ARTS: Loyd Visuals documents the Queen City
PG. 6
FOOD: Local chefs, bartenders compete in annual statewide showdown
PG. 11
4 The Malanda E ect by Sam Spencer & Adrian Singerman
Charlotte FC fullback Adilson Malanda nds his place on the Bank of America pitch
P
6 Worth a Thousand Words by Dezanii Lewis
Three brothers capitalize on creativity to document community with Loyd Visuals
8 Lifeline: Ten Cool Things To Do in Two Weeks
9 Soundwave
MUSIC
10 What Is Gone by Pat Moran
Rasmus Leon nds mystery and inspiration in things left behind
FOOD
11 Cutthroat Kitchen by Karie Simmons
Charlotte chefs and bartenders compete in statewide culinary and mixology competition LIFESTYLE
12 The Seeker
12 Horoscope
13 Puzzles
14 Savage Love
Thanks to our contributors: Grant Baldwin, Katie Grant, Dezanii Lewis, Annie Keough, Hailey Knutsen, Alana McCallion, Taylor Banner, Daniel Coston, and Dan Savage.
The players and staff of Charlotte FC have different nicknames for their 21-year-old French fullback, but the modest Adilson Malanda doesn’t insist on any particular iteration.
“They’re all the same to me,” he told Queen City Nerve as we set up a microphone and camera for our interview at Bank of America stadium in April. He was smiling, wearing a lilac Lacoste sweatshirt with the characteristic crocodile he donned after team practice and a shower.
Malanda’s infectious, boyish smile contrasts with a size of 6 foot 3 inches, 165 pounds. His smart, contemplative nature off the field — one of his favorite books is Michelle Obama’s autobiography Becoming — stands in contrast to the role he plays for Charlotte: the last line of defense between opposing attackers and his goalkeeper.
He’s also an optimist. When we spoke, Charlotte FC was in second to last place in MLS’s Eastern Conference. The team had only one win in their first eight matches and was still coming to terms with the tragic death of defender Anton Walkes in January.
Fans were getting frustrated with the team and the coaching staff. Malanda, however, was undeterred.
“Things are going to turn around, for sure.”
The very next week they did, with an impressive 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew and a convincing 4-1 victory in the U.S. Open Cup.
Malanda was born on October 29, 2001, in Rouen, a city 75 miles northwest of Paris. The city is best known outside of France as the place where Joan of Arc was tried and burned at the stake, but Malanda didn’t have long to learn its history.
“I didn’t stay there a very long time … but it was good — very, very good. I still have family today in Rouen, and I went there to see them a little while ago,” he said.
He moved when he was 3 years old and grew
up with his mother and sister in southern France. Malanda was raised more by his French mother, but he still feels a connection to the Congolese ancestry he inherited from his father.
“My father was Congolese, so I am too. But it’s true that I’ve never gone there, I have never met anyone in my family in the Congo either.”
lower levels of French football. Malanda joined the club just a couple years after they were promoted back to Ligue 2 for the first time in 26 years.
“It was very, very good in the sense that it allowed me to play my first minutes as a professional, to really discover what the professional world is,” Malanda said. “When you become a professional, results are expected rather than continued improvement or anything else. Obviously there’s a competition, so you have to do everything to perform; but that’s how it helped me. I was able to acquire some experience.”
Malanda played 33 matches with Rodez and quickly became a top prospect, but the path to toptier soccer wasn’t without sacrifice.
“I spent time in quite a few places in my youth, even before Nîmes, I left home pretty early. So
I like. He’s mobile, despite his height; he plays very well … for me it was just a simple yes.”
When Charlotte FC became serious about acquiring Malanda that July, the French 20-yearold had never visited the United States and knew even less about the Queen City. As is the case with many professional soccer deals, he didn’t have long to decide.
“It happened pretty quickly, but it was an opportunity,” Malanda said.
Though he was comfortable and could have stayed with his club in France, he wasn’t opposed to the idea of playing somewhere new.
“I said to myself, ‘Why not give it a try?’”
He wouldn’t have any time to adjust. When Malanda was signed, Charlotte was in the middle of its first Major League Soccer season; the team was in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and barely holding on to the last playoff spot.
Then, two days after Charlotte FC announced Malanda was joining the club, the team lost talented defender Guzmán Corujo to a season-ending injury in an August loss to the Chicago Fire at Bank of America Stadium. The dominant Malanda would be expected to fill the shoes of the physical Corujo as soon as he could get to the States.
“The first thing we had to do was to put [Malanda] up to speed with the way we want to play — with the ball and without the ball,” Lattanzio said. “I even spoke with him in French, but his English was excellent so he didn’t really need me speaking to him in French … it probably was better like that.”
At age 13, Malanda left his family to start on the path to becoming a professional soccer player. He joined the youth academy of Nîmes Olympique (The Crocodiles), where he learned the fundamentals of competitive soccer, then made the decision to go pro.
“It was just after my last year at Nîmes Olympique, I knew they weren’t going to offer me a professional contract, so I did my research with my former agent, and we were able to find Rodez, where I went to give it a try, and that’s where they decided to sign me to a professional contract.”
Rodez AF (The Blood and Golds) is a smaller club than Nîmes; the Crocodiles have spent many years in France’s top division and play in a bigger market. As for Rodez, though they currently play in France’s Ligue 2, they’ve spent most of their history at the
obviously, you develop your identity, far away from your roots, so to speak, far away from your family. It wasn’t always easy, that’s for sure,” he said.
Malanda was already being scouted when Charlotte FC fired the team’s first coach, Miguel Ángel Ramírez, at the end of May 2022. Christian Lattanzio took over as interim head coach and said most of the work had already been done when he was presented with the opportunity to bring Malanda on.
“I talked to [Malanda] before we signed him, and I quite liked what I saw,” Lattanzio said in an April 2023 interview. “I thought Adil specifically was a central defender that has the characteristics that
Two weeks after Corujo’s injury, Malanda was part of Charlotte’s 20-man roster against Orlando. The next week, he would start at home against Toronto; then on Sept. 10, in only his third appearance for the team, he won Man of the Match honors for his performance in a 1-0 win against New York City FC.
After that breakout match, then-interim head coach Lattanzio said, “Our central defenders did a great job … [Malanda] of course is a guy who helps fill this gap.” Malanda was then featured as part of MLS’s Team of the Week as Charlotte started a winning streak that kept their playoff hopes alive until the last week of their inaugural season.
Malanda has started on Charlotte’s back line in every league match since.
“To adapt so quickly to the new way of life, and to [get up to speed] not only with football … but also culturally, that’s a credit to him,” Lattanzio said. “I think we are really lucky and blessed to have a guy like him.”
The modest Malanda credited his breakout performance to being well-rested. While the MLS season runs from March to October, the French soccer season runs from August to May, meaning Malanda was just coming out of his offseason.
“I had just finished some training, so physically I think I was at my best,” said Malanda. “The teams here had played for almost an entire season, which wears on your physical condition, and it’s true that when I arrived, I felt good physically, and I was able to use that to have some good performances.”
Charlotte barely missed making the playoffs in the first year. Due to arcane league rules, Malanda was not allowed to play in the home match against the Columbus Crew that knocked Charlotte out of playoff contention. Because the match was a continuation of a postponed match that was supposed to take place before Malanda joined the team, he couldn’t be used in place of Corujo.
One can only imagine how the team might have played with Malanda on the pitch.
Charlotte FC was optimistic going into its second season; preseason training was going well and most pundits considered the team a playoff contender, if not yet a championship team.
On the defensive line, the team looked like it had significant depth. Malanda had just had a breakout season, veteran defenders Anton Walkes and Harrison Afful brought valuable MLS experience to the club, Premier League champion Christian Fuchs was staying on as part of the coaching staff, and Nathan Byrne was a healthy addition to the team. Corujo was bound to return at some point, perhaps joining Malanda at fullback.
Then, just weeks before Charlotte FC was set to kick off the season against New England at home, the unfathomable occurred.
