2017 Issue 4 Creative Loafing by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | MARCH 16 - MARCH 22, 2017 VOL. 31, NO. 3

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Holistic Dog Training Effective force-free solutions to behavior problems Deepen your relationship with your dog

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EDITORIAL

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NEWS&CULTURE THE UNSEEN BATTLE On a small east Charlotte street, a war is waged on women’s rights

BY RYAN PITKIN 9 EDITOR’S NOTE 12 THE BLOTTER 13 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

Creative Loafing took home some hardware (and paper awards, too) at the 2017 NCPA Winter Banquet.

FOOD THE OMNIVOROUS LIFE, EXAMINED Vegans aren’t the only ones eating vegan products these days

BY RYAN PITKIN 16 THREE-COURSE SPIEL: CHEF MARC’ ANTHONY SMITH BY DEBRA RENEE SETH

ARTS&ENT A DREAM REMEMBERED — AND STILL DEFERRED Theatre Charlotte brings back ‘cultural litmus test’ Raisin in the Sun

BY PERRY TANNENBAUM 18 TOP 10 THINGS TO D0 22 FILM REVIEWS BY MATT BRUNSON

SPRING GUIDE SPRING GUIDE 2017 What to do in the warming world of sports, arts, music, festivals and food

MUSIC CAPED CRUSADERS Bessemer City’s The Menders are on a mission

BY MARK KEMP 30 MUSICMAKER: FLAGSHIP 32 SOUNDBOARD

ODDS&ENDS 34 MARKETPLACE 34 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 35 CROSSWORD 36 SAVAGE LOVE 38 HOROSCOPE BY VIVIAN CAROL

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

FAST TIMES IN RALEIGH! Creative Loafing wins big at N.C. Press Assocation awards IT WAS A classic alt-weekly moment.

CONGRATS to the CL winners of the NCPA awards!!! Ryan Pitkin Dana Vindigni Page Leggett

Creative Loafing’s news editor Ryan Pitkin, designer Dana Vindigni and I were basking Lara Americo in the multiple wins our staff and freelancers received at the N.C. Press Association’s Vanessa Infanzon annual News, Editorial & Photojournalism Erin Tracy-Blackwood awards ceremony at the Sheraton in Raleigh last Thursday, March 9. Dana posed with her First Place award for Appearance and Design; Ryan posed with his First Place award for Sports News some of the finest reporting and design I’ve Reporting. We Snapchatted and Tweeted and come across in my decades as an editor. Facebooked video and photos of our stack That’s not always so easy these days. of certificates, and texted congratulations CL’s staff — like the staffs at news media to CL’s other winners: Freelancers Vanessa companies across the country today — is not Infanzon and Lara Americo, for their Best nearly the size it was when I first became Multimedia Project award; Page Leggett, for editor in 2006. Not only that, but today Arts and Entertainment Reporting; and Erin we lack the rich investigative resources Tracy-Blackwood, for her win in the Serious we had during journalism’s halcyon years Columns category. prior to the 2008 financial crisis. On the up Then Ryan and Dana decided that they side, we have digital resources that didn’t deserved a drink. So we sneaked exist in earlier years, and space on off to a pub down the street the Internet to do all kinds of with plans to return for the nontraditional reporting. On final special awards later in the down side, revenue and the evening (the event was pages are much lower than dragging on a bit). they were in the prosperous Ah, how the best laid ’90s. For news media plans of mice and men outlets nationwide, these oft go awry. developments have meant After 9 p.m., I left one of two things (and the bar where Ryan and sometimes a little of both): Dana were vigorously Spend long hours in the field playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em and be exponentially more MARK KEMP Robots. When I returned to resourceful in our gathering the Sheraton to check on the and presenting of the news – or ceremony, people were huddled sacrifice journalistic standards. in the lobby, talking and drinking and I’m proud to say Creative Loafing has heading to afterparties. The event was over. chosen to work hard and be exponentially Done. And we had been M.I.A. when Creative more resourceful. In 2012, the bright, Loafing took the biggest award of the night energetic news staff I assembled here covered for specialty publications: First Place in the the Democratic National Convention in General Excellence category. It could have Charlotte like no other local media company. been a deleted scene from some gonzoWhen I left Creative Loafing for the West journalism film like Almost Famous or Fear Coast the following year, subsequent editors and Loathing in Las Vegas. Kim Lawson, Jeff Hahne and Anita Overcash We won! Where were we? continued that commitment to hard work The mixed feelings of elation and and quality coverage. And last week at the disappointment were palpable last week, North Carolina Press Association Awards but right now I’m just an editor with ceremony in Raleigh, Creative Loafing’s an almost parental feeling of joy for my current staff and freelancers were awarded staff and freelancers. Of all the news and big for their hard work. entertainment media outlets for which I’ve I couldn’t be prouder. And you, as readers served as editor — Rolling Stone, SF Weekly, and users of Creative Loafing’s platforms, and a few others — none have had editorial should be proud that you live in Charlotte, staffs that were brighter or more passionate, with an alternative weekly that cares about energetic and resourceful than Creative you and all the wonderful (and sometimes Loafing’s. The journalists who have worked not-so-wonderful) things that happen in under me here have given their hearts and this city. Thank you for sharing it with us. souls to CL and Chalrotte, and delivered MKEMP@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 9

NEWS

FEATURE

THE UNSEEN BATTLE On a small east Charlotte street, a war is being waged on women’s rights BY RYAN PITKIN

O DRIVE DOWN Latrobe Drive with your windows up on a Saturday is to believe you’re possibly the most popular person on the planet. People stand in the road, beckoning for you to pull over and chat. Smiling strangers peer in your car like paparazzi, wanting to hand you flyers. It’s not until you roll down the windows to engage with one of these folks — when the sounds of fired up men on loudspeakers yelling about hellfire and damnation float in — that you get a taste for what Latrobe Drive really is: the most contentious street in Charlotte. As I walked into the office of Calla Hales, co-owner and head administrator at A Preferred Women’s Health Center (PWHC), arguably the biggest abortion provider in the South, I mentioned how intense the experience of getting to the building was. “This is a slow day,” she said with the knowing laugh of someone who’s been in the trenches of a stalemate war for years. Six days a week, Hales shows up at around 8:30 a.m. to run the business she took over in February 2016. The protesters are usually already set up outside at that point, and at 9, patients begin to show up for appointments and protesters crank up the megaphones. The yelling doesn’t stop until about 1 p.m. It’s been like this since Hales’ parents opened the facility 15 years ago, but over the last year, things have escalated. “You missed it,” she said as I came in at 9 a.m. “At 8:15 they were already on the loudspeakers talking about, ‘Are you willing to die today?’ The police didn’t do anything.” Since moving to Charlotte to take over the business in February 2016, a large part of Hales’ job has involved dealing with the people outside and communicating with police to make sure they’re enforcing the numerous ordinances she says are violated by protesters daily. Hales said she’s been personally targeted by protesters who have read off parts of a rape kit report from the time she was sexually assaulted, told her “you look better on your back than behind a desk” and even asked for a birth certificate to prove she isn’t “a demon summoned from hell.” Hales is aware of the risk inherent in her 10 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

RYAN PITKIN

A pro-choice counter-protester stands between a large group of prayer marchers and A Preferred Women’s Health Center in east Charlotte. position. Her father was a close friend of Dr. George Tiller, a physician who was murdered in 2009 for his role in providing abortions by a Christian extremist. “[My father] is a little nervous that I still do this,” she said. “He and my mom both chose to take the backseat on being public, but with everything that’s going on — the recent escalation — we can’t be quiet.”

THE FOLKS MILLING around outside the

facility are from a conglomerate of different anti-abortion organizations. There are the ones dressed in purple standing outside an RV offering free ultrasounds and other health care. They’re with Pregnancy Resource Center of Charlotte, and their goal is to lure patients way from the clinic, or at least distract them long enough to miss their appointments. Counter-protesters have taken to standing across from them with signs clarifying that the RV is not affiliated with the clinic. On Saturdays, large groups of churchgoers recruited by an organization called Love Life Charlotte have taken to marching down Latrobe Drive and holding prayer circles in front of the clinic. Most of them are first-timers, as congregation members far

(Kannapolis Church of God, Midway Baptist Church) and near (Elevation Church, Hickory Grove Baptist Church) sign up to walk together on their assigned Saturday. On a recent Saturday, Love Life Charlotte founder Jordan Reeder marched his followers to a small piece of land across the street from Hales’ clinic and began a sermon. “God wants to see adoption end more than we do. He’s just waiting for the Church, he’s waiting for us,” Reeder told those standing before him. “These are the gates of hell, Church. Make no mistake, there is no darker place that exists in our city. Matthew 16:18 tells us that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.” He passed the microphone off to a woman who sang a couple Christian songs into the speakers. The group was blatantly violating an ordinance regulating amplified noise in public places while uninterested police stood nearby, but they were relatively peaceful compared to the vitriol being spewed through the same speakers just minutes before, and which would follow for hours after they left. Once the singing was done, Reeder passed the mic to Daniel Parks, after praising him as someone who had been leading the fight outside the clinic for well over 10 years.

Along with being co-pastor at the Christ Fellowship in Davidson, Parks has led the “ministry teams” standing outside PWHC since joining with an organization called Cities4Life in 2005. David Benham, son of infamous evangelical extremist Flip Benham, leads Cities4Life. Flip was found guilty of stalking a doctor who worked for PWHC in 2011. He also distributed flyers with the personal information of multiple people who worked at local providers, including PWHC. Flip, whose family lives in Concord, has been known to join the ministry teams on Latrobe Drive, while David and his brother Jason show up twice a week, Hales said. “We’re arguably the worst clinic in the nation for protesters,” she said. “If you asked any of those protesters [with Cities4Life] out there where they were from, not a single one would be from Charlotte. They’re all from surrounding counties and suburbs, and unfortunately, North Carolina lends itself to that; there are a lot of pocket congregations that go toward the extreme.”

HALES ALSO CITES the location of the clinic as another reason protests at the east Charlotte location feel so overwhelming to

an unsuspecting patient. The lasso that is Latrobe Drive curves around and reconnects with itself, creating a roundabout that can seem hard to escape, especially with folks closing in on your car, yelling at you to stop. Jasmine Sherman volunteered as an escort at the clinic in April 2016, walking patients from their cars to the building while blocking them from the sounds and signs of the protesters with blankets and umbrellas. Since then, she’s “crossed over,” as she called it, becoming a full-time pro-choice protester, standing outside the property line face to face with anti-abortion protesters in attempts to drown them out and hold them accountable. Still, she holds with her the experience of helping women who arrived at the clinic on a daily basis. “It is traumatic. They go through two gauntlets. You have people [at the RV] who randomly step in the road, in front of the cars, and they’re flagging you down and you don’t know who that is, you just know you don’t want to hit somebody, so you stop,” Sherman said. “If they get past the RV, they have to make it through this group of people [she points at Cities4Life protesters camped out at the driveway] who are walking into the street trying to give them pamphlets. So when they make it here finally, most people are angry, they’re upset, they don’t know who the escorts are, they lash out. They’re upset or they’re crying, it’s a lot of emotion.” It was this “gauntlet” of harassment that struck Charlotte City Councilwoman Julie Eiselt when she visited Latrobe Drive on a Saturday in February. Eiselt was immediately initiated into the harassment faced by pro-choice volunteers who show up to the clinic on a daily basis. Anti-abortion protesters rabidly harassed Eiselt, calling her “baby killer” and following her around while filming her, later sharing the video on YouTube. Despite the personal experience, Eiselt was most affected by the difficulty with which innocent patients had in entering the facility. She was concerned with the apathy she saw among the few cops standing around as protesters entered the road and blared loudspeakers at patients in the parking lot. “I understand the police are backed into a corner to some extent, but when I was down there, there were five to seven cars parked up the street monitoring sounds. So I said, ‘Stand 11 feet way from them and monitor the sounds.’ The ordinance is 75 decibels from 10 feet away,” Eiselt said. “They say, ‘We don’t want to get in the middle of it and incite violence,’ but to me, I have a hard time with that argument, because they’re the police. If they incite violence then they’re the ones who can handle it, in theory. That’s what we hire them as a city to do.” CMPD Deputy Chief Jeff Estes said he has heard reports from commanding officers in the Providence Division that tensions on Latrobe Drive have escalated in recent months. He also said the situation there is one of the most difficult things the department has to deal with. “This is where constitutional rights of individuals come against each other: rights of freedom of movement come against rights of free speech,” Estes said. “The law becomes very difficult in which to apply. Depending

RYAN PITKIN

Calla Hales speaks with police about enforcing ordinances at a recent protest.

