2017 Issue 41 Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 41

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A MEMBER OF:

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PHOTO BY ELISA VALENTIN

14

Kwame Binea plans to give you a shakedown at Thomas Street Tavern on December 2.

We put out weekly 8

NEWS&CULTURE HISTORY SOLD OR SAVED? Wesley Heights residents clash with developer over rezoning in historic district

BY RYAN PITKIN 7 THE BLOTTER BY TATE ROBERTS 9 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

10

FOOD BEHIND THE BARS Belmont’s Jailhouse is the slammer you can

drink in

BY GREY REVELL

14 16

14 TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

MUSIC WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? Dead Sea $krilla unveils debut

album during ‘Gift Rap’ residency

BY MARK KEMP 18 SOUNDBOARD 20 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

24

ARTS&ENT HIGH-GRADE, HOMEGROWN AND PROFESSIONAL ‘Three Days of Rain’ joins an already impressive fall lineup of local theater

BY PERRY TANNENBAUM 25 ARTSPEAK: LINDSEY WHITUS BY VANESSA INFANZON

26

ODDS&ENDS 26 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 27 CROSSWORD 28 SAVAGE LOVE BY DAN SAVAGE 30 SALOME’S STARS

COVER DESIGN AND PHOTO

BY DANA VINDIGNI

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CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 41

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NEWS

BLOTTER A

BY TATE ROBERTS

CLUES One southeast Charlotte vandal

basically confessed to a crime last week when they hinted at it before anyone even knew. A 33-year old woman received a call at work from a known suspect telling her to check her vehicle, which was parked outside. When she went to the parking lot, she saw that the tire was slashed. A short time later, the victim discovered that the suspect had returned to smash the windshield.

If having a flat tire and destroyed windshield wasn’t bad enough, the police report also cited graffiti as an offence. Maybe the suspect came back to write “I’m sorry.”

JEWEL HEIST A south Charlotte couple

returned home last week to find that they had fallen victim to a costly B&E. The suspect made off with over $15,300 in stolen goods, which included three nice watches and a Rolex that the male victim had to admit was fake to police. His wife had better taste, however, as her loss accounted for $15,000 of the total take. Just to pour salt on the wound, the suspect stole $300 worth of cufflinks and broke two flower pots, doing $150 in damage.

RIDE SHARING Police recently responded to a stolen vehicle call on N. Graham Street after an Uber driver left their 2011 Prius running while he went into a nearby business to look for something. When the driver returned, the vehicle had vanished. The suspect took a free ride then dropped the car off around the block later that day, although it’s unclear if they picked up any new paying passengers along the way.

NEW SUPPLIES Employees at an Office Depot on South Boulevard called police last week after someone came and stole from

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Christmas

them instead of just applying for the job they so desperately need. According to the report, the suspect shoplifted a basket, ink cartridges and resume paper, all valued at $486. And now when they receive a resume printed on that same paper they can turn that job interview into an interrogation.

tree lighting event

DEC. 3rd

CRASHING THE PARTY Isn’t it the worst

when someone drops in on you at home unannounced? A 43-year-old woman fell victim to the worst type of pop-in last week when someone she had never met crashed their car into her bedroom wall. The suspect wasn’t there to hang out, though, and took off without leaving any contact information behind. The wreck took place at 2 p.m., so nobody was hurt, except for the victim’s wallet when she was hit with a $4,000 damage estimate for the giant hole in her house.

4th

Presented by: Johnston yMCA & Queen City ChurCh

Starts @ 5:30pm

WHERE: Johnston yMCA

Tree Lighting @ 7:45pm

of

3025 n.

Christ QCChurCh.CoM/nodAChristMAs

dAvidson

ChArlotte, nC

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SELF MEDICATING An American Airlines

passenger was arrested for intoxication and disruptive conduct outside of Stock Car Cafe inside Charlotte Douglas International Airport just days before Thanksgiving. The combination of flying, airport food and Thanksgiving in a few days makes it safe to say the passenger was just trying to take the edge off before a dysfunctional family gathering — but perhaps he went too far.

BLENDING IN A 38-year old man won’t

be going hunting anymore this fall after an unknown suspect broke in through the back window of the victim’s Ford Super Duty in the SouthPark area recently and stole four firearms ranging from $250 to $5,000 each, along with a “tree suit” for hunting. If he’s escape into a wooded area with the guns, that damn tree suit is just going to make him that much harder to find.

Celebrate the holidays at Levine Museum of the New South!

Sip while shopping local at the Museum on Nov. 30, 6-8 p.m.

Sip & Shop includes a chocolate and wine tasting by Dennis Vineyards and Carolina Chocolate Company Share Charlotte's history and culture with your out-of-town guests during the holiday season!

50% every Sunday! Tour Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers, K(NO)W Justice K(NO)W Peace (extended through 2018!) and Camp Greene.

200 E. 7th Street

museumofthenewsouth.org.

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 7

NEWS

FEATURE

HISTORY SOLD OR SAVED? Wesley Heights residents clash with developer over rezoning in historic district

BY RYAN PITKIN

D

RIVING DOWN GRANDIN

Road in Wesley Heights on a recent Saturday afternoon, it’s easy to tell that Kevin Jones is still in awe of the historic neighborhood he moved into five years ago.

Jones is taking me on a tour of some Wesley Heights’ more recent development, but first he slows down to appreciate the bungalows and craftsman-style houses on his street, many of which were built in the early- to mid-19th century.

“They are absolutely gorgeous. In terms of the historic nature, a lot of these are pretty legit and have stayed in really good condition. A lot of the windows are the original windows, all that kind of stuff,” he says, gazing out from his aqua blue Hyundai Sonata.

As soon as he and his wife began renting in Wesley Heights in 2012, they knew they wanted to buy a home, which they did the next year.

“We wanted the feel of a traditional American neighborhood,” he says. “Wesley Heights was appealing because it was in a historic district and our thought was, ‘Hey, this will be protected. This is someplace where they can’t just do any old thing.’”

But a recent rezoning petition for the land just beyond Jones’ backyard has him concerned about what developers will be allowed to do in the historic district of Wesley Heights.

Charlotte urban development firm The Drakeford Company is aiming to rezone the land where two homes now sit on Walnut Avenue — changing it from residential to mixed-use — in order to place a six-unit condominium behind the homes that would come right up to Jones’ fence.

If approved, the complex could legally be up to 45 feet high, which would dwarf the homes around it, and look directly down into Jones’ yard. He says his reasons for standing against the rezoning proposal go beyond that.

“I view my invasion as a little bit more minor,” he says. “Yeah, these people could look into my backyard and that kind of stinks, but the erosion of a historic district is a lot worse to me.”

Although TDC reps have no plans to demolish the two historic homes already on the property, Jones and some of his neighbors worry about the precedent it 8 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 06, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Grandin Heights is a new Wesley Heights development that resident Kevin Jones says he fully welcomes, as it doesn’t cause “cultural whiplash.” would set to stick a towering development directly in the backyards of those homes.

Before driving around Wesley Heights, Jones takes me one mile east of the neighborhood, just across Frazier Park. He points out the newly constructed skeleton of a three-story development going up on Westbrook Drive, just behind an older, onestory home.

“As you drive down here, you see that house and you see that thing right next to it — it destroys the time in which a lot of these homes were made,” Jones says. “This doesn’t feel like a traditional American neighborhood.

This is exactly what we’re fighting against.”

Jones isn’t alone in his fight. As of Creative Loafing’s press deadline, 143 people had signed a petition calling on the mayor and Charlotte City Council to reject the rezoning petition.

Those residents will have a chance to speak to city officials and representatives with The Drakeford Company at a community meeting at the Wallace Pruitt Recreation Center on November 30.

Pointing to other structures around the neighborhood, such as the existing Walnut Hill condominiums and Grandin Heights apartment complex, currently under construction, Jones says he welcomes these developments, which were built on vacant lots. “Charlotte’s under a lot of pressure to infill, to create density rather than sprawl, and as a neighborhood we totally get it. You know what: I can’t wait to welcome these guys once these condos are done,” he says, motioning to Grandin Heights.

“A lot of the narrative has become that Wesley Heights is pushing back against infill development, which we aren’t,” Jones says.

“We just look for the right opportunities, and putting condos in the backyards of our historic homes is just not the right opportunity.”

SOME, HOWEVER, say that the hybrid placement of historic homes and mixed use could be just the right opportunity for preservation in a rapidly growing neighborhood. In a statement published on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission website, the organization appears optimistic about the development.

“I believe the project could demonstrate how historic preservation and new construction can be compatible,” the statement reads.

There have been discussions between The Drakeford Company and the HLC about selling the two historic homes on Walnut Avenue to the HLC, which would place preservation covenants in the deeds — protecting them from demolition or redevelopment — and sell them for profit.

Dan Morrill, director at HLC, says the organization will not take an official stance on whether the rezoning request should be approved, but pointed out that selling the two homes to HLC could be the only realistic way to guarantee their preservation.

Although the homes are in the historic district of Wesley Heights, there’s not much protection in place from the city’s Historic District Commission that could save homes

RYAN PITKIN

like the ones on Walnut Avenue from being torn down, whether or not the property was rezoned.

“Here’s one thing that many people do not realize,” Morrill explains. “Under law, if someone came and wanted to demolish the two houses in the front and use existing zoning to put up new, bigger houses, there would be no way that the demolition of the houses could be prevented, except that the HDC could delay the demolition up to one year.”

Morrill points out that the city could acquire the property through eminent domain, but “politically that would be most unlikely,” he says.