On Jan. 18, Walkes was involved in a boating accident in Florida. He died the next day at the age of 25.
“To be honest, it hasn’t been easy,” Malanda told Queen City Nerve when asked how the loss has affected the club. “It was a tough blow.”
Malanda said it was a pivotal moment for the club, but something that brought the team closer together.
“Although we don’t tell each other often, we care about each other, we’re part of the same club, of the same family … and it’s true that it hasn’t been easy, but today we get back up and we move forward, for [Anton], and for the fans, too.”
Although Malanda believes the tragedy brought the team closer together, the grief remains. He said the team is still thinking about Anton’s family, and individual players are processing the grief of losing a teammate in different ways.
“In those moments, me personally, I like to be close to others, and in tough moments, work even harder to overcome all of this. I think that’s how it went,” he said.
Malanda’s partner at fullback in Charlotte’s 4-3-3 formation is New Zealander Bill Tuiloma, who came to Charlotte from the Portland Timbers. As someone with significant experience playing soccer in France — he was the first New Zealander to play in France’s Ligue 1 — Tuiloma is the ideal partner for the young Malanda. Along with Lattanzio, he’s also one of the few other people in the organization who speaks French.
“Right off the bat, the connection of both players speaking French was pretty cool,” Tuiloma said.
Their similarities go beyond fluency in French. Tuiloma also shares Malanda’s experience with culture shock, first when he moved from New Zealand to France, then moving from France to the US.
“Moving to France I was 17 turning 18, so I was a lot younger back then. Obviously, the culture [shock] from New Zealand to France, the biggest thing for me was the language barrier,” Tuiloma said. “Coming out to the States, I’d say that the amount of hours that we fly [is the biggest difficulty that I had to get used to].”
The similarities are important when it comes to building a relationship on the back line, and doubly so in the wake of Anton’s passing. Lattanzio told me that despite not having a preseason with the team, Tuiloma came with the right attitude and was ready to do anything the team needed.
While Tuiloma didn’t have the chance to play with Walkes, he had to drop into his position almost immediately.
“The season started soon after Anton’s passing,” Malanda said. “Bill Tuiloma arrived right before we started the season, so obviously when we don’t have the same points of reference as when I was playing with Anton, but yeah, we adapt, we adapt, we work, we work a lot.
“We try to make sure to solve problems, issues in the same way,” he continued. “Whether we succeed in doing that, that’s another question, but that’s our way of doing things in any case.”
Success has been a challenge. Both fullbacks have faced criticism from fans who were frustrated with Charlotte’s slow start in 2023, and the occasional sloppy play from the new pairing. Neither one, however, is deterred.
“Each day and each game we’re improving in our
defense and how Lattanzio wants us to be as defenders,” Tuiloma said. “We are building that confidence and we’re building that momentum each day.”
“We are continuing to work; in any case that’s the only solution,” Malanda said. “Obviously, at this point we would like to have more points, but we know we are capable of making adjustments, and our objective is to do that as soon as possible. We can hold our own against the other teams in my opinion, we just have to sort out certain little details that are [causing us to lose matches].”
responsibility, emphasizing the team aspect of play, and eschewing any opportunity to scapegoat another player or a member of the club.
Despite Malanda’s insistence that he still has work to do, his teammates had no shortage of praise for his play.
“Adil is a young guy, fantastic on the ball,” said goalkeeper George Marks after Charlotte’s April 22 match against the Columbus Crew. “He hasn’t gotten to shine as much as I believe he should. He’s such a top player.”
Tuiloma continuously praised Malanda’s work ethic and leadership on and off the pitch. Both him and Lattanzio specifically mentioned his commitment to training and improvement as one of his best qualities.
“He’s a guy that’s willing to learn, he’s a guy that’s willing to take information and put that into work. I can see that on the training pitch and I can see his maturity as a player,” Tuiloma said. “He looks like he’s a vet in the game, but people don’t realize he’s only 21. He’s a player that’s already making a mark in this league and on this team as a young leader.”
“As a player, he’s mobile, he trains hard, he’s a good trainer, he’s a real professional. Again: maturity,” said Lattanzio. “At the same time, we have to remember that he’s only a young player, and he needs time to develop like everybody else.”
As of this writing, Charlotte has 24 matches left in the season, so there’s still time left for the team to make a serious championship run. Throughout our interview, Malanda was more focused on the health and future of the team than anything else.
He acknowledged that small mistakes have been the team’s Achilles’ heel, and that this level of play in MLS, those mistakes are the difference between poor seasons and the playoffs.
“We are hoping to elevate the level of our game even more to pose more problems for our opponents, whether it’s on offense or on defense,” Malanda said. “It’s clear that we are continuing to work, for us, to improve, and to show the other teams in the league that we are a serious contender.”
Though it seems like professional soccer players are easily traded, talented young players like Malanda are the future of any major league team. They have an opportunity to build the team’s culture, to form the core of the squad, and to gain enough experience in the organization to mentor the next generation.
Lattanzio has been most impressed by Malanda’s maturity and personality.
In our conversation, Malanda consistently demonstrated the maturity of a team leader: taking
No matter which direction Charlotte’s season takes, expect Malanda to continue to improve and remain an impact player.
“He has the opportunity to become one of the best defenders in the league,” Tuiloma said. “The sky’s the limit for him.”
*When necessary, quotes from Adilson Malanda were translated from French by Adrian Singerman, a native French speaker.
It’s rare when someone can find something they’re passionate about and manage to make a living off of it. It’s even more rare when they are able to make it a family affair. Charlotte-based production company Loyd Visuals, however, is the result of just such a dream come true.
The brainchild of Khaleel Loyd, Loyd Visuals specializes in video production, ranging from advertisements and promotional videos to documentaries. Khaleel owns and operates the company with his two younger brothers, Maleek and Najm, each of whom bring their own skill set to the table.
The project was originally born out of a realization that each of the brothers’ diverse talents could be capitalized on in a collaborative way.
“How we came up with the idea was based upon me realizing and taking self inventory of what I was really good at, but then also looking around at the people that were closest to me, which were my brothers, and identifying what they were really good at as well,” Khaleel told Queen City Nerve.
In the seven years since its launch, nearly half of which spanned a pandemic, Loyd Visuals is building a name for itself in the Charlotte area and beyond.
Already in the first quarter of 2023, the company has released documentaries about the rich history of the West End as well as the city’s Legacy Commission, which was tasked with renaming nine streets in Charlotte that honored slave owners, champions of the Confederacy and proponents of white supremacy.
Nationwide, they’ve also worked with organizations ranging from Airbnb to the Los Angeles Rams.
Kingfish: The Story of Kenny Washington, premiered in February with a screening at Miracle Theater in Inglewood, California. Loyd Visuals partnered with the LA Rams and Durham-based
Black Originals on the documentary.
“Kenny Washington ... was the first Black player that was drafted into the [NFL] in 1946,” Khaleel said. “So that was a huge story.”
While Loyd Visuals has already worked with Fortune 500 companies in addition to nonprofits and government agencies, moving forward the company is looking to start producing more original content, Khaleel said.
The values that have served as the company’s
guiding light since its launch, however, will remain the same regardless of content.
“I want to build a company that’s different from other companies out here that just focus on profit,” Khaleel said, “that give the top CEOs and C-suite executives all of the revenue and all of the resources while the folks at the bottom just kind of struggle for scraps.”
Khaleel graduated from UNC Charlotte in 2014 as a health communications and public health major, then got a job in health care but quickly realized it wasn’t where he was meant to be.
“I just didn’t like corporate,” he said. “I just didn’t like that environment.”
He also wasn’t satisfied with the pay; he thought a $45,000 salary would change his life and allow him to help out his family, but it didn’t add up to what he hoped.
He decided to make a change, even if he didn’t know what it would be.
“I’ve always been a hustler,” he said. “I’ve always been someone who knew that they wanted to run a business. I just didn’t know what I was going to
actually do. So I decided to look around and see what different options there were.”
