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PHOTO BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL.
Thanks to the McColl Center for hosting this year’s Best of Charlotte photo shoot.
BEST OF CHARLOTTE
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CITY LIFE Our nod to the few folks who are actually making good news this year 22 READERS’ PICKS
24 FOOD & DRINK
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CONSUMER CULTURE Shop
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TOP 10 THINGS TO DO
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COVER AND CONCEPT DESIGN
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Grab a drink and join the party, it’s our favorite places to make memories (and regrets) 72 READERS’ PICKS
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ODDS&ENDS 74 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 75 CROSSWORD 76 SAVAGE LOVE BY DAN SAVAGE 78 SALOME’S STARS
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CLCLT.COM | OCT 19 - OCT 25, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 35
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Ye Olde Editor’s Note
MEET THE NEW BOSSES Best of Charlotte 2017 acknowledges CLT’s next superstars BY MARK KEMP
MILLENNIALS GET a bad rap. Maybe voice, her songs and her passion for both that’s because so many loudmouthed Baby social justice and propping up other young Boomers and GenXers, fearful of losing their Charlotte artists of color. Shortly after that show, Eden sent me positions of power to younger people, are still out there in large numbers, stalking social a video of her then-new track “The Protest media like rabid dogs, gnashing their teeth Song,” wherein she sang of the spate of police and complaining about how all millennials shootings of black people that had culminated are “arrogant,” “entitled,” “rude,” “selfish,” in uprisings across the U.S., including the one “lazy,” “disrespectful of their elders,” etc., etc. here in Charlotte in the wake of the Keith Whatever it is, it’s time we put an end to that Lamont Scott killing. “Don’t give up,” Eden sang in the video, “so many reasons to cry. foolishness once and for all. That’s what this year’s Best of Charlotte We all know it’s time to stand up and fight.” Eden has been standing up and fighting aims to do. In 2017, millennials in this city stood up to ever since, and 2017 was a banner year for the singer. Not only did her band release a firmly and emphatically seek to share stunning debut EP featuring five the reins of power — in the arts, powerful indie-rock tracks that government and elsewhere — delivered on the promises she showing haters that young had hinted at in “The Protest people not only care, but Song” and earlier solo are passionate about acoustic releases, but she creating and nurturing has actively supported her a better Charlotte and fellow Charlotte artists better world than the one by launching two regular they’ve inherited. And showcases: Session: A this year, Creative Loafing Listening Party, at Petra’s, says “thank you” to those and Hip-Hop Wednesdays, millennials in the form MARK KEMP at Common Market. of several Best of Charlotte For those reasons and more, categories, from the stage to the our critics’ choice of LeAnna Eden political stump. and the Garden Of as the Best Band of Not only do we honor Charlotte Uprising activist and city council candidate Braxton 2017 was a shoo-in. And other 2017 Arts & Entertainment Winston as Local Hero and young IndianAmerican city council member Dimple Ajmera winners are just as deserving for many of the (Best New Politician), but we’ve created an same reasons. Charlotte artist Mark Doepker, entirely new category for the wave of other who was assaulted by a racist for a 3D cube young politicians who threw their hats in the he displayed atop his car in support of “Black political ring this year, determined to bring Lives Matter,” wins Best Political Artist in millennial interests to the fore in Charlotte this year’s awards. Prolific sketch artist in 2018. That category is Best Hope for the Hannah Barnhardt wins Best Documentary Future, and it goes out to each and every hard- Artist for her terrific drawings of musicians working millennial out there fighting for what and denizens of local hangouts like Hattie’s, they believe in, regardless of what end of the Amelie’s, Common Market and Snug Harbor. And Marcus Kiser wins Best Afrofuturism political spectrum they occupy. And as we do at Creative Loafing each Artist for his poignant depictions of the year, our staff and contributing reporters and inner feelings of black characters set in the critics also honor numerous local visual artists, expansive loneliness of outer space. CL doesn’t get the final word on musicians, performing artists and others, as well as local music venues, nightclubs, shops Charlotte’s best people, places and things, though, so check out our readers’ choices, and restaurants. One local millennial musician honored too. And as you peruse all the categories, keep this year is singer-songwriter LeAnna this in mind: There’s a reason we chose Game Eden. After I returned as CL’s editor in late of Thrones as our theme. It’s because we see 2016 following a few years away in the San a culturally diverse world in moral conflict, Francisco Bay Area, one of the first things with young people reaching for the helm I did was sit down with Eden for a cover of leadership and faced with serious moral story on her and her band, LeAnna Eden and dilemmas. We think young Charlotteans of all the Garden Of. I had seen Eden perform an shapes, sizes, races and genders are not just acoustic set while visiting Charlotte earlier up for the challenge, but they’re prepared to that summer, and was knocked out by her begin setting things right in 2018. CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 11
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PHOTO BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
e fiers shall b i r t n e g e h “T .” s liberators a d e m o lc e w
Critics’ Picks
It’s been a rough year in Charlotte, and the television will have you believing there’s only bad news happening out there. Well, that’s hogwash. The following is our tip of the cap to those fighting for good in our fine city, and a reminder of what we should and shouldn’t be paying attention to.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF AUSTIN CHANEY
PHOTO BY CELEST IMAGES
she’s held for 14 years to first-time candidate Larken Egleston. The candidates who didn’t win their primaries gained a wealth of experience and name recognition, and it would be foolish to think they won’t run again — most of them are just getting started, we hope. It’s also important to note that Charlotte has the fastest-growing millennial population in the country, so even if we can’t pinpoint an exact reason for all the fresh young candidates, what was clear this year is that their time has arrived.
BEST INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT - AUSTIN CHANEY (@NEVEREND_CREATIVE) When it comes to Instagram, Austin Chaney gets it. We don’t want to see pictures of your food. We don’t want to see pictures of your kids. And we sure as hell don’t want to see selfies of you. We want to see some straightup killer photography, and that’s what Chaney delivers. He goes beyond the obligatory Queen City skyline pics by blending a nice mix of portraits, landscape shots and everyday cool shit from in and around Charlotte and wherever he happens to be for the day.
BEST DEMONSTRATION OF THE PEOPLE’S POWER - A DAY WITHOUT IMMIGRANTS
BEST TWITTER ACCOUNT (PERSONAL) - @SIR_HURIZZEL In the Trump era — and let’s be honest, for years leading up to it — Twitter can often feel like a black hole of outrage and political spin. People are still screaming at each other about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, for Christ’s sake. That’s why it’s all the more refreshing to follow Sir Hurizzel, a Spiderman cosplayer who tweets with a mix of childlike enthusiasm and hilarious NSFW insight about all things anime, superheroes and gaming. Hell, we’ve even laughed at his wrestling tweets a few times.
Austin Chaney
On Feb. 7, the arrest of two men in a work van at a QuikTrip gas station in east Charlotte began what would be a week of paralyzing fear for the city’s immigrant community. In the coming days, word spread on social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had begun staging raids and traffic checkpoints in the area. Rumor and fact blended, and it became hard to know what was true. Over the next week, however, one thing became clear: ICE was ramping up efforts to detain undocumented immigrants, and were going to new lengths to do so. For the next nine days, children stayed home from school, adults feared walking to the neighborhood supermarket for groceries and local businesses suffered. But on Feb. 16, Charlotte’s immigrants stepped out from the shadows. That was the day 10,000 immigrants marched on Uptown in a show of political force unseen in the city before then. Although the Women’s March that took place the month before was believed to have brought more people, A Day Without Immigrants differed in that it made an economic statement, as business owners around the city closed shop and countless others skipped worked to march and prove their value.
@Sir_Hurizzel
BEST TWITTER ACCOUNT (BRAND) CAROLINA PANTHERS We’re not going to lie: We rolled our eyes when the Panthers Twitter account made headlines across the country with a gimmick they ripped off from someone else in July. But it was disappointing only because The Panthers’ amazing social media team is capable of so much more. Over the years, the account has become more and more consistent at serving up fire tweets, and over the summer it rolled out an aggressive campaign to get people hype about new draft pick Christian McCaffrey. We’re here for it. Just keep it original.
BEST HOPE FOR THE FUTURE - YOUNG POLITICAL CANDIDATES This was the year millennials decided they’ve had it with local government and decided to take matters into their own hands. The exact catalyst is unknown, but it’s easy to speculate: The Charlotte Uprising in 2016, the HB2 fiasco, endless apartment construction wiping out beloved neighborhood gathering spots and the city’s dead last ranking in economic mobility all are likely contributing factors. Millennials could’ve also been inspired by the waves young politicians like Jeff Jackson are making at the state level, or by President Obama encouraging young people to enter public service as he left office. Or maybe it
BEST MIDDLE FINGER TO TRUMP GOLDEN DOOR SCHOLARS
A Day Without Immigrants was watching the horror of what came after him unfold. Trump’s policies hit home quickly with ICE raids, the potential Muslim ban and the attempted rollback of multiple popular Obama policies.
PHOTO BY JASMIN HERRERA
Almost 20 candidates under 40 ran for a seat on city council, and among them, six won their primary races in September. It was a surprise for everyone, not the least of which were ousted incumbents like Patsy Kinsey, who lost a seat
Golden Door Scholars didn’t begin as a middle finger to Trump, and that’s still not its stated mission. The scholarship program for DACA recipients has sent 158 undocumented students to college since 2012. It will continue to focus on sending even more, despite Trump’s recent announcement that he will end the Dream Act. Golden Door was founded by Red Ventures’ CEO Ric Elias, who reportedly invested $1 million of his own money to jumpstart the program. Not only does it provide full college scholarships to high-achieving students, it also
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Braxton Winston
PHOTO BY ALVIN C. JACOBS, JR.
LOCAL HERO: BRAXTON WINSTON Last fall, thousands watched Braxton Winston’s livestream as he marched to protest the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, and they were watching a new community leader emerge. Winston didn’t organize the Charlotte Uprising, but for days, he delivered its raw footage to a worldwide
provides mentorship and, in some cases, job placement. Another way to put it: Golden Door takes kids who are way smarter than our President and makes sure they get the resources they need to one day create a better situation in a better country than the one they currently find themselves in.
BEST LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD OURBRIDGE FOR KIDS On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the day after Donald Trump won the presidential election, kids shuffled into ourBRIDGE for Kids classrooms as they do on any other day at the after-school program for immigrant and refugee children. However, a dark cloud hovered over the room during the daily group discussion. It wasn’t until a child mentioned that he had a bad day because of the election that the other kids started buzzing, some admitting they had already been told by classmates that they’d be sent “home” soon. The thing is, these kids are already home, and that’s what ourBridge founder Sil Ganzo and her staff are sure to emphasize for their students every day. Now, the organization that’s done so much to welcome others to their new home has
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audience, with expert commentary. He developed a rapport with police on the ground and provided tactical advice to protesters to keep his group as safe as possible. When the protests ended, the fire that had been ignited within him did not. The Davidson grad began attending and streaming nearly every community event related to inequality. He continued to provide expert commentary to the public. He brought his concerns to lawmakers, and in an iconic moment, he sang “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” to a dumbfounded Charlotte City Council. Shortly thereafter, Winston decided to run for council on a platform of equity, accessibility and interconnection. In the September primary election, he received the second most votes for an At-Large seat, besting all but one incumbent. At his election night party, he had no prepared remarks. He bought drinks for his friends and supporters, and chased his young daughter around the room. He’s not a politician. He’s a concerned citizen who has decided to be the change he wants to see. He is the hero this city needs.
a new home of its own. In September, Ganzo moved the whole crew over to a bigger and better center off Shamrock Drive. There’s none more deserving than ourBridge to have a nice, safe place to call home.
BEST EFFORT TO COME TOGETHER OAK TREE 30 The residents of Twin Oaks, an affordable housing complex next to the NoDa Bodega on East 36th Street, had lived for a couple years with the fear that their apartments would eventually be demolished for a development project rumored to be in the works on the land they called home. But when they were informed in July that they would have just 30 days to find new homes or be put on the streets, they were flabbergasted. Reginald Howard, a 58-year-old man living on disability in the complex, feared that he would have to live out of his car. “I don’t have nowhere,” Howard said. “All this week I’ve been racking my brain, trying to go different places to try to find somewhere, and everything is booked up. They want you to have twice as much as your gross income a month, which is just impossible for me. My health is really bad. I called it success to be moving into this place last year, but now this has come up,
Charlotte Art League and I have nowhere to go at this moment.” Molly Barker, a resident at the neighboring Wesley Corner at NoDa complex, heard about the situation her neighbors were facing and got together with a group of about 30 of them one afternoon under the large oak tree in front of Twin Oaks. They started discussing solutions. Eventually, Barker and other concerned neighbors helped extend the deadline and got more money for the residents, then found permanent homes for 16 of the 18 families living in Twin Oaks. The others found temporary residences in motels, funded by local nonprofits, while they continued their search. Speaking a few days after the deadline, Barker spoke about a certain power that the Twin Oaks residents didn’t know they had until they came together for a common cause. “I found intense joy and it was the hardest work ever,” Barker said. “But then I think, OK, that was 60 days of my life — everybody over there has lived with this hard work their whole life. So certainly, if they can somehow manage to stay sane in all that, then I’ll learn that from them.”
BEST WAY TO TAKE THE COMMUNITY BACK - WESTSIDE CLT Residents in west Charlotte had been seeing the signs, both literally and figuratively. “We Buy Ugly Houses” signs started popping up regularly in 2015 and seemed to multiply from there, a clear precursor to the gentrification slowly
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
creeping into the Five Points area near Johnson C. Smith University and the Biddleville and Smallwood neighborhoods. Early in 2016, people started snatching up the signs, repurposing them with artistic messages of resistance against greedy developers aiming to profit off the displacement of people who had been there for generations. Around November, residents got more organized, forming a land trust that aimed to acquire land in the area and hold it at an affordable point. In the year since, Westside Community Land Trust has become an official 501c3 and began to build a membership base. Boardmember Greg Jarrell said he plans for Westside CLT to start acquiring property in 2018, whether it be empty lots or houses that need renovating. For now, though, he’s taking things step by step. “There’s a learning curve that I think we’ve been working pretty quickly along,” Jarrell said. “The challenging part, but also the most important part, is building the membership, which forms the power base of the organization, and we want that to be really focused within west Charlotte. That’s the most important work right now, and also the slowest.” That’s the only way win the race.
BEST CROWD-FUNDED MOVE CHARLOTTE ART LEAGUE The folks at Charlotte Art League saw it coming. Over the last couple of years, they had watched all of their Camden Avenue neighbors — places
like Common Market, Black Sheep Skate Shop, Phat Burrito — get shut down and sent to other areas of town. Still, when the letter came at the end of August saying the Charlotte Art League would have to be out by January 24, 2018, it made things real. “When the letter came it was kind of like, ‘Ugh, oh man,’” said Cindy Connelly, the CAL’s executive director. “We had been working on it, because we knew it was inevitable, we just didn’t think it was going to be that short of a timeframe.” The Charlotte Art League relies on grants that wouldn’t allow it to shut down for any length of time, and the loyal team of staff and volunteers there have no intention of doing that. But they need help to afford a bigger space to continue to grow their partnerships with 25 organizations, many of which are nonprofits. In late September, shortly after Creative Loafing reported on CAL’s relocation, the team launched a crowdfunding effort to raise $50,000 by New Year’s Eve (razoo.com/story/Charlotteartleague). This is not about helping a bunch of privileged art snobs get a fancier home — the community work Charlotte Art League does with groups like the UMAR social services organization and youth development program Studio 345 can’t be overstated.
BEST PRIVATELY FUNDED MOVE TIME OUT YOUTH When Creative Loafing spent the afternoon at Time Out Youth in February, the kids there
Time Out Youth
a unique and descriptive way that causes people to behave differently is essentially organizational development.” More recently, her partnership with amalia deloney of Co-Learning for Action has Funderburg trying new things, such as integrating interactive storytelling into her educational sessions. “[She] is using words that I know but have never applied before, like cultural organizing and storytelling,” Funderburg said. And that’s word to everybody learning something. PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
BEST NEW POLITICIAN - DIMPLE AJMERA
Patrice Funderburg of Educate To Engage
couldn’t have been happier, but it was clear the LGBTQ youth support center had outgrown its space, as staff members and kids would sometimes find themselves traffic-jammed in the hallways moving from room to room. The center experienced nearly double the number of sign-ins in 2016 as in the previous year, and in January 2017, the TOY board announced it would be moving to a new space on Monroe Road, nearly 2.4 times the size of the one they were in on North Davidson Street. Time Out Youth made the move this summer, but is still in the midst of a five-year campaign to raise $3.4 million, which will help to build a 10-bed transitional shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth. A study released by TOY in 2016 showed that LGBTQ youth make up 40 percent of homeless youth in large urban areas. PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
Dimple Ajmera
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
Perhaps the most surprising part of this campaign was the enthusiasm with which some of Charlotte’s most well-off families made public donations to help the campaign. The Levine family made a $100,000 matching gift challenge in May, following a $100,000 donation from the Myers Park Baptist Church and an amazing $1.5 million gift from Sara Belk Gambrell of the Belk stores family.
