CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - 29, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 27
1 | DATE - DATE, 2015 | CLCLT.COM
2 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 3
CREATIVE LOAFING IS PUBLISHED BY WOMACK NEWSPAPERS, INC. CHARLOTTE, NC 28206. OFFICE: 704-522-8334 WWW.CLCLT.COM FACEBOOK: /CLCLT TWITTER: @CL_CHARLOTTE INSTAGRAM: @CREATIVELOAFINGCHARLOTTE
STAFF
PUBLISHER • Charles A. Womack III
HOME ALL WEEK!
publisher@yesweekly.com EDITOR • Ryan Pitkin rpitkin@clclt.com
EDITORIAL
Charlotte Knights vs. Gwinnett Stripers & Durham Bulls SATURDAY
UPTOWN CHOWDOWN FIRST TIME EVER AT BB&T BALLPARK, FOR $25 ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT, HOT DOG, POPCORN, NACHOS, PRETZEL, REGULAR SODA, NESTLE ICE CREAM TREATONE FAN COULD WIN A 2018 LEXUS RX 350
ASSOCIATE EDITOR • Courtney Mihocik cmihocik@clclt.com
MONDAY
BARK IN THE BALLPARK
mattonmovies@gmail.com THEATER CRITIC • Perry Tannenbaum perrytannenbaum@gmail.com
VS. GWINNETT
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS •
GAME AT 7:04 PM
Erin Tracy-Blackwood, Allison Braden, Konata Edwards, Jeff Hahne, Vanessa Infanzon, Ari LeVaux, Kia O. Moore, Grey Revell, Dan Savage, Aerin Spruill, Sophie Whisant
VS. GWINNETT 1ST GAME AT 1:05
TUESDAY
POST-GAME FIREWORKS A FAN COULD WIN $50,000
PAUL SCHADT BOBBLEHEAD GIVEAWAY
ART DIRECTOR • Dana Vindigni
VS. DURHAM
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS • Justin Driscoll, Brian Twitty, Grant Baldwin
DURING THE GAME, FANS CAN REGISTER TO BE SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN A SPECIAL DICE GAME PROMOTION THAT COULD WIN THEM $50,000!
VS. GWINNETT 2ND GAME AT 7:04 PM
SUNDAY 3RD ANNUAL CROCKETT FOUNDATION NIGHT FANS CAN MEET WRESTLING LEGENDS WHILE KNIGHTS RAISE MONEY FOR THE CROCKETT FOUNDATION.
POST-GAME WRESTLING PWX WRESTLING WILL BRING THEIR WRESTLING TO BB&T BALLPARK FOR THE “BATTLE AT THE BALLPARK” AFTER THE GAME.
KIDS RUN THE BASES VS. GWINNETT GAME AT 5:05 PM
GAME 7:04 PM
WEDNESDAY STEVE AVERY APPEARANCE
ART/DESIGN dvindigni@clclt.com
ADVERTISING
To place an ad, please call 704-522-8334. SALES MANAGER Aaron Stamey • astamey@clclt.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
VS. DURHAM
Justin LaFrancois • jlafrancois@clclt.com
GAME AT 7:04 PM
Christos Kakouras • ckakouras@clclt.com ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
THURSDAY
LAST HOME GAME THIRSTY THURSDAY
$3 DOMESTIC DRAFT BEER
$5 SELECT CRAFT DRAFT
$1 SODA VS. DURHAM
GAME AT :704 PM
TO PURCHASE TICKETS VISIT:
charlotteknights.com 4 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
FILM CRITIC • Matt Brunson
Pat Moran • pmoran@clclt.com
Creative Loafing © is published by CL, LLC 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., Suite C-2, Charlotte, NC 28206. Periodicals Postage Paid at Charlotte, NC. Creative Loafing welcomes submissions of all kinds. Efforts will be made to return those with a self-addressed stamped envelope; however Creative Loafing assumes no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. Creative Loafing is published every Wednesday by Womack Newspapers, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. Copyright 2015 Womack Newspapers, Inc. CREATIVE LOAFING IS PRINTED ON A 90% RECYCLED STOCK. IT MAY BE RECYCLED FURTHER; PLEASE DO YOUR PART.
A MEMBER OF:
19
Charlotte rapper Yung Blaza with his pups, Tigger and Trippie. Find out how he transitioned from the banking world to the hip-hop scene on page 19.
We put out weekly 8
NEWS&CULTURE THAT WAS THE DECADE THAT WAS Frye Gaillard’s epic history of the ’60s offers a peek at the present
BY JOHN GROOMS 6 IN MEMORIAM: REMEMBERING JERRY KLEIN BY RYAN PITKIN 7 THE BLOTTER BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK 10 NEWS OF THE WEIRD
12
FOOD&DRINK A FRESH START Efforts to close the food access gap in Charlotte are finally gaining ground BY RYAN PITKIN
16 18
TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK
MUSIC GO WEST, YOUNG MAN With a final show, Cory M. Wells bids farewell to Charlotte
BY PAT MORAN 19 MUSIC MAKER: YUNG BLAZA BY SOPHIE WHISNANT 20 SOUNDBOARD
22
ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT ALL BLACK EVERYTHING Brand New Sheriff mixes Broadway, Black Panther and Black Diamond BY PERRY TANNENBAUM 23 FILM REVIEW: ‘CRAZY RICH ASIANS’ BY MATT BRUNSON 24 ARTSPEAK: GAVIN EDWARDS BY RYAN PITKIN
26
ODDS&ENDS 26 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 27 CROSSWORD 28 SAVAGE LOVE BY DAN SAVAGE 30 SALOME’S STARS
GO TO CLCLT.COM FOR VIDEOS, PODCASTS AND MORE!
COVER DESIGN BY DANA VINDIGNI
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - 29, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 27
Website: www.clclt.com Facebook: /clclt Pinterest: @clclt Twitter: @cl_charlotte Instagram: @creativeloafingcharlotte YouTube: /qccreativeloafing
PHOTOS COURTESY OF YUNG BLAZA 1 | DATE - DATE, 2015 | CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 5
NEWS
IN MEMORIUM
REMEMBERING JERRY KLEIN Political rabble-rouser, arts and music writer succumbs to cancer at age 66 BY RYAN PITKIN
JERRY KLEIN, the author of an estimated
half-a-million words worth of Creative Loafing columns, news features and cover stories, lost his battle with esophageal cancer early on the morning of Friday, August 17. He died peacefully, according to loved ones. As a Creative Loafing contributor between 1987 and 2001, Klein tackled the city’s toughest issues, lifting the rug to expose the dirt below and the folks who swept it there. He was also a passionate patron of the arts and a fervent music fan, and it showed in his inspired coverage of Charlotte’s cultural scene. It is believed he wrote 365 columns for CL during his first decade or so with the paper. Klein returned to the paper in 2014 as a contributor, writing a cover story on the struggle to find funding for arts in Charlotte and contributing columns and news stories on the I-77 toll lanes, Thom Tillis, the Michael Brown shooting and much more. You can find his archives on clclt.com. Family and friends gathered on the Saturday following his death to celebrate his life at the Great Aunt Stella Center, where Klein was director of programming from 1988 to 2001. Attendees wore bright colors in honor of Klein’s colorful life. His loved ones ask that any donations made in Klein’s honor be made to DrumsForCures, a local DRUMSTONG program that holds events to raise awareness and funds in support of cancer survivorship, education, prevention and research through uplifting, facilitated and interactive rhythm experiences. John Grooms, CL’s longest-serving editor, worked with Klein for most of his years at the paper. Grooms was saddened to hear of Klein’s passing on Friday and offered the following statement: “Jerry was an important part of Charlotte’s cultural growth during the late 1980s and ’90s, expanding both the limits of political discourse on talk radio and the range of live music available in the city’s venues. He was a big part of Creative Loafing’s growing popularity during that era and it was a personal as well as a professional pleasure being able to coordinate and shape coverage of important issues with Jerry. He was a fiery, passionate man with a strong sense of humor and the absurd, and a ‘Damn
6 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Jerry Klein (1952-2018) the torpedoes’ attitude that caused some to oppose his efforts, but which we at CL found to be right up our alley. He is already missed.” Joe Wilson, the host of WCCB’s Wilson’s World, said he got his “big break” working on Klein’s show on WBT. “Jerry forced me to step out of my shoes and look at things in a different way,” Wilson said. “He did that for a lot of people. To this day, I’m grateful for that — as young as I was — to have been around someone who literally ‘let his freak flag fly’ every day. It made an impression.” Born in Philadelphia, Klein moved to Charlotte at 3 years old. In the ’90s, he was a talk show host on WBT-AM, where he railed against many of the same injustices he covered in the pages of Creative Loafing. In 2015, Klein wrote a column for CL titled “The Night They Missed,” recalling the time someone shot at him while he got out of his car at the WBT studios one night. In the early 2000s, Klein moved to Washington, D.C., and married his highschool sweetheart. He found a job with WMAL, serving as the token liberal at a station known for giving Rush Limbaugh his platform. Klein made headlines in 2006 when, during his WMAL show, he sardonically called for all Muslims to be rounded up and marked with an identifying tattoo. Near the end of the program, he proclaimed that his remarks were a hoax, then went on a rant indicting the many callers who had phoned in to agree with him, comparing them to those living in Nazi Germany. It was an experiment that today could be called trolling at its best. Creative Loafing mourns the loss of Jerry Klein. In our 31 years, there has never been, nor will there be, a talent quite like his. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK
WATCH THIS One man in south Charlotte
was all wound up when he discovered that his watch was taken from his own yard. According to the police report, the 50-yearold man was working in his yard when he took his timepiece off his wrist and placed it on top of some stones so that it would not get dirty. He now probably wishes he would’ve just let it get dirty, because he walked off without picking the watch up. That was a big mistake, considering the 18-karat, Patek Phillipe Calatrava watch worth $24,000 was gone by the time he went back outside. Now, the ticked off man is asking police for a second hand in finding it.
EASY PEASY In another demonstration of a complete lack of awareness, a woman reported her car stolen last week in the Yorkmount neighborhood of southwest Charlotte. Per the incident report filed with the police department, the victim stated that around 7:40 p.m., an unkown suspect absconded with her 1991 Lincoln Town Car. The woman told police that she left the car unlocked and running in the parking lot of a QuikTrip gas station on East Woodlawn Road, and that’s when someone decided to take a quick trip the hell out of there with her car. MUSIC-GO-ROUND Someone presumably
wanted to start a band in southwest Charlotte last week, but had no capital to get the ball rock ‘n’ rolling, so resorted to burglary. According to an 82-year-old victim, unknown suspects broke into his Arbor Glen home and left with an array of 15 different musical items and equipment, including commemorative guitars, bass guitars, keyboards and a synthesizer. According to the report, the overall value of all the items stolen is about $5,600. Although the Beastie Boys fought for your right to party, this isn’t what they meant. Not very punk of the suspects to be preying on the elderly ... or any musicians ... or any people, for that matter.
MAD AT FATHER One person was presumably not happy about a certain pizza company leader’s racist verbiage, or was just really hungry, but whatever their motive, a would-be thief was sent packing with no food or money in east Charlotte last week. Police responded to an attempted break-in call at a Papa John’s on Cambridge Commons Drive after an unknown suspect tried to enter the premises around 1:48 a.m. early in August by throwing a cinder block through the front door of the business. They didn’t quite have the arm they thought they did, however, and weren’t able to break the glass or enter the business. The suspect did do about $1,000 worth of damage to the front windows of the pizzeria. Perhaps they should look for “better ingredients, better pizza, cheaper glass.”
HAULED AWAY Everyone’s go-to moving
company, U-Haul, had a jam-packed week full of incidents recently when four separate occasions called for police reports. The first one involved an abandoned 26-foot moving van found in the cellphone lot of CharlotteDouglas International Airport. When police arrived around 9:50 p.m., they found the vehicle unoccupied and through a registration check, discovered it was a rental truck that had not been returned on the due date. Immediately after, a report filed by a different officer was entered for another abandoned U-Haul vehicle found in a west Charlotte neighborhood. Apparently, people don’t understand the concept of rentals, because two more reports came in later that same morning stating that two U-Haul vehicles were not returned to a U-Haul center in southwest Charlotte, per the rental agreements, at the end of July. We can only presume that the sudden boom in Charlotte population is causing this high demand for moving trucks.
DV-DON’T Earlier this month, one woman presumably could not wait for her favorite movie titles to hit Netflix streaming services, as she was caught attempting to steal a myriad of DVDs from a Walmart in Matthews. According to the report, the witness saw the suspect stuff 11 DVDs, totaling $180.56, into her purse and attempt to walk pout of the store. Maybe she was planning a really long movie marathon, but there’s no bingewatching where she’s going. OH, DEAR Officers were outsmarted in
south Charlotte when they tried to set up a surveillance sting in a park that had been seeing lots of theft lately but then became victims themselves. Officers set up a deer camera at William R. Davie Park off PinevilleMatthews Road in response to a rash of car break-ins there. When officers returned five days later to pick up the camera and see if they caught anyone in the act, they found that a thief had made off with the camera itself, worth $75.
WHAT A PRICK One business in the NoDa
neighborhood was on pins and needles when a suspect made off with a succulent plant in the middle of the night last week. Pura Vida Worldly Art filed a report online with the police after some prick stole a cactus from a flowerpot just outside on the property between 1:13 and 1:14 a.m. last week. On Facebook, store owner Teresa Hernández posted video of the hooded-and-gloved man walking on North Davidson Street with a friend before grabbing the cactus and pulling it out of the dirt, roots and all, then crossing the street as if nothing had happened. Some of y’all really need a hobby.
All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty. CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 7
NEWS
FEATURE
THAT WAS THE DECADE THAT WAS Frye Gaillard’s epic history of the ’60s offers a peek at the present BY JOHN GROOMS Frye Gaillard
O
N APRIL 13, 1963 — both
Friday the 13th and Good Friday — Frye Gaillard was 16 years old and part of a high school field trip from Mobile to Birmingham, Alabama. A descendant of wealthy former slave owners, and the son of a circuit court judge, Gaillard’s world was shaken then as he watched Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. get arrested after a day of demonstrations against legal segregation. “As I was leaving the hotel, there was Dr. King, barely three feet from where I was standing,” Gaillard recounts in his new jaw-dropping popular history of the 1960s, A Hard Rain. “Two Birmingham policemen were shoving him roughly up the sidewalk ... he looked so small and there seemed to be a sadness in his deep, expressive eyes … [That moment] shattered an illusion that everything was fine, that the racial problems in the South would subside if not for ‘agitators’ like King.” Suddenly, the civil rights movement had a face for Gaillard, and it was Dr. King’s. Later in the same chapter, he writes, “Looking back, I’m certain that it set me on the path to becoming a writer.” Over 50 years and 20-something books later, that awed teenager in Alabama is writer-in-residence at the University of South Alabama, and a venerable author whose new book traces the history of the raucous decade in which he and this writer both grew up. The resulting work is one of those culmination-of-a-life’s-work books most non-fiction writers can only dream about. A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, Our Lost Decade of Hope, Possibility and Innocence Lost is a powerful, engaging mix of concise, hard reporting with a strong narrative thrust and a personal touch. Even a mere list of the events and topics Gaillard relates in the book is longer than I have space to accommodate. Suffice it to say that he expertly condenses and clarifies all the highlights ’60s: civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the race to the moon, Vietnam, war protests, the beginnings of both the women’s liberation movement and modern environmentalism, drugs, music, the arts — and that list barely covers it. Besides the MLK Jr. incident, Gaillard 8 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
BOOK COVER COURTESY OF NEWSOUTH BOOKS
also writes about meeting both Alabama Gov. George Wallace and U.S. Sen. Bobby Kennedy in 1968, both of whom he helped bring to Vanderbilt University when he was head of the group that invited speakers to campus (Kennedy was deferential and curious about the campus; Wallace merely wanted to know if “any niggers are in the audience”). A Hard Rain has received a wealth of rave pre-publication reviews from major critics and historians. It’s also a great read, in Gaillard’s trademark knowledgeable but casual, nearly conversational style. Even though he first came to public attention as a fine reporter on race relations, Gaillard elicits a much broader historical and cultural landscape for this book, something he felt he needed to do in order to convey the constant rush of multifaceted changes that marked the ’60s. When he saw Dr. King arrested that day in ’63, Frye no doubt had other things on his teenaged mind, as well. He, along with any
kids around his age in 1963, had probably heard popular music on the radio that day, no doubt including “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons, representing the newly popular girl group phenomenon that was reinvesting rock ‘n’ roll with needed vitality; “Walk Right In” by the Rooftop Singers, a hint of the early ’60s folk revival that still influences popular music to this day. He had no doubt seen some of the groundbreaking movies that had won Oscars the week before: The Miracle Worker, Lawrence of Arabia or, of course, To Kill A Mockingbird. An avid reader, he was at least aware of some of that year’s top literary bestsellers: The Bell Jar, the novel by poet Sylvia Plath, whose suicide two months earlier had shot her to posthumous fame and heralded a new, darkly confessional style of poetry; Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, a founding document of the coming wave of feminism, also published two months earlier; The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by new
PHOTO COURTESY OF FRYE GAILLARD
author John LeCarre, which would change spy novels forever; and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, which served as a reality check for white readers in learning how black Americans really experienced the United States. Reporting that kind of normal concurrence of events in order to give a feel for what it was like to live in a certain era — which, for what it’s worth, is what this history lover is most interested in grasping — has eluded many writers. For a book on the ’60s, it seems important to try, seeing as how the decade was marked by a rush of major, tumultuous actions on all cultural fronts; in other words, a mega-boatload of new, mind-opening stuff was going on nearly all the time everywhere. Very few histories of the ’60s have come close to getting across what it felt like to be a young American living through that headlong leap into a new world. That, nonetheless, is what Gaillard has done, and I find it the most impressive feature of A Hard Rain. It wasn’t an easy sentiment for Gaillard to get across in print. “As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I struggled with most,” Gaillard told me. “I figured other, younger historians will be sifting through the available historical record and uncovering things we don’t know about, like the guy who recently found that Nixon really had personally sabotaged the Vietnamese peace talks in 1968 to aid his election. I knew those historians would bring some fresh perspective to it, but you and I were part of the generation that went from being kids to young adults during that time. And thinking about what that felt like.” Gaillard said he began to realize how each element of pop culture and current events played into the zeitgeist of the moment: the music, the politics, the movies, the arts, the Space Race, the beginnings of the women’s movement and everything that eventually led up to the disaffection that would come later, as protests grew larger and no change came. “It’s almost like you had to be there to feel what that was like and that’s what I wanted to do, to capture how that felt as well as to sketch out what happened,” Gaillard said. “I was stuck for months trying to figure out how to approach it, how to organize the book so that it could include all the various influences without becoming bogged down. It finally occurred to me to simply
U.N.C C FOOTBALL BE PART OF THE EXCITEMENT
HIRING EVENT STAFF (USHERS, TICKETS TAKERS) & SECURITY FOR UPCOMING 2018-19 SEASON
2018 JOB FAIR AND ORIENTATION SATURDAY AUGUST 25th JOB FAIR FOR NEW APPLICANTS 10:00 AM TO 12:00PM ORIENTATION FOR NEW & RETURNING EMPLOYEES 12:00PM TO 2:00PM
Enter UNCC off of North Tryon Street at Institute Circle, to Robert D Synder Road, to Philips Road Park in the Stadium Parking Lot, look for the job fair signs
JERRY RICHARDSON FOOTBALL STADIUM AT UNC CHARLOTTE The Epic building is next to the UNCC football stadium
8700 PHILIPS RD. CHARLOTTE, NC 28223 We are seeking energetic people ages 18 and older. People with criminal records need not apply. Background checks will be conducted. Must bring social security card and a state issued driver’s license or ID. Bobby Kennedy gets an earful from Gaillard before Kennedy addresses a crowd at Vanderbilt University in 1968. organize it year by year. And when I did that, weaving various things through the events of each year, the sheer chronology became the thread that keeps the reader from getting lost, particularly readers who weren’t there at the time.” So why should a young person today give a rip about a book about the ’60s? Gaillard pointed out that many of the social justice movements you see today — from Black Lives Matter to MeToo to March For Our Lives — are rooted in the ’60s. “It’s no cliché that the seeds of our time now were largely planted during that decade,” Gaillard said. “In fact, that was one of the dominant storylines of the decade: the idealistic belief that things can be made better. And then the other story arc was tragedy, violence, despair, the darker arc that has also re-arisen in our own time. It was there — the demagoguery of George Wallace in those days, to me, was strikingly similar to the demagoguery of Donald Trump, as well as of his supporters in Congress we hear today. The cynicism of Richard Nixon, I feel, is sadly very similar to what I now associate with the whole Republican Party, now that they’ve almost totally caved in to Trump.” In the end, one sentence by Gaillard seems, to me, to sum up the heart of what it felt like to be young and paying attention in the ’60s: “It often seemed in the 1960s that for every shimmering moment of hope, there was always a price to be paid in blood.” I asked Frye, “So considering the whipsaw
PHOTO COURTESY OF FRYE GAILLARD
‘A HARD RAIN: AMERICA IN THE 1960S, OUR LOST DECADE OF HOPE, POSSIBILITY AND INNOCENCE LOST’ By Frye Gaillard; $35; 700 pages; NewSouth Books; amazon.com
effects of the constant back and forth between real progress and bloodshed, what is the decade’s real legacy?” His answer showed a certain optimism that can be hard to come across in today’s political climate, “I think we have to define it for ourselves,” he replied. “I’ve always tried to present it as a legacy of idealism despite the forces that worked against it. And I used to think that American history was this slow, torturous march in the direction of living up to our ideals. But now, based on what we’re seeing in politics today, I’m worried that maybe history doesn’t necessarily ‘bend toward justice,’ as Dr. King put it. In any case, there’s that story we can draw on, of the decade’s idealism and activism, for strength and perspective if we want to. But it’s also a story that reminds us of how tragic things can be and how wrong things can go if we don’t work at it and get lucky too.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 9
NEWS
NEWS OF THE WERID
HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
Armed thieves in New Delhi, India, left a craftsman deep in debt after they made off with 500 pounds of wigs and raw hair worth more than $20,000 on July 27, according to the Associated Press. “People think wigs are cheap, but they cost a fortune to make,” wig-maker Jahangir Hussain said. In fact, he had borrowed more than $17,000 to buy hair last month from South Indian wholesalers. India exports wigs and hair extensions to the tune of $300 million a year; much of the raw materials are collected at Hindu temples where people shave their heads as a religious sacrifice, a practice called tonsuring.
CELLO, GOODBYE Chicago cellist Jingjing Hu, a student at the DePaul University School of Music, found herself being escorted off an American Airlines flight on Aug. 2 after trying to return to Chicago from Miami with her instrument. Hu paid in advance for an extra seat for her cello, worth almost $30,000 and housed in a hard case, and had no trouble on her flight from Chicago to Miami, where she participated in a music festival. But on her return trip, after boarding the Boeing 737 and settling herself and her cello into their seats, a flight attendant approached her and told her she would have to leave the plane because the aircraft was too small for her instrument. Hu was booked on a flight the next day on a 767. American blamed the incident on a “miscommunication,” according to WBBM TV, but Hu’s husband, Jay Tang, said, “I don’t think we did anything wrong here, and I think the way they handled it was humiliating.” PROBLEM-SOLVER The list of offenses
was long when Franklyn Williams, 32, appeared in Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court on July 31 to be sentenced for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, theft, misuse of credit cards and more — including cutting off his ankle bracelet late last year and fleeing to Nebraska, where he claimed he was hit over the head and lost his memory. But it was his courtroom behavior that spurred Judge John Russo to call for an extreme measure. During the hearing, Williams would not stop talking, even interrupting his own lawyers repeatedly over about 30 minutes. Finally, Russo ordered deputies to tape the defendant’s mouth shut, reported FOX 8 in Cleveland. Williams continued to talk until deputies applied more tape, and finally Russo sentenced him to 24 years in prison.
SO MANY QUESTIONS When an employee of Sarabeth’s restaurant in New York City opened the walk-in freezer door on Aug. 5, a man jumped out, yelling, “Away from me, Satan!” and grabbed a knife from the kitchen, which he used to threaten restaurant 10 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
staff. Carlton Henderson, 54, of Cave Creek, Arizona, struggled with workers but eventually fell unconscious and was transported to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the New York Post reported. Authorities don’t know (1) why and how he entered the freezer and (2) why he died, but they did determine he was charged last year with two 1988 cold-case murders in Boston. He had been released on bail the week before the freezer incident and was scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 14.
RIPE West Valley City, Utah, has a malodorous
mystery on its hands. The community stinks, and for the past year, officials have been fielding complaints about the smell, which city communications director Sam Johnson described as “a musty sewer smell ... that you can smell in certain parts of the city stronger,” according to FOX 13. The city has now launched a campaign recruiting residents to help pinpoint the source of the odor: “If you smell something, say something.” They’re hoping more complaints will spur Salt Lake County and Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality to investigate and take action.
BRIGHT IDEA! Zemarcuis Devon Scott,
18, of Texarkana, Arkansas, really wanted to attend a rap concert in another state, so on July 4 he executed his plan to get there: Scott was seen by Texarkana Regional Airport security officers around 2:30 a.m. jumping a fence and trying to get into an American Eagle twin-engine jet parked there. When police arrived, Scott was inside the cockpit, sitting in the pilot’s seat, the Texarkana Gazette reported. Scott, not a licensed pilot, told officers he thought there wasn’t much more to flying a plane than pushing buttons and pulling levers. On July 31, he was charged with commercial burglary and attempted theft; he’s been grounded at the Miller County jail.
