YES! Weekly - January 5, 2022

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JANUARY 5-11, 2022 VOLUME 18, NUMBER 1

12 NEW HOME FOR THE NEW YEAR

5500 Adams Farm Lane Suite 204 Greensboro, NC 27407 Office 336-316-1231 Fax 336-316-1930

Mohammad Farid, 49, and his 20-year-old son Noman will begin 2022 in a new country after being forced to leave their home, family, and country to start over in the States. Their story, similar to many other immigrant families throughout the Triad, not only highlights both their resilience and strength but the local agencies that worked diligently to make sure they had A PLACE TO CALL HOME.

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The restaurant formerly known as MayWay Dumplings has changed its name to GOURMET OF ORIENTAL GARDEN. Booths and tables provide seating in the dining room when functional, but the restaurant is currently configured for takeout only. The arrangement makes for very economical dining. Above all, in general, the food tastes really good, and it is different, relative to anything else in the area.

6 When we left KALEAB KURTZ in 2020, the Greensboro-based actor had already appeared as an extra in the awardwinning Netflix series Stranger Things, had appeared in such short films as By Day’s End, Pool Ghouls, Surviving Generation B: Belittled, and its sequel Surviving Generation B: Last Role, portraying a cannibal in the sci-fi web series The 21 and had written and starred in the web series Into the Shadows.

7 Whis weekend the world received news of BETTY WHITE’s passing. The last Golden Girl known for her tales from Saint Olaf died on Friday, December 31, 2021, at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 99.

Just 17 days shy of her 100th birthday.

8 This past summer I excoriated N.C. State baseball coach Elliott Avent for not insisting that his players get vaccinated. As

a result of his lack of leadership, a number of WOLFPACK PLAYERS contracted COVID...

9 THE GARDENER, a one-note action melodrama edited, produced, and codirected by Scott Jeffrey and Rebecca J. Matthews, is yet another entry in the Die Hard sweepstakes, detailing a home invasion in a remote manor located in the English countryside. It’s the yuletide season, and the family has assembled to ring in the holidays.

14 Nine years after being officially designated “Comic Book City,” Greensboro has its first Black-owned comic book store.

JERMAINE EXUM, dubbed Lord Retail by award-winning science fiction writer M. A. Foster...

15 PROFESSOR NOBLE told YES! Weekly that his upcoming Spring 2022 ADS 305 class, “Politics of Black Poetry & Rap,” is the fulfillment of a “daydream” he had cherished long before he ever envisioned himself teaching at the university level.

18 As a new year dawns, reemergence hangs in the air. And after a decade of slumber, Greensboro dream-pop group, CITIFIED, has reemerged with a new album, “Lie Like a Painter,” out now on Fort Lowell Records.

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[SPOTLIGHT]

PHOTO BY RYAN O’NEAL HARPER

FREAKY FRIDAY AT MONSTERCADE

BY KATIE MURAWSKI

and ostracized from the mainstream,” Fahrenheit continued. “But to do that, we need your support — so, show up on Jan. 7, 2022!”

“Let’s get weird together, WinstonSalem!,” Loverly said.

Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for entry and tickets are “priced for accessibility,” Fahrenheit

wrote, at $5. He wrote that the entry fee will be split equally amongst the performers and others who helped produce the show, and that tipping (with dollar bills or digital) is strongly encouraged and appreciated.

For more information, follow Underground_Presents on social media and check out the Freaky Friday Facebook event page. !

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Carolina Carnies to bring their traveling variety show out to the Wild, Wild West of Winston-Salem — and where else but the Strangest Bar in NC: Monstercade!?”

Fahrenheit wrote in a social media post promoting the event.

The show is co-hosted by Andy Drodge (drag monster) and Hysteria Cole (drag queen) with performances

by Ellis D. (self-described “sleazy goblin boyfriend”), Star Sirius (drag king), Roy Fahrenheit (drag king), Persephone 5000 (self-described “TS stripper hoe”) and Mona Loverly (burlesque performer).

Fahrenheit and Drodge said that they were motivated by their disappointment in the lack of opportunities for drag kings, male impersonators, trans artists, and assigned female at birth performers. Additionally, they saw a lack of diversity for the many different interpretations of the art form in the Triad LGBTQ+ communities.

So, they decided to start their own show to be able to perform in an accepting, affirming space, and with a mission of spotlighting and uplifting other queer artists.

“Huge shout out to Carlos Bocanegra and Monstercade for always being supportive and for hosting our little freak show,” Fahrenheit said. “I am so, so, SO grateful that Winston-Salem has such a truly inclusive and safe space like Monstercade.”

“We would love to make this a monthly showcase — spotlighting all different kinds of performers and uplifting artists who are marginalized, often left out,

TH E

Attention all freaks, horror geeks, goth gfs (thicc and thin), outcasts, queers, drag/burlesque fans, trans/NB folks, former theatre kids, and everyone inbetween: Come one, come all to Monstercade — located at 204 W. Acadia Ave. in Winston-Salem — for The Underground Presents: Freaky Friday!

The Underground Presents is a traveling collective of entertainers that started in 2019 by drag mother-and-son duo Hysteria Cole and Ellis D. What started as a small troupe showcasing their queer performance art — such as drag, burlesque, live music, etc. at small venues in and around the Greenville area, has grown into working with groups such as Free Mom Hugs, PiCASSO (Pitt County AIDS Service Organization), and the Center for Family Violence Prevention on several fundraising events.

“What we hope to accomplish is not to only uplift and help other queer artists have a chance on the stage who don’t often get the spotlight but to also help out in our communities,” Ellis D. said.

Now, The Underground is expanding, taking their vision to Winston-Salem and partnering with local drag father-and-son duo from the Haus of Atrocities, Andy Drodge, and Roy Fahrenheit. Drodge is local drag royalty in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, who was voted as the Triad’s Best Drag King in 2019 by readers of YES! Weekly. Fahrenheit is a newcomer to the art form, having started performing in 2019.

“My beloved drag dad, Andy Drodge, and I have partnered with these Eastern

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Chow down with John Batchelor at Gourmet of Oriental Garden

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HIBACHI SHRIMP WITH RICE

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he restaurant formerly known as MayWay Dumplings has changed its name to Gourmet of Oriental Garden. Booths and tables provide seating in the dining room when functional, but the restaurant is currently configured for takeout only. Clear plastic screens keep the open kitchen separated from the pickup area.

Orders are bagged and slipped under the screen. Little or no exchange of breathing space occurs.

The arrangement makes for very economical dining. Above all, in general, the food tastes really good, and it is different, relative to anything else in the area.

The online menu is conveniently separated into appetizers, dumplings, noodles, and desserts. The appetizers are conventional — Spring Rolls, Chicken Wings, Chicken Skewers, along with Fried Tofu. I found dumplings and noodles more interesting — the real reason I chose to have some dinners here.

Pearl Chicken is a rice dumpling concoction. Glutinous rice is squeezed around a center of black mushrooms, seasoned with sweetened soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil, wrapped in lotus leaf. I would recommend peeling away most of the leaf, making sure you get to the soft part, in order to make this easier to swallow. The earthy mushroom flavor is worth the effort, however. (Given

the title, I assume some soft bits of chicken are cooked in as well, but that was hard to discern.)

Fried Chicken Dumplings (serving of six) incorporate chicken, cabbage, ginger, scallion, and sesame oil, accompanied by pepper dip, house soy sauce, and hot sauce. The exterior of the dumplings are nicely browned. Fried Pork Dumplings (serving of six) enclose pork, cabbage, leeks, ginger, and scallion, seasoned with sesame oil, served with the same sauces.