One important principle drove Khaleels decision-making process: social justice.
“I’m all about using entrepreneurship as a way of liberation, as a means of liberation for Black folks in America,” he continued. “Obviously, we understand the racial disparities and the social disparities of this country.”
Finding that special something didn’t prove easy at first. He looked to friends who were thinking about starting a gym, but that idea fizzled out.
Looking back, it was a personal project from his brother Maleek, who was becoming a gifted filmmaker in his own right, that stuck with him.
Maleek, who had won some regional and national competitions for his work in high school, made a touching, sentimental graduation video for Khaleel.
“[The video] was a kind of compilation and kind of a graduation present where he interviewed our grandmother, mother, father, brother, folks that are closest to us within the family,” Khaleel recalled. “And then he took some old footage of when I was like 6, 7, 8 years old and put that into the video as well.”
“And so when I saw that video, I got emotional and I was like, wow, if video can evoke this type of emotion for me, then I’m sure it can do the same for other people.”
It wasn’t until 2015 that it began to dawn on him that maybe what he was looking for existed right there in his immediate family circle.
“Maleek was just really gifted in cinematography,” he said. “I also saw that my other brother, Najm, he just had an eye for photography and he was really into streetwear and just fashion. And I was like, ‘You know what? I think we got something here.’”
Inspired by the growing popularity of video content on social media platforms like Instagam and Vine, the latter of which has since shut down but served as a precursor to the hugely popular TikTok, Khaleel began to form a plan to launch a production company.
“I went ahead and said, ‘Guys, like, let’s give it a try. The worst that can happen is that we learn a lesson and then we can go back and find jobs and figure it out if this doesn’t work out for us,’” he recalled.
The brothers weren’t hard to convince.
“I didn’t have any opposition to it,” Maleek said. “I was all for it. I think we were all for it because we didn’t have anything to lose when we were starting out.”
Khaleel decided he could handle the business administration of the company and work on building the relationships they would need to build while his brothers focused on the creative side of things.
“The rest has been history,” he said.
Khaleel continued working his health care job for the next two years until he finally resigned to focus on Loyd Visuals full time. Looking back, he admits he may not have gone about launching his company the right way, financially.
“We didn’t have any loans,” he said. “I don’t have a rich uncle I can call up and be like, ‘Hey, let me borrow like $10,000, let me borrow $5,000 and start a business.’
“I took my 401K money that I had saved up at the time ... went ahead and took that money and I used that as a launch pad for me just to survive.”
He paused to add a disclaimer that he doesn’t recommend that any budding entrepreneur take the same risks he did.
“I don’t know how long that money truly lasted,” he said. “I mean, maybe six months at best.”
The team started small, doing weddings and
campaign videos for local politicians, until they landed a contract with Airbnb in 2019, which allowed them to really take off.
“We really hit the ground running full-time in 2019,” Maleek said.
“That was the contract that really solidified the confidence in us, that this was going to be a viable business, that we could grow and scale and have true impact,” Khaleel added. “And that one contract took us around the world.”
From the start, the trio at Loyd Visuals has striven to stick to the values they hold dear.
“Our mission is to create memorable visuals that stand the test of time,” Khaleel said. “Our vision is to create a world that fosters more authentic storytelling. And so with those two mission and vision statements in mind, we just want to continue to [do] exactly what our mission statement states: create memorable visuals that live long after we’re gone.”
A lot of the work they do now comes primarily from major companies, which is intentional in its own right.
“With the work that we do, it’s purpose-driven,” Khaleel said. “We align a lot with organizations that have a strong mission, vision and values, that have a really good understanding of who their target audience is and how they want to connect to that audience. And we’re all about stories, so we really lean heavily into telling our clients’ stories in a way that’s culturally appropriate and that connects to their audiences in a really meaningful way.”
“No project is the same, but we treat every project as if it is a family project,” Maleek added. “We invite our clients in to collaborate with us. We invite our teammates to really have a say so in the process. And that really centers us and helps to build our own camaraderie and just the quality of work that we produce as it relates to our mission. I think we’ve been able to stay true to that, and it helps ground us.”
Moving forward, however, the team will look to flex their creative muscles with more original works — passion projects based on their interests and sentiments.
“We want to just continue to do those things for ourselves, just to document and just to spread the
word, just to tell stories that inspire other people, other community members,” Maleek said. “That’s really what helps us find our purpose in the work that we do outside of the client work and outside of the main service offering that we have.”
There’s plenty more in the pipeline for these brothers and they feel that they’re just beginning.
“Now that we’ve seen the type of work that we’ve been able to accomplish and the team that we’ve been able to build, it’s really a good feeling overall to see where we started and to where we are now and to set goals for something higher,” Maleek continued. “So there’s always something that we’re looking forward to.”
While it was a nothing-to-lose attitude that inspired them in the start, now it’s a love for family that fuels them.
“I’m just happy to be doing something that I love and being able to make a living off of it,” Maleek said. “The company serves as a good opportunity for us as brothers and family to really grow together and work together.”
A two-day electronic dance music behemoth, Breakaway Fest hits the Queen City for its rst visit this year. (A second iteration of the genre-blending event returns in the fall.) Day one co-headliner Illenium brings his romantic, melodic trap/dubstep hybrid to the party. Sharing the top of the bill is Dutch DJ/producer Tiësto, noted for pop-friendly crossover experiments. Canadian progressive house producer Deadmau5 hits the stage on day two, most likely sporting his trademark mouse-eared helmet. Sharing top billing is German producer Zedd, purveyor of glitchy electro house for horny androids.
More: $104 and up; May 5-6; Charlotte Motor Speedway, 5555 Concord Pkwy. S., Concord; breakawayfestival.com
A scientist and a painter walk into a bar. That’s not the start of a dad joke. It’s the premise of this absurdist play by famed comedian Steve Martin. It’s 1904 in Parisian boho district Montmartre, and the scientist and artist who bump into each other at the watering hole are Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso. With egos as big as their intellects, the two spar about art, science and the ne line between genius and insanity. Meanwhile, cafe regulars and a visitor from the future irt, argue and chip away at the fourth wall.
More: $30; May 5-21; Theatre Charlotte, Divine Barrel Brewing and Mint Museum Uptown; theatrecharlotte.org
Amid mysterious electronic and environmental sounds, Kadey Ballard’s coruscating acoustic guitar sparks and shimmers like ghost lights itting through a twilight forest. The opening of “Black Mountain,” o Ballard’s new album Sibyls, gives way to soaring yet unsettled vocals, owing like wind through bullrushes. The bill on Ballard’s album release show also includes Modern Moxie’s Madison Lucas with renditions of her confessional and questing solo material. Lindsey Ryan, noted for her lush and eerie keyboards and vocals with MOA, shares dreamy tunes from the roadhouse perched on the portal to the multiverse.
More: $7; May 6, 8 p.m.; Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave.; petrasbar.com
From the palmettos to the longleaf pines, the Carolinas have been obsessed with barbecue since the lost colony on Roanoke Island, when all the settlers abandoned the colony in search of good ‘que. The word “Croatoan,” apparently translates to “vinegar sauce.” (Revisionist history warning.) The fest showcases the tradition of whole hog BBQ, along with varying cooking styles. For the record, its vinegar-based sauce in eastern NC, tomato-based in western NC, and mustard-based in South Carolina. The annual event includes tastings with 14 of the best pitmasters in the South.
More: $75; May 7, 11 a.m.; Camp North End, 301 Camp Road; carolinabbqfest.org
Panamanian-American opera singer Nmon Ford, noted for his supple baritone, strikes out in a new artistic direction as the composer, librettist and title-role performer in House of Orfeus. This preview performance is a foretaste of a co-production by Lincoln Center and Opera Carolina. The production entwines music genres and sets Ovid’s legend of the fateful love of Orfeus for the beautiful Eurydice in the near future. Here, Orfeus confronts his true nature to save the beautiful poet Eurydice from her father Pluto, the fascist ruler of a dystopian empire.
More: Free; May 10, 7 p.m.; Booth Playhouse, 130 N. Tryon St.; blumenthalarts.org
With the o -kilter indie-rock samba-with-errantsound-e ects “Scuzzy,” Charleston’s self-described “psych tuba grunge” out t Orange Doors has a winner. The band enlivens its nerdy indie rock by taking the stage in wizard’s robes. Charlotte’s Regence crafts catchy tunes with loud guitars — like the jaunty, sharp and choppy “In My Head” — that suggest glam rock played by a pop-punk power trio. With bleeping new-wave synths, vintage spy movie guitars and vocals that suggest Dracula’s brides recast as a ’60s girl group, new single “Urban Decay” is Charlotte pop-goth rock group True Lilith’s best work yet. More: $17.30; May 11, 9 p.m.; Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St.; snugrock.com
It seems everyone can identify James Bond music, if only the twanging guitar ri from Monty Norman’s “James Bond Theme,” or Shirley Bassey belting alongside John Barry’s brassy horns on “Gold nger.” That said, Bond music is hard to pin down. Is it jazz, pop, rock, disco or electronic dance? (Yes.) Despite Barry being identi ed with the series’ soundtracks, other Bonded composers include the likes of Paul McCartney, Michael Kamen and Hans Zimmer, backing a who’s who of popular singers including Madonna, Adele, Billie Eilish, Jack White and many more.
More: $31 and up; May 12 & 13, 7:30 p.m.; Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St.; blumenthalarts.org
Shot in 1968, Uptight is the most militantly proBlack American movie of the 1960s. Set scant days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder, the turbulent drama transposes the plot of John Ford’s expressionist classic The Informer (1935) from the Irish war for independence to a then-present day Black community in Cleveland. Directed by Hollywood Blacklist survivor Jules Dassin (Brute Force, Ri ), Uptight boasts powerful performances, blunt dialog and a scene where apartment dwellers pelt cops with garbage after they gun down a Black revolutionary that conjures the immediacy and impact of a documentary.
More: $7-$9; May 14, 2 p.m.; Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St.; ganttcenter.org
Hilarious heartbreaking and healing, The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks and Curls is both candid confessional and call for sisterhood and solidarity. Recalling The Vagina Monologues and For Colored Girls..., playwright Keli Go features voices of Black women from around the globe recalling moments in their lives in which their hair — and their complicated relationships with that hair — took center stage. A special Mother’s Day performance on May 14 is followed by an in-person talkback with Go . The show runs May 5-20.
More: $15-30; May 14, 2 p.m.; Arts Factory at West End Studios, 1545 W. Trade St.; threebonetheatre.com
Two small-time swindlers set out to scam a collector with a rare sheet of stamps called the nine queens. Nothing, however, is what it seems in this tricky Argentinian heist caper. Director Fabien Bielinsky carefully pieces together a puzzle of layered cons and mind fucks, only to grab the puzzle box, throw it against the wall, and start all over. With outstanding characterizations and a cooly e cient style, Bielinsky pulls the rug out from under viewers repeatedly — and then a trap door under the rug springs open.
More: $8; May 16 & 18, 7:15 p.m., May 21, 4:15 p.m.; Independent Picture House, 4237 Raleigh St.; independentpicturehouse.org
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Goth Babe (The Fillmore)
The Knee Hi’s w/ The Girls, The Penitentials (Snug Harbor)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
DJ Nate (Birdsong Brewing)
COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA
James McMurtry w/ Bettysoo (Visulite Theatre)
CHRISTIAN/GOSPEL/RELIGIOUS
Naomi Raine, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Natalie Grant, Taya Gaukrodger (Ovens Auditorium)
OPEN MIC
Tosco Music Open Mic (Evening Muse)
Open Mic Variety Show (Starlight on 22nd)
THURSDAY, MAY 4
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Sun Room (The Underground)
Obilivion Throne w/ Krvsade, Night Attack (The Milestone)
Dumbass Youth, Patois Counselors, Thousand Dollar Movie (Petra’s)
Wine Lips w Impending Joy, Pleasure House (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Seal (Ovens Auditorium)
Will Wildfire w/ ForeverJabron, Jooselord (Evening Muse)
COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA
NC Bluegrass Jam Night (Birdsong Brewing)
Mitch Rossell (Neigborhood Theatre)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Ruben Studdard & Clay Aiken (Knight Theater)
JAZZ/BLUES
Karen Linette Experience (Middle C Jazz)
FRIDAY, MAY 5
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Alestorm (The Fillmore)
VV (The Underground)
Forever We Roam w/ Reverse the Hollowing, State of Illusion, Felspar (The Milestone)
Scowl Brow (Neighborhood Theatre)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Next o’ Kin w/ Chasing Phoenix (Amos’ Southend)
Andrew Duhon w/ Dane Page (Evening Muse)
COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA
Drake Milligan (Coyote Joe’s)
JAZZ/BLUES
Noel Freidline & Maria Howell Sing The Beatles (Middle C Jazz)
CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL
Charlotte Symphony: The Princess Bride in Concert (Belk Theater)
FUNK/JAM BANDS
The Frtiz w/ Quentin Talley & The Soul Providers (Snug Harbor)
Cosmic Charlie (Visulite Theatre)
SATURDAY,
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
The Ultimate Doors (The Doors tribute) (Amos’ Southend)
Modern Alibi w/ Rigometrics (Evening Muse)
Pylon Reenactment Society w/ It’s Snakes, Secret Monkey Weekend (Snug Harbor)
Love It To Death (Alice Cooper tribute) (Visulite Theatre)
JAZZ/BLUES
Noel Freidline & Maria Howell Sing The Beatles (Middle C Jazz)
FUNK/JAM BANDS
Electric Dynamite (Smokey Joe’s Cafe & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA
Citizen Cope (Neighborhood Theatre)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Leah Marlene w/ ila amiri (Evening Muse)
Sorry Papi: All-Girl Reggaeton Party (The Fillmore)
Party Battleship (Starlight on 22nd)
SINGER-SONGWRITER/ACOUSTIC
Kadey Ballard w/ Madison Lucas, Lindsey Ryan (Petra’s)
LATIN/WORLD/REGGAE
VS Guitar Duo & Friends (Stage Door Theater)
CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL
Charlotte Symphony: The Princess Bride in Concert (Belk Theater)
CHRISTIAN/GOSPEL/RELIGIOUS
Tomorrow x Together (Spectrum Center)
SUNDAY, MAY 7
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Symbiote w/ Wastoid, Ephemeral, Breaker (The Milestone)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Joey Valence & Brae (The Underground)
JAZZ/BLUES
The Jazz Legacy Project Plays Herbie Hancock (Middle C Jazz)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Hazy Sunday (Petra’s)
LATIN/WORLD/REGGAE
Blessd Corner (Ovens Auditorium)
MONDAY, MAY 8
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
The Flaming Lips (The Fillmore)
JAZZ/BLUES
The Bill Hanna Legacy Jazz Session (Petra’s)
TUESDAY, MAY 9
ROCK/PUNK/METAL Alter Bridge (The Fillmore)
Sunbloc w/ Raatma, Pet Bug, Complaint Club (The Milestone)
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol w/ King Saul & The Heretics, Auralayer (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Jill Scott (Belk Theater)
FUNK/JAM BANDS
Cosmic Jam Session (Crown Station)
ACOUSTIC/SINGER-SONGWRITER
Sam on Someday (Evening Muse)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 10
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Sunfish w/ Blue Rain Boots (Evening Muse)
Bury Tomorrow (The Underground)
Living Dead Girl w/ The Almas, Dovecage, My Blue Hope (The Milestone)
Brigades w/Thousand Dollar Car, Brass Tongue, Resistor, Division Point (Skylark Social Club)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
City Morgue (The Fillmore)
FUNK/JAM BANDS
House of Funk (Middle C Jazz)
JAZZ/BLUES
Lee Ritenour (Neighborhood Theatre)
CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL
House of Orfeus: A House Music Opera (Booth Playhouse)
OPEN MIC
Open Mic Variety Show (Starlight on 22nd)
THURSDAY, MAY 11
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Totally Slow w/ Shehehe, Faye, Boy A/C (The Milestone)
Jamie McLean Band w/ Jason Scavone (Neighborhood Theatre)
Orange Doors w/ Regence, True Lilith (Snug Harbor)
JAZZ/BLUES
TRS Performs Alicia Keys (Middle C Jazz)
COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA
Cody Jinks (Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre)
Ari Hest w/ Sarah Clanton (Evening Muse)
Blue Cactus w/ Evan Stepp & The Piners (Petra’s)
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
trEMOnt (Amos’ Southend)
Saosin (The Underground)
Hightower w/ Death of August, Nevada Rock, Leaving Echoes (The Milestone)
Princess Goes (Visulite Theatre)
Tangerine Trees (Beatles tribute) (Smokey Joe’s Cafe & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA
Cody Jinks (Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre)
Odie Leigh w/ The Official Bard of Baldwin County (Evening Muse)
Esther Rose (Evening Muse)
The Quebe Sisters (Neighborhood Theatre)
Hackensaw Boys w/ DeeOhGee (Snug Harbor)
JAZZ/BLUES
Marion Meadows (Middle C Jazz)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Eric Roberson (Booth Playhouse)
Plies, Juvenile, Trick Daddy, Goodie Mob, Lil Webbie (Bojangles Coliseum)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Janet Jackson (PNC Music Pavilion)
APE Audio (Starlight on 22nd)
CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL
Charlotte Symphony: The Best of James Bond (Knight Theater)
SINGER-SONGWRITER/ACOUSTIC
Darby Wilcox w/ Julianna Money, Jordan Igoe (Petra’s)
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Jeff Scott Soto w/ Jason Bieler (Evening Muse)
gogoPilot w/ Shake the Dust (Evening Muse)
Haken (The Underground)
Korine w/ CD Ghost, Secret Shame (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Lil Skritt (The Milestone)
JAZZ/BLUES
Marion Meadows (Middle C Jazz)
ACOUSTIC/SINGER-SONGWRITER
Jordan Sledge (Starlight on 22nd)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Purgatory (Amos’ Southend)
Silent Disco (Birdsong Brewing)
LATIN/WORLD/REGGAE
Natalia Jimenez (The Fillmore)
CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL
Charlotte Symphony: The Best of James Bond (Knight Theater)
FAMILY
Charlotte Symphony: Tchaikovsky Discovers America (Knight Theater)
SUNDAY, MAY 14
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Voivod (The Underground)
JAZZ/BLUES
Branford Marsalis (Knight Theater)
Marion Meadows (Middle C Jazz)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Vedo w/ Keithian, Final Draft (Neighborhood Theatre)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Quinn XCII (Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre)
MONDAY, MAY 15
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
Robert Kraft & Allison Krauss (Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre)
Pat & the Pissers w/ Plan B, Circuit, Militar (Snug Harbor)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
Set It Off (The Underground)
TUESDAY, MAY 16
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
The Gaslight Anthem (The Fillmore)
MX Lonely w/ Coma Therapy, The Mother Superior, Subvertigo (The Milestone)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
Homxide Gang (The Underground)
FUNK/JAM BANDS
Cosmic Jam Session (Crown Station)
JAZZ/BLUES
UNC Chapel Hill 360 Jazz Initiative (Middle C Jazz)
SINGER-SONGWRITER/ACOUSTIC
Ella Stevens w/ Part Time (Evening Muse)
VISIT QCNERVE.COM FOR THE FULL SOUNDWAVE LISTING.
In Will Davis’ video for his sweeping dreamlike tune “22,” a synthesizer oscillates like a hovering UFO as the camera pulls out from a dusty bed of crystal globes. Twanging Spaghetti Western guitar reverberates as we skim past a series of discarded objects and empty rooms. Our restlessly roving point of view turns a dirt-encrusted desktop, a disused piano keyboard and a cigarette littered floor into alien landscapes. Then Davis’ pensive, woundedsounding tenor kicks in.
“Everybody says they know/ when they try to name me/ Everybody says they care/ when they try to maim me...”
As we glide past rooms once lived in and objects once used, the music acquires textures as tactile as the photographed places and things — swarming mass vocals, chiming piano and deliberate thunderclap percussion that chugs like a locomotive gathering speed. Davis declares his intention to leave the abandoned littered landscape behind.
“And I know/ Just where I have to go/ And I’ll be/ The only one who leaves...”
“I believe in the idea of the lives of materials, and that there’s multiple lives in things,” says Davis, a musician, songwriter, educator and filmmaker, who performs as Rasmus Leon. He brings his lush and labyrinthine internal landscapes to Snug Harbor on May 13. Proceeds from the show go to Moms Demand Action.
Davis has crafted films, songs and music videos like “22,” which premieres at qcnerve.com on May 3. The song is one of five that appear on Davis’ asyet-unreleased EP, …And Then The Foothills, which explore life’s in-between spaces — points where you leave a situation but haven’t yet stepped into the next. Davis documents these magical spaces through the seeming ephemera of discarded objects and images.
“Everything I make is technically stock footage [to use in] something else,” he says. “I shoot things and [they] become this memory swell.”
Despite his propensity for crafting densely layered, hypnotically compulsive pieces, Davis professionally made his name as a filmmaker and
educator. He kept his music making secret from most of the world for nearly 20 years.
“I always felt like I was in this in-between space,” Davis says.
Growing up in and around Wilkesboro, Davis experienced the trauma of a family coming apart. His parents divorced, and Davis moved with his mother and sister Anna into a rental home — what was meant to be a temporary home. Davis’ father is a pianist and jazz trombonist, but in Davis’ post-split household, talking about music became tacitly taboo.
Davis eventually attended UNC Charlotte to study photography while minoring in film. He scratched his music-making itch by sneaking into the university piano lab with friend Kirk Ericson, where they would smuggle in beers and play improvisational music. The pair got busted for drinking and playing piano, and Davis had to appear before student court to avoid expulsion. Then a senior, he got off with the admonition that he was behaving like a freshman.
Though he was, by his own admission, a terrible student — he regularly skipped class to shoot his film projects — Davis found his métier in film. After graduating, he went on to earn a master’s degree at the university.
“In 2018, I got the first full-time film studies position. In 2021, I accepted the director position,” Davis says. His efforts to transform the school’s film program from a minor into a major reached fruition this fall, when the university will offer a film and media production major.
A Sundance Screenwriting fellow and director of several film fests, including the Joedance Film Festival, Davis launched Charlotte-based visual marketing firm Small Creatures in 2013. Over 10 years, Small Creatures transformed from a content creator that worked for clients through ad agencies to a more creator-centric entity, one that works directly with artists.
Small Creatures has produced over 30 full-length music videos for artists. It’s also responsible for nearly 120 more videos, including live performance recordings and promos. Meanwhile, Davis privately experimented with a keyboard and a 4-track cassette recorder.
“I was layering sounds that I heard around the house that I thought were musical — weird window chatterings or doors opening,” Davis says. Among the few who knew about Davis’ hidden tuneful activities was his friend Stephen Warwick, founder and frontman for Ancient Cities.
In 2018, events conspired to bring Davis’ music out of the shadows, albeit under the alias Rasmus Leon, a moniker his aunt tossed out as a joke when Davis’ mother was pregnant with him.
“My aunt would give [my mom] the most horrible names to name me,” Davis says.
In 2019, both of his parents suffered strokes. Davis and Anna were tasked with rummaging through the family home, deciding what to keep and what to toss.
Although Davis had already written four of the five songs that appear on … And Then The Foothills, the job of sifting and sorting had a profound effect on him.
“Each week my sister and I were lining the street with things that are kept and considered private,” Davis says.