“Our police are scared right now to walk a line, especially where there’s that gray area of what free speech is and what it’s not. I try not to get angry about it, because me having a shitty relationship with the police doesn’t help us.” CALLA HALE, CO-OWNER AND HEAD ADMINISTRATOR AT A PREFERRED WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER

RYAN PITKIN

A counter-protester aims a sign and a camera at a large group of protesters (behind the camera). Daniel Parks, leader of extreme anti-abortion group Cities4Life, stands behind him speaking into a microphone hooked to a large speaker aimed at the clinic.

on which side you’re on, it’s never applied fairly. You absolutely never make anyone quote-unquote happy.” Estes said his officers have been working recently to improve communication between police and people like Hales, as well as Cities4Life organizers. Hales said police

cooperation has improved slightly in 2017, but says they only began paying attention after December, when Love Life Charlotte brought 3,000 people to her clinic, leading to coverage from national outlets like Huffington Post. “Our police are scared right now to walk a

line, especially where there’s that gray area of what free speech is and what it’s not,” Hales said. “I try not to get angry about it, because me having a shitty relationship with the police doesn’t help us.” Sherman agreed that she’s seeing a slight improvement, but not much. “We’re finally getting police assistance, or they’re at least pretending to help now,” she said. “It’s a struggle still every day to try to get them to enforce basic laws in Charlotte.” Estes said his officers are in constant communication about how to handle the situation on Latrobe Drive better, but are often at a loss for how to enforce ordinances, especially when protesters have become so good at getting around them. “Where people stand and signage and other things are very difficult to police. We’re in a difficult spot,” Estes said. “I’m sure some folks would want us to allow anyone to be anywhere in the roads and sidewalks and private property, and some folks don’t want them to be allowed anywhere nearby. It’s extremely emotional for people on both sides and it’s one of the most difficult things we have to do.”

EISELT SAID she’s been in talks with

CMPD Chief Kerr Putney and other city leaders about how to ensure that women can get in and out of the clinic without being harassed. She said she wants to make sure police enforce ordinances on Latrobe Drive the same they would elsewhere in the city, while also looking into the city’s permit application process to find better ways to hold those who do violate ordinances accountable. Eiselt said that, although she is an avid supporter of women’s reproductive rights, she has no connection to any organizations supporting the clinic and was not even aware of the situation there until her recent visit. Her goal now is to stand up for women who need the services they’re permitted to, and mobilize Charlotteans who are unaware of the near-daily battle taking place on this small east Charlotte street. “Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, everybody has the right to legal services. Whatever it is, nobody should have to be harassed or intimidated to access a service that it’s their legal right to obtain,” she said. “The public needs to know that, and they need to know that we’re having to post law enforcement — when we have a shortage of law enforcement — we’re having to use these resources against outside factions that come here to stir up trouble. I hope it mobilizes people to understand what’s going on over there. Because frankly, it’s pretty scary.” For Hales, it’s all in a day’s work. She knows the risks, but she isn’t the type you’ll ever hear admit it. After discussing the frequency with which she has to see the Benham family, known for stalking and releasing personal information about people she’s worked closely with, she gets that sarcastic grin and nervous laugh that popped up so often during our interview. “So yeah,” she smiles. “It’s a lot of fun.” And yet somehow I get the sense it’s anything but. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM

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NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

JOYRIDE A woman living in the Westover Hills neighborhood called police last week after her boy went missing, although she was pretty sure he was just out doing hoodrat stuff with his friends. The woman told officers that her 13-year-old son and his friend took her Chevrolet Cruze for a joyride at 11 p.m. and she wasn’t sure where they went or when they would be back. FUMING Police responded to a Walmart on

E. Independence Blvd. after employees there caught a man on tape inhaling fumes from a compressed air can in the parking lot. When officers arrived, they watched the footage of the man and then went to confront him, as of course he was still in the parking lot and in no rush to leave. The officers found four empty bottles of compressed air in the back of the man’s SUV and charged him with inhaling toxic fumes, an inherently bizarre and dumb crime in itself.

THE CHIPS ARE DOWN A criminal with

the munchies took desperate measures last week in order to get a few bags of chips. Police responded to a Frito Lay warehouse in the University area after someone cut through the chain used to secure the fence. Rather than steal truck equipment, as is often the case in incidents like this, the suspect instead went for the snacks. The thief made off with six cases of Frito Lays chips, worth $300 total, and nothing else.

SILLY TOYS A man made a big scene in a

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University area sex shop last week after he deciding he really wanted to go fuck himself. According to the report, the man walked into The Red Door on North Tryon Street and grabbed a Pipedream Extreme “Fuck Me Silly Mega Masturbation” toy and made for the door. Before anyone could even confront him about the fact that he was blatantly stealing, he began threatening that he had a gun and that nobody should try to stop him from leaving the store.

FORCE FIELD A young child’s mother went to police last week after being rightfully concerned about the tactics her son’s teacher was using to keep him in line in class. The woman told officers that the Westerly Hills Academy teacher assaulted her 10-yearold son by spraying Febreze air freshener directly into his face in an attempt to stop him from approaching her desk. That’s one way to get some peace and quiet while also keeping the classroom fresh, I guess. BUCKET ALL A 26-year-old man in the Belmont neighborhood called police last week after a prized possession went missing, despite the fact that he found it shortly thereafter. The man told police that someone stole a bucket off his front porch at

some point in the morning, and that he later spotted the bucket and recovered the bucket from a known suspect. Although it would seem this episode had ended, the man felt the need to get police involved and wanted the suspect charged with theft.

SPECIAL DELIVERY Police stumbled across a rather remarkable drug bust during a traffic stop in southeast Charlotte last week, and it even came with a corporate sponsor. Officers stopped a car for a traffic violation on Monroe Road, and the suspects inside made a mistake by giving them permission to search the vehicles. During the search, police found a digital scale with powder residue on it, nearly six grams of cocaine in two separate bags and - jackpot - a bag of 83 blue ecstacy pills with UPS emblems on them. The drug bust was worth $1,365 in total, but we’re still bothered by the fact that the UPS X pills weren’t even brown.

HULK SMASH Police arrested a man in east Charlotte last week after an argument escalated quickly between he and a group of people. According to the report, the suspect showed up and began an argument with a woman at her home, and as he left the residence he slammed the storm door so hard that a glass piece came out of the center of the door and smashed on the ground. The woman then chased him up the street, but he had other things on his mind. For a reason that is unclear in the report, the suspect then jumped on the hood of a Honda Accord that two men were driving up the street. The men began arguing with the suspect, who then shattered the rear windshield of the Honda. He then tried to get in his own car and drive away, but officers arrived on the scene and arrested him before he could do so.

IN THE BUFF An east Charlotte man had quite a surprise waiting for him when he got out of the shower last week, and it was not an afternoon delight. The man later told police that he exited the bathroom with just a towel on only to find a strange man in his bedroom, hovering over his fiance’s jewelry drawer. With no time to put on pants, the still-wet man went at it with the cat burglar, pushing him up against the wall and then literally throwing him out of the house. The man wasn’t able to snatch any of the jewelry and the police were able to find him quickly as he walked down a nearby road, and a thenclothed victim identified him.

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

BY CHUCK SHEPHERD

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT Perhaps there are parents who, according to the Cinepolis movie chain, long to watch movies in theaters while their children — aged 3 and up — frolic in front in a “jungle-gym” playground inside the same auditorium. If so, the company’s two “junior” movie houses, opening this very week in San Diego and Los Angeles, may bring a new dimension to “family entertainment.” Another view, though, is that the noise — often “screaming” — plus the overhead lighting required for parents to monitor their tykes’ equipment-usage, plus the planned $3-per-ticket surcharge, will soon create, according to the Guardian critic, a moviegoing “apocalypse.” CAN’T POSSIBLY BE TRUE The U.S.

Patent and Trademark Office in January granted IBM’s 2010 application for a patent on “out-of-office” email message software — even though such messages have, of course, been ubiquitous for two decades — after the company finally convinced examiners that its patent had enough software tweaks on it to qualify. Critics, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, laughed at the uselessness of the tweaks.

KEEP A SECRET Also in January, the

office granted Daniel Dopps a patent for “adhesive vaginal lipstick,” which his Mensez Technologies claims can cause the labia minora to tighten so strongly as to retain menstrual fluid until the woman can deal with buildup in privacy.

NEWS OF THE PRETENTIOUS Why live

with a cat if one cannot take it out for some wine together? The Apollo Peak in Denver and the Pet Winery in Fort Myers, Florida, serve a variety of the real grape to humans and nonalcoholic proprietary drinks for the kitties to enjoy tableside or underneath. “Pinot Meow” ($12) in Denver and “Meow and Chandon” ($15) in Fort Myers, are specialties — basically watered catnip, according to a February New York Times report, so the felines can also get buzzed. The wine outing is the human’s preference, of course, with a loftier cachet than the “happy hour” most cats might prefer (say, a “sardine bar”).

HIGH ON THE HOG “I tried the $5,000

hamburger, and it was absolutely worth it,” wrote the apparently straight-faced CNBC reviewer Robert Frank in February, describing his meal at the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay restaurant Fleur. The burger included Waygu beef, foie gras and truffles, and was served with a similarly inexplicably priced wine. Other recent consumer challenges: an $18 cup of coffee at Brooklyn’s Extraction Lab; a $100 bottle of Norwegian iceberg water (Svalbardi.com); a $2,000 pizza at New York City’s Industry Kitchen (caviar, truffles, gold

flakes); and a $25,000 taco at the Grand Velas Los Cabos resort in Mexico (caviar, brie, Kobe beef, langoustine lobster, rare tequila and gold flakes).

WAIT, WHAT? Anglers fighting to preserve

choice spots on the fishing pier on Sebastian Inlet, north of Vero Beach, Florida, have taken to tossing lead weights and other items at “competitors,” especially those who approach the pier to fish directly from their boats. Such territory marking by the “piersters” includes, according to a February report in Florida Today, perhaps a version of classic mammal behavior, like strategic urination and hurling their feces at the waterborne invaders.

ILLINOIS HAS PROBLEMS A $130 billion

unfunded pension crisis, 19 months without a budget, the lowest credit rating and highest property taxes in the country, and the murder rate in Chicago. However, at least the state house of representatives is not standing by idly. In February, it moved to designate October 2017 as Zombie Preparedness Month. Basically, the Illinois officials added “zombie invasion” to the list of mobilizations for any natural disaster and urged residents to stockpile food and supplies for up to 72 hours.

COMPED Lawyers for former U.S. Rep. Jesse

Jackson Jr. have convinced federal officials that his bipolar disorder was “caused” by the stress of being a congressman and thus that he is entitled to “total disability” worker compensation for an “on-the-job” injury — and thus to about $100,000 a year, taxfree, according to a February Chicago Tribune report. Jackson, 51, also receives Social Security disability payments. Lawyers said his disorder, often attributed to genetic factors, surfaced during an investigation into Jackson’s looting of his campaign treasury for luxury goods and vacations (charges were eventually settled with a guilty plea). Jackson dated his onset to June 2012, meaning that his last 72 House votes came while “totally” disabled.

BRIGHT IDEAS A councilman in Overtornea, Sweden, introduced a “motion” that workers be given paid “sex breaks” during the business day in order to improve well-being and, thus, job performance. The primary beneficiaries would be married, fertile couples, but all workers would receive the benefit. And employers, said Councillor Per-Erik Muskos, would have to “trust” their employees because some surely would “cheat” by not having sex). NOT

CLEVER ENOUGH Daniel Crowninshield, 54, pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento in 2016 to illegally manufacturing assault weapons that had no serial numbers — despite efforts to circumvent the law by claiming that his customers actually “made” their own weapons

using his equipment. Crowninshield (known as “Dr-Death” online), an expert machinist, would take a “blank” metal casting and, using special equipment and computer programs, create the firing mechanism for a numberless AR-15 — provided the customer presses a button to start the process. “Pressing the button,” Crowninshield figured, made the customer the creator, not a buyer or transferee of the gun, and thus exempt from federal law. In February, Judge Troy Nunley, unimpressed, sentenced Crowninshield to three years and five months in prison.

WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME “Life’s

full of peaks and valleys, man,” Californian Georgiy Karpekin told a reporter, but Jan. 18 seemed all valley. Karpekin has both a pickup truck and a car, and as he was leaving Sacramento City College that day during violent storms, a falling tree crushed the truck. When he got home, he learned that the same storm had taken down another tree — on top of his car. Karpekin, insured and uninjured, called himself “the luckiest guy.”

