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“Bars and nightclubs have been really important to the LGBTQ COMMUNITY over the years,” said David Gwynn. “Historically, their function has been somewhat akin to that of church in the African-American community, a place for dissemination of information and activism.” — “Stonewall is an example of that kind of activism,” said Stacey Krim, “but they were also safe social spaces going back to before the Greensboro Gay Purge of 1957 when the sheriff targeted the gay community, and you could be arrested at your workplace just because he had received a tip that you were gay.”

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Unfortunately, the teachings of Fletcher and Franklin are lost on those of us who keep RE-ELECTING THE SAME PEOPLE over and over again, without any regard for the power that they amass, or the dangers and inefficiencies of the government that they run. 5 This Saturday marks a milestone in the history of Winston-Salem – and, indeed, the state of North Carolina – as the SOUTHEASTERN CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART (SECCA) marks its 65th birthday with a bash befitting its status as one of the region’s premier destinations for art and culture. 6 While all of the Triad Pride parades may have been canceled or postponed, the idea of PRIDE ITSELF remains in the area and is the reason why most events were changed to a later date. “To put people in an uncomfortable and unsafe situation and call it a celebration where you almost have to be on-guard isn’t what Pride is. “ 8 You’ve probably heard of GREENSBORO PRIDE – the large festival that

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takes over South Elm Street in Downtown Greensboro each September, bringing in performances, vendors, and thousands of attendees. 9 With the Halloween season looming, the WREAK HAVOC HORROR FILM FESTIVAL is set to get things going in typically scream-filled fashion, as the seventh annual festival opens Friday at Marketplace Cinemas, 2095 Peters Creek Parkway, Winston-Salem. 14 EDWARD BURLANDO, called Sir Edward to his former students, moved to North Carolina for an affair of the heart. “Now that I’m out of the closet at 78, I can put it plainer,” he told me and photographer Ciara Kelly when we visited his garden tribute to Pride and the Wicked Witch. 20 Greensboro glitz-pop duo SIDEPONY is riding the sunset of their “Summer” EP, saddling up for the release of “Fall,” and rounding out their full band incarnation—all the while hosting a weekly radio show pushing tunes from queer and marginalized artists over the airwaves on WUAG 103.1.FM.

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DISTRIBUTION JANICE GANTT ANDREW WOMACK We at YES! Weekly realize that the interest of our readers goes well beyond the boundaries of the Piedmont Triad. Therefore we are dedicated to informing and entertaining with thought-provoking, debate-spurring, in-depth investigative news stories and features of local, national and international scope, and opinion grounded in reason, as well as providing the most comprehensive entertainment and arts coverage in the Triad. YES! Weekly welcomes submissions of all kinds. Efforts will be made to return those with a self-addressed stamped envelope; however YES! Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. YES! Weekly is published every Wednesday by Womack Newspapers, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. Copyright 2021 Womack Newspapers, Inc.

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ack in the 1960s, Fletcher’s Castoria ran a TV ad that compared the benefit of their laxative versus the number of prunes you’d have Jim Longworth to eat each day to stay regular. It asked the question, “Is Longworth three enough? Is six at Large too many?” Prunes aside, that commercial said a lot about common sense limits, and it harkened back to Benjamin Franklin’s suggestion that we do everything in moderation. Of course, there’s a difference between setting limits that only affect our own lives, versus those that affect everyone. And that brings me to politics. Unfortunately, the teachings of Fletcher and Franklin are lost on those of us who keep re-electing the same people over and over again, without any regard for the power that they amass, or the dangers and inefficiencies of the government that they run. Here in North Carolina, for example, there are twice as many Democrats and Unaffiliated voters than there are registered Republicans. Yet thanks to gerrymandering, Republicans control the State legislature and have been free to pass a number of laws that are prejudicial to Democrats, Blacks, the LGBTQ community, and even to smalltown newspapers. The only way to break this cycle of repression and suppression is to allow every citizen to vote on a Constitutional Amendment that would limit the terms of state lawmakers. In the meantime, we also need to put limits on the number of days the General Assembly is allowed to be in session, and restore the concept of a part-time citizen legislature. The North Carolina General Assembly has been in session since January, and, as of a few days ago, they still had not finalized a budget, allocated the surplus, or re-drawn district voting lines. Not only that, but, as columnist Tom Campbell noted recently, it costs taxpayers about $850,000 per month just to keep the

session running. That’s almost $7.7 million dollars we’ve spent for these politicians to spar with one another and accomplish very little. But isn’t that pretty much normal for every State? No, it’s not. Currently, 39 of the 50 States have Constitutional Amendments in place that limit the number of days their legislators can be in session. Most often those limits are in the 60 to 90-day range, unlike North Carolina, which allows our lawmakers to stick around Raleigh like ticks on a hound. Nevertheless, our legislature is still considered to be a part-time body, as opposed to those that are full-time, such as California, New York, and eight other states. According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) lawmakers in the ten full-time states spend 84% of their time on the job, and are paid an average of $82,000. That compares to legislators in part-time states like North Carolina, who spend 74% of their time on the job and are paid an average of $41,000. In that sense, I suppose we’re getting a bargain, but the point is that we don’t need our elected State officials to spend so much time on legislative business. Not only do most states have limits on the number of days their legislators can meet, some states only meet every other year, so we know it’s possible for elected officials to get their work done in a shorter amount of time. When they don’t, then we pay the price, and in more ways than one. Without reduced length of sessions and term limits on State lawmakers, we are condoning a system of government that creates and sustains pockets of legislative power where the leadership’s main goal is to remain in power. Of course, that can be rectified by imposing limits. Are two terms enough? Are six too many? We can argue over the details, but for my money, too many terms can have the same result as too many prunes. ! JIM LONGWORTH is the host of Triad Today, airing on Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. on ABC45 (cable channel 7) and Sundays at 11 a.m. on WMYV (cable channel 15).

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SECCA celebrates 65 years of art, history, and community

his Saturday marks a milestone in the history of Winston-Salem – and, indeed, the state of North Carolina – as the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) marks its 65th birthday with a bash befitting its status as one of the region’s premier destinations for art and culture. Mark Burger The festivities begin at 6 p.m. on the back lawn of SECCA (750 Marguerite Drive), featuring a live Contributor concert by Bowerbirds, Southerninspired and locally-sourced dinner prepared by Y’all Supper Club, history-inspired cocktails by Ginger Fox Beverage, an afterparty with dessert and deejay Jonathan Kirby, and a few surprises in store for guests. General admission is $25, which includes concert admission and the after-party, and VIP tickets are $100, which includes dinner, an open bar, and a limited edition, collectible poster commemorating SECCA’s 65th birthday. Due to safety mandates regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, guests are required to wear masks while indoors at SECCA. SECCA was founded as the Winston-Salem Gallery of Fine Arts in Old Salem in 1956. Following his death in 1972, James G. Hanes bequeathed his home to the gallery, and the newly christened SECCA moved to its new location in 1977. The facility was further expanded and renovated in 1990 and has since hosted countless art exhibitions, concerts, live theatre, film screenings, and parties. The latest album by Bowerbirds, “becalmyounglovers,” is Phil Moore’s first Bowerbirds album since 2012 and WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

explores Moore’s own experiences and perceptions during the fundamental changes of life. Having essentially ceased recording and touring, Moore became a father but parted from long-time partner and Bowerbirds collaborator Beth Tacular. These changes inspired “becalmyounglovers.” The album was six years in the making, with Moore working alongside Bon Iver drummer Matt McCaughan, Alex Bingham (of Hiss Golden Messenger and T-Gold), and Mipso multi-instrumentalist Libby Rodenbough, with additional group vocals by Chessa Rich, and Mipso veterans Joseph Terrell and Wood Robinson, and drums were recorded by Ari Picker (of Dante High and Lost in the Trees) at Goth Construction Studio in Chatham County. SECCA has also launched its new concert series, Southern Idiom, which celebrates the diverse musical artistry of performers and bands based in Winston-Salem. The next concert, featuring Victoria Victoria, an independent pop band fronted by singer/songwriter Tori Elliott, is scheduled for Oct. 23rd at SECCA’s lake stage. Another concert series, Night Moods, was inaugurated last weekend with Body Games, featuring rising star Flower in Bloom. The next Night Moods concert, scheduled for Nov. 13th, will feature one-man electronic pop sensation Sengoko (formerly known as T0W3RS), which local shoegaze veteran Mauve Angeles (of Spirit System), opening the show. The Night Moods concerts will be held on the outdoor terrace of the historic Hanes House. “We’ve been ruminating on these series’ for a while,” said Philip Pledger, SECCA’s director of marketing and creator of both concert series’. “Since the very beginning, SECCA’s mission has been to offer a front-row seat to ‘The Art of Our Time.’ We’re excited to put a musical lens on that mission, and hopefully introduce SECCA to new audiences.”

“SECCA pushed through the pandemic thanks in large part to the wonderful support of our members and community neighbors,” said Bill Carpenter, executive director of SECCA. “The state of North Carolina, particularly the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, provided much-needed financial support as well. We used the time to do some much-needed renovations and repairs, and to get our exhibitions and events calendars planned out into the future. “SECCA has long been an alternative third-space for Winston-Salem and the (Piedmont) Triad, a place that brings fresh and unexpected ideas to life,” he added. “That it does so while supporting the many facets of the arts economy is perhaps its greatest legacy.” The Southern Idiom exhibition series, which was launched in 2017 to celebrate Winston-Salem’s visual artists, has showcased the works of nearly two dozen local artists. The current Southern Idiom exhibition, featuring the printmaking works of Barbara Mellin, opened in September and will remain on display through Oct. 17th. In SECCA’s Community Gallery, the exhibition “Remembering Jim Moon,” which commemorates the life and work of the North Carolina artist and educator Jim Moon (1928-2019), who taught at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) and Salem College, opened in September and will remain on display through Jan. 2, 2022. ! See MARK BURGER’s reviews of current movies on Burgervideo.com. © 2021, Mark Burger.

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For more information or tickets, call (336) 725-1904 or visit the official SECCA website: https://secca.org. For a complete listing of SECCA’s events calendar, visit https://secca.org/calendar-full.php. SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 5, 2021

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Still Prideful but cautious: Triad Pride events changed out of safety While all of the Triad Pride parades may have been canceled or postponed, the idea of Pride itself remains in the area and is the reason why most events were changed to a later date. “To put people in an Chanel Davis uncomfortable and unsafe situation and call it a celebration Editor where you almost have to be on-guard isn’t what Pride is. Isn’t what Pride is supposed to be,” said Brian Coleman, chair of the Greensboro Pride committee. “Pride is supposed to be a safe space for an individual to be able to express themselves and be who they are without prejudice or judgment. Safe is the keyword there.” Following the example of other national events and organizations in the LGBTQIA+ community, the Greensboro Pride decided to cancel its 2021 in early September. This year’s event was slated to celebrate the festival’s 15th anniversary, which was postponed from last year due to COVID-19. On Friday, September 3, a press release was sent out: “It is with heavy hearts that the board of Alternative Resources of the Triad (ART), the 501(c)3 nonprofit that produces Greensboro Pride, has decided to cancel their 2021 festival due to the uptick in COVID cases in our area. The festival was scheduled for Sunday, September 19, 2021. With the community we serve already dealing with many autoimmune disorders, it would be irresponsible of Greensboro Pride to continue to hold an event that could become a super spreader. The board held an emergency meeting on Thursday, September 2, 2021, to make the decision. All Pridesponsored events are canceled as well. Coleman said several variables eventually led to the decision to postpone the festival including rising COVID numbers and the disproportionate impact to the Black and Brown community, the cancellation of other events, and the will of those to travel to events, and the mandatory police presence. “You have to ball all of that up and make a decision on what is best for our anticipated crowd of 30,000 people. It seemed that if certain issues couldn’t get dissolved, for example, why couldn’t the city give us an exact number of how many police officers would be on the street? We had the street but the sidewalks were public domain. We understood closing the street had to YES! WEEKLY

be done by the police and that’s all of the involvement that we asked for,” Coleman said. “The COVID percentage was going up and was disproportionately affecting the LGBTQ community and inside of that the effects it was having on the Black and Brown community. All while folks in North Carolina and our surrounding areas have different attitudes toward vaccination.” While all sponsored events are off, supporters can still celebrate with a brew until it runs out. In partnership with Little Brother Brewing, located at 348 South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro, ART announced the #GSOPride beer. The hyperlocal beer has flavors of Mango Passion Fruit Gose’. The #GSOPride Beer went on sale on Sept. 13th and is available at Little Brother Brewing Greensboro, Bearded Goat, Mellow Mushroom Greensboro, The Bodega, Gate City Growlers, Beer Co, and Goofy Foot Brewing. Greensboro Pride is planning to bring the festival back to the city on Sept. 18, 2022. Coleman said that the festival is evolving. What started as Triad Pride in 2006 with 400 attendees and a handful of vendors has grown to an event that takes up almost three city blocks of Downtown, has both local and corporate promoters, almost 200 vendors, and more than 200,000 people. “We’ve come leaps and bounds from where it originally started. We’ll go through another evolution here very soon and hopefully become more in-tune with families,” Coleman said. “It’s become a very familyfriendly event.” While some people have had their opinion about whether or not Pride should’ve continued, Coleman said that he’s received pretty good feedback and that sponsors are happy with the organization’s decision. “People were appreciative of us putting the community safety and wellbeing before the event,” he said. “You have to take on a certain responsibility to your community.”

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Kandi Villano of Pride Winston-Salem concurs with Coleman that the responsibility is a tall order, one that the agency could not have been responsible for with its highly-anticipated numbers. “The variant levels were so high and we didn’t know we’d manage whether or not more than 50,000 people were masked in downtown Winston-Salem. That’s an awful lot of people to make sure they wear their masks,” she said. “We don’t have a fence or anything like that. It’s a free event so it was best to do what was needed for our community. This variant is not playing and we’ve already lost a few members of our community to it.” Pride Winston-Salem announced its cancellation via its social media pages on Thursday, Sept. 2 with a letter explaining not only why but a line-up for when next year’s events will also be held. The statement read as follows: The Board of Directors of Pride WinstonSalem has made the difficult but necessary decision to postpone the Pride WinstonSalem Festival and Parade and the Pride Winston-Salem Trans Pride Festival that were scheduled in October until Saturday, June 18, 2022. The Pride Winston-Salem Trans Pride Festival has been rescheduled for April 2, 2022. This will be the first time in Pride Winston-Salem’s history that our Festival & Parade will take place during the Official Pride Month of June. Several factors led us to make this decision, however, it was our guiding principle of creating a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community and what the current effects of the COVID-19 Delta variant would have on the community, attendees and volunteers...We know that this decision is disappointing, however the opportunity to celebrate Pride in Winston-Salem during the official Pride Month of June is exciting! …. For the remainder of 2021, there will be no in-person Pride Winston-Salem events. Currently in development is virtual programming that we will be running in October,

right around the time we would have had the Festival & Parade. Stay tuned for more information! Pride Winston-Salem scheduled its Mr. and Miss Pride Winston-Salem Pageant and 2022 Kickoff Party for Jan. 8, 2022, the Pride Winston-Salem Trans Pride Festival for April 2, 2022, and the Pride Winston-Salem Festival and Parade for June 18, 2022. Villano said that the organization was diligent in choosing a rescheduled date in June, a month nationally recognized for Pride. Typically, the event is held in October so that participants can visit other celebrations and not be impacted by the summer heat. “We’ve had some great feedback because it is Pride month. Our sponsors were on board and appreciated the fact that we let them know what was going on and why,” Villano said. “If you think about it, we have a large piece of our community that is either immune-compromised or in the process of transitioning. Whatever the situation is, we didn’t want to put them in that predicament. As we know, the pandemic has changed everything, so we are going to do it in 2022 and see what the response is.” In mid-September, the official High Point Pride Team decided to cancel its pride festivities as well. They released the following statement: “We are sad to report that we have decided to cancel High Point pride this year due to Covid. We think it’s important we follow in the footsteps of other triad prides and we will be joining them in their effort to keep the triad safe and healthy. We want to do what’s in the best interest of our community and for that reason, we think it would be best to postpone pride until 2022! We hope to see you all at next year’s High Point Pride event! Stay safe out there! -HP Pride team.” One thing that seems to be the same across the Triad is the idea that pride will abound in 2022, bigger and better. “We’re going to have an awesome pride next year. It probably won’t look much different but we hope it will be bigger since we get another year to work and plan,” Coleman said. “Hopefully, the anticipation will make people want to get involved, not just the day of, but in the organization itself, as we restructure and ensure that Greensboro Pride and Alternative Resources of the Triad are sitting at the table with all of our letters. We want to reach out to those communities that are in need and lift up those that need to be lifted up.” ! 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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Pride for everyone in Greensboro SUBMITTED BY ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES OF THE TRIAD AND GREENSBORO PRIDE You’ve probably heard of Greensboro Pride – the large festival that takes over South Elm Street in Downtown Greensboro each September, bringing in performances, vendors, and thousands of attendees. What you might not know is that the Greensboro Pride Festival is put on by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Alternative Resources of the Triad, or ART for short. ART started out in 1988 and far precedes the Greensboro Pride Festival. ART began in the pre-internet days as a resource for the LGBTQ Community. It was a phone hotline (remember those?) that people could call to find doctors, attorneys, and other resources who would work with the LGBTQ community here in the Triad. Back in the 1980s, it was the main way for members of the LGBTQ community to find this information. The growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s made the phone hotline unnecessary. The hotline was discontinued in November 2003. At the time, it was deemed the Internet would

be a better way to handle these queries as a 24/7 web presence, first as OutGreensboro.com, then as OutTriad.org. ART produced the first Triad Pride Festival in August 2006 at what was then called Festival Park (now LeBauer Park) in downtown Greensboro. That festival brought in a handful of vendors and about 400 attendees. It has since grown to become the festival it is today, with more than 160 vendors, 40+ performances, community organizations, and between 15,000-20,000 attendees in 2019 (the last year we held the festival, due to COVID-19). Today, the Greensboro Pride Festival is the main focus of ART and the name by which our organization is known. We love that people come from across the state – even other states – to attend our festival and have an opportunity to be their true selves. We hold our festival in September so that the college students can participate, as this might be the only chance they get to experience a Pride event for themselves, as themselves. But once again, as we did nearly 20 years ago, we find ourselves at a crossroads with an opportunity for change.

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We realize we have not been as open to the BIPOC members of our community as we should have. We have not been as active in the community overall as we should have. We have not stood up for rights and needs in our community, as we should have. All of this, despite our platform. After canceling the 2021 Pride Festival for the second year in a row due to COVID, we have some hard work ahead of ourselves. We have new board members who are anxious to bring Alternative Resources of the Triad and Greensboro Pride in a new, more activist direction. We will be discussing the ways we can use our platform to better our community, and then taking action on those

discussions. Gone are the days of just a festival. Greensboro Pride wants to be an active part of the Greensboro Community, and we will determine exactly what that means over the coming weeks and months. And we want you to join us. Anyone interested in helping with both the festival and our community commitment should email us at info@greensboropride.org. !

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Full Scream Ahead: Wreak Havoc Festival opens Friday

ith the Halloween season looming, the Wreak Havoc Horror Film Festival is set to get things going in typically screamfilled fashion, as the seventh anMark Burger nual festival opens Friday at Marketplace Cinemas, 2095 Peters Contributor Creek Parkway, Winston-Salem. The festival will run from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and 3 to 11 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $15 for one day or $25 for both days and can be ordered here: https://www.mpcws. com. As the festival takes place indoors this year, in accordance with local mandates, audience members will be asked to wear masks unless eating or drinking. That said, however, if there’s one film festival in which wearing a mask was appropriate, Wreak Havoc is that festival. According to festival director Dan Sellers, “last year’s film festival went wonderfully. We weren’t sure how our audience would respond to the drive-in format, but they came out, and we all had a blast.” Zack Fox, general manager of Marketplace Cinemas, concurred and was eager to re-team with them this year. “After the great success of last year’s Wreak Havoc Festival at our drive-in cinema, we are so excited to have them back,” he said. “This year, the festival will be indoors so the fun, shared experience of watching horror films can be lived to the fullest.” Following introductions and exhibitions, the festival opener is the world premiere of the latest Wreak Havoc production, Birthday Boy, written by Al Julian and produced and directed by Sellers, followed by several exhibition films. At 7 p.m., the first collection of horror shorts will be screened: The Wraith, Candlesmoke, Wake, The Backwards Game, Port, Koreatown Ghost Story, At Night, Drip, and Woodsman. The 9:30 p.m. feature is writer/director Santiago Fernandez Calvete’s vampire shocker Vurdalak Blood (Sangre Vurdalak). The festival continues Saturday at 3 p.m. WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

with a screening of exhibition films followed by the second block of horror shorts at 4 p.m.: Dice, Hide or Seek, The Mystery Murder, And Then the Darkness, Mama’s Boy, and On the Road Again. The 5:30 p.m. feature being screened is writer/producer/ director Alex Galvin’s contemporary adaptation of the Henry James classic Turn of the Screw. Following a dinner break, the final shorts program will begin at 8 p.m.: Abracitos, For Sale, Soulmates, Clamps, The Killer of Grassy Ridge, Sleep Now, Hyde, and Sunrise. The 2021 festival will conclude with a feature screening of executive producer/ writer/director Sean Nichols Lynch’s awardwinning horror satire Red Snow at 9:30 p.m., followed by an informal Q&A with the filmmakers in attendance. Not surprisingly, there were fewer submissions to this year’s festival, but in terms of quality, Sellers was very satisfied. “Submissions were noticeably decreased this year, and we predicted as much due to the lack of films being made in 2020,” he said. “It’s totally understandable, and we fully expect submissions to increase next year, but I will say that the quality of our submissions has not diminished. We still received the very best that the local, U.S., and international indie horror scene has to offer! It’s amazing what filmmakers managed to come up with during the pandemic.” As a result, “there was absolutely no hesitation about doing the film festival this year,” said Sellers. “We had another great and successful year last year, and now with the (COVID) vaccine available and the precautions being taken at Marketplace Cinemas, we feel like we can meet safely in-person and share in some communal frights.” In addition to being a filmmaker, Sellers also hosts the Wreak Havoc Film Buffs Podcast (http://www.wreakhavocproductions.com/) with partner Sammie Cassell, as well as producing the Carolina Haints Podcast, which explores strange and bizarre phenomena right here in the Tarheel State. “The Wreak Havoc Film Buffs Podcast has slowed down a bit during the pandemic, but during the month of October should be the exception, as Sammie and I will be discussing a plethora of horror movies leading up to Halloween,” Sellers said.

“The Carolina Haints Podcast just started its fifth season, and that show’s popularity and listenership has dramatically increased over the past few seasons.” Indeed, it has proven so popular that podcast host Jeffrey Cochran and Sellers have collaborated on a new book, Carolina Haints: Folklore and Mysteries of the Old North State, which will be published just in time for Halloween. !

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For more information, visit the official Wreak Havoc website: http://www.wreakhavocproductions.com/ or its official Facebook page: https:// www.facebook.com/WreakHavocHorrorFilmFest/.

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[NEWS OF THE WEIRD] NEWS THAT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE

Chuck Shepherd

Remember Bernie Sanders’ look at the 2021 inauguration? Cozy parka, heavy knitted gloves? You too can pull off the Bernie look for Halloween, The Boston Globe reported. For

just $85, partygoers can don the “Once Again Asking Costume Set” from Dolls Kill. It includes the coat, mittens and surgical mask. Sen. Sanders’ office even commented: “If fans of Sen. Sanders’ mittens are looking for a real scare this Halloween, they should see how hard the wealthy and world’s biggest corporations are fighting to stop Congress from finally addressing the long-neglected needs of the working class,” said spokesperson Mike Casca.

BRIGHT IDEA

File this one under Marketing Ideas Gone Wrong: Speech Academy Asia in Singapore planted clowns outside multiple primary schools in early September in an effort to persuade students to enroll in public-speaking courses, The Straits Times reported. In response, principals and parents urged students to stay away from strangers, including the clowns. Kelvin Tan, the director of the academy, apologized for alarming people. He explained that “road show” employees were told to put on “cute mascot” costumes, but he wasn’t aware they’d be wearing clown getups. “Maybe the clowns were too scary. It’s wrong and we won’t do it again,” he said.

NEW WORLD ORDER

The divorce of Valeria Udalova and Danila Medvedev, former co-owners of cryonics company KrioRus in Moscow, Russia, has turned ugly as they battle over 81 bodies of KrioRus clients, Slate reported. On Sept. 7, Udalova reportedly broke into a cryostorage facility that is under Medvedev’s control and loaded containers with dead bodies onto a truck, causing damage and spilling liquid nitrogen in the process. Both parties now own separate cryonics businesses, but police continue to investigate who controls the 81 bodies, which in the meantime rest at Medvedev’s facility.

COMPELLING EXPLANATION

— An elderly woman in Okemos, Michigan, moved to a nursing home, and an auction company was hired to clear out her home, MLive.com reported on Sept. 22. One of the items found by Epic Auctions and Estate Sales’ Brad Stoecker was a 5-foot-tall granite headstone with the name Peter J. Weller on the front. Apparently, the woman’s family didn’t know the origin of the stone, saying they used the reverse side of it to make fudge. Stoecker donated the stone to the Friends of Lansing’s Historic Cemeteries, but a genealogist was unable to find any surviving family members of Weller, who died in 1849. However, they did track down his grave, which had been moved in 1875. That’s probably when the gravestone was lost, experts believe. Cemetery preservationists restored the stone to Weller’s current resting place and repaired and cleaned those of his family members nearby. — Some students at Piedmont High School in Union County, North Carolina, were upset after a sign reading WHITE was placed on a drinking fountain at the school, The Charlotte Observer reported

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on Sept. 23. A Snapchat video of the sign circulated on social media, and parents became upset, prompting a response from Principal Dylan Stamey, who said he had investigated and the placement of the sign “was not intentional.” “During practice, a cheer sign was left just outside the gym on the floor, and it was picked up and placed on a water fountain. We apologize if anyone was offended,” he said.

FAMILY VALUES

As a 48-year-old man pumped gas in St. Louis on the morning of Sept. 21, a woman approached and said she and her son needed a ride to her mother’s house. He agreed, KSDK-TV reported, but when they arrived at the home, the woman reportedly grabbed the keys from the ignition, and her 11-year-old started pistolwhipping him in the head. The woman then dragged the victim out of his car and sped away with her son. Police are still looking for the carjacker.

INEXPLICABLE

On Sept. 17, at a penguin colony near Simonstown, South Africa, 63 endangered African penguins were killed by a swarm of bees, CNN reported. South African National Parks issued a statement saying that the “deaths occurred suddenly sometime between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.” Examinations revealed that “all the penguins had multiple bee stings,” many of which were around the birds’ eyes, which one expert called a “fluke.”

OOPSIE

A funeral home in Ahoskie, North Carolina, was reportedly trying to apologize to the family of Mary Archer after an incident at her viewing on Sept. 7, the New York Post reported. When Archer’s two daughters arrived at Hunter’s Funeral Home, they found a woman wearing Archer’s clothes in the casket — but it was not Mary. “There’s no similarity in the person,” Jennetta Archer said. “Their size was way off ... she was so small compared to my mother.” At first, funeral home personnel argued that it was indeed Mary in the casket, but then they found her body in the embalming room. While the funeral home claims to have reached out to apologize, the sisters say they haven’t heard from the business. !

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OPENING FROM PAUL

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Prickly plant Seaport in Argentina Aim high Musician using reeds The Who’s “The Kids Are —” “Frozen” studio Less pudgy Bertie created by Wodehouse Piddling Like adults “Oops, I’m at fault here” — Angeles — Paulo, Brazil Hairy “Addams Family” cousin Locker-room motivator Is distressed over Declare Opposite of 60-Across, in France Pantry insect Java holders Looked like Ontario metropolis Loses control Baba au — (alcoholic cake) Sportscaster Albert Declare Direction of sunrise Crack pitcher Explosive stuff Actor Holm NYT staffers “You think I didn’t already know that?” Put down, to a hip-hopper

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Hoppy brew Ltd., in the U.S. U.S. spy gp. Gelatin in petri dishes Put into effect By — of (due to) Sturdy — oak Geography class spinner Like the sky’s color A long time from now Sound off Sendai sash Former U.N. chief Kofi Last Greek letters Popular Christmas hymn Paramount Suffix for hexaCanonized Mlle. Note below la Title song lyric followed by the first words of seven answers in this puzzle 111 Group that had a #1 hit with 106-Across 118 Be a pilot 119 Gory film 122 Most parched 123 Small finger 124 Exit ramp 125 Restlessness 126 Precipitates pellets 127 Brings in from abroad 128 Human

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Exploiter Sauntered Grassy yards Baseball’s Matty or Felipe Stage object Fleur-de- — T-man, e.g. Organized crime “Give it —” Owns, as an error Noon nap Exam for jrs. Actress Swenson Smell terrible Bronte’s Jane Stir-fry pan Outward appearance Passable Fall seasons Out of style Justice Kagan Entreaties Seduces Gets older Ballet skirt Diane who hosted a longtime NPR show Actor Bert Ram into Sound off Not married Pre-Soviet rulers Actor Milo Formed an upward curve Airport part Ditty Brand of eye drops Hole tool Mom’s forte, for short Alicia of “Falcon Crest” Stable feed

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Fey of “Date Night” Contest hopeful Investor Carl Journalist Cronkite Messing of “Will & Grace” Relative via marriage Spa hot spot Extort from The “A” of James A. Garfield Shortstop Pee Wee Large town “Correct me — wrong” Comic Meara Asterisk Forrest played by Tom Hanks Toasted people, e.g. Playwright William Bungled Nuptial ring “OK already!” Safe place Weep Feudal workers Flaps one’s gums Demonic Trig topic Grab hold of Italian wine town Marvel hero Lift to test the weight of Obama cabineteer Duncan Arena level Meadows Gas brand in Canada Anna of “Nana” Dada artist Jean — -cone<!— Matomo Tag Manager —>

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Out for the Evening: Historical exhibit offers “a taste of gay nightlife in Greensboro”

“

Bars and nightclubs have been really important to the LGBTQ community over the years,” said David Gwynn. “Historically, their function has been somewhat akin Ian McDowell to that of church in the African-American Contributor community, a place for dissemination of information and activism.” “Stonewall is an example of that kind of activism,” said Stacey Krim, “but they were also safe social spaces going back to before the Greensboro Gay Purge of 1957 when the sheriff targeted the gay community, and you could be arrested at your workplace just because he had received a tip that you were gay.” Both Gwynn and Krim are associate professors in the Electronic Resources and Information Technology Department of University Libraries at UNCG, where Krim is Curator of Manuscripts and Gwynn is the Digitization Coordinator. In August, Gwynn and Krim created “Out for the Evening: a Taste of Gay Nightlife in Greensboro,” an exhibit near the reference desk in UNCG’s Jackson Library which will run through mid-October. “We had done other exhibits as part of the Pride! of the Community project, but we had never covered the gay bar experience,” said Krim. “So, it seemed like an interesting topic to cover, and with what David brought in, we had just enough

material to be able to do a small threecase exhibit.” Gwynn explained what the Pride! of the Community project is. “It’s an LGBTQ Documentation Project for the Triad that Stacey, myself, and a former archivist named Jennifer

David Gwynn & Stacey Krim

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Motzko received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant a few years ago. It was based around the idea that we would be doing community digitization. People would bring in their stuff, we’d digitize it and give it back to them and put the images online, so they didn’t have to give up their possessions. Our partner on the original grant was Guilford Green. It ended up, over the years, becoming more of an oral history project.” Gwynn said this gave them a large amount of documentation of organizations and activists, but their original work did not turn up much about LGBTQ social spaces, and that he and Krim decided the history of those spaces also needed to be preserved. “I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of that culture, and how it’s impacted the community over the years. Or, they don’t like to talk about it, because it’s like, oh, those dirty bars and nightclubs!” Krim gave an example of how the Triad’s gay bar scene helped the growth

and prosperity of the LGBTQ community here. “What we found when we were doing oral history was that one metric that influenced where LGBTQ chose to move was the presence of at least one gay bar, as that meant the area was at least reasonably safe for them to move into. So, having more than one gay bar in existence at a time in this area actually attracted a very qualified and professional crowd into business and academia here.” According to Gwynn, the first gay bar or club they found any evidence of was the General Greene Grill. “Unsurprisingly, it was on Greene Street, between what’s now Friendly Avenue and Bellemeade. It opened in the late 50s, probably as a pretty standard diner. But in that location, it slowly developed a gay clientele over the years. That was the normal evolution in those times.” As the law considered them criminals, those who gathered at the General Greene Grill became the targets of other criminals. “If you comb through old

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newspapers for mention of the General Greene,” said Gwynn, “you’ll see it’s only mentioned when someone was robbed outside of it.” “Gay men were easy prey because they knew not to report being mugged. That didn’t really change until the 1970s when there was more visibility, and bars tended to be nicer. There was one out on Battleground called Rendezvous, where either Boo Radley’s or Maria’s are now. There was also the Libra Lounge, which I think was also referred to as the Lambda Lounge, further down, where Battleground crosses Cone. The building is still there.” The Disco Era brought larger venues. “A big one was Davey’s, which was actually on the UNCG Campus, and is now the Human Resources Office, in the building that was Jokers 3 in the 1980s. There was Encore, which started as Wham and later became Warehouse 29. Downtown, there was Palms, which was owned by women, and was lesbian-focused in its early years, but became sort of the default gay bar after Encore closed. There was Busby’s, which was opened by Randell Busby, a church music director who moved into this area.” Gwynn and Krim’s interview with Busby is on YouTube under the title “Oral History with Randell Busby, 2020.” “Busby’s was originally on High Point Road,” continued Gwynn, “which was at that time a highly visible and thriving commercial area, something that Greensboro gay bars had previously tended to avoid. He eventually moved it downtown. Then there was XTC, which was also on High Point Road in a very visible location.” Krim said that, due to Busby, Greensboro had a very strong and almost immediate, response to the AIDS epidemic. “It began at his bar with a meeting to disseminate information and condoms, WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

and information and how to get organized to support the people who were contracting this mystery disease which nobody really anything about yet.” According to Krim and Gwynn, two heroes in the local battle against AIDS (and ignorance concerning it) were Johnny McGee and Bruce Thede. “Johnny and Bruce were and are a couple, and they formed the Triad Health Project, on which they worked in collaboration with Cone Health. Not only did they indirectly create a support network for AIDS victims, but they educated health professionals in our area, who were clearly terrified of the illness and initially very bad at treating it. Johnny and Bruce taught them not to be afraid, and how to treat their patients. Bruce spoke about one incident where he escorted someone with AIDS into the hospital. When the nurse at the desk read the paperwork, she threw the pen across the room. Bruce picked it up and rubbed the pen all over his body to show you cannot get AIDS that way.” Krim’s interview with McGee and Thede is on YouTube under the title “Oral History Interview with Johnny McGee and Bruce Thede.” “They were going into schools and other organizations,” said Krim, “to say that this was a disease that would affect them, too, but also to deal with the stigma of the disease. So, even though we were not hit as hard as New York or San Francisco, we still had a very strong response, because of the effort mobilized so quickly in our gay bars.” Gwynn also talked about how drag became an important part of Greensboro’s gay scene in the 1980s. “We also have an interview with Joel Cudworth, aka Marilyn Rivers, who actually was one of the few I know who can remember the General Greene Grill, and was actually a patron there.”

In the YouTube video “Oral History Interview with Joel Cudworth (Marilyn Rivers), 2020,” Cudworth talks about Greensboro’s early gay bars. “There was the Renaissance, which was a dump, and the General Greene, which made the Renaissance look like the Ritz.” Gwynn said that he wishes the exhibit had more material from the 1990s. “That’s the one area where we’re probably the most lacking, I’ve been called on it by the owner of a bar. I had moved away from Greensboro and Stacy wasn’t living here yet. That was when Warehouse 29 was a big deal.” “We try to emphasize to people that we can only preserve what they give us,” said Krim, “which is why it’s really a community-curated collection the community has to contribute it to us for it to be part of our collection. So, if we don’t have it, we don’t have it.”

She also called working on this project with Gwynn and those they interviewed a remarkable and rewarding experience. “We have spoken to so many people, who were so inspiring when they gift us with their life story, and you hear about everything they went through and everything they fought for the benefit of not only themselves but others. Doing oral history can be exhausting. No matter how invested in the subject you are, you often finish recording an interview and you’re just brain dead. But this wasn’t like that. With so many of the people we spoke to, by the time we left, David and I would look at each other and go, ‘Wow, that was amazing!’” ! 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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Sir Edward and the Wicked Witch Edward Burlando, called Sir Edward to his former students, moved to North Carolina for an affair of the heart. “Now that I’m out of the closet at 78, I can put it plainer,” he told me and Ian McDowell photographer Ciara Kelly when we visited his garden tribute to Contributor Pride and the Wicked Witch. “Thirty years ago, I got my first job here, waiting tables at Red Lobster,” he said while serving us ice tea and nuts on his shaded patio. “I’d been a professional actor and have what used to be the standard American stage accent.” Think of the late great Christopher Plummer, who was born in Toronto, but like the Missouri-born Vincent Price or Mississippi-born James Earl Jones, learned to enunciate the way almost all classicallytrained North American actors did before Marlon Brando. “People at Red Lobster, Giovanni’s, and Noble’s would ask where I was from. I’d say Staten Island. My accent still puzzled them, but rather than saying I didn’t sound like a New Yorker, they’d change the subject by asking what made me move here. I’d smile wistfully and say ‘oh, affairs of the heart.’” That was Danny, with whom he lived with for seven years in New York until Sir Edward’s parents moved to Florida and sold all their property. “I no longer had any family in the city, other than the multi-millionaire sibling I don’t speak to. Danny’s parents lived in Greensboro and I got along really well with them.” The Triad was green, warm, and cheaper to live in than the Big Apple, so the couple moved here, where he’s lived ever since. His clientele would inquire if his ‘Affair of the Heart’ had ended in marriage. “I just said that marriage was never in our future. As I got older and bolder, I might add ‘besides, it wouldn’t be legal,’ and they’d look either shocked or not-soshocked, and leave it at that.” Now it’s legal, but he lives alone in his trailer full of memories and memorabilia, growing the San Marzano tomatoes he gave me and Ciara. “I had to learn about them here. My parents were Northern Italian, from near the French border, and

didn’t know what a tomato was until they came to Staten Island. They cooked with butter and cream and wine, not tomatoes.” He is rightfully proud of his garden, where he grows not only his delicious tomatoes, but squash and enormous zucchini, and a rainbow assortment of flowers. “The centerpiece is a tribute to the Wicked Witch of the West, who was a friend of mine, and one of the best people I’ve ever known.” He means Margaret Hamilton, the former schoolteacher who achieved cinematic immortality by cackling “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. Hamilton also played witches in 13 Ghosts (the original 1960 version) and on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and Sesame Street. “We were both actors in summer stock, where we did several plays together, including The Man Who Came to Dinner. I have never met another actor as kind and sweet as she was. We used to talk and eat sandwiches together during our breaks in the Kenley Players.” Summer Stock is the term for the professional theatrical companies that once regularly toured the country every summer. The Kenley Players was a famous and pioneering summer stock company that presented hundreds of productions featuring Broadway, film, and television stars in Midwestern cities between 1940 and 1996. Sir Edward also knew the troubled superstar the Wicked Witch threatened in 1939, and who died from an accidental overdose on June 22, 1969. The Stonewall Riots, which Pride Month commemorates, began six days later. “In the closet days, homosexuals called themselves Friends of Dorothy. I was briefly a literal friend, or at least acquaintance, of Dorothy, although I didn’t actually know Miss Garland as well as I knew Miss Hamilton.” He met Garland by waiting on her and her fourth husband Mark Herron during the couple’s brief 1965-66 marriage. “He produced her shows with her and her daughter Liza at the London Palladium, but we met in Los Angeles. Herron was Garland’s second gay husband. Her first was Liza’s father Vincent Minelli.” This was at Le Petit Escoffier restaurant at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where Sir Edward worked while in college. “I was actually still a busboy when I met them.

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I could tell that Mark had his eye on me, and I tried to keep my distance, but he kept chatting me up, and so did his new wife. I was already making extremely good tips for a busboy, primarily because my theatrical training enabled me to act ‘Continental’ even though I’d never been to the Continent and spoke no French. I was the first busboy they promoted to waiter, which was a huge honor. Of course, once I was a waiter, I talked to Judy and her husband more. I think she could tell that I wasn’t interested in him, and between that and my having such sophisticated manners at such a young age, I amused her.” In 1967, Sir Edward competed against former Disney child star Tommy Kirk (Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog) on ABC’s The Dating Game. On that classic game show, a “bachelorette” would choose between three hidden and unnamed “bachelors” after asking each the same questions. Most early episodes featured a woman choosing between three men. Sometimes, one of those men would be a Special Guest Star, whose identity was allegedly unknown to the bachelorette. Unlikely celebrity “bachelors” included Paul Lynde and Michael Jackson. When a celebrity competed, the contest was fixed. The bachelorette “chose” the 26-year-old Kirk, who was also gay (and whose film career essentially ended after a pot bust three years earlier) over the 24-year-old Burlando. “When I was going to my car with the clock they gave me as a consolation prize, she pulled up beside me in the parking lot and said she would have chosen me if she’d been allowed a choice,” he said with a laugh. I told him that at least he didn’t lose to a serial killer. That quip referred to Rodney Alcala, The Dating Game’s most infamous contestant, who competed on the show in 1977, murdered at least eight women between 1977 and 1979, and died last month in California State Prison (the bachelorette chose Alcala, but fortunately declined the arranged date, declaring him too creepy). “At least not as far as we know,” said Sir Edward, then added, “Tommy, if you read this, that’s a joke!” Hearing our laughter, a woman and two children waved from a nearby trailer. “It’s nice to see so many Black and brown people living here now,” said Sir Edward, “rather than the white men with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks who were my original neighbors.” During the years he waited tables in Greensboro and High Point, he also worked in Rome, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Colombia as a travel director for a large pharmaceutical company. “I traveled the WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

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world eight weeks out of the year. People would ask me what I did with the rest of my time, and I’d say, I’m just a waiter, which astonished them. But what other occupation would allow me to do that? I’m fortunate to have never held a regular job in my life.” Not quite “just a waiter.” He taught table etiquette for nine years at High Point University. “They have this beautiful restaurant where students pay to learn how to behave in a fine dining establishment. I showed them to pull out chairs for their guest, how to fold a napkin, how to eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right like the rest of the world, who consider Americans barbaric for holding the fork in our right.” That’s where he earned his nickname. “So many times, when traveling, I run into former students, who shake my hand and say ‘thank you, Sir Edward, I think I owe my job to you.’ I left High Point University last year because I cannot wear a mask and do what I do, as a trained actor needs to communicate with his face.” He also acted in Greensboro. “I was Van Helsing in Dracula, and Georges, the male lead, in the production of La Cage Aux Folles that got so many protests that Guilford County defunded the Greensboro Arts Council. I heard we hit the New York Times but never saw the write-up.” Google shows that the article was “Across the U.S., Brush Fires over Money for the Arts,” which made the cover of the Aug. 14, 1996, issue. The article describes how, after 250 Baptist protesters were bused into Greensboro and stormed the Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting, that board voted to eliminate all funding for the arts from its 1997-98 budget. “The Carolina Theater was picketed and there was a bomb threat and the police department brought bomb-sniffing dogs, which didn’t find anything. We went on and performed anyway. Because of

comments I made on NPR, I got invited to give a speech at the Gay Pride Parade in Carrboro, where Mike Nelson became the first openly gay mayor elected in North Carolina.” While growing up in Greenwich Village, Sir Edward caught the acting bug from his aunt Pierina Burlando, who with her Bruno Della Santina, starred in a soap opera that was the most popular Italianlanguage radio program in America. Radio drama didn’t immediately end with the rise of television, as many believe, but continued to air nationally until 1962. Under the name Penny Santon, his Aunt Pierina was one of the original Italian mothers on Alka-Seltzer’s ‘That’s some spicy meatball!’ TV commercials. She also played Laverne’s grandmother on Laverne & Shirley, Captain Furillo’s mother on Hill Street Blues, and Klinger’s mother on AfterMASH, and had guest roles on Kojak, Kolchak the Night Stalker, and TJ Hooker. Her husband appeared on The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, I Dream of Jeanie, and as a waiter in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. “When I was little, she would take me to the studio where she recorded her radio show, and I was fascinated by the scripts and the microphones and how the actors

made you see stories with their voices.” “She told me ‘If you want to be an actor, you can’t talk like a New Yorker,’ so I learned Theater English and started going to auditions.” During the shutdown, Sir Edward, like Voltaire’s Candide, learned to cultivate his garden. That’s where he built his tribute to the Wicked Witch of the West and the Dorothy. He wants people to drive by and see what he’s grown and made, and asked YES! Weekly to print his address, which is in a cul-de-sac in a trailer park at 5626 Atwater Drive in Adam’s Farm. “In May, I found these mannequin legs sticking out of the dumpster and thought, Pride Month is coming up in June, and LGBTQ History Month in October. So, I put striped socks on the legs, made glittery red sippers and a witch’s hat, and created a Wizard of Oz tableau. It’s wonderfullooking during the day, but even better at night. I keep it out until 2 a.m., and it’s lit up in green lighting, just like the Emerald City. There’s no place like home, but right now, mine is also Oz.” ! 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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Groove Jam Music Festival at Doodad Farm 9.25.21 | Greensboro

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Sidepony saddles up

reensboro glitzpop duo Sidepony is riding the sunset of their “Summer” EP, saddling up for the release of “Fall,” and rounding out their full band Katei Cranford incarnation—all the while hosting a weekly radio show Contributor pushing tunes from queer and marginalized artists over the airwaves on WUAG 103.1.FM. On the Sidepony Sideshow, the two friends and cowpokes elevate voices of the underserved and underground—well, technically, only one has equine experience. MacKenzie (“DJ Macca”) Craig still works summers at the YMCA horse camp she attended as a kid growing up on a Summerfield horse farm. Stephanie (“DJ Scuba”) Coolbaugh, by contrast, has never even been on a horse. “My life will be made the day I do,” Coolbaugh said— highlighting the coincidence of their horse connection and band name. “It’s based on the hairstyle we both rocked as kids,” they explained. “Our imagery centers around embracing femininity as a means to challenge stigmas of women and feminine people not being taken as seriously.” Sidepony actually came from a list of more than 400 band names Craig has dreamt up over the years. “Reading them off makes good stage banter,” Coolbaugh noted, explaining the importance of names in developing the “Sidepony Sideshow,” their radio program that began as “Women Wednesday” in 2018. “The motivation has always been to bring more awareness to female, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC musicians, because their music often has more compelling, nuanced narratives that are so easily overlooked due to systemic bias,” they explained of the Sideshow’s origins. “We switched to widen our scope and be more inclusive to other marginalized groups that were also creating music that excited us. We didn’t want YES! WEEKLY

to put our programming choices into a box, or categorize people that way, either.” Currently running Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m., the Sideshow (and their involvement with college radio) offered avenues into the DIY music community, which brought them together as a band. “It really opened our eyes to the fact that making the music we always were inspired by was a doable thing,” Coolbaugh said. “But we still saw so few women, and wanted to add more to the table.” They shared their first bill with Debbie the Artist and Ashley Virginia at a femme-oriented house show in 2019, both of whom performed as part of #RepresentNC—Molly McGinn’s residency of a similar charge—which featured Sidepony for one of its last rounds in February 2020. And while the two “choir kids” had a musical background as students of classical voice, they took a “headfirst” approach

SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 5, 2021

into indie performance. “We figured the best way to learn was to just do it, and kind of ‘fake it till you make it,’” Coolbaugh said of honing their stagecraft and recording production—which remains vocally driven and heavy on the harmonies. “We try to incorporate the value we see in the voice as an instrument,” they added, “which isn’t always explored to its fullest potential in the indie world.” Along for the ride is producer (and occasional drummer) Hudson Waldrop, who’s helped record all three Sidepony releases thus far. “We feel more comfortable in our musical identities and play around with new musical techniques that excite us with each record,” Coolbaugh said, pointing to added guitarist Daniel Carr, and drummer Jacob Fleenor. “It’s also helped to now have a killer band.” Together, they started tracking seasonal EPs starting with “Summer” (released in July) and culminating in the debut LP, “Chrysalis” (scheduled to drop next June). With “cheeky lyrics that emulate both the fun and the consequence of wearing your heart on your sleeve,” the threetracks on “Summer” offer a sampling of dreamy waterfront serenades, mid-tempo beats for hitting the town; and the sort of “wild-card hype” that bursts with summertime energy.

Ranging influence from Girlpool and boygenius to Brandi Carlile, Mitski and Emily King, Coolbaugh finds fun in playing around with various genres—popping around folk and bubblegum riot grrrl. ”We live in the coexistence of shiny and sparkly, yet clearly influenced by emo and punk,” they said. “Our tunes search for all that glows in the dark, emulating a feeling of pride in accepting every part of yourself and others, even the ones that are challenging.” On that search, Sidepony centers itself among natural scapes and the stars. “We love to write about nature,” Coolbaugh said. “There’s something humbling—yet exciting—that overcomes us when we think about how much beauty there is on this Earth, and how we take advantage of it.” The seasons keep rolling for Sidepony as they excitedly announce an upcoming winter show at the Crown in December with Debbie the Artist, and look to take their new van on an east coast tour by July. Their latest EP, “Summer” is out now, “Fall” arrives on Oct. 29; and the Sidepony Sideshow runs Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m. on WUAG 103.1 FM. ! KATEI CRANFORD is a Triad music nerd who enjoys spotlighting artists and events.

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Submissions should be sent to artdirector@yesweekly.com by Friday at 5 p.m., prior to the week’s publication. Visit yesweekly.com and click on calendar to list your event online.

home grown muSic Scene | compiled by Austin Kindley

ASHEBORO

Four SaintS BrEwing

218 South Fayetteville St. | 336.610.3722 www.foursaintsbrewing.com thursdays: taproom trivia Fridays: Music Bingo oct 2: Sydney rose oct 3: Eastern Standard time

CHARlOttE

BojanglES ColiSEuM

2700 E Independence Blvd | 704.372.3600 www.boplex.com oct 8: Katt williams oct 9: Bert Kreischer

CMCu aMphithEatrE

former Uptown Amphitheatre 820 Hamilton St | 704.549.5555 www.livenation.com oct 1: good Vibes Summer tour 2021: rebelution + Special guests oct 7: alice Cooper oct 8: Earth, wind & Fire

thE FillMorE

1000 NC Music Factory Blvd | 704.916.8970 www.livenation.com Sep 29-30: Dave Chapelle presents Donnell rawlings oct 1: Sub urban & Bella poarch oct 3: Fozzy oct 3: Moneybagg Yo oct 4: thrice oct 5: rodrigo y gabriela oct 6: Big Boi

pnC MuSiC paVilion

707 Pavilion Blvd | 704.549.1292 www.livenation.com Sep 30: Brooks & Dunn oct 8: thomas rhett & Cole Swindell oct 9: pitbull & iggy azalea

SpECtruM CEntEr

333 E Trade St | 704.688.9000 www.spectrumcentercharlotte.com Sep 30-oct 3: Disney on ice oct 14: MercyMe

ClEmmOnS

VillagE SquarE tap houSE

6000 Meadowbrook Mall Ct | 336.448.5330 www.vstaphouse.com | www.facebook. com/vstaphouse oct 7: anna Mertson

mwww.yesweekly.cOm

duRHAm

Carolina thEatrE

309 W Morgan St | 919.560.3030 www.carolinatheatre.org oct 1: patton oswalt oct 2: the Monti grandSlaM oct 14: the Marshall tucker Band

DpaC

123 Vivian St | 919.680.2787 www.dpacnc.com oct 3: Charlie wilson oct 5-10: the Band’s Visit

ElKIn

rEEVES thEatEr

129 W Main St | 336.258.8240 www.reevestheater.com Fourth thursdays: old-time jam aug 19-oct 21: the Martha Bassett Show Sep 30: heather Maloney oct 2: Memphis thunder feat. taylor Vaden oct 8: David laMotte

