Clean It Up For the New Year
At times when I’m tired of the uptown bar scene and don’t want to hear the thumpity thump thump thump all night, I’ll head to The Wine Vault. Good jazz, fine wines, good conversation, it’s a fun place. It was during one of my visits there, though, as I was standing in line waiting to…
Stop the Slaughter
My neighbor didn’t appear to notice the half-dead puppy she kept stepping over on her way up the porch steps. The woman had starved the puppy’s worm-infested, emaciated mother long enough that when I finally came looking for her puppies, I didn’t expect to find anything left alive. Instead, I found not one but two…
Hidden Meaning for the Masses
Let academicians claim a term for use in their endless categorizing, and there’s no telling what kind of paradoxes will arise. Take “modern,” for instance. Supposedly a simple adjective meaning contemporary or up-to-date, the professors have turned it into Modernism, and voila! — somehow it describes a historical period in art and literature between the…
Full-Tilt ‘Gin-yer
Nothing announces the holiday season like utterly meaningless college football bowl games. And since we’re a world-class city, Charlotte has its very own utterly meaningless college football bowl game, the charmingly named Continental Tire Bowl. The participants in this inaugural skirmish were the Universities of Virginia and West Virginia. If downtown streets Friday night were…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Chamber Music at St. Peter’s The First Tuesday at Noon Concert features the String Quintet in C Major, K. 515 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. There will be a repeat of the noon concert program at 5:30pm, marking the debut of the First Tuesday AfterWork Concerts. A reception will be held to celebrate the…
Best of the Blotter 2002
Through the years, the Police Blotter has remained one of the most popular and talked about features in Creative Loafing. Who knows why? You’d think a column that gives weekly lessons in how crooked, heartless or venal people can be would get depressing. But readers love it — and so do we. Who’s got time…
Sole Survivor
It is far more difficult to clone a successful restaurant than it is to copy that business plan at the copy shop. But when a restaurant opens in a neighborhood with not only a proven customer base, but an elephant-like memory, chances of success greatly improve. Judging by the line snaking out the door last…
News of the Weird
Spanking-good trial prep: In July, a federal judge ruled against lawyer Milo J. Altschuler (Seymour, Conn.), who claimed that his across-the-knee, bare-buttocks spanking of client Leslie Cerrato in his office was a legitimate trial-preparation tactic (and thus that when she recovered a $250,000 settlement against him for the assault, Altschuler’s insurance company should pay it,…
Tainted Wine
Skanky wine is truly a buzzkill. There’s nothing worse than anticipating a delicate, fruity flavor experience, then being hit in the nose with a foul smell. Yes, it happens. Really “corked” wine — musty, moldy smelling wine occurring after contact with a bad cork — is unmistakably odiferous, and occurs in 5 percent to 15…
Gettin’ The Goods
They say the Christmas season is a time to pause and reflect on the year that was. You read the Loaf’s picks of the best of 2002 last week. Being generous folk, we decided to ask a sampling of local music types for their picks of the best and worst of 2002. Some picked mind-blowing…
Transcending Cool
“I’m standing at a sale of the shoes of bankrupt men/I just had to buy a pair to show life can live again” — from “Nitcomb” by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros Odds are you’ve already read a couple other stories on Joe Strummer by now and don’t want to read another. That’s your choice.…
Music Menu
FRIDAY 1.3 David Childers — David Childers you probably know of, if you have lived in Charlotte for any period of time and like your songwriting direct, potent, and with a big ol’ dose of workingman’s sweat (often his own). Not a single verse sounds forced or calculated, much like the guys headlining this show,…
Sound Board
Wednesday, Jan. 1 Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Charleston Chops, Cornelius Kent Steel Coach’s Sports Bar Brandon O’Brien The Meeting House Restaurant John Alexander Trio Pewter Rose Tom Billotto, Jimmy Bookout, Donnie Marshall & Kathleen Ausley Puckett’s Farm Equipment Chicken Bone Sam’s Uptune Saloon Open Mic w/ Clee Laster & Chris Sheridan T-Bones, Lake…
Not The Same Old Song & Dance
Last rites for the movie musical were administered somewhere circa 1980, when the double-barreled blast of Can’t Stop the Music and Xanadu finished it off. Recent years, however, have seen the once-revered film genre taking its cue from the title of the 1945 Bela Lugosi cheapie Zombies On Broadway, clawing its way back from the…
Counting Down The Hours
The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA), comprised of 42 critics living in nine states (including North Carolina, with three members here in Charlotte), last week named The Hours as the Best Picture of 2002. This adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, featuring a dream cast led by Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman and…
Film Clips
CURRENT RELEASES ANTWONE FISHER “But what I really want to do is direct” is an age-old adage that has fallen from the lips of nearly every Hollywood employee from screenwriter to key grip, but because of their clout, it’s the members of the acting profession who get to realize this fantasy the most. The latest…
The Best Of Jim Hunt
You have to go back a long way to find a worse year than 2002. While the war on terrorism dragged on inconclusively, the economy started to tank while Bush & Co. geared up for war against Iraq. In Charlotte, we had our own share of homegrown terrors — and we’re not talking about the…
See and Do
JANUARY 1 WEDNESDAY If you’re tired of football, the SciFi Channel is hosting a Twilight Zone marathon continuing throughout the day on New Year’s Day. These are the black and white classics, hosted by Rod Serling himself. Among the episodes scheduled today are “The Dummy” at 6pm and “To Serve Man” at 9:06pm. “Time Enough…
Things We Didn’t Hear in 2002
OK, maybe we didn’t actually hear people say this stuff about some of the year’s biggest local news stories, but we know they thought it. In the interest of full disclosure, Creative Loafing has dug deep into the noggins of those directly involved in some of the year’s biggest stories to let readers know what’s…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser:I made the mistake of putting a $180 coat on hold at one of those hoity-toity, better-than-thou designer clothing stores. I was reassured by a “sales associate” that they’d hold the coat under my name for 24 hours. When I went back the next day, I was told by a different woman, whom…
Reporting On The Margins
Just a few weeks after Creative Loafing made the questionable decision to hire me as a reporter in the summer of 1998, my boss suggested I do a story about Charlotte’s basketball culture. The story was to focus not so much on the kind of basketball action found at the neighborhood YMCA or local gym,…
Stargazer
For All Signs This year begins with a Mercury retrograde in the sign of Capricorn. Global and national leadership will hesitate over decisions, ask for additional information, and may create a new PR story every day on the state of the world. It is interesting that this phenomenon will be repeated at the end of…
The Other Cold Weather Sport
The New Year’s resolution for the Charlotte Checkers has to be: Get more fannies in seats. But to hear team officials talk, rump roundup won’t be hard. Under new ownership this season, the Checkers are on the upswing with season tickets and sponsorships. But through their first 11 home games (as of December 24), the…
