Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill
6 When the owner of Durham restaurant Plum SouthernKitchen& Bar used a racial slur and fired the Black bartender who called her out forit,staffquit enmasse. BY LENA GELLER
8 A Wake County judge blocked the construction of a luxury townhome development in the Hayes Barton neighborhood—for now. BY CHLOE
COURTNEY BOHL
10 Introduction. BY JANE PORTER
11 Triangle animal shelters are scrambling to get animals adoptedduring a country-wideoverflowcrisis. BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI AND MILA MASCENIK
15 An interview with Sherry Samuels, senior director of care at the Museum of Life and Science, about the new red wolf pups. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
17 A local company serves as an "amber alert" for lost pets. BY SARAH EDWARDS
18 On being roomates with a dog for more than a decade. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
19 For retiree Helen Greenberg, rescuing raptors in distress is just another day on the job. BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL
21 A roundup of area cat cafes to sip and pet. BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI
22 Meet the INDY staff's pets. BY INDY STAFF
CULTURE
24 Yearsafter The Love Language,StuartMcLambcuts his teeth on an ambitious new project with CharlesCrossingham. BY NICK MCGREGOR
25 Album review: American Aquarium's The Fear of Standing Still. BY JORDAN LAWRENCE
26 Twisters is short on plot but long on big-budget thrills. BY GLENN MCDONALD
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Corrections: El Futuro will receive $464,000 per year from Alliance Health for its Mentes Fuertes program. Also, Alliance originally provided $218,000 to start Mentes Fuertes, and the program began last year.
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All pets featured on the cover are available for adoption from Independent Animal Rescue at 3321 Guess Rd, Durham, (919) 403-2221, and animalrescue.net
Mia
1 year old • Female ID# IAR-A-11078
Beauty
3 years old • Female ID# IAR-A-10861
Sheldon Cooper
8 months old • Male ID# IAR-A-10887
Mac and Cheese
1 year old • Female ID# IAR-A-10912
Anakin
2 years old • Male ID# IAR-A-10215
Pepper Spice Boy
9 years old • Male ID# IAR-A-9483
Dean
4 years old • Male ID# IAR-A-10994
Molly
3 years old • Female ID# IAR-A-10878
Fancy Gap’s Stuart McLamb and Charles Crossingham (see story on page 24).
PHOTO BY JORDAN BRANNOCK
Cy Neff, Sam Overton, Shelbi Polk, Byron Woods, Barry Yeoman
For our paper two weeks ago, INDY summer intern Mila Mascenik wrote about Mariela Hernandez, a housing manager for Orange County, and her family’s journey out of food insecurity. We received the following letter from LINDA LEIKIN, the director of PORCH, a Triangle nonprofit featured in the story:
We were moved by Mariela Hernandez’s story … and especially proud to be part of the PORCH Communities umbrella that helps ensure local families have access to nutritious, fresh food. Twenty PORCH chapters across North Carolina, and more across 10 other states, are meeting the needs of food-insecure families whose income leaves them vulnerable to hunger. Many of those families make “too much” money to qualify for government assistance but cannot stock their pantry or fridge due to rising grocery, housing, and utility costs.
We hear this story daily in northern Orange County, where PORCH Hillsborough runs monthly free public food distributions, stocks school and town pantries, and partners with local growers to move produce directly from farms to family tables. In the Indy’s backyard, PORCH Durham is running similarly innovative programs. We encourage readers to visit https://porchcommunities.org/ to find their local chapter, whether you are a head of household in need of assistance or a caring community member looking for a nonprofit to support with your money or time. Chapel Hill is where PORCH began, but under the leadership of one of its founders, Christine Cotton, new chapters are being created every day to fight food insecurity wherever it exists.
For the web, writer Justin Laidlaw took a look back at Beyu Caffé’s
tenure in downtown Durham after it announced it shuttered its Main Street location. While the pandemic loss of foot traffic and the expense of parking was certainly a factor, some readers feel that the food and service Beyu was known for had slipped in recent years.
From reader TOMMY ROBERSON:
I liked the piece about Beyu’s history and closure, but I thought it would serve readers well to also mention the decline in service and quality especially at the downtown location. Personally my family stopped coming for breakfast there after multiple poor experiences with various aspects of the operation. …
It seems convenient the owners would blame parking and shifting dynamics when there was a clear decline in the quality of food and service.
And from reader KEN KINGERY:
IMHO, downtown Beyu Cafe’s overall business model suffered from its evening offerings of bad food and bad service from the handful of times I visited it. The same can be said for Glori ($8 for a small bag of popcorn in a windowless basement? Come on.) Fullsteam’s beer has been inconsistent and borderline bad for years. I don’t know that it has anything to do with how the city is treating downtown businesses. It seems as though places putting out a good product with good service are doing just fine.
15 MINUTES
Anna Wilcox
Anna Wilcox, events and communications manager for the Animal Protection Society of Durham, on Dog Days at the Library
BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI backtalk@indyweek.com
Could you tell me a little bit about what a Dog Day at the Library looks like?
We partnered with Durham County Library a few months ago to get some exposure with us at the library. It’s open to the public, and we bring about anywhere from two to three dogs and we encourage people to hang out with the dogs, interact if they’re comfortable. And then we do some type of story time, whether [with] children, or [if] participants want to read directly to the dogs, or we’ll have a volunteer that will read aloud just to the group. It’s pretty flexible, but it’s been great exposure for us and the wonderful libraries that we have here in Durham.
I read that the Durham APS has had this event in the past. How has it gone before?
Yeah, it’s gone really well. Our first event, we had over 100 people stop by and say hello and see what it was like. We’ll have people stick around or just come pet the dogs and see what’s going on, but it’s
been pretty successful. We’re trying to be creative about beating the heat and making it accessible.
How did you all come up with the event?
I believe the library reached out to us and said, “We’d love to implement some type of adoption event.” And so we’re not actually able to do off-site adoptions, but we do what we like to call “meet and greet” or “out and about.” Our contact [at the library] had the idea, and we started brainstorming from there, and came up with Dog Days at the Library. It was a pretty simple idea that has turned into something really wonderful.
What can visitors expect to see at the event?
Adoptable dogs. Lots of fun. Quiet exposure to shelter animals. It’s a very different environment than it is here at the shelter. Dogs have been more relaxed and eager to maybe be out and about versus in a kennel environment.
It’s more than just a chance to pet and play with the dogs, but also to learn about adoption awareness and the process. What do you hope visitors will learn at the event?
This goes for all of our events, but we hope that there’s a lot of exposure to our shelter. We are the only animal shelter in Durham County and an open admission shelter. We’re here for all people and their pets. We hope we can spread awareness about what an adoption looks like, what shelter animals look like. They don’t all just look like your stereotypical dog. You can find all different types of breeds and personalities and sizes, and we’re also doing some education about what we do out in the community. We do community spay and neuter, and we have a pet pantry for our community as well. It’s making sure that we have visibility outside of our shelter, and showing people that we’re it for Durham, and that they can come to us if they have any needs that are pet related. W
PHOTOS BY CATHI BODINE
N E W S
Restaurant Fallout
When the owner of upscale Durham restaurant Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar used a racial slur and fired the Black bartender who called her out for it, staff quit en masse.
BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com
Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar has been closed since the beginning of July.
A social media post attributes the closure to a standard summer break. But former employees of the upscale Durham restaurant tell a different story.
According to eight former Plum employees, all of whom worked there until a few weeks ago, Plum owner Lisa Callaghan, who is white, used the N-word multiple times in May. The former employees say the restaurant was closed at the time and that they were playing the song “Euphoria” by Kendrick Lamar while preparing for dinner service; Callaghan then appeared upset and expressed discomfort with the song’s use of the N-word and in the course of doing so used the word herself.
The employees—most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity—say that later, in June, Callaghan fired a Black bartender who had criticized her usage of the slur. When reached for comment, Callaghan confirmed that she used the slur and described the song lyrics as “explicitly offensive.” She did not respond to inquiries about the termination of the Black employee.
“I reiterated the offensive lyrics in explaining the discomfort or offense the words could cause others in our space,”
Callaghan wrote to the INDY in an email.
“I believe it was a mistake to repeat the words, regardless of my intent. I am profoundly sorry that this caused injury or distress to the employees to whom I spoke.”
When the INDY reached out to the bartender, the bartender confirmed that she was fired six weeks after the incident. Cal-
former bartender, who asked the INDY not to use her name due to concerns around being thwarted from future employment opportunities. “And then she says, ‘But I also hope that this check, as a sign of good faith, will be enough for you to speak positively about your time here.’”
Callaghan also fired Plum’s executive
“I was afraid that it would happen to me next or that I would be fired for standing up for myself.”
laghan, she says, told her “you are part of this chapter that I need to close.” She says Callaghan fired her at the end of a shift on June 24, waiting until everyone else had clocked out and then handing her an envelope with $700 in it.
“She goes, ‘This is severance,’” says the
chef, Trent Shank, over email when he refused to back her up amid the fallout from the incident, according to former employees.
Shank confirmed to the INDY that Callaghan fired him but declined to go into detail about the grounds for his termina-
tion due to concerns about legal retaliation.
An email obtained by the INDY that Callaghan sent to staff on June 27 alludes, at least in part, to the series of events former employees described.
“This has been a very difficult period for all of us at Plum,” Callaghan wrote. “My mistake, using a word that deeply offended, has grown tentacles that have stolen the camaraderie that we always had. I deeply regret my mistake.”
Callaghan went on to inform staff that Shank would be leaving the restaurant. She also wrote that Plum would be shutting down temporarily and that, when the restaurant reopened, things would look a bit different.
In the past, the restaurant’s menu has featured items like hush puppies, shrimp and grits, and cheddar drop biscuits.
“Going forward we will be ‘Plum’, leaving out the ‘Southern Kitchen & Bar,’” wrote Callaghan. “We will still honor our Southern food traditions, our farmers and producers, but we will be freer to explore.”
“I am sorry that I am late making this decision, but hope you welcome the time off,” Callaghan wrote.
In the wake of the email, the majority of Plum staff—including the chef de cuisine, the sous chef, the pastry chef, and more
The exterior of Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar in Durham PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
than a dozen servers, bartenders, hosts, line cooks, and dishwashers—have resigned. Only one manager remains on staff.
Plum announced on social media on June 28 that the restaurant would be closed July 2 through July 10 for a holiday break. The restaurant remains closed as of July 22.
“Diversity and inclusivity are core values that I hold and have held throughout my personal and professional life and are priorities in opening my restaurant and staffing my business,” Callaghan wrote in her statement to the INDY. “My intention is to provide a safe and inclusive environment for my employees and guests.”
“Following the unfortunate manner in which I communicated my discomfort with the music, I apologized sincerely, held team meetings, took time away from the restaurant to give the team space to work without my presence, and have been open with my new staff about what transpired,” Callaghan continued. “I take full responsibility for my words, my response, and my continued commitment to a safe and inclusive space for all who walk through our doors.”
ACharlotte native who spent decades working for a luxury stainless steel cookware company in New York City, Callaghan moved from Brooklyn to Durham in 2017. She opened Plum three years later.
Callaghan views her restaurant as “a mash-up of my dreams and desires from a life of eating in restaurants,” per a biographical statement that was removed from Plum’s website recently.
Restaurants run in the family. Callaghan’s brother, Kevin Callaghan, has owned Carrboro’s Acme Food & Beverage Co., also an upscale restaurant serving Southern fare, since 1998. His tenure at the Carrboro restaurant has also had turbulence: As the INDY reported, in 2022, nearly the entire Acme staff went on a months-long strike following allegations of sexual assault brought against Callaghan. The strike ended three months in, when demands were not met, and striking staff uniformly quit.
Callaghan brought Shank, the executive chef, on board at the very beginning. He helped to build Plum’s management team, including recruiting his wife, Emma Shank, to be pastry chef (and later, the events manager) and his friend Nick Grady to be chef de cuisine, per more blurbs that have been scrubbed from the site. The three attended culinary school together.
Former employees say the Shanks played a vital role in building Plum’s reputation as a destination for exceptional Southern food and a hot spot for baby showers, wedding receptions, and other events.
Former employees also give the Shanks credit for cultivating Plum’s day-to-day work environment, which they describe as phenomenal. Every former employee who spoke with the INDY, including several who have spent a decade or more in the restaurant industry, said that prior to the racial incident, Plum was the best place they had ever worked.
“All of the staff got along really, really well,” says the former bartender. “I’ve always felt othered in service industry jobs. Plum, at least at first, felt like a really safe and comfortable space for me to be in.”
Callaghan was in the restaurant almost every day, and for the most part, they got along with her.
“There was never, like, racial tension,” says the former bartender.
The incident in May came as a shock.
It was the week of the Kendrick-Drake beef. Kendrick had just released the song “Euphoria” and employees were listening to it as they prepped for dinner service.
Upon hearing the song, employees say, Callaghan appeared upset. “I am so sick of hearing n—r this, n—r that, n—r, n—r, n—r,” she said, according to multiple employees present during the shift.
The former bartender said she switched off the music and the restaurant fell silent. A server asked Callaghan if she’d just said the N-word, to which Callaghan replied, “Yes, I did; that’s what they said [in the song],” according to several employees. (Ironically, one of the best-known bars of “Euphoria,” a song in which Kendrick blasts Drake for co-opting Black American culture, is “I even hate when you say the word n—a.”)
The bartender told the INDY that she told Callaghan that it wasn’t OK for her to use that word but that they could “unpack this later,” because the restaurant was about to open.
Several minutes before opening, though, Callaghan started pestering her with questions about why she couldn’t say the slur, even repeating it at one point. She said that Callaghan confronted her behind the
bar, making it impossible for her to exit the conversation, which made her especially uncomfortable.
The bartender said Callaghan asked why it was “only OK if one of you says it?’”
“When you say ‘one of you,’ do you mean n—rs?’” the bartender responded. “And she said, ‘Well, yes, I guess so.’
“At that point, I was just like, ‘Listen, I think that it is a good idea for you to not speak to me at all right now.’”
The bartender asked Trent Shank how to proceed. Together with the rest of the employees on the shift, the two of them decided that they should ask Callaghan to take some time away from the restaurant, an account Shank and others confirmed.
“My reality is that I need income,” the bartender says. “It’s not really a fair compromise, because I still have to be in the space where I got traumatized, but if I don’t have to be around her, that makes things a little better.”
Callaghan told staff that she understood and agreed to take two weeks away from the restaurant.
When Callaghan returned two weeks later, things remained tense, the former employees say. One describes the change in the workplace dynamic as a “polar shift.” The former bartender describes experiencing microaggressions from Callaghan, like moving her belongings and nitpicking about her work.
“She went out of her way to ‘other me’ to a point where other people noticed,” she says. “It was just a hellish month.”
The only other Black person employed at Plum at the time, a host who also asked to remain anonymous because of fears that it will affect his future employment, says he also felt like Callaghan singled him out when she returned. She would approach him at the host stand and frequently bring up the racial incident, he says.
Nonetheless, all the former staffers say that they were hopeful that things could be smoothed over.
But a few weeks later, it became clear the situation had become untenable. On June 24, Emma Shank gave Callaghan notice that she was resigning.
“I no longer felt comfortable as an employee in that building and working for
her,” she tells the INDY
She informed Callaghan that she was willing to stay on for another week or so to help with the transition, but Callaghan told her that that wouldn’t be necessary. Later that night, Callaghan fired the bartender, and shortly after, Trent Shank.
Numerous staff members say they were outraged both about the initial racial incident and the firings and felt that they did not want to work at Plum without the Shanks’ leadership. Most employees wanted to leave immediately, but Trent Shank encouraged them to stay a few more days to work an event, because he didn’t want the people who booked the event to be left out to dry. Staff obliged, and he worked the event for free.
Then, after the event, just about everyone left, former employees say. The host says that Callaghan offered him $1,000 to stay through the transition. He declined.
“The inner turmoil that I have had over the last weeks has caused me to have stress and to have anxiety about coming to work and while at work,” he wrote in a resignation email obtained by the INDY to Callaghan dated July 1. “I was afraid that it would happen to me next or that I would be fired for standing up for myself. I chose to not talk about it because I live in this skin.”
Two other employees also told the INDY that Callaghan offered them money to stay and that they declined.
In conversations with the INDY, multiple former employees use the word “heartbroken” to describe how they feel about leaving Plum and say they wish Callaghan had taken the situation as an opportunity for growth.
Trent Shank declined to comment on the record but provided a statement that he requested be published in full: “I started this restaurant with one goal that I believed in: creating a restaurant where our team feels safe and confident. I had other dreams and aspirations but I knew that if we could create the right culture, we would be able to provide the best hospitality and ‘taste the love’ in the cooking.
“Our team had created something that you don’t see often and people could tell that Plum was different and I am proud of that. My deepest sympathy goes out to my Plum family, both team members and our regulars that were part of our community. I thank you, appreciate you, and love you all.” W
Narrow Ruling
A Wake County judge blocked the construction of a luxury townhome development in the Hayes Barton neighborhood—for now.
BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL chloe@indyweek.com
In the latest development in an ongoing lawsuit against a local developer and the City of Raleigh, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of six homeowners in the Hayes Barton neighborhood.
Last August, the city’s board of adjustment (BOA) voted to allow a local developer, 908 Williamson LLC, to build 17 townhomes on a 2.4-acre lot at 908 Williamson Drive in Hayes Barton. But earlier this month, Wake County Superior Court judge Bryan Collins issued a memo that suggests that Collins is primed to reverse the BOA’s decision and stop the development in its tracks—for now.
The project has become a flash point in the debate surrounding Raleigh’s missing middle housing program, and the program’s critics are celebrating this ruling as a win. But the developers see the judge’s decision as a setback, not a death blow.
Collins found that the BOA had failed to apply a section of the city’s Unified Development Ordinance when it reviewed 908 Williamson LLC’s plans for the townhome development. The code requires that any compact subdivision be surrounded by a 20-to-35-foot-deep “transitional protective yard” or by wide “perimeter lots.” Since the developer didn’t meet those specifications, Collins indicated in his memo that he would revoke the approval of its site plans.
In his memo, Collins writes that the townhome site plan meets “all the requirements for a compact development … with the exception of the requirement for a transitional protective yard.”
Johnny Chappell, a member of the development team, told the INDY that the team will adjust its plans according to the ruling and move forward with the development.
“We feel pretty good that the ruling was so narrow,” Chappell says. “It gives us specific feedback about the one issue the judge had with our development so that we can address that issue.”
The attorney for the Hayes Barton homeowners, Frank Gordon, told the INDY in a statement that the ruling was “favorable” for his clients.
The ruling isn’t set in stone until Collins issues a final order, which is expected later this month or in early August.
The dispute over the Williamson Drive property is part of a wider debate about Raleigh’s “missing middle” zoning rules, which the city council adopted in 2021 to encourage the development of higher-density residences such as townhomes, duplexes, and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in neighborhoods previously filled mostly with single-family homes.
At a city council meeting in June, Raleigh planning and development director Pat Young reported that the city’s missing middle housing program has led to the construction of more than 2,800 units of housing since 2021— including about 2,400 new town houses, 180 duplexes, and about 150 ADUs. Of those units, 203 are considered affordable.
Part of Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin’s pitch for the program was that it would create more affordable housing options, but some opponents of the policy have pointed out that a more varied housing stock doesn’t guarantee greater affordability. The Hayes Barton townhomes, for instance, would sell for $2 million apiece. On the other hand, proponents of the development note that it would create 17 units of housing where there was previously only one, combating urban sprawl.
In 2023, a group of Hayes Barton residents sued the city and the developer, insisting that Raleigh’s missing middle zoning was illegal—which would make the planned townhome development in their neighborhood illegal, too. Their lawsuit claims that the zoning changes should have been enacted as zoning map amendments, which involve a lengthy approval process with neighborhood meetings, instead of text changes, which require much less public engagement to be passed. The City of Raleigh’s attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
In April, a superior court judge ordered the homeowners to pay $28,000 in legal fees to Chappell and his partners, as, the judge found, they had no role in creating the city’s missing middle policy.
Judge Collins’s recent memo only addresses the specific case of 908 Williamson Drive and does not address the underlying debate about the legality of missing middle zoning. That lawsuit is still pending. W
ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE
In a world that seems divided, there’s one thing that brings us together: the love that we have for our pets.
After a long hiatus, this year, this month, this week feels serendipitously perfect for
After a long hiatus, this year, this month, this week feels serendipitously perfect for us to bring back our special INDY Pets Issue. Couldn’t we all use a little flu y unity and some waggly-tailed good feelings in these trying times?
INDY reporter Justin Laidlaw’s reflection on co-parenting his dog, Ghengis, with his roommate, Tom, hits those notes to a tee. They’ve been a cohabitating trio for a decade—through three presidencies, a global pandemic, moving house and medical procedures, and changes in careers and romantic relationships. Read "Two and a Half Men" (p. 18) if you want to smile hard.
For more local folks making good in the animal space, check out Sarah Edwards’s write-up on PawBoost, the popular app dedicated to tracking down lost pets (p. 17). And read reporter Chloe Courtney Bohl’s profile of Helen Greenberg, the Raleigh woman who’s devoted her life to rescuing raptors (p. 19).
We’ve also got a couple of Q&As for you: on red wolves at the Museum of Life and Science (p. 15) and Dog Days at the Durham Library (p. 4).
Of course, pet ownership and our love for our furry (or feathered) friends can be as fraught as any other relationship; life is tough in the animal kingdom, too, and we haven’t shied away from the hard stories.
Did you know that animal shelters across the Triangle, and the country, are seriously overburdened? Post-pandemic, the cost of veterinary care has soared and the housing shortage has made it easier for landlords to discriminate against pet owners, particularly those who own large-breed dogs. Read about why there’s an overcrowding epidemic and what you can do to help (p. 11) by INDY summer interns Matthew Junkroski and Mila Mascenik.
Any pet paper worth its kibble wouldn’t be complete without pics. Yep, there are some adorable, adoptable dogs, cats, and even rabbits featured in photos inside these pages, all just waiting for you to take them home (p. 14). Or check out our gallery of sta pets (p. 22)—very good boys and girls, all.
demic, the cost of veterinary care has soared and the housing shortage has made it easier for landlords to discrimcheck out our gallery of sta pets (p. 22)—very good boys and girls, all.
We hope you enjoy this paper, and we hope it brings you joy and teaches you something new.
