2017 Issue 48 Creative Loafing by Creative Loafing Charlotte

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 VOL. 30, NO. 48

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THIS FRIDAY

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The film Wadjda will be screening at Bike In Movie Night at The Spoke Easy on Monday, Jan. 22.

NEWS&VIEWS 8 ALL PART OF THE PLAN CMS to consider adopting renewable energy transition as policy

BY RHIANNON FIONN

12 NEW YEAR, NEW NAME, NEW LOOK Metropolitan boutique revamping in 2017 BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

14 ACT QUICK TO SPOT THE WOLF New

Black Sheep and Nike collabo goes quick in nationwide release BY RYAN PITKIN 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD 13 THE BLOTTER 15 THANK ME LATER

FOOD 17 DON’T CRY, IT’S ONION SEASON They’re

more versatile than you think BY ARI LEVAUX

18 THREE-COURSE SPIEL: JOSH VEREEN OF 7TH DISTRICT

ARTS&ENT 22 BRINGING IN THE BIG GUNS Brian Heffron has been keeping Charlotteans laughing for decades

BY RYAN PITKIN

25 THE TAMING OF THE TRUMP Donna Scott presents political satire on Inauguration Day

BY PAT MORAN 24 FILM REVIEWS

MUSIC 26 STRAIGHT OUTTA MILWAUKEE Le Anna Eden traveled to Charlotte to brew up her sound BY MARK KEMP 30 MUSICMAKER: MODERN PRIMITIVES 32 SOUNDBOARD

ODDS&ENDS 20 TOP 10 THINGS TO DO 34 MARKETPLACE 34 NIGHTLIFE 35 CROSSWORD 36 SAVAGE LOVE 38 STARGAZER

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The “Roadmap to 100% Renewable Electricity” report details a plan for CMS to transition fully to solar energy using photovoltaic systems like the ones pictured above.

NEWS

FEATURE

ALL PART OF THE PLAN CMS to consider adopting renewable energy transition as policy BY RHIANNON FIONN

ITH A THURSDAY morning vote held on Jan. 12, CharlotteMecklenburg Schools took a step closer to implementing a major solar initiative expected to save millions of dollars in operating costs. Creative Loafing first reported on the Repower Our Schools coalition in August 2015, at which time the group was in the early stages of trying to build support among CMS board members for a full transition to solar energy by CMS over the coming decades. In February 2016, the coalition helped release an in-depth report from the N.C. Clean Energy 8 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Technology Center at N.C. State University laying out the ways CMS could do just that. The study’s aim was to offer “possible pathways to 100 percent renewable schools.” By installing grid-connected rooftop solar arrays on top of CMS buildings, the study asserts, the public school system could save $42 million over 25 years. According to the report, CMS currently spends about $18 million per year on electricity generated by fossil fuel and nuclear power plants On Thursday, the CMS Policy Committee voted in approval of including the Repower Our Schools initiative in CMS’

updated Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Policy. The updated policy now moves on to the full school board, which could take up the issue during its Jan. 24 meeting. “At this point, we don’t think there’s going to be much of a debate,” said Michael Zytkow of Greenpeace North Carolina when asked how he thinks the plan will fare with the full Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board. However, Mark Jones, the district’s director of maintenance, pointed out at Thursday’s meeting that “solar and wind are supplements; at some point in time you’re going to have to go back to the grid in order to maintain energy

consumption within the facility.” The updated policy states that CMS “commits that the district will continue and strengthen its efforts to operate in a manner that protects and conserves our air, water and land resources, improves the environment, and promotes environmentally sound behavior, including a commitment to energy conservation and to renewable energy strategies.” “When you look at CMS’ budget, behind personnel costs, energy costs are second,” said DeAndrea Salvador, executive director of the Charlotte-based Renewable Energy

Hanna Mitchell (second from left) addresses a group of advocates at a CMS board meeting in August 2015, in Repower Our Schools’ early days. Transition Initiative, one of 28 environmental advocacy groups that support the proposal. She says the money CMS saves on its electricity bill would enable the school system to “pay teachers more, provide more textbooks and spend more on technology.” CMS board member Tom Tate, chair of the Policy Committee, said the process is about more than the money for him, however. “Most of us don’t just want to do this for the cost savings,” Tate said. He said he’s also concerned about the impact of energy production on the planet. “I’m so glad we’re doing this,” he added, “but I’m not convinced yet that it says we’re actually going to move toward renewable energy.” Zytkow said he would have liked the CMS Policy Committee to include a more specific timeline and a method of implementation in its policy update. “They have a lot of recommendations, but we want to make sure that they fully follow through,” he said, adding that environmental advocates would continue to watchdog CMS’ progress on the solar initiative. The next step, the committee agreed, is adding the initiative to the CMS budget. “Putting up money solidifies your commitment,” said CMS Commissioner and Policy Committee member Ruby Jones, “We want to start actualizing some of these things.”

GREENPEACE NORTH CAROLINA is the

lead advocate for Repower Our Schools, an offshoot of a national campaign known as Solarize. The organization helped introduce the idea to CMS students and teachers with its “Rolling Sunlight” truck in early 2015. The

truck is outfitted with a solar array on its roof and was used to help give students a hands-on education about renewable energy. Such hands-on technology has long been touted by Repower Our Schools advocates as an added benefit to transitioning CMS to renewable energy, and Jones recognized as much at Thursday’s meeting, saying he was excited about such opportunities. The Rolling Sunlight truck toured North Carolina schools in the spring of 2015, just before the Repower Our Schools initiative was launched. “We went around and spoke at schools and talked to teachers about solar energy. While we were there, we made popcorn for the kids using solar energy,” said Zytkow, a former CMS teacher. “The kids really liked it,” he said, adding, “We opened up the truck and showed them the batteries, too.” For Greenpeace, a group known for jumping aboard ships in the Arctic and other dangerous stunts meant to draw attention to various environmental issues, Repower Our Schools seems tame. When asked why Greenpeace North Carolina decided to focus on solar energy for schools, Zytkow said, “A lot of it stems from the fact that, at the end of 2013, we had meetings with a few hundred people in attendance and we asked our membership what they wanted to do. They wanted solutions-oriented campaigning.”

NORTH CAROLINA CURRENTLY ranks

second in the country for installed solar capacity, and Charlotte, the state’s largest city, is often referred to as an “energy hub”

due to the large number of energy companies in the area. The Repower Our Schools plan is part of a broader trend among school systems seeking to use clean energy to cut expenses and meet environmental goals. The CMS’ Policy Committee reviewed 18 North Carolina school systems’ energy and environmental policies before Thursday’s vote. “We’re starting to see the word sustainability appear in some of those schools’ policies,” said Phil Berman, Executive Director of Facilities for CMS, “And we recognize that renewable energy is going to become more of an issue in the future.” CMS is not the first North Carolina school system to work on solar initiatives. In 2012, Warren County Schools installed its first large-scale solar panel project on the roof of its high school and estimates that it will save $20 million over 25 years. In Winston-Salem, a student-led coalition is pushing that school district to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. And in Durham, the school board commissioned a long-term study after the Clean Energy Technology Center produced a report indicating the district could save $480,000 for every megawatt of solar energy produced,” or an average of about $336,000 for each school that achieves 100% renewable electricity.” For both the Charlotte and Durham studies, the “road map” study was based on the state’s current regulatory environment following the expiration of the state’s renewable energy tax credit at the end of 2015.

Ryan Pitkin Charlotte-based Duke Energy, the nation’s largest energy producer, is helping schools, too. In September, the company announced it is investing $300,000 in solar energy systems through NC GreenPower, a Raleigh-based nonprofit. Those funds are intended to help up to 10 schools. “North Carolina is a leader in solar installations and education,” said David Fountain, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president, via a press release. “These installations will give students a chance to see solar power production firsthand – and provide an opportunity to learn about the attributes of this growing energy resource.” Local governments are jumping on the bandwagon as well. In Dec. 2016, the Boone Town Council in western North Carolina unanimously passed a resolution demanding that the entire United States move to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 “for the purpose of avoiding climate catastrophe.” The mountain town — home to Appalachian State University — was the first town in the United States to pass such a resolution. It’s doubtful the small-town resolution will have much impact on an incoming presidential administration that looks upon environmentalists and climate change alarmringers with disdain, but it’s becoming clear that — at least on some issues — North Carolina can be progressive, as they stay ahead of those who continue to have cold feet on global warming. *A version of this story was originally published by our news partners at Southeast Energy News. CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 9

The Gaston County Museum of Art & History

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NEWS

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

BY CHUCK SHEPHERD

LEADING

ECONOMIC

INDICATOR

The salary the Golden State Warriors pay to basketball whiz Stephen Curry may be a bargain at $12 million a year, but the economics is weirder about the prices Curry’s fans pay on the street for one of his used mouthguards retrieved from the arena floor after a game. One used, sticky, salivaencased teeth-protector went for $3,190 at one August auction, and SCP Auctions of California is predicting $25,000 for another, expelled during the NBA championship series last June. ESPN Magazine reported “at least” 35 Twitter accounts dedicated to Curry’s mouthguard.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY In parts of Panama, some men still fight for access to women with the ferocity of rutting male elks. The indigenous Ngabe people mostly keep to themselves in rural areas but have surfaced in towns like Volcan, near the Costa Rican border, where in December a reporter witnessed two men fist-fighting to bloody exhaustion on the street in a typical “Mi Lucha” (“my fight”), with the loser’s wife following the winner home. As the custom loses its cachet, only about a third of the time does the wife now comply, according to the website Narratively. Bonus: It’s an often-easy “divorce” for the Ngabe — for a fed-up wife to taunt her husband into a losing fight, or for a fed-up husband to pick a fight and take a dive. PILL PROLIFERATION Over the latest

measured six-year period, drug companies and pharmacies legally distributed 780 million pain pills in West Virginia — averaging out to 433 for every man, woman and child. Though rules require dispensers to investigate “suspicious” overprescribing, little was done, according to a recent Drug Enforcement Administration report obtained by the Gazette-Mail of Charleston — even though half of the pills were supplied by the nation’s “big three” drugmakers, whose CEOs’ compensation is enriched enormously by pain pill production. Worse, year-by-year the strengths of the pills prescribed increase along with users’ tolerance demands. West Virginia residents disproportionately suffer from unemployment, coal mining-related disabilities and poor health.

TRIGGERED University of Kentucky

professor Buck Ryan disclosed in December that he had been punished with loss of travel funds and a “prestigious” award recently by his dean for singing the Beach Boys classic “California Girls” for a lesson comparing American and Chinese cultures — because of the song’s “language of a sexual nature.” The school’s “coordinator” on sexual harassment issues made the ruling, apparently absent student complaints, for Ryan’s lyric change

of “Well, East Coast girls are hip” to “Well, Shanghai girls are hip.”

BUREAUCRACY Because the 2015 San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack that killed 14 and seriously wounded 22 was a “workplace” injury, in that the shooters fired only at fellow employees, any health insurance the victims had was superseded exclusively by coverage under the state’s “workers’ compensation” system — a system largely designed for typical job injuries such as back pain and slip-and-falls. Thus, for example, one San Bernardino victim with “hundreds of pieces of shrapnel” still in her body even after multiple surgeries and in constant pain, must nevertheless constantly argue her level of care with a bureaucrat pressured by budgetary issues and forced to massage sets of one-sizefits-all guidelines. WAIT, WHAT? (1) The Las Vegas Sun

reported in December that Nevada slot- and video-machine gamblers left almost $12 million on the floor during 2012 (i.e., winning tickets that remain uncashed for six months, thus reverting to the state), running the fiveyear total to nearly $35 million. (2) The pregame injury report for college football’s Dec. 31 Citrus Bowl included two University of Louisville linebackers, Henry Famurewa and James Hearns, who were out of action against Louisiana State because of “gunshot wounds.”

VENDING NEWS (1) Passengers awaiting

trains in 35 stations in France now find kiosks dispensing short stories to pass the time. A wide range of selections — even poetry — in suggested reading-time lengths of one, three and five minutes, can be printed out for free. (2) The only U.S. vending machine for champagne is now operational in the 23rdfloor lobby of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Las Vegas. Moet and Chandon bubbly can be purchased with $20 tokens sold at the front desk.

AWKWARD APPS (1) The Kerastase

Hair Coach, a “smart” hairbrush with WiFi that monitors brush strokes “on three axes” to manage “frizziness, dryness, split ends and breakage.” (2) The still-in-prototype “Kissenger,” with a “meat-colored” rubbery dock for a smartphone that the user can kiss and have the sensation transmitted to a lover’s receiving dock over the internet. (3) The Ozmo smart cup, to “effortlessly empower you with a platform for better hydration choices” in your water and coffee consumption — with software for other drinks coming soon. Bonus: Old-school users can also just drink out of it. (4) The Prophix toothbrush, with a video camera so you catch areas your brushing might have missed. (5) Spartan boxer briefs, stylishly protecting men’s goods from Wi-Fi and cellphone radiation.

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT In

December the European Union’s 28 nations reached what members called a historic agreement to thwart terrorists: a ban on private citizens’ possessing semi-automatic weapons. However, the EU exempted the Kalashnikov, by far the terrorists’ firearm of choice. Finland vetoed inclusion of the AK-47 because of concerns about training its reservists.

LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINALS A December post on the Marietta, Georgia, police department’s Facebook page chided a shoplifter still at large who had left his ID and fingerprints and inadvertently posed for security cameras. The police, noting “how easy” the man had made their job, “begged” him to give them some sort of challenge: “Please at least try to hide.” Suspect Dale Tice was soon in custody. NOTW UPDATE In January, tireless

convicted fraudster Kevin Trudeau, who pitched magical remedies for countless ailments on late-night TV for almost 20 years — dodging investigations and lawsuits until the feds caught up with him in 2014) — was turned down in what some legal experts believe might be his final judicial appeal. Still, he never gives up. From his cell at a federal prison in Alabama, he continued to solicit funding for appeals via his Facebook fans, promising donors that they could “double” their money. Also, he said he would soon share “two secrets” that would allow donors to “vibrate frequencies ... to create the life (they) want.”

THE PASSING PARADE (1) Steve Crow of Point Loma, California, near San Diego International Airport, told a reporter he had given up — since no relief had come from the 20,068 complaints he made during 2016 about airport noise. (2) A six-point deer head-butted the owner of a fur company in Willmar, Minnesota, in November and broke into the building where thousands of recently harvested deer hides were being dried and largely wrecked the place. The owner was slightly injured, and the vengeful buck escaped. NOTW CLASSIC (March 2013) Leaders of the ice-fishing community, aiming for official Olympics recognition as a sport, have begun the process by asking the World Anti-Doping Agency to randomly test its “athletes” for performance-enhancing drugs, according to a February (2013) New York Times report. The chairman of the U.S. Freshwater Fishing Association said, “We do not test for beer” because “everyone would fail.” Ice-fishing is a lonely, frigid endeavor rarely employing strength but mostly guile and strategy, as competitors who discover advantageous spots must surreptitiously upload their hauls lest competitors rush over to drill their own holes.

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Criv Charlotte manager Krista Bergstrom (left) and owner Jackie Rodney.

NEWS

New Criv looks, styled by Jackie Rodney (above and opposite page).

ALANNA MARTIN

NEWSMAKER

NEW YEAR, NEW NAME, NEW LOOK

CRIV Mon-Sat, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Sun, 12 - 5 p.m.; 1111 Metropolitan Ave. Suite 140. 704-335-8884. shopCRIV.com.

Metropolitan boutique revamping in 2017 BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK

HE NEW YEAR calls for new beginnings, and that’s exactly what’s in store — literally — for Jackie Rodney’s Charlotte boutique formerly known as Lotus. On Saturday, Jan. 21, Rodney will launch a rebranding of her store that includes a new maternally inspired name, Criv, and the unveiling of in-shop renovations in the Metropolitan location. After the shop gets its makeover, Rodney has the same plans for the location she owns on the West Coast in Los Gatos, California. Creative Loafing sat down with Rodney in the lead-up to the store’s re-opening to discuss the changes and her inspiration for the rebranding. Creative Loafing: What’s your store’s mission? 12 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Jackie Rodney: We’ve been around since 2004. I took over the business in 2010 and have been owning and operating under the name Lotus since then. Basically our motto is high fashion at affordable pricing. So a woman can walk in and get a really cool outfit for under $200. So a head to toe, shoes, accessories, a top, pants, whatever the case may be and also amazing customer service. We’ll pop a bottle of champagne and they really feel like they’re at home or at a friend’s house shopping when they come in. We offer good service, great price point and really cool clothes too. You said you pride yourself on customer service. What sets it apart? My staff, they’re amazing. My full-time manager Krista [Bergstrom], she’s been with me since the beginning. People come in

because they know her and they love her so much and they know that she’s not there to just sell, she’s there to create a really good experience for the customer. And they can trust her and she’s not just telling them that they look good in everything. She’ll give her honest opinion even if it means losing the sale. She’ll say, “You know what, this doesn’t look good, let’s try something else.” She makes it feel like you’re shopping at a friend’s house or in your friend’s closet when you go in. Why the decision to make this new transition? I’ve been expanding. I’ve got two stores now. I moved to the West Coast three years ago and Krista runs the Charlotte store for me fulltime. So I’ve expanded to the West Coast in Los Gatos, California. As I continue to expand and grow and especially online I’ve been doing

a lot of sales through our website, I’m running into issues of our name being commonly associated with other businesses. I can’t even tell you how many times we get phone calls for Chinese food orders or women walking in the store thinking it’s a yoga studio. The other thing is like, social media is everything these days, so when customers come in, we always encourage them to follow us on Instagram. When they type in Lotus, a hundred Lotuses pop up and it’s hard to distinguish yourself as a unique business with such a common name, so I made the decision a few months back to rebrand. So going forward, the name is going to be completely unique, there’s no name like it out there and going forward we can establish ourselves with the new name.

NEWS

BLOTTER

BY RYAN PITKIN

SELF PROTECTION A police officer was

shocked to almost witness a man shoot his wife to death in Cornelius last week, and the man was probably even more shocked to learn what had happened. The man had apparently pulled his motorcycle into an alley in front of his house when he saw a car pull into the alley on the other side. The car continued to drive toward him without slowing down, so he puled his gun and aimed it directly at the windshield. An officer doing rounds in the neighborhood saw the man pointing the gun and exited his own vehicle. It was soon found that the car was driven by the man’s wife, who saw her husband but planned to pull into the driveway before she reached him so didn’t think to slow down until she had a pistol pointed at her. As shaken up as she was, the woman decided not to press charges, as both parties agreed it was an innocent miscommunication.

DREADFUL REACTION A 29-year-

What’s the new name and the reasoning behind it? A big inspiration to me was my mom, she’s always helped me. She’s a designer herself, so from a very young age she’s been a big inspiration and support, so I decided to go with the name Criv, and it’s a play off of my mother’s maiden name, Crivellone. It’ll just be really nice, too, because before, Lotus was such a common name. We were Lotus boutique and the name on the store was Lotus and you’d go online and Lotus[.com] was already taken so we were LotusLook online, and on social media we were Lotus_Look. So with Criv, it’ll be really nice because everything is Criv. The storefront is going to be Criv, and the website is going to be ShopCriv[.com] and all social media is going to be ShopCriv. We’ve now created a consistency that’s going to be a lot easier for our consumers. What’s it like owning and managing two stores on two different coasts? I have to give credit to Krista because I couldn’t do it without her. I mean, she is like my rock. I swear, I want to clone her. She is just amazing. But I come back often and I have family in Charlotte so it’s easy for me to come back and take care of business if I need to.

It’s also good I’m on the West Coast because I do a lot of my buying in the showrooms in L.A. so it’s good to have me out there so we do get new shipments and arrivals on a weekly basis. Knock on wood, it’s actually worked out. My goal is to continue to grow the stores and build each one of them up so that they’re selfsufficient and really run themselves. I have this theory that in order to continue to grow you have to work on your business within your business so I strive to create a team in each store that can really run itself. It’s worked out pretty good and I get a lot of airline points. What exactly will be changing in the store? So with the new name, a lot of people associated the green floors with Lotus so with the name change we will be getting rid of the floors. We are upgrading the dressing rooms and adding a few more clothing rack sections so there will be more clothes available. We are creating a really cool lounge side area so it’s going to be a really chic modern look going forward. The only thing that’s changing is the name and the renovations of the store. We’re going to have the same staff, same clothing, same price points, same customer service, all of that.

old couple called police after they were assaulted following a road rage incident in east Charlotte last week. The man told police they were driving down Independence Boulevard when they realized that someone in a neighboring car was giving them the middle finger. When they realized the fingerflipping suspects were continuing to follow them onto Albemarle Road, the couple pulled over, which they soon regretted. The suspects in the other car got out and immediately began spraying the female passenger with mace and then pulled a dreadlock from the male driver’s head.

JUST STOP, PERIOD Employees at

Trans Tech Charlotte Diesel Driving School in west Charlotte were alarmed to arrive at work one morning to find that their business had been vandalized by someone who was into disturbing imagery. Upon arrival on Wednesday morning, employees immediately noticed that someone had spraypainted the word “Pussy” in red across the wall of the business’ main building. They then came around the warehouse to see that someone had also spraypainted the word “Bloody” on the wall of one of the trailers.

GOOD PLAN A college student in custody

of campus security learned last week that he can’t rely on his buddies to pull an Ocean’s Eleven caper to break him out. Security personnel filed a police report with the CMPD stating that they had received a call earlier in the night from someone pretending to be with CMPD claiming they were looking for someone the security company had with them and was hoping they could release the suspect to the so-called police officer. The rat was quickly sniffed out and security turned to the real CMPD.

CON KIDS Reports have begun rolling in

accusing a child or children in west Charlotte of swindling folks out of money last year under the pretense of a school fundraiser. On Jan. 11, a 43-year-old woman living near the airport reported that a child had come to her door selling products for a school fundraiser in October. The woman selected pizza and gave the kid a check, which was later cashed. The woman went to police when she realized no pizza was coming. The next day, two more people living in the same area filed separate reports stating that a child had knocked on their doors in October selling cookies to fund a school project. All three victims paid $17 but never received any pizza or cookies.

GRAND SLAM The tennis courts are closed

late at night in Spring Lake in east Charlotte, but that wasn’t stopping one committed resident from gaining access one night last week. Police responding to calls about an apparent car wreck just after midnight found that someone had run off the road and through the fence of the tennis court, doing $1,000 in damage. The driver fled the scene, leaving the vehicle on the court with a score of love.

TRY

AGAIN TOMORROW Police responded to Franklin Fast Stop in west Charlotte after a man came into the store and told a clerk he had been robbed. When officers arrived, they found the alleged 23-year-old victim to be so intoxicated that he couldn’t tell them what had happened. According to the report, “after several attempts to gather the facts of this incident the victim was told to call back once he sobered up if he wanted to file a report.” FAIL It’s not uncommon for accused

criminals who have been ordered to wear electronic monitoring devices as part of their pre-trial release agreement to cut the anklets off in an attempt to shake the watchful eyes of the CMPD, but one man in northwest Charlotte couldn’t even get past the anklet. Police received an alert that the suspect had possibly removed his monitoring device and went to pay him a visit to be sure. Upon finding him, they discovered that he had cut certain pieces out of the device in an attempt to remove it, but wasn’t able to do so, making him all the more easier to find. He was charged with damaging city property and taken back to jail.

THREATS OF THE WEEK Employees at a north Charlotte store called police after a man threatened to smoke them out of their smoke shop last week. The manager filed a report stating that someone became angry in his store and said he would come back and burn the place down, which would only be the right ending for a store that called Hickory Grove Discount Tobacco. CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 13

NEWS

FEATURE

ACT QUICK TO SPOT THE WOLF

BLACK SHEEP SKATE SHOP

New Black Sheep and Nike SB collabo goes fast in nationwide release

830 Lamar Ave. 704-333-1423. blacksheepskateshop.com

BY RYAN PITKIN

NOW AND ICE couldn’t stop over 100 people from showing up at Black Sheep Skate Shop in Plaza Midwood on Jan. 7 to sell the store out of their “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” sneakers, the store’s newest collaboration with Nike SB, so it’s no surprise the following Thursday’s nationwide release saw the shoes disappearing from Nike’s site and independent shops around the country within minutes. “I’m struggling to even describe it,” said Black Sheep founder Josh Frazier of the national reaction to the shoe’s release. Not only did Black Sheep sell out of nearly 150 pairs of the Dunk High Traditional sneakers — then go through an undisclosed amount of pairs available online in three minutes — on Jan. 7, but the Nike website also sold out of the shoes in minutes on Jan. 12. 14 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

“I was shocked by how quickly it sold out. It’s sort of unprecedented for it to sell out that quickly on Nike,” Frazier said. “I’m kind of reeling from the whole thing right now.” The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is named as such thanks to some features that don’t necessarily jump out at you in the seemingly simple design. The shoe’s “Summit White” vintage suede upper along with the white tongue and white Nike swoosh gives the appearance and feel of a “sheep,” but sinister designs lurk below. The white swoosh is susceptible to wear, and once its worn down or taken off scratchoff style, the shoe bears fangs once hidden within the iconic checkmark. The soles also depict a wolf’s face in a symmetrically drawn graphic. The “Wolf” is Black Sheep’s second collabo with Nike SB. The 2014 “Paid in Full” Dunk

High sneakers featuring a Gucci print were hugely popular, and became even moreso after a legal snafu led to a recall, but even those can’t compare to the reaction the new “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” got. What Frazier believes put things over the top for Black Sheep in terms of local sales was the exclusive packaging he put together with the help of some partners that drove collectors to the newly relocated shop on Saturday. A purchase at Black Sheep included a specially designed box, an exclusive “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” dust bag and other accessories — namely the exclusive shoe laces designed by San Francisco-based company Fully Laced that feature a pattern of blood spatter to go along with the shoe’s theme. “We created the box to give us a point of differentiation. There are a lot of collectors

out there, we wanted to give them a reason to want to purchase it from us,” Frazier said. He also shared the special packaging with some other independent shops around the country — “our friends,” as Fraziers puts it — as a way to support local ventures. As could be seen in retweets on Black Sheep’s Twitter account throughout the day Thursday, local shops throughout the country sold out just as quick as he had on the previous Saturday, and by Thursday afternoon, the only pairs available online were size 6 or lower, for the most part. Surprisingly — except for in the tight-knit and relatively small sneakerhead community here in Charlotte — the release came and went with little fanfare locally, while national and international sneaker blogs hailed the release. “I feel like we’ve gotten a lot more national

NEWS

THANK ME LATER

SWIPING RIGHT ON CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Optimism in a growing and diverse tech ecosystem

coverage than we have locally,” Frazier said. “We’re kind of wondering, does anyone here even know?” Unfortunately, if you’re just now finding out, it’s too late. The nature of the “quick strike” release, as Nike calls it, is to create buzz around a very limited release. Once their gone, there’s not much of a chance you’ll find them in stock anywhere again. “I’m hoping that we might see a small restock, but I’m not certain,” Frazier said. “We sold through our allotment. Everyone is sold out at this point. It’s sort of the

nature of these types of products. It’s sort of evaporated.” They’ll certainly reappear online as resellers look to turn quick profit on the quick strike, as they’re wont to do, but as far as finding a decently priced pair with all the packaging, the odds are against you. A release like this only comes around so often, and like the breath of a wolf hunting on a snowy day, the shoes disappeared into thin air as quickly as they appeared. But for the time being, you can always enjoy these great pictures we’ve got.

It is easy to divide and analyze the answer critical challenges in our city and landscape of Charlotte’s technology and beyond. Within the next few weeks, he plans entrepreneurship community for all that it to launch an app connecting black women to is not. tech jobs within their city. For Northerners and/or Westerners like The regionalized app will debut in Charlotte myself hailing from tech meccas like Seattle, and eventually expand to Atlanta. Users will be San Francisco and New York, finding ourselves able to scroll through job opportunities like an in the land of Cheerwine and Bojangles’ Instagram feed and swipe left or right to apply biscuits paints the picture of a market not or reject the job opportunity. quite ready to join the big leagues, at least The most important ingredient to the as far as building a thriving and exciting equation will be in the quality and frequency entrepreneurial community is concerned. of job postings by local companies that will Where hospitality and personal relationships engage a demographic often missing in large take center stage, the culture isn’t necessarily numbers within the industry. keeping up with the speed of an industry that “I’d initially designed the app back in values quick connections and quick hires. 2012 to the growing immigrant community Like many millennials hoping to develop to help them find jobs in tech,” Hill shared. strong careers outside of traditional “Now we’ve relaunched the app and corporate banking environments, pivoted it to address the needs of an my moves in this sector and often neglected demographic. in this city are limited. I’m We’re launching Charlotte in forced to vacillate between a the first quarter of the year traditional corporate job or and then Atlanta.” a prayer that the hot new Local artist Lo’Vonia startup that managed to Parks is an ideal target for raise a little bit of money Hill’s new app. She was has an opening. Thus, my laid off last year and has moves in this sector in sold art while job hunting. this city are limited. She currently works a temp By contrast, where Silicon job while looking for more SHERRELL Valley builds rapidly and takes career-based work. DORSEY the risk to fund new ideas or “[The app] could be beneficial provide a bevy of interesting jobs in for black women as long it’s not the workforce, the South stalls its output just black women viewing it,” Parks when would-be innovators, frustrated with the said. “I understand the challenges we face in long process of climbing the ranks, jump ship the job market — hair, tone of voice, name to greener pastures. pronouncing, being viewed as equal, etc. Within the first few days of the new — but hiring managers are of all different year, I sat down with friends, a few who are nationalities, so it’s beneficial if it’s not just founders of startup technology companies or black hiring managers viewing it too,” she says. serve at national venture capital firms, to get Personally, I’m particularly excited about their take on what Charlotte needs to pull the potential effect niche-specific products ahead. Without hesitation, they mentioned will have on our local market and the eventual the need for investors and fund leaders to data it will provide as we think about where decrease their aversion to risk. Charlotte must work to address its gaps. Despite their strong criticisms of the We’re still grossly unclear as to who is difficulty to get funding in the city, or having to represented in our current entrepreneurial source money from larger markets, their take landscape, the products they’re building and on the climate was also met with optimism. the data behind how using their technology Talented business leaders like Patrick is developing greater connections to the Hill, founder of mobile app development larger technology community. company A Cultivated Mindset, refuse to Perhaps these insights, driven by makers leave the Queen City despite having to like Hill, will navigate our trajectories to regularly run to Atlanta to garner financial tangible outcomes. An environment where support for his products from investors. investors aren’t afraid to lead in new spaces True to the nature of a technologist and we accelerate our bias toward action to programmed to solve problems, Hill has usurp our slow climb to the bottom tier of focused his company’s attention on national tech leadership assessments. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM developing products for niche markets that CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 15

16 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

ARI LEVAUX

Onion salad with grated carrot, cabbage, ginger, celeriac, shrimp, salmon, crushed chili flakes and fresh cilantro.

FEATURE

FOOD

DON’T CRY, IT’S ONION SEASON? They’re more versatile than you think BY ARI LEVAUX

ADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

the moment that we have all been waiting for has, at long last, arrived. Finally, it’s onion season! You’re beside yourself with joy, filled with a special feeling that’s normally reserved for the likes of peach or morel seasons. Maybe Dungeness crab. You wake up in the morning and the first thing you think about is... Wait, what’s that? You’re not extra stoked about onion season? OK. I guess I can’t feign too much surprise at the lack of onion love. I get it. Onion season doesn’t make the imagination salivate like Copper River Salmon season. It doesn’t roll off the tongue like cherry blossom season. It isn’t fleeting, like the others; because they store so well, onions are basically available year-round. Onion season per se is just a fancy way of saying “nothing to eat but onions.” The expression “to know one’s onions” means to have knowledge about something. Kind of like knowing your “stuff.” I’ve been getting to know my onions, in a literal sense, for quite some time now. It’s getting to the point where I know my onions better than Adam knew his wife. My own wife would be jealous if she wasn’t so into onions herself. Knowing one’s literal onions is central to surviving the winter. Or at least it was, back in the day before supermarkets when there really wasn’t much else to eat. King Louis XV supposedly solved this winter riddle when he invented French onion soup. His Highness and his crew had arrived at some sort of hunting cabin or castle, only to find nothing in the pantry but onions, wine, butter and salt. Luckily, His Royal Culinary Genius was able to devise a meal out of just those ingredients, a meal that was destined to become a national treasure. I’ll give you my French onion soup recipe in a minute, but make no mistake: this article is about onion salad, my newest secret weapon of winter. Because let’s face it. As stupendous as French onion soup is, it’s still possible to get sick of if one eats it every day. And onion season is long. And the list of possible ways to make onion salad is even longer, long enough to help you outlast winter with all of your marbles on board. It’s my wife’s onion salad recipe. She calls

it “salad dressing.” It’s basically marinated onions, sliced thinly, that she adds to other vegetables, like romaine or kale, along with oil. I’ve been messing around with her little procedure for a while now, and its versatility is impressive. It’s helped me come to know onions even more deeply than ever. Onions not only stay edible throughout the winter, they stay fully alive. Eating a living food, made of living things, is a special thing, especially in winter. Of course, a dish that includes copious amounts of raw-ish onions is not necessarily for the gastronomically — or gastro-intestinally — timid. But the longer the onions marinate, the mellower they become. They are, essentially, refrigerator pickled onions that lose the spicy pungency of their freshly sliced selves, and transfer some of their pizzazz to the other ingredients you might mix in. Most any vegetable you could pick up at the local winter market would be a good candidate for mixing with sliced onion salad dressing. One of my favorites is to grate in garlic, carrots and celeriac. It turns into a colorful, complex and potent little salad, especially when drizzled with a velvety olive oil or nutty pumpkin seed oil. Beyond that, it’s all systems go to add pretty much anything, plant or animal based. Spoon the onions upon chopped cabbage with crumbled feta. Toss them with parsley or kale. Add a little chopped cilantro, and maybe some grated ginger, and you’ve got a poor man’s ceviche. I recently added some frozen shrimp to my poor man’s ceviche, and after a few hours it wasn’t so poor. The next day I tossed my onion salad dressing with flakey chunks of leftover salmon, and let the marinade infiltrate and permeate its way in, and was all the richer. These winter salads can also approximate a species of Southeast Asian-style vegetable and seafood salad that’s often made with papaya and seafood. Some extra lime juice, grated cabbage and ginger, and maybe some peanuts in the mix, and you’re just a squirt of fish sauce and some crushed chili away from shrimp som tum. Crispy salmon skins are a decadent contrast to the sharply piercing onion salad. Check out the foundation of all of these onion salads in the sidebar, courtesy of my wife.

SLICED ONION SALAD DRESSING SALAD One large yellow onion, preferably sweet ¼ cup fresh lime juice teaspoon salt ¼ cup White Balsamic Condiment* *It is becoming increasingly difficult to find white balsamic vinegar under that name, as the Italian government has recently required that white balsamic vinegar from Italy be labeled as White Italian Condiment, in order to distinguish it from the traditional red balsamic vinegar. Whatever you call it, it’s a lighter, sweeter version of balsamic, made from the same grapes and via a similar process. Peel the onion. Slice in half from tip to tip, and lay the cut halves flat on the cutting board. Cut the onions as thinly as possible from tip to tip, into thin sheets. Combine onions with lime, vinegar and salt, stirring around until all of the sheets have broken apart into their concentric layers. The lime adds sharpness, the the vinegar sweetness, and depth. Then, start adding things. Put it in the fridge for an hour or two, and enjoy.

FRENCH ONION SOUP Bake onions, sliced in half tip to tip, in butter and white wine, at 250, until they are as sweet as candy. Transfer the onions, and all pan juices, to a pot of simmering stock. Add salt, a bay leaf, a pinch of herbs de Provence, and simmer until the onion sheets melt away. Serve broiled gruyere or with baked brie crostini. To know your onions in their wintertime grandeur is to know them in the Biblical sense, to make love to them daily. In raw form, in cooked form, in spicy and in sweet. Don’t take your onions for granted, because if they disappeared you would surely miss them.

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 17

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LOW COUNTRY BLUES Josh Vereen’s 7th District restaurant waited patiently for the right spot, and they got it BY DEBRA RENEE SETH

MYRTLE BEACH-NATIVE Josh Vereen

and his two silent business partners always dreamed of opening a restaraunt in Charlotte specializing in the bold flavors of the Low Country, but when the bid for their ideal location on Church Street was denied, it looked like that dream would come to a halt. Enter realtor Rodney Faulkner, who pressed on for months scouting locations before finding the perfect jewel for Vereen’s 7th District. The trendy restaraunt has been popping for months, and Vereen and his team are enjoying the success of having one of the most popular eateries in Uptown. We sat down with him to find out how they plan to stay on top as the Queen City continues to stretch her legs. Creative Loafing: 7th District has quickly become one of the most popular spots near the Spectrum Center but you guys originally wanted to be on Church Street. What happened? Josh Vereen: Yes, originally we had our hearts set on a location right on Church Street. The place was ready to go and so were we, but the property owner denied us, saying he wanted a more experienced tenant. That was a major blow for our team because we’d been planning since 2015 for this and thought the place was perfect. Losing that bid was honestly one of our biggest blessings, because then our realtor found the venue on 7th and everything about it was way better — from the location, to parking, to the venue itself. We couldn’t have been happier. Before we even stepped foot inside we knew it was perfect. It may sound cliche, but at the end of the day it’s all about location. With so many other establishments in the area and residents whose tastes change with the seasons, what’s been your formula for sustaining success? Bottom line, we’re just different and our guests can feel that. We call it “the 7th Experience.” From our menu, which doesn’t just feature light fare and appetizers but real food with flavors of the Low Country, to the environment we create. Where else in the city can you go and eat scratch-made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn in an upscale environment — that feels like a club without actually being a club — and park for free? The key to our success is simple:

18 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

DEBRA RENEE SETH

Josh Vereen inside 7th District restaurant Uptown.

We have everything on your checklist all in one place. When people come to 7th District what are a few things they gotta check out? The first thing you gotta try is our Lava Lamp drink, which is a really cool cocktail with fruit flavors and vodka served over dry ice. Then have one of our 7th specialty dishes like our crab stuffed salmon, which everyone goes crazy for, or our Low Country shrimp and grits. Last, top your meal off with a nightcap like our Henny Berry Smash, which is a light refreshing way to enjoy Hennessy, or our 7th Breeze, which is a Mai Tai, 7thstyle. Also check out our popular Monday night crab legs, poetry and spoken word on Tuesdays and our brunch on Sundays.

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 19

THURSDAY

LILITH What: This exhibit was curated by Jonell Logan and named after Adam’s first wife, whom many call the first feminist. It showcases the works of local photographers Jodi Bieber, Guia Besana, Allison Janae Hamilton, Maxine Helfman and Donna Cooper Hurt, each of whom uses the camera to create new or alternative narratives regarding femininity, history, identity and power. Lilith left Adam rather than be subjugated to his will, so if you’ve got a man and he’s skeptical about this show, leave him home. When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: The Light Factory, 1817 Central Avenue More: Free. lightfactory.org.

20 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

THURSDAY

THE HOT CLUB OF SAN FRANCISCO

THINGS TO DO

TOP TEN

“Condition #2” by Guia Besana, to be featured in Lilith THURSDAY

FRIDAY

DWEEZIL ZAPPA

HANNIBAL BURESS

What: Gypsy jazz — the late guitarist Django Reinhardt’s swinging mix of flamenco and Parisian street songs — exerts an enduring influence on music. The HCoSF, featuring hot guitarist Paul Mehling, is one of the longestrunning Django-style combos. With Mehling’s picking, the band’s insouciant swing and willingness to tinker with the form the Hot Club transports listeners to the smoky Parisian cafes of the ‘30s.

What: In the 1980s, Dweezil Zappa probably would have passed on covering the songs of his dad, Frank. Dweezil initially based his guitar playing on Eddie Van Halenstyle pop-metal pyrotechnics, but later took a sabbatical to learn his father’s more experimental approach. The elder Zappa’s music is perhaps most identified with snarky avant-rock songs about eating yellow snow, but he was admired for compositions that draw on modern classical and jazz.

What: The last time funnyman Hannibal Buress tried to make it to Charlotte, on Sept. 25, the city was preoccupied with protesting the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. The night before, Buress brought his “Hannibal Montanabal Experience” to Raleigh, where he commented on hip-hop and jabbed at thencandidates Clinton and Trump. We’ll see what, if anything, the comic and actor says about racial division in Charlotte and the rest of the U.S.A., circa 2017.

When: 7:30 p.m. Where: McGlohon Theater, 345 N. College St. More: $30 - $40. blumenthalarts.org

When: 8 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 East 36th St. More: $30 - $35. neighborhoodtheatre.com

When: 8 p.m. Where: Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. More: $25 - $35. blumenthalarts.org

SATURDAY

WOMEN’S MARCH ON CHARLOTTE What: Planned to coincide with the Women’s March on Washington, this march will be a response to an election cycle featuring rhetoric that demonized immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities and survivors of sexual assault. The march will start at First Ward Park and end in Romare Bearden Park. When: 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Where: First Ward Park, 301 E. 7th St. More: Free. womensmarchoncharlotte.com.

Dweezil Zappa FRIDAY

NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS

Hannibal Burress FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Truckstop Preachers SATURDAY

SATURDAY

MONDAY

TET 2017: LUNAR NEW YEAR

TRUCKSTOP PREACHERS

DOWN RIGHT FIERCE 8

BIKE IN MOVIE NIGHT

What: Based on the Chinese lunarsolar calendar, Tet Nguyen Day is a sacred holiday in Vietnam. It marks the beginning of spring and the Lunar New Year. In Charlotte, Vietnamese-Americans honor their home country with traditional and modern festivities that include foods such as báhn mì and pho, as well as cultural art, games, dances and more. And if you’re still fired up after a full day of celebrating, stick around for the concert beginning at 6:30 p.m.

What: The Truckstop Preachers’ rollicking honky-tonk rocks with raw ferocity while hewing close to the downhome authenticity of Merle Haggard and other such rowdy California cowboys. But the Preachers, from just over the border in South Carolina, add a touch of surreal showmanship to their gigs, with front man Nathan Palmer often careening through crowds wearing a deer head or homemade Johnny Cash mask.

What: Frame Zero Gaming returns for the first event of 2017, a Street Fighter V tournament that’s just one of the stops on the King of the Queen City circuit. But that’s not all, there’s also a bracket for fan-favorite BlazBlue as well as the regular Get Some Game Pokken tournament. Come 6 p.m., you’ll even have the chance to introduce any game of your own games for a side event if the setup and interest level is there. So bring it.

What: Roll up to The Spoke Easy to catch an inspiring film about bicycles. Inspired in part by Vittorio De Sica’s classic The Bicycle Thief, Haifaa al-Mansour’s Wadjda is about “an enterprising Saudi girl who signs on for her school’s Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.” The Spoke Easy has a few local beers on tap in case you need to take the edge off, because this one looks like a tearjerker.

When: 8 p.m. Where: Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. More: $8. visulite.com

When: 2 p.m. - 12 a.m. Where: Get Some Game, 1224 Commercial Ave. More: $5-10. getsomegame.com

When: 7-10 p.m. Where: The Spoke Easy, 1523 Elizabeth Ave. More: Free. thespokeeasyclt.com.

When: 1 - 5:30 p.m. Where: Oasis Shriners, 604 Doug Mayes Pl. More: festival, $5; concert, $20. vietcharlotte.org

TUESDAY

24 MIND EXPANSION PROJECT II What: Get ready to have your brain picked apart and (maybe) put back together again when Snug Harbor presents its second Mind Expansion Project, featuring the thump of experimental DJs against the backdrop of visual magic. The first Mind Expansion event, back in November, featured Join Oliver Long and Longchild, and they’ll return for Mind Expansion II along with the gritty grind of Terror Oscillation Unit.

When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor. 1228 Gordon St. More: Free. snugrock.com

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 21

RYAN PITKIN

Brian Heffron in his office, surrounded by signed photos of comedians he has worked with over the years.

ARTS

FEATURE

BRINGING IN THE BIG GUNS Brian Heffron has been keeping Charlotteans laughing for decades, they just don’t know it BY RYAN PITKIN

RIAN

HEFFRON

surrounded by legends, and that’s the way he likes it. The founder of Heffron Talent International and owner of The Comedy Zone Charlotte has built a comedy empire over the last 25 years with his impressive network of connections and friendships in the industry. The network is on display in his AvidXchange Music Factory office, where 22 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

signed photos of comedy legends like Dave Chapelle, Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock — all much younger than they are now — adorn the walls. Heffron’s happy on this Monday morning; Kevin Hart’s team of comedy protégés the Plastic Cup Boyz just finished a four-night run at The Comedy Zone and followed each great show with another one. Booking is Heffron’s most important job, and he takes

it seriously. This time, the “boyz” lived up to the endorsement of one of the world’s biggest comics, and that’s what matters to Heffron. Still, he couldn’t help but crack a joke after having just received the bill for six bottles of Ciroc he comped for the trio. “I don’t how many damn plastic cups they filled,” he laughs. Heffron began working at the original Comedy Zone on Independence Boulevard

in 1991. He bought in as a partner in 1996 and bought the company outright in 2000. The club moved to 8th and College streets before landing at its current spot at the Music Factory. During that time, Heffron was busy opening Comedy Zone locations in small to middle-sized markets up and down the eastern seaboard, from Charleston, West Virginia to Vero Beach, Florida. He’s responsible for booking about 150

shows a week — including any comedy show at Blumenthal’s three theaters in Charlotte — and he’ll do whatever it takes to get his comic. Heffron was able to convince his pal Bill Burr to play the relatively small Comedy Zone by offering him Duke/Carolina basketball tickets just months after Burr sold out 2,400 seats at Belk Theater. “I’m not above a bribe,” he says with a smile. Heffron is hilarious in any conversation, his speech and mannerisms reminiscent of his friend Dave Attell, but you’ll never see him on stage. His stage fright would take over if he tried, but he’s never had interest in stepping into the spotlight. So we counted ourselves lucky to sit down recently with him at his Music Factory watering hole Small Bar for a long chat about today’s comedy scene in Charlotte and beyond. On his lifelong interest in comedy and coming up at The Comedy Zone I was the kid listening to the albums; Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Cosby. I loved it. I knew that I would never be on stage. I don’t want to be on stage, I just knew I wanted to be around it. I took every job I could; manager, food and beverage, whatever was needed at the time. My initial thought was, I can take this somewhere, if I can just take over. On his goals once he did take over I felt like we could bring great comedy to these small towns and not need a big name in order to draw people in. There are so many unbelievably great comedians that only have a couple credits and they’re just amazing. They’re flying under the radar, but every one of these great comedians has become someone. If I could feed them to mid-markets, I’d show them that you may not know the name yet but your experience is going to exceed your expectations. On booking comedians When it comes to the bigger clubs, Charlotte being one of the biggest [Comedy Zones] in the country, I have to make economic decisions based on drawability, but I always, always put the customer experience first. No matter how popular they are, if you’re not entertained, you’re going to blame me, and I’m very respectful of that. Now, I’ve got a lot of clubs. We have precedents, we can talk to people, I’m also very close with the owners at The Improv, Zanies, The Punchline, we’re talking all the time. “Who’s doing what?” Because the industry can change by six months. Amy Schumer was playing my club three years ago and six months later, she’s Amy Schumer. I have to be aware of the changing tides of this business. But if you can’t deliver, you’re not going to get the job. On the importance of touring The one thing that’s great about our business is that you can’t fake it. I know there’s a YouTube thing going on, but my experience in the business is that the cream does rise to the top and it always has. Some of these

HEADLINERS Comedy Zone shows to look out for in coming months (some are sold out, don’t blame us)

Jan. 19-21 Anjelah Johnson Feb. 2-4 Don “DC” Curry Feb. 8 Bill Burr Feb. 10-11 Mike Birbiglia’s “Working It Out” March 22-23 Dick Gregory “Drum Major for Justice & Equality” March 24-25 Loni Love

comedians that I’ve worked with — Steve Harvey in his old days, Ray Romano in is old days — they were just so much better than everybody else. All they had to do was hammer the road, hammer the road, and they’re audience will find them. Daniel Tosh, Dennis Miller, they all came through the system. What they did was, they were so good for so long that they couldn’t be denied. It’s a little bit different now but its kind of the same. Brian Regan doesn’t have one TV credit to my knowledge, but he can sell out Belk Theater every year, why is that? Because he’s tremendously talented.

On the proliferation of comedy platforms

Now we have more outlets, which also brings more acts, so we have to weed through a lot of acts to get to the cream of the crop. But now, someone like Tom Segura can be the highest rated Netflix guy without having to be on a sitcom and be the wacky neighbor or whatever. He can get to the masses quicker. He can get to you guys in a much more direct way. Look at Marc Maron [host of WTF Podcast]. Marc Maron’s career was meandering around for a while and he found his niche. He’s probably one of the best interviewers out there and that’s his thing. The cream rises to the top. I kind of love that, I really do, because back in the day there was only a couple of avenues and that cut out a lot of people. Now, take you’re shot. You think you’re that good? Take your shot. There’s a million ways to do it. On how Charlotte’s comedy scene has changed In the ‘90s, I could put a great comic on stage Tuesday through Sunday and we’d be full. In the 2000s, we started a transition into, “I don’t know who that is.” The city grew. The world grew. The comedy industry grew. It became a little more name-sensitive. I don’t think that’s a good thing for comedy. However, that is the game that we play and that is what we are. We’re open six nights a week here, so we’re getting different offerings on different levels on any given night. On the importance of booking good acts, both big and small If you come to my show, and you don’t know who that person is, I need to blow you away. If you walk out of there and say, “Yeah, it was good,” you’re probably going to lose trust in the name Comedy Zone. But if you come in and you go, “Wow, that exceeded my expectations,” I know I have a customer base that I can build and that’s how the empire is built. It’s a passion for the talent first. Growing acts and exposing acts is the absolute rubber-to-the-road concept that builds trust. I want you to trust me. Pretty much every Wednesday night you’ll see people who are touring to my other clubs. So they might come by Wednesday night to Charlotte but they’ll be on their way to Charleston, West Virginia. These are top touring comedians, but they don’t have any credits. If you trust me, and you spend the 10 bucks, you’ll be blown away, because they’re the guys who are the next stars. These are the next ones, every time. Because of the size of my network I can affordably bring in a great touring act for one night and let Charlotte take a peek. On who’s next in the Charlotte comedy scene There are a couple people who come to mind who haven’t quote “made it” but are doing great, and I think they’re literally as good as it gets. That’s Julie Scoggins and Paul Hooper. Paul is up in New York now grinding it out, but he’s a Charlotte guy. Julie graduated from our comedy class. Julie is — or should be — the next big thing, and it’s just a matter of luck and timing and getting seen by the right people. But these are local people. Darren Sanders is here. Tone X is out of Atlanta now but he used to be here on the radio. They’re all tremendously talented.

On who’s cultivating local talent We have a tremendous asset in our stable by the name of Debbie Millwater, and she has been probably the most important person in local standup over the last decade. She cultivates people, she puts on really interesting open mics, not just, “Here’s a bunch of guys who want to go up.” She does Fight Night, and there’s competition, and there’s different levels. If you have 180 seconds you can walk off the street and go. Then she has Fight Night and you better be prepared to go head to head with some of the best. Then you have Blayr Nias, who’s doing Almost Famous, taking some of the more seasoned regional acts and putting them up there. Then elsewhere around town you have Nick Alexander, who’s doing tremendous work with Monstrous Comedy. Keli Semelsberger is probably one of the most important improv people in the southeast. People don’t know about her. She’s here and she’s been doing it every week for decades. These are the real heroes. They’re the ones bringing in and cultivating local talent. On how he gauges feedback when a new act goes on Social media is big, but do you know how I really gauge feedback? I stand in the back of the room and watch people pound the table and wipe their eyes. Then I know I did a good job. This is an art, and it’s very, very important that we don’t treat an art like a corporate entity. It’s art. Every week, every night it’s different art. Sometimes, you don’t like that art, but you come back. You don’t walk into a LiveNation venue to see a thrash metal band, walk in and go, “I hate thrash metal,” then go on Yelp and say, “LiveNation sucks, or Fillmore sucks or Underground sucks.” You don’t do that. Or at least you shouldn’t do that, but people do. The reality is, you should do your homework, find out who’s coming, find out if it matches up with who you like. Or come in with an open mind. Every night, every show is going to be a different version of art, a different version of stand-up comedy. And if it’s done right it’s a true point of view, and that point of view is either acceptable with you or it’s not. But the reality is, if it’s not, go fuck yourself. Because you just picked the wrong show, don’t blame me. On Comedy Zone’s spot in Charlotte’s cultural scene I don’t want people to think Comedy Zone is just a chain. I don’t know if they do or not, but I think that’s important with some of the losses of our best music venues in this town — the true heart-and-soul music venues. I think it’s a shame that this has happened but it is what it is. I’m a huge Double Door fan. Tremont was very important to me. The Milestone, Amos’ [Southend]. It’s important to me now — maybe it wasn’t as important back then — that people know that Comedy Zone Charlotte is yours. It’s yours. I have not been tainted by the corporate pen because I’m still over here swinging away as an independent.

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 29, 2017 | 23

ARTS

PARAMOUNT

Andrew Garfield and Yosuke Kubozuka in Silence

ARTS

FILM

of proselytizing in foreign territories, but the picture also looks more specifically at whether innocent laypeople are actually dying to appease God or to appease the priests. Scorsese and Cocks prefer to keep the queries percolating, only succumbing to obviousness — and, thanks to an ill-advised Heavenly voice-over, unfairness — during the final stretch of this 160-minute undertaking. Garfield, all wrong as the amazing SpiderMan in his pair of so-so superhero ventures, follows up his strong work in Hacksaw Ridge with an equally intense performance in this picture. Those expecting a co-starring role for Driver, however, will be disappointed with his comparatively brief screen time. Among the Japanese actors, Issei Ogata is particularly memorable as Inoue, the cunning and cruel Inquisitor who engages in frequent debates with Father Rodrigues about the impracticality of bringing Christianity to his homeland. Indeed, these conversations are among the highlights of a flawed but fascinating endeavor likely to leave viewers as divided as those Red Sea waters of yore.

whose first (and, by my reckoning, best) film as director was 2007’s excellent adaptation of Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone. But Affleck’s literary loyalty comes at a price, since Live by Night emerges as the weakest of his four directorial at-bats to date. Technically, the picture can’t be faulted: It’s a gorgeous production, meticulously put together by a team of seasoned Hollywood vets. This assemblage includes cinematographer Robert Richardson, who frames the saga in expansive and immaculate ways that seek to enhance the mythmaking (Richardson won a trio of Oscars for similar approaches on Hugo, The Aviator and JFK). Only in this case, the text can’t keep pace with the illustrations. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the story, which centers on Joe Coughlin (Affleck), a Boston mobster who’s sent to Tampa to oversee operations and finds himself tangling with rival gangsters as well as the local Ku Klux Klan. But there’s also little that’s fresh, with Affleck dutifully following a dog-eared playbook that’s been in rotation since the days when James Cagney

FILM

FAITH NO MORE Religious devotion at center of Scorsese drama BY MATT BRUNSON

EGINNING WITH HIS first picture, 1967’s Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Martin Scorsese has often employed cinema as a reflection on his own experiences and beliefs regarding religion. Considering he had planned on becoming a priest before opting to become a filmmaker, this makes perfect sense, and additional musings on the matter can be found in projects as diverse as Mean Streets, Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead and, most magnificently, The Last Temptation of Christ. With Silence (*** out of four), Scorsese again fully turns his attention to the spiritual side, and the result is a movie that’s both disturbing and deeply committed. To be clear, this isn’t a motion picture for those who superficially wear their Christianity like a shiny pinback button, falling for the long con of money-grubbing charlatans like Steven Furtick and believing their devotion to the Lord ends with slapping an ichthys sticker on a car bumper. Instead, Silence is an uncomfortable and unsettling watch, better at generating questions than supplying answers — which, come to think of it, is perhaps the proper outcome for a film of 24 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

this nature. Set in the 17th century, Silence follows two Portuguese priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) as they head to Japan to search for their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Having had some initial success with converting the locals to Christianity, the Church is rattled by the fact that Japanese authorities are now forcing all of the Jesuit priests and their followers to denounce their faith or face torture and execution. The word is that Ferreira has apostatized, a rumor that Rodrigues and Garupe refuse to believe. Seeking to discover what really has happened to Ferreira, the two holy men are encouraged by the pockets of Japanese peasants who continue to serve God in silence yet aghast at the widespread atrocities being committed by the Buddhists intent on turning back the Western influence. Adapting Shûsako Endô’s 1966 novel, Scorsese and scripter Jay Cocks (the former film critic who also co-wrote the director’s Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence) have crafted a film packed to the breaking point with thorny issues. Of course, there’s the basic debate over the whole matter

Ben Affleck in Live by Night

“JUST WHEN I thought I was out, they pull

me back in.” That classic line is uttered by Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in 1990’s The Godfather: Part III, but truthfully, it can easily be muttered by any audience member who happens to catch Live by Night (**1/2 out of four), Ben Affleck’s warmed-over plate of gangland goulash. Live by Night marks Affleck’s first project in the director’s chair since his 2012 Best Picture Oscar winner Argo, and he also tackles the roles of writer, producer and star. The movie is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, and that largely explains its appeal to Affleck,

WARNER

would periodically gun down Humphrey Bogart. Select vignettes add some flavor — a sit-down with a Klan flunky leads to an extremely satisfying denouement — but nothing can overcome the implausibility of its leading character, a guy who seems entirely too sweet to be involved in such a nasty business. Affleck brings his usual stoicism (the less charitable would say rigidity) to the role, but that only adds to the dilemma. It’s hard to accept this brooding anti-hero as one of the GoodFellas when there’s an unshakable feeling that he’s apt to whip out his Batman threads at any given moment.

Glynnis O’Donoghue, Katherine Drew and Donna Scott star in Lauren Gunderson’s The Taming (Weldon Weaver photo)

ARTSPEAK

ARTS

THE TAMING OF THE TRUMP

THE TAMING Free. Jan. 20, 7 p.m.; Charlotte Art League, 1517 Camden Rd.; charlotteartleague.org.

Donna Scott presents political satire on Inauguration Day BY PAT MORAN

“

T STARTS OFF like a bad

joke,” Donna Scott says. “A conservative lobbyist and a liberal blogger get locked in a hotel room by a beauty queen.” Scott, founder and director of Donna Scott Productions, is revealing a tantalizing teaser of her theater company’s free reading of playwright Lauren Gunderson’s The Taming on Friday, Jan. 20 at Charlotte Art League. In Gunderson’s savvy satire (very) loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, beauty queen Katherine will only free the squabbling politicos when they reach a compromise to make America a more perfect union. Along the way, the all-female cast also plays our founding fathers in a flashback to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. “It’s the perfect show because it makes fun of how ridiculous politics has become,” says Scott. “There is a lot of bickering back and forth between the conservative and the liberal. They take shots at each other left and right. It’s equal opportunity satire, which is why it is so funny.” We caught up with Scott to discuss politics, theater, empowering women and the state of feminism as Donald Trump prepares to enter the oval office. Creative Loafing: You’re staging a reading

of playwright Lauren Gunderson’s The Taming, after giving it a full production last year. This reading will be the original cast including you, and it’s on Inauguration Day. What makes The Taming a good fit for that day? Donna Scott: In the play, Katherine has brought the liberal blogger and conservative lobbyist together because she wants to change the constitution. One of the things we loved about this play when we first read it in August 2015 is that it takes the trope of the beauty queen, and turns it on its head. Katherine is by far the smartest woman in the room. Lauren Gunderson is one of our boldest, funniest voices in theater today. She was the most produced living playwright of 2015. When we read The Taming two years ago we thought the show would be perfect for the election year. We had no idea when we picked it how topical it would become. There’s an entire section on reforming the Electoral College. It makes Lauren Gunderson seem quite prophetic, because she was writing this show in 2013. How effective is a feminist satire in the age of Trump? We’re all going to see, aren’t we? For a lot of us, it means that we’re going to be stronger than we ever thought we would be. We’re going to speak more boldly about supporting women

League, who allow us to use their space to host this series where women talk about the things that have helped them in their business life. That is a huge part of what we’re doing, and it feels right on target with everything that’s happened since the election.

and being feminists. We’re in a situation where I feel other women need support. Women need a community now more than ever. What that means is that we talk about issues that effect women. Anyone who looks at our body of work through the years can tell that we’re committed to that. We’re always picking shows that have strong women at the core, and have a majority of women in the show. That’s a part of our mission at Donna Scott productions. Another thing we started doing last year is our Women Entrepreneurs In Business And Arts speaker series where we highlight women in Charlotte that are doing great things. They’re entrepreneurs and authors making bold strides in business. We have a wonderful partner in the Charlotte Art

Who gets tamed in The Taming? The character I play is the conservative supporter. What she learns is that you shouldn’t blindly accept the party line. You should pay attention not just to what politicians say, but also to what they’re doing. It’s a key concept in the play. Both of the characters, the liberal and the conservative, have their party lines. They say their slogans over and over again, but they finally reach a point where they actually listen to each other. Is it possible to reach across the divide? The play seems to be saying, “yes.” We have to hope that it is possible, right? I don’t want to give up and think that we’re at the point where no one can talk to anyone anymore. I like to think that through the laughter and the absurdity depicted in this play people can see both sides. No matter what side of the coin you’re on, it’s very easy to surround yourself with people who think the way you do. It’s important to listen, keep your mind open, and do your own research. CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 29, 2017 | 25

PHOTO BY CORDRELL COLBERT

26 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

MUSIC

FEATURE

BREWED IN MILWAUKEE, AGED IN CHARLOTTE Will 2017 be Wisconsin-born singer-songwriter Le Anna Eden’s big breakthrough?

E ANNA EDEN arrived in

Charlotte from Milwaukee three years ago, in a relationship that went south and a car that broke down. In a word, she was stuck. But Eden didn’t waste a lot of time spinning her wheels. “I had to sell the car,” the 26-year-old singer-songwriter says. “That was my only transportation and I couldn’t afford another one.” She laughs and reflexively adjusts her glasses. “So I just stayed here.” And she hated it. For the first year, Eden absolutely despised Charlotte. She’d walk around Plaza Midwood and silently scoff at the clusters of hipsters hanging out in front of Common Market and along Thomas Avenue between Commonwealth and Central. “I felt like I was too northern,” she says. But Eden had her guitars. She had her songs. And eventually she realized those Plaza Midwood “hipsters” might actually be her people. What’s more, things were changing in Charlotte. Rapidly. “I feel like I got here right in time for, shall we say, the Charlotte renaissance,” Eden says. She’s sitting at a window table at Zada Jane’s on Central Avenue in a hoodie jacket over a black shirt, black jeans, and brown sneakers, her hair freshly buzzed on one side, with dangling locks on the other highlighted in brilliant brown and reddish streaks. Eden is shy and a little awkward. But when she sneaks out a smile, it’s a big, confident, radiant, creative smile. “From the first to the second year here, so much changed, aesthetically,” says Eden, who will perform an acoustic show at The Station in Plaza Midwood on Thursday, Jan. 19. “It’s crazy! And it’s just so cool to be a part of that birth.” Eden isn’t just part of that birth; she’s one of its midwives. Not only did the singer quickly form a band, Le Anna Eden and The Garden Of, after getting her footing in Charlotte, but she’s also surrounded herself with a vibrant circle of artists. Some of them appear in her powerful recent video for “The Protest Song,” about the epidemic of police violence against blacks. On March 18, Eden’s band — whose name is not just a clever play on the Genesis story, but also an acronym, LETGO, which serves as a useful affirmation — will drop its first EP, 11, during a release party at Petra’s Piano Bar and Cabaret on Commonwealth. “It took me 11 years to find the community I needed to create and finish this project,” Eden says. “Eleven years to find the right studio and engineer. Eleven years to find the right band. So I named it 11.”

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO gauge how much

impact Eden will make on the Charlotte music scene in 2017, but our prediction is that it will be felt far and wide. Eden is a singer-songwriter with a powerful voice, cogent messages, and a genuinely singular sound. Her first recordings from just five years ago, when she was still in Milwaukee, are deceptively simple lo-fi songs set in an indie-folk tradition that spans back to early Cat Power — impressionistic nuggets of strummed or fingerpicked acoustic guitar that find Eden meditating on dreams and nightmares. But when Eden straps on her big sunburst Epiphone semi-hollowbody electric guitar with The Garden Of, and kicks out gnarly distorted licks and angry lyrics about the poisoned waters of Flint, Michigan, she

She conceived the series to bring attention to artists from other parts of Charlotte who don’t get many opportunities to perform in the city’s musical hotspots. “The purpose of Sessions is that I won’t be performing — it’s just me presenting these artists and saying, ‘Hey guys, these people are worth hearing!’” The first Session is scheduled for Jan. 30 and will feature the soul singer Darian La Sparrow, rapper Black Linen and female DJ SPK. The Session project is very personal for Eden. “I want to give people the tools that I wasn’t given when I first started out,” she says.