BEST USE OF SIX WEEKS - EDUCATE TO ENGAGE Once Patrice Funderburg watched a livestreamed video of Philando Castile slowly dying in front of his daughter and girlfriend after being shot by a police officer in Minnesota in July 2016, she knew she had to join the fight for justice in some way. Inspired by Michelle Alexander’s best-selling book The New Jim Crow, Funderburg launched a free, six-week study group inviting residents to go through the book and discuss the implications of America’s broken justice system one chapter at a time. She had planned to hold the class just once, but as she wrapped up that first sixweek session, Keith Lamont Scott was killed in northeast Charlotte and the Charlotte Uprising followed. Funderburg saw the need to continue her Educate To Engage sessions, and has now carried out six of them. “I would call it community engagement as activism,” Funderburg said. “People learn differently, and how they learn affects how they show up. I’m a learner, I’m an intellectual person, and so delivering information in
Last January, Dimple Ajmera became the youngest woman and first Asian-American ever to serve on Charlotte City Council. She was appointed to a District 4 seat, but in September, Ajmera showed she has the community support to win an election, securing a Democratic nomination for an At-Large seat in 2018. She did it despite Mecklenburg County Republicans making a big fuss over her saying on a local news show that Trump’s supporters have no place in Charlotte government (a completely reasonable viewpoint that more and more Republicans now hold). During the short time Ajmera served on council, she’s driven forward the previously stagnant Eastland Mall site redevelopment strategy. She’s rejected ideas that would gentrify the surrounding community and focused instead on making nearby residents and businesses owners a part of the process. She recently brought in 40 development companies to check out the site, then organized a forum for their feedback. When a hate crime occurred against Central Market, a business in her district, Ajmera was on the scene alongside police and firefighters to ensure the business owner understood his community was behind him, and to encourage him to stand strong instead of relocating.
BEST USE OF A CAMERA TO FIGHT INJUSTICE - ALVIN C. JACOBS, JR. On February 26, 2012, Alvin Jacobs, Jr., was attending the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando. About 200 miles south, in Miami Gardens, Florida, Trayvon Martin was being chased, beaten and executed by George Zimmerman. Jacobs, after returning to his then-home in Texas and realizing what had happened in the same state he was in without any acknowledgement from the community (at the time), was shocked. Weeks later, after moving to Illinois, he took part in the “Million Hoodies
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Calla Hales
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
March,” shooting photos as he went. He hasn’t looked back since, and now travels the country shooting photos of the struggle against injustice everywhere, from Ferguson, Missouri, to New York City. Looking back, Jacobs recalled how he witnessed the formation of a new civil rights era. “[In 2012], activism wasn’t really cool — and I need to use that word carefully, because it’s not cool now, but it definitely wasn’t cool then,” he said. “It was like, ‘What are you doing? There’s nothing to protest about.’ Then there were just days and weeks and months of nonstop — at one time it was every 28 hours, I believe — that someone was being killed by a U.S. police officer. So now it’s like, ‘So wait a minute, this is happening again?’” Jacobs created To Speak No Evil, a website in which he shares his images, which eventually included those from the Charlotte Uprising in his own city, where he’s lived for five years. Flying home from Washington, D.C., to cover the protests made things different for him, he recalled in a recent CL interview. “There was an increased responsibility and anxiety, because I knew what was going to take place,” Jacobs said. “Not the magnitude of it, but the individuals that were going to be plugged in were going to be friends of mine, community members that I had relationships with.”
BEST LEADERSHIP IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY - CALLA HALES We all hate walking into work on a Monday. Now, imagine walking into work on a Monday while some unhinged preacher from out of town screams horrible things at you and your coworkers, telling you that you will burn in hell, pelting you with personal verbal attacks. Now, imagine that happening every day. No rest on Saturday, either. In fact, on Saturdays, it gets worse, as hundreds of local churchgoers often flock to your workplace and stand behind these
Elexus Jionde
PHOTO COURTESY OF INTELEXUAL MEDIA
men who yell on the loudspeakers, screaming all sorts of horrifying, disgraceful things to your clients as they come through the door, sometimes traumatizing them. This is the reality that Calla Hales, co-owner and head administrator at A Preffered Women’s Health Clinic in east Charlotte, faces on a daily basis. Things have only worsened over the last year, as protests have gotten bigger and Hales has faced harassment following an article in Cosmopolitan in which she opened up about being the victim of a sexual assault after telling her date what she did for a living. Throughout all of this, Hales has kept a surprisingly evenkeeled facade as she deals with enraged Christians and apathetic police. We’re not sure how she does it. But we’re in awe.
BEST HOMECOMING - ELEXUS JIONDE Elexus Jionde has always been outspoken, but when she graduated Ohio State University, she was even also opinionated, after having been awakened to issues surrounding racism as it still existed here and how it related to American history. Then, on September 11, 2016, Jionde took to Twitter to point out the irony and hypocrisy of white people’s annual #NeverForget movement on that sacred day, and things blew up. She gained about 25,000 followers overnight, and suddenly had the platform she had always deserved. She has since founded Intelexual Media and released her first book, The A-Z Guide to Black Oppression. Creative Loafing sat down with the Garinger grad in March, as she had returned home just before the release of the new book, to talk about why the work is so important to her. “I’m trying to make college education more accessible to my own people,” she said. “At Garinger, only 11 percent of the people in my class went to college, and most of them were going to community colleges and the rest were going to small [Historically Black Colleges and
Ken Buck
Tressie McMillan Cottom
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
Universities] around North Carolina. I was one of a handful who went to a bigger research institution, and that’s where I learned how to research, how to think objectively. I’ve always loved history, but that’s where I learned true critical thinking about history.” Jionde’s homecoming was short-lived, as she’s since moved to Atlanta. Her next book, Angry Black Girl, is available for preorder on October 20.
BEST BOOK BY A CHARLOTTE NATIVE - LOWER ED, BY TRESSIE MCMILLAN COTTOM If you’re shocked at the complete implosion of Charlotte School of Law earlier this year, you shouldn’t be. Tressie McMillan Cottom saw it coming. While serving as an enrollment representative at a for-profit college in Charlotte, she learned about some of the more unsavory and predatory enrollment practices used by the schools. One experience, in particular, convinced Cottom that she had to leave the business, and she has since earned her PhD and now teaches sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. In between her studying and teaching, Cottom kept her thoughts on the predatory for-profit colleges operating in Charlotte and around the country. In February, she released Lower Ed, which exposed the for-profit industry and gained her national recognition, including an appearance on The Daily Show. While she was working on the book, ITT Tech closed a campus in Charlotte and Charlotte School of Law began its downward spiral. When we caught up with Cottom in May, as she wrapped her book tour here in her hometown,
PHOTO COURTESY OF KEN BUCK
we spoke about what makes Charlotte so vulnerable to these predatory educational institutions. “It’s got all the perfect ingredients. The demographics are just right,” Cottom said. “You’ve got plenty of working-class white people, a healthy African-American community — which is sort of their No. 1 one constituency — and a growing non-white population, whether that be Hispanic, Asian American, etc. Those are the perfect demographics for for-profits, because it’s basically anybody who doesn’t have an intergenerational relationship with college. So it’s perfect.”
BEST CATFISH - KEN BUCK When everyday Charlottean Ken Buck started getting tweets aimed at Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck in 2010, he didn’t think much of it. But in 2014, when the other Buck actually won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, things got a little crazy. Fueld by heightened bipartisanship, Rep. Ken Buck’s detractors from both sides of the aisle began overwhelming the Charlotte Buck’s Twitter acount with vitriolic garbage (he had landed the straightforward @KenBuck handle before the other Buck ever joined Twitter). All along, however, Buck has approached the situation with a sense of humor, sometimes playing along with the mistaken pundits, not saying that he is U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, but not saying that he isn’t either. It all came to a head when Buck found himself in a three-day debate with Bette Midler, employing nothing but sarcasm while she and her followers unwittingly lambasted him from their keyboards. In the end, Midler realized her mistake and apologized, but not before giving us all something to laugh at in a world filled with dumb political arguments on the internet.
SEE
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BIGGEST SHITSHOW OF A NEWS STORY - CAM NEWTON AND JORDAN RODRIGUE
LOCAL ISSUE THAT NEEDS MORE ATTENTION - MISTREATMENT OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
Once upon a time, Cam Newton said he thought it was funny that a lady sports reporter — who had been covering the Panthers for more than a year — asked him a question about “routes” because she was a “female.” Media pounced. Outraged ensued. The following day, we found out that once upon a time, that same reporter, Jourdan Rodrigue of The Charlotte Observer, was comfortable retweeting a Bill Nye parody account using the n-word and laughing at her dad’s racist jokes. Twitter pounced. Outrage ensued. They both issued the obligatory apologies, but the internet doesn’t let things die, and Rodrigue was harassed to the point where she didn’t even travel to Detroit to cover the next Panthers game against the Lions, and hasn’t been heard from in the pages of the Observer or on Twitter since Oct. 5. For his part, Cam was hit with a label that will probably stick with him for years to come, torn apart in the media for a full week and stripped of his endorsement deal with Dannon yogurt. The rest of us gained nothing and lost a lot of time and energy talking about this shitshow for far too long. The end, we hope.
Everywhere you look in Charlotte there’s a brand new apartment complex or some other type of development going up, which is all well and good if you’re able to ignore the displacement of residents and removal of cultural spots like what’s happened in South End. Ignoring that part, this growth is all good, right? More jobs for everyone, right? Well, it’s not so simple. A report titled Build a Better South, released this summer by the University of Illinois at Chicago, detailed the alarming abuses and rights violations that run rampant in Charlotte’s construction industry. Creative Loafing spoke with Alexis Gonzalez after the report’s release. Gonzalez had joined four coworkers on a strike from their job at Borders Rebar. “I was a worker. I was part of it,” Gonzalez said. “I’m proud to be a part of building Charlotte’s future, but the working conditions here are not something that Charlotte can be proud of.” Gonzalez and others with the Justice and Respect in the Reinforcing Industry Coalition have called on Charlotte City Council to approve policy that would force developers in Charlotte to disclose their contractors’ employment practices, to no avail.
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PHOTO BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
picked the I e k li s k o “Lo to go wrong week gluten-free.”
Critics’ Picks
Get your arguing pants on, foodies. Here’s the topic we always take the most heat for, so just cool your jets already and hopefully you’ll learn about some spots you haven’t checked out yet. Here’s our favorites in Charlotte’s culinary world:
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You can wait for daybreak in the old-fashioned booths, but better yet, you can forget time altogether, for just a little while.
BEST PLACE TO GET A BRAIN FREEZE GOLDEN COW CREAMERY
La Piccola Gabbia
Let’s be honest, if you tried Dunkaroo ice cream for the first time and didn’t take a picture of that perfect scoop #nofilterneeded, did it really happen? Didn’t think so. Well, good luck resisting the urge to post your fave scoop of ice cream on social media when you go to Golden Cow Creamery. Stop wasting your brain freeze on commercial scoops. Opt instead for a locally owned ice cream shop that handcrafts small batches of uniquely flavored ice cream made from all natural ingredients. Now that’s a brain freeze worth screaming for.
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
BEST PASTRY SHOP - LA PICCOLA GABBIA Tucked away back behind the new Common Market on Monroe Road, you’ll find Gabija Janceviciute working away at her wonderful works of pastry in a kitchen she rents from fellow pastry chef and mentor Josie Perlmutter. The space is no “little cage” — which is what her company name translates to in English — but has allowed her to grow from showing up at stores with samples when she launched in September 2016 to delivering directly to 14 locations around Charlotte and ready for more growth. Find her delicious morsels at locations like Reid’s Fine Foods, Pasta & Provisions and Coco and the Director.
BEST BREAKFAST - LITTLESPOON At littleSpoon, the juice is fresh-squeezed, the coffee is served by the bowlful, the menu is ever-changing and the ’90s hip-hop is blasting. Do you want to start your day eating housecured pork belly and cinnamon toast brûlée while watching a business-suited Myers Park man try to nod his head to Ice Cube? Hell yes, you do.
BEST BRUNCH - WORKMAN’S FRIEND Eggs, bangers (sausage, to you), black pudding (again, sausage, but made from meat, blood, fat, oatmeal, bread, potatos, etc.), white pudding (black pudding without the blood), Irish bacon (ham, to you), grilled tomatoes, baked beans, mushrooms, sourdough — what’s not to love about an Irish breakfast? Unless, that is, the sight of the word “blood” makes you queasy. There’s all kinds of stuff to love about the brunch at Workman’s, though, not the least of which is the Guiness you’ll sip while enjoying it.
BEST LUNCH DEAL - SUB ONE
PHOTO BY CATHERINE BROWN
Ma Ma Wok
BEST JUICE - JUICE BOX We wondered if this tiny juice joint on North Davidson Street across from the Johnston YMCA would last when we included it in our juice bar roundup earlier this year, but it’s not only lasted, it’s gotten better. The juices and smoothies are made fresh with all-natural ingredients and nothing is knock-you-out sweet. This locally owned juicery is the real deal, and the perfect stop after a workout at the Y.
BEST PLACE TO SWEAT IT OUT - ZEN FUSION
BEST NON-BEER ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE - GOOD ROAD CIDERWORKS Good Road Ciderworks founder Brian Beauchemin figured there were so many breweries popping up around town that it was time to do something different. Well Good Road is certainly off the beaten path. Using predominantly local apples, they offer four single-varietal dry ciders, with an emphasis on dry. But there are plenty more ciders to choose from. Flavors at Good Road include hops, ginger, blueberry, peach and a generalblend cider. For those with a taste for even more unusual libations, Good Road also makes mead, the honey wine that most people picture sloshing around in Thor’s flagon at Asgard. So, for a break from plain old craft beer, Good Road may be the new path for you.
Not only are you contributing to the local economy when you choose the black-owned Sub One Hoagies and Salads over, say, a random Subway shop, but you’re eating some of the finest sandwiches in Charlotte. Richard Jones has been making subs and hoagies for a quarter-century in this small shop in a strip mall on Graham Street, most recently with his son Derek and nephew Aaron manning the grills. And their subs are the juiciest, tastiest in town. But the best part? You can get out full, satisfied and ready to continue your workday for under 6 bucks.
Good Road Ciderworks
PHOTO BY LUNAH ZON PHOTOGRAPHY
BEST CURE FOR THE LATE-NIGHT MUNCHIES - MIDNIGHT DINER Late at night, after last call and before the banks open for business, Charlotte is quiet under a kaleidoscope of constellations. At the Midnight Diner, it doesn’t matter where you’re going or why you’re awake. The diner’s doors are always open, whether you’re in the mood for breakfast or dinner, a coffee or a milkshake.
Zen Fusion in Dilworth has won the Diner’s Choice award for four years running, and the atmosphere in this perfect happy hour spot remains as unshakeable as a smooth lake reflecting the clear sky, but the food itself can be a little less stable — and we mean that in a good way. With a menu that deftly blends the best Spanish tapas with Asian mainstays, it’s the perfect hybrid of spicy, so bring a fire extinguisher. For relief, sangria and sake flow every night with live music on Wednesday nights, and their camarones al mojo de ajo is as good as their Cantonese shrimp and scallops.
BEST FIRST DATE SPOT - JP CHARLOTTE JP is an impressive bistro tucked away inside the Westin Uptown. Forward-thinking dishes with fancy local ingredients are sure to impress your date. The wine list is approachable and affordable. Best of all, since most of its traffic comes from out-of-town hotel guests, it’s unlikely you’ll run into your ex or gossipy co-
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menu with unique meats like Wagyu beef, perfectly paired wines and local and imported beers. Once you take your first bite, you’ll forget all about the traffic you just sat in.
BEST OFF-THE-BEATEN-PATH EATERY (SOUTH) - STONE TABLE We took lots of shit back in May when we wrote about former Charlotte chef Donnie Simmons’ wish to build a culinary scene “from scratch” in Monroe. Foodies from the Union County seat objected, and the one we heard about most was Stone Table, so we went to check it out. Housed in the old Secrest Drug Store, built in the late 1920s, the Stone Table retains its vintage feel but with a totally modern take on food. Witness the trendy avocado toast, joined by kale toast, mushroom toast — all the toast, basically. And there’s more: grilled pimento cheese sandwiches, pulled house-roasted pork with eastern Sauce and fried jalapeños. It’s basic food — spruced up and smartly presented.
BEST CHAIN - FAMOUS TOASTERY
Catch On Seafood Market
PHOTO BY JEFF HAHNE
workers while you’re dining with your potential new sweetheart. Baller pro-tip: Go on a Thursday night and start out in the adjoining SoCo bar for live music, tapas and cocktails made tableside.
world. Each event raises money for local causes, and donations last season totaled $15,000.
BEST PLACE TO SHARE EDIBLES WOODLANDS
In case you missed it, Jamie Lynch, executive chef of 5Church, appeared on the last season of Top Chef. He was arguably favored to win until he made series history by becoming the only contestant to ever give up immunity from elimination. It was the classy, selfless move of a genuinely good dude. He was subsequently sent home to a million hugs, high-fives and fans offering to buy him a drink. If you see him, be the next one to do so.
Forget that this wondrous Indian restaurant way out Albemarle Road also could easily win a “Best Vegan” or “Best Vegetarian” category. One of our favorite things to do when dining at Woodlands Pure Vegetarian Indian Cuisine is get big plates of several of the mouthwatering items — maybe some steamed idly (rice and lentil patties) and spring dosai (stuffed with potatoes, veggies and chutney), along with a couple orders of chana masala and aloo gobi, and some garlic naan — and then share the hell out of it. But do not — we repeat, do not — share the sweet, velvety beverage mango lassi. That shit’s too good to share. Get a glass of your own. Otherwise, you’ll be fighting over it.
