INDY Week 1.27.16 by Indy Week

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ICED OUT Are restrictions on a Chapel Hill shelter leaving the homeless out in the cold? By Danny Hooley

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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2016

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DURHAM

INSIDE NEWS & COLUMNS 6

TRIANGULATOR: A wild week in the race

for U.S. Senate, Civitas throws a charterschool pep rally and local activists call on Obama to stop deportation raids 7

NEWS: A divisive street-improvement plan raises questions about the citizenpetition process

only impossible if you don’t believe in it

FOOD REVIEW: The difference between

MUSIC REVIEWS: New albums by Blursome, Secret Boyfriend, Happy Abandon, Naked Naps and Napoleon Wright II

FILM: Durham documentarians explore the ancient art of falconry in Overland

ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

ARTS CALENDAR

FILM CALENDAR

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Iced out

We found the cooker

Hall monitor

By Martin Leichter

culture events of the week MUSIC CALENDAR

JANUARY 27, 2016

The Kids in the Hall’s Kevin McDonald headlines the NC Comedy Arts Festival

WHERE WE’LL BE: The best arts and

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The 12 places we found Ashley Christensen’s prized cooker hiding

THEATER REVIEWS: The Marriage of Bette

CALENDARS & EVENTS 33

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Are restrictions on a Chapel Hill shelter leaving the homeless out in the cold? By Danny Hooley

and Boo and Doubt: A Parable

CITIZEN: Bernie’s political revolution is

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F E AT U R E S

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VOLUME 33 NUMBER 4

A R TS , CULTUR E, FOOD & MUS I C 12

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Floating action A UNC professor is turning 10,000 tiny balls into hours of sound By Grayson Haver Currin

The INDY’s Act Now and Food/Farmers Markets calendars can be found at indyweek.com.

The mushroom broth at Standard Foods is steeped in, and poured from, a French press. PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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Raleigh Cary Durham Chapel Hill A ZM INDY, INC. COMPANY PUBLISHER Susan Harper

EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeffrey C. Billman MANAGING+MUSIC EDITOR

Grayson Haver Currin

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Brian Howe STAFF WRITERS

Danny Hooley, David Hudnall, Jane Porter ASSOCIATE EDITOR Allison Hussey COPY EDITOR David Klein STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

Alex Boerner, Jeremy M. Lange OPINION Bob Geary THEATER AND DANCE CRITIC Byron Woods CHIEF CONTRIBUTORS

Tina Haver Currin, Spencer Griffith, Corbie Hill, Emma Laperruque, Jordan Lawrence, Craig D. Lindsey, Jill Warren Lucas, Sayaka Matsuoka, Glenn McDonald, Neil Morris, Bryan C. Reed, V. Cullum Rogers, David A. Ross, Dan Schram, Zack Smith, Eric Tullis, Chris Vitiello, Patrick Wall, Iza Wojciechowska

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back talk Stop public shaming

Regarding the inspiring piece “Grease the wheel” (Jan. 20): What incredible work Believers United for Progress and Elder Kasib Abdullah are doing to address poverty and the inequality and racism that have undermined Hayti residents’ historic pursuits of vibrant community. BUFP gives youth nourishment and opportunities to dream their dreams in Hayti and beyond! Yet even heroes have their blind spots, such as carrying signs that read “Hoes Have/Spread AIDS” to disperse sex workers on the street. Publicly shaming commercial sex workers and stigmatizing HIV/AIDS itself is a saddening and destructive act if the goal is to build “community atmosphere.” Better moves would be to offer the same food and hospitality to sex workers that community service groups offer to youth, addicts, and others—hard, good work, of course, and potentially separate service referrals. These are the facts: Wherever HIV is highly stigmatized, it spreads far more quickly. Wherever people with drugaddiction-plus-HIV diagnoses are offered housing, their lives turn around. Wherever commercial sex work is legalized worldwide, the rights and safety of sex

PERIPHERAL VISIONS • V.C. ROGERS

workers improve drastically, and violent human and sex trafficking are intercepted more easily (look to approaches in India, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and Australia). In the meantime, people who either choose or are exploited into sex work all deserve to be members of our communities, without self-defeating efforts from fellow residents that lead to stigma and shaming. Liberation comes through “mutual respect.” This is tough stuff in the South and globally: Nelson Mandela gave freedom to so many, and was also protested for early 1990s inaction around HIV/AIDS in communities led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. May they both be our teachers. Blessings to all doing such brave community-building work as BUFP. Marie Garlock, Durham

NIMBY thinking

Everyone should wish for someone as thoughtful as Mr. Beaman to be building in their neighborhood (“When bigger isn’t better,” Jan. 20). Change is hard on folks, and they lash out. When it is completed, it will be a complement to the neighborhood. The idea that the new home is a “debacle” (not will be, it already is?) before the roof is

on indicates some NIMBY thinking to me. dodahman1, via indyweek.com

NIMBYs gonna NIMBY

The people complaining that a big house “doesn’t fit” into a neighborhood alongside one-story houses are simply misinformed (“When bigger isn’t better”). They should take a careful walk through Oakwood, where tiny houses sit alongside massive Victorian mansions in perfect harmony. The only reason no one complains is because both houses have been sitting there for 100 years. thffffpt, via indyweek.com

What about property rights?

Has anyone ever heard of personal property rights (“When bigger isn’t better”)? The builder has paid for the home/lot, he has filed the appropriate permits and it was approved. End of story. Everyone wants to “control” their neighbors and determine “what is right” for everyone. If you don’t like the house, buy it back from him and build what you think is appropriate. Until then, stop complaining. RandyRupp, via indyweek.com

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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No more luxury apartments!

We don’t need more luxury apartments—a trend that has made Chapel Hill more exclusive (“Legion of boom,” Jan. 20). We won’t do better on affordability until the town develops a sound targeted economicdevelopment strategy that won’t make living in Chapel Hill more expensive. Thanks to Mr. Hudnall for his excellent investigative report. It’s astounding that acquiring the property was identified as a town goal, but the concept was not shared with parks and rec or the public, who might have been thrilled to see land acquisition added to the fall bond issue. Julie McClintock, via indyweek.com

Correction: An item in last week’s Triangulator incorrectly identified David Jolly as the head of the Coalition for Health Care of North Carolina. Jolly says the coalition works by consensus. If you would like to respond to something that appeared in the INDY’s pages, please send an email to backtalk@indyweek.com. The INDY reserves the right to edit letters for space and clarity.

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triangulator news

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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AND NOW, SOME INSIDE BASEBALL!

Also: Civitas has a charter-school pep rally, and local activists protest Obama’s immigration raids BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN, DANNY HOOLEY AND DAVID HUDNALL

ou may have missed it, what with all the power outages and hillside sledding and busting ass on the ice that we did this weekend, but it’s been a wild week in a heretofore uneventful race for U.S. SENATE. Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane, shall we? First, on Thursday—the same day a poll found the race wide open—word spread that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had endorsed former state legislator and state ACLU director DEBORAH ROSS. Before this cycle, it was rare for the national party to intervene in a primary, but after the thrashing Democrats received in 2014, the DSCC has apparently decided its finger needs to go more firmly on the scale. Thus far, the DSCC has intervened in four races this primary season, endorsing Harry Reid’s favored successor in Nevada, former governor TED STRICKLAND in Ohio, moderate Patrick Murphy over liberal firebrand Alan Grayson in Florida, and now Ross. They want to win, by God, and they don’t want your messy “democracy” mucking it up. Her opponents—two of whom, Durham businessman KEVIN GRIFFIN and Spring Lake mayor CHRIS REY, had previously argued that Ross’ ACLU work rendered her unelectable (Triangulator, Jan. 13)—weren’t thrilled. But the DSCC’s GOP counterparts were, or, at least, they pretended to be. “As Ross cozies up to the Washington establishment,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee said in a quickly issued press release, “it’s worth noting that Ross has already been deemed ‘the most liberal NC Democratic nominee in history.’” The GOP bashed Ross’ “support of radical ACLU policies” and her work for the civil liberties group. The Republicans also needled the Dems for failing to land their ideal candidates, ANTHONY FOXX and KAY HAGAN. But the RSCC’s professed euphoria about Ross is belied by SEN. RICHARD BURR’S middling poll numbers: After five years on the job, his approval rating is stuck in the low 30s. Burr does, however, have a commanding primary lead over GREG BRANNON, a tea-partying Cary OB/GYN. But then Burr went and (according to the Associated Press) told donors that he would sooner vote for dirty socialist Bernie Sanders than God-fearing Republican TED CRUZ, because Ted Cruz is an insufferable little prick (and always was: Google “Ted Cruz world domination”) whom nobody likes, not even his GOP colleagues. This is a reasonable decision—unless, that is, you’re running in a Republican primary. Brannon immediately issued a statement: “Of course he would prefer an AVOWED SOCIALIST to a man like Ted Cruz who has stood up to the Washington Establishment.” Burr’s camp promptly denied ever saying such a thing and demanded a retraction. The AP stood by its report. We know whom we believe.

rancis X. De Luca, president of the CIVITAS INSTITUTE, doesn’t like his registration-only events to be recorded. Last Wednesday at the Apex Community Center, he immediately zeroed in on an INDY reporter’s recorder and summoned the offender over with a wave. “If you want to ask them questions, you’re perfectly free to talk to all the presenters,” De Luca said, “but not, you know, record them.” De Luca ultimately allowed us to record the two-hour charter-school pep rally. But he asked for the device to be turned off whenever citizens (there were around 30) asked questions. Then he went back to diddling his cellphone for most of the meeting, pausing once to rise from his seat and (presumably) go negotiate with the loud, bouncy-pianoplaying teacher of a kids’ dance class next door. If so, then WE THE PEOPLE did not come out on top. The dance class may even have gotten louder. Titled “Education Can’t Wait: School Choice Town Hall Event,” the event included talks from DR. BART DANIELSEN, associate professor of business management at N.C. State, and JONATHAN BUTCHER of the Goldwater Institute, “one of the key architects of Arizona’s [education saving account] program.” Danielsen touted the charter-school surge in downtown Santa Ana, California, where, he says, there are 3,500 kids attending charters within two blocks of “an area that was blight.” He also cited research that concluded that Charlotte kids who won a school-choice lottery “spent fewer days in jail. … MINORITY MALES who won the lottery committed half as much crime for the next seven years as the ones who applied but were rejected.” But back to Santa Ana. Crime is waaaay down, which of course means we need more charter schools. “I hope someone from Durham is here and sees that,” said Danielsen. You got it, doc. Also in attendance: TEIJI KIMBALL, a Republican who’s running for U.S. Rep. David Price’s seat. (LOL, good luck.) A day earlier, Kimball announced his support for the N.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program—you know, vouchers— and used the press release to solicit sign-ups. We also spotted former STATE REP. BRYAN R. HOLLOWAY, a young Earth creationist who quit the General Assembly in October to take a job as a lobbyist for the N.C. School Boards Association. So, yeah, this is what the war on public education looks like. God help us all.

e, uh, already know how Republican presidential frontrunners DONALD TRUMP and TED CRUZ feel about the roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States.

Build a wall! Deport ’em all! We also know that, last fall, North Carolina’s Republican GOV. PAT MCCRORY signed into law a bill restricting municipalities from accepting a Mexican-governmentissued photo ID that immigrants rely on for medical care, food assistance and school documentation. “He’s good on immigration!” exclaimed noted deep thinker ANN COULTER on Twitter, proposing a Trump-McCrory ticket, which would be hilarious. Earlier this month, our current president—the same one so roundly criticized for taking executive actions to help undocumented immigrants—angered many on the left by authorizing a series of raids targeting undocumented immigrants in the South: Texas, Georgia and, yep, North Carolina. President Obama’s roundup netted at least 121 PEOPLE and included children as young as 4 years old. Many had come to the United States fleeing cartelrelated violence in Central American countries. The administration says the deportations will continue. Trump loves it. “It’s about time!” he tweeted, claiming the move was the result of pressure he applied on the campaign trail. Others are less jazzed. The SOUTHEAST IMMIGRANT RIGHTS NETWORK (SEIRN) has launched a petition asking Obama to halt the raids. At press time, it had about 66,000 signatures. On Wednesday, Jan. 27, a delegation will travel to Washington, D.C., to deliver the signatures. At noon the same day, in a show of solidarity with SEIRN, the nonprofit group STUDENT ACTION WITH FARMWORKERS is holding an event at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (1317 W. Pettigrew St.). “[Immigrant] workers are already in a vulnerable position in the workforce,” says NADEEN BIR of SAF, which advocates throughout the Southeast for a more just agricultural system. “They’re afraid of complaining about bad working conditions or inadequate housing, because they don’t want to get deported. These [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids just add to that fear.” Also speaking at the event will be BECKIE MORIELLO, a local immigration attorney who spent part of December assisting Central American families on deportation proceedings, and YAZMIN GARCIA RICO, the youth director for SAF. Rico came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico at the age of 13 and is able to stay here under the DEFERRED ACTION FOR CHILDHOOD ARRIVALS executive order, a visa that can be renewed every two years. “They have personal, firsthand experiences with these situations,” Bir says. “They can speak directly about how this fear of deportation pulls us backwards as a country.” s Reach the INDY’s Triangulator team at triangulator@indyweek.com.

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news

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JANUARY 27, 2015

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CRACKS IN THE SIDEWALK PLAN

A divisive street-improvement project raises questions about Raleigh’s citizen-petition process BY JANE PORTER

yan Barnum lives at 1300 Lorimer Laurel Hills Drive. Some neighbors went Road, a shady, narrow street in west before the council that October questioning Raleigh. When he bought his 1950s the petition’s validity. The council sent house last April for $284,000, he’d never the issue to its public works committee. heard of an in-the-works proposal to install Residents showed up en masse to complain a 6-foot sidewalk on a stretch of that street, that they had signed the petition under along with curbs, gutters and storm drains. false pretenses and didn’t actually want the Soon after he closed, a woman named improvements. Donna Burford contacted him. A few Ultimately, the city scrapped the Laurel months earlier, Burford—who lives on an Hills plan, but the council didn’t make any adjacent street—had started gathering changes to the citizen-petition process. signatures on a citizen petition for the street There are a few things it could have done: improvements, lobbying neighbors up and Door-to-door petitioning could be replaced down Lorimer to gain the 50-percent-plusby a mail-ballot system, or information one support the city requires to validate could be sent out, or neighborhood such petitions. Barnum says Burford pitched meetings held, before a petition is the sidewalk improvements as a way to fix circulated. Neighbors could also be given flooding issues. an option to rescind their signatures, an “I was very reluctant to sign the appeals process could be put into place (a petition,” Barnum says. He had good model Charlotte uses) or the city attorney reason: The 14 property owners on could be authorized to spike a petition the northern side of Lorimer would when allegations of misconduct arise. Marcus Williamson (left), Ryan Barnum, David Simonton and Carolyn Parker talk about be assessed a total of $53,600 for the These changes were proposed by city the city’s planned improvement to Lorimer Road, where they all live. BY ALEX BOERNER improvements; city taxpayers and property staff in two different council committees owners on the southern end of Lorimer over the last three years, but were never section of Lorimer—which comprises about a third of the will pick up the remaining $1.7 million. Because Barnum debated or followed up on. Council members did not entire project—should be left out of the plan because it has the most property fronting the street, he’ll be charged respond to requests for comment. doesn’t have much car traffic or safety concerns. They argue more than $10,000. Later, he says, he learned that he Not everyone on Lorimer is unhappy. Those in favor that Burford told residents they’d pay more in assessment could have started his own citizen petition to have the city of the project—nearly two-thirds of all the affected fees if the project wasn’t done right away. (Burford did not merely repave the road and install stop signs for a fraction households—paint the dissenters as a vocal minority respond to the INDY’s request for comment.) of the cost. opposed to a project most everybody else supports. “The unique, natural character of the street will be But Barnum says he also doesn’t think the project is a “There is no general ‘angst’ in the Lorimer Road diminished,” wrote Steve Grothmann, who will be good idea on its merits, at least not on the northern side of neighborhood over the approved street improvements,” assessed $5,000 for the project, in an email to city council Lorimer. “I don’t want a sidewalk on that road,” he says. wrote Lorimer Road resident Sharon Mixon, Donna members last week. “The canopy which we will lose His house, he points out, sits relatively close to the street. Burford’s sister, in an email to the council last week. “We adds value. A walkable city is a commendable goal in The sidewalk would be 15 feet from his living room. are eager for the project to proceed and are impatient general, but this part of Lorimer is already walkable, and Barnum contacted city project administrator Donetta with the continued complaining and attempts to delay or neighborhoods’ unique characteristics should matter.” Powell with his concerns. According to Barnum, Powell alter the project. … Regarding the petition process itself, The council approved the project in September with an (who did not respond to requests for comment) told him the property owners were indeed contacted and no one 8–0 vote. “Change is coming, the population is growing, the improvements were inevitable and the rates would felt mislead [sic] or pressured into signing, and were fully more building is coming. Face it, you can’t stop it,” council be going up soon, but a signature now would secure the aware of the proposed improvements.” member Kay Crowder told opponents at a neighborhood current price. She also said residents would be able to But the opponents, eager for a compromise they say forum Oct. 20, according to meeting minutes. “You cannot negotiate later for a smaller, less intrusive design. is readily available, are losing faith in the city and its amend a petition once council has voted on it.” Barnum signed the petition. leadership. But the northern Lorimer neighbors haven’t given up. None of those assurances turned out to be true, he says. “The information being circulated to secure the One of them, David Simonton, says he will appear “There was the fear of having to pay a lot more for signatures was cloudy at best,” says resident Jeff White. before the council in February to ask that the project be something that I don’t want that contributed to that “… The process by which these citizen-driven petitions are suspended until these “allegations of misconduct and decision,” Barnum says. “That was a scary thing for me. I reviewed and accepted is flawed, and at a minimum the misrepresentation can be investigated.” don’t have that kind of money lying around.” city should recognize this and look to improve the checks If that doesn’t work, they have another option: sue the He’s not the only one who feels duped. and balances of such a petition.” s city. Ten homeowners on the northern end loudly oppose the This isn’t the first time a citizen petition has prompted improvements, citing high assessment fees, encroachment Jane Porter is an INDY staff writer. Email her at jporter@ confusion and acrimony. In 2014, residents successfully into their front yards and loss of privacy. They say their indyweek.com. petitioned for a controversial traffic-calming project on

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JANUARY 27, 2015

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ICED OUT

Are restrictions on a Chapel Hill shelter leaving the homeless out in the cold? BY DANNY HOOLEY

henever an agenda IFC Community House. item for a Chapel They can’t just show up at Hill Town Council the new location. Neighbors meeting provokes four hours didn’t want that. of tense discussion, there are “It’s one more step that obviously some deep-rooted people have to make,” issues involved, and they’re Reinke says, “and we’re not going to be resolved concerned that we may be happily with one vote. losing people because of it.” The council meeting Reinke says it’s not just on May 9, 2011, was one the possibility of adverse such marathon session. consequences for Chapel The nonprofit Inter-Faith Hill’s homeless population— Council for Social Service estimated at 129 in the latest had proposed moving its count—that irks him. It’s the men’s shelter services from attitude underlying such its old location at 100 W. rules. “Imagine if I said, ‘Just Rosemary St. downtown to because you don’t have a a new facility at 1315 Martin car, therefore, you have to Luther King Jr. Blvd. in be picked up at one location the Homestead Park area. and brought to another (Homeless women are location before you could sheltered elsewhere.) get housing,’” he says. “I Neighbors of the proposed don’t know that, necessarily, facility, wearing stickers people would think that on their shirts with the made a whole lot of sense.” slogan “Find a Better Site,” The 17-emergency-bed came with a PowerPoint cap also looks unusually THIS PAGE: The IFC’s Community House. FACING PAGE: Michael Reinke. PHOTOS BY ALEX BOERNER presentation that laid out all prohibitive compared with their concerns. The IFC’s some of the IFC’s Triangle transitional program for the counterparts. The South the project to long-term transitional services. But the IFC homeless would be too close to playgrounds, soccer fields Wilmington Street Center in Raleigh, for example, can wouldn’t budge, and over neighbors’ objections, the council and baseball fields, they argued. The proximity of three house up to 360 people. Urban Ministries on Durham’s voted 6–2 to approve the IFC’s special-use permit. preschools and two afterschool programs raised anxieties Queen Street regularly shelters more than 130 for its That qualifies as a happy ending for the IFC. But Reinke about homeless sex offenders. Kids walking or biking to programs and has room for five emergency drop-ins. thinks it should have been happier. the park would have to pass a detox center or a homeless During a white-flag night, says Bryan Gilmer, director This feeling nagged at him last week, as Winter Storm shelter. And so on. of marketing and development at Urban Ministries, Jonas plunged temperatures into the 20s. It’s not that the With help from town staff, supporters and concerned “anybody we can find space for, we let them in to the IFC Community House, which opened last September, had neighbors, the IFC had been working on a “Good shelter.” And if Urban Ministries has more people than to turn anybody away. But the number of emergency dropNeighbor Plan” to allay such fears. As one condition, spaces, the overflow is handled by Antioch Baptist Church ins did rise a bit—from 11 on Wednesday to 13 on Thursday. the new facility would cap the number of emergency on Holloway Street or the Durham Rescue Mission. Last And Reinke says he has no idea how many people who need occupants at 17 on “white-flag nights,” when the week, people needing shelter were directed to those emergency accommodations on freezing nights simply temperature dips below 40 degrees. facilities a couple of times. aren’t getting to the shelter. There used to be more drop-ins The plan was devised before Michael Reinke was The IFC has an unwritten agreement with these on cold nights at the Rosemary Street space, he says. named the IFC’s executive director in July. He wishes providers to share emergency clients, if the need ever “Any time you put a barrier to being able to access that the emergency capacity had been determined by the arises. (They’ve haven’t yet had to do so.) something, it’ll reduce the number of people that’ll be fire department. The current number is “artificial,” in his “I think it’s understood among shelters that it’s a goal to able to access it,” Reinke says. “It was an agreement we view—in other words, insufficient to meet the homeless keep everyone safe,” says Frank Lawrence, supervisor of made because we needed to. We couldn’t have located the population’s need. the South Wilmington Street Center in Raleigh. shelter there if we hadn’t. I know that may people were Even so, that concession wasn’t enough for some At the South Wilmington Street shelter, the total, really …” he pauses. “Tensions were pretty raw.” neighbors. At the 2011 meeting, one slammed the whole packed-to-the-walls sleeping capacity is 360, though its Barriers imposed by that deal include a stipulation that process as a “backroom deal.” Then-council member Matt usual number is around 234, Lawrence says. One night men who need the IFC’s services be picked up at the old Czajkowski wanted the 17 beds removed altogether, limiting last week, the center welcomed an additional 66 men shelter—now just a community kitchen—and taken to the

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news as emergency drop-ins. That, says Reinke, is the type of attitude he’d like to see more often in Chapel Hill. “We have some very good folks,” he says, “people with very big hearts. But there remains something scary about the word homeless. And people are like, ‘OK, well, I want to help them, but just not here.’” The newly opened IFC Community House offers live-in transitional services to 52 men at a time. Participants are housed at three levels, each step up granting more privacy and privileges. Men in level 1 live in a dormitory and are assessed for placement in a specific program tailored to their needs—addiction counseling, mental health counseling or veterans’ programs, for example. Reinke says the old Rosemary Street space, where homeless men received services for 30 years, was inadequate for running that kind of program. The old building was designed for other purposes. “At one point, it was a jail,” he recalls. “We actually housed people—when we first moved in there—they were sleeping behind bars. It wasn’t designed to be a place to get people back on their feet.” James Dunn, who runs food service at the old space—now just a community kitchen—is up to level 3. He counsels folks at level 1 and gets to share a room with just one roommate. He also has his own key. Dunn says he understands Homestead Park’s concerns about neighborhood safety. “But they’ve also got to understand and turn things around—put yourself on that end of it, and see how you would feel about it?” he says. “You know, it doesn’t feel right. If you’re the 17th person, and I’m number 18, I can’t stay. But here you have a building, you know what I mean? There are rooms upstairs.” On Sunday, after lunch service in the community kitchen, two friends sit at a table and talk about life on Chapel Hill’s streets when the weather is harsh. Both stayed at the Community House the night before. They decline to give their full names; they

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JANUARY 27, 2015

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don’t want the “homeless” stigma. One man, who identifies himself as Ken, is 53 years old and has been homeless, on and off, for four years, he says. He describes what it’s like for men who, unlike him and his 55-year-old friend Mark, don’t make it to the shelter on freezing nights. They sleep “anywhere, everywhere. They have to find their means.” “They call it a …” Mark interjects, trying to recall. “What is it?” “Cat hole,” Ken replies. “A cat hole is this, man. It could be behind a building, with a shed over it. It could be an abandoned building. It could be anywhere. Under a house. Anywhere.” Ken says he knows firsthand how the hurdles put up by the Good Neighbor Plan could impede some men from making it to the shelter. “Somebody comes, picks you up at this place at seven o’clock,” he says. “You don’t be here, you’re out of luck.” To Reinke, that’s far from ideal, especially on the coldest winter nights. So far, he says, there have been no complaints from neighbors about the IFC house, which he thinks should open the door—someday—to revisiting the issue. But he knows that, because the original fight was so contentious, that day likely won’t come any time soon. “I think that, long term, we can demonstrate that we are good neighbors,” he says, “and that we are operating a wellrun facility, that the people we’re serving are not scary, they’re human beings just like all the rest of us—we all have good days and bad days—then we’d love to go back and say, ‘Are there things that we could do to allow us to better serve the population we’re trying to address?’” Danny Hooley is an INDY staff writer. Email him at dhooley@indyweek.com.

