2017 Issue 45 Creative Loafing Charlotte by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM| MARCH | DEC. 28,172017 - MARCH - JAN.23,3,2016 2018 VOL. VOL.30, 31, NO. 04 45

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

STAFF

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

EDITORIAL

NEWS EDITOR • Ryan Pitkin rpitkin@clclt.com FILM CRITIC • Matt Brunson mattonmovies@gmail.com THEATER CRITIC • Perry Tannenbaum perrytannenbaum@gmail.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS • Erin Tracy-Blackwood, Allison Braden, Catherine Brown, Konata Edwards, Jeff Hahne, Vanessa Infanzon, Alison Leininger, Ari LeVaux, Kia O. Moore, Grey Revell, Dan Savage, Debra Renee Seth, Aerin Spruill,

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

A MEMBER OF:

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Dance into 2018 at Knocturnal’s b-boy and b-girl cypher on January 1. A pot worth over $200 is at stake.

PHOTO BY BRIAN TWITTY.

We put out weekly 8

NEWS&CULTURE FORGING AHEAD Three news stories to pay attention to in 2018 BY RYAN PITKIN 7 EDITOR’S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 10 THE BLOTTER BY RYAN PITKIN 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

FOOD&DRINK WHAT’S ON THE MENU Three new Charlotte spots where you can drink up or chow down in 2018

BY MARK KEMP, RYAN PITKIN

14 16 18

13 LOCAVORE-ISH BY ARI LEVAUX

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK NEW YEAR’S EVE GUIDE 2017

MUSIC BLA/ALT FEST RETURNS, RAP FEST DEBUTS New year promises another explosion of homegrown music

BY MARK KEMP 22 SOUNDBOARD

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT MORE OF THE SAME, DONE DIFFERENTLY Three arts happenings

make a return in 2018 BY PAT MORAN

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

GO TO CLCLT.COM FOR VIDEOS, PODCASTS AND MORE!

COVER DESIGN BY DANA VINDIGNI

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NEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

A YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY Charlotte poised to take even more risks in 2018 From January 2017 forward, CL would cover only news and arts coming out of Charlotte. me, as a Charlottean in 2017, came on the There would be no big stories on national night of November 7, when Creative Loafing issues or national artists, musicians or other news editor Ryan Pitkin reported live via figures. There was enough new coming out of Twitter from VBGB that Braxton Winston Charlotte to fill our editorial spaces. and several other young candidates had been One year later, I am happy to report that elected to the Charlotte City Council along our experiment has not only been successful, with new mayor Vi Lyles, the first black but it’s been deeply satisfying, as 2017 was a woman ever to hold that position. watershed year in our city. All of the stored“Here at VBGB, the spotlight is on new up energy, emotion and feelings that had At-Large Charlotte City Council elect @ driven the activism around HB2 and the BraxtonWinston,” Ryan tweeted. Keith Scott uprising were funneled into art CNN would later weigh in with a and civic engagement that will have a longnational online story that referenced the lasting impact on Charlotte. iconic photograph of Winston from the 2016 Singer-songwriter LeAnna Eden’s uprising that followed the police shooting of “Protest Song” and Marcus Kiser and Jason Keith Lamont Scott: Woodberry’s multimedia visual art project “Last September, Winston was the center Intergalactic Soul both had been born out of a dramatic photo from Charlotte, North of the ongoing police violence against Carolina, showing him shirtless and black people across the country with his fist raised, facing a line that had preceded the Scott of police wearing riot gear shooting, and both took on and holding batons. Soon, added poignancy in the though, he’ll be joining the wake of the 2016 uprising. Charlotte City Council And then there were ... And the path that led the young social justice him to the council began activists — Ash Williams, specifically on September Bree Newsome, Winston 20, 2016, the night that and so many others. photo was taken.” Like superheroes, they “My life changed [that swooped down and took day],” Winston told CNN. MARK KEMP control at demonstrations, “That day, the history of public forums, city council Charlotte changed.” meetings and radio talk shows. Charlotte’s history continued Other young Charlotteans rallied in to change throughout 2017, and Creative support of those activists, and when election Loafing has documented those changes not time came around in November, it was young only in the city’s leadership, but also in its people who helped several of them, including arts, music, theater, film and food. Winston, gain positions of power in the city. A year ago this past month I returned Artists — particularly artists of color to Charlotte after a few years away on the — have made civic engagement a big part West Coast. During the previous year, I’d of their works, blending social issues such followed all the drama going on here — the as housing, hunger, education, race, gender HB2 fiasco, the Keith Scott killing and the and voting rights into stunning works of subsequent uprising that thrust Winston visual art, theater, music and even food. In into the national spotlight. I saw images not November, photographer Jonathan Cooper just of Winston, but of hundreds of young partnered with local artists and a chef to Charlotteans making their voices heard, create Feast Your Eyes, which brought artists marching in the streets, getting involved in and foodies together in a novel setting. politics, and creating great art and music “We’re taking a seat at the table, that directly addressed the issues that interacting with each other and conversing led to the drama. Those activities are not about how Charlotte is progressing or not, uncommon in other major cities I’ve lived and having that conversation over the art of in, but they weren’t things I associated with food,” painter Georgie Nakima told CL. “I’m Charlotte. Living here in earlier years, I had so excited.” not seen such a high level of passion from so We’re excited, too, and in this first issue many young and creative people. of the year, we offer a few peeks at what you When I came back as editor of Creative can look forward to in 2018. Happy New Loafing, I called a staff meeting where, Year, Charlotte. Our work has just begun. together, we decided to do a little experiment:

ONE OF THE more exciting moments for

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NEWS

FORGING NEW PATHS

“There’s lots of creativity that has gone into this project, and lots of local talent, so it was great to see all that finally being created and ready in March.”

Three news stories to keep an eye on in 2018 BY RYAN PITKIN

-DIMPLE AJMERA, CHARLOTTE CITY COUNCIL MEMBER So the question remains: When, in March, can we expect to be able to hitch a ride all the way north to south? According to the report, CATS officials say it would be “prudent” to speed up the process a little bit, writing in the report that they should plan for a potentially earlier date for riders than the previously scheduled March 31. Sheldon said she could not comment on the potential for moving up the date, only

The new light rail extenstion is on track to open in March.

that the new route would be opening in March. That’s more than fine with us, as we don’t want anybody rushing through the checks and balances needed to ensure riders’ safety. The contractors kept the construction on track — over the last year, at least — and now all we need, CATS, is for you to actually keep us on the tracks.

RYAN PITKIN

RIGHT ON TRACK

THE DAY WE thought would never come is almost upon us. The Blue Line Extension that will allow passengers to ride from Historic South End through Uptown and now into NoDa and the University area in north Charlotte is set to open on time — and might even open before that, believe it or not. As was pointed out by Andrew Dunn of Charlotte Agenda on Twitter recently, a CATS report published earlier in December made it sound as if the new tracks north of Uptown might be ready to open sooner than expected. Page 28 of the report reads, “CATS evaluated the existing 5-month duration for Pre-Revenue service and determined that the activities required for Pre-Revenue service could be completed within 3 months, by 2/1/18.” Sounds promising, right? But like the Double Rainbow guy once queried, “What does it all mean?” According to CATS spokesperson Juliann Sheldon, just because the tracks are ready for “pre-revenue service” doesn’t mean riders will be hopping on any time before Valentine’s Day. It simply means the contractors in charge of 8 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

building the tracks believe they will be ready to ride by February, but CATS still has work to do to make sure folks can ride the rail safely. “Our contractor did come out and say that their pre-revenue service would be available on February 1,” Sheldon said. “However, CATS does have a certain amount of testing that needs to be done and we need to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed before opening the line to passengers.” We’re all for that, especially considering that the new path resembles a rollercoaster compared to the flat terrain of the existing track between lower South End and Uptown. At-large Charlotte City Council rep Dimple Ajmera is one of the few people who have ridden the new tracks already, and she said the most enjoyable part of it was seeing the art along the new extension. “If you look at each station, we have a local talent that has helped us put public art there, and some students were involved that did participate in these arts projects,” Ajmera said. “There’s lots of creativity that has gone into this project, and lots of local talent, so it was great to see all that finally being created and ready in March.”

RYAN PITKIN

Jason Terrell [left] and Mario Javon Shaw [center] founded Profound Gentlemen in 2014.

STEPPING UP FOR KIDS

HEN WE FIRST met Jason Terrell in October 2015, he and Mario Javon Shaw, the cofounders of educational nonprofit Profound Gentleman, had recently quit their jobs as teachers to work full time on the passion project they had launched in 2014. The organization, which aims to recruit, develop and retain black male teachers —who are sorely lacking in Charlotte and around

the country — was struggling every day to keep afloat. “Before, we were doing a minimum job of trying to provide as much support as we can on a shoestring budget,” Terrell recalls now. “But we’ve been moving in a lot of great directions in the last year in terms of not only funding, but also more importantly the program itself and its impact.” Profound Gentlemen is now working with

“This is when organizations really figure out a sustainability model, figure out their impact and really chart their success for the next 10-plus years.” -JASON TERRELL, CO-FOUNDER, PROFOUND GENTLEMEN 175 teachers in five cities, 60 of whom are in Charlotte. They provide one-on-one coaching, networking opportunities and other services to help their end mission of diversifying the teacher workforce in Charlotte and beyond. However, Terrell knows that even with all his growth, he needs to remain in hustle mode. “This is a critical year for us,” he says. “I’ve always heard the three to five years for nonprofits, people call it Death Valley. This is when organizations really figure out a sustainability model, figure out their impact and really chart their success for the next 10-plus years.” That’s why, in 2018, Profound Gentleman is partnering with SchermCo, a Charlottebased education consulting firm that works on issues like educational inequality on a local and national level. Terrell had known SchermCo founder Greg Schermbeck from the days when they both worked with Teach For America, which sends young teachers into low-income schools. The two also bumped shoulders a few times over the last three years as they addressed educational inequity issues around Charlotte. “He was in the same boat that I was, just starting up, hustling underground,” Terrell says of Schermbeck. “At the time we met we were not in the financial position or even at the program level to begin thinking about this project. But we were able to grow and figure some more things out and get to the point we’re at now.” Now, Schermbeck hopes he can help the staff at Profound Gentlemen up their

game even more using what he refers to as a “clouds and dirt” strategy, chasing goals that may seem like he has his head in the clouds while also working on a grassroots level. As a rhetorical exmaple of the type of work SchermCo will be doing with Profound Gentlemen, Schermbeck said he’d like to map out a plan for Terrell and Shaw to expand the organization to 30 cities in the next 10 years, while also creating a concrete plan of action that can be taken in the coming months to realistically move toward that. Terrell said he’s entering the partnership with hopes of building a stronger board of directors with national representation, setting up a plan of how to go about hiring more staff in the years to come and creating a long-term funding plan to lessen reliance on donations and grants. Schermbeck said he plans to have all of these worked out by July 2018, and help send Profound Gentlemen out of “Death Valley” and into more cities to help the people this was all about in the first place. “At the end of the day, they’re serving teachers, and those teachers are serving kids,” he says. “So we can’t come with some crazy esoteric solution that’s not applicable. That hurts us, it hurts PG, and it doesn’t help the kids and the students that they want to serve. So that’s incredibly important.” We couldn’t think of anything more so.

THE FEDS COME TO CHARLOTTE

N DECEMBER 15, Attorney General Jeff Sessions stood in the offices of Andrew Murray, former Mecklenburg County District Attorney and President Trump’s new U.S. attorney for Western North Carolina, and announced that Charlotte would be one of the first American cities where he will implement one of his new federal violent crime task forces. Sessions referenced the rising violent crime rate in Charlotte and in other cities around the country, then announced that his agents would be working alongside local law enforcement agencies to help combat it, while not getting specific about the tactics that would be used to do so. “I’m not going to accept the rising crime rate, I know you’re not,” Sessions said to the room full of local, state and federal law enforcement representatives. “Plain and simple, you and I are not going to allow the progress made by our men and women in blue over the past two decades to simply slip through our fingers today. We will not cede a community, a block or a street corner to violent thugs or drug dealers.” The language was reminiscent of the dog-whistle racist language used in “tough

RYAN PITKIN

Family and friends release balloons at a memorial service for 14-year-old Taylor Smith on April 8. Charlotte has seen a spike in homicides and violent crime.

“We’re seen as a city that doesn’t have organized social justice infrastructure, so there won’t be pushback.” -AMALIA DELONEY, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER on crime” speeches by politicians in the past, and the vagueness of the speech left much to be wondered about with regard to how these task forces will be run. Sessions’ speech worried some, like community organizer amalia deloney, who said she was saddened but not surprised that Charlotte was chosen as one of two cities — along with Pittsburgh — where the new task forces would begin their work. “They had to pick a Southern city,” deloney says. “And I think that, unfortunately, within a national conversation, Charlotte feels like a safe city to incubate and develop prototypes for many organizations — government or otherwise — because we’re seen as a city that doesn’t have organized social justice infrastructure, so there won’t be pushback.” In his speech, Sessions referred to a collaboration between federal and local enforcement in May that ended in the arrests of 83 Charlotte-area members of United Blood Nation. “The idea that prosecuting, jailing and

putting in the slammer individuals of these types who pride themselves in violating the law as some sort of hopeless and worthless effort is totally false,” he said. “You can make a difference when you target the most violent criminals and take them off our streets.” The speech, however, came across as hypocritical to deloney, who has watched for years as those who now support Trump’s actions have railed against federal overreach in local issues. “The same people who cried states rights are absent on this conversation,” she said. “They’re more than willing, apparently, to open the door to allow the federal military or police apparatus to come down and deputize local officers to act as federal agents, but in any other conversation they’ll be the first to say, ‘states’ rights, states’ rights, this isn’t your place to operate.’” In 2018, however, Jeff Sessions apparently believes Charlotte will be a place where he can operate. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 9

NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

CHEAP DATE Employees at a Ruby Tuesday

in southwest Charlotte called police recently after a deadbeat Romeo left them high and dry after a date. The reporting staff member told officers that a man and his date came to eat a meal and were there for about two and a half hours, building up a tab of $64.29. The man placed $80 on the table and walked his date out to the car, only for employees to find out soon after that all four bills were counterfeit.

LIFETIME SUPPLY Give a man a fish and

he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. Order a frappe at the local Starbucks, be caffeinated for an hour. Steal a coffee machine from the local Starbucks, stay caffeinated for life. This is the proverb one man was living by when he picked up a $300 Verismo coffee machine from the Starbucks at Morrocroft Village shopping center in south Charlotte and walked right out the door with it. He’ll decide what he calls a goddam medium coffe from here on out.

SLIPPED The typical south Charlotte 911

call came in last week when officers had to reluctantly respond to Blakeney shopping center on a recent afternoon because a woman’s pampering went wrong. The 46-year-old victim filed a report stating that she “received a cut on her cuticle while getting her nails done.”

DRINK UP A 36-year-old woman working at the Park 2300 Apartments in southeast Charlotte had to bear the brunt of a tenant’s anger recently after the latter had been evicted. The victim told police that the tenant came to her office after learning of the eviction and took the victim’s coffee off of her desk and threw it at the victim’s white shirt (doing $30 damage). To literally add insult to injury, the tenant then shattered the victim’s coffee mug on the ground before storming out. THINK FAST A 57-year-old man learned the

hard way that he should probably just mind his business if any fellow Walmart shoppers are getting on his nerves. Police responded to a Walmart on East Independence Boulevard in response to an assault call after the victim, who did not work at the store, said he confronted a stranger about bouncing a basketball in the building. The suspect obliged him by bouncing the ball off of his face instead of the floor, then leaving the store before police could arrive.

MOTHER! ‘Tis the season to get together

with your family and share in yuletide greetings, unless of course your mother recently assaulted you and poured wine on your head. It will make for an awkward holiday

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for one such family living in the University area, after a 17-year-old girl reported to police that her mother punched her in the head and threw a glass of wine on her.

CREDIT REPORT A 29-year-old south

Charlotte man made the horrible realization that his identity was stolen just before Christmas, but after investigating things further, he found that he might set a Blotter record for worst identity theft we’ve ever seen. The victim found that, going all the way back to December 14, 2016, a suspect used his name, addresses (current and former) and Social Security number to open accounts with Verizon; Verizon Wireless; Capital One; AT&T; Citibank credit cards; Discover Financial; Fannie Mae; NRRM, LLC; GE Capital, Fifth Third Bank, Barclays Bank, Nationwide Insurance, USAA Federal Savings Bank and Transunion Interactive.

THAT’S THE SECRET We’re not for

profiling of any sort, nor are we for stop and frisk, but it’s safe to say that if you’re a teen carrying a shit ton of weed around in a backpack at 1 a.m., you’re not really fooling anyone by using a backpack that depicts a kids’ movie. Police in the Boulevard Homes neighborhood in west Charlotte recently arrested two juveniles after finding out that they were holding live ammunition and $5,400 worth of a “green leafy substance” (what police call weed until they’re able to officially test it) in a backpack that depicted the kid’s movie Secret Life of Pets.

SWORD AND SHIELD Police responded to a bank robbery in Dilworth recently that was carried out with what seems to be improvised weapons. Witnesses told officers that a man walked into PNC Bank on East Boulevard holding a rod and grabbed a customer, then used that person as a human shield while demanding money from the teller. The suspect made off with an unlisted amount of money, but was not as clever with his getaway, as he was arrested a short distance from the bank. UNEMPLOYABLE

A 23-year-old woman filed a police report recently after a man seeking employment proved himself unemployable when he was not even able to keep it in his pants for the extent of a job interview. The woman, who works for an employment agency in Uptown, said she was speaking with the man about potential jobs over Skype at around 11:30 a.m. when he suddenly began masturbating. This is one of those reports where if the police actually named the suspect, we’d have been more than happy to publish his name. All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WERID

COMPELLING EXPLANATIONS A Tesla

showroom in South Salt Lake, Utah, was the nexus of four different arrests on Nov. 24, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, in which at least two of the suspects claimed to be part of the Tesla “family.” (The car company is named after inventor Nikola Tesla, not a family owner.) In the first arrest, a Tesla pulled up behind a Utah Highway Patrol car at a stoplight, and the officer noticed that Driver No. 1 was acting “suspicious.” When the officer pulled him over, the 24-yearold driver said a man he hardly knew gave him the car and keys to three other Teslas. When the officer and driver returned to the showroom, it had been burglarized, but Driver No. 1 explained that the burglary had occurred before he got to the dealership, so he felt he was allowed to take the vehicle and keys. Area officers were alerted, and 31-yearold Driver No. 2 led troopers on a short chase, until his Tesla’s battery died. Later, Driver No. 3, 19, was pulled over in West Valley, and finally Driver No. 4, a 27-year-old woman, was stopped at a liquor store and told police a man named Tesla had given her the car. “We are still trying to sort this out,” said South Salt Lake Police spokesman Gary Keller. “We actually have two people claiming their name is Tesla and a family member died and left them these cars. It’s one of those cases where you just have to scratch your head and say, ‘Really?’”

NEWS THAT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE

Arielle Bonnici, 26, of Huntington, New York, responsibly arrived at the Northport Police Department and Village Justice Court on Dec. 4 to answer a summons issued in May for possession of marijuana. But before she could even park her car, Bonnici, who was on her phone, attracted the attention of officers by cutting off an unmarked police vehicle and wheeling into the spot reserved for the chief of police. The Long-Islander News reported that when officers approached the car and Bonnici rolled down her window, a cloud of marijuana smoke poured out, and she was promptly arrested for possession again, along with getting a ticket for using her cellphone while driving. She was able to kill two buds, er, birds, with one stone and appear before the court for both charges.

CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU Meanwhile,

in Newberry, South Carolina, 31-year-old Franklin Dell Hayes of Midlands appeared on Dec. 6 at his trial for his third charge of possession of methamphetamines. As the first day of the trial came to a close, The State reports, Hayes was ordered into custody, but when Newberry County sheriff’s deputies searched him before locking him up, they found four grams of meth in his pants pocket. Without knowledge of the new meth

discovery, the jury sentenced Hayes to nine years in prison.

QUESTIONABLE JUDGMENT Popeye’s preferred diet of spinach to pump up his biceps had to be healthier than what a Russian man has been injecting. Kirill Tereshin, 21, from Pyatigorsk in southwestern Russia, concocts a dangerous muscle-enhancing solution of olive oil, lidocaine and benzyl alcohol and injects it into his arm muscles, resulting in “bazooka” arms that doctors say may become paralyzed or even have to be amputated. Tereshin has so far used 6 liters of the fluid, and his biceps measure 23 inches, but he plans to continue injecting until they reach 27 inches. “I would like to get more than 1 million subscribers on Instagram and to stop working,” Tereshin told the Daily Mail. He’s considering an offer to become a porn star. “I love to be recognizable.” WHAT COULD GO WRONG? It was all

fun and games until a drunk, naked man and his (also naked) companion crashed into a tree near La Grande, Washington, on Nov. 22. Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Brooke Bova told The Olympian that the couple were engaging in intercourse when the driver missed a curve and left the highway. The woman was hospitalized with broken bones, but her 3-month-old child was unhurt in the backseat. The driver, who has three prior DUI convictions, was charged with felony driving under the influence, vehicular assault and endangering a child.

to nine pacifiers. But when Rispoli opened up Dovey to remove them, he found 21 binkies. Turns out, Dovey was taking the pacifiers off the kitchen counter. “We’ve had corn cobs and socks and panties and things like that, but never 21 binkies,” noted Rispoli.

THE VOICES IN OUR HEADS In Parkland, Washington, state troopers and Pierce County Sheriffs officers responded to a call on Nov. 25 about a man who had stopped his SUV in the middle of an intersection and was waving around an AK-47 and screaming about “lizard people.” The 54-year-old Eatonville man obeyed when officers ordered him to lie on the ground, but resisted being handcuffed until officers tased him. He told them he had “snorted methamphetamine to lose weight” and that President Donald Trump had called his home to warn him that the lizard people were coming and his family members were already being held hostage by the “alpha dragon,” according to The News Tribune. “The lizard people are real,” he told police, explaining that he wanted to attract attention

so that his “story could be documented for history.”

