2018 Issue 20 Creative Loafing Charlotte by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | JULY 5 - JULY 11, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 20

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

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

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Singer Sam Smith is bringing all the feels to Spectrum Center on July 6. Check out our Top 10 Things To Do on page 14 for other cool shit happening around town.

We put out weekly 8

NEWS&CULTURE POLICY MAKING IN HARMONY Stakeholder process led to unanimous vote on sustainability resolution BY RHIANNON FIONN 7 EDITOR’S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 10 THE BLOTTER BY SOPHIE WHISNANT 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

FOOD&DRINK

TATERS ON WHEELS Ace of Spuds food truck brings a new concept to the Queen City streets

BY SOPHIE WHISNANT

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

MUSIC

ABOUT A GIRL Randi Johnson is a talented woman — an acoustic musician who just wants to be well BY KIA O. MOORE 18 MUSIC NEWS: HELP REUNITE IMMIGRANT FAMILIES BY MARK KEMP 20 SOUNDBOARD

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT VIVA LA ‘VITA Davita Galloway — one of Charlotte’s most influential artists and arts patrons — says ‘yes” to the best

BY EMIENE WRIGHT 24 FILM REVIEW: ‘JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM’ BY MATT BRUNSON 25 ARTSPEAK: GEORGIE NAKIMA BY RYAN PITKIN

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

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CLCLT.COM | JULY 5 - JULY 11, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 20

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NEWS

EDITORS NOTE

U.S. JOURNALISTS UNDER SIEGE Do we still care about a safe and free press in America? ON AUGUST 13 of last year, a reporter in

News journalist Nathaniel Herz when Herz Asheville was live-streaming a peaceful anti- attempted to interview the senator. None of this compares to the awful racist protest when a man approached him. “Get that camera out of my fucking face!” events that happened last week in Maryland, when an angry, unbalanced man stormed the man scowled. The man attempted to grab the camera The Capital Gazette, shooting and killing five newspaper people because the man was upset and aggressively shoved the reporter. Later in the scuffle, the man told the over coverage of the man’s crimes in 2011. But all of this points to the heightened reporter, “Get out of the fucking crowd, dude! sense of hostility journalists live with every Move it! I will fuck you up!” Fortunately, the reporter was not injured day in the Trump era. Obviously, it would be or killed, and Asheville police later arrested irresponsible for me to relate what happened 38-year-old Michael Patrick Faulkner on assault in Maryland to the president. But it is not unreasonable to suggest that the president’s charges in connection with the incident. violent rhetoric has made this country an But things are getting bad for journalists. Violence and threats against reporters are unsafe place for our guardians of the truth. Just last May, after doing a little target sadly not uncommon in the Donald Trump era — and it’s not just Trump supporters doing the practice at a shooting range in Texas, Gov. violence. Faulkner was attending an “anti-racist Greg Abbott held up his target, riddled with bullet holes, and “joked” to onlookers, march,” apparently supporting the cause. “I’m gonna carry this around in He just didn’t like that a reporter was case I see any reporters.” covering the protest, something No surprise there. We reporters have been doing for as are living under a president long as this country has been who, during his first a country. That’s what we do. year in office, used the We report the news. word “fake” to describe There have been many journalists and news other assaults on working stories 400 times. By reporters over the past year May 9 of this year, the and a half: president himself had On May 22, 2018, told more than 3,000 lies Associated Press reporter in the previous 466 days — Ellen Knickmeyer and her MARK KEMP that’s 6.5 untruths per day fellow journalists attempted coming from the mouth of the to enter Trump’s Environmental President of the United States. Protection Agency to report on thenThink about that. The President of the EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s speech. A security guard grabbed Knickmeyer and United States lies more than six times a day, and yet calls the news “fake.” physically pushed her out of the building. This would be bad enough if the president On May 1, 2018, police in Puerto Rico shot Associated Press photojournalist Carlos didn’t also actively create extremely volatile Rivera Giusti with rubber bullets as he conditions for the mostly diligent members of covered a demonstration in San Juan. His the American press who are out there on their colleague, reporter Dánica Coto, formerly beats every day, working hard to collect facts of The Charlotte Observer, witnessed the and bring you the news so that you can make informed decisions. incident but was not injured. Trump calls the press the “enemy of the On April 10, 2018, WABC reporter Tim Fleischer was conducting an interview in people,” says we’re “sick,” accuses us of “trying Queens, New York, when a man walked over to take away our history and heritage,” tells his base that journalists “don’t like our country.” and punched the reporter in the face. Nothing could be further from the truth. On February 22, 2018, former White House advisor Sebastian Gorka shoved Almost every journalist I have had the Mediaite reporter Caleb Ecarma as Ecarma pleasure of working with in my 30-year career attempted to interview Gorka during the as a reporter and editor got into this business because they dearly love their country. Even Conservative Political Action Conference. On May 24, 2017, Greg Gianforte, the when we’re criticizing its leaders in opinion Republican nominee in a Montana special pieces, we do it out of love of the country. congressional race, assaulted Guardian reporter When those of us who work at alternative Ben Jacobs as Jacobs attempted to interview newsmedia outlets such as Creative Loafing sometimes mock the country and its leaders Gianforte at his campaign headquarters. On May 2, 2017, Alaska Republican state in satire because of policies and behavior senator David Wilson slapped Alaska Dispatch that we see as clearly un-American, we do it

This so-called patriot’s T-shirt reads: “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some Assembly Required.” Until recently, Walmart sold these shirts, which not-so-subtly allude to lynching journalists. because we love our city, our state and our country; we do it because we care deeply about freedom and justice for everybody. When I first began working as a cop reporter in Burlington, North Carolina, in 1984, reporters did not have to worry about people attacking us, making vulgar gestures, calling us profane names, or telling us we were spreading “fake news.” Sure, people have always gotten upset when negative stories are written about them. But most have not threatened us, and my colleagues and I rarely felt overly concerned for our safety in those earlier times. Most Americans understood that journalists are on the side of the people. We are here to help keep the powerful from abusing their power.

PHOTO BY ALEJANDRO ALVAREZ / NEWS2SHARE

Fortunately, Charlotte has not yet seen the kind of violence that journalists in other areas have experienced. And yet when we at Creative Loafing ran a humorous but provocative cover image for a story last week on things to do (and not to do) to allow everybody — not just white people — the opportunity to enjoy July 4 celebrations, at least one Charlottean was so angered that he told our news editor that he knew his address. That was a direct threat. And it must stop. Mr. Trump does not control America’s hardwon freedoms. He is merely a public servant. He should start acting like one, and be the kind of responsible president who encourages Americans to treat each other with dignity. MKEMP@CLCLT.COM

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Many residents showed up to the Charlotte City Council meeting on June 25 to show support for a resolution to reduce carbon emissions. The resolution passed unanimously.

NEWS

FEATURE

PHOTO BY RHIANNON FIONN

SUSTAIN CHARLOTTE ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE PANEL DISCUSSION

POLICY MAKING IN HARMONY Stakeholder process led to unanimous vote on sustainability resolution

July 11, 6 p.m.; Free to members, $5 for non-members; Three Spirits Brewery, 5046 Old Pineville Road; sustaincharlotte.org

BY RHIANNON FIONN

HEN SHANNON BINNS

launched Sustain Charlotte in 2009, like many activists who’ve come before and after him, he felt unheard by local government. For him, the path forward for any city wishing to sustain itself is clear, and it’s built upon three pillars: economic, environmental and social. “They must be in balance,” Binns said. On June 25, the city of Charlotte took a step toward the balance that Binns has preached about for nearly a decade. By unanimous vote, the “Sustainable and Resilient Charlotte by 2050 Resolution” was adopted. While still not an actual plan of action, the resolution does represent official government approval to develop a legit sustainability plan 8 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

for the city, one that could lead to more cleanenergy jobs and a less polluted environment. And the jobs are there for the taking as solar continues to boom, currently bolstered by a rebate program through Duke Energy that launches next week. Since 2016, North Carolina has held second place in the nation for solar installations, behind California. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, N.C. employs 7,622 people, has 42 manufacturers, 118 installers and/or developers and 83 other solar companies as of June 2018. Widely praised during the public comments leading to the vote, at-large councilwoman Dimple Ajmera is credited with developing the stakeholder group that led to the unanimous vote. That group consists of more than 40 entities including multiple environmental organizations and Duke Energy.

Binns was present for much of the process. He explained how semantics created a hangup early on. “The most controversial thing was over language,” Binns said. The choices are “carbon free, [carbon] neutral and renewable.” Carbonfree energy includes nuclear, he said, “which is kind of critical for getting Duke Energy on board. While they’re not spelling out nuclear in the resolution, they’re being realistic with trying to get the city to 100-percent zero carbon. Without nuclear that wasn’t possible. Everyone can agree on zero carbon.” Michael Zytkow, Sustain Charlotte’s lead policy wonk working on the sustainability plan, was surprised by the process. Zytkow has been heavily involved with city politics since emerging as a leader of the Occupy Charlotte movement in 2011. During the

three-month occupation protest, he had a contentious rapport with City Council that sometimes landed him in jail. “The stakeholder process is totally different than the way things usually are,” Zytkow said. In 2013, Zytkow gathered more than 3,000 petition signatures over nine weeks just to appear on the ballot for city council as an unaffiliated candidate — the first in 15 years to do so. A self-proclaimed “radical centrist,” he lost the election but remains dedicated to the policy-making process in Charlotte, though he said his approach has changed. During Occupy Charlotte, Zytkow said, “There was no stakeholder process. There was no effort from the city to reach out. We would hand out slips of paper with the council members’ phone numbers and ask Occupiers to call and no

“I DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY TO GET THESE EXPERTS IN THE ROOM, THEY VOLUNTEERED THEIR TIME TO MAKE THE CITY A BETTER PLACE.” DIMPLE AJMERA, AT-LARGE REPRESENTATIVE, CHARLOTTE CITY COUNCIL

one remembers any of them calling back. “Usually you have to just about pull teeth to get the council to listen,” he said, but the stakeholder process for the sustainability resolution “was a good opportunity for us to hash things out. It’s not always pretty, but that general transparency was really refreshing. It’s certainly a model for every issue the city deals with, and a really good way to get people involved and help them feel heard. It makes people feel included.” For Ajmera, the process was a no-brainer. If folks want to volunteer their expertise, why would she not take advantage? “The city benefits because we got the expertise we needed,” Ajmera said, “and we didn’t have to pay for it. You know, I’m serious,” she said. “I didn’t have to pay to get these experts in the room, they volunteered their time to make the city a better place.” Ajmera said the unanimous vote on the sustainability resolution “sends a very clear message that sustainability isn’t a partisan issue, that clean water, clean air and energy are important for survival.” She said the vote also announces that “we want to be a globally competitive city” with clean-energy jobs. Environmental advocates tried to get the Charlotte City Council to approve a similar resolution in Nov. 2017, but the council found it lacking and refused. “So much has changed since the November 2017 version of the resolution,” Zytkow said. “This isn’t just a resolution; the resolution kicks off an action plan — and that’s huge. That action plan is made up of concrete short, mid-term and long-term goals. It is, ‘What are the goals and how are we going to get there?’

And we’re going to be at the table throughout the entire process,” Zytkow said. The Strategic Energy Action Plan currently under development by the city will aim to convert the city to zero emissions by 2030 and become a low-carbon city by 2050, meaning reducing each resident’s carbon footprint to two tons of carbon dioxide emissions per person per year. Right now, the Charlotte average is at 12 tons of CO2 per person per year, Binns said. “We changed the resolution language four times before we adopted it at the committee level,” said Ajmera, a certified public accountant by trade who chairs the city’s Environment committee. “This is a very significant investment that is going to impact residents 30, 40, 50 years down the road.” The councilwoman said the stakeholder process was so successful that it will be part of her mode of operation going forward. “There was so much negotiation and debate … that is what makes this process so democratic,” she said. “There are times when some groups didn’t agree, but they should be given an opportunity to be heard.” She credits city staff with much of the behind-the-scenes work: “Without the support of city staff, I don’t think I would have been able to do what I have done. I left my very good paying job because I wanted to serve. This is probably one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had.” We can only hope the newfound energy around this way of doing things will also be renewable. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

Riverbend Steam Station in Gastonia retired its four gas-fired combustion engines in October 2012, a victory for those worried about carbon emissions. Now Charlotte has taken a step further.

PHOTO BY RHIANNON FIONN

SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT CHARLOTTE BY 2050 RESOLUTION A look at the language in Charlotte City Council’s new resolution to reduce carbon emissions RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF CHARLOTTE CITY COUNCIL IN SUPPORT OF A SUSTAINBABLE AND RESILIENT CHARLOTTE BY THE YEAR 2050 WHEREAS, the Charlotte City Council committed in the FY 2018-2019 Environment Focus Area Plan to “become a global leader in environmental sustainability, balancing economic growth with preserving our natural resources;” and, WHEREAS, Charlotte will strive to

become a low carbon city by 2050, spanning all sectors, to bring city-wide greenhouse gas emissions to below 2 tons CO2e per person annually; and,

WHEREAS, Charlotte is currently

WHEREAS, these processes, strategies, and collaborations will balance economic considerations with advancement towards the 2050 goal, and WHEREAS, low carbon cities improve their environmental sustainability, social capital and economic mobility through growth in clean energy industries and workforce development opportunities; and, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Charlotte will

strive to become a low carbon city by 2050 and will develop a Strategic Energy Action Plan to be presented to City Council.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Charlotte will

developing a Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP), which will contain short, medium and long terms actions to deliver deep reductions in carbon emissions spanning allsectors so that the CO2e targets can be met; and,

continue the work currently under way to advance short term goals for reductions in energy consumption in city operations as a first step on the path towards a low carbon future.

WHEREAS, a low carbon city is delivered through processes, strategies, practices, tools, and institutional structures that promote collaboration between city, public, private, academic, and nonprofit constituencies to develop and implement long-term, deep reductions in carbon emissions, and,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Charlotte will

strive to source 100 percent of is energy use in its buildings and fleet from zero carbon sources, including renewables and nuclear, by 2030.

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 9

NEWS

BLOTTER

BY SOPHIE WHISNANT

WHERE’S THE BEEF? An incident

occured recently in north Charlotte that proved the fact that you should never fuck with fast food employees. An employee at a Wendy’s on Sunset Road walked an order out to a car at 1:30 a.m and was greeted by two customers who were upset with their wait. One of the women got out of the car and began fighting with the female employee in the parking lot, and eventually the passenger exited the vehicle with plans to fight, too. That wasn’t going to happen, however. A male employee of Wendy’s was not about seeing his coworker get jumped, so he exited the restaurant with a shotgun and fired it into the car. Nobody was hurt, since both women had gotten out of the car, but the man was arrested for discharging a firearm in city limits and his gun seized by police.

HERE IT IS That staff on Sunset Road

was wishing they had their OG back just a week after he was arrested for the abovementioned incident. A week later, the same damn Wendy’s drive thru got some more action. According to the report, at some point between 4 and 6 a.m., unknown suspects pulled up to the closed drive thru window and threw a rock through it, busting the glass and causing $400 in damages. The suspects then entered the restaurant and stole $5 of change that had been donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. These folks just better count themselves lucky that ol’ buddy with the shotgun wasn’t there.

BERRY PICKING The Publix in South End may not have made the list of hottest clientele, but they certainly have the most health-conscious shoplifters. On a recent Tuesday afternoon during rush hour, a man walked into the grocery store and started pocketing fruits, berries, hummus, wheat bread and sushi. The suspect wasn’t quite as sneaky as he was healthy, though, as he was confronted and arrested before he could leave the store. SNIFF HIM OUT If you’re not smelling

good down there, you’re just not smelling good. One suspect was certainly getting fresh when he stuffed several bars of deodorant down his pants at a Family Dollar in northwest Charlotte last week. A witness and the manager watched the suspect throw $63 worth of deodorant down the front of his pants and walk out at around 1 p.m.. To find this one, police could try roaming the streets, waiting for the overwhelming scent of an Axe and Old Spice combo to give them the headache that moms of prepubescent, overzealous body-mist-spraying teenage boys have been living with for years.

10 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

BAD DREAM There is nothing more important than a good night’s sleep, and getting a solid 8 hours could do so much as save your smartphone. A man waiting to take the Lynx Blue Line from the convention center stop in Uptown learned this lesson the hard way. After falling asleep at the stop at around 5 a.m., he woke up to find that his phone was no longer in his lap where he was holding it when he fell asleep. Whether his iPhone fell to the ground in his sleep and was taken or if the culprit swiped the phone right out of his hands while in his deep slumber, nobody can be sure, but the moral of the story is that you never want to fall asleep with your phone in your hands in public.

TURNKEY The most embarrassing type of crime you could possibly fall victim to is one in which you end up being charged with a crime yourself. Although it’s unclear whether that’s what happened in this specific incident, one man from Whitakers learned how CMPD doesn’t have much sympathy for folks who leave their car running while they run inside. The man told police that he left his Dodge Dart outside with the keys in the ignition at a house in the Ashley Park neighborhood between 5 and 6 a.m., for God only knows what reason. An unknown suspect made the most of an opportunity and snatched up the $12,500 car. Normally I might judge someone for leaving their car sitting there wide open and ready to be stolen, but who would have thought this many thieves — or any human beings for that matter — would be up and at ‘em at such an ungodly hour? Loafers can’t relate.

BAD MOVE A police officer’s job can be very difficult at times, but other times, the crime just drives right up to them. According to one report, an officer was doing his rounds on Albemarle Road in east Charlotte last week when a woman drove up and told him that she had a flat tire. That’s a normal enough incident, so the officer started preparing to carry out the “serve” part of his promise to protect and serve, but then quickly had to move into “protect” mode. According to the report, the officer quickly realized that the woman was impaired, either by alcohol or drugs, and there was a 1-year-old baby in the car with her. She was arrested, although it’s unclear from the report what happened to the baby. All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

UNDIGNIFIED DEATH In the northeastern

town of Teesside, England, last August, 22-year-old Jordan Easton of Thornaby was at the home of a friend, hanging out in the kitchen, when he boasted that his vest was “stab-proof.” To prove it, he “took hold of a knife to demonstrate,” Karin Welsh, Teesside assistant coroner, testified, “and sadly realized it wasn’t the case.” Teesside Live reported Easton was rushed to the hospital, but doctors weren’t able to save him. Detective Superintendent Ted Butcher also testified at Easton’s inquest on June 16 that he found no evidence Easton intended to harm himself and died after “a boisterous act.” Welsh recorded a verdict of “misadventure.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE Louis Cote of Mascouche, Quebec, Canada, became suspicious last August of the DNA test results obtained from the samples he collected in his work for the Confederation of Aboriginal People of Canada, whose members use DNA testing to determine their native ancestry. So, CBC News reported on June 13, Cote launched his own experiment. He collected two samples using his own inner-cheek swabs, and a third from his girlfriend’s Chihuahua, Snoopy, and sent them off to Viaguard Accu-Metrics. The results indicated that all three samples had identical DNA, including 12 percent Abenaki and 8 percent Mohawk ancestry. “I thought it was a joke,” Cote said. “The company is fooling people ... the tests are no good.” PUBLIC SERVANTS In Putnam County, Florida, the sheriff’s office provides a wide variety of services. So when Douglas Peter Kelly, 49, called the office on June 12 to complain that the methamphetamine he had been sold was fake, officers happily offered to test it for him. Kelly told detectives he had suffered a “violent reaction” after smoking the substance and wanted to sue the dealer if he had been sold the wrong drug. He arrived at the sheriff’s office and “handed detectives a clear, crystal-like substance wrapped in aluminum foil,” the office’s Facebook post explained, according to The Washington Post. It “field-tested positive for methamphetamine.” On the spot, Kelly was arrested and charged with possession of meth. The Facebook post continued: “Remember, our detectives are always ready to assist anyone who believes they were misled in their illegal drug purchase.” WHAT IS ART? As part of the Dark Mofo

art festival, Australian performance artist Mike Parr, 73, entered a steel tomb below busy Macquarie Street in Hobart on June 14, where he meditated, drew and read as traffic flowed overhead for 72 hours until his release on June 17. Parr had water but

no food, and oxygen was pumped into the box. His performance was promoted as a “response to 20th-century totalitarian violence,” according to The Guardian, but the piece didn’t speak to everyone. “I don’t take anything away from it at all,” said Carolyn Bowerman from Townsville. “I’m just amazed that someone would put themselves through this and go to this much effort.” In a previous performance art piece, Parr hacked at a prosthetic arm with an ax before a shocked audience.

SEND NUDES Over in Melbourne, Australia, customers of the Prahran neighborhood Woolworths store will have to park somewhere else on July 9, as renowned American photographer Spencer Tunick captures thousands of willing nudes in a group shot on the store’s rooftop parking lot. Reuters reported more than 11,000 people registered to disrobe for Tunick, who has done group nudes in other spots around the world. “It’s well and truly oversubscribed,” said John Lotton, director of the Provocare Festival of the Arts in Melbourne.

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SMOOTH REACTIONS When Daryl Royal

Riedel, 48, was pulled over for suspected drunk driving June 14 by Monroe County (Florida) Sheriff’s Deputy Anthony Lopez, he first drove off, but thought better of it and stopped to face the music. Riedel, who claimed to be scared, then stepped out of his truck with an open can of beer and chugged the contents as Lopez watched. The Associated Press reported that Riedel has four prior DUI arrests and now faces felony DUI, fleeing from a deputy, driving with a suspended license and failure to submit to a breath test.

CZECH THIS OUT Czechoslovakian president Milos Zeman called a press conference on June 14 in Prague, where Zeman instructed two firefighters in protective gear to incinerate a huge pair of red underpants as reporters watched. The underwear had been hoisted during a 2015 protest at Prague Castle, replacing the presidential flag and symbolizing Zeman’s close relationship with Russia and China. Zeman told reporters, according to the Associated Press: “I’m sorry to make you look like little idiots, you really don’t deserve it.” Zeman’s longstanding difficulties with the press include an incident last year when he waved a fake machine gun at them. O.M.G. Wa Tiba, 54, disappeared on June

14 while tending her vegetable garden on Muna Island in the Southeast Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Her family found only her sandals, a machete and a flashlight in the garden, but just 50 yards away, villagers located a 23-foot-long python with a severely bloated midsection. Fox News reported that when the snake’s

belly was cut open, it revealed the woman’s fully intact body inside, still wearing all her clothes. Villager Ayu Kartika said, “Everyone cried and was in shock. ... It looked like a horror movie.”

Press. Recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in Vermont on July 1; police said the guests who left the edibles would not be charged.

FETISHES In Auckland, New Zealand, an

and-breakfast establishments are employing a new marketing twist: “bud and breakfast.” For example, CBS News reports, Erin Dean’s Airbnb north of Sacramento is right next door to a cannabis farm. Her welcome gift for guests includes up to 1 ounce of the herb from the neighboring farm (allowable under state law). Other budand-breakfasts can be found in Lake Tahoe and Palm Springs.

unnamed 28-year-old man appeared in court June 18 to answer charges of stealing two human toes from the Body Worlds Vital exhibition, a traveling display that features human corpses and organs preserved through plastination. The toes, valued at $5,500 each, have been returned to the exhibition, the New Zealand Herald reported. The toe thief is looking at seven years in prison and two years for interfering with a dead body.

HIGH TIMES Two unnamed employees of

the Inn at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont, enjoyed some malted milk ball-type candies left behind by guests on June 13, but they didn’t enjoy the aftermath. The candies were cannabis edibles, and the employees became sick after consuming them. Police arrived to find one of them lying in the parking lot, and both were transferred to the hospital, according to the Associated

WAKE AND BAKE In California, some bed-

LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINAL In

Youngstown, Ohio, police responding to a call about multiple gunshots on June 10 spotted Dai’ryon Mitchell, 21, speeding away from the scene in an SUV. He refused to pull over but finally left the vehicle and ran into a home, where he climbed through a window and hung from the ledge. Mitchell tried to climb back in, The Youngstown Vindicator reported, but lost his grip and fell directly into the arms of officers below, who handcuffed him. COPYRIGHT 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 11

FOOD

FEATURE

TATERS ON WHEELS Ace of Spuds food truck brings a new concept to the Queen City streets BY SOPHIE WHISNANT

T’S BEEN A LONG time since chef Swerlin Goodwin had the idea to open a restaurant showcasing the culinary possibilities of the potato. It’s been four years in fact, but this week customers can finally enjoy Goodwin’s creations wherever he happens to park his truck. The Ace of Spuds food truck will make its muchanticipated public debut on Friday, July 6. While Goodwin is the mastermind behind the food itself, it was Charlotte photographer and Queen Agenda founder Saloan Goodwin and her long-term boyfriend Rel Dunlap, a local musician and fellow entrepreneur, that helped cultivate Ace of Spuds from an idea to a food truck. Saloan, who designed the logo and works on branding and marketing with Dunlap, isn’t a chef, but she has grown up surrounded by food, she says. As a kid, Saloan could be found taking a nap in the freezer of her dad’s Charlotte catering restaurant Classic Cuisine. When she was old enough to help out, she did. “I am from a family of food,” she says. “My mom just told me a story. She was like ‘God bless your soul, because when we gave you a uniform to go cater you were just out there, just started moving.’” Growing up in restaurants instilled a certain workaholic’s ethic in her, she says, one that her boyfriend shares. The two met through social media, but found out that Dunlap’s mother had worked in the same restaurant as the Goodwin family when they were just little kids. “Basically we were supposed to be hooked up as kids,” he says, “but it never happened.” It wasn’t until later the two finally got to know each other. They started forming their relationship just before the concept for Ace of Spuds was coming together. Now, the couple has been together for five years and they work together as the marketing team and face of Ace of Spuds. “We were still learning ourselves together,” Saloan says. “Now of course he’s a part of the business.” In fact, it was Dunlap who originally had the idea for a truck in 2014 when Swerlin was thinking about opening a restaurant. Swerlin didn’t immediately take to the idea because he was set on opening a more traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant. There was no real precedent for a successful food truck model in Charlotte at the time. “It took a long time to convince him to 12 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

“EVERYTHING KIND OF FELL IN OUR LAPS, TO ME SIGNIFYING THAT THIS IS PROBABLY WHAT WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.” SALOAN ROCHELLE, ACE OF SPUDS start a food truck,” Saloan says. “Especially in 2014 at that time, cause it was kinda new.” After a year of slowly convincing him, Saloan’s dad agreed. The family moved forward with the idea in 2015, and after researching how to operate and manage a mobile business, the team quickly found an actual truck. While fitting a food truck can often be a lengthy process, the Ace of Spuds truck only took four months to renovate. “Everything kind of fell in our laps, to me signifying that this is probably what we’re supposed to be doing,” Saloan says. While Swerlin was hesitant to the original idea of a food truck, he was always confident in his food. The truck will serve “the best jacket potatoes in town,” according to its website. Swerlin realized he could turn this inexpensive starchy vegetable into a base for delicious and unique food. “I think he just came up with the concept because it was different,” Saloan says, “which works well with the fact that we turned it into a food truck, because, you know, you want your food truck to have a niche.”

The newly set Ace of Spuds menu includes a cajun shrimp potato with chipotle gouda cheese and green onions, and a cheese steak potato with grilled peppers, onions and jalapenos. Chef Goodwin will also serve fries with a variety of toppings, and diners can expect daily specials. The truck is also vegan friendly. Saloan says the vegan potato is a lighter option and a new chickpea potato brings a meatier taste for the vegan/vegetarian potato enthusiasts. “I really love the chickpea,” Dunlap says smiling, “I’m not vegan at all, and it was amazing.” Since Swerlin’s days of skepticism, the food truck scene has blown up in Charlotte, and the city seems jam-packed with trucks offering every type of cuisine imaginable. Regardless, Saloan remains confident that her family’s truck will succeed. “It’s nothing to be nervous about because nobody sells what we sell,” she says. Besides, even if there was competition for the product the Goodwin family is pushing, Saloan says there are plenty of advantages to

having a food truck versus a restaurant. One perk is that a food truck owner can hop in the car and make money whenever they want. Like a fisherman, if the customers aren’t biting in one spot, there’s always the opportunity to move elsewhere for the afternoon. Saloan remembers being with one friend and food truck owner who received a bill that she wasn’t able to pay at the time. “She didn’t know how she was going to do it,” Saloan says, “So we went and worked on the food truck to make the money for the bill.” Aside from profitability, the Goodwins are looking forward to bringing their food directly to the front door of their customers instead of having people from all over Charlotte worry about coming to them. Saloan says that she plans to create a pin showing the location of the truck on social media so customers can find them at a location most convenient. They are expecting a lot of customers, and Saloan’s skills behind the lens don’t hurt. Her recent pictures of the cajun shrimp potato and other specialties have had mouths

Southwest potato skin stuffed with homefried style potatoes with black beans, corn, cheese and avocado.

Chicken gouda potato with peppers and onions.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SALOAN ROCHELLE

Saloan Rochelle (left) and Rel Dunlap pose with the truck, which hits streets on Friday, July 6. watering among her thousands of social media followers. “The internet is going crazy right now,” Saloan says a week before opening, as the anticipation for the truck builds. She says that people are constantly approaching her and asking when they can finally get to try Ace of Spuds. When the day does come, diners can expect to see Saloan’s dad in the kitchen, with her mother Sandra at the window. Sandra Goodwin, Saloan explains, is the “backbone of everything” and has been essential to

the truck becoming a reality. Saloan and her boyfriend might be too busy with their multiple other endeavors to be at the truck all the time, but customers can expect them to continue working behind the scenes developing the Ace of Spuds brand. They can also expect a delicious and creative meal — using one of the simplest pantry ingredients — that will blow your mind. Saloan is sure that Charlotte diners will love what her dad is serving. “I mean, you can’t hate a potato,” she says. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 13

THURSDAY

YES, GOD What: Saints and heathens alike can gather for a mid-week church service that is sure to leave you feeling blessed. Robyn O’Ladies and Charlotte Douglas present an original show “Yes, God,” at Petra’s. The show includes hymns and original songs/parodies based on the pair’s experience growing up in the religious South. Grab a cocktail and settle in for a service that promises not to be a “drag.” And if you miss it this Thursday, come back in two weeks for the same show on July 19. When: 7 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $10. petrasbar.com

FRIDAY

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

‘The Color Purple’ TUESDAY PHOTO BY MATTHEW MURPHY

FRIDAY

MARIA HOWELL

SAM SMITH

BILL NOONAN

CROWN TOWN GET DOWN

What: One of the most soughtafter tickets on this summer’s Jazz at the Bechtler calendar, Gastonia native Maria Howell will reunite with the Ziad Jazz Quartet for two nights of powerful performances. Howell shot to fame in 1985 with her scene-stealing role as the choir soloist in the Oscar-nominated film The Color Purple. Since then, the renowned R&B, jazz and gospel singer has graced stages with the likes of Ray Charles, Babyface and Nancy Wilson, among other icons.

What: Soul singer Sam Smith stops in Charlotte on a tour that follows the release of his sophomore album The Thrill of it All. His recent hits include “Pray” and “Too Good at Goodbyes,” but you might remember his vocals on Disclosure’s danceable single “Latch,” or the tear-worthy ballad “I’m Not the Only One.” What we’re saying is that a trip to the Spectrum Center on Friday to see this Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe, Billboard Music and BRIT Award winner will have you in all the feels.

When: July 6, 6 p.m. & 8:15 p.m.; July 7, 6 p.m. Where: The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 S. Tryon St. More: $10-16. bechtler.org

When: 7 p.m. Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St. More: $25 and up. spectrumcentercharlotte.com

What: You like country music? We’re not talking about the crap on the radio — we’re talking about good country music. Warm, syrupy pedal-steel guitar, shuffling acoustics, steady upright bass lines and a sweet beat. The kinda country ol’ Hank played. Go to Noonan’s Reverbnation.com page and listen for yourself what we’re talking about. Then you’ll know what we mean when we say good country music. And you’ll be running, not walking over to Petra’s to see Noonan and his Hey Joes play.

