2017 20_Issue 20 Creative Loafing Charlotte by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | JULY 6 - JULY 12, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 20

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CREATIVE LOAFING IS PUBLISHED BY WOMACK NEWSPAPERS, INC. CHARLOTTE, NC 28206. OFFICE: 704-522-8334 WWW.CLCLT.COM FACEBOOK: /CLCLT TWITTER: @CL_CHARLOTTE INSTAGRAM: @CREATIVELOAFINGCHARLOTTE

STAFF

PUBLISHER • Charles A. Womack III publisher@yesweekly.com EDITOR • Mark Kemp mkemp@clclt.com

EDITORIAL

NEWS EDITOR • Ryan Pitkin rpitkin@clclt.com FILM CRITIC • Matt Brunson mattonmovies@gmail.com THEATER CRITIC • Perry Tannenbaum perrytannenbaum@gmail.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS • Corbie Hill, Erin Tracy-Blackwood, Vivian Carol, Charles Easley, Allison Braden, Page Leggett, Alison Leininger, Sherrell Dorsey, Dan Savage, Aerin Spruill, Chuck Shepherd, Jeff Hahne, Samir Shukla, Courtney Mihocik, Debra Renee Seth, Vanessa Infanzon, Ari LeVaux

ART/DESIGN

GRAPHIC DESIGNER • Dana Vindigni dvindigni@clclt.com CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS • Justin Driscoll, Brian Twitty, Zach Nesmith

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Photo courtesy of Ovens Auditorium. David Blaine will walk or float or moonwalk or whatever it is he does onto the stage at Ovens Auditorium

We put out weekly NEWS&CULTURE

GROWING PAINS New cuts and bad blood at Google Fiber raise questions for the future

BY RYAN PITKIN 6 EDITORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 10 LESSONS WITH LEXUAL BY ELEXUS JIONDE 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

FOOD BOOKS AND TOFU Have your vegan cake and read it, too BY CATHERINE BROWN

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

MUSIC

SOUL SURVIVORS After 22 years, the Monday Night Allstars are still alive and well, for now

BY MARK KEMP 20 SOUNDBOARD

ARTS&ENT GETTING UNSTUCK WITH A MEDLEY Playwright provides powerful medicine in an uncertain world

BY PAT MORAN 24 FILM REVIEWS BY MATT BRUNSON

ODDS&ENDS 26 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 27 CROSSWORD 28 SAVAGE LOVE BY DAN SAVAGE 30 STARGAZER BY VIVIAN CAROL

GO TO CLCLT.COM FOR VIDEOS AND MORE!

COVER DESIGN BY DANA VINDIGNI PHOTOS BY MARK KEMP AND ADAM SCHULTZ CLCLT.COM | JULY 6 - JULY 12, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 20

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

THE BALL’S IN YOUR COURT Help keep the Monday Night Allstars alive and kickin’ it

SOMETHING VERY touching happened

toward the end of my interview with the three original members of the Monday Night Allstars for this week’s cover story. Percussionist Jim Brock, bassist Rick Blackwell, guitarist Joe Lindsay and I were sitting around a picnic table at Common Market in Plaza Midwood, where the three had been regaling me with stories about the band’s 22-year run of weekly shows at the Double Door Inn, which closed in January. (The band has since taken its act to the Visulite Theatre.) Lindsay, 49, turned to his elder statesmen band mates Brock, 64, and Blackwell, 62, and then to me. “Is that recorder still on?” Lindsay said. Yes. “The reason I asked is because — and this is for the record — I just wanted to say to Jim and Rick that I really appreciate that y’all asked me to be a part of the Monday

Night Allstars,” Lindsay went on. “Because North Carolina from New York. My friend didn’t nobody know me in Charlotte at that Teresa Hernandez, the owner of Pura Vida time. I was new in town, a young guy in my Worldly Arts, had introduced me to Brock, 20s who’d just moved here, and you gave me who would come into the store for coffee a chance.” every morning. Teresa invited me to go see Blackwell’s face softened to a rare smile. the Allstars with her. All I knew was that “Well, your playing did that,” he said to they played R&B covers. Sounded fun. I Lindsay. “Believe me.” didn’t have any great expectations. Brock took the ball from there. “Oh man, The Monday Night Allstars blew me away. the band suffers on the nights when you’re At the time, they were a little more than a not able to make it, Joe,” he said. “It’s not decade into their run at the Double Door, the same band.” which began in 1995. Their original singer, It was a sweeltly honest show of the late, great Charles Hairston, was gratitude from a terrific guitarist still with the band, performing who’s gone on to tour regularly jaw-dropping dance moves with Stephanie Mills, play onstage, skittering off the on Calvin Richardson’s Top stage to dance with or sing 20 R&B album of 2008 to various women in the When Love Comes, and audience. With the rockperform live and in the solid rhythm section of studio with R&B legends Blackwell on bass, Chris Nappy Brown and Roy C Allen behind the drum as well as younger R&B kit and Brock on congas, artists including Charlotte’s the Allstars were not just an K-Ci & JoJo and Anthony R&B cover band: they played MARK KEMP Hamilton. an eclectic mix ranging from a Lindsay just wanted to make deeply funky, jazz-fueled version sure his gratitude was on the record. of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining And here it is. Deservedly. Star” to a sublimely soulful take on Curtis The exhange says a lot about this group Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” Lindsay, of veteran local musicians who play hard wearing a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt, ripped out every week simply because they love to play. wailing guitar solos while saxophonist John The first time I saw the Monday Night Alexander wailed along right next to him, Allstars I had recently relocated back to often moving from alto to tenor.

It was no surprise that tears were in the eyes of Charlotte music fans throughout the Double Door Inn on the night the storied club closed after 43 years in early January of this year. We weren’t just mourning the loss of the Double Door; we were mourning the loss of the Monday Night Allstars at the Double Door. Fortunately, the Monday Night Allstars are not gone. They’re still performing every Monday night at the Visuite. It’s not the same Double Door vibe, but it’s the same Monday Night Allstars passion, and the venue is perfect for them. But if more people don’t start coming out to see them, as they did at the Double Door, the Visulite won’t be able to sustain these Monday night shows. And if the shows stop, Charlotte will suffer. Big time. The Monday Night Allstars are that essential to the Charlotte music scene. As Brock tells me in the story on page 16, “This town, it tears down a lot of shit. You should at least try to keep some traditions going.” When I heard the Monday Night Allstars needed support to keep going, I didn’t hesitate to book space for a cover story. The history of this band is a history of Charlotte music, and it’s well worth knowing about. Maybe if those of you who never knew about the Monday Night Allstars read it, you’ll become the next generation of Monday Night Allstars fans. The ball is in your court now.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 7

NEWS

FEATURE

GROWING PAINS New cuts and bad blood at Google Fiber raise questions about future RYAN PITKIN

T FIRST, Freda Hendley loved her new job with Google Fiber. Hired in June 2016 as a temporary vendor contractor (TVC), Hendley took a pay cut from her previous job to join a team working with one of the world’s most recognizable brands, helping bridge the digital divide in this city. For a few months, things went well. With that sort of brand recognition behind her, Hendley was able to get anyone on the phone to secure help in planning events for groups benefitting Sickle Cell Partners of the Carolinas and other community organizations. But just a few months in, Hendley would become disenchanted with her mission at Google Fiber. She said she witnessed gross overspending, mistreatment of fellow TVCs and other harassment by Google employees. She believes her decision to speak against it eventually led to her contract termination in February 2017, although it’s unclear that it made a difference, because in March, nearly all of the remaining TVCs — workers who played a large role in Google Fiber’s Charlotte launch — were let go. The cuts were the latest in a series of public missteps for Google Fiber — which announced its Queen City intentions in January 2015 and officially launched in July 2016 — that include hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage during construction and an ever-increasing timeline regarding its rollout. The company, however, continues to deliver on promises to be proactive in bridging the digital divide by supporting local organizations in efforts to connect women and minority youth with the internet access. Through partnerships with community organizations like E2D and Digi-Bridge, Google Fiber estimates that it has helped supply 1,600 people with free or affordable devices, involved more than 163,000 children and families in STEM-based programs and reached more than 1,100 people through awareness and outreach initiatives to date. A Google Fiber spokesperson responded to questions about the March cuts with a short statement emphasizing the company’s commitment to Charlotte. “Google Fiber is here to stay in Charlotte. We’ll continue to serve our customers with the same great service they’ve come to expect from us,” the statement read. 8 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

RYAN PITKIN

The Google Fiber space on 7th Street in the refurbished former Dixie’s Tavern location. Some who have worked closely with the company, however, aren’t so sure.

ALTHOUGH SHE SAID she witnessed lots of questionable behavior by Google Fiber employees during her time there, Hendley said

steps,’” Hendley said. “All I could see was when we were in grade school studying social studies, the picture of what the caste system looked like in second or third grade. I saw that picture in my head and I was like, ‘Oh fuck, I’m dealing with a real, live caste system.’”

or puts on their Facebook, ‘I guess y’all got to give those Obamaphones back now,’ again, I don’t know how much more of that I’m going to be able to deal with.” Hendley said she was told they would check on the matter, but any action was

“We had this huge event at The Vue, we busted our asses, and then it was the next day that we got this cryptic phone call.” -FORMER CONTRACTOR WITH GOOGLE FIBER, ON LEARNING SHE WAS BEING LET GO

one specific incident permanently changed the way she viewed her new workspace. She was one of just four TVCs to sit upstairs at the Google Fiber space, surrounded by fulltime Google employees. The other 30 or so contractors worked downstairs, and it was understood they shouldn’t climb the steps. One day in September, Hendley said she watched as a fellow TVC was chased from the upstairs area. A Google employee came to a contractor sitting near Hendley and ordered them to make sure the wayward employee went back downstairs and stayed there. “We all looked like, ‘Uh, it’s a flight of

From there, Hendley said the experience worsened, and it came to a head in November, when she took a stand against harassment from Google employees regarding the presidential election. Hendley took her concerns to Mary Ellen Player, Google Fiber’s city manager in Charlotte, and Jess George, community impact manager. “There was one black male who was a contractor, and he would report to me. I went to Mary Ellen and Jess and said, ‘Hey listen, I don’t know how many more Obama jokes this guy is going to take. It’s uncomfortable. If someone says to me, ‘Oh, yay, Trump won,’

unlikely because — as Hendley said she was told — “Y’all are just TVCs.” When asked about this incident, Google Fiber reps said they would not comment on personnel issues as a matter of policy. In February 2017, Hendley was told her assignment had ended. Three weeks later, most of the remaining TVCs working at the Google Fiber space were also let go — less than a year after signing on for a job they were told would last at least two years. That news came the day after a staff party at high-rise apartment building The Vue celebrating Google Fiber’s launch there and in

a number of other similar Uptown buildings, made possible largely due to accounts that TVCs played a role in acquiring. Another former contractor told Creative Loafing she had suspected cuts for weeks, but was still surprised by the audacity of the timing. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she and others like her were made to sign nondisclosure agreements in order to receive severance packages that included two weeks of pay. We’ll refer to her as Tiara. “We had this huge event at The Vue, we busted our asses, and then it was the next day that we got this cryptic phone call,” Tiara said. “So when we got let go I was like, ‘I asked you guys three weeks ago. I asked you guys. And you guys lied to us. So now you’re putting people in jeopardy who have children or are trying to figure out their lives again abruptly because you guys weren’t straight with us.’”