How Tevye Learned to Fiddle MONDAY, FEB. 1 7:30 P.M. WILLIAM AND IDA FRIDAY CENTER FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION Free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required. No reserved seats.

Cohosted by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies and the Duke University Center for Jewish Studies

ANITA NORICH, the Tikva Frymer-Kensky Collegiate Professor of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan and author of several books on Yiddish literature and translation, will compare four film versions (in Yiddish, English, Hebrew, and Russian) of Fiddler on the Roof and the Sholem Aleichem novel on which the film is loosely based. 919-962-1509 • JEWISHSTUDIES@UNC.EDU • JEWISHSTUDIES.UNC.EDU

INDYweek.com

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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Panel Discussion aT THe nasHeR MuseuM oF aRT

Collecting and Presenting Work by Artists of African Descent Thursday, February 11 7 PM

Thelma Golden, director and chief curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem. Photo by Julie Skarratt.

go.ncsu.edu/john

John Pizzarelli

Jack Shainman, owner, Pamela Joyner, Jack Shainman Gallery, San Francisco New York. Photo by Jackie art collector.

Nickerson. Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Photo by Jeff Gamble.

Franklin Sirmans, director, Pérez Art Museum Miami.

Photo by Angel Valentin. Courtesy Pérez Art Museum Miami.

Holland Cotter, art critic, The New York Times. Photo by Damon Winter,

The New York Times.

Join us, at the Nasher Museum, for a lively and critical conversation on collecting and presenting work by artists of African descent, moderated by Richard J. Powell, Dean of Humanities and John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke. This event is a collaboration between the Nasher Museum, Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Central University Art Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Saturday, February 6 at 8pm Stewart Theatre ■ 919-515-1100

SPECIAL TREAT: A pre-show conversation with John Pizzarelli, 7pm PHOTO: TIMOTHY WHITE

2001 Campus Drive, Durham I nasher.duke.edu ABOVE: Kehinde Wiley, Ivelaw III (study) (detail), 2006. Pencil and oil on paper, 27 1⁄2 x 21 1⁄2 inches (69.9 x 54.6 cm). Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Promised gift of Blake Byrne (‘57), in honor of Raymond D. Nasher. © Kehinde Wiley Studio.

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INDYweek.com

citizen

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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BELIEVE IN BERNIE

Fundamental change is only unrealistic if you don’t try BY BOB GEARY

ell, now we’ve gone and done it. We—I’ll call us insurgent Democrats, though in truth many of us are Democratic-leaning independents—are backing Bernie Sanders in alarming numbers and with too much enthusiasm. We thus threaten the status quo that they—I’ll call them establishment Democrats—think is going pretty darn well, thank you, and will continue to do so if Hillary Clinton is elected president. So here’s Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a Hillary surrogate, warning that if Sanders is nominated, the Republicans will brand him a communist by showing “ads with a hammer and sickle.” Bernie’s a democratic socialist, see, which to McCaskill means that when the Republicans start lying about him, rightthinking Democrats such as herself will have no choice but to run the other way— game over. “It seems bizarre for Democrats to risk losing the presidency by embracing a politically radical doctrine that stands zero chance of enactment even if they win,” Jonathan Chait wrote in New York magazine. Paul Krugman, in The New York Times, lectured Bernie supporters about the limits of idealism. “Sorry, but there’s nothing noble about seeing your values defeated because you preferred happy dreams to hard thinking about means and ends,” Krugman wrote. All this because, with the Iowa caucuses coming Feb. 1 and the New Hampshire primary eight days later, polls indicate that Bernie could win both. And if you don’t believe the polls, believe Hillary, who’s gone on the attack. “I am not interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real world,” Hillary jabbed in Iowa. If Bernie’s elected, she added, “You’ll get gridlock.” Sorry, but the problem isn’t Bernie’s happy dreams or his supporters’ hopes. It’s the stoicism on Hillary’s side that says what’s “real” is unchangeable—not for the better, anyway.

brief history: From the 1930s to the ’70s, the New Deal until Jimmy Carter, the Democratic Party

was dominant in American politics. It achieved that status by presenting itself as the party of working people and by using government to employ people and pay them. Republicans believed in private enterprise and opposed government expansion. The 1980 elections were a watershed. In the primaries, Ted Kennedy offered an orthodox Democratic alternative to Carter’s more conservative approach. Carter’s victory left the party in tatters. In the fall, Ronald Reagan beat Carter, and Republican notions were in the ascendency. Democrats then moved to the right, adopting a “Third Way” politics espoused by pro-business southerners like Bill Clinton. Instead of government or business, Clinton’s Democratic Leadership Council advocated government by business, with corporations doing the work of government agencies. This system gave us for-profit prisons, charter schools, investor-owned toll roads and trade deals written in corporate boardrooms. It didn’t spawn the militaryindustrial complex, but did allow it to mushroom and control foreign policy. Health care was already an industry, but now the insurance companies and Big Pharma were cemented into it, causing costs to zoom out of control—except for Medicare, which was government-run. Meanwhile, a private banking Goliath grew to finance the plunder, displacing the U.S. Treasury or, to be more exact, blending into it. Finance tripled its share of the American economy, grabbing 30–40 percent of domestic corporate profits in recent years. Money that used to go directly to workers from taxes now flows through a web of bankers who take their cut. It is this system—and the poisonous campaign-finance committees it spun off, which control both political parties—that Bernie Sanders dreams of destroying. I do too. I despair of the endless wars we fight that bring nothing but more bloodshed, more enemies—but also more weapons sales. I despair of paying for health care that is no better than in other countries with government systems, but ours costs us twice as much. I despair that members

of Congress would rather take money from the oil industry than save the planet from climate change. I despair that so many are poor, while the rich hoard their billions in gated communities. I have no illusions that Bernie can wave a wand and make this go away. I do, however, hope that the Democratic Party, which was once a bulwark—or said it was— against private predators, will cease being in league with them. Democrats have so lost the public’s confidence that, according to Gallup, just 29 percent of voters identify as Democrats, only slightly more than those who say they’re Republicans. A whopping 42 percent of voters identify with neither party, because neither party identifies with them. Bernie’s campaign is about fighting the profiteers and sparking a process by which the Democratic Party can reform itself

and, in so doing, help the people rise to reform the nation. A Bernie presidency would be about changing public opinion and, ultimately, trying to change the Congress we elect. By the way, it’s not a new process we seek. It’s the same one that carried Barack Obama to the White House on a wave of hope and change and allowed him to make any progress with a Congress that was Democratic at first, then Republican, but always corrupt. Final thought. Older voters prefer Hillary, but the millennial generation is for Bernie. Why? Because the young are dreaming of what the future may hold for them. If you can’t imagine change, how would you ever achieve it? s Bob Geary is an INDY columnist. Email him at rjgeary@mac.com.

INDYweek.com

music& drink eat

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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MIXED METRICS

At Raleigh’s hip and long-awaited Standard Foods, the difference between night and day is one of expectations either missed or met BY EMMA LAPERRUQUE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX BOERNER

he time neared 1:30 p.m. when I finally lost track of the micheladas. A few months after a longdelayed opening, Standard Foods in Raleigh was busy for lunch, though the bar was empty. I asked to sit at the end near the open kitchen, close enough to see the restaurant’s gleaming red Le Creuset dishware and chef Scott Crawford’s florid forearm tattoos. Like most of the staff, the bartender was young and stylish, in a plaid shirt-meetstattoo-sleeve-meets-Apple Watch way. As I sat at the gray marble counter, he made Standard Foods’ Southern riff on the Mexican beer cocktail. And again. And again. By the time I paid the check and wrote in the guest journal— what, exactly, we’ll get to later on—he’d made so many that I felt prepared to get a few more tattoos, hop behind the bar and make some micheladas myself. (Rim a highball with salty paprika. Add ice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, fresh lime juice and, instead of tomato, sweet potato. Top with Pilsner. One metal straw, two pickled dill beans.) As I sipped one, I surveyed the room’s vast ceilings, rustic beams and unclothed wood tables. A server delivered a grilled cheese of cheddar and foraged mushrooms on oat bread, and Crawford stared out into the dining room, surveying his domain at last. All the hype leading up to Standard Foods’ opening—originally slated for fall of 2014— whirled around Crawford. After five years as executive chef of The Umstead Hotel’s restaurant, Herons, the three-time James Beard Award semifinalist announced that very summer he was leaving. He had a new partnership, the Nash Square Hospitality Group, with Raleigh realtor and developer John Holmes, and they planned to open not

one but two restaurants: Nash Tavern (still in the works) and Standard Foods. But Standard Foods’ concept—hyperlocal restaurant meets grocery—is actually about everyone but Crawford. It’s about the farmers, the artisans and even the butcher, who stood proudly behind his counter, offering liver pâté and pork butter samples and answering questions. “So, all the beef is grass fed?” (Yes.) “Are there nitrates in the bacon?” (No.) If exposed kitchens are the current trend, Standard Foods may have tapped into the next one: exposed pantries. The grocery not only showcases the ingredients the cooks are using but also ones they’re creating. You can buy smoked chicken broth, butternut squash soup and brown butter to take home. In fact, while relishing the sunchoke salad—the best thing I ate during two trips to Standard—I mouthful-muttered to my companion, “They could bottle and sell

this dressing.” Turns out, they do. The bright salad and raw apples contrasted wonderfully with the dark flavors of housesmoked trout and hickory vinaigrette. It made my head spin, as though I were lost in a dreamy michelada daze. I could take the feeling with me. Two years ago, the magazine Walter profiled Crawford, who described the then-embryonic Standard as “a modern version of a neighborhood market.” If you write items like handmade, smoked cheese (Boxcarr’s Campo, $25 per pound) and fresh red turmeric (Spade and Clover, $18 per pound) on your weekly grocery list, it is. Deborah Underwood Brown, who serves as farm liaison for the grocery and restaurant, has indeed assembled an irresistible supply. Ironically, the local fare detracts from the neighborhood feel. Corner stores, if anything, evoke familiarity and frequency. The dried lavender leaves, whiskey honey,

ginger drinking vinegar and smoked pepper of Standard’s grocery ooze indulgence and special-occasion extravagance. That, at least, is in line with the restaurant, which serves lunch, dinner and, as of this week, late-night pop-up meals. The dinner menu features snacks, small and large plates, sides and desserts. Though appetizer-entrée-dessert menus are decreasingly chic, Standard’s sections were confusing. Are a snack, small plate and side collectively enough for a meal? Is a side bigger than a snack? “Small doesn’t necessarily mean small, and large doesn’t necessarily mean large,” the server said. “So it’s deceiving.” I wrote this advice off as a strange slip of the tongue until she repeated the riddle to every table. And certain plates at dinner did arrive tinier than expected, considering their price. Take the gougères, served with Lindale, a ripe, buttery cow’s milk Gouda from nearby Goat Lady Dairy. I adored everything about them—the cloud-like pâté à choux, the swish of persimmon butter, the pink pickled onions. I only wish, for $8, there had been a few more cheese puffs. They may have been sliced in half—twice as many, right?—but it’s easier to deceive eyes than stomachs. Our server recommended the rabbit and dumplings, a $14 small plate with sweet potato, green apple and tarragon. The really small aspect was the meat. When I did find the rabbit, I also found a tooth-size bone, only to look up and see my companion spitting into his napkin, too. The large plate of pork—a boneless chop, sous-vide cooked for 48 hours— was noticeably more generous, nestled between brothy peas and mustardy apples. Elsewhere, the kitchen flaunted its youth like a smart kid with a fake ID. The butter lettuce with miso ranch, radish and scallion

INDYweek.com

music& drink eat At left, the matinee’s star, the rotating Standard Lunch, pauses for a pose. At right, from top, some of Standard’s best: the sunchoke salad, chef Scott Crawford interviewing his unstoppable burger, and the apple soup

was almost thrilling, if whoever seasoned the greens didn’t forget how salty miso is. And the mushroom bread pudding— “AHmazing!” according to someone in the guest journal—was almost AHmazing, its crusty, custardy loaf drizzled with cream and crowned by a mountainous tangle of mushrooms. Oh, had it only been hot...

ut by the end of my second visit, when I sat at the bar during lunch, watching the michelada man work, the qualms with which I had wrestled at dinner made me feel delusional. The prices were now approachable, the portions ample, the food piping hot. Sure, the hip bartender, like our previous server, sometimes seemed to know less about the menu than I did. But everything else was so pristine, so Instagram perfect, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had been recognized. Or had I taken too many sips of my cocktail at dinner? (Mecca-Lekka-Hi Mecca HineyHo: gin with lime and lemon verbena shrub, highly recommended.) Did the kitchen staff turn over? Or does the presence of Crawford, staring from the kitchen, really make that much of a difference? As we both took a bite of that hickoryscented sunchoke, my companion leaned in and whispered, “The phrase ‘night and day’ comes to mind.” He was right: The sunshine streamed over next-door Raleigh City Farm, through the big window to our backs. In that instant, Standard Foods shone. Your best bet, then, is the Standard Lunch, a prix fixe with a soup, salad, sandwich and dessert for $18. Mine included apple soup, that sunchoke salad, a BLT and a cookie bar. Any confusion that came with the dinner menu is charismatically avoided, as if Crawford walked up to your table, smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I got this.” The presentation is whimsical, with everything on a parchment-lined tray, as if cast from a cafeteria of your dreams. The apple soup was so close to the sunchoke soup I had at dinner, they might

as well have been twins. A pureed, creamy base came with brown butter and nuts (the former peanuts, the latter hazelnuts) on top. Who doesn’t love twins, especially when they’re this beautiful? And then there’s the mushroom broth, poured tableside from a French press and accented with truffle, turnips and mustard greens. The flavor is so concentrated and clean that to call it mushroom broth feels technically correct but wholly inadequate, like describing espresso as mere “coffee.” As for sandwiches, the BLT, with housesmoked bacon and charred sourdough, stands out, as does the corned beef tongue with egg yolk mustard and soured, violet cabbage. But after Food & Wine’s restaurant editor Kate Krader gushed about the Standard burger on Instagram—“killer good”—I just had to. And it was, Kate. By the end, Boulted Bread’s buckwheat, cornmeal brioche bun was soaked from the rosy-centered, delightfully fatty patty. The toppings have changed since my visit, from smoked cow’s milk cheese, fermented sauce and pickles to farmer’s cheese, charred onionaise and lettuce. I suppose I’ll have to go back and see which one is better. I scored the chocolate-bourbon-pecan cookie bar as dessert with my Standard Lunch. It was fudgy and a little boozy, a highlight on a sweets menu that does not disappoint. I nibbled it as I paid the check and flipped through the guest journal, already half-full with love notes. “Should I write something?” I asked my companion. He nodded as he finished our michelada. I knew just what to say. “See you soon!” I scribbled. “P.S. Holy crap, that sunchoke salad.” s Emma Laperruque is a freelance writer. She writes about food at www.dourmet.com.

STANDARD FOODS 205 E. Franklin St., Raleigh 919-307-4652 www.standard-foods.com

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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INDYweek.com

music& drink eat

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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LET MY COOKER GO A VERY SERIOUS INDY INVESTIGATION CONCERNING ASHLEY CHRISTENSEN’S VANISHED COOKER

I was captured by an Eastern North Carolina hog farmer, who has turned me into the evil overlord of his swine. I watch them carefully, keeping them in line with the threat of death.

Three dudes—Bobby, Billy and Bart (basically, King of the Hill extras)—stole me after months of careful planning. They really love barbecue, and they cook with me six nights a week. They also love meth and Skynyrd. Life happens, man.

As best I can tell, I’ve been stolen by a henchman for another Raleigh restaurant chain—Empirical Edibles or something?— and they’re using me to cook pigs, too. I’m so close to Poole’s I can smell the macaroni and cheese. Help, A.C.!

Pat McCrory asked Ashley Christensen to host a fundraiser for me, not knowing about her progressive politics. He didn’t like it when she told him to “suck an egg,” so his security detail captured me as revenge. I’m actually the smartest person living in the Executive Mansion, and I’m a cooker made of metal.

The Raleigh Trolley Pub people stole me in the hope of turning me into a one-person Trolley Pub. Every day, they stare at me, thinking about how very little they thought through this idea.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHRIS WILLIAMS

Did you know the Travelocity Gnome was born in Durham? I do, because we are pals. I had the gnome cut me out of lockup, and we are SEEING THE WORLD. The Eiffel Tower is crazy!

INDYweek.com

music& drink eat

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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he all-points bulletin arrived on the morning of January 7. The night before, someone or something (Sasquatch, perhaps? No, a centaur) had cut through the locks of Aux, the commissary kitchen belonging to award-winning chef, service-industry sergeant and ambitious restaurateur Ashley Christensen. They’d stolen her prized cooker. A gift from Southern pitmaster Nick Pihakis following Christensen’s

James Beard Award victory in 2014, the cooker often accompanied the chef to charity events. The loss stripped her of a singular piece of kitchen equipment. It denied the larger community a key fundraising tool. The signal was amplified nearly as soon as it arrived, with news of the theft dominating area social media feeds for days. Christensen’s compatriots even offered rewards for its return: Raleigh Denim jeans and Bida Manda soup,

Slingshot coffee and Dashi cash. The informant, had one ever come forward, would have suddenly looked, and eaten, like a local oligarch. Alas, no one fessed up. Nearly a month later, Christensen says no serious leads as to the cooker’s whereabouts have emerged. But there’s hope; in fact, we’ve compiled the 12 most likely (and mostly satirical) scenarios as to where Christensen’s cooker went. Get to sleuthing. s

After reading Ashley Christensen’s recent interview with Mr. Justin “Bon Iver” Vernon and realizing they were friends, some “Skinny Love” superfan stole me. The ransom? His hand in marriage. Creepy.

A bearded man in a leather jacket on a Harley-Davidson stole me and attached me to his motorcycle. He said he wanted a “hog cooker” for his “big ol’ Hog.” I think that’s pretty cute, but I do worry about his gas mileage. That wind in my hair sure feels nice, though.

Some militant vegans stole me as an act of animal liberation vengeance and turned me into a tiny home. I now smell like patchouli and bitterness, not delicious pork drippings.

From the moment I first laid eyes on Scott Crawford at Standard Foods, I knew he had to have me—and I him. (Have you seen those tattoos? Those eyes? His little pork butt?) I asked Scott to steal me by the glow of the moon and run away with me forever, and he promises we will elope soon. I hope his family doesn’t read this.

Not naming names, but the owner of a certain vegetarian restaurant (OK, it was Fiction Kitchen) stole me and drove me to the Full Circle Farm Sanctuary in Asheville. Now I spend my days frolicking with little piglets (they look delicious, though), lazy cows (I sometimes call them steak by accident) and old goats (too mature for tender carne da cabra, alas). It’s pretty chill.

I am a piece of recycled scrap metal, sandwiched between a rusted-out Impala and a fucking Civic. I did not deserve any of this.