Carolina thEatrE

310 S. Greene Street | 336.333.2605 www.carolinatheatre.com Sep 30: the pinkerton raid oct 8: Carly Burruss

CoMEDY zonE

1126 S Holden Rd | 336.333.1034 www.thecomedyzone.com oct 1-3: april Macie oct 7: Cash out Comedy Show

ConE DEniM

117 S Elm St | 336.378.9646 www.cdecgreensboro.com oct 1: Blue traveler oct 2: Everclear oct 2-10: Stars and guitars

Flat iron

221 Summit Ave | 336.501.3967 www.flatirongso.com oct 1: africa unplugged oct 2: the Southern gothic oct 5: hunter/Sluppick Duo

grEEnSBoro ColiSEuM

1921 W Gate City Blvd | 336.373.7400 www.greensborocoliseum.com oct 2: Feed the Streetz tour: rick ross, jeezy, gucci Mane, 2Chainz, Fabolous, lil Kim, Boosie Badazz, Dj Drama oct 3: papi juancho Maluma world tour oct 15: Millennium tour 2021: Ying Yang twins, lloyd, Sammie, pretty ricky, Soulja Boy oct 28: For King & Country

whitE oaK aMpithEatrE

1921 W Gate City Blvd | 336.373.7400 www.greensborocoliseum.com Sep 29: Earth, wind & Fire

HIgH pOInt

aFtEr hourS taVErn

1614 N Main St | 336.883.4113 www.facebook.com/AfterHoursTavernHighPoint oct 2: Fair warning

gREEnSBORO

arizona pEtE’S

2900 Patterson St #A | 336.632.9889 www.arizonapetes.com Sep 29: the Black Dahlia Murder oct 30: Dying Fetus w/ terror, Brand of Sacrifice, Vitriol

Barn DinnEr thEatrE 120 Stage Coach Tr. | 336.292.2211 www.barndinner.com aug 7-Sep 25: the Color purple oct 2-nov 6: love Machine

BaxtEr’S taVErn

536 Farragut St | 336.808.5837 www.baxterstavern.com Fridays: Karaoke oct 3: Cat5 Band oct 9: retroVinyl

thE BlinD tigEr

1819 Spring Garden St | 336.272.9888 www.theblindtiger.com Sep 30: Scary Kids Scaring Kids ft. Cove rever oct 1: Shoot to thrill - girls rockin’ aC/DC oct 2: Dogbane, alias and Steelwolf oct 3: paul Cauthen oct 5: Boy named Banjo oct 6: through Fire

The Sportscenter Athletic Club is a private membership club dedicated to providing the ultimate athletic and recreational facilities for our members of all ages. Conveniently located in High Point, we provide a wide variety of activities for our members. We’re designed to incorporate the total fitness concept for maximum benefits and total enjoyment. We cordially invite all of you to be a part of our athletic facility, while enjoying the membership savings we offer our established corporate accounts.

3811 Samet Dr • HigH Point, nC 27265 • 336.841.0100 FITNESS ROOM • INDOOR TRACK • INDOOR AQUATICS CENTER • OUTDOOR AQUATICS CENTER • RACQUETBALL BASKETBALL • CYCLING • OUTDOOR SAND VOLLEYBALL • INDOOR VOLLEYBALL • AEROBICS • MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM WHIRLPOOL • MASSAGE THERAPY • PROGRAMS & LEAGUES • SWIM TEAMS • WELLNESS PROGRAMS PERSONAL TRAINING • TENNIS COURTS • SAUNA • STEAM ROOM • YOGA • PILATES • FREE FITNESS ASSESSMENTS FREE E QUIPMENT O RIENTATION • N URSE RY • T E NNIS L E SSONS • W IRE L E SS INT E RNE T L OUNGE

september 29 - OctOber 5, 2021

YES! WEEKLY

HAM’S PALLADIUM 5840 Samet Dr | 336.887.2434 www.hamsrestaurants.com Oct 1: After The Ashes Oct 2: Brother’s Pearl Oct 8: Fire-Bone

HIGH POINT THEATRE

220 E Commerce Ave | 336.883.3401 www.highpointtheatre.com Oct 01: Monty Python’s Spamalot

JAMESTOWN

THE DECK

118 E Main St | 336.207.1999 www.thedeckatrivertwist.com Sep 30: Carey Leigh Oct 1: Killing Fiction Oct 2: Retro Vinyl Oct 7: Jordan Gates

KERNERSVILLE

BREATHE COCKTAIL LOUNGE

221 N Main St. | 336.497.4822 www.facebook.com/BreatheCocktailLounge Sep 30: Stephen Legree Band

Ramble Night Oct 1: Big Freedia Oct 2: Third Eye: Tribute to TOOL Oct 5: Sleigh Bells Oct 7: MiTiS

LEWISVILLE

OLD NICK’S PUB

191 Lowes Foods Dr | 336.747.3059 www.OldNicksPubNC.com Fridays: Karaoke Oct 2: Poundcake

RED HAT AMPHITHEATER

LIBERTY

THE LIBERTY SHOWCASE THEATER 101 S. Fayetteville St | 336.622.3844 www.TheLibertyShowcase.com Oct 2: Ricky Skaggs Oct 9: The Malpass Brothers

500 S McDowell St | 919.996.8800 www.redhatamphitheater.com Oct 6: Alice Cooper Oct 7: 3 Doors Down

WINSTON-SALEM

BULL’S TAVERN

408 West 4th St | 336.331.3431 www.bullswsnc.com Wednesdays: Karaoke Oct 1: Smashat Oct 2: Chaos FM

RALEIGH

CCU MUSIC PARK AT WALNUT CREEK

3801 Rock Quarry Rd | 919.821.4111 www.livenation.com Oct 1: Brooks and Dunn Oct 3: NF - Nate Feuerstein Oct 9: Thomas Rhett & Cole Swindell

LINCOLN THEATRE

126 E. Cabarrus St | 919.831.6400 www.lincolntheatre.com Sep 28-30: 2021 IBMA Bluegrass

FOOTHILLS BREWING 638 W 4th St | 336.777.3348 www.foothillsbrewing.com Oct 3: Sunday Jazz

MIDWAY MUSIC HALL

11141 Old US Hwy 52, Suite 10 | 336.793.4218 www.facebook.com/midwaymusichallandeventcenter Wednesdays: Line Dancing w/ Denise Oct 1: Michael Coser and the Fugitives Oct 2: Night Train Oct 6: Classic Country Showcase

THE RAMKAT

BURKE STREET PUB 1110 Burke St | 336.750.0097 www.burkestreetpub.com Tuesdays: Trivia Oct 2: Jack of Diamonds

170 W 9th St | 336.754.9714 www.theramkat.com Sep 30: Colorful Sounds - Marlow Rosado & His Latin Jazz Ensemble Oct 1: Watkins Family Hour, Courtney Hartman Oct 2: Tyler Nail, Kyle Caudle Oct 3: Speak N’ Eye, PT BUrnem, MC Homeless, Myles Bullen Oct 6: Migrant Birds, Oceanic

FIDDLIN’ FISH BREWING COMPANY

WINSTON-SALEM FAIRGROUND

772 Trade St | 336.999.8945 www.fiddlinfish.com Oct 3: Lisa & The Saints

421 W 27th St | 336.727.2236 www.wsfairgrounds.com Oct 1-10: Carolina Classic Fair

High Point Community Theatre Presents Show Sponsor:

October 1-3, 2021 High Point Theatre (220 E Commerce St.)

Find Your Grail!

Friday & Saturday at 7:30pm Saturday & Sunday at 2:00pm Buy tickets online at HPCT.net or call 336-887-3001 $22/$25 each • Group Sales Available • Flex Passes available on website

Book & Lyrics by Eric Idle Music by John du Prez & Eric Idle A new musical lovingly ripped off from the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” From the original screenplay by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

Monty Python’s Spamalot is presented through special arrangement with Theatrical Rights Worldwide. All authorized performance materials are also supplied by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. www.theatricalrights.com