Queen City Nerve - August 11, 2021

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 19; AUGUST 11 - AUGUST 24, 2021; WWW.QCNERVE.COM

NEWS: Levine makes

Uptown a museum pg. 4

FOOD: Kevin Bardge returns

as The Premiere Chef pg. 14

On The g Gogh

by Karie Simmons

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

NEWS& OPINION PUBLISHER

JUSTIN LAFRANCOIS jl afra n co i s @ q cn er ve.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RYAN PITKIN rpi tk i n @ q cn e r ve. c om

ART DIRECTOR

JAYME JOHNSON jjo h n s o n @ q cn e r ve.com

DIGITAL EDITOR

KARIE SIMMONS ks i m mo n s @ q cn er ve.com

STAFF WRITER

PAT MORAN pm o ra n @ q cn er ve . com

AD SALES EXECUTIVE RENN WILSON r wi l s o n @ q cn e r ve . com

4 A NEW WAY TO KNOW CLT BY RYAN PITKIN Levine turns former streets of Brooklyn into a museum with KnowCLT app

6 LIFELINE: A DOSE OF REALITY 8 ON THE GOGH BY KARIE SIMMONS

ARTS& CULTURE 10 MUSIC 12 14 FOOD& DRINK LIFESTYLE

Local artists build off each other in Van Gogh residency program

BASS INSTINCTS BY PAT MORAN Krystle Baller gets personal with Primus’ Les Claypool SOUNDWAVE

A SECOND WIND BY RYAN PITKIN Kevin Bardge gets a new start as The Premiere Chef

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16 PUZZLES 18 AERIN IT OUT BY AERIN SPRUILL 19 STRANGE FACTS 20 HOROSCOPE 22 SAVAGE LOVE

NEWS: Levine makes

Uptown a museum pg. 4

FOOD: Kevin Bardge returns as The Premiere Chef pg. 14

On The g Gogh

by Karie Simmons

COVER DESIGN BY: JAYME JOHNSON COVER PHOTO BY: LAURA SEXTON

@QUEENCIT Y N E RVE W W W.QCNERVE .C OM

THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS: PAT MORAN, KARIE SIMMONS, GRANT BALDWIN, KRYSTLE BALLER, CORY WILKINS, LAURA SEXTON, AERIN SPRUILL, AND DAN SAVAGE.

NEWS & OPINION FEATURE

A NEW WAY TO KNOW CLT

Levine turns former streets of Brooklyn into a museum with KnowCLT app

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BY RYAN PITKIN

Building on a foundation

I’m standing with Zytkow on the steps of the Historic Grace AME Zion Church, one of only four buildings left standing in what was once Brooklyn, compared to more than 1,000 that made up the neighborhood in 1960. We’re joined by two people he worked closely with on the project: Willie Griffin, staff historian at the Levine Museum; and Eric Scott, Levine’s director of exhibits and programs.

KnowCLT is the latest progression in an effort that Griffin and Scott have been pushing forward since 2018, when they launched #HomeCLT, an augmented-reality app developed by Dr. Ming-Chun Lee at UNC Charlotte.

The app corresponded with a Levine Museum exhibit of the same name, which told the history of Charlotte neighborhoods like Hidden Valley, Eastland, Dilworth and Sedgefield in an interactive way.

make the stories more interesting, make them come to life, whereas if I’m just a historian writing a book, I’m quoting people and putting them in pages, but you can come to this exhibit and actually hear the people and hear their stories come out of their own mouths,” Griffin told Queen City Nerve when the exhibit opened in 2019. “So I think that always enlivens any kind of effort to understand an event or the history of this particular neighborhood.”

But Scott and Griffin always wanted more; they wanted to take the #HomeCLT series out of its home and onto the streets of Charlotte. They began taking steps toward that goal with experimental pop-up exhibits around Charlotte, but with KnowCLT, they have begun to fully realize their vision.

Experiencing KnowCLT does not require admission to Levine Museum or anything besides

“You can start the tour at home or in a different country. You can play it remotely. If you want to see the AR experience, of course, it’s best to see it here in person, but we have all sorts of things in the app that allows people to experience it on their own terms.

“So if you want to primarily listen to audio, if you want to just look at pictures, if you want to slow down, sit on a bench and read through things, if you want to do the AR experience, it just allows you to experience Brooklyn on your own terms in the actual location where history happened.”

Driving down South McDowell Street near Bridging the generational gap Marshall Park on Aug. 4 during a trip to the bank, While the progression of AR technology at Michael Zytkow happened to look to his left at the Levine has been a years-long effort by Scott and sidewalk in front of the Sheraton hotel and see Griffin, the timeliness of an exhibit that does not someone holding their phone up, aimed at Marshall require a patron’s actual attendance at the museum Park as if to take a picture. is not lost on them. News broke in June To anyone else, this was just a tourist taking that the museum would be selling its in the sights, but Zytkow didn’t need to see two-story, 40,000-square-foot location the green footprints painted on the sidewalk on East 7th Street, where it’s been below the person or the QR code on the newly housed since 1996. installed street sign next to them to recognize In a June 16 email to members, what was happening.

CEO Kathryn Hill wrote, “The Museum’s They were experiencing KnowCLT, a new mission has never been more important, app Zytkow developed in partnership with and if we are to reach broadly across the Levine Museum of the New South that the community, we must imagine new implements augmented reality to allow users ways to create and deliver content in the to view the once-thriving Black neighborhood digital age.” of Brooklyn in context to where the buildings According to Griffin, KnowCLT once stood and the people once lived. is simply the latest step toward Having once been home to nearly 9,000 modernizing the Levine Museum residents and a number of renowned Blackexperience. owned businesses, Brooklyn was razed in “Charlotte has always been this city the 1960s in the name of so-called “urban that has been described as a place that renewal” and the construction of what is now tears down its history, but I’ve always I-277. tried to stress that the history is here The person on the sidewalk was looking even though the buildings have been through their phone at the United House of torn down,” Griffin says.

Prayer, which used to stand on South McDowell “We have to find a way to tell that PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN WILLIE GRIFFIN, MICHAEL ZYTKOW AND ERIC SCOTT (FROM LEFT).

Street in a corner of what is now Marshall story for residents, because I’ve always Park. With the street signs having just been In 2019, Griffin and Scott unveiled Brooklyn: a smartphone. The user can download the app been a big believer in the fact that if you learn more unwrapped that day for the first time, Zytkow was A City Within a City, a #HomeCLT spin-off exhibit through a QR code on a street sign next to one of about the city, you can become a better citizen of witnessing months of his work finally come to that dug deep into the history of Charlotte’s most seven AR sites or simply download it through their the city and learn how to contribute. So I think this fruition in real time. renowned Black neighborhood. A City Within a respective app store. app, this exhibit, this walking tour, gives people an “My immediate reaction was to roll down City furthered the museum’s use of AR and other Once in the app, Brooklyn comes alive, not only idea of the direction that we want to go in. We want the window and yell, ‘How are you liking it?!’” he interactive technology, including large interactive through the images that match up with their former this kind of history to be everywhere around the city, recalls. “Then I was like, oh no, this person is going floor maps that put Charlotte’s crescent-and-wedge real-life locations, but with narration and poetry tangibly.” to wonder, ‘What the hell? That guy’s crazy,’ so I layout in perspective and AR programming that by Hannah Hasan and lots of historical reading put It’s not only about branching out in the continued driving by, but that was kind of when it allowed users to point an iPad at pictures of former together by Griffin. community to reach people where they are, but also first hit me.”

“What differs from a museum and how this to act as a form of outreach to younger folks who neighborhood residents and hear them tell their KnowCLT had finally arrived on the streets of stories own of life in Brooklyn. can be even more approachable is you can start may not otherwise have interest in spending their Charlotte.

“The technology allows us to tell the stories, the tour at any of one of these sites,” Zytkow says. free time at a history museum.

NEWS & OPINION FEATURE Griffin has believed in place-based education since his days as a teacher at West Charlotte High School, when he would take his students across Senior Drive to show them the former homes of local civil rights leaders Kelly and Fred Alexander that were bombed in 1965. He recognized how his students would absorb history differently when it was placed directly in front of them.

It’s a belief he’s tried to put into practice at Levine Museum.

“Over the past decade or so, with the rise of social media, museums and institutions like ours have been painfully aware that we’re not reaching certain groups of people,” Griffin says. “Museums

Putting it in pixels

Michael Zytkow launched Potions & Pixels in 2016 as a gaming event series in which he and his co-founders would bring dozens of game consoles into a venue like Petra’s and host a night of gaming and socializing for fans of independent and retro video games.

From the beginning, Zytkow’s passion for social progress remained at the forefront of his mind. The longtime activist and advocate has a history that includes roles in Occupy Charlotte and gigs with environmental groups like Greenpeace and Sustain Charlotte. He has run for Charlotte City Council and remains active and passionate about issues involving social justice.

Naturally, Zytkow has always wanted to use

In early 2020, Potions & Pixels officially transitioned to a nonprofit organization, with all of its work and events aimed at utilizing games to create social impact. The organization recently partnered with the city to develop a game for the Solid Waste Services department titled Trash Dash CLT. “A huge part of this is for people to have a larger sense of empathy for those who are in these other positions,” Zytkow says. “For Solid Waste Services, for example, people are like, ‘Oh they missed my trash,’ or, ‘Why aren’t they picking this up?’ and you play the game and you realize, oh wait a second, it’s really hard managing this entire fleet of trucks, keeping up with a growing city, that sort of thing.”

He’s reluctant to use the word “game” for a project as meaningful as KnowCLT, considering

retrieving all the audio, video and photos that’s a server that we built, there’s the gamification piece,” he says, officially surpassing my limited tech knowledge. “The scale of it is big, not to mention the topic is so massive, so I think in that way it’s also the most impactful.”

You don’t have to know anything about gyroscopes or accelerometers to understand the visceral effect of KnowCLT. It’s already impacted the way Zytkow views the city around him.

“I can’t walk in this area anymore without thinking about Brooklyn, like at all, at all,” he says.

“Anytime I’m walking on these streets, my mind is constantly like, Alexander Funeral Home, this, that, thinking about the audio. So I’m hoping that, through this, more Charlotteans will have that experience so every time they pass the NASCAR Hall of Fame they’ll be like, ‘Oh OK, that’s where the first Black public library was,’ and that will resonate and stick with them.”

And just like that, as Griffin and Scott have worked for all these years, the city becomes the museum.

RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM

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A SCREENSHOT FROM THE KNOWCLT AR EXPERIENCE SHOWING OLD AND NEW ON E. 4TH STREET.

have always been considered a sort of high-class thing to do, and how to keep people coming into the museum is something we struggle with.