NERD ALERT Who knew? Apparently the
unofficial “uniform” for Bay Area techies and venture capital investors is a vest, so the Japanese company Uniqlo is cashing in with a vest vending machine at the San Francisco International Airport. The airport’s public information officer, Doug Yakel, says the machine is no joke; it earns $10,000 a month on average. Do the math: At $49.90 apiece, the company is selling about 200 of its ultralight down vests each month. “This is the first time we’ve had clothing available for sale from a vending machine, which we thought was very unique,” Yakel told Business Insider.
LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINAL The
Baltimore Sun reported that a driver’s license
examiner in Glen Burnie, Maryland, got a whiff of something illegal on Aug. 6 when she approached a car about to be used in a driving test. She called Maryland State Police, who found Reginald D. Wooding Jr., 22, of Baltimore waiting in his mother’s car to take his test. But he never got the chance: Wooding was in possession of marijuana, a scale, more than $15,000 in suspected drugrelated money and a 9mm Glock handgun with a loaded 30-round magazine.
COMPELLING
EXPLANATION In Bluffton, South Carolina, 32-year-old Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw informed police officers she was a former cheerleader, sorority girl, good student and National Honor Society member after they pulled her over at 1:45 a.m. on Aug. 4 for running a stop sign at 30 mph over the speed limit. According to The Island Packet, she also told officers she shouldn’t be arrested because she’s a “very clean, thoroughbred, white girl.” She said she’d had only two glasses of wine, but then allowed, “I mean, I was celebrating my birthday.” Police arrested her anyway and booked her into the Beaufort County Detention Center.
QUESTIONABLE JUDGMENT Farah
Hashi, 25, of Newport, Wales, is “mad about cars,” so while he was visiting friends in Dubai, they arranged for him to drive a $350,000 Lamborghini Huracan. Hashi, who has one leg shorter than the other and typically drives a custom Vauxhall Corsa mobility car, took full advantage: He was caught on roadside cameras 33 times in less than four hours on Aug. 7 as he reached a top speed of 150 mph and racked up more than $47,000 in speeding fines. Farah’s brother, Adnan Hashi, said the rental company went to Hashi’s hotel room and seized his passport after the fines were issued, so Hashi is stuck in Dubai until the mess can be sorted out. “There is no way he has that money,” Adnan told the BBC. “He is out of work at the minute and went to Dubai to visit friends.”
SUSPICIONS
CONFIRMED Airport security at Berlin’s Schonefeld Airport evacuated a terminal on Aug. 7 after spotting “suspicious content in a luggage piece” during a routine X-ray, according to CNN. The bag’s unnamed owner was summoned, but he was reluctant to identify the mysterious items, calling them just “technical stuff.” After an hourlong investigation involving the bomb squad, the 31-year-old traveler admitted to federal police that the items were sex toys, including a vibrator, he had brought along for his girlfriend. He was allowed to proceed with his trip, and the terminal reopened shortly afterward. COPYRIGHT 2017 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
RECYCLE ME, PLEASE (Only after you’re done reading me)
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 11
FOOD
COVERSTORY
A FRESH START Efforts to close the food access gap in Charlotte are finally gaining ground BY RYAN PITKIN
O
N A RECENT Saturday morning, during the first farmer’s market hosted solely by Johnson C. Smith University’s Sustainability Village program, chef Njathi Kabui went to work on a breakfast dish as he explained his cooking process to anyone who wanted to listen. He began with an eggplant that he brought from his own garden. He sautéed the eggplant in a pot then began adding ingredients: diced tomatoes, onions, rosemary, basil, parsley, coriander, a small amount of peach, a few cracked eggs and a bit of ngaingai, a Congolese plant with a citrusy taste. As he finished, he began scooping out the green and yellow grub and placing it on slices of seven-grain bread, then topping each one with a thin slice of cucumber before serving them to anyone in attendance, free of charge. His most important ingredient, however, was one that no one saw him toss in the pot: social justice. “I call it Afrofuturistic conscious cuisine,” he told me when I asked how he describes his food. “It’s cuisine that is steeped in the South and the struggle for justice and the influence of African food in the South. I understand food to be one of the most political things you ever touch in your life. People cannot be politically free if they don’t have control of their food.” And in that statement, Chef Kabui wrapped up the driving force behind a movement that has become stronger in Charlotte over the last two years; a movement to not only confront the food access gap in some of Charlotte’s most underserved communities, but to tackle it head-on. Organizations like the Sustainability Village, The Bulb and Rosa Parks Farmers Market in west Charlotte have been working — often together — to bring farm fresh foods to communities that have not historically had access to it. The expression most folks use is a food desert, but Kabui calls that a loaded term. “To say that there’s a food desert, OK, food doesn’t grow in the desert, but why do we use that word in actuality?” he asked. “The reason why we use that word is to make the crime of denying a people power less cynical or less biting. The reason why there are no foods in certain parts of the United States — one of the richest countries on the planet — is because people decide that those people should be powerless.” And that’s why Kabui, who has traveled 12 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
PHOTO BY DANA VINDIGNI
Alisha Pruett with her new trailer on a recent morning in Druid Hills. In the trailer is Trenisha Birtha and her two sons. Students with the organization have Organizers at the Rosa Parks Farmers the country teaching cooking demonstrations carried out community surveys by going doorand giving speeches about food and its ties to Market have addressed both of these needs. As for SNAP, organizers were happy to to-door and are constantly seeking feedback social justice, has been happy to partner with the Sustainability Village and the Rosa Parks oblige. Not only that, they encouraged it. from people who attend the market. “We try to have as much as they will Royal said that Rosa Parks Farmers Market is Farmers Market for the last three summers. the only farmers market that offers “Double potentially use, so we grow products that they TO BE FOOD insecure means to not have Bucks,” meaning that customers can redeem up want rather than the ones that we think they reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. to $20 worth of SNAP benefits and buy double would like,” Montanez said. Another bit of feedback Sustainability Mecklenburg County’s food insecurity rate is that amount worth of fruits and vegetables. 16.4 percent, according to a report recently “In a month, we’re able to enhance a Village organizers heard was that residents released by an independent consulting firm family’s nutrition intake by $80 worth of have a hard time reaching the Rosa Parks market on Tuesday afternoon, according to hired by the county. That percentage, which food,” Royal said. is higher than the national average of 13.4 As for the other feedback heard by Rosa Dr. Philip Otienoburu, director at Johnson percent, means that 173,000 Mecklenburg Parks market organizers, much of the food C. Smith’s Center for Renewable Energy and residents are food insecure. being offered at the market comes not only Sustainability. “It’s still a big barrier for people to access Opened in June 2016 as a partnership from people of color, but from students the market,” Otienoburu said. “Most people between the Mecklenburg County Health learning their trade right next door. Department and Johnson C. Smith and the Johnson C. Smith’s Sustainability Village tell us that they’d prefer to have a Saturday Historic West End Partners, the Rosa Parks is a program that was launched in 2013 and market, because that aligns with their Farmers Market aims to bring that number played a big role in helping the Rosa Parks shopping schedule and is the time when they down in the Beatties Ford corridor. Farmers Market get its start. The initiative have free time available from work.” He said that Saturday’s Sustainability More than a year before opening, the was launched to address food access issues in county formed the Rosa Parks Farmers Market the city’s northwest corridor. The program Village market was just a pilot program, and Community Advisory Council (RPCAC), made makes use of raised beds, aquaponics and he plans to hold two more — one every other up of community members in an effort to hydroponic systems housed right on campus to Saturday — to test whether enough people find what residents would like to see in a local help educate students and provide community will come to make it worthwhile to bring on more vendors beside just the Sustainability farmers market. members with accessible, healthy food. “We build things and then we expect During a recent Rosa Parks Farmers Village students. The first Saturday market people to come,” said Elliot Royal, food Market, which is held every Tuesday from 3 to drew about a dozen customers in the first access coordinator with the county’s health 7 p.m., a group of students sat behind baskets couple of hours when Creative Loafing was department. “But we wanted to build what of organic squash, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, there. The next one will be held on September peaches, tomatoes, okra, mint and more that 1 at 8 a.m. that area was interested in.” Though it may take time for residents Some of the key points coming from had been grown on campus just a block away. Brenda Montanez, a biology major to catch on to the Saturday markets, community members included the desire to see people of color working the market. They working with Sustainability Village, said the Sustainability Village will be moving full also wanted the market to accept EBT cards, selection was based on community feedback, steam ahead. On Wednesday, August 22, allowing them to use their Supplemental rather than trying to tell folks what they Otienoburu and the rest of the Sustainability Village crew will host a groundbreaking for Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. should be eating.
only growing food but also preparing food at home,” he said. “Because the culture of cooking is eroding in the community, and we can’t just present a farmers market to the neighborhoods around here without guiding them on how to prepare their foods. These two things go hand in hand.” The idea has been a hit, as Kabui has built a following of regulars who attend the Tuesday markets just to learn new tricks from him. “It’s a very, very special opportunity for me and it’s something that’s very dear across my heart,” Kabui said. “To look at people who are from underserved communities who are really beginning to understand food in a very complex way is very interesting to me; to see how people can begin to make very fundamental changes where they understand exactly the big implications of food.”
“THE REASON WHY WE USE THE WORD [FOOD DESERT] IS TO MAKE THE CRIME OF DENYING A PEOPLE POWER LESS CYNICAL OR LESS BITING.”
THE BIG IMPLICATIONS of food are not lost on Alisha Pruett. As a social worker who moved to Charlotte from New York City in 2012, Pruett worked to find housing for homeless veterans. She quickly recognized the issues surrounding food accessibility in certain communities around the city. “I would house [clients] and I would realize they were away from food access or food resources and even referring them to food pantries was a haul for them,” Pruett said. Furthermore, when she would go to the food pantries herself to pick up food for her clients, she realized that all of the food was processed. “Even though that was a great resource, it was just not healthy food for the people I was serving. Diabetes was rampant in my caseload,” Pruett said. “I didn’t feel comfortable with that, so I started going to farmer’s markets and gleaning off of what
ROSA PARKS FARMERS MARKET Free; August 28, 3-7 p.m., every Tuesday through September 25; 1600 W. Trade St.; facebook.com/ RosaParksFarmersMarket
they couldn’t sell.” Little did she know that her efforts to feed a family or two with the leftovers from farmers market vendors would turn into The Bulb, an organization she founded that now hands out an average of 800 pounds of fresh food per day to 30 underserved communities in and around Charlotte. Pruett partners with local farmers, local organizations like Friendship Gardens, farmers markets and corporations like Trader Joe’s to provide residentss in food insecure neighborhoods with healthy food. Since launching in October 2016, The Bulb has provided nearly 10,000 pounds of free, fresh food to the communities that need it the most. On a recent Thursday afternoon, I met Caroline Miller, a volunteer with The Bulb, at the Charlotte Transportation Center for a free market she helps organize there between 3 and 5 p.m. each week. When I arrived, Miller already had a tent and a table set up with piles of fruits and veggies including apples, eggplants, squash, lemons, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, eggs and peppers of all shapes and colors. Some folks knowingly approached and began filling up bags, while it took others some time to realize that the cornucopia of fresh foods in front of them was for the taking.
NJATHI KABUI, CHEF, ROSA PARKS FARMERS MARKET PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
three new greenhouses that are expected to quadruple food production on the campus, providing year-round nourishment for underserved communities on the west side. The expansion comes thanks to a $325,000 investment from Blue Cross Blue Shield. Vivian Stuart, interim chair of the RPCAC, hopes the market can not only serve food but also help turn around a struggling piece of land. This summer, the market moved from the Mecklenburg County Health Department on Beatties Ford Road to a parking lot on West Trade Street. Across the street, the Mosaic Village flourishes, but the old A&P Grocery still stands boarded up and abandoned in the lot where the farmers market now operates. Last year, there were reports of a restaurant incubator opening in the building, but nothing has come of it.
“It’s a wonderful feeling for us, because they talk about the so-called food desert, and this is bringing fresh, affordable food to the community,” Stuart said during a recent market. “I can see it’s going to rejuvenate this area. And that building, one day we expect it to open, and that will be also an advantage to the community.” With all the fresh food coming into the community, folks need to know what to do with it. Upon the launch of the Rosa Parks Farmers Market in 2016, Otienoburu recruited Chef Kabui to hold cooking demonstrations there so community members could learn ways to take advantage of the new foods available to them. “One thing that we wanted to do was, one, increase food access in the corridor, but also create the local capacity for not
Birtha (left) works at The Bulb’s Transit Center market. Stephen Hayes picks out ingredients for a lasagna.
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 13
Some of the offerings at The Bulb’s recent Transit Center market. As Miller worked alongside new Bulb employee Trenisha Birtha, the two were sure to meet each and every customer who approached the table, asking their names even while rushing to replace the rapidly diminishing piles of food on the tables. Stephen Hayes, a north Charlotte resident who was at the Transit Center to commute between his day job and night job, filled a bag with zucchini, squash and spring onions that he said he would use for a casserole; eggplant for lasagna; and red peppers that he would find a use for in whatever he cooked, he said. “This means a lot to me,” Hayes said. “This saved me 20 bucks. I’m not spending money that I work hard for but I really don’t get to see.” It’s a sentiment that Pruett has seen shared again and again from thankful customers, some of whom don’t have the ability to work two jobs like Hayes and are on a very fixed income. “The average people we serve only have $15 in SNAP, and they really are struggling to get food,” Pruett said. “The corner store markets or Burger King, they’re expensive meal for meal, and a lot of people are saving money and putting their money toward rent. I have seen — especially in the affordable housing units we serve — the eviction rates are going down, because they’re saving about $200 a month with us being there weekly.” Miller, who used to volunteer for Friendship Gardens but now focuses all of her energy on The Bulb, said she’s been blown away by the generosity of customers who attend the Transit Center market. “I’ve been most amazed at how appreciative people are that we’re here for them, how overwhelmed they are that we’re actually just giving it to them,” Miller said. “And also how much they want to help us. I find now that every time I show up for this market, I have this plethora of people that 14 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
want to help set up and they ask about how they can get involved and help or volunteer. And these are the people in the community who are so affected by this generosity and what Alisha’s created. I think it inspires them to give back as well.” In fact, that’s how Birtha got involved. She met Pruett through the market and volunteered to help. Then, in late July, The Bulb received a grant from the North End Smart District that would fund The Bulb for four months while it served eight North End neighborhoods on a weekly basis. The grant didn’t just help with gas money and other supplies, it also allowed Pruett to make a much-needed expansion, hiring three people from inside the neighborhoods she serves. One of them was Birtha, who now works as an outreach coordinator with the organization. She said her goal is to one day start her own nonprofit, and her new job as put her on that path. “Alisha needed help, and this is something that’s perfect for me,” Birtha said. “I’m dealing with people that I’m comfortable with. I’m giving back. I can bring my kids. This is just always something that I wanted to do. I feel like it’s a blessing because I didn’t know where to start, and I got my start.” While tents and tables like the one at the Transit Center used to be the norm, Pruett was able to take her market on the road this past June after completing a Feeding Innovation seed-starter program and receiving a grant from the SC Community Loan Fund. The grant made it possible for her to buy a trailer. She’s now able to drive around and set up shop much more comfortably in the communities she serves. Quicker set ups and takedowns allow her to hit more spots in a day, as well. Once she arrives at a new location, she said, that’s when the magic happens. That
was evident on a recent morning in the Druid Hills neighborhood in north Charlotte, when two women got to talking while filling bags with veggies. The women were neighbors but had never met. Soon they were swapping stories and recipes. “When you bring that nourishment to every community, you see people actually feeling better, communing around our truck or tables, and a lot of people start talking about recipes and what they’re going to cook this Sunday, like we just heard,” Pruett said. “So I do think that it’s a lot more than just distributing food, like other programs might. We know everyone’s name and we try to initiate a conversation on how we get better as a community.” Pruett often hosts cooking demonstrations wherever she sets up shop, similar to what Chef Kabui does at the Rosa Parks Farmers Market. Within the next year, she hopes to introduce a new type of community building by hosting art workshops out of the trailer while she’s serving food. She wants to allow folks to sell their art out of the trailer, giving them an opportunity to profit as creatives. But in the immediate future, she’ll be unveiling a new kind of art, as the Charlottebased design firm The Plaid Penguin is currently working on a wrap for the new trailer, which is currently a plain white. She plans to show off the newly decked-out trailer at the Rosa Parks Farmers Market on Tuesday, August 28. Pruett tries to be a vendor at the market as often as possible. “That market is quintessential,” Pruett said when I brought up Rosa Parks. “It’s not just a market, it’s servicing the neighborhood, and seeing all these organizations come together and farmers and cooks and chefs, that’s basically an ideal thing for us. That’s the pinnacle example. We want to do that on the road.” Also at the market that day, you can expect to see Chef Kabui teaching folks how to make great food, all the while tying it in with the one thing he finds most important: empowering communities. Kabui doesn’t drive down from his home in Apex on a weekly basis just to throw some things in a pot and call it a day. He — like Stuart, like Pruett, like Royal, like Birtha — has a vision. “The reason why the market is here is because of the very foundational unsustainability of the cultural and business practices that we have in this country, in the South and globally,” he said. “We do things without thinking long-term. We do things that are for market reasons, just on the bottom line, ‘How much money am I making?’ Obviously, now we are thinking slightly different. We have come to the realization that that’s not always the smartest thing to do. “As we reinvigorate this market, I hope that the message can be driven home that we have to make very, very fundamental changes, and among those are the way that we eat, the way we think about food and the relationship that we have with food, as a foundation for creating more just and more equitable societies.” And it all starts with one corridor. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
tAcOlUcHaFeSt.cOm
fOr mOrE iNfO vIsIt:
Luc ha o c a T
bY PrEsEnTeD
9.29.18
with music by
tIcKeTs
oN sAlE N
oW
! vIp 12:30 Ga 2Pm- 9Pm 9P LaTe eNt Ry 6-9p m M
&
also g: n i r u t a fe
CoOmlorIeo!
plus many
b
g n i t t i enef
LiVe E r O d A h C u L ! G n I l T s E Wr CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 15
THURSDAY
23
QUEEN CITY ANIME CONVENTION What: From the gadget-enamored animated series Speed Racer to the philosophical quandaries of Death Note, anime is a big tent, so kudos to this con for touching all the bases. Special guests include voice performers for productions like Sailor Moon to Stardust Crusaders. The four-day event also features a cosplay contest, an anime marketplace, a video game room with tournaments, and a drag show – because that’s cosplay, right? When: 8 p.m. Where: Hilton Charlotte University Place, 8629 J. M. Keynes Dr. More: $15 and up. queencityanimecon.com
16 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
THURSDAY
23
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Refresh Records Anniversary Party: Junior Astronomers SATURDAY
PHOTO BY NICKI ROHLOFF
FRIDAY
FRIDAY
24
24
MISS GAY NORTH CAROLINA AMERICA PAGEANT
BEST DAMN RAP SHOW PERIOD
What: This statewide drag competition picks an N.C. representative to go on to the Miss Gay America Pageant in the fall. Last year’s winner, Eden Parque Divine, will be honored and she’s chosen the pageant’s theme: Garden of Eden. Contestants must devise a costume that embodies the theme — their interpretation of wild and lush foliage, with hopefully no bush. They have to be able to move about in their get-up without wheels and no snakes are allowed.
What: Tucked away in the oftforgotten but up-and-coming north side of NoDa, Crown Station has been stepping it up with everything from comedy shows to electronic dance parties to sets like this one, which includes a long list of Charlotte rap acts. Joining the party will be Phaze Gawd, Hayes Alexander, Indigo Jo, Alexander Mugen and more. Oh, and you can’t have the best damn rap show without the self-proclaimed best rapper in Charlotte, Jah-Monte.
What: Gull’s biography describes his sound as “a communal music broadcast of blood and bile left as an offering on the altar of sound.” Nathaniel Rappole is a one-man band at the pre-party of Refresh Record’s third anniversary. While his skull mask and squawking drums may put listeners off, it’s his mood and electronic melody that exudes emotion and spirit to keep people hooked. From ethereal songs like “Zhe” to more upbeat tunes like “Lurker,” Gull layers sounds and music to fill the room.
When: 9 p.m. Where: Crown Station, 3629 N. Davidson St. More: $7. crownstationpub.com
When: 9 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon Street More: $6; snuckrock.com
When: 10 p.m. Where: Scorpio, 2301 Freedom Dr. More: Free. thescorpio.com
GULL
SATURDAY
25
48 HOUR FILM PROJECT SCREENING What: What happens when you give a film production team a genre, a name, a prop, a line of dialogue and only 48 hours to create a film? A collection of over 25 shorts from over 500 local filmmakers. The films will be screened in two groups, but attendees are welcome to stay the whole day for both. Grab some popcorn and support the local film community while seeing some cool flicks. When: 2:30 & 6:45 Where: The Knight Gallery, 345 N. College Street More: $12; 48hourfilm.com/ charlotte-nc
Miss Gay North Carolina America THURSDAY
Tennessee Stiffs TUESDAY
The American South As We Know It TUESDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
SATURDAY
25
THREE’S A CROWD What: Let OTC Improv take you back to school with this Chicagostyle improv event that utilizes just three actors who will take any education-related suggestion from the audience and launch into a 20-minute play about it right there on the spot. Potential topics might include dating, fund raising, driver’s ed, in-school suspension and odd parenting skills, although now that we’ve said those you’re not allowed to use them. Stick around between the longer improvs for a few shortform games. When: 8 p.m. Where: Fort Mill Community Playhouse, 220 Main St., Fort Mill More: $8-10. otcimprov.com
COURTESY OF NOVA INITIA PRODUCTIONS
COURTESY OF TENNESSEE STIFFS
COURTESY OF AFTER SIX PHOTOGRPAPHY
SATURDAY
TUESDAY
TUESDAY
28
REFRESH RECORDS BIRTHDAY SHOWCASE
‘THE AMERICAN SOUTH AS WE KNOW IT’
POTIONS & PIXELS BOARD GAME NIGHT
What: Local record label Refresh Records is celebrating its third anniversary with a stellar lineup consisting of Junior Astronomers, Cuzco, Old Faith and Echo Courts. Since launching in 2015, Refresh Records has added 10 local bands to the label, and shows no signs of stopping there. The label also released a benefit album of which all the proceeds were donated to Southern Poverty Law Center, showing it’s not just about the tunes.
What: To many, August 28 is like any other day. But it carries certain implications for America’s black community. It’s the day Emmett Till was murdered, 250,000 people marched on Washington and Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Commemorate it with a screening of a documentary that explores the lives and experiences of African-Americans during the Jim Crow Era.
What: Never sit at home bored on a Potions & Pixels night. There are not your run-of-the-mill Monopoly or Risk board games. We’re talking about an expansive 150 options of board games, ranging from nostalgic to strategic to party games for the whole crew. Can’t choose? Game night hosts will help you learn a new game or give a recommendation. Pair your night of analog gaming with a list of good brews from Carolina Beer Temple.
When: 6-8 p.m. Where: Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St. More: $5 for non-members. ganttcenter.org
When: 7-10 p.m. Where: Carolina Beer Temple at Ayrsley, 2127 Ayrsley Town Blvd. Suite 101 More: Free; potionsandpixels.com
25
When: 8 p.m. Where: Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. More: $12-15; visulite.com
28
TUESDAY
28 TENNESSEE STIFFS What: The Tennessee Stiffs aren’t your typical Americana combo. This Austin quartet is coming from a mythic southland of the soul — a haunted roadhouse where forlorn country, barstool blues and 1970s hard rock boogie hold sway. Husband and wife team Ethan Lee and Cara B. Sadler lay on the spaghetti-western guitars and world-weary vocals with a trowel. It’s creepy cool and as southern gothic as Spanish moss, a crumbling mansion and an eerie cry in the dead of night. When: 8 p.m. Where: Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Rd. More: $5-7. themilestone.club
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 17
MUSIC
FEATURE
CORY M. WELLS EP Release/Tour Sendoff/Farewell Show August 25 at 7 p.m. Evening Muse, 3227 N Davidson St. $10-12. eveningmuse.com
GO WEST, YOUNG MAN With a final show, Cory M. Wells bids farewell to Charlotte BY PAT MORAN
W
HAT’S IN A name? Plenty, says Cory M.Wells. “One thing I learned about the music business is that it’s impossible to market a name that is already famous,” the singer-songwriter says. When Wells was still in his mother’s womb 32 years ago, he acquired his already famous name – along with a music business prophesy. “My mother named me after Cory Wells, who was the singer of Three Dog Night,” Wells reveals, adding that his mother was a huge fan of the soulful harmony-slinging pop trio who topped the charts in the 1970s with hits like “Joy to the World,” and “Mama Told Me (Not to Come).” But the story gets better, Wells promises. “My mother was actually at [a Three Dog Night] concert while she was pregnant with me,” he continues. Wells’ mother Coco Wells, who is a formidable songwriter in her own right, met her idol, the band’s lead singer, at the show. “Cory Wells actually rubbed her belly and said, ‘That’s going to be a musician,’” Wells says. “And lo and behold here I am.” In the course of 15 years on the Charlotte music scene, Wells has fulfilled the elder Wells’ prediction, but it hasn’t been a smooth ascent to the top. In fact, Wells will be performing his final Charlotte show at Evening Muse on August 25. After the farewell gig, Wells will tour out west for a month, and then he’ll settle down in Colorado to be close to family. Wells’ brother and mother both live in the Centennial State. It will be a bittersweet goodbye. Charlotte is where Wells launched his music career as a 17-year-old contestant on the Queen City Idol competition, and with the release of his latest EP, Out of the Dark, Wells shows that he’s at the peak of his powers as a darkly romantic tunesmith who cuts to the emotional core of the obsessions and dreams that make us tick, but he feels the Q.C. is no longer the best place to nurture his talent and ambition. “Charlotte is a very corporate town,” Wells says. “It’s more about cover artists in bars, than it is about original music venues.” He’s is quick to praise venues like the Muse, artist-supporting neighborhoods like Plaza Midwood and Noda, and talent like Catalyst Recording’s Rob Tavaglione, who engineered and co-produced Out of the Dark. But he also notes Charlotte’s propensity for tearing down the venues and cultural hotspots that bring people here in the first 18 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
“[Charlotte] is more about cover artists in bars than it is about original music venues.” CORY WELLS Cory M. Wells place. Past tours have exposed him to venues and local scenes out west, and the fit seems right for where Wells’ music is heading. “I think there is a broader spectrum of art out there,” he continues, “and a more eclectic vibe.” Born in New Orleans, Wells had a musical yet tumultuous upbringing. The family was constantly on the move, and Wells figures he lived in eight or nine states while he was growing up. Complementing her songwriting background, Coco Wells had married a radio disc jockey. At the age of 25 Cory discovered that the man he called dad was not his father. Wells says he met his biological father just one time. His stepfather turned out to be abusive, and by the time Wells was 12 years old he was being mistreated physically and verbally on a regular bases. Wells started acting out, and he was placed in two different group homes. He credits music for getting him through his trials and tribulations. “Songwriting was the only thing where I felt I could be 100 percent honest with
PHOTO BY DUAN DAVIS
myself,” Wells remembers. He started writing songs at 13. At 15 he taught himself to play guitar. Piano soon followed. He was an orchestra kid, playing violin in middle school and alto saxophone in high school. Through it all, his mother, who divorced Well’s stepfather, was Cory’s guiding light. “My mother was, still is, and always will be my biggest inspiration,” Wells maintains. “She has always been the strongest person I’ve ever known.” In her music career, Coco Wells has won the grand prize for songwriting by the Houston Chronicle and the Top 10% Award for lyrical content on her song “Change of Heart” issued by the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International). Last year, she joined her son onstage to perform a few of her songs. “She’s trying to pass her songs onto me now,” Wells says, laughing. He’s currently planning on covering her composition “Once in a Lifetime.” Coco also came up with the name for Cory’s debut musical venture, the duo Jacobs Well, a collaboration between the
17-year-old Wells and a singer named Scott Jacobs. At a long-since shuttered Charlotte venue called Club Crush, Jacobs Well vied for first place in the citywide Queen City Idol competition. Though the duo was technically too young to be in the club, they won the contest hands down. Wells’ music career was off and running. Two years later, Wells, along with drummer Austin Creech and bassist Dave Piontek, formed the hard rock band Manic. Within a year, the group was packing houses at Amos’ Southend, but all was not well with Manic. Wells and Piontek grew disenchanted with the band’s psychedelic hip-hop influenced hard rock. Deciding to take their music in an alternative pop direction, the pair formed Falling Through April. The band is currently signed and doing well, Wells says, but his muse eventually pulled him towards a solo career, and he left Falling Through April in 2014. In 2015, Wells launched his solo career, but not as Cory Wells or Cory M. Wells. He found that his moniker was a liability with audiences because they confused him with his namesake, the legendary lead singer for Three Dog Night. So he released the EP The New Old as Subliminal Confession. “I felt Subliminal Confession was the best description for my music,” Wells explains. Coming off the six or seven years of the grinding hard rock lifestyle, he was ready for a change. Wells relished the opportunity to explore the more poetic and melodic side of his personality and music. Though he doesn’t regret rocking out, he feels there is room for all forms of musical expression. “Every kind of music is effective if you write it and deliver it properly.” Despite Wells’ effective delivery, audiences never took to the name Subliminal Confession. “It was kind of hard to remember,” Wells says, adding that people would describe his concerts as a Cory Wells show no matter what he called it. So a few years back, Wells ditched the descriptive moniker, and started billing himself as Cory M. Wells to differentiate himself from Three Dog Night’s nowdeceased Cory Wells. Released last March, Wells’ video for his song “Running Wild” can be seen as a signpost for his current musical direction as he prepares to leave the town that has nurtured his career. Shot last October in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the video depicts Wells playing solo guitar on a rugged yet bucolic riverbank as he sings about coping with a long distance relationship. “The message is that just because you’re not physically at home, you can still feel at home,” Wells explains. “If you close your eyes and use your imagination, you can still feel the warm feeling of home.” It’s a fitting message from — and for — Wells as he prepares to make the road his home as he heads for points west. PMORAN@CLCLT.COM
MUSIC
MUSICMAKER
CHECK FOR THE LYRICS Yung Blaza has fans looking for a ‘Miracle’ SOPHIE WHISNANT
YUNG BLAZA, a fiery, lyrically-minded rapper, arrived on the Charlotte scene by way of Bank of America and the mortgage industry. Not the typical route for a hip-hop artist. After crunching mortgage rates for BofA among the other Uptown suits, Blaza decided to leave behind his life at a proper desk job when he noticed the creative opportunities Charlotte offered. He decided to pursue his dream of becoming a fulltime hip-hop performing artist. “I realized that Charlotte was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, as far as having a music market, a financial market,” he says. “I felt like it was the perfect place.” Now 29, Blaza’s music is reminiscent of some of his influences, like 2 Chainz and Future, but he looks to his favorite artists, OutKast, for lyrical inspiration and style. His website features a few tracks that give you a taste of what he’s all about, political and thoughtful lyrics over the trap beats you might expect from commercial rap today. No song is more blatantly political than “Chain Gang,” which confronts the anxieties and dangers of being a black man in today’s day and age. Blaza raps, “You to blame, tryna stop a black man winning, They just want to say a black man ignant/ So the judge tryna get me sentenced/ Made the decision based on my pigment.” His most recent full-length release, No Pressure 3: Nothing is Forgiven, can be found on Apple Music, and features the catchy, bump-worthy single in “No Go.” On the track “Cole World” listeners hear a real conversation during the first meeting between Blaza and NC hip-hop mogul J.Cole. The two rappers discuss how they share the same name, because J. Cole’s first rap name also happens to be Yung Blaza. After walking his two dogs, Tigger and Trippie, around his University City neighborhood, Blaza takes a minute to discuss another lyrically focused and genrechallenging album, coming this winter. Creative Loafing: What kind of music projects are you working on now? Yung Blaza: I have an album in the works that I am releasing in December. It is called Lyrical Miracle. I’m very excited for it, simply because it’s gonna be my most complete work. It’s pretty much gonna be a story, and I feel like people are gonna be able to visualize the songs just because it’s gonna be very lyrical, but the production is gonna be like something you’ve never heard. We’re trying to create a new genre. We’re trying to bring the lyricism back to
PHOTO COURTESY OF YUNG BLAZA Yung Blaza hip-hop, but at the same time with the production, change the sound and the feel of it altogether.
So you feel like lyricism has left the genre? I feel like it’s not completely gone, but it’s definitely a lot more rare than it used to be. I feel like now you can count on your hands how many lyricists there are that are relevant, where before you could go for days. Now I feel like you have J. Cole, you have Kendrick Lamar, artists like Big Sean, Drake, but then from there it gets really hard to start naming what artist you like because of the things they’re saying. Your song “Chain Gang” takes a very political stance. What inspired that? What was going on at the time in Charlotte really inspired me. I was really emotionally charged simply because there was a lot of tension between the police and the community, and I wanted to use my platform as a way to vent. And I didn’t do the song specifically for popularity, or for shares, or for likes, but just the opportunity to get my message across, my point-of-view of what was going on, and bring some awareness to the situations that we’ve had going on here in Charlotte. Will there be more of that in the upcoming album? Yeah. I have one song that is literally a continuation of it that will be on the Lyrical Miracle album. You reference North Carolina in a lot of your songs. Does being from North Carolina affect your music? Absolutely. I am a proud North Carolinian. Growing up in the 90’s music era in North Carolina I feel like was perfect, because we saw the beginning of hip-hop and how New York, and some of the up-north states, how they got it started. We saw how California — with groups like N.W.A. and Snoop Dogg — continued it. But to see the evolution of the South, to see Atlanta and Miami and Louisiana just say, “We’re gonna create this sound that lasts for the next two generations,” I think is pretty neat, and I think it had a big effect on my sound and who my influences are in the music game. It kind of made me who I am as an artist. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 19
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD AUGUST 23 DJ/ELECTRONIC Dende (Salud Cerveceria) DJ Matt B (Tin Roof) Le Bang (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Hustle & Glow: Gifted Musik, Walt B. 3 (Petra’s)
POP/ROCK Musicians Open Mic (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Annabelle’s Curse, Virginia Ground (Visulite Theatre) David Childers, Emily Lord, Kerry Brooks (Comet Grill) Glow Co. (Tin Roof) Juice, Dacota Muckey (Evening Muse) Karaoke (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Karaoke Party (Milestone) Matt Stratford (RiRa Irish Pub) Music Bingo with Dr. Music (Heist Brewery) Radney Foster, Robert Johnson (Neighborhood Theatre) The Rockin’ Jake Band (The Rabbit Hole) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Southern Avenue (U.S. National Whitewater Center)
AUGUST 24 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)
COUNTRY/FOLK The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Dirty (RiRa Irish Pub) DJ Lemon - Bollywood Dance Party (The Underground) DJ Payne (Tin Roof) Rotation: Brenmar, Foundless, A-Huf (Skylark Social Club)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B The Best Damn Rap Show Period: Hayes Alexander, Alexander Mugen, FTO, John Harper, Indigo Joe, Jooselord, Phaze Gawd, Jah-Monte (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
POP/ROCK 20 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Brian Burton Trio (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord) Cimorelli (Evening Muse) The Flight Risk, Dumpster Service, Gonzo (Tommy’s Pub) Glow Co. (Tin Roof) It’s Snakes, Houston Brothers, Party Battleship (Petra’s) M4 Messenger, Kevin Marshall and the Jaywalkers (Evening Muse) The Mantras (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Monotheist, Kairos., Blackwater Drowning, Undrask, Ashes Of Mankind (Milestone) Moses Jones (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) On The Border - The Ultimate Eagles Tribute Show (The Fillmore) Refresh Records 3rd Birthday Pre-Party: Modern Primitives, Gull, Knowne Ghost, Daddy’s Beemer (Snug Harbor) Rusty Knox (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Stateline Crossing (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Throwback Thursday Party Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Travers Brothership, DownTown Abby & The Echoes (Neighborhood Theatre) Treehouse, Lovely Budz, Zach Fowler of SunDried Vibes Acoustic (Visulite Theatre)
AUGUST 25 COUNTRY/FOLK Billy Dean (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Old Sap (Free Range Brewing Company) Palmetto Road Band (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Duplex (Tin Roof) DJ Soden (RiRa Irish Pub) Electrohex with DJ Price (Milestone) Tritonal, Sj, BRKLYN! (World) Tilted DJ Saturdays (Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Lyricist’s Lounge (Upscale Lounge & Restaurant)
POP/ROCK Summer Concert Series (Blakeney Shopping Center) Anchor Detail, MisTics 9, The Donner Deads (Tommy’s Pub) Bergenline, Logan and the Kidders, Dog Ear
SOUNDBOARD (The Rabbit Hole) Chunky Daddy (RiRa Irish Pub) Circus No. 9 (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Cory M. Wells, Heather Himes & The Tales of Woe (Evening Muse) Darron (Comet Grill) Holy Gold, Never I, Sunndrug, Lädyhel (Snug Harbor) Ivory Layne (Neighborhood Theatre) Jay Taylor (Tin Roof) J.J. Hipps (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Junior Astronomers, Cuzco, Old Faith (Visulite Theatre) Old Sap (Free Range Brewing Company) Rick Spreitzer and the Antique Babies (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) SRO (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) The Vegabonds, Pierce Edens (Free Range
Three’s a crowd presents our annual
Back to school show
DJ/ELECTRONIC Bone Snugs-N-Harmony: Bryan Pierce (Snug Harbor) DJ Soden (Tin Roof) More Fyah - Grown & Sexy Vibes (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
POP/ROCK Black Stone Cherry (The Underground) Fortune Teller, Conor Donohue, Matthew McNeal (Petra’s) Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue (Neighborhood Theatre) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) Sunday Music Bingo (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)
AUGUST 27 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz Jam (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge) Brent Faiyaz (Neighborhood Theatre) Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK
RANDY ROGERS WITH SPECIAL GUEST
PARKER MCCOLLUM LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15
SAT, OCTOBER 20
CODY JOHNSON LIMITED ADVANCE $15 ALL OTHERS $18
SAT, NOVEMBER 3
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
August 25th 8pm-9:45pm 704-618-4203
“We’re not touching you”
CORY SMITH LIMITED ADVANCE $20 ALL OTHERS $25
SAT, NOVEMBER 10
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Tickets $8 in advance $10 at door otcimprov.com/schooltac for more info Fort Mill community Playhouse 220 Main St, Fort Mill, SC 29715
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Jim Sharkey (RiRa Irish Pub)
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Brewing Company)
AUGUST 26
SAT, SEPTEMBER 8
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
MUSIC
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Find Your Muse Open Mic with Reese (Cup) Smith (Evening Muse) Jamorah: Jim Brock, Cito Giulini, Russ Betenbaugh, Steve Keim (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Music Bingo (Tin Roof) Music Trivia (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Legion Brewing)
Cafe) Santoros, Old Fighter (Snug Harbor) Uptown Unplugged with Cassidy Daniels (Tin Roof)
AUGUST 29 COUNTRY/FOLK
AUGUST 28
Open Mic (Comet Grill)
COUNTRY/FOLK
DJ/ELECTRONIC KARAOKE with DJ Alex Smith (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
POP/ROCK
DJ/ELECTRONIC Lost Cargo: One Year Anniversary with Ren Elvis (Petra’s) DJ Steel Wheel (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Open Jam with the Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
KOE WETZEL LIMITED ADVANCE $13 ALL OTHERS $16
SAT, NOVEMBER 17
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
MORGAN WALLEN LIMITED ADVANCE $15 ALL OTHERS $18
FRI, NOVEMBER 23
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Tennessee Stiffs, Austin McNeill Band, Matt Minchew (Milestone) Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill)
Eclectic Soul Tuesdays - RnB & Poetry (Apostrophe Lounge) Soulful Tuesdays: DJ ChopstickZ, DJ JTate Beats (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
MUSCADINE BLOODLINE
Vicariou, The Cotone, Ansonia (The Rabbit Hole) August Residency: Cheesus Crust: Green Fiend, Whispering Man, The Commonwealth (Snug Harbor) Matthew Paul Butler, Jon Charles Dwyer, Bob Fleming, David Z. Cox (Milestone) Open House & Karaoke (Sylvia Theatre, York) Open Mic (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Open Mic (JackBeagle’s) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s, Charlotte) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)
JON LANGSTON
LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15
SAT, DECEMBER 8
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
RILEY GREEN LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
ON SALE AT COYOTE JOES AND COYOTE-JOES.COM COYOTE JOE’S : 4621 WILKINSON BLVD
704-399-4946
❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 21
ARTS
FEATURE
‘ECLIPSED’ August 23-Sept. 1, times vary; Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St.; blumenthalarts.org
ALL BLACK EVERYTHING Brand New Sheriff mixes Broadway, Black Panther and Black Diamond BY PERRY TANNENBAUM
F
EW
WRITERS
WHO
have brought a script to the Broadway stage have also had a major acting role in a blockbuster Hollywood film. Mae West, Orson Welles, Sam Shepard, Mel Brooks, Maya Angelou and Woody Allen have legitimate claims. Perhaps the stealthiest addition to this very short list happened this summer when Danai Gurira emerged in the Marvel universe as Okoye, the spear-wielding generalissimo of Wakanda in Black Panther. You’ll look long and far for a review that reminds us that Gurira’s Eclipsed not only came to Broadway in 2016, it scooped up six Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Play. Of course, the record was set straight when Panther became a megahit and Gurira, already a star of The Walking Dead series on AMC, rose even higher in the firmament. Feature stories about Gurira consistently cited Eclipsed among her accomplishments. Additional light reflected back on Eclipsed from Lupita Nyong’o, the glam spy of Panther. Nyong’o was nominated for a Tony as the leading lady in Gurira’s play after her Oscar-winning performance in 12 Years a Slave. Gurira’s rare achievement is definitely drawing the spotlight now that Eclipsed is making its rounds among regional theatres. Bringing Eclipsed to Duke Energy Theater at Spirit Square this week, Brand New Sheriff Productions certainly isn’t ignoring the playwright’s Walking Dead and Black Panther connections as it spreads the word. You won’t find any zombies at Duke Energy Theater, but connections between Black Panther and Eclipsed are substantial. Both dramas are set in Africa. While Wakanda is a fantastical high-tech kingdom in Marvel geography, Gurira’s Liberia is quite real — but no less dramatic. After spending a good chunk of her childhood in Zimbabwe, Gurira returned to the continent on a grant from the prestigious Theatre Communications Group in 2007 and interviewed more than 30 women who had been victimized by Liberia’s civil war. From these women — some of whom were serially raped, others’ daughters had been kidnapped and turned into sex slaves — Gurira took four of their names for her characters. In the play, three are wives of the unseen character, Commanding Officer, a brutal leader of the rebellion against president Charles Taylor, and the other is a peace activist seeking to bring the war to 22 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRAND NEW SHERIFF PRODUCTIONS
The cast of ‘Eclipsed’ (from left): Tracie Frank, Gbale Allen, Racquel Nadhiri, Toni Brion Oliver and Ruby Edwards.
“This play gave me all the complications a human spirit could endure and still survive.” DEE ABDULLAH, DIRECTOR, ECLIPSED an end. The fifth woman, at the heart of this drama, is unnamed. “The Girl” is CO’s most recent captive, and two of his wives, Helena and Bessie, are hoping to shield her from him. Yes, Eclipsed was the first play to hit Broadway with an all-black female cast. Just don’t get the idea that Gurira’s script is all about victimhood and peacemaking. CO’s other wife, Maima, is a freedom fighter with the Liberian rebels, and she returns from the battlefield with some serious weaponry strapped to her shoulder. Maima is not only an action figure vaguely akin to Okoye in Black Panther, she’s modeled after Col. Black Diamond, a female Liberian freedom fighter. Gurira saw a picture of the warrior in a New York Times feature in 2003, the year that the Second Liberian Civil War ended. Black Diamond was the inspiration for Gurira’s mission to Liberia — and for Eclipsed. The way Maima sees it, men aren’t going to rape you if you’re toting an AK-47. That’s where actress Tracie Frank comes in. A self-confessed “blerd,” (black nerd) she knew about Marvel and Black Panther long before she knew about Eclipsed, and she knew Gurira as Okoye before she realized that the
film’s action hero was also playwright. She has played major roles around town in A Trip to Bountiful and the title role of Caroline, or Change. But nothing like Wife No. 2, Maima. “Truthfully, I didn’t even see myself in that role when it did come along,” Frank admits. “As I read the script to prep for the audition, I decided to read for the two ‘motherly’ roles. I remember absently thinking, ‘Wow, whoever plays Maima will have to be tough!’” Director Dee Abdullah thought differently, handing Maima’s lines to Frank after her first reading. “I was surprised,” Frank recalls, “but I went out and read her again — not as an impartial observer, but as a version of myself ... and I knew it was right. I guess I feel like Wife No. 2 chose me.” So did Abdullah, who returned to Charlotte’s theater scene last year after a five-year hiatus from directing. A co-founder of Carolina Actors Studio Theatre with Ed Gilweit, Abdullah was no longer at the core of CAST when the company folded in 2014, but she was devastated by the loss. Corlis Hayes shoved a life raft toward her when she directed August Wilson’s Jitney for BNS last summer, asking Abdullah to design the
costumes. That gig positioned her for Eclipsed. Another BNS blerd, Abdullah has been on board as a Black Panther fan before the film but only slightly acquainted with Eclipsed because of the Nyong’o connection. After researching the story, she knew this was the project to get her back into directing. “As you might remember,” Abdullah says, “I am not one to shy away from difficult subject matter. This play gave me all the complications a human spirit could endure and still survive. It is about women and their courage to survive under the worst circumstances that life could hand them. It is also based on real stories of the Liberian civil wars, which made it more compelling for me.” Away from the scene for five years, Abdullah had grown out of touch with the local talent that would show up for auditions. Three of her five choices — Toni Oliver as Helena, Racquel Ena Mae Nadhiri as Bessie, and Gbale Allen as The Girl — are new to the Charlotte scene. Aside from Frank, Ruby Edwards as Rita, the peace negotiator, will be the only familiar face. “All of the women had a special quality about them that make me want to look at them on stage,” Abdullah recalls. “Tracie has a power that came across much more grounded than the others. Her character makes a choice that takes her on a much more difficult journey than the other women — I needed someone who could convey that energy while staying grounded in truth. The Girl is the only character that goes through a transformation during the course of the play. Gbale gave the innocence as well as the confident toughness that this character needed to pull this role.” Getting the roles was just the beginning of this ensemble’s journey. Casting by Abdullah was done four months in advance, with rehearsals beginning in late April, so the performers could research the culture, learn the civil war history, bond with one another and learn a Liberian accent. Oh yeah, there’s also some footage online of Frank and Allen wielding their firearms. “Dee has been quite unique,” Frank affirms, “and I can’t imagine anyone else directing this play. She’s intuitive and observant — she sees what’s under the surface — and that’s vital in a story like this one.” Abdullah is pleased with the dedication her cast has put into their work, and Frank believes the results will show. “There’s a natural rhythm to our interactions,” she explains, “one that comes from knowing each other, caring for each other, being annoyed by one another! We’ve formed a sisterhood that won’t end when the [show] closes on September 1st. We’ve learned and experienced so much over this spring and summer. It has been unforgettable.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
Ken Jeong, Constance Wu and Awkwafina in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’
ARTS
PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.
FILM
FIFTY SHADES OF CRAY Lifestyles of the rich and flamboyant BY MATT BRUNSON
HAS IT REALLY BEEN 25 years since The
Joy Luck Club premiered? Certainly, there has been a handful of American films in the interim quarter-century that have showcased Asian casts — the 2003 crime flick A Better Tomorrow readily springs to mind — but Crazy Rich Asians (*** out of four) is reportedly the first since The Joy Luck Club to be released by a major Hollywood studio. The lengthy wait would normally be puzzling — after all, The Joy Luck Club was a box office success — but given the studios’ hesitancy when it comes to fair representation in film, it’s perhaps not that puzzling after all. (As but one example, take the case of Spike Lee’s Inside Man; it earned $88 million stateside and $184 million worldwide, yet Lee was unable to secure financing for a sequel.) At any rate, expect Crazy Rich Asians to gross even more than The Joy Luck Club, because while it’s not necessarily a better picture, it is a more accessible one for mainstream palates, as well as the sort of effervescent rom-com that has been in seriously short supply as of late. Based on Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel, Crazy Rich Asians stars Constance Wu as Rachel Chu, an NYU economics professor who journeys to Singapore to attend a wedding alongside her boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding). Nick hails from Singapore, meaning that Rachel will finally get to meet his family.
What Nick never bothered to tell her, though, is that his family is filthy rich. That’s enough of a shock for Rachel, but more disturbing is the fact that Nick’s mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), is a strict traditionalist who makes no secret of the fact that she believes Rachel will never be good enough for her son. Thus, Crazy Rich Asians sets up its clashes on two levels, with the conflict between East and West fueling much of the drama and the differences between the rich and, well, everyone else providing much of the humor. Forget the 1%: The Young family represents the .01%, with their wealth making Christian Grey from the Fifty Shades saga look as destitute as the backwoods characters in Deliverance by comparison. This is finance porn raised to an absurd level, which actually plays into the film’s general view that life’s a party and everyone should be invited. Wu is enormously appealing in the central role, while Awkwafina, who stole plenty a scene in the recent Ocean’s 8, does likewise in her role as Rachel’s zany friend Peik Lin Goh. Even Ken Jeong, normally a screen irritant, has some amusing moments as Peik Lin’s rich yet unrefined dad. Indeed, it’s the wide range of engaging characters that primarily provides Crazy Rich Asians with both its zaniness and its worthiness.
Snuggle Up with CL
tonight....
BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 23
COURTESY OF GAVIN EDWARDS
ARTS
ARTSPEAK
MAKE CORPSES EXQUISITE AGAIN
It’s such a wide range of people, from Rivers Cuomo to Lenny Dykstra. How did you decide whom to reach out to? Some of it is just using my personal Rolodex. In the case of Rivers Cuomo, I actually edited him a couple times. He wrote a couple pieces for me at Details when Weezer was just starting to break. Some of it was stuff like that, or cartoonists who I know and I know they could do a wonderful job, like Peter Kuper who did that great, Kafkaesque thing with the heavy blacks. He’s somebody who has worked for MAD Magazine, he does brilliant comic books, and I edited some comics he did at Details back in the day, so it’s an easy phone call to make and say, “Would you like to do this?” and he was really kind and all for it. But I also wanted it to not just be my friends, because that seems limiting both artistically and demographically. It’s kind of lazy. So I made a real concerted effort to say that there’s lots of talented young people who I may not have firsthand experience with but let’s make sure there’s as many women artists as possible, and there’s artists of color. It’s a joy to go onto people’s Instagrams and [find them there]. For a lot of people it’s their first published thing, so it’s nice to have the mix where you can do that. You’ve got Moby here and then you’ve got somebody who’s never done anything before and then it makes it richer that they’re right next to each other.
Gavin Edwards’ new interactive book of art pairs readers with artists of all stripes BY RYAN PITKIN
GAVIN EDWARDS WAS never a typical writer. As a writer and editor with Details magazine in the ’90s, and later with Rolling Stone, he was always going after the untold story. He’s traveled from New Zealand to Bahrain to do so, and found new angles to cover media-saturated events back home, like the time he caught a city bus to the red carpet of the Grammys to interview celebrities hopping out of limousines on the same street. So it was no surprise that when Edwards, who now lives in Charlotte with his wife and kids, started writing books, they weren’t your typical biographies or longform journalism pieces. Books like The Tao of Bill Murray and ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy and Other Misheard Lyrics are far from your grandfather’s (or father’s) literature. That fact stands even more so with his newest release, The Beautiful Book of Exquisite Corpses, a collection of partially finished art to be finished by the reader and friends. No, the illustrations do not depict dead bodies (unless you want them to); exquisite corpse is an art style started in 1920’s France in which a picture is started by one artist, folded in on itself, and then finished by another patron who only works from the small connecting lines left by their partner(s) as clues. Edwards recruited a lineup of artists, authors, sports figures and critics as mishmashed as a finished exquisite corpse art piece to get things started, including local artists, famed musicians, television critics and everyone in between. Edwards will host a party to celebrate the release of the book on August 28 at Goodyear Arts in Camp North End. Before that, he came by the Creative Loafing office to talk about what it was like to curate a book of unfinished art, why it was important to include Charlotte artists and why Tom Hanks is the next in line to get the Bill Murray treatment. Creative Loafing: You’ve clearly always had an alternative way of approaching your writing, from your journalism to the books you’ve published. What inspired that? Gavin Edwards: It came out of rock ’n’ 24 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
who’s a TV critic at the New Yorker, I’ve known her forever, and I just know that she’s doodling all the time. And I’m like, “OK, could you doodle and could you do it in this amount of space for me?” And then you have some people who say, “Sure, I’d love to,” and then wander off and you never hear from them again.
Tom Quinlan (bottom half) finished what Peter Kuper started in this completed drawing from ‘The Beautiful Book of Exquisite Corpses.’
“I just got talented people and turned them loose, and so it’s a real pleasure to see that when you do that, your faith is rewarded.” GAVIN EDWARDS roll. I was always interested in other things. One of the first big magazine features I ever wrote was something for Wired on artificial languages. I definitely came from that do-iton-the-ground-level style — anyone should be able to learn three chords and put it together — and I try to bring some of that ethos to what I do. Was it a natural progression from writing journalism pieces like that to publishing out-of-the-box books like The Beautiful Book of Exquisite Corpses?
Yeah, but I think some of the magazine stuff still plays in. This book is more like doing a magazine than anything else I’ve ever done bookwise. It’s like I’m commissioning 100 pieces from people, and it’s hopefully people who want to play and have fun with it. What sort of responses did you get from those people? Moon Unit Zappa said, “I do this every day with my kid, pretty much.” So she was just really happy to get a chance to do it. And other people who I’ve known like Emily Nussbaum,
When and how did you become interested in the exquisite corpse exercise? Gosh, 1988? I took a college art history class and it was on Dada and surrealism, and it was just like discovering, “Oh, there’s all these artists who broke the rules in this really spectacular way.” And so I just started playing with it at that point. But then you do it and you put it away and you don’t think about it for a long time. The whole exercise is like a visual Mad Libs. Yeah. I’ve got a young son and it was such a joy to hear him play Mad Libs in the backseat with a friend where every single word was “butt.” So, there’s an adjective. “Butt.” That’s one way of doing it. If what you want to do with this is color it or do something else, make it your own. It’s like the raw material for people to play with now. So it’s open to interpretation and rulebending, but what’s your ideal way to spend a night with this book? I think you want as mixed a crowd as possible. Before the book existed I would do this with blank sheets of paper. There was one particularly memorable party where there were all these museum curators and there’s PhDs there, and the kids are getting bored and I took it upon myself to go like, “OK, we’ve got blank paper and pencils, let me show you this incredibly fun game.”
BOOK COVER COURTESY OF GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
‘THE BEAUTIFUL BOOK OF EXQUISITE CORPSES’ LAUNCH PARTY Free; August 28, 7-9 p.m.; Goodyear Arts at Camp North End, 1824 Statesville Ave.; tinyurl.com/ ExquisiteLaunch
‘Creative Loafing’ art director Dana Vindigni finished pieces from Grace Slick (left) and Robyn Hitchcock from Edwards’ new book. And they get into it, and then the PhDs and the curators start seeing what’s going on and they want to join in as well. So for me, it doesn’t matter if some people can throw off a sketch where you say, “My God, that’s a classic work of art,” or for other people it’s more stick-figurey — I’m closer to the stick figures — but when you get those two things together and it’s mashing up, for me that’s where the fun is. Tell me about this event at Goodyear Arts the day the book comes out. It’s one of the ways of reaching out and saying, “Hey, I’m in Charlotte,” because I’ve been living here for three years now and I wanted to make sure that there was a Charlotte representation. So I asked a lot of different local artists and a lot of the people I connected with were through Goodyear Arts. And so it seemed like a natural thing to host the party at Goodyear with people like de’Angelo Dia and Jeff Jackson has a studio there as well, and Holly Keogh — and all three of them are in the book. So the idea is, it’s a party, there’s beer and tamales and so on, but it’s a chance for all of these artists to be in the same place to see what happens. We’ll have some books to dismember so people can do it and hopefully people start jamming together — both artists and audience members. You’ve got another book set to release in October called The World According to Tom Hanks. I’ve read through it and it’s
similar to The Tao of Bill Murray in that it’s kind of a biography, but not really a biography. How would you describe it? It’s a sideways biography. It’s a similar approach to what I did with the Tao of Bill Murray, where it wouldn’t work with a lot of people. There’s actually a really limited set of people it’s right for: people who have a philosophy of life that is manifest in the way that they carry themselves in the world and what they do. In the case of Bill it’s sort of this constant antic; he’s a one-man anecdote machine and everywhere you go people are like, “Oh my God, Bill Murray just came through and he left a bottle of gin and chocolate-covered espresso beans and he washed my dishes.” And in the case of Tom it’s more like this basic human decency, but you can tell that it’s a coherent way that he approaches the world, especially given how debased and screwed up things are right now, so it’s really, really welcome. Did you speak with Tom for the new book? So [Tom Hanks] and I actually corresponded. He is incredibly into typewriters, so I sent him a type-written letter — old-fashioned, not word-processed — and I got a typewritten letter back. He wasn’t able to do the interview before my deadline, but what he did, which was great, was every single person I got in touch with who said, “Let me check with Tom and see if it’s OK,” he always gave them the green light.
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
Gavin Edwards with his newest book, set to release on August 28. His next book (top right) will be out in October. What’s your takeaway from your work on The Beautiful Book of Exquisite Corpses now, just days from its release? It’s been such a pleasure. It’s like this leap of faith. I told everyone, “Just draw what you want.” It’s not like there was a lot of back and forth and blue lines and, “Let’s do three versions of it.” I just got talented people and turned them loose, and so it’s a real pleasure
COURTESY OF GAVIN EDWARDS
An exquisite corpse collaboration between Ella Pepper, Bianca Bagnarelli and Suzanne Colón. to see that when you do that, your faith is rewarded. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 25
vip spa
ENDS
NIGHTLIFE
Table Shower Gorgeous Asian Staff
9am until 10pm Sun-Thurs
9am until 12am Fri-Sat
A SECOND CHANCE AT CHILDHOOD
august special 1 hour
$5 OFF
10809 Southern Loop Blvd Suite 10, Charlotte 28134 980-335-0193
FeeLing Lonely? graB Your copy today
To celebrate three years in the music business, Refresh Records is throwing not one but two shows in the coming week. We wanted to take part in the birthday festivities, so we invited Refresh owner Josh Higgins in for a chat about running a label in the Charlotte music scene. 26 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Throwback fun can make for the best experiences CERTAIN SPACES AND MOMENTS of a few during their most recent Boozing can trigger your nostalgia. For example, this on a Budget tour (which they did not invite weekend I took a trip to Folly Beach, just me on, but I will surely be joining next south of Charleston, as many of you know, time, sigh). Every time I play Galaga I have for a 30th birthday party that came with flashbacks of playing it with my mom while its own hashtag: #thirtyflirtyanddying. We waiting for our clothes at the laundromat. rented a three-story Airbnb that lent itself to What’s your highest score? Check out my previous article or those of my Boozing on a college-style house party, naturally. By the time we’d gone through five a Budget counterparts for a comparison of handles of Tito’s, and the majority of the arcade bars throughout the city. Jump around at a trampoline park. I group left, we found ourselves twiddling our thumbs on how to keep the weekend going. was terrified of Chuck E. Cheese when I was a We spent a couple of hours at the beach on kid and never really cared for bounce houses our last day and I watched the “gamers” romp at birthday parties. However, I can totally dig in the sand. But once we were back at the the idea of going to a trampoline park now! house, there was only so much more we could Granted, someone may break a leg now that do to entertain ourselves. Enter King of Cups. we’re older, or at the very least be too sore to walk for a few days, but an adult pizza If you haven’t heard of this game, party plus trampolines sounds like a Google it. Nevertheless, it’s one of big kid’s dream come true if you those drinking card games that’s ask me. There’s DefyGravity played in college in which you in north Charlotte, Sky learn very quickly the goal Zone Trampoline Park in is simply to get everyone Pineville and Urban Air drunk. in Mint Hill, so pick a With every card, I direction and try one out. started feeling the weight Zap your friends at of missing games and laser tag. I wish I’d been activities of moments a fan of the sketchy laser passed. tag bar when I was younger It also reminded me (clearly there’s a common that I’ve been wanting to AERIN SPRUILL theme here), but there was create a bucket list of places something about running around to go in Charlotte where adults in the dark that didn’t excite me can relive the “glory years” of being back then. Now, I’m like, who doesn’t want big kids again. I went back to my little black book of things to do in Charlotte and I started to get lost in the dark with a few friends? planning the rest of my summer. So without Things may get interesting between the boo and I. *wink wink* Consider getting tagged further ado: Roll around a skating rink. Why by strangers and friends alike at Laser Quest in the world did we ever let skating rinks on Park Road. Swoon over zoo animals. Zoos and die?! The boo and I were driving back to Charlotte from Myrtle Beach recently, coming aquariums used to be the bane of my up Independence Boulevard and I realized existence. They were hot, the day was long I’d completely forgotten about skating rinks and walking felt like torture. But now I’m when we passed Kate’s Skating Rink. I don’t so obsessed with animals that when I was know about you but throwing on a pair of planning a special day for bae I chose Tiger roller skates after a couple cocktails sounds World in Rockwell. In fact, I even booked an encounter with Ignacio aka Nacho, their like a blast to me! Roll some balls at the ol’ alley. I newest attraction: a baby sloth! And let me was never a huge bowler growing up, but I tell you 10 minutes with him (at a not-socertainly stirred up some trouble at our local affordable price) made my whole day! There’s bowling alley back home. But I can imagine also Zootastic Park in Troutman and, if you’re I would totally enjoy an outing involving willing to make a little bit of a longer trip, the bowling with friends now (with the rails up of North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. “There shall be an eternal summer in course). There’s quite a few in the Queen City area but Ten Park Lanes in South End and the grateful heart.” That’s what a sign said outside of a convenience store in Folly Beach. Strike City at the EpiCentre are a great start! As I reflect on that quote while planning Spend some quarters at an arcade bar. I’ve talked about the handful of arcade the rest of my summer, I think, what better bars that have popped up around the Queen way to enjoy an eternal summer than to find City in the past couple years plenty of times, experiences that incite a childlike excitement? BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM and my fellow CL partiers recently did a tour
ENDS
CROSSWORD
HOPPER IN THE SOOT
ACROSS