Although Davis had been keeping his music to himself, that attitude transformed as he saw his childhood home being flipped inside out.
“It was like guts coming out of a body in a horror film,” Davis says. Using the moniker Rasmus Leon as an alternative self, Davis recruited Warwick and the pair recorded all the vocals for the EP in Davis’ hollowed-out childhood home.
Some of the songs on …And Then The Foothills can be heard in videos Davis created for the EP. The video for “Basement” combines found footage with video shot in Wilkesboro, including at Davis’ childhood home. In the video for swaggering cabaret tune “Young(er)/Strong(er),” an animation by Gallic artist Frenchpixel depicts an 8-bit 2D version of Davis shifting through increasingly magical landscapes.
The figure sheds layers from clothes to skin to muscle down to bone, turning to stardust at the end. There is an autobiographical arc to the music on the EP. The swaggering cocky cat’s prowl “Basement” opens with the sound of Davis’ childhood door creaking open. “Thee MNT Bottom” is the newest song on the EP, written as Davis culled memories and memorabilia from the Wilkesboro home. Riding rolling piano and rimshot drums like distant artillery, the tune links the past depicted in the EP’s first two songs, with the uncertain yet hopeful future in the collection’s final two tunes.
The EP concludes with the magisterial epic “The End,” where beatific backing vocals and corkscrewing fiddle give way to a secular spiritual march. Here, Davis’s layering reaches its apogee. Braided strands of sound, including Kristin Garber’s heroic trumpet, bluegrass musician Jeff Pardue’s whirligig fiddle, and trombone from Davis’ father, enfold and entwine as Warwick’s masterful mixing keeps every track clear. The tune ends with the buzzing of a 1960 oven timer salvaged from the Wilkesboro home, but it suggests the crackling fossil radiation unleashed by the big bang.
Davis is already tracking piano with Charlotte artist Jason Scavone at Sioux Sioux Studios for the follow up to … And the Foothills, a double LP entitled And the Heartbreak. Davis feels the labor and love that has gone into both these projects, and his decision to share them with the world, have been well-rewarded.
“The ability to transform space through making music has been nourishing for me,” Davis says. “These [songs] are all [about] me trying to see materials beyond their surface level. It’s my own form of alchemy.”
If you’re a regular on the Charlotte restaurant scene, you no doubt have a favorite chef, perhaps a favorite mixologist as well, but have you ever wondered how they stack up in competition against their counterparts across the city? Or even the state?
The North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association (NCRLA) Chef Showdown is an annual statewide culinary and mixology competition that gives local chefs the chance to prove themselves in battle, Chopped style. Now in its seventh season, the 2023 Showdown features 76 chefs and 18 bartenders — the largest group that’s ever applied — with more than 20 hailing from the greater Charlotte area.
The action starts with five preliminary rounds held in May and June in different regions of the state. The Charlotte preliminary takes place on June 26 at Central Piedmont Community College’s culinary school.
Just 15 savory chefs and five pastry chefs will move on to compete in two regional rounds held in Charlotte and Raleigh. The Showdown wraps with a Grand Finale event scheduled for Aug. 14 at The Angus Barn in Raleigh, at which finalists will cook for the public, leaving the final decision in the hands of democracy. Tickets for the final will go on sale mid-July.
The six highest scoring mixology teams — consisting of an individual bartender who teams up with a North Carolina distillery — out of that field’s regional events will move on to the final, held separately in Winston-Salem.
From Charlotte, Eli Privette of The Crunkleton will work with Statesville’s Southern Distilling Company; David Schmidt of Canopy Cocktails will partner with The Hackney Distillery in Washington; and Sekani Akunyun of Lavender & Libations Experience will work with Charlotte’s Seven Jars Winery and Distillery. Participating chefs and bartenders will showcase North Carolina products and ingredients, with judges’ honors awarded for Chef of the Year, Pastry Chef of the Year, Bartender of the Year, and Distillery of the Year, as well as People’s Choice Awards for Best Chef, Best Dessert, Best Cocktail and Best Mocktail. Judges will also hand out three “Undeniably Dairy Awards,” new this year, to participants who best showcase the use of North Carolina dairy products in their creations.
In the lead-up to the showdown, we took a look at Charlotte chefs to watch over the next couple of months. Follow along at @NCRLAChefShowdown on Facebook and Instagram.
Before joining Your Farms Your Table Restaurant Group, which includes Restaurant Constance in west Charlotte, Ann Marie Stefaney helped develop the pastry program at Heirloom in Belmont. She was recognized as 2017 NCRLA Pastry Chef of the Year, competed on two Food Network competitions and worked as general manager of dining at Southminster retirement community.
Chef Brandon Staton, Leah & Louise
Brandon Staton knows a thing or two about Southern cooking. He’s got Southern-leaning restaurants like Haymaker and The Asbury at The Dunhill Hotel on his resume, and is co-head chef at renowned Camp North End eatery Leah & Louise.
Chris Davis splits his time between Red Salt by award-winning celebrity chef David Burke, located inside Le Méridien Charlotte in Uptown, and Port City Club in Cornelius, which Burke recently took over. Both restaurants serve upscale modern American cuisine.
Cory Haigler wowed crowds at the 2019 NCRLA Chef Showdown with his Cheerwine-braised short rib filet, chili and parsnip creamed corn and pickled radish. This year, he will showcase cuisine from Charlotte Marriott SouthPark’s new concept, Park Landing Kitchen + Bar.
Jamie Barnes is the co-founder of What The Fries, a food truck turned brick-and-mortar that’s known for its gourmet loaded fries. The restaurant closed on March 1 due to inflation and the truck was recently totaled in an accident, leaving WTF at a standstill until enough money can be raised for a new building or truck.
With Luis Chavarria in the kitchen, Angeline’s in Uptown Charlotte boasts a modern, Italian-influenced menu in the form of house-made pastas, wood-fired pizzas and simple yet flavorful small plates.
At Fine & Fettle, located in Canopy by Hilton Charlotte SouthPark, Luke Adams creates intriguing desserts, like the Cheerwine ice cream and gastrique he made for his vegan bread pudding, or his salted caramel ice cream sandwich that’s both vegan and gluten-free.
House Restaurant in Charlotte’s Fourth Ward to reprise his role as executive chef. The longtime fine dining restaurant is known for its chef-driven tasting menus.
Olajuwon Mason, Fine & Fettle
At Fine & Fettle, executive chef Olajuwon Mason’s preference is to allow the natural flavors of food to express themselves. The farm-to-table restaurant focuses on seasonality, and working with neighboring farmers to seek out the finest in regional and local produce is the essence of Mason’s cuisine.
Reyaña Radcliff, Your Braisen Chef
Reyaña Radcliff has worked in the kitchens at Providence and Myers Park country clubs, and The Ballantyne Hotel, but now runs Your Braisen Chef, her catering and vegan meal prep company. Her passion is to create memorable, healthy food from scratch and to teach others.
Savanna Brodar, The Ballantyne Hotel
In addition to the Gallery Restaurant, The Ballantyne offers a selection of sweets and savories at afternoon tea — undoubtedly crafted by executive pastry chef Savanna Brodar. She was previously a pastry chef at The Ritz-Carlton, the Grand Bohemian Hotel and the Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel in Uptown.
Suzette Ramsey, PARA
South End restaurant PARA is known for its globally influenced small plates, but the dessert menu by pastry chef Suzette Ramsey shines just as bright. It features a vegan matcha cheesecake and “Halo Halo” — mango, pandan leches, shaved ice, ube ice cream, ube straw and pistachio praline crumble — that’s also vegan.
Catie Van Slyke has come a long way since starting as a cake decorator at Suárez Bakery. The pastry chef has worked at Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel — home to Angeline’s and Merchant & Trade — La Belle Helene and The Ritz-Carlton. On May 1, she took on a new role as Culinary Innovation Developer at Krispy Kreme.