IN OCTOBER 2016, Google’s parent company Alphabet announced that it would be “pausing” plans to rollout Fiber in 11 cities, or ending them altogether. The company also announced a 9-percent cut to staff in its national Google Fiber division. However, those plans were not meant to affect plans here. And despite any setbacks, Google Fiber has remained active in the community. In June, during Google’s global month of service, or GoogleServe, the Charlotte office had 100 percent participation, volunteering more than 124 hours to local groups like Behailu Academy and Digi-Bridge, a nonprofit aimed at increasing internet access in underserved communities. For David Jessup, Jr., founder of DigiBridge, it’s crucial that Google Fiber is able to continue operating in Charlotte. Fiber has been one of the nonprofit’s main investors here in Charlotte. Digi-Bridge launched its Daddy Daughter Code-In events in 2016, after partnering with President Obama’s innovative Computer Science for All (CSA) initiative, which included $25 million in grants for computer science education, some of which would go toward Digi-Bridge’s #STEAMSaturday and Daddy Daughter Code-In events. The fourth such event was held in the Google Fiber space Uptown in June, and it’s been extremely successful. When the Trump administration recently released its proposed budget, the massive cuts to science funding included CSA. Google Fiber stepped in to invest in that program and other Digi-Bridge efforts to prioritize computer science education. “We feel like it’s important to keep that work and the momentum up and so Google Fiber has supported us both financially and to help continue those code-ins,” Jessup said. Jessup said Google Fiber’s arrival in Charlotte has put computer science at the forefront of Charlotteans’ minds, and helped spur action where there was once just talk. “Their presence here in Charlotte has accelerated the conversation about the importance of connectivity,” he said. “In addition, of course, they’ve made significant investments in our nonprofit to help us with the work that we’re doing to connect youth to tech experiences and different opportunities for growth and job- and career-readiness. They’ve truly been an invaluable partner in helping us push forth our missions, specifically as it relates to minorities and women in tech.”

Young girls learn computer science at a Daddy Daughter Code-In event at Google Fiber in June.

ALTHOUGH IT WAS FOR those exact

reasons that Hendley and Tiara joined on with Google Fiber, they both began noticing internal problems at the Uptown space not long into their tenures there. Hendley, who has worked for large companies like Disney and Universal Music in the past, noticed careless overspending from fulltime employees who, for instance, would take their expensed Google Pay credit cards to go buy coffee despite the presence of free coffee throughout the office. She said she saw fulltime employees, many of whom had never held another job outside of Google, spend recklessly on company parties, one time spending $10,000 on a community pool party in Highland Creek that could have been thrown for a fraction of that. The workplace became more uncomfortable later, however, as bad publicity seemed to take its toll on workplace relationships. “In the beginning, there was much more transparency,” Tiara said. “Google really started off making us feel as though we were part of the team. Upper management really tried to pull us into the fold, then kind of abruptly, the behavior changed. You saw a clear divide between the vendor contractors and the Google team.” She said the sudden lack of communication and transparency hurt morale around the office and affected how work was done. “A lot of us were always concerned about what is the fate of Google. Of course we’re reading the news just like every other citizen is reading the news, but there still wasn’t a lot of forthcoming conversation about what’s going to happen,” she said. “There was a lot of emptiness; emptiness in terms of the Fiber

space in and of itself. There just wasn’t a ton to do. I think they really overestimated people signing up for it, and then having construction issues and all this bad publicity, it definitely affected the way people responded.” For Hendley, the workplace became toxic. One specific manager on the Google team refused to look her in the face when they spoke. One time during a meeting, she began to voice an idea and he turned his back to her in his chair chair and raised his hand to tell her to stop. “He looked at another Google team member and said, ‘I want to hear what you think because we’re the ones that have to go back and have this conversation,’” Hendley recalled. “Another [fulltime employee] texted me right there in the meeting and was like, ‘Are you OK?’ They could see the heat rise. This was the first time I had experienced this.” Hendley said she doesn’t want to come off as disgruntled, and that she was relieved when the company finally let her go, but she’s disappointed in the mismanagement of a company with so much potential to help people in Charlotte. Regardless of what Google Fiber says publicly, Tiara said she doesn’t believe the company will last much longer in Charlotte. Despite her rocky relationship with many of the fulltime employees left in the space, she said she’s concerned they’ll eventually face the same reality she did. “They’re going to end up selling. That’s the piece I think they’re just waiting for,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I am a human being, so I understand that there were Google employees that were here specifically because they have roots here or in North Carolina. Once it shuts down, where do they go?” RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE FIBER

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VIEWS

LESSONS WITH LEXUAL

HOW MUCH DO I HATE NC, YOU ASK? Let Me Count The Ways My former high school, Harding University High School, is made up of 80 percent economically disadvantaged kids. Poor students who live three miles away from Myers Park — a school of just 30 percent economically disadvantaged students — are bussed seven to 10 miles away to Harding. In a “post-racial” city that’s prided itself I’M 23 YEARS old and I just failed my on being the centerpiece of integration drivers test. After an excruciating three hours since Swann vs. Board of Education, the sad spent at the Brookshire Boulevard DMV, let’s reality of re-segregated schools is especially just say I’m feeling resentful about the entire repugnant. 5) While I’m on the topic of schools, state of North Carolina. As I write this, I’m still reeling from the North Carolina consistently ranks in the smug smirk of my soulless exam overseer, bottom half of all 50 states in terms of who refused to banter with me or give me his education. This is really saying something name. I’ve been away for the past five years, because America ranks 17th in the world and my absence numbed me to how awful this for education, well below other advanced countries like Japan, the United Kingdom state and its people can be. Call me bitter. Call me a virgin [strike- and South Korea. Poor education clearly has through] lady who can’t drive. But consequences in the Tar Heel the rage I felt from failing solely state. After all... because I made a u-turn 6) Donald Trump won instead of a left turn has 49 percent of the vote in rotted into pure hatred for North Carolina. Maybe the entire fucking state. with a more rigorous How much do I hate curriculum and betterNorth Carolina? Let me funded schools, North count the ways. Carolinians would be able 1) In North Carolina, it to see through con artist is legal to rape a woman if politicians. Maybe. she withdraws her consent ELEXUS JIONDE 7) These state run liquor during sexual activity. stores are a scam. I have lived In this God forsaken in Ohio, New York and California red state, a man can ignore a — places where liquor is easily woman’s cries for him to stop if she available. initially consented to sexual contact. I’m Once, I was thrilled to buy Hennessy and pretty sure there’s a southern hospitality joke coconut oil at a CVS in Los Angeles. North to be made here. 2) Did you know North Carolina has Carolina having the audacity to disallow the second largest rural population in the citizens from profiting from their own vices country? This impacts gerrymandering just seems evil. Also, no liquor sales on policies, education standards and tolerance Sunday?! God damn the Bible Belt. 8) Speaking of liquor, happy hour drink for people perceived as “other.” Less hospitals in rural areas means higher sales are illegal in North Carolina. This is health insurance. Additionally, people living a slap in the face to all college students in rural areas are more likely to be stuck in and professionals residing here. We’re clearly food deserts — low-income areas where at living under a fascist state government, least 33 percent of the population doesn’t people. Ugh. I was born here. My family lives have access to affordable and healthy food — which is why we’re the 22nd most obese state here. Like my emotions for Cersei from Game of Thrones, I am reluctantly in a love-hate in the country. 3) Republican lawmakers have actively relationship with an entity that is deeply attempted to curb black and Latino voter disturbed and sadistic. A part of me wants to move away and turnout, by doing research on which ID both groups were less likely to have and making it never return, while another part of me knows that I’ll always come back. the required card for registering to vote. With so much bad, it’s kind of hard to see 4) Thanks to gerrymandering and polite racists “concerned” for the well-being of their the good things North Carolina has to offer, children, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are like Cookout’s 4.99 dinner trays. Hopefully more segregated than ever before. The 2017 I’ll be less pessimistic when I finally obtain student assignment plan ensures that the my license. See you on the streets. city’s poorest (and brownest) go to the schools BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM with the least resources and opportunities. CL’s newest columnist, Elexus Jionde, is a Charlotte native and viral sensation who recently published her first book, The A to Z Guide to Black Oppression. She’ll be teaching more localized lessons of oppression with her new column, but first, she had to get some things off her chest after moving back to her home state.

10 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

VIEWS

NEWS OF THE WERID

BY CHUCK SHEPHERD

RECURRING THEMES Richard Patterson, 65, is the most recent defendant to choose, as a trial strategy, to show the jury his penis. A Broward County, Florida, court was trying him in the choking death of his girlfriend. Patterson called the death accidental, as it occurred during oral sex, and there was conflicting medical opinion on whether that could have proved fatal. Patterson’s lawyer said his standby position was to show a mold of the penis, but insisted that a live demonstration would be more effective. Update: The judge disallowed the showing, but in May the jury found Patterson not guilty anyway. ORGAN FARMING In rare cases, a mother

has given birth for the principal purpose of “harvesting” a baby’s cells, ultimately to benefit another family member with a condition or illness that the cells would aid. However, Keri Young of Oklahoma gave birth in April for a different purpose. After learning while pregnant that her baby would not long survive after birth because of anencephaly, she nonetheless carried it to term — just to harvest organs for unspecified people who might need them. The grieving Keri and husband Royce admitted that some might judge their motive harshly.

FAMILY FEUD In some parts of traditional Japanese society, it remains not uncommon for someone to feel the need to “rent” friends. For example, relatives at a funeral bear grief better if they realize the many “friends” the deceased had. Or, a working man or woman may rent a sweetheart just to help deflect parental pressure to marry. In northern China, in April, a man was arrested for renting “family” and “friends” to populate his side of the aisle at his wedding. Apparently, there were conflicts plaguing each family, and police were investigating, but the groom surely worsened the plan by not coaching the actors on his personal details, thus making interfamily small-talk especially awkward. LITIGIOUS SOCIETY (1) David Waugaman,

57, fell off a barstool last year and needed surgery, and of course he is suing the tavern at Ziggy’s Hotel in Youngwood, Pennsylvania, for continuing to serve him before he fell. Wrote Waugaman, “You’re not supposed to feed people so much booze.” (2) Robert Bratton filed a lawsuit recently in Columbia, Missouri, against the Hershey chocolate company because there was too much empty space in his grocery-store box of Reese’s Pieces, which he thought was “deceptive,” even though the correct number of Pieces was printed on the label. In May, federal judge Nanette Laughrey ruled that Bratton’s case could continue and the jury will decide.