BEST CULINARY EVENT - ORDER/FIRE EPISODE PREMIERES
BEST CULINARY CELEBRITY - JAMIE LYNCH
Jamie Lynch
PHOTO BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
Order/fire is a web series hosted by Chef Marc Jacksina that tells the personal stories of regional industry superstars. Each time an episode is released, it’s accompanied by a screening party at Free Range Brewing where you can eat, drink and be merry with all the movers and shakers of the Charlotte culinary
BEST OFF-THE-BEATEN-PATH EATERY (NORTH) - FLATIRON It’s dinner time, around 6 p.m., and northbound traffic is stopped dead. It’s hard to think of a good reason why you put yourself in that situation. But then you realize that you have a reservation at one of the finest crafted restaurants, culinarily speaking, in the area. Flatiron offers a locally sourced, delectable
The best breakfast to be found close by no matter where you are in the Charlotte area isn’t at your local IHOP or Waffle House. Though they may be cheap and don’t mind you coming in smelling stale beer, they simply don’t offer the quantity and selection of savory meals that Famous Toastery does. CNBC named it one of the nation’s best up-and-coming chains last year and we agree. It’s up and coming damn fast, too. Famous Toastery debuted 12 years ago as the Toast Cafe in Huntersville, and now boasts 28 locations in seven states — three in Charlotte with more locations in Huntersville, Concord and Davidson. Expect fresh, forwardthinking, health-conscious items on the menu at each one.
BEST SEAFOOD TAKE OUT - FRESH CATCH You may have noticed Catch On Seafood’s sandwich board, usually featuring a fishy pun, out in front of its little storefront or at the intersection of Hawthorne and Central avenues. The store is full of fresh fish, brought in from the coast regularly, which is essential not only for freshness but also considering how quickly it sells out. The shop also features take-andbake meals, a small selection of beverages, and accompaniments like pesto, but it’s the fish that really shine – no joke about it.
BEST COFFEE - TRADE & LORE After Lindsey Pitman closed The Daily Press (at the Evening Muse) last year, and moved on to
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Las Delicias Zen Fusion Asheville to open Trade and Lore with business partner Sarah Winkler, the two always planned to reopen here in Charlotte. In May, they opened a local Trade and Lore right across from the Muse in Salud Cerveceria, and it’s our favorite new coffee spot. Yeah, we still love you, Smelly Cat, but you don’t have beer. Or shuffleboard.
BEST TACO - THREE AMIGOS MEXICAN GRILL & CANTINA Tucked into a strip mall down Central Avenue, Three Amigos often has customers lined up out the door. It’s worth the wait for Charlotte’s best tacos, plus sweet, strong margaritas and a mole to die for. With nine taco options, including veggie, you can mix and match without breaking the bank — tacos a la carte are only $2.95.
BEST CENTRAL AMERICAN - MORAZON It still amazes us how many folks still think all Latin American food is like Mexican food: hot and spicy. Don’t get us wrong: there’s plenty of great spices in the cuisine of El Salvador, but spicy is not what will lure you to Morazan. It’s the mouthwatering pupusas — those delicious, thick corn or rice tortillas stuffed with anything from beans and cheese to chicken, shrimp or pork. Equally as delicious are meaty dishes like the Salvadoran carne asada. And don’t even think of leaving without having the arroz con leche — that’s rice pudding, icydk.
BEST DIM SUM - DIM SUM Dim Sum on 2909 Central Avenue has been
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PHOTO COURTESY OF ZEN FUSION
a go-to for Midwood-ians and surrounding neighborhoods for 25 years. Under new management as of July 2017, the restaurant has retained 98 percent of it’s original kitchen staff, and the food and service quality has remained top notch. The loyalty it commands from the Asian community as well as Plaza denizens in the know is legendary, but it’s the food that keeps everyone coming back. The Sesame Balls alone, which are like biting into a slightly sweetened rain cloud, are well worth the trip. Dim Sum needs to become your new first date spot or Christmas Day tradition.
BEST VEGETARIAN TRANSITION - MA MA WOK This goes out to all you veg-haters out there: Ha-ha-ha, another culinary hot spot dropped the meat from its menu! Seriously, most folks didn’t bat an eye when Ma Ma Wok decided to go all-vegetarian. In fact, most folks were pretty darn happy that the Charlotte area got another all-veggie option. For you angry meat eaters: You remind us of white folks who say “All Lives Matter” — or the Chili Cook-Off guy who complained about Black Restaurant Week — because, you know, white folks just don’t get enough attention.
BEST LATIN AMERICAN DESSERT - LAS DELICIAS BAKERY Chosen to provide pastries for the offices of the Guatemalan consulate in Charlotte in December 2014, Manuel Bentacur’s little bakery has slowly
earned a customer base that continues to grow every year as the Queen City’s Latin population continues to boom. With donuts and sweet breads baked fresh everyday, Las Delicias still serves a free cup of coffee with any purchase, making this the first stop every morning for an army of sleep-deprived east Charlotte commuters. Las Delicias has brought the sweet to countless local weddings, quinceañeras and Dias De Los Muertos, ever so surely establishing itself as the best place in Charlotte to sample some of Latin America’s most delicious cultural
Yafo
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
imports.
BEST ADDITION TO SOUTHPARK - YAFO Ethnic food in SouthPark. Woo-hoo! Everybody knows SouthPark has never been a bastion of adventurous eating — at least when it comes to vegetarian or ethnic — but times are changing and so are our neighbors down yonder. They have your standard black bean burgers at their gourmet burger joints these days, and even a Living Kitchen has opened up there. And now they have a Yafo. It’s ethnic (Middle Eastern), it PHOTO BY CATHERINE BROWN
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has lots of veggie options and it’s very good. One more reason not to have to drive over to Park Road or Central Avenue just to get a meatless or ethnic dinner.
BEST SMOOTHIES - CAROLINA SMOOTHIE
BEST PLACE TO BRING A VEGAN FRIEND - PINKY’S Since opening in 2010, Pinky’s Westside Grill has been upping the bar on bar food. The restaurant is known for fried favorites, like corn dogs, fried pickles and corn dog shrimp, but owner and chef Greg Auten’s innovations include plenty of healthier and vegetarian options — even the classic veggie corn dog. And carnivores: As a reward for being so thoughtful on your next date with a vegetarian, there’s tons of meat on the menu for you, too.
BEST PLACE TO EAT WITH YOUR HANDS - ABUGIDA Some folks get bent out of shape about having to eat Ethiopian food with their hands. Why do they think we have hands in the first place? And if you wash them — like you presumbably do forks — what’s the big deal? Do those folks eat fried chicken legs with a fork? OK, now that we have that little rant out of the way: Go to Abugida. Not only is Charlotte’s newest Ethiopian restaurant excellent, but its coffee ritual is something to experience. What puts this Ethiopian joint above the rest is the addition of an Ethiopian grocery store that will stock all those delicious ingredients the city’s been missing.
PHOTO BY LIZ SPANGLER
Creative Loafing did a special issue on juice bars earlier this year, and we totally spazzed on mentioning Carolina Smoothie, one of Charlotte’s earliest and best joints for healthy fresh fruit and veggie beverages. We got shit for that omission from Carolina Smoothie diehards. To be fair (to us), that story was mainly on juice bars, and what Carolina Smoothie does best is mix up unbelievably tasty smoothies. ‘Twas a time when the editor of this paper stopped by every morning before lap-swimming at the Y. There’s a reason CS is a repeat winner in this category. They set the bar.
BEST BEER - LEGION BREWING, JUICY JAY Sometimes you just want to scream at the beer snobs, “Enough with the IPAs already!” Then a beer comes along that makes you think, OK fine, maybe all those hops aren’t so bad. Juicy Jay is the rare IPA that you can drink on a cold winter night or outside on a patio in the summer and feel content with the flavors either way. The perfect mixture of Mosaic, El Dorado and Cascade hops come together to create a taste that’s tropical without moving too far in that shandy direction. Also, it shares a name with 36 Mafia member and Memphis legend Juicy J, which doesn’t hurt its cause.
Lenny Boy Brewery kombucha
BEST NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LENNY BOY BREWERY KOMBUCHA Not all of us partake in alcohol, and that’s why the hipster gods created kombucha, and it was local hipster gods that created Lenny Boy. Yeah, Lenny Boy makes beer, too, but what the company is best known for are those delicious bottles of certified organic Southern booch, with flavors like lavender, rose, mint, ginger, strawberry and
sweet potatoe pie. Best of all: Drunks who always want everybody to be drinking with them will leave you alone, because when you’re sitting around a table with your friends, sucking on a bottle of Lenny Boy, it looks just like you’re having a homebrew. And they’re drunk anyway — they won’t know the difference.
BEST NEW BREWERY - RESIDENT CULTURE Plaza-Midwood residents are strolling farther down Central these days to get to Resident Culture, the neighborhood’s newest brewery. The airy and inviting taproom spills out onto an expansive patio and lawn area, so there’s plenty of room for your four-legged friend to play while you sip an IPA al fresco.
Pop the Top Craft Beer Shop
BEST NEW BAR - POP THE TOP CRAFT BEER SHOP
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
Ketan Patel’s corporate job at Bank of America was driving him to drink, which is usually a bad thing. Patel, however, didn’t let that send him down a dark path of ruining relationships and landing in jail, he aproached it as research, and in June he opened Pop the Top with his wife, Kathy, as a way to showcase Carolina beers that often get placed
on the backburner due to the popularity and availability of Charlotte-based brews. And South End has thanked him greatly for it, as he’s seen his sale projections go through the roof in his first few months of business. We only hope the trend continues.
BEST SOUL FOOD - NANA’S SOUL FOOD KITCHEN Step aside, Mert’s, you have a real contender in Nana’s. The BBQ ribs are to die for, the collard greens are exquisite, and the fried chicken — oh goodness. And then there’s the yams and the fried catfish and the smothered pork chops and the mac ’n’ cheese. And the green beans and cabbage and black eyed peas. And don’t forget the banana pudding, just like grandma makes. Sliding your tray down Nana’s buffet line can sometimes make for the hardest decision of your day.
BEST FOOD TRUCK - DUMPLING LADY The Dumpling Lady, aka Qian Zhang, brought the taste of home with her when she moved to Charlotte from Neijiang, China, a couple years
ago. The menu of Szechuan dumplings and noodles doesn’t change much and neither does the quality. Zhang’s truck is a welcome sight as she totes her delicacies around town; you can find her at Free Range Brewery on Wednesday nights and Noda Company Store on Saturday nights. Check her site for other locations.
BEST STREET VENDOR - VIC THE CHILI MAN If you think JJ’s Red Hots is the baddest hot dog in the Q.C. and you haven’t visited Vic the Chili Man at his spot on 4th and Tryon streets, think again! Vic, who most will recognize as the man with “buns of steel” donning an apron featuring a six-pack and undies, is what most would call a hot dog chef. The quality of his hot dogs blow anything you’ll find in his Uptown vicinity, and all of his signature sauces/creations are made from scratch. I mean, seriously, where will you ever find a hot dog spin on pho and Carolina barbecue called the “Pho-Q dog” in the Q.C.? Get outta here! (Yes, that featured dog is pronounced just like you think it is.)
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PHOTO BY TATE ROBERTS
Readers’ Picks Three Amigos Mexican Grill & Cantina
BEST NEW RESTAURANT
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BEST FOOD TRUCK
FUTO BUTA
TIN KITCHEN
BEST THAI
BEST SPECIALTY FOOD TRUCK
THAI TASTE
PAPI QUESO STREATERY
BEST KOREAN
BEST FARMERS MARKET
PEPERO
NODA FARMER MARKER
BEST SUSHI
BEST ICE CREAM
NEW ZEALAND CAFÉ
TWO SCOOPS CREAMERY
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now two locations for double the tacos + tequila pleasure!!! Uptown: 333 W Trade St #101, Charlotte, NC 28202
queondatacos www.queondatacos.com
Matthews: 3016 Weddington Rd, Suite 100 Matthews, NC 28105 (Matthews location opening late October)
Reader’s Picks con’ t BEST COFFEE SHOP
BEST BEER
CENTRAL COFFEE CO.
GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, WOODEN
BEST WINE SELECTION FOXCROFT WINE CO.
BEST NEW BREWERY (LAST TWO YEARS)
ROBOT BREWERY
BEST BLOODY MARY MOO & BREW
BEST MARTINI
LEGION BREWING
THE PUNCH ROOM
BEST BREWERY
BEST MARGARITA
NODA BREWERY COMPANY
QUE ONDA
BEST BOTTLE SHOP
BEST DISTILLERY
SALUD BEER SHOP
DOC PORTER’S DISTILLERY
R O F S S K GU N A IN H T OT V Creative Loafing’s Readers’ Pick for Best Seafood Best Uptown Restaurant
34 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
2017
Best place to day drink CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 35
g to n i o g e ’r e W “ tcoin!” invest in bi
PHOTO BY JU
STIN DRISCO
LL
Critics’ Picks
These expensive, these is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes. The year started with Black Sheep’s exclusive release of the amazing “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” Nike collab, and we knew from then on we’d be curing our Trump blues with some retail therapy. Here’s where we spent the most...
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Midwood Guitar Studio
The Greener Apple
BEST SKATE SHOP - ARMADA SKATE SHOP You know what’s dope about Armada Skate Shop? On its Facebook page, they have this really young girl on a board, mid-air, hair flinging back, red helmet on her head, working it like the badass that she is. The pic is perhaps a nod to the “Girls Shred Free” event that Armada hosted at Grayson SkatePark every Thursday through the summer, and we’re always down with folks trying to lift the ladies up in a community seen as a boys’ world. But what’s dopest about the shop is that owner Patrick Carroll is so chill; he’s there to help you out in whatever way he can, whether you’re just starting out or ready to compete with Lizzie Armanto, Sage Elsesser or Riley Hawk (or heck, even Riley’s dad Tony). And
PHOTO BY CATHERINE BROWN
with their line of clothing, Armada will have you looking as good (or better, in some cases) than you skate.
BEST PLACE TO JAM - MIDWOOD GUITAR STUDIO Located right in the heart of the Plaza Midwood neighborhood, Midwood Guitar Studio specializes in boutique guitars and amplifiers. This ain’t where you’re going to go to plug in that new over-priced Les Paul into a Marshall Stack, kids. Brands like Collings, along with lesser known but highly regarded brands such as Revelator, Veritas, and Mario Martin are all here for you to check out what the indie world of electric lutherie is bringing to the table. Also, a fully functional recording studio right in
PHOTO COURTESY OF MGS
the back of the store is available to interested musos, a fully functional guitar repair shop keeps folks’ axes in top shape, and monthly concerts and workshops in the store are what’s setting this little guitar store apart from the big box stores in south Charlotte and Matthews.
popped in for a show and walked out with a Posies compilation and an anthology of 1970s experimental rock from Venezuela! The store boasts LED panel lights that can be dimmed when the shows start, but owner Scott Wishart says it’s never dark enough for the bands.
BEST LITERARY AND VEGAN MASH-UP - BOOK BUYERS / THE GREENER APPLE
BEST METAPHYSICAL STORE WITH A FEMINIST TWIST - THE BAG LADY
Looking for that one-stop shopping spot for eco-friendly dish soap and that volume of Proust you’ve been hankering for? Go no further than the intersection of Central Avenue and The Plaza. Book Buyers boasts a wide selection of used books amid a funky space that includes a small under-construction airplane hanging from the ceiling. At the front of the same space, The Greener Apple carries vegan and eco-friendly items including food, toys, beauty supplies and pet products. Speaking of pets, Book Buyers also hosts rescue cats looking for good homes. Is there a better way to spend an afternoon than reading a good book and munching on vegan goodies with a kitten curled up in your lap?
The Bag Lady is Charlotte’s go-to store for stones and crystals, but they offer so much more for the seeker, the spiritual or the merely curious. It’s an oasis of calm and a garden of the senses where you can find Reiki-infused candles, ritual bells, singing bowls, jewelry and tarot and oracle cards. A diverse selection of books covers health and wellness, creativity, self-help, spirituality and even sacred geometry. The store’s website says they’re dedicated to inspiring “creativity, spirituality, hilarity, random enchantment and unmitigated bodaciousness.” Preach it, sisters!
BEST RECORD STORE THAT ALSO SERVES AS A CONCERT VENUE LUNCHBOX RECORDS Where else can you see local acts like Mineral Girls or national performers like RocknRoll HiFives, and then power shop for records and CDs between sets? This is an awesome or dangerous thing depending on your budget. We recently
BEST TOY STORE - THE REDDOOR It was tough for all of us kids who came up in the ‘80s and ‘90s to hear that our beloved Toys ‘R’ Us company had filed for bankruptcy in late September and, though they claim otherwise, will likely go the way of Blockbuster in coming years. Luckily for us, we’ve grown up and now and no longer needs Toys ‘R’ Us — yeah, we get it, some of you have kids, whatever — and we’re now shopping for toys that leave us breathless
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BEST PLACE TO GET TATTED UP - HAYLO HEALING ARTS LOUNGE PHOTO BY MELISSA MCHUGH
Haylo Healing Arts Lounge
Poor Ryan never stood a chance. Our news editor Ryan Pitkin walked into Haylo Healing Arts Lounge one day in March to interview the owner Hayley Moran about her upcoming Time Capsule Tattoo event, and like a sailor swooned by the song of a siren on the rocks, he was soon asking if he could participate. A few days later, he was under the gun of Dani Blalock, one of Moran’s all-lady Haylo crew. The tat turned out perfect, and Pitkin couldn’t have been happier, but our choice goes beyond Pitkin’s personal connection and bias. Haylo gets our vote because of Moran’s efforts to connect the oft-segregated communities of tattoo artists and those who use canvas and other mediums. Moran holds regular gallery showings for local visual artists in the space, and her ace-in-the-hole, Hillary Heath, hosts yoga in a connected room and works to give the entire shop a metaphysical vibe that makes it impossible not to be at peace with the tattoo gun in your ribs.
