INDY Week 11.20.19

Raleigh

November 20, 2019

THE EIGHT YEARS’ WAR

Earlier this month, a federal court ruled that the Social Security Administration had illegally fired a local disabled veteran in 2011.

Andrew McGuffin’s not done fighting yet.

BY JEFFEREY C. BILLMAN, P. 10

2 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK DURHAM • CHAPEL HILL VOL. 36 NO. 45

DEPARTMENTS

6 In 2017, Durham officials discovered sewage running from a stormwater pipe at McDougald Terrace into a nearby creek. It hasn’t been fixed yet.

6 News 16 Food

8 A developer wanted to build ten townhomes in East Raleigh. The city’s staff loved the idea. The neighborhood, not so much.

18 Music 20 Arts & Culture 23 What to Do This Week

10 The Social Security Administration fired Andrew McGuffin four days before he became a permanent employee. He didn’t go away quietly.

26 Music Calendar 29 Arts & Culture Calendar

18 Durham band Cochonne adds its own special sauce—French yé-yé music—to a period-perfect post-punk base.

20 Torry Bend and Howard Craft give problematic characters a second chance in Dreaming, their puppet-theater take on a classic comic strip.

22 Larry Brown was a Marine, a hay-hauler, a fence-builder, a house-painter, and, most of all, an inimitable Southern writer.

Torry Bend and Howard L. Craft on the set of Dreaming (see page 20)

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

On the cover

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

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INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 3

PRESENTS

Raleigh Durham | Chapel Hill PUBLISHER Susan Harper EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeffrey C. Billman ARTS+CULTURE EDITOR Brian Howe RALEIGH NEWS EDITOR Leigh Tauss STAFF WRITER Thomasi McDonald ASSOCIATE ARTS+CULTURE EDITOR Sarah Edwards DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER Sara Pequeño THEATER+DANCE CRITIC Byron Woods RESTAURANT CRITIC Nick Williams VOICES COLUMNISTS T. Greg Doucette, Chika

Gujarathi, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Courtney Napier, Barry Saunders, Jonathan Weiler CONTRIBUTORS Amanda Abrams, Jim Allen, Jameela F. Dallis, Michaela Dwyer, Lena Geller, Spencer Griffith, Howard Hardee, Corbie Hill, Laura Jaramillo, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Josephine McRobbie, Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, Neil Morris, James Michael Nichols, Marta Nuñez Pouzols, Bryan C. Reed, Dan Ruccia, David Ford Smith, Zack Smith, Eric Tullis, Michael Venutolo-Mantovani, Chris Vitiello, Ryan Vu, Patrick Wall INTERNS Hannah Horowitz, Bella Hutchins, Julia Masters

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YO U R G U I D E TO A F U N L I F E I N T H E T R I A N G L E 4 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

backtalk

INDY VOICES

Running Down a Dream

DON’T WAIT AROUND FOR YOUR BIG BREAK TO LAND IN YOUR LAP

RIP, Tucker Last week, we broke the sad news that downtown Raleigh’s favorite fat cat, Tucker—whom we profiled in May—had crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of twenty-two.

“My most sincere condolences,” writes Ed Butler. “However, I’m very glad that I met him. Raleigh will surely miss him.”

“So sorry to hear this,” adds Paula Zorio. “But so glad we got to know Tucker. Thank you for sharing him with us; we really enjoyed seeing him and hearing his story!”

Finally, Gregory Thomas Laughinghouse: “I met Tucker several times while walking on Fayetteville Street. I am sorry to hear of his passing. He was a sweetheart.”

We also reported on newly unearthed emails from White House adviser and Duke alumnus Stephen Miller to Breitbart in 2015 and 2016 in which Miller suggested that the right-wing site use racist novels, Hitler-approved eugenics-based immigration policies, and white nationalist websites in its stories.

“Sadly,” writes John Hite, “we are three years into this mess, and it’s uncertain if anything will ever be done to try and stop the carnage. Racist? Doesn’t matter. Misogynist? Doesn’t matter. Predator?

Doesn’t matter. Narcissist? Doesn’t matter. Liar and thief? Doesn’t matter. Criminal? Doesn’t matter.”

“Unfortunately,” Mark Ellis seconds, “the bar has not been lowered; it’s been knocked to the floor and superglued there. Wait, no, that’s wrong; it’s been buried six feet under.”

“Yes, most of the really horrible things the administration has done were dreamed up by this guy,” writes Michael Byers. “Let’s face it: Donald Trump is not focused or creative enough to come up with anything on his own. He is the Iago to Trump’s Othello.”

There was also the case of Jack Bishop, the son of Republican congressman/HB 2 author Dan Bishop, who—based on our viewing of the video his pals posted to Twitter—stuck his smirking face in front of a spray-paint can in N.C. State’s free-speech tunnel and then called the cops to report the “thugs” who “assaulted” him.

“Pretty obvious that he’s moving in front of the spray can,” writes David Hallen. “The left-leaning people involved are literally trying to paint at the free expression tunnel at N.C. State. Turning Point USA doesn’t believe in free speech.”

“He’s already learning to lie like his old man,” adds James Gheen.

“What a fucking baby,” writes Cabhan Wilde.

Nathan r Luke, who seems to inhabit a different reality than the rest of us, says this is “fake news”: “It’s honestly hilarious to see these failing newspapers try to spin something like assault so it fits their agenda. You are the problem with America.”

Want to see your name in bold?

Comment: indyweek.com Email: backtalk@indyweek.com Facebook: @IndependentWeekly Twitter: @indyweek

BY CHIKA GUJARATHI

CHIKA GUJARATHI is a Raleigh-based writer and author of the Hello Namaste! children’s books. Her work can be found on her blog The Antibland Chronicles.

NEXT WEEK: JONATHAN WEILER, a teaching professor in global studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-author of Prius or Pickup? How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide and Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics.

S

omewhere in the Pacific Northwest, I’m sitting with my toes in the cold morning sand and a computer in my lap.

I want you to know this because, with the vast ocean staring back at me, I’m feeling contemplative. Specifically, I’m thinking about how I landed in this creative and fulfilling career that allows me to be here today.

And since I’m always intrigued about other people’s professional journeys, I thought I’d share with you how I forged my path in the ultra-competitive world of travel and creative writing.

Five years ago, I gave up a lucrative corporate position to chase my dream of making a living with more creative pursuits.

To be precise, I imagined myself as a freelance writer who would spend her time traveling, reading, cooking, and taking pictures. Looking back, I can’t believe I was so hopeful. I mean, doesn’t everyone want to make a living that way?

I had no leads for assignments, no relevant degree, and little in the way of a portfolio.

What I had, however, was a teeny-tiny blog that I assumed only my mom read—sometimes. I had literally created The Antibland

Chronicles while trying not to stick a pen in my eyes during my graduate accounting class. This was back when blogging wasn’t such a ubiquitous verb. My site was simply a journal of sorts, for my own benefit.

Taking a cue from my thenthree-year-old daughter, I decided it was time to use that blog to play pretend. Even though I had no gigs, I pretended that I had to write a book review, or a travel itinerary, or a quick recipe for a weeknight dinner.

My first employer, in essence, was me.

I had so much fun coming up with story ideas that I often forgot it wasn’t a real job—so much so that I gave myself the title freelance writer and ordered business cards to make it official.

The self-made exercises helped me find my writing voice and eventually create a portfolio that I could share with editors.

Call it faking-it-till-youmake-it if you want, but this pretend-play not only brought me joy but also forced me to develop the skills and work ethic of a real writer. I became my own editor, my harshest critic.

And thanks to all those selfmade assignments, I could pitch stories like a pro.

More often than not, pretending to be something you aren’t is dismissed as child’s play.

But this exercise has quite literally helped me find a new career—once as a freelance writer, and then again when I created a book out of construction paper for my children and realized I could publish it commercially.

Not everyone is looking to give up a plumb corporate job to chase a writer’s dream. But I’m sure many of you have passions and hobbies that you wish filled more of your time and even became sources of income.

My advice is this: Don’t wait around for the big break to land in your lap, because it never will.

Give yourself the title you want to have, print that business card (they’re cheap enough!), and pretend you are the thing you want to be.

Imagine yourself as that person, and others will follow. backtalk@indyweek.com INDY Voices—a rotating column featuring some of the Triangle’s most compelling writers—is made possible by contributions to the INDY Press Club. Visit KeepItINDY.com for more information.

INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 5

indynews Sick of This Shit

DURHAM FINED THE DHA NEARLY $50,000 FOR LETTING A SEWAGE SPILL FESTER AT MCDOUGALD TERRACE BY THOMASI MCDONALD

T

ravis Mann is sick of this shit.

For more than a year, he and his neighbors in Building 41 at the Durham Housing Authority-owner McDougald Terrace apartment complex say they’ve have to contend with raw sewage pouring out of a sanitary manhole—and it’s not the first time this has happened. In 2017, in fact, the city’s public works department discovered sewage running from a stormwater pipe at McDougald into a nearby creek.

The leak, which has not yet been repaired, remains an “open investigation,” says public works official Michelle Woolfolk. “We will close the investigation when there are no more developments from that particular location.”

The corrupted manhole is located behind Building 41, in a grassy rectangle that anchors a row of tiny rear porches and concrete steps leading from each apartment. Residents first noticed it last year, but its stench was especially pernicious in the summer, when heavy rainfall and hot, humid days produced a smell from hell that saturated the air.

“It’s been fucked up since last year, and they didn’t do anything about it,” says Mann, a twenty-nine-year-old who was watching his toddler son last Thursday afternoon.

“Kids play back there, playing in feces.”

When city officials began their investigation in early August, they found a stormwater drain near the manhole that had been buried under dirt and feces. The mess had denuded the grass surrounding the manhole, turning the topsoil a dull grayish-white.

The city got tired of that shit, too.

On October 2, the Department of Public Works fined the DHA $47,250 for ten violations associated with the agency’s failure to fix the noxious problem, according to a penalty assessment submitted to DHA 6 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

“It’s been fucked up since last year, and they didn’t do anything about it. Kids play back there, playing in feces.” chief executive officer Anthony Scott.

“Evidence supports that sewage has been illicitly discharging into this stormwater drop inlet for an extended period of time,” according to a notice of violation filed with the city manager’s office.

The city ordered the DHA to “immediately and completely” stop the raw sewage leak, immediately remove the soil that has been saturated by the sewage flows, and identify the cause of the leak and repair the underlying problem.

More than a month later, the DHA was not in compliance.

“As of [November 8], we continued to see sewage being discharged,” Woolfolk says.

“The soil had not been touched, and sewage could be seen bubbling out of the manhole.”

Woolfolk says she doesn’t know how long the leak has existed, but she notes that the problem has been there “for a while because the soil is contaminated, and that takes months, weeks.”

She also unsure whether the DHA has identified the source of the leak, but she says DHA officials have told her the authority has a plumber who now “regularly works on the site.”

Over the next five years, the authority will receive nearly $59 million to renovate five of its public housing projects, including McDougald Terrace, after Durham voters overwhelmingly approved a $95 million bond to fund affordable housing efforts— the largest ever in North Carolina—earlier this month.

On Friday, Scott told the INDY that McDougald Terrace—the city’s oldest public housing complex, built for poor African Americans in 1957—has been beset by a deteriorating sewer infrastructure that has to be addressed over the long-term, even as his agency deals with immediate issues like the raw sewage problem behind Building 41.

“We are trying to get the issue resolved and resolved quickly by putting our heads together with the city’s engineers,” he says.

The manhole cover repairs alone, he adds, will be “extensive and expensive.”

Because he hadn’t conferred with his staff, Scott declined to answer questions about the stormwater pipe leak from 2017 that the city says is ongoing.

“I recall problems in another area earlier this year, or late last year,” he says. “The

infrastructure is old, and it seems to be failing in certain places.”

As for the manhole, Scott said he expects a contractor “to get to it in the next few days to get the work done.”

Briana Holloway, a twenty-five-year-old single mom who moved into Building 41 this summer with her toddler daughter, says things have improved recently.

“I just came outside one day, and I quit smelling it,” Holloway says.

Mann says the toilets still clog in the apartments, and other Building 41 residents say the problem becomes particularly acute on rainy days when sewage overflows across the grass to the sidewalks about thirty yards away. The mess also seeps down a small hill where a retaining wall is located behind the building.

Children who live in the neighborhood avoid the rear of the building, but they can be heard out front complaining about the stench, their parents say.

McDougald Terrace was a tough neighborhood to live in before the sewage leaks made it all the more aggravating.

“I was sick of the smell,” Holloway says.

“But we just stay inside because there’s so much going on,” she adds, referring to a drive-by shooting in the neighborhood earlier this month, one of four across the city in a forty-eight-hour period in which two people were killed and eight others were wounded.

At least the hill that slopes down to the retaining wall has been cleaned. Before that, Mann says, the area was strewn with discarded high chairs, strollers, trash, and sewage. He describes it as a gathering place for “crackheads” and “dope fiends.”

“It’s like a big dump,” Mann says. “One kid, we had to go down there and pick him up out of there. He was covered in shit.” tmcdonald@indyweek.com

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INDYWEEK.COM INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 7

news

The Battle to Come

THE INCOMING RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL’S PLAN TO ADD DENSITY ALONG TRANSIT CORRIDORS WILL RUN INTO HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS THAT WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT BY LEIGH TAUSS

M

ary Johnson bought her thousand-square-foot East Jones Street bungalow in 1998 for $45,000. There are lots of modest homes like hers in this neighborhood, a mile from downtown, surrounded by crepe myrtle trees with pink flowers that bloom in the summer.

When the seventy-five-year-old sits on her front porch, neighbors stop by to say hello.

But her neighborhood, like so much of Raleigh, is changing. New homes around here are selling for almost halfa-million bucks, and they don’t look like Johnson’s. They’re big, boxy structures designed to maximize square footage on small lots. Other houses in this East Raleigh neighborhood are designated “affordable”; they’re built by the city and sell for well below the market rate.

Johnson doesn’t mind her new neighbors. Some, she says, “are lovely. But there were some families that were two, three generations in our area, and they are gone.”

And while they’ve watched their neighborhood change, residents feel like they haven’t had much of a say about what it should look like.

Until last month, that is.

Johnson was one of thirteen mem- Mary Johnson (left) and Octavia Rainey PHOTO BY JADE WILSON “A townhouse, no matter what it was priced at, would be bers of the North Central Citizens Advisory Council who voted against a rezoning request from developer Dayong hideous in our neighborhood,” she says.

She wants single-family homes and nothing else.

Gan to add ten townhouses to an empty, half-acre lot at the Octavia Rainey, who chairs the North Central CAC, corner of Tarboro and Boyer Streets, directly across from the Tarboro Road Community Center and a block and a half agrees. She says other neighbors were concerned about the townhomes’ price point, which the developer did not from a bus stop. Only three CAC members voted for it.

City staffers believed the project was consistent with provide. Not only would the townhomes drive up property the comprehensive plan’s vision to add density to walkable values around them, Rainey says, but they would also clash neighborhoods near downtown. Perhaps the project was a with the neighborhood’s historic character.

“It’s nothing but gentrification,” Rainey says. “You are little too dense—the future land-use map calls for fourteen units per acre, while this plan would yield the equivalent of trying to erase the past and make it more of a bourgeois twenty—but it would ultimately produce more affordable present, and that’s all you’re doing.”

