2017 Issue 23 Creative Loafing Charlotte by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | JULY 27 - AUG 2, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 23

1 | DATE - DATE, 2015 | CLCLT.COM

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REEVESTOCK MUSIC FESTIVAL August 4th & 5th 2017

Hootie Hoo! Time Sawyer here, we want to offer our CLT friends and fans discount tickets to our hometown music festival, Reevestock, right up the road in Elkin, NC!

CODE: RMFCLT

Enter Discount Code from the ticket tab at reevestock.com! *offer ends July 31st*

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see you there! Sam & Houston

CHECK OUT OUR GREAT LINEUP! The Marcus King Band - Town Mountain - Time Sawyer - David Childers & The Serpents - William Wild - Corey Hunt Band - Swim In The Wild - Late Night Special - Luke Mears Band - Tyler Hatley

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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,

We offer over 24-32 homemade flavors year round as well as seasonal specials! 913 Central Ave Charlotte, NC 28204 Be sure to visit our LKN location: 807 Williamson Road Suite 108 @twoscoopscreamery #TWOSCOOPSCLT

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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ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Candice Andrews • candrews@clclt.com Melissa Rustemov • mrustemov@clclt.com ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Pat Moran • pmoran@clclt.com Creative Loafing © is published by CL, LLC 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., Suite C-2, Charlotte, NC 28206. Periodicals Postage Paid at Charlotte, NC. Creative Loafing welcomes submissions of all kinds. Efforts will be made to return those with a self-addressed stamped envelope; however Creative Loafing assumes no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. Creative Loafing is published every Wednesday by Womack Newspapers, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. Copyright 2015 Womack Newspapers, Inc. CREATIVE LOAFING IS PRINTED ON A 90% RECYCLED STOCK. IT MAY BE RECYCLED FURTHER; PLEASE DO YOUR PART.

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Photo courtesy of Shadowgraphs. Local band Shadowgraphs (page 16) may not be in CLT for long, as their music resonates better with West Coast fans.

We put out weekly

NEWS&CULTURE IF YOU PAINT IT, THEY WILL COME Dupp&Swat is just the most

recent arts business pushed out of NoDa BY KIA O. MOORE 6 EDITOR’S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 7 THE BLOTTER 10 THE SCRIBE’S CORNER BY KONATA EDWARDS 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

FOOD

HAPPY TO BE HERE The Mad Greek family is all smiles after 25 years BY RYAN PITKIN

14 16

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

MUSIC INTO THE MYSTIC Catch psychedelic dreampop band Shadowgraphs

before they blast off BY MARK KEMP 18 SOUNDBOARD

ARTS&ENT FIRE WALK WITH ME ‘Bloom:Revolution’ ignites Charlotte’s performing arts scene

BY PAT MORAN

JOURNEY TO ‘CINEODYSSEY’ Local film festival founder Tre McGriff always found movies to be an escape

BY EMIENE WRIGHT 23 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, PODCASTS AND MORE!

COVER DESIGN

BY DANA VINDIGNI PHOTO BY ANDREW DOLAN CLCLT.COM | JULY 27 - AUG 2, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 23

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

MUSIC, ART, GENTRIFICATION Will Charlotte ever confront out-of-control problem? WHILE SITTING on the back patio of

North Charlotte had fallen into disrepair and the Irish pub Workman’s Friend in Plaza the small businesses had closed up shop,” Midwood, talking with two members of the Moore writes in the news feature on page 8. band Shadowgraphs for this week’s music “It was a rough area with a porn theater (now feature, my mind kept wandering back to the Neighborhood Theatre) and lots of pool when the pub was a No Grease, part of the halls. The neighborhood was forgotten until legendary Charlotte-area African-American the mid-’80s, when Paul Sires and Ruth Ava barbershop chain and a staple of the Lyons took an interest in the mill village.” The couple saw mill buildings as beautiful; neighborhood for a while. Walking into the place for the first time perfect spaces for creating art. “They were since the change came as a bit of a shock. able to envision what North Davidson could The barber chairs were replaced with fine, be, based on what they currently saw in rich, earthy wood tables, and the clientele the neglected neighborhood,” Moore writes. — once consisting of regulars from nearby “Sires and Lyons envisioned North Davidson predominantly black neighborhoods — was becoming an arts and entertainment district for the city of Charlotte.” now predominantly young and white. Though it was for all the right reasons, the It was a microcosm of the rapid changes that have happened in Plaza Midwood and couple’s Center of the Earth art gallery was the elsewhere since I left Charlotte for a few beginning of several waves of development in NoDa — development that happened slowly years beginning in 2013. But even No at first, then more rapidly. And that Grease had not occupied the space kind of development happens at the corner of Central and something like this: artists find Thomas avenues for nearly as run-down neighborhoods long as some places in the with cheap rents and move neighborhood. Other spots in; developers see those were being torn down neighborhoods growing lock, stock and barrel, and begin marketing and replaced by — or, in them as the latest, “hip the case of the Thirsty and cool” neighborhoods; Beaver, surrounded by — the artists who made the towering condos. neighborhoods “hip and Gentrification is in full cool” — along with long-time effect all across Charlotte, MARK KEMP residents who raised families in and we’ve been focusing on it said neighborhoods — are forced all month long at Creative Loafing. out due to skyrocketing prices. In the July 13 issue, news editor The most recent art spot to relocate Ryan Pitkin wrote about developments in the Cherry community, where the historic away from NoDa is Dupp&Swat, which Morgan School, built in 1925, now stands Moore writes about in this issue. It recently empty. In the July 20 issue, contributor Kia moved to The Plaza, and its co-owner, Davita Moore wrote about Janelle Dunlap, whose art Galloway, is not just a little bitter. “Rent is increasing, forcing different confronts gentrification. In this issue, Moore continues her series with a news piece on how businesses and organizations out,” Galloway artists themselves may be the first signifiers of said at a recent Creative Mornings event. impending gentrification before being pushed “You use our work to entice people to come to the city and to live here. [But] who wants out of the neighborhoods they made cool. Gentrification is a thorny issue. When to move to a place with no culture, no scene, I was living in New York’s East Village in and nothing’s popping?” In fact, Shadowgraphs, the band I talked the 1980s, those of us who hung out in art circles complained of the gentrification of to at Workman’s, are thinking of moving their “our neighborhood.” But the East Village — operations from Charlotte to the West Coast. previously known as the Lower East Side Not because of gentrification, per se. But if — was not our neighborhood. It wasn’t until Charlotte were to defend its arts communities the Beatniks arrived in the ’50s, and other instead of kowtowing to developers, the city writers and artists flocked in during the ’60s, might have a richer, stronger support system that it became a counterculture haven. Before to keep artists from flying the coop. In the next issue, stay tuned to Pitkin’s that, the Lower East Side was the domain of story on the residents of a low-income poor Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. Something similar happened in NoDa in housing unit in NoDa who have been told they must move out immediately to make the 1980s. “After the textile industry in Charlotte room for new condos. And where will they to go? It’s a question evaporated in the mid-1970s, the houses in we’ll leave hanging for now.

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NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

FOR WENDY Customers at a Wendy’s on Charlottetowne Avenue got more than they bargained for when they went for a late-night snack at the Elizabeth fast food joint last week. Employees would later tell police that there was an intoxicated man there causing a disturbance and he was eventually told to leave and not come back. But he came back alright, as witnesses and employees told police that he returned to the property and pulled out his penis in a way to create a worse disturbance than he had the first time. FOR GOOD MEASURE A 20-year-old

woman ended up with a roll of no-good money last week after attempting to sell her iPad in west Charlotte. She told police she met with someone to sell the iPad after meeting them online and they tried to give her $500 in obviously counterfeit bills. When she raised the issue, the suspect not only didn’t return the iPad, but stole the real $50 that she had brought to give them as change.

MCLOVIN An 18-year-old dude in Ballantyne decided that since he had recently reached adulthood, he should be allowed all the pleasures that come along with it, regardless of the law. The suspect walked into a gas station and saw a police officer standing there, but being a resident of south Charlotte, decided he couldn’t be bothered with rules and whatnot so he went ahead and purchased a 12 pack of beer. The officer later said that the man looked remarkably young so he followed him out of the store and asked him for his ID. He at first showed the officer his so-called ID, which was from Pennsylvania. The farce didn’t last long, however, as at the first sign of skepticism from the officer, the suspect admitted that he was only 18 and that it was a fake. SMASH AND PLUNGE A 25-year-old woman called police last week after her attempt to live with her child’s father went unsurprisingly wrong. She would later tell police that she was staying for the week at the northeast Charlotte house when her former lover’s new girlfriend became upset about the new house guest. The suspect then used a toilet plunger to smash the mother’s car windshield, before trying to flee into her own car. She didn’t make it far, however, as she crashed into the victim’s car before she was able to make it out of the yard. FOMO Police responded to a call about a fight in the yard of an east Charlotte home last week after a girl got beat up, but she had nearly missed out on all the fun. Police arrived just before midnight and spoke with the girl who lived at the home where the fight broke out. She told officers she had been sleeping but was awoken by a phone call from a group of girls she knew. The girls told her they had just come by her house to fight her but she hadn’t answered the door. They then

informed her, “Don’t worry, we’re coming back now.” [Fabricated quote] According to the report, “That is when the victim came outside and began to fight two of the five girls in the vehicle.” The report stated that she suffered no injuries, so she must have done alright for herself.

UNGRATEFUL A 48-year-old woman filed a

police report after the home she was leasing out to her son was damaged by a house guest she knew nothing about. The woman told police her son was living in the southwest Charlotte home but had recently allowed a stranger to live with him. That same stranger showed his thanks by damaging the woman’s furniture and making off with a ton of other stuff. The woman reported that the suspect poured water all over two sofas and three beds, doing $10,000 in damage. He also stole a TV, clothing, jewelry and a cellphone, worth more than $8,000 total, and $500 worth of what the woman called “heirloom toys.”

CORD CUTTERS Some strangers did a similar amount of damage to a home in Ballantyne recently, but to the homeowner’s credit, they weren’t invited house guests this time. The 33-year-old man called police after someone broke into his home and did thousands of dollars worth of damage. He reported that the suspect(s) did $5,000 worth of damage to his bamboo flooring, sliced his couch up and broke his shop vac and power saw. For good measure, the vandal also cut the cord to the man’s refrigerator, forcing the man to buy a new one or simply go without cold food.

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NEWS

FEATURE

IF YOU PAINT IT, THEY WILL COME Dupp&Swat is the most recent arts business pushed out of NoDa BY KIA MOORE [Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on the role of the artist in gentrification. Visit clclt.com for the first part.]