“This is the question the residents of Wesley Heights themselves need to seriously consider: How important is it to them to preserve the two houses on the street?” Morrill says. “Because here’s the basic reality: Land values in Wesley Heights are escalating, and frequently, the purchase price that one has to make for a property is so high that the market looks for ways to get an adequate return to justify that purchase price. Frequently, what they look for is infill.”

He suggests that residents speak to the current owner of the two Walnut Avenue homes to convince them to donate preservation easements, which would protect the homes from demolition regardless of zoning.

Preservation easements are like contracts between the landowners and whomever holds the easement. Preservation North Carolina is one organization that holds many

COMMUNITY MEETING: REZONING PETITION

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

Thursday, November 30, 6-7 p.m.

Wallace Pruitt Recreation Center.

440 Wesley Heights Way.

Jones points to where a newly proposed development could tower over his backyard if approved by the city.

RYAN PITKIN

preservation easements throughout the state.

Bobby Drakeford, CEO of The Drakeford Company, points out that he served for eight years on the HLC, and says that historic preservation is important to him.

However, Drakeford claims his proposal to build apartment units behind the two homes is normal for the location, which is at the very outer rim of the historic district and borders business properties like Rhino Market & Deli and industrial supplier Lubromation.

“We’re on the peripheral,” Drakeford says. “We’re right beside the commercial properties, where generally you find that there is a transition between commercial and single-family housing; often apartments. So this is a pretty typical land use pattern to find commercial, then high-density residential and lower-density residential. It wasn’t a concept picked out of the sky.”

Shannon Hughes, president of the Wesley Heights Neighborhood Association, says he’d rather see the development go into

the large, oft-unused parking lot in front of Rhino Market next door, which is outside of the historic district.

Hughes points out that the Walnut Avenue corridor is already 20 percent smaller than it was when the neighborhood was formed, so to keep building around the periphery would only continue a process of chipping away at the historic district.

“Where do you draw the line?” Hughes asks. “Because if the city keeps redrawing the line every 10 to 15 years, then why do you have a historic district? Does it really matter?”

Justin Harlow, elected in November to represent District 2 on Charlotte City Council, says he’ll be at Thursday’s meeting to discuss the issue with his new constituents. Although he’ll technically be attending as a private citizen, he’ll be sworn in on December 4, and will be in his seat by the time the proposal comes to a vote.

It looks to be his first test as a District 2 representative.

“My plan is to hear both sides out,” Harlow says. “I don’t want to be the type of council member who just gets the planning committee’s opinion at the meeting. I want to hear these things up front.”

Drakeford will also be in attendance at Thursday’s meeting, and says he looks forward to working through some of the issues and concerns of residents.

“I do want to hear what people say,” Drakeford says. “There are several stakeholders whose voices need to heard.

We haven’t heard them all, and we’re going to listen.”

It’s safe to say there will be plenty to listen to.

RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM

NEWS THAT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE

White people living in Lawrenceville, Georgia, had the chance of a lifetime on Nov. 16 to attend a “Come Meet a Black Person” event sponsored by Urban MediaMakers, a group for filmmakers and content creators. Cheryle Moses, who founded the group, said she read in a 2013 study that most white people don’t have any nonwhite friends. “I want to do my part to change things,” she told The Washington Post. “I have never met a black person,” one person commented on Moses’ Facebook post. “What do you recommend I bring that they would like?” Later, WXIA-TV reported that more than two dozen people showed up to share chili and cornbread, but fewer than a half-dozen were white.

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT The Detroit Police Department got a little carried away on Nov. 9 while trying to address a persistent drug problem on the city’s east side. Two undercover special ops officers from the 12th Precinct were posing as drug dealers on a street corner when undercover officers from the 11th Precinct arrived and, not recognizing their colleagues, ordered the 12th Precinct officers to the ground. Shortly, more 12th Precinct officers showed up and the action moved to a house where, as Fox 2 News described it, a turf war broke out and officers from the two precincts engaged in fistfights with each other. An internal investigation is underway, and the police department has declined comment.

FLORIDA MAN Family members in Vero Beach, Florida, were rudely awakened early on Nov. 11 when Jacob Johnson Futch, 31, climbed onto their roof to, as he later told authorities, carry out a meeting with an agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

WPTV reported the family didn’t know Futch and called Indian River Sheriff’s deputies to say that someone was stomping on their roof, yelling and howling. When asked, Futch admitted injecting methamphetamines earlier that morning. He was charged with trespassing and held in the Indian River County jail.

DISTRACTION Dunedin, New Zealand,

police Sgt. Bryce Johnson told Stuff.nz that he’s seen people reading newspapers, putting on makeup and using their mobile phones while driving, but pulling over a driver who was playing bagpipes while driving, as he did on Nov. 15, was a first for him. “His fingers were going a million miles an hour,” Johnson said. The driver, who admitted to being a bagpipe player, said he was only doing “air bagpipe,” and a search of the car did not turn up the instrument. He was released with a warning, but Johnson urged other drivers to keep both hands on the wheel at all times.

BRIGHT

IDEA The Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Police Department cited an

unnamed driver of a Buick Century on Nov. 12 for making their own license plate out of a pizza box and markers. The plate, which reads “MASS” at the top and sports a sloppily rendered six-digit number, prompted police to post some helpful warnings to creative citizens on its Facebook page and resulted in charges including operating an uninsured and unregistered vehicle and attaching “fake homemade” plates.

OH, CANADA Montreal police may win the

Funsuckers of the Year award after pulling over 38-year-old Taoufik Moalla on Sept. 27 as he drove to buy a bottle of water in SaintLaurent. Moalla was enthusiastically singing along to C+C Music Factory’s song “Gonna Make You Sweat” when a patrol car pulled behind him with lights and sirens blaring.

Officers directed him to pull over, and four officers surrounded Moalla’s car. “They asked me if I screamed,” Moalla told CTV News.

“I said, ‘No, I was just singing.’” Then he was issued a $149 ticket for screaming in public, a violation of “peace and tranquility.”

“I understand if they are doing their job, they are allowed to check if everything’s OK,” said a “very shocked” Moalla, “but I would never expect they would give me a ticket for that.”

His wife, however, said she wasn’t surprised and would have given him a ticket for $300.

AWESOME! Indian computer coder

Suyash Dixit braved perilous terroristinfested territory and drove six hours in early November to plant his flag and declare himself king in the last remaining unclaimed habitable place on Earth — Bir Tawil, a border area between Sudan and Egypt. “I am the king! This is no joke, I own a country now!

Time to write an email to U.N.,” he told The Telegraph. King Dixit has also created a website for his new nation, where he is encouraging people to apply for citizenship.

However, Anthony Arend, an international law and politics scholar, scolds that “under international law, only states can assert sovereignty over territory.”

THE LITIGIOUS SOCIETY The Canadian

Press reports that Lorne Grabher of Nova Scotia, Canada, is suing the Transport Department to keep his vanity plate, which reads GRABHER. The retiree has sported the namesake plate for 27 years, but in January it was revoked for being “inappropriate,” and authorities denied the reason was because of its similarity to a suggestive comment

by President Donald Trump revealed during his campaign. “I am increasingly dismayed by the hypersensitivity of some people who are ‘offended’ by every little thing they encounter,” Grabher wrote in his affidavit.

He went on to say that he is proud of his Austrian-German surname. Grabher’s case is scheduled to be heard in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in September 2018.

BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 9

FOOD

COVERSTORY

BEHIND THE BARS Belmont’s Jailhouse is the slammer you can drink in

BY GREY REVELL

I

NEVER THOUGHT I’d be back in here again,” the oldtimer in front of me chuckles ruefully, as we stand in line to enter The Jailhouse in downtown Belmont.

“You’ve been here before?” My question seems appropriate, given that we’re about to spend some time on the inside.

“Sure,” the gentleman says, his chuckle giveing way to laughter as he introduces himself as Gerry.

Gerry says he spent a night drying out in The Old Belmont Jailhouse back when it was a real jailhouse. That was 51 years ago. It’s funny how the wheel always seems to send folks to the beginning again. What’s funnier is that tonight, Gerry’s more likely to get drunk than to dry out.

Built in 1966, The Jailhouse at 23 Main Street is no longer where folks spend the weekend ruing their bad choices. In April of this year, Matthew Matinata resurrected the old building as a high-end lounge buzzing with a new kind of activity. The Jailhouse has established itself as a bright spot on the growing Belmont scene, boasting a gourmet kitchen, a bar stocking more than 50 highquality bourbons and a cigar selection like no other in the Carolinas. On December 13, the lounge hosts a gourmet four-course dinner featuring wine and Recluse cigar pairings.

At the door on the recent dreary November night when I arrive here, a line of locals brave the cold drizzle. Just up a small flight of concrete steps inside, a good-natured twentysomething hostess registers the crowd as people enter, a warm gaggle of Belmontians ready to top off a great meal with drinks and possibly a good cigar. The hostess, with a tablet and a grin, asks Gerry for his ID. “Oh,” Gerry says, rummaging through his pockets, “I wasn’t counting on having to show my license.” He smiles good-naturedly as a younger man to his left reaches over and gives Gerry’s shoulder a friendly tap.

“Yeah, Gerry,” the guy says, “just like the first time, right?”

A sound the original designers and builders of the jail likely never anticipated echoes hard off the concrete and steel of the stairwell: Laughter. And it’s loud and warm.

THE JAILHOUSE — the new version, anyway — is the brainchild of an oldschool entrepreneurial triumvirate of three millennials: Old Stone Steakhouse director of operations Matinata, head chef 10 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

An eerie feel is present in nooks and crannies throughout the building.