This neighborhood used to be black, Rainey says. But units than single-family homes. the people moving in are usually white.

Johnson was horrified.

8 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

“This is the city’s new way of bringing in younger, white neighborhoods.

That’s all it is,” Rainey says. “They are steadily pushing out the black folks for higher-income residents.”

While the CAC vote is advisory and the project was slated to go to the planning commission later this month, Gan withdrew his rezoning request last week, according to Jason Hardin of the city’s planning department.

“It won’t be moving forward,” Hardin told the INDY in an email. “They did not indicate what their plans might be at this point.”

Gan’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

For Johnson, this was a victory, and she plans to celebrate accordingly: “I know all my neighbors are going to be happy. I’m going to march up and down Jones Street and tell people face-toface what’s happening.”

But for the city to fulfill its goals of adding density around transit corridors, something has to give. Some neighborhoods will have to change.

Inevitably, that will mean more neighbors banding together in opposition, says Mayor Nancy McFarlane, who leaves office in early December.

The scuffle over Tarboro Road, she says, is just the beginning of what lies ahead for the new, development-friendly council led by mayor-elect MaryAnn Baldwin.

“I think this is a great deal of what we’re going to be facing,” McFarlane says. “We have to figure out how to accommodate density. How do we transition from these transit corridors to these single-family neighborhoods so they still maintain their character?”

Johnson says she’s ready for another fight.

“I’m sure that client won’t be the last,” Johnson says. “We will remain vigilant. We want to stay on top of what is coming our way, and while we love for the city of Raleigh to grow and prosper, we want our neighborhood to stay the same.” ltauss@indyweek.com

soapboxer

The Question That Matters EVERYONE KNOWS TRUMP DID IT. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN

L

et’s cut the bullshit, shall we?

Everything that’s happening now—the theatrics and distractions, the media analyses and pundit fulminations, the nitpicking and obfuscations, even the presidential witness tampering— is noise, a spectacle that will elicit more heat than light and should only reinforce what any clear-eyed person who’s been paying attention already knows.

He did the thing. There’s no question he did the thing.

That is, extortion: President Trump held up nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine— money to help that country fight Russian-backed separatists—to force Ukraine’s government to announce investigations into Joe Biden and a conspiracy theory to undermine the Intelligence Community’s conclusion that the Russians aided Trump’s 2016 campaign.

To be sure, quid pro quos are the mother’s milk of foreign policy.

When Biden, in 2016, at the behest of the Obama administration, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund, threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine unless it removed a state prosecutor viewed as corrupt or ineffective, that was a quid pro quo.

But what Trump did is qualitatively different. Biden acted in furtherance of U.S. foreign policy. Trump acted in furtherance of Trump.

There’s no evidence that Biden did anything illegal or that the Ukrainians conspired to frame Russia for election interference, as the conspiracy goes. But even if there was, that would be a matter for the Department of Justice, not Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and a cadre of hacks ham-fistedly seeking to coerce the reluctant Ukrainians into interfering in American elections.

Trump did the thing. And it came within days of working.

As The New York Times and others have

That the extortion scheme blew up at the last minute doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. reported, in early September, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to capitulate to Trump’s demands. He scheduled an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on September 13, where he planned to announce Trump’s desired investigations.

Zelensky was against a wall. The funding Congress had approved expired on September 30. If Trump didn’t release it by then, it would vanish. Trump’s surrogates had made clear the president’s terms. As EU ambassador Gordon Sondland admitted to Congress, he told Ukraine that the “resumption of the U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.”

William Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine, testified that Sondland told him that Trump “wanted President Zelensky in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.”

On September 9, however, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general notified House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff about the whistleblower complaint. That day, three congressional committees opened an investigation into whether Giuliani was attempting to “pressure the government of Ukraine to assist the

President’s reelection campaign.”

On September 11, amid mounting pressure, the White House released the aid. On September 13, Schiff went public with news of the whistleblower complaint.

With money in hand and Trump’s extortion plot out in the open, Zelensky bailed on the interview.

That the extortion scheme blew up at the last minute doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. It did. Trump’s guilt or innocence is no longer the pertinent question. The question is whether he’ll get away with it.

He’s already gotten away with it once.

In July, Special Counsel Robert Mueller gave a halting performance in a televised congressional hearing, and Democrats’ impeachment momentum stalled, despite the multiple incidents of obstruction of justice Mueller documented in his report.

The very next day, an emboldened Trump was on the phone telling Zelensky that if he wanted the money, he’d better make with the investigations.

That gets at an important point: The more Trump thinks he can act without consequence, the less inhibited he’ll be; the less inhibited he becomes, the bigger the threat he’ll pose to our institutions and democratic norms.

At the end of this Sturm und Drang—after the inevitable impeachment, after the trial in the Senate, after the avalanche of bullshit that will flood our news feeds—the only question that will matter is whether Republicans have the courage to rebuke the president and his propagandists, whether they’ll acknowledge the corruption staring them in the face, whether they’ll place themselves on the right side of history or submit fully to the rising tide of authoritarianism consuming the GOP. Having watched events unfold last week, and for the last three years, I fear I know the answer—even though they, too, know he did the thing. jbillman@indyweek.com

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INDYWEEK.COM INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 9

Andrew McGuffin

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

THE EIGHT YEARS’ WAR

A federal appeals court ruled that the Social Security Administration’s Raleigh office illegally fired a disabled marine veteran in 2011. Andrew McGuffin’s battle isn’t over yet.

BY JEFFEREY C. BILLMAN

A

ndrew McGuffin was not a star employee.

That much is clear from the thousands of pages of court documents that have accumulated over the last eight years. He was slow and struggled with time management. He obsessed over details when his job demanded efficiency. Assignments sat on his desk for days or weeks past their deadline.

His bosses were frustrated. Even after they accommodated his requests—special software, extra training—he couldn’t keep up. They wanted him gone.

But this was government work. Things weren’t that easy.

10 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

McGuffin, then forty, was hired in February 2010 by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Raleigh. He was an attorney-adviser, tasked with writing the decisions made by SSA judges in disability appeals.

The agency was extraordinarily backlogged.

This was a burn-and-churn environment.

By that October, they were thinking about firing him. In November, his supervisor told a manager that more training would be pointless. “I think he will be a problem for us in the long run.”

But there was a complication. As a disabled combat veteran, McGuffin was a

“preference-eligible” employee. Under federal law, he’d have the right to appeal his termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board after one year of service instead of the usual two, and firing him would become a more cumbersome process.

They didn’t want to deal with that.

At the same time, however, they couldn’t fire him for low productivity—not explicitly, not until his second year, by which point he’d have the right to appeal. Second-year writers have to handle a “fair share” of the office’s workload, but the SSA merely requires firstyear hires to demonstrate “interpersonal skills” and “engage in new learning.”

After some back-and-forth, they arrived at a workaround, according to court records: Without citing numeric standards, they determined that his “low productivity shows he is not engaging learning.”

On February 4, 2011, four days before his rights vested, McGuffin became the first Raleigh decision-writer the SSA had sacked since the Reagan administration.

His termination letter said he’d failed to demonstrate that he could do his job “accurately and independently.”

But McGuffin didn’t go quietly. Instead, he went to war.

Though he left the military twenty-five years ago, McGuffin is very much a marine.

He’s resilient and relentless. And now he felt betrayed.

McGuffin had given up the Social Security and Veterans Affairs disability benefits he’d earned in combat because he wanted to work. The federal government, he says, is “supposed to be a model employer for people with disabilities and veterans, and they fucked me.”

He decided to fuck them right back. His firing wounded his pride. His bitterness gave him purpose.

Over the next eight years, usually representing himself, McGuffin fought the SSA before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and in federal court. Every step of the way, he says, the government dragged things out, refusing to negotiate or settle.

And every step of the way, he lost.

Until he won.

Earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled not only that the SSA had illegally fired McGuffin, but also that the evidence showed he wasn’t a “poorly performing new hire.”

It was vindication.

Andrew McGuffin, the fired decision-writer, had taken on the SSA and the Department of Justice and their teams of attorneys by himself and prevailed.

Could a crappy lawyer pull that off?

M

cGuffin is burly, but he comes across as gentle, almost fragile.

He has graying hair and long sideburns, a fleck of facial hair jutting out below his bottom lip, and piercing blue eyes.

He loves Bernie Sanders. He’s at once proud of and ambivalent about his Marine Corps service; he likens the experience to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

He joined the corps in 1990 because he had few other options. He grew up poor in West Virginia and Florida. His family lived off welfare. When he was sixteen, his father took him to Mexico and abandoned him there.

For a few years, he says, he lived on his own, an undocumented immigrant, renting cars in an airport and dodging Mexican immigration officials. But there was no future there. He needed a real job, and he didn’t have a high school diploma. The corps could open doors. It also played to his ideas about what it meant to be a man.

Of all the military branches, the marines seemed the most “hardcore.”

That August, six months after he enlisted, he was in Kuwait, one of the first boots on the ground ahead of Operation Desert Storm.

The war changed him. He began experiencing flashbacks and dissociative episodes.

He couldn’t concentrate. He drank heavily and thought about suicide. In 1992, after his unit returned to the U.S., he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD wasn’t something marines talked about then. But McGuffin embraced treatment and therapy. He stopped drinking. He became, in his words, a “superlative marine.”

By the time he redeployed to Kuwait in 1993, he’d been promoted to corporal.

He left the marines in 1994 and earned his diploma and then a bachelor’s degree at Humboldt State University in California.

He considered seeking a PhD in history, but the law offered him an opportunity to right wrongs. He was drawn to it.

Around this time, he’d reconnected with his third-grade teacher from Claremont, Florida, who’d given him extra attention when he came to school dirty and hungry.

A black woman in a town riven with racial tensions, she’d been legally blinded during a surgery-gone-wrong, then mistreated by a local court when she sued, he says.

You can’t fix that in a classroom.

McGuffin graduated from UC-Hastings College of Law in 2002. But he hadn’t outrun his demons. Soon after graduation, he applied for Social Security disability, saying he couldn’t work.

By 2003, he’d gotten well enough to land a job with Legal Aid of North Carolina’s farmworkers unit. This kind of law was his passion—he says he regrets leaving—but he was only there for a year-and-a-half. Coming off

a divorce, he needed to make more money, he says, so went to a private firm. But he only stayed for a year. According to court records, he had trouble with the long hours and told his psychiatrist that “his poor concentration, poor energy, and irritability were really impairing his ability to work.”

After that, he worked for the Center for Responsible Lending for two years, but again, he was unable to keep up with the caseload. He told a psychologist that he was struggling with his memory.

McGuffin fell into a deep depression. He became paranoid and suicidal, he says. His girlfriend told him he’d lost touch with reality. Eventually, he was hospitalized.

The fog slowly began to lift. He found the right medications and started working with the VA’s vocational rehab program in Durham. By mid-2009, he wanted to work again. He didn’t want to live on the dole.

McGuffin applied to the Social Security Administration. For months, he heard nothing. Then, on a Friday in February, he got a call: Could he come to work on Monday?

There was no interview, he says.

M

cGuffin thinks his managers were gunning for him from the very beginning.

“At the outset,” he says, “they were upset that they were compelled to hire me or felt compelled to hire me.”

Just before he started, a colleague later told him, the hearing office director announced to the staff that McGuffin would be joining the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, or ODAR, as a “special hire.” (In court documents, the SSA denies this.) A few months later, court records say, in a phone call with a senior administrative judge, the director apparently referred to McGuffin as a “vet they had to hire,” according to the judge’s handwritten notes.

To function despite his disability, McGuffin required accommodations, including a speech-to-text program called Dragon and an assistive technology called the Kurzweil 3000. McGuffin says he verbally asked for these programs in March and made a formal request in May. But he didn’t get the correct version of Dragon installed on his computer until the summer. Like other new decision-writers hired that February, he wasn’t sent to a training program until July. And he wasn’t assigned a mentor to help guide him through the basics for a month.

Yet almost right away, he says, he was told he wasn’t producing enough.

The SSA was under pressure. It faced a massive backlog of disability appeals, and Congress was breathing down its neck. Each administrative law judge was responsible for upward of seven hundred cases a year. In

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INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 11

2014, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee criticized this production-factory mind-set in a report accusing ALJs of granting billions of dollars in undeserved benefits.

When he came in, McGuffin says, he was told to write Chevys, not Cadillacs. But that wasn’t his style.

“I understand that [the SSA] is very focused on ‘the numbers,’ and I derive no pleasure from being the slowest writer in Raleigh ODAR,” he told his supervisor in December 2010.

“Some of that comes from my cognitive limitations and my disability, and some of that is from my thoroughness.”

To McGuffin’s managers, what mattered was that he wasn’t handling his “fair share” of cases. He wasn’t even doing the bare minimum: two decisions reversing or one decision affirming a denial of benefits every day. (Affirmations take longer because they’re likely to be appealed.)

McGuffin, by contrast, wrote just eight decisions in August, nine in September, sixteen in October, and eleven in November.

When McGuffin challenged his termination to the EEOC, the SSA argued that speed was a key aspect of the job: “A request by a decision writer to have extra time to write decisions is not a reasonable accommodation because a reasonable accommodation has to enable an individual to perform the essential functions of the job. … [McGuffin] understood that he was expected to have the ability to write one affirmation or two reversals a day within the first six months of his employment.”

That might have been an expectation, but legally, it wasn’t grounds to fire him. A collective bargaining agreement forbade the SSA from enforcing quotas. And agency policy prohibited using productivity metrics alone to terminate an employee. The “fair share” standard, meanwhile, wasn’t supposed to apply until a writer’s second year.

Perhaps sensing their tenuous position—McGuffin’s “performance situation is a bit problematic because of his disability,” a senior attorney-adviser put it—the office placed McGuffin on a two-week training program in January, which it later portrayed in court documents as a lastditch effort to help McGuffin better manage his time.

It worked. McGuffin’s productivity nearly doubled from December to January.

But his supervisors said it wasn’t enough. The day his training period ended, they began moving his termination through the chain of command, seeking to wrap it up before his rights vested.

Later, McGuffin learned that his managers had considered firing another attorney-adviser who came on board around the time he did. But she wasn’t a preference-eligible veteran, which meant she wouldn’t gain appeal rights for two years. They kept her on, she improved, and she was eventually promoted.

He wasn’t given that chance.

Because McGuffin was a veteran, one manager explained, “we want to terminate him in his first year of service so that he does not acquire [Merit Service Protection Board] rights.” The assistant regional chief ALJ was equally explicit: “The vet has to be terminated in his first year—for the other it is two years.”

That violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, or USERRA, McGuffin argued. He was treated differently because he was a veteran, and that was illegal.

This claim became the central thrust of his federal lawsuit.

12 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Andrew McGuffin reads in his home in North Durham.

M

ore precisely, it became the thrust of his second lawsuit. His first died ignominiously, before it even began, with a missed filing deadline in federal court.

He initially challenged his termination with the EEOC, alleging that the SSA discriminated against him because of his disability. The EEOC sided with the SSA, ruling that McGuffin couldn’t meet the agency’s performance standards with or without accommodations.

McGuffin says this decision was based on a misrepresentation—that the SSA had a numeric standard he’d failed to meet. Regardless, the evidence he gathered revealed that the SSA had rushed to fire him ahead of the one-year deadline, which gave rise to a new legal theory: The SSA had used a veterans benefit against him, and that amounted to discrimination.

He made this case to the MSPB, a quasi-judicial agency that examines allegations of wrongdoing in the federal workforce. An administrative judge dismissed it without a hearing. McGuffin appealed to the MSPB’s board of directors, which sent the case back to the judge, who—after a hearing—ruled against McGuffin again.

He took his case to the U.S. district court. He lost. He filed an appeal with the Fourth Circuit. Last December, he got the chance to argue his case in person.

Then he waited.

The whole process has been “trench warfare,” McGuffin says. His daughter, who was born twelve days after he was fired, “has witnessed me suffer and have to seek professional help because these people are putting me through a fucking meat grinder,” he says.

A few weeks ago, he says, he’d reached the end of his rope.

He wanted finality, whatever it was. He’d been waiting for the Court of Appeals’ decision for eleven months.

“I was proofreading the letter I was writing to the court to

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

say, ‘Kill me or save me,’” McGuffin says. If the decision didn’t come soon, he says, he was considering a hunger strike.

Just then, it came.

It was November 7, the Thursday before Veterans Day. The court’s website listed the ruling as “precedential,” meaning it established new case law: Expediting a preference-eligible employee’s removal because of the one-year deadline is discriminatory. That’s a big deal, McGuffin says.

Just as important, at least for his ego, the court rebuffed the SSA’s contention that he wasn’t just a slow writer but a lousy one, too, citing several ALJs who complimented his attention to detail. It ruled that the evidence “does not support a finding that Mr. McGuffin was a poorly performing new hire.”

“I’m a damn good lawyer,” McGuffin says. “I have my issues. I’m not saying I’m the best attorney in the world. But one thing for which I deserve no criticism is the quality of my writing or research.”

McGuffin won a decisive battle, but his war isn’t over.

Even if the government doesn’t appeal, he’s staring down several years of litigation as the case heads back to an MSPB judge to determine damages. He’s seeking eight years of back pay, including benefits and raises he might have received— probably near $1 million—plus reinstatement. (The Department of Justice and the SSA’s Raleigh office declined to comment for this story.)

McGuffin expects the government to keep fighting. He also expects that he’ll again end up in federal court.

Nonetheless, he says, the decision restored at least some of his jaundiced faith in the system.

“This is the first Veterans Day in many a Veterans Day when I felt like it meant something to me,” McGuffin says.

“All those platitudes, all that rhetoric—before Thursday, I just thought, what a fucking load of horse shit.” jbillman@indyweek.com

deep dive EAT • DRINK • SHOP • PLAY

REST OF WAKE You’ve probably noticed that Wake County is not a small place. I could spend half the day driving from Fuquay-Varina to Garner to Knightdale. And as scenic a drive as that might be—or not, depending on the route—it would also make for a very boring story. So instead, I’m going to focus this adventure on two places: Holly Springs and Wake Forest. (No disrespect to you Fuquay-Varians.)

Starting in Holly Springs, I stop for food at Mason Jar Tavern. Chicken and waffles sounds like a reasonable, uncomplicated start to the day. Of course, whenever I find myself at Mason Jar Tavern, there is one thing I always have to order, be it the day’s first meal or the last: the fried pimento mac-and-cheese bites, delectable little explosions of happiness.

From there, I roll over—not literally, although, after that meal, it’s a possibility— to Bombshell Beer Company’s taproom. Bombshell, the state’s first brewery with all women owners and brewers, makes good stuff. The Head Over Hops IPA calls to me, and I sip away, appreciating the pint’s citrus tones.

After that, a stop at Bass Lake Park, If I were so inclined, I could check out a fishing pole and try my hand at angling. But it has been a good while since I did that, and now does not seem like the time to attempt to recapture that part of my redneck past. Maybe I could pull off holding the pole over my shoulder while whistling the Andy Griffith theme as I walk along the path, but even that seems a bit of a stretch.

Canoeing is clearly beyond my ken as well. (I’m more Bar Scout than Boy Scout). But a leisurely stroll near the water, taking it all in, is something I can not only handle but enjoy.

Time for that drive to Wake Forest and a wander along its main drag, White Street.

First, a bit of shopping at North Carolina General Stores for a few “made in North Carolina” products that I can send to faraway friends to show them what they’re missing. I duck in and out of another store or two before my appetite directs me to Shorty’s Famous Hot Dogs. Obviously, if you’ve been around the Triangle for a while, you know about Shorty’s. If not, well, the landmark joint is one of the boxes you have to tick to actually call yourself one of us. One all-the-way with a side of cheese fries while soaking in the old-school atmosphere is sustenance aplenty.

Afterward, White Street Brewing Company beckons. What was once a car dealership in the 1930s is now a remarkably comfortable taproom. I settle in, order a cold Relaxsession, and give myself over to the brew’s not so subtle suggestion.

Ahhhh … I like the way you think, beer.

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

MUST

BODEGA TAPAS, WINE, AND RUM 110 SOUTH WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST

984-235-4187, BODEGAWAKEFOREST.COM

Everyone is doing tapas these days. But few restaurants are doing them as well as Bodega, where chef de cuisine Doug Seeley cranks out a meat-and-seafood-focused menu that rarely fails to delight, from a ceviche that sings with the tartness of passionfruit to a spicy beef empanada delightfully sweetened by plantains. The coffeebraised lamb ribs are otherworldly, falling off the bone, the coffee adding a hint of bitterness. To accompany this delicious madness are no less than forty wines by the glass and a ridiculous assortment of rums. Vegetarians, good luck.

If only I didn’t have to drive home. —Curt Fields 11.20.19 • SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION • 13

BOMBSHELL BEER COMPANY TAPROOM AND BEER GARDEN

120 QUANTUM DRIVE, HOLLY SPRINGS 919-823-1933, BOMBSHELLBEER.COM Better appointed than your average taproom, Bombshell’s is an airy, bright space, especially when they open the roll-up door. Open seven days a week, it’s dog- and family-friendly, and there are frequent events, including live music and specialized trivia contests (How I Met Your Mother one night, Marvel movies another).

CLEVELAND DRAFT HOUSE

EAT

ANNA’S PIZZERIA

138 SOUTH MAIN STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA; 100 NORTH SALEM STREET, APEX 919-285-2497, 919-267-6237; ANNASPIZZERIA.COM A family-friendly restaurant serving New York pies and classic Italian dishes.

THE MASON JAR TAVERN

114 GRAND HILL PLACE, HOLLY SPRINGS 919-964-5060, THEMASONJARTAVERN.COM Friendly service, consistently good food, and a superior selection of brews make The Mason Jar a Holly Springs favorite. Whatever you do, don’t miss the fried pimento mac-and-cheese bites appetizer.

Entrées to consider include the Hangover Burger (topped with a fried egg, sliced avocado, bacon, buffalo sauce, and bloody Mary mayo).

SHORTY’S FAMOUS HOT DOGS

214 SOUTH WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST 919-556-8026, FACEBOOK.COM/ SHORTYSFAMOUSHOTDOGS Shorty’s has been around since 1916, so clearly its methods have met with approval. There are burgers and sandwiches available, but the star is a Jesse Jones red hot dog, all the way.

STICK BOY BREAD CO.

127 SOUTH MAIN STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA 919-557-2237, STICKBOYFUQUAY.COM In 2001, Carson and Mindy Coatney opened the first Stick Boy in Boone. Seven years later, their former employee Katie Dies opened the second one in Fuquay with her husband. Both carry the same ethos: serve high-quality, locally roasted coffee and handcrafted, smallbatch breads, pastries, and desserts in a friendly environment.

14 • SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION • 11.20.19

TOOT-N-TELL FAMILY RESTAURANT

903 WEST GARNER ROAD, GARNER 919-772-2616, TOOTNTELLRESTAURANT.COM No frills, no trends, just good country cooking that makes you feel as if you’ve wandered in and sat down at someone’s kitchen table. Prices are better than reasonable. Breakfast is available all day. The name will make your nine-year-old giggle.

DRINK

AVIATOR TAP HOUSE

600 EAST BROAD STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA 919-552-8826, AVIATORBREW.COM/TAP-ROOM The Aviator Tap House, located in the old Varina train depot, is just a cool place to hang out. Of course, it helps that there’s a nice selection of beer to drink—and if you find a new favorite, a quick trip to Aviator’s beer shop next door lets you stock up for the trip home. If you suddenly remember you haven’t eaten in a while, no worries. The Aviator Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant next door has you covered with wings, barbecue, and the like.

BLACK & WHITE COFFEE ROASTERS

314 BROOKS STREET, WAKE FOREST 984-235-0125, BLACKWHITEROASTERS.COM B&W will not only pour you a damn fine cup of coffee, they’ll teach you everything you need to know about the art of the bean, with in-demand (as in, they sell out) classes on espresso, coffee origins, and brewing basics.

CAROLINA BREWING COMPANY TAPROOM

140 THOMAS MILL ROAD, HOLLY SPRINGS 919-557-2337, CAROLINABREW.COM/THE-TAPROOM Although it’s Wake County’s oldest active brewery, CBC has only had its taproom for a couple of years. You can, of course, order any of the company’s year-round beers, but the best part of pulling up a stool is the chance to try the occasional test batch and special release.

6101 N.C. HIGHWAY 42 WEST, GARNER 919-771-2337, CLEVELANDDRAFTHOUSE.COM There’s a sizeable menu, occasional live music, and several TVs to catch the game. And there are several dozen taps of craft beer, with North Carolina breweries well represented. But the best part of Cleveland Draft House is the free pool you can shoot on quality tables. Even when it isn’t free, the rates are pretty good.

FULL BLOOM COFFEE ROASTERS

141 WEST MAIN STREET, GARNER 919-720-4013, FULLBLOOMCOFFEE.COM This local micro-roaster sources sustainable, organic, fair trade beans, and its cafe in downtown Garner—“the ideal spot between rising growth and peaceful Sunday afternoons,” its website points out—has a gorgeous, colorful mural on the outside wall.

NORSE BREWING COMPANY 203 BROOKS STREET, WAKE FOREST 919-554-4555, NORSEBREWINGCO.COM As this magazine goes to press, this Vikingthemed brewery in downtown Wake Forest is about to open, boasting “the Triangle’s finest craft beers.” Quite the promise there, folks.

WAKE FOREST COFFEE COMPANY

156 SOUTH WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST 919-554-8914, WAKEFORESTCOFFEE.COM Featuring organic, fair-trade coffees from all over South America and Africa, Wake Forest Coffee’s cafe wants to offer a communal experience—a place to do homework, to hang out with friends, to live, love, and dream.

WHITE STREET BREWING COMPANY

218 WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST WHITESTREETBREWING.COM This easygoing taproom has been in Wake Forest since 2012. Trivia nights, cycling club meetings, food trucks—there’s always something happening.

SHOP ASHWORTH’S CLOTHING

210 SOUTH MAIN STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA 919-552-5201, FACEBOOK.COM/ ASHWORTHSCLOTHING The Ashworth family has kept generations of Wake County residents well-dressed and wellhemmed. They sell clothes for any occasion, but Ashworth is the perfect destination when preparing for prom, weddings, or any other event at which a tuxedo is expected.

BOSTIC & WILSON ANTIQUES

105 SOUTH MAIN STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA 919-552-3248, FACEBOOK.COM/ BOSTICANDWILSON The owners aren’t rookies—they regularly go to auctions and help with estate sales, ensuring that the pieces they offer are wellcurated. This is a great place to find ornate lamps and well-made furniture.

THE CHOCOLATE FIX

135 SOUTH MAIN STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA 919-557-1233, FACEBOOK.COM/CHOCOLATEFIXFV Sometimes, you have to give in to your cravings—and that’s why The Chocolate Fix is a Fuquay favorite.

THE COTTON COMPANY

306 SOUTH WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST 919-570-0087, THECOTTONCOMPANY.NET After serving as a cotton warehouse for local farms in the late nineteenth century, The Cotton Company building is home today to almost sixty local vendors who sell local art, pottery, soaps, and food. It’s a great place to shop for holiday gifts.

NEXT CONSIGNMENT BOUTIQUE

210 SOUTH WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST 919-554-8040, NEXTCONSIGNMENT.COM At this downtown Wake Forest shop, you can get your hands on designer women’s clothes, jewelry, and bags for a fraction of the price of major retailers. There’s also a well-stocked selection of kids clothing.

NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL STORES

150 SOUTH WHITE STREET, WAKE FOREST 919-302-2289, NCGENERALSTORES.COM “Made in North Carolina” is the soul of the place. An array of products, from barbecue sauces to pottery, pickles to soaps, candy to photography, are available—with the one unifying theme being their point of origin.

PLAY BASS LAKE PARK

900 BASS LAKE ROAD, HOLLY SPRINGS 919-557-2496, HOLLYSPRINGSNC.US/320/ BASS-LAKE-PARK Want to take a kid fishing for a day, but not commit to it as a full-on hobby? Bass Lake Park is the place to go, thanks to its tackleloaner program, which allows you to borrow a pole for free. Canoes are available for rent. If you just want some fresh air, there are trails of varying lengths, plus a garden to explore.

CAROLINA MUDCATS

FIVE COUNTY STADIUM, 1501 N.C. HIGHWAY 39, ZEBULON 919-269-2287, MILB.COM/CAROLINA-MUDCATS The Bulls are better known, but attending a Mudcats game feels like a purer baseball experience, more of a throwback to a less polished time. The sight lines are good from any spot in the stands, the hot dogs are worthy ballpark fare, and parking is easy, thanks to multiple lots around the stadium.

E. CARROLL JOYNER PARK

701 HARRIS ROAD, WAKE FOREST 919-435-9560, WAKEFORESTNC.GOV/JOYNER-PARK.ASPX This 117-acre park features restored farm buildings (a mule barn, tobacco barn, and chicken coop) and a log cabin, as well as a thousand-seat amphitheater, a pecan grove, and about three miles of paved walking trails.

FUQUAY MINERAL SPRING PARK 105 WEST SPRING STREET, FUQUAY-VARINA FUQUAY-VARINA.ORG Discovered in 1858 by Stephen Fuquay and his brother—we couldn’t make this up if we tried, spelling and all—Davey Crocket Fuquay while they were plowing their father’s farm, the mineral spring was thought to have healing powers, and people came to bathe in it, eventually helping give birth to the place we know as Fuquay-Varina. Today, that spring is commemorated within this park.

BOMBSHELL BEER COMPANY TAPROOM AND BEER GARDEN PHOTO BY JEREMY M. LANGE

GARNER RECREATIONAL PARK

221 EAST GARNER ROAD, GARNER 919-772-4688, GARNERNC.GOV With twenty acres of ball fields, dog parks, playgrounds, and picnic shelters, you have tons of options for ways to spend your time at Garner Recreational Park. There are also more than two miles of mountain biking trails, so you can get a workout in while staying close to downtown.

POLAR ICE HOUSE GARNER 103 NEW RAND ROAD, GARNER (919) 861-7465, GARNER. PUCKSYSTEMS.COM Polar Ice House offers public skating every Saturday, as well as figure skating and hockey lessons for all ages, so your kid can work on becoming the next Jordan Staal.

POPE’S STRAWBERRY FARM

1305 FAYETTEVILLE STREET, KNIGHTDALE 919-266-3767 If you have a young child, you should definitely make a visit to a pick-your-own farm. You can’t get produce any fresher.

Strawberries are obviously the main offering, but Pope’s also grows corn and tomatoes.

ZEBULON COMMUNITY PARK

401 SOUTH ARENDELL AVENUE, ZEBULON 919-823-1815 This forty-seven-acre park features a tot lot, softball fields, basketball courts, and walking trails. But what makes it stand out is its eighteen-hole disc-golf course. The course is moderately hilly and has a mix of open and wooded holes. A few of the holes feature water hazards.

COMING DECEMBER 11, 2019

PITTSBORO/ THE OUTPOSTS CONTACT YOUR REP OR ADVERTISING@INDYWEEK.COM 11.20.19 • SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION • 15

indyfood

POSTMASTER RESTAURANT & BAR 160 E. Cedar St., Cary 919-378-9493, postmastercary.com

Unexpected Pleasures

ON A RAINY NIGHT IN CARY, A COTTAGE PIE THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND

BY NICK WILLIAMS

I

t’s 8:00 p.m. on Halloween, not the time most people are thinking about creative New American cuisine.

But that’s exactly what I venture out in search of, and exactly what I find, having roamed a mostly empty I-40 and a series of moneyed suburban boulevards to downtown Cary. My destination is Postmaster, the two-year-old establishment helmed by Christopher Lopez, an alumnus of Ashley Christiansen’s now-shuttered Joule who brings with him the skills, bona fides, and community of her Raleigh-conquering empire.

I have a reservation, but Postmaster is mostly empty, which I chalk up to the holiday and the line of thunderstorms soon to move through the region. The dining room, even depopulated, is exquisite, slotted into a corner of an invitingly modernist shopping center.

From the outside, the restaurant looks utopian, like a 1950s postcard depicting a clean-lined and fashionable future. Inside, it’s all warm wood and burnished concrete, every surface sparkling in a tasteful, dappled glow. If nothing else, it’s one of the prettiest restaurants in the Triangle.

I sit at the bar and await my dining companion, a longtime friend and gastronomic collaborator. His arrival changes the vibe; the empty dining room suddenly feels warmly conspiratorial, laconically and welcomingly louche, like a dive bar kept open after-hours. He takes his seat and joins me in a glass of vermouth.

Moments later, the sky opens up and sheeting rain blurs the outside world. Postmaster, glassed-in and cozy, is a sudden and unexpected haven.

The first dish to arrive should grab your attention, especially if you’ve ever been a child in search of afterschool snacks: Ants on a Log. It’s a thoroughly deconstructed presentation, and would be almost annoyingly clever if it weren’t pulled off with such aplomb. We’re invited to dip celery into a smear of tahini-hazelnut butter flecked with pickled currant “ants.” The spread’s mild sweetness is offset by the savory celeriness of the celery and punctuated by the crunch of popped farro. The dish is both familiar and arrestingly exotic, a touchstone of Postmaster’s cooking.

A ridiculous salad follows, local seasonal greens tossed with candy-sweet peanut brittle and topped with a threeinch snowfall of manchego.

In my experience, the archetype for local salad transcendence is a singed-lettuce example from Death & Taxes that I sampled a few years ago. The salad from Postmaster doesn’t quite reach those heights, but it certainly matches 16 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Clockwise from left: duck confit, salad with pecans, scallops with curried collard greens PHOTOS BY JADE WILSON its intensity, with a blinding vinaigrette and earthy cheese punching against the pop and crumble of sugary peanut brittle. It’s a bit much—even shared between two people— but it’s admirably ambitious.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Postmaster’s traditional take on baba ganoush. It’s nothing if not reverent, the eggplant nebulous and creamy, tinged just so with smoke and lemon. My advice: Order this dish first. Its subtlety makes it easily pushed around by the eye-watering piquancy of the salad.

A recommendation from a group of late-arriving regulars leads us to the seared N.C. scallops. The mollusks themselves are fine—delicious, actually—but the accompanying curried collard greens steal the show. They have the sense of coiled explosive potential that comes with perfectly cooked greens, juicy layers coated in a ferocious, lemony curry.

Postmaster often enhances its dishes with out-of-leftfield bursts of sweetness, perhaps in homage to the subtle influence of Middle Eastern and North African cooking

in its cuisine. This is a deft way to add little pops of surprise to otherwise savory preparations, but it’s taken to an extreme with the duck confit. A generous duck leg comes shellacked in a not-quite-sticky glaze reminiscent of canard a l’orange. The leg rests atop sweet potato “gnocchi” (more like crispy little yam dumplings) affixed in whipped Cambozola and a wild, brambly gastrique of muscadine grapes.

It’s pretty sweet, but it works. Every drag of crispy duck through the foxy, grapey sauce makes me wonder if it’s too sweet— before I dive in for more. In the end, we gnaw the bone clean; call it a grown-up Halloween sugar binge.

We enjoy the duck alongside a Pinot Noir from Oregon’s Cooper Hill, one of several decent choices on the short wine list. As usual, I want more options, but the list is affordable and contains its share of small-production wines. The cocktail menu isn’t particularly exciting, but the aforementioned pre-prandial vermouth came from the bartender’s expert recommendation—always a sign of a healthy drinks program.

And now, dear reader, the highlight of the evening, which is also the menu’s most conspicuous outlier. Among the passionate experimentation and odes to global cuisine’s deepest cuts is a humble cottage pie.

It’s not a visually inviting dish, nor even a particularly attractive one. It looks, in fact, like a carpet of instant potatoes draped over a plate of stew.

Mashed potatoes. Slow-cooked short ribs. Roasted carrots. These are not difficult ingredients. This combination shouldn’t challenge an average home cook, let alone a professional chef. A cottage pie should be a no-brainer, an afterthought, a bone thrown to unadventurous diners.

But that makes the stupefying succulence of Postmaster’s cottage pie so thrilling.

The potatoes, defying first impressions, are cloud-like and diaphanous, evidently suffused with a small dairy’s worth of butter. The meaty, shallot-sweetened, jusdrenched filling is as warming as an electric blanket.

It’s a big, dumb, obvious slab of comfort food, just executed flawlessly and with unfathomable attention to detail.

Eventually, the rain stops. The remains of a pumpkin cheesecake decorate the bar top, alongside two drained glasses of Fernet and the occasional stray lentil. My friend and I part ways. I drive back to Durham through the storm-scoured evening, a lightly steaming to-go box on the passenger seat.

That cottage pie might be delicious, but, man, is it ever huge. food@indyweek.com

Where

T O E AT AND DRINK THIS WEEK

FOX LIQUOR WHISKEY TASTING Thurs., Nov. 21, 6–8 p.m.

Fox Liquor Bar, 237 S. Wilmington St., Raleigh ac-restaurants.com/fox, $40 This Maker’s Mark tasting begins with a cocktail, continues with tastings of three whiskey selections, detours into some high-brow snacks (crispy cheese grit fries, pork rinds with poblano pimento cheese, cold fried chicken with biscuits and honey), and concludes with guests dipping their glasses into Maker’s Mark signature red wax as an evening keepsake.

CARRBORO CARES BENEFIT Sun., Nov. 24, 6–10 p.m.

The Station, 201 E. Main St., Carrboro stationcarrboro.com This intimate evening will feature performances by local musicians, a chili cook-off, and the launch of This Will Help, a new line of local kombucha from Boro Beverage. The event has a bigger purpose, too: lending a hand to Maria Huerta, whose fiancé was recently seized and deported by ICE. Huerta has four children and a baby on the way; all proceeds will go toward legal fees and supporting the growing family.

NOVEMBER SUPPER CLUB Wed., Nov. 27, 6 p.m.

Crook’s Corner, 610 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill crookscorner.com, $55 (drinks, tax, and gratuity not included) For those looking to pregame Thanksgiving’s indulgences with some hearty Wednesday night dining, chef Justin Burdett has you covered. The November edition of the Crook’s Corner supper club will feature a three-course low-country boil on the heated patio. Forty spots are available.

NOW OPEN: HIGH HORSE 208 Wolfe Street, Raleigh On November 17, celebrity chef Katsuji Tanabe opened his new Raleigh eatery, High Horse. The restaurant features a fusion of the “Mexican, Japanese, and American flavors” for which Tanabe—who previously starred in Top Chef, and has opened restaurants across the country—is famous.

High Horse is open from 5:00–11:00 p.m., and until 2:00 a.m. on weekends, when it will feature an abbreviated late menu.

—Sarah Edwards

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INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 17

indymusic

Like Night and Day

THE WORST OF TIMES AND THE BEST OF TIMES, UNITED UNDER THE GROOVE

BY BRIAN HOWE

COCHONNE: COCHONNE 

[Nov. 22; Sorry State Records] Release show: Friday, Nov. 22, 9:30 p.m., $8 Nightlight Bar & Club, Chapel Hill www.facebook.com/nightlightclub

FOOTROCKET: COLONY 

[Nov. 1; Raund Haus]

I

’ve been listening to Beastie Boys Book, which is worth the price (free, from the North Carolina Digital Library) just for the essay “Beastie Revolution.” Luc Sante’s rhapsodic tour of New York City’s underground music scene circa 1980 richly evokes a time when “every strain of urban music,” from rap to punk, was “folding into a cult of the groove.”

One wrinkle in that tapestry was postpunk, which fortified punk’s vital simplicity with dub, funk, disco, new wave, critical theory, and avant-garde sensibility. It had an end-times cast and added “angular” to the canon of music-critic clichés. At Tier 3 on West Broadway, UK post-punk bands such as The Raincoats, The Slits, and Young Marble Giants mingled with local ones such as Bush Tetras and “no wave” neighbors like DNA. Cochonne, which is releasing its self-titled debut on Sorry State Records at Nightlight on November 22, seems to stride right off that page. Naturally, the album is on cassette. The Durham band’s skeletal, bass-driven menace recalls the aforementioned groups (but substitute dance-punk dynamos ESG for guitar manglers DNA), plus poppier ‘90s descendants like Slant 6.

With all the stalking three-note bass lines, anxious guitars, and yelping incantations you could want from such a period piece, the album also has a special sauce: the mock innocence of ‘60s French yé-yé (think Françoise Hardy).

Cochonne was written and performed by bassist and vocalist Mimi Luse, guitarist 18 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Marielle Dutoit, keyboardist Carla Hung, and drummer Hannah Spector, who has since left the band.

Recorded to eight-track by Trevor Reece of Drag Sounds, it was mixed

by Luse and mastered by Oona Palumbo. It gets down to business with “Omega,” where Luse chants about roach clips and mouthwash, half talking and half singing, half urgent and half bored. Her persona is nihilistic but playful throughout: “Horror-Scope” begins, “Well I don’t care what day you’re born,” which is like the most daring thing you could say in Durham.

In six concise songs (well, seven—wait for the chatty, funny secret track at the end), Dutoit answers Luse’s arch transgressions with nervy, slicing lines of guitar, smoothed by haunted organ drones and steady drums. The compositions span the elemental, on the sneaky garage-rock anthem “Body Bag,” and the abstruse, on the winding “F21,” which throws shade at wearing Forever 21 at age thirty-three.

“Mensonge Humain” is sung in French, so I don’t know what it says, but I’m sure it cloaks serious feels in cool irreverence.

Luse, half French, has lived in France for her PhD work at Duke; “cochonne” means “female pig” but is also apparently a French porn search term. You get the vibe: smart folks cultivating dark jouissance to fend off our ordinary apocalypse, in a world that has been almost over at least since 1980.

B

ut the cult of the groove isn’t exclusively an apocalyptic cult— far from it. Electronic dance music is a well-established outlet for utopian visions, too, and we also can’t stop listening to the blisteringly promising young Raleigh producer FootRocket’s second Raund Haus LP, COLONY. Upholstered in wall-to-wall good vibes, there’s not a fiber

out of place in the footwork filigree and filter-house fantasies.

We already told you about the Daft Punk meets Deee-Lite pleasures of “Lingo” when we premiered it in our online Triangle First feature, but that’s just the start of what FootRocket gets up to. He happens to be a freerunning enthusiast, which shows in how fluidly and lightly he flits and flips over varied electronic-music terrain.

On “Oh Yes,” chipmunk soul meets softly thunderous drum and bass. Antic yet sleek, the cuts come hard and fast from deep within the groove. “Rainbow Road” is a deep-house delirium in a Morricone mood; “Chew Babe” has the melancholy of DJ Koze’s “Pick Up” gone IDM; “Recovery” is filtered and warped around ethereal vowel sounds à la The Field.

There’s even a big pop moment in the single, “Happy,” featuring Foot’s own vocals. But “Take It” might best exemplify the music’s sense—of skimming a staticky eighties FM band—and its skill, rustling with organic sounds and aspirated syllables. Dude just has a feel for how to chop up a sample and roll it around, loving life every minute. bhowe@indyweek.com

music

Inside Out

WITH INTROSPECTIVE BARS AND BESPOKE SOUND DESIGN, PAT JUNIOR BUILDS HIS MAGNIFICENT SOUND FROM SCRATCH BY CHARLES MORSE PAT JUNIOR: I THOUGHT I KNEW 

[Nov. 6; Be Absxlute]

T

here’s something introspective about autumn, as you reflect on one year and anticipate the next. As Patrick D. Mix Jr.—known to the rap universe as Pat Junior— silently sat on a stool at CAM Raleigh one gloomy Sunday evening in October, that introspective moment found its soundtrack.

With the showmanship and attention to detail that have become staples of his brand, Pat had gathered his fans for a preview of his new album, I Thought I Knew. Attendees were given wireless headphones that played the album as they walked around the exhibition room, which was lined with paintings by Malaysia Lipscomb that represented the themes of each track.

I Thought I Knew is Pat’s second fulllength studio album, following 2016’s Learning to Live (in a Day), though he’s released several singles and EPs since then.

They showcased ideas and sonic experiments, but I Thought I Knew finds Pat as honest and self-reflective as he was on Learning to Live.

At that time, Pat was starting his fulltime musical journey after being laid off.

Facing the choice of whether to dust off his résumé or pursue his bliss with music, he chose the latter. Now, he’s an experienced professional musician, and I Thought I Knew is his best work to date.

Pat is always in the studio, as you can see in his Instagram stories, designing his own sounds for music production, an involved undertaking that has elevated him to a magnificent height. It’s something that many hip-hop producers leave to audio engineers, who sell bundles of WAV files catering to a certain palette.

But Pat and his business partner, Justin Pelham, started a sound design company, Pelham & Junior Co., which has taken off meteorically in the past year, earning praise from social media influencers and placement on the Big Sean single “Overtime,” produced by Hit-Boy. Every kick, snare, and sub on I Thought I Knew was made in-house, with Pat laying down exceptional bars on top. He dissects

his insecurities, facing them head-on and accepting responsibility, not just pointing a finger at those who have wronged him.

He shows vulnerability: “I’m the strong friend that you should check on,” he confides on the lead track, “I’ll Admit.”

The album follows the arc of his journey, starting low, but with a steady, optimistic rise through each track. He takes us through his friendship insecurities, his past heartbreaks, and dramatic episodes from his youth, seeking inner peace amid it all.

On “Spice Adams,” the album’s high point, Pat flexes a little of the muscle that people love from past singles like “S.O.T.B.,” but it’s the only track with that kind of energy. Afterward, things calm down into an R&B vibe with “Summer Breeze,” featuring Cyanca, whose calming voice on the chorus, mixed with soothing synth pads, creates a timbre that’s impossible to not rock your body and smile to.

In the last track, “Conversations with My Pastor,” Pat wraps up the whole journey, saying, “I thought I knew about myself, man, until I saw my ugly shadow for the black stains.”

But he also expresses joy that he can now welcome new friends, with gratitude for his pastor and, most important, his wife’s advice for getting through his dark thoughts. It ends with a beautiful piano solo from Pelham—a theatrical, emotional climax. If this is what Pat is putting out only two albums deep, then the trajectory of his future will be something to behold. music@indyweek.com

Your week.

Every Wednesday.

INDYWEEK.COM INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 19

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TORRY BEND & HOWARD L. CRAFT: DREAMING Friday, Nov. 22–Sunday, Nov. 24 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat./7 p.m. Sun., $25 Von der Heyden Studio Theater, Durham dukeperformances.com

Waking Dreams

A PUPPET-THEATER PRODUCTION OF WINSOR MCCAY’S MAGICAL, PROBLEMATIC COMIC STRIP ASKS IF WE CAN HAVE OUR NOSTALGIA AND LEARN FROM IT, TOO BY BRIAN HOWE

I

t’s evident that Little Nemo in Slumberland is beautiful. Winsor McCay’s Art Nouveau-influenced illustrations are at once whimsical and precise, elegant and magical, as he serializes a little boy’s nightly adventures in a fantastical dreamland.

It’s evident, too, that Little Nemo is important. McCay’s early-twentieth-century innovations in perspective, scale, pacing, color, panel structure, and other core aspects of cartooning—to say nothing of his later inventions in the young field of animation—helped to create the template upon which future greats, from Hal Foster and Robert Crumb to Walt Disney, would iterate.

It’s also evident that Little Nemo is problematic, and this is where Torry Bend and Howard L. Craft enter the picture.

Bend, who lives in Durham, is a puppet-theater artist who has delighted audiences from the Bull City to New York: Duke Performances previously commissioned Love’s Infrastructure, her collaboration with the band Bombadil, and The New York Times called The Paper Hat Game “an unexpected mitzvah.”

Craft is the Durham-based playwright who created both the African-American superhero radio serial Jade City Chronicles and Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green, which the Times called “rich and thoughtful” and the INDY gave five stars.

Dreaming, their new puppet-theater take on Little Nemo—which premieres at The Ruby via Duke Performances this weekend—aims to give the ethnically varied sidekicks who surround the Waspy Nemo what McCay never did: a voice and a choice.

For the first quarter of the twentieth century, McCay’s full-page strip reached a national audience in major New York papers, and it brought that readership recurring characters such as Impie, an African “jungle imp” drawn with all the out20 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Torry Bend and Howard L. Craft on the set of Dreaming at The Ruby rageous caricatures of the time. Impie, who speaks gibberish, was stolen from Candy Island by Nemo’s green-faced nemesis, Flip, a drunk-Irishman stereotype.

Bend didn’t really notice these characters upon first encounter, years ago, when her mother gave her a Little Nemo book she found at a garage sale. Based on her fond but fuzzy impressions of it, Bend decided to adapt it for Manbites Dog Theater’s final season. It was in the public domain, and the presentiment of animation in McCay’s

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

dynamic drawings made it perfect for puppet theater.

Only when Bend dug into the material did she discover the toxicity she’d missed for all the wonder. She almost dropped the project.

“It was around the same time that the Charlottesville incidents were happening, and I started to become very nervous about what it means to remake work from historically influential white men without really interrogating the darker sides of them,” Bend says, sitting with Craft outside the

Ruby’s von der Heyden Studio Theater, where a group of young people are busy painting and cutting puppets.

In looking at many other modern adaptations of Little Nemo—movies, plays, and comics—Bend was shocked to find that many of them either omitted Impie, or worse, uncritically perpetuated the character. She cancelled the Manbites show, but she also reached out to Craft to see if he wanted to write a Little Nemo-based play that she could adapt, instead.

40 SUCCESS

“It felt like exactly the kind of thing Howard had been doing: the performance of Black bodies, the history of blackface in Abel Green,” Bend says.

YEARS OF

C

raft is a comics fan, but his tastes run more to Marvel and DC superheroes than classic newspaper strips. Still, he says he quickly realized that puppet theater was less like writing a play than like writing a graphic novel—more show than tell. He had never encountered McCay’s work before, but he immediately perceived its influence, for good and for ill.

“His use of color and space was really interesting. But [his depictions] are like a backlash against Reconstruction,” Craft says, mentioning how many Confederate monuments were built in the same period.

He remembers encountering images similar to Impie’s in Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry cartoons as a child. “That dehumanizes, makes it easier to kill a person or discriminate against a person. It’s like with the Washington Redskins—you can’t dismiss that, where your nostalgia is more valuable than someone else’s humanity.”

To try to draw out that context without forsaking the magic that makes McCay’s work worth remembering at all, Craft came up with a compelling device: The characters are auditioning for their roles in Little Nemo, like actors, but to get the work, they have to submit to McCay’s vision and relinquish their humanity. Different characters make different choices, but all tug on complex contemporary issues of opportunity and representation.

“McCay had the freedom to depict races of people however he wanted to, but the people he depicted weren’t free of the repercussions of his depictions,” Craft says. “I’m imagining, what if they had a say? What choices would they make, and how would it play out based on their social context? There are very real choices African-American artists have to make: If Tom Hanks plays a Dumb and Dumber type role, it’s just Tom Hanks playing a role, but if Denzel Washington does it, it’s a comment on Black America. Oftentimes, the choice is between eating as an artist and not doing the art.”

In dealing with the unexamined racism of McCay and his son, Robert, Craft didn’t want to write a polemic, both because he’s a better storyteller than that and because to do so would let contemporary audiences off the hook too easily. After all, when we encounter monsters, our usual takeaway is just relief that we’re not monsters.

“Klansmen got children, grandmas, they might be sweet to their families on Thanks-

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The cover of Taschen’s The Complete Little Nemo by Winsor McCay giving,” Craft says. “Most racist people don’t think they’re racist. When you present these people as uncomplicated, you allow people who may have similar feelings but keep them to themselves to say, that guy’s a racist, and I’m not. But if you show a complete human, they can see themselves and people in their family. If we did it the other way, we’d be doing the same thing Winsor did, making a caricature.”

Dreaming, which already has a New York premiere slated for a puppet festival at La MaMa in November 2020, consists of three kinds of puppetry, with the puppeteers visible on stage. There’s shadow puppetry on overhead projectors. There’s toy theater, with flat, jointed puppets that are about sixteen inches high. And there are dimensional tabletop puppets in the Japanese bunraku style, with multiple puppeteers working the hands and feet.

This format not only allows the material to exist in shifting, dreamlike layers, it also allows the characters to change, which is crucial in a show about self-representation. With the staging primed to capture all the surface wonder of McCay’s comics and the material geared toward processing its inner problems, Dreaming seeks the seam where nostalgia stops and cultural violence begins, which perhaps puppetry can uniquely do.

“Puppetry is an interesting medium for having conversations about representation and embodiment,” Bend says. “You are giving life to another life-form in this very literal way. As soon as you have multiple bodies performing a character, it then also becomes this community effort to give life.” bhowe@indyweek.com

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TINY LOVE: THE COMPLETE STORIES OF LARRY BROWN Thursday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m., free Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill flyleafbooks.com

True Grit

THE SINGULAR, UNCONDITIONAL EMPATHY OF SOUTHERN WRITER LARRY BROWN SHINES IN A NEW ALGONQUIN COLLECTION BY CECILE DUNCAN

L

arry Brown spent a lot of his life just listening, sourcing material from bars in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi. He explains this in The Rough South of Larry Brown, a documentary that premiered at Full Frame in 2000, though he didn’t need to. His shapeshifting depiction of subjects from all walks of life, too sharp to be approximate, is evidence enough.

Tiny Love, a new, career-spanning collection of Brown’s stories (he died in 2004) from his longtime publisher, Chapel Hill’s Algonquin Books, is a thorough testament to his loving eye for rural minutiae. The details in each story—house shoes worn out on a late-night run to Kroger, John Anderson playing on a bar’s jukebox while catfish thaws at home, Vienna sausages and bologna sandwiches and “Co-Coler”—could only be the work of someone who’d shared an Old Milwaukee or two with his characters.

A panel of Triangle authors, including Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, and Tom Rankin, will read and discuss the book at Flyleaf on November 21.

When Brown’s first story was published in 1982, he was a thirty-one-year-old firefighter who’d been writing in his spare time for just a couple of years. He opted for the Marines instead of college and, upon his return, worked a series of odd jobs, including hauling hay, building fences, and painting houses. He went on to publish five novels, including Joe and Father and Son, both Southern Book Award winners.

Still, his short stories are the best introduction to his world—each opens up like a truck’s passenger door, beckoning you to hop in and mosey through Mississippi. In one, factory workers seek release in KFC coupons and seedy affairs. In another, a desperate family with a sick loved one kidnaps a faith healer. Brown neither condones nor condemns the actions or circumstances in the stories he tells. He just lays out, with

22 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Larry Brown PHOTO BY TOM RANKIN unsparing detail, what he sees—and, more important, what he feels.

Tiny Love showcases Brown’s singular, unconditional empathy for the drunk and neglectful, the depraved but helpless, the ornery yet resigned—all the dogs that don’t make it across the highway. Including previously released collections Facing the Music and Big Bad Love as well as other published but uncollected stories, the book speaks to Brown’s remarkable evolution from laborer to writer. His early genre-fiction forays are promising, but it’s when he settles into rural Mississippi, where he lived all his life, that he’s able to fully occupy his characters’ consciences.

“92 Days” feels autobiographical: The narrator has spent months grappling with a divorce and his failure as an aspiring writer.

When he finally digs into a piece he’s proud of, it’s because he’s able to understand his character’s situation and help him see how he got there—and how he might get out. arts@indyweek.com

11.20–11.27

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK WEEK THIS DO TO WHAT

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22– SUNDAY, JANUARY 12

CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL

Cary’s Chinese Lantern Festival PHOTO COURTESY OF KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22

ARIANA GRANDE

It’s difficult to tell the story of Ariana Grande’s recent triumphs—a Grammy, multiple platinum albums, two Billboard awards coupled with the magazine naming Grande as Woman of the Year in 2018—without referencing the fact that she has also endured more public trauma than any pop star in recent memory. Alongside her commercial success, the past two years have included a bombing at her Manchester show that left twenty-three dead and, a year later, the death of Grande’s ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller. 2018’s Sweetener and thank u, next addressed the tragedies head-on, alchemizing pain into honeyed self-truths that have glossy pop packaging but a mature resonance. The lyrics bring everything to the surface in a genuine-feeling way, and in several performances this year, Grande has been moved to tears. Emotional honesty doesn’t preclude her ability to have fun, though, or tap into the zeitgeist: her latest release is a remix of Lizzo’s unstoppable “Good as Hell.” —Sarah Edwards PNC ARENA, RALEIGH 8 p.m., $61+, www.pncarena.com

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24

PUBLIC WORKS: ON FIRE

Tamara Kissane, the playwright and Artist Soapbox podcast host, is well-acquainted with the constraints that film and live theater place around the works their artists can make. But if those mediums make it cost-prohibitive to locate a story in an underwater submarine or on top of a mountain, Kissane— who has recently branched out into audio drama—says that “in audio drama, you can do both in the same story.” Public Works, her new series co-produced by Mettlesome, gives regional writers a lab and a forum in which to do the same.

In this first edition, local theatricals Dustin Britt, Elisabeth Lewis Corley, Sylvia Freeman, Chuck Keith, and Katy Koop develop three-to-five-minute stories based on a prompt (this week: “fire”) that are designed to be heard, not read. Your job? Show up, chill with your beverage of preference, close your eyes, and listen. “There’s a freedom with this artform,” Kissane notes. “We can take our listeners anywhere and still maintain the incredible intimacy when a human voice is just beyond your ears.” —Byron Woods

Clark Griswold’s light display of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation fame has nothing on Cary’s Chinese Lantern Festival, a fiery spectacle that’s back for the 2019 holidays with an entirely new set-up. Quite literally lighting up the night, the festival invites guests to walk through a shining mosaic of more than twenty never-before-seen displays, each composed of thousands of LED lights that support a different theme. To offer a respite from chilly nighttime temperatures there are various areas available to sit, warm up, and gaze at the glow, as well as a host of food and drink stands to fuel your journey (which should take anywhere from forty-five to seventy-five minutes, according to festival recommendations).

The event stretches from a week pre-Thanksgiving to well past New Year’s, making it the perfect plan for a plethora of holiday celebrations.

—Rachel Rockwell KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE, CARY 6-10 p.m., $10–$15, www.boothamphitheatre.com

OKAY ALRIGHT, DURHAM 2 p.m., free, www.thisismettlesome.com

INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 23

Nathan Bowles PHOTO BY BRAD BUNYEA

BILL BURTON ATTORNEY AT LAW Un c o n t e s t e d Di vo rc e

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26

NATHAN BOWLES TRIO

Nathan Bowles often lends his inventive percussion talents to The Black Twig Pickers’ old-time experimentations and Pelt’s improv-heavy Appalachian drones, so his percussive approach to the banjo is refreshing but unsurprising. Leading his own avant-garde folk trio, Bowles focuses his virtuosity on exploring space and sound rather than a rapid-fire display.

With Mount Moriah bassist Casey Toll and Cave drummer Rex McMurry helping unravel traditional song structures, Bowles and company bounce between gently mesmerizing and meandering clawhammer tunes, spirited slants on bluegrass standards, and sparse, subtly shaded meditations that take their time unfolding. Opener Yan Westerlund, meanwhile, has spent the last few years helming the drums for a slew of folksy Triangle outfits like Mipso, Bowerbirds, and Mount Moriah. His new project Quetico finds him leaning into piano and synths while composing adventurous instrumentals that are both complex and dancefriendly, blurring the lines between jazz, hip-hop, and electronica. —Spencer Griffith THE PINHOOK, DURHAM 9 p.m., $10, www.thepinhook.com

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I DO? AARON BELZ AT S0 & SO BOOKS (P. 30), COCHONNE AT NIGHTLIGHT (P. 18), COUNTRY SOUL SONGBOOK AT NORTHSTAR CHURCH OF THE ARTS (P. 26), DREAMING AT VON DER HEYDEN STUDIO THEATER (P. 20), JEFFREY GIBSON AT THE NASHER (P. 29), MEKKO AT THE RUBY (P. 32), RAGTIME AT PAUL GREEN THEATRE (P. 31), LARRY BROWN’S TINY LOVE AT FLYLEAF BOOKS (P. 22)

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SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND

11/21 South Hill Banks

2/18, 2020 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS ($26 / $30; ON SALE 11/22)

WE 11/27: LA DISPUTE W/TOUCHÉ AMORÉ, EMPATH ($25/$28)

2/19, 2020 YBN CORDAE ($20/$22.50)

FR 12/6 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS OUR LAST NIGHT W/ I SEE STARS THE WORD ALIVE, ASHLAND ($20/$25)

2/29, 2020 OF MONTREAL W/ LILY'S BAND ($17)

SA 12/7 SOUTHERN CULTURE ON (15/$18)

FRI

COM TRUISE

11/22 Altopalo / Beshken

Altopalo / Beshken

TH 12/12 TWIN PEAKS W/ LALA LALA AND OHMME ($18/$20) FR 12/13 THE CONNELLS W/SURRENDER HUMAN AND LEMON SPARKS ($20/$23) SA 12/14 THE REVEREND HORTON

SAT

FLYNT FLOSSY AND TURQUOISE JEEP

11/23 with Nacynze

MIKAL CRONIN SUN

MIKAL CRONIN

Shannon Lay

11/24 Shannon Lay

FLASH CHORUS

MON 11/25 sings “Dancin’ With Myself” by Billy Idol

FRI

11/29

and “bad guy” by Billie Eilish Dubsgiving with

YOUNG BULL

Africa Unplugged / Ebz the Artist OYSTER ROAST presented by Motorco & Oysters Carolina SUN 12/1 plus BRIGHT SPIRITS HOLIDAY MARKET (inside the Showroom) TUE

12/3 WED

12/4

KEENAN MCKENZIE:

“A Bull City Holiday” Album Release Show

AMIGO THE DEVIL King Dude / Twin Temple

COMING SOON: Phutureprimitive, an-ten-nae, Jen Kirkman, Garcia Peoples, Deeper, Sammus, Street Corner Symphony, Thunder Jackson, Eric Roberson, The Wusses, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, Integrity, Art Alexakis of Everclear, Magic City Hippies, Michal Menert, Late Night Radio, Carbon Leaf, Beth Stelling, Blackalicious, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Grayscale, Hot Mulligan, Over The Rhine, Lost Dog Street Band, Blockhead, While She Sleeps, David Wilcox, Gnawa LanGus, Little People, Frameworks, Asgeir, Black Atlantic, Kevin Morby

2/17, 2020 KYLE KINANE THE SPRING BREAK TOUR($25/$28)

W/HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, FREE THROW, JETTY BONES ($27/$32)

THE SKIDS W/ANDREA & MUD

COM TRUISE

2/15, 2020 COLONY HOUSE THE LEAVE WHAT’S LOST BEHIND TOUR

W/TYSON MOTSENBOCKER ($15/$18)

HEAT W/ VOODOO GLOW SKULLS, THE 5678'S, DAVE ALVIN ($25/$28)

2/27, 2020 DAN DEACON ($15/$17)

3/11, 2020 DESTROYER W/NAP EYES ($20/$23) 3/14, 2020 RADICAL FACE ($25/$28) 3/21, 2020 BEST COAST ($25/$27) 3/27, 2020 SOCCER MOMMY W/ TOMBERLIN ($18/$20; ON SALE 11/22) 3/28, 2020 ANTIBALAS (ON SALE 11/22) 4/3, 2020 SHOVELS & ROPE W/INDIANOLA ($25/$28)

SU 12/17 AD HOC PRESENTS

4/7, 2020 LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES

TU 12/22 ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS($20/$25)

4/20, 2020 REAL ESTATE ($25/$28)

DAUGHTERS/HEALTH W/ SHOW ME THE BODY($22/$25)

FR 1/10 & SA 1/11, 2020 - TWO SHOWS

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER W/LILLY HIATT ($26)

1/18, 2020 AMERICAN AUTHORS AND MAGIC GIANT W/SPECIAL GUEST PUBLIC ( $25/$28)

AND ATERCIOPELADOS ($32/$35; ON SALE 11/22)

5/5, 2020 ANDY SHAUF W/ FAYE WEBSTER ($18/$20) 5/11, 2020 BARNS COURTNEY ($22/$25)

1/21, 2020 TOO MANY ZOOZ W/ BIROCRATIC ($18/$20)

WE 11/20 KING BUFFALO W/LAZARIS PIT ($10)

WE 1/22, 2020 MARCO BENEVENTO ($17/$20)

TH 11/21 THIRSTY CURSES, SICK RIDE, HOUSTERINO ($8/$10)

1/23, 2020 YOLA W/AMYTHYST KLAH ($20/$23)

FR 11/22 TRAVERS BROTHERSHIP W/ JULIA

WE 1/29, 2020 ANAMANAGUCHI ($18/$20) 1/30, 2020 YONDER MOUNTAIN

STRING BAND/TRAVELLIN MCCOUREYS ($25/$30) FR 1/31/2020 BEACH FOSSILS ($18/$20; ON SALE 11/22) 2/1, 2020 JAWBOX ($28/$30) 2/14, 2020 THRICE, MEWITHOUTYOU, DRUG CHURCH ( $26/$30)

DAUGHTER OF SWORDS

AND THE DAWNBREAKER BAND W/ JAKE XERXES FUSSELL SA 12/7 SOLAR HALOS, DREAMLESS, WEIRD GOD ($10) SU 12/15 LYNN BLAKEY'S CHRISTMAS SHOW FT. ECKI HEINS, FJ VENTRE & MORE. OPENING: DANNY GOTHAM ($12) WE 12/18 AN EVENING WITH SAM TAYLOE (TIME SAWYER) & MIKE RAMSEY ($10) SA 12/21 JON STICKLEY TRIO W/INTO THE FOG ($10/$12) FR 1/3, 2020 THE BLAZERS ‘HOW TO ROCK’ REUNION ($15/$18) SA 1/4, 2020 SUBLIMINAL SURGE / SNAKE SHAMING ($5) TH 1/9, 2020 SONG TRAVELER’S WRITER’S NIGHT W/SAM FRAZIER, ABIGAIL DOWD, AND WYATT EASTERLING ($20) SA 01/18 $ SU 01/19, 2020 CARRBORO DJANGO REINHARDT FESTIVAL

1/20, 2020 CRACKER AND CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN ($22/$25)

1/25, 2020 THE ROAD TO NOW PODCAST ($35)

SA 11/30 @ARTSCENTER

SOLD SU OUT

11/24 BEACH BUNNY W/ ANOTHER MICHAEL ($10/$14) WE 11/27 ZEBBLER ENCANTI EXPERIENCE ($15/$18)

TU 01/21, 2020 TALL HEIGHTS W/ANIMAL YEARS ($15/$17) FR 1/24, 2020 ILLITERATE LIGHT ($12/$14) FR 1/31, 2020 DAMN TALL BUILDINGS ($14/$17) TU 2/4, 2020 CHRIS FARREN, RETIREMENT PARTY, MACSEAL ($10/$12) WE 2/19, 2020 BLACK LIPS ($15)

FR 11/29 PHILSTOCK ‘19

SA 2/22, 2020 TIM BARRY ($15; ON SALE 11/22)

TU 12/3 DIAMANTE ($15/$17)

SU 2/23, 2020 SLOAN ($25)

WE 12/4 LAURA STEVENSON W/ ADULT MOM ($13/$15)

TU 3/8, 2020 DAN RODRIGUEZ ($15)

SOLD UT 12/5 JUMP OTH

LITTLE CHILDREN

FR 12/6 NEIL HILBORN W/ CARACARA ($20/$25)

MO 4/6, 2020 MIGHTY OAKS ($12/$14) TU 4/21, 2020 KATIE PUITT LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL)

1/18, 2020 BAILEN

ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO)

WE 11/20 SAN FERMIN W/ WILD PINK ($18/$20) SA 11/30 DAUGHTER OF SWORDS AND THE DAWNBREAKER BAND W/ JAKE XERXES FUSSELL ($15) ($15) 3/24, 2020 JAMES MCMURTRY W/BONNIE WHITMORE ($22/$25) MOTORCO (DUR)

1/11, 2020 MAGIC CITY HIPPIES ($17.50/$20) RITZ (RAL)

(PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION W/ LIVENATION)

SA 11/23 CAAMP ($20/$25) 1/25, 2020 THE DEVIL MAKES THREE W/MATT HECKLER ($25/$30) HAW RIVER BALLROOM

FR 12/20 CHATHAM COUNTY LINE ELECTRIC HOLIDAY TOUR W/BIG FAT GAP ($20/$22) FR 1/31, 2020 G LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE W/JONTAVIOUS WILLIS ($25/$30) 2/22, 2020 GARZA FT. ROB GARZA OF THIEVERY CORPORATION

WHERE THE MOON HIDES TOUR 2020 ($20/$23)

3/24, 2020 JOHN MORELAND ($15/$18) 4/20, 2020 SHARON VAN ETTEN W/JAY SOM ($28/$31) 5/1,2020TENNIS W/MOLLYBURCH($18/$20) THE CAROLINA THEATER (DUR)

TU 3/17, 2020 BAMBARA ($10/$12)

4/15, 2020 ANGEL OLSEN (ONSALE11/22)

TU 3/24, 2020 STEVE GUNN, MARY LATTIMORE & WILLIAM TYLER ($20/$22)

4/14, 2020 CODY KO & NOEL MILLER ($24.50)

DPAC (DURHAM)

CATSCRADLE.COM  919.967.9053  300 E. MAIN STREET  CARRBORO INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 25

music

11.2011.27 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24

COUNTRY SOUL SONGBOOK Kamara Thomas performs in the Country Soul Songbook event on Sunday, November 24. PHOTO BY LUIS RODRIGUEZ

WED, NOV 20

LOCAL 506 From Indian Lakes, Queen of Jeans; $15. 8 p.m.

ARCANA Stichomythia; 8 p.m.

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL Fruit Bats; $17. 8 p.m.

THE ARTSCENTER San Fermin, Wild Pink; $18+. 8 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM King Buffalo; $10. 8:30 p.m.

THE CAVE TAVERN Upward Dogs; 10 p.m.

DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER The Doobie Brothers; $45+. 7:30 p.m.

KINGS Floating Action, Lonnie Walker; $10. 9 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE 94.7 QDR Secret Show; 5 item donation to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern, NC. 7:30 p.m.

26 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

NEPTUNES PARLOUR Young Mister, Cataldo; $10. 8:30 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT Volume 32: Bobby Flan, Hanz, TT, DJ 4HIRE; $10. 9 p.m.

THE PINHOOK Lord Fess, Kelly Kale, The Lost Generation, 3Fourteen; $5. 9 p.m.

PNC ARENA Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $46-$76. 7:30 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL The New Deal; $15-$20. 8 p.m.

THE STATION Choo Choo Anoo; 7 p.m.

THU, NOV 21

DUKE COFFEEHOUSE Control Top, Material Girls; $5. 8:30 p.m.

ARCANA T. Gold, Libby Rodenbough; 8 p.m.

KINGS Ligon Jazz Ensemble; $15. 7 p.m.

THE ARTSCENTER PopUp Chorus: Eurythmics, Bonnie Tyler, Cyndi Lauper; $15. 7 p.m.

LOCAL 506 20th Century Boy, DJ Valefor; $5. 7:30 p.m.

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL Songs From The Road Band, South Hill Banks; $12-$15. 8 p.m.

BLUE NOTE GRILL Alice Gerrard, Tommy Edwards, Kirk Ridge, Abigail Dowd, Bobb Head; 7 p.m.

CAROLINA THEATRE Kip Moore, Devin Dawson; $35-$50. 8 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM Thirsty Curses, Sick Ride, Housterino; $8-$10. 9 p.m.

THE CAVE TAVERN Tracksuit, Bonsai Trees; 9 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT Triple X Snaxx, Gardener, Ultrabillions; $8. 9 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Will Easter, Momma Molasses, Earleine; 8 p.m.

RHYTHMS LIVE MUSIC HALL Billy Price Band; $15. 8 p.m.

“For a long time, I couldn’t accept that it was going to be harder for me, as a woman of color, to have people hear my country songs,” says Kamara Thomas, whose cosmic Americana tunes are as powerful and ambitious as the Country Soul Songbook project she now spearheads. A love letter to both her community and the genre on which she was raised, the project consists of quarterly concerts highlighting an inclusive array of Durham musicians, as well as an online documentary series that will spotlight different facets of the Durham community. Featuring a mix of originals and covers from the likes of Dolly Parton and Charley Pride, this inaugural show finds Thomas joined by Rissi Palmer, Phil Cook, Shana Tucker, and Loamlands’ Kym Register and backed by an all-star band. “It’s about telling the stories that haven’t been told, singing the canon in new ways, and hearing old songs come from the bodies of people who’ve been kept out for all the obvious reasons,” Thomas explains. —Spencer Griffith NORTHSTAR CHURCH OF THE ARTS, DURHAM 2 p.m., $10–$20, www.northstardurham.com

Present this coupon for

Member Admission Price (Not Valid for Special Events, expires 01-20)

Sylvan Esso performs at DPAC on Friday, November 22. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS THE RITZ

Jaden and Willow Smith

DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Sylvan Esso WITH

Is Jaden Smith “just an icon living,” as he sings on “Icon,” or a kid desperately parading around in his dad’s super shadow? Because It’s not as if the Karate Kid star, who drinks unlimited coconut water and collects Teslas as an exercise in boredom, actually has to strike it rich as a rapper. His sister Willow may be equally out of her depths as a singer although her recent self-titled release’s soul-searching voyage is considerably less pompous than Jaden’s funhouse rhymes. —Eric Tullis [$30. 8 P.M.]

Sylvan Esso have traditionally functioned as the duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, but for a small series of special shows, the Durhambased pop act will expand into a ten-piece supergroup. Meath and Sanborn will be joined by Meg Duffy on lead guitar, Dev Gupsta on keys, Jenn Wasner on bass, Adam Schatz on the saxophone, Matt McCaughan and Joe Westerlund on drums, and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Molly Sarlé on backing vocals. Molly Sarlé will also perform a set of material off her solo record Karaoke Angel.

—Sam Haw [8 P.M., SOLD OUT.]

RUBY DELUXE Brutal JR, Black Bouquet, Megachrome; $5. 8 p.m.

KINGS

SLIM’S DOWNTOWN Sewage Grinder; $7. 9 p.m.

UNC CAMPUS: HILL HALL Javier Martínez Campos, Clara Yang; 7:30 p.m.

FRI, NOV 22 BLUE NOTE GRILL Charlley Ward, Bull City Blues Band; 9 p.m.

CAROLINA THEATRE Aaron Neville; $45-$65. 8 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM Travers Brothership, JULIA.; $8-$10. 8:30 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE Office Hours; $10-$12. 10 p.m.

Arson Daily

Set in motion in Boone and seasoned in Raleigh, the band Arson Daily has spent the last five years playing basements and bars across North Carolina. Its garage-rock sound has garnered comparisons to Cage The Elephant; a fair assesment, given the band’s surfy western riffs and singer Zach Dunham’s catchy hooks.

This Friday, the band will drop a new song, “Pipe Dream,” the first single off of upcoming album Late Reflections, which is set to release in February 2020. Blue-Footed Boobies and Chris Larkin will open.

—Sam Haw [$10-$15. 9 P.M.]

THE KRAKEN C. Albert Blomquist, Los Chicos Amables, Shannon O’Connor, Owen Fitzgerald; 8 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE ATLIENS; $10-$20. 10 p.m.

LOCAL 506 Quelle Chris; $13-$15. 8 p.m.

THE MAYWOOD Seven Letter; $8. 8 p.m.

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL Bernstein & Copland; 8 p.m. $20+.

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL Com Truise, Altopalo, Beshken; $20-$22. 9 p.m.

27 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

for directions and information

www.teasersmensclub.com 156 Ramseur St. Durham, NC

An Adult Nightclub Open 7 Days/week • Hours 7pm - 2am

TeasersMensClub

@TeasersDurham

THE NIGHT RIDER Vacant Company, A Deer A Horse, Shadows, Grohg; 8 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT Cochonne Cassette Release featuring Marv; $10. 9 p.m.