YIKES! Claudell Curry, 82, and his wife,

Odell Marie, 83, heard a loud crashing noise as they watched TV in their San Bernardino, California, home on the evening of Dec. 10. Imagine their surprise when it was NOT Santa Claus, but instead a block of ice the size of a car engine, which had torn through their roof and landed on their bed. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said about a similar incident in November that the ice might have dropped off a passenger airliner, having formed after a leak in the galley. Neither of the Currys was hurt, but “We shiver every time we think we could have been in bed,” Claudell told The San Bernardino Sun. COPYRIGHT 2017 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

AWESOME! Male residents of Ringaskiddy

in Ireland have at least one compelling reason to set down roots there: According to local lore, the nearby Pfizer plant, where Viagra is produced, emits “love fumes” that give men free erections. “One whiff and you’re stiff,” bartender Debbie O’Grady told The Times of London. Pfizer, however, disputes the tales, with a spokesperson saying: “Our manufacturing processes have always been highly sophisticated as well as highly regulated.” Still, locals speak of a baby boom after the plant opened in 1998, and men apparently regularly gather near the facility to inhale the fumes.

ANIMAL ANTICS Dovey the Shar Pei, of Edmond, Oklahoma, might be just a bit jealous of the new baby at his owners’ home. But in a classic passive-aggressive move, he settled on stealing pacifiers. Scott Rogers and his wife noticed that binkies were disappearing, but it wasn’t until Dovey started vomiting and losing weight in early December that they tracked down the lost items. KFOR-TV reports that Dr. Chris Rispoli of Gentle Care Animal Hospital took an X-ray of Dovey’s stomach and saw what he thought were seven CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 11

FOOD

A look at Legion Brewing’s new tap room, set to open in the fall.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOCIALAPE MARKETING

WHAT’S ON THE MENU

Three new Charlotte spots where you can chow down or drink up in 2018 LEGION BREWING CAPITAL TOWERS, 4350 CONGRESS ST.

TANDUR INDIAN KITCHEN 721 GOVERNOR MORRISON ST. Ethnic foods, quick and casual. It’s the model that so many Mexican-themed chain restaurants have adopted, including Charlotte-based Salsarita’s Fresh Mexican Cantina. That’s the business that launched the franchising career of H.P. Patel, a native of Gujarat, India, whose family arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1991, when he was 15. After graduating from the University of Tennessee in 1998, Patel moved to Charlotte but returned to Knoxville shortly thereafter, eventually opening a successful string of Salsarita’s franchises there. Later, Patel opened Tandur Indian Kitchen in Knoxville, with the Salsarita’s model in mind. “It’s fine dining food in a fast casual

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environment, Patel told Knoxville news station WBIR-TV, in February. The offerings won’t necessarily be 100-percent authentic. The Knoxville Tandur includes the Carolina Wrap, a fusion of local barbecue with an Indian twist. “We wanted to do something with barbecue, and we wanted to do something local,” the Knoxville Tandur’s chef, Hari Nayak, told the Knoxville Mercury in December. “So essentially the pork is slow-cooked in Indian spices and we use a tamarind chutney and we blend it with our own recipe for barbecue [sauce].” In 2018, Patel will introduces Tandur to Charlotte gourmands at the restaurnt’s new spot in SouthPark, near the Earth Fare. — Mark Kemp

There’s a new brewery coming to SouthPark in 2018. No, that’s not a typo. We didn’t mean to say South End. SouthPark is finally getting a brewery. In November, the Legion Brewing crew announced they would be opening a second location just two years after opening up its flagship spot in Plaza Midwood. The new location will be an 8,500-square-foot space in the bottom floor of the Capitol Towers office development on Congress Street, just a block from Symphony Park. Legion co-founder Phil Buchy said the decision to open in SouthPark, where he lives, was a mix of luck and planning. He’s kept his eye on the feedback since the announcement a month ago, he said, and it’s gotten him more excited to move into the area professionally. “SouthPark is a vibrant neighborhood and it’s got a lot of great establishments in it. We definitely bring a unique mix to the neighborhood and I think we’re going to get resounding support,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot on social media already, not even our pages but on other neighborhood pages. It makes us happy to see that chatter out there that everybody’s pumped that we’re coming, because we’re pumped to go.” Buchy said he and co-founder Newton

HAYMAKER

POPLAR & 3RD STREET Like so many creatives from New York City, Los Angeles or San Francisco, William Dissen found Asheville to be a hidden Southern gem of a town. The difference between Dissen and most other interlopers is that he’s a native of Appalachia — Charleston, West Virginia, to be exact. After moving to Asheville, Dissen purchased the swanky Market Place restaurant in 2010, employing a farm-totable concept. It went over smashingly, and now Dissen is expanding to Charlotte, where in January he will open Haymaker on

Craver always planned to open a second location at some point, but after Plaza Midwood customers took such a liking to the first brewery, it sped up their process. “It’s been a rocketship ride,” Buchy said. “We’re growing at a 45-degree angle. It’s far exceeded our expectations. We always probably thought that we’d have another location, but having one this fast is just a testament to our staff and the dedication they’re putting into our craft.” That craft won’t be the only thing cooked up at the new SouthPark location, either. Buchy and staff are planning a food menu that includes items like a tender grilled skirt steak sandwich with provolone cheese, tomatoes and lettuce served with steak cut fries; a pepperoni, zucchini and ricotta grilled pizza; and Southern pickled shrimp with cornbread crostinis. It’s only right that they class up the joint a bit for SouthPark. For those who want the place all to themselves, the new location also includes 4,000 square feet of event space, separated into three event rooms available for rent. One room will have its own private patio, while the other two will be located on the Mezzanine level overlooking the brewery and bar area. The party starts in fall 2018. — Ryan Pitkin

the ground floor of the Ascent apartment building in Third Ward. The name Haymaker is a subtle reference to Dissen’s passion for using ingredients sourced from local farms. With a second restaurant in this region of North Carolina, Dissen recently told the Asheville Citizen-Times, “We’ll be sourcing even more sustainable products and, with more mouths to feed, hopefully make the world an even better place. “A lot of farms we source from now come out of the same foodshed anyway,” Dissen added. “Rutherford County is kind of the middle ground between Asheville and Charlotte.” — M.K.

FOOD

RECIPE

LOCAVORE-ISH Get your winter salad on BY ARI LEVAUX

EN YEARS AGO, “locavore” was anointed 2007 word of the year by the Oxford American English Dictionary. Since then the idea of wanting to eat closer to home has only gained traction, which has naturaly invited skepticism. Number-crunchers have found enough cases of it being more carbonfriendly to purchase food from faraway places than closer to home that the locavore case would be sunk, at least if saving the world is the goal. Pierre Desrochers, co-author of Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet, argues that it’s more energy efficient to ship a tomato thousands of miles in winter then to grow one in a heated greenhouse close to home. His calculations miss an important x-factor: few locavores have much interest in a fresh tomato in the middle of winter. They tend to taste like red snowballs. I prefer to put away tomatoes in summer, when they are delicious, cheap and plentiful. Marinated or dried are the best tomatoes for winter salads. Once upon a time, a winter salad didn’t even contain leaves, much less tomatoes, and was made of shredded roots that had been squirreled away during warmer times. Such a meal was originally made possible by the advent of root cellars and other winter storage facilities that kept certain crops cool but not frozen. It wasn’t much, but it was fiber. And given the human habit of eating extra-heavily in winter, fiber was a dietary commodity. Today, at a grocery store or even winter market, it’s possible to easily acquire a rainbow of tubers. I just returned home from the winter market with carrots, purple and white daikon radish and sweet salad turnips and onions. I passed on a bunch of others that I wasn’t feeling, like Jerusalem artichokes and red beets. Nowadays, actual leaves are being grown in unheated greenhouses, as greenhouse innovations have ushered in a winter salad revolution on par with that brought on by the advent of root cellars. My winter market was flush with leaves as well, and cold-weather leaves are a special sort, with lower water content then their summer counterparts, to avoid freezing. Stunted by cold like alpine shrubs, they are dense in body and larger than life in flavor. Sure, you can buy kale or lettuce from afar and not feel guilty, but nor would you feel pleasure. Regardless of the means by which you acquire your winter greens, I’m going to present you with a salad that will make you

miss summer not one bit. The first step in many great winter salad recipes is to prepare an onion, by cutting and marinating it, which turns a spicy onion sweet and makes a delicious dressing that doubles as an onion salad. Slice the ends off a yellow onion, and then slice it end to end. Pull the peel off, lay the flat (cut) sides of the onions on the cutting board, and slice thinly, along the endto-end axis, from one side of the onion to the other. Leave the slices like this, or gather the onion halve back together and slice again crosswise, which will result in confetti-sized pieces. Marinate one onion in enough lime juice and/or white balsamic and olive oil to cover it, with grated garlic and salt to taste. With this onion dressing, you have options — winter salad options. If you want an old-school shredded salad, trim and wash some shreddable vegetables, peeling any that could use it, and then thickly grate the stuff, roots mostly, but maybe cabbage, into a bowl. If you are unsure about the flavor of the roots, or the proportions in which they should be used, start by shredding a representative sample of each item you plan on grating, and do a test batch. If you want more hand-holding, start with a combination of coarsely grated carrot and finely grated garlic, a combination that, as I learned in Siberia, definitely works. I’ll never forget my first carrot salad, with salt, fried trout and mayo. No tomatoes, no leaves, no olive oil, but it was a meal fit for Caesar. Starting there, you can grate in yellow or white beet, a mild radish like daikon, and salad turnips if you can find them. Mix the shreds and see how they taste together, then dress it. One option is to add a few tablespoon of toasted sesame oil and a teaspoon of soy sauce to dress up these shreds. Toasted sesame seeds go well here, too, as a replacement for sesame oil. Then mix with the onions. Alternatively, skip the soy and sesame, and just mix the shreds with onion dressing. And if cabbage is what you’re grating, a dressing of garlic, lime, mayo, shredded Parmesan and a shot of Worcestershire sauce will give it a creamy, vaguely Caesarian flare. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 13

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Naughty Professor SATURDAY

PHOTO COURTESY OF NAUGHY PROFESSOR

FRIDAY

BELK BOWL

MICS & MOCHAS

10TH LETTER, GHOST TREES

What: He may not live here anymore — in fact, he now lives 3,000 miles away — but Case Federal is as Charlotte as it gets. Daddy Lenny is a musical legend ’round town, and grandma Mary Virginia is the longtime Queen of St. Patrick’s Day. Federal will reunite his Agents for a show that’ll bring out old friends and bizarro songs like “Onward, Thru the Cold.” As is usual for a Rabbit Hole show, we have no idea how much it’ll cost you.

What: The Wake Forest Demon Deacons (7-5) will be making the trip down from Winston Salem for the first time in 10 years to play in the Belk Bowl — it was called the much clunkier Meineke Car Care Bowl then — to take on the Texas A&M Aggies (7-5), a team that finds itself in an awkward position for its last game of 2017. The Aggies fired head coach Kevin Sumlin earlier this month and hired Jimbo Fisher, leaving interim coach Jeff Banks with a chance at a bowl victory landing right in his lap.

What: ICYMI, the exceedingly cool new feminist shop Comic Girl Coffee & Books launched an openmic night last Friday, encouraging marginalized folks to come in and strut their stuff. Bring your guitar and songbook, your poems, your art or whatever helps you find your voice. It’s hosted by poet, lyricist and comic geek Hydra. Oh, and by the way, Comic Girl wants you to know that “mic is a micstand, not a man named Mike. So if you’re looking for Mike, look elsewhere.”