READERS’ CHOICE Miami defense lawyer

Stephen Gutierrez caused quite a spectacle on March 8 when, representing a man accused of arson, he rose to address jurors and his pants appeared to catch fire. He insisted afterward that a malfunctioning e-cigarette caused smoke to billow from his pocket, but observers had a field day with metaphors and “stunt” theories.

MASTER OF HIS DOMAIN Despite an exaggerated, widely read headline in London’s Daily Mail, the recent death of a 50-yearold man in Japan was indeed pornographyrelated. The man was a hoarder of porn magazines, living alone with an unimaginably large collection, and when he suffered a fatal heart attack sometime early this year, he collapsed atop the piles, where his body was found in February. The Daily Mail headline had him “crushed” to death under a sixton stack, but the Mail conceded below the headline that he might have just fallen. NOTW CLASSIC (June 2013) Chengdu, China, barber Liu Deyuan, 53, still provides traditional “eye-shaving,” in which he holds the lid open and runs a razor across its inner surface. Then, using a thin metal rod with a round tip, he gently massages the inside of each lid. Liu told Chengdu Business Daily in April (2013) that he had never had an accident, though the reporter balked at volunteering for him, and a highly satisfied customer reported afterward that his eyes felt “moist” and his vision “clearer.”

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 13

FOOD

FEATURE

THE OMNIVOROUS LIFE, EXAMINED Vegans aren’t the only ones eating vegan products these day BY ARI LEVAUX

NE ISSUE THAT’S poised to dominate many aspects of food and agriculture this year is the debate over the role of meat in the modern human diet. This struggle strikes at the core of our omnivorous nature, while tugging at our heart strings, tempting our palates, challenging our intellects and presenting myriad health impacts. The more I learn about the impact the world’s livestock practices have on world hunger, our changing climate and other facets of our environment, the more foolhardy and selfish eating animal products appears to be — unless, perhaps, you’re raising or hunting your own, or purchasing from a livestock operation that’s sensitive to its environmental footprint. By contrast, consumer interest in the quality of life experienced by the animals that provide us their meat, organs and secretions has spiked. The likes of Walmart and McDonalds are happy to oblige, having pledged to phase out their use of chicken eggs that were laid in a cage. Whether the chickens are truly any better off is an open question. Fortunately, in Charlotte, there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, and the list of totally vegan restaurants continues to rise — in addition to local mainstays Fern in Plaza-Midwood, Bean on Independence Boulevard, Luna’s in South End, and ZiZi’s in the University area, there’s the new One Life Raw Juice Bar in Myers Park. More are sure to come. A growing supply of vegan products are also available everywhere from your neighborhood Harris Teeter to Bean’s little in-restaurant grocery store. Not coincidentally, 2016 was the year the veggie burger came into its own, largely on the back of the Impossible Burger. This plant-based, umami-rich burger sizzles and browns in the pan, and sheds plant-based red blood with each bite you take. Even the least apologetic of meat eaters surveyed have admitted to respecting the Impossible Burger, fortified with wheat and potato protein and lubed with coconut oil. The fake animal product space has also exploded with the likes of vegan cheese 14 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

R U O F O T N E C R E P 0 7 T U O B “A .” N A G E V T O N E R A S R E M CUSTO N VEGAN

-CHARLIE FOESCH, OWNER OF BEA

alternatives made from cultured nuts, pink-hued fake shrimp and crab meat, nut- and grain-based “milk” products like almond milk and soy milk, egg-free “mayo,” and all kinds of vegan substitutes for egg, chicken and most every other piece of flesh or fluid you can imagine. It’s not just vegans that are are into this stuff. Locavores, climatarians, ovo-lactopaleo-bacon-vores, and good old-fashioned omnivorous are finding their way to animal product-free alternatives for entirely different reasons.

ME, I EAT MEAT. Mostly wild game, for

which I feel zero guilt, assuming the hunt goes well. While I don’t avoid animal products as a rule, for phlegm-related reasons I do limit my intake of mammal milk products. I know it isn’t cool to admit it, but I like soy milk. I like milk, too. And heavy cream. And cheese, though I long ago settled on mayonnaise as my go-to cheese alternative. In recent years I’ve determined that Vegenaise, specifically the grapeseed oil

formulation, is the best mayo on the market — and for reasons that are completely unrelated to the fact that it doesn’t contain eggs. I scoop Vegenaise greedily upon my deer, my scrambled eggs, my beef or veggie burger, and I’m good. Bloodthirsty omnivore that I am, I’m part of the fake-animal-products market. “I’d say about 70 percent of our customers are not vegan and not vegetarian,” Charlie Foesch, co-owner of Bean Vegan Cuisine, told Cretive Loafing in a recent story on the restaurant. The various animal products industries have not been pleased with these developments, and they pushed back in a big way last year. Unilever, owner of the Hellman’s and Best Foods brands of mayo, took vegan food processor Hampton Creek to court for using the word “mayo” on the label of its eggfree mayonnaise substitute, Just Mayo. The National Dairy Council attempted, and failed, to make it illegal to use the word “milk” to describe nut- and grain-based milk substitutes like soy or almond milk. Makers of cultured

nut products have similarly lost their ability to label their products as “cheese.” It seems a matter of when — and not if — the beef industry goes after the Impossible Burger over its use of the word “burger.” While many vegetarian diets often attempt to recreate animal products from plant-based ingredients, resulting in the likes of bleeding burgers and Tofurky, this is not to be confused with vegetable-based cuisine. Vegetable cookery doesn’t carry the implicit inferiority complex that comes with constantly serving pretend meat. Rather, it celebrates the inherent qualities of the vegetable or plant part in question. So my prediction for this year doubles as a recommendation: don’t sleep on plain vegetables. Even as you nerd out to a Silicon Valley burger-patty formulation that’s precisely calculated to satisfy your body’s nutritional needs while simultaneously saving the earth and tickling your taste buds, don’t forget plain, normal vegetables. With each passing study, and with

5 PLACES TO GET YOUR VEGGIE ON Check out these local veggie hotspots, from the University Area to Myers Park. ZiZi’s Vegan Restaurant Where: 7945 N Tryon St. When: Mon. (closed); Tues.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; Sun. noon-7 p.m. More: awesomevegan2go.com Bean Vegan Cuisin Where: 3001 E. Independence Blvd. When: Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. More: eatatbean.com Fern, Flavors of the Earth Where: 1419 East Blvd. When: Mon. (closed); Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 4 p.m.-9:30 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. More: fernflavors.com Luna’s Living Kitchen Where: 2000 South Blvd. When: Mon.-Sat. 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. More: livingkitchen.com One Life Raw Juice Bar Where: 2927 N. Selwyn Ave. When: Mon.-Thurs. 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri. 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-6 p.m. More: oneliferawjuicebar.com

each passing year, vegetables continue to accumulate almost zero baggage. There’s no debate over the pros and cons of vegetables, because it has been settled and confirmed. Vegetables are good and not bad. Luckily, one of the bigger food trends of last year will likely grow stronger in 2017: the push to sell imperfect produce, or so-called “ugly” fruits and vegetables, at a discounted rate. Like cage-free eggs, imperfect produce is available at Walmart.

ALL DUE RESPECT to vegetables,

beautiful and ugly alike, but animals are not necessarily always bad. In fact, there is an increasingly solid argument to be made in favor of our eating them. Some of them, anyway. Public understanding and perceptions of fat continue to be turned inside out, especially relating to saturated fat, which has long been assumed to be the culprit behind obesity and related ailments, such as heart disease. Once practically unassailable, this position is now being openly questioned, as expert opinion is shifting to the camp that regards sugar as the primary dietary culprit

behind obesity. “Saturated fat” is a fancy way of saying “animal fat,” but with one big exception: a pair of oils, coconut and palm, derived from closely related tree species. Saturated fats are increasingly understood to benefit brain health, as well as other crucial body functions. Meanwhile, the relative merits of unsaturated fats — especially those found in grain-based oils like canola, safflower, sunflower and soy — seem to worsen the more we learn about omega-6 fatty acids, in which the grain-based oils are high. (Olive oil and other fruit and nut oils are in a vastly better category of plant oil, with more omega-3.) And it isn’t clear that all meat is bad for the environment, either. A vocal minority of ranchers are making the ecology-based case that certain landscapes can benefit from properly managed herds of certain ungulates. In the absence of buffalo and similar animals, many ecosystems could spin out of control without tasty grazers like cows filling that vital niche. Rotational grazing, if done correctly, can result in healthier ecosystems and carbon sequestration, proponents claim. It’s a compelling vision, but even if it’s true, the cattle-carrying capacity of the landscape is much less under rotational grazing than under feedlot rules. If the world were to make a dramatic switch to rotational grazing, it would mean a lot less meat to go around. But here’s another prediction: the global cattle industry will not be switching from feedlots to rotational grazing systems anytime soon.

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149C Rolling Hill Rd Mooresville, NC 28117 (828) 461-1534 CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 15

FOOD

THREE-COURSE SPIEL

FROM BISCUITS TO GRAVY Chef Marc’ Anthony Smith on grandpa’s and cooking for Hillary and Trump BY DEBRA RENEE SETH

WHEN MARC’ Anthony Smith first tasted

his granddad’s amazing homemade biscuits he had no idea he would one day become an accomplished chef. He and his brother Michael would enjoy the warm, delicious offerings from their grandparents’ kitchen, and marvel over the groceries they brought in and packed into the deep freezers on Sunday mornings. Smith was only eight at the time. How could he know that one day he’d be cooking for presidential candidates, catering events like The Masters or designing menus for Fortune 500 companies and professional sports teams? All he knew then was those biscuits were damn good. Smith’s grandfather was a military chef who used simple, clean methods in the kitchen and instilled structure within his family. He always cooked everything from scratch — and always with love. Today, Chef Smith continues the tradition his granddad started but incorporates his own formal training, fresh, modern ingredients and super-creative presentation. He’s living and working in Charlotte while attracting clients across the country with his flavorful offerings. CL caught up with him for a taste of his culinary expertise. Creative Loafing: Your grandfather was a big influence, but when did you actually decide you wanted to train in culinary arts and what prompted your decision? Marc’ Anthony Smith: I knew I had to become a chef when I had my daughter Mariyah and son Javion in the same year. I was only 18 at the time, so yeah, it became pretty clear that I had to make a decision to get off the block and really start cooking. The birth of my children forced me to focus and from there it was on. I trained at Bank of America Corporate, cooking for their executives and partners, and while I was there I learned a lot, including several sauces, cutting techniques and grades of protein. I worked my way up to sous chef before being offered an executive chef position with Esposito’s Italian where I designed menus for their three locations and continued to refine my skills.

16 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Marc’ Anthony Smith.

PHOTO BY TODD YOUNGBLOOD

Tell us about some of your most memorable catering experiences? Well the biggest event I’ve done so far was the Masters. I call it my best, worst mistake. (Laughs) That was 3,000 people for seven straight days, which was crazy, but so rewarding. I’ve also cooked for the Carolina Panthers, New York Knicks, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the recent presidential race. It feels really good to have served amazing food at that level, but I know I still want to challenge myself to do more. What is the worst thing a chef can do in the kitchen and what’s your best tip? The worst thing a chef can do is serve food they know isn’t right. I’d rather have the person wait for the correct dish than give them something horrible. Best tip is watch your fingers! (Laughs) No, but seriously, if you want to be a chef just create your own style and run with it. Chef Anthony is holding a pop up restaurant on April 28 in Matthews and serving a waffle bar at Solis Sharon Square Apartments this Saturday (both private events). For more info, contact @chef.anthony.smith on Instagram.

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 17

THURSDAY

CLT SOUND MUSIC SHOWCASE What: Charlotte rappers Black Linen and Nige Hood are two of several local acts performing on this bill, part of CLT Sound’s monthly showcase of regional talent. Also appearing: studio musician and music teacher Roey Haviv, an Israel native who experiments with Middle Eastern styles; 17-year-old singersongwrtier Camryn Wilson and 20-year-old singer-songwriter Sky Noblezada; and a pair of downhome Southern bands, Moses Jones and The Raisin Cain Band. When: 7 p.m. Where: The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: $10. eveningmuse.com.

18 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Dick Gregory WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

THE EDGE OF THE POSSIBLE

TRIBUTE TO JASON MOLINA

REGINA SPEKTOR

ROCK EN TU IDIOMA

What: With its distinctive roof suggesting wind-filled sails, the Sydney Opera house represents a seismic shift in architecture. Who knew that its construction was fraught with drama, backstabbing and betrayal? The Bechtler presents this documentary that focuses on architect Jørn Utzon and how he fell to political infighting even as the opera house he designed began to rise over Sydney harbor.

What: When The Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. front man Jason Molina died from alcoholrelated organ failure in 2013, he was a little known cult figure with a prodigious body of work. Since then, musicians have come forward to praise the songwriter’s dark-yet inspirational-songs. Charlotte tunesmiths including Jon Dwyer and CL contributor Grey Revell pay tribute to the poet laureate of loneliness in an evening benefiting the Molina family’s medical fund.

When: 8 p.m. Where: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 South Tryon St. More: $8-10. bechtler.org.

When: 8 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $8. petrasbar.com.

What: With Moscow-born Regina Spektor at the Fillmore this week and Tuvan throat singers at the Muse a few weeks back, you might think the president’s cozy friendship with Russia is sneaking its way into the arts. You’d be wrong. As a child, singer-songwriter Spektor’s family relocated to the U.S. under perestroika, when a great migration of Russian Jews fled the thenSoviet Union. She got her start on New York’s anti-folk scene, and is perhaps best-known for her song “Fidelity.” When: 8 p.m. Where: Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: $15. eveningmuse.com.

What: Calibre Rock presents a night of Spanish-language music at La Revolucion in the Music Factory. Featured acts are Atlanta-based La Madrugada, which mixes rock, rap, reggae and ska with Latin music influences. Also on the bill is Charlotte’s similarly eclectic Chócala, featuring drummer Davey Blackburn, who’s played with a variety of Charlotte experimental bands, along with siblings Claudio and Liza Ortiz (all three formerly of Patabamba), and saxophonist Michael Anderson (formerly of Snagglepuss). When: 10 p.m. Where: La Revolucion Tacos, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $10. larevolucionnc.com.

FRIDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Jason Molina (far right) THURSDAY

Black Violin TUESDAY COURTESY OF BLACK VIOLIN

SATURDAY

TUESDAY

PHOTO BY WILL CLAYTOR

WEDNESDAY

DONNA COOPER HURT

TOUR DE CHARLOTTE

BLACK VIOLIN

MINUS THE BEAR

DICK GREGORY

What: In some of the most eye-catching pieces in the Lilith exhibit, which has been showing at The Light Factory since January, ghostly blurs cross perfectly focused landscapes. In one, a nude apparition climbs a tree stump in some far-off wood. The photographs are the work Donna Cooper Hurt, a Charleston-based artist whose work both stays with the viewer while flashing by like a memory. At this event, Hurt will host an artist discussion about her Lilith work and other topics.

What: Prepare yourself for a full day of biking, including about 30 miles of riding at a “party pace” and stops at five stages, where mini-races will take place. The route will be a showcase of Charlotte’s urban bike infrastructure, including paths, dirt roads, single-track trails and commuter routes. A “sweeper” will be following the pack acting as a pace car, so pack light and get your stamina up. The afterparty starts at 4, for those who make it (or head in early).

What: At the edge of musical exploration, rap and classical collide with Black Violin. Taking their name from a swing era album by violinist Stuff Smith, classically trained musicians Kevin Sylvester (“Kev Marcus”) and Wilner Baptiste (“Wil B”) transformed themselves into this hip hop/R&B/bluegrass duo. Black Violin rock, swing, set down dope beats and use every part of their instruments – bowing, plucking and strumming their violins and violas.

What: Fifteen years and several personnel changes later, Jake Snider’s Pacific Northwest indiepop band is back with a new album, Voids, after a five-year break. And from the crazy rhythms (despite the loss of founding drummer Erin Tate) of “Last Kiss” to the shimmering guitars that introduce “Invisible,” the album is a mix of the various sounds — raw, experimental, poppy — that defined its earlier LPs.

What: More than a half-century since hitting the comedy scene in 1961, Dick gregory continues to serve up searing social satire on topics like politics and race relations in America. Even President Bill Clinton once called him “one of the funniest people on the planet.” He’s made a name for himself as a civil rights activist, self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist and writer over the decades, and you’re sure to get a hilarious but poignant mix of all those roles at one of these two shows.

When: 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Where: The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave. More: Free. lightfactory.org.

When: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Where: Savona Mill, 500 S. Turner Ave. More: $25-35. bikereg.com/TDCLT.

When: 8:30 p.m. Where: Knight Theater, 420 S. Tryon St. More: $20-39.50. blumenthalarts. org.

When: 8 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: $22.50. fillmorecharlottenc. com.

When: March 22, 23; 7 p.m. Where: Comedy Zone, 820 Hamilton St. More: $25. cltcomedyzone.com.

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 19

ARTS

THEATER

A DREAM REMEMBERED — AND STILL DEFERRED Theater Charlotte brings back ‘cultural litmus test’ A Raisin in the Sun BY PERRY TANNENBAUM

HEN LORRAINE Hansberry’s

A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959, it was unquestionably a historical milestone. Hansberry was the first African American woman to write a play produced on Broadway, and Lloyd Richards was the first African American man to direct. Although it lost the 1960 Tony Award to The Miracle Worker, Hansberry’s drama was destined to become a cultural touchstone, sprouting two notable offshoots. And Raisin continues to speak to audiences. Since the last time Theatre Charlotte brought the play to Queens Road 13 years ago, the sturdy script has been revived twice on Broadway. But Kim Parati, directing for the first time at Theatre Charlotte, sees the play as more than a milestone or a touchstone. “It’s a litmus test of our progress — or lack thereof — over these last 50 years,” Parati observes. “We’re still debating the infrastructure of the decaying conditions in the poor and segregated South Side of Chicago. We’re still lamenting the pain of the black male when it comes to dealing with The Man. And we’re still examining the conditions that rob poor people — and in this case, poor blacks — of their dreams.” Hanberry’s drama actually had its roots in litigation her family was involved in 25 years before she wrote it, a case that fought Chicago’s “restrictive covenants” enforcing segregated neighborhoods through agreements by all-white property owners’ associations. You don’t forget such things when your mother patrols the house with a loaded gun at night to protect the family, or when your case — eventually adjudicated in the family’s favor by the Supreme Court — gets you spat upon on your way to school. While the Younger family’s confrontation with the emissary from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association is at the core of the drama, the Hanberry, not yet 29 when Raisin premiered, layered on so much more. When Younger family matriarch Lena receives the $10,000 check from her late husband’s life insurance policy, only a portion of it goes toward a down payment on her dream home. A third will go toward fulfilling her daughter Beneatha’s ambitions 20 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Kim Parati, lower left, addresses cast of A Raisin in the Sun after rehearsal. to attend medical school and become a doctor. The rest goes to Lena’s bitter and discontented son Walter Lee, who wishes to shed the daily humiliations of a limousine driver and open a liquor store. Meanwhile, Walter Lee’s wife Ruth has just learned that she is pregnant with another child that her family cannot afford. So there’s a whole swirl of racial, societal, and women’s issues percolating throughout Raisin, with extra splashes of conflict supplied by Beneatha’s two suitors, the well-to-do George Murchison and Nigerian exchange student Joseph Asagai. Maybe Beneatha, immersing herself in African culture, should just forget this America thing and run off with Asagai to his homeland. Amid all these conflicted and bickering folk, one non-combatant emerges with a pivotal role: Travis, Walter Lee’s son. Parati takes on the task of shaping all these turbulences, crosswinds, and the crystallization they lead to with less than two years’ experience in directing. But Parati’s debut as director came a full 16 years after she made her Charlotte acting debut in the long-forgotten Naked Navigations, at a 5th Street art gallery, where her turn as Madonna was interrupted by a passing freight train. By 2001, Parati had made her debut at Children’s Theatre as an unexpectedly active Annabel Lee in Tales of Edgar Allen Poe, before winning CL’s Best Cameo award in 2002 with walk-ons in The Vagina Monologues and Jungalbook and making her Charlotte Repertory Theatre debut in 2003. Curiously, it was none of the above that turned Parati toward directing. Her “aha” moment happened at Spirit Square in the Collaborative Arts Theatre production of

Bad Dates, the one-woman show written by Theresa Rebeck. “I’d managed to carry a show on my shoulders for more than 80 minutes each night and not only survive it,” Parati says, “but grow in the confidence that I might have the vision and fortitude to manage an entire production. That’s when I began thinking about directing.” It took three years before Parati got her chance from Nicia Carla at PaperHouse Theatre to direct A Woman of No Importance. The site for this Oscar Wilde revival was unlikely, the first time The Frock Shop on Central Avenue was used for a theatrical production. Yet the triumph was undeniable: CL picked the sophisticated PaperHouse frolic as both its Best Comedy and Show of the Year in 2015. Other recent career moves for Parati have included resigning from WFAE after 10 years, delivering her own story on The Moth Radio Hour, and obtaining her realtor’s license. Keeping her hand in directing, she also piloted Motherhood Out Loud for Three Bone Theatre and The Bluest Eye for On Q Productions. It wasn’t a huge surprise when Theatre Charlotte executive director Ron Law called on Parati for A Raisin in the Sun. “Ron and his team have worked hard to create a theatre that celebrates diversity and thought it might be wonderful to have a black woman direct a show written by a black woman,” she says. More than 50 actors showed up for auditions, and Parati found herself calling back 30. Better yet, she didn’t have to scout beyond this talent pool to fill any of Hansberry’s roles. Parati is excited about the new faces in the cast, and she’s also planning

PHOTO BY BEN SPARENBERG

A RAISIN IN THE SUN $27. March 17, 8 p.m.; March 18, 8 p.m.; March 19, 2:30 p.m.; March 22, 7:30 p.m.; March 23, 7:30 p.m.; March 24, 8 p.m.; March 25, 8 p.m.; March 26, 2:30 p.m.; March 29, 7:30 p.m.; March 30, 7:30 p.m.; March 31, 8 p.m. Sign Language Interpreted Performance: April 1, 8 p.m.; April 2, 2:30 p.m. Theater Charlotte, 501 Queens Road. theatrecharlotte.org. 704-376-3777.

a couple of surprises, restoring one of the scenes — plus a telling moment — that were cut from the original 1959 premiere. Yet Parati pushes back against the notion that A Raisin in the Sun — has become newly relevant after the Obama presidency and Trump election. “In 2008, I — like a lot of Americans — celebrated the fact that our country had elected its first black president,” Parati recalls. “Yet, the disparities between blacks and whites in education, healthcare, mortality rates and income continue to widen. I’m not convinced there was an ascent and subsequent descent for African Americans from the Obama era to now. “Sure, our conversation since Trump has changed because the optics and rhetoric seem drastically different,” she adds, “but the stats about the lack of equity between blacks and whites have continued along the same trajectory.”

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 21

Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson in Kong: Skull Island (Photo: Warner)

ARTS

FILM

GORILLA WARFARE Ape adventure is a spirited run through the jungle BY MATT BRUNSON

For those who don’t keep up on such matters, the new Kong: Skull Island (*** out of four) is part of a so-called “shared universe” of movies. Just as the Marvel movies share a universe and the DC flicks operate in similar fashion, the new King Kong thriller likewise shares a MonsterVerse with 2014’s Godzilla and with the rash of M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) motion pictures barreling our way. (Up next: Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019 and Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020.) If it all seems a little too much like the result of brand marketing and capitalist co-opting and less like a natural ebb and flow in artistic temperament and intent, that’s par for the course. The biggest fear is that shared universes will become the norm in modern cinema, leading to that awkward point when, say, the young men from Moonlight team up with the La La Land lovebirds to prevent Paul Blart from inadvertently destroying a shopping mall 22 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

owned by the Tyrell Corporation. For now, though, it’s all eyes on Kong: Skull Island, an action romp that’s frequently clever, occasionally inane, and always exciting. Practically all ties to past Kong pictures have been neatly severed, from Carl Denham to Ann Driscoll to the Empire State Building. About all that remains is what’s promoted in the title itself: the island and the ape. Certainly, the human players matter less than ever, with all but one character painted in the broadest strokes possible. The glorious exception is Hank Marlow, played with the right mix of cheer and fear by John C. Reilly. A fighter pilot who’s been stranded on Skull Island since World War II (the film itself is set in 1973, so cue the ample Creedence Clearwater Revival), Marlow proves to be the most sympathetic character in the film, the go-to figure for audience involvement. The others are the usual stock assemblage of hunky adventurer (Tom Hiddleston), feisty pacifist (Brie Larson), gung-ho military man (Samuel L. Jackson), government wonk

(John Goodman), whiny company suit (John Ortiz), and various expendables in the form of scientists and soldiers. All are part of an expedition that arrives on Skull Island and proceeds to get ambushed not only by Kong but by other oversized inhabitants. Before long, though, it becomes clear that the great ape doesn’t deserve to be lumped into the same category as the isle’s other beasties: Unlike the subterranean Skullcrawlers and a particularly nasty spider, Kong has far nobler reasons for employing his berserker rage against the hapless humans. Like Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow and Fantastic Four’s Josh Trank, Jordan Vogt-Roberts is the latest indie filmmaker automatically entrusted with a franchise blockbuster. Clearly, the director responsible for 2013’s sweet coming-of-age tale The Kings of Summer has adapted better than the others. Pacing is never an issue in Kong: Skull Island, and some of the shot selections VogtRoberts devises with cinematographer Larry Fong are exceptional: Note, particularly, the

moments that evoke Apocalypse Now in both form and content. His helming is certainly more accomplished than the script, which passed through several sets of hands before being deemed filmable. Insipid one minute and overstuffed the next, it also never allows an incredibly talented assemblage of players to strut their stuff. Still, the people don’t matter nearly as much as the creatures, and in that respect, Kong: Skull Island offers some truly dazzling visual effects, particularly when it comes to its towering star. As with all movies occupying a shared universe, it’s imperative that viewers sit through the entire picture to be privy to the requisite coda. Just be sure not to actually read the credits that precede this tease, as it spells out (via copyright acknowledgments) exactly what this surprise addendum will contain. Then again, since no one actually reads the closing credits — aside from OCD critics, of course — the secret is probably safe until it reveals itself.