“People are more likely to pick up their phones if they realize that they can go out and have an experience and learn and make it fun,” he continues.

“It means a lot; this is what historians have always wanted to do. We didn’t want to just remain in the ivory towers talking to people who were fortunate enough to get into college. It’s about, how do we get our scholarship out?”

That’s where Zytkow comes in.

the more technical aspects of gaming and app development that he’s worked on with Potions & Pixels to intersect with his zeal for the greater good.

He truly began to realize that goal in 2019, when he developed a board game to help solicit feedback from younger residents to be used in the creation of the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

Later that year, he headed a workforce development program in partnership with the City of Charlotte, Abari Game Bar and others, training participants in the electrical trade through the repair of broken arcade games.

COURTESY OF KNOWCLT

that former Brooklyn residents are still alive today and active in efforts to preserve the community’s memory, but he did include a gamification aspect to the app, allowing users to earn rewards for in the form of coupons for nearby Black-owned businesses.

As he puts it, “Young people love achievements.”

Zytkow pulled out all the stops for KnowCLT, which he says is the largest project Potions & Pixels has worked on thus far.

“We’re using everything — GPS, all your sensors, when you’re calibrating the image that’s your accelerometers, your gyroscopes, when you’re

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THU-SAT08_12 - 08_14 JESS HILARIOUS

Jessica Robin Moore, also known as Jess Hilarious, is a stand-up comedian and actress best known for her videos on Instagram, which have amassed her more than 5.1 million followers to date. Moore was also one of the recurring cast members of the improv comedy show Wild ‘N Out on MTV and VH1.

A hard-working mother, she often includes her young son, Ashton, in videos including her popular segment “Jess With The Mess.”

More: $35 - $45; Aug. 12-14, times vary; The Comedy Zone Charlotte, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd.; cltcomedyzone.com

JESS HILARIOUS Photo courtesy of Comedy Zone Charlotte

8/12 - 8/14

MIKE LOVE Photo courtesy of Neighborhood Theatre

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The Milestone presents an evening of straight-ahead punk and skate punk, with a handful of bands tied into Charlotte’s glorious ska past. Art-punk trio Aloha Broha contains members of 2000s Queen City hardcore ska punk band IED. Kevin Gavagan, who played with the now-defunct Broken Napoleons, moved to Durham and launched the Plastic Flamingos. Chapel Hill ska punks Sibannac have constantly been namechecked

by Charlotte ska aficionados. Toast Charlotte’s skapunk past while celebrating its ska-punk future with this remarkable bill of energetic bands.

More: $8; Aug. 13, 8 p.m.; The Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road; themilestone.club

managed to become the most hated member of The Beach Boys. This Oahu-born Mike Love plays roots reggae and soul. Drawing from a unique convergence of influences, all connected by an ambition to effect positive change, Love creates a sound rooted in spirituality and the message-based music of roots reggae. To that he adds dashes of progressive and classic rock, soul, blues, flamenco, jazz and classical. Now that sounds like genuine “Good Vibrations.”

More: $17; Aug. 18, 8 p.m.; Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St.; neighborhoodtheatre.com

Once upon a time, it seemed like the only people who listened to string quartets by candlelight were members of the dissolute European nobility depicted in films like Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. No more, my fellow peons. Listeso Music Group, an agency that books string quartets, presents these romantic candlelit experiences. “Go on a musical journey through the ages,” reads the company’s webpage.

“Prepare to be taken into the clouds!” Hyperbole aside, it seems like a win-win; audiences get a memorable experience and the musicians get a solid gig.

More: $40; Aug. 18, 7 p.m.; The Collector’s Room, 1520 S. Tryon St.; listeso.com

Singer-songwriter and native Charlottean Adayla honed her vocal chops as part of the Charlotte Children’s Choir, where she got to travel the world giving overseas performances. That experience imbues her melodic tone and crisp articulation and a melodic range that recalls one of her inspirations, Evanescence’s Amy Lee, with a confidence that’s infectious. She calls her latest single, “The Calling,” a “pre-pandemic story of the pressure and disrespect we have put on the world and the people in it.”

More: $10; Aug. 19, 9:30 p.m.; Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St.; snugrock.com

ALOHA BROHA, PLASTIC FLAMINGOS, MIKE LOVE CANDLELIGHT: FROM BACH TO THE SIBANNAC, CARDBOARD BOX COLONY Relax boomers, this is not the Mike Love who has BEATLES

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LISTESO MUSIC GROUP (CANDLELIGHT: FROM BACH TO THE BEATLES) Photo courtesy of Listeso

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ADAYLA & THE FULL EFFECT, MODEST JON, EVERSOL

ADAYLA (ADAYLA & THE FULL EFFECT, MODEST JON, EVERSOL) Photo courtesy of Exclusive Multimedia

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THU08_19 ‘LOVING VINCENT’

Loving Vincent is a 2017 experimental animated biopic film about the life and death of the painter Vincent van Gogh. Written and directed by Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela, a painter herself, who studied van Gogh’s techniques and the artist’s story through his letters, is the first fully painted animated feature film. Each of the film’s Polish-UK co-production’s 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, created using the same techniques as Van Gogh by a team of 125 artists drawn from around the globe.

More: Free; Aug. 19, 6:30 p.m.; Raceway Building, Camp North End, 1824 Statesville Ave., Ste. 100; blumenthalarts.org

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connect with professional museum educators from The Mint Museum, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art and the Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture as each week one museum leads a series of virtual guided sessions featuring works of art currently on view. This month, the Bechtler will lead the conversation discussing artwork from the current Twentieth Century Women exhibit: Isabel Quintanilla’s “Untitled (The Alps)” from 1974, and Lee Hall’s “Four Saints in One Act I-IV.” More: Free; Aug. 23, 11 a.m.; online.; bechtler.org

Walnut Creek, California punk quintet The Story So Far is where pop-punk and emo intersect. You can add a smattering of boy band, too, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Heavy touring paid off for the band, as in 2013 their album What You Don’t See spent a week on the Billboard 200 at No. 46. Their eponymous 2015 LP subsequently reached No. 23. In 2018, the band changed direction, adding acoustic instruments into the mix and composing songs that reflected the quartet’s collective newfound love of The Beatles.

More: $27.50; Aug. 24, 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St.; fillmorenc.com

RASMUS LEON, COUGHING DOVE, DJ VIRTUAL MINDFULNESS Take a “mindfulness break” and HAYCH FOR NOW

Music-video-director-turned-musician William Stephen Davis, AKA Rasmus Leon, writes tunes based on a framework of folk piano, pop incantations and confessional lyrics. He’s worked with friend and longtime collaborator Stephen Warwick (Ancient Cities) to produce a debut EP and the Foothills. The album is “an origin story centered around changing understandings of self and home,” Davis writes. He received a Celebrate Charlotte Arts grant from the Knight Foundation to support this musical project.

More: $7; Aug. 20, 8 p.m.; Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave.; petrasbar.com

THE STORY SO FAR Photo courtesy of TSSF

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THE STORY SO FAR

GOGH WITH LIFEWAY KEFIR IMMERSIVE YOGA Photo courtesy of Blumenthal Performing Arts

ONGOING

ONGOING

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GOGH WITH LIFEWAY KEFIR IMMERSIVE YOGA

I must admit, I can’t tell whether this event is cool or crass. Maybe it’s both. Lifeway Foods, a company that makes kefir, a sour, fermented milk drink made with a culture of yeasts and bacteria, is getting in on the Van Gogh marketing by sponsoring a series of yoga classes held within the multi-sensory and Immersive Van Gogh experience. I wonder if doing downward dog in the shapeshifting exhibit might induce a case of vertigo. On the other hand, if yoga had been around in 1880s Auvers-sur-Oise, Van Gogh might have alleviated some of his depression through mindfulness and meditation.

More: $55; Aug. 13-Sept. 12; Camp North End, 300 Camp Road; blumenthalarts.org

‘LOVING VINCENT’ Photo by Jayme Johnson

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RASMUS LEON Photo courtesy of Petra’s

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ARTS FEATURE

ON THE GOGH

Local artists build off each other in Van Gogh residency program

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BY KARIE SIMMONS

come to relive Van Gogh’s masterpieces also get the chance to see and talk to living, breathing, working artists from their own community, connecting art of the past with art of the here and now.

“People are sometimes intimidated by interacting with artists but these are sweet, good people who just want to share their work and the best way we can honor Van Gogh’s legacy is by introducing people outside of the art world to local artists and this is such a great opportunity to do that,” Stallings said.

Stallings took a purposeful approach when creating the residency groups, making sure each grouping had a mix of artists who have different styles and are at varying levels in their careers. She tried to be intentional with their personalities, too, and said so far the result has been touching.

“It’s just been really sweet to see the artists talk to each other and they really have each other’s backs if someone’s not there to talk about their work,” she said. “When I first came to Charlotte, the artist community was a little dog-eat-dog for a while and it’s like, there’s enough sunshine for everybody. So, watching them interact in this environment was really a shining example of that.”

Fiber artist Cat Babbie, who starts her residency on Aug. 19, said incorporating local artists into Immersive Van Gogh and giving them a space to interact makes the show that much more unique.

“In any creative community, you need a good flow of artists connecting with other artists and the community where they live,” Babbie said. “The Van Gogh exhibit is, I would hope, also priming visitors to be interested in art and they walk out and they

A traumatic experience has the power to change our perspective on life. For artists, it can reshape how their interpretation of the world flows through their work.

Had mixed-media artist Justin Ellis not been in a car accident while on his way to see the THE ARTIST RESIDENCY ENTRANCE IN CAMP NORTH END’S FORD BUILDING. Immersive Van Gogh installation at Camp North PHOTO BY KARIE SIMMONS/ARTWORK BY EVA CRAWFORD End on July 2, he probably would have absorbed the show differently and, in turn, wouldn’t be collaboration between Lighthouse Immersive, writing and circles that represent completion.

“Anybody that experienced what I did doesn’t Starvox Entertainment and Blumenthal Performing creating the pieces it inspired, he said. want to be engulfed in any sort of darkness, they “I was really shaken up, but once I entered the Arts. just want to be surrounded by light,” Ellis said.

As an added, localized layer, the chosen artistsexhibition it took every form of anxiety away,” Ellis “That’s really what I’m trying to do is shine a light on in-residence — Laura Sexton, Rosalia Weiner and said. “It was really emotional … the soundtrack, all the darkness going on.”

Zaire McPhearson (June 25-July 19); Eva Crawford, the pictures and Mike Wirth and motions of the Alvin C. Jacobs Jr. Bridging a gap colors. It shaped me (July 22­–Aug. 16); Behind the Artist in Residence program is to use more colors in Cat Babbie, Tara Bree Stallings, director of artistic experiences my palate.”

Spil, Justin Ellis, and with Blumenthal Arts. A well-known visual artist “Since then, Elizabeth Palmisano herself, Stallings was instrumental in reaching out my brain has just (Aug. 19–Sept. 22) to other Charlotte creators about the opportunity been rewired to — get to create and, as a result, received about 60 applications be more positive,” and cultivate work for the program, more than any other city hosting he continued. during a paid one- Immersive Van “Whatever negative month-long stay Gogh. thoughts I did have at the exhibit. The At the heart have been jolted residency serves of her motivation out of my brain and as an opportunity to weave as many whatever materials for these Charlotte Charlotte artists I don’t have, I think, artists to create, into the exhibit ‘What can I use to showcase and as possible — 50 create that?’” sell original art to local artists also Ellis is one attendees. have work for of 10 Charlotte Ellis plans to sale in the gift artists chosen merge his traumatic shop — lies a for the Artist in THE ARTIST AS THE MUSE. car accident with desire to bridge ARTWORK BY ZAIRE MCPHEARSON Residence program the emotional a gap that exists at Immersive Van Van Gogh, a digital arts show featuring the works of experience of attending Immersive Van Gogh between Vincent van Gogh projected on 500,000 cubic feet of immediately afterward in the work he’ll produce Gogh’s seemingly projections, which opened in Camp North End’s Ford during his residency, which begins Aug. 19. He says o u t - o f - r e a c h Building in June. The 76,000-square-foot exhibit, he is “obsessed with bones and the grunge and the existence and that which was set to run through the end of September creepy,” so he’ll be painting, collaging and illustrating of contemporary CAT BABBIE but was recently extended through Oct. 31, is a skeletal structures in the style of Van Gogh, with pops artists. Those who PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT BABBIE of color and directional lines. He’ll also add birds,

ARTS FEATURE meet the artists and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, you guys live here,’ and I just think there’s endless value in that.”

Babbie creates wall pieces and soft sculptures with hand-dyed yarn using textile mediums like tufting, felted sculpture, weaving and sewing.

During her residency, she plans to tuft pieces based on Van Gogh’s palettes and her own interpretation of his colors.

Visitors will get a peek into Babbie’s process as she conducts water-color studies, which is how she plans color placement in her pieces and discovers new colors to dye her yarn.

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A nod to Vincent

Crawford said she’s been overwhelmed not only by the amount of nominations she’s received, but also the emotional stories behind them.

“It’s fun to see the light bulbs go off in people’s heads and they go, ‘Oh, I know exactly who I would nominate’ and it gets them talking,” Crawford said. “That engagement with other humans is what feeds my art.”

In a subtle nod to Van Gogh, who is known for his color and paint application in his portraits, Crawford aims to emulate the rhythm and movement of his mark-making in the lines she incorporates in her drawings.

Her plan is to eventually give the portraits to the subjects “so they know they’re appreciated.”

“It’s a small return for all the good they’re doing,” Crawford explained.

Van Gogh’s use of intense lines and colors to convey emotion has been a key influence in acrylic artist Laura Sexton’s work, especially in her portraits and landscapes. She tapped into that influence even more during her residency with the first group of artists, which worked in the Ford Building space from June 25 to July 19. During her

Incorporating Van Gogh’s style is not a requirement for the artists, although some have taken to doing so on their own. Stallings said she looked for three factors when narrowing down applications: color, texture, and an emotional connection to the artist who brought us “The Starry Night.”

“The passion brings that drawbridge down for people to connect,” Stallings said. “We don’t have to disguise it or shave it off.”

Eva Crawford has a studio and gallery at Dilworth Artisan Station in South End and is known for creating pieces that aim to show the core humanity of us all. The main characters of her compositions are inspired by her younger sister with physical disabilities, her elderly parents, family MIKE WIRTH’S STATION IN THE FORD BUILDING. members with mental PHOTO BY KARIE SIMMONS illness and street kids from her trips to Uganda.

She is currently in residence at Immersive Van time there, Sexton developed her new “rainbogh” Gogh until Aug. 16 as part of the second group of style.

She starts with an underpainting of purple, artists along with Mike Wirth and Alvin C. Jacobs Jr. Throughout her time there, she’s been creating then adds Van Gogh-type strokes of light-toned Your Good Neighbor CLT, a series of charcoal colors to highlight, then gradually mixes in mid portraits of people who make Charlotte a better and dark tones for contrast. She used the technique to create two series — Island Starry Nights and place.

you’re surrounded by people who support you.”

McPhearson has been inundated with requests for commissions since her residency ended and that’s in large part due to the program giving her a platform to show her work and gain exposure, she said. Though normally shy and introverted, she left the Van Gogh experience with a newfound confidence.

EVA CRAWFORD IN HER WORK SPACE IN THE FORD BUILDING “It lets me PHOTO BY KARIE SIMMONS know OK, I’m doing City Starry Nights — depicting places like Hawaii, something right and Chicago and Charlotte. people are interested in the work that I’m creating,” “It’s all about assigning different colors,” Sexton McPhearson said. “They like the message and said. “I was painting from a picture, so I had to take concepts and techniques and ideas, so that’s given a complete departure from what I was looking at.” me the motivation to explore more. The more that you create, the more you get into that.”

Sexton called it “a stroke of genius” that Stallings Surrounded by inspiration The Artist in Residence program was brought together an experienced veteran (Rosalia a first for Zaire McPhearson, a mixed- Weiner), a newly graduated academic (Zaire media artist, photographer, painter and McPhearson) and a self-proclaimed newbie outsider sculptor who teaches photography at (herself) with distinct styles who would become Duke University, where she received her united by a love of color and expression.

Had she not, they would have never created masters in May 2020.

“The Collaboration Piece,” a mashup of Van McPhearson worked in the first group alongside Sexton and Rosalia Gogh-style flowers painted by Sexton, trees and Weiner and said she was so inspired landscape by McPhearson and a portrait of Vincent by the environment of Immersive himself by Weiner.

Sexton, a high school Spanish teacher, was Van Gogh — the music, art and her colleagues — that she couldn’t stop hesitant to even apply for the residency because painting. She estimates she made more she didn’t think of herself as a “real artist.” She didn’t than 100 pieces over her month-long have formal training, just a few years of painting stay, the most she’s ever created in classes under her belt, and felt disconnected from that time, including several Van Gogh- the artist community.

That doubt and insecurity would go away a few inspired portraits and paintings of days into her residency. houses, landscapes and sunflowers.

“If I think about it too much I get a little imposter “As an artist, that month felt like syndrome, but being there with Rosalia and Zaire forever because I grew a lot in painting and learning new techniques and learning mixed it just made sense like this is where I should be,” media and the different strokes and what colors and Sexton said. “I didn’t feel like I wasn’t anymore. I didn’t feel like I had no claim to fame, so I have that how I want them to lay out,” McPhearson said.

“It’s not about how much you create, but about as proof to myself.” it doesn’t always take a car crash to change your the time you have and the feeling of being safe in your environment to be vulnerable and try new perspective. ideas that have only lived in your head because KSIMMONS@QCNERVE.COM

MUSIC FEATURE

and its record company pressed a total of five golden In fact, Rush has proved such an inspiration for Krystle and the chocolate factory Primus that Claypool, guitarist Larry LaLonde and On a previous visit to Pachyderm Music Lab, vinyl discs, mixed in among the mass of black vinyl drummer Tim Alexander are embarking on their currently located in a former home on East 22nd copies. Whoever scored one of the golden discs highly anticipated A Tribute To Kings tour, which Street in Optimist Park, a music lesson was in scored an unusual prize: free Primus concert tickets touches down at Charlotte Metro Credit Union session. After entering the brightly painted house, for life.

Baller is one of those lucky five. She was Amphitheatre on Sept. 5. In addition to a set of its decorated with thunderbolts and rainbows, I passed own music, the Bay Area trio will play a second set a young boy and his instructor going over the chords so inspired by the serendipitous prize that she Krystle Baller gets personal comprised of Rush’s classic 1977 album A Farewell named her music school after Primus’ 1995 single to the Ramones’“I Wanna be Sedated.” with Primus’ Les Claypool to Kings in its entirety.

On the day of the recent Claypool interview, “Southbound Pachyderm.”

The Golden Ticket was also a revelation to Baller.

It’s this rescheduled tour, planned for 2020 and however, the Lab was quiet, though Baller was

BY PAT MORAN curtailed by COVID-19, that has brought Claypool scheduled to give several lessons in the afternoon. Upon receiving the prize, she realized that it was and Baller together.

Baller and I moved to the comfortable lounge just one in a series of serendipitous moments that Sometimes it appears that the universe Usually when a band of Primus’ popularity area by the house’s kitchen. Through the back door nudged her in the direction she needed to go. intercedes on our behalf. A seemingly random event and caliber hits the road, publicists for the record Growing up queer in West Virginia, Baller spent I could see a large wooden stage built at the rear jumps out like a signpost on the horizon, showing company reach out to music journalists like myself of the property where music students play the many of her formative years keeping a low profile, you which direction your life needs to go. Krystle escaping into drugs and alcohol. She feels Baller knows all about such life-changing that her discovery of music saved her sanity, events. Growing up impoverished and if not her life. When Baller turned 24, she left bisexual in West Virginia, mired in a culture West Virginia. Moving to Hilton Head, South where she didn’t fit in, she discovered music, Carolina, she started a successful bar band. the propulsive and liberating sounds of White “It was in that space of performing live that Zombie, Coal Chamber, Korn, Rage Against the I finally found my voice and my confidence,” Machine – and in particular, Primus.

Baller told Claypool. “I felt like I was a lateThe music encouraged Baller to leave West blooming musician.”

Virginia and set out to become the person she’s “We’re all still blooming,” Claypool meant to be. She’s since found her power and responded. “You keep blooming until you’re in become herself. the dirt.”

