2018 Issue 8 Creative Loafing Charlotte by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | APRIL 12 - 18, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 8

1 | DATE - DATE, 2015 | CLCLT.COM

2 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 3

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

STAFF

PUBLISHER • Charles A. Womack III publisher@yesweekly.com EDITOR • Mark Kemp mkemp@clclt.com

EDITORIAL

NEWS EDITOR • Ryan Pitkin rpitkin@clclt.com FILM CRITIC • Matt Brunson mattonmovies@gmail.com THEATER CRITIC • Perry Tannenbaum perrytannenbaum@gmail.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS • Erin Tracy-Blackwood, Allison Braden, Catherine Brown, Konata Edwards, Jeff Hahne, Vanessa Infanzon, Alison Leininger, Ari LeVaux, Kia O. Moore, Grey Revell, Dan Savage, Debra Renee Seth, Aerin Spruill,

ART/DESIGN

ART DIRECTOR • Dana Vindigni dvindigni@clclt.com CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS • Justin Driscoll, Brian Twitty, Zach Nesmith

ADVERTISING

To place an ad, please call 704-522-8334. SALES MANAGER Aaron Stamey • astamey@clclt.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Candice Andrews • candrews@clclt.com Justin Lafrancois • jlafrancois@clclt.com Melissa Rustemov • mrustemov@clclt.com ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Pat Moran • pmoran@clclt.com

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

A MEMBER OF:

4 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN

We put out weekly 8

We went up and down the new light rail extension this week looking for some of our favorite pieces of art at 10 separate stations, like this stoned teddy bear on the side of the old Charlotte Art League building near the Bland Station. Check out the rest on page 16, then take the tour.

NEWS&CULTURE WOMEN TAKE THEIR SEAT AT THE TECH TABLE Local developers join forces to help women thrive in a growing field BY RYAN PITKIN 11 THE BLOTTER BY RYAN PITKIN

FOOD&DRINK THE MORE THINGS CHANGE A Green’s Lunch hot dog is forever BY ALEXANDRIA SANDS

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT THE MURAL EXPRESS From University to Woodlawn, take the Blue Line Art Tour

BY RYAN PITKIN AND TATE ROBERTS

IF YOU ARE BUT A DREAM Shakespeare Carolina delivers Spanish

gold in a Rat Pack update BY PERRY TANNENBAUM

19 FILM REVIEW BY MATT BRUNSON

MUSIC NOTHIN’ BUT A ‘G’ THANG Rapper/singer Day Brown gifts us with

‘199G’

BY MARK KEMP 22 MUSICMAKER: CONDUCTOR ALAN YAMAMOTO BY PAT MORAN 24 SOUNDBOARD

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

GO TO CLCLT.COM FOR VIDEOS, PODCASTS AND MORE!

COVER DESIGN BY DANA VINDIGNI

ARTWORK BY NICK NAPOLETANO

Website: www.clclt.com Facebook: /clclt Pinterest: @clclt Twitter: @cl_charlotte Instagram: @creativeloafingcharlotte YouTube: /qccreativeloafing

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 5

6 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 7

8 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

NEWS

FEATURE

WOMEN TAKE THEIR SEAT AT THE TECH TABLE Local coders and developers join forces to help females thrive in a growing field BY RYAN PITKIN

RITTANI BURNS watched in amazement as the young woman next to her at Central Coffee — after asking permission — pulled up Burns’ website, typed something into the URL and was suddenly looking at the site’s HTML coding. Until that moment, Burns, a relative newcomer to website development, had thought the coding she had worked on during all-nighters and caffeine-fueled days over the past year was for her eyes only, but she looked on with a gasp then a smile as her neighbor scanned all Burns’ hard work, looking for ways to help her in the design. “I didn’t even know this was possible,” Burns said, her face reddening. “I thought only I could see my work. I feel so violated.” She was joking, of course, as this newfound knowledge was exactly the type of reason people attend Coffee & Code events, a meetups by the local women-in-tech group Girl Develop It. The group also holds “Babes & Brews” events for the craft beer crowd. Across the room, GDI Charlotte Chapter Leader Cristina Veale chatted with another group of women, some of whom were attending the event in South End to find help transitioning to a tech career, while another admitted she came because she doesn’t get out much but loves coding. This is kind of group Veale hopes to see at the events. Since taking over the GDI Charlotte chapter in 2015, she has helped grow the MeetUp.com group to nearly 1,300 members. She and fellow organizers host meet-ups, workshops and boot camps, all aimed at helping women feel more comfortable in the tech world. “In Charlotte, the tech community is pretty small,” Veale said. “I think for women, specifically, they do need some outlet in terms of getting into tech because it is a male-dominated field. So that’s mainly our mission — to have a safe learning space for women who don’t feel intimidated to learn about technology.” Five years ago, Veale was working as an IT recruiter. Finding folks tech jobs was her only involvement in the field, until she realized that with demand for web developers skyrocketing, she was seeing hardly any women stepping up to fill the roles. “[Female developers] were like the Golden Egg. You couldn’t find these people,” Veale said. “I noticed you don’t need a college degree related to computer science. You don’t even need a college degree, you really just need relevant experience,” she said. “So

I started looking around and seeing if that was something that I wanted to do.” Instead of spending her time searching for the Golden Egg, Veale decided to become one. She studied web development for about half a year on her own before joining GDI and attending a few workshops. She was eventually asked to run the chapter when the old lead organizer moved to California. “I feel like I went full circle,” Veale said. “That’s what got me started and I wanted to do the same thing for others.” Now, Veale hopes to join forces with other women-in-tech organizations around the city to help cultivate the growing number of women interested in joining the tech field. A new movement called #TechYourSeat aims to connect these Charlotte organizations, beginning with a convention that Veale hopes to organize by June. Representatives of each organization will attend the convention and set up booths to help women network and find jobs. “We want to try to start this women’s movement in Charlotte that is focused on women in technology to essentially take their seat at the table,” Veale said. “The way that we’re doing that is we’re meeting together monthly to try to get together around one big central point: this event in June. We want to have all the women-in-tech groups come together in a centralized location, talk about who we are, how you can get in touch with us and also just to network.” One attendee at the Saturday Coffee & Code event, Megan Feichtel, said she was attending her first GDI meet-up to help her get ideas for the newer local group she’s involved with, Women Rising. “People might think that they’re very separate groups, but at the end of the day we’re all working on the same mission,” Feichtel said. “What I’ve noticed most about groups like this is that people are really trying to support each other, whether that be men or other allies that come, we’re all trying to be supportive of each other.” Feichtel has found no shortage of women looking for a place to discuss the technology field without judgment. “Women love being able to have a space that they feel safe to come to and talk

PHOTOS BY BRITTANI BURNS

WEB ACCESSIBILITY 101 BOOT CAMP $60; Sat., April 14, 10 a.m.; Cardinal Solutions, 222 S. Church St. meetup. com/GDI-CLT/

Cristina Veale listens at a recent “Coffee & Coding” event (above). Attendees at the event work on their laptops (top). about the issues that they’ve come across, whether that be technical or environmental,” Feichtel said. “They are looking for a group where they don’t feel like just part of a boys’ club, to actually have meaningful conversations about technology.” GDI events are also about gaining skills, and that will be the goal of the upcoming Web Accessibility 101 Boot Camp, to be held at Cardinal Solutions in Uptown Charlotte on Saturday, April 14. Louise Clark, co-organizer with GDI, recently attended CSUN, an annual assistive technology conference held in San Diego. She came back with a wealth of knowledge on web accessibility, and hopes to share that on Saturday with the help of one of the country’s leading figures in the field. Preety Kumar, founder and CEO of Deque Systems, has been working to improve web accessibility since 1999. Clark said her “jaw just dropped” when Kumar not only offered Deque’s help, but insisted on traveling from her home in Chicago to Charlotte to assist in leading the boot camp. “It’s so important for women to mentor other women in the tech industry and to

really reach out, I benefitted from that myself,” Clark said. “That is invaluable in this field because this field moves so fast, and just because you’ve got your foot in the door doesn’t mean that it stays open. “Of course, it doesn’t have to always be women mentoring other women,” Clark added. “But people like Preety, who have been in the world of tech for a while, they have a unique perspective that they want to share with us about how to navigate the field of tech.” While most people think of income inequality when they consider web accessibility, Saturday’s event will focus on those who can’t access websites due to physical or cognitive disabilities. “I think it’s not something that we, as everyday users of the internet, really think about,” Clark said. “We do think it’s sort of an optional experience to be on the internet, like you don’t have to do it. But you know what, increasingly, yeah, everything is on the internet.” And with everything on the internet, there’s no shortage of employers looking for people to develop it — and they increasingly need folks who can code it in an accessible manner. In Charlotte, people like Veale and Clark are ready to help provide women to fill those roles. And they’re not waiting for permission to take their seats at the table. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 9

Account Sales Representative Womack Publishing, is seeking a creative Account Sales Representative for several newspapers in North Carolina to promote and market the business community through our products in print and online. A college degree is preferred but not required. A good work ethic, positive attitude and willingness to be part of a team will be an important consideration in selecting a candidate for this position. If you enjoy meeting people, this may be the perfect opportunity for you. Womack Publishing offers a competitive salary and a full benefit program. Womack Publishing is a family owned, growing multimedia company that publishes 19 regional newspapers. Please send your resume to: Ron Cox, Human Resource Manager, P.O. Box 111, 30 N. Main Street, Chatham VA or to rcox@womackpublishing.com

10 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

A PARENT’S NIGHTMARE In two

separate police reports filed on the same day at the end of March, police noted that graffiti had been found on West 5th Street that read, “KOS 132” in spray paint. The code was sprayed across five windows of a local motorsports business and on the garage door of an apartment complex. In both reports, officers stated that, “It is unknown if the graffiti is gang-related at this time.” So we took the liberty of doing a quick “KOS gang” search on Google and found horrifying results. The second result for that search shows that the K.O.S. gang is a crew in the online RPG Roblox, in which the players’ avatars appear to be Lego characters. Last year, a website called Family Zone stated that Roblox is “a dangerous game for kids.” The crew has only three rules: no bullying or killing crew members, show respect to HRs (high ranks) and try to recruit members every time you join a game. God help us, Charlotte.

DON’T TAP THE GLASS A 64-year-old

Dilworth woman learned that a thief can be as easy to scare as a goldfish when she confronted one last week, and in the end she came out of it with a brand new bicycle. The woman told police that she heard a noise coming from her detached garage at 4 a.m., so she looked out her window to check it out. When she saw a man crouching by a hole in the garage door, “she rapped on the window and the suspect fled towards the front of the house on foot, leaving a bicycle in the grass” on her front lawn, according to the report. Nothing was stolen in the incident.

SCREW YOU People steal some weird shit in this city, but one thief in the Blakeney Heath neighborhood was very particular about what they stole from a yard there last week. According to a member of the neighborhood’s homeowners association, an unknown suspect went through the neighborhood stealing the screws out of “No Soliciting” signs, leaving them dangling on their post. It’s important to note that the crime was committed on April Fool’s Day. MIDDLE MAN A 56-year-old woman filed

a police report when she realized that she was probably being used as the connecting point in some sort of illegal mail transaction. The incident started when the Harbor Estates resident received a piece of mail that she hadn’t ordered, only to be contacted by the person who had sent the mail stating that they had, in fact, used her name and address but were hoping she could now send it to a third party who the package was actually intended for. She was going to play along but told officers that her daughter told her she was probably being scammed, so she turned to police. If she would have opened the package, that sounds like the beginning of a good movie, although one where a lot of people die, so probably you made the right move.

HEAVY METAL You’ve heard the expression “crime doesn’t pay,” and that becomes all the more true when you go out with the intention of robbing someone and end up preying on a victim who was already dumpster diving to begin with. A 41-year-old man told police that he was collecting scrap metal from the dumpster area in the Oak Park at Nations Ford apartments in southwest Charlotte when he was approached by a man holding a gun. The suspect robbed the victim of his wallet, which contained $25 in cash, his ID and his Social Security card. Here’s to hoping he found some good scrap metal and made his money back. BIG BROTHER It is super depressing to come across regular reports of folks desperate enough to steal baby food, diapers and the like, but one apparent parent was more into surveillance than the essentials when they were caught stealing from a department store near Uptown Charlotte last week. Officers responded to Target at the Metropolitan shopping center last week after a woman was caught shoplifting with her children in tow. Employees told police the woman tried to “defeat anti-theft devices” while leaving the store with three different types of baby monitors, all of which included camera monitors. LOOKING FOR HANDOUTS A man at

Sports One, a bar and lounge in Uptown Charlotte, thought he could simply turn down a suggestion that he pay for his drinks last week, but ended up in a world of trouble after finding out it’s not that easy. The man ran up a $104 tab, then, instead of slipping out the door like most moochers do, he simply refused to pay the bill. Police responded to the scene, and when they arrived, the suspect, fueled by more than $100 worth of alcohol, assaulted officers as they tried to arrest him. He was finally taken into custody and charged with defrauding an innkeeper (an archaic way of saying someone won’t pay for drinks) and assaulting a police officer.

FRESH TO DEATH Police got involved in the case of a fight among children in Enderly Park in west Charlotte last week after household items came into play, and nobody was even eating Tide Pods. Officers spoke with three victims — a 17-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and an 8-year-old girl — who told them “they were involved in an altercation with some schoolmates,” and that “during the altercation, bleach was thrown on them.” The suspects fled before officers arrived, but they left a clean crime scene. All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

OPENING WEEKEND! Charlotte Knights vs. Yankees Triple-A Affiliate

THURSDAY

THIRSTY THURSDAYS $3 DOMESTIC DRAFT BEER

$5 SELECT CRAFT DRAFT

$1 SODA

GAME AT 7:04 PM

FRIDAY

FRIDAY NIGHT FIREWORKS GAME AT 7:04 PM

SATURDAY

LEGO LET’S PLAY TOUR WEEKEND THIS TOUR OFFERS FANS AN INTERACTIVE BUILDING EXPERIENCE PERFECT FOR FAMILIES TO ENJOY TOGETHER.

GAME AT 7:04 PM

SUNDAY

HOMER THE DRAGON’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION HOMER WILL HAVE MANY OF HIS MASCOTS FRIENDS AT THE BALLPARK TO MEET AND GREET FANS.

GAME AT 2:05 PM

TO PURCHASE TICKETS VISIT:

charlotteknights.com CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 11

FOOD

FEATURE

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE A Green’s Lunch hot dog is forever BY ALEXANDRIA SANDS

HEN GREEN’S LUNCH

first opened its doors, Calvin Coolidge was the president. Prohibition was in full effect. And women had won the right to vote less than a decade earlier. Dating back to 1926, Green’s Lunch is Charlotte’s oldest restaurant. A lot has changed in the past 92 years, but this hot dog joint has stayed pretty much the same, besides a few different owners who all have brought their own tastes to the restaurant over the decades. Founder Robert Green brought the original hot dog. It was served with mustard, ketchup and onions, and Green’s still serves the same kind today. Mary Green brought the chili. She took over with her husband, Robert Green Jr., the founder’s son, and later won the restaurant in a divorce settlement. Philip Katopodis brought the slaw. An owner of multiple restaurants across town, he bought Green’s Lunch in 1975. Originally, he wanted the land, buthe soon learned that keeping the restaurant might be worth his while. “He realized that it was a little gold mine,” said his daughter and current owner Joanna Sikiotis. For her part, Joanna Sikiotis brought the french fries. With all the northerners moving to town, she also brought the sauerkraut and relish. She grew up in her father’s restaurants and has been working at Green’s since she was 10, which made it an easy decision to buy the restaurant from her father in 1989. Today, the go-to meal at Green’s Lunch is the all-the-way hot dog: Robert’s mustard,

12 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

The dining room at Green’s (below) looks nondescript, but the walls hold its history.

PHOTOS BY ALEXANDRIA SANDS

ketchup and onion, with Mary’s chili and Katopodis’ slaw, served on a styrofoam plate with a side of Sikiotis’ crinkle-cut fries. Customers order at the register and pick up almost immediately at the other end of the counter. They take a seat at an unflattering booth surrounded by outdated wallpaper, but that’s just part of the charm. The walls are covered in awards, newspaper clippings and black-and-white photographs. A framed photo of a little boy ready to scarf down a hot dog hangs on the wall. In the photo, Sikiotis’ son Nick is just a boy, but now he’s the 27-year-old behind the counter. If you look at the photo closely, you’ll notice the personified hot dog toy that inspired the restaurant’s logo on Nick’s tray. The hot dog man is featured in a large, eye-catching mural on the side of the building. The colorful art is designed to catch the eye of potential customers, since the front sign on the building is so faded that it’s barely readable. The building on West 4th Street is newer than the restaurant itself. They tore down the original building and rebuilt it in 1980 to add air conditioning and heating. On top of that, the original building was so tiny that customers had to hunch. “The business got to be so much that that little place didn’t work anymore,” Sikiotis said. Water would flood the building every time it rained, making everyone’s feet wet and cold. In a large framed photo on the wall you can see why: The doors were lower than the sidewalk. The renovations did receive some backlash from the regulars. One man told Joanna’s mother that the new building would “ruin the atmosphere.” “My mother was so mad that she said, ‘Well, if you miss this atmosphere, I promise you in the new building every time you want your feet wet, I will take the water hose and wet your feet,’” Sikiotis said. For most folks, however, the new building was a symbol of progression. In the original building, Sikiotis’ mother noticed one of their regulars, an AfricanAmerican man named Mr. Brown, always passed the first door and went to the second. One day she asked him about it and he said he was used to going through that one. In 1926, racial segregation was prevalent, but Robert would allow African Americans to go through a separate door, stand in the corner and wait for the white people to be served. Then he’d give them food that they could take to-go. “My mom felt so bad,” Sikiotis said. “She goes, ‘Well Mr. Brown, now we’re going to

have one door and everybody’s the same.’” Eight white bricks from the old building are a part of the wall today. The new building helped Green’s Lunch continue on for 38 more years. Some families have their own history at the restaurant that goes back generations. One regular that stands out in Sikiotis’ mind is a woman whose mother brought her there as a baby. “[The mother] just gave birth and she made her husband come over here and get hot dogs,” Sikiotis said. “After she got out of the hospital, she came and got hot dogs with this baby. Now this little girl is 24 years old and she’s in college and when she comes back from college, she comes and eats hot dogs.” While staff treats all their regulars like celebrities, memorizing their names and orders, they’ve also got their fair share of customers who truly are famous. Billy Graham, Anthony Hamilton and Cam Newton have ordered at the counter. Green’s Lunch, which used to never open on Sunday, started opening for Panthers home games after the team was established. Sometimes an opposing team’s player will walk in and get ridicules from the crowd of blue. Sikiotis believes the best way to celebrate their milestones is to give back to the community that supports them. “Without them, we wouldn’t have been here 92 years,” she said. Partnering with local sports teams is one way to do that. Two years ago, as the restaurant celebrated its 90th anniversary, the crew raffled off

GREEN’S LUNCH Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sat., 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Closed Sunday; 309 W. 4th St. 704-332-1786. greenslunch.com

items donated by the Panthers, Hornets and Knights to raise money for The Make-A-Wish Foundation. They fundraised throughout the year with a hot dog eating contest and by selling $1 stars to customers. In the end, they were able to grant wishes for two local children. They also collected toys around Christmas for Levine Children’s Hospital. Sikiotis’ gravitates to charities like MakeA-Wish and Levine’s Children Hospital. She lost a four-year-old sister to leukemia. “There’s a deep thing in my heart for children, especially children that are sick,” she said. “Because of Make-A-Wish, I feel like I’m giving, in her memory, some other child his wish.” Sikiotis and staff fundraise every five years and plan to do so again at the restaurant’s 95th anniversary. Her goal is to organize a 5k this time, and plans to go even bigger for the centennial. In a time of “the big guys trying to get rid of the little ones,” as Sikiotis described it, she doesn’t have plans to sell the restaurant anytime soon. She’s gotten some offers, but what she really wants is for her son to continue the legacy. We’ll see you there in 2026.

*EXPERIENCE *INTERGRITY

*LEADERSHIP

www.irwinforsheriff.com

MAY 8 *Paid for by campaign to elect Irwin Carmichael Sheriff

BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

find these awesome brews at moo and brew 2018!

sponsored content

NoDa Brewing Company: Jam Session

New Belgium: The Hemporer HPA

Cabarrus Brewing Company:Sew Juicy IPA

The evolution of the American Pale Ale -- still a session beer but sacrifices nothing -- clean hop flavor shines through without being too dominant, and there’s a great malt flavor uncommon to the variety. The backbone of this beer is the balance of imported Maris Otter and Caramunich malts with the pine and citrus flavors of the Centennial, Simcoe, and Citra hops.

Cigar City: Jai Alai

An exciting new offering that’ll change the way you think about hoppy beers is coming your way. The brewers at New Belgium have created a new style of IPA: The Hemperor HPA. With the popularity of hoppy beers, our brewers are always on the lookout for different hop varieties and the complexities and flavors new strains can bring.

Sew Juicy is a hazy, unfiltered New England style IPA brewed with pale ale malt, wheat, and flaked oats. It has late additions of Citra and Amarillo hops and is aggressively dry hopped. The wheat and flaked oats give this beer a soft, silky mouthfeel and the hops create flavors and aromas of tropical citrus fruits.

An intense bouquet of tangerine and candied orange peel entice the nose while flavors of clementines, Valencia orange and subtle caramel provide counterpoint to an assertive bitterness and rich malt character. Bold hop flavor and aroma from six different hop varietals is front and center in this flavorful American IPA.

Address: 2921 N Tryon St, Charlotte NC, 28206 Phone number: 704-900-6891

Address: 21 Craven St, Asheville NC 28806 Phone number: 828-333-6900

Address: 329 McGill Ave NW, Concord NC, 28027 Phone number: 704-490-4487

Address: 3924 W Spruce St, Tampa FL, 33607 Phone number: 813-348-6363

@nodabrewing

@ NoDaBrewingNorthEnd

@newbelgium

@NewBlegiumAsheville

@CabarrusBrewCo

@CabarrusBrewingCo

@cigarcitybrewing CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 13

THURSDAY

TRACY K. SMITH What: U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith once referred to poems as “friendly,” and you can believe it when you read the poems in her Pulitzer-winning elegy to her NASA-engineer father and nod to David Bowie, Life on Mars. In one poem, Smith sees the universe as a “house party,” in another, as a “primal scream.” Her poems are vast and beautiful, fluttering freely from the physical to the metaphysical. Smith will discuss Mars and her latest collection Wade in the Water at this year’s Sensoria. When: 11 a.m. Where: Halton Theater, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. More: Free. sensoria.cpcc.edu

14 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

FRIDAY

13 WYNTON MARSALIS What: It’s awesome that Wynton Marsalis is paying tribute to Thelonious Monk, but it’s a weird fit. For Marsalis, jazz begins and ends with hard bop. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that Marsalis shellacs and embalms the style he loves and turns it into a museum piece. With his rhythmic Harlem-stride-influenced piano solos that accentuate the silence between the notes, Monk was an iconoclast — one that hard bop fans initially derided. When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. More: $20 and up. blumenthalarts.org

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

Tracy Smith THURSDAY

PHOTO BY RACHEL ELIZA GRIFFITHS

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

BRENT COBB AND THEM

MERCURY CARTER

SYCAMORE SPRING FEST

What: Every time you think the old warhorse southern rock has died off like the buffalo, it rears its rascally head again like ... well, the buffalo. Brent Cobb is no Skynyrd throwback by any stretch, but he brings the spirit of southern rock into poetic songs like the terrific talking blues “Ain’t a Road Too Long” and the tear-stained “King of Alabama,” a tale of a fallen friend set to sweet-home guitar riffage and heartstrings-pulling vintage keyboards.

What: There’s a lot of art happening this week that will glide you into the stratosphere. After listening to U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith talk about her collection Life on Mars on Thursday, let Mercury Carter take you to the red planet the following night on the wings of his angelic voice. CL ran a cover story on Carter last year, and we’ve been awaiting new material from this star-in-themaking ever since. For an update, check out this week’s Local Vibes podcast.

What: It’s that time of year again. Walk out the door to that sunny, 75-degree weather and hear the music of birds chirping, bees buzzing and, of course, a cold beer filling a glass. Winter felt like it dragged on forever, but beer drinking weather is finally here. Celebrate at Sycamore Brewing’s annual Spring Fest. There will be two stages for live music, indoor and outdoor beer and cider stations, prosecco pops, limited edition T-shirts and more. Plus, all the dogs and babies!

When: 9 p.m. Where: Morehead Tavern, 300 E. Morehead St. More: $10. moreheadtavern.com

When: Noon-11 p.m. Where: Sycamore Brewing, 2161 Hawkins St. More: Free. sycamorebrew.com

When: 8 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. More: $15. neighborhoodtheatre.com

The Decemberists WEDNESDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Cultural Dynamics SUNDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DECEMBERISTS

ARTWORK: “THE ENGINEER” BY LUIS MARTIN

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

WEDNESDAY

BOBBITO GARCIA

CULTURAL DYNAMICS

SEED20 ONSTAGE

COMEDY WITH A CAUSE

THE DECEMBERISTS

What: A member of the Rock Steady Crew, Garcia built his name as co-host of the Stretch Armstong and Bobbito Show throughout the ‘90s, where despite being on Columbia University’s underdog WKCR station, he and Stretch pulled the biggest names in hiphop, recording some of the sickest in-studio freestyles in the process. Beyond that, Garcia is also a sneaker icon and a staple in NYC’s street hoops community. At Snug, Kool Bob Love will be spinning like the old days, so be ready to dance.

What: The next exhibit inside NoDa @ 28th’s little-known arts studio promises to give viewers something to think about. The featured artists are Luis Martin, based in Brooklyn, New York; Jamil Burton, based in Rocky Mount; and Charlotte’s own Jemma L. St. Lawrence. Work ranges from realism to abstract, but the artists’ goal is to speak on behalf of the African and Latino Diaspora through art.

What: Everyone loves a good episode of Shark Tank, but our local version bests that. One reason is that it’s for the better of the community. Ten members of the Seed20 Class of 2018, consisting of representatives from Charlotte region nonprofits that tackle social issues, compete with pitches to win cash prizes in the form of grants. Those in attendance have two jobs: to listen and vote for their favorite and to drink, eat and mingle with organizers at parties prior to and after the main event.

What: The number 22 is the hook here. That’s the number of locations this tour, which showcases comedians who are veterans or still on active duty, is hoping to book across the country to raise awareness and funds for soldier suicide prevention. It’s also the number of soldiers that commit suicide daily. This inaugural gig, will feature Charlotte’s Crystalle Ramey (US Marine Corps), as well as comics from Atlanta, Greensboro and Denver, Colorado.

What: The Decemberists branched out last year when they raised over $400,000 on Kickstarter to create the board game Illimat with award-winning designer Keith Baker, but they didn’t stay away from the music business for long. In March, they released I’ll Be Your Girl, their eighth album in 17 years. Songwriter Colin Meloy told Billboard the album was a “risk-taking venture,” with a synthesized, ‘80s dance sound that’s unlike their usual folk-rock.

When: 9 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $12. snugrock.com

When: 4-7 p.m. Where: NoDa @ 28th Creative Arts Studio, 2424 N. Davidson St., Suite 100 More: Free. tinyurl.com/CulturalDynamicsCLT

When: 5:30-10 p.m. Where: Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. More: $65-85. seed20.org

When: 8 p.m. Where: Comedy Zone, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $20 - $25. cltcomedyzone.com

When: 8 p.m. Where: Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd. More: $18 and up. amphitheatercharlotte.com

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 15

ARTS

FEATURE

IF YOU ARE BUT A DREAM Shakespeare Carolina delivers Spanish gold in a Rat Pack update BY PERRY TANNENBAUM

Ted Patterson and Teresa Abernethy

ITH A KING who tries futilely to outwit fate, and a wrongfully imprisoned prince who has time — and fate — on his side, Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s Life Is a Dream hearkens back to a couple of revered Greek tragedies, Oedipus Rex and Prometheus Bound. First produced in 1636, the script also bears earmarks of Shakespeare’s most mature dramas, works like The Tempest and King Lear, where the Bard ponders questions about nature vs. nurture and “elemental man.” Mixing in a faceoff between free will and predestination, Life Is a Dream stands as one of the two most-anthologized plays from Spain’s Golden Age. Anthologists casually refer to the piece as a drama, but the more thoughtfully considered entry in the Reader’s Encyclopedia of World Drama describes Calderon’s masterwork as “a metaphysical problem play.” Screw that, says Shakespeare Carolina director S. Wilson Lee. He will tell you — and remind his cast of actors emphatically — that Life Is a Dream is a comedy. Scorning complexity, Lee explains, “My theater education regarding classic drama planted this nugget into my brain: Drama is divided into two categories, tragedy and comedy. The difference? In tragedy, central characters end the show dead; in comedy, central characters end the show married! Life Is a Dream ends with marriage.” That is... if that ending is real. At a key turning point in this “comedy,” King Basilio of Poland allows his son Prince Segismundo, imprisoned since birth, to come to the royal court. It’s a test of an astrologer’s prediction that Segismundo, if allowed to live and reign, would be the ruin of the kingdom. Brought up as an isolated savage, perpetually in chains and dressed in animal pelts, Segismundo is a fairly sure bet to fail any test of readiness to rule. Basilio has planned well what he would do if his son misuses the reins of power. He’ll see to it that Segismundo is drugged, transported back to his mountainside dungeon, and assured that his royal misadventures were nothing more than a dream. Whether that’s cruelty or comedy, this whole truth-or-illusion strand that runs through Calderon’s script is very modern. Lee is taking it further. The dream-state aspects of Segismundo’s journey will serve to heighten the comedy. “Living the Dream 18 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

David Hayes or Dreaming the Life... whatever,” he says, will be more than a mantra for Shakespeare Carolina’s production when it opens at Duke Energy Theater on April 19 — it will rule Lee’s design concept. King Basilio will be living the life with a modern flair, crowned with the Rat Pack aura minted a generation ago by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. “The look of the piece,” Lee says, “is a kind of ‘Wild Ones meet the Rat Pack.’ Most of the locale of the production takes place in Basilio’s Place, a happening lounge in Poland, Nevada. Also, the strangers, Rosaura and Clarin, come from Moscow, Pennsylvania. King Basilio is in the process of handing over his rule to the next ‘head of the family.’ Remember, though, this could all be Segismundo’s dream!” Lee intends to bring the audience into the dreamy action inside the Spirit Square theater. Cast members will address the audience during the show, and special seating will be available onstage at four lounge tables that will put eight of Shakespeare Carolina’s guests — two per table — in the middle of the action.

IN THIS ROYAL tale of turmoil, father

and son are both attention-grabbers. Though brought up in a cave with the humblest clothing, Segismundo isn’t exactly a clone of Shakespeare’s Caliban. He has a caretaker, Clotando, who tutors him a bit, and it’s Segismundo’s natural depth and probity that sets him heroically apart. In the first speech he utters, he tells us that mankind’s greatest sin is being born, a line that endeared Calderon to no less of an absurdist playwright than Samuel Beckett himself. Veering from savagery to such sublime speculation — the prince soon questions whether he was born — Segismundo spans an astonishing range of moods. “This was easily the hardest role I have ever prepared for,” says David Hayes, a Shakespeare Carolina mainstay since 1998. “Segismundo is dancing back and forth across a very fine line between madness and sanity — to the point where my own perception got a little skewed during this process. Stan [the director] has been a key component to reining me in or removing my ‘chains.’” To a certain extent, Hayes must not only take ownership over the full range of

ALL PHOTOS BY SHANE DEMPSEY

Segismundo, the dreamer, but our experience as well. “Isn’t that what a dream really is?” Hayes hints. “A chaotic onslaught that blurs the lines of reality. That’s what this is.” Counterbalancing that Marlon Brando biker persona is King Basilio as Vegas slickster. Lee is telling Russell Rowe, who plays the part, to think Frank Sinatra. Enjoying life at the top and thinking he has outwitted fate, Basilio isn’t ready to let go. Rowe doesn’t see much of a character arc in this swinging king. “It is more of a slope,” he says, “a descent from an exalted state to a more humbled one. This downfall encompasses both roles as king and father, since the threat to his kingship is coming from his own son. After the descent, of course, there is the brief but powerful upturn at the end, as Basilio learns the difficult lesson that he can only get what he wants by giving up trying to get it.” Of course, Segismundo doesn’t really know what he wants when we first meet him, because he has no idea yet who he is. The action is kickstarted with the arrival of Rosaura at his secluded prison, a woman — disguised as a man — who very much knows what she wants. She is fiercely in pursuit of the man who jilted her, but we soon realize her similarity to Segismundo. Rosaura has also lived a long time without being aware of her true identity. It’s a twisty plot when we arrive at Basilio’s lounge, with l-o-o-o-n-n-g speeches every step of the way. Lee is confident that the new translation eases the complexity and floweriness of Calderon’s text, helping to pave the path toward his intent of imposing a comedic style on the action. The transgender translator, Jo Clifford (nee John Clifford), was presumably most enamored with Rosaura, who openly speaks of herself as a man and as a woman in the same speech during the Act 3 climax. In her disguise, Teresa Abernethy gets to be one of the boys from the outset. But she doesn’t have to arrive on horseback. Nor is her opening line, “Dash off, wild hippogriff,” the same as it was in an older translation. “I’m still bursting out calling my horse — ride, bike, Hog — a Hippogriff!” Abernethy reveals.

Russell Rowe

‘LIFE IS A DREAM’ $20-$25. April 19, 7:30 p.m.; April 20-21, 8 p.m.; April 26, 7:30 p.m.; April 27-28, 8 p.m.; Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. blumenthalarts.org

The roughest ride for Rowe and Abernethy has been reining in the tempestuous temperaments of their characters. “Rosaura is fueled by passion,” Abernethy says, “which propels her inner conflict. Emotion is a beast that can drag us to all sorts of domains, but for Rosaura, she is all in — willing to die for her honor. My own conflict is not floating away to Rosaura’s coursing elements of shame and still participate in this play that is a comedy.” Lee is pulling hard to keep it that way. The director wants this Shakespeare Carolina production to engage us in the bigger questions Calderon plays with — without bogging us down in them. “I do want the audience to think about long-term abandonment and the toll it takes upon one’s psyche and cognitive process. I want the audience to relate to Rosaura’s sense of loss and dishonor. I also want the audience to ponder Basilio’s reasons and explanations regarding his treatment of Segismundo, Lee says. “By all means, do that. However, none of those questions will be pondered if the audience has not had a good time exploring along with the characters.”

ARTS

FILM

Join us at Free Range Brewing on April 14th to discuss the cultural turning point of the #MeToo movement and explore ways to move beyond conversation and take action.

NOISES OFF ‘A Quiet Place’ is loud and proud

Drinks and food will be available for purchase.

BY MATT BRUNSON

ACTOR JOHN KRASINSKI’S previous

picture in the director’s seat, 2016’s The Hollars, made minimal noise when it was selected as part of the Sundance slate, but its subsequent wide release led to dismissive reviews, scant box office, and serious flirtation with my own year-end “10 Worst” list (I ultimately determined that the likes of Alice Through the Looking Glass and London Has Fallen were slightly more foul). Conversely, Krasinski’s latest directorial at-bat, A Quiet Place (***1/2 out of four), made ample noise when it debuted at South By Southwest, and its subsequent wide release confirms that the deafening buzz was more than justified. Making the most of its ingenious hook, A Quiet Place is a crackerjack horror film, and while it may not boast the sociopolitical gravitas that informed last year’s Oscar-winning Get Out, it’s nevertheless a treat for anyone who likes movies that go bump in the night. The world of A Quiet Place has been largely decimated by monsters — fearsome beings who are blind but use their highly developed sense of sound to locate and eviscerate any living creature (not just humans but basically anything that moves and makes noise). After a tense opening sequence that ends in tragedy, the picture examines how the members of the Abbott family — dad Lee (Krasinski), mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and son Marcus (Noah Jupe) — try to survive in this nightmarish landscape. The answer is obvious: Like Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits, they strive to remain vewy, vewy quiet. It’s a challenge for all concerned, and even more so for Regan. As she’s deaf, she’s unable to know when someone else has made a sound or when, heaven forbid, one of the creatures is lurking in the vicinity. What’s noteworthy about the script by Krasinski, Bryan Woods and Scott Beck is that it establishes its setting and its premise and then rarely looks back. While ample exposition in a movie is usually a wonderful thing, here it’s only doled out in small, even subtle ways. For example, venture online and you’ll find plenty of filmgoers wondering whether these monsters are extra-terrestrials, man-made experiments gone wrong, subterranean critters from the bowels of the earth, or something else entirely. Yet a quick peek at the newspaper headlines shown early in the film hints at their origins, and it’s really all that’s required. Krasinski and Blunt are married in real life, so it’s reassuring to note that they share a natural rapport on screen. They’re excellent, although the breakout star here is Simmonds. Deaf in real life, the young actress made her debut last year in Todd Haynes’

PARAMOUNT

Tickets $10

Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds in ‘A Quiet Place’

underwhelming Wonderstruck. She’s far more vibrant here, positioning her character as a courageous girl who finds herself battling internal as well as external demons. A Quiet Place isn’t frightening as much as it’s fraught with suspense – cheap gotcha scares are kept to a bare minimum, with Krasinski preferring to build underlying dread rather than elicit audible yelps. In space, no one can hear you scream, but in an auditorium showing A Quiet Place, everyone can see you flinch.

presented by:

Guest-curated by Davita Galloway

creative loafing

IT ALL STARTS GOING downhill around the time Jon Cena drinks beer through his butt. Until then, Blockers (**1/2 out of four) is a rather savvy and — if you squint really hard — even subversive comedy about three high school seniors who make a group pledge to all lose their virginity on prom night. The twist here is that it isn’t the usual horndog bros seeking that epic lay — there’s nary a Stifler nor Shermanator in sight — but rather three smart and sensible girls opting to go all the way. Mainstream movies centering around the sexual agency of teenage girls are so rare that Blockers is being greeted with the same degree of hushed awe usually reserved for long-lost Orson Welles projects. Alas, that speaks less about the shaky quality of this movie than the painfully slow progression of this country. Julie (Kathryn Decker) initiates the pact by announcing that she plans to make love to her boyfriend Austin (Graham Phillips) immediately after prom. Her best friends Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) quickly agree, with Kayla planning to score with her lab partner Connor (Miles Robbins) and Sam settling on the jovial Chad (Jimmy Bellinger) even though she’s a closet lesbian and would rather spend time with classmate Angelica (Ramona Young). When the three girls’ parents learn of their plans, they set out to stop them. The vast majority of the sizable laughs are packed, not unlike sardines, into the first half of the film, and there’s ample mileage found in the various generational conflicts — the ones that reveal that even the coolest of parents will still appear as anything but hip to their easily embarrassed offspring. But the freshness of the initial hour eventually gives way to a more pat second half that unspools predictably. CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 19

FEATURE

MUSIC

NOTHIN’ BUT A ‘G’ THANG Rapper-singer Day Brown gifts us with ‘199G’ BY MARK KEMP

E WAS 17 and on top of the

world — Dayleen Brown, a kid from Charlotte, dancing on BET and appearing in commercials for AT&T, K-Swiss and Foot Locker. He was rising up the ranks in the dance world, having studied under some of the top choreographers in the biz: Tony Testa (Michael Jackson), Marty Kudelka (Justin Timberlake), Rhapsody James (Beyonce), Jamal Sims (Hairspray, Step Up). “I was on the set for Hairspray,” Brown says. “That was pretty cool.” Then he walked away from it — the money, the travel, the brushes with celebrity. He wasn’t comfortable with the lifestyle. “I started to see the politics in it, and as a young man I wasn’t ready for all of that,” Brown says. “You start seeing the people you look up to doing all these crazy things, like drugs and stuff, and you’re thinking, ‘This is wild, but I don’t know if I’m supposed to be here.’” He pauses. “I mean, I was supposed to be there, because my talent permitted me to do it. And I’m grateful for that. But I needed to get away from it. I wanted to do something different.” Brown didn’t want to be just a dancer in the background of TV commercials; in the shadows of celebrities, getting sloppy seconds of fame. He wanted to be front and center, doing his own thing, even it that meant just doing it in Charlotte. Brown wanted to be a rapper and a singer. So in 2011, he came back home and got busy. Eight years later, Day Brown and his best friend Walter Boston III have put together a music collective, Gifted Musik, and Brown has recorded two albums, Midnight Blue, in 2016, and the new 199G. On April 19, the Gifted crew will throw a party at Petra’s in Plaza Midwood, and Brown will perform a short set of songs from the new album on a bill with several other rappers and singers, including his partners Boston, as Walt B.3, and John Alex Harper, as well as Black Linen, Nige Hood, Th3 Higher, DJ SPK and others. It’s a lead-up to the New Era Music Festival two days later, on April 21, at the New Era Music House on Old Concord Road. The Gifted party is a way for Brown to reintroduce himself to the Charlotte music scene after a year-long stint in New York. “I’ve been adamantly practicing my set, working on stuff from the album, figuring out exactly how I want it to sound,” he says. “Because I want to be very clear and concise as to what kind of artist I am.”

THE KIND OF ARTIST Day Brown is, first

and foremost, is positive. Musically, he draws from neosoul, with hints of the production style of Travis Scott, a little Miguel and even shades of D’Angelo and old Motown. When asked who his influences are, he name-checks 20 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Scott, then adds, “But I grew up listening to a lot of Common, Biggie, Jay-Z, Mos Def.” Brown reaches for his phone. “Let me pull up my current ‘goods’ playlist,” he says, and then begins scanning it: “Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Fats Domino, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, lots of Biggie, lots of Missy Elliott, lots of Lauryn Hill.” He pauses. “In terms of a rapper who sings, Lauryn Hill is probably my biggest influence of all.” In one track on 199G, Brown incorporates a Motown-like melody in the hook, over music that has an almost Beatles/Sgt. Pepper’s-like vibe by way of early De La Soul. The song, “You Know It,” rides on a cool sample of Bill Withers’ “Use Me.” It’s a love song in which Brown expresses mixed emotions. “I had this young lady, very beautiful,” he says. “But she knows she’s very beautiful, and that’s the part that attracts me, but it’s also the part that scares me. Because if I know she’s beautiful and she knows she’s beautiful, then everybody knows she’s beautiful.” He wrote lines for a hook: “I like when you know you’re fine / And you know it, you know it, babe.” Then he stitched together a rap to go in between, forming a nice mix of melody and flow that communicates those feelings. “I was having a hard time with this, and then one day I just came to terms with it — like, people gonna think she’s beautiful, regardless of the way I feel. So either I’m going to love her through that or I’m gonna have to choose to walk away. I can choose either one of those paths as long as I’m honest with her about it.” He laughs. “Actually, I had a third choice — write a song about it.” Brown is sitting on the couch in the living room of his friend Boston’s apartment near SouthPark, wearing a black shirt emblazoned with the letter “G,” for Gifted, in red. He and Boston met at South Meck High School when they were seated next to each other in their ninth-grade homeroom class. “We were sitting there and I said, ‘Yo, man, what’s your name?,’” Brown remembers. “He said, ‘Walter.’ I said, ‘I’ve never met a black kid named Walter.’” The two became instant friends, Boston beat-boxing and playing drums, and Brown dancing, rapping and singing. “Our talents just naturally went together,” Brown says. The Gifted Musik project came about because the two truly felt they were gifted. “I said, ‘We’re gifted, so why don’t we just call ourselves what we are?’” Brown remembers. “So Gifted is just about us being able to share our gifts with people and allowing them to share their gifts back with us. Basically, it’s about sharing what we all do best as humans, and essentially that’s love. But when you get more specific, it’s music and art and food and laughter and joy and things like that.”

Intellectually yours, Day Brown. The two came up with a logo — the letter “G” in red — that takes on an even deeper meaning. “When you think ‘G,’ you think gangsta. I wanted it to have a completely different connotation,” Brown says. “To me, ‘G’ is your gift. You can be a gentleman, you can be gorgeous, you can be a genius, you can be godly, you can be the giver, the go-getter” — he pauses and laughs — “or you can be a gangsta, if that’s what you choose to be. You can be anything you want. You can be all these different things, as long as it’s your ‘G.’” Brown named his new album 199G, because he was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1993. “So 199G rhymes with 1993, and for me, that’s the year of my gift — the genius, the gentleman, the godly. Those are the things I hold dear, and that’s kind of what this album presents. If you listen to the songs, you’ll hear each of those things in it.” In another track, Brown’s gift is a blessing. In fact, “Blessins” is the name of the song. He wrote it about another girl — one he’d been dating in Charlotte before he moved back up to Brooklyn for about a year in 2017. When he returned in September, he met up with the girl again, and learned she had a new boyfriend. “I said, ‘Whoa! That’s crazy.’ But then I was like, ‘You know what? If that’s what you want, then do it and be blessed.’ And I was serious. So I wrote that song.

PHOTO BY EMANUEL BELL

“It was about her at first, but then I realized I wanted it to be a blessing or a prayer for anyone,” Brown continues. “So in the chorus, I sing, ‘Blessing your time, blessing your home, blessing your mind, blessing your soul’ — it’s just a blessing to your complete life. Whatever it is that you’re putting your energy into, I want it to be blessed. We’re all up in this thing together — let’s create, let’s build, let’s love. And however things happen from there, if it’s done with good intentions, in time it’ll be a blessing to you, it’ll be a blessing to me, it’ll be a blessing to us.”

DAY BROWN’S FIRST blessing came in

1998, when his mother decided to move him and his two older brothers — CB, then 13, and Ty, then 10 — to Charlotte. CB was already beginning to flirt with gang-banging in Brooklyn, and his mother didn’t want that for her sons. “She’s a single mother, and she couldn’t take the New York thing with three kids,” Brown says. “She was just 16 when she had my oldest brother, and she had me when she was 25. And we was living in the hood, we was in the projects, so she just wanted to get us away from that.” He had an aunt who lived in Charlotte. “She told my mom, like, ‘Yo, this is the place!’ So my mom prayed over it, as people do, and she was like, ‘All right, I’m gonna go.’ She

GIFTED PARTY 9 p.m. April 19. Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. $6. petrasbar.com

didn’t tell no one. She just grabbed us kids, got a little U-Haul and brought us down.’” By then, CB was already heavy into hiphop, and quite the rapper himself. “That’s how I started rapping,” Brown says. “He is uber-talented. He wrote more than any person I’ve ever known. I used to sneak and read his rhyme books. It was completely vulgar, but I didn’t know the difference at the time.” In Charlotte, Brown’s older brothers would hang out with their friends, playing basketball or Grand Theft Auto, and young Dayleen would try to join in. “My mother banned me from playing Grand Theft Auto,” he remembers with a laugh. “She was like, ‘You will not be playing that and you will not be listening to rap music.’” He did listen to rap, though, and he learned to freestyle. “I would be in my PJs and go up into my room and mimic what they were listening to, put my own words to it,” Brown remembers. “Then I would go outside with them and kick the freestyle I’d been practicing for like a week.” Brown was 12 when he joined Charlotte’s Steps N Motion dance studio, and from then until 17, dancing was his life. By the time he decided to leave dancing and make a go at rapping and singing, CB had moved on. “He went to school and he welds now,” Brown

says. “He just figured like, rap wasn’t for him. He thought it was a good thing to do when he was young, but for him, it wasn’t his thing. But he told me, ‘If you really want to do this, then chase it.’” The first song Brown wrote was “How I’m Feeling,” which he made a video for. “I was like, ‘Yo, I want to write a hit, something people can sing along to,” he says. “So I wrote, ‘I might just drink tonight, because that’s just the way I’m feeling.’ I wanted it to be totally organic; the way I was feeling.” The first time he rapped in front of an audience was 2013, two years after he’d left dancing. His friend, the Charlotte rapper JahMonte Ogbon, was putting on a show at Area 15 and asked Brown to perform. “I had that one song,” he says. When he performed it, he was shocked to find people in audience had seen the video and knew the words. “I had no idea that people actually knew the song, so when we went up to play it and people were singing along to it, it blew me away,” he remembers. “This was the first time I ever rapped for people, and people were singing along to my song. We killed it.” Day Brown hopes to kill it at Petra’s in the same way he killed it during that first show. “There’s going to be multiple performers, so my set won’t be too long,” he says. “But I’ll give a good mix of stuff from the new album. I’ll be doing a couple of sung songs and a rap in the middle, just to keep it simple, so people can see both sides of what I do. I really want people to grasp the melodies and things they can sing along with. I want it to be easy for them to remember it, to remember me.” MKEMP@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 21

MUSIC

MUSICMAKER

FROM THE CAULDRON OF WAR, A PLEA FOR PEACE 3012 N. Davidson St.,Charlotte NC \ (980) 299-2588 \canvastattoos.com @canvastattooandartgallery Canvas Tattoo & Art Gallery “ ” Mention the word "Creative" at the shop for a rad prize!"

Alan Yamamoto marshals Charlotte’s musical forces for ‘War Requiem’ BY PAT MORAN

THE IRONY OF “The War Requiem,” the British composer Benjamin Britten’s pacifist magnum opus, is that mounting a performance of the piece is a logistical feat akin to planning and executing a military campaign. Just ask Alan Yamamoto, the arts division director at Central Piedmont Community College and former resident conductor of the Charlotte Symphony. “The process has been a little a little hair raising,” says Yamamoto, who conducts “The War Requiem” at 7:30 p.m. at CPCC’s Halton Theater April 13 and 14. The performances are part of the Sensoria arts and lit festival. “The War Requiem” is a massive orchestral work, scored for chorus, boys’ choir, three vocal soloists, organ, full orchestra and chamber orchestra. There will be 185 performers onstage, Yamamoto says, 100 of whom comprise the choir and chorus. Britten, who wrote the piece for the 1962 consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in England, after the original 14th century structure had been destroyed during World War II, juxtaposed disparate elements to drive home his pacifist message. Using as his foundation the requiem, a traditional Latin mass for the dead, Britten added poems by Wilfred Owen, a World War I British soldier who died just a week short of the war’s end. “Britten definitely meant this piece to be a unifying gesture of reconciliation for all wars, but he tied it specifically to World War I and World War II.” When Creative Loafing speaks with Yamamoto, he’s particularly keen to see how the next scheduled rehearsal will turn out. Creative Loafing: What was the genesis of this massive project? Yamamoto: First of all, it is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. I thought it was important to commemorate that in some fashion. Of course, I knew of the Britten work. I have sung in this as a member of the San Francisco Boys Chorus when I was but a lad. Then I talked with Jay Grymes [chair of the UNC Charlotte music department], and it turns out he thinks this piece is one of the great masterpieces of the 20th Century. He also saw this as an opportunity for his faculty to be involved. UNC faculty members make up the chamber orchestra contingent 22 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

PHOTO COURTESY ALAN YAMAMOTO Alan Yamamoto of the piece. There are nine UNC music student instrumentalists performing in the large orchestra, and the entire University Chorale is part of the combined chorus. This is also a community-engagement project. We were able to bring in people from various choral groups to form an ad hoc chorus. We also have members from the Queens University choruses, our CPCC chorus, faculty players and musicians from Winthrop and other nearby institutions. Our baritone soloist is from UNC Greensboro. We have players from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, as well as some people from Wake Forest. Over half the people onstage will be students.

Usually when “The War Requiem” is staged, the performers are split into three groups. Where will you place these groups and what do they symbolize? The boys’ chorus will be in the balcony. They’re the angelic component. They’ve already made the transition through the inhumanity and humanity of our lives and our days. Those of us on the stage still have to make the transition. So we will remain on lower ground. The two male soloists sing the Wilfred Owen poems in English. Those poems depict the soloists as soldiers. They’re primarily partner soldiers, but at the very end they’re actually opposing soldiers. Britten’s message here is that war is horrific and that our inhumanity to man must be examined and questioned. Britten also makes a statement that the men don’t want to fight. They’re just serving their governments. We will reinforce this presentation with multimedia — we will have visuals going on, illustrating the historical and the literary aspects of this particular work. The soprano soloist with the full orchestra always sings in Latin. The orchestra and soprano are the foundation of the piece, delivering the typical Latin requiem mass text. It’s the centerpiece. What would you like audiences to come away with from this experience? In contemporary times, people go less and less to live performances. As someone who does the work of live performances, I know it’s an experience that cannot be duplicated electronically or online. There is something inexplicable that happens in a live performance simply because you’re in the room. It’s the same reason we have churches, mass celebrations and mass demonstrations. PMORAN@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 23

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD APRIL 12 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Charlotte Jazz Fest First Night Celebration: The Baylor Project (Jazz Garden Tent at Romare Bearden Park) Piano Studio Spring Recital (Sloan Music Center, Davidson College, Davidson)

COUNTRY/FOLK Summit Coffee Songwriters Showcase: Rob McHale, David Childers, Olivia Martin (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Le Bang (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Bentwater (Comet Grill) Blackberry Smoke (The Fillmore) Chuck, Steve and Tim (Tin Roof) Damian McGinty (Stage Door Theater) Grayson Foster and Zach Cannella, Kate Barnette (Evening Muse) Jordan Middleton (RiRa Irish Pub) Open Mic music with Willie Douglas (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Charlotte)

APRIL 13 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz at the Pavilion (Jazz Pavilion at Levine Center for the Arts) Late Night Jams (Knight Underground) The Marriage of Figaro Student Night (Belk Theater) The Music of Thelonious Monk: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Knight Theater) Pedrito Martinez Group (Jazz Garden Tent at Romare Bearden Park)

COUNTRY/FOLK Jeff Austin Band, Grandpa’s Cough Medicine (The Rabbit Hole) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) Summer Brooke & Mountain Faith Band (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Barely Alive & Virtual Riot (World)

24 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Midnight Tyrannosaurus (World) Satori Session Three: Roby Dail, Billy Dail, Mikael Fritts (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Player Made: An Ode To Southern Rap of All Eras (Snug Harbor) Soul Sessions: Mercury Carter, De Moore, Lillian Blanche (Morehead Street Tavern)

POP/ROCK Walter Finley (Boardwalk Billy’s, UNC Charlotte) 6 String Drag, Temperance League (The Tipsy Burro Saloon & Cantina) Bad Cameo (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Bad Karol, Artist Vice, Reaves (Petra’s) Brent Cobb & Them, Savannah Conley (Neighborhood Theatre) Dark Star Orchestra (The Fillmore) Dayshawn (Tin Roof) Glass Magnet (The Black Lillies side project) (Evening Muse) The Hunna, Coasts (The Underground) Judas Bullethead, Biggy Stardust and his Wretched Hive, Kiff (Milestone) Lisa DeNova (RiRa Irish Pub) Lou Barlow (Lunchbox Records) Mike Strauss Trio (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Mipso, Tom Brosseau (Visulite Theatre) Motel Radio, Quiet Hollers (Evening Muse) Selah Dubb (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Stella (Shore Club, Tega Cay)

APRIL 14 COUNTRY/FOLK Casey Donahew (Coyote Joe’s) Twisted Pine (Stage Door Theater)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Joey DeFrancesco Trio (Jazz Garden Tent at Romare Bearden Park) Leonard Bernstein at 100: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Knight Theater) Mwenso & the Shakes (Jazz Garden Tent at Romare Bearden Park)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Electrohex with DJ Price (Milestone) The Skinny with Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Zodiac Party (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

SOUNDBOARD

THIS SATURDAY

❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈

MUSIC

❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈

❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈ ❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈

THE CASEY DONAHEW BAND LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Arcangel (The Fillmore) Bobbito Garcia, DJ Justice (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Crashbox (RiRa Irish Pub) The Girls are Back and Jazzology: Debby Dobbins. Donna Duncan, Toni Naples (Petra’s) Halo Circus, Laurel & the Love-In (Evening Muse) Hey Johnny Park, Jeremy’s Ten (Pearl Jam Tribute) (The Underground) Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe presents: Eat a Bunch of Peaches featuring Stanton Moore & Kenneth Crouch (Neighborhood Theatre) Messenger Down (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Natural Born Leaders (The Rabbit Hole) Poor Blue (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) See Water (Evening Muse) Toubab Krewe, Africa Unplugged (Visulite Theatre)

APRIL 17 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Chick Corea, with the Davidson College Jazz Ensemble (Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall, Davidson)

POP/ROCK Jesse Jazz Band Jam (Evening Muse) Kamelot (The Underground) Uncle Buck, The Boombachs, Mariah van Kleef (Snug Harbor) Uptown Unplugged with Jade Moore (Tin Roof) Wolf Alice, The Big Pink (Visulite Theatre) Open Jam with the Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)

DJ/ELECTRONIC

Zach Mexico, Houston Brothers (The Music Yard)

APRIL 15

COUNTRY/FOLK

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Opera Carolina: The Marriage of Figaro (Belk Theater) Student Group Recital (Davidson College TylerTallman Recital Hall, Davidson)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor) Xander Wilson Dj and House Jams (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)

POP/ROCK Davina & The Vagabonds (Evening Muse) Jammin’ For John: Game Face, Greg Parrish, Hot Buttered Soul, The Flying Penguins, K Omari & the Rock & Soul Revival (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)

APRIL 16 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK The Aces (Visulite Theatre) Find Your Muse Open Mic featuring Anna Rose & Andrea Nardello (Evening Muse) Grendel, Aesthetic Perfection, Peter Turns Pirate, IIOIOIOII (Milestone) Morbid Angel (The Underground)

POP/ROCK

COMING SOON  Lindi Ortega (April 22, Evening Muse) Minus The Bear (April 22, Neighborhood Theatre) The Darkness (April 27, The Underground) Carolina Rebellion (May 4, Charlotte Motor Speedway) Carbon Leaf (May 5, Neighborhood Theatre) Mavis Staples (May 10, Ovens Auditorium) David Bromberg Quintet (May 16, Neighborhood Theatre) St. Vincent (May 21, Fillmore)

FEATURING

CHARLES KELLEY AND

DANIELLE BRADBERY LIMITED ADVANCE $12 VIP FLOOR SEATING $30

SATURDAY, APRIL 21

THE LACS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS HARD TARGET & CRUCIFIX LIMITED ADVANCE $17 ALL OTHERS $20

1037 WSOC Southern Girls Night Out: Charles Kelley, Danielle Bradbury (Coyote Joe’s) Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill)

The 4 Korners (Evening Muse) Ansel Couch (Shore Club, Tega Cay) April Residency: Paint Fumes, Codiene Haze, Broke Jokes (Snug Harbor) The Decemberists (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Jay Mathey Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Malhond & Nixie Unterwelt, Joules, Joshua Cotterino, No More People (Milestone) Thirdstory, Grace Weber (Visulite Theatre)

1037 WSOC SOUTHERN GIRLS NIGHT OUT

APRIL 18

Karaoke with DJ Alex Smith (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18

4/13MIPSO 4/14 TOUBAB KREWE 4/16 THE ACES 4/17 WOLF ALICE 4/18 THIRD STORY 4/20 OLD 97s 4/19 NINA NESBITT 4/21SOUTHERN CULTURE THEON SKIDS 4/26 LYDIA LOVELESS 4/28 ATLAS ROAD CREW 5/2 TAUK 5/6 (the) MELVINS 5/12 MAGIC GIANT 5/15 TANK AND THE BANGAS 5/19 The CLARKS

5/22 LILLIE MAE 5/25 MATTHEW SWEET 6/9NIGHT RIOTS 5/31 Justin Townes Earle 7/23 FANTASTIC NEGRITO 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.

FRIDAY, MAY 4

COYOTE JOE’S 27TH BIRTHDAY BASH STARRING

GRANGER SMITH FEATURING EARL DIBBLES JR LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12

SATURDAY, MAY 12

AARON WATSON WITH SPECIAL GUEST

DREW PARKER

LIMITED ADVANCE $12 ALL OTHERS $15

SATURDAY, MAY 19

DYLAN SCOTT

LIMITED ADVANCE $17 ALL OTHERS $20 ON SALE AT COYOTE JOES AND COYOTE-JOES.COM COYOTE JOE’S : 4621 WILKINSON BLVD

704-399-4946

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 25

ENDS

NIGHTLIFE

KONNICHIWA O-KU The first check on my summer bucket list DESPITE MY HAVING gone to Charleston

it comes to narrowing down our choices when the menu is fairly large. We even asked this past weekend for a wedding, I still for suggestions from our waiter and were managed to check off a new restaurantslash-nightlife vibe in the Queen City before that couple that didn’t even take his advice. I left. If you read my article last week, you *insert awkward giggle* may remember I decided that my summer What we did know is that we wanted bucket list was going to be focused on eating sake. Hell, I needed sake to take my mind my way through the Q.C. off the fact that my head felt larger than We were both sick, but my sweetie pie life due to a sinus infection. Each of us got still suggested we plan a date night before a 6 oz. bottle of Snow Maiden sake and that the weekend’s festivities. *Swoons* Can we was plenty – I wouldn’t suggest getting the say #mcm? We often play the, “Where do bottle at these price points unless you have you want to go? No, where do you want to a larger party. go?” game that looks something like After maybe three trips back the scene out of The Notebook to the table, we were finally when Ryan Gosling is begging ready to place an order: Rachel McAdams what she wants — heart-wrenching, South End Shrimp: I know. But this time, I Apparently, this chef asked him to just pick the specialty is a local favorite. spot. Lobster Temaki: I An hour before he told y’all I love me some was going to pick me up, lobstah! he asked if I was open to Yellowtail nigiri O-Ku Sushi. Um, anyone and tuna nigiri: Selfwho knows me and my AERIN SPRUILL explanatory, but it’s worth mom knows that we were noting the sushi chef adds a tiny probably Japanese in another deco or accoutrement on top of the life. In other words, I responded nigiri – so cute! with what was essentially, “I do.” Salmon and lemon roll: A light and Located in the Atherton Mill shopping refreshing makimono roll. center in South End, O-Ku Sushi opened in September of 2016. My goodness, I still At the conclusion of our meals, I love can’t believe I hadn’t eaten there yet! Per to sit back and chat about whether or not a usual, I went to straight to the website to restaurant met our expectations. No, we’re look at the menu. Currently, there are two not food critics. However, we each love and other locations in Charleston and Atlanta, appreciate food enough that we probably but three more are on the way: Washington, should be. I’ll speak for myself when I say, D.C., Raleigh and Nashville. the food was good. That’s not to say there Below the locations, there was a blurb was anything wrong or, at the other extreme, that read: O-Ku Sushi celebrates authentic anything that I’d die for – but I must note, Asian cuisine with a southern approach the fresh fish that they’re known for is some through a menu that focuses on unique of the best I’ve ever had. ingredients and sophisticated presentations. Nevertheless, I would argue, O-Ku Suddenly I remembered looking at the menu Sushi is more of a place I would go for an before and having the convo about going to try it a few months prior – a single piece of “experience.” The wait staff was attentive nigiri? and polite. The space itself cultivates a We went late enough that we didn’t have good vibe and energy that lends itself to to worry too much about parking, thank great conversation. There are a multitude of goodness. Upon entry, we immediately menu options, including omakase — a meal noticed the dim lighting and décor. It consisting of dishes selected by the chef could’ve been the sinus pressure, but it that’s described as an “artistic and creative almost felt like we were walking into a forest multi-course tasting.” (Weighing in at $100 – at least I can say there were branch-like per person, I’d save that for a super special accents that stuck out of the columns in occasion.) front of us. Overall, O-Ku Sushi didn’t disappoint. As As soon as we sat down we grabbed our Shirley Nash of Cornelius would say, I still menus. (I almost had to pull out my geriatric left feeling “fat and sassy.” On to the next moves and turn on my flash because of the low lighting. #awkward) I’m not going to lie, dining/date night/nightlife experience. we have the tendency to be indecisive when BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM

26 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

ENDS

FeeLing Lonely?

CROSSWORD

COLLECTION OF SHADES ACROSS

1 In addition to 9 Like racist or sexist jokes 14 Small country in Europe 20 Kellogg’s cereal 21 As thin as -22 Gotten up from bed 23 Certain Burgundy fruit 25 Small 26 Regular: Abbr. 27 Bullring yell 28 W-2 expert 29 Belfast’s county 30 Cheesy Italian dish 36 First emperor of Brazil 39 Pigeon’s call 40 Airline serving Oslo 41 Honshu coin 42 Annual Calgary or Rochester celebration 47 Suffix with 119-Across 50 Jackie’s #2 51 Texter’s “Then again ...” 52 “-- penny, pick it up ...” 54 Still-life fruit 58 Sam of “The Piano” 60 Very shy sort 65 Ending for cyan 67 British rocker Brian 68 Most indigent 69 Have too much of, for short 72 The 1890s’ nickname 77 See 71-Down 78 Any of 12 pontiffs 80 Two-base hit: Abbr. 81 That gal 83 What playing kids “go round” 88 Expand upon 92 Not as daft 93 Hairy twin in the Bible 94 Garr of film 96 “Ni-i-i-ice!” 97 -- -do-well (idle person) 99 Suspect in Clue 104 Charade 107 -- Fridays (restaurant) 109 Wriggling fish 110 Post-teens 111 1951 Alec Guinness comedy

118 Left fielder Minnie 119 Tearful 120 Tear’s place 121 Zero in 124 Ink-squirting creatures 125 Whoopi Goldberg film that’s apt for this puzzle 131 Israeli money 132 “St. -- Fire” 133 Least quiet 134 Albanian city 135 Jr.-year exams 136 Singers Frank and Nancy

DOWN

1 Nile vipers 2 Skewer 3 Proceed on, as one’s way 4 Green prefix 5 Enkindled 6 Multiple-PC system 7 Knock for -8 Expertise 9 Pester 10 NHL’s Bobby 11 Civil rights org. 12 Robert Browning’s “-Passes” 13 Unclogs 14 Ill feeling 15 Circular gasket fitting 16 Old crime boss Frank 17 In error 18 Dion of song 19 Like a single-person band 24 Do a spit-take, say 30 Noted period 31 Peter out, as a trail 32 Present 33 “-- will not!” (firm refusal) 34 “Mazel --!” 35 Made do 36 Intend (to) 37 Ireland, to the Irish 38 Ovid’s 552 43 Dawn goddess 44 “Be quiet!” 45 Invite 46 Maui garland 48 Verbalized 49 No longer edible 53 City of central Sicily

55 Appeal 56 For fear that 57 Kin of -kin 59 Tackles, e.g. 61 Gun, as an engine 62 Suffix with opal 63 Tropical tern 64 Signs made by winners 66 Runner Zatopek 69 Chooses 70 Qatari capital 71 With 77-Across, not closing early, as a store 73 Inn in France 74 Employs 75 Taper off 76 Gulager of “The Killers” 79 Unblemished 82 Flattop, e.g. 84 Sharp knock 85 Karel Capek sci-fi play 86 Aves. 87 “For -- a jolly ...” 89 Voodoo -90 Hype up 91 Measures of resistance 95 Gallivant 98 French “Presto!” 100 Atop, in odes 101 Jewish cry of disgust 102 Architect Saarinen 103 Alehouse 104 Maximally 105 Overly stylish 106 Person camping out, often 108 Foot part 112 “Don’t -- gift horse in the mouth” 113 Quaking tree 114 Writer Roald and actress Arlene 115 Stalk swelling 116 City south of Dijon 117 “Vive --!” (French cry) 121 Imitator 122 Rick Blaine’s love, in film 123 Citi Field baseballers 126 Folding bed 127 Old spy org. 128 Lapel insert 129 D.C.’s land 130 Slowing, in music: Abbr.

graB Your copy today

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 27

ENDS

FREE TRIAL

SAVAGE LOVE Playmates and soul mates

TAKE ACTION Dump the racist, confront the boyfriend and be a weekend warrior porn star BY DAN SAVAGE This is about a girl, of course. Pros: She cannot hide her true feelings. Cons: Criminal, irascible, grandiose sense of self, racist, abstemious, self-centered, anxious, moralist, monogamous, biased, denial as a defense mechanism, manipulative, liar, envious, and ungrateful. She is also anthropologically and historically allocated in another temporal space continuum. And last but not least: She runs less quickly than me despite eight years age difference and her having the lungs of a 26-year-old nonsmoker. Thoughts?

Snooping is always wrong, of course, except when the snooper discovers something they had a right to know. While there are definitely less-ambiguous examples (cases where the snoopee was engaged in activities that put the snooper at risk), your boyfriend violating the boundaries of your open relationship rises to the level of “right to know.” This is a major mess, UGHRS, and there’s no way to confront your boyfriend without risking a blowup. So tell him what you know and how you found out.

I’m a 36-year-old straight woman. I was sexually and physically abused as a kid, DESPERATE EROTIC SITUATION and raped in my early 20s. I have been seeing a great therapist for the last five If someone is criminal, racist, and dishonest years, and I am processing things and — to say nothing of being allocated feeling better than I ever have. I was in another temporal space in a long-term relationship that continuum (whatever the ended about two years ago. I fuck that means) — I started dating this past year, don’t see how “cannot but I’m not really clicking hide her true feelings” with anyone. I’ve had lands on the “pro” side a lot of first dates, but of the pro/con ledger. nothing beyond that. My You shouldn’t want to problem is that I’d really be with a dishonest, love to get laid. The idea moralizing bigot, DES, of casual sex and oneso the fact that this night stands sounds great particular dishonest, — but in reality, moving DAN SAVAGE moralizing bigot is that quickly with someone I incapable of hiding her don’t know or trust freaks me truly repulsive feelings isn’t a out, causes me to shut down, and reason to consider seeing her. Not prevents me from enjoying anything. being able to mask hateful feelings isn’t a Even thinking about going home with redeeming quality — it’s the opposite. someone causes me to panic. When I was in a relationship, the sex was great. But My boyfriend and I love each other now that I’m single, it seems like this deeply, and the thought of breaking up big, scary thing. Is it possible to get laid devastates me. We also live together. I without feeling freaked out? deeply regret it and am full of shame, SEXUAL COMFORT AND REASSURANCE ELUDES DAME but I impulsively went through his texts for the first time. I found out that for It is possible for you to get laid without the past few months he has been sexting feeling freaked out. The answer — how you go home with and almost definitely hooking up with someone who I said I was not comfortable someone without panicking — is so obvious, with. After our initial conversation SCARED, that I’m guessing your therapist has about her (during which I expressed my already suggested it: Have sex with someone discomfort), he never brought her up you know and trust. You didn’t have any issues again. Had I known that he needed her in having sex with your ex because you knew his life this badly, I would have taken some and trusted him. For your own emotional time to sit with my feelings and figure safety, and to avoid recovery setbacks, you’re out where my discomfort with her was going to have to find someone willing to get coming from and tried to move through to know you — someone willing to make an it. We are in an open relationship, but emotional investment in you — before you his relationship with her crosses what we can have sex again. You’ve probably thought to yourself, determined as our “cheating” boundary: hiding a relationship. How do I confess “But everyone else is just jumping into bed and confront him without it blowing up with strangers and having amazing sexual experiences!” And while it is true that many into a major mess? UPSET GIRL HOPES RELATIONSHIP SURVIVES people are capable of doing just that, at least 28 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

Who are you after dark? Charlotte:

1-980-224-4667 18+ MegaMates.com

as many or more are incapable of having impulsive one-night stands because they too have a history of trauma, or because they have other psychological, physical, or logistical issues that make one-night stands impossible. (Some folks, of course, have no interest in one-night stands.) Your trauma left you with this added burden, SCARED, and I don’t want to minimize your legitimate frustration or your anger. It sucks, and I fucking hate the people who victimized you. But it may help you feel a little better about having to make an investment in someone before becoming intimate — which really isn’t the worst thing in the world — if you can remind yourself that you aren’t alone. Demisexuals, other victims of trauma, people with body-image issues, people whose sexual interests are so stigmatized they don’t feel comfortable disclosing them to

704-943-0057

More Numbers: 1-800-700-6666 Redhotdateline.com 18+ FREE TRIAL

Discreet Chat Guy to Guy

980.224.4669

people they’ve just met — lots of people face the same challenge you do. Something else to bear in mind: It’s not unheard of for someone reentering the dating scene to have some difficulty making new connections at first. The trick is to keep going on dates until you finally click with someone. In other words, SCARED, give yourself a break and take your time. Also, don’t hesitate to tell the men you date that you need to get to know a person before jumping into bed with him. That will scare some guys off, but only those guys who weren’t willing to get to know you — and those aren’t guys you would have felt safe fucking anyway, right? So be open and honest, keep going on those first dates, and eventually you’ll find yourself on a fifth date with a guy you can think about taking home without feeling panicked. Good luck.

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 29

LILLY SPA

ENDS

SALOME’S STARS

704-392-8099 MON-SUN 9AM-11PM LOCATED NEAR THE AIRPORT EXIT 37 OFF I-85 WE ACCEPT ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS

SOUTH ON BEATTIES FORD ROAD THEN FIRST RIGHT ON MONTANA DRIVE (LOCATED 1/2 MILE ON THE LEFT | 714-G MONTANA DR)

SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE

HALF HOUR FREE

LIBRA (September 23

ARIES (March 21

to April 19) You easily handle your tasks this week, thanks to those high energy levels that never seem to run down. But pace yourself, Lamb, for the demanding week ahead.

TAURUS (April 20

to May 20) With the arts dominant this week, you might want to pick up any of those creative projects you’ve neglected. A workplace situation benefits from some fresh insight.

GEMINI (May 21

Real Singles, Real Fun...

1-704-943-0050 More Numbers: 1-800-926-6000 Livelinks.com, 18+

to June 20) Music helps replenish your energy levels. Stream your playlist if you must. But a live concert could prove more rewarding, especially if you go with that very special someone.

CANCER (June 21 to July

22) Close friends reach out to help perk up your lagging social life. That workplace situation also eases, leaving you time to do more fun things by week’s end.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) A revelation clears up that perplexing job-related problem. Some changes will have to be made, which, no doubt, will meet with the Big Cat’s roaring approval. Good luck. VIRGO (August 23 to

September 22) Reaching out to someone in need is the noble thing to do. But try to restrain the temptation to add a lecture -- no matter how well-intended -- to your good deed.

to October 22) There could be another tough challenge to face before the month is over. But all that hard work is winning you lots of important recognition from your peers.

SCORPIO (October 23 to

November 21) Keeping to your work schedule could prove difficult with all those personal distractions. Best advice: Stay with it. There’ll be time later for socializing.

SAGITTARIUS

(November 22 to December 21) Jumping hurdles this week might be vexing for most, but not for the sage Sagittarian, who recognizes that meeting a challenge can open up opportunities.

CAPRICORN

(December 22 to January 19) More obstacles might be thrown in your path as you try to finalize a new agreement. But the sure-footed Goat ignores the stumbling blocks and stays the course.

AQUARIUS

(January 20 to February 18) We know the Water Bearer takes pleasure in giving to others. But why not let someone else enjoy the experience too by accepting that offer of help?

PISCES (February 19

to March 20) You might find that you need to ease up on your hectic schedule this week. Don’t fret about it. It could be helpful to take a break and replenish your energy supply.

BORN THIS WEEK You have a way of finding practical solutions to complex problems, and you do it with grace. 30 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | 31

32 | APR. 12 - APR. 18, 2018 | CLCLT.COM