triad city beat — june 24, 2014
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Where the sidewalk ends...TRANSCRIPT
Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point
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When I was a kid, all I had was my feet and my bike. They got me everywhere I needed to go.
In New Orleans, I rarely had a car. I traveled by bus and streetcar, sometimes by cab if I had to go off the grid. I once moved in a cab, just called one up and loaded it with my stuff. The driver and I held the mattress on the roof all the way to the French Quarter.
Then I came to Greensboro.Greensboro is the first city where I’ve ever lived where
people drive somewhere to take a walk. From the moment I got here I clocked the lack of sidewalks, and the bus schedule that wraps up by 10 p.m. most nights. I wondered how people without cars got themselves around.
Now, almost exactly 15 years later, I know the answer: Not very well.
This week’s cover story, beginning on page 19, addresses issues of transportation, connectivity and walkability by focusing on a stretch of Greensboro road, just about four-miles, and that most democratic of thoroughfares, the public sidewalk.
Greensboro is a city built for cars — at least it is now — with entire neighborhoods and commercial districts through-out that are inaccessible to people whose main means of conveyance is shoe leather.
It got that way because of cheap and copious land, but also planning policies that privilege people who can afford cars while disregarding the poor, and the resulting sprawl is just something we never got around to filling in.
It’s strange to see the sidewalks that lead to no-where on Yanc-eyville Street, the street crossings bereft of painted crosswalks, the landscaping that forces pedestrian traffic, tolerated but not encouraged, onto the busy street.
And yet I’ve noticed that there are almost always people walking on Yanceyville Street, no matter the time of day. It’s like they didn’t get the memo.
Fact is, people need to get from Point A to Point B. And on Yanceyville Street, nobody can afford to wait for the city to build sidewalks.
This neighborhood is walkable by necessity, not by design. And no doubt the irony is lost on many of people, both
on the sidewalks and safely ensconced in their passing cars. While the city has spent $7 million so far on a greenway system connecting neighborhoods, the people of Yanceyville Street have been making do with a dirt path.
CONTENTS
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Walking blues
30UP FRONT 3 Editor’s Notebook4 City Life6 Heard 7 Commentariat7 The List8 Barometer8 Unsolicited Endorsement9 Triad power Ranking
NEWS 10 Biking on the highway12 Expenses, accounted14 HPJ: Investing in a neighbirhood
OPINION 15 Editorial: Nonpartisan shell game 15 Citizen Green: One direction16 It Just Might Work: A pop-up chorus
COVER 17 Where the sidewalk ends
FOOD 26 Two chefs enter, one chef leaves27 Barstool: Bull’s Tavern
MUSIC 28 Collectors and stat keepers
ART 30 Two parts art, all party
STAGE & SCREEN 32 Shorts leave long shadows
GOOD SPORT 34 Pugilists not at rest
GAMES 35 Jonesin’ Crossword
SHOT IN THE TRIAD 36 South Elm Street, Greensboro
ALL SHE WROTE 37 Back fat
by Brian Clarey
1451 S. Elm-Eugene St.Greensboro, NC 27406Office: 336-256-9320
BusinessPublisher Allen BroAch [email protected]
editoriAlEditor in Chief BriAn clArey [email protected] Editor JordAn Green [email protected] Editor eric GinsBurG [email protected] Interns sAyAkA MAtsuokA [email protected] Reporting Intern nicole ZelnikerPhotography Interns Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood
ArtArt Director JorGe MAturino [email protected]
sAlesSales Executive dick GrAy [email protected] Executive cheryl Green [email protected]
contriButorsCarolyn de BerryNicole CrewsAnthony HarrisonMatt Jones Greensboro is the first city
where I’ve ever lived where people drive somewhere to take a walk.
Cover photography by Caleb SmallwoodThe sidewalk ends on Yanceyville Street at the corner of Lees Chapel Road. But for some, this is where the journey begins.
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5 CITY LIFEJune 24 – 30
WEEKENDSound Practices @ Elsewhere (GSO)A big weekend at the downtown curiosity features founder Stephanie Sherman speaking at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday and a Sound Practices workshop at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, part of the living museum’s transformation into a gigantic musical instrument. Weird, right? See goeslewhere.org for more.
WEDNESDAYMaking Connections with SynerG @ the Proximity Hotel (GSO)Brent Christensen came all the way from Mississippi to head the Greensboro Partnership. Ask him about economic development in the South, Coke with peanuts or why ’Bama sucks at 5:30 p.m. Make a reservation at synerg.org.
THURSDAYDevin Leonardi opening reception @ SECCA (W-S)The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art gathers 34 of the works of deceased artist Devin Leonardi for the exhibit Figure at Dusk, which runs through Oct. 4. A free opening reception starts at 6:30 tonight.
Roots & Vine Fine Wine Tasting @ Deep Roots Market (GSO)Food from Chef Tom Thompson paired with wines by TC Frazier begin at 6:30 at the down-town grocery store. We’re looking for at least five curses here. Find out more at deeprootsmarket.coop.
Sunset Thursday: The Love Language w/ Below the Line @ Bailey Park (W-S)Another new series debuts in the Camel City with a free concert at Bailey Park at 6:30 p.m. They’ve tapped Raleigh darlings the Love Language as the headliner, with Below the line slated to open. It’s a freebie.
What is Biotech? @ New Winston Museum (W-S)Get with the program on a new industry that’s changing the future of the city, with remarks from Eric Tomlinson, president of the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, at 5:30 p.m. at the museum.
Dance From Above: Body Games @ the Crown (GSO)This edition of the monthly throwdown at the Crown has Body Games making cubist sonic art from samples of local music, fol-lowed by DJ Marley Carroll, who performed at the first DFA a year ago.
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FRIDAYCenter City Cinema: Muppets From Space @ Center City Park (GSO)The free flick, featuring Gonzo, Scooter, the Swedish Chef and that Bald Eagle who reads the news, begins at dusk in the downtown Greensboro space.
DADA fundraiser @ the Garage (GSO)The Downtown Arts District hosts a fundraiser at the local altar with music from Mike Bennett and Doug Davis. Fans of the district in general, and First Friday in particular, should come out in support.
SATURDAYFun Fourth Freedom Walk @ downtown Marriott (GSO)The city’s Fourth of July Spectacular gets off to an early start with the annual Free-dom Run 10K, 2-mile and tot trot. Action begins at the downtown hotel by 7 a.m.
Great American Cook Out @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO)Grilled vegetables, grilled peaches, fresh bread and at least five kinds of meat — depending on how you count hot dogs — highlight the GFCM cookout, which begins at 8 a.m.
Natural Atlantic Coast WNBF Qualifier @ Aycock Auditorium (GSO)Muscle men and fitness ladies undergo polygraphs and urinalysis — seriously — in order to compete in this competition which begins with pre-judging at 11 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m. Email [email protected] for tickets.
National HIV Testing Day (TRIAD)Free and reduced screenings for HIV are available all over the state as part of the na-tional holiday that encourages Americans to take charhe of their own health. Triad Health Project in Greensboro has an event beginning at 10 a.m. — they’re throwing in a $5 Walmart gift card for everyone tested. The website aids.gov has more.
Summer on Trade: Campfires and Constellations @ 6th & Trade streets (W-S)Homegrown Americana highlights this week’s free downtown music festival, which begins at 7 p.m.
SUNDAYBlock Party @ Black Lodge (W-S)Pretty sure someone’s gonna lose a bet when the Black Lodge turns 1 year old this weekend, celebrating with a block party featuring like 10 bands, a couple food trucks and whatever else the guys can throw together. It begins at 5:10 p.m., which is weird.
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“This particular path would go a long way towards providing that safe, com-fortable cycling and pedestrian link right across the heart of the city. It’s coming up now because we have a very short window of opportunity to take advantage of the reconstruction of Business 40 through the city center to get this facility added. If we don’t seize the opportunity now we have lost it for two generations.”— Dan Besse, on the proposed Business 40 multi-use path, page 10
“As a student here, I found it hard to connect with abstract expressionism.”— McDonald Bane on her time at UNCG in the 1960s, page 30
As I write I am literally flipped on a gurney at the plastic surgeon’s of-fice and a coolsculpting tech is coming at me with a vise that looks like a cross between and octopus tentacle and a mammogram clamp — only this one sucks and pinches harder and lasts for a full hour. It’s a lot like having a snuffleupagus give you a hickey.— Nicole Crews, in All She Wrote, page 38
“Roll hard with my MOMS.”— Graffiti found on Yanceyville Street in Greensboro, Cover, page 17
This one chronicles a woman and her daughter as they dress up, play and enjoy a relaxing afternoon by the pool only to be interrupted by the return of the girl’s father from work. The woman who seemed to be the mother disappears from view and returns in maids’ clothing and it is revealed that the she is just a servant to the girl’s rich family. In a mere 10 minutes, “Chica’s Day” moves viewers almost to tears as the once perfect day is ruined by social status.— Sayaka Matsuoka, on the short film “Chica’s Day,” page 32
“I call this the High Point Iced Tea because High Point is kind of the Long Island of the Triad. There are a lot of poor people, a bunch of super rich people, and nobody goes there unless they are from there.”— Yahya, in Unsolicited Endorsement, page 7
“C’mon, Peanut! Goin’ back to the block after this! Give us a show!”— Someone from the crowd during a boxing match at Greensboro Coliseum, Good Sport, page 34
“It’s indicative of the Oakland A’s,” McCaughey replied. “They’re pretty good from time to time. Not this year. But I still have hope.”— Scott McCaughey on his Oakland A’s hat, in Music, page 28
“I will say to you that if we’re not going to invest in that community, it’s not go-ing to change. Gentlemen, it’s possible, perhaps even likely that we’ll take a loss. We’re not hiding anything. If we go in and put in houses that look like what’s already there, the community’s not going to change.”— High Point Community Development & Housing Director Michael McNair, on the city’s investment in Core City housing, page 14
HEARD
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t.comRecommendations from 8 Triad breweries
by Anthony Harrison1. Foothills Brewing (W-S)
Foothills produces some of most venerable beers of the Triad. For the light-beer fan, the Torch pilsner remains a crisp, sweetly malty offering. Jade IPA rivals my favorite of the variety, Bell’s Two-Hearted, with its floral notes and easy drink-ability, and as far as dark beers go, it’s hard to beat the roasted coffee and caramel taste of People’s Porter.
2. Gibb’s Hundred Brewing (GSO)A relative newcomer, Gibb’s Hundred has carved
out an auspicious presence with its Blind Man’s Holiday pale ale, which beats any of its type at home or abroad with its smooth yet piney taste. Their Cherchez La Femme milk stout also offers a refreshing take on the typically heavy beer, full of flavor but light on the tongue.
3. Hoots Roller Bar and Beer (W-S)The beers at Hoots rotate change over time,
but along with one of the best IPAs in the area, they also made perhaps the best stout I’ve ever had: Must Be the Holy Roast, named in honor of Jared Draughon’s Must Be the Holy Ghost. The aforementioned IPA, named Gashopper after the nearby gas station, deserves a taste.
4. Liberty Brewery (HP)High Point’s Liberty Steakhouse &
Brewery brews quite a few award-win-ning beers, but their Miss Liberty Lager is their bestseller. While many lagers tend towards boring, I understand this beer’s appeal in its finish — toasted and buttery, reminiscent of cashews. Its tart blackberry wheat, made by adding 80 pounds of berries to their wheat beer, is worth a try, too.
5. Small Batch Brewing (W-S)As suggested by the name, Small
Batch rotates through different beers consistently, making small quantities of each that are only available on site. They still offer the Percolator impe-rial stout, which Ginsburg covered in Barstool a while back, but my personal favorite was a red session-IPA I tried a few months ago. Check their unique
website, listing the percent of each beer still left on tap, to see what they’re offering at the moment.
6. Preyer Brewing (GSO)Greensboro’s newest brewery sells a lot of their
Red Shed IPA, high in ABV yet relatively soft on hop notes, but my favorite is Emmy’s Belgian blonde, featuring some bready, toasty malt flavors which could appeal to many. These are among the cheapest craft beers in the Triad, going for only $4.
7. Pig Pounder (GSO)Pig Pounder boasts some decent session beers,
but my favorite is their Extra Special Pig, a nice, smooth English bitter offered year-round. While none of my friends agree, I also enjoyed their stab at a barleywine.
8. Natty Greene’s (GSO)One of the most refreshing beers I’ve ever tasted
was a Buckshot after unloading 16 cubic yards of mulch during 100-degree day. I drained it in an instant. Aside from the lovely amber, their South-ern pale ale is also a decent offering, and I wish they’d reintroduce Old Town Brown as a year-long offering.
Exposing sex traffickingThanks, Malika, for sharing your story [“A common evil: One
woman’s harrowing experience with a little known form of sex trafficking”; by Sayaka Matsuoka; June 17, 2015]. I’m glad you are recovering from this abuse. Thank you, Triad City Beat, as well, for making this known in our community!Louise Hudson, via triad-city-beat.com
Keeping your story alive spreads awareness. Thank you for sharing this heartbreaking part of your life. May you move on to be strong and beautiful and protected & everything you were created to be. I am sincerely sorry for the evil done against you.Shannon Draughn, via triad-city-beat.com
Malika: Your bravery, intelligence and resilience are inspiring to me. I pray that you will continue to focus on healing and that the rest of your life will be as beautiful as you are! Remember, out of great struggles comes incredible strength.Christie Lee Anderson, via triad-city-beat.com
A transparent bait and switchSometimes I wonder if council, not particularly known for their
smarts, really thinks this sort of thing fools the taxpayers [“Budget swaps garbage collection fees for taxes”; by Jordan Green; June 17, 2015]. It doesn’t, you know. The bottom line remains the bottom line.
Note also that the public meeting is being held at a time when the public will be at work, trying to make the money to pay High Point’s out-of-control taxes and fees. This meeting timing, of course, is by design. If no one can show up to speak against the budget, council will say they assume everyone here is for it. We’ve heard the mantra before: “It had citywide support!”
At the end of the day, the cost to live and work in High Point just got more expensive.Frank Swatson, via triad-city-beat.com
Knock out the cobwebsAbsolutely brilliant, and so desperately needed for entrepreneurs
looking for opportunities to develop new concepts [“It Just Might Work: Surtax on fallow properties”; by Jordan Green; June 17, 2015]. There are so many properties in downtown Winston Salem, and oth-er surrounding areas that come to mind, which fit Jordan’s descrip-tion perfectly. There are laws in many parts of the world that prevent people from “parking” land and buildings.
Why would we not adopt the same practice? Allow innovation and creativity to reign instead of preserving the appetite for cobwebs. The old guard seems to be simply preserving a legacy with no regard for the best interests of the community.
I applaud this article and the ramifications for the small business owners of tomorrow.Michael Touby, Winston-Salem
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How did you celebrate summer solstice?
High Point Iced Teaby Eric Ginsburg
Unlike the Ides of March, which can be miserable, the Summer Solstice — warm weather, flourishing flora and the fauna all hot and botheres. We asked our readers how they would usher in the season.
Brian Clarey: I generally love the Weatherspoon’s events. I’m definitely into the business at the arboretum. And I’ve never had a bad time at the Porch. But this year, the solstice fell on Father’s Day. We had three generations in the backyard for kabobs and family time, followed by a round of card at the pool, a Father’s Day tradition. I wouldn’t say that IDGAF about those other events, but the day spent close to home was wonderful.
Jordan Green: My wife and I attended the Summer Solstice Festival at Lindley Park. We recently moved into the neighborhood, so we felt like it was our civic duty. Also, my mom was in town, and it was a fun way to show off a colorful slice of our city. Our street was clogged with festival parking, but all we had to do was walk through the arboretum to reach our destination. It’s the first time we’ve been to the Summer Solstice Festival since we started dat-ing in 2008 and got drenched by a sudden rainstorm. This time around, we enjoyed eating gelato, watching a parade of giant puppets from Paper Hand Puppet Intervention
and watching a live-painting compe-tition. I’ve also attended the Weath-erspoon Museum’s annual summer solstice celebration in the past. I have to say it’s one of the most fun parties of the year.
Eric Ginsburg: I tried to stop by the Greensboro Summer Solstice festival after swinging by the Tiny Houses expo in Winston-Salem last weekend, but with the packed parking lot and sweltering heat, I turned around before making it in. Too bad, because I was really looking forward to the Baguetta-boutit food truck from Durham.
Our readers gave a late surge to the WAM bash, with the arboretum stand-ing by at 28 percent. Most disturbing is that 16 percent of our readers planned to sacrifice a spring goat over the weekend. Lone commenter Nina Gilliam had this to say: “All sounds great, but the Crystal Coast calls!” So much for being in between the mountains and the beach.
New question: What transportation investment is most needed? Visit triad-city-beat.com.
Standing in the kitchen of his Lindley Park collective house, eyeliner stabbing outwards from the edges of his eyes and a man-bun perched on top of his head, Yahya grabs a handful of ice to put into my cup.
“I call this the High Point Iced Tea because High Point is kind of the Long Island of the Triad,” he says, as he pours pre-made Long Island Iced Tea liquor mix onto the ice. “There are a lot of poor people, a bunch of super-rich people, and nobody goes there unless they are from there.”
Yahya and I are old college friends, and he’s making the seemingly inevitable move to Philly come July 1. This is his going-away bash, a weekend-long affair that he dubbed a “living funeral” as his send off from Greensboro. He’s been in and out of the Gate City for work since graduating a few years ago, but in many ways this goofball embodies what has made Greensboro, well, Greensboro for me over the last decade.
Exhibit A: The ridiculous, Guilford College-style dance party with a synergy of Bonaroo-esque hippie dancing fused with club music blaring right now in his living room.
Exhibit B: Overheard conversations throughout the
house tonight about new tattoos healing, racism in a Facebook group for Glenwood neighborhood residents, genital piercings and the High Point human relations director who is currently on leave. It’s the perfect mix of punk subculture, social awareness and radical proclivities.
Exhibit C: Yahya’s clever and uninhibited spirit, as evi-denced by his witty explanation of the drink he’s making and his unconventional attire.
The High Point Iced Tea is actually very similar to the classic LIT, subbing Cheerwine for cola and adding gren-adine to the sour, tequila, vodka, rum, gin and triple sec. It’s better than it sounds. And by that I mostly mean that it tastes like Cheerwine, with a disguised alcohol flavor.
I have to be up early and am exhausted from being outside in the sun all day, but I need to pour some out for this Greensboro great who is moving on. I knock two back, give my old friend a bear hug and wonder if I’ll ever make it up there to visit.
It’s a fitting sendoff to my occasional partner in Catan and fellow worker, an enthusiastic adventurer, co-op orga-nizer, Elsewherian and jokester.
Cheers, Yahya. This one’s for you.
The Weatherspoon’s Summer Solstice party 40%Summer Solstice Festival @ the Arboretum 28%The usual, ritual sacrifice of a spring lamb 16%Summer Solstice Soiree @ the Porch 14%IDGAF 2%
Yahya and his former housemate Emma pose with the High Point Iced Tea he created.
ERIC GINSBURG
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“Enlightenment” by body paint artist Amber Michael (ambermichaelart.com) with model Joh Harp.
Four young women enjoying the Summer Solstice festivities.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID COHENSummer Solstice at the Greensboro Arboretum
3. GreensboroGranted, there’s not much a city can do about its
elevation at this stage in the game, but it’s something worth measuring — and anything that can be mea-sured can be ranked. The highest spot on Greensboro should be the intersection of Elm and Market streets, which clocks in at 829 feet above sea level. It’s the low-est in the Triad, but still high enough that a few inches of sea rise shouldn’t bother Greensboro a bit.
2. Winston-SalemThe big cities of the Triad were designed so that
their main intersections are at the highest point, allow-ing the rest of the city to unfold like water runoff in the spring. The main intersection in Winston-Salem, on North Main Street between Third and Fourth streets where the old courthouse takes up a full city block, rises 944 feet above sea level.
1. High PointHigh Point got its name by virtue of its elevation,
which on Main Street by the railroad tracks rises 954 feet above sea level. It’s not only the highest spot in the Triad cities, but was also the highest point on the North Carolina Railroad between Raleigh and Charlotte in 1859, the year the tracks came through. Main Street was formerly the old plank road between Fayetteville and Winston-Salem, so the intersection created an important point of commerce in the state.
The Elevation Edition
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Local officials in Winston-Salem and For-syth County are seeking federal funds to build a bicycle and pedestrian path along the renovated Business 40 through downtown.
A proposed pedestrian path along the reconstructed Business 40 through downtown Winston-Salem could put cyclists on an equal footing with auto-mobiles.
Elected officials from Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and smaller municipali-ties agreed on June 18 to allocate almost $1.5 million in federal funds for the proposed multi-use path, which would connect Baptist Hospital to Liberty Street. The decision-making body, known as the transportation adviso-ry committee for the Winston-Salem Metropolitan Planning Organization, includes Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, along with city council mem-bers Dan Besse and James Taylor, and Forsyth County Commissioners Walter Marshall and Dave Plyler. Besse said the motion to approve the funds passed with
a strong majority, with support from the smaller municipalities in the county. Joines and Taylor were unable to attend the meeting, but both expressed sup-port. Councilman Robert Clark voted as an alternate.
Besse said local officials suddenly learned about the availability of federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Qual-ity funds and needed to act quickly to authorize staff to meet a July 15 deadline to apply for the funds. During the special called meeting on June 18, the transportation advisory committee also approved about $500,000 to buy a new bus for the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transit from the same grant. The federal funds are designated for any project that improves air quality by providing alternatives to automobile transportation.
Besse said with the state Depart-ment of Transportation renovating the bridges and roadways in the Business 40 corridor through downtown, the city has a unique opportunity to add infrastruc-
ture for cyclists and pedestrians.“This particular path would go a long
way towards providing that safe, com-fortable cycling and pedestrian link right across the heart of the city,” he said. “It’s coming up now because we have a very short window of opportunity to take advantage of the reconstruction of Business 40 through the city center to get this facility added. If we don’t seize the opportunity now we have lost it for two generations.”
Lee French, chairman of the non-profit Creative Corridors Coalition, made a similar point last week about the opportunity to make a dramatic visual statement with iconic arches and other betterments along the expressway, which cuts an artificial valley through the city just south of downtown.
“It was our turn finally to get a redo on this aging infrastructure that was constructed in the 1950s,” French said. “Given that, we asked ourselves the question: What would it take to do something special, something that
would not only symbolize our aspira-tions, but would actually be a bona fide and tangible strategic development to support the capital investment that has been made?”
The city contracted with Stimmel Associates, a local architecture firm to assess the feasibility of a pedestrian path and draw up a preliminary design. RS&H acted a co-consultant on the project, with primary responsibility for the design of the path. A map of the proposed path by Stimmel Associates shows the alignment along Business 40 between Baptist Hospital in the west and Liberty Street in the east, with access to BB&T Park at Green Street, along with linkages to the West End, West Salem, Washington Park and Southside neighborhoods. The multiuse path would intersect with two pedestrian bridges at Green Street and the Strollway. The rendering propos-es bike lanes on First Street, with a future bridge across the railroad tracks connecting to a future rail trail running
NEWS
A rendering depicts a section of a proposed Business 40 multi-use path running parallel to the renovated Business 40 through downtown Winston-Salem. COURTESY STIMMEL ASSOCIATES
Proposed bike path would parallel Business 40 through downtownby Jordan Green
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through the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. In addition to becoming a significant hub for research and knowledge industry in downtown, the quarter is also burgeoning as a creative district, with the advent of Bailey Park and a host of small businesses clustered around Krankies Coffee.
“I think judging from the kind of reaction I get from my constituents and the big turnout at the last public works committee where we were discussing this project, there is a great deal of interest particularly from cyclists in the area of Ardmore and the Baptist Hospital complex who want to ride downtown,” said Besse, who represents the Southwest Ward. Besse, who chairs city council’s public works committee, is an ardent proponent of alternative transportation and an avid runner.
The desire for enhanced cycling infra-structure in Winston-Salem is balanced against a political prerogative to rebuild aesthetically pleasing bridges — a priority particularly for Councilwoman Molly Leight, who represents Old Sa-lem, West Salem, Washington Park and other neighborhoods in the South Ward that will be connected to downtown by the bridges. During a presentation on June 15, French expressed confidence that the city and Creative Corridors will be able to come up with adequate funds to pay for the bridge enhancements, including $3 million in bond funds ear-marked for the Business 40 renovation. Should the federal government approve the transportation advisory committee’s request for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds, a separate pot of money would be available for the pedes-trian path.
Besse said the proposed Business 40 multi-use path will be both functional and aesthetically appealing.
“Anybody that suggests that an elevat-ed multi-use path along the side of the highway through central Winston-Salem isn’t aesthetically pleasing hasn’t gone out and stood on one of the bridges and looked at the skyline and the sunset,” he said. “There are some amazing views. That’s a win-win. It satisfies both the functionality and aesthetics tests.”
Christy Turner, who is managing the project for Stimmel Associates, acknowl-edged there are some challenges to building a multi-use path along a major highway. Among other constraints, the
path must stay within the state Depart-ment of Transportation’s right of way.
“There’s a perception that it’s not an attractive place for a multi-use path,” Turner said. “Our reason is it’s more intended to be an alternative transpor-tation facility than a recreational facility, which is how we often view multi-use paths.”
To protect cyclists and pedestrians from vehicles, Stimmel said the path will run at a different grade from the roadway — mostly above, but in one in-stance at the Broad Street bridge, below. In the one section where the path and the roadway are at the same grade, near the ballpark, crash fencing will be used to protect pedestrians from vehicles.
Turner said Stimmel Associates is still finalizing cost estimates for the pedestri-an path, and will present final numbers to city council next month.
As US cities have focused develop-ment inward, transportation dollars are increasingly being spent on infrastruc-ture for non-automobile uses. The new Tilikum Crossing, which bridges the Willamette River in Portland, Ore., is reserved for pedestrians, cyclists, public transit and emergency vehicles while excluding automobiles altogether. The bridge was designed by Donald McDon-ald, who also designed the new Green Street bridge and a pair of double arches to be built at the future intersec-tion of Research Parkway and Highway 52 in Winston-Salem.
Turner said Winston-Salem wouldn’t be the first US city to wed a multi-use path to a downtown expressway, but it’s still a relatively novel concept.
“Australia has several examples, and in Europe there’s several successful ex-amples,” she said. “It’s more of a multi-national thing and we’re just picking up on it in the US.”
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5 Travel documents provide limited glimpse of council fundsby Eric Ginsburg
After almost two months, some itemized Greensboro City Council travel documents have still not been released to Triad City Beat, but the ones that have illuminate some aspects of where the money is going, and who is spending it.
A limited public-information re-quest Triad City Beat filed with the city of Greensboro on April 28 — seeking itemized documentation of city coun-cil spending on trips to Chattanooga, Tenn. and Tampa, Fla. this year — has only been partially fulfilled, as of June 23.
The city of Greensboro did release several Excel spreadsheets of how council members have spent their allotted travel-related funds in recent years to Triad City Beat. Even though the birds-eye view does not enumerate why exactly funds were spent — in some cases just listing “travel reimbursement” or “business lunches” — it does provide a glimpse of where the money is going and which council members are spend-ing it. TCB has filed additional requests for itemized receipts and will continue to look into city council travel expendi-tures in recent years.
The documents provided list over-view expenditures since the 2003-2004 fiscal year. Below, TCB has analyzed the partial information provided for the last three fiscal years, including the current one. Information provided by the city runs through late April 2015. In other words, expenditures for the 2014-15 fiscal year are not yet complete, but can still be useful for comparison between council members, along with and activi-ty in the two preceding years.
Each city council member is given up to $5,356 annually to spend on city-re-lated business; the mayor can spend up to double that amount. The figure jumped up $2,000 per council member for the 2014-15 fiscal year, and conse-quently climbed $4,000 annually for the mayor.
The money comes from the city’s gen-eral fund, and any unused funds return there. City council members sometimes receive an advance or use a city-issued debit card, in which case they are re-quired to submit documentation within 10 business days of returning from the
trip, according to new Public Records Administrator Katherine Carter. But if no advance is given or card used, there is no specific rule about how long city council members have to turn in receipts and request reimbursement.
Nancy Hoffmann, District 4Hoffmann has spent more money
($4,931) in 2014-15 than any other council member. Her biggest expense was a $1,357 “travel settlement” on Nov. 20, 2014, followed by $1,249 to the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 25 of this year. Mayor Nancy Vaughan and now-former councilman Zack Matheny also paid out the same amount to the chamber at that time. That, plus $85 each from Hoffmann and Councilwoman Sharon Hightower later made the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce the biggest recipient of funds so far this fiscal year. TCB has requested documents related to the chamber of commerce, though it ap-pears the cost covers an inter-city trip to Chattanooga, Tenn. Hoffmann couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.A $385 “business luncheon” on Nov. 20, 2012 is listed with no additional in-formation, as is a Sept. 26 ,2014 “travel reimbursement.” TCB has requested itemized documents for both expenses.
Hoffmann has already spent about $400 more this year than last year ($4,534). She routinely participates in council-related trips to other cities, accounting for much of the expenses.
She spent less ($3,359) in 2012-13, but $1,199 of that went to the chamber.
Zack Matheny, former District 3Matheny just resigned to accept the
job of president and CEO of Down-town Greensboro Inc., but before he did, he spent more money this fiscal year than anyone on council save for Hoffmann and Mayor Nancy Vaughan. The council books its trips through Aladdin Travel, a company with offices in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Charlotte; Matheny’s money went there more than anywhere else save for the Chamber of Commerce. The Omni Nashville Hotel ranked third this fiscal year for him with $575 (about the same amount Vaughan and Councilman Jamal Fox also spent there).
Matheny was a Top 3 spender for all of the last three years, though the total amount spent fell this year. His biggest 2013-14 expense was $1,600 to the Wyndham Championship on June 13, 2014. Matheny couldn’t immediately be reached for comment to explain the expenditure — he is currently in Disney World with his family. TCB has request-ed the itemized document.
Mayor Nancy VaughanAs mayor, Vaughan can spend twice
as much money as her peers, but per-centage-wise she falls in third this year (see chart). Her most interesting year lately is 2012-13, right before she ran for mayor, when her spending was far lower (even adjusted percentagewise). She dropped just $1,347 that year, and practically all of it to the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce at three points. Only $98 of that money went elsewhere — towards an iPad.
Sharon Hightower, District 1Hightower is partially responsible for
several of the most common recipients ranking highly on the list in 2014-15, in-cluding money to the Greensboro Tran-sit Authority for bus passes for residents in need, hundreds to Aladdin Travel and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, or NFBPA, and the chamber of commerce. The city has not yet provided itemized receipts for Hightower’s trip to the NFBPA’s
Tampa, Fla. conference this year, but receipts from Fox and Johnson from the trip followed city rules about maximum meal allowances, spending on cabs, hotels and other items. Hightower has spent $3,170 this year, putting her a hair above Councilman Jamal Fox ($3,106). She joined council in late 2013, and put almost half ($1,000 of $2,262) the money she spent towards bus passes in 2013-14, but dropped the amount this year to $375.
Jamal Fox, District 2The NFBPA cost Fox quite a lot
this year, with $495 and $780 going to the organization and $422 to Aladdin Travel for the trip. Hightower and Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson spent similar amounts — the national group received less Greensboro city money in 2013-14 because only Johnson attended that year.
Fox still spent more in 2013-14 than several council members ($3,948) even though he was elected part-way through the year, including $850 he contributed to the non-profit Malachi House just before the fiscal year ended.
Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson Johnson is routinely in the middle
of the pack, and spent slightly less so far this year than last. Nearly all of her funds spent last year went towards the NFBPA ($2,386 of $2,789) with almost all of the rest going to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum and the locally based National Conference for Community and Justice ($150 each).
Marikay Abuzuaiter, at largeAbuzuaiter regularly spends very
little, avoiding council trips out of state. Every year she buys bus passes from the Greensboro Transit Authority (Vaughan and Hightower did the same for the last two fiscal years). This year she gave $750 worth to the Interactive Resource Center and an equal amount to Partners Ending Homelessness, she said. She also gave $500 to Family Services of the Piedmont for its work with the new Family Justice Center, she said. Such nonprofit contributions are allowed, Abuzuaiter and Councilman Tony Wilkins said. Both haven’t traveled
Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann
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much.“I don’t usually want to go on these
out-of-town trips,” she said. “I think it’s fine if people want to go and I’m sure I will in the future.”
Tony Wilkins, District 5Wilkins has spent a mere $305 this fiscal year, and last year he spent just $333. His biggest cost this year — $125 to Guilford College on Oct. 15, 2014 that he doesn’t remember. “It must’ve been a speaker or some kind of event,” he said. Wilkins, a conservative, isn’t sure coun-cil trips to tour other cities or attend conferences are worth the money. “I maybe would like to visit somewhere like Greenville [SC],” he said. “But you know I don’t know that I’ve heard any
ideas on any of those trips.”But in 2012-13 when Wilkins joined
the council, he shelled out $1,372 — more than Vaughan — including $967 to Ontario Investments Inc., a Syracuse, NY-based company that leases comput-er hardware and software, and $465 on iPads throughout the year.
Mike Barber, at largeBarber hasn’t spent a dime this fiscal
year so far, at least not that he has sought reimbursement for. Last year he charged just $52, credited to the city-issued debit card but with no listed reason. Council members do turn in detailed receipts that were not covered in TCB’s public-records request. Barber couldn’t be reached for comment.
Four recipients, ranked*2012-13 2013-14 2014-151. Chamber ($6,320) Aladdin Travel ($5,750) Chamber ($3,917)2. NFBPA ($4,102) Bus passes ($3,149) Aladdin Travel ($3,650)3. Aladdin Travel ($1,791) NFBPA ($2,386) NFBPA ($3,384)4. Bus passes ($999) (No $$ listed to Chamber) Bus passes ($2,625)*Other recipients received more money in a given year, such as the NC League of Municipalities ($2,648 in 2012-13), but these four repeatedly ranked among the top recipients. The chamber ran inter-city trips to Birmingham, Ala. in 2013 and Chattanooga, Tenn. in 2015.
Top council spenders (adjusted)2012-13 2013-14 2014-151 . Bellamy-Small ($7,168) Bellamy-Small ($5,420) Hoffmann ($4,931)2. Kee ($5,667) Matheny ($5,318) Matheny ($4,446) 3. Matheny ($5,240) Hoffmann ($4,534) Vaughan ($7,488)****As mayor, Nancy Vaughan has double the allowance of other council mem-bers. She has spent about 70 percent of the allowed funds, as far as reports show. That puts her above Hightower (59 percent), who would otherwise be No. 3, but below Matheny (83 percent).
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New, affordable housing developed on city-owned land with federal funds is part of High Point’s strategy to diversify income and transform struggling Southside.
Community Housing Solutions of Guilford, a Greensboro-based nonprof-it, is expected to start construction of two affordable houses in the struggling Southside neighborhood of High Point next month, following approval by city council of $287,038 in federal funds from the US Department of Housing & Development.
The two houses will be built on city-owned lots and sold to eligible buyers through a city-owned lease-purchase program whose participants receive fi-nancial and mortgage counseling during regular sessions at the library. The new construction will fill out the Southside redevelopment project, joining seven houses built from 2009 through 2012. Five have been sold to new homeown-ers, while two are owned by Unity Builders, another nonprofit homebuild-er. The seven new houses have added a total of $682,200 to the city’s tax rolls.
Southside is part of the city’s poorest Census tract and one of its most racially diverse. Relatively close to the city’s cen-tral business district, the neighborhood’s residents share the area with several historic mills from the city’s industrial heyday a century past, along with nu-merous small manufacturing operations that are actively doing business.
The demographic the city has in mind for the two new houses is a couple with a combined income of $34,600 or a family of four with an income of $43,200 — in either case a marked difference from the area’s median family income of $13,064. In a neighborhood where it’s easy to spot placards adver-tising single-family homes as rental investments for as low as $15,000, the assessed values of each of the new hous-es in the redevelopment project ranges from $92,800 to $116,500.
Two of Community Housing Solu-tions’ models are respectively described in marketing materials as a “two-story turn of the century-style house” with a “Queen Anne-inspired exterior,” and a
single-story Folk Victorian-style house ideal for a corner lot. Both houses boast U-shaped kitchens with breakfast bars that open to dining rooms.
Michael McNair, the city’s director of community development and housing, told members of city council prior to the vote to approve the contract with Community Housing Solutions that the city is bucking the tide of public percep-tion in Southside.
Mayor Pro Tem Jim Davis, who chairs the city council’s finance commit-tee and who is a homebuilder by trade, questioned the amount of the contract before voting with his colleagues to for-ward the request to the full council.
“I want to get in on that because that’s good money,” Davis said.
McNair responded, “We’re pretty adamant about not putting people in bad properties.”
Davis continued to press the issue during discussion in the committee meeting, saying that he couldn’t see how the numbers would work, and question-ing whether the money would be better spent if it was spread among a larger number of properties and used to rehab existing housing.
“I will say to you that if we’re not going to invest in that community, it’s not going to change,” McNair replied. “Gentlemen, it’s possible, perhaps even likely that we’ll take a loss. We’re not hiding anything. If we go in and put in houses that look like what’s already there, the community’s not going to change.”
Reflecting on efforts to revitalize Southside and other areas of what is known as the Core City after the com-mittee vote on June 11, McNair noted that it’s a long and gradual process.
“We’re trying to improve the value of the housing stock in the Southside by making properties available on the market that improve the neighborhood’s appearance,” he said. “In Southside we haven’t reached critical mass.”
Visitors to the neighborhood will immediately notice abundant vacant lots, many of them owned by the city as a result of condemnation orders against substandard housing. McNair
acknowledged that vacant lots aren’t ideal for the aesthetics of the communi-ty, but argued that they are preferable to boarded-up, rundown houses.
Based on the experience of Graves Avenue near Washington Terrace Park on the city’s east side, where Habitat for Humanity of High Point, Archdale & Trinity built six new houses between 2008 and 2010, McNair said he is con-fident the same kind of transformation can take place in Southside.
“On Graves Avenue I think we’ve tipped the scales,” he said. “If you look at this rendering that they put out before they built the houses I defy you to tell me that the houses don’t actu-ally look like this — maybe with the exception of the grade of the yards. We said we wanted different colors and we wanted front porches, and that’s what we got.”
The two projects — Graves Ave-nue, where the houses were marketed to families at 50 percent of median income, and Southside, whose target demographic is households from 60 to 80 percent of median income — illus-trates the breadth of the community development and housing department’s efforts to encourage homeownership in the Core City, McNair said.
Those efforts have met with mixed success. The city has had difficulty find-ing takers for its Core City Homebuyers Assistance Program, which offers buyers a $7,500 loan at 3 percent interest that can be deferred for up to three years. The loan essentially gives homebuy-ers $7,500 they can put towards a downpayment to make the deal more appealing for a traditional lender. “We
think there are a lot of people out there spending $1,000 on rent who would like to own a home,” McNair said. “That $7,500 will get you to the table.”
As an alternative, the city is using a lease-purchase program to market city-owned properties under redevelopment by contractors like Community Housing Solutions. Potential homebuyers receive training to improve their savings and credit, while leasing the houses for up to a year. The potential homebuyer has the option of buying or leaving the program at any time, and the city can likewise opt to not renew the lease if the homebuyer doesn’t meet eligibility requirements.
In the meantime, a number of initia-tives are underway on the Southside to improve quality of life. “We’ve made several investments over the years,” McNair said. “We’re going to be asking council to build a bridge over Richland Park to essentially double the size of the park. You tie that together with the ur-ban [agriculture] initiative, where they want to do orchards and they already have a community garden. There will be a greenway, and we’ll continue to add housing. Hopefully, as the market picks back up we’ll see some marked changes in the neighborhood.”
While Southside is a quintessential urban neighborhood, it lacks a critical component to attract wealthy con-do-dwellers — restaurants, bars and grocery stores.
“It’s a food desert,” McNair said. “The market’s not working in that area. We don’t have enough rooftops with disposable income. Over the long term you have to create an atmosphere where you diversify the incomes.”
Investment in urban-core housing yields gradual gains for cityby Jordan Green
HIGH POINT JOURNAL
Several houses built by Habitat for Humanity on Graves Avenue were sold to buyers at 50 percent of median household income.
JORDAN GREEN
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CITIZEN GREENWhat direction we want to move in
One spring eve-ning on the campaign trail almost 50 years ago, Bobby Kenne-dy stood before a predominantly black audience in India-napolis, charged with the thankless task of
informing them that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.
Frustration about police abuse and poverty had boiled over in urban riots over the previous three summers, following waves of official terror as civil rights activists attempted to secure the constitutional guarantees of full citizenship.
“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in,” Kennedy said.
Then the presidential candidate and former attorney general directly addressed the most sensitive aspect of the tragedy.
“For those of you who are black, considering the evidence — evidently is that there are white people who were responsible, you can be filled with bitterness and with hatred and a desire for revenge,” he continued. “We can move in that direction as a country, and greater polarization. Black people amongst blacks and white amongst whites, filled with hatred towards one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.”
That was April 4, 1968.In 2015, with another presidential election
underway, the nation is again balanced on a razor wire of racial tension surrounding police violence, entrenched poverty and deepening inequality producing the poisonous fruit of profound alien-ation. Over the past 12 months, in outrageous succession, the names Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, Eric Garner and too many others have been added to the rolls of unarmed black men killed by the police, each one in different geographic flashpoint around the country. In April, the scourge manifested in North Charles-ton, SC, where a white police officer shot and killed Walter Scott.
The response of Jeb Bush, another presiden-tial candidate, as news filtered out on the evening
of June 17 that a gunman had massacred nine people in a black church in Charleston, was quite different from Kennedy’s. Bush scrapped plans to appear at the Charleston Maritime Center the following morning, with a statement from the campaign citing “the tragic events unfolding in South Carolina tonight.” The statement includ-ed one additional sentence, indicating that the candidate’s “thoughts and prayers” were “with the individuals and families affected by this tragedy.”
The decision to cancel a campaign event in the wake of a tragedy might have sprung from a place of decency, but it also reveals how utterly divorced the rhetoric of campaigning and stra-tegic positioning of the electoral contest is from the gritty specificity of real life. The episodic vi-olence against black people that has been woven into this nation’s history since its founding doesn’t stick to a schedule that takes into consideration electoral campaigns. Of course, nothing any of us might say about the horrific killing of innocent people in a church is adequate to the weight of sorrow felt by their immediate family and friends, and the black community at large. But if politics really matter, shouldn’t politicians at least attempt to speak to what weighs most heavily on human hearts?
Of course, comments by Bush in Charleston on any subject other than the massacre would have come across as callous. If he had chosen to go ahead with his campaign appearance, he could have only spoken about the brutal killing of nine African-American citizens and he could have only spoken honestly and extemporane-ously, without poll-testing or focus-grouping his message. Kennedy could well have canceled his appearance in Indianapolis, as his advisors urged him to do, but he took the more risky and courageous route.
There’s an eerie similarly between the assas-sination of King and the massacre at Emanuel AME Church, described by the Charleston Post and Courier as “the South’s oldest black congregation south of Baltimore.” Not only is the political polarization and social upheaval of our day a reverberating echo of the ’60s, but last week’s attack struck at the heart of the state’s black leadership, taking the life of South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinkney and Cynthia Hurd, who was the sister of former North Carolina state Sen. Malcolm Graham.
Admittedly, Bush is not Kennedy. The latter was a Democratic politician who was speaking to
OPINION
by Jordan Green
EDITORIALThe nonpartisan shell game
Winston-Salem runs a partisan city council election, which to the uninitiated might sound like a crooked contest, but all it means is that candidates for council run as either Democrats or Republicans, and one from each party makes it to the general election.
This is why nobody gambles on Winston-Salem city council district elections: The outcome is too predictable, always taken by the candidate whose party controls the district. All the action is in the primary.
But Greensboro proudly holds a nonpartisan city council elec-tion, which ostensibly means that the best candidates, regardless of political party, make it to the general.
It doesn’t always work out that way, but it looks good on paper.It’s true that city business transcends party politics. City govern-
ment addresses the most immediate concerns of a fixed com-munity, one bound by intertwined relationships that far outweigh allegiance to a political party: public safety, transportation, waste removal. In a more abstract sense, a city council can affect quality of life and economic development, too.
One Winston-Salem councilmember, when he was still a candi-date, likened its role to that of real estate developer, saying that a councilmember’s primary goal should be to make the kind of city that people want to live in.
Things could never be so simple in Greensboro, where the politics of party — and, incidentally, race — come into play over every issue.
What could be more perfect, then, than the appointment of Justin Outling as the successor to Zack Matheny in District 3? Matheny — a Republican, if you’re keeping score — departed for the Downtown Greensboro Inc. presidency last week, and coun-cil voted 7-2 for Outling over former District 3 councilman Tom Philips, who was once known as the lone conservative voice on council but on most issues these days is outflanked on the right by District 5’s Tony Wilkins.
Matheny’s a Republican; Outling’s a Democrat. And he’s black, the first to represent the district — the first minority in Greensboro history to attain any district seat outside of a majority-minority district, making it a historical moment indeed.
But will the voters of District 3, which passes through well-heeled Irving Park and Fisher Park on its way to the lake neighborhoods of the north by northwest, sustain his bid for votes in the fall?
And what of SB 36, now tucked into HB 263 and still alive in the House as of press time? A new District 3 would be excised of its precincts near the center city, but pick up territory on the fringe of the northeast. A new District 3 would be 80 percent white and 36 percent Republican, according to data from the General Assembly. The change might be a good thing for Outling, who would fall into a new District 7 that cuts through downtown, is majority-minority and leans Democrat.
But none of that is supposed to matter, as long as the garbage gets picked up on time.
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IT JUST MIGHT WORKA pop-up chorus
I hate karaoke. Like, pretty consistently karaoke makes me want to leave a bar and find refuge somewhere I can actually hold a conversation with friends rather than being plagued by the repeat offenders who shouldn’t be allowed to sing anywhere other than the privacy of their
own showers.But once in a while there’s that rare unicorn moment, usu-
ally when I’m a little liquored up: like when my old roommate Michael rocked “Pony” by Ginuwine, or a real talent brought down the house, or that one time when we stood on stools and benches and belted a few out — the whole bar together — for Olivia’s birthday.
The magic of those moments is the collective rendition, rather than the individual, often catalyzed by someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Those moments, while fleeting, are pretty unbelievable, as karaoke turns into some-thing else entirely. It’s much closer to my past at Guilford College dance parties, when everyone would throw all they had into “Like a Prayer,” or once when we serenaded Brad the public-safety officer with “Piano Man.”
And that’s the beauty of PopUp Chorus, a Durham group that invites anyone to participate in the coolest sing-along event I think I’ve ever seen.
I was a little skeptical when Salem Norfleet Neff told me about the unpretentious evenings launched by middle school chorus teacher Seamus Kenney at the beginning of 2014. But it only took one video, a recording of the group singing Foxygen’s “How Can You Really?” in May, to win me over.
There’s a live band at the front of the gigantic room that is absolutely brimming with people, a bunch of them kids, who are just having the best damn time.
They found the unicorn, and figured out how to hold its mane and ride for a bit.
As its website explains, the PopUp Chorus is “the only chorus where you can show up when you want and skip it when you’re too busy. No audition, no weekly commitment, just show up and sing.” Participants come and learn two songs each time, then perform it to be filmed and offered to the world as a gift via YouTube.
Some of these folks are really belting it out. Others barely seem to know the words. But in the collective, all of the skill and enthusiasm levels fuse for a pretty moving performance.
I think it’s why some people go to church.This is what community sounds like. It also might be the
best idea for a first date I’ve ever seen.PopUp Chorus is on hiatus for the summer. Maybe by
the time it resumes, someone could get a Triad counterpart off the ground. I bet we could get Neff — a Winston-Salem native — or Kenney to come to town and show us how it’s done.
by Eric Ginsburg
a predominantly black audience. Positioning himself for the South Carolina primary, Bush would have been speaking to a predominantly white audience.
All the more reason why it could have been a pow-erful speech. How rich it is that Bush was preparing to visit the state whose dominant political figure for a half-century was the late Strom Thurmond, who led the defection of white conservatives from the Democratic Party as a backlash to the gains of the civil rights movement and who helped the Republi-can Party craft the Southern Strategy to create a new electoral majority.
The homicidal violence of an individual like Dylann Roof, who reportedly wore white-supremacist flags as patches on his jacket and drove a car with a Con-federate flag license plate, is an expression of white backlash in the extreme; it represents a reaction against a growing challenge to white domination. The backlash has been nourished for decades by politi-cians making coded appeals to white voters through attacks on welfare, references to “law and order” (or the more up-to-date “public safety”) or disparaging the war on poverty, as Bush did in his May 1 visit to Raleigh.
Almost 50 years after the Southern Strategy was set in motion by the GOP, Bush might have spoken frankly to his white supporters. In his heart, he proba-bly wanted to.
“My set of values believes that the most vulnerable in our society should be in the front of the line, not the back of the line,” Bush said during his speech at the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Summit in April. “And Republicans, I think, do better when
we show our consciousness to do the exact same thing, whether it’s the developmentally disabled or the child-welfare system or the people who are struggling, we should give them our attention and help and reform the systems to make sure they have a better chance to rise up.”
Judging by his words, Bush seems to want to be a president of reconciliation and constructive action.
If he had chosen to speak in Charleston on June 19, he could have mentioned that the GOP is the party of Lincoln and emancipation, that the party can be justifiably proud in contributing to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
He should have then said that too often since then the GOP has been a source of division and distrust in American politics. It’s time, he might have said, for conservative leaders and their white constituencies to put aside old enmities and recognize that black people have legitimate grievances against police repression, mass incarceration and economic policies that contribute to high unemployment.
In conclusion, Bush could have rallied his support-ers by saying that only when people of good will put aside party differences and work with people of all races can America hope to rebuild a prosperous economy with opportunity for all, and create a world-class education system that truly allows our children to fulfill their potential.
Silence is its own statement.It speaks volumes about the moral vacuum in our
national politics.
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On Greensboro’s Yanceyville Street between Lees Chapel Road and Wendover Avenue, pedestrians often must make do with a dirt path in lieu of sidewalks.
BRIAN CLAREY
The sidewalk ends at a northern terminus at the southeast corner of Yanceyville Street and Lees Chapel Road, in a dead stop at an unspec-tacular tangle of wild saplings and hay straw.
Here where Pisgah Church Road turns into Lees Chapel, Yanceyville runs north past the cluster of lakes — Brandt, Higgins, Jeannette and Townsend — that define the Greensboro’s boundary and the tony neigh-borhoods that surround them. There are no sidewalks on Yanceyville north of this intersection.
To the south, Yanceyville Street passes low-income housing, new development, old mill neighborhoods and the ancient industrial district on its way downtown.
It’s a boundary of sorts, here where the sidewalk ends: the place where east Greensboro meets north Greensboro.
It’s a well-traveled intersection, with an average of 12,300 cars or so passing through each day at the last count date in 2008. The depart-ment of transportation does not keep count of the pedestrians who use this corner.
Often a vagrant occupies the southwest corner, flying a sign with his tale of woe for the many passing motorists. There’s a convenience store at the northwest corner that trucks mostly in beer, ice and bait. And, at the southeast corner, where the sidewalk ends, a bus shelter provides some respite from the late-morning sun.
It is here, at 10:21 a.m., that I find D’Velle Bass, waiting for the No. 15 inbound bus that will get to downtown Greensboro just in time for his lunch shift at Koshary.
I tell him what I’m doing out there under the bright sun in the middle of the morning, and why I’m doing it. He smiles and nods his approval.
“It’s dangerous out here,” he says.He’s not talking about street crime or B&E. The real danger here is
to pedestrians. Just six months ago, two days before Christmas 2014 at 1 p.m., Jeffrey Phillips was hit by a 2002 Saturn while sprinting north across five lanes of Lees Chapel to the convenience store. There is no crosswalk on the west side of Yanceyville, and no sidewalks at all to the north.
For guys like Bass, this is where the sidewalk begins: this inauspicious strip that runs south from the bus stop on the east side of the street per-haps 150 yards before ending abruptly like a bad joke at the Foxworth Condominiums, a Greensboro Housing Authority development.
I’ve lived on this stretch of Yanceyville Street for more than 10 years — a fair sight longer that the Foxworth condos, which was constructed, with a sidewalk, in 2009 — and in that time very few days have gone by that I haven’t driven some or all of Yanceyville as it runs from the bus shelter to Wendover Avenue.
by Brian Clarey
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new neighborhood the pronounced lack of sidewalks that seem to stop and start almost — but not quite — at random along the four-mile stretch.
Since 2010, eight pedestrians have been hit by passing cars while walking along the curb or trying to cross the street — certainly not the most tragic circumstance in Greensboro, but one that could be easily remedied.
There are very few sidewalks or crosswalks, and no shoulder to speak of along the entire run. But lots of pedestrians walk these miles, at all hours of the day and night. I’ve come close to hitting pedestrians and cyclists dozens of times over the years, at all hours of the day and night. I’ve barely avoided collisions an equal number of times when cars swerve out of their lanes to avoid the walkers and bikers who, technically, have the right of way.
The genesis of this particular walking path goes back a more than a hundred years., when residents of the mill villages off Yanceyville hoofed it to their textile jobs at Revolution and Proximity. It persists today through low-in-
come housing developments and frequent bus stops along the route. The No. 15 bus is dedicated solely to this stretch of Yanceyville Street and a bit of Summit Avenue behind it, with a dozen stops and shelters along the way. Connecting at the Galyon Depot downtown, it gives the thousands of car-less residents of this area access to the larger city and, through connections at the depot, the world.