LATEST FROM THE OFFENDED CLASSES (1) Some minority students’

organizations, commenting on the planned extensive renovation of the University of Michigan’s student union building, recommended ditching the current interior’s elegant wood paneling because it gives off an “imposing, masculine” feeling that makes them seem “marginalized.” A spokesperson for the students, attempting to soothe the controversy, said the marginalization was more based on the building’s “quiet nature.” (2) In Australia, Chanel’s just-introduced luxury wood-and-resin boomerang — selling for the equivalent of about $1,415 — came under fire from aboriginal groups for “cultural appropriation.” Hermes had issued its own luxury boomerang in 2013.

ALL THE MORE REASON For not the first time in NOTW’s run, a man shot himself but had the bullet pass through him and hit a bystander — except this time it was fatal to the bystander) Victor Sibson, 21, was charged in Anchorage, Alaska, in May with killing his girlfriend even though he had aimed at his own head. Investigators were persuaded that it was a genuine attempt, though he survived, but in critical condition. ANIMAL HEALTH CARE In April, the

annual report of the Association of British Insurers on its members’ policies for pet owners noted that among the claims paid were those for a bearded dragon with an abscess, an anorexic Burmese python, a cocker spaniel that swallowed a turkey baster, a cockatoo with respiratory problems, and even a “lethargic” house cat — which nonetheless cost the equivalent of $470 to treat.

LEGAL

EXPERTS

EVERYWHERE

American “sovereigns” litter courtrooms with their self-indulgent misreadings of history and the Constitution — misreadings that, coincidentally, happen to favor them with free passes on arrests and tax-paying. But now, the U.K.’s Exeter Crown Court has experienced Mark Angell, 41, who said in May that he simply could not step into the courtroom dock to state a plea concerning possession of cannabis because he would thus be “submitting” to “maritime law,” which he could not legally do on dry land. Judge: “Don’t talk nonsense. Get in the dock.” Angell was ordered to trial. Before leaving, he gave the judge a bill for his detention: the equivalent of $2.5 million.

THIRD-WORLD RELIGION In March, Zimbabwean pastor Paul Sanyangore of Victory World International Ministries was captured on video during a sermon telephoning God. Clutching a phone to his ear, he yelled, “Hello, is this heaven? I have a woman here, what do you have to say about her?” (Her two children, one epileptic, the other asthmatic, are then confusingly described by “heaven” as being “changed,” and Paul ended the call to resounding cheers from the congregation.)

DON’T BE SMUG (1) In the latest awesome drug-mule haul of gold — into South Korea, where it fetches higher prices than in neighboring countries — 51 people were arrested in May for bringing in, over a twoyear period, a cumulative two tons, worth $99 million, by hiding it in body parts befitting their biological sex. (2) Customs officials in Abdali, Kuwait, apprehended a pigeon in May with 178 ketamine pills inside a fabric pocket attached to its back. THE ARISTOCRATS! Recent incidents

of public masturbation: (1) In the midst of evening rush hour in the New York-New Jersey Lincoln Tunnel, Ismael Esquilin, 48, stopped his minivan and engaged (May 11). (2) In downtown Portland, Oregon, Terry Andreassen was arrested engaging “vigorously” because he “hates Portland.” He was charged with “felony” public indecency (May 3). (3) In Dunbar, West Virginia, Tristan Tucker, 27, allegedly broke into a relative’s home and stole security camera recordings of him engaging (April 23). (4) Vix Bodziak, 70, allegedly engaged at a McDonald’s in Springfield, Massachusetts (April 20). Bonus: Police found a paper-stuffed tube sock bulging underneath his pant leg.

NOTW UPDATE Three weeks ago, we touted the genderless, extraterrestrial-appearing Hollywood makeup artist known as Vinny Ohh, but then Marcela Iglesias announced — following a leaked TV clip — that she had formed an agency for would-be celebrities who had radically transformed their bodies and that Vinny is now a client. Iglesias’ Plastics of Hollywood has human “Ken” dolls (Rodrigo Alves and Justin Jedlica), the Argentine “elf” Luis Padron, a Jessica Rabbit look-alike (Pixee Fox), and seven others who, Iglesias figures, have collectively spent almost $3 million on surgery and procedures, some of which are ongoing. Padron, 25, seems the most ambitious, having endured, among other procedures, painful, “medically unapproved” treatments to change his eye color. DON’T NAME THEM WAYNE Arrested recently and awaiting trial for murder: Boe Wayne Adams (Wichita, Kansas, May); Jason Vann Wayne Godfrey (Sanford, North Carolina, August); Earl Wayne Humphries (Dallas, May); Michael Wayne Pennington Jr. (Tazewell, Virginia, May). Convicted of Murder: Anthony Wayne Davis (Elyria, Ohio, January); Jerry Wayne Merritt (Columbus, Georgia, February). Pleaded No Contest to Murder: Nathan Wayne Scheiern (Glendale, California, April). Murder Conviction Appeal Denied: Derrick Wayne Murray (Birmingham, Alabama, April). Convicted Murderer Seeking New Plea Deal: Robert Wayne Lonardo (Benton, Maine, May). Murderers No Longer With Us: Billy Wayne Cope (Rock Hill, South Carolina, February, died in prison); Marcel Wayne Williams (Varner, Arkansas, April, executed). CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 11

Healthy snacks

FOOD

FEATURE

BOOKS AND TOFU Have your vegan cake and read it, too BY CATHERINE BROWN

VER HAVE one of those

Saturdays when you wake up with a whole list of to-dos in your head? Find new reading material. Pick up grocery basics. Buy laundry detergent. Get snacks for movie night. Find a small going-away gift for a coworker. Pick up a gift for the toddler nephew. And, oh, yeah, I’d also like to pet a kitten. You can do all that and more at Book Buyers and its hidden inside store the Greener Apple. Book Buyers is the family-run, used bookstore that Richard Rathers, his daughter Lee Rathers, and his partner Virginia O’Riley established in 1999. It quickly became a Plaza-Midwood landmark. Book Buyers has all the things you expect of a used bookstore — plenty of paperbacks, romance, mysteries and thrillers — as well as a carefully curated selection of older books, out-of-print books and specialized books on almost any subject you can imagine. All very well organized, not just jumbled together. It’s a book lover’s paradise. What you may not know and certainly wouldn’t expect is that, within this bookstore is another store: the vegan- and eco-friendly Greener Apple, owned and operated by Lee Rathers, who, with her long curls and cat’s-eye glasses, looks like the pretty school librarian all the middle school boys had a crush on. I sat down with Rathers inside Book Buyers to chat with her about how her storewithin-a-store came about. She told me she had planned to start a store with her friend Marley Claridge, the founder of Charlotte Vegfest. Plans fell through, however, and Claridge wound up opening Eco-licious (now closed), and Rather opened the Greener Apple inside Book Buyers in 2011. “It was just a few shelves [at first], but now it’s become a little general store,” Rather says. “We keep growing, and we’ll probably start encroaching on the books a little as more and more of the world switches to Kindle and e-readers.” Rather says the inspiration for the eco part of her store came from Book Buyers. “We are in the business of used books, which is very eco-conscious. We give books a new life. And almost everything in our shop is used. The furniture is pre-owned. Even the vacuum cleaner is pre-owned.” As are, maybe, some of the cats Book Buyers regularly fosters. This June morning, a snowy white Egyptian-looking cat with blue eyes is strolling casually about the store, while her three kittens — one tabby, one tortie, and one midnight — wrestle each 12 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

other, chew on my faux-leather boot, and try to crawl into my mock-suede handbag. As for the vegan part of the Greener Apple, Rather has been vegetarian since high school. “I wish I’d become vegan sooner,” she says. “I just always thought it would be so hard. There are so many barriers: I don’t know what to eat. I can’t give up cheese. But all you need to do — if you want to be vegan or just cut down on meat — is make some friends. I made one vegan friend, and I saw what she was cooking and eating, and it was awesome. And I began to think, yeah, I could do that. It turned out to be so much easier than I thought it would be. If I had known how easy it was to go vegan, I would have done it eons ago.” Rather loves to travel, so the inspiration for the Greener Apple came from similar stores in London, New York, Atlanta and especially one in Ohio called Park & Vine. Sometimes people suggest that she should have started her store in Asheville (supposedly the N.C. vegan mecca) but she disagrees. “To me, Asheville is a bit homogenized and very serene. But Charlotte is like this edgy melting pot,” she says. “There’s a lot of different cultures blending, a lot of cool stuff going on, a really energetic vibe. Charlotte is the place things will be happening.”

THE GREENER APPLE is not the only

small vegan market in Charlotte that stocks an assortment of vegan basics such as MoriNu tofu, Just Mayo, nutritional yeast and alternative milks. There’s also the Market inside Bean Vegan Cuisine, which focuses on corralling a huge selection of mainstream vegan products — Gardein, Daiya, etc. — into one space. But unlike that store-within-arestaurant, the Greener Apple focuses on smaller companies and newer products. “I want the really cool products that you read about in VegNews magazines, or receive in a Vegan Cuts box,” Rather says. “The products people are buzzing about on the internet but are so hard to find.” She’s referring to items like Bee-Free Honey (a honey substitute made from organic apple juice, cane sugar and lemon juice), Superfood Parm (flavored parmesan “cheese” made from hemp) and Phoney Baloney Coconut Bacon. Rather says that despite the Greener Apple being a finalist in the VegNews Veggie Awards multiple times, her company still doesn’t register on the vegan marketing radar. “I don’t have salespeople repping new products to me. So I have to stay on my game and do my research and make a lot of phone calls. But most of these companies are

THE GREENER APPLE Mon-Sat. 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun. Noon6 p.m., 1306 The Plaza (inside Book Buyers)

Lee Rathers shows off the official Greener Apple tee. extremely wonderful to work with.” It’s not only vegans who like the Greener Apple. Lee notes that many of her return customers are concerned about allergies. By definition, vegan means no eggs and no dairy — two of the most common allergens. And Lee points out that many of the products are gluten-free as well. Customers with egg allergies come in to buy one of her several brands of egg replacers. Parents of children with dairy allergies shop for Choco No-Nos (a dairy-free, M&Ms knockoff) or dairy-free peanut butter cups. And those with chemical sensitivities appreciate the selection of natural, organic cleaners, laundry detergents and personal, feminine, and baby care. Rather, a former makeup artist for the Body Shop who loves doing makeovers, has recently begun adding more natural cosmetics, including Eco Bella. As we walk down the aisles, she pulls a box of Raw Finishing Powder from Gourmet Body Treats from the shelf and begins reading the ingredients: “Arrowroot, green tea, rose, plaintains, sugar beets, hibiscus, coconut. Every ingredient is something you can recognize and pronounce. Sometimes I joke, if I ever get locked into my bathroom and can’t get out, I could survive a few days simply by eating product.” Continuing through aisles, there are more environmentally friendly products, including an assortment of glass and stainless steel water bottles (including Klean Kanteen insulated Growlers, which will keep drinks cold for 40 hours and iced for 120 hours). There’s also reusable glass and stainless steel straws, beer and kombucha kits, and candles with beautiful fragrances made from natural oils instead of chemicals (there’s the coworker gift). A top seller is the organic bamboo “spork” — a spoon on one side and a fork on the other. Small enough to fit into a jeans pocket, it’s the perfect accessory for summer beer and food festivals — you eliminate plastic waste and never need to worry about the food vendor forgetting to include utensils.