In both cases, the flavor is a knockout.

Hot Steam Pork Bun consists mostly of soft, steamed bread, filled with sweet Chinese barbecue pork. I really liked the taste, but I peeled away most of the bun to get there. Hot Steam Veggie Bun generates more flavor from a larger filling of Chinese cabbage, plus vermicelli, mushrooms, carrots, scallion, and ginger, seasoned with sesame oil and pepper.

Seafood Shao Mai (serving of six) blends fish paste (from cod), with shrimp, potato starch, and scallion, enhanced with peanut and sesame oils, dipped in soy sauce. Another unique flavor and texture profile, quite enjoyable.

Sesame Cold Noodles are a personal favorite, and I don’t know of any other place in Greensboro that prepares them this well. Cold noodles are tossed in peanut sauce and sesame sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds, some diced

PORK SWEET SPICY CURRY WITH RICE

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FRIED CHICKEN DUMPLING cucumber thrown in to boot. I would make a special trip just for these. MaLa Cold Noodles are sharper in impact, another cold noodle dish made with peanut sauce and sesame sauce, plus ginger, garlic, Asian pepper, cucumber, and carrot. You can get crushed peanuts on request.

Two other dishes are more familiar.

Hibachi Shrimp are large, deveined, and tender, presented with white rice, plus broccoli, onion, and zucchini, along with teriyaki sauce. Another winner. Pork Sweet Spicy Curry joins pork, garlic, onion, and tomato in a sweet-spicy sauce, enhanced with masala spices and curry, served with rice. I liked the taste of the sauce quite a bit, but finding enough lean pork to justify a reorder was difficult- too many fatty pieces, and just not enough lean meat to satisfy me.

On balance, I enjoyed almost everything here, and the tab is downright

cheap. I would add Oriental Garden to a regular takeout rotation in the future. !

JOHN BATCHELOR has been writing about eating and drinking since 1981. Over a thousand of his articles have been published. He is also author of two travel/cookbooks: Chefs of the Coast: Restaurants and Recipes from the North Carolina Coast, and Chefs of the Mountains: Restaurants and Recipes from Western North Carolina. Contact him at john.e.batchelor@ gmail.com or see his blog, johnbatchelordiningandtravel.blogspot.com.

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Gourmet of Oriental Garden is located at 948 Walker Ave, Greensboro, NC 27403 | 336-291-8481 greatmayway.com Hours: 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 12-7:30 p.m. Sunday Appetizers: $2.50-$8.95 | Soups: $2.95-$9.95 Entrees: $2.60-$11.95| Desserts: $1.95-$2.99 Most recent visit: December 19

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Broadway Bound: Greensboro’s Kaleab Kurtz makes movies and makes waves

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Kaleab Kurtz YES! WEEKLY

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

hen we left Kaleab Kurtz in 2020, the Greensboro-based actor had already appeared as an extra in the awardwinning Netflix series Stranger Things, had appeared in such short films as By Day’s End, Pool Ghouls, Surviving Generation B: Belittled, and its sequel Surviving Mark Burger Generation B: Last Role, portraying a cannibal in the sci-fi web series The 21 and had written and Contributor starred in the web series Into the Shadows.

What was remarkable was that he was already a show biz veteran but wasn’t old enough to drive, being only 16 at the time.

Kurtz, now 18, has since written and appeared in the horror short Get Away in 2020. Last year, he made his debut as director, producer, editor, and cinematographer with the short drama Guys Night, in which he also wrote and starred in, then followed up with Prank Bros., an hour-long found-footage chiller that he wrote, directed, and starred in. Last month, Prank Bros. earned nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Writer, and Best Cinematography at the Debut Film Awards.

Kurtz’s fortunes have continued to rise, having recently been accepted to the prestigious New York University Film School, whose list of alumni reads like a Who’s Who of superstar filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Joel Coen, Chloe Zhao, Jim Jarmusch, Tamara Jenkins, Ang Lee, and No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga, among others.

“I considered Harvard University as well, and also some smaller schools like Western Carolina (University), but I chose NYU because it will allow me some flexibility in terms of scheduling and, of course, it is one of the best schools in the country,” Kurtz explained. “The faculty impressed me, and some of my favorite actors — like Adam Sandler and Philip Seymour Hoffman — are alumni, so it’s pretty cool to learn the craft (at) the same place they did.”

Having previously expressed his desire to move behind the camera, he found the experience less of a challenge than he might have expected.

“The transition to (going) behind the camera was not very difficult, although directing and editing are more work in terms of time and preparation,” he said.

“I worked with a lot of directors before I made the jump behind the camera and decided to do the things that they did which I thought were of value and to not pursue the things that I thought were not necessary or that I could do better. I decided that if you believe in a project and see it come to life, sometimes you just have to step in and make it yourself.”

As intrigued and, indeed, experienced as he is in writing, producing, and directing, Kurtz hasn’t lost his affinity for acting. “I would like to balance my acting

with filmmaking,” he said. “I think that being an actor informs my directing and that the opposite is also true.

My being able to fill multiple roles on a set will hopefully open more doors as I move forward with my career.”

Although an acknowledged devotee of fantasy, horror, and science-fiction — he was a die-hard Stranger Things fan even before appearing on the series — Kurtz doesn’t want to limit his artistic horizons. To him, making movies is magic. Hard work, to be sure, but he’s eager and anxious to continue making magic, no matter the genre.

“My film Guys Night is a dramatic film,” he points out.

“Prank Bros. is a horror film, as is Coyotes, but each has dramatic elements. I think that the ideal is to create films that contain elements of multiple genres which tell a complete story in new and innovative ways.”

Along with older brothers Eyoel and Alazar, the Ethiopian-born Kaleab was adopted by Dr. Christopher Kurtz, the director of Youth and Families Ministry/ Church Administrator for Christ Lutheran Church in Greensboro. Alazar appears in Prank Bros., and Christopher appeared in both Prank Bros. and Guys Night, on which he also served as executive producer. Kaleab speaks often about the encouragement of his family to pursue his dreams and ambitions, including his latest project, the web series Black Tony, which was created by R.L. Lavender, who starred in Guys Night. “R.L. has taken clips from The Sopranos and adapted them to an allblack cast. I am the cinematographer and editor of the clips. I think it’s a unique take on a proven commodity.”

Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic forced an overhaul in safety monitoring in all walks of life, including filmmaking.

“I’ve followed all the recommended protocols including hand-sanitizing, hand-washing, and the wearing of masks on a set,” he confirmed. “Distancing is more difficult on a live set, but overall I haven’t allowed COVID to keep me off set as an actor or a filmmaker. I believe that you have to stay active to stay relevant, so I’ve worked as much as possible and have also attended some conventions during the pandemic. I’ve done some more screenwriting in whatever downtime there has been. Plus, I am ‘Safe Sets Certified,’ so that helps.”

While preparing to continue his education at NYU, Kurtz continues to expand his range. “I am going to be in the play Battle of the Books at the Hyers Theater in Greensboro in March, and have been cleaning up a script I wrote, The Best Movie Ever, for some pitch meetings I have coming up. My films Guys Night, Prank Bros., and Coyotes are still on the festival circuit and have had some great success.”

Kaleab Kurtz’s professional Facebook is https:// www.facebook.com/KaleabKurtz/, and the Facebook page for his production company, Capitol Star Productions, is https://www.facebook.com/ groups/539226890589366. !

See MARK BURGER’s reviews of current movies on Burgervideo.com. © 2022, Mark Burger.