Matthew Matinata opened up The Jailhouse in April 2017.

Behind the third floor bar (below), former holding cells act as storage (far right).

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAILHOUSE

DANA VINDIGNI

Matthew Klepp and general manager and cigar sommelier Giannis Koutsoupias. The cigar bar, curated by Koutsoupias, brings a unique one-two punch along with its topshelf brands of beer, whiskey and wine.

“Looking back, I can’t believe I was actually having second thoughts about this,” Matinata says, shaking his head. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

In black work shoes, denim and a matching black polo work shirt monogrammed with the Old Stone Steakhouse logo, the 32-yearold up-and-coming restaurateur recounts his entry into the high-end lounge business.

Matinata grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia, where he studied law. In 2006, during his junior

year, his parents, Vincent and Linda, moved to Belmont, purchased the town’s recently vacated police station and courthouse, and converted them into a restaurant, the Old Stone Steakhouse. The empty three-story jailhouse came as part of the deal.

When Vincent died in 2012, and Matinata came down to help his mother handle the nascent family business, he had an epiphany.

“I hated practicing law,” he says, and decided, “I would never work in an office again.”

Casting his law practice aside, Matinata threw in with his mom and took over Vincent’s role as director of operations, working alongside head chef Klepp, who had come aboard with Vincent and Linda at the start.

Learning the ropes took some time, Matinata remembers.

“It was overwhelming at first,” he says.

“Every day there’d be something new I had to grasp or some misstep I’d never seen coming.

It was a lot.”

Two years into the process, Matinata began to feel confident enough to start making some moves.

“Our bar was overwhelmed with heavy traffic every weekend. We needed to do something,” Matinata says. He discussed the problem with Klepp, and the idea hit them in 2015: The empty jailhouse that had functioned as little more than a storage unit for the steakhouse needed reinvention. After a colorful past that was inextricably entwined with Belmont’s history, the jailhouse would be reopened, but this time as a place not to confine people, but to help free them from their daily worries.

It had been decades since the building served as a fully functioning jailhouse in the waning days of the local small-town justice system. (If you’re picturing Andy Taylor’s Mayberry more than Virgil Tibbs’ In The Heat Of The Night, you’re getting the picture.)

The jailhouse initially operated in tandem with the neighboring police station and courthouse, but within two years Gaston County implemented a then-new processing system that sent offenders directly to Gaston’s courts and county jail.

In 1966 and 1967, the three-story, 3,600-square-foot structure housed women on the top floor, and men on the bottom, but was soon vacated and stood empty save for one final hurrah the following year, says retired Belmont Police Chief Chuck Flowers.

“Our last function was during a jailhouse riot in Gaston County Jail in 1968.” Flowers remembers with a laugh. “We weren’t even processing prisoners at that point, but it was an emergency, so we were able to house those prisoners for a short time.”

WHEN MATINATA and Klepp decided to bring Belmont’s long-empty jailhouse back to life, they needed help. They found it in another partner in crime, Tim Johnston, a Belmont resident and president of the CL

DANA VINDIGNI

Helt design firm in Charlotte. Johnston was up for the challenge.

“As a resident of Belmont I was thrilled when Matt asked us to convert the former Belmont jail into a high-end bar,” he says.

But while the footprint of the building is relatively small, the renovation would not be simple. The jail cells were solid concrete and therefore not easy to modify.

“Aside from the practical constructability issues, a lot of careful consideration had to go into navigating the building code,” Johnston remembers. ”From a very early stage, we had to be confident the building could be adapted to its new use within an acceptable construction budget. This is critical in a project like this and is often where many adaptive-reuse projects fail to move forward.”

From a design perspective, Johnston and Matinata both felt it was important to retain the experience of a historic jail by highlighting the cell bars as the backdrop to the bar. To accomplish this, it was imperative that they cut away a substantial amount of concrete, including a corner wall.

“Structurally, that was not an easy feat,” Johnston says.

Now that the project is finished, the consensus is that it was well worth the effort.

When you walk into the upper level of the bar, the red-cantilevered steel beams frame the steel jail cells behind the bar. This is by far one of the most impactful aspects of the bar.

“Fortunately, Matt had a clear vision, and I understood what he was trying to achieve,” Johnston says. “He put a great deal of trust in me, my firm and our design process. I couldn’t be more pleased with how the project turned out.”

It turns out that someone else was paying close attention to the development of The Jailhouse, someone who would, in turn, have a profound effect on its image and destiny.

Enter Giannis Koutsoupias. If the Matinatas exude warm Italian vibes, general manager and cigar czar Koutsoupias projects 6 feet and some change of no-bullshit Spartan intensity. Koutsoupias, also the son of restaurateurs, and the brother of a Gaston City Council member, caught word that Matinata and Klepp were planning on turning their storage structure into a cigar bar, and SEE

BARS P. 12 u CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 11

BAR FROM P. 11 t he sprang into action. “There was not going to be a cigar bar in this area that I was not going to be involved in,” Koutsoupias says as he walks through the jailhouse before hours.

The second floor, originally a row of cells and a shower for inmates, has been converted into the cigar lounge. It’s a dark room with glass walls partitioning off the area from other patrons. The shower fixtures are still visible on any given night if you look up into the haze of smoky leisure.

And there’s more on the third floor.

“This was the guard’s closet,” Koutsoupias says, showing off the cigar humidor that boasts a variety of high-end cigars, brands Koustsoupias has vetted personally for the Jailhouse’s repertoire.

Currently, thanks to Koutsoupias’s efforts and expertise, Belmont’s Jailhouse is the exclusive dealer for both Recluse and La Vida Habana brand cigars, two labels Koutsoupias had extensive experience dealing with in his earlier incarnation as a web-based cigar tailor.

Also on the third floor is a warm, woodpaneled pocket where a bar is fixed on actual cell bars. Fifty years ago, a female inmate here would have pondered a bad night of boozing it up, or the consequences of taking a swing 12 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

at her philandering man in the heat of a Belmont night.

In addition to its top-shelf liquor selection and its high-end cigar arsenal, The Jailhouse offers classes in correct cigar consumption.

There’s a correct way to do these things, Koutsoupias says, and he is more than willing to show you which cigars will complement your meal, and how to enjoy them.

In the early days of The Jailhouse’s renovation, Koutsoupias courted Matinata and Klepp relentlessly, lobbying hard for his gig. Matinata’s smile betrays his respect for his manager, but he’s not above giving Koutsoupias some good-natured ribbing.

“He hassled us for a few months,” Matinata remembers with a laugh. “It felt like 10 years.

“We finally had a sit-down with him. It was pretty obvious right away that he knew what he was talking about. I said to Matthew, ‘Let’s give him a shot and see what happens.”

It turned out to be the perfect choice. The three men, all 32, clearly work well together.

Klepp, as head chef, has created a host of signature cocktails that you can only find at The Jailhouse. The selection ranges from his take on the classic Sazerac, to what he refers to as “The Final Whack,” a variation on the martini made with Knob Creek Batch

On the second floor, guests can kick back in the cigar lounge [left], supplied by an ever-stocked humidor upstairs [below].

Bourbon, Creme de Cacao and Sambuca & Peychaud’s bitters.

It was a challenge for Klepp to come up with a menu that could be served to The Jailhouse’s small-town clientele.

“The idea was to create a small-bites menu that was something different than the usual appetizers served at the Steakhouse — more a tapas kind of deal,” he says. Klepp, who created all of the Jailhouse’s dishes, says his favorite is the coffee-encrusted pork belly served with collard greens, a triumph of his southern-smalltown-meets-high-end vision for The Jailhouse.

THE JAILHOUSE is only one piece of an ever-widening web of development that town leaders hope will turn Belmont into the next must-see neighborhood in the Charlotte area’s shifting urban landscape.

With another brewery and several new stores on the horizon, the once sleepy town is slowly waking up to the realities of newcentury city living. The long-defunct trolley

PHOTOS BY DANA VINDIGNI

system may even come back, connecting Belmont Abbey College to its parent hamlet.

Belmont could finally see some honest-togoodness college-town action.

“Once the trolley is running,” observes Dick Cromlish, a lifelong resident and member of Belmont’s Montcoss Chamber of Commerce. “The students will be up in here all the time. It’s going to change everything.”

With its ever-expanding choices of highend liquors and cigars, Belmont’s Jailhouse is ready to make its mark.

The lounge is a prime example of the 21st century’s push to turn old memories into new stories, and invigorate empty spaces with dazzling bursts of youthful optimism and can-do millennial energy.

“We’re anticipating the evolving tastes and wants of our customers, who are becoming more and more informed and discerning,” Matinata says. “We wanted a fresh approach, a chance to anticipate the changes coming and be a part of that change.”

BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 13

THURSDAY

30

ART, FOOD, GENTRIFICATION What: Serving up a novel look at gentrification through the prism of food, Open House: Art, Food & Conversations about Gentrification — a performance art collaboration between social justice artist Janelle Dunlap and Chef Greg Collier of the Yolk Cafe of Rock Hill, South Carolina — involves reframing the way we view traditional AfricanAmerican cuisine. Dunlap and Collier aim to change the soul food narrative, and you can take part in their delicious experiment.

When: 4-8 p.m.

