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BOTTLES OF BOOZE ON THE WALL A world of brown liquor to wash down shining Southern cooking at Whiskey Kitchen BY EMMA LAPERRUQUE
p. 22
ALSO Maiden Lane’s Last Days p.12
Michael Peterson’s Last Stand p.15
8 A vid by a R but s
12 Maid Natio beco
15 The O’Be migh
22 With a ran both
24 Four put a sens
29 A Hi ly—a issue
DEPARTME
5 Back
6 Trian
8 New
12 Feat
22 Food
24 Mus
28 Arts
30 Wha
33 Mus
37 Arts
On the cov
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WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK | RALEIGH VOL. 34, NO. 7
8 A video of a teenage girl being slammed to the ground by a Rollesville student resource officer went viral, but substantive change is nowhere on the horizon. 12 Maiden Lane, a Raleigh neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is about to become history. 15 The latest theatrical deconstruction from Jaybird O’Berski pushes so far past experimental that it might be his most accessible work yet. 22 With two hundred varieties of the brown stuff and a range of tasty, smoky eats, Whiskey Kitchen takes both parts of its name seriously. 24 Four new releases by Triangle-area music outfits put an individual stamp on a range of styles and sensibilities. 29 A Hillsborough couple has gone missing—deliberate ly—as part of a reality TV show that shines a light on issues of online privacy.
DEPARTMENTS 5 Backtalk 6 Triangulator 8 News 12 Features 22 Food 24 Music 28 Arts & Culture 30 What to Do This Week
The interior of Whiskey Kitchen in Raleigh (see page 22)
PHOTO BY BEN MCKEOWN
33 Music Calendar 37 Arts & Culture Calendar On the cover: PHOTO BY BEN MCKEOWN
SERVICES GUIDE A GUIDE FOR READERS AS THEY PREPARE FOR SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
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backtalk
Intellectual Honesty
Last week’s story on an open letter from a group of Duke alumni calling out fellow alumni and White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has continued to generate a bunch of feedback. A quick sampling. “The open letter from three-thousand-plus Duke alumni asks for ‘intellectual honesty’ yet talks about a Muslim ban,” writes Terry Duff of Garner. “Their diverse, multicultural experience failed a basic education of what a ban really is or, more probable, is just plain intellectually dishonest. What a shame that they divide people into many groups based on sex, race, disability, national origin. etc. I write this near the end of Black History Month, and Martin Luther King Jr. would have us see everyone a child of God deserving our love, no divisions, and judge on character alone. It appears Steven Miller is the only diverse voice these Duke alumni ever encountered, which can be traced to the free but fake news press.” “Has anyone noticed it’s mostly white men who are supporters of the new regime?” counters Patty Lovejoy. “What’s sad is that it’s not shocking in the least. Dear white men with ego issues, your fear is embodied in the fact that you are losing power and control over the world—and so is this administration. Their progress has consisted of rolling back protections of human beings and animals; way to go. Please know you are the last generation that supports such evil, and you will perish.” Moving on. Responding to a question posed by last week’s Democracy in Crisis—“What if Democrats stopped worrying about rebuilding their party and started to think about defending American institutions?”—rmlucas writes, “But the Democratic Party is an important American institution, with an important role to play in resistance to Trump. And many members of the party are fighting to defend other democratic institutions. It’s not either/or.” Commenter PinkDrinks “completely disagrees” with our position that Governor Cooper’s proposed HB 2 compromise is a bad deal [Triangulator, February 22]. “Number one: there’s nothing ‘trans’ about increasing penal-
ties on ‘bathroom crimes’ unless it’s already in your head. Number two: a cooling-off period is better than no period at all, which is what we have now. Number three: bigots cannot be ‘spanked’ into non-bigots by forcing them into accountability for previous actions. Number four: conservatives will continue to whine no matter what. There’s so much to gain from the compromise that the article never explores.” Finally, last week’s Triangulator entry about the local eighteen-year-old who raised money toward an ad calling out Senator Richard Burr for dodging town halls drew a number of attagirls. “This ad’s tongue-in-cheek tone is precisely what is needed here,” writes Haditupa. “I’m so peeved I’m sure I wouldn’t manage a needed message such as this.” “I saw this ad and shared a picture on Facebook, getting positive responses from all over the country,” adds Amy Trojanowski. “Thanks for making activism fun again!” Even one of Senator Burr’s defenders enjoyed it: “I’m so proud of Senator Burr and Senator Tillis,” writes Alberthall. “But that was a clever ad.” Commenter Filippo, meanwhile, took issue with our description of Burr’s “oddly thin, almost forced smile” and “sharp blue eyes.” “Are the writer’s above-quoted comments not ad hominem per the INDY’s publishing guidelines? Is there anyone else about whose eyes and lips the writer would decline to comment? I do not see eye-to-eye (Ar! Ar!) with Mr. Burr on his political ideology, but how are his physical characteristics possibly relevant? What would the writer have Mr. Burr do to correct these physical vicissitudes that apparently offend the writer’s delicate aesthetic sensibilities—convene a prayer circle and beseech divine Providence for a revelation and miracle to deliver Mr. Burr from what the writer avers ails him? Colored contact lenses and collagen treatments?”
“You are the last generation that supports such evil.”
Want to see your name in bold? Email us at backtalk@indyweek.com, comment on our Facebook page or indyweek.com, or hit us up on Twitter: @indyweek. INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 5
triangulator +HERE WE GO AGAIN
Here is the one thing on which most people on Jones Street profess to agree: HB 2, the much-hated so-called bathroom law that has besmirched the state’s reputation, cost it hundreds of millions of dollars of economic activity and numerous sports championships, lost its governor his reelection, and, oh yeah, enshrined anti-LGBTQ bigotry into state statute, has to go. Beyond that, agreement is hard to come by. Most Democrats want a straight repeal, though they’re willing to bend, as evidenced by Governor Cooper’s proposed compromise, which would stiffen penalties for crimes committed in bathrooms—to offset conservative fears of men posing as women to gain access to women’s facilities, which doesn’t actually happen—and require municipalities to give a thirty-day notice before passing their own nondiscrimination ordinances, which in turn would give the legislature plenty of time to preempt them. Many Republicans, meanwhile, want something that looks more like a repeal in name only—enough to get this monkey off their backs, but not enough to substantially improve protections for LGBTQ citizens, especially transgender citizens. This desire has most recently manifested in a “compromise” called HB 186, which is backed by some business groups and received tentative support from the ACC commissioner. It would repeal HB 2 but forbid cities from passing ordinances guaranteeing transgender individuals access to restrooms that conform with their gender identity. Also, while it would add veterans and pregnant women to the state’s nondiscrimination law, it would leave it to local governments to enact protections for LGBTQ people—and even then, opponents, with just a few signatures, could put the LGBTQ community’s civil rights up for a referendum. Over the weekend, Cooper took to Medium to object to HB 186, which “subjects the rights of the minority to a vote of the majority. It would be like putting the Civil Rights Act to a popular vote in cities in the South during the 1960s.” Instead, he suggested, it would be better to require city and town councils to pass these ordinances with a majority-plusone vote. And, he argued, Republican leaders conned a handful of Democrats into getting on board—thus lending HB 186 the veneer of 6 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE OLIVA
bipartisanship—by promising that the legislature would revisit the referendum provision, only to renege. “This is not a Republican compromise with Democrats; it’s a Republican compromise with Republicans,” Cooper wrote. On Monday, House Speaker Tim Moore clapped back in a statement: “Governor Cooper should stop playing political games, stop trying to please special interest groups, and stop attempting to sabotage legislative efforts to find consensus on both sides of the aisle and among the business community. This effort takes careful compromise, and House Bill 186 is a real solution that actually addresses conflicts with House Bill 2, finds common ground across stakeholder communities, and fully protects the privacy and safety of North Carolinians.” It’s worth noting that, if they stuck together, Moore’s Republicans could repeal HB 2 and replace it with whatever they wanted without a single Democratic vote. With their supermajorities, they could override Cooper’s veto, too. But Moore doesn’t have the votes, so he needs Democrats. And he can’t get Democrats without doing something his base considers a bridge too far. In fact, on Monday, state representa-
tive and HB 186 sponsor Chuck McGrady announced that he wouldn’t move ahead without Cooper. “I don’t have a path forward if I don’t get the Democrats with me,” he told reporters. So, for now, the most likely scenario appears to be stalemate. And plenty of blame to go around.
+SILENCE IS DEAFENING
Crowd got your tongue? As we noted last week, that seems to be the case for Republican senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis. Likely dissuaded by the raucous town halls taking place throughout the country, both have turned down repeated calls from constituents to hold their own meetings. Their inaction is all the more striking compared with U.S. Representative G.K. Butterfield, who held a community meeting last weekend that drew hundreds of (unpaid) attendees. Butterfield led the gathering with a call to action. “I need your help,” he told constituents at Durham’s Hillside High School. “I cannot do it alone. Don’t sit down on me!” He laid out a few of his priorities: an independent investigation of Russian hacking in the election, fighting against the dismantling
of the Affordable Care Act, opposing Medicare privatization, supporting immigrants and fighting mass deportations, and restoring voting rights. Butterfield then took questions about reproductive health, health care, LGBTQ rights, climate change, immigration checkpoints, campaign finance, and more. The Q-and-A session lasted for more than two hours, with dozens of questioners. At one point, Butterfield told the crowd to keep up the pressure—“Don’t you think that resistance does not pay off!”—making Tillis’s and Burr’s silence all the more deafening. Speaking of Burr—and Russian hacking— we learned over the weekend that while North Carolina’s senior senator apparently isn’t willing to do face time with his constituents, he did make time to help the Trump administration push back on a story that ran in The New York Times recently reporting that members of Trump’s team and Russian intelligence officials had had repeated meetings during the campaign. The Washington Post reported that Burr— a member of the Trump campaign’s national security advisory council and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is supposed to be investigating this affair—had jumped on White House-arranged calls with reporters, on background, to dispute stories in the Times and elsewhere. “I’ve had those conversations,” Burr told the Post. “I felt I had something to share that didn’t breach my responsibilities to the committee in an ongoing investigation.” It makes you wonder how seriously he takes this Russia thing, after all. .
+DEPLORABLE DOZENS
At 7:25 on Saturday morning, President Trump and his fragile ego were having a moment. His first month or so in office has been, at best, tumultuous: the scandal surrounding his campaign’s alleged contacts with Russia, his national security adviser stepping down, waves of massive protests over the refugee restrictions, jokes about him on Saturday Night Live, unflattering coverage in the press, polls that show him as the most unpopular new president in modern history. So, as is his wont, the leader of the free world took to Twitter to whine. “Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE
AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!” Ignoring the obvious rejoinders—dude lost the popular vote by three million, and the D.C. Women’s March dwarfed the size of his tiny inaugural crowd—or how unnerving it is that a man who controls a massive nuclear arsenal has such patently glaring psychological issues, there is something to be said for the fact that nearly sixty-three million people voted for Trump, and while the left has been mobilized in opposition since the election, his base hasn’t been, which, one could argue, has perhaps skewed our perceptions of the president’s popularity. Trump appears to want to change that. This week will see two pro-Trump rallies in downtown Raleigh. The first convened on Monday at eleven thirty a.m. The second, “March 4 Trump/Deplorables United,” which bills itself as part of a nationwide series of events that day, will gather on noon Saturday at Halifax Mall. Monday’s pro-Trump rally at the State Capitol looked and sounded a lot like what you might expect. Red hats. American flags. Trump posters. And of course, slogan shout-outs. “We are here because we want to make America great again!” a supporter exclaimed. “Do we agree on that?” Other topics of discussion included socialism, political correctness, Breitbart, the
PHOTO BY ERICA HELLERSTEIN
media, praying, and Planned Parenthood. One supporter in a MAGA hat warned the crowd that “on Friday at midnight, all the witches in this country tried to cast a spell on Trump,” to which someone interrupted, “Witches have no power over God!” That was weird. There was one thing the “Spirit of America” rally didn’t have: people. At its peak, there were maybe fifty people—a sharp contrast with the tens of thousands who descended on downtown
Raleigh for the Women’s March in January and again for the Moral March in February. By one p.m., the Trump crowd thinned to maybe a dozen people and a lone drummer. Across the street, a young woman wearing a “Fuck Trump” hat sat on the ground with a “My Grandma didn’t fuck an American soldier for this shit!” poster. She’d been asked to sit there, away from the rally, presumably after Trump supporters concluded she wasn’t an ally. Saturday’s pro-Trump event will likely draw a larger crowd—and more counterprotesters—if for no other reason than it’s on a weekend. As of Monday afternoon, 268 people had posted on the event’s Facebook page to say that they would be attending. The event is taking place, organizer Terry Moore wrote on Facebook, because “we are here to show the support of the people and by the people for our President. … Let’s support our President and stop the hate!” Moore did not respond to the INDY’s email requesting an interview. But on Monday night, he posted this: “People the FAKE NEWS reported that our rally would only be a few hundred people strong! Let’s blow the roof off in Raleigh N.C. and make Donald J. Trump proud!” We’ll see. triangulator@indyweek.com This week’s report by Jeffrey C. Billman and Erica Hellerstein.
PERIPHERAL VISIONS | V.C. ROGERS
Erin Hoffman
erin_hoffman@med.unc.edu 919-843-0720 OR
Susan Blevins
suzanne_blevins@med.unc. edu 919-843-8763 INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 7
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Stalemate
TWO MONTHS AFTER AN SRO THREW A GIRL TO THE GROUND IN ROLESVILLE, IT’S UNCLEAR WHAT REFORMS WILL ACTUALLY TAKE PLACE, IF ANY BY ERICA HELLERSTEIN In January, a disturbing video made the rounds on social media. It showed a school resource officer, Ruben De Los Santos, slamming a fifteen-year-old Roseville High student to the ground. The viral video thrust North Carolina into the national spotlight once again, triggered widespread outrage, and galvanized local activists seeking broad system reform. Nearly two months later, however, there doesn’t appear to be much consensus about what’s next. Parents are still demanding answers, activists are calling for a total removal of cops from schools, and yet it’s unclear what, if any, tangible reforms will actually take place. These perspectives were all on display at a town hall meeting with Wake County leaders last week. The discussion, which was convened by county commissioner Jessica Holmes in response to the Rolesville video, included Sheriff Donnie Harrison, school board chairwoman Monika Johnson-Hostler, juvenile court judge Craig Croom, and Rolesville mayor Frank Eagles. Many audience members sought clarity on the role of school resource officers and their interactions with minority students in particular. Critics say the presence of SROs presence worsens the school-to-prison pipeline, which funnels public school students into the juvenile justice system, thanks to zerotolerance behavioral policies. The panelists offered a range of opinions on the role of police officers in schools. There was some consensus: they agreed that schools should invest more in social workers, counselors, and nurses, and that SROs should be responsible for protecting—not disciplining—students. But, absent viable plans for reform, “I didn’t walk away feeling, like wow, something’s gonna really happen,” Letha Muhammed, a parent organizer with the Education Justice Alliance, told the INDY. But the outrage is there, particularly from 8 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
trained people who are not police officers who have the proper training to intervene in any situation,” she says. An SRO-free school system is highly unlikely in an era of school shootings, Commissioner Holmes—a staff attorney for the N.C. Association of Educators—conceded. “I’m not pulling school resources officers from schools in today’s society,” she said at the forum. “That is not what I want to do, because we are in a society of Columbines and school shootings. I would never want to be in a situaImage of Officer Ruben De Los Santos and Rolesville tion where I am responHigh student Jasmine Darwin taken from a video sible for removing posted on social media in January school resource officers parents who feel the presence of SROs comwho are there to protect promises their children’s safety. One father students. Somehow we got into a position of four stood up during the panel’s Q-and-A where they ended up in a position to discisession and asked, voice shaking: “What is pline students.” being done to make sure this doesn’t happen Holmes later told the INDY that she again? How will you keep our kids safe?” favors maintaining the current number of Those calls have not yet yielded concrete SROs, while using any additional resources answers. But Muhammed and other activto “focus on the nurses, social workers, and ists have a distinct request. They’re calling counselors.” She also wants to see additional on the district to remove all police officers training for SROs and to clarify principals’ from schools, beginning with a 50 percent roles as schools’ chief disciplinarians. reduction over the next year. They also want That’s how the system is designed to work: to see the district invest in school counselors, SROs are not supposed to discipline stupsychologists, and other community workdents. According to Wake County Public ers trained to de-escalate conflicts between Schools spokeswoman Lisa Luten, school students. administrators are the only sanctioned arbi“We’re really looking at a peacekeeper ters of discipline. model that they use in other districts and But Eagles, Rolesville’s mayor, says SROs juvenile court systems, where there are are asked to engage in disciplinary practices
regardless of formal policy. “[Teachers] turn to the resource officers to do the discipline,” he says. “Here’s an example. I talked to a resource officer last week. A teacher walked into the school cafeteria, he told the boy, ‘You’re not supposed to be here.’ The boy said, ‘I’m not going to leave.’ The teacher then said, ‘Officer, make that boy leave.’ The teachers and principals try to get the resource officers, law enforcement officers, to do the discipline, and I’ve been told that they’ve been encouraged to do that.” Those conflicting mandates have added complexity to a system Harrison says already lacks consistency, with various law enforcement agencies present in Wake County public schools. To ease that burden, he’s calling for the creation of a Wake County Public Schools police force. “You got one hundred eighty-five thousand people in the schools, and you got twelve chiefs running the schools,” he said. “There’s no way there’s consistency. Every time something happens in a school, fingers are pointed at the police officer. That’s because we don’t have any consistency whatsoever. The principals at each school have their own way of doing something.” That’s little comfort to parents seeking concrete solutions to a protocol they believe disproportionately targets students of color. Diane Whittaker, who stopped by the town hall and has a son at a local high school, often worries about her son’s safety. “He’s a smart kid,” she says. “He plays sports. He always does the right thing. But I always still worry about him, because he is a child of color. He wears hoodies. You feel like you have to coach your kids to try to keep them from getting killed or hurt.” Holmes thinks last week’s meeting was a positive first step. “It was a very raw conversation, from the panelists to the audience,” she says. But “there were areas of consensus, and that’s a good place to start.” ehellerstein@indyweek.com
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he mission of Threshold is to support and advance the vocational, social and personal goals of adults with severe and persistent mental illness. Since 1985 Threshold has been working to improve the quality of life for adults with severe and persistent mental illness in Durham by facilitating meaningful work and meaningful relationships in an environment filled with social, educational, recreational and vocational opportunities. At Threshold, we serve members, not patients or clients. Our members share 4 Basic Rights - 1.) the right to a place to come; 2.) the right to meaningful relationships; 3.) the right to a place to return; 4.) the right to meaningful work. Central to developing a member’s right to work is our Transitional Employment program. The TE program serves as a bridge between Clubhouse work and independent employment. TE jobs are typically entry-level positions with local business partners. These positions are coordinated by Threshold staff who train and support members to achieve success. Threshold staff also temporarily replace members holding TE positions if members are ill or if a medical emergency does not permit them to report to work. Currently Threshold’s community business partners are: Angus Barn • Durham County Public Library Harris Teeter • Food Lion ReUse Warehouse • Timmons Fabrications Zaxby’s • McDonalds • Old Navy We are truly grateful to all of our business partners who are committed to Threshold’s mission and members. Threshold welcomes new members ages 18 and over. Contact us for additional information or for a tour. INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 9
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hen you talk you only repeat what you already know, but if you listen you may learn something” Dr. Ramos discovered this basic truth many years ago and she made it the hallmark of her practice. What makes our Durham Dental Practice unique is we start by listening. Many of us have had the frustrating experience of having to first tell our problem to the secretary, then the assistant, and finally having a minute or two to re-tell it to the doctor. We begin with the doctor listening to you. Dr. Ramos begins by listening to your concerns, reviewing your individual history and explaining the examination process and diseases that may affect you. Only when your past experiences, dental and medical history is thoroughly discussed is the examination started. Your examination involves you and is not merely the collection of data for the doctor. We explain what we see and what is healthy and unhealthy. We call this unique way of examination a “guided tour” of your mouth. Typically on the first visit you have the doctor’s undivided attention prior to any treatment being initiated. Results of the exam are presented to you in an easy to understand written format. Depending on your needs, a Review of Findings appointment may be set up (at no extra charge) solely to have the opportunity to explain your treatment needs and options. Dr. Ramos prepares a detailed Master Plan for your individual optimal health. Only when you are comfortable about the doctor’s recommendations and have all your questions answered do we move forward with treatment. We believe it is our privilege to help you understand your dental health, how it affects your overall health. See our many 5-Star reviews on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drramosdentistry
VILLAGE HEARTH COHOUSING Adult LGBTs and friends living in community
VillageHearthCohousing@gmail.com (Pat) 561-714- 8009 (Margaret)
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ho better to proactively plan for our futures than ourselves? Village Hearth Cohousing is an LGBT-andfriends, 55-and-over community to be built on 15 beautiful, wooded acres merely 20 minutes north of downtown Durham. What is cohousing? It’s an intentional community of folks agreeing to be “good neighbors” while living in private homes clustered around shared space. This is the ideal opportunity for individuals to look realistically at their future and choose to age in a supportive, healthy, neighborly community. Research shows that isolation, loneliness and depression are more impactful on one’s health than physical ailments. Aging in community allows you to be as social or as solitary as you’d like. The members of Village Hearth Cohousing are choosing to know and care about their neighbors, giving and receiving mutual, voluntary support as needed. Imagine waking up every morning with the opportunity to join others for coffee, explore our fifteen acres, play a game, meditate, garden, or share in a common meal – all without having to drive elsewhere. Opportunities to socialize are voluntary, and privacy is always respected. Make the decision now to live smaller and lighter on the planet and enjoy the peace of mind that you can age-in-place in your own home if you so desire. Live better, live smaller, knowing that your neighbors care about you, and the Common House—where something is bound to be going on—is just a short walk from your front door. Cohousing communities are developed, designed, financed and governed by our residents. “Early birds” receive significant home price discounts as well as home selection seniority. Join Village Hearth now to get in on the ground floor and contribute your ideas to the design of our homes and the culture of the community.
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INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 11
THE END OF THE
LANE Born in the shadow of N.C. State, steeped in parties and punk rock, Raleigh’s historic Maiden Lane will soon perish in the name of progress By Thomas Goldsmith and Nijah McKinney Photo by Ben McKeown
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o the casual observer, Maiden Lane doesn’t look like anything special. It’s a single block that turns off Hillsborough Street, tucked behind the boutique Aloft hotel, across from N.C. State’s Memorial Bell Tower. There’s history here, but it’s the sort that takes extra attention to recognize. Maiden Lane’s value resides in the stories of its dozen or so centuryold frame houses, which are now in varying states of upkeep, some turned into frat houses, with yards packed with cars, fronted by buckled sidewalks.
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And while some folks might scoff at the idea that the easy-to-overlook Maiden Lane, its once gracious, now bedraggled houses filled with renters, deserves its placement on the National Register of Historic Places (which it earned in 2006), its connections to both Raleigh’s past and to that of the university to which it is so closely linked are inescapable. For when today’s fraternity men walk those sidewalks, they cross paths with the
spirits of eighties punks and the ghosts of N.C. State professors from the turn of the twentieth century. After all, where else can someone find the mixed traces of D.H. Hill, president of what would become N.C. State from 1908–16, and the crucial Raleigh metal band Corrosion of Conformity? Come summer, however, all of that will disappear. Heavy construction equipment will show up to reduce Maiden Lane to rubble, along with its 125 years of history and its decades of colorful decline. In its place will go a three-story, fifty-foot-tall apartment complex called Hillstone Cameron Village, making room for 201 more inside-the-Beltline dwellings. Hillstone’s property will reach from Enterprise Street to Oberlin Road, taking out a swath of old Raleigh and replacing it with more of the kind of development associated with the Raleigh of the last decade. The Texas-backed developer spent $11.6 million on property and will, proponents say, further the city’s public-policy goals of density, walkability, and access to mass transit. Still, Raleigh will also lose something of value when Maiden Lane falls. That’s clear from a look at the street’s first decades as a respectable streetcar suburb and its subsequent years of families, rentals, politics, fraternity bonding, and punk rock lifestyle. “They’re taking character away from N.C. State,” says twenty-year-old Maiden Lane
resident Austin Conner, a State student and Sigma Chi member who’s been told his lease is up in May. City council member Kay Crowder recently expressed her own fondness for the street, an affection shared by prominent figures such as developer and former Raleigh mayor Smedes York, who lived there while his father, J.W. York, was starting to develop Cameron Village a few blocks away. “We lived at number thirteen Maiden Lane, and I have many, many memories of it,” the seventy-five-year-old York told the INDY recently. “My dad purchased number thirteen on July 1, 1944, and we lived there when I was three, four, and five years old.” In the first half of the twentieth century, horse-drawn wagons brought Pine State milk to Maiden Lane, and kids could ride the streetcar or run all the way to downtown Raleigh to catch a Tom Mix cowboy movie. Former residents often count Maiden Lane
as a landmark. For some, it was a place of growing up. “Maiden Lane is in my district. I’ve driven it,” Crowder said during a January council discussion. She smiled and added, “As a student, I had time over in this area. It was a time. It was a very good time.” Lots of students did. As the decades passed, most of the houses were divided up to make room for generations of students, rock ’n’ rollers, artists, State graduates who couldn’t quite manage to leave Raleigh, denizens of the late Sadlack’s restaurant, and lots and lots of frat members. Maiden Lane is one of Raleigh’s old places, soon to make way for another new place. There’s no denying that the Hillstone complex makes sense from a planning perspective. But there’s also no denying that Raleigh is losing another of the offbeat landmarks that made it so attractive in the first place.
And that’s something worth remembering as yet another shiny new edifice reaches into the city’s skyline.
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o one would propose tearing down rows of century-old houses in Cameron Park, founded in 1910, or Boylan Heights, dating from 1907, but those better-known, also historic “streetcar suburbs” followed in the tracks of Maiden Lane, which got its start in 1892. Nearby attractions included the agricultural and engineering school that became N.C. State and the park donated to the city by R. Stanhope Pullen in 1887. Families were drawn to Maiden Lane, then a rural area outside of the town, because the streetcar line ran west along what was then Hillsboro Road, according to the city’s Historic Development Commission. The nearby state fairgrounds, located beginning in 1873 at what is now the Rose Garden, also
attracted residents. The whole neighborhood was outside the city limits until 1920, distant enough from downtown that it was known as West Raleigh. Many of the street’s early residents worked at the college, which started offering classes in 1889, some holding deanships or other positions that paid well enough to afford a house on Maiden Lane. D.H. Hill, who served as an English professor and the college’s first librarian before his term as the third president of the N.C. College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts (now N.C. State), lived at 2 Maiden Lane with his mother. The steps on the little rise from Hillsborough Street to the Bell Tower site were said to have been built to accommodate Hill, after whom the college’s library was later named, as he walked to his office on campus. (The tower wasn’t built until he left office.) Other prominent Maiden Lane folk included Samuel W. Brewer, an agricultural implements businessman who in about 1900 built INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 13
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ohn Dancy-Jones, a longtime Raleigh resident who recently moved to Asheville, met his wife, Cara, at a 1984 backyard concert on Maiden Lane by Jon McClain and Ugly Americans, the Durham hardcore band. “I saw this flower-power girl standing at a telephone pole, explaining the flowers and plants around it to some guy,” Dancy-Jones says. “I thought, ‘I would like to talk to that girl about gardening.’ I didn't get to, that time, but the next time I saw her we found out we both gardened and both owned pianos, and the rest was history.” According to those in the music and art scene of the early eighties, creative people kept up a trail among Maiden Lane, Sadlack’s, the Hillsborough Street bars, and other nearby Oak City regions. Raleigh resident Brent Wilson played in the band Slow Children, which enjoyed a career moment in 1982 opening for the Go-Gos, a few blocks away at the Pier in the Village Subway. “Because Maiden Lane was off the main drag, it was a major advantage,” says Wilson,
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the house at 4 Maiden Lane that’s occupied today by thirteen Sigma Chi frat members. Architectural engineering professor Howard Ernest Satterfield, known for his high-quality “Satterfield Built” residences, lived on Maiden Lane before building many of the houses in Raleigh’s Hayes Barton suburb in the 1920s. In the 1930s, when Raleigh businessman Zack Bacon was growing up on Maiden Lane, the growing university across the street was an unceasing lure. “That was just about my home; I could go over there and play,” the eighty-eight-yearold Bacon told the INDY recently. “I could go into the gymnasium and play. When I was in the sixth grade, I was the batboy and the water boy for the baseball team. I didn’t know any other school. State College to me was the whole world.” From the early part of the twentieth century, Maiden Lane’s houses offered rooms to students. In August 1917, rooms at 12 and 14 Maiden Lane cost $20 a month. And as decades passed, more of the old homes were rented, and some were converted to businesses. Just as Cameron Park and Boylan Heights once saw many of their elegant homes broken up for rentals, Maiden Lane’s parade of stately beauties took a turn to the commercial as the decades rolled on. “That’s the real shame about it,” says Tom Bryan, a Raleigh biologist and musician who played music on Maiden Lane in the seventies and later. “Some places like Boylan Heights—a lot of those neighborhoods went through a decline. In those places, people recognized the glory and restored the houses. But that didn’t happen on Maiden Lane.”
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who moved into 7 Maiden Lane in 1980. “You could always find somebody to talk to or hang out with somebody. There wasn’t anything desperate. Everybody knew each other, and we had each other’s backs.” One of the bands playing house concerts along the street was Corrosion of Conformity, which went on to worldwide success. COC was in tune with the combination of punk, politics, and parties that ruled Maiden Lane for years. (A vintage poster has COC playing a Maiden Lane house party on May 15, 1983.) “That was our birth, from the primordial ooze of punk rock in the early eighties,” COC member Reed Mullin told Live Metal last year. “That’s where we came from. That’s what we were really into at the time. It wasn’t a hobby. For me in particular, it was between a movement and a religion, the whole punk rock thing, in terms of music and the whole phase we were writing songs about—it was in the midst of the Reagan era.” A frustrated landlord on Maiden Lane installed a fence between Sadlack’s and the street, but it never lasted long. Between “anarchist, hippies, and punks,” Wilson says, the free-flowing atmosphere on Maiden Lane welcomed musicians, artists, leftists, and gay-rights activists, with parties at any one house open to neighbors, too. Frats became a fixture in the mid-twentieth century and remain so to this day. For the members who call Maiden Lane home, the street offers matchless access to campus and an unrivaled party atmosphere. (Depending on which brother you ask, the Raleigh Police Department cruises the street only occasionally or all the time.) “Everyone has come to at least one party on Maiden,” says Cameron Lewis, a twenty-yearold N.C. State student and member of Sigma Chi. “Our lease goes through the summer, and we can’t even renew it. Sigma Chi has been liv-
ing in these houses for five to six years.” (Robert Baumgart, a Raleigh real estate investor, owns the two houses that have been occupied by Sigma Chi. He chose not to take part in the big development on the north end of the street, and he isn’t ready to make public any plans he has for 2 and 4 Maiden Lane. But the occupants say they’re definitely out when their leases are up.) Sigma Chi is only one of the Greek organizations that will be affected by the street’s redevelopment. Alpha Sigma Phi, Phi Gamma Delta, and Delta Kappa Eta will also be looking for new homes. “It’s so unfortunate because all of the history here,” says eighteen-year-old Jake Schronce, a member of Phi Gamma Delta. “It’s changing Greek life altogether.”
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ccording to the minutes of a January 24 Wade Citizens Advisory Council meeting, the students of the old Maiden Lane wouldn’t have a prayer renting at Hillstone. At that meeting, a representative of designers JDavis Architects offered a wealth of information on the new project, including this caveat: “This is being designed as market rate housing where you have to be at least 21 years old to sign the lease, which parents cannot cosign.” Rents haven’t been announced, but nearby apartment complexes advertise prices starting at $1,064 for studios. There’s more to the development than just the Maiden Lane houses. As part of the project, the communal Roundabout Gallery at 305 Oberlin, which backs up to Maiden Lane, will be torn down along with a neighboring artists’ space. And council member Russ Stephenson’s expansive, historic property will also border the new Hillstone development. (Stephenson was out of town and didn’t vote on the measure that closed Maiden Lane.) Representatives of the Dallas-based Leon Capital Group, the developer behind Hillstone, won an agreement from council members on January 3 to close most of Maiden Lane to traffic. In the next month, the developers said then, they’d make every effort to find a way to move one of the old houses to a nearby property. But when attorney Michael Birch and company principal Brian Nicholson returned on February 7, they reported that their efforts had been in vain. They’d talked to a number of different agencies, nonprofits, and business people, they said, with no luck finding anyone willing to move a single house from Maiden Lane. Mike Blake, unofficial king of North Carolina house movers, pointed out in an interview why such a move is unlikely. “I’ve looked at some of those houses on Maiden Lane before. They are just tremen-
dous in size,” Blake told the INDY from his Triad office. “A lot of those houses are higher than telephone poles.” The significance of utility pole height, Blake says, is that a move would involve putting in temporary, sky-high replacement poles at a cost of $15,000–$20,000 apiece. And that’s just one of the obstacles that would have to be overcome to move an aging, possibly termite-ridden house, however warmly people remember it. (Over the weekend, movers found a way to transport two other historic houses to new locations downtown. Planning commission member Matt Tomasulo and his wife, Nicole Alvarez, moved a twelve-hundred-squarefoot house from East Lenoir to South Bloodworth Street. The route was planned for a year and involved wider streets and fewer power lines than the area around Maiden Lane, Tomasulo says.) Instead of moving a house, the developers told the city council, the company has agreed to salvage sought-after elements such as hardwood floors and moldings, as well as to donate $25,000 to the rehabilitation of the Bell Tower and another $17,500 toward historic preservation in Raleigh. They also hope to incorporate elements from Maiden Lane such as stoops, porches, and vintage siding into the buildings. Perhaps there will be public artwork made up of bits and pieces of the houses, they added, offering small inducements to those concerned about the loss of Maiden Lane for posterity. Kay Crowder continues to mourn for the once proud, much used, soon-to-vanish houses of Maiden Lane. “I think it’s unfortunate for a city of our size that we can’t find a way to save a house from the eighteen-hundreds, from our city’s first neighborhoods,” she said at the February meeting. January’s city council discussion on Maiden Lane was protracted, with considerable pressure on the developers to come up with some means of saving perhaps three of the houses. Judy Payne, a former Maiden Lane resident, even suggested that the entire street could be transformed into a pocket business district lined with specialty shops and boutiques. But at the February meeting, when such a recourse was said to be impossible, council members simply proceeded with other business after hearing the move wouldn’t happen. And so it goes: in Raleigh, in Austin, in Nashville, in almost any “hot” town. Some historic buildings are renovated and saved. But others, with a lesser role in mainstream history, get torn from their foundations by a city’s need for density, by the benefits of growth, and, in the end, by a flood of hard cash. tgoldsmith@indyweek.com
I IMPERFECT
JUSTICE
AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS, THE MICHAEL PETERSON CASE CONCLUDES WITH A CONVICTION, BUT NOT CLOSURE BY KEN FINE AND SARAH WILLETS
t’s nearly eighty degrees, unusually warm for a late-February day. The sun is shining, so Michael Peterson walks into the Durham County Courthouse wearing a pair of dark aviator sunglasses. He makes his way to the seventh floor and enters a courtroom surrounded by members of his legal team. He takes a seat and begins to review documents, stopping to pour a Coca-Cola into a Styrofoam cup. When he’s finished, a cameraman walks over to the table and promptly removes the soda can from view. He and other members of the local media have been waiting for more than fifteen years to put a bookend on one of the longest, most salacious, and most expensive trials in North Carolina history, and they want their shot to be unblemished. A lawyer for the former Herald-Sun columnist, novelist, and one-time Durham mayoral candidate tells Peterson to keep his cool. “Don’t get upset,” he says. “Don’t get upset.”
Peterson’s team—led by high-profile criminal defense attorney David Rudolf—has a vested interest in ensuring nothing goes wrong on this particular Friday. They know that if everything goes according to plan, their client, a man convicted of first-degree murder in October 2003, will, within a few hours, walk out of the courthouse a free man. So it’s not surprising that, before the hearing begins, when Peterson’s asked if he wishes he did anything differently over the years, Rudolf declines to answer. “Well, we’re not going to talk about that now,” he says after a brief, exasperated laugh. INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 15
But moments after the seventy-threeyear-old pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter, when he is officially free, he does what people have come to expect from the gifted storyteller since a few months after his wife died. He insists he’s innocent of her murder, that his conviction was nothing short of a conspiracy, an act of revenge. And during a bizarre press conference, he shows little emotion when he discusses his late wife and the blood relatives she left behind. Instead, he focuses on himself, saying pleading guilty to having a role in his wife’s December 9, 2001, death doesn’t mean that he’s actually guilty—that it was “one of the most difficult decisions I have made in my life.” “The second most difficult thing I have ever done was to sit through that trial and listen to lies, perjury, fake evidence, madeup evidence, withheld evidence, unconstitutional searches,” Peterson tells the press. “So many times I wanted to jump up and yell, ‘Liar!’ It’s not right.”
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he truth is, the evidence collected by the Durham Police Department in the days after Kathleen Peterson’s death painted a clear picture for the jury that, after four days of deliberation, convicted Peterson nearly fourteen years ago. And the case the state made against Peterson was sufficient for a judge to award tens of millions of dollars in damages to Kathleen’s daughter, Caitlin Atwater, at the tail end of a wrongfuldeath suit. But Peterson, again casting himself as a victim, didn’t talk Friday about the autopsy report that revealed significant damage to his wife’s head consistent with a beating and not a drunken fall down the stairs, as he has claimed. He failed to mention the bruises all over her body and the family’s financial troubles, which might have been ameliorated by her $1.6 million life insurance policy. He opted out of discussing emails he sent to a male escort. He didn’t make an affirmative case for his innocence but rather used his moment in the spotlight to accuse the police and the district attorney’s office of stacking the deck against him. “I spent a lot of time in Reno,” he told reporters. “The first and most important thing that anybody learns who lives in a city that has casinos is that you’re not going to beat the house. Don’t gamble. That’s pretty much what the judicial system is. It is stacked against the defendant and they will use anything—as they did in my case—to convict you. So why would I play that game again? Am I going to put my life and my freedom in the hands of the Durham police? The district attorney? Look what they did the first time. What is to prevent them from doing it again? So no. I’m not going to play, 16 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
Kathleen Peterson and Caitlin Atwater sit atop a mountain more than thirty years ago. PHOTO PROVIDED BY CAITLIN ATWATER
But Kathleen’s sisters would tell you he took it because, deep down, he knows he did it. “Alford Schmalford,” Kathleen’s sister, Candace Zamperini, proclaimed inside the courtroom. “It’s means nothing. Guilty.”
“Alford Schmalford. A It means nothing. Guilty.” and I told David, ‘I want out.’” But why would an innocent man plead guilty a few months ahead of his retrial, which he was granted after Judge Orlando Hudson determined that a key blood-spatter expert’s testimony should be removed from the record? Why not clear his name, knowing that several damning pieces of evidence have, in the period since his trial, been contaminated and deemed inadmissible? If anything, the state’s case against Peterson is much weaker in 2017 than it was in 2003—which is why prosecutors were willing to agree to an Alford plea, a legal contrivance in which Peterson admits the state has enough evidence to convict him but still maintains his innocence. For Peterson, the plea had an inescapable logic to it. It meant certain immediate freedom, a sentence of time already served. There’d be no possibility of a conviction that could lead to him spending the rest of his days behind bars. Other than being a convicted felon, there was no downside, especially given the risks.
few days after Kathleen was found at the bottom of a staircase in the Petersons’ home on Cedar Street—more than a week before Peterson was indicted by a grand jury and turned himself in on a firstdegree-murder charge—Caitlin Atwater returned to her childhood home for the first time since the killing. The bloodied staircase had been boarded up. The house—particularly the kitchen— was a far cry from its typically organized state. There were cards, flowers, and casseroles on the kitchen counter. Wine and liquor bottles, gifts from grieving friends and neighbors, were everywhere. There was no hint of the Christmas holiday to come—none of the sights and smells associated with Kathleen’s favorite time of year, like the special shortbread cookies dusted with powdered sugar she made every winter. It had been a freak accident, Atwater believed. A terrible, tragic accident. She would later come to change her mind. At that point, the autopsy report that ruled that Kathleen had suffered injuries inconsistent with a fall down the stairs had not yet been released. There had been no revelations about a different woman Peterson was allegedly the last to see alive, who was also found dead at the bottom of a staircase years earlier. There was no gay innuendo or analysis of the Peterson’s declining financial status. There were then only remembrances of the victim—a service at the iconic Duke Chapel and funeral at Maplewood Cemetery four days after Kathleen’s death, as well as the publication of an obituary that revealed much about the Nortel Networks executive, mother, and glass-ceiling-shattering engineer. As the Peterson trial became a nation-
al phenomenon, millions would learn that Kathleen Hunt Atwater Peterson was born February 21, 1953, and grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that she graduated first in her class at J.P McCaskey High School and chose to attend Duke University over Princeton. They would hear reports that, in 1971, she became the first female student accepted into Duke’s engineering school, that she met her first husband in Durham, and that the two had a child in the early eighties. Friends would reveal that Kathleen was heavily involved with the Durham Arts Council and American Dance Festival, and that she hosted dozens of parties for other Bull City socialites and philanthropists. Her daughter and sisters would talk about the loved one they lost. But after her stepfather’s conviction in October 2003, Atwater put Durham in her rearview. She finished school and married a man she’d met at Cornell. She had two children and told herself that moving on with her life is what Kathleen would have wanted her to do. (At her request, the INDY is not revealing Atwater’s married name.) In 2004, six months after Atwater won her wrongful-death suit, Peterson filed for bankruptcy. That September, an appellate court rejected Peterson’s lawyer’s argument that the criminal trial was filled with inflammatory, irrelevant evidence and judicial mistakes. In 2007, the state Supreme Court rejected his appeal for a new trial. The saga appeared to be over. But in a way only such a salacious case could, it took a turn in January 2011, when Duane Deaver, a State Bureau of Investigation blood-spatter expert who testified that the blood found inside Peterson’s shorts could have only gotten there if he had been standing over his wife and beating her as she died, was fired for negligence. Peterson would ultimately be granted a retrial in 2011, and the state’s case against him was supposed to be heard again this May. Of course, that won’t happen now.
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amperini didn’t mince words when she addressed her former brother-in-law Friday. Peterson, she said, beat and murdered her sister—leaving a void in her life and the lives of Kathleen’s other family members. And while she admitted she’d rather see him in jail for the rest of his life, his guilty plea is justice, however imperfect. Kathleen’s other sister, Lori Campbell, agreed. “It’s right that Michael Peterson finally acknowledges in court that there is enough evidence for the prosecution to convict him for the death of my sister, Kathleen, yet it’s wrong that after a jury sentenced him to a life in prison for the murder of his wife, he gets to be a free man while Kathleen lies in
THE PETERSON CASE: A TIMELINE December 9, 2001: Kathleen Peterson, a Nortel executive and Durham Arts Council board member, is found dead at the base of a staircase in her home. Her husband, novelist, Herald-Sun columnist, war veteran, and former Durham mayoral candidate Michael Peterson, had called 911 and said Kathleen was injured when she fell down the stairs. December 13, 2001: Kathleen is buried in Maplewood Cemetery. December 18, 2001: Michael Peterson, who has not yet been charged in his wife’s death, hires defense attorney David Rudolf, an attorney who helped former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth avoid the death penalty in 2001 for his role in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. December 20, 2001: Peterson surrenders to police after a grand jury indicts him for first-degree murder. January 14, 2002: Peterson’s bond is set at $850,000, and he is released from jail. February 18, 2002: Kathleen’s autopsy is released to the public. It reveals that she suffered several deep cuts to the back of her head and that there were signs of a struggle. March 18, 2002: Peterson, for the first time since his wife’s death, talks to the press. He proclaims his innocence. May 10, 2002: Durham County District Attorney Jim Hardin presents in court the autopsy of Elizabeth Ratliff, the mother of Peterson’s two adopted daughters, who died in Germany in 1985. Ratliff was found at the bottom of a staircase with several deep cuts to her scalp, but her cause of death had been listed as a stroke. Peterson was allegedly the last person to see her alive. October 29, 2002: Caitlin Atwater, Kathleen’s daughter, files a wrongful-death lawsuit against her stepfather. February 18, 2003: Elizabeth Ratliff's two daughters, Margaret and Martha—now Mike Peterson’s legal wards—give the District Attorney’s Office permission to exhume their mother’s body from her Texas grave, saying they want to clear Peterson’s name. April 14, 2003: Officials exhume the body of Elizabeth Ratliff and bring her remains to Chapel Hill for an autopsy. On April 29, the state medical examiner’s report states that Elizabeth Ratliff died of blunt-force
Michael Peterson PROMOTIONAL IMAGE FOR
THE STAIRCASE 2: LAST CHANCE
trauma to the head. Her injuries are similar to those sustained by Kathleen, according to prosecutors. May 5, 2003: Jury selection begins. Jurors are seated in June. October 10, 2003: After four days of deliberation, a jury finds Peterson guilty of first-degree murder. He is sentenced to life in prison. January 16, 2004: Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson rules in favor of Caitlin Atwater in her wrongful-death lawsuit. June 14, 2006: Peterson files for bankruptcy. September 19, 2006: A three-judge N.C. Court of Appeals panel, with one judge dissenting, rejects Peterson’s argument that he did not receive a fair trial. February 1, 2007: Peterson and Caitlin Atwater agree to a $25 million settlement. November 9, 2007: The N.C. Supreme Court rejects Peterson’s appeal. January 11, 2011: Duane Deaver, a State Bureau of Investigation blood analyst who testified in the Peterson trial, is fired after a review of the state crime lab showed he was negligent in dozens of tests he performed on the state’s behalf. February 15, 2011: Peterson files a motion for a retrial based on Deaver’s termination. December 14, 2011: Judge Hudson grants Peterson a new trial and places him under house arrest. The retrial is eventually scheduled for May 2017. February 7, 2017: News breaks that Peterson, now seventy-three, will plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in his wife’s death, in exchange for a sentence of time served. Sources tell the media that he’ll enter an Alford plea, in which he acknowledges that the state has enough evidence to convict him but still maintains his innocence. February 22, 2017: In a memorandum in support of Peterson’s Alford plea, attorney Rudolph defiantly proclaims his client’s innocence: “He did not kill Kathleen Peterson. He did not attack Kathleen Peterson. He is not responsible for her death in any way.” February 24, 2017: Peterson pleads guilty, bringing this saga to a close.
her grave,” she said. “Closure is for a door. Not for my murdered sister.” Atwater, in an exclusive interview with the INDY published Friday morning, said there would never be closure. But she didn’t want to discuss the trial or her mother’s killer or her feelings about the Alford plea. “The only thing that I have to say about the trial and all the subsequent fallout is that, if there was any closure to possibly come from all of this, it came after sitting through the entire trial and listening day after day to all the evidence—on both sides,” she said. “And after the closing arguments, when all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. I knew what happened to my mom. While there’s no true closure that can ever come for an event like this, for a loss this deep, I was ready to walk away and start moving forward with my life.” Nothing that’s happened since the trial— the appeals, the infamous “owl theory” (in which a neighbor of the Petersons suggested that an owl had flown into the home and caused Kathleen’s death), the SBI fiasco— has changed how she feels. So she chose to talk about the woman she lost, to ensure that the millions who have followed the Peterson case for all these years didn’t forget that there were many victims in this case, one of them a mother who would do anything to make sure her loved ones, especially her daughter, were provided with special memories to cherish for a lifetime. She talked about her fifth or sixth birthday, how Kathleen—despite her long hours at Nortel and her role as a prominent Durham socialite—went to great lengths to ensure her little girl had the perfect tea party. And she talked about how she used to keep a list, several pages of things Kathleen
wasn’t able to experience with her daughter, and said she found that the milestones were easier to get through than the routine. “Of course, there are the clichés, but I think the big days, like getting married and having kids or buying a new home, the big things in your life, the anticipation of those, of not having my mom there, those weren’t as bad as I thought because I was so dreading it,” Atwater said. “When those moments finally arrive, you’ve already been through so much emotionally, that, yes, it’s still hard, but at least you know why it’s hard.” It’s the constant fear of losing her connection to Kathleen that will forever make Atwater a victim. “When your memories start to fade some, and they have started to fade, it’s hard,” she said. But it also drives her “to live the way I think I would if she were here with me.” At her house, Atwater displays just one picture of her mother. The image embodies the way she sees Kathleen more than fifteen years after her death. In it, Caitlin, perhaps five years old, sits on her mother’s lap at the top of a mountain. They’re looking out over water, their turned faces revealing no discernible details. But it brings back a feeling: the freedom of the wind and the beauty of their surroundings, a mother wrapping her arms around her daughter. And it’s that warmth—that instinct to live for her family—that defines Kathleen all these years later. “I’ve tried to be the person I think I would have been if she were here,” Atwater said. “And hopefully, that’s a part of her legacy I can pass on to my own kids.” backtalk@indyweek.com Additional reporting by Meagan Howard. INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 17
wears as consulting ists behin cern’s mos strangely, The com ater for m director, J twice tha before, bu This Is No books by Markson, for adults out to be t It’s par Cornell w Elsewhere sive theate No More. tential th some abst not in a sc hands wit into a fairy
Behold so in-proces Is Not a N its instal run-throu Exchange Arts Cen
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alking into the warren of untenanted storefronts beside the Scrap Exchange, I find them anything but vacant. The corridor inside teems with hurried industry and strange tableaux—a mad scientist’s lab here, a sort of Viking vanity table there. Someone carrying a large, ridiculous bird puppet scurries by. Flickering lights beckon from the doors lining the corridor, so I go in.
breaks down, too, as drop ceilings give way to In one room, dark but for a single bulb, a open ductwork. In these restricted areas of sleeping man wakes up when I clap my hands. commercial architecture, a delicious forbidHe scribbles a poem in an old book, rips out denness steals in. I feel like the protagonist of the page, hands it to me, and goes back to a postmodern novel, lost, fragmenting among sleep. In another, a woman bathed in a projecthe exposed guywires of narrative conventor beam entangles herself in hanging vines. tion. By the time I’m suddenly spit back out On the floor of a tiny movie theater nearby, into the night, somewhere other than where polystyrene peanuts pile in ankle-deep drifts, I’d entered, a dream logic trailing from my shoes as has taken hold, and a sinI enter a brightly lit alcove LITTLE GREEN PIG gle strand of lights floating where taut wires draw the THEATRICAL CONCERN: in the darkness leads me air into a vanishing point. THIS IS NOT A NOVEL up a flight of metal stairs The straight line of the March 2–4 & 9–11, 8 p.m., and into another level of path breaks down as I $8–$12 the labyrinth. move deeper in, crisscrossThe Scrap Exchange’s ReUse This is a maze without a ing twisting halls and cavArts Center, Durham Minotaur, but it does have ernous chambers, through www.littlegreenpig.com a Daedalus. He’s identiincreasingly elaborate visfiable by the headset he tas and interactions. Space 18 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
wears as he swoops through his creation, consulting with the dozens of actors and artists behind Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern’s most ambitious, most challenging, and, strangely, most accessible adventure yet. The company has been a force in local theater for more than a decade, and its artistic director, Jaybird O’Berksi, has been one for twice that long. He’s done things like this before, but never on such a monumental scale. This Is Not a Novel, derived from a tetralogy of books by the obscure but esteemed David Markson, is billed as “a delirious playscape for adults,” which sounds fanciful but turns out to be the plainest description possible. It’s part visual puzzle box (think Joseph Cornell writ large), part living art space (think Elsewhere in Greensboro), and part immersive theater à la the New York sensation Sleep No More. It’s an irrational maze, more existential than physical, the exit retreating to some abstract distance. It’s a little scary, but not in a scary way. It makes you want to hold hands with someone, like children striding into a fairy tale, lusty for wonder and danger.
Such literary fancies are encouraged by the audio issuing from my phone, a chorus of voices quoting writers, artists, and philosophers, with valences but no apparent order. The installation is only half-finished, but there’s enough to keep me transfixed for well over an hour. I leave with a head full of visions—a couple trysting on a mattress, a glowing wall of specimen jars, a silhouette in an inflatable cube, a corde lisse dancer—and pockets full of paper scraps. There’s an index card that says “to write,” a dictionary page with “The center of the earth is a procrastinating engine” inked on a picture of a curlew, and a tract that describes the electrifying space between brilliance and buffoonery that Little Green Pig makes its own. “The new thing that this artist wants to create is more than a painting,” the tract says. “It is more than a sculpture. It is life itself. Or it’s a piece of trash. Or it’s both at the same time.” l l l
O’Berski was already known to everyone as
“We’re not highbrow. But most entertainment is not challenging at all.”
Jay, so when he decided to legally change his name last year, he went all in on what his mother calls him, Jaybird. “There’s a bunch of Jays in the area, and Jay sounds like 'hey,' so I was always turning around,” he says over lunch at the Federal. “And I thought it was just a more distinctive name.” It fits him, as there is something faintly birdlike in the thrust of his head, his closecropped pate, his alert gaze. But he was born Jerry O’Berski in Troy, Michigan. In the Reagan eighties, he found his way into punk rock and theater. Something anarchic of the former still lingers in his approach to the latter. “I ended up in this incubator of weird guys,” he recalls. “They were tabletop gamers, actors, musicians with bands. Straight edge. It was all about reading books, seeing films, writing plays.” One was Curtis Eller, now a musician in Durham, who was also a member of O’Berski’s first theater company, which he started because he “didn’t like Fiddler on the Roof.” It was simply called Experimental Theater, which was enough to distinguish it in a middle-class suburb of Detroit.
Behold some of the in-process sights of This Is Not a Novel during its installation and first run-through at the Scrap Exchange’s future ReUse Arts Center.
INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 19
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Jaybird O’Berski (right) and crew prepping for This Is Not a Novel “The theater was a good place to be bad but not get in trouble,” O’Berski says. “It was a safe place to be passionate, fight, beat people up and not hurt them, have love affairs and not have repercussions.” After high school, he started preveterinary studies at the University of Michigan. “But it was all death, euthanizing animals all day,” he says. “So I bailed on that and switched to theater.” He started another company with Eller and others from his high school, the Rude Mechanical Underground. “It was playful and wild and anti-establishment, lots of swearing just to swear,” O’Berski says. “A lot of the same kind of transgressive work as Little Green Pig, with a lot of campiness.” After graduating, O’Berski and his crew fanned out to take the artistic temperature of cities around the country. He drew Madison, San Francisco, and Chapel Hill. In 1992, as the national furor around the indie music scene peaked, Chapel Hill seemed like the place to be. O’Berski saw it as a place poised for a theater scene, with a strong foundation in the ArtsCenter and Manbites Dog Theater, then only a few years old. He started teaching at the former and volunteering at the latter, and soon landed a role in a play directed by Jeff Storer. Meanwhile, his new company, the Somnambulist Project, was publishing zines and putting up freewheeling summer shows at Forest Theatre. (This scene was ground zero for another local institution, Paperhand Puppet Intervention.) Somnambulist also put on the Anti Shakespeare Festival, which seems odd for someone whose prior company was named after
the bad actors from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and who would soon start a Shakespeare company (Shakespeare & Originals, which O’Berski ran from 1997 to 2002). The Bard was even performed in the festival. “It wasn’t anti-Shakespeare,” O’Berski qualifies. “I love Shakespeare, though I think you have to take it apart and put it back together. It was anti-Shakespeare-festival, to warn people we were going to be weird.” The Somnambulist Project began as a leaderless voting collective. O’Berski left in 1995 after they voted to have an artistic director, which was necessary to pursue grants. The company folded within a year. Realizing he was going to be adjuncting at Duke forever without a master’s degree, he earned one in a Carnegie Mellon/Moscow Art Theatre program. After returning, he got a professorship in the theater department, where he and his wife both still teach. “I didn’t want to sell things,” he says. “If I’m going to work for a corporation, I feel like my job at Duke is being the last chance for the people who are going to be in charge of us to have some artistic soul.” O’Berski coufounded Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern with Dana Marks, now his wife, in 2005. Marks, whom O'Berski calls "the soul of the company," is managing director; she is one of the curators of Novel. “At the time, I thought you had to blow up a theater company every five years,” O’Berski says. Little Green Pig broke the cycle—barely. In its first five years, the company focused its seasons on different regions of the world, but that began to feel limiting and floated away. It
gradually developed a focus on original and devised theater, in recent years dissecting sources such as The Diary of Anne Frank and the music of Kraftwerk. Devised theater is a modish methodology of collectively dismantling and reassembling texts. O’Berski and his company members have begun teaching it in places like China and Brazil “We work well making visual work out of intellectual work,” O’Berski says of his company’s values. “We are committed to feminism, what I would call enlightenment values—reason, respect, and love are more important than fear, anxiety, and judgment. We try to be funny, diverse, and real while making weird shit.” These humble, humane values are offset—or, perhaps, galvanized—by others that, on the surface, seem contradictory. O’Berski approaches a text almost as a dare, as is clear in something as patently anti-theatrical as Markson. This implies a dare to the audience, too, and comes with a certain condescension to popular mediocrities. “The idea of the safe bet, the well-made play—that’s for commercial work,” O’Berski says. “This is art-house theater. It’s not for all buyers. We’re not trying to make any money off of it. We want pure exploration but in a palatable way, something people would actually want to see.” Little Green Pig’s members work on stipends. Since last year, they've been experimenting with patronage through the website Patreon. The goal is that eventually, sustainers who receive special rewards can cover the costs for those who can’t afford to spend ten or fifteen dollars on experimental theater. But it’s a slow road for a company whose artistic director scorns comfort food, cultivating work that is vibrant but challenging, politically angry but never on the nose. “We’re not highbrow,” O’Berski says. “But most entertainment is not challenging at all. It’s for beleaguered people who don’t want to think at the end of the day. The laziness of imagery—now you feel sad, now you feel happy, this is a joke, this is an atrocity—we try to blur that so the audience can decide when to laugh hysterically or find something upsetting.” Recall that Daedalus didn’t only make the Minotaur’s maze. He also made Icarus’s wings. O’Berski likewise sends up his theatrical contraptions made of pitch and feathers, screwball concepts and impenetrable scripts, knowing they’ll crash if they fly too lowbrow, melt if they fly too highbrow. This Is Not a Novel risks the latter, but in fact, it might be the perfect Little Green Pig starter show. It pushes so far past experimental that it comes out the other side, back into accessible territory.
“There’s a bit of a cult of personality around him, but he is really magnetic.”
After all, access is about knowing the rules. When there are no rules, there’s nothing to know—just an enchanting, self-directed, uniquely first-person experience. l l l
I suppose this merits a disclosure, though it’s the most random one I’ve ever issued. At the run-through, a very tall man with a genial Southern demeanor walks up to me and introduces himself as Bill Floyd. He reminds me of something I’d completely forgotten— that, a year ago, he’d emailed me cold to ask for advice about a theater adaptation of an experimental novel. It sounded like a wild idea, so naturally I suggested he reach out to O’Berski. When O’Berski and Marks started reading Markson, they loved it, and Marks sent out a Twitter blast to artist friends to find collaborators. “Somehow it has this visceral emotional surge, yet there’s no plot and character, just facts,” O’Berski says. “I told Bill, knock yourself out.” Markson, who died in 2010, started out writing offbeat crime novels and westerns, one of which became the film Dirty Dingus Magee, starring Frank Sinatra. But he’s best known for Wittgenstein’s Mistress, which David Foster Wallace anointed as a high point
of American experimental fiction. “That’s where he started to get his form of little snippets, but it was still fiction,” Floyd says. “His last four books, the ones we adapted, really hit on his collage of factoids and anecdotes about composers and painters and musicians and writers and philosophers.” Like Markson, Floyd is a former genre writer turned experimentalist. His thriller The Killer’s Wife was published a decade ago, but he doesn’t read those kinds of books anymore. Now, Markson is more his speed. “I don’t have a classical education, so I don’t know half the names, but I feel it has a page-turner effect after a while,” he says. “The themes resonate.” He wanted to hear the unusual prose, with its subtle but distinctive syntax, in actors’ mouths, even though he’d never had anything to do with theater. At first, Floyd adapted the books—Reader’s Block, This Is Not a Novel, Vanishing Point, and The Last Novel—as a play. But on the first read-through, O’Berski said he thought it should be an installation. “It was three hours long, and it really was mesmerizing,” O’Berski says. “It seemed like something you could be listening to while having an immersive experience, like going to a gallery and listening to information on works of art.” Little Green Pig was primed for this kind of project. Its annual Halloween fundraiser, Treatbag, is a small-scale theater installation, and ten years ago, O’Berski made Misterioso, an immersive re-creation of a jazz loft, for Duke Performances. For This Is Not a Novel, the company rented three spaces, each containing rooms of various dimensions (two of them without electricity), in the Lakewood strip mall the Scrap Exchange is turning into its ReUse Arts Center. Beholden only to their interpretation of the text and the oversight of several curators, the spaces were designed by twenty different local artists and groups, including Neill Prewitt, Gabrielle Duggan, Stephanie Leathers, Alex Maness, and INDY contributor Chris Vitiello. Actors perform vignettes throughout, including one by O’Berski that sets the overall tone: a Bukowski-esque L.A. flophouse full of degenerates, wannabes, and artists. The recorded text is read by some sixty people, from Little Green Pig company members to children and Duke football players. You download it on your phone and wander for as long as you please. “I was a little bit hesitant but he convinced me,” Floyd says. “At the first walk-through I found Jay and told him I was right to trust him. They did something I never would have come up with. It’s like Markson says: A writer doesn’t necessarily know where this is going but he hopes it’ll end up some place that even
surprises the writer himself.” It was the right decision. The text is compelling when you can pop in and out of it, but a traditional theatrical setting, with the quotations coming at you ceaselessly, would have felt like a hostage situation. Little Green Pig devised a form for the formidable text that renders it as accessible as it was to Floyd without watering it down. Company member Caitlin Wells, who designed a room in the show, has been working with O’Berski as an actor—and, starting this fall, as a director, with a show based on Viv Albertine of the Slits’ punk-rock biography—since 2013. She’s also a member of collectively run troupe the Delta Boys, whose Orlando at Manbites Dog recently earned our highest rating. She’s says there are no two companies in the state she’d rather work with. “It’s hard to even separate Jay from Little Green Pig. There’s a bit of a cult of personality around him, but he really is magnetic,” she says. “He’s wildly inventive; he’s got these kooky ideas he manages to pull off in a way no one else would even consider. One of his strengths is bringing together all the right people for a given show.” I ask her about a certain quality of O’Berski I’ve been trying and failing to pin down in words. I keep coming up with inadvertently insulting terms like “earned arrogance” or “self-aware arrogance” that I know aren’t what I mean. Caitlin comes through. “Sometimes he sees things before anyone else does,” she says. “He gets the germ of an idea and pushes it through come hell or high water, and some people want to get out of the way of it, but others get swept up in it. It can rub people the wrong way but it’s also what makes him a great director. He has this wild confidence, relatively visionary—the word that keeps coming to mind is brashness.” It’s this wildly confident bearing that has made O’Berski one of the fundamental architects of the Triangle theater scene, and it’s seldom been on display more clearly than in this brash, visionary show. “We want to conjure up stages of confusion, frustration, submission, fascination, and finally luxuriating in an alternately lyrical, unnerving dream,” O’Berski says of the ultimate goals of This Is Not a Novel. “We hope to mirror the search that Markson was on in his final novels,” he adds. “Some elements stick and many others are immediately forgotten, but there's a sense of that being OK, that as an adult you get to choose what's tragic or hilarious or sexy or vile. We're hoping for maximum stimulation at some times and focused minimalism at others. Chaos and Zen, one being impossible to experience without the other.” arts@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 21
indyfood
WHISKEY KITCHEN
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Nectar of the Gods
TWO HUNDRED VARIETIES OF BROWN BOOZE AND SOLID SOUTHERN COOKING SHINE TOGETHER AT WHISKEY KITCHEN BY EMMA LAPERRUQUE Whiskey Kitchen doesn’t care that it’s winter. Neither, it seems, does the woman sitting with crossed bare legs across the dining room, shoulder-to-shoulder with her date at a booth. Nor do the friends tucked at a table amid the bar crowd, digging in to a seafood boil with head-on shrimp and smoked sausage, tiny potatoes, and a hunk of yellow corn. Nor do the people gathered outside, huddled under heat lamps and holding icy cocktails. Here, the vibe is less thirty-two degrees, more Saturday night, and Whiskey Kitchen just wants you to have a good time. The restaurant opened in August, less than a year after its co-owner and chef, Michael Thor, was severely injured in a motorcycle accident that damaged his spinal cord. The community rallied behind him to pay his medical costs, and co-owner Jeff Mickel and chef Jonathan Botta continue to carry out Thor’s vision as he continues his recovery. In warmer weather, Whiskey Kitchen’s front window rolls up, merging its indoor and outdoor spaces. This design bolsters the idea that, sometimes, bigger really is better. The six thousand-square-foot space feels like a warehouse, but a Brooklyn warehouse, a place where hip urbanites make pickles during the week and flock to, in gaggles, on the weekend. A mammoth mural depicting a feast of regal proportions presides on one wall, and there’s plenty of exposed brick and rough-hewn wooden tables. Along with the added seating on the patio and at the bar, it has a total capacity of 142. But on a Sunday, when the place is nearly empty, the giant setting seems like a poor fit for a culinary venue. “Sunday is our hangover day,” explains my server. He tells me to come back again on a Saturday. That, he assures me, is when the place gets “thumping.” So, a few weeks later, I did—and he was right. It thumped. Now, on a Saturday, you are told fortyfive minutes “max” for a two-top, and you’ll wait ninety. But on a Sunday, you seat yourself. It’s fun to spend half this time drinking, less so to spend the rest of the time star22 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
The patio at Whiskey Kitchen begs for an ice cream sandwich. PHOTO BY BEN MCKEOWN ing, longingly, at deep-fried cauliflower as it slides into the food pass and whooshes out of sight. Once we sit and place our orders, we start plunging the florets in sunflower seed pesto. Then our Sunday server appears. He is happy we followed his advice. Standout service is consistent. On our first visit, as I flipped through the novellalength drink list, my partner asked our server to help. He chuckled, grabbed an empty chair from a nearby table, and took a seat. This mishmash of know-how and nonchalance—exemplified by the seemingly infinite display of bottles behind the bar, which employees mount a ladder to reach—is where Whiskey Kitchen shines. The whiskey collection is organized by origin: America, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Japan, with more than two hundred varieties overall. Prices range from $6–$96. There are other spirits, too, plus wine and beer.