Seated on the couch at Pachyderm Music After moving to Charlotte in 2003, Baller Lab (PML) on a recent afternoon, Baller talked fell into what proved to be an ill-fated marriage over the phone with Primus’ founder and that ended in divorce. There was one bright bassist Les Claypool. They’re discussing their spot in the misbegotten union though, Baller’s instrument of choice, the bass guitar, and why daughter Cadence. hearing Primus was such a crucial turning Even that bright spot, however, had dark point for Baller. undertones. Baller remembers looking at her “You were a huge inspiration for me,” daughter and thinking Cadence was going Baller told Claypool. “When I first heard to have a much harder time the navigating Primus, I [thought] ‘The bass is in front. This is the world than if she was born a boy. At that awesome,’ because usually it just blends in. It point, fate — or serendipity — once again PHOTO BY PAT MORAN was the first moment where I thought, ‘There KRYSTLE BALLER KEEPS THE MEMORIES SHE MAKES WITH HER STUDENTS DEAR. intervened. Baller discovered and volunteered are a lot of possibilities with bass.’” for Girls Rock Charlotte. songs they’ve learned, on instruments they’ve just The conversation was a dream come true for to set up an interview. However, there was no doubt “I did all this community work; I was giving back, begun to master. In addition to PML, the 121-yearBaller in a life that has seen many dreams realized here that the right person to conduct this particular old building also hosts Girls Rock Charlotte (GRC), and these kids were asking me to become their bass through hard work, perseverance, talent and vision. interview was not myself, but Baller. a nonprofit that amplifies the voices of girls and teacher,” she recalled.

In 2016, the 36-year-old musician, mother and It was then that Baller started her music school.

For starters, both Claypool and Baller belong gender-diverse youth and adults with a popular educator founded PML, a school that teaches music to the brethren of bassists, the brother-andseries of summer camps. Baller is also the music Looking for inspiration to provide the school with a to students ages 5 and up in order to help them find sisterhood of fellow purveyors of grooves and name, the Golden Ticket fell into her lap. Baller asked director for GRC. their voice, confidence and inner power through architects of a tune’s rhythmic spine.

Claypool’s manager called us 10 minutes earlier if Claypool had a similar “series of serendipitous playing rock ‘n’ roll.

More important, a throughline runs like a than expected. After a moment of fumbling with my moments” when it seemed the universe was guiding Claypool is the driving force behind post-punk heartbeat through Baller’s and Claypool’s lives and phone and digital recorder, I handed both over to him along the right path. avant-garde pranksters Primus, a freewheeling beyond. While Baller discovered the bass’s potential “That’s a big-ass question,” Claypool says.

Baller. She opened the interview by telling Claypool power trio that couples the wry humor of Tom by listening to Claypool’s corkscrewing, chiaroscuro that she’s a Golden Ticket winner. The valuable ticket “I think you come along a path and you have Waits to the spiky sensibility of Frank Zappa and the basslines, Claypool says he was inspired to pick up was issued to coincide with the release of Primus’ different branches, tributaries in a stream, that are intricate progressive rock of Rush. the bass after hearing the prominent and melodic 2014 album Primus and the Chocolate Factory With opportunities to take. You take them and you move As it turns out, Claypool has befriended and playing of Rush’s Geddy Lee. the Fungi Ensemble. To promote the record, the band along.” played with both Waits and members of Rush.

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BASS INSTINCTS

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MUSIC FEATURE

directed the film Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo, a mockumentary that lampoons the outdoor festival scene.

Oakie radio After the band canceled their A Tribute To Kings Claypool grew up in what he calls the “semi-rural tour in 2020 to hunker down while COVID-19 swept suburbia” of El Sobrante, California. He remembers the nation, Claypool discovered he had no desire to his grandfather who owned a few dogs, a trailer, an go into his studio and record new music. electric fence and some horses. He also recalled that “For some reason, musically, I just felt dead,” he always wanted to play music. He felt thwarted, he said. Fortunately, he was inspired to pick up however, because music wasn’t considered a career painting. “I got some canvas, some brushes, paints option by his family; it just wasn’t a big part of their and just started.” lives.

The impetus for One exception was the music his picking up his new stepfather played on an old Bakelite passion came from an radio as he cleaned the garage, much unlikely source: Claypool to the annoyance of young Claypool, hates working out. who was trying to fix his bicycle “I feel great nearby. afterwards, but I’m not a “He had [the radio] tuned to what working out guy,” he said. he called the ‘Oakie’ station,” Claypool He pointed to Primus said. guitarist LaLonde, who While Claypool wanted to listen runs so hard he gets to what was popular then — The the endorphin release Beatles and Elton John — his related to “runner’s high”. stepfather exposed him to Merle Claypool countered that Haggard, Johnny Cash and The Texas he gets his endorphin Playboys. rush from creating “[It was] all these different things something. that I didn’t realize at the time were a “If I’m feeling down, profound influence on me later in life if I go write a lyric, or I as I became a guy that created music,” paint a picture or I do Claypool offered. “You’re exposed to something creative, it these things and you reflect them in makes me feel good,” he what you do, if you’re honest.” said.

Fortunately, Claypool said he Despite his newfound stumbled across some musicians who love for painting, Claypool were his contemporaries, one of them said he’s dying to get back being his high school friend and future out on tour.

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.

The pandemic and “I started hanging out with accompanying shutdown musicians and became a musician,” necessitated his first PHOTO COURTESY OF KRYSTLE BALLER summer off in 30 years, Claypool said. “But my first time on BALLER MET LES CLAYPOOL IN 2017. stage, I was so scared I couldn’t even and he hated every look at the audience. I stood sideways the whole From ‘Festeroo’ to ‘Cygnus X-1’ minute of it. time.”

The genesis of Primus’ Rush tribute stems from During their chat, Baller let Claypool know she’s Confidence came with time, and after Metallica’s seen his Primus setlists, covered with Claypool’s Claypool’s teenage years. Back then, he, along with bass guitarist Cliff Burton was killed in a tour-bus intricate and accomplished drawings. It turns out his future bandmates, worshiped Rush. crash en route to a concert in Copenhagen on Sept. the drawings are just one aspect of Claypool’s career “Farewell to Kings was the first Rush album I ever 27, 1986, Claypool auditioned for the empty spot. By as a visual artist. He said he’s airbrushed most of the heard,” Claypool said. his own admission, he wasn’t a big heavy metal fan sculptures that grace Primus’ album covers, and that “Cygnus X-1” was his favorite song. The tune, at the time. which bears the full title “Cygnus X1: Book I: The a few of those sculptures are his handiwork.

The audition went nowhere, perhaps in part He’s produced and directed videos, including the Voyage,” follows the adventures of a space explorer because Claypool might have been a bit too strange video he animated with Primus guitarist LaLonde for steering his starship toward the heart of a black for his old high school buddy and his band. the song “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver.” In 2003, he hole.

After launching Primal, a duo consisting of himself and a drum machine, in 1984, Claypool found acceptance for his brand of strangeness and adventure.

Primus burst on the music scene just as alternative became all the rage. The timing was perfect. Infiltrating unsuspecting ears under the alt-rock banner, Primus’ knotty rhythms, smart-ass vocals and hilarious lyrics found a wide audience.

In 1993, their third album, Pork Soda, entered the Billboard Top 10 in America.

“I remember as a kid watching the [starship] Rocinante on the big screen flying behind those guys into the black hole and I was shitting myself with joy the entire time,” he said.

Years later, Primus had the opportunity to open for Rush. They jumped at the chance and became good friends with bassist Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and the late, lamented drummer and primary lyricist Neil Peart. Primus subsequently did three tours with Rush and kept in touch with the band over the years.

The relationship grew naturally, and the friendship just flowed, Claypool said.

“We always joked that we were someday going to do [Rush’s 1978 album] Hemispheres in its entirety,” Claypool says. When it came down to it, however, the band felt Hemispheres had too many keyboards to tackle. That said, Farewell to Kings also has a surfeit of keyboards, prompting Baller to ask Claypool if he’s planning to play keys with his feet.

It wasn’t a silly question. Claypool has played synth pedals for years, both in Primus and in The Claypool Lennon Delirium, the psychedelic rock band he formed with Sean Lennon.

“I have two Moog synthesizers onstage with me now that I’m playing, and that’s a new challenge,” Claypool said.

Working on all the intricate Rush material is particularly daunting, but it has also opened up new experiences for Claypool. In Rush, bassist Lee also handled the vocals, so in addition to playing keyboards while playing bass, Claypool will also sing in Geddy Lee’s quavering high-octave range while playing the same kind of Rickenbacker bass Lee plays. (Claypool normally plays an array of custom basses crafted by luthier Carl Thompson.)

“All these different things continue to open these doors that keep you interested,” Claypool said.

“It’s really been great, but it’s so fucking hard.”

Another thing piquing Claypool’s interest is that Primus is doing something to prepare the Rush material that they almost never do otherwise: rehearse.

“People go, ‘Oh you guys must rehearse a lot.’ No, we don’t. We’re lazy,” Claypool said.

Primus’ intensive rehearsing has provided an unexpected benefit. In the process of nailing the songs on Farewell to Kings, Claypool, LaLonde and Alexander have become much closer than they’ve been in years.

It’s another string of unforeseen consequences and benefits that can steer the course of a person’s life, what Baller calls “a series of serendipitous moments”.

PMORAN@QCNERVE.COM

MUSIC SOUNDWAVE

Southern soul with real emotion and fiery fretwork.

Carolina Story, Riley Moore (Evening Muse) Carolina Story blends harmony-laden Americana, folk intimacy, country grit and alt-rock muscle.

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

AUGUST 11

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Harriet Rip, Messy Stains, W.A.C.K., Brain Farm (The Milestone) Sludge-punk trio from Charlotte Harriet Rip tops a bill including alt-grunge trio Messy Stains.

No Future: Tetanus, South Side Punx, DJ Fat Keith Richards, Josh Cotterino + Watery Spider (Snug Harbor) Tetanus and South Side Punx fit the loud, fast and furious template of No Future, but Josh Cotterino’s oddball keyboard-based pop is purely punk in spirit.

RAP/HIP-HOP/SOUL/FUNK/R&B

Yung Nudy (Underground) Rapper Quantavious Tavario Thomas, known professionally as Young Nudy, is best known for his mixtapes Slimeball, Slimeball 2, and Slimeball 3.

AUGUST 12

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

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Williamson Brothers, Late Bloomer, The Great Dying (Snug Harbor) After touring with Lee Bains and The Glory Fires, the rhythm section of Adam and Blake Williamson step into the spotlight.

Unwed Sailor, Thousand Dollar Movie, Neon Deaths (Petra’s) Unwed Sailor crafts moody and cinematic journeys, each one a sonic examination of memories and meaning.

Waterworks, Parker Smith, Carolina Vibes (The Milestone) Literate lyrics and surging gospel harmonies contribute to Parker Smith’s soulful country rock.

Late Night Special (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Late Night Special play jaunty music that is also unsettling. Beyond the playful hand claps, spectral voices can be heard in the distance. It’s like catching a glimpse of a ghost in the glare of the noonday sun.

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

The Steel Woods (Underground) Stringing together lyrically strong songs, a big sound and well-put together harmonies, The Steel Woods have created a new sound that is being dubbed “Smart Southern Rock”.