TUFT
PHOTO COURTESY OF TUFT
in bed. Whether you’re experimenting with your Tinder lineup or trying to regain the spark in your marriage, the experienced staff at any of the local Reddoor locations can make sure you’re never bored in the bedroom.
BEST PLACE FOR LOCALLY MADE FURNITURE - TUFT TUFT, which stands for Today’s Unique Furniture Trends, offers just that. The store features vintage furniture, custom upholstery, art, and workshops. Customers come not only for the constantly changing gems and oneof-a-kind furniture finds, but also for owner Danielle McKim, who’s infused her store with her cheerful and helpful personality. Visit her, shop local, and find your next statement piece all at once at 1222 Central Ave.
BEST BOUTIQUE - 32 FLAVORS ...and then some. 32 Flavors Boutique is the boutique of all boutiques proudly offering over 32 different locally made, made in America and/or Fair Trade goods that make this store a local staple. It offers handmade jewelry, art, accessories, ceramics, candles and any other kind of house-warming, wedding, babyshower, birthday gift or whatever the hell else quirky little piece you need to get back on someone’s good side. Every item is perfectly crafted to put a smile on someone’s face.
MOST UNIQUE BOUTIQUE - ROYAL PEASANTRY
32 Flavors
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PHOTO COURTESY OF 32 FLAVORS
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROYAL PEASANTRY Royal Peasantry Studios and Boutique
Still the best place to pick up that leather bird mask or fur lined cloak that will keep you warm all winter long, Royal Peasantry is quickly becoming Asheville’s cultural embassy to the Queen City, hosting events such as the It’s-A-Phase solar eclipse party last month, and
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movie nights that teach Charlotte’s urban indie hipsters how to survive in the mountains. The brainchild of Asheville’s own Danielle Miller, Royal Peasantry’s Charlotte chapter, managed by Patti Byrd is bringing Charlotteans a bit of the independent and mystical mountain vibe that Asheville’s so famous for.
BEST FENG SHUI - SANCTUARY IMPORTS So you’d love to visit Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, but the only thing holding you back is that you can’t find cool furniture there. Well, hesitate no more, fledgling wizards! Sanctuary Imports in Plaza Midwood is actually an eclectic store where you can find crystals, furnishings, candles and jewelry, but it’s serene and exotic atmosphere certainly conjures up the feel of Harry Potter’s favorite haunt. The store’s one of a kind and vintage furniture is the big draw here. Where else can you find a table fashioned from imported boat wood? There are also astrology readings, guided painting workshops and other events for the metaphysically inclined.
Fityoulous
PHOTO BY JOHN THRASHER PHOTOGRAPHY
BEST PLACE TO PUT YOUR RESPONSIBILITES OFF ON SOMEONE ELSE - 2U LAUNDRY Alright, it’s time to throw in the towel ... and the socks, t-shirts, jeans, button-up shirts, dresses and all other dirty clothes for washing. 2U Laundry has ultimately changed the laundry game by picking up your clothes then washing and dry cleaning them for you. Their organized system of “wash and dry,” “wash and hang dry,” and “dry clean” bags saves you over six hours a week on doing laundry and rushing to the dry cleaners, all while being environmentally conscious. So how are you going to spend all that extra time?
Ladies, you can now stop obsessing over your virtual Pinterest wardrobe of sexy and fashionable workout clothes. Fityoulous is your dream come true for all of your favorite openback tanks, colorful booty-hugging leggings and, of course, matching sports bras. Go ahead and throw out all your baggy Goodwill t-shirts and sagging sweats because when you look good, you feel good.
BEST PLACE TO DROWN IN YOUR OWN SWEAT - ARRICHION HOT YOGA
BEST FLOWER POWER - SWEET T FLOWERS Did you know that 80 percent of the flowers in this country are imported from overseas, and most are ordered through middle-man sources that are only in existence to shake you down? Keep it local with Sweet T Flowers, based in Waxhaw, which gets all its flowers from local growers. This not only helps keep the costs
PHOTO COURTESY OF SWEET T
workers for team building and peak party.
BEST PLACE TO GET FINE BEFORE YOU GET FIT - FITYOULOUS
It’s hot as hell! Arrichion Hot Yoga + Circuit Training is about more than melting your body doing uncomfortable and confusing poses. This unique fitness center offers multiple classes of hot yoga, hot pilates, circuit training and their special class Tiger’s Eye (a special strength circuit and hot flow yoga!). Arrichion is the perfect body-sculpting program for beginners and professionals alike.
Sweet T Flowers
Queen City Growlers
PHOTO COURTESY OF QCG
low for you, but helps keep the flowers fresher longer (until you’re wife isn’t mad at you anymore).
BEST PLACE TO END THINGS WITH A CLIFFHANGER - INNER PEAKS ROCK CLIMBING Climbing the walls at Inner Peaks will make you feel like you’re climbing the rocky faces of K2 — well, kinda, but without the fear of falling to your death or turning into an ice-pop. Enjoy climbing, bouldering, a fitness room and yoga classes all in one facility available to all experience levels at two different locations. Get outside of the office and bring your co-
BEST PLACE FOR DRINKERS AND ‘POT-HEADS’ ALIKE - QUEEN CITY GROWLERS/THE LITTLE STUDIO OK, so you’ve visited all the breweries in town and noted all your favorite local IPAs. What’s your next step to becoming a bonafied beer nerd? You’ve got to get yourself a cool, custom-made growler. Queen City Growlers offers handcrafted, slip-casted growlers to lug around to your favorite craft beer spot for some suds to go. The ceramic growlers are designed to fight off beer’s three arch nemeses: heat, air and light. And if QCG’s slip casting process inspires you to do some clay work yourself, you’ve got The Little Studio right there in the same building. QCG owner James Carlevatti opened up the studio where he makes his growlers for the public to learn all aspects of the clay game, with fun events ranging from adult date nights to youth
Sanctuary Imports
PHOTO COURTESY OF SANCTUARY IMPORTS
summer camps.
BEST PLACE TO CATCH A COLD HOLIDAY ON ICE Holiday On Ice is nothing less than a classic holiday tradition for Charlotte. The outdoor, authentic ice rink has provided memories for Charlotteans and visitors alike in the heart of Uptown Charlotte for 13 years. Whether you go for a family night, date night or a party with friends, nothing beats the fun of skating in the middle of a city twinkling with lights.
BEST PLACE TO GET SUITED UP WILLIAM WILSON CLOTHING Forget Gucci, Armani, Prada — all that junk. You can dress like Jay-Z, David Beckham and
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George Clooney combined if you schedule an appointment with the folks at William Wison. They don’t spare any expense when designing your handmade custom suit. Of course, you won’t spare any expense either, as you’ll be dropping from $650 to three G’s.
BEST PLACE TO SAY YES TO THE DRESS - MEAGAN KELLY DESIGNS Wedding dresses are arguably the most important part of the wedding and there is no doubt that every bride turns into a bridezilla when it comes to finding her perfect gown. Charlotte based, Meagan Kelly Designs will relieve all stress with her bridal gown collections and better yet, the ability to customize your dream dress. Trusting a fashion artist who eat, sleeps, and breaths wedding gowns will make it easy for your gut to say yes to the dress.
BEST PLACE TO CHANNEL YOUR INNER MONKEY - KINETIC HEIGHTS Kinetic Heights proves evolution is real by
Kinetic Heights
COURTESY OF KINETIC HEIGHTS
bringing out inner ninja monkey in everyone. The Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association facility offers intense ropes courses, endurance and obstacle training, yoga, kids classes and more. If you have hopes and dreams of being an American Ninja Warrior, this is the place to start.
MOST ANTICIPATED OPENING - (TIE) LUMBERJAXE, MAC TABBY Picture Jason Momoa (aka Khal Drogo) holding a sweet little kitten. My gosh I’d faint! That’s the image that comes to mind when I think about the two most highly anticipated openings in the Queen City: Mac Tabby and Lumberjaxe. Mac Tabby will be Charlotte’s first cat cafe. Visitors will pay by the hour to sip on local beer, coffeee, kombucha or wine while playing with some of Charlotte’s homeless feline population. And guess what? You can adopt them! Are you kitten me?! Lumberjaxe, on the other hand, introduces a more rugged concept. (Unless you think about how cute and cuddly lumberjacks’ beards and man buns are!) Whether you want to date Jason Momoa or become him, all is possible at Lumberjaxe, Charlotte’s first axe-throwing facility. Some of you may have already gotten a taste for axethrowing at their pop-up events. Well, soon, you’ll be able to throw as many axes inside their new venue and bring your own beer! (I wouldn’t go while your ex is there though…)
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Black Sheep’s “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”
PHOTO COURTESY OF BLACK SHEEP SKATE SHOP
Readers’ Picks
BEST NEW STORE
BEST IN-STORE PET
CLTCH
DAISY AT AERIAL CLT
BEST CLOTHING STORE
BEST LOCAL PRODUCT
SILVERFLY
LENNY BOY KOMBUCHA
BEST LOCAL CONSIGNMENT SHOP BUFFALO EXCHANGE
Lunchbox Records
PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT WISHART
BEST CAR MECHANIC BEST FITNESS STUDIO
NICK’S AUTO REPAIR
HILLIARD STUDIO
BEST HEATING & AIR
BEST YOGA STUDIO
MORRIS JENKINS
YOGA ONE
BEST DRY CLEANER
BEST HOME ACCESSORIES STORE
BEST BOOKSTORE
ELITE CLEANERS
CIRCA INTERIORS AND ANTIQUES
HEROES AREN’T HARD TO FIND
BEST SHOE REPAIR
BEST PLACE TO BUY VINTAGE
BEST BICYCLE SHOP
BEST RECORD STORE
BELK
SLEEPY POET
UPTOWN CYCLES
LUNCHBOX RECORDS
BEST ALTERATIONS
BEST GIFT SHOP
BEST HAIR STYLIST
BEST VAPE SHOP
ANNA’S ALTERATIONS
PAPER SKYSCRAPER
ELIZABETH BICE
CHARLOTTE VAPES
BEST ATTORNEY
BEST SHOE STORE
BEST MAKEUP ARTIST
BEST HEAD SHOP
MICHELLE ABBOT
BLACK SHEEP SKATE SHOP
ELIZABETH BICE
HIGH LIFE SMOKE SHOP
BEST REALTY AGENCY
BEST JEWELRY STORE
BEST BARBER SHOP
BEST CIGAR SHOP
SAVVY + CO.
CUSTOM JEWELRY LAB
NO GREASE
TINDER BOX
BEST BANK
BEST LOCAL FASHION DESIGNER
BEST NAIL SALON
BEST SEX STORE
WELLS FARGO (SOUTH BLVD.)
STZ
ICOLOR NAIL BAR
WHITE RABBIT
BEST HOTEL
BEST VET
BEST MASSAGE SHOP
BEST DENTIST
RITZ CARLTON
LONG ANIMAL HOSPITAL
MASSAGE ENVY
LEIGHTON FAIN
BEST SPA
BEST PET STORE
BEST TATTOO SHOP
BEST DOCTOR
RITZ CARLTON
FOUR DOGS PET SUPPLY
FU’S CUSTOM TATTOO
PETER CAPIZZI
BEST AUTO DEALER
BEST DOGGIE DAYCARE
BEST PIERCING STUDIO
BEST PLUMBER
HENDRICK BMW/MINI
NODA BARK & BOARD
SADU
ROTO ROOTER
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Vintage and repurposed furniture Art from around the world Crystals, candles, jewelry and eclectic gifts A variety of fun and informative workshops and events every month to support, engage and enlighten our community
822 Lamar Avenue 980.237.4780 Voted BEST pet supply store two years in a row. THANK YOU!
your delicious weekly alternative news source You're invited to our 4th anniversary party!!!
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 45
Things To Do
TOP ten
Helado Negro WEDNESDAY
PHOTO COURTESY OF ASTHMATIC KITTY RECORDS
THURSDAY
19
N.C. MUSIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY What: Charlotte soul sensation Anthony Hamilton will be inducted into the Hall with some prodigious Carolina colleagues, such as the late, great blues guitarist Etta Baker; “Color Him Father” songwriter Richard Lewis Spencer; country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale; bluegrass powerhouse the Steep Canyon Rangers; gospel greats the Sensational Nightingales and . . . some douchebag from American Idol? When: 7:15 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Where: GEM Theatre, 111 W 1st St, Kannapolis. More: $35 - $80. northcarolinamusichalloffame.org
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THURSDAY
19
FRIDAY
20
‘THE VILLAINESS’
BEST OF CHARLOTTE PARTY
What: Directed by a former stuntman, The Villainess revels in unhinged scenes of wholesale slaughter, as trained female assassin Sook-hee rips through a cadre of killers with little more than a pair of heels and a Samurai sword. But the plot also takes some unexpected twists, focusing on the heroine’s efforts to establish a relationship with her young daughter. Who would have thought that a blood-spattered South Korean action flick would also be a tribute to motherhood?
What: It’s that time of year, again. You may have already noticed, but you’re holding our annual Best of Charlotte issue, and we don’t know how to say this, but it’s kind of a big deal. Help us celebrate our 30th year at the Levine Museum of the New South. Have a few drinks and enjoy food from City Barbecue, Cantina 1511 and Downtown Donuts, and music from DJ Overcash, before we all head around the corner to Lucky’s Bar & Arcade for the afterparty, where your Best of CLT ticket gets you 10 free tokens.
When: 7:30 p.m. Where: C3 Lab, 2525 Distribution St. More: $5-10. c3-lab.com
When: 6-10 p.m. Where: Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. 7th St. More: $20. clclt.com
FRIDAY
20 CHARLOTTE HORNETS HOME OPENER What: The Bugs are back. All eyes are on the newly acquired Dwight Howard, who we certainly hope can show signs of the Superman he once was, but we’ll be checking for Malik Monk, the shooting guard the Hornets picked up with the 11th overall pick back in June. Not to jinx anything, but there’s speculation that Monk could be the Hornets’ best draft pick since Kemba Walker, and that potential alone has us excited for the new season. When: 7 p.m. Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St. More: $15 and up. nba.com/hornets
FRIDAY
20 ‘HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE’ IN CONCERT What: See Harry Potter stepping through Hogwarts’ hallowed halls accompanied by a live orchestra. Sorcerer’s Stone and its score have aged remarkably well. The child actors hold their own amid a coven of veteran scenery chewers like Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman, and John Williams’ sweeping main theme, a spiraling nod to SaintSaëns’ “Danse Macabre,” adds much to the movie’s magical vibe. When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Ovens Auditorium, 2900 East Independence Blvd. More: $60 and up. ovensauditorium.com
Anthony Hamilton THURSDAY
‘The Villainess’ THURSDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
Halloween Student Showcase SATURDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE FILM SOCIETY
SATURDAY
SATURDAY
CHARLOTTE ROLLER GIRLS FINALE
AFV EXOTIC ARTS HALLOWEEN SHOWCASE
What: We hate to see the rowdy and restless roller derby season end, but we can always count on our Roller Girls to end the season right. The season closer will be a fun, Halloween-themed bout, with the Roller Girls breaking off into teams called the Zombies and the Unicorns to do battle. The bout will include a costume contest, and don’t miss the after party at Pure Pizza to celebrate another great CLTRG season.
What: Sexy pole and burlesque dancing with a twist of Halloween is sure to send chills down your spine, but whether the chills are from the spooky theme or the impressive moves we’re yet to find out. AFV Exotic Arts is showing off its students with impressive dancing skills that will make you eager to try for your significant other. Ages 18 and over are welcome, and space is limited, so come early (bad choice of words).
When: 4:30 p.m. Where: Grady Cole Center, 310 N. Kings Drive More: $7-16. charlotterollergirls. com
When: 7:15 p.m. Where: AFV Exotic Arts, 1709-E Central Ave. More: Donations encouraged. afvexoticarts.com
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PHOTO BY LEANN MUELLER
PHOTO COURTESY OF AFV EXOTIC ARTS
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MONDAY
TUESDAY
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WEDNESDAY
25
BIZARRE RIDE... II
MDC
HELADO NEGRO
What: Fatlip and Slimkid3, two key members of the legendary Pharcyde, have reunited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their 1992 masterpiece Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, an alt-hip-hop classic made in South Central L.A. during the heyday of gangsta rap. Kindred spirits with NYC’s Native Tongues collective, the Pharcyde and its own, West Coast collective of jazzy-cool experimental emcees and DJs were the exact opposite of Dre and Snoop. The duo will perform Bizarre Ride in its entirety.
What: In the early ’80s, when San Francisco was post-hippie but pre-tech bro, a little Texas anarcho-punk band arrived, named themselves Millions of Dead Cops, and railed against capitalism, homophobia and stupid rednecks. They joined the Rock Against Reagan Tour of ’83 and released an EP as Multi-Death Corporations on British anarcho-punk band Crass’ label. Three and a half decades later, MDC are still railing, last year re-casting their warhorse “Born to Die” with a different refrain: “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.” When: 9 p.m. Where: The Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road More: $10 - $12. themilestone.club
What: Roberto Carlos Lange (Helado Negro) is a bilingual indie electronic singer-songwriter with the slight vocal quiver of a Marc Bolan or Devendra Banhart, and music that gently rumbles and shimmers and sparkles in songs that sometimes explore identity politics and other times just love and friendships. The McColl Center’s New Frequencies series pairs him with High Cube, local musical Renaissance Man Bo White’s minimalist electronic duo with Mineral Girls’ Brett Green.