What: Hard to top the eclectic lineup at CUSP Vol. 4: Jeremi Johnson, aka 10th Letter, is an Atlanta-based Afro-futurist who combines visual arts with electronics, found sounds and live instrumentation to create an experimental experience. Ghost Trees is, of course, Charlotte’s premiere free-jazz outfit. And Quisol is a relative newcomer to the scene, blending Latin- and jazztinged music with a provocative, activist zeal. Also on the bill: the dark tones of Brother Aten and whimsical sounds of Zodiac Lovers.

When: 8 p.m. Where: Rabbit Hole, 1821 Commonwealth Ave. More: $??. therabbitspot.com

When: 1 p.m. Where: Bank of America Stadium, 800 S. Mint St. More: $38 and up. belkbowl.com

When: 7 p.m. Where: Comic Girl Coffee, 516 E. 15th St, #13A More: $5. comicgirlcoffee.com

When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $5. snugrock.com

CASE FEDERAL & THE AGENTS

SATURDAY

FRIDAY

IT’S SNAKES, BUSINESS PEOPLE What: Charlotte’s It’s Snakes — featuring ex-Fetchin Bones/ Snagglepuss members Hope Nicholls and Aaron Pitkin — have been sharing bills with a wide variety of musical acts this month. Last week they slithered onto a bill with Mt. Holly singer-songwriter David Childers; this week the band plays with indie-pop rockers The Business People. At this rate, who knows? It’s Snakes may be opening for Tony Bennett when he performs at Ovens Auditorium in March. When: 9 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $8. petrasbar.com

On Thursday, December 28, check CLCLT.com for episode 22 of our Local Vibes podcast, featuring Dréa Atkins of Farewell Albatross and School of Rock alongside Johnny Moss of Dirty South Revolutionaries. 14 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

JJ Grey SUNDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Shen Yun SATURDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF SHEN YUN

PHOTO OURTESY OF THE FILLMORE

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

NAUGHTY PROFESSOR

SHEN YUN

JJ GREY AND MOFRO

NEW YEAR’S DAY PARTIES

What: It’s not unusual for a group of New Orleans musicians touring the South to be called “iconoclasts,” so we were skeptical when we heard the same about this sextet. But these guys have the skill to back up, and the friends to lend them cred; Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na, New Orleans legend Ivan Neville and David Shaw of the Revivalists all make contributions to NP’s newest album, Identity, and this ID isn’t fake. Catching them for free in Charlotte is a treat.

What: Nothing exceeds like excess, and that’s what Shen Yun delivers — a lavish spectacle boasting a full orchestra, battalions of dancers and bedazzling costumes. It’s a nostalgic recreation of classical Chinese dance, music and stagecraft – ancient art forms almost wiped out in Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Sure this is cultural tourism, but it’s kind of like seeing the Lincoln memorial. What seems hokey at first turns out to be pretty damn cool.

What: Breweries are inherently bad places for a rad New Year’s Eve party, but they’ve certainly got you covered for the next day’s recovery. Legion Brewing is serving up free bowls of its Pass the Luck chili with cornbread, while Birdsong Brewing Co. will be all about the hair of the dog with the new release of Puppies on Penguins 16-ounce cans, Jalapeno Pale Ale “Bloody beers,” and “beermosas.”

When: 9 p.m. Where: Heist Brewery, 2909 N. Davidson St. More: Free. naughtyprofessormusic.com

When: 9 p.m. Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. More: $80 and up. blumenthalarts. org

What: JJ Grey’s bourbon-smooth croon is equal parts Joe Cocker and Otis Redding, capable of belting out a Muscle Shoals-style R&B hip-shaker or drawling out a poetic slice of rolling soul. Grey, the only constant in an ever-shifting Mofros line-up, draws on his north Florida upbringing to spin tales of a mythic, sometimes unhinged South backed by what he calls “Lochloosa,” a blend of rootsy rock ‘n’ roll, front-porch country and gospel funk. It’s the kind of stuff that gets called “swampy,” and Grey is a pro at it. When: 8 p.m. Where: Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St, More: $42.50. fillmorenc.com

When: Birdsong, 10 a.m.; Legion, Noon Where: Birdsong, 1016 N. Davidson St.; Legion, 1906 Commonwealth Ave. More: Free. birdsongbrewing.com, legionbrewing.com

MONDAY

KNOCTURNAL DANCE CYPHER What: The first Monday of each month brings b-boys and b-girls to Snug Harbor for Knocturnal’s dance cyphers, but since it’s landed on the first day of the year for the first time in Knocturnal history, the crew decided to ring it in right. Jeremy Havikoro heads up what organizers are calling the biggest lineup for a b-boy/girl cypher ever seen in the Carolinas. Havikoro, BoxWon and Frantic will be judging — and dancing — for a pot that begins at $200 and will only grow from there. When: 9 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $2. snugrock.com

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NEW YEAR’S EVE GUIDE Things to do as 2017 approaches BY STAFF

EVERY NEW YEAR’S EVE folks rush to figure out what they want to do. Usually the choice is between doing it big out on the town or staying indoors — preferably at a house party. No matter what you choose, just remember to drink responsibly (if you do at all). It’s OK to go into 2018 with a hangover, but you don’t want to go into the New Year with a record. (It’s also OK to go into it without a hangover.) We’ve put together a list of some of the New Year’s Eve parties happening in the Charlotte area. Scan these offerings for an event that appeals to you — whether it’s the usual drinking-intensive shenanigans or something a little different. CLT New Year’s Eve: Center City Partners always hosts a lit New Year’s Eve, meaning they light up the crown before setting off a shit-ton of fireworks beginning at midnight. Before that, expect live music from Sol Fusion and food vendors and trucks. Pro tip: tuck away a flask, keep yourself warm. Free. All ages. Romare Bearden Park, 300 S. Church St. charlottecentercity.org Coyote Bash: Two-step into the new year at Charlotte’s favorite country nightclub. Besides the typical champagne toast, they’ll be handing out $1,200 in cash and prizes throughout the night, and the Coyote Joe’s house band Out of the Blue goes on at 9 p.m. $12. 18 years old and up. 7 p.m.-2 a.m. Coyote Joe’s, 4621 Wilkinson Blvd. coyote-joes.com Upscale New Year’s Eve Bash: Upscale Entertainment hosts a party for the grown folks at Morehead Tavern, and you better dress to impress or you’re not getting in. Bump into 2018 with music from Ken “DJ

16 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Khaos” Padgett. $20. 30 years old and up. 10 p.m. Morehead Tavern, 300 E. Morehead St. moreheadtavern.com New Year’s Eve at Essex: You might balk at $75-per-person-plus-gratuity, but there’s an open bar — yes, all you can drink. Just try to be responsible, you don’t want to start the new year with regrets. Also, a world cuisine buffet, live DJ and champagne toast. $92.25. 10:30 p.m.-2 a.m. Essex Bistro, 101 S. Tryon St., Suite 14. essexnc.com New Year’s on the Rooftop: Just the name of this one makes us want to run inside to the warmth, but have no fear, the space at Rooftop 210 will be covered and heated. All-inclusive tickets included access to the appetizer buffet, drinks and the photo booth (You still have to pay for the Red Bull), and maybe that’s why they’re already sold out. However, there are still tables for eight available for around $1,000. $1,045 for a table. Single tickets sold out. 9 p.m.-1:30

a.m. Rooftop 210, 210 E. Trade St. tinyurl.com/ Rooftop2018

Midnight. Georges Brasserie, 4620 Piedmont Row Dr., Suite 110. georgesbrasserie.com

Catawba Brewing Bash: You won’t be blackout drunk on vodka Red Bulls before midnight if you just kick it at the brewery with some of the 20 unique beers on tap in this Belmont brewery, and pair them up with some of the great food being catered by Fresh Med. DJ Bryson Rider will be on hand, and don’t forget the champagne toast at midnight (like literally, you will remember it this year). Free. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Catawba Brewing Co. 933 Louise Ave., Suite 105. catawbabrewing.com

Wine Loft New Year’s: Wine don’t dine yourself into 2018 at The Wine Loft in South End, although there’s much more than that. A $50 ticket includes an open bar, midnight toast, party favors and midnight snacks. $50. 8 p.m. The Wine Loft at South End, 2201 South Blvd.

The Chef’s Celebration: Have one last great meal before 2018 at Georges Brasserie, where they’re serving up a four-course chef’s tasting dinner during three different seatings starting at 5:30 p.m. The price goes up as the seatings get later, but maybe that’s because the live music from City Lights Band doesn’t start until 8 p.m. and only the latest seating gets a champagne toast. $55-$75. 5:30 p.m.-

Ikhor’s Annual Bollywood New Year Party: Looking to ring in the new year with a brimful of Asha — the famous Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, that is? She won’t be there, but the snaky sounds of Bollywood music will be, as will be unlimited drinks, an Indian buffet, complimentary masks, party favors, and a live on-screen countdown. $20 (kids) to $169 (family package). 11 p.m. Oasis Shriners, 604 Doug Mayes Pl. tinyurl.com/ NYEbollywood Fiesta Grande: Bring in the new year

Mexican(ish)-style at Vida Vida, where a DJ will be spinning la música fantástica and you’ll be able to nosh on a nacho buffet. At midnight, you get the requisite countdown and Champagne toast. Pura vida vida, folks! $60. 9 p.m.-midnight. Vida Vida, EpiCentre, 210 E Trade St. thevidavida.com Carnivale: SouthEnd Station’s New Year’s Eve party boasts four DJs and live music by the band Pluto for Planet — all packed inside in a massive heated tent. There will be party favors, a food truck, photo booth, champagne toast and more. VIP packages available. $80 and up. 9 p.m. Slate Billiards, 200 East Bland St., eventbrite.com/e/new-years-eve-carnivale Sparkle & Glow New Year’s Eve: Let’s say drinking, puking and hangovers aren’t your thing. Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden’s got you covered. Enjoy a quiet New Year’s Eve with magical lights, live music and a hulahoop performance. Dorky? Sure. But fun? Absolutely. And if you insist on partying, you’ll still have plenty of time to get back home and doll yourself up for the wee hours. $7.95-$12.95. 5-9 p.m. Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, 6500 S. New Hope Rd, Belmont. tinyurl. com/DSsparkle New Years Coin Jam: Let’s say you’re just too nerdy for those swanky Uptown soirees or uber-cool parties in Plaza Midwood. Abari’s got you covered. Spend a night shoving coins in pinball machines and other games and listening to a DJ glide you into the new year with literally lots of bells and whistles. Free (plus however many coins you jam). 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Abari Game Bar, 1721 N Davidson St. The Wild West Barbecue Mystery Dinner Show: This family-friendly mystery dinner theater show is billed as a rip roarin’, foot stompin’, hog wallerin’ time and that’s good enough for us. Apparently the scenario involves the Stankin Horse County Fair and annual Pick-of-the-Pig Prize Pig Judgin’ Contest. We assume that mayhem ensues,

cheap. Topgolf rings in 2018 with everything bedecked in gold — gold balls, gold driving ranges, gold mashie-niblicks! OK, we made up that last one, but this will be a cool party at Topgolf’s restaurant, bar and hightech, arcade-game-style driving range. There will be live entertainment and a special menu, too. $225 and up. 9 p.m., 8024 Savoy Corporate Dr. topgolf.com/NYE