It’s bothered me tremendously that this stretch of Yanceyville does without sidewalks while so many of Greensboro’s less-traveled neighborhoods do not. Over the years, I’ve seen perfectly good sidewalks on Cornwallis Street replaced and brand new ones dropped onto Lawn-dale Road while my neighbors walk in the street.
Like most sidewalk gaps in the city, they exist be-cause they weren’t deemed necessary when the land was developed. It wasn’t until 2002 that Greensboro adopted a Walkability Policy that required sidewalks with new development and for these gaps to be systemati-cally addressed. In 2012, the city put in10.5 miles of new
sidewalk across the city. They’re slated for this stretch of Yanceyville Street in 2016, according to the city website. I will believe that when I see it.
Over the years I’ve talked about the sidewalks on Yanc-eyville Street to cops and council members, city staff and people on the bus. I’ve written editorials, tried to make it a campaign issue, rambled on and on about it in bars. All I’ve gotten is words on paper, or campaign promises that disappear like smoke.
To be fair, there is a function on the city website to peti-tion for new sidewalk construction, but that would require collecting signatures from 51 percent of the residents affected. That, friends, is just not gonna happen. But I thought it might help if I actually got out there and spent some shoe leather on the terrain, speaking with whom-ever I came across and documenting the situation on the ground. The idea is that perhaps Someone Who Can Do Something will take an interest. But I’d settle for drivers to slow down on this length of road and stop hitting my neighbors with their cars.
At several points on any walk on this section of Yanceyville Street, landscaping forces pedestrians into the street. BRIAN CLAREY
June 24, 2015triad-city-beat.com
The House Where Crafted was Born
The kitchen at 6 Highgate Court — of granite, tile and stainless steel — is not the kitchen where Chef Kris Fuller of Crafted fame learned to cook.
“That was my father’s kitchen,” Rhonda Fuller, her mother, said. “They started doing that together when she was just a little girl.”
But this is the kitchen of the house she grew up in, a three-bedroom, two-story Greek Revival of whitewashed brick, tucked into a cul-de-sac in the Adams Farm neigh-borhood of southwest Greensboro. And it is undeniably the heart of the house.
Just 10 miles from downtown Greens-boro and a quick drive from High Point and Winston-Salem, Adams Farm bal-ances suburban living with city amenities. Walking trails cut through wooded areas and past moving water. A neighborhood pool is centrally located. Quality schools are nearby. Adams Farm has been a haven for families since they started building the area
in the 1970s. Highgate Court, a more recent development, is in a secluded part of the neighborhood.
Among the more interesting architectural features of this house are the quartet of Ionic columns at the façade and a private, elevated deck that juts into the landscaped backyard and turns to the side of the house under a wooden pergola.
Built as a four-bedroom home, the Fullers converted it into a three-bedroom by dou-ble-sizing a space for Kris.
An upstairs galley separates the bed-rooms, overlooking the vaulted greatroom. The vaulted ceiling continues into the master suite, where hardwood floors accent the space. The master bath benefits from a clawfoot soaking tub and a separate walk-in shower floored with pebblestone.
Downstairs, a wainscoted office off the foyer was intended for Rhonda, but she eventually preferred to work at the din-
ing-room table behind large glass panels separating it from the greatroom. That mas-sive space receives generous natural light from the doors leading to the deck. After dusk, custom fixtures illuminate the space.
And then there is the kitchen, big enough for a family gathering and equipped to nourish the culinary curiosities of the young woman who would become the hottest chef in Greensboro.
Its most dominating feature is the large island at the center of the space, the scene of so many meals and moments, and the conversations that led to Crafted.
One day they may want to put a plaque on this house. But for now, it’s on the market.
Call Frank Slate Brooks at 336.708.0479 or email [email protected] to learn more about 6 Highgate Court.
6 Highgate Court, Adams Farm, GSO3 BR, 2.5 Bath; 2,400 sf; Schools: Pilot/Jamestown/Ragsdale$309,900Agent: Frank Slate Brooks, Tyler Redhead McAlister, 336.708.0479
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Heading south on Yanceyville from Lees Chapel, the sidewalk on the east side ends cruelly in a runoff creek and a wall of impenetrable shrub. I am forced to run — run — across four lanes to pick up the sidewalk where it begins anew on the west side, the sunny side of the street, which on this hot morning is not as pleasant as it sounds.
Here the first of the old mill homes begin to pop up between a six-acre lot for sale and the Craft Recreation Center, where after a tenth of a mile the sidewalk ends again.
About 30 yards ahead of me trudges a black woman with a red backpack. When she gets to the end of the concrete, I see her veer slightly to the right.
A sidewalk begins across the street at approximately the
same point it runs out on the west side, but it runs just 150 yards or so, in front of Chantille Place, a newer condo de-velopment with units starting at about $75,000. There’s no crosswalk here, or even cross streets to slow down traffic, which makes a mockery of the posted 35 mile-per-hour speed limit. It also may be the most ineffective sidewalk in the city: It connects to nothing.
Like the woman who came immediately before me, I veer slightly right onto a worn dirt path in the grass, a piece so well traveled by pedestrians that someone has tacked a poster for a missing cat on the phone pole.
It feels oddly invasive to walk along this piece that I’ve driven almost every day since 2003, like I’m marching through people’s front yards, which I suppose is exactly what I’m doing.
The lots reach back deep on this side of the street, some with several buildings on the property and others with mailboxes and landscaping that force pedestrians
onto the thin shoulder, even closer to the hot wind of passing cars.
I pass a young black woman riding a bicycle against traffic and I instinctively worry for her. Across the street, a black man waits in front of the Yanceyville Street Station Apartments for the mail truck, which just now happens by. With no shoulder to pull off on, the mail truck stops dead in the outside lane; cars heading north veer past with impertinence.
The dirt path I’m on drops down to the railroad tracks, where a long, idling freight waits for an opportune mo-ment to cross. The rut rises to a three-way intersection at Rankin Road where a traffic light and walk sign — but no designated pedestrian crossing — gives at least nominal credence to walkability, with a bus stop for the 15 at the southeast corner. The button activating the sign is at the end of the dirt path, barely obscured by ivy.
I decide it’s unwise to make the crossing here on my
The T-shaped intersection at Rankin Road has a light and a walk sign, but no crosswalk on the street and no sidewalk leading to the button. BRIAN CLAREY
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The rusted water tower of the Proximity Mill rises above the treeline. Matthew Kesler has a car but tries not to use it, except on weekends when buses are infrequent.
BRIAN CLAREY BRIAN CLAREY
journey south, as the landscaping and fences on the homes on that side force all pedestrian activity onto the street. I prefer to trudge across all of these front lawns for a half-mile or so, when the dirt path picks up in front of the Dogwood Creek Apartments.
It was here in March 2013 that 22-year-old Cetaria Chaylee Wilkerson was the victim of a hit and run while walking on the shoulder against traffic, resulting in minor injuries.
The intersection at Yanceyville and Cone Boulevard is a major crossing in the city. The Greensboro Department of Transportation doesn’t keep stats for this intersection, but the one at Church and Cone just a quar-ter-mile west saw almost 40,000 cars a day in 2008.
The dirt path runs here from the Dogwood Creek apartments past a daycare center and decrepit strip mall that houses a Sav-A-Lot grocery, a Laundromat, a rent-to-own furniture store and a dollar store, with a Kangaroo gas station that anchors the northwest corner. Across the street on either side are low-income apartment complexes — Palmer Plaza to the east and Revolution Crossing apartments to the south — with a bus shelter at the southeast corner to service them all.
The only piece of sidewalk here runs about 20 yards, just enough to cover someone pacing in front of the bus shelter. Other than a couple crosswalks, the pedestrians here are on their own.
Garry Deberry was hit by a turning car at this intersection in June 2013, attempting to cross from the bus stop to the apartments. He almost made it. In September of that same year, a car pulling out of the shopping center knocked a wheel off Tess Hazenberg’s wheelchair.
This run of low, winding hills leading to the mill district is where I usually see the most street life: people waiting for the bus, kids on bicycles, young mothers pushing strollers. This is where I hold my breath, keep my foot
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touching the brake and both hands tight on the wheel.
The sidewalk picks up again at Rev-olution Crossing apartments with a bus shelter for the No. 6 and ends a few yards later. From here I can see the rusted water tower of Proximity Mill rising above the tree line, with graffiti on it that I can-not quite make out from this distance.
I pass the bridge named for Billy “Crash” Craddock, a son of the city whose claim to fame is taking the oddly suggestive country song “Rub It In” to the top of the Billboard charts. Where the sidewalk begins anew at the Fairview Baptist Church on 12th Street, I can see the smokestack of Revolution Mill, recast now into a massive mixed-use facility that should transform this section of the road.
Jonathan Hiltonen got hit on his skateboard right here in February 2014, traveling south, by a truck doing the same. In November 2012, pedestrian Brit-tany Harris took one from a late-model Nissan at 7:20 a.m., the driver of which was blinded by the morning sun.
I cross Cornwallis without the benefit of a crosswalk, past the creek and railroad spur connecting the new millworks to the old one, hiding behind the weeds and wild trees.
At Textile Drive, where pedestrian Richard Spivey got hit by a car in July 2014, I am close enough to read the graf-fiti on the water tower. Next to a stylized tag, it says, “Roll hard with my MOMS.”
A legion of healthcare offices offering plastic surgery, dentistry, dermatology and internal medicine buttress Moses Cone Hospital to the west. On the other side of the street, 75 yards of disconnect-ed sidewalk front an office building where Biscuitville keeps its company headquar-ters.
I find Matthew Kesler at the bus shelter near Meadow Street just outside the BioLife Plasma Center, where he has just made a deposit.
He’s using some of the cash to take the No. 15 bus downtown to the Depot and then hop a No. 1 to Costco on Wendover Avenue.
“I’m looking for work,” he says.He saw something on CNN the other
day about the company, and he says he’d consider leaving his job as a cook at an elder-care facility to hire on there.
It should take him about 90 minutes to complete the trip.
He has a car, but he tries not to use it. Today he didn’t have a choice: His ride, he says, is out of commission until he can afford to have it repaired.
“On Saturday and Sunday, the buses run every hour,” he says. “If I go anywhere on Saturday or Sunday, I try to drive.”
He’s from Philadelphia, and has been using public transportation his whole life.
“In Philly,” he says, “if I miss a bus I can see the next one coming down the street.”
He is less satisfied with the Greens-boro Transit Authority schedule.
“This is bulls***,” he says. “This is rural, man, the lowest on the totem pole. This is my dad’s hometown — that’s why I’m here.”
It’s been eight years now, he says.Eventually he boards his bus, which
takes him underneath Wendover Avenue, into Fisher Park and the Aycock Histori-cal District beyond, where the sidewalks have been in place since before there were cars.
PostscriptI took my leave of Kesler and booked
across the four lanes to the east side of the road, where a sidewalk picked up heading east towards Summit Avenue. As I approached the eastern police substation I saw a passing taxicab and suppressed an instinct to flag it down.
We don’t take cabs like that here.I boarded a No. 15 bus outside the so-
cial services building; it eased back onto Yanceyville and moved north, reversing my morning journey. It was afternoon now, and I was thinking about some lunch when I pulled my cord for the stop at Rankin Road, about a half mile from my house.
As I approached the back door, a man on the bus that I had never seen before stopped me before I got off.
“Hey,” he said. “You gonna get us some sidewalks?”
I tried not to act surprised. “That’s the plan,” I said, slapping my
notebook against my thigh.Word travels fast on the street, I
suppose.
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Two chefs enter, one chef leavesby Eric Ginsburg
before had so much silver-ware been set before me.
They looked like legions of forks and knives assem-bled to do battle atop a
black tablecloth, or maybe taking up defensive positions around a red napkin folded like something you’d see made from a towel at the foot of a bed on a cruise line. To the left, four forks. To the right, four shining knives. And up top, two forks stabbing right below three spoons pushing left.
I didn’t use it all over the subsequent six-course meal, but it served as a symbol of what set the dinner apart from any like it. This was no ordinary meal, even of the multi-course variety at a high-end restaurant; the silverware signaled staging in a friendly, albeit serious, food war.
The Competition Dining Series, which
used to be known as Fire in the Triad, is reaching its pinnacle this year in Win-ston-Salem, where each night of the series two respected chefs compete in an unfamiliar kitchen and with several uncontrollable variables. Each bout includes surprise ingredients — on Mon-day that included sirloin flap and three varieties of cucumbers — but the real wildcard proved to be the audience.
And not just that we, the attendees, would be ranking each of a chef’s three dishes based on presentation, aroma, overall flavor, flavor and use of the secret ingredient, execution, creativity and accompaniments. Monday includ-ed an additional hurdle for the chefs from Giannos in High Point and River Birch Lodge in Winston-Salem, who had already knocked off the formidable Meridian and Greensboro Country Club respectively — an audience size that had
ballooned to 160.Chef Travis Myers, of River Birch
Lodge, scored highest with his second course, a three-hour braised sirloin flap with a Chinese five-spice rub, crimini mushroom red Himalayan rice pilaf, julienned ginger lemongrass pickling cucumber and house-made wasabi and cucumber aioli. But I didn’t see it — I thought the course was the weakest of his three.
It sounded great, maybe better than the rest, but the tough flap cut tasted too soft, the pilaf too overpowering and the delicious julienned cucumber snuck in almost as an afterthought. Like his dessert, which included a small choc-olate cheesecake with salted caramel, candied pecans, brulee tuille, dark choc-olate ganache, sugar cookie soil and a ball of cucumber gelato, the dish tried to do too much.