“IT WAS JUST A FEW SHELVES [AT FIRST], BUT NOW IT’S BECOME A LITTLE GENERAL STORE.” -LEE RATHERS

AS FOR THAT gift for the nephew: If he’s not into books, then perhaps other ecofriendly toys such as foreign language blocks (handcrafted from sustainable wood) will do. Rather says her store allows her to stay connected to the vegan community. “I used to go to veg meetups,” she says. “I don’t know, maybe I’m getting older, but they get quite loud and it seems I spend my time shouting, ‘What?! What did you say?’ instead of having a conversation.” Her shop gives her a chance to converse with local vegans in the quieter atmosphere of the bookstore. It also gives her a chance to gently spread her message to regular bookstore customers, who often stop to pick up a cookie, a lip balm, or some breath mints. “So many people don’t really understand what vegan means,” she says. “They tell me they’ve never eaten vegan food. What? You’ve never eaten an apple?” Similarly, many people think eco-conscious means expensive. “People don’t realize that many products actually wind up saving you money,” she says. For example, the Greener Apple sells super-absorbent cloths that can replace dozens of rolls of paper towels. After Rather gives me the store tour, we talk a bit about what we ate before we went veg/vegan. I volunteer that I ate a lot of grilled chicken breasts, plus simply cooked veggies. Supposedly healthy but a bit boring. Now I’m eating Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, sushi while using spices I never dreamed of. She agrees wholeheartedly. “The world of flavors awaits you [as a vegan],” she says. “Flavors are out there. Go find them.” Perhaps your first stop will be the Greener Apple.

Vegan chocolates

ALL PHOTOS BY CATHERINE BROWN

Other healthy stuff

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THURSDAY

WARPED TOUR 2017

THURSDAY

THE LITTLE HOURS

What: Remember when Warped was mainly a punk thing — you know, Agent Orange, Bad Religion, the Adolescents, T.S.O.L., bands like that? Over the decades, Warped has gotten progressively heavier, and this year may be the heaviest yet, with Municipal Waste, the Acacia Strain, Hatebreed and GWAR (famously busted in Charlotte for obscenity way back in 1990). But don’t worry punk fans, the Adolescents are back this year, as are Anti-Flag and Sick of it All.

What: We’ve been giving a lot of love to Charlotte Film Society lately, because they keep coming with great free movies. This Jeff Baena flick is an intense one about a repressed nunnery that erupts into a whirlwind of pansexual horniness, substance abuse and wicked revelry. Sounds grueling, right? That’s only until you realize it’s a comedy starring Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Dave Franco. Baena will appear for a Q&A via Skype before the screening.

When: 12:30 p.m. Where: PNC Music Pavilion, 707 Pavilion Blvd. More: $42 and up. vanswarpedtour. com.

When: 7:30-10 p.m. Where: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 430 S. Tryon St. More: Free with CFS membership. charlottefilmsociety.com.

14 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

My Morning Jacket SATURDAY PHOTO BY DANNY CLINCH

THURSDAY

MEDUSA’S DISCO What: Playing whiplash licks that coil like a gorgon’s tresses, Medusa’s Disco is aptly named. The freakadelic rockers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are a bit of a throwback, conjuring up the late 1960s pre-metal era when hard blues guitar got leathery, loud and slippery as a serpent. Throw in wiseacre lyrics, glam-rock gloss and ambitious arrangements that duel with the band’s swamp vibe, and you have the perfect soundtrack for dropping acid with Mr. Scratch at the crossroads. When: 8 p.m. Where: The Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road. More: $5-$7. themilestone.club.

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

PAINT YOUR PIECE WORKSHOP What: You can go anywhere in this city these days and have a glass of wine and paint a shitty painting that you’ll just take home and throw away. But with this three-day workshop (two if you’re good), you can learn to paint and finish something that could stay with you for decades. Bring a piece of furniture you want to refurbish and take it in for a shellacking, painting, finishing, etc. Must have pieces preapproved by staff through email. When: July 6-8, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Sardis Marketplace, 2328 Crown Centre Drive. More: $120. Reservation needed. bit.ly/2ttfYcN. 704-837-7890.

CANTOPIA! What: This is not your last week’s Food Truck Friday. Sycamore Brewing is rolling out its newly designed cans, although not literally because they’d explode upon opening. While Sycamore servers pour two special beers from the tap, you can check out music from Late Night Special and Falconheart. Also, some FTF regulars: Papi Queso, Tin Kitchen, OooWeee BBQ (the BBQ sundae will have you exclaiming the truck’s name) and Yummi Bahn Mi will be on site serving up goodness. When: 5-11 p.m. Where: Sycamore Brewing, 2161 Hawkins St. More: Free. sycamorebrew.com.

Awaken: Saving the QC SATURDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

The Little Hours THURSDAY ART BY BUILT CITY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

STURGILL SIMPSON

AWAKEN: SAVING THE QC

What: After making one of the greatest country albums of the modern era, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, in 2014, Sturgill Simpson turned around and made an even greater modern country album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, last year. The man is a certified creative genius. No one expected such interesting textures on a country album in the era of horrible acts like Florida Geogia Line, and no one expected such a delicate take on Nirvana. Go see this show.

What: This introspective multimedia exhibition on Charlotte’s complex history and the need to preserve it will launch with a reception aimed at raising funds to Save Siloam School. Built City is selling drawings of landmarks like Siloam, a 100-year-old AfricanAmerican schoolhouse at risk of being destroyed and replaced with God knows what — probably a golf amusement park. Advocates hope to relocate the school to the Charlotte Museum of History.

When: 8 p.m. Where: CMCU Amphitheatre, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $50 and up. amphitheatercharlotte.com.

When: 5 p.m.-12 a.m. Where: Twenty-Two, 1500 Central Ave. More: Free. facebook.com/ gallerytwentytwoCLT/.

SATURDAY

MY MORNING JACKET/ GARY CLARK JR.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOW AND ARROW

TUESDAY

DAVID BLAINE

What: We’re not sure why My Morning Jacket are touring. They don’t have an album to promote. But here they are, continuing to spread their R&B-flavored folk-pop-psychedelia that always seems to get rave reviews for some reason. Us? We’re more interested in opening act Gary Clark Jr., whose Live North America 2016 album, released in March, includes a killer duet between Clark and singer Leon Bridges.

What: The modern man’s magician has mesmerized the market for many years. We don’t really know what that means we just like alliteration. This 40-city tour is Blaine’s first ever in North America, and will include death-defying stunts and jaw-dropping magic tricks. It’s safe to say this will be a bit more intense than that time he froze himself in ice for three days, or at least we hope so. Although if we see the ice cube come out, we’re heading for the exits.

When: 7 p.m. Where: CMCU Amphitheatre, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $30.50 and up. amphitheatercharlotte.com.

When: 8 p.m. Where: Ovens Auditorium, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. More: $29.50 and up. ovensauditorium.com.

WEDNESDAY

CLT NEW CANDIDATES FORUM What: There was a packed house for June’s Charlotte Millennial Candidates forum at Heist Brewery, for which a stage-full of city council candidates under 40 years old were able to discuss some of the issues they find most important in their campaigns this year. This next forum will involve even more folks, as anyone who has never sat in office before but is now running for mayor, city council or school board will have their chance to introduce themselves to constituents. When: 6 p.m. Where: Heist Brewery, 2909 N. Davidson St. More: Free. bit.ly/2slX6wp.

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‘

Current lineup: Rodney Shelton, Jim Brock, Ziad Rabie, Shana Blake, Chris Allen, Rick Blackwell, Joe Lindsay. 16 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

‘

PHOTO BY ALISON VOELZOW

FEATURE

MUSIC

SOUL SURVIVORS After 22 years, the Monday Night Allstars are still alive and well — for now BY MARK KEMP

N A RAINY NIGHT in

Charlotte, a string of multicolored holiday lights twinkle sadly as chaos ensues onstage at the Double Door Inn. It’s a Monday in early January, the final night of the storied Queen City music club, and the Monday Night Allstars, which have performed in this space every week for the past 22 years, are about to dish out another set of thick, meaty, caloriefilled, Southern-fried funk, blues and R&B. Off to one side, original bass player Rick Blackwell cradles his instrument, strokes his chin and gazes pensively into the mist of lights, as if he’s having an out-of-body experience. Way in the back, on the other side, original guitarist Joe Lindsay stares down at the floor. At the right front corner of the stage, original drummer and percussionist Jim Brock bends forward and chatters nervously with friends in the audience. As various other band members and guests plug in, tune up and talk, saxophonist Ziad Rabie speaks into a microphone at center stage about the importance of this Charlotte music institution. Some of the older members in the audience are well aware of its importance; they’ve been coming to the club since it opened in 1973. “For many of us,” Rabie says, “this place will live on forever, but what we want to do is make sure that we keep the spirit of the Double Door going forward into the future. Because the Double Door is like an artist — like, there’ll never be another James Brown, there’ll never be another Stevie Wonder, there’ll never be another Michael Jackson . . . and there will never be another Double Door Inn.” What Rabie does not say is implicit: There will never be another Monday Night Allstars.

FIVE MONTHS LATER, the original core

members of the Monday Night Allstars — Blackwell, Lindsay and Brock — are sitting around a picnic table at Common Market in Plaza Midwood, reminiscing on their 22-year ride as one of the best-known and best-loved local bands in the Charlotte area. The group had recently taken its first-ever break from performing weekly shows, but are now back at it, playing every Monday night at the Visulite Theatre on Elizabeth Avenue, just around the corner from where the Double Door once stood on Charlottetowne. The problem is, a lot of the band’s fans don’t know the Allstars are still at it. “People assume, ‘The Double Door’s gone, guess the Monday Night Allstars are, too,’” Brock says. “But we’re not. Not yet, anyway.”

