The Blotter
Prince Charming: A woman received several threatening phone calls from a man on whom she had taken out multiple warrants. During one call, the jailbird threatened, “You think people don’t get out of jail? If I see you anywhere in Charlotte, it’s on.” Ill-Gotten Illumination: Someone broke into a warehouse and stole over $500 worth…
Stamey: Road Warrior Redux
For a guy who spent the last decade in the musical equivalent of the coach’s box, Chris Stamey sure doesn’t screw around when he gets back into the game. The 50-year-old Carolina native and founder of seminal alt-pop acts dB’s and Sneakers stepped out from behind the mixing board of his Modern Recording studio in…
Letters
Enraptured I can appreciate John Sugg’s viewpoint and only hope he reads this entirely as I did his article (“Rapture Politics,” April 20). First off, I think his style of writing is excellent. He has great wit and he is exceptional at playing on words. All that being said, my favorite quote is “the surest…
See & Do
May 05 – Thursday Seems like we’re in for a wild ride whenever contemporary theater makes one of its infrequent sojourns in the American Southwest. Lynn Siefert’s Coyote Ugly, set in a squalid shack out in the Arizona desert, is no exception, mixing raunchy humor and explosive violence in its incestuous rattlesnake coils. BareBones Theatre…
Hot Young Priest turns heads
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It’s been quite a while since my last confession, and I’ve been having impure thoughts lately; lot’s of ’em, in fact… What kind, my child? Spare no details, now, God hears all, and since I am his emissary here on Earth … To begin with, I’ve started a…
Stargazer
Taurus The Bull (Apr. 20 – May 19) You may be discouraged or feel somewhat overwhelmed as the week begins. Your energy level and possibly your attitude will be droopy through the 7th. Take some extra time to sleep. This is a temporary downer and should not be taken too seriously. For All Signs There…
Sit & Spin
Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy JagJaguwar With each new Okkervil River record, Will Sheff’s feral yowl and passionate prose grow more adept at undoing his listeners’ defenses — especially knee-jerk cynicism — and cinching their heartstrings to the music’s roiling emotions. Credit has to go to the rest of the band on Black Sheep Boy…
A Many-Splendored Plaid
By the time the fictional Plaids hit the road to pick up their mythical tuxedoes on February 9, 1964, nearly seven years have passed since Elvis Presley recorded “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” – in Hollywood for his third feature film! So the protagonists of Forever Plaid are very square indeed, having spent…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 5.4 These Arms Are Snakes – If you took the cloying melodicism out of emo, and replaced it with the tight militaristic rhythms of Helmet, you’d have These Snakes Are Arms. The angular guitar builds and folds in on itself like a math rock act, and at its best moments there is a creepy,…
Re-learning the Enemy
Black Virgin Mountain: A Return to Vietnam By Larry Heinemann (Doubleday, 192 pages, $22.95) Larry Heinemann’s memoir of his return to Vietnam couldn’t be more timely. Heinemann is the award-winning author of two war novels, Close Quarters and Paco’s Story, tales which stem from his own experiences as a soldier in Southeast Asia in the…
Soundboard
Wednesday, May 4 Amos’ Southend Badfish Sublime Tribute Breakfast Club DJ Boney B Comet Grill Pervis & Sonya Lee Double Door Inn Airstream w/ Andre Ferreri The Evening Muse Tosco House Party w/ Tracy Jane Comer Excelsior Club Jo Jo’s Music Mix Fire & Ice Lounge Ladykiller Irish Cue, Cornelius Gabe and Friends Neighborhood Theatre…
Women in New Comics
Femforce: Time Storm (AC Comics) Witchblade: Revelations (Image Comics) GALS! (DC Comics) Clark Kent saved the spunky Lois Lane early on in the Superman series, and since then the role of woman as victim has been one of the prime shticks of the comics industry. From the 1960s on, however, women gained a second role…
View From The Couch
DARKNESS (2002). Perhaps inspired by the success of fellow countryman Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others, Spain’s Jaume Balaguero likewise wrote and directed a horror yarn filmed on European locations but cast with English-speaking actors. Kept on the dusty shelf by Miramax Pictures, the film was finally released this past Christmas as an alternative to holiday fare…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Nova Voce A women’s choral ensemble dedicated to the art of women’s voices in ensemble singing will present their spring concert. www.novavoce.org. Sat., May 7, 8 p.m. $10-$12. Myers Park United Methodist Church, 1501 Queens Rd. 704-577-6273. Reach Out Chamber Music at St. Peter’s Outreach Concert Festival. May 5 (7pm), International House, 332…
Film Clips
New Releases HOUSE OF D Maybe not a “D,” but this coming-of-age yarn from writer-director-actor David Duchovny certainly rates no better than a “C.” The former X-Files star here plays Tom Warshaw, an American artist living in Paris who flashes back on a pivotal time during his childhood years in Greenwich Village. Thirteen-year-old Tommy (appealing…
America Says Cheese
First we became interested in artisan breads and gave up the squishy sweet white stuff for densely flavored focaccia. Then, we doubled our consumption of wine during the past 10 years. Now Americans are rediscovering cheese. I’m not sure if other cultures have reduced cheese to an aerosol can as we have, but certainly the…
Hey, Pols!
The whole world is about three drinks behind. — Humphrey Bogart How did it come to this? When was it decided that the dorks and the squares, the button-down mediocrities for whom a third Friday-night beer is the height of excess, would be calling the shots? Who empowered these tee-totaling chumps, these jogging health fascists…
Do Something Special
You could, of course, take Mom to the traditional Sunday buffet for Mother’s Day. This brunch has become a tradition in many families. But if your mom is less traditional, or just more creative, you may want to pair the meal with one of her passions or interests. You could buy her flowers. If the…
Club Owners
We asked various Charlotte restaurateurs and club owners what they think of the proposed smoking ban in Charlotte restaurants and clubs. Following are some of their comments. Penny Craver from Dish and Amos’: “My mother’s family raised tobacco for many years. They were farmers and I am proud of farming, especially tobacco farming, because it…
American Beauty
OWNER: Pierre Bader, also owner of Sonoma Kitchen and Town. Executive Chef Tim Groody maintains his title at Sonoma Kitchen and Town as well. AMBIENCE: Sonoma Modern American, not to be confused with the newly renovated Sonoma Kitchen, evokes a trendy uptown feel with a twist of classy chic. With a bold modern color palette…
Nickel and Dimed
Mecklenburg County’s criminal justice system is so under-funded, understaffed and chaotic that some defendants who commit minor or nonviolent crimes are lingering in our county jail for months — and in some cases, perhaps even a year — before their trials. That in turn is running up the county taxpayers’ bill for unnecessary incarceration at…
Tea For Mom & Me
The house of my childhood was a bit like the set of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” An upright piano, painted in a shade of Pepto pink, took center stage in the dining room. The kitchen counters, instead of being used for chopping vegetables, were taken up by a vintage milkshake maker and a glass jar of Christmas…
Life Inside The Ozone
As the temperatures heat up, so does concern about the air we breathe. Already, air in one county near Charlotte has registered enough ozone this year to potentially cause health problems. Rowan County, downwind from its larger neighbor Mecklenburg, exceeded federal ozone standards three days in a row last month, according to local officials. The…
The Secrets of the Pyramids
Last month, the USDA introduced its new, improved Food Pyramid, designed to give all of us lazy nutrition-numbskulls guidelines on how to eat healthier. This is the first overhaul for the Food Guide Pyramid since 1992. In those 13 years, Americans have evidently paid a lot of attention to that dietary icon, since many of…
Racist Tide Still Swelling
This is how it was reporting on the South 40 years ago. Bill Minor, a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayne, was dispatched to Philadelphia, MS. The story: 400 whites had surrounded the Neshoba County courthouse and were attacking two television camera crews. “You had to be careful,” Minor recalled recently as we sat in…
Mail Bonding
This quarterly column lets you talk back. And talk you have. Your letters are getting feistier and funnier. Keep it up, my fanatical wino friends. Ask or air by e-mailing corkscrew@creativeloafing.com. Tired of Sideways “M.” sent this hilarious note: “WINEBORG: One who stops drinking merlot simply because of the movie Sideways. See also: WINEBOT.” Languid…
A Different World
Imagine you live in a place where the mayor publishes a blueprint for a sustainable city, one that nurtures and harvests its urban, economic and environmental resources to live within its means today and pass on a clean, vibrant city to subsequent generations. This city already has plans that enhance economic development in concord with…
A Walk on the Historic Side
A lot of you Queen City newcomers may not be aware of Charlotte’s Downtown transformation. Over the past decade or so it has slowly but surely gone from a crime-ridden ghost town to a happening hot spot with lots of restaurants, bars and residential options. There is also a plethora of interesting and historic little…
Wine List
Carolina Wine Club Monthly meeting, wine tasting and cooking demonstration. Piedmont Natural Gas Building, 4901 Yancy Rd. www.carolinawineclub.com. Thu., May 12, 6:30 p.m. $20-$25. 704-344-8027. Wine Classes Ordering wine in a restaurant. May 3, 6:30-8pm. $30. Mint Museum of Craft + Design, 220 N. Tryon St. 704-344-8027. Wine Classes Great for beginners. Every month on…
The End of the Road For Raymundo
Somehow, somewhere, Raymundo Espinoza Pineda earned the money he spent to fill up his gas tank and get drunk last Friday. Police records show that Pineda, who was in this country illegally, has been hanging around the Charlotte area since at least June 2004, when he was last charged with drunk driving. Logic tells us…
Lush Bucket
A few nights ago Grant got blotto drunk and then threw his back out barfing afterward. God, I am so sorry I missed that. I hear he was on a stage somewhere, with an actual microphone, singing “It’s Raining Men” and tonguing someone wearing a rubber George W. Bush mask. Then he went home and…
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…
When A Closed-Door Meeting Remains Open
In March, I wrote about new Rhinoceros Times publisher Larry Gauvreau, who also happens to be a CMS school board member, and the potential conflicts in terms of his new job and his elected position. Just eight weeks later, the closed-door meeting has hit not just the fan but also the Rhino Times and the…
Same Sex Benefits
Brian Constantin Securities Broker “Yes, that might attract more gays to local government and then maybe something will be done about those tacky furnishings in the Government Center.” Geneva Sanders Seamstress “If they can fight for their country, then they definitely should get. . .oh, yeah, I forgot.” Cynthia Marlowe Physicist “No way in hell.…
Badfinger
All the world’s a stage, Shakespeare suggested, and in all likelihood it hosts a circus, populated by clowns, freaks, animals and high-wire artists. We’re all the contortionists, the integrity of our bones and spirit tested by life’s daily inequities. Those who can bend survive, while the brittle, fragile or inflexible litter the road behind us.…
News of the Weird
LEAD STORY: While Congress and the sports world are busy condemning the use of steroids as “cheating,” golfer Tiger Woods and other athletes have already artificially enhanced their natural abilities with impunity through Lasik eye surgery (improving vision to 20/15 or 20/10). More ominously, according to a Wired magazine story in March, the time will…