David Nicoletta’s first course made use of both of the secret ingredients — cucumbers and sirloin flap. ERIC GINSBURG
Vines taking rootRoots and Vine Wine Tasting @ Deep Roots Market (GSO), Thursday
Certified wine specialist TC Frazier presents a selection of five wines for a deluxe tasting on the Deep Roots Market patio. Please the palate with Rotari’s Talen-to brut, 2014 Honig sauvignon blanc, 2013 Davis Family chardonnay, 2013 Patz and Hall Sonoma Coast pinot noir and 2013 Biale “Black Chicken” zinfandel. Chef Tim Thompson will also serve a local, seasonal dinner alongside the wines. The tasting begins at 6 p.m.Stag partyStags’ Leap Wine Tasting Dinner @ Under-current Restaurant (GSO), Friday
Four wines from Napa Valley’s Stags’ Leap Vineyards accompany four intrigu-ing courses at Undercurrent. The first course pairs chardonnay with a seafood sausage, which sounds kind of gross, but I could roll with it. That’s followed by rare seared ribeye with cabernet sauvignon, vanilla-smoked braised beef with 2012 Investor and smoked brioche with a petite syrah. Make your reservation by noon on Thursday by calling 336.370.1266. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m.America!Great American Cookout @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO), Saturday
Comin’ again to save the motherf***in’ day, yeah! It’s grilling season, if you can bear the heat, and the Greensboro Farm-ers Curb Market wishes to celebrate the summer with a locally sourced cookout. John Smith of Harper’s Restaurant and Charles Sheppard of Sir Charles Gourmet Sauces are grilling up nitrate-free hot dogs and pasture-raised hamburgers from Meadows Farm, chicken legs from Six Gunn Farm, veggies from Smith Farm and more. The grill heats up at 8 a.m.
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Bull’s TavernI wonder if, when her father named
her, he had a premonition that someday she would run a bar.
It only seems appropriate that with a name like Jacqueline Danielle Bull — after none-other than Jack Daniels — you’d end up owning a booze-based establishment. I met Bull by accident last week, just after she bought a round of Jameson shots for practically everyone at the bar. It was early on a Thursday evening, and most every patron inside was part of what looked like an im-promptu engagement party, dressed in street clothes and crowded around the bar towards the back of the elongated room.
Bull wasn’t working, but she called out to her bartender from the end of the bar, where she was chatting with two beer reps, that the next round was on her.
She wouldn’t do that for just anyone, Bull later explained; these are some of her best customers, a crew that routinely celebrates all its momentous occasions at Bull’s downtown Winston-Salem tavern.
Bull, who goes by Danielle, opened the bar and music venue three years ago, in the Fourth Street storefront next to Recreation Billiards that used to house
a club called Mod Bar. In that time she’s started receiving thousands of booking requests a month, amassed a trove of grammatically embarrassing résumés and started planning a basement component to the space, like the Whiskey Box under Rec Billiards.
The man who named her after whiskey built the black booths on the right wall and seating area along the left, hanging the speakers from the ceiling that face inwards from the front window.
As the engagement party saunters to the sidewalk seating in front of Bull’s Tavern, which looks out at the Stevens Center and the other cultural institutions along the main drag, Bull explained her vision for an upfit of the venue. She’d like to find a time to close the bar and knock it all out at once, but that’s more problematic than it sounds.
Besides the expanded capacity from an added component downstairs, she envisions about 40 taps to replace the dozen she has now.
Some of the current lineup is local, including a Hoots handle, but the beer reps were here for a Great Lakes Brew-ing Co. tap-takeover night that would really commence once night fell.
Cleveland-based Great Lakes is one
of the most respected craft breweries this country offers; look no further than the Dortmunder Gold lager, a 16-time medal winner at the World Beer Championships, including gold, silver and World Champion. It was one of four Great Lakes’ beers on draft that night, including the worthy Alberta Clipper porter and the new seasonal Sharpshoot-er session wheat IPA, a smooth and well-rounded brew.
It’s apparent from her interactions
with staff, her patrons, the beer reps and even her neighbor who wandered in that Bull is a people person. Stories about cleaning up puke or watching people flirt across the room using Tindr come easily. And maybe that, more than her name, explains why she’s cut out for the bar industry.
Visit Bull’s Tavern at 408 W. Fourth Street (W-S) or find it on Facebook.
by Eric Ginsburg
The owner of Bull’s Tavern, Jacqueline Danielle Bull, is named after Jack Daniels. Great Lakes Brewing held a tap takeover at Bull’s last week.
ERIC GINSBURG
I don’t understand how his first dish scored lowest of the evening — it was among my favorite. Myers combined the beef flap with pork cheek to create boudin, a sausage, fanned in pieces. The course included one of the more creative uses of the cucumber, incorpo-rating it into a tzatziki sauce atop the boudin and matched with thin cucum-ber slices and pickling juice gastrique.
Unlike his competitor, Myers’ first course combined the surprise ingre-dients rather than presenting them separately, almost like a sample plate lacking cohesion. The boudin, tzatzki and cucumbers was a bolder, more cre-ative decision and, better yet, it tasted great.
Everyone in the room that evening was an empowered judge, voting using a customized phone app, but a few of us
tapped to be pro judges were weighted separately and then averaged with the throng at the back of Winston-Salem’s Benton Convention Center. All told, the pros ended up scoring the chefs exactly evenly overall, leaving it to the general audience to break the tie. But before we did that, we gave Giannos chef David Nicoletta the highest marks of the eve-ning for his dessert.
Nicoletta, a newcomer to the compe-tition, said afterwards that even though Monday was his second round, “It didn’t get any easier this time.” In describing his approach, he said he tried to let the ingredients speak for themselves, and his ability to do that is exactly why I favored his courses overall.
Nicoletta’s dessert was more simple and avoided chocolate — the obvious crowd-pleaser. That’s a few points from
me for creativity right there, especial-ly in a showdown that is frequently decided on a chef’s last course. The Giannos giant served a round tres leches cake that tasted of gingerbread topped with cucumber anglaise, cucum-ber-mint-cloister honey semi freddo and cucumber-honey glass.
It was the best use of a secret in-gredient, not hidden under anything or separated, and the cool cucumber complemented the custard-like ball atop the mini cake.
We didn’t know as we tried each course who prepared it — the reveal wouldn’t come until the end. The un-veiling seemed to surprise the Southern Foods reps I dined with, who were pull-ing for their man Myers. I didn’t expect it either, especially after learning that last year’s winner, Tim Thompson who
used to be at Marisol, was in there with Myers, a sort of secret weapon.
But in the end, almost 160 people gave Nicoletta about a 2.5-point lead, pushing him over the deadlocked pro judges. Myers and his team deserved more credit than they were given, espe-cially on their first course, but Nicoletta deserved the victory.
On June 30, he will face the winner of a matchup between Graze in Win-ston-Salem — a finalist last year — and Perky’s Bistro in Jamestown. If Nicoletta can hold on through the battle, he’ll face the revered Chef Dion Sprinkle or Greensboro’s Undercurrent in the final on July 7. He already played his part in knocking off two of the six Winston-Sa-lem competitors, all of which are now out, and has the chance to bring the title to High Point.
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5 Setlist by Jordan Green
Return of the grievous angelThe Love Language @ Bailey Park (W-S), Thursday
The Love Language, helmed by Winston-Salem native Stuart McLamb, inaugurates the initial installment of Sunset Thursdays at Bailey Park in the heart of the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. Fans of the Raleigh-based indie-pop band, a revolving cast with McLamb its constant axis, know what they’re getting: a gorgeous sheen of emotive catharsis. Those who don’t can sample without buyer’s remorse, considering that it’s a free show. Below the Line opens. Camel City Grill serves dinner, with desert by Café Gelato, while Single Brothers mans the taps. Show starts at 6:30 p.m.Not your average cover bandBody Games and Marley Carroll @ the Crown (GSO), Thursday
Body Games does the honors for Dance From Above’s 1-year anniversary, giving the EDM treatment to songs by North Carolina bands like Estrangers and Museum Mouth. The promo copy says it best: The group’s latest release “baptizes” the songs “in a torrent of woozy bass, choppy electronics and left-field samples to create something eminently sexy, completely hypnotic and maybe just a tad strange.” Marley Carroll, who initiated the series a year ago, returns for a DJ set. Lo-cal support from Darklove, Alvin Shavers, Fiftyfootshadows, DJ Gray Area, Gate City Get Down and Prez. Show starts at 9 p.m.Underground and Winston proudStreet Heat release party @ Earshot Re-cords (W-S), Friday
JOT aka Grande Gato aka James O. Terry Jr. curates a mix of rap and reg-gaeton by Afro-Latino artists for the new Street Heat 12-inch release featuring artists like Jonnotty, Don Caban, Firemarshall and Ms. Crystal. Topics of their raps, deliv-ered in both English and Spanish, include cancer, Cam Newton and the Winston-Sa-lem Dash. The listening party runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.Not from HackensackHackensaw Boys @ the Blind Tiger (GSO), Friday
The Hackensaw Boys, a band with roots in Virginia, have just enough rasp to distin-guish themselves from most country music and enough irreverence to set themselves apart in the old-time scene. The future of country music, if there is one, is to be found in such sounds — joyous banging on banjo, fiddle and guitars in small, intimate rooms. Show starts at 9:30 p.m.
The Baseball Project: Collectors and stat keepers by Jordan Green
Wynn cast a sidelong glance across the stage at his his bandmate Scott McCaughey behind centerfield at BB&T
Park in Winston-Salem. “Is your hat indicative of anything?”
Wynn asked.“It’s indicative of the Oakland A’s,”
McCaughey replied. “They’re pretty good from time to time. Not this year. But I still have hope.”
With that, the Baseball Project — a super group comprised of members of American underground rock bands that matriculated around 1985 — launched into a rousing rendition of “They Are the Oakland A’s,” a song on the band’s most recent album, III. Scrappy and loose with a happy outlook in spite of
the odds, the song framed a neat paral-lel narrative of the archetypal rock-and-roll band seeking fame and glory on the road with little to no prospects.
“Young and hungry, small payroll,” McCaughey sang. “But Billy Beane loves rock and roll/ Hey hey/ They’re the Oakland A’s.”
About halfway through the song there was a squall of feedback and the sound cut out. As it telegraphed back in intermittently, Wynn loosed a ragged but inspired guitar solo.
“Sorry about the feedback,” Mc-Caughey quipped. “I think we can blame it on this Angels fan here.”
He gestured towards a teenager standing in front of the stage with his dad.
Capturing the camaraderie of a cohort of American underground bands that rose to prominence in the mid-1980s, the Baseball Project’s charm is its inflection from edgy, experimental rock into a lighthearted homage to baseball heroes and villains, diehard fans and box-score obsessives.
They’re all celebrated on a level play-ing field by a group of veteran players who have met with mixed success. Among the three bands that supplied this all-star lineup, only one — REM — made it into the major leagues, with “The One I Love” cracking the Billboard Top 10 in 1987 and laying the ground-work for megastardom in the 1990s. But the Young Fresh Fellows, led by McCaughey, paved a trail in the Pacific
Scott McCaughey, Mike Mills, Linda Pitmon and Steve Wynn (l-r) performed at BB&T Park on Sunday. JORDAN GREEN
Steve
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Northwest for subsequent innovators like Mudhoney and Nirvana, and Wynn’s band, the Dream Syndicate, updated a Velvet Underground-style drone rock in Los Angeles that was beyond its time.
McCaughey recorded and performed with REM from the early 1990s on-wards, becoming a kind of unofficial fifth member of the band. Linda Pitmon came to the Baseball Project as the band’s drummer after a history of musical collaboration with Wynn as he continued to pursue music beyond the heyday of the Dream Syndicate.
During the Baseball Project’s pre-game Father’s Day concert at BB&T Ballpark before a matchup between the Winston-Salem Dash and the Salem Red Sox on Sunday, McCaughey and Wynn handled most of the lead vocals, with Mills happily anchoring the band on bass while contributing harmony vo-cals. Taking the lead on a rare song like “To the Veteran’s Committee,” a rousing rocker containing a straightforward appeal to induct Dale Murphy into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Mills showed off his goods, albeit with the relaxed con-fidence of someone who has nothing to prove. It served as a reminder that he was a solid pinch hitter behind lead singer Michael Stipe, while it was re-freshing to see him playing as an equal in a group whose other members may not have enjoyed REM’s success, but matched their vision and ambition.
Promoted as part of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art’s “Cross-roads” concert series,” the low turn-out — about 50 or so gathered on the lawn behind the fairway to listen to the one-hour set — and heat didn’t seem to wilt the spirits of either the band or the audience. In rock and roll, as in base-ball, sometimes parochial loyalties and obscure obsessions trump conventional triumphs. So it was that Mitch Easter,
who operates Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville, received a mention from the stage for mixing III, but the more illustrious fact of his role in producing REM’s first full-length album at his Drive-In Studios in Winston-Salem more than three decades ago went unremarked. Mills went better than to trumpet that his famous band recorded here, displaying a graceful touring mu-sician’s sensitivity to the particularities of place.
“This is for all of you who still have your baseball cards,” Wynn said before introducing “The Baseball Card Song.” “I got mine. That and some LPs from 1974. Not much more.”
Mills chimed in: “I got a Sneakers record!”
The reference to the obscure and seminal mid-1970s Chapel Hill band that spawned both Let’s Active and the dBs appeared to go over everyone’s head, although Easter and Parke Puter-baugh, a music writer who covered REM for Rolling Stone in the early 1980s, were in the audience to appreciate it.