It’s been tough getting the word out about the group’s new venue. On its first Monday night back, only about 15 to 20 showed up at the Visulite. Things picked up a little after that, but it wasn’t until the past few Monday nights in June that more and more people began to trickle in to see their old favorite band perform old favorite jams like “Sing a Simple Song,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Tell Me Something Good” and “Kiss.” Brock says recreating the magic of the Double Door gigs has been difficult. “I’m not sure you can recreate something like that, you know, but we’re trying because we want to keep doing this,” he says. “I think the fact that after 22 years the Monday Night Allstars have become sort of a tradition in this town, it stands to reason that just because the Double Door went away doesn’t mean this tradition has to go away. I mean, this town, you know, it tears down a lot of shit. You should at least try to keep some traditions going.” If ever there was a tradition to preserve, the Monday Night Allstars is a rich and worthy one. The group grew out of a weekly jam session in 1994 at the now-long-gone Stanleyville Grill, which occupied the corner of Seventh Street and Pecan Avenue in Elizabeth, where a Starbucks now sits. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Les Moore was the soundman at Stanleyville and wanted to put together a night where local musicians could come in and casually play together. “It actually started out on Sundays,” Blackwell says, “and anybody could come in and sit in and jam with us.” Within a year, Moore got a job working sound at the Double Door and took the Stanleyville Sunday night jam with him. “It was still a jam session at that point, but eventually certain players started showing up regularly and playing together behind Les,” Blackwell remembers. Those certain players were Blackwell, Brock and a very young Lindsay, along with saxophonist John Alexander, keyboard player Mark Stallings, and a phenomenal singer and stage ham named Charles Hairston. “We’d play some of Les’ tunes and other stuff and people started showing up regularly and it turned into a band situation,” Blackwell says. When the Charlotte Blues Society requested Sunday nights at the Double Door, owner Nick Karres offered the jammers Monday nights instead, and the players eventually began calling themselves the Monday Night Allstars. “Nick says to us, ‘Let’s try this and we’ll do it until it doesn’t work anymore,’” Brock says. “It ended up working until the day the place closed.”

THE MONDAY NIGHT Allstars weren’t

just random musicians. Blackwell, a Texas native who moved to Charlotte at 15, had first played at the Double Door as far back as 1975, when he performed in a jazz-fusion band. He and Hairston went on to become members of Mo’ Money, one of the hottest R&B cover bands in the Charlotte area at the time. Lindsay, a young South Carolina native who’d gotten a gig playing in a Carowinds show band in 1990, would come into Charlotte to see Mo’ Money perform. He developed a friendship with Blackwell, who eventually brought the hot young guitarist to the Monday jam at the Double Door. Meanwhile, Brock had long been an in-demand drummer and percussionist in Charlotte who first played at the Double Door in 1977 and worked with numerous area musicians including Don Dixon, Marti Jones and Mike Cross.

All three would go on to do serious studio work with major artists ranging from folk singer Janis Ian and country singer Kathy Mattea to rockers Joe Walsh and Joe Cocker to R&B acts including K-Ci & JoJo, Anthony Hamilton, Calvin Richardson and Stephanie Mills. These were hot studio aces who needed the outlet that the Monday Night Allstars offered. “It was like a little release for us every week,” Blackwell remembers. By 1996, the Monday Night Allstars had gained a strong weekly following at the Double Door. People would come in to play pool, drink at the bar and watch Monday Night Allstars singer Hairston bend down on his knees during James Brown songs, dance with female audience members while crooning Otis Redding songs, and sing with as much passion and soul as any R&B great you could name.

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Clockwise from left: Blackwell and Lindsay in 1999; Hairston in 2008; the Allstars in 2008; Moore and Alexander in 1999.

Brock’s son James was young and impressionable during those years, and Hairston’s stage antics rocked his world. “He was one of a kind. Nobody else like him,” James Brock told me on the night of the Double Door’s closing. “One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen was when Charles would sing [the Curtis Mayfield classic] ‘People Get Ready’ and step off the mic, and the volume of his voice — he’d walk around the bar — and the volume of his voice would keep up with the PA. Because he could project so loud. He’d walk around to people and sing to them. It was like church in here. It really was.” The Monday Night Allstars recorded their one and only CD, Live from the Double Door Inn, during their second year at the club. It included classic but not obvious R&B standards ranging from the Jackie Wilson hit “A Woman, A Lover, A Friend” to Marvin Gaye’s “Pride and Joy” to Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” The CD sold out immediately and the band had to print up new copies, which 18 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTOS BY DANIEL COSTON

also sold out. It’s sadly no longer available. “If my memory serves correct, the place was packed every Monday night for two years straight after we put out that CD,” Lindsay remembers. “You couldn’t move in that club, it was so crowded.”

BY THE EARLY 2000s, celebrities were showing up at the Double Door on Monday nights to see the Allstars. Tom Jones came in and sat in the front row the whole night. K-Ci & JoJo sat in with the band. And when the legendary keyboardist Al Kooper, a founding member of Blood, Sweat and Tears and discoverer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, was in town recording at Reflection Studio, he asked if he could sit in with the Allstars. A notorious rock ’n’ roll curmudgeon, Kooper amused the band when he assumed they couldn’t play his classic song “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,” which appeared on Blood, Sweat and Tears’ 1968 debut album, Child Is Father to the Man.

“Al had been here all week in the studio and was just wanting to play,” Brock remembers. “So he came in and did his thing, and moaned and groaned, and. . .” Brock, Blackwell and Lindsay all bust out laughing. “Rick put it best when he told Al, ‘Play your little song, we got ya,’” Brock remembers. Blackwell furrows his brow: “Who said that?” Brock: “You did!” “Yeah, he didn’t think we could handle it, did he?” Blackwell says, and laughs lightly. “I don’t know if I said ‘little song,’ though.” The three nudge each other. They’re like brothers. Brock is the oldest, at 64; Blackwell is 62; snd Lindsay is the kid brother at 48. But the real elder sibling was Hairston, who died in 2009 of prostate cancer. He would be 69 had he lived. “People are my first love and singing is my second,” Hairston told former Creative Loafing music editor Jeff Hahne in 2008, a few

months before the singer died. “It’s fun to love people and have them appreciate what you do. It’s the one thing that I’ve always taken very seriously in my life. I appreciate the love of other people — it’s the strength to get me through what I’m going through right now.” Losing Hairston was tough on the band. He was the wild card. The crazy older brother. He’d come in around midnight, perform like a mad man, then leave. The others never knew exactly where he’d go. “We didn’t even want to know where he went,” Brock says, laughing. Then he gets serious. “But he showed up every fucking Monday night,” Brock continues, “and he didn’t care if it was two people or 200 people, he was on. Always on.” “Always on,” Blackwell echoes. Hairston would call out names of songs at random and the Allstars would charge into them. The band never rehearsed. It has not rehearsed once in its 22 years. The players just do songs they all know, and when they want to add more, they listen to recordings and

Clockwise from left: Brock, Blake and Lindsay today; the current lineup at the Double Door’s final night bash (featuring guest Lenny Federal in the baseball cap) in January; the original three at Common Market last month.

then test-drive them the next Monday night. “You have to realize, Rick had been in bands with Charles for years when we started this,” Lindsay says. “And then I was in a band with Charles — the Charles Hairston Experience — and Charles and I also did a lot of acoustic stuff together. So we already had a very extended song vocabulary. It was real easy for us to just say, ‘Hey, let’s play suchand-such.’” When Hairston died, the band vowed to soldier on. After all, Hairston had told them to do so, and he was the big brother. “They’re talented enough that they can do that,” Hairston said to Hahne. “There are other bands that wouldn’t be able to work if I wasn’t able to.”

THE PAST SEVEN years have been a

period of many transitions for the Monday Night Allstars. They went through three replacement singers — Carey Sims, Mandyl Evans and Jody Gholson — before locking in

on current singer Shana Blake, the band’s first female member. “We kind of wanted to try something different and we heard Shana sing here and there, and we just asked her if she wanted to do it,” Blackwell says. “It’s worked out great. She’s been fantastic.” And there have been many other musicians who’ve come and gone over the years. The current lineup — Brock, Blackwell, Lindsay, Blake, sax player Rabie (the architect of the Bechtler Museum’s Jazz at the Bechtler series), drummer Chris Allen, and keys player Rodney Shelton (who wrote Keith Washington’s 1991 hit “Kissing You”) — is as strong as any era of the Monday Night Allstars. “We never considered stopping,” Brock ways. “We never felt like just because the Double Door closed, that would be it for us. We did give it a little bit of a break before we started back, to let the bereavement pass. If we’d immediately gone somewhere else, it would have been weird.”

The Allstars got several offers from local clubs including Hattie’s Tap and Tavern on the Plaza. “We had eight or nine offers but none of them really made any sense,” Brock says. “We looked at a few places and thought, ‘Nah, we couldn’t do that here.’ Shag dance clubs. Hattie’s. They just didn’t feel right. And then the Visulite called and that’s how we wound up there.” It’s been hard. Everybody knew about the Monday Night Allstars at the Double Door. It was legendary. It had become much bigger than either the band or the club. For one thing, Monday night had been a big pool night at the Double Door. “The sharks would show up and there was this whole other world going on in the back around the pool tables,” Brock remembers. “They were there for that and for the music, too. But we don’t have those folks now because there’s no pool tables at the Visulite.” “The thing about the Double Door,” Blackwell adds, “is that it was the place to be

on Monday night. It was the thing to do — for a long, long time.” “Every cab driver knew it, every hotel knew it,” Brock continues. “So people coming into town wanting to know what to do on Monday night would always hear, ‘Go to the Double Door and see the Monday Night Allstars.’” If Charlotte doesn’t continue to support the Monday Night Allstars at the band’s new digs, the Visulite might have to discontinue the event. If that happens, the core members say they may just hang it up for good. And the loss to Charlotte would be equivalent to the loss of a loved one. Or the loss of a great bar or restaurant. It would be significant. “Yeah, if they pull the plug at the Visulite, my guess is that we wouldn’t keep doing it,” Brock says, and pauses for several long seconds. Then, with a big Cheshire cat grin, he adds, “But you never know! You never know about us. We’ve been through a lot together.” MKEMP@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 19

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

JULY 6 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH John Alexander Jazz Trio (Blue Restaurant & Bar)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Le Bang (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Carmen Tate (Eddie’s Seafood & Raw Bar, Mooresville) Flow Tribe (U.S. National Whitewater Center, Charlotte) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern, Charlotte) Mighty Mango (Comet Grill, Charlotte) Dikembe, Prince Daddy & the Hyena, Mineral Girls, Alright (Lunchbox Records) Medusa’s Disco, Grown Up Avenger Stuff (Milestone) Vans Warped Tour: CKY, Neck Deep, Futuristic, Hawthorne Heights, I Prevail, After the Burial, Emmure, Julie Vera, New Years Day, Never Shout Never, Sammy Adams, Watsky, The Adolescents, The Ataris, Andy Black, Beartooth, Neck Deep, Hatebreed, Silent Planet, Candiria, Anti-Flag, Boston Manor, GWAR, Barb Wire Dolls, War on Women, Microwave, Creeper, The Gospel Youth, Strung Out, Valient Thor (PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte) Natty Boh Duo (RiRa Irish Pub, Charlotte)

JULY 7 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Latin Night w/ La Nueva Sensacion, Sharey y su grupo Klave (Snug Harbor) Steven Engler Band (Blue Restaurant & Bar)

COUNTRY/FOLK Brantley Gilbert, Tyler Farr & Luke Combs (PNC Music Pavilion) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) Sturgill Simpson (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre)