INDYweek.com SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Environment NC WARN

Volunteer Guide is INDY Week’s new annual guide to help Triangle area nonprofits secure smart, capable, committed volunteers. For more information, contact Leslie Land at lland@indyweek.com

Animals THE GOATHOUSE REFUGE WHAT WE DO - The Goathouse Refuge is a nonprofit, no-kill, cage-free animal sanctuary that provides care for cats regardless of age, medical issues or disposition until a permanent home can be found. We are an ethical organization that provides Triangle residents with a reputable place to meet, fall in love with and adopt abandoned animals seven days a week. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - Volunteers are essential for our daily operations. They are responsible for all the socializing, feeding and cleaning during two daily shifts: 8:30am to noon, or 3:30 to 6pm. We need people to help organize fundraising events. We also accept donations of food, beds, old towels or blankets. CONTACT - Siglinda Scarpa siglinda@goathouserefuge.org | (919) 542-6815

SAFE HAVEN FOR CATS WHAT WE DO SAFE Haven for Cats is focused on reducing overpopulation in the Triangle through rescue, TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) and providing low-cost spay/ neuter to the public through SAFE Care Clinic. The Pet Food Pantry at SAFE Haven for Cats provides pet food assistance at no cost to owners that cannot afford to feed their pets. We are the Triangle’s only pet food pantry. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - SAFE Haven is supported by many volunteers in our community. At least 70 people per week volunteer for one of seven shifts to make sure the cats are clean, socialized and well cared for. Volunteers also help with events, fundraisers and adoptions. CONTACT - Gina Jennings volunteer@safehavenforcats.org | 919-341-4103

WHAT WE DO - NC WARN is tackling the climate crisis – and other hazards posed by electricity generation – by watch-dogging Duke Energy practices and building people power for a swift North Carolina transition to energy efficiency and clean power generation. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - We need lots of help spreading the word about our Solarize and Emergency Climate Response campaigns. This may include phoning, research, data entry, door-to-door canvassing, staffing tables at community events, or other help depending on the interests of the volunteer. CONTACT - Bryanne Senior ncwarn@ncwarn.org | 919-416-5077

TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY WHAT WE DO - Triangle Land Conservancy strives to create a healthier and more vibrant Triangle region by safeguarding clean water, protecting natural habitats, supporting local farms and food, and connecting people with nature through land protection and stewardship, catalyzing community action, and collaboration. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - Volunteers can help TLC with trail building and maintenance, monitoring, and invasive species removal at our properties and preserves. We also welcome volunteers to lead hikes and other outings as well as assist with community outreach and special events. There is also always a need for another set of hands in our offices! CONTACT - Margaret Sands msands@triangleland.org | 919-908-0058

Health & Wellness BENEVOLENCE FARM WHAT WE DO - Benevolence Farm provides women leaving prison with the opportunity to live and work on a sustainable farm where they grow food, nourish self, and foster community. Benevolence Farm will offer housing, employment, life skills, career development, and nutritious food to program residents while providing sustainably grown produce to local communities. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - Volunteer groups interested in working on the farm are invited to explore the Volunteer Project Menu to see what our current needs are. People who are interested in programming, marketing or fundraising are encouraged to inquire about committee positions. CONTACT - Rebecca Ogus rebecca@benevolencefarm.org | 910-580-0207

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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THRESHOLD WHAT WE DO Threshold provides a work-ordered day environment where adults in Durham who are living with a serious mental health disorders can advance their education, succeed at work, improve the quality of their lives, and reach their goals. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - Volunteers are greatly appreciated in the areas of property beautification projects, maintaining internal aesthetics of the building, helping to maintain the organic and perennial gardens and assist with technology supports. CONTACT – Irene Dwinnell i.dwinnell@thresholdclubhouse.org | 919-682-4124

TRIANGLE RESIDENTIAL OPTIONS FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSERS (TROSA) WHAT WE DO - TROSA is a multi-year residential program that enables substance abusers to be productive, recovering individuals by providing comprehensive treatment, workbased vocational training, education, and continuing care. Our model is the Therapeutic Community, a treatment involving increasing levels of personal and social responsibility. More info at www.trosainc.org. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH - TROSA is actively recruiting volunteers to help with donation sorting, donation processing, and retail sales at TROSA Thrift Store. Volunteers may provide general donation sorting assistance or may focus on housewares, jewelry, furniture, books and media, or clothing and accessories. TROSA Thrift Store supports the TROSA mission. CONTACT - Jeff Stern jstern@trosainc.org | 919-419-1059

Youth WALLTOWN CHILDREN’S THEATRE WHAT WE DO - Walltown Children’s Theatre inspires positive social change by empowering and reconnecting young people from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, creating a new expression of community, and enriching their lives and those of their families and communities, through exemplary performing arts instruction and youth development programming. WHAT WE NEED HELP WITH – Assistance with after school tutoring, playing the piano for ballet classes, promoting and marketing, receptionist duties between 6:30-8pm, and sewing & costume organizational work. CONTACT - Cynthia Penn Halal or Meg Feigal Wctdurham@gmail.com | 919-286-4545 Volunteer Guide is also available through our website at www.indyweek.com/volunteerguide

INDYweek.com

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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culture

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

NC Comedy Arts Festival headliner Kevin McDonald on the mainstream cult of The Kids in the Hall BY MARTIN LEICHTER

was scared to talk to Kevin McDonald, one of the marquee guests at this year’s NC Comedy Arts Festival. I really was. After all, McDonald helped make improv comedy mainstream. Without The Kids in the Hall, his legendary sketch comedy troupe and television show, there might be no Amy Poehlers or Will Ferrells. Yet the Kids have retained an underground cult following, too. The NC Comedy Arts Festival, the longrunning effort of DSI Comedy Theater, has made Chapel Hill and Carrboro a destination for stand-up, improv and sketch comedy that can draw international talents like McDonald, who performs at the ArtsCenter Feb. 11 and gives a two-day workshop Feb. 12 and 13. Before our interview, I sat at my desk, twiddling my clammy thumbs. I kept taking off my sweater and putting it back on. I don’t know what I expected—it surely wasn’t for McDonald to be just a fellow human being. But he was, and I felt relieved. We immediately began to talk about the winter storm being named Jonas. After we got our mutual disgust out, we got down to the funny stuff. INDY: I’ve been kind of nervous to talk to you. You’re one of those great, enigmatic figures in comedy. KEVIN MCDONALD: [Laughs] Yeah, The Kids in the Hall are definitely up there for cults, you know? I always compare us to the Pixies, our favorite band when we were starting out. The Pixies sort of bequeathed to Nirvana even though they weren’t nearly as popular. Unlike a lot of alt-comedy groups, Lorne Michaels loved you guys. I know your show got cancelled a couple of times and he was backing you the whole way, so it’s strange that you’ve managed to maintain an underground presence. We actually have a theory about that. Lorne Michaels had his mainstream success, and then, when he went to dinner parties full of intellectuals in New York, they complimented him on us. We made that up; it’s just a Kids in the Hall theory. He’s the greatest guy in the world. Lorne

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Kevin McDonald, Delanie Fischer, The Defiant Thomas Brothers and Kevin Allison are all performing at the NC Comedy Arts Festival. PHOTOS COURTESY OF NCCAF

Let’s talk about your master class. It’s a two-day—it’s so hard! Eight hours a day. The students are usually exhausted by the end. I teach how to write sketches through improv, which is the way The Kids in the Hall started when we were just a stage act in the mid-’80s, before Lorne Michaels discovered us.

has backed us up forever, and we owe everything to him. There wasn’t a lot of stuff like you back then—maybe Monty Python. When we were kids, we were definitely influenced by Monty Python and Saturday Night Live. Monty Python, you’d have to say that for Mark [McKinney], Dave [Foley] and I, it got ingrained in us for sure, as well as early Steve Martin, among other things. You have a headlining stand-up act at the NC Comedy Arts Festival. New stuff, old stuff, both? It’s sort of half old and half new. It’s funny, actually. I moved to Winnipeg because I fell in love with a woman. I wound up making a stand-up act so I could tour around and make money. I always thought, “Well, this is my act. I’m not going to change it.” I’ve done it so much that I get

bored, and now I am going to change it. The new stuff is darker and grislier, which doesn’t necessarily work at stand-up clubs. Have you been working the new stuff out at open mics or alt-comedy clubs? I haven’t been, but I should. My act is sort of a parody of stand-up and stand-up at the same time. Sort of like my idols when I was a kid: Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman, Albert Brooks. What I would call postmodern comedy, where they did it but made fun of it at the same time. So here’s the problem: When I play standard stand-up clubs, half the time, I don’t do very well. Sometimes people don’t know who I am, and they only come because it’s Punch Line in San Francisco. You sort of have to know me and know that it’s not going to be normal stand-up. I’m not saying that it’s more special; I’m actually not good enough to do normal stand-up.

Can anybody take these classes, or are they reserved for people who have done comedy? At first I was like that when making a master class. But then I taught one where everybody was invited, and it turned out to be amazing. Nobody who was a seasoned improviser or sketch comic had anything against someone who was just trying. It was those people who did something special by accident—the people who just came because I was a Kid in the Hall. Dave Foley hosted a poker show, and he says the people who played poker for the first time always won. You always have that special moment where you don’t know what you’re doing. People in the comedy world say that they hear the same story over and over with a different ending. The same story is that the first time they did open mic night, they killed. The second time, they bombed. Half of the people that tell me the story say they just got committed to working harder on their stand-up. The other half are writers that say they knew they liked comedy, but not performing it.

NC COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL Monday, Feb. 1–Sunday, Feb. 14

KEVIN MCDONALD Thursday, Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. $20–$25 The ArtsCenter, 300-G E. Main St. Carrboro, 919-929-2787 www.nccomedyarts.com

INDYweek.com

JANUARY

Luke Combs

Th 28 LUKE COMBS w/Blake Kearney7p Fri Fr 29 REEL BIG FISH 8p

Jan 29

w/Suburban Legends/The Maxies

Sa 30 PULSE (Electronic Dance Party) Su 31 GRAVEYARD w/Spiders 7p FEBRUARY

Mo 1 EPICA w/ Moonspell/Starkill 6:30 We 3 GAELIC STORM 7p F r 5 AMERICAN AQUARIUM 8p w.T Hardy Morris & Timmy The Teeth

Sa 6 AMERICAN AQUARIUM Su 7 Mo 8 We 10 Th 11 Fr 12 Fr 13 Su 15 Th 18 Fr 19 Sa 20 Su 21

w. Nikki Lane & Jonathan Tyler

SUPER BOWL 50 PARTY 5p FOR TODAY w/Like Moths to Flames JOHN KADLECIK BAND 7p CHERUB w/Gibbz @ THE RITZ THE SHAKEDOWN (Mardi Gras) WHO’S BAD Michael Jackson Trib. BOOMBOX THE MACHINE performs PINK FLOYD MOTHER’S FINEST 7p NEVER SHOUT NEVER + 6:30p KELLY HOLLAND MEMORIAL

Tu 1 We 2 Th 3 Sa 5 We 9 Sa 12 Su 13 Th 17 Fr 18 Su 20 We 30 Th 31 4 - 1 4 - 2 4 - 3 4 - 7 4-15 4-17 5-14

Reel Big Fish Sun Jan 31

MARCH

What’s going on with The Kids in the Hall? We never broke up. We’ll be together until one of us dies. None of us are replaceable. We just did a tour last summer, and now we’re talking about doing another

Our comedy critic picks the highlights of the 2016 NC Comedy Arts Festival.

Graveyard

Wed Feb 3

Gaelic Storm

Y&T 7p RANDY ROGERS BAND + TITUS ANDRONICUS w/Craig Finn Fri Feb 5 & THE CLARKS 8p JUDAH AND THE LION 7p JOHN MAYALL BAND CEE-LO GREEN MAC SABBATH THE BREAKFAST CLUB WE THE KINGS w/AJR, She is We+ AUTOLUX STICK FIGURE w/Fortunate Youth START MAKING SENSE THE MANTRAS THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS ELLE KING JJ GREY & MOFRO 8p Thu Fri Jan 22 DOPAPOD w/The Fritz 8p Feb 11 FLATBUSH ZOMBIES

Sat Feb 6

American Aquarium

Advance Tickets @Lincolntheatre.com & Schoolkids Records All Shows All Ages

126 E. Cabarrus St. 919-821-4111

What was your first moment like when you went onstage to do stand-up? The first time I went onstage in front of a paying audience was with Dave Foley and Luciano Casimiri, who was a Kid in the Hall for a second, and was brilliant but suffered from stage fright. Also, another guy who hung around us but who we didn’t think was funny. I remember being really, really nervous. The most exciting thing about it, afterward, wasn’t that we got so many laughs or we bombed, but just that we did it. We signed up every week after that.

LAUGH TRACK

HANK SINATRA/BLEEDING HEARTS+

Tu 23 SISTER HAZEL 7p Fr 26 GEOFF TATE’S of QUEENSRYCHE OPERATION MINDCRIME Sa 27 DAVID ALLAN COE 7p Su 28 MIKE GARDNER BENEFIT 7p

JANUARY 27, 2016

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culture

Thu Jan 28

www.lincolntheatre.com

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@ THE RITZ

There’s really too much funny at the NC Comedy Arts Festival this year, with comedians, improv and sketch groups swarming Chapel Hill and Carrboro for two weeks, attacking audiences with hilarity. With so much appealing talent on display, I picked the most intriguing days rather than individual acts. Sunday, Jan. 31—First out of the gate is, believe it or not, a hip-hop cypher. Organizers of the UNC Cypher, along with rappers, improvisers and other artists from in and around the Triangle, will attempt to break the Guinness World Record (12 and a half hours) for longest cypher. This starts at 10 a.m. at DSI Comedy Theater and (hopefully) goes on until at least 10:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5—It’s a cavalcade of stand-up at Local 506. Regional and national comics, including Durham faves Julia McClung and Lauren Faber, will hit the stage at 8 and 9:30 p.m. And down at DSI at 8:30 p.m., North Carolina-born actress and comedian Sarah Barnhardt performs her solo sketch-comedy show, This Is the Worst, which won’t be what many people say after they see it.

Sun Mar 13

CeeLo Green

mini-series, or maybe a movie. Maybe something like Mr. Show. We’ve been offered six episodes of our sketch show. I feel like when you guys hang out, you’re riffing anyway. I’m sure a lot of that goes straight to becoming jokes and sketches. Yeah, that’s what usually winds up happening. We already have about 20 or 30 sketches, but we’ll probably write another 20 or 30. If we do [the show] again, the best part, for me, would be hanging out and coming up with ideas. The filming is always fun, but the best part for me is always the writing process. s Martin Leichter recently moved to Durham and writes about pop culture, music, film and literature. Saturday, Feb. 6—The IMPRO(vs) TANDUP show, starting at 7 p.m. at DSI, sounds very fascinating, as standups and improvisers join forces (and, at one point, switch places) to put on a comedy revue. After that, Chapel Hill’s Ngozi Ikeakanam and Cary’s Gretchen McNeely will do stand-up sets. At 8:30 p.m., Atlanta’s Mark Kendall puts on his one-man show, The Magic Negro and Other Blackness, where he displays the varied, usually offensive ways black men have been represented in the media. Wednesday, Feb. 10—At the ArtsCenter at 7:30 p.m., Kevin Allison once again returns to NCCAF to make people tell sometimes-embarrassing, often-revealing stories for his live show and podcast, RISK! Then Emo Philips, another returning champion, hits the main stage at 9 p.m. to do some kooky shit. Saturday, Feb. 13—North Carolina son, Second City/ImprovOlympic/ Upright Citizens Brigade alum and former Saturday Night Live writer Ali Farahnakian will have the ArtsCenter main stage all to himself at 7:30 p.m., followed by hip-hop improv from New York’s North Coast. But I’m most intrigued by what’s going to happen at 11 p.m. with The Bat, which is supposed to be an improv show done completely in the dark. Some injuries might occur, but it’s all in the name of comedy! —Craig D. Lindsey

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JANUARY 27, 2016 • 19

music visual arts performance books film sports

FRESH TAKES

From bleak electronica to agitated indie, five new records deliver promise and fulfillment BLURSOME AGE (Locus Recordings)

SECRET BOYFRIEND MEMORY CARE UNIT (Blackest Ever Black)

In the past, Raleigh’s Blursome and Carrboro’s Secret Boyfriend have had little in common. Yes, they are both monikers for individual electronic musicians—Blursome for the young producer Lara Wehbie, Secret Boyfriend for likely the area’s most devoted experimental impresario, Ryan Martin. And both acts have proven vital to their respective scenes, with Blursome becoming a linchpin of the area’s beat-based upstarts and Secret Boyfriend serving as a magnet for innumerable strains of local weirdness. Musically, however, they have felt mostly like strangers. On her grand 2014 debut, Heavy Resting, Wehbie dug deep between the grooves of dubstep, focusing on the pillowed sides of the bass until the space between the meters became a gorgeous, swirling expanse of samples and static. Martin, meanwhile, has sent shards of songs through all manner of effects and exorcisms, shocking his tunes until they turned into strange, disfigured beauties. You might have spotted some of the same influences and impulses in the music of both—like the need, for instance, to hold the listener just beyond arm’s length, with the creator standing in the shadow of the creation. That was the limit of the link. Yet, on each of their new albums, Blursome and Secret Boyfriend take steps in opposite directions to arrive in very similar, wonderfully secluded places. The moves are excellent looks for each artist, representing new individual benchmarks. The six tracks of Secret Boyfriend’s Memory Care Unit feel haunted, as though a ghost sighs through the machines that Martin manipulates. He gives the specter flesh during “The Singing Bile,” an eerily oscillating drone that suggests the slow fade of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops. Backed by a drum machine that hits and drifts so casually it

seems as if someone has forgotten it’s on, “Stripping at the Nail” feels like exit music for the Twin Peaks roadhouse. Martin’s languid voice drapes around a refracted guitar line like a heavy blanket, both resting on a pillow of synthesizers so soft they seem to be breaking down. Even when these songs lift from those doldrums, as with the radiant melody of “Memorize Them Well” or the relatively peppy “Little Jammy Center,” they feel like solitary hymns for private moments— curtains drawn, lights low, atmosphere muted. It’s easy to get lost in Martin’s reveries, to succumb to the music’s sway like it’s a muscle relaxant. The eight tracks of Blursome’s Age, on the other hand, drive straight to the beat in ways Wehbie never has. “Pretty Voice” pushes into a jarring four-on-the-floor rhythm before Wehbie parcels it into fractions. The tricky stutters and samples are strong

enough to intoxicate. The repeating cycles of “Not Like This” harness jungle and trance in one brief, ebullient phrase. Even the functionally named “Intro” sorts through a web of tangled-and-mangled sources to find and emphasize a menacing, robotic meter. It swallows the voices around it every time it arrives. These are the most club-ready sequences of Wehbie’s admittedly small discography, and you imagine them vibrating the walls of a big room, not the shells of puny home speakers. But Blursome has never been a mere beat junkie, and these songs’ accessories also seem like shutters to the world, or ways to shut attention out even as booming bass invites listeners in. The samples and the static, the effects and the echoes mute the maul. Wehbie has always emphasized the tension between electrifying beats and engulfing textures. Age amplifies that contrast like never before, allowing us to listen in on the private debates of a brilliantly bifurcated mind. The results of Age and Memory Care Unit don’t unite Secret Boyfriend or Blursome any more than their pasts and their geographical proximity already have. And their rendezvous in distant corners of the same gray space here isn’t tantamount to a trend or indicative of some larger shift. Rather, these serendipitous albums deliver the sounds of two solo artists climbing inside stylistic decisions and walling themselves off with their implications. It’s a joy to join them both—at least for now— for the most transfixing moments of their careers.—Grayson Haver Currin

NAKED NAPS THE MIDDLE (self-released)

When John Meier first joined singer and guitarist Catie Yerkes to help give flesh to the songs she’d been writing in her bedroom at the house-show venue the Mattress Fort, he had only recently switched from guitar to drums. The two developed their voices together as the duo Naked Naps. The duo’s early demos offered an idiosyncratic, sharp, rough take on indie rock basics. Yerkes’ guitar volleyed angular melodies against his nimble rhythms. As the band grew in confidence and experience, moving from house parties to proper venues, the early, scuzz-fried Archers of Loaf vibe became bigger and bolder. Likewise, Yerkes’ evocative, plainspoken lyrical style grew more potent, suggesting deeper stories between her succinct lines. The bright, angular and smart The Middle is that process’s end result. Making the most of a spartan setup, Yerkes and Meier create a turbulent, driving backdrop of tight drum hits and taut riffs, meant to complement her dynamic vocals by countering them. As she warbles an emotive vibrato or sneers through sardonic phrases, the arrangements push onward, keeping steady momentum and energy behind musings on failed relationships and anxious self-examination. During “Terry Gilliam Day Dream,” Yerkes sings to a less-than-ideal lover, “I’m not into settling/I’ll never be into you/ You’re just convenient/But it won’t be the same when this year’s through.” Amid the spiraling riff and emo nods of “Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champion of the World,” she evokes the boxer’s stance, singing: “I wore you down/I wore you out/ The left one always creeps in/The right one carries the weight.” The music adds muscle to those excitable nerves. Naked Naps’ contemporaries—Speedy Ortiz, Cloud Nothings, Waxahatchee— evoke ’90s indie rock by nodding to grunge or pop-punk. But Naked Naps suggest both Cap’n Jazz’s hyperactive arrangements

INDYweek.com

GLAD Study

The Frohlich Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill is looking for individuals who would be interested in participating in a clinical research study. This study is testing the effect of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on mood symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder. Transcranial current stimulation is a technique that delivers a very weak current to the scalp. Treatment has been well tolerated with no serious side-effects reported. This intervention is aimed at restoring normal brain activity and function which may reduce mood symptoms experienced with Major Depressive Disorder. We are looking for individuals between the ages of 18 and 65, diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder currently not taking benzodiazepines or antiepileptic drugs. You can earn a total of $280 for completing this study. If you are interested in learning more, contact our study coordinator at: courtney_lugo@med.unc.edu Or call us at (919)962-5271

Seeking Duke cardiology patients to participate in an 8-week study on medication compliance using digital tools to track progress. You may be eligible for this research study if you: • are over 18 years old • have a personal iOS or Android device • are currently prescribed and taking heart medication, one or two times per day Participation includes: • Coming to our office to enroll in the study and take a survey • Taking part in brief surveys daily and weekly during the study on your mobile device for 6 weeks • Coming back to our office to take one final survey and complete the study You will be compensated for your study participation. To sign up, email BEresearch@duke.edu or call 919-681-9521 Protocol # Pro00064774

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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music visual arts performance books film sports and K Records’ mix of confidence and simplicity. These songs can seem difficult, but they are ultimately beguiling. More than ever, on The Middle, Naked Naps’ music lives up to its name, with urgent pop that balances intimacy, urgency and innocence. —Bryan C. Reed

NAPOLEON WRIGHT II DICHOTOMY (self-released)

You may not recognize the name, but if you’ve interacted with Triangle hip-hop at all during the last several years, you likely know Napoleon Wright II’s work. His production, singing and directing have established him as one of the area’s most abundantly creative people. Only a month ago, he issued the six-song EP GIVENTAKE, produced with collaborator Jared Wofford under the name ART NAP. Already, he’s returned with a new instrumental LP, dichotomy, a whirlwind of a record that reinforces his productive reputation. On dichotomy, Wright trades the upbeat, multi-instrumental production of GIVENTAKE for a sound that is strippeddown, focused and often meditative. For the most part, dichotomy isn’t poppy or party-friendly. Rather, it’s an experiment in loops and samples, and even without words, it’s decidedly more hip-hopinspired than the music of ART NAP. The 20-track project is more ambitious and measured than a mere beat tape, too. The album spans a full range of tones and sounds during its 47 minutes, diving back and forth between moments of mellow introspection and scattered frenzy. Some introduce only a snippet or glimmer of a motif before advancing to the next one. With the exception of sparse samples and the song “Jerry Rice” (which feels like a Kooley High B-side thanks to verses from Tab-One and Charlie Smarts), dichotomy omits guests and words. Wright, though, makes clever use of track titles to convey his intentions and ideas. Most are simple phrases—“Morning beautiful,” “Diddy bop,” “Scat flip”—that bear an uncanny resemblance to the feeling of their connected track. The textured, bumping loop of “Graveyard smash” begs to be attacked by an emcee, while an early-morning, birds-chirping soundscape indeed evokes the landscape

of “Asheville.” The contemplative piano riff at the core of “Mom is having trouble breathing” expertly recalls an actual visit to the hospital room of an ailing family member. Such a lengthy project is bound to have its weaknesses. Certain songs, like “Soul glo,” could have been reduced to interludes without losing real substance, while some of the album’s minute-and-a-half blips would have benefitted from elaboration. “Mom is having trouble breathing,” for example, carries enough emotional weight to warrant a full production. In that sense, dichotomy aptly reflects Wright as an artist; this record presents a thoughtful sprinkling of ideas and sounds from someone who has been sprinkling ideas and planting seeds across the area for years. More often than not, those seeds have bloomed, as do the best parts of dichotomy. —Ryan Cocca

HAPPY ABANDON HEAVY LINES EP (self-released)

Heavy Lines, the debut EP from the quartet of UNC grads known as Happy Abandon, begins sparse and slow, with just a twinkle of keyboards and guitars. But “Severed Seams” builds dramatically toward a lush surge, its ebb and flow not unlike the patterns of a banjo-less Mumford and Sons. Sighing, melancholic verses explode into a rousing instrumental coda that pushes into post-rock. It’s a fitting introduction to Happy Abandon’s entire approach, which attempts to shape glimmering tunes from familiar sources. The quartet has more audacity— and, in most places, better execution—than might be expected from a band that’s only one year old.

