2017 Issue 22 Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | JULY 20 - JULY 26, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 22

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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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We put out weekly NEWS&CULTURE

8

ON THE FRONT LINES Local artist chops up photos to raise awareness about gentrification

BY KIA MOORE 6 EDITOR’S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 7 THE BLOTTER 9 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

10

FOOD

UNDER THE CAROLINA SUN Farming companies grow a new level of sustainability

BY ALISON LEININGER

12

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

14

MUSIC THE MOLLYWOP MIX UP Unlikely trio forms a family, finds a sound

BY RYAN PITKIN 15 MUSIC ISSUE: NINE OTHER ACTS TO LOOK FOR IN THE COMING YEAR 20 SOUNDBOARD

22

ARTS&ENT THE SAFETY DANCE Urban circus project examines dangerous living

BY PAT MORAN 25 FILM REVIEW: WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES BY MATT BRUNSON

26

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 PHOTO BY PETE MCCOIL

CLCLT.COM | JULY 20 - JULY 26, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 22

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

‘CL’ MUSIC ISSUE 2017 ‘Local Vibes’ all the time

BY MARK KEMP

TWO YEARS AGO, when we were putting

which has spawned numerous great acts from together the annual Music Issue at SF Weekly, the duo Th3 Higher to the insanely talented the Bay Area alt-media outlet I was editing Allamuto, who’s featured in this week’s at the time, music editor Matt Saincome and annual Music Issue. If you’ve been keeping I volleyed over whom to put on the cover. up with Creative Loafing lately, you’ll know Would it be 16-year-old San Francisco jazz that the hip-hop scene in Charlotte is lit.

But it’s not just hip-hop that’s producing prodigy Matt Wong? Would it be the king of West Bay power pop Tony Molina? Would great music in Charlotte today. Experimental it be the tough Oakland rapper Queens D. artists who’ve been around for years are Light? We ultimately decided on Atish Mehta, still producing cutting-edge art: Bo White’s an Indian-American DJ who was making recent Patois Counselors did a residency this waves on the city’s legendary electronic scene. past month at Snug Harbor, and saxophonist Not once did we consider putting a big- Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa’s name act on the cover, let alone a big-name Ghost Trees has created a real jazz sound act that wasn’t from the San Francisco Bay for Charlotte. In the arena of Americana, Area. The sole reason for an annual music there’s Sinners & Saints, and in indie rock, issue at an alt-weekly is to introduce readers, there’s Leanna Eden, Junior Astronomers, both locally and nationally, to the latest and the Business People, Dylan Gilbert, Mineral Girls, Modern Primitives, and on and on. best music from your particular area.

There’s so much great music in Charlotte Fast-forward about a year. I was sitting at my desk, still in the Bay, checking out that it’s difficult to decide what to cover in the latest online edition of Creative Loafing each new issue. For that reason, to coincide with the 2017 Creative Loafing Charlotte Charlotte, as I did on a regular basis, Music Issue, we’re launching a and ran across last year’s CL Music biweekly Creative Loafing music Issue: There, on the cover, was podcast, Local Vibes. We’ll be former No Doubt singer Gwen posting them every other Stefani, from Southern week, and this week’s California. On the inside inaugural edition features were stories on another Tizzy from Th3 Higher. ’90s alt-rock act, Garbage, You may not recognize whose singer hails from all of the names in this Scotland, and singer year’s Music Issue, and Sarah Jarosz, from Texas. that’s good. You shouldn’t.

“What is going on in They’re all acts that are Charlotte?” I wondered. Is either brand new or underthere no local music to write MARK KEMP recognized. On the cover is about anymore? local trio The MollyWops, who At the time, I had no thoughts first met in the western Kentucky of returning to Charlotte or Creative Loafing, but when circumstances brought me college town of Murray but didn’t come back home to both earlier this year, I sat together as a band until all three had moved down with the staff and we all committed to to Charlotte. News editor Ryan Pitkin tells dramatically change the course of coverage their unlikely story in the main feature of this here. Not only will you not see has-been year’s Music Issue.

Also in the Music Issue spotlight are the national acts on the cover of CL’s Music Issue as long as I’m editor, you won’t see national aforementioned rapper Allamuto as well as female rapper Sidenote; the Latin band Quisol; acts on the cover of any issue going forward.

When I was editor here in earlier years, we acoustic folk-soul singer Randi Johnsoon; did put national acts on the covers of some R&B singer Dexter Jordan; bedroom punk non-Music Issue editions. But we’re no longer project Lofidels; and contemporary classical/ even doing that. Why? Because you don’t avant-garde composer John Starosta. Those need us to cover non-local music at Creative represent just a tiny sampling of the music Loafing. You can find out all you want to that’s happening right now in Charlotte.

We hope you check out each of the artists know about national bands and oldies acts by following them on Twitter or reading Rolling in this year’s Music Issue and continue following Creative Loafing and our Local Vibes Stone.

Our job at Creative Loafing is to cover podcast for info on the latest sounds coming Charlotte music. And why wouldn’t we? from this ever-expanding, ever-creative city.

Charlotte’s music scene is as vibrant today Don’t let anybody tell you Charlotte is the as it’s ever been. In the years since I left in bastard stepchild of the Triangle ever again.

2013, Ms. Bunny Gregory opened her home In 2017, the Queen City is on the cutting to local rappers, creating The Underground, edge of all kinds of music, and if you’re not hearing it, you’re simply not listening.

NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

TOP DOWN Police responded to a CookOut near UNC Charlotte after a woman refused to move ahead in the drive-thru line, which if you’ve ever been hungry in a CookOut line you know means something is terribly wrong. When officers arrived they found the woman passed out in her car wearing only a bikini. Officers noticed the car was still running and in drive, so they carefully put it in park and turned it off before waking her up. She soon admitted that she drank some beer, which had already become obvious long before she even realized she was getting the attention she didn’t actually crave.

ALOHA A 25-year-old woman in southwest

Charlotte learned last week that forgiveness is not always all it’s cracked up to be. The woman told police that the first signs of trouble came when a man she had never met before pointed a gun at her. Usually, this would be the end of a budding relationship, but not for this woman. She told police she then had a friendly conversation with the man, and later decided to get into his car and take a ride to the store with him. The man asked her to buy him a drink (no gun involved in this request) and she said she would, then went into the store to do so, but left her purse. When she came out — surprise! — the man had left with her purse, which she later described in the report as saying “You had me at Aloha” on it. More like, “You had at me at gunpoint.”

HULK SMASH Police responded to one

of the 5,000 pools in the Highland Creek neighborhood after someone decided getting wet in the actual swimming area wasn’t enough for them. Police found that some unknown suspect had actually ripped the entire sink from the wall in one of the bathrooms of the pool, doing $200 worth of damage. In an unrelated incident, a 75-year-

old woman in northwest Charlotte filed a police report after someone made off with a solid concrete elephant that she had sitting on top of her mailbox.

LOW BAR An employee working the graveyard shift at a 7-Eleven on Brookshire Boulevard in west Charlotte found herself looking down the barrel of the gun at around 1 a.m. last week, but had to be upset to know exactly what she almost died for. According to the report, the gunman made off with just $18 and a 40-ounce bottle of the worst beer imaginable, Natural Ice.

GIVING THANKS A 19-year-old man in

Uptown called police after an unwelcome guest to his family dinner ruined his night.

The man told police that he was sitting outside of an Uptown restaurant eating dinner with his family when a man he had never seen before sat down with the fam and began a conversation. After a short and surely awkward conversation, the suspect stood up, snatched a $100 gold chain from the victim’s neck and ran off down the street.

BLOW A woman snitched on her own

son last weekend after making a startling discovery while cleaning her southwest Charlotte home last week. The woman called police to her home and handed them a small bag of crystal white substance and another small bag of white powder, both of which she said she found in her son’s room.

GOOD PARENTING Police responded to a

school bus stop in southeast Charlotte last week after a 13-year-old girl was assaulted by another juvenile. Further investigation found that the juvenile suspect attacked the girl on orders from a parent who was there to witness the incident.

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NEWS

FEATURE

Push

ON THE FRONT LINES

out th

e poo

r

Local artist chops up photos to raise awareness about gentrification

BY KIA O. MOORE [Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on the role of the artist in gentrification.

Check back next week for the second half.]

E

CONOMIC MOBILITY,

social capital, affordable housing. These are just a few of the words that find their way into those uncomfortable-but-necessary Charlotte conversations about the state of our city.

Then comes that term — often said in that uniquely Southern “clutch my pearls” and “bless your heart” tone — gentrification.

Charlotte’s art community is not one to shudder at the G-word, but local artists can find themselves in an awkward position, giving a voice to the displaced while often — and unwittingly — finding themselves at the head of a rush that eventually leads to raised rent and displacement.

Gentrification has found itself front and center in artistic works around the city.