Muse) The Fill Ins, Placeholder, Mighty Mango, Skipper The Lion (Milestone) Hollywood Banks (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Kevin Marshall and the J-Walkers, Crystal Bright, Brut Beat (Petra’s) Blakeney Summer Concert Series (Blakeney Shopping Center) Machine Funk, Earphorik (The Rabbit Hole) Pluto For Planet (RiRa Irish Pub) Sounds on the Square: The Pretengineers (Spirit Square) Thirsty Horses (Tin Roof, Charlotte)

JULY 8 COUNTRY/FOLK The Gamblers Band at the Recital at The Lotus (Stage Door Theater)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Complete (RiRa Irish Pub) Sol Kitchen presents A King & A Prince (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Blakeney Summer Concert Series (Blakeney Shopping Center) Bearden Music Series (Romare Bearden Park) Blue Monday (Tin Roof) Carolina Gator Gumbo, The Relics (Petra’s) Carpoolparty (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Colin Lake (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Heavy Water (RiRa Irish Pub) Little Stranger (The Evening Muse) My Morning Jacket (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) The Pintos (Comet Grill) Pröwess, Scowl Brow, Violent Life Violent Death & Modern Primitives (The Underground) PRYM (The Evening Muse) Rumor Mill (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Sun-Dried Vibes, Tropidelic, Lovely Budz, Jahlistic, PMA, Bubba Love (Visulite Theatre) Wolves & Wolves & Wolves & Wolves, Minimums, Sports, Reference, The Blessed Youth, Huber Breeze (Milestone)

JULY 9

DJ/ELECTRONIC

POP/ROCK

DJ Method (RiRa Irish Pub) Morgan Page (Rooftop 210)

Picnic in the Park (Fourth Ward) Bone Snugs-N-Harmony Karaoke Party (Snug Harbor) Boys Of Summer Tour: Blake Gray, Hunter, Brandon, and Ashton Rowland, Mark Thomas, Joey & Charles, Nick Horton, Reed Deming, It’s Just Nick, Road Trip, Aaron Melloul (The Underground) Rooney, Run River North, Messenger Down (Neighborhood Theatre) Sir Sly, Shaed (Visulite Theatre, Charlotte) Viniloversus (The Evening Muse)

HIP HOP/SOUL/R&B Electric Relaxation f. DJ Skillz (‘Stache House Bar & Lounge)

POP/ROCK 90’s Tribute To Benefit Levine Children’s Hospital (Neighborhood Theatre) Brad Cloninger (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Brady Toops, David Wimbish (The Evening 20 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

SEND US

SOUNDBOARD

MUSIC

Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill)

COMING SOON

JULY 10

Cris Jacobs (July 13, U.S. National Whitewater Center) Spoon (July 18, CMCU Amphitheater) Friends at the Falls (July 18, Milestone) The Lowest Pair (July 20, U.S. National Whitewater Center) The Steel Wheels (July 22, Neighborhood Theatre) Pinky Poodle Doodle (July 25, Snug Harbor) Dollar Signs (July 25, Milestone) Patty Griffin, Lee Ann Womack (July 26, Neighborhood Theatre) Chastity Brown (July 26, Evening Muse) Boy Harsher (July 28, Snug Harbor) Toad The Wet Sprocket (July 28, Neighborhood Theatre) Aborlea (July 28, Milestone) Frank Secich (July 29, Snug Harbor) Future Thieves (August 2, Evening Muse) Fuel (August 2, The Underground) Sumilian (August 3, U.S. National Whitewater Center) Gillian Welch (August 4, Knight Theater) Descendents (August 4, The Fillmore Charlotte) Pleasures (August 4, Snug Harbor) Gov’t Mule (August 5, CMCU Amphitheater) Foreigner, Cheap Trick (August 5, PNC Music Pavilion) Playboi Carti (August 6, The Fillmore Charlotte) Ford Theatre Reunion (August 6, Milestone) Carpoolparty (August 8, Snug Harbor) Farruko (August 9, The Fillmore Charlotte) J. Cole (August 9, Spectrum Center) Wyclef Jean (August 10, Neighborhood Theatre) Erykah Badu (August 12, PNC Music Pavilion)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)

POP/ROCK Cuzco, Via Luna, Stage Kids, Swartzwelder (Petra’s) Find Your Muse Open Mic featuring Michael Logen (The Evening Muse) Locals Live: The Best in Local Live Music & Local Craft Beers (Tin Roof) The Monday Night Allstars (Visulite Theatre) Open Mic with Jade Moore (Primal Brewery) Shannon Lee and Thomas Stainkamp Dueling Piano’s Night (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Washed Out (The Underground)

JULY 11 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Morehead Tavern)

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

POP/ROCK Condor, Garroted, Altar Blood, Throne of Botis (Milestone) Incubus, Jimmy Eat World (PNC Music Pavilion) Jon & Lev (Tin Roof) Robert Earl Keen (Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte)

JULY 12 The Clarence Palmer Trio (Morehead Tavern)

Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill)

POP/ROCK Crystal Garden featuring Boyd Tinsley, Pam Taylor (The Rabbit Hole) Hollow Earth, Axis, Yashira, Violent Life Violent Death, Dad Fight (Milestone) Jettison Five (RiRa Irish Pub) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Open mic w/ Jared Allen (Jack Beagles) Songwriter Open Mic @ Petra’s (Petra’s) Spirit System w/ GASP, 1970s Film Stock, Bolmongani (Snug Harbor) STRFKR, Reptaliens (Neighborhood Theatre) The Tosco Music Open Mic (The Evening Muse)

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JULY 21

CODY WEBB

LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12

AUGUST 19

1-2-3 NIGHT FEATURING

SCOTT BRANTLEY TICKETS $10 AT THE DOOR

AUGUST 25

LUKE PELL

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

CHRIS BANDI

TICKETS ON SALE NOW $15

AUGUST 26

FRANK FOSTER

LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12

AUGUST 31

LAUREN ALAINA FREE CONCERT

SEPTEMBER 16

CHASE RICE

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7/3 & 7/10 MONDAY NIGHT ALLSTARS 7/8 SUN-DRIED VIBES SUMMER SPLASH 7/9 SIR SLY 7/20 JOHN MORELAND 7/21YARN 7/28 YO MAMA'S BIG FAT BOOTY BAND THE 7/30 ROCKET SUMMER 8/29 Great Van Fleet 9/6 BIRDTALKER 9/8 WILL HOGE 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 mkemp@clclt.com or fax it to 704522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication.

SEPTEMBER 23

MUSCADINE BLOODLINE WITH SPECIAL GUEST

BRANDON RAY

LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15

OCTOBER 20

COREY SMITH

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WILD 1-2-3 NIGHTS JULY 8, 14, 22 & 28

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704-399-4946

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 21

ARTS

FEATURE

GETTING UNSTUCK WITH A MEDLEY Playwright provides powerful medicine in an uncertain world BY PAT MORAN

E WALK THE LINE every single day,” Ylonda PowellMedley says. “We might not talk about it, we might have smiles on our faces, but beneath the surface people are dealing with serious issues.” The 41-year old mother of two speaks from experience. She’s seen friends, family and strangers struggle with depression amid dead-end cycles of poverty and addiction. People are feeling thwarted in an uncertain world, she says. Too often, they give up hope as they watch their dreams flicker and die. Powell-Medley believes she sees a way out of this mess, and her prescription takes the form of a play. Written, directed and produced by Powell-Medley, Stuck makes its Charlotte debut July 7 at Duke Power Theater. Cast entirely with local performers, Stuck is a multi-generation saga that combines music, drama and comedy. The play depicts an African-American family in crisis, but their situation is universal. The father is trapped in a self-destructive pattern of addiction. His daughter can’t overcome feelings of resentment. Her siblings are also mired in self-defeating behavioral patterns, and every character comes up against the cycle of poverty. When one family member makes a conscious decision to transcend the family’s ingrained, self-defeating coping mechanism, the door is unlocked for everyone to move forward. The show, the first play Powell-Medley wrote outside of scenes and sketches for her church, was first staged in 2010 in Stratford, Connecticut. Powell-Medley has revived the show several times in Connecticut, but this is the first time she will mount the production since moving to Charlotte in 2015. The Connecticut native got an early jump on theater, landing her first big break when she was a six-year-old student at Betsy Ross Arts Magnet Middle School. “I was sitting in class and they had an announcement over the P.A. system that there was an audition for a show called The Piano Lesson,” Powell-Medley says. She tried out and won the role of Maretha in the Yale Repertory Theatre world premiere of August Wilson’s landmark play, which was inspired by an iconic Romare Bearden 22 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Leonce Wilkins, Xavier Medley, Jethro Richardson and Nakia Savage rehearsing Stuck painting. For Powell-Medley, it was a lifechanging experience, set amid heady company. Influential and pioneering director Lloyd Richards helmed the 1987 production. “I remember he was tough,” PowellMedley says. “He wanted everything to be done right.” Powell-Medley says she is much the same way today when she produces and directs. “I run a very tight ship, because I strive for excellence,” she says. The Piano Lesson cast included future superstar Samuel L. Jackson, and sitting quietly in rehearsals, noting the proceedings, was the playwright, Wilson. “He was a nice but not outspoken,” PowellMedley remembers. “He watched more than anything.” After that production, she didn’t look back. She studied acting at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School and Southern Connecticut State University, and then made the jump to New York. It was an adventure. It was also the first time in her life — though not the last — when she found herself stuck. “I was going on auditions and I felt the roles were somewhat degrading for women,” Powell-Medley says. “I wasn’t seeing opportunities for anything that I really wanted to play, something challenging.” If anything, roles for women of color were even worse. “Rather than doing something cliché or having to perform nude — which I never did — I decided I could write better parts myself.”

That’s when she began producing her own projects. At first she concentrated on

Ylonda Powell Medley

COURTESY OF JESONDA PRODUCTIONS

productions at her church, but in 2001 she founded Jesonda Productions. (The company title is a combination of Jesus’ and Ylonda’s first names.) Jesonda started as a local talent showcase, and then transitioned into an acting and performance school, with two Connecticut locations, which ran from 2006

COURTESY OF JESONDA PRODUCTIONS

to 2009. “We brought local artists and professionals into the same room,” Powell-Medley says, “so local talent (could) display their singing, acting, and whatever else they wanted to do to entertainment professionals.” Eight years and one move to Charlotte later, Powell-Medley feels she is still training actors, but this time through the medium of Stuck. After holding auditions last fall, PowellMedley cast Stuck entirely with local talent in December. She worked closely with the actors in anticipation of the show’s opening this week. “I love working with local talent, and I love working with people who have a drive,” she says, adding that she’s worked with a handful of talented performers who proved to be undependable and unprofessional. “I much prefer working with people who may not be as talented, but who to want to learn,” she says. “They trust me to coach them into a role. “Previously I had always taught children and teenagers,” she says. “Now, in a way, producing the play is my school for adults.” In the play, the middle-aged protagonist Margaret is trapped in her extended family’s spiral of financial stress, substance abuse and dysfunction. It’s a classic recipe for a hopelessness and frustration that PowellMedley believes is at the root of mental illness. The script depicts Margaret walking into

STUCK Duke Energy Theater at Spirit Square 345 N College St., 28202 Friday, July 7, 7 p.m. - Saturday, July 8, 7 p.m. $20 in advance. $30 beginning July 3. Presented by Jesonda Productions www.jesondaproductions.com

Sarai Stedford and Danielle Moore rehearsing Stuck wellness, the playwright says. “She starts by wanting to change,” Powell-Medley says. “It’s a mindset. “I wrote Stuck because I was stuck,” PowellMedley continues. “I wanted to write a play to help people who were in the same kind of situation I was in.” Though the plot points in the show are different from the incidents and details of Powell-Medley’s life, she maintains that the play reflects her emotional truth. She has walked the line like her characters.

