Brain Candy
Last Thursday, I attended a meeting set to give Charlotte’s Black community a new direction. Ahmad Daniels (pictured to the left) and his Creative Interchange organization hosted the “Crisis Affecting Young African-American Males” forum, which became even more pertinent after the arrest of 25-year-old Demetrius Montgomery in the murders of Officers Sean Clark and Jeff…
The CM3A Agenda
So the Charlotte Mecklenburg African American Agenda was unveiled yesterday, at least officially. The bulk of information presented at Billingsville Elementary School was already available on the Web site, but then, having a report on a Web site isn’t going to get you time on the 5 o’clock newscast. Turnout was better than what one…
Fields Day
Late last month saw the release of the W.C. Fields Collection, Vol. 2 (see View From the Couch review in the current print edition or on our Web site), and the five films contained in this box set remind us once again that when it came to the gift of comedic gab, few screen comedians…
Toy Train to Nowhere?
Developers were supposed to flock to the South Boulevard light rail line. But this week, Bank of America announced it was backing out of its planned development of the Scaleybark Station, despite millions of dollars in direct and indirect subsidies thrown in by Charlotte Area Transit System and the city to sweeten the deal. The…
Live Music Review: Nas
By Brooks Newkirk The Deal: God’s Son of hip-hop takes us on a lyrical journey of his past and present to prove that in order for hip-hop to move forward, we can’t forget where we came from. The Good: During Nas’ set, he chronicled his musical history from his 1994 debut, Illmatic, to his most…
The Flower in Bloom
Name of Kama Sutra Position: The Flower in Bloom Getting into the position: The woman cups and lifts her buttocks with her palms, spreads her thighs wide and digs her heels in beside her hips. The man is then instructed to do his business while caressing her breasts. On a scale of 1 to 10…
Buckcherry at Amos’
Buckcherry hit Amos’ Southend on Tuesday night for a show with Saliva and Black Stone Cherry. The 14-song set was short, but sweet and full of energy. Of course, singer Josh Todd’s suggestion that people can sober up through the use of cocaine was a little over the top, but what else should you expect…
Politicking in NoDa
As you all should know, last Thursday was Creative Loafing’s first official Political Party. And, boy, did we get the ball rolling with people discussing how they feel about the way Charlotte does what it do. WBT’s Keith Larson (seen on right in photo) made a comment about the direct relation between the performance of…
Overkill? What overkill?
Boomer With Attitude
20 years on the aisle
What hasn’t changed radically while I’ve covered Charlotte’s theater, culture and performing arts scenes over the past 20 years? Begin with the technology. I can still remember how tech-savvy I thought I was back in 1987, composing my first columns on my Brother memory typewriter. Justified margins, two proportionally spaced “daisy wheel” typefaces, two-tier erasable…
Dave Long’s Top Five
Culture Surfing
Mo Stegall
Profile
Call me ‘$Cash$’
Citizen Servatius
A ‘gang of one’
Talking Ish
Cheap thrills
TANGO & TAPAS Patou and the Charlotte Tango Society host this free informal lesson on the Argentinian tango, perfect for making friends. Learn this sensual dance and improve existing skills with instructor Daniel Arredondo. Monday nights at 7 p.m. Patou, A French Bistro, 1315 East Blvd. Call 704-376-2233 or visit www.patoubistro.com or www.passionfortango.com. CHARLOTTE COMEDY…
Half-and-half
Back in the 1930s, the talent-heavy MGM studio created the slogan “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven” to promote its big-budget extravaganzas. With apologies to studio head Louis B. Mayer, I find myself having to co-opt that pithy catchphrase, since one overall star rating doesn’t do justice to the many individual components found in…
Dear Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I am having recurring dreams about Tom Cruise. What usually happens is that I am at some sort of health spa getting a massage and facial. A nurse approaches me and says that they are running a special on Botox and asks if I want to sign up. I look to my…
Score one for Charlotte
Twenty years ago, Creative Loafing did not have a food section, much less features about wine. But in 1987 Charlotte was poised to take a culinary leap. In 1987, Mecklenburg County was home to 964 restaurants. Today, according to Bill Hardister of the Mecklenburg County Health Department, Charlotte has 1,983 sit-down restaurants (of the 5,854…
Our very first issue
Navigation instructions: Browse the entire issue page by page by: A. Clicking the image below for a the thumbnail view If you would like to read any of the pages, come back here and click on the appropriate link below to download a high resolution JPG. or B. Click below to open a…
Beldam
Beldam (also beldame): n. An old woman, esp. an ugly one Example: In all of the animated Disney movies that I can recall, Belle from Beauty and the Beast was probably the most beautiful. In real time, however, I’m sure she’d have turned into a beldam by now.
Cherry’s Jubilee
Arts Pulse
The poor as scenery
Books
Letters to the Editor
Letters and .com-ments on this page are in response to Tara Servatius’ story “A Comedy of Errors,” published March 28. Competing with Cincinnati? Thank you for your insightful article about Spirit Square. There’s more behind the story, but you hit the high points and certainly made the point about the “creative class.” It is my…
You’ve come a long way, baby
It’s easy to forget how recent women’s presence in just about every profession in the workforce really is. In 1908, the vast majority of Charlotte women who “kept house” still worked in the textile industry or in a laundry. A relatively tiny professional class of women worked in teaching or nursing. But a few defied…
Being there
Hot Linx
20 years, flat-out
Here’s a little secret: When this paper started, hardly any of us really knew what we were doing. Creative Loafing had been a presence in Atlanta for 17 years when founder Deborah Eason decided to bring an alternative newsweekly to Charlotte. It was the company’s first expansion into another city, and the nuts and bolts…
Cheers to beer
Join Creative Loafing for a week-long foray into all things beer as we present 2007 Charlotte Beer Week. We invite the hops connoisseurs among you to partake in a variety of events that’ll take you from on a whirlwind journey around Charlotte in search of the perfect brew. Our aim is to raise your beer…
Hang up on war
Breaking the Sound Barrier
Signs of the times
Over the years, Creative Loafing has published more than 1,000 cover stories, including regular “special” editions such as the hugely popular annual Best Of Charlotte issue, a host of Summer Guides, and issues devoted to Food, Music, Fall Arts Previews or Lust Lists. Those special issues complement the paper’s regular weekly take on what’s really…
Kissing Carrie Ann
Last year’s cosmetic comedy phenomenon, Carrie Ann’s Kiss, gets a facelift and a transplant as it moves from Theatre Charlotte to Booth Playhouse through April 28. Cut-throat conservatism lurks beneath the elegant foundation of Carrie Ann Cosmetics as Jacklyn Dabaddie seeks to retain the coveted “Ruby Kiss,” awarded at the posh National Convention and emblematic…
DIY English muffins
Kitchen Witch
Rock through the first five years
If, as historians advise us, eras have their defining moments, then so, too, do smaller periods contain their own seeds of identity and character. Looking back at the first five years of Creative Loafing, during which I served as the paper’s music editor, I get the sense that there were a number of “defining moments.”…
We’ve got your kink
If CL’s coverage of the Purgatory show in our Weird Charlotte issue (March 7) aroused your curiosity as to what really takes place at this popular BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadomasochism) event, consider coming to check out their next gathering, a fifth anniversary celebration titled Purgatory XXXI: Pure Fetish. Even if you’re not in the mood…
Soul goes POP
In the beginning, there was soul. It got the message across and then some. Over time, it got pushed to the background, called “old school,” beat on with programmed rhythms and called “neo.” But thank God there are still some practitioners who understand and respect the genre. “Soul music is a feeling,” says Atlanta-based soul…
Hollis Gillespie is a bitch!
Moodswing
Can’t Cope without
Clarence Greenwood, aka Citizen Cope, drops his distinct voice into a patchwork of rock, folk, soul and ever so gentle hip-hop. It’s a laid-back trip into nostalgic eras of rock and old-school crooning. But fortunately Greenwood’s gaze is pointed toward the future, where his love of retro morphs into a contemporary vibe. The new recording,…
Robert Rowe’s Top 10
As the executive chef of Phil and Tony’s, Rowe has two great passions in life, making good food and working on his lyrics. He has been honing his MC skills for more than five years and is always looking to get his voice in a studio. He never stops writing and hopes to “gain enough…
Catch them while you can
Two men who are taxidermists by day venture deep into the Argentinean wilderness for a hunting trip. Finding the inn full where he usually stays, the bullying trip organizer Sontag (Alejandro Awada) and his buddy, the quiet, retreating Espinosa (Ricardo Darín), are forced to seek lodging deeper in the woods. They decamp at a remote…
Without a Doubt
Stage legend Cherry Jones is on tour, and her only stop in the Southeast is at Belk Theater through April 22. She reprises her Tony Award-winning role as Sister Aloysius in Doubt, the electrifying John Patrick Shanley drama that has swept every prize in its path, including the Pulitzer. Set in a Bronx Catholic school…
It’s the end of Charlotte
Charlotte Cason is dead. After running the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston this past weekend she was attacked by a pack of killer salmon, and in turn, her predecessor, Brittney was beamed back to this planet from her alternate universe with a nose piercing in tow. Memorial services for Charlotte were held at Shaun…
Has it been 20 years already?
“Every community needs a Creative Loafing an alternative voice to help keep it honest. For 20 years now, the Loaf has worked hard to play that role. It hasn’t always been successful, but it has honestly tried, and that is a record to be proud of. You guys keep it up.” — Frye Gaillard, author…
Boy falls out
The first few weeks of the Honda Civic Tour – Fall Out Boy is headlining – have been rescheduled to the end of the tour. The April 18 show in Charlotte will now be on June 13. The dates were rescheduled due to “personal issues beyond the band’s control.” Let’s hope it’s not another pantless…
Strauss delivers After All
In just over three years, Mike Strauss – the man David Childers calls “the best young songwriter in Charlotte” — has put together a more-than-respectable catalog of rural rock; his third and latest, After All, should only up the ante. Strauss recorded the just-released After All at Chris Garges’ Old House Studios in Gastonia with…
Film Clips
New Releases MEET THE ROBINSONS Select theaters across the nation (including a couple in Charlotte) are showing this latest Disney animated feature in 3-D, and I’m sorry I didn’t catch the film at one of those venues — at least it would have added an extra dimension to what is otherwise a shallow cartoon that…
Dog in Flight
New for 2007! The Purina Incredible Dog Team. Whether snatching flying discs out of the air during a back flip or taking a running leap off a human’s back, the Purina Incredible Dog Team exemplifies the pinnacle of precision dog training. These incredible dogs have traveled across the country performing at halftime shows, on television…
Aries
Aries The Ram: (March 20 — April 19) Jupiter augurs improvements through any of the following: legal or ethical issues, contacts with foreign lands or people who live at a distance, the Internet, higher education, publishing and long distance travel. Events of the next year will broaden your perspective on all of life and expand…
On the scene
It’s an immense task trying to condense the past two decades of local music into a mere two pages of print. Fortunately, we didn’t have to look far. Collectively, this distinguished panel of former music editors and writers (all current contributors as well) has covered the scene for nearly as long as CL has been…
Ask the editor
Q: You guys talk tons this week about Creative Loafing’s past. What do you have planned for the future? A: Good question! Yes, we devoted most of this issue to honoring the great things we’ve done over the last 20 years. But, rest assured, we have a ton of great things planned for the not-too-distant…
The Blotter
HEH HEH HE SAID “DEFECATE”: A man reported someone defecated on his welcoming mat around midnight. The case is still, um, open, but the victim was able to provide a suspect’s name. AN E-POOP-DEMIC: A man told police an unknown person bent the lid on his mailbox and spread animal feces on his foot door.…
20 years of Loafing
It was the summer of 1988, and I had only been out of college a mere three months when I was given the opportunity to pen monthly video reviews for a 15-month-old Charlotte publication called Creative Loafing. “Hey, this is cool,” I thought. “I’ll be able to earn a couple of extra bucks before this…
