September O.Henry 2023

New Friends. New Possibilities.

Look forward to finally having time to focus on the people and experiences that matter most to you.

At Friends Homes, maintenance and other everyday chores are taken care of, leaving you free to enjoy life. Take a class through our lifelong learning program. Go for a swim at our new wellness center. Pursue your hobbies. Explore your faith. Volunteer in the community. Or enjoy a delightful meal with friends at one of our four dining venues. Our community o ers more activities and a refreshing, whole-person approach to wellness to give you more options for an active, engaging lifestyle.

And with charming studio and one-bedroom apartments, bright villa apartments, and spacious townhomes and cottages, you’ll find the right-sized space to make you feel at home.

Join us for an upcoming event to experience life at Friends Homes firsthand and learn about the limited number of apartments available. Call or visit us online to sign up for a tour today.

In fact, never worry about overactive underarm sweat again. With miraDry ® , you’ll enjoy permanent results with the only FDA approved treatment proven to reduce underarm sweat. The procedure targets sweat glands while increasing your confidence. Get ready to lift your arms as high as you want without worry!

Contact Restoration Medspa Today For Your Complimentary Consultation!

Know Your Banker.

When you bank with TowneBank, you won’t just have a relationship with a bank – you’ll have a friendship with a banker. At Towne, you’ll know your banker and you’ll know you can reach us.

You’ll know we’re here for you.

FEATURES

53 Heaven Poetry by Josephus III

54 Life Imitates Art By Cassie Bustamante And vice versa

60 The Engineer of Sound By Ogi

Overman

From MerleFest to Tanger, over the last 50 years Cliff Miller has done it all

62

it

75 September Almanac By Ashley

Walshe

MODERN DENTISTRY

MAGAZINE

volume 13, no. 9

“I have a fancy that every city has a voice.” 336.617.0090

111 Bain Street, Suite 324, Greensboro, NC 27406 www.ohenrymag.com

PUBLISHER

David Woronoff david@thepilot.com

Andie Rose, Creative Director andiesouthernpines@gmail.com

Cassie Bustamante, Editor cassie@ohenrymag.com

Jim Dodson, Editor at Large jwdauthor@gmail.com

Miranda Glyder, Graphic Designer

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Cynthia Adams, David Claude Bailey, Maria Johnson

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Mallory Cash, Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Bert VanderVeen, Mark Wagoner

CONTRIBUTORS

Harry Blair, Anne Blythe, Susan Campbell, Wiley Cash, Billy Ingram, Josephus III, Gerry O’Neill, Ogi Overman, Liza Roberts, Stephen E. Smith, Zora Stellanova, Ashley Walshe, Amberly Glitz Weber

ADVERTISING SALES

Marty Hefner, Advertising Advisor Lisa Allen

336.210.6921 • lisa@ohenrymag.com

Amy Grove

336.456.0827 • amy@ohenrymag.com

Brad Beard, Graphic Designer

Jennifer Bunting, Advertising Coordinator ohenrymag@ohenrymag.com

Henry Hogan, Finance Director 910.693.2497

Darlene Stark, Subscriptions & Circulation Director • 910.693.2488

OWNERS

Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff

In memoriam Frank Daniels Jr.

© Copyright 2023. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

O.Henry Magazine is published by The Pilot LLC

Little Orphan Cassie

The curtain opens on a world of possibility

by Cassie bustamante

Live theater has had a piece of my heart for almost as long as I can remember. My love affair, especially with musicals, began the summer I turned 6. My mom had taken me to see Annie at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. There, I discovered theater has the power to bring dreams to life.

Before that moment, I’d seen the movie and played the album on my Fisher Price record player, singing along while putting myself in Annie’s tattered orphan shoes. Our family dog, a golden retriever named Butterscotch — far from a mangy street mutt — often found himself locked in my bedroom so that I could pretend he was following me, just like Sandy followed Annie.

Once, I tried to sit in my bedroom window to look woefully out at the sky while musically musing, “Maybe far away, or maybe real nearby . . . ” As the window screen gave to the pressure of my leaning body, my feet caught on the very sill I’d been perched on, holding me in place as the rest of me dangled dangerously a story above our driveway. My older brother, Dana, heard my cries and pulled me back in. (And yes, my parents had told me over and over to stay away from the windows, but when it came to being Annie, I followed no one’s rules.)

“As far as I was concerned, you could have had a much less healthy obsession,” my mom recalls. “You were happy being Annie and acting and singing, so, why not?” Plus, she adds, “It was entertaining.” A talented seamstress, she had sewn me my very own red-and-white dress, just like Annie’s. And, along with those live show tickets, my parents had given me a golden, heartshaped, broken locket for my birthday.

I knew the songs. I had the locket, the dress and the black, patent-leather shoes. There was just one major problem: my hair. It was long, straight and dirty-blonde, a far cry from a headful of fiery red ringlets.

But in that Ogunquit theater during the final moments of the curtain call, something I’d never imagined was possible happened. After clapping enthusiastically for the actors who played Daddy

Warbucks, Miss Hannigan, Grace, Punjab and the other orphans, the last actor emerged to receive her applause. Alyson Kirk, who played the role of Annie, walked to centerstage and whipped off her curly-haired wig to reveal a mane of straight hair that wasn’t red at all.

“Look!” I gasped, telling my mom what this meant for me. “I can be Annie!” In that moment, I realized that in the world of theater, anything is possible.

Now, as a mother, there’s nothing I want more than for my kids to see that their own worlds can stretch as far as their imaginations can reach.

Last year, my husband, Chris, and I introduced our youngest, Wilder, to live theater at the Tanger Center — first, to Paw Patrol Live for his 4th birthday. Then, in September, it was off to Blue’s Clues & You Live.

A week before the Blue’s Clues tour stop in Greensboro, I had a chance to chat with Josh Blackburn, producer of Round Room Live, the company responsible for bringing many Nickelodeon and licensed kids’ shows to life onstage all over the world. Like many of us, his own love for musical theater began during his childhood, evolving into a passion “to show kids opportunity” through his work.

Blackburn says his “favorite part” is watching kids enjoy his live shows, and I understand why. Chris and I were more enthralled by Wilder’s reaction to Blue and company than by what was actually happening on stage, despite the “huggable” and “larger than life puppets.” And it wasn’t just us. Looking around that theater, the faces of many-a-parent were aglow with wonder as they watched their own little ones sing along, dance and dream.

We walked out of the theater together that day, holding hands as we stepped into a world that was, indeed, our oyster.

At 45, I’ve long since outgrown the red-and-white dress and black patent-leather shoes. I’ve said good-bye to my beloved Butterscotch. The broken heart-shaped locket has been lost, perhaps now another child’s treasure. But, until my final curtain call, I am going to continue to let my imagination run wild in this world — with or without a red, curly-haired wig. OH

Cassie Bustamante is editor of O.Henry magazine.

Squirrelly Business

A seedy family of rodents drives an old dude nuts

BY GERRY O'NEILL

by Jim dodson

Another summer is ending.

And once again, the squirrels have won.

Last year about this time, you see, I made a promise to myself — not to mention the many wild birds that regularly visit our four hanging feeders — to find a way to outfox the large crime family of gray squirrels that inhabits Old George, the handsome maple tree that anchors our front yard.

The problem began rather innocently six years ago when we moved back to the heavily forested neighborhood where I grew up and rescued George from death by English ivy. The old tree flourished and, one afternoon, I noticed a couple gray squirrels had taken up residence in a hollow nook halfway up the tree. They seemed to be a respectable couple, perhaps elderly pensioners looking for a nice place to tuck in for their quiet retirement years. Our property is also home to several towering oaks, so come autumn there would be a plentiful acorn supply.

I hung a couple bird feeders by wires from George’s upper branches. Soon the wild birds were all over them. What a peaceable kingdom it seemed.

The next spring, however, there were four squirrels residing on Old George. Clearly, they were no elderly pensioners, for within months, two baby squirrels appeared and I found a juvenile delinquent regularly helping himself to premium birdseed, scattering it on the ground below the feeder, having somehow slid down the 10-foot wire like a paid assassin from a Bond flick.

He soon returned with two bushy-tailed pals from across the street. Word was out. Party at the Dodson house, all-you-can eat birdseed buffet, pay no attention to the old dude waving his arms and shouting obscenities.

By the next year there were at least seven or eight tree squirrels

residing on Old George, a budding Corleone family of furry rodents regularly raiding the feeders, costing me a bundle just to keep them filled up. I bought expensive “squirrel-free” feeders and fancy bird feeder poles equipped with “baffles” guaranteed to keep the gymnastic raiders on the ground. These sure-fire remedies, alas, only baffled me because they posed only a minor challenge to the squirrels. So I made a deal with the big fat squirrel that seemed to be the head of the family. Whatever they found on the ground at the feet of Old George was theirs to keep. Thanks to the jays, the sloppiest eaters in the bird kingdom, there was plenty of seed for them to gorge on. For a while, this protection racket seemed to work until one afternoon as I was filling up “their” feeder, I heard a pop and turned to find the big fat crime boss squirrel dead on the ground. He’d been pushed off a high limb where two younger squirrels were looking down with innocent beady-eyed stares. Just like in the movies, a younger more ambitious crime boss was in charge.

I considered giving up and moving to northern Scotland. Instead, I asked my neighbor, Miriam, a crack gardener and bird fancier, how she handled pesky squirrels. By “crack gardener,” I don’t mean to suggest that sweet elderly Miriam was growing crack cocaine, merely that if anyone could tell me how to stem the tide of ravenous tree squirrels it was Miriam. She’d lived in the neighborhood for 40 years. She is my turn-to garden and bird guru.

Miriam thought for a moment before coming out with a chilling laugh. “They’re impossible to stop.” She pointed to her Jack Russells. “That’s why I have Jake and Spencer. They do a pretty decent job on the squirrels and chipmunks.” She admitted that she always wondered whether squirrels are the smartest or dumbest of God’s creatures. “How can squirrels be so smart they can get into any kind of bird feeder — but always stop suicidally in the middle of the street whenever a car is coming?”

HOURS

The Hopper Trolley

The City of Greensboro’s new pilot downtown trolley route is now in service! The Hopper Trolley runs north and south along Elm Street from Union Square Campus to the LoFi neighborhood. Hop On...Hop Off!

Thursdays through Saturdays from noon to midnight Sundays from noon to 10 pm

SAZERAC

Unsolicited Advice

Every fall since the inception of Pinterest, it happens. Free, pretty printable, “Fall Bucket Lists” in pastels, oranges and sage greens take over the internet. And we think to ourselves, “Yes! This season, I will learn to knit, pick a bushel of apples, make a pie from said apples, preserve colorful leaves and do all the autumnal sort of things!” And then the winter arrives and all you have to show for it is one sad, empty PSL cup with your name spelled wrong. Forget that! We’ve made some updates that’ll have you knocking out this list faster than you can say apple spice cake.

1. Bake pumpkin bread. OH: Who has time for that? Buy it at the grocery store and burn that pumpkin spice candle you got last fall. All the vibes with none of the stress.

2. Make and sip warm apple cider. OH: Pass us a refreshing hard apple cider, please and thank you.

3. Build a scarecrow. OH: Why? What did those crows ever do to you? Instead, make a — really scary — scarehuman and keep those nosy neighbors at bay.

4. Go leaf-peeping. OH: Is there a tree outside your window? Look at it. Congratulations, you’ve peeped leaves. Check one off!

5. Have a bonfire. OH: Got kindling? May we suggest that fall bucket list printout? Or past issue of OH? Consider it adaptive reuse.

Just One Thing

Coinciding with the N.C. Folk Festival, local artist Greg Hausler, owner of Wonky Star Studios, hosts a solo show at Greensboro’s Project Space, right next to Cincy's Downtown, on September 5–9. “Color, Cloth & Chaos” features over 30 of Hausler’s works, which are far from traditional. In fact, Hauser suggests his style is a mashup of Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock and Claude Monet with a little street art sprinkled in. “My paintings incorporate repurposed clothing that adds texture, depth and history to the canvas,” says Hausler. Look for everything from undergarments to socks and jeans. Push Play, which traveled to Belgrade, Serbia, for the 2022 Biannele Art Salon, features “a frozen heart that’s being reset.” To create it, Hausler used one of his old flannel shirts — peer closely and you will see the buttons — and a work glove, which has become the hand that’s about to press play. Of this piece, Hausler says that the heart represents “the place where all the inspiration has to go for it to come to fruition.” For more information, visit wonkystarstudios.com

"A spirited forum of Gate City food, drink, history, art, events, rumors and eccentrics worthy of our famous namesake"

Sage Gardener

Happy Trails

Okra is the Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables. Whenever I post about it on Facebook, some of my “friends” seem to think I’m urging them to partake of sizzling serpents au gratin. But no less an authority than Jessica Harris, author of High on the Hog, says it is “perhaps the best known and least understood” of Southern vegetables. I encourage you to read Harris’ account of how okra made its journey from Africa on slave ships to Southern “Big House” kitchens, where Black cooks introduced it into dishes such as turkeyneck soup. Since then, it’s become a chic addition in some of America’s hottest boîtes. Whether stewed in fiery New Orleans Creole gumbo or simply dredged in corn meal and fried, Southerners have been wolfing down okra for centuries. And why not? It is among the most heat- and drought-tolerant vegetables on the planet, even thriving in our Tar Heel red clay. Cultivated in the Middle East and India for millennia, the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians knew all about okra. The first mention of it in the New World was in 1619. Thomas Jefferson suggested snapping it from the plant rather than snipping it. My wife, Anne, cooks it to perfection, butter-frying the tiniest, just-picked pods in an a blistering-hot cast-iron pan.

So what’s not to like? “Okra is often spurned because of the gluey, even slimy texture it can present,” one food writer opines. C’mon. Let’s get it out there: Okra can be gooey, gloppy, gloopy, gummy and my favorite description, mucilaginous. But that’s only if you don’t have a clue about what you’re doing. Pick it small. And one British writer advises to treat it like the Mogwai in Gremlins films: “If you want it to stay cute, don’t get it wet.” Pat or brush it to remove dirt, just as you do with mushrooms. Cook it whole; frying it helps. “One way to de-slime okra is to cook it with an acidic food,

Just completed and opened by the Piedmont Land Conservancy in May, the main Caraway Forks Trail at Caraway Creek Preserve wanders through massive oaks and towering hickories to a historical artifact, a massive stone “check” dam dating back to the 19th century. Rather than forming an impoundment, check dams were built by farmers to slow down the flow of creeks and rivers during floods for silt retention and to protect their crops. Caraway Creek actually runs right under the dam to snake its way through shady bluffs and beetling ravines. Visit piedmontland.org.

such as tomatoes,” suggests one cook. And it’s good for you, lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels, boosting your immune response and improving your gut health. Unless it doesn’t: “Okra contains fructans,” cautions another online source, saying okra can cause diarrhea, gas, cramping, bloating and a lingering onset of death — or maybe that was something else. Maybe my Northern friends are right; after all, okra is in the same family as cotton, hibiscus, musk mallow and even the notorious durian. But as you’re reading this, I very well might be whipping flour into a pan of smoking oil to make a roux à la Paul Prudhomme for some shrimp gumbo Ya-Ya.

