Aug 22-28, 2012

Aug 22-28, 2012 / Vol. 26 / No. 26

Cover Story

The whole world is watching … (still)

The footage is permanently etched into America’s collective consciousness: Some 10,000 students and other young activists stage an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. More than twice as many law enforcement officers in helmets and riot gear move in with batons and begin bashing heads, flinging protesters to the ground,…

Mark Kemp, Ana McKenzie, and Mike Cooper

Charlotte Pride brings out activists and flashy entertainers

Gay rights activist Stuart Milk makes his way to a Human Rights Campaign tent, perching his sunglasses mid-forehead to reveal his eyes. He talks with a volunteer too young to remember a time when being out of the closet and at an event like the Charlotte Pride Festival could mean violence or death, tragedies he…

Joanne Spataro

Charlotte haz catz

A kitty video produced by the host committee went viral, which made me wonder: Have our presidents been mostly cat or dog people?

Ana McKenzie

CD Review: Bo White Con La Orquesta Seleccionada’s Same Deal, New Patrones

Bo White’s latest album is a richly rewarding portrait of life in Mexico during that nation’s hard times of late, and another unique statement from one of Charlotte’s most marvelously eclectic musicians. Seen through the eyes of murdered narcocorrido musicians, drug-runners, mothers of the murdered women of Juarez, vanishing Indian tribes and hopeful immigrants, these…

John Schacht

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of Aug. 24

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Perhaps it’s best to think of Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man and Marc Webb’s 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man as the cinematic equivalents of Coke Classic and New Coke. Despite some alterations to the source material (hey, where’s Gwen Stacy?), the Raimi take earned the trust of most purists, offering a near-perfect Peter Parker…

Matt Brunson

A vivid, tangled web: Joseph Kanon’s Istanbul Passage

Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon $26, Atria Books, 404 pages Welcome to Istanbul, circa 1945, a place where nothing is as it seems. Just after World War II and just before the Cold War, the erstwhile capital of the former Ottoman Empire has become a neutral gathering place for spies and diplomats alike. There, on…

Erik Spanberg

A new vegan community kitchen set to open

On a recent weekday, Laura Neff, co-owner of the vegan and vegetarian food delivery service Nourish, scrolls through photos on her phone, proudly showing off the meals her team has prepared. “Most people would show you pictures of their kids,” Neff says with a laugh. “I’m showing you pictures of my food.” In the last…

Christina Buttafuoco

Challenge accepted: 30 days of Luna’s Living Kitchen

Eating from the same menu for a full 30 days may sound boring, but what if those 30 days were only the beginning? Meet Charlotte-based stylist Kymm McLean, the girl who settled in at Luna’s Living Kitchen in South End for a full month of raw food — morning, noon, night. After suffering from severe…

Jordan Bullington

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Aug. 23)

Isn’t It Ironic?: A man with a gun wound was brought to the emergency room last week. When police showed up to talk to the victim, he told them “he was attempting to make his handgun safe” when it accidentally fired. Alanis Morissette would be proud. Lazy Boy: A mother filed a missing persons report…

Ryan Pitkin

Premium Rush: Hang on

PREMIUM RUSH ***1/2 DIRECTED BY David Koepp STARS Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon Even if Premium Rush hadn’t had me at “Hello,” it certainly would have had me at “Forrest J Ackerman.” A movie built around a bicycle messenger is a risky venture — as an adrenaline-pumper, it sounds about as promising as Driving Miss Daisy…

Matt Brunson

The Expendables 2: Aged beef

THE EXPENDABLES 2 ** DIRