Graz and Austria Press Agency that Austria’s “word of the year” for 2016 was a 52-letter word beginning “bundespraesident” and referring to the postponement of the runoff election for president in 2016.
KEEP IT CLASSY The Wall Street Journal reported in December a longstanding feud on the tiny Mediterranean island of Gozo, Malta, which has only 37,000 residents but two opera houses because of the owners’ mutual antipathy. NOTW CLASSIC (February 2013) In November 2012, Tokyo’s Kenichi Ito, 29, bested his own Guinness World Record by a full second, down to 17.47 seconds, in the 100-meter dash — “running” on all fours. Ito runs like a Patas monkey, which he has long admired and which, along with his selfdescribed monkey-like face, inspired him nine years ago to take up “four- legged” running. He reported trouble only once, when he went to the mountains to train and was shot at by a hunter who mistook him for a boar.
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 13
FOOD
COVERSTORY
WHO’S GOT THE JUICE? 5 places to squeeze in your daily requirement of fruits and veggies BY MARK KEMP
J
OSH NORRIS WAS in high school in Charlotte when he realized he needed to do something extreme to give himself a competitive edge over his fellow soccer players. He began a casual study of nutrition, experimenting with ways to increase his energy level. By the time he got to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Norris was a full-fledged expert on superfoods. “I’ve always been competitive,” says Norris, 28, who cofounded the Charlottebased Green Brothers Juice Co. a little more 14 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
than two years ago with his brothers Jacob and Jason. “When I started to get really serious a bout soccer and had to train my butt off to just to be able to walk on the field at a Division 1 school, I began to look at how I was eating. Then later, I started doing triathlons, and when you’re doing that kind of exercise, you have to be especially cognizant of what you put in your body in order to maximize your fitness and your recovery and your mental clarity.” Norris became so knowledgeable about nutrition and juices and smoothies that he began to evangelize about it. “At my own
house I ended up accumulating ridiculous amounts of supplements for my own personal desires,” he says. “It got to a point to where I said, ‘How cool would it be to make the world’s most nutrient-dense superfoods readily available to the masses — to make it more convenient so people wouldn’t have to source it themselves?” Voila! Green Brothers was born. Norris, whose juices and smoothies are available in two spots uptown — at Bank of America Plaza and the Duke Energy Center — is not the only jock in Charlotte who’s sharing the love about nutrient-rich juices. Across town,
near Park Road Shopping Center, former pro basketball player Johnny Foster and his partner Tameyka Rustin founded the One Life Raw Juice Bar last February because, he says, “We both live that lifestyle.” That lifestyle, according to Foster, is veganism, and it’s become more and more popular in the Charlotte area. The city boasts four full-on vegan restaurants — Fern: Flavors of the Earth, in Plaza Midwood; Bean Vegan Cuisine, on Independence Blvd.; Luna’s Living Kitchen, in South End; and Zizis Vegan Take-Out, in the University Area. Of course, the vegan lifestyle also
Johnny Fosterr prepares a fresh fruit juice at One life. includes copious consumption of raw, organic juices, and over the past couple of years, Charlotte has experienced an uptick in locally owned juice bars that have popped up from Noda to Uptown, Myers Park, South End, and Ballantyne. Two Charlotte businesses catering to healthy lifestyles — Luna’s, in historic Atherton Mill and Market, and Viva Raw, in the 7th Street Public Market — were among the earliest pioneers of raw, coldpressed juices in this neck of North Carolina. And other locally owned hotspots, including Common Market in Plaza Midwood, have expanded existing businesses to include juice bars and other vegan options. In 2013, Living Kitchen — founded not by a jock, but by a native of Bogata, Colombia, who subscribes to more of a new age spiritual philosophy — got so big it moved to a larger space in Charlotte as well as new spots in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Owner Juli Luna says she was at first concerned about all the recent
competition, but now feels it’s a good thing — it means Charlotteans are more interested than ever in taking care of their bodies, minds and spirits. “There’s room for all of us,” Luna says. “I’ve found that most people in Charlotte are very open to this way of life. It’s become more important to them. They’re understanding that food is our medicine. And I’m happy that raw foods and juices are now more accessible than ever.” CL looked at five locally owned juice bars — from the pioneers to the newbies — that are accessible at a relatively short distance from wherever you live. But if you’re willing to travel, you might also want to check out Fresh Vibes, a locally owned juice bar just over the border in Rock Hill, S.C.
NODA JUICE BOX
Owner Kim Wilkinson opened this storefront juice bar on North Davidson Street across from the Johntson YMCA about a month ago, and business is picking up. On a recent afternoon, manager Conner Flowe was preparing fruits and veggies while Kaylan Frazier and Noda resident C.J. Mason sat at a window seat enjoying their juices after a workout. “We’d just left the Y and I told Kaylan, ‘Hey, look, there’s the new Juice Box — let’s try it!’” said Mason. “Kaylan’s very health conscious, so I knew she’d want to check it out. She knows all about juices.” “I like it,” said Frazier, who lives in the University area. “I go to a lot of juice bars and I’d rather come to a place that uses quality ingredients than a [franchise that uses]concentrate.” Flowe said Juice Box uses as many locally
grown organic fruits and vegetables as possible, and the store soon plans to begin recycling its compost into other goodies. ADDRESS: 3100 N. Davidson St., #101 CONTACT: 980-939-1612; juiceboxcharlotte.com VIBE: Chill. A relaxing trip-hop mix played during our visit.
SOUTH END LUNA’S LIVING KITCHEN
Starting out in 2010 in a tiny space wedged into a corner of Atherton Mill next to the farmer’s market, Luna’s Living Kitchen has moved to a larger building in the same complex and expanded its raw vegan menu and line of juices. Luna, a native of Bogata, Colombia, and a veteran of high-end restaurants and hotels across Europe, wanted to do something more soulful in Charlotte. Her dream, she said, was to express her gratitude through CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 15
FOOD
COVERSTORY
“There’s room for all of us. I’m happy that raw foods and juices are now more accessible than ever.” — Juli Luna
offering healthy raw foods. The idea of also including cold-pressed juices using 80 percent locally sourced veggies and fruits fit into her philosophy. “We were the first ones to start bottling juices — we started doing cold-pressed juicing in 2012,” says Luna, who thinks the popularity of juice bars is due to Charlotte’s open-mindedness about health and sustainability. “People are really beginning to understand that when you go the source, to the farmer, who harvested your food 16 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
day before, and you eat that food before it’s been in the refrigerator for too long — that’s when you get best nutritional value. And that’s what you want in your body.”
ADDRESS: 2000 South Blvd. CONTACT: 704-333-0008; livingkitchen.com VIBE: Positive, multi-cultural vibe. Ultra-
cool wait staff. Could be more attuned to customers’ needs.
UPTOWN
MYERS PARK
GREEN BROTHERS JUICE CO.
ONE LIFE
When one of Deborah Friss’s coworkers in an Uptown business got the idea of doing a pop-up juice bar in her office, Friss knew who to call: the Green Brothers, aka Josh, Jacob and Jason Norris. “We try to be creative in serving our clients’ needs,” said Josh Norris on a busy weekday during lunchtime. Friss, of course, was at the juice bar in Bank of America Plaza as Norris talked about his growing company, which expanded to a second location in the Duke Energy Center a year ago. “My favorite juice here is the ‘Regulator,’” Friss said, referring to the Green Brothers’ mix of cucumber, kale, celery, spinach, parsley and coconut water. “Gosh, I wish I could figure out how much I’ve spent here!” “You’re not complaining, are you?” Norris quipped. “Oh, no.” Friss was hardly the only regular in the crowded juice bar. Norris couldn’t walk more than two steps without chatting with a familiar face — like Brett Ezarsky, who’d just come in after his daily workout and stopped to joke around with Norris. “We’ve been able to foster some really meaningful relationships with our customers in large part because they’re already people who go out of their way to spend a little extra money on taking care of their bodies, and they typically care about other things at a higher level as well,” Norris said. “And that spoils us a little, because we do see some of the most awesome people come through here.” The Norris brothers launched the business in this location in 2014, partnering with the
ADDRESS: 101 S. Tryon (inside Bank of
America Plaza) CONTACT: 704-575-9280; greenbrothersjuice.com VIBE: Loud, energetic, buzzing with bankers and other Uptown workers.
After being drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers then playing pro basketball as a point guard in Europe for 16 years, One Life Raw Juice Bar co-owner Johnny Foster and his partner Tameyka Rustin moved to Charlotte for a more calm and relaxed life. Today he’s a sports agent and health nut, courtesy of Rustin’s influence. The juice bar, Foster said, was “her concept, my funding. She’s hardcore, man — 100-percent raw vegan.” He chuckles as he presses an orange to make a glass of One Life’s “Green Refresher” for a customer, and says there’s one key difference between his own vegan lifestyle and Rustin’s. “I’ve been vegan for about three years. I’m not 100-percent raw.” The couple opened One Life in Myers Park because they liked all the activity on their stretch of Selwyn Avenue, just across from Bicycle Sport and a stone’s throw from Park Road Shopping Center. But they’re already planning to open a second location at Tompkins Hall (formerly the Highland Park Mill project) in Optimist Park near Noda by November. And why the name? “Tameyka felt like you only got one life to live — live it the right way.”
ADDRESS: 2927 N. Selwyn CONTACT: (704) 910-5558;
Ave
oneliferawjuicebar.com
VIBE: Calm, quiet, casual, colorful, friendly,
attentive
BALLANTYNE CLEAN JUICE
One of the more rapidly growing juice bar franchises in the Charlotte area, Clean Juice launched in June 2015 and already boasts four operational locations from Concord to Wilmington, and 25 more in development. Most of the current stores are in the Charlotte area, and this one, in Ballantyne, serves south Charlotteans who don’t often make it into the city.
Clockwise from top left: Josh Norris (left) with staffers at Green Brothers; the One Life Juice Bar in Myers Park; Luna’s delicious elixirs; Kaylan Frazier and C.J. Mason at Juice Box in Noda.
SEE
JUICE
P. 18
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Treat Yourself Our Location 6157 E. Independence Blvd. Charlotte NC 28212 704/567-9531
COVERSTORY P. 17
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Or maybe they do. Landon and Kat Eckles moved to the Lake Norman area in 2014 from Pennsylvania, where they frequented juice bars near and far. “We’d go into New York City, where juice bars are like Starbucks — they’re everywhere,” said Kat Eckles. “I had already been juicing and blending at home for years, and when we got to Charlotte, we knew there was a need for this outside of places like New York and L.A.” Clean Juice is dedicated to serving certified organic, and in instances where the stores can’t get an organic ingredient, they indicate it prominently on a chalkboard so customers can make their own choice whether or not to order that particular juice. “We are the only USDA certified organic juice bar franchise in the country,” Eckles said. Clean Juice is a bit different from the local juice bars owned by athletes or hippie philosophers. The Eckles are members of the hip Elevation Church in Lake Norman, and their own perspective on spirituality appeals to this area’s younger adherants of that time-
honored Charlotte tradition, Christianity. All of Clean Juice’s correspondences include the biblical scripture from 3 John 1:2, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” “We also put an emphasis on families,” Eckles said. “We really wanted to make drinks that kids would like. For example, we do one called the Immunity One, which is orange, pineapple, carrot, lemon and tumeric. Those are ingredients kids might not always get at home, but we make it taste good and make it feel good. And parents like that. They tell us, ‘I’d rather get them Clean Juice than ice cream.” Like Juli Luna, the Eckles went into business with the idea that Charlotteans are more interested than ever in taking care of their bodies, minds and spirits — it’s just that the Eckles’ view of spirit comes from a distinctly Christian perspective.
ADDRESS: 7918 Rea Rd. #D CONTACT: 980-256-2464; cleanjuicebar.com VIBE: Contemporary Christian playlist, homey feel with distressed barnwood panels, family friendly.
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That guy, it was an uncle and niece team that were selling hot dogs, he just happened to be a white guy, about 6 feet 2, kind of slim (I was much slimmer then) and wore his ball cap backwards. He and I looked a lot alike, or were very similar in stature. So he must have just left and I must have just come back in so they gave me this spot and I when I got there in the spot for the first couple days people thought they knew me.
RYAN PITKIN
Vic the Chili Man holds two pizza peels painted by he and his wife that will be auctioned off at his charity’s upcoming event.
FOOD
THREE-COURSE SPIEL
NO CHILL TIME You won’t see Vic the Chili Man in Uptown this winter, but he’s staying busy BY RYAN PITKIN
IF YOU’VE WALKED by the corner of 4th
and Tryon streets in Uptown during any season but winter, you’ve at least heard Victor Werany’s voice, and chances are, you’ve had a conversation with him. Werany, better known as Vic the Chili Man, has been peddling his dogs there coming up on 13 years. His customers can’t get enough of his boisterous charm, and that’s not to mention the amazing chili dogs. Vic’s corner can be a lonely place in winter, so we visited him at his home to chat him up about home cooking, profane hot dog names and how he stays busy with his charity in the cold season. Creative Loafing: How have you seen things change for street vendors over the 13 years you’ve been serving hot dogs Uptown? Vic the Chili Man: It’s actually funny. It’s one of the most interesting things to me. When I first came out, the people looked at you in the same way that they look at a beggar or a hobo who’s asking them for a dollar. I would make eye contact with people, they’d be walking by — and at that point you had Ms. Maddie, you had Abram, you had Donnie, those were your main hot dog and food vendors. When people saw somebody new — and I’m very upfront, I look at people in the
eye, I’m a very touchy-feely kind of guy — people would walk by, they’d be looking at my menu and I’d smile at them and they would drop their gaze and walk by real fast. They did literally everything but grab their wallet because they thought I was going to steal it. Sometimes I would yell, “I’m not asking for your money, I’m asking for fair trade. My good hot dog for your cash.” It was really such a bizarre kind of feeling, because I’m from New York, to see that you come down here and people were just not there yet with food from a cart or a truck. And then over these 13 years, the proliferation of food trucks has made people so much more comfortable and willing. It was a tough start, no doubt. Any food guy or gal that comes out today has a much greater shot at success than when I started. That’s food notwithstanding. It’s just people’s capacity to want to stop and buy something. How’d you land that sweet spot at 4th and Tryon? My spot — it’s right near Cam’s building, it’s right near the Bank of America — I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I lucked into that spot. I brought in my application and my picture and menu and all the stuff that I was required to bring in. I must have been just on the heels of the person who was there before.
You got creative with some of your specials this past year. How often do you try to experiment outside of just hot dogs? Basically, because of health department rules and regulations, I have to only do precooked, encased meats and their toppings. I’ve tried to make interesting combinations in the past and found that the way I was doing them was incorrect. So for a while I was just like, “I’m just going to cook chili dogs and screw everything else.” But in these past couple years I’ve had kind of a resurgence, and instead of looking at the rules as if they’re a problem, I look at the rules as if they’re a competition, and it’s my job to work within the rules. If you’ve seen some of my specials this year, they’ve been completely out of hand. My last one was called the Pho Q Dog. It was based on pho soup. My son calls me and say, “Yeah, I tried pho,” (pronounced fuh) and I’m like, “What are you talking about? It’s pronounced fo.” He says, “No, my best friend is Vietnamese and he says it’s fuh, so it’s fuh.” Ok, fair enough. So what if you put barbecue on it, then it becomes the Pho Q Dog, and I got to thinking about that. So at Dudeapolooza with Wilson from Wilson’s World [on WCCB] I introduced the Pho Q Dog. [laughs] It was so freaking good. I made a chicken sesame aioli, then the hot dog, then rice noodles. I can do rice noodles because they are not a potentially hazardous food product, they’re just noodles. So I cooked the noodles, I put sesame oil in them and I bag them so they can sit and stay warm in the cart. I put them on top of the hot dog, bean sprouts, fresh jalapenos, green onions. Then the Q part: I made a Sriracha ginger barbecue sauce. I put that lovingly on top and people were losing their shit. This summer was completely off the charts with banh mi, and I did one with braised spinach and sautéed mushrooms. I’ve done them with just everything this summer. I’m always up for a challenge of making things, and I make it a competition with myself to stay within the rules. At first I saw that as a barrier, but now I see it as, that’s almost more fun. What’s your favorite thing to cook at home when you’re not limited by those rules and regulations?
I am a taco-making machine. I am so in love with tacos. I love playing with those flavor combinations. When I’m not cooking the hot dogs, I’m a meat guy. There’s no doubt I do a lot of barbecue. I just made my first pork belly and I gotta tell you, it came out smashing. I would say tacos and barbecued meats are probably my two favorite things. Just like chili and hot dogs and barbecue and things like that, I like to cook things that have soul. I like to put my time and effort and love into the food. You’re never going to see foam, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you’re never going to see microgreens. I’m just that kind of soul cook. I like to cook things that I love, using my time and effort and all that. The people need to know, what are you doing all winter once you close up shop on your corner? I’ve been focusing solely on my charity. It’s called SHRED: Skaters Helping Realize Extraordinary Dreams. We raise money for families whose kids have extraordinary medical needs. It has morphed over the years from a skateboarding event to a skateboard art show and auction. We get a bunch of skateboards, raw blank boards, and then I pass them out to real artists, fake artists, whomever. I work with the Piedmont Open IB Middle School Honors art class. They have worked with us every year. They’ve produced 16 to 17 pieces of art per year. People donate prizes and other pieces of artwork. I also work with the Charlotte Art League. This year it’s going to be on Feb. 11 at Unknown Brewery. We will have a one-day art show and sale, with about 200 pieces of artwork. The bulk of them will be on skateboards but we have canvasses, we have pizza peels, we have ceramic skulls, we have heavy metal iron sculptures. We have a kid doing glass artwork. We have live art, food, beer, live music, a DJ, a kids area, and in that one day over seven hours we will be raising money for three families. We’re going to have a special guest Skyping in from California, Josh Bridgewater. He’s an adult man in his 30s who was born with spina bifida and he skateboards. He’s an inspiration. Even when things are real bad for him, he’s out there working with kids with autism, teaching them how to skate or he’s getting out there with the adaptive sports people. I hooked up some time with him. One of my friends is bringing in a 120-inch inflatable screen and we’re going to Skype him in and we’ll have a prepackaged introduction to who he is, and then he’ll be talking to the boys. Two of the boys that we work with were born with spina bifida. It’s a way for me to give back to the community and the universe, because I live a pretty good life. But also, it’s a great way for people to see skateboarders not just as punks, but as good folks. You can’t believe the outpouring of love from the skate community that goes into this — from the art community, food and music communities as well, but there’s few communities that automatically get a bad raplike skaters. No matter how nice or good the skateboarder is, they’re automatically possibly a bad kid. So this year, what we’re looking at is about 200 pieces of art, about 150 raffle prizes. We’re looking to raise about $20,000. It’s phenomenal. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 19
FRIDAY
FRIDAY
13 RIVER’S EDGE CRAFT DINNER
13 SUSTO
What: It’s the last month of the USNWC’s Friday-night dinner series. This week features a fivecourse meal paired with six-ounce selections of Wicked Weed beers. Executive Chef Michael Rayfield will be serving up pickled fried oysters, jambalaya, hoppy chocolate hanger steak, alligator steam buns and bourbon pecan cookies with pecan butter cream. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options are available.
What: Charleston-based quintet Susto has been building a following for their brand of folk-rock through consistent touring. The maturity of the band’s newest album, & I’m Fine Today — due out the day of this show — will only help the cause. There are hints of psychedelia, indie rock and textural landscapes that push the band’s sound to the furthest edges of any Americana labels. Songs like “Gay in the South” redefine their lyrical substance, as well.
When: 7 - 9 p.m. Where: U.S. National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Pkwy. More: $50. usnwc.org.
When: 8 p.m. Where: Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. More: $12/$15. visulite.com.
20 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Susto FRIDAY
PAUL CHELMIS
FRIDAY
13 LEGACY OF BLACK WOMEN FILM SHOWCASE What: The Deltas of Charlotte Foundation will host this 14th annual film event, which features short films from both local and national independent filmmakers that are written, produced, directed and/or feature black women. The DOCF fundraiser will partially fund scholarships. Attendees can shop with local vendors at a pre-film reception, which also serves as a great networking event, as if you needed any more reason to go. When: 6 p.m. Where: McGlohon Theatre, 345 N. College St. More: $25-30. deltasofcharlotte. org.
SATURDAY
14
MODERN PRIMITIVES What: Buzz for these soulful, swaggering garage rockers has recently extended beyond the Queen City. Modern Primitives played Brooklyn’s hip haven Mercury Lounge in November, and their gore-spattered video for “Lay with the Dead” — in which the trio gets hacked to pieces by lithesome ladies in bunny masks — was a visual treat last summer. Buzzing guitars, cool drums and front man Travis Phillips’ industrial-strength drawl serve up concise and swinging psych-rock gems. When: 9 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $7, petrasbar.com.
SATURDAY
14
CAROLINAS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY PARADE What: The parade will march down Tryon Street, beginning at 9th Street and ending at Stonewall Street. More than 100 community organizations, marching bands and step and drill teams will participate. Highlights will include floats with the student winners of the CMS MLK Art and Writing Contests and local performance groups. Follow this up with the MLK, Jr. P.E.A.C.E. Basketball Showcase at the Grady Cole Center, which starts at noon. When: 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Where: North Tryon Street, Uptown Charlotte. More: Free. charlottenc.gov.
Bourbon Crow WEDNESDAY
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade SATURDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
SATURDAY
14
EMMYLOU HARRIS What: Modern country rock — the real stuff, not the Nashvegas pastiche — arguably begins with Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. They pioneered a groundbreaking mix of country authenticity and rock ’n’ roll risk that continues to inspire. Any occasion that brings Harris and Crowell together is cause to rejoice. When that gig includes Sam Bush and is a celebration of bluegrass icon and Shelby native Earl Scruggs, it’s icing on the cake. When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Malcolm Brown Auditorium, Shelby More: $30/$55, earlscruggscenter. org.
SUNDAY
15 PLAZA MIDWOOD SCAVENGER HUNT What: Teams of four will make their rounds around Plaza Midwood looking for clues and trinkets, some of which will be in bars like Legion Brewing and Workman’s Friend while some will be hidden throughout the neighborhood. Costumes are encouraged and will be rewarded. Kick it off with a free PBR during a packet pick-up at Pint. Funds raised go the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. When: 1 p.m. Where: Pint Central, 1226 Central Ave. More: $60 per team. eventbrite. com/e/plaza-midwood-scavengerhunt-tickets-30812833013
SUNDAY
15
SUNDAY
15
SUNDAY
15
WOMEN’S SHOWCASE 2017
BOURBON CROW
KATT WILLIAMS
What: This night is dedicated to talented female choreographers and performance artists from the Charlotte area and beyond. But dance is not all you’ll experience at the third annual Women’s Showcase, aka #LadfyFestCLT. You’ll also see music, visual art and more — from the perspective of some of the region’s most promising artists, and at a price even a family of six could afford. Celebrate women artists by supporting them with your presence and your pocketbook.
What: Former Murderdolls frontman Wednesday 13 originally had this show listed just as a Bourbon Crow gig, but it’s now listed as Wednesday 13 acoustic, as well. Needless to say, it’s the last time the horror punk singer will be performing at the soon-toclose Amos’ venue. Bourbon Crow is the outlaw country project of 13 and musician Rayen Belchere. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics keep fans wondering how seriously they should be taking it.
What: It’s popular in the Trump era to believe everything’s a conspiracy, and funnyman Katt Williams is milking that skepticism on his curent Conspiracy Theory tour. “We grew up thinking Pluto was a planet,” Williams recently told Rolling Stone. But instead of attributing Pluto’s reclassification to advances in science, Williams suggests a coverup. If you believe everything’s a conspiracy (or not), you’ll be ROTFL when he hits the Queen City this week.
When: 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. Where: Charlotte Ballet, 701 N Tryon St. More: $10, carolinatix.org.
When: 8:30 p.m. Where: Amos’ Southend, 1423 S. Tryon St. More: $12/$15. amossouthend.com.
When: 7 p.m. Where: Bojangles Coliseum, 2700 E Independence Blvd. More: $57 - $130, bojanglescoliseum.com.
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 21
LV Sutton Electric Plant on the Cape Fear River, oil and glass bead on canvas, 11 x 14 x 1/2 in., 2016.
22 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
A sketch study of “Smoke and Water: Catawba” as it’s planned for the Monroe Crossing mall site.
ARTS
VISUAL
MURALS WITH MORALS New art installation will confront Catawba River coal ash issue BY RYAN PITKIN
A
CRITIC VISITING North Carolina native Greg Lindquist’s New York art studio recently referred to the colors mixing on his palette as having a “curdling sweetness,” and the same could be said for his recent works. The colors in Lindquist’s recent Smoke and Water series swirl on their respective canvasses like oil in vinegar giving way to a piece of bread, but something more sinister is represented here under the surface. In fact, it was a desire to salvage what has sunk below the surface that inspired Lindquist to begin his work on the series in late 2013. He had been studying the effects on rivers and lakes of nearby coal ash ponds that would sometimes release runoff into the bodies of water or lead to groundwater seepage. In February 2014, an underground pipe burst at a Duke Energy steam station north of Greensboro and spilled 39,000 tons of ash into the Dan River. In studying the effects of the spill, Lindquist noticed how beautiful the coal ash looked as it swirled atop the water before eventually sinking to the bottom, dragged below by the heavy metals it contained. His research would inspire Smoke and Water, a years-long series he will continue with his biggest piece yet at the Monroe Crossing mall in Union County this week. Lindquist is welcoming volunteers to join him in painting “Smoke and Water: Catawba,” a 70-by-16-foot mural to be painted on a wall of the mall over the span of five days. The project, like others in the Smoke and Water series, will look to resurface the unsettling binary in which a dazzling scene represents a dark corruption of the ecosystem. “There’s something extremely disconcerting about looking at something that appears beautiful but represents
something that’s extremely ugly,” Lindquist said over the phone from New York before making his way to Monroe. “I think it has to do with ethics and morality, because we generally want things that are beautiful to be good and want things that are ugly to be bad. When we try to cross those wires it creates this jolt and creates this subtle discomfort.” Lindquist was born and raised in Wilmington. He moved to Raleigh at 18 years old and lived there for six years before his art career took him out of town, but his coal ash concerns make it clear that he’s still heavily invested in his home state. Over the last three years he’s displayed Smoke and Water installments at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, where he worked closely with the museum’s Teen Arts Council, and in his hometown of Wilmington, where environmental advocates marched in a procession with his paintings through the streets of downtown in an experience he said will stick with him throughout his life. This time, Lindquist is calling on volunteers — be they environmentalists with art experience or simply curious parties who have never lifted a brush — to help him paint the mural, which he hopes will attract viewers and start some dialogue around coal ash. “There is something that is slightly awry or slightly off about it, and that subtlety that beauty can offer is a really appropriate way to draw people in then allow them to engage with the work on whatever level they feel appropriate,” Lindquist said. “The work gives as much as you put into it. That way of using beauty can be a sort of aesthetic Trojan horse. It’s something that can bring in this complicated content in a way that doesn’t make the decision for you, it doesn’t draw the conclusion for you, but allows you to figure it out on your own.”
“There’s something extremely disconcerting about looking at something that appears beautiful but represents something that’s extremely ugly.” GREG LINDQUIST, ON HIS COAL ASH-INSPIRED SERIES SMOKE AND WATER
ART-IN-BUILDINGS (AIB), which is
funding the project, is a program run by Monroe Crossing’s property owner Time Equities, Inc. that aims to expand the audience for contemporary art and artists by adorning the company’s properties with the work of emerging and mid-career artists. Jennie Lamensdorf, a curator with AIB and project organizer for “Smoke and Water: Catawba,” had already known Lindquist, as they’ve crossed paths in New York’s art scene. She thought of him when she visited Monroe in April 2016 to visit the site and begin planning the new installation. Lamensdorf usually does a lot of research to find the right artist for a site, but with her awareness of Lindquist’s work and his familiarity with an area that’s been heavily affected by coal ash, she said the decision became clear almost immediately. “I asked around and said, ‘Is there a river here that’s impacted by the coal ash?’ Actually there is: the Catawba River,” Lamensdorf said. “It was one of those kismet moments, I have to say. It’s not usually this easy. It was one of those magic, unusual things where everything lined up and it made so much sense.”
The Smoke and Water project is a first for AIB in that it will not be in an office environment or apartment building, where folks are usually too focused on their daily goings-on to truly appreciate the art. Lamensdorf calls most AIB projects “semipublic,” meaning that the public is welcome to view them, but the chances of people coming into an office building to do so are slim. “The mall is truly a common area, it’s a truly open public space where anybody is welcome. So I think we’re going to get a much broader audience, a much different audience,” she said. “We’re engaging people in their leisure time as opposed to in their work or home.” It’s another first for AIB in that Lamensdorf and Lindquist are inviting the community not only to view the art but also to help create it. Between Wednesday and Sunday, they will be holding community mural painting days, during which any volunteer is welcome to help paint in specific colors based on a projection of Lindquist’s original study on the wall. Lindquist has done similar interactive mural projects before and said that, even if SEE
MURALS P. 24 u
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2016 | 23
MURALS FROM P.23 t it seems like simple paint-by-numbers, it gets much more complex in a project so large. “What I’m particularly interested in is this idea of physicality; of different people’s hands being involved in this one unified, coherent image. You have lots of different senses of touch, with people’s hands and the ways that they use the brush that comes together in a beautiful way,” he said. “That’s something that I’ve enjoyed to see come together in these murals. You can only direct people to a certain extent and then after that the mural takes shape by the way that people who are involved execute it.” What’s new for Lindquist is the open nature of the project. During his last volunteer-based mural at the North Carolina Museum of Art, he worked with members of the Teen Arts Council behind closed doors until they were ready to unveil it to the public. This time, he’ll be engaging with the public directly while directing volunteers on when and where to paint. He’s looking forward to simultaneously working to educate those actively participating and those more passive bystanders who may just be curious as to what’s going on. “The real challenge here is how to work in a public space and negotiate those boundaries with the space that you need to make a mural,” Lindquist said. “It also adds another layer of pressure. How do you maintain the enthusiasm and the energy of the volunteers while also interacting with and having conversations with the public? Then they get excited and some people will come back and help and some people will tell other people and that’s just the way you want people to get energized for creating something like this.” Lamensdorf is encouraging teens to come out all day Saturday and families to participate on Sunday afternoon, but she stressed the fact that anyone is welcome to join at any time during community painting hours.
WHAT’S NOT A first for AIB is the group’s willingness to engage a political subject in an aesthetically beautiful way in an attempt to kick off dialogue on the subject. Lamensdorf recalled a similar project she organized in 2015 in which South African artist Frances Goodwin used acrylic fake fingernails to create an installment that made a statement about the politics of the beauty industrial complex. Lamensdorf said that project was effective in how the beautiful, bright colors drew people in and began a conversation about feminism. She’s optimistic that “Smoke and Water: Catawba” can be similarly successful. “I think that one of the most critical roles of contemporary art is its ability to speak about things that are really hard to talk about otherwise,” she said. Art can be a way to begin a conversation that can either be seen as too boring or too uncomfortable to start in other settings, Lamensdorf said. Lindquist agrees, and said that regardless of one’s positions on the issue, speaking about it is the most important part. “That’s one way in my mind that art has a distinction between activism. With activism, you’re very much going after one outcome. 24 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Greg Lindquist.
ARTS
VISUAL
You have an outcome in mind and every move you make is going toward accomplishing that outcome,” he said. “Coal ash is a really complicated issue. There’s not one grand pronouncement of a solution. But I think it’s all of our duties and obligations as citizens to be educated about it and to pick a position and to act if you feel appropriate to act — and I think it is appropriate to act. As an artist that may be my primary goal.” The creation of “Smoke and Water: Catawba” will be just the beginning of a multiphase project Lindquist hopes to carry out at the mall in the coming year. His goal is to implement a monthly or bi-monthly speaker and film series in which coal ash experts and those most affected by the coal ash ponds that dot the banks of the Catawba can share their stories. He’s been in talks with Coal Ash Chronicles founder and CL contributor Rhiannon Fionn and Catawba Riverkeeper Sam Perkins about holding these meetings in one of the unoccupied storefronts within Monroe Crossing Mall. “North Carolina is the most particularly interesting case for collusion between the industry and state government, and with the Touching Water, Arsenic, oil and glass bead on panel, 8 1/8 x 8 1/8 x 1 in., 2016. SEE
MURALS P. 25 u
SMOKE AND WATER: CATAWBA COMMUNITY PAINTING DAYS Jan. 11-13, 2 - 8 p.m.; Jan. 14, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Jan. 15, 1 - 4 p.m. Opening reception, Jan. 15, 4 -6 p.m. Monroe Crossing. 2115 W. Roosevelt Blvd. 704-289-6547. teiartinbuildings.com.
MURALS FROM P. 24 t new administration that’s getting ready to come into office, I’m very scared about what can happen with something as important as the Environmental Protection Agency,” Lindquist said. “I think it’s really important to make these issues acceptable and to make them physical and to provide people with a contemplative and meditative space that painting and the visual arts allows for.” But before all that can take place, Lindquist has a long week of work ahead of him, and he’s hoping you’ll be there to help him out.
Duke Energy’s Dan River X, oil, aluminum and glass bead on panel, 11 x 14 1/8 x 3/4 in., 2016.
Duke Energy’s Dan River VII, oil and glass bead on panel, 8 1/8 x 10 1/8 x 1 in., 2016.
Sutton Lake’s Selenium, oil and aluminum on canvas, 11 x 14 x 3/4 in., 2016.