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 23

Charlotte Roller Girls

The Roller Girls have already kicked their season off with a win over Tallahassee, and they’ll be back from the Dust Bowl tournament for a homestand beginning on April 15. First listed opponent will skate against the CLTRG All-Stars, while the second will face the B-Dazzlers. April 15: Hard Knox All-Stars; Hard Knox B May 20: River City All-Stars; Smoky Mountain June 3: Rogue Rollergirls; Rogue Rollergirls B Where: Grady Cole Center, 310 N. King Drive. Cost: $12 More: charlotterollergirls.com

Charlotte Independence

The city’s preference for courting an MLS team played a role in pushing the team out of the city; they’ll be playing in Matthews beginning on June 17, so catch them at Ramblewood while they’re still nearby. April 1: Charleston Battery April 15: Pittsburgh Riverhounds May 11: New York Red Bulls II June 3: Tampa Bay Rowdies June 17: Harrisburg City Islanders* Where: Ramblewood Soccer Complex, 10200 Nations Ford Road. (*Mecklenburg County Sportsplex, 1505 Tank Town Rd., Matthews.) Cost: Season tickets, $144-960. SIngle tickets not yet listed. More: charlotteindependence.com

Charlotte Hounds

We know our readership can often be sportsilliterate, so this is your yearly reminder that Charlotte does have a Major League Lacrosse team, and the games are damn fun. April 22: Denver Outlaws April 29: Ohio Machine May 13: Chesapeake Bayhawks June 10: Atlanta Blaze Where: Memorial Stadium, 310 N. Kings Drive. Cost: Tickets not yet for sale. More: charlottehounds.com

24 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

LAURA WOLFF/CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS

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BB&T Ballpark

Charlotte Knights

It’s the Knights’ fourth season in the Uptown ballpark, and yet no one wants to believe that their friends have already seen enough skyline shots on social media. April 6-9: Norfolk Tides* March 18-20: Pawtucket Red Sox March 21-23: Rochester Red Wings* April 2-4: Norfolk Tides April 5-7: Gwinnett Braves* April 15-17: Durham Bulls April 23-25: Syracuse Chiefs April 26-29: Buffalo Bisons* June 5-7: Durham Bulls June 13-15: Louisville Bats June 16-18: Indianapolis Indians* *Weekend series Where: BB&T Ballpark, 324 S. Mint St. Cost: Single tickets, $8-23. More: charlotteknights.com.

Charlotte Royals

Charlotte’s gay rugby team will soon kick off its spring season with a clinic/scrimmage in Asheville with the new Blue Ridge Bootleggers, but come April they’ll be back in Charlotte and ready to really compete. April 8: Charleston Brigade May 6: Atlanta Bucks (Prom Dress Match) Where: Tuckaseegee Park, 4820 Tuckaseegee Road. Cost: Free. More: charlotteroyalsrugby.com

Rachel Strickland of Aerial CLT will help folks uncover the art of spinning, and not peddling on a stationary bike, but using aerial hoops and other spin apparatuses (apparati?). When: March 24 Where: Aerial CLT, 801 N. Tryon St. More: $55; aerialclt.com

Tour de Blaze

Who wouldn’t want to mix a bike ride and a bar crawl? Just, ya know, watch yourself in traffic. When: April 1 Where: Blue Blaze Brewing, 528 S. Turner Ave. More: Free; blueblazebrewing.com

Wanderlust 108

Billed as a field day for your inner child focused on community over competition, this event starts with a 5K, followed by 75 minutes of DJ-powered yoga, meditation and shopping around the Kula Market. When: April 8 Where: Romare Bearden Park, 300 S. Church St. More: $21-49; wanderlust.com/108-events/ charlotte

Weekend Warrior Charity Flag Football Play on the same field as the Panthers, and hopefully fare better than they did last season, in the 14th annual Weekend Warrior tournament. Four skill divisions include Weekend Warrior, Couch Potato, 35 & Over and Co-Ed. When: April 22-23 Where: Bank of America Stadium, 800 S. Mint St. More: $360 per team; panth.rs/ WeekendWarrior17

Moonlight Madness

Hit Lake Wylie under a full moon for paddle boarding, but we (and event organizers) suggest you have at least a little experience before taking this late-night paddle. When: May 12 Where: The Goat Boater, 1144 Molokai Dr., Tega Cay More: $77; thegoatboater.com

Knockerball Tournament Organizers aim to have teams of four to six compete in a tournament of knockerball games, which basically consists of you getting into a big inflatable ball and knocking the shit out of everyone in sight. Have fun! When: May 20 Where: Revolution Park, 2425 Barringer Drive. More: Donation to CLTivate requested; cltivate.com

Aqua Rock Deep Water Solo Climbing Competition

Hop on the U.S. National Whitewater Center’s brand new Deep Water Solo complex, which features 25- and 45-foot walls that hang above a 20-foot deep pool, ready to swallow climbers up whether they succeed or fail. When: May 28 Where: U.S. National Whitewater Center; 5000 Whitewater Center Pkwy. More: $25-35. usnwc.org

Habitat Mud Volleyball Tournament

Help Habitat for Humanity build affordable homes by getting dirty as hell playing volleyball in a series of mud pits. When: June 7 Where: Ayrsley Town Center; 2127 Ayrsley Town Blvd. More: $180-240 per team; $30-40 per individual. habitatmudvolleyball.org

Spring into Arts Festival

Charlotte Goes Green

Uptown turns green on St. Patrick’s Day with Irish music, dance, and a big parade. You’ll probably find the Federal Family front and center. When: March 18 Where: Uptown, Charlotte More: Free; charlottestpatsday.com

Boom Charlotte

Spread over several venues, including Snug Harbor and Petra’s, this artist-run festival, whose theme is “Art, Performance and the Unexpected,” returns for its second year with local music, theater, dance, film, visual art and . . . well, the unexpected. Among the many treats you’ll see: Moving Poets, Hip Hop Orchestrated, Susie Films (100 Word Film Festival), Urban Zue, and so much more. When: April 28 - April 30 Where: Plaza Midwood, Charlotte More: Free - $10; boomcharlotte.org

Charlotte Black Film Festival

This year’s theme is “Unified to Create,” and the topics covered in the numerous films, docs, videos and web series include parenthood, coming of age, growing old, mental illness, racism, music and much more When: March 30 - April 2 Where: Charlotte Convention Center, 501 S. College St., Charlotte More: $15 - $150; charlotteblackfilmfestival. com

Tuck Fest

Put on your running shoes, break out the kayaks, bikes, climbing gear, and grab whatever else gets you moving and grooving outdoors. In addition, you get music from Keller Williams and more. When: April 21 - 23 Where: National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Pkwy., Charlotte More: $45 - $75, depending on day (see website for registration for competitions); tuckfest.org

Moo & Brew Fest

Burgers, craft beer and Blues Traveler -- how could you go wrong with that combination? Come and find out who in Charlotte has the best beer and who makes the best burger. When: April 22 Where: AvidXchange Music Factory, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., Charlotte More: $35 - $40; mooandbrewfest.com

DANCER NAIMAH KISOKI

Merlefest

Concord’s Avett Brothers is a headliner at the late folk master Doc Watson’s legendary festival this year, which features numrous acts, old and young, from Hot Tuna’s Jorma Kaukonen to Sarah Jarosz. Sadly, the complexion is awfully white this year. When: April 27 - 30 Where: Wilkesboro More: $50 - $260; merlefest.org

Art of Cool Festival

Spectacular lineup of jazz and jazz-based offshoots from funk to hip-hop to electronic music, featuring Common, Rakim, George Clinton, Christian Scott, Laurin Talese, NC’s own DJ Complex, and many others. When: April 28 - April 30 Where: Durham More: $30 - $265; aocfestival.org

Carolina Rebellion

Diehard headbangers won’t want to miss this lineup featuring hard-rock legends and newcomers from Def Leppard to Soungarden, Opeth, Mastondon, Avenged Sevenfold, Coheed

& Cambria, and Charlotte resident Adam Lazarra’s Taking Back Sunday. When: May 5 - 7 Where: Concord More: $79 - $740; carolinarebellion.com

LEAF Festival

One of NC’s best, most eclectic festivals features Americana artist Sara Watkins, soul singer Macy Gray, Native hip-hop group A Tribe Called Red, Cuban-born vocalist Danay Suarez, Zimbabwean group Mokoomba, and much more. When: May 11 - 14 Where: Black Mountain More: $45 - $180; theleaf.org

North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival

Two days of beer and good music from artists including Mandolin Orange, Mipso and Charlotte’s Sinners & Saints. When: May 12 - 13 Where: Huntersville More: $8 - $76; ncbrewsmusic.com

Just your basic, family-friendly downtown street fair featuring local music, dancing, facepainting, crafts and overall good times. When: May 13 Where: Concord More: Free; concorddowntown.com

Moogfest

This time-honored NC electronic music and art conference features some of ther greatest names in electronic music. This year: Flying Lotus, Princess Nokia, Animal Collective, the legendary Derrick May, 808 State, and many more. When: May 18 - 21 Where: Durham More: $249 – $1,500; moogfest.com

Speed Street

Every year this NASCAR-related event brings classic and contemporary country, rock and soul artists to the Uptown streets. Already on tap this year are DJ Jazzy Jeff and country singers Billy Currington and Jake Owen. But stay tune for more announcements. When: May 25 - 27 Where: Uptown, Charlotte More: Free; 600festival.com

GayCharlotte Film Festival

If this year’s fest is anything like last year’s — which saw a screening of “Major,” the mustsee doc about legendary 75-year-old trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy — then it will be stellar. Stay tuned for announcements. When: June 1 - 4 Where: Johnson C. Smith University More: TBA; charlottelgbtfilm.com

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New Questions: A Body of Work

In this exhibition, Queens Art faculty Denny Gerwin presents artworks old and new. When: March 16 – April 20 Where: Watkins Building, Queens University of Charlotte, 2222 Radcliffe Ave More: Free; queens.edu

I Can’t Breathe Workshop Artist Shaun Leonardo’s workshop and performance piece is a self-defense class, which takes participants into a realm where they can empathize with both aggressor and victim. When: March 18 Where: McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 721 North Tryon St. More: Free; mccollcenter.org

March Mania Comedy Tournament

In this single-elimination tournament, standup comics go head-to-head. Your vote via smartphone sends the winner to the next round. When: March 21 - March 28 Where: Comedy Zone, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd. Cost: More Info: $10-$15; cltcomedyzone.com

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise

In honor of Women’s History Month, the evening celebrates the life and work of artist and activist Dr. Maya Angelou. When: March 30 Where: Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 South Tryon St. More: $10; ganttcenter.org

New FrequenciesLiterature

Musician John Darnielle, founder of indie-rock act the Mountain Goats, reads from his second

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novel Universal Harvester. When: March 30 Where: McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 721 North Tryon St. More: $5 - $7; mccollcenter.org

Paul Taylor Dance Company

After more than 15 years, the troupe founded by the greatest living modern American dance pioneer returns to Charlotte, presenting a program set to Igor Stravinsky’s music. When: April 7 - April 8 Where: Halton Theater at CPCC, 1206 Elizabeth Avenue More: $25 - $55; coaa.uncc.edu/calendar/paultaylor-dance-company

Versailles Faience with Camille le Prince

French art historian Camille le Prince conducts a seminar on Versailles pottery. When: April 18 Where: Mint Museum Randolph, 2730 Randolph Road More: Free; mintmuseum.org

Star Gazer: A Trek Into Outer Space

Dance and circus arts entwine with 3D mapping in Caroline Calouche & Company’s journey through the Milky Way. When: April 21 - April 23 Where: Booth Playhouse, 130 North Tryon St. More: $25 -$35; carolinecalouche.org

Wuthering Heights

Charlotte Bronte’s brooding and passionate tale of love and revenge is boldly adapted into a ballet by Charlotte Ballet. When: April 27 - April 29 Where: Knight Theater, 430 South Tryon St. More: $25 -$90; charlotteballet.org

PHOTO BY LOVO

Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.)