Where: Wadsworth Estate, 400 S. Summit Ave. More: $50. bit.ly/2A9lfr1

14 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

THURSDAY

30

NODA DRINKS AND THINKS ABOUT ART

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Fifty Shades: The Live Show FRIDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF ALPHA MALE PRODUCTIONS

FRIDAY

1

FRIDAY

1

DANGEROUS WATERS

ERIC GALES

What: The avergae person who passes by a Charlotte mural might snap an Instagram and say, “That’s cool,” but what’s it really like to be a working artist in the Queen City? While we at CL spend an endless amount of time trying to get inside the heads of local artists, most folks don’t give it a second thought. Come give it that second thought during a salonstyle conversation at the Muse with three amazing CLT artists: Sharon Dowell, Osiris Rain and Sam Guzzie.

What: To celebrate the release of Micah Cash’s first book, Dangerous Waters: A Photo Essay on the Tennessee Valley Authority, C3 has put together a collection of Cash’s photos, collected over three years, that explores the architecture, public space and ecological disruption of TVA’s hydroelectric dams. You can also expect live performances from Columbia, South Carolina, Americana band The Witness Marks and the self explanatory Post-Timey String Band, also from Columbia.

What: During his meteoric success in the early ’90s as a teen guitar prodigy, Memphis blues rocker Eric Gales released a pair of shredders for Elektra Records and dueled with Carlos Santana at Woodstock ‘94. He later signed with the Jimi Hendrix family’s Nightbird Records and followed with several more LPs for other labels. But life caught up with him and he struggled with demons. Now clean, sober and living in Greensboro, Gales’ fiery licks are brighter than ever.

When: 6-7 p.m.

Where: The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: Free. eveningmuse.com

When: 7-10 p.m.

Where: C3 Lab, 2525 Distribution St. More: Free. c3-lab.com

When: 8 p.m.

Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E 36th St. More: $20-$22. neighborhoodtheatre.com

FRIDAY

1

FIFTY SHADES: THE LIVE SHOW What: Holidays are more stressful than sexy for the ladies, unless new lingerie is involved ... or sexy men stripping down to their own underwear. Alpha Male Productions is bringing sexy back to the holidays with their lusciously chiseled bodies and seductive dance moves for a sexy ladies night out. No Christmas gift could arouse hot fantasies like this smoking hot show, so grab your girlfriends and tell the boys to stay home.

When: 8-10 p.m.

Where: Kandy Bar, 210 E. Trade St. (EpiCentre) More: $28. facebook.com/ fiftyshadestheliveshow

Soul Siren SATURDAY

Dangerous Waters FRIDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

The Great Xscape Tour SATURDAY PHOTO BY MICAH CASH

PHOTO BY DUGAN’S EYE PHOTOGRAPHY

SATURDAY

2

SATURDAY

2

SOUL SIREN CREATIVE COLLECTIVE LAUNCH

LUMBERJAXE GRAND OPENING

What: Legan Collins launches her Soul Siren Creative Collective with this bold and ambitious kick-off.

The shindig features live music, fire performers, and six belly-dancing troupes including Satarah, the duo that launched the combustible concoction Bloom. Hayley Moran of Haylo Healing Arts will perform with her two-piece Flame Tides, which shares the stage with Mercury Dimes, Dumpster Service and Second Hand Gypsies.

When: 12 p.m.

Where: Hattie’s Tap & Tavern, 2918 The Plaza More: $5 donation. facebook.com/ SoulSirenCC/

SATURDAY

2

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREAT XSCAPE TOUR

SATURDAY

2

WEDNESDAY

6

THE GREAT XSCAPE TOUR

KWAME BINEA SHAKEDOWN

WARRIORS AT HORNETS

What: It’s time for pros and beginners alike to loosen up their throwing arm for the longanticipated grand opening of Lumberjaxe. The wait to fling sharp chunks of metal on a wooden stick at colored wood targets officially ended when they opened Nov. 11, but the real party starts with this nine-hour celebration full of axe chucking, beer chugging and food guzzling with music and prizes.

We’ll never play darts again.

What: In the early ’90s, the influential Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau tossed one of his many classic barbs at Xscape: “En Vogue?” he wrote. “Mary J. Blige? Phooey — they’re not even TLC.” That said, Xscape was a Top 10 act in the vein of their more critically acclaimed R&B sisters, and if you have an itch for all things 1990s, this show will scratch it.

Also appearing: Monica and Tamar Braxton. We’re just wondering how this crew can fill arenas in 2017.

What: Everybody likes to see a hometown boy made good, but now take into account that hometown boy Stephen Curry is the son of a Charlotte Hornets legend and hasn’t just made good, but made NBA champion and league MVP before 30. Then mix in the fact that he’s still a loud and proud Panthers fan, and this man is a Queen City legend in the Golden State. And no, he’s never coming to the Hornets so see him now while you have the chance (but still, cheer for the Hornets).

When: 1-10 p.m.

Where: Lumberjaxe, 933 Louise Ave., Suite 108 More: Free. facebook.com/ lumberjaxe

When: 7:30 p.m.

Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E Trade St. More: $47-up. thegreatxscapetour. com

What: With a re-energized cover of reggae legend Jimmy Cliff’s “Universal Love,” Kwame Binea announces in no uncertain terms where he’s coming from on his debut album, Roots Rock N Universal Love, a conscious mix of rock, funk and soul produced by Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid: “Go beyond religious boundaries, and beyond political boundaries, beyond commercial boundaries, and beyond sexual boundaries, beyond racial boundaries.” So, beyond boundaries, then?

When: 9:30 p.m.

Where: Thomas Street Tavern, 1228 Thomas St. More: Free. bit.ly/2i2S3gI

When: 8 p.m.

Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St. More: $65 and up still available. nba. com/hornets

with the Loaf’s new years eve guide coming soon

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 15

FEATURE

MUSIC

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? Dead Sea $crilla unveils debut album during ‘Gift Rap’ residency

BY MARK KEMP I got this attitude, cause I was born in North Carolina.

Don’t ever tell me that we weak down here, we went for Obama…

— Dead Sea $crilla, “Bird on a Branch”

T

HERE ARE TWO things that

Red Jesse doesn’t want to hear.

One is that the people of North Carolina or the South at large are somehow different or meaner or more intolerant than people in other parts of the United States today. The other is that folks in any community can’t be good neighbors.

“Yeah, we’re split down the middle and there’s a lot of disagreement about politics — there’s disagreement in every region of the United States nowadays — but don’t tell me that you own this place just because you’re uncomfortable with your neighbor and revolted by your neighbor, instead of being interested in your neighbor and caring about your neighbor,” Red Jesse rants.

He’s sitting at a bistro table outside of Central Coffee along with his Dead Sea $crilla partner Fred Rock, explaining the genesis of “Bird on a Branch,” a powerful track on the duo’s upcoming debut album, Dead Year’s Eve. “On that song I’m talking to conservatives here in Charlotte, but also liberal northerners who might look at the South and think we’re all backwards hicks,” Jesse continues. “I’m talking to both.” He pauses and glances over at the traffic whizzing by against the backdrop of towering new condo developments.

“The truth is, even lots of conservatives here aren’t backwards hicks,” he continues.

“There are just huge differences of opinion about how we should treat one another.”

Bucking stereotypes and treating one another like neighbors is important to the two guys of Dead Sea $crilla. And in that regard, Red Jesse — born Jesse Boykin Kimmel at Charlotte’s Presbyterian Hospital — fits well within the nobler traditions of Southern rock. But Dead Sea $crilla is no Southern rock band. Red Jesse and Fred Rock — born Joshua Chapman in San Francisco, but raised up in Charlotte — are rappers who have been writing, recording, performing, partying, putting up YouTube videos and becoming adults together in the Charlotte area since 2010.

On December 6, Dead Sea $crilla launches its month-long Wednesday night Gift Rap residency at Snug Harbor in Plaza Midwood.

The show features a wide range of adventurous 16 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Dead Sea $crilla — Red Jesse, left, and Fred Rock — performing back in the day, 2012.

Dead Year’s Eve cover.

ALBUM ART BY JOSHUA CHAPMAN

guest artists including the experimental hiphop duo StereoLoud, instrumental art rockers El Malpais, rapper Nige Hood’s Folk Rap Band and slam poet CB. $crilla also has partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank to kick off the Nice Tidings food drive at the event, gathering up groceries to help feed the hungry and homeless during the holiday season.

Subsequent Wednesdays boast equally strong lineups of Charlotte-area artists, poets and musicians: theatrical mad hatter James Cartee, formerly of the fringe theater company Citizens of the Universe, emcee Shadow and acoustic duo Sticks & Stones (Dec. 13); indie rockers The Business People and LeAnna Eden, nerdcore rapper Sulfur from ThoughtCriminals, and poet Bluz (Dec. 20); closed out by heavier rockers Hectagons and

More $crilla album art: Red Jesse (left) and Fred Rock today.

Blu House (Dec. 27). On the final night, $crilla will officially release Dead Year’s Eve, and the album’s producer, Justin “Aswell” Blackwood, says it’s about damn time.

“There’s a certain excitement and relief that come with a long-awaited debut record, ya know?” Blackwood says.

Long-awaited is no exaggeration. Kimmel and Chapman, both 31, have been making rhymes together for a long time to not yet have a full-length album. They initially met as teens attending Northwest School of the Arts — Chapman a visual artist (he creates all the artwork for $crilla) and Kimmel a longhaired, budding singer-songwriter in the Bob Dylan/Townes Van Zandt vein. But the two didn’t bond over music back then.

“We both loved art and we talked a lot

PHOTOS COURTESY OF $CRILLA

about art,” Chapman says, then looks over at Kimmel and laughs. “I don’t know how much he remembers about that period, but. . .”

“I was stoned every day,” Kimmel interjects. “Josh has this iron-clad memory and will say stuff to me like, ‘Remember that painting that you did? And I’m all, ‘Uh… no.

