Rock Critic As Geezer
Richard Meltzer is the author of two of my all-time fave rock books, The Aesthetics Of Rock and Gulcher, two visionary volumes highly influential upon many a budding young rock critic growing up in the 60s and 70s. When someone claims that Meltzer, along with peers Lester Bangs, Nick Tosches and Paul Williams, invented rock…
More Than Just Race
Last week’s election will probably go down in local history as the one where angry white suburban parents threw out black school board members who didn’t jump fast enough to fix overcrowded suburban schools. That’s unfortunate, because that’s not exactly what happened. Not that that matters. The community is already reacting to what they believe…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Mostly Mozart & Neighborhood Concerts Christof Perick conducting. Nov. 21 at Duke Family Performance Hall, Davidson; Nov. 22: First Baptist Church, Charlotte, 8pm. $15 general admission, $5 students. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-972-2000. Mozart Requiem Christof Perick conducting. Ute Selbig, soprano. Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor. Mark Risinger, bass. Oratorio…
Plowed Under
While transit planners work to put light rail along South Boulevard in motion, political leaders are quietly planning more local governmental involvement than has been previously acknowledged in the large-scale redevelopment of the South Boulevard transit corridor. If plans in the works come to fruition, the City of Charlotte could assume the role of developer…
Seize the Space
Outwit, outplay, outlast. The restaurant business is the ultimate survivor game with a notorious failure rate of 95 percent. Recently two local restaurateurs have overcome a series of plot twists that make some reality shows look wimpy by contrast. “We’ve learned our lessons,” said Bonnie Warford, co-owner of Carpe Diem Restaurant. “Don’t move into an…
CL Boosts Mountain Paper’s Readership
People in and around the Blowing Rock area were recently treated to a lively urban columnist’s work. Trouble is, they read it in the wrong newspaper. The column in question was “Chaste Mountain Whores” by CL columnist Quinn Cotton, published in our October 15 issue. In that column, Ms. Cotton observed that, in her view,…
Second Label Wines
Since I view craft winemaking as a worshipful art form, it’s depressing to realize that marketing plays a role in this beautiful symphony. But I guess even wineries have bills to pay. One little-publicized marketing tactic is selling a less expensive second label. Second labels allow wineries to make use of grapes that wouldn’t otherwise…
Letters
Why Blame Israel? In response to Charles Held’s claim that Israel is to blame for occupying so-called Arab lands (Letters, “Ignorant Warmongering,” Oct. 29), I am compelled to counter with the actual truth. Here are just a few facts to consider: Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, two thousand years before the rise of…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 400 S. Tryon St., 704-339-0303; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. All locations have different owners. A hint of the tropics; rotisserie chicken with Jamaican jerk sauce, ribs, Paradise Island fish special, curries, and Caribbean styled greens. $$ Azteca, 116 Woodlawn Rd., 704-525-5110; 9709 Independence Blvd., 704-814-9877; 1863 W. Franklin Blvd.…
Truths about Transit
Let me tell you two truths about transit: property values near rail lines increase; and everybody, even people who never ride the train, can benefit from lower property taxes. There’s a third truth: opponents of Charlotte’s light rail plans don’t want you to know these facts. Truthfully, I’d rather write on other topics, but our…
Pro N Con:
Pity poor Ryan Adams. He likes dating famous people only slightly less than Winona Ryder. He can get into (and perhaps owns a share of) just about any New York City club he damn well pleases. He drinks — often — with pals like Julian Casablancas of The Strokes. Sure, part of Adams’ persona seems…
School Bullies, Pt. 2
When kids threw bottles out the window of the school bus at her daughter Brittnay, Angel Mort begged Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) officials to switch her bus assignment, but they did nothing. When 12-year-old Brittnay pleaded with administrators at Bradley Francis Middle School for help because a group of girls was harassing, hitting and punching her…
Read The Label
They call themselves the “label for a movement.” They are a loosely linked collective of like minds, and they call themselves things like cLOUDDEAD, Telephone Jim Jesus, Sole, Doseone, Jel, Alias, and Why? They are Anticon, and they are one of the most consistently reliable indie hip hop labels in America. Like a religion, hip…
The Blotter
YO MAMA: After saying something rude about his friend’s mother, one young man called police to report that he’d been stabbed in the arm with a butcher knife by the friend. Reportedly, the mayhem was caused by comments about a UPS truck and the mother in a brown dress. GOOD GUYS FINISH LAST: When a…
What are you listening to?
Periodically, Creative Loafing will ask people in the public eye what particular music is floating their respective boats. Our first victim is Houston Brothers’ keyboardist Justin Faircloth. As the first contestant, Justin will be receiving a handsome home edition of “What Are You Listening To?” (with next week’s Creative Loafing.) So, Justin, what is it…
News of the Weird
Top gun: In October, West Point, Ky., hosted 12,000 visitors for the Knob Creek Gun Range Machine Gun Shoot, billed as the nation’s largest, with a separate competition for flame-throwers. Especially coveted is “The Line,” where 60 people (the waiting list is 10 years long to be admitted) get to fire their machine guns into…
Sit & Spin
Miles Davis The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions Legacy Recordings Miles Davis left a huge discography, with an amazing number of five-star recordings. Among those, A Tribute to Jack Johnson stands out. Just before it, Miles had released In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, groundbreaking albums that helped create jazz fusion and establish standards of…
Get up. Stand up.
Last Tuesday, I was in some kinda quandary. Roots rocker Steve Earle was in town, and the show was one I’d looked forward to — for a number of years, in fact. Earle’s last visit here was in 1988, though he did play the Double Door a few times in the early 80s with a…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 11.12 Cotton Blue Band — Rob Posey and Debbie Pasek are the principal players in this Charleston- based blues band. Posey can crank out Alvin Lee-style guitar licks, and his gruff vocals get mixed up with some harp blowing on the rockers and slow numbers. Buckhead Saloon (Shukla) Sole / Alias — Representing the…
Close The Window
Draft boards across America once sent legions of “willing” young men to Southeast Asia to meet exotic people and kill them. They’ve been little more than a bad memory since Congress abolished the draft in 1973, but a Defense Department website devoted to The War Against Terror has quietly begun a campaign to revive the…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Nov. 12 Baoding Robert Fernandez Blue Carl DiPonziano Buckhead Saloon Cotton Blue Band Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Coley’s Tavern Acoustic Soulution Double Door Inn Jabberwocky w/ Djinn The Evening Muse Vienna Teng w/ Brian Webb, Kyler Fat City Captured by Robots & Monsters of Japan Graduate, Dilworth Simplified Acoustic Main Street, Gastonia…
Swimming In A Sea Of Men
Every once in a while life, with a waggling finger, leads you down an unexpected path toward a totally different world. It doesn’t happen that often, but when it does it sure stands out. I took a surprising detour recently that brought back the memorable time when a few of us stoned college students wandered…
Master Of His Domain
Russell Crowe is back to being his old rough-and-tumble self again. Not off-screen (as hapless interviewers were relieved to discover), where the 39-year-old Aussie actor has earned a reputation as a periodically prickly sourpuss, but on-screen, in the new high-seas adventure epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Directed by fellow Down…
See & Do
NOVEMBER 12 – WEDNESDAY Embarking from the dark days of the slaveships and sailing toward the majesty of Ru Paul, The Colored Museum cruises through a satirical gallery of black experience and stereotypes. George C. Wolfe, famed for his Bring in “Da Noise, is our curator, and even the venerated Raisin in the Sun is…
Computer Glitch
The whole gang has returned for The Matrix Revolutions, the third and final chapter in the sci-fi series that began with 1999’s The Matrix and continued with this summer’s The Matrix Reloaded. Neo. Morpheus. Trinity. Agent Smith. Chewbacca. Jabba the Hutt. And so on. It may seem like I’m cross-pollinating characters from two popular fantasy…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Scurry In A Hurry When I meet a man, I like to get to know him over the phone for a week. If things go well, I’ll date him the following week. After several more weeks, I assume we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. The problem is, guys never seem to use those words at that stage.…
View From The Couch
JFK (1991). Upon its initial release, Oliver Stone’s best film probably graced more newspaper op-ed columns than any other picture in recent memory. It’s an extraordinary movie, not only in its technical prowess (the cinematography and film editing deservedly earned Oscars) but also in the way Stone is able to combine historical facts with his…
Stargazer
For All Signs Eclipses always occur in pairs. We had a full moon eclipse on Nov. 8 and will have a solar eclipse on Nov. 23. This period in between the two eclipses is known as an “eclipse season.” It is a time of change that allows for relief of critical mass. For many of…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES ELF It could stand to be a little more naughty and a little less nice, but Elf isn’t a pre-fabricated piece of synthetic Christmas cheer like The Santa Clause or Gov. Schwarzenegger’s disastrous Jingle All the Way. While remaining mindful of the season-friendly PG rating, director Jon Favreau and scripter David Berenbaum have…
Papa On Speed
Ernest Hemingway packed a rich lode of living and writing into his nearly 62 years. The writing fed off his life experiences, but it didn’t drain his zest for storytelling. Anecdotal accounts by friends and family attest to Hemingway’s self-assured skills as a raconteur, and published interviews substantiate the hype. Barreling through life, “Papa” seemed…
The New Peacocks
“. . .It is my conviction that longer hair and other flamboyant affectations of appearance are nothing more than the male’s emergence from his drab camouflage into the gaudy plumage that is the birthright of his sex. There is a prevailing notion that elegant plumage and fine feathers are not proper for the male. But…
