The ‘ol switcheroo
The latest buzz around Hannah Montana concerns a poor job at doing a costume change. She has a body double hit the stage so she can sneak off… they didn’t even try to hide her leaving. \\\\\\\\\\
The 10 Best Movies of 2007
For your viewing pleasure, check out these additional photos from Matt Brunson’s pick of the 10 best movies in 2007. 1) No Country For Old Men 2) Gone Baby Gone 3) Juno 4) 2 Days in Paris 5) No End in Sight 6) The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters 7) Ratatouille 8) Across…
This week’s new releases (1/8)
Things are slowly starting to pick back up on the new album front… Here’s a quick list of the few big names being released this week: Kate Nash “Made of Bricks” – There’s a lot of buzz swirling about this one… Reverend Organdrum “Hi-Fi Stereo” – Reverend Horton Heat goes lounge. Keep an eye out…
Emily Skinner in Action
\\\\\\\\\\ Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley perform a song from the Broadway version of Side Show at the 52nd Annual Tony Awards. To read more on Emily Skinner, see the Performing Arts story this week.
Diamond in the Rough
This is a simple position that most anyone with their private parts intact and functioning can accomplish. The male begins this move while lying on his back with a pillow propped under his head. The woman is then instructed to lower her “yoni” down upon his erect manhood while facing him. With the woman’s hands…
Tickets
— Cartoon by Jim Hunt
Local showcase this weekend
Looking for something to do on Saturday? They’re having a local music showcase at Manifest Discs on South Boulevard from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Manifest Janifest will feature Audioform, Carmona, Illicitizen, Angwish, Holster, Lindy Dobbins, Arms Over Avon, The Situationals, Transmission Fields, Analog Daze, Reggie Rymes and The Not Likelys. It’s located at 6239…
Presidents Pay Attention to the News?
By Mike Huckabee From the Western shore of Iowa to the were supporting me in the first place. I have valiantly refused to return his attacks with my own negative ads, except during elaborately staged press conferences in front of the local, state, and national media – but that’s it. And that media, by the…
Top 25 Love songs
You’d think this would come out around Valentine’s Day, but Entertainment Weekly has released a list of the top 25 love songs. No word on who came up with this list, but here’s the countdown: 25. The Cure “Just Like Heaven” 24. Stevie Wonder “As” 23. Prince “Purple Rain” 22. Elton John “Your Song” 21.…
The New Year’s Baby
— Cartoon by Jim Hunt
Comic Proportions
To coincide with this issue’s Big-@$# Book of Lists theme, I decided to compile a list of my favorite comics of last year and the best lines I previously penned about those comics. Consider this the “Comic Proportions Quotable Top 9 Comics of 2007.” Action Comics (DC Comics): “Let’s face it, Superman is a tough…
Raising Sand
The Deal: Led Zep pulls into Union Station. The Good: Might as well just throw the duet concept out the window. You’ll be hard pressed to top this one in any genre. An unlikely paring, but Zep’s Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have made one of the most beautiful records of the decade. Krauss’ voice…
A Look Back at Q.C. 2007
Like Nelly Furtado sings in her catchy little tune, “All good things come to an end.” And 2007 was a really, really good thing … wouldn’t you agree? Nightlife venues sprouted up like condos throughout the Q.C. Hom, Alley Cat, Woods on South, M5, Snug Harbor, Tilt on Trade, The Pub, Rustic Martini and Ed’s…
The FCC’s Christmas Gift to Big Media
On Dec. 18, the five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission met in Washington, D.C., and passed, by a 3 to 2 vote, new regulations that would allow more media consolidation. This, despite the U.S. public’s increasing concern over the nation’s media being controlled by a few giant corporations. Dissident FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said…
8 Diagrams
The Deal: Eight members reunite for first album since death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The Good: ODB may not be present – though they do use a previously recorded rhyme of his – but there are plenty of guest spots to help fill the gaps. Erykah Badu, George Clinton, John Frusciante and Sunny Valentine, among…
Delbert McClinton Still Cruisin’ Along
Delbert McClinton first heard the voice of God when he was in his teens. But to the budding singer, the celestial audible vibrations he heard back in 1954 apparently had a different sound than most folks associate with the creator. To McClinton, God sounded like Big Joe Turner, belting out “Honey Hush” from a black…
Senior Barbie Blogs!
Boomer With Attitude
All the Rest is Mush
You might be new to the South if you’ve never tasted livermush, if you think a Sundrop is a piece of lemon candy, and you still have New York, New Jersey or Washington D.C. license plates on your car. But fear not, New South for the New Southerner is going to show you the five…
CD REVIEW: Paleface & Just About to Burn
Paleface & Just About to Burn A Different Story Indie; Release date: Jan. 5, 2008 The Deal: He may have been a guest vocalist for Avetts and former roommate of Beck, but indie folk singer Paleface, who now calls Concord home, proves his music needs no name dropping. The Good: The Americana roots of Paleface’s…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I have a somewhat estranged relationship with my mother. She is still my mother and I do the best that I can to tolerate her negativity. One way I handle this is by never visiting her alone. I see her at family events or I plan lunches with her and my grandmother.…
Spit in Your Eye
The 2006 AACTFest’s Best Production in North Carolina winner, The Spitfire Grill makes a grand return to the stage where that title was won. The play follows the journey of recent parolee Percy Talbot as she sets off on a flight of fancy to a sleepy Wisconsin town in need of some serious soul repair,…
Ain’t Nothing Like a Live Show
Even when it wasn’t part of my job, going to concerts has always been a source of enjoyment. The energy, the people, the lights, the crowds, the music — they all combine to form one heck of an entertainment outlet. Some shows are more memorable than others; some are larger than others. There are moments…
Resolutions
The N Word
Playing With Monsters
OK, so what can you really say about monster truck racing other than it involves really BIG trucks that trample over poor, little defenseless cars that didn’t do anything to them. The big bullies! Seriously, it’s pure entertainment featuring a cast of car rearrangers from the “legend” Bigfoot to Geterdone, Havoc, Dream Catcher and MonkeyNround.…
The Blotter
POOP HAPPENS: A 59-year-old man who lives on the 200 block of Cherokee Road said someone has been defecating and urinating on his pool house every day for the past week. He said poop and pee stains have been left on the wood surface of his pool house and they will not come out. He…
Rodrigo Jimenez
Profile
Through the Microscopic Lens
Ever wanted to go “through the looking glass,” or in this case through the microscopic lens, to find out just what it is that makes us tick? No, of course, you didn’t, and neither did Alice. All she wanted to do was play with the cute, little white rabbit. But, as we’ve all learned from…
Looking into the future
“I’ve seen the future and it will be. I’ve seen the future and it works.” — Prince As 2008 gets started, Creative Loafing thought it would be cool to take a glance at things to come for the city. Two local psychics offered their predictions on some of 2007’s hot button issues that are sure…
Stargazer
For All Signs: A separate column will be published next week that describes the global picture of 2008. In the meantime, see below for your sun and/or ascending signs to get a peek at the year in advance. Aries: Mars, your ruling planet, has been retrograding since mid-November. It slows everything through the winter while…
Hope Train
Christmas is over. Time to crank out every movie that even implies it’s holiday-related to reminisce how sweet it was. However, Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express is a different kind of Christmas movie. For one, Tom Hanks plays three characters and one looks just like him, thanks to a pioneering performance capture technology. The main…
Crime in 2007
News Brief
The Wine Year in (P)review
Not sure who first said “opinions are like assholes — everyone has one,” but it’s brilliant. It goes to the heart of the human condition, the “I am so right and you must listen to me” mantra. Am I an exception to that rule? Uh, no. So I will report on the state of wine…
Cat Scratch Club
“Now and Forever,” that’s the motto for “Sir” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s much-loved musical THAT WON’T DIE. CATS premiered on May 11, 1981 in London’s West End and continues to storm stages the world over. With characters based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the family favorite will again evoke a “Memory” or…
Eight ways to make Charlotte better in ’08
1. Quit carping about nothing to do in Charlotte. Do something about it. Host an event, throw a party … something. 2. Support ventures like Patchwerk Playhaus (1508 Central Ave., inside Century Vintage), or the fairy regular comedy events held at the Common Market (2007 Commonwealth Ave. in Plaza Midwood) 3. Volunteer occasionally. You don’t…
Happy New Year, Now Eat Your Greens
The party is (finally) over. At last, we can push those holiday pots off the front burner and press the restart button on our bodies, our minds, ourselves. Although I’m not one to declare weight-loss new year’s resolutions, I do like to take stock of my dietary inventory and make some more nutritious adjustments. I…
The People Speak of River
The Catawba River has gone through some changes lately. As have nearly every body of water in the world, thanks to global warming. The Light Factory Comtemporary Museum of Photography teamed with York County’s Culture & Heritage Museums to give us a project focused on the Catawba River. River Docs: A Catawba River Narrative is…
Davidson’s Winners Return
The funky musical production of The Spitfire Grill by Davidson Community Players won state honors over a year ago, and its leading actress, Lisa Smith, took away outstanding vocalist honors at last year’s regional competition in Atlanta. But Smith is afraid that people will miss out when the show finally arrives, full-blown, at McGlohon Theatre…
Stairway to seven
Moodswing
Throwing Cash at Crime
This spring, I predicted that if someone didn’t stop Cedric Gaston, 20, it would be only a matter of time before he killed someone. Last month, he and his friends tried. Gaston is one of several dozen enterprising young thugs I’ve kept an eye on as part of my ongoing quest to determine just how…
A Newsy Retrospective
Reflecting on the year of the talking cow
FIlm Clips
Current Releases ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS About the best one can say about this occasionally rancid but mostly just dull film is that it’s not as excruciating as Garfield: The Movie, another ill-conceived project that placed CGI animals in the real world. Here, Jason Lee is the hapless human who serves as the sacrificial-career lamb:…
The Top 10 of 2007
A look back at some of the year’s best albums
View From the Couch
EASTERN PROMISES (2007). In a sense, Eastern Promises is a bookend to the last film made by director David Cronenberg and star Viggo Mortensen: 2005’s excellent A History of Violence, about an ordinary cafe owner who may or may not have been a vicious mobster in his earlier years. Both films run along parallel tracks,…
Pick Of The Lit
The best books of 2007
Music Menu
Saturday, Jan. 5 Guy Forsyth Band Forsyth has been haunting Austin’s pubs for a couple of decades, making blues-infused folk and roots music. He’s not a straight blues guy but one that uses the genre as a foundation for his music that’s played with gospel-like vocals and chorus. The singer-songwriter adds harp and saw to…
Must-See DVDs
The best discs of 2007
Coming Attractions
THURSDAY, JAN. 10 We know what you did for New Year’s and we ain’t mad at cha. How about keeping the party going with a little wine? The Morehead Inn Wine Series is the place to fall into … learn all you can about the wonderful world of the vine. Tonight’s event, entitled “A Wide…
Back to the Future
Looking ahead to 2008
The Year’s Greatest Lists
It’s official: 2007 has come to a close. And the end of 2007 marks the time when folks think back and try to figure out what the hell happened last year. But look, don’t strain your brain cells trying to remember the best and worst crap that went down during the last 365 days –…
Icolation
The Deal: The electronic industrial German project that began in the 1980s continues as Peter Devin delivers a new album that takes listeners on a sound journey through the outskirts of hell. The Good: With 17 solid tracks, the album begins with “Lord of the Three,” a track with strange callings and a triumphant beat.…
