Rep´s Clumsy Lockdown
In the end, Charlotte Repertory Theatre was so depleted – and so incompetent – that they didn’t even know how to say goodbye. Their valedictory press release, suffused with the maudlin negativity that has marked the company’s actions for the past 16 months, came out Saturday morning just before 10am. Faceless, gutless, and bitter. For…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 2.23 ANN RABSON — Rabson has been playing and singing the blues since, whoa, 1962! She’s a member of the rollicking female blues combo Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women and also performs solo and with various other bands. Her new record, In a Family Way, hits the racks this week and is a…
Through the Desperate Labyrinth
Perhaps the best thing about the ill-defined genre of travel writing is that smart writers sometimes visit bad places. Not “bad” as in a lack of ATMs or dismal standards of customer service, but bad. Think military governments, clockwork coups waged by Uzi-toting 10-year-olds and forced female circumcision. It’s enough to make the actual Age…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Feb. 23 Breakfast Club DJ Boney BCharlotte Coliseum Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer BandComet Grill Open Mic w/ Bill McDonaldDouble Door Inn Airstream w/ Andre Farrari The Evening Muse Ann RabsonFire & Ice Lounge Rare Groove w/ D.R. & BuddyThe Gin Mill Wizard’s Road ShowManchester Tavern, Rock Hill Rayen BelchereMilestone From a Second…
CL Recommends
St. Dale by Sharyn McCrumb (Kensington). McCrumb, who has proven many times she knows her way around the South, has produced a rollicking tale, very loosely based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, about a group of people embarking on a Dale Earnhardt Memorial Tour to leave a wreath at every track between Bristol and Daytona in…
Wings of Desire
With no hobbits in sight, don’t expect this year’s Oscars to resemble one long siesta. Between The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King going 11-for-11 and all the favored actors taking home statues, last year’s shindig was, to put it mildly, short on surprises and excitement. Handicapping the awards proved to be…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music First Tuesday Concerts Chamber Music at St. Peter’s will present Boccherini Quintet for Guitar and Strings. The Noon Concert begins at 12:10pm and the AfterWork Concert begins at 5:30pm. www.chambermusicatstpeters.org. Tue., March 1. Free. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 115 West 7th St. 704-335-0009. Old Maid and the Thief One-act comedy presented by the…
View From The Couch
DONNIE DARKO: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (2004). A cult film in the truest sense of the term, 2001’s Donnie Darko was thrown away by its distributor but ended up finding its audience on home video and at midnight screenings (yes, some US cities still have ’em). Its audience base continues to grow, and not quietly, either:…
The French Connection
During my last visit to Paris, I did not forgo a single meal. In the mornings, a dazzling array of baked goods at the local patisserie beckoned; at noon, we enjoyed a heady lunch at a bistro, wine included. At dusk, we strolled to a neighborhood restaurant and indulged in a remarkable repast complete with…
Film Clips
New Releases DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN Watching this adaptation of Tyler Perry’s popular stage play is akin to channel surfing between showings of Soul Food and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps – with an occasional flip over to The Jeffersons for good measure. Gorgeous Kimberly Elise (The Manchurian Candidate) gets to display her…
A Blueprint For Cooking
Long hours in the kitchen and at the restaurant can leave a chef with little time to think about his own meals. Take, for example, Martin Heller, Executive Chef and General Manager of LaVecchia’s Seafood Grille. Heller begins every day with a bowl of cereal. “I usually mix two or three cereals together,” he reveals.…
Thousand Dollar Baby
About the time I was touching gloves with a woman 15 years older than me, I realized my college life differed from that of most liberal arts students. Two thousand and five-hundred West Virginians were screaming, “Beat the shit outta her!” and “Eat her up, Cannibal!” I was a tough woman in the female segment…
Small Is Big Time
A table set with a mass of small plates is the trend in 2005. Clearly the Phoenicians, today’s Lebanese, started the delightful custom of small plates with their leisurely paced mezza. This meal includes an abundant selection of hot and cold plates. Servers deliver a parade of plates: olives and small nuts, trays of fresh…
A daughter who deserves choices
My most terrifying moment in decades slammed into me like a runaway 18-wheeler on Feb. 1 at 6:14am. Nurses at Egleston Children’s Hospital on the Emory University campus in Atlanta wheeled my 14-year-old daughter Amy away for major surgery. Any parent knows the feeling — the point at which you’re helpless to aid a child…
How to get your kitchen groove back
One of the most frequently asked questions I hear from aspiring cooks goes something like this: “I’m in a cooking rut. At the end of the day, I can’t get excited to make more than a bowl of cereal. What should I do to get unstuck?” At some point, we all get stuck in the…
Dances with Salmon
Sherman Alexie is one funny Indian. He is the author of 16 books of fiction and poetry, notably Indian Killer, Reservation Blues, Ten Little Indians, The First Indian on the Moon, and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, part of which became the script for the poignant 1999 movie Smoke Signals. Mr. Alexie,…
Need A Jolt?
You say you’ve got the mid-winter doldrums? That you just can’t get yourself motivated? That Seasonal Affective Disorder is bringing you down? Is that what’s troubling you, bunky? Well, just pop open the tab on a Power Drink or tear the wrapper off a Power Bar, and you’ll be up, up, up and away to…
Good News!
Unless you were in a coma, there was no way you could have missed the joyful news blasted from every corner of the county last week: Residential building permits in the Charlotte “area” were up by 14 percent in 2004, according to data released last week by the US Department of Commerce. It’s a sign…
Here Comes The Bridle
I’m 50, and in a stormy, three-year relationship with a woman, 45. Our arguments now are mostly about her salsa lessons. Since seeing a therapist, I’m OK with her lessons, and even offered to take them with her, but she still wants to go to Latin nightclubs by herself and dance with other men! When…
All Ports In The Storm
Like brussels sprouts, port is an acquired taste. The robust unctuousness of dark grape juice tinged with dried fruit might affront the senses in the beginning, but once you realize its magnificence, ooh … the warming pleasure it can bring. Since it’s higher in alcohol, you sip, not slurp, port and it’s versatile, too -…
Awards Shows
True story: my sister and I used to wad up newspaper into balls and put them in a laundry basket every year in preparation for the Grammy Awards. As we saw ludicrous winners in the wrong categories, “thwack” would go the wads hitting the TV screen, and sometimes, a hail of crumpled classifieds would sail…
(Not) Lost in Translation
One of the best ways to keep from getting tired of local nightlife is to throw yourself a curveball now and then. Every idea you pitch to yourself look like a softball right down the middle? Tired of seeing the same old people at the same old places telling the same old stories ad nauseum?…
Wine List
Wine Classes Coolest Climates: New Zealand, Washington, Alsace and Oregon wines. Mar. 1, 6:30-8pm. $30. Mint Museum of Craft & Design, 220 N. Tryon St. 704-344-8027. Wine Classes Grape Expectations Part 1. Sample 8 wines from around the world. Mon., Feb. 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m. $20. Total Wine & More, 1600 East Woodlawn Ave. 704-295-9292. Wine…
News of the Weird
The Eternal Temptation: The Roanoke (Va.) Times reported on Jan. 17 that a Wytheville police officer had to rescue a 9-year-old boy who, with time on his hands waiting for a school bus on a “bone-deep cold” morning, decided to find out what would happen if he licked a metal pole. While awaiting someone to…
You will die
Daniel tells me to shoot him through the head when he gets old enough to wear adult diapers. “Me, too,” says Grant. “Just make it quick,” they tell me, and precise, adds Daniel. “I don’t want that bullet to richochet off my jaw and come out my eye socket. I’m not leaving no messy corpse.”…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 6434-F West Sugarcreek Rd., 704-598-6863; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. 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. (Gastonia), 704-866-7574. A favorite of…
Letters
Schools: Think Small Your article “Low Performing Schools” (by Tara Servatius, Feb. 2) indicates not much has changed in local education. As I once pointed out in a 1995 letter to the Observer, of the many solutions proposed for easing education problems in CMS, the one that was sure to work — indeed the only…
Minor Offenses
Anne V. Dizikes Antiques Dealer “Only if they also try the videogame makers who gave them the idea to commit the crime to begin with.” Nelly Keeler Tax Accountant “Depends on how loud their music was playing when the crime was committed. The boomier the bass, the longer the sentence.” Jason Surratt Financial Analyst “No,…
All In the Family
For the last 47 years, Del McCoury’s been on the road, singing high and lonesome, no matter the circumstances. But some nights, things are too much for even this old pro. “My dad, he’s got something,” says Ronnie McCoury, explaining why Del will do the show tonight but isn’t feeling up to an interview. “The…
The Blotter
Assault With Battery: While walking down a street in his neighborhood, a young man was approached by a car with several passengers. The car pulled up alongside him, and the driver beckoned him over. As the man approached the car, one of the passengers in the backseat threw a battery at the young man, striking…
East Dallas Forty (Ounce)
The Von Ehrics Guys in touring punk rock bands – sweaty, hungover, and tired of wearing the same clothes for two weeks straight – tend to swear a lot. As do guys in touring hardcore country bands. By God, combine a touring hardcore country band with a punk band and you have a recipe for…
See & Do
23 – WEDNESDAY Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s powerful production of A Lesson Before Dying, Romulus Linney’s adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines’s award-winning novel, continues through this weekend. The play, which takes place in the segregationist South of 1948, is directed by Sidney Horton and stars Nicholas Johnson and Terrell Dulin. The theatre is at 650…
MoRisen’s New Horizons
MoRisen’s The Alternative Champs: In it for the ladies It’s been an eventful stretch for local label MoRisen Records, and the horizon still seems a long way off. Back in October of last year at the annual CMJ Music Marathon in New York City, three MoRisen bands — Elevator Action, The Talk and Snatches of…
Stargazer
Pisces – The Fish (Feb. 18 – Mar. 19) Venus enters your sign this week and will be traveling “with you” through Mar. 21. Her presence gives you an air of poise and beauty. Often when Venus is prominent we become more interested in art forms or have a desire to improve our appearance. For…
Sit & Spin
CLEM SNIDE END OF LOVE SPINART So far, Clem Snide’s greatest claims to fame have been a song used for the theme on the NBC show Ed (“Moment in the Sun”), and their underground quasi-hit, a deadpan cover of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful.” But they are much more than ironic, winking indie boys. Their fifth long…