Chris Stapleton (PNC Music Pavilion) Outlaw country artist Stapleton is one of those 20-year-long overnight sensations. After penning hits

for stars like Kenny Chesney and Luke Bryan, Stapleton struck out on his own and hit paydirt.

AUGUST 13

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Keep Flying, Faster on Fire, Home For the Day, Janet Flights, Flight Club (Skylark Social Club) Headliners Keep Flying celebrate their newest release Survival, with a hard-rocking show.

The Menders, Drunken Prayer, Sail The Rain (Petra’s) Gastonia’s The Menders blend influences like The Beatles, The White Stripes, The Doors and Black Sabbath into harmony-laced garage rock.

Cuzco, Colin Phils, Wild Trees (Snug Harbor) Experimental math rockers Cuzco continue to make strange science fiction sounds coupled with knotty guitars and polyrhythmic percussion.

Aloha Broha, Plastic Flamingos, Sibannac, Cardboard Bow Colony (The Milestone) This contemporary punk rock bill has direct ties to Charlotte’s ska boom of the 1990s and 2000s.

New Potato Caboose (Neighborhood Theatre) These jam band legends feature killer double drum grooves, tight harmonies and mind-melting improvisations.

Swim in the Wild (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Playing what the band calls indie adventure alternative, Swim in the Wild craft catchy ebullient songs that contain a rootsy spirit.

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Clem Snide (Evening Muse) Eef Barzelay, who records under the Clem Snide moniker, found a spiritual center when his life bottomed out with bankruptcy and a lost home.

His songs grapple with faith, reality and rushing headlong into the unknown and the unknowable.

Parker Millsap (Evening Muse) Powerhouse Millsap has made a name for himself with his captivating live performances, soulful sound and sharp songwriting.

Alabama, Martina McBride (Spectrum Center) Country music juggernaut Alabama celebrate their 50th year as a band with their current tour.

AUGUST 14

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Jamie McLean Band (Neighborhood Theatre) McLean brinks songwriting chops and blue-eyed

The Walbournes, The Eccentrics (Evening Muse) The Walbournes channel the power of the Seattle grunge-rock era with loud rock that’s anchored to whiplash riffs and soaring harmonies.

The Penitentials, The Sammies, Flame Tides (The Milestone) Flame Tides is a riff-rocking alternative blues duo from the Queen City.

StormWatchers, GREEVACE, Something Went Wrong (Tommy’s Pub) The StormWatchers are heavy psych, hand-of-doom rock from the wilds of North Carolina.

The Spongetones (McGlohon Theater) Before DaBaby or Anthony Hamilton, the best known Charlotte act in America was The Spongetones, a British Invasion-inspired power-pop outfit that launched an incredible career way back in 1978.

Groove 8 (U.S. National Whitewater Center) These legendary Charlotte groove monsters blend 1970s-style jazz funk with the outer limits of acid jazz.

Miami Dice, Alan Charmer, That Guy Smitty (Snug Harbor) Trio Miami Dice, consisting of Shaun Olson, Josh Faggart and Scott Weaver, spread the gospel of funky disco with their ‘70s-inspired brand of synth pop.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/ INSTRUMENTAL

Adrian Crutchfield (Middle C Jazz) Saxophonist extraordinaire Crutchfield pays tribute to the man who inspired him to pick up the sax, the much-maligned Kenny G.

AUGUST 15

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Jackson Fig, Brian Carter (Tommy’s Pub) Rousing roots music in an intimate setting.

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Safari Room, Knowne Ghost, Kaska Sun (Evening Muse) Nashville’s Safari Room specializes in ambient soundscapes, intricate rhythms, crunchy guitars and introspective lyrics.

Blackberry Smoke, The Allman Betts Band (CMCU Amphitheatre) Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke add a dash of outlaw country along with a smattering of Bluegrass, gospel and R&B.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/ INSTRUMENTAL

Adrian Crutchfield (Muddle C Jazz) Saxophonist extraordinaire Crutchfield pay tribute to

the man who inspired him to ick up the sax, the muchmaligned Kenny G.

AUGUST 16

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/ INSTRUMENTAL

The Bill Hanna Legacy Jazz Session (Petra’s) A rotating crew of top jazz players pay tribute to Charlotte’s godfather of jazz, keeping his legacy alive each and every Monday night.

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Pet Bug, Equipment, Summerbruise, Halloween Costume Contest (The Milestone) Charlotte quartet Pet Bug includes members of The Mineral Girls, Rothschild, Futurists, Hiram, Pretty Baby & Gun Jr. Find Your Muse Open Mic w/ Matthew Rahman (Evening Muse) Rahman’s recent album Survivor employs music as a form of protest, discussing America’s role in oppressing minorities in the Global South.

AUGUST 17

RAP/HIP-HOP/SOUL/FUNK/R&B

Menastree (Evening Muse) Jesse Lamar Williams brings his three-ring-circusstyle new-age mashup of hip-hop, trap, jazz, house and R&B back to the Muse.

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Riley Downing, The Kernel (Neighborhood Theatre) Best known for his work with New Orleans combo The Deslondes, Downing uses his drawling dusty voice to lay out complex emotions with plainspoken direct language.

AUGUST 18

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

No Future: Lofidels, Sub-Madonna, DJ Fat Keith Richards, Nasty D (Snug Harbor) Snug’s free Wednesdays in August punk bill goes post punk. Drawing on the angular and political funk of Gang of Four, Lofidels takes no prisoners.

Mike Love (Neighborhood Theatre) This Mike Love is not everybody’s least favorite Beach Boy. Instead, this Oahu-born Mike Love singersongwriter plays roots reggae and soul.

PVRIS (Underground) Pvris is an American rock duo from Lowell, Massachusetts, formed by members Lynn Gunn and Brian MacDonald.

AUGUST 19

RAP/HIP-HOP/SOUL/FUNK/R&B

Adayla & The Full Effect, Modest Jon, Eversol (Snug Harbor)

MUSIC SOUNDWAVE Adayla calls her latest single “The Calling” a story of the pressure and disrespect we place on the world and the people in it.

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Sweet Crude (Evening Muse) New Orleans-based Sweet Crude sings in both English and French, creating room for Afrobeat-inflected drums, marching-band parade honk and rumble and a sprinkling of Cajun traditions.

Ross Adams (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Adams specializes in powerful and pensive songs propelled by his plucked and strummed guitar.

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Colin Hay (McGlohon Theater) Before embarking on a successful solo career, Colin Hay hit the U.S. shores singing about “a land down under,” as the frontman for Australian new wave heroes Men at Work.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL

Rodney Shelton & Eric Brice Present Maria Howell (Middle C Jazz) Shelton and Brice accompany local vocal powerhouse Howell.

AUGUST 20

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Seth Walker, Sam Foster (Evening Muse) Nashville-based blues-Americana artist Walker debuted his 2019 album Are You Open? at #2 on the Billboard Blues Chart.

Province of Thieves (U.S. National Whitewater Center) All-acoustic sextet Province of Thieves have a secret weapon — powerful vocal harmonies, reminiscent of Crosby, Stills & Nash or The Eagles.

Jason Aldean (PNC Music Pavilion) Somehow, Georgia-born singer songwriter Aldean imperceptibly turned into a country superstar by the 2000s.

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ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Betty White Bronco, Brangle Bros. (Tommy’s Pub) Betty White Bronco serves up dirty lo-fi blues.

Rocket 77, Queen City Rejects, Orphan Riot, The Hooliganz (The Milestone) Old-school punk-rock and hardcore outfit Queen City Rejects includes members of Biggy Stardust And His Wretched Hive, Rusty Deluxe, Year Of The Ox, Deadlock and more.

Probably Will, Dirty Art Club, FLLS, 6 Cardinal, Alan Ospina, Matt Dees (Snug Harbor) Producer Probably Will’s oeuvre consists of music

made for closed eyes on the dance floor.

Rasmus Leon, Coughing Dove, DJ Haych 4 Now (Petra’s) Music-video-director-turned-musician William Stephen Davis, aka Rasmus Leon, writes tunes based on a framework of folk piano, pop incantations and confessional lyrics.

RAP/HIP-HOP/SOUL/FUNK/R&B

Rick Ross (Fillmore) Making a splash with his grim and glorious drugtrade tales, Ross is a producer and rapper with 10 straight Top Ten albums.

AUGUST 21

RAP/HIP-HOP/SOUL/FUNK/R&B

Time Sawyer frontman and founder Sam Tayloe blends a grassroots feel with heart-felt lyrics and introspective ballads.

AUGUST 23

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

King 810 (Neighborhood Theatre) King 810 is a heavy metal band from Flint, Michigan, that is centered around the duo of David Gunn and Eugene Gill.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/ INSTRUMENTAL

The Bill Hanna Legacy Jazz Session (Petra’s) A rotating crew of top jazz players pay tribute to Charlotte’s godfather of jazz, keeping his legacy alive each and every Monday night.

Umar Bin Hassan of The Last Poets (Petra’s) A night of hip-hop, spoken word and jazz featuring one of the godfathers of hip-hop Umar Bin Hassan of The Last Poets.

Legends Never Die: Three 6 Mafia, No Limit Soldiers, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (Bojangles’ Coliseum) Three multiplatinum rap groups play together for the first time in Charlotte.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL

Lovell Bradford (Middle C Jazz) Bradford has assembled a powerhouse band to pay tribute to pianist Jellyroll Morton and The Music of New Orleans.

AUGUST 22

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Bully, Pom Pom Squad (Snug Harbor) Launched by guitarist and singer Alicia Bognanno, Bully is a Nashville-based alt grunge combo with no rough edges sanded off.

The Story So Far (Fillmore) Walnut Creek, California punk quintet The Story So Far is where pop-punk and emo intersect.

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Influences & Originals (Tommy’s Pub) This showcase of local musicians is hosted by Paul Lover.

VISIT QCNERVE.COM FOR THE FULL SOUNDWAVE LISTING.

AUGUST 2021

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Virginia Man, Tayls (Evening Muse) Not to be confused with Florida man who indulges in hours of bath salt-fueled cannibalism, Virginia Man is an upbeat four-piece rock and roll band from Fredericksburg, VA. Digital Noir with DJ Spider (The Milestone) DJ Spider spins a web of industrial and goth gems.

Alternative Champs, The Eyebrows (Snug Harbor) The Champs and The Brows deliver a one-two melodic rock punch.

Van Huskins, Sunday Boxing, The Fill Ins (Tommy’s Pub) Gastonia-based punk-rock-metal band Van Huskins has been compared to a skate-punk ZZ Top. Justin Fedor and the Denim Denim (U.S. National Whitewater Center) Fedor is known about town for all his work on behalf of Levine Children’s Hospital, but his current band is damn good, too. Denim Denim is Americana-tinged alternative that shifts easily from country swing to rawboned rock ‘n’ roll.