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voices

Lessons the Golden Girls taught me

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his weekend the world received news of Betty White’s passing. The last Golden Girl known for her tales from Saint Olaf died on Friday, December 31, 2021, at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 99. Just 17 days shy of her 100th birthday.

To say that Betty Marion White Ludden lived a full life would be Chanel Davis an understatement. With a television career spanning nine decades, Editor including award-winning shows and roles on Hollywood on Television, The Betty White Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Hot in Cleveland, and Saturday Night Live, White has left her mark on generations of television watchers, both young and old.

But it was her role as Rose Nylund on the 1985-1992 NBC sitcom The Golden Girls that left her biggest impression on me and so many others.

I first met Rose and the gang as a little girl. The sitcom was a favorite of my maternal grandmother, Rosa Jackson. She often watched my cousins and I when our parents worked which means we also watched her television shows including but not limited to The Price is Right, Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, Murder She Wrote, and, of course, The Golden Girls. Shows that would leave quite an impression on us long after both they and she were gone.

You could find the Golden Girls on the television screen in my little cousin’s room as he and his boys hung out and talked about girls, games, and the latest video vixen.

You could find The Golden Girls on the screen at the group home where one of my cousins works as a CNA. And on any given evening, you can find the channel on TV Land at my house as I fix one eye on my laptop and one eye on the latest shenanigans of Sophia Petrillo.

The Golden Girls taught us life lessons that we will never forget.

They taught us that real friends will always have your back and some may even become family.

They taught us that age is the number you feel. In the words of Rose herself — My mother always used to say: ‘The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.’”

They taught us that honesty really is the best policy, no matter how you dress it up. Let’s not even talk about teaching us how to dress.

Acceptance of everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, is important. Embrace the differences that you see in others. That is what makes the

show so much of a gem. They taught us to be courageous enough to do what we want to do and help others where we can.

They also taught us that cheesecake solves all of life’s problems. Or at least helps to come up with a solution.

In the honor of our Golden Girls, let’s have a slice of cheesecake as we usher in 2022 and all it has to offer.

Happy New Year. !

CHANEL DAVIS is the current editor of YES! Weekly and graduated from N.C. A&T S.U. in 2011 with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications.

She’s worked at daily and weekly newspapers in the Triad region.

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NCSU screwed by anti-vax UCLA

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his past summer I excoriated NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent for not insisting that his players get vaccinated. As a result of his lack of leaderJim Longworth ship, a number of Wolfpack players contracted COVID, Longworth and the team was at Large disqualified from post-season competition just one game shy of the World Series finals. Asked why he had not mandated vaccinations, Avent said, “My job is to teach them baseball, but I don’t try to indoctrinate my kids with my values or my opinions…

These are young men that can make their own decisions, and that’s what they did.”

Avent’s head-in-the-sand attitude

and the selfishness of several players cost NCSU a national championship.

It also helped to further facilitate the spread of a deadly disease. State’s self-made disaster should have been a warning to all college athletes and coaches, yet exactly six months later, NC State was at the center of another major COVID controversy. This time, the Wolfpack football squad was denied a major bowl victory when a number of unvaccinated UCLA players tested positive, and the Bruins pulled out of the big game. As Yogi Berra said, it was déjà vu all over again, except that this was more egregious than the World Series fiasco.

The Wolfpack had arrived in San Diego five days ahead of the Holiday Bowl and, according to State coach Dave Doeren, his team was fully vaccinated and fully prepared. Not so, UCLA, who pulled out of the Bowl game four hours before kickoff, with Bruin coach Chip Kelly saying a number of his unvaccinated players had tested positive, and that his defensive

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unit was “decimated.” But Doeren and others have since suggested that Kelly knew days earlier of his team’s dilemma, and should have said something to Bowl officials and to State’s athletic director.

If that’s true, and if Kelly had been more transparent, then there would have been time for the Bowl committee to secure another opponent for NC State.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda. It’s all moot now. Sort of.

One important point lingers from this mess. Why in the hell didn’t UCLA mandate vaccinations for its players?

By now, all of the Bruin squad should have been fully vaccinated, including having received a booster to help protect against the effects of two different COVID variants. Failure to do so falls on the

Chancellor, athletic director, and coach, all of who should be fired. Short of that, the NCAA should put UCLA football on probation, and ban them from bowl competition for three years. The one consolation for State is that the NCAA eventually declared the game a forfeit, and awarded a victory and the trophy to the Wolfpack.

I don’t usually write about sports, but this incident has broader implications regarding the health and safety of all Americans.

The unvaccinated UCLA players are arrogant and reckless, and most likely also buy into some of the popular conspiracy theories, including that the government has embedded microchips into the vaccines so it can track our every movement. But I don’t need a microchip to tell me where the Bruins and other selfish anti-vaxxers are located. They’re all living in fantasy land, in the State of denial, and along Q Street, just to the right of all reason. !

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flicks

The Gardener

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Mark Burger

Contributor

he Gardener, a one-note action melodrama edited, produced, and codirected by Scott Jeffrey and Rebecca J. Matthews, is yet another entry in the Die Hard sweepstakes, detailing a home invasion in a remote manor located in

the English countryside. It’s the yuletide season, and the family has assembled to ring in the holidays.

Boy, they’re in for a surprise. The audience, however, isn’t. This is lowgrade fare, replete with CGI gunshots and standard-issue tough talk among the baddies as they raid the home, take hostages, and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

The mastermind behind this insidious, to say nothing of insipid, plot is Volker, a whispery martial-arts master played by B-movie veteran Gary Daniels, who here bears a resemblance to the British actor

Pups Alone If The Gardener takes its “inspiration” from Die Hard (1988), director Alex Merkin’s Pups Alone takes its from yet another holiday perennial, Home Alone (1990).

Indeed, given the title and basic storyline, one might get the impression it’s an “official” follow-up. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it can legitimately be said that Pups Alone is truly, unequivocally, a dog. Better the makers had stayed home — alone or not.

Tyler Hollinger plays the bespectacled, widowed inventor who has developed a

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dog collar that can translate barks into English. Isadora Swann (in her feature debut) plays his daughter, who feels neglected by Dad’s workaholic tendencies.

When they move into a new house, they meet nefarious neighbor Dolph Lundgren (!), himself a frustrated inventor who covets the collar for himself.

To this end, he taps his two bumbling henchmen to ransack his house — sound familiar? — and steal it. In this case, however, it’s not a mischievous kid who thwarts them but a clutch of canines.

Nicholas Turturro and Stelio Savante play the dimwit duo in embarrassing fashion, and the fact that Pups Alone runs almost 110 minutes makes it an endurance test for even the most tolerant viewer, no matter their age.

There’s no shortage of star power here, with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jerry O’Connell, Rob Schneider, Danny Trejo, and Malcolm McDowell (sporting a broad Cockney accent) lending their voices to the canine characters. The human contingent includes such reliable standbys as Eric Roberts (as Lundgren’s boss) and Keith David (billed as playing “The Friendly Bartender”), but there’s not much anybody can do. Pups Alone is a woeful endeavor, and the only surprise is Lundgren, hardly an actor known for his comedic chops, who clearly revels in a lighter-hearted change of pace. If he’s having fun, he’s the only one.

Pups Alone is available on-demand, on digital, and DVD ($14.99 retail) from Saban Films/Paramount Home Entertainment. !

See MARK BURGER’s reviews of current movies on Burgervideo.com. © 2022, Mark Burger.

David Warner. Actually, Daniels devotees will likely be disappointed, as he disappears for long stretches of time, until the inevitable climactic showdown.