COURTESY OF JESONDA PRODUCTIONS

“It’s my true story,” Powell-Medley says, relating how she once felt thwarted in her desires and goals for her company and herself. She felt trapped because she was unable to forgive people who had hurt her in the course of her career. “I was walking around with a smile, but on the inside I suppressed my feelings,” she says. “That doesn’t bring any type of happiness. “If you really want to attain health or get out of a rut, you have to adjust your mindset

Ylonda Powell Medley directing Stuck rehearsal

COURTESY OF JESONDA PRODUCTIONS

to achieve your goals,” Powell-Medley continues. The first step, she maintains, is deciding that you want to change. “Giving your goal a voice brings you power.” You start by saying it with your mouth, she says, but soon you’re saying it with your heart and mind. “That’s when you believe it,” she says. “That’s how the family in the play gets unstuck, and that’s how people I’ve know have done it too. It’s changing your atmosphere,

and not speaking negative things.” Powell-Medley believes her message and remedy works best as a play because people can see the characters coming alive onstage. They can engage and relate. “The play is an avenue for people to pass through the door. A few times, when we did the play in Connecticut, people started crying and had to get up and leave the theater because the characters and scenes were too real for them” Powell-Medley says. She envisions her play being turned into a screenplay, a television sitcom and a book. And she mentions a fan of the show who wants to produce the play in Ghana. “I say sure,” she says. “I see Stuck traveling throughout the world, because it’s a universal message.” Eventually, she plans to set up workshops, conferences and classes surrounding issues raised by the play. “I don’t see Stuck as just a play,” PowellMedley says. “It’s a movement.”

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 23

ARTS

FILM

ZOOM TO GROW Baby Driver outpaces the competition BY MATT BRUNSON

UARANTEED

TO reign as the hipster fave of 2017, Baby Driver (*** out of four) comes tearing off the starting line and leads the summer-movie field for the duration of the ride. Only when it hits the final stretch does it become clear that a little more maintenance while still in the shop might have subsequently allowed it to enjoy a few more victory laps. Nevertheless, this style-over-substance endeavor does itself proud as one of the few worthwhile achievements in what’s turning out to be a rather desultory cinematic season thus far. Writer-director Edgar Wright deserves the lion’s share of the kudos, not only for assembling a note-perfect cast but also for providing them with dialogue that’s often a pleasure to encounter. Landing many of the best lines is Kevin Spacey, cast as a verbose crime boss who masterminds a series of bank heists. Spacey’s Doc likes to use different players for different jobs, but he always keeps one constant on the team: Baby (Ansel Elgort), a taciturn getaway driver who choreographs all of his moves (both in and out of the car) to the tunes emanating from his iPod. (In this manner, Baby is not unlike Guardians of the Galaxy’s Peter Quill, who similarly shimmies to the beat of his Walkman.) Baby is so quiet and reserved that his demeanor endears him to some of his accomplices while enraging the rest. For their part, lovebirds Buddy (Jon Hamm) and Darling (Eiza Gonzalez) like the kid; conversely, Griff (Jon Bernthal) and Bats (Jamie Foxx) do not. As for Baby, the only person who interests him is Debora (Lily James), the new waitress down at his favorite diner. Between the character dynamics, the vehicular stuntwork (much of it not CGI), and the carefully chosen soundtrack, Baby Driver clicks on all cylinders — at least until it hits the homestretch. Suddenly, a storyline that had admirably been kept edgy and unexpected turns careful and conventional, with unlikely character pirouettes and an overextended climax — one, I might add, featuring a villain seemingly as indestructible as Terminator 2’s T-1000 — emerging as the primary, predictable culprits. That’s a shame. Certainly, Baby Driver establishes its own irresistible rhythm — one which deserves a sizable audience — but when it perhaps matters most, it turns out that the song remains the same. BASED ON THOMAS Cullinan’s novel, 24 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Ansel Elgort in Baby Driver (Photo: TriStar)

Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled (Photo: Focus)

Don Siegel’s 1971 drama The Beguiled cast Clint Eastwood as John McBurney, a wounded Union soldier who gets nursed back to health at a remote all-girls school in the South during the Civil War. All of the women, from the middle-aged head of the institute (Geraldine Page) down to the precocious preteen (Pamelyn Ferdin), are drawn to the male in their midst, leading to jealousy, mistrust and violence. Between the poor marketing by Universal Pictures and an atypical role for Eastwood, The Beguiled was a box office flop, yet its status as a complicated and intriguing work remains undisturbed. Writer-director Sofia Coppola has now chosen to offer her own interpretation with a new picture, also titled The Beguiled (** out of four). But what’s baffling is her decision to strip the piece of all nuance and all complexity. Colin Farrell is fine as McBurney, but whereas the ’71 model fascinatingly presented the character as fundamentally rotten but blessed with the ability to compliment, cajole and con at will, this version offers basically a nice guy who eventually snaps and turns into a raging psychopath. As Martha (Page’s old role), Nicole Kidman also delivers a strong performance, but her character is less layered than before — all touches of madness have been removed, leaving only a character whose actions don’t always make sense within the context of what’s presented. Two of the women who become involved with McBurney remain front and center, but both Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning are miscast in these roles. Missing completely — to the project’s great shame — is the character of the slave (Mattie in the book, Hallie in the previous movie) who works for Miss Martha — unlike all the school

shocking. Since her out-and-out masterpiece, 2003’s Lost in Translation, Coppola has only written and directed middling movies about the inconveniences faced by privileged white women. The old axiom states that one should “write what you know,” but in Coppola’s case, that’s proving to be unfortunate career advice.

A CONSTANTLY ka-CHINGing cash register

Despicable Me 3 (Photo: Universal) teachers and schoolgirls draping themselves over him, she alone sees McBurney in his true light. For reasons too spoilerish to blurt out, Hallie (superbly played by Mae Mercer in ’71) is integral to key revelations revealed

late in that film. For her part, Coppola simply drops the character altogether, marking this as a particularly unpleasant example of whitewashing. Then again, such an excision isn’t exactly

disguised as a major motion picture, the utterly boring and utterly banal Despicable Me 3 (*1/2 out of four) is largely the animated equivalent of the current Transformers: The Last Knight. While it may not be as stridently idiotic as the Michael Bay dud, it’s similar in that it also merely goes through the motions expected from an established and profitable franchise. It’s full of rote sound and fury, but while it’s tempting to say it signifies nothing, that wouldn’t exactly be correct. It signifies the continued standing of Hollywood as the ultimate babysitter, providing harried parents an opportunity to dump off their little darlings somewhere, anywhere. If Minions are

involved, so much the better. What made Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) unique in the 2010 original was that he was a villain, only softening toward the end of the film. That sharp edge was filed down in 2013’s Despicable Me 2, since he was now a full-fledged good guy. In this latest outing, he’s only grown more uninteresting as a character, so the filmmakers compensate by introducing a twin brother named Dru (also Carell). Unfortunately, he’s even more bland than his sibling. The sop to adults who are unfortunate enough to accompany their kids to see this comes courtesy of the villain. Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), a former child star in the 1980s, is now a mullet-topped super-villain, committing his crimes while backed by Top 40 hits from the era (Michael Jackson, Dire Straits, a-ha, etc.). It’s calculated rather than clever, and it’s just one more sign of the crushing laziness that this picture proudly if perversely displays at every conceivable turn.

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gravel parking lot popped up. ON TUESDAY, one of my best friends, We went to the bar where there were whom I’ve known for over a decade, asked stools and swings hanging from the ceiling. me to support her at an event. Naturally, I said yes. Since the event didn’t start until 9 I instantly knew then I’d be swinging in one p.m., I decided I should find something to do of those before the night was over. I grabbed to pass the time after work. my first RBV and we walked back outside to I know what you’re thinking, “Aerin, you sit and chat. know you didn’t need an excuse to enjoy Once the event was over and everyone happy hour!” Or perhaps you’re thinking, cleared out, we convinced the DJ to play “Oh no, Aerin, you’re never going to make it some “twerk music.” Now if you want to see to that event, are you?” Sighs. a show, catch me and my bestie cutting up Instead of hitting up my usual spot, on the dance floor! Next thing you know, The Corner Pub, the girls and I opted for we were literally sweating from dancing so something different — Seoul Food Meat much. Just when I was thinking of hitting Company. the road, someone pointed out one of the Located in South End, Seoul Food is a owners. southern BBQ restaurant with a Korean A previous owner of Red@28th, Rodney twist. Last year, I visited with a couple friends Redmond is no amateur when it there and we munched happily on ramen mac and cheese, wings comes to the hookah game. We and pulled pork. chatted outside on the patio I parked along the street for a little bit about the spot. and walked up to some Rodney let me tease different scenery that I him about the $9 RBV remember. A must for I’d purchased, and he the summer, Seoul has explained how he and his outdoor seating, a large partner wanted to create back patio, games, a dog a more upscale experience. area and bar. The perfect And that it was. The vibe setup for a grand ol’ time. was intimate until me and I sat down at the bar AERIN SPRUILL the bestie started twerking all and perused the drink over the place. Note to self: don’t menu. I wasn’t much in the act your age. mood for craft beer but I settled for one with a watermelon twist. *Cues I knew I’d have to suck it up to pay for Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love,” “I been drankin’ another RBV in the near future, but then I watermelon.” looked at the food truck menu. Um, fried We chatted for a couple hours and drank lobster tail for $15?! Sign. Me. Up. Other a couple beers as the night slipped away. It menu items included a shrimp basket, wings, was almost time for me to meet my friend, fries and catfish. Tell me where you can get but before I left I watched the dogs bouncing food like that late night while getting your around in the dog park and got deja vu for dance on? last week’s column. Yeah, it won’t be too long My friend laughed when I pointed out before I’m back on that patio. the lobster tail on the menu, she knows I As I hopped in my car and entered Fire have a weak spot for food, but lobster takes House Bar & Lounge in my GPS, I realized it the cake. was literally right around the corner. I didn’t Even though I was super tired and want to deal with finding a parking spot, so working on a hangover, I’m pretty sure we I put my car back in park and walked toward ended up shutting the place down. Sorry if West Carson Boulevard. I’d passed the venue a few times but I talked your head off Rodney, you took it never had taken the time to stop in. My like a champ! bestie finally arrived and we walked in After getting back to my house you’d together. think we would’ve gone straight to sleep. There were a few people lounging in Nope. The fried lobster tail had gotten me leather couches, smoking hookah while worked up. The next thing you know I other folks performed spoken word and was heating up pulled pork and making music. In the back, after passing the bar sandwiches. and bathroom, another room with leather And that’s how you end a Tuesday turn couches and an opening to the outside and up!