EDEN STARTED OUT on the streets of

Milwaukee more than a decade ago, after leaving the home of her adoptive parents at 16. Her parents were strict Christians,

“IT TOOK ME ELEVEN YEARS TO FIND THE COMMUNITY I NEEDED TO CREATE AND FINISH THIS PROJECT. ELEVEN YEARS TO FIND THE RIGHT STUDIO AND ENGINEER. ELEVEN YEARS TO FIND THE RIGHT BAND. SO I NAMED IT 11.” — LE ANNA EDEN

sounds like nobody else. That song, “Dirty Water,” is one of the highlights on 11, whose five tracks run the indie-rock gamut from knotty, funky, guitars-and-bass riffage in “Walk Away” to simmering intensity in the darkly sublime “Secrets,” which builds to a crescendo with Eden wailing the words, ‘For all of your secrets, get in line, give it time, give me mine.” If music alone were what made Le Anna Eden such an important player on the Charlotte scene, it would be enough. But there’s more. She was recently tapped by Hip Hop Orchestrated’s Octavia Moore [see story in last week’s issue] to be part of Moore’s Music Speaks series, which brings musicians into classrooms in underserved schools. Eden also has signed on with Petra’s to do the first of what she hopes will be a monthly experimental performance series, Session: A Listening Party, later this month.

and Eden was a more complex human being. “My dad was the choir director at church and my mom was the organist,” she says. “So I grew up around a lot of Christian music and classical stuff.” She played oboe in the school band at an early age, but left that behind when she started hearing the snotty punk of early2000s alt-rock acts like Sum 41 blaring from the CD players of fellow misfits during recess at school. “I was like, ‘Oh my god! What is this?’ Then when I got older, my dad would let me listen to the radio, but a lot of that was oldies stations — like Beach Boys and stuff like that,” she remembers. “And then once I was a teenager I was allowed to listen to alternative stuff, so it was grunge: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and all the stuff that’s still being played on 106.5 right now.” After leaving home, Eden bought herself an old car with her first paycheck and

began cruising around Milwaukee’s artsy neighborhoods. By 18 she had her first acoustic guitar. “My friend gave it to me and that’s when I started writing songs,” she says. “When I was learning how to play, I would listen to classical guitar while I slept so I’d hear things. But I didn’t really know what I was doing or what I was playing. It was just acoustic stuff — I don’t really know how to classify what it was.” Within three years, the young folkie with a punk-rock heart was playing open mic nights at clubs and cafes. By 2012, Eden had performed at the Milwaukee Pride festival and was putting songs on Bandcamp. But if some of her first recordings, like “Believe,” recall the phrasing of early Chan Marshall and the feistiness of a young Ani DiFranco, it’s not because Eden particularly likes DiFranco. At one point during her formative years in Milwaukee’s creative community, Eden found herself around a group of lesbians who attempted to school her on the music she was supposed to be listening to. Eden recoiled. “I was living with this queer couple who were telling me, ‘You need to listen to these things in order to be a proper lesbian,’ and so I really don’t like the Indigo Girls or Ani DiFranco,” Eden says. “And I know it’s just because of that. I mean, I respect what they do and I can understand why people think that I may be similar to them, but I don’t like their music.” By then, Eden had moved to Milwaukee’s River West neighborhood, which she describes as “an area where a lot of artists and painters live, and where the vegans have their restaurants.” There, she met people who knew how to record music. “There was this one guy, Sean Williamson, who really pushed me,” Eden remembers. “His sister took my first pictures, and he’s the lead singer of this metal band [Group of the Altos], whose bass player had a home studio, and he would take me there and like force me to record things. And then I bought a little USB mic and I used – well, I still use it, actually – this free computer app that’s really, really bad. I mean, it’s horrible. But I recorded all my songs on that.” All the stuff on Bandcamp? “All that old stuff,” Eden says. “You can tell by the quality of it.” She laughs. “It’s really nasty. I like it, though.” Eden was coming into her own as both a musician and music fan — locking in on three of her favorite singer-songwriters, Lauryn Hill, Corrine Bailey Rae, and Regina Spektor. She was also landing gigs at venues she admired. “I was lucky. I got to play at the Cactus Club, which to me is just one of the best places, and CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 27

Darian La Sparrow

Black Linen

CLASS IS IN ‘SESSION’ BY MARK KEMP LeAnna Eden’s eyes light up when she talks about the artists she’s lined up for her first Session: A Listening Party at Petra’s on Jan. 30. One of Eden’s big missions in Charlotte is to offer a platform for artists who come from neighborhoods far away from the buzz of the front patio at Common Market. “Darian La Sparrow is an amazing singer,” Eden enthuses about one of the artists on the bill. “She’s got recording stuff set up in her bedroom. She records her own music, she masters it, she finds people to do her videos and stuff.” Eden shakes her head. “But she doesn’t get shows. And I think that’s because she doesn’t have a band. Or people think she just sings the choruses on somebody’s hiphop songs. So I want to give people like her an opportunity to get their foot in a venue. Because once you have your name on a headliner, that’s going to get you the next step.” Eden is equally enthusiastic about rapper Black Linen. “He’s an amazing hip-hip artist who’s put out eight albums in seven years! I’m on six tracks of his newest

28 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

one. But people don’t pay attention to him — they don’t see him. And that’s because he gets stuck on these pay-to-play open mics, and because hip-hop gets stuck way out in the city. People don’t want it in their venues, and that’s a shame because he’s an amazing artist. And what he’s talking about is real. And it’s age-appropriate for everybody. I mean, he could be Nas. But he’s not going to get that opportunity if people don’t see him.” The female spinner DJ SPK will also be featured in the inaugural Session, and Eden says she already has a year’s worth of artists lined up to play more Session events if the first one goes well. One of those acts is the music collective Hip Hop Orchestrated, which Pat Moran wrote about in last week’s Creative Loafing. “I’d like to just give them a whole night, so they can then go and headline a show at Visulite or something.” When: 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 30, Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $5, petrasbar.com

PHOTO BY @PACECOOL

they’re really nice to locals,” she says. “It seemed to me like when all the indie bands would go on tour, the Cactus Club is one of their last stops before their songs are on the radio. So I felt really lucky to be able to play there.” Another club Eden frequented was Frank’s Power Plant, a little dive bar in Bay View, Milwaukee’s equivalent to Plaza Midwood. “I went there a lot. I got drunk there a lot,” she remembers. (Well, actually, she remembers hearing about it.) “I had a birthday there one time and it was open mic night, and I totally blacked out while I was onstage,” Eden says, tugging at the ring in her nose and letting out a muted chuckle. “Apparently I played a whole set, but I don’t remember anything.”

BY 2014, LE ANNA Eden was in love and headed to Charlotte, but not all was rosy when she arrived in the Queen City. “I had a job within the first two weeks here, but when

we broke up, it was hard,” she remembers. “It was just a very different environment from the one I was used to.” Now that things are looking up for her, Eden feels more a part of the community. She should. She’s made it better. “It’s nice when people want me to play shows,” she says. “That’s always good. And now I know a lot of people — like everywhere. And it’s really cool to go to the grocery store and recognize like five people. I don’t necessarily know them enough to say hi, but just to recognize them. That sense of community is awesome.” Creatively, Eden says she’s in a transitional phase now that the EP is done and the band has scheduled its release party. She’s printing up new T-shirts, taking care of paperwork, planning a short tour, and thinking about songs for her next album. The solo gig at The Station this week is part of a purging of energy for her. “I’m opening for these bands

PHOTO BY JONATHAN COOPER

THE ART OF PROTEST BY MARK KEMP

PHOTO BY KIMBER LEE PRICE

from Winston-Salam and Asheville,” she says. “It’s like going back to how I started. Because all the music we play as a band — I wrote that before I even found the band. And I like having the two different sounds. There’s something about being able to do everything yourself that’s appealing to me.” She’s also enjoyed expanding her geographical boundaries in Charlotte since she arrived — to creative areas that didn’t even exist a few years ago. “Charlotte’s a weird city,” she says. “There’s lots of really cool little places spread out all over the place. Like, I eventually discovered places like Area 15, which is really neat. My friend has a studio there, so I go over there a lot. And I like going over to the Neighborhood Café by Johnson C. Smith University. And then there’s the house parties — they’re really sort of happening right now and I like that.” But Eden’s old nemesis Plaza Midwood remains her home turf. “Plaza Midwood is where there’s a whole bunch of places in one little area,” she says, pointing out the window of Zada Jane’s, where scruffy haired dudes skateboard by on Central Avenue. “It’s funny, I

LE ANNA EDEN $5. Jan. 19, 8 p.m. The Station, 2131 Central Ave. thestationclt.com.

SESSION: A LISTENING PARTY Hosted by Le Anna Eden, featuring Darian La Sparrow, Black Linen, and DJ SPK $5. Jan. 30, 7 p.m. Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. 704-332-6608. petrasbar.com.

remember going through Plaza Midwood a week after I got here and feeling like, ‘God I hate this neighborhood — look at all those hipsters.’ And now I realize this really is the main part of town where I feel like, ‘OK, if I’m going to go hang out, I’m going to come over to this little five-block radius. Because this is where the people I’m interested in come. This is Charlotte if you’re creative.”

Le Anna Eden writes all kinds of songs, but at the heart of all her work is justice, best exemplified in the powerful video for Eden recent track “The Protest Song.” The clip opens on several young black men standing at a graffiti-covered wall. “Don’t give up, so many reasons to cry,” Eden sings. “We all know, we all know, we all know it’s time to stand up and fight.” One of the young men later arrives at a convenience store, where he shoots photographs of a cashier, her face covered in blue, refusing to accept another young black man’s money. Blue-faced cops soon arrive and frisk him, after which the young black man walks around with a hashtag over his head. It’s the story of life in African-American neighborhoods everywhere — where “children are hungry and they don’t know how to read,” Eden sings. “And my sister’s been working hard, she wants to achieve. And my brother’s been running, running from the police.” Eden was inspired to write “The Protest Song” after suffering a two-day depression following the Michael Brown shooting. But the lyrics apply to the entire spate of police killings of black people. “The first little guitar riff is dark — like what you might hear on a movie soundtrack when you know something bad is going to happen,” she says. “But I also wanted it to be inspiring and hopeful.” Toward the end of the song, Eden alludes to Malcolm X: “By any means possible,” she sings, but then, as if she’s directly addressing the police, “Would you take my hand? But don’t take my life.” Eden says songs usually come to her in snippets: “A phrase will get stuck in my head and it’ll just go around and around, over and over, and eventually I’ll turn it into something. But then I have to force myself to sit down with my guitar.” Not all of Eden’s songs are as overtly political as “The Protest Song,” she says. “But I feel like I low-key write protest music all the time.” She’s wrote a poem about the Keith Scott shooting, but hasn’t yet put it to music, and she says she doesn’t feel qualified to write about HB2. “I’m not trans,” Eden says. “To me, that would be like a white person saying, ‘I’m gonna write a song about black people.’ I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing about HB2. I think it’s unfair and I think it sucks, but I think it would be better for a trans artist to take on.” Eden also doesn’t like feeling pressured to write about any specific topic. “If I feel under pressure, I end up just getting angry and I’ll write a whole bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with whatever the topic is.” She pauses. “But a lot of my music is about black people dying. A lot of my unfinished music is about that, and it’s very angry and it’s very punk. So one day, yeah, I’ll probably have an EP full of really angry music. I already have it in my head.”

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 29

MUSIC

MUSICMAKER

FITTER, HAPPIER,

Modern Primitives play “R&B — with some noisy guitar stuff” BY MARK KEMP

“PEOPLE BEEN FED so much bullshit for

so fuckin’ long that when they get some real shit, it hits ‘em like a goddamn shot of dope.” That’s what Gastonia-born Travis Phillips said in 2012 about the rock ’n’ roll that Charlotte’s best-kept secret, Modern Primitives, cranks out like raw meat from a grinder. Five years later, that hasn’t changed. What’s changed is the band’s lineup, and along with it, a beefedup sound courtesy of new bassist Tim Nhu, who came from the metal world. Don’t let the “M” word mislead you, though: Modern Primitives haven’t transformed into Gojira or Sumac. The songs still center on Phillips’ threatening twang and searing guitar squall over Phil Gripper’s pounding drums. Nhu just brings a thicker, more melodic bass underpinning to the table, allowing Phillips to explore more on his guitar — to go off on extended excursions into realms he’s described as “Sun Ra on outer-space amphetamines.” When Creative Loafing published a cover story on Modern Primitives in 2011, the band — Phillips, Gripper, and then-bassist Darien Steege — was steeped in scuzzy southern garage rock reminiscent of ’80s garage-revival groups like the Fuzztones filtered through the zaniness of ’60s experimental folk-rockers the Holy Modal Rounders. The band still draws from those and other sources, but the trio dives deeper into the rock-and-blues sludge on its new eight-song EP Hot Water Woman. We sat down last week with Phillips, Gripper, and Nhu on the back patio at Common Market, where they sucked down tall PBRs, talked about their new LP and expanded sound. Creative Loafing: For those who haven’t read the earlier CL story, Phil, could you tell us how you and Travis got together? Gripper: We met in 2008 at a friend’s goingaway skate party in Columbia, South Carolina, and wound up figuring out that we both lived near each other in Charlotte. At one point, Travis picked up an acoustic guitar and we started jamming on Violent Femmes songs on the porch and said, “We should get together some time.” But three years went by before we ever actually started Modern Primitives. Are you from Charlotte originally? Gripper: Nah, man, I’m a military brat. I was born in Austin, Texas. But my family ended up in Florence, South Carolina, and I’d come up to Charlotte to skate. I ended up moving here in 2005 and hanging out in Plaza Midwood in 2006. Did you play music at that time? Gripper: I’d been playing drums since I was 15. My first band was a hardcore band called Minority, but I was the only black person in the band. [laughs] I was the only real minority.