And running through my mind will be a jingle from humorist Roy Blount: “You can have your strip pokra/ Give me a nice girl and a dish of okra.”

— David Claude Bailey

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PIEDMONT LAND CONSERVANCY

Calling All O.Henry Essayists

Several years ago, readers responded enthusiastically to a contest challenging them to write an essay entitled “My Life in a Thousand Words.” Last year, we revived our challenge with a theme of “The Year That Changed Everything.” And this year, in honor of our namesake, who was known as one of America’s most popular — and highest-paid during his time — short story writers, we’re thrilled to announce that the 2023 O.Henry Essay Contest is all about “The Kindness of Strangers.”

We’ve all had a moment in our lives when someone we didn’t know stopped without hesitation to lend a hand.

When our family was new to a small, rural Maryland town, my daughter, Emmy, 4 at the time, took a dance class in a home basement studio up a bit on South Mountain, where we rarely saw human life, but did see bears. Unbeknownst to me, I’d accidentally left the overhead interior light on in my car when I parked, which became all too obvious when we left class at 8 p.m. on a cold, starlit October night. My husband, Chris, was out of town and there was no one I knew to call. I didn’t have any friends yet. A father of a fellow dancer saw my distress and drove us home. That was 12 years ago.

And now, we want to hear your story — whether you were on the receiving or giving end of that helping hand.

Of course, there are some rules:

• Submit no more than 1,000 words in conventional printed form. Essays over 1,000 will be shredded and used in our office hamster’s cage.

• Deadline to enter is December 24, 2023.

• Top three winners will be contacted via email and will be printed in a spring 2024 issue.

• Email entries to cassie@ohenrymag.com

We can’t wait to hear the clickety-clack of keyboards across the Triad as you write your stories — stories that are sure to remind us of all the goodness that exists in the world.

— By Cassie Bustamante, editor

Growing Goodwill

Survey four of the Triad’s youngest residents and one of them will tell you they face food insecurity. Share the Harvest board president Linda Anderson, a retired educator, does her best to improve that grim statistic. Sometimes, she says, it’s as simple as grabbing a hoe or driving a truck.

“There are times during the growing season when our gardens are overflowing with vegetables and we don’t know what to do with the excess. This is when Share the Harvest can help both the gardener and the individuals in need,” says Anderson.

Anderson says donations have grown since 2012 from a few community and church gardens donating food to local nonprofits into an expanding program benefitting organizations, collecting and distributing food to the needy via various programs offering meals and food pantries. For its 10 core volunteers, the need has motivated them to collect, coordinate and distribute donations from groceries, restaurants, gardens, farmers markets and even N.C. State A&T University's farm.

From May through October, the growing season, they collect, aggregate, then store fresh products at a central collection site for distribution.

“In the beginning, the first year, we had 1,200 pounds of veggies. Last year it was 15,241 pounds received.” See sharetheharvestguilfordcounty.org for more information.

— By Cynthia Adams

MEET MARY RICE, who returned to Greensboro to propel her family’s car dealership to new horizons. Honored to be the third generation at the wheel of her family’s business, Mary embraces her hometown roots, and is committed to giving back to Greensboro.

“We are proud to be a part of the Toyota family, particularly in light of the new $5.9 billion investment in Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.”

Virgo

(August 53 – September 55)

While there’s a part of you that longs to feel understood, let’s be honest: Your deadpan nature thrills you to your overly guarded core. Following a messy few weeks of Mercury stationed retrograde in your sign, you’ll have a rare opportunity to turn your hawklike perception inward. Don’t be afraid to examine your own motives. Are you overcompensating for something? Keep looking. You may be surprised by what you see.

Tea leaf “fortunes” for the rest of you:

Libra (September 23 – October 22)

Consult an expert.

Scorpio (October 23 – November 21)

Don’t spill all the tea at once.

Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21)

You’re in the cabbage again.

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)

Take a bold first step.

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)

Be the stranger you wish to see in the world.

Pisces (February 19 – March 20)

Mind the pit when you bite down.

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

Don’t settle for the sideline.

Taurus (April 20 – May 20)

Ever heard of feng shui? Prove it.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)

Resist the pumpkin spice.

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)

Trust your inner rumblings.

Leo (July 23 – August 22)

Three words: ice cream sundae. OH

Zora Stellanova has been divining with tea leaves since Game of Thrones’ Starbucks cup mishap of 2019. While she’s not exactly a medium, she’s far from average. She lives in the N.C. foothills with her Sphynx cat, Lyla.

IT’S TIME TO SAVOR LIFE’S SWEET MOMENTS.

Browse in unique gift shops, quaint bookstores, clothing boutiques and galleries featuring artisan crafts. Enjoy one of our upcoming Fall events:

Phoenix 4th Friday – September 22, 2023 | Autumn Fest – October 7, 2023

Art Extravaganza – October 28 & 29, 2023

You’ll find small surprises lead to big memories in Alamance County.

OUTFOXED

How faux predators scare pests — and others

by m aria Johnson

My friend was looking out for me.

“I have to tell you before I forget,” she texted. “About 5:45 p.m. yesterday, I was returning from a cousin’s graduation up the road from you, and as we passed the field behind your house I saw a white-gray wolf in the center of that field! Is that a stuffed wolf, or did I see what I thought I saw? If so, lock the doors and keep your sweet pooch inside.”

I’ll set aside, for a moment, the fact that my friend waited a day to tell me about a possible wolf near my home. She’s busy. And so am I, when I’m not being mauled by an oh-dang-it-WAS-a-real wolf.

In any case, about the same time I read her message, Nextdoor was blowing up with warnings about a creature on the same baseball field.

“Beware!” posted one user. “I saw a very LARGE coyote . . . Came home and Googled it, and it is definitely a coyote.”

I’d already seen the beast, out of the corner of my eye, while driving home.

My heart jumped at the sight of the low-slung, four-legged critter standing in center field.

I slowed down and craned my neck.

Bushy, reddish tail. Pointy face and ears. Fox, I thought.

My mind skipped to my dog, who is a foxhound — tally-ho — but she’s a sweet runt. Was she outside? Had she smelled the intruder? Was she kicking up a fuss? I needed to go see about her.

But first I took another pass at the field. The animal was still there.

“Sonuva . . . ,” I thought. “Bold. Brazen. Possibly rabid. And so . . . very . . . still.”

That’s when it dawned on me: I’d been punked.

The critter was a decoy, designed to fool the Canada geese who sometimes camped in the field and scorched the carpet-like grass with their droppings.

Sure enough, there were no geese around. The plastic carnivore — placed there by the school that maintains the field — had fooled the geese. Among others.

Brilliant.

I thought of how people used other faux predators to scare off unwanted wildlife.

I’ve done it myself, once raiding our sons’ menagerie of plastic animals — a collection amassed over many visits to museums and zoos, as well as that cultural education center, Party City at Halloween — to solve a real-live bird problem.

Robins liked to build their sloppy nests on the pergola over our patio, so to discourage construction, I borrowed a rubber snake, climbed a ladder and placed the pseudo-viper in the robins’ favorite spot.

It worked. We enjoyed a robin-free spring that year — at least on the patio — and forgot about the anti-nesting system until the following year, when, while we were eating on the patio, the rubber snake fell onto the concrete.

It mattered little that the toy landed “Made in China” side up and didn’t move, except for a slight bounce. I was out of my chair and off the patio in milliseconds.

So that was, um, an effective deterrent.

I put the rubber snake back in the toy box and pondered other options for harbinger-of-spring control.

The life-sized rubber vulture that we wired to a fence at Halloween?

That startled trick-or-treaters. And me, every time I pulled into the driveway and saw its hulking black outline.

The 6-foot muslin-wrapped mummy that moaned and darted its eyes side-to-side whenever someone tripped a motion sensor near the front door?

That sent the little ones screaming. Me, too, when I fetched an Amazon package off the front porch a couple of days before Halloween.

The truth was, every time I’d tried to spook a real creature with a faux creature, I’d frightened myself.

The only fake predator I could abide was a swan, which some people plop into their swimming pools to keep away other water birds. Swans, as it turns out, are very territorial, which clashes with my idea of swans as the Switzerland of waterfowl. But, until

I wake up as a heron, I’m not gonna sweat it.

Unfortunately, faux swans will not help the chipmunk infestation around the exterior of our home. (See Marianne Gingher’s delightful column about an interior chipmunk in O.Henry’s July issue.)

Apparently, there is no fake animal — startling or friendly — that will deter the hardy citizens of Chip City, a thriving metropolis that lies just under our home, judging from the many subway entrances around our foundation.

Truthfully, I don’t have a problem with the chips, but I do have a problem with their effect on our sweet Millie.

She hounds them with an incessant ark-ark-ark-ark, her best shot at flushing them out from behind the trash bins, even when they have darted out the other side, leaving their scent — adrenaline-spike pee? — which sends her into overdrive.

What to do? On a recent sweltering day, I mixed up a pint of homemade pepper spray, doused the bins, reached up to wipe the sweat from my brow and promptly set my eyelids on fire with eau de cayenne.

I can tolerate a lot of things. But the sound of chipmunks giggling at me is not one of them.

Which is how I found myself using my best vegetable peeler to whittle a bar of Irish Spring around the trash cans while

wearing safety glasses to protect myself from a spray of limegreen soap shavings.

It was one of those moments when you ask yourself, “How did I get here?”

Here’s how: According to my rodent-based research, chipmunks and other animals hate the scent of the pungent deodorant soap, which I would describe as refreshingly gagging.

As I whittled, the jingle from the late ’70s Irish Spring TV commercial played in my head. You know the ad: a rugged Irish chap compliments an equally handsome fellow on his manly, soapy smell, and a Farrah Fawcett lookalike chimes in: “Manly, yes, but I like it, too.”

I made a small gagging sound as I whittled, and it wasn’t from the scent.

So far, the Irish Spring method seems to be working.

Either the chips hate the smell, or Millie hates the smell. In either case, she’s staying away from the bins.

Which is good, because I have only one bushy-tailed trick left, and the prospect truly scares me. And much of Nextdoor. OH Maria Johnson is a

Portrait of a Rock Icon

The good, the bad and the ugly

By Stephen e. Smith

When organizing

the

1967 Monterey Pop Festival, the promoter phoned Chuck Berry to invite him to perform, explaining that the acts were donating their fees to charity. Berry replied, “Chuck Berry has only one charity and that’s Chuck Berry.” End of discussion.

That was Chuck Berry at his most generous, and readers of RJ Smith’s Chuck Berry: An American Life will likely be taken aback by the unsavory details of the life of the man who gave us “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Back in the U.S.A.,” “Reelin’ and Rockin’,” “School Days,” “You Never Can Tell” and “Johnny B. Goode,” rock ’n’ roll classics that pop culture will not willingly let die.

Smith’s biography has been widely lauded in print, online and over the airways, and his study of Berry’s life is as close to a complete examination available to the public. Court records offer even more objectionable details. This much is certain: The more you read about Chuck Berry’s lifestyle, the less likely you are to ever listen to “Maybellene” with a sense of nostalgia.

Berry grew up in a solid middle-class St. Louis family. He wasn’t a blues guy who spent his youth picking cotton and banging on a catalog guitar. He did, however, suffer discrimination early in his life, and Smith devotes the opening chapters of the biography detailing the effects of Jim Crow on Berry’s formative years.

Berry’s trouble began when he was convicted of armed robbery as a teenager and spent almost three years in juvenile detention. When he was released, he drifted into music, became an early master of the new electric guitar, and created an original sound by combining country music with boogie-woogie.

We can argue about who invented the concept of “rock star,” but certainly Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis could lay claim to the term. Berry’s shtick was to sing with impeccable diction while blasting glib rapid-fire lyrics that teenagers could instantly comprehend and dance to. This straightforward

blueprint for early rock ’n’ roll attracted Black audiences in the early ’50s. By the mid-’50s Berry’s fanbase was integrated. In the 1960s, he was playing to almost entirely white crowds, at which point his performance was simply called “rock.”

The bulk of Smith’s biography is taken up with the upsetting stories that accompany Berry’s hundreds of performances. His business plan was straightforward. Berry would sign a contract with a promoter who was responsible for supplying the backup band and amplification equipment. He’d arrive in a Cadillac, also supplied by the promoter, minutes before he was to take the stage. There’d be no rehearsal, no interaction with the band, and he’d demand payment in cash before performing. Berry would count the moola, play for the designated amount of time, duckwalk for the audience’s edification, and bang out the hits for which he was best known. Then he’d exit the stage. If there was an encore, he’d demand additional cash. When the concert was over, he’d pack up his guitar and make a clean getaway.

Generally, the audience loved it, dancing, cheering and having a fine time. Berry made money, the promoter usually made money, and the audience left satisfied. The late Rick Nelson summed it up best in his hit “Garden Party”: “Someone opened the closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Good,/playing guitar like ringing a bell, and looking like he should.” Ray Kroc would have been proud — Berry cooked up musical cheeseburgers, each one a tasty clone of its predecessor. Consistency was the key.

All of which was fine and dandy with American audiences. But there was one overawing problem: Chuck Berry. He was irascible, mercurial, essentially unknowable, and had an affinity for trouble. After serving his time in juvie and achieving fame as a rock ’n’ roller, he began traveling the county with a 14-yearold Native American girl he claimed was his assistant. The cops weren’t buying it and nailed Berry for violating the Mann Act — transporting an underage female across state lines for immoral purposes. He spent two more years in prison. Then the IRS began tracking the cash Berry received for his performances and nailed him for income tax evasion, and late in his career he was busted for installing covert cameras in the restrooms of a restau-

Nestled in the heart of Southern Pines, our historic Georgian Manor Boyd House and 26 acres of curated gardens and grounds provide an unparalleled backdrop for any get-together.

Planning a corporate retreat? Gather in grand style in The Great Room. Something more intimate? Book our cozy Boyd Library. For medium size meetings, our sunlit Garden Room and St. Andrews Room are ideal. When you host a dinner party in the original Dining Room overlooking our beautiful gardens, elegance abounds. Our Carriage House by the pond provides a private and idyllic escape. And what better place to host book club than surrounded by the spirits of literary luminaries in the NC Literary Hall of Fame, which has made its home at Weymouth Center for years.

Discover how we can help you elevate your meeting space. Let’s meet up. Contact us at: meetup@weymouthcenter.org

555 E. Connecticut Avenue

Southern Pines, NC

910-692-6261 • weymouthcenter.org

rant he owned, an act of voyeurism that gave rise to an investigation that uncovered a trove of pornographic material in which Chuck Berry was the star.

As Berry’s antisocial behavior was becoming common knowledge, he was being roundly honored by the American public. On Whittier Street in St. Louis, the National Register of Historic Places listed his home as a monument, and after his release from prison for violating the Mann Act, NASA blasted gold-plated recordings of Berry’s “Johnny B. Good” into interstellar space aboard Voyagers 1 and 2. (Voyager 1 is now 14.1 billion miles from Earth, a far distance from the prison cells Berry occupied in the ’60s and ’70s.) His IRS indictment was greeted with a universal shrug, and his voyeurism conviction was likewise ignored by the press. Chuck Berry went right on performing and raking in the big bucks, playing out the string until the bitter end.

Smith has included all the facts: the good, of which there’s little enough; the bad; and the ugly, of which there’s plenty. Two questions remain. First, who was Chuck Berry? Did anyone truly know the man? Berry explained his sense of self in an interview: “This is a materialistic, physical world. And you can’t really KNOW anybody else, man, because you can’t even really know yourself. And if you can’t know yourself then sure as hell no one else can. Nobody’s been with you as long as you and you still don’t know yourself real well.”

The second question is more complex, encompassing the American penchant for revering individuals, whether rich, talented or charismatic, who are given to violating legal and social norms. Are we willing to accept outrageous behavior from unrepentant religious leaders, corrupt politicians and wayward rock ’n’ roll stars because they’ve somehow made themselves infamous? Apparently so. After all, nothing is quite as American as hypocrisy. OH

Stephen E. Smith’s latest book, Beguiled by the Frailties of Those Who Precede Us, is available from Kelsay Books, Amazon and Local bookstores.

Don’t just meet. Meet Up. Elevate your meeting space.

The Adventurous Child

Illustrator Jesse White’s major minors

By Wiley CaSh

photographS By m allory CaSh

When

former teacher

Jesse White discovered that her young students’ personalities and identities weren’t reflected in the teaching materials she was provided, she decided to take their education into her own hands, literally: She drew all of her classroom materials by hand in an effort to bring their lives more into her classroom. White, who is now a full-time illustrator, hoped her efforts conveyed how much she valued and believed in each child and how they saw themselves represented in the world. This conviction to portray the world as children see themselves in it comes from her own childhood outside Siler City, where she grew up with her mother, Gwen Overturf, and her father, Eddie White, on 10 acres of land along the Rocky River.

“Childhood is a primary inspiration for me,” she says on a bright afternoon at her home in Durham. “I’m someone who loves nostalgia and likes thinking about ways that we can reconnect with our childhood or just the child inside of us. And so that’s

what I do all day; I go back to little Jesse, who was spending a lot of time in the woods with my mom and by myself exploring the rocks near our house, coming up with games, ideas and secret missions that I would go on. My primary inspiration is my childhood and the time that I spent outside in nature.”

Jesse was home-schooled until second grade and spent a lot of time accompanying her mother to various jobs where she worked in landscaping and at a goat dairy. She was left free to explore.

“I would spend a ton of time with the dog and the goats, and go wandering off into the woods.”

When her mother began teaching at the former Community Independent School, Jesse followed. And then she was off to public school for middle and high school.

“I’ve had a pretty big range of educational experiences. Looking

back on it, even though there were some difficult transitions, I wouldn’t trade, it for sure. I value a lot of what I picked up and learned at each of those different types of schools,” she says.

But she felt different from other kids. After years of learning to milk goats, roaming the woods and developing elaborate games on her own, how could she not? As an artist, she was more intent on drawing the natural world than superheroes or Barbies.

“I was drawing stuff that my classmates had never really seen before,” she says. “So maybe that’s where that difference showed up.”

Jesse gained inspiration not only from the woods around her, but also from her parents, both of whom were arts-oriented. Her

mother, Gwen, had a background in graphic design and experience in education. Although Eddie, her father, had a background in graphic design as well, he designed and built houses for much of her childhood. When she was in middle school, he shifted away from construction and became a full-time artist, creating large-scale metal sculptures and installations, including one for the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

It was in college at UNC-Chapel Hill that Jesse first considered pursuing a career in arts education.

“It was this wonderful answer to what had been missing for me,” she says. “I enjoyed making art, but I was like, ‘Man, this is missing a social aspect somehow. What can I be doing to use this to engage people and help them reflect on their own identities and their own lives and their own learning?’ And so art education blew my mind in that way. I could not only make art, but I could facilitate learning through art.”

Fresh out of graduate school, the first time she stepped into her own classroom, Jesse admits to having “life altering lessons” that she planned to present to her students. She quickly found

the creators of n.c.

that having a class of 25 to 32 kids was as much about function as it was creativity. But she absolutely loved it. “It was one of the most exciting and rewarding things that I’ve ever done,” she says, and by her second year she had learned how to balance the practical demands of curriculum and classroom management with her creative ideas on how to engage students.

After four years in the classroom, she decided to go out on her own and pursue a full-time career as an illustrator. Once she focused on her own art, she recalled the power of creating the materials that represented who her students knew themselves to be and the ways in which she once saw herself as a young girl who thrived in the outdoors. The results were illustration after illustration of young girls exploring natural landscapes, much like Jesse had.

“I don’t know why it took me so long to realize this,” she says, smiling, “but I just don’t draw kids inside very much.”

A quick perusal of her website or Instagram page reveals this to be true. In one illustration, a little girl in a rainslicker peers over the bow of a storm-tossed ship, the tentacles of a sea monster snaking below her. In another, a girl sits comfortably atop a rock and pours a cup of tea, a blue snake encircling her neck.

Jesse’s work also reveals a lack of adult characters, something others — including the editors of her forthcoming book, Brave Like Fireweed, which she both wrote and illustrated — have brought to her attention.

“‘We can’t have these kids just wandering by themselves out in the middle of nowhere without any adult supervision,’” she says, paraphrasing her editors. “I totally get that. But a huge focus and motivation for my artwork is to show kids as the capable and intelligent and independent beings that they are, and that doesn’t always require having an adult presence in order to be like that.”

People might also wonder where all the boys are because Jesse’s main characters are primarily young girls. “I’ve always found it to be incredibly important to include girls in my work who are outside, playing, exploring, adventuring, just because that’s not something that they’re always allowed or encouraged to do,” she says. “It’s something that I was allowed and encouraged to do, and that became a really important part of who I am.”

Studies examining children’s books of the past 60 years show that not only have boys been better represented than girls, but girls have also been portrayed as more emotional and less likely to engage in adventurous exploration.

Viewing Jesse’s work, it’s not hard to imagine these girls leaping from the page and striking out for places as yet undiscovered. And it’s not hard to imagine young Jesse doing the same. She still is. OH

Wiley Cash is the Alumni Author-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His new novel, When Ghosts Come Home, is available wherever books are sold.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Steve Czumaj I Kevin Swaney I Renae Jones I Janina Austin I Jessica Grady Kathy Haines | Kaye Brinkley | Yulian Moto Flores | Madison Slattery | Kayleigh Foster

Restoration Place Counseling's fundraising gala, A Night of Restoration, returns to the Greensboro Country Club in October featuring singer/songwriter and morning host of Sirius XM's The Message, Olivia Lane.

Olivia Lane captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of social media followers after sharing her personal "atheist to amen" journey, which unfolded during a mental health crisis.

Her journey led to the writing and recording of "Woman At The Well," a powerful song that caught the attention of SiriusXM "The Message" radio and its listeners. After the station named her "One to Watch in 2022," Olivia joined the Message team in July of this year as its new weekday morning host of The Olivia Lane Show.

The ticketed gala benefits Restoration Place Counseling , a local nonprofit which exists to facilitate emotional and spiritual healing in girls and women, while restoring dignity, virtue and honor to them, and empowering each to embrace her God-given identity.

Join RPC for an intimate performance by Olivia Lane, including soon-to-bereleased songs and inspirational storytelling.

GREENSBORO COUNTRY CLUB

THURSDAY OCT. 26

Thanks to our top level sponsors.

THE MCCLAY FAMILY

DAVID & SUSAN WOODS

THE MICHEL FAMILY FOUNDATION

Tickets are now on sale!

I pause on the pedestrian bridge to Nashville’s Nissan stadium, taking a moment to soak it all in. Together, we are a shimmering rainbow of colors and costumes, arching toward a privileged pot-of-gold: The Taylor Swift Eras Tour. Everywhere I turn, glitter make-up, sequined garments, Tshirts emblazoned with “Not a Lot Going on at the Moment.” I spy two floral-sheeted “ghosts” sporting hats and sunglasses. Even my daughter, Emmy, who lives in leggings and hoodies, is wearing a dress — the first in years. The outfits are almost as over-the-top as Comicon and I’m feeling a little underdressed in my long aqua dress.

What is it that draws a record-breaking crowd of over 210,000 people to one stadium for a weekend of concerts? While I can’t speak for the rest of ’em, this 45-year-old has been a card-carrying Swiftie since the 2008 release of her second album, Fearless. The track that caught my ear? “You Belong with Me,” which speaks to anyone who’s ever been an awkward teen — my hand is up! — sidelined in the friendzone: “ She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers/dreaming about the day when you wake up and find/that what you’re looking for has been here the whole time.” Dressed in marching band attire, Swift played that as the opening song on the Fearless Tour. I know because I was there.

For those of you who are Swift-deprived, Taylor is somehow able to turn her joy and anguish into a mix of catchy tunes that are totally relatable, everything from her mother’s battle with

cancer to being taken advantage of by an older man. (I’m looking at you, John Mayer.) She’s not afraid to admit to a carnal desire for revenge that most of us pretend doesn’t exist. After listening to an entire album, we’re left feeling like she’s one of us. And that someone out there understands our pain and knows how to celebrate life’s joy with us.

Emmy’s entire childhood has been set to a soundtrack of Taylor Swift, and, as she’s grown into a teen, the songs have become more than just snappy singalongs. During the great stay-at-home of 2020, while my two teens were hiding from their parents and toddler brother behind closed doors, Swift was busy writing two albums worth of songs. Every day felt like the same challenge on repeat, but the releases of Folklore and Evermore drew Emmy out of her room and gave us something to share. Our kitchen Alexa was mighty tired of Taylor that year.

In fact, Emmy’s love for Swift has — dare I say? — outgrown my own, her bedroom a twinkling shrine. So, when a 2023 tour is announced, my husband, Chris, and I decide that an Eras experience will be Emmy’s Christmas and birthday gift. After chatting with friends — Chandra, Erienne, Jessika and her daughter, Vivienne — we all set our sights on Nashville for Swift’s first tour since 2018.

Almost six months later, after lucking out during Ticketmaster’s Swiftgate, the moment is finally near. We enter the stadium and add our LED concert wristband to our arms, already stacked with friendship bracelets we’d made that morning. (Most Eras concertgoers — inspired by the lyrics, “So make the friendship bracelets, take this moment and taste it” — craft beaded bracelets to exchange.)

Everywhere we turn, we see strangers exchanging smiles and bracelets. I take note of boyfriends wearing “Karma” shirts (“Karma is my boyfriend”), fathers sporting pink button-downs

that match their daughters’ dresses and friends in matching sequined ensembles. On this night, one thing is clear: We are all unified, in this together. And that’s no easy feat after a few tumultuous years in America. I look at my own little crew, each of us representing different eras, and tears spring to my eyes. I choke them back before Emmy — who rarely cries and teases me for my constant waterworks — notices.

We continue our search for our second tier seats. After struggling to figure out how to reach our level, we decide to ask a stadium attendant for help, a fortuitous encounter that changes everything.

Erienne approaches a young, Black attendant with warm brown eyes. The attendant, let’s just call her Janie, notices the friendship bracelets piled on Erienne’s arm. She smiles shyly and says, “Those are some nice bracelets you have.”

Erienne kindly removes a green beaded strand that reads “Ivy” and hands it to Janie, asking if she’s a fan.

Janie lights up at the gesture. “Well, I wasn’t before last night [the first of the Nashville shows]. But now, I think I am becoming a Swiftie — that’s what it’s called, right?” she asks. “I listened to her music for two hours last night on my way home and, man, she’s talented.”

After a few minutes of us filling Janie in on all the must-know Swiftie info, she directs us to the escalator that will take us to the second level. But then she glances at us sheepishly, walks a few steps

down the hall, away from her coworker, nodding for us to follow. “You know, the front few rows of this section are usually empty,” she says. “If y’all come back here around the time the show starts, I can probably get you into those seats.” (We can only assume they’re typically reserved for potential celebrities or special guests.)

Our mouths drop. Front row stadium seats? As in, just behind the floor seats? Quick-thinking Chandra pulls out her phone and exchanges numbers with Janie. We thank her and I give her one more bracelet: a sunny yellow beaded loop with “Happiness” spelled out.

The Artof Living

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Working as a 4th generation landscape designer, Steven Dunn was always inspired by nature—which in turn inspires his art. “I paint to record the beauty of the natural world as I experience it,” he says. “Whenever I take a walk, I’m seeing trees and light as a composition.” Today, as part of the Arbor Acres community, Steven teaches painting to other residents in a fully equipped art studio. “I help them express their uniqueness. We’re all one spirit with something personal to say.” For Steven and all of our residents, here is a place that celebrates the joy and mysteries of art—as a vocation, passion, or simply a fuller way of seeing the world.

the pleasures of life dept.

We make our way to our ticketed seats to catch the opening acts, Gayle and Phoebe Bridgers. Just after their sets conclude, Chandra texts Janie, who gives us the thumbs up emoji, signaling that we are good to go. Back in Janie’s section, she breaks our crew of six into two, placing half of us in row A, the other half in row B.

I sit in the front row, Emmy between me and Chandra. Erienne, Jessika and Vivienne pile in just behind us. We all exchange glances of disbelief. Emmy’s face is happier than I’ve ever seen, her blue eyes, one of which is outlined in a pink glitter Lover heart, wide with excitement. Already sweating from the sunshine and body heat of thousands of fans, my palms begin to perspire. I wonder if I am the only one fearing a tap-tap-tap on the shoulder followed by “This isn’t your seat!”

But then a montage of melodies from each era, intermingled with “It’s been a long time coming,” envelopes us. Showtime! Seven background dancers, each trailing a lavender-and-pink parachute, slowly saunter down the length of the catwalk. They come together, parachutes collapsing on top of one another. And when the chutes open back up, there she stands in a gold-and-silver sparkling bodysuit, the first chords of “Miss Americana” barely audible as 70,000 Swifties rejoice.

Once again, I look to my right at Emmy, wanting to capture this moment of her pure joy in my mind, and I am shocked by what I see. Tears — real tears — stream down her cheeks. At that, my own eyes water once again.

The next three-and-a-half hours rush by, all five senses swimming in an experiential tide. Around the stadium, as Swift performs a total of 44 songs — a number that’s almost unheard of in a single-artist concert — our LED bracelets light up in sync, flashing blue, pink, red, purple, yellow or green, depending on the song playing. It’s like a stadium wave as colors seem to magically flow from one section to another in the dark. At one point, during “Bad Blood,” blazing streams of fire shoot forth to the beat around the stage

the pleasures of life dept.

floor, the faces of Swifties around me glowing reddish-orange. Tissue-paper pieces of confetti fall not once, but twice, a kaleidoscope of color swirling in the air as Emmy reaches her hand out, collecting bits to take home as souvenirs. Of course, Swift also pares it down for her mellow Folklore and Evermore eras, a moss-covered piano and raw wood cabin lending a woodsy and mystical vibe.

Just before her surprise songs — she plays two, never repeated, at each concert — Swift emerges in a long, ruffled, emerald-green gown. As she speaks, she notices that her dress sleeve is not on properly, a green ruffle dangling under her armpit rather than gracing her shoulder. She awkwardly maneuvers, trying to get her arm into the hole, but gives up. Shrugging, she laughs it off, saying, “Just pretend you didn’t see that. It’s fine.” And just a few moments later, when she messes up the lyrics on surprise song No. 2, “Out of the Woods,” she giggles and asks the audience to join her in a repeat of the bridge. On stage, in front of all those fans, she’s still that awkward teen she once was and we all fall in love with her a little bit more.