THE PINHOOK

HERstory

Be Connected Durham and The Conjure, led by Angel Dozier and Rachel Storer (Gemynii) have teamed up for a special night that highlights and centers black femmes in hip-hop. The evening will feature performances by some of North Carolina’s dopest female MC’s and songstress including Lena Jackson, Zensofly, M8alla, and Tanajah. Hip-hop lovers will also get to dance the night away at an afterparty helmed by Gemynii.

—Kyesha Jennings [$10. 9 P.M.]

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact advertising@indyweek.com

THE CAVE TAVERN The Eyebrows, EZ Shakes, MSRP; 9 p.m.

919-6-TEASER

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact advertising@indyweek.com

Your Week.

Every Wednesday. indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 27

SUN, NOV 24 ARCANA Sam Fuller-Smith; 8 p.m.

BLUE NOTE GRILL Mysti Mayhem; 5 p.m.

DUKE CAMPUS: BALDWIN AUDITORIUM Ciompi Quartet with The Lark Quartet & Laura Sewell; $25. 4 p.m.

DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Kenny G; $45+. 7:30 p.m.

KINGS Jarv, C.Shreve the Professor, OC from NC + B2, TheDeeepEnd; 9 p.m.

The Kraken Krakenversary; 7 p.m.

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL Mikal Cronin, Shannon Lay; $15-$17. 8 p.m.

PNC ARENA TOOL, Killing Joke; $145+. 7 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Ghost Dog; 1 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Elijah Melanson; 3 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Emisunshine; $15-$20. 7 p.m.

THE RITZ K. Michelle; $33+. 8 p.m.

SLIM’S DOWNTOWN Fruit Snack, Shantih Shantih, Mean Habit; $7. 8 p.m.

Arson Daily plays a hometown show at Kings on Friday, November 22. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Litz, Shwizz; $8-$12. 8 p.m.

THE RITZ Los Temerarios; $57-$72. 9 p.m.

RUBY DELUXE DJ Jermainia; 10 p.m.

SHARP NINE GALLERY GEOFF CLAPP Quaret; $20. 8 p.m.

THE STATION Sound System Seven; 10 p.m.

WAKE FOREST LISTENING ROOM Gravy Boys; $12. 7 p.m.

SAT, NOV 23 ARCANA

Our Survival is Magic

Femme DJ collective Mamis & the Papis are back with a celebration of survival in

the form of dance music from across Latin America, from Cuban son montuno to Colombian cumbia. The bass will hold a healing space for “tender-hearted folx” and allies; the cover benefits Latinx clients of Chapel Hill’s Compass Center for Women and Families. —Brian Howe [$7. 10 P.M.] BLUE NOTE GRILL Nick Moss Band, Dennis Gruenling; $10-$15. 8 p.m.

CAROLINA THEATRE Sam Bush; $35. 8 p.m.

THE CAVE TAVERN Rock Eupora, The New Creatures, Juniper Avenue; 9 p.m.

DUKE CAMPUS: BALDWIN AUDITORIUM Isabelle Faust & Alexander Melnikov; $36-$42. 8 p.m.

KINGS Kendall Street Company, The Orange Constant, Unaka Prong; $12-$15. 9 p.m.

THE KRAKEN Lisa R and the Lucky Stars, Nancy Middleton; 8 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE The Blue Dogs; $15-$25. 8 p.m.

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL Flynt Flossy, Turquoise Jeep, Nacynze; $12-$15. 9 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT Disco Sweat; $7. 10 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Ryan Kennemur; 1 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Clint Roberts; 3 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Charles Latham; 5 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Chris Rattie, The New Rebels, The Blacksliders, Regina Hexaphone; $7-$10. 7 p.m.

THE RITZ CAAMP; $20-$25. 8:30 p.m.

RUBY DELUXE DJ Luxe Posh; 11 p.m.

SHARP NINE GALLERY Mik Templeton, Martin Clowse Quintet; $15. 8 p.m.

SLIM’S DOWNTOWN Horizontal Hold, LIMN, Distant Future; $5. 9 p.m.

THE STATION Rooster Logic; 9 p.m.

WAKE FOREST LISTENING ROOM Triangle Afrobeat Orchestra; 7 p.m.

THE WICKED WITCH Goth Night; DJ Dies A Lot, 20th Century Boy. $10-$15. 9 p.m.

THE STATION Gypsy Jazz Jam; 3 p.m.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP OF RALEIGH Benefit Concert For Bahamas Red Cross: Matvey Lapin, Anatoly Larkin, Jonathan Kramer; 7 p.m.

THE WICKED WITCH Crystal Bright, The Silver Hands, Curtis Eller’s American Circus; 7 p.m.

MON, NOV 25 CAT’S CRADLE New Found Glory, Hawthorne Heights, Free Throw, Jetty Bones; $27-$32. 7 p.m.

THE CAVE TAVERN Brian Dolzani; 9 p.m.

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL Flash Chorus Night: Billie Eilish, Billy Idol; $7. 7 p.m.

SLIM’S DOWNTOWN PARTYGIRL, Maam, Ryan Johnson; $5. 9 p.m.

TUE, NOV 26 THE MAYWOOD Inanimate Existance, Symbolik, Septicemic; $12-$15. 8 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Saxsquatch, Ctrl Alt Del Band; $7-$10. 8 p.m.

THE RITZ PJ Morton; $25. 8 p.m.

SHARP NINE GALLERY NCJRO; $20. 8 p.m.

WED, NOV 27 CAT’S CRADLE La Dispute, Touche Amore, Empath; $25-$28. 7 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM Zebbler Encanti Experience; $15-$18. 9 p.m.

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL

Cirque de Noel

For fifteen years, orchestras around the globe have sought out Suwanee, Georgia’s Cirque de la Symphonie to fuse cirque artistry with classical music.

Cirque de Noël puts a holiday spin on the act, literally, as acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, dancers, and contortionists animate a concert of holiday fare from Tchaikovsky to popular tunes. —Byron Woods [$25+, 3 P.M.] THE KRAKEN Jonathan Byrd, The Pickup Cowboys, Johnny Waken, Austin McCall, Kim Lane; 7 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE First Waltz; Hank, Pattie, and The Current, Into The Fog, Jack Marion and The Pearl Snap Prophets, Troubadour Sons. $10-$12. 7 p.m.

LOCAL 506 Homesafe, Kayak Jones, Young Culture, Keep Flying; $12-$15. 6 p.m.

NEPTUNES PARLOUR Night Jeans, Dim Delights; $5. 10 p.m.

POUR HOUSE MUSIC HALL Medicated Sunfish; $5-$10. 8 p.m.

SLIM’S DOWNTOWN Pathogenesis, Basilica, Leachate; $7. 9 p.m.

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR

INDYWEEK.COM

28 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 28

art

11.20–11.27

submit! Got something for our calendar? Submit the details at:

indyweek.com/submit#cals DEADLINE: 5 p.m. each Wednesday for the following Wednesday’s issue.

QUESTIONS? spequeno@indyweek.com

Art of Mental Health Mixed media. Thru Jan 24. Rubenstein Art Center Gallery 235, Durham. artscenter.duke.edu.

The Art of Resistance Thru Dec 13. UNC’s FedEx Global Education Center, Chapel Hill.

Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures With guest curator Hannah Star Rogers. Other exhibits at NC State Libraries and GES Center. Thru Mar 15. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

John James Audubon: The Birds of America Ornithological engravings. Thru Dec 31.

NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Scott Avett: INVISIBLE Paintings and prints. Thru Sun, Feb 2. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

John Beerman: The Shape of Light Paintings. Thru Jan 25.

Craven Allen Gallery, Durham. cravenallengallery.com.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21

JEFFREY GIBSON Both of the Nasher Museum’s major exhibitions this fall—Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations and Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now—feature the work of Jeffrey Gibson, a New York-based interdisciplinary artist of Choctaw and Cherokee heritage. Marking the exhibitions midway point (both run through March and January, respectively), Gibson will make an appearance at the Nasher with a free artist talk that delves into the driving forces behind his work. In his paintings and sculptures, Gibson explores a variety of aesthetics and mediums rooted in Indigenous American cultures and contemporary subcultures.

His style shifts easily between abstraction and storied tradition, as in “I PUT A SPELL ON YOU,” a Gibson sculpture in the Nasher’s permanent collection that repurposes a punching bag with intricate glass beadwork. A 2019 MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Gibson has two solo exhibitions currently touring the U.S. A cash bar that opens at 5:30 p.m. will precede the Nasher talk. —Rachel Rockwell

NASHER MUSEUM OF ART, DURHAM 7 p.m., free, www.nasher.duke.edu

OPENING NC Chinese Lantern Festival Lanterns. 6 p.m.-10 p.m. every day. Closed Mondays. 20.

Nov 22 - Jan 12. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

ONGOING 100+ Years of Earth and Fire: A Retrospective of Four Women Working in Clay Pottery.

Reception Nov 15, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

Thru Dec 7. Durham Art Guild, Durham. durhamartguild.org.

Abundance Paintings. Thru Nov 30. V L Rees Gallery, Raleigh. vlrees.com.

Jeffrey Gibson PHOTO BY ANDREW KIST / IMAGE COURTESY OF THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART

Jasmine Best, Laura Little, Aaron McIntosh, Renzo Ortega: Dirty South Group show. Thru Nov 30. Artspace, Raleigh. artspacenc.org.

Lety Alvarez, Pepe Caudillo, Allison Coleman Paintings.

Thru Jan 25. Artspace, Raleigh.

Megan Bostic: Undeveloped Memories Mixed media. Thru Dec 7. VAE Raleigh, Raleigh.

Anarchism and the Political Art of Les Temps Nouveaux, 18951914 Prints and graphics. Thru Dec 15. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu.

Wim Botha: Still Life with Discontent Mixed media. Thru Dec 1. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. ncartmuseum.org.

Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now Contemporary Indigenous art.

Thru Jan 12. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu.

The Art of Giving painting, sculpture, photography, glass art, jewelry, turned wood, pottery & fiber art.

Reception: Nov. 29 6-9pm.

Thru Dec 31. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Hillsborough.

HillsboroughGallery.com.

Ashlyn Browning: Recalibrate Paintings. Thru Nov 30.

Artspace, Raleigh. .

Conner Calhoun: Whispers from Wizard Mountain Drawings, paintings, and sculpture. Thru Dec 13. Lump, Raleigh. lumpprojects.org.

Kennedi Carter: Godchild Thru Jan 31.

21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com/durham.

A Certain Uncertainty; from the Cassilhaus Collection Thru Nov 24. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill. preservationchapelhill.org.

Chatham Attitude Longitude and Latitude: 2019 Chatham Artists Guild Studio Tour Mixed Media. Reception: Nov 22, 6 p.m. Fri, Nov 1. Thru Nov 30. 6 PM The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. artscenterlive.org.

Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations Art inspired by music and rhythm. Thru Mar 1. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu.

Stephen Costello: Places Sculpture. Reception: November 16, 5-7 p.m. Thru Jan 25.

Craven Allen Gallery Durham cravenallengallery.com.

Rosana Castrillo Díaz: Trust me. You are t/here. Mixed media. Thru Jan 12. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh.

Encantada | Enchanted Thru Dec 20. Duke Campus: John Hope Franklin Center, Durham.

Fantastic Fauna-Chimeric Creatures Thru Jan 26. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

Fleshmap: My Embroidered Bipolar Geographies Mixed media. Closing reception: Dec 7, 4 p.m. Thru Dec 7. Anchorlight, Raleigh. fleshmap.me.

Coulter Fussell & Antonia Perez: Heirloom Quilts and mixed media. Thru Dec 28. Artspace, Raleigh. artspacenc.org.

Hal Goodtree & Students: Photos. Thru Dec 15. Through This Lens, Durham.

Holiday Exhibit Mixed media.

Thru Jan 4. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill. frankisart.com.

Harriet Hoover, Vanessa Murray, Rusty Shackleford Thru Jan 5. Oneoneone, Chapel Hill. oneoneone.gallery Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism Paintings. Thru Jan 19. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh.

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CO NT’D

Georges Le Chevallier: Shibui Paintings Paintings.

Thru Nov 23. VAE, Raleigh.

Maria Martinez-Cañas: Rebus + Diversions Mixed media. Thru Jan 12. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh.

Material Mixed media. Thru Jan 3. Durham Arts Council, Durham. facebook.com.

Chris McGuire: With The Land Photography.

Thru Nov 23. United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County, Raleigh.

Eleanor Mills: Wildflowers of Crested Butte, Colorado Photography. Thru Apr 18. Duke Campus: Lilly Library, Durham.

Momentum @ Hamilton Hill 2D and 3D art. Reception: Nov 16, 5-8 p.m. Thru Dec 31.

Hamilton Hill, Durham.

More Outsider Art in the Visitors Center Folk art. Group show. Thru Nov 29. Alexander Dickson House, Hillsborough. mikesarttruck.com.

Mystical Logical Mixed media.

Thru Dec 13. Lump, Raleigh. lumpprojects.org.

New Orleans Second Line Parades Photos. Thru Dec 31. Love House and Hutchins Forum, Chapel Hill. southerncultures.org.

NOURISH Thru Dec 2. 5 Points Gallery, Durham.

5pointsgallery.com.

Nuevo Espíritu de Durham: New Spirit of Durham Personal stories and images.

Thru Jan 5. Museum of Durham History , Durham. cityofraleighmuseum.org.

The Pattersons Mixed media.

Thru Dec 7. Oneoneone, Chapel Hill. oneoneone.gallery.

Fahamu Pecou: DO or DIE: Affect, Ritual, Resistance Thru Nov 21. UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center, Chapel Hill. stonecenter.unc.edu.

Kelly Popoff: At Home With Our Histories Paintings. Thru Jan 3. UNC Campus: Hanes Art Center, Chapel Hill. art.unc.edu.

Portraying Power and Identity: A Global Perspective Thru Jan 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com/durham.

30 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Aaron Belz

QuiltSpeak: Uncovering Women’s Voices Through Quilts Thru Mar 8. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. ncmuseumofhistory.org.

FILE PHOTO BY JEREMY M. LANGE

Joseph Rafferty: Lost Photos.

Reception: Nov 15, 6-9 p.m.

Thru Dec 2. Durham Art Guild, Durham Lynn Saville: Photos.

Thru Dec 15. Through This Lens, Durham. throughthislens.com.

Christopher Kimball Milk Street: The New Rules.

Wed, Nov 20, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

She Who Tells a Story Thru Dec 1. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. ackland.org.

Toni Tipton-Martin Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking, $95. Wed, Nov 20, 12 p.m.

McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

Laura Lacambra Shubert: New Works Paintings. Thru Dec 29. Gallery C, Raleigh. galleryc.net.

Shannon Messenger Keeper of the Lost Cities: Legacy, $24.11, sold out. Thu, Nov 21, 6 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South Thru Dec 21 at Power Plant Gallery, Durham. Thru Dec 29 at Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. powerplantgallery.com, gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

Sydney Steen: Fault Lines Vignettes. Thru Oct 25. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com.

Dawn Surratt & Lori Vrba: (en)compass Mixed media.

Thru Dec 20. Horse & Buggy Press and Friends, Durham. horseandbuggypress.com.

Yuko Nogami Taylor: Majestic Incognito - Sanctuary Paintings. Thru Dec 2. 5 Points Gallery, Durham.