AUGUST 24

fri august 13

CLEM SNIDE AN EVENING WITH PARKER MILLSAP sat august 14

CAROLINA STORY THE WALBOURNES & THE ECCENTRICS sun august 15

SAFARI ROOM, KNOWNE GHOST & KASKA SUN tue august 17

MENASTREE

VIRGINIA MAN W/ TAYLS

thu august 26

CAROLINA WAVES SHOWCASE & OPEN MIC fri august 27

STRIKING MATCHES EMMALINE sat august 28

JACK SYMES W/ TEMME SCOTT

tue august 31

thu august 19

SWEET CRUDE (NOLA) fri august 20

sat august 21

AWARD WINNING BANJOIST, FIDDLER

JAKE BLOUNT (TRIO)

SETH WALKER W/ SAM FOSTER

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA Sam Tayloe & Friends (Petra’s)

eveningmuse.com

3 3 2 7 n d av i d s o n s t, c h a r l o t t e n c

FOOD & DRINK FEATURE

A SECOND WIND Kevin Bardge gets a new start as The Premiere Chef

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BY RYAN PITKIN

the home. Throughout his childhood he learned to connect the love of cooking with the love of family.

“Watching people happy off of eating your food is what it is,” he said, explaining how cooking became his passion. “Knowing that these people love you because of your food is what it is.”

Bardge earned a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts from the Art Institute of Jacksonville, taking advantage of the school’s relatively cheap studyabroad program to learn from experts in countries

Sitting in the lobby of his epoxy shop on North Graham Street on a recent afternoon, within the first five minutes of us meeting in person for the first time, Kevin Bardge broke down the story of his journey over the last year and a half more succinctly than I ever could.

“When COVID came, this business freaking failed, like dramatically,” he said, referencing the shop where his company manufactures furniture, flooring, countertops and other epoxy goods. “So I just started cooking outside, just basically for shits and giggles to see if I could make some extra money, and it just went berserk.”

And therein lies the story of The Premiere Chef, Charlotte’s hottest new street food vendor. Following the success of the last six months, he aims to open a restaurant sometime in 2022.

Of course, there’s more to the story of Kevin Bardge, a man who became burnt out from his culinary career as a private chef only to return to cooking as an experimental side hustle and fall back in love with the craft.

Despite a recent temporary shutdown from city inspectors due to complaints that he believes came from jealous competitors, the highly popular Bardge will continue to champion a North Graham Street KEVIN BARDGE BEHIND THE GRILL. corridor that’s already seeing a rise in outside development and will be sure to see more in such as France, Switzerland, Peru and Morocco. the years to come.

It was there that he developed his own style, which he calls “infusion cooking,” taking traditional American South dishes and “infusing” the flavors Learning his trade Bardge grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, around used by foreign chefs.

He uses his renowned ribs as an example. To an entire family of cooks, be it professional or just in

create a rub, he starts with a base of brown sugar, paprika and peppers, but no salt. He never uses salt on any of his meats, “but then I incorporate seasonings from Morocco and Sudan to give it a totally different flair, to make up for the fact that I don’t use salt.”

Whatever he’s doing is working. Thanks to the fast-spreading word-of-mouth up and down North Graham Street, recently helped along further by viral social media posts from local food blogger Cory Wilkins, Bardge can expect a long line of folks waiting for his turkey legs, ribs, crab legs and other specialties every afternoon when he opens the grill to start serving.

The Premiere Chef almost never came to be, however, as Bardge left the culinary field in 2013, having become burnt out by the stresses of running his own catering business.

Bardge moved to Charlotte with his thenwife in 2010, having immediately fallen in love with the city during a previous visit. He opened up It’s All Good Catering & Events and began building his name as a chef in the Queen City.

It was there that he earned the nickname of “The Premiere Chef” while catering events such as Alive After 5 for Aloft Hotel and weddings and other events at The Ballantyne Hotel. He was known PHOTO BY CORY WILKINS as the top chef at those locations, expected to serve whenever a big client came through, which was often.

He was also working as a private chef for corporate banking executives and other big shots around Charlotte on the side. Eventually, the work caught up to him.

Bardge sounded exhausted just looking back on the grind.

“I was doing gigs like every day. Every day. Big gigs, every day,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t have any time for self.’ You’re talking about catering to 100-some people every damn day, and then at night I did private chef work for the big lawyers and big wigs, so I would go to their house early in the morning and do all their meals. It was a lot.”

The job had taken too much out of him, so Bardge left it behind and pursued other opportunities.

He found success with his most recent business venture, Creative Epoxy Designs, and found no reason to get back in the kitchen on a professional level – until the pandemic hit.

A parking lot tent revival

When the COVID-19 virus began spreading through America in March 2020, closing businesses and canceling events all around him, Bardge wasn’t too concerned for Creative Epoxy Designs.

After all, he had jobs booked out until September and he and his small team could continue their work in the shop without putting each other at risk, meeting their orders until things began to open back up.

As we all now know, the pandemic lasted long past September 2020, and whatever Bardge had booked when the pandemic hit was all he had booked when September came.

“It just disappeared,” he said.

While he contemplated his next move, Bardge decided to bring his grill out to the parking lot of the shop on North Graham Street, situated between Norris and Colorado avenues. He set up under a tent and began serving food.

Bardge goes out every Tuesday-Friday at noon, and 1 a.m. on Saturday to serve his specialties: pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken, turkey legs, crab legs, salmon and traditional Southern sides, among other items.

Upon his return, he was shocked that his name still had clout in the cooking world.

“People that knew me from before found out that I was back cooking and they just spread the word,” he said. “I was known around the city, so when they found out I was back cooking they just put the word out, like ‘Oh, this guy is amazing, we don’t know why he stopped,’ and it just blew up.”

It only took a month – a winter month at that – for Bardge to show up at the shop and see 100 folks lined up waiting for him to open at lunchtime. He said he knew then that he was going to go back into cooking full-time.

“When I saw the first line come all the way

FOOD & DRINK FEATURE

With the popularity of Camp North End and its burgeoning food stalls and restaurants, as well as the recent opening of the popular Curry around [the parking lot] and then down [Colorado Gate nearby, Bardge knows North Graham Street Avenue], I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I’m doing.’” is primed for more development to come.

By June, The Premiere Chef had built a As someone who’s already a part of the consistent following. That’s when someone tipped community, he wants to be included in that off Cory Wilkins, who runs the popular Daily Special growth.

CLT food blog and social media channels, as well as “I want to stay in this area. I have to say this the Black Guys Cook YouTube channel. is my home because these are the people that Wilkins took some video of Bardge’s fall-offsupported me before anybody supported me. I the-bone turkey legs, then sat on the footage want to bring something to them,” Bardge said. for about a month before posting it. When he “We have stuff around here, but it’s not based put his 28-second video up on Instagram, it got on the urban living in the area. I want to bring about 20,000 views. He shot a message to Bardge something for the people so they can appreciate warning him he might get a bit of a rush over it and say, ‘Well, we watched him grow, we know the weekend, but didn’t think much of it until he him, we’ve seen him from the beginning. We posted the video on TikTok. want him to stay.’

“It did normal for a couple hours,” Wilkins “I want to give them that so they can be recalled, “and then I don’t know if they hit a switch proud of me and then I can show my appreciation or what, but that post — I had to turn off my by bringing something that generates a lot of notifications because it was literally just a constant THE PREMIERE CHEF’S TURKEY LEG AFTER IT’S BEEN DE-BONED AND SAUCED UP. PHOTO BY CORY WILKINS growth in the area, that generates revenue for sound.” people, brings jobs to the community, to help Bardge doesn’t plan on remaining in the restart things.”

The video was shared around the world and Bardge’s shop, to hold the first of a new monthly parking lot for long. He’s already brought on real ended up with 1.4 million views, nearly tripling the Sunday Community Dinner Series.

He is, after all, an expert of the restart.

Marcus & Millichap to find him2 a 4/16/21 11:36 AM He wasn’t allowed to sell food at that time, but estate company highest total Wilkins had previously seen for one of BF_QCnerve_Ad_CHAR_April2021.pdf RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM he had the right to give it away, just as he had done location where he can open a restaurant. his videos (How to Boil Eggs in an Air Fryer). with the remainder of his food on the day he was In the coming days, the crowds at Bardge’s North Graham Street location grew, and some folks didn’t shut down. On Aug. 1, he and volunteers with CLA like that. On July 28, two CMPD officers showed up handed out 157 free plates of roasted chicken, baked beans and potato salad to anyone who showed up. and told him he would have to shut down.

CLA owner Doan Clark said she’s wanted to partner with Bardge since he began setting up shop Putting down roots across the street in February. She and other CLA staff Police said they were responding to complaints from neighbors about the crowds in his parking lot. members get lunch from Bardge as often as possible Though he had passed permit inspections twice to show support but also because “he’s the absolute before, the officers cited an obscure permit violation best chef anywhere.”

The Sunday Community Dinner Series is another and said he would have to close until he filled out chance for them to show solidarity in the Graham Street the proper paperwork.

Bardge insisted the complaints came from corridor.

“A lot of times we don’t bind together enough to all day! restaurant owners who didn’t like to see him succeed. make things happen, so we have people out here that “There were 14 complaints,” he said. “I didn’t read all of them, I read a couple. They’re mad. could benefit from what he’s doing as well as what we’re They’re mad because, you gotta think, how many doing,” Clark said. “So binding together is everything.” voted best margarita in Charlotte. join us every monday As for the neighbors who apparently aren’t so food businesses around here and not one of them for $5 margarita’s. freshly squeezed in-house daily. have lines like mine? So you know someone’s upset.” supportive, Clark said their actions will only inspire When I met with Bardge for a second time on people like her to show up more.

“Everything he does is great, so the fact that other Aug. 1, he was still getting things situated with his permits, but would eventually get set back up in his people are jealous of the fact that he’s doing so many great things and feeding so many people, it made us normal spot.

In the meantime, however, he was still ready to want to join forces with him even more,” she said. “The serve the community. That morning, he partnered opposition made it no better time for us to join forces with the Charlotte Leadership Academy (CLA), to promote what he’s doing as well as what we’re a small K-12 school across Graham Street from doing, bringing it together, community and family, 1301 East Blvd | Charlotte, NC 28203 | 980-938-8565 and he’s become part of our family.”

