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NEWS&CULTURE TIME STAMP The story of Haylo, Time Capsule Tattoos and my big mouth BY RYAN PITKIN 9 EDITOR’S NOTE 13 THE BLOTTER 16 NEWS OF THE WEIRD 17 THE CHRONICLE BY RHIANNON FIONN
18
FOOD ACT LOCALLY Steak ‘N Hoagie Shop owner Steve Bisbikis is doing his part in Eastway
BY MARK KEMP
24
ARTS&ENT WORDS UP Create Charlotte Lit and they will
come
BY CORBIE HILL 22 TOP 10 THINGS TO D0 27 FILM REVIEWS BY MATT BRUNSON
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MUSIC MARK TWO Charlotte band Grown Up Avenger Stuff gets new singer, finds new sound BY GREY REVELL 31 MUSICMAKER: STEVE STOEKEL BY PAT MORAN 32 SOUNDBOARD
34
ODDS&ENDS 34 MARKETPLACE 34 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 35 CROSSWORD 36 SAVAGE LOVE 38 HOROSCOPE BY VIVIAN CAROL
COVER DESIGN BY DANA VINDIGNI PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
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EDITOR’S NOTE
WHAT HAPPENED TO GOLIATH? Outgoing Charlotte Observer editor is unaware of arts coverage media outlets like CLTure consistently cover the arts. We guess that Thames feels vulnerable Take The Charlotte Observer. It has in ways that big daily editors never did in suffered some massive hits over the past earlier times. We remember when fighting several years, losing 80 percent of its staff to the Big O was a challenge. We were the layoffs and buyouts (down from about 300 underdogs. They were the big dogs with the in the 1990s to fewer than 60 today), and big budgets and massive investigative teams. that palatial building uptown to a wrecking We’d take them to task for not seeing stories ball. Revenue for the Observer’s current in the nooks and crannies, or for sucking up parent company, McClatchy, is down 25 to big money. percent from just five years ago. And even But fighting the Puny O is no longer now, The Charlotte Observer continues to much fun. The paper simply isn’t so hemorrhage ultra-talented veteran staffers powerful anymore. So we’ll just feel bad for like Mark Washburn and medical reporter them. And for us. Because we all lose when Karen Garloch. there’s no robust mainstream media outlet Miss those great columns by Mary Curtis to challenge. and Tommy Tomlinson? Yeah, well, that’s Adios, Rick. We hope you spend your because they’re no longer there. retirement catching up on all the But all news outlets have great arts coverage in Charlotte. suffered. Creative Loafing’s You’ll be surprised. staff is the smallest its been And speaking of arts since I arrived here from coverage: This week the Observer in 2005. And Corbie Hill takes a newspapers across the look at the Sensoria country are shrinking. It’s Festival over at Central a sign of the times. Piedmont Community So we can perhaps College, focusing on its forgive the shellshocked most recent partners, cluelessness of outgoing the Charlotte Center Charlotte Observer editor MARK KEMP for Literary Arts, known Rick Thames for a comment as Charlotte Lit. On page 24 he made this past week on Corbie talks to founders Kathie Facebook. Thames wrote that the Collins and Paul Reali about the growth not-so-Big O “is the only medium in of this much-needed organization in a city Charlotte that continues to cover the arts on that’s been home to numerous published a consistent basis.” authors since Carson McCullers wrote much Yes, you read that quote right. It sort of of her classic 1940 novel The Heart is a blew our minds, too. Lonely Hunter at a boarding house that’s now Actually, it kind of made us sad for him. Copper Restaurant. But while we may be able to give Thames Also in this issue, news editor Ryan a break for being clueless, his comment Pitkin writes about getting drawn on by says a lot about the worth of large daily those underdogs of the Charlotte arts scene newspapers in 2017. When the top editor known as tattoo artists. It’s true: Pitkin is of a city’s “newspaper of record” is so mindso dedicated to his job that he got tattooed numbingly unaware of the media landscape because he thought it’d make for a great in his own city that he’s willing to make such story. It did, and you can read that great an egregious comment on a public forum, story on page 10. If you watched any of our it reflects badly on every other editor and live-streaming of his tattooing last week, reporter who works for his paper, you’ll be particularly interested in what he If you’re reading this, it should go without has to say about the experience. saying that you know Creative Loafing has Finally, Grey Revell checks in with a consistently covered the arts every week for comprehensive piece on the Charlotte band the past 30 years. Extensively. Arts, music, Grown Up Avenger Stuff, whose new singer dining — it’s our main bread and butter. promises to take the critically acclaimed But it would be be awfully silly for group in new musical directions. Read Grey’s me to sit here and tell you we’re the only piece on page 28. ones. We’re hardly the only ones. Charlotte And remember: The Loafing is the only Magazine consistently covers the arts. medium in Charlotte that consistently refers WFAE consistently covers the arts. Qnotes to itself as “Creative.” consistently covers the arts. And newer
O, HOW the mighty have fallen.
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 9
Dani Blalock tattoos CL’s news editor Ryan Pitkin as he cringes ... just a little.
MELISSA MCHUGH
10 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
NEWS
COVERSTORY
TIME STAMP The story of Haylo, Time Capsule Tattoos and my big mouth BY RYAN PITKIN
F
OR THE FIRST time in my
journalism career, I let the subject of a story I was writing get the best of me, and I have no
regrets. It must have been the calming, welcoming environment that the ladies at Haylo Healing Arts Lounge are so deliberate about — or just the good vibes coming from Haylo’s owner Hayley Moran during our interview — that made me blurt out the words before I could really think them through: “I kind of want to do this, too.” The “this” I was referring to was Haylo’s Time Capsule Tattoo event, which had been a year in the making and was coming up just two days from when I sat with Moran on a couch in Haylo to chat about it. The idea behind Time Capsule Tattoos was that a client would fill out a brief questionnaire describing their feelings at the moment, then submit it to Haylo, where a tattoo artist wold design a tattoo based on those few words. Then, at a later date — a year, a few months, or in my case, two days — the client would come in and get the tattoo, only seeing it a few minutes before it becomes a permanent fixture on their skin. Now here I was, suddenly placing myself into the middle of a story that I originally became interested in because I wasn’t sure why anyone would do such a thing. Hayley perked up with surprise and excitement when I expressed interest in participating — hell, I was surprised at myself, too — and said she thought one of Haylo’s tattoo artists, Dani Blalock, might have some space open. Hillary Heath, Haylo’s resident yogi, social media guru and basic jack-of-all-nontattooing-trades, heard me talking from behind her desk and let out a squeal of excitement at the developing revelation that I was now turning this into a first-person, participatory story. I was digging myself deeper here; shit was getting real. We wrapped up our talk and I took a look at a portfolio of Dani’s past work. It was then that I became convinced that I had made the right decision. Blalock’s art is a beautiful blend of grace and style with hints of a subtle darkness. After flipping through the book (shouts out to the person who got a tattoo of the old Morton’s salt girl), I considered myself lucky to have fallen ass-backward into a situation in which an artist like Dani would be administering my first tattoo in just 48 hours. The Time Capsule Tattoo seemed a perfect fit for the same reasons it could also be seen as a horrible decision. Throughout the span of my adulthood I’ve often pondered tattoos,
coming up with ideas then shooting them down or finding some reason to not follow through. My indecisiveness was exacerbated by my need for control; not wanting to leave my potential skin art in someone else’s hands but also not having the artistic talent to create something for myself. This was my chance to let go of all that anxiety on relatively short notice and trust an amazing artist to take my words and just do her thing. What could go wrong, besides being forced to wear a $200 mistake for the rest of my life? “I keep foreseeing these unique opportunities to invite people to think a little differently,” Moran said of the Time Capsule idea. “I know by now my clientele really trusts me a lot; I could definitely get away with something like this and they might think it’s exciting and different because nobody’s doing that. “At the same time, it’s kind of the process that happens when you come to me for a custom piece anyway — we talk about stuff and the day of your tattoo that’s when you kind of see what I did for you,” she continued. “But [the Time Capsule event is] more in this kind of specific way that allows the people to be vulnerable and really trust their artist and trust this connection.” I returned to the office and took a look at the Time Capsule questionnaire. Two of Hayley’s goals with this event were to freeze a moment in time that would have long-since passed by the time the client ever sees the design, while also highlighting the connection between Haylo’s clients and the artists in the shop. I, on the other hand, had two days until I’d be getting my tat and wouldn’t meet Dani until the day of, so with those previous points moot on my part, I looked for a way to make this experience personally significant. I decided to offer my own take on the “Time Capsule” theme. The questionnaire asked what I wanted represented in the tattoo, and I said I wanted it to symbolize my passion for capturing moments in time through journalism — sharing stories of people doing cool things or giving a platform to those who need their stories told. The form also asked for three adjectives I would use to describe myself that I wanted expressed in the art; I wrote curious, investigative and anxious. I noted that I’d rather the tattoo use symbols than words (words are my game; I can come up with those on my own) and that I was thinking the chest or right ribcage for location. And that was that. I sent Hillary the form and hoped this then-stranger Dani could work her magic SEE
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MELISSA MCHU
lli Plyler.
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“[A tattoo parlor] is just an intimidating place to walk into and really kind of bare your soul to people who may or may not be interested. I think a lot of people find they can get a great tattoo but my artist maybe wasn’t all that connected with me, and having that whole package really comes together here.” -HAYLEY MORAN, OWNER OF HAYLO HEALING ARTS LOUNGE
STAMP FROM P.11 t for me.
ONE THING IS clear as soon as you walk into Haylo: it’s not your average tattoo parlor. Moran opened the lounge/tattoo studio/art gallery after leaving Fu’s Custom Tattoos in NoDa just over two years ago. The former yoga studio still carries that energy from its past life, as Moran and her all-female staff have made the lounge a sort of meditative space. They host metaphysical workshops called spirit sessions and hold art gallery events to celebrate each equinox and solstice. To hear the staff speak about the art of tattooing is to realize it’s not just skin deep for them, but a spiritual experience, and the atmosphere in the shop lends itself to that. “I really wanted it to be a comfortable 12 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
environment, because it’s a little bit of a stressful situation, communicating such deep, oftentimes emotional concepts to a potential stranger,” Moran said. “I definitely wanted it all to be a little more serene. I had already been associated with the yoga community — folks who are really interested in self discovery and this journey and even using their bodies for some of that — so tattooing for me is like the yoga of body art.” The yoga connection is not just part of the building’s past. Heath also teaches yoga in a separate but attached space next door. “Yoga is about connecting with the greatness inside of you, and in that sense tattooing and yoga are very similar,” Heath said. “It’s just a different way of doing it, moving the body or getting something tattooed on you; how you breathe through it, how you really tap into yourself.”
