I always wondered why we never heard from Carole Greenwood, former co-owner of Comet Ping Pong. No interviews? No defense of James? Early Pizzagate investigators had uncovered the interesting relationship between the two and the history of their eventual partnership. As usual, it involves art, art galleries (Strand on Volta), and restaurants. Here's what I found and am reposting:
Plus Ça Change...
TODD KLIMAN MAR 5, 2004
"When Greenwood, the sensuous, Berkeleyesque restaurant in Upper Northwest, shut its doors for a couple of months last year, rumors abounded. Would chef Carole Greenwood, whose restless soul had driven her to open three different incarnations of her restaurant in three different locations in less than 10 years, return with a fourth Greenwood in a new part of town?"
BUCK'S FISHING AND CAMPING
"An answer, of sorts, arrived in October, when the curiously named Buck’s Fishing and Camping opened its doors—the very same doors that once belonged to the old restaurant. In fact, aside from a couple of thematic touches, such as the large canoe above the canopied communal table in the center of the dining room, the new restaurant looks an awful lot like the old. And the chef’s sensual, personal cooking remains much the same:"
"In fact, there is a dramatic difference, though one perhaps undetectable to the casual observer: It’s the first time Greenwood, a self-described “control freak,” has ever ceded command of the business end. That task falls to James Alefantis, formerly of Johnny’s Half Shell, Greenwood’s new co-owner."
"Greenwood was, she says, as good as gone this past summer, determined to start over and begin a new life for herself as a full-time artist."
ART DEALER/ STRAND ON VOLTA
"It was Alefantis who drew her back. He was, he says, “maxed out” on his job at Johnny’s, longing to strike out on his own.
He took a step toward fulfilling his dream of greater creative autonomy when he opened an art gallery, the Strand on Volta, in Georgetown. He took another, unwitting step when, on the lookout for artists, he decided to become Greenwood’s dealer. When the gallery launched last May with a group show titled “Ground Work,” Greenwood was one of the three featured artists. A one-woman show of her pieces followed in September."
ALEFANTIS "ARRANGES" CO-RUNNING GREENWOOD
"she was essentially working two jobs at the restaurant but also that her rent there was “ridiculously high.”
He immediately got on the phone with her landlord to negotiate a new lease for her. There was only one hitch: If she wanted this drastically reduced rent, this lease without which he’d told her she couldn’t keep on doing business—well, she couldn’t keep on doing business as she was. Discussions revolved around a single, nonnegotiable stipulation: that Alefantis would be “actively involved” in the restaurant."
JAMES/CAROLE AND TEEN SON
"...having sublet her house in Mount Pleasant for the summer, Greenwood was now without a place to stay.....Alefantis stepped in, taking in Greenwood and her teenage son, Dylan, at his apartment in Georgetown. One Saturday, typically the busiest day of the week for a restaurant, Greenwood came down with food poisoning. As it happened, Alefantis had a rare night off and so, with an assist from Dylan, he took over the kitchen at Greenwood."
"Returning to cooking with Alefantis alongside her, she says, was a way to “make a more gradual transition” to her eventual life as a full-time artist."
"She may have agreed to let him adjust her prices to reposition the restaurant as a neighborhood eatery"
"She casts a glance at Alefantis. “Would I have stayed in Washington without a gallery show of my work?” She pauses. “No.”"
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/article/13028600/plus-ccedila-change
SHOWS AT THE STRAND
"Illicit Encounters" at Strand on Volta Owned by James Alefantis
"if you look up Strand on Volta... all the links are dead...
Weird."
"Artists, writers, politicos, lobbyists and educators gathered at Strand on Volta Gallery to celebrate the opening of cutting-edge works by three international video artists.....allery owner and restaurateur James Alefantis said "Moving images are so stunningly contemporary. It has been incredible to see the response of Washington art collectors to this art form." Media Ma ers for American President and CEO David Brock, lobbyists Heather and Tony Podesta, The American Prospect senior editor Garance Franke-Ruta, The Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles and Sculptor Jeff Spaulding were also spotted studying the video works displayed on TV screens and projected onto walls of the gallery."
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/5gtf4l/illicit_encounters_at_strand_on_volta_owned_by/
Strand on Volta Cuts In To Some Meaty Issues
By Michael O'Sullivan October 10, 2003
"ODDLY ENOUGH, amid all the images of flesh on view in Strand on Volta's latest group exhibition, shown along with examples of some less readily identifiable bodily tissue/fluid sculpted from molten glass -- teeth? a jawbone? sperm? tears? -- the word that springs to mind is not "meat" but "plastic." As in pliable, capable of being molded, able to deform continuously and permanently without rupturing."
"This is, I think, central to the point of "Meat and You," a smart if somewhat esoteric show organized by artist James Huckenpahler to underscore not only our relationship to meat but our embodiment of it."
"Meat, after all, is not so much a solid, static thing -- Frank Day's grotesquely lovely photos of pig feet and dried dog heads notwithstanding -- as it is a kind of energy."
"While the artist has been known to make installations that evoke, in no uncertain terms, bloody entrails draped over meat hooks, that's not what he's showing here. Sure, the hooks are still there..."