and that the audience must solve a mystery as they tuck into a hearty repast of low country barbeque. $7 and up. 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. NarroWay Theatre, 3327 SC-51, Fort Mill, S.C. narroway.net New Year’s Noir — A Dark Formal Ball: Come to think of it, Bela Lugosi always wore a fancy formal suit in all those Universal Dracula movies. Though we’re past the solstice, and the light has started to return with longer days, we’re still in the dark of the year. Get into your goth attire and elebrate the darkness with DJ Spider and DJ Price. $12. 9 p.m The Milestone Club, 3400 Tuckaseegee Rd. themilestone.club Restorative Deep Stretch featuring Handpan and Native Flute Music: Usher in the new year with love, intention and healing at this event hosted by Wendy Swanson and Greg LaBarbera. Relax and deeply renew yourself with long, supported holds while allowing your senses to be bathed by the meditative sounds of a handpan and flute. Cosmic, baby! $20-25. 6-7:30 p.m. BeYoga Carmel Road, 7510 Pineville-Matthews Rd. clients.mindbodyonline.com Countdown with the Bands: Rock on and ring in the new year with some of Charlotte’s coolest alt-rock acts: Party Battleship, which kicks out an idiosyncratic mix of punk, power pop and new wave, has the most appropriate name for a New Year’s Eve bash. Radio Lola plays a blend of blusy Americana and sensual soul. The Menders specialize in gritty garage folk ‘n’ roll. And despite their name, The Penitentials are not fixated on the sacrament of penance. Free. 8:30 p.m. Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E 36th St., neighborhoodtheatre.com New Year’s Eve at Petra’s: No bells and whistles here, just a nice neighborhood party in Plaza Midwood featuring DJs, good friends and plenty of booze. Free, 9 p.m. 1919 Commonwealth Ave. petrasbar.com

CLT New Year’s Eve (formerly First Night Charlotte): The mama of all CLT New Year’s Eve bashes, this one is a decadeslong tradition. Never done it before? Well, then, come on out to Romare Bearden Park in Uptown and sway along with the Sol Fusion Band, other singers and dancers, DJs, circus performers — the works. Bring the family, eat food from local vendors, watch the lighting of the Queen City crown and marvel at the fireworks at midnight Free. 9 p.m.-midnight. Romare Bearden Park. 300 S. Church St.

New Years Eve Bash + Brain Bucket Bock Beer Release: Raise a glass and toast the new year with a glass of small-batch Brain Bucket Bock. The first 60 people to buy a pint at Blue Blazes New Year’s Eve Bash get a free Twilight Smokehouse ticket for NC-style BBQ. Free. Noon-7 p.m. Blue Blazes Brewing, 528 S. Turner Ave. facebook.com/ events/903332236508549 Cocktails and Confetti: This swanky NYE bash is presented by Sportslink and features hors d’oeurves stations, the obligatory champagne toast at midnight, cocktails, music and ripped up little bits of paper! VIP packages available. $100 and up. 9:30 p.m. Ink and Ivey, 222 South Church St. nyepartycharlotte.com New Years Eve 2018 at Topgolf: If you just can’t get enough golf, this is the New Year’s Eve party for you, although it ain’t

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 17

BLA/ALT FEST RETURNS, RAP FEST DEBUTS

SPOTLIGHT Lofidels Demonstration Full-length album, due February 22, 2018 (self-release)

New year promises another explosion of homegrown music BY MARK KEMP

HE YEAR 2017 has been

nothing short of spectacular for Charlotte’s various music scenes. From intimate, eclectic showcases of area rock, hip-hop and singer-songwriter fare at Petra’s, to Snug Harbor’s monthly local-music residencies, to the free-jazz and poetry of Brent and Amy Bagwell’s “Antidote” series, to all-day festivals such as the Bla/Alt black alternative music fest at Camp North End, Charlotte has offered a kaleidoscope of musical choices over the past year. Fans of all kinds of adventurous music couldn’t have been bored in 2017 unless they chose to only attend the vanilla music events that The Charlotte Observer enumerated in its recent list of 10 favorite concerts of the year, which included such mind-numbing buzzkills as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Guns ’n Roses. The big question for folks who flocked to those events: Why? Why would you pay top dollar for bad seats at concerts by has-been national rock acts when there was so much great local music in Charlotte clubs and at festivals throughout the past year? This week, 2017 comes to an end and a new year is on the horizon. We talked to numerous local artists and bands about their plans for 2018, and if the response is any indication, the city is gearing up for yet another explosion of music. It may even be a more powerful explosion than last year’s. We’re pretty sure there will be more local music coming than what we’ve surveyed here, so stay tuned to Creative Loafing for updates throughout the year.

WHEN ALL THE party baloons have

popped and noisemakers silenced across Charlotte after New Year’s Eve celebrations, the new year proper will kick off January 11 at Camp North End, where Simon Yemane’s Umbrellamindz music collective and studio will launch a new monthly house mixer at the collective’s HQ, featuring DJ MB. The collective also has a slate of releases planned throughout the year — the solo debut of head engineer SLP Da KING (producer 18 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Amigo’s long-awaited album And Friends. of Charlotte teen rapper Ahmir the King’s album) in mid-February, and later the debut of another young new rapper, PIGG. “He’s a YFN Lucci-type artist,” Yemane says of PIGG — meaning, we assume, that he’s a little rappy and a little singy. On January 26, Charlotte country-rock outfit Amigo will release its long-awaited third album, And Friends, which was produced by Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, R.E.M.) at his Fidelitorium studio in Kernersville. The album, says Slade Baird, Amigo’s singer, songwriter and guitarist, comes out on the band’s own Carlisle Beauregard Records, “with U.S. distribution via RedEye, which is exciting because [that means] it’ll actually be in record stores.” Amigo will perform a release party the following night at Snug Harbor along with two other local acts, Sinners & Saints and It’s Snakes. On Febuary 2, Quisol, one of the up-andcoming local bands spotlighted in Creative Loafing’s July music issue, will release its debut EP, The World Keeps Turning, which combines Quisol’s political activism with its Latin-and jazz-tinged sound. To the band’s growing base of fans, lead man Joseph Samuel Quisol expresses gratitude. “Thank you for supporting Quisol, Queen’s Collective, and the creative energy that thrives in the local scene,” he says. “You have fed me, given me a stage to perform, and provided listening ears. Together, we’ve thrown electric events, done photo shoots, jammed out, danced, celebrated, marched, organized, protested, cried, moved out, moved in — and loved. And through it all, the band and I have been working on this EP, which we’re excited to finally release.” Also in February, Yung Citizen drops his first full-length album, Millennial. The producer and rapper says the material on the followup to his 2016 EP Alive Sessions covers all the bases of what it’s like to be a young adult living and working in America circa now — or, as he puts it, “the good, the bad and the ugly of being a millennial.”

Lofidels is the one-man project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Lenny Muckle, who charged up the Bla/Alt black alternative festival this past October with an early-afternoon performance that held the small but growing crowd in rapture. The music was angry, vulnerable, poetic — and totally his own. Muckle’s sound is like nothing else, and yet his marriage of punk and electronics has a familiar feel. The spare and seductive, bassfueled tracks on Lofidels’ two EPs, Correspondence (2015) and Fiberglass (2017), and full-length Glass Cannon (2016) knocked us out here at Creative Loafing HQ in early 2017, so we rushed a story on him for our July music issue. What’s more, the storytelling in Muckle’s songwriting provides little driveway moments when you’re listening in the car. Since the music issue came out, we’ve been bugging Muckle about a Lofidels’ followup, so we’ll have reason do a larger story on him in 2018. So look for one early in the year, after Demonsration hits the streets. We’ll be marching alongside him, holding signs in support of oppressed Lofidels fans everywhere. — M.K.

In early spring, electronic soundscape artist Angela Saylor (aka Minthill) will release Funeral Home, her first full-length album after dribbling out stunning tracks of melancholic beauty sporadically througout the 2000s and 2010s. The album, Saylor says, “continues to delve into Minthill’s dark world, with themes such as ghost towns and witchcraft, maintaining [an] emphasis on classical compositions, electronic drum beats and reverb-saturated vocals.” Someone at a recent performance noted that Minthill’s music was reminiscent of si-fi classic Blade Runner, although Saylor says the film Liquid Sky has been a bigger inspiration. In June, Minthill will hit the road with Unicorns in the Snow, the project of Midwestern performance artist Julia Vering, Saylor’s former partner in the Pacific Northwest indie band Muneca Chueca. March finds Charlotte Americana outfit The New Familiars returning to the studio for their first album of new material since the band announced in 2015 that it was calling it quits. On March 16, the New Familiars

Lofidels’ Lenny Muckle at the Bla/Alt Festival in 2017.

PHOTO BY MARK KEMP

will do a special collaborative show at the Neighborhood Theatre with former Muddy Waters guitarist Bob Margolin, who’s “become more than a friend to us over the past couple years,” says New Familiars multi-instrumentalist Justin Fedor, “he’s become family. “We’re planning on doing a set of our music, having Bob do a set of his own, and then we’ll do a set together,” Fedor adds. “On top of all of that, Birdsong Brewery will be brewing a special beer themed around Muddy Waters.” Later in March, rapper Black Linen returns with Black Linen III, which he plans to unveil during an ambitious release party at Petra’s on March 23 followed by a listening party the next day at DuppNSwat on Central Avenue. “The listening and release parties are the real weight of the project,” Black Linen says. “It’s a total package focusing on marketing, promotion, advertisement, creativity, songwriting, orchestration, direction, aesthetics, choreography and more — all the things I want to eventually do for other artists.” Look to CL for more details on Black Linen’s multidisciplinary plans beginning in early Feburary. Charlotte experimental musicianaround-town Bo White’s TKO Faith Healer — whose angular art-rock is reminiscent of such British agit-pop bands of the ’70s and ’80s as the Fall, Wire and Gang of Four — has a new self-released digital EP slated for a March release. It’s the followup to Spoke, TKO’s 6-song EP of 2016. The members of Charlotte indie-punk band Late Bloomer still haven’t firmed up a release date or title (which we reported in November was tentatively called Let’s Get Weird) for their third album and first for indie label 6131 Records. But bassist Josh Robbins says it’ll be coming during the first quarter of the year. Robbins’ other band, Alright, with

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his wife and Self Aware Records co-owner Sarah Blumenthal, also will be recording and releasing a new album in 2018. Exotica music-meisters Don Telling’s Island Mysteries will release its self-titled debut on April 1. Expect dazzling special effects from the Mysterious Ones reminiscent of such tiki classics as Martin Denny’s Exotica series of the late 1950s, and the Esquivel compilation Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, released during the exotica revival of the mid-’90s. Later in April — on 4/20, appropriately enough — stoner rapper HighImRy will drop a new record, the follow-up to his self-

Patois Counselors

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titled album of 2015 and his EP F(ry)day of the same year. The following day, on April 21, rapper Tizzy Farragami of Th3 Higher will stage his maiden New Era Hip-Hop Festival at the New Era Music House on Old Concord Road, featuring 50 rappers including locals Railz the Principle, LaLa Specific, NiGE Hood and lots more. April is shaping up to be a big month for hip-hop in Charlotte, as Umbrellamindz’ Yemane plans to launch a weekly open-mic cypher April 6 on the patio of the collective’s Camp North End facility. He plans to continue the event through summer every Friday between 7 and 11 p.m.