Having Grammy-nominated producer John Custer, best known for his work with Corrosion of Conformity and Cry of Love, working the boards certainly helped Happy Abandon with this polished poprock. Custer, for instance, envelopes Peter Vance’s gauzy vocals in reverb, while layer upon layer of bright guitar and coruscant keys add texture around it. Occasional orchestral additions conjure a sweeping sense of melodrama, indicative of the members’ theater backgrounds. Vance’s lyricism is often rich in imagery and alliteration, whether the meaning is as obscured as his vocals or when his confessionals are direct and emphatic, as on the title track’s tale of an abandoned lover. Despite the narrator’s sense of regret, “Heavy Lines” soars with a crescendo of chiming guitar and stormy percussion. Pared back to acoustic guitar and atmospheric embellishments, “Window” follows with solemnity. By the EP’s end, or on closers “Clutter” and “Love, Like Language,” Happy Abandon actually seems capable of forging its own identity. The former’s busy arrangement lives up to its title, shedding the measured austerity of its predecessors. The incredibly memorable “Love, Like Language” pits a propulsive bass line and fat, fuzzy synth against dreamy vocals. Actually, the strength of “Love, Like Language” shows the weakness of its companion tracks; though melodic, many of them lack the hooks to stick as well as the kicker. But as a dynamic first statement, Heavy Lines makes a case that Happy Abandon could break through to the big stages its idols occupy, however slowly the start. —Spencer Griffith

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HAMPTON INN CARRBORO

As Executive Prod uc the North Carolina er and Artistic Director of C to personally welco omedy Arts Festival, I want me you and invite enjoy the LARGEST you to COMEDIC EVENT IN THE SOUTH.

MAJOR SPONSORS

My theater, DSI Co

medy Theater, wo rks yearlong to prod thrilling comedy fes uce the most tival possible. We are dedicated to su scene and develop pp orting the local ing smart comedy audiences so that comedic artists in the very best the country want to play here. I’m enor what this festival ha mously proud of s accomplished sin ce 20 01 an d I hope everyone rea this will have an op ding portunity to witnes s the immense am have in the Triangle ount of talent we’ll during the first tw o weeks of Februa the community an ry, to experience d, most important ly, to laugh. If this is the first yo u’ve heard of the No rth Carolina Come you must be new he dy Arts Festival, re. For the last 15 ye ar s, NC CA F has welcomed come acts from across No dy rth America to show case improv, sketch comedy for sold ou and standup t audiences, right here in the heart of Now you can help North Carolina. us celebrate our Sw eet 16. This year we open with a 13-hour even t to break the recor longest running fre d for world’s estyle cypher – hip -h op im pr ov isa tion at its finest. A partnership with UNC offers audienc es a chance to parti funniest Spelling Be cipate in the e you’ve ever witn es se d; DS I wi ll be hosting its 3rd Pun Championship annual ; and the first week welcomes some of up-and-coming sk the hottest etch comedians an d standup comics on the road today. Our second week features Kevin Allis on (The State, MTV) McDonald (Kids in with RISK!, Kevin the Hall), SNL Writ er an d UN C Al um Comedy Legend Em Ali Farahnakian, o Philips, and impr ov acts from New Boston, Philadelph York, Chicago, ia, Chapel Hill and every small town in between.

SPECIAL THANKS

COMEDY WORKSHOPS

Zach Ward

DSI Comedy Theater and the NC Comedy Arts Festival are dedicated to teaching the Art of comedy.

NCCOMEDYARTS.COM/SCHEDULE Tickets for the 2016 NC Comedy Arts Festival range from $FREE - $20. Advance tickets are ONLY available online. ALL ticket fees are included in the price. WE RECOMMEND BUYING ADVANCE TICKETS as most 2015 shows Sold Out. Tickets can’t be purchased over the phone, but we can answer questions: 919-338-8150

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To that end, we invite some of the brightest comedy minds in North America to offer workshops for our participants and the public. For information about public workshops in standup, sketch and improv comedy, please visit us online.

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MUST SEE ACTS BUY TICKETS NOW NCCOMEDYARTS.COM

KEVIN MCDONALD FEB 11TH

7:30 PM • ARTS CENTER MAIN • $20

Founding Member of legendary sketch comedy ensemble The Kids in the Hall, Kevin McDonald has become a working comedy icon. McDonald founded The Kids in the Hall with friend Dave Foley after meeting in Toronto at The Second City Training Center and the rest …is comedy history! Kevin will be teaching a 2-day “Improv to Sketch” Comedy Master Class Feb. 12-13 and performing his one-man show on Thursday Feb. 11.

THE DEFIANT THOMAS BROTHERS FEB 13TH

7:30 PM • ARTS CENTER MAIN • $16

The Defiant Thomas Brothers, Seth Thomas and Paul Thomas, roamed Chicago comedy stages in the pre-YouTube era when political correctness was …not a thing. HBO’s prestigious U.S. Comedy Arts Festival awarded them Best Sketch Act alongside best alternative act Flight of the Conchords. A year later, they were gone. Now, they’re back.

LADIES NIGHT FEB 7TH

7:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

FEB 12TH

9:00 PM • THE CAVE • $12

Female comics were a star of the Triangle comedy scene in 2015; Ladies Night celebrates that for NCCAF 2016, with local acts and funny ladies from all over the country! SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

SUNDAY, JAN 31ST

FRIDAY, FEB 5TH

10:00 AM • DSI • FREE

7:00 PM • DSI • $12

The Cypher to Break Records

Maddy Night Live + CHiPs Chapel Hill Players + Benny and Griff

MONDAY, FEB 1ST

HOMEPUN DERBY PUN CHAMPIONSHIP 7:00 PM • DSI • $6

7:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

Spelling Bee (Sign up on-line)

8:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

TUESDAY, FEB 2ND

Hanna Dickinson + Jared Waters + Jason King + Julia McClung + Ryan Hansinger + Mark Turcotte

7:00 PM • DSI • $6 HomePun Derby (Sign up on-line)

8:30 PM • DSI • $16

8:30 PM • DSI • $6

THIS IS THE WORST + Hijacked + Thunderstood

Chuckle Bucket

9:30 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

7:00 PM • DSI • $6

Katherine Jessup + Kenyon Adamcik + Kevin Yee + Ephraim Chase + Leo Volf + Andrew Aghapour + Lauren Faber + Chris Lazar + Christian Spicer

Macchiavelli’s Side Project + White Hot Rage + Mavis Beacon

10:00 PM • DSI • $FREE

WEDNESDAY, FEB 3

Step up to the plate for our 3rd annual ultimate PUN championship. Forty All-Star community wordsmiths will face off in round after round of hilarious head-to-head punishment. (Pun intended.)

Sketch Jam

8:30 PM • DSI • $6 Blandly Handsome + #HotSeat

THURSDAY, FEB 4TH 7:00 PM • DSI • $12 Liz Russo + Hobert Thompson + Grayson Morris + Jared Waters + Kevin Yee

8:30 PM • DSI • $12 Alter iD + Black Ops

10:00 PM • DSI • $FREE Versus + Stranger Danger

HEADLINER KEVIN YEE FEB 4TH

7:00 PM • DSI • $12

FEB 5TH

9:30 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

Kevin Yee and his controversial satirical pop songs have been discussed in The Atlantic, Gawker, and The Huffington Post. A recovering Broadway chorus boy and a former member of Quincy Jones’s boy band Youth Asylum, Kevin recently co-hosted Boston Pride, and now headlines in North Carolina! SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

STANDUP / SKETCH / IMPROV COMEDY

Ian Ager + Mike Wiley + John Sideris + Aaron Cobb + Delanie Fischer + Chris Sanders

7:00 PM • DSI • $6

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SATURDAY, FEB 6TH

TUESDAY, FEB 9TH

3:00 PM • FLYLEAF BOOKS • $6

7:00/8:30 PM • DSI • $6

Improv Wildcard

Duets, North Carolina’s Best Improv Duos

7:00 PM • DSI • $16 IMPROvsTANDUP The name says it all: Improv Vs. Standup, The audience votes to decide who does it best. + Gretchen McNeely

7:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12 Ladies Night + Lauren Faber + Julia McClung + Blaire Postman + Delanie Fischer + Grayson Morris + Hanna Dickinson + Katherine Jessup + Liz Russo

7:00 PM • THE CAVE • $12 John Sideris + Ryan Hansinger + Leo Volf + Ryan Darden + Ephraim Chase + Cortland Cloos + Jack Bowen + Chase McNeill

8:30 PM • DSI • $16 Live It Up Lemonade: Corporate Training from Hell + The Magic Negro and Other Blackness + Blizzard of ‘96

9:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12 Hobert Thompson + Mike Wiley + Ephraim Chase + Chase McNeill + Chris Sanders + John Fowler

9:00 PM • THE CAVE • $12 Ian Ager + Jason King + Sam Di + Mikey Scott + Katherine Jessup

FEB 10TH 7:30 PM • THE ARTSCENTER • $20

7:30 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $20 RISK! with Kevin Allison

9:00 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $16 Emo Philips + All-Star Improv Showcase

THURSDAY, FEB 11TH 7:00 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $8/10 College Night + CIA Improv (NC State) + False Profits (UNC) + DUI (Duke)

7:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12 Big Time + Suburban Adventure + Classic Brady

7:30 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $20 Kids in the Hall’s Kevin McDonald + Improv All-Stars

8:00 PM • DSI • $12 Homage: Improvised Movie + Midy Zevlin + Pack

Kevin Allison (The State, MTV) returns to tap into our own deep need for storytelling with RISK! Last year, we heard stories of “Mad Love,” but for 2016 we’ve graduated to, “Holy Sh*t!

9:00 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $12 Now Are the Foxes + Death By Improv + Bartenders + Equanimity

9:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

10:00 PM • DSI • $10

MASTER CLASSES

WEDNESDAY, FEB 10TH

RISK! PODCAST WITH KEVIN ALLISON

Robot Johnson + Pineapple-Shaped Lamps + Dog Mountain

10:30 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12 Aaron Cobb + Chris Lazar + Mikey Scott + Jack Bowen + Ryan Darden + Blaire Postman + Kenyon Adamcik + Mark Turcotte

Natural Selection

9:00 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $16 LimboLand + Stranger Danger

10:00 PM • DSI • $10 Something Simple with Alex & Frank + Face Off + FART POLICE + Monolith

11:00 PM • THE CAVE • $FREE

THIS IS THE WORST

Everybody Welcome (Open Mic)

FEB 5TH

MONDAY, FEB 8

8:30 PM • DSI • $16

Born and raised in North Carolina, now working in Chicago, Sarah Barnhardt presents “THIS IS THE WORST,” a sketch comedy show that feels more like a live-action, one-person Looney Tunes.

7:00 PM • DSI • $12 Brian Malow Science Comedian

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SATURDAY, FEB 13TH

6:30 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $8/10

3:00 PM • FLYLEAF BOOKS • $6

College Night + Suspicious of Whistlers + NouN + The OverReactors + The Whethermen + CHiPs - Chapel Hill Players

6:30 PM • DSI • $6

7:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12 RAINSTICK + Sea Words + The Mannequin Room + Haroldo Rivera

7:00 PM • THE CAVE • $12 Casual Sets

7:30 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $16 Fake Church + La Donna Improvvisata + The Haddington Club

ImprovBoston Family Show + Improv Wildcard

EMO PHILIPS FEB 10TH 9:00 PM • THE ARTSCENTER • $16

Randomax + CHHS Improv Company + The Estessentials + Get the Hook

6:30 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $12 Bleach + Area 52 + The N Crowd + Bush Administration

7:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $6 Kevin McDonald Intensive Showcase

7:30 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $16 Thunderstood + Ali Farahnakian + North Coast

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FRIDAY, FEB 12TH

8:00 PM • DSI • $16 All-Star Standup Showcase

8:30 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $12 Future Wives + CRAB&LOBSTER + Big Baby + Ambassador + Bear Golf

8:00 PM • DSI • $16 Summerland + Madeline + Rumple

8:30 PM • ARTSCENTER WEST • $8/10

9:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12 Haymaker + MOJO + Red Letters + DIVO

9:00 PM • THE CAVE • $12 Ladies Night Improv Mixer

9:30 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $16 ColdTowne + All-Star Improv Showcase

The Johnsons + Wicked City + Insignificant Other

9:30 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $16 Magnet Theater TourCo + All-Star Improv Showcase + The Defiant Thomas Brothers

11:00 PM • ARTSCENTER MAIN • $FREE The Bat

SUNDAY, FEB 14TH 8:00 PM • DSI • $16

Emo Philips is a true entertainer and a recent standard of American comedy. His work has influenced Jim Carrey, Demetri Martin, Patton Oswalt, Mitch Hedberg and Bo Burnham. Emo drops in on the 2016 NC Comedy Arts Festival just to take classes with friend and producer Zach Ward and improvise with our Improv All-Stars.

Carolina’s Funniest Comic

10:00 PM • DSI • $FREE MISTER DIPLOMAT

CAROLINA’S FUNNIEST COMIC FEB 14TH

11:30 PM • DSI • $FREE The Bit Show!

8:00 PM • DSI• $16

Since 2008, DSI Comedy Theater has crowned North Carolina’s Funniest Comic. Since 2014, Alchemy Comedy Theater in South Carolina has partnered with DSI so the best comics in North and South Carolina can compete for the title. Four finalists take the stage Sunday Feb. 14, to make you laugh and win your vote. SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

BUY TICKETS NOW NCCOMEDYARTS.COM

College Night + Toast! Improv + Amuse Bouche Improv Comedy + Let’s Try This! + Mock Turtle Soup + New & Improv.’d

9:00 PM • LOCAL 506 • $12

Cheapish beer every week, Thursday + Friday + Saturday Check out the calendar of shows and special guests online

SUMMER COMEDY CAMPS 2016

Register online. Early Bird discounts. Save $40 per week when you register by Feb. 15, 2016. Ages 8-17. Improv Camps. Girls Only Camps. EPIC Hip Hop Comedy Camps. Shakespeare Camps. Standup & Storytelling Camps.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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FLOATING ACTION

A UNC professor’s new installation turns 10,000 tiny balls into hours of music

GRANULAR WALL Saturday, Jan. 30, 11 a.m.–4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 31, 1–4 p.m., free Morehead Planetarium, 250 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill www.moreheadplanetarium.org, 919-962-1236

erhaps we looked ridiculous, standing there on a Sunday afternoon in an art museum, pushing the black cups of headphones fast and firm against our ears and staring, like children in a funhouse, at a frozen, glowing orb of ice. But every few moments, someone else in the room would guffaw and smile, passing a hand over a mouth and turning to a neighbor to seek reassurance as to what exactly was heard. Was it a pyloric gurgle or a seismic splinter? A minuscule pop or maybe a major splatter? They were all the astonishing sounds of melting ice. That installation, in January 2013 at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum, was Cryoacoustic Orb, the second major project of the two-composer team that calls itself the Portable Acoustic Modification Laboratory. Together, UNC professor Lee Weisert and his longtime collaborator Jonathon Kirk stage counterintuitive, deep listening experiences, where the audience is forced to reconsider the acoustics of the surrounding world, or to search for signals in spaces assumed to hold only noise. This weekend, they’ll follow Cryoacoustic Orb with Granular Wall, an attempt to turn

the psychedelic spectacle of a 16-squarefoot tank filled with thousands of glowing polyethylene balls into a continuous symphony of pointillist sound. “We’re trying to use technology to extract music material—like with the ice— or musical form from the environment,” says Weisert. “It has enough direct engagement with nature, we hope, that it’s very easy to comprehend.” Since meeting in Northwestern’s doctoral composition program almost a decade ago, Weisert and Kirk have worked to translate natural, pedestrian environments into immersive musical events. For their first major piece, 2008’s The Argus Project, the pair submerged hydrophones—that is, microphones meant for underwater recording—in a pond on the campus of Eastern Illinois University, where Kirk was teaching. They recorded the aquatic activities and processed them through audio software controlled by data about the day, like the time or the light availability or the temperature. Depending on the conditions around the pond, the software would then manipulate the frequencies, filters and reverb levels and route the results through an array of

speakers surrounding the pond. “The idea was to turn the pond, or any general environment, into both the sound source and the ‘performer,’ the source of the alterations to the sound source,” says Weisert. “During that first performance, we drew audience members in who weren’t even looking for it. They were just intrigued by these strange sounds coming from the speakers by the pond.” Granular Wall, though, moves the activity indoors into a room that can be effectively blacked out. That’s the only way the sophisticated setup works. Weisert and Lee filled a tank resembling a large flat-screen television with buoyant bubbles and programmed four jets to push them in specific patterns and sequences. With the lights off, and against an ultraviolet background, the bubbles glow, moving in mesmerizing shapes like schools of bioluminescent organisms. Computer software analyzes that motion and, through the process of granular synthesis, interprets it as music. The output is surprisingly whimsical, with tiny, bright bits of tones—sometimes quick and pulsing, other times slowed to something like a short glissando slurp—

PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

BY GRAYSON HAVER CURRIN

percolating in an otherwise silent space. It’s like the sound of rain on a tin roof reimagined for an Atari video game, or a hypothetical Morton Subotnick score for a Planet Earth portrayal of an ant colony. This isn’t a one-to-one relationship, where the sounds portray each of the particles. Instead, the space between the two senses engages the audience. “With visuals, you can take in everything all at once. With sound, our eardrums are in and out, and you can only handle one source of information at a time,” Weisert says. “I don’t think it’s possible to create a soundscape where we can comprehend the intricacies of the visual corollary. Connecting the dots between the music and the visuals can be done with the imagination.” For Weisert and Kirk, these compositions tax the imagination. They evolve quickly into technical challenges, with series of engineering problems—and searches for solutions—standing between the infant idea and actual execution. In building Granular Wall, for instance, the composers had to learn about robotics in order to operate the jets that move the balls. They studied acrylic strengths and weights in order to determine how large the tank could be, and they consulted with Angus Forbes, a professor within the University of Chicago’s pioneering Electronic Visualization Laboratory, about how to turn so many indistinguishable sights into discrete sounds. They’d accidentally brushed up against one of the most vexing issues of motion tracking. The complicated solution, Weisert admits, was Granular Wall’s real breakthrough. Even when I ask him about the fluid in the tanks, Weisert confirms that it’s not just water. They’ve added a little bit of chlorine to prevent the balls and tank from growing gross over time, like a backyard pool left standing over winter. But it’s worth the trouble, he thinks, to produce an environment that captivates the senses with two distinct outputs— sound and sight—derived from the same radiant source. “You’re looking at a giant tank with 10,000 lights hovering in it,” he says. “That’s always been the unspoken goal with any of our projects—to create a situation that is overwhelming, that you can just experience on a noncerebral level. We want to create objects of wonder.” s Grayson Haver Currin is the managaing+music editor of the INDY.

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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music visual arts performance books film sports

BLACK HOLE SON

A man surveys his parents’ folly in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and an incendiary performance powers Catholic-school abuse story Doubt: A Parable BY BYRON WOODS

here’s what you might call “dim comedy,” like Common Ground Theatre’s A Trailer Park Christmas. There’s dark comedy, like Honest Pint Theatre Company’s Annapurna. There’s black comedy, like Theatre in the Park and Manbites Dog’s The Pillowman. And then there’s Christopher Durang’s THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO. Though the playwright’s early, semiautobiographical portrait of a bad marriage suffered from some uneven performances in its first outing, under director Jonathan McCarter at North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre, it merited study by any quantum physicists in the audience. It’s a black-hole comedy, and at times, few laughs can escape from the gravity and gravitas of its event horizon. As playwright David Lindsay-Abaire achieved in Fuddy Meers, and filmmaker Todd Solondz attempted less successfully in Welcome to the Dollhouse, Durang looks hard for humorous transcendence—or at least fleeting comic relief—in dark domestic moments, including yelling matches between the titular, woefully mismatched couple and hellish holiday gatherings that unmask the cruelty of parents, siblings and in-laws. The darkest moments of all? A series of stillbirths following the arrival of Matt, Bette and Boo’s firstborn son, who also serves as the play’s narrator. Durang tries to turn them into a running gag of sorts— an improbable, ghastly version of the old Lucy-with-the-football joke from the Peanuts comic strips. This brand of humor is not for all tastes. It was bemusing to hear some audience members openly debating whether or not to leave during intermission, and indeed, not all made it back. It was their loss, though not because Durang’s dysfunctional crew finds sudden redemption—or indeed, much of any kind. Bette’s mother, Margaret (a fine Elaine Quagliata) stays as vinegary as ever, still locked in a grudge match with Bette’s sister Joan (a slow-burning Laura Levine). Emily (a convincing Lauren Knott), Bette’s other sister, remains the human doormat, eagerly taking on the sins—and, even weirder, the birthing pains—of the world.