A T I R GA AY R A M D MON

5

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$

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LIFESTYLE PUZZLES

LIFESTYLE PUZZLES SUDOKU

TRIVIA TEST

BY FIFI RODRIGUEZ

BY LINDA THISTLE

PLACE A NUMBER IN THE EMPTY BOXES IN SUCH A WAY THAT EACH ROW ACROSS, EACH COLUMN DOWN AND EACH SMALL 9-BOX SQUARE CONTAINS ALL OF THE NUMBERS ONE TO NINE. ©2020 King Feautres Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

1. LITERATURE: Which book series featured a character named Samwise Gamgee?

2. TELEVISION: What was the name of Fred’s boss on the animated TV show “The Flintstones”?

3. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: How many cards are in a modern tarot deck?

4. GEOGRAPHY: What is Canada’s largest island?

5. MOVIES: Which 1990s movie features a character nicknamed “The Dude”?

6. FOOD & DRINK: In which country did tequila originate?

7. ADVERTISING: Which website is advertised in commercials that feature the character Captain Obvious?

8. SCIENCE: What kind of tree produces acorns?

9. HISTORY: When did the United States’ first commercial radio station go on the air?

10. U.S. STATES: What is the state capital of Missouri?

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Not dozing 6 Rock band boosters 10 Make of the XK-E, in brief 13 Leading nun 19 Adage 20 Irrational suspicion 22 Dark-haired man 23 Cracker consumed to become a fraternity member?

25 Against: Prefix 26 Dry stretch 27 Sessions with mediums 29 Vidalia, e.g.

30 Cochlea site 33 Comment when pointing out your aunt’s child?

35 Ducky insurance company?

40 Bloody -- (cocktails) 44 Wee child 45 Spanish pronoun 46 German poet who founded a ketchup company?

50 -- Minor (Little Bear) 53 Keyless, in music 54 Marilyn of old movies 55 Was a snitch 59 Kindly 61 Shoplifts or embezzles 63 Three-horse wagon 64 Lead-in to byte 66 Cap required to be worn to gain entry?

68 Author Nin 72 Be liable to 74 Big antelope 75 Teal relatives 76 Impudent actress who played Cleo?

81 -- bad example 83 Furtive observation 84 Having some replacement parts?

86 Hybrid citrus 91 Perilous stuff to skate on 93 Lethargy 95 Nomadic sort 96 Iraqi, say 97 Walk just beyond a northern Austrian city’s border?

99 Pick, with “for” 102 Stir-fry tidbit 104 Dumbbells 105 Many-time golf champ Nick 106 Small squirt of a zero-calorie drink?

111 With 37-Down, fin-footed mammal 113 “Tiny Dancer” singer John 114 Road show groups 118 Uncrowded 124 Sadness 126 Classic figure-skating painting?

129 Sculpted torso, maybe 130 White rat’s condition 131 Chavez of labor 132 “Plus” qualities 133 Vote “for” 134 The whole nine yards 135 Additional DOWN 1 In amongst 2 Lose power 3 Allies’ foe 4 Eagle cousin 5 Persian Gulf ruler 6 Fitting

7 -- tai 8 Whizzes 9 Of right mind 10 Wrist or hip 11 Letter after G, spelled out 12 Eye steadily 13 It airs “The Conners” 14 Witch’s “vehicle” 15 Bugs is one 16 Lure 17 Watery, as a membrane 18 Unit of lyrics 21 Gp. backing guns 24 Had a bite 28 Heavily built 31 “Better Call Saul” airer 32 Chicago mayor -- Emanuel 34 Some low clouds 35 Melville captain 36 Grand party 37 See 111-Across 38 Oscar winner Hathaway 39 Event for artisans selling wares 41 They follow pis 42 Gossip spreader 43 Fathered, as a foal 47 Nastase near a tennis net 48 Chomsky of linguistics 49 1983 Woody Allen role 51 Beef dish in a sour cream sauce 52 Make right 56 Spirit 57 Wrings (out) 58 Astonish 60 Gator cousin 62 IRS form info 65 Spin -- (emulate Spider-Man) 67 Raw beef fat 68 Assist in evil

GET BACK TO DOING WHAT YOU LOVE.

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# YO U I M P R OV E D # YO U I M P R OV E D

YOUR CARE. YOUR WAY. | ORTHOCAROLINA.COM E-Z DOES IT ©2020 King Feautres Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

69 Have a bite 70 High peaks, in Italian 71 Menzel who voiced Elsa in “Frozen” 73 Fixes text 77 He drew Li’l Abner 78 Rioter’s haul 79 How a loss may be marked 80 Nada 82 Root for poi 85 “Far out!”

87 Grand party 88 Old film actor Jannings 89 Give for a bit 90 Tiny pasta 92 Roger of film review 94 Dull routines 98 Mao -- -tung 99 City in west Texas 100 Aviators 101 Aquarium favorites 103 Windpipe 107 Rich dessert 108 Animal nose 109 Actor Peter O’-110 Fitness program with Latin music 112 Hearth waste 115 -- gow (casino game) 116 City of central Sicily 117 Actress Loretta 119 Tempo 120 TV’s Trebek 121 Corrode 122 Sky twinkler 123 Biblical prophet 125 Craven of horror films 127 Prefix like “equi-” 128 Celebrity gossip site

LIFESTYLE COLUMN

AERIN IT OUT THE TWO BUCK BET My first visit to Belmont’s newest honky-tonk saloon

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BY AERIN SPRUILL

In December of last year, the boyfriend and I wanted to confirm that the neverending construction of Hawthorne Bridge was finally complete.

After passing through, we crossed over Central Avenue and, to our surprise, there stood a small wooden building on the roadside of Hawthorne Lane, just a couple hundred feet in front of the somewhat-new Lofts at Hawthorne Mill. It appeared to be a honky-tonk bar, which became all the more apparent in the sign reading “Two Buck Saloon.”

We’d never seen this curious gem before and were genuinely confused as to whether or not it had been there all along, and we’d just overlooked it. I turned to my boo and asked, “Do you think they like my kind around these parts?” We both chuckled and he replied, “I’d rather not find out,” as we passed. The secrets of this mystery locale faded behind us like a mirage.

Resigned that Two Buck wasn’t “for me,” I put the potential nightlife destination out of my thoughts. It wasn’t until months later, while at my go-to watering hole, that the enigma of the Belmont neighborhood resurfaced.

I’ve been feeling like I’m stuck in a rut going to the same place for quite some time, and while that spot never ceases to keep things fresh — from sideswipes and drunk zombies to friends you never knew you needed and people you wish you’d never met — my itch for adventure has been begging to be scratched. And so when I overheard some folks chittering about Two Buck Saloon, I asked what the place was like.

My inquisition fell on deaf ears in a sea of alcoholic bevvies. It wasn’t until I went there myself that I realized why a proper description might elude visitors.

Last Friday, I made up my mind that after dinner at The Stanley, I’d pop over to the Belmont/Plaza Midwood border bar with a gun on my hip, push through the two saloon doors and proclaim, “Howdy, neighbor!” Okay, okay, it didn’t quite go like that. The boyfriend pulled into the parking lot next to Sweet Lucille, the Sweet Lew’s BBQ food truck. The sweet smell of one of our favorite barbecue spots brought me comfort as I set out on this experience alone.

“Let me know if anything gets weird, and I’ll come

back to get you,” my boyfriend said with an anxious tone.

“I’m brave,” I responded sheepishly and laughed as I hopped out of the passenger’s seat.

A bit overdressed in heels, I certainly caught a few eyes as I approached the small front patio. It’s covered, I thought to myself, which was a relief on a rainy evening.

The rocking chairs and “new rustic” aesthetic put me in the mind of Cracker Barrel — that “I’m a real country saloon, see?” kind of vibe.

I stood in front of the entrance and smiled to myself at the irony, or lack thereof, that two “buck” heads caught in eternal “headlights” were there to greet me hanging on either side of the door.

I took a breath and stepped through the threshold.

To my left, two leather couches, a Big Buck Hunter arcade game (naturally) and pool tables with patrons sprinkled throughout unbothered by my entrance.

On the right, a man with a guitar serenaded the bar patrons next to two dartboards and a few high-top tables occupied by visitors who looked like they were “take off your shoes and stay awhile” comfy.

I observed a single four-top riding solo and prayed it would stay open long enough to provide a retreat for me once I’d grabbed a drink. In front of me, a green neon light illuminated the many options I had to ease my anxiety at the bar.

I let my guard down and took it in. “I guess it’s kind of a dive bar/saloon,” I said to myself with weary acceptance.

It had all the elements, even the ones that felt forced, like the “Moonshine 4 Sale” sign that hung on the wall.

The rustic, lackadaisical facade, the effortless yet homey interior, simple social media marketing sans website, traditional games, live music … check, check, check, check.

The only things that were missing were a nonchalant staff and those deep roots — the kind that smell like history and whisper to your soul, “If these walls could talk,” the moment you walk through the door. But that makes sense, as they opened less than a year ago.

Soon after getting a pineapple cider from a refreshingly friendly bartender, as if by divine intervention and astrological synchronicity, George Middleton, the live entertainment for the night, started singing my favorite I-have-to-learn-to-like-some-country-to-hang-withcertain-friends Luke Combs jam, “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”

It was then that I finally gave in and let go of my hesitations.

It may not be the familiar, musty, decades-old dive bar filled with strange old creatures I’m used to, but as a new kid on the block, I must say it has potential.

INFO@QCNERVE.COM

LAUNCHING 8/16

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© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.

King Features Weekly Service

• In a practice called sexual death feigning, female dragonflies play dead to avoid sex. Why? A scientist at the University of Zurich observed that, when faced with aggressive males, female moorland hawker dragonflies will freeze in mid-air, fall to the ground and lie motionless in an attempt to avoid injury and sometimes even death that can result from being coerced into mating. Four other species, including the spider and praying mantis, are known to do this as well.

• When Victor Hugo was facing a tight publication schedule for “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” he asked his valet to confiscate his clothes so he wouldn’t be able to leave the house.

• For several decades, Vincennes University in Indiana offered a degree in Bowling Management that allowed students to gain entry-level jobs in the bowling industry by offering classes on sales, pinsetter mechanics and pro shop operations.

• President John F. Kennedy was buried without his brain. The original reason given was that it had been “lost” during his autopsy, but in 2018, newly released U.S. government documents revealed that his brother, Robert Kennedy, ordered the brain secretly destroyed to ensure that it would never be displayed in a museum.

• Eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on Dec. 25 is such a popular tradition in Japan that the chain asks customers to place their orders at least two months in advance. The custom started in 1974 when it was introduced to Japan for visitors who were looking for a dinner that resembled a traditional holiday meal.

• Aside from being the first commercially successful 3D game, Battlezone also was used by the U.S. Army to train tank gunners. *** Thought for the Day: “Take a walk outside — it will serve you far more than pacing around in your mind.” — Rasheed Ogunlaru

August 9, 2021

By Lucie Winborne

Don’t JUST Recycle,

Recycle

right!