ENDS

CROSSWORD

SEVENTH HOLE ACROSS

1 Diamond shape 8 Swank 14 Hit on the bean 20 “Winnie-the-Pooh” author 21 Crescent-shaped 22 Have a thought 23 Bishop, e.g. 24 Apparel 25 It’s hung and hit at fiesta 26 Start of an instruction 29 “Anne of Green Gables” novelist Lucy -- Montgomery 30 “-- have thought it?” 31 Instruction, part 2 39 Reindeer herders’ region 45 Burrow 46 Scottish estate owner 47 1976 title film role for Robby Benson 48 Gin-and-lime cocktails 50 Weeper of Greek myth 52 Kitchen appliance brand 53 Everything considered 54 Instruction, part 3 59 Catholic bigwigs 60 Huge time unit 61 Elf 62 With 41-Down, town near New London, Connecticut 63 -- about (near) 64 Have -- (know someone with clout) 65 Weak type 69 Terrif 70 NFL goals 71 See 97-Down 72 Instruction, part 4 79 Steamers, e.g. 80 Barbera’s partner in cartoons 81 Artist Rousseau 82 Onion’s kin 84 Proceeds 87 Coffee option 90 Plaza Hotel girl of

kid-lit 91 Venus, just before dawn 92 Instruction, part 5 94 -- Field (Mets’ home) 96 One all, e.g. 97 End of the instruction 109 Team novice 110 Warrant 111 Actor Gary 113 Bee or ant 114 More timid 115 Put to use 116 Mall stands 117 Shines and smooths 118 Vended

DOWN

1 Musical talk 2 Mata -3 It’s a sign 4 Vibraphonist Jackson 5 Ho-hum 6 Inopportune 7 Shilly-shally 8 Model Schiffer 9 Skating jump 10 Animated bug film 11 Go via sea 12 Scattered, as seeds 13 “For cryin’ out loud!” 14 Two-footed 15 Aesir god 16 Confined, with “up” 17 Jack of early latenight TV 18 Bluesy James 19 Merger, e.g. 27 Knitting stitch 28 E. -- (gut bacteria) 31 Band 32 Couscous alternative 33 Opens, as a gas tank 34 Sock variety 35 Film units 36 Baseball’s Martinez 37 Shamrock’s land 38 Revered one 40 Dinner piece 41 See 62-Across 42 Open a bit 43 Taboo thing 44 Unhearing 47 Carlisle of the Go-

Go’s 49 Awful smell 51 Indirect route 55 Tobacco pipes 56 Get clothed 57 Is 58 Material for some cans 63 Alley- -65 Lambaste 66 Rome’s land, in France 67 Acacia relative 68 Badger 69 Incline 71 Resell tickets 72 Mississippi senator Cochran 73 “Mary -- Little Lamb” 74 One of the deadly sins 75 Santa -- (some winds) 76 Lead-in to spore 77 67-Down, for one 78 Personal quirks 83 Article-preceding summary 85 Marks of distinction 86 Cat Nation tribe 88 Pollination organs 89 Pate de -- gras 92 Truck fuel 93 Vessel with a bag, maybe 95 Streetcars 97 With 71-Across, French avant-garde composer 98 TV actress Anderson 99 Ho-hum 100 -- out (barely earns) 101 Lit candle bit 102 “Hmm ... yes” 103 Zap, as leftovers 104 Arduous hike 105 Lost traction 106 Solder, say 107 Jannings of old films 108 Demolish 112 Actor Romero

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 27

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things he’s into (things like ___, ___, and I’m a 29-year-old straight woman facing a dilemma. I dated this guy about a year ___)? If those other things are enough for ago, and in many ways he was exactly him to have a great sex life with you without the guy I was looking for. The main getting to enjoy this particular kink, you can hitch was sexual. Our sex was good, make this work. but he had a fetish where he wanted In other words, IDK: If giving up his me to sleep with other guys. Basically, hotwife/cuckold fantasies is the price of he gets off on a girl being a “slut.” He admission he’s willing to pay to be with was also into threesomes or swapping you, maybe you should let him pay that with another couple. I experimented price. If being with someone who fantasizes with all of that for a few months, and about sexual scenarios you would rather not in a way I had fun with it, but I finally participate in (and who may be fantasizing realized that this lifestyle is not for me. about them while you’re having sex) is the I want a more traditional, monogamous price of admission you’re willing to pay to be relationship. I broke it off with him. We with him, maybe you should pay that price. reconnected recently, and he wants to Another maybe: Are there accommodations get back together. He says that he wants that would allow him to have his to be with me, even if it means a fetish/fantasies without having more traditional sex life. I’m to stifle them and allow you interested, but suspicious. to have your monogamous If he decides to forego his commitment? No fucking fetish in order to be with other guys, but sometimes me, can he ever feel sharing stories of past truly fulfilled with our exploits? Or making up sex life? I don’t want to dirty stories you can share be with someone I can’t while you’re fucking? completely satisfy. I K inky people also worry that down sometimes place a few of the road he might DAN SAVAGE their kinks on the shelf for change his mind and try to years, decades, or all their lives convince me to experiment with nonmonogamy again, because they love their partner, which would make me feel but their partner doesn’t love their pressured. I’m looking for someone proclivity for ball-busting/piss-pigging/ to settle down with, and I’m scared whatever-evering. And, yes, sometimes a to waste more time on this guy, even person says they’re willing to let go of a though in many ways he’s a great fit. Do kink and then changes their mind and starts you think it’s possible for us to be happy pressuring their partner years or decades together in a traditional arrangement later — often when it’s much harder for the when deep down he wants more? non-kinky partner to end things, i.e., after INTERESTED DESPITE KINK marrying, having kids, etc., which renders the pressure coercive and corrosive. Another thing that sometimes happens: People who Every partnered person on earth is with never thought they’d be into X and married someone they “can’t completely satisfy.” No someone with the understanding that X one person can be all things to another was forever off the table suddenly find person—sexually or in any other way. So themselves curious about X and wanting to don’t waste too much time stressing out give X a try years or decades later. Who we about that. are and what we want at 39 or 49 can look That said, IDK, this guy gets off when very different than who we were and what girls — his girl in particular — are “sluts.” we wanted at 29. That doesn’t mean he can’t/won’t/doesn’t get off when you’re not being slutty. (In Visit clclt.com for the full column. this situation, “being slutty” refers to you sleeping with other people, which is only On the Lovecast, Mistress Matisse is back to subjectively slutty.) He likes it when you’re a talk about her very special lube: savagelovecast. slut, but I bet he also likes it when you ___, com; follow @fakedansavage on Twitter; mail@ ___, or ___. (I don’t know your sex life. Fill savagelove.net.fakedansavage on Twitter; in the blanks.) Are you focusing too much on one of the things he’s into (you fucking other ITMFA.org. people) and not enough on all the other

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 29

LILLY SPA

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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE

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

FOR ALL SIGNS Planets which are 150 degrees apart on the zodiac circle are known as “inconjunct” to astrologers. This is a challenging aspect which suggests circumstances that are on hold. Waiting, adjustments, or tradeoffs are mandated. Inability to directly pursue or finish a project is featured. Sometimes the aspect represents being trapped in some type of bind and unable to find a good solution. If we make the expected choice in a situation then we know we’ll be angry about it. If we choose otherwise we will feel “guilty” for not doing what we “should.” This week there are multiple inconjunctions, involving seven signs. If you experience this energy, do the best you can to seek out a win-win answer, one that will not leave you feeling angry or guilty. The positive purpose of these aspects is to bring the ideal more into line with the realistic and practicable. If this goal is not possible under the present structure, then what is possible? Look outside the box for the unexpected solution. ARIES See the lead paragraph. You may be trying to accomplish something related to property. The rules or the laws are getting in the way. Perhaps there is a piece or a part that is at a distance and you must wait for its arrival. Maybe you can be creative and search for another way around the objective. TAURUS Yesterday your ruling planet,

Venus, entered the second house of income and self-worth. She will remain there until the end of July. Your concerns about finances will feel lightened. Debts owed to you may be paid. Meanwhile others will let you know how much you are appreciated.

GEMINI Venus entered your sign yesterday and will be traveling “with you” through the end of July. Her presence gives you an air of poise and people will simply like how you look. She is a people attractor. Often when Venus is prominent we become more interested in art forms and other things of beauty. CANCER (June 20 – July 21) Your plans

and ideas may be challenged by another at this time. You must have clarity about who you have become In order to hold your own in this situation. Do your best to generate a win-win situation out of the duel, and avoid a frank battle of wills. Each of you has a truth. A larger perspective will house both.

LEO THE LION Use care not to make promises for which you can’t deliver. Someone who seems powerful in your life may be asking you to perform some task that is beyond realistic. Maybe it is you. Don’t let yourself get trapped into a high stress situation. It could be hard on your health. VIRGO Negative attitudes or habit patterns 30 | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

of thought may be your undoing this week. Reach beyond them for a meditative place that gives answers to serious questions and encouragement from your source. Avoid signing contracts at this time because it is possible your thinking is skewed.

LIBRA Use special care with your body this

week. You might overdo. Think carefully before you respond to the requests of others. Their needs may be beyond your abilities. Be especially cautious if the request is prefaced by flattering remarks about your talents.

SCORPIO Old issues may surface in any relationship. This time frame is an exercise in truth telling and open discussions of what you know. If you sense that someone, whether you or the other, is not forthright, do your best to create an environment of trust. Give attention to noises or signs that your vehicle is not operating well.

SAGITTARIUS

Please read the lead paragraph because it applies to you in spades this week. Forward motion is halted in a variety of directions. You need more resources (i.e. time, money, energy) to accomplish your aim and at this time those resources are scarce. Consider whether there is a creative way to move forward if you think outside the box.

CAPRICORN The Capricorn Goat is so

focused on his or her direction that he sometimes becomes overbearing and pushy to others. Now is a time in which partners or other significant people are not cooperating. They may be fatigued with your constant management and delegation of projects. Ease off if you want to maintain these relationships.

AQUARIUS

Beware the liar. The probability is high you will encounter one this week, someone who believes his own story, thus making it unclear if (s)he is telling the truth. Check out the sources and ask other people who may know something about the situation. Don’t accept anything of importance at face value.

PISCES It is possible that you are not

feeling well this week. You may be subject to allergy symptoms that keep you subdued. Your self-talk is likely to be on the dark side and mainly due to your fears for the future. The Inner Critic is not necessarily in touch with the whole truth, even though it feels real enough when it rattles on in your head. Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Vivian Carol may be reached at 704-3663777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments. You may also visit her at www. horoscopesbyvivian.com.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 6 - JUL. 12, 2017 | 31

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