Saturday, May 19, 2012
Arts Variety in Pretty Things Peepshow
Posted by Anita Overcash on Sat, May 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM
For those who don't get enough skin at The Light Factory's Crazy Horse screenings, The Pretty Things Peepshow is like a little carnival for adults. The traveling burlesque/vaudeville-style act is filled with dazzling ladies and twisted (or, as stunt skeptics would say, trickery) tidbits.
This includes aerialist swinging, sword-swallowing, knife-throwing/juggling, execution blade box demos and more. The only thing that seems to be missing is clowns (but, really, we'll survive). $10. May 19, 9 p.m. Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. 704-358-9298. www.neighborhoodtheatre.com.
Arts Touchdowns for a cure
Posted by Anita Overcash on Sat, May 19, 2012 at 9:00 AM
Red heads may be slightly offended by the upcoming Blondes vs. Brunettes football showdown. The event's flyers don't exactly specify what team gingers fall into or if they can participate at all.
In any case, hair bias complaints are of little real concern. The female-only game raises money for the Alzeheimer's Association. May 19, 5 p.m. Revolution Park, 2425 Barringer Drive. For more information, visit www.bvbcharlotte.org.
Arts Go green
Posted by Anita Overcash on Sat, May 19, 2012 at 7:00 AM
The Charlotte Clean and Green Festival doesn't deny its potential to turn ordinary citizens into environmentally friendly fighting machines. You'll hear fascinating lectures and participate in hands-on workshops and exhibits, offering up knowledge on everything from solar panels to organic farming.
There's no way you'll get out without having learned something new or found a new eco-purpose. Need more incentive? A number of food vendors, including local farm-to-table eatery Harvest Moon Grille, will be there. Free admission. May 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Little Sugar Creek Greenway, Kings Drive and 4th Street. For more information, visit www.charlottecleanandgreen.com.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Arts Spelling Precocity, Part Deux: Eleemosynary
Posted by Perry Tannenbaum on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 4:15 PM
If the hardships, neuroses, oddities, hormones, and fractured usage examples of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee have you hankering for more hot orthography action, there is balm in Ballantyne. At the crossroads of Ballantyne Commons Parkway and North Community House Road, in an outdoor business/shopping mall that looks a lot like a motel, the new Ballantyne Theatre is serving up Lee Blessing's Eleemosynary. Up you go on the sluggish little elevator to the second floor, where the theater faces the veranda like a beauty shop or a doctor's office.
No, Eleemosynary isn't a musical in the compact studio space seating around 50, and only one of the three Westbrook women we meet is a speller: nerdy Echo (nee Barbara) has been shaped by her stay-away mother and her space cadet grandma, but she's amazingly unwarped. As a speller, a finalist in the National Spelling Bee, Echo has game; and as a narrator, she has vocabulary.
The family's troubles stem from grandma Dorothea's willful eccentricities, a device she has used for her personal liberation. Her daughter Artemis, nicknamed Artie, is the pawn in these eccentricities, prevailed to don angel wings and goggles to prove Dorothea's contention than man — and woman — can fly. Eventually, Dorothea's overbearing weirdness drives Artie away. But as the younger Westbrooks gather around a failing, incapacitated Dorothea, it becomes clear that Echo has a taste for all the quirkiness that scarred her mother. Including those moldering angel wings.
Directed by Chip Caldwell, this Eleemosynary avoids the coldness of Charlotte Rep's 1990 production and the New Age vibe of the 2003 version by BareBones Theatre Group. The secrets to these changes are in the relatively straightforward design elements and in the portrayal of Artemis by Martina Logan. Previous interpretations of this pivotal role had the traumatized Artie cold and seemingly incapable of love — or, in her career of biochemical research, barricading herself from love behind a wall of rationality.
Logan gives us an emotional Artie, one who is afraid of loving her Echo because of what her own mother's love has done to her. Not only does this shift work well, it seems altogether justified — for we learn late in the drama that Artemis has sibling brothers, all of whom shun their mother more completely than she does.
Grandma and granddaughter are done more as I expected. As Echo, the director's daughter Kat Caldwell doesn't address us with the smooth self-assurance of a stand-up comedian or a gameshow host, but that's all to the good when we're taking in a maladjusted kid. Linda Healy Vespa can summon up the requisite sternness that is sometimes required of the domineering Dorothea, but she also understands that the secret of this crackpot's appeal isn't to be conjured up by bumbling or flapping around. Her secret is a slightly manic serenity, so winsome that you may wish to try on those angel wings yourself.
News / Opinion Dunce of the Week: James O'Keefe
Posted by Ana McKenzie on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 3:19 PM
I'm in the business of facts. Numbers, names, quotes - if I get 'em wrong, I'm at the mercy of my editors, sources and audience (particularly all you lovely online commenters).
Sadly James O'Keefe's lies probably just inspired his followers.
The conservative filmmaker's latest endeavor "exposed" voter fraud in North Carolina when he claimed two non-citizens, Zbigniew Gorzkowski and William Romero, had voted in recent elections, according to ThinkProgress.org. Trouble is, Gorzkowski and Romero are citizens.
Film / Film Reviews Weekend Film Reviews: Battleship; The Dictator; What to Expect When You're Expecting
Posted by Matt Brunson on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 1:26 PM
- Universal
- Battleship
Click on the title to be taken directly to the review.
Arts Masters of movement
Posted by Anita Overcash on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 10:30 AM
Choreographer Alvin Ailey brought diversity to the world of modern footwork with his Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a multi-racial troupe formed in 1958 in New York City. Since his death in 1989, the group has garnered consistent critical acclaim.
The group visits Knight Theater for a run of performances - under the eye of newbie artistic director, Robert Battle - that will include a repertory of new and old material alike. From the Ailey archives: "Memoria," "Streams," and the spirited popper, "Revelations" - a signature piece documenting African-American spirits from slavery days through freedom with gospel and blues boosters.
Several other choreographers, including Battle, Paul Taylor, Rennie Harris, Joyce Trisler, Ulysses Dove and Ohad Naharin, will also showcase their latest works. Sets vary; see Blumenthal's show description for more details. $39.50 and up. May 18, 8 p.m., May 19, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. and May 20, 3 p.m. Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. 704-372-1000. www.blumenthalarts.org.
Arts Flashy footage in Crazy Horse
Posted by Anita Overcash on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 10:00 AM
If a documentary on a strip club sounds a little risqué, that's at least part of the point in Crazy Horse, which screens as a part of The Light Factory's First Run Films. Still, acclaimed filmmaker Frederick Wiseman goes beyond the prurient glitter and glam by exploring the history and context of the legendary Parisian cabaret that focuses on art as much as on boobs and butts.
In addition to requisite shots of naked dancers, Wiseman captures behind-the-scenes footage of the French landmark, which is up there with the Louvre and Eiffel Tower as things you must see in gay Paris.
$5-$7. May 18, 7:30 p.m. and May 19, 7:30 p.m. The Light Factory, 345 N. College St. 704-333-9755. www.lightfactory.org.
News / Opinion Mike Evans' dirty politics
Posted by William E. Jackson Jr. on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 8:39 AM
I do not know how many TV stations in America ran Mike Evans' one-and-a-half-hour propaganda program, presented here the weekend before the N.C. primary on WBTV. It was a clear demonstration of the extreme alliance between right-wing Christians in America and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. Never mind that these same Christian zealots envision the ultimate liquidation of Jews in Israel!
Seldom have I seen such a hyper mixture of religion and politics as this laced-with-fiction attack upon the White House and President Obama. The only comparable schtick in my memory - about which I wrote an op-ed for the Charlotte Observer when I was on the faculty of Davidson College - was Billy Graham's effusive Coliseum salute to Richard Nixon (and vice versa) repeatedly shown on the same WBTV station, when President Nixon visited Charlotte late in his first term - October 15, 1971 - during the Vietnam War. Graham: "Many times I have gone to the President and proposed a course of action against his enemies; and he has said to me: 'No, Billy, that would be wrong.' At that moment, he was the preacher, and I was the sinner!" (sic)
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Friday
Posted by Anita Overcash on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, May 18, 2012 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
* Recollection exhibit at MoNa
* 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Theatre Charlotte
* Forecasting Fashion Trends at Mint Museum Randolph
* Conscious Movie Night, screening The Last Mountain at Center of Light
* Frankie Paul at The Comedy Zone Fort Mill
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Today's Top 5: Friday
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