But, when in Rome, try an old-fashioned in a heavy glass, or, better yet, a boulevardier, a rye revamp on a Negroni that outdoes the original. As the drinks globe-trot and sightsee, the food would rather stay at home and rock on the porch, hosting a backyard cookout and exhorting one and all to “Come in, come in, I’ll fix y’all something nice.” When in doubt, get any sandwich; they’re good after one drink and great after two. The cornmealcrusted fried skate sandwich, with spicy mayo and cabbage slaw, stretches to infinity and beyond its bun, like David Chang’s Chick-Fil-A-inspired Fuku that took Instagram by storm. The lamb cheeseburger is less photogenic, but it has a great personality. Both are an ideal match for chubby, crusty potato wedges, sprinkled with salty malt vinegar powder, which will coat your fingertips, thrillingly, like a bag of Cheetos. You could,
instead, up-charge for a foil-bundled baked yam with homemade, blackened marshmallows and pecan butter. Next time, I’ll get one of each and save the yam for dessert. The ice cream sandwiches are hit-or-miss. An earlier, summery rendition, with cornmeal cookies and smoked peach ice cream, sounded like a home run. The current iteration, however, with fudgy chocolate cookies sparkling with crunchy salt, would be better off without the kind-of-coffee ice cream. Whatever you order, sandwich or otherwise, odds are it’ll be smoked. The word appears on the dinner menu fourteen times. Some are standard, like smoked chicken, whose flabby skin is off-set by juicy meat and a charred scallion chimichurri. Or smoked local bluefish dip with everything-bagel chips, which introduces New York-Jewish and Southern like two old friends. Other smoked items are more surprising, like smoked chili paste with tarragonbuttered littlenecks; smoked blue cheese in a beet salad; and smoked, whipped cream alongside a pork crackling-crusted biscuit, which is as welcome as flowers arriving at your office on a Wednesday just because. Only the smoked ketchup, for the potato wedges, tries too hard. From the outside, Whiskey Kitchen reads: “One Part Neighborhood Bar. One Part Southern Kitchen. A Dash of Wood Smoke. Muddle with a No-Bullshit Attitude. Shake like Hell. Strain Over Sweet Patio.” If you swing by on a late night, you’ll barely notice these words. From a distance, you’ll just see a big, bright room, shaking with people, thrumming with chatter and chuckles, clutters and clanks. As you get closer, the noise will call to you—come in, come in, where it’s warm. food@indyweek.com
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indymusic
BLUE CACTUS Blue Cactus (Self-released)
Blue Cactus’s tagline, “one prick, and you’re stuck,” feels like cheesy country kitsch. But it’s fitting for the duo, whose new-meets-old country blend will beckon the listener back again. Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez, operating as Blue Cactus, fully embody the love and heartbreak of honky-tonk without completely abandoning their Americana roots on their debut. Blue Cactus is filled with sweeping ballads that depict the trials and tribulations of relationships, infusing classic country with an acutely personal sensibility and modern instrumentation. The album stems from the winding down of two significant relationships—the duo’s previous string-band endeavor, Steph Stewart and the Boyfriends, and Stewart’s marriage—and the beginning of another (Stewart and Arnez are also partners). The album begins with a few upbeat ditties before shifting to longer, softer ballads. Delicate drums, electric guitar, fiddle, and more layer upon one another throughout, and each track seamlessly flows into the next. “So Right (You Got Left)” becomes an easy sing-along as Stewart’s sweet Southern accent bounces alongside easygoing instrumentation. Even through a set of speakers, Stewart and Arnez’s dynamic chemistry is delightfully apparent. They trade off the responsibility of lead vocals and harmonizing, their voices weaving together with the ease of natural conversation from track to track. But tucked 24 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
between the discourse, two instrumental tracks shift the scene from last call at a country bar to the subsequent loneliness of a distant, empty home—literally or figuratively. Elsewhere, that emptiness becomes increasingly palpable. “You put all our pictures in the closet/All my clothes in a suitcase by the door,” Stewart croons on “Forever (Never Happened For Me)” over a weepy guitar, and “Not Alone (‘Til You Come Home)” hits even harder. Stewart’s strong voice and her striking lyrics cut deep, while delicate instrumentation and Arnez’s haunting harmonizing only add to the song’s intense emotional pull. At its root, Blue Cactus speaks to a sense of collective heartache, but one that isn’t permanent. On the album’s closing track, Stewart sings, “Cause the present that’s happened/ Just became the past.” Blue Cactus sings of a brokenness that also inspires, in songs that imagine the bright days that lie ahead. —Elizabeth Byrum
NATURAL CAUSES Natural Causes (Sorry State)
Carrboro trio Natural Causes are synth-punk purists. In other words, they’re always at war with themselves. Such is the genre’s tradition: Before Le Tigre, LCD Soundsystem, et al., made the term synonymous with “mildly rugged indie pop” in the early aughts, synthpunk pioneers like Suicide and Nervous Gender sought to unsettle audiences, rather than placate them. Their art derived its intense
STRAY OWLS
Friday, March 3, 9 p.m., $8 Local 506, Chapel Hill www.local506.com
gravity from the uncanniness of technological innovation and the conflicts inherent in its integration into rock writ large: guitars versus synths, artificial versus organic, man versus machine. Natural Causes’ commitment to restlessness is so strong, it predates the band itself—all three members worked together in the furious garage rock trio Last Year’s Men (albeit in different roles) in addition to taking on noisemaking duties in the likes of Paint Fumes and Flesh Wounds. The group’s first release, 2015’s self-titled LP, presented an appropriately fierce clash of titans. With piercing synth jabs, keyboardist and vocalist Ian Rose sabotaged the fuzz-rock riffs of guitarist and vocalist Ben Carr, while drummer Geoff Schilling hammered his kit to pieces behind them. The band’s second record, which is also self-titled, proceeds in the same fashion with similarly strong results. While the men of Natural Causes spend a considerable chunk of their second record scrapping, as on “I Say Nothing,” “New Hues,” and “So It Goes,” they’re always quick to make up, launching collective assaults throughout. “Like It Should” pivots from a gothic surfer jam to an industrial assembly line; its second half finds Schilling’s hissing thumps carrying along a springy bass line on a percussive conveyer belt, where they’re promptly cleaved by buzz-tooth guitars. Other tracks, such as “Gun” and “Bad Luck Eyes,” showcase the band’s combined force by way of a more primal perspective: garage rippers guided by the reptile brain, rather than the mathematical mind. The record’s defining track, “Fashion Device” has a similar collective spirit, making for the perfect finale for the preceding halfhour tug-of-war. Rather than pit their respective riffs, synth lines, and drum beats against one another, Rose, Carr, and Schilling strut into the void in lockstep, saturating every square inch of sonic space with madness. Eccentric, dank, and unrelentingly abrasive as Natural Causes may sound, its second LP is a party record at heart. Like its predecessor, the trio’s latest effort resembles the soundtrack to an underground rager fueled by chaotic glee. There’s no space for dancing here, no room to think: all you can do is submit to the din and revel in the band’s explosive stunts. It makes for one hell of a show. —Zoe Camp
STRAY OWLS A Series of Circles (Potluck)
Dialect is a funny thing. You don’t hear your own accent, not usually, but you can certainly recognize it in others. What you’re hearing is absences, or what the other person isn’t saying. It’s a lot like that with rock bands. The default setting—a guitar or two, a bass, drums—creates a soundscape so familiar the mind treats it as a single unit. When you play around with the default, perhaps by removing a few elements, the mind gets stuck on it just as it does when encountering an unfamiliar dialect. Stray Owls, a Mebane outfit consisting of guitarists Matt French and Scott Griffiths, is a rock band that speaks with an accent. At times, they function as a plainspoken folk duo with effects and noise washing behind them, reminiscent of freak folk but without the starry-eyed idealism. On other occasions, they crunch along like a blues-rock band that’s missing some personnel. Across the ten tracks of A Series of Circles, its debut LP, Stray Owls kick around the liminal space between fuzzy psych-rock and jangly living room folk without raising either flag. The music is familiar and fringe all at once. Take, for example, the down-tempo closing track, “Red Flags.” For two minutes, it sounds like a White Stripes song coming unglued, but not quite collapsing. After a brief noise break, “Red Flags” gathers steam and urgency with French’s creepy howl of “I’m the ghost on your laundry list.” The
trappings are eccentric and noisy, but a core of songcraft and a handful of themes reassert themselves throughout: old houses, the inaccessibility of the past, the austerity of solitude. “We only needed the bare necessities/ in that house from the nineteenth century,” Griffiths sings in the bucolic, straightforward “Auctioned Off.” He continues, “The lake has dried up and our childhood is auctioned off.” When the group's arrangements have ample space to breathe, such as in “Ruin Is Formal,” the results simply shine. For the first three minutes, it’s a haunted, rural instrumental that builds with menacing, patient percussion. Then Griffiths sings a concise, poignant vignette: an old woman, dying of old age in her farmhouse while her husband is outside, doing chores. He returns to the house to find that she’s died, so he tenderly closes her eyes. What A Series of Circles builds to, ultimately, is the cousin of Greil Marcus’s evercited concept of “old, weird America.” With its balance of acoustic guitars and fuzzedout feedback, its tales of loss and isolation and woe, and its rhythms of collapse and decay, Stray Owls represent a sort of new, weird America—one born in Mebane. —Corbie Hill
TRANDLE hi key low key
(Raund Haus Records)
Instrumental hip-hop can be tricky. Sifting through the genre’s Bandcamp tags indicates an impressive volume of work, but by the same token, there’s also more paint-bynumbers Jay Dee worship being shoveled online than ever before. Like experimental film, or poetry, you have to ask of the artist. “Am I in good hands?” With Randy Maples, better known as Trandle, that answer is yes. Stylish and scrappy, his debut album, hi key low key, has plenty to offer as a portrait of a young Durham beatmaker sharpening his craft. A brief spin through the thirty-nine-minute record, the second release on Durham’s Raund Haus Records, quickly demonstrates Trandle’s beatmaking chops and his keen ear for eclectic sounds. Hi key low key hopscotches all over the grid, from
NATURAL CAUSES
Saturday, March 4, 9 p.m., $8–$10 Local 506, Chapel Hill www.local506.com
the blown-out lo-fi trap of “1382” to the breezy, dub-flecked ambience of “spring rydim.” Beginning with a thick fuzz, “win// lose” builds up into gleeful glitchery. Trandle even throws in a nod to footwork on the effervescent “bye,” which whirls through repetitious chipmunk soul. Trandle’s roots stem from Durham’s skate culture, and that scene’s DIY, anything-goes experimentation is reflected in the amount of wild experimentation on hi key low key. As with skating, Trandle’s approach to his music sometimes relies on making up his own tricks as he goes along. But when those tricks are stacked end to end, not everything lands with equal success. Some cuts from hi key low key feel less labored over and fleshed out than others, sometimes resting too slavishly on riding out a decent sample loop into the dusk. However, with seventeen tracks, few of which pass the three-minute mark, it’s not a fatal flaw. The unifying thread of hi key low key is its production, which feels comfortably lived-in, never sterile or cartoonishly overdone—something that can be a makeor-break factor for most instrumental hip-hop. It seems that everyone and their brother wants to jack gauzy throwback aesthetics to color their beats lately, and it’s refreshing that Trandle demonstrates imagination and humanity in his presentation. All in all, hi key low key is a strong start for Trandle, another fine example of the electronic and hip-hop underground that quietly flourishes in this part of the state. —David Ford Smith INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 25
music
JONATHAN BYRD & THE PICKUP COWBOYS
Sunday, March 5, 7 p.m., $15–$18 Motorco Music Hall, Durham www.motorcomusic.com
Free Byrd
FIVE WORDS WITH CARRBORO'S JONATHAN BYRD ON HIS CRAFT AND CACKALACKY BY DAVID KLEIN
march 3-5 & 10-12
friday & saturday 7:30pm // sunday 3pm the durham arts council in the psi theater 120 morris st durham nc 27701
tickets & more info: bartletttheater.org & 919-808-2203 $25 adults // $20 seniors over 65 $15 students & military
TRAGEDY
Love ? y d n i e h t
e Support th businesses rt who suppo us...
S hop local! 26 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
tradition that’s called Anusara. It’s no longer an active tradition, but it’s alignment-based. Technique is extremely important to me, and it’s important to me as a guitar player too. I’m just like Doc Watson. I get out the metronome, and I slow the tune down, and I pick every note, and make sure every left finger is right behind the fret, and my pick is moving in the proper direction. I never practice up to speed. I always slow myself down. The only time I play songs up to speed is at a gig.
Since self-releasing Wildflowers in 2001, Jonathan Byrd has earned a reputation as a top-shelf songwriter as well as a distinguished flatpicker. Winning competitions, earning prestigious awards, and having your songs covered by big names like Tim O’Brien will do that. Often lumped in with Americana and “new folk,” the Carrboro resident has masterfully explored old-time, bluegrass, feverish rock ’n’ roll, and even devoted an entire record, 2011’s Cackalack, to the musical traditions of his home state. We caught up with him about his songs and his lifelong dedication to North Carolina. I think tragedy is beautiful. I really love tragedy. All my favorite books are tragedies, most of my favorite songs are tragic. There’s a cathartic experience. I think Aristotle covered this like two thousand years ago in his Poetics, which I go back to all the time. A real tragedy, it takes a hero, it takes a pretty powerful person, and you bring them down with their own flaws. Jay Gatsby had everything. He was a billionaire, he had the mansion, the parties, but really he had nothing. It was made with moonshining money, and he didn’t really have any friends. Nobody came to his funeral when he died. But he was such an amazing person because he made billions off his own steam. He was the definition of a self-made man, but he died alone in his swimming pool. Tragedies are terrifying, and they make us feel that sense of terror, of all those things slipping away, but there’s a reason for that happening. There’s this internal flaw and this moral lesson for us to connect to people in real ways and to evaluate our own personalities and our own actions in a way so we don’t end up like those tragic figures.
CACKALACK
Let me tell you a little story. I think it was JFK airport, and I’m walking up to the counter and there’s Leonard Podolak (renowned clawhammer banjo player with The Duhks) sitting there on his laptop, waiting for a flight. Turns out our flights are both delayed, then
BOOZE
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTISTS IN MOTION BOOKING AGENCY
they’re delayed some more. Leonard is super confident, and much more aggressive than I am. He just walks in front of about a hundred people and just says, “Are we flying or not?” So they tell us, “We’re cancelling the flight and we’ll put you in a hotel.” At that point, at nine o’clock at night, I said, “You know what, Leonard, you’re gonna think I’m crazy but if we go downstairs right now and rent a car and drive it home, we can be at my house in the morning.” And he was crazy enough to do it with me. There were lightning bolts and flooding, and Leonard does not really stop talking. He was saying how he never gets royalties because he’s not a songwriter, and all the things he’s saying to me are congealing like cold bacon grease in my head. We got home in the wee hours, and by the time I woke up in the morning I grabbed the guitar and I say, “Hey Leonard, I got a couple verses and a chorus here.” And we both finished it up right there. We both recorded it, and he tells that story and they play that song (“Cackalack!”) at every Duhks show.
TECHNIQUE
I like technique in general. I’m a yogi. I’ve been practicing for maybe three years now, and I’m really into it. It’s the first regular form of exercise that I’ve become obsessed with. It’s a
August 15, 2006. That’s the day that I quit drinking. I haven’t had a drink since then. I wasn’t very good at drinking. Some people can have a beer and enjoy themselves, and I can’t do that. I knew if I was going to do anything with my life, I was gonna have to get that out of my life. So that’s what I did. My father had a problem with drinking— he quit at about the same point in his life. My older brother, same thing, so I was pretty confident I could stop drinking and never drink again. I went to AA meetings for probably two months solid, and then at some point I never went back. And I never had a drink either. It worked for me.
FOLKSINGER
I have battles with that term. It doesn’t have a meaning for me, or I don’t understand the meaning of it. To me, Johnny Cash was a folksinger. Jimmie Rodgers was a folksinger. To me, Public Enemy are folksingers. To me it’s about who are you reaching, how are you reaching them, what is your connection, and to my way of thinking, Public Enemy has that kind of connection with their audience. They’ve got social messages, they’ve got political messages, they bring people together, people sing along with them—everything that Pete Seeger did, Public Enemy does as well. That’s what it’s about, and not what the scene is now, which is where, like, a songwriter who plays by herself is a folk musician because she plays the guitar and sings by herself. It doesn’t really make it a genre. dklein@indyweek.com
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INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 27
indyart Branch Manager
LANDSCAPING? SCULPTURE? ARCHITECTURE? AT DUKE GARDENS, PATRICK DOUGHERTY’S LATEST STICKWORK PAINTS THEM ALL IN NATURAL LIGHT BY NOAH RAWLINGS
Volunteer Sue Schneider works on Patrick Dougherty's new stickwork at Duke Gardens. PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER
A
n inviting light bathes the space I’m in—that peculiar kind of gentle light produced when sunshine filters through tree branches. But the branches that surround me are not attached to a trunk; they are woven tightly together, bending fluidly to form slanting walls, windows, doorways, and a roof. It feels like being in a hut. The impression deepens as I step out of the structure, into a central space around which similar constructions—eight in total, each about twenty feet tall—are situated. This clearing is like some otherworldly town square, the focal point for a village formed by nonhuman hands, perhaps by nature itself. But several pairs of human hands—and one pair in particular—are responsible for it. The structures, cur28 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
rently in their final stages of construction on the south lawn of Sarah P. Duke Gardens, are the latest pieces of “stickwork” by Patrick Dougherty. Dougherty, a Chapel Hill-based artist, has earned a global reputation for large-scale forms composed entirely of tree branches and saplings—i.e., “sticks.” The process is laborious, taking anywhere from several days to several weeks as Dougherty and his assistants bend these materials and weave them together, forming disparate structures that resemble the nests of enormous birds, primitive architecture, or, with a little imagination, even paintings. For Dougherty, it’s all about where one stands in relation to the work, and where the work stands in relation to its environment.