But I’m so glad that you do.”

The only mention of music that Chapman recalls from that period is the time he came into class after having just seen the Eminem movie 8 Mile. “Jesse said, ‘Yeah, I saw that, too. Good movie,’” Chapman remembers. “I was like, ‘OK, I guess he likes rap.’”

Fast-forward eight years. Kimmel had given up his dreams of being the next Dylan and had begun to rap. Chapman was making beats. One day, Chapman connected with his old friend on Myspace. “I saw that he was doing rap, and I was just blown away,” Chapman remembers. “Because not only was he really, really good, but I just had the hardest time envisioning this kid with long blond hair rapping.” Chapman says he isn’t sure what his intentions were when he hit up Kimmel, but the reconnection was fortuitious. “Jesse was the one who responded with, ‘So let’s get together.’”

The two began making beats and rapping together, but it was a little awkward at first.

“Rappers have big egos, so a lot of our early stuff was learning where to step and where not to step,” Kimmel says. “It started out with, ‘Hey, I got a verse. Do you have a verse?’

And we developed a really strong friendship that way from the beginning. That was very fundamental to us still working together and rapping after all these years.”

If you comb YouTube, you’ll find early videos of Kimmel and Chapman rapping

as Dead Sea $crilla in 2011 and 2012 at local dives. Back then, Charlotte’s rap and rock communities were as rich as they are today, Kimmel says, but there was less communication among the different groups of musicians. “People didn’t know one another. People didn’t do shows with one another,” he says. “And that’s happening now; that’s what’s different now. People are talking together. They’re doing stuff together.”

Kimmel’s role in Dead Sea $crilla (in addition to rapping) is networking and talking to club owners and other musicians.

He says that curating the lineups for the Gift Rap residency has been rewarding in a way that it may not have been in earlier years.

He contacted LeAnna Eden, Nige Hood and Blu House after hearing about the Bla/Alt Black Music Festival and volunteering to work at the event. “I knew LeAnna as an acquaintance before, but it wasn’t until the Bla/Alt Festival that I actually got to see her band perform,” he says. “And I saw Blu House for the first time, and Nige — he’s a real delight.”

Kimmel and Chapman were already familiar with most of the other acts peforming at Gift Rap. “Getting Hectagons and El Malpais comes down to our connections with [member] Buck [Boswell], who has booked us over and over at The Milestone,” Kimmel says. “And then Sulfur from ThoughtCriminals — we’ve done many shows with him and Mikal kHill. And then Exactly from StereoLoud.” He pauses. “If you wanna talk about hip-hop talent on the rise — every new project StereoLoud puts out is strange and interesting. They are fearlessly themselves.”

Sulfur, kHill [pronounced Kill] and rapper JT from Rock Hill, South Carolina, all make appearances on Dead Year’s Eve, a powerful and ambitious debut album and a giant creative leap for $crilla. Kimmel and Chapman had released an earlier EP, Here There Be Monsters, way back in 2010, and though it’s good, it’s nothing compared to the dizzying range of music on the new album. Chapman’s beats and Blackwood’s production fire up songs like “Salt,” which has a trap groove, and turn tracks like the buzzy “Our House Now” and sublime “Homing Beast,” which includes sung vocals, into spare beauties. And then there’s future classic “Bird on a Branch.”

“That’s one of Jesse’s shining moments to me,” Blackwood says. “I’m blown away with his ability to speak on socio-political topics without being preachy and yet remain relevant and fun.”

The track started out as a sing-songy hook — “Little tiny baby bird on a branch / With no mama, baby perched on a branch” — that Chapman came up with while $crilla was headed to a performance in Chicago. “It was just this silly thing we came up with, but that’s how a lot of these things develop,” he says. “These silly little things become bigger concepts that take on very intimate meanings to Jesse and me. Essentially, the bird on the branch is Jesse, and the hook is about this very cruel world that we live in: There’s a tiny baby bird on the branch, his mom hasn’t been home in a week, and now he’s got to get off of the branch because there’s predators everywhere.”

“Bird on a Branch” is about taking chances, jumping into the fray, expressing

DEAD SEA $CRILLA “GIFT RAP” RESIDENCY

Dead Sea $crilla acting a fool back in the day, 2011. oneself, drawing boundaries, calling out injustices, challenging belief systems.

“I’m just trying to be a grown up / If I find that I’m wrong, then I come right,” Kimmel, as Red Jesse, raps. “If I slip, then I own up / That’s just how the Kimmels and Chapmans shown us.”

10 p.m. each Wednesday through December, $2. Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St.; snugrock.com.

Dec 6: Nice Tidings with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, featuring StereoLoud, El Malpais, Nige Hood & the Folk Rap Band, and a poem by CB. Dec 13: Snug Holiday Bazaar with Save Point Video Games, featuring Shadow, Sticks & Stones, and a special presentation of “Noël a l’Épic,” a Christmas story by James Cartee. There will be a market at 6 p.m. prior to the regular program.

Dec 20: 8Bit Xmas Costume Party, featuring LeAnna Eden, Sulfur, and The Business People, with performances paired with live video game projections by Save Point Video Games, and a poem by Bluz. Partygoers are encouraged to dress as their favorite video game character attending a holiday party.

Dec 27: Dead Year’s Eve Album Release Gala, featuring Hectagons, JT, and Blu House

THE TWO MEMBERS of Dead Sea $crilla

couldn’t have come from more different backgrounds. Kimmel grew up in Davidson, his dad a biology professor and mom an English major who worked at the classical public radio station WDAV. With four older half-brothers, two from each parent, and an older sister on his dad’s side, Kimmel was inundated with music as a kid. His parents loved the Beatles and his brothers gravitated to music ranging from Dylan, Van Zandt and Loudon Wainwright III, to Radiohead, to the golden-age hip-hop of Schoolly D, up to Notorious B.I.G. “While I was going to Northwest for piano, I got into Aesop Rock and Blackstar and Deltron,” Kimmel remembers. “But when I came home and told my brother that I’d gotten into rap, he said something about Biggie and I said, ‘Well, I’m not sure I like Biggie too much.’” He laughs. “My brother looked at me and said, ‘Sit down and shut up!’ He put on Ready to Die and that’s when my life changed, man. It was OutKast and Biggie from then on.”

Chapman discovered music after his family moved from San Francisco, where his father served in the Army, to Charlotte when he was five. His dad, a plumber, had a soundtrack for their trips to Chapman’s little league baseball games. “He had this nasty Toyota truck and would play ’80s hair metal,” the rapper says, and laughs. “That was my first exposure into music. Then he got way into DMX and Tupac, and on the way to baseball games, that’s what he’d play. And that was my first experience with rap music.”

The two say their different backgrounds and belief systems — Chapman considers himself a Christian while Kimmel is a nonbeliever — enrich Dead Sea $crilla’s

music. “It’s sparked a lot of late-night debates and talks between the two of us,” Chapman says. “What’s been interesting for me is to be able to talk about these things with somebody I respect so much. I learn a lot from Jesse, and our conversations pour out into our music. It’s very present and we eventually would like to explore that more.”

The two are already exploring it in tracks like “Bird on a Branch,” in which Kimmel references religious faith and name-checks 13th-century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. “I’m a huge fan of history and I have a huge appreciation for faith, though I’m not a religious person myself,” Kimmel says. “I have a deep respect for where religion sits in our culture, even though I have complicated feelings about it. But that’s more about the way men wield religion than it is about religion itself.”

He sighs. “To to be honest, being close friends with Josh, and us working together as artists for so long, has been a lesson in humility for me,” Kimmel says. “Because, you know, there’s so much misunderstanding between neighbors in America over differences in opinion and differences in politics and differences in religious belief.

But to me, there’s no better proof that neighbors can be close together, no matter what, than my partnership with Josh.” He pauses, and looks over at Chapman. “Because the main thing with us is that we have tons of common ground; we have so much more in common with each other than differences.”

Chapman says being a duo instead of two individual emcees working alone strengthens their ability to provide a wider outlook in

their music and in the Charlotte community at large. They see themselves in the tradition of rap groups ranging from Run-DMC to Stetsasonic to OutKast on up to Run the Jewels. “I can listen to one individual emcee, and it’s not a problem,” Chapman says. “But I love the dynamics of two people working off of each other. To me, that’s the real essence of what hip-hop is. When you’re watching it onstage, it’s just so rich, you know?”

And that’s what Dead Sea $crilla would like for their Gift Rap residency this month to show — that despite our differences, we all can work off of each other and be neighbors, no matter how we see the world. We all can enrich each others’ lives. We all can care about each other. Happy holidays, all!