Charlotte’s groundbreaking African American Theater Company celebrates its 10th anniversary with an artful weave of acting, music and poetry depicting the game-changing collaboration of jazz giants Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The seismic social revolution of the 1950s is reflected in the pair’s outsized personalities and the galvanizing music they made. When: March 21 - April 1 Where: Duke Energy Theater, 345 North College St. More: $28; youarenowonq.com

Dances of India – 15th Anniversary

Presented by acclaimed choreographer Dr. Maha Gingrich, the performance features traditional classical as well as high-energy folk. When: April 29 Where: Halton Theater at CPCC, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. dances. More: $25 -$90; cpcc.edu

Circus 1903

Award-winning magicians and puppeteers team up to present a turn of the century circus. When: May 2 – May 7 Where: Knight Theater, 430 South Tryon St. More: $25; blumenthalarts.org

The Naked Magicians

Expect mirth and mayhem as two magicians take sleight of hand to a whole new level. When: May 10 Where: McGlohon Theater, 345 North College St. More: $19.50 - $59.50; blumenthalarts.org

Memphis the Musical

Set in the 1950s, this tale of fame and forbidden love ranges from seedy honky tonks to swanky recording studios. When: May 12 – May 28 Where: Theater Charlotte, 501 Queens Road More: $27; theatrecharlotte.org

Taste of the Mint

Four small plate and wine pairings followed by curator-led tours of select art exhibitions. When: March 22, April 12, May 24 Where: Mint Museum Uptown and Randolph More: $30-$40; mintmuseum.org

Wingfest

Charlotte’s first annual Wing Festival. Restaurants will compete for Best, Hottest and Most Unique Wings awards. Wing eating contest at 7 p.m. When: March 25 Where: Rooftop 210; 210 East Trade St. #B320 More: $20-$30; rooftop210.com

The Oyster Roast at Historic Rosedale

Southern coastal roasted oysters, lowcountry cookin’, fixin’s, snacks and kids menu. When: March 26 Where: Historic Rosedale Plantation; 3427 North Tryon St. More: $12-$50; historicrosedale.org

8th Annual Charlotte Craft Beer Week

Blue Blaze Brewing will lead the Tour de Blaze beer bicycling marathon with stops throughout West End and Uptown. When: March 31- April 9 Where: Blue Blaze, Triple C, Thirsty Nomad, Wooden Robot and Unknown Brewing Company More: Free admission; charlottecraftbeerweek. org

Friendship Picnic

Have lunch at this bi-monthly South End event, all proceeds benefit Friendship Trays non-profit.

When: March 31 Where: C3Lab; 2525 Distribution St. More: Free admission; c3-lab.com

Birdsong’s 6th Annual Spring Beak Party

Bird… beak… get it? Tiger Yakatori and Tin Kitchen food trucks will be there. When: April 1 Where: Birdsong Brewing Company; 1016 N Davidson St. More: Free; birdsongbrewing.com

Wine and Food Weekend

Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend has been named in Forbes Travel Guide top five festivals to visit. Portion of the proceeds benefit five local charities. When: April 19-23 Where: Barrington’s, Bonterra, Corkbuzz, Customshop, Fahrenheit, Fig Tree, Lumiere, Napa on Providence, Ruth’s Chris Steak House More: $75-$125; charlottewineandfood.org

Wine and Tapas Week

Malabar, Kid Cashew, Zen Fusion, Enso, Peculiar Rabbit, Gusto! and Porter House. When: April 21-30 Where: 29-plus participating restaurants More: Free admission; charlottewinetapasweek. com

Louisiana Spring Fest

Experience OMB’s crawfish boil, eat shrimp, jambalaya and more Louisiana favorites during Olde Meck’s spring fest. When: April 22-23 Where: The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery; 4150 Yancey Road More: Free admission; oldemeckbrew.com

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Whales for Wishes

Partnering with The Beer Exchange, OMB will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to MakeA-Wish® Foundation during their third annual bottle share. When: April 30 Where: The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery; 4150 Yancey Road More: Free admission; oldemeckbrew.com, thebeerexchange.io

Charlotte Food Fight

Local food trucks battle against each other at Charlotte Food Fight’s 5th anniversary party. Portion of the proceeds benefit Charlotte’s Relay for Life. Word on the street is the CL staff just might be participating as judges. When: May 6 Where: Stumptown Park; 200 S. Trade St. More: Free admission; facebook.com/ charlottefoodfight

Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival

60 beers, 40 bourbons, hog, ribs, briskets, sausage, chicken and 3rd annual Carolina BBQ League Competition. When: May 13 Where: Symphony Park at Southpark Mall, 4400 Sharon Road More: $29-$77; beerandbourbon.com

Taste of Charlotte

Over 100 samples from area restaurants, cooking demos and children’s activities spread over six of Uptown Charlotte’s city blocks. When: June 9-11 Where: Uptown More: Free.; tasteofcharlotte.com

Taste Your Way Around the World

Tickets includes “passport” with stickers to track the cocktails and specialty dishes you try from seven different countries (eight if you buy VIP). When: March 24, 8-10 p.m. Where: Whisky River; 210 East Trade St. #A208 More: $12-22; thewhiskyriver.com

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ALL PHOTOS BY MARK KEMP

MUSIC

FEATURE

CAPED CRUSADERS Bessemer City’s The Menders are on a mission BY MARK KEMP

EFORE THE MENDERS

settle into their Bessemer City garage for rehearsal on a recent Friday, the band’s longhaired, bearded, 1970s throwback of a singer and keyboardist has an idea. “Hold on! Hold on!” Johnny Boswell says, excitedly, as we begin shooting the photos for this story. He’s wearing faded jeans and 28 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

an all-black combo of button-down shirt, sport coat and wide-rimmed hat, a black stone and coral necklace dangling from his neck. Boswell is recalling some of the famous rock-star imagery of the ’60s and ’70s. “I got this Black Sabbath/cowboy/Batman thing I wanna try,” he says. Boswell finds a suitcase-looking piece of equipment to elevate himself above his cohorts, singer and guitarist Jesse Watson,

guitarist and harmony vocalist Wes Forbus and drummer Phillip Anderson. They all laugh and shrug their shoulders. Typical Boswell behavior. He’s the idea man. “OK, y’all gather round me here,” Boswell tells the others as he balances on the suitcase and dramatically raises his arms. His long, black scarf creates the illusion of wings in a simulation of the classic 1973 album cover for Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

And the result? Well, it’s picture-perfect. With Boswell hovering behind his mates sporting an ominous skyward gaze, the image looks more like your average vintage publicity shot of a proto-metal band than anything from 2017. But the members of Menders weren’t even born when Ozzy Osbourne’s pioneering ball-cruncher of a band was in its heyday. What’s more, the Menders don’t do metal, although Boswell,

38, does have the pipes of a classic earlymetal screamer. Just listen to his bloodcurdling shrieks on “Shiny Lil’ Devil,” from the Menders’ self-titled debut of 2014. Tonight, though, Boswell and company are focused on more recent material. The Menders will be performing a release party for their latest album, Nina, this week at Freeman’s Pub in Gastonia. On this album, Boswell puts his gurgling shrieks to a few more tracks, including “Like Me Too” and “The Demon.” But as much as I admire Boswell’s unbridled rock ’n’ roll spirit, it wasn’t his songs that initially brought me

on the side of Kirby Mountain in Lenoir, just an hour south of the late flat-picking legend Doc Watson’s hometown of Deep Gap. “My dad loved bluegrass, but he never really decided what he wanted to be — sometimes he’s a biker, sometimes he’s a hick — so he has really eclectic tastes in music,” Watson says. “I just listened to what he listened to.” That is, until Weezer rocked his world. When Watson discovered Rivers Cuomo’s pop-punk band as a teenager, his tastes rambled from Doc to pop and then on to the classic rock of Zeppelin and Queen. All of

when we saw Johnny at this guitar circle at Freeman’s Pub,” Watson remembers. “He was up there screaming and playing acoustic guitar, and we were like, ‘This is kind of cool. I bet he’s in a band.” Actually, Boswell was pretty much done with playing in bands. He had recently moved from Wilmington and formed a combo that played Nuggets-style garage rock, but it fell apart. “I felt like I was finished with making music professionally. I was burned out on it,” he says. “I thought, ‘I’m just going to be a producer and cultivate some talent and record them and see how that works out.’ Then I met Jesse and Shawn.” Boswell had started the guitar circle at Freeman’s Pub as a way to bring musicians in the Gaston County area together in a casual atmosphere. “I started it with this Irish guy named Monty, who was a drinking buddy of mine,” Boswell says. “He had played with everybody from the Pogues to Joe Strummer [of the Clash], and for some reason he was living in Gastonia. We did the guitar circle with no microphones or anything — just something where everybody could come in and play and have fun together.” Boswell, Watson and Sutton soon began writing and performing together, but then Sutton found Jesus and left the group. A couple of drummers passed through before the current Menders lineup coalesced, and in the years since — except for one 5-song acoustic EP — the band has downplayed its acoustic side. Nina rocks much harder than its full-length predecessor — “I don’t think there’s even one acoustic guitar on this record,” Watson says — but the folk base is still evident

in songs like “Out of the Light,” with its haunting harmonies and spooky storyline about a nagging apparition. Same with the twangy “Foot in the Grave.” The Menders even include a plugged-in version of that acoustic song I heard them do on YouTube, “Carolina Highway,” transforming the gentle, foreboding love ballad into full-on, muscular rock. “When I look back at it now, that first album was us sort of segueing from more of an acoustic-folk sound to more of a rock-band sound,” Watson says. “You can even hear it happening from the first few songs on that album to the later ones. I mean, the last song [“Shiny Lil’ Devil”] is just straight-forward garage-rock.” Boswell takes a slug from his beer and smiles — devilishly. “You know, the whole concept of this band is that, uh. . . well, you see, we obviously are in love with each other.” His bandmates laugh nervously, wondering what pearl of wisdom is going to drop from their idea man’s mouth this time. “No seriously,” he goes on, and furrows his brow. “And we want everybody else to feel that love.”

THE MENDERS - NINA RELEASE PARTY Free. March. 17, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m.; Freeman’s Pub, 173 W. Main Ave., Gastonia. 704-671-4782. freemanspub.com.

“HE WAS UP THERE SCREAMING AND PLAYING ACOUSTIC GUITAR.” JESSE WATSON

to this story. I was first taken by an acoustic YouTube video of the band doing Watson’s “Carolina Highway,” a deeply Southern folk song that sounds more like it came out of the Greenwich Village Bleecker Street folk revival of the early ’60s. “My family is supposedly related to Doc Watson, so there was a lot of folk and bluegrass when I was growing up,” says 27-year-old Watson. It’s a couple of hours later, and the band has finished rehearsing and retreated to an old couch in the garage. They’re surrounded by empty beer bottles, music gear and all manner of ephemera: photos of Elvis, Prince and Paul McCartney; a skull-and-crossbones banner; vintage figurines; random keyboards and a old cello with no strings. Watson’s father was born and raised

that shows up in Watson’s songs, in which he plucks the folk center from each of those genres, adds an element of Appalachian storytelling, and makes it all sound new and personal. With Boswell’s garage-rock keyboards and rich harmony vocals from him and Forbus, Watson’s songs sometimes even hint at the British folk-rock sound of the Fairport Convention — a band he says he never even listened to. “Oh wow,” Watson says when I make the reference. “Thanks. . . I guess.”

WATSON FORMED the Menders as an acoustic trio in 2011, when he and an earlier member, banjo player Shawn Sutton, first met Boswell in Gastonia. “Me and Shawn had just moved into an apartment and we were doing a little folk-duo thing together, CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 29

Charlotte, searching for success and making emotional, magical music.