Remember, when times seem dark, you can always hug a dog, pet a cat, or support the humans who care for animals awaiting their forever homes. Or simply do like our INDY sta and post your pet pics to the o ce Slack channel to brighten everyone’s day. And brighten it will—the power of pets is real.
— Jane Porter, Editor-in-chief
Clockwise from top left: Mia (see page 2 for adoption info and photo credit), Bunny, Blaze, Bruno (see page 2 for adoption info and photo credit), Daisy.
PETS ISSUE
Overcrowding Epidemic
Between declining adoption rates, longer stays, and crowded conditions, Triangle animal shelters are scrambling to get animals adopted during a countrywide overflow crisis.
BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI AND MILA MASCENIK backtalk@indyweek.com
Walking into the Wake County Animal Center, visitors hear dozens of dogs barking and see countless pairs of eyes staring at them. Many kennels fill each room, and concrete walls amplify the sound to a cacophony as every dog clamors for attention.
It’s overwhelming, but shelters have no other choice but to keep dogs in these conditions to keep them alive.
In one of Wake County Animal Center’s dog rooms, which currently holds 12 dogs, community outreach coordinator Meagan Frost gestures to a kennel holding a brown dog. She says the room is meant to hold only six dogs, but by splitting the kennels in two, they could keep more on the adoption floor.
“If it comes down to euthanizing an adoptable animal to make space or packing them in like little sardines, we’re going to pack them in like little sardines,” Frost says.
Last month, the Wake County Animal Center reported it was over capacity, to the point it may have to euthanize adoptable animals for the first time in eight years. It’s not the first time the shelter reported getting dangerously close to this point. In January, February, and April, the shelter published press releases emphasizing the urgency of adoptions.
And it’s not the only shelter in the Triangle, or the state, or the country, currently facing this problem.
In 2023 alone, the United States’ shelter population boomed by nearly a quarter million. It might be easy to assume this boom in shelter population is a result of the pandemic, when one in five American households chose to adopt a pet, according to the ASPCA. However, both the ASPCA and Frost say otherwise.
“A lot of what we’re seeing is inability to afford care, and the ability to afford even basic care, especially medical care and emergency type situations,” Frost says.
The New York Times reported vet bills have skyrocketed over 60 percent over the last decade, faster than the United States’ inflation rate.
Anthony Blikslager, associate dean of veterinary medical services and professor of equine surgery at NC State University’s Veterinary College, says this isn’t a choice but a necessity to match rising medical equipment prices, postpandemic staff shortages, and wages to accommodate rising costs of living.
“Every time I take a price increase to our hospital board, it’s a long discussion, because nobody wants to do it,” Blikslager says. “Nobody wants to place a barrier on medical care.”
Couple the increasing cost of care with the expense of living in the Triangle, where living wages are over $10 higher than North Carolina’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and it’s easy to see the financial barrier to pet ownership.
Alongside cost of care, Frost says the housing market is another culprit of dropping adoption rates, especially for large dogs.
“Landlords have realized that they can [decide to] not take animals anymore,” Frost says. “They can have breed and size bans, or have it be so expensive that it’s worth it for the landlord to accept a pet because you’re gonna be paying a $500 nonrefundable pet deposit, then you’re gonna be paying another $50 a month per pet just to have your pet.”
Frost says the housing crisis has worsened to the point that, in order to keep their pets, some owners lose their housing.
“People are staying in dangerous situations longer or are ending up in dangerous situations because there is no safety net for pets in Wake County,” Frost says. “You have to give up your pet. Right now there is no shelter for people that are unhoused where they can bring their pets.”
As a result, animals are staying in animal shelters longer, especially the large dogs landlords often ban. These “breed bans”
often target dogs commonly found in shelters, such as pit bulls, which comprise less than 6 percent of the U.S. dog population but an estimated 70 percent of dogs in U.S. shelters.
Frost says that dogs are staying four days longer on average. Considering that the shelter takes in 3,000 to 4,000 dogs a year, four additional days is far from ideal. Last year, the center, per day on average, took in 22 animals but only adopted out nine, a statistic that remains true in 2024. Combined with a longer stay, it’s clear where the population bottleneck comes from.
In June 2023, Orange County Animal Services in Chapel Hill announced on its Facebook page that it had reached full capacity for housing dogs. Although the shelter has not reached full capacity yet this year, it is about five to 10 dogs away from it, says Tenille Fox, communications specialist at the shelter.
Similar to Wake County’s Animal Center, the shelter has experienced a discrepancy in the number of people adopting dogs, specifically larger breeds, compared to the number of people adopting cats. In 2022, while 61.6 percent of dogs were adopted, 85.1 percent of cats were, discounting trap, neuter, and release programs.
There are 64 dogs in the shelter’s care as
Samantha, a domestic shorthair, at the Wake County Animal Center PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
of July 11, with a few in foster homes. Fox says the shelter is on high alert anytime the number of animals grows close to 60. However, assessing the shelter’s capacity goes beyond a number—the type of animal and the care they require are also important factors considered, Fox says.
“If we have a lot of dogs that are having a lot of medical issues and need extra care and extra medical attention as opposed to just routine care and routine medical, then that obviously is a bigger strain on resources but also on staffing,” she says.
Frost says the overcrowding doesn’t strain only physical resources but the staff themselves, whose numbers remain the same despite the increase in pets and the demanding nature of their jobs.
“[Animals] sometimes want to bite us, they’re afraid of us, they don’t want to do what we’re asking them to do,” Frost says. “It can be very emotional, mental and physical. Imagine every single day you’re coming in you have to clean every single one of those kennels before we open up here at seven. All those kennels have to be done, and you have to take your lunch and be back by noon when the adoption floor opens, because then you have to help all the visitors.”
Between stressed staff, crowded animals, and factors outside of anyone’s control, lessening the pressure on shelters
might seem like an impossible task. But shelters are taking steps to work toward emptying their kennels.
Wake County leaders recently approved seven new staff positions for the Wake County Animal Center. A new facility, currently under construction, will eventually provide more room compared to the shelter’s current 28-year-old building, though both of these solutions will take time.
The Wake County Animal Center is addressing its immediate needs through adoption specials. The decision to drop adoption fees to $0 from June 28 to July 7 helped alleviate some pressure on the shelter, but after the end of the promotion period, the overflow returned. As a result, the shelter extended the promotion with the goal of avoiding euthanizing for space.
To avoid reaching full capacity for dogs again, Orange County Animal Services is taking several steps, including ramping up its foster dog program, which Fox says has helped significantly reduce overcrowding in the shelter. For the first time, the shelter is partnering with the BISSELL Pet Foundation’s “Summer National Empty the Shelters” adoption event. The shelter will offer a reduced adoption fee of $50 for most dogs and cats throughout July.
From August 10 to September 10, the shelter will participate in another nationwide adoption initiative from NBCUni-
“People are staying in dangerous situations longer or are ending up in dangerous situations because there is no safety net for pets.”
versal Local in its 10th year, “Clear the Shelters,” and will reduce adoption fees. Fox says adoption specials often bring an uptick in adoptions at the shelter. Orange County Animal Services’ rescue partners, including Animal Rescue in Durham and Cat Tales Rescue NC in Chapel Hill, are also helping with its capacity issues by taking animals for their programs, which is especially helpful for those who have medical or behavioral needs, Fox says. This month, the shelter received a $20,000 grant from the nonprofit Petco Love, one of its partners. In addition to helping with spay and neuter programs, the award will support shelter initiatives that avoid pet overpopulation. Community members play an inte -
gral role in ensuring shelters don’t reach full capacity. Fox emphasized the importance of adoption, but she says the shelter appreciates any community involvement, such as volunteering or fostering an animal.
Volunteering is an essential part of keeping the shelter healthy. Whether it be through lessening the pressure on staff or simply helping to socialize dogs, volunteers provide a much-needed service.
In 2022, volunteers at the Wake County Animal Center worked 11,726 hours, a number adding up to nearly six additional full-time employees. The shelter recently hired a second volunteering coordinator to bolster the shelter’s already robust volunteering program. Even with this support,
Reggie, a Holland Lop mix, at the Wake County Animal Center PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
Noah, a hound mix, at the Wake County Animal Center PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
however, Frost says more volunteers are always needed.
Meanwhile, fostering is also integral to keeping animals healthy. Foster homes, Fox says, help with socialization and minimizing the spread of disease in the shelter.
In 2022, of the 8,298 animals the Wake County Animal Center took in, 1,118 were placed into foster programs, or 13.5 percent of the shelter’s overall intake. Frost says the Wake County Animal Center’s hiring of a second foster coordinator will expand their foster program, potentially increasing the number of animals it can support.
For those who can’t foster or volunteer, there are other ways to help shelters.
Frost says one of the best ways to help shelters is to keep pets out of them, whether through microchipping, rehoming pets yourself, or helping others keep their animals. The idea of helping people keep their pets has become a priority in the rescue community over the last decade, according to Frost, where crowded shelters have resulted in an uptick of pet retention programs intended to help people keep their pets during hardship.
Additionally, pet owners can look into pet insurance to assist with medical costs. In 2024, Forbes reported that only about 4 percent of dogs and 1 percent of cats in the United States have insurance. Shelly Vaden, associate veterinary medical officer and professor of nephrology and urology at NCSU’s Veterinary College, says the difference in stress between an insured pet owner and an uninsured one is massive.
“When the clients come in that have their pets insured, all of a sudden that [financial burden] is not present,” Vaden says. “So they’re able to focus on what their pet needs and really look through the options that we’re talking about … rather than having that financial burden be the issue that is making their decisions for them.”
Donations also help shelters. Pet food, cages, and litter all benefit the shelter and its rescue partners. Frost says food for volunteers and staff is also helpful, since public dollars the shelter receives can’t be used for staff members’ food.
Frost says that right now shelters are doing everything they can on their own, but the Triangle community is the heart of pet rescues.
“We are constantly trying to save lives, but we can’t do it alone, and our rescue partners can’t do it alone,” Frost says. “If people have the bandwidth to help, we definitely need it.” W
PETS ISSUE
Triangle Shelter Underdogs
Somehow, despite their big doggy smiles and sweet demeanors, these dogs have gone overlooked in the shelters for quite some time. For some of these dogs, bias against “bully breeds,” such as mastiffs, Staffordshire terriers, and pit bulls, stunts their likelihood of getting adopted. Others may not have been a perfect match for a previous adopter, or they’ve simply had bad luck. Regardless, these dogs are definitely diamonds in the ruff. Will you become their future family?
PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTIONS COURTESY OF WAKE COUNTY ANIMAL CENTER AND ORANGE COUNTY ANIMAL SERVICES
Deuce
Deuce, a sweet and curious pit bull terrier mix, has been at Orange County Animal Services since February 17. At two years old, he enjoys spending time outside and is eager to learn new things. He also loves treats and any chew toy he can get his paws on. Deuce would do best in a home with no small children or with older children who understand his boundaries. When he is off a leash outdoors, he needs a secure enclosure to ensure he does not escape. While Deuce has interacted well with other dogs away from the shelter, Orange County Animal Services recommends gradual, monitored introductions to any other pets in the home. Deuce is a loving boy ready to find his forever home.
Little Mama is a sweet Staffordshire terrier who has been a resident of the Wake County Animal Center since February 14. The shelter is a bit scary for her, but when she’s outside, she transforms into a sweet, calm girl who wants nothing more than to stop and smell the flowers. Little Mama is a very intelligent, treat-motivated dog who looks forward to learning all the new things you want to teach her! She is not the biggest fan of other dogs, so the Wake County Animal Center suggests slow introductions if your household already has a dog. Little Mama is heartworm positive but isn’t contagious, and a $400 sponsorship helps cover the cost of her treatment. She may be named “Little Mama,” but she looks forward to giving you big snuggles!
Yasmine
Yasmine is a born-and-bred North Carolinian, all the way down to her breed! The Plott hound is North Carolina’s state dog and was initially established in North Carolina to hunt bears. But you won’t find Yasmine chasing bears in her free time. Instead, this active girl has taken to dock diving, a sport where dogs are judged on the distance they jump from a dock. She is very energetic, so she tends to pull on leashes and can get a little overexcited about taking treats. Still, she is a very well-trained dog who loves fetch, is crate- and house-trained, and can even do a few tricks! She doesn’t get along well with cats, so a home without one would be best for her. If you’re looking for high-octane fun, this girl is for you!
When Noah’s family recently moved, they had no choice but to surrender him. Despite this, he remains full of life and love. Noah is a sweet, calm, eight-yearsyoung hound mix. He doesn’t pull on a leash, he takes treats gently, and his previous owners reported he loves kids of all ages. Noah has a lot of love to give and happily gives even new acquaintances kisses. He loves lounging in the sun and cuddling with his owners. Noah is crate-trained, house-trained, and happy to peacefully coexist with other dogs. The Wake County Animal Center recommends slow introductions with dogs and cats, just in case. This older boy hopes to find a permanent home who can lavish him with the cuddles and love he deserves. Who can resist this sweet old boy’s smile?
When ZigZag arrived at Orange County Animal Services on March 12, he had an injury to his tail that gave it a zigzag shape—hence this name! Since then, the injury has healed well, and at two years old, ZigZag enjoys going for walks and field trips away from the shelter. In the past, he was timid at times when meeting new people but has become more outgoing and loves affection. ZigZag is calm around people and often ignores other dogs. His family will need to be attentive and patient as he adjusts to a new environment, but they are sure to fall in love with ZigZag’s playful personality.
ZigZag
Little Mama Noah
Precious Cargo
The red wolf is one of the world’s most endangered species. For over three decades, Durham’s Museum of Life and Science has been one of its santuaries.
BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com
For over 30 years, the Museum of Life and Science has been a sanctuary for one of the world’s most endangered animals: the red wolf. A native Tar Heel, the red wolf has seen its population severely drop due to hunting and land development. From 1987 to 2000, 15 red wolves died from gunshot wounds, an average of 1.2 per year. But from 2000 to 2013, the total spiked to 73, an average of five per year—a 300 percent increase.
Sherry Samuels, senior director of animal care at the museum, has been caring for the red wolves almost as long as the museum has hosted them. On the heels of the late April birth of several new pups at the museum, the INDY spoke with Samuels about the work needed to repopulate the red wolves and why the story of their survival is intertwined with humans’.
INDY: How did the Museum of Life and Science get involved in caring for red wolves?
SAMUELS: The museum has [always] been part of the red wolf program. It’s had different names over the years, but we got our first red wolf way back in November of 1992. At that time, I was working in the education department, so I can’t speak to how we transitioned from a generic wolf habitat to an endangered red wolf [habitat], because by the time I moved into animal care, a few months later, is when our second red wolf came in.
We had pups later that year, in May of 1993, so I’ve been working with them for well over 30 years. Our commitment has only gotten stronger to red wolf conser-
vation as a science museum that strives to use science as a way of knowing about the world and our community. It’s a perfect example of using the most endangered wolf on the planet, the only wolf that roams free here in North Carolina, to invest in what we can do with our over 500,000 visitors to tell this conservation story.
You are at the American Red Wolf SAFE conference as we speak. Who hosts the event and what do you all try to accomplish?
It’s a cooperative group that, through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, is put together to use our resources to save the red wolf. I’m on the steering committee for that group. Part of what we do is population management, husbandry, and support research. We have a research subcommittee. We work with fish and wildlife. National experts come together annually with private NGOs to see how we work together to keep this amazing, amazing creature alive on the ground and get the humans in our world to value that equally.
Are there other endangered animals in the care of the museum?
We have ring-tailed lemurs here. We have radiated tortoises. Those are certainly not native to North Carolina. The red wolf, certainly, is the most iconic native species. We have some special-concern species as well, like American alligators. They are certainly a pest, for example, in Florida. Here in North Carolina, we need an endangered species permit to keep our American alli-
gators along with our spotted turtle and our northern pine snake. Most people like to focus on the big furry things the most, and certainly the red wolf story in our home state is so big, it’s easy to focus on that, and even easier now with the red wolf pups. Babies help tell a story. The story is the same, whether we had those pups or not. But babies—cute, furry baby things—it really helps make the story so much easier to tell, and it brings in people who weren’t listening or engaged before.
How many red wolves are at the museum currently?
Currently, we have seven. We have the two parents and five pups, who are now almost three months old.
Given the space in the museum, when you all do have pups, how long do they stick around, and where do they go next?
The museum is one of about 50 institutions—museums, zoos, nature centers, vet schools, wolf sanctuaries—around the country that house red wolves, and we work together. So this meeting [SAFE conference] that we have will actually decide what happens—not just to them but to all the red wolves in the population. Some will stay put, some will move to other institutions, and some might get released to the wild.
It must be bittersweet when you know the pups have to find new homes.
I’m on the team that cares for the animals. My crew knows that we’re just temporary housing, no matter who comes through the door, but yet we still all get attached, and we want to see the best for the critters. So if it’s best for them to head somewhere else, if it’s best for them to go to a different institution, if it’s best for the population, then we will all get on board and support that. But bittersweet is certainly a good descriptive word.
What are some of the hurdles that you all come across trying to manage, nurture, and breed the red wolves? Do you get additional resources or funding?
By having red wolves [at the museum] we commit to supplying everything that they need. But what this group does collectively together is [offer] camaraderie, emotional support, expertise. I could call someone up, and I have, when I’ve had problems at certain times—whether it’s been with a pup from a past litter who had a foot injury [or about] what medicines can you use that are approved or a behavior—or I can call a veterinarian across the country for our veterinarian to consult with on what might be a best treatment. So it might not be direct financial support. It’s certainly the expertise
Staff with the red wolf pups. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF LIFE AND SCIENCE
in the community that is committed to the same goal.
Given that the pool of people dealing with endangered red wolves is not huge, being able to rely on that available network seems like a real benefit.
Just as a perspective, there are less than 300 red wolves under human care. By comparison, everyone knows what a panda is; there are over 1,500 pandas. Everyone knows what a polar bear is; there are over 10,000 polar bears. Both those animals are considered critically endangered at numbers of 10,000 and 1,500. And when talking about red wolves and the number 300, it’s just on a whole other scale. In terms of only in this country and only the institutions that have them, we rely on each other for support.
What is the population threshold you all need to meet?
To meet a sustainable population, we need to get to about 330 [in human care]. We’re at about 290 right now. And it’s not easy to get there. Once we mate them, where are we going to put them? We need to move from one wild site to three wild sites. And in order to support red wolves in the wild, we need to have a sustainable population under human care. So our numbers that we look at, we can’t magically make that happen. Breeding takes time. We need space. We need more cooperators
on board. There’s a lot of nuance and work that will go into building this population safely and securely.
When you are educating folks when they come to the museum, what are you sharing with them to teach them about how important the red wolf is to the ecosystem and how to be good stewards of nature as it pertains to red wolves?
It’s a complicated question. What we try to do is meet people where they are. I met with an eight-year-old last week who was excited to ask me questions in her furry wolf costume. Talking with her is very different from talking with a reporter or a college student, etc. We’re ready to talk about what might be needed.
With that eight-year-old, what we’re doing with them is we’re building empathy and relationships, understanding what’s cool about nature and why nature is important. That’s different than maybe an adult scientist who comes through or a family that comes through. So we’re trying to meet people where they are and be ready to talk, if it’s about stewardship, if it’s about climate change, endangered species conservation, small genetic population, apex predators, it could be anything. We let them use critical thinking on what they want to do with the information that they’re given, and what questions they have that start spurring more conversation and discussion. Empathy is going to save this species. W
Search Radius
PawBoost, a young local company, seeks to streamline the search process for a pet owner’s worst nightmare: A lost animal.
BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com
The idea first came to Clayton Gladieux during a frantic night of searching for a lost dog. This was 2014; earlier in the evening, a friend of his had let her rescue lab, Ramsay, out in the yard to go to the bathroom. Ramsay got spooked by a car and took off into the dark.
“We freaked out,” Gladieux tells the INDY from his office in Raleigh. “You just don’t think it’s gonna happen to you, and when it does, you don’t know what to do, right? It’s frantic and time is of the essence. It’s a very overwhelming feeling.”
“I was on the phone Googling ‘What to do when you lose a pet,’” he continues. “It was two hours of just driving around looking for her and knocking on doors and calling her name.”
Ramsay found her way home the next morning, but Gladieux, then 24, still felt there had to be a more efficient way to quickly get the word out about a lost pet. He’d wanted to start his own company for a while, he says, but nothing had yet sparked an idea. When Ramsey ran away, it occurred to him that, that there ought to be a centralized database for pet owners to use if a pet slips loose. Thus, with just one initial $5,000 investment, was born PawBoost— first named FindingFido, then changed due to the ubiquity of “Fido” pet companies— effectively an “amber alert” for lost pets. According to the Animal Humane Society, one out of every three pets will go missing in their lifetime; a figure that comes out to roughly about 10 million lost pets in
the United States each year. This estimate will not come as a surprise to anyone who belongs to NextDoor or a neighborhood listserv, in which notices of lost pets of all stripes and shades circulate frequently. If an animal is picked up without identifying information or a way to connect with an owner, it will land a shelter. According to the ASPCA, about 920,200 animals in shelters are euthanized a year; more than half of those are cats, while around 390,000 are dogs.
PawBoost, which now claims to be behind more than 1,796,700 lost-pet reunions across the world, functions like an amplified listserv: users upload a lost pet post, which is then shared to the area PawBoost Facebook page, pushed out to PawBoost app users, and added to a large database of lost pets. Alerts also go out to local “rescue squads”—volunteer groups comprising local shelter employees, veterinarians, and pet lovers.
According to the PawBoost website, as many as 3,318,592 people are signed up for PawBoost notifications in their area. A simple “missing” post gets streamlined and amplified. Anyone who has either found a lost pet or helped someone else find a lost pet knows how emotional of an experience it is. Pets are family. My own cat and dog both wandered into my life in zigzaggy ways—the dog (Penny) from a Wake Forest rescue, Saving Grace; the cat (Juniper) more literally, as a street cat in Brooklyn consistently jonesing for food and tuna cans. Both
have fundamentally altered how I experience the world and other beings in it. On daily walks, seeing how many people’s faces light up just coming into the general radius of a dog is one of those sturdy affirmations of humanity that makes life feel both generous and generative.
And while I have not, following my conversation with Gladieux, joined a local “rescue squad,” it by no means feels far-fetched that anyone would choose to spend their time pursuing such reunions. In Raleigh, the PawBoost Facebook page alone has more than 9,000 followers.
