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Rob Lind of The Sonics is one of punk’s originators.
We put out weekly NEWS&CULTURE
8
SPACE MAKER Varian Shrum helps transform a little-known site called CAMP North End
BY KIA O. MOORE 7 EDITOR’S NOTE 10 NEWSMAKER: TRESSIE MCMILLAN COTTOM BY RYAN PITKIN 11 THE BLOTTER 12 THANK ME LATER BY SHERRELL DORSEY 13 NEWS OF THE WEIRD
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FOOD FARMERS MARKET IMMORTALS Ignore the old potatoes, carrots and onions at your own peril BY ARI LEVAUX 16 THREE-COURSE SPIEL: RICKY ORTIZ BY DEBRA RENEE SETH
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MUSIC ‘WITCH’ CRAFT Huntersville resident Rob Lind’s garage-rock band The Sonics basically invented punk in the early ‘60s BY MARK KEMP 18 TOP 10 THINGS TO D0 24 MUSICMAKER: OBA AMITABHA BY KIA O. MOORE 26 SOUNDBOARD
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ARTS&ENT A LION’S JOURNEY Theater outsider Rory Sheriff has come a long way to land at Spirit Square BY RYAN PITKIN 31 ARTSPEAK: THE KNOW IT ALLS BY PAT MORAN 32 FILM REVIEWS BY MATT BRUNSON
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ODDS&ENDS 34 MARKETPLACE 34 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 35 CROSSWORD 36 SAVAGE LOVE 38 HOROSCOPE BY VIVIAN CAROL
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NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE
SEE ME, FEEL ME Connecting with others makes Charlotte a better city when he caught The Wiz — the 1978 update THE FIRST TIME I ran into Oba Amitabha, of The Wizard of Oz featuring an all-black the lanky, dreadlocked party promoter was cast including Michael Jackson — on TV. hanging out with his friend Solomon Tetteh, Sheriff wondered what happened to the also known as rapper Black Linen, hovering characters after the film ended, and decided behind as Tetteh and I walked along a lush he’d write about it. path at the UNCC Botanical Gardens. I was His sequel, Be a Lion, puts the oncedoing a story on Black Linen, and Amitabha Cowardly Lion at the center of a story about was documenting our conversation on a chaos that erupts in Oz after Dorothy’s small video camera. departure. It mixes the multicolored fantasy Amitabha would become distracted at of L. Frank Baum’s classic 1900 story with times, pointing with a look of wide-eyed the realities of today’s world. “The lion is wonder to a bird or some exotic fauna, or still struggling with his courage,” Sheriff tells chattering about an upcoming group hiking Pitkin. “He has courage now, but he’s still expedition he’d organized to Morrow struggling because he never had to use it.” Mountain in the Uwharries just east of Sheriff had to make some connections in Charlotte. Amitabha carries an aura of order to get his production into Duke Energy positivity wherever he goes. He smiles and Theater, and his journey took the same laughs a lot. He’s utterly engaging, courage the Cowardly Lion had to internalize As it turns out, Amitabha is, as Creative in order to “be a lion.” The journey has Loafing writer Kia O. Moore describes been more than worthwhile for him in this week’s Music Maker Sheriff, as he’s helped forge a column, Charlotte nightlife’s new path for black theater in “King of Infinite Light,” a Charlotte. Until now, there’s “source for bringing people been Quentin Talley’s OnQ together.” He’s all about Performing Arts — and making connections in that’s about it. the city, and with his “OnQ opened that recent Funk-Shun events, door,” Sheriff tells Pitkin, he corrals wildly diverse “and we’re just opening it groups of Charlotteans to up wider.” explore and celebrate both In the music section on nature and urban spaces. MARK KEMP page 22, I talk to a 70-yearScroll through Amitabha’s old former airline pilot who Instagram feed and you’ll see has connected the birth of punk clips from a recent Black Linen video to Charlotte. Rob Lind was 17 in the shoot, a video from the perspective of a car mid-1960s when he formed a band in his driving to some unknown destination while hometown of Tacoma, Wash., The Sonics, the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” that would make a huge impact on several blasts joyously in the background, photos generations of rockers, from The Ramones of people laughing and mugging at his and Sex Pistols to the White Stripes and Funk-Shun parties, and numerous shots of numerous current Charlotte bands including elephants, birds, monkeys, lion cubs, forests, — whether they know it or not — The and colorful urban gatherings. Menders, The Modern Primitives and The His mission is to bring people together Business People. to do things they may not normally do. Lind had been living a quiet life in Like dance all night at a house party, or Huntersville for two decades when, in 2007, spend an afternoon in a forest, or gather promoters of a garage-rock festival asked for discussions about issues important to him to reconnect with his old high school maintaining positive energy among the bandmates, come out of a 40-year retirement different communities of Charlotte. and reform The Sonics. Their story since Connections. In this week’s CL, we make then has been nothing less than dramatic. a lot of them. And the icing on the cake? The Sonics will In the cover story on page 28, news perform in Lind’s adopted hometown of editor Ryan Pitkin connects with a Charlotte Charlotte for the first time ever on Friday, playwright and director who marched into May 19, at the Neighborhood Theatre. the local theater scene because he had a story If you see me out at Funk-shun event, or to tell. Rory Sheriff didn’t come to theater in the audience at Be a Lion, or watching The via the theater world; he was a radio guy Sonics blow the roof off the Neighborhood who wrote romance novels and dreamed of Theatre, make a connection. I’d love to get to know you better. getting a script green-lighted in Hollywood. In fact, he was working on a script one night CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 7
“WHAT WILL BE DONE DIFFERENTLY WITH OUR PROJECT? FIRST OF ALL, WE WILL NOT BE TEARING DOWN BUILDINGS.” -VARIAN SHRUM Varian Shrum holds up a photo of Varian Shrum.
NEWS
PHOTO BY MERT JONES
FEATURE
SPACE MAKER Varian Shrum is helping to transform a little-known site called CAMP North End BY KIA O. MOORE This story is the third installment of a five-part series on women making a difference in Charlotte arts and cultural institutions and businesses.
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TRANDS OF GOLDEN blonde
hair whip against Varian Shrum’s face on a windy August day in 2016 as she poses for an “us-ie” with three fellow Charlotte Emerging City Champions. The newly christened city placemakers — chosen by the Knight Foundation and 8 80 Cities for their innovative ideas about public spaces — have found the perfect picturesque Uptown photo op at Fahrenheit Restaurant atop the Hyatt Place Hotel. The Knight Foundation has sponsored this dinner gettogether to help build camaraderie among past and present ECC fellows. 8 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
The photograph captures the rustic glint in Shurm’s gaze. Her pastel green eyes have just a hint of brown around the bottom edges of her iris and pupil. It’s as if they are undergoing an oxidation process — like the paint-chip-covered pipes at the CAMP North End development site where she works. Unlike most Charlotte development projects, CAMP North End wants to preserve the city’s old, decaying buildings and storied history of development. For the company heading up the project, ATCO Properties & Management, how people emotionally connect with a site location matters as much as the 21st century vibrancy that future tenants seek.
Shrum, 27, is CAMP North End’s community manager. Her focus is to create a cooperative spirit in the 1.3 million-squarefoot industrial facility that is more than 100 years old, sits on 75 acres, and is packed with Charlotte history. “I think historic buildings have a way of grounding us and giving us a sense of permanence and place,” Shrum says. “When those old buildings go away, memories can go away with them.” The plan for the CAMP North End site is to help the city of Charlotte realize its vision of bringing what it calls the Applied Innovation Corridor from South End, through the heart of Uptown, to North End, and on up to the
University area. It is part of the 2020 Vision Plan for Charlotte crafted by Charlotte Center City Partners in 2009. The idea, for sites like CAMP North End, is to help transform North End into a local economic hub. Currently in development, the corridor is ripe with a 100-year history tied to icons of Charlotte’s history of innovation. Development sites such as CAMP North End are rare architectural finds in the Queen City. Shrum describes her first impressions of the site: “It blew my mind because, one, there is a site this big and this close to Uptown that I had never heard of; two, all of these old buildings were there in near-mint condition;
The massive spaces at CAMP North End are ripe for innovative ideas. and three, there is this insane history about Charlotte attached to these buildings that many Charlotteans never knew.” The reason Charlotteans never knew about it is because the location has been private for nearly a century. The history of the site starts with the acronym CAMP, which stands for Charlotte Army Missile Plant. The U.S. Army once owned the site, and so have automotive innovator Henry Ford and more recently Rite Aid. “It started out as a Model T Ford Factory complete with a water tower and boiler room that powered the entire operation,” Shrum says. “Then in 1924 the Army bought the site and built out all the other warehouses. Those warehouses were used as a quartermaster depot during World War II. Toothpicks, mattresses, uniforms, boots, non-perishable food items, repatriated soldiers and more were all distributed from that space. “During the Cold War, missile casings were made in the space,” Shrum continues. “And in 1975, Rite Aid bought the site. They were there from 1975 until May 2016.” She smiles widely as she quickly reels off those names again in a staccato fashion: “Model T’s. Missiles. Rite-Aid. Applied innovation.”
SHRUM’S CAREER path is as seemingly arbitrary as the list of various owners of the CAMP North End site. Born and raised in the Washington, D.C., area, she attended Wake Forest University, where she studied communications and took a course that explored the relationship between public spaces and public health. It was her first taste of the importance of urban design. After graduating, Shrum worked for a while as a nanny, then a social media manager, and finally, a community real estate developer. “When I came to Charlotte five years ago, I had a lot of free time on my hands because I did not have a job yet,” Shrum says. “So, as I was searching I just decided to take an online class to kill some time. I thought, OK, what is something that I always found really interesting but never got around to studying?” She found her answer in a class called
PHOTO BY MICHAEL O’NEILL
“Designing Cities.” It forced Shrum to get out and explore Charlotte with new eyes, a new vocabulary and a new understanding of how cities are laid out. “Essentially, a city’s design can facilitate or not facilitate human interaction, and human interaction is what life is all about,” she says. “It is what determines so much of your happiness and life satisfaction. Knowing that a city’s layout can affect that just really struck me.” The combination of her studies and a chance connection with real estate executive Tracy Dodson while working as a nanny, Shrum soon found herself tapped into the world of Charlotte economic development. Dodson helped Shrum land an internship at Charlotte Center City Partners. “I was living in South End on the Rail Trail and working on South End and the Rail Trail, so I felt like I was really immersed in that whole world,” Shrum remembers. “I understood it from the perspective of a resident and from the perspective of this organization that was working to cast a vision for those spaces.” The Rail Trail wasn’t Shrum’s only project at the time. “Around that time I was feeling inspired and discovered this grant program called Emerging City Champions. They were looking for innovative ideas from young people who had ideas about increasing civic engagement in their community, or increasing access to public space, or increase mobility, access to walking and biking infrastructure. I just decided I would try an idea that ultimately was funded.” Her idea was the CLT Neighborhood Living Room. “Basically, I worked with my neighbors to turn a parking lot in front of an art gallery into a living room for the neighborhood,” Shrum says. “So that meant, yes, we had couches, but we also had yoga class, pop-up coffee, some shopping, live music, kids’ story time. I just tried to think about: What do you do in your living room, and then, what would that look like scaled up to a community level? It was so cool and so many people came and just really got it and embraced it.”
A giant water tower rises above the CAMP North End site.