HE CONCEPT OF artists moving into low-income neighborhoods for affordable housing, or to find older houses with interesting architecture, is not unique to Charlotte; think New York’s East Village in the mid-’80s or Brooklyn in the ’90s. The artists who move into these forgotten neighborhoods, whether in N.C. or NYC, have the keen ability to highlight the culture of spaces and places through the artistic vibes they emanate, a vibe that pulls people in from various walks of life. However, once upper-middle-class folks become aware of this new culture, and then become regular visitors to a new arts neighborhood, developers take notice. Those developers — focused only on the bottom line — eventually push out those whose families have called the neighborhood home for generations; alongside them go the artists in need of affordable housing and affordable rental prices for art galleries. And so the cycle continues in cities across America: the artists make a neighborhood trendy, rental costs rise, and then the artists and original residents are pushed out of the ’hood they made cool in the first place. The typical story of artists as first signifiers of impending gentrification is the story of the NoDa (former) Arts District in what was once called North Charlotte, as outlined in a 2013 Creative Loafing blog post, “Question the Queen City: The forgotten history of NoDa.” In that post, the author outlines the Charlotte-based narrative of visual artists seeing the beauty in a struggling neighborhood and creating artwork and artistic spaces that attracted the middle-class to North Davidson Street. After the textile industry in Charlotte evaporated in the mid-1970s, the houses in North Charlotte had fallen into disrepair and the small businesses had closed up shop. It was a rough area with a porn theater (now the Neighborhood Theatre) and lots of pool halls. The neighborhood was forgotten until the mid-’80s, when Paul Sires and Ruth Ava Lyons took an interest in the mill village. The pair fell in love with the beauty in 8 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

the architecture of the mill buildings. They were able to envision what North Davidson could be based on what they currently saw in the neglected neighborhood. Sires and Lyons envisioned North Davidson becoming an arts and entertainment district for the city of Charlotte. And that’s exactly what happened. The two opened up Center of the Earth gallery and began to help the city see North Davidson as the NoDa Arts District. By the early 2000s a new generation of Charlotte artists and middle-class residents rediscovered the neighborhood. Now, with the LYNX Blue Line adding tracks and stops in NoDa, even more Charlotteans will rediscover the arts and entertainment district — now more of a bar district than anything else — whose its roots had grown stronger in the mid-1980s with Center of the Earth gallery, which closed its doors in 2010.

As more middle- and upper-class residents made NoDa their home, local artists, long-time residents and small businesses that had been neighborhood staples found themselves being pushed out due to rising rent prices. One such NoDa art staple that more recently found itself outside the lines is the art boutique Dupp&Swat, which recently left the NoDa@28th shopping center made locally famous by Amélie’s; Dupp&Swat moved to The Plaza, where it’s slated to reopen on July 27. It is also working on opening up a second location at Camp North End. That “concept location” will be a part of an open house at Camp North End’s Boileryard on July 28. Davita Galloway, co-owner of Dupp&Swat, addressed the reasons for the move in a recent Creative Mornings talk: “You see it. Venues are closing. You see it. Rent is increasing, forcing different businesses and organizations out.

And after five years, that thing came knocking on our door, and we were forced to close.” She then asked a deeper question: “Don’t we matter? That question supersedes Dupp&Swat. It is literally questioning the survival of the art and creative community here in Charlotte.” The gentrification of NoDa from forgotten mill village to beautifully gritty arts district to its more recent transformation into a polished, touristy entertainment district is a change that is pushing out long-standing residents and artists alike. Galloway knows that many influential Charlotteans look to the arts community to attract middle-class development to the city’s spaces and places. “You use our work to entice people to come to the city and to live here. [But] who wants to move to a place with no culture, no scene, and nothing’s popping? No one wants to do that. No

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THURSDAY

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVITA GALLOWAY

THIRSTY THURSDAYS

Davita Galloway (left and below) was recently forced to move Dupp&Swat’s original NoDa location. Above, someone works on an art installation at D&S’s new location in Plaza Midwood.

one wants to be a part of that,” Galloway said. As new developments gain more relevance in Charlotte, the role of the artist in the gentrification process is beginning to evolve. The artist’s role is to help with the social integration process of the developments in a manner that adds to the economic revitalization of an area. Artists like Janelle Dunlap (profiled in the first part of this series) and Galloway are both taking on this newfound role of the artist in the process of

gentrification. Dunlap is finding ways to work with, and to influence, developers. She explained, “When I got brought into Camp North End, I made sure that all the people and artists that I have known for years, like Dammit Wesley, and artists I wanted to get to know and develop relationships with, like Marcus Kiser, were brought in.” And the city is listening, at least in theory. Charlotte recently published a longform interview with Galloway on Medium, and pushed it onto social media and the official city website. In the mean time, Galloway is taking to public stages like Creative Mornings to bring the story of local gentrification from the canvas to the stage and directly challenge influencers to question their impact on how pushing out people, specifically artists, hurts both their bottom line and, more importantly, the vitality of a community. For Galloway, as neighborhoods across Charlotte continue to change, the expression of creativity will become even more “necessary and apparent.” “Art will become more raw in its presentation and in its content. The more an artist endures, the realer, the rawer, the more powerful the message,” Galloway said. “Even amidst closing venues, galleries and gathering places, art will thrive and survive, as those that truly depend on it won’t have it any other way.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

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VIEWS

THE SCRIBE’S CORNER

NOT A GOOD TIME The sudden firing of Dave Gettleman leaves the Panthers in a tight spot

Currently Hiring! * Bartenders * Cocktail waitresses * Security * VIP hosts * Barbacks Please email resume + picture to renzo.bellido@me.com @tequila house nightclub tequila_house @tequila_house_clt

116 W 5th St, Charlotte, NC 28202 10 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

WHEN IT COMES to firing your general after Gettleman’s dismissal, when the manager, conventional wisdom says to do it Panthers tapped into Charlotte’s love of at the end of the season, not nine days before nostalgia and brought back Marty Hurney in an interim role as GM. This brought about you open training camp. The Carolina Panthers clearly don’t mixed feelings from the fanbase for a number of reasons, the first being that Hurney’s believe in conventional wisdom. On the morning of July 17, all was quiet mismanagement of the salary cap was the on the corner of Mint and Morehead streets — primary reason why Gettleman was brought that is, until the Panthers suddenly blasted out in to begin with. Hurney signed linebacker Jon a statement about Dave Gettleman’s dismissal. Beason, running backs Jonathan Stewart and In it, team owner Jerry Richardson stated, DeAngelo Williams and wide receiver Steve “After much thought and a long evaluation Smith to exorbitant “loyalty” contracts after of our football operations, I have decided to the 2010 NFL lockout. Of those players, only relieve Dave Gettleman of his duties as general Stewart currently remains with the Panthers. “Marty is the perfect person to help us in the manager.” The Big Cat continued, “I want to thank interim,” Richardson said in a statement. “He Dave for the role he played in our success worked with us for 15 years and understands over the past four seasons. While the timing the culture we have here. He had a lot to do with the core of our team being in place. I’m of this decision is not ideal, a change thankful that he is willing to help us is needed.” in this transition period.” Putting the dubious Hurney got right to timing aside, let’s consider work, signing right guard Gettleman’s resumé. The Trai Turner to a four-year, Panthers had three NFC 45-million-dollar deal, the South division titles in first in a line of signings the four years of his reign. expected to come under Granted, one came with a Hurney. Thomas Davis sub .500 record, but the and Greg Olsen are also overall results were there expected to sign extensions for Gettleman. He set the KONATA with the team before the Panthers up for sustained season ends. success both in terms of EDWARDS In a surprise move on July the salary cap and in terms of 24, Hurney fired longtime scouting winning football games. Why would director Mark Koncz, whom some had ownership fire him with little over a week speculated would be up for the long-term GM until the start of training camp? One potential answer lies within role once Hurney leaves or replaces Danny the handling of contract negotiations for Morrison, the former team president who left Panthers veterans. Everyone remembers the in February (yes, the team is currently without toxic breakup between Steve Smith and the a president, not to mention assistant GM, all Panthers, which was partly Gettleman’s fault adding to the dumpster fire). This all begs the question: Where is this for handling it so poorly with the media. Then there was his mismanagement of the franchise headed after this season? It’s reasonable to speculate that Hurney Josh Norman debacle, in which Norman was franchise tagged by the Panthers until could slide up to team president, then quickly he wasn’t, with that decision coming three fill both the GM and assistant GM positions. weeks before the 2016 NFL Draft. A lot of it He might do that from within the organization came down to Gettleman’s negotiating style, — look at Don Gregory now that Koncz is out which kept the team competitive and under — or hire from outside. Regardless, Hurney’s the salary cap, but didn’t gain many fans with tenure, even if short, will be impactful. The Panthers are kicking off training camp veteran leaders in the locker room. The last straw may have been recent Wednesday, the day this column hits racks, contract negotiations between Gettleman and and the Panthers still face more questions Thomas Davis. Bill Voth of Panthers.com wrote, about the future of the organization than “It’s not hard to imagine that Gettleman’s blunt they did just a week ago. It’s said that winning cures all, but for the approach was irksome to Richardson, especially if it involved Davis. No player has exemplified Panthers organization, the 2018 outlook is what he wants his franchise to represent more starting to look terminal. For now, it looks like the questions that than the 13-year veteran. So when Gettleman and Davis were unable to get on the same began on July 17 will go unanswered deep page about how and when to get a deal done, into the offseason, and at that point, will you even trust the person giving you the answers? Gettleman ran out of rope.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM Things got even stranger just 77 hours

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WERID

OH, CANADA What could go wrong?

Canadian company Bad Axe Throwing announced in June it is bringing its unusual entertainment concept to Denver. It’s “like darts, but on steroids,” says founder Mario Zelaya. Customers provide their own food and beer and learn how to throw axes at targets. “We’ll be bringing along the competitive league side as well. That means that folks in Denver can sign up ... and compete at a global level,” Zelaya said.

SMOOTH REACTION Did you say french

fries or fresh fries? Eiram Chanel Amir Dixson, 25, made a point of ordering fresh french fries at a Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Wendy’s drivethru in May. When the exchange between the dissatisfied Dixson and a Wendy’s worker escalated, the employee threw a soda at Dixson, and Dixson fired back by spraying Mace through the drive-thru window. Police charged Dixson with one count of using tear gas to immobilize.

QUICK THINKING Rachel Borch, 21, of

Hope, Maine, was out for a run in June when a raccoon attacked her. Thinking quickly, Borch grabbed the animal and, despite being bitten, ran to a puddle on the trail and held its head underwater until it drowned. BONUS: Borch’s father retrieved the dead raccoon and delivered it for rabies testing in a Taste of the Wild dog food bag.

INSULT TO INJURY It was dark in the wee hours of June 30 in Jacksonville, Florida, and Cedric Jelks, 38, probably never saw the loaded gun on the driver’s seat of his car as he got in, but he certainly felt it after the gun went off, wounding his manhood. When police investigating the report of a gunshot wound arrived at the hospital Jelks was taken to, they added possible firearms charges to his pain after discovering Jelks had a prior conviction for cocaine possession. WHY NOT? A driver in Zhenjiang, China,

took drive-thru service to the next level on June 10 when he carefully pulled his tiny automobile through the front doors of a convenience store, requested a package of potato chips and a bottle of yogurt, paid for his purchase and reversed through the doors with the cashier’s guidance. Surveillance video shows the cashier waving and saluting as the car pulls away. He posited that the driver might have been avoiding getting out of his car in the rain.

FINER POINTS OF THE LAW A restaurant owner near Florence, Italy, was ordered to pay 2,000 euros in fines in June after judges in Italy’s highest court declared it illegal to keep lobsters on ice in restaurants because it causes them undue suffering. “The suffering caused by detaining the animals while they wait to be cooked cannot be justified,” the judges ruled. THE LAW IS FOR US In a fit of law

abidance, a resident of Yorkshire, England, called that country’s emergency phone number to report that Queen Elizabeth II was not wearing her seatbelt as she departed the Palace of Westminster on June 21 after delivering her traditional speech at the State Opening of Parliament. Police warned that the 999 system is meant to be used only for emergencies.

BRIGHT IDEAS Smoke bombs aren’t just for

celebrating our nation’s birth. Mike Tingley of Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, burned his garage to the ground on July 3 when he used smoke bombs to try to rid the structure of a bees’ nest. When firefighters from three townships arrived, fireworks stored in the garage were shooting into the sky. “We really weren’t going to celebrate the Fourth of July so much,” Tingley said. His home, which was not attached to the garage, was not damaged.