ONLY RECYCLE THESE SIX ITEMS

No Plastic Bags

HOROSCOPE

LIFESTYLE

AUGUST 11 - AUGUST 17

AUGUST 18 - AUGUST 24

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) You still might have LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) A problem ARIES (March 21 to April 19) A troubling situation LIBRA

(September 23 to October 22) A to deal with some lingering confusion that marked neighbor might be looking to goad you into an takes a positive turn and moves toward a resolution more positive family relationship develops as a recent workplace situation. But for the most part, action you don’t want to take. Ask someone you that should please you and your supporters. misunderstandings are explained away. A job you should now be well on your way to your next both respect if he or she would act as an impartial Meanwhile, make time to deal with new domestic situation appears promising, but check it out before project. arbitrator for both of you. issues. you act on it.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) A new commitment SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) A recent TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) It’s a good time to might demand more time than you’d expected to workplace accomplishment hasn’t been overlooked reassess your goals and consider shifting directions. have to give it. But rely on that special Bovine gift by those who watch these things. Meanwhile, Remember to keep an open mind and be prepared for patience, and stick with it. You’ll be glad you did. start making travel plans for that much-too-long- to make changes as new opportunities arise. deferred trip with someone special.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Congratulations. That on-the-job situation is working out as you’d hoped. Now’s a good time to relax and to enjoy the company of family and close friends.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) You’re earning the

GEMINI

CANCER

that emotional roller coaster and start experiencing CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) more stability than you’ve been used to. This is a The Goat’s usually high level of self-confidence is good time to let someone new into your life. brimming over these days. This should help you deal with a situation that you’ve avoided for far too long.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) Good news: A trusted Go for it.

(May 21 to June 20) Rely on your admiration of a lot of people who like the way you SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) strong Mercury aspect to help you close that SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) handle yourself when your views are on the line. Those money matters continue to move in your communication gap before it becomes too wide to You might feel as if you’re caught in an emotional Even one or two of your detractors are being won favor. Now would be a good time to start putting cross. A sibling or other family member has news. tug-of-war. But don’t be rushed into a decision on some money back into the house, both for esthetic either side. Wait for more facts before you act. over. as well as economic reasons.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) You’re about to get off

(June 21 to July 22) Taking your responsibilities seriously is what you do. But ease CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) A up on the pressure gauge and make time for much changing workplace environment can create job needed R & R. Start by making this weekend a “just pressures. But, once again, follow the example of your birth sign and take things a step at a time, like for fun” time zone. the sure-footed Goat you are.

LEO

(July 23 to August 22) Some recently uncovered information might make a change of AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Cheer plans inevitable. If so, deal with it as quickly as up. You could soon have the funds you need for possible, and then find out what went wrong and your worthy project. Your generous gifts of time and why. What you learn might surprise you. effort are well known, and someone might decide it’s time to join with you.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Aspects favor

moving carefully and deliberately when making any significant changes. Could be there are more facts you need to know, which you might overlook if you rush things.

friend comes through for you. But you still need to shed that last scrap of self-doubt and once more AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) become the cool, confident Cat we all know and Relationships become more intense. But be careful not to be pushed into decisions you’re not love. comfortable with. Remember: You’re the one in VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Things should charge of your life.

be getting back to a less hectic pace. Enjoy the more peaceful atmosphere. You earned it. But don’t forget PISCES (February 19 to March 20) You need to show more confidence in your ability to reach your PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Your inner scam- about those still-unresolved issues. catcher is right on target, and you’re absolutely right goals. Make that long-delayed decision, and avoid to reject that too-good-to-be-true offer. Meanwhile, floundering around in a sea of self-doubt. something positive should be making its way to you.

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BORN THIS WEEK: You are generous and also sympathetic to people who find they need the help of other people.

BORN THIS WEEK: Although you appear to be strongly opinionated, you can also be open to other ideas — so long as they are presented with logic and clarity.

2020 KING FEATURES SYND., INC.

PG.16 PUZZLE ANSWERS

Never miss the catch again.

Ride CATS and get back in the game.

Pg. 21 AUG 11 - AUG 24, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM

R i d e t r a n s i t . o r g / C AT S C o n fi d e n c e

LIFESTYLE COLUMN

PG.17 PUZZLE ANSWERS

SAVAGE LOVE REUNION BLUES All in the family

BY DAN SAVAGE

I fell in love with my second cousin about four years ago at a family reunion. (I hadn’t laid eyes on him since I was a kid!) I was 15 when we met, he was two years older, and we were in a longdistance relationship for three years. We ended things a year ago and I’m going to be seeing him for the first time since our breakup at another family reunion this fall. He’s bringing his new girlfriend.

Do I have a responsibility to make her feel comfortable? Do I avoid him and risk family drama? I’ve done so much to work through this, Dan, and I’d love to see this as a healthy exercise in staying true to myself.

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CANCEL ON UPCOMING SHINDIG? I’M NOT SURE!

I’m hoping it was just the usual heartache you had to work through after this relationship ended — by which I mean to say, COUSINS, I’m hoping your ex-boyfriend (and current second cousin) wasn’t emotionally or physically abusive and you weren’t working through trauma. And I’m hoping you didn’t get too much grief about dating your second cousin from other family members. (First cousins can legally marry all over the world!)

Assuming your ex was only guilty of breaking your heart (a risk we take when dating anyone), you should approach this family reunion like any mature adult who finds herself at a wedding or a funeral or a holiday party with an ex.

You slap a smile on your face and say hello to your ex, you tell his new girlfriend it’s nice to meet her, and then you avoid both of them for the rest of day. If you’re worried about getting trapped in a conversation with either or both of them, COUSINS, and don’t have it in you to say, “I’m sorry, you’ll have to excuse me, I gotta go take a monster shit,” then deputize someone to run interference for you.

Your designated interferer should stay by your side as much as possible, COUSINS, and if you get separated and they see you trapped in an extended conversation with your ex or his new girlfriend, COUSINS, it’s their job to swoop in and rescue you.

And if family members gave you grief about dating your second cousin — if you were subjected to more than some gentle awkwardness-acknowledging, tension-

releasing ribbing about the situation — and that grief was the source of whatever you had to work through since breaking up with the guy who was essentially your high school boyfriend (a guy you were always gonna breakup with at some point), COUSINS, then this reunion is an opportunity to tell those people to go fuck themselves.

Should I worry about my son who is 24 years old, straight, cute, has friends and is also a virgin?

MULLING OVER MOMENTS

TRIVIA ANSWERS: 4. Baffin Island You can tell a mom not to worry but a mom is still 1. “The Lord of the Rings” 5. “The Big Lebowski” gonna worry, MOM, so you go right ahead and worry. But 2. George Slate 6. Mexico if your son knows he can talk with you about anything 3. 78 7. Hotels.com and he’s chosen not to talk with you about this, MOM, and if your son isn’t upset about it or otherwise miserable, leave him alone.

If he has friends — and you say that he does — awkwardness. Instead of trying to avoid it, BAMBI, try to then he has peers he can confide in about his love life, have a sense of humor about it. assuming he wants one, and open up to about his sexual I was raised in a conservative batshit inexperience, if he regards it as a problem, MOM, which household and equally batshit church. The youth he may not. leader, who was my best friend’s stepdad and I’ve been reading you for many years. You have whom I viewed as a father figure, was a sexual great language skills. But your use of “gonna” and predator. When I was 17, he started asking me “wanna” for “going to” and “want to” just comes for sex and also told me he’d thought of me “that across as adolescent and condescending. You’re way” since I was 12.

I found out later he got a woman with a too old to be using that sort of lingo, Dan. Please mental disability pregnant, and my childhood respect yourself and your readers.

GRIPING OVER NAUSEATINGLY NONSENSICAL best friend has hinted to me that he assaulted AFFECTATIONS her as well. Much to my rage, this guy’s wife, this church, and even my own parents never went You’re gonna hafta pry those “gonnas” and “wannas” after this guy legally or otherwise. outta my cold, dead hands, GONNA, if you wanna get ‘em Outrageously, he’s still a member in good outta my column. standing of this same church. A few days ago, a different childhood friend died. He was my best Three months ago, I came out as polyamorous friend’s cousin, and we all grew up together. in an email I sent to my immediate and my entire Obviously, this asshole will be at the funeral. extended family because I’m done asking one of I’m determined to be there to support my friend my partners to pretend he’s “our roommate” when but how do I interact with this predator without my parents or siblings come to visit, and it hurts causing a scene? me so much to exclude him from family events and I don’t want to make this sad reunion about holidays. (And it hurts him, too.) My whole family me, but I refuse to entertain this guy in any way. is getting together over Labor Day weekend and Any thoughts on telling him to go fuck himself? all three of us are planning to go. Is there any way FEELS UNCOMFORTABLE NEAR EXTREMELY RELIGIOUS ASSHOLE LOWLIFES to avoid awkwardness?

8. Oak trees 9. 1920, when KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh.

10. Jefferson City

And like so many sexual predators on altars, this asshole got away with it. There haven’t been any consequences, no accountability, and he’s still in a position — a position of spiritual authority — where he can (and probably does) abuse and exploit other vulnerable women and girls.

Ugh. I’m pro telling this asshole to go fuck himself at the funeral — loudly — but there’s something you could do before the funeral. While you can’t control what your parents or this church have done or failed to do, FUNERAL, and while your childhood best friend’s story isn’t yours to tell — and you don’t know or don’t officially know the full story — you can tell your own story.

You can report this asshole to the pious lowlifes who run this fucking church and file a police report at the same time. Oh, and make sure to let those church leaders know you filed a police report. While there’s no guarantee they’ll act against this creep after getting a report of sexual abuse (see Catholic Church, sex abuse scandals), they’ll at least know they’re leaving themselves open to potential financial consequences if they fail to act (see Catholic Church, sex abuse scandal settlements).

I’ve been to a few funerals in my time, FUNERAL, and it’s not the people at the funeral we tend to remember — it’s the people who were there for us before the funeral and after. Head home, be there for your old friend, and BRINGING ALL MY BOYFRIENDS INSIDE feel free to skip the funeral if that asshole is gonna be Your childhood best friend dropped hints about there.

Nope. being assaulted by this man — her stepfather — but P.S. They’ll get used to you being poly, you’ll get used she never actually came out and told you that. But you Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage; mail@ to them knowing you’re poly, and it’ll get less awkward know for a fact that he preyed on a mentally disabled savagelove.net; savagelovecast.com over time. woman and that he sexually harassed you when you But there’s no way to avoid that first blast of pure were a minor.

CHARLOTTE

Pg. 23 AUG 11 - AUG 24, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM

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