Out, damned spot: Some stains can’t be cleansed in The Marriage of Bette and Boo. PHOTO BY ASHLEY LORENZ/COURTESY OF NRACT

Boo’s father, Karl (Houston Horn, clearly a beginner), stays mean to his mom, Soot (Tonita Hamilton, still learning). Instead, an older Matt (Danny Mullins), whose attempts to analyze his family’s dilemmas sound at first like an undergraduate’s bad English Lit essay, finds distance, perspective and some empathy. By the end, he realizes he has witnessed a disaster across two generations. With its jackknife snark and sardonic sarcasm, The Marriage of Bette and Boo initially seems unlikely to break our hearts. But the undying, unfounded hopes its characters cling to so tenaciously are sobering. In actor Liz Webb’s sterling performance, the chirpy Bette remains blindly optimistic, believing that, through sheer will, she can bear more children and that Boo (a less experienced Ryan Ladue) will finally stop drinking. Boo thinks Bette will return after their separation. Emily thinks she’ll finally find true forgiveness if she just keeps apologizing. The true human tragedy is the inability to change, learn or grow—the impossibility of any outcome other than the one that confronts us in every mirror. Those thoughts, which I once wrote about Tennessee Williams’ oeuvre, apply here all too well. As Bette redoubles her dogged efforts at domestic fulfillment, one thinks

of Sisyphus heading back down the hill to his stone, or Lucy setting up the ol’ pigskin to give Charlie Brown another go. Ultimately, the joke’s on us. But really, you do have to laugh.

hose who’ve seen Lynda Clark’s formidable performances as the embattled but calculating Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, or the Angel in Angels in America, could anticipate the emotional velocity she brings to John Patrick Shanley’s 2004 Pulitzer- and Tonywinning play, DOUBT: A PARABLE. We saw it when she first assayed the role at Theatre in the Park in 2008. Now, in a strong Temple Theatre production, her work trumps that earlier achievement, which takes some doing. At the risk of impiety, when Clark’s implacable Sister Aloysius squares off against Gus Allen’s enigmatic Father Flynn in this tale of deep suspicion, set at a Bronx-based Catholic school in 1964, the resulting fireworks are somewhere between a WWE season-closer and an outright exorcism. As the school’s principal, Sister Aloysius is a decidedly grim gatekeeper—a preVatican II disciplinarian for whom the decline of the fountain pen is another sign of a world in moral jeopardy. When informed by a teacher, Sister James (a luminous

Theresa McGuirk), that the children are “uniformly terrified” of her, Sister Aloysius snaps, “Yes. That’s how it works.” And anyway, she has graver problems to contend with. Sister James has seen one of her charges, a 12-year-old boy, behaving strangely after a private counseling session with Father Flynn. There was alcohol on the child’s breath. With limited latitude—and a senile monsignor as her immediate superior— Sister Aloysius must pursue her suspicions with care, gathering circumstantial evidence from the child’s mother and other sources before an explosive reckoning in Shanley’s second act. Under artistic director Peggy Taphorn, the showdown feels like a prizefight. Both parties spar, feint and land solid blows. Exhausted, they turn away between rounds, as the advantage flickers one way and then the other. When Bertolt Brecht called for a theater where spectators choose sides and lean in, he must have had something like this in mind. Though a winner is decided, the truth remains more elusive in this gripping, timely tale. s Byron Woods is the INDY’s theater and dance critic. Twitter: @ByronWoods

THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO HHH 1/2 North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre, 7713-51 Lead Mine Road, Raleigh, 919-866-0228 www.nract.org Through Jan. 31

DOUBT: A PARABLE HHHH 1/2 Temple Theatre 120 Carthage St., Sanford 919-774-4155 www.templeshows.com Through Jan. 31

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JANUARY 27, 2016

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MILLENNIAL FALCON

In falconry documentary Overland, two Durham filmmakers explore the modern state of an ancient cross-cultural tradition BY CHRIS VITIELLO

very documentary film is a journey, just not always across four continents. But that’s the arduous path that married filmmaking team Elisabeth Haviland James and Revere La Noue are taking to shoot Overland, a feature-length film about the ancient art of falconry, or hunting with birds of prey. Tracing the spread of the 6,000-year-old tradition, James and La Noue have filmed, or are planning shoots, in Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, European countries including Italy and Scotland, and the American West. It’s no coincidence that the development of modern civilization traced a similar arc across the globe. “These birds enabled nomadic tribes to survive without agriculture because they are sight hunters,” La Noue says. “They could fly high up and hunt prey that people couldn’t see from their camel’s back. It made being a nomad or Bedouin possible in a way that other forms of hunting couldn’t. So it enabled early people to not have to stay in one place. They could falcon while on caravan.” Thus far, James and La Noue have shot high-definition video on location in Kansas and the UAE, gaining unprecedented access to Emirati falcon racer Khalifa bin Mejren’s breeding and training facility. Along with American falconer Lauren McGough, a former president of the Oklahoma Falconers’ Association, Khalifa is the star of the character-focused Overland to this point. “He’s the Michael Jordan of competitive falcon racing,” says James, an Emmyand Peabody Award winner who also coproduced (with HBO) and edited the Oscar-shortlisted The Loving Story. “In

Talon show: Elisabeth Haviland James (left) and Revere La Noue (right) COURTESY OF THE FALCONBRIDGE COLLECTION

an effort to keep this national heritage tradition alive, the Crown Prince in Dubai and the government in Abu Dhabi have decided to start these falcon races, and Khalifa is a world champion.” The film is sponsored by the Southern Documentary Fund and received seed funding from a National Endowment for the Humanities “Bridging Cultures Through Film” grant; the filmmakers also recently raised more than $20,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. At the start of the project, James and La Noue intended to survey falconry across far-flung places in the hope of finding interconnections. They found that falconry continuously weaves disparate cultures and people together. McGough is getting her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at St. Andrews in Scotland, studying Mongolian eagle hunters. Meanwhile, Khalifa’s champion racing falcon is bred from Scottish and American parents, and Khalifa holds one of the few permits to

legally trap birds in Mongolia. Drop the Emirati’s name with dirt hawkers in the Midwest and you may find they’ve emailed him that week. For La Noue and James, who are making Overland through their independent production company, Thornapple Films, these cultural bridges have political potential in a difficult moment for the Western and Muslim worlds. In 1229, a mutual love of falconry helped Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Al-Kamil, the Sultan of Egypt, negotiate the opening of Jerusalem to the Christian world in what’s known as the Bloodless Crusade. It seems a relevant precedent. Hoping to complete production by the end of 2016, the filmmakers will be spending almost as much time in the air as the birds they’re filming. They plan to shoot this winter in the western United States as well as in France and Italy. Then they’ll be in Scotland in the spring or summer before the back half of the year takes them to Ireland, Mongolia and again to the UAE. Amid that busy travel schedule, they’re on the verge of announcing a “Talon to Table” fundraiser

dinner planned for Durham this spring. While Overland shows the power of falconry as a cultural connector, it also affords the opportunity to marvel at the craft of the practice as well as the magnificent birds themselves. James and La Noue convey their awe of the animals’ majesty through high-definition close-ups and drone footage that swoops and circles in bird-like patterns. The falconers share that awe, describing the essential wildness of the birds even as they’re perching on a gloved hand. “Part of the excitement of the art form is that, every time you let your bird go, it could simply fly away,” James says. “It could be the last time you see it. They’re totally free.” La Noue agrees. “Falconers say that humans evolve, but birds don’t. They love the timelessness of that. They’re hunting with the same bird that people hunted with 6,000 years ago. Civilization has changed, but the birds haven’t. That’s a really beautiful idea.” s Chris Vitiello writes about visual art and the performing arts. Twitter: @ChrisVitiello

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KICKOFF EVENT

Cameron Village Regional Library Sun., Jan. 31, 2 to 4 p.m.

Feb 5-6, 11-13, 19-20 @ 7:30 pm Feb 7, 14, 21 @ 3:00 pm events

wake county public libraries www.wakegov.com/libraries

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1.27-2.3

Where we’ll be

CALENDARS MUSIC 35 VISUAL ARTS 39 PERFORMANCE 41 BOOKS 42 FILM 42

FESTIVAL

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CELEBRATION N.C. MUSUEM OF HISTORY, RALEIGH SATURDAY, JAN. 30

Kick off Black History Month with the N.C. Museum of History’s 15th annual African American Cultural Celebration, which features dozens of dancers, speakers, musicians, chefs, artists and re-enactors. Collectively, they animate remembrances of the past—the Tryon Palace Jonkonnu Drummers embody a Bahaman street-parade tradition that has a special history in North Carolina, and actor Carolyn Evans portrays activist Mamie Till, mother of Emmett—and celebrate the present, with performances by the likes of gospel singer Mary Williams, the 130-strong MLK All-Children’s Choir, spoken-word artist Tim Jackson and many others. Other guests include NAACP Image Award-winning novelist ReShonda Tate Billingsley, celebrity chef (and Rocky Mount native) Jerome Brown and local puppetry wizard Jeghetto. There are plenty of activities for kids, from watching local African-American quilting groups at work to making cowrie-shell necklaces. “This year’s African American Cultural Celebration will focus on the theme Civil Rights–March On!” says organizer Emily Grant. “It’s a great way to learn about our history, both the celebratory and painful pieces of our past.” Jonkonnu, after all, originated as a slave tradition, reminding us of the complexities of celebrating cultural traditions that had to prevail over such grotesque injustice. 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., free, 5 E. Edenton St., Raleigh, 919-807-7900, www.ncmuseumofhistory.org. —Brian Howe

COMEDY | LILY TOMLIN

CAROLINA THEATRE, DURHAM WEDNESDAY, FEB. 3

In September, the comedian and actress Lily Tomlin will turn 77, a number that may be surprising if you’ve seen her glowing, vibrant turn opposite Jane Fonda in the recent Netflix series Grace and Frankie, or in last year’s film Grandma. In the former, Tomlin plays a weed-and-yoga-loving hippie whose husband bails after 40 years of marriage to wed his law partner. Tomlin, in turn, embraces Twitter, vlogging and bar hopping, at least for a night. And in Grandma, Tomlin is the brilliantly sardonic, seething caretaker of a pregnant granddaughter in need of $630 for an abortion. Like Tomlin, the character seems chronically incapable of fear, conditioned to never accept no from anyone. In both cases, Tomlin seems not like a near-octogenarian who has won Grammy, Kennedy Center, Emmy and Tony awards but instead a much younger actress with something left to prove. A comedic treasure for nearly half a century, Tomlin has long shone through stand-up, which she returns to onstage tonight. 8 p.m., $37–$155, 309 W. Morgan St., Durham, 919-560-3030, www.carolinatheatre.org. —Grayson Haver Currin

LILY TOMLIN PHOTO BY JENNY RISHER

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MUSIC

JENNIFER KOH AND SHAI WOSNER

DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM, DURHAM SATURDAY, JAN. 30

After five years of collaboration, violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner decided the time had come to tackle Beethoven’s 10 violin sonatas. Instead of simply performing the sonatas, they commissioned four composers to write new pieces inspired by those specific works, constructing a series of concerts called “Bridge to Beethoven.” Here, they pair the master’s mighty Kreutzer Sonata with Bridgetower Fantasy, by jazz pianist Vijay Iyer. The title riffs on the original dedicatee of the Kreutzer, a violinist named George Bridgetower, who Beethoven described as “a wild mulatto composer.” Beethoven and Bridgetower had a falling-out, and so the Kreutzer was rededicated to violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. Iyer offers a metaphysical depiction of that transformation, which he describes as “a dismantling of the shape of the original piece and a repopulating of it with some other ideas so that there’s a skeletal resemblance.” Fascinating stuff. The pair will also play Beethoven’s first piano sonata. 8 p.m., $10–$42, 1336 Campus Drive, Durham, 919-684-4444, www.dukeperformances.duke.edu. —Dan Ruccia

MUSIC | DJ PAYPAL KINGS, RALEIGH THURDAY, JAN. 28

Footwork maven, former North Carolina resident and expert troll DJ Paypal has enjoyed an exceptional few years. In addition to touring Japan and Australia, he linked up with Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label in November to release Sold Out, his first fulllength. An extension of the experiments of late footwork pioneer DJ Rashad, the record injects the form’s chopped, high BPM with a variety of unexpected styles, like disco and jazz, resulting in tracks that are unafraid to be cheeky. During “Ahhhhhhh,” astral rhythms meet chipmunk soul for stylish, dizzying highs. “Slim Trak” and “Say Goodbye” see Paypal irreverently taking on Afrobeat and J-pop. It’s fascinating, forward-thinking stuff from one of the most exciting modern electronic genres—and one of its most exciting young practitioners. Here’s hoping the inevitable cease-and-desist doesn’t drop anytime soon. An exceptional slate of locals—Eyes Low, Blursome and Chocolate Rice—fills the opening ranks. 9 p.m., $7–$10, 14 W. Martin St., Raleigh, 919-833-1091, www.kingsbarcade.com. —David Ford Smith

THEATER | BLUE SKY

CAM RALEIGH, RALEIGH THURSDAY, JAN. 28–SUNDAY, FEB. 14

Airplanes are always coming from somewhere. Oddly, many of those used in the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program, which abducted suspected terrorists without due process for “enhanced interrogation” overseas, came from North Carolina airstrips in Johnston and Lenoir counties. In British playwright Clare Bayley’s “often gripping and always intelligent” drama (The Guardian), Jane’s a journalist returning to her small English hometown, which has a similarly obscure airstrip, in 2003. She’s on the trail of a story her newspaper refuses to investigate. Was England, despite official denials, allowing “torture taxis” to land, refuel and depart from British soil? What agendas—and unfinished business—will arise when she enlists an old family friend and his political activist daughter to help her prove it? Gus Heagerty directs Shannon Malone, John Allore, Mya Ison and Rimsha Afzal in the U.S. premiere of this “mordant meditation on justice, journalism and individual political engagement” (The Telegraph), co-produced by Burning Coal Theatre Company and CAM Raleigh. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat.; 2 p.m. Sun.; 10 p.m. Feb. 5, $15–$25, 409 W. Martin St., Raleigh, 919-834-4001, www.burningcoal.org. —Byron Woods

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THE TROLLS “FEAT ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF MAMA’S LOVE” MARADEEN / PSYLO JOE / FONIX

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WE 1/27 KEYS N KRATES W/ STOOKI SOUND, JESSE SLAYTER ($20/$22) TH 1/28 YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND W/ TROUT STEAK REVIVAL**($25) FR 1/29 COSMIC CHARLIE PERFORMING "WORKINGMAN'S DEAD" ($10/$12) SA 1/30 REVEREND HORTON HEAT UNKNOWN HINSON, NASHVILLE PUSSY ($20/$25) WE 2/3 LOW **($20) SA 2/6 BOB MARLEY'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FEAT. MICKEY MILLS AND STEEL ($12/ $15) SOLD OU FRT2/12 MUTEMATH W / NOTHING BUT THIEVES SA 2/13 PERPETUAL GROOVE ($20/$25) MO 2/15 WAVVES & BEST COAST W/ CHERRY GLAZER ($30) FR 2/19 DIRTY BOURBON RIVER SHOW /

ELLIS DYSON & THE SHAMBLES SA 2/27 WXYC 90S DANCE SA 2/20 WKNC DOUBLE BARREL BENEFIT 13 DENIRO FARRAR, SKYBLEW, EARTHLY ($12/$15) FR 2/26 TIFT MERRITT PERFORMS 'BRAMBLE ROSE' ($25) WE 3/2 MC CHRIS W/ NATHAN ANDERSON TH 3/3 KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS

W/ SPACIN' ($20) SU 3/6 ERIC HUTCHINSON TU 3/8 RA RA RIOT W/ SUN CLUB, PWR BTTM ($17) SA 3/12 PENTAGRAM W/ COLOSSUS, KING GIANT AND DEMON EYE ($18/$22) OUTX AMBASSADORS W/ SEINABO SEY, POWERS LD3/13 SOSU TH/FR 3/17/18 (TWO SHOWS!) DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS THAYER SARRANO $25/$28) SA 3/26 MOUNT MORIAH W/ ELEPHANT MICAH ($12) ALSO UPCOMING: JUNIOR BOYS • THE WONDER YEARS • G LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE • DUNCAN TRUSSELL • DAUGHTER • SEAN WATKINS • MAGIC MAN, THE GRISWOLDS • THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS • THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN • MURDER BY DEATH • HOUNDMOUTH • POLICA • PARACHUTE • STICKY FINGERS • BOYCE AVENUE • SAY ANYTHING • OW WONDER • PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM 1/27JULIEN BAKER($10) 1/28:HARDWORKER W/LYNDONBAYNESJOHNSON($8) 1/29JON STICKLEY TRIO W/STEPHANIESIDANDHNMTF 1/31:SHAKORI HILLS CAC BENEFIT KAIRABA,GRANDSHELLGAME 2/4: FAT CHEEK KAT ($5/$8) 2/6:HUMANIZEW/TEARDROPCANYON($8) 2/7THE PINES 2/11:PELL($12/$15) 2/12:ARALEIGHW/SHANNONO'CONNOR 2/13HEY MARSEILLES W/BADBADHATS($12/$14) 2/14: BOB MARGOLIN ($10/$12) 2/16PROTOMARTYR W/SPRAYPAINT,BODYKIT($10/$12) 2/18DRESSY BESSY AND PYLON REENACTMENT SOCIETY FEATURING VANESSA BRISCOE-HAY ($15/$18) 2/20: SERATONESW/THICKMODINE($10) 2/21:HONEYHONEYW/CICADARHYTHM($15) 2/22THE SOFT MOON($10/$12) 2/25:MY THREE SONS W/LEMON SPARKS($8/$10) 2/26GRIFFIN HOUSE($15/$18) 2/27THE BLACK LILLIES W/UNDERHILLROSE($14) 2/29:SON LITTLE 3/6:QUILT 3/9:ALL DOGS 3/11 PORCHES / ALEX G W/YOURFRIEND($13/$15) 3/12: MAPLE STAVE / WAILIN STORMS / BRONZED CHORUS ($8) 3/13:TRIXIE WHITLEY ($12) 3/19GROOVE FETISH($7/$10) ALSOUPCOMING:KRIS ALLEN • CHON RUN RIVER NORTH• ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER ERIC BACHMANN •MATTHEW LOGAN VASQUEZ ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) 2/4 BOB SCHNEIDER 2/28 LUTHER DICKINSON & THE COLLABORATORS ($20/$23) 5/5 GREG BROWN ($28/$30) LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL) TU 2/16 THIRD MAN RECORDS PRES: TIMMY’S ORGANISM, VIDEO, REGRESSION 696 CAROLINA THEATRE (DURHAM) 2/25 JOSH RITTER & THE ROYAL CITY BAND MOTORCO (DURHAM) 4/12 INTO IT. OVER IT. AND TWIABP... W/ THE SIDEKICKS, PINEGROVE ($15/$17) PINHOOK (DURHAM) 1/29 DYLAN LEBLANC W/ JOSH MOORE HAW RIVER BALLROOM 3/30-3/31 (TWO SHOWS!): DR DOG ($22/$25) 4/3 ANGEL OLSEN W/ THE TILLS ($17/$20) 4/29 M WARD ($23/$25)

WWW.CATSCRADLE.COM

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INDYweek.com

music WED, JAN 27

CAT’S CRADLE: Keys N Krates, Stooki Sound, Jesse Slayter; 9 p.m., $20–$22. See indyweek.com. CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Julien Baker; 8 p.m., $10. See indyweek.com. THE CAVE: Annie Keller & Ryan Cody, Caroline Cotter; 9 p.m., $5. See Jan. 28 listing at Deep South. DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: The Tenors; 7:30 p.m., $50–$75. See indyweek.com. LOCAL 506: Charly Lowry, Katelyn Reed, Prateek Podear; 9 p.m., free. NIGHTLIGHT: 919Noise January Showcase: Gar-ud, flushio = 0, 80 lb Test, Bryce Eiman; 8:30 p.m., $5–$7. THE PINHOOK: Save The Pinhook; 8 p.m., $25–$100. See indyweek.com. POUR HOUSE: Ed Lewis, Ashley Mar Shell, Knotti, Tina Joy, Sofree Wisdom, Tish Songbird; 9:30 p.m., $10–$15. See indyweek.com. THE RITZ: Breaking Benjamin, Starset; 8 p.m., $35. See indyweek.com.

SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS MOYAMOYA A third of this Jacksonville, Florida, instrumental trio’s nine-day East Coast tour happens in the Triangle; they play Thursday at Slim’s and Friday at The Nightlight, too. The dates stem from a North Carolina connection, as Moyamoya issued a self-titled record back in 2014 on Fort Lowell Records, a label that started in Tucson, Arizona, before rooting itself in Raleigh. Moyamoya is a post-rock band but a captivating one, owing less Contributors: Grant Britt (GB), Grayson Haver Currin (GC), Spencer Griffith (SG), Corbie Hill (CH), Allison Hussey (AH), David Klein (DK), Jordan Lawrence (JL), Karlie Justus Marlowe (KM), Bryan C. Reed (BCR), Dan Ruccia (DR), David Ford Smith (DS), Eric Tullis (ET), Patrick Wall (PW)

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THU, JAN 28 ATOMIC FERN: Italo Disco and Minimal Wave Party; 9 p.m.

CAROLINA THEATRE ARLO GUTHRIE

CAT’S CRADLE YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND Last year was big for Colorado jamgrass institution Yonder Mountain String Band. After weathering the departure of cofounder Jeff Austin and adding fiddler Allie Kral and mandolin player Jake Joliff, Yonder released its first studio album in six years while taking some time off the road. The self-produced Black Sheep hardly stretches Yonder’s framework—the greatest coup is reimagining The Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen In Love” as a bluegrass traditional—but the LP also offers little reason to suspect more than a hiccup in momentum for these festival mainstays. With Trout Steak Revival. $25/8 p.m. —SG

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LORRAINE’S COFFEE HOUSE: David Holt and Josh Goforth; 7:30 p.m., $20. THE PINHOOK: Save The Pinhook; 8 p.m., $25–$100. See indyweek.com. PITTSBORO ROADHOUSE: Jason Damico; 6 p.m.

to build-and-release composition than the abrasive textures of early Maserati records and the puckish humor and prickly tempo shifts of Don Caballero. Free/7 p.m. —PW

Arlo Guthrie’s signature song, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” holds a hallowed spot among rock and pop music’s lengthiest compositions. At 18:34, it’s more than a minute longer than such epics as Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” Pink Floyd’s “Dogs” and The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray.” But “Alice’s” is neither a monument to instrumental indulgence nor a multi-part suite. Rather, it’s a lugubrious, sometimes-hilarious narrative grounded squarely in the socially conscious folk tradition that Arlo’s father, Woody, pioneered. After a half-century in the business, he knows how to hold a crowd. $37–$131/8 p.m. —DK

JANUARY 27, 2016

You,” the pieces come together. The Blake Kearney Band opens. $10/8 p.m. —KM

PHOTO BY JEREMY M. LANGE

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ERIC BACHMANN | SATURDAY, JAN. 30

THE PINHOOK, DURHAM—For a moment, Eric Bachmann will again put the present and future on

hold to deal in the past. At the end of January, Merge Records will reissue Bachmann’s first two albums as Crooked Fingers, the delightfully dour, often-noir folk-rock group he anchored after the premillennial demise of Archers of Loaf, his Chapel Hill indie rock institution. Issued in quick succession after Archers played its final shows, those records—a gripping self-titled debut and 2001’s grand Bring on the Snakes—found Bachmann shunning the chemically addled buzz of his rock band completely. He let his voice burn with baritone warmth through cold, lurid tales of deprivation, deviance and death. “At that time, I was trying to write fairy tales from the perspective of a child, for adults,” Bachmann says 15 years later, from his current home in Athens, Georgia. “I decided that the most punk rock thing I could do at that point was to go where I went. Success for that music is written from the perspective of fans of Archers hating it.” To coronate the occasion, Bachmann will play two shows—one in Durham, the other in New York—and deliver the albums in full, and in sequence. And when he’s done, he’ll break with the moniker Crooked Fingers (and some of the material), once and for all. He’ll then turn to the nine songs of Eric Bachmann, a rather brilliant and surprising reinvention that finds Bachmann taking chances with imagery and arrangements in ways that latter-day Crooked Fingers records didn’t. There’s Beach Boys-like pep, slow country smolder and piano-led doo-wop, anchored by a voice that seems, at the age of 45, to have grown into its own grit with grace. Bachmann is pausing to look back, then, before making a big move forward. This temporal discontinuity is a familiar one for Bachmann, who’s spent much of the last five years leading a reunited, tour-only version of Archers of Loaf while building his own new music. Just as those early Crooked Fingers albums tumbled forward from the end of Archers, Bachmann’s next phase comes at the end of at least one more era—Crooked Fingers and, possibly, the dream of more Archers action. “It’s a lot of homework to relearn some of these older songs,” Bachmann says. “But it’s nice in a way, because the material chooses for you.” 7:30 p.m., $15, 117 W. Main St., Durham, 919-667-1100, www.thepinhook.com. —Grayson Haver Currin

Kudos to Durham’s Hardworker for spinning thoughtful, spacious arrangements around the rich warble of Sus Long, allowing the songwriter’s evocative verses to blossom. With Lyndon Baynes Johnson. $8/8 p.m. —JL

CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM) HARDWORKER

DEEP SOUTH CAROLINE COTTER

These days, when stately pop meets bustling folk, it often resembles the canned effort of another Mumford wannabe.