IT WAS SHRUM’S passion for creating a sense of community in neighborhoods — not to mention her direct experience — that got the attention of ATCO Properties & Management, and the company brought her into its development team. Her love for the historic tales and rustic character of buildings brings a smile to her face whenever she talks about the plans for CAMP North End. Its historic ties to innovation will continue with its rebirth as part of the city’s Applied Innovation Corridor. Shrum asks a rhetorical question: “What will be done differently with our project?” Then she answers it: “First of all, we will not be tearing down buildings. We have every intention of reusing them for commercial purposes, creative workspaces, and gathering spaces for the arts and food community of Charlotte.” The goal is for the area to remain a bit dusty in order to preserve its raw-space nostalgia. “We want to keep it kind of dirty and banged up, in a way, while still giving future tenants the freedom to make the space their own within that context,” Shrum says. But the look of the CAMP North End space would mean nothing without a vibrant community, she says. That’s why ATCO brought Shrum in as its community manager. “It going to take a while to really activate the whole 75-acre site and all 1.3 million
PHOTO BY MICHAEL O’NEILL
square feet of warehouse. So we are starting small. This summer and fall my job is to do some temporary activation of the Boiler Yard, at the foot of the water tower, with the common area and public space. The Ford Building has these little garage areas that we are turning into studio spaces for modern offices, freelancer workspaces, maker spaces, and art spaces,” Shrum says. “We will have some food, some seating, a fire pit, some live entertainment. However, the idea is not to make it explicitly event-driven. I want it to be a comfortable place to just go hang out at and feel good while being there, whether or not something officially is going on. We want people to just come hang out.” For Shrum the most exciting part about working as the project’s community manager is the chance to create a common area for the surrounding eight neighborhoods. She goes into detail about her mission with CAMP North End. “My mission is to make it a really diverse ecosystem of people in Charlotte who represent a wide spectrum of folks who are doing great work,” she says. “This will be a place where new skills are learned and new ideas are incubated. It will be a place where people make things, and in the 21st century that involves a keyboard just as much as it involves a hammer.” It’ll take both, along with Shrum’s contagious passion, to get it up and going. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 9
NEWS
NEWSMAKER
LOWER LEARNING Tressie McMillan Cottom ends book tour back home in Charlotte BY RYAN PITKIN
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INCE TRESSIE MCMILLAN Cottom’s new book Lower Ed, which tackles the predatory enrollment practices of for-profit colleges, was released on February 28, to say her life has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. Cottom has travelled around the country touring the book on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while continuing to teach sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The tour was a mix of academic presentations and bookstore readings, and even included a stop in New York City to make an appearance on The Daily Show. On weekends, she slept. Her tour ended at Park Road Books in her hometown of Charlotte on Monday night, and when I asked her what she planned to do next, she laughed and told me it was the worst question I could’ve asked her at that point. “What’s next for me is I’m going to lay down,” she said. Before doing that, though, the West Charlotte High School grad humbly agreed to take some of that precious weekend time to sit down with me and chat about the unexpected popularity of Lower Ed, how Charlotte became a hub for for-profit colleges and why meeting Trevor Noah convinced Cottom he’s destined for greatness beyond Comedy Central. Creative Loafing: Were you born and raised in Charlotte? Tressie Cottom: Not born here, but raised here. I moved here when I was about 9 or 10. I remember being very upset about it. I was very pissed at my mom about it, because I thought I had just gotten a really good teacher where we were [in Winston-Salem] and I was going to have to come here and start at a new place. But it worked out. So it’s grown on you? This is clearly home. It’s weird, it’s one of those things where you don’t think about it at the time, but something about going away and coming back, I’ve got a memory of every place in this city. You can’t recreate that somewhere else. I was driving down Independence [Boulevard] today like, “Oh, this is where I got my driver’s license. Where I almost failed my test because they took me on Independence Boulevard and I freaked out.” You used to be an enrollment representative at a for-profit college in Charlotte, which is how you became aware of some of the more unsavory enrollment practices. Since you’ve left, ITT Tech has closed a Charlotte campus amidst widespread abuse and fraud allegations. Charlotte School of Law is on the ropes. What makes Charlotte such a hub for this type of activity? It’s got all the perfect ingredients. The demographics are just right. You’ve got plenty of working-class white people, a healthy African-American community — which is sort of their number one constituency — and a growing non-white population, whether that be Hispanic, Asian American, etc. Those are the perfect demographics for for-profits, because it’s basically anybody who doesn’t 10 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
have an intergenerational relationship with college. So it’s perfect. We’re this fast-growing city where all this money is suddenly being made, and you also have people who maybe don’t have some deep allegiance to going to like, UNC. So you’ve got this pent-up demand, and because of our involvement in the banking industry, that also makes us vulnerable to this kind of thing. Because basically, when banking is in trouble, the labor market in Charlotte is in trouble. We saw this with the recession. You’re going to have significant groups of people all of a sudden either losing jobs or suddenly becoming economically insecure when the banks get into trouble. Those are the perfect conditions for for-profit schools. There’s a man named Jason you talk about in your book, whom you enrolled into college, and his case inspired you to quit your job. Was it a sudden thing or had you already been having those thoughts? It was probably cumulative, but Jason’s case was the one where I remember having the most clarity about it, for lots of reasons. He was the reason why I asked myself lots of questions, but it wasn’t just him, it was cumulative. Jason’s was just the most clearcut case, like I couldn’t justify it. Other people, I had been able to find some justification for. There was no good justification for Jason enrolling there. By every measure, this was not going to be a good outcome for him and that was just so clear to me. Have you had any pushback from the forprofit college industry about this book? Well, I was not a secret to them. I have been around, agitating and doing this sort of work
“They were alright with it happening because they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we know her, whatever.’ But then you’re in the New York Times, then you’re on NPR, then they started caring.” -TRESSIE MCMILLAN COTTOM, AUTHOR, LOWER ED
for a bit. I had this really big conference in Duke a few years ago, many of them showed up for the conference. It was a research conference to bring people together and think about what for-profit colleges are. So they showed up, I let them attend, it was cool. But I think many of them were caught off guard by how well the book was done. They were alright with it happening because they’re like, “Yeah, yeah, we know her, whatever.” But then you’re in the New York Times, then you’re on NPR, then they started caring. So they’d write
letters to NPR after they interviewed me, wanting to say it’s unfair that their side isn’t being told. But more directly with me, they have mostly just tried the charm offensive, so I get emails saying, “I think if you would just come and sit down and talk with us you would understand.” What has been your reaction to those? Right now I don’t respond to them, which to be fair, I really just don’t have time. Second, I kind of already know what they’re about. Right, and you’ve already been behind the scenes. And that’s why they’re really scared. If I was just an academic – they’re line of argument for the longest time has been that academics are elitists, and they just are condescending and looking down — what’s really caught them off guard is that they can’t say that about me. They haven’t figured out what their approach to me is, actually. I think that’s throwing them off. I haven’t taken any of them up on their offers. I may at some point if there’s anything in it for me, which would be, can I talk to students? That’s all I ever care about, and the one thing, by the way, that they never want you to do. They’ll sit down and they’ll let you talk to administrators, will let you sometimes talk to faculty, but they do not want you talking to students. As you mentioned, it’s gotten a ton of attention nationwide. Is that something you saw coming? No. Academic books on average I think sell something like 50 copies. I wanted to sell 51. I basically wanted to beat the mean, man. I wanted to sell more books than average, because then I could always say, “I sold more books than average.” [laughs] And I was fine with that. No, I had no idea. We’re in the third reprint, so definitely north of 50. You made it on The Daily Show, tell me what that experience was like. So Trevor [Noah] sends me a DM [Twitter direct message] one day, the only person to slide up in my DMs for something positive — ever in the history of mankind. He’s like, “You should come on the show.” I’m like, “Yeah, whatever, I don’t know how this works, but I’ll try it out.” Well how it works is, after you get the call, this system pops up where they contact your publisher and you just have to show up. My job was just to be in New York that day. I get there that morning, they send for you, you come in, and they’re very well prepared for you. He’s read the book. The producers have read the book, which I’m learning is actually very rare. We meet backstage beforehand so we can kind of get to know each other. He’s very charming, and I was actually struck by how serious he was. And I mean deeply serious. I kept asking him, “What the hell am I doing here?” And he kept going, “Why do you keep asking me that?” He said, “I’ve been reading you for a while, but I’m very interested in these questions you’re asking,” and he legitimately was. My suspicion is he’s got a very particular future in mind for himself, and I think it’s much more serious than being a comedian. That’s my read. What’s the main thing you want to come
out of this book? I struggled from the outset of proposing this book and everything in defining my audience. So when you propose a book, they always ask you, “Who’s your audience? Who’s your competition? Blah, blah, blah.” I never really had one, because I had so many audiences in mind. But now having it been out for a while, the more I talk about it, the more I think about it, I think the real problem was that my goal was really too big, which was I truly want to change the entire conversation about how we talk about education. I just think that in the 21st century, the way we talk about education creates more problems than it does solutions. So part of the problem of why we even have for-profit colleges is that we’re not willing to admit that there is such a thing as bad education. The idea that as long as someone is learning something it must be for a greater good? That’s it. And if I do nothing else, I want to make it harder for people to say that bullshit. I don’t want another tech giant from Silicon Valley, another politician, another community disruptor innovator type person with the newest charter school or whatever it is, to be able to say that anymore without a bunch of people pushing back and going, “Well you know what? I heard this thing, and actually, maybe we should ask some more questions about that.” If that is all that happens I would think it’s huge. What can people expect at Park Road Books on Monday? I have two different ways I’ve been doing the book tour, and that’s because the book is kind of two different things. On one level, it was an academic thing, because it’s my dissertation research and all that stuff. So when I go to a university, or a think tank, something like that, I give a more academic talk. But one of the things that’s been really enjoyable for me, in my heart I’m a writer. That’s what I did. I was that nerd in school. I learned to write at West Charlotte. For me, doing the bookstore stuff is where I get to be more of a writer. So it’s very different from my academic talks. I read from the book, but give a lot of the backstory. I’ve been told it’s a little performative. I’m like Sophia in the Golden Girls, “Picture it. Italy. 1922.” I do that kind of thing, and it’s just more enjoyable for me. You’ve got a huge following on Twitter. How important is that as a platform for you and your success? I suspect that I would not be here without it. That’s also how I got my book deal. My now editor sees somebody tweet a story of mine, he follows it to my website, he reads it, emails me and says, “Hey, have you ever thought about writing a book?” I like to think I would still be a professor, but I would not be the type of academic writer person that I am now without Twitter. I don’t come from a high-powered university. I’m black, I’m a woman, I’m from the South, we don’t tend to think of those people as being like natural intellects or powerful people in public discourse. Also, in many ways, without the audience on Twitter I would have been far easier to dismiss.
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY RYAN PITKIN
NAP TIME Police responded to a Rite Aid in the University area last week after someone decided to make themselves at home inside the store. Employees told officers the suspect was in the store for two hours, an odd amount of time to spend in any pharmacy, but they may have just been moving slowly because they were tired. When employees realized they could no longer find the man but hadn’t seen him leave, they checked the bathroom, where they found him fast asleep. He apparently had taken quite a fall when he passed out, too, because he had broken the wall off the stall he was found in. NEW RECIPES A 21-year-old woman living in the University area filed a police report last week after someone ransacked her apartment. It appears the suspect went the extra mile beyond stealing things, however, as this one seemed personal. Officers responded to the woman’s apartment at The Flats at Mallard Creek and found that someone had forced entry and poured liquid and food all over her computer desk. The suspect then took picture frames off the wall and shattered them, before fleeing the scene with a $300 tablet and $250 worth of men’s clothes.
FOOL ME ONCE A 19-year-old man finally went to police last week after realizing someone he had put his trust in to sell his property may not have had his best interests in mind. The victim told police he had given the suspect his 2000 Honda Accord to sell for him in January, but the suspect had yet to sell it, or so they said. Regardless, the victim gave the same suspect his 2000 Ford F-150 to sell for him in mid-February. By April, one would think the victim would be suspicious, right? Not quite, as he continued to hand over cars, this time giving him a 2003 Cadillac Escalade to sell. Last week, once the suspect stopped answering all his calls and texts, he decided to file a report for theft. INSPECTOR BATSHIT A 45-year-old man
working at an inspection station in north Charlotte last week called police after one of his potential customers pulled in and got into a fight with him before he could even get to inspecting. The man told police that the suspect pulled into the station, but before he could spend any money, the inspector tried to do him a favor by warning him that he wouldn’t pass inspection with his windows tinted completely black. This sent the suspect off, and he huffed and puffed and blew the station down. OK, he didn’t do that, but he did yell and scream and at one point even physically pushed the inspector down before fleeing the scene in hopes of finding a more lenient station.
THAT SUCKS A 22-year-old girl living at an off-campus apartment near UNC Charlotte got into a fight with her roommate over cleaning the apartment last week, except it didn’t start the way a fight about such things normally does. According to one roommate, she started an argument with her roommate not because she had been failing to clean, but because she had been using her vacuum to do so (which seems like it would be a welcome thing if said roommate was willing to, you know, vacuum) and during the argument the roommate threw a plastic bucket at her. The two then got to pushing and eventually fullfledge fighting in the living room. The victim apparently suffered scratches to her face but refused treatment from Medic. AMERICAN PICKERS A couple of collectors were the victims of burglaries last week, although one’s stolen goods will have a much bigger potential effect on the safety of society as a whole now that they’re on the black market. The first victim, a 58-year-old woman from south Charlotte, reported that someone broke into her storage shed and stole $1,500 worth of 1930s baseball cards, $750 worth of NASCAR model cars, $500 worth of Hess truck collectibles and $500 worth of old carousel horses. In an unrelated incident, a south Charlotte woman reported that some long-limbed suspect gained entry into her home by reaching through the doggie door to undo the lock. Once inside, the suspect stole an NFL football signed by the entire 2004 Panthers team, but then things took a darker turn than the abovementioned incident. The suspect ended up making off with two rifles, five handguns and a shotgun.
COUGAR A 61-year-old woman was picked
up in north Charlotte last week on a night when she felt young and free again … but perhaps too young and free. Police said they responded to a call off of Graham Street at about 10:30 p.m. one night and when they arrived they found the woman walking peacefully down the road with no clothes on.
MEDIC! Sometimes the first responders
have to come to the aid of the first responders, and that’s what happened in east Charlotte last week after a man struck the exact type of vehicle that you want around in the event of an accident. The drivers of a Medic vehicle told police they were driving down Albemarle Road when a car collided with them and then fled the scene. Safe to say nobody in the suspect car was hurt, and fortunately, nobody in the ambulance was either.
CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 11
NEWS
THANK ME LATER
COWORKING CONNECTIONS A look at diversity in Charlotte’s growing coworking community THERE’S CERTAINLY NO shortage
classes, moved her team of employees from of desk space for freelancers and budding her kitchen table and into a much more entrepreneurs in Charlotte. The rapid growth formal and collaborative setting at Hygge of coworking spaces in the city has ushered (pronounced Hoo-gah) Coworking West on in a startup mentality that can be felt across Remount Road over the last year. For Haley and her team, it was important that they be the city. For a (usually) small monthly fee, in a space that reflects the business world. “Hygge has gender and racial diversity, coworking spaces offer ambiance, community, networking opportunities and access to a decent range of ages, and a [natural] resources that have the potential to help gravitation toward diverse perspectives and founders and organizations grow solid life experiences,” she explains. “If we were to companies and perhaps even jobs within our raise investment or step our game up and be in the big leagues, that wouldn’t happen in an communities. The benefits of physical space for all-women support group ... I don’t think you autonomy are clear: A study conducted by The can solely exist in those silos.” Haley derives support as a female founder Harvard Business Review explains that “unlike a traditional office, coworking spaces consist from outside experiences. She meets monthly with a women’s breakfast group for of members who work for a range mentoring and idea-exchange with of different companies, ventures, other women founders. and projects. Because there is Will Featherstone, an little direct competition or African-American, has internal politics, they don’t rented a desk out at feel they have to put on Industry Coworking in a work persona to fit in. the AvidXchange Music Working amidst people Factory for two years to doing different kinds run his creative consulting of work can also make business. one’s own work identity He appreciates the stronger.” organic connections he While trendy and SHERRELL makes within the space and perhaps useful, the presence DORSEY feels that it meets what he’s of coworking spaces isn’t a looking for in terms of meeting one-size-fits-all that helps with other entrepreneurs and having access to the obstacles some entrepreneurs face in starting and growing their business the greater creative community. Like Bohon, Featherstone doesn’t feel within our city limits. For women, people of color and those hailing from under- the need for space to be set aside for any resourced communities, accessibility doesn’t underserved or marginalized group, but does automatically commence once they’ve believe outside organizations can and should be responsible for meeting those specific secured a desk in a coworking space. Earlier this year, Joanna Bailey, founder needs. The argument for affinity-group-based of the exclusively female coworking space Coterie Company, leased out 6,000 square coworking spaces has little to do with self-identification and much more about feet in Packard Place in Uptown. Bailey’s goals for Coterie Co., described whether certain groups feel comfortable with as “a luxury co-working concept for discussing challenges and understanding businesswomen and female community culture-specific problems. Quite simply, leaders,” is reportedly to build out the where one decides to set up shop boils down company’s headquarters in Charlotte, possibly to choice for each individual entrepreneur in the North End or near the developing River and their perceived needs. “There is a power in allowing people End district. But is all that necessary? I spoke with a few to come together in the way they feel local founders in the coworking community comfortable,” shares Chris Moxley, coto get their take on whether these spaces founder of apparel line 704 Shop which have a responsibility to address the needs operates out of Hygge’s Uptown location. “The biggest selling point of a coworking of affinity groups and if their coworking experience has met their expectations on space is who is around you. It’s supposed to be an incubator where you can talk to breaking through barriers. Haley Bohon, founder of SkillPop, other business owners and share ideas and community-driven in-person education resources and networks.”