It was a weird and wholesome scene all at the same time, marked by the odd collision of a parade of Little League players and parents gawking as they passed knots of appreciative hipsters cheering the band.
One thing brought everybody — band members, baseball fans and seniors alike — together on a mid-afternoon baseball game in Winston-Salem: sun-glasses.
It was hard to tell whether they were a cool-guy affectation or a geezer insur-ance plan. Maybe both.
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We hardly knew yeDevin Leonardi: Figure at Dusk @ SECCA (W-S), Thursday
Devin Leonardi only worked for some 9 years, but SECCA pays tribute to his body of work with Figure at Dusk, featuring 34 of the late artist’s pieces, ranging from watercolors to small oil paintings. Leonardi drew on the mythos of Western expansion and the twilight of the American landscape, painting from contemporary photographs of plains, nascent communities and the men and women of the Old West. The reception starts at 6 p.m.One artist’s trash…Not Quite Perfect Pottery Sale @ Sawtooth School for Visual Art (W-S), Saturday
Creative types tend towards a weird kind of perfectionism. I know I do with every-thing from my writing to my music; I don’t want to put out anything without it realizing its own pinnacle. So when these potters produced their art and looked at it and said, “Eh, could’ve been better,” I understand that weird impulse to go back to the wheel. However, they’re passing on their “failures” to you for a steal. The sale opens at 11 a.m. in the Mountcastle Forum; proceeds benefit Sawtooth’s ceramics department.
Two parts art, all partyby Anthony Harrison
threatened the 11th annual summer solstice party at Greens-boro’s Weather-spoon Gallery. But the threat of simple rain could
not keep people from marveling at a full-scale, cardboard studio.
Arts intelligentsia and laypeople alike showed up in droves to celebrate the middle of the year with music, food and beer, as well as appreciate the two ex-hibits opening for the next few months, McDonald Bane’s 2 Parts Art, 1 Part Science and Tom Burckhardt’s Full Stop.
Attendees milled around the atrium and front courtyard early during party, enjoying either the offerings of the food
trucks from Empanadas Borinquen, Taqueria El Azteca, Repicci’s Italian Ice or the complimentary fruit-and-veg or cheese plates offered along with wine and beer.
But no one came for the food and drink alone.
Bane’s exhibit occupies the Falk Gallery; the installation shows off six decades of her art, composed of geometric experimentation, from simple shapes to trippy waveforms.
“As a student here, I found it hard to connect with abstract expressionism,” Bane said, who attended UNCG in the
’60s while the movement was in vogue.Using her background in science,
which she studied at Virginia Tech in the ’50s, Mackey — as she’s known to friends — began crafting art using tools such as a compass, a straight-edge and a flexible curve, a pliable string of
lead encased in plastic, to create geometric pat-terns.
With these tools and tactics, Bane produced art composed of
deceptively simple patterns predating and foretelling the complexity of fractal configurations.
“I’ve always been more interested in the pure visual experience rather than
Tom Burckhardt’s Full Stop features everything from skylights to cigarettes, but the empty easel symbolizes the artist’s next move.
ANTHONY HARRISON
2 Parts Art, 1 Part Science and Full Stop are both on exhibit at Weatherspoon Art Museum through Oct. 4.
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Full Stop revels in details, like the knobs on this cardboard record player.
Mackey Bane poses next to her work.
ANTHONY HARRISON
ANTHONY HARRISON
telling a story,” Bane said. “I’ve done very little realistic work.”
Ironically, a still life of hers resides in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
While Bane believes she faltered as an expressionist, her work still falls under the mid-century movement’s aesthetic of non-representational imagery inspiring unconscious thought and reflection.
She also said none of her pieces evoke any kind of narrative, instead referring to the intangibility of color theory and music and what they arouse for the subjec-tive experience.
Yet “2000” and “2001,” two pieces drawn in ink on paper, are clearly complementary pieces, though the second came as an unintentional sequel. “2001” shows the waveform, curved pyramid of “2000” crumpled to rubble, calling to mind the World Trade Center towers.
“I drew [‘2000’] in the year 2000, relating to a build-ing in London, but I can’t remember what it was exact-ly,” Bane said. “After 9/11, I decided to do ‘2001.’”
Tom Burckhardt’s installation in the Tannenbaum Gal-lery, Full Stop, was something completely different, but more monumental. Yet it was microcosmic at the same time — an enormous, cardboard storefront, projecting outward ideas against oppression and authoritarian abuse, and inside, a promotion of the eclecticism of the artist’s world.
From inside out, it stands as a complex labor of love, the work of a fertile mind both unsure of what to do next yet driven by obscenely undeniable talent.
Burckhardt completed Full Stop after eight months of work, and considering the minutiae projected in the piece, that in itself is a miracle. The graffiti on the outside of the fake storefront itself was changed for this current iteration, and it reflects the attention to detail seen on the inside: “REMEMBER FURGUSSON” is scrawled below a window, and a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sticker hangs directly above the door to the studio. Post-ers and stickers from previous eras — whether they say, “BUSH SUCKS,” or, “I AM A MAN” — remain prominent messages relevant to both the current day and the work on the inside.
But you have to remember these stickers and flyers ar-en’t technically real — it’s just black paint on cardboard.
The realism amplifies once you walk through the door.Burckhardt laid out an artist’s studio in full, from
tools and supplies to the philosophical books on the shelves and the photos of Nefertiti, paintings of Mark Rothko and Piet Mondrian, Hank Williams and Robert Johnson, to the record player featuring “West End Blues” by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five and the abridged view of the New York City skyline in 3-D. Burckhardt nailed everything, even the shotgun bathroom with a tiny toilet. The only bare piece in the installation is an empty canvas — also cardboard — surely representing his next move.
Full Stop is a megalithic masterpiece.During the party, despite the live music outside, many
filed in and out of both installations — and in again, and out again and in again. It was behavior you’d expect to see at the hors d’oeuvres table out front rather than inside the gallery.
But people just couldn’t keep away.
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5 Episodes by Anthony Harrison
‘I’ve seen some dummies in my time, but you’re in a class by yourself’The Big Heat @ SECCA (W-S), Thursday
SECCA’s Going Dark film noir screening series continues with The Big Heat, direct-ed by German expressionist master Fritz Lang and starring Glenn Ford and Lee Marvin. Ford plays a homicide detective investigating the death of his fellow officer in what initially seems a simple suicide. However, as he uncovers details surround-ing the case, he peels back an onion’s worth of layers to the story and eventually takes on the local crime syndicate. The film starts at 8 p.m.Not about State CollegeThe Wolfpack @ A/perture Cinema (W-S), Friday
I’ll take any opportunity to dig on NC State, and hey, it’s my last week writing these sidebar entries; might as well throw one in. This 2015 documentary follows the Angulo family and their seven kids, all of whom were homeschooled in a tightly controlled environment and witnessed the outside world largely through films. Mukunda, a 15-year-old boy, decided to take a walk around the neighborhood one day; his brothers followed him and reen-acted some of their favorite movie scenes. For showtimes, visit aperturecinema.com.Oh hi, Mark!The Room @ Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema (GSO), Friday
Geeksboro provides the spoons for its screening of The Room. I’m pretty sure I’ve written entries about Room-related events, but in case you don’t know what the deal is, here you go: Tommy Wiseau, a strange man of mysterious origins, produced, directed, wrote and starred in his own movie, so he’s the Orson Welles of train-wreck cinema. The Room folded with the focus and intensity normally seen only in successes, and it is so beautiful. The show begins at 10:30 p.m.
Shorts leave lasting impressionsby Sayaka Matsuoka
films don’t get enough credit.
Creating the same effects of action, conflict and reso-
lution in a normal length feature film in under 40 minutes is no simple task.
The Lunafest, which ran at the Hanesbrands Theater in Winston-Salem on June 20, showcased eight films that exceed expectations in telling both real and imagined stories of women inside a 15-minute run time.
The film festival’s tagline is “Short films by, for, about women” and focuses on the diversity of women all over the world with films of American, British and Spanish origin. All exhibited vastly different themes but highlighted the struggles and lives of women and wom-en’s issues.
This year, the event was hosted by the Echo Network in Winston-Salem, a nonprofit that works to bring diverse groups of people together. Local orga-nizations have the opportunity to host the film festival yearly and split profits and send proceeds to the Breast Cancer Foundation which is the chosen charity of Lunafest. Almost 20 people gathered
for the showing of the films; most were women ranging in ages from teenage to adulthood with a few men sprinkled in. And due to the focus of the festival on women, the relatability factor was on point.
One specific film, “Good Match,” hu-morously reveals one woman’s lasting relationship with her ex-boyfriend’s mother after the couple had broken up. Scenes with the woman asking the mother if she likes the new girlfriend and a particular one of her spying on the new couple and the moth-er at a dinner date struck home for many in the audience as women laughed and whispered to each other.
Among the myriad of live action films were animated creations like “Tits,” which told of one woman’s obsession with breasts from a young age, and “Miss Todd,” the stop-motion creation heralding E. Lilian Todd, the first woman in the world to design airplanes.
Others celebrated the triumph of women in male-dominated spaces such
as “Lady Parts,” which follows the story of Mae de la Calzada, a woman who opened her own auto-repair shop with women in mind, and “Flor de Toloache,” a film about a group of women who challenge gender norms as an all-fe-male mariachi band.
And while all of the films were impactful each in its own way, bringing light to underexposed issues, two films in particular stood above the rest.
The first opened the festival and was the longest of the bunch.
“Tryouts” follows the struggles of an American Muslim
girl as she goes through the process of auditioning for her high school’s cheer-leading team. Though Nayla makes the team due to her agile and almost per-fect routine, she meets an obstacle as the judges tell her point-blank that she wouldn’t be allowed to wear her hijab if she were to join the squad.
While the film may not be relatable to all viewers, the feelings of rebel-lion against one’s family or cultural
Learn more about each of the films and the festival at lunafest.org.
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One of the shortest films in the series, “Tits,” follows one woman’s obsession with breasts throughout her life. COURTESY PHOTO
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Now Playing by Anthony Harrison
Got a show coming up? Send your theater info to [email protected].
Faulkner and Ibsen on the hardwoodCommon Enemy @ Triad Stage (GSO), Wednesday
I wrote about this show last week. It is good. You should see it. Also, you should read my review if you haven’t already, dear reader. For showtimes and tickets, visit triadstage.org.
And show the world you love himStand By Your Man: The Tammy Wyn-ette Story @ 1047 Northwest Boulevard (W-S), Thursday
Y’know, it’s my last week doing all these sidebar cultural calendars, and part of me will miss coming up with this allusion-filled headlines, but part of me is glad that some other poor bastard has to take up my reins after this week. For tickets and showtimes, visit wsthe-atrealliance.org.
Hot fun in the summertimeGroovin’ in the Summertime @ Barn Dinner Theatre (GSO), Friday
I am damn sure glad I won’t have to think of weeks and weeks of witty headlines for these Barn Dinner shows anymore. First Baptist of Ivy Gap was a nightmare. This musical revue covers summer favorites from the ’60s and ’70s, which I guess you can read as “beach music.” Kill me. For showtimes and tickets, visit barndinner.com.
Two screenings, two plays, two daysSkylight and Treasure Island @ Hanes-brands Theatre (W-S), Saturday and June 28
Hanesbrands hosts these neat little screenings from time to time in part-nership with National Theatre Live, and there are two this weekend. The first, David Hare’s Skylight, takes place in a schoolteacher’s London flat, following her life and relationships; that starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday’s matinee of Treasure Island, which is, well, Treasure Island for the stage, starts at 2 p.m.
“Miss Todd” brings to life the lesser-known story of E. Lilian Todd, the first known woman to design an airplane.
“Tryouts” delves into the life of an American Muslim teenager struggling to reconcile her family’s cultural wishes and her personal desires to join her school’s cheerleading team.
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background is something most people are familiar with. And the way Nayla resolves her conflict is powerful. Recon-ciling her mother’s wishes to not show her hair and her own desire to join the team, Nayla shows up on the field at the end of the short and triumphantly takes off her hood, revealing a neatly shaved head.
Juxtaposing the victorious ending of “Tryouts” was another affecting short called “Chica’s Day.”
This one chronicles a woman and her daughter as they dress up, play and
enjoy a relaxing afternoon by the pool only to be interrupted by the return of the girl’s father from work. The woman who seemed to be the mother disap-pears from view and returns in maids’ clothing and it is revealed that the she is just a servant to the girl’s rich family. In a mere 10 minutes, “Chica’s Day” moves viewers almost to tears as the once per-fect day is ruined by social status. After the film ends, the director includes a dedication to her parents who were “always there for her,” indicating that the girl in the film had a stronger bond
with the maid because of the lack of her real parents’ presence in her life.
All eight of the films succeed in celebrating women’s lives, but the most incredible aspect of the shorts lies in its ability to evoke a strong range of emo-tions in remarkably short time frames and create lasting impressions on their viewers.
There’s just something about having your heartstrings pulled by a film that only lasts 10 minutes. Some films last-ing two hours don’t that.
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Pugilists not at restThe bell
rang. The crowd silenced. The only thing heard in the Greensboro Coliseum was the whistling of the A/C, the shuffling of
feet on the mat and the soft pit-pat of gloves on muscle.
The crowd kept uncomfortably quiet at first.
But once the first fight gained pace — after Sumner Martin landed a nice, audible jab to Nathan Petty’s face — someone shouted, “Felt that one!”
After those placid moments, the au-dience shouted a few Woo!s, and more haughty exclamations followed.
