2018 Issue 32 Creative Loafing Charlotte by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | SEPTEMBER. 27 - OCTOBER. 3, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 32

ThIs SaTuRdAy 9.29.18 tAcO lUcHa 2018

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T H i s

sAtUrDaY 9.29.18

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Taco Lucha for tickets visit:

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Charlotte’s gearing up for yet another visit from Florence, and this one promises to be much drier and more melodic. Check out our Top 10 on page 14 for more cool stuff to do.

PHOTO BY RALPH AVERSEN

We put out weekly

NEWS&CULTURE BRAD PANOVICH DROPS THE SCIENCE Charlotte’s top meteorologist talks Florence, trolling and global warming

BY RYAN PITKIN 7 THE BLOTTER BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK & VERONICA COX 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

FOOD&DRINK FILL UP AT FRAN’S Fran Scibelli adheres to her own palate BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

14 16

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

MUSIC BACK TO THE ’90S Pullover plans to revisit a past generation with new album

BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK 18 MUSICMAKER: COURTNEY LYNN & QUINN BY VERONICA COX 20 SOUNDBOARD

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT CHARLOTTE BIBLIO-FILES Books are making a comeback in

the Queen City BY PAT MORAN

24 FILM REVIEWS BY MATT BRUNSON

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

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NEWS

BLOTTER

BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK & VERONICA COX

GUESSING GAME Two men got into an altercation at a gas station in east Charlotte last week after a would-be thief claimed to be confused about where he was supposed to be pumping. According to the report, a 34-yearold man had already paid for his gas at a BP on Cambridge Commons Parkway and as he approached his pump he saw a 20-yearold man pumping gas into a gas can. The 34-year-old victim immediately assaulted the thief for stealing gas that was supposed to go into his work van, but once everything was settled, the thief explained that it was just a case of mistaken truck identity. The thief told police that there were four white work vans parked at the pumps at the time of the incident and he simply walked up to the one that he thought belonged to his company and began using the pump. In the end, both men suffered only minor injuries, although the younger man was treated and released by medics while the older man refused any treatment at all. SLEEP OVER A 24-year-old man and a

his 23-year-old buddy filed a police report recently after having one hell of a night in Plaza Midwood and not remembering what they did. The guys told officers that the last thing they remembered, they had been at a bar on Thomas Avenue at around 10:30 p.m., and the next thing they knew, they both woke up in an apartment at the Woodland Apartments. Neither one had any idea how they got there, and one couldn’t find his $500 iPhone while the other couldn’t find the $425 pair of AirMax sneakers he was wearing.

IN THE BAG A suspect attempted the luxury handbag haul of a lifetime at Charlotte Premium Outlets in southwest Charlotte early last week, but their greed caught up to them in the end and they lost it all. Rather than shoplift in the store, the suspect went directly to the source: the loading docks. The suspect first grabbed a UPS package containing eight Michael kors bags, worth $420 each. But that take wasn’t enough, so they also went after a second package containing 12 bags worth $358 each. Something must have spooked them at this point though, because the report states that the suspect got away but all $7,600 worth of merchandise was recovered. FIRE SALE A little further east, Dick’s Sporting Goods in Southpark Mall was also hit last week, but the suspect got away with the goods in this case. According to the report, the suspect entered the store and picked out a selection of athletic apparel, then left the store without payment. The suspect made it out of the store with about $2,800 of Nike clothing items. Most of these idiots protesting Nike are out here burning

merchandise they already paid for, but this guy has got it figured out.

GOING POSTAL A 54-year-old man in the

south Charlotte area probably wanted to go postal last week after the contents of a package he had ordered mysteriously went missing. The man told police that he had tracked his package, and the tracker app told him it has been refused and returned to sender. This was strange, as the man stated he was home when the package was supposedly delivered. He contacted UPS and told them to redeliver the package so he could accept it, which they did and he did, but that was still no good, because the package they delivered was empty. Someone had written “refused” and “return to sender” on the package with Sharpie after apparently opening it from the bottom, removing the contents and sealing it back with tape. So what were the contents of this package that someone went to such lengths to steal? The victim said he had ordered $500 worth of bumper ball bearings for a 1963 Lincoln Continental convertible.

OUT OF THE BLUE Earlier this year, we reported on an alarming uptick in paintball attacks, both on people and property, and while it seems that trend has calmed, the war isn’t quite over. One woman in the Shannon Park neighborhood in east Charlotte got an unexpected exterior paint job at her home last week, after an unknown suspect unleashed a barrage of blue paint from a paintball gun. The paintballs covered the window of her home, doing about $20 worth of damage, but money is not the issue, as long as the message was sent (we’re not sure what the message was). HARDCORE PARKOUR No one likes a

ding to their car, but a car that was parked in a Food Lion parking lot in Charlotte got much more than a scratch last week after someone used it as their own personal playground. A 48-year-old woman reported parking her car in the lot near East W.T. Harris Boulevard while at work, only to find that some unknown suspect has jumped on her trunk, ran across the top of the roof and onto the hood before seemingly disappearing, leaving just the footprints of an extreme walker. Police said the damage will cost about $300 dollars to fix, and the case is pending for further investigation, but we’re sure they’re not going to catch a suspect as mousy as this one. All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty. CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 7

PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN

NEWS

NEWSMAKER

BRAD PANOVICH DROPS THE SCIENCE Charlotte’s top meteorologist talks Florence, trolls and global warming RYAN PITKIN

RAD PANOVICH IS a sucker

for severe weather. As a 6-year-old child in Ohio, it was the Blizzard of ’78 that inspired him to work in weather. He moved to Charlotte from New Orleans to work as a meteorologist at local NBC affiliate WCNC in December 2002 in the midst of a harsh ice storm that took down more Charlotte trees than Hurricane Hugo. His reaction then was not to wonder what he got himself into. In fact, it was quite the opposite. “That was my first couple weeks in town and I just fell in love with the city,” he recalled. “It’s one of the few places I moved to where I felt at home the second I moved here. It just felt right.” Panovich has always felt at home in a weather emergency, he even flew into four hurricanes during his time with WWL in New Orleans. Here in Charlotte, he’s gained popularity thanks to his expertise around severe weather. And not in the negative sense, like Nicolas Cage’s character in The Weather Man being pelted with fast food, but more like the Penn Station employee in South End who yelled, “That’s my weather man,” before striking up a conversation with him as we left HEX Espresso Bar on a recent afternoon following Hurricane Florence. Before that, we sat to chat about the evolution of the American weatherman, internet trolling and climate change denial. Creative Loafing: How did your fascination with weather come about? Brad Panovich: It’s pretty weird because I knew I wanted to do this when I was 6 years old, and a lot of my friends who are meteorologists are the same way. It’s just something early in life that hits you. For me it was a blizzard, the Blizzard of ‘78, and we got snowed in at my parents’ house when I was a kid and I remember my dad having to climb out the first story window to dig out the front door, and I put my snowmobile suit on, which was standard issue for every Ohio kid, and you go out there and we had six-foot drifts. I was awestruck, and I wanted to know how, what and why that happened. 8 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

“[TROLLING IS] MORE SYSTEMIC OF WHAT’S GOING ON IN OUR SOCIETY — THIS ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-EXPERT KIND OF PUSHBACK. I DON’T THINK THEY UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE AND EXPERTISE OF SOME PEOPLE.” BRAD PANOVICH So from that moment on it was like a light bulb moment, I grew fascinated with bad weather. When there was severe weather I wanted to run outside and look at the sky. I think at some point my parents thought I would outgrow it, but I didn’t. I knew from that moment I wanted to be a meteorologist. I never wanted to be on TV, because growing up, most of the weather people I saw on TV weren’t meteorologists. And what I mean by that is they were weather presenters. They didn’t have any science back then. They were usually like a failed news anchor or something that they stuck over there, and for me, I loved the science of what I was doing, so I thought I would work for the weather service or NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] or I’d go back to school and maybe be a storm chaser.

So how did you end up on TV? My senior year at Ohio State [University], there was a hiring freeze in the government, budgets were cut and there’s just not enough money. I was like, “Holy cow, what am I gonna do?” So my friend said I should do an internship at the TV station. He finally talked me into it, and I did an internship at the CBS station in Columbus, Ohio, WBNS, and I probably should have looked into it more because when I walked in the door, they had their own Doppler radar, they had all these silicone graphic machines that they were building graphics on, and being kind of a tech geek, too, I was like, “Wow this is pretty cool.” So I dove headfirst into that. [Panovich was later hired as the weather

producer at WBNS] It still didn’t pay the bills. I had a parttime job at Dick’s Sporting Goods. I think [WBNS] were paying me $10 an hour, and I was only working 30 hours a week, this was a part-time thing, and a station in Dayton, Ohio, contacted me and said, “Hey we need a morning meteorologist on air, would you be interested?” That was WKEF. It was an hour and a half way, but they didn’t pay me anything, so I basically kept my job at DSG and commuted back and forth. So I’d do the morning show and I drove back to Columbus and I went to work at Dick’s Sporting Goods. I did that for about nine months, but I got a lot of experience on air. I got to cover some tornadoes, every once in a while I would fill in for the chief, so it was really a career builder for me and I was like, “Man, I can do this.” I enjoyed it. You said weathermen were just presenters, not meteorologists, when you were growing up. Has that changed? It has changed. You cannot get a job in broadcasting now without getting a degree in meteorology or earth sciences of some kind. And you can really put that on the viewers, because severe weather has become so important — the expertise on TV. Anybody can do sunny and 80 degrees. You can hire a model or a funny person to do that, but where people really rely on us is in situations like Florence, or if there’s a tornado or snowstorm, and that’s where you want the expertise. Because of the technology we have, most stations spend a lot of money on weather equipment. They spend a lot of money on their weather department. You need somebody with a degree who knows how to use this stuff. And I think because of the internet and social media, people can see through the frauds now. So I think it’s a pleasant turn of events that our field has changed almost 180 degrees. There’s only a few markets in the country, like Palm Springs and maybe San Diego, where there’s not much severe weather to worry about, where entertainment on TV is more important than content. When you talk about the entertainer as weatherman, it reminds me of Mark Mathis growing up in Charlotte. Yeah, exactly, and that’s fun, but the problem we run into with stuff like that is you’re trying to serve two different audiences. At one point you’re serving one audience while alienating another that wants weather information. So it’s a catch-22. Mark used to be a legit meteorologist. He worked at WFAE, he worked at our station back in the day, and he changed his style, and he was very successful at it. And I enjoyed it, I thought it was funny. He catered to an audience that was a non-traditional news audience, but at the expense of the traditional news audience. So the stations have this constant battle. They sensationalize things to get a certain audience but then do you alienate your hardcore news viewers who understand what you’re doing? I sometimes feel like in our industry we shoot ourselves in the foot a lot. We get a sugar rush, we want stuff that happens right now to get a big bump in ratings or a bump in viewers that in the long-term probably hurts our credibility as a

Brad Panovich rocks the seasonal tie back in ’09. source of information. We’re just coming off Hurricane Florence. Any post-storm insights now that it’s past us? Any surprises? It was a unique storm, and the fact that where it formed in the Atlantic, we’ve never had a storm hit the east coast in that location. Florence’s strength aside, the steering currents were very bizarre. Most of our storms are re-curving from the south, you think about Hugo, Fran, Hazel, all the big ones people have memories of around here, they came up through the Bahamas and were re-curving, they go through the Carolinas and go back north, this was actually moving east to west. It was just an odd flow because high pressure is typically centered over Bermuda and the clockwise flow around it steers all the storms that come by the east coast and they go back out. They call it re-curving. And so this one was out in the middle of the Atlantic and backed in from the east to the west and it was a bizarre flow. It’s one of the few hurricanes in our state’s history that impacted everybody from the coast to the mountains. This literally impacted the entire state, which is probably why it’s going to end up being the costliest hurricane in state history, because it impacted so many people. You got some trolling over Florence, but even beyond that, weathermen and meteorologists always take a lot of flak from folks who hold them to an impossible standard. Is that something you deal with more now in the social media age? There’s a couple things: social media has changed a lot of things, and people have access to a lot of information. But they don’t always know how to interpret that information. I think it’s great that people have access to the information but they have to know what they’re looking at. There’s certain things that we know as meteorologists, like certain models perform better at this or this or don’t on that, or there’s sometimes a model in a certain run that’s just got a bias or it’s doing bad, those are things that are on the fly that we’re always interpreting as we go.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRAD PANOVICH

So I think access to info has let a lot more misinformation get out there, which is part of the problem. And then social media, we start talking about systems much earlier than we ever did. Florence is a good example of this. It seemed like I worked forever, but I don’t remember ever talking about a hurricane 10 days ahead of time. With Hugo, you only had a three-day forecast back then, now we have a five-day, so usually if it’s in five or six or seven days you might start talking about it, but 10 days out is a long time to talk about a storm and a lot of people think, “Oh my gosh, the forecast changed so much,” and I’m like, “Not really.” That’s sort of typical for something 10 days out. If you look at any forecast 10 days out, trying to pin down an actual landfall is virtually impossible. So I think there’s a combination of just talking about events sooner and people having access to more information. As far as trolls go, they also have direct access to you on Twitter and other social media sites. Yeah, and that’s good and bad for me. I can be more of an expert and be more active because now I can specify changes and difference in stuff in real time instead of waiting for the 6 and 11 o’clock news, which is that time frame just isn’t good for weather, weather is 24/7. But as far as the trolling thing, I think that’s more systemic of what’s going on in our society, this anti-science, anti-expert kind of pushback. I don’t think they understand the science and expertise of some people, they just feel like everyone’s either doing something against them or for them. It’s like people pick sides instead of just making their mind up based on the information. At the end of the day, the one thing people always need to remember is that we’re literally trying to predict the future, and I think it’s amazing how well we do that, but I also know it’s never going to be 100 percent, and to have that expectation is a false expectation. Your wife and a group of local mothers SEE

SCIENCE P.11 u CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 9

NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

SMOOTH REACTION A naked man opened the door to firefighters responding to a house fire in Niceville, Florida, on Aug. 27 and said “I’m sorry” before closing the door in their faces. James Cunningham, 53, later admitted to police he’d had two liters of vodka and had smoked marijuana before trying to bake cookies on his George Foreman grill, reported WPLG Local 10. The experiment went wrong when the grill and cookies caught fire, so he covered them with a dry towel, which also caught fire. Firefighters said if he’d been in the house any longer, he could have died from smoke inhalation.

told the Memphis Commercial Appeal he’s looking for a temporary home for Kirby’s 800 students after closing the school Sept. 5 due to a rat infestation. The problem started in mid-August, when district personnel uncovered a rat’s nest during a renovation project. Eighty rats were trapped at the school and poison was set out. When students returned after Labor Day, poisoned rats began dying within the school’s walls and the stench became overwhelming. Calling the situation an “unavoidable act of nature,” Hopson said he expects students to return in early November.

ANGER MANAGEMENT Djuan Lewis,

SHITTY NEIGHBOR Lona and Joseph

23, landed a new job at Benada Aluminum Products in Sanford, Florida, on Aug. 30, a Thursday. On Sunday morning, his boss fired him. WFTV reported that following his dismissal, Lewis waited for his boss for two hours outside the business, then chased him and his girlfriend for a mile and a half, shooting at their car and hitting the rear bumper, trunk and right rear tire. Neither the supervisor nor his girlfriend was hurt. Sanford police arrested Lewis and changed him with attempted murder.

QUESTIONABLE JUDGMENT School resource officer and part-time police officer Maryssa Boskoski, 32, was called into a classroom at Liberty Preparatory School in Smithville, Ohio, on Aug. 30 to help rouse a sleeping student who could not be awakened by the teacher or even the principal. When Boskoski arrived, The Washington Post reported, her solution was to unholster her Taser, remove the firing cartridge and pull the trigger, causing an electric buzz that woke the student and shocked the school community. Smithville Police Chief Howard Funk placed Boskoski on unpaid leave and told WEWS news station Boskoski had been disciplined a month earlier, also for a Taser-related incident. An investigation was ongoing. OOPS New Jersey resident Gregory Lazarchick, 56, made a bad day worse on July 21 when he told greeters at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, he’d been sent by al-Qaida to “blow the place up.” According to the Orlando Sentinel, the greeters told Orange County deputies Lazarchick complained of having a bad day before issuing his threat, but deputies found no bomb-making materials in Lazarchick’s hotel room. The man’s sister reported he had suffered a head injury several years ago and sometimes said inappropriate things. The remorseful Lazarchick posted bond after his arrest for false report of a bombing. RATATOUILLE Classroms at Kirby High School in Memphis, Tennessee, are currently quiet as a mouse ... or a rat. Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson 10 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Johnson of Bellingham, Washington, survived the Las Vegas mass shooting last October and decided to get a dog to help with the trauma that haunted them after the incident. “We heard that dogs are good pets to help with the healing and PTSD ... and got Jax,” Joseph told the Bellingham Herald. But on Sept. 2, neighbor Odin Maxwell, 49, shot and killed Jax, telling police the dog was chasing his chickens. An investigation showed no chickens were harmed, and Maxwell was cited for discharging a firearm.

LEAST

COMPETENT

CRIMINAL

Taiheem M. McKay, 23, of Riverhead, New York, made it easy for Suffolk County officials to track him down after suspecting him of breaking into 10 different homes over the course of seven months, stealing cash, jewelry and designer accessories. According to Newsday, the Suffolk County Department of Probation traced McKay to the burglary locations through his GPS ankle monitor, which he was wearing as a result of a February 2017 second-degree reckless endangerment conviction. McKay has additional pending indictments in other burglaries.

THE PASSING PARADE Known for his

blond mullet and numerous social media rants, zoo owner Joe Exotic (real name: Joseph Maldonado-Passage) of Wynnewood, Oklahoma, has been cooling his heels in a Florida jail since his arrest Sept. 7 for allegedly attempting to hire two people in late 2017 to kill an unnamed woman. According to the Orlando Sentinel, one of those “killers” was an undercover FBI agent, and Exotic was indicted on federal murder-for-hire charges. It all started “many, many years” ago, said Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, who claims to be the “unnamed woman” Exotic was hoping to off. She said Exotic has threatened her repeatedly and posted a video online of himself shooting an effigy of Baskin in the head. Tangentially, Exotic was also a candidate in a three-way Libertarian primary run for governor in Oklahoma this summer. He finished third. COPYRIGHT 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

NEWS

NEWSMAKER

SCIENCE FROM P.9 t created the “I’m a Fanovich” t-shirt campaign to raise money for hurricane relief. How did you learn about that? Somebody came up with the T-shirt idea. “Let’s sell it and we can support Brad, but also support hurricane relief,” and all this is going on behind the scenes. I probably would have known about it if there wasn’t a hurricane going on. I was so distracted, and my notifications on my page, my DMs, everything was just blowing up. I haven’t been able to keep up with them, and I’m sure if I was I would have been able to pick up on it sooner. I know someone sent me a screenshot of the T-shirt at some point, and I thought it was just someone who mocked it up in Café Press or something. So that day at the station they come in and surprise me and I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” I had no idea all this as going on. There are many other highly experienced meteorologists in Charlotte. Do you get competitive with your peers? We don’t. We’re actually all very close friends. The funny thing about meteorologists, we all have to deal with the same stuff — from crazy viewers, from news directors, from consultants, from all this stuff — and I guess I learned long ago, the reason I do what I do is not really so much for the ratings for the station, I really am trying to serve the viewer. There are times that people are watching me, there are sometimes that people are watching Eric (Thomas) or Steve (Udelson) or Jeff (Crum). I know when UNC and Duke are playing on BTV, everyone’s watching them, so if there was a tornado warning, they’re going to get it from them. But Sunday Night Football, or if The Voice is on, I know there’s a huge chunk on us. And that changes. That’s the nature of viewing habits. So for you to think that everybody’s getting information from you is really egotistical and naïve. We do collaborate behind the scenes quite a bit. We have a private chat with the weather service. In fact, Eric and Jeff Crum and I are actually working on getting a Doppler radar network here in Charlotte, and it’s not about the stations or competition, it’s about us getting the right info. We all feel a deep connection to that, that this is important for everybody’s safety not just for our viewership. So I think we connect more than some of the news people, honestly, because we have this bond of weather, we love it, and we enjoy it and so we’re all a part of the same organizations. We get together every once in a while for lunch and meetings and we’re at conferences together, so I can honestly say we’re much tighter than I think the stations would like us to be. Your star has risen in recent years. Do you get recognized on the street often? It’s pretty funny, it happens more and more. I get a kick out of the people that don’t watch me on TV at all and only follow me online.

Present-day Brad

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRAD PANOVICH

I think that’s only going to keep getting bigger. The thing is, the days of waiting ‘til the 6 and 11 o’clock news to get the weather are long gone. So I feel like I’ve got to be there all the time. One of our neighbors came up to me, she goes, “Hey, are you the weather guy from Twitter?” It wasn’t like, “You’re the weather guy from CNC or TV,” it was, “You’re the weather guy from Twitter.” So yeah, that’s happening more and more where people recognize me and come up to me. I think the cool thing is people who come up and want to talk the weather. I enjoy talking weather. Where I get weirded out is when people want to talk about TV stuff. “How is this person on TV? Are they nice?” Or they’ll ask me about a TV show, and I’m like, “That’s not my thing.” If it’s weather, it’s generally what I want to talk about. You recently posted about the unusual heat in Charlotte this month compared to average September temperatures. Is it disturbing to have this front row seat to climate change? It’s scary but hope is not lost. I think it can be scary if you think about it, if we don’t do something about it and we don’t change things, but I can also see where we can make a difference. The frustrating part is, like you just said, I posted a simple thing about September temperatures, it’s just stat-based, there’s nothing else, there’s no interpretation, this is what it is. And immediately you get five or six people, they’ll look at a year when it was cool and say, “Oh, where was global warming in 1954?” Well, that was a single year, just like this is a single year, but if I show you the trend over the last 10 years, like seven of the top 10 [warmest years] are in the 2000s. I try to be apolitical in that sense because it’s strictly science to me, and there’s no denying the facts. The numbers are the numbers. The numbers don’t have a political party. They just are what they are. We could actually be hotter right now if it wasn’t for the Earth trying to counteract some of this stuff. We’re in a solar maximum — we’re supposed to be — but it’s the lowest solar maximum on record. So we actually could be hotter. The sun’s really not

Brad on his first day of work in Charlotte, Jan. 1, 2003.

producing that much heat right now. There are other factors like water vapor, sulfur dioxide, urbanization. In Charlotte, the easiest argument you can make for manmade climate change is to look at the city; 20-30 years ago there were trees everywhere. Development alone creates heat, creates runoff, it changes our environment. It’s not hard to think about that. I think where people get political is the policy. You can argue the policy, but the cause? It’s like me arguing over poverty. Like, “I don’t like welfare so I’m going to say poverty doesn’t exist.” You know? That’s why I feel like step one is can we just recognize the problem? It doesn’t matter if you’re left or right because it’s going to take ideas from both sides honestly to solve this. On a more positive note, what else are you working on for the future of meteorology? People always ask, “What is the hardest thing about your industry or business?” I think one of the things that I’m finding as I get older and into my career, it used to be the biggest struggle for us was forecasting weather, it still is, but we’ve gotten pretty good at forecasting. What our hardest problem is now is communicating it. So I think that’s the new frontier for what we do is the words we use, the colors, the

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRAD PANOVICH

graphics, how do we get people to listen to the forecast? Because I think our forecasts are more accurate than they’ve ever been. The perception that they’re not is a problem of communication. If I look at the duck boat incident in Missouri, there’s a severe thunderstorm warning for 45 minutes, why is a boat on the lake? There’s this problem with us communicating a threat and people acting on them, so going forward I think that’s one of the things I’m working on personally and really have strived as far as research and social science. There’s times when people think that Florence wasn’t a big deal. I get upset because how could you not? But part of me is like, I need to understand what kind of information are these people getting? It would be bad for me not to step back sometimes and take a look and listen to even my biggest critics and trolls and say, “Well, why did you think that this wasn’t a big deal?” I think people need to see the bigger picture. And if there’s anything I can do to hammer that home, I think that would help. So I’m always learning, that’s the great thing about social media. I think people see what I’m pushing out, but what I get back is really important. It really helps me, and it makes me learn about what’s working and what’s not working from a communication standpoint. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 11

FOOD

FEATURE

Chinese Chicken Salad

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLACK WEDNESDAY PHOTOGRAPHY

FILL UP AT FRAN’S Fran Scibelli adheres to her own palate BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

RAN SCIBELLI constantly

thinks about food. And as the owner of Fran’s Filling Station, that’s a good thing. She was once a white collar criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C., but thought, mid-divorce, that she should do the thing she thought she would love the most. Her brother was already in the restaurant industry in Charlotte and she had a friend in D.C. who quit her job to start a catering business. She’s always loved food, and the idea intrigued her, so she decided to open a restaurant. After looking through the restaurant space availabale in and around the nation’s capital, she figured it would be less expensive to operate in Charlotte instead. Rightfully so, as this city had more space for her vision of food. “I thought, ‘You know what? I could do it a lot more inexpensively in Charlotte,’” she said. “And I thought it would be better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.” She first opened the beloved Metropolitan Café, then Metropolitan Bakery, but those soon gave way to Fran’s Filling Station. Situated in the Dilworth neighborhood, the restaurant opens in a comfortable front dining room with a bar before leading guests to a taproom in the back, which features a large cooler that’s tapped on one side with local craft beers next to more low-top tables. The patio outside invites guests to soak up sun and food while enjoying the potted flowers that adorn the low brick wall that encloses the space. The entire atmosphere is clean and comfortable; much like a home ready to host dinner guests. “I’m very particular about how clean it is, because people want to eat in a clean restaurant. They think clean extends to the kitchen, which of course it does,” Scibelli said of her restaurant’s particular ambience. “You know, it’s like inviting people into my house. I want them to have a great experience.” And since it’s her house, she serves her food. Not only is everything on the menu created from scratch, but all of the dishes are recipes that she finds intriguing or that she herself would eat. She stated that she wouldn’t put anything on the menu that she wouldn’t eat herself. Her particular style and taste is in everything, and she works to ensure it’s perfected in the kitchen. “All I can say about the food here is it’s my particular taste,” she stated. “You know, other people might like it differently, but 12 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

“All I can say about the food here is it’s my particular taste. You know, other people might like it differently, but this is how I like it.” FRAN SCIBELLI, FRAN’S FILLING STATION this is how I like it.” But that’s not to say she doesn’t dish out popular and tasty recipes that she creates with a lot of research. As a woman with a master’s degree in history and a law degree from Stanford, she knows how to research. While reading every recipe she can get her hands on, she picks particular techniques and measurements to make her own. Or she takes the meals that her mother made and tweaks them, adding her own perfecting touches. For example, Fran’s meatball recipe is one that she grew up watching her mother make, but then changed when rolling it out in the kitchen and on to customer’s plates. “That’s an example of something where I watched my mom make them, but then I did a lot of reading and I read something very specific about a technique [in making meatballs]. I implemented that technique in my meatballs; so it’s partly my mother’s, it’s

partly something I read. And honestly I think they’re better than my mother’s,” Scibelli said with a laugh. Scibelli serves her better-than-mom’s meatballs with a housemade pomodoro sauce and cheesy orzo or braised greens. She tried rigatoni and spaghetti in the past, but orzo is what she likes best and intrigues her the most, so that’s what she serves. Most of her recipes have been on the menu for years, or have been brought back with slight alterations, but that doesn’t mean the selection of fare remains stagnant. Every day, Fran’s Filling Station offers different options of specials. When Creative Loafing stopped by, the daily specials included chicken diavolo — a crispy, spicy chicken that traditionally marinades for up to a day in a sauce of jalapenos and chiles — and shrimp scampi, a classic seafood and pasta dish of Italian heritage. But Scibelli said some of the most popular

dishes on her menu are the burgers. Each one is a masterpiece of condiments and protein, stacked neatly on top of one another, and in a very particular order. There’s the classic lettuce-tomato-pickle-onion combination that a diner can choose, or it’s possible to adventure outside the conventional ideas of what a burger is and try the Mediterranean option, which has tomato chutney, tzatziki sauce and carrot salad. As she described various dishes that include ingredients and toppings like pepper jelly, goat cheese or bacon wrapped tater tots, it was hard to not want to try it all. “Even though this is a casual restaurant, there’s nothing on the menu I don’t try to make absolutely delicious,” Scibelli stated. Another delicious creation on the “Fran’s Favorites” menu is the salmon and succotash. It’s easy to see why, as Scibelli scours the farmers markets for fresh vegetables three times a week.

PHOTO BY ANDY MCMILLIAN

END OF SUMMER COMMUNITY BBQ Free; Sept. 29, 5-8 p.m.; Fran’s Filling Station, 2410 Park Road; fransfillingstation.com

“I go to the big one a lot on Saturday morning, the Mecklenburg Market,” she said, listing off the markets that she hits for fresh produce. “And I go a lot to Simpson’s [Produce]. I’ve known those guys for more than 15 years, and they have some stuff that they buy, but they have a lot of local produce, too. Their corn is really good, their tomatoes are great. [I get] zucchini, I get lima beans shucked already, fresh limas, which are really good.” The upscale atmosphere of Fran’s Filling Station may seem like a typical place to eat and have a couple of drinks, but really, it’s relaxed and it’s about bringing people together. A couple years ago, she was speaking with a health inspector and asked if she could use the patio space outside to set up a grill and sling barbecue food to guests straight from the flames. Unfortunately, it’s against health code to serve people in that manner, but the health inspector did tell her it’s OK to serve dogs. Thus, Scibelli decided to throw a barbecue for the four-legged friends of her guests, an End of Summer Community BBQ planned for Sept. 29 at 5 p.m. “I don’t even have a dog,” Scibelli chuckled. “But it was this idea of just bringing people together. This is really a neighborhood restaurant, or I like to think of it as a neighborhood restaurant. We have so many people who walk here, lots of people who bring their dogs and sit outside.” Thus the first annual dog-friendly community barbecue was created in the food-centric mind of Scibelli. But she won’t just throw on some chicken and pork. Like the rest of her menu, she’s taking the time to create a recipe batch for the lovely canines of attendees. So far, she has decided to take her veggie burger recipe, which has quinoa, beans and vegetables, and add brown rice. But this is subject to change up until the day of the barbecue. As for the humans, she’s switching up the menu that night. As of Creative Loafing’s press deadline, the details of her barbecue

Fran’s Filling Station in the Dilworth Neighborhood

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLACK WEDNESDAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Fried Green Tomatoes at Fran’s Filling Station

PHOTO COURTESY OF POPROCK PHOTOGRAPHY

menu aren’t finalized, but Scibelli said it’s not going to be the classic burgers and hot dogs. “I mean burgers and hot dogs are great, but probably barbecue chicken would be nice and something vegetarian too, for sure,” Scibelli said. “But really it’s more about the community at this point.” The only details she has hammered out is the music. Local singer/songwriter Taylor Winchester, is slated to play during the event. She usually has good tunes to accompany her good food. And like her dishes, she plays what she likes.

She tries to keep it fresh and fun, but she mostly enjoys ’80s and ’90s with Elvis Costello and Van Morrison thrown in, and Scibelli plays it loud. “It’s not just the food we want to be delicious, but I definitely want people to come and have fun here. I’m always evolving the music all the time,” she stated with a sweet smile. “The music’s pretty loud here. I definitely have people who ask me to turn it down and I will on occasion — but I won’t on occasion. Friday and Saturday night, people are here to have a good time.”

Fran Scibelli, owner of Fran’s Filling Station Good times also include a favorable selection of wine, beer and cocktails. Every few months, Scibelli gets together with her bartender to design a new list of interesting cocktails. Right now, the cranberry apple Moscow mules are practically pouring themselves. She keeps the taps flowing with local beer like White Zombie from Catawba Brewing and a couple of Olde Mecklenburg Brewery selections. She said she wants guests to try the different wines that she has picked out with her wine vendor. As a former consultant to Dean & DeLuca in Napa Valley, it’s important to her when guests go outside of what they’re familiar with as far as wine is concerned. “If I’m behind the bar, not even bartending, but just behind the bar standing and talking to people, I will say, ‘Well try this, I like this.’ And then when they try it, then they’ll be a little more adventurous.” But ultimately, the selection of wine, similar to everything else in her restaurant, are there because she likes them, and she wants her guests to like them, too. And if they don’t, that’s fine. She’s been in this business for a while and has thick skin. Ultimately, she will move on to the next food or drink idea that she fancies or captures her interest. She hopes that you will like it, too. CMIHOCIK@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 13

THURSDAY

JAY ROCK What: I bet you didn’t know there’s a such thing as a Top TV Songs chart, but don’t worry, there is, and Jay Rock tops it. The recently released August chart from The Hollywood Reporter puts Jay Rock’s single “Win” from the HBO series Baller in the No. 1 spot, so that’s got to be worth something. We’re not expecting any big name cameos like when Jay brought out A$AP Ferg and had Kendick Lamar call in to his NYC Big Redemption Tour stop, but the winning flow alone is enough.

When: 7 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: $10-20. fillmorenc.com

14 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

THURSDAY

‘MILL VILLAGE: A PIEDMONT RHAPSODY’

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends TUESDAY

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUMENTHAL ARTS

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

COMEDY ZONE PODCAST

CHROMEO

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

What: On Thursday night, the mill villages of early-20th-century Charlotte will spring to life with the help of the Charlotte Symphony, which will take part in a multimedia event including a 30-minute symphony performance, live storytelling and historic images. Speaking that night will be Kristina Horton, great-granddaughter of union organizer and N.C. folk heroine Ella May Wiggins, killed during the 1929 Loray Mill Strike in Gastonia.

What: Thursday marks the beginning of the Queen City Comedy Experience, which consists of four days of funny, including performances by Jay Pharoah, Janeane Garofalo and Brian Regan, as well as a reunion of the local sketch comedy group The Perch. To kick things off, check out the first ever live recording of The Comedy Zone Podcast, our teammates at the Queen City Podcast Network, for which hosts Sammi Jo Francis and Will Jacobs will be chatting with Randy Rainbow.

What: The title of Chromeo’s latest album, Head Over Heels, is a sly wink at the duo’s penchant for sporting hooker heels or including mannequin legs in their branding. But don’t expect a trenchant examination of gender fluidity by these electronica bros. Chromeo is all about shiny surface pleasures — catchy grooves that draw from ’80s synth pop and electro funk. Chromeo’s cross between Prince and a sleazier Hall & Oates is fun but don’t look for any depth. There isn’t any. That’s the point.

What: It’s back for the 43rd year in a row. Since the event’s first iteration in 1975, the International Festival, organized by UNC Charlotte, has been an annual campus tradition focused on representing the cultures of over 50 nations. Soak up some culture that you might not be familiar with and get a new perspective on the arts, crafts, costumes and traditions of places you didn’t learn about in eighth grade world geography. Best part: many booths offer their country’s food for sale.

When: 7-8 p.m. Where: Charlotte Museum of History, 3500 Shamrock Drive More: Free. charlottemuseum.org

When: 6 p.m. Where: Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. More: $9. queencitycomedy.com

When: 8 p.m. Where: Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: $29 and up. fillmorenc.com

When: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Where: UNC Charlotte, 9201 University Boulevard More: Free. ifest.uncc.edu

Chromeo FRIDAY

Jay Rock THURSDAY

UNC Charlotte International Festival SATURDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FILLMORE

PHOTO BY TIM SACCENTI

SATURDAY

TACO LUCHA FESTIVAL What: Tacos and beers and wrestling, oh my! Do you want a say in which taco-slinging eatery makes the most glorious shell full of food in Charlotte? Vote for the best taco in Charlotte and sample from over 150 beers throughout the afternoon. At night, when you’re done shoving your face with beer and tacos, enjoy the musical stylings of Coolio, Judah & The Lion and Amigo. This event is brought to you by the one and only Creative Loafing, so you know it’ll be a good time.

When: 12:30-9 p.m. Where: AvidXChange Festival Grounds, 817 Hamilton Street More: $29 and up. tacoluchafest.com

TUESDAY

FIGHTING FOR WOMEN WITH FASHION

BILL MURRAY, JAN VOGLER & FRIENDS

What: This event may seem a little bougie compared to other CL Top 10 fare, but it benefits one of our favorite local orgs, Safe Alliance, so clean yourself up and throw on some nice clothes for a change. Watch Charlotte physicians and attorneys strut the catwalk in a fashion show or bid in a high-stakes silent auction while indulging in complementary beer, wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres (with strong servers holding the trays, we’re sure).

What: It’s a showcase of the aristry of the beloved Bill Murray and renowned cellist Jan Vogler. In this project, the two friends explore the marriage of literature and classical music, pairing Murray’s singing and poem recitals with Vogler’s classic musicianship. Their album, New Worlds, melds the works of Hemingway and Whitman with musicals and timeless tunes. It dropped last year and quickly topped classical music charts.

When: 7-10 p.m. Where: CenterStage@NoDa, 2315 N. Davidson St. More: $100. tinyurl.com/FightForWomen

When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon Street More: $25 and up. blumenthalarts.org

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

KASSA OVERALL TRIO

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

What: Lately, jazz and hip-hop fusion has been championed by Kamasi Washington, but the hybrid genre can be traced back to Digable Planets, Miles Davis’ 1992 album Doo-Bop and Ken Nordine’s 1950s experiments with word jazz. NYC-based drummer, DJ and vocalist Kassa Overall brings artsy Afrofuturism, indie rock muscle and John Coltrane’s spiritual quest to the genre-blending party, catapulting rap-jazz to the next level. Overall is among a handful of artists who can credibly be called the future of jazz.

What: OK, we know, the last thing you want to hear about is someone named Florence coming from across the Atlantic, but hear us out. British indie rock band Florence + the Machine has been wowing critics and crowds alike behind the force of frontwoman Florench Welch’s feathery-but-piercing voice. Florence is no one-trick pony, though. Her new album, High as Hope, features her drumming on four tracks. Look at the name Florence through a different Spectrum.

When: 8:30 p.m. Where: Evening Muse, 3227 N Davidson St. More: $15. eveningmuse.com

When: 7 p.m. Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St. More: $59.50 and up.

CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 15

FEATURE

MUSIC

BACK TO THE ’90S Pullover plans to revisit a past generation with new album BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

BAND

FORMERLY

known as Melt was once a side project that bloomed from the mind of Phil Pucci, but after the lineup changed and new members joined in 2017, it was a side project no more. It was time to rebrand. The band is now Pullover, an indie rock outfit comprised of Pucci on guitar and vocals, drummer Alex Smith, guitarist Nicholas Holman, keyboardist Brooke Weeks and bassist Caiti Mason. Pucci got his start with Smith in a shoegaze band called Serfs, but then decided to begin Melt after he began writing his own songs that didn’t quite fit in with the “loud sound” repertoire of Serfs. He began Melt as a solo project. After quickly realizing that he wanted to add more musicians, he tapped Smith and a bassist to turn Melt from a solo looping project into a three-piece band. In 2016, the trio released Repossession Blues, a nine-track album that opens with the single “Goddamn the Night,” a song with a driving and present drum sound and dreamy, ringing guitar riffs. Pucci’s vocals lay over the rest of the track with the lyrics, “Goddamn the night / You went off on your own … What’s left of summer now? / What’s gonna come of me now? / Goddamn the summer night.” “Boy” is another contemplative track, in which Pucci’s vocals ring throughout the song, asking one question directed at his cat: “What’s in your head, Charlie boy?” It’s a slow, two-minute song with that one lyric repeated over and over, until it gives way to a reverb fade out. This record was written by Pucci in a different time in his life. He was, as he put it, “Bummin’ around Charlotte,” playing here and there as Melt back when he was single. The songs are a mix of happiness and melancholy that portray the ups and downs of single life. “So a lot of those songs were sort of just about generally being unhappy and also really happy at the same time,” Pucci said. “Which was kind of a thing that happens when you’re not dating; you can experience both those things at once.” Soon after the 2016 release, the lineup changed, bringing in Holman and Mason, on guitar and bass, respectively. They brought a new dynamic to their sound by adding Weeks on the keyboard half a year ago, filling 16 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Pullover will play at Snug Harbor on Oct. 5 with Spirit System and Beach Bath.

PHOTO BY BRIAN TWITTY PHOTOGRAPHY

JUST THE TOTAL CATHARSIS OF PLAYING MUSIC IS DEFINITELY UNPARALLEL FOR ME IN MY LIFE. THERE’S SOMETHING I GET OUT OF THAT THAT I DON’T GET OUT OF ANYTHING ELSE THAT I DO. PHIL PUCCI, PULLOVER out the line up in an “orchestra of a band of five people.” “It feels like it’s the band,” Pucci said about the final addition of Weeks and the full lineup. While their Instagram account states that they’re a “dream punk music group,” Pucci said that’s more of a declaration. “I don’t think anyone out there would agree with me that we’re a punk band, but that’s more like a mission statement for me,” Pucci stated. “If I say that’s what we are then that’s who we are, even though our music doesn’t necessarily sound punk, it’s just good for me to think about that while we’re at practice.” And band practice is always a place for them to try out whatever sounds good to them. There’s no structure they put in place for them to approach making music while at practice. Sometimes it’s just one person playing around until everybody joins in, and sometimes the group has a fully thought-out idea. “We don’t really have one specific way that we always do it,” Smith said. “Sometimes

we’ll come in with a fully made demo and sometimes it’s from scratch.” The ideas fly when they get together for practice, and then the members work on their own sound separately to bring back to the band when they meet again. “That’s always nice to do, you go to practice, we all have these ideas together then you go home and you get to kind of work on it yourself,” Weeks said about the process of creating Pullover’s songs and sound together, then separately. “And then once you spend time on that, then you bring that back to practice and then go from there.” Considering that Weeks joined the band only six months ago, it can be quite a daunting task to add a new sound to a band that already has an established list of songs, but Weeks quickly took to the music, melding her keyboard and synth with the rest of the band’s sound. “For me coming into a band with complete [songs] it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I going to add to this sound and this style?’” Weeks stated. “But for me I think it’s just figuring out the right sound that’s gonna sound good with these songs and how I can just build the

sound out more.” The sound has changed and the tempo has increased since the days of Melt and Repossession Blues. Instead of coherent vocals, Pucci has opted for rhyming gibberish words together, a style inspired by Cocteau Twins, a Scottish rock band of the 1980s and ’90s. It sounds like English words that a listener can’t quite make out, but in reality, the lyrics are a nonsensical string of almost-words. And the music of Pullover is really whatever they decide sounds good, coming together to find the right tunes in the moment of creating music. “I think there’s more fun going on because it’s like everybody’s just trying to find the things that sound the best to us,” Holman said. “Not necessarily just to make a certain genre of music or certain mood. It’s just kind of going for what feels and sounds the best at the moment.” Sometimes that means writing songs around Mason’s riffs when she’s “just noodlin’ around on the bass,” and sometimes it’s a chord progression and vocal melody on which the song is expanded. Other times it could

be the five of them covering something offthe-wall by another artist and trying out different songs, adding their own twist to it. But whatever it is, it’s just the members having a good time together. In the early days as Melt, the sound was “sloppy,” as Pucci put it, when he and Smith were covering a mix of songs and free-wheeling in their music. But now, it’s become more structured as it came to be a five-piece band, while still keeping it’s emotionally raw roots. “It’s become a lot less sloppy, and being sloppy used to be a point of pride for me,” Pucci stated. “It’s a lot more put together. We will, in the same show, play a song that we’ve been working meticulously on for

because they’re supposed to hit all these points and follow a template. The movies are really corny and funny but they’re taking themselves really seriously, I think that’s fun, but everybody’s trying to do their best.” Pullover is slated to play alongside Beach Bath and Spirit System at Snug Harbor on Oct. 5. Smith expects it to be a brooding show with the dark sounds and textures of Beach Bath and Spirit System mixing with the dream punk of Pullover. The band’s positive relationship with the other groups in the Charlotte scene cultivates a culture of support and appreciativeness in the community. They’ve played alongside other popular local bands like Hectorina, Cuzco, Julian Calendar and Late Bloomer.

while playing on top of one another and traveled to Raleigh to perform for a Naked Naps album release party despite all five of them being sick. It’s plain to see that there’s an emotional draw that brings them to the stage every time. “I like the intimacy of it, of playing in a smaller venue with people that you care about or people that you don’t even know are coming to see you. That intimacy of playing music for people, it just feels good,” Weeks stated. For Pucci, specifically, it’s emotionally relieving to perform live. “Just the total catharsis of playing music is definitely unparallel for me in my life. There’s something I get out of that that I

don’t get out of anything else that I do,” he said. It’s emotional for the audience, as well. They’ve heard that it’s more of a physical reaction of provoked thoughts and feelings before anything else. “People have said people tend to feel our music, like in their whole body, you know what I’m saying?” Pucci said. “It’s kind of a visceral reaction to it.” With their current lineup and the first record as Pullover on the horizon, the dreampunk-but-not band will continue to play with their friends, sharing lineups around the city and bringing back the ’90s in their music. CMIHOCIK@CLCLT.COM

PHOTO BY BRIAN TWITTY PHOTOGRAPHY

(From left to right) Phil Pucci, Alex Smith, Brooke Weeks, Nick Holman and Caiti Mason of Pullover. over a year that we’re constantly making small changes to and it sounds super tight. But then the next song we play will be something that we wrote two days ago, even then it doesn’t sound as sloppy as it used to. It still sounds pretty put together.” With eight or nine new songs in their pockets, the crew is hoping to record and release another album — the first release as Pullover. When asked about the driving theme of the album, the band members laughed as Pucci said that the album would be like a ’90s romantic comedy. “Like the Can’t Hardly Wait soundtrack,” Pucci clarified. “Just thinking about people with blue hair drinking underage at parties and trying to hook up, and then the boy is an asshole but he turns into a good guy.” It’s a certain formula in the genre and the nostalgia of that decade that drew Pullover into creating a sound that encapsulates the feeling that accompanied the 1990s. They listed off other movies they felt fit in with the aesthetic that they’re going for. They spouted out classic films such as Clueless, Never Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You and Along Came Polly — although the last one is an early 2000s rom-com film, it settles in with the genre’s formula. “I’ve watched pretty much every romcom there is,” Holman stated. “The reason why I watch them it’s like this formula where you can measure them against each other

PULLOVER, SPIRIT SYSTEM, BEACH BATH $7; Oct. 5, 10 p.m.; Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon Street; snugrock.com

They’ve also scheduled a special Halloween show with Joshua Cotterino at Common Market in Plaza Midwood on Oct. 27. “I like the community aspect of it, like just the fact that we can share a showbill with some of our friends and we compliment each other on each other’s music,” Pucci said. But it’s fun for them to experience a variety of music when they attend a show, whether Pullover is in the lineup or not, as they draw inspiration from the bands that they see in Charlotte. “My favorite kind of show — whether we’re on the bill or not — is not the bands that all sound the same but an eclectic mix of four different bands,” Smith said. “I draw a lot of inspiration from the local music scene.” However, when they are on the bill playing a show with other bands that they are friends with, and playing for the audience, it’s an experience that’s hard to find elsewhere. They’ve crowded their five members on a tiny stage, dripping in sweat

Pullover and Joshua Cotterino are planning a special Halloween show at Common Market in Plaza Midwood.

PHOTO BY BRIAN TWITTY PHOTOGRAPHY

CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 17

MUSIC

MUSICMAKER

COURTNEY LYNN & QUINN Free; Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.; Queen Park Social, 4125 Yancey Road; courtneylynnandquinn.com

HERE TO STAY Courtney Lynn & Quinn settle in

while. Now we’re doing festivals. Everything is pretty local, and we host an open mic night at Thomas Street Tavern, which we actually started ourselves.

BY VERONICA COX

THEY WERE ON a break.

Now friends and musical partners, Courtney Lynn Russell and Jocelyn Quinn Henderson were both solo musicians in Los Angeles when they each decided to take some downtime in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2016. The two had met in L.A., but it wasn’t until they ran into each other in Phoenix that they started playing together at open mics, then decided to make it official by moving to Nashville and performing as Courtney Lynn and Quinn. But the duo never made it to the Music City. They instead continued east to Charlotte, where they felt the love was a little stronger. To them, when visiting Nashville, it felt like the artists were focused on individual successes instead of the success of the music community. When arriving in Charlotte, they discovered a warm and inviting music scene. The two then met Steven Cornacchia, their drummer, at a local gig, and formed a trio in 2017. Creative Loafing chatted with Courtney Lynn, Quinn and Cornacchia about planting roots in Charlotte and where they’re going from here. Creative Loafing: What makes Charlotte such a unique music community for you? Courtney Lynn Russell: When we went to Nashville, we kind of realized that a lot of the artists there seemed like they were trying to undercut each other’s success, and there was so much competition that really made it difficult to break into the scene. Everyone was all about individual success, and that’s why it was so nice to come to Charlotte where our energy felt so welcome and comfortable. Instead of having competition, the [music] community is super supportive, and everyone wants it to grow. When inspired your blend of pop, funk and soul? Russell: I’ve always loved folk music, my heart fell into it, and Quinn grew up listening to the more soulful Motown jazz. The pop element sort of came from us wanting to do stuff that people were engaged with, so we mixed all three elements. Jocelyn Quinn Henderson: I love jazz. I love Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and in my mind, jazz artists are the most organized, talented people. So when we met Steven, and he told me his background was in jazz, I was so excited to have him play with us. Steven Cornacchia: It’s funny because when I was in high school, you know, I listened to heavy rock like Led Zeppelin, and I’ve played in my fair share of songs in the 18 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Courtney Lynn Russell (right) and Jocelyn Quinn Henderson

PHOTOS BY WENDY HOGGARD

Courtney Lynn & Quinn play Oct. 5 at Queen Park Social progressive rock genre. But this band is not heavy rock, it’s different, and it’s a new experience.

spoke to at Thomas Street Tavern passed along our info and we ended up getting the gig.

Your band is relatively new in Charlotte. How do you go about building your name? Russell: When we were first starting out and it was just Quinn and I, we did an open mic night at this venue called Smokey Joe’s and we ran into Courtney Craven, who works at a booking agency in Charlotte. She came up to us and said, “I’ve booked local places in Charlotte for other artists, and if you’re interested I think I can get you some gigs.” So we get some shows through her. But the bulk of our shows come from grassroots marketing. We’ll play one show and take the time to really engage with our audience, and people will come up and ask us to play private parties. But we really take the time to talk to people. We’ll hang around after shows. We want to get to know people in the community. That’s how we got Carolina Jubilee [a festival in Harmony on Sept. 28-29]; a patron we

Do you put a lot of work into your band’s social media presence? Russell: When we really started going for music, so much of it is business related and about managing your online presence as well as your material. We basically use our website, Facebook and Instagram. Henderson: I don’t really understand Twitter, so we kind of stay away from that. But I’m not gonna lie, I will tell people after shows that we have Facebook and Instagram. I’ll kind of just announce it after we play. Russell: There’s only so much time in the day, and I’d rather be meeting people and working on material than managing all these different platforms. It takes a lot of time. What types of shows are you drawn to performing at? Russell: It’s ever-evolving. At first it was little bars, then we did a brewery circuit for a

Is it important for you to build your local presence before trying to branch out? Russell: It’s been intentional for us to build on our local reputation and play local shows. I’ve been on tour and been around the country playing music but Charlotte feels like home, and we really want to be a part of the community and a part of the music scene here. Henderson: We really want to build up the artistry of Charlotte. People see it as just this huge banking city, but there’s all this energy and momentum [in the music scene] and it seems like it hasn’t fully flourished yet. Cornacchia: It’s very easy to dismiss Charlotte as not an artsy music scene, but it really is. There are great people here. I don’t think we’ve ever even had an issue with a venue before, they’re all awesome. And we’ve never had a bad experience with other musicians. What’s next for Courtney Lynn & Quinn? Russell: We have material written for new music, and we’ve been honing it in at our live shows. We just went on Charlotte Today. They brought us on towards the end and we played a song. It’s definitely a very different sound than what we first put out. As time goes on with any project, you change as a person and the music changes with you. It’s a little more gritty. It delves into some deeper and more complex topics and emotion. Henderson: [The new music] is definitely more of a fusion of all of us. We’re also in contact with a recording studio, but we talk about this a lot as a band, and what we decided on is that looking too far out into the future can be dangerous. You can miss opportunities along the way. We set tangible, short-term goals. We’ll say like, “OK, we want to tour with a band that’s touring regionally, or we want to tour with a band that’s a little bit bigger.” We take it as it comes, we just want to grow organically. Cornacchia: Some bands want to play at Bonnaroo, but you can lose sight of what you’re trying to do when you realize how many little things you have to do to get to that point where you’re playing big shows. Henderson: We would like to do some tours, and we would love to play the Whitewater Center with that bigger presence of people and the larger stage. But we want everything to happen naturally. We’re really grateful for Charlotte and the community here, we want to thank them for being so supportive and keeping us going and encouraging us to be who we are. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 19

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD SEPTEMBER 27 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Davidson College Symphony Orchestra: Celtic Adventure Featuring Jamie Laval and Rosemary Warren-Green (Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall, Davidson) Jamie Laval violin Master Class (Davidson College Tyler-Tallman Recital Hall, Davidson)

COUNTRY/FOLK Montgomery Gentry (Rooftop 210)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Dende (Salud Cerveceria) DJ Karz (Tin Roof) Le Bang (Snug Harbor)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Jay Rock, Reason, Kiara Simone (The Underground)

POP/ROCK Carriers, Rush Morgan, Groh (Petra’s) Future Islands (The Fillmore) Karaoke (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Kilberth w/ The Emotron & The Flight Risks (Milestone) Kris Atoms (Comet Grill) Matt Stratford (RiRa Irish Pub) Music Bingo with Dr. Music (Heist Brewery) Open Mic for Musicians (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Open Mic music with Willie Douglas (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Time Sawyer (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Tommy Emmanuel, Jack Pearson (Neighborhood Theatre) Tow’rs (Evening Muse)

SEPTEMBER 28 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony Pops: The Music of Elton John and More (Belk Theater) Dominican Jazz Project (Davidson College TylerTallman Recital Hall, Davidson) Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)

COUNTRY/FOLK The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) 20 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

DJ/ELECTRONIC Audien (World) DJ Dirty (RiRa Irish Pub) Mirror Moves - Underground Dance Party (Petra’s)

POP/ROCK 20th Anniversary Music Fest (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) The Artisanals Album Release, The High Divers Duo (Evening Muse) Bald Brotherhood (RiRa Irish Pub) Blink 182 Tribute Band: Blank 281 (The Rabbit Hole) Caamp, Ona (Visulite Theatre) Candy Coffins (Tommy’s Pub) Chromeo, Steven A. Clark (The Fillmore,) Death Bells, Jenny Besetzt, Narow Head, Acne (Snug Harbor) Jamie McLean Band (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Jennifer Knapp (Evening Muse) Monty Mak (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Mojo Ruckus (Heist Brewery) Music Bingo/Trivia with DJ ShayNanigans (Three Spirits Brewery) Natty Boh (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Pluto for Planet (Tin Roof) Shiloh Hill (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord) Sit90sband: 90’s Night (The Rabbit Hole) Skewed w/ JPH, Vehicles, Maf (Nekoma Void) (Milestone) Stop Light Observations, Pip The Pansy (Neighborhood Theatre)

SEPTEMBER 29 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Symphony Pops: The Music of Elton John and More (Belk Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Ashland Craft (Coyote Joe’s) Western Centuries (U.S. National Whitewater Center)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Red (RiRa Irish Pub) DJ Stephen Craig (Tin Roof) Spag Heddy & Tisoki (World)

POP/ROCK

SOUNDBOARD Funk Rush (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Jason Moss & the Hosses (Comet Grill) Jay Taylor (Tin Roof) Leanna Eden And The Garden Of, The Veldt, Phatlip, Deion Reverie (Visulite Theatre) Mike Faukenbury and the Whiskey Prophets (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Pistol Town (RiRa Irish Pub) Rebekah Todd, Kissel, Flame Tides (Petra’s) Recital of the Lotus 4: “The Pros & Cons of Truth” (Stage Door Theater) Underground Detour (Reid’s Fine Foods SouthPark) Revelry Soul (Sylvia Theater, York) Sales (Neighborhood Theatre) Taylor Phelan (Evening Muse) Throwback Thursday Party Band (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord)

Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

Wahh World Fusion Band (Evening Muse)

DJ Steel Wheel (Snug Harbor) GLBL: DJ AHuf (Snug Harbor)

SEPTEMBER 30 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Travis Hyll (RiRa Irish Pub)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Concert Series Presented by 89.9 WDAV: Chamber Music Featuring the Contrabass (Davidson College Tyler-Tallman Recital Hall, Davidson)

COUNTRY/FOLK Jim Lauderdale (Stage Door Theater)

DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Chase Morgan (Tin Roof) More Fyah - Grown & Sexy Vibes (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

POP/ROCK Casey James (Visulite Theatre) Modern Primitives, Arson Daily, The Remarks (Skylark Social Club) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) Reese McHenry (Petra’s) Sunday Music Bingo (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)

OCTOBER 1 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz Jam (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)

POP/ROCK

9/28 CAAMP 9/29 LEANNA EDEN AND THE GARDEN OF 9/30 CASEY JAMES 10/2 MT. JOY 10/4CHRISTINA TAYLOR 10/5 TOWN MOUNTAIN 10/7 ROOTS OF A REBELLION 10/9WELSHLY ARMS 10/10 BASS PHYSICS x ELIOT LIPP 10/11 YO MAMA'S BIG FAT BOOTY BAND 10/12 BIG SOMETHING 10/18 BLACK JOE LEWIS ! 10/20 THE BREAKFAST CLUB 11/3 BOY NAMED BANJO 11/4 NICKI BLUHM 11/7 WILL HOGE 11/10 THE NIGHT GAME 12/12BAYSIDE Open Mic (Comet Grill)

Dem Sedgefield Boys (Comet Grill) Find Your Muse Open Mic featuring the return of Curtis Eller (Evening Muse) Piano Bar Karaoke with Ryan Stamey (Petra’s) The Monday Night Allstars (Neighborhood Theatre) Music Bingo (Tin Roof) Music Trivia (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Legion Brewing)

DJ/ELECTRONIC

OCTOBER 2

POP/ROCK

COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill)

DJ/ELECTRONIC

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Eclectic Soul Tuesdays - RnB & Poetry (Apostrophe Lounge) Jeff The Brotherhood, Zodiac Lovers (Snug Harbor) Kassa Overall Trio (Evening Muse) Soulful Tuesdays: DJ ChopstickZ, DJ JTate Beats (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

POP/ROCK Open Jam with the Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) The Big Lonesome w/ Lions in Space, And The Luckier & The Cocker Spaniels (Milestone) Bill Murray, Jan Vogler and Friends (Belk Theater) Emily Kinney, Paul McDonald (Neighborhood Theatre) Mt. Joy, Arlie (Visulite Theatre) Troye Sivan, Kim Petras, Leland (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Uptown Unplugged with Ellie Morgan (Tin Roof)

OCTOBER 3

KARAOKE with Mike Earle (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B ONYX - 100 Mad Tour featuring 100 Mad and special guest Deniro Farrar, SiBANNÄC (Neighborhood Theatre)

Breaking Benjamin, Skillet (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Donovan Woods and The Opposition, Jared Anderson (Evening Muse) Emit Radio’s Open Mic/Music Trivia Night (Dixie Pig, Tega Cay) Florence + the Machine (Spectrum Center) John Mark McMillan (The Underground) October Residency: Astrea Corp, 10th Letter, Autumn Rainwater, FLLS (Snug Harbor) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s) Quincey Blues (Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Charlotte) Open House & Karaoke (Sylvia Theatre, York) Open Mic (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Open Mic (JackBeagle’s) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)

COMING SOON Maroon 5 (October 4, Spectrum Center) Spirit System (October 5, Snug Harbor) Maxwell (October 9, Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Chvrches (October 16, Fillmore) Coin (October 19, Fillmore) Lil Xan (October 21, Fillmore) Chris Robinson Brotherhood (October 28, Neighborhood Theatre) Haunted Summer (October 31, Evening Muse) Psychedelic Furs (November 5, Neighborhood Theatre)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Alfred Sergel IVtet (Midwood Guitar Studio)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Bugalú - October Edition (Petra’s)

COUNTRY/FOLK

NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.

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

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MUSIC

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CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 21

COVERSTORY

ARTS

PHOTO BY PAT MORAN

A selection of Book Buyers’ 50,000 books

CHARLOTTE BIBLIO-FILES Books are making a comeback in the Queen City BY PAT MORAN

OR BRICK-ANDMORTAR bookstores, the

writing was on the wall. It was November 19, 2007, and Amazon had just released the Kindle. The world’s first e-reader sold out in five-anda-half hours, and shell-shocked industry watchers and members of the reading population predicted that physical books — those archaic construct of bindings, glue and printed pages — were on the way out, and that neighborhood bookstores were soon to be as extinct as the trilobite and the passenger pigeon. In the intervening 11 years it became easy to believe these dire predictions, as bookstores closed and publishers released fewer and fewer new books. “At one point in Charlotte we had three intimate bookshops,” Sally Brewster remembers. Brewster, the owner and manager of Park Road Books, notes that Horizon Books, Brandywine Books and Poplar Street Books have all closed their doors. Lee Rathers points out that her father, Richard Rathers, who owns Book Buyers in Plaza Midwood, learned the bookseller trade at Appleton’s, another vanished retailer. Just last June, family-owned business The Last Word filed for bankruptcy, joining a roll call of shuttered Charlotte bookshops including The Bookmark, Joseph Beth Booksellers and RealEyes Bookstore. Even big-box behemoth Borders bit the dust, filing for bankruptcy in 2011. Despite this daunting retail body count, predictions of mass bookstore extinction have been greatly exaggerated, says Jeanne Dowd, owner and manger of The Book Rack in south Charlotte. “The year Kindles became popular, that was the first time our sales fell instead of growing,” Dowd remembers. However, she points out that the e-book sales have since plateaued at about 20 percent of the market, and that new physical books continue being published. After a few rocky years, the Book Rack’s sales have been steadily increasing. Other book retailers have weathered the digital revolution and are now reporting a similar uptick in business. In Charlotte at least, people still love their physical books and local booksellers. They apparently ascribe to Ernest Hemingway’s observation that, “There is no friend as loyal as a book,” and to Roman statesman Cicero’s credo: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” 22 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

“[PEOPLE] LIKE THE FEEL AND THE SMELL OF A BOOK. THEY REMEMBER IT AND THEY MISS IT.” LEE RATHERS Launched in the Park Road Shopping Center in 1977, Park Road Books is Charlotte’s oldest extant bookstore. Current owner and manager Sally Brewster was a sales representative for Random House publishers when she first called on then-owner John Barringer in the late 1990s. It was Christmastime and Brewster knew that no one wanted to talk to a sales rep during the height of the holiday season, so she cut a deal with Barringer: She offered to work for the bookseller every Christmas. As a result, Brewster became familiar with the store and its product. In July 1999 Barringer hired Brewster as store manager. Four years later, he asked her if she wanted to buy the business from him. “I told him, ‘Anybody who would buy a book store now is insane,’” Brewster remembers with a laugh. “And I just happened to be that insane person.” Crazy or not, it was natural fit for Brewster who says she’s been selling books her entire adult life. Today, the store occupies a long and narrow 46,000-square-foot space stocked with over 30,000 tiles, Brewster says. Most hardcovers are $26. Mass-market paperbacks, what Brewster calls “the rack-sized jobbers,” are $7.99 to $9.99. Trade paperbacks, the oversized volumes that use better glue and paper, run around $16.

The store’s staff ranges from 13 to 16 people. Brewster has a handful of criteria for hiring, and the most important qualification for employees is that they must love reading. “We look for people that read authors that are alive,” Brewster continues. “If you don’t read anybody published after 1945, that’s not going to help because most of our books are current.” Brewster also stresses that Park Road Books’ staff must posses a certain je ne sais quoi, a combination of customer service skills and personality. “[Employees] have to engage the customer. People are looking to delve into the book and talk about them here.” Perhaps the most friendly and dedicated employee is the bookstore dog, Yola. She’s spent nine and a half of her 10 years at the shop, Brewster points out, adding that Yola is sleeping behind the counter as we speak. For many readers, used books possess a particular allure. They come with a history, a connection to previous owners and an oftmusty smell that fantasist Ray Bradbury likened to the tombs of ancient Egypt. Author Virginia Woolf wrote, “Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.”

Richard got the idea to launch a used bookstore in Plaza Midwood because he loved books, Lee says. He also thought that running a bookstore would be a good way to spend his retirement. It makes sense that the elder Rathers would choose a hectic activity like launching a business as a way to relax, Lee continues laughing. With an employment history that includes the Air Force, coal mining and teaching, Richard boasts a varied and busy background. In 1998 Lee’s father started working part time at Appleton’s to learn the book trade’s ropes, while still teaching full time at Harding University High School. “He started building bookcases, and going to yard sales, just amassing boxes and boxes of books, until he got to the point where he said it’s time to open up the shop,” Lee remembers. In 1999, with the help of Virginia O’Riley, the Rathers moved their collection of used books into a 1,000-square-foot space at the then nearly empty Midwood Corners Shopping center at the intersection of The Plaza and Central Avenue. “We were driving around Plaza Midwood and my father just had a good feeling about the [location],” Lee says. A year later, the store moved into a larger space in the strip mall,

PHOTO BY GARRETT SIMMONS Author Jan Brett at Park Road Books Lee Rathers at The Greener Apple inside Book Buyers and a few years after that, it relocated once what you want,” she says. “[The Book Rack] again (still the same building) into its current gave me freedom with a little bit of support.” 35,000-square-foot space. Lee estimates that Dowd launched her store in 1995, PARK ROAD BOOKS Book Buyers stocks close to 50,000 books, moving from a 2,000-square-foot space 4139 Park Rd. all priced, shelved, curated and sold by a lean to their current 5,000-square-foot space (704) 525-9239 staff made up of just O’Riley and the Rathers. on Johnston Road in 2010. She currently parkroadbooks.com Paperbacks run half the cover price, while employs six people who work the front desk, THE BOOK RACK hardcovers range from $6 to $10, with most two employees who handle shelving and one falling in the lower end of that range. Book woman who comes in part time to do the 10110 Johnston Rd. 5 Buyers vets the used books that customers store’s shipping. (704) 544-8006 bring in, and offers store trade-in credit. Dowd estimates that she currently has facebook.com/CharlotteBookRack/ In many ways, The Book Rack represents 50,000 used books and 8,000 new books BOOK BUYERS a hybrid of Park Road Books and Book Buyers, in stock. Prices range from $4 to $6 for 306 The Plaza offering a selection of new and used books. used books. New books, both hardcovers and (704) 344-8611 Dowd says she wanted to own a bookstore ever paperbacks, are discounted 20 percent off the facebook.com/bookbuyersclt/ since she was a little girl. She got into the book publisher’s price. trade soon after graduating from Wellesley The mid-to-late 1990s was a stressful College, when she went to work for Kroch’s and time for book retail, Brewster remembers. Brentano’s, then the largest privately owned “It was brutal,” she says. “We were bookstore chain in America. She moved from dealing with Borders, Barnes & Noble, Hilderbrand (Winter in Paradise). Brewster Massachusetts to Charlotte to manage the Amazon, Media Play.” To compete, Brewster recalls Anne Rice stopping in and Conroy location here that opened in Carolina Place expanded the store’s scope and outreach in returning multiple times. She reckons the Mall in 1991. the community. She brought in more books, most memorable event was an appearance “We did nicely for a few years but then bolstered the shop’s selection, strengthened by Diary of a Wimpy Kid series author Jeff Barnes & Noble opened up right across the existing relationships with publishers and Kinney. “We had him for Cabin Fever, and they street,” Dowd remembers. With a much bigger started catering to book clubs. “Anybody brought in 2,000 pounds of ice and made it selection and more attractive discounts, Barnes that needed somebody to talk about books, into snow,” Brewster remembers. The stars & Noble was rapidly pushing Brentano’s out I was more than willing to talk for free,” she from the Wimpy Kid movie made a surprise of business. Dowd cast around for her next maintains. In-store events and author visits visit to the store, and the line wound all the move and decided she could compete in the became a key part of Brewster’s business way down to Suarez Bakery at the far end of bookselling market with The Book Rack’s model. She recalls Barringer telling her about the shopping center, she continues. business model. “The Book Rack is a franchise, a young writer coming into the store eager In contrast, Dowd took on the bigbut a very loose franchise, “ Dowd explains. to talk about his self-published book. That box competitors with The Book Rack’s She had too many bad memories of being young scribe turned out to be Pat Conroy, discounted prices. The Book Rack, like most micromanaged by district managers during best-selling author of The Prince of Tides, The bookstores gets its new product through her days at Kroch’s and Brentano’s. “I had had Great Santini and other blockbusters. wholesalers like Baker & Taylor and Ingram managers come in and say, ‘You know what “That’s why we have author events,” Book Company. would be fun? Let’s switch the entire store Brewster concludes. “We want to help the “Wholesalers buy from publishers and sell around. We’ll move everything from the back writer meet the reader. Sometimes only a to bookstores,” she explains. Ingram Book into the front and everything from the front couple of people show up. Sometimes we have Company is a quick source for titles and they into the back.’ Then I had to deal with all the hundreds. But they’re all important because also offer lower minimums than publishers in angry customers.” the writer is trying to make contact, and exchange for free shipping, Dowd continues. In contrast, The Book Rack provided a people are interested.” “With Ingram you can order from a whole bit of training, some books to start out, Upcoming in-store author visits this fall variety of publishers from one source.” and few group-buying opportunities, Dowd include former Creative Loafing contributor Efficiency and cost-cutting results in saving, continues. “Other than that they let you do Frye Gaillard (A Hard Rain) and Ellen which is passed down to Dowd’s clientele. “We

PHOTO BY DANIEL COSTON

PHOTO BY PAT MORAN

Book Buyers’ comfy seating take a lower margin on our new books than other new bookstores do which, is why we can offer the discount on them.” Also unlike new bookstores, The Book Rack can offset their lower margin on new books with a slightly higher margin on used books. “New bookstores have to make all of their money off new books so they can’t afford to discount as much as we do,” she explains. Book Buyers has managed to cut itself loose from the big box pack with diversity. While many stores offer gift cards and bookmarks in addition to books, Book Buyers is the only bookstore where you can also pick up vegan products or adopt a kitten. The cat adoptions started in 2002, when O’Riley discovered an abandoned kitten in an alley behind the store, Lee says. “Virginia scooped up the cat, who became our bookstore cat, Page,” Lee continues. Soon O’Riley started rescuing other kittens and cats and bringing them into the store. A large cage at the back of the store currently houses the animals until O’Riley finds permanent homes for them. Prospective book buyers can now find themselves captivated by cute SEE

FILES P. 25 u

CLCLT.COM | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | 23

AMAZON STUDIOS

Olivia Wilde and Oscar Isaac in ‘Life Itself’ Jack Black in ‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls’

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A CLOCKWORK LEMON What hath Roth wrought? BY MATT BRUNSON

ON THE LITERARY timeline, the source material for the new kid flick The House with a Clock in Its Walls (*1/2 out of four) existed long before Harry Potter received a letter offering him a chance to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But on the cinematic timeline, this adaptation of John Bellairs’ 1973 children’s novel arrives long after the magic has largely dissipated from such enterprises. While the celluloid version of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them offered enough invention and energy to bode well for the upcoming follow-up, everything in Clock moves at the pace of, well, a clock winding down. It’s both too-little-too-late and been-there-done-that. Set in 1955, the movie centers on Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro), a young boy who’s sent to live with his eccentric uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) after his parents are killed in a car crash. Jonathan’s home is a cluttered mansion once owned by the late Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan), an evil warlock who left a ticking clock hidden somewhere on the premises. Jonathan, who’s also revealed to be a warlock (albeit a good one), knows that the clock represents something malevolent, so he and Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), his next-door neighbor and fellow sorcerer, spend much of their time frantically searching for it. Wowed by everything he’s witnessing, Lewis decides that he would like to become a warlock as well. Best known for Cabin Fever and Hostel, Eli Roth has spent 2018 trying to reinvent himself as a filmmaker who can tackle other 24 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

genres in addition to horror. He started the year with the needless Death Wish remake and now returns with a PG-rated family film that’s somehow even more dreary and repetitive than that R-rated effort. For a movie about fantastic beasts and where to find them, The House with a Clock in Its Walls offers little in the way of wonder and imagination. The incessant CGI maintains a constant chokehold on most other aspects of the film, as if Roth felt that today’s kids can only respond to a nonstop barrage of sound and fury and busy effects. The doll army is admittedly creepy — one can easily picture them as Pennywise’s minions — but a little of the canine-like chair, the belching pumpkins and the perpetually defecating topiary griffin goes a long way. Even the sight of Black’s head on an infant’s body runs a distant second to the more accomplished trick of placing Ryan Reynolds’ noggin on an itty bitty body in the recent Deadpool 2. After Goosebumps, Black doubtless seemed like a sound choice for this project, and he’s perfectly suited for his role as a voluble man whose surface cheeriness masks his inner frustrations and fears. But Blanchett never quite comes into her own in what’s ultimately a rather blasé role, and while the idea of having Black and Blanchett constantly hurling affectionate insults at each other sounds delightful, their barbs rarely extend beyond tiresome variations of “You’re ugly” and “You’re fat.” Clearly, Universal Pictures and Roth are trying to pay homage to the Amblin films

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made by Steven Spielberg and cohorts back in the 1980s — the studio’s press release even states that the film is “in the tradition of Amblin classics where fantastical events occur in the most unexpected places.” But if this soulless slog is any indication of what to expect from future Amblin wannabes, then we’re all in trouble, as it isn’t Back to the Future as much as it’s bleak for the future. WRITTEN AND DIRECTED by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Life Itself (** out of four) is the sort of sprawling, multigenerational saga meant to make audiences laugh, cry and nod approvingly at moments they might recognize from their own roller coaster lives. Unfortunately, a deep sigh and a dismissive shrug will be all that many folks will be able to muster. The word out of the Toronto Film Festival was that this was a disaster on the order of the Hindenburg or the Titanic, and most of the reviews thus far have supported that narrative. That strikes me as overkill — if nothing else, Fogelman has at least attempted to make something personal and intimate, a welcome respite from such common and mechanical entertainment as The House with a Clock in Its Walls. It’s just a shame his reach exceeds his grasp. Broken up into chapters, the film initially follows Will Dempsey (Oscar Isaac) as he explains to a psychiatrist (Annette Bening)

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how the departure of his wife Abby (Olivia Wilde) has totally destroyed him. Later chapters deal with a wealthy landowner (Antonio Banderas) in Spain, the loving couple who live on his property (Laia Costa and Sergio Peris-Mencheta), and, back in the US, a surly teenager (Olivia Cooke) dealing with the tragedies that life has constantly shoved in her face. The thrust of the film is how the literary device of the “unreliable narrator” applies to life itself, since life is unreliable because it always throws us curveballs every step of the way. It’s a shame Fogelman didn’t apply this theory to the actual crafting of his screenplay, since it’s never less than an absolute certainty that all the pieces of the film will snap neatly — and predictably, and sometimes ridiculously — into place by the final fade-out. On the plus side, the performances are exemplary, particularly those from Isaac and Costa. One’s mileage will vary, however, on Fogelman’s insistence on using pop-culture references to an excessive degree. Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind receives most of the lip service, but there are also copious nods to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. There’s even a recreation of the latter’s adrenalineshot-to-the-heart scene — unfortunately, it’s not potent enough to bring the rest of the film back to life. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

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COVERSTORY

FILES FROM P. 23 t kittens, and they could wind up leaving the shop with a brand new pet as well as a used copy of Danielle Steel’s latest opus. As is often the case, it’s easier to adopt out kittens than grown cats, so O’Riley moved some of the adult cats she rescued from her home into the store, where they currently reside in the back room. By the spring of 2017, Page had her own bookstore cat Facebook page with 6,063 followers, but she grew weary of the attention she drew from store patrons. Deciding it was time for Page to retire, O’Riley brought the literary veteran home and swapped her out with Book Buyers’ current bookstore cat, Deena. In much the way that O’Riley started rescuing and adopting out animals from the goodness of her heart, Lee followed her passion to launch her vegan store, The Greener Apple, which is housed inside Book Buyers. The shop, which offers vegan food, cleaning products, toys and more, began life in the front of the bookstore as Ecolicious, a locally sourced gift and food store that Rathers launched with a former business partner. When Ecolicious moved to Commonwealth Avenue, Lee decided to continue her business with an accentuated vegan bent. “I started the Greener Apple because there wasn’t anything around that just sold vegan,” Lee explains. “You had to go to Whole Foods and look up all the ingredients.” Currently, Greener Apple carries everything from vegan cookbooks to 23-pound bags of vegan dog food. It’s a one-stop shop where you can find products that you previously could only find in vegan magazines, Lee says. People come in specifically looking for vegan products, she continues, but sometimes people come in for books and leave with vegan health and beauty products. “It’s cool and eco-friendly stuff,” Lee concludes. “It’s sustainable, conscious of the earth and an alternative to our disposable culture.” The Greener Apple had gotten so popular by last spring that Lee and her father considered giving over most of the bookstore’s space to vegan products — but then book sales started to explode. Lee credits the population boom in Plaza Midwood for the uptick in book business. It seems that Richard’s good feeling about the location at the intersection of the Plaza and Central Avenue has paid off. Lee notes that the shop’s foot traffic has increased dramatically. “We get people walking into our store who have never been here before,” she says. “And there are people who have just moved here that are looking for a cool place. We remind them of bookstores that are like what they had where they used to live.” Brewster has also noticed an increase in Park Road Books’ business. “For the past seven years we’ve had an uptick almost every year,” she says. “For us, the real slam was the recession.” Park Road Books suffered with the big-box stores,

Jeanne Dowd, owner & manger of The Book Rack

PHOTO BY KEN DOWD

and then suffered a little more when the market went digital, she continues. “But that peaked about five or six years ago,” Brewster maintains. “A lot of people say they still read electronically but they also like to have a physical copy in their hands.” Dowd sees a similar trend. “The number of physical books published every year is down, but The Book Rack’s sales, after a bit rockiness in 2011 have gone back to growing.” This growing customer base is shopping for best-selling fiction and action/adventure and suspense novels, Dowd says. Romance typically makes up 40 percent of the paperbacks sold in this country, she continues. “Our history and science fiction/ fantasy sections get scoured on a regular basis. Fiction titles are the most popular at Park Road Books, Brewster says. The store sells a lot of histories, biographies and young adult fiction, she continues. “[Young adult fiction] is a category that expanded after J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter books came out. We keep increasing our selections on that category.” For Book Buyers, the titles that people bring in for trade-in do much to dictate the categories. It may be the only bookstore where you will see categories like Marxism right down the aisle from Paranormal Romance. “At one point we had a hypnosis category,” Lee says. “If we get in enough books on a subject to fill a shelf, we make up a brand new category.” One category that’s easy to spot is Book Buyers’ Aviation section. That’s because the books are shelved just beneath an actual airplane, a 1940s Piper J-3 Cub. “My dad got his private pilot’s license in the 1980s. He loved to fly. So one day he decided to build an airplane.” Suspended from the ceiling without its canvas covering, the Piper Cub is just a frame and an engine. It looks too fragile to fly through the air. “It’s definitely a conversation piece,” Lee says. “Some kids see it and say, ‘Wow, an airplane!’ It’s a good way to bring the little ones into the store.” With more children and adults coming in to Book Buyers, Lee attributes the surge in business to the tactile and nostalgic nature of physical books. “[People] like the feel and the smell of a book,” she says. “They remember it and they miss it.”

Employee Nikki Baucom celebrates Small Business Saturday at Park Road Books “A lot of people like holding a book in their hands,” Dowd agrees. “We have people come in saying they look at a screen at work all day. The last thing they want to do is come home and look at a screen again.” Dowd cites multiple studies that show the blue light emanating from e-reader screens is not conducive to inducing sleep. “So if you’re reading yourself to sleep with a tablet, you’re doing it the wrong way.” Brewster thinks our attachment to reading physical books goes even deeper into

our psyches. “There’s something psychological about it,” she says. “It hones into our being. I think our eyes and our brains react deeper and better with paper.” Even with all the digital devices and entertainment options to choose from there is nothing like a book to fall into, Brewster continues. ”There is so much depth to a book. I’m not going to lie. I do watch a little TV, but the experience of reading a book is so much broader and richer.” PMORAN@CLCLT.COM

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“FALL” IN LOVE WITH CHARLOTTE A rundown of cool activities to do after a hot summer AFTER BUYING WAY too many groceries

Watch a “scury” movie in the woods: Think back to your childhood. What was in preparation for Hurricane Florence, I’m thankful for a slight breeze during the day your favorite movie to watch during the and cooler nights. Halloween season? Nightmare Before And naturally, on Sept. 22, everyone Christmas? Halloweentown? Sorry I’m not and their mamas were posting pictures, etc. reaching too far back, oldheads. celebrating the coming of fall. You know, Nevertheless, I received the greatest memes like, “Gotta love fall. You can go from notification I ever did see on Facebook: wearing the same five things all summer to Movie in the Woods: Hocus Pocus. Um, sign the same five things all fall. #hoodieseason #layers.” me up! That’s one of those movies the young Of course, they were also the same folk watch on repeat during this wonderful people posting, “When it’s fall and North time of year when channels are playing scary Carolina is like, eff that summer is still movies on repeat. That event is scheduled coming.” Hypocrites. for Saturday, Oct. 13, at Cabarrus Arena & But seeing all the memes, whatever Events Center in Concord. the reason, I started to have daydreams Be adventurous and see a about how excited I am for the fall. random show: If you’re Especially when I always wear layers, no matter what time anything like me, you have of year it is and I have a a preference for the type boo thang to snuggle up of music you listen to. to. Yes, it’s officially the However, Sofar Sounds is start of cuffing season. one of the greatest things Last year, I spent to come to the Queen the majority of my time City. You purchase tickets going to house parties complete with bonfires, after signing up on their shows and believe it or not, website, but here’s the catch: AERIN SPRUILL going to Uptown Cabaret you have no idea who’s going after Sunday Funday and to be playing or where the show football. Weird combo, I know. is going to be in Charlotte. Come on, But there are a litany of other activities who doesn’t like a good secret? Don’t worry, I’d suggest for the good people of Queen City they tell you the day before. And I’ll be the and here they are: first to say, every show I’ve been to has been Clutch your pearls at Scarowinds: A few years ago, one of my roommates wanted completely enjoyable. to go to Scarowinds for her birthday. Now, Take a hayride and explore a anyone that knows me knows that I’m not a pumpkin patch: If you don’t want to settle fan of roller coasters. I don’t even like driving for seeing carved pumpkins at The Great too fast over a hump in the road. So me and Pumpkin Wall, carve your own. Every year, I another friend ended up riding the big swings try to grab a pumpkin, usually from a store, over and over again until we mustered up and bake the seeds so I can munch on them enough courage to go to the haunted corn maze. Mistake. We were so terrified we ended while I attempt to carve it. up bear-hugging two complete strangers who But this year, I want to go to an actual dragged us through the entire maze. Sorry not pumpkin patch so I can experience what it sorry. However, the allure of living in a scary feels like to see a sea of pumpkins in a field. movie for a short period of time, between But a hayride? That will make the whole rides, is definitely what keeps Charlotteans experience that much better. going back. These days, we can’t predict how long Discover the Great Pumpkin Wall: each season in North Carolina is going to What’s fall without a pumpkin? Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice, pumpkin lattes. I giggled be. That’s why we need to make the most of at the last one #basic. But the Great Pumpkin our time before it’s too cold to enjoy life and Wall, located in Elizabeth, will surely get we’re smuggling Tic Tacs in our shirts. you hype. Locals gather in droves to carve Tell me, what do you plan on doing, pumpkins, which are then displayed on a besides drinking, in the Queen City for wall for everyone to gawk at. The warm glow “pumpkin spice season,” aka fall, this year? that’s created with the lighting is absolutely Share it with me. heartwarming. And two years ago, when I BACLTALK@CLCLT.COM went, I met the mayor. #goals

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NEEDS & DEEDS Finding fulfillment BY DAN SAVAGE I’m a 62-year-old woman. I was married for 33 years and left five years ago. We hadn’t gotten along for years, but he never stopped wanting or valuing me for sex, in spite of treating me like a household appliance and cheating on me regularly. Not long after the marriage ended, I met a guy online (my same age) who ticked nearly every box on my partner checklist — one of which was an ongoing interest in maintaining sexual relations. In the beginning, things were hot and crazy, but they cooled after a few months (going from once or twice a day to maybe once a month). Other than that, the relationship continued to grow and we enjoyed being together. I tried to carefully broach the subject, but he was not forthcoming. I’m not proud of it, but I checked his internet history. Big surprise: LOTS OF PORN. No animals or children, but pretty much everything else, with an accent on trans. Eventually, I admitted my sleuthing and asked if his viewing habits were an indicator of his interests or the reason he had turned away from me. After the anger subsided, he explained that he had been single most of his life and had more or less gotten used to taking care of business solo. Also that the women he had been with who floated his boat sexually had been bad (crazy/ unstable) in the partner department, and the good partners (me) had been less than satisfying for him in bed. The bottom line is that we are compatible in most every other area and have built a comfortable life together. We have intercourse every four to six weeks, and maybe once in between he will pleasure me. I enjoy both, and also take care of myself once a week. The struggle for me is more ego-driven. I’m no raving beauty, but I am reasonably fit and attractive for my age, and (used to)

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enjoy feeling desired and valued sexually. Can I get to the place of letting go of that and enjoy the rare occasions of physical congress?

to have occasional sex with this man if they both agree to a nonexclusive, friends-withbenefits arrangement. Or they could become platonic pals, if that’s better for them. But it’s SEX ADVICE PLEASE imperative that she talk candidly with him.” You write that you tried to “carefully broach “Good for her for getting out of a marriage the subject, but he was not forthcoming,” but where she was treated like a ‘household Price wonders whether you were forthcoming appliance’ and getting back in the dating yourself. “‘Carefully broach’ usually means ‘I game,” said Joan Price, author of the books was vague,’” said Price. “Suppose, instead, she Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud About said, ‘I really value you, but I don’t think we’re Senior Sex and The Ultimate Guide to Sex well-matched sexually. How can we adjust After 50. “But her new relationship, our relationship so we’re not putting while it sounds comfortable sexual pressure on each other and and affectionate, doesn’t we’re both free to find other sound sexually fulfilling.” sexual outlets?’” This relationship doesn’t Your partner has an just sound unfulfilling outlet that works for him sexually, SAP, it sounds and pretty much meets all infuriating generally. his needs — porn and his You entered into own hand — but you don’t this relationship under have an outlet that provides false pretenses. You you with the feeling of being let your partner know desired and valued sexually. DAN SAVAGE that “an ongoing interest Watching porn and/or in maintaining sexual “taking care of yourself” isn’t relations” was a priority for going to meet your needs. So the you, and he allowed you to believe question is this: Do you have to exit this it was a priority for him. In fairness to loving relationship to get your needs met, him, SAP, he may not have known himself or can you stay with your current partner, a to be incapable of sustaining a strong sexual man who meets your emotional and social connection, seeing as he’s been single for needs, while getting your sexual needs met most of his life. But even if he wasn’t aware he elsewhere? couldn’t meet your needs then, that doesn’t “SAP deserves a partner who matches her change the fact that you aren’t valued/fucked sexually,” said Price. And I agree. the way you want to be valued/fucked now. If you’re telling yourself that you’ll “I think her best option is to stay friends have to settle for someone who claims he with this guy but start dating and having sex can’t perform for you because you’re not with others,” said Price. “She could continue unstable enough to turn him on — you do

realize that compliment he paid you was actually a dishonest bit of blame-shifting/ responsibility-dodging, right? — then you’re selling yourself short. “I know from personal experience and from the swelling of my inbox that many of us find hot, fabulous sexual partners in our 60s, 70s, and beyond,” said Price. “It’s never too late. She shouldn’t settle for sex that’s less than satisfying, and neither should he. If that means she looks for new partners and he returns to his solo pleasure with the porn he prefers and the hand that knows him best, they might both be happier.” Follow Joan Price on Twitter @JoanPrice. She blogs about sex and aging at NakedAtOurAge. com. I’m a transgender woman married to a cis woman. Is cuckolding strictly a male-being-humiliated-by-his-womanpartner thing? Or does it apply to all couples? CUCKOLDING HOLDS EROTIC ALLURE THAT SATISFIES

A man can cuckold a woman, CHEATS, and a man can cuckold a man, and a woman can cuckold a woman, and an enby can cuckold an enby. But women who are into being subs in a cuckold relationship — women who get off on being cheated on and erotically humiliated by their partners — are called cuckqueans, not cuckolds. On the Lovecast, Dan chats with Lizz Winstead of The Daily Show: savagelovecast.com.; mail@ savagelove.net; @fakedansavage on Twitter; ITMFA.org

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LIBRA ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Your Aries charm helps persuade others to listen to your proposal. But it’s still a long way from acceptance, unless you can stand up to the tough questions that are set to follow. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Plan to share a weekend getaway from all the pressures of your hectic workaday world with a very special someone. You could be pleasantly surprised at what develops. GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Your keen insight once again helps you handle a challenging situation with a clearer perception of what it’s really all about. What you learn helps you make a difficult decision.

(September 23 to October 22) A colleague could make a request that might place you in an awkward position with coworkers. Best advice: Share your concerns with an associate you can trust.

SCORPIO (October 23

to November 21) Your energy levels are way up, allowing you to take on the added challenge of a task you’ve been hoping to secure. Expect this move to lead to an important opportunity.

SAGIT TARIUS

(November 22 to December 21) Your continuing sense of confidence in what you’ve set out to do gives encouragement to others. Expect to see more people asking to add their efforts to yours.

CAPRICORN

(December 22 to January 19) You might think it would be best to reject a suggestion that others insist would be unworkable. But you might be surprised by what you find if you give it a chance.

CANCER (June 21 to July

22) If you want to steer clear of getting involved in a new family dispute, say so. Your stand might cause hurt feelings for some, but overall, you’ll be respected for your honesty.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) Expect recognition for your efforts in getting a project into operation. Besides the more practical rewards, your Lion’s heart will be warmed by the admiration of your colleagues.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Changing a decision might disappoint some people, but the important thing is that you be honest with yourself. Don’t go ahead with anything you have doubts about.

VIRGO (August 23 to September

22) Set aside time to rid yourself of clutter that might well be drawing down your creative energies. Consider asking someone to help you decide what stays and what goes.

PISCES (February

19 to March 20) There could be some fallout from an emotional confrontation that you really should deal with before moving on. Best to start fresh with a clean, clear slate.

BORN THIS WEEK: Your honesty not only helps you make decisions for yourself, but also helps others find the right choices for themselves. 30 | SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

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