“Everything I do tries to have a resonance with the site,” he says on the third-to-last day of construction. He directs my gaze to a bulbous shape sculpted atop one of the eight stickworks, then points to a bush located far across the lawn. His point is clear: the top of the sculpture echoes the form of the bush from the surrounding landscape. Overhearing this explanation, one of the volunteers working under Dougherty exclaims, “Oh! We were wondering what those things on top were.” “They’re doodads,” Dougherty responds cheerfully. This unassuming mode of speech is characteristic of Dougherty when it comes to describing his work. When I ask whether his works are more beholden to painting or
architecture, he dismisses my intellectualizing tersely: “Everything can hit at all levels.” As I consider my experience of viewing the stickworks from afar versus up close, I am inclined to agree. From a distance, if one makes an effort to perceive only the lines of the sticks and the differences in shading, the stickworks can easily come across as twodimensional drawings or paintings. Up close, where the forms’ tactility can be seen and felt, and rays of light pass through lattices of wood and swooping windows, it’s easy to take the structures as a form of architecture. “It’s got to play from a lot of different angles and have a lot of personality from each vantage point,” Dougherty says. The stickworks convey a depth of personality not only through the calculated efforts of Dougherty and his team of volunteers but also through the material itself. All the saplings, branches, and twigs used in Dougherty’s projects come from local forests—in this case, Duke Forest. In an era where standardized building materials, foods, and many consumer goods have virtually untraceable roots, local materials organically integrated into their native landscape have a powerful appeal. “There’s a pleasure to that placeness, of taking something that’s just nearby and doing your best with it,” Dougherty says. But working with this material also presents serious challenges. It resists manual manipulation and it carries pesky bugs. Dougherty finds relinquishing control to the material more stimulating than frustrating. “It’s not perfect—you maybe would love a different kind of material—but you find the best you can do and strike out to do better,” he says. His submission to the will of each sapling and branch—his willingness to release absolute control—gives his art its unique character. Bill LeFevre, Duke Gardens executive director, acknowledges that working with Dougherty requires his staff to relinquish a certain amount of control as well. While Dougherty carefully considers the way light, landscape, and material will shape his work, neither he nor those who commission the work begins with a clear idea of how it will turn out. “We had no set expectation,” LeFevre says. “The best thing is to give him the most latitude possible. He’s winging it. He’s doing what he does and he does it very well.” arts@indyweek.com
indyscreen
HUNTED: SEASON ONE FINALE Wednesday, March 1, 8 p.m. www.cbs.com/shows/hunted
Nowhere to Hide
ON CBS REALITY SHOW HUNTED, EXPERT TRACKERS RUTHLESSLY PURSUE A HILLSBOROUGH COUPLE GONE OFF THE GRID BY DREW ADAMEK back—until producers approached them Hunted, a new reality show on CBS, is about Hunted. After checking out the origidressed in the genre’s usual sexiness and nal British version and undergoing a lengthy silliness—breathless pauses, nervous thoucasting process, the Kings went for it, partly sand-yard stares, frenetic camera work, to test their own mettle. edited tension, and just the right balance of “I wanted to push ourselves out of our cast diversity. But it also highlights a naked comfort zone,” English says. “There were truth of our times: there is no hiding from lots of people who thought we couldn’t do our digital lives. this and I wanted to prove that we could rely Think about it. Could you escape your on ourselves.” electronic footprint if you had to forgo techProducers and cast members, citing trade nology and elude detection on your wits? secrets, are mum on just how investigaOne local couple recently faced this question, tors obtain fugitives’ and, while the answer phone records, social is still unknown—no media profiles, and spoilers here—their closed-circuit footattempt to hide from age, which colleca team of investitively paint an eerily gators for a month accurate prediction of raises unsettling how they will behave. questions about priIn one episode, huntvacy and security in ers analyzed the likes the social-media age. on one contestant’s Hillsborough's Facebook page and Stephen and English correctly determined King are “fugitives” which friends that on Hunted, a teleperson was most likevised game of highly to turn to for help. tech hide-and-seek The ease with which in which nine teams English and Stephen King PHOTO COURTESY OF CBS the hunters uncover of two go off the grid, vast amounts of data anywhere within a on the fugitives’ lives seems almost unfair. hundred-thousand-square-mile area of the One of the hunters is Muhammad “ShadSoutheast, while “hunters,” based in a glitzy ow” Bilal, a military veteran, special-forc“command center,” track them. The hunters es instructor, and security-company owner are former intelligence officers, cops, and based in Fayetteville, North Carolina. retired U.S. Marshals who use electronic sur“You’d be amazed at how much informaveillance, behavioral analysis, and old-fashtion you can find even doing a simple Google ioned footwork to corner their prey. search,” he says. “I suggest your readers do Fugitives who avoid capture for the full research on themselves on social media to four weeks win $250,000. Six episodes in, see how much they can find in a short time.” the Kings, a couple in their late thirties, are The Kings developed a detailed plan based still on the run. But they weren’t in it for the on their complementary personal strengths. money, at least not at first. In fact, they never “I’m adaptable, personable, and have the even auditioned for Hunted. intangible ability to throw myself into any Longtime fans of CBS’s The Amazing Race, situation, with anyone, and find a way to sucStephen, a stay-at-home dad, and English, ceed,” Stephen says. “English is stubbornly a clinical audiologist, applied to be on the determined and detailed and always has a show more than a year ago. They never heard
solid plan.” But they quickly realized how dependent they were on Google, cell phones, ATMs, Facebook, and digital technology, struggling with simple tasks like finding a place to sleep for the night, contacting friends, or renting a car. One of the biggest challenges for the Kings, and one the most compelling aspects of their story on the show, was leaving their three young daughters at home. “It becomes so hard when you can’t pick up your phone to find what you need or to check in on loved ones,” Stephen says. After they finished shooting in June, they faced a different challenge—one that finally comes
to an end when Hunted’s finale airs March 1 (or watch all the episodes at www.CBS.com). “The hardest part since then was keeping quiet about the outcome and dealing with the online comments that people leave about your decisions,” English says. “I’ve learned that interpersonal communication is better for some things, talking to people.” It’s a lesson that hunter Shadow affirms. “If you want to be secure in this digital world you have to be in control of your social media presence,” Bilal says. “And you have to learn to interact with people again. You have to speak.” arts@indyweek.com
INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 29
3.1–3.8
Ajoka Theatre PHOTO STAGE
COURTESY OF CAROLINA PERFORMING ARTS
THURSDAY, MARCH 2
AJOKA THEATRE: DARA
Why should modern-day Americans care about a 450-yearold tale of warring princes on the Indian subcontinent? Because when the sons of the man who built the Taj Mahal fought for control of the Mughal Empire, the future of Islam stood at a crossroad as well. Dara was a Sufi, a poet, a painter, and a scholar of comparative religion. As a Salafi fundamentalist who opposed the cultural pluralism that had helped the empire thrive, Aurangzeb was “the role model and prototype of the present-day Taliban,” playwright Shaheed Nadeem noted in a 2015 interview. “He is still regarded by Islamic extremists as an icon. In the history books in Pakistan, it is the Aurangzeb version of history which is projected and Dara has been relegated to a footnote.” Pakistan’s Ajoka Theatre, a not-for-profit company concerned with social criticism through theater, brings its exploration of the roots of our modern struggle with religious intransigence to Chapel Hill. —Byron Woods UNC’S MEMORIAL HALL, CHAPEL HILL 7:30 p.m., $10–20, www.carolinaperformingarts.org 30 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
STAGE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1– SUNDAY, MARCH 19
ART
TWELFTH NIGHT
CAM Raleigh augments two spring exhibits already on view with a third that likewise mingles gallery space with the wider world. Brooklyn-based artist Leonardo Drew’s new site-specific installation in the main gallery is made of locally sourced natural and artificial debris. Using the effects of hurricanes on North Carolina as a reference point, it happens to be a perfect, chaotic complement to Patrick Dougherty’s contemplative new stickwork in Durham (see p. 28)—both installations let native materials lead the way. At CAM, Drew’s work joins Mathew Curran’s exhibit, Without War Paint, in which a large mural and cut stencils blend graphic-design training with a street-art habit, and Boris Bidjan Saberi’s 0-11, the first museum showing of the Barcelona-based experimental fashion designer’s unwearable garments, which represent the art behind his Paris runway collections. Try on all these porous exhibits at once on First Friday. —Brian Howe
It’s no accident that the publicity shots for PlayMakers Rep’s upcoming production of Twelfth Night look like outtakes from a tony fashion magazine. When associate artistic director Jerry Ruiz decided to set one of Shakespeare’s most frequently produced works in the Mediterranean in the 1950s, designer Anne Kennedy zeroed in on the work of Slim Aarons, a mid-century glamour photographer who shot what he called “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places” for society magazines, Town & Country, Holiday, and Life. Thus, a shipwrecked Viola crashes among—and becomes hired help for—the beautiful people, as jet-set socialites Duke Orsino and Lady Olivia take their ease in a coastal resort town. —Byron Woods PAUL GREEN THEATRE, CHAPEL HILL Various times, $15–$57, www.playmakersrep.org
FRIDAY, MARCH 3
LEONARDO DREW
CAM RALEIGH, RALEIGH 6–9 p.m., free, www.camraleigh.org
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK ART
THURSDAY, MARCH 2
IN CONDITIONS OF FRESH WATER
The term “environmental racism” has existed since the eighties, and the problem has existed for much longer. But it took the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, to wake the nation to the idea that marginalized communities are routinely subjected to inferior, often dangerous environmental conditions. Even in 2017, basic services such as clean water and wastewater treatment are still lacking in places like Alamance County, imperiling both the health of residents and the security of the land itself. In Conditions of Fresh Water is a collaborative project by Torkwase Dyson, a Duke visiting artist, and Danielle Purifoy, an attorney/environmental scientist, that explores this phenomenon in depth through interviews with residents of two rural, historically black Southern counties, including Alamance, that have been victimized by this insidious form of institutional neglect for decades. It adds up to a powerful exhibit comprising photographs, paintings, and prose that speak to human resilience in the face of injustice. The opening reception at six on Thursday features a panel discussion at seven; the exhibit runs through June 3. —David Klein CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES, DURHAM 6 p.m., free, www.documentarystudies.duke.edu
Myles Bullock and Jennifer Latimer in Twelfth Night
PHOTO COURTESY OF HUTH PHOTO
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MARCH 5
HEROES TRIBUTE
In perhaps one of the freakiest of freak accidents, the Carolina Performing Arts tribute to David Bowie via Philip Glass was canceled in early February when a municipal water crisis shut down the UNC campus as well as much of Carrboro and Chapel Hill. The players for the evening’s promised supergroup—Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, saxophonist Ken Vandermark, guitarist William Tyler, Mac McCaughan, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, bassist Brad Cook, and percussionist Joe Westerlund—were all still in town, and the show still went on, sort of. They convened at The Pinhook in front of a modest crowd for a hush-hush “rehearsal” of their straight-through cover of Bowie’s classic LP Heroes. Even the informal, practice-run results were magnificent: Bejar’s voice matched Bowie’s vocal stylings without sounding like he was trying to do an impression, and he was backed by an ensemble that was preternaturally in the pocket. This week’s rescheduled, final version happens in the more elegant Memorial Hall. The first half of the program is a rare symphony performance of Glass’s gorgeous Heroes Symphony, which should be an equally enthralling delight. —Allison Hussey
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MARCH 5
LANDLADY
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a rock band that’s as colorful, energetic, and adept as Brooklyn’s Landlady. With expert precision, Landlady braids together threads of jazz, old-school soul, pop, and rock; the resulting songs are brainy but accessible, skipping over boring indie rock tropes in favor of earnest expeditions that aren’t fenced in by genre worship. The band delivered its newest batch of tunes in January with The World Is a Loud Place, its third and strongest LP. There, Landlady offers unexpected combinations of calamity and catharsis, bolstered by lyrical snippets of raw emotional honesty. This weekend, the band performs in one of the smallest venues in the Triangle—Raleigh’s tiny Neptunes Parlour—which means you can expect the cozy basement to be packed to its ceiling with feelings. Durham’s Blanko Basnet opens. —Allison Hussey NEPTUNES PARLOUR, RALEIGH 9 p.m., $10, www.kingsraleigh.com
UNC’S MEMORIAL HALL, CHAPEL HILL 7:30 p.m., $10–$20, www.carolinaperformingarts.org
Landlady PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BILLIONS CORPORATION
WHAT ELSE SHOULD I DO?
ASBURY SHORT FILM CONCERT AT NCMH (P. 40), JONATHAN BYRD AT MOTORCO (P. 26), CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY AT PSI THEATRE (P. 39), DAVID JOY AT FLYLEAF BOOKS & QUAIL RIDGE BOOKS (P. 40), NATURAL CAUSES AT LOCAL 506 (P. 24), MARGO PRICE AT HAW RIVER BALLROOM (P. 33), BEN SOLLEE & JORDON ELLIS AT MOTORCO (P. 36), STRAY OWLS AT LOCAL 506 (P. 25), SUBMERGED AT THE MAHLER FINE ART (P. 37), THIS IS NOT A NOVEL AT THE SCRAP EXCHANGE (P. 18) INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 31
3/1 JAPANDROIDS W/ CRAIG FINN ($20/$23) 3/2 THE GROWLERS ($20) WE 3/1 TH 3/2 FR 3/3 SA 3/4 SU 3/5 TU 3/7
STUDEBAKER JOHN & THE HAWKS NASH STREET RAMBLERS DUKE STREET DOGS TELECASTER MASTERS REUNION SPANK TBS 1ST SUNDAY BLUES JAM TUESDAY BLUES JAM
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TH 3/9
TIM O’BRIEN
3/3 CEDAR RIDGE
BATTLE OF THE BANDS 3/6 COLONY HOUSE W/ DEEP SEA DIVER ($12/$15)
TH 3/2
3/9 TIM O'BRIEN SEATED SHOW ($22/$25)
3/10 TIM DARCY (OF OUGHT) W/ MOLLY BURCH ($10/$12) 3/11 MEGA COLLOSSUS W/ THE BEGGARS, RUSCHA ($8)
3/10 ELECTRIC GUEST W/ CHAOS CHAOS ($12/$14)
3/12 JULIA W/ LYRA, GRAYSCALE WHALE ($5)
3/12 SENSES FAIL W/ COUNTERPARTS, MOVEMENTS, LIKE PACIFIC ($15/$18)
3/17 DARK WATER RISING W/ORLANDO PARKER JR, OG MERGE ($8/$10) 3/18 PAX' CHEST FEST ($10/$12)
3/17 TORTOISE W/ TARA JANE O'NEIL ($15) 3/18 MARTIN SEXTON** W/ BROTHERS MCCANN ($25/$29)
THE GROWLERS
TU 3/7 @THE ARTSCENTER
KT TUNSTALL
JOHN HOWIE JR & THE ROSEWOOD BLUFF TH 3/2 W/ DAVID CHILDERS 7:30PM, $8/$10*, 21+ FR 3/3 PETE RG W/ CHROME PLATED APOSTLES 8PM, $8/$10*, 21+ (EARLY) JAZZ SATURDAY
SA 3/4
W/ THE BUCKET BROTHERS 2PM, FREE, ALL AGES (LATE) 1, 2, 3, 4...4...4...4…4 W/ JACK WARD & MIKE D 10PM, FREE, 21+
STRAIGHT 8’S W/ MORGAN GEER TH 3/9 THE 7:30PM, $6, 21+ GRUMHAUS CD RELEASE FR 3/10 WHIT W/ THE JEB 7:30PM, $6, 21+ TWIN PEAKS NIGHT EVERY MONDAY! 9PM FREE *ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE
WE 3/1
BIG BAND NIGHT
TH 3/2
KT TUNSTALL W/KELVIN JONES
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TRANSACTORS IMPROV
SU 3/5
THE GROOVE IS NOT TRIVIAL
TU 3/7
W/ THE TRIANGLE JAZZ ORCHESTRA (PRESENTED BY CAT’S CRADLE)
(FILM SCREENING)
POPUP CHORUS
(THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS “CALIFORNIA DREAMING” & BILL WITHERS “LEAN ON ME”)
TRANSACTORS IMPROV: FOR FAMILIES! GARY STROUTSOS ALASDAIR FRASER & NATALIE HAAS TWO MONTHS IN AN ORIGINAL SKETCH
3/173/18 COMEDY REVUE PRESENTED BY METTLESOME TU 3/21 SA 3/25 FR 3/31 SA 4/8 SA 4/15
3/29 COREY SMITH W/ JACOB POWELL ($20)
POPUP CHORUS NO SHAME THEATRE - CARRBORO SONGS FROM THE CIRCLE 7 THE ALWAYS INSPIRING GALA JOSHUA LOZOFF: LIFE IS MAGIC Find out More at
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WE 3/1
JAPANDROIDS
4/7 CARBON LEAF W/ ME AND MY BROTHER ($16/$20) 4/8 DIRTY BOURBON RIVER SHOW AND ELLIS DYSON & THE SHAMBLES ($10/$12) 4/11 WHY? W/ ESKIMEAUX ($16/$18) 4/15 MIKE POSNER AND THE LEGENDARY MIKE POSNER BAND ($20/$24) 4/17 CASHMERE CAT ($17/$20) 4/18 CHRONIXX
W/ KELISSA, MAX GLAZER ($22.50/$25) 4/20 FOXYGEN W/ GABRIELLA COHEN ( $18/$20) 4/21 JUMP,
MO 3/6
COLONY HOUSE
VALERIE JUNE
SOLD OUT
4/23 THE STEELDRIVERS ($28/$35)
CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM
4/24 AN EVENING WITH NOAH & ABBY GUNDERSEN ($16/$18) 4/25 PARACHUTE W/ KRIS ALLEN ($18/$20)
3/1 JESCA HOOP W/ BRETT HARRIS ($15) 3/2 POINSETTIA (FREE WITH GROWLERS TICKET; $5 W/OUT)
4/26 DOPAPOD W/ GROOVE FETISH ($13/$15) 4/28 SOMO ($25/$30)
3/3 FRONT COUNTRY W/ BIG FAT GAP ($10/$12)
5/5 ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO W/ SAUL ZONANA ($26/$30)
3/4 ALEX DEZEN (OF DAMNWELLS) AND HIS BAND ($10/$12)
5/10 SLOWDIVE W/ CASKET GIRLS ($36/$39)
3/5 ALL THEM WITCHES W/ IRATA ( $12/$14)
5/11 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS PUP ($15/$17)
3/7 MOOSE BLOOD W/ TROPHY EYES, BOSTON MANOR, A WILL AWAY
5/14 SARA WATKINS SEATED SHOW ($18/$22)
SOLD OUT
3/8 MAJOR AND THE
MONBACKS
5/16 WHITNEY W/ NATALIE PRASS ($16)
W/ OBLATIONS ($10) 3/9 KINGS PRESENTS
5/17 NEW FOUND GLORY W/ TRASH BOAT ($22/$26)
W/ DEN-MATE, THE SEA LIFE, FOXTURE ($12)
5/19 PERFUME GENIUS W/ SERPENTWITHFEET ($17/$19) 5/20 SAY ANYTHING / BAYSIDE W/ HOT ROD CIRCUIT ($21/$23) 6/6 THE ORWELLS ($18/$20) 7/19 JOHN MORELAND SEATED SHOW ($13/$15; ON SALE 3/3)
3/24 THE FAUX HAWKS THE CINNAMON GIRLS, "SEQUEL TO ZIGGY STARDUST" LISTENING PARTY 3/25 REBEKAH TODD & THE ODDYSSEY W/ LAURA REED BAND
4/2 CARRIE ELKIN W/ DANNY SCHMIDT 4/13 MATT PRYOR AND DAN ANDRIANO ($13/$15) 4/14 KAWEHI ($12/$15)
TU 3/7 @CAROLINA THEATRE
ET ANDERSON
ALEX DEZEN
($16/$18)
3/29 CHERRY GLAZERR W/LALA LALA AND IAN SWEET ($13/$15) 3/30 THE SUITCASE JUNKET W/ DUPONT BROTHERS ($10/$12)
4/2 LAMBCHOP W/ XYLOURIS WHITE ($15)
SA 3/4 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM
3/21 NYLON MUSIC TOUR PRESENTS
3/23 SABA W/ SYLVAN LACUE ($15/$18)
JR LD 4/1 DINOSAURSO W/ EASY ACTION OUT
LITTLE CHILDREN
3/10- TWO MONTHS IN AN ORIGINAL SKETCH 3/11 COMEDY REVUE PRESENTED BY METTLESOME SA 3/11 SU 3/12 SA 3/12
3/25 HIPPO CAMPUS W/MAGIC CITY HIPPIES ($13/$15) 3/28 THE MENZINGERS W/ JEFF ROSENSTOCK, ROZWELL KID ($17/$20)
FRONT COUNTRY
POWERS & BRIDGIT MENDLER 3/22 THE JAPANESE HOUSE W/BLAISE MOORE ($15/$18)
3/23 SOHN** W/ WILLIAM DOYLE ($17/$20) SOLD 3/24 JOHNNYSWIM OUT
FR 3/3 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM
SU 3/5 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM
ALL THEM WITCHES ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO)
3/2 KT TUNSTALL W/ KELVIN JONES ($25)
5/14 ROBYN HITCHCOCK ** ($20/$23) PINHOOK (DURHAM)
4/24 MATTHEW LOGAN VASQUEZ (OF DELTA SPIRIT) $13/$15 KINGS (RAL)
5/3 ANDY SHAUF W/ JULIA JACKLIN ($13/$15) RED HAT AMPH. (RAL)
5/14 THE XX CAROLINA THEATRE (DUR)
4/15 DIET CIG W/ DADDY ISSUES, FISH DAD ($10)
3/7 VALERIE JUNE 3/20 THE ZOMBIES 'ODESSEY AND ORACLE' 50 YEAR TOUR
4/17 SALLIE FORD W/ MOLLY BURCH ($10/$12)
4/14 WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE W/ERIN MCKEOWN
4/18 SWEET SPIRIT ($10/$12)
THE RITZ (RAL)
4/19 ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE W/ BABYLON ($10/$12) 4/20 SCOTT MILLER ($12/$14)
5/1 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS W/
(TICKETS VIA TICKETMASTER)
WAXAHATCHEE ($30)
4/27 THE WILD REEDS W/ BLANK RANGE ($12/$14)
NC MUSEUM OF ART (RAL)
4/28 SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS ($10/$12) 4/29 THE DEAD TONGUES
6/5 FOUR VOICES:
4/30 SEAN ROWE W/FAYE WEBSTER 5/2 SWEET CRUDE W/ MOTEL RADIO ($10) 5/3 CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH W/ LAURA GIBSON ($16) 5/8 THE BESNARD LAKES W/ THE LIFE AND TIMES ($12) 5/19 HAAS KOWERT TICE ($12/$15) 5/23 DEAD MAN WINTER (FEAT. DAVE SIMONETT OF TRAMPLED BY TURTLES) 5/24 TOBIN SPROUT W/ ELF POWER ($13/$15) 6/7 GRIFFIN HOUSE ($20/$23) 6/9 JONATHAN BYRD 6/17 BARNS COURTNEY ($14/$16)
5/6 MIPSO W/ RIVER WHYLESS
JOAN BAEZ, MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER AND INDIGO GIRLS AMY RAY & EMILY SALIERS 6/13 KALEO 6/18 JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT 7/22 MANDOLIN ORANGE W/ JOE PUG
7/31BELLE AND SEBASTIAN AND ANDREW BIRD HAW RIVER BALLROOM
3/6 COLD WAR KIDS W/ MIDDLE KIDS ($25/$27) SOLD 3/11 SON VOLT OUT W/JOHNNY IRION 4/1 PATRICK WATSON ($20/$22) DPAC (DURHAM
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music
3.1–3.8
FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR
WWW.INDYWEEK.COM
CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Allen (JA), Elizabeth Bracy (EB), Timothy Bracy (TB), Zoe Camp (ZC), Annalise Domeghenini (AD), Allison Hussey (AH), David Klein (DK), Noah Rawlings (NR), Dan Ruccia (DR), David Ford Smith (DS), Eric Tullis (ET), Patrick Wall (PW)
WED, MAR 1 BLUE NOTE GRILL: Studebaker John & the Hawks; 8 p.m., $8. • CAROLINA THEATRE: Ladysmith Black Mambazo; 8 p.m., $28–$47. • CAT’S CRADLE: Japandroids, Craig Finn; 9 p.m., $20–$23. • CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Jesca Hoop, Brett Harris; 8 p.m., $12–$15. • THE CAVE: Floor Model, Repeat Offender; 9 p.m., $5. • HUMBLE PIE: Peter Lamb & the Wolves; 8:30 p.m. • KINGS: Bernie Pettaway Trio, Rod Abernathy; 8 p.m., $8. • MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: N.C. Symphony with Lang Lang; 7:30 p.m., $90–$165. • THE PINHOOK: The Wyrms, Organos, No One Mind; 8 p.m., $5. • POUR HOUSE: Leopold and His Fiction, The Howling Tongues; 9 p.m., $8–$10. • UNC’S PERSON RECITAL HALL: Stephanie Tingler, Martha Thomas; 7:30 p.m., free.
THU, MAR 2 Tracy Lamont STARRY There may be no RAPS other genre outside of hip-hop that calls upon its artists to show such high regard to yesteryear’s sound. And while the Triangle rap scene has produced a slew of tribute projects and nods to rap’s golden era (i.e., Madison Jay’s Trapped in the 90’s and Danny Blaze’s recent “Thank You Mr. Yancey”), few were as ambitious as Durham rapper Tracy Lamont’s 2015 time-traveling album, 92 Til’, where he bent past works by acts like Souls of Mischief and Cella Dwellas to his own tastes. Now he’s busy bending satellites on new songs like “Moonlight” and hoping to become a star. Vinnie Dangerous, Konvo the Mutant, and J. Rowdy open. —ET [THE PINHOOK, $5/8:30 P.M.]
KT Tunstall STILL AT A decade ago, it felt IT impossible to escape KT Tunstall’s big hits. She was responsible for the bluesy folk stomp of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” long before it was
fashionable, and a couple of years later, “Suddenly I See” somehow became a shorthand anthem for girl power. Tunstall never had any hits that landed with the same strength in the states, but she returns in support of last year’s KIN. Kelvin Jones opens. —AH [THE ARTSCENTER, $25/8 P.M.] ALSO ON THURSDAY CAT’S CRADLE: The Growlers; 8 p.m., $20–$24. • DEEP SOUTH: Sportsmanship, Atomic Buzz, Drunk on the Regs, Komodo; 8:30 p.m., $5–$10. • DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: Martina McBride, Lauren Alaina; 7:30 p.m., $35–$85. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Jazz Is Phish; 8:30 p.m., $15. • LOCAL 506: Well$, Wikki Wikki, Milky B Rips; 9:30 p.m., $7–$9 • MOSAIC WINE LOUNGE: Femme Fatal All Female DJ Night: DJ Vouis Luitton and Guests; 10 p.m., free • NIGHTLIGHT: Taboo, Sofia Reta, de_Plata, Bad Atmosphere; 9:30 p.m., $8. • POUR HOUSE: Local Band Local Beer: Ellis Dyson & the Shambles, The Pinkerton Raid, Jphono1; 9:30 p.m., $3–$5. • THE STATION: John Howie Jr. & the Rosewood Bluff, David Childers; 7 p.m., $8–$10. • UNC’S HILL HALL: UNC Symphony Orchestra, Carolina Choir; 7:30 p.m., $5–$10.
FRI, MAR 3 1970s Film Stock MANY Like the archival MOODS footage referenced in its name, the solo guitar wizardry of Winston-Salem’s 1970s Film Stock reflects a nearly infinite range of moods and motifs. Lone member Eddie Garcia draws on a wide range of reference points—Tom Carter’s acerbic drones, William Tyler’s impressionist soundscapes, classical Renaissance counterpoint, and digital glitch among them—and an arsenal of effects pedals to create enigmatic instrumentals that explore and excavate emotion. With Blueberry. —PW [SLIM’S, $5/9 P.M.]
Cedar Ridge High School Battle of the Bands YUNG Once the bastion of UNS high school gymnasiums, teenage band competitions have come a long way. This annual musical battle, now in its eighth iteration, provides the youth with a proper setting in which to do their thing. UR Mom, Bull City Bandits, and eight more acts go at it, incentivized by the prospect of bragging rights and cold hard cash. —DK [CAT’S CRADLE, $8–$10/7 P.M.]
Steve Earle ALT At 1 p.m. Friday ORIGIN afternoon, celebrated singer-songwriter Steve Earle will be part of a panel for Novel Sounds II, talking about rock and literature alongside writers Roddy Doyle and Peter Guralnick. Less than eight hours later, the man who helped put alt-country and Americana on the map and continues to be one of America’s most powerful, penetrating artists will offer up an evening of songs from all across his esteemed oeuvre. —JA [UNC’S MEMORIAL HALL, $10–$69/8 P.M.]
Front Country ROOTSY San Francisco’s Front REBELS Country brings bluegrass to broad audiences by bridging traditional string instrumentation with a progressive aesthetic, leveraging the strength of Melody Walker’s soulful vocals and ultra-melodic hooks influenced by indie rock and pop. The deft, dynamic quartet even sprinkles in instrumentals that’ll captivate Punch Brothers fans. Big Fat Gap opens. —SG [CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, $10–$12/8 P.M.]
Full Measures HXC HUDDLE
Feedback from around the East
PHOTO BY CURTIS WAYNE MILLIARD
FRIDAY, MARCH 3
MARGO PRICE These days, country music seems to exist as one of two strains. There’s the brash, bro-heavy stuff on the radio, designed for the masses, and the underdog songs you’d hear in the back of a beer-soaked dive bar in the middle of nowhere, music that’s guided more by raw honesty than Top 40 payouts. That’s the kind of country music Margo Price makes. On Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, her first solo album, Price opens her door and invites listeners right into her home. Each of these eleven songs is as soul-shaking and brutal as the last. Her sound ranges from Dolly to Waylon, but some songs, like “Tennessee Song” or “Four Years of Chances,” feel closer to Stevie Nicks. Across Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, Price reckons with mistakes and failures, and the lessons that come with learning you can never solve your loved ones’ problems or protect them the way you think they deserve. Despite walking the well-traveled path of country music stereotypes—love, loss, heartbreak, the realization that it’s your fault you’re alone—
Price spins her songs so that all of these ideas feel new again. Price’s music has a quiet power, too, perhaps because of how familiar her story sounds. By laying it all out on the line and coming clean about her hard childhood, losing a son, drinking, going to jail, going to rehab, and working as a songwriter in Nashville, Price paints a vivid picture of the complexity of being a woman in the country music industry. She’s honest about her struggles, opening herself up to being judged selfish and reckless, but she refuses to water down any of her experiences or sugarcoat them to make them go down easier. It’s a quality for which many legends like Haggard, Cash, and Waylon are revered, living fast and hard and only really slowing down to die. Price breathes life back into that tradition simply by getting on stage and introducing herself. —Annalise Domeghenini HAW RIVER BALLROOM, SAXAPAHAW 8 p.m., $16–$18, www.hawriverballroom.com
INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 33
Coast is set to shake the Nightlight at this early-evening assortment of hardcore. Atlanta’s Full Measures and Pay to Cum offer rowdy energy, as do Virginia’s Watchdogs and North Carolina straight-edge acts Refocus and Substance. —DS [NIGHTLIGHT, $10, 6:30 P.M.]
Kirill Gerstein PIANO Acclaimed pianist MACHINE Kirill Gerstein once said, “I prefer the piano action to be in the sports button setting in the car, not in the comfortable one.” The piano, in his hands, is a finely tuned machine running at full power, just on the edge of disaster; he can draw out both its powerful fury and its most plaintive mew with equal ease. This program, encompassing Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Liszt, requires all of that and then some. —DR [DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM, $10–$38/8 P.M.]
Alanna Royale FUNK + Conjuring, by turns, R&B the deep, horn-driven grooves of Super Fly-era Curtis
Mayfield and the smoky late-night laments of Etta James in her Chess Records period, this Nashvillebased funk and R&B outfit provides a convincingly harddriven rhythmic backdrop for the acrobatically soulful vocals of frontwoman Alanna Quinn-Broadus. Durty Dub and Laura Reed open. —EB [KINGS, $10–$12/9 P.M.]
Sons of an Illustrious Father SONS Sons of an Illustrious OUT Father is a Brooklyn-based three-piece whose atmospheric take on electronic folk-rock typically dresses up melancholy yarns of love-gonewrong in vague washes of synths, keys, and samples. At its best, the band can wring real emotion from slow-boil epics like the blistering blues “Conquest” and the arena-ready “Post-Future.” Heartscape Landbreak, Desperate Father and Minorcan open. —TB [THE PINHOOK, $8/8 P.M.]
WireTap SUPER NEW
There’s a small but flourishing
community of musicians who specialize in new music—that is, music with instrumentation (such as a string quartet) that might suggest classical compositions, but which instead pushes the boundaries of what those instruments can do. Durham’s new seven-piece WireTap ensemble drops in at The Shed for its second-ever concert, featuring works by four contemporary composers. If you’re hoping to expand your musical horizons, you can’t do much better than a program like this. —AH [THE SHED, $5/7 P.M.] ALSO ON THURSDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: Chantae Cann; 7 & 9 p.m., $22.50–$25. • BLUE NOTE GRILL: Telecaster Masters; 9 p.m., $10. Duke Street Dogs; 6-8 p.m., free. • CAROLINA THEATRE: Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, The Gary Douglas Band; 8 p.m., $35–$44. • THE CAVE: Disfunktion; 9 p.m., $5. • DEEP SOUTH: Idlewild South, Breathe Deep; 8:30 p.m., $5. • HAW RIVER BALLROOM: Margo Price, Johnny Fritz; 8 p.m., $16–$18. See box, page 33. • IRREGARDLESS: Foscoe Philharmonic; 6:30 p.m. Multiples; 6:30 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Who’s Bad; 8:30 p.m., $18. • LOCAL 506: Stray Owls, The Kneads, Jphono1;
9 p.m., $8. See page 25. • THE MAYWOOD: Veronica V, Noise Ordinance, American Titans; 8:30 p.m., $8. • MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: N.C. Symphony: Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante; 8 p.m., $18–$71. • MYSTERY BREWING PUBLIC HOUSE: Hugh Crumley; 8:30 p.m., free. • POUR HOUSE: The Southern Belles, Maradeen; 8 p.m., free. • THE RITZ: The Marshall Tucker Band; 8 p.m., $25. • SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS (RALEIGH): The Temperance League; 9 p.m., free. • ST MATTHEWS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Scott Ainslie; 7:30 p.m., $15. • THE STATION: Pete RG, Chrome Plated Apostles; 8 p.m., $8–$10. • UNC’S HILL HALL: Stefan Litwin; 7:30 p.m., $10–$15.
SAT, MAR 4 Alex Dezen and His Band DAMN OK This New York-based performer has carved out an impressively fruitful and multifaceted career, first as frontman for the affable roots rockers The Damnwells and later as a hired-gun writer who has collaborated with a wide and
diverse swath of industry heavyweights ranging from Justin Bieber to the Dixie Chicks. Mike Dunn opens. —TB [CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, $10–$12/8:30 P.M.]
• CHAPEL OF THE CROSS: Cantari; 3 p.m., $10–$17. • DEEP SOUTH: Handsome Foxes, Youth League, Summer Wars, Outbound; 8:30 p.m., $8–$15. • DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM: Hagen Quartet & Kirill Gerstein; 8 p.m., $10–$48. • KINGS: Shadowgraphs, Modern Primitives, Fluourescense; 9 p.m., $5–$7. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Los Lonely Boys, Sugar Dirt and Sand; 8 p.m., $25. • LITTLE LAKE HILL: Scott Ainslie; 8 p.m., $15. • LOCAL 506: Natural Causes, Bodykit, Patois Counselors; 9 p.m., $8–$10. See page 24. • THE MAYWOOD: Nevernauts, Vanessa Silberman, The Revolutionary Sweethearts; 9:30 p.m., $8. • MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: N.C. Symphony: Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante; 8 p.m., $18–$71. • MOTORCO: Brazilian Carnaval Party; 9 p.m., $12–$15. • MYSTERY BREWING PUBLIC HOUSE: Katharine Whalen’s Swedish Wood Patrol; 8:30 p.m., free. • NIGHTLIGHT: Bent; 10 p.m., $5–$7. • POUR HOUSE: Big Mean Sound Machine, Dark Water Rising; 9 p.m., $8–$10. • PULLEN MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH: North Carolina Shape Note Singing Convention; 10 a.m.4 p.m. • THE RITZ: On the Border; 8 p.m., $10. • SLIM’S: Erin Tobey, Middle Children; 9 p.m., $5. • THE STATION: Jazz Saturdays; 2 p.m., free.
Stephanie Mills & Will Downing SOUL Since her starring POWER role as Dorothy in the Tony-winning original Broadway run of The Wiz launched her career, Stephanie Mills has enjoyed stellar success both in acting and as a solo R&B, soul, and gospel singer. In a twenty-sevenyear career, Grammy-nominated vocalist Will Downing has perfected his brand of smooth R&B. They join forces in Durham with North Carolina’s own Yolanda Rabun. —DK [DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, $47–$92/8 P.M.] ALSO ON THURSDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: La Fiesta Latin Jazz Quintet; 7 & 9 p.m., $12. • BLUE NOTE GRILL: Spank; 8 p.m., $8. • CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Let There Be Rock School Spring Showcase; noon, $5–$7. • THE CAVE: King Buffalo; 10 p.m., $8.
Present this coupon for
Member Admission Price (Not Valid for Special Events, expires 01-18)
919-6-TEASER for directions and information
www.teasersmensclub.com 156 Ramseur St. Durham, NC
TH 3/2
MUSIC FOR HOPE PRESENTS:
Wikki Wikki / Milky B Rips FR 3/3
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@TeasersDurham
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SA 3/4 SA 3/4
WELL$
STRAY OWLS / The Kneads / JPhono1 NC COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL
NATURAL CAUSES BODYKIT / PATOIS COUNSELORS
SU 3/5
CRANK
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SU 3/5 : LOUD PRESENTS
MO 3/6 WE 3/8
POLYPHIA
MC LARS
Jason Richardson / Covet
MEGA RAN / BIG O / SKYBLEW CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: TOO CLOSE TO TOUCH / WATER PARKS / Chapel YOKELORE / pronoun COMING SOON:
CROCODILES, CHICANO BATMAN, THE SECOND 506 BAND LOTTERY, CORY BRANAN
www.LOCAL506.com
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SECOND NAN
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SUN, MAR 5 Dawes NAP TIME This two-set evening with Dawes is only for the Los Angeles quartet’s most die-hard followers. The band’s approach to Americana, which, as the title of 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands suggests, borrows liberally from some of folk-rock’s finest— think Dylan, Petty, and Jackson Browne—but ends up being bland and boring. Picking up on the band’s occasional moments of lyrical strength requires the patience of a saint who’s not prone to being lulled to sleep. —SG [DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, $28.50–$35/8 P.M.]
Inc. No World WATER Inc. no world chills WORLD hard. The Los Angeles duo powers its songs with liquidy guitar licks, sparse, down-tempo drumming, and breathy voices crooning vague melodies. If you’re looking for a mellow musical moment, inc. no world will oblige at Duke Coffeehouse. With xx/xo.—NR [DUKE COFFEEHOUSE, $5/9 P.M.]
Priests PRAYER Nothing Feels Natural, WARRIOR the debut album from Washington, D.C., outfit Priests, couldn’t have come at a better time. The band, whose frontwoman and primary songwriter, Katie Alice Greer, founded rising punk label Sister Polygon, makes seething post-punk for turbulent times. The band offers tuneful reflections with a personal and universal gravity, as with Greer’s proclamation, “People are born and dying inside of me all the time” from album highlight “Leila 20.” Greer’s mind-set may be murky, but the hooks soldier on. Hand Grenade Job and Truthers open. —ZC [THE PINHOOK, $10/9 P.M.]
You Blew It! ANGSTY Can you guess what CHEER kind of music You Blew It! makes from the exclamation mark alone? Poppy emo—correct! But the Florida ensemble’s take on it is weird, leaning toward pop-punk positivity. In the music video for “You & Me & Me,” for example, band members manage to sing self-effacing lines like “Between you and me/I’m not proud of
anything” while keeping smiles on their faces the whole time. With All Get Out, Free Throw, and Naked Naps. —NR [KINGS, $12/8 P.M.] ALSO ON SUNDAY CAT’S CRADLE: All Them Witches, Irata; 8:30 p.m., $12–$14. • THE CAVE: Happy, August Is Ours; 9 p.m., $5. • DEEP SOUTH: Morose Vitality, Gates of Endor, Chateau, Greves; 9 p.m., $5. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Afton Music Showcase; 6:30 p.m. • LOCAL 506: MC Lars, Mega Ran, Big O, Skyblew; 9 p.m., $12. • MOTORCO: Jonathan Byrd & the Pickup Cowboys, Locust Honey, Mark Bumgarner; 7 p.m., $15–$18. See page 26. • THE MURPHEY SCHOOL AT THE SHARED VISIONS RETREAT CENTER: North Carolina Shape Note Singing Convention; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. • NC MUSEUM OF ART: Sights and Sounds on Sundays; 3 p.m. • NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Landlady, Blanko Basnet; 9 p.m., $10. See page 31. • POUR HOUSE: Airpark, The Vanguard Party, Lawrence Trailer; 9 p.m., $6–$8. • SLIM’S: Knives of Spain, Wester Green, Magpie Feast; 8 p.m., $5. • UNC’S HILL HALL: Marc Callahan, Thomas Otten; 3 p.m., $10–$15. • UNC CAMPUS: MEMORIAL HALL: Heroes Tribute: A Celebration of the Music of Philip Glass, David Bowie, and Brian Eno; 7:30 p.m., $10–$20. See page 31. • UNC FRIDAY CENTER: The Langston Hughes Project; 3 p.m.
MON, MAR 6 Cold War Kids BLAH A long-running Los ROCK Angeles corporateindie enterprise, Cold War Kids have managed to rack up considerable sales and a devoted audience with a subtlety-free amalgam of major-key singalongs, pseudo-profound musings, and unfailing devotion to every-hair-in-place mediocrity. Somewhere along the line, lead singer Nathan Willett adopted the feral yelp of Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, but everything else about the band’s unflinchingly square approach suggests analogues closer to fellow creeps like the nineties also-rans Live. Middle Kids open. —EB [HAW RIVER BALLROOM, $25–$27/8 P.M.]
expected trappings of preternatural cool that often go with the territory. Led by brothers Caleb and Will Chapman, whose father makes Christian music, the band’s crisp, anthemic indie rock is a little bit Coldplay, a little bit Cold War Kids. The band’s latest record, Only the Lonely, opens with “Cannot Do This Alone,” tailor-made for the mass waving of cell phones. With Deep Sea Diver. —DK [CAT’S CRADLE, $12–$15/8 P.M.]