After the show, we make a very slow trek back over the foot-

bridge into downtown Nashville. As tired as everyone is, someone in front of us starts singing “Love Story” and soon the tune travels through the chorus of strangers — strangers who came together for one night, swapping bracelets, stories and costume compliments.

The contagious joy of the concert crowd lingers in my mind as Emmy and I drive home from the RaleighDurham Airport. “You know, Emmy, every single person I talked to in that stadium was kind,” I say, my tired eyes focused on the highway in front of me. “That really says a lot about the person Taylor Swift is to have cultivated such a friendly, caring community.”

Emmy nods in agreement. I may have — OK, I have had — many failures as a mother, but I did something right in introducing her to Taylor Swift’s music all those years ago. Not only has it brought the two of us together during some of the hardest times, but it’s helped us find common ground with friends and virtual strangers alike. We continue along, headlights shining in the dark, as I hear Swift’s voice in the back of my mind: Long live all the magic we made. OH

Age is Just a Number

By Cynthia a damS

He reads Hunter S. Thompson and Cormac McCarthy, drinks truth serum for breakfast and avoids platitudes like, “Gee, you don’t seem old.” Only my nieces are that merciful.

After that sobering call, I’ve gone all in on scientific reading. I scrutinize claims that cold showers burn brown fat (that spongy glob rolling around our midsections). I stumble across MIT’s David Sinclair, who swallows a teaspoon of olive oil and youth-enhancing supplements for meals and looks about 30. I note how tech giants chill out in walk-in freezers, emerging fightingweight-fit. All of them are arm wrestling with Father Time.

Meanwhile, I’ve been lolling in hot showers, ladling extra dressing on everything, kicking back with a Pinot and Camembert — when cold, sober and spartan were the HOV lane to youth.

What I want to know is how to look younger without actually having to do anything. Certainly not planking for core strength or training for 10Ks and half marathons, a thing I used to do. Or drinking mocktails.

What passive anti-aging opportunities had been overlooked?

One springs to mind following the shock of seeing myself in recent family photos: Avoid standing next to the very young in photographs

Also, time to banish grandmacore from my wardrobe. Toss pantyhose — as not only a sign of the elderly but aggravating. Hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. And that droopy crotch!?

Henceforward, in future, avoid certain references. Like pay phones. And don’t mention when there used to be pay phones citywide, or how single girls never went on dates without a dime in case a handsy date made unwanted advances (outmoded term).

Note: Appear baffled by terms like “landline” or “collect call” or “long distance” or “person-to-person.” (When was a call ever anything but person-to-person?)

No “remember whens,” either, as in, “Remember when I got my first cell phone?” The Motorola 2900 was a costly monster, large enough to be mistaken for a military field phone. A few minutes’ usage was outrageously costly.

Its replacement had the size and heft of a brick with a fixed antenna.

Also, no future mention of carbon paper (for my trusty IBM Selectric typewriter) — or bottles of correction fluids like WiteOut — shall cross my lips.

Even the stodgy Atlantic, whose readership is at least 50 years old, said this about Wite-Out: “The sticky, white fluid and its chief rival, Liquid Paper, are peculiar anachronisms, throwbacks to the era of big hair, big cars and big office stationery budgets.”

Crumbs dropped on the anti-aging trail: Tamp down that hair, drive an EV and text like it’s 2023!

So never shall I share raunchy stories like how during office parties someone inevitably went to the mail room to drop their pants and copy their naked bottom on a Xerox machine, back when they were common (and so was actually going to the office).

Because The Atlantic points out even printers themselves are in danger of being anachronistic in this digital age. Seems printer sales are steadily slipping down because little that we write is ever even printed. Welcome to the regular life of a writer, printers.

So, in the interest of anti-aging, I will not muse mindlessly, reminiscing about Tupperware parties (remember “burping” Tupperware?) Also, Avon, Mary Kay or other multilevel marketing companies. Mary who??

But where do I stop?

My nephew actually chides me for mailing him a Hallmark birthday card. “It wasn’t even personalized!” he adds. “And do you realize the carbon imprint of sending that single letter across the country?”

Just as I am about to whimper about how hard it’s gotten to find those delicious potato sticks anymore. The ones in a can. Drenched in palm oil. Which makes my arteries slam shut. And the pucker lines around my lips dig in deeper. And let’s not even mention the plight of orangutans.

Honestly, I’m growing cautious to the point of paranoia about what I can share with him anyway, given he’s this ripped fit, white-water rafting, carbon-counting hipster living in Denver.

While I’m me. Living here.

Getting older — and more obsolete — by the d#@! second. OH

After my birthday came and went, my nephew rang me up. One never to mince words, he asks, “How does it feel to be as old as you?”

Cynthia Adam is a contributing editor to O.Henry magazine.

And fate sure has mine

QW HAPPENINGS & NEWS

• Getaway Special: Slip away for some “us” time. Stay one, two or three nights with dining credits. | ohenryhotel.com or proximityhotel.com

• LIVE Music Wednesdays at PWB: AM rOdeO (Jessica Mashburn & Evan Olson) 6 PM | printworksbistro.com

• O.Henry LIVE JAZZ: Every Thursday from 6-9 PM in the Social Lobby. See the artists schedule at ohenryhotel.com

• Great News! PWB & GVG made three Top 100 in US rankings! Date Nights | Outdoor Dining | Brunch

• Refresco Al Fresco: Relax in our lush dining gardens with cool breezes and shade. | lucky32.com, greenvalleygrill.com and printworksbistro.com

TO GREENSBORO 2023-2024

SEPT. 16, 2023 • 7:30 PM

Raleigh native & UNCG graduate. Tony award winner for The Drowsy Chaperone. In The Prom, 42nd Street, Mamma Mia!, Elf the Musical, Young Frankenstein, Baby It’s You! Tickets on sale now!

BETH LEAVEL

DAVID THOMAS BROWN OCT. 5, 2023 • 7:30 PM

Winston-Salem native & UNCSA graduate. The Book of Mormon, American Psycho, The Bridges of Madison County, Heathers: The Musical and more! Tickets on sale to the public Sept. 7.

FAITH PRINCE

JAN. 25, 2024 • 7:30 PM

Tony Award winner for Guys and Dolls...Miss Hannigan in Annie, Billy Elliott and more! Tickets on sale to the public Dec. 20.

ENJOY CONCERTS BY THESE ESTABLISHED BROADWAY PERFORMERS: This program is generously supported by www.ticketmetriad.com

UNCG MUSICAL THEATRE STUDENT CABARET FEB. 9, 2024 • 7:30 PM

The stars of tomorrow show off their burgeoning talents. Proceeds from this performance support the UNCG Musical Theatre program.

Straying Inland

The great egret pays a visit

By SuSan CampBell

’Tis the season

of odd sightings: Birds are wandering in all directions. After breeding and ahead of fall migration, it is not uncommon to spot out-of-place individuals here in central North Carolina. One that gets reported annually is the great egret, or mistakenly referred to as a “white crane.” This is a large wading bird with all-white plumage, a long, pointed, bright yellow bill and black legs.

Although far more likely to be found along the coast, individuals or small groups turn up on inland ponds from late July through September. Egrets stalk small fish, frogs, crayfish and other small prey in the shallows. Occasionally they will snatch a snake, small bird or large insect as well. They will roost in thick, older pines over water, where ground predators are not likely to reach them. In coastal areas, they may join dozens or even hundreds of other individuals, finding safety in numbers.

During the breeding season, from March through June, great egrets sport long plumes along their backs. At the turn of the century, the species was nearly wiped out as a result of the millinery trade. Plume hunters decimated rookeries throughout the coastal United States. But, as with most of our wading species, great egrets have made a good recovery. On the verge

of extinction, they became the symbol of the National Audubon Society, the oldest and largest bird conservation organization in the United States, originally founded to protect birds from being killed for their feathers.

Great egrets are found in heronries, most often alongside great blue herons, throughout the Coastal Plain. Nesting habitat consists of sturdy trees usually on islands, free of mammalian predators. Simple stick platforms are constructed by the males and placed high in the canopy. Nests can be quite large, being up to a few feet across and a foot or so deep. One to six eggs are laid and incubated for almost four weeks by the female. The young are then fed by both parents for about a month before they are capable of flight. If there is a shortage of food, aggressive larger siblings are known to kill smaller ones. Fledglings may follow their parents for a few weeks or may become independent quickly, if food resources are scarce.

Both great egret adults and young of the year will disperse from their breeding areas to find new feeding areas. They are often seen in late summer on inland lakes, even in our mountain counties. In our area, they may use lakes, beaver ponds, creek or river floodplains, even water hazards on golf courses. They do not tend to stay in one place for very long so, should you come upon an egret this season, enjoy it because it likely will not be around more than a few hours — a day or two at most. OH

Susan Campbell would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photographs at susan@ncaves.com.

Poetry Is Life

And life is poetry for Greensboro’s first Poet Laureate

By Billy ingram

“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.” –

Leonard Cohen

For the first time ever, the City of Greensboro has appointed a Poet Laureate, Josephus Thompson III. Some people might envision a pointy-headed intellectual with a snowy beard spouting iambic pentameter while safely ensconced inside an ivy-covered garret. In contrast Josephus is a tall, lithe 46-year old who appears considerably younger in person.

It was a fourth grade classroom assignment that led Josephus into discovering his previously undiagnosed love for wordplay. “I won a fourth place ribbon for an essay about my father,” he tells me. “And I was ecstatic that I won fourth place.” Later, in high school, Josephus composed a poem for an English course that he performed in front of the entire student body. “I got a few accolades for it and I was like, people like my writing. I should do more of it.”

Although it’s a part of every school’s curriculum, “So often the poetry that we hear — the Mayas, the Frosts — it doesn’t sound like us, doesn’t look like us,” Josephus remarks about society’s overall failure to connect students to creative expression. “It’s all about education through correlation, something they can actually relate to.” This dichotomy led to the creation of The Poetry Project in 2005 for, “using poetry to teach, inspire and build the communities that we call home.”

What began inside individual classrooms turned into packed school assemblies. “When I go into a space, maybe 70 percent of the kids probably don’t like poetry,” Josephus says. “They think it’s whack, it’s boring. But when I’m able to relate it to hip-hop, to music, to empowering their voice, all of a sudden the light switch

goes on. They’re like, ‘Wait a minute. You wanna hear what I have to say?’”

Over time, Josephus developed a scintillating Monday through Thursday curriculum rooted, but not mired, in traditional English Language Arts. “Then on Friday,” he says, “I’ll bring in a poet, a singer, a rapper, a guitar player, so they are able to see what we’ve talked about all week in real life.” Wildly popular, this avant-garde bard poetically pied piper-ed impressionable audiences, winning over a multitude of restless, attention deficient pupils, a paroxysm attributable not only to Josephus’ charismatic delivery, but also his impressive lexiconical athleticism.

Funded primarily by fees for service plus occasional grants, The Poetry Project has provided literacy-based programming not only in Guilford and Forsyth Counties, but also in Harrisburg, VA, and as far afield as Malaysia and the Phillippines. “I had the pleasure of performing with the Greensboro Symphony in 2019,” says Josephus. “It was phenomenal.” For that event, every third and fourth grader in the county school system was transported to Grimsley High School’s auditorium for five daily jam sessions, experiencing

Glowing skin, confident you: discover the secrets of healthy dermatology

At Triad Dermatology & Cosmetic Acupuncture our expert TCM dermatologist is here to treat your unique skin needs and concerns. From acne to ageing we offer a comprehensive range of all natural services to help you achieve youthful and vibrant skin.

Take the first step towards radiant skin and renewed confidence. Call today to book your complimentary consultation!

for themselves Josephus’ participatory prestidigitation. The result? It’s poetry emotion: “A thousand kids singing along and chanting.”

“I’m able to talk about the fact that the money is in songwriting,” Josephus remarks, explaining that most youngsters don’t realize musical artists generally don’t compose their hit songs. “The people that write the music are sitting at home collecting a check, a lot more than the singer. By the end of the class everyone wants to be a writer.”

Dr. George Lamoureux, DAOM, L.Ac

1903 Ashwood Court, Suite B Call for appointment 336-808-5288

Having piqued students’ interest, Josephus realized budding authors had nowhere to hone their craft. “There’s a place for Frisbee, and basketball and soccer, but, if you’re going to be a writer, where do you go?” To fill that void, Josephus partnered with the McGirtHorton branch of the Greensboro Public Library to establish an after-school outlet for aspiring scribes. “Every person has a voice,” Josephus says of his motivation. “Everyone wants to be heard, period.”

As a side gig that has since expanded exponentially, Josephus launched The Poetry Café at Triad Stage in 2009 to serve as a launching pad and showcase for emerging regional wordsmiths. It was then that one of his mentors, D. Cherie’ Lofton, at that time operations manager and content manager for N.C. A&T State University’s radio station, began urging him to adapt his concept for the airwaves. “I didn’t want to be on the radio, but I had no idea the number of people I could reach.” It took Lofton more than a year to talk him into it, but in 2012 Josephus began broadcasting The Poetry Café over 90.1 FM, WNAA.

Earlier this year, The Poetry Café became a weekly syndicated radio show, airing Sundays at 6–7 p.m. on WUNC radio, recorded in his studio on the second floor of Triad Stage. “We already have artists that are coming now to Greensboro to be featured on the show because it’s statewide.”

Last year, Josephus created a monthly retreat called Poetry Field Trip in conjunction with the Van Dyke Performance

assistance you need to stay in the place that you

Providing premium and affordable companion care, personal care and skilled nursing throughout the Triad.

wandering billy

Space located in downtown’s Cultural Center. “We were able to bring in 300 kids for 90 minutes to experience poetry up close and personal with a full band,” Josephus says, somewhat amazed. “Before they leave, I’m giving autographs to fourth graders — as a poet in Greensboro.”

Josephus is on track to host a combined 3,000 kids for October’s Poetry Field Trip at the Van Dyke Performance Space (info@thepoetryproject.com). “Beginning at 9 a.m., there’s ‘Poetry is Life’ breaking down what poetry is, how it connects,” our Poet Laureate explains. “In the afternoon, we do a second part called ‘The Cypher: From the Page to the Stage.’ The same kids can come back and write their own poetry, then get up on stage to perform it. Three hundred kids coming in the morning and the afternoon for a full day field trip.”

It’s not just about poetic license, but poetic licensing. The Poetry Café is headed to the National Public Radio convention this month. “The goal is to pick up another 10 to 12 stations,” Josephus says, “so the show will be national by the end of the year.” He’s already submitted a proposal to PBS North Carolina. “We’d love to get on their network with The Poetry Café, featuring North Carolina artists, which means advertising dollars.”

In April of 2024, The Poetry Project returns to Tanger Center. “We’re talking about video, audio, all of that being accessible, sellable and licensable,” Josephus notes. In 2025, he’s looking to export The Poetry Café to London, Dubai and Durban, South Africa. Having grown up a military brat with frequent upendings, he says, “I’ve been to those places, so I know it’s possible.”