MUSIC MUSICMAKER

Creative Loafing: Drake, you’ve described the process of making The Electric Man as magical. How so? Margolnick: We went out to L.A. last summer to start writing songs, and to see if there was chemistry with Joey Waronker. It went so smoothly that we knew we wanted to make a record with him. Everything was so effortless, other than one or two bumps — which is to be expected. It came together so quick. We had a deadline, 10 days to finish the core of the album. To be able to walk away from that kind of fast process really happy is something special because you never know how it’s going to go.

FLAGSHIP SAILS FULL SPEED AHEAD Local rock duo charts a course for national recognition BY PAT MORAN

LOOKS LIKE the Charlotte duo Flagship

may be on the cusp of national success. Singer and guitarist Drake Margolnick and drummer Michael Finster’s second full-length album The Electric Man, released March 10, was produced by Beck’s longtime drummer Joey Waronker, and it’s getting a big push from Cali indie label Bright Antenna Records. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Flagship. After gigging tirelessly on the Charlotte music scene since 2005, Margolnick and Finster formed Flaghip in 2011. When the band’s first album came out in 2013, the band was a five-piece including keyboardist and longtime friend Grant Harding. He left Flagship on good terms, but in 2015 he died. The passing of their close friend inspired

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Flagship

PHOTO BY ELIOT LEE HAZE

Margolnick and Finster to write The Electric Man’s title track. “People described Grant as electric,” Margolnick says. “The album is dedicated to him, but the whole record is not focused on that one incident. It’s all over the place.” As Margolnick and Finster came to terms with Harding’s death, they decided to continue as a paired-down two-piece. “Michael, Grant and I were usually the guys who would sit down and get songs started,” Margolnick says. “So it was easy for us two to keep doing that together.” As the band prepped for the March 17 release party for The Electric Man at Hart Witzen Gallery, Creative Loafing talked with Margolnick and Finster about coming up in

How did Waronker get involved? Margolnick: We had met Joey right before we made our first album. He was interested in making the first one with us, but we ending up going with another producer. Once it came time for the second album, we remembered that Joey was so cool. He’s done a lot of amazing stuff in the music industry, including music we really love. So it made sense to hit him up again and see if he was still interested. It all fell into place. When you came up with a sound for the band, were there any inspirations? Margolnick: I have a handful of influences. When we were making this record, I was listening to a lot of Kurt Vile, Father John Misty, Bruce Springsteen — the list goes on. On “Mexican Jackpot,” I wanted to have a

tight, crisp verse. If you know the band Scenic you can probably pick up on that in that song, but then we added a chorus that took it in a Weezer direction. Michael probably saved us from copying what I was listening to. That’s one great thing about being a duo. Finster: If I ever sit down and say, “I’m going to make a song that sounds like this band,” after 10 minutes it’s totally not like that. What is your take on the Charlotte music scene? Margolnick: I give the scene hell sometimes, but then there are moments when I love it. I go back and forth with it. We’ve been a part of it for so long. I also feel a little isolated from it now that we spend a lot of time elsewhere. But it will always be a special thing for us both. There’s a lot of really cool shit going on, but it’s weird trying to find our place in it. Finster: When it comes to music, Charlotte is tricky compared to other places we’ve been. Margolnick: It used to be a lot easier to get people to come to shows. I don’t know if that’s just something we’re struggling with, or if it’s becoming normal. A lot of people we grew up with who were coming to shows have kids and families now. What’s on the horizon after the Hart Witzen release party? Margolnick: We have a tour coming up. We’re planning the logistics for it now. That will take us out to the West Coast and the Northeast. Finster: We’re starting a marathon, as our team would say.

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MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

MARCH 15 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Traditional Irish Music (RiRa Irish Pub)

COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Troyboi (The Underground)

POP/ROCK Jon Carroll, Don Dixon (The Evening Muse) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Melvin Seals & JGB (Neighborhood Theatre) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open mic w/ Jared Allen (Jack Beagles) Parodi Kings (Diamond Restaurant) Ryan Hutchens (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)

MARCH 16 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Traditional Irish Music (RiRa Irish Pub) Beavergrass Bluegrass Jam f. Jim Garrett (Thirsty Beaver)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Daughters of Legends (Studio Movie Grill)

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

POP/ROCK CLT-Sound Artist Showcase (The Evening Muse) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Mike Strauss Trio (Comet Grill) Shiprocked (Snug Harbor) Songwriter Open Mic @ Petra’s (Petra’s) Steve Moakler, Drew Baldridge, Smithfield (The Underground) Through the Static and Distance – a tribute to Jason Molina: Jon Dwyer Bob Fleming and The Drunk Girl Chorus Mitchell Franklin Grey Revell plus members of Tigerdog, The Damned Diamonds, and David Z. Cox (Petra’s) Tim, Chuck & Steve (Tin Roof)

MARCH 17

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Charlotte Symphony: Music of the Beatles (Belk Theater) Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)

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

COUNTRY/FOLK Drake White and the Big Fire (Coyote Joe’s) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) The Willie Douglas Band (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Permanent Vacation’s Rapper Shane, Elevator Jay, DJ STRTR and A-Huf (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Angwish, Black Powder and Rosewave (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Bad Karol, Vanessa Silberman (The Evening Muse) Black Stone Cherry, Caleb Johnson, Through Fire (Neighborhood Theatre) Buff Dillard (BluNotes) Jay Mathey Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Kreator, Obituary, Midnight, Horrendous (The Underground) Later Rain, TKO Faith Healer, Reconstruction Quartet (Petra’s) Paul Sanchez, Oh Jeremiah (The Evening Muse) Regina Spektor (The Fillmore Charlotte) Retro Vertigo (Sylvia Theatre, York) Shamrock Celebration: Bald Brotherhood, Tristan White, Brandon Stiles (Tin Roof) Soft Leather (The Station) Decarlo featuring Tommy Decarlo, lead singer from the legendary band Boston! (City Tavern, Fort Mill)

MARCH 18 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Andy Page plays Django Reinhardt (Stage Door Theater) Charlotte Symphony: Music of the Beatles (Belk Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK John Anderson (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Muscadine Bloodline (Coyote Joe’s) William Parlier (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH

DJ/ELECTRONIC

Andy Page plays Django Reinhardt (Stage Door Theater)

Beyonce’s Bey-by Shower feat. DJ Fannie Mae (The Underground)

Annabelle’s Curse (The Evening Muse) Blood, Sweat & Tears (Belk Theater) Boy Named Banjo (Reid’s Fine Foods SouthPark) Brawley’s Black & Blue 8 w/ Strung Like a Horse (Visulite Theatre) The Fill Ins, Deadlock NCHC, The Stir, Black Plague, 40oz Mouse (Milestone) Greevace, Skynocerous, Temptations Wings, The Feral (The Station) Heavy Water (RiRa Irish Pub) Hood-Burch & Company (Comet Grill) Jerry Jacobs (Tin Roof) Judah & the Lion (The Fillmore Charlotte) Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee (Booth Playhouse) Landless w/ Camp Howard, Midnight Snack (Snug Harbor) LETGO and EP Release Show: LeAnna Eden & The Garden Of, Foxture, Qusql, Von Hunter, James Jeffrey (Petra’s) Paper Bird (The Evening Muse) Time Sawyer, Swim In The Wild, Late Night Special (Neighborhood Theatre) Timmy Trumpet (Label) To Better Waters (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)

Underground) A Musical Showcase: 14 instrumental and choral ensembles from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. (Belk Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Open Mic (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)

POP/ROCK

DJ/ELECTRONIC Karaoke w/ DJ President James A. Garfield (The Station)

COMING SOON

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Soul Sunday w/ Sir Chocolate Milk & ELON (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK ACLU Benefit Show (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Celtic Woman (Belk Theater) Katatonia, Caspian, Unkured (The Underground) Omari and The Hellrasiers (Comet Grill) Rothschild, Lemon Sky, Old Sport, Paperback (Milestone)

MARCH 20 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)

POP/ROCK Carolina Shout with Ethan Uslan (Petra’s) Locals Live: The Best in Local Live Music & Local Craft Beers (Tin Roof) Memphis May Fire, The Color Morale (The

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

THIS FRIDAY

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MARCH 21

Black Violin (Knight Theater) DRUMLine Live (Belk Theater) Jesse Jazz Band Jam (The Evening Muse) Messenger Down, Fortune Teller, For A Season, Reaves (Milestone) Mike Love, Lovely Budz Acoustic (The Evening Muse) Open Mic with Jeff Claud (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Rising Appalachia (Neighborhood Theatre) Taco Pony (Tin Roof) Your 33 Black Angels w/ Broke Jokes, The Halves, Taxing (Snug Harbor)

MARCH 19

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

POP/ROCK

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

Minus the Bear (March 22, The Underground) Hungry Girl (March 24, Snug Harbor) The Flaming Lips (March 30, The Fillmore) Birds of Chicago (April 5, Evening Muse) Shadowgraphs (April 7, Snug Harbor) Kehlani (April 6, The Underground) Dark Star Orchestra (April 15, The Fillmore) Red Hot Chilli Peppers (April 17, Spectrum Center) Periphery (April 20, The Underground) The Weeks (April 20, Visulite) Steve Martin, Martin Short, Steep Canyon Rangers (April 22, Ovens Auditorium) Diet Cig (April 22, Snug Harbor) Lauryn Hill (April 28, CMCU Amphitheater) Neil Diamond (April 28, Spectrum Center) Dawes (May 3, The Fillmore) Sean Rowe (May 4, The Evening Muse) Carolina Rebellion (May 5-7, Charlotte Motor Speedway) Bastille (May 6, CMCU Amphitheater) San Fermin (May 9, Visulite)

THIS SATURDAY

1-2-3 NIGHT FEATURING

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3/24 HIPPO CAMPUS 3/31 THE MANTRAS 4/5 JD MCPHERSON 4/20 THE WEEKS 4/14 PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG 5/9 SAN FERMIN 5/21DEAD MAN WINTER 6/11 JOSEPH 6/16 ALL THEM WITCHES 6/22 OLD 97's 7/20 JOHN MORELAND NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.

com. CL online provides addresses, maps and directions from your location. Send us your concert listings: E-mail us at mkemp@clclt. com or fax it to 704-522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication.

MARCH 22

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CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 33

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34 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

NIGHTLIFE

OF DUKE WINS & KARAOKE The answer lies within the “secret room” at 8.2.0 AFTER STAYING out too late on Thursday,

your pain.) By the time we finally arrived, it was the end of the Friday work day couldn’t pretty much time for my co-workers to have come soon enough. By the time 3:30 throw in the towel. They’d been rallying p.m. rolled around I was itching to get the since escaping the office as well and it’s safe weekend started. to say we should have all been home. Before Why was I so anxious, you may ask? they left, however, they took the time to Well, for one, Duke was playing Carolina in take me on a private tour of the humongous the ACC tournament. If you haven’t heard already, the Duke University/UNC Chapel venue. Hill basketball rivalry is the biggest rivalry The space is broken up into rooms, between two sports programs in North each serving a different purpose. From the Carolina. moment you enter, you’ll notice an arcade After multiple texts, threats and room featuring old school games and Facebook posts from UNC fans, this Duke next door, in another enclosed room, the alum was ready to paint the Queen City with attraction everyone’s talking about: karaoke. royal blue. I was shocked I literally couldn’t hear The night started out with a couple RBVs patrons belting out songs while standing in at the Corner Pub off North Graham. Per the main bar area — soundproof glass. No usual, I should’ve eaten but I opted for more shame karaoke lovers, you can a glass of water here and there sing as loud as you want! instead. That’s why when I But that wasn’t even the showed up an hour late to best part of 8.2.0. If you’re meet the boyfriend and like me and you love company at Brazwell’s on secrets, you’ll be floored at Montford I was so wired the secret room featuring and anxious for the game a library, record player, that I talked all the way lounge chairs and jazz up until the last couple music over the speakers. minutes. Try not to narc, like I After the game was almost did; knowledge of over and Duke walked this hideout is a privilege, not AERIN SPRUILL away victorious, the boy toy a right. I’d suggest sitting back and I convinced a couple of his and watching customers to see friends to join us for celebratory where the entrance is. hookahs at Barreled at the Lift. Sighs. Brought to you by the same owners of This night was starting to look just VBGB, 8.2.0 adds something quite unique like every other Friday in the Q.C. That’s to the nightlife scene in Charlotte. Feeling when I realized one of my co-workers was karaoke? They got you. Feeling like playing a celebrating her birthday at 8.2.0. Charlotte. few games? They got you. As my new friend If the boyfriend had been smart, he would’ve (hopefully) put it, “It’s hard to get bored of.” vetoed that decision. But he’s also a Duke And if you do get bored, you can eat your fan so it didn’t take much convincing when face off in their pizzeria. Thankfully, I’d at I suggested checking out somewhere new. least had a slice before chatting my man For months, I’ve had multiple friends Scott’s head off. talk about how much they loved going to What’s featured on the menu? All 8.2.0 for karaoke. the gourmet “za” your heart can handle, However, they never went into detail including a cauliflower-crust option for you about why they loved it so much and, calorie counters. quite frankly, finding the energy to go to Meatballs, cauli-balls, pommes frites AvidXchange (will we ever get used to this (cooked extra crispy for those that end up name change?) takes more effort than I feel eating them at home anyways), dips and like putting forth most times. Fortunately, salads. Your midnight munchies will thank the boyfriend was the designated driver you. making the adventure much more feasible. Four bars, outdoor patio, massive event (Side note: Shout-out to Scott, one of space, karaoke, arcade games, secret rooms the chefs — I believe — for chatting with and a late night menu. Does it get much me about the venue for what had to be the better than that? Be sure to check out longest 17 minutes of your life. I listened to 8.2.0, if you haven’t already, and share your the voice note of our conversation and it was the longest 17 minutes of my life, so I feel experience with me at backtalk@clclt.com!

