Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 4.6 Pierre Bensusan – The master steel-string guitarist has a new album set for May, Altiplanos, that is a fine primer to his world-without-borders style. Equal parts classical, Celtic, jazz and African and Brazilian influences, it’s yet another in a long line of critical successes for the world-renowned Frenchman (Bensusan was born in Algeria,…
All My Stuff
I still have a picture on my refrigerator of Grant and Daniel dressed as cowgirls. I think everyone should have a picture like that somewhere prominent in their house, of two total fairies trapped in their adolescence. They each have enough makeup on their faces to fill a bucket, and fake boobs big enough to…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Apr. 6 Amos’ Southend Blind View w/ Blanco Diablo Breakfast Club DJ Boney B The Evening Muse Tosco House Party; Pierre Bensusan Excelsior Club Conversation Piece The Gin Mill Wizard’s Roadshow Graduate, Pineville Jared Allan & Co. Milestone Voice in the Wire w/ Ever we Fall, Drake Equation and more Neighborhood Theatre Acoustic Showdown…
Word On The Street
Chip Rosenblatt Accountant “The hat. Definitely the hat.” Sheila Terrell Beautician “The way his eyes would twinkle when he told women to stay in their place.” M.L. Short Auto Mechanic “The Popemobile! Did you know that thing’ll go up to 85 miles per hour?” Sara Brooks Arborist “The cute way he’d fall asleep when foreign…
A Feast of a Fest
Chaired by Martin Scorsese and prepared by artists such as playwright Ariel Dorfman and author Walter Mosley, Durham’s annual Full Frame Film Festival reveals the more artistic side of filmmaking generally lost in special interest fests running in the South. Screening over 100 films in a four-day period beginning this Thursday, the festival is known…
The Blotter
Meatpacking Marauder: A man entered a grocery store and started loading packages of chicken and steak in a cart. As one of the grocery store workers watched, the carnivorous crook then shoved the steaks down his pants, and exited the store without paying. As the employee approached the carnivorous cad outside, he pulled out a…
The War At Home
In his documentary Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, filmmaker Robert Stone deliberately keeps the spotlight off his leading lady. Stone never interviewed Patty Hearst, heiress to the Hearst publishing fortune who found notoriety in 1974 after being kidnapped by a band of radicals calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. In a twist stranger than…
See & Do
APRIL 06 – Wednesday The chill of death is definitely in the air when an aspiring composer nears the age of 30 — and he still hasn’t written the great American rock musical! Jonathan Larson, who eventually gave us Rent, is the protagonist in his autobiographical Tick… Tick… Boom! waiting on tables and making the…
Film Clips
New Releases MELINDA AND MELINDA The problem with Woody Allen these days isn’t that he’s run out of ideas; the problem is that he’s running out of ways in which to frame these ideas in compelling contexts. Melinda and Melinda starts with a typically inspired concept: Two playwrights (Wallace Shawn and Larry Pine) discussing whether…
Stargazer
Aries The Ram (Mar. 20 Apr. 19) The eclipse this week is especially noticeable for the Rams because it is occurring in your sign. Being a new moon, it represents a fresh beginning and a decision about your identity or appearance. Stay alert with tools or potentially dangerous activities because injuries to the head…
Of Manga and Manganese
Manga, a Japanese form of comic books, generally comes in large book-like volumes with series running from 9 to 13 volumes. In America, comic books sell about $1 billion a year. In Japan, where manga is considered an artform rather than merely a product, sales run around $5 billion a year. Manga is generally written…
The Agony & the Ecstasy
As the barefoot guy on stage walks over shards of broken glass, Mistress LunaSea runs an electrical shock device called a “violet wand” over the back and chest of a shirtless, skinny guy named Raven. Bright white/orange sparks arc from the multi-pronged tip of the wand to Raven’s pale skin, which is streaked with long,…
Introducing ArtsPulse
After winning the Loaf’s prize for Best Supporting Actress in a comedy, Donna Scott isn’t resting on her pesto. She’s staying busy both as a performer and a producer. Buoyed by the success of The Body Chronicles, which packed the SouthEnd Performing Arts Center for six straight evenings back in January, Scott-the-producer is plotting a…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Carolina Pro Musica Arts at the Abbey presents resident early music ensemble Carolina Pro Musica in Spanish Splendor: Music from 18th century Europe and South America. www.belmontabbeycollege.edu. Mon., April 11, 8 p.m. Free. Belmont Abbey Basilica, 100 Belmont-Mount Holly Rd., Belmont. 704-461-6813. Charlotte Symphony A performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Brahms’…
April Media Fools
You may not know media prankster Joey Skaggs but chances are you know his heirs: the Yes Men, the Newsbreakers and even Michael Moore. Why leave fake news and media scams to the White House, CBS News and the New York Times? Instead I say, “If you don’t like the news, make up some of…
Pit Stops
My dad used to say barbecue was hardwired to the family’s DNA. On family vacations he would drive 100 miles out of the way to visit a legendary barbecue pit set outside a refurbished gas station. We ate at Dreamland and Ollie’s in Alabama, Pierce’s in Virginia, and Lexington #1, here in Carolina. We had…
Discovery Place Returns To Modern World
Another Week Already Just when we thought Discovery Place was turning into Dogpatch before our eyes, a normal urban science museum snapped back into view. Last week, after taking a beating from non-Neanderthals for the decision not to show the IMAX film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea – at least partly due to the movie’s…
Upscale Yes, Snooty No
GRAND OPENING: Sunday, March 6, 2005 OWNERS: Sara Scheidler and Greg Zanitsch are partners along with Greg’s parents. Zanitsch, also the Executive Chef, attended the University of Cincinnati and the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont. This is their first ownership; the two have been residents of Charlotte since July of 2004. AMBIENCE: The Lucas…
The Many Phases of Jane
Jane Fonda may have quit acting when she married Ted Turner in 1991, but her retirement, like the marriage, didn’t take. Over the next month, the Oscar-winning actress/aerobics queen makes a splashy return to the pop culture limelight. She releases her memoir, My Life So Far, on April 5, then stars in her first leading…
Balcony Seating
Spring exudes its primal power on each of us and soon some of our thoughts turn to both the outdoors and romance. Except for those who suffer from deleterious pollen allergies, most would agree that spring is perhaps Charlotte’s premiere season. The weather is perfect: not hot, not cold. Just about this time restaurateurs start…
California Dreaming
The culture shock of returning to Charlotte after spending time in a foreign locale is always confusing. It’s even more discombobulating when that “foreign” place is in the continental USA. My wife and I recently returned from San Francisco, where I presented a paper about New Urbanism in North Mecklenburg to the national conference of…
Thinking Inside The Box
Once, at an outdoor concert, my corkscrew went missing. While my friends watched with horror, I banged the wine bottle’s butt flat against a tree until it spat out its cork. Thankfully, I won’t have to worry about corkscrews much longer. For the first time in history, we’re getting vintage-dated, high-end wines with “alternative” packaging,…
God Help Us
Looks like the shiny shoes uptown have decided to “fix” the schools the Charlotte Way. God help us. In case you’re new to the Queen City, let me get you up to speed. There are two versions of how the Charlotte Way to fix all problems works. In the public version, they pick a committee…
Wine List
Wine Classes Great for beginners. Every month on the first and third Saturday, 12:30-1:30pm. $15. Dean & Deluca Wine Room, 6822-G Phillips Place Ct. 704-552-5283. Wine Classes Decoding the Wine Label. Apr. 12, 6:30-8pm. $30. Mint Museum of Craft & Design, 220 N. Tryon St. 704-344-8027. Wine Classes Vine to Wine: Sample 8 wines from…
Squeezing The Little Guys
Mike Buffington publishes four weekly newspapers along the I-85 corridor in northeast Georgia. He’s also this year’s president of the National Newspaper Association, a trade group of small dailies and weeklies, many of which serve rural and ex-urban communities. “Some of our (NNA’s) publishers view any development as good development,” he says. “Whether that’s so,…
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…
Quality Time
It’s a study that only comes out once every five years, but it’s worth noting because it shows just how we “consume” media and how that keeps changing. It’s called the Roper Media Comparison study, and it charts how often we’re tuning in, reading or surfing various types of media. In 2005, Roper finds that…
The Teacher Is Back
They call him “The Teacher.” He’s one of hip-hop’s most influential figures, and the spiritual godfather if not outright founder of conscious rap, the politically and socially-aware wing of rap headed by artists such as Public Enemy, Talib Kweli, Michael Franti and De La Soul. He was born Kris Parker, but the world knows him…
News of the Weird
LEAD STORY: Defensive back Randall Gay wore a New England Patriots jersey as a member of this year’s Super Bowl-winning team, but when one of his former college professors tried to order a personalized jersey in tribute to Gay in mid-February, she was turned down. The National Football League’s official online merchandiser, NFLshop.com, refused to…
Inspiration Caught On Film
Jazz fans are usually so thrilled to see archival material returned to print in these heady days of DVD’s dominance that they are sometimes more forgiving than they should be. This short collection of songs features Miles Davis with his first famous quintet and Gil Evan’s orchestra, and is taken from Robert Berridge’s 1959 CBS…
Letters
A Scary Place Re: “Schiavo Lives!” by John Sugg (March 30), thank you, John, for your insight. It is refreshing to read essays that do not mince words. I have been troubled by the presence of Randall Terry throughout this debacle. I feel that he has controlled and organized the protests to “save Terri” by…
Sit & Spin
Damien Jurado On My Way to Absence Secretly Canadian Seattle-bred singer/songwriter Damien Jurado has had a somewhat spotty history. There’s the near perfection of 1999’s Rehearsals for Departure, then there’s the horrible pretension of Postcards and Audio Letters, a collection of mostly found answering machine messages that he released the following year. But then again…
Canine Culture
No matter how many cats they chase, rugs they soil or crotches they sniff, we’ll always love our dogs. With their unconditional affection and indefatigable “Yahoo, You’re Home!” enthusiasm, it’s impossible not to develop a real, heartfelt bond with our canine buddies. Lucky for us, Charlotte has plenty of doggie-friendly services for owners and pets,…