OOPS! Jerry Lynn of Ross, Pennsylvania, is

continually haunted by the result of a minor mishap 13 years ago while drilling a hole in the wall of his living room. During his project, an alarm clock fell through the hole and to the floor behind the wall. Since then, the alarm sounds dutifully at 7:10 p.m. (standard time) every day.

THE

ENTREPRENEURIAL

SPIRIT

Ventura County, California, sheriff’s officers charged three produce workers with grand theft fruit after they were caught making unauthorized cash sales of avocados from a ripening facility. Joseph Valenzuela, 38, Carlos Chavez, 28, and Rahim Leblanc, 30, liquidated up to $300,000 worth of off-the-books avocados. “It’s a big product here in California,” said Sgt. John Franchi. “Everybody loves avocados.”

FASHION EMERGENCY (1) To beat June’s record heat, male students at Isca Academy in Exeter, England, protested the school’s no-shorts rule by wearing the same uniform skirts the girls wear. One boy said the skirts were “quite refreshing.” Another enjoyed the “nice breeze.” (2) Farther south, in Nantes, France, bus drivers adopted the same skirtwearing strategy to oppose the bus company’s strict no-shorts policy. Temperatures in the region have reached record highs this year, and female drivers are allowed to wear skirts. The company responded by allowing “shorts that correspond to the uniform’s color scheme of black and beige.” NEWS THAT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE

The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy reported in June that as many as 16.4 million Americans believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. In fact, the center’s most frequently asked question on its website is, “Does chocolate milk come from brown cows?” (The answer is no.) Almost half of respondents to the center’s survey weren’t sure where chocolate milk comes from at all.

Tickets: $15 - $30

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FOOD

FEATURE

HAPPY TO BE HERE The Mad Greek family is all smiles after 25 years RYAN PITKIN

TRIED TO warn Peyton Limberakis that I’m no food critic, but he didn’t want to listen. When I went to visit Limberakis at The Mad Greek on South Boulevard, I told him I was there to tell the story of the restaurant, not to review the food. Nevertheless, five minutes into our interview, the food arrived. Suddenly and unsolicited, from the kitchen came a huge village salad, heaped with cucumbers, pepperoncini, tomatoes, olives, feta and more; followed by some pastichio, a Greek version of lasagna made with buchini and béchamel sauce; then spanakopita, a flaky spinach pie; and finally, what had grabbed my attention when I first came to The Mad Greek months ago, the gyro, piled with lamb meat that was somehow both crispy around the edges and succulent upon chewing. It was around that time that I came to a realization: I need to write food stories more often. I met Limberakis at The Mad Greek at about 4:15 p.m., just after the group of Greek guys who hang out on the patio daily playing games like backgammon had left. Limberakis had come straight from his day job to begin his secondary gig, helping around the family business, as he does almost every day. One would think a 25-year-old like Limberakis would be rolling his eyes at the thought of coming straight in to work after a full day as a consultant with Wells Fargo just to schlep around the restaurant for his family and make $2.50 an hour. That’s not the case. Peyton couldn’t be more excited to be working at the restaurant, and it’s no front he puts on for a visiting journalist. During my visit, Peyton’s father Chris Limberakis, the restaurant’s owner, was out of town, making his annual visit to Greece, and Peyton was running things on his behalf. “I love running the place when my dad’s gone,” Peyton said, his sincere enthusiasm impossible to hide. “It’s so much fun to do the scheduling. I get to help train. I love waiting tables. I get to tell my story. People know me from when I was little. They say, ‘Oh, you’re still here?’ Yeah, I am. I love it.” It’s no exaggeration to say that Limberakis has spent his life in the restaurant. He was born October 31, 1991. Just 22 days later, his father opened Hugo’s Diner on South Boulevard between Woodlawn and Tyvola roads (dare we say LoSo?). 12 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

The village “xopiatikh” salad (above) is a good place to start, but The Mad Greek is best known for its amazing gyros (bottom right). The diner, named after the infamous hurricane that roared through the city two years before, was painted in Hornets colors to pay homage to the basketball team’s mascot. Limberakis remembers being shocked as a child to look up from a table he was playing under to see star point guard Muggsy Bogues standing at the bar. He recalls his sister Amelia, now 18, shadowing his mother around the restaurant with a little notepad at 2 years old, taking orders right alongside her. Now, a generation later, the two are still at it. They’ve got uncles and cousins and in-laws working there, too. When I asked Limberakis if it ever gets tiresome working with family day in and day out, he tells me a story that shows his sister’s enthusiasm for the business is still as unbridled as his. “Amelia can be difficult when she wants to do the schedule, because she wants to work every day,” Limberakis said. “She’s off school now, so she said, ‘I can get up here.’ I said, ‘We have other people that need to work, this is their only job. It has to be fair.’ One time she hit me up top of the head, she got mad. But it’s fine. The joy we get out of it; we have a restaurant, that’s exciting.”

Limberakis said he expects he’ll take over the family business when his father has had his fill of running the place, but 10 years ago, it didn’t look like that future was in the cards for the Limberakises. In 2007, Chris Limberakis shut down Hugo’s and leased the building out to some other aspiring restaurateurs. He went to Greece that year and fell back in love with his native cuisine. Upon his return, it became clear to him that United Nations, the restaurant that had opened in his old diner space, would be disbanding soon. Chris reluctantly re-opened the restaurant as The Mad Greek, channeling his anger about all the missing rent payments from his former tenants and his newfound love of Greek fare into a new restaurant concept (he’s not still mad, and you’ll get nothing but smiles when you walk through the door). A fire that started in the deep fryer shortly thereafter brought about a remodeling, which Peyton says reinvigorated his father. They changed the color scheme from the orange and red of United Nations to an aqua blue, with murals of Greece both inside and out. “Between him going to Greece and then the remodeling, the revamping, that was

PHOTOS BY RYAN PITKIN

when he said, ‘OK, let’s get this thing going,’” Peyton said. Chris and his brother George, a coowner of The Mad Greek, began cooking up their takes on Greek classics like those mentioned above, while still keeping some Hugo’s favorites in rotation. Nostalgic diner customers can still find their favorite hoagies or breakfast classics like livermush and eggs. As for Peyton’s favorite, he stands by the gyros and knows they’re great, but he’s moved on over the years. Now he sticks with the chicken souvlaki, served on a skewer over a bed of rice, peppers and onions. “The gyro is the favorite, most definitely, we’re most famous for that,” he said. “But the chicken souvlaki, I say that’s my favorite because I’ve had the gyro for so many years. If you’re not ready to dive in, then get the gyro, but the chicken souvlaki is such a nice, filling meal. If you’re ready to go to sleep after, that’s a good meal.” And if customers still can’t make up their minds, the Limberakises recently added a “Tour of Greece” to the menu, in which customers get a sampler of Greek classics including grape leaves, spanakopita,

“I love waiting tables. I get to tell my story. People know me from when I was little. They say, ‘Oh, you’re still here?’ Yeah, I am. I love it.” -PEYTON LIMBERAKIS (LEFT)

said. “I’m seeing that the Facebook is working. We have people saying, ‘Oh, can I have the spanakopita? I saw it on Instagram.’” With efforts like those, Peyton Limberakis is setting himself up for another 25 years in the diner he was basically born in, and with the ever-present passion he clearly has for the job, it should be smooth sailing. He just has to make sure he gets his sister the hours she wants and he’ll be fine.

THE MAD GREEK Sun.-Thur., 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. 5011 South Blvd. 704523-8296. madgreekclt.com.

6pm to 9pm

moussaka and pastichio. Follow that up with some galaktobouteko (we can tell you that it’s an amazing egg custard dessert, but we can’t tell you how to say it) or baklava that’s made fresh every day. If you weren’t ready to go to sleep before, you will be now. The Mad Greek has been a hit among newcomers and Hugo Diner hangers-on alike. Couples like Grady and Carol, whom Peyton has known from the restaurant since his days as a child, returned and rekindled their friendship with him and his family. A man began coming

in and sitting at the bar, just interested in a small order of hummus and a cup of tea. He still comes in nearly every day, Peyton said. While the repeat customers are great — whether playing board games on the patio or just eating their hummus alone — Peyton has taken it upon himself to modernize the restaurant’s marketing strategy, recently taking to social media to recruit younger generations of customers. According to him, it’s gotten a response. “Absolutely, it’s been working,” Peyton

$15 ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET! Grand Opening Special Guests: Matt Harris from the Matt & Ramona show on 107.9, the Link will host the event

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | 13

FRIDAY

28 FOREPLAY: AN EROTIC SHOWCASE What: Author, renaissance man and ambassador of all things sexy Iz-Real The Poet has released countless spoken word projects, including Chocolate Covered Orgasms and Queendom. As a Sexy Lifestyle Specialist, he curates this showcase featuring erotic poetry, bdsm, sensual foods, music, dance and body paint modeling. This is the “All Gold Everything” edition of Foreplay, so you might come home covered in gold paint. When: 7:45 p.m. Where: Mooneys Lounge, 2525 N. Graham St. More: $10-20. sexylifestylespecialist.com.

14 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

FRIDAY

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Listening Sessions: Favelas MONDAY PHOTO BY SURF MITCHELL

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

COSTELLO EN CONCIERTO

OF WOMEN, BY WOMEN

FRANK SECICH

DENIRO FARRAR, WELL$

What: Take a bunch of crisp Roland TR-808 drum samples, a southern U.S. hip-hop sensibiity and a fluttery dance-music vibe, then combine all of that with Spanish-language rapping. What do you get? Costello, the trap king of Colombia. You can check out Costello when the native of Palmira, in the country’s southwest region, brings guest DJs along with him for his Trap Latino Tour. Listen to Costello’s music before the show by searching for his song “Tu Amiga” on YouTube.

What: It was a bit of a surprise to see that the main speaker at a lecture focused on a photo exhibit called Of Women, By Women would be named Alan, but hey, who are we to judge? Alan Rothschild is the founder of the Do Good Fund, a public charity based in Columbus, Georgia, that curated each image chosen in the current Light Factory exhibit. Rothschild will speak about the history and mission of the fund, as well as discuss specific images from the exhibit.

What: The late, great American punk icon Stiv Bators is best known for his aggressive anthems with The Dead Boys (“Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth”) or his apocalyptic death rock with the Lords of the New Church (“Russian Roulette”) but he made his best music with guitarist/ bassist/songwriter Frank Secich. With Bators, Secich pumped out power pop in the late 1970s that evoked the British Invasion. Today, Secich is still the master of soaring melodies and garage rock crunch.

What: Since releasing his 31-track debut mixtape Feel This in 2010, Charlotte rapper Deniro Farrar has built a following well beyond the confines of the Queen City — the type of following that justifies the fact that he calls himself The Leader of Cult Rap. Put him on a bill with fellow local Well$ — whose second full-length, The Way I’m Living Makes My Mom Nervous was a hit when it dropped in October last year — and you’ve got yourself a CLT powerhouse duo.

When: 10 p.m. Where: La Revolucion, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $10. larevolucionnc.com.

When: 6-7:30 p.m. Where: The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave. More: Free. lightfactory.org.

When: 9 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $8. snugrock.com.

When: 9 p.m. Where: The Rabbit Hole, 1801 Commonwealth Ave. More: Price not listed. therabbitspot.com/rabbit-hole/.