12 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
NEWS
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
BY CHUCK SHEPHERD
PEDESTRIAN
CALMING Officials in charge of a Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal heritage site recently installed “speed bumps,” similar to those familiar to Americans driving residential streets — but on a pedestrian walkway, with row upon row of risers to resemble a washboard. A Western travel writer, along with editors of People’s Daily China, suggested that officials were irked that “disorderly” tourists had been walking past the ancient grounds too rapidly to appreciate its beauty or context.
RESEARCH JOBS “Marine mammologist”
Dara Orbach’s specialty is figuring out how bottlenose dolphins actually fit their sex organs together to copulate. When dolphins die of natural causes, Orbach, a post-doctoral fellow at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University, is sent their genitals (and also those of whales, porpoises and sea lions) and fills each one with silicone to work from molds in understanding the sex act’s mechanics. Dolphins’ vaginas are “surprising” in their “complexity,” she told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News in April, for example, with the ability to twist inner folds to divert the progress of any sperm deposited by undesirable mates.
BRIGHT IDEA Compared to busy coastal
metropolises, Indiana may evoke repose, and entrepreneur Tom Battista is suggesting the state’s largest city capitalize on the sentiment by reserving a destination site on a low-lying hill overlooking the chaotic merge lanes of two interstate highways — affording visitors leisurely moments watching the frantic motorists scrambling below. He plans three rows of seats and a sunshade for the relaxed gawkers to take in the “ocean”-like roar and imagine overwrought drivers’ rising blood pressure while their own remains soothingly calm.
SHOCKING MEDICAL NEWS Several
treatments are available to combat the heart arrhythmia “atrial fibrillation,” but all require medical supervision, which John Griffin, 69, said he tried to acquire at the emergency room at New Zealand’s Waikato Hospital in April, only to be met with delay and frustration. Griffin went home that day, took notice of his neighbor’s 8,000-volt electric security fence and, with boots off, in a fit of do-it-yourself desperation, nudged it with his arm. He got quite a jolt, he said, but he walked away, and his heart returned to natural rhythm. The medical director of the Heart Foundation of New Zealand said that Griffin was lucky and sternly warned against the “procedure.”
WEIRD SCIENCE Medical researchers have been frustrated for years at failures in getting certain cancer-fighting drugs to
reach targeted areas in women’s reproductive tracts, but doctors in Germany announced in April a bold technique that appeared to work: sending the drugs via sperm cells, which seem to roam without obstruction as they search for an egg. The process involves coating active sperm cells with an iron adhesive and magnetically steering them to their internal targets.
NOT A JOKE Sean Clemens, now awaiting
trial in Liberty, Ohio, in the death of an 84-year-old woman, allegedly confessed his guilt to a co-worker after telling the man that something was bothering him that he needed to tell someone about — but only if the co-worker would “pinkie-swear” not to tell anyone else. The co-worker broke the code.
RADICAL DENTISTRY In the course of
pursuing claims against Alaskan dentist Seth Lookhart for Medicaid fraud, government investigators found a video on his phone of him extracting a sedated patient’s tooth — while riding on a hoverboard. He had apparently sent the video to his office manager under the title “New Standard of Care.” Lookhart had been indicted in 2016 for billing Medicaid $1.8 million for patient sedations unnecessary for the procedures they received.
PERSPECTIVE In April, Tennessee state representative Mike Stewart, aiming to make a point about the state’s lax gunsales laws and piggybacking onto the cuddly feeling people have about children’s curbside lemonade stands, set up a combination stand on Nashville’s Capitol Hill, offering for sale lemonade, cookies and an AK-47 assault rifle — with a sign reading “No Background Check,” to distinguish the private-sale AK47 from one purchased from a federally licensed dealer. In fact, some states still regulate lemonade stands more than gun sales by nettlesome “health department” and anti-competitive rules and licensing, though Tennessee allows the stands in most neighborhoods as long as they are small and operated infrequently. IRONIES (1) The Wall Street Journal
reported in February that among the most popular diversions when Syrian households gather to escape the country’s bombs and bullets is playing the Hasbro war board game Risk, even though the game’s default version contains only five armies — not nearly enough to simulate the many Syrian factions now fighting.
PEOPLE DIFFERENT FROM US In
March, an electrician on a service call at a public restroom in Usuki, Japan, discovered a crawlspace above the urinal area, which had apparently been a man’s home with a space heater, gas stove and clothing. Investigators
learned that Takashi Yamanouchi, 54, a homeless wanderer, had been living there continuously for three years and had arranged everything very tidily, including the 300-plus plastic two-liter bottles of his urine. It was unclear why he was storing his urine when he resided above a public restroom.
NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME (1) In March, WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., broadcast surveillance video of a 7-Eleven armed robbery in the city’s northeast sector — since some footage offered a clear picture of the suspect’s face. Moments into the robbery, the man peered upward, caught sight of the camera and, shocked, reached for his apparently forgotten ski mask on top of his head, where, better late than never, he pulled it into place. (2) In November, three teenagers were arrested after stealing superfast Dodge cars in the middle of the night from a dealership in St. Peters, Missouri. After driving less than a mile, police said, the three had lost control of their cars, crashing them, including “totaling” two 700-horsepower Challenger Hellcats. NO LONGER WEIRD News that was formerly weird but whose patterns more recently have become so tedious that the stories deserve respectful retirement: (1) On May 5, an elderly woman in Plymouth, England, became the most recent to drive wildly afield by blindly obeying her car’s satellite navigation system. Turning left, as ordered, only to confront a solid railing, she nonetheless spotted a narrow pedestrian gap and squeezed through, which led to her descending the large concrete stairway at the Mayflower House Court parking garage until her undercarriage got stuck. (2) Police in East Palestine, Ohio, said the 8-year-old boy who commandeered the family car and drove his sister, 4, to the local McDonald’s for a cheeseburger on April 9 was different from the usual underaged drivers in that he caused no problems. Witnesses said he followed traffic signals en route, which the boy attributed to learning from YouTube videos. NOTW CLASSIC (October 2013) Imminent Swirling Vortex of Damnation: Land developers for the iconic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado — the inspiration for the hotel in Stephen King’s “The Shining” — announced recently (2013) that they need more space and thus will dig up and move the hotel’s 12-gravesite pet cemetery, another Stephen King trope. Neighbors told the Fort Collins Coloradoan in September (2013) that they feared the construction noise more than the potential release of departed spirits (though an “Animal Planet” “dog psychic” who lives in Estes Park volunteered her services to calm the pets’ souls). Update: Apparently, it worked.
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PHOTOS BY ARI LEVAUX
FEATURE
FOOD
FARMERS MARKET IMMORTALS Ignore the old potatoes, carrots and onions at your peril BY ARI LEVAUX
A
S A NEW FOOD season dawns,
epicures face wave upon wave of fresh produce over which to obsess. But as we celebrate the evolving cast of seasonal bounty — the strawberries, tomatoes, sweet corn, peaches, and other joys of summer — it’s important to remember another subset of crops that often slips 14 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
through the cracks, in part because these crops are always around. Literally, figuratively, and most importantly, deliciously, carrots, potatoes and onions are perennially in season. As far as dinner goes, they are immortal, because they are available locally whenever you want them. As I made my rounds at the farmers market last week, I admired the displays of
new carrots and potatoes, freshly dug and washed and gleaming like polished vegetal jewels. There were also bunches of spring onions and new garlic, and the occasional bunch of chives. These pungent plants are all members of the fragrant lily family, of which the bulbs, leaves, stems and flowers all are edible at one time of the year or another. In addition to these fresh-faced flora,
there were much older incarnations of those year-round veggies, sometimes at the same farm stand. I found a five-pound bag of old potatoes with bulging eyes from last year for $2. They were baking potatoes, a little soft but perfectly serviceable, thanks to being properly stored through the winter. “White inside,” promised the babushka who sold them to me.
I FOUND A FIVE-POUND BAG OF OLD POTATOES WITH BULGING EYES FROM LAST YEAR FOR $2. Other farmers had large old carrots for sale, similarly overwintered in the root cellar. These were not to be confused with the sweet morsels that children enthusiastically eat like candy, but rather, they were cooking carrots. And when I brought them home, they cooked very well. Another farmer had onions for sale. They were from last year, and still rock-hard. He wouldn’t tell me how he stored them so perfectly, but I’m pretty sure it involved a root cellar dug beneath an Indian burial ground with a Ouija Board inside. As I gave one of his elder onions a gentle squeeze, the farmer beckoned me from behind his stand to a box of onions he’d recently culled from his magic storage unit; they were soft or had moldy spots. He offered to sell me a 30-pound box for three bucks. Done. When I got home I set about making a dish that is always in season, despite usually being billed as cold-weather comfort food: a simple pan of roasted roots. Sure, we could puree the whole business into a soup — perhaps make vichyssoise — but that sounds like a lot of work and cleanup to me. I’m partial to the ole’ slice and cook, with a bit of sprinkle, drizzle and toss.
I peeled my honker potatoes, cut them into quarters lengthwise, and cut each resulting wedge crosswise into half-inch slices. I sliced the carrots to about the same thickness, at a slight angle for extra fanciness, and added them to the baking dish. Many people add onions to their roasted roots. Despite growing half-underground, onions are not technically roots. But they behave like roots in so many ways that many epicures consider them honorary root crops. One difference is their content of water, which onions add to the pan of roots. This results in the carrots and potatoes being steam-fried (freamed, if you nasty) until the water is gone, at which point they can brown. The roast onions can add a deliciously dark chewy essence, full of intense flavor concentrate. But they will also be the first to burn, if you let them, littering your roots with crunchy, carcinogenic bitter bombs. So if you go this route, extra care is warranted.
FOR A HEARTY and zingy alternative, consider Immortal Potato Salad. First, I selected the ugliest onion in my box of culls, cut off the bad part — which in this case was most of it — and sliced the good
part as thinly as I could. I then marinated the slices in a mixture of lime juice and white balsamic vinegar with salt and garlic powder. If you have sweet onions at your disposal, they are preferable here. I then proceeded to roast the carrots and potatoes. I drizzled them in olive oil, tossed in a few tablespoons of butter, sprinkled with salt, garlic powder and some kind of seasoning, such as thyme, Herbs de Provence, or any number of exotic spice mixtures like Ethiopian Berbere, Indian garam masala spice mix or Egyptian Dukkha. Or, one could simply leave it at salt and garlic powder, with a little black pepper as necessary, and maybe some chili powder. One can also skip the carrots and onions and simply make oven fries. And of course, you can choose to carefully
roast your onions with the roots. For that, bake at 400 degrees, checking often and stirring occasionally when they start to brown. When they start to look done, taste, season as necessary, and continue cooking until done. About an hour. Besides the different cooking times — the onions could, after all, be added later — another reason I like to marinate the onions and add them separately is that doing so creates a vinaigrette for the Immortal Potato Salad. When the marinated onions are mixed with the roasted roots, the oil on the roots combines with the vinegar and acid of the onions and dresses a salad that can be tossed any time of the year and twice on Sunday, with young and old ingredients alike. And by all means, add mayo if you wish. You know I would. CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 15
FOOD
THREE-COURSE SPIEL
Ortiz PHOTO COURTESY OF RICKY ORTIZ
TURNED UP TACOS Ricky Ortiz may be Charlotte’s youngest food truck owner DEBRA RENEE SETH
AT JUST 21, Ricky Ortiz is the sole proprietor and operator of his own awardwinning food truck, Tacos Rick-O. The young chef, whose name literally means delicious and rich, is cranking out authentic Mexican food and cranking up the Charlotte food truck scene one taco at a time. From his popular Tequila Shrimp and Carne Asada Street Tacos to delicious handmade gorditas and spicy nachos, Ortiz’s Mexican roots can be tasted in everything he serves. Creative Loafing sat down with Ortiz over a couple tacos and cup of iced horchata to find out what it’s like being one of the youngest food truck owners in the city. Creative Loafing: You’re only 21 and have firmly established yourself in the food truck scene here in Charlotte. How did this all come together for you? Ricky Ortiz: Well, my family moved here from Durango, Mexico, when I was eight, and I started working in restaraunts at the age of 12. At that age I was just helping out, cleaning tables and things like that, and by the time I was 18, I’d done every job in the restaraunt from fry, to saute, to grill. At the same time I was saving all my money. I fell in love with cooking and my mom realized that, so on my 18th birthday she surprised me with a completely blank and empty truck. It took me another two years to completely finish my truck and get it up to code, because I did all the work myself. From designing the interior to installing appliances, I did it all. Now, you can find me all over the city serving the food I love. Did growing up in Mexico make a difference in how you prepare the food you serve at Tacos Rick-O? My Mexican roots are a huge part of who I am and my cooking style. Growing up in 16 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Durango I was introduced to street food at an early age, because it’s such a huge part of the culture there and so readily available. From churros, to tacos, to street corn and soup, this is the food I grew up with, so it was natural when I started my business that I incorporated those flavors, and I guess that’s helped me to stand out. Now, I’ve won food truck competitions, served the Carolina Panthers and residents all over the city. It feels great to be serving the food I love and to have others love it too. Aside from the great food, another thing that stands out about your truck is your cool cartoon logo, which also incorporates your image. It’s a pretty interesting conversation starter. Can you talk about how you came up with the idea? Well, I guess because I’m still really young, most people don’t expect me to actually own the truck, they think I just work there. Everyone is always asking me who Rick-O is, so the logo is a nice way of letting people know it’s me. They’re always surprised. I’m just grateful and working hard to keep my business growing. I put in 90 to 100 hours on my truck every week so you will always see me on my truck, both literally and figuratively, whether I’m making tacos, taking orders for people, or you just spot the logo. Right now my biggest goals are building my clientele and brand recognition. I’ve gotten a great response so far, so my goal is to just keep working and improving and serving the city the food I love. Love Rick-O back by visiting his website for more info: www.tacosrick-o.com
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MARVELOUS FUNKSHUN ‘LIVE AT ZIGGY’S’
Marvelous Funkshun, or “The Funkshun,” as fans like to call them, released their first album Live at Ziggy’s in February 2016, and we’re glad it found its way into the Jamwich rotation. The band’s sound is a captivating, strangely danceable fusion of southern rock and jam sounds, mixing a little funk in there, too. The lap steel guitar paired with improvisational jams and psychedelic sounds make for a party on the scale of a Widespread Panic show. Though the album is only five tracks, the songs average in length at around 10 minutes, giving you a great feeling of The Funkshun’s live flow and transporting you to Ziggy’s, right there with the band. The show was a set the band did opening for Snoop Dogg. “We were really just trying to play to a crowd that probably was not really there to see us,” says Funkshun guitarist Sam Robinson. “The philosophy was just to keep it funky, but still be ourselves.” The first song, “Liquor Store,” gives a taste of their bluesy side but throws a curveball with a funky bass line. This is where we get our first taste of their sound, before the band launches into what is my favorite track, “Hear My Train a Comin.’” The beginning builds in a harmonizing riff, then a triumphant release of an instrumental jam and blistering guitar solos. Marvelous Funkshun’s style can be unpredictable, and the 14-minute “Hear My Train a Comin’” took the tone way down into a slow-tempo blues exploration. “The similarities to the sacred steel tradition made ‘Hear My Train’ a perfect choice,” Robinson says of the track. “Rest My Bones” takes no time in giving us a beat to dance to in this feel-good blues-rock tune. They end the album with their funkiest song of all. “’Shaky Ground’ is always fun to dance to,” Robinson says. The track does, in fact, induce involuntary head-bobbing and toe-tapping, so be warned. It’s a great way to go out with a bang, but leaves us wanting more. You can listen to the album on Spotify or buy it on iTunes now.