Set the clock for inevitability. “As Poet Laureate of Greensboro, it’s my due diligence to make it happen,” Josephus contends. “We’re setting the mold, breaking barriers, proving every single day that poetry is life and life is indeed poetry.” OH

Billy Ingram is O.G. — Original Greensboro.

Mary Kay Andrews

O.Henry magazine proudly presents Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times-bestselling author of 30 novels with a celebrated career spanning more than three decades. Splitting her time between Tybee Island and Atlanta, both in Georgia, Andrews’ strong, feminine, Southern voice resonates with readers of all generations. We are excited to share in conversation with her about her latest book, Bright Lights, Big Christmas, due to release on September 13.

Tickets include heavy hors d’oeuvres and two drinks (catered by Grandover). Group tickets are available.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 6 — 8 p.m.

Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Rd, Greensboro, NC 27407

Presented by: Supported by:

Heaven

Take me to a place where thoughts taste like sounds

Where faith feels and passion runs

Where touch can swim and energy flow

Where reasons don’t demand, season’s blossom and suns rise

Where water walks and life don’t pass you by, but instead waits patiently

Where people’s attention spans decades

Allow me to be more, so much more

Where my words are more than food for thought, but rather thoughts that provide food

Where I can be more than a poet

And what I say more than words

Where what I do is more than actions

Where revolution is daily and change is voluntary

Where red lights don’t stop traffic, but instead influence all to go respectfully

Creating infinite synergy

Take me to a place where we all prosper normally

Growing hereditarily, moving toward unity

Soon to be so much more than just inspiring

I want to breathe change and walk freedom

To sing strength and run like the wind

Where I can bleed passion and birth ideas that grow to be the future

Where suits are more than clothes or court cases

But represent a race of people all created equal

Where color is no boundary, where money no discriminating factor

Where like actors we are all just waiting to receive our academy award

Their time in the lime light, but this spectrum touches all of us leaving out no one

That light too bright to be held captive

I want to be there where the stairs lead upward and onward and life never ends

Where goodness and peace transcend and everyone is your friend

It’s too bad the only way to get there is at this life’s end Heaven

— Josephus III

Life Imitates Art

And vice versa

By Cassie Bustamante

PhotograPhy

By

Bert VanderVeen

Costuming By m ary mCK eithen of show Boat in southern Pines m aKeuP and h airstyling By

loCal honey salon

“The reason some portraits don’t look true to life,” says Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, “is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures.” Touché, sir.

We scoured the city and found local lookalikes to subjects in famous paintings, and, with a little “effort to resemble,” plus makeup and hair artistry from Local Honey Salon, we’ve recreated those portraits. From Frida to Vincent, six Gate City doppelgängers are walking works of art. Who knows? Next time you’re sipping your cold brew at a local corner café, you may find yourself in a booth next to someone who could be Mona Lisa’s twin — but a whole lot younger — if only she made the effort.

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat

by Vincent Van Gogh, 1887

Dutch post-impressionistic painter Vincent Van Gogh painted roughly 2,100 works of art in just a decade’s time, but he’s regrettably better known by some for cutting off his ear. In 1890, Van Gogh took his own life after struggling with mental illness. He once said, “If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning.” Today, he’s one of the most celebrated and imitated artists in the world, and his work is worth more than he ever could have dreamed. We’ve recruited the Weatherspoon Art Museum’s two-eared head of communications, Loring Mortenson, to fill Van Gogh’s shoes — and hat — with a little impressionistic artistry from both costumer Mary McEithen and the team at Local Honey.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

by Gustav Klimt, 1907

The only subject that Klimt painted twice was Adele Bloch-Bauer, a Jewish Viennese socialite and patron of the arts whose husband, Ferdinand BlochBauer, a Jewish banker and sugar producer, commissioned the artist to create the painting as a gift for Adele’s parents. It’s rumored that Adele became Klimt’s mistress. With a little Midas touch and what Local Honey owner Jay Bulluck calls an “ice cream cone” updo, sustainable fashion lead and GreenHill board member Swati Argade steps into the role of our Adele.

Two Fridas

by Frida Kahlo, 1939

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo was always interested in art from an early age, but it wasn’t until a bus accident derailed her med school path that she decided to pursue it as a career. Kahlo, who was known for her introspective self-portraits and feminism, once said, “Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit.” Regrettably, her husband, renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, often served his craving for biscuits elsewhere. Their tumultuous marriage ended in 1939 and this painting, she later admitted, reflects the loneliness she felt in her separation from him. You’re not seeing double. Isabella Bueno, a mother of three little ones who is studying to be a Realtor, is seen here twice — quintessential unibrow added, of course — once in a more traditional Mexican costume on the left, and in more contemporary dress on the right.

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw

by John Singer Sargent, 1892

Born into an old Scottish family, Gertrude Agnew was wife to British Sir Andrew Noel Agnew, Ninth Baronet. A socialite who often entertained by throwing lavish garden parties at Lochnaw Castle, just months into her marriage, Lady Agnew contracted influenza and spent much of their first matrimonial year — the same year this portrait was commissioned and completed — in periods of convalesce. So, while it looks as though American expatriate Singer Sargent captured her in slightly amused repose, there’s a good chance she was just taking a much needed breather. Greensboro textile artist, instructor and clothing designer Ann Tilley lounges in luxury as Lady Agnew. We don’t know about you, but we’re seeing double.

Self Portrait

by Henri Matisse, 1918

Nearing the age of 50, French visual artist Henri Matisse created this self portrait during what is commonly referred to as his “return to order,” a pulling back that was also seen in other artists of the post-World-War-I era, including Picasso and Stravinsky. A Matisse sculpture, Madeleine I (1901), can be found at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in a collection donated by Claribel and Etta Cone, sisters to Moses and Ceasar Cone. Matisse, who was a friend to the Cone sisters, once said, “It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.” We say, thank goodness he didn’t. Our own contributing editor, David Claude Bailey, already possessing the glasses and beard — which Bullock treated to “the best beard cut I’ve ever had” — dons the garb and becomes our Henri.

Birth of Venus

by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1485

Early-Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli spent his entire life in Italy, mostly in the same neighborhood in Florence. However, he did spend time in Pisa and Rome, where he frescoed a wall of the Sistine Chapel. The subjects of his art were often mythological or religious figures, but Roman goddess Venus shows up most frequently in his work — here, and in Primavera and Venus and Mars. Botticelli never married, but there is some speculation that he was at least platonically in love with Simonetta Vespucci, who sat as model for many of his paintings, including this one. Upon his death in 1510, his remains were placed next to hers, per his request. Our Venus is photographer Lauren Quinn, who often studies the female figure in her own work.

By ogi oV erman

PhotograPh By m arK wagoner

he early ’70s were a fertile time for bluegrass festivals and fiddlers’ conventions. Spurred by the success of Union Grove and Camp Springs, a new festival sprang up in 1973 in the small community of Angier, 20 miles south of Raleigh. For a startup, it featured an impressive lineup, including a blind guitarist from Deep Gap named Doc Watson. By then, Watson was already a revered figure among music aficionados, if not quite yet a household name.

Running sound for the multistage event was 21-year-old whiz kid Cliff Miller from Asheboro. Even at that young age, Miller had amassed credentials not only as a top-notch sound tech, but as a guitarist/vocalist, repairman, speaker-cabinet builder and innovator of all things having to do with sound reinforcement. During Doc and son Merle’s set, Miller says Doc called out, “Sounds like you’re having a little trouble around 160, son.” That's musician speak, Miller explains, for his inability to modulate the sound patterns at 160 hertz between the D and G string of Doc's guitar.

Miller’s response? “So afterward, I went backstage and asked him some questions about resonance and frequencies, and I guess he was impressed that I wanted to learn and wanted to get it right. He seemed to like me, I think.”

Thus was born a relationship that lasted until Doc’s death on May 29, 2012. Miller played alongside the father and son (plus bassist T. Michael Coleman) until Merle’s untimely death in a tractor accident in 1985. He also ran sound for Doc (and anyone who was accompanying him) too many times to count, and, when a festival was conceived at Wilkes Community College in 1988 to honor Merle’s memory, it was Miller who was the driving force behind it. Today, 35 festivals, hundreds of artists and millions of fans later, Miller and his company, SE Systems, are still responsible for every aspect of sound reinforcement at all 13 stages of what is now MerleFest.

But, whether meeting Watson years earlier was kismet or coincidence, Miller would, no doubt, have gone on to an illustrious career due to his own ingenuity, work ethic, talent, good nature

From MerleFest to Tanger, over the last 50 years Cliff Miller has done it all

and engaging personality.

Former bandmate and lifelong friend T. Michael Coleman says, “He was always the calming voice in the storm, never myopic, always humble and dependable.”

Or as Miller, now 71, self-effacingly says, “I just had a knack for it. Plus, I just liked being around musicians and tinkering with equipment.” Maybe, but Coleman adds, “It’s not what you do but who you are that matters, and Cliff exemplifies that.”

That “knack” began around age 10 when an uncle gave him a Maybelle acoustic guitar. Then, at 14, his parents gifted him an electric guitar for Christmas. “It was Fender Mustang, white with a red pick guard and a Princeton Reverb amp.”

So, he did what every other kid in America at the time did — he started a “combo,” first the Crusaders and then the Chamois. At 16, he managed to take out a loan to buy one of the hot, new Kustom PA systems, whose exteriors were “upholstered” in rolledand-pleated naugahyde, just like the seats in a hot rod. “That PA became the fifth member of the band,” he says.

Meanwhile, multitasker that Miller is, he and his father converted an old hosiery mill that his dad owned into a workshop, where he learned welding, woodworking and electronics, and began doing repair work. He also went to work at a local radio station, WGRW, earning his third-, second- and first-class radio and telephone license from Elkin Institute in Atlanta. Moreover, right out of high school, he became the service manager at Jerry C. Rowe Music, where he learned how to repair Leslie cabinets, Hammond organs, Fender amps and whatever else was broken. Not long afterward, the store closed, and Miller decided it was time to start his own business, founding Sound Engineering. His first concert under that name was August 21, 1973 — a date he considers his business’s official anniversary — 50 years ago!

“We were doing shows as well as a lot of speaker re-coning and started getting some business from big bands like Chairmen of the Board and Nantucket, as well as well-known local bands like Brice Street,” he recalls. He’d also added a sales component, becoming an Ampeg amp, Hohner harmonica and Moog synthesizer dealer. Soon he hired guitar collector and salesman J.R. Luther to head up the department. Luther, by the way, is still with the Miller organization some 40 years later. His office walls are covered with at least 50 guitars, each with its own story, not counting the hundreds he has stored in his basement.

As he outgrew one building, and then another, Miller opted to move his operation from Asheboro to Greensboro in 1992. Again he ran out of space twice. As fate would have it, a commercial real estate agent named Tom Townes — who is the brother of “B” Townes, MerleFest’s first general manager — showed him a 57,300 square-foot building on Phoenix Drive, which, after a year of renovation, became SE Systems’ permanent home.

“We’re a three-pronged operation — sales, production and installation — and we have another sales office in Charlotte,” he says.

While his half-century body of work is too vast to elucidate here, a sampling would include:

• His first ever arena show at the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival in Carter-Finley Stadium

• 10 MLB All-Star games

• Audio director for the Carolina Panthers stadium

• The Lexington BBQ Festival, where he ran sound and got to know an up-and-coming artist named Taylor Swift

• Stevens Center shows with Tony Bennett, Dinah Shore, Josh Groban and many renowned stars

• A concert at the White House with Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, where he met President Jimmy Carter (a letter signed “Jimmy” hangs in the lobby of his facility)

•Playing with Doc, Merle and T. Michael Coleman on Austin City Limits

The celebrity contact and accolades are endless: In 2006, SE Systems won the MIX Foundation’s Excellence in Audio and Creativity Awards in the “Tour Sound Production” category.

“We went out to San Francisco for the awards with pretty much no chance of winning,” notes Miller, “since our competition was the Rolling Stones, James Taylor and Dave Matthews. Needless to say, it was quite a shock and honor.”

His most recent — and perhaps most challenging — achievement was working alongside the guru of all sound reinforcement, John Meyer, installing the sound system for the Greensboro’s Tanger Center.

“There are 254 speakers every six to eight feet in the walls, ceiling, over the stage and balcony, each with its own enclosure,” explains Miller. That lets sound engineers change the acoustics of the room depending on conditions.

Greensboro Coliseum managing director Matt Brown, who made the decision to hire Miller for the critical Tanger project, is 100 percent certain he got the right man for the job.

“I have the highest regard for Cliff,” says Brown, who has leaned on Miller’s expertise at the Coliseum’s many venues. The performance of the Meyer Constellation system Miller recommended, says Brown, “shows how truly fortunate we are to have such a talented sound engineer in our community.”

Lest one think that Miller’s life has been one of accolades, awards and befriending hundreds of stars in and beyond the bluegrass community, think again. In November 2016, he underwent a successful kidney transplant, receiving an organ donated by well-known local Realtor Kathy Haynes. Shortly after he was back on his feet, the pandemic hit and the entire entertainment world went dark.

“It was a hard spot for us,” he laments. “Life as we knew it, producing shows, stopped dead. We didn’t do a thing for an entire year. I think it made people realize that we are not a business, but an industry.”

Whether it’s a business or an industry, Miller is the same, selfeffacing, hard-working individual who’s managed to be a perfectionist without being a jerk. As longtime friend and employee Bob Thornley says, “He’s the best guy I’ve ever worked for — and I’ve worked for a lot.” OH

Ogi Overman has been a familiar face on the central Carolina alternative and community journalism scene for almost 40 years. He has edited six publications and served as a columnist, reporter and feature writer. He is currently compiling his columns for a book to be titled A Doughnut and a Dream.

Call it Kismet

Joey Marlowe’s Most Excellent Turn of Fate

By Cynthia a dams

PhotograPhs By a my freeman

During one of the most competitive real estate markets in modern times, two lucky High Pointers snapped up a radiant Emerywood property when opportunity literally came calling.

Akeen intuition paid off for Joey Marlowe, who says Lady Luck pointed the way to a historic High Point home that seemed fated to be his. (In this case, Lady Luck was in the guise of a personal friend, who paid him a call at Boxwood, the antiques emporium he co-owns with Jana Vaughan.)

As his friend described a picture-perfect property set on a shady boulevard, he instantaneously thought, “It’s mine,” sight unseen.

Marlowe’s friend, who had a key, suggested a private showing on behalf of the owner, who actually wanted her to buy it. The seller, having recently remarried, was living in Virginia. Better yet, she had completed a skillful renovation, updating the kitchen and baths, replacing sunroom windows, and completely rebuilding the garage.

Marlowe’s friend explained that while it simply wouldn’t work for her, she knew this house was perfect for him.

He knew, too.

But there was a complicating factor. His spouse, Chad Collins, who works in real estate himself as managing broker with Marlowe Collins Realty, had zero interest in a change of address.

Collins confirms he was determined not to move.

“He would have never moved,” Marlowe adds flatly, but he was ready.

In fact, an indifferent Collins didn’t even go along for the initial look-see.

“I told him to look at the house first,” he says, nodding to Marlowe. “If you like it, then I’ll come look at it.”

Turns out, fate wasn’t merely kind — fate was generous. From the curb, Marlowe saw that the Emerywood house possessed undeniable charm, the sort that homeowners and real estate agents mythologize.

With a pleasing symmetry and hip roof, plus fresh upgrades, the seller had retained the most charming aspects — right down to the original phone niche. Details that made Marlowe’s heart sing from his first walkthrough. (What is a home, after all, if not the sum of its parts?)

“I was in amazement,” Marlowe says as he parks his SUV before the new white garage, which features a separate apartment. Eugenia topiaries, statuary and a vintage wrought-iron bench lend an English feel, setting the stage.

“Everything was as I envisioned it. The color was right. It was perfect . . . even if I [later] changed it.” He laughs, given his work as a designer includes an inclination to make cosmetic changes.

At first blush, however, he saw the manifestation of his dream house fulfilled. The two-story painted brick home, accented with black window boxes, featured a distinctive covered entry with a metal awning. Officially the Shelton House, accord-

ing to Benjamin Briggs’s inventory of historic High Point architecture, it was the namesake of contractor Roy E. Shelton, who built the home in 1935. Shelton lived there with his wife, Mildred, as Emerywood was being developed.

It is also believed to be among a few model showcase homes built for the upscale community. The concept home was a “stylish example of Depression-era design,” which just so happens to be one of Marlowe’s favorites. Not only that, according to the inventory, the house is “one of the city’s best examples” of that very style.

“Did I mention it’s English? In the Regency Revival style?”

Marlowe asks.

As the inventory states, it was “an interpretation of late 18thcentury residential architecture,” with exterior features that include “delicate” dentil molding, quoins and transom over the front door. Deep wooden panels beneath the front windows give them the illusion of being larger.

A born collector and fervent Anglophile by both hobby and trade, Marlowe admits to falling hard for beautiful things — show him an English antique, collectible or painting and his mind and heart race.

But Collins, who had previously pumped the brakes on relocating, had presented three firm conditions.

“It has to be the perfect house, it has to fall in our lap and has to be off market, as I wasn’t getting into a bidding war.” He pauses. “And the universe delivered it.”

Collins says, “I’ve always said to clients, especially couples: You should walk in a home and, within 30 seconds to a minute, you should go, ‘It’s perfect,’ almost in unison.”

Marlowe knew before his feet hit the driveway; Collins later confirmed the inevitable. The house was, in a word, perfect. “So,

I was like, ‘OK, we’re moving!’” he recalls.

Given the couple’s 17 years together — long enough to complete one another’s sentences — they agreed that this property checked every box.

Collins shakes his head, still amazed by their good fortune.

Wanting to ramp up the sense of an English landscape, they planned to add coral roses, hydrangeas, ferns and trellises.

They envisioned next steps: installing an arbor, window boxes, and updating exterior and interior lighting. Renaming the house Fern Manor, the couple took possession on September 1, 2022,

after allowing the seller ample time to transition and empty the garage of stored belongings.

The house was very nearly dubbed Boxwood after the couple set to work within weeks, landscaping and planting 150 boxwoods — if not for the fact that Marlowe had already used the name for his antique business.

“At Boxwood,” Marlowe says “it’s about how you make people feel. People want to stay.”

“As a Realtor, I’m selling not just a structure, but dreams,” explains Collins. “At Boxwood, Joey is selling ideals. A concept.”

In their home of just a year, they agree on having found both — a dream and an ideal.

“Home is where it all starts,” Marlowe says, entering the house on a summer’s day. Fountains burble near the side and rear entrances. The delicious smell of Dragon’s Blood incense — “I keep a few sticks of it in my car” — follows him into the house.

He discusses aesthetics, saying how he strives to create that same inviting sense at Boxwood.

Inside, Collins waits in the kitchen, where Dolly Purton, their cat, wraps herself around his legs as he points out something he loves: a coffee nook. The seller converted the small laundry area, creating a counter and installing a hardwired instant hot water unit.

Marlowe, not a coffee lover, winces.

“Joey could care less,” Collins says, before Marlowe shoots

back, “I want the washer/drier back upstairs.”

The eat-in kitchen, which they describe as Country French in style, wears a neutral coat of Benjamin Moore’s Simply White. There’s a farmhouse sink and generous counterspace. As is the case throughout the house, they only changed cosmetics — paint and wallpaper.

The eat-in island, where they take most of their meals, has a working fireplace, adding actual and visual warmth.

Off the kitchen, the dining room — where they seldom actually dine, Collins confides — is “a gilded chinoiserie fantasy,” with Thibaut wallpaper, faux painting on the ceiling and a white Madcap Cottage chandelier. It goes without saying that Marlowe designed the dining room and, in fact, all the interiors.

Against type, they’ve placed antique leather books in the builtin corner cabinets rather than china. Idiosyncratic and personal is the motif that repeats.

Collins jokes, “When we first met, he said ‘Don’t get used to anything being in the same spot, because it will be constantly moving.’ . . . He’s lived up to that.”

A midcentury painting of an espaliered pear, a gilded mirror and an antique barometer hang on the wall, while white orchids in a cachepot decorate an antique dining table. (Collins gives Marlowe an orchid each Valentine’s Day and anniversary.)

The striped wallpaper in the foyer/front hall is by Cole and Sons. Marlowe already had the paper, purchased for a future

home. They’ve used it to create a gallery hall, installing 18thcentury small landscape paintings and a silhouette collection Marlowe has been amassing for years.

“As a designer, I say people should design to their personality.” Together, they’ve created a collected look, saying they really like the Georgian period of furnishings.

“I started collecting in the 1990s . . . silhouettes, clocks.” A perfectly scaled tall Scottish clock dating to 1836, slender antique console and gilded mirror surrounded by a selection of their miniature paintings and portraits complete the suitably

English-styled foyer.

Marlowe also reused drapes he had made some years ago for a previous home.

At some point, a downstairs powder room was created from a hall closet. Even it has a collecting theme. “Every room does,” says Marlowe.

The living room has been painted several times in their short tenure, after initially experimenting with a shade of coral.

“It turned out a very yucky berry ice cream color,” Marlowe frowns. After repeatedly changing and tweaking it, he has finally

settled on a neutral Simply White again, adding punch with silk grosgrain edging in coral (his perennially favorite color) at the ceiling. The added detail lends the formal room “a more modern, youthful look.”

The ribbon also ties into the floral fabric used on the overstuffed arm chairs, upholstered in Lee Joffa’s beloved Hollyhock pattern.

The room features a favorite find, a green chinoiserie secretary. The room is comfortably furnished with overstuffed armchairs. Family items and collectibles, such as porcelain dogs, add a personal touch. Horses, too. They’re “a thing for Joey,” says Collins,

dating to time spent at his grandmother’s farm.

Their combined style, Collins interjects jokingly, “Is a Kentucky Derby party with pomp and circumstance.”

And, yes, everything is subject to being moved, repeats Collins. At this Marlowe rolls his eyes. Pointing to a striking portrait in a massive frame he shoots a warning look. “That painting,” he insists, “is too darned heavy to ever move again.”

What would they run out with first in case of a fire?

“The paintings are too big,” the pair quips in sync. (Many are gifts to Marlowe from Collins.) Then Collins turns serious.

Thanks to meditation and Buddhism, he is learning non-attachment to possessions.

“Home is where the heart is; and my home is with him,” he says, indicating Marlowe.

Marlowe, pondering, answers that if there was a fire, he’d “leave with my grandma’s photo. She was very crucial for my development as a child and encouraging me.”

“I’d want you to go with me, too, but — ” and he glances towards Collins, pauses before erupting into laughter, riffing off the moment.

“I think it’d be the family photos. But everything here has a meaning. Everything. There’s a painting of a boy in a little green jacket and his dog,” he says, indicating where it hangs. “He’s my favorite. Chad found it and gave it to me.”

Thanks to Boxwood, the couple can upcycle and cull their many collections.

“Joey took his hobby and turned it into a successful business,” says Collins, who proudly compares it to the way in which Replacements, Ltd. in Greensboro first evolved.

Marlowe quickly replies: “Let’s just tell the truth; I have a shopping problem.”

Collins’ favorite room is the sunroom, a television and game room, featuring the home’s only television set. “This is where I love to sit and read; I start and end my day in this room. A

true nesting place.” On the sunroom wall is a moody nighttime Victorian scene, the first painting that he ever gave Marlowe.

It opens to a patio, a shaded fair-weather retreat with a scalloped awning and twinkling lights, where another fountain bubbles and blue porcelains, including Chinese stools for seating. Tables, statuary and potted plants create another space for entertaining, complete with “rooms” designed to move the eye through the landscape.

Back inside, pausing at the bottom of the stairs which are covered in a chevron-patterned runner, Marlowe explains the only practical concern for aging in place at Fernwood Manor. As is typical of older homes, the bedrooms are on the second floor. They’re both still youthful and in their 50s, but he worries. Perhaps, he says, they can eventually create a main suite in the newly rebuilt garage, connecting it to the main house to solve the problem.

He points out a chandelier hanging at the top of the landing, “The first that Chad ever gave me, the first Christmas we were together.”

The primary bedroom has a fireplace flanked by comfortable chairs. The room features recently installed hand-colored chinoiserie paper with twining vines and birds against a soft rose-toned background. They furnished the room with gilded mirrors, chinoiserie lamps, urns and porcelains, and a prized 19th-century signed Italianate painting, among other artworks.

A canopy bed by Frontgate faces the fireplace, with a tall screen in the corner where an exterior door leading outside was closed and converted into a closet by the seller. It once accessed a deck with a patio roof above the sunporch, which the new owners hope to one day return to its original state.

On display is a collection of personal photos of their younger selves when they met nearly 20 years ago. Collins, who has experimented with short and long hair, has the ability to change his look like a chameleon.

“And I’m the same preppie I was before,” quips Marlowe.

The upstairs bathrooms, though refreshed, retain many original details.

The bath that opens to the hall is tailored, crisply accented with black and white and features a striking, original coral-colored wall tile. Marlowe is amazed that his favorite color was already used in the house from its very beginning. The vintage pedestal sink retains original telescoping legs.

Two guest rooms, decorated in period style right down to the vintage toys, are dedicated to their two grandchildren, Evangeline, 3, and Gabriel, 9. Here, Marlowe used Schumacher paint in his granddaughter’s room, picking up soft rose accents from the Aubusson rug, coverlet and window treatments, and chose a romantic canopy bed.

“This will be Evangeline’s spend-the-night place,” says Marlowe. “She comes over to play, but hasn’t yet spent the night.”

Then there’s the “gentleman’s room” for Gabriel, who comes for sleepovers every other weekend. He sleeps in style in an equestrian themed room with English hunting style wallpaper.

The interiors are complete, but there are ongoing plans for the exterior. They are working on the English garden effect in the front yard, and a more casual garden in the back. There will be an all-white garden created on the driveway side, as they share an additional half lot with their neighbor.

They’ve ordered a custom-designed shed that will echo the house with French doors and a metal roof from a company in Sanford. It’s being installed in the rear garden and will become a yoga studio for Collins, an avid practitioner.

This house — “a collection of life,” according to Marlowe — is where the couple’s work and personal lives form an aesthetic intersection.

Both value what they have created here together, a sensibility that only a collected look can give.

“Everything has a story,” he says.

Now he and Collins are writing the next chapter in this, the latest installment in the life of a storied, much-loved house. OH

ALMANAC

September

By a shley walshe

Crisscross Equinox

Apples blush. Whippoorwill sings his final song. Things end and things begin.

The autumnal equinox occurs on Saturday, September 23. As the turn of the season graces us with equal amounts of day and night, we prepare for the final harvest. We celebrate the abundance here now, soak up the remnants of summer, and ready ourselves for the darkening days.

September is the last stand of sunflowers — thick with bumbles and honeys — wistfully facing east.

Sown in the softest days of summer, when early berries fairly tumbled from their vines, the seeds of these yellow giants held more than plumule and root. They held the glory of summer, a timeless cure-all, the warmth and likeness of the sun.

Weeks after their shoots burst through fertile earth, the sunflowers whispered patience. Ever reaching toward the light, their stalks grew tall and sturdy; their rough leaves wide as open palms. Soon, the buds emerged — tidy cinch purses as splendid as stars — holding their treasures tight.

Summer burst in all directions. Cicadas emerged screaming.

Queen Anne laced meadows and roadsides. Thistle and clover reigned supreme.

Butterflies teetered on purple coneflowers, feasted on milkweed, drifted among sage, sedum and hibiscus.

At last, when early giants withered on their fibrous stalks, the luminous beauties unfurled.

Summer fades. And yet, the last wave of sunflowers beams.

Here now, they sing.

The bees know, sharing communion at their golden centers. Whirling in ecstasy. Humming an ancient prayer for grace. We know, too. We hold tight to summer — let it transform us — then wistfully look toward the autumn sun.

The Thick of It

Muscadine season is here at last. Hypnotically sweet, this native grape thrives in the sticky heat of our Southeastern states, ripening from late August through early October. Ranging in color from greenish bronze (we call them scuppernongs) to deep purple, this thick-skinned whopper (Vitis rotundifolia) is the official fruit of North Carolina. Muscadine wine. Muscadine jelly. Muscadine grape hull pie.

For some, muscadines by the handful take the cake. According to the State Library of North Carolina’s online encyclopedia, early English explorers of the Outer Banks reported that this fruiting vine “covered every shrub and climbed the tops of high cedars.” This was 1584. Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano wrote about the curious “white” grape some 60 years prior.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the halfacre “Mother Vine” in Manteo, now over 400 years old? Planted by Croatan Native Americans or, perhaps, settlers of the Lost Colony, this legendary scuppernong is the oldest known cultivated grape vine in the country. It’s aging, no doubt, like a fine, sweet wine. OH

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. — Lao Tzu

Sign up for early ticket sales & special o ers

2023 / 2024 SEASON

AUG 26

AUG 28

AUG 28

SEPT 5

SEPT (MID)

NOV 11

DEC 1&2

FEB 17

GREENSBORO AUDITIONS FOR COMPANY & SCHOOL FOR 2023/2024 SEASON

GREENSBORO COMPANY IN SESSION & START OF 2023/2024 SEASON

GREENSBORO TRIAD BALLET SCHOOL START OF FALL SEMESTER

GREENSBORO & WINSTON-SALEM COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAMS BEGIN

GREENSBORO GUEST ARTISTIC DIRECTOR VISIT : CHRIS ALLOWAYS-RAMSEY

HIGH POINT THEATRE GALA & PREMIERE: LA VIVANDIÈRE (& VIP RECEPTION)

SLOAN THEATER • GREENSBORO   THE NUTCRACKER (COLLAB WITH ARTISTIC MOTION)

GREENSBORO AUDITIONS FOR COMPANY, SCHOOL & SUMMER INTENSIVES

FEB-JUN INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMS (INBOUND & OUTBOUND)

MAY 22-23

JUN 10-21

JUNE 15

CAROLINA THEATRE • GREENSBORO ROMEO & JULIET

GREENSBORO SUMMER INTENSIVES WITH TRIAD BALLET SCHOOL

GREENSBORO AUDITIONS FOR COMPANY & SCHOOL FOR 2024/2025 SEASON

WE ARE THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREATER GREENSBORO.