You can’t write off what’s happening at Haylo as a bunch of modern-day hippy chicks on a heady trip. That much was clear on Friday, March 24, the day of the Time Capsule tattoo event. The connection the clients felt with Hayley and the other tattoo artists in the shop was clear to the point where I could feel the familial bonds in the room. Folks were beaming with pride and appreciation as artists revealed their designs. Alli Plyler drove from her home in Columbia, S.C., to get tattooed by Hayley, whom she had met at a Warrior Goddess training event at Haylo last summer and turned in her Time Capsule questionnaire soon thereafter. On Friday, Hayley revealed her design for Alli, in which pink and green leaves scale her right shin, with the word “be” above the flourishing foliage. Plyler said she had asked that the tattoo
represent growth, feminine strength, beauty and love. “I have other tattoos, but this one is extremely symbolic to me because it was taken based on things that I had created and/ or let go of in 2016. Hayley got it, she got it spot on,” Plyler said. “I am just amazed. It’s something that I’m going to be able to look at forever and it’s going to be a constant source of inspiration.” Jodi Winterton, who’s been under the needle of Hayley’s Scribe Inline Tattoo Machine for a total of more than 30 hours, was on board with Time Capsule since its inception. It was during one of her six-hour tattoo sessions on Winterton’s arm just over a year ago when Moran began telling her how she was brainstorming about an idea where she would design tattoos for clients based on some small amount of reference points then
MELISSA MCHUGH
MELISSA MCHUGH
[Clockwise from top lef book showing some of t] Jodi Winterton shows off her Time Capsu Moran’s work; Catherin le with a Time Capsule; lou e Courtlandt tattoos An Tattoo with Moran; a nging at Haylo. drea Metz-Nicholson
reveal them just before actually placing them. “I was just like, ‘I’m in,’” Winterton recalled on Friday after receiving her starbased tattoo, meant to represent the light at the end of what had been a dark year for her. “Whenever Hayley comes up with an idea, I’m in.” Moran has built such a loyal following because she cultivates relationships with each of her clients that go beyond a simple tattoo consultation or a session under the gun. It’s something she’s purposeful about, and was one of her main reasons for opening Haylo. “I’ve always had more of an intrapersonal approach with my artwork, with the people, and I’ve really focused on creating something in recognition of this kind of soulful journey that they’re going on,” Moran said. “It’s not just, ‘Let me give you a snake and a dagger,’ or whatever, or just that mark of mischief
and rebellion, it’s really that people want to commemorate their life story even. I was a little bit the odd woman out. I felt like it was really time to carve my own path and create this place that feels much more like my inner voice. “[A tattoo parlor] is just an intimidating place to walk into and really kind of bare your soul to people who may or may not be interested. I think a lot of people find they can get a great tattoo but my artist maybe wasn’t all that connected with me, and having that whole package really comes together here.” Speaking with some of Moran’s clients on Friday, it’s clear she’s been successful in carrying out her goal. “I’ve had a number of tattoos. I’ve gotten them done here and there, and there’s very much a difference between a tattoo parlor and what she does here. Here it feels much more
RYAN PITKIN
spiritual, you feel like she’s actually engaged with her art. She almost feels more passionate about it, you can tell, than you do, if that’s possible,” Winterton said, laughing. “I’ve been tattooed by people that are very stand off-ish — quite frankly that are assholes — and I’ve had some perfectly friendly people, but it’s just a different connection here.” The communal vibes are infectious in the best way, and each of the ladies on Moran’s carefully selected staff share her focus on building relationships. Blalock, who’s been tattooing for three and a half years — one and a half of which at Haylo — said her experience there has changed the way she looks at her art form. She recalled the first time she visited the studio, when she immediately felt at home. “Faces you’ve never seen before are just familiar, you feel that you’ve known these
people forever, and my gut reaction was that this is where I needed to be,” she said. “I can speak for all of us when I say that she has created an oasis for so many. Not only has tattooing become something totally other than work, but it has been transformed into something so much more than art for me.”
WHILE VISITING HAYLO on Wednesday,
and then showing up for the event on Friday, there were good vibes felt by all, but it was that Thursday in between when the nerves showed up. The comfort and confidence I had felt while flipping through Dani’s portfolio seemed a distant memory. I tossed in my sheets that night, coming up with countless scenarios in which she might use some corny SEE
STAMP P. 14 u
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 13
MELISSA MCHUGH
“NOT ONLY HAS TATTOOING BECOME SOMETHING TOTALLY OTHER THAN WORK, BUT IT HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO SOMETHING SO MUCH MORE THAN ART FOR ME.” -DANI BLALOCK
STAMP FROM P. 14 t cliché in her design, thinking back on ways I could have been more clear about my wishes in the one measly sentence in which I was allowed to express them. To say I was a bit of an emotional wreck when I arrived at Haylo on Friday is an understatement; I was one step from a full-on anxiety attack. But I played it cool as I finally got the chance to meet Dani, and braced myself as she prepared to show me her design. What if I didn’t like it? I couldn’t tell her that, could I? I had already promised CL’s social media following that we would livestream the whole damn thing, I couldn’t back out now if I wanted to. As soon as she lifted the paper and revealed her design, I could feel all of my worries flush from my body. I finally saw first hand all 14 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
that talk I had heard during the week about the emotional connections between Haylo’s clients and tattoo artists. I felt the immediate need to hug Dani, and hug her tight. She nailed it. Dani had sketched a clock with roman numerals surrounding a watchful eye ready to record all that it sees. The hands of the clock were made of dip pens, with ink blotches and trees reminiscent of the forests of my New England childhood framing the edges. Lines of motion make for a foreboding sense of time passing quickly. From there on out, the process was an easy one. People had been telling me for the last two days how bad a ribcage tattoo would hurt, and it certainly didn’t feel great, but with the help of some breathing techniques from Hillary and the pressure of knowing my pale, shirtless self was being streamed on Facebook Live (12,000 views as I’m writing
this) I was able to pull through without any problems. I laid awkwardly for about two and a half hours before Dani had to stop, as her next Time Capsule appointment was arriving at 3 p.m. So I booked my return for late April, the soonest my healing process would allow me to get back under the gun, and will at that time sit for another hour or so to finish my first tattoo. Speaking with Dani a few days after the event, she said she was mentally and artistically taxed by the event, but that in the end she realized how perfectly it summed up the mission that Hayley has followed since the day she opened Haylo. “It really did stretch me a bit since I typically like to have a very thorough explanation of what my clients are going for, obviously, so that they will be pleased with the design. You know, it’s only going to be on them forever. It was actually really
amusing speaking to them and asking, ‘Are you nervous? Cool, me too,’” she said. “It was so special to witness the trust that they placed on us with such a small description to go off of. People come to us wanting to convey so many things, whether it’s a passion, achievements, or even heartbreak. The art is really just the face of something that goes so much deeper and this project was the true expression of that.” As for me, I couldn’t have been happier that I shot off my mouth and offered to join the parade of Time Capsule Tattooers without thinking it through, because what has thinking ever gotten me, anyway? I’m already psyched to go see Dani again next month, mainly so we can start kicking around ideas for my next one. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
NEWS
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
BY CHUCK SHEPHERD
TP GOES HIGH TECH China’s public-park restrooms have for years suffered toilet-paper theft by local residents who raid dispensers for their own homes — a cultural habit, wrote Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, expressing taxpayer feelings of “owning” public facilities — but the government recently fought back with technology. At Beijing’s popular Temple of Heaven park, dispensers now have facial-recognition scanners beside the six toilets, with pre-cut paper about 24 inches long issued only to users who pose for a picture. Just one slug of paper can be dispensed to the same face in a 9-minute period, catastrophic for the diarrhea-stricken and requiring calling an attendant to override the machine. MODESTY AS POLICY The church-state “wall” leaks badly in Spindale, North Carolina, according to former members of the Word of Faith Fellowship, reported in February by the Associated Press. Two state prosecutors, one a relative of the church’s founder, in nearby Burke and Rutherford counties, allegedly coached Fellowship members and leaders how to neutralize government investigations into church “abuse” — coaching that would violate state law and attorney ethical standards. Fellowship officials have been accused of beating “misbehaving” congregants, including children, in order to repel their demons. Among the Fellowship’s edicts revealed in the AP report: All dating, marriages and procreation subject to approval; no weddingnight intimacy beyond a “godly” cheek kiss; subsequent marital sex limited to 30 minutes, no foreplay, lights off, missionary position. LIFTED Babies born on the Indonesian
island of Bali are still today treated regally under an obscure Hindu tradition, according to a February New York Times report, and must not be allowed to touch the earth for 105 days (in some areas, 210). Carrying the infant in a bucket and setting that on the ground is apparently acceptable. Each birth is actually a re-birth, they say, with ancestors returning as their own descendants. Accidentally touching the ground does not condemn the baby, but may leave questions about negative influences.
PLAYBOY Catholic priest Juan Carlos Martinez, 40, apologized shortly after realizing, as he said, he had gone “too far” in celebrating March’s Carnival in a town in the Galicia area of Spain — that he acted inappropriately in dressing as Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, reclining on a red satin sheet on a parade float carrying men dressed as classic Playboy “Bunnies.” Despite apparent public support for Father Martinez, his Archbishop asked him to attend a “spiritual retreat” to reflect on his behavior.
VAGINA HACK In March, vibrator customers were awarded up to $10,000 each in their classaction “invasion of privacy” lawsuit against the company Standard Innovation, whose We-Vibe model’s smartphone app collected intimate data like vibrator temperature and motor intensity that could be associated with particular customers, and which were easily hackable and controllable by anyone nearby with a Bluetooth connection. The Illinois federal court limited the award to $199 for anyone who bought the vibrator but did not activate the app. THE NEW WORLD The company British Condoms is now accepting pre-orders for the iCon Smart Condom, with an app that can track, among other data, a man’s “thrust velocity,” calories expended “per session,” and skin temperature, as well as do tests for chlamydia and syphilis. Projected price is about $75, but the tech news site CNet reported in March that no money will be collected until the product is ready to ship. PERSPECTIVE The U.S. House of Representatives, demonstrating particular concern for military veterans, enhanced vets’ civil rights in March by removing a source of delay in gun purchases. A 2007 law had required all federal agencies to enter any mentally-ill clients into the National Instant Criminal Background Check database for gun purchases, but the new bill exempts veterans, including, per VA estimates, 19,000 schizophrenics and 15,000 with “severe” posttraumatic stress syndrome. An average of a dozen veterans a day in recent times have committed suicide with guns.
FINE POINTS OF THE LAW Police and prosecutors in Williamsburg, Virginia, are absolutely certain that Oswaldo Martinez raped and killed a teenage girl in 2005, but, though he was quickly arrested, they have — 12 years later — not even put him on trial. Martinez, then 33, is still apparently, genuinely (i.e., not faking) deaf, illiterate and almost mute, and besides that, the undocumented Salvadoran immigrant has such limited intelligence that test after test has shown him incapable of understanding his legal rights, and therefore “incompetent” to stand trial. Police made multiple “slam dunk” findings of Martinez’s DNA on the victim’s body and also linked Martinez via a store camera to the very bottle of juice left at the crime scene. EYEWITNESS NEWS On the morning of
March 20 in Winter Park, Florida, Charles Howard, standing outside his home being interviewed live by a WFTV reporter, denied he had committed a crime in a widely reported series of voicemail messages to a U.S. Congressman, containing threats to “wrap a rope around your neck and hang you from a lamp post.” He boasted that “proof” of his
having done nothing wrong was that if he had, he would have already been arrested. “Three minutes later,” according to the reporter, agents drove up and arrested Howard.
PEOPLE DIFFERENT FROM US (1) Royce
Atkins, 23, told the judge in Northampton County, Pa., in March that he was so sorry he did not stop his car in 2015 and help that 9-year-old boy he had just hit and killed. However, Atkins had earlier been jailhouserecorded viciously trash-talking the boy’s family for “reacting like they’re the victims. What about my family? My family is the victim, too.” Atkins got a four-year sentence. (2) In February, in a Wayne County, Mi., court during sentencing for a DUI driver who had killed a man and severely injured his fiancee, Judge Qiana Lillard kicked the driver’s mother out of the courtroom for laughing at the victim’s sister who was tearfully addressing the judge. Lillard sentenced the mother to 93 days for contempt, but later reduced it to one day.