MKEMP@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 17

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

NOVEMBER 30 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony Pops - Magic of Christmas: The O’Connor Band, Charlotte Symphony Chorus, Charlotte Children’s Choir (Belk Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Chamomile & Whiskey, Dane Page, Sam Tayloe (Petra’s)

Jay Mathey Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Natty Boh Duo (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) One Special Night with Patrick Davis - Two different shows: Patrick Davis, Lauren Jenkins (Evening Muse) Placeholder, Dollhands, Pullover, Alright (The Station) Space Wizard, Demon Eye, Lightning Born (Snug Harbor) Steven Metz (Tin Roof)

DJ/ELECTRONIC

DECEMBER 2

Le Bang: SLAY (Snug Harbor)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B

Latin Night In Plaza Midwood: UltimaNota & Friends (Snug Harbor)

$uicideboy$ (The Fillmore)

POP/ROCK Carmen Tate Solo (Eddie’s Seafood & Raw Bar) Open Mic for Musicians (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) 9 Day Trip (Tin Roof) The Artisanals, Quiet Hollers (The Evening Muse) Jordan Kirk, Trismalux, The Whiskey Predicament, Tommy Trull, Solemn Shapes (Milestone) Natty Boh (RiRa Irish Pub) Quiet Hollers, Little Bird (Evening Muse)

DECEMBER 1 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony Pops - Magic of Christmas: The O’Connor Band, Charlotte Symphony Chorus, Charlotte Children’s Choir (Belk Theater)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony Lollipops - Magic of Christmas: The O’Connor Band, Charlotte Symphony Chorus, Charlotte Children’s Choir (Belk Theater) The Joy of Christmas: Charlotte Chorale (Booth Playhouse) Charlotte Symphony Pops - Magic of Christmas: The O’Connor Band, Charlotte Symphony Chorus, Charlotte Children’s Choir (Belk Theater) UNC Clef Hangers Holiday Concert (Knight Theater)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Method (RiRa Irish Pub) Off The Wall (Petra’s)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B The Great Xscape Tour: Xscape, Monica, Tamar Braxton (Spectrum Center)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL

COUNTRY/FOLK

Eric Gales, Heather Gillis (Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte)

Bobby Randall Band, Mellissa Lee (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby)

COUNTRY/FOLK

POP/ROCK

Michael Ray, Devin Dawson (Coyote Joe’s) Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas From the Fam-O-Lee” Show (Knight Theater) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Complete (RiRa Irish Pub)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Electric Relaxation f. DJ Skillz (‘Stache House Bar & Lounge) Sonny Digital (The Underground) Stitchy C, J Rosevelt, Stuicide, Marshall Alexander, Illpo, Dubboro, KY:AM, F. Dux, Nick B, Poe Mack, Edifiede (Milestone)

POP/ROCK Bumpin Uglies (Heist Brewery) 18 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

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Blue Monday (Tin Roof) Funeral Chic, WVRM, Violent Life Violent Death, Born Hollow, Planet Creep (Milestone) Futurebirds (Visulite Theatre) Heroes At Last (RiRa Irish Pub) Horton’s Holiday Hayride: Reverend Horton Heat, Junior Brown, The Blasters, Big Sandy, The Aqualads, The Belmont Playboys (Neighborhood Theatre) Kwame Binea Shakedown (Thomas Street Tavern) Old Time Music & Silent Films: Ethan Uslan (Petra’s) Rock Machine (Sylvia Theatre, York) Rockin’ Kids First (The Rabbit Hole) Scott Miller (Evening Muse) SeepeopleS, Trismalux (Heist Brewery) Soul Siren Creative Collective: Flame Tides,

Mercury Dimes, Dumpster Service, Second Hand Gypsies (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)

DECEMBER 3 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL The Nathan Pope Band (The Rabbit Hole)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony Pops - Magic of Christmas: The O’Connor Band, Charlotte Symphony Chorus, Charlotte Children’s Choir (Belk Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Crystal Bowersox (Neighborhood Theatre)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Lil Pump (The Fillmore)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Gravitation, Butterfly Corpse, Falling Through April (Milestone) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill)

DECEMBER 4 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) Stone Soul Mic Love (Freedom Factory @ Seeds) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)

POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic welcomes Von Strantz (Evening Muse) Music Trivia (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) The Monday Night Allstars (Visulite Theatre)

DECEMBER 5 DJ/ELECTRONIC

SOUNDBOARD

MUSIC

(Evening Muse) Battalion of Saints, The Cryptics, The Nobodys, The Bleeps, October (The Rabbit Hole) The Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas Rocks!

Tour (Ovens Auditorium) Chevelle (The Fillmore) H.E.R. (The Underground) Nothing Feels Good - Emo Night (Noda 101) Paint Fumes, Poison Boys, Ouroboros Boys (Snug Harbor)

DECEMBER 6 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Bugalú: December Edition (Petra’s)

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

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Free Hookah Wednesdays Ladies Night (Kabob House, Persian Cuisine)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK The Collings Trio, with Allen Shadd Roy Curry Mark Cosgrove (Midwood Guitar Studio)

POP/ROCK Cory Branan & the Whiskey Gentry (Evening Muse) December Residency: Dead Sea $crilla, El Malpais, StereoLoud, Nige Hood, The Folk Rap Band (Snug Harbor) Dial Drive, Aloha Broha, No Brainer, The Rufftons (Milestone) The Jauntee (Heist Brewery) JD McPherson, Charley Crockett (Visulite Theatre) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s) Pluto for Planet (RiRa Irish Pub)

BYOV: Bring Your Own Vinyl (Petra’s, Charlotte)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz Room: Holiday Edition (Booth Playhouse) Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Morehead Tavern)

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

POP/ROCK 95.1 KISSmas 2017: Backstreet Boys, hy Don’t We, MAX, Olivia Holt (Bojangles Coliseum) Bassh EP Release Party: Bassh, Chase the River

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ARTS

FEATURE

HIGH-GRADE, HOMEGROWN AND PROFESSIONAL ‘Three Days of Rain’ joins an already impressive fall lineup of local theater PERRY TANNENBAUM

M

AYBE YOU’VE NOTICED:

Since the beginning of September, there’s been an abundance of quality, homegrown theater productions around the city, from both new or returning companies as well as from the usual suspects. Brand New Sheriff ignited the upswell with Jitney, the best drama of the year, and the drive continued with scintillating efforts from Donna Scott Productions, OnQ Performing Arts and The Playworks Group.

And that was just the first three weeks.

Within the next two weeks, Actor’s Theatre unveiled a fiery American Idiot, PaperHouse Theatre trailblazed at the Goodyear Arts Center with The Revolutionists, and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte outdid itself at ImaginOn with a high-flying Mary Poppins. Three Bone Theatre has sustained the seasonal glow with Fahrenheit 451 and the Actor’s Theatre encore Hand to God was better than the Broadway production.

You have several more chances to experience excellence in local theaters before the winter solstice, including reprises of holidy faves by Chickspeare, OnQ, Children’s Theatre and Actor’s Theatre. But if you’re itching to get a taste of the grassroots fervor that has gripped the Queen City throughout the fall theater season — and escape the oncoming blizzard of Christmas repeats — your only choice is to check out Charlotte’s Off-Broadway.

Gestating at the Warehouse PAC up in Cornelius for the past five years in storefront productions, Charlotte’s Off-Broadway is staging an Uptown rebirth with the Metrolina premiere of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain. For founding producer Anne Lambert and her company, it’s their first presentation at Spirit Square since 2005 — and their first Actors’ Equity production ever.

Lambert isn’t coy about what she hopes will begin sprouting from all the recent professional grassroots action around Charlotte this season — a professional company with the same regional status and prestige that Charlotte Repertory Theatre had before it folded in 2005.

“Yes,” says Lambert, “I do see Three Days of Rain as a project that represents the beginning of a concerted effort to lift Charlotte’s Off-Broadway to a new level, to impact the city’s theater scene and, yes, to move Charlotte closer to re-establishing ourselves as a logical home for a LORT (League of Regional Theatres) company.”

It begins by consistently producing 24 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

high-quality shows that the community will continue to come out and see — and continue to hit their wallets and support. Butts and bucks.

Part of the push on Lambert’s side is signing Equity contracts with her actors so that they are all treated and paid according to union standards. Two of the three Equity players, Caroline Bower and Brian Lafontaine, are longtime Charlotte favorites.

Lafontaine is also co-producing. He and Lambert last collaborated in 2003 when he acted in The Hotel Project, a pair of oneacts produced by Lambert and Matt Olin while they were, respectively, director of development and managing director at Charlotte Rep during its sunset years. More recently, Lambert and Lafontaine have been attending Creative Mornings, a monthly happening for Charlotte creatives organized

by Olin and Tim Miner.

The old mojo began to work again during the supercharged meet-ups. Three Days of Rain was among the scripts that Lafontaine had brought with him from New York when he moved back to Charlotte. He was at a point in his career where he was thinking about producing a show that he wanted to do — at a professional level.

“Anne had told me if I ever wanted to get a show produced, she could get it done for me after we had worked together on The Hotel Project,” Lafontaine remembers. “I know how passionate she is, and how capable she is.

She loves theater. She loves actors, and she loves contributing in any way that she can to the artistic community in Charlotte. She’s an incredible partner. There’s no way this would be happening without her.”

There was a notorious Broadway run of Three Days of Rain back in 2006 starring Julia Roberts, so Lambert had heard of the script when Lafontaine brought it to her.

But she hadn’t read it. Months of discussions culminated in opting for the Greenberg play.

“It’s a well-written, Pulitzer Prizenominated script,” Lambert stresses. “It’s sophisticated, it’s funny, it’s compelling and it’s mysterious, full of Easter Eggs that reward the attentive audience member. It has six completely beguiling characters. I’m excited by the device of the dual roles, where the actors we see portraying Walker, Nan and Pip in Act 1 turn around in Act 2 and play their parents. These three talented actors in our show are so adept, so good at what they’re doing, they really are two different characters for me.”

Notwithstanding all that Roberts hoopla,

PHOTOS BY MITCHELL KEARNEY

Walker and Ned, the son and father Lafontaine will play, have always been the core characters at the heart of Three Days. Both are startlingly eccentric and brilliant.

After his dad’s funeral, Walker had vanished so completely that his sister Nan, the sensible branch of the Janeway family, had given him up for dead while he was holed up in Italy for a year. The siblings now meet at an unoccupied loft where, 35 years earlier, Walker’s dad had designed his masterwork, Janeway House.