We support artists and arts organizations through advocacy, funding, professional development, collaboration, mentorship, and love.

VISIT THEACGG.ORG

• FIND your next art adventure on our Art Events Calendar

• EXLORE local arts organizations in our Arts Across Guilford Guide

• LEARN how we invest in artists, arts organizations, and the community

• SUPPORT The ACGG in our work

Serving Creatives.

Strengthening Community Through the Arts

JOIN US FOR OUR AMAZING 2023-24 SEASON!

Season subscriptions and single tickets ON SALE NOW. facetoface.wfu.edu

Notable Night Under the Stars

Tickets are $175, including a ticket to the show, or $100 if you already have your ticket to Ruben Sings Luther Tickets available at https://www.gsoguild.org

The Symphony Guild provides support and fundraising for the Greensboro Symphony’s Music Education Programs. We welcome new members interested in Music and supporting Music Education!

Proudly Supporting Music & Arts in Our Community

Photo: Annie Leibovitz

september 27, 2023

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN and MICHAEL BESCHLOSS

february 22, 2024 LIZ CHENEY and JON MEACHAM

november 1, 2023 DAYMOND JOHN

april 30, 2024 TREVOR NOAH

Saturday 7:30am - 12noon

Wednesday (thru mid-October) 8am - 12noon

Shop local from 80+ vendors direct from the grower, producer & maker. All products come from within 100 miles of the Market, so you know they are fresh and local.

CHRIS BOTTI: Grammy award-winning jazz trumpeter and composer, who has been the largest-selling American instrumental artist since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD “When I Fall In Love”;

JEWEL: Four-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, actress, and author whose life story—from homelessness to selling millions of albums— is as compelling as her music;

GARTH FAGAN DANCE: an internationally acclaimed contemporary American dance company led by The Lion King choreographer Garth Fagan; and

COLLAGE: a captivating and totally unique performance featuring School of Music faculty and students in one riveting work after another.

The season also includes performances by three top jazz musicians in our Robinson Family Visiting Jazz Artists and an artist talk with Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi, known for her staged photographs of Arab women in contemporary art.

Concerts will be held at the Steven Tanger Center For The Performing Arts

2 3 4 5 6 7

WE SUMMONED THE SEVEN. ONE WILL LEAD.

Join the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and be a part of the Season of the Seven! Take this journey with us as we introduce the Seven Magnificent Maestros during the 2023-2024 season.

October 7, 2023

Robert Moody, conductor Gabriel Martins, cello

MARQUEZ Danzon No. 2

LALO Cello Concerto

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

November 18, 2023

Donato Cabrera, conductor Maria Valdes, soprano

ADAMS Short Ride in a Fast Machine

BARBER Knoxville: Summer of 1915

MAHLER Symphony No. 4, G major

January 13, 2024

Leslie Dunner, conductor Gina Perregrino, mezzo-soprano

BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town”

WEILL The Seven Deadly Sins

DARZINS Valse Mélancolique

RESPIGHI Roman Festivals

February 24, 2024

Jacomo Bairos, conductor

Terrence Wilson, piano

ROGERSON Luminosity

PROKOFIEV Excerpts from Romeo & Juliet

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G

STILL Out of Silence

RAVEL Bolero

March 16, 2024

Christopher Dragon, conductor

Colin Currie, percussion

KORNGOLD Theme and Variations

ELFMAN Percussion Concerto

STRAVINSKY Firebird Suite

April 6, 2024

Rei Hotoda, conductor

Katherine Whyte, soprano

TOWER Fanfare for the Uncommon

Woman #1

POULENC Gloria

MONTGOMERY Starburst

GERSHWIN An American in Paris

May 11, 2024

Chelsea Tipton, conductor Andrew Sords, violin

SIMON Amen

BRUCH Scottish Fantasy

ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance No. 1

STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier Suite

October 14, 2023

Ruben Sings Luther

American Idol winner Ruben Studdard pays tribute to the legendary Luther Vandross!

November 11, 2023

Cirque Goes Broadway

Prepare to be dazzled by aerialists, acrobats, and Broadway singers with some of the most memorable show tunes!

January 20, 2024

Steep Canyon Rangers

Steep Canyon Rangers, Grammy winners and Billboard chart-toppers, join the GSO for an evening of Bluegrass!

February 10, 2024

Jefferson Starship

One of the most successful rock groups of the 70’s and 80’s, Jefferson Starship performs their top hits with the GSO.

April 13, 2024

The Music of Star Wars

Explore the iconic musical galaxy of Star Wars with some of the most thrilling movie music ever written.

THE ENTERTAINMENT CONTINUES WITH MORE GREAT CONCERTS!

October 8, 2023

Air Supply

Air Supply’s Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell bring their classic hits to Steven Tanger Center to perform with the GSO!

December 15-16, 2023

Elf in Concert

Experience Elf on the big screen with the Greensboro Symphony as Buddy travels to New York this holiday season!

March 23, 2024

Video Games LIVE

The award-winning Video Games Live brings the energy and excitement of a rock concert mixed with the interactivity and stunning visuals that only the most iconic video games can provide!

May 12, 2024

Lady Tramaine Hawkins

A Gospel Celebration with Lady Tramaine Hawkins and the Greensboro Symphony!

June 8-9, 2024

Harry Potter

Experience the adventures of your favorite wizard all over again set to the music of the GSO in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Concert™!

TICKETS: 336.335.5456, ext. 224; GreensboroSymphony.org; Ticketmaster.com

Please verify times, costs, status and location before attending an event. Although conscientious efforts are made to provide accurate and up-to-date information, the world is subject to change and errors can occur!

September

To submit an event for consideration, email us at ohenrymagcalendar@gmail.com by the first of the month one month prior to the event.

Weekly Events

SUNDAYS

PETTY TALK. 4:30–5:15 p.m. Megan Blake, The Pet Lifestyle Coach, provides great tips and real time practice as you learn to connect more deeply with your four-legged best friend. Free. LeBauer Park, 208 N. Davie St., Greensboro. Info: greensborodowntownparks.org/calendar.

BARRE CLASS. 10 a.m. Strengthen, tone and stretch your way into the week. Tickets: $10. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.

TUESDAYS

GREENWAY FLEX. 6–7 p.m. The YMCA of Greensboro leads drop-in fitness classes for all ages and abilities at the Morehead Park Trailhead adjacent to the Downtown Greenway. Free. 475 Spring Garden St., Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events.

WEDNESDAYS

WINE WEDNESDAY. 5–8 p.m. Sip wine, munch pizza and enjoy the soothing sounds of live jazz. Free. Double Oaks, 204 N. Mendenhall St. Greensboro. Info: double-oaks.com/wine-wednesday.

LIVE MUSIC. 6–9 p.m. Evan Olson and Jessica Mashburn of AM rOdeO play covers and original music. Free. Print Works Bistro. 702 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: printworksbistro.com/gallery/music.

MUSIC IN THE PARK. 6–8 p.m. Sip and snack at LeBauer Park while grooving to local and regional artists. Free. Lawn Service, 208 N. Davie St, Greensboro. Info: greensborodowntownparks.org/calendar.

JAZZ LOUNGE. 6–9 p.m. Enjoy an evening of jazz while sipping cocktails at 1808 Lobby Bar. Free. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.

THURSDAYS

JAZZ AT THE O.HENRY. 6–9 p.m. Sip

vintage craft cocktails and snack on tapas while the O.Henry Trio performs with a different jazz vocalist each week. Free. O.Henry Hotel Social Lobby, 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: ohenryhotel.com/o-henry-jazz.

EASY RIDERS. 6–8:30 p.m. All levels of cyclists are welcome to ride along on a guided 4-mile cruise around downtown. Free. Lawn Service, 208 N. Davie St, Greensboro. Info: greensborodowntownparks.org/calendar.

WALK THIS WAY. 6 p.m. Put on your sneakers for a 2–4 mile social stroll or jog with the Downtown Greenway Run & Walk Club, which is open to all ages and abilities. Free. LoFi Park, 500 N. Eugene St., Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events.

THURSDAYS & SATURDAYS

KARAOKE & COCKTAILS. 8 p.m. until midnight, Thursdays; 9 p.m. until midnight, Fridays. Courtney Chandler hosts a night of sipping and singing. Free. 19 & Timber Bar at Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.

FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS

LIVE MUSIC. 7–10 p.m. Enjoy drinks in the 1808 Lobby Bar while soaking up live music provided by local artists. Free. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.

SATURDAYS

BLACKSMITH DEMONSTRATION. 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Watch a costumed blacksmith in action as he crafts various iron pieces. Free. Historical Park at High Point Museum, 1859 E. Lexington Ave., High Point. Info: highpointmuseum.org.

YOGA. 9:30 a.m. Don’t stay in bed when you could namaste in the spa studio. Tickets: $10. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.

WATER AEROBICS. 10:30 a.m. Make a splash instead of breaking a sweat. Tickets: $10. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: grandoverresort.com.

September Events

01 ‒ 30

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT. From early black-and-white images of New York City to his renowned Hurricane Katrina series and more recent shots in color, John Rosenthal displays his work with that of 10 other North Carolina photographers he’s curated. Admission: $7. GreenHill Center for NC Art, 200 N. Davie St., Greensboro. Info: greenhillnc.org.

FIELDS & FEATHERS. 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Discover photos and artifacts at a new exhibition, Fields & Feathers: Hunting at Deep River Lodge, 1895-1935. Open through January 2024. Free. High Point Museum, 1859 E. Lexington Ave., High Point. Info: highpointmuseum.org.

01 ‒ 10

ARTISTS AT EDGEWOOD. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Meet the 31 artists-in-residence at Elliott Daingerfield’s restored historic cottage in Blowing Rock. Featured artists change weekly. Free. Main Street and Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock. Info: artistsatedgewood.org.

01 ‒ 09

PEACE LIKE A RIVER. 6 p.m. In this comedic sequel to Peace in the Valley, the Harmony Valley Church congregation is anything but unified when it comes to celebrating Unity Day. Tickets: $28+. The Barn Dinner Theatre, 120 Stage Coach Trail, Greensboro. Info: barndinner.com/2023.

PESO PLUMA. 8 p.m. Mexico’s most streamed artist, singer, songwriter and rapper Peso Pluma delivers an evening of musical genre blending. Tickets: $60+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/ events.

FIRST FRIDAY. 6–9 p.m. Head downtown for a night of live music and happenings stretching all the way from LeBauer Park and the Greensboro Cultural Center to the South End. Free. Downtown Greensboro. Info: downtowngreensboro.org/first-friday.

Festival. Tickets: $25+. Oak Hollow Park, 3400 N. Centennial St., High Point. Info: coltranejazzfest.com. 02

ROYAL JELLY. Might sound like a sweet and salty breakfast combo, but when Royal Jelly and Dr. Bacon hit the stage, it’s a genre-bending night of funky, heart-thumping music. Tickets: $15+. In the Crown at the Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.

N.C. LATE NIGHT MUSIC FEST. 7:30 p.m. Hip-hop duo City Girls is joined by G Herbo, Young Nudy and Rich Homie Quan for a night of energetic music. Tickets: $39.50+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

03 & 17

BLUEGRASS & BISCUITS. 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Enjoy live bluegrass and folk music while munching tasty treats from vendors. Free. LeBauer Park, 200 N. Davie St., Greensboro. Info: greensborodowntownparks.org/calendar. 03

KARAOKE & WELLNESS. 3:30–7 p.m. Two of your fav activities merge for one evening of fun with DJ Energizer. Free. Center City Park, 200 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: greensborodowntownparks.org/calendar.

RBD. 8 p.m. The Mexican pop group originally formed almost 20 years ago makes a triumphant return to the stage. Tickets: $58.50+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W.

Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events

STARS OF NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. 7 p.m. Listen and watch as Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez and John Gries share an entertaining conversation. Tickets: $30+. High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave., High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events.

06

READING THE WORLD. 7–8 p.m. Discover contemporary authors’ works in translation, such as this month’s selection, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree. Free. Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: scuppernongbooks.com/event.

ROOSEVELT COLLIER. 8:30 p.m. The Grammy-nominated pedal and lap steel guitarist rocks the stage. Tickets: $20. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.

07

O. HENRY STORIES & SONGS. Times vary. Following the debut of two new-to-stage stories, enjoy an operatic performance of The Gift of the Magi through partnership with the Greensboro Opera. Tickets: $16+. Virginia Sutton Somerville Theatre at Well-Spring, 100 Well Spring Drive, Greensboro. Info: well-spring.org/theatre.

07

OPEN ARTHOUSE. 5:30–8:30 p.m. Explore galleries and current exhibits while discovering everything the Weatherspoon

JAZZ FEST. Keb’ Mo’, Dave Koz, Terri Lyne Carrington, Chucho Valdés, Samara Joy and the Yellowjackets head a lineup of Grammy Award-winning, renowned artists at The John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues

has to offer this fall. Free. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate St., Greensboro. Info: weatherspoonart.org/calendar.

OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 7–9 p.m. Meet on the first Thursday of each month to learn tips and tricks about outdoor photography. Free. Leonard Recreation Center, 6324 Ballinger Road, Greensboro. Info: greensboro-nc.gov (click on “events”).

DOOBIE BROTHERS. 7:30 p.m. 50 years since forming, the iconic American band continues to captivate audiences with its smooth melodies. Tickets: $32+. White Oak Amphitheatre, 1403 Berwick St., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

JOSEPH BATHANTI. 6–7 p.m. The former N.C. Poet Laureate discusses The Act of Contrition & Other Stories, which includes a novella and a series of linked stories. Free. Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: scuppernongbooks.com/event.

08 ‒ 17

CENTRAL CAROLINA FAIR. Experience thrilling rides, exciting games, and mouth-

watering fair food while making memories. Greensboro Coliseum parking lot, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

08 ‒ 10

N.C. FOLK FEST. Times vary. Enjoy a three-day celebration of cultural heritage through live music — featuring over 300 local, global and roots artists — dance, handmade crafts, food and family fun. Free. Downtown Greensboro. Info: ncfolkfestival.com.

GREENHILL POP-UP. Times vary. This new mobile concept, opening first at the Greensboro Folk Festival, showcases visual arts created by North Carolina emerging artists. Free. Downtown Greensboro. Info: greenhillnc.org/popup-market.

08

ROYAL BINGO. 7 p.m. Brenda the Drag Queen hosts an evening of Green Queen Bingo for ages 15 and up. Tickets: $15+. Piedmont Hall, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

09 ‒ 10

MONSTER TRUCKS. Times vary. The Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Party is rollin’ into town, with stunts and tricks to delight fans of all ages. Tickets: $25+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

09 & 21

POLLINATOR FAVOR. 9–11 a.m. Buzz on over to the bird, bee and pollinator garden on the Greenway to get your hands dirty while keeping Earth clean. Free; registration required. Woven Works Park, East Lindsay Street and North Murrow Boulevard, Greensboro. Info: downtowngreenway.org/events.

09

SAM FRIBUSH ORGAN TRIO. 10:30 p.m. The perfect Folk Fest afterparty continues the musical festivities with keyboardist Sam Fribusg, who’s on the frontlines of the Hammond organ revival. Tickets: $15+. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.