“There are all these people that are animal lovers that want to help—there’s a huge community aspect to it,” says Gladieux. “The avatar for this person is literally my mom. You go on her Facebook and it’s all pet photos.”
Daily “Happy Tail” updates on the website attest to both the platform’s community and its utility. Take the account of Muffin, a steely-eyed white cat who jumped a porch railing in Ken Caryl, Colorado, and was located a mile and a half away by a neighbor. “I also posted on Facebook, Nextdoor, and Ring,” Muffin’s owner wrote in a recent Happy Tail update. “PawBoost seems to have a longer reach into the community.” Or this philandering pug from San Bernardino, California: “Silas got out while looking for his girlfriend,” the owner wrote. “My neighbor saw my missing pet alert on PawBoost and contacted me almost immediately. Silas is now home safely.”
For Gladieux, who now has around a dozen employees, the bet has paid off. The company is, he says, “bootstapped” with no official valuation, but revenue is in the low millions. By way of a bonus, he also gets to see happy updates roll in.
According to Gladieux, human error, animal curiosity, and loud noises—namely fireworks or a loud car like the one that scared his friend’s dog Ramsay—are most often to blame for a pet getting loose. Collars with name tags help, as do microchips, so long as the registration information is up to date. But nothing replaces a Good Samaritan willing to step in and try and get a pet home. Marianna Chambers is one such Good Samaritan. While living in Garner several years ago, a “super friendly, beautiful dog” wandered into her yard, she tells me over the phone, in a gentle Southern drawl. Chambers and her family searched for the owner of the dog—whom her kids began to call “Goldie”—for a month. Eventually, their PawBoost post made its way to the owner, who’d just moved to a new home when the dog took off, unsure of its surroundings.
The family had grown attached to the dog, Chambers says, but the saga had a happy ending: they stayed in Goldie’s life and became its dog sitters, even keeping the dog over Christmas one year.
“It was a really a nice story, because we got to stay involved,” Chambers says. “The dog was always really happy to see us—and always happy to see its owner when she got back.” W
ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE
PETS ISSUE
Two and a Half Men
On peanut butter, relationships, and being roommates with an 105pound dog for over a decade.
BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com
My roommate Tom and I have been living together for 11 years—a third of my life. For 10 of those 11 years, we’ve been co-parenting a dog—or, more accurately, parenting and uncle-ing. Tom is responsible for dog food and medical bills. I’m in charge of entertainment and, occasionally, dog sitting.
When Tom and I first became roommates, his dog Mingus, named after the famed jazz bassist Charles Mingus, was living out her last days. Adopting another dog right after she passed was unlikely: our living situation was already cramped, with four roommates total, three of them musicians.
But by the time Tom and I moved into our own house together, in 2014, he was ready to be a dog dad again. Tom contacted a couple on Craigslist with puppies in need of a new home, then made the 50-minute drive to a Walmart parking lot in Zebulon. That’s where he met the American akita pup, the newest member of our emerging found family.
Ghenghis was insufferably adorable. When he arrived back in Durham, he resembled a stuffed animal toy—fluffy with big ears and a squeaker-box bark. I could almost hold him in the palms of my hands. Teenage Ghenghis quickly outgrew everything: our house in East Durham, the narrow U-shaped backyard, our tolerance for his destruction of the kitchen trash can.
Tom and I became fast friends, but we were still learning how to be roommates when Ghenghis joined the fray. Having him in our lives helped defuse some of the more
24, 2024 INDYweek.com
difficult challenges of domestic partnership.
“Yo, you left dishes in the sink again. What the hell?” “Yeah, well at least I didn’t take a crap in the middle of the living room like Ghenghis! Why aren’t you yelling at him?”
As with any child, Ghenghis’s personality traits are an amalgamation of his guardians’. He is inquisitive—he gets that from both Tom and me. He’s a total goofball; that’s mostly me. He has an unexpectedly high tolerance for the summer heat—that one’s definitely me, not Tom. He has many acquaintances but keeps few friends; that is a Ghenghis original. He loves his auntie Eliza, my girlfriend, who brings him mango and nearly empty jars of peanut butter as special treats for keeping the house in order; that’s all of us, of course.
Ghenghis, now 10 years old—70 in dog years—is no longer a palm-sized pup. He weighs in at roughly 105 pounds and, when on his hind legs, stands at five feet tall. Like a high schooler who hit their growth spurt too fast, he moves with little self-awareness about how big he is.
In the wild, Ghenghis would be indistinguishable from a small wolf. But around the house, he’s just one of the fellas. He enjoys sitting in on Tom’s piano jam sessions or watching basketball games, hoping someone will share their evening snack with him as he nudges his way into a position where someone can pet or scratch him, no matter how inconvenient.
When it’s time for bed, Ghenghis nests in the hallway between our rooms and the front door to keep a watch-
ful eye out for any nefarious activity on the block. The faintest unfamiliar noise outside, even if he can’t see the culprit, sets him off into a booming barrage of barks. At times, it’s paid off: a few years back, a chorus of panicked howls woke us up to the sights and sounds of S.W.A.T. officers preparing to raid the nearby home of a major drug operation.
In the mornings, Ghenghis acts as our hotel concierge, sitting at our bedroom doors and scratching until everyone in the house is up and moving. It sounds dutiful until you realize he’s just hedging his bets on who will feed him first.
Living with Tom and Ghenghis for most of my adult life has been an adventure I never would have imagined. The three of us have stayed connected through two moves and three presidents. We’ve supported each other through tough medical procedures: Ghenghis tore his ACL and suffered a snake bite to the face, Tom fractured his foot. We survived lockdown in 2020. Last fall, Tom and Ghenghis took a monthlong trip out west. The absence, both of Ghenghis and Tom, felt strange.
Growing up a “cat person” who is mildly allergic to dog hair, I was skeptical of having a dog around at the beginning. Now? I can’t imagine my life without Ghenghis. There’ve been ample opportunities to break up the band—a move to a new house, new jobs, changes in our romantic relationships. But our relationship—as brothers, as roommates, as a family—has taught me lessons that I will carry forever. W
(From left to right) Justin, Ghenghis, and Tom PHOTO COURTESY OF SUBJECT
Birds of a Feather
For retiree Helen Greenberg, an afternoon catching and rescuing raptors in distress is just another day on the job.
BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL chloe@indyweek.com
Helen Greenberg estimates that she’s rescued about 300 wild raptors in the past five years.
When a baby owl falls from its nest, when a red-tailed hawk swoops into oncoming traffic, when a black vulture breaks its wing, Greenberg climbs into her Subaru and drives across town to pick it up. Greenberg is a volunteer with the American Wildlife Refuge (AWR), a Raleigh-based nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates birds of prey.
Sitting across from me in a booth at the Wegmans Burger Bar (her suggestion), Greenberg’s silver hair is swept into a low ponytail beneath a denim baseball cap. She wears gold-rimmed eyeglasses and walks with a cane. As she speaks animatedly about raptors, her owl-shaped earrings bounce to and fro.
“In the beginning, I was really afraid of the birds,” she tells me. “I mean, they’re big, they’re aggressive, they’re
everything you want to stay away from.”
Back in 2019, Greenberg signed up to volunteer with the AWR on a whim. A longtime animal lover who keeps parrots at home, the idea of working with raptors piqued her interest. She learned that the AWR rescues and rehabs hundreds of hawks, eagles, owls, falcons, kites, and vultures around the Triangle each year. They range in size from tiny screech owls that fit in the palm of a hand to majestic bald eagles with seven-foot wingspans. From the largest to the smallest, these carnivorous hunters have evolved hooked beaks, lethal talons, and sharp eyes to track their prey.
Most urban dwellers don’t spend much time thinking about raptors (with the notable exception of the internet’s favorite raptor, Flaco, the eagle owl who managed to survive in New York City for a year after escaping from the Central Park Zoo). But for Greenberg, they’ve
become a passion. After connecting with the AWR, she began attending training sessions, practiced holding raptors from the refuge’s bird sanctuary, and then started tagging along for rescues.
“Now,” Greenberg laughs, “they call me fearless. I don’t know why!”
She’s being modest. Two visits to urgent care for raptor-related injuries in a five-year span have done nothing to diminish her enthusiasm for working with birds of prey.
One of those visits was set in motion when the AWR dispatched Greenberg to an apartment complex to investigate a black vulture in distress. It had been stranded there a week with a broken wing and needed to see an exotic-animals vet.
Black vultures are massive—their wingspans sometimes surpass five feet—and they can run up to 20 miles per hour. It took an hour to chase this one down, Greenberg said. Finally, she was able to take hold of its body and feet with her gloved hands, while a woman from the apartment complex held its hooked beak shut. As Greenberg guided the vulture into a crate for transport, the other woman let go too soon. The bird whipped around and latched its beak into Helen’s chest, ripping her skin.
“While he was hanging on, I was trying to put my fingers through his mouth, you know, trying to release him. He wouldn’t release,” she says. “He had to do it on his own time.”
She shrugs the whole episode off as a pesky occupational hazard: “It was my fault. He was scared. He didn’t know what was going on, that we were trying to help him.”
“Everybody hates vultures,” she adds incredulously. “They’re the cleanest birds we have. Black vultures have no feathers on their face. Why? Because when they go into a carcass, then their face doesn’t get all messed up. Their feathers don’t get messed up. When the sun comes out, they spread their wings to get rid of all the insects. And they clean—their stomach is like steel. They can eat all these deadly diseases, and it comes out fine.”
Greenberg has plenty more stories like this one. She
Helen Greenberg holding a juvenile hawk. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUBJECT
once rescued an injured barred owl from the I-40 median during a downpour, with cars shooting past her in the fast lane. She’s rescued huge eagles and tiny baby birds. On the day we met, she warned me that she might need to leave, as she was “on call” for the wildlife refuge.
Most of the bird injuries Greenberg sees are human caused and avoidable. Ninety percent, she says, happen when a person throws litter—an apple core or banana peel, maybe—out of a car window. A small animal will go to eat the litter, and a raptor will dive for the animal. They don’t have peripheral vision, so they don’t see the oncoming traffic. Other times, birds get sick from ingesting rat poison or from eating from an animal carcass that’s been shot with a lead bullet.
Best case scenario, Greenberg or another volunteer will rescue the bird, take it to the vet, and then bring it back to the AWR’s farm in Clayton to recuperate and eventually be released back into the wild. But sometimes the injury or sickness is untreatable, and the bird must be euthanized. Greenberg is pragmatic about this reality: not every bird can be saved. But she does wish people would stop throwing litter out car windows.
When Greenberg tells me that the carnivorous predators she works with don’t
scare her, I somehow believe her. Her cheerful demeanor and natural modesty camouflage a fierceness below the surface. She has a tenacity about her reminiscent of her beloved wild birds.
Last year, she was in a head-on collision that sent her to the ER and totaled her car. Undeterred, she bought a new car and has kept on driving, logging hundreds of miles between her home in Durham and the raptor refuge. Months earlier, she had lost her husband, Mark, a fellow animal lover who used to accompany her on rescue missions.
He also loved the work, she says: “That was the greatest thing in his life.”
Without him, she has continued volunteering on her own. She’s currently on call seven days a week for the birds. Soon, she plans to get her own rehabilitation permit and build cages in her backyard so she can care for wounded wild birds at home.