Story by Elise Olmsted. From Appalachian Jamwich, Feb. 3, 2017.
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JUNE 17 th 2017 DOORS OPEN AT 5:00PM | SHOW STARTS AT 6:00PM
TO PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS visit
TICKETMASTER.COM
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or call 1-800-745-3000
BRIAN CULBERTSON “BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND”
MIKE PHILLIPS
WITH JEFF BRADSHAW
JEFF LORBER
YUNA
CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 17
THURSDAY
18
RÜFÜS DU SOL What: Charlotte must have picked a lucky number in the dark-anddreamy music sweepstakes. Not only is the ethereal, house-infused electronic music of Rüfüs du Sol touching down at The Underground, but likeminded duo Beach House are also bringing a gorgeously gauzy sound to Neighborhood Theatre less than a week later on Wednesday, May 24. Rüfüs du Sol is the more dance-oriented of the two acts, but why choose between them when you can get your chill on throughout the week? When: 9 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: $20. livenation.com.
18 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
THURSDAY
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Amor Prohibido FRIDAY
COURTESY OF CALIBRE ROCK
FRIDAY
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19
SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN What: The question began in 2010 almost as a curiosity exclusive to east Charlotte, but over the last year has been heard coming from all corners of the city with a sense of urgency: What the hell is going in at the old Eastland Mall site? A school? A soccer stadium? Come by the old site for a family fun event meant to reminisce on old ice-skating memories and discuss the site’s future. Events include food trucks, a pop-up park, interactive murals and a Queen City Quiz Show. When: 4-8 p.m. Where: Old Eastland Mall site, 5249 Central Ave. More: Free. bit.ly/2qe9fzq.
FRIDAY
FRIDAY
19
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SELENA PUNK TRIBUTE
MINERAL GIRLS
What: There are boring tribute bands and there are strokes of genius. A trio playing Sublime songs note-for-note? Boring. A punk band that spits out scruffy, devil-may-care versions of Selena hits like “Baila Esta Cumbia” and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”? Stroke of genius. New York’s Amor Prohibido — named for the Tejano queen’s final album before her untimely murder — is a femalefronted punk band that takes Selena songs to places they’ve never been before.
What: When Charlotte’s Mineral Girls put out their first couple of Bandcamp releases, they had the drums, the guitars, the fuzz, the self-doubt and the self-pity — they had everything but the girl. That changed on Cozy Body, in 2015, when Audry Ayers joined on guitar. They still have all that other stuff, but it sounds a lot better now. Just listen to “Skeleton Dad” and try keep yourself from dancing like Steve Martin in The Jerk. You can’t do it. Maybe it’s cuz they got the girl.
AERIAL STUDENT SHOWCASE
When: 10 p.m. Where: La Revolucion, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $15-$20. facebook.com/ Calibrerocknc/.
When: 9 p.m. Where: Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Rd. More: $5-$7. themilestone.club.
What: The following is a shameless self-promotion, and we’re not afraid to admit it. One of our sales girls, Melissa McHugh, will be swinging from the rafters in her first-ever public performance, and 15 others will be performing on silks, lyra and the static trapeze (which doesn’t swing but hangs stationery from the ceiling). The CL crew will be there rooting for Melissa and praying she doesn’t fall on her head. What we mean is, break a leg, Melissa!
When: 6:30-9 p.m. Where: Aerial CLT, 801 N. Tryon St. More: $10. aerialclt.com.
Fresh Expo SATURDAY
Aerial Student Showcase FRIDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
Trapped TUESDAY PHOTO BY ALEX WALKER
SATURDAY
20
COURTESY OF TRILOGY FILMS
COURTESY OF MELISSA MCHUGH
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
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TUESDAY
23
TUESDAY
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FRESH EXPO
BACON FEST
SABATON
TRAPPED
FRANZ FERDINAND
What: For the advanced tree hugger: folks will be gathering at Symphony Park on Saturday to discuss real solutions regarding healthy living and sustainable communities. Keynote speaker Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home will be on hand to discuss how to reduce the trash in your life while attendees can partake in Charlotte’s only electric bike expo, live bluegrass music and a silent auction benefitting The Fresh Foundation’s Cancer Initiative and PopUp Produce.
What: Are you familiar with the term fresh to death? Instead of being used to describe someone’s outfit, it could be used to describe the jump from that last Fresh Expo entry to this one, which marks a day to celebrate a food that could conceivably kill you. That’s not such a bad thing, however, as the Food Truck Friday South End crew is back for a second year of food trucks creating special menu items to show off their work with pig-back.
What: The Face of Battle, John Keegan’s revolutionary military history, gives readers a taste of the chaos, fear and carnage experienced by frontline soldiers. But can you mosh to it? Someone must have thought that the evacuation at Dunkirk goes better with power chords, because now we have “battle metal,” and its Swedish torchbearer is the band Sabaton. If you want this day to be truly dark and disturbing, catch the World Goth Day Picnic at Nevin Park — also on Sunday — to serve as a good lead-in.
What: Reproductive rights are under attack in North Carolina and across the nation, and the ACLU of North Carolina and its Charlotte chapter are offering a free screening of the documentary Trapped to put a spotlight on the importance of not losing those rights. Trapped follows clinic workers and attorneys fighting to keep abortion safe and legal for millions of women across the nation. Essential viewing for anyone not willing to let religious groups dictate what we do with our bodies.
What: Franz Ferdinand do more with one song, “Take Me Out,” than many bands can with entire albums. The tune’s catchy, agitated opening beats The Strokes at their own game. Then it dovetails neatly into a Led Zeppelin stomp before turning into jittery post-punk disco. That’s just one song, and there are four albums-worth of this stuff. Many have tried this kind of louche David Bowie swagger. These nimble Scots nail it.
When: 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. Where: Symphony Park, 4400 Sharon Road. More: $9.50-30.50. thefreshexpo.org.
When: 12-9 p.m. Where: Sycamore Brewing, 2161 Hawkins St. More: Free. facebook.com/ SycamoreBrewing.
When: 8 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: Sold Out. livenation.com.
When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Birdsong Brewery, 1016 North Davidson St. More: Free. trappeddocumentary. com.
When: 8 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: $25. livenation.com
CLCLT.COM | MA7. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 19
“OUR
The Sonics (from upper left): in their teens in the mid-’60s (Lind is second from left); the 2007 original reunited lineup (with Parypa at far left, Roslie in the middle, Lind at far right); an adoring crowd; the current lineup.
L A E D E L O H W
– AND I MEAN THIS
S COURTESY OF LEAFY GREEN BOOKING
IN A NICE WAY
” . H T U O M E H T IN AGE AND PUNCH YOU
T S N O T U O E M O E SONICS C O T -ROB LIND OF TH – IS
22 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
VINTAGE PHOTO BY JINI DELLICCIO, RECEN T PHOTO
back in 1964, turning what was intended to be a ponderous song, “The Witch,” into a loud-fast bone-cruncher, they’d basically invented punk. And they wouldn’t know it for another 30 years.
FEATURE
MUSIC
‘WITCH’ CRAFT
WHILE LIND WAS enjoying his retirement
Huntersville resident Rob Lind’s garage-rock band The Sonics basically invented punk in the early ’60s BY MARK KEMP
W
HEN
MIND-MANNERED
Rob Lind isn’t on the links at Birkdale Golf Club with his wife Suzanne, or on his boat with his son Robbie during the Peninsula Yacht Club’s annual poker run at Lake Norman, the Huntersville resident is onstage with his legendary band The Sonics, wailing away on a saxophone. In the decade since the Seattleborn band resurfaced, Lind has played to tens of thousands of garage-rock fans across the United States and Europe who go to see The Sonics bash out such proto-punk classics as “Psycho,” “Strychnine” and “The Witch.” Jack White once described The Sonics — the 1960s Pacific Northwest regional rock ’n’ roll band that three decades later would have a profound impact on the White Stripes — as “animalistic screams signifying the base thoughts of mid-’60s bored teens.” White called The Sonics “harder than The Kinks, and punk long before punk,” adding, “Life becomes better after buying a Sonics record.” “I hate The Sonics,” the late Kurt Cobain said when Nirvana was confronted with comparisons to their grungy Seattle forebears whose raw, untamed, mid-’60s singles remain essential nuggets of pre-punk wild abandon. But Cobain then walked back his insult, admitting, “They got the most amazing drum sound I’ve ever heard . . . It sounds like he’s hitting harder than anyone I’ve ever known.” Meanwhile, as those rock stars of the ’90s and 2000s were commenting on The Sonics’ legacy, Rob Lind was living a quiet life in the Charlotte suburbs, working as a pilot for Piedmont Airlines. He was blissfully unaware that the band he formed at 15 years old with four high school buddies in the working-class town of Tacoma, Wash., had left such a powerful stamp on rock. “I was totally naïve to it,” Lind says. “People later asked me, ‘Do you know that Iggy and the Stooges did one of your songs?’ No. ‘Did you know all these other guys covered your songs?’ No. It took me a while to figure out how much of an influence we had.” Lind, now 70, is sitting with me at a table outside the Creative Loafing office on a sunny weekday afternoon, dressed like my dad in a black button-down collar shirt and jeans. The next day he will jet off to Paris where the reformed Sonics will do a three-week run in European and then return to the U.S. for dates that include Atlanta, Nashville, Seattle and New York. The Sonics also will play at the Neighborhood Theatre on Friday, May 19, for their first ever Charlotte gig. Lind is a
little worried no one will show up. “I’ve always wanted to play in Charlotte,” he says. “But our business manager, who’s based in San Francisco, said, ‘Are you sure?’ He handles the group Mudhoney, and we’re all good friends with those guys, and he said, ‘Mudhoney didn’t draw very well down there. What makes you think you will?’” I assure Lind that Charlotte has plenty of scruffy punk bands and fans who are acutely aware of The Sonics’ legacy; even if the band doesn’t completely pack the Neighborhood Theatre — and it probably will — lots of folks will show up. “Well, I hope so,” he says. “Are you gonna be there?” Yes. “Oh good!”