Charlotte artists remove the hushed tone around calling out gentrification, putting their artistic dialogue on display to help force these uncomfortable conversations.

Charlotte artists give a mainstream voice to the muffled shouts of “gentrification” from displaced Charlotteans. Local artists have painted the narratives of the gentrified on brick-and-mortar walls and centuries-old steel at the up-and-coming North Charlotte development site Camp North End, or in the murals of Mosaic Village, just across the street from the historic black college Johnson C. Smith University.

However, that is just one role of the artist in the process occurring in Charlotte and other cities around the nation. A strong presence of the arts community alone can also serve as a signifier of impending gentrification looming over a neighborhood.

The artists that originally make an area a hotspot for local leisure and tourist visits find themselves being pushed out of neighborhoods along with long-time residents, thanks in large part to their own contributions to local culture.

Their murals stay up, joined by rising rent prices and those ugly and predatory “We Buy Ugly Houses” signs. This week, I’ll look at the role of local artists as voices of the voiceless, while next week in this same section, I’ll take a look at the conundrum artists create when they bring culture to a community then find themselves among the displaced.

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JANELLE DUNLAP, social justice creative

in residence at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, has devoted her artistic practice highlighting the gentrification stories baked deeply into the history of Charlotte’s expansion and present day practices. According to Dunlap, “The role of the artist is to pull that underbelly, that thing that is ugly, from under the surface and bring it to the surface by beautifying it, or mocking it, or telling a story with it.”

Dunlap’s family legacy is tied to Charlotte’s gentrification narrative and became the catalyst for her social justice artwork “The Queen’s Cusp” and an upcoming series that satirizes advertising signs associated with residential developments during the building process.

Dunlap’s great grandmother was a member of the first class of black people registered to graduate from the state of North Carolina. In the 1930s, Dunlap’s greatgrandmother brought the family from slavewage sharecroppers to professional workingclass status as a registered nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital, the first private hospital in North Carolina designed to exclusively treat black citizens, built in 1891.

“The hospital that she graduated from is where the [Bank of America Stadium] is now. While building a football stadium is significant to our city, that land is also tied to a rich history connected to many family legacies,” Dunlap says. “For that hospital to be destroyed because of urban renewal, I feel like it also destroyed my physical attachment to my legacy. It is only through word-ofmouth that I learned of the Good Samaritan Hospital. There is not even a small marker to commemorate that.”

For Dunlap the destruction of the Good Samaritan Hospital, contrasted by the preservation of slave plantations, is a conversation that needs to be placed centerstage. Dunlap is currently working on a mixed media photo project mocking leasing advertisements. She captures images of dilapidated buildings and houses that other may consider ugly and juxtaposes images from leasing advertisements on top of the those.

“There will be pictures of people jogging or walking their dog placed with these crumbling buildings. It is to demonstrate the social and urban colonization happening with our community,” Dunlap says. “We have a lot of young professionals moving into the area and they don’t understand their place in this (gentrification process). Not that they should feel guilty about it, but they should be aware that they are oftentimes moving entire communities out of neighborhoods just by their presence alone.”

As Dunlap gets deeper into her mixed media project, she has found herself examining how those not a part of communities of color identify the neighborhoods pre-gentrification, which is often through a lens of “ugliness” and as a place that “must be changed”— including those families that have lived there for generations.

Dunlap’s previous community art project, The Queen’s Cusp, was a community vision board that served as collaboratively construction collage acting as a mirror to the troubling realities of Charlotte’s racial and socio-economic climate throughout the decades. That project introduced Dunlap to the filter used by those focused on the renewal of communities of color, whether they’re aware of it or not.

During her research of the Red Lining

Highway 277 project, she discovered how this filter helped destroy the legacy of Charlotte’s black neighborhoods in the Uptown area, similar to the story of Good Samaritan Hospital.

“I read and did a lot of research behind why the decision was made to displace neighborhoods like Biddleville and Brooklyn Village.” She explained in more detail, “There was a lot of language that said that these communities were ‘ghettoes’ and ‘slums.’”

The more Dunlap researched, she found that these so-called slums were thriving communities filled with upper-class black business owners. “It is all a matter of perspective of what people consider slums and what people consider poverty.”

For Dunlap, her job as a social justice artist is to create works that educate others through beauty and juxtaposition provoking conversation. Dunlap is just one example of many local artists provoking the uncomfortable conversation of gentrification in Charlotte.

Artists serving as the catalyst that start the hard conversation about gentrification is a familiar role that many come to expect from these outlier artistic observers.

However, the innovation of the outlier artists dwelling in a particular community can become a beacon for gentrification. Their creativity and vibrancy provoke conversation about redevelopment that transforms into revitalization projects, which focus on the bottom line and can quickly turn into social and emotional gentrification.

Next week, I’ll look into how hip arts districts often pave the way for displacement in some of Charlotte’s most historic neighborhoods.

BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

FISH IN A BARREL Tourists and father-

son duos looking for out-of-this-world bonding experiences are paying up to $50,000 for the opportunity to “hunt” feral hogs from helicopters in Texas, sometimes using machine guns. “There’s only so many places in the world you can shoot machine guns out of a helicopter and no one shoots back,” said HeliBacon company co-owner Chris Britt. Texas passed the “pork-chopper” bill in 2011 allowing aerial hunting of feral hogs, and in May, legislators approved hunting from hot-air balloons, which are quieter and give hunters a steadier shot.

PRE-EXISTING

CONDITION

Enterprising mother Jeannine Isom in Cedar Hills, Utah, took her 7-year-old son’s dental care into her own hands in June when she purchased hand sanitizer and needle-nose pliers at Walmart, then ushered her son into the store’s restroom and pulled out two of his teeth. Police were alerted after the boy’s older brother heard him screaming. The mother was charged with felony child abuse.

SWEET REVENGE A frustrated victim of bedbugs in Augusta, Maine, reacted to city inaction by bringing a cup of bedbugs to a municipal office building and slamming it down on the counter, scattering about 100 insects and forcing the closure of several offices as officials scrambled to contain

them. The apartment dweller had requested help finding other housing, but city officials told him he didn’t qualify.

THINGS WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEEDED Are cute vegetables easier to swallow? A Chinese company has developed fruit and vegetable molds that form growing foods into little Buddhas, hearts, stars and skulls. Farmers afix the plastic molds over the stems of growing plants, and the fruit fills the mold as it grows. Some designs include words, and the company also offers custom molds.

FASHION EMERGENCY French fashion label Y/Project, in an apparent response to the eternal question, “Do these jeans make my butt look big?” is selling buttless jeans.

The waistband attaches to the legs with a series of clasps and straps, so the pant legs hang loose on the wearer. The Detachable Button Down pants are priced at $570.

NON-PORTA-JONS

Maintenance workers at the Jonesboro, Arkansas, courthouse are fed up with people urinating in the elevators, especially since restrooms are within spitting distance of the elevators.

Craighead County officials hope to stem the tide with newly installed security cameras, which have caught three men in the act since their installation last fall.

Join us at Queen Park Social for the official Major Rager after party!

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FOOD

FEATURE

UNDER THE CAROLINA SUN Farming companies grow a new level of sustainability

BY ALLISON LEININGER

F

OR MOST, sustainable food

means groceries grown in ways that avoid toxic chemicals, treats animals humanely and replenishes the soil. Sun Raised Farms sets its sights even higher.

Area chefs know the company as a purveyor of delicious lamb products, but Sun Raised’s livestock serves as more than just a food source. The company is a key player in a symbiotic relationship between modern technology and one of mankind’s oldest occupations: farming.

Though the farm’s logo features a sheep silhouette, they are not technically the company’s principal product. “Sun Raised manages the grounds for these solar farms,” says sales representative Brooks Mixon.

“We’ve got a network of farmers across the state, from Murphy all the way out to Edenton in the east.”

At most of the 28 sites in that network, the management is done by sheep. The animals get a free lunch while they trim grass and weeds that would otherwise shade the panels collecting energy from the sun. Most of them are owned by the farmers who graze them, but Sun Raised has its own flock on a model farm in Montgomery County. Here, 230 animals browse 123 acres arrayed with iconic silver-trimmed blue panels. Those panels, and the land they sit on, belong to Cornelius energy company O2 emc.

Company owner Joel Olsen may be in the business of harvesting energy, but he evinces an equal enthusiasm for the other farming on his land. “I saw this happening in Europe before it happened here,” he says.

“The whole idea of sustainability is not just generating clean power. If you can generate income for local farmers on the same land, having that dual use, that’s when things start getting very interesting.”

The cost to his business equals that of a tractor-based mowing crew, but the sheep farmers bring added benefits. “Compared to most solar farms, [where] maybe four times a year someone drives by, we’ve got someone on it every day,” Olsen says. “If wires are hanging down or something, they know it.”