Potty Mouth NINETIES Potty Mouth’s single KIDS from this past fall, “Smash Hit,” is a power-pop song working in the tradition of Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair.” That is, it’s a pop song criticizing pop songs, its opening line being, “Give us more of that something/Ooh try to sell.” The band’s devotion to nineties tropes holds it back a bit, but it’s still got a knack for writing tuneful melodies. With Tennis System, Party Baby, and Naked Naps. —NR [THE CAVE, $7/9 P.M.]
Xenia Rubinos YASS With her sharp, QUEENS smart writing and brilliant blend of hip-hop, soul, funk, Xenia Rubinos is at the top of a game that no one else is playing. She can keep you on your toes and sweep you off your feet all in the same breath, making for a dizzying and delightful listening experience. On “Mexican Chef,” for example, Rubinos sprints through the ways that people of color form the foundation of American society, but she does it over a groovy, irresistible rhythm. Shirlette Ammons and Charly Lowry open. —AH [KINGS, $10–$12/9 P.M.]
Too Close to Touch JUST FOR Lexington, TEENS Kentucky’s Too Close to Touch traffics in the sort of histrionic emo-punk that has made stars of bands like the 1975, thanks in large part to significant melodic chops and a laudably ferocious intensity. Still, the band’s boilerplate tunes of alienation feel strictly for the sixteen-and-under set. —EB [LOCAL 506, $13–$15/6:30 P.M.]
Colony House
ALSO ON MONDAY
BAND OF This Nashville BROS four-piece keeps it real by embracing the rock-bandas-gang ethos but rejecting the
NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Earthly, Holly Waxwing, Trandle, Chichurro; 9 p.m., $8. • SLIM’S: Wonky Tonk, Eric Scholz; 9 p.m., $5. INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 35
TUE, MAR 7 Death Metal Pope DOOM Long Island doom METAL merchants Death Metal Pope traffic principally in an exceptionally hostile, detuned version of Sabbath’s slow-moving menace, with enough subtle pop moves and ironic remove to suggest the influence of deconstructionists like Harvey Milk. Lyrical themes on tracks like “From the Dust Removed” and “Young Grave” tend to run the typical metal gamut from death to modes of death. Original! Coffin Birth and Antenora open. —TB [SLIM’S, $5/9:30 P.M.]
Downtown Boys
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTORCO
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8
BEN SOLLEE & JORDON ELLIS
Whether by bike or via motorized transit, inventive Louisville-based cellist, songwriter, and singer Ben Sollee is back on the road supporting his latest LP, recorded and now performed as a duo with longtime touring percussionist Jordon Ellis. The pair’s collaborative partnership, which stretches back a decade and a half to their high school days, when they met while playing with Kentucky’s All-State Jazz Band, resulted in last fall’s Infowars— which bears no political or thematic relation to the far-right fake news website of the same name. The album is Sollee’s first full-length studio effort of his own material since 2012’s Half-Made Man. In the interim, Sollee—once of the star-studded supergroup Sparrow Quartet—composed original scores for the N.C. Dance Theatre’s ballet adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons and the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s production of At the Vanishing Point along with documentary film scores for the indie flick Maidentrip and the PBS picture Wonder, collaborated with choreographer David Ingram and members of the Louisville Orchestra for Postcards from America, and released an album of covers ranging from Otis Redding to Bill Monroe, among other multimedia projects. The diversity of those ventures seems to have broadened Sollee’s palette when it came to shaping 36 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
Infowars, which sits in stark contrast to the fleshed-out, full-band arrangements of Half-Made Man. Even so, Infowars takes an eclectic approach despite the strippeddown format. “Cajun Navy,” a tribute to the brave souls who volunteer for risky rescue missions in the wake of floods and hurricanes, takes on a jaunty zydeco flavor but is chased by the cool, soulful “The Long Lavender Line” and its infusion of a sampled GPS voice between warped cello. Elsewhere, the skittish title track is interrupted by a segment that seems to imitate the ancient, spooky organ music more often found in horror movies, but it yields to a pair of relatively straightforward, dissimilar cuts: a soaring, elegant indie rock anthem and a breezy, charming folk-pop tune. That doesn’t even cover the first half of the nineteen-track, interlude-laden record, which could only be the product of an enduring musical relationship between such adventurous spirits as Sollee and Ellis. Seeing the energetic and engaging pair re-create such recordings in the spontaneity of a live setting promises to be a fascinating display of creativity and interplay. —Spencer Griffith MOTORCO MUSIC HALL, DURHAM 8 p.m., $15–$17, www.motorcomusic.com
PUNK For a genre founded SPIRIT on principles of inclusivity and protest, punk rock is largely a straight white man’s game. Thus, radical punk crew Downtown Boys is refreshing: its members comprise a bevy of nationalities, gender identities, and sexual orientations. The band draws on its often overlooked experiences, and attendant struggles, to form the nexus of its infectious racket. They practice what they preach, and they do it damn well. —ZC [DUKE COFFEEHOUSE, $5, FREE WITH DUKE ID/9 P.M.]
Vijay Iyer Sextet DEPTH Vijay Iyer’s working CHARGE trio with bassist Stephen Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore is already an omnivorous musical beast, putting Iyer’s own adventurous tunes alongside deep cuts by everyone from Michael Jackson to Henry Threadgill. In expanding to a sextet, Iyer adds Graham Haynes on cornet and flügelhorn, Steve Lehman on alto sax, and Mark Shim on tenor sax, and with them come even more possibilities. They’re about to record an album, so they should be in top form. —DR [UNC’S MEMORIAL HALL, $10–$39/7:30 P.M.]
Valerie June FOLK It’s been almost four RATTLE years since Valerie June released Pushin’ Against a Stone, but she’s finally following it up later this month with The Order of Time. Her mix of rock, blues, folk, and roots influences—what she calls organic moonshine roots
music—is a refreshingly holistic experience; June leaves no stone unturned and no emotion unfelt when she performs. Oh Pep! opens. —AD [CAROLINA THEATRE, $25–$30/8 P.M.]
Lacy Jags SPACE = Lacy Jags draws its PLACE membership from Triangle acts with at least one foot in roiling garage rock or swirling psychedelia—bands like jphono1, Schooner, Prisms, North Elementary, and The Wyrms. As Lacy Jags, the quartet dives deep into incense-and-peppermints freakouts, effusing itself in eddies and slinging garage rock laced with pop jubilation and whorling space oddities. On Scodes, released last year, Lacy Jags’s nuggets are direct and affecting; live, their extended codas, drowned in reverb, become out-of-body experiences. With Peyote Coyote. —PW [THE CAVE, $5/10 P.M.]
Sally & George WHAT A Following a chance PAIR! festival encounter, Shelby Means and Joel Timmons—of bluegrass outfit Della Mae and roots rock jammers Sol Driven Train respectively—fell in love, borrowing the names of Means’s grandparents to perform timeless duets as Sally & George. They’re influenced as much by Johnny & June’s country as by Buddy Holly’s early rock. —SG [RALEIGH TIMES, FREE/7:30 P.M.] ALSO ON TUESDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble; 7 p.m. • CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Moose Blood, Trophy Eyes, Boston Manor, A Will Away; 7 p.m., $17. • THE PINHOOK: The Dig, Communist Daughter, Body Games; 9 p.m., $10–$12. • POUR HOUSE: The New Hillbillies, James Olin Oden; 9 p.m., $5. • SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS (RALEIGH): Small Talks, Magnolia, August Is Ours, Nicholas Rae; 6:30 p.m., free. • ST. PAUL’S LUTHERAN CHURCH: Mallarmé Chamber Players: Hotdogs & Apple Pie; 7:30 p.m., $20–$25.
WED, MAR 8 Electronic Summit #3 VARIETY A gloriously catholic NIGHT mixture of local electronic talents converges upon
the freshly updated Kings for this latest offering of the venue’s relatively new Electronic Summit series. Voter Frog, Bodykit, Tegucigalpan, and Sponge Bath run the gamut of electronic music styles, and all are excellent—your eight bucks will go a long way. —DS [KINGS, $8/9 P.M.]
Kane Strang BLEAK “I’ve got/no dreams/ ROCK no gods/just enemies” Kane Strang moans disaffectedly on his latest effort, “Oh So You’re Off I See.” Despite being made thousands of miles from Canada—he’s based in Dunedin, New Zealand—Strang’s music bears a spiritual kindship with Canadian post-punk groups like Women and The Avulsions, though it’s distinguished from such groups by the clarity and simplicity of its hooks.—NR [THE PINHOOK, $10/9 P.M.]
Mark Padmore & Jonathan Biss DUAL British tenor Mark TALENT Padmore, is teaming up with NYC pianist Jonathon Biss at UNC to deliver a comprehensive program of Schubert. The performance will open with Biss on solo piano, performing Sonato No. 20, after which Padmore’s voice will lead a number of songs while Biss accompanies him. Classical works for piano and voice can make one yearn for the grandeur of a full-blown orchestra, but they can also allow listeners to truly concentrate on, and get lost in, the interplay between vocal melody and piano harmony. Padmore and Biss will most certainly offer the latter. —NR [UNC’S HILL HALL, $10–$39/7:30 P.M.] ALSO ON WEDNESDAY CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Major and the Monbacks; 8:30 p.m., $10. • THE CAVE: Floor Model; 9 p.m., $5. • LINCOLN THEATRE: David Bromberg; 8 p.m., $20–$30. • LOCAL 506: Yoke Lore; 7 p.m., $12–$14. • MOTORCO: Ben Sollee and Jordon Ellis; 8 p.m., $15–$17. See box, this page. • POUR HOUSE: Mt. Joy; 9 p.m., $8–$10.
art OPENING
SPECIAL Come Closer: EVENT Ceramics by Holly Fischer. Mar 3-25. Reception: Fri, Mar 3, 6-10 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh. www.artspacenc.org. SPECIAL Deadpan: Kerry Law, EVENT Alex O’Neal, and Kirsten Stoltmann. Mar 3-Apr 1. Reception: Friday, Mar 3, 6-9 p.m. Lump, Raleigh. www. teamlump.org. Exposed: Nudes in Art: Juried show featuring work by twenty-five artists. Mar 3-30. Litmus Gallery, Raleigh. www. litmusgallery.com. Glory of Venice: Renaissance Paintings 1470–1520: Mar 4-Jun 18. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org. SPECIAL Holding On: EVENT Ceramics, collage, and photography by essica Dupuis, Karen Hillier, and Sarah Malakoff. Mar 3-Apr 15. Reception: Friday, Mar 3, 6-10 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh. www. artspacenc.org. Illuminations: Intimate Portraits of Mother Nature: Photography by Richard Mathis. Mar 3-26. Nature Art Gallery, Raleigh. www.naturalsciences.org.
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3.1 – 3.8 SPECIAL In Conditions of EVENT Fresh Water: Mixed media by Torkwase Dyson and Danielle Purifoy. Mar 2-Jun 3. Reception: Mar 2, 6 p.m. Duke Campus: Center for Documentary Studies, Durham. www.cdsporch.org. See p. 39. SPECIAL Project Reject Is EVENT Underway: Sitespecific installation by Jeff Bell and Megan Sullivan. Mar 3-May 27. Reception: Friday, Mar 3, 6-10 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh. www.artspacenc.org. Total Life Center Exhibition: Artwork created in collaboration with artist Deb Withey and Total Life Center. Mar 3-25. Artspace, Raleigh. www.artspacenc.org.
ONGOING 2-Dimensional Art Show: Group show. Thru Mar 22. Carrboro Branch Library, Carrboro. www. co.orange.nc.us/library/carrboro. Animal Spirits: Visionary Folk Art: Group show. Thru Apr 6. Alexander Dickson House, Hillsborough. www. historichillsborough.org. Ansel Adams: Masterworks: An artist is not always the best person to assess his or her own work, but in the case of Ansel Adams, the great photographer of the American West, the king of the coffee-table book, we’ll make an exception. Adams called this “the Museum Set,” the ultimate expression of his legacy. These forty-eight masterworks, taken in locations like Glacier National Park, Yosemite, and Monument Valley, speak to Adams’s monumental purity of vision. Thru May 7. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org. —David Klein Art of the Children of Abraham: Mixed media. Thru Mar 27. West Raleigh Presbyterian Church, Raleigh. www.wrpc.org. Artspace Corridor Exhibition: Carrie Alter, Paula Baumann, Andie Freeman, Celia Gray, Judy Keene, & Don Mertz. Thru Mar 27. Artspace, Raleigh. www. artspacenc.org. Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation: By examining the history of
Indian immigrants as they assimilated and contributed to American life—musical, political, culinary, scholarly, sporting, and cultural—this traveling Smithsonian exhibit reframes what it means to be an Indian American. Thru Apr 2. City of Raleigh Museum, Raleigh. —David Klein Cascading Color: Elizabeth Kellerman. Thru Apr 16. Durham Convention Center, Durham. www.durhamconventioncenter. com. A Celebration of 100 Years of Solitude: Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is built on a grand pattern of Latin American myth and history, intermeshed with an intimate one of seven generations of a family, and both wound by Márquez into shapes of fated repetition and doom. This exhibit by the Artist Studio Project, including twelve artists’ responses to the novel, was curated by Rafael A. Osuba, who put on a similar tribute to Don Quixote last year. Thru March 10. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www.durhamarts.org. —Brian Howe Collecting Carolina: 100 Years of Jugtown Pottery: Pottery. Thru May 29. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org. Collections: Leah Sobsey. Thru Sep 30. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. www.21cmuseumhotels.com/ durham/.
Submerged contributions (left to right) by Brett Morris, Jillian Ohl, Ian Tate, Stephen Lindberg, Conner Calhoun and Davis Choun
Color Across Asia: Thru May 13, 2018. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www.ackland.org.
FRIDAY, MARCH 3
The Color of Light: Landscapes by Lyudmila Tomova and Vinita Jain. Thru Mar 29. Village Art Circle, Cary. www. villageartcircle.com. Connections: Paintings by Ellie Edwards-Smith. Thru Mar 30. Eno Gallery, Hillsborough. www. enogallery.net. Corridor Exhibitions: Carrie Alter, Paula Baumann, Andie Freeman, Celia Gray, Judy Keene, and Don Mertz. Thru Mar 25. Artspace, Raleigh. www.artspacenc.org.
SUBMERGED
We often hear about “emerging” artists—but whence do they emerge? From somewhere below the vast, shifting surface of the gallery world, a fact that Mahler Fine Art manager Jillian Ohl keys in on in the title of the group exhibit she curated at the Raleigh gallery. Submerged features a dozen artists who are either new to the Raleigh/Durham area or just beginning to show their work, although some of the names, such as Davis Choun, might already be familiar to those who frequent Raleigh art havens such as Artspace and Visual Art Exchange. Others include Austin Caskie, Conner Calhoun, Dare Coulter, and Britt Flood; all are postundergraduate but younger than thirty, working in mediums from experimental sculpture to abstract figure painting. “As an artist myself, I’ve noticed my friends and peers creating amazing work that gets little recognition in the local art community,” Ohl says. “Taking the initiative, I collected what I believe to be the best of the next generation of artists. This all came from my belief that young artists have to support each other rather than be competitive.” After this opening reception, Submerged keeps bubbling up through the month of March. —Brian Howe THE MAHLER FINE ART, RALEIGH 6–9 p.m., free, www.themahlerfineart.com INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 37
Cuba Now: Photography by Elizabeth Matheson. Ongoing. Craven Allen Gallery, Durham. www.cravenallengallery.com. Ryan Cummings: Thru Mar 25. more. Raleigh. www.jmrkitchens. com. LAST Daily Bred: Mixed CHANCE media by Stephen Hayes. Thru Mar 5. Durham Art Guild, Durham. www. durhamartguild.org. Darning Memory: Fabric works by Leatha Koefler, Mary Starke, and Ely Urbanski. Thru Mar 24. Miriam Preston Block Gallery, Raleigh. www.raleighnc.gov/arts. Discover Your Governors: Thru Aug 6. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org. LAST Earth is Closed CHANCE Everyone is Fired: Aaron Zalonis. Thru Mar 3. SPECTRE Arts, Durham. www. spectrearts.org. Fever Within: The Art of Ronald Lockett: Selftaught artists also teach one another. Starting in the 1980s, Alabama produced a remarkable crop of AfricanAmerican ones who entered
the canon as it slowly grew less homogenous. Scavenger sculptor Lonnie Holley has had a retrospective at the Birmingham Museum of Art; assemblage master Thornton Dial has been collected by MOMA, the Whitney, and the Met. Little known but primed for reconsideration is Dial’s cousin, Ronald Lockett, who explored the panoramic violence and racial strife of the twentieth century in richly textured, starkly totemic paintings on discarded materials, wrought with wire and nails, twigs and leaves. He made some four hundred works before his death from complications of HIV/AIDS at age thirty-two in 1998. See fifty of them in the first solo exhibition of his work. Thru Apr 9. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www.ackland.org. —Brian Howe
the first time in decades that NCMA has curated an exhibit from its British holdings of Old Master painting and sculpture. Thru Mar 19. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum. org. —Brian Howe Josh Hockensmith and Mark Iwinski: Mixed media. Thru Mar 27. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill. www. chapelhillpreservation.com.
Flora and Fauna: Mixed media. Thru May 14. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www. ackland.org. History and Mystery: Discoveries in the NCMA British Collection: This is
From Mark Iwinski’s CODEX, on view at Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill through March 27
Howard Murry Rediscovered: Charlotte native Howard Murry painted in the resort town of Valle Crucis, near Boone. Murry was interested in rural North Carolina, from farming methods to religious practices, and his watercolor landscapes depict a slightly idealized past, free of utility lines and automobiles, taking subtle modernist liberties. The first exhibit of his work in twenty-five years consists of forty watercolors that his grandson has owned since Murry’s death in 1968. Thru Mar 25. Lee Hansley Gallery,
Raleigh. www.leehansleygallery. com. —David Klein Life in the City: Kanchan Gharpurey. Thru Mar 31. Carrboro Century Center, Carrboro. carrboro.com/ centurycenter.html. Location Known: Gail Biederman, Chad Erpelding, and Travis Head. Thru Mar 11. Artspace, Raleigh. www. artspacenc.org. Moor and Moon: Mary Walker. Thru Mar 10. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www. durhamarts.org. LAST Nuestras Historias, CHANCE Nuestros Sueños/ Our Stories, Our Dreams: Documenting the experiences of Latino farmworkers in the Carolinas. Thru May 7. Historic Oak View County Park, Raleigh. www.wakegov.com/parks/ oakview. Orange County Artists Guild Members Exhibit: Group show. Thru March 21. Carrboro Branch Library, Carrboro. www. co.orange.nc.us/library/carrboro. Sabungeros (Cockfighters): Photography by Douglas Vuncannon. Thru Mar 11.
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INDY WEEK’S BAR + BEVERAGE MAGAZINE ON STANDS NOW
Through This Lens, Durham. www.throughthislens.com. LAST CHANCE Selma to Montgomery: A March for the Right to Vote: Photographs by Spider Martin. Thru Mar 5. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www.ncmuseumofhistory.org.
FRIDAY, MARCH 3– SUNDAY, MARCH 12
CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY
In November 2015, Bartlett Theater opened what they claimed would be a season of works by and about Tennessee Williams with a notable production of The Glass Menagerie. More than a year passed as we waited for word on its next show. Sixteen months later, in what the company now calls its “Season 1.5,” guest director Karen Dacons-Brock helms a second production that, on the heels of PlayMakers Rep’s Intimate Apparel, is also the second local production of a play by Lynn Nottage this year. In this comingof-age tale, set in the 1950s, a black family flees racism and the death of the narrator’s mother in Florida to face markedly different challenges in a drafty Brooklyn tenement. The cast includes Lakeisha Coffey and Jade Arnold.. —Byron Woods
Sense of Scene: Group show. Thru Mar 11. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www. durhamarts.org. A Sense Of...: Photography. Ongoing. Roundabout Art Collective, Raleigh. www. roundaboutartcollective.com. SPECIMEN: A Collection of Plant Artistry: Thru Mar 11. The Scrap Exchange, Durham. www. scrapexchange.org. Textiles in Tiers: Trudy Thomson, Sandy Milroy, and Rose Warner. Thru May 25. National Humanities Center, Durham. www. nationalhumanitiescenter.org. Allison Tierney: Thru Mar 25. HQ Raleigh, Raleigh. LAST Together: Group CHANCE show. Thru Mar 5. Pleiades Gallery, Durham. www. PleiadesArtDurham.com. Transits and Migrations: A Summer in Berlin: Student photography. Thru Apr 15. Duke Campus: Center for Documentary Studies, Durham. www.cdsporch.org. Unwoven Testaments: Textile art by Laurie Wohl that explores the relationships between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Thru Mar 26. Meredith College, Raleigh. www.meredith.edu.
food
Jewish Food in the Global South Symposium: Various locations in Chapel Hill. Sat, Mar 4 & Sun, Mar 5. jewishstudies.unc. edu/events/jewish-foodin-the-global-south-asymposium/.