PHOTO BY JEFF HOWLETT

SPOTLIGHT Patois Counselors Proper Release Full-length album, due June 2018 (Negative Jazz Records) Bo White is spare with his words, and maybe that’s because his music — wildly eclectic, ranging from solo acoustic fare to the noisy, atonal experimental rock he’s done in bands from Calabi Yau to his most recent PatoisCounselors — does the talking for him. But White’s fellow local musicians don’t hesitate to champion one of Charlotte’s most talented, adventurous and inventive players. One of them, Brett Green of Mineral Girls, can’t wait to hear the Counselors’ upcoming full-length debut. “i’ve been waiting for this aptly named record for a while now,” Green says. “if there is one Charlotte band i always wanted to be in, it’s Patois Counselors. The evolution of the lineup and the sound has been incredible to watch.” Indeed it has. From the band’s terrific debut 4-song 7-inch EP to its recent Snug Harbor residency, Patois Counselors has become a well-oiled machine, encompassing everything that’s great about all of White’s projects, from the lurching guitars and odd time signatures of Calabi Yau to the angular agit-pop and punk of his band TKO Faith Healer to the little electronic and jazz flourishes he’s put to numerous other projects. Patois Counselors tied it all together on the EP, and we’re champing at the bit in anticipation of the band’s proper release. We’re pretty sure it’s going to be a stunner. — M.K.

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 19

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SPOTLIGHT LeAnna Eden Ease Your Soul, Chapman Full-length album, due May 2018 (Self-release) When this former acoustic indie-folk singer-songwriter plugged in and cranked up the volume on LeAnna Eden and the Garden Of’s self-titled 2017 EP, the results were outstanding. One of the better releases that came out of Charlotte in 2017, LETGO’s EP featured distorted guitars in the angry “Dirty Water,” funky riffage in “Walk Away” and simmering intensity in the darkly sublime “Secrets.” The EP was so good that Creative Loafing’s critics voted LeAnna Eden and the Garden Of “Best Band” in our 2017 Best of Charlotte issue in October. That’s why LETGO’s full-length followup, Ease Your Soul, Chapman, is one of the releases we’re looking forward to the most in 2018. “This full-length album is a letter, a reflection, a moment of mindful awarenes of a new beginning,” Eden tells us, offering a very sober assessment of the music before obliterating all that seriousness with characteristically dry humor: “I hope my mom gets to hear this.” — M.K.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS coming from the

Charlotte music scene next year: * Justin Fedor continues his bi-annual Tribute Concerts to Benefit Levine Children’s Hospital in 2018, with the next installment coming this summer. The theme for that event isn’t nailed down yet, but Fedor and company are leaning towards paying tribute to women in music. Let’s hope for a gaggle of great songs from artists ranging from Grace Slick to Grace Jones, Patti LaBelle to Patti Smith, and Lady Soul Aretha Franklin to Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. * On October 20, LeAnna Eden will unveil the second Bla/Alt Black Alternative Music Festival at Camp North End. * Singer Kevin “Mercury” Carter will release his full-length deut album, MercuryCarter, by fall or winter of 2018, and promises that it will be “an out-of-body experience for all lovers of good music.” * Power-pop queen Shalini returns to the studio with her band Party Battleship for a second album, slated for a fall release. * Justin Fedor’s other band, Ancient Cities, plans to release a new album in 2018, and Fedor says it will be a “100-percent DIY” endeavor — recorded at home, “uninhibited

20 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTO BY JONATHAN COOPER LeAnna Eden by budget, time or label influences.” * The Business People will be adding a new member to the band after the loss of second guitarist Will Schoonmaker to Cuzco last year. BP guitarist Nic Robinson says the group hopes to release new music by fall. * Latin rockers Chocala head into the studio after their March residency at Snug Harbor, with a new release following soon thereafter. * Brett Green of Mineral Girls has a slew of releases coming from all of his projects — which also includes Blanket Fort and Group Text. “The Blanket Fort album is going to be called In the UFO Over the Sea, and will be out whenever I get to it,” Green says. “The Group Text album is possibly titled No Dude, That Was Their Punk Rock, This is Ours, which also features Cuzco guitarist Arman Serdarević. * Speaking of Cuzco — in early 2018, the Charlotte instrumental math-rock band will release a split record on local indie label Refresh Records along with Charleston’s The Catholics. * The XMen — a supergroup of nationally acclaimed funk, jazz and soul musicians based in Charlotte — will record its debut album in 2017 after performing and recording a live Christmas show in late 2017. The band, whose members have worked with artists ranging from Usher to Diddy, plan to drip out the live tracks digitally throughout 2018. MKEMP@CLCLT.COM

Even your grandma gets it.

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 21

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SOUNDBOARD DECEMBER 28 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Perpetual Groove, Urban Soil (Neighborhood Theatre)

DECEMBER 30

COUNTRY/FOLK

Shen Yun (Belk Theater)

Karla Davis (Evening Muse)

DJ/ELECTRONIC

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL DJ/ELECTRONIC

DJ Matt B (Tin Roof) Le Bang (Snug Harbor)

DJ Matt B (Tin Roof) Tilted DJ Saturday’s: DJ Tookie (Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery)

POP/ROCK

COUNTRY/FOLK

Carmen Tate Solo (Eddie’s Seafood & Raw Bar) Musicians Open Mic hosted by Ryan Happy Hippie. Free. (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Case Federal & The Agents, The Cotones, Crackers & Snackmeat (The Rabbit Hole) Devil’s Hatband, Kevin Marshall, Jordan Middleton (Petra’s) Karaoke (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Leisure McCorkle (Comet Grill) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Ziggy Pockets (RiRa Irish Pub)

Ellie Morgan Album Release Show with Olivia Martin & Chelsea Locklear (Evening Muse) Stoic AF Trio (Primal Brewery)

DECEMBER 29 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant, Charlotte)

COUNTRY/FOLK Folk Soul Revival (Evening Muse) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Matt B (Tin Roof) DJ Method (RiRa Irish Pub)

POP/ROCK After the Rain (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Cusp Vol. 4: 10th Letter, Ghost Trees, Quisol, Brother Aten, Zodiac Lovers (Snug Harbor) Jerry Jacobs Band (Tin Roof) Kairos., Rites to Sedition (Milestone) Lil Skritt, Birds with Teeth, Reaves (The Station) Maytone (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Of Good Nature, Cap’n YumYum (members of OGN and Simplified), Lovely Budz, Resinated (The Rabbit Hole) Perpetual Groove, CBDB (Neighborhood 22 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Theatre) Wicked Powers (RiRa Irish Pub)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Drop !t Featuring Hippie Sabotage (The Fillmore)

POP/ROCK Bask, Modern Primitives, Planet Creep (Snug Harbor) The Business People, It’s Snakes, Mike Strauss (Petra’s) Hipshack (RiRa Irish Pub) Jay Taylor (Tin Roof) Naughty Professor (Heist Brewery) Of Good nature, Crane, Swim In The Wild (The Rabbit Hole) Silver Wings Band (Comet Grill) South Side Punx, The Commonwealth, The Emotron, The Not Likelys (Milestone) Willie Douglas (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)

DECEMBER 31 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Shen Yun (Belk Theater)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Cosmic Gate (World) DJ Raquest (RiRa Irish Pub) New Years Noir-A Dark Formal Ball: DJ Spider, DJ Price (Milestone) NYE Dance Party: Aarodynamics (Lenny Boy Brewing Company) Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK New Year’s Eve Bash (Coyote Joe’s)

SOUNDBOARD POP/ROCK Blue Monday (Tin Roof) Coddle Creek, ESP, The Wormholes, and Little Blue Fish (The Rabbit Hole) DJ RWonz (RiRa Irish Pub) Falconheart (RiRa Irish Pub) JJ Grey & Mofro, Tyler Childers (The Fillmore) NYE 2018 - Countdown With The Bands featuring: Radio Lola, The Menders, The Penitentials, Party Battleship (Neighborhood Theatre) Flights New Years Eve Party(Flight) New Year’s Eve (Howl At The Moon) NYE at Petra’s! (Petra’s) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill)

JANUARY 1 POP/ROCK Music Bingo (Tin Roof) The Blanket Fort Orchestra, Pictures of Vernon, Stress Fracture, Ol’ Sport (The Station)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

JANUARY 2 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)

DJ/ELECTRONIC

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

COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill)

POP/ROCK January Residency: Swim in the Wild (Snug Harbor, Charlotte) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s, Charlotte) Pluto for Planet (RiRa Irish Pub, Charlotte) The Tosco Music Open Mic - First of the New Year! (Evening Muse, Charlotte) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof, Charlotte)

COMING SOON  Dollhands, Trunkweed, Dumb Doctors, Taxing (January 5, Snug Harbor) Christy Snow Band, Tony Eltora (January 5, Evening Muse) Melodime (January 6, Neighborhood Theatre) Alternative Champs (January 6, Snug Harbor) The Stray Birds (January 12, Evening Muse) Plies (January 14, Fillmore) Charlie Mars (January 19, Evening Muse) David Rawlings (January 19, Neighborhood Theatre) Tracy Lawrence (January 19, Coyote Joe’s) A Stained Glass Romance, Beshiba, Black Fleet, Abhorrent Deformity (January 19, Snug Harbor) Ultrafaux, Lon Eldridge (January 20, Evening Muse)

POP/ROCK

JANUARY 3 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Bugalú - Old School Latin Boogie (Petra’s)

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

DJ/ELECTRONIC Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s)

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CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018| 23

ARTS

MORE OF THE SAME, DONE DIFFERENTLY Three arts happenings return in 2018 BY PAT MORAN

Manoj Kesavan

SKETCH BY DAVE KAMINSKY

BOOM CHARLOTTE

HINK OF WIKIPEDIA, which started 16 years ago,” Manoj Kesavan says. “If someone told you then that hundreds of thousands of people were going to spend millions of hours sharing knowledge, and in the process create the largest ever free encyclopedia, it would have seemed crazy.” Kesavan, the director of the experimental grassroots arts festival BOOM Charlotte, knows a thing or two about crazy ideas — and how to turn those ideas into innovative reality. The festival will return to Plaza Midwood in 2018 for its third go-round. BOOM is similar to Wikipedia, Kesavan explains, because it’s an open-platform arts organization. To an extent, it’s also crowdsourced, drawing its staff from volunteers, and eschewing a top-down approach. Local artists comprise the festival’s curatorial groups, which choose acts for the festival, and the festival draws artists and performers from every corner of the arts community. 24 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTO BY CARL MILLER

“I BELIEVE THAT 21ST CENTURY ART ORGANIZATIONS WILL LOOK MORE AND MORE LIKE BOOM.” -MANOJ KESAVAN

“I believe that 21st century art organizations will look more and more like BOOM,” Kesavan predicts. Yet, even as BOOM’s director advocates a new way of packaging and promoting the arts, Kesavan also plans, in 2018, to repeat many of the aspects that made the festival a success last year. It’s an embrace of both the familiar and the unknown. Launched in 2016, BOOM started big, featuring 50-plus shows in four venues over three days. In 2017, the event exploded, with 80 shows in six venues — Petra’s, Snug Harbor, Rabbit Hole, an outdoor stage called the Intersection, the now-shuttered TwentyTwo Gallery and International House. “We could easily have had 100 shows,” says Kesavan, who estimates last year’s BOOM attendance at 10,000 people. The diversity of the festival also expanded in 2017, Kesaven adds. “I believe that more than 50-percent of the performers last year were minority artists,” he says, pointing to 2017 newcomers

AfroPop!, Hip Hop Orchestrated and Urban Züe. More and more, Kesavan says, the make-up of BOOM was reflecting the diverse community it serves. For 2018, BOOM will consolidate on last year’s growth. The core of the festival will remain its fringe shows — a series of hourlong ticketed performances at Petra’s, Snug Harbor and Rabbit Hole. Kesaven is also looking at a couple of extra venues, but they have not confirmed yet. Submissions from fringe performers closed on December 15. “Some of the companies that have been part of BOOM in the past submitted again, as well as some new ones. Our name is slowly spreading,” Kesavan says, pointing to applications from performers based in New York and Atlanta. “People are really responding to the call.” The Intersection, the big outdoor venue featuring dancers, acrobats, music and more, will also be back. Submissions for the Intersection will remain open as late as March. “There are new organizations who are doing great work that want to be a part of BOOM,” Kesaven says, admitting that the festival now finds itself in an enviable quandary: how to make room for all the high-quality work? “We have more submissions than we have slots,” he says. “The field is very promising.”