Saturday Night KO Fights escalat-ed slowly, but only when the fights prompted appreciation.
That first fight wound up being a predictable decision towards Martin, who extended his record to 2-0 against a mediocre veteran.
The second fight promised more.Two lightweights took the mat, both
ready to fight in their own styles.Reidsville’s Raheem “the Dream”
Lynn, in his professional debut, bounced around his corner with a wide smile on his face. However, Jairo “the Mexican Assassin” Vargas Fernandez out of Mex-ico City, undefeated after three bouts, took the mat to his mariachi theme sans emotion, draped in a Mexican flag.
The first big hit came from Lynn, who knocked Fernandez down to a three-count. The crowd buzzed hard, thinking the fight was done. But Fernandez struck like a mongoose against a king cobra — lunging low, heaving uppercuts.
Both men scrapped quickly, but Fernandez eventually started landing his southpaw against Lynn’s right-hand defense.
Fernandez attacked during the middle of the second round, throwing Lynn into his own corner, jabbing him with a few combos to the jaw.
“C’mon, Peanut!” someone shouted. “Goin’ back to the block after this! Give us a show!”
Yet Fernandez ground the newbie into peanut butter.
The bell dinged.Lynn couldn’t help but express humil-
iation against his corner, leaning with his arms across his battered face.
I wouldn’t like to call him a home-town disappointment, though. He had heart. He lost his first fight, but if Lynn can regain confidence, he can only im-prove. The Dream faced off against an Assassin, and showed his worth.
The next bout proved to be a real stunner.
William Gunther, some Viking from Lynchburg, Va., took on up-coming Greensboro heavyweight DJ Haynesworth. The crowd heavily favored the hometown man.
So did the fight.Before I could even scramble
down the aisle to snap some pics, Haynesworth beat Gunther to a pulp against the ropes, leaving him dazed and groggy, and driving him in with body shots until throttling Gunther with quick jabs to the head.
Within 29 seconds, the refs called a TKO for Haynesworth.
While some of the crowd roared in appreciation, many booed, standing up and throwing their hands in an act of bull.
“That was over quick,” one man said.“Yeah, too quick,” his friend laughed.The crowd got their fill with the later
bouts, though.Perhaps the most exciting thrills
occurred between welterweights “Sugar” Ray Terry and Travis Davidson. They were about the closest matched — within a pound — and they beat the holy hell out of each other. It seemed the closest bout of the night, with Davidson landing devastating left hooks against Terry’s constant jabs.
But Terry wore Davidson down.With each punch, Terry seemed to
spray a shower of sweat off Davidson into ringside; then he got a nice shot on Davidson’s nose, leaving it rosy with blood.
The officials eventually called the fight for Terry in a unanimous, 40-36 decision after four rounds.
The second heavyweight bout proved
to be more of a show than the first.Stacey Frazier, a power puncher
weighing 260 pounds, went up against traditional boxer Trevor Bryan, 29 pounds his junior.
Bryan capitalized on his lighter weight, floating and keeping his hands up. Frazier kept his arms down, patient, waiting to see if Bryan would lower his defenses for a possible hole to slam.
After an atrocious first round, Frazier knocked Bryan down hard.
The crowd thought Frazier finished him, but the lighter pugilist came up throwing punches. A flurry of combos against Frazier’s abdomen culminated in a shot to the nose, leaving the bigger man dazed.
The bell rang to end the round, but the ref came out and said, “At the end of Round 2, the blue corner has decided his man has had enough.”
Trevor Bryan extended his record to 17-0.
During the last bout — which saw many leave due to boredom or bedtime — Frazier sat in my row, cocky even following defeat.
“[Bryan] was scared the whole time,” Frazier said, “and he couldn’t hurt me at all. There was nothin’ he could do to hurt me. Nothin’. Nothin’.”
Frazier picked up his bag and left.The main event — welterweights
Ty-Kee “the Zombiemaker” Sadler and Maurice Chalmers — deserved a column itself.
Their fight lasted all eight roundsThe crowd preferred Chalmers.Though Sadler dodged about with
his sprite footwork, he still took a hard shot to the solar plexus in the second round.
A man to my side kept yelling to Chalmers, “Hit ’im in the body! Quit with that jab-jab-jab! Hit ’im in the gut, fool!” Chalmers’ jabs counted, though, especially following a rally by Sadler.
The announcement of a split de-cision kept the crowd on the edge of their seats with eager ears awaiting the results.
Chalmers took the belt by only a few points.
For a sport where men simply pound each other, it was a close call.
GOOD SPORT
by Anthony Harrison
On Deck by Anthony Harrison
Freedom costs a buck o’ fiveFreedom Run and Walk 2015 @ Greensboro Marriott Downtown (GSO), Saturday
“Freedom isn’t free/ It costs folks like you an’ me/ And if we don’t all chip in/ We’ll never pay that bill.” Oh, how I love Team America: World Police. Anyway, this run/walk, part of the Fun Fourth Festival, honors military personnel and veterans. There’s a 10K run, 2-mile fun run and walk and a Tot Trot. Cute. Wear some red, white and blue regalia and root for the mil-itary, if that’s your bag. Day-of registration at the downtown Marriott opens bright and early at 6:30 a.m.We just want to pump [*clap*] you up!23rd Annual Natural Atlantic Coast WNBF Pro-Qualifier @ Aycock Auditorium (GSO), Saturday
No word on if Hans and Franz will make an appearance, but there’s going to be plenty of muscle on display at UNCG’s Aycock Auditorium. The World Natural Bodybuilding Federation rigorously drug-tests every single of their bodybuilders and is the longest-running competition of its kind in the Carolinas. Categories include men’s and women’s bodybuilding, figure and bikini competitions. For more informa-tion, contact promoter Damian Fisher at [email protected]; prejudging starts at 11 a.m.Looking for another WVirginia Lady Vikings @ USA Elite (GSO), Saturday
Greensboro’s USA Elite, a semi-pro women’s basketball team, just can’t seem to seal the deal on a big win. They’re 1-5 at the moment, and that sole win came against the Virginia Lady Stallions up in Hampton, Va. The Elite go up against the Virginia Lady Vikings (5-2), who are coming off a recent throttling from the aforementioned Stallions. The game will be played at the Triad Math and Science Academy and starts at 2 p.m.
GOOD SPORT
On iTunes, Stitcher, and at BradandBritt.com
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‘A Bit of Foolery’ remember who comes first.by Matt Jones
Across1 Arachnid abodes5 ___ San Lucas9 Exam for jrs.13 “It’s a dry ___”14 Become best buds?15 “It’s ___ Quiet” (Bjork remake)16 Air France airport17 Bubbly Nestle bars across the pond18 Taken-back auto19 Daniel Defoe’s “___ Flanders”20 Chess closer21 Completely crush a final exam22 NFL’s Patriots?25 Gator tail?27 “Chandelier” singer28 “Antony and Cleopatra” killer29 Jenny with a diet program31 “Oh, for Pete’s ___”34 “Bleh!”37 Garbage bags for an action star?41 Inflationary figure, for short42 DVR button43 Extremely cold44 Get, as the bad guy46 Note a fifth higher than do48 Mid-seasons occurrence?49 Digit for a bizarre MTV host?55 It’s just an expression56 Rug-making need57 TV talking horse, for short60 Classic TV kid, with “The”61 “___ bet?”62 “Fame” actress and singer Irene63 Bachelor finale?64 “Card Players Quarreling” artist Jan65 “The ___-Bitsy Spider”66 Leonine outburst67 “West Side Story” faction68 Say no to
Down1 “For ___ the Bell Tolls”2 Dulles Airport terminal designer Saarinen3 Members of the major leagues4 French pen, or LG smartphone5 Oxy competitor6 Heart hookup7 Showed disapproval8 Yoga class chants9 Prickly critter10 Actor Charlie or Martin11 Jellied garnish12 Canine, e.g.14 Disney classic of 194221 Crunch targets23 Catholic title, for short24 “New Soul” singer ___ Naim25 “America’s Got Talent” feature26 Release, like a rap album30 Turning into a hockey rink, e.g.32 Busy-bee link33 Arch holders35 Observe36 Caitlyn’s ex38 Stand ___ Counted (U.K. news site
for millennials)39 Inuit word for “house”40 ‘60s activist gp.45 Common tat locale47 “Yeesh ...”49 River near the Vatican50 “___ Billie Joe”51 Mazda roadster52 Bring delight to53 Trio of trios54 89 years from now, in the credits58 Beginning for “while”59 “The Banana Boat Song” opener61 Banker’s newspaper, for short
©2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords ([email protected])
Answers from last issue.
GAMESGAMES
Join the Beat.Call Dick Gray for all your
marketing needs.
336-312-8832
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Downtown design.
South Elm Street, Greensboro
PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY
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www.nussbaumcfe.com
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Supplements, herbs,
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by Nicole Crews
Firepit of the vanitiesMother:
What are you doing with all of those bras?
Me: I’m burning them in the firepit.
Mother: Oh God, are you being a
feminist?Me: No, they just give me bra fat.Mother: What the hell is that?Me: A byproduct of the Golden Age
of Vanity.
As I write I am literally flipped on a gurney at the plastic surgeon’s office and a coolsculpting tech is coming at me with a vise that looks like a cross between and octopus tentacle and a mammogram clamp — only this one sucks and pinches harder and lasts for a full hour. It’s a lot like having a snuffleupagus give you a hickey.
Me: Did they come up with this at Guantanamo Bay?
Tech: No, it’s actually called the “Popsicle Effect.” Researchers found that little kids who sucked on a lot of popsicles were losing volume in their cheeks.
Me: No way. You’re making that up. Who does popsicle research anyway?
Tech: I know, right. They also found
that women who rode horseback in cold climates on cold saddles lost fat on their thighs.
Me: That makes me want to ride horses in Alaska whilst eating a popsi-cle and open an ice hotel.
You see I’ve spent the past year pushing more push-ups than the ice cream truck all in the name of ridding my body of that charming entity of back and sideboob flesh that is the annoyance of many a female — and I’ve given up.
I’ve succumbed to the modern world of moderately invasive cos-metic procedures. In this case it’s coolsculpting and what it is, is a non-surgical fat-reducing treatment that freezes fat cells in specific areas and then they are naturally elimi-nated from your body. If it sounds like a magic wand, it’s not quite that gentle. It’s more like Manny Pacquiao going to town on said specific area. In brotherly empathy, I imagine it’s what getting kicked in the balls feels like.
It’s the price we pay for beauty. And it seems more and more of us are forking over dollah bills and enduring pain for it. We are living in the Renais-sance of Rejuvenation — or as I like to call it, the Kardashian Effect. More than 15 million surgical and nonsurgi-cal cosmetic procedures were per-formed in 2014 — up 4 percent from
the previous year, and ass implants doubled! Talk about more bang for your buck.
Hour 2 and one wing has been fro-zen, and we’re cold-jelling up the oth-er one for the ice chamber. I’m feeling a little silly worrying about something this dumb, but I rally when I think about how long it’s been since I’ve done something totally self-indulgent that will make me happy. My mother used to say, “Don’t forget to reward yourself,” so I’m doing it. I’m excited thinking about all of the strapless dresses I’ve avoided like MRSA over the last few years — and thrilled at slowing down on those gruesome push-ups.
Me: I finally won’t be hapless in strapless!
Viking: You ladies....Me: Hey you like the clean lines of a
boat. I like the clean lines of a dress. And I’d prefer not to look like a trussed up ham wearing it.
Viking: You don’t have anything to worry about.
Me: Well I won’t after this is over.
The procedure is actually not too bad once you’ve settled into it. It helps to distract yourself. (Try writing a column while being wrestled by a giant squid!) I think George Plimpton would approve, and more important-ly, Joan Rivers would be proud.
Frank Slate Brooks Broker/Realtor®336.708.0479 cell 336.274.1717 office [email protected]
1401 Sunset Dr., Suite 100 Greensboro, NC 27408
trm.info
Selling Lindley Park
ALL SHE WROTEALL SHE WROTE
mannysuniversalcafe.com321 Martin Luther King Jr Dr. • Greensboro
(336) 638-7788
Fresh food & natural ingredients from Margarita’s garden
Patio area available for gatherings & meetings
• Breakfast• Lunch• Dessert• Juice bar
• Wine• Packaged goods• Catering services
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Gate City Vineyard is a modern, Christian church that exists to serve the community around us. Our desire is to help people of all ages and back-grounds grow in their understanding of God.
At the Vineyard you can come as you are and be yourself.
Whatever your thoughts about church, whatever your beliefs about God … you are welcome here.
Sunday services @ 10:30am 204 S. Westgate Drive, Greensboro
(336)323-1288// gatecityvineyard.com
Graham HoltATTORNEY
Criminal • Traff ic • DWI
336.501.2001P.O. Box 10602
Greensboro, NC 27404ghol tp l lc@gmai l .com
greensboroattorneygrahamholt .com
2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensborogeeksboro.com • 336-355-7180
Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee!
Playing June 26 - July 2
8:30 pm Saturday — $2 tickets! EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT:
“Kurt Cobain: Soaked in Bleach”Daily Showtimes 7 pm (No 7 7 pm screening on Saturday) $5 Tickets!
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT: Studio Ghibli’s “When Marnie Was There”
Daily Showtimes 12 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm (No 7 pm screening on Saturday) — $6 tickets!
Anime Club: Hayao Miyazaki’s “Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro”10 pm Saturday! $5 ticket includes a FREE BEVERAGE!
TV CLUB: “Hannibal” 10 pm Thursday! Free Admission with Drink Purchase!
Lawnchair Drive-In Presents “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”
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