THE ARISTOCRATS! Among the facts revealed in the ongoing criminal proceedings against U.S. Navy officials and defense contractor Leonard (“Fat Leonard”) Francis, who is charged with arranging kickbacks: In 2007, Francis staged a party for the officials at the Shangri-La Hotel in the Philippines during which, according to an indictment unsealed in March, “historical memorabilia related to General Douglas MacArthur were used by the participants in sexual acts.” THE PASSING PARADE (1) A 23-year-old
Albuquerque woman performed cartwheels instead of a standard field sobriety test at a DUI stop in February, but she did poorly and was charged anyway. On the other hand, student Blayk Puckett, stopped by University of Central Arkansas police, helped shield himself from a DUI by juggling for the officer. (2) Oreos fans sampling the limited-edition Peeps Oreos in February expressed alarm that not only their tongues and saliva turned pink, but also their stools, leaving a pink ring in the bowl. A gastroenterologist told Live Science it was nothing to worry about.
NOTW CLASSIC (July 2013) Yasuomi Hirai, 26, was arrested in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, in June (2013) after being identified in news reports as the man who had crawled “dozens of meters” in an underground gutter solely to gain access to a particular sidewalk grate near Konan Women’s University — so that he could look up at skirt-wearers passing over the grate. After one pedestrian, noting the pair of eyes below, summoned a police officer, Hirai scurried down the gutter and escaped, but since he had been detained several months earlier on a similar complaint, police soon arrested him.
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CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 15
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY RYAN PITKIN
WELCOME HOME Police responded to a First Ward apartment in Uptown last week after a woman woke up to something far worse than a newspaper on her doorstep. The woman told officers that at some point, an unknown suspect had defecated on her welcome mat. She told police that she attempted to clean the mat but couldn’t possibly do so to her standards, so she had to throw it away. Who could blame her? SNACK TIME A man with the munchies
broke into a nursing home in Cotswold last week, but didn’t make it far with his snacks. According to the report, the man forced open a locked door at the facility at around 7:30 p.m. one night, and made off with multiple bags of crackers, a tub of peanut butter, a box of oats and a package of Oreos. His escape didn’t go well, however, as police reported picking the man up only a block away.
SEEKING REFUGE Employees at a hotel in southwest Charlotte called police last week after all of their lives were threatened over the potential that they may have been hosting a woman hiding from her monster of an ex. The hotel manager told police that a man showed up looking for his ex-girlfriend, who he believed was staying there. The man told employees he was going to shoot up the entire hotel if he couldn’t talk to the woman, and according to the report, was acting in ways that made employees “believe the suspect is capable of carrying this act out.” MENACE We were all apparently victims
of a crime last week, whether we knew it or not. A man in south Charlotte filed a police report after another man allegedly urinated on his property in front of him. According to the report, the suspect quickly apologized when confronted and drove off in his car. On the report, the CMPD listed the victim of this heinous act as “society.”
THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY Police responded to a scene in south Charlotte last week after a little roughhousing quickly became something else altogether. A 14-yearold boy told police that he was playfully wrestling with the suspect when the suspect suddenly and violently threw him to the ground. He then proceeded to punch and kick the victim repeatedly about his face and head. When a 25-year-old man tried to jump in and break up the fight, the suspect turned his aggression on him, kicking him in the groin and punching him in the arm and chest. DEATH FROM ABOVE A woman who owns an apartment complex in the University area filed a police report after one of her tenants blew his load, endangering a neighbor. The woman told officers the 16 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
man accidentally shot through the floor of his apartment with a shotgun, with the resulting blast going through the ceiling of the apartment below him. Nobody was injured in the incident.
CONSPICUOUS A man was arrested at a recycling center near the NoDa neighborhood last week after he pushed his luck in an effort to sell illegal metals. Police said employees alerted police when the guy showed up trying to sell nearly 2,000 pounds of cellphone tower batteries. He was also found to have used a fake ID in the transaction. STRIPPED It’s unclear how a thief in north
Charlotte will be able to use what he stole from a woman’s porch last week, but her poor husband is now missing out on what would surely have been a consistent show for him. The 27-year-old woman filed a report after a suspect stole a UPS package that was left on her porch, one that contained a poledancing pole.
I SCREAM A group of suspects in east
Charlotte put in a lot of effort for a little bit of return during a home invasion last week. According to the report, three suspects kicked a man’s door in at about 3:30 p.m. one day only to steal a $10 package of ice cream and a box of 9-millimeter bullets.
FAKE DUES Counterfeit currency has been
making the rounds in Charlotte lately, as a couple reports have surfaced about folks using the fake money to purchase things from auction sites online. According to one victim, she was given $964.24 for an iPhone 7 she sold over the internet, but after meeting the buyer and getting the money, she found that only the 24 cents was real. Another man sold his 55-inch television for $55 dollars of what turned out to be theatrical money only meant as a movie prop.
GOING DOWN SWINGING A woman
in southwest Charlotte was arrested last week for driving with a suspended license, but she was not going to make things easy for police officers. According to police, the woman allegedly gave an incorrect name when she was originally pulled over. When officers tried to detain her, she fought them, throwing punches and pulling the hair of a female officer, whose Fitbit bracelet was broken off of her arm during the struggle.
FAMILY MATTERS A 36-year-old man
was admitted to the hospital last week after his son stabbed him in the abdomen during an argument in the home they share in the Belmont neighborhood. In an unrelated incident, a 15-year-old girl was returned to her mother after being found drunkenly walking down the street in southwest Charlotte.
NEWS
THE CHRONICLE
LEAVE YOUR SCORN AT THE DOOR CL columnist shares her abortion story EARLIER THIS MONTH I insisted Creative Constitutionally protected medical — and, Loafing give me access to its Facebook account for some, economic — decision. We did not for a day. For weeks, a friend had updated me need anyone’s approval. We did not need to on a six-day-per-week protest in Charlotte consult with anyone unless we wanted to and I wanted Creative Loafing’s audience to do so. And we were not going to abruptly change see firsthand what was going on by way of our decision, however painful, and walk out Facebook Live. What I didn’t tell my friend, or anyone into an angry horde to say, “You know, when else, is that I was once one of the women you were yelling all of those awful things and walked into the clinic, shielded by an umbrella rushing my friend’s car like an escapee from the nearest mental institution, I thought, I and a friend while the loud speakers blared. The day I visited a clinic was not a happy get your point, and, based on the evidence day. Neither were the days leading up to it or you provided today, I think I will commit to a lifetime of motherhood. Damn my health. following it. But I know that I made the right decision Damn my future.” You could see it on our faces: Every one for myself and I am right with God and that’s of us made a tough decision that day. At the all I need. I do not need to tell you my story. In same time, believe it or not, I support the protesters’ right to assemble and their fact, my CL editors can attest, I almost right to free speech, though I don’t didn’t. I said I would, then changed believe it’s helping them reach my mind; I started to write then their goal. wrote something else. The story Reflecting on that was put on hold. horrible day many years My reluctance to share ago and the ongoing my story comes not from a and recently escalating desire to hide anything but protests here in because it is none of your Charlotte, I want to damn business. offer the anti-abortion But as I’ve pondered protesters more advice: If the idea it occurred to me you truly want to prevent that this may be the only RHIANNON abortions you should be in way to reach the anti-abortion FIONN the business of supporting protesters, since I am the the distribution of free and safe very woman they say they are so birth control. concerned about. I admit, a program like that would have I did, after all, stand right in front of them offering advice on how to reach me and prevented my abortion. In 2015, the Colorado Department of women like me. I suggested that they begin their argument Public Health and the Environment issued with kindness instead of yelling, shaming or a report indicating that, after six years of intimidating. I told them that, based on offering free birth control, abortions in that my religious upbringing and family history, state were down by 42 percent. Combined with Jesus represents love and compassion, not … a 40 percent drop in unintended pregnancies, they reported a savings in Medicaid expenses whatever we want to call what they do. In response, they quoted the Old in the range of $49 million to $111 million. Re-read that last paragraph because that’s Testament to justify their contempt. Well, I’ll tell them again, now: Your vitriol what’s up, y’all. I am here to testify: No isn’t helping your cause, not even a wee little one wants to have an abortion. No one. So help women avoid them if you want to be bit. On that other long-ago Saturday, as I sat successful. Also, get this crystal clear in your mind: in the clinic waiting for my turn, it occurred to me that the hullabaloo outside was insane. it is no one’s right but mine to make moral, I mean, how can you possibly sway someone’s medical and financial decisions for myself. view when you’re trying to publicly humiliate And I am quite capable, thank you very much. Now, I’d be glad to discuss this at more and shame them? Also, so many of the “facts” they share length with you, but will only do so beneath the canopy of compassion. If you can’t muster have already been debunked. So, the guilt trip didn’t sway me or anyone any of that then you will not be heard by me in the room with me. I mean, there we or any of your other targets. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM were, a group of adult women making a CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 30, 2017 | 17
The Steak ’n Hoagie Shop’s delicious Greek salad.
18 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
FEATURE
FOOD
ACT LOCALLY Steak ’n Hoagie Shop owner Steve Bisbikis is doing his part in Eastway BY MARK KEMP
S
TEVE BISBIKIS was 9
years old the first time his dad dragged an old tomato box across the kitchen floor of the family’s restaurant on Eastway Drive and positioned it in front of the cash register so the kid would be high enough up to see his customers. Steve dutifully hopped up and began his fist workday. That was 30 years ago. Some things don’t change. On a recent weekday, Bisbikis (pronounced Bis-BICK-us) is standing behind that same counter at the Steak ’n Hoagie Shop, pivoting from speaking Greek with his dad Paul, who has come in for a visit, to Spanish with members of the kitchen staff, to English with me as I chat with him about the little hoagie shop that’s served residents of the Eastway and PlazaShamrock neighborhoods for the past four decades. You can’t miss Bisbikis if you duck into the shop on a random afternoon for a Greek salad or Philly cheesesteak. He’s the guy in the baseball cap and brown polo shirt with “The Steak ’n Hoagie Shop” printed in orange and white letters on the left breast pocket. The guy whose very serious facial expression belies a deep warmth and palpable love for his employees and customers. To Bisbikis, this unassuming sandwich shop in the corner of a strip mall where Eastway meets Finchley Drive isn’t just a business his dad handed down to him on a paper platter. It’s his life. “This is my passion. I love it,” he says. We’ve moved over to one of the red booths in the dining area across from a big-screen TV that’s almost always tuned to a ballgame. Bisbikis’ mom and dad are in the kitchen cleaning and moving supplies around. A typical morning before the lunch crowd arrives. “I think to be successful,” Bisbikis continues, “you have to be passionate about what you do. And I don’t mean just your job, but most things in life.”
IF WHAT he says is true, the Bisbikis family has been wildly successful. Not successful in a Belk or Levine or Bechtler kind of way — successful in ways that really matter to an average American family of modest means. “We’ve been very blessed, to say the least,” Bisbikis says. When his dad opened the Steak ’n Hoagie Shop in 1978 as Gus’ Submarine House, Greek ownership of restaurants across the United States was at an all-time high. By the late ’70s, according to Peter and Charles
Moskos’ book Greek Americans: Struggle and Success, a whopping 20 percent of the names on the roster of the National Restaurant Association were identifiably Greek. One of those names was Paul Bisbikis, who had recently moved from Greece to Charlotte with his wife Alexandra. “They had no experience in restaurants at all back in Greece,” Steve Bisbikis says. “They pretty much worked farms and that’s all. My dad picked cotton and my mom tended the house with her sisters, just helping out with all the family stuff. They pretty much grew up with nothing, and then they came over here in search of the American Dream.” In Charlotte, Paul initially landed a job washing dishes at San Remo on Central Avenue in Windsor Park; Alexandra worked as a short-order cook. A little more than two years later, they’d saved enough money to break out on their own. “We started the business over there,” the elder Bisbikis says, chiming in when he hears us talking about the restaurant’s early days. He still speaks in a prominent Greek accent. “We were there for about two years.” he continues. “Then in ‘81 we opened a second Gus’ Submarine House on Sharon Amity, changed this one to the Steak ’n Hoagie Shop and moved it over here.” At first, the menu was all subs and cheesesteaks, but the Bisbikises later added current favorites such as the roasted chicken, hot vegetables and delicious Greek salads packed with fresh tomatoes, feta cheese, olives and peperoncinis. The business soon expanded to include other Steak ’n Hoagie shops, one of which still operates on South Boulevard. Steve’s brother, Jimmy, runs that one. And Paul has since opened a wholesale bread company, Artos, that supplies both shops as well as several other locally owned restaurants including Zada Jane’s in Plaza Midwood. Steve’s three sisters also work in the family business, as does Alexandra. “We been teaching him,” the elder Bisbikis says with a laugh, and looks over at his wife, who smiles. “Since he’s about 9 years old, we been teaching him.” It’s not as if they had to twist Steve’s arms. While he had plenty of friends and enjoyed playing soccer at East Mecklenburg High School, the younger Bisbikis spent most of his time in the restaurant. Even after he graduated and began studying business at UNC Charlotte, he’d come straight to the shop every day. “I would go to my classes and when I was done — usually around 11, 12 or 1 — I’d come back here and work,” he says. “I’d do my homework after I got off at around
The Bisbikis family (from left): Paul, Steve and Alexandra.
PHOTOS BY MARK KEMP
“THE LATINO POPULATION HAS SEEN SUCH MASSIVE GROWTH IN THIS AREA . . . I WANTED TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE.” -STEVE BISBIKIS
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 19
FOOD
FEATURE The restaurant is tucked into a tiny strip mall on Eastway Drive.
10, then go back to school in the morning. “I’m just really dedicated to this place,” he adds. “Plus, it’s family. It’s what I do.” What his father does these days, the younger Bisbikis jokes, is stop by regularly for a little daily micromanaging. “Dad comes through at least once a day and tells me I’m doing something wrong,” he says. “He’ll come in and I’ll be doing what I always do and he’ll be like, ‘Do this, do that,’ and I’ll be, ‘OK, dad. I think I got this.’” He laughs and looks over at his parents. “But I still love ’em.” Another thing Steve Bisbikis loves is working with his mostly immigrant staff and customer base. As a child of first-generation immigrants, he has an intuitive understanding that diversity is a strength in Charlotte, not a burden, as some seem to believe. Not that Bisbikis brags about being more enlightened than others. He doesn’t even bring it up. I do. When I point out that I’ve noticed his fluent Spanish on several occasions, he just shrugs. “Yeah, I took a couple of courses in Spanish at UNCC,” he says. “I mean, the Latino population has seen such massive growth in this area over the past 10 to 15 years, I wanted to learn the language. It makes the employees and customers feel more comfortable.” In fact, one night earlier in the week, a friend and I had come in for the Greek salads when I caught Bisbikis in the act of making a pair of customers feel more comfortable. A 20 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
couple had walked in the door and Bisbikis, in perfect Spanish, greeted them and asked if they wanted their usual. There was no fanfare or excessive earnestness in his delivery. It was just a simple question asked nonchalantly. When I tell him this, Bisbikis smiles. “You have to adapt sometimes,” he says. “That’s important to me.” He nods in the direction of the door. “When somebody walks in here and I’ve seen him come in before and I know he’s eaten the Philly cheesesteak or the Greek salad or the roast chicken, and I can talk to him about it… well, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? It makes me happy to know what he likes, and it makes him happy that I know. He’s someone I know because I’ve seen him in here before and I’ve talked to him. I like that kind of interaction with people. People are not just numbers.”
NOT BEING just a number is important to Bisbikis, too. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, Americans fell hard for the big corporate restaurants you find in clusters along freeways — Applebee’s, Cracker Barrel, Subway, Jimmy Johns. Local joints like the Steak ’n Hoagie Shop suffered, and Bisbikis felt his father’s angst. But things are changing, he says — at least in Charlotte. “I feel like people here have basically fallen back in love with local businesses, whether
it’s a restaurant or any other kind of shop,” Bisbikis says. “Look at how King of Pops has done. They’re everywhere now. People are just embracing this. And that’s fantastic. It’s what’s made Charlotte grow from basically a small big city to a real big city. “Charlotte’s become more of a ‘foodie’type city, where people are more likely to be more adventurous when they go out,” he continues. “They’re thinking more about what they’re eating — how it’s prepared, whether local ingredients are used, what the service is like.” For its part, the Steak ’n Hoagie Shop uses as much locally produced ingredients as possible, including the chickens used in the hoagies, chicken cheesesteak sandwiches and chicken salad. “I think [the culinary school] Johnson & Wales has helped a lot in that regard,” he says. “Instead of just going into the nearest Subway for a sandwich, people are more likely now to come in here or go to another locally owned shop.” And going to another locally owned shop is just fine with Bisbikis. Local competition doesn’t bother him one little bit. Not only does he embrace it, but when he’s not at the Steak ’n Hoagie Shop — which is not often — Bisbikis is out searching for new locally owned businesses where he can eat and shop. “I love to go out and look for great local food — local restaurants, local bars, local anything, actually,” he says. “I live in the
Cotswold area, but I like to hang out at places in NoDa, or Plaza Midwood, or South End. If it’s local, I’m there.” Bisbikis furrows his brow. He’s remembering some random customer’s face from his childhood. He still sees a few people from that period, he says. “On the weekends, mostly Saturdays, I get customers coming in from Mooresville, Kannapolis, Concord, all over, because once upon a time, they either worked around here or lived in the area and ate here, and they’ve since moved on or gotten a new job. But they still want to come back and visit us. “I feel like we’re their little hidden gem,” he adds. By now, the guy you’ll meet at the register wearing the ball cap and a very serious expression is wearing a full-on, ear-toear grin. “And that’s pretty awesome.” These days on those Saturdays, Bisbikis brings his own two sons, one 5 and the other 7, into the same kitchen in front of the same counter where he once stood on that tomato box ringing up those same customers whose faces he still remembers. “My kids can’t wait to work here,” Bisbikis says. “My 7-year-old, he’ll come in and I’ll pull up a stool for him at the counter and he’s already helping at the register. “Just like I did.”
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 21
THURSDAY
30
CHARLOTTE BLACK FILM FESTIVAL What: The Charlotte Black Film Festival returns for its seventh year, with a three-day slate of independent films. Selections include the experimental horror short Saltz, The Red Cape, a harrowing look at the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot and two shorts, The Ravens and The Letter Carrier, which examine families in crisis. And that’s just on the first day! Screenings are augmented with workshops, master classes and more. When: March 30-April 2. Where: Charlotte Convention Center, 501 South College St. More: $10-150. charlotteblackfilmfestival.com.
22 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
THURSDAY
30
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Flaming Lips THURSDAY COURTESY OF FLAMING LIPS
THURSDAY
30
FRIDAY
31
SATURDAY
1
FLAMING LIPS
JOHN DARNIELLE
THE NILE PROJECT
CALEB CAUDLE
What: It seems like several lifetimes ago when the Flaming Lips were a spikey acid punk band debuting at an Oklahoma trans club. The Lips catapulted to fame in the late ‘90s when they shed mind-warping discord for euphoric symphonic pop and founder Wayne Coyne’s increasingly personal – yet still psych-tinged – lyrics. They’ve also collaborated with Miley Cyrus and recorded a stripped down remake of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Credit them with staying weird despite success.
What: Darnielle’s band, The Mountain Goats, have gone through various iterations from ferocious folk punk to literate layered compositions which border on jazz. Darnielle’s ominous yet empathetic outlook carries over to his other career as a writer. His first novel, Wolf in White Van, was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Award nominee. He will be reading from his newest, Universal Harvester, which makes small town Iowa seem creepy as hell.
What: Ethiopian-American singersongwriter Meklit Hadero and Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis launched The Nile Project in 2011 to promote dialogue about the ecosytem shared by the 11 African countries connected by the mighty Nile River. The group has grown to include representatives of each country in a unique blend of music and cultural education, and has released three albums and will bring its multimedia show to the Wingate University campus.
What: One of the earliest cheerleaders for Winston-Salem singer-songwriter Caleb Caudle was not a promoter or club owner — it was the proprietor of an art shop, Teresa Hernandez, whose Pura Vida Worldly Art played host to some of Caudle’s first jawdropping gigs in Charlotte. That seems like a million years ago now that Caudle’s become a critically acclaimed national artist. Last March, Rolling Stone premiered Caudle’s breezy “Carolina Ghost.”
When: 8 p.m. Where: Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: $42.50-49.15. fillmorecharlottenc.com.
When: 8 p.m. Where: McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 721 N Tryon St. More: $5-7. mccollcenter.org
When: 8 p.m. Where: McGee Theatre, 403 N. Camden Road More: $15-$25. www.battecenter. org.
When: 8 p.m. Where: The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: $10-$12. www.eveningmuse. com.
Birds of Chicago WEDNESDAY
John Darnielle THURSDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
Charlotte Black Film Festival THURSDAY COURTESY OF BIRDS OF CHICAGO
SATURDAY
1
LIFE IS RUFF RELEASE PARTY What: In case you just read this rag for the Top 10 and the pictures, we want to introduce you to the band we featured last week, the angstridden local four-piece Dollar Signs. The pop-punk group is releasing their new EP, Life is Ruff, with the help of Mall Goth, Almost People and Normal Dennis. Judging by band names alone, this may be one of the most socially awkward shows in decades. When: 8 p.m. Where: The Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road. More: $8-10. twentyfiveminutestogo.com/ milestonesite.
SUNDAY
2
FUNNY ON THE FLY What: In a new comedy format invented right here in our own Comedy Zone, 10 area comedians will be given 30 minutes to write a stand-up routine about seven topics on the spot. It’s like a freestyle cypher but for comedy. Local funnymen (and woman) competing include Johnny Millwater, JD Colwell, Terrance Miller, Evan Pittfield, Tyrone Burston, Julie J and Jason King. Come see how these folks do when they don’t have all day to sit and think about things to make fun of. When: 6 p.m. Where: The Comedy Zone, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $10-15. cltcomedyzone.com.
POSTER ART FOR THE RED CAPE
MONDAY
3
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRANDON EGGLESTON
TUESDAY
4
GUIDED SHAMANIC MEDITATION
1984 NATIONAL SCREENING DAY
What: Everybody just needs to chill the hell out, and perhaps that’s why meditation has become so popular as of late. This event takes it to another level, sending participants on a journey during which they can meet spirit guides, animal guides and teachers while visiting spirits of the land. Don’t worry, there will also be a guide there in person to help you better understand the journey before setting off.
What: John Hurt, who played Winston Smith in the film adaptation of 1984, sadly passed away last month, perhaps done away by the realization that the famous George Orwell novel was beginning to come true. On the date the fictional Smith began rebelled against an oppressive government by starting a diary, more than 160 art house theaters nationwide will screen 1984 in unity against a real-life government proposing cuts to arts funding.
When: 7:15 - 8:30 p.m. Where: Okra, 1912 Commonwealth Ave. More: $30. okracharlotte.com/ workshops.
When: 7 - 10 p.m. Where: C3 Lab, 1912 Commonwealth Ave. More: $5. charlottefilmsociety.com.
WEDNESDAY
5
BIRDS OF CHICAGO What: When the wife-and-husband team of Allison Russell and J.T. Nero put their raspy harmonies to folk songs like “Remember Wild Horses” or “Real Midnight,” you’re sucked into an otherwordly interplay of deeply soulful voices meditating on deeply personal hopes and fears. The songs of Birds of Chicago are as rich as acoustic music gets, and in the right venue — like, say, the Evening Muse — they will take you to church. The good kind of church.
When: 8 p.m. Where: The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. More: $15. www.eveningmuse.com
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 23
Writers gather at Charlotte Lit.
24 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
PHOTO BY PAUL REALI
ARTS
FEATURE
WORDS UP Create Charlotte Lit and they will come BY CORBIE HILL
E
VERY YEAR since 2004,
Central Piedmont Community College’s Sensoria Festival has presented the Irene Blair Honeycutt Award. This year, Honeycutt, who founded the celebration of literature and the arts 25 years ago, will be the recipient of the honor that bears her name. And though Sensoria — initially known as the Spring Literary Festival — has been bringing literature, theater, dance and a host of other arts to CPCC for some time now, one of the sponsors of the Honeycutt award this year is a newcomer to the Queen City lit scene. “Irene has been a good friend,” says Paul Reali, co-founder and co-executive director of Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, or Charlotte Lit. “She is an early founding supporter of Charlotte Lit and a good friend of ours, so we’ll also be helping to honor her. I think we’ll be sponsoring the IBH award going forward as well.” Sensoria continues to draw notable creators and works to CPCC: this year alone, the visual arts exhibition “We See Heaven Upside Down” addresses questions of migration and displacement; performances range from opera (“Tosca”) to plays exposing the exploitation of African-American musicians (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”); and speakers include poets, writers and Holocaust survivors. Charlotte Lit’s mission is similar to Sensoria: the new nonprofit may operate on a smaller scale, but it works year-round to celebrate local literature and bring intriguing creators to town. Reali and his co-founder and co-executive director Kathie Collins, along with a team of authors, poets, editors and songwriters, offer workshops, readings, master classes and a local literary calendar featuring everyone’s events — not just Charlotte Lit’s. The group’s aim is to become a nucleus for, well, Charlotte lit. Dance, music and theater are prominently represented year-round in local arts, after all. So why not books? “People say there is no current literary movement in Charlotte, but there are many published writers and novelists here,” Reali says. “We want to be able to showcase them.”
ONE CHARLOTTE Lit initiative is the Authors Lab, a sort of MFA-lite program for authors who want to complete a full manuscript in one year. During that time, participants meet once a month. They take classes, get coaching, share discussion time; and they workshop their drafts in a peer
community. The inaugural class of 10 has been at it since January. For next year, Reali is looking to bring in a few sponsors so Charlotte Lit can offer scholarships to writers who can’t afford the yearlong program.
installations: 4X4CLT, an art and poetry showcase series curated by poet and editor Lisa Zerkle, releases four posters featuring four poems and four works of art four times a year. Its fifth installation, also featuring
“WE DON’T WANT LITERARY ARTS TO FEEL STIFF OR INACCESSIBLE.” -PAUL REALY
They balance this with one-off classes and workshops, such as an April 7 master class with poet (and returning Sensoria guest) A. Van Jordan, and a local literary calendar designed to bring cohesion to Charlotte’s literary events, whether Charlotte Litrelated or not. There are participatory and mixed-media events, as well as public art
Jordan, will be unveiled on the evening of April 6 when he reads at Sensoria. “Almost everybody who doesn’t write poetry is intimidated by poetry, so we wanted to make that accessible,” Reali says. “We don’t want literary arts to feel stiff or inaccessible. We hear that reading is on decline, but people still read. They pick up
novels. They read longform journalism.” Indeed, reading — like writing — is often done in private, which is one distinction between the way literature engages audiences and the way the performing arts do. Appropriately, Charlotte Lit’s mission from even before its genesis was to give readers and writers a common space. “I opened the space here in Midwood International and Cultural Center in 2014,” says Collins. “I intended to open this space as a writers’ co-op. I was tired of writing in isolation.” Writing in coffee shops and libraries wasn’t a good solution, either: those places can be noisy and aren’t especially conducive to establishing a peer community. So Collins tried to start a group. Her idea was a kind of co-working environment for literary types: they’d work, talk shop and have happy hours together. Several people came to check it out, but Reali was the only one who stayed. It was exactly what he needed at the time. “I’ve been self-employed in a form for almost all my career,” he says. He provided corporate training while being the primary stay-at-home parent for his two daughters. It gave him the flexibility to be home with his family, and also to run his business and take the work that he wanted. All this time, he was also a writer, publishing books about creativity and creative thinking. He had a novel in the works, but it was on the back burner. In 2012, that changed. “The week I turned 50, my father was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer,” Reali says. “That was kind of a wake-up call, an epiphany. I realized that if I wanted to spend enough time focused on my writing, I really needed to do that now.” So he pivoted. He put more attention toward his novel and started looking for likeminded writers. Then, he saw a notice Collins had published in Creative Loafing and reached out. The two realized they had a lot in common, and soon the writers’ co-op condensed down to just the two of them. Their brainstorming sessions eventually led to Charlotte Lit, which officially launched in February 2016. “What we are learning is that the reaction is either very enthusiastic or invisible,” Reali says. He and Collins are realists: they know Charlotte Lit is a newcomer on the scene, and they’re still finding their footing when SEE
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PHOTO BY PAUL REALI
Charlotte Lit provides a comfortable space for workshops.
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CHARLOTTE LIT AT SENSORIA
FEATURE
WORDS FROM
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Sensoria general info When: March 31 - April 9 Where: Central Piedmont Community College, 1201 Elizabeth Ave. More: All events free; sensoria.cpcc.edu.
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it comes to “getting butts in seats,” as Collins puts it. Some classes and readings are wellreceived or packed, while others draw sparse crowds. About 150 paid members joined the first year, while the subscriber list for the weekly newsletter grew to about 500 in that time. It’s good growth, but the email list needs to be larger to really get the word out, Collins says pragmatically. “We’re young,” she says. “It’s just going to take more awareness.” So she and Reali are touring other literary arts groups to find out how they grow their audiences; they’re collaborating with theater groups — because theater, Reali points out, is already part of literature anyway — and hanging bold 4X4CLT posters around town. They’re fine-tuning their offerings in 2017 — all to connect writers and readers in a city that they insist already has a healthy literary tradition. “We have had many people, more than a dozen people, say to us, ‘We didn’t know Charlotte needed this until you created it,’” says Reali.
Poetry in Times of Loss: The Necessity of Attention To celebrate the 25th year of Sensoria’s literary events, the festival’s founding poet Irene Blair Honeycutt will present from her new collection Beneath the Bamboo Sky: Poems & Pieces on Loss and Consolation. When: 6 - 8 p.m. Monday, April 3 Where: Tate Hall, Central Campus, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. Panel Discussion of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers McCullers wrote much of her famous novel while living in Charlotte in the late 1930s. Its issues of region, race, class, sexual orientation, gender and disability are more topical now in Charlotte than ever before. When: 9:30 - 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, April 4 Where: Tate Hall, Central Campus, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. A. Van Jordan, Poet Jordan will read from and discuss his poetry. He is the author of four collections: Rise, which won the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award; M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, listed as among the Best Books of 2005 by the London Times; Quantum Lyrics; and The Cineaste. Book signing follows. Also at this event: Charlotte Lit will unveil its new 4x4CLT posters featuring Jordan’s work. When: 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6 Where: Tate Hall, Central Campus, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. PHOTO BY LISA ZERKLE
Charlotte Lit founders Reali (left) and Collins.
26 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
COURTESY OF FOX SEARCHLIGHT
Jake Gyllenhaal in Life
ARTS
FILM
THAT’S LIFE ... UNFORTUNATELY Ailing Alien ripoff fails to achieve liftoff BY MATT BRUNSON
A
S A TITLE, Life (** out of
four) is a pretty lousy choice. It relates absolutely nothing about the movie at hand — at best, it sounds like some inspirational Hallmark Channel production, and, at worst, it recalls that cloying “Life: What a Beautiful Choice” campaign created by foaming anti-choice zealots back in the ‘90s. Given the actual narrative of the film, a better generic choice might have been Space Station. Or Mars. Or Astronauts. Or Alien. Scratch that last one — it’s already been taken. Then again, what is Life if not an Alien copy? That’s perfectly legitimate, of course, what with imitation being the sincerest blah blah blah. And while there have already been countless other films influenced by Alien, there’s also the fact that Ridley Scott’s 1979
classic was itself inspired by 1958’s It! The Terror from Beyond Space. Where Life strikes out is in the fact that it adds absolutely nothing new to this template: It’s strictly for folks who somehow have never seen Alien — or any science fiction drama, for that matter. Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation’s Rebecca Ferguson are among those portraying the six members of a space expedition who come into contact with a mysterious microbe from Mars. Initially a cute counterpart to Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, the extraterrestrial grows at a frightening rate, and it’s soon large enough to slaughter at will. From the offing of a character earlier than expected to the alien wreaking havoc from within the human body (thankfully, the filmmakers resist the urge to outright lift the chestburster scene), everything about
Woody Harrelson in Wilson
COURTESY OF COLUMBIA
Life feels like reheated leftovers. Director Daniel Espinosa manages to stage a couple of scenes for modest suspense, but any forward narrative thrust eventually goes straight out the space station window solely for the sake of an obvious twist ending that should surprise absolutely no one over the age of 10 — and by 10, I mean 10 months old, not 10 years old.
THE TITLE character in the seriocomedy Wilson (** out of four) comes from the
graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, but, truth be told, he might as well have come from the Dennis the Menace comic strip created by Hank Ketcham. Like Mr. Wilson, Dennis’s next-door neighbor, this Wilson is positioned as a grouchy guy but ultimately revealed to be a sweetheart. It’s a bait-and-switch tactic that was more believable in the Sunday funnies than in this lackluster new film. Wilson starts out by painting its protagonist (played by Woody Harrelson) as a raging misanthrope, albeit one who has convinced himself that he actually likes people. But the thaw begins almost immediately, with Wilson soon emerging as nothing more than a socially maladjusted guy with an ex-wife (Laura Dern), a cute dog, and a desire to have a family. Sentiment quickly takes the place of cynicism, and, despite the occasional flash of brutal wit, the film settles into a well-worn groove of indie preciousness. Harrelson, who over the last decade has built himself up into one of our finest supporting players (The Edge of Seventeen, The Messenger, The Hunger Games franchise, etc.), is just fine as Wilson. There’s no doubt the actor would have taken the character to greater extremes, but that’s not what’s asked of him. Instead, he’s forced to play a man who, quite frankly, isn’t particularly interesting — certainly not as a leading character in a motion picture — and the overriding feeling is that the filmmakers should have just made a movie about Tom Hanks’ Cast Away volleyball. At least that Wilson exhibited a bit more bounce.
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 27
“I’M VERSATILE,
A N D OPEN D E T S E R E INT
‘ A LITTLE NEO- PUNK
TO EXPERIMENTING. I’ M
KID
“
“‘
AT HEART.”
-RAY STERN
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BAND
28 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
MUSIC
FEATURE GROWN UP AVENGER STUFF
MARK TWO Charlotte band Grown Up Avenger Stuff gets new singer, finds new sound
$8. April 1, 8 p.m.; Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. 704-358-9200. visulite.com.
BY GREY REVELL
LONDON, ONTARIO. DECEMBER 2016
O
OZIE AND RAY had been
through hell and back together. As only punk rock kids and best friends can, they’d seen each other through horrific car accidents, insane relationships, and other slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that could break the weak-hearted. So on this cold Canadian night, when Oozie told Ray to get off her duff and enter the online songwriting competition she had shown some interest in, she was going to listen. Things were looking good for Ray Syd Stern in London, Ontario. A frenetic, eyes-wide-open punk rocker who’d drawn comparisons to Siouxsie Sioux as early as her first band, the Peace Leeches, Ray was no stranger to leaping into the unknown. “I’m versatile, interested and open to experimenting,” she says with a laugh. “I’m a little neo-punk kid at heart.” Ray’s solo project was about to drop an EP, and there were multiple collaborations with video artists in the works. In addition to being a punk, Ray is also a Zen gambler deep down, and not afraid let it all ride. But sometimes it’s easy to let things slide a bit. So Oozie was there to keep her on track. “He kept bugging me to enter this competition,” Stern says. “And it was at the very last minute, so because I updated my Sonicbids profile I shot to the top of the feed.” Messages started appearing in Ray’s inbox almost immediately. Nothing out of
the ordinary, of course, which is all part and parcel for putting oneself out there. If you’re a young rocker in the 21st century, that is. What the first email message said, however, was a little unusual. “Hey I know this sounds crazy...”, the email began, “...but wanna come to Charlotte and join a rock band?”
CHARLOTTE, NC. OCTOBER 2015
JOHN THOMSEN, by any Gen-X male’s grudging admission, had most definitely figured it out: Domesticity is the enemy of rock’n’roll. That’s been the commandment laid down since pop antiquity. And you never put your kids in the act, unless you’re the Cowsills or, God forbid, the ’80s version of the Mamas & the Papas. By forming a band with his two sons, Hunter and Tyler, John Thomsen should have been on the fast track to Dadrock ignominy. What he wound up doing was mapping a course to adulting responsibly, while maintaining his dreams by forming the critically acclaimed and locally adored rock group Grown Up Avenger Stuff. The band’s not-so-secret weapon? A woman named Dierdre Kroner. It’s hard for Charlotte rock’n’roll to remember a time that it wasn’t marveling at the ethereal young woman with a voice that could veer like a NASCAR driver on a rainsoaked track between seduction and murder. Nevertheless, there was a time when Kroner’s style of rock singing had to step forward into the light, and when it did, her effect on audiences was startling. And now Kroner has moved on, forming a new band, Chosovi, which is already making
waves on the Charlotte music scene. In her place: that Canadian woman who entered the songwriting contest, Ray Syd Stern. After a series of shows at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, in midMarch, Grown Up Avenger Stuff will be introducting Stern during an April 1 show at the Visulite in Charlotte. But let’s rewind again. Take a trip back to the early days. At first, painfully shy, original singer Kroner, an artist and mom, experimented with various approaches to her performance, including elements of theater. There was an early GUAS show at the since-departed Amos’ Southend where the band’s show was boosted by a mid-set strobe-lit duel between Kroner, in a homemade superhero outfit, and ninjas. Yes, that happened. And as it happened, the band began getting very good, very fast. From GUAS’ debut show in 2009, the group almost immediately made an atomic impression on a Charlotte rock music scene eternally battling to find a voice somewhere between Carolina Rebellion metal and beardand-banjo indie sincerity. With Kroner’s powerhouse vocals, Thomsen’s Josh Hommestyle riffing, and a twin-cannon sibling rhythm section, the group garnered indierock accolades almost immediately. One critic put GUAS “on par with bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Queens of the Stone Age, Florence and the Machine and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.” Another wrote that he hadn’t “been this excited since I first heard Alabama Shakes.”
FROM THE GATE, GUAS knew that taking
the act on the road would be essential, so the band traveled to K-Days in Edmonton (one of
Canada’s top festivals), Indie Music Week and Canadian Music (Toronto), and performed well-received shows in Italy, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Through it all, Kroner and her cronies continued to improve. Hunter and Tyler Thomsen got tighter and more confident as a rhythm section, John Thomsen continued to deliver bonecrushing riffs and arrangements, and Kroner, when she was firing on all cylinders, could convince you that whatever pain she was trying to exorcise was the only pain in the world. The band’s first album, Sparkelton, released in October 2013, was welcomed by local and regional audiences. The band had begun to explore psychedelia, and Kroner had emerged as a confident, in-your-face chanteuse. New shows were booked, and the band recorded a follow-up, Eclectica, which would eventually come out in February 2016. But a few months earlier, in October, GUAS got an internal shock: Kroner decided she could no longer juggle her family and band responsibilities, and announced she would leaving. “It was a very difficult decision to make,” she remembers, “I have a son, and everyone has bills. I wanted to keep touring with GUAS indefinitely. Those were some of the best times of my life. But coming home to scrape together money for bills and time for family became something I was struggling to balance, and it began to take its toll as GUAS began to get more traction.” She was grieved, but resolute that GUAS had to continue. “I had to bow out to get my life in order,” she says, “but I couldn’t stand the thought of GUAS being over because of SEE
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ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BAND
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that.” Though shaken, John Thomsen was supportive. “Deirdre obviously is an amazing vocal talent, and is an all-around awesome person,” he says. “We were very fortunate to work together for as long as we did. She put six-plus hard years into the band, and during that time, the growth of the band became more and more demanding — more than any of us had anticipated.” Dates in 2016 to promote Eclectica were honored while the band quietly searched for a new voice. “With Deirdre’s support, we quietly searched all that year, auditioning singers near and far,” Thomsen says. “Of course, the bar for singers had been set very high.”
CHARLOTTE, NC. DECEMBER 2016
THE SUBSEQUENT 14-month search for a singer was fruitless. Despite his outward 30 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
lighthouse cool, Thomsen was starting to have doubts. “We had focused on finding a perfect match,” he remembers. “We had a small army of people assisting in the search. “We reviewed over 1,000 singers and had prospects send us recordings of their vocals on a couple of our songs chosen from the last two CDs,” he goes on. “We brought a handful of those to Charlotte to audition in person to see if there was a fit.” Nothing. “We got our hopes up with a couple of them,” he says, “but for various reasons, it didn’t work out.” And then, on an unsually warm December night in Charlotte, Thomsen spotted the Sonicbids online profile that piqued his interest. An electric-haired Canadian punkrocker with seemingly impeccable music taste. Ray Syd Stern. “Her favorite bands listed were David Bowie and Queens of the Stone Age!”
Thomsen says, and laughs, “ We were almost afraid to be hopeful when Ray’s stuff popped up on our radar. Here was an experienced and fearless performer, with a huge and powerful voice, so we were pretty excited. It seemed too good to be true.” Up in Ontario, Stern was finding it hard to ignore the way the pieces seemed to want to fall together with this band in North Carolina. “It certainly seemed cosmic due to our similar music interests,” she says. “Apparently, GUAS had been searching on there for a little while, so it’s just interesting how it all went down.” Still, there was some thinking to do. “I was about to release an EP and had some video collaborations in the works,” she says. “I had a network from my previous band, a great group of supporters.” Ultimately, she couldn’t ignore the signs. Tying herself to the mast and letting it roll, she flew out to meet the band , just three days
after first receiving John’s message. And she joined. “A big part of my choice to pursue this was because of the initial synchronicity,” Stern says. “They are so talented, and so serious about music. I felt like there is some special reason as to why we’re crossing paths.” The new GUAS immediately went to work. “We played some covers, which were good,” Stern remembers. “But more importantly, there was a level of us all really wanting it to work.” Some passes were made at trying established GUAS material, which for the new singer was a hurdle. “They had these songs already written that I had to fit myself into, which was not a natural ideal for me,” she says. “I would do covers if that were the case. I’m a lyrically driven musician; thats a large portion of how and why I’m affected, and in love with music. Music is super personal for me.”
“RAY [STERN] IS AN AMAZING MUSICIAN. IF YOU’VE SEEN AND HEARD HER, I DON’T EVEN NEED TO TELL YOU.” -FORMER GUAS SINGER DIERDRE KRONER
MUSIC
FEATURE
She was also not just a little intimidated. “Then, of course, there’s the pressure of performing Deirdra’s songs,” Stern adds. “Her voice is insanely magical. She’s so gifted.” Stern quickly proved to be no fluke. For the Ontario neo-punk rocker who was still acclimating a strange new place, a positive outlook was crucial in the first few days. “I kept reminding myself that great things aren’t always instant, and anything worth having takes work and even some discomfort,” she says. Soon enough, a breakthrough came. The band chemistry was real. “By the fifth jam, we had developed a creative connection,” Stern says, and the Thomsen family was finally able to allow themselves the luxury of optimism.
LISTENING TO “Aim,” the new Grown Up
Avenger Stuff single and Stern’s debut, the resulting shift that’s occurred is less a rockband lineup change and more a Dr. Who-style regeneration. Kroner channeled Avenger’s rock energy into a soundtrack to her personal inner landscapes. It was a journey that eventually led her to form Chosovi. Ray Stern brings an indomitable Canadian punk-rock
optimism, unclouded by politics and a lot of the doubt and confusion that dogs some Americans these days, and she is directing that energy outward. Like the constantly evolving ’70s prog pioneers King Crimson, Grown Up Avenger Stuff brings an atmosphere and approach that seems to defy the kind of turmoil that would kill another band. The group is greater than the sum of its parts, and those who fall into its orbit may bring their own ideas, but they will inevitably mesh into the service of a bigger vision. Kroner couldn’t be happier for her former bandmates and their newest not-so-secret weapon. “I am overjoyed,” she enthuses. “I think Ray is an amazing musician in her own right, and I’m loving what she is adding to GUAS’s sound. I mean, if you’ve seen and heard her, I don’t even need to tell you.” “What I am bringing to Grown Up Avenger Stuff is a creative message to be real, be aware, and to be free from fear,” Stern says. “Anything goes. And life is beautiful. So love it all!”
“That group just took off,” he says. “There was a time in the 1980s and 1990s when we could put 1,000 people in a nightclub. It was amazing. We played in Japan, New York and Los Angeles, and we’ve released 12-plus CDs with the Spongetones.” Obviously, Stoeckel is pleased with his accomplishments with that band, but he’s just as proud of his day job as a rock ’n’ roll repairman. Creative Loafing: You seem to have three or four favorite riffs. One is the Knack’s “My Sharona,” another is Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman.” Stoeckel: Oh, “Pretty Woman,” I love that one! I had no idea that you guys could hear me that well. Steve Stoeckel
MUSIC
PHOTO BY PAT MORAN
MUSICMAKER
THE DUDE DOWNSTAIRS Charlotte pop-rock veteran loves his day job BY PAT MORAN
HERE IN THE Creative Loafing office, we’ve been calling him the dude downstairs. All we know about him is that he plays electric guitar throughout the day — short rock riffs from 1970s and 1980s songs — and he plays them often enough that we’ve grown used to guitar pop and rock coming up from under the floorboards. When visitors drop by, the inevitable flurry of questions follows: “Where is that noise coming from?” “Is that a person playing a guitar?” and “Is that ‘My Sharona?’” The answers are: “Downstairs,” “yes,” and “I hope not.” But the mystery remains: Who is this guy and what’s he doing down there? Finally, we’re in a meeting, and our editor Mark points to the floor and says, “We’re looking for a Music Maker and there’s one right down there!” So I head downstairs and look for our neighbor. It’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s no suite number or business sign displayed that says, “Dude Downstars --->,” but I find a door marked Maintenance at the end of the hall. I push through it and enter a room filled with all the treasures from Raiders of the Lost Ark — if Indiana Jones was looking for amplifiers instead of crystal skulls. Toy figures of Jimi Hendrix, Ringo Starr and a Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine grace a tiny stage. Next to it is the case for a Hoffner bass guitar — the kind Paul McCartney plays. Seated at workbench, the Dude Downstairs is tinkering with a Fender amplifier. “Somebody spilled a beer in it,” he tells me. It turns out the Dude is veteran musician Steve Stoeckel, founder of longrunning pop-rock outfit the Spongetones.
I swear I’ve heard Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” I was playing “Werewolves of London,” which is essentially the same song, in the same key. I practice stuff. I’m primarily a bass player, but I know enough guitar to be dangerous. I also play Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good,” just messing around. What exactly are you’re doing in here? The short answer is: If you make music with it, chances are I fix it. I fix keyboards. There’s also an Otari reel-to-reel tape machine over there, where I do analog tape repair for people who are archiving stuff. There’s one brand of turntable that DJs use, the Technics 1200. I also fix that. I mostly deal with the tools musicians use to make music, but the main thing I fix is amplifiers — primarily guitar amplifiers. When I fix an amp, I get the pleasure of playing through it. That’s part of why I love this job. I get to play through hundreds of different amps, and I need to know what they sound like. (Points to an oscilloscope and several other instruments that look like the controls of a nuclear submarine) After I check these scopes, I’ll play three or four rock licks, which you’ve heard hundreds of time. That gives me a kind of boilerplate — I know what these riffs should sound like through this amp. It helps that I’m not just an amp tech, but a guitar player, a bass player and a keyboard player. How long have you been doing this? I started doing this in 1973. Back then, there was a place called Trend Music. One of the owners had been doing repair for a living, and I would watch what he was doing. He hired me as a salesman, and I was an awful salesman. He took me aside one day and said, “You know you’re a terrible salesman. I see you looking at me (repairing gear). Take some classes, and if you have an aptitude for this, we’ll talk.” So I took some classes at Central Piedmont Community College. Then he started teaching me, and eventually he turned repairs over to me. (Points to the amp he’s repairing) It’s rewarding to work on this, because it’s not a toaster. This is a work of art. Musicians play this. It puts music out there. I know the guy who owns this amp. When he comes to me, he’s entrusting me with his baby. People are attached to these things. He’ll be so grateful. He’ll pay me money, and I’ll have the satisfaction of making a living. I get to do this day and night. I’m the luckiest man in the world. CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 31
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD
MARCH 30 COUNTRY/FOLK
Nashville Songwriters in the Round: Jim Collins, Marv Green and Wendell Mobley (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby)
Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors (McGlohon Theater)
DJ/ELECTRONIC
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.) (Duke Energy Theater)
Mirror Moves (Petra’s)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B The Main Event (BluNotes)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Sound Off On Stage Tour: Madison Jay, Dav Baynga, Zipz, Lance Soal, Konvo the Mutant, Marley Je$u$, Freedom Infinite, Spitta, Lil C Corleone, Quabo Bellz (Apostrophe Lounge)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Latin Music Concert Series: Andean Dream (Mint Museum Uptown)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)
POP/ROCK Bless These Sounds Under the City, Toleman Randall, Dreambrother, Landless (Visulite Theatre) Bob Fleming and the Drunk Girl Chorus, Severed Fingers, Smelly Felly (Milestone) The Flaming Lips (The Fillmore Charlotte) John 5 & the Creatures (Neighborhood Theatre) The Jon Linker Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Miles Neilson & Rusted Hearts Sarah Potenza (The Evening Muse) Nita B (Comet Grill) Shiprocked (Snug Harbor) Smelly Felly, The Old Paints, The Lady Comes First (Petra’s) Songwriter Open Mic @ Petra’s (Petra’s) Wild Planes (Tin Roof)
MARCH 31 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz Munkee (Morehead Street Tavern) Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant) Sam Burchfield, Grant Cowan (The Evening Muse) Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.) (Duke Energy Theater)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Fossil Creek Bluegrass (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Steven Engler Band (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) 32 | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
POP/ROCK 42, Bright Lights (The Underground) Andrew Combs, Erin Rae (The Evening Muse) Below The Belt (RiRa Irish Pub) Bert Wray Blues (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Charlotte Symphony: Great American Songbook with Storm Large (Knight Theater) The Dan Band (The Fillmore Charlotte) Johnny Mathis (Ovens Auditorium) Kaleb Hensley (Tin Roof) Little Lesley and the Bloodshots, The Psycho Devilles, The Belmont Playboys (Milestone) The Mantras, Coddle Creek (Visulite Theatre) Mike & Mitch (Tin Roof) Rock En Espanol w/ MoFunGo, The Acoustic Guys (Snug Harbor) Runaway Gin (Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte) Sam Burchfield Grant Cowan (The Evening Muse) Sumilan (Thomas Street Tavern)
APRIL 1 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony: Peter & the Wolf (Knight Theater) Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.) (Duke Energy Theater)
COUNTRY/FOLK Darrell Harwood (Coyote Joe’s) Troublemaker (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)
DJ/ELECTRONIC ATB (Label) Off the Wall (Petra’s)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Kyle! w/ Cousin Stizz, Superduperbrick! (The Underground) Release (Morehead Street Tavern)
POP/ROCK Captain Midnight Band (Thomas Street Tavern) Carolina Gator Gumbo (Comet Grill) Charlotte Symphony: Great American Songbook with Storm Large (Knight Theater) Dollar Signs, Mall Goth, Almost People, Normal Dennis Dollar Signs’ Life is Ruff EP Release
APRIL 2 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Raghu Dixit (McGlohon Theater at Spirit Square)
Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Open Mic (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Chris Brown, 50 Cent, Fabolous, O.T. Genasis, and Kap G (Spectrum Center)
POP/ROCK Ethan Hanson (Tin Roof) Nite Gallery w/ Knives of Spain, JPH, Mama (Snug Harbor) Nothing Feels Good - Emo Night (Noda 101) Open Mic with Jeff Claud (Puckett’s Farm Equipment) Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Western Centuries (The Evening Muse)
APRIL 5 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
Clarence Palmer and Friends (Morehead Tavern)
Gaudium Musicae Concert Series Finale: St. John Passion (St. Ann Catholic Church)
COUNTRY/FOLK
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Angela Winbush, JC the Poet (Neighborhood Theatre)
POP/ROCK The Anti-Don’ts, Pleasures of the Ultraviolent, Van Huskins, Blame It On Bart (Milestone) Bone Snugs-N-Harmony Karaoke Party (Snug Harbor) Lee DeWyze (The Evening Muse) Omari and The Hellrasiers (Comet Grill, Charlotte)
APRIL 3 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) Motown on Mondays (Morehead Street Tavern) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)
POP/ROCK Locals Live: The Best in Local Live Music & Local Craft Beers (Tin Roof) The Long Losts, Solemn Shapes, Malhond, No More People, Stray Cat Sideshow (Milestone) LS Brown (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)
APRIL 4 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Morehead Tavern)
COUNTRY/FOLK
POP/ROCK
COMING SOON Kehlani (April 6, The Underground) Citizen Cope (April 6, McGlohon Theater) Shadowgraphs (April 7, Snug Harbor) 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)
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DARRELL HARWOOD ALL TICKETS $10 APRIL 28
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JONALL LANGSTON TICKETS $12 MAY 6
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Open Mic (Comet Grill) Singer Songwriters night with Al (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)
Christy Snow (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) The DuPont Brothers, Hope Country (The Evening Muse) Four Year Strong, Can’t Swim, Light Years, Sleep On It (Neighborhood Theatre) Jettison 5 (RiRa Irish Pub) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open mic w/ Jared Allen (Jack Beagles) Sext Message w/ South Side Punx, Minimums, Motel Glory (Snug Harbor) Tioga, Tiny City, Glimpses (Milestone) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)
THIS SATURDAY 1-2-3 NIGHT FEATURING
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Party. $8-10. (Milestone) Grown Up Avenger Stuff, Beitthemeans, Pröwess (Visulite Theatre) The Jive Aces (Chantilly Hall) Joshua Powell and The Great Train Robbery, Caleb Caudle (The Evening Muse) Kevin Reed (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Matt Bennett Band (Tin Roof) Party Battleship, The Eyebrows (The Evening Muse) Pearson & Wells (Tin Roof) Thursday w/ Basement, Touche Amore, Wax Idols (The Fillmore) The Travelin’ McCourys & Jeff Austin Band present Grateful Ball (Neighborhood Theatre) The Wormholes w/ Good Bones (Snug Harbor)
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3/31 THE MANTRAS 4/5 JD MCPHERSON 4/14 PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG 4/20THE WEEKS 5/9 SAN FERMIN 5/21 DEAD MAN WINTER 5/24 LP 6/11 JOSEPH 6/16 ALL THEM WITCHES 6/22 OLD 97's 7/20 JOHN MORELAND FULL SCHEDULE : VISULITE.COM 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 aovercash@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.
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NIGHTLIFE
STRANGER RANGER Party girl gives and receives late-night wisdom while out at local bars and restaurants. Now “I HAD YOU pegged for the snootie type.” I’ve upgraded to joining those conversations. That’s what a random bargoer visiting Tin Just a couple weeks ago, I went to Ink n Ivy Roof in the Epicentre said to me after we to grab a couple drinks with my P.I.C. and started talking about everything from where a few people from work. After deciding I he’d live outside of the United States to social was ready to “break the seal,” I raced to the relations in Charlotte to the best hip hop women’s bathroom where I heard two ladies artists on the scene. We laughed, because he having a conversation over the bathroom was wearing pajama pants and already had wall. been snubbed by many other patrons. “Yo, it smells like a fish market in here,” I was honest with him: I, too, had judged one of them said and laughed. It took us all him before we spoke, but not because he was a minute to realize how awkward that reality wearing his PJ’s — after all, I’ve seen much was before we all burst into laugher. *Insert more interesting things at Tin Roof and long-drawn-out conversation while washing elsewhere. I had been trying to figure him our hands about hygiene and how well each out, because that’s what I do. were wearing a clothing item. Typical.* As a frequent rider of Charlotte’s public Then there was the random passerby transportation, I’ve run into quite a few on the street, who was nice enough characters who will try and get to lend me and my coworkers my number while I’m engaged a copy of his mixtape in a phone conversation, “Undisputed” — free. A nice sometimes even when I’m guy who seems to be facing on the phone with my some challenges, he never mother. “Aerin, tell them hesitates to drum up a to go away!” she will tell conversation about music me as I reassure her the and the need to discipline person is harmless. She’s children. It’s people like always meant what she him that have a lot to say, says when it comes to and simply want someone “stranger danger.” AERIN SPRUILL to listen. This particular day I was And you can’t forget the cranking out my column while hundreds of Ubers — yes, I Uber enjoying drinks. While taking a quite a lot — that are forced to pick me phone call I noticed PJ (a nickname up in between destinations. Those are some I’ve given him in place of his true identity) of the longest, most intimate conversations and thought, “How long before this guy I’ve had with strangers since I’ve been in attempts to interrupt my flow.” But he Charlotte. Granted, part of that is because didn’t. He kept to himself, went back inside I want to get to know who’s literally got my to grab a drink and when I entered to grab life in their hands. But the other part is the another he casually asked, “Whatcha writing indescribable urge to tell someone what’s on about?” When I told him I was writing about your mind in the late-night hours and most nightlife, he became intrigued. I thought, likely never see them again. I came across “This will be the perfect opportunity to learn one of the most hilarious memes on just the more about the urban nightlife scene.” other day that said, “If you’ve told at least Little did I know, he’d school me on so one Uber driver your entire life story, you’ll much more. fit in just fine here.” (credit: @shopelsafine) After heading home, I began to think So don’t act like I’m the only one. about the many social interactions I’ve had Nevertheless, there’s something to since I started writing for Creative Loafing. be said about meeting people you think I’ve mentioned it before, but my RBF you’d never be friends with or who make a (resting b*tch face) could rival Rihanna at difference in your life without even realizing an awards show where she’s not getting an it. From the musician trying to make a living award. And I’m thankful for liquid courage on the street, to the hot guy at the bar who and the fact that I have to “show myself actually had a personality, who are some of friendly” because I’m writing and meeting the most memorable strangers you’ve met in people. In fact, I can’t tell you how many the Q.C. and where’d you meet them? “conversations” the boyfriend’s had with me Share it with me at backtalk@clclt.com. about showing up when I say I’m going to (Psst, keep an eye out for Part 2. I’ve show up when he knows I’ve been running got some questions I’m going to ask every my mouth somewhere with someone. stranger I meet and share their responses In previous columns I’ve shared some with you!) of the most hilarious things I’ve overheard
ENDS
CROSSWORD
IT TAKES TWO ACROSS
1 Sighing word 5 Humiliate 10 Sugar-name suffix 13 Stretch (out) 19 Billiards item 20 Drive rudely (out) 21 Flanders of “The Simpsons” 22 Mambo music’s Tito 23 Bicycle add-ons for tykes 26 Make a new blueprint for 27 Cut and Paste setting 28 Give relief to 29 Protein formed during blood clotting 30 Sue Grafton’s “-- for Ricochet” 31 Sterile hand wear 35 Three, in 6-Down 38 PIN-taking dispenser 39 “Hands off!” 40 Microwaves, e.g. 41 Stalled-car clip-ons 45 Metalliferous rock 47 “The Neverending Story” author Michael 48 Related to earthquakes 49 Hi- -- monitor 50 A little wet 52 Edberg of tennis fame 54 Horse rider’s attachments 59 Dot in the sea, to Jose 63 Part of Gr. Britain 64 Entertainer Lollobrigida 66 The older Obama girl 67 Theme of this puzzle 73 Asocial sort 74 She had a show with Sonny 75 “It’s -- -brainer” 76 Rogen of “Superbad” 77 They look like footless socks 81 Gymnast Olga 84 “Ghost” co-star Demi 85 Stylist’s goo 86 Coastal 91 In a crowd of 95 Pal, casually 96 Rink rentals 98 Ignited again 100 Commercial charge
102 Cozy lodging 103 Tacit assents 104 Part of some madeup faces 107 Teeny bit 109 Little leaves on flowers 110 Old jazz singer Anita 111 Collective software clients 116 Bela of old horror films 117 They often surround titles 119 Wiped from the board 120 A/C abbr. 121 Broadway prizes 122 Luau favors 123 Blank out 124 Jet to JFK, once 125 Garments for Gaius 126 Ineffectual
DOWN
1 Funny Johnson 2 Hog fat 3 Antioxidant-rich berry 4 Many Aspen outings 5 Sky ram 6 Old German capital 7 City of golf’s Masters 8 Albany-to-Baltimore dir. 9 Passe anesthetic 10 Toddlers’ bodysuits 11 Opt for 12 Mag VIPs 13 Parsley part 14 Adobe dwelling 15 Scold gently 16 Pep up 17 Done 18 Lion’s locale 24 Abbr. for people with only two names 25 Aerie nesters 29 Ornate 32 Dark area in an eclipse 33 Do -- deed 34 Dir. 45 degrees from 8-Down 35 Dance club VIPs 36 Regret a lot 37 Big British record co. 38 Brogue 42 Middle of summer? 43 Solemn acts 44 Running times
46 Subj. for some immigrants 50 The “m” of “yes’m” 51 Office sub 53 E-I linkup 54 Skin diver’s tube 55 Flock noises 56 “It’s --!” (“Untrue!”) 57 Surrounded 58 Military band 59 “-- turn up” 60 Brogue, e.g. 61 “What a ding-a- --!” 62 Freshly 65 Hard water 68 Mass unit 69 Realty unit 70 Corn unit 71 Congenital 72 Verb counterparts 78 Plunder, e.g. 79 Eel types 80 Rub down 82 North fired by Reagan 83 “Bad!” cluck 85 Charges 87 Off-the-wall sport? 88 An Amerind 89 Color of chili 90 Suffix with govern 91 Whelp yelp 92 Put a ruler to 93 Outlawed 94 Get rid (of) 96 Digital display 97 Subsequent 99 China shop ensemble 101 Defies openly 105 Skip, as a syllable 106 Hotel chain 107 Nail-biting 108 Ulna locale 112 Tofu bean, to Brits 113 Environs 114 Kind of milk 115 “To be,” in Latin 116 Fronted 117 NFL VIPs 118 Also
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 35
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GAY GUY HERE. Met a guy online. He came over. We had incredible sex and then a great conversation lasting several hours. But — and you knew there was one coming — he told me that he lied about his HIV status. (I asked him before meeting him, like I do with anyone.) He is undetectable, but he told me initially he was “HIV/STD negative.” I got very upset — more from the lie than his status. (I know that undetectable is practically the same as negative.) I really like him, but that was a big lie. He told me all about his life and any other secrets after that. Should I swear off him for lying about such a big topic? Or is the fact he did tell me and our connection enough to give him a second chance? I had not been that happy up till the reveal in, well, maybe ever. But I want to be wise.
status — you can’t be punished for not disclosing what you don’t know — putting everyone at higher risk. Why would he tell the truth? It’s possible he lied to you about his status — a lie he regarded as harmless thanks to his undetectable viral load — because he assumed this would be a hookup and nothing more. He wasn’t going to infect you and he wasn’t going to see you again. But after you two hit it off, DADT, he decided to tell you the truth right away instead of waiting weeks or months. The connection you describe is hard to find — this could be the start of something great — and the lie he told was big, yes, but understandable. I think he deserves credit for coming clean right away — and a second chance.
I’m a teenage girl and I’m really horny. I always think about sex, and I’d like to masturbate Why would he lie? To avoid sometimes. I can’t live rejection. Obviously. Guys in this way, sometimes often refuse to hook up I feel physically and with guys who are honest psychologically bad about being HIV-positive because of this terrible even though a positive need to have sex or guy with an undetectable stuff. I’m single, and I viral load is less of a risk don’t want to lose my — at least where HIV virginity with a random transmission is concerned guy. I really need some DAN SAVAGE — than a guy who believes advice from you! How can himself to be negative because I masturbate or quit this he was the last time he got tested exaggerated libido? or because he doesn’t think he could DON’T REVEAL MY NAME ever get infected and so has never been Your libido is your libido, DRMN. It isn’t tested. Someone who was recently infected is highly infectious; someone who doesn’t exaggerated, it simply is. Some people think he could ever get infected — because have high libidos, some people have low he doesn’t sleep with older guys, because libidos, some people have no libidos, and he only tops, because his ass is magic and an individual’s libido can wax and wane he uses unicorn spit for lube — is a fucking and wax again over the years. You’re at the idiot, and fucking idiots are higher risk for stage of life when people tend to be at their fucking everything. horniest and consequently think about sex a Sometimes positive guys get sick of being lot. Women and girls, too. (Don’t let anyone punished for being honest, and so they tell you that women aren’t as horny as men.) lie — and it’s particularly tempting to lie If you find yourself distracted by sexual to someone you don’t expect to see again, thoughts, DRMN, masturbating can help — i.e., a quick hookup. HIV-positive people most people find they can concentrate on shouldn’t lie to their sex partners. Obviously. other things for at least an hour once they’ve People should be honest, informed consent rubbed one or two or three out. As for how is consent, and lying about your HIV status you masturbate… Masturbate on your own can be risky for people with HIV. Thanks to or with a partner, in private, and whenever stupid laws passed by ill-informed idiots, you feel the desire or need to. Enjoy! failing to inform a sex partner you’re HIVpositive is a crime in many areas. There On the Lovecast, Dan spars with rival advice are people in prison today — mostly men, columnist Minda Honey: savagelovecast.com. mostly black — for failing to disclose. These Follow @fakedansavage on Twitter; mail@ disclosure laws incentivize not knowing your savagelove.net.fakedansavage on Twitter. DID ASK, DIDN’T TELL
CLCLT.COM | MAR. 30 - APR. 5, 2017 | 37
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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE
FOR ALL SIGNS Jupiter is squaring Pluto
this week. Jupiter is always aiming toward higher ground and greater recognition. Pluto represents the Powers That Be. Those who have been channeling energy into a project that has positive value for many may be receiving encouragement and applause now. Those who are aiming to make their egos shinier will find others fighting your every step. Narcissists beware.
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The love goddess, Venus, is in your sign and retrograding out of it on April 2. You may experience a relationship event that feels like the finale, the “last straw”. Whoops! Time to back away and review what you really need here. If you have made a recent purchase, it may suddenly look not so desirable. I hope you have the receipt.
TAURUS You may have been dallying with a person from the past and discover on April 1 that this is not going to “work”. A quick getaway is called for, but avoid hurting feelings if you can. It’s never a good idea to burn bridges behind you.
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in an ambitious project. You must take care with those who could be thought of as ‘authorities’. If you press as hard as you want to, you likely will encounter resistance from these folks. If your plan is good for many of people, and not at the expense of others, you could make a coup.
SAGITTARIUS You probably have a big idea that has caught your enthusiasm. Be aware that you will be prone to pour too much money or other resources into it. Evaluate carefully. Avoid using your credit cards to finance it. Don’t let others seduce you into spending what you do not have.
CAPRICORN You may feel compelled to
to matters of your personal history that may go back quite a long time. You will be looking inside yourself for meditative peace, answers to serious questions, and encouragement from your source. Journaling, hypnosis, meditation or counseling are favored activities now.
raise your flag and promote your plans now. Do some self-searching ahead of time to find your own motive. If it is for the good of all, you will gain support from others. However, if you are really after a prize that will simply allow you to preen, let go of it. Your product or idea is not yet ready for exposure.
CANCER Your mind and heart are clearly
AQUARIUS This is an excellent time
LEO This is a time in which your exuberance and enthusiasm may carry you farther than you really intended to go. You will certainly have more energy to do whatever you choose, but take care that you don’t promise way more than you can deliver. Your warm and generous heart could get you in trouble. VIRGO Mercury, your avatar planet, is crossing into your solar ninth house. Your attention will be shifting to mental and philosophical expansion. You may be researching a new interest, gazing over travel brochures for your next adventure, or pursuing an interest in philosophy or religion. You are experiencing a stronger sense of who you are and who you want to be. LIBRA Your open-hearted generosity may lead you to bite off more than you can chew
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SCORPIO You may very well be involved
GEMINI There is a shift of your attention
in sync this week. You are likely at peace with yourself. There is a solid and practical solution at hand and you do not have to quarrel with yourself over it. Activities involving your children and/or other creative products of your being are favored.
WE ALL REFUSE TO WEAR SOCKS.
this week. There may be more people at the table than you have plates to serve. Do not worry about what people will think. They are aware you’ve almost exceeded your limit of tasks to handle. It will all work out.
to pursue any activity that requires your mental concentration. The Waterbearers are not always able to sit still enough to learn theoretical information, but right now there is a window open for it. Contracts and written communications, along with short distance travel, have go signals.
PISCES Venus returns to your sign but it is retrograde right now. You are subject to fall in love with someone or something that is better left untouched. Someone from your past may be returning to check-in. Smile and wave, but do not invest yourself in this relationship again. Stay awake. Avoid repeating previous relationship patterns. Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Vivian Carol may be reached at 704-3663777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments. You may also visit her at www. horoscopesbyvivian.com.
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