DIA DE LOS CASIMUERTOS

HEN MULTI-DISCIPLINARY

artist Julio Gonzalez first launched his best-known project, Dia de Los Casi Muertos, or Day of the Almost Dead, he was overwhelmed with submissions. Coming up on its fourth year, Dia de Los CasiMuertos began after Gonzalez saw a red flag — the specter of cultural appropriation marring one of his favorite holidays, Halloween. “A few years back I saw that a lot of people were using the sugar skull face paint [of the ancient Mexican Dia de los Muertos celebration] as a last-minute Halloween costume,” Gonzalez, an artist-in-residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, says. “I thought, ‘They have no concept of the tradition.’” Instead of just painting faces, Gonzalez decided to adorn the subjects of his work with full-body skeletal-yet-colorful, Day of the Dead-style body paint. The artist got so many responses that the project snowballed into something much bigger — an examination of how different cultures deal with death.

Julio Gonzalez: Knitted Pre-Columbian Headdress

PHOTO BY JULIO GONZALEZ

“I’D LIKE VIEWERS TO THINK ABOUT WHERE WE ARE NOW AS A SOCIETY, AND HOW WE GOT HERE WITHIN IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORY.” -JULIO GONZALEZ

“I started making full-body photographs, but I also started doing video interviews,” Gonzalez says. “Sometimes they were funny, sometimes sad.” Focusing on a population often ignored in our youth-centric culture, subjects older than 40, Gonzales asked questions like “What would you like to have happen to your body when you’re dead?” and “Have you ever been present when someone’s passed away?” “The more people I interviewed, the harder it was to get stories I hadn’t heard before,” he says. “I’m changing it from an

annual project to a biannual event, so I can focus on quality” Gonzales will be working on Dia de Los CasiMuertos during his residency at McColl, which has been extended through August 2018, but he will not reveal any new photos or interviews until 2019. In the meantime, he will start exhibiting brand new work at the gallery, pieces that draw on what he calls his Pre-Columbian heritage. (His father is Mexican and his mother hails from Honduras.) The new project revolves around a set of questions: What would Pre-Columbian people have done if they had access to modern technology? What would they had

crafted had they lived in a colder climate? One of the first pieces Gonzalez will roll out is his take on a traditional Pre-Columbian headdress, except that instead of being fashioned from feathers, this artifact will be knitted. The cozy yet colorful headdresses will be joined in the exhibition by woodblock prints depicting classic Pre-Columbian motifs. The difference with these designs is that they will be fashioned on a 3-D printer. “Eventually the work will touch on colonialism and how it has affected Latin American cultures,’ Gonzales says. “I’d like viewers to think about where we are now as a society, and how we got here within in the context of history.”

Theresa Edge performs in Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety

PHOTO BY CHRIS EDWARDS

Julio Gonzalez

SÛR: AN ACROBATIC JOURNEY

IRCUS ARTS DIRECTOR and performer CarlosAlexis Cruz is balancing two projects: One is a previous performance piece that will undergo changes, and the other is an entirely new presentation. Last July, Cruz, a theater professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and his Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatic troupe Nouveau Sud (“New South”) presented Sûr: An Acrobatic Journey in Search of Safety. Drawing on dance, acrobatics, as well as the masks, archetypes and stylization of circus arts, the show examined the fears of Charlotte’s immigrant community and the city’s people of color. In January Cruz will launch a new touring edition of the show. “We’ll be going to different sectors of the community to talk about deportation and police brutality,” says Cruz, who envisions

PHOTO BY BRIAN BT TWITTY

“WE’LL BE GOING TO DIFFERENT SECTORS OF THE COMMUNITY TO TALK ABOUT DEPORTATION AND POLICE BRUTALITY.” -CARLOSALEXIS CRUZ CarlosAlexis Cruz

performances at venues such as community centers and flea markets. “We’ll go to where the people are.” Nouveau Sud utilizes the concept of shared risk — the notion that theater’s fourth wall is broken when audiences witness a risky acrobatic maneuver, and start to pull for the performer to succeed and avoid injury — to forge a bond between viewer and performer. This empathetic bond, he hopes, can translate to the community at large. Cruz sees the touring iteration of Sûr as an ongoing dialog with Charlotte’s African American and Latino communities. “I think we just scratched the surface with our last show,” Cruz says. The plan this time is to hold question-and-answer sessions after each performance and incorporate the stories people tell into an ever-changing presentation. “It’s not just our perspective, Cruz says.

“We want to include the community’s stories as well.” The new Sûr is tentatively planned for a July premiere at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s Booth Playhouse. Cruz also plans to take a semester-long sabbatical this spring to develop a solo show, Pícaro, a depiction of the journey of a Central American immigrant across Mexico to the United States. Cruz, who was awarded a 2017 Works in Progress Residency from the Princess Grace Foundation, will travel to Mexico to research the show. The grant will also fund a March residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City, where Cruz will develop and stage the show as a work in progress. “Pícaro is told from a physical theater and a clown theater perspective with masks and magic,” Cruz says. “The show is for the whole family,” Cruz

PHOTO BY DENEB CATALAN

adds. “I hope to do a soft opening of the show in late May or early June at Children’s Theater. After the show starts touring, we’ll come back to Charlotte for a run at Children’s Theater during their 2018-2019 season.” Drawing on Central and South American folklore — the archetypical figure of the opossum as a trickster is employed to illustrate the resilience of his protagonist — Cruz hopes to highlight the common humanity we all share with immigrants. Reflecting a focus on community and diversity that he shares with Kesavan and Gonzalez, Cruz says the richness, resilience and courage of the immigrant’s journey can serve as an example for everyone. “[Immigration] is not going to stop. Gangs are killing people, so people need to leave their countries. The big question now is how do we as a society react to this phenomenon?” PMORAN@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 25

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To my dismay, there was no breakfast IF YOU’VE FOLLOWED my column buffet to be had — this is still a thing, right?! since the beginning, it’s no news to you that I’m not afraid of strip clubs when it comes Womp, womp, womp. It was only 7 p.m. to having a good time. At one point, I was though, I could still get food somewhere heading to Cameo, formerly known as Daisy when this was over. On the bright side, we Dukes, after work every single day as if it was didn’t have to pay anything to get in. The bar my after-school program. Like clockwork, was calling us for a cocktail before we walked I’d show up and order a tall Jägerbomb and to a sitting area that could accommodate our some chicken wings before I could even entire party. For the first time, I was actually think about heading home to call it a night. looking at my surroundings inside the club. Meanwhile, the dancers were like beautiful, interactive artwork. It’s not that I wasn’t shocked by the beautiful and I didn’t want to “throw some ones,” I was voluptuous women or the amount of women (and still am) a broke millennial who can’t dressed in Panthers’ colors. What did shock imagine the consequences of getting drunk me, however, was the fact that patrons and throwing an entire paycheck at a were still trying to watch football stage filled with beautiful women. while the dancers were taking More power to those that can turns on the pole! It’s not afford it. Nevertheless, a enough to consume the couple weeks ago, I ended fantasy that is a beautiful up sitting at a table in front of beautiful dancers woman that “can’t truly dressed in Panthers be had,” now, it’s okay to colors on a Sunday check in on your fantasy around 7 p.m. football league while said The last time I’d woman is right in front of walked into Uptown our face. I couldn’t decide if AERIN SPRUILL Cabaret on Morehead I was amused in a positive or Street, I’d came for one reason negative way but I decided to just and one reason only. You’re probably thinking it was because I revel in a moment that had me feeling wanted to enjoy looking at a few beautiful nostalgic for my past life. women, but nope. When people say they’re I glanced over at my squeeze wondering going to Uptown Cabaret for “tits and grits,” what he was thinking. I wasn’t worried about Aerin was only going for the grits. Instead him being too into the scene, unlike people of waiting for an hour or so for late night I’d dated before, I was more interested breakfast at Midnight Diner, you can enjoy in seeing how we’d interact. And to my an amazing breakfast buffet with wonderful surprise, I felt completely comfortable with scenery at Uptown Cabaret. us both having a really good time. There were a couple times where my P.I.C. and I stumbled into Uptown Cabaret, And my girlfriend? She was quiet, but sat down at a table, not caring who we she, too, seemed content with our adventure. were sitting with or how many dancers were One of the squeeze’s friends was anticipating around. I’d look up and see her scarfing the right moment to turn up and throw eggs and bacon, sometimes with her hands, some ones. And another was enthralled with without ever seeming to take a breath. the other girl in our group who was living her However, it has been years since we’d best life, who after gaining a second wind, made one of those late-night trips, and was bouncing around all over the place and that’s why I couldn’t believe it when I found myself actually heading to Uptown Cabaret throwing ones of her own with a huge smile on a recent Sunday, of all days, after so much on her face — that’s what I call a bucket of time had passed. But there I was, hopping in fun. an Uber trying to twerk as calmly as possible While I needed to unwind after so much to Cardi B’s verse in “No Limit.” My girlfriend excitement by switching up my venue, I was who joined in on the random festivities was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had the main proponent in the car backing me at Uptown Cabaret on a game day. Put it on up in my ratchetness, cosigning every lyric. your to-do list now that the Panthers have Little did our counterparts know, the same secured their spot in the playoffs! song would be on as soon as we walked inside. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

ENDS

FeeLing Lonely?