The proverbial fly in the ointment is the title character, the dutiful estate gardener Peter Juhasz, who — surprise, surprise — turns out to be a retired but resourceful combat veteran whose skills come in mighty handy during the siege. Juhasz is played by the actor Robert Bronzi, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the late, great Charles Bronson.

Born Robert Kovacs, the Hungarianborn Bronzi is, like Bronson, implacable and imposing. He doesn’t waste many words, letting his actions speak for themselves, and like Bronson, he’s not a particularly emotive actor. Yet he does bring a blunt, simple sincerity to his role.

Further echoing the career of Charles Bronson, particularly in the latter stages of his screen career, Bronzi manages to emerge unscathed from The Gardener by sheer dint of his presence alone.

The Gardener is available on-demand, on digital, and DVD ($19.98 retail) from LionsGate Home Entertainment, the latter boasting bonus features. !

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Chuck Shepherd

Ever watched a cooking show and wished you could sample the finished product? A professor in Japan has created a prototype TV screen that you can lick to taste a particular food. It works by spraying

flavors on a film that rolls over the TV screen, Reuters reported. While such a product might seem misguided during a global pandemic, Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita sees it differently: “The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” he said. Miyashita said a commercial version could be made for about $875.

SCROOGE IS REAL

— Gina Sheldon of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, arrived home from Europe and opened her luggage to find $3,000 of gifts gone, WMUR-TV reported on Dec. 24. The items were “replaced with dog food, an old T-shirt, a shaving cream bottle,” Sheldon said; she believes those items were used because they look like a “real luggage product” when scanned. She had spent 11 days in Italy and a few in Paris and believes the switcheroo happened in the baggage area of Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris.

Sheldon had bought a leather jacket for her teenager and “these really cute leather wristlet band purses” for other family and friends. Delta Airlines and their partner Air France are looking into the incident.

— In this story, Scrooge is a hyperactive rodent with a bushy tail: The vendor who usually installs holiday lighting at Mears Park in St. Paul, Minnesota, declined to take the job this year after squirrels chewed through the wires in 2020, Lee Ann LaBore, co-chair of the Friends of Mears Park, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “Our vendor reuses the lights, and they can’t afford to ... have the squirrels destroy them again,” she said. Instead, this year organizers used a projector with kaleidoscopelike moving images of snowflakes. People “want to see the twinkly lights,” LaBore said. “Well, we can’t have twinkly lights. It was probably this or nothing.”

VIRTUAL REALITY

Pinellas County (Florida) sheriff’s deputies stopped a car at 4 a.m. on Dec. 18 for driving without its lights on, The Smoking Gun reported. They arrested the driver, Darius Owens, 27, for DUI and marijuana possession, but the real payoff came when they searched the car and passenger, Patrick Florence, 34. Under the Florence’s seat, they found a gun; wrapped around his penis, they discovered baggies holding methamphetamine and cocaine. Florence, who has many felony convictions, denied that the drugs were his, but he wouldn’t say who they belonged to. So many questions.

WEIRD CHRISTMAS TRADITION

Since 1966, the city of Gavle, Sweden, has erected a huge straw goat in its downtown square at Christmastime. The goats are pagan symbols that preceded Santa Claus as a bringer of gifts, the Associated Press reported. But in what has become an adjunct to the town’s tradition, the goats have been torched dozens of times during the past 55 years, including this year on Dec. 17. Police arrested a suspect in his 40s who had soot on his hands and matched a description from witnesses.

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THANK YOU, I THINK?

According to the Associated Press, Suyin Ting, collections manager for vertebrate paleontology at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, is retiring, so researchers in Alabama and South Carolina honored her with a unique gift: They named a prehistoric shark species after her. Carcharhinus tingae lived 40 million years ago and was identified using fossilized teeth in the museum’s collection. “I am very honored to be recognized by my peers for my work,” said Ting on Dec. 23, her retirement day.

LOVIN’ IT

McDonald’s locations in Guangdong and Shanghai, China, are testing new in-store seating: exercise bikes. A spokesperson said the bikes are part of McDonald’s Upcycle for Good initiative, which promotes sustainability, United Press International reported. They generate electricity, which customers can use to charge their devices.

Oh, and they help customers stay healthier while gobbling a Big Mac and fries.

THE CONTINUING CRISIS

— On Dec. 26, as bad weather kept Kristin Livdahl and her 10-year-old daughter inside, they looked for some fun challenges to do: “... laying down and rolling over holding a shoe on your foot,” for example, Livdahl explained on Twitter. But when the child asked Amazon’s Alexa for a challenge, Fox News reported, it suggested she plug a charger cord about halfway into a wall, then hold a penny against the exposed prongs. Fortunately, Livdahl was there with her and yelled, “’No, Alexa, no!’ like it was a dog,” she said. Later, Livdahl received an email from Amazon, apologizing for the incident and promising to follow up.

— It appears that red-winged parrots in Australia can’t hold their liquor, according to Broome Veterinary Hospital in Kimberley. It’s the end of mango season, and the ripe fruits are falling to the ground, where they ferment in the sun. The parrots indulge in the boozy treat — sometimes to their demise, ABC News reported. “A lot of them, unfortunately ... don’t make it to the clinic because they pass away before people find them,” said veterinarian Paul Murphy. It’s not just the alcohol that kills them, but drunken behavior; Murphy said they fly into windows and sit on the ground, where they’re vulnerable to predators. !

© 2022 Chuck Shepherd. Universal Press Syndicate.

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

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New Home for the New Year: Local agency assists immigrants settling in the Triad

M

ohammad Farid, 49, and his 20-yearold son Noman will begin 2022 in a new country after being forced to leave their home, family, and country to start over Naima Said in the States. Their story, similar to many other immigrant Contributor families throughout the Triad, not only highlights both their resilience and strength but the local agencies that worked diligently to make sure they had a place to call home.

“We are grateful to have been welcomed with such open arms since arriving, especially from our Greensboro community and Church World Services who have given us opportunities of comfortability and independence,” Noman, who worked

as a former volunteer translator on American military bases in Afghanistan, said.

Farid and his son found hope for a better life with their heads held high despite the challenges they faced.

Farid was born and raised in Afghanistan but decided to flee to Pakistan with his wife due to concerns about the Taliban’s growing power in the country. They stayed in Pakistan for 30 years before returning to Afghanistan around the time of the US invasion of the country.

“I was selling bicycles until 2001, when I got a job with International Medical Corps, a non-profit, as security assistance and driver,” Farid said.

Commenting on their unexpected and sudden decision to flee the country in 2021, Farid continued, “Noman had just graduated high school and received scholarships in the United States and Europe, so I knew he was going to leave us for a better education, but I didn’t think we would leave together under these circumstances.”

Farid took his son and stayed at Baran Camp, an American military base, for six days with hopes to evacuate. They left Kabul on August 19, 2021, feeling torn over the six million other Afghanis who showed up at the airport that day hoping to join them.

“It felt like something out of a movie. I couldn’t believe everything that was happening until we landed in Qatar, and even then, it took me ten days to grasp reality,” Noman shared. “We were in another camp, living off of MRE’s (Meals ReadyTo-Eat), which we were thankful for.”

After ten days in Qatar, Noman and his father traveled to Germany, where they were only supposed to stay for a few days in Ramstein but were delayed after someone contracted measles.

“I ended up getting 13 shots that day, all in the same arm since I didn’t want both my arms to endure the pain,” Noman said.

“Just when I thought everyone was finally cleared and we were going to the States, but not before some more chaos.”

As Farid and his son were boarding their plane, Noman was stopped at the security scanning area.

“The scanning process has three colors — red, yellow, and green. My father got the green light and was able to pass through without any issues, but my color came up red, and the next thing I knew I was being approached by a man in a dark suit, who I believe was FBI,” Noman said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I was a student.

I had to stay for 24 hours, while my father had to head to the States. I ended up staying for two days before I was finally informed, after continuous searching and silence, that there was a terrorist name with my picture on it. All my information was sent to DC, and if I was found clean, I could go on, and if I wasn’t I would be sent to Kosovo.”

Noman said the incident was a “misunderstanding” that was soon cleared up.

“I was cleared and on my way to Philadelphia, while 180 other Afghans were sent to Kosovo after background checks.

Volunteers welcome refugees at the airport

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Once in Philly, I was given a phone and sim card, then on the next plane to New Mexico where I was finally reunited with my father,” Noman said. “I had lost 20 lbs. during this entire process, and after my experiences in the other camps, the New Mexican camp was refreshing, and the first time I had Afghani food since I left.”

The Father and Son duo resided in Holloman, New Mexico for 30 days.

“I will never forget first arriving here. We touched down and all I saw was desert.

I thought I was home in Laghman for a second,” Farid said. “We stayed in a big tent with another family, but unfortunately, our neighbors had children, and the youngest cried all night.”

In the meantime, Noman began working with the state department as a translator, gaining connections and colleagues he remains in touch with today. “I enjoyed my time in Holloman, and wanted to serve a bigger purpose, but eventually it was my time to go,” Noman said. “We were moved to Texas, where my dad’s former boss lived, Tim Mcatee, who graciously invited us to come.”

The Farid family thought they had found their new home in Texas, but like many other resettled Afghan families, this was not the case.

“Four states in the U.S. — California, Washington, Virginia, and Texas — had become crowded with evacuees because every Afghan family wanted to live in the same state to stay united, but there wasn’t enough space or housing for everyone,” Noman said. “You have to remember, between August 15 to August 31, 65,000 Afghan evacuees came to the States.”

Once again, Farid and Noman found themselves packing to catch yet another flight. This time their final destination was Greensboro with a connecting flight through Atlanta.

“The International Organization for Migration contacted us and arranged the tickets that sent us to Atlanta. We had taken an orientation about air travel and maneuvering through the airport prior, but they did not teach us that sometimes flights get delayed, canceled, or information isn’t always shown. That was the first time we almost missed our flight in such a large airport with bullet trains transporting us from one side of the airport to the next,” Farid shared.

After enduring a long and tiring journey, the Farid family is eager to settle and start their lives in Greensboro, with positivity and compassion surrounding them.

“I’ll never forget being greeted by multiple people at the airport welcoming us home with signs and smiles. The first day we arrived I desperately needed a haircut, so I asked a random citizen if they WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

could point me in the right direction since I was new here and instead he handed me $20 and took me to his favorite spot as if we have known each other all our lives,” Noman said. “Although I feel I have found people here to call family, my heart will never stop hurting for the family I had to leave behind. I miss my mother, my brother, and my sister. I know hardships are only temporary, and God wouldn’t burden me with more than I could bear. I like to say that all of this I have been through is short difficulties of a bright future.”

A bright future that volunteers like Lorrie Nyland and her husband, Len, work hard to pour into.

Nyland, along with her husband, have been active volunteers for Church World Services for quite sometimes welcoming in all newcomers, including the Farid Family.

“I have been volunteering with CWS since 2016, helping to resettle refugees from a number of different countries. We are all human beings, and we need to help each other,” Nyland said. “I feel that the circumstances could so easily be reversed, and I hope and pray that if my family had to restart our lives in a different country, that other people would extend the hand of welcome and friendship.”

CWS is one of three local refugee resettlement agencies responding to the emergency evacuation of Afghans, with more than 50 individuals having arrived in the Triad over the last few months and expecting many more families soon.

“Our goal is to help our newcomers secure housing, get connected to various resources such as English classes, school, healthcare, and food, which has been graciously donated by Nazareth Bread Company. We also take pride in providing employment services to help people become economically self-sufficient, but our main goal is helping with long-term integration of refugees into our community,” said Megan Shepard, office director of CWS. Farid and his son plan to file for asylum and additional paperwork to bring the rest of their family here. In the meantime, they have recently moved into their new apartment, and Noman has accepted a job at CWS as a translator. He also plans to attend college in the near future as a political science major.

“A lot of people ask me how I learned English, and I joke around and tell them through Friends, not actual friends, but the show,” Noman shared.

For more information on CWS or to donate, visit www.cwsgreensboro.org. !

Families often meet together to enjoy meals

Families often go to hosted events to pick up food

NAIMA SAID is a 22-year-old UNCG theatre graduate and host of Heeere’sNeeNee Horror Movie Podcast.

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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Comic Book City’s oldest comics shop becomes its first Black-owned one Nine years after being officially designated “Comic Book City,” Greensboro has its first Black-owned comic book store.

Jermaine Exum, dubbed Lord Retail by award-winning Ian McDowell science fiction writer M. A. Foster, has been the public face Contributor of Acme Comics so long, some customers have assumed he owned the Triad’s oldest comics shop. But no, Mark Austin, who founded Acme on Greensboro’s then-desolate Elm Street in 1983, was its owner until September, when Austin sold it to his longtime manager Exum.

Exum kept that under his trademark hat until this week. He’s always been shy. When I reported in 2020 that he was heavily featured in Anthony Desiato’s award-winning 2019 documentary My Comics Shop County (available on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and YouTube), he couldn’t bear to watch it.

Over three months after buying Acme, he still hasn’t told most of his numerous friends.

“I held onto this for so long that, when the time came, I had to be convinced to say something,” he wrote in an email on Monday night. “That’s how I can be in matters regarding myself. I have many emails sitting in drafts to major comics creators like Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, Gail Simone, who played a role in my journey. I really need to send them. Time has been so weird in the Pandemic Era.” One of the very few creators he said anything to was former North Carolinian Tini Howard, who has written X-Men, Thanos, Conan, and Doctor Strange titles for Marvel, and just took over DC’s Catwoman last month.

“I happened to be sending an email about something else and I went ahead and said what was going on. She said ‘You’re going to really take an already amazing shop into the stratosphere, I just know it.’ That is both the plan and the challenge.”

Knowing how close-mouthed Exum can be, I reached out to a mutual friend, Flatline Comics’ co-publisher and artist YES! WEEKLY

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

Jermaine Exum Amanda Rachels (Vicious Circus, Amanda-Tory), whose honey-biscuit Alabama accent can be heard on the Ain’t No Such Thing: Original Southern Horror podcast.

Once over her surprise and joy, she gave the following quote: “Under Jermaine’s leadership, Acme Comics has set the gold standard for seasoned collectors and new comics readers alike. I’m absolutely thrilled for Lord Retail to live this well-deserved dream. Long may he reign!”

Exum first encountered comics in spinner racks at Bessemer Curb Market or

Waldenbooks at Four Seasons Mall. He doesn’t recall how he discovered Acme in the Elm Street space now occupied by Little Brother Brewing.

“An entire store of comics! The new stuff included Watchmen, the original twelve issues, so it was probably around 1988.”

Exum was a longtime regular when Acme moved off Elm Street.

“In 1996, a paying position opened up and I was recommended for it. I jumped almost immediately from clerk to assistant manager, then co-manager, then

manager. For a time, I oversaw both the Lawndale and the now-gone Gate City Boulevard locations. When someone asked if I was the owner, I’d say I only managed the place.”

He kept doing that until last week, when a first-time customer, looking for vintage issues of The Amazing SpiderMan, asked the old question. “I told him that for a very long time I answered that question a certain way, but that I would give a different answer for the very first time. It was a moment for me and I think he realized it, even though we’d never met before.”

When Acme changed hands in September, Exum didn’t immediately tell his parents.

“When I keep something secret, it stays a secret. They’d hoped something more would come someday. They saw the long hours, the missed family events. For years. But one reason I am where I am today is that I operated Acme as though I owned it from almost the very beginning. It was my name and face associated with the store as far as clientele, other retailers, publishers, and creators were concerned. I’m very, very happy that I was able to let my parents know that I was owner of Acme Comics and everyone was alive and well to experience the moment.”

Taking over a 39-year-old business is different from starting a new one.

“We have order history of product carried going back longer than many stores have been open. That’s data that we absolutely could not lose access to in the process of becoming a new entity. It was a challenge, but over the years, we have made many allies among other retailers far and wide, within the comics distribution industry, and right here in the local community. The people who knew what was happening moved heaven and earth to make the transition as smooth as possible. There were periods of uncertainty, but everything went well.

I believe this to have been an entirely unique experience.”

To congratulate Lord Retail, visit Acme Comics at 2150 Lawndale Drive. Check acmecomics.com for hours. !

IAN MCDOWELL is the author of two published novels, numerous anthologized short stories, and a whole lot of nonfiction and journalism, some of which he’s proud of and none of which he’s ashamed of.

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Loaded 16 Bars: UNCG professor teaches hip-hop, politics & Black poetry

Ian McDowell

Contributor

I saw a demon on my shoulder, it’s looking like patriarchy Like scrubbing blood off the ceiling and bleaching another carpet How my house get haunted? Why Toyin body don’t embody all the life she wanted?

The lyrics to Noname’s 2019 single “Song 33” are exactly the kind of politically-charged verses that Demetrius Noble will explore in his new class at UNC-Greensboro.

The lyrics reference the murder of Toyin Salau, who disappeared after tweeting she’d been raped by the man who drove her to the church where she sought refuge from “unjust living conditions.”

Better known as D. Noble, the adjunct African American & Diaspora Studies professor is an activist and scholar specializing in African American Literature, Black Class Antagonisms, and Popular Culture and Hip-Hop Studies. His work has been published in African American Review, Journal of Pan African Studies, Socialism & Democracy, The Journal of Black Masculinity, and many other print and digital journals.

Professor Noble told YES! Weekly that his upcoming Spring 2022 ADS 305 class, “Politics of Black Poetry & Rap,” is the fulfillment of a “daydream” he had cherished long before he ever envisioned himself teaching at the university level.

“After wrapping up my undergraduate experience as an African American literature minor, I remember thinking about all the ways that the canonical African American poets and writers were helping me better understand the rap music I was currently listening to. I often thought about how dope it would be to have a course that explicitly mapped out these parallels and explored them.”

He was delighted but not surprised when his department responded enthusiastically to his proposed class.

“The African American & Diaspora Studies department has always been very supportive of my ideas and courses and has encouraged me to think of new offerings that I would be interested in teaching.”

He said that he is fascinated by both the ways that rap and Black poetry intersect and diverge.

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Demetrius Noble

Noname Kanye West

“Whether they want to be burdened by this responsibility or not, Black writers have often been challenged with imbuing their work with political functionality that could address the material conditions and/or political aspirations of an exploited and oppressed people. We can interrogate whether Jay-Z’s pro-capitalist lyrics align with the revolutionary socialist poetry of Assata Shakur and the politics of the Black Panther Party amid his claims that he is the extension of Fred Hampton or ‘the soul’ of Mumia AbuJamal.”

Noble’s interests include how artists like DMX and Kendrick Lamar explore Christianity, which he intends to compare to how “God and the Black church are interrogated in the socialist poetry of Amiri Baraka and Langston Hughes.” This, said Noble, will result “in a larger theoretical exploration concerning the merits and limitations of Black Liberation Theology.”

He and his students will also examine how such artists as Megan Thee Stallion, Nikki Minaj, and Lil’ Kim complicate and push back against hip-hop’s “overwhelming misogynist” gender politics, and how “their sexual agency and performance of bodily autonomy invite us to think about

[Black feminist poet and activist] Audre Lorde’s use of the erotic.”

I asked him what preconceptions about rap he intends to deconstruct and dispel.

“A myth I want to debunk is that rap and rappers are inherently aligned with the material needs and political aspirations of the Black ghetto masses because most rappers once called the ghetto their home or rap about ‘ghetto life.’ I want to help my students develop a class analysis so they can effectively scrutinize the class politics of the rappers they love and the pro-capitalist messages of the music that we bop and dance to.”

The first rappers that Noble admired were Chuck D and Public Enemy. “Right now, I listen to a lot of underground street rap like Griselda (i.e., Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine and Benny the Butcher), Mach-Hommy, and Roc Marciano.”

I asked if he thinks it possible for rappers to be as influential as the writers of the Harlem Renaissance or the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s.

“I would love to see rap music have the same political impact as the 60s Black Arts Movement.” But he doesn’t think that will come from mega-rich artists and producers like Kanye West or Drake, who

he called “fundamentally opposed to the political and material needs of the Black working class.” Instead, Noble believes that hip-hop’s only hope of that kind of socio-economic impact is in “radical independent artists who are in lockstep with the most revolutionary and militant elements of Black activists and organizers.”

This brought us back to Noble’s admiration for Fatimah Nyeema Warner, professionally known as Noname (pronounced No Name), whose debut album Room 25 was greeted by critical acclaim in the fall of 2017, and who founded a book club she called a “fuck you” to both Amazon and the FBI COINTELLPRO program that targeted not only activists like Fred Hampton and Nelson Johnson, but Black bookstores.

“When I think about this possibility, I get really encouraged and inspired by a rapper like Noname, who I consider to be the epitome of what a Black revolutionary cultural worker is.” !

IAN MCDOWELL is the author of two published novels, numerous anthologized short stories, and a whole lot of nonfiction and journalism, some of which he’s proud of and none of which he’s ashamed of.

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[FACES & PLACES]

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AROUND THE TRIAD YES! Weekly’s Photographer

Thirsty Pallet 1.1.22 | Winston-Salem

Reboot Arcade Bar 1.1.22 | Winston-Salem

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hot pour PRESENTS

[BARTENDERS OF THE WEEK | BY NATALIE GARCIA] Check out videos on our Facebook!

BARTENDER: Michael Young BAR: Kabuto Japanese Steakhouse of Greensboro NC

Burke Street Pub 1.1.22 | Winston-Salem

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AGE: 29 WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Washington D.C. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BARTENDING? About 4 years HOW DID YOU BECOME A BARTENDER? We had a bartender suddenly leave at the time, and I already worked there as a server for a while, so I asked if I could fill in.

First day they taught me the basics.

Second day they threw me to the wolves and it was sink or swim. Haha WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT BARTENDING? Meeting different people from everywhere and making people happy.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DRINK TO MAKE? Straight shots...simple, easy and to the point.

WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AS AN AFTER-DINNER DRINK? A double shot of your favorite liquor.

WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN WHILE BARTENDING? People passing out and getting an ambulance called to come get them on a Monday night.

WHAT’S THE BEST TIP YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN? $200 for nothing just because it was the holidays.

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Citified reemerges with “Lie Like a Painter”

A

s a new year dawns, reemergence hangs in the air. And after a decade of slumber, Greensboro dreampop group, Citified, Katei Cranford has reemerged with a new album, “Lie Like a Painter,” out Contributor now on Fort Lowell Records.

The essence of Citified resides in the recording projects of Chris Jackson, who embarked on the endeavor in the mid-’00s as a means to funnel songs that didn’t fit the mold of his alt-rock outfit, Lookwell. A self-admitted “sucker for delay and reverb,” Jackson began his pursuit toward more sonic texture with a drum machine off eBay, an Alesis HR-16, which, as he noted, is “still in use to this day.”

Taking the name from his song, “Going Places,” Citified ultimately filled out into four-piece and back again, with the new album presenting “a collection of songs that have lain fallow for some time.”

As the years have melted, these songs “breathe new life into a discography already on solid footing.”

Pulling from a foundation of influences including Echo And The Bunnymen, Let’s Active, R.E.M’s “Murmur,” “The Soft Bulletin” from The Flaming Lips, and even the old Greensboro band Slowchange Madagascar, the album’s eight-tracks ring of winter. Tinny, cold, and blustering — the echoey-fog of Casio keyboards glisten like frost on a windowpane. Underwater vocals and driving drums give the feel of thunder passing, a concept illustrated by the cover, a photo Jackson took in the Tanger Outlet Center parking lot while “waiting for a storm to blow over.”

It’s a notion carried into the material, notably so in the second single, “Sleep Sound,” which as Jackson explained, “is about putting our beloved orange tabby cat, Benny, down. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album, but I still have a hard time listening to it.”

Spanning years of songwriting, the first single, “Must Forget,” lingers from what Jackson calls his “Lookwell” era. As Citified enters a new era for itself, he recalled the origins (heavily guided by Guided By Voices) at Duck Kee Studio in Mebane. “I YES! WEEKLY

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

had a handful of songs we weren’t playing in Lookwell and took them to Jerry Kee,” he said, dropping Kee’s work with Polvo, Superchunk, and the Strugglers.

Initially, a solo-endeavor, as Citified solidified, Jackson needed a band to push the songs. “In order to promote the self-titled album, a group was formed with Franklin Kane on bass, Eric Ussery on drums, and Diego Diaz on guitar,” he explained. “Over the next several years we toured up and down the east coast and recorded two additional albums ‘The

Meeting After The Meeting’ (2008) and ‘Absence’ (2009).”

Notions of reemergence abound, with Citified having hosted their previous album release for “Absence” at the old Flat Iron in 2009. “It’s a favorite venue,” Jackson admitted, “but I’ve yet to see a show in the newly renovated space.”

Regarding the new record, “Like Like a Painter,” was recorded at OPOTW, the space of which has reemerged with a new

group as etc. “It took shape similar to the first Citified release,” he explained of the album. “I brought a batch of demos to Randy Seals at the now-defunct On Pop Of The World Studios in Greensboro, with the end result being a combination of new recordings and existing demos.” Seals pulled “double-duty” on drums; meanwhile, Jackson tapped Lookwell bassist, Jason Kennedy, for his assistance in that sonic arena.

Jackson eventually shared the finished product with Kim Ware of Eskimo Kiss Records. “Kim was always very supportive,” he said of Ware, who founded the late-90s Wilmington label (which housed catalogs for both Lookwell and Citified).

Eskimo Kisses folded around 2010; but Citified retained their coastal connection, joining the Wilmington-based Fort Lowell Records label for the new release. The process of which Fort Lowell head, James Tritten (a former member of the Eskimo Kiss fold) defines as something of a family affair.

“Fort Lowell Records had recently released ‘capital R’ for Kim’s band, the Good Graces,” Tritten explained. “My own band, Audio Explorations, along with my wife, Tracy Shedd (Teen-Beat), were both on Eskimo Kiss Records, and Kim knew that Tracy and I were huge fans of all things Chris Jackson.” Recalling “literally taking every Citified album with us on every Tracy Shedd tour we ever took,” Tritten considers Citified, “absolutely essential listening for the long drives.”

In 2021, Ware reached out to Fort Lowell with the new tracks, “and the rest is history,” Tritten said. “It’s easily been one of our favorite projects to work on.

And such an honor to have Citified as part of the Fort Lowell Records family.”

With the new record and a new label, Jackson is content with a simple release, for now. “No shows are currently scheduled,” he said, “but we’ll see what the new year brings.”

“Lie Like a Painter” is out now on Fort Lowell Records. !

KATEI CRANFORD is a Triad music nerd who enjoys spotlighting artists and events.

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HOME GROWN MUSIC SCENE | Compiled by Austin Kindley

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CMCU AMPHITHEATRE former Uptown Amphitheatre 820 Hamilton St | 704.549.5555 www.livenation.com Apr 20: Modest Mouse May 16: Leon Bridges Jun 5: Barenaked Ladies

THE FILLMORE

1000 NC Music Factory Blvd | 704.916.8970 www.livenation.com Jan 8: Wooli Jan 11: Allen Stone Jan 14: Anderson East Jan 15: Sainted feat. DJ Fannie Mae Jan 18: Motion City Soundtrack Jan 21: Two Friends Jan 25: Set It Off Jan 27: Cheat Codes Jan 28: Tenille Townes Feb 1: YUNGBLUD Feb 1: BIGBABYGUCCI Feb 5: Subtronics Feb 6: Mammoth WVH & Dirty Honey Feb 8: MUNA Feb 10: K.Flay

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Jan 27: Tig Notaro Jan 28: Ashley McBryde Jan 29: Whitney Cummings Feb 3: Alan Parsons Live Project Feb 5: Shana Tucker Feb 9: Pat Metheny Side-Eye Feb 10: Al Strong & Trio

SPECTRUM CENTER

123 Vivian St | 919.680.2787 www.dpacnc.com Jan 12-13: Tom Segura Jan 14: Jo Joy Jan 16: Boyz II Men Jan 18: Erasure Jan 22: Trey Kennedy Jan 28-30: RENT Jan 31: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Feb 1: The Choir of Man

707 Pavilion Blvd | 704.549.1292 www.livenation.com Apr 30: Jimmy Buffet May 8: AJR - The OK Orchestra Tour May 12: Tim McGraw May 24: Foo Fighters May 29: Nick Cannon 333 E Trade St | 704.688.9000 www.spectrumcentercharlotte.com Jan 16: Trevor Noah Feb 6: Billie Eilish Feb 10: Jeff Dunham

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CAROLINA THEATRE

309 W Morgan St | 919.560.3030 www.carolinatheatre.org Jan 9: The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle Jan 15: Donna Washington Jan 16: Citizen Cope Jan 24: The Movement

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Jan 8: Reliably Bad Jan 14: Cruz Contreras Jan 21: Jim Lauderdale Mar 4: Della Mae

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BaRn DinnER ThEaTRE

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ThE BLinD TigER

1819 Spring Garden St | 336.272.9888 www.theblindtiger.com Jan 7: Camel City Yacht Club Jan 8: Maiden Voyage Jan 18: inhuman Condition w/ Crusadist Jan 20: Pressing Strings Jan 28: The Breakfast Club Feb 10: Big Mountain w/ Mighty Mystic

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310 S. Greene Street | 336.333.2605 www.carolinatheatre.com Jan 9: Doug Baker

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FLaT iRon

221 Summit Ave | 336.501.3967 www.flatirongso.com Jan 9: The hit w/ Chuck Pinckney Jan 16: The hit w/ Chuck Pinckney Jan 23: The hit w/ Chuck Pinckney