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CROSSWORD

GYMGOER’S BUMMER ACROSS

1 Clinic for getting clean 6 React to sticker shock 10 24 hours -14 Blew a fuse 19 Reparations for wrongs 21 Head, to Helene 22 Unevenly notched, as a leaf 23 Start of a riddle 25 Fighting fish of Asia 26 Division of the Roman army 27 -- avail (futile) 28 California observatory site 30 Foxy 31 Grind, as one’s teeth 35 Beat soundly 37 A B vitamin 38 Riddle, part 2 41 Planted 44 Swenson of “Advise & Consent” 45 Banana part 46 Riddle, part 3 52 Lie in the sun 56 Places to live 57 Feed holder 58 Activate, as a light switch 60 Silent assent 61 Haile Selassie follower 65 Kobe’s home 68 Brits’ coins 69 Conductor Sir Georg -71 Riddle, part 4 73 Cussed 74 Windy City air hub 75 Land surrounded by water, in Italy 76 Spiny plants 78 -- Mahal 79 Not at all, old-style 81 Arm bone 83 Conceive of 85 Struck disk 86 Riddle, part 5 92 Prefix with dose or watt 93 Actor’s job 94 Class seat 95 End of the riddle 104 One lacking pigment 105 Slangy suffix with switch 106 See or smell 107 “-- aboard!”

110 Ump’s call halfway to a walk 112 “Falling Skies” star Noah 114 “No One” singer Keys 116 -- worse than death 117 Riddle’s answer 122 Strength of a chemical solution 123 Account 124 Absent 125 Arena strata 126 “Wise” birds 127 Man in Eden 128 16th-century Italian poet

DOWN

1 “Lady Love” singer Lou 2 Wife of Fred Mertz 3 Deli hero 4 Against 5 Clouds up 6 Ring rock 7 “That’s -- -brainer!” 8 Actor Gilliam 9 Quiet “Hey!” 10 Very many 11 Wolf down 12 Wolfed down 13 Dog cry 14 Flower anew 15 Eye ring 16 Became irate 17 Downton Abbey, e.g. 18 More loved 20 Heavenly food? 24 Ephron or Roberts 29 -- Alex (racehorse) 32 In -- hurry 33 Dads’ lads 34 Writer Victor 36 Final, e.g. 38 How many TV shows are now shown 39 Greek T’s 40 Old verb suffix 41 Farewell act 42 Sarcastic cry of sympathy 43 Bronx area with a historic cemetery 47 Eagle nests 48 Code-cracking org. 49 City south of San Diego 50 Alda or Bean

51 Debate need 52 Cold one 53 Comment on, as in a margin 54 Plato was his disciple 55 Leg reflex 59 Favorable aspect 62 Anat., e.g. 63 Set- -- (rows) 64 Love, to Yves 66 “One thing -- time!” 67 B’way site 70 Math branch 72 Miss, in Meuse: Abbr. 77 Involuntary wink, maybe 80 Heretofore 82 Razor brand 84 Boundaries 87 Frittata need 88 Site for a bite 89 Bits of physics 90 Aged, quaintly 91 Inert gas 92 Coin producers 95 “Blue” beer brewer 96 Sainted king of Norway 97 Flattened at the poles 98 Out of -- (amiss) 99 “1984” author 100 Rolls- -- (ritzy rides) 101 “Hi, amigo” 102 Onetime Pan Am rival 103 Online protocol for remote log-in 107 Pines (for) 108 Some bank holdings 109 -- rest (inter) 111 Preminger of film 113 Writer Ferber 115 “-- date!” 118 “Hee --” 119 Divinity 120 SFO guess 121 LP speed stat

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 35

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I went to Dark Odyssey Winter Fire, the big kink hotel takeover event in Washington, D.C., in February. There was one thing I saw there that is messing with my head, and I hope you can set me straight. There was this lovely little six-person orgy going on with two cuteas-could-be hippie girls and four older dudes. Then these four people came along. They sat and watched — a guy and three women in hijabs and dresses that went wrist to ankle, fully covered. After a while, one of the hippie girls turned to them and said, “I’d be happy to flog you later if you’d like.” The three women in hijab giggled. The whole scene was really sweet, but I just couldn’t get over these three women. I saw them walking around all night, taking it all in. Intellectually, I know there is no reason to think that conservative Islam is incompatible with kink. But my cultural biases make me feel that it is. Or is it possible that covering is their kink? What would you make of that?

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36 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

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“With all the hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric out there these days, it is tempting to romanticize Islam,” said Eiynah, a Pakistani-Canadian children’s book author who also hosts a podcast that focuses on sex, Islam, and apostasy. “The impulse is understandable, but Islam is another one of the blatantly sex-negative Abrahamic faiths.” The other blatantly sex-negative Abrahamic faiths, for those of you keeping score out there, are Judaism and Christianity. “Nothing outside of ultra-vanilla plain ol’ two-person hetero sex within the confines of marriage is permissible,” said Eiynah. So as much as I’d love to agree with WKW that conservative Islam isn’t incompatible with kink, there’s every reason to say that it is. It’s even incompatible with a woman being slightly ‘immodest’ in front of men. Modesty codes are rigid in Islam, and in non-Muslimmajority countries, modesty garments tend to stick out rather than blend in. Which achieves the exact opposite purpose— attracting more attention, not less.” And when sex-negativity, modesty, and religion mix it up, WKW, the part of our brain that grinds out kinks — precise location yet to be determined — kicks into high gear. That’s why there is Mormon-undergarment porn out there and nun porn and hot-priest calendars for sale on sidewalks just outside Vatican City. “Islamic modesty has become fetishized

for some — quite literally,” she said Eiynah. “There’s hijabi porn and hijabi Lolitas. So the people WKW saw could be into some form of hijab kink.” I’ve seen a few people dressed up as Catholic nuns at fetish parties, WKW, and I didn’t think, “Hey, what are nuns doing here?!?” I thought, “That person has a nun kink.” (Related point: The nuns you see at queer pride parades? Not really nuns.) “Finally, it’s possible they could be a more ‘open-minded’ polygynous Muslim family that ventured into the hotel in a moment of adventurousness,” said Eiynah. “We are all human, after all, with urges, kinks, curiosities, and desires that surface, no matter what ancient morality code we try to follow.” Amen. I’m a 30-year-old woman in a long-term polyamorous relationship with a stellar guy. Our relationship began as extremely Dom/sub, with me being the sub. My boyfriend and I began super casually but quickly became serious partners. Now, six years later, I find having kinky sex with him challenging. We have a very deep, loving relationship, so my feelings get hurt when we engage in bondage and kink play. This is especially problematic because I still enjoy BDSM with folks I’m not dating. Basically, if I’m not in love with someone, it doesn’t hurt my feelings when they beat me and humiliate me. My boyfriend feels slighted, but I just don’t know what to do. Every time we play rough — the same way we had played for years — my feelings get hurt. Any thoughts? SHE’S HURTING HIS HEART

It’s not uncommon to meet people in BDSM spaces/circles who have passionate, intimate, solid, and regular vanilla sex with their longterm partner(s) and intense BDSM play and/or sex with more casual partners. For some submissives, intimacy and a long-term connection can interfere with their ability to enter into and enjoy their roles, and the same is true for some Doms. If this is just how you’re wired, SHHH, you may need to write a new erotic script for your primary relationship — or make a conscious decision to have new and different and satisfying sexual adventures with your boyfriend. On the Lovecast, “The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness” and a takedown of Beauty and the Beast: savagelovecast.com. Follow @ fakedansavage on Twitter; mail@savagelove. net; and go to ITMFA.org

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 37

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FOR ALL SIGNS The spring equinox occurs on March 20 at 621 a.m. EST. This is one of the two points in the annual cycle at which we (theoretically) experience equal days and nights. It is the moment the sun appears to move into the sign of Aries. For many agricultural and herding peoples of ancient times (pagans), the equinox generated one of the eight holiday festivals of the year. It was customary in those days, to prepare for the coming season by welcoming its arrival through appropriate rituals and celebration. It is widely thought that Stonehenge and other such structures were built for the express purpose of marking the seasonal changes. Now in our air conditioned, urbanized society, we hardly give the equinox a moment’s thought. It is a sad development that we so rarely honor the annual cycle of Mother Earth in our culture. ARIES THE RAM (Mar 20—Apr 19th)

The Spring Equinox is a holiday similar to your birthday. It represents the opening of consciousness and an intake of spirit to address the new year. Now is the time to focus on new plans for this next year of your life. Take a fresh look at where you want to direct your energy.

TAURUS You may be surprised by a

visit from the past. It could be a person or information that becomes apparent. Although you may be pleased to see this person, it is not the best idea to take up where you left the relationship. Just smile, go to dinner, and be pleasant together, but bypass the invitation to make it bigger.

GEMINI Love and social life are high on your priority list now. You may not have the time to attend to all your invitations! Short distance trips, errands, and education, whether it involves teaching or learning, are all on the A rated list. You have a need to communicate the ideas that rush through your mind.

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CANCER You may not be feeling quite comfortable with yourself this week. It appears your mind is in conflict with your feelings. Do the best you can to deal with this issue up front, perhaps by journaling or discussing it with a friend. Keep in mind that there is no mandate for you to settle on a decision right now. LEO This is a heavy time. Your heart wants to make light and easy, go out and play. But your sense of responsibility keeps you on task. You know if you ignored what must be done that you probably couldn’t really enjoy the play. This is a time for deal making with the Taskmaster inside your head. Do what must be done and reward yourself later. VIRGO This week and next may bring you positive news concerning resources that you

38 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

“share” with others. This includes one or more of the following resources inheritance, debt payment, tax returns, invested money, payment from insurance or windfall money. It also includes the resources of your partner. The aspect may actually pay you later.

LIBRA A talkative individual may land upon

you to be a reflection of his/her need to communicate. Stay in touch with yourself and don’t allow your time to be usurped without your interior permission. Sometimes Libra can fall into the role of “captive audience” which wastes your time and energy.

SCORPIO You may be surprised that this

week brings you no surprises or new issues to handle. It is rare that this happens, but take advantage of the rest. A massage or a manicure would be a good way to celebrate this time of quiet.

SAGITTARIUS A new plan that originated

in Dec. 2016 is arriving at a turning point. Sometimes our ideas take a twist of their own. This is a time in which you must decide whether or not to pour more resources into the plan or let it go. Generally speaking, though you would rather not have the problem, you probably will choose to see it through.

CAPRICORN Your attention to the

practical needs of your world is admirable. You are stable and resourceful. This week “others” in your life will call you to come out and play because they miss the part of you that can be so fun. You may have temporarily forgotten that aspect of your personality.

AQUARIUS You may be feeling low on resources during this period. “Resources” = time, money, strength. It is true that you are in a short dip, but the gloom will not last very long. Don’t beat yourself up over your history. You always do the best you can, and you cannot always know the outcome of every decision.

PISCES A new plan that originated in

late summer is arriving at a turning point. Sometimes our ideas take a twist of their own. This is a time in which you must decide whether or not to pour more resources into the plan or let it go. Generally speaking, though you would rather not have the problem, you probably will choose to see it through. Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Vivian Carol may be reached at 704-3663777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments. You may also visit her at www. horoscopesbyvivian.com.

CLCLT.COM | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | 39

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40 | MAR. 16 - MAR. 22, 2017 | CLCLT.COM