5pointsgallery.com.

Teens, Inspired: Home Poems, mixed media. Thru Jan 3. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh.

Cheryl Thurber: Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s Photos. Thru Mar 31. UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library, Chapel Hill. ¡Viva Viclas!: The Art of the Lowrider Motorcycle Guest curator Denise Sandoval. Thru Feb 9. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. camraleigh.org.

What in the World Is a Grain Mummy? Egyptology and art. Thru Jan 8. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Hugh Murphy T-Rex Tries Again: Return of the King.

Sat, Nov 23, 1:30 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23

AARON BELZ When Aaron Belz lived in Hillsborough, we once made him write about John Hodgman. That’s because if American poetry has a Hodgman— read: a friendly ironist in a bow tie—it’s Belz, who combines poetic seriousness (one of his books was blurbed by John Ashbery, for chrissake) and malignant puns with a dry professorial persona, so you can never quite tell if he’s kidding. He’s back with Soft Launch (Persea Books, September 2019), which dissolves the history of poetry—the sonnet, the love poem, the aubade, etc.—into a froth of dad jokes, text messages, stand-up riffs, reply-all emails, and other modern mortifications. “Love,” in its entirety, reads, “We fit together perfectly / like two halves of an ape.” (Russell Edson much?)

“Outrage” is a straight-faced groaner: “I threw up my hands in disgust: / Why had I eaten my hands?”

Sure, there’s longing and even beauty mixed with the shtick, but in a book whose dedication says, “Because I’m worth it,” you’re here for the shtick.

Belz reads at Hillsborough Wine Company at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and at So & So Books at 6:00, with Josh Tvrdy and Ali Wood. —Brian Howe

HILLSBOROUGH WINE COMPANY, HILLSBOROUGH | 2 p.m., free SO & SO BOOKS, RALEIGH 6 p.m., free, www.soandsomag.org

Dale Neal, Marjorie Hudson Appalachian Book of the Dead (Neal). Sat, Nov 23, 2 p.m.

McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

A Snow White Christmas Storytime Sun, Nov 24, 10:30 a.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

READINGS & SIGNINGS

Charles D. Thompson, Jr., Marcie Cohen Ferris Going Over Home: A Search for Rural Justice in an Unsettled Land (Thompson). Sat, Nov 23, 4 p.m. McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

Larry Brown, Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, Tom Rankin Tiny Love (Brown). Thu, Nov 21, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

LECTURES, ETC.

Michael Galinsky, Greg Barbera The Decline of Mall Civilization (Galinsky). Tue, Nov 26, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

Jaki Shelton Green, Jameela F. Dallis, Shannon Jackson, Tema Okun Mon, Nov 25, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

Bernard Herman A South You Never Ate. Wed, Nov 20, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

Stories Across the Ages: Positive Aging Fri, Nov 22, 6:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

Dreaming in Color Sat, Nov 23, 10:30 a.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham. thedurham.com.

stage OPENING Arnez J Comedy. Thu: 8 p.m.; Fri & Sat: 7:30 p.m. & 10:30 p.m.; Sun: 7 p.m. $30-$38. Nov 21-24.

Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. goodnightscomedy.com.

The Art Of Style Fashion Show Fashion show. $50. Sun, Nov 24, 7 p.m. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh.

A Comedy Affair Comedy. $8-$10. Fri, Nov 22, 7 p.m. The Cotton Company, Wake Forest. thecottoncompany.net.

Comedy In A Cave Wed, Nov 20, 7 p.m. The Cave Tavern, Chapel Hill. caverntavern.com.

Comedy Overload Comedy. $5. Thu, Nov 21, 8 p.m. Pour House Music Hall, Raleigh. thepourhousemusichall.com.

Pete Holmes Comedy.

Showtimes: Fri. 7 p.m. & 9:15 p.m.; Sat. 6:30 p.m. & 9 p.m.; Sun. 7 p.m. Nov 22-24. Raleigh Improv, Raleigh.

Shari Diaz Comedy. 8 p.m. $15. Nov 22-23. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. goodnightscomedy.com.

Simon Says Select scenes from Neil Simon. Wed, Nov 20, 7:30 p.m. Durham Arts Council, Durham. durhamarts.org.

The Spectacular Nutcracker Ballet. Fri: 6 p.m.; Sat: 12 p.m. & 5 p.m. $23-$26. Nov 22-23.

Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh.

Torry Bend Puppetry. Fri & Sat: 8 p.m.; Sun: 7 p.m. $25. Nov 22-24. 8 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center - von der Heyden Studio Theater, Durham.

A Tribute to the Masters Ballet. Thu-Sat: 8 p.m.; SatSun: 2 p.m. $37+. Nov 21-24.

Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh. dukeenergycenterraleigh.com.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20–SUNDAY DECEMBER 15

Fergie L. Philippe and Anneliza Canning in Ragtime PHOTO BY HUTHPHOTO

ONGOING

Franklin Street Comedy Festival Comedy. Full schedule online. $10-$50. Thru Nov 25.

The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), Chapel Hill. thepit-chapelhill.com.

The Colored Museum Play of 11 exhibits. Thru Nov 24. NCSU Campus: Titmus Theatre, Raleigh.

Loch Na Heala (Swan Lake) Ballet. 7:30 p.m. both nights.

Thru Nov 21. UNC Campus: Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill. carolinaperformingarts.org

Ragtime Musical. Mon-Sat: 7:30 p.m.; Sun: 2 p.m. Thru Dec 16. Center for Dramatic Art, Chapel Hill.

The Trojan Women Play. $15.

Showtimes: 22, & 23: 8 p.m.

Sun: 3:30 p.m. Thru Nov 23..

Durham Friends Meeting House, Durham. durhammonthlymtg. home.mindspring.com.

RAGTIME Inevitably, a theater’s architecture becomes as intrinsic to its artistic signature as the works produced there. That’s certainly the case with the thrust stage at Paul Green Theatre; for decades, it has jutted dramatically out into the room as audiences have surrounded it on three sides. But that arrangement gets flipped in PlayMakers Repertory Company’s new production of the Tony award-winning 1996 musical, Ragtime. Scenic designer Mark Wendland and guest director Zi Alikhan scatter the contrasting locales—from New Rochelle to New York’s Lower East Side and a pre-renaissance Harlem— throughout the space, alongside, and at times above patrons, in a new theater-in-the-round configuration. Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’ deeply moving score animate playwright Terrence McNally’s adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow’s bestseller, a cinematic tale of injustice and transformation amidst the American social schisms of the early twentieth century. The cast includes Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Fergie L. Phillip, and Theatre Raleigh artistic director Lauren Kennedy. Music director Mark Hartman leads the chamber orchestra and chorus. —Byron Woods

PAUL GREEN THEATRE, CHAPEL HILL 7:30 p.m. Thu.–Sat./2 p.m. Sun., $15+, www.playmakersrep.org

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR

INDYWEEK.COM

INDYweek.com | 11.20.19 | 31

screen SPECIAL SHOWINGS

The Matrix $10. Thu, Nov 21, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary. thecarytheater.com

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Open Caption $9. Thu, Nov 21, 4:30 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh

Mekko Fri, Nov 22, 7 p.m.

Rubenstein Arts Center - Film Theater, Durham.

A League of Their Own $12. Tue, Nov 26, 7 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Before Sunrise $6. Wed, Nov 20, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary. thecarytheater.com Blood Rage $8. Tue, Nov 26, 9 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Depeche Mode: Spirits In The Forest $13. Thu, Nov 21, 7 p.m.

Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings $6. Sat, Nov 23, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary. thecarytheater.com Frozen 2: Family Party $12. Sun, Nov 24, 12:15 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Frozen 2: Open Caption $13. Thu, Nov 21, 6 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Hellraiser & Black Christmas $10. Fri, Nov 22, 7 p.m.

Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org Interview With A Vampire $20. Sun, Nov 24, 2 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Interview With A Vampire $20. Wed, Nov 20, 2 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh The Jerk 7:30 p.m. & 9 p.m. $13. Mon, Nov 25, Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Joe Versus the Volcano $5. Wed, Nov 20, 9 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh Knives Out: Open Caption $12. Tue, Nov 26, 7:30 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh The Last Waltz $10. Mon, Nov 25, 7 p.m. Rialto Theatre, Raleigh. newsite. ambassadorcinemas.com/ rialto-theatre/ 32 | 11.20.19 | INDYweek.com

Music and Lyrics $7. Wed, Nov 20, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org Navajo Talking Picture Wed, Nov 20, 7 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center - Film Theater, Durham.

Rhymes For Young Gouls Wed, Nov 27, 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. thepinhook.com Smoke Signals Mon, Nov 25, 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. thepinhook.com

OPENING A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—Audiences can’t get enough of the Mr. Rogers content, and for good reason. In this rendition, Matthew Rhys plays a jaded journalist assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, who is played by a perfectly-cast Tom Hanks. Rated PG. Frozen 2— In search of the origins of her powers, Elsa and her sister Anna strike out beyond their frosty homeland.

Rated PG. Bridges—In this action thriller, the NYPD undergoes a manhunt so massive that police shut down all twentyone bridges leading out of Manhattan. Rated R.

N OW P L AY I N G The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Unstarred films have not been reviewed by our writers.

Ad Astra—A tortured but calm Brad Pitt traverses the solar system in search of his lost father. Rated PG-13.

The Addams Family —In this star-studded new Addams installation, the macabre clan face-off with a reality television show host. Rated PG. Black and Blue—A rookie cop captures a murder by corrupt cops, in this timely thriller.

Rated R. Charlie’s Angels—Producer and director Elizabeth Banks helms a new generation of the angels. Rated PG-13.

Countdown—Apps may kill us all, and in this horror film, they do (the app in question is a countdown clock that predicts your time of death; not surprisingly, it may also be a killing mahine). Rated PG-13.

Doctor Sleep—Stephen King sequel to The Shining. Rated R. Downton Abbey—King George V and Queen Mary pay a visit to the abbey and cause a flurry of activity in this spin-off of the television series. Rated PG. Ford v. Ferrari—Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in a biographical sports drama about a legendary race. Rated PG-13.

The Gemini Man—Will Smith always seems to be being hunted by mutants and/or clones; in this horror flick, the clone killer is his younger self. Rated PG-13.

The Good Liar—Sparks fly between an elderly couple who meet on a dating website. One of them, though, is a con artist.

Rated R. Harriet—Kasi Lemmons stars in this biographical film about the heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Rated PG-13.

Hustlers—The true story of strippers drugging and stealing from Wall Street stock traders is the stuff think pieces are made of. Rated R. IT Chapter Two—The mixed reviews for the second part of Stephen King’s killer-clown opus mainly agree that it’s just not that scary. Rated R. Jexi—A man’s life is ruined by his phone when an AI program goes haywire. Rated R. Jojo Rabbit—This black comedy is about a German boy who discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic. Rated PG-13.

Joker—At first, the buzz around this star vehicle for Batman’s greatest villain was all about Joaquin Phoenix’s intense turn in a role Heath Ledger made famous. But as more details of the plot have emerged, there’s been a justified backlash about what sounds like an antihero myth for violent incels. Rated R. Judy—Renee Zellweger, in a role that will likely make her an Oscar frontrunner, plays Judy Garland during the last few years of her life. Rated PG-13.

Mekko PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FILMMAKERS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22

MEKKO Winner of best feature film in the imagineNATIVE festival, the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, and the American Indian Film Festival, Sterlin Harjo’s third feature explores the hardships of the homeless Native American community in Tulsa through the lens of Muscogee spirituality. Mekko (Rod Rondeaux), a psychically-gifted ex-con who is struggling with alcoholism, is disowned by his family after being released out of prison and finds himself having to navigate life in the streets. Together with an old friend, Bunnie (Wotko Long), from his lead-mining hometown, he will have to confront an abusive and violent presence in their community (Zahn McClarnon) who is suspected to be a shape-shifting witch known as an estekini. Using English for external dialogue and the Mvskoke language for internal monologue, Mekko is a unique decolonial piece that infuses poignant social realism with the ethos and myths of Muscogee lore and intriguing flashes of American surrealism. —Marta Núñez Pouzols

RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER, DURHAM 7 p.m., free, www.artscenter.duke.edu Last Christmas—An unlucky department store elf falls in love. Rated PG-13. The Lighthouse—Birds caw, fog looms, and waves crash in this hallucinatory horror film about two lightkeepers trapped in a remote lighthouse. A campy art house flick that will leave you paranoid about both seagulls and other people.

Rated R. —Sarah Edwards Lucy in the Sky—This Noah Hawley film gives an existential touch to the story of disgraced astronaut Lisa Nowak (see: every tabloid story in 2007). Rated R. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil— Angelina Jolie was perhaps born to do many things, but surely playing one of Disney’s greatest villianesses is one of them. Rated PG. Midway—This WWII flick about Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Battle of Midway stars a fleet of hunks. Rated PG-13.

Motherless Brooklyn—Edward Norton plays a loner private detective with Tourette’s syndrome in this adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel.

Rated PG.  Once Upon a Time In Hollywood—Quentin Tarantino portrays the late-sixties Hollywood film industry and vaguely mumbles something about the Manson family in this tedious, irrelevant exercise in bland nostalgia for a bygone era of unaccountable hypermasculinity. Rated R. —Marta Núñez Pouzols ½ Pain and Glory—In this auto-fictional exercise, the director Pedro Almodóvar is honest about his life but guarded about his psyche.

Rated R. —Marta Núñez  Parasi--te—This highly-anticipated social satire from filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho is crammed with dark twists and intricate metaphors. Rated R. —Sarah Edwards

Playing with Fire—Family comedy about a crew of firefighters who are tasked with babysitting. Rated PG. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark—The classic anthology of ghoulish tales gets mined for incidents in this horror throwback. Rated PG-13.

Terminator: Dark Fate—It’s like nothing after Terminator 2: Judgement Day ever happened as James Cameron returns to the fold of the classic sci-fi franchise. Rated R. The Warrior of Queen Jhansi—Based on the true story of Jhansi, a feminist icon who led a revolt against the British Empire in India in 1857.

Rated R. Where’s My Roy Cohn?–This documentary about Donald Trump’s mentor and fixer exposes the seamy roots of the American political machine. Rated PG-13.

Zombieland: Double Tap—A heartland sequel to the 2009 cult classic. Rated R.

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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 “puzzle pages” at the bottom of our webpage.

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If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “puzzle pages.”

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FULL-TIME HOURLY + COMMISSION SEEKING AN OUTGOING, SALES-ORIENTED INDIVIDUAL TO JOIN THE INDY WEEK TEAM.

WHAT IS THIS?

The position is focused on Durham and Orange counties and will be based out of our downtown Durham office.

Well, it’s not an ad, but you’re still reading it!

Contact Amanda at classy@indyweek.com to place YOUR ad

Send resume to jhurld@indyweek.com

Free Ship USA OrganicMotherlandFoods.com

Advertise with

WE'RE HIRING

UPCOMING SPECIAL ISSUES Nov 27

Gift Guide #1

Dec 11

Deep Dive: Outposts

Dec 4

Gift Guide #2

Dec 18

Business Spotlight: Local Brands

Dec 11

Gift Guide #3

Dec 25

No Publication

Contact advertising@indyweek.com or John Hurld at 919-286-1972

BACK PAGE

Weekly deadline 4pm Friday classy@indyweek.com

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