Sep 19-25, 2018
The Relatives, youth homelessness; Deniro Farrar, Charlotte/Carolina Film Fests; Joshua Cotterino; Bebo’s Mac Shack; Girlbage
Charlotte Resident Makes the Team on ‘The Voice’
NBC fan-favorite The Voice returned for its 15th season this week, rounding up a fresh crop of talented artists from all over the country. During last night’s premiere, judges and team leaders Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson and Adam Levine all scrambled to put together teams, generating stiff competition between judges. The fight for…
The House with a Clock in Its Walls: A Clockwork Lemon
THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS *1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Eli Roth STARS Jack Black, Cate Blanchett On the literary timeline, the source material for the new kid flick The House with a Clock in Its Walls existed long before Harry Potter received a letter offering him a chance to attend…
Life Itself: Love, death, and Bob Dylan
LIFE ITSELF ** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Dan Fogelman STARS Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde Written and directed by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Life Itself is the sort of sprawling, multigenerational saga meant to make audiences laugh, cry, and nod approvingly at moments they might recognize from their own roller coaster lives. Unfortunately,…
The Blotter: Scamming Season
Wholly Hell Somebody was presumably planning a fancy date night when they shoplifted from a Whole Foods store in the Weddington area of south Charlotte. According to the report, police were called when a suspect perused the aisles of the overpriced grocer then absconded with $1,000 worth of meat, beer, wine and cheese. That sounds…
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Solo: A Star Wars Story among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) GOLD (1974). A far better bet than 2016’s moribund Matthew McConaughey vehicle Gold, this one is an adaptation of bestselling author Wilbur Smith’s novel Gold Mine. Sandwiched between the releases of Roger Moore’s…
Listen Up: Seph Dot and Dammit Wesley Get Festive on ‘Local Vibes’
[In the photo, from left: Seph Dot, Mariah Scott, Dammit Wesley and Ryan Pitkin] The CLT hip-hop and black music scene has benefited from the launch of multiple new festivals over the past two years, including New Era Music Fest, Bla-Alt Festival, The Black Mecca and Bush Fest. For this week’s special episode, we brought…
News of the Wierd: Pure Entrepreneurship
Rude Awakening Former English soccer star Gary Mabbutt, 57, traveled to South Africa in July to visit his daughter, who works at Kruger National Park, but it wasn’t the exotic big game that left the most lasting impression on him. While he was sleeping, he later told the BBC, “… a rat has come into…
Charlotte Film Festival Features Distinct and Different Voices
“We like to call ourselves an umbrella festival,” Charlotte Film Festival programming director Jay Morong says. “If it’s a quality project that registers with our submissions team, then we’ll play it. We welcome everything.” “Everything” in this case encompasses over 85 films, including features, shorts, documentaries and narrative cinema, culled from submissions from over 35…
Salome’s Stars
Aries (March 21 to April 19) You might need to get more facts to help you work out those problems with your new project. As always, a friendly approach shows the charming Arian at his or her persuasive best. Taurus (April 20 to May 20) Information is what energizes ambition, and this is a good…
Former Tailgate Legend Found a New Calling with Bebo’s Mac Shack
Dennis Pless has been cooking since he was 6 years old, it just took him a while to decide he should do it for a living. In 2015, at 61 years old, Pless could be found outside Bank of America Stadium before every Panthers home game. He was running one of the most popular tailgates…
Small Plates, Bye Bye Dates
This past week, an old friend came into town for a quick visit. In her usual flair, she returned to the Q.C. with a bang. Day two, she was sighing aloud about how disinterested she was in traditional dating now that she’s relocated to Nashville. You know the deal: having dinner and going through the…
The Region’s Newest Film Showcase Features Short Subjects
By day, Oliver J. Crooms IV works for corporate America, but his true passion is film. “I’m a film buff and I wanted to leave a positive mark in the city I come from,” Crooms says. “I wanted to put together something that can highlight our community, something that can continue to build.” To that…
One Man’s Trash is Girlbage’s Treasure
Carol Johncock and Mary Clark have always been recycle-savvy sisters, but it wasn’t until they were making crafts at a retreat a few years ago and came across an owl made of buttons, scrap paper and other random materials that they realized the value of what some people call trash. “We saw this little owl…
Deniro Farrar Isn’t Back, He Never Left
When Deniro Farrar, local rapper and founder of the Cult Rap movement, walked into Common Market in Plaza Midwood on a recent Wednesday afternoon, there was something different about him that I couldn’t place at first. I had just seen him two weeks before at a Player Made party at Snug Harbor down the street,…
Local Center Provides Pathways to Stability for Homeless Youth
Jason Indenbaum, a case manager at On Ramp Resource Center, couldn’t wait to share his excitement about the recent success story of a client. After being stranded in Charlotte with no home or support system, the client was at The Relatives, a network of resources in Charlotte designed to connect homeless or unstably housed youth…
Joshua Cotterino Wants to Play Wherever You’ll Listen
Joshua Cotterino Loves a good rabbit hole. As soon as we finished our recent interview at Common Market, he turned the tables on me, asking what my favorite bands are. It was the same back-and-forth I had with Mark Hepp and Charles Ovett of Joules, another experimental act in Charlotte, following our interview two weeks…
Hurry, Hurry, Chimichurri
On the phone with a farmer friend the other day, I asked what he was making for dinner. It’s a question I often pose to farmer friends when I want to be inspired, because these folks are often the supreme authority on how best to use their product. Each meal is an opportunity to celebrate…