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2016 | 25
FOCUS
Lewis MacDougall in A Monster Calls
ARTS
FILM
THE FINAL FRONTIER Overcoming adversity in Space Age saga BY MATT BRUNSON
W
HILE THE WHITE men at NASA were busy figuring out the challenges of managing outer space, the black women assisting them also had to worry about the challenges of managing office space. That’s the crux of Hidden Figures (*** out of four), a breezy and inspiring film about three intelligent ladies having to contend with both sexism and racism as they became personally involved in the Space Race that found the U.S. competing with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s nonfiction book, Hidden Figures places Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) at the forefront, relating how she was tapped for her skills as a mathematician to help NASA’s Space Task Group (headed by Kevin Costner’s tough but fair director) crunch the numbers needed to successfully send astronaut John Glenn (winningly played by Glen Powell) into space and have him safely return to Earth. As Katherine copes with prejudice on various fronts, her best friends and colleagues Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and 26 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) are having equal difficulty in finding ways to advance in a society that frowns disapprovingly upon their skin color. Clearly, these women are going to overcome all manner of adversity and emerge triumphant, so — as is often the case — the pleasure is not in the destination but in the journey. As adapted by Theodore Melfi (who also directed) and Allison Schroeder, the story makes for an agreeable trip, with frequent stops to allow for interesting asides regarding the inner workings of the space program. But even with the backdrop of history in the making, the film never relinquishes its tight focus on three remarkable individuals who repeatedly demonstrate that they, too, possess the right stuff.
SUPERIOR TO The BFG but inferior to Pete’s Dragon, A Monster Calls (**1/2 out of four) is the latest release to detail the relationship between a young child and a fantastical creature. Unfortunately, it often skews closer to the calculated artifice of the Spielberg
Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures
dud rather than the emotional honesty of the Disney remake, spinning a tale about a lonely British lad named Conor (Lewis MacDougall) whose mother (Felicity Jones) is dying of cancer. Coping with bullies at school and a crotchety grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) at home, Conor eventually receives a nocturnal visit from the talking tree that lives up on the hill. No, it’s not Treebeard from the Tolkien franchise but rather an ancient yew that sounds just like Liam Neeson when he delivers that great “particular set of skills” speech from Taken. The tree informs Conor that he will tell him three stories in exchange for Conor speaking his “truth” — a “truth” that
FOX
becomes painfully obvious long before the fade-out. Individual scenes crackle with flavor, but nearly as many segments turn out heavyhanded, with director J.A. Bayona (yet to top his debut feature, the Spanish horror yarn The Orphanage) more interested in carefully arranged sets and thundering effects than in anything more empathic. It’s hard to become completely invested in a movie about holding onto life when its creators are so focused on art-directing it to death.
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28 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
MUSIC
FEATURE
ORCHESTRATING SOCIAL CHANGE Charlotte music collective Hip Hop Orchestrated obliterates boundaries BY PAT MORAN
O
CTAVIA MOORE WAS
in fifth grade when she had her first major musical epiphany. Her class had taken a field trip to see the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and the preteen’s mind was forever blown. “When I felt that wall of sound vibrating through my body and the beautiful melodies coming together, it really made a strong impact on me,” Moore remembers. “I was ready to make music.” These days, Moore makes music in numerous ways. In addition to writing about it under the name Kia Moore, and serving as creative director of Hip Hop University, she’s founder and director of a new project called Hip Hop Orchestrated. Every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., in a modest house in west Charlotte, you’ll find Moore with a group of musicians from a variety of backgrounds — rap, classical, jazz, even a veteran of marching bands. Like most groups, the musicians work up new material and forge connections. What makes Hip Hop Orchestrated’s gathering different from other jam sessions, Moore says, is their goal. Hip Hop Orchestrated — H2O, for short — works to bring about social change through music, one player and listener at a time. Moore, 32, is confident about music’s transformative power, because she’s experienced it herself. She and her sister Kellee grew up in Charlotte surrounded by music. “We were record collectors and crate diggers,” Moore says. “Our house was filled with stacks upon stacks of vinyl.” Octavia and Kellee would wage friendly turntable battles from room to room in the house. “There was a stereo in the front room and one in our parent’s room. We’d grab control of both stereos and play songs back and forth, enjoying the excitement of playing DJs.” After seeing the Charlotte Symphony, Moore took up cello and played in the school orchestra, but she had bigger ambitions. When she saw violinist Miri Ben Ari duet with a turntablist on Showtime at the Apollo in 2001, it stirred a notion: Why not take Ben Ari’s fusion of hip-hop and classical music to the next level, bringing the two different genres together in a permanent, full-fledged ensemble? It took time, because Moore’s vision extended beyond merely blending genres and getting disparate musicians to rub shoulders. She also was concerned about Charlotte’s increasingly inflexible socioeconomic structure. (A Harvard study last year ranked the Queen City dead last out of 50 southern cities in terms of upward
mobility, both socially and economically.) Moore saw music as a gateway — a way to break down barriers among Charlotte’s diverse and often divided communities. And then, of course, there was HB2 and the police shooting of Keith Lamant Scott, both of which ripped apart Charlotte communities last year, the latter leading to a full-on uprising in the city that made headlines throughout the nation. “I thought, ‘How do you bring people together?’” Moore says. “I realized I’ve always made friends through music.”
LAST YEAR, MOORE applied for a
grant through the Knight Foundation and nonprofit 8 80 Cities, which awarded 20 civic innovators as part of the Emerging City Champions fellowship program. She got it, receiving $5,000 to launch H2O. With a mission to turn music into social capital, Moore got the H2O ball rolling by forging a few key alliances. With sponsorship from the Arts & Science Council’s Cultural Block program, she launched a series of Music Speaks workshops, which takes local musicians, such as singer-songwriter LeAnna Eden, into classrooms to talk about their composition process. Non-profit QC Family Tree donated the west Charlotte house where H2O does what she calls shed sessions. Word of mouth stirred interest among Charlotte’s music community, and Moore was able to take an organic and gradual approach to recruiting ensemble members. Terrance Shepherd, a 27-year-old classical pianist and music major at Queens University, was among the first to join H20. Moore offered him the position of keyboardist and musical director after seeing him play. He was thrilled. “I wanted to be a part of something that will take off,” says Shepherd, who arranges beats in a format flexible enough to accommodate improvisation. Shepherd urged his friend Marcus Bates, 27, who plays jazz saxophone, to sit in on an H2O jam session. Bates was immediately hooked. “There were such good vibes and positive energy,” Bates says. “I learn something new every time we rehearse.” Omar Crenshaw, who spins under the name DJ Hugo, was interested in H20 as soon as he heard about the ensemble. “I came up in music through concert and marching band, so I have a lot of appreciation for live instrumentation,” says Crenshaw, 30. “As DJ, I provide an element that bridges any gaps
ALL PHIOTOS BY AUSTIN DALI CAINE
H20 (from left) Vocalist Morgan Richardson, Buckley, Shepherd, Moore, Singh, and Bates. between the orchestration and the hip-hop songs.” Drummer Patrick Buckley, 28, says he joined because he believes “100 percent in Octavia’s vision of breaking down social classes and barriers via music.” Other members of the collective include 24-year-old trombonist Gurtej Singh, who once played bass in a melodic hardcore band in South Carolina, and cellist John Boles, 31, who also plays with the Davidson College Symphony. He’ll be attending his first H2O Shed Session on Saturday, Jan. 14. The hard work in that west Charlotte house paid off when H2O played its first gig at a free community dinner Nov. 10 at the Skyline Terrace, hosted by fellow Emerging
City Champions Fellowship grant recipient Pop Up Produce. “We wanted to support Pop Up Produce and their message about healthy eating,” says Moore. “We were glad to provide the music.” “Everybody loved the set,” Bates says. “We opened with Terrance playing a sonata from Mozart. It was beautiful. Then we gradually transitioned to jazz, some hip-hop, and then hip-hop soul. It was incredible.”
PLANS TO GROW H2O continue. The
ensemble teamed with the Arts & Science Council to play a Thanksgiving event at the Sugar Creek Recreation Center, and she’s entered the SEED20 Challenge, a competition hosted by Social Venture Partners Charlotte.