PUNK ROCK. It’s rooted in insecurity
and low self-esteem. Without those key ingredients, there would be no punk. The Sonics began their journey with one major self-esteem hit. It was 1964, and 17-year-
Rob Lind in Charlotte. PHOTO BY MARK KEMP heartbroken,” Lind remembers. “We were like, ‘Oh god, we just totally blew it. We’re screwed. This is awful.’” A funny thing happened, though. Kids in the Pacific Northwest liked the loud, fast, bone-crunching sound of “The Witch,” and the song became a regional hit. The Sonics returned to the studio to record a few more wild rockers: “Psycho,” “Strychnine,” and a hard-rocking version of Richard Berry’s doowop classic “Have Love, Will Travel.” When the British Invasion reached America, The Sonics wound up opening for the Kinks during the U.K. band’s promotional tour for their first two proto-hard-rock hits “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.” But The Sonics’ ride didn’t last long. By 1967, when the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a new era of rock had
“LIFE BECOMES BETTER AFTER BUYING A SONICS RECORD.” -JACK WHITE
old Lind and his friends had just driven the 40-mile trek north from Tacoma to Seattle to record their first single, “The Witch.” “You have to understand, Tacoma is nothing like Seattle,” Lind says. “It’s a bluecollar waterfront city, and Seattle is the big, urbane city with skyscrapers — it’s like the difference between Rock Hill and Charlotte.” The Sonics — sons of lumberyard and plywood factory workers — took the elevator in one of those big Seattle buildings up to the generic-named Audio Recording Studio. It was as though they’d arrived in Emerald City. “There it was: glass control room, serious-looking guys sitting there staring at us,” Lind remembers. The five teens were nervous. “So we get out our instruments and tune up, and then this voice comes out of the control room: ‘Here it is, The Sonics, ‘The Witch,’ take one.’” They froze. Terrified. Bobby Bennett, the drummer, counted off the song, but he did it at twice the speed they had intended. Lind laughs. “So instead of [slowly], da, da, da, da, da, it was [rapidly], dadadadada. We just rushed the crap out of it,” Lind says. When they got back to their parents’ homes in Tacoma, they moped. “We were
dawned. Raw and fast no longer ruled. Rock bands were doing more complicated things in the studio: dropping acid, bringing in acoustic guitars, harpsichord, Mellotrons. The Sonics called it a day. “The Vietnam War was going on and I’d just graduated from the University of Washington and immediately got drafted,” Lind remembers. “I was on my way, and I already had my pilot’s license, so I thought, ‘Well, if I have to go to Vietnam, I’m going to fly something.’” Lind signed on as a Navy fighter pilot. Keyboardist and lead screamer Gerry Roslie opened an asphalt business. Guitarist Larry Parypa became a fraud investigator for an insurance company. Drummer Bob Bennett moved to Hawaii and sold Cadillacs and Buicks. As the years flew by, rock became bigger, more complicated, more sprawling. None of the members of The Sonics were aware by the late 1970s that another new breed of rockers — bands like The Ramones and Sex Pistols, who’d grown weary of the bloated corporate rock of circus acts like Styx and Rush — had gotten their hands on those old Sonics records. Lind had no clue that when he and his fellow Sonics fucked up that day in the studio
in the Charlotte area in the early 2000s, teeing off at Birkdale, hanging out on Lake Norman, flying the occasional celebrity for a company called Net Jets, his Sonics songs had long been popping up on garagerock compilations. “Psycho” was a regular on the personal playlists of bands like The Fuzztones, The Lyres and The Vipers, who launched a full-on garage-rock revival in the 1980s and an annual garage-rock festival called Cavestomp. Bands like Mudhoney, The Mummies and The Trashwomen, who took the garage aesthetic into the ’90s. And bands like The White Stripes, The Strokes and The Hives, who brought that raw sound into the new millennium and to a new level of mainstream acceptance. After much urging from promoters who’d approached Lind and his former band mates to reunite for the 2007 Cavestomp festival, he, Roslie and Parypa finally agreed. They were shocked anyone cared, but began rehearsing with friends from two other ’60s-era Pacific Northwest garage bands — drummer Ricky Lynn Johnson of the Fabulous Wailers and bassist Don Wilhelm of the Daily Flash — as replacements for original Sonics drummer Bennett and Parypa’s bassist brother Andy. Lind says he had not listened closely to much popular music since The Sonics broke up, but he liked what he heard from gritty contemporary bands like The Hives. “The timing of this worked perfectly for us,” Lind says, “because we quit playing rock ’n’ roll in ’67 and then didn’t start back again until we started rehearsing in 2005. We missed the light shows and psychedelic stuff, we missed the disco thing, we missed the hair bands and the Spandex and the giant white tennis shoes, and we weren’t in bars playing covers of ‘Eye of the Tiger.’ So when we started playing out again in 2007, we were right back to where we were in ’67, which was the music we liked and the music we knew.” Lind was still doing the occasional job flying celebrities like Julia Roberts and Shaquille O’Neal for Net Jets when word got around the music industry that The Sonics were getting back together. On one flight, he was assigned to fly a particularly special passenger. He would go pick up Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa at the Grammies in Los Angeles and fly them back to Florida. “I knew that Bruce and the E Street band had recently done a show in Seattle, and it got back to me that he had said, ‘Now we’re going to do a song by The Sonics, and I’m not talking about the basketball team.’ And they did ‘Have Love, Will Travel.’ So now I’m flying Bruce and Patti, and after a couple of hours I had to get out of the cockpit and go use the restroom. Bruce was sitting next to the lavatory door, and when I came out, I said, ‘Could I have a second to chat with you?’” Lind laughs. “Now, we’re not supposed to do that,” he says. “We’re not supposed to talk to the celebrities that we fly. But I did anyway. SEE
CRAFT P. 24 u
CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 23
MUSIC CRAFT
FEATURE FROM P. 23
t
THE SONICS May 19, 8 p.m.; Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E 36th St.; $22-$25; 704942-7997. neighborhoodtheatre.com.
“I said, ‘You did something really nice for me and some friends of mine, and I wanted to thank you for it.’ “And Bruce said, ‘Oh? What was that?’ “I said, ‘Well, I’m Rob Lind, the sax player of The Sonics and. . .’ That was as far as I got. His eyes got big and he said, ‘Holy shit! What are you doing here? Sit down. Let’s talk music.’ “We talked for about a half an hour, and he was one of the nicest showbiz personalities I’ve ever met. He took my phone number and said, ‘I heard you guys are getting back in action. There’s going to be a lot of opportunities.’ Apparently, the Boss always knows best. Since their reunion, The Sonics have played more places, in more years, than they ever did in their mid-’60s prime. They’ve performed with The Hives in Stockholm; at a concert with Ray Davies of The Kinks in London; and they had Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam come up and sing with them at record shop performance in Seattle. They’ve performed at festivals in Oslo, Norway, and Barcelona, Spain, attracting tens of thousands of fans who knew and sang along to every word of “Psycho” and “Strychnine.” Their songs have appeared in films and TV ads. And in 2015, The Sonics released their first album of new material since the 1960s, This is The Sonics. It reached No. 21 on Billboard’s Heetseekers chart and was named one of the best albums of the year by Rolling Stone. “It’s been a lot of fun,” Lind says. “We played the Fillmore in San Francisco and sold it out, and now we’re going to close a show at the Seattle Center. That’s going to be particularly nice since it’s the band’s home base.” The other two original members, Roslie and Parypa, recently dropped out of the touring band, but they will continue to record new Sonics material with Lind. And Lind stands by the garage-cred of their replacements. As for Lind, he has no plans to quit. “I told someone the other day that if it ever stopped being fun, I’d stay home and spend more time on Lake Norman or spend more time on the golf course,” he says. “But walking out on stage and playing that first song and watching the crowd erupt — there’s nothing like that. That’s just total fun for me.”
LIND LEANS back in his chair and laughs when I ask if his neighbors in Huntersville know what he does when he’s not hanging out at Lake Norman. “They have no idea,” he says. “And it’s not because I’m trying to be all Greta Garbo and want to be left alone; it’s just because The Sonics aren’t played on the radio here and no one would know who we are.” 24 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
MUSIC
His wife Suzanne still works in the airline industry, and when the two are out on the town, people sometimes ask, “Now that you’re retired and Suzanne’s flying, Rob, what do you do?” Lind laughs again. “My stock answer is: ‘Suzanne does all the flying around here and I’m charge of vehicle maintenance and lawn care.’” Suzanne Lind’s reply when her husband isn’t around is a little different. “When she meets people in Charlotte nowadays and they ask her what her husband does, she’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s a rock ’n’ roll musician.’ She doesn’t say I’m a retired airbus captain; she says I’m a rock ’n’ roll musician. And generally what she gets back is, ‘Oh, does he play at Midtown Sundries?’ ‘Uh, no, not exactly.’” He laughs harder this time. “We get that all the time.” Even Lind’s 30-year-old son Robbie, a Charlotte stock broker, didn’t know about his dad’s storied garage-rock past before The Sonics reformed. “When he was growing up, he was aware that I was a fighter pilot and that was his big thing,” Lind says. “He’d draw pictures of airplanes and stuff. But he got interested in the band after we started playing again and he started reading about the ‘legendary’ stuff. He’s been real proud of me ever since. He’s all over our Facebook page, which is full of propaganda. And he’s my first mate — he’s my boat dude.” As for the poker run that the Peninsula Yacht Club holds on Lake Norman every June 17, Lind won’t be making it this year. “I always look forward to that,” he says. “I just love it. I get my son and one of my old flying buddies and we go out there and spend all day on the lake just having the best time.” He looks down, slightly disappointed. “But I won’t be able to do it this year,” he says, and then smiles again, “because this June 17 I’ll be in Mexico City with The Sonics.” If any of the Linds’ suburban neighbors happen to make their way to the Neighborhood Theater this week, they’ll likely be in for a shock. Lind says “garage rock” is a misnomer for The Sonics; he sees what they do more in terms of the raw and bratty hard rock AC/DC is known for than the more reverent bluesrock hybrid that the White Stripes played. “Our whole deal — and I mean this in a nice way — is to come out onstage and punch you in the mouth,” Lind says. Even if nobody comes to see the show? “It doesn’t make any difference to me,” Lind says with a laugh. “Whether we play for 10 people or 10,000, we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to come off the stage, soaking wet, drinking bottled water. Because that’s what we do.” He gets serious again, but the self-doubt seems to have faded. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to get a decent crowd in Charlotte, but I’m not sure of it. Charlotte’s kind of fickle about live music,” Lind says. “But whether we do or don’t, I’m real proud of The Sonics,” Lind adds. “I love what we’re doing. And that’s what keeps me doing it.” MKEMP@CLCLT.COM
MUSICMAKER
GIVE UP THE FUNK Oba Amitabha is taking nightlife to new places BY KIA O. MOORE
POSITIVE VIBRATIONS. Happy people. Cross-generational connections. Those are just a few of the descriptions that characterize Oba Amitabha’s nightlife and music events. He has officially been an organizer on the Charlotte party scene since 2008, but Amitabha’s latest business venture, Funk-shun, is quickly transforming from alternative nightlife events into a fullfledged lifestyle movement. Creative Loafing got a chance to sit down with this King of Infinite Light to learn more about his plans for shifting Charlotte’s nightlife and local music culture. Creative Loafing: How did you get the name Oba Amitabha? Oba Amitabha: My name is David Parker, but I go by Oba Amitabha. Oba is from the Yoruba dialect in West Africa. It means King. I got it when I spent some time in D.C. I had an interesting conversation with someone on the Metro Bus about my interpretation of things that were happening in D.C. That person said, “I am going to call you Oba” and it just stuck. Amitabha means Buddha of Infinite Light. That came about because I am just trying to shine light in general and act as a source of light between interactions with people. What lured you into becoming a source for bringing people together? I was doing house parties. The house parties had a community feel. But the house parties were always getting shut down. When I was 18, one of my house parties was getting shut down again. It was a police officer who had come to shut it down for his third time in a row. He had written me several tickets for sound-ordinance violations. By the third time he said, “You should really think about just renting out a venue and throwing a party there.” When the police officer said that, a light just went off. I was like, “Hey we got something here.” About a week after that interaction with the officer I started contacting venues. Jody Sullivan, the current owner of the Roxbury, gave me my first shot to create a nightlife experience at a venue in Uptown. Jody gave me and my friends the chance to do our first event back in 2008 at the Breakfast Club. It was titled Excuse Me Miss 20 is the New 30. We had a great turn-out. What is your biggest challenge working in the Charlotte nightlife market? I think getting people within Charlotte’s popular culture to step out of their comfort zone is the biggest challenge. I started going
out around Charlotte a lot and it was not until I went to Dharma Nightclub in 2011 that I saw a really diverse crowd and the focus was solely on nothing but the music. Dharma showed me that it was possible to find a crowd in Charlotte that was really into just music and the fun. Tell me about Funk-Shun. Funk-Shun was inspired by Funkadelic, you know that jazzy meditation approach through dreaming. And then mix that with a little Kendrick Lamar and the mindset that we are out here just trying to function. We are trying to create an alternative space where people can connect, create and rejuvenate through music that is not watered down. Funk-Shun has really been picking up a lot of momentum because of that community and connection aspect. We feature vendors and local artists, but what people are drawn to most is the positive. When you come, you know we are going to dance, we’re going have fun, we’re going to connect and meet people, and we are going to do stuff after. The first Funk-Shun was a house show in Washington D.C. during the 2016 Broccoli City Festival, a go-green event that encourages sustainability. The line-up for the Broccoli City Festival was awesome, and we connected with some great influencers in that market that were about that stratosphere vision of community and creativity. People were out at our unofficial after-party FunkShun launch until about 5 a.m. What’s next on the Funk-Shun agenda? We are working to make Funk-Shun a conduit to get Charlotte artists showcased in the spaces we are connecting to outside of Charlotte. But in addition to being a conduit, what has gone a long way with Funk-Shun is getting out of the nightclub and going on these mountain hikes and camping retreats with people. There is still music involved, but we are taking it to alternative settings like campsites, where we can do more human-tohuman bonding activities with one another. When can folks catch the next Obacreated experience? People can come out to Flight Music Hall, across from Spirit Square, for our day party summer series For the Culture (www. fortheclture.eventbrite.com). The kick-off for the series is Memorial Day Weekend.
CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 25
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD
MAY 18 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH John Alexander Jazz Trio (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK Beavergrass Bluegrass Jam f. Jim Garrett (Thirsty Beaver)
POP/ROCK Careless Romantic, Labia Minor, Jistu (Petra’s) Chris Purkea, The HarmaLeighs (The Evening Muse) Deerhunter, Jock Gang (Neighborhood Theatre) Doyle Dykes (7000 Park Road -The Acopian Hall) Family Force 5, Mr. Talkbox (The Rabbit Hole) The Fritz, Travers Brothership (Visulite Theatre) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Lisa DeNovo (RiRa Irish Pub) Mike Strauss Trio (Comet Grill) Nikki Hill (U.S. National Whitewater Center) The Phantom Playboys, Jem Crossland & the Hypertonics, The Nevernauts (Milestone) Pop Up Art (Comet Grill) Rüfüs Du Sol, Slow Magic, Dena Amy (The Underground) Shiprocked (Snug Harbor) Songwriter Open Mic @ Petra’s (Petra’s) Tim, Chuck, & Steve (Tin Roof)
MAY 19 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony: Altsounds: Mark O’Connor and Friends (Knight Theater) Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)
MAY 20 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Héctor Acosta (Label)
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH John Dillard and Company (NCCI Outdoor Field, Matthews) Lush Life: 2017 Jazz Arts Initiative Spring Gala: Piedmont Triad Jazz Orchestra with Mandi Stapleton (The Ritz-Carlton) Pass Me the Jazz: David Tang’s Firebird choir VOX, The Rick Bean Quartet, Dawn Anthony (Sharon Presbyterian Church)
COUNTRY/FOLK Dylan Scott, Jackson Michelson (Coyote Joe’s) Justin Moore (Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord) Nashville Hitmakers: Even Stevens, Paul Overstreet, Casey Beathard, Mike Loudermilk (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B The Drunken Pintos (Comet Grill)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL
DJ/ELECTRONIC
Steven Engler Band (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
4 DJs Dance Night (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)
COUNTRY/FOLK
POP/ROCK
The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)
Smokin Gunn (City Tavern, Waxhaw) Armory (Tin Roof, Charlotte) Big Something, Marvelous Funkshun (The Rabbit Hole) Black Ritual, Ozai, Blackwater Drowning, Above Livius (Milestone) The Blue Dogs (Reid’s Fine Foods SouthPark) Cosmic Charlie (Visulite Theatre) Dixie Trampede – Red Nekkid Burlesque show! (Petra’s) Gaelynn Lea, Goodnight Moonshine (The Evening Muse) Hungry Girl w/ Starbenders, War Twins, Batsheet (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Seven Lions (Label)
POP/ROCK Aarodynamics (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Anthony Orio (Tin Roof) BASK w/ Space Wizard, HAAL, Late Bloomer (Snug Harbor) Brandy (The Fillmore Charlotte) Brave the Bullets (Noda Brewery) Dane Page, Elonzo Wesley, Chosovi, George Banda (Petra’s) Foxtrax, Joseph Aaron (The Evening Muse) 26 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Gabe Dixon, Farewell Angelina (The Evening Muse) The Mineral Girls, Emperor X, Sinai Vessel, Ernie (Milestone) The Molly Wops (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Order Of Leviathan, Tyranny Enthroned (The Station) Polyrhythmics, Groove 8, Time2Fly Music (The Rabbit Hole) Practically Einstein (Comet Grill) The Sonics, Dex Romweber (Neighborhood Theatre) Thirsty Horses (Birdsong Brewery)
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe (Neighborhood Theatre) Laura Thurston (Birdsong Brewery) Miss Tess & The Talkbacks (The Evening Muse) Practically Einstein (Comet Grill) School of Rock Charlotte Spring Show (Visulite Theatre) Trial By Fire (Sylvia Theatre, York) Waker (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Zoso (The Fillmore Charlotte)
Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
POP/ROCK Franz Ferdinand (The Underground, Charlotte) Old Sport w/ Rothschild, Paperback, america is a mistake (Snug Harbor)
MAY 24
MAY 21
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
DJ/ELECTRONIC
Bechtler Ensemble performs Generations: New Music Celebrating Jean Tinguely’s Sculpture, “Santana” (Gettys Art Center, Rock Hill) Chamber Music 4 All: Calin Lupanu, Monica Boboc (Sedgefield United Methodist Church, Charlotte)
POP/ROCK The Commonwealth, Sibannac, Greevace, Cheesus Crust, Fire Marshall Bill (Milestone) Dead Man Winter, War Machine (Visulite Theatre) Hard Working Americans featuring Todd Snider, Dave Schools, Neal Casal, Chad Staehly, Duane Trucks, Jesse Aycock (Neighborhood Theatre) Ninja Sex Party (The Fillmore Charlotte) Sabaton (The Underground) School of Rock-Spring Show (Visulite Theatre) Soul Sunday (Snug Harbor) Omari & the Hellhounds (Comet Grill)
MAY 22 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) Motown on Mondays (Morehead Street Tavern) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)
POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic with guest Sofia Talvik (The Evening Muse) Locals Live: The Best in Local Live Music & Local Craft Beers (Tin Roof) The Monday Night Allstars (Visulite Theatre) Shannon Lee and Thomas Stainkamp Dueling Piano’s Night (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville)
MAY 23 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Bill Hanna Jazz Jam (Morehead Tavern)
COUNTRY/FOLK Luke Wade (The Evening Muse)
The Clarence Palmer Trio (Morehead Tavern)
Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Wiggz N Wonz (The Rabbit Hole)
COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill)
POP/ROCK Beach House, Louie Louie (Neighborhood Theatre) Bela Fleck & Chris Thile (Knight Theater) Hectagons w/ El Malpais, Fat Face Band, The Dead Men (Snug Harbor) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) LP, Josiah & The Bonnevilles (Visulite Theatre) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open mic w/ Jared Allen (Jack Beagles) Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill) Pluto For Planet (RiRa Irish Pub) Red Wanting Blue, Shannon McArthur (The Evening Muse) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof, Charlotte)
COMING SOON Lincoln Durham (May 25, The Evening Muse) Richard Lloyd (May 30, Snug Harbor) Leif Vollebekk (May 30, Evening Muse) Joshua Cotterino (June 1, Petra’s) Mind Maze (June 2, Milestone) Train (June 3, PNC Music Pavilion) Toto (June 7, Knight Theater) Chance the Rapper (June 8, PNC Music Pavilion) Tegan and Sara (June 8, The Fillmore Charlotte) Fire Marshall Bill (June 9, Petra’s) Iron Maiden (June 9, PNC Music Pavilion) Banks (June 9, The Fillmore Charlotte) Skillet (June 10, Carowinds Paladium) Gillian Welch (August 4, Knight Theater)
THIS SATURDAY
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5/21 DEAD MAN WINTER 5/24 LP 6/6 HAYLEY KIYOKO 6/11 JOSEPH 6/16 ALL THEM WITCHES 6/18 JAMES MCMURTRY 6/21 THE DISTRICTS 6/22 OLD 97's 7/9 SIR SLY 7/20 JOHN MORELAND FULL SCHEDULE : VISULITE.COM NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.
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CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 27
““That‘’ s basically what Be A Lion is.
JOSH “J SWEAT” NWAKERENDU
It’s, ‘Be
a
freaking m
an.
ARTS
COVER STORY
A LION’S JOURNEY Theater outsider Rory Sheriff has come a long way to land at Spirit Square BY RYAN PITKIN
R
Be Be who you are
in
. e g r a h c “
meant to be.’”
-RORY D. SHERIFF, WRITER/D Tony Massey as Lion.
28 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
IRECTOR/PRODUCER, BE A LIO N
ORY D. SHERIFF showed up at Spirit Square on a recent afternoon fresh off the golf course and ready for rehearsal. His red golf tee and white Nike visor were reminiscent of Tiger Woods’ “Sunday red,” a similar outfit (usually with a black Nike hat) that Woods wears when he competes on a Sunday, the final day of a golf tournament. Sheriff played pretty well that day, but it took him a while to get momentum, and a bad showing on the front nine left him in the weeds for much of the afternoon. It was in the dance studio on the second floor of Spirit Square later on where Sheriff was truly in his element, and the comparisons to Tiger made more sense. However, tigers were not on Sheriff’s mind that day — neither the animal nor the golfer. It was lions. Sheriff is preparing for the 2017 premiere of Be A Lion, a play he wrote five years ago and originally intended to be a movie. It opens at Duke Energy Theater on May 31. Be A Lion is a sequel of sorts to The Wiz, the 1978 film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz centered on black actors and actresses. Be A Lion was the first of two plays put on by Sheriff’s black theater company, Brand New Sheriff (BNS) Productions. Now, after five years of writing, rewriting, rehearsing, performing and rewriting some more, Sheriff feels the play is finally where he wants it to be. “We’ve had a lot a lot of lumps, a lot of heartaches, a lot of disappointment and some setbacks with this production,” Sheriff said when we met at 7th Street Public Market and he shared with me the story of how Be A Lion and BNS Productions came to be. SHERIFF HAS ENDED up where he is
now thanks to his refusal to tread water. Throughout his life, he’s not only climbed ladders but switched to new ones at the slightest dissatisfaction with his work. “I feel like I’m going to die if I’m working on something I don’t like, it’s that drastic,” he says. “If I’m not happy, I have to get control of it. I have to get in my happy place, and my happy place is being in control of something ... and it’s in art.” Growing up in Redding, Pa., Sheriff wanted to be an actor. He was a student
Melody Williams as Damneesha (left) with Tony Massey as Lion.
JOSH “J SWEAT” NWAKERENDU
“NOTHING IS BEING HANDED TO ME AT ALL. EVERYTHING THAT WE GET, WE WORKED FOR.” -RORY SHERIFF
From left: Kineh N’gaojia as Miles, Elijah Ali as Tin man, Ruby Edwards as LaDawn, Tony Massey as Lion and Nailyah Gardner as Dorothy. of the arts; he read Shakespeare and wrote poetry into his college years, when he attended Temple University in Philadelphia. Slam poetry remained a passion for Sheriff into adulthood, but during college he became interested in being a radio personality, for the same reason so many young men do anything. “Because I thought it was a cool way to get chicks, actually,” he says of his desire to become a new school Jocko Henderson. Sheriff worked his way up from a college station to a role as an unpaid intern at a secondary station to a host at Power 99, the biggest station in Philadelphia, one of the country’s largest markets. Then, in 2000, Sheriff moved to Charlotte for the same reason so many young men move anywhere: his girlfriend lived here. Sheriff fell in love with the city on his first visit, and interviewed for a job at the popular Power 98. The experience was deflating for a man who had rapidly risen through ranks of radio up until that point. “I didn’t know anything about Charlotte, and when you’re coming from a Philly market — the No. 4 market — you’re like, ‘All right, cool, this is what I can do for your town,’” he recalls. “When I left, the guy who interviewed me was like, ‘We’re already No. 1 here, we just needed you to come in and continue on doing what we’re doing.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I screwed that up.’ It was humbling.” Sheriff took a job with First Union, but
soon became bored with that. He was days from returning to Philadelphia to get his old job back when he noticed a new sound coming from his normal jazz station — 92.7 was flipping formats to urban, and Sheriff saw his opening. He eventually got a job there and could be heard on the airwaves of Hot 92.7 as Ghetto Child. He continued his ambitious ascent in the radio world, and eventually became a music director, even eventually working among the higher-ups at Power 98, which had once turned him away. However, Sheriff’s interest in the radio industry was gradually dimming. “Slowly but surely I was just moving away from radio,” he says. “I really didn’t like the direction of radio. It’s kind of like we were in a bad relationship, an on-again, off-again relationship. We’d break up and make up.” He never lost his affinity for writing, and it was during this time that he started to take it more seriously. “I felt in control when I started writing. I felt in control of my life,” he says. “What made me feel better was to write. I had all this experience in my head. I was in the military as well [before college]. I was in the Army, I fought in Desert Storm, I lived in Germany, traveled the world, so I’ve got all these experiences I could write about. So I started writing some books.” He released three successful books, mostly romance and erotica, but eventually got bored
JOSH “J SWEAT” NWAKERENDU
with that as well. Inspired by Tyler Perry, Sheriff began writing scripts. He took a couple script-writing classes and had one that he was working on full-time with plans to go to Los Angeles and pitch it to movie execs. Shortly before the trip, however, an unexpected happenstance through channel surfing would change the course of Sheriff’s life. He was working on his script, titled A Hot Idea, which would later become Mahogany, when The Wiz came on television. He kept it on, as it was one of his favorite movies growing up, but didn’t think much of it until the end. “It goes off and I’m like, ‘OK, what now?’” he says of the movie’s anticlimactic ending. “Then, ‘Ohhh. Bing, bing, bing. You’re the writer, why don’t you write and tell what happens?’” And that’s exactly what he did. Sheriff bought the movie and watched it on repeat while working on his new script, which was a far, fantastical cry from the realist plots he had written in his romance novels and previous rom-com attempt. The Be A Lion script tells the tale of what happens when Dorothy leaves Oz and those left behind in the Emerald City are living in a state of lawlessness. A couple seeking refuge from the crime-ridden city run into the Lion, who is now leader of a nearby tribe. The Lion returns to Oz to rule, but gets caught up in a conflict with Damneesha, the daughter of wicked witch Evileene, among other
ordeals. Sheriff’s script draws parallels with the experience of being a black man in America as well as other present-day social issues. He originally called the script King of the Emerald City, but was struck by the rendition of his favorite song from The Wiz during one of his watching sessions. “That’s one of my favorite songs in the play, ‘Be A Lion,’ and it fits,” Sheriff says. “It fits the whole concept of the story, because the lion is still struggling with his courage. He has courage now, but he’s still struggling because he never had to use it. At some point he’s going to have to be a lion, and it’s equivalent to saying, ‘Be a man. Stand up and be a man sometimes.’ That’s basically what Be A Lion is. It’s, ‘Be a freaking man. Be in charge. Be who you are meant to be.’”
SHERIFF MADE the trip to Los Angeles
with a new goal: pitch Be A Lion, forget about Mahogany. He pitched his heart out at a meeting with three movie producers, only to be told they loved the story but thought it would be too expensive. They said they were looking for cheap romantic comedies, so he told them about Mahogany, despite not having planned a pitch at all. Sheriff sold the rights to Mahogany (“I
SEE
LION P. 30 u
CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 29
JOSH “J SWEAT” NWAKERENDU
“ONQ IS DOING GREAT THINGS RIGHT HERE IN CHARLOTTE, BUT IT’S NOT FAIR THAT WE ONLY HAVE ONE MAINSTREAM AFRICAN-AMERICAN THEATER GROUP.” -RORY SHERIFF Full cast and crew, including Rory D. Sheriff (back, center with green shirt). LION FROM
P.29
t
thought it was shit,” he says) and left with some change in his pocket. But his most valuable takeaway from the experience was the advice given to him by one of the producers, a woman who ran to catch him before he could leave the building. She asked if he had ever thought about making Be A Lion into a play or a cartoon. Sheriff responded that he had not, but the idea stuck with him until he returned home. The decision was not easy for a man who dreamt of getting into the movie business. “At first, it hurt. I was destroyed. I thought it was a demotion. Like, this needs to be a movie,” Sheriff recalls of his inner dialogue at the time. “Then, pacing back and forth in my hotel room, flying back home, I was like, ‘Wow, you know what? This is what 30 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Tyler Perry went through.’ I’m sure that his scripts were intended to be movies, at least somewhat, and if not, he took his stage plays into film. So maybe this is how I’m supposed to go. This is the path I’m supposed to go.” Sheriff put together a small casting call that consisted mostly of friends and family, then eventually put on a play at a small venue in town. Five years later, he has no regrets about making the transition to theater. “It’s fulfilling, I love it,” he says. “And it’s rewarding, because nothing is being handed to me at all. Everything that we get, we worked for.” Sheriff says he’s put in countless applications for grants over the years, but has never been awarded one. Everything he’s spent on his productions over the last five years has come out of his pocket. He spent much of his first few years in the Charlotte theater scene just trying to learn the ropes, but says he’s more comfortable in
the community now. “In the theater world, they approach things with reservation,” Sheriff says. “They’re like, ‘OK, what is this? Who is this guy? We’ve been around. We have these theater companies, these theater groups, and this is who we know. We don’t know you as a theater person. If you’re radio, yeah, do radio. But we don’t know you as a theater person.’ So I had to prove that, for which I stepped up to the plate.” Sheriff isn’t just stepping up to the plate for himself. He knows the importance of cultivating a black presence in Charlotte’s theater community, and he feels he’s just “cracking the door” to full acceptance. BDS Productions looks to join OnQ Performing Arts, the only black theater company to gain widespread acceptance locally. “OnQ is doing great things right here in Charlotte, but it’s not fair that we only have
one mainstream African-American theater group,” Sheriff says. “There’s markets that have a lot of us. For a city this size, for a theater community this size, if we only have one that broke in? One that’s known? “There are a lot of theater companies and theater groups by African-Americans here in Charlotte, and a lot of good people who are still trying to do what I’m doing.,” he continues. “OnQ opened that door and we’re just opening it up wider, and we’re showing not just Charlotte, we’re showing the entire country: ‘Look, African-American theater is great, and we’re doing some really thoughtprovoking shows.’”
AT REHEARSAL, SHERIFF looks on
alongside his longtime stage manager and personal assistant Ericka Cornick. The two track the script on their phones while they watch, listening for variations the
ARTS
COVER STORY RYAN PITKIN
The Know It Alls: Glynnis O’Donoghue, Tina Ollenburg
ARTS
PHOTO BY THE KNOW IT ALLS
ARTSPEAK
ALTERNATIVE FACTS The Know It Alls answer your questions about social media Sheriff and stage manager Ericka Cornick (right) look on as Tony Massey (blue shirt) belts out a song at a recent rehearsal. cast members might be sticking into their the upcoming run, as he plans to be traveling. performance, purposefully or not. He also starred in Sheriff ’s other He stops the act at one point after one of BSP Productions play, Boys To Baghdad, the good witch’s minions guides her across which retells some of the experiences the stage by the hand. Sheriff experienced during the Gulf War. “She’s a witch. She may be a good witch but Unbeknownst to the two when they first met, she’s a witch, nobody’s guiding her anywhere,” Owens also served in the Gulf War and was Sheriff says, matter-of-factly. there at the same time as Sheriff. While he notices the small things that Owens has been helping with this interfere with his vision, Sheriff welcomes production, sitting in on auditions and input from those in his plays. rehearsals for the upcoming run and giving Frank FaCheaux, a first-time actor who advice where needed. He said it’s been amazing plays the Cheetah in Be A Lion, says he’s been to watch the growth of Sheriff over the years. impressed by Sheriff’s willingness to work in “The first time he did it,” Owens says new ideas from the cast. before taking a long pause to decide how he “I really tried to take my own idea of would describe that first production, laughing, the role, but then I did come in and ask him “Well, it was the first time he did it. We’ve what his vision is for it,” FaCheaux says. “So I learned a lot since then. Just to see how he’s believe our ideas kind of meshed and we came grown as a director, some of the rewrites that to a realization as to what he wanted.” he’s done and things of that sort, it’s definitely Sheriff credits the time he spent as an grown to be a much bigger production.” actor with his readiness to work with the cast As with Boys To Baghdad, Be A Lion turned and listen to their ideas. out to be a bit more autobiographical than “I’ve been in many plays. I’ve worked with Sheriff had planned. He says he had never many directors,” Sheriff says. “A lot of them, I realized it until his sister read the script and don’t like their approach. I don’t like, ‘This is informed him that he wrote about his own how we’re going to do it and that’s that.’ It’s path in life and standing up for himself at my way or the highway, basically, with a lot times when he was being tested. of directors. I take pride in calling myself the He denied it at first, but after a long talk actor’s director. I want to sit down and talk during which his sister drew comparisons with you. What are you seeing? Then I’ll share between his journey and the journey of the what I see. Lion, he came to see it in a different light. “For example, with Frank, if there’s Now he can’t deny the similarities. something that he sees and he wants to try Perhaps it’s that visceral connection to with that character, that’s dope, I want to see his characters that makes it so difficult for that. It could be better than my vision. I’m Sheriff to edit his stories, like the time he open to that.” ended up with a 160-page script for Boys To Rasheed Owens has been working with Baghdad and needed to get it down closer to Sheriff since the beginning of his theater 100, where one wants the average script to be. career. The two were neighbors, and Owens “I swear, writing a script is like writing remembers the day Sheriff told him about his your whole life story in a single tweet,” he idea for a spinoff of The Wiz he was writing. says. Since then, Owens has played Miles the As long as he’s not denying that it is, in African tree mouse in each production except fact, a life story.
BY PAT MORAN
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, right? But
what if your brand of knowledge is actually bullshit? Glynnis O’Donoghue and Tina Ollenburg take this serious query and spin it into comic gold. As the improv duo The Know It Alls, they are a font of misinformation, taking suggestions from their audiences to craft fact-free lectures on any given topic. Kellyanne Conway, watch your back! O’Donoghue, a Charlotte theater veteran who has worked with Actors Theater, Theater Charlotte and Donna Scott Productions, and Ollenburg, a stand-up comic who jumped into the improv scene while living in Los Angeles, met while doing a show for Improv Charlotte. The duo decided their generation’s reliance on dubious social media for information was ripe for parody. “The concept is that we’re two highly educated millennials who think we know everything,” O’Donoghue says. “The audience catches on pretty quickly that we’re bluffing.” The Know It Alls have been staging Sunday Fundays at co-working spaces around Charlotte, with the next show slated for June. Look for details on — where else? — social media.
Creative Loafing: If I understand your objective correctly, you’re basically bullshitting, right? And the conceit is that you never let on that you’re bullshitting. O’Donoghue: Right. We believe we know everything. How do you stay ahead of real-world bullshit from Trump or Sean Spicer? Ollenburg: It’s interesting because we came up with this idea before alternative facts became such a huge thing. The timing synched up with what is happening in the world. We’re saying, “Look how ridiculous it is in real life.”
So this fun and silly show has taken on unexpected gravitas? O’Donoghue: Comedy is an opportunity to reflect our situation and let people laugh at it. Hopefully we’re giving people a pressure release while they laugh about these things, but later they might examine what we were joking about. I’d like to get a sample of your act. O’Donoghue: You want to do our Little Known Facts segment? Tell us something you always wanted to know more about. Space exploration. Ollenburg: Yes. A little known fact is that space exploration actually started with contractors because they were exploring the best shape structure for a house when they were trying to build a house, whether it was a dome structure, a teepee structure or a square structure. So this was the original space exploration. Yoga. O’Donoghue: Oh, yoga. It’s a little know fact, but yoga was actually accidentally invented. It was 5,000 years ago. The first practitioner fell while picking apples and got stuck in downward facing dog. Instead of admitting he was stuck, he told all his friends that he was practicing. Ollenburg: And his name was Yoga. One more. Craft beer. Ollenburg: All right, a little know fact about craft beer is that technically, a beer can only be a craft beer if you make less than one gallon of it. Really, no beer right now is a craft beer. The breweries that we think — those would be wholesalers. O’Donoghue: Also, the worse your beer tastes, the more craft it is. Ollenburg: Actually, craft beer tastes just like grass and dirt CLCLT.COM | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | 31
WARNER
Kingsley Ben-Adir, Charlie Hunnam and Djimon Hounsou in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
ARTS
FILM
KNIGHT SWEATS Down with the King BY MATT BRUNSON
I
t seems that every decade rates its own King Arthur flick, which means those folks who never wanted the 1980s to end now have another reason. John Boorman’s 1981 Excalibur remains a superb motion picture — literate, lush, intelligent, and absolutely stunning to behold. Since then, though, audiences have been privy to the underwhelming likes of Jerry Zucker’s 32 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
1995 First Knight (starring Sean Connery as Arthur) and Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 King Arthur (with Clive Owen in the title role). This current decade now brings King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (*1/2 out of four), and it’s the feeblest interpretation yet. A dull and dour undertaking, the film begins with the nefarious Vortigern (Jude Law) teaming up with The Little Mermaid’s Ursula the Sea Witch in order to murder his
brother Uther (Eric Bana, basically reprising his Troy role) and steal his crown. He also wipes out the rest of Uther’s family and friends, but he misses his wee son Arthur, who ends up floating down the river Mosesstyle. Arthur grows up among the rabble (he’s played as an adult by Charlie Hunnam), and his lineage is only determined once he pulls Excalibur from the stone. Excalibur, of course, is the mighty sword forged by Merlin
himself — it should be noted that Merlin, one of the great characters in the Arthurian saga, only appears for a few seconds in a flashback sequence, presumably because the filmmakers couldn’t meet the asking price of Ian McKellen or Patrick Stewart or, considering the film’s overall incongruity, Kevin James. Director Guy Ritchie’s kinetic style, perfect for Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, crucially hampered those
Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn in Snatched. daft Sherlock Holmes films starring Robert Downey Jr. — the ones that basically reimagined the sleuth as an elementary Indiana Jones. It’s even more damaging here, with Ritchie employing tiresome tricks of the trade to cover up the anemic screenplay he helped write. To complicate matters, the 3-D version of the film appears to have been shot through a dirty washcloth, with the darkness recalling the early years of the current 3-D craze when filmmakers were still tweaking the technique. As Arthur, Hunnam displays little of the authority or magnetism integral to the character, although, to be honest, nobody really stands out in this blasé grouping. The impersonal nature of the project extends to the visual effects — when most of the villains are dispatched by a snake that’s the size of a Boeing 747, it’s hard to care about anything going on. It’s rather astonishing that the creators of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword plan for it to be the first in a six-film series focusing on the Camelot celebrity. Unless the international box office is enormous, it’s doubtful there will even be enough enthusiasm for a straightto-video sequel starring C. Thomas Howell as Arthur. To borrow from a far superior film about this king — 1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail, of course — it would be easier to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring than to willingly watch another entry in this errant enterprise. Amy Schumer became an instant movie star with Trainwreck, the 2015 summer surprise that grossed $110 million at the U.S. box office and earned the comedienne a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination. It would be tempting to state that Snatched (** out of four), Schumer’s follow-up flick, is a train wreck of a different kind, but that might be a tad too harsh. Ultimately, though, here’s another grasping summertime slog that promisingly pairs two popular actresses
FOX
and then puts them through nonsensical material. While Snatched is (thankfully) more tolerable than the recent summer stinkers Tammy (Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon) and Hot Pursuit (Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara), it never really gets out of neutral. The film casts Schumer as Emily Middleton, a slacker who gets dumped by her boyfriend (Randall Park) right as they’re about to embark on a trip to Ecuador. Because it’s a nonrefundable vacation package, Emily is forced to find somebody else to accompany her — after all her friends turn her down, she decides to take her stick-in-the-mud mom Linda (Goldie Hawn). Mother and daughter are greeted at their hotel by whale cum (a clever gag), but while Linda wants to spend the entire trip reading her book safely by the pool, Emily yearns for something more exciting. She meets a hunky guy (Tom Bateman) at the hotel bar, and he takes both Emily and her mom on a jaunt through the real Ecuador — it proves to be disastrous for the women, as they’re kidnapped by local ruffians and held for ransom. Schumer throws herself into her role — here’s a performer who’s admirably not afraid to look ridiculous if the part calls for it — but the focus on Emily turns this into a one-woman show at the expense of her Oscar-winning co-star. Hawn hasn’t appeared in a film since 2002’s The Banger Sisters, but anyone anticipating a comeback won’t find it here. The actress is given precious little to do besides alternating between I-love-you and I-told-you-so modes, and it’s difficult to ascertain if she still possesses her revered comedic prowess since her part is so threadbare. Then again, the flatness of her character is duplicated in most other areas of Snatched, which offers a few offhand chuckles but mostly feels like a journey to nowhere.