30 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

So Travis — you, Phil and Darien were the original Modern Primitives lineup and played together for about three years. What happened to Darien? Phillips: He climbs cell phone towers now. Being bass player in Modern Primitives doesn’t afford you a whole lot of money. [laughs] But seriously, he makes a shit-ton of money doing that now and he needed it, because he was going through some real-life type of shit. His mom lost her house, so he had to set her up with a trailer, and he just didn’t have time to be playing in a band. Do you stay in touch with him? Phillips: Yeah, it was no weird falling out or anything. We’re still friends and I see him all the time. That said, I’m really happy to have Tim playing with us now. He’s brought new blood to the band. Tim, what’s your background? Nhu: I played in a band around Charlotte called Black Pope — very different genre of music. It was metal. Travis and I had known each other for a long time, more as acquaintances than friends at that point. One night we were at Snug Harbor together and tossed around the idea of him and me getting together and playing some songs. Phillips: That was when me and Phil were just doing this as a duo. We did a residency at Snug Harbor as a two-piece where we’d do something different every week. One week we’d do a Randy Newman tribute and the next would be all rap. It was cool. There’s a a classic MC5 song, “Ramblin’ Rose,” on your Bandcamp site right now that I think is the best cover of that song I’ve ever heard. Phillips: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah — I think that was another one we did. And the Howlin’ Wolf thing — that’s on Bandcamp, too. We recorded both of those songs at Phil’s house. We did all of that in a day with a broken guitar with like four strings on it, and one of those little kid megaphones that make cop siren sounds. What has Tim brought to the band that you didn’t have before? Gripper: He just brings a whole new level of musicianship. It’s really been refreshing to have someone come into the band who understands the business. A lot of times I’ve felt like the dad of the band, and I don’t have [to bear] that responsibility so much now. Phillips: It’s a big difference. Before, it was pretty much me playing both guitar and bass. I taught Darien how to play and I would write all the bass parts. I was hyper-focused on that and didn’t have as much time to experiment on guitar. So we were basically just doing sped-up blues. When Tim started playing, it freed me up to focus on doing static stuff on

COURTESY OF MODERN PRIMITIVES

Modern Primitives (from left): Phil Gripper, Travis Phillips, and Tim Nhu.

CAROLINA MISFITS Modern Primitives w/ the Ranieers, Farewell Albatross, Fortune Teller $6-8. Jan. 25, 7 p.m; Visulite, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. 704-332-6608. visulite.com.

my guitar, because Tim’s such a fluid bass player. He just has such a different ear for music, and you can hear it in our new stuff. It’s just a lot thicker and meatier, and I get to do more improvising. Tell me about the new EP and new videos you’ve released — one really violent one that got a lot of attention. Are they indicative of the current band’s vibe? Phillips: It’s not just good-time rock ‘n’ roll music anymore, folks. [laughs] It’s a much bigger sound. Will you be doing mostly new material at the Visulite show this week? Phillips: We’ll be doing all new shit. We’re not doing any of the old stuff. We might do “Ramblin’ Rose.” You said you liked our version of “Ramblin’ Rose.” We’ll do that for you. Gripper: That’s the only song that we showed Tim how to play and it’s not even our own song. He’s actually written two songs. So, Tim, what’s it like coming from metal into this avant-garage-rock weirdness? Did you ever listen to anything like this? Nhu: Not particularly, no. I’ve learned a lot since joining the band. I’ve primarily played heavy music. When I joined this band, everything was new and it was such a different dynamic. These two make me think outside the box. Instead of doing a simple pattern, I always wind up doing much more, because they always inspire me to want to do new things. Now you have to think “Sun Ra on outerspace amphetamines.” Nhu: [laughing] Yeah. Phillips: [animated] Yes, yes, yes! But actually, I always just thought of us as R&B — with some noisy guitar stuff over the top. MKEMP@CLCLT.COM

CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 31

MUSIC

SOUNDBOARD

JAN. 18 COUNTRY/FOLK Open Mic (Comet Grill)

Voodoo Drifters w/ The Sticky Bandits & Fall For Nothing (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Hip-Hop & Hookah (Apostrophe Lounge)

HIP HOP/SOUL/R&B Riff Raff (Amos’ Southend)

POP/ROCK

Beavergrass Bluegrass Jam f. Jim Garrett (Thirsty Beaver) Greensky Bluegrass w/ Front Country (The

Control This!, Corporate Fandango, The Not Likelys, The Bleeps (Milestone) Craig Veltri (Tin Roof) Dead Cat (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Dweezil Zappa Guitar Masterclass $75. (Neighborhood Theatre) Dweezil Zappa: 50 Years of Zappa $30-$35. (Neighborhood Theatre) Green Fiend w/ Deep 6 Division, Space Wizard, Black Fleet (Visulite Theatre) Jon Linker Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Kaleb Hensley (Tin Roof) Leisure McCorkle w/ Mike Strauss (The Evening Muse) Peter Mulvey w/ Mike Mangione (Evening Muse) Pierce Edens (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord) Ride the Lightning-The Ultimate Metallica Tribute (Amos’ Southend) Ryan Sullivan (Bulldog Beer & Wine) Suppressive Fire, Nemsis, Die Hatred, Greevace

Fillmore Charlotte)

(The Station)

POP/ROCK

JAN. 21

Millennial w/ Dirty White Lies, Victoria Victoria (Visulite Theatre) Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor) Open Mic Night (Comet Grill) Parodi Kings (Diamond Restaurant) Pluto For Planet (RiRa Irish Pub) Wimpy Rutherford and the Cryptics, The Hooliganz, AM/FM’s, Van Huskins (Milestone)

JAN. 19 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH The Hot Club of San Francisco (McGlohon Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK

The Band of Heathens w/ The National Reserve. (Visulite Theatre) Community Center, Careless Romantic, The Felons (Milestone) Jeremy Davids (Tin Roof) Landless w/ Ona, Bruce Hazel (Petra’s) Lisa DeNovo (RiRa Irish Pub)

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers (Thomas Street Tavern)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Kent Jordan plays Hubert Laws with Strings

Shiprocked (Snug Harbor)

(Stage Door Theater)

JAN. 20

COUNTRY/FOLK

BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Buff Dillard (BluNotes)

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant) Kent Jordan plays Hubert Laws with Strings (Stage Door Theater)

COUNTRY/FOLK Clay Walker w/ Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill) 32 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

Player Made w/ Professor Toon (Snug Harbor)

Holly Lorette w/ Ellie Morgan (The Evening Muse) Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Trouble Maker (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Gena Chambers (BluNotes)

POP/ROCK Ashley Heath & Her Heathens (Cabarrus

Brewing Company, Concord) Breaking Benjamin (The Fillmore) Colby Dobbs Band (The Evening Muse) Donna (Comet Grill) The Fill Ins, The Body Bags, The Big Fandamily Band, Old Scratch (Milestone) It’s Snakes, The Business PPL, Mercury Dimes (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Jackyl (Amos’ Southend) Jay Mathey (RiRa Irish Pub) Matt Bennett Band (Tin Roof) The Menders w/ Poor Blue, Heart of a Ghost (Petra’s) Mint Hill, Human Pippi, Bob Fields, High Cube, DON4LD, Odd Queer (Snug Harbor) Soft Leather, Cody Hare (The Station) Tosco Music Party (Knight Theater) Truckstop Preachers w/ Sinners & Saints, Dollar Signs (Visulite Theatre)

JAN. 22 DJ/ELECTRONIC Young Dolph (Label)

POP/ROCK Omari and the Hellrasiers (Comet Grill)

JAN. 23 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)

POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic featuring Abbey Elmore (The Evening Muse) Wicked Powers (Comet Grill)

JAN. 24 COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill) Tuesday Night Jam w/ The Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Open Mic with Jeff Claud (Puckett’s Farm Equipment)

DJ/ELECTRONIC Mind Expansion Project II (Snug Harbor)

POP/ROCK Ben Millburn, Sunglass Moustache, Motel Glory, The Whiskey Predicament (Milestone)

Chas & Tyler (Tin Roof) Fairplay & Special Guests (Lucky Lou’s Tavern) Karaoke with DJ President James A. Garfield (The Station)

COMING SOON  Circa Survive w/ Mewithoutyou and Turnover (Jan. 25, Amos’ Southend) Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Jan. 26, McGlohon Theater) Parquet Courts w/ Mary Lattimore (Feb. 2, Neighborhood Theatre) Legends of Southern Hip Hop w/ Scarface, 8Ball & MJG, Mystikal, Bun B, Trick Daddy, Juvenile, Pastor Troy (Feb. 3, Bojangles’ Coliseum) Welshly Arms (Feb. 8, The Underground) Hiss Golden Messenger (Feb. 12, Neighborhood Theatre) Justin Hayward (Feb. 16, McGlohon Theater) Chuck Johnson & Charleyhorse (Feb. 16, Evening Muse) Marc Maron (Feb. 16, Knight Theater) Shovels & Rope (Feb. 21, Knight Theater) Tommy Emmanuel (Feb. 24, McGlohon Theater) Juicy J w/ Belly and Project Pat (Feb. 25, The Fillmore) Southside Johhny & the Asbury Jukes (March 2, McGlohon Theater) Landlady (March 4, Evening Muse) Cold War Kids w/ Special Guest Middle Kids (March 5, The Fillmore) The Dig (March 8, Evening Muse) St. Paul & The Broken Bones (March 11, The Fillmore) Son Volt (March 12, Visulite Theatre) Bad Suns (March 12, The Underground) Celtic Women (March 19, Belk Theater) Black Violin (March 21-22, Knight Theater) The Flaming Lips w/ Clipping (March 30, The Fillmore) Dark Star Orchestra (April 15, The Fillmore) Red Hot Chilli Peppers (April 17, Spectrum Center) Steve Martin, Martin Short, Steep Canyon Rangers (April 22, Ovens Auditorium) Lauryn Hill (April 28, CMCU Amphitheater) Neil Diamond (April 28, Spectrum Center) Carolina Rebellion (May 5-7, Charlotte Motor Speedway) Bastille (May 6, CMCU Amphitheater)

1/19 1/26 2/18 3/1

BAND OF HEATHENS

INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS

KT Tunstall

NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.

com. CL online provides addresses, maps and directions from your location. Send us your concert listings: E-mail us at aovercash@clclt. com or fax it to 704-522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication. CLCLT.COM | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | 33