In turn, the solar array helps create superior forage for the sheep. About a third of the pasture lies in shade cast by the panels, creating microclimates that encourage more varied growth. According to one farmer, that can offer sustenance for four times the number of animals than 10 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Some 230 sheep browse 123 acres arrayed with iconic silver-trimmed blue solar panels.

ALL PHOTOS BY ALISON LEININGER

traditional pastures. The Montgomery farm was formerly a staged hunting ground, after previous attempts to cultivate tobacco failed.

Today, as Olsen says, “We created 123 acres of agriculture that didn’t exist before.”

Those additional acres mean a lot. For most farmers, the cost of land is the single largest obstacle to success. According to Olsen, the typical annual lease for farmland in this state is about $75 to $100 per acre.

Multiply that by the average farm size of 171 acres, and you’re looking at an annual cost of $15,000 in a business with one of the tightest margins around.

Through the program administered by

Mixon and grounds maintenance supervisor Brock Phillips, that obstacle is removed.

Once contracted to manage a solar site, Sun Raised offers sheep farmers the pasture free of charge. The farmers can sell the animals at auction, or take advantage of the company’s sales team that markets their own branded salamis to farm-to-table restaurants in the area.

It seems like a simple enough setup — throw some sheep on the ground, let them eat all that free food, profit! But of course, it’s not that straightforward.

“Managing a sheep farm requires a good deal of time,” says Mixon. The animals must

be moved every two weeks between sections of pasture, encouraging them to eat as much errant foliage as possible. They need water daily, worming medicine monthly, and the occasional doctoring for hoof problems.

They also get some additional feed, to help fatten animals for market.

All that handling makes the sheep surprisingly friendly. The mix of English Dorper and American Kitahdin breeds that grazes the Montgomery site come readily to a lyrical “Eeee-oooo” call, replying with loud, throaty cries. They sport a mélange of coats, from white to dark brown, that do not require shearing, helping them survive warmer climates.

Here, a full-time farm manager cares for the flock, while Phillips works on refining the final product. The goal is to improve the strain for larger, more marketable animals that will thrive in our hot summers. For the moment, Sun Raised offers only three salami products, primarily to chefs serving farm-totable fare.

Clark Barlowe of Heirloom restaurant was one of the first Charlotte chefs to taste the salami, and was so enthused he ordered an entire case on the spot.

“It has a fantastic texture,” Barlowe says.

“It’s not a very gamey lamb, so it works really well for this style of product.”

Matthew Krenz of the Asbury appreciates the “bright” flavor of the hot soppressata that stands out from the more traditional pork version.

“It has a really clean finish, so you know you are eating lamb,” Krenz says.

Both chefs also cheer the sustainability behind the salami.

“I think it’s brilliant,” says Krenz. “I love what they’re doing!” Barlowe hopes

to eventually purchase whole lambs, and has already planned an on-site butchery demonstration to show others how to make the most of this local product. “I love the program so much that I want to support it,” he says.

Back at the farm, Olsen shows off improvements underway that will help Barlowe do just that. Rental cabins; plantings of muscadines, apples, and blueberries; and a commercial-grade kitchen will create a destination space for dinners, cooking classes and corporate getaways. All this to add another layer of sustainability for a languishing local economy.

“For too long the rural areas of our state have just been neglected,” Olsen says. “We’re doing something here that is going to be innovative.”

While work remains to be done, positive energy hums in the air. “It’s a long learning process, but something we’re dedicated to,” says Mixon.

With so many active players, it seems this collaboration has plenty of sunny days ahead.

Sun Raised sales rep Brooks Mixon (left) and ground maintenance supervisor Brock Phillips.

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THURSDAY

20

SCAVENGER HUNT What: The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation is hosting this photo scavenger hunt in one of Charlotte’s prettiest parks for the Young Allies of the River. Discuss and learn about environmentalism with other like-minded folks in the area. After the team hunt, kick back with some beer and pizza, which will be inluded in the price.

And when you’re done with that, just toss the beer cans in the pond and leave the pizza box in the field, someone will pick it up. (We’re kidding!)

When: 6:15-8 p.m.

Where: Freedom Park, 1900 East Blvd.

More: $5. bit.ly/2uvq5ve.

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THURSDAY

20

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Bechtler By Night FRIDAY

PHOTO BY ANDY GOH

THURSDAY

20

WHAT WE TOLD OUR SONS

THE LURE

What: The death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 served as a tragic jumpoff point for many, like Charlotte’s Bree Newsome, who went on to dedicate their lives to activism against injustice. In this Screen @ Levine event, filmmaker Dayvee Sutton explores the reactions families had to the death of Trayvon Martin and larger issues related to “the talk” many parents have to have with their children about how to conduct themselves around law enforcement.

What: So two mermaids walk into a bar. If that sounds like the start of a joke, it is, albeit a sick and sinister one. This 2015 Polish film follows two sister sirens who befriend a rock band and follow the musicians back to a seedy nightclub. There, the mermaids sing for their supper.

The trouble is that supper in this case just happens to be humans.

Lavishly choreographed musical numbers strike a queasy balance with gruesome scenes of mermaid feeding.

When: 6:30-9 p.m.

Where: Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. 7th St. More: $5-10. museumofthenewsouth.org.

When: 7:30 p.m.

Where: C3 Lab, 2525 Distribution St. More: $5 - 10. charlottefilmsociety. com.

FRIDAY

21 SUMMER OF ‘69 What: These monthly Bechtler

by Night events have become the hip new thing in the Uptown arts scene, but like, we knew about them before. We’re not late, OK? This month’s theme allows you to relive the last summer of peace and love before cocaine and disco turned everything to shit. Order the custom drink for the night, a Tequila Sunrise, and take part in a tie-dye art activity in the secondfloor classroom. If time allows, stroll your high ass around the art gallery, too.

When: 5-9 p.m.

Where: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 S. Tryon St. More: Free. bechtler.org.

FRIDAY

21 IDINA MENZEL What: So you love musicals. You raved about Rent. You followed Glee with glee. You were enchanted

by Wicked and bewitched by Enchanted. You just can’t “Let It Go.” Well, then, you must go see Idina Menzel when she brings her sack of Broadway hits to Charlotte.

Her latest album is idina — with a small “i.” But there’s nothing small about this woman’s voice. And to think, her mom was a therapist and her dad was a pajama salesman. A Broadway career was inevitable When: 8 p.m.

Where: CMCU Amphitheatre, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd.

More: $25 and up. amphitheatercharlotte.com.

‘What We Told Our Sons’ filmmaker Dayvee Sutton THURSDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Pinky Doodle Poodle TUESDAY

Chastity Brown WEDNESDAY

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOD CHARMED RECORDS

PHOTO BY DAVID LAROCHELLE

PHOTO BY WALE AGBOLA

SATURDAY

SATURDAY

808!704 BEAT BAZAAR

STORYTELLING IN FILM

PHANTOGRAM

PINKY DOODLE POODLE

CHASTITY BROWN

What: We don’t even know where to start with the insane lineup for this day party that (we hope) will be reminiscent of the old summer Squirt Parties at Snug, so we’re just going to throw some names at you. Mike Astrea of Astrea Corps; Prof. Logik from Spartanburg, S.C.; the shamanic sounds of Cosmoore; progressive multimedia master Axnt; and other producers, beat makers and DJs like NahhG, Deku and Oak City Slums. Also, look for a wide range of local vendors.

What: Rodney Stringfellow, a screenwriter and professor at UNC Charlotte, and Aaron Putnam, motion director at local ad agency Wray Ward, lead a discussion about the use of storytelling in our culture and other cultures to educate, entertain and (of course) sell shit.

Beyond just the art of storytelling, they will also be discussing the importance of technology and why brands spend big money on a good story. This is a free event for the creative community sponsored by local nonprofit Collaboration Films.

What: The whole Creative Loafing crew went next door to the Fillmore for Phantogram’s Halloween show last year. Well, they must have had as good of a time as us because they’re coming back just months later, and we’ll probably help fill the building again. We’re just not dressing up this time (probably). They’ve not released any new albums or anything since their last show, but that’s all the better. Who wants to hear new shit at a show, anyway?

What: They take their name from a clothing line designed for American dolls. Their bass-playing front woman is a popular anime singer in video games. Their guitarist is a long-haired shredder fixated on Bad Brains and MC5. What’s not to love about these high-energy Japanese punk poppers? Pinky Doodle Poodle’s brisk, energetic tunes, sung in a mix of Japanese and English, swirl around a maelstrom of squalling noise. It’s the perfect mix of the ear-bleeding and the simply adorable.

What: Chastity Brown’s urgent driving tunes retain the flavor of roots music, even as they rock harder and venture further from the Americana fold. Ranging from a laid back croon to a soulful swagger, Brown, like her friend Ani DiFranco, examines tumultuous relationships, social justice and the bittersweet freedom of letting go with humor, resiliency and steely resolve.

Brown makes music for and about outsiders, which at one time or another is each and every one of us.

22

When: 2-7:30 p.m.

Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $10. snugrock.com.

22

When: 1-3 p.m.

Where: The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave. More: Free. lightfactory.org.

SATURDAY

22

When: 7 p.m.

Where: The Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: Sold out. fillmorecharlottenc. com.

TUESDAY

25

When: 9 p.m.

Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $8. snugrock.com.

WEDNESDAY

26

When: 7 p.m.

Where: Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: $10-12. eveningmuse.com.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | 13

THE MUSIC ISSUE

We begin this year’s Music Issue with a fun story about the formation of The MollyWops, followed by short highlights of nine other Charlotte-area bands you probably haven’t heard of, but need to tune in to.

THE MOLLYWOP MIX UP Unlikely trio forms a family, finds a sound

BY RYAN PITKIN

A

CCORDING TO THE top definition of “molly wop” in the Urban Dictionary, the term means, “To reach waaay back with your pimp hand, damn near knocking oneself off balance to deliver a massive blow with an inside closed fist to the temple of your hoe or foe.”

Putting the disturbing misogyny aside for a moment, the definition is indicative of the surprise one gets when first seeing Charlotte band The MollyWops play live. When you see two young ladies with acoustic guitars hit the stage in front of a bearded drummer who looks straight out of Anthrax, and then start playing a fusion of hip-hop, folk and soul, it can be striking.

Sitting in their garage-turned-studio just feet from the home the three band mates share in NoDa, the contrasting crew explains how the name fits.

“It basically means to hit someone in the head really hard with all your force, and it fits because that’s kind of what The MollyWops’ music does,” says guitarist/vocalist Tiffany Lozada. “We go up and you don’t really know what we’re going to sound like or what we’re going to do, and then you’re like, ‘Oh shit.’”

Lozada’s fellow guitarist/vocalist Jessica Evans hops in to finish the hypothetical.

“You’re like, ‘What is this girl going to do?’ and I’m just like, ‘Doo, doo-doo, doo, doo,’ and then Tiffany raps and it’s like, bam, you’re molly wopped.”

Evans could be described as the singer in the group, if we’re going to be throwing around labels, but Lozada, whose raps sync with Evans’ melodies perfectly — and sometimes simultaneously — matches her presence on stage.

Add former New York slash metal/punk drummer Pete McCoil, and you’ve got a mix that works, despite all the reasons it shouldn’t.

“When you look at them, they all look like 14 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

s p o W y l 1.Mol

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

they came from a different walk of life,” says Joe Kuhlmann, owner of the Evening Muse, where the band cut its teeth at open mics. “If you had the three of them in a room somewhere and a bunch of other people around, you would not be like, ‘Those three are in a band.’ But when they’re together, you see it and you feel it.”

The unlikely trio met in the tiny western Kentucky college town of Murray. They hung around the same bars playing open mics, and every once in a while McCoil would hop behind a drum set to surprise one of the ladies during their own respective sets, which they each welcomed.

In October 2015, McCoil and Lozada moved to Charlotte and began playing together in earnest. When Evans came by to visit a month later, she joined in on a few sets and quickly decided to stay.

“I couldn’t leave them, they’re my family,” Evans says. “I do have biological family, of course, but this is the family that I chose. I couldn’t leave the music, I couldn’t leave my dreams behind knowing that this is something that could have happened.”

The three moved into the NoDa house together with McCoil’s girlfriend, who serves

as the band’s financial consultant, and began playing the Muse open mics.

“There’s a really cool new twist on the girl duo thing that they’re doing,” Kuhlmann says. “There’s a hip-hop feel to it but it’s not so over-the-top hip-hop, because there’s still like a folksy, soul type of thing that’s trying to come through.”

As he’s wont to do with bands that catch his ear, Kuhlmann began giving the band tips, urging Lozada and Evans to engage more in their stage presence while saying the opposite to McCoil, suggesting he tone down the heavy tendencies that came from his past life as a touring metal drummer.

Two years later, Kuhlmann barely remembers what he said to The MollyWops ( “I think I said something along the lines of, ‘You have to dig and believe in what you’re doing before you can actually get others to buy into it, too.”), but they credit his advice with helping build them up.

“He said some critical things to us and I bit my tongue and swallowed my pride, and they really did help,” McCoil says. “I’m a stubborn musician when it comes to, if I want to do it I’m going to do it. But I also learned

with these two that they’re the stars of the show when it comes to this band.”

Kuhlmann also helped build the confidence of those two stars of the show, albeit in an accidental and roundabout way.

“The legitimate thing that he told me, word for word was, ‘I don’t like your style of music but I fucking love you guys. You guys do it really well and I want to listen to it always,’” Evans recalls. “He was so straightforward about it and that was the one moment where I was like, ‘You know what, we’re doing good.

Even if people don’t like us, they still fucking like us.’”

And people do like them. In fact, The MollyWops almost found themselves with a major record deal about a year after playing their first show. According to the band, Warner Bros. showed interest in signing them early this year, offering them a headlining spot on a tour of six brand new acts.

There was just one problem: they wanted to change the band. A label rep emailed McCoil with some suggestions, which, ironically enough, included replacing him to form an all-female outfit.

The veteran drummer told Evans and Loranzo, 23 and 27, respectively, that they may never get another chance like this and that maybe they should take it. They were having none of it.

“He’s like, ‘You know what, it sucks, but if you girls want to go off and try it, you should,’” recalls Loranzo. “But for me, it didn’t matter. I don’t need to sell my soul to be able to do that. I didn’t think twice about it. Once I knew that they didn’t want Pete, I was like, ‘Well, I don’t want them.’”

Loranzo pointed out that Warner Bros. would have never heard of The Mollywops if it weren’t for McCoil, who records, produces and masters all of the band’s music in their garage studio then puts it on the internet and promotes it himself.

“I was like, ‘No. Absolutely fucking not,’” says Evans, who chose this family over her biological one. “I would hope that you would not replace me, so I’m not going to replace you either.”

Listening to his band mates reactions, it’s clear McCoil is more than appreciative that they didn’t take him up on his humble suggestion. From behind his drum set he beams proudly at their recollections.

“That’s loyalty right there,” he says.

And that’s what family is for.

2017

2. Randi Johnsoon

Name: Randi Johnsoon (she’d

call herself by her real name, Randi Johnson, but someone already claimed it on Facebook.)

Age: 39 Genre: Folk soul / acoustic rock Beginnings: 1977 Neighborhood: “The outskirts way out west near the U.S. Whitewater Center.”

Weirdest (or worst) gig: “I played at a now-defunct doggy bar on 7th Street; dogs frequently sniffed me whilst I played ‘80s

pop songs. And I cannot blame them for doing so; I have tree-like characteristics.”

Next gig or recording:

“My next gig will be for a 12-yearold-and-under daycare. I am in the works of recording a 4-song EP at Asylum Digital.” (Meanwhile, check out Randi’s soundcloud page, soundcloud.com/guitargirlcity, for her terrific lo-fi cover verions of songs by artists ranging from Janet Jackson to Peter Gabriel to Nine Inch Nails. — Mark Kemp CLCLT.COM | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | 15

THE MUSIC ISSUE

Name: Lofidels Genre: Lo-fi, post-punk Beginnings: 2014 Member: Lenny Muckle Weirdest (or Worst) Performance: “It was at

Tommy’s Pub. I had the initial concept; write the songs to completion, remove the instrument I’d be playing and the main vocal, play the tracks off of a device and fill the rest in live. At the last minute, I totally panicked and decided to revise all the songs so that I was

singing and playing bass instead of guitar, which I’d never done.

Zero miracles occurred there. I figured the show was terrible, but the owner memorably said it reminded him of The Pixies. Turns out DIY freedom is honestly pretty dangerous.”

Next gig or recording:

’Demonstration,’ out in September.

And where does he see himself this time next year? “Writing or finishing planned album number three. I might have an actual band!” — Grey Revell

3.Lofidels

4.Quisol Name: Quisol Genre: Latin Future: Futuris-

tic Afro-Caribbean beats, salsa, bossa nova, and soul Beginnings: December 2016 Members: Singer-songwriter Joseph Samuel Quisol; percussionists Nikolas Maldonado, 23, and Michael David Gonzalez, 22; bassist Randall Davis, 24; sax man Kevin Washburn, 24. The members are diverse with Puerto Rican, Oglala Lakota, Paraguayan, Ecuadorian and Colombian roots.

Weirdest performance:

16 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

“We hosted the second episode of Queen’s Collective on January 6, 2017. We had the venue secured for just that day, so when we found out it was going to snow we decided to go through with the event. Audience members danced as snow began to fall. It hardly snows in Charlotte, and when it does, everything shuts down.

Not us! We actually played in the ice and everyone made it home safely.”

Next gig or recording:

July 29, Queen’s Collective Episode 5 — G.R.

THE MUSIC ISSUE

Name: Blu House Genre: Electric blues/rock/soul Beginnings: June 2016 Members: Roscoe Leon, 25, lead vocals; Calvin Rembert, 29, lead guitar and vocals; Ricardo Portillo, 25, bass; Jeremy Dupree, 23, drums; Karlon Grant, 27, drums

Origin of the name? “Living in the South, and most of us growing up here, blues was the music that most influenced us,” Leon says. “The way it has everything to do with the emotional bearing of what happens in life.

We feel the blues is the perfect landscape to begin our journey together as musicians.”

6.Dexter Jordan

Rembert adds that Blu House’s goal is to explore ways to reimagine blues traditions, from James Brown to Led Zeppelin. “Rock, metal, punk are all cut from the same cloth,” he says. “Soul shit.”

Next gig: Blu House will play the Milestone Aug. 10, promoting its debut album ‘B|Side.’

show: “One time in church I

Where do you see yourelf this time next year? ”The plan is to get some

exposure going in different cities and states while continuing to be a part of pushing the culture in the place we call home, Charlotte, N.C.” — Kia Moore

5. Blu House

Name: Dexter Jordan Age: 23 Genre: R&B/Soul Beginnings: Jordan has been

singing since age 5, starting in the church. His music career got its jump-start when he attended the arts high school Weaver Academy in Greensboro. “I was exposed to so many things, and learned how much I enjoyed doing music. If it was not for my teachings at Weaver Academy, I am not sure if I would have decided to become an artist.”

Weirdest (or worst)

had to sing early in the morning.

I tried to hit this high note and cracked. It was pretty bad, because so many people were in the audience. However, it taught me what I should do to not let that ever happen again.”

Next gig or record: ‘ALIVE Sessions,’ a collaboration with hip hop artist Yung Citizen, at Petra’s July 23. Jordan ‘s new record, ‘Hello, New Me,’ a reflection on everything he has been through since his mother passed in 2016, is due soon.

Where do you see yourself this time next year? “I see myself still living

in the moment, and striving to be the best I can be. I’ve learned not to control anything, but let the universe guide me in the right direction.” — K.M.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | 17

THE MUSIC ISSUE Name: Trismalux Genre: Funk/hip-hop/rock Beginnings: January 2016.

Members: Drummer Chaz

Harris, 27, lives in Gastonia; guitarist Mike Marrero, 25, lives off of South Boulevard in Charlotte; vocalist Conrad Harvey, 26, and bassist Alex Kalicinski, 26, both call Mint Hill home.

7. Allamuto

Name: Allamuto (means Wolf God)

Age: 24 Genre: Alternative soul / trip-

hop / erotica

Beginnings: Allamuto began

his music career in 2012 in Augusta, Georgia. “My music career started after I became a published poet. I entered a writing competition to get out of my senior essay.

The poem that won was called ‘Lies Upon a Million Eyes.’ [Winning] gave me the fire of feeling what I had to say mattered to someone.”

18 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Neighborhood: The Un-

derground. “It is not a specific location in Charlotte. It’s where we developed more as artists together. From throwing raves until 10 in the morning to building with the underground hip-hop community and spreading peace through bonfires, The Underground is our place to do what we wanted.”

Next gig or recording: Allamuto’s debut album ‘The Underground’ is set for a January 2018 release. — K.M.

Weirdest (or worst) performance: “It was ac-

tually a solo gig, before Trismalux,” singer Harvey remembers.

“Now, this is nothing against the Double Door, rest its soul, but I got booked to play a CD release of a band I won’t name, and for no

reason I can think of, the headliners decided to make me go on after them. So, they finished the show to a packed house. Then, everyone cleared out, I mean everyone. It was easily the worst gig I ever played. (laughs) That was in 2014.”

Next gig or recording: EP will be released in late summer, beginning with a song a week starting in August.

Where do you see yourself this time next year: “The intent is to cover as much ground digitally and reach as many humans as possible,” Harvey says. — G.R.

8.Trismalux

THE MUSIC ISSUE 9.John a t s o r a t S Name: John Starosta Age: 48 Genre: 21st Century Classical Beginnings: Starosta com-

pleted his studies in music theory and 20th century composition in 2002 with an emphasis on serial and 12-tone music. At the same time, he studied under composer Craig Bove, a former student of new music pioneer Morton Feldman. While Bove had adopted some composition techniques from Feldman (including the idea

of “slow-evolving music with recurring asymmetrical patterns”), Starosta and Bove together explored further the notion of composing in what he calls “an effortless mind state, while allowing the music to explore itself during the writing process.” Continuing to exercise these philosophies, Starosta was determined to find his own voice during the years of studying under Bove, and to this day explores the many facets of sound and the thrill of organizing it into musical contexts.

Weirdest (or worst) performance: “Me and a

pianist who was performing my work had a concert in Minneapolis...one person showed. Lesson in marketing.”

Current project: “Ongoing composition for two mechanical pianos (unplayable by humans).”

You can hear those and other works from this talented Charlotte composer at his soundcloud page: soundcloud.com/john-starosta, or watch them at starostajohn.org/video — M.K.

Neighborhood: “I just

moved back to the Plaza Midwood area from the west side of Charlotte. I’m from Charlotte and lived in a few different areas.”

Weirdest (or Worst) gig: “I want to say I’ve been

1

e t o n e 0. Sid Name: Summer Windham Stage Name: Sidenote Age: 27 Genre: Hip-hop Beginnings: “Officially, in

2012, I put out my first project, a poetry tape called ‘The Relationship.’ Once I got more comfortable with rapping I dropped my first mixtape, ‘Pass the Ketchup,’ in 2014. I’ve always wanted to rap. I used to watch my mom rap over beats. Finally got the strength to go for my dreams no matter what people thought.”

pretty fortunate not to think I’ve had an ‘awful’ gig. I guess I’ll say the weirdest gig was my first gig.

It was in a basement of this house that everyone called the Shaus.

I performed with my collective mates Hectorina. It was weird because of the decor, but it was actually pretty awesome for my first show ever.”

Next recording: “I just

dropped my first album called ‘MR’ and had a release show with Autumn Rainwater and Ricky Rogers at the awesome LeAnna Eden’s ‘Sessions.’ I’m currently writing again and in the studio working on a new project.”

Where do you see yourself this time next year: “On tour. I see my growth reaching new heights carrying the same spirit but dipping my toes into more genres and no fear.”

— M.K.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | 19

SOUNDBOARD

JULY 20

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

COUNTRY/FOLK Beavergrass Bluegrass Jam f. Jim Garrett (Thirsty Beaver) The Lowest Pair (U.S. National Whitewater Center)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Le Bang (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Harry Potter Themed Karaoke (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) John Moreland, Travis Linville (Visulite Theatre) Mike Strauss Trio (Comet Grill) Natty Boh Duo (RiRa Irish Pub) Simo (The Rabbit Hole) Swanky Tiger, Jistu, Farewell Albatross, Earth That Was (Milestone) Throwback Thursdays: 80s and 90s Music (Morehead Street Tavern)

JULY 21 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH The Jazz Room @ The Stage Door Theater: Corey Wilkes plays Freddie Hubbard (Stage Door Theater)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin (Neighborhood Theatre)

COUNTRY/FOLK Cody Webb, Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Complete (RiRa Irish Pub) DJ Method (RiRa Irish Pub)

POP/ROCK

Brandon Stiles (Tin Roof) Burlesque Show! (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Drew Mosely (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Hectorina, Hungry Girl, Sand Castles, Nite Gallery (Petra’s) Heidi Dove (Birdsong Brewery) Hillsong Young & Free – Youth Revival Tour (Ovens Auditorium) Idina Menzel (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Jidenna (The Underground) Modern Primitives, Astrea Corp, Bad Karol, Fortune Teller (Snug Harbor) Nojo Slim (Primal Brewery, Huntersville) Paul Sanchez, Mark Mathis (The Evening Muse) Stitchy C, DJ Kyng Rash, F. Dux, Ghost Unknown, Marshall Alexander, Red Jesse, J Rosevelt (Milestone) Them Damn Bruners, Past Tense Of Never, 40oz Mouse, Scizzorstache (The Station) Thirsty Horses (RiRa Irish Pub) Yarn, Maradeen (Visulite Theatre)

JULY 22 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH The Jazz Room @ The Stage Door Theater: Corey Wilkes plays Freddie Hubbard (Stage Door Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Acoustic Syndicate (U.S. National Whitewater Center) The Steel Wheels (Neighborhood Theatre)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Square Pegs presents MAFIA KISS (L4 Lounge) Su Casa (Petra’s, Charlotte)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B 808!704: Drozy, Prof. Logik, Fawbak, Cosmoore, Niceicles, Axnt, Electrobro, Mike Astrea, NahhG, Deku, FLLS, Simon SMTHNG, Oak City Slums, JR Swiftz, AMWA, Miniluv Xtals, Panther God, Mr. Atomic (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK

7/20 JOHN MORELAND + TRAVIS LINVILLE 7/21 YARN + MARADEEN 7/22 TIGERDOG 7/28 YO MAMA'S BIG FAT BOOTY BAND + THE LOZ BAND 7/29 TREEHOUSE! 7/30 THE ROCKET SUMMER 8/5 SAME AS IT EVER WAS 8/29 Greta Van Fleet 9/6 BIRDTALKER 9/8 WILL HOGE 20 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

The Award Winning Beach Formal 6! Featuring: Sext Message, Crunk Witch, Minimums, The Gore Gore Luchadores, and Death Fair 2000 (Milestone) Bill Noonan Band (Common Market) The Bleeps, Evergone, The Eyebrows (Snug Harbor) Chosovi (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Dead 27s (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Dollhands (The Station) Donna, Debbi & Toni (Comet Grill) Enrage Against The Machine (The Underground)

Laura Thurston (Birdsong Brewery) Phantogram, Tycho (The Fillmore Charlotte) Smash City (RiRa Irish Pub) Steve Brown (Primal Brewery, Huntersville) Swim in the Wild, SondorBlue (The Evening Muse) Tigerdog, She Returns From War, Drugstore Ghost, Weary Legs (Visulite Theatre) Townhouse, Joy Kills, Blame it on Bart, Philip K. Dixie (The Courtroom, Rock Hill) Voodoo Visionary (The Rabbit Hole)

JULY 23

POP/ROCK

311, New Politics, Passafire (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Ben Millburn & Sunglass Moustache, Reaves, Bad Karol (Milestone) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) School Of Rock Allstars (Visulite Theatre) Scott Smith (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Songwriter Open Mic @ Petra’s (Petra’s) Spirit System w/ Melt, Karen Meat, Power Animal (Snug Harbor)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B ALIVE Sessions With Yung Citizen, Hosted

by LeAnna Eden. Mori Bea, Modest Jon, DJ Sir Charles, Michael Remesi, Dexter Jordan, N’Chanted (Petra’s)

Forges, Ol’ Sport, Pet Peeves, The Chroma Divide (Milestone) It Looks Sad, I’m Glad It’s You, Hemingway, Blame the Youth (Petra’s) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) Robert Ellis, Ross Adams (The Evening Muse)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic with Swellshark (The Evening Muse) The Monday Night Allstars (Visulite Theatre) Open Mic with Jade Moore (Primal Brewery, Huntersville)

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

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

COUNTRY/FOLK An Acoustic Evening With Patty Griffin & Lee Ann Womack (Neighborhood Theatre) Chastity Brown, Reuben Bidez (The Evening Muse)

LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12

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AUGUST 19

1-2-3 NIGHT FEATURING

SCOTT BRANTLEY

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AUGUST 25

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WITH SPECIAL GUEST

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AUGUST 26

FRANK FOSTER

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AUGUST 31

LAUREN ALAINA FREE CONCERT

SEPTEMBER 16

CHASE RICE

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JULY 25

DJ/ELECTRONIC

CODY WEBB

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Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

JULY 26

THIS FRIDAY

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JULY 24

Dollar Signs, Bad Idols, Aloha Broha, Pink Pots (Milestone) Pinky Poodle Doodle, Dollhands (Snug Harbor) Spencer Rush (Tin Roof, Charlotte)

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CLCLT.COM | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | 21

(2016) The Nouveau Sud Project performance

PHOTO BY BRIAN BT TWITTY

PHOTO BY CARLOSALEXIS CRUZ

Search Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in 17) (20 sal ear reh ety of Saf

ARTS

SUR: AN ACROBATIC JOURNEY IN THE SEARCH OF SAFETY July 21 - 22 , 7:30 p.m.

Booth Playhouse at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center $10 Presented by: The Nouveau Sud Project

FEATURE

THE SAFETY DANCE Urban circus project examines dangerous living

The Nouveau Sud Project performance (2016)

PHOTO BY BRIAN BT TWITTY

BY PAT MORAN

C

IRCUS

PEOPLE

ARE

continuously searching for freedom,” says CarlosAlexis Cruz.

“It’s a sense of weightlessness, a dream of flying — like Icarus.”

The Physical Theatre professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is discussing the tension between safety and liberation embodied by his Cirque du Soleilstyle acrobatic troupe Nouveau Sud (“New South”). Their latest project, Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety, goes up July 21 and 22 at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s Booth Playhouse.

In the circus tradition, Cruz says, performers train “not to get hurt,” but the danger of injury is always present. In fact, a sense of risk contributes to the pleasure derived from witnessing an acrobatic feat.

“Take a back flip,” he says. “You jump backwards, and then flip through the air before landing on your feet. In Spanish, it’s called Salto morto – the deadly jump. You’re basically defying death by moving in a way you should not. Someone can seriously get hurt.”

Part of the lure of circus performance is the empathy the audience experiences by seeing a performer overcome physical 22 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

obstacles, says Cruz. That experience invites the audience to share the acrobats’ triumph. It creates a bond between performer and viewer.

“We bypass the brain and communicate directly to the audience. We speak to the heart.”

Now, the 36-year-old Puerto Rican native is asking his public to share a different feeling with his racially diverse troupe of performers — a sense that Charlotte may no longer be safe for its citizens.

Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety pulls back the curtain on 2016 to 2017, the Queen City’s ongoing year of living dangerously. Police brutality, the vilification of the black community, increasing antiimmigration raids and roadblocks, and the disturbing tendency to see many of our neighbors as “the other” will all be addressed

by Nouveau Sud through the medium of physical theater. It’s time, Cruz maintains, to question what it means to be safe. It’s time to stop living in fear.

“We stared developing this show back in August,” Cruz says. “Then in September Keith Lamont Scott was murdered, and in November Trump was elected.” Soon after, Cruz began to notice not-so-subtle shifting attitudes towards his culturally diverse troupe.

“We’d come out of rehearsals, and armed security guards would stop us to make sure we weren’t troublemakers,” says Cruz. “It’s happened often.”

Such profiling has intensified the level of fear throughout Charlotte’s immigrant community, Cruz feels, and he believes communication may be the first step towards a solution.

“I think we need to start listening a little more to (Charlotte’s) communities,” he says.

Too often, the positions taken by Black Lives Matter, immigrant rights advocates and citizens of color are dismissed by more privileged Charlotteans as an overreaction.

People persuade themselves that the deaths of blacks and Latinos at the hands of police are outliers, aberrations, the collateral damage wrought by a few bad apples. They’re not, Cruz says.

“We need to stop seeing people as white or Latino or Asian,” he says. “We’re just people in Charlotte. We are Charlotte.”

Physical theater, the province of acrobats, dancers and circus performers, is the ideal medium to deliver this message, Cruz believes.

“We can reach a larger sector without the use of words. A gesture transcends barriers.”

Cruz has been breaking down barriers ever since he came to Charlotte in the summer of 2013. When the graduate of Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California and the San Francisco Circus Center first hit town, he was surprised that a city of Charlotte’s size had no circus scene. He also noticed that the diversity he saw in Charlotte’s performing arts community was not reflected onstage.

American art is too often tailored to the upper economic strata, he says; we see too much art for and by those who have privilege and access.

“I believe art should belong to anyone who has the talent to do it,” Cruz says.

“I wanted to form a contemporary circus company, so I knew I needed to start from the ground up,” he adds.

Cruz started recruiting, skipping the established dance studios because they had no experience with circus arts. He also wanted to target the talents and voices that were not being heard in the city’s theater scene.

“I went to many pockets in our community, from Mexican dancers to the break dancing community to a Chinese troupe,” he says.

Cruz applied for grants, winning the McColl Award from the Arts & Science Council

Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety rehearsal (2017)

PHOTO BY CARLOSALEXIS CRUZ

CarlosAlexis Cruz

in 2014. With the $25,000 grant given by the ASC once every three years for the creation of a new work of art, Cruz consolidated the core of his troupe and mounted his first show.

Staged at the Booth Playhouse in April 2016, Nouveau Sud, both the name of the troupe and its inaugural show, integrated contemporary circus arts with hip-hop and break dancing to tell the personal stories of his performers — tales of stereotyping and segregation. Today, Cruz sees his troupe’s initial offering as a calling card, an effort to start tearing down the borders between communities, a public service announcement that white, black, Latin and Asian members of the city were one population — Charlotteans.

“The idea was to talk about the ideas and misconceptions we had about each other, and to bring the diversity together onstage, and let that action communicate a message.”

That message was “We are Charlotte,” says Cruz. “We are a diverse troupe that comes from different angles. Ultimately we’ve come together for the betterment of Charlotte.”

One year later, Cruz and his company are tackling the thorny issue of safety and security. Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety pulls audience and performer together by first breaking down fear.

COURTESY OF CARLOSALE

XIS CRUZ

“There will be people and things flying at the audience,” says Cruz. “There are moments when the audience will think that what’s coming at them may not be safe.”

Cruz says these daredevil moments draw on circus structure. They are a gambit to draw people together. “(In circus arts) we are always playing with human fears,” he says. “We are trying to transcend those fears. Hopefully we can join in a journey to overcome them together.”

For Cruz, the endgame of Sûr is reclaiming empathy, a commodity often in short supply during tumultuous times.

“We lose sight of the fact that each person has a story,” Cruz says. “We never know the struggle some people are having until we listen.”

Cruz hopes that through the universal language of physical theater, audiences and performers can share challenges and successes, and come together as a community.

“We’re all on a similar journey,” Cruz says. “We’re all experiencing the feeling that our culture is somehow less safe.” Cruz and Nouveau Sud hope they can encourage the community to step up.

“Actions,” says Cruz, “can truly speak louder than words.”

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | 23

Creative Loafing

Launches 1st Local Music Podcast!

24 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

with Hosts Mark Kemp & Ryan Pitkin Visit

clclt.com for more Info

War for the Planet of the Apes (Photo: Fox)

ARTS

FILM

HAIL, CAESAR Sturdy sequel offers ample monkey business

BY MATT BRUNSON

T

HE THIRD CHAPTER in

the latest incarnation of the venerable monkey-movie series, War for the Planet of the Apes (*** out of four) follows last week’s Spider-Man: Homecoming as an example of how to allow a franchise to continue to expand and breathe rather than trying to keep it mired in by-the-numbers numbness.

While it doesn’t quite match its immediate predecessor, 2014’s masterful Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this latest entry admirably opts to forge its own path rather than slavishly cut and paste past formulas. While the series opener, 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, spent slightly more time on the humans and Dawn divided

its focus equally between humans and apes, War almost completely adopts the point of view of the simians. At its center, of course, is Caesar (a motion-captured Andy Serkis), who doesn’t actively seek conflict but instead wants apes to be left alone. Unfortunately, the members of a nearby military outfit don’t share Caesar’s separatist policy — led by an imposing figure known only as The Colonel (Woody Harrelson), they seek to completely obliterate all apes.

Harrelson is generally employed in roles that provide plenty of opportunities for sarcastic asides (The Hunger Games, The Edge of Seventeen, etc.), so it’s almost startling to see him tackling a character as savage and single-minded as the one he essays here. The

Woody Harrelson in War for the Planet of the Apes (Photo: Fox) Colonel may be utterly venal, but there’s a method to his madness, and while it never really makes him sympathetic, it does add some interesting shadings to the part. Serkis again excels in the role that arguably will surpass Gollum as his most iconic, and while I could have used a bit less of Bad Ape (Steve Zahn), a lonely and simple-minded simian, writer-director Matt Reeves and co-scripter

Mark Bomback are nevertheless careful to avoid turning him into merely a one-note figure who pops up at regular intervals to offer strained comic relief. Instead, War for the Planet of the Apes remains rigidly dank and dour — for those seeking mirthful monkeyshines, there’s always Clint’s pal Clyde.

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NIGHTLIFE

A LOFTY NEW UPTOWN SPOT Third Ward’s newest nightlife addition doesn’t disappoint My coworker and I thumbed through BEING A RESPONSIBLE adult on a the pages for a bit before settling on “Barbie Thursday night is always a challenge. Friday’s Doll” - Tito’s vodka, honey syrup, ginger, right around the corner, the weekend is lemon and club soda. Simple enough for only an eight-hour jail sentence away and a regular RBV drinker. At first, we joked everyone in the office wants to go out. This about the drink being “weak,” and wished past Thursday, however, I was dead set on we’d opted for something else. Little did not staying out late or being hungover and we know, Barbie meant business and would yet, I wanted to do something. Surprise, pack a mean punch as soon as we walked out surprise. the door.

A couple friends mentioned that a As we perused the selections on the new three-story venue, Loft & Cellar, was food menu, the waitress explained that the officially opening later in the evening and executive chef and owner Nicolas Daniels suggested I check it out. I decided to check had created the menu around the idea of Instagram — so I know it’s real – and sure telling a four-course story — the exposition, enough, the account verified that the new rising action, crescendo and resolution. spot was open for business. It seemed low I can’t promise I’ll ever make it through key enough for a slight Thursday night turn all four, but I had to force myself to avoid up, so I convinced two of my co-workers to drooling over the Wagyu beef and opted for go with me. planning the meal I’d be getting at the end of It wasn’t until I looked up the new spot the month. My coworkers, however, decided on Google that I realized this was the to try the mussels. At first bite, they place that had been in the works fell in love. However, following for months right next door to last year’s bad experience with one of my favorite hot dogs mussels (rhymes with pood spots in the Q.C. – Green’s foisoning), I can’t say I Lunch. I’d walked past it was tempted to try them. a few times during the Regardless, the way they construction process coveted each shell like but never thought much they were oysters stuffed about what would end up with pearls finally sold me there. on the fact that everything After all the buzz, on the menu had to be however, there was no way phenomenal.

AERIN SPRUILL I was going to miss out on We stayed for about an opening night. hour and one thing was clear: We walked a few blocks Daniels has developed a concept from work and settled in front of that brings something quite unique to the entryway to the new venue. And even the restaurant and bar scene in Uptown though we weren’t going to be able to enjoy Charlotte. Your go-to happy hour spot after a summer evening on a patio, we were work. The perfect date-night destination. A excited to see what the new spot had to haven for foodies and cocktail connoisseurs. offer. We walked in and to the right, were This venue balances an upscale dining leather couches perfect for kicking back and experience and a casual, laid-back enjoying a cocktail. And to the left? A full bar atmosphere perfectly. Not to mention, the and dining tables. The intimate vibes and basement level is home to the wine and beer modern-meets-industrial décor drew us in cellar as well as a 20-person dining room that immediately. will be perfect for hosting a private event.

We decided to head straight for the Once we were finished with our cocktails, bright orange staircase leading to the second we picked up our checks and headed to floor, which overlooks Romare Bearden EpiCentre. That’s when we realized “Barbie Park. That’s where we found another bar Doll” had snuck up on us. stretching along the center of the room “I’m a little tipsy,” I laughed as my on the back wall. To the left and right, girlfriend and I hopped out of the car. I more lounge seating and dining tables. We watched her tiptoe into the parking deck and settled on stools at the bar and waited for she responded with, “I’m glad you said that a bartender to place a thick, journal-style because I’m feeling a little bit tipsy, too.” menu in front of us. It seemed that the drink If you don’t have plans this weekend, menu held well over 100 different types of make a date with Barbie and head over to drinks, including wine, cocktails and beer.

Loft & Cellar. Your wallet may not thank you, but you won’t regret it!

What more can you ask for?

ENDS

CROSSWORD

BROADWAY OPENINGS ACROSS

1 China’s Mao -- -tung 4 Thumb locale 8 Cries of unveiling 13 Spanish fleet 19 Post-bender headache 21 Poetry Muse 22 One-sided views 23 Old stage actress Duse 24 “Things go by so fast!”

26 “As far as I’m aware ...”

28 Brunched, e.g.

29 Kwik-E-Mart clerk 30 Writer Seton 31 Iris locale 32 Pres. advisory gp.

34 New -- (Yanni, e.g.)

35 Become king after being a prince, say 43 Quirk of behavior 46 -- Schwarz (toy retailer) 47 Kuwaiti royal 48 A third of IX 49 Totally up the creek 55 Semi section 58 Witty writer Bombeck 59 Hornswoggle 60 Actress Swenson 61 Hill’s partner 62 Nose partition 65 Piece for two 67 Paid no heed 70 “We’ve been raking in the profit” 75 Advance markdown 77 Requirement 78 Church decrees 81 Painter of melting watches 82 Camera varieties, for short 86 Vientiane’s country 88 “My Country” author Abba 89 Hole-poking tool 90 Phrase just before an act is introduced 95 Pouchlike body part 96 Incantation opener 97 River of Bern 98 Veer off course 99 What Thomas became, in kid-lit 107 Alone 108 See 102-Down 109 Love-letter “hugs” 110 Former toy company 114 Alley- -- (court play)

115 Juicer 117 Overdoing the effort 123 Writer of the Tonywinning musical featured in this puzzle 126 Flavored with a certain spice 127 Introduced acts, e.g.

128 Lenya of “Cabaret” 129 IRS part 130 Tallies again 131 Arctic people 132 Central part of a church 133 Star site

DOWN

1 Greek letter 2 Perm place 3 Foe 4 Toot 5 Bristol’s river 6 Pianist Peter 7 Party to a financial transaction 8 Giggled 9 Yank with a #13 jersey 10 Hip-hop bud 11 “Listen up!”

12 “-- lied!”

13 Help do bad 14 Plentiful 15 Bad start?

16 Cheese in an Italian deli 17 Intensify 18 Make certain 20 Some Spanish paintings 25 Spiked staff 27 Harsh cleanser 33 “I dunno” gesture 34 Financier Onassis 36 ET ship 37 Avis rental 38 Unemotional 39 Vietnamese New Year 40 Actor Katz 41 Dusk-dawn linkup 42 Move quickly 43 Rail supports 44 Pertaining to 45 Singer Glen 50 Fad dance of the 1960s 51 Bro 52 Sonata, e.g.

53 Honoraria 54 Actor Scott 55 Payload area 56 Bitter brew 57 Part of B&B

61 One of Santa’s reindeer 63 Old Glory’s nation 64 Wire measure 66 “Sn” element 68 Sierra maker 69 Actress Peeples 71 Lark’s home 72 -- -confident 73 Boyfriend 74 Hound’s clue 75 High-tech “appt. book” 76 Uncooked 79 Zippo 80 Winter drifter 83 -- apso 84 Pat of the Christian right 85 Ride a wave 87 Antler sporter 90 -- -Mart (retail chain) 91 Unemotional 92 Greek letter 93 “Bali --” 94 Suffix with southeast 95 Wily 99 Worker on a housetop 100 Huge, in French 101 Camel kin 102 With 108-Across, of acceptable quality 103 Department in northern France 104 Near-eternity 105 Noodle 106 Erstwhile anesthetic 111 Spun tales 112 Floorboard sound 113 Curiously 115 Lineup 121-Down: Abbr.

116 REO part 118 Post-Q string 119 Himalayan legend 120 Funny Fey 121 Showing via the idiot box 122 Arch with a double curve 124 Composer Rorem 125 Manning of football

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.

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I’m a 35-year-old straight woman, recently married, and everything is great. But I have been having problems reaching orgasm. When we first started dating, I had them all the time. It was only after we got engaged that it became an issue. He is not doing anything differently, and he works hard to give me oral pleasure, last longer, and include more foreplay. He’s sexy and attractive and has a great working penis. I am very aroused when we have sex, but I just can’t climax. It is weird because I used to very easily, and still can when I masturbate. I have never been so in love before and I have definitely never been with a man who is so good to me. Honestly, all of my previous boyfriends did not treat me that well, but I never had a problem having orgasms. My husband is willing to do whatever it takes, but it’s been almost a year since I came during vaginal intercourse! Is this just a temporary problem that will fix itself?

big life change — getting married is among the top 10 most stressful life events — might be distracting or anxiety-provoking,” said Dr. Chivers. “Absolutely normal if it were.”

Distracting, anxiety-provoking thoughts can also make it harder to come.

“Being able to have an orgasm is about giving yourself over to pleasure in the moment,” said Dr. Chivers. “Research on brain activation during orgasm suggests that a key feature is deactivation in parts of the brain associated with emotion and cognitive control. So difficulties reaching orgasm can arise from distracting, anxietyprovoking thoughts that wiggle their way in when you’re really aroused, maybe on the edge, but just can’t seem to make it over.

They interfere with that deactivation.”

Dr. Chivers’s advice will be familiar to anyone with a daughter under the age of 12: Let it go.

“Let go of working DAN SAVAGE toward vaginal orgasm MY ORGASMS ARE NOW SHY during sex,” Dr. Chivers advised. “Take vaginal orgasm “This is a temporary problem that off the table for at least a month— will fix itself,” said Dr. Meredith Chivers, you’re allowed to do other things and come an associate professor of psychology at other ways, just not through vaginal-penile Queen’s University and a world-renowned intercourse. Instead of working toward the sex researcher who has done — and is still goal of bringing back your vaginal orgasm, doing — groundbreaking work on female enjoy being with your sexy husband and sexuality, desire, and arousal. experiment with other ways of sharing “And here’s why it will fix itself,” said Dr. Chivers. “First, MOANS has enjoyed pleasure, and if the vaginal orgasms don’t being orgasmic with her partner and immediately come back, oh well. There are, previous partners. Second, even though she’s fortunately, many roads to Rome. Enjoy!” had a hiatus in orgasms through vaginal My advice? Buy some stress-busting pot intercourse, she is able to have orgasms edibles if you’re lucky enough to live in a when masturbating. Third, she describes no state that has legal weed, MOANS, or make concerns with becoming sexually aroused your own if you live in a suck-ass state physically and mentally. Fourth, MOANS that doesn’t. And tell your husband to stop has a great relationship, has good sexual trying so hard—if his efforts are making communication, and is sexually attracted to her partner. Fifth, what she’s experiencing is you feel guilty, that’s going to be hugely a completely normal and expected variation counterproductive. Good luck! in sexual functioning that probably relates Follow Dr. Chivers on Twitter @ to stress.”

DrMLChivers.

The orgasms you’re not having right now — orgasms during PIV sex with your On the Lovecast, Amanda Marcotte on Game husband — the lack of which is causing of Thrones: savagelovecast.com. Follow @ you stress? Most likely the result of stress, fakedansavage on Twitter; mail@savagelove.

MOANS, so stressing out about the situation net.fakedansavage on Twitter; ITMFA.org. will only make the problem worse.

“I wonder if the background stress of a

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FOR ALL SIGNS Many people will be taking a somber look at their relationship(s) this week. One of the things we must do to see something more clearly is to take a step backward, outside of the inner circle.

From that vantage point it is easier to gain perspective on the dynamics at work within the relationship. We have a need to think through our primary relationships and determine what is necessary to make improvements. Blame may be tempting but it won’t be accurate or productive. Relationship issues usually have two sides. This could surface even in work relationships, so step “outside” the parameters of the situation and have a clear look.

ARIES Rise above the mundane situation and see the bigger picture of your relationship(s). Metaphorically we bring people into our lives to help teach us what we need to know. If the personality of another person irritates you, then there is something important to learn about yourself. Maybe there is a truth that you have been avoiding and this irksome person is present as a teacher .

TAURUS Read the lead paragraph because at this time it especially pertains to you.

The crux of the stressor may be in the areas of shared resources. That includes time, money, or resources that you share with another or with the greater community. That could include money or social security, taxes, insurance and/or debts.

GEMINI You are likely making improvements in your home or property.

You’ll be updating the old with something new and contemporary. Mercury, the ruler of communications, is involved so it may have to do with computing and microchips.

CANCER (June 20 – July 21) Give special

attention to unusual messages or to new people who enter your life during this time.

A “teacher” crosses your path in the form of a person, a book, or the right message that will steer you in the next favorable direction.

LEO THE LION Mars, the warrior, enters

your sign this week and will be traveling with you for seven weeks. This energy is especially helpful in defining our boundaries.

Periodically we need to examine who we are as well as who we are not. Often something is eliminated. In general, it represents an increase of your courage and physical strength.

VIRGO your ability to concentrate upon projects that require management of details is strong. Organizing files, closets and cabinets will clear the clutter from your mind. Fortunately, you are able to make mindful decisions. If information is needed, you can find it readily. The week favors 30 | JUL. 20 - JUL. 26, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

education in practical skills.

LIBRA You may encounter someone who wants to argue about a subject that has no end, i.e. religion or politics. Remember that what you think is not who you are. It is an opinion, only, and doesn’t deserve a battle to the death. Make note of any developments that seem meaningful and “supposed” to happen between you and another.

SCORPIO

From now through early September, your attention will be drawn to career and life direction. Activity in your outer world picks up speed. Authorities and others may be challenging, so have your ducks in a row if you take initiatives. Use this time to improve your “product” or your presentation.

SAGITTARIUS Good news comes from a distance or perhaps on the internet. Activities involving the law, travel, the church, distant communications and/or publishing are favored. Personal relationships may be difficult for a short time this week. Check the lead paragraph.

CAPRICORN A tenant or an employee may be challenging. It is annoying, but not the end of the world. You are coming upon a significant change next winter. Perhaps the events of this week will press you toward that shift. There may be a need to focus on matters of your body, especially related to teeth, skin and bones.

AQUARIUS If you are stymied, don’t hesitate to consult a professional who is likely to have the information you need. Your partner may take on an uncharacteristic manner of self-assertion. He or she is not so likely to back down from a fight. Life will be generally more harmonious if you avoid the hot topics.

PISCES You or someone else may want you to feel guilty because you are unable to make things better. Recognize that you are not the magician you would like to be and let go of the guilt. Whatever happens now, you are highly prone to think dark thoughts about yourself. This is passing. Let it go.

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.

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