1 Whip material 8 Complain 14 Publisher Ochs 20 Red-faced 21 Fly a 727, e.g. 22 “Heat” co-star Robert 23 Start of a riddle 25 One running away to wed 26 Title for Tennyson 27 Roadside stopover 28 Old Glory’s land 29 Desktop machines 30 Riddle, part 2 39 Chop into small cubes 40 Fit to be donned 41 Tire-trapping furrows 42 Sharp nudge 45 Tot’s “piggies” 47 Glass parts 48 End of many 28-Downs 49 -- -Pro 50 Riddle, part 3 57 -- suit (1940s outfit) 59 Football Hall of Famer Junior 60 Precipitates cold flakes 61 Ram’s partner 62 Equine animals 65 Bert’s buddy 68 Turned in for the night 70 Riddle, part 4 74 Signaled incorrectly, as an actor 77 Substitute for chocolate 78 Force of rotation 82 System of beliefs 83 Horse noise 86 Virginie, par exemple 88 “Gross!” 89 Riddle, part 5 95 “Dark” quaff 96 Kit -97 As regards 98 Vague sense 99 Pop 100 Suffix with prank or trick 102 Swiss franc divisions 106 Squishy ball brand 108 End of the riddle 114 With 24-Down, drilling structure 115 Lady-Tramp link 116 Sargasso Sea fish 117 Woody Guthrie’s son 118 Future revealer 120 Riddle’s answer
127 Mosey along 128 With milk, Frenchstyle 129 Leading female role 130 Service songbook 131 Artifacts 132 Result of an absent goalie
DOWN
1 “A Natural Man” singer Lou 2 Put on -- (act) 3 “Void -- prohibited” 4 Picked up and gave to 5 “-- Believer” 6 Dawn beads 7 Old Tokyo 8 “Catch my drift?” 9 Broad street 10 Pre-2001 space station 11 Big mouth 12 H, to Homer 13 -- gestae 14 “-- Fideles” (carol) 15 Put off action 16 Yoko of song and art 17 Cosmetic to enhance the kisser 18 Trimmed to size in advance 19 Equine animals 24 See 114-Across 28 Virtual address 31 Falafel wrap 32 Revered one 33 Essentialities 34 Boat cover 35 Singer India 36 Really denounces 37 “Peer Gynt” playwright 38 Frizzy dos, informally 42 Dixieland or bebop 43 Emollient plant additive 44 Oozy lump 46 Like chiffon 48 Sam’s Club competitor 51 50+ org. 52 -- Wars (Rome-Carthage conflicts) 53 Actress Diana 54 Nest sound 55 Have debts 56 Poet Hughes 58 -- II (Gillette brand) 63 Summer appliance, for short 64 Charlie of “Spin City” 66 -- rut (stuck) 67 Marsh bird
69 “Just doing my best” 71 Hippie-style “Got it” 72 Tiniest bit 73 Channel for hoops fan 74 1/1,000 inch 75 Prefix with lateral 76 Fire safety device 79 College area 80 Coll. near Beverly Hills 81 Managed, with “out” 84 Rat race 85 Tip-offs 87 “For -- is the kingdom ...” 90 Kid’s racing vehicle 91 Basic street layout 92 Powerful auto engine 93 Wild goat of Eurasia 94 Former Ford auto, in brief 100 Nike symbol 101 Six times five 102 Howard of sportscasts 103 Slice of time 104 Like a utopia 105 Ream’s 500 107 Perfume bottle 109 Writer Cather 110 Bridge writer Culbertson 111 “Argo” actor Alan 112 TV actress Graff 113 Sacred choral piece 119 Cell dweller 120 Hertz rental 121 Shade 122 Not well 123 -- tai 124 Margaret of stand-up 125 Congress mem. 126 Mad feeling
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 27
ENDS
SAVAGE LOVE
PICKLES & SURROGATES The right title means everything BY DAN SAVAGE I’m in a pickle. All I want is to experience touch, intimacy, and sexual pleasure — but without freaking out. I grew up with a lot of negative messages from men due to developing early, as well as having some other physical/sexual trauma (no rape or abuse), but the combination has me seriously fucked up. Whenever I get close to physical intimacy with someone, I run away. I actually faked an emergency once and physically ran away because I knew sex was a possibility that night. I’m not a virgin — but in those instances, I’ve been really drunk (and experienced no emotional/physical pleasure). This is not what I want for my life. I want a relationship and love, and to be open and comfortable with someone expressing their care for me in a physical way without panicked thoughts flooding my brain. I’ve done lots of therapy, which has helped, but not enough. I recently heard of something called a sexual surrogate. From what I understand, it’s somebody who is trained to therapeutically provide physical touch and intimacy in a controlled and safe environment. Are they legit? SHE CAN’T ADEQUATELY RELEASE EXTREME DREAD
Sexual surrogates are legit, SCARED, but please don’t call them sexual surrogates. “We’d like to see the language shift back to ‘surrogate partner,’ which was the original term,” said Vena Blanchard, president of the International Professional Surrogates Association (IPSA). “Masters and Johnson originated the concept, and their treatment program was based on the theory that many people had problems that required the help of a cooperative partner, and some people didn’t have partners. So they trained people to work as ‘partner surrogates.’ The media took the term ‘partner surrogate’ and changed it to ‘sexual surrogate’ because it sounded sexier. But ‘sexual surrogate’ implies that the work is all about sex.” So if surrogate partner therapy is not about sex — or not all about sex — then what is it primarily about? “Surrogate partner therapy is a therapeutic treatment that combines psychotherapy with experiential learning,” said Blanchard. “It’s a program designed for people like SCARED, for people who struggle with anxiety, panic, and past trauma — things that can distort a person’s experience in the moment.” Surrogate partner therapy happens in stages, with each progressive stage representing another “teeny, tiny baby step,” as Blanchard put it. 28 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
trained and qualified surrogates partners extremely nervous now. I feel like a “The client first works with a legitimate are in order to work with one. (The part of virgin all over again — except I’m not therapist until the therapist thinks the client turned on. On our first date, we ended California that isn’t on fire is lovely this time is ready to work with a surrogate partner,” up in a public bathroom, where I gave of year.) said Blanchard. “You may start by sitting him a handjob (his idea). Last night, we “Since there aren’t many qualified surrogate in opposite chairs and just talking. At some messed around at my place. We kissed partners available,” said Blanchard, “people point, they might sit and hold hands, practice and got naked, but I couldn’t get hard. sometimes need to travel to another location relaxation techniques, and focus on simple We watched porn. That always works, and work intensively. People will come for sensations. In the next session, they might but not this time. Finally, he played two weeks and work every single day with a touch each other’s faces with their hands.” with my nipples and — presto chango — therapist and a surrogate partner.” Sex can and does sometimes occur in the there was a happy ending at last! (Plus, later stages of surrogate partner therapy, it was a learning experience. I found My partner and I have been together for SCARED, but it doesn’t always and it’s not out I like having my nipples licked, a 11 years and have always had a great the goal — healing is. lot!) I’m worried this will continue to sex life. I love his cock, we have similar “By having these repeated safe experiences, happen. It’s like I’m thinking too much. appetites, and until recently everything in a context where there’s no pressure, and I deal with anxiety and depression every was great. But he has always had an consent is emphasized, and the patient is day, and this is part of why I’ve been aversion to blood. He is a pacifist, a in control,” said Blanchard, “someone like single for so long. I’m not feeling the vegetarian and a recovering Muslim, so SCARED can learn to manage her anxiety, urge to end the relationship yet, but I’ve as much as I don’t understand his fear, I and her prior negative experiences are been a wreck since we started dating. would never push him to have sex during replaced with positive new experiences.” I’m attracted to this guy, but I can’t my period. The problem is now I bleed While I had her on the phone, I asked get turned on. Is this like not having whenever we have sex — just a Blanchard the first question many the urge to eat when you’re nervous? tiny bit, but that’s enough people have about surrogate Do I just need to wait it out until I’m to kill it for him, and the partners: Are surrogate comfortable with this guy, and hope he sex is immediately over. partners sex workers? sticks around long enough to stick it in We already have enough “A sex worker offers a sexual me? constraints with experience — that is the LACKING IN MY PANTS differing schedules, primary intention of what kids, lack of privacy, is a business transaction,” periods. This is a big said Blanchard. “What a You’re attracted to this guy, LIMP, and you’re deal for me, and I don’t surrogate partner offers are turned on by him, and you’re capable of healing and education. And know how to deal with getting hard. When he played with your tits while healing and education it. Any ideas? DAN SAVAGE — when he licked your nipples — it took the AFRAID TO BLEED might also take place in a sexfocus off your cock, and your cock instantly work environment, and while got hard. Do that more, LIMP: more dates some form of sexual contact might Turn off the lights, draw the curtains, with this guy, more rolling around with him, take place in surrogate partner therapy, more exploring other erogenous zones. And have sex in the dark, get him a blindfold the primary intention is different. A patient it’ll help if you can tell him the truth: You’re and insist he see a therapist who specializes working with a surrogate partner is there to a little nervous because it’s been a while in helping people overcome their irrational heal old injuries or break out of bad patterns since you dated anyone. Once you’re more phobias. so they can have a relationship in the future. comfortable with him—once you’re more People go to sex workers for an immediate comfortable seeing someone—your boners I’m a 35-year-old gay man and I’ve been experience — the agenda is sexual and about will come. single for 10 years. I’d kind of given right now, not therapeutic and about the up, but suddenly I’ve got a real sweet future.” On the Lovecast, better sex through mindfulness: guy in my life. He’s 24, so we’ll see how Then I asked Blanchard the second question savagelovecast.com. the age thing works out. I used to be many people have about surrogate partner MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET pretty adventurous with sex, but I feel therapy: Is it legal? “There’s no place that it’s illegal,” said Blanchard. “There’s never been a court case challenging it. In California, where surrogate partner therapy is most common, no one has ever in 50 years challenged it.” If you’re interested in working with a surrogate partner, SCARED, you can contact the referrals coordinator at IPSA’s website: surrogatetherapy.org. CLCLT.COM/CHARLOTTE/FREESTUFF Finally, SCARED, the number of trained and qualified surrogate partners is relatively small — IPSA has just 70 members — so you might need to go where most of those
FREE STUFF!
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 29
LILLY SPA
SALOME’S STARS
ENDS
704-392-8099 MON-SUN 9AM-11PM LOCATED NEAR THE AIRPORT EXIT 37 OFF I-85 WE ACCEPT ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS
SOUTH ON BEATTIES FORD ROAD THEN FIRST RIGHT ON MONTANA DRIVE (LOCATED 1/2 MILE ON THE LEFT | 714-G MONTANA DR) SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE
WHERE WE ALL REFUSE TO WEAR SOCKS.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) A little “wool-gathering ” for the usually productive Lamb is all right if it helps you unwind. But be careful; too much daydreaming can put you behind schedule in your work. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) A work problem is close to being resolved. Now you can go ahead and celebrate the week, accepting invitations from friends who enjoy your company.
Multi-cultural Staff of Over 20 Girls! *Sauna *Massage Chair *Steam Shower 2 Upscale Locations:
La Fleur
714 Montana Dr #A Charlotte NC 28216 #704-394-5100
Le Aqua
6721 E.Independence Blvd #A Charlotte NC 28212 #980-236-8452
Monday - Sunday 10am - 11pm
e BEST American Spa in Charlooe! It’s ok to stalk us. We don’t mind. Website: www.clclt.com
Twitter: @cl_charlotte
Facebook: /clclt
Instagram: @creativeloafingcharlotte
Pinterest: @clclt
YouTube: /qccreativeloafing
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Getting your new plan accepted won’t be a major hassle if you have the facts to back it up. Your supporters are also prepared to help
intentions. Best to sort it all out before it becomes more confusing.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Get all the facts about that investment “opportunity” before you put even one dollar into it. There could be hidden problems that could prove to be costly.
S C O R P I O
(October 23 to November 21) Compromising on a matter you feel strongly about not only ends the impasse, but can be a win-win deal for all. Remember: Scorpios do well with change.
S AG I T TA R I U S
(November 22 to December 21) With all the demands you currently have
you make your case. Good luck.
to deal with, accepting the help of family and friends could be the wisest course to take at this time.
CANCER (June 21 to
CAPRICORN
(December 22 to January 19) Recent upsetting incidents might have left you with
July 22) Dealing with a pesky job problem might be time-consuming but necessary. The sooner you get this situation settled, the sooner you can move on to other matters.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) Career advancement is favored thanks to your impressive work record. On the personal side, you should
a big gap in your self-assurance. Refill it by spending time with those who know how worthy you really are.
AQUARIUS (January 20 to February soon hear some good news about an ailing family member.
VIRGO (August 23 to
September 22) There might be mixed signals from a certain someone who doesn’t seem all that certain about their
18) A dispute about money needs to be resolved quickly, before it festers into something more serious. Consider asking an impartial colleague to mediate the matter.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20) A soft approach could be more effective than making a
loud demand for the information you need. You might even find yourself with more data than
30 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | 31
32 | AUG. 23 - AUG. 29, 2018 | CLCLT.COM