ENDS

MARKETPLACE

JOBS | POSTINGS | LISTINGS | RENTALS

ENDS

NIGHTLIFE

A NEW NIGHTLIFE LANDSCAPE

Will the QC in 2K17 fight to keep up with a changing climate? Southend, The Chop Shop, Tremont Music Hall and Tommy’s Pub. BAR Charlotte and its counterparts that dominated the space item on my to-do list: check out The Dock, a between E. 6th and E. 7th streets on N. prohibition-style speakeasy accessed through College have passed on and since been the loading dock of Charlotte Marriott Center replaced by a slew of venues that are a part City. The new-ish secret spot was closed last of the new NorthSide Station. weekend due to weather, so I talked it up all As the Queen City explodes, we can agree week in anticipation of Saturday — the only day the place is open for business. on at least one consistency with regards to After seeing a tantalizing post on nightlife: it’s constantly changing. And now Instagram Saturday morning, the boyfriend that we’ve been ranked in the top 20 best and I decided to splurge for lunch at CO, a panplaces to live, according to the U.S. News Asian restaurant in the Park Road Shopping & World Report, that landscape is going to Center. Pork and ginger gyoza, pork and crab continue to change. Hence, my dismay when spring rolls, a California roll, caramel pork I discovered The Tiki Hideaway, a Polynesian bahn mi and drunken Thai noodles. Have tapas and craft cocktails bar, was permanently you ever heard the expression, “Your eyes are closed after only a few months. And of course, bigger than your stomach?” A jalapeno guava my most recent disappointment, the shutting margarita nor a lemongrass ginger down of The Dock. So what now? martini could wash away the itis For as long as I can that overcame us (see Urban remember, random people Dictionary for definition of have asked me some version “itis”). of, “What’s missing from We gathered our toCharlotte nightlife?” The go boxes and bee-lined familiar question usually it home for a nap. Three follows my coming out hours later, it was dark as a nightlife writer and outside and we drowsily precedes the awkward started getting ready. As response, “You know, I’m we pulled up in our Uber not really sure.” Despite the outside of the Marriott AERIN SPRUILL fact that I easily get bored loading dock and approached with the nightlife scene, I’d the door it was hard for me to never sat down and ironed out the contain the months of anticipation details of what it should look like. that had built up. Will new business owners attempt to We were greeted by an attendant who skirt and swerve the authorities as bars informed us that The Dock had been shut and restaurants stray from traditional down by the fire department. And just like guidelines? Will the allure of hidden, that, our dreams were crushed. However, underground, Prohibition-style spaces the drunk couple that piled in behind us take over Uptown? Or will the obsession were having a harder time coping with the with skyscrapers and apartments give way loss. “That’s not what we hearrr...” the guy to a series of #bestrooftopbarincharlotte joked. “The man outside says we’re in the contests? Will we fill the gap between young right plaaace…” With every drunken lilt professionals and older demographics? at the end of each of his sentences I could Personally, I’m hoping for a landscape tell he thought the attendant was waiting that resembles that of New York. One for a magic password. The attendant’s RBF teetering at the intersection of revolutionary, (resting b*tch face), on the other hand, underground, modern and high-energy. didn’t appear to hold a single joke. We’ve witnessed the rise of the brewery, Defeated, we walked to Istanbul Hookah the delight of craft cocktails, the influx of Lounge in Brevard Court/French Quarter/ speakeasies and the diverse flavors of tapas. Latta Arcade. All I could think was, “Another Let’s hold on to the classics that promote venue in the Queen City bites the dust.” texture: Snug Harbor, Roxbury, The Rabbit July of this year will mark my fifth Hole, Abari, Petra’s, Twenty-Two, Bar At 316, anniversary living in Charlotte. In that Jeff’s Bucket Shop, etc. Then let’s sprinkle in short time, the nightlife landscape has more late-night tapas restaurants, old school gone through quite a few changes. Familiar hip-hop and R&B, lounges, drag ball culture, buildings have traversed the entire alphabet secret passwords at underground venues and of business names. Prime example: The NC Music Factory is now “Avidxchange?” Our EDM dance parties on a residential property. favorite music venues are closing: Amos’ The possibilities are limitless.

THIS PAST WEEKEND I only had one

PSYCHIC READINGS by MICHAEL RECYCLE ME, PLEASE

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(Only after you’re done reading me)

ENDS

CROSSWORD

FOR FANS OF GORE ACROSS

1 Ditzy types 9 Stains, as with blood 16 Yearn (for) 20 Hellish 21 Powder from chili peppers 22 Drive- — 23 Meat-curing company? 25 Look as though 26 “— Fideles” (Yule carol) 27 Inning divisions 29 Form of jazz 30 R&B singer with the 1965 hit “Hold What You’ve Got” 33 Last time you’ll ever pull into a garage? 39 Gerund ending 40 Angsty music genre 43 Placed (down) 44 Tasting rich and sweet 45 Messenger bringing news to cows? 50 See 13-Down 51 “It’s the end of —!” 52 Lance of the O.J. trial 53 Real bargain 55 Observe 58 “Let’s hear it” 60 Ger.’s home 62 Stephen of “Citizen X” 64 Croft of video games 65 “The Catcher in the Rye” author’s tune penner? 71 Old crone 74 Lav in a pub75 Build — (make one’s home) 76 Geller of psychic acts 77 Lamb suckler 78 Obsolete provider of stability? 83 Slangy suffix with buck 84 Vehicle-towing org. 85 Cong. member 86 Looked hard 90 Turf again 92 Division of Islam 96 Trunk bone 98 Very brief time 99 Movable kayak fin 101 “You already know the answer is ‘team spirit,’ right?” 104 Large arboreal snake

107 Russian city 108 Co. suit 109 Paver’s goo 110 Shoes worn in the Sahara? 113 In recent days 116 “My life” book 117 Eight, in German 118 Practically 121 Edison’s middle name 123 Piece from “The Domestic Oratorio”? 131 NY Met, e.g. 132 Came 133 #1 Bruce Springsteen album of 1980 134 Emmy winner Sedgwick 135 Not unfeeling 136 Blood vessel to the heart

DOWN

1 Belittle, informally 2 — fix (stuck) 3 Eagles’ org. 4 Insinuate 5 Groom’s counterpart 6 Added on 7 Dogs’ jinglers 8 ATM feature 9 Cold dessert 10 Scratch, e.g. 11 Off — mile 12 On Social Sec., say 13 With 50-Across, workers’ advocates, for short 14 Sufficient 15 Summoned 16 “— true!” 17 Nickname of Boston’s locale 18 Louisiana cuisine style 19 Like camels 24 Liveliness 28 Bone-to-muscle joiner 30 Holy war 31 Bridge bid, briefly 32 White heron 34 Styled after 35 Some vermin 36 Chanteuse Eartha 37 Sit in neutral 38 Language for a Sherpa 41 Me, to Gigi 42 Many a time 46 Warlike god 47 Refrain syllables

48 Puma 49 Be worthy of 54 Boost 56 Flight staff 57 Tortoise rival 59 Novelist Mario Vargas — 61 Casino city 63 “That’s —!” (film-set cry) 66 Greek I’s 67 Sleep cycle part 68 Old fast fliers, briefly 69 People who aren’t you 70 Meet, as the challenge 71 I-beam relative 72 River in Switzerland 73 Gives short shrift to 79 “Well, — here!” 80 Man-goat god 81 Computer of the 1940s 82 N. Mex., before 1912 87 Calf catcher 88 Showiness 89 Plow maker 91 “Smash” star Messing 93 A noble gas 94 Egghead 95 Brain gain 97 “Farewell!” 100 Entrapments in lies, e.g. 102 In bad health 103 Small aquatic rail 104 Financial co. for which the Boston Celtics’ arena is named 105 Comic Charles Nelson — 106 On dry land 111 Done to — (wellcooked) 112 NBC fixture since ’75 114 Plant life 115 Tune’s text 119 1999 Ron Howard film 120 Feel sore 122 Noted coach Parseghian 124 Family gal 125 A Gabor 126 Riled, with “up” 127 Keats poem 128 A Gardner 129 O.T. book 130 Pitching stat

SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.

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to read my boyfriend’s mind and jokingly said, “You want to put it in my ear.” Since then, I have seen references to ear sex (aural sex?) everywhere! There’s even a holiday (“Take It in the Ear Day” on December 8), and I was reading a book just now in which the author mentions how much she hates getting come in her ear. So while I am honestly not trying to yuck someone’s yum, I do have two questions. First, is this really a thing? And second, how does it work? I mean, I like it when my boyfriend kisses my ears, but I don’t think I’d get that hot from him putting his penis there. It just seems loud. Can you enlighten me?

live out this fantasy, considering the plight of homeless people? DESIRING INTERESTING ROLE-PLAY THAT’S YUCKY

I’m not gonna lecture you about how homelessness is a tragedy for individuals and a national crisis that the administration of Orange Julius Caesar is unlikely to prioritize. Just like AURAL, DIRTY, I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum. But this is definitely a fantasy — morally speaking — that can’t be fully realized. You’re turned on by the thought of a cruel woman taking absolutely everything from you and leaving you homeless? Great. Find a woman who’s into findom (financial domination) and give her some or most of your money and play dress up on the weekends and sleep in her backyard. AN UNDERSTANDING REQUESTED ABOUT LISTENERS But don’t give her everything and actually wind up homeless, Ear sex is a thing. But we DIRTY, because then you’ll need to distinguish between wind up competing for auralism, AURAL, and an scarce shelter beds and ear fetish. other resources with men, People into auralism women, and children who are sexually aroused by didn’t choose to become sounds — it could be homeless because it made a voice or music or sex their dicks hard. noises. (Sex noises can There’s nothing moral arouse almost anyone who about making their plight DAN SAVAGE hears them, of course, so worse than it already is. technically we’re all auralists.) Finally, DIRTY, while you’re An ear fetish, on the other able to fantasize about being hand, is a kind of partialism, i.e., a stripped of your assets and left homeless, sexual interest in one part of the body (often there are real people out there who have parts not typically found in pants). A foot nothing and don’t find anything about being fetish is a partialism, for example, as is an ear fetish or an armpit fetish. Most ear fetish stuff — including the thousands of ear fetish videos on YouTube — is about tugging, rubbing, or licking someone’s ear and not about fucking someone in the ear or coming in someone’s ear canal. Dicks don’t fit in ear canals, and blasting semen into someone’s ear could cause a nasty ear infection. So both are risky practices best avoided — but, hey, if PIE (penis in ear) sex is actually a thing, I invite any hardcore ear kinksters out there reading this to write in and explain exactly how that works. homelessness arousing. Want to be poorer? Donate a big chunk of your assets to homeless shelters and/or I have a particular fetish that I’ve never nonprofits that assist those experiencing fully disclosed to anybody. My ultimate homelessness in your area. fantasy is to be stripped of my assets by a woman and then (most importantly) made homeless. I like dressing up dirty Listen to Savage Lovecast every week at www. — face, clothing, and all — and even savagelovecast.com; follow @fakedansavage going so far as to look through garbage on Twitter; mail@savagelove.net. cans. My question is this: Is it moral to

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FOR ALL SIGNS Mars, the ancient god of war, is in a challenging position to Saturn (the teacher, the rules). Events of this week may harken back to August of 2016, just over 5 months ago. Mars represents going after something or someone we want. It wants to take action without hesitation. Given its arrangement in the sky now, there is one planet who is stronger (Saturn) that must be challenged. Wisdom says it is best to back off the desire/urge to take the plunge. The booty would cost much more than it is worth. Traffic accidents increase in times such as these because everyone is in a hurry. If someone cuts you off on the road, don’t allow your rage to control the accelerator. With regard to the beginning that occurred in August, this is the time to decide if the effort is worth it. If so, you’ll need to pour on the necessary resources. This is the week of the US Presidential Inauguration. President-elect Trump is beginning his four years with really difficult aspects in the sky. It will be a challenge to begin his first 100 days.

VIRGO This is a good time to communicate with your partner. It is very important that you set the Critic aside and engage in a conversation about feelings, even if you think it is about things. For example, if this person did not do something that was expected, avoid the blame game. Ask what was happening on the interior that kept him/her from completing the plan.

ARIES Read the lead paragraph carefully. Mars, your ruling planet, is in a tiff with Saturn. This is much like pushing the accelerator to the floor while the other foot is on the break. It is a challenge to make anything happen. Your reflexes may be affected by the stress. Use care with your body and also with mechanical equipment.

SAGITTARIUS: It may be hard to move

Taurus Activities that involve higher education, publishing, travel and/or legal interests are favored. People at a distance will be helpful. This may be via conference calling or the Internet. Relationships in general are smoother. This is a good time to enjoy your friendships and be social.

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GEMINI You may need to concentrate in order to avoid critics, whether they are internal or external. Instead of blame, use the discipline to tackle a project that requires concentration. Avoid contracts and business negotiations right now because misunderstandings may develop. Cancer: Although you may wish it, this is not the best of times to communicate with your partner. There is interference due to circumstances or someone’s intractable frame of mind. Save your piece for a better time later. You’ll know when to initiate the subject.

LEO: For the next month much of your attention will be on “others” in your life. Partnerships of any type are generally favored by this arrangement, because you will be searching for the “fair” solution in any dilemma. It is a good time to seek consultation from professionals if you need it. 38 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM

LIBRA: Your work and daily routine are

given a boost at this time. You are more able to fend off the Inner Critic who is always lurking behind you. It lies, by the way. Coworkers are amiable and cooperative. If you have a fluctuating income, it will improve this week.

SCORPIO: Give special attention to the

lead paragraph this week. It appears that your struggle may be financial at this time. Make the effort to look, but if you don’t see a resource on your radar screen right now, give it a break until the last few days of the month. Life becomes a little easier at that time. forward this week, due to challenges concerning property, equipment, health, or family issues. Your reflexes and normal muscle control are out of sync right now, so use special caution and listen to your body. If it says “don’t,” then pay attention and stop immediately. Take a deep breath and then concentrate on what you are doing. Capricorn the Goat (Dec. 21-- Jan. 19) At this time you may become aware of how your self-talk interferes with your forward motion. Give careful attention to the lead paragraph. The challenger is your Inner Critic. This is not a good time to accomplish a major task or to go after what you want. Rest on it for another couple of weeks.

AQUARIUS: Beware the liar. The

probability is high you will encounter one this week, someone who believes his own story, thus making it unclear if he is telling the truth. Check out the sources and ask other people who may know something about the situation. Don’t accept anything of importance at face value.

PISCES This is not a time to challenge the

powers that be. They are bigger than you right now. Later it may not be important, anyway, because you are on your way out. Give careful attention to your car and also to any machinery you may be handling. Equipment breakdowns are possible. Your reflexes are off. Use caution in the world of the physical during this period.

Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Reach Vivian Carol at 704-366-3777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments, and visit horoscopesbyvivian.com.

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