“My job is so awesome,” she tells me with a big smile. “I just can’t think of anything else that would be so rewarding as this.” W
If you find a trapped or injured raptor in Durham or the surrounding area, call Greenberg at (919) 225-2831. If you find a raptor in Raleigh, Clayton, or the surrounding area, call Steve from the American Wildlife Refuge at (919) 862-7637. Stay with the bird until a volunteer arrives.
Donate Your Car
Cool Cats
Cat cafés across the Triangle offer spots to sip and pet.
BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI arts@indyweek.com
Cats and coffee are an inspired pairing. Luckily for Triangle residents, both can be found in a handful of innovative cat cafés, from Chapel Hill to Fuquay-Varina. These four spots work with rescues and shelters to help their feline residents find permanent homes while providing visitors with an experience they’re not soon to forget. When planning your trip to a cat café, make sure to check its website to reserve time in its cat room. Cat cafés rarely allow walk-ins.
Purr Cup Cat Café | 210 Prospect Avenue, Raleigh, NC
Purr Cup might be the smallest of the Triangle’s cat cafés, but it’s more than mighty enough to make up for it, especially since the café directly partners with the Wake County SPCA. Purr Cup boasts an all-vegan menu and seasonal drinks inspired by pop culture references (e.g., this summer’s matcha “Brat Lemonade” drink). If you can’t get to Purr Cup for a soy milk latte or a seasonal drink, try looking toward community events such as Eliza Pool Park’s Really Really Free Market, which features Purr Cup Café coffee. Purr Cup prides itself on its size, offering an intimate environment where you’re unlikely to miss out on meeting every cat. You can visit Purr Cup for up to 55 minutes at a time via reservation, which costs $10 per person.
Right Meow Cat Café | 913 S. Main Street, Fuquay-Varina, NC
As the youngest of the Triangle’s cat cafés, only opening last year, you might not expect Right Meow to already have a cast of dedicated regulars. Tucked into a quiet corner of Fuquay-Varina, this cozy café invites visitors to linger. Right Meow embraces its homey atmosphere, with owners Karen and Damien
Posey’s entire family contributing to the café, from working shifts to creating the café’s logo. Right Meow’s drinks stick out in more than one way, since as well as offering boba and frappés, their entire menu is named after cats who were former café residents, from the Frog, a mango-pineapple green tea with dragon fruit popping boba, to the Buster, a brown sugar milk tea with a shot of espresso. Right Meow’s lobby is decorated with pictures of the café’s over 126 former residents, and in the cat lounge you can meet up to 16 adoptable cats, all excited to see if you might be their next home. You can visit Right Meow for up to 45 minutes at a time via reservation, which costs $10 per person.
Cat Tales Cat Café | 431 W. Franklin Street, Suite 210, Chapel Hill, NC
The creation of Cat Tales is a tale of its own: in 2015, owners Katy Poitras and Ilene Speizer met by chance when they were individually looking to create cat cafés and ended up collaborating in this shared venture. Cat Tales has a beautiful two-story building, with a wall of windows for cats and humans alike to look out onto Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street. Recently, it became the first and only North Carolina cat café to create its own nonprofit rescue, meaning Poitras
and Speizer can follow their residents from rescue to adoption. Alongside the up to 12 cats you can find on the cat floor, Cat Tales’ associated cat rescue has many other cats in foster, listed on the café’s website, waiting [or their turn at the café. You can visit Cat Tales for up to one hour at a time via reservation, which costs $12 per person during the week and $14 on weekends.
Frabjous Catfé | 12261 Capital Boulevard, Wake Forest, NC
Whether it be through its Frabjous Book Club or weekly meditation and yoga sessions, Frabjous Catfé creates a sense of community for Wake Forest and its around five feline residents. Frabjous has a clear Alice in Wonderland inspiration, from the name of its lounge—the Cheshire Lounge—to a menu featuring mainstays like the Mad Mocha, a double espresso drink with steamed milk and chocolate sauce, and seasonal drinks like the Eat Me Latte, featuring white chocolate, cupcake, and vanilla flavors. Unlike the other cafés, Frabjous offers Monday “adult only” nights for those without kids. You can visit Frabjous for 30 to 60 minutes at a time via reservation, which costs $7 to $10 per person during the week or $9 to $12 on weekends. W
Disney, a two-year-old female domestic shorthair, at the Purr Cup Cafe PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
INDY Staff Pets
Penny (left) & Juniper (right)
Sarah Edwards
Penny’s favorite things: Validation, squirrels, long walks on the beach
Juniper’s favorite thing: Getting a massage while eating breakfast
Moose (left) & Pollo (right)
Lena Geller
Moose and Pollo’s favorite thing: Tuna juice
Ghenghis
Justin Laidlaw
Ghenghis’s favorite things: Mangos and visits from his aunties
Cosmo; (not pictured) Lula & Gideon
John Hurld
Lula’s favorite thing: Hissing at friends
Cosmo’s favorite thing: Cuddles at all times
Gideon’s favorite thing: Pouncing on his brother Cosmo
Tuesday
Jane Porter
Tuesday’s favorite things: Snacks and scratches, chewing up little kids’ shoes
Bunny’s
Blaze’s favorite things: Meeting everyone, ice
Winnie’s favorite things: Lying in the sun and getting attention from every neighbor
Winnie
Avery Sloan
Bunny (left) & Blaze (right)
Nicole Pajor Moore
favorite thing: Feeling safe
cubes
Dustin
Chase Pelligrini de Paur
Dustin’s favorite thing: Bread crumbs
M U S IC
High Bars
Years after The Love Language, Stuart McLamb cuts his teeth on an ambitious new project with Charles Crossingham.
BY NICK MCGREGOR music@indyweek.com
“Arena-ready” isn’t a vibe that most two-person projects strive for. But during an October 2020 songwriting session, a digital guitar preset called “Arena Ready” worked magic for Stuart McLamb and Charles Crossingham.
McLamb, the longtime frontman of Triangle indie favorite The Love Language, first met Crossingham, a Raleigh-based guitar aficionado, gear collector, and producer, in 2011. But they didn’t grow close until late 2019, when Crossingham reconnected with McLamb and offered to help produce the next Love Language album.
Within a few months, they were going for broke, developing a new musical kinship, and building Fancy Gap—an entirely new band—from the ground up.
“The ‘Arena Ready’ preset was ballsier than we typically would have gone,” Crossingham tells INDY Week on the front porch of his mountain cabin in Fancy Gap, Virginia, where much of their self-titled debut album was written and recorded. The property overlooks the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains as they extend back toward North Carolina’s Piedmont, where both men live full-time. “But as a performer, Stu is built for it,” Crossingham adds. “So ‘arena-ready’ became our mind-set—and our belief.”
Out July 26 on Ghost Choir Records, the band’s own label, Fancy Gap explores universal themes—death, aging, life, love, and triumph—while channeling the joys of a back-road drive, windows down, hair blowing in the Blue Ridge breeze.
Crossingham first encountered the Fancy Gap area more than 15 years ago on a Christmas morning drive with his brother-in-law.
“It’s like going into a different world,”
Crossingham says. “Everybody told me I was crazy to buy this cabin, but it’s brought a lot of joy to my life.”
McLamb, who returned to his native Raleigh in March 2020 after living for a few years in Los Angeles, heard plenty about the cabin: “I was intrigued but also a little skeptical,” he laughs. But with pandemic lockdowns in force, the serenity proved inspiring.
“It’s always hard to streamline creativity and tap into the weird, mysterious place that songs come from,” McLamb says. “But Charles had a good inclination this place would work. There’s good energy here.”
The two friends bonded over ’90s radio rock and 98.1 WBRF, a classic country station out of Galax, Virginia. The rafter-reaching choruses and crowd-pleasing guitar licks inspired them to chase their own bombastic sound—recorded on Crossingham’s QuadEight rack unit, a high-end 1960s console rescued from the ashes of a famous Seattle studio and lovingly rebuilt by Jonathan Whitley, a Carrboro-based friend of both men.
Since the Quad-Eight was portable, they could transport it up to Fancy Gap and capture their mountain magic, rather than just playing in what McLamb calls “a sterile live room.” Over the next two years, the duo dedicated themselves to crafting songs and jamming at the cabin, Crossingham on guitar and McLamb on drums and vocals. The former would toss out “cheeseburgers”— simple melodic ideas, song titles, or opening lines—to the latter, who says he often found himself nailing lead vocals on the first or second take.
“It reminded me of being a kid again— like playing in the garage with my brother just for fun,” McLamb says. “It’s a luxury you have when you’re younger, without as many responsibilities.” That freed the duo to dream big: McLamb envisioned a Neil Young–inspired rock record, while Crossingham embraced the challenge of taming his friend’s “wild mustang” energy.
“It was a leap of faith figuring out how to make a big-ass record by ourselves,” Crossingham says. McLamb concurs: “Charles would say ‘Go big!’ and let me go wild, then we’d rein it in and drive it home together.”
Fully stacked song list
The final results on Fancy Gap are polished and propulsive, with McLamb’s soaring vocals and timeless pop timbre laid atop Crossingham’s sonic expertise. The band channels disparate influences—Counting Crows and The Lemonheads, Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills & Nash, Tom Petty and Travis Tritt—while staying true to their own ambitions.
Lead singles “How to Dance” and “Little Heart Racer” are unabashed bangers. The latter features McLamb, singing in the deepest Southern drawl of his career, paying homage to the “back roads down in Carroll County,” where “the summers are as slow as they should be.” It’s pure coun-
try radio catnip—which, just five years ago, might have felt disorienting.
“That song came out of nowhere,” McLamb laughs. “It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s sit down and write a big country ballad!’ But I’m a funny chameleon. I love pop music.”
That love is evident on “Strawberry Moon,” which features gentle, cascading pianos and guest vocals from indie rock hero Sharon Van Etten, whom McLamb has known for years. His original idea was a synth-pop version, but after workshopping it with Crossingham and tracking Van Etten’s vocals during her most recent North Carolina tour, they excavated a witchier, more Fleetwood Mac–meets–War on Drugs vibe.
Other wistful moments abound: the misty mornings that inspired “Whispering Winds” and the mountain sunsets that Crossingham and McLamb chase all over the record; one even appears on the cover of Fancy Gap
“This place changes all day,” Crossingham says. “You can do nothing and feel productive, because, well, you watched the sky change.”
Melancholic reflection informs “Magnolias” as well. Written about the passing of Crossingham’s friend, McLamb handles it with the care of his tender falsetto. Meanwhile, the moody, minor-key “Sweet Time” scans as dark California noir, an epic song McLamb half-jokingly considered pitching to Adele.
Fancy Gap’s Stuart McLamb and Charles Crossingham PHOTO BY JORDAN BRANNOCK
Again, those ambitions make perfect sense—especially on “40,000 Miles,” which features two scorching guitar solos (recorded with that “Arena Ready” preset) that McLamb and Crossingham consider a rock ’n’ roll call-and-response.
Meanwhile, “Diamond Cutter” is sonically complex—a slinky slice of cowboy goth that layers guitar riffs and gentle castanets over heart-wrenching lyrics. It’s the strongest contender off Fancy Gap to make best-of playlists and endure as an all-time favorite a la early The Love Language classics “Lalita” and “Heart to Tell.”
To flesh out the song and the album, they dialed up an all-star cast: keyboardist Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters, The Wallflowers), session guitarist Will McFarlane (Bonnie Raitt, Etta James), and pedal steel player Jon Graboff (Willie Nelson, Norah Jones).
All added licks so strong that they “twinkle in the sky of each song,” Crossingham marvels. Grammy-winning engineer Craig Alvin (Kacey Musgraves, Little Big Town) cemented the sonic excellence, mixing the record at his famed Muscle Shoals studio, while Jeff Lipton (Arcade Fire, Bon Iver) mastered it in Boston.
Fancy Gap’s current live band—Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five), Nick Baglio (The Foreign Exchange), Steve Howell (The Backsliders), and Mark Simonsen (The Old Ceremony)—has also rounded into form.
“These guys believe in the record, which has introduced a new responsibility for us,” Crossingham says. “Their dreams are fusing into our dreams. That collective feeling is a special part of Fancy Gap.”
For McLamb, it’s a huge step forward. Yes, he’s still wringing emotion out of every lyric, writing hook-laden songs that tackle heartbreak, loss, and the enduring weight of existence. But now he’s doing it from a fresh, collaborative perspective.
“When Charles and I met in 2011, I was in a weirder place,” McLamb says. “Real protective—maybe too much.”
Fast-forward to 2020, when he real-
ized how invested Crossingham was in his success. “Charles has this thing where he doesn’t care about who’s invited to the party. He sees a lot of light in different kinds of people.”
Fancy Gap’s light is shining bright. The album’s first three singles have accumulated nearly 100,000 streams on Spotify, with listeners in 140 countries. A May 7 show at The Pour House in Raleigh sold about 40 tickets; another one on June 22 packed the house with approximately 270. Next up is a July 27 album release show at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, followed by further tour dates and sustained growth.
“We didn’t just spend four years making the record,” Crossingham says. “We learned how to be a team.” McLamb believes Fancy Gap can “be huge” but he’s still focus on enjoying the ride. “Our intention is rooted in this not becoming a chore,” he says. “If you take care of the music and create something good, it rewards you in its own way. You can have peace.”
With that peace has come a deeper reflection on life, art, and creativity.
“Stu’s a great leader who also never leads, you know?” Crossingham muses. “You’re dancing with Stu—he’s not saying, ‘C’mon, this way.’ It’s ‘Where are we going together?’ He makes everyone feel like family. The brotherhood of the experience started mattering more than previous stories of our lives. That’s my favorite part of this record.”
Crossingham remembers McLamb despairing in 2020 when the pandemic upended so much. “Stu kept bringing up the scene: ‘The scene’s dead, man.’ And I was like, ‘What scene? Whatever was before is no longer. We’re gonna create the next scene together.’” W
American Aquarium: The Fear of Standing Still
HHHH
Losing Side/Thirty Tigers | July 26
The Fear of Standing Still, the 10th album from unstoppable country-rock road warriors American Aquarium, might be the Raleigh band’s best. Without question, it’s the best place to start to get acquainted with them.
Following consecutive high-water marks in 2020’s searingly socially conscious Lamentations and 2022’s thoughtfully stripped-back Chicamacomico, this 10th album consolidates the strengths of those efforts. Captured with warm clarity by Lamentations producer Shooter Jennings, it also documents the group’s current lineup—rebooted in 2019 featuring guitarist Shane Boeker, pedal steel player Neil Jones, keyboardist Rhett Huffman, drummer Ryan Van Fleet, and bassist Alden Hedges—at the height of their considerable powers.
The result is a record that rollicks and ruminates with equal profundity, cementing gravelly voiced songwriter BJ Barham’s band among the upper echelon of modern Americana acts.
The album has issue-driven songs to rival Lamentations. Featuring airy harmonies from singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt and filling out patiently striding acoustic guitar and piano with anxious wisps of electric guitar and pedal steel, “Southern Roots” eyes good ole boys who still refuse to take down their losing flag, wisely observing, “If there’s one thing I’ve found / You can’t change the way you sound / You can only change the words that you choose.”
And the record processes grief and lone-
liness with equal sensitivity to Chicamacomico. Singing over keys, pedal steel, and guitars that wind like competing breezes tossing fall leaves, Barham recalls awakening to mortality through watching his family, particularly his father, whom he says he only saw cry when Dale Earnhardt died— “Raise hell / Praise Dale / Death’s coming for us all,” the singer somberly declares. But The Fear of Standing Still distinguishes itself best when it imbues revving rockers with meaningful nuance. “Crier” opens the album with punk-spiked E Street thunder, stepping past an obvious skewering of outmoded masculinity (boys have feelings, too, it turns out) to revel in the power of making yourself heard—“If you are here, then you’ve been hurt, and you deserve / To be a crier!”
Shimmying and shaking with scuzzy abandon worthy of being exiled on Main Street, closer “Head Down, Feet Moving” celebrates the single-minded, somewhat insane drive that keeps a rock band going nearly two decades down the line—“I’ll keep screaming out my secrets if you swear to sing along!” Barham promises, offering an olive branch to the listeners lost along the way: “I appreciate you listening as long as you did!”
Some listeners will justifiably prefer the depth and focus of American Aquarium’s previous two albums. And while The Fear of Standing Still can feel a bit scattershot by comparison, it shows the impressive breadth of the band’s capabilities.
—Jordan Lawrence W
Charles Crossingham and Stuart McLamb PHOTO BY JORDAN BRANNOCK
Twist and Shout
The disaster classic reboot has romance, Glen Powell, and high-budget special effects. Storywise, it doesn’t really work and it doesn’t really matter.
BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com
The quick review of this one is pretty straightforward: Twisters , the long-awaited reboot to the 1996 disaster movie classic, features a generous assortment of fantastic tornado sequences bracketed by a ridiculous script. The exposition scenes will have you rolling your eyes, then the storm scenes will pop them right out of your skull. The usual deal, really, for a summer blockbuster. Vicarious thrills. Assembly-line storytelling. Ocular damage.
If you’re willing to endure the bad parts to get to the good stuff, then Twisters is worth a trip to the theater, because the tornado scenes are flat-out spectacular. Digital effects have come a long way since 1996, and the booming, crashing, end-ofthe-world sound design is bonkers, too. By my count, there are at least eight separate tornadoes in Twisters, including a supersize EF6 tornado, a scary twin-tornado thing, a fire tornado at an oil refinery, a tornado at a rodeo (yes), and in a clever meta moment, a tornado ripping apart a movie theater just like the one you’re sitting in. Give the screenwriters credit, they’ve assembled a script that makes it juuuust plausible that the central characters could directly encounter eight or so tornadoes within the span of a few days (and a flashback sequence). The story goes like this: An exceedingly rare “tornado cluster” has formed in Oklahoma, attracting professional storm chasers including scientist Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who has a preternatural ability to predict where twisters will form and strike. Also in pursuit: self-styled “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a YouTube celebrity with a massive following who chases storms for thrills and kicks and online ad revenue. Tyler and Kate rub each other
the wrong way, naturally, until later when they fall in love and presumably find the right way to do it.
This kind of central romance is mandatory for a popcorn disaster movie, and the screenplay drops in a bunch of additional narrative elements concerning corporate villains, social media dynamics, and some barely coherent science concerning a way to actually fight an incoming tornado. We also get awkwardly contrived scenes to establish the characters, plus the kind of phony heartland sentiment that powers bad country music—pickup trucks and beers and amber waves of whatever.
Storywise, it doesn’t really work and it doesn’t really matter. Director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) keeps the pacing such that
we’re never more than a few minutes from an incoming tornado, an active tornado, a recently departed tornado, or some other kind of compelling weather porn. We’re wired as a species to be awestruck by stuff like this. The filmmaking team makes the most of it by seamlessly integrating digital effects and stunt work to provide a powerful, visceral experience. I saw the movie in a big IMAX theater, and I could feel the primitive parts of my brain start to squirm during the storm scenes: Dude! Is this real? Why aren’t you running?
One curious thing: Twisters is ostensibly a story about 21st-century meteorology professionals and unprecedented tornado outbreaks. Yet there’s never any direct mention of the global crisis fueling our heavy weather headlines. The decision not to say “climate change” out loud was deliberate. Were the producers afraid the film would get tagged as a scold or a bummer or somehow woke and throttle their audience numbers?
I don’t know, but it’s a depressing thought. Perhaps future historians will have fun debating it all from our weatherproofed underground cities. In any case, Twisters is fun in a thrill-ride kind of way— spring for the IMAX option if you can. W
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell in Twisters PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES
WED 7/24
THURS 7/25 FRI 7/26
MUSIC
Mates of State 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
Merge 35 Festival Jul. 24-27, various times. Various locations, Carrboro.
STAGE
ADF: ShaLeigh Dance Works: enVISION: The Next Chapter Jul. 19-28, various times. The Fruit, Durham.
ADF: Radical System Art: MOI-Momentum of Isolation Jul. 23-24, 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham.
The Prom Jul. 17-28, various times. PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Jul. 17-28, various times. Theatre Raleigh, Raleigh.
SCREEN
Summer Outdoor Movie Series: The Parent Trap 8 p.m. Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club, Durham.
MUSIC
Artist Notes: George Huntley Duo (of The Connells) 7 p.m. The Corner, NC State Centennial Campus, Raleigh.
Summer Jazz Jam Curated by Al Strong 7 p.m. Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham.
Sweet Dream / Bills Garage / Nicole Tester 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Switchfoot, Blue October, and Matt Nathanson: Help From My Friends Summer Tour 6 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.
Upchuck 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
STAGE
Funny Flights Comedy 8 p.m. Lonerider Distillery and Taproom, Durham.
PAGE
Silent Book Club 6 p.m. Letters Bookshop, Durham.
Tim Garvin: Everything Makes Sense: A CloseNotice of Life and Consciousness 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
MUSIC
DUNNMS 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
Intrastate: Featuring Miss B Haven / Ebony Red / DJ Chooch / DJ Roselle / DJ
Triple Aaa / Baby Cousin Tay Tay 9 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Last Friday Night Heatwave 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
Little King / Blood Red River 7 p.m. The Kraken, Chapel Hill.
Remey Williams Jul. 26-27, various times. Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham.
Secret Monkey Weekend 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Slightly Stoopid & Dirty Heads: Slightly Dirty Tour 6 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh.
Stephen Philip Harvey Octet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
Tom Neuhauser Music 6 p.m. The Glass Jug Beer Lab, Durham.
STAGE
ADF: Paul Taylor Dance Company: Arden Court Jul. 26-27, various times. Page Auditorium, Durham.
The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.
The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.
Hush Hush: Comedy Based on Secrets Fridays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
SCREEN
Full Frame Road Show: Good Night Oppy 8:30 p.m. Durham Central Park, Durham.
PAGE
Mark Morton: Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir 6 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.
ShaLeigh Dance Works performs enVISION: The Next Chapter at The Fruit July 19-28. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FRUIT
MUSIC
ADULTING: AN EARLY DANCE PARTY 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
BRIT FLOYD P-U-L-S-E:
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Division Bell 8 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.
Cassadee Pope 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Charles Wesley Godwin / Drayton Farley 7 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
The Folk Implosion 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Jon Shain & FJ Ventre: Modern Folk Blues from NC 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Lamb of God & Mastodon: Ashes of Leviathan Tour 6 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.