But wait a second. When they finally read Daddy’s will, the sibs discover that, instead of going to them, the Janeway House has been inherited by their longtime friend Pip, the son of Theo Wexler, who was Ned’s partner at their architectural firm. It’s a mystery. To get to the bottom of it, Walker obsessively pores through his dad’s terse diary, which he discovered soon after he returned to the loft.

Friction, mystery and brilliant minds are

all in the mix.

“The dialogue is fantastic,” Lafontaine enthuses. “It has an almost Aaron Sorkin feel to it. Sure, I think it’s funny in a lot of places.

Thank God. Otherwise, I think we’d be driving audience members to therapy after. And the mystery adds another interesting element to the play. But for me, it really is more of [a dramatic] study about the relationship between children and parents.”

Bower, who plays Nan and her mom Lina, burst onto the Charlotte scene in 2007 with starring roles in Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Wizard of Oz. By the time she dropped out in 2014, Bower had drawn acting paychecks from every company in town that cuts them — Actor’s, Children’s and CPCC Summer Theatre. She became the most persuasive poster child we had for the notion that stage acting could be a viable profession in Charlotte.

Then she took a position as teacher and director at Providence Day School to

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDSEY WHITUS

ARTS

ARTSPEAK

ADDICTED TO ACTING Charlotte teen takes on heavy issues as both actor and director VANESSA INFANZON

LINDSEY WHITUS IS not your typical

expand the theater program there and carry herself from car payment to car payment.

She came out of “hiding” this past summer, choreographing Cry Baby at Theatre Charlotte, and now she is acting under her second Actor’s Equity Association contract within the space of two months.

“I am so lucky to have been a part of The Revolutionists and Three Days of Rain. Being a part of two projects that care enough about their actors to jump through the AEA hoops is humbling. Not only do the production teams care about their actors, but both of these scripts are the best of the best.”

Paige Johnston Thomas, who directs, brings an additional chunk of Charlotte Rep DNA to the Lambert-Lafontaine production team. Her first acting gig in the Queen City was in another three-person cast, playing C in Rep’s 1995 production of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women.

Thomas’s most recent paying gigs in theater have been her directing at Theatre

Charlotte and Davidson Community Players.

But her most important role on the local scene is as an “anti-relocation advocate,” having founded C&J Casting with Mitzi Corrigan to help local theater pros get steady work in commercials and film.

Thomas saw Bower’s outing at Goodyear Arts, where she portrayed a vain, charismatic, and bubble-headed Marie Antoinette.

“I texted her this after the show: ‘I couldn’t keep my eyes off you,’” Thomas relates.

“Which in real life sounds kinda creepy, but in the acting world, it’s a huge compliment.

She has an innocence that is constantly being belied by her quick intellect and emotional depth. It makes for great conflict, which makes great drama.”

Head for Duke Energy Theatre if you want to see it. Then consider hitting your hip if you like what you’ve seen.

BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

high school sophomore. At 15 years old, she is kicking ass and winning awards for it.

Whitus has been creating awareness about societal issues through her acting and independent documentaries, and lately the local teen has been getting the recognition she deserves.

Whitus’ documentary Women Unmasked was awarded Carolina Film Community’s Best Student Film at the 2017 Made in Carolinas Film Project. The film follows four women who face gender inequality, sexual abuse and gender identity issues. Whitus raised $1,500 through GoFundMe to finance the project, which was chosen to be in the Princeton Film Festival earlier this month.

“I really wanted to tell authentic stories in real raw way,” she said. “There’s all sorts of glamorization when it comes to problems and I wanted it to be real raw emotions with no filter.”

Her interest in acting didn’t become serious until her family moved to France for three years. At twelve years old, Whitus felt isolated by the language barrier and didn’t have many friends. Everything changed after she found an English-speaking acting group.

“I became addicted to it,” Whitus said. “I looked forward to Saturdays where I got to act, I got to perform, I got to be myself.”

After she and her family returned to Charlotte, Whitus was cast in Fake Emma.

She was the solo actor in the short film about a teenage girl dealing with depression. The film, directed by Asheville’s Kira Bursky, won Best Scripted Film for 2017 at Charlotte’s 100 Words Film Festival in early November.

Whitus draws from her experiences of feeling alone as a middle schooler in France, losing a friend while she was away and living as a teenager in Charlotte. “It was a lot for an 11-year-old to deal with all at once,” she said.

After seeing Whitus in Fake Emma, I had to meet her. The film is powerful, leaving me haunted by Whitus’ character and wondering how depression distorts our view of the world and how quickly we are to push others’ feelings aside. On a recent day, Whitus and I met up to talk about her important work.

Creative Loafing: Who’s influenced you?

Lindsey Whitus: Kira Bursky, director of Fake Emma. She’s really the reason I created my series, Women Unmasked, because she’s only 21 and has already made more than 40 short films or music videos. She’s the person that told me. “You can do it.” She inspires me to explore different types of emotions and

Lindsey Whitus in ‘Fake Emma.’ feelings and stories that aren’t often told or aren’t often mainstream. She inspires me to be 100 percent myself and do what I want no matter my age or gender.

How has Women Unmasked become more important now that so many women have stepped up to publicly out their abusers over the last couple of months?

There’s so much sexual assault and pressure that women are feeling. That was a daunting thing to see. There are so many stories of women not being heard or not being taken seriously when they make these allegations.

There’s so much victim blaming as well. A lot of people don’t believe that women are still oppressed. These are very real stories, and I think people need to see them.

Where does your strength and energy for these powerful projects come from?

Acting is definitely a way for me to get my emotions out. I am a very emotional person and there’s not many outlets for emotions, other than crying or laughing, in everyday life. But acting, you can let it all out, whatever you’re feeling or whatever you felt in the past that you pushed down or bottled up.

How accurate is Fake Emma in its portrayal of depression in teens?

(Fake Emma) is a new look on depression.

It tells a very real story, but it has a very creative and different outlook on depression with the cardboard, warped version of Emma. I feel it sometimes – emotion that’s just telling me all these negative thoughts, but aren’t accurate. It’s self-esteem, a weird teenage version of yourself that’s telling you, “You look weird in that outfit,” or “You need to lose some weight,” — I definitely think people experience that and have that fake version of themselves.

What’s your future look like?

I hope to be making many more films and documentaries. Also acting — that’s my biggest passion. I want to be juggling both. I want to be spreading positivity and awareness of different issues through my work.

Fake Emma is on YouTube. Women Unmasked is on the film festival circuit and will be released publicly at a later date. The teaser and trailer for the series are available on YouTube.

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ENDS

NIGHTLIFE

HOLIDAY CHEERS RETURNS TO THE QUEEN CITY The most wonderful time of the year IT’S THAT TIME of year again. The

Even your grandma gets it.

26 | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

of the best venues in Charlotte. Lightly mingle with the higher-ups then sit back and cold weather and premature nightfall are enjoy the shitshow that the majority of your exacerbating your seasonal depression. The coworkers will become.

Christmas decorations and miscellaneous EMBARRASS YOURSELF ON ICE holiday tchotchkes you’ve been eyeing for SKATES. There’s plenty of places to test weeks can finally find places to live around out your ice skating skills around this time your home. And you’ve already started in the Q.C. But Holiday On Ice, Charlotte’s coming up with new resolutions for 2018 outdoor ice skating rink Uptown screams because you’ve haven’t checked a single one #Charlottean! Grab your boo thang or off of your 2017 list. Trust me, you’re not a group of friends and head over to the the only one.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Plaza until January For a couple weeks, I’ve been throwing 7th! side-eyes at friends and social media SIGN UP FOR A BAR CRAWL, RUN OR acquaintances who’ve been posting pictures VOLUNTEER WORK. “One of my biggest of their Christmas tree prior to Thanksgiving. fears is that I’ll marry into a family “Since when did people start putting that runs 5Ks on holidays,” reads up Christmas decorations before a meme that I recently saw, and Turkey Day? And who told immediately co-signed after her that her Charlie Brown my third trip to the kitchen Christmas tree was cute?” on Thanksgiving Day. I’ve asked a few of my However, maybe you’re friends. They rolled their one of the healthy/giveeyes in response because back-to-the-community they knew I was just types and running is your sippin’ on some holiday thing. Well, there’s good haterade. news, you’ll find plenty And they were right, of runs, trots, walks and as soon as I returned to the AERIN SPRUILL volunteer opportunities in the Queen after spending time Queen City during the holiday with family, I started planning season. But for those who prefer to out when I’d put up my trees. Yes, exercise their palates, there’s plenty of you read that right, I’m putting up multiple Santa and Christmas-themed bar crawls to trees this year, two artificial and one real go around, too. one. I’ve even been trying to figure out if I FEAST YOUR EYES ON 3,000,000 have room for garland. Who am I?!

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. Even though I Nevertheless, each year I try to compile have every intention of going to Speedway a list of a few things to do in or around Christmas every year, I never seem to make Charlotte during the holiday season and it. But this year I’ve got to do it! If taking share it with my readers. Why break tradition a ride through millions of Christmas lights this year? Here are a few things on my doesn’t put me in the holiday spirit, I don’t holiday bucket list this year: know what will. Pack up your car any night of the week and head to the Charlotte Motor PLAN A FRIENDSGIVEMAS PARTY. Speedway for a light show that will rival your Maybe you missed out on friendsgiving. wildest dreams.

Maybe you want a good excuse to continue HOP ON THE BREWERY TRAIN. You the torturous tradition of White Elephant know how it is in Charlotte. You bring one Gift Exchange. Whatever your excuse, the unique concept to the nightlife scene and month in between your next paid holiday is next thing you know, there’s 1,000 more the perfect time to gather your friends and just like it. Well, it’s not the worst idea when family for a friendsgivemas party. Think it comes to our obsession with breweries. outside of the box. Instead of hosting a There’s so many popping up all over the dinner party, coordinate a silent disco or city, that it’s hard to keep up. Finally stop by take over your favorite watering hole.

Plaza Midwood’s latest addition, Resident GET LIT WITH YOUR COWORKERS. Culture, and cozy up to a pint, or three. Then If you work a 9-to-5, you know that the make a point to visit a new brewery each holiday office party is one of the most highly weekend in December. There’s nothing like anticipated events of the year. I mean, they exploring new spots in your city to put your even make movies about them! Don’t be a seasonal depression at ease.

BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM Grinch and turn down free booze at some

ENDS

FeeLing Lonely?

CROSSWORD

23RD AMENDMENT ACROSS

1 Tussle (with) 8 Hindu chant 14 Robotic floor vacuum 20 Predicted 21 Daisy types 22 Relatives of 21-Across 23 Pounding one’s shawl?

25 Like sacred statues 26 Step up or down 27 Instant, for short 28 Santa -- College 29 In history 30 Book parts 34 What aviator Orville or Wilbur was called?

37 Found on these pages 38 Kitty treater 39 Fill up fully 40 Celtics rival 41 “What the Butler Saw” dramatist Joe 42 Does penance 45 Sprinter Bolt 47 Small songbird with a cartoon cat?

50 60-min. units 51 “Rockaria!” band, in brief 54 Singer Clay 55 San -- (Italian resort) 57 Poet W.H. -59 Fusion 64 Old laundry machine that’s totally on the fritz?

66 Raving sort 67 People debating 70 Bistro, e.g.

71 “Goodbye, Columbus” author when he’s very angry?

73 Throw from a steed 74 Tea garnish 75 Apple debut of 1998 76 Mini-serving 79 Prior to 80 Flan need 82 Damage done to a periodical?

89 Pub buys 91 Find a new place for, as a pet 92 Islamic equivalent of kosher 93 Trial attire 96 Siestas 98 “Mazel --!”

99 Hereditary sequence

100 Declaration upon pulling your valise forcefully?

103 Many a handcuffed person 105 -- -Jo (‘80s track star) 106 That guy’s 107 Certain Wall St. trader 108 Paradigm 109 Hereditary 111 Actress Fay who was always cheerful?

117 Get free of 118 Silky goat or rabbit 119 Helm handler 120 Beaches 121 Observed in the vicinity of 122 Actor Erik

DOWN

1 Yackety-yak 2 Lament 3 -- Khan 4 Impose 5 Capital of Kosovo 6 Like the pre-Easter period 7 -- Allan Poe 8 Comic Jay 9 Bunyan’s tool 10 Story for an anchor 11 Radials for a Rolls, say 12 Fails to stay pokerfaced 13 Viper variety 14 Slickers and galoshes 15 Wilde with wit 16 Bison-hunting tribe 17 Household 18 Intelligent 19 Fancy ties 24 “-- the season!”

28 Gallery gala 30 Grub 31 Berlin man 32 Funnyman Johnson 33 Hireling 34 “... three -- a tub” 35 Ocean liquid 36 Hotel relative 38 Cast a ballot 42 Take -- view of 43 “Bad!” sound 44 Shopping jag 46 Old Testament book

48 Racial equality gp.

49 Part of YTD 51 Lawn gadget 52 Dirty looks 53 Ham -- (deli classic) 56 Rx signers 58 Golden rule’s second word 59 Plenteous 60 Bill of “Real Time” 61 Japanese film genre 62 Stitch’s cartoon pal 63 Dive variety 64 “Yeah, no kidding!”

65 Taylor of “The Nanny” 67 Chair part 68 Traipse 69 Sporty auto 72 Tepees’ kin 73 -- Reader (alternative digest) 76 Sierra Nevada lake 77 Sea of -- (waters off Ukraine) 78 Gaming “City” dweller 81 Non-Jews 83 Somehow manages with 84 Pair attached to an axle 85 Also- -- (losers) 86 Scores 87 Arose (from) 88 Painter Paul 89 Nectar lover 90 CIA worker 93 Searches and robs 94 Wise-looking 95 Bucking one 97 Card game expert John 99 Bestows 101 Triangle, e.g.

102 Fly into -- (get furious) 103 Madison Ave. output 104 Find a new purpose for 108 “-- first you don’t succeed ...”

110 Corn spike 111 Once existed 112 -- pro nobis 113 That gal’s 114 Levin or Glass 115 TV neighbor of Homer 116 Time of note

graB Your copy today

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.

CLCLT.COM | NOV. 30 - DEC. 6, 2017 | 27

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ENDS

DEVASTATION Turn out the lights, the party’s over

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I’m a straight man in a live-in put his wants on the table without pounding relationship with a beautiful woman. said table with his dick. Your girlfriend’s There are no sparks in bed, and it’s been issue may be a mystery — maybe it’s her more than a year since we’ve had sex. (she’s incapable of being in a loving and She says, “I’m sorry, but I’m just not fully sexual relationship), maybe it’s you (you interested.” Sometimes she asks me if never turned her on or you did something I’m disappointed, and I say something that murdered her libido) — but you’re like “I miss sex.” And she says: “Maybe not obligated to stay in an unsatisfactory someday. But the important thing is we relationship indefinitely because your love each other, right?” Before my last girlfriend will be devastated if you leave.

Also, devastation is a two-way street. birthday, she asked me what I wanted as a gift. I replied, “A soapy handjob.” That If you dump her, SOAPY, her devastation would’ve been the most action I’d had will be immediate, like the impact of an all year. But when my birthday rolled earthquake or a hurricane. But if you stay, around, all I got was a speech about how you’ll be the one devastated — but your she loved me but was not in love with devastation will be gradual, taking years, like the erosion of coastline or the destruction me. My question: In the year 2017, of our democracy. The destruction how does a straight man make of your self-esteem and sense of it clear to the woman he’s sexual self-worth could take with that sex is important a decade or more, SOAPY, to him without coming but it is already under across as threatening? way. She’s a lot likelier to If I told her I’d leave get over the devastation her unless our sex she’ll feel if you leave life improved — and I — being dumped is a have certainly thought common experience that about this — she’d most people bounce back probably “put out” to from — than you are to get save our relationship.

DAN SAVAGE over the devastation you’ll She has abandonment experience if you stay. issues, and I fear she Your gonads/self-respect/ would be devastated if I left preservation instinct are in that her. I only want to have sex with someone who wants to have sex with me, apartment somewhere. Get ’em and go. not someone I’ve coerced. What do I do?

I love her, but a sexless relationship isn’t what I want or signed up for.

SEXLESS OVER A PERPLEXING YEAR

There’s being sensitive to coming across as threatening and wanting to avoid even unintentional coercion and being cognizant of the ways women are socialized to defer to men and the ways men are socialized to feel entitled to women’s bodies, SOAPY, and then there’s being a fucking doormat.

She isn’t in love with you — she told you so herself — and she’s never gonna fuck you or soap you up to get you off. If you don’t want her putting out to keep you — if you don’t want her to fuck you under duress — then don’t give her the option. That means ending the relationship, SOAPY, not entering into negotiations about the terms for remaining in the relationship. (“1. Tell me you’re in love with me, even if it’s a lie. 2. A sad, soapy handjob once a year on my birthday…”)

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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE

WHERE WE ALL REFUSE TO WEAR SOCKS.

ARIES (March

21 to April 19) Start preparing now to make sure you get the credit you’re due for all that effort you put in to get that project off the ground.

A new challenge emerges after the 15th.

TAURUS (April 20

to May 20) You’re still charging full steam ahead on the job -- and that’s fine. But take time to share the joy of preparing for the upcoming holidays with folks you love.

GEMINI (May 21 to June

20) A former detractor resists joining your ranks just yet. Give him or her time to learn more about what you’re doing.

Meanwhile, devote more time to friends and family.

CANCER (June 21 to

July 22) Be careful not to be goaded into a tiff by someone who might be looking for a fight. Remain cool as you make your exit. Be assured that others will rally to your support.

LEO (July 23 to August 22)

Kudos on getting the welldeserved Lion’s share of the rewards for a job well-done. Now you can take a breather from your workaday duties and spend time with your family.

VIRGO (August 23 to

September 22) You enjoy a quick spurt of renewed energy just in time to meet that upcoming deadline. A potentially romantic situation looms. How it develops will be up to you.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Watch out for distractions that could cause delays and leave you running twice as fast to finish your work by the 15th. Then go ahead and have fun.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) You might prefer to work on current tasks on your own. But be open to a potentially useful suggestion from someone who admires you and wants to help.

SAGIT TARIUS

(November 22 to December 21) Avoid rushing full gallop into that volunteer project without knowing what’s expected of you.

Take things a step at a time as you begin to find your way.

CAPRICORN

( D e c e m b e r 22 to January Good news: You should begin to feel more comfortable expressing your emotions. This will go a long way in helping you with that personal situation.

19)

A Q U A R I U S

(January 20 to February 18) An old friend gives confusing signals.

Best advice: Don’t assume that things will necessarily work themselves out. Ask questions and demand straight answers.

PISCES (February 19

to March 20) A new relationship needs time to develop. Be careful not to let your emotions flood your natural sense of caution. Meanwhile, check out that new job offer.

BORN THIS WEEK Your sense of right and wrong sometimes causes you to come into conflict with others. But you invariably come out ahead.

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