Of Women, By Women FRIDAY

Logic TUESDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

The Rocket Summer SUNDAY PHOTO BY BRAVERIJAH GREGG

SUNDAY

30 JIMMY HERRING & THE INVISIBLE WHIP What: He’s not just keeping the spirit of the more creative fringes of Southern rock alive, Jimmy Herring is keeping experimental, improvised guitar rock and jazz relevant. A founding member of Atlanta’s button-pushing Aquarium Rescue Unit, Project Z and Jazz is Dead, Herring has contributed his dazzling fretwork to the Allman Brothers Band, Phil Lesh and Friends and the Dead. At this show, he introduces his latest band. When: 7 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. More: $27-$30. neighborhoodtheatre.com.

PHOTO BY CELESTIA MORGAN

PHOTO COURTESY OF CMCU AMPITHEATRE

SUNDAY

MONDAY

THE ROCKET SUMMER

PLANET CREEP, FAYE

What: On the down side, The Rocket Summer’s Bryce Avary is so ebullient he comes off like an overdose of prosac. On the plus side, there’s everything else. Seamlessly blending alt rock with emo, with a heavy reliance of piano ballads, Avary allows some spiky notes to puncture his faithbased worldview, filtering pensive wistfulness through a soulful swagger. This is the Do You Feel 10-year anniversary show, featuring Avary’s best-loved album in its entirety.

What: Local noise rock at its finest in this lineup, including fuzz goddesses Faye — who will be trotting out their third drummer, Raelle Childers, for her first show on Monday night — joining local jet noise rockers Planet Creep; newer local noise rockers Kissthe Shine; and noisy dance punkers Nihilist Cheerleader out of Atlanta. What we’re trying to say is, these bands are all real good but you may have to step outside to give your ears a rest a few times.

When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. More: $14-18. visulite.com.

When: 8 p.m. Where: The Station, 2131 Central Ave. More: $5. facebook.com/ thestationclt.com.

TUESDAY

MONDAY

SESSIONS: A LISTENING PARTY What: It’s another edition of Charlotte singer-songwriter LeAnna Eden’s popular “Sessions,” wherein she and DJ SPK introduce local up-and-coming acts. This week: local rock band Favelas and rapper Tevin Johnson, aka BLVCK, along with the Charles Walker Band, a funk outfit from Eden’s hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hear some of Charlotte’s latest and most cuttingedge music, while checking out local visual artists and vendors. When: 7 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $5. petrasbar.com.

LOGIC What: This might be a stop on Everybody’s Tour, as Logic calls it, but that doesn’t mean the rapper wants you to jump onstage. The title refers to his third full-length album, Everybody, a 70-minute epic told through mulitple characters, broken up by skits, including one in which Neil Degrasse Tyson plays God. The project covers topics ranging from mass shootings to peace, love and happiness, as he recently told Rolling Stone, so buckle up. When: 8 p.m. Where: Charlotte Metro Credit Union Ampitheatre, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd. More: $21 and up. charlottemetrocreditunionamp.com.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF SHADOWGRAPHS

MUSIC

FEATURE

INTO THE MYSTIC Catch psychedelic dreampop band Shadowgraphs before they blast off BY MARK KEMP

HE FIRST THING you should know about Charlotte psychrockers Shadowgraphs is that the band’s two core members — guitarist and vocalists Bryan Olson and Charles “Wils” Glade — are like an old married couple. They finish each other’s sentences — even when they’re talking about finishing each other’s sentences. Glade: “When I first ran into Bryan it was really cool because we were into the exact same kind of stuff; but not just music, also recording equipment — the way we both nerded out on that kind of stuff — and also art . . . Olson: “. . . like graphic design, collage art, that kind of stuff. . .” Glade: “. . . and we’d end each other’s sentences.” The two look at each other and burst into laughter. They’re sitting together at a table on the back patio of Workman’s Friend gastropub in Plaza Midwood, sipping Bullet Bourbon on the rocks. It’s a Friday after work, and the two are excitedly talking about their recent record deal with the Portland, Oregon, indie label Golden Brown, which released Shadowgraphs’ debut longplayer Venomous Blossoms in both digital and vinyl formats. On that album, and an earlier EP, Return to Zero, the band introduces an updated dreampop/shoegaze sound that also hardens back further in pop-music history to the late-1960s psychedelia of early Pink Floyd. Formed just three years ago, Shadowgraphs is already making complex, mature music that sounds like the work of a band that’s been together for a decade or longer. “We had so much in common, we just hit the ground running,” says Glade, who’s wearing a Southwestern-style silver bolo tie with turquoise inlay over a short-sleeve, multicolored polka-dot collar shirt. “I would say to him, ‘I got these chords,’ and Bryan would say, ‘Oh, I got a verse for that.’” After a recent tour of the Southwest and West Coast, Shadowgraphs are back home and planning two local gigs in August: one on the 5th, at Snug Harbor, and the other on the 26th, for the seventh annual God Save the Queen City Music Festival at Neighborhood Theatre. The two are happy to be back with their recording band, which includes local bassist Ethan Ricks 16 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Bryan Olson (left) and Wils Glade find inspiration in the Southwest desert.

‘CHARLOTTE’S COOL — WE LOVE SNUG HARBOR AND WE LOVE A LOT OF OTHER PLACES AROUND TOWN — BUT I DON’T THINK WE’LL BE HERE FOREVER.’ -BRYAN OLSON

and drummer Cody Hare. (Shadowgraphs’ touring band includes Chicago-based bassist Tyler Olson, Bryan’s younger brother, and drummer Christopher Shikami.) In the next week or so, the band will drop its first video, for the song “Space Medusa,” a CGI-heavy clip directed by talented filmmaker Cory Ring, a Charlotte native and friend of the band who now lives and works in Los Angeles. The song — a swirl of guitars with a snaky, fuzzy bass line and high, gently hissed vocals — sounds as though it could be sandwiched between Pale Saints and the Cocteau Twins on an early-’90s compilation of music from the British indie label 4AD. Director Ring captured the essence of the song with imagery shot in warm lighting on a Pacific Coast beach at dawn; a Medusa-like character from the future stumbling upon ancient electronic equipment, including a cassette player, and listening, joyously, to the music on headphones as cassette tapes flutter upward in slow-motion. “The video idea,” Ring says, “came from listening to the song, listing imagery and

themes that came to mind and piecing together a story.” Ring has known the members of Shadowgraphs, particularly Glade, for years. “Wils and I grew up skateboarding together. I always was energized by his wild enthusiasm for discovering and sharing music of the past and present,” the director says from his home on the West Coast. “I knew of Bryan through his [visual] collage artwork later on. “The thing I love about Shadowgraphs,” Ring continues, “is their attention to the subtleties, their blend of chaos within the distortions of guitar, effect pedals, analog warbles, and the order of their layered sounds and attention to detail in the story arc of the sound. The otherworldly qualities and magical realism mixed with sci-fi vibes were definitely an inspiration for the video.” Ring captures Shadowgraphs’ music perfectly in both words and images. This is music not bound by geography or genre. Like all great psychedelic or dreampop artists, Shadowgraphs take universal human truths and lift them just above the surface of human

interaction, gently gliding them off to a distant horizon, where boundaries cease to exist. The flutter of sounds throughout Venomous Blossoms zaps barriers that separate the “we” from “them,” allowing for a resounding “us,” much like taking a tab of LSD might do.

THE UNLIKELY pairing of Olson, 32, with

Glade, 26, happened when a mutual friend suggested that they needed to know each other. It was a musical match made not in heaven, but in the cool, quiet mesosphere between the stratosphere and thermosphere. Neither Olson nor Glade is a Charlotte native. Olson is from Chicago; Glade was born in New Hampshire and raised, partly, in Munich, Germany. “We moved to Munich when I was 8 and lived there for about eight years,” Glade says. “My parents divorced and re-married, so I moved around a lot after that. I was thrown into German school and then moved back here. I was in Charlotte for a bit and then after Charlotte went to Vermont, then back to Germany, and now back in Charlotte.”

into more layers of hissing guitar, bass and drums, and the words, “Affectations are overrated” followed later by the plea, “I need a hit of the truth.”

Before Shadowgraphs run off to the West Coast for good (which they’re threatening to do), catch the original lineup in Charlotte. They’ll be playing the following shows in August:

THE ONE BIG truth that emerges

COURTESY OF BRYAN OLSON

Olson’s collage piece “The Quiet Capsule.” Olson’s migration wasn’t quite as broad. He was still in Chicago ten years ago, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life when his older brother Shaun (also known as Dr. Dice, front man for the Charlotte band Miami Dice) suggested he move down to the Queen City, learn to play an instrument and get in a band. “I’d skateboarded through most of my childhood and teens,” Olson says. “But I got to the point when I was about 18 or 19 that I felt like, ‘You know what? I’m getting beat up on skateboarding. I’m getting hurt and I kind of want to dabble in music.’ So my brother said, ‘Why don’t you move down to Charlotte and pick up a bass? It’s easy to learn and we’ll start up a little band.’” Olson was 21 when he learned to play guitar. “I guess I got a late start,” he says. He made up for lost time, learning the intricacies of guitar interplay as a member of Cement Stars with his brother before nerding out on studio equipment and eventually hooking up with Glade to form Shadowgraphs. The band released its Return to Zero EP a year later, in 2015, but its sound didn’t completely gel until the members went in to record Venomous Blossoms, which begins with electronics and tape manipulation before the tangled guitar lines of “Countryside” give way to a breathtakingly beautiful, ‘60s-style pop melody reminiscent of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. The title of another Venomous Blossoms track, “Interstellar,” subtly references Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive,” from that band’s 1967 debut Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but Shadowgraphs’ similarly named song is gentler and hazier. Another Shadowgraphs track, “Eastern Holiday,” begins with a galloping, Southwestern-style guitar twang before the vocals kick in with a description of traveling through Europe: “Well, 12 o’clock in Brussels is a pleasant way to start / But five more stops to Amsterdam is what you’re looking for.” The album’s centerpiece, both literally and figuratively, is “Hit of Truth,” which begins with simple, good-time, Grateful Dead-like guitar interplay before blossoming

throughout Venomous Blossoms is that Glade and Olson love to tinker with words and sounds, using studio tricks and textures to find their way to larger truths. The music is as visual as it is sonic, which makes sense when you consider that Glade and Olson both are visual artists as well as sonic artists. When he’s not making music, Glade works as a graphic designer for the Charlotte ad agency Saturday Brand Communications in South End, the company that designed the bottle art for several NoDa craft beers. Glade’s most recent design was for Lenny Boy. Olson is an internationally recognized collage artist whose work has appeared in numerous European avant-garde art magazines as well as the two-volume book The Age of Collage. The two not only write music together, but they’ve combined their talents on rich designs for Shadowgraphs posters as well as doing artwork for other bands such as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. “All that commission money we make on our artwork we put into my studio at home or whatever project we’re working on,” Olson says. “It’s like taking one creative thing to pay for another creative thing. And that’s cool to us.” Not only are Olson and Glade musicians and visual artists, they’re also studio nerds. All of Shadowgraphs’ music is recorded in Olson’s home studio, where he has a massive, 32-channel Yamaha PM-2000 mixer and “tape machines out the ying-yang,” according to Glade. “And there’s another room that has lots of amps and Wurlitzers and stuff. It’s just crazy,” Glade adds. “It’s funny, when we first met, I was all into digital stuff and Bryan was into analog, but I was always curious about analog. Now, I’m getting more into analog and he’s getting more into digital.” “Recording is just another hobby for us on top of everything else,” Olson adds. “I think Wils and I work so well together because we can kind of bounce things off of each other, artistically, in so many different ways. Like, I’ll have a collage thing I’m working on that I don’t want to spend time doing the type for, and I’ll give it to him and he’ll make it great. Same thing with music. Wils will write a chorus and he’s like, ‘I need a verse,’ so I’ll come up with a verse. “ Glade and Olson aren’t sure they’ll stay in Charlotte. After touring the West Coast, they say, they got the feeling the music they make might fit in better in Portland or Los Angeles. Sadly, that may be true. When I was doing research on the band, I ran across a description of their sound at one Charlotte media outlet as being “firmly rooted in the ’70s-era funk, soul, and groove”; it also made reference to the ’60s symphonic rock of the Moody Blues. One listen to Shadowgraphs’ music revealed how terribly far off the mark all those descriptions are. Glade laughs. “You mean you didn’t hear any of that? We didn’t either,” he says. “We saw that and were like, ‘Soul?’ I mean, that’s cool and all, but we’re not that.” “We also got ‘baroque pop,’” Oson says, “and we were like, ‘Interesting. Never heard