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NIGHTLIFE
TO THE BASEMENT A weekend of nightlife firsts I’ve been spending a lot of time alone G.O.A.T. of Thursday night.) lately, and despite the fact that I’m an only You’d think after staying out until 3 a.m. child, I can’t say I’ve been enjoying it. That’s that I’d slow down on Friday, right? Nope, why, as of late, I’ve been finding myself in it was time for another first. This time, quite a few random situations. On that note, however, it was my first time going to Queen this past weekend was certainly one for the Park Social while sober. An old co-worker — books. a.k.a. my P.I.C. — had put together a semiOn Thursday, I was invited to Hot Taco surprise get together for her boyfriend and in South End for a co-worker’s birthday. I’m I ran errands with her after work for moral not a huge fan of Mexican food, but what the support. birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets. If you haven’t been, Queen Park Social Did I mention they have select $1 draft beers is one of the newest additions to South on Thursdays? Yeah, I wasn’t complaining. I End right across the street from Olde grabbed a couple pints, munched on some Mecklenburg Brewery. The venue features chips and started inquiring about what two patios, shuffleboard, ping pong, bowling, would come next after getting stir crazy. a huge bar and right around 18,000 square Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one. One of my feet of “boutique” adult playground. I’m not old co-workers was ready to go as well. We sure how the process for party reservations decided to walk over to Slate Charlotte, but will work in the future, as it appears they are it was dead. still working out the kinks, but she was able Even though we’d already had a beer to call ahead and snag two lanes for at Alive After Five (AA5) prior to two hours for around $30/lane. the South End trek, it was clear The icing on the cake? There our next best choice for 8 are servers that camp out by o’clock on a Thursday was to the lanes, ready and willing return to the famous afterto replace your drinks on work happy hour spot the reg. Now that’s what I at Rooftop 210 in the call service. I can’t say I’m EpiCentre. Just when I all that impressed by the thought I was much more food, but let’s be honest, sober than everyone else, I realized I’d gotten caught at an adult playground, up in a conversation with you’re probably not there AERIN SPRUILL a Ghanaian-American vet for the food. about her desire to serve this Saturday and Sunday, country. That’s how you know of course, were reserved for the I’ve crossed the buzzed threshold, I woman whose womb I popped out start talking about politics, race relations, of, but on my way back to Charlotte after social issues and the like with random Mother’s Day brunch I received an invite strangers. to another first: free tickets to Future and In true “Saved by the Bell” fashion, I Migos at PNC Pavilion. As my old roommate looked down at my phone to a text from and I made our way down Highway 29, we the birthday girl and crew that simply said, watched as scantily clad concertgoers walked “Going to SIP.” After looking back at our for what felt like miles alongside our ride. In texts, I was clearly far past the tipping point a twist of good fortune, a cop told us to park as it appears I photo-documented my entire in the “lot on the right up ahead.” Little did Charlotte pedicab ride from the EpiCentre we know, this was the lot RIGHT in front to SIP. Sighs, why do we do these things to of the venue. Around 9:05 p.m. we were ourselves? settling down in seats that were about 25 Once inside SIP, I realized I’d never been rows away from the stage and at 9:15 p.m. in there before – TWO levels of great dancing Future was already performing. Come on, I music, including reggae?! “How could that can’t make this stuff up. possibly be?” I asked myself as I stared at The highlight of the show? Either the Prohibition next door knowing I’d been there contact high we received just from being one too many times. I introduced myself to under the tent, or the backup dancers that the bouncer, then turned to threat mode were getting lit Soulja Boy-style the entire when I realized I needed him to watch my show. Or maybe it was EJ Esco’s fine self? I 30-pound backpack, complete with all of my digress, you’ll never believe me but the show essentials. was over promptly at 10:29 p.m. and we were “I know who you are…” He laughed, back on the highway by 10:45 p.m. Where unbothered, by my threats and proceeded to they do that at?! watch my bag for me despite my distrusting attitude. (Thank you, sir. You’re the real Just another first for me.
ENDS
CROSSWORD
LET EM GO! ACROSS
1 Wave with a foamy crest 9 Bugs’ feelers 14 Force to be accepted 20 Waikiki site 21 Ethiopia’s -- Selassie 22 Of the skin 23 “The King and I” heroine who’s a real angel? 25 Plural ending for bed and home 26 “Pb” element 27 Roulette turn 28 Physique, informally 30 Start of a countingout rhyme 31 Md. hours 32 Flower used in rituals? 37 Minimalist artist Frank 39 Reese of song and screen 40 Litigious sorts 41 Courtroom excuse 43 A, in Amiens 45 -- -Magnon 46 “I’ve got it!” 49 Benefactor contributing supplies for a bowman? 54 Different acquired relative? 57 -- Grande City, Texas 58 Contents of la mer 59 Like fairly high-quality bonds 61 Form images 62 At the stern 64 Penniless 66 Sports org. for the Rock 68 See 2-Down 69 Be a sign of 70 One talking to the very first man? 73 Author Janowitz 75 Waco-to-Austin dir. 76 Q-U string 77 Went off course 78 “Yeesh!” 79 “La --” (Puccini opera) 81 Region in central Italy 84 Young miss 86 Abet, e.g. 87 Atlanta university student’s little slip-up? 89 Nothing except glowing coals? 92 Morning glistener 93 Dusk- -- -dawn 94 Hornets’ org. 96 Glacial ridge
97 Sauna output 99 Shark’s place 102 Charge with an offense 106 Curved entryway under which Antarctic birds pass? 111 Unit of conductance now called a siemens 112 Pot fragment 113 Unit of work 114 Tallies 115 “Peek- --!” 116 Neighbor of an Iraqi 118 Unable to afford any more dental visits? 123 Seyfried of “Big Love” 124 Eldritch 125 Virtual vendors 126 Abhor 127 Turn a car 128 Short-term
DOWN
1 Belugas, e.g. 2 With 68-Across, Lincoln’s nickname 3 Like instincts 4 Frog kin 5 Pixieish sort 6 Inferior mutt 7 “It’s -- cause!” 8 Like mechanically delivered well water, say 9 Antiseptic compound 10 Tow-offering gp. 11 Ullmann of Hollywood 12 USMA freshman 13 Madrid men 14 Carders check them 15 Potential shooting star 16 Prettifies 17 Neighbor of a Yemeni 18 Al Capp’s Hawkins 19 “It’s nobody -- business” 24 Engage 29 Low card 32 Entirely wrong 33 “You -- mouthful!” 34 Winter illness 35 Lake craft 36 More cheery 38 Language akin to Thai 42 Leaps
44 Approx. takeoff info 46 Cotton State native 47 Nastygrams 48 Stupefaction 49 116-Across, for one 50 Cytoplasm particle 51 Musical on tour, e.g. 52 Utah city near Provo 53 Absorbed-dose units 55 “Boyhood” actor Ethan 56 Below, to bards 60 Blood classifier 63 Not as many 65 Really enjoy 67 Shims, e.g. 70 “What --!” (“Whew!”) 71 Lake north of Sandusky 72 Film director Avakian 74 Warhol of art 78 TV twins Ashley and Mary-Kate 79 Sleeping spot 80 1987-90 NBC sitcom 82 Popular Web portal 83 Jazz genre 85 Alan of film 88 Off to -- start (behind) 90 Stupefied 91 City reg. 95 A 29-Down may beat it 97 Holy spot 98 Sharp pangs 100 Playwright Eve 101 “-- walks into ...” 103 Infused (with) 104 Writer Deepak -105 Foot, cutesily 106 116-Across president 107 Rapper’s skill 108 Gem unit 109 Marsh wader 110 “Space -- premium” 115 Folkie Woody’s son 117 D.C. player, for short 119 Equal 120 Be situated 121 “No” voter 122 First-aid collection
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.
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home with you, in your pocket, and you can I’m a 29-year-old man who desires a monogamous relationship. I’m currently easily reconnect with them later. in an LTR with a 29-year-old woman. But the real issue here isn’t apps or Despite my feelings about monogamy, flirting along the harmless/dangerous I’ve sought attention from women and spectrum, BRACED, it’s closets — men on dating apps. I’ve gotten caught specifically, the one you’re in. The closet is doing this more than once. I have never a miserable place to be, as you know, and met up with anyone in real life, and my the only relevant question is whether you girlfriend has yet to find out about the can spend the rest of your life in there. If use of gay dating apps. After some soulthe answer is no — and it sure sounds like searching, I realized that my bisexuality it’s no (you sound miserable) — then you’ll is a huge issue in our relationship. I’ve have to come out to your girlfriend. If you never discussed it with her, and while I don’t think monogamy will be right for you don’t think she would react negatively, once you’re out, then monogamy may not I’m scared of how it would affect our be right for you, period. Find yourself a relationship. I’m not sure whether queer-positive therapist, come out to your to go to therapy, bring it up with my GF with their help, and allow her to make an girlfriend, or do some combination of informed choice about whether she wants the two. I’d love some advice to be with you. Worry less about the about having this discussion right words, BRACED, and more in a way that won’t end about the truthful ones. my relationship. I’m not really interested in an A woman recently wrote open relationship, and to you that her husband I would like to stay could not maintain an with my girlfriend, erection for “more than but I’m confused a few thrusts.” She said because I don’t know that Viagra is of no use if a monogamous to them (the drug gave relationship will still be him headaches) and she DAN SAVAGE what I want once I open was contemplating the up about my sexuality. It pursuit of sexual affairs with seems like a no-win situation other men who could better — stay in the closet and no one serve her needs (with her husband’s knows but I keep wanting outside permission). No need for me to rehash attention, or tell her the real reason what you told her. I want to call your I’ve used dating apps and probably lose attention to a better solution to their the relationship. quandary: Any competent urologist can BISEXUAL REELING ABOUT CLOSETED ETHICAL write a prescription for a preparation DILEMMA known as Trimix (phentolamine, papaverine, and prostaglandin, in various strengths), which must be The use of gay dating apps isn’t the issue supplied by a compounding pharmacy. — it’s your use of them. And while I’m Or failing that prescription, then nitpicking: It’s not “outside attention” you alternatively one for a brand-name want, BRACED, it’s cock. drug called Caverject. Both of these Backing way the hell up: Lots of partnered preparations are injected directly into people — even contentedly monogamous the penis — into the corpora cavernosa, people — dink around on dating apps for to be specific — and both effectively the attention, for the ego boost, for the enable an erection of prodigious size spank bank. Fakes and flakes annoy the and stiffness that will endure for as people who are looking for actual dates on much as six hours. those apps, of course, but apps are the new POTENTIAL ALTERNATE SOLUTION SIDESTEPS pick-up bars, and partnered people were INFIDELITIES’ OBVIOUS NEGATIVES strolling into pick-up bars to harmlessly flirt with strangers before heading home to their mates, all charged up, long before apps came Thanks for sharing, PASSION. And to guys along. The dangers and temptations of appout there with erectile dysfunction: Ask your facilitated flirtations are greater, of course, doctor if Caverject is right for you? because unlike the person you briefly flirted BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM with in a bar, the person you flirted with on an app can find you again — hell, they come
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FOR ALL SIGNS May 17 and 18, 2017,
are especially favored days this month.I mentioned this on May 3, 2017, so I hope you read that and planned to start new things this week.I will re-print the overview of this favorable energy here: Saturn is moving into favorable position with Uranus.The exact date is May 19, 2017. The energy began early this year, but with all the noise in the solar system, its meaning has been blurred beyond consciousness. Saturn rules the old, the traditional, and the status quo.Uranus points at the new, the updated, the fresh idea or technology.When they meet in a flowing aspect, it is a good time to integrate the new and the old into an improved system. The aspect favors ordered, disciplined and gradual change rather than overthrow or rebellion.This is the month the two systems may find a workable blend. The energies repeat in Nov. 2017.The umbrella of time on this aspect carries through the end of the year. We can only hope that many conflicts in Congress could be bridged during these months.
ARIES Irritability and a tendency to short temper may be your companions this week. Beware the temptation to obsess over minor issues.Take especially good care of your body at this time.You are in a physically low cycle and subject to accident or minor injuries with tools, or vehicles. TAURUS THE BULL (Apr 20—May 20) Mercury travels rapidly through your sign between May 15 and June 6.During these weeks there likely will be greater emphasis on communications, errands, and other short distance travels. You are prone to selfindulgence now.This is a good time to find a different solution for your cravings. GEMINIIrritability and a tendency to short temper may be your companions this week. Beware the temptation to obsess over minor issues.Take especially good care of your body at this time.You are in a physically low cycle and subject to accident or minor injuries with tools, or vehicles. CANCER You may feel out of sorts this
week.Your feelings are in conflict with your ideal self and your values.You want to put your best foot forward, but circumstances do not feel quite right.If the conflict is deep, it is usually best to wait and not yield to whatever pressure is around you.Take your time.You will soon sort it all out.
LEO The beginning of the week is busy, as
you finish projects.On the weekend your mind shifts attention to communications. You probably feel the need to pay closer attention to your neighborhood, roommates, siblings and the casual relationships in your 38 | MAY. 18 - MAY. 24, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
life. Get out and about, breathe some fresh air, take some walks.
VIRGO You are caught between what you
should do and what you want to do. The routine is safe, but also boring. Your mind may play tricks on you and you could be distracted easily. This is not a good time to do work that requires discipline with details.Take a break from the routine and go somewhere you’ve never been.
LIBRA Partners and friends may be offering
temptations that are hard to avoid. If you want to take better care of yourself, move to another place in the room or take a walk and breathe deeply.It is probably a good idea to avoid a financial extravagance for the present.Think about it again in a couple of weeks.
SCORPIO You and your partner may
have an issue over shared resources.That includes time, money, cars, or anything else.A discussion is likely to ensue.There simply may not be “enough” which requires a sacrifice.You may feel somewhat edgy and irritable this week.Use that edge to exercise or do some other muscular project.
SAGITTARIUS Warning to those on diet and exercise programs:this week it is just too easy to break training.If you mean what you’ve promised to yourself, don’t go anywhere in which you would be in harm’s way.It is a time in which you feel more outgoing and extroverted.Social life is a pleasure.
CAPRICORN Read the lead paragraphs
carefully.You may have already begun to integrate the new into the traditional in your life.If so, you are right on target with your timing.Just this week your reflexes are off. You need to give attention to what your body is doing. If you exercise heavily, lighten up for a short period.
AQUARIUS You are in the right place at the right time to facilitate an action that will be for the greater good of all involved. This is a project that you may have been working toward for a matter of weeks or months.It is something that makes you smile and gives you the sense that you were “supposed” to be in this place and time. PISCES You may feel pressured into
spending time, energy, savings or other resources on something you would rather not.This is related in some way to your partner or other affiliations in your life. Your energy at this time is in short supply.Give attention to your body.
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