What: This is not a stick-up, this is a get down. Heist Brewery is stepping up its live music prowess with an all-day music festival on multiple stages featuring some of the best local bands and from further reaches of the South. The lineup includes local rockers Business People, Jaggermouth and Dirty South Revolutionaries, as well as Mooresville’s country-but-kinda-hiphop-rockish singer-songwriter Sunny Ledfurd. School of Rock will also be performing, which always makes for a good show.

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

When: July 7, 1 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Where: Heist Brewery, 2909 N. Davidson St. More: $10-15. heistbrewery.com

Did you know Local Vibes is on Spotify? We’re coming up on a full year of episodes, so if you’ve got catching up to do, now’s the time. Just type “Local Vibes” into your Spotify search bar, or catch up with us on iTunes or Stitcher. 14 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

SATURDAY

Mary Lattimore SUNDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Maria Howell FRIDAY

Yes, God THURSDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF MARY LATTIMORE

SATURDAY

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANTHONY STAMEY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIA HOWELL

MONDAY

TUESDAY

DIALI CISSOKHO

STYLES&COMPLETE

MARY LATTIMORE

CULINARY FIGHT CLUB

‘THE COLOR PURPLE’

What: Diali Cissokho comes from a long line of griots — the traveling musicians and storytellers of Senegal. Pan-cultural combo Kaira Ba, Cissokho’s collaboration with four N.C. rock musicians, boasts spidery guitars, stabbing horns and raw-throated vocals. Djembe mixes with drum set, kora and guitar trade licks and the lyrics are a riot of English, Manding and Wolof. It’s a call-and-response from the streets of Dakar to the Carolinas, between West African music and its younger cousin American rock.

What: A couple of hometown boys who went off to L.A. and made good, this hip-hop/electronic DJ duo has never forgotten that home is where the heart is. Even while working on collaborations with big names like Waka Flocka Flame, the two also make sure to highlight local talent like ICEE Money’s JayWay Sosa, who appears on their newest EP, Do Not Disturb. They’ll bring their headnodding, genre-blending style home to CLT after “Losing Days in LA” in the time since they’ve been gone.

What: Harpist Mary Lattimore’s “Hello from the Edge of the Earth,” from her new EP Hundreds of Days, is exactly as the title suggests: a transcendent meditation of delicately plucked strings that invite you to join her at some unknown place where the earth meets the sky. She’s been praised to the heavens by the New Yorker, Pitchfork and now us. Go see her do her magic on her 47-string harp, because if it doesn’t change your life, it’ll at least change your perspective on life for a few precious moments.

What: We’re breaking the first rule of Fight Club, but you need to know about this event. Perfect for fans of both Food Network’s Chopped and — better yet — tacos, Culinary Fight Club is a national organization benefiting Fight2Feed, a nonprofit that reduces food waste and feeds communities in need. The team is making a stop in Charlotte for a taco showdown. A ticket gets you a beer, bites of tacos and the chance to watch contestants raid a pantry for 45 seconds before cooking up the most gourmet tacos they can.

What: Did Maria Howell’s performance at Bechtler over the weekend get you nostalgic for Alice Walker’s classic tale of family, love and lust in the old American South? You’re in luck. While Howell grabbed the world’s attention in the film adaptation some 33 years ago, the stage adaptation is still going strong. A 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Musical Revival, this touring play features a soul-raising score and a talented cast that will have you rotating from tears of sadness to tears of joy.

When: 9 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon Street More: $10. snugrock.com

When: 10 p.m. Where: SERJ, 2906 Central Ave. More: $13. tinyurl.com/ StylesCompletePhoneHome

When: 7 p.m. Where: RECOVER, 1518 Bryant St. More: $21.69. tinyurl.com/MaryLattimore

When: 6-9 p.m. Where: VBGB Beer Hall & Garden, 920 Hamilton St. More: $40. fight2feed.org

When: 7:30 p.m.; runs through July 15 Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. More: $25 and up. blumenthalarts.org

sten. We joined up with heavy hitters on The Charlotte Podcast, The Comedy Zone Podcast, Cheers Charlotte Radio and The Yelp Charlotte Podcast to show what CLT has to offer in the audio realm. Be sure to check out our new squad at queencitypodcastnetwork.com. CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 15

MUSIC

confirmed that I could. Then I passed out.” When Johnson came to, she was in the hospital with her wrists bound to keep her from pulling out her tubes. Coming to in the hospital was the start of the period of shame and stigma that comes with a mental illness diagnosis. To avoid that shame, Johnson returned to thoughts of death and drug use for a brief time. She experimented with cocaine, marijuana and cigarettes. But she eventually grew tired of leaning on drugs to self-medicate, and in 2000 Johnson shifted her self-medication to learning how to play the bass and eventually the guitar. Music literally saved Johnson’s life. “At the suggestion of a friend, who was telling me to find a good habit to replace the bad ones, I got serious with learning an instrument,” she says. It took Johnson a year to learn to play the guitar. But once she did, she was off and running. In 2007, after living in the Washington, D.C., area for 21 years living a fast-paced life, Johnson decided to come south to Charlotte to slow down. Charlotte became the place where Johnson opened up to the idea of being a musician full time.

FEATURE

ABOUT A GIRL Randi Johnson is a talented woman — an acoustic musician who just wants to be well BY KIA O. MOORE

T’S A TYPICAL Wednesday night at the Rhino Market in the Freemore West neighborhood. Derrick Hines is setting up the open mic area with a microphone stand, speaker and soundboard, and hooking up his electric guitar and drum pad. Hines’ Rhino Market Open Mic is one of singer-songwriter Randi Johnson’s weekly performance staples. Johnson, who was named by Creative Loafing as one of 10 acts to look forward to in last year’s annual Music Issue, has found her sound and performance style through Charlotte’s rich and varied openmic circuit over many years. She describes her sound as Motor City Grunge. With childhood influences including the Detroit soul music she heard in her household to her coming-of-age soundtrack during the grunge era of the mid-’90s, Johnson has created a sound that is distinct and all her own. On this Wednesday, she unleashes her acoustic-based Motor City Grunge sound on Rhino’s open-mic regulars. As patrons enjoy conversations and libations, Johnson and Hines put on a show for the few tables of friends who have convened at the neighborhood bodega. Johnson’s black Taylor acoustic guitar is pressed against her bright red Door Dash T-shirt, making it (and her) the star of the show from about 8:40 to 9:30 p.m. Soulful, grungy covers of Janet Jackson, Prince and Radiohead songs mixed in with some Randi Johnson originals fill the nearly hour-long set. The stand-out cover is her rendition of Prince’s “Beautiful Ones.” Johnson has found a beautiful way to make the Purple One’s track all her own. Open mics are the only way you can experience Johnson’s Motor City Grunge sound right now. She currently does not have any recordings of her work available, although in the past you could find them on Soundcloud under the name Randi Johnsoon. You may still find a lo-fi track or two floating around the interwebs, but a proper LP, EP or mixtape is nowhere to be found. There’s a reason for this: It’s hard for Johnson to complete long-term projects like full albums or EPs because of a health issue she has dealt with since she was a teen. JOHNSON SUFFERS from borderline

personality disorder and major depression. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, borderline personality disorder is a mental illness that is characterized by 16 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

HER FIRST GIG WAS an open mic at

Randi Johnson practices in a stairwell. difficulties regulating emotion. People who experience BPD feel emotions intensely and for extended periods of time, and it is hard for them to return to a stable baseline after an emotionally triggering event. This difficulty can lead to impulsivity, poor selfimage, stormy relationships and intense emotional responses to stressors. Major depression, also known as clinical depression, is a mental illness that exhibits a constant sense of hopelessness and despair. It can be difficult to work, study, sleep, eat or enjoy friends and activities when dealing with major depression, according to Web MD. Although these diagnoses can be tough to deal with, Johnson’s music helps her get by. “My favorite songs to cover serve a full range of emotion for me, from elation to sadness to hope, anger and so on,” Johnson says. Those songs include “Hurt,” by Nine Inch Nails; “Beautiful Ones,” by Prince; and “Karma Police,” by Radiohead. And in one of her own songs, she sings, “Didn’t mean to bring you down / But this is how you found me. / If you couldn’t pull me up, remember I never asked. / The bottom is the only place where I don’t feel like falling. / The surface of the earth up there is full of little traps. Before Johnson found music as a coping

PHOTO COURTESY OF RANDI JOHNSON

mechanism, drugs and thoughts of death were her ways of coping with major depression for a short period of time. Johnson attempted suicide in 1997. She was just 19 at the time. “I felt very alone and repressed creatively, this was before I got my guitar,” Johnson explains. “This was a time before I knew I could have a life that revolved around storytelling and music.” She was working as a receptionist, a job that felt like a dead end to her. “I felt stifled by the routine of being a receptionist with little expressive outlet, which rendered me numb,” she says. That stifled and numb feeling pushed her to a decision that made death seem a reasonable alternative. A cocktail of many pills and hard liquor was a part of the plan — she would fall asleep and never wake up. She remembers that moment as though it were yesterday: “I started to become scared after the last bottle of pills were swallowed. I looked in the mirror and saw my bright bloodshot red eyes and immediately regretted what I had done.” She pauses. “I was definitely dying, I felt my life slipping away; not a sick feeling but a terror and shock.” She called her cousin, who was a medical doctor, and asked him if she could die from the pills she’d taken. She pauses, then allows, “He

the Evening Muse. “The Muse was very supportive, even when I forgot lyrics,” Johnson remembers. “The audience was maybe too nice or receptive. Very much like Showtime at the Apollo in bizarro world. The more I messed up, the more applause and revelry.” She laughs. “I didn’t care their intent, I just loved the attention, because I was lonely. I didn’t know anyone in Charlotte except for one married flight attendant friend who didn’t like people and social settings like the open-mic scene.” The open mic at the Evening Muse pulled Johnson into Charlotte’s thriving acoustic music scene. She has since held down open mics at the Comet Grill, McGlohon Theater, Sam Ash, Jack Beagle’s, Legion Brewery and the Rhino. Johnson’s current staple open mics are Mondays at Legion Brewery from 7:30-10:30 p.m., Wednesdays at Rhino at some time between 7:30-11 p.m., and later Wednesdays at Jack Beagle’s from 8-11 p.m. Initially, Johnson’s plan was to transition from an open-mic performer to the life of a working singer-songwriter, but with every bit of momentum, her mental health has stalled her progress. One example was when she began teaching music. “I was approached by Kylene Edsen at Sam Ash [music store] to become an instructor since I was a regular at the Wednesday open mics and they didn’t have a female guitar teacher at the time,” Johnson says. “I was very happy to accept, but after a year of mismanaging time and money, I began missing appointments and was eventually let go.” The teaching fiasco is just a microcosm of how major depression and borderline personality disorder bring disarray into the lives of those suffering from them, Johnson says. “Some days I am unable to keep track of time and everything seems to overwhelm me and I shut down to reboot,” she says. “And that’s not conducive for most schedules.” Although mental health has made it tough for Johnson to get her Motor City Grunge sound into a recorded project, she continues to dedicate her time to getting it out through

PHOTO COURTESY OF RANDI JOHNSON

Johnson performs in nature.

When Johnson smiles, she’s radiant.

“I WAS DEFINITELY DYING, I FELT MY LIFE SLIPPING AWAY; NOT A SICK FEELING BUT A TERROR AND SHOCK.” PHOTO COURTESY OF RANDI JOHNSON

Johnson under covers.

Johnson performs her regular open-mic gig at the Rhino Market. open mics and busking. She wants people to hear her music. And people should be able to hear it. Because she’s that good.

THESE DAYS, JOHNSON lives and works

out of her van. She calls it “the van life,” which she describes as “a community of minimalists who love to drive around and see people, places and things in real time.” This way, she can save money to record an EP and also be more mobile, so she can quickly pivot and perform when she’s on an emotional upswing.

PHOTO BY KIA O. MOORE

It takes a lot to make the van life work. Juggling friends’ couches, hotels, Airbnbs and 24-hour gym memberships to take care of needs like food, sleep and showering involves a lot of mental energy. Her hope is to upgrade from to an RV with a fridge and a little stove or microwave to make van life a little easier. But with the gains in financial savings that come with living the van life, there are setbacks, and those setbacks impact Johnson’s mental health significantly. She is unable to get good nights of restful sleep

RANDI JOHNSON and cannot bring along her furry companion, a 2-year-old Yorkie named Atticus WiggleBottom Johnson. Living the van life is scary. “I guess its a hyper awareness that takes over when you sleep outside, or maybe just those few occurrences when police tried to bust my windows open and shine their mega-watt lights into the window to tell me to ‘get,’” she says. “It becomes the kind of sleep you have with one eye open.” But for now, she says, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love sleeping a few feet from the shore line and listening to the waves on a balmy summer night.” When lack of sleep gets problematic, Johnson reaches out to friends or rents an Airbnb. “Mentally, the sleep deprivation will manifest in exaggerated brattiness and irrational grumpiness, she says. “Typical baby stuff. And sometimes to the emergency room for suicidal ideation.” Johnson eventually hopes to get her Yorkie back and travel to Canada, where the heat is less of a problem for van living. She hopes people there may love her music enough to help her make more of it. What she wants most of all is to go into a real studio and record her Motor City Grunge sound in a quality more people can enjoy. Right now, though, Johnson is beginning to think maybe music is just a hobby. She also works in the gig economy with Door Dash, does nannying, house sitting, cleaning homes and schools and working for the designated driver service Dryver. None of it is sustainable.

But thinking about sustainability has never been a part of Johnson’s make-up. With her diagnosis, Johnson, like so many others, has to take what life throws her one day at a time. But she won’t allow her mental health issues to take control. “Major depression and/or borderline personality disorder do not define me,” she says. “Maybe I can liken it to a weak wifi signal that interrupts my Black Mirror marathon. My life is like the only show I can watch besides the static. Often I get frustrated and want to crack the screen, shut off my brain, rip the plugs from the wall, or whatever. Sometimes even launch the TV out of the window, but the show is just so good and I want to see how it ends. I’d like to know how it all works out, but more often than not, I can never predict the outcome of day to day.” Although Johnson’s days can be unpredictable, her curiosity, faith and hope keep her going. “Love is in there too,” she says. “I’m just not sure who or what it encompasses.” She pauses. “Maybe it encompasses everything and everyone capable of reflecting love.” (If you’d like to reflect love to Randi Johnson, catch her sharing her Motor City Grunge sound at Legion Brewery, Rhino or Jack Beagle’s. Once you hear her music, you will not forget it. You may even fall in love with it. If you’d like to help Johnson record her music, contribute at www. paypal.com/randijohnson.) BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 17

MUSIC

MUSICNEWS

HELP REUNITE IMMIGRANT FAMILIES Lara Americo enlists Amanda Palmer and others for important ‘Never Illegal’ comp BY MARK KEMP

LARA AMERICO DOESN’T let an urgent

cause prevent them from getting things done — yesterday. That’s how Americo’s recent compilation, Never Illegal, came about. The Charlotte musician, artist, activist and award-winning Creative Loafing contributor quickly realized there was a need to get funding down to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Service (RAICES), and to get the word out to music fans across America that what’s beeen happening on the U.S.-Mexico border is wrong in every moral and ethical sense possible. It’s downright un-American. “My mother was an immigrant and if she had come here when Trump was in office, she might have been in the same situation, and I might have been stuck in some ICE detention center [as a child],” Americo, whose mother is from Mexico, says. “I just thought, ‘That could have been me!’ And I needed to do something.” What Americo did was put the word out that they were compiling songs from artists across the United States that speak to the horrendous conditions of families being torn apart, and to the egregious moral failures of the Trump administration. The response was overwhelming. New York City-based Amanda Palmer, formerly of Dresden Dolls, the duo Evelyn Evelyn, and of course Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra — and still one of the nation’s finest singer-songwriters — signed on. So did New York City shoegazers The Veldt, New Jersey’s Screaming Females!, and multimedia artist Mark Snyder, whose stunningly gorgeous, gauzy version of “The Star Spangled Banner” gives Hendrix’s wild pyrotechnics on the national anthem at Woodstock a run for its money. And so did the Charlotte rock band Trash Room. “When we heard about the Never Illegal compilation, we immediately wanted to submit our song ‘Silence Equals Defeat,’” says Trash Room bassist Angel Beeson says. “That song was written with the current administration in mind, and it reflects our stance on how immigrants are being treated in our country.” Amber Comber, Trash Room’s vocalist and songwriter, says she was saddled with disbelief when the current president was 18 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

The ‘Never Illegal’ album cover. elected. She chose to air her feelings in her music and her political activism. “I marched during the Black Lives Matter protest, searching for hope that we would become better as a country. I volunteered as a clinic escort, because I am frightened at how quickly clinics are closing and how it’s become dangerous for women to seek care that is legal,” Comber says. “Watching children being torn from their parents was something I never thought could happen.” And yet it did. That utter disbelief is what motivated Americo to move so quickly with the Never Illegal project. Americo came up with the idea for it just a week ago and it’s already available on Bandcamp (neverillegal.bandcamp.com/ releases). “I figured the best thing I could do is raise money with music,” Americo says. “I had a friend message me wanting to make a track together and it snowballed into this album.” Americo, who performs with their partner Joanne Spataro as JoRa, appears on the track “To Feel Your Presence,” by their friend, who performs on the compilation as Mama. All of the money, except for the small cut Bandcamp takes, will go to RAICES. “At first, I figured a track would be great, but an album would be even more powerful and raise a lot more money,” Americo says. They contacted Palmer, who had appeared with Americo on another compilation a few years ago, Hugs for Chelsea, in support Chelsea Manning, who had just been released from prison. That comp had included Michael Stipe, Tom Morello, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Against Me!, Crosby, Stills & Nash legend Graham Nash and hip-hop artist and activist Talib Kweli, as well as Palmer. The track listing on Never Illegal is a bit more underground than Hugs for Chelsea, but it’s no less important or good. Americo has been so busy putting the project together that they’ve hardly had time to promote the album. That’s where Creative Loafing comes in. We wholeheartedly support this cause and almost anything else our colleague Americo does. To contribute to reuniting families, go to neverillegal.bandcamp.com/releases. MKEMP@CLCLT.COM

Americo plays the Evening Muse.

Trash Room are Angel Beeson (from left), Travis Lee Overcash, Comber and Mik Beeson.

PHOTO BY JEFF HAHNE

PHOTO BY DAN RUSSELL-PINSON

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 19

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD JULY 5 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Archaic Agenda (RiRa Irish Pub)

COUNTRY/FOLK Kasey Tyndall at Alive After Five! (Rooftop 210)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Le Bang (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Open Mic at Studio 13 (Studio 13) Open Mic for Musicians (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Temple Mojo Growler Shop) Barenaked Ladies (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Fireside Collective (U.S. National Whitewater Center) For Now, Chocala (Evening Muse) Karaoke (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Larger Than Life - A Boyband Tribute (Tin Roof) Roshambeaux (Tin Roof) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Vices & Vessels, Persistent Shadow, Reflect// Refine, Above Livius, Winter’s Gate (The Rabbit Hole)

JULY 6 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Coddle Creek (U.S. National Whitewater Center)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)

COUNTRY/FOLK The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Electric Relaxation f. DJ Skillz (‘Stache House Bar & Lounge)

POP/ROCK The Apartment Club (Evening Muse) Bill Noonan, Hardworker, Lower Providence Gospel Revue (Petra’s) Carolina Gator Gumbo, David Childers Quartet (Neighborhood Theatre) Cooper Alan (Tin Roof) Friday nights at Camp North End (Camp North 20 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

End) John Ferrara, Seth Moutal Duo, Motion (The Rabbit Hole) Knowne Ghost, Pullover, LeAnna Eden (Snug Harbor) Louise Page (Birdsong Brewery) Matt Minchew (RiRa Irish Pub) Sam Smith (Spectrum Center) Write The Ship Charlie Work, Cameron Gene (Milestone)

JULY 7 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Diali Cissokho & KairaBa, Phat Lip (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK Kyle Dills Band, Raymond Franklin (Sylvia Theatre, York) Moonlight Social, Violet Bell (Evening Muse)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Off the Wall 7 Year Anniversary feat. J Scienide (Petra’s) Tilted DJ Saturdays (Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery)

POP/ROCK Summer Concert Series (Blakeney Shopping Center) Blue Monday (Tin Roof, Charlotte) The Crown Town Get Down: The Queen’s Guard, HIPGNOSTIC, Coddle Creek, Bobby’s Jorts, The Hawthornes, Josh Daniel & Friends, Sunny Ledfurd, Menastree, Kris Atom, School of Rock Charlotte, Open Soul Project, The Business People, DSR, JaggerMouth, Radio Lola, Goodfoot Down, Shadow, Keyza Soulsay (Heist Brewery) Dikembe, Fever Blush, Placeholder, Jail Socks (Lunchbox Records) DJ Method (RiRa Irish Pub) EZ Shakes, The Mustache Brothers (Evening Muse) Heroes At Last (RiRa Irish Pub) Sisters in Song: Dionne Farris, Kathleen Bertrand, Julie Dexter, Rhonda Thomas (McGlohon Theater Wild Adriatic (U.S. National Whitewater Center)

JULY 8 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Irish Ceili Brunch: Irish band and Irish dancers from Walsh Kelley School of Dance (RiRa Irish

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD Pub)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Apollo (Tin Roof) Bone Snugs-N-Harmony: Bryan Pierce (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK Darrell Scott (McGlohon Theater)

POP/ROCK Baby Jesus (The Underground) Liz Longley (Evening Muse) Metal Church Sunday Service (Milestone) And The Luckier, The Whiskey Predicament, My Blue Hope, Ennie Arden (Milestone) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) Rock N Roll Hi Fives, T!O!F!U! (Lunchbox Records) Tommy Womack, David Childers (Petra’s)

JULY 9 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH

COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill)

POP/ROCK Joint Operation, Never Ending Fall (Tin Roof) Marah In The Mainsail, Bless These Sounds Under the City (Evening Muse) Open Jam with the Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Stellar Circuits, Sang Sarah, Camori (Skylark Social Club) Toleman Randall, Revelwood Mission, Johnny Burgin (Snug Harbor)

JULY 11 COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill)

DJ/ELECTRONIC BYOV: Bring Your Own Vinyl (Petra’s)

Jazz Jam (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

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

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B

POP/ROCK

Chris Brown (PNC Music Pavilion) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge) Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

Courtney Lynn & Quinn (Thomas Street Tavern) Emily And (Tommy’s Pub) Erasure, Reed & Caroline (The Fillmore) July Residency: Blame the Youth, Dexter

POP/ROCK Adrift On River Styx, Until Solace, Above Livius, Fools Generation (Milestone) Find Your Muse Open Mic welcomes singersongwriter Jake Decker (Evening Muse) Locals Live: The Best in Local Live Music & Local Craft Beers (Tin Roof) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Legion Brewing)

JULY 10 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Ludovico Einaudi (Knight Theater)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Eclectic Soul Tuesdays - RnB & Poetry (Apostrophe Lounge) Quantrelle, Cheeno Ghee, J Alta, Skyy (Evening Muse) Soul Station (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Steel Wheel (Snug Harbor)

7/19 ROOSEVELTS 7/20 JGBCB 7/21 JUPITER COYOTE 7/23FANTASTIC NEGRITO 7/25 THE SHEEPDOGS 7/27 PORCH 40 7/28 COSMIC CHARLIE - JERRY GARCIA BIRTHDAY BASH! 8/10Abacab A Tribute to GENESIS 8/5 LYDIA 8/11NATALIE PRASS 8/17 RED BARCHETTA A Tribute to RUSH 8/24 TREEHOUSE 9/11 JOSEPH 9/19 NOAH GUNDERSEN 9/28 CAAMP 10/2 MT. JOY 10/9 WELSHLY ARMS

Even your grandma gets it.

NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.

com. CL online provides addresses, maps and directions from your location. Send us your concert listings: E-mail us at mkemp@clclt. com or fax it to 704-522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication. CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 21

ARTS

FEATURE

VIVA LA ’VITA! Davita Galloway — one of Charlotte’s most influential artists and arts patrons — says ‘yes’ to the best BY EMIENE WRIGHT

Davita Galloway is a walking, talking piece of art. 22 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTO BY WILL JENKINS, @SIMPLISTICPHOBIA

HE IS UNMISTAKABLE: her

shaved head, her funky glasses and tattoos from head to toe — literally. “It’s so cliché,” Davita Galloway says, with a laugh. “But art was always there for me. It’s in me, on me, all the time.” The one at Galloway’s hairline is her favorite: Lovey, her grandmother’s name, in cursive script. The one on her left ankle was her first: a rose, inked when Galloway was just 16, with her dad’s approval. In between are so many others she’s lost count. That’s because Galloway is far too busy keeping track of the two businesses, one nonprofit and dozens of projects she runs in the Charlotte art scene. She hosts a co-working space, events, meet-ups, photo shoots, open mics, book signings and the monthly series I’m an Artist, Dammit, which allows creatives to showcase their talent in front of audiences — and get paid, besides. The majority of these events are free. The vibe is community. And the aesthetic is bright, cheeky, and black — straight, no chaser. “If you invite me to the table, you’re going to get me at the table. And I’m bringing black and brown people with me,” Galloway says. “There is a need for us to not only be present but be represented. These programs that other organizations put together, they’re cool, but it cannot be solely for us any longer. It has to be by us.” Galloway, the feminine half of Dupp&Swat Studio (along with her brother, Dion “Dupp” Galloway) in Plaza-Midwood and the Concept in Camp Northend, wasn’t always so forthright. She started out in Winston-Salem as a creative youngster, expressing herself early on through poetry and sketching, and fell in love with fashion. “I never matched. I still don’t,” Galloway says. “My parents let me leave the house looking crazy if I wanted to.” Her mom and dad, a government employee and an executive for RJ Reynolds, built a solidly middle-class childhood that encouraged their second child’s creativity. But at age 7, Galloway began expressing severe medical symptoms. “It seemed to happen overnight,” she says thoughtfully. “One day I was riding bikes with neighborhood friends and my brother, and the next day I was on the floor in the fetal position, in pain. All of a sudden. And no one could explain it.” It took a year of testing, medicating and exploratory surgery for doctors to diagnose Galloway with Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of

the digestive tract and causes abdominal cramping, diarrhea, weight loss, anemia and fatigue. She’s since battled recurring symptoms and had numerous surgeries — it’s a chronic condition, no cure. It was a lot for a young girl to take. Naturally curious and academically gifted, Galloway immersed herself in school. But there, too, was trouble in paradise. “One year in elementary school I won every single award. Every one,” Galloway muses. “At first, it was like, ‘Woo, ‘Vita!’ But as my name was announced each subsequent time, the cheers got quieter and quieter and quieter. By the end, no one was clapping.” Around the same time, an adult cousin molested her. It was a devastating combination of blows, and Galloway began to retreat into herself, finding solace in worlds of color and pattern. Though she confided in her family, it was years before she stopped blaming herself. Galloway tells these stories with dry eyes. Her voice does not waver. Asked if she consents to sharing them in print, there is zero hesitation. “If people get anything out of my story, it’s being OK with your life,” she says.

GALLOWAY’S LIFE has far exceeded

“OK.” She attended UNC-Charlotte, earning a bachelor’s degree, and was already working while she earned her master’s in public health. Family expectations required she keep her dreams of the fashion world a hobby, but the public health field was sucking the force out of her. “It was suffocating. I had to dress a certain way to be taken seriously,” Galloway says. “There were zero opportunities to be creative and express myself — I was crying myself to sleep at night.” The first season of Project Runway was on, and on a whim Galloway decided to apply and see what might happen. If the show accepted her, it would be a sign; if not, she’d stay in her dead-end job. “I still remember getting the envelope in the mail. I was literally shaking,” Galloway recalls. “When I read the first line, ‘Congratulations you have been...,’ everything hit the fan. I fell to the ground crying, overjoyed.” She graduated and was in New York City a week later, attending the prestigious Parsons School of Design. A successful fashion career evolved for Galloway, but unresolved legal issues led to an arrest on charges of stealing and the loss of her job. Back in Winston-Salem, depressed and unemployable with a mark on her record,

Galloway felt no one was going to hire her. With nothing left to lose, she decided to give her vision full steam. “Art has literally saved my life so many times. But I waited until my back was against the wall before I decided to take this journey,” Galloway says, shaking her head. “If I can prevent this from happening to anyone else, I want to: ‘Why wait that long? Do it now.’” She leaned on family during this time, particularly her brother and best friend Dion. A year younger, he modeled hats she’d customize around town. They contemplated a name for the brand but all the names they came up with were already trademarked. “Then it just came to me: Dupp&Swat. We knew we could trademark that name, nobody else has it,” Galloway says. “And it’s genuinely us — he’s literally Dupp, that’s his nickname, and I’m Swatt.” Galloway had some money stashed from her time in New York, but needed his partnership. Where she can be very flighty and full of ideas, her brother grounds the operations and excels at nailing down the nuts and bolts of concrete details. “The support from him has always been there,” Galloway says. “He said yes to me when I was a little nervous about saying yes to myself. And the ‘yes’ he gave me to pursue creating and expressing myself was the ‘yes’ we give others. It’s in the same spirit.”

THAT WILLINGNESS to give others a shot has helped Galloway earn the trust and loyalty of much of Charlotte’s creative set. She’s also earned it from her utter commitment to community building. The first iteration of Dupp&Swat came about in 2010, situated in NoDa at 28th Street, a complex known for being home to Amelie’s flagship store. The Galloways’ store was originally meant as a place to stage editorial fashion and photography shoots, but they ended up with way more space than they had plans for. Creatives, drawn to the shop, began asking the Galloways to feature their artwork and retail products. “When the doors opened, the people flew in,” she says. “They helped us build up what Dupp&Swat is, because we provided them with that ‘yes.’ We wouldn’t be here without the community.” Renita Martin, owner of Browzilla Beauty Studio and Galloway’s partner on the ‘Nita and Vita’ YouTube talk show, has known Galloway since 2011. “I saw her at a fashion show and I thought she looked really unique! I also thought she was so mean, but she was just in ‘go’ mode,” Martin says. Galloway began carrying Martin’s Infinite Style items in Dupp&Swat, and encouraged her to hold two events per month, as Galloway did with all of her vendors. Martin’s customer following took off. “She definitely made me say ‘yes’ to a couple of things I would normally shy away from,” Martin says. “She pushes you past where you think your boundaries are. Without her, a lot of people would get more ‘no’s.’ The doors are starting to open for her in the right rooms so she can make some things shake for the city.” At the Concept at Camp Northend, which changes themes every six months, Galloway is currently catering to women with the

PHOTO BY WILL JENKINS, @SIMPLISTICPHOBIA

“IF YOU INVITE ME TO THE TABLE, YOU’RE GOING TO GET ME AT THE TABLE. AND I’M BRINGING BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE WITH ME.” DAVITA GALLOWAY theme “Pretty Girls Like,” based on the 2 Chainz album Pretty Girls Like Trap Music. The shop is stocked with clothes, fanny packs, sunglasses and art, sourced entirely from local designers. Any given week, popup events, free massages, and educational workshops given by community members are going on, and people drop by frequently to shop, chill or just say hello. “Everything we do is always bigger than us,” Galloway says. Besides supporting professional artists, Galloway boosts nascent artists with scavenger-hunt giveaways. She and her brother fill bags with canvasses, paint and other art supplies, and drop them off in different communities of color around Charlotte. There are no strings attached, just the satisfaction of knowing they are helping artists in need continue to create. “We leave hints here and there about where the bags can be found, just to add some fun to it,” Galloway says, adding that they’re accepting donations at the Concept and Studio stores for the next hunt, which happens July 5 and 6.

ALTHOUGH GALLOWAY is a cornerstone

of Charlotte’s black and brown arts scene, she has found her profile going mainstream in recent years, with shoots for NASCAR and promotions for the city of Charlotte. But it was a Creative Mornings talk during this time last year that saw Galloway’s reputation explode. Her Creative Mornings speech, in early June 2017, was on survival, and Galloway was anxious. She wondered how to talk about her molestation, being arrested — if she should be so transparent with a predominantly white crowd, who might already see her in a diminished light. “But I was like, I’m going to be me. And as soon as I stepped out I was cool. I was confident in what I was saying,” Galloway says. “I wasn’t saying it for them. I was saying it for my audience, and for me.” That speech was the harbinger of a flood of interest that has shown no sign of letting up. Grants, proposals and a general air of ‘yes’ permeate the atmosphere around her. The timing of the success, while welcome, seems bittersweet.

Even when she covers up, she’s unmistakably ’Vita. “The Creative Morning stage was a platform that got a lot of new people reaching out. I’m grateful to Matt [Olin] and Tim [Miner] — we rock hard, they’re great people — but in the beginning I was very critical of that attention,” Galloway says. “Bruh, we’ve been here doing this from Day One, so what makes you want to holler at me now? “Before, it had always been ‘no.’ Why did it take the approval of white men for opportunities to come my way?” she asks. But Galloway stays true to the demographic that held her down from the beginning. One way is through directly sharing information. “We go to talk series all the time and there’s not a lot of black or brown folks there,” Galloway says. “I don’t know if it’s too early in the morning and people have to work, or people just don’t feel comfortable and welcome. That’s why we decided to create a series that gives us a platform.” The Conversation Course is a newer monthly talk series, started as a way to disseminate vital information to sectors of the creative community that might otherwise miss out. Each session couples a discussion by black artists and creatives with an element of food. Galloway also launched the Entrepreneur Life, a workshop series created for those who want to pursue, sustain and create their own businesses. Topics run the gamut from branding and bookkeeping to social media strategies, which she and successful experts lead. She sees the Dupp&Swat Studio and Concept store as more than business outposts or event venues. They are resources she’s opened to Charlotte’s often overlooked and underserved creatives. “I’m just trying to help. Some people need that outlet of a creative environment to spark their ideas and envision the possibilities,” Galloway says. Singer Kevin “Mercury” Carter sees the value of her work. Carter, 23, headlined the most recent I’m an Artist showcase, put on by Crownkeepers, the nonprofit arm of Dupp&Swat. Sponsored by the Arts and Science Council, the series highlights an artist a month in a two-hour paid performance. SEE

VITA P. 24 u

CLCLT.COM | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | 23

ARTS

FILM

GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT

‘Mountain’

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH Gorgeous documentary ultimately runs ragged BY MATT BRUNSON

SUPERHERO AND SCIENCE fiction A ’Vita tease. VITA FROM P. 24 t On August 5, all of the season’s acts will come together for one large show. Though Mercury Carter has been performing as a singer for three years, he began his creative career as fashion designer Kevin Vain before he graduated high school. Galloway was one of his earliest mentors. “It’s no secret Charlotte’s creative scene can be a bit fickle, but Davita is an accessible, active supporter of the arts community,” Carter says. “When I was doing fashion, she introduced me to different people, supply stores and even displayed some of my pieces in the original Dupp&Swat NoDa location. “She’s one of those people who you can feel her positive energy. She’s like a vitamin pill,” Carter says. “After talking to her, I feel like I can do a whole set.” The I’m an Artist, Dammit series has been running for more than two years, and Carter appreciates the love it shows to upand-comers. His being featured has opened doors for other young artists as well, who saw Carter’s posts about the event and inquired about showcases of their own. The 24 | JUL. 5 - JUL. 11, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTO BY WILL JENKINS, @SIMPLISTICPHOBIA

series gives a younger class of Charlotte artists another platform where they can push their art. Carter was recently selected as one of 10 new artists globally to perform at the legendary Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland this year. He’s the first singer from North Carolina since Nina Simone to be chosen for the honor. That’s not minor stuff. And Davita Galloway had a hand in it. These days, Galloway stays organized by writing everything down: dreams, to-do lists for the next day. She pulls inspiration from everything: color, life experiences, her favorite ’90s hip-hop. Her home is full of notebooks filled with doodles, snippets and ideas that she revisits for inspiration or sometimes jut to pass the time. “I do it because I genuinely believe we’re gifted [with] ideas for a reason or purpose, so whatever idea comes to me I feel obligated to get it out,” she says. “This for me is living, finally, and it feels good. Is it something I expected? I guess so. I built it and worked for it.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

films are often given a pass thanks to their robust visuals, so why not documentaries? Filmed on all seven continents and in approximately 20 different countries, Mountain (**1/2 out of four) is basically 75 minutes of freebasing highly addictive footage that is sure to leave viewers gasping, gaping and wanting more. Whether it’s mountaintops peeking through the clouds or climbers peeking down at the ground waaay below, the sights captured by cinematographer Renan Ozturk are simply breathtaking and awe-inspiring. As an ocular treat, Mountain is tremendous. As an aural assault, it is decidedly less so. The narration is provided by Willem Dafoe — or, as he’s now forever known in my household, He Who Was Absurdly Cheated Out Of His Oscar For The Florida Project. Dafoe’s rugged, ragged voice is perfect for this assignment — the problem instead rests with the words he’s delivering. They’re provided by Robert Macfarlane, largely lifting from his 2003 book Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination. On the printed page, they’re the sorts of missives and musings that are fun to leisurely examine, process and contemplate; when delivered out loud by another party, they often come across

as a tad precious and a bit twee. Certainly, there are several fine passages in the film — I especially like when countless climbers are lining up to tackle Everest and Dafoe comments, “This isn’t climbing anymore; it’s queueing. This isn’t exploration; it’s crowd control.” But for every finely turned phrase like that, there’s another that’s cumbersome (“What curious performances we put on with the mountains as our theater!”). The movie’s narrative drive is functional even if the sections often feel untethered from one another. Dafoe explains how the citizens of earlier centuries would view the mountains as the forbidden domain of “dragons and divinities,” until “fascination replaced trepidation” and humankind began seeing the towering rocks as new frontiers to explore and conquer. After the expected Everest interludes, we’re then shown the exploits of the new breed of daredevils, those who risk their lives for the sake of YouTube viewers worldwide. The thematic links are often tenuous and the narration occasionally overbearing, but these components ultimately melt away in the face of the staggering images. Perhaps akin to small children, Mountain is a film that should be seen but not necessarily heard. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

ARTS

ARTSPEAK

MANIFEST FUTURE PAINT PARTY Free; July 6, 5-9 p.m.; Mosaic Village, 1635 W. Trade St.; tinyurl.com/ ManifestFuture

BRIDGING THE GAP Georgie Nakima aims to connect communities with their environment through art BY RYAN PITKIN

MOST FOLKS HAVE a tendency to use either the analytical and orderly “left brain” or the artistic, imaginative “right brain.” It’s safe to say Georgie Nakima gets good use out of both sides. The Charlotte muralist and selfproclaimed math nerd holds a degree in biology from Winston-Salem State University, where she also minored in chemistry, and it shows in her work. Her paintings feature geometric patterns and symmetrical shapes that move the viewer’s eyes through the piece at her direction. Her love of science is also apparent in her inclusion of animals in many of her pieces, which she says is her way of calling attention to environmental injustice and animal rights. We caught up with Nakima recently to discuss these things and also chat about her most recent collaborative project, currently taking shape in the Five Points area in west Charlotte, and how it involves giving back to the community. Creative Loafing: Your educational background would suggest a passion for science. How does that play a role in your art? Georgie Nakima: It played a lot into, philosophically, how I view the world, because you’re able to deconstruct the layers beyond what you see physically. It’s always something intangible that we don’t really witness, but it’s still there. It’s really allowed me to take those layers apart and see a world that’s infinite and bigger than myself. I’m always trying to bridge how my work can play onto something that’s bigger than myself — that has a meaning that’s significant beyond just a beautiful picture that people can see and they can witness. They can see faith, they can see God, they can see nature, they can see elements that all combine together to build a picture. It’s really allowed me to see things as multidimensional and not just surface. A lot of my studies were in calculus and geometry and just learning about shapes. Say you look at a plant and you look at how the plant grows; it’s very symmetric. It has a lot of fractals. When you think of fractal geometry, it’s just a cool detail and it just reminds me of the sequence of the patterns of life. So I like to put those patterns into a portrait, because in this world we don’t really see ourselves as math or science, we see ourselves as humans living in a society that’s far from nature. I try to bridge it back through visual art.

Georgie Nakima You’re known on Instagram and from your website as @GardenofJourney. How would you describe the Garden of Journey and what it means to you? Garden of Journey is really just a path of aligning into your own abundance and to your own potential. The garden just represents the plethora. It represents the diversity. It represents the weeds among the flowers. It represents the thorns that it takes to come into alignment on your path. It can be the journey less traveled, or it can be the traveled journey that is still hard. It’s really just about life’s voyage. You were recently featured in a Ford commercial. How did you get involved with their Born to Roll campaign? That was such an amazing opportunity. Ford has a department that does a lot of cultural work and they wanted to do a campaign that celebrated women of color. They got myself and two other black women who were not actors — we were actually a real artist, a real OBGYN, a real firefighter — and they asked us our stories. They asked us, “What does it mean for you to be a black woman? What are your hardships? What legacy do you want to bring?” So it wasn’t just like, “OK, come be in a commercial.” They went and they searched but they also wanted to soul search and get people that matched what they wanted to represent for the campaign. So the whole purpose was just to celebrate women of color who are killing it, who are representing and persevering through it all, who are being successful and also being a light. What was the experience like for you