Maine’s Caroline Cotter describes herself as a “travelinspired singer-songwriter,” and her work at least moves ahead in

a lightly pleasant manner. Strumming on a banjo or an acoustic guitar, Cotter sings just as much about relationships and finding love as geographical journeys. Songs like her “My Evergreen” are cheerful, gentle and sweet. Annie Keller and Ryan Cody open. $5/8:30 p.m. —AH KINGS: DJ Paypal, Eyes Low, Blursome, Chocolate Rice; 9 p.m., $7–$10. See page 33.

LINCOLN THEATRE LUKE COMBS Luke Combs’ western North Carolina drawl—honed as a child in Asheville and as a student in Boone—stretches a single word into a span of syllables, much like the late, great George Jones. It’s a big voice coming out of a big dude, though the glossy glow of Music City’s obsession with idyllic small towns colors many of Combs’ songs. When he digs into a slow burner like “Used To

POUR HOUSE LOCAL BAND LOCAL BEER: NO EYES, THE DINWIDDIES, ECHO COURTS With just a handful of tracks committed to tape during No Eyes’ half-dozen years, the Raleigh quartet’s psychedelic adventures occasionally escape the garage with some rough edges. Meanwhile, The Dinwiddies’ selfreferential, rarely serious power pop ditties come stripped to the basics—in this case, sing-along melodies with high-as-a-kite lyricism. On Echo Courts’ new EP, No Damage, the Greensboro foursome splits the difference, flexing pop psych strength amid strong hooks. Free/9 p.m. —SG

SLIM’S FRANK KASTLE BIN SAVAGE Let’s define “gnat rap” as hiphop lyricism that throws its listeners into fits of swatting at bug-like swarms of annoying, infinite rhymes. Pesty Raleigh rapper Frank Kastle Bin Savage has perfected it, and he’s been on an infestation tour ever since he realized he can probably rap until there are no more word combinations left to rhyme. It’s rappity-rap at its most wasteful, but knock yourself out. With Moyamoya and Band & The Beat. $5/9 p.m. —ET THE SHED JAZZ CLUB: Shaquim Muldrow Quartet; 8 p.m., $5–$10.

FRI, JAN 29 54 WEST: Mr. Darcy; 9 p.m. BERKELEY CAFÉ: Maldora; 9 p.m.

BEYÙ CAFFÈ TAMISHA WADEN It wasn’t so surprising when the soulful Durham vocalist and The Foreign Exchange collaborator Tamisha Waden sold out two shows in one November night at the Beyù. She’ll probably deliver the same results this time. But with no new solo material, as promised during last year’s shows, and her Mixed Emotions

INDYweek.com

BLUE NOTE GRILL: The Swang Brothers; 7 p.m. Bill Lyerly Band; 9 p.m., $10. CAT’S CRADLE: Cosmic Charlie; 9 p.m., $10–$13. CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Jon Stickley Trio, Stephaniesid, Hammer No More the Fingers; 8:30 p.m., $8–$10. DEEP SOUTH: Leah Shaw, Cashavelly Morrison, Aaron Burdett; 8 p.m., $10–$12. DUKE’S NELSON MUSIC ROOM: Violin Master Class with Jennifer Koh; 5 p.m., free. See page 33.

FLETCHER OPERA THEATRE MIPSO In the past six months, Chapel Hill’s Mipso has been busy: The folksy quartet has toured the country, released a solid new LP and ridden atop a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. So this sold-out affair in a cozy opera theater should feel relatively settled. The band has long done well in clubs on tour and at home, so getting to catch them in this quiet, comfortable room should be a treat. $29–$31/8 p.m. —AH THE KRAKEN: Good Rocking Sam, Andy Squint & Lagniappe; 8 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE REEL BIG FISH Ska isn’t dead! OK, that’s a lie, but no band has valiantly propped its rotting corpse upright, Weekend at Bernie’s-style, as long as Reel Big Fish. Two decades after the band scored a major-label deal during the fleeting mid-’90s ska boom, Reel Big Fish still hasn’t bade goodbye to porkpie hats or a marriage of snark and cynicism with cartoony ska-punk. Suburban Legends and The Maxies open. $15/9 p.m. —PW

LOCAL 506 DR. BACON Boone’s Dr. Bacon seems to aspire to the upper echelon of jamgrass bands by blending folk with funk. But they still sound young and undeveloped in that ambition—wonky, out-of-step, over-eager and just not very good. At least the bill’s openers—The Tan and Sober Gentlemen and Gasoline Stove—offer more energy and expertise.

$10/9 p.m. —AH LORRAINE’S COFFEE HOUSE: Nixon, Blevins & Gage; 7:30 p.m.

THE MAYWOOD I AM MADDOX Like Valient Thorr with a predilection for Southern sludge, I Am Maddox uses burly, catchy aggression to rip through an enigmatic sci-fi narrative about a post-apocalyptic world. Even if you don’t care for such conceptual nonsense, the group’s sharp guitar interplay and CJ Bauckham’s charismatic presence carry the day. Behind the Wheel, celebrating a new CD, supports with similarly beefy grooves. With MechaBull. $7/9:30 p.m. —JL

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL N.C. SYMPHONY: MOZART’S PIANO CONCERTO This concert packs in the music. It starts with Thomas Tallis’ colossal Spem in alium, originally written in 40 independent, antiphonal lines and arranged here for string orchestra. Then comes Mozart’s 20th piano concerto, a stormy, brooding work inspired by Beethoven. Finally, the N.C. Symphony offers a pair of works by Schubert, written when the composer was barely 20: an overture brimming with Italianate energy and a symphony inspired by Mozart’s lighter side. $18–$66/8 p.m. —DR NIGHTLIGHT: Midnight Plus One, Moyamoya, Band & the Beat; 8 p.m., $7. See Jan. 27 listing at Schoolkids Records.

THE PINHOOK DYLAN LEBLANC Muscle Shoals songwriter Dylan LeBlanc’s knack for Americana is, at least in part, genetic. His dad was a session musician at FAME Studios and a pro country songwriter. But nature and nurture don’t account for insight and instinct. Cautionary Tale, LeBlanc’s third for Rough Trade, presents his years lost to booze not as absolution-seeking narrative but as an earnest, soul-seeking expression of vulnerability and isolation. $12/8:30 p.m. —PW PLAN B: Mr. Darcy; 9 p.m. POUR HOUSE: Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, The Fritz; 10 p.m., $10. SLIM’S: Happy Abandon, Those Manic Seas, Hot Water and the Bone; 9 p.m., $5. See page 20. SOUTHLAND BALLROOM:

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matter how far afield they shuttle, through needling guitars and squealing sax, an unflappable sense of fun remains. The Moms, a heavy psych-rock outfit helmed by Polvo’s Ash Bowie and buttressed by percussion whiz Lee Waters, shares the stage. Free/9 p.m. —BCR PHOTO BY JEREMY M. LANGE

EP and upcoming studio LP still in the offing, are we just expected to sing along to the same ol’ love songs? $10/8 & 10 p.m. —ET

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DIALI CISSOKHO & KAIRA BA

SHAKORI HILLS COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER BENFIT |SUNDAY, JAN. 31

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, CARRBORO—In 2014, the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and

Dance purchased the land on which it had hosted its twice-yearly event for a decade. Now the festival hopes to deepen its local roots by building a brick-and-mortar community center and a 10-stall bathroom facility on site. The so-called Shakori Hills Community Arts Center would encompass the new structures and the expansive festival grounds. The planned building would allow for year-round music- and artrelated events, particularly hosting area nonprofits, workshops and camps. “We have 75 acres of farmland, and it’s just a beautiful, comfortable, fun place to be,” says Sara Waters, the event’s co-coordinator. “We only use it for eight days out of a year for our festival.” According to local regulations, the grounds must include a permanent bathroom facility in order to host more than two events each month. That will happen first, with the community building to follow. Waters hopes for the project to be complete within the next year. To boost that mission, old-time band The Hoppin’ Johnnies open this benefit. In name and style, the group pays homage to the Hoppin’ John Fiddlers’ Convention that Shakori Hills hosts. Diali Cissokho and Kaira Ba take the middle slot. Cissokho and his crew have become perennial favorites at Shakori Hills thanks to ebullient songs sourced from Cissokho’s West African upbringing. The Grand Shell Game headlines with bouncy, earnest rock. To wit, during a live recording of “Roller Coaster,” singer E.S. Guthrie encourages the crowd, “Don’t forget to love everybody, everybody!” Taken together, these three acts personify Shakori Hills’ ideals—locally focused, free-spirited fun in a family-friendly environment. You’ll find a bit of it here, and if all goes as planned, much more of it at Shakori Hills for years to come. 5 p.m., $10–$12, 300 E. Main St., Carrboro, 919-967-9053, www.catscradle.com. —Allison Hussey

Girly Girl Burlesque; 9 p.m., $10.

SAT, JAN 30 54 WEST: Joe Bell and The Stinging Blades; 9 p.m. BEYÙ CAFFÈ: Sidecar Social Club; 8 & 10 p.m., $10. BLUE NOTE GRILL: Handsome Al & The Lookers with Emma Davis; 8 p.m., $8.

CAROLINA THEATRE KRISTIN CHENOWETH Kristin Chenoweth doesn’t have an EGOT, but she’s got almost all of the qualifications: She launched the role of Glinda in Wicked, starred in the spectacular (if short-lived) ABC sitcom Pushing Daisies and made appearances on The West Wing, Frasier and Glee. Off the stage and screen, Chenoweth remains a powerhouse singer with a sharp wit. She takes the Carolina Theatre’s stage in celebration

of the venue’s 90th year. Expect some of those Broadway hits, some standards and more. $47–$256/8 p.m. —AH

CAT’S CRADLE REVEREND HORTON HEAT In another reality, a larger-thanlife character like Reverend Horton Heat might have had his own TV show or been a cult leader. But in this one, he is the reigning king of psychobilly and cowpunk. He’s been belting out his big, bad blend of rockabilly roots, surf guitar licks, greasy garage rock and pure punk attitude for more than a quarter of a century. How many other rockabilly cats can you think of who’ve had Ministry’s Al Jourgensen playing pedal steel for them? He’s a rock ‘n’ roll lifer, and you can count on the Reverend to keep the faith. With Unknown Hinson, Nashville Pussy and Igor and the Red Elvises. $20–$25/8:30 pm —JA

THE CAVE: Layaway, Flimsy; 9 p.m., $5. CITY LIMITS: Band Together Big Cahoot: Laura Reed, Balsa Gliders, Kate Rhudy & the Boys; 8 p.m., $10–$100. See indyweek.com. DEEP SOUTH: Nuclear Honey, Hazelwood, Austero; 8 p.m., $5. DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM: Jennifer Koh & Shai Wosner; 8 p.m., $10–$42. See page 33. FLETCHER OPERA THEATER: Peter Yarrow; 8 p.m., $35–$37. See indyweek.com.

THE KRAKEN CANTWELL GOMEZ & JORDAN Local vets Cantwell Gomez & Jordan remain one of the Triangle’s most exciting and confounding bands. Their fusion of no-wave skronk and rock momentum matches a fuck-all esprit. No

LINCOLN THEATRE PULSE ELECTRONIC DANCE PARTY Space is the place, and this edition of PULSE aims to rocket home with a cosmos-themed party, headlined by Baltimore dubstep linchpin Joe Nice. Inspired by U.K. artists like Kode9 and Hatcha, he began spinning the style domestically in 2001 and even brazenly claims to be the first North American dubstep act. His taste reservoir runs deep, and you’re guaranteed to get an education. With Tronix, Killtrak, Phrey and Kure. $10/9 p.m. —DS LOCAL 506: Lightworks, Those Manic Seas, An Occasion For Balloons; 9 p.m., $5. LORRAINE’S COFFEE HOUSE: The Malpass Brothers; 7:30 p.m., $15. THE MAYWOOD: The Damnedest Thing, Motrendus, The Gray; 9 p.m., $8. MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: N.C. Symphony: Mozart’s Piano Concerto; 8 p.m., $18–$66. See Jan. 29 listing.

NIGHTLIGHT BLANK BODIES, CLAW Colorado’s Blank Bodies and Maryland’s Claw share an affinity for blown-out guitars and D-beat rampages, making their shared approach to hardcore feel unstoppable. Blank Bodies’ 2015 demo runs through five forceful tracks in about as many minutes. Claw’s December EP feels like the more volatile outing, with pointed feminist politics pushed through heavy reverb. Greensboro’s ascendant Holder’s Scar offers a more agile take on the genre, generating riffs that bob and weave like a prizefighter. The Raleigh-and-Richmond gang Blackball and Raleigh’s Drugcharge hold down the undercard with equal ferocity, with riffs that pack more clarity. $7/9 p.m. —BCR NORTH87SOUTH: Doug Prescott Band; 8 p.m., $5. THE OASIS AT CARR MILL: Laura Grimaldi and Robbie Link; 8 p.m. THE PINHOOK: Eric Bachmann; 9 p.m., $15. See box, page 35.

INDYweek.com PLAN B: Joe Bell and The Stinging Blades; 9 p.m.

POUR HOUSE CARAMEL CITY: JEFF BRADSHAW, MUMU FRESH Robert Glasper isn’t the only jazz composer with deep links in the modern R&B world. Philadelphia trombonist Jeff Bradshaw is also a jazz and soul maestro. His twovolume Bone Appétit is full of, well, bone-worthy R&B featuring regal balladeers such as Raheem DeVaughn, Marsha Ambrosius and the duo Kindred. None of those acts join Bradshaw for this installment of Art of Cool Project and 9th Wonder’s monthly soul series, but D.C. emcee and vocalist Mumu Fresh does. Her early work with The Roots, her solo mixtapes and her recent collaboration with prolific D.C. producer and emcee Oddisee have proven she’s more than capable of filling in those missing gaps. Also with producer Khrysis and Caramel City regular Heather Victoria. $15–$20/9 p.m. —ET

THE RITZ JON PARDI, BROTHERS OSBORNE Jon Pardi’s last name fits the spirit of “bro country,” the partyhard mainstream movement that has overtaken country airwaves. “Up All Night,” his most successful single, checks all of the bikini, beer and backroads boxes to catchy effect, while the rest of his debut album follows in Dierks Bentley-lite fashion. Get to the party early, though, to catch the Brothers Osborne, a duo of actual brothers endorsed by Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark. The pair followed up summer novelty hit “Rum” with its debut album, Pawn Shop, which manages to use a thoughtful pop sheen without cheesy cliches. $22.50/8 p.m. —KM SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS: Machinegun Earl; 7 p.m., free. SHARP NINE GALLERY: Ernest Turner Quartet, Stephen Riley; 8 p.m., $10–$15.

SLIM’S GHOST OF SATURDAY NITE The Ghost of Saturday Nite’s purist punk strikes a comfortable balance between classicist familiarity and street grit, like a midpoint between The Unseen and One Man Army. That dynamic turned two of the group’s songs into standouts of Teenage Time Killers, a recent supergroup project by COC drummer Reed Mullin. “Barrio,” sung there by Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba, and “Son of an Immigrant,”

sung by Ghost of Saturday Nite’s own Jonny Webber, show the band’s knack for mining bright hooks from raw foundations. With Snake & The Plisskens. $5/9 p.m. —BCR

SOUTHLAND BALLROOM THE TROLLS No, this isn’t those Trolls—Iggy Pop isn’t coming to Southland. Instead, pay attention to what’s between the parentheses. The Trolls (American Biker Band) are a cover act from rural New York, playing sports bar translations of classic rock songs. That about covers it. $5/10 p.m. —CH

SUN, JAN 31 BURNSIDE HOUSE: Pamela Howland; 4 p.m., $22. CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Shakori Hills Community Arts Center Benefit: The Grand Shell Game, Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba, The Hoppin’ Johnnies; 5 p.m., $10–$12. See box, page 36. DEEP SOUTH: Ringwald, Almost People, The Sherman Neckties; 9 p.m., $5–$7.

DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM CANTUS The nine-man vocal ensemble Cantus hails from Minnesota, a state that churns out choral groups at a prolific pace—maybe the chill in the air makes people want to get together and vocalize. Formed in 1995 while its members were college students, Cantus has since earned accolades for a vibrant blend of voices and sophisticated, eclectic material. This performance is based around the ancient Greek notion that love comes in four varieties—spiritual, romantic, familial, friendship—and includes newly commissioned works alongside a psalm, classical pieces, A.R. Rahman’s “Wedding Qawwalli” and the traditional “Danny Boy.” $10–$42/7 p.m. —DK

DUKE’S NELSON MUSIC ROOM EMANUEL GRUBER J.S. Bach wrote six cello suites, and Emanuel Gruber will perform the odd-numbered ones here. Everyone should know the first, with its equal balance of joy and longing. The third is equally exuberant, full of bounding dances and tumbling lines. In the fifth, Bach gets a little experimental, having the cellist tune the top A string down to a G. The changed resonance matches the

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suite’s darker mood. Free/4 p.m. —DR FULLSTEAM: Redleg Husky; 5-7 p.m., free.

LINCOLN THEATRE GRAVEYARD Graveyard’s recombination of familiar elements feels unique. The Swedish hard rockers lean on fuzzy, psychedelic distortion and limber solos, like a slightly heavier Blue Öyster Cult, before shifting into stretches of strutting proto-metal. Singer Joakim Nilsson is hard to pin down, as he sometimes growls like Tom Waits and sometimes offers up a smooth croon. On 2015’s Innocence & Decadence, the transitions all arrive with efficiency and aplomb. With Spiders. $17–$22/7:30 p.m. —JL

WE 1/27 TH 1/28 FR 1/29 SA 1/30 SU 1/31

CLARK STERN & CHUCK COTTON JANET STOLP & THE BEST KEPT SECRETS THE SWANG BROTHERS BILL LYERLY HANDSOME AL AND THE LOOKERS LOGIE MEACHAM & THE BIG BUMP

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HUDSON FALCONS

sa 2/5

NORTH CAROLINA COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL 6pm $12

THE HELL NO / THE LONE WOLVES 9pm $8 th 2/4 CARDIGAN PRESENTS BIGGBRAD / ANONYMOUS JONES / YDM JONES MICHAEL / VINNIE DANGEROUS 9pm $10 fr 2/5 NORTH CAROLINA COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL 6pm $12 COMING SOON: FOXING, THE SMITH STREET BAND, THE SHADOWBOXERS INTER ARMA, THE QUEERS

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Green Burial:

a natural option

LOCAL 506: 3@3: Rakeem, Caly Cal, Money Makin’ D; 3 p.m., free. MOTORCO: The Pinkerton Raid, Kamara Thomas & The Night Drivers, Canine Heart Sounds; 2 p.m., $6–$8. See indyweek.com.

MOTORCO AMY SPEACE

PINE FOREST MEMORIAL GARDENS

Singer-songwriter Amy Speace was born and bred an East Coast gal, initially making artistic forays in New York. She picked up sticks and found a new headquarters in Nashville. Appropriately, her music is a blend of alt-country earthiness and an intensely analytical lyrical perspective—a mix that’s all over her latest album, That Kind of Girl. Hudson and Haw opens. $15–$18/8:30 p.m. —JA

NC’s only GBC certified natural burial ground

919-556-6776 • pineforestmemorial.com

919.821.1120 • 224 S. Blount St

DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 2CELLOS The appeal of 2Cellos is novelty—pop and rock favorites, transmuted into arrangements for, you guessed it, two cellos. The Croatian duo takes songs like AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” adds a few flourishes

LIVE & LOUD PRESENTS: ED LEWIS / ASHLEY MAR SHELL / KNOTTI TINA JOY / SOFREE WISDOM / TISH SONGBIRD

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SA 1/30

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The

WE 1/27

NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Lacy Jags, Weird Pennies, Body Games (Solo); 9 p.m., $5. PITTSBORO ROADHOUSE: Brittany Davis; 11:30 a.m. POUR HOUSE: Chamomile & Whiskey, Porchlight Apothecary; 9 p.m., free. THE SHED JAZZ CLUB: Enjoy Sunday with Danny Grewen; 6-9 p.m., $5.

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WE 2/3 TH 2/4

FR 2/5 SA 2/6

SU 2/7 MO 2/8

Gravy Boys

The Kruger Brothers Friday October 10th at 8:00PM Community Church of Chapel Hill 106 Purefoy Road, Chapel hill NC 27514 Advance Sale $20 at www.communitychurchconcerts.org

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TRAE PIERCE & THE T-STONE BAND GANG OF THIEVES A FUNDRAISER FOR SPCA ARC & STONES FREE! SWAMP CANDY COMMUNITY CENTER BITTER INC / STEVE HARTSOE

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6 8:00PM Community Church of Chapel Hill UU

An Road, evening with Jens, Joel is always a specia 106 Purefoy Chapel Hill,Uwe NC,and 27514 musical experience. 919-942-2050 “I used to think the banjo was somewhat limited to certain www.communitychurchconcerts.org styles, un8l I heard Jens Kruger. Jens has played some of the Tickets: most beau8ful and expressive banjo I’ve ever heard.“ –Ron Block In Advance: $15 At Door: Alison Krauss and • Union StaTon $20

INDYweek.com and—boom!—generates the kind of Facebook content your great-aunt will just love. $25–$50/7:30 p.m. —AH

LINCOLN THEATRE EPICA

Depression anD insomnia stuDy You may qualify for a clinical research study being conducted by the Duke Sleep Disorders Center if you are: • between the ages of 18 to 65 • have symptoms of depression • have thoughts that life isn’t worth living • have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early in the morning Physicians in the Sleep Center are studying whether a careful, controlled use of hypnotics will reduce suicidal thoughts in depressed participants with insomnia. If you qualify for the study, all study medication, exams and procedures associated with the study will be provided at no cost to you and you will be compensated for your time and travel.

For more information, call 919-681-8392 and ask about the depression and insomnia study.

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During the last decade, the Dutch metal powerhouse Epica has refined a complicated and theatric formula that has made its music popular if predictable: Summon the force of death metal and the grandiosity of power metal with the music, and let a mix of arching operatic choruses and burly, grunted verses do the same. It’s much more gripping than, say, the bastardized American radio counterparts of Evanescence but not nearly as open-ended and adventurous as the breadth of the band’s obvious influences. At the very least, Epica rivets until dragging you into the rut, too. With Moonspell and Starkill. $24/6:30 p.m. —GC

NIGHTLIGHT FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE When he isn’t teasing out extreme frequencies as half of noise duo Angels in America, Mark Iosifescu is crafting fucked pop jams as Farewell My Concubine. His 2014 LP, Symphony of Problems, suggested a collaboration between Angelo Badalamenti and Xiu Xiu. His synths coo at you as he sways a gnarly wound near your face. If you like a bit of theatricality and darkness in your lo-fi jams, you’ll enjoy this. Ascetic House deconstructionist Die Reihe opens, with Blankets, Upskirt, and Faster Detail. $7–$9/9 p.m. —DS PITTSBORO ROADHOUSE: The N.C. Revelers Orchestra; 7 p.m., $5.