Charles Gardiner has a passion for pairing food with wine, which comes into play in his roles as director of wine duties and executive chef at Napa on Providence — a bistro in south Charlotte’s Eastover neighborhood offering Napa Valley-inspired cuisine and an all-California wine list.
In addition to running her catering, meal prep and personal chef business for over a decade, Maribel Mendoza has also worked in the kitchens at Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel, Charlotte Marriott Center City, The Ritz-Carlton and The Ballantyne Hotel.
Marketa Lucas’ cooking style is Southern with an Afro-Spanish twist that’s savory, sweet and a little spicy. She started Exotic Taste Catering when she was in high school, but has since worked as a chef at Fish Market in Fort Mill, Búho Bar and Angeline’s.
Trevor Edey, Embassy Suites by Hilton
Trevor Edey introduces people to flavors from around the world through Tasty Tre’s, his private chef and catering service, and his role as executive chef at Embassy Suites. His past includes stints at The Speedway Club at Charlotte Motor Speedway, several restaurants at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Uptown Yolk.
Tyler Phillips, Chef Tyler
Matthew
After a few years at YAFO Kitchen, Matthew Shepard recently returned to the iconic McNinch
Tyler Phillips began as a “hobby” chef at age 8 when he won a 4H tomato growing contest in rural Ohio. He’s been growing his own ingredients ever since, using his garden of edible flowers, herbs and veggies to craft healthy and creative cuisine for his clients.
KSIMMONS@QCNERVE.COM
What’s better than a weekend work event being postponed at the last minute? Thank you spring showers! Not one to waste an opportunity, this news freed up my agenda on the last weekend of April for some unstructured free time without any expectation of a result — aka fun!
To celebrate a weekend now free of commitment, I prepared a loose itinerary for myself and some friends around neighborhood events and hit the town. We kicked off the weekend in true tree-hugger fashion, honoring Arbor Day, celebrated on the last Friday in April to bring awareness to our trees and forests. Locally, TreesCharlotte, a public/private nonprofit, launched its inaugural TreeFest event hosted by NoDa Brewing in the North End. They arrived at the brewery supplied with 350 seedlings to give away on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The efforts of TreesCharlotte, its partners and volunteers over the years have led to either planting or giving away 48,900 containerized trees! This is one of those situations where I am thrilled to now be a statistic, as I joined the TreesCharlotte data set. The nonprofit sent me home with both a birch tree and a pine tree seedling over the weekend.
Grateful for my new plant babies (and hoping the feeling is mutual toward their new plant mama), our group then moved on to the second itinerary item: the Astro Pop Mural and Music Fest. The second annual free art and music extravaganza, first hosted in 2021 and unfortunately postponed last year, featured live murals and paintings, a lengthy live music lineup, several food trucks, and various local vendors mixed throughout the patio and rooftop beer garden at The Chamber by Wooden Robot in NoDa.
The event is the brainchild of Brett Toukatly, also known as local illustrator and muralist TwoKat, who wanted to find ways to merge his day job as a bartender at the brewery with his creative network.
Stepping foot into The Chamber, I was immediately charmed by the spacious taproom, patio and rooftop biergarten. The drink menu featured a rotating selection of drafts, specialty bottles and kegs, as well as to-go crowlers. We wandered upstairs towards the rooftop biergarten where NoDa’s artistic spirit was evident through live painting in tandem with music by Jupiter Hearts, Modern Moxie, and Moon Man.
Thank goodness for our frosty pints; it was toasty up there! (Nobody tell the organizers of my ill-fated work event.) Both the bands and the audience were sweaty, which played into the spring fever ambiance — an accumulation of bon vivant drawn to the same venue by
local brews, music and art.
A few adult beverages in, it was time for some afternoon sustenance. What is a music and arts festival without food trucks? One of my local favorites, Katsu Kart Sando Shop, was on site, so I went with the vegetarian Kakiage Sando, a tempura vegetable fritter topped with cabbage kimchi mayo wedged between two pieces of bread. It may not have been the healthiest choice of the weekend, but neither is drinking back-to-back ciders under the springtime sunshine.
Later that night, my husband planned to stop by local talent Elevator Jay’s Summer Rooster listening party and live podcast at Snug Harbor. This meant it was time to chug some water and return to the car.
I was planning to stay horizontal on the couch for the rest of the evening; my best friend and neighbor all but broke her foot at the Queen’s Cup Steeplechase and needed a commiseration. I asked if she wore heels, even after I forewarned it may be a muddy mess. Her response? “No, I wore platforms.” Sigh.
I helped her wrap it, elevate it, and top off her rosé before heading home to finish my current episode of Copenhagen Cowboy. If you enjoy atmospheric, slow-burn noir thrillers with heavy synth soundtracks, this show is for you. But I digress.
I finalized my weekend with an early morning session at ISI Elizabeth to sweat out the ciders I imbibed over the weekend and my unsound food truck choices. I have no regrets; they each complimented my weekend perfectly in their own way.
Later, I stretched toward the remnants of my weekend hours within the four corners of my yoga mat at Khali. Their Sunday evening Deep Stretch class focuses on releasing excess tension and anxiety in the body — my go-to modality to beat the Sunday Scaries healthily.
The class consists of passive stretches with longer holds designed to help yogis improve flexibility and calm the nervous system. The classroom is comfortably warm, between 80 and 90 degrees, but since the focus is on stretching instead of dynamic movement, aggressive sweating is not really a concern. I love showing up with my mat, a water bottle and a stress reduction mindset with the goal of reconnecting with myself after a weekend of sun-soaked outdoor adventures.
From environmentally focused outdoor adventures to artistic performances, to personal journeys focusing on reconnection, spring is a time of hope and renewal; let’s explore together!
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Changes in the workplace might be daunting for some, but you love challenges and will do just fine with this one. Remember to work with facts, not rumors.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Just when you need some emotional reassurances, you find an almost-forgotten, friendly gesture repaid in the most wonderful way. More good news follows.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) You have a chance to restart a stalled personal relationship. Additionally, a workplace change bodes well for new opportunities, but you need more facts before you can act.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Talk to your longtime friends about why they’re not in sync with your new pal. You might learn some startling facts. Also, a difficult workplace situation eases.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) What seems to be a golden opportunity is, naturally, attractive to Leos. But be careful that it’s not just a lot of surface glitter. You need to ask more questions.
VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) There are still some issues with getting decisions made on your workplace project. Talk to a supervisor about ways to break the impasse.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) A family matter could become more complicated and reach an apparent dead end. Don’t give up on trying to find a solution. Work patiently with everyone involved.
SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) You’ll soon hear more about an offer that could change the direction of your career. Meanwhile, enjoy the newly positive on-the-job environment.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Expect a favorable reply to a workplace request. On the home front, a full explanation helps you sort out a long-standing personal problem.
CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) A serious matter needs focused consideration. Watch that your sometimes capricious nature doesn’t create any unnecessary distractions.
AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) You win added support for your determination to turn a bad situation into a good one. One new ally arrives from a most unexpected source.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Family and friends need to be told about a decision you want to make. Be prepared to offer a full explanation when asked. Hold nothing back.
BORN THIS WEEK: You can be a fighter and a lover. You are a natural leader with a strong sense of justice that makes people respect you.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) That sometimes contrarian Arian streak emerges and could affect an important decision. Try to keep your mind open to the possibilities, even if they currently seem remote.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) It could be a long wait before you get an answer to a question involving financial matters. Meanwhile, check on other interesting possibilities.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) A misunderstanding shouldn’t keep you from continuing to work. Pursue a reconciliation with someone who really cares. Talk it out before you consider walking out.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Exercise some discipline — don’t keep changing your mind. An upcoming decision requires that you stay focused on the direction you need to follow.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) Although family matters take up much of your time these days, you still need to deal with important workplace issues. Try to balance both obligations wisely.
VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Your on-the-job problems appear close to being resolved. Now, make time to repair those personal relationships that you might have ignored for too long.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Someone might suddenly balk at fulfilling an important agreement. There could be a hidden reason that you’ll need to uncover before you take this to arbitration.
SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) A friend seeks to confide a secret, knowing it will be safe with you. But, given your friend’s history, you might not want to know what you’ll be told.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Your new “self-improvement” course will continue to hit bumps in the road until you start shedding those unnecessary loads you’ve toted for too long.
CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) A decision to move to a new home needs to be delayed until you have accurate reports about its condition. Rely on facts, not assurances.
AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Congratulations! Your good work is beginning to pay off. Reward yourself. Take some much-needed rest and recreation time with loved ones.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Fishing for compliments isn’t always wise. Build your self-esteem on your own worthy achievements, and don’t rely on others to tell you how good you are.
BORN THIS WEEK: People who meet you want to get to know you better, but you tend to be difficult to please when it comes to forming friendships.
1. GEOGRAPHY: How many U.S. states border Canada?
2. THEATER: The musical “My Fair Lady” is based on which play?
3. SCIENCE: Who was the rst person to win Nobel prizes in two di erent sciences?
4. MOVIES: Which 1997 movie featured a character named Jack Dawson?
5. TELEVISION: What is the name of Ross’s pet monkey in “Friends”?
6. LANGUAGE: How many languages exist worldwide?
7. FOOD & DRINK: Which country produces Manchego cheese?
8. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: How many track and eld events are in a decathlon?
9. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Which president had the most children?
10. MUSIC: What is the title of Britney Spears’ rst album?
Shortly after our wedding my wife informed me that she would be handling our finances and making all financial decisions for us as a couple going forward. Additionally, she had already arranged for my paycheck to be automatically deposited into an account that only she had control over. I would henceforth get a meager weekly allowance for personal expenses. During that same conversation my wife informed me I would get sex only when I had earned it. I love her, and I reluctantly agreed to this. We have been married for 10 years. I do all of the housework, and I rarely get sex. My wife tells me I have no one to blame but myself, since I agreed to all her terms from the beginning, which caused her to lose all respect for me as a man. I did not realize how difficult this would be. Is it normal for a wife in this kind of marriage to enjoy giving her husband pain? She is almost sadistic. She spanks my ass with a spatula and tells me I am a sissy. Is this normal?
SORRY I SOMEHOW SAID YES
Sure, it’s perfectly normal — in the sense that it’s perfectly normal for a certain kind of deeply frustrated kinky straight guy to beat off while writing me a fake letter about the kind of sexual relationship he’s always fantasized about having but has never actually had before tacking on a fake question on at end in the hopes that I’ll respond and then he’ll able beat off to the whole thing all over again.
What distinguishes the fake questions I get at Savage Love from other fake questions submitted to other advice columns is the obvious fapping that was going when the letter was being drafted.
There’s a lot in SISSY’s letter that screams fake — a normal person would’ve instantly filed for divorce, there’s no way she could’ve “arranged” to have his paycheck automatically deposited into an account she alone controlled unless she somehow managed to bring his employer in on this conspiracy, that the best question he could come up with was the most banal question asked of sex-advice columnists (“Is this normal?”) — but what screams fake the loudest, the absolute deadest giveaway, is that this was sprung on him after his wedding.
Now, female-led relationships (FLR) are definitely a thing, and there are certainly some men out there in female-led relationships, and some FLR have elements of TPE (total power exchange), FD (financial domination),
DD (domestic discipline), and mild FF/S (forced feminization/sissification) tossed in. But those men — to a man — had to ask for those things. Most had to beg for it. Because creating a FLR is almost never the wife or the girlfriend’s idea. It’s something a man fantasizes about and sometimes succeeds in talking his wife or girlfriend into experimenting with, but it’s not something anyone’s brand-new wife has ever sprung on him at the reception.
“From my research, and from the emails and DMs I get about how to set up an FLR, the askers are overwhelmingly male,” said Key Barrett, sex researcher and author of Surrender, Submit, Serve Her, a book on FLR. “And I have never heard of an FLR that was started unliterally, or out of trickery, that managed to be successful.”
Like a lot of people with fantasies rooted in power exchange, it’s hotter for SISSY to think about it being imposed on him. Because then he’s the victim, not the pervert, because then his submission is pure and unadulterated. But why send a fake question to a sex-advice column? Because getting his fantasy published makes it feel real. Or feel realer. Or, hell, maybe in some alternate everything/everywhere kind of universe, it actually becomes real.
I am a straight white man. I had been single and divorced for a long time. Then I met a lady, 23 years younger than me, and we started dating. Soon, she suggested I move in with her to save money and I agreed. I knew her 17-year-old daughter lived with her. One Saturday, I was home alone with my girlfriend’s daughter. In fact, she was walking around with no bra wearing just an unbuttoned men’s shirt and panties. I could not take my eyes off her. She saw me looking and came and sat on my lap. As soon she had my dick in her pussy this other man walked in. Yes, it was a set up. I was caught having sex with an underage teen. The man who walked in turned out to be a Black man who was known to my girlfriend. In fact, he owns the house she lives in, and he was my girlfriend’s actual boyfriend all along. They announced that I had to agree to pay them $1,000 a month or they would go to the police and I would go to prison. After signing a confession, I was then forced to suck the cock of the man who wasn’t just my girlfriend’s boyfriend all along, but also her daughter’s boyfriend. He took pics of me doing it. That is where I am now. Now this man is also fucking my ass. And both girls know it. I am trapped.
None of this happened, which will hopefully be a comfort to readers who were upset by the underage sex and racialized sexual stereotypes that featured so prominently in TRAPPED’s fake question. His unfulfilled fantasies revolve around a straight white man victim; first, he’s victimized by his lying girlfriend, then by an awful teenage girl who somehow managed to Hoover up his dick, and finally by an insatiable straight Black man who’s already sleeping with both the white women in the story but wants that old straight white guy’s ass, too. Because, as everyone knows, old straight white guy ass is irresistible to straight Black men — or it is to the kind of straight Black man who exists only in the imaginations of white dudes who send me fake questions about their forced bi fantasies.
I’m a gay man in his forties with a gay man fiancé in his twenties. My fiancé just informed me that he has cheated on me with many others. He didn’t tell me until after we had announced our engagement, set a date and sent invitations to both our families and friends back home in Chicago, where I grew up and we met while training for a marathon. We now live in Los Angeles, the city where we moved so he could pursue his career as a model. He is young and very beautiful and while I was the aggressor at the start of our relationship, he gradually asserted himself and is now the more controlling person in the relationship. Things have to be his way. He wishes for me to remain faithful to him while he continues to enjoy the sexual attentions of other men. I am a handsome man who is frequently approached by attractive young men, but I have always declined their advances because I am devoted to my gay man fiancé. Canceling the wedding would be embarrassing but the thought of marrying him knowing he has so freely given himself to other men and will continue to do so has broken my heart almost in half. My fiancé holds me while I cry myself to sleep at night. The dilemma I face: Do I break off our engagement and leave him and cleave my heart completely in two? Or do I marry him knowing he will never change?
FEELING INSECURE AND NEEDING CLARIFYING EDICTS
So, it’s not just deeply frustrated kinky straight men who send me these kinds of fake questions. (“Help! Help! This terrible thing I’ve been furiously beating off about all my life has suddenly happened to me!”) As FIANCE’s letter demonstrates, sometimes it’s a deeply frustrated kinky gay man who’s out there beating off while he writes me a letter. And on rare occasions, I get a fake question from a woman — and something about this letter (its idealized images of gay men, awkward phrases like “gay man fiancé”) has me thinking it might’ve been written by a woman who has read too much and/or authored to much and/or illustrated too much shounen-ai manga and/or yaoi manga.
But whoever wrote this obviously fake question, it shares the same fakey-fake-fake DNA with the other two fake questions in this week’s column: a power-exchange kink like FLR, forced bi, cuckolding, etc., all kinks likelier to be proposed by a submissive (because most people into these kinks fantasize about being in the sub role), was in this case imposed by a cruel wife, girlfriend, fiancé, etc.
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