When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 228 Gordon St. More: $15 - $20. snugrock.com
When: 8 p.m. Where: McColl Center, 721 N Tryon St. More: $10 - $14. mccollcenter.org
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PHOTO BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
“Thou art such a drama queen.”
Critics’ Picks
The arts is what’s kept us hanging around for the last 30 years, and we’re proud to bring you the best in music, theater and visual arts coverage week in and week out. There are always the stand outs, however, and if you’re not familiar with the folks listed in this section, then get acquainted, you uncultured swine!
48 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Mahler’s “Resurrection”
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE SYMPHONY
BEST NIGHT AT THE SYMPHONY - MAHLER’S “RESURRECTION” While a well-played Beethoven symphony or a Mozart concerto might be the secret sauce to get newcomers to become Charlotte Symphony subscribers, many longtime concertgoers would prefer to dismount the warhorses and hear something off the beaten trail. There’s plenty out there that will please both camps. Armed with an audacious orchestra and choir, and two soloists who have sung with Opera Carolina, Davidson College showed the way with a
‘Eat the Runt’
MOST INNOVATIVE CASTING - ‘EAT THE RUNT’ The best role in Donna Scott Productions’ Eat the Runt, may have gone to the audience, because they got to play casting director. The wickedly funny workplace farce, which opened last September at the Harvey B. Gantt Center before moving to Charlotte Art League, was truly a different show every night, because theatergoers picked the players, texting their votes on which performer should play each part. The “cast your ballot to cast the show” approach was more than a gimmick. The constantly shifting roster of actors was key to the play’s message about how we aid — or obstruct — diversity, because casting changes flipped the meaning of scenes. A simple kiss acquired added impact when that kiss crossed racial boundaries, or when the actors happened to be the same sex. With its innovative casting, this antic comedy gained dramatic heft as it shed new light on racial and sexual prejudices.
MOST INNOVATIVE THEATER EXPERIENCE - ‘#CAKE (YEAR ZERO)’ Experimental theater troupe XOXO is gleefully and unabashedly weird. Past productions have
rousing performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, set to poetry by Walt Whitman. That’s the sort of daring we hope for from Charlotte Symphony’s British maestro, Christopher Warren-Green, and he delivered with Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2. If you wanted to sample the full capabilities of the symphony, its chorus, and the guest vocalists Warren-Green can summon to Belk Theater, you should have been there.
PHOTOS BY WELDON WEAVER
included the fractured fairy tale I Won’t Hurt You, the wholesome yet horny holiday special A Very Tampone Christmas and the mythic acid western All the Dogs and Horses, but last summer’s #CAKE (Year Zero), unleashed at Goodyear Arts’ former digs on North College Street, may be XOXO’s darkest and most dangerous vision to date. Across a broad emotional pallet, ranging from unnerving office-space intrigue to blood-spattered nightmares, artistic director Matt Cosper and his accomplished cast crafted a mash-up of crime thriller, slasher flick and self-guided tour of Uptown Charlotte. #CAKE sifted through the ashes of torture, oppression and the collapse of capitalism to find hope and compassion in the blackest heart of darkness.
BEST PERFORMING ARTS EXPLOSION ‘BOOM CHARLOTTE’ Last April, BOOM detonated in Plaza Midwood for the second year in a row, unleashing a bigger, brighter fireball of avant-garde and grassroots arts, dance, music and theater. For 2017, BOOM multiplied the number of performers and added two new venues. Twenty-Two gallery and International House joined the previous year’s mainstays — Petra’s,
Snug Harbor, Rabbit Hole and a free outdoor stage dubbed the Intersection — and all were just a short stroll from each other. Despite the upgrade, BOOM’s essentials stayed the same. It was cheap, with show admissions ranging from $10 to free; easy to navigate; and unconventional, with performances including a goth-rock musical set in the suburbs, an automotive-centered autobiography and dance piece for and by the visually impaired. It’s official: With BOOM, Charlotte finally has the performing arts festival it deserves.
BEST DANCE AND ACROBATIC EXPERIENCE - ‘SÛR: AN ACROBATIC JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF SAFETY’ Presented by CarlosAlexis Cruz’s Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatic troupe Nouveau Sud (“New South”), Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety pulled back the curtain on a city plagued by police brutality, the vilification of the black and immigrant communities, and the disturbing tendency to see our neighbors as “the other.” Nouveau Sud’s supple, athletic performance at the Booth Playhouse last July was an alarm, sounding the message that Charlotte may no longer be safe for all its citizens, and a declaration that it’s time for us
to stop living in fear. Sûr offered a solution — a plea that we should isten to each other. It was great dance performance, as well as a vital message delivered with grace, strength and the belief that motion and gesture could cross boundaries more readily than 1,000 words.
BEST FREAKY THEATRICAL MASTERMIND - MATT COSPER When we say Matt Cosper is a weirdo, we mean it in the best possible way. As artistic director of his XOXO theater troupe, Cosper has done much more than break the fourth wall. At times, he and his actors seem to have broken the fourth dimension. Their 2015 production Bohemian Grove certainly played that way. What started as a missing persons case conducted by buffoonish police transformed into a mystical and mystifying traipse into the afterlife and beyond, making room for a talking broom, a mysterious dance set to the 1960s rock novelty tune “Alley Oop,” and starched white nurses abducting audience members during an impromptu variety show. Last summer’s #CAKE (Year Zero) upped the ante. Depicting a dystopian, disease ridden Charlotte, CAKE was hellish yang to Grove’s heavenly yin. It’s impossible to decode if
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PHOTO BY SHAUN HOLLINGSWORTH
Bloom: Transformation
performing arts showcase and celebration of the aerial, terpsichorean and incendiary arts that resembled a mash-up of Carnival in Venice, the garden of earthly delights and a (sort of) family-friendly bacchanalia. Last July, a small army of performing artists converged on the McColl Center to dance, swing from the rafters and spit fire for Bloom’s biggest iteration to date. Three performances showcasing more than 60 artists were spread over two days, featuring adult-only evening bills and a familyfriendly afternoon show. Highlights included Collette Ellis’ hypnotic, gyroscopic performance with an eight-wicked fire staff, a gravitydefying pole dance by AFV Exotic Arts’ Annie Vereen, and The Flying Femmes twisting and turning midair from a suspended metal cube.
‘Bohemian Grove’
PHOTO BY GEORGE HENDRICKS
Cosper’s productions are plays, “happenings,” or transformative experiences. So what’s next?
BEST FIRE-SPITTING AND SWINGING FROM RAFTERS - ‘BLOOM: REVOLUTION’ Presented by dancer/aerialists Katie Rothweiler and Sarah Hahn, Bloom: Revolution was a
BEST ECLECTIC ART SCENE CURATOR - MANOJ KESEVAN Manoj Kesevan is a former architect, the prime mover behind Charlotte’s Pecha Kucha nights, and founder of Que-OS, a platform for creative people to come together on a large scale to further a social purpose. Today, he can best be described as a Rogue Arts Ninja. In 2016, noting that that several cities smaller than
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Charlotte had fringe festivals, Kesevan joined forces with area artists including Quentin Talley, Camerin Watson and Sarah Emery and launched BOOM. The gathering of musicians, dancers, actors, spoken-word artists and performers that defy classification detonated an arts explosion in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood. In 2017 the festival was even bigger, pulling in more performers, extra venues and new partners, including the Tosco Music Party, AfroPop! and Urban Züe. Kesevan is tasked with topping last spring’s success when BOOM returns in 2018, but anyone who knows him can attest he’s more than up to it.
BEST ACTOR - JEREMY DECARLOS Among local performers, there are many strong candidates, but the runaway victory goes to Jeremy DeCarlos, who lapped the field — in range and productivity — with four scintillating outings. Draped in a braided Hussar jacket, DeCarlos just finished channeling his inner Jimi Hendrix as the devilish St. Jimmy in American Idiot. That was the last of his Actor’s Theatre gems over the past year, including some crossdressing preaching in Bootycandy, his insouciant
devotion in Stupid F@#%ing Bird, and his amazing transformation from a Jerry Lewis-like nerd to an Incredible Hulk-ish monster in The Toxic Avenger.
BEST ACTRESS - SHAR MARLIN The field of contenders is larger among the ladies, but the roles were more thinly distributed, eliminating productivity as a decisive criterion. But which other benchmark should override all others? We’re turning to Shar Marlin for her sheer power and imperial dominance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a dramatic stunner that also showed Marlin’s blues-singing chops. Dignity in the face of exploitation and discrimination. Diva!
BEST COMEDY - ‘WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET’ We’re going to let Chickspeare split this prize with Donna Scott Productions for their joint production of Women Playing Hamlet. Glynnis O’Donoghue starred as the soap queen saddled with the lead role in the Mona Lisa of tragedies, with a galaxy of comediennes — all in multiple roles offering her questionable advice — that
included Tania Kelly, Andrea King, Vivian T Howell and Sheila Snow Proctor.
BEST MUSICAL - ‘RAGTIME’ Folks who confine their diet of musicals in Charlotte to touring productions at the Performing Arts Center are missing out big time on the locally produced blockbusters playing out at smaller venues around town. Actor’s Theatre, Children’s Theatre and Theatre Charlotte all astonished with excellent productions this year. Maybe it was sheer luck, but ‘Ragtime’ Central Piedmont Community College’s wintertime production of Ragtime was the most timely of the year, underscoring the sad fact that institutional racism, police brutality and prejudice against immigrants aren’t quaint relics of the Jazz Age. As the martyred Coalhouse Walker, Tyler Smith’s impassioned “We are all Coalhouse!” reverberated through a city in turmoil.
BEST DRAMA - ‘JITNEY’
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PHOTO COURTESY OF CPCC
As Charlotte was fully wakening to how badly we have neglected and mistreated our underclass, theatergoers may finally have been zonked by the realization that our city is exceptionally rife with African-American acting and directing talent. Kim Parati made an auspicious directorial debut at Theatre Charlotte with a freshened-up Raisin in the Sun, but this was a vintage year for August Wilson — in two dramas directed by Corlis Hayes, Ma Rainey’s
PHOTO BY NANCY O. ALBERT ARTWORK BY MARCUS KISER AND JASON WOODBERRY
BEST GALLERY SHOW AGAINST INJUSTICE THE WORLD IS A MIRROR OF MY FREEDOM Presented at the McColl Center in February, The World is a Mirror of My Freedom combined works from five of the center’s current and alumni artists-in-residence, all of them black men, to explore African American masculinity, resistance, and resilience in a post-Keith Scott Charlotte and world. The science fiction comic book musings of Charlotte-based Marcus Kiser and Jason Woodberry were the launching pad for the exhibit, examining police violence against black men through the interstellar adventures of two adolescent astronauts. Local painter Charles Williams’ haunting “I Can’t Breathe” depicted the 2014 choking death of Eric Garner
by a New York City police officer. With a mix of drawings, archival materials and photographic documentation of performance pieces, New York-based artists Shaun El C. Leonardo and Dread Scott contributed to the conversation about racist oppression. Scott’s self portrait, a photo depicting the artist withstanding the blast of a high-pressure water hose, the same kind that was trained on men, women and children during the civil rights era, was particularly powerful. Mirror was a provocative and upsetting exhibit, essential viewing to those who value a just society.
‘The World Is a Mirror Of My Freedom’
‘Through the Retrospective Lens’ Black Bottom at CPCC and Brand New Sheriff’s Jitney at Spirit Square. Hayes brought out the best in John W. Price and Jermaine Gamble as the father-son antagonists in Jitney, with Gerard Hazelton adding a mix of comedy and poignancy as the gypsy cab company’s resident lush. Move over OnQ Productions, there’s a brand new black theater company in town.
BEST NIGHT AT THE OPERA - ‘THE GIRL OF THE WEST’ There was some audacity in the 2016-17 Opera Carolina programming as it partnered with Warehouse Performing Arts Center and the D9 Brewing Company to produce an evening of three short operas at the brewery in Cornelius. But most exciting was the Charlotte premiere of Puccini’s The Girl of the West, as maestro James Meena collaborated with six other international companies, including New York City Opera and Teatro del Giglio in Puccini’s hometown of Lucca. Singing was exemplary, persuading me that this secondtier Puccini opera was actually a first-rate work, and staging was anything but stodgy or conservative: much of the scenery was animated and bold, with authentic relics evoking the Wild West supplied by Wells Fargo — an appreciable, if infinitesimal, atonement for all the bank’s Wild West chicanery.
BEST CELEBRATION OF THE CREATIVE SPIRIT - ‘EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING’ This retrospective of the work of painter TJ Reddy at the Projective Eye Gallery in the College of Arts & Architecture at The University
of North Carolina at Charlotte covered a lot of ground. In his 72 years, Reddy has witnessed much, not least his railroading into prison by racist authorities in 1970. Reddy’s sentence was commuted in 1978, and though his paintings do not directly document his incarceration, they address power misused. Psychological Castration pulled back the shroud on the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where investigators studied the progression of syphilis in rural African-American men who were unaware of their condition. Other works presented acts of creation as a mystical process, whether they focused on his travels to the Caribbean or his bucolic-yet-segregated upbringing. Amid a riot of color, archetypical figures, like illustrations from a tarot deck, populated his work: teachers, mothers and the newborn. The show was a tribute to the practical magic that imbues us all.
textured studies of endangered building and disappearing environments, Monique Praechtl’s oblique and whimsical landscapes, and Kris Solow’s still lifes that turn everyday objects into
abstractions. While factions debate whether non-traditional art spaces sprang up to fill the void left by the contracting private gallery sector, or if the combination art-and-taprooms
BEST BONDING OF BEER AND PHOTOGRAPHY - ‘THROUGH THE RETROSPECTIVE LENS’ Craft beer may not be the savior of Charlotte’s art scene, but it certainly can’t hurt. At least that’s what art curator Megan Lynch thinks. With private galleries finding it harder to stay open, curators like Lynch are presenting shows in non-traditional venues like breweries. Through the Retrospective Lens, Lynch’s exhibition at Legion Brewing Company last June, was a stellar example of bringing art to the people, in spaces where they already congregate. The show featured work from three local female photographers: Nancy O. Albert’s
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Mark Doepker’s ‘The Aim of Ignorance’ are propelling the galleries demise, shows like Lynch’s pointed a way forward - making art accessible and inclusive.
BEST POLITICAL ARTIST - MARK DOEPKER Doepker would get this award even if he didn’t get attacked in his car this year by a racist who didn’t like the “Black Lives Matter” cube on the top of his VW bug. But he did get attacked for that, and it goes to the heart of Doepker’s work that he’d drive around the city making a statement that’s pretty obvious to most decent people. “I’ve had several vulgar remarks and middle fingers,” he told us earlier this year. “But I get much more positive reactions than negative stuff.” Beyond Doepker’s run-in with the local racist, his work speaks eloquently to numerous issues: the targeting of political activists, black hair, the beauty of the human body. And he does it all with grace and dignity.
BEST DOCUMENTARY ARTIST -
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HANNAH BARNHARDT
MARCUS KISER
You’ve seen her sitting alone in a corner at Common Market or Hattie’s or Snug Harbor, in horn-rimmed glasses, her little notebook opened, sketching rapper Black Linen performing, or drawing folks on a dance floor dancing, or capturing people sitting around a table at Amelie’s sipping coffee and talking animatedly. Hannah Barnhardt is Charlotte’s visual storyteller, and she’s been doing it for years. You just may not have known what she was doing. But Barnhardt does more than just sketch people out socializing — she’s an activist, she does incredibly honest self-portraits, she does all kinds of art and works in multiple mediums — but what she’s known best for are her sketeched snapshots of Charlotte nightlife. She owns this category.
In the mid-2000s, Marcus Kiser was a member of the GodCity collective that created art inspired by politics, hip-hop and comics. Local fans of pop art took notice of Kiser back then, and now his aesthetic has made its way to the walls of Uptown museums and galleries including the Gantt and McColl centers. With outerspace and futuristic themes speaking to larger political issues impacting the black community, Kiser’s chosen genre of Afrofuturism has become a tool he uses to engage art lovers in uncomfortable conversations about gentrification, police-involved shootings and black identity.
BEST AFROPUNK ARTIST - DAMMIT WESLEY To be punk is to directly challenge the status quo using do-it-yourself knowhow. That’s what the original British punks did, and that’s what Charlotte’s current crop of young hip-hop artists are doing at places like Petra’s and Common Market. Jimi Thompson, better known by his art moniker DAMMIT WESLEY, is a Charlotte visual artist who uses a punk DIY approach to push black and brown faces into white spaces. WESLEY pushed his way from the academic halls of Winthrop University to the local art scene several years ago, building a strong fanbase by doing live painting at nightspots around town and hosting art-creation events at places like Dupp & Swat and the Gantt Center. He recently set up shop at Camp North End with an art gallery and photo studio, BLK MRKT CLT. There, he’s helping other Charlotte Afropunks sharpen their skills and build their portfolios in order to continue his mission of pushing more black and brown faces into white spaces.