CROSSWORD

ONE-OFF SONGS OF THE SEASON ACROSS

1 Wall St. whiz 4 Capote, informally 7 Milky gemstones 12 “Avatar” actress Zoe 19 1,760-yard footrace 21 Juliet’s lover 22 Big name in hair care 23 Puzzled 24 Shy around all of humanity? 26 Adorn big shopping centers? 28 Letters on an ambulance 29 Lavish attention (on) 30 “Bali --” 31 Prefix like “equi-” 32 More recent 33 Transport Kriss Kringle on a small, wheeled cart? 43 Middle name of Mozart 44 Yeats’ “The Wild Swans at --” 45 Teen’s skin woe 46 Brazil’s -- Paulo 49 Bulletproof vest material 50 Fastener holding a sleigh tinkler in place? 53 Foreman foe 54 Moo -56 Address with dots in it 57 Tomahawks 58 Takes five 61 Rides that aren’t new 67 Debt note 69 Rogers or Acuff playing percussion as a child? 74 Droid 75 Fait accompli 76 Blights 78 Kin of karate 81 Poker player Ungar 83 Sow, e.g. 85 See 10-Down 86 Reason you might give for not buying a china plate? 93 Mother of Rajiv Gandhi 96 Chatter 97 Hurry 98 False front 99 With dignity 100 Vacation in Italy’s capital? 103 In accordance with 106 Profs’ aides

107 Gigi’s “yes” 108 Voting place 109 Fancy carp 110 Earliest tune that singer Billy ever wrote? 119 Far off driving one’s Ford pickup? 122 Japanese massage 123 Divided into new districts 124 Hindu maxim collection 125 ‘Bama rival 126 Hypnotic states 127 “Let’s roll!” 128 Purview of Gov. Cuomo 129 Dipso

DOWN

1 In -- rush 2 Religious act 3 Urban model -- Chyna 4 Horse gait 5 Likely traffic snarl times 6 Opens, as a tomb 7 Sea predator 8 Billiards 9 -- nitrate (fuel additive) 10 With 85-Across, “Dig in!” 11 -- Canals 12 Gossipy chatterer 13 Hoppy brews 14 Decree 15 Cellphone components 16 Cursor, often 17 “Affliction” star 18 Birch cousin 20 Deer cousin 25 Pianist John 27 Prefix with life or land 31 Big name in frozen drinks 32 Part of NBA: Abbr. 33 Capital of Senegal 34 Brunch dish 35 Luxuriant 36 “Bad” cholesterol, for short 37 Vocal vote 38 Chem., e.g. 39 Multitude 40 Yule drink 41 Not sound 42 Actress Langtry 46 Baseball’s Red -47 Pro

48 Go-aheads 50 Rightful deserts 51 They show certain transit routes 52 Actress Dern 55 Shanty 59 Tim of football 60 -- Poke (candy) 62 “Do Ya” gp. 63 Lion lair 64 B-to-F run 65 Suffix with drunk 66 Wish undone 68 Sun or moon 70 “Yes, that guy!” 71 1,051, to Nero 72 Iroquois tribe 73 Per annum 77 Doesn’t exit 78 Irish dance 79 Yankee land 80 Small dollop 82 Arboreal frogs 84 In the way a lass would 87 2011 Marvel Comics film 88 Problems for vain sorts 89 Snarling mutt 90 Chart buster 91 “Sorta” suffix 92 -- -wee Herman 94 “-- will not!” 95 Clunker 99 Adds abundantly 100 Swear by 101 C-worthy 102 Polloi lead-in 103 In two, say 104 Scatterer of seeds 105 City square 109 Patella locale 110 Certain bolt holder 111 Altitudes: Abbr. 112 Architect Saarinen 113 Drescher of “The Nanny” 114 Lashes (up) 115 Traffic clog 116 Redding of soul 117 Canadian fuel brand 118 Deep desire 120 Company abbr. 121 “-- was saying ...”

graB Your copy today

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 27

ENDS

SAVAGE LOVE

QUICKIES Short takes on long shots BY DAN SAVAGE I have been with my unicorn boyfriend for four months. The sexual chemistry between us is out of this world! I’m a woman who’s very open-minded when it comes to trying new things: I’ve had threesomes and foursomes, tried every toy on the market, done anal sex, BDSM, and many other things. He is sexually experienced, but he’s not open-minded. One thing he won’t do is kiss me after I’ve swallowed his load. We’ve been together only four months, so maybe I just need to wait and hope that he’ll come around. Or is there something I can do to get him to try it? CAN’T UNICORN MAN UP?

If that’s the only thing he won’t do — if every toy on the market is on the table, along with threesomes, foursomes, BDSM, etc. — then he’s pretty adventurous. But if kissing after you’ve swallowed is the only mildly kinky thing you’ve attempted with him and it was a no, he may not be adventurous enough to deserve unicorn status. But I will say this in his defense… Kissing someone who has just swallowed your load (or snowballing with someone who wants you to swallow your own load) presents a challenge for many men. Some silly straight men worry that tasting their own come will turn them gay or make them look gay — I’ve gotten letters from girlfriends who thought their boyfriends were gay because they were too willing to kiss them after a blowjob. But there are gay men out there who don’t want to deep-kiss the guy who just blew them — and they’re obviously not worried about turning gay (already are) or seeming gay (ditto). So what gives? Blame what’s known as the “refractory period,” CUMU. Immediately after a man ejaculates, his dick starts to go soft and he loses all interest in sex — hormones have been released into his bloodstream that short-circuit sexual arousal. Bodily fluids and orifices a man was happily lapping up or at a minute ago are suddenly repulsive, not because the dude is necessarily inhibited or insecure, CUMU, but because he’s having his period — his refractory period. I’ve been seeing this guy who keeps making D/s-ish jokes and moves — he smacks my butt a lot, for example. When I let him know I like it, he’s suddenly not into it. He says it’s “disturbing” that I like what he’s been doing. Two questions: (1) Smacking my butt is OK so long as I don’t want it? (2) Enjoying what he’s doing makes me a freak? JOKING ABOUT CONSENSUAL KINKS

Two options: (1) He goes in for domineering 28 | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

head games and “playful” violence because he’s abusive and controlling. (2) He’s got kinks, but he hasn’t managed to incorporate his kinks into his sex life in a healthy, consensual manner — and now that he knows you enjoy the same things he does (but you’re healthier about them than he is), he’s projecting his self-loathing onto you. Either way, JACK, you’re going to need to DTMFA.

ANAL, it was santorum — “the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.” No one aroused by BDSM could ever truly love someone, could they?

VIOLENCE ISN’T LOVE, EH?

Of course not, VILE. But only the Duggar You recently said it’s OK to fantasize girls and Princess Diana’s boys are capable of about other people so long as we keep truly loving someone. The rest of us are just it to ourselves. Social media and dating playing. apps have given us access to tons of spank material, from that new crush on My boyfriend complains that our sex life OkCupid to the (monogamously) married is too vanilla. I want him to be satisfied, neighbor you always wanted to bang. In but he won’t tell me what else he wants this era, we can see actual pictures of to do. Recently, he suggested an open the people we’re fantasizing about more relationship. I don’t want to be in an open often than not. Facebook stalking for relationship and I told him as much. But I’m fully open to being more kinky or spank bank purposes is fine — we whatever else he needs. I’ve tried all do it — but does it cross a mixing it up, but he just looks line to actually download at me strangely and asks the pictures for later? me to stop whatever I’m I feel like it’s at least doing. Can I do anything a little creepy to be to fix this? Any insight taking screenshots of would be appreciated. people’s photos. But I’M NOT GOOD AT ACRONYMS as long as you’re the only one using your phone, what’s the He knows what he wants, practical difference and he can’t or won’t tell you. DAN SAVAGE between looking at Either he can’t because he’s Facebook and looking at so sexually repressed that he’s saved screenshots? incapable of pushing the words out SCREENSHOT PORN AS NEW KONTENT of his mouth, or he won’t because his nonvanilla desires are so extreme as to be dealKeep whatever you want on your phone, breaker-level repulsive to anyone who doesn’t SPANK, so long as you keep it to yourself and share them. But complaining about your sex life without elaborating or giving you any your phone is password protected. constructive feedback at all is disqualifying I am a 29-year-old straight woman on assholery, INGAA. You’ll also have to DTMFA. the West Coast in a new relationship. My boyfriend and I have just begun I just read your reply to a woman who exploring anal sex. Question: HOW DO wrote to you regarding her partner’s I AVOID POOP LEAKAGE?!? The first lack of libido. Although I found the time we had anal sex, my boyfriend came article somewhat interesting, I would in my ass and then pulled out. Then we have preferred that a woman who was decided to go for a run. (We didn’t think an actual lesbian was rendering advice it through, CLEARLY.) A few minutes in, to other lesbians. As a man, you are not I was leaking all over my pants. In short, qualified to deal out sex advice to women GROSS. Obviously it wasn’t a good idea — especially to lesbians. STATING THIS OBVIOUS POINT to go for a run afterward (NOTED!), but what can I do in the future immediately after anal to avoid poopy come from Take it away, Free Dictionary: “ad•vice: leaking out of my butt? opinion about what could or should be done ANAL NEWBIE AVOIDING LEAKAGE about a situation or problem.” The only qualification you need to give someone your Yeah, don’t go for a run immediately after opinion? Someone asked you for it. Full stop, anal. Spend a few minutes on the toilet STOP. So I’m going to continue giving advice instead — bring your phone, post something to straight people despite not being straight, to Instagram, let gravity do its thing. And that to lesbians despite not being a lesbian, to wasn’t poop leaking out of you on that run, bisexuals despite not being bi, to trans people

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despite not being trans, to monogamous people despite not being monogamous. Hell, I sometimes give advice to Republicans despite not being a heartless idiot. Give the gift of the magnum Savage Lovecast at savagelovecast.com; follow @fakedansavage on Twitter; mail@savagelove.net; go to ITMFA.org.

CLCLT.COM | DEC. 28 - JAN. 3, 2018 | 29

LILLY SPA

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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE

WHERE WE ALL REFUSE TO WEAR SOCKS.

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Shutting people out to avoid distractions, even under a deadline, can cause hurt feelings. Instead, return calls and emails, and explain why you need a zone of privacy for now. TAURUS

(April 20 to May 20) Although your keen Bull’s eyes usually can discern what’s fact from what’s faux, that upcoming decision will need really solid data before you can risk a commitment.

GEMINI (May 21 to

June 20) As your confidence grows, you should be able to work toward your goals with more enthusiasm. Open your mind to suggestions. Some of them might even work for you.

CANCER (June 21 to

July 22) Reconnecting with someone from your past stirs up that old sense of adventure. But before you do anything else, be sure to get answers to those stilllingering questions.

LEO (July 23 to August 22)

Some people might resent the way you plan to resolve a difficult situation. But your commitment to making tough but fair decisions soon wins you their respect and support.

VIRGO (August 23 to

September 22) Mixed signals could be causing that vexing workplace problem. Before you choose to leave the project, ask for a meeting so you can get things out in the open.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Your good intentions could backfire if you’re not careful with other people’s feelings. Try using persuasion, not pressure, to get others to see your side of the situation. SCORPIO (October 23 to

November 21) Your dedication to finishing the task at hand is laudable. But be careful not to overdo the midnight oil bit. Take time for relaxation with someone very special.

SAGITTARIUS

(November 22 to December 21) Although your intuition will help you make some tough choices in the first half of the month, you’ll need more facts to back up your actions later on.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to

January 19) All that hard work and research in the workplace finally pays off as you hoped it would. Ignore comments from jealous types who are out to get the Goat riled up.

AQUARIUS

(January 20 to February 18) An unfair decision creates unnecessary avoid anger and problems. But move carefully as you work this out. Expect to get support from an unlikely source.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) A fuzzy financial vista persists until midmonth, when things begin to clear up. You’ll also gain a better perspective on how to handle those pesky personal problems.

BORN THIS WEEK You have a wonderful way of being there for those who need your help in difficult times.

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