SHADOWGRAPHS Saturday, Aug. 5, 10 p.m. $5. Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. 704-5611781. snugrock.com.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN CITY: SHADOWGRAPHS W/ ANCIENT CITIES, MORE PHOTO BY JUSTIN SMITH

Shadowgraphs: Cody Hare, Glade, and Ethan Ricks (standing, from left to right); Olson (sitting). that before, but OK. “We love Charlotte,” Olson hastens to add. “There’s a lot of great artists here and cool bands coming from out of here, and we’re friends with a lot of bands here. But after we went on tour, we found that we really hit it off in L.A. and Portland more than we do here. So I think we’re going to keep doing that run and eventually we may even venture off there for a little bit.” The band’s label, Golden Brown, was launched in Portland and recently relocated to L.A. It was started by Thom Sunderland, who previously worked for Lefse Records, the original label of Neon Indian. Golden Brown

Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 p.m. $15$25. Neighborhood Theatre, 511 East 36th St. 704-42-7997. neighborhoodtheatre.com.

chose the Shadowgraphs album to be its first vinyl release. “I just feel like we gel more with the West Coast scene,” Olson continues. “We’ve been playing a lot on the East Coast for the past couple of years, and Charlotte’s cool — we love Snug Harbor and we love a lot of other places around town — but I don’t think we’ll be here forever. We kind of want a change. I’ve been here for over ten years, so I think it would be good to have a big drastic change of scenery.”

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | 17

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

JULY 27 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) Football Etc., Group Text (The Station) Free karaoke night with Battleship and DJ Wyley B (Milestone) Jason Moss & the Hosses (Comet Grill) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Lisa DeNovo (RiRa Irish Pub) Mac McAnally (McGlohon Theater at Spirit Square) Matt Minchew (Tin Roof) Miles Nielsen & The Rusted Hearts (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Party Battleship, Mike Strauss Band (Petra’s) Shiprocked (Snug Harbor) Throwback Thursdays: 80s and 90s Music (Morehead Street Tavern)

JULY 28 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant) 3rd Annual QC Summerfest: Boney James, Althea Rene (Belk Theater, Charlotte)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Steven Engler Band (Blue Restaurant & Bar)

COUNTRY/FOLK Live on the Green (First Ward Park) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Overcash (RiRa Irish Pub) Mirror Moves (Petra’s)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Drop !t featuring Zomboy (The Fillmore)

POP/ROCK Arborlea, Machinist!, Weary Legs, Van Huskins (Milestone) The Bald Brotherhood (RiRa Irish Pub) Blackfoot Gypsies (The Evening Muse) Boy Harsher, Konvoi, Minthill (Snug Harbor) Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers (McGlohon Theater) Dave Desmelik (Birdsong Brewery) Erin & Matt (NoDa Brewing Company) Kolezanka, Koosh (The Station) Kristen Ford, Christy Snow (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) 18 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

SEND US The Lawsuits, The Pinkerton Raid, Tyler Nail Trio (The Evening Muse) Matt Bennett Band (Tin Roof) Motel Glory, Temperance League (The Courtroom, Rock Hill) Shana Blake Band (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Sounds on the Square: The Vinyl Sirens and Persona Bell (Spirit Square) Spiritual Rez, The Primate Fiasco (The Rabbit Hole) Toad the Wet Sprocket, Beta Play (Neighborhood Theatre) Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, The LOZ Band (Visulite Theatre)

JULY 29 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Beres Hammond, Alison Hinds (Knight Theater)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Deniro Farrar, Que, Well$ (Rabbit Hole) Cyanca EP Release Party (Roc’s Jazz Bar)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH 3rd Annual QC Summerfest: Mid-Day Matinee: Jonathan Fritzen (McGlohon Theater) 3rd Annual QC Summerfest: Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum (Belk Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Mickey Gilley (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Sam Hunt, Maren Morris & Chris Janson (PNC Music Pavilion)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Boss Austin (RiRa Irish Pub)

POP/ROCK Blakeney Summer Concert Series (Blakeney Shopping Center) Bad Inc. (Sylvia Theatre, York) Bencoolen (Thomas Street Tavern) Bill Noonan Band, Rachel Kate, Heather Himes (Petra’s) Dead Sea $crilla, 187 Live, Miggs, Freak Tha Monsta, Shadow (Milestone) Ezra Root (Tin Roof) Frank Secich & Room Full of Strangers, Aqualads, Pleather Boys, The Penitentials (Snug Harbor) Greg Lilley (Birdsong Brewery) Heavy Water (RiRa Irish Pub) Lemon City Trio (The Evening Muse) Reeve Coobs (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Retro Futura Tour: Howard Jones, The English Beat, Men Without Hats, Katrina & The Waves, Modern English (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Sondor Blue (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Thirsty Horses (Tin Roof) Tonya Woods Music Company (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville)

SOUNDBOARD

Treehouse!, Signal Fire, Edge Michael (Visulite Theatre) Truckstop Preachers (Comet Grill) Year of the Persona: Persona Bell (Duke Energy Theater)

(The Station)

JULY 30 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH 3rd Annual QC Summerfest: Eric Roberson, Ken Ford, Shan Shableek Richardson (Belk Theater) Double Feature: Straight No Chaser, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox, Jon McLaughlin (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre)

POP/ROCK Jimmy Herring & The Invisible Whip (Neighborhood Theatre) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) The Rocket Summer, 888 (Visulite Theatre)

JULY 31 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)

POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic with Tony Eltora (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, Huntersville) Planet Creep, Faye, Nihilist Cheerleader, Kiss the Shine (The Station) Session: A Listening Party (Petra’s) Soul Remnants, Solium Fatalis, Suaka, Black Fleet (Milestone)

AUGUST 1 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Morehead Tavern)

COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Open Mic hosted by Jarrid and Allen of Pursey Kerns (The Kilted Buffalo, Huntersville) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Everybody’s Tour: Logic, Joey Bada$$, Big Lenbo (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre)

POP/ROCK Future Generations, Private Island, Beach Tiger (Neighborhood Theatre) Nothing Feels Good - Emo Night (Noda 101) Rosewave, Death Of August, Venus Invictus

MUSIC

AUGUST 2 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH The Clarence Palmer Trio (Morehead Tavern)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Bugalú – Old School Latin Boogie (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK Open mic w/ Jared Allen (Jack Beagles, Charlotte) Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill)

POP/ROCK Fuel (The Underground, Charlotte) Future Thieves (Neighborhood Theatre) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Michael Franti & Spearhead, Trevor Green (Neighborhood Theatre) Pluto For Planet (RiRa Irish Pub) Snug 10 Year Anniversary Celebration Residency: Scowl Brow, Old Heavy Hands (Snug Harbor) Songwriter Open Mic @ Petra’s (Petra’s) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)

7/26 SCHOOL OF ROCK ALLSTARS 7/28 YO MAMA'S BIG FAT BOOTY BAND 7/29 TREEHOUSE! 7/30THEROCKET SUMMER 8/5 SAME AS IT EVER WAS 8/29 Greta Van Fleet 9/6 BIRDTALKER 9/8 WILL HOGE 9/20 DEER TICK 10/19 HAMILTON LEITHAUSER

❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈

1-2-3 NIGHT FEATURING

SCOTT BRANTLEY TICKETS $10 AT THE DOOR AUGUST 25

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 704-5228088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication.

LUKE PELL

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

CHRIS BANDI

TICKETS ON SALE NOW $15

AUGUST 26

FRANK FOSTER

LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12

COMING SOON  Sumilian (August 3, U.S. National Whitewater Center) Gillian Welch (August 4, Knight Theater) Descendents (August 4, The Fillmore) 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) Ford Theatre Reunion (August 6, Milestone) Carpoolparty (August 8, Snug Harbor) Farruko (August 9, The Fillmore) J. Cole (August 9, Spectrum Center) Wyclef Jean (August 10, Neighborhood Theatre) Erykah Badu (August 12, PNC Music Pavilion) Flagship (August 13, The Underground) John Mayer, (August 15, PNC Music Pavilion) Social Distortion (August 19, The Fillmore) Counting Crows, Matchbox 20 (August 20, PNC Music Pavilion) The Veldt (August 25, Snug Harbor) Ryan Culwell (August 26, U.S. National Whitewater Center) Jim Lauderdale (August 27, Evening Muse) Kendrick Lamar (August 29, Spectrum Center) TKO Faith Healer (August 29, Snug Harbor) Ed Sheeran (September 3, Spectrum Center) Cabinet (September 7, U.S. National Whitewater Center)

AUGUST 19

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YOUR LISTINGS!

❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈

AUGUST 31

LAUREN ALAINA FREE CONCERT

SEPTEMBER 16

CHASE RICE

LIMITED ADVANCE $22 ALL OTHERS $25

with hosts: Mark Kemp and RYan Pitkin visit clclt.com for more info

SEPTEMBER 23

MUSCADINE BLOODLINE WITH SPECIAL GUEST

BRANDON RAY

LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15

OCTOBER 20

COREY SMITH

LIMITED ADVANCE $20 ALL OTHERS $25

WILD 1-2-3 NIGHTS

JULY 28 AUGUST 5, 11 & 19

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

704-399-4946

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | 19

Bloom: Transformations (2016)

ARTS

PHOTO BY SHAUN HOLLINGSWORTH

BLOOM: REVOLUTION

COVERSTORY

FIRE WALK WITH ME Bloom: Revolution ignites Charlotte’s performing arts scene BY PAT MORAN

OR TWO SULTRY July nights and one afternoon, a small army of performing artists will converge on the McColl Center, where they will dance, swing from the rafters and spit fire in an event that resembles a mash-up of Carnival in Venice, the garden of earthly delights and a (sort of) family-friendly bacchanalia. But for Katie Rothweiler, Bloom: Revolution is a labor of love. “We tell applicants when they sign up for the event to bring their weird,” Rothweiler says, laughing. The 33-year-old belly dance instructor and aerialist, who performs under the name Satya, is discussing the latest iteration of Bloom, the performing arts showcase she organizes each year with her creative partner Sarah Hahn. This year, Bloom will take over the McColl for three separate events: two adult-only evening bills that feature mature concepts and burlesque performers on July 28 and 29, 20 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

and a family-friendly show on the afternoon of the 29th. As the duo Satarah, Rothweiler and Hanh have been mounting their annual celebration of the aerial, terpsichorean and incendiary arts since 2012. When Bloom first blossomed, it was going to be a comparatively modest affair. “We were teaching classes at the time and we were planning on putting together an intimate show for our students to perform for their families and friends,” Rothweiler says. Rothweiler and Hanh wanted to rent out the small front area of the Chop Shop, but the owner of the since-shuttered venue said nothing doing. “(Chop Shop’s) Jay Tilyard insisted we do something bigger,” Rothweiler says. So Bloom launched with a big bang in December 2012, and staged a follow-up show in the summer of 2013. Satarah has been hosting the events every summer since, not an easy task in the face of Charlotte’s enthusiastic embrace of