10

FOLK FEST 5K. 10 a.m. Show your support for the North Carolina Folk Fest by running or walking in its inaugural 5K. Registration: $30+. Downtown Greensboro. Info: ncfolkfestival.com/folkfest5k.

12

ZELDA LOCKHART. 7 p.m. In the Greensboro Public Library’s One City, One Book kickoff, the expressive art therapist and award-winning author of three novels discusses her latest work, Trinity. Free. Central Library, 219 N. Church St., Greensboro. Info: greensboro-nc.gov/government/ city-news/city-calendar.

14 ‒ 16

SAILOR’S SONG. Times vary. Greensboro College presents a play by John Patrick Shanley about two men at sea reflecting on love. Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center, 815 W. Market St., Greensboro. Info: greensboro.edu/academics/arts/ performance-calendar.

14

SULLY. 7:30 p.m. The pilot known for his heroism as captain of US Airways Flight 1549, which he ditched in the Hudson River in 2009 after both engines were disabled by a bird strike, speaks on stage. Tickets: $60+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.

15

LIONS, TIGERS & BEER. 4:30–9 p.m. Enjoy twilight hours at the Animal Park while dining and sipping from a menu inspired by its wild residents and created by local chefs, and listening to live music by Kevin Holdson. Tickets: $100 each, $190 pair. Animal Park at the Conservators Center, 676 E. Hughes Mill Road, Burlington. Info: animalparknc.org/events.

KOE WETZEL. 7:30 p.m. The Texas-born singer-songwriter brings his blend of country and rock to the Gate City. Tickets: $35+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

16

MIXTAPE. 8 p.m. MIXTAPE’s brand new show is a live concert featuring smash hits from the ’80s and ’90s that’ll have you saying, That’s My JAM! Tickets: $33.10+. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.

NATIONAL DANCE DAY GSO. Put on your dancing shoes and join in a participatory dance experience with local groups ranging from ballroom to Bollywood, street to swing. Plus, peruse a local vendor market. Free. LeBauer Park, 208 N. Davie St., Greensboro. Info: greensborodowntownparks.org/calendar. TOSH. 7 p.m. Tickets: $41+. Best known from his Comedy Central show, Tosh 2.0, Daniel Tosh performs a night of standup. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.

18 ‒ 30

ART LIVES HERE. 3–6 p.m. During this two-week exhibition, peruse and bid on artist-donated pieces, with proceeds going toward Hirsch Wellness Healing Arts, which provides programming and classes

to in-treatment cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and medical staff. Free. Gallery 1250 at Revolution Mill, 1250 Revolution Mill Drive, Suite 123, Greensboro. Info: hirschwellnessnetwork.org/art-lives-here.

19

‒ 24

CHICAGO. Times vary. Celebrate 25 years of “Razzle Dazzle” as the popular musical comes to the stage — and “All That Jazz.” Tickets: $29+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.

22 ‒ 24

RODEO. Times vary. The Carolinas’ first Professional Bull Riders Team, Carolina Cowboys, debuts its annual homestead during Cowboy Days. Tickets: $20+. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

JURASSIC QUEST. Times vary. Make pterrific memories while playing with dino hatchlings, excavating fossils or even training a raptor as beastly T. Rexes and spinosauruses surround you. Tickets: $22+. Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center, 1921 W.

Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

22

MATT STELL. 7:30 p.m. The self-taught country vocalist and guitarist from Arkansas strums and sings on stage following opener George Birge. Tickets: $30+. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.

23

ROTTEN APPLE. 7 p.m. A man tormented by failed dreams is unwittingly given an opportunity to relocate his family to The Big Apple in this stage play. Tickets: $80. Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.

FRUTE. 8 p.m. Mellow Swells opens for this groovy band, featuring unique flavors of psychedelic tunes. Tickets: $8+. In the Crown at the Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro. Info: carolinatheatre.com/events.

THE PLAYERS. 7:30 p.m. Former members of Chicago with Earth, Wind & Fire’s former drummer cover familiar hits. Tickets: $30+. High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave.,

High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events.

23 ‒ 30

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ 6 p.m. Although not quite a biography, this musical revue evokes the delightful humor and infectious energy of renowned American jazz artist Fats Waller. Tickets: $28+. The Barn Dinner Theatre, 120 Stage Coach Trail, Greensboro. Info: barndinner.com/2023.

24

SEAGROVE ART RECEPTION. 3–6 p.m. Enjoy tasty appetizers by caterer Karen Saunders and the smooth sounds of the Randolph Jazz Band while perusing the works of Seagrove painters and sculptors. Free. Historic Luck’s Cannery, 798 NC-705, Seagrove. Info: facebook.com/luckscannery. 25

ROMANCE BOOK CLUB. 7–8 p.m. Kick off fall with a light, modern romcom read, Business or Pleasure, and hit the club to discuss. Free. Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: scuppernongbooks.com/event.

27

MARY KAY ANDREWS. 6–8 p.m. O.Henry magazine invites you to a night of sips, snacks and conversation with the renowned Southern New York Times -bestselling author, who will discuss her latest book, Bright Lights, Big Christmas. Tickets: $45; ticket and book, $70. Grandover Resort & Spa, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro. Info: ticketmetriad. com/events/ohenry-magazine-author-seriesmary-kay-andrews-9-27-2023.

28

SPIDEY. 7:30 p.m. Activate your web-shooter and swing with Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse live in concert. Tickets: $39+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.

SHORTS. 7 p.m. The Manhattan Short Film Festival rolls onto the big screen in High Point. High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave., High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events.

29 ‒ 30

GOLDEN GIRLS. Times vary. Sophia,

Dorothy, Blanch and Rose are back in a hilarious stage comedy about female friendship. Tickets: $48+. Steven Tanger Center, 300 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Info: tangercenter.com/events.

INTO THE WOODS. Times vary. Everyone’s favorite storybook characters come to life in this musical modern take on timeless classics. Tickets: $5. UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate St., Greensboro. Info: vpa.uncg.edu/theatre/ performances-and-events/productions.

29

ILLITERATE LIGHT. 8:30 p.m. Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran, the singing-songwriting duo known as Illiterate Light, brings their brand of alternative rock to the stage. Tickets: $22. Flat Iron, 221 Summit Ave., Greensboro. Info: flatirongso.com/events.

30

SUNDAY MORNING. 7 p.m. Daniel Barksdale returns with a brand-new theatrical play surrounding a church reopening after the pandemic while facing devastating news. Tickets: $30. Odeon Theatre, 1921 W.

Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com/events.

UNWIND. Noon. This indoor music festival will have everyone ages 6 and over groovin’ to EDM, soul, disco, and rhythm and blues. Tickets: $60+. High Point Theatre, 220 E. Commerce Ave., High Point. Info: highpointtheatre.com/events.

COAST TO CURB. 4–6:30 p.m. Do you like seafood? Partake in a celebration that highlights regional flavors, farmers and producers. Tickets: Greensboro Farmers Curb Market. 501 Yanceyville St., Greensboro. Info: gsofarmersmarket.org.

ART LIVES HERE GALA. 6–8 p.m. Following a two-week exhibition and silent auction, celebrate with music, food and beverages, with proceeds going toward Hirsch Wellness Healing Arts, which provides programming and classes to in-treatment cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and medical staff. Tickets: $50. Gallery 1250 at Revolution Mill, 1250 Revolution Mill Drive, Suite 123, Greensboro. Info: hirschwellnessnetwork.org/ art-lives-here. OH

Living Information For Today (L.I.F.T.)

L.I.F.T. is a social support program that helps surviving spouses adjust to the loss of their partner. It gives participants the opportunity to socialize with others who share similar feelings and experiences. This program is both entertaining and educational, with speakers on a wide variety of topics.

For more information on the L.I.F.T. program, please contact Hanes Lineberry Funeral Services at 336-272-5150.

GreenScene

An Evening for the Arts

F.S. Koury Convention Center

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Photographs by Devin Lane

Roy Nydorf, Tim Lindeman, Nancy Walker

Kay Cashion

Josephus Thompsion

Anthony Hamilton, Jenni Broyles

Laura Way

Steve Colyer & friends

Mint String Quartet

Nallah Muhammad, Princess Johnson Anthony Hamilton & the ACGG team

Brandon Davis, Laura Way

Kionna & RaShaun Wilson

KeyNote Speaker Anthony Hamilton

GreenScene

Ricky Proehl’s P.O.W.E.R of Play Foundation

Proehlific Park & Grandover Resort

Thursday, June 8, and Friday, June 9, 2023

Photographs by Kayla Wren Photography

Ricky Proehl’s dog, Kato

Harold Green, Randolph Childress, Sterling Sharpe E.K. Goebel, Jeff Crittenden

Steve & Emma Hilburn, Greg & Candy Cosgrove, Eddie & Kristin Gafford

Chris Chapman, Austin Proehl, Colton Lee, Nick Tiano

Steve Smith Sr., Stephen Edwards, Ricky Proehl Robert Brickey

Robert Dix, Steve Smith Sr., Abdul Tore, Ricky Proehl, Torrance Lathan, Collin Herbin

Terry Taylor, Joe Whitesel, Brennan Sweeney, Andy Hanke

Michael Meley, Will Beyer, Chris Kennedy, Chris Stallings

Emma Hilburn, Austin Proehl

Chris Hill, Greg Cosgrove, Eddie Gafford, Steve Hilburn

KBP Foods staff, Ben Chwastiak, Sharon Mickens, Jason Ford, Ricky & Kelly Proehl, Natasha Hilburn Laura Ashley (artist)

Wilson Hoyle, Ricky Proehl, Bill Kellar, Steve Smith Sr.

Steve Guy, Brent Schroyer, Duffy Johnson, Jeff Finberg

Brian Yount, Ben Chwastiak, Sharon Mickens, Greg McCallister

GreenScene

Eastern Music Festival

Guilford College’s Dana Auditorium

Saturday, June 24 ‒ Thursday, July 29, 2023

Photographs by Jonathan Greene and Ben Freedman

Giah Bush

Anne-Frédérique Gagnon, Badi Assad

Neal Cary, Ben Figgs

Angela Fiedler, Yue Yang, Isabel Dimoff, Ethan Durell, Diane Phoenix-Neal Gianluca Nagaro, Ashley Gomez, Ben Figgs

Ethan Hemmings, Emma Goldberg

Isabel Rushall, Gabrielle Gans, Kimberly Nelson, Angelina Lim, Gina Gravagne, Joshua So

Gabriel Figueroa, Giah Bush, Jeffrey Bai, Andrew Stewart

Joshua So, Kimberly Nelson, Gina Gravagne Olivia Andersen

Noa Weinreb, Analise Granados, Julia Benitez-Nelson, Lauren Enos

Sebastian Villanueva, Samantha Tse

Kimberly Nelson, Santiago Amieva Sanchez

GreenScene

John Rosenthal Retrospective

GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art

Saturday, July 22, 2023

Photographs by Sarah Marchwiany and John Gessner

Leigh Dyer Janay Green

John Rosenthal

Dwayne Ritchie, Maxine Mills, Mark Elliott

Shay Soukup, Janay Green, Sara Cogswell, Junie Tirado, Jennifer Frion, Edie Carpenter, Jaymie Meyer, Honour Carter-Davis, Tamra Hunt,Jack Stratton, Rebecca Fagg

Arlene Gutterman, Deanna Coble London & Lisa Gessner

Randy Campbell, Steven Burke

Tama Hochbaum, John Rosenthal, Allen Anderson Jamie Stone, Lacie Burton

John Rosenthal, Alan Dehmer Patrick Diamond

Alan Dehmer, Catharine Carter, Gadisse Lee, John Rosenthal, Elizabeth Matheson, Tama Hochbaum, Holden Richards

La Mona Lisa Gioconda

Value is in the eye of the beholder

By: Cynthia a dams

The Italians call the Florentine beauty La Mona Lisa Gioconda — Madam Lisa Giocondo. She is La Joconde to the French.

As Nat King Cole crooned, she is Mona Lisa to the rest of us.

My first reproduction of Mona was set in a chippy frame beneath wavy glass. This prized possession cost $1 at the former Sedgefield Flea Market.

More recently, I’ve acquired others: two oversized giclées by Randy Slack titled Mona Ghost and Mona Citrus. I own books on the infamous Louvre thefts and tussles over the world’s most famous portrait, replete with accounts of when she went missing or was subjected to unwarranted attack. Five times and counting, Mona has been either outright stolen (the first time in 1911) or vandalized. Rocks, tea cups and paint have been hurled at the impassive face

Why all this drama? Salvador Dali said Mona with the mystic smile had “a power, unique in all art history, to provoke the most violent and different kinds of aggressions.”

Recently, a film critic reviewing Glass Onion suggested that Mona symbolizes legacy. The villain in the film “wants to be remembered in the same breath as the Mona Lisa . . . standing the test of time.”

Her legacy was burnished with every assault, Mona’s fame escalating after the 1911 heist.

She epitomized Da Vinci’s greatness. No visible brush strokes. The lifelike countenance. Mona’s ambiguous physicality. And . . . that smile. We experience Mona as faintly masculine, lacking eyebrows or lashes (overzealous restoration removed them).

Da Vinci began the commission of Mona, the wife of a wealthy Italian merchant Francesco del Giocondo, in 1503. He worked on it until 1507.

When he left Italy on horseback for France in 1516 at the invitation of an admiring King Francis I, he took Mona’s portrait with him.

Installed by Francis at the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise, he hung Mona on his bedroom wall.

He himself regarded her as his opus. (Or not; an art dealer earlier this year argued this: what if the artist wanted to hide her?) Mona held his attention because he never considered her

quite finished.

Working in splendid style befitting a genius, he died at age 67 in 1519 in the arms of the weeping King, who called Da Vinci “Father.”

It is entirely possible that Mona’s was the last face he saw at his death.

Afterward, Da Vinci’s painting was claimed by the French King much to the consternation of the Italians. The Chateau was preserved by the French as a Da Vinci Museum.

The embittered Italians want her returned. When first stolen from the Louvre by an ordinary workman in 1911, she was whisked off to Italy.

Mona became an international celebrity. You get the picture: Cabbages and kings alike obsessed over Mona.

I placed Dollar Mona, the chippy, cheap one, over the kitchen stove. There was and is something inspiring about Mona’s presence.

House-poor as we were, Mona somehow sustained our determination to revive and make worthy the tatty kitchen.

We scraped, painted, plastered and sweated over the monstrous job we faced. We fashioned new cabinet doors and tiled the counters. Too poor to replace the ancient stove, we polished till it gleamed.

My brother showed up one weekend to reinforce the sagging dining room floor. Slowly, the careworn, early-1900s house responded.

Feeling celebratory, we opened it up for a party. A niece’s ex, famously befuddled, disappeared into the kitchen for an inordinate amount of time.

What the heck was he doing?

Walking through the butler’s pantry to the kitchen, I overheard as he ground out the words, “That’s the Mona Lisa,” stopping me in my tracks.

“Yeah, I know,” replied my niece.

“Well, they’ve got to have money if they own that,” he said sourly.

Wearing an enigmatic smile of my own, I reversed course and rejoined the party. True enough, even Dollar Mona had grown beyond price. OH

I have a not-so-secret fascination with Mona. Mona and I go way back.

BY HARRY BLAIR