BEST AFROFUTURISM ARTIST -
BEST ART BOUTIQUE - DUPP & SWAT Sibling art duo Dion and Davita Galloway having been making spaces for emerging artists of color to showcase their creative works for years. In 2017, a new sector of local art supporters was introduced to the curatorial genius of Dupp & Swat at Charlotte’s Creative Mornings, and the boutique continues to showcase the power that a convening space has in moving the cultural needle forward. When Dupp & Swat was pushed out of its longtime NoDa location, it didn’t stop the Galloways; they opened two new Dupp & Swat locations — The Studio, in Plaza Midwood; and The Concept, in Camp North End — where the duo can continue their work, nurturing emerging artists and bringing art lovers together to help organizations such as Urban Ministries amplify their messages.
Dammit Wesley’s ‘Biggie’
BEST DESIGNER OF WALKING BILLBOARDS - ERIC NDELO When textile becomes the canvas, Eric Ndelo sees it as an opportunity to educate others and make a statement about one’s value system. Through the streetwear clothing brand DRCApeParel, Ndelo is creating Eric Ndelo
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ERIC NDELO
opportunities to make global consciousness look cool. His graphic T-shirts — such as the Blood Phone tees that use a wheatpaste graffiti-style design pointing out the dangerous mining practices in the Congo connected to mobile phone technology — are conversation starters. That’s just one of many; Ndelo has an entire line focused on social and political issues, and we can see his work as walking billboards roaming the streets of Charlotte.
BEST ART PARTY CURATORS - URBAN ZUE Charlotte is full of talented budding artists, right? But who are they? Where are they? And how do they come together? Those are
Hip Hop Orchestrated Urban Zue questions Urban Zue aims to answer. This novel arts organization — run by a determined duo of natural A&R-type reps, Loude Zue and Zue Moe — throws multidisciplinary art experiences wherein Charlotte visual artists, performance artists, musicians, dancers and other creatives all gather together at one glorious happening after another. The idea is to provide spaces where collaborations are born, and that’s exactly what’s happened at Urban Zue’s art parties.
BEST HIPPY PARTY PROMOTER - OBA AMITABHA OF FUNKSHUN When you want to channel positivity, just stand next to Oba Amitabha. You will catch a contact high of love, peace and happiness. Amitabha exudes hippy vibes in his style and demeanor. He’s all about breathing out light and positivity in everything he does. From a simple one-onone conversation with a passerby to creating large-scale social experiences, Amitabha wants to help others find their center together. The way he moves through the world carries over to the events he puts on in Plaza Midwood and at area camping sites. His summer concert series at Hattie’s Tavern and his mountain trail retreats under the Funkshun brand help folks find ways to find balance and function. Hence, the name.
PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN ZUE
nightclubs to make sure party-goers and concert attendees understand the intricacies of this art form. Lauded for her ability to share stories through her song selection and sequencing, SPK is about taking folks on sound journeys. Whether the story is as personal as two people falling in love, or a musical narrative to set the mood for a night at the club, SPK crafts the emotions for a room one track at a time.
BEST AFRO BEATS DJ - KATO If you have never been to the continent of Africa, then Ifeanyi Ibeto is more than happy to take you there in one night of AfroPop!. Give Ibeto, better known as DJ Kato, two turntables, a mic and a djembe drum, and you will be brought from the ’70’s Afrobeat of Fela Kuti to the modern-day hip-hop-infused Afrobeats of today’s Nigerian chart-toppers. DJ Kato not only focuses on creating the sounds of Africa, he helps to craft a nightlife experience that mentally transports party-goers to places far beyond Charlotte’s city limits. From body paint to picture booths to strategically recruited and placed vendor tables, your world music experience has been carefully pre-planned by the creative mind of DJ Kato and his AfroPop! brethren.
BEST SET-LIST STORYTELLER - DJ SPK
BEST MIXED-GENRE MUSICAL GROUP - HIP-HOP ORCHESTRATED
In case you didn’t know it, DJing is an art form. And Appollonia Khan, known as DJ SPK, has been putting in work on Charlotte stages and in
When Kia O. Moore is not writing about music, arts and culture for the Loaf, the founder and director of Hip-Hop Orchestrated is gathering
her tribe of talented musicians. H2O, for short, is a group of players from a variety of backgrounds — rap, classical, jazz, even marching band — working to bring about social change through music. To Moore, orchestrated hip-hop means, well, more than just blending genres and getting disparate musicians to rub shoulders. It’s a way to break down barriers among Charlotte’s diverse and often divided communities. With classical pianist Terrance Shepherd as musical director, H2O is a supple, shape-shifting and uplifting unit. A performance can start with Mozart, then gradually transition to jazz, hip-hop and soul. It’s the soundtrack for a community building bridges.
BEST CONCERT (LOCAL ACT) - DENIRO FARRAR & TRIBE If you weren’t at the Rabbit Hole on August 11, you quite simply missed the best show of the year. Not just because of the ultra-talented headliner, rapper Deniro Farrar — folks well beyond Charlotte know of his prodigeous talent — but also because of all the other local talents who were on this mind-boggling bill: R&B/soul singers Dexter Jordan and Autumn Rainwater, rockers Blu House, rap-rocker Nige Hood and his Folk Rap Band, rapper/producer Yung Citizen, just to name a few. And that’s not including the talent that was in the house just to see the show: LeAnna Eden, Black Linen, Allamuto, Kevin “Mercury” Carter, DJ SPK, Celeste Moonchild, Tizzy and Kizzy of Th3 Highter, the list goes on.
BEST CONCERT (NATIONAL ACT) - RUN
PHOTO BY ALEX WALKER
THE JEWELS The first Run the Jewels show in Charlotte was never supposed to happen, but we’re glad it did. El-P and Killer Mike stopped in at the Fillmore not as part of their scheduled RTJ3 Tour, but as a “Kickoff Party” to celebrate the luanch of the digital beer publication October. The pair partnered with Asheville’s Burial Brewing to serve concertgoers a specially brewed Stay G-O-L-D IPA beer that sold out so quickly that El-P wasn’t even able to get a pint on stage. Oh, and the music was amazing, too, as expected. The duo’s 70-minute set — introduced by opening act and hometown hero Well$ — did not disappoint. It’s also worth noting that, as usual for a RTJ show, they opened up VIP to everybody, because they aren’t hypocrites when it comes to the all-inclusive message they spread with their music.
BEST SONG - ELEVATOR JAY, “THE RIVER” Back in July, we were blessed with a summer jam we expect to still be grooving to well into fall. Elevator Jay’s “The River” is a song about fishing with the homies. It has an infectious, yet chill beat and a haunting chorus sample. It’s the kind of feel-good song you crank up when the bright sun in shining in a Carolina blue sky, and the video features exactly that scene, with Jay casting lines on a fishing boat and smiling a contagious smile. The song and video are both beautifully understated and totally unforgettable, and the perfect first single to introduce Jay’s amazing record, Ain’t Nothin’
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Thank you Creative Loafing readers for voting K(NO)W Justice K(NO)W Peace as best exhibit! The exhibit has been extended and it will no longer close on Oct. 22.
200 E 7th St, Charlotte, NC 28202 (704) 333-1887 www.museumofthenewsouth.org
Finer, which dropped in August.
BEST RAPPER - LUTE We knew Luther Nicholson was one of the best rappers to come out of CLT way back in 2012, when he released his debut mixtape as Lute, West1996, with cover art that was a bold and arrogant nod to Nas. Then J. Cole snapped up Lute for his Interscope imprint Dreamville and ... we waited. And waited. And waited. When Lute’s Dreamville debut West1996 Pt. 2 finally arrived in late September, the Charlotte rapper
proved to the world that the wait was well worthwhile. Lute told Mark Kemp and Ryan Pitkin on CL’s music podcast “Local Vibes” that he was initially apprehensive about how his fans would accept him after so long, but they’ve welcomed him back with open arms. And we have, too. Here’s to you, rapper Lute.
BEST ACTIVIST RAPPER - LALA SPECIFIC When Lala Specific speaks, you listen. That’s rhymesayer LaShanta Richardson’s slogan,
BEST ROCK BAND - LEANNA EDEN AND THE GARDEN OF photo by Alvin C. Jacobs, Jr. of To Speak No Evil
There are tons of great Charlotte rock bands, but none fronted by a black queer activist storyteller whose songs both move you and rock your socks off. And none whose frontwoman also serves as one of Charlotte’s most passionate cheerleaders for great rock and hip-hop by black alternative artists. LeAnna Eden and the Garden Of likely would have been voted best band on the merits of their 2017 self-titled EP alone — songs like
the slow-burning “Secrets,” the grunge-era stomp of “Walk Away” and the meanacing, punk-blues squall of “Dirty Water” — but Eden’s Session and Hip-hop Wednesdays events in Plaza Midwood, coupled with her recent black alternative music festival, Bla/ Alt, at Camp North End, put Eden way above the rest. Another Charlotte musician who’s had a stellar 2017. Look for lots more from this diehard DIYer.
LeAnna Eden and the Garden Of
PHOTO BY KIMBER LEE PRICE
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and her lyrics do speak loudly to improving the human condition through self-awareness and life-long learning. Lala is a North Carolina rapper who takes it beyond the lyrics. She was the conduit for creating a space for UNCC students to share their stories via the freestyle cypher. And now she’s teaching young kids how to use hip-hop as a way to find career opportunities both in front of the mic and behind the scenes. Lala Specific is so much more than just a rapper; she’s an organizer, an awareness raiser and a fundraiser for causes she believes in, showing that art truly does have the power to change the world.
at unnamed Charlotte rappers and poignant diatribes on police brutality in the Queen City and beyond. Ever since he released this free album on Soundcloud in February, we’ve been patiently waiting for more.
BEST EMERGING R&B/NEOSOUL SINGER - AUTUMN RAINWATER
BEST EMERGING RAPPER - AHMIR THE KING While we welcome new Charlotte artists to send in their music for us to check out, it’s unfortunate that most of the times, when folks find us as opposed to us finding them, there’s a reason we haven’t heard of them or seen them out playing shows. When we received an email from then-18-year-old high school student Isaiah Ford, aka Ahmir the King, the hopes weren’t that high, but after one listen,
Blame the Youth
Lala Specific
PHOTOS BY ADAM SHUTTER
it became clear that this kid had a future. His debut album, Black Tape, is a diamond in the rough, offering up an intense bevy of lyrical bravado, aggressive diss tracks aimed PHOTO BY DANA VINDIGNI
She’s still got room for improvement in terms of her live performances, but Autumn Rainwater is a singer and songwriter to be reckoned with on album. Her 2017 song-cycle Leaf, released in March, is as personal as music gets, and it features a few other Charlotte hip-hop and soul luminaries including rapper Jah-Monte. With songs like “Lonely,” “Cool,” “The Old Me” and “Lake Wylie,” Rainwater sings of trickling heartache in specifically Charlotte terms. It’s an album to listen to when you’re devastated. Or when you just wnat to feel understood.
BEST EMERGING INDIE BAND - BLAME THE YOUTH With a musical palette informed by the likes of Erykah Badu and Haitus Kaiyote, and a love for neo-soul, indie and what they call “Meryl Streep Music,” Blame the Youth is one of those rare bands that not only defy genre, they apparently set out to create a new one. Self-described as “an eclectic mix of alternative and soulful sounds with a little rock and jazz,” the band — lead vocalist/guitarist Francisco Gomez, lead guitarist Alexa Rae Ramkissoon, drummer Kynadi Hankins, and bassist/backing vocals Amber Daniels — is a singing and playing Benetton ad of black, brown and LGBTQ. In a music scene rapidly becoming more and more diverse, Blame The Youth stood out almost immediately with their smooth delivery, and their all welcoming approach to race, gender fluidity, and creative culture. Keep an eye out for this crew, as they’re going places.
Mercury Carter
PHOTO BY PRESTON NORALES
BEST SINGER IN ANY GENRE MERCURY CARTER We set out to do a little introductory music story on former hot clothing designer Kevin “KevinVain” Carter, who as a singer began calling himself Mercury and putting up YouTube videos of his drop-dead gorgeous cover songs. Then we heard his homemade 6-song EP of original songs on Soundcloud and realized an introductory story just wasn’t enough. So we put Mercury Carter on the cover of CL in April. Listen to his self-titled EP on Soundcloud — wherein he displays a vocal talent not unlike another Mercury, Freddie — or go watch him belt out covers of Maxwell or Aretha or Celine on YouTube. Wherever you go to get your fix of Mercury Carter, you’ll end up with your jaw on
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with a decidedly emo flavor. And then there’s “Exit Party,” which is downright gentle and sweetly tearful. But don’t get us wrong: They’re still snotty punks. The best around.
BEST SCUZZY GARAGE ROCKERS MODERN PRIMITIVES Every town needs one, and when it comes to low down garage jams that make you want to take a shower afterward, no one seems to do it better than Travis Phillips, Phillip Gripper and Tim Nhu, collectively known around town as Modern Primitives. The trio’s been moving like a three headed viper through Queen City dives, venues and parties since 2011, bringing a sound that evokes Sky Saxon if he had grown up in Gaston County, or liked to wash down his magic mushrooms with a cold can of Miller Lite. Modern Primitives played this year’s solar eclipse party sponsored by Royal Peasantry’s gang, unannounced, and delivered a moody reverbsoaked set that affirmed their place on this list and in the hearts of Charlotte’s garage rock fans.
BEST BLUES-BASED ROCK BAND RADIO LOLA With this year’s release of the band’s debut album, The Burden in Our Bones, Radio Lola’s Dani Engle quickly filled the void left when Deirdre Kroener exited Grown Up Avenger Stuff and left Charlotte’s music scene without a powerhouse female rock vocalist to hang its dreams on. With live gems like “Birthday Suit” and “Floor 22,” Radio Lola showcases Engle’s blue-eyed-soul-gone-punk vocals with postcards-from-the-edge lyrics; Chris Hendrickson’s swampy, fuzzed-out blues and rock guitar work that he’d refined for years in bands like Red All Over; Sean Nowak’s classic, song-over-all drum style; and Kevin Synder’s roots-man bass playing. Engle can slip from a moody lounge croon into a full-throated roadhouse roar on a dime, and Radio Lola backs her on her trips to the darkest borders of her heart.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF RADIO LOLA
Radio Lola the floor. This kid’s about to blow up.
BEST MATH ROCK BAND - CUZCO Seeing as how Cuzco is arguably the only math rock band in Charlotte today, this was a shoe-in. But there are plenty of other musicians in town who have toyed with precision instrumention and weird tempo changes (we miss you, Calabi Yau!). Cuzco gets the award this year for its exponential musical growth during 2016,
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culminating in the release of its six-song EP in January, A Medicine For Melancholy, and a killer video for the track “Those Are Z’s,” premiered right here at Creative Loafing. The icing on the cake is the band’s exquisite live instrumental performances that are more like art or film events than mere music. Don’t expect your average rock-band experience when you see these guys. Cuzco is so much more.
BEST SNOTTY PUNKS - JUNIOR
ASTRONOMERS Yeah, yeah, they’ve been Charlotte’s best snotty punks for years, but 2017 saw a more mature Junior Astronomers release Body Language, the band’s album-long love/hate letter to Charlotte. The songs weren’t all scrappy DIY slam-bamthank-ya-m’am. Singer Terrence Richard gets reflective in his lyrics. And the music draws from a wider well. Take “That’s Why,” for example — it’s mid-tempo, almost Southern boogie, though
BEST AVANT-JAZZ IMPROVISERS GHOST TREES This duo wins “best jazz” of some sort every year, and it’s not hard to see why. No musician in Charlotte blurts out better, more lyrical free-jazz than tenor saxophonist Brent Bagwell, and no percussionist holds it all together like Seth Nanaa. Jazz in Charlotte doesn’t get more adventurous than Ghost Trees, whose members were also a part of the New York City-formed ensemble Eastern Seaboard, which cut two critically lauded albums for the avant-garde label Black Saint Records in the 2000s.
BEST GRAM PARSONS-LOVING
COUNTRY-ROCK BAND - AMIGO Amigo keeps the torch burning for true alternative country-rock while most bands that boast the same in this town have slipped into Avett Brothers copycatism. Pedal steel guitars weave in and out of psychedelic organs and crunched telecasters, while barrelhouse pianos bash out chords that will send you sailing down the highway, into a mythical western sunset that only your wildest Flying Burrito dreams can take you. “I’m not a sucker but I play one in real life,” sings Slade Baird, just one brilliant line in a library of similar gems that will send you flying out of whatever venue you see them at, ready to face whatever the hell that life decides to throw at you. Amigo are your real best friends, and they’re going to make sure it stays that way.
BEST LATIN-FUSION BAND - CHÓCALA
Chócala
PHOTO BY TEMO TOBON
Out of the ashes of Patabamba came Chócala in 2017: Drummer Davey Blackburn with singer and percussionist Claudio Ortiz and his sister, singer Liza Ortiz, this time rounded out by saxophonist Michael Anderson from Snagglepuss. The band puts a few avant-garde twists, courtesy of Blackburn and Anderson,
to timeless Latin styles, somehow retaining a healthy respect for tradition. It’s a difficult tightwire to walk, but Chócala walks it with grace. What’s more, Blackburn is one of Charlotte’s louder cheerleaders for Latin music and culture; he also teamed up this year with Latin American Coalition talent booker Tony Arreaza, also a musician, to create the series Latin Night in Plaza Midwood at Snug Harbor.