McColl Center for Art + Innovation July 28 7:30 p.m. July 29 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m. shows are adults only, Saturday 4:30 p.m. show is family friendly. $20 advance, $25 day of show. inspireyourbloom.com

development and gentrification. “After the Chop Shop got torn down, we no longer had a place to hold Bloom. We were really nervous about whether we were going to have it again.” A big hurdle is that there are so few Charlotte venues that can host fire, aerial and dance. Rothweiler and Hanh went looking, but the search was not going well. “Then we were driving Uptown and I saw the McColl Center and I knew it was where we need to be,” Rothweiler says “It would be the perfect backdrop for us.” Satarah first booked the McColl last year for a two-day run. The event went so well that they’re back this year for the three performances. Bloom’s success has exceeded Rothweiler and Hanh’s wildest dreams. Rothweiler believes it’s because it offers participants something other performance troupes and organizations do not: freedom. “We’re giving people a stage where they

don’t necessarily have to follow the rules,” she says. “We want people to feel free to do things onstage that they wouldn’t feel comfortable doing with other dance communities.” This year’s Bloom will be Satarah’s biggest yet, featuring more than 60 acts. Half of those performers will defy gravity on silks, trapeze and an aerial hoop called the lyra. Another six will be playing with fire. “I’ll be doing a fire performance to Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Games’ with the dragon staff,” Collette Ellis says. “It’s a large spinning staff with eight wicks that you move by rolling it across your body.” As Ellis describes the routine, her spiral motion sets a gyroscopic force that keeps the fiery staff moving across her back, torso and shoulders. It sounds hypnotic — and more than a little risky. SEE

FIRE P. 22 u

Bloom: Transformations (2016)

PHOTO BY PHOTOARTOFTEC

Bloom

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“We tell applicants when they sign up for the event to bring their weird.” - KATIE ROTHWEILER

PHOTO BY BOBBY WHITMIRE

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PHOTO BY SHAU

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(2016)

Satarah: Katie Rothweiler (top), Sarah Hahn

PHOTO BY SHAUN

Bloom: Transf

HOLLINGSWORTH

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CLCLT.COM | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | 21

ARTS

Bloom

COVERSTORY

FIRE FROM P.20 t

PHOTO BY SHAUN HOLLINGSWORTH

22 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

“When you work with fire, there is always a chance that you will get burned,” says Ellis, who’s sustained a few minor injuries. She describes her most recent burn as no worse than what you’d get from accidentally grabbing a hot spoon you had left in a pan.= Injuries aside, Ellis keeps coming back to fire performance. For performers as well as observers, it casts a spell. “Doing fire properly takes so much focus and preparation,” Ellis says. “It’s almost like meditation.” Like Ellis, other members of Charlotte’s performing arts community also have been attracted to Bloom. Satarah’s record number of performers for 2017 had to be pared down from a much larger pool of applicants. “We’ve been getting so many people submitting to perform, that we decided to streamline the process,” Rothweiler says. Starting last year, Satarah winnowed down the pool of applicants by requiring them to tailor their acts to a specific theme. The theme focuses each act’s impact, and encourages each applicant to bring their personal story to the performance, Rothweiler maintains. In 2016, Bloom’s theme was “Transformation.” This year’s theme, “Revolution,” reflects the tumult and upheaval that continues to reverberate through the city. “People have been so frustrated, sad and scared, but these are all things that make art happen,” Rothweiler says, adding that revolution can come in many guises. “It can be personal — some obstacle you overcame in your life,” she says. Just as it figures directly into some of Bloom’s performances, fire is also a powerful metaphor for the event’s focus on incendiary change, but the flames of revolution won’t necessary translate to aerialists, dancers and fire eaters storming city hall, Rothweiler says. “We wanted to give people the opportunity to get political, but we don’t want everything to be angry,” she says. “We want to bring some softness into the event as well.” The theme of revolution not only speaks to Bloom’s performers and audience. It resonates with Rothweiler and Hanh as well. “Even though we chose that theme because of its political echoes, it really does speak to where we are currently in our lives,” Rothweiler says. “We’ve overcome a lot together, to push things to the next level as Satarah. We hope to create some awesome art in Charlotte that doesn’t have to fall within the confined borders.” Rothweiler and Hanh’s task lies in reconciling their philosophical and social concerns with spectacle, and stories of triumph or despair with aesthetics and entertainment. When Bloom: Revolution patrons first walk into the McColl Center, they’ll go downstairs to the boardroom, where they will encounter all the dance performances, Rothweiler says. It will be a diverse bill, ranging from belly dancing to cabaret to burlesque.

Once the dance portion is complete, the audience will enter the vendors’ area. In addition to food and drink, booths will also host raffles and silent auctions for the Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency. A portion of Bloom’s proceeds will also be donated to the charity. McColl Center’s back patio will feature aerial performers on lyra, trapeze and an acrobatic duo called the Flying Femmes in a metal cube called, quite naturally, the cube. “There will be chairs available outside for people who would like them, but we’re not going to have a seated area,” says Rothweiler, because acts won’t be moving from stage to stage. Instead, the audience’s attention will be drawn from one performer to the next. “It will be more a shift of the gaze,” Rothweiler says. Fire performances will also take place on the outdoor patio, due in part to safety concerns, Ellis says. “You make sure that there’s no tall grass, no banners — nothing flammable in your area,” Ellis says. “Then you make sure that you have your fuel, which we call a fuel dump, set far away from your actual performance area.” There is also a safety person standing by with a fire extinguisher and a duvetyne blanket, in case she catches fire, Ellis says. She adds that the safety precautions don’t detract from her love of fire performance. “I find myself returning to fire more often than not. It’s a comfortable medium for me, and it’s always inspiring.” Ellis’ combination of professionalism, derring-do and passion is present in all of Bloom: Revolution’s performers, Rothweiler says. To foster a sense of community, Satarah encourages a mix of acts where seasoned professionals like Ellis will share the bill with relative newcomers. Rothweiler emphasizes that these newcomers should not be considered beginners. “They know what it feels like to be on (an aerial) apparatus, for instance. But they haven’t had an opportunity to perform in a breathtaking and beautiful place like McColl,” Rothweiler says. “It’s important to us to create the opportunity for people who may have not ‘made it’ it to share their passion with a crowd including friends and family.” The motivation for hosting Bloom, it seems, always comes back to love. Rothweiler says she and Hahn never see a profit from the event. Whatever doesn’t go to charity is put back into the budget for next year’s Bloom, Rothweiler maintains. “We started this to bring people together,” she says. “We want people to see that if we all work together we can create something beautiful and amazing. “Hopefully,” she continues, “the particular theme this year will inspire people to take that first step in their own revolution.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

Dunkirk (Photo: Warner)

ARTS

FILM

Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip (Photo: Universal)

THE ART OF WAR WWII drama is an assault on the senses BY MATT BRUNSON

THE WORLD WAR II drama

Dunkirk (***1/2 out of four) is already being hailed in some quarters as one of the greatest war films ever made and in other corners as a typically overrated Christopher Nolan endeavor. Neither claim is accurate, although it should be noted that the enthusiasts are closer to the mark than the Nolan naysayers. Certainly, Dunkirk hardly belongs in the same class as Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan or any of the other superb combat flicks that have been produced over the past 100odd years. Focusing on the unlikely — some would say miraculous — evacuation of over 300,000 surrounded Allied soldiers from the French beaches over the course of a few days in 1940, the movie is stripped down in terms of its characterizations. Various players are represented in only scattered scenes, and character names are often hard to come by. A few recognizable actors appear here and there — Tom Hardy as a courageous pilot, Cillian Murphy as a shell-shocked soldier, Kenneth Branagh as a concerned officer, and Bridge of Spies Oscar winner Mark Rylance as a British citizen commandeering one of the rescue boats — but most of the cast is comprised of up-and-comers whose boyish faces are often hard to distinguish in the darkness and under the dirt. Worse, Nolan’s decision to tinker with time won’t bother those who can keep up but is certain to anger and irritate those whose knives are already unsheathed. Yet to suggest that Dunkirk is a movie lacking in emotion because it’s lacking in sharply etched players is incorrect. Nolan’s strength here is his ability to place audiences

right into the thick of the various struggles taking place by air, land and sea. Backed by Hans Zimmer’s forceful score as well as sound effects that deserve this year’s Oscar, he comes up with a movie that works beautifully as an aural and visual assault. This in turn heightens the senses in terms of what’s at stake for all these soldiers and civilians, and viewers with any semblance of empathy will easily be engaged, enraged and, ultimately, inspired. The latest eye-candy achievement from director Luc Besson, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (**1/2 out of four) should be seen on a large movie screen — preferably in 3-D — or not seen at all. Based on the influential French comic series Valerian and Laureline, the movie opens with a clever and amusing prelude that spans the centuries (backed, of course, by David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”) before shifting to a lengthy segment in which the visual effects dominate everything else. But rather than the CGI distancing viewers (as if too often the case), they prove to be completely immersive and instead invoke sympathy for the alien creatures placed front and center. Unfortunately, the movie then switches over to the human protagonists, and all magic is quickly dispelled. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne), two 28thcentury government agents doing their part to make the universe a safe place to live, are introduced as they flirt with one another, and the witless banter recalls Katherine Heigl and Gerald Butler far more than it stirs memories of Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott. From there, the film blazes through one frenetic episode after another, all featuring

Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Photo: STX) cutting-edge effects that are especially striking in 3-D. The storyline involving a rogue commander (Clive Owen) isn’t particularly inspired but it is perfectly serviceable, and late-inning appearances by Rihanna and Ethan Hawke are properly entertaining. But it’s ultimately all for naught when balanced against the dead weight at the center of the film. That would be DeHaan and Delevingne, neither of whom are especially convincing in their trite roles. Stronger performers might have been able to provide the characters with interesting shadings and distinct personalities, but Delevingne and especially DeHaan are woefully miscast, and the final impression is of two children playing dressup against a galactic backdrop that ultimately swallows them whole. Moviegoers who endured a rough night watching the recent Rough Night will fare significantly better with Girls Trip (*** out of four), another comedy about four college friends who reunite years later for a raucous, no-holds-barred weekend. Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) is a bestselling author, Sasha Franklin (Queen Latifah) runs

her own TMZ-style website, Lisa Cooper (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a divorcee with two kids, and Dina (Tiffany Haddish) — well, Dina defies description. The four reunite in New Orleans during the Essence Festival, where they hobnob with celebrities, hook up with an old college pal (Larenz Tate), and learn that Ryan’s husband (Mike Colter) is having an affair. Friendships are tested, romances are ignited, copious alcohol is consumed, and grapefruits are employed in an interesting way. Like most modern comedies, Girls Trip occasionally goes overboard with the raunch (the zipline incident is funny the first time, unpleasant the second), and all problems are neatly resolved with predictable precision. Yet the movie dishes out a generous portion of huge laughs, and all four actresses are aptly cast and enjoy an easy rapport. Best of all is Haddish, whose breakout performance is not unlike that of Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids or Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters. Best known for her TV roles, she proves to be utterly fearless in this film, diving into her part with both confidence and ferocity. It’s an invigorating performance, but, kids, don’t try the grapefruit at home. CLCLT.COM | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | 23

A scene from the film Gook.

ARTS

SECRET FEAR

“I used to be afraid of Count Basie. My dad, a jazz musician, had all his albums lining the wall. I would get up in the night and see all those records stacked up and there was an album of Count Basie pointing his finger dead at me. Used to scare the bejeezus out of me!”

FEATURE

JOURNEY TO ‘CINEODYSSEY’ Local film festival founder Tre McGriff always found movies to be an escape BY EMIENE WRIGHT

ROWING UP, Tre McGriff always loved the old Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire-type films like Stormy Weather. “Anything with music,” says McGriff, the founder of Charlotte’s CineOdyssey Film Festival. But the one thing McGriff didn’t see a lot of in those films were people who looked like him, telling stories he could relate to. Now, he’s making moves to alleviate that problem for others. CineOdyssey, which runs from July 27 to July 30, is bringing 30 films to Charlotte that reflect the rich diversity of the New South. No musicals, but a hell of a line-up of feature films, shorts and documentaries, both regional and worldwide, all showcasing diasporas of color that are creating community in the Queen City. Charlotte is already home to more than a dozen film festivals, each with its own niche demographic: LGBTQ, Jewish, AsianAmerican. But McGriff saw a particular void he wanted to fill. CineOdyssey bills itself as a one-stop film festival for films by and about people of color: African-American, Caribbean, Native American, Asian, African and more. But everyone is welcome to be part of the 24 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

audience. “Drive down Central Avenue. That’s what the festival will look like,” McGriff says. “If you eat out there a lot, or grocery shop there because you want a particular spice that’s not sold at Food Lion, you’re already embracing that type of diversity in your life. This film festival just extends that to the big screen.” McGriff has been a fixture on Charlotte’s film scene for close to 20 years, promoting the now-defunct Reel Soul events, publicizing the Charlotte Black Film Festival and acting as an extra before founding CineOdssey. He moved from Long Island, New York, to Charlotte in 1999, when there wasn’t much of an established film scene locally. “I’d read about a couple of local filmmakers doing things, but there certainly wasn’t a movement for people of color at all,” he says. He heard about ‘Wild Bill’ Connolly, a former New Jersey police officer, teaching film classes out of his home in Huntersville and flashed back to his days taking courses at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Through Connolly, McGriff connected with like-minded film buffs and formed an unintentionally diverse collective. Motion

Concepts was made up of an Asian man, a Puerto Rican woman, a white guy and, counting McGriff, two black men. Reggie Moser, the other African-American in the collective, hails from Monroe. His feature film The Light screened at the 2008 Hollywood Black Film Festival. “We would go around like nomads doing guerilla filmmaking,” McGriff says. Nobody applied for permits, so on a music-video shoot in Myrtle Beach during Black Bike Week, they had to get creative when police began hassling them about blocking traffic. “‘You look a little bit like Robert Redford. Have you ever done any acting before?’ We appealed to their egos,” McGriff says, with a laugh. “Next thing you know, they had blocked the streets off for us and we had full range to shoot the video. It was pretty funny.”

FINDING A MENTOR

In the early 2000s McGriff met the late Dennis Darrell, originator of the Shorts in the Spirit Program; Legacy of Black Men Short Film Showcase; Twists, Dreds, Perms & Fros; the Oc Fest for visual arts, fashion and poetry;

and the Reel Soul Film fest. Upon Darrell’s death, the Charlotte Observer called him “the individual who most influenced independent film in Charlotte.” McGriff and Darrell’s connection was instant. “He had a vision to bring to Charlotte African-American films, mainly shorts, that you wouldn’t see anywhere else,” McGriff says with palpable affection. “That was like a revelation. Because the crowds that would show up for these events would pack McGlohon Theater, 700 people, on a regular basis. It was amazing just to see that number of black people there for independent cinema. It was all new to us.” McGriff would come and introduce films for Darrell with comedy or short bits. “I got the chance to act a fool a little bit. It was a great time, because you started to see a movement of films by and for people of color,” he says. When Darrell died suddenly in 2010 at 47, McGriff was distraught and discouraged. “For a while, my passion for it sort of died with him,” he says. “I stayed involved on a lower level, like crowd-funding toward

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McGriff was once a big fan of Elvis Presley — the actor, not the singer. “I would be the only one in the house, up late watching Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, Roundabout,” he remembers. “I watched all of those movies.”

film projects, advising local filmmakers on locations or reading scripts, but as far as the exhibition of films, there was nobody screening local film anymore.” Two events gave him the push to begin again. Director Ava DuVernay founded Array, a film distribution company that used black film festivals to bypass the Hollywood system and show films in theaters around the country. And in 2013, the Charlotte Black Film Festival was born. CBFF founder Tommy Nichols asked McGriff to be program director. “It was a complete disaster,” McGriff says. “I’d learned a lot from Dennis and Tommy, but I didn’t know how to play the game. You can’t do everything by yourself.” He built relationships with local and national filmmakers, and partnered with CBFF and Array to screen the acclaimed Big Words at Studio Movie Grill. It was the first screening where he spent his own money.

A scene from She’s Got a Plan.

He made another partnership with OJU Film Collective out of San Francisco to show the documentary Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp. They both went over very well. “I started seeing 75 to 80 people turn out at Studio Movie Grill on a Wednesday night and I said, ‘Maybe something’s starting up again,’” McGriff remembers. After an amicable split from CBFF, he decided to create the CineOdyssey Film Festival.

THE NEW LINEUP

This year, McGriff bookended the film festival with its most well-known features for opening and closing night: She’s Got a Plan and Gook, which won the Audience Award at Sundance. About Korean brothers who befriend an African-American girl during the 1992 L.A. riots, Gook has drawn comparisons to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.

McGriff After the opening night screening at Little Rock Cultural Center, audiences are invited to a listening party at the Carole Hoefener Center, with soundtracks to Claudine, Slumdog Millionaire, Above the Rim, New Jack City, and Superfly playing while clips from those classic movies are projected on the walls. A Friday night producers’ panel discussion features Chris Everett of Wilmington on Fire and native Charlottean Calvin Brown, who has produced shows for Nickelodeon and was a writer for Kevin Hart’s popular Real Husbands of Hollywood TV show. Another local draw is the Spotlight Regional Filmmaker competition. As a program director, McGriff is constantly on the lookout to find the best films he can get. He’d like CineOdyssey to be very grassroots and self-funded from the beginning, with a few corporate sponsors but not to the level of other big black film festivals. His reasons for that are plain. “What happens is the corporate sponsors want butts in the seats at all costs, so it puts pressure on the programming director and others running festivals to get more films that have a built-in audience or known name,” McGriff says. “If Spike Lee made She’s Gotta Have It today, it may not get screened at the American Black Film Festival. If you’re Joe Blow with a great feature film and great but unknown actors, no matter how good your story is, you’ll have a hard time getting in. Shorts, sure, but not features.” He’s not immune to the pressure. One of CineOdyssey’s top feature films, and a major coup for a first-time film festival, is 90 Days, starring Teyonah Parris, known for her role in Spike Lee joint Chi-raq. “That was a pivotal moment,” McGriff says. “It was the first film I got for the festival that had a name in it.” The fest features films by Native Americans, Africans, Latinos, Koreans and African-Americans. McGriff hopes building the festival this way can help the community understand that, though we’re all different, we go through many of the same things. “We worry about our jobs, how to feed our families, our health,” McGriff says. “The guy in Africa still worries about his parents getting older and how he’s going to take care of them. The guy in Korea still worries about walking out his door in the wrong neighborhood and getting jumped. It’s universal. We need to see that, especially in this political and social climate.”

McGriff obviously recommends all of the films screening at CineOdyssey, but this is his mustsee list: Samedi Cinema (short): The story of two young boys who hatch a plan for cash to buy two movie tickets before the local cinema in their small Senegalese town closes for good. The Box (short): A Turkish animated film about a Syrian kid whose cardboard playhouse, over the course of the war, shifts from toy to shelter and eventually means of escape. In the Spotlight (short): Follows a top-selling jazz entertainer’s descent into drugs. Reminiscent of Whitney Houston’s story, but the ending is a bit of a shock. No More Chains: Feature documentary follows the incredible stories of 11 AfricanAmerican women in the business world. Producer Ari Squires, a protégé of Steve Harvey’s, will sit on a panel discussion with Charlotte City Councilwoman Dimple Ajmeera afterward. Blank Canvas: Two strangers meet on a rooftop after lifechanging events in this feature. Filled with rich dialogue on what constitutes privilege. Chris Chalk, who plays Lucius Fox on Gotham, stars.

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NIGHTLIFE

WHO RUN THE WORLD? GIRLS A Q.C. ‘Girls Trip’ PICTURE IT: Jada Pinkett Smith holding

probably already imagining, there were so many awkward moments. tacky denim vests with rhinestones all over The casual usage of derogatory terms, them trying to convince her besties that the little nuances in language that I didn’t they should wear them in their mid-forties know if my counterparts understood, and on a trip to New Orleans. The response? yet, everyone seemed to feel quite at home “You should be bedazzling some d*ck.” — #winningforasmalltownblackgirl. I shed If I didn’t laugh at anything else, that my judgments and misconceptions and let line alone would have been worth the price the “black girl magic” happen. of admission for the new movie Girls Trip (reviewed on page 23). Not even a beer later, my friend was You know the deal, now time to rewind. chatting with me about the similarities Monday nights are supposed to be a between all of us and the characters in the night when you leave work, go home and go movie. I looked at the rest of our row who to bed. The weekend is over and Friday is the were enthralled in the movie and that’s when next day you’re looking forward to. I realized ... We. Were. Sold. That’s why me and my girls decided we Next thing you know, we’re “loud were going to be “adults” and go to a whispering” with an attendant about movie instead of hanging out and whether or not we’d gotten two drinking all night. However, buckets or three (Anyone who’s as any regular reader of this been to SMG knows the column could have guessed, service is hit or miss which we went out and went to can be quite irritating). the movies. #gofigure As for the movie, it I gathered my things was phenomenal and has after work and decided earned every comparison I was in for a “movie to white counterparts night,” but little did I like Bridesmaids and know it would turn into male counterparts like The a “thing.” Hangover. But again I pose AERIN SPRUILL Oh, who am I kidding? a question: Who can resist a Any night with my real life movie where Jada Pinkett Smith version of the “flossy posse” is and Queen Latifah reunite?(If you always a thing. After all, these are the haven’t seen Set it Off yet, go find a copy.) girls I do “wine night” with until all hours The movie ended and I imagine we of the night at The Corner Pub on a regular were riding the same wave that a group basis. of guys would experience after seeing The When I showed up at Tin Roof in the Hangover for the first time — an extreme Epicentre, I got a taste for what kind of night desire to get really drunk and tear down the it was going to be when I noticed one of the city. We laughed about the idea of getting specials was Deep Eddy’s vodka for $5. Who personalized necklaces made for our group can resist a $5 Red Bull vodka? and joked about the possibilities for a group It wasn’t until I’d brought the AMC name other than “flossy posse.” You can only voucher I’d gotten for a Christmas present imagine how far down the rabbit hole that two years prior that I realized I wouldn’t be took us. We grabbed a couple more drinks able to use it at Studio Movie Grill for a free while everyone else watched us wondering movie. So I reluctantly purchased the $5 what kind of drug we were on, but the truth Groupon and proceeded to secure seats for was, while we were a tad tipsy, we were just everyone in the group. excited about having a night out in the Q.C. At 7 p.m. sharp, we were in our seats, with just the girls. buckled in and ready for the comedic ride What’s better? We have a trip planned to one of my friends (who’d already seen the NOLA for January and we’re now more than movie) had promised. ready after witnessing some of the most epic No one would’ve suspected that three nightlife spots and experiences in the area. blondes, a brunette and a black girl would Zip-lining from bar to bar? Wig night? Oh be seeing this movie together, but there we yeah, that’s happening when we visit the were piling into the same row to see this “Big Easy” in a few short months. movie with an all-black cast. We knew we When you’re itching for a night out with needed to save money so we decided to get the girls, what do you do in the Queen City? two buckets of Coors Light. Share it with me at backtalk@clclt.com! Throughout the movie, as you’re