"MEAT AND YOU -- Through Oct. 25 at Strand on Volta, 1531 33rd St. NW. 202-333-4663. www.strandonvolta.com. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 4. Free."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/10/10/strand-on-volta-cuts-in-to-some-meaty-issues/8a433284-af01-4d27-aff1-2afd819a815b/?utm_term=.4e8646efdccf
"Meat and You: Works by Graham Caldwell, Frank Day, Stephen E. Lewis and William Newman"
2003-09-29 until 2003-10-25
Strand on Volta
"Frank Day�s images of animal fetishes are part of a larger series set in the West African city of Accra. His earlier work includes a study of the persistence of memory amidst the rebuilding of east Berlin in the 1990�s"
https://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/09/29/31401.html
"2003 GROUND WORK: Recent Work by Margaret Boozer, Carole Greenwood and Erin Root, Strand on Volta Gallery, Washington, DC"
http://www.zenithgallery.com/pdf%20resumes/Boozer,%20Margaret.pdf
MORE RESEARCH:
"James Alefantis used to own a DC Art Gallery named Strand on Volta! Now owns Transformer gallery. MUST SEE its disturbing!" https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1654738
David Ibata: I See A Darkness http://www.transformerdc.org/exhibitions/overview/exhibition-david-ibata-i-see-a-darkness
"Homage to Noble? Alefantis' knowledge of Art Brut suggests this poster, made for the weekly Sasha Lord Presents events at Comet Ping Pong, are referencing Satanist abuse.
But it goes deeper. Apparently, The University of London is the world's most important producer of art gallery curators. They are colloquially known as the "Courtauld Mafia". We can see fairly easily that they have graduates working at the TATE, MoMA, Guggenheim etc.
But the school, located on the Strand, seems to be some sort of dogwhistle, because Alefantis' old gallery--Strand on Volta--appears to be referencing the area. Not only that, but he refers to himself as James Strand Alefantis in the story. If one knew a thing or two about the art world, this would be an obvious reference." READ ALL!
http://svvordfish.blogspot.com/2018/01/explosive-new-evidence-links-tony.html
view the rest of the comments →
Oh_Well_ian ago
https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1649709
'So in Lake Volta there is an island called Dodi Island that is always referred to as a "tourist destination", but I can't figure out why. It appears to be the destination for a cruise, a party boat rides around the lake, stops at the island then rides back. There are also people living on the island, mainly children it sounds like. Here are a couple travel blogs about their visits to Dodi and both bloggers were confused by the children and write about how odd it was seeing the children and how the children would follow them around. http://archive.is/Ru987 http://archive.is/o4le8 But then there is this.... an article about a new hotel to be built on Dodi Island and the "Volta River Authority" logo is a freaking triangle inside a triangle with a swirl. http://archive.is/9gaN0 Here is the Volta River Authority website: http://www.vra.com/ http://archive.is/HZ9au The Volta River Authority board of directors: http://www.vra.com/media/2014/february/news_05.php http://archive.is/wFlQu'
septimasexta ago
GHANA WAS A HUGE SLAVE SUPPLIER FOR THE NEW WORLD, including America: "Just over the Adomi bridge is the unspoiled beauty of Peki Valley. It is the place where the Ewe of Dahomey (modern day Benin) migrated to. Once an important town in the slave trade as it linked the interior with the coastal towns, the area also has caves that sheltered slaves who managed to escape their captors. There’s so much to do– bike or walk from here to Lake Volta..."
"Set sail on the Dodi Princess The only cruise ship in the entire country traverses Lake Volta and, despite the name, predates the famously doomed relationship between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed. Built at the Tema Shipyard in 1977 and originally intended to haul cargo, it was converted into a passenger ship in 1991. It has three decks, with the lower one air conditioned, a cocktail bar, an area for barbecuing and even a sick bay. On a good day out, expect photo-worthy views, barbecue lunches and live music on deck. Just 5 km from the shores of Lake Volta is the popular stop, Dodi Island." https://theculturetrip.com/africa/ghana/articles/top-10-things-to-see-and-do-in-akosombo/
"Between the estuary of the Volta River and the kingdom of Benin, the famous Slave Coast became in the 18th century the most active zone of the slave trade. Beginning from the 1670s, the Bight of Benin underwent a rapid expansion of trade in slaves, which continued until the end of the slave trade in the nineteenth century. In the beginning of the 18th century, Agaja, ruler of the continental kingdom of Dahomey, undertook a set of conquests toward the ocean in order to have a direct hold on the Atlantic trade. Instead of the various animals as the chameleon, the lion or the fish, which his predecessors and successors had chosen as symbols of royalty, this atypical king had a ship as his emblem. Ouidah, the great sanctuary of voodoo, became the main outlet of the slave trade which has left some visible traces still visible today on the organization of the space, notably in Ganvié, a village where people had learned to live on the water in dwellings built on stilts. The Fon, also called Aja, were the builders of the kingdom of Dahomey. The Yoruba built the rival kingdom of Oyo and their dominions reached to the north the territory of the Hawsa. The Fon, the Yoruba also called Nago, and the Hawsa were among the most frequent ethnicities on Louisiana plantations." http://whitneyplantation.com/the-ivory-coast-and-gold-coast.html