“I thought, ‘How do you bring people together?’ I realized I’ve always made friends through music.” - Octavia Moore, founder of hip Hop Orchestrated
“SVP Charlotte selects 20 nonprofits with social entrepreneurial ideas and they take you through a coaching process from January to March,” Moore says. The idea is to prepare the group for a final onstage presentation to compete for award money on March 27 at the Knight Theater. At the very least, she hopes the training will help sharpen H2O’s pitch for full nonprofit status later this year. In addition, H2O is working on an Improv Tour, sponsored by the Arts & Science
Council Culture Blocks program. “We’ll play at recreation centers and libraries around Charlotte, starting in February.” With all these irons in the fire, H2O remains primarily focused on the music and the bridges it builds. “People become friends just talking about music,” Moore says. “Just by having a conversation about it, you realize how much we all have in common.” PMORAN@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 29
MUSIC
MUSICMAKER
COOLING THE SHOTS Hungry Girl adds member, releases EP BY RYAN PITKIN
W
HEN I RECEIVED an email describing Charlotte band Hungry Girl’s new EP Cool Shots a s “the kind of music that inspires you to bust out your sleeveless Van Halen t-shirt and American flag bandana from the back of the dresser, as you dream of surfing the hood of a cherry red Ferrari Daytona that’s driving away from an explosion while catching and chugging Miller High Life cans shot at you from a helicopter’s mounted machine gun,” I wasn’t particularly excited. The run-on sentence didn’t just give me anxiety as a professional editor, but as a music fan who’s never been big on headbanging and thinks of Metallica as one of the more overrated bands in recent history, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed. I was pleasantly surprised while streaming through the six-song EP, however. Hungry Girl weaves enough post-punk melodies into their thrashing riffs on Cool Shots to keep things modern — think Megadeath meets Wolfmother. I met with Jason Skipper (guitarist, singer and songwriter who goes by Dede Skip) and Jimmy Lail (drummer Jimmy Blaze) in the lead-up to this Saturday’s release party at Snug Harbor to talk about why keeping the energy levels high is the most important focus for a hard rock band and why they recently decided to bring on bassist Jake Wade after six years of playing as a two-piece. Creative Loafing: How did the band start? Jimmy Blaze: When we started playing songs together, Jason and I, we just needed something to do. We were living together. It was fun and we were kind of building a studio together and recording stuff in the basement and we needed a reason to utilize the studio. We both wanted to get better at recording and Jason was wanting to get better as a songwriter and step outside of the metal world — instead of being the drummer who was helping arrange songs for a metal band, kind of stepping into that primary songwriter role. We started hanging out and jamming together. We both worked the same job, so it was easy, we were working second shift, so we would wake up 10 or 11 a.m. and just play for a couple hours and go to work.
30 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Dede Skip: It started as a studio project. We built a studio in our house. We were like, “Man it’s so expensive to record with other people. We’ve had terrible experiences with it. We don’t have enough money to pay somebody hourly to go in there. We don’t have enough time to rehearse enough to make sure it’s super tight and ready to go.” We started recording ourselves. The whole thing started as I just wanted to get to songwriting. So we were all on the same page and we had a common goal of, “Let’s go down here and sound like shit.” We sounded like shit for months. We didn’t want to be a band. Then we got booked. Then it was like, “OK well, I guess we’ve got to play the show.” Why the decision to finally bring on a bassist? Jimmy: We were writing as a two piece early on, then we started saying, “Fuck that, we’re going to write as a studio project and use whatever instruments and whatever arrangements we want and then we’ll figure out how to play it live.” We kind of got to that point where now there’s a bunch of songs we’re not playing live because we can’t make them sound as good with a two piece as we want to. He’s played about four shows with you now. How has it changed the energy? Dede: It’s been great. It takes so much pressure off me and Jimmy. Playing for five solid years as a two-piece, you get some rooms where it works and the energy and the sound is there and it’s like, “Fuck yeah, this rules. We can do this as a two-piece.” Then you’ll play another place and it’s just like, “Wow. This is really harsh.” You use that as a learning experience, but really we just needed a change. The music had progressed more and more. There were more guitar overdubs, more solos, more challenging vocal parts. It was time. And Jake’s been the perfect fit. He’s absolutely killed it. I think he’s messed up less over the past four shows than I have. Your live shows are known for that energy you mentioned. How important is that in what you do? Dede: We always want something that’s instantly gratifying enough to have the energy right in your face. That’s definitely a goal of every live show. Even when we try to hold back it never happens. It’s just balls to the wall. We play everything a little faster with a little more energy and aggression. That’s what we are. Any time we try to not do that is when we’re just like, “God this sounds boring.” Maybe it sounds the same, I have no idea, but for us it feels boring and it feels slow and if the energy is not right then nothing’s going to be right. You can play the right notes but if it doesn’t have the energy behind it, it’s going to sound like shit. Cool Shots features a good balance of headbangers and melodic, slower songs. Was that purposeful?
JUSTIN DRISCOLL
Dede Skip (sitting, left) and Jimmy Blaze of Hungry Girl.
HUNGRY GIRL COOL SHOTS RELEASE PARTY W/ HOUSTON BROTHERS, DEAR BLANCA, BATSHEET $5-20. Jan. 14. 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. Snug Harbor. 1228 Gordon St. 704-5611781. snugrock.com.
Dede: It’s always a conscious decision to be a dynamic songwriter. I’ll get so bored if I am writing the same song over and over. I’m always playing guitar, though. I love just sitting around playing guitar, fiddling around with riffs. That’s my favorite part of the whole process I think is to take something, you start fiddling with it and you build it up to this big thing and the whole process in between is my favorite. But writing songs, one day I’m in a mood to write a song with just your basic chords and no riffs and see where I can take that. How has your experience with recording and mixing your own music helped your progression as a band? Jimmy: Just like with our music, we try to constantly get better at recording. We now know that we have a specific sound that comes out of our studio, which early on it was a little bit more of a guessing game. We know what we’re going for a little bit more. So there is more confidence there knowing that this is what we’re going to do with drums to get a good drum sound this way and we’re going to go on to the guitars and the bass and we kind of just go from there. It is something that we pride ourselves on.
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 31
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD
JAN. 12 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony: Star Wars the Music (Knight Theater)
POP/ROCK Curtis wayne Hurley w/ Analog Daze, Metal Roze (Amos’ Southend) Jon Linker (RiRa) Jim Garrett (Comet Grill) Porch 40 (Visulite Theatre) Beach Bath w/ Dead Sea $cilla, Sext Message (Milestone) The Subdudes (McGlohon Theater) Todd Johnson Band (Tin Roof) Wrinkle Neck Mules (Evening Muse) Shiprocked (Snug Harbor)
JAN. 13 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony: Star Wars the Music (Knight Theater)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Stanton Warriors w/ Phatrabbit, Datboy Fletch, DJ Mack, Madmonk (L4 Lounge)
POP/ROCK
Brown Auditorium, Shelby) Aaron Lewis w/ Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Morgan Page w/ Jason Wiggz (Label)
HIP HOP/SOUL/R&B Drake Night featuring DJ Fannie Mae, Rich the Kid (Underground) Chubb Rock w/ DJ Polo (Blunotes)
POP/ROCK Mike Doughty w/ Wheatus (Visulite Theatre) Firehouse w/ Teaze, The Smilin’ Dogs (Amos’ Southend) The Commonwealth, Dead End Lane, Poison Anthem, No Brainer, Smelly Felly (Milestone) Carolinacation (RiRa) Hungry Girl w/ Houston Brothers, Batsheet, Dear Blanca (Snug Harbor) Four Days (Cabarrus Brewing Company) Modern Primitives w/ Tedo Stone, Tiger Dogs, Birds With Teeth (Petra’s) Patrick Davis w/ Lauren Jenkins(Evening Muse) Pluto For Planet (Tin Roof)
JAN. 15
The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) The Fifth Divine (Cabarrus Brewing Company) Pluto For Planet (Ri Ra) The Landing w/ Astrea Corp, Beach Tiger (Snug Harbor) Skulls & Whiskey w/ Audio Assault (Amos’ Southend) Patrick Davis w/ Lauren Jenkins, Tweed w/ Aarodynamics (Evening Muse) The Bald Brothers, Brandon Stiles, Dylan Schneider (Tin Roof) Blame The Youth w/ Slow Parade, Lara Americo (Petra’s) Altar Blood w/ Baasthyrian, Rotting Obscene, KRVSADE (Milestone) Hey Rocco w/ Jason Scavone (Visulite Theatre)
DJ/ELECTRONIC
JAN. 14
DJ/ELECTRONIC
Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor)
HIP HOP/SOUL/R&B Uptown Swagga w/ Off Script (Blunotes)
POP/ROCK Beach Sex w/ Wild Domestic, Mr. Gold (Milestone) Bourbon Crow (Amos’ Southend) School of Rock Winter Show (Visulite Theatre) Sense of Purpose featuring Paul Agee, Chris Allen, Jon Lindsay, Jody Gholson (Tyber Creek Pub) Omari & The Hellraisers (Comet Grill)
JAN. 16
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)
Charlotte Symphony: Star Wars the Music (Knight Theater)
POP/ROCK
COUNTRY/FOLK EmmyLou Harris w/ Rodney Crowell, Sam 32 | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Bush, Jon Randall, Jesse Alexander (Malcolm
Ethan Uslan (Petra’s) Wicked Powers (Comet Grill) Find Your Muse Open Mic (Evening Muse)
Shovels & Rope (Feb. 21, Knight Theater)
COUNTRY/FOLK
Theater)
Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) The Smokin’ Js (Coyote Joe’s)