BEST STAGE PRESENCE - BLU HOUSE The word that comes to mind when Blu House hits a stage and starts playing is “transfixed.” Whether performing a family-friendly affair or a no-holds-barred nightclub show, this Charlotte band will gain complete control of your eyes and ears. The vocals and guitar licks grab you, and the wild onstage antics will keep you glued. When the kiddos are not around, ski masks go on and shirts come off, as the group’s bluesy-rock-meets-soulful-funk takes over. Whether your political house is painted red or blue, anyone can agree that Blu House offers a bipartisan experience for anyone looking to see a kick-ass rock band offer a punk-funk showstopper.
933 Louise Ave #101, Charlotte, NC 28204 (980) 299-8331
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CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 59
Carlos Valencia
PHOTO BY ROB SLAVEN
BEST COMEDIAN
BEST BLUES/JAZZ/SOUL BAND
CARLOS VALENCIA
BILL MILLER BAND
BEST DRAG PERFORMER
BEST RAPPER
HEIRESS HILTON
LIL SKRITT
BEST PHOTOGRAPHER
BEST HIP-HOP/R&B BAND
BRIAN TWITTY
NIGE HOOD & THE FOLK RAP BAND
BEST NEW BAND
BEST OPEN MIC NIGHT
DOLLAR SIGNS
EVENING MUSE
BEST CONCERT FOR A GOOD CAUSE
BEST CONCERT VENUE
SAVE THE MILESTONE
SNUG HARBOR
BEST LOCAL ALBUM OF PAST 12 MONTHS
BEST PLACE TO HEAR JAZZ
TRASH ROOM, ‘WHISKEY & BAD DECISIONS’
BEST SOLO PERFORMER JOSHUA COTTERINO
BEST SINGER-SONGWRITER WIGGI MUSIC
Readers’ Picks BEST MUSEUM
BEST ACTOR
MINT MUSEUM
RYAN STAMEY
BEST ART GALLERY
BEST THEATER SHOW OF PAST 12 MONTHS
TWENTY-TWO
BEST EXHIBIT K(NO)W JUSTICE, K(NO)W PEACE
BEST DISPLAY OF PUBLIC ART MCCOLL CENTER
BEST VISUAL ARTIST HANNAH COGGINS
BEST PERFORMING ARTIST(S) SATARAH
BEST THEATER COMPANY CHILDREN’S THEATRE OF CHARLOTTE
BEST ACTRESS DANI BURKE 60 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
‘AMERICAN IDIOT’
BEST MOVIE THEATER STUDIO MOVIE GRILL
BEST CHARITY EVENT WALK A MILE IN HER SHOES
BEST PLACE TO HEAR SPOKEN WORD EVENING MUSE
BEST IMPROV TROUPE ROBOT JOHNSON
BEST PLACE TO SEE COMEDY COMEDY ZONE
PETRA’S
BEST PLACE FOR COUNTRY MUSIC COYOTE JOE’S
BEST CONCERT OF PAST 12 MONTHS DOLLAR SIGNS
BEST ROCK/COUNTRY/FOLK BAND
BEST MUSIC EVENT OF PAST 12 MONTHS
AMIGO
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN CITY
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3306-C N Davidson Street Charlotte, NC 28205 (980) 495-6612
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 61
Sound OCTOBER 19 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH John Alexander Jazz Trio (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Poor Blue, Old Town Criers (Petra’s)
COUNTRY/FOLK The All Strung Up Tour: Daniel Champagne, Hussy Hicks, Christie Lenee (The Evening Muse)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Lecrae (The Fillmore)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Karaoke with Battleship and DJ Wyley B (Milestone) Le Bang: Soft Leather (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Los Lobos, Sam Lewis (Neighborhood Theatre) North Carolina Music Hall of Fame 2017 Induction Ceremony (The Laureate Center, Kannapolis) BoDeans (McGlohon Theater) Jim Garrett Trio (Comet Grill) Natty Boh Duo (RiRa Irish Pub, Charlotte) Tim, Chuck, & Steve (Tin Roof)
OCTOBER 20 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH The Antidote: Jazz and Poetry (Petra’s, Charlotte) Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone In Concert (Ovens Auditorium)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Raul Midón (Davis Theatre, Concord) Steven Engler Band (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK Corey Smith, Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Soden (RiRa Irish Pub)
POP/ROCK Jump, Little Children, Stop Light Observations, She Returns From War (Neighborhood Theatre) Appetite for Destruction (The Fillmore) Barnaby Bright, Driftwood (The Evening Muse,) C2 and the Brothers Reed, Late Night Special
62 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
(The Evening Muse) Crystal Fountains (Birdsong Brewing Co.) Cusp Vol. 3: Josh Cotterino, Deion Reverie, Knives of Spain, Rumur, Minthill (Snug Harbor) The Fest & The Furious: Slingshot Dakota, Dollar Signs, Fk Mt., Weary Legs, Corporate Fandango, Wolves and Wolves and Wolves and Wolves (Milestone) Flux Capacitor (The Rabbit Hole) Jay Mathey Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Kris Hitchcock (Tin Roof) The Weeks, Junior Astronomers (Visulite Theatre)
OCTOBER 21 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone In Concert (Ovens Auditorium)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Helado Negro (McColl Center)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Dirty (RiRa Irish Pub)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Off the Wall: A Tribe Called Quest, Native Tongues Edition (Petra’s)
COUNTRY/FOLK Doug McCormick. Travis Connor and Tyler Henderson (Sylvia Theatre, York) Muddy Ruckus (Evening Muse)
POP/ROCK Laura Thurston (Birdsong Brewing Co.) Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, Polyphia, Toothgrinder (Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte) Bla/Alt Music Festival: LeAnna Eden, The Business People, Johnny Popcorn, Lofidels, Nige Hood, Favelas, Blu House, Chocala, Foxture, SunQueen Kelcey (Camp North End, Charlotte) Blind Pilot (McGlohon Theater, Charlotte) Cassette Rewind (Visulite Theatre, Charlotte) The Fest & The Furious: Alright, Slingshot Dakota, City Mouse, The Mineral Girls, Pink Pots (Milestone, Charlotte) Marsha Ambrosius, Bilal (The Fillmore, Charlotte) The Rocketboys (Evening Muse, Charlotte) Theory of a Deadman, Ayron Jones (The Underground, Charlotte)
OCTOBER 22 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone In Concert (Ovens Auditorium) Atlanta Master Chorale in Concert (Christ Lutheran Church)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Kosha Dillz, Kyng Rash, Ghost Unknown, Jones McShine, Negative 6 Feet (Milestone) Gareth Asher Duo (Ink + Ash), Keaton Simons (The Evening Muse) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill)
OCTOBER 23 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal presents Bizarre Ride: Fatlip & Slimkid3 (formerly of The Pharcyde), LA Jay, K-Natural (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Extinction A.D., Nemesis, Old Scratch (Milestone) Find Your Muse Open Mic welcomes back The Singing Butcher (Evening Muse) An Intimate Evening with O.A.R (The Underground) Marc Cohn (McGlohon Theater) Matt Woods, Cory Call, Kyle Perkins Band (Petra’s) The Monday Night Allstars (Visulite Theatre)
OCTOBER 24
M.D.C., The Elected Officials, Drunk in a Dumpster, No Anger Control (Milestone) Mondo Cozmo , Billy Raffoul (The Underground) Peelander-Z, It’s Snakes, Night Shapes (Snug Harbor) The Social Animals (Evening Muse) Spafford, Voodoo Visionary (Visulite Theatre) Uptown Unplugged with Jordan Middleton (Tin Roof)
OCTOBER 25 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH The Clarence Palmer Trio (Morehead Tavern)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)
COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill)
POP/ROCK Buzzov-en, Earthride, Green Fiend, POW (The Rabbit Hole) Everyone Leaves, Knowne Ghost, Paperback, Young and Heartless (Milestone) Noah Gunderson, Silver Torches (Visulite Theatre) October Residency: Paperback, The Business People, Messenger Down, Ozone Jones (Snug Harbor) Pluto For Planet (RiRa Irish Pub) Protomartyr, Flasher, Patois Counselors (Neighborhood Theatre) Troy Ramey Johnny Gates Brian Dolzani (Evening Muse)
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Morehead Tavern)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Krewella (The Fillmore) Lost Cargo: Tiki Social Club - Exotic Sounds by Bo White (Petra’s)
COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
POP/ROCK The Bleeps, Jitsu, Laurence Maher (The Rabbit Hole) Come Clean, Settler, Never Home (The Station)
10/19 Hamilton Leithauser 10/20 THE WEEKS 10/21 CASSETTE REWIND 10/24 SPAFFORD 10/25 NOAH GUNDERSEN 10/26 BIG SOMETHING KEN BLOCK & 10/28 DREW COPELAND 11/5 SHADOWBOXERS
11/9 HUMMING HOUSE 11/10 BLUE DOGS 11/11 BREAKFAST CLUB 11/18 HOT BUTTERED RUM 2/11 THE WHITE BUFFALO (of SISTER HAZEL)
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THANKS
CHARLOTTE
FOR VOTING US BEST PLACE FOR COUNTRY MUSIC
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THIS FRIDAY
COREY SMITH
LIMITED ADVANCE $20 ALL OTHERS $25
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SATURDAY, OCT 28
BOO BASH
$1,800 IN CASH PRIZES!
TICKETS ON SALE NOW $10
$1.50 BUD & BUD LIGHT $3.75 PURPLE MONSTERS
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SATURDAY, NOV 4
BRETT YOUNG
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
CARLY PEARCE
LIMITED ADVANCE $17 ALL OTHERS $20
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FRIDAY, NOV 10
PARMALEE
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FRIDAY, NOV 17
RUSSELL DICKERSON LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12
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FRIDAY, NOV 24
JON LANGSTON LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15 FRIDAY, DEC 1
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MICHAEL RAY
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OCT 21 & 28, NOV 3,11, 18 & 25
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PHOTO BY JUSTIN DRISCO LL
” ! p u n r “Tu
Critics’ Picks
Whether you’re spending your Saturday day drinking on a patio in Plaza Midwood or you got the club goin’ up on a Tuesday in Uptown, we all need to let our hair down sometimes. Here’s to the bars and hangout spots where we think we had some of the best times of the past year, but we can’t quite remember.
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Camp North End
BEST 180 - HATTIE’S TAP & TAVERN Jackie DeLoach, owner of Hatties Tap & Tavern, entered the new year with a new vision for her neighborhood bar. She planned to turn Hattie’s into Charlotte’s new music spot, and brought on former Double Door Inn soundman Zac McBee to raise the stage, soundproof the room and help Hattie’s become a savior in a city that’s seen numerous mid-size music venues shut down in recent years. However, as DeLoach stepped up the show bookings, she found the bigger, louder gigs were taking away from the chill vibes that had led many to call Hattie’s “Charlotte’s Cheers.” DeLoach dialed it back, but still hosts low-key, local music acts about three nights a week. A pool table now stands where the stage once was, but we’re not mad about it. Hattie’s remains our favorite neighborhood bar in the city, where everyone knows your name. Billiards, anyone?
PHOTO BY MICHAEL ONEILL
BEST NEW NIGHTLIFE SPOT - CAMP NORTH END If you’re unfamiliar with Camp North End, you won’t be for long. City council has approved a massive redevelopment initiative for the 75-acre industrial site on Statesville Avenue, which used to be a Model-T Ford factory and then later a military missile-development plant. The future will bring apartments, hotels and retail, but for now, it’s a space surrounded with graffiti murals by local artists, strings of globe lights, and extremely good vibes. It’s hosted a handful of unique large-scale events like the AfroPop Block Party, and it currently offers a weekly Friday night gathering with live music, performance art, games, food trucks and local brews.
BEST KARAOKE SPOT - NODA 101 The NoDa 101 space has seen its ups and downs since Sin City stood there before it, but over the last couple of years, it has truly come into
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its own as NoDa’s go-to karaoke bar, ready for your offkey howling (just kidding, we’re sure you sound fine) seven nights a week. The karaoke starts at 9 p.m. on weekdays and 8 p.m. on weekends, so get there early to catch some of the regulars who really now how to belt it out. Our favorite is Young Jim, and you don’t want to miss one of his performances, which almost always involves him breaking it down on his trusty trumpet. Or, stumble in later when the fun really begins, because that’s when the props come into play.
BEST JUST STAY AWAY FROM THE EDGE - CITY LIGHTS Are you afraid of heights? Oh well, you’ll have to deal with it if you want to experience the famous “Sparkle and Pop” cocktail (featuring a King of Pops pop) pictured in almost every IG post about City Lights Rooftop. Located on the rooftop of Le Meridien, City Lights captures one of the most beautiful views of the Charlotte skyline. Dress to impress and be careful of how much you’re drinking, it’d be unfortunate if you got too close to the edge ... or wanted to jump
when you get ready to pay your bill.
BEST BAR TO GET DRESSED UP FOR: SOPHIA’S LOUNGE If you’re tired of treating your Tinder lineup to basic dates, step it up a notch. Sophistication is what you’ll find when you step into Sophia’s Lounge. If being located in The Ivey’s Hotel wasn’t enough indication, this venue isn’t a place you want to be anything but “dressed to impress.” But don’t get it twisted, despite the swanky decor, intimate seating, dim lighting and pricey craft cocktails and small plates, the environment isn’t stuffy. You still may be able to get loose before getting lit across the street at Dandelion Market.
BEST BAR TO GET UNDRESSED IN UPTOWN CABARET ON SIN SUNDAY Whether you go for the breakfast buffet or for more visual sustenance, a visit to the strip club should always come with at least a little bit of self-reflection. Finding nirvana under the sultry lights is not guaranteed, but follow the Buddha’s lead anyway and contemplate some shit. Like,
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66 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
PHOTO BY ANGUS LAMOND
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Recess
PHOTO COURTESY OF RECESS
could I do this? What would it take for me to get onstage and bare all? If you’ve ever wanted to try it, Uptown Cabaret hosts an amateur contest every Sunday as part of Service Industry Night (S.I.N., get it?). Karaoke, cash prizes and drink specials will help you beat that Sunday ennui and make you forget (or fervently hope for) the work week’s imminent arrival.
BEST DIRTY LITTLE SECRET CHARLOTTE AREA POWER EXCHANGE Have you ever wondered whether your sexual fantasies make you weird? Do you get off on ideas that you would never tell your friends or even your partner? If so, you’re not alone. This city is kinkier than you might expect. Good news: Bringing your wildest fantasies out of your imagination and into your actual sex life is possible! But practicing BDSM and kink comes with important considerations for the mental and physical well-being of both you and your partner(s). CAPEX is a non-profit BDSM education organization that offers discreet monthly programs about BDSM safety. With their
68 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
expertise and practical advice, you’ll be equipped to make your wettest dreams come true.
BEST PLACE TO DAY DRINK - OLDE MECKLENBURG BREWERY Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is not in Munich, but it’s a good place to pretend you’re in the Old Country for awhile. Eat a pretzel with beer cheese and enjoy good company and good weather in the brewery’s immaculately landscaped biergarten. You won’t notice that you’re not in Europe until you’re sloshed on German-style beers and there’s no convenient public transportation to take you home.
BEST PLACE TO BE A KID AGAIN RECESS CHARLOTTE You know y’all like playing games right before cuffing season. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Recess is the best spot for you to put your gaming skills to good use. Corn hole, UNO, swings, giant Connect 4, Mancala and tetherball. Those are just a few of the games you’ll find at Recess to play with your new squeeze or best
Salud Cerveceria
PHOTO BY JOSHUA VASKO
BEST MULTITASKERS SALUD If you get bored easily but you’re not a fan of hole-in-the-walls, Salud in NoDa is probably your best bet. The perfect example of gentrification in the area, Salud is where the artsy hippie and the modern hipster collide. Downstairs in Salud Beer Shop, a step up from Common Market, you’ll find, “Sour beer, old-school hip-hop, wafflewiches and Nintendo.” (If you haven’t stolen one of their baby goblets with these
friends. Decked out in childlike murals, seven televisions and complete with two serving stations, Recess’ chill environment is the perfect training spot for stepping up your game. Did I mention they have a food and drink menu that’s built for a big kid? Drink, eat and play responsibly kids.
BEST HANGOVER CURE - HYDRATE MEDICAL Are you tired of dry heaving into the toilet? Thought you were a pro at swallowing until you tried to chug a Pedialyte the next morning? There is hope. Hydrate Medical is the perfect plan B that will make your walk of shame worth the hangover. Instead of relying on your sub-par “tried-and-true” methods of curing your hangover, turn to the pros for the best
exact words on it, you’re missing out.) You may get dizzy traversing the stairs and murals when you take the back entrance upstairs to this summer’s swanky summer add-on: Salud Cerveceria. Co-working space, event space, bohemian hangout, jungle-lover’s safe haven. That’s the best way to describe the open-air beer hall/ garden. Get some work done, find your fave sour or play a game of shuffleboard. Between the art, games and beer, there’s plenty to keep the ADD mind at bay when
treatment in the Q.C. — Hydrate Hangover. For $129, you’ll get an IV filled with a liter of magical fluids of Harry Potter proportions.