TUE, FEB 2 CAROLINA THEATRE JONNY LANG Jonny Lang went platinum around the time he hit puberty. His prodigious guitar talent aligned him with ’90s contemporaries like Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The born-again bluesman’s Fight for My Soul finds Lang focusing on songcraft while skirting the implied piety. He adds fiery licks to potential crossover numbers, each drawing heavily from R&B and soul. Guthrie Brown opens. $37–$77/8 p.m. —SG

LOCAL 506 HUDSON FALCONS At the end of the last millennium and the start of this one, New Jersey’s Hudson Falcons believed

wholeheartedly in the power of rock—to save lives, or at least to release the pressures of workaday drudgery that come with it. The band delivered classic-rockready anthems at classic punk speeds (or vice versa), suggesting an overclocked jukebox in a dive bar of dreams. During the last decade, though, Mark Linskey changed the pace and approach but never the feeling, supplanting a youthful punk verve with a Muscle Shoals-like mix of soul and country. The songs are now as familiar and settled as the sentiments, organ rippling beneath blue-collar tales. With The Hell No and The Lone Wolves. $8/9 p.m. —GC

MOTORCO ADRIEN REJU On Strange Love & the Secret Language, Adrien Reju shifts from the quirky and cute folk songs of her earlier efforts toward more enchanting territory. She crafts lush, elegant indie pop that shares ground with Neko Case and Norah Jones. Elijah Wolf and Band & the Beat join. $9–$11/8 p.m. —SG

NEPTUNES PARLOUR NEST EGG From Asheville, Nest Egg embraces the repetition of krautrock, with songs that conjoin rhythm to riff in an ouroboric approximation. Rather than drift through the phrases, though, Nest Egg races through them as if playing a high-drama video game. The band transmutes the idyllic escapism of its predecessors into fully modern anxiety, with addled words echoing through the din like transmissions from almost-lost souls. It’s nervy, charged stuff. Detroit’s Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor conjure many of the same uneasy feelings with a ramshackle, digressive set of garage rock songs that launch into long, twisted, scraping jams. $6/9:30 p.m. —GC POUR HOUSE: CBDB, Backup Planet; 9 p.m., $6–$8.

WED, FEB 3 ARCANA: Valerie Kuehne and the Wasps Nests, Cyanotype; 8 p.m., free.

BLUE NOTE GRILL LAZER LLOYD Channeling the white-hot licks of Hendrix, Winter and Santana earned Lazer Lloyd a reputation as Israel’s six-string shredder. The New York native was on a garage rock path until Rabbi Shlomo

•

JANUARY 27, 2016

•

Carlebach convinced him to connect with his Jewish roots and relocate to Israel. Lloyd honed his craft there, spending a decade with Reva L’Sheva, Israel’s version of The Grateful Dead, then dabbled in folk rock before settling into his current soulful rock sound. Free/8 p.m. —GB

CAT’S CRADLE LOW Go back and listen to “Gentle,” the austere opener of Low’s 2015 album, Ones and Sixes. Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker remain perfect vocal foils, the thin curl of his nervous tone perfectly countered and comforted by her soft, serene glow; one always seems to move in the other’s shadow. The music, likewise, is a suspension of suspended electric guitar strums and sporadic electronic spittle, an echo of the hesitant, doubtful lyrics at the song’s center. For 20 years, Low has been making quietly, slowly gorgeous records so consistently transfixing and singular that they’re actually dismissed as boring, and chronically overlooked. But go listen to “Gentle”; it’s riveting stuff from one of indie rock’s most steadfast institutions. $20/8:30 p.m. —GC

LINCOLN THEATRE GAELIC STORM Since Gaelic Storm first splashed into public view while playing an Irish dance tune in a Titanic scene, the Celtic rock outfit has released a dozen studio albums, the last five even topping Billboard’s world music chart. Lines like “I’ve never been to Ireland, but I know it’s in my blood,” from the energetic anthem “Raised on Black and Tans,” acknowledge the mixed heritage and shared passion of both the band and its fans. $14.50/8 p.m. —SG NIGHTLIGHT: Housefire, Blue Shift, Sunk Heaven, Misha; 7 p.m., $7. THE PINHOOK: Save The Pinhook; 8 p.m., $25–$100. See indyweek.com. POUR HOUSE: The Loz Band; 9 p.m., $5.

INDYweek.com

visualarts OPENING CARY ARTS CENTER: Fri, Jan 29, 6-9 p.m.: Reception. — Jan 29-Mar 21: For What It’s Worth, work by Jeana Eve Klein. 101 Dry Ave. 919-469-4069, www. townofcary.org.

GALLERY C: Feb 1-29: Original

Oils and Watercolors, by William C. Wright. 540 N Blount St, Raleigh. 919-828-3165, galleryc.net.

HAGERSMITH DESIGN GALLERY: Jan 27-Mar 23:

Southern Comforter, abstract images of a comforter by Victoria Powers. 300 S Dawson St, Raleigh. 919-821-5547, hagersmith.com.

HERBERT C YOUNG COMMUNITY CENTER: Fri,

Jan 29, 6-8 p.m.: Reception. — Jan 29-Mar 21: Sunrises, Reflections & Acadia, by Michael Weitzman. 101 Wilkinson Ave, Cary. 919-4604965, townofcary.org.

HILLSBOROUGH ARTS COUNCIL GALLERY: Jan

27-Mar 19: African American Quilter Circle Show. — Fri, Jan 29, 6-9 p.m.: Reception. 102 N Churton St. 919-643-2500, www. hillsboroughartscouncil.org.

HILLSBOROUGH GALLERY OF ARTS: Thru Feb 21: Flow,

work by 22 artists and 14 North Carolina poets inspired by nature and rivers. Free Event. — Fri, Jan 29, 6-9 p.m.: Reception. 121-D N Churton St. 919-732-5001, www. hillsboroughgallery.com.

JOYFUL JEWEL: Jan 31-28:

Carolina Dreamscaper, acrylic nature paintings by Marilyn Penrod. — Sun, Jan 31, 1-3 p.m.: Reception. 44-A Hillsboro St, Pittsboro. 919-883-2775, www. joyfuljewel.com.

LITTLE ART GALLERY & CRAFT COLLECTION: Feb

1-15: Revisiting the Coast, paintings by John Silver. 432 Daniels St, Raleigh. 919-890-4111, littleartgalleryandcraft.com.

THE QI GARDEN: Jan 29-Feb

28: How to Grow Fresh Air, work by Lucia Apollo Shaw. 112 S Churton St, Hillsborough. 919-5931026, www.the-qi-garden.com.

VILLAGE ART CIRCLE: Fri, Jan 29, 6-9 p.m.: Reception. — Jan 29-Feb 28: Crinkle and Color — Interpretations of a Flower, interpretations of flowers in

Everyday Chaos: Re-Collaging the Surface, work by Carlyn WrightEakes, Richie Foster, Harriet Hoover and Saba Taj. Free. 331 W Main Street, Durham. 919-9731675, www.arcanadurham.com.

ERUUF ART GALLERY: Thru Feb 18: Shall We Dance, paintings of dancing figures in oil and mixed media by Linda Passman. Free. 4907 Garrett Rd, Durham. 919489-2575, www.eruuf.org.

charcoal and pastel by Vinita Jain. 200 S Academy St #130, Cary. www.villageartcircle.com.

ONGOING ALEXANDER DICKSON HOUSE: Thru Mar 17: Simple

FRANK GALLERY: Thru Feb 7: The Human Touch: Portraits of Care. — Thru Feb 7: Intersections, work by Sasha Bakaric, Shelly Hehenberger and Suzanne Krill. — Thru Feb 7: Layer Upon Layer, work by Peter Filene and Linda Prager. 109 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill. 919-636-4135, www. frankisart.com.

Ways: Folk Art by Leonard Jones, paintings done with house paint on scrap metal. — Fri, Jan 29, 6-8 p.m.: Reception. 150 E King St, Hillsborough. 919-732-7741, www. historichillsborough.org.

THE ARTSCENTER: Thru Jan

31: Grey Area, monochromatic paintings and paper installation by Constance Pappalardo and Erin Oliver. 919-929-2787, hgerni@artscenterlive.org, www. artscenterlive.org/exhibitions. 300-G E Main St, Carrboro. 919929-2787, www.artscenterlive.org.

ARTSPACE: Thru Feb 20:

Illusionary Worlds, work by Kellie Bornhoft and Tedd Anderson. free. — Thru Feb 26: Regional Emerging Artists in Residence Exhibition, work by Kellie Bornhoft and Tedd Anderson. — Thru Mar 5: Small Tapestry International, works from the American Tapestry Alliance. 201 E Davie St, Raleigh. 919-8212787, www.artspacenc.org.

BOND PARK COMMUNITY CENTER: Thru Feb 29: Dispatch

from Vick Benson Farm—A Visual Communique from the Family Farm, work by Robert Cassanova. 150 Metro Park Dr, Cary. 919-4623970, www.townofcary.org.

CAMERON VILLAGE REGIONAL LIBRARY: Thru

Jan 31: New Zealand: The Great Escape, works in oil by Christin Kleinstreuer. 1930 Clark Ave, Raleigh. 919-856-6723, www. wakegov.com/libraries.

THE CARRACK MODERN ART: Thru Feb 6: Vibrant

Expression Now: Tea with an Artist, see and discuss art over tea with artist Rodolfo Sabatini. Free. 111 W Parrish St, Durham. www. thecarrack.org.

CARY SENIOR CENTER:

Thru Feb 19: Musings, work by Katy Gollahon. — Fri, Jan 29, 6-8 p.m.: Reception. 120 Maury O’Dell Place. 919-469-4081, www. townofcary.org.

CEDAR CREEK GALLERY:

Thru Feb 21: CUPful: Celebrating the Daily Ritual, over 400 mugs and cups handcrafted by artists from all over the U.S. Free. 1150 Fleming Rd, Creedmoor. 919-5281041, cedarcreekgallery.com.

A PIECE FROM PULL BY YASHUA KLOS

VISUAL ART | PULL THURSDAY, JAN. 28, RALEIGH WEEMS GALLERY AT MEREDITH COLLEGE—If memories of Colour Correction, the Nasher’s excellent show of prints from last year, are still embossed on your brain, then freshen them up with PULL, a new exhibit of work by local and international printmakers at Meredith College. Curated by Supergraphic co-director Bill Fick and UNC-Chapel Hill art professor Beth Grabowski, the show features 23 artists from the U.S., the U.K. and Canada who demonstrate a variety of printmaking techniques, from humble screenprints to cuttingedge 3-D printing. Among the striking sample works we saw, Lynne Allen etches her Lakota Sioux family history on wood and deerskin. Fick offers a grotesquely blemished face that might have sprung from a Charles Burns comic, while Grabowski contributes a cooler design: a black ovoid shape surrounded by grassy scratches. After this opening reception, the show runs through March 27. 4–6 p.m., free, 3800 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, 919-760-8332, www.meredith.edu/the-arts. —Brian Howe

THE COTTON COMPANY:

Thru Feb 7: Patricia Velasco, paintings. 306 S White St, Wake Forest. 919-570-0087, www. thecottoncompany.net.

DUKE CAMPUS: CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES: INDYPICK

Thru Feb 27: South Side, photographs and writings by Jon Lowenstein. — Thru Feb 28: Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila, photographs by Nadia Sablin. 1317 W Pettigrew

St, Durham. 919-660-3663, www. cdsporch.org.

DURHAM ART GUILD: Thru Mar 12: The Longitude and Latitude: Explorations of Land and Sea, work by Stephen Estrada and Tony Alderman. 120 Morris St. 919-560-2713, www. durhamartguild.org. DURHAM CONVENTION CENTER: Thru Apr 14: I Want

Candy, work by Stacy Crabill. 301 W Morgan St. 919-956-9404, durhamconventioncenter.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WEEMS GALLERY

Galleries

ERIN KARCHER: Thru Mar 13:

GALLERY C: Thru Feb 10: Backroads: The Down East Photography of Watson Brown. 540 N Blount St, Raleigh. 919-8283165, www.galleryc.net. INDYPICK

GOLDEN BELT:

Thru Feb 2: Franco: Beautiful, Bold and Brave. 807 E Main St, Durham. www.goldenbeltarts.com. INDYPICK HORACE WILLIAMS HOUSE: Thru Feb

1: Letters at Play: Text in Wax, encaustic paintings by Carol Retsch-Bogart, Lew Graham and Peg Bachenheimer. 610 E Rosemary St, Chapel Hill. 919-9427818, chapelhillpreservation.com.

LIGHT ART + DESIGN: Thru

Mar 12: New Year Show, work by Jeff Bell, Kiki Farish, Heather Gordon, Warren Hicks and Sallie White. Free. 601 W Rosemary St, Chapel Hill. 919-942-7077, www. lightartdesign.com.

LOCAL COLOR GALLERY:

Thru Jan 30: New Year - New Art, watercolor, acrylic, oil, clay, glass and mixed media by twelve local women artists. 311 W. Martin Street, Raleigh. 919-819-5995, www.localcoloraleigh.com.

MEASUREMENT BUILDING:

Thru Feb 11: Cinc Hayes, paintings. 404 Hunt Street, Durham. 843475-3132, Cinchayes.com.

MORNING TIMES GALLERY:

Thru Jan 31: Britt Flood. 10 E Hargett St, Raleigh. 919-459-2348, www.morningtimes-raleigh.com.

NAOMI GALLERY AND STUDIO: Thru Feb 20: The

Auctioneer and His Brothers, acrylic paintings by Lynne Clarke. 711 Iredell St, Durham. www. naomistudioandgallery.com.

ORANGE COUNTY MAIN LIBRARY: Thru Feb 26: Side

Roads: Folk Art from Mike’s Art Truck, folk art by nine self-taught artists. 137 W Margaret Ln,

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JANUARY 27, 2016

•

Hillsborough. 919-245-2525, www. co.orange.nc.us/library.

PAGE-WALKER ARTS & HISTORY CENTER: Thru

Feb 20: Books & Pages, work by Christine Adamczyk. — Thru Feb 20: Painting on Silence, work by Frank Myers. — Fri, Jan 29, 6-8 p.m.: Reception. 119 Ambassador Loop, Cary. 919-460-4963, www. friendsofpagewalker.org.

PLEIADES GALLERY: Thru Feb 7: Deuces, multimedia work by Pleiades member artists and a guest artist. Free. 109 E Chapel Hill St, Durham. 919-797-2706, www. PleiadesArtDurham.com. INDYPICK POWER PLANT GALLERY: Thru Mar 6: Nancy

Cohen: Hackensack Dreaming. powerplantgallery.org/hackensackdreaming. 320 Blackwell Street, Suite 100, Durham. 919-660-3622.

ROUNDABOUT ART COLLECTIVE: Thru Jan 31:

Textile Topography, textile works by Joyce Watkins King. free. 305 Oberlin Rd, Raleigh. 919-747-9495, roundaboutartcollective.com.

THE SCRAP EXCHANGE: Thru Feb 13: Prospect Refuge Mystery Surprise, installation by Tom Dawson. 2050 Chapel Hill Road, Durham. 919-688-6960, www. scrapexchange.org. SOVEROART: GALLERY STUDIO: Ongoing: David Sovero,

oil paintings & jewelry. 121 N Churton St, Hillsborough. 919-6195616, www.soveroart.com.

SPECTRE ARTS: Thru Feb 5: Out of the Ordinary, work by Paula de Luccia and Liv Mette Larsen. 1004 Morning Glory Ave, Durham. 919-213-1441, spectrearts.org. TIPPING PAINT GALLERY:

Thru Jan 30: Re-Start. 311 W Martin St, Raleigh. 919-928-5279, www.tippingpaintgallery.com.

UMSTEAD HOTEL & SPA: Thru Apr 30: Constance

Pappalardo, paintings. 100 Woodland Pond, Cary. 919-4474000, www.theumstead.com.

UNC CAMPUS: HANES ART CENTER: Thru Feb 18: Linear

Referencing, work by Matthew Rangel in the Alcott gallery. Free. 101C E Cameron Ave, Chapel Hill. 919-962-2015, art.unc.edu.

VESPERTINE: Thru Jan 31: Tempus Immortales, work by Anita Joice. 118 B E. Main St, Carrboro. 919-356-6825. VISUAL ART EXCHANGE:

Thru Feb 25: Contemporary South, multimedia work from artists across the South. — Thru Feb 5: Unfulfilled Desires, video art installations by Hye Young Kim. 309 W Martin St, Raleigh. 919-8287834, www.visualartexchange.org.

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DUKE PERFORMANCES I N D U R H A M , A T D U K E , A R T M A D E B O L D LY

KIDZU CHILDREN’S MUSEUM: Saturdays, 10:45-

Museums

ACKLAND ART MUSEUM:

Last Sundays, 2-4 p.m.: Family Day, museum tour, story time, activities at creation station, scavenger hunts in the galleries. Free. 101 S Columbia St, Chapel Hill. 919-8431611, www.ackland.org.

BENNETT PLACE STATE HISTORIC SITE: Ongoing:

Guided tours (on the half-hour) of the site of the largest troop surrender of the Civil War. 4409 Bennett Memorial Rd, Durham. 919-383-4345, www. nchistoricsites.org/bennett.

BURWELL SCHOOL HISTORIC SITE: Ongoing:

Docent-led tours, life at Burwell School from 1837-1857, when it was home to the Burwell family, their slaves, & students at the landmark school for young women. — Ongoing: Self-guided tours, the lives of the Collins family, who lived in Hillsborough during the Civil War. 319 N Churton St, Hillsborough. 919-7327451, www.burwellschool.org.

CAM RALEIGH: Jan 31-May 8: Failure of the American Dream, installation based on the performative character of Phil America. $5. 409 W Martin St. 919-261-5920, camraleigh.org. COR MUSEUM: Ongoing: Raleigh’s City Flag: Lost & Found, Learn the story behind one of Raleigh’s most visible symbols. — Ongoing: It Started With 1000 Acres, an expansive timeline of Raleigh history. — Ongoing: Let Us March On: Raleigh’s Journey Towards Civil Rights, Raleigh experienced a time of great conflict & change during the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. Explore a city’s struggle & journey toward equality. 220 Fayetteville St, Raleigh. 919-996-2220, www. raleighcitymuseum.org. DUKE HOMESTEAD STATE HISTORIC SITE: Ongoing:

Tours of the early home, factories & farm where Washington Duke first grew & processed tobacco. 2828 Duke Homestead Rd, Durham. 919-477-5498, www. nchistoricsites.org/duke.

HISTORIC STAGVILLE:

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FILTER THEATRE / ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT F R I D AY, F E B R U A R Y 5 & S AT U R D AY, F E B R U A R Y 6 R E Y N O L D S I N D U S T R I E S T H E AT E R GET TICKETS: 919-684-4444 • DUKEPERFORM ANCES.ORG

Ongoing: Daily on the hour, tour the largest antebellum plantation in NC, including slave houses & main house. Free. 5002 Old Oxford Hwy, Durham. 919-620-0120, www.stagville.org.

JOEL LANE MUSEUM HOUSE: On the hour Wed, Thu, Fri 10 am-1 p.m., Sat 1-3 p.m.: Guided tours, led by costumed docents. 160 S Saint Mary’s St, Raleigh. 919-833-3431, www. joellane.org.

11:15 & 11:30 am-noon: Express Yourself!, art program for ages 3-8 & their caregivers allows children & adults to explore their own creative paths through open-ended weekly art projects; registration requested. $2. — Wednesdays, 4-5 p.m.: Hands-On Art. — Ongoing: KidZoom: The Power of Creativity, creative work by more than a dozen local artists & craftspeople. 201 S Estes Dr., Chapel Hill. 919-933-1455, www. kidzuchildrensmuseum.org.

MARBLES KIDS MUSEUM:

Last Sundays, 9 am-5 p.m.: Fresh Fit Fun, healthy exercise activities. — Ongoing: Permanent Exhibits, Around Town, Splash, IdeaWorks, WorldTrek. 201 E Hargett St, Raleigh. 919-834-4040, www. marbleskidsmuseum.org.

MORDECAI HISTORIC PARK: Ongoing: Docent-led

tours, interpreting the Mordecai plantation house (1785, 1826) & historic outbuildings. $5. — Ongoing: The Life of Andrew Johnson, explore the 17th president’s life & controversial political career. 1 Mimosa St, Raleigh. 919-857-4364, www. raleighnc.gov/mordecai.

MUSEUM OF LIFE & SCIENCE: Ongoing: Launch

Lab, activities that use common materials to design and test your own flying creations. — Ongoing: Catch the Wind, large-scale exhibits showing how wind influences our environment. — Ongoing: Explore the Wild, interactive science park in a preserved natural setting home to native black bears, endangered red wolves & exotic lemurs. 433 Murray Ave, Durham. 919-2205429, www.lifeandscience.org.

NASHER MUSEUM OF ART:

Thursdays, 5-9 p.m.: Free Thursday Nights, Admission is free to all. — Thru Sep 18: The New Galleries: A Collection Come to Light. — Thru Feb 28: Reality of My Surroundings: The Contemporary Collection. 2001 Campus Dr, Durham. 919-684-5135, nasher. duke.edu.

NC MUSEUM OF ART: Thru

Mar 20: Chisel and Forge: Works by Peter Oakley and Elizabeth Brim. — Thru Jan 31: Robin Rhode Video Installations. — Ongoing: John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, 435 life-size, hand-colored prints produced by engraving & aquatint. 2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh. Info 919-8396262, tickets 919-715-5923, www. ncartmuseum.org.

NC MUSEUM OF HISTORY:

Thru Jun 19: Treasures of Carolina: Stories from the State Archives, public records and private archival materials from the state archives.

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— Thru Feb 28: Hey America!: Eastern North Carolina and the Birth of Funk. — Thru Sep 5: Made Especially for You by Willie Kay, display of one-of-a-kind dresses by the Raleigh designer. — Thru Jul 10: North Carolina’s Favorite Son: Billy Graham and His Remarkable Journey of Faith. — Ongoing: The Story of North Carolina, tracing life in NC from its earliest inhabitants thru the antebellum era, the Civil War, the rise of industry, the Great Depression, the two World Wars and the Civil Rights movement. Free. — Ongoing: NC Sports Hall of Fame, features more than 200 items representing Tar Heel sports heroes. — Ongoing: NC & the Civil War: The Bitter End, 1864-1865, 3rd exhibit in Civil War sesquicentennial series. — Ongoing: A Call to Arms: NC Military History Gallery, artifacts from 11 wars. 5 E Edenton St, Raleigh. 919-807-7900, www. ncmuseumofhistory.org.

NC MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES: Thursdays, 5-9

p.m.: Science Thursdays, with informal science presentations at 7 p.m. in the Daily Planet Cafe, experiments in the Investigate Lab, wildlife specimens in the Naturalist Center & other special programming. — Saturdays, 3 p.m.: Saturday Science Cinema, combining high-definition wildlife adventures with live presentations, contests & prizes. Free. — Sat, Jan 30, 9 am-5 p.m. & Sun, Jan 31, 12-5 p.m.: Astronomy Days, the Museum partners with NASA and the Raleigh Astronomy Club to help you see the big picture of the universe. Free. — Tue, Feb 2, 9 am-1 p.m.: Groundhog Day. Free. 919-707-9837. — Ongoing: 2D & 3D Works, works by Bulldog Pottery, Sedberry Pottery, Mark Hewitt Pottery, Nine Toes Pottery, Freechild Pottery, Thomas Spake Glass, Jay Pfeil Lithographs & more. — Ongoing: Images from Space, mural-sized images of the Milky Way shot by Hubble Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope & Chandra X-ray Observatory. 11 W Jones St, Raleigh. 919-733-7450, www.naturalsciences.org.

ORANGE COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM:

Ongoing: Now Showing: At the Movies in Hillsborough, miniexhibit combining a modern audiovisual area with the history of Hillsborough’s 2 movies theaters, the Hollywood & the Osbunn. — Ongoing: Reconstruction in Orange County, photos, artifacts & text on Orange Co in the 1870s. 201 N Churton St, Hillsborough. 919-7322201, www.orangeNChistory.org.