Live Music by Elliott Humphries 12 p.m. Lanza’s Cafe, Carrboro.
The Magic of Motown 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.
Music/Movie Combo— NCMA Groove: The Joy of ’80s Pop and 40th-Anniversary Screening of Purple Rain 5 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.
Renaissance Disko 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
Sam Hunt: Locked Up Tour 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh.
STAGE
Brave New Classics
Presents: Shakespeare Roulette 6 p.m. Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham.
PAGE
Book Fair for Grown-Ups
1 p.m. KōMANA Brewing Co., Cary.
Romance in Bloom: A Romance Author Panel 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
MUSIC
Allan Rayman 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Atif Aslam 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.
Black Bouquet / Patois Counselors / My Sister Maura / Not Flailing 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Live Jazz with Joseph Silvers and Hunter McDermut 11 a.m. Lanza’s Cafe, Carrboro.
Long Relief 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
STAGE
Superbloom Comedy Show with Norlex Belma 8 p.m. The Pour House Music Hall, Raleigh.
MUSIC
Am Ringwalt 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
Fiddlehead 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
STAGE
Cosmic Chuckles Stand Up
Comedy Night 9 p.m. Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, Raleigh.
SCREEN
Movie Mondays: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids 7:30 p.m. The Glass Jug Downtown, Durham.
MUSIC
Blink-182 with Pierce The Veil: One More Time ... Tour 7 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh.
The Body & Dis Fig / Cel Genesis 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
The Heavy Heavy 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
Jeremy “Bean” Clemons Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Kingfisher, Durham.
North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
STAGE Mamma Mia! Jul. 30–Aug. 4, various times. DPAC, Durham.
PAGE
Adam Rosenblatt: Cemetery Citizens 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
Storytime with Local Author Adam Sniezek 11 a.m. Golden Fig Books, Carrboro
Charles Wesley Godwin performs at Lincoln Theatre on Saturday, July 27.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LINCOLN THEATRE
C
WED
7/31
MUSIC
The Band CAMINO: The Taking Shape Tour 7:30 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
The Doobie Brothers / Steve Winwood 7:30 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh.
Hija De La Muerte / Bangzz / Tenderqueer 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Old Havana Nights featuring Brevan Hampden 7:30 p.m. Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham.
STAGE
Modi 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.
SCREEN
Summer Outdoor Movie Series: Sleepless in Seattle 8 p.m. Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club, Durham.
MUSIC
Jamey Johnson: What a View Tour 6:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.
Maserati / Unwed Sailor / Treasure Pains / Maple Stave 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
MonoNeon Aug. 1-2, 9 p.m. Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham.
POLLUTE. 8 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
STAGE
Comedy Improv with Stolen Identity & Friends 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
MUSIC
Autumn Nicholas and Them 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.
Live Music by Rob Gelblum 6 p.m. Lanza’s Cafe, Carrboro.
Megayacht 6 p.m. Hartwell, Raleigh.
The Onyx Club Boys 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham
¡Tumbao! It’s a Hot One Summer Tour 9 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Tymas, Lile, Foureman & Taylor Group 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
STAGE
Caitlyn Schrader and Daniel Levin with Ty Lake 9 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.
The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.
The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.
Hush Hush: Comedy Based on Secrets Fridays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
SCREEN
Celebration of James Baldwin’s 100th Birthday: If Beale Street Could Talk 7:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.
MUSIC
Angela Bingham Trio with Grant Osborne and Scott Sawyer 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
brat party durham 10 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
The Blazers: Celebrating 50 Years 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Cage the Elephant with Young the Giant and Bakar: Neon Pill Tour
6:30 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh.
The Cajammers 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Cuffing Season / Weymouth / Blank Slate 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Jamison Ross Aug. 3-4, various times. Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham.
Julie Benko 7:30 p.m. Theatre Raleigh, Raleigh.
SCREEN
Celebration of James Baldwin’s 100th Birthday: I Am Not Your Negro 2 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.
Outdoor Film Series: Mad Max: Fury Road 8:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.
Hijas De La Muerte performs at the Pinhook on Wednesday, July 31.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PINHOOK
MUSIC
Bent Knee 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
STAGE
No Shame Theatre 4 p.m. Carrboro Century Center, Carrboro.
MUSIC
Annabel 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
SCREEN
Movie Mondays: Pirates of the Caribbean 7:30 p.m. The Glass Jug Downtown, Durham.
MUSIC
An Evening with CAKE 7:30 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.
Jeremy “Bean” Clemons Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Kingfisher, Durham.
Madilyn Mei 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
STAGE
Comedy at Slim’s Dive Bar: “Say It at Slim’s” 10:30 p.m. Slim’s Downtown, Raleigh.
Bent Knee performs at the Cat’s Cradle Back Room on Sunday, August 4. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE
The most recognized award throughout the Triangle is back for 2024 — next up:
Orange and chatham counties!
Nominate your favorite Orange and Chatham County bar, veterinarian, bookshop, museum—whatever it may be, there are over 100 categories in which you can profess your favorite Orange and Chatham County treasures.
ORANGE AND CHATHAM COUNTY NOMINATIONS ARE LIVE!
CROSSWORD
EMPLOYMENT
Analytics Software Tester
SU | DO | KU
Difficulty level: HARD
SU | DO | KU
© Puzzles by Pappocom
There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.
Difficulty level: HARD
SAS Institute Inc. seeks Analytics Software Tester in Cary, NC to plan, document & perform functional, validation & systematic testing for new & existing software. Reqs: MS in Stats, Biostats, App Math, Econ or rel + 5 yrs exp or PhD in Stats, Biostats, App Math, Econ or rel + 2 yrs exp. Experience & skills may be gained during attainment of graduate degree. May work remotely pursuant to SAS’ Flexible Work Prgm. For full reqs & to apply visit www.sas.com/careers and reference
Job # 2024-36390.
Project Controls Analyst
EMPLOYMENT
Quantitative Model Validation Officer
Quantitative Model Validation Officer, F/T at Truist (Durham, NC) Under the general supv’n of the Senior Model Validation Officer, perform advanced level model validation for the corporation. Focus primarily on model validation & quantitative analysis, but also evaluate other model controls & serve as a resource for the corporation in all model risk mgmt related tasks. Must have a Master’s deg in Statistics, Econometrics, Operations Research, Actuarial Science, Applied Mathematics, or related quantitative field. Must have 1 of exp a quantitative or data analytics positions performing/ utilizing the following: model dvlpmt or validation incl machine learning models; Data mgmt; applying solid understanding of principles, practices, theories, & methodologies associated w/ fin’l risk mgmt; demonstrating mastery of quantitative modeling reqmts for risk mgmt, fin’l reporting, & valuation models used in fin’l services industry; dvlpg, documenting, implmtg, & validating Mkt, Credit & Operational risks of new & existing fin’l products; distilling complex mathematical concepts into actionable results; & utilizing exp w/: Python, MatLab, SAS, & VBA. Position may be eligible to work hybrid/remotely but is based out of & reports to Truist offices in Durham, NC. Must be available to travel to Durham, NC regularly for meetings & reviews w/ manager & project teams w/in 24-hrs’ notice. Apply online (https://careers. truist.com/) or email resume to: Paige.Whitesell@ Truist.com. (Ref Job# R0090632)
There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.
Project Controls Analyst - Career Level at Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., Cary, NC and various unanticipated worksites in US: Analysis/ improvement of project mgmt database activities. Apply at: https://careers.jacobs.com/. Req 14324.
Project Managers
Project Managers sought by Rifenburg North Carolina, LLC, Zebulon, NC to assist in all aspects of the bidding, coordinate w/Sprntndnt to mnge prjcts, etc. Will work at various prjct wksites in NE & Southern US. Deg’d applicants exp’d mangng & assisting on heavy civil cnstrctn prjct, etc. Send resume to hrhelp@canllc.net & must refer to “PM”.
If you’re stumped, find the answer keys for these puzzles and archives of previous puzzles (and their solutions) at indyweek.com/puzzles-page or scan this QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun!
© Puzzles by Pappocom
C L A S S I F I E D S
EMPLOYMENT
Sr. Business/System Analyst
Sr. Business/System Analyst - Catalent Pharma Solutions (Morrisville, NC) - Must have proof of legal authorization to work in U.S. Apply online at https://www.catalent.com/ (under Posting Number 0083327). To view full information about the job opportunities including the full job description, related occupation, education and experience requirements please refer to the internet posting at https://www.catalent.com/ under Posting Number above.
Senior Manager Procurement
Senior Manager Procurement, Ariba sought by CSL Behring LLC in Holly Springs, NC. Coordinate demand mgmt activities & assist devt of Global Controlling activities. BS + 7. Apply by mail to: CSL Behring LLC, Attn: T. Parker, 1020 1st Ave, King of Prussia, PA 19406 (ref job code MR0519)
Senior Quality Test Engineer
Senior Quality Test Engineer II sought by LexisNexis Risk Solutions FL Inc. in Raleigh, NC to lead development/ execution of performance & automation testing solutions. Minimum of Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer Information Systems, or rltd + 5 yrs exp in job offered or rltd occupations required. Employee reports to LexisNexis Risk Solutions FL Inc. office in Raleigh, NC, but may telecommute from any location within US. Interested candidates should apply via following link: https://relx. wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/relx/job/Raleigh-NC/ Senior-Quality-Test-Engineer-II_R79878.
Software Engineering Senior Advisors
Software Engineering Senior Advisors - CignaEvernorth Services Inc. (Raleigh, NC): Research, dsgn & dev comp & ntwrk SW & business apps incl UI projects & microservices on Openshift/ Docker Environment. Req: masters/foreign equiv in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, Engg, or rel’d +2 yrs exp in SW dev OR bachelors/foreign equiv in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, Engg, or rel’d +5 yrs exp in SW dev. Resumes to: keith.hurley@evernorth.com.
Sr. Software Engineer
Sr Software Engineer, Altera Digital Health Inc., Raleigh, NC. (Mult openings). May telecom frm anywhere in US. Desg, code & test hlthcare SW app w/ focus on hlthcare wrkflws w/ mobile prod. Reqs at lst Bach in CS, Comp Engg / rel / equiv. Reqs 4 yrs SW engg exp. Reqs 4 yrs w/followng: Mobile & Web Dev exp usng Xamarin; C# & .Net Frmewrk; Angular frmewrk; REST APIs; Rel DB Mgmt Sys; OOP; UI (Xamarin Frms); wrkng w/ EHR & EHR app layring; Vis Stud; Agile Frmewrk; NUnit; & 1 yr: GraphQL; & Azure. 8 a - 5 p, 40 hrs/wk, & on call as assignd. Apply: resume to: resumes@alterahealth.com & ref #113323.
Statistical Programmer 2
Fortrea, Inc. in Durham, NC seeks a Statistical Programmer 2 to plan, execute, and oversee all programming activities. 100% telecommuting position. Reports to company headquarters in Durham, NC. Can work remotely or telecommute. Reqs. MS+2 yrs. exp. Salary range: $91,810.00–127,700.00/Year. To apply, email resume to Fortreaapplications@fortrea.com, submit a resume via https://www.ncworks.gov/vosnet/default.aspx or submit a resume to https://www.fortrea.com/ careers.html. Must reference job title: Statistical Programmer 2. Job Code: 000043. EOE.
7/10/24 CROSSWORD SOLUTION