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5211 A West Market St | 336.763.2020 www.garagetaverngso.com Jan 7: Daniel Love Jan 8: Cory Luetjen Blues Travelers Band Jan 13: Michael Leonard Jan 14: Chad & Dom Duo Jan 15: The Stephen Legree Band Jan 20: Jamie Pruitt Jan 21: Brothers Pearl Band Jan 22: Wishful Thinking Band Jan 27: Big Bump Jan 28: gipsy Danger Band Jan 29: Retrovinyl Band

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gREEnSBoRo CoLiSEuM 1921 W Gate City Blvd | 336.373.7400 www.greensborocoliseum.com Feb 4: Ricardo Montaner Feb 5: no Limit Reunion Tour Feb 9: Chris Tomlin Feb 11: Billy Strings Feb 12: Mike Epps

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2411 W Gate City Blvd | 336.373.7400 www.greensborocoliseum.com Feb 12: andy gross

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STEVEn TangER CEnTER

300 N Elm Street | 336.333.6500 www.tangercenter.com Jan 14: Leanne Morgan Jan 15: The Texas Tenors Jan 21-23: Porgy and Bess feat. Rhiannon giddens Jan 25: Steve Martin

ThE iDioT Box CoMEDY CLuB

503 N. Greene St | 336.274.2699 www.idiotboxers.com Jan 8: Maddie Wiener Jan 15: Brad Tassell Jan 22: Ryan Bender Jan 27: Mo alexander Jan 29: Paul hooper Feb 5: Cabell Wilkinson Feb 12: Robert Baril Feb 12: Eric Brown Feb 16: Drew harrison Mar 5: J Bliss

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1232 N Main St | 336.807.1476 www.sweetoldbills.com Jan 6: Big Bump and the Stun gunz Jan 13: Broad Street Blues Band Jan 20: Ladies auxiliary Jan 27: Matt Walsh’s Blue Revue Feb 3: Shiela’s Traveling Circus

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JAMESTOWN

KERNERSVILLE

THE DECK

118 E Main St | 336.207.1999 www.thedeckatrivertwist.com Jan 6: Jamie Pruitt and Coia Jan 7: Retro Vinyl Jan 8: Wesley Bryan Band Jan 13: Kelsey Hurley Jan 14: Jukebox Revolver Jan 15: Jill Goodson Jan 20: Wesley Bryan Jan 21: Patrick Rock Jan 22: Stereo Doll Jan 27: Renae Paige

Best Nightlife in the Triad!

BREATHE COCKTAIL LOUNGE

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RED HAT AMPHITHEATER 500 S McDowell St | 919.996.8800 www.redhatamphitheater.com May 7: AJR Jun 16: Cody Johnson Jul 16: Barenaked Ladies

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BURKE STREET PUB 1110 Burke St | 336.750.0097 www.burkestreetpub.com Tuesdays: Trivia

MIDWAY MUSIC HALL

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170 W 9th St | 336.754.9714 www.theramkat.com Jan 7: Men In Black Jan 8: Donna the Buffalo Jan 13: Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs, Sarah Sophia Jan 14: Spirit System, Ships In The Night, Buried in Roses Jan 15: Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute Jan 20: Bad Dog, Unknown Nobodies, The Camel City Blackouts

WISE MAN BREWING

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last call

[THE ADVICE GODDESS] love • sex • dating • marriage • questions

TRUTH ACHE

I spent an entire Sunday with a really cute guy I met through a dating app.

We kissed a bit, and I stayed over at his place (though I said no sex). Things felt weird Monday mornAmy Alkon ing, so I texted to see whether we were Advice still on for dinner. He asked to push it to Goddess Tuesday, but I had a conflict and asked whether the weekend would work. He never responded. That weekend, I saw him out with guy friends, but he basically ignored me. I got him alone and asked him to go home with me. He declined. “Just for tonight or forever?” I asked. He said, “Just tonight.”

That was the last I heard from him, and I’m going crazy trying to figure this out. —No Closure If you really, really need closure, date a door.

It’s normal to want closure: defined by psychologist Arie Kruglanski as “an answer on a given topic, any answer.” We’re deeply disturbed by “confusion and ambiguity” — a cloudy mess of unanswered questions — and we feel driven (and even desperate) to replace it with a solid brick wall of facts.

A practical (though admittedly cuckoosounding) solution might be trying to fire up a quirk of the mind psychologist Elizabeth Loftus calls the “imagination inflation effect”: our tendency to convert events we imagine and then repeatedly recall into

“false memories” we come to believe are the real deal.

These invented memories tend to be “stickier” when they include rich detail, like the guy — reeking of BO! — hanging his head and confessing he weenied out of admitting it was “goodbye forever.”

Don’t forget to script his explanation — ideally something torment-avenging and wounded ego-soothing. My suggestion: Despite your radiant beauty and extreme awesomeness, he’ll need approximately 65.3 years of therapy before he’ll be ready for a relationship.

If, after giving this tactic a good repetitive try, your mental hellscape hasn’t faded substantially, there’s an alternative approach: accepting there are things we just can’t know and shifting out of the “WHYWHYWHY?!” by, say, reciting the alphabet backward or shifting into preplanned healthy replacement thoughts.

The unfortunate reality: Closure should be considered a self-service item, as you can’t control what others say or do — though you could make serious headway by kidnapping and torturing them till they talk. Of course, I’m not advising this — though, to be fair, it can lead to some major benefits: both in the form of answers and in being rewarded for your troubles with an all-expense-paid cozy new home...uh, in SuperMax.

BARKING BAD

I read your response to “Conflicted” (the woman dating a guy so needy he wanted her to ditch all her friends and spend every minute with him). I suggest you tell her it’ll never work out and she should date someone else. —Advice From 60-Something Male

answers [CROSSWORD] crossword on page 11

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themselves: giving them the psychological and behavioral chops they need to render me unnecessary! I typically retell the story they’ve told me in ways I hope will help them gain perspective — that is, understand what they’re going through and why.

I then lay out a set of tools — ways they might tweak their thinking and behavior — in hopes of empowering them to dig themselves out.

Basically, my column is the advice version of that well-worn fish saying — uh, as I like to rewrite it: Give a woman a fish and she’ll have dinner. Teach a woman to fish and she’ll have dinner for a lifetime...

OR — let’s be honest — because my column and I are big on realism: She’ll order her fish dinner in a Paris bistro, poring over photos of a fabulous Chanel fly-casting suit and sketching out her plot to rob the Louvre to pay for it. !

Telling people what to do is necessary in certain situations, like when it’s a more successful battle strategy than “You do you!”: dispatching the troops to engage in the military version of interpretive dance.

However, in general, direct advice — “Do this!” or “Do that!” — tends to backfire bigtime, revving up a state psychologist Jack Brehm calls “psychological reactance.” “Reactance” describes our fear-driven freakout — our reaction — when we perceive a threat to our freedom to do as we choose. We go on the defensive — rebel against being controlled— typically by doing whatever we were doing...only longer, stronger, and louder.

Understanding this is why I’m an advice columnist who specializes in NOT giving advice. I use hedgy-wedgy language like “you might” and “you could” that leaves big wide-open spaces for personal choice.

Accordingly, instead of telling this woman, “Dump Mr. Needypants pronto!” I offered reasons the two MIGHT be a bad match. I also identified potential stumbling blocks — like being a “My needs last!” habitual “pleaser” — and suggested practical steps she could take to kick them out of the way.

My ultimate goal is helping people help

GOT A PROBLEM? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave., #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com). Follow her on Twitter @amyalkon. Order her latest “science-help” book, Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence. ©2022 Amy Alkon. Distributed by Creators.Com.

TR ASURE The

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ADULT ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS BAR & CLUB

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