INDYweek.com

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SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCING: Wednesdays, 7:30

performance

giveaways. 2 S West St, Raleigh. 919-832-8855, www.flex-club.com.

Comedy

BLACKJACK BREWING COMPANY: Every third

Wednesday, 7:30-10 p.m.: Blackjack Comedy Night. Free. 1053 E. Whitaker Mill Rd., Raleigh. 919-424-7533.

COMEDYWORX THEATRE:

Fridays, 8 p.m. & Saturdays, 4 & 8 p.m.: ComedyWorx Improv Show, 2 teams of improv comedians earn points by making the audience laugh. $6-12. — Fridays, 10 p.m. & Saturdays, 10 p.m.: The Harry Show, Ages 18+. Improv host leads latenight revelers through potentially risque games, with audience volunteers brought onstage to join in. $10. 431 Peace St, Raleigh. 919829-0822, comedyworx.com.

COMMON GROUND THEATRE: Fri, Jan 29, 8 p.m.:

Third Date Improv. $12. 4815-B Hillsborough Rd, Durham. 919384-7817, www.cgtheatre.com.

DSI COMEDY THEATER:

Fridays, 10 p.m.: Mister Diplomat. Free. — Fridays, 11 p.m.: The Jam. free. — Saturdays, 10 p.m.: Pork, 5 NC comics perform. Free. 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill. 919-3388150, www.dsicomedytheater.com.

DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: Sat, Jan 30, 5

& 8 p.m.: Jeff Foxworthy & Larry The Cable Guy. $52.50. 123 Vivian St. Info 919-688-3722, Tickets 919680-2787, www.dpacnc.com.

FLEX NIGHTCLUB: Thursdays,

midnite: Trailer Park Prize Night, comedy drag show with gag prize

GOODNIGHTS COMEDY CLUB / THE GRILLE AT GOODNIGHTS: Saturdays, 10:30

p.m.: Anything Goes Late Show. free. — Wed, Jan 27, 8 p.m.: Goodnights Comedy Academy Graduation Showcase. $5–$13. — Thu, Jan 28, 8 p.m., Fri, Jan 29, 7:30 & 10 p.m., Sat, Jan 30, 7:30 & 10 p.m. & Sun, Jan 31, 7 p.m.: Gary Owen. $22–$36. 861 W Morgan St, Raleigh. 919-828-5233, www.goodnightscomedy.com.

p.m.; Thru May 4: Glen Eden Park & Community Center, 1500 Glen Eden Dr, Raleigh.

SUNDAY SALSA SOCIAL:

Sundays, 6:30-9:30 p.m.: Every Sunday social featuring mostly Salsa with sides of Bachata, Merengue, Cha Cha, and Kizomba. Lesson at 6:30 for beginners plus sometimes intermediate. DJ Dance at 7. $6. www.dancegumbo.com. Triangle Dance Studio, 2603 S Miami Blvd, Durham.

TRIANGLE COUNTRY DANCERS CONTRA DANCE:

Fri, Jan 29, 7:30 p.m.: caller Jack Mitchell, live music by The Mighty Babylonians. $8–$10. Reality Center, 916 Lamond Ave, Durham. 919-688-7776, www. realityministriesinc.org.

LONDON BRIDGE PUB: Fourth

TRIANGLE SINGLES DANCE CLUB: Fri, Jan 29, 8 p.m.: alcohol-

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL:

PERFORMANCE

Thursdays, 8:30 p.m.: Under the Bridge Comedy Night Showcase. 110 E Hargett St, Raleigh. 919-8335599, thelondonbridgepub.com.

Thu, Jan 28, 8:30 p.m.: Richard Balldenio. $5. 723 Rigsbee Ave, Durham. 919-901-0875, www. motorcomusic.com.

TOOTIE’S: Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.: ComedyMongers Open Mic. $5, free for comedians. 704 Rigsbee Ave, Durham. 984-439-2328.

Dance PA R T I C I PATO RY DURHAM DANCE WAVE:

Mondays, 7:30-9 p.m.: $7. www. durhamdancewave.com. The Murphey School at the Shared Visions Retreat Center, 3717 Murphy School Rd, Durham. 919616-2190, www.sharedvisions.org.

COMEDY | GARY OWEN THURSDAY, JAN. 28–SUNDAY, JAN. 31, RALEIGH GOODNIGHTS COMEDY CLUB—Ever since he became a staple on BET’s stand-up showcase, ComicView, back in the day (he even hosted one season), Gary Owen has been the resident token white guy of the African-American comedy community. Owen has made a successful career out of playing to “urban” crowds, riffing about his trailer-park upbringing and his attraction to many aspects of black culture—particularly the ladies. (This white boy even married a sista!) He’s also done comic roles in hit black movies like the Think Like a Man films and the first Ride Along flick. You’ve got to admire Owen’s desire to get black audiences on his side. Usually, black comics are the ones who have to cross over and make white people laugh in order to get anywhere in the industry. Instead, Owen goes the other way. Hey, you know what they say: Once you go black … 8 p.m. Thurs.; 7:30 and 10 p.m. Fri. and Sat; 11:59 p.m. Sat.; 7 and 9:15 p.m. Sun., $22, 861 W. Morgan St., Raleigh, 919-828-5233, www.goodnightscomedy.com. —Craig D. Lindsey

free dance for 40+ singles. $5–$8. Northbrook Country Club, 4905 North Hills Dr, Raleigh.

CHIPPENDALES: Sun, Jan 31, 8:30 p.m.: $12.50–$59.50. The Ritz, 2820 Industrial Dr, Raleigh. METAL POLE MAYHEM: Sat, Jan 30, 9 p.m.: $20. 919-901-0875, metalpolemayhem@gmail.com, motorcomusic.com/event/metalpole-mayhem-pole-and-aerialshowcase/. Motorco Music Hall, 723 Rigsbee Ave, Durham. 919-9010875, www.motorcomusic.com. INDYPICK SHAPING SOUND: Tue, Feb 2, 8 p.m.:

$22–$60. Memorial Auditorium, 2 E South St, Raleigh. 919-996-8700, dukeenergycenterraleigh.com.

THE SOLOS SHOWCASE:

Fri, Jan 29, 8 p.m.-1 am: $15–$20. numinus@numinusbeats.com, https://www.facebook.com/ events/1718968941673429/. The Vault at The Palace International, 1104 Broad Street, Durham. 919 659 5184.

Diane Von Furstenburg • St. John Lilly Pulitzer • Citizens of Humanity Kate Spade • Coach • Michael Kors 7 for all Mankind • Marc Jacobs Theory • And more... 1000 W. Main St. Durham (919) 806-3434 Now accepting men’s consignment!

2028 Cameron St. Raleigh (919) 803-5414 No appointment necessary • Now accepting seasonal items for consignment

120 Country Club Rd, Chapel Hill. 919-962-7529, playmakersrep.org.

Theater OPENING INDYPICK

BLUE SKY:

Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. and Fri., Feb. 5, 10 p.m. Continues through Feb. 14 $15–$25. CAM Raleigh, 409 W Martin St. 919-261-5920, camraleigh.org.

HOW I SPENT MY SATURDAY: Thu, Jan 28, 7

p.m., Fri, Jan 29, 7 p.m., Sat, Jan 30, 7 p.m. & Sun, Jan 31, 3 p.m.: presented by LAB! Theatre. free. HowISpentMySaturday@gmail. com, https://www.facebook. com/events/454854018046332/. Ackland Art Museum, 101 S Columbia St, Chapel Hill. 919-8431611, www.ackland.org.

INDYPICK THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO: Thru Jan

31: North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre, 7713-51 Leadmine Rd. 919-866-0228, www.nract.org.

NEXT TO NORMAL: Thursdays-

Sundays, 8 p.m.; Thru Jan 31: $10– $12. https://www.facebook.com/ events/1665987293660179/. Duke Campus: Sheafer Lab Theater, Bryan Center, West Campus, Durham. INDYPICK STICK FLY: Thru Jan 31, 8 p.m.: $13–$22. Raleigh Little Theatre, 301 Pogue St. Office 919-821-4579, Tickets 919-8213111, www.raleighlittletheatre.org.

THE LITTLE PRINCE: Jan 28-30: $5–$10. Carrboro High School Theater, 201 Rock Haven Rd.

books Readings & Signings

DAVID FRAUENFELDER:

Sat, Jan 30, 7 p.m.: with The Staff and the Shield. Quail Ridge Books & Music, 3522 Wade Ave, Raleigh. 919-828-1588, www. quailridgebooks.com.

JEREMY TAYLOR: Sun, Jan 31, 4:30 p.m.: with Body by Darwin: How Evolution: Shapes our Health and Transforms Medicine. Regulator Bookshop, 720 Ninth St, Durham. 919-286-2700, www. regulatorbookshop.com. — Mon, Feb 1, 7 p.m.: NC Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W Jones St, Raleigh. 919-733-7450, www. naturalsciences.org.

READING

Literary Related

SUNDAY, JAN. 31, CHAPEL HILL

CITY SOUL CAFE POETRY & SPOKEN WORD OPEN MIC:

Wednesdays, 8-10 p.m.: Poets, vocalists, musicians & lyricists welcome. All performances a cappella or acoustic. $5. www. citysoulcafe.splashthat.com. Smokin Grooves Bar & Grill, 2253 New Hope Church Rd, Raleigh.

SACRIFICIAL POETS TOUCHSTONES OPEN MIC:

INDYPICK

THREE SISTERS:

film Special showings

CHEF’S TABLE: Wed, Jan 27, 7 p.m.: free. Duke Campus: Griffith Theater, Bryan Center, Durham. www.duke.edu. PAN: Thu, Jan 28, 6 p.m.: $5. Halle Cultural Arts Center, 237 N Salem St, Apex. 919-249-1120, www.thehalle.org. VESSEL: Thu, Jan 28, 6:30 p.m.: screening in honor of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Chapel Hill Friends Meeting House, 531 Raleigh Rd. 919-9295377, www.chapelhillfriends.org. THE TIES THAT BIND: Fri, Jan 29, 7 p.m.: documentaryin-progress about a family’s adaptation to the filmmaker’s former brother coming out as transgender. Free. Full Frame Theater, 318 Blackwell Street, Durham. THE TALES OF HOFFMAN: Fri, Jan 29, 8 p.m.: $5–$7. NC Museum of Art, 2110 Blue Ridge

DIPLOMATIE | THURSDAY, JAN. 28, RALEIGH CAMPUS CINEMA AT WITHERSPOON STUDENT CENTER—The 20-year-old Tournées Film Festival, which brings French cinema to American college campuses, is underway in Raleigh, with weekly free and public screenings and discussions on N.C. State’s campus. This Thursday’s installment features Volker Schlöndorff’s acclaimed 2014 historical drama Diplomatie, a character-and-dialogue-driven adaptation of the play of the same title. Transferring the roles they created onstage to the screen, Niels Arestrup is Dietrich von Choltitz, a Nazi officer who has been ordered to bomb Paris; André Dussollier is the Swedish consulgeneral, Raoul Nordling, who is trying to persuade him to defy Hitler. Their historical meeting, previously dramatized in the 1966 film Is Paris Burning?, leaves no question of its outcome. But the suspense remains tightly wound as Schlöndorff exposes the inner clockwork of two men wrestling with moral choices in an obscenely immoral context. After an introduction by Michael Garval at 6:15, the screening begins at 6:45, and the festival continues on Thursdays through Feb. 11 with Timbuktu and Girlhood. 6:15 p.m., free, 2810 Cates Ave. #2810, Raleigh, 919-515-2249, www.ncsu.edu. —Brian Howe

Rd, Raleigh. Info 919-839-6262, tickets 919-715-5923, www. ncartmuseum.org.

Film Capsules

Our rating system uses one to five stars. Signed reviews are by Brian Howe (BH), Laura Jaramillo (LJ), Kathy Justice (KJ), Craig D. Lindsey (CDL), Glenn McDonald (GM), Neil Morris (NM), Zack Smith (ZS) and Ryan Vu (RV).

Opening

KUNG FU PANDA 3—Kung fu panda Po (Jack Black) reunites with his long-lost family in Dreamworks’ third installment about the martial arts master. Rated PG.

THE FINEST HOURS—A Coast Guard crew must rescue two oil tankers near Cape Cod during a 1952 blizzard in this true story. Rated PG-13. JANE GOT A GUN—Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton and Ewan McGregor star in this Wild West adventure about a woman trying to save her husband from a murderous gang of outlaws. Rated R.

Current Releases

 ANOMALISA—Charlie Kaufman’s stop-motion drama, with co-director Duke Johnson, is a bleak satire about consumer capitalism and the solipsism of white men in midlife crises. The protagonist, lonely customer-service motivational speaker Michael Stone (David Thewlis), moves

through a Cincinnati populated by entities that share the same androgynous facial features and passive-aggressive monotones (all voiced by Tom Noonan). Stone seems to be suffering from Fregoli syndrome, the delusion that other people, including his wife, ex-lover and young son, are all the same person in disguise. Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a fan who has come to hear him speak, and he immediately becomes obsessed with her: She doesn’t sound like Tom Noonan! Kaufman takes care to show that Lisa is unattractive, from her uncultured habits to a scar on her face. But for one night (including a graphic sex scene), Stone’s narcissism and Lisa’s self-loathing complement each other, and their mutual seduction achieves an unstable balance between charm and discomfort that the rest of the film only approximates. Next to Kaufman’s

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First Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m.: www. sacrificialpoets.com. Flyleaf Books, 752 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Chapel Hill. 919-942-7373, www. flyleafbooks.com.

TRAVIS MULHAUSER: Wed, Feb 3, 7 p.m.: with novel Sweetgirl. Quail Ridge Books & Music, 3522 Wade Ave, Raleigh. 919-828-1588, www.quailridgebooks.com.

ONGOING Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:30-9 p.m.; Thru Feb 7: $15–$44. 919-9627529, www.playmakersrep.org. UNC Campus: Paul Green Theatre,

INDYweek.com

WILLIAM E. LEUCHTENBURG: THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT FLYLEAF BOOKS—Amid the hue and cry over whether the Affordable Care Act constitutes an abuse of presidential power, William E. Leuchtenburg’s The American President is especially germane to our current political zeitgeist. Beginning with Teddy Roosevelt’s sudden ascent to the presidency following the assassination of William McKinley and his subsequent “bully pulpit” activism, the author traces the evolution of the executive branch with telling anecdotes, character-defining moments and episodes of high drama that marked the tenures of the past century’s 17 chief executives. In doing so, he charts how the White House occupant and the nation itself rose to the peak of world power. Leuchtenburg, a noted presidential scholar and professor of history at UNCChapel Hill, elucidates how the presidency has been altered both by transformational figures like FDR as well as by ineffectual, even maligned, personages like Warren G. Harding, who nevertheless left his stamp on the office through the creation of the Bureau of the Budget. 2 p.m., free, 752 Martin Luther King Blvd., Chapel Hill, 919-942-7373, www.flyleafbooks.com. —David Klein

previous work, this is a minor effort that treads familiar ground. But the material is elevated by its singular execution; stop-motion is rescued from near-obsolescence to capture the surreal horrors of everyday life. Rated R. —RV  1/2 BROOKLYN—John Crowley and Nick Hornby capture the nostalgic melancholy of Colm Tóibín’s novel in this elegiac oldschool melodrama. Saoirse Ronan is Eilis, an Irish girl who goes to work in Brooklyn in the 1950s, thanks to the sponsorship of a U.S.-based priest (Jim Broadbent). Leaving behind a mother and sister she adores, she’s initially homesick, living in an all-female boarding house. That changes when she meets a sweet Italian plumber who falls for her. Things get complicated when she starts seeing a suave Irishman (Domhnall Gleeson), turning the story into an intercontinental torn-between-two-lovers affair. Like many films about immigrants looking for a better life, this one lays out a wondrous and romantic (if oddly minority-free) vision of America’s past. Rated PG-13. —CDL  CAROL—Filmmaker Todd Haynes delves again into forbidden love during a tense, conflicted era. While his 2002 film Far from Heaven was a Douglas

Sirk tribute in ironic quotation marks, Carol is more like a samesex Brief Encounter. And just like that classic love story, the subject matter is handled with genuine, romantic sincerity. Once again tripping back to the beautiful but repressed ’50s, Haynes casts Rooney Mara as a single shopgirl who is drawn to the title character, a high-society dame played by Cate Blanchett. A friendship morphs into a frowned-upon affair as Carol tries to at once court her new love and keep custody of her daughter. Using Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 book, The Price of Salt, as source material, Haynes hammers through the façades of seemingly content people to get to the secrets and lies hidden underneath. He finds an ideal pair of frustrated lovebirds in Blanchett and Mara, who know how to show the confusion inside them through their eyes alone. This is a sophisticated story about two people trying to be together in an environment that’s quietly suffocating them. Rated R. —CDL  CREED—The boxing-film genre reached its narrative limits long ago. But by using conjoined character arcs, the Rocky series’ seventh film ably honors, updates and even deconstructs its legacy. Adonis Johnson (Michael B.

INDYweek.com Jordan), the son of late champ Apollo Creed—Rocky’s respected nemesis—is rescued from a delinquent childhood by Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), Apollo’s widow. Haunted by her husband’s death in the ring, she discourages Adonis’ impulses. But he moves to Philadelphia to coax an aging Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train him. He reluctantly agrees, though his guilt over failing to prevent Apollo’s death is a motivation the film doesn’t sufficiently explicate. Ryan Coogler, who directed Jordan in Fruitvale Station, reclaims the blackness of a franchise once framed through the Great White Hope. Jordan and Stallone, utterly at ease, conjure an alchemy of wit and poignancy. Rated PG-13. —NM  THE DANISH GIRL—Eddie Redmayne (last year’s Oscar winner for best actor) stars as landscape painter Einar Wegener, one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery. Set in 1920s Copenhagen, the tale is inspired by actual events, although director Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) takes liberties to present the story as a tender portrait of a remarkable marriage. Alicia Vikander plays Einar’s wife, Gerda, and her performance is every bit as vulnerable and wrenching as Redmayne’s. As Einar begins his gradual transformation into a woman, the story becomes a psychologically complex love triangle between two people. But Hooper’s overwrought visual strategy keeps the film from really soaring. The style is too composed and conventional for the material. Rated R. —GM  DIRTY GRANDPA—What is easily the worst movie of the year so far finds Zac Efron headlining as uptight law-school graduate Jason Kelly, who’s preparing to wed his even more uptight fiancée (Julianne Hough). Plans are interrupted when Jason agrees to drive his recently widowed grandfather down to Florida. That’s our dirty grandpa, played by Robert De Niro, who clearly does not, in the twilight of his career, give a single fuck. The first scene features the two-time Oscar winner fully nude, masturbating to cableTV porn. Things get more embarrassing for De Niro from there. Director Dan Mazer subscribes to the filthier-equals-funnier theory of comedy, but he has no actual jokes to work with in a script by first-timer John Phillips. De Niro and Efron grapple with a torrent of gross dialogue and sight gags—the comedy equivalent of torture porn. There’s an ugliness that runs deep, beneath the rape “jokes” and the swastika plot

point and the creepy obsession with female anatomical specifics. The story feels like it was thought up by a gang of emotionally stunted sixth graders. Rated R. —GM  THE HATEFUL EIGHT—The best things during the interminable three hours of Quentin Tarantino’s latest are the musical overture by Ennio Morricone and the intermission, when you can flee without bothering the rest of the audience. Set in post-Civil War Wyoming, The Hateful Eight is an ensemble Western revolving around a gaggle of miscreants forced into close quarters en route to the town of Red Rock. In all, 10 people take shelter from a blizzard in a stage stopover. As their furtive motives and backstories are gradually revealed, the plot assumes the guise of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Despite a garrulous script, few sequences are memorable. The final chapters are a nihilistic fever dream; what’s missing is maturity and meaning. Tarantino can still be a captivating, adroit filmmaker, but his narrative predilections have become predictable, and his films are teetering on self-parody. Unless he jettisons his period revenge fantasies and returns to his modern hyper-realities, he will soon feel as dated as his film stock. Rated R. —NM  1/2 THE REVENANT—In Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film, stranded fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) takes overnight shelter in the hollowedout carcass of a horse and then slowly emerges, naked, from the grisly womb. It’s a stark visual metaphor for the theme of rebirth that permeates this epic neoWestern, based on a true story. A revenant is one who returns from the dead, as Glass seemed to after being mauled by a bear during a hunting expedition in 1820s Dakota Territory. The film features the most spectacular battle scene to open a movie since Saving Private Ryan, and the bear attack is a visceral CGI triumph. Glass’ fellow trappers leave him for dead, and the death of his part-Pawnee son further fuels his revenge quest. His antagonist is John Fitzgerald, a bullying backwoodsman played by a mesmerizing Tom Hardy. Iñárritu films many scenes with his tracking-shot technique from Birdman, complemented by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s natural light. Stories abound about the film’s grueling shoot and skyrocketing budget, but the end result is a cinematic tour de force, if not a rebirth. Rated R. —NM

 1/2 SISTERS—Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are Maura and Kate Ellis, terminally immature siblings whose empty-nester parents are selling their childhood home. Poehler sweetly plays the straight woman to Fey’s middleaged lady gone wild. It’s a competent comedy that occasionally hits some very funny notes, though it mostly stays within the triedand-true formula of mainstream American comedy: toilet humor meets family values. Directed by Jason Moore, Sisters mobilizes a cadre of Saturday Night Live talent in bit parts. Unfortunately, none of them are allowed enough screen time to really let their jokes rip. The famed chemistry between Poehler and Fey is best expressed when they’re obviously going off script. The pair has an uncanny gift for physical comedy, but the script seriously hampers Fey’s comedic gifts, stifling her brainy absurdist humor and shoehorning her into the Sarah Silverman-esque territory of dick and pussy jokes. Though female comedians have gained ground in recent years, Sisters highlights how limited “funny” is for women in Hollywood. Rated R. —LJ  STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS—Director J.J. Abrams has delivered a triumph by flouting the usual reboot expectations to make a disco remix of franchise mythology. Three decades after the events of Return of the Jedi, the collapse of the Empire has created a power vacuum. The fascist First Order has stepped in, and Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi, has disappeared. On the desert planet of Jakku we meet Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), a Resistance pilot who finds an ally in the morally conflicted Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega). We also meet the resourceful scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley). Over on the Dark Side, the mysterious Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) evokes Darth Vader. As more characters come into play, it becomes clear that Abrams isn’t creating a new Star Wars so much as retelling the original saga with all the components mixed up. Not everything clicks into place, but it builds to a satisfying crescendo, and the quiet coda is just about perfect. It’s helpful to keep in mind the notion that myths are stories we tell ourselves over and over again, in different guises and different eras. Star Wars is one of the great tales of our modern mythology, and The Force Awakens successfully re-imagines the legend for a new generation. Rated PG-13. —GM

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ART

RALEIGH GRANDE The INDY’s Guide to Dining in the Triangle

MAY 26, 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 • The Finest Hours 50 Shades of Black • Oscar Shorts 2016 Norm of the North • Daddy’s Home The Revenant • Star Wars: The Force Awakens The 5th Wave • Dirty Grandpa • Ride Along 2 13 Hours • The Big Short • The Boy • Anomolisa

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