BEST HOLE IN THE WALL (OR CONDOS) - THIRSTY BEAVER SALOON Bras and bikers. That’s exactly what you’ll find when you visit the Thirsty Beaver Saloon on Central Avenue. Newcomers might miss this dive bar if they’re not looking for the tiny little nook nestled between two buildings that make up a brand-new five-story apartment complex. That’s right, the Plaza Midwood community staple refuses to be pushed out by urban development. If that’s not bad ass, I don’t know what is. Throw in the fact that they have a pool table, live music and the best pickleback shots you’ll ever take — if that’s even possible — and you have yourself a
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BEST PLACE TO SWITCH IT UP PETRA’S Have you ever seen someone stumble over the spelling of a word while holding back vom? Ever had your face painted (no double entendre intended) by a drunk guy? Well, there’s a place you can experience both. Despite popular opinion, Petra’s isn’t reserved for LGBT nightlife. From buzzed spelling bees featuring PBR tall boys to cultural adventures accompanied by Afrobeat, there’s literally something for everyone at Petra’s. The intimate atmosphere, diverse clientele and wide variety of events every single day of the week, make Petra’s Plaza Midwood’s best-kept secret in nightlife. Escape the norm of your fave watering hole, check out the events calendar (updated regularly on the website) and make a plan to visit Petra’s ASAP. You won’t regret it.
The Peace Pipe
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PEACE PIPE
good ol’ time.
BEST RESURRECTION - CROWN STATION When Crown Station closed its Elizabeth location, locals lamented the loss of one of the city’s few true sanctuaries for local artists. With a wide-open booking policy, almost any aspiring act could get a gig at Crown Station to try out their sound in front of the local college kids or after-work crowd. So when Crown Station recently re-emerged at its new 3629 North Davidson Street location, in the shadows of an urban railway project that has split NoDa in half, we were dead pleased to find the same great attitude in an even bigger and better space. Crown Station is back: ready to give you coffee, tea, or a whiskey on the rocks, as well as a bigger stage and an excellent sound system for local and touring acts.
BEST PLACE TO ROLL ONE - QUEEN PARK SOCIAL “I just wanna Rolly Rolly Rolly with a dab of ranch!” Well, you can do that and more at Queen Park Social. Recognized as a boutique social house, Queen Park Social offers cocktails and Tex-Mex/American food for your tastebuds and Skeeball, shuffleboard and pop-a-shot (to name a few) for your busy spirit. But the critical feature? Eight lanes of fun for bowling lovers — are there many of those left these days? Whether you’re planning a birthday party or just looking for something to do other
Queen Park Social
Petra’s than watch babies hang out at a brewery, Queen Park Social has 18,000 square feet of space for you to explore.
BEST PLACE TO SMOKE WITH INCLUSIVITY - THE PEACE PIPE No matter what night you decide to drop by The Peace Pipe, there will be a spot for you. This hookah lounge features comedy shows on Sunday, drag shows on Monday, trivia every
PHOTO BY JESSICA HENRY
other Wednesday and a bevy of other events. For instance, soon they’ll be hosting a meeting of the international facial hair extraordinaires the Bearded Villains, who will raise money to stop human trafficking. Also, keep an eye out for open mic nights, in which attendees share any and all types of poetry, from spoken word to inspirational messages.
PHOTO COURTESY OF QEEEN PARK SOCIAL
BEST PLACE TO MEET 140 CHARACTERS - #INSTABEERUPCLT Nothing makes us cringe quite like hearing the words “networking event” in a press release or Facebook invite, and there’s no quicker way to ensure we won’t be attending than to use that sort of evil, social-anixety-triggering language. Yet somehow, Remy Thurston and Corri Smith have managed to create the city’s most chill, no-pressure networking event, where you can rub shoulders with all those folks you’re always joking with on Twitter or stalking on Instagram (don’t make it weird). The monthly beerdrinking event rotates from bar to brewery to taproom, so just make sure you keep up with the hashtag to know where the next one will pop up. CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 71
Thirsty Beaver Saloon
PHOTO BY TATE ROBERTS
BEST NEW NIGHTSPOT
BEST BOWLING ALLEY
KANDY BAR
TIE: STRIKE CITY/PARK LANES
BEST WEEKLY NIGHTLIFE EVENT
BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR
SNUG HARBOR, LE BANG
SNUG HARBOR
BEST CLUB DJ
BEST DIVE BAR
JUSTIN ASWELL
THIRSTY BEAVER
BEST DOG BAR
BEST SPORTS BAR
THE DOG BAR
TIE: ALL AMERICAN PUB/MIDWOOD
BEST COUGAR BAR SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE
BEST COLLEGE NIGHT PROHIBITION
BEST BAR TO PEOPLE-WATCH SNUG HARBOR
BEST HOOK-UP BAR SNUG HARBOR
BEST PLACE FOR A FIRST DATE SOUL GASTROLOUNGE
BEST KARAOKE 8.2.0
BEST WINE BAR FOXCROFT
Readers’ Picks
72 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
BEST HAPPY HOUR ROOFTOP 210
BEST PAINT AND SIP WINE AND DESIGN
COUNTRY CLUB
BEST HOOKAH BAR CRAVE
BEST LGBTQ BAR BAR AT 316
BEST UPTOWN CLUB PROHIBITION
BEST STRIP CLUB UPTOWN CABARET
BEST BEER SELECTION SALUD BEER SHOP
BEST COCKTAIL SELECTION SOUL GASTROLOUNGE
BEST PLACE TO TURN UP SNUG HARBOR
BEST CRAFT TAP SELECTION FLIGHT
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NIGHTLIFE
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THINK OF THE first thing you ask or playground located off of Seigle Avenue. Well, say when you meet someone new and want to I finally decided to check it out. At first, I noticed that the space was smaller than what get to know them. You’re sitting at your favorite counter I expected. But after going inside I realized waiting for a libation and you see someone that, while still a more intimate setup, it walk in the room. You make eyes at one of wasn’t as small as I thought it was. There was ample seating space — bar your friends and they laugh knowing exactly what you’re thinking. You spend the next stools, funky chairs and couches for lounging. hour or so trying to figure out what you There were two bar areas, one focused on should say and then cross the room to make liquor and one on craft beer. Seven — yes, seven — TVs shared on strategic walls in your move. Now, imagine you don’t have all night, or the space and games like shuffleboard, the next encounter to figure out the best way Connect 4, UNO Dare and Mancala scattered to market yourself. Condense your timeframe throughout. And all of this was surrounded by colorful to ten minutes at a speed dating event. wall murals and décor that made it even easier What’s your go-to pick up line? Or, even better, think about how you to want to be a kid again. Combine that with market yourself on social media — let’s say a swing set, picnic tables, tether ball and corn hole outside, and you have yourself the Tinder. How quickly can you grab makings of a place where adults someone’s attention? can quickly get into trouble like Without getting into the they’re kids again. ins and outs of the dating The second stop was scene and social marketing, Salud Cerveceria. I’d I began to wonder if it visited Salud Beer Shop a would be possible to couple times right before apply the same logic of construction began on “first impressions” to Salud Cerveceria upstairs. nightlife. I’d tasted the infamous On any given night “chicken and waffle-wich” when I walk into a bar, at Fud @ Salud next door club or lounge, can I gather AERIN SPRUILL (the chicken and waffles to all the details I need in a short be exact: chicken salad, candied period of time? Will QC venues walnuts, bacon and maple syrup be able to successfully market squeezed between two Belgian waffles), themselves to the short attention spans washed it down with a multitude of sour beers of this generation? One IG bio of an entrepreneur that sells in a glass I purchased that read: sour beer old clothing/lingerie that always resonates with school hip hop wafflewiches Nintendo salud. me simply says: I sell my panties for money. I I mean, how much more could I ask for once I made the trip upstairs?! don’t know about you, but I was sold. Welp, there was all of six people upstairs I started thinking about the fact that anytime I’m going to a new restaurant I look when I climbed the newspaper lined steps at the menu, website and social media for to one of the most beautiful beer gardens/ insight into the atmosphere, what to wear coworking centers/event spots/lounge spaces and, of course, exactly what I want to eat. I’ve seen in the Queen City. The laidback atmosphere combined That’s when I realized I do the exact same things when I go to a new nightlife spot. So with a “lit” playlist of old school hip hop last week, I decided to try this idea on for size: created an environment that I could stay in for hours (especially if I had work to do). speed dating nightlife venues. Given the fact that I’m not drinking And if you haven’t seen the insane artwork this month it has become challenging to sit and old-school memorabilia that fills every aimlessly in the same seat for hours on end corner of each of Salud’s three separate-butengaging in surface-level conversation at the equally cool establishments, you haven’t seen same venue. After about an hour, I’m ready to nothing yet! What spaces have drawn you in right from do something, anything else. Now, more than ever, it’s important for me to be able to make the start? What do visitors say about your an assessment on the time I’m going to have spot after their first impression? Share your ideas with me at backtalk@clclt.com. as soon as I walk in the door. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM The first stop: Recess Charlotte. You may have heard the buzz about an adult
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FeeLing Lonely?
CROSSWORD
ROYAL NAMESAKES ACROSS
1 Stole, e.g. 6 Stoles, e.g. 11 Many a yellow ride 14 Kickoff 19 Pertaining to pitch 20 Hits upon the answer 21 Uplifting verse 22 Pointer 23 “Cleopatra” star 26 “E pluribus unum,” e.g. 27 Horse-race bet taker 28 Defeater of Al Gore in 2000 30 Orator called “The Great Pacificator” 33 Knitting supply 34 Crooner Johnny 36 Camera part 37 Stew holder 39 H lookalike 41 Genoa gold 42 Abbr. that saves space 43 “Dallas” actress 51 Triscuit alternative 52 Liking a lot 53 Bert who had a lion’s lines 54 “East of Eden” actor 59 Walked over 61 Mexican dish 65 Vocalist Menzel 66 Close-fitting, bellshaped hat 68 Keeps repeating 70 Wee, briefly 71 “Concord Sonata” composer 73 Bit of ink art 74 Put on the air 77 “3 Women” director Robert 78 Ginger, e.g. 80 One wooing 81 J.D. Salinger title heroine 83 “Wag the Dog” actress 85 Mater lead-in 87 Advance 89 Go out 90 “Lucy Gray” poet 96 Booster for a rock band 99 Punk rock variant 100 China’s Chiang --shek 101 Patriots’ Day mo.
102 Ending for buck 103 Dirty mark 106 Keep going 110 “The Great Lie” Oscar winner 114 “A Book of Nonsense” author 116 Of a big artery 117 Arbor array 118 Namesakes of the 10 people featured in this puzzle 123 Some equines 124 Me, to Luc 125 Vowel run 126 Hay-bundling machine 127 Just manage 128 FWIW part 129 Stickpin site 130 Yukon vehicles
DOWN
1 Revered Fr. woman 2 Stephen who replaced Letterman 3 Like negatively charged atoms 4 Shaving tools 5 Like many piecrusts 6 See 11-Down 7 Act the fink 8 Guitar wood 9 Mine shaft 10 Like a ham 11 With 6-Down, circular diagram of the spectrum 12 Decorator 13 Arctic mass 14 Latin dance 15 Game fish 16 Place to buy paintbrushes 17 Tax shelter named for a U.S. senator 18 Binary base 24 Brand of 4-Down 25 “For” vote 29 Gives out 30 Hurry, old-style 31 Well-chosen 32 “-- -hoo!” 35 Note below la 38 Prefix with angle 40 Up to, in brief 43 MasterCard rival 44 “-- help a lot if ...” 45 Prague natives
46 Winning 47 Stationary 48 Cutesy- -49 Burn a bit 50 Food writer Rombauer 51 Pal of Stimpy 54 Drops callously 55 “Later, Luc!” 56 Prefix with second 57 Off to -- start 58 Here-there connection 60 Armless sofa 62 Cobwebby storage site 63 Extract by percolation 64 Perfumer Lauder 67 Uproar 69 Bill equal to two fins 71 Toyota or Kia 72 “-- bad boy!” 75 Abbr. ending many a list 76 E. -- (bacteria) 78 -- Tzu 79 Pig, to some 82 -- -mo 84 Interoffice phone no. 86 Doc’s org. 88 Secret org. 90 Director Craven 91 Dunk 92 Most noisy 93 Refuses to 94 Typing meas. 95 “... man -- mouse?” 96 “A” or “an” 97 Sponged 98 “-- favor” 102 Star-related 104 Uncool type 105 Long-winded 107 Auspices 108 “My Gal --” 109 Juror’s event 111 Artist Dufy 112 Over there, in poetry 113 Most Iraqis 115 Pop’s Lovato 117 Dog’s ID site 119 Briny body 120 With it 121 Singer Bandy 122 Most coll. applicants
graB Your copy today
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 78.
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My only child is 16 years old. He was he wants to sleep with women (not be one). We can’t know whether your son is a crosscurious about sex from a very young age dresser, trans, or merely titillated, but he’s and very open with me, so his interest clearly exploring and wants to do so privately. in sexual matters gave me ample So while he could go to his mom and ask for a opportunity to talk with him about pair of panties and let her know exactly how safety and consent. He went through he intends to use them, he doesn’t want to a cross-dressing phase when he was ask his mom for a pair of panties or share his small — mostly wanting to wear nail uses for them with his mom. He knows you’ve polish and try on mascara — and I felt always accepted him for who he is, so if this I navigated those waters pretty well, is about his gender identity, well, you’ll have but his father made attempts to squelch to trust that he’ll share that with you when those impulses. (He and I are divorced. he’s ready. But if this is about a kink, he may He has since remarried and is less never share that info with you, because why involved.) That’s the background. I’ve on earth would he? always accepted that he is who he is and Give your son some space, including the done my best to help guide and educate space to make his own mistakes. As him. Then last year, I caught him teenage misbehavior goes, swiping trying to shoplift a pair of a single pair of panties isn’t panties. I’m not the sort of exactly a crime spree. If you mom who freaks out, but I suspect he snuck into the made him put them back girls’ locker room and made and talked to him about off with a bra (there has to his actions. When I be an easier way for a guy asked him why he to get his hands on a bra!), stole them, he refused you’ll want to address to tell me. I asked: that with him — not the “Did you want them to “Why do you want a bra?” masturbate with? Did DAN SAVAGE part, but the risk of getting you want to wear them?” caught, suspended, expelled, He said he wanted to try or worse. There are too many them on. I told him that if prosecutors out there looking for he wanted to explore, he needed excuses to slap the “sex offender” label on to do that with a legal purchase and in teenagers — especially in the Bible Belt. the privacy of his own room. Today, I My hunch is you don’t have a sex found a girl’s bra in the laundry. He says offender on your hands or a kid drifting he doesn’t know whose it is or how it into organized crime. You have a slightly got there, but this isn’t my first rodeo. pervy teenage boy who’s curious about sex What on earth do I do? If I send him to and who may, like millions of other men, a therapist and this is about being trans have a thing for women’s undergarments. or cross-dressing tendencies, I’m afraid You should emphasize the Not Ok–ness of that will shame him. However, this is shoplifting panties from stores or stealing now something of a criminal/ethical bras from classmates (or the siblings of concern, and I want to nip that in the friends or Laundromats or thrift stores) bud. He is in every way a wonderful and the possible consequences should he human: kind, smart, funny, athletic, get caught — theft charges, suspension/ no drugs. Is this just the same kid who expulsion, losing friends, coming into has always been curious about sex? Or the sights of a sex-negative prosecutor. are these warning signs of some sort of (Seriously: A man like Harvey Weinstein gets sexual deviance? Please help. away with assaulting women for decades, MOM IN SLEEPY SOUTH CAROLINA LOVINGLY but prosecutors across the country are EDUCATES OFFSPRING throwing the book at teenagers who got caught sharing pics they took of themselves Take a deep breath, MISSCLEO. Take with their BFs/GFs/NBFs.) however many you need until you’re back Otherwise, MISSCLEO, I’m going to in touch with your inner mom, the one who advise you to back the fuck off. Your son doesn’t freak out. knows you love him, he knows he can talk Your son may be a cross-dresser or he to you about anything, and he’ll confide in may be trans or he may find bras and panties you if and when he’s ready — if, again, this is something he needs to discuss with you at all. titillating because women wear them and
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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE
WHERE WE ALL REFUSE TO WEAR SOCKS.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) This is a good time to speak out on a difficult situation. You’re known for your honesty, so people will listen and, perhaps, begin to make long-needed changes. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) The Bovine’s sharp business sense alerts you to question the positions of those trying to push the Bull into a deal. Demand to see proof of what they profess. GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Your quick thinking helps you get out of a troubling situation that suddenly was thrust upon you. Later on, you can expect to learn more about why it happened.
SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) You might have to draw on your reservoir of spiritual strength to help someone special through a difficult time. Your loving attitude makes all the difference. SAGITTARIUS
(November 22 to December 21) Your proven leadership qualities make you the perfect person to take on an important workplace task.
CANCER (June 21 to
July 22) You might feel you’ve dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s regarding that upcoming deal. But there might be some facts you’ve ignored. Check again.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) Time for the Lion to be more physically active. It will help shake off any lingering Leonine lethargy and restore your energy levels, so you’ll be prepared for what lies ahead. VIRGO (August 23 to September
22) Helping those in need at this time is laudable. But don’t ignore your own needs, especially where it concerns your health. A medical checkup is a wise move.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Good news: Your outspoken views about a controversial on-the-job situation could find unexpectedly strong support from a most unlikely workplace faction. 78 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
CAPRICORN
(December 22 to January 19) Although some compromise might need to be reached regarding your stand on an important issue, you’ll still be able to get the most crucial points across.
AQUARIUS (January
20 to February 18) A chance to make a career change carries both positive and uncertain possibilities. Best advice: Check it out thoroughly and don’t be rushed into a decision.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20) You’re still a staunch supporter of one side of an important issue. But be prepared to deal with new information that could cause you to question your current stand. BORN THIS WEEK You’re perceptive and
quick to act when you sense that someone needs help. You are an always-dependable friend.
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | 79
80 | OCT. 19 - OCT. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM