The Passion of the Vine
CORKSCREW
Editor’s Note
As we were finishing up the project on local homeland security in this issue (p. 26), we kept checking in on news from the mind-boggling tragedy in New Orleans. Just before our deadline, reports trickled in that in 2004, the Bush administration had cut funding for flood and hurricane projects for the area by 44…
Best Debut in the West
Book Review
The Great Emancipator
Table Dancing
On the House
Moodswing
An Apple a Day
It’s the time of year when we get tantalizingly brief wafts of crisp autumn air. The oppressive summer doldrums will soon give way to cooler breezes, ever-earlier twilights, and the faint rustling of dry leaves on the ground. Although fall is really the dying season, so much is just beginning — the school year (those…
A Nuttier Kind of Butter
It’s back to school, chickadees! After the pencils are sharpened and the textbooks are covered, let’s get to a more pressing issue — like what’s in that lunchbox of yours. Rather than reinvent the meal, let’s talk simple tweaks instead. I’m thinking about peanut butter and jelly, that old reliable staple of American lunchrooms over…
Postcard From Edinburgh
SEPTEMBER 1 — Hi there, Loafers! Sue and I are completing our eighth day in Scotland, and we can pass along a few recommendations. For starters, if you’re looking for the biggest and best summer arts festivals anywhere, come here to Edinburgh in August. But do bring your longies. Real summer weather, Carolina style, doesn’t…
CL Recommends
The Marion Massacre by Mike Lawing (Wasteland Press paperback). In 1929, northern textile workers made about $20 per week, while Carolinas’ millhands’ made $7. So the Carolinas’ workers struck. Although the Gastonia Strike of 1929, during which the sheriff and a strike leader were killed, is a permanent part of international labor lore, an even…
Events around the city
Carolina Wine Club. www.carolinawineclub.com. Sept. 13: Wine 911 — No More Intimidation, 6:15-8pm. $35. Westye Group Southeast Showroom, 127 West Worthington Ave. # 104. 704-344-8027. Wine Tasting Featuring several wines with special bottle pricing. Sat., Sept. 10, 12-4 p.m. Free. La Bibliotheque, 1901 Roxborough Rd. 704-365-5000. Wine Tasting Top 10 best wine values paired with…
Four Years After 9/11, A City At Risk
Scenario 1: A ragtag group of neo-nazi terrorists breaks onto the grounds of a large Charlotte chemical company and sets off explosions which release deadly chlorine into the atmosphere, killing tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of the region’s residents. Scenario 2: A cargo container from Saudi Arabia holding a homemade nuclear bomb is…
Bad Chemistry
Public-health risks from dangerous chemicals hit home for many Carolinians in January, when a train accident in Graniteville, SC, released pure chlorine gas that killed 10 people. Those of us who were paying attention in the days after 9/11 got an earlier warning when the media reported on a chlorine storage facility just miles from…
Keep On Truckin’
The South is truck heaven, so let me show some love. Whether you’re into toys, history, cheesecake or wacked-out Japanese fads, these hot linx are sure to get your motor runnin’. Personally, I’m takin’ notes on the Pakistanis. Chicks ‘N Rigs www.pirate4x4.com/chicks Dekotora http://homepage2.nifty.com/ztath/starthp/subpage07.html Pakistani art trucks www.pakistanphotos.co.uk/pakphotos/index.html Taylor’s Old Toy Trucks www.geocities.com/oldtoytrucks/ The Red…
For the Birds?
It’s a classic “chicken or the egg” scenario, although, given the nature of the 2005 summer season, perhaps we should change that to a “penguin or the egg” scenario. As dutifully reported throughout the hot-weather period by such movie-centric publications as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the box office was in decline for the greater…
18 Charlotte Sites You Have the Right to Know About
For years, the US Environmental Protection Agency has required companies that use potentially dangerous amounts of hazardous chemicals to file worst-case accident scenarios. After 9/11, that information was removed from the agency’s website, but the Right-to-Know Network, a watchdog group, has posted the information. These 18 Charlotte sites are included in the group’s database: •…
Real Life Top 5
Don’t let this guy fool you. He may drop porn stars’ names and joke about his early-morning Guinness jones. But Hazel — the front man for the Noise and member, variably, of other area acts such as the Gold Coast and the Virginia Reel — is committed. He’s committed to music that makes a difference…
C’est Si Bon
If you’re a lover of European pastries, living in Charlotte has been challenging. Charlotte had European bakeries sporadically, but as a rule not historically. In the late 1800s, the impoverished, war-ravaged agrarian South did not attract the enormous waves of European immigrants coming to the US. Instead, these Europeans settled in the industrialized North and…
Surrounded by Nukes
Charlotte has the unsettling distinction of being the only city on Earth with four nuclear reactors within 25 miles of its downtown — two each at McGuire Nuclear Station on Lake Norman and at Catawba Station in York County, SC. Up to 200,000 people stand to be in a 10-mile zone around McGuire at any…
Is That Jazz?
Jazz in the 21st century is largely viewed as a museum piece, a moribund genre that was once the preserve of gifted clowns (Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong) and moody, addled geniuses (Charlie “Yardbird” Parker), but is now overrun by smooth, easy-listening instrumentalists such as Kenny G. The charismatic, 60s-born jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter is one of…
Made For TV
Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis has a voice that manages to sound equal parts Debbie Harry, Patsy Cline and that cute little wounded songwriter girl you saw in high school but never talked to because you were Mr. or Ms. Too-Cool-For-School. A former child star (on Growing Pains) who may be the only actor ever…
Airplane Crashes, Nuclear Plants & Radiation
The nuclear industry likes to cite two studies suggesting a deliberate attack by an aircraft could not pierce the containment buildings at nuclear plants. One of those studies is easy to dismiss. It was sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a lobbyist group for the nuclear industry. The other study — actually, a…
Get Your Race On:
With NASCAR consuming so much news coverage, one might ask what the draw of fast cars is. After years of gaming, I know. I may not have to strap myself into a car and don a safety helmet, but with the graphics advances in racing games, it certainly feels as if I’m in the heat…
Every Creek Tells a Story
Urban Explorer
NC Port Security Dangerously Inadequate
If terrorists wanted to detonate a nuclear bomb or some other deadly weapon in Charlotte, all they’d have to do is package it in a container leaving an obscure foreign port. The North Carolina State Ports Authority would then deliver the bomb, chemical or biological weapon for them to a convenient detonation point off the…
Opportunism or Change of Heart?
It’s week seven of Charlotte Congresswoman Sue Myrick’s political metamorphosis into an anti-immigration Nazi, and as long as no one checks her voting record, things will continue to go smoothly. In a Charlotte Observer article last week, Myrick’s office expressed shock and outrage that not a single North Carolina company had been fined for immigration…
Spins
Bellyfull Postmodern Ghetto Bellyfull.net This quintet mostly lays down instrumentals with jazzy signatures weaved together with funky R&B and the occasional flourish of soulful pop vocals and horns. Postmodern Ghetto was recorded live in Charlotte and the sound is as good as a studio recording. Bellyfull avoids the traps of endless solos of many jam…
Get Out of Here!
Last February, during a heavy snowstorm, thousands of uptown workers all tried to head home at once and found themselves trapped for hours in one of the worst regional traffic jams on record. Is there anything to keep that from happening again during an evacuation following the explosion of a dirty bomb planted by terrorists,…
Downloading on the Down Low
Come on, admit it. You have illegally downloaded music on your computer. Just a few songs, right. . . or maybe a few hundred? If you’d rather download Celine Dion screeching “Because You Love Me” than endure the embarrassment of buying her record at a hip music store, it’s OK: Those stories of grandmas and…
See & Do List
Thursday, September 08 Belying its humble title, Michael Holliger’s An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf is actually a wildly eclectic feast. In a small Parisian café where the owner, Victor, has returned from the Madrid bullfights to die, Chef Gaston and his dedicated staff resist their bossman’s death wish by cooking up…
Survey Says. . .You’re on Your Own, Baby
A survey taken five years ago of those who live around New York’s Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant showed the flaws in modern evacuation plans. According to the survey, only 45 percent of those living within the 10-mile zone said they knew where they were supposed to go in the event of an emergency. Seventy-three…
Wild Sue Talks, We Listen
A couple of weeks ago we ran a column suggesting that organizations other than sports teams should have mascots. For instance, Duke Power’s now-retired mascot Reddy Kilowatt would be replaced by Smudgy the Soot Particle. We heard from a number of readers, some suggesting their own mascots (like Pokey the Post Office Turtle), and others…
Charlotte Folk Society Gathering Concert & Jams
The Charlotte Folk Society Gatherings are family-friendly and feature an hour-long concert, followed by a refreshment break, then a song circle and both a “fast jam,” geared for seasoned players, and a “slow jam” for those just getting started or beginning on a new instrument. This month the Asheville-based Celtic band The Red Wellies will…
The Blotter
Can You Hear Me Now?: While waiting at a bus stop, two women got into an argument over an incident the previous night involving one of the women’s boyfriends. One woman grabbed a cell phone away from the other and then hurled it back at her, striking her in the forehead. Talking Trash: As a…
New Orleans Is Gone
There’s one image in particular that makes me cry every time I revisit it. Last Saturday, as I raced from Lafayette, LA, to my home in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District against at least 65 miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic — I had to go back for the cat and the computer before reluctantly evacuating –…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: –Can a good dream lead to bad karma? I keep having this same dream. I’m visiting my friend “Jamar” in his new house. I go to sleep. When I wake up, his new girlfriend is in my bed, trying to get me to have sex with her. I always wake up before…
Notice of Annexation
Boomer With Attitude
Stargazer
Virgo The Virgin (Aug. 22 – Sept. 22) Either you or the “other” is seeking freedom of expression and is rebelling against boundaries or requirements. Even if this appears to you to be the other person, examine your deep desires closely. It is probable that you want something similar, but you are keeping it a…
BREAKING NEWS
Louisianan Britney Spears Says She’s Praying for Hurricane Victims That’s great, Brit, but please, no benefit concert. The country has been through enough. Charlotteans Freak Out, Wait in Lines for Gas Imagine how nuts it would have been if TV was forecasting snow, too. Operation Save America Notes Upside of Hurricane Katrina: No Open Abortion…
Film Clips
New Releases THE CONSTANT GARDENER Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles seemingly came out of nowhere to make his mark on international cinema with the powerful City of God, and it’s nice to see that he hasn’t cut himself any slack with his follow-up feature. Strong enough that it should have been held for year-end release rather…
Smells Like Bacon
Citizen Servatius
View From The Couch
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962) / THE STING (1973) / THE DEER HUNTER (1978). As is par for the course in the world of DVD, Universal Studios Home Entertainment has taken a few of its popular titles already available on disc and reissued them in brand new editions. Launching a new line with the selected…
Letters
Crazy ’bout Kandia Just wanted to comment that I really liked Kandia Crazy Horse’s first music column in the Charlotte Creative Loafing. Seems to be interested in a WIDE variety of genres, and her writing style was fun to read. — Ken Cotner, Charlotte Bottom Line: Blame Clinton In reference to “War Without End, Amen”…