Juicy J w/ Belly and Project Pat (Feb. 25, The
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s)
POP/ROCK The Return of Hannibal (Petra’s) Fairplay & Special Guests (Lucky Lou’s Tavern) Tristan White (Tin Roof)
JAN. 18 COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill)
POP/ROCK January Residency: Joshua Cotterino (Snug Harbor) Wimpy Rutherford & the Cryptics, The Hooliganz, AM/FMs, Van Huskins (Milestone) Millenial w/ Dirty White Lies, Victoria Victoria (Visulite Theatre) Riff Raff (Amos’ Southend) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Parodi Kings (Diamond Restaurant) Pluto For Planet (Ri Ra) Songwriter Open Mic (Petra’s)
Tommy Emmanuel (Feb. 24, McGlohon
Fillmore) Southside Johhny & the Asbury Jukes (March 2, McGlohon Theater) Landlady (March 4, Evening Muse) Cold War Kids w/ Special Guest Middle Kids (March 5, The Fillmore) The Dig (March 8, Evening Muse) St. Paul & The Broken Bones (March 11, The Fillmore) Son Volt (March 12, Visulite Theatre) Bad Suns (March 12, The Underground) Celtic Women (March 19, Belk Theater) Black Violin (March 21-22, Knight Theater) The Flaming Lips w/ Clipping (March 30, The Fillmore) Dark Star Orchestra (April 15, The Fillmore) Red Hot Chilli Peppers (April 17, Spectrum Center) Steve Martin, Martin Short, Steep Canyon Rangers (April 22, Ovens Auditorium) Lauryn Hill (April 28, CMCU Amphitheater) Neil Diamond (April 28, Spectrum Center) Carolina Rebellion (May 5-7, Charlotte Motor Speedway) Bastille (May 6, CMCU Amphitheater) * - CL Recommends
COMING SOON Dweezil Zappa (Jan. 20, Neighborhood Theatre) Breaking Benjamin (Jan. 21, The Fillmore) Circa Survive w/ Mewithoutyou and Turnover (Jan. 25, Amos’ Southend) Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Jan. 26, McGlohon Theater) Parquet Courts w/ Mary Lattimore (Feb. 2, Neighborhood Theatre) Legends of Southern Hip Hop w/ Scarface, 8Ball & MJG, Mystikal, Bun B, Trick Daddy, Juvenile, Pastor Troy (Feb. 3, Bojangles’ Coliseum) Welshly Arms (Feb. 8, The Underground) Hiss Golden Messenger (Feb. 12, Neighborhood Theatre) Justin Hayward (Feb. 16, McGlohon Theater) Chuck Johnson & Charleyhorse (Feb. 16, Evening Muse) Marc Maron (Feb. 16, Knight Theater)
SUSTO JASON+ HEYROCCO SCAVONE 1/14 MIKE DOUGHTY + Wheatus 1/19 BAND OF HEATHENS 1/13
1/26
INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS
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.
TODAY
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
JAN. 17
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❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
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CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 33
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RECYCLE ME, PLEASE (Only after you’re done reading me)
how many catnaps we took, how much food we ate and how much TV we watched. We’d rail cruisin’ the streets [hums the tune of already decided that if weather permitted, Usher’s “Nice and Slow”]. Seriously though, we’d be hunting down The Dock — Uptown’s Monday morning at 7 a.m. I was riding the hidden speakeasy. We headed that way blue line into Uptown and the sun was just around 9:30 p.m. After 20 minutes exploring starting to rise over the QC. It would’ve been the wrong loading dock area and running into a beautiful picture but then I reached into another couple on the same adventure, we my jacket pocket to find two tokens and was finally set our eyes on the graffiti-style sign reminded of Sunday Funday. Needless to say, that marked the entrance. To our dismay, it it was the longest, most nauseating ride I’ve was closed due to road conditions. Dammit. taken in a while. The experience we’d been talking about for Let’s rewind. months would have to wait another weekend. On Friday, the office buzzed with At least now we knew where to go. excitement in anticipation of Snowmageddon We ended up revisiting another spot 2017. The first snow of winter and you in Charlotte Marriott City Center — Stoke would’ve thought we were still in elementary Charlotte, one of my newest favorite spots to school, waiting for the principal to call it. splurge on date night, featuring great food Despite warnings of snowfall, around 7 and craft cocktails. They didn’t have p.m. my pals were dead set on going the ingredients for the cocktail out. At first, I was hesitant, but I wanted, but the culinary then we kept hearing reports experts behind the bar didn’t that the bulk of the “storm” disappoint. Before I knew it, wouldn’t hit until early I had the perfect margarita Saturday morning. Who with a twist — jalapenos! were we to waste a night I wasn’t sure if out after a long week? I’d be up for Sunday The boyfriend and I Funday when I took my popped into the grocery first morning trip to the store for last-minute bathroom, wincing angrily rations (and mixers) before AERIN SPRUILL at the bright sunlight. But a getting ready. Surprisingly, series of texts from my P.I.C. we had no issues securing and I was whistling a different an Uber to Sanctuary Pub in tune. Looking back, holding those two NoDa. Decked out with TVs and tokens on the light rail, I realized my Sunday picture frames, this dive bar located next to Funday doom was set in motion the moment Neighborhood Theatre is usually a spot I stop I decided to make an RBV and pregame in for a quick drink, play tunes on the internet meet-up with her at Duckworth’s Grill & jukebox, snag the pool table before 9 p.m. for Taphouse. free or grab a snack — you can order your After a few beers, we played a drinking Cajun faves from neighboring Boudreaux’s game involving fingers and a shot of Fireball while grabbing a drink at the bar. — don’t ask. That’s when I convinced After a couple of RBVs, my co-workers everyone to check out the new game bar at were itching for karaoke. We braved freezing NorthSide Station, Lucky’s Bar and Arcade. rain to walk to Noda 101, next to Jack I’d fallen in love with the game bar Abari in Beagles. I’d forgotten all about this bar. But NoDa, so I couldn’t wait to see what Lucky’s there we were, sitting at the table right in the was all about. Without giving away all the front, perusing the song list. Yeah, I wasn’t deets, it’s like Chuck E. Cheese’s for adults drunk enough. I opted for the role of crazed with all the bells and whistles. Air hockey, fan as my co-workers took the stage. Galaga and a Jurassic Park-themed shooting The highlight of the night? Watching a game were the highlights of my experience. guy snatch the mic from a co-worker who was Oh, and a tasty martini creation with…drum singing Prince’s “Kiss,” then belt out some of roll please…a Nerds rope! Come on, does it the highest notes in the song, and hand the get much better than that? mic calmly back as he exited stage left. The New year, new me, I said. No more ultimate #micdrop. We requested an Uber hangovers, I said. And there I was, hungover before getting stranded in NoDa and after on a Monday after going out every night getting home ate an entire pizza. Maybe that the first weekend of 2017. Sighs. I can say, was actually the highlight of my night? however, it was well worth it. The weekend The next morning, we gave “Netflix and was full of adventure. chill” a whole new meaning. I lost count of
ENDS
CROSSWORD
CENTRAL ZOO ACROSS
1 Separates by a boundary 9 Rues 16 “Mamma Mia!” group 20 Perennial Italian encore 21 Place to spend drams 22 James Brown’s style 23 Arriving where there’s no outlet 25 Kind of wrestling 26 Weak in the -27 One more than bi28 Tight spot 29 Baggins of “The Hobbit” 30 “Calm down!” 36 Ga. hours 39 Any of les Antilles 40 Works in a gallery 41 Stem (from) 42 One the Blessed Virgin’s titles 47 “Gangnam Style” rapper 48 Sit-ups work them 50 River vessel 51 Unrefined metals 52 Like sports cars, briefly 54 Common lot sizes 56 Assertions 58 Instruction in force indefinitely 61 Web programming language 62 “-- really help if ...” 64 Day to “beware” 65 Suffix with Benedict 66 Ford bombs 68 They’re hidden in the centers of this puzzle’s eight longest answers 71 Tabloid “monster” 75 Kilmer or Guest of film 76 Descartes of rationalism 77 Homeboys’ howdies 79 Moral lapses 80 Marked with a very cold iron, as cattle 86 Picnics, e.g. 88 In an unstrict way 89 Elongated fish 90 -- Sea (Asian body) 92 Problematic plant swelling 93 Old Giants great Mel 94 Vase variety 95 Shout just before flying 97 Small monastery 100 During each 102 Bullfight yell
103 Decade divs. 104 Celebrity advocate for UNESCO 110 Torn apart 111 DiFranco of folk rock 112 Play scenery 113 Semicolon’s cousin 117 Out of port 118 Hiragana or katakana, in a sense 123 Injury, in law 124 Dessert style 125 Ticketmaster specification 126 Payment to play cards 127 Sorcerers 128 Exits
DOWN
1 Taunt 2 “I love him like --” 3 “The Eternal City” 4 -- light (filming lamp) 5 Touch, e.g. 6 Texter’s “Wow!” 7 Hissy 8 Boots, e.g. 9 Bike spokes, say 10 Before, in poetry 11 Key with one sharp 12 Stinging insect 13 Military foe 14 Baking pan 15 Unhappy 16 Home of St. Francis 17 Broad street 18 Stinging insect 19 Chilly 24 Airport landing: Abbr. 29 “It’s chilly!” 31 Avila aunt 32 Just about 33 “N’est ce --?” 34 Ingests too much of, informally 35 180-degree turn, informally 36 Break out of 37 Fended (off) 38 Voices below altos 43 Not at all advanced 44 Grazing spot 45 Hi- -- screen 46 Suffix with 40- or 50-Across 47 Oh-so-prim 49 Latvia was one: Abbr. 52 All that -- bag of chips
53 Biographer Leon 54 Top-rate 55 Toyota of the 1980s 57 Cotton thread type 59 Pointed a firearm 60 Knife in old infomercials 63 “Noah” director Aronofsky 67 Sluggish 69 “Hud” co-star Patricia 70 Rural hotels 72 Wiry 73 Film director Bergman 74 Elia pieces 78 “Fa-a-ancy!” 80 Mel’s brassy waitress 81 Rodent’s last meal, maybe 82 Gregarious sort 83 Gem mineral 84 “The Raven” poet’s initials 85 -- Hill (R&B quartet) 87 Bill’s film bud 91 Faith forsaker 94 Geller of mentalism 95 City area, for short 96 Rorem of art songs 98 Form a thought 99 BYOB part 100 Neighbor of Colombia 101 Key with one sharp 104 Persona non -105 Bolivian city 106 Horse relatives 107 Witness 108 Earthy hue, to a Brit 109 Pothole sites 114 Suits’ degs. 115 Portion (out) 116 Comic actor Roscoe 118 Maxilla locale 119 Former boxing king 120 Reds great Roush 121 Sawmill item 122 Big name in water filters
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.