PHOTO BY KAYNA B./@ORGANICIMAGERY3

filming that ad? I am used to putting my art first and I am very happy being in the background. But in this instance, my art was the background and I had to come forward. So it was a challenge in that way because I’m just not used to being in front of the camera like that. It was a big push, which was really good for me, because it was just a reminder to be the whole package and be prepared when my time comes. Artists like yourself are not often represented on big platforms like that. People were asking, “Where are the black women muralists?” and there are not a lot of black women muralists. I’ve been sort of on my soapbox talking about that. There are not a lot of instances where we are being funded to do what we came here to do in terms of artists, whether we’re being weeded out through applications or — I don’t know. Maybe they don’t know that we’re here. People talk to me and they’re like, “Are you the only black woman muralist?” I can’t say that, I’m pretty sure there are more, but I don’t know. Two black women artists in this town you do know are Sloane Siobhan and Janelle Dunlap. You’ve recently started a collaborative project with them. Tell me a little about that. That’s called Manifest Future and I’m working on a piece in west Charlotte and the piece is in response to gentrification, which is heavy on the west side, especially on West Trade Street. I’m working together with Janelle and Sloane and I have the opportunity to practice what I preach and mentor another black woman artist and teach her about spraying, teach her about murals and teach

her about the process. People don’t always want to show you their tricks. It’s a funny thing. It’s a funny subculture of being an artist. Sometimes people don’t really want to share their techniques because they feel like you could one up them or something. I’m teaching her what I know because it’s just how we multiply, it’s how we do more. There are way more walls than I could ever paint, or even want to paint. If I can share the opportunities with another person who looks like me, that has the same passion and wants to see growth just like how I want to see growth, then I know that I’m doing at least something right. So we’re working on that together now. It’s a response to gentrification, but we’re not focusing on gentrification, because it’s like a train that’s coming at us full speed. There’s really nothing much to do about it, but it’s about how we react to it. We’re reactivating a space that has been abandoned for 10 years. A lot of trauma has happened. A lot of broken promises have happened, but we want to fill it with new vibrations, give it color, give it purpose. So our mural is telling a sequential narrative when you look into it. You know how Hannukah has the days and each day means something? The mural has sections to it and each section has a theme. One of the themes is creativity. Good work. Reclamation. Ancestry. Sacred gardening. They’re all culturally emphasized themes that people can come and connect with. And you’re offering a chance to truly connect with it through paint parties. What will those consist of? A huge interactive portion is that we have paint parties on every first and third Friday. The one on July 6 will be right out front of Mosaic Village. The purpose of those is that we can actually mimic the space to match the mural. So when we do sacred gardening, we’re going to have agriculturalists and botanists come out and share what they do with the community. The day that we have group work, I know a lot of people who work in finance and work in real estate who are advocates and have a lot of important information that doesn’t trickle down. So the whole purpose of the event is to share that with the people around us and to generate people who have black business or support black business, no matter what heritage they are, and can just be down with the cause. Through the paint parties we are allowing them to get intimate with the process so that after we leave it can still have a magnet to people. There’s also the Rosa Parks Farmers Market that comes out on every Tuesday, so we’re sort of reactivating the space along there with them. It’s just a good way to cross pollinate and come around and invite people to pull up and show what community is. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

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reiterate, everything outside of top-shelf EVEN THOUGH my 30s are looming on liquor (even shots) was half. the. price. What the horizon, I’m still considered a millennial else do you need? in social situations (insert eye roll). I do Let’s be real, the G.O.A.T experiences believe, however, my “millennial” status is of nightlife, the crux of our good times, one of the main reasons why money, savings, are largely dependent on those who serve student loans and anything finance-related is always on the top of my mind. That’s us. Yes, there are certain nuances that can why my first visit to The Union on “service throw a night off, but if there’s no one in industry night” was a bit mind boggling. Let the bar and we have something to complain me explain. about, it’s probably because we didn’t like If you’ve been in Charlotte any decent something about our waitress or bartender. amount of time you know that bars and And they have to deal with us, which in and clubs come and go. A new spot opens and it of itself is why they deserve a back rub, a can look familiar and maybe you don’t know round of applause and a weekly discount. why, it’s probably because the name changed. I’d heard tales of days past when service Blame it on too much drama, blame it on industry nights were off the chain. The rules poor marketing, it happens all the time. were changed or bent, even if for a night, A couple weeks ago, a friend’s boyfriend and the discounts were lit. But every time I wanted us to go to The Union because heard about it, it was as if those days he works in the service industry and were long gone. That’s why I was his coworkers were going there. beyond intrigued when my I used to live in South End friend’s boyfriend said that and quite frankly, I had no we would get 50 percent desire to go. Why? Because off for service night. nothing has survived in I know the venue that space for very long. is “new,” but I began to Why get my hopes up for wonder if anyone else a spot that probably won’t offered the same deal. be around come 2019? I asked one of my friends If you’re a regular in who used to work in the South End, you know where AERIN SPRUILL service industry if she knew of I’m talking about. It’s one any venues that offered similar of the commercial destinations discounts. Prohibition was the only connected to Camden South End venue that she immediately informed me on the corner of South Boulevard and offers half off to service people and other East Bland Street. Before it was The Union, restaurant and bar folks on Tuesdays. it was Helles & Dunkel and World of Beer And based on my research, (and after (which is now in The Epicentre). You may even know that ‘Stache House Bar & Lounge, asking The Union and Prohibition myself), which was located on the same block on the I haven’t found another nightlife venue in opposite end, closed its doors unexpectedly Charlotte proper that will take half off your about a month ago. *gasp* tab when you go to close it. This isn’t to say Nevertheless, when my girl told me that’s that a variety of bars don’t honor some sort where her boo wanted to go and my boo of “special” every day of the week — even if showed signs of interest I thought to myself, they’re not calling it “service industry night.” “Why not?” Our Uber dropped us off and my But if we’re being honest, this also means dramatic brain thought the lights would turn that every patron, who probably shouldn’t be off and the bar would close in front of my out drinking that day of the week, can slide eyes. Nope. All was well and there was even through and reap the benefits of a discount. a baby pit bull inside on the floor for me to The question is...when it comes to play with — heart be still. discounts — especially 50 percent off (and I was a little tipsy but I decided on an no, not just a bottle of wine) — where they RBV when my boyfriend asked me what do that at?! Everyone who wants to drink I wanted to drink. When we sat on the the best liquor or cocktail as possible for as small patio outside, I remembered the whole cheap as possible. It’s even better when you reason why we were triggered to make the do so on your own dime and can afford it. trek — all booze is half off on Mondays So tell me, where are the best deals in the for service industry night. The venue was Queen City? I’m trying to cut down on my spacious, one of the owners was behind tab, too! Share your fave spots to save a few the bar with a welcoming smile and let me bucks at backtalk@clclt.com.

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SAVAGE LOVE

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WHO KNEW? Sex can get better after marriage BY DAN SAVAGE In a recent column, you said you never hear from married couples whose sex life got better and more frequent over the years. Well, now you have. My wife and I were married 24 years ago, and we are currently having more sex and better sex than we did in the first years of our marriage. There are many reasons why, including therapy, antidepressants, and weight loss and subsequent surgery — but I would have to say that the big reason is communication. If you had known us 25 years ago, Dan, you would not have given us good odds. We’d been dating only a year and a half when we got engaged, and we’d known each other less than two years. I was a virgin, my wife was not, together we hadn’t gotten much past second base, and neither of us had laid our kink cards on the table. We were (and still are) introverts with poor communication skills and anxiety/ depression/mental-health issues. I won’t say it’s been fairy-tale perfect — the kind of perfect that makes you barf and roll your eyes — but it’s been pretty damn close. My wife has been incredibly GGG, and I hope I have been, too. So there you go, Dan! Now you know there’s at least one couple out there whose sex life has only gotten better over the years. BETTER EROTIC TIES TOTALLY ENHANCED RELATIONSHIP

Last week, I responded to IMDONE, a woman who married a man despite the sex being “infrequent and impersonal” during their courtship. To the surprise of no one who has ever given sex advice for a living,

the sex didn’t get better after IMDONE and her boyfriend got married. “Here’s something I’ve never seen in my inbox: a letter from someone explaining how sex with their partner was infrequent, impersonal, uninspired, unimaginative, etc. at first but — holy moly — the sex got a fuck of a lot better after the wedding,” I wrote in my response to IMDONE. I did allow for the possibility that my sample was skewed; people with good sex lives don’t write to tell me everything’s fine. So I invited people whose so-so sex lives improved after the wedding to write in. And did they ever: My inbox is packed with e-mails from couples whose sex lives got better after the wedding.

WOMAN IN FUCKING ECSTASY

Am I the first or the hundredth person to write in? Yes, sex for us got better after marriage. I suspect you don’t see it in your inbox very often because this isn’t what most people would consider a problem and we don’t want to waste your time! All it took for the sex to get better was practice and paying attention to cues and solving problems. I strongly suspect that perseverance and a bit of luck were also major factors.

I was a very experienced woman (five years as a swinger and partners PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE numbering in the high double digits) when My sex life improved after I first met the man marriage. I am a straight who would become my male with a highly husband. My husbandstigmatized kink. I was to-be was a virgin. deeply ashamed of my Sex was barely okay sexual interest even before and very infrequent. my mother discovered my But we were both in our DAN SAVAGE porn when I was 14 and told early 40s and ready to me I was a pervert that no settle down. We also had decent woman would ever want. an amazing friendship, and When I met my wife, our sex life was we were never as happy apart as okay — but I was never fully present, we were together. It helped that we because I would have to concentrate shared some kinks and were both up on my fantasies in order to sustain an for what we agreed would be a nice and erection. I eventually retreated into mostly companionate marriage. So we masturbation. My wife knew I was got married. And, wow, did everything masturbating in the middle of the night change! We went from once a month instead of having sex with her, and that to a couple times a week. Turns out he

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needed that emotional attachment to feel safe and secure enough to open up and relax and enjoy himself. We’ve been married for years now. The sex is still good. It’s not as frequent as it once was, but it’s really good when we have it.

led to some enormous fights. So I told her about my kink, fully expecting that it would result in the collapse of my marriage. We didn’t speak about it for a week, and then she calmly asked me if I wanted to do this with her instead of just watching porn about it. PARTNERSHIP IMPROVED SEXUAL SITUATION

My sex life actually did get better after I married my partner. I struggled with erectile dysfunction during my courtship with my wife. It didn’t settle down until we’d been married for a while. I had trust issues and guilt issues — boring stories — and I got a lot more comfortable once we’d made that commitment. Now we have two kids, and we have sex almost weekly. (Hey, that’s good for 40-yearolds!) I doubt it’s the norm, Dan, but that’s what happened with me. ENDURING RELATIONSHIP EASED COCK TROUBLES

First, I want to thank BETTER, WIFE, PPP, PISS, CHOMP, ERECT, and everyone else who wrote in. I do feel obligated to point out, however, that these are anecdotes, not data. And while there isn’t data to back up my position — that sex doesn’t generally get better after marriage — my pile of anecdotes is a whole lot bigger. So I’m going to continue to urge people to establish basic sexual compatibility before marriage rather than hoping a so-so sexual connection will somehow get better after marriage. But it can be done. You just need to have PPP’s luck or be married to someone willing to do the work, like CHOMP’s spouse, or fortunate enough to wind up with someone willing take the leak, like PISS’s spouse.

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(December 22 to January 19) Realizing that someone else is taking credit for what you did is bound to get anyone’s goat, but especially yours. Be patient. The truth soon comes out.

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(January 20 to February 18) Forget about opposites attracting. What you need is to find someone who thinks like you and will support your ideas, even if others say they’re too radical.

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