PSI THEATRE, DURHAM 7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat./ 3 p.m. Sun., $15–$25, www.bartletttheater.org
Crumbs from the Table of Joy
PHOTO BY CHRIS WRIGHT
stage OPENING Brain Candy Live: $40–$50. Wed, Mar 1, 7:30 p.m. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. www.dpacnc.com. Dara: Play presented by Ajoka Theatre. $10–$20. Thu, Mar 2, 7:30 p.m. UNC Campus: Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill. www.carolinaperformingarts. org. See p. 30. Eyes Up Here Comedy Showcase: Stand-up by Sara Levy, Melissa Douty, Blaire Postman, Brandy Brown, Maddie Wiener, and Shari Diaz. $5. Wed, Mar 1, 8:30 p.m. Neptunes Parlour, Raleigh. www.neptunesparlour.com. Golden Age: Improv comedy. $5. Fri, Mar 3, 10 p.m. The Shed Jazz Club, Durham. Sebastian Maniscalco: Stand-
up comedy. $42–$94.50. Sat, Mar 4, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. www.carolinatheatre. org. Goodnights Comedy Academy Graduation Showcase: Standup comedy. $5–$13. Wed, Mar 1, 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com. Mariposa & the Saint: From Solitary Confinement, A Play Through Letters: Play. Thu, Mar 2, 7 p.m. UNC’s Graham Student Union, Chapel Hill. — Sat, Mar 4, 5 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. www.thepinhook. com. Rod Man: $22–$25. Mar 2-4. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com. Seussical: Musical. Wed, Mar 1, 9:45 & 11:45 am. Memorial
Auditorium, Raleigh. www. dukeenergycenterraleigh.com. The Racket: Team improv comedy. $5. Fri, Mar 3, 9 p.m. The Shed Jazz Club, Durham. The Sinful Six: Stand-up comedy goes blue. $12. Wed, Mar 8, 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com. Twelfth Night: Play. $10–$57. Mar 1-19. UNC Campus: Paul Green Theatre, Chapel Hill. playmakersrep.org. See p. 30.
ONGOING Anything Goes Late Show: Comedy. Saturdays, 10:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com. LAST Bright Half CHANCE Life: Tanya
Barfield’s Bright Half Life has a lot in common with Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs, which Sonorous Road staged last September. Both are twocharacter dramas focused on chronic overthinkers in love, and both propel us through decades of couples’ lives with the hand brake off. But Barfield’s work differs from Macmillan’s in two crucial respects. The dyad in Bright Half Life is lesbian and interracial, and instead of progressing in chronological order, the play flips through their crucial and resonant moments seemingly at random. Lives flash before our eyes as Jules OdendahlJames directs JoRose and Tamara Kissane in this regional premiere. See review at www.indyweek.com.
$5–$20. Thru Mar 4. Manbites Dog Theater, Durham. www. manbitesdogtheater.org. —Byron Woods The Harry Show: Ages 18+. Improv comedy with audience participation. $10. Fridays, 10 p.m. & Saturdays, 10 p.m. ComedyWorx Theatre, Raleigh. comedyworx.com. The Marriage of Figaro: NC Opera. $25–$99. Thru Mar 5. Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh. www. dukeenergycenterraleigh.com. Geimaru-za Nihon Buyo Troupe: Traditional Japanese dance. $10–$32. Tue, Mar 7, 8 p.m. Duke Campus: Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham.
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FRIDAY, MARCH 3
READINGS & SIGNINGS
ASBURY SHORT FILM CONCERT
After thirty-five years of showing selections of short films to audiences in a touring “film concert,” the New York-based Asbury Short Films finally makes its way to the Triangle. Drawing on distinguished, awardwinning films from national and international festivals, the scrupulously curated medley runs the gamut from animation and comedy to drama. Included this year are a pair of dramatic films made in-state and featured in the North Carolina Museum of History’s own Longleaf Film Festival: “Oh, Crappy Day,” about a teen struggling with OCD, and “Civil,” set in 1865. Other notable shorts include “A Poet Long Ago,” written Pete Hamill and starring Stephen Schirripa of Sopranos fame, and “Globe Trot,” a collaboration between filmmaker Mitchell Rose and choreographer Bebe Miller. Catch the films at seven-thirty as part of the museum’s First Friday events from five to nine, which also include live music by Castle Wild at six-thirty and craft beer from Oak & Dagger.—David Klein N.C. MUSEUM OF HISTORY, RALEIGH 7:30 p.m., $15, www.ncmuseumofhistory.org
SPECIAL SHOWINGS The Gender Revolution: Free. Sat, Mar 4, 7 p.m. Raleigh Friends Meeting House, Raleigh. The Groove Is Not Trivial: Sun, Mar 5, 3 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. artscenterlive.org. Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age: Sun, Mar 5, 1:30 p.m. Beth Shalom Synagogue, Raleigh. bethshalomnc.org/. The Modern School of Film: Film Studies for All: Thu, Mar 2, 7 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham. www. shadowboxstudio.org.
OPENING
Before I Fall—In what sounds like a YA Groundhog Day, a high school senior (Zoey Deutch) finds herself living the last day of her life over and over. Rated PG-13. Logan—Hugh Jackman plays an older (naturally) Wolverine in this tenth installment of the X-Men franchise. Rated R. The Shack—In this faith-based film a man returns to the shack where his daughter was murdered and tests his faith with a trio of strangers. Rated PG-13. Table 19—Cowritten by the Duplass brothers, this film takes place at the unpopular table at a wedding. Rated PG-13. 40 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
A L S O P L AY I N G The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Read reviews of these films at www.indyweek.com. A Dog’s Purpose—Josh Gad voices a reincarnating dog in this maudlin family movie. Rated PG. ½ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—A Rowling-penned, promising start to a new Harry Potter franchise. Rated PG-13. ½ Get Out—Jordan Peele of Key & Peele’s directorial debut is Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner crossed with a racially charged The Stepford Wives update. It’s also one of the best things to happen to the horror genre in twenty years. Rated R. ½ Hidden Figures— This true story of three black women triumphing over racism and sexism in the 1960s space race has a TV-movie softness but powerfully portrays bigotry and courage. Rated PG. ½ I Am Not Your Negro— Raoul Peck’s filmmaking doesn’t always serve the material, but his James Baldwin doc must be seen for the undimmed power of its subject’s words and presence. Rated PG-13. ½ John Wick: Chapter 2—This smartly made return
for the reluctant hit man character that resuscitated Keanu Reeves’s career runs on muscle cars and muscle memories. Rated R. La La Land—Damien Chazelle reunites Gosling and Stone for a breezy jazz musical with Technicolor charm. Rated PG-13. The Lego Batman Movie—Cranking up the Jokes Per Minute with an astonishingly high success rate, this animated film blends over-the-top laughs aimed at youngsters with countless gags for adults. Rated PG.
HH½ Passengers—This glossy interstellar vehicle for provocative moral entanglements ultimately implodes from the pressure of its star-driven, crowd-pleasing mission. Rated PG-13. Patriots Day— Mark Wahlberg’s ego singlehandedly avenges the Boston Marathon bombing victims. Rated R. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story—This war flick set in the Star Wars universe takes place just before the first film, and works great as a stand-alone. Rated PG-13. ½ Silence—Scorsese offers a masterful, reverent tale of seventeenth-century Jesuits traveling to Japan. Rated R.
Melissa Eggleston and Julie Lellis: The Zombie Business Cure: How to Refocus your Company’s Identity for More Authentic Communication. Thu, Mar 2, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham. www. regulatorbookshop.com. Mohsin Hamid: Exit West. Mon, Mar 6, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www. quailridgebooks.com. David Joy: The Weight of This World. Wed, Mar 8, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. www.flyleafbooks.com. Charlie Lovett: Novel The Lost Book of the Grail. Tue, Mar 7, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www.quailridgebooks. com. Sundry Poets: Sally Stewart Mohney, Jane Shlensky, and David Poston. Sun, Mar 5, 2
p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www.quailridgebooks.com. Thriller Author Trio: AJ Tata, KJ Howe, Mark Greaney: Sat, Mar 4, 4 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www. quailridgebooks.com. Krista Tippett: Becoming Wise: An Inquiry Into the Mystery and Art of Living. Fri, Mar 3, 7 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, Raleigh. www.uufr.org. Lisa Yarger: Lovie: The Story of a Southern Midwife. Thu, Mar 2, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www.quailridgebooks. com. — Sat, Mar 4, 2 p.m. Storyteller’s Book Store, Wake Forest. Karin L. Zipf: Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory. Mon, Mar 6, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham. www. regulatorbookshop.com.
LITERARY R E L AT E D Half-Earth: How to Save the Natural World: Panel discussion with John Seager, Thomas Lovejoy, Louie Psihoyos, and Paul Simon. $15–$25. Thu, Mar 2, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. www.carolinatheatre.org. The Monti Story Slam: Sick: $12. Wed, Mar 1, 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. www.motorcomusic.com. Novel Sounds II: Conference examining the relationship between rock and roll and literature. With Steve Earle, Peter Guralnick, and Roddy Doyle. Fri, Mar 3, 1 p.m. National Humanities Center, Durham. www. nationalhumanitiescenter.org. Reader’s Party: Sun, Mar 5, 2 p.m. Hayti Heritage Center, Durham. www.hayti.org.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8 & THURSDAY, MARCH 9
DAVID JOY: THE WEIGHT OF THIS WORLD In his well-received debut novel, Where All Light Tends to Go, David Joy couched a coming-of-age story in a desperate, dangerous Appalachian milieu dominated by the meth trade and family bonds forged in hopelessness and violence. Joy incorporates similar elements in his second novel, The Weight of This World, but the storyline arcs wider as it heads toward its concluding meth-crazed road trip. Set in the mountains of North Carolina, the story focuses on Thad Broom, a soldier returning home from Afghanistan whose struggles to reconcile himself to the horrors of war are interrupted by a life-changing windfall from a drug deal gone wrong. Joy has earned significant praise for the “white-hot intensity” of his writing, and his skill in evoking the grittier end of the Southern landscape has earned comparisons to Faulkner and Harry Crews. —David Klein
FLYLEAF BOOKS, CHAPEL HILL I 7 p.m. Weds., free, www.flyleafbooks.com QUAIL RIDGE BOOKS, RALEIGH I 7 p.m. Thurs., free, www.quailridgebooks.com
indy classifieds employment AIRLINE CAREERS BEGIN HERE Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)
AIRLINE CAREERS BEGIN HERE Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)
BARTENDERS NEEDED MAKE $20-$35/HOUR Raleigh’s Bartending School 676.0774 www.cocktailmixer. com 1-2wk class
DESIGNSCAPES OF NC, LTD.
We’re looking for someone who has the ability to execute a variety of hardscape, softscape, irrigation, drainage, and water feature projects. Full-time. Job Functions: * Installation of plants, trees and sod. * Building stone patios, walls, walkways with and without mortar, working pavers and wall units. * Operation of landscaping equipment. * Possess a valid Driver’s License and is insurable by company insurance carriers. * Ability to safely handle a manual transmission truck & trailer combination/large bed dump trucks (non CDL). To apply, send: * Resume * Contact Information To susan@designscapesofnc.com or call 919-844-3441
DRIVER TRAINEES NEEDED! Learn to drive for Stevens Transport! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! New drivers can earn $900+ per week! PAID CDL TRAINING! Stevens covers all costs! 1-888-748-4137 drive4stevens.co
FTCC FAYETTEVILLE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE is now accepting applications for the following positions: Coordinator for Military Programs, Disability Support Services Coordinator, Financial Accountant. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com/ Human Resources Office Phone: (910) 678-7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc. edu An Equal Opportunity Employer
LOCAL DRIVERS WANTED! Be your own boss. Flexible hours. Unlimited earning potential. Must be 21 with valid U.S. driver’s license, insurance & reliable vehicle. 866-329-2672 (AAN CAN)
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MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES NEEDED!
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Traditional art of meditative movement for health, energy, relaxation, self-defense. Classes/workshops throughout the Triangle. Magic Tortoise School - Since 1979. Call Jay or Kathleen, 919-968-3936 or www.magictortoise.com
DANCE CLASSES IN SWING, LINDY, BLUES, TAI CHI
At ERUUF, Durham & ArtsCenter, Carrboro. RICHARD BADU, 919-724-1421, rbadudance@gmail.com
massage
FULL BODY MASSAGE
by a Male Russian Massage Therapist with strong and gentle hands to make you feel good from head to toe. Schedule an appointment with Pavel Sapojnikov, NC LMBT. #1184. Call: 919-790-9750.
MASSAGE BY MARK KINSEY
Ten years helping clients feel at home in their bodies. Swedish & deep tissue massage for stress relief. Near Duke. MassageByMarkKinsey.com. NCLMBT#6072. 919-619-6373.
studies
XARELTO
VETERANS!
Xarelto users have you had complications due to internal bleeding (after January 2012)? If so, you MAY be due financial compensation. If you don’t have an attorney, CALL Injuryfone today! 1-800-419-8268.(NCPA)
HAVE YOU SUFFERED FROM SLEEP PROBLEMS, SPECIFICALLY INSOMNIA? IF SO AND YOU HAVE COMPLETED COGNITIVEBEHAVIORAL THERAPY FOR INSOMNIA (CBT-i) THROUGH YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER,WE WOULD LIKE TO TALK WITH YOU. * VA MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AND BLUERIDGE IT SOLUTIONS ARE DEVELOPING AN ONLINE CBT-i COURSE FOR VETERANS. * WE WANT TO INCLUDE BRIEF VIDEO DISCUSSIONS WITH VETERANS ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH INSOMNIA AND INSOMNIA TREATMENT. * WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO SPEND 60-90 MINUTES MAKING A VIDEO DISCUSSING YOUR SLEEP ISSUES? * VETERANS WHO ARE INTERVIEWED WILL RECEIVE A $100 GIFT CARD. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT MR. GREEN BLUERIDGE IT SOLUTIONS AT 850-685-6243
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medical services MAKE THE CALL TO START GETTING CLEAN TODAY. Free 24/7 Helpline for alcohol & drug addiction treatment. Get help! It is time to take your life back! Call Now: 855-732-4139 (AAN CAN)
NOTICE TO CREDITORS ESTATE OF ANDREW N. MERCIER, JR.,
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music lessons
ROBERT GRIFFIN IS ACCEPTING PIANO STUDENTS AGAIN! See the teaching page of: www.griffanzo.com Adult beginners welcome. 919-6362461 or griffanzo1@gmail.com
ESTATE NO. 15-E-1175 ALL PERSONS, FIRMS AND CORPORATIONS HAVING CLAIMS AGAINST ANDREW N. MERCIER, JR. deceased, of Wake County, North Carolina, are notified to present their claims to Mary B. Peterson, ADMINISTRATOR, at 305 Amacord Way, Holly Springs, NC 27540 on or before May 24, 2017 or this notice will plead in bar of their recovery. Debtors of the Decedent are requested to make immediate payment to EXECUTOR/ADMINISTRATOR ABOVE. This is the 22nd day of February, 2017. - Mary B. Peterson, Administrator of the Estate of Andrew N. Mercier, Jr.
for sale KEEP DOGS SHELTERED
CALL SARAH FOR ADS!
TAI CHI
misc.
notices
stuff
body • mind • spirit classes & instruction
share/ durham co.
To adopt: 919-403-2221 or visit animalrescue.net
Train at Home for a new career now at CTI! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! Online Training can get you job ready! 1-888512-7122 HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. careertechnical.edu/nc
Make $1000 A Week Mailing Brochures From Home! No Experience Required. Helping home workers since 2001! Genuine Opportunity. Start Immediately! www. IncomeStation.net (AAN CAN)
housing
critters
services tech services GOT A MAC? Need Support? Let AppleBuddy help you. Call 919.740.2604 or log onto www.applebuddy.com
misc.
DECLUTTERING? WE’LL BUY YOUR BOOKS We’ll bring a truck and crew *and pay cash* for your books and other media. 919-872-3399 or MiniCityMedia.com.
auctions getaways COMING TO ASHEVILLE? Upscale Spa. private outdoor hot tubs, 26 massage therapists, overnight accommodations, sauna and more. Starting at $42. Shojiretreats. com 828-299-0999
WATERFRONT PROPERTIES AUCTION
Custom Waterfront House with Dock, ORIENTAL and 2.2+/Acres on Bay River with Camp/ Dock, STONEWALL - OnLine Bidding - MARCH 1-thru-14 www.HouseAuctionCompany.com 252-729-1162 NCAL#7889
JEWELRY APPRAISALS While you wait. Graduate Gemologist www.ncjewelryappraiser.com
PREGNANT? CONSIDERING ADOPTION? Call us first. Living expenses, housing, medical, and continued support afterwards. Choose adoptive family of your choice. Call 24/7. 877-362-2401
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Book your ad • CALL Sarah at 919-286-6642 • EMAIL
Coalition to Unchain Dogs seeks plastic or igloo style dog houses for dogs in need, as well as indoor metal crates. To donate, please contact Amanda at director@unchaindogs.net.
claSSy@indyweek.com
MEET GAY AND BI LOCALS Browse & Reply FREE! Raleigh 919-882-0800, Durham 919595-9800. Use FREE Code 2707, 18+.
LIVELINKS
INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 41
EEK ★ I
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★★★★★★★
HIGHLIGHT! ★★★★★★★
K ★ IND EE
Who:
Walltown Children’s Theatre
What:
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For 16 years WCT has been leading with the arts and inspiring positive social change developing diverse, 8by 6 under-served youth in Durham through 9 exemplary performing arts programming, 2 8 after-school academic tutoring, 9 and 3 collaborative leadership opportunities. As 4 2a need-blind organization, we include 9 all children, regardless of
3
their financial means, building confidence in youth to succeed in all areas of their lives. We believe every child has the ability to succeed when valued!
Give: 2 walltownchildrenstheatre.org/donate1.html
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TO BE FEATURED IN A GIVE! GUIDE HIGHLIGHT, CONTACT CLASSY@INDYWEEK.COM
2016
D ★ IN Y W
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crossword If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “Diversions” at the bottom of our webpage.
7
su | do | ku # 26
this week’s puzzle level:
© 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.
1 8 6 4 3 6
5
7
8 4
6 4
9 98 6 7 31 5
1 4 7 8 6
6
2 4 8 9
4
6
1
7 3 7 9
8
3
5
# 28
8
8 2 9 6 4
MEDIUM 4 7 1 2 8 6 3 9 5
8 5 2 3 9 1 6 4 7
9 6 3 7 5 4 2 8 1
# 28
7 2 8 5 9 6 1 3 4
4 9 5 1 3 8 6 7 2
3 1 6 4 2 7 8 5 9
9 8 7 2 4 5 3 6 1
# 74 5 3 2 6 8 1 9 4 7
1 6 4 9 7 3 2 8 5
6 7 1 8 5 2 4 9 3
8 4 3 7 1 9 5 2 6
2 5 9 3 6 4 7 1 8
If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “Diversions”. Best of luck, and have fun! www.sudoku.com
solution to last week’s puzzle
30/10/2005
1 8 2 7 6 4 8
42 | 3.1.17 | INDYweek.com
4
3.1.17
Book your ad • CALL Sarah at 919-286-6642 • EMAIL
claSSy@indyweek.com
Comedian
A.G. White Friday March 3, 2017
9:00 PM • $10.00 • No Athletic Wear
TJ’s NIGHT LIFE 4801 Leigh Drive • Raleigh, NC (919) 672-1094
If you are a man or woman, 18-55 years old, living in the RaleighDurham-Chapel Hill area, and smoke cigarettes or use an electronic nicotine delivery system (e-cigarette), please join an important study on smokers being conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
wwwwwwwwwwwww
919-416-0675
www.harmonygate.com
What’s Required? • One visit to donate blood, urine, and saliva samples • Samples will be collected at the NIEHS Clinical Research Unit in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina • Volunteers will be compensated up to $60
advertise in this space for $55! classy@indyweek.com
wwwwwwwwwwwww
Who Can Participate? • Healthy men and women aged 18-55 • Current cigarette smokers or users of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes (can be using both)
RECYCLE THIS PAPER
The definition of healthy for this study means that you feel well and can perform normal activities. If you have a chronic condition, such as high blood pressure, healthy can also mean that you are being treated and the condition is under control. For more information about this study, call 919-316-4976 Lead Researcher Stavros Garantziotis, M.D. • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
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last week's puzzle
Dating Made Easy
Playmates or soul mates, you’ll find them on MegaMates Always FREE to listen and reply to ads!
Always FREE to listen and reply to ads!
Raleigh:
Raleigh:
(919) 573-6821 (919) 573-6818 www.megamates.com 18+
Book your ad • CALL Sarah at 919-286-6642 • EMAIL
claSSy@indyweek.com
www.megamates.com 18+
INDYweek.com | 3.1.17 | 43
SERVICES GUIDE A GUIDE FOR READERS AS THEY PREPARE FOR SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
ISSUE DATE: MARCH 29 RESERVE BY MARCH 24
CONTACT YOUR AD REP OR SLEGGE@INDYWEEK.COM TO A DV E R T I S E O N T H E B AC K PAG E : C A L L 9 1 9. 2 6 8 .1 9 7 2 ( D U R H A M /C H A P E L H I L L ) O R 9 1 9. 8 3 2 . 8 7 74 ( R A L E I G H ) • E M A I L : A DV E R T I S I N G @ I N DY W E E K .C O M