CLCLT.COM | JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2017 | 35
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SAVAGE LOVE
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Strip-bar etiquette BY DAN SAVAGE
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playing with male chastity devices. We’ve been considering going to a strip club while his cock is caged up and getting him lap dances. Is there some etiquette for this with the dancers? Do we let the dancer know before she is on his lap? Or do we not mention it? Is it rude to get a dancer involved at all? I’ve not yet found an etiquette guide for this situation.
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comfort,” said Aaron, a dancer at Stag PDX, Portland’s new male strip club. “If all parts of the device are safely tucked away between your legs while you receive the lap dance, there should be little to worry about. But if the device has parts that protrude—and could possibly harm an overzealous dancer while they grind up on you — you may want to be more cautious. It also never hurts to ask the dancers what they’re comfortable with.”
I RECENTLY STOPPED reading your advice column due to its current
focus on homosexuality. Just “I think I speak for most dancers when I say letting you know heterosexuals I don’t care what’s going on underneath a customer’s pants,” said Bobbi Hill, a lap are still alive and doing well. dancer based in Portland, Oregon, the strip club capital of the United BORED READING ENDLESSLY States. “Grazing over a stiff EXPERIMENTAL DEVIANTS EXPLORING RECTUMS object in the crotch region is not an uncommon experiOver the last year, ence when giving a lap BREEDER, I published 140 dance, and depending on the texture of the device, questions from readers I might not even give it a who identified themselves second thought.” as gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or While your concern for lap straight. Twenty-six of those DAN SAVAGE dancers is commendable, questions were from gay men LOCKS, the person most at risk (18 percent), 16 from bisexuals of injury is your partner. Nothing (12 percent), 6 from trans people is more fun than inducing an erection in (4 percent), 2 from lesbians (1 percent), someone who’s locked in a male chastity and 90 from straight people (65 percent). device — a necessarily painful and punishing Almost all of the bisexuals whose letters erection — but the devices are unyielding I responded to were in opposite-sex, aka (ideally) and the cock flesh is weak (even “straight,” relationships, and the same goes when hard). A dancer who grinds down on for half the letters from trans people. (Lots your partner’s crotch is likelier to hurt him. of trans people are straight-identified and in That said, lap dancers don’t like surprises. opposite-sex, aka “straight,” relationships.) If a dancer grinds down on your partner’s So nearly 80 percent of the questions I crotch and feels something hard, clunky, answered last year focused on straight and un-cock-like in his pants, “she might people and/or straight sex. go into air-dance mode,” said Hill, “which is essentially a lap dance where you make as If a sex-advice column that’s about straight little contact with the customer’s crotch as people and/or straight sex 65 to 80 percent possible. Of course, you can never go wrong of the time is too gay for you, BREEDER, investing in a stripper’s patience and wellthen my “current focus” isn’t the problem being — try handing her a Benjamin as you — your homophobia is. I would say that I’m explain your situation.” sorry to lose you as a reader, BREEDER, but Just in case you’re not interested in dancers I’m not. who are “hers,” LOCKS, I ran your question Listen to Savage Lovecast every week by a male stripper. at savagelovecast.com. Visit savagelove. “I don’t think most dancers would mind if a net and on Twitter follow Dan Savage @ customer was wearing a male chastity device as long as it caused no physical harm or disfakedansavage.
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FOR ALL SIGNS: Last week there was a dramatic grouping of planets in the cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. The Full Moon on Jan. 12 probably triggered dramas both personal and global. At the same time, Mercury, planetary ruler of travel, routine business and communications, turned direct at 4:43 am on Jan. 8. From that point there is a three week period of revisions and reorganizing. The general functions of life will move along more smoothly after Jan. 27. You can anticipate a small flurry of changes in schedules and appointments near Jan. 27 as people become clear about their plans for the next few weeks. Decisions, temporarily shelved, can now be settled and contracts are more likely to be viable. At that point it will be time to put property up for sale or apply for a loan with the expectation of more favorable results. ARIES: Your charisma is powerful and you can be at your most persuasive now. Manipulation in order to get what you want is not necessary. Step aside from such temptations. Activities requiring physical energy are accented and favored now. You have a need to refresh your spirit. Give it attention and do that which speaks to your soul. TAURUS: Your need to serve humanity in
some way is strongly activated at this time. You may be tending a sick friend or serving in a soup kitchen.Your senses are wide open to the energies around you. You may have psychic flashes or unusual dreams. Don’t shoulder all the problems you see or you will burn out quickly.
GEMINI: Your attention shifts to matters of shared resources for the next three weeks. “Resources” include time, things of material value, energy and sexuality. The territory is wide, ranging from the mundane study of the budget all the way to important discussions with partners over the need for greater intimacy.
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CANCER: You are in a reasonably good place with yourself at this time. Your heart and mind are flowing together. You have no conflict between your feelings and your thoughts about those feelings. This is a time for reflection on important subjects. You can make good decisions now. It is a good time to communicate with partners freely. LEO: Your work or daily routine takes on a quality of intensity this week. Family and home matters may play a part in the situation. Concentrate on breathing deeply and moving with deliberation. It is possible that you feel more emotional than the situation deserves. Take a step back and look at it from a larger perspective. This is likely to be something that affects you, but is not about you.
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VIRGO: Mercury, your ruling planet, moves
into the sector of life related to children, recreation, personal creativity, and romance. Your attention will be focused in these areas for the next three to four weeks. You will enjoy everything more if you can put your Inner Critic in a box and lock it down while you play.
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.
SCORPIO: This is a good time to take an
active part in the healing of your child or a lover. Activities requiring physical energy are accented and favored now. You have a need to get out and about to refresh your spirit.
SAGITTARIUS: You are in an especially
cordial frame of mind at this time, and likely to invite people to your home, or to share whatever you have to offer. Your spirits are high and you have a need to be social. You are interested in whatever feels luxurious, looks beautiful, or tickles the senses. Going overboard could be all too easy!
CAPRICORN THE GOAT: (Dec. 21 to Jan.
19) Mercury travels rapidly through your sign between March 12 and Feb. 7 this year. During this period there likely will be greater emphasis on communications, errands, and other short distance travels. Your mind will be quick and your attitude persuasive. This is a good period to attend to scholastic and/ or written and oral projects.
AQUARIUS: Either you or others in your
life are behaving erratically. It is difficult to make firm plans or sustain a solid conversation. This sometimes generates a rift between you and another because one of you needs to be alone. Don’t fight it. Just let it be. It is temporary. Take it with two spoons of generosity and humor.
PISCES: Your attitude about yourself is not altogether accurate right now. You may think way too much of your ideas, or alternately, you may see yourself as lower than scum. Neither is accurate and you should probably not make decisions of any importance this week. Spiritual pursuits are given a “go” signal. Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Vivian Carol may be reached at (704) 366-3777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments . Website: http//www.horoscopesbyvivian.com
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