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CRUCIAL CATEGORY ACROSS

1 Overbrim 5 Lowercase letter with a dot 11 Deg. for a future exec 14 Be snoozing 19 Magic incantation starter 20 Add more criticism 21 OPEC supply 22 Big blood vessel 23 Old Cougar carmaker, for short 24 Sci-fi author Isaac 25 Cry in a party card game 26 Great fear 27 Table in a dictionary 31 Tension 32 Pew, for one 33 “Neon” tank fish 37 Dessert akin to cobbler 38 Smartphone buy 41 It may be true-false 44 Book with many maps 48 Word in a Doris Day song title 49 Oh-so-sentimental 50 Big bother 51 Chief Pontiac’s people 53 Wall St. manipulator 55 “-- Abner” 56 Pro opposite 57 Tidy 58 Printed symphony, e.g. 63 Twistable treat 65 Dol. units 67 Pantheon member 68 Really happy 69 Dunking site 75 The Chiffons’ “He’s --” 78 Ambience 79 Hither and -80 Ship pole 84 Jailer 88 Flaky mineral 91 U.S. 66, e.g. 92 Rustic stopover 93 Spam may be in it 94 Plunder 96 Period in history 97 Cowgirl’s rope 100 Agenda, informally 103 Concert Steinway, say 105 The West Indies, e.g. 108 Brainpower stats 109 In need of medical

care 110 From that place 111 Olds oldies 113 Brain twister 116 Theme of this puzzle 122 Mark-leaving swordsman 125 Utterance of amazement 126 Time of mammoths 127 Trails off 128 Rack up, as debt 129 Sense of self 130 Earth orbits it 131 “Dies --” (Latin hymn) 132 Lions, Tigers and Bears 133 Realty unit 134 Seasonal mall figures 135 Itty-bitty bits

DOWN

1 Packs firmly 2 Roger of film reviews 3 Often messing up 4 Lehrer’s old PBS partner 5 Arches over 6 Various items: Abbr. 7 Et -- (and others) 8 Golf’s “Champagne Tony” 9 Plunders 10 Visible 11 Canadian cop 12 Singer Crosby 13 Matty or Felipe of the diamond 14 Makes glum 15 Actress Swit 16 Previous to 17 Theta lead-in 18 Hip home 28 Applied to 29 Scull needs 30 Suffix with Wyoming 34 Scheme anew 35 Shoot for, with “to” 36 Fashioned 38 Invasion 39 River through Nebraska 40 Bear’s foot 42 Gillette -- II razor 43 Scarlett O’Hara’s plantation 44 Texas city 45 Bad smell

46 Had grub 47 Golfer Snead 52 Sweetened 54 Chicken cordon -59 Name for 130-Across 60 In a lazy manner 61 Camera type, for short 62 “Cool” guys 64 Honshu sashes 66 130-Across is one 70 “I’ll take that as --” 71 Emailed, e.g. 72 Wish 73 Onetime big name in PCs 74 Hamburger toppings 75 Demon, e.g. 76 Dean of 102-Down books 77 Composition conclusion 81 Middle-school math class 82 Gobs 83 City near Lake Tahoe 85 Ill. neighbor 86 Egyptian symbol of life 87 Minus: Abbr. 89 El -- (hero of Spain) 90 Like Swiss mountains 95 -- Lankan 98 Childish fit 99 Affixes firmly 101 Range of hearing 102 Food intake 104 “That pleases me” 106 Agnus -- (Mass part) 107 Perfect-game feature 112 Comic actor -- Baron Cohen 113 Makes uniform 114 “Oops, sorry” 115 Stubborn animals 117 Caroling tune 118 Full of energy 119 Harry Potter, for one 120 “... why -- thou forsaken me?” 121 Water, in Cuba 122 Nose flaw 123 Indivisible 124 LG rival

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I’m a reader in Kansas with two teenage daughters, 16 and 18. My girls recently met a boy where they work and both took an interest in him. The 18-year-old was devastated that he was more interested in her younger sister. I spoke to the 16-year-old about it, which is when I found out this boy is going to be a sophomore in college. The fact that he’s interested in a 16-year-old is a red flag. I asked the 16-year-old to keep her distance. She agreed, but I saw a shirtless photo he sent her. I don’t know what other photos he’s sent and I don’t know what she’s sent him, but I immediately removed all photo apps from her phone. The girls have had public fights about this boy. They’ve made peace with each other, but now my 18-year-old wants to date him. I can’t control the actions of an 18-year-old but (1) it seems likely this guy is a complete creep and (2) isn’t her relationship with her sister more important?

is the age of consent in Kansas), but she could face child porn charges for sending photos and this boy could wind up on a sex-offender registry for receiving them. (Laws meant to protect young people from being exploited are routinely used to punish them.) But don’t attempt to micromanage your daughters’ love lives.

I’m a straight guy married to a wonderful woman. She has a daughter. This girl’s bio dad is a checked-out deadbeat, so I have played “dad” since I met her mom five years ago. The girl who used to be a gangly, awkward 11-yearold is now 16, and there’s no other way to put this: She is hot. I’m not supposed to notice, I know, and I have ZERO interest in being creepy with her, and she has ZERO interest in me. But she has always liked to cuddle with me and still does. I believe safe closeness from a dad figure helps girls make good choices when it comes to boys. (If not for me, she KNOWING A NUMBSKULL might seek attention STALKS ADORABLE SISTERS from douchebag teenage boys trying to 1. I’m not ready to take advantage.) I want DAN SAVAGE pronounce this guy a creep to continue to play this — at least not for the age role for her. But when she difference. It sounds like he met comes in wearing tiny shorts your daughters someplace they’re all and puts her legs over my lap, working this summer, which is a lot less icky I get rock hard. I’m not trying to be than some college boy creeping on high school creepy, but I’m a guy and she’s a perfect girls via Instagram. And you say this boy is female specimen. I can’t say, “We can’t going to be a sophomore in college, KANSAS, be as physically close as we used to be,” but don’t give his age. There are 30-year-old because that itself would be creepy and college sophomores, of course, but if this boy it would make her sad. went straight to college from high school, INSERT DAD ACRONYM HERE OBVIOUSLY that would make him 19 years old. If your 16-year-old is closing in on 17, this guy could Sometimes children grow up and get be “older” by two years and change. While I hot, and bonus adults in their lives — can understand why you wouldn’t want your typically (and thankfully) not their bio or younger daughter dating college boys, I think lifelong parents — can’t help but notice. you are overreacting to the age difference The onus is on the adult in that situation to — and it’s a moot issue, as he’s no longer suppress that shit. Not awareness of a young pursuing your younger daughter. person’s objective hotness, which cannot 1.5. You know what is creepy? Pursuing be suppressed, but all evidence of said a pair of sisters. The possibility of conflict awareness. Which means setting boundaries was so predictable, it was likely a motivating and, if necessary, keeping your distance. No, factor for him. Getting off on drama and you shouldn’t go to your stepdaughter and public fights isn’t a crime, but it is a red flag. say, “You got hot, and I get boners when you 2. You ordered your 16-year-old to stop put your legs on my lap, so stop.” But you seeing this guy and deleted apps from her should put an end to the cuddling. When she phone. (It’s cute you think your daughter plops down on the couch, go take a walk or isn’t tech-savvy enough to re-download and a shower or a shit. Better she has a sad over hide all the same apps.) You should warn the end of snuggle time than she notices your boners and feels unsafe around you. your daughter about the risks of sexting — it may be legal for her to have sex (16

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FOR ALL SIGNS Mercury, ruler of

business, communications, and everyday routines, will turn retrograde on August 12, 2017. The pre-shadow period began on July 24, 2017. Prior to the exact retrograde, Mercury gives the appearance of slowing its motion before becoming retrograde. Then the more obvious retrograde period appears to last about 3.5 weeks. Following the point that Mercury turns direct, there are still 2.5 weeks for the planet to catch up to its normal speed and position at the time it began decelerating. The truth of the matter is that the Mercury retrograde period has an additional 2.5 weeks on either side. Think of yourself as an astronomer, plotting Mercury’s normal forward position. Then you see it slowing to a point of changing backward. After it travels retrograde, then it slows to make a turn forward to retrace its steps (aftershadow). Mercury requires about 2.5 more weeks to return to its natural speed. The whole process requires a little more than eight weeks.

ARIES You have enough energy to spare. Apply heavy muscle to exercise or a chore that needs to be done. Otherwise you may become snappy and are liable to pick a fight. Work with those who share your rhythm this week, or you may say things that you’ll wish you had not. We each have our own drumbeat and yours is no better or worse than anyone else’s. TAURUS Your romantic side is cooperating well at this time with your nurturing side. This is especially good for female friendships. Make a date for lunch and reconnect with people you like. Communion with others will be pleasurable. Your heart will smile at the warm, fuzzy feelings. GEMINI Your focus shifts to matters of home, hearth, and family. Things of the past may float up in your mind for reflection. If this occurs, ask yourself what you learned from the former experience. It probably would help you now. Family concerns may occupy your attention. CANCER Venus enters your sign this week

and will be traveling “with you” through August 26, 2017. Her presence gives you an air of poise and people will simply like how you look. You may become interested in your personal appearance and make improvements in how you are seen. This is the time to try out new glasses, clothing and hair styles.

LEO THE LION (July 22-Aug 22) The sun returns “home” to your sign this week. You likely will find it to be energizing. Now is the time to focus on new plans for this next year of your life. Take a fresh look at where you want to direct your energy. Don’t press your luck in the arenas of relationship(s). Maintain yourself within appropriate boundaries. 30 | JUL. 27 - AUG. 2, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

VIRGO Mercury travels slowly through your sign between now and the end of September. It will be going through its retrograde cycle before it moves along. Take care with any decision of importance because you likely will find reason to change your mind. New information keeps popping up to alter your direction. See the lead paragraph for more information. LIBRA This is a good time to experience

a new type of activity with your lover or partner. Go somewhere different together. Make an effort to try out new restaurants or change the usual environment while you are together. Don’t just sit and watch TV, particularly if that is what you usually do. Go play!

SCORPIO Your energy is running high early

in the week. You may want to demonstrate your skills and talents to others. Try to manage this without major display of ego. Avoid losing your temper lest you suffer the consequences. An authority figure might want to bring you down by the end of the week.

SAGITTARIUS You are working very hard to give birth to a child or a creative enterprise. The timing feels crucial. Only long-term persistence will yield results, so it is best to assess whether you have the will and the support to accomplish your goal. (Gamblers beware Pay off your debts or things will go poorly for you.)

CAPRICORN Changes may be occurring

in your primary relationship. One or the other of you is probably trying to hang onto what is familiar. Changes and growth must be allowed to happen or the relationship will become stale. Let things flow naturally. Don’t jump to conclusions or make problems bigger than they are in the name of control.

AQUARIUS You may be under pressure to

follow through and display work that you have been doing since last fall. There is also a sense in which you have become bored with the project. Return mentally to the place you started to re-ignite your passion. This is probably not the best time to quit.

PISCES You would be happy to take the

first flight to Tahiti and never bat an eye over it. Short of that, you may be taking small mental breaks this week, with lots of daydreaming and drifting.Make notes about those things you need to remember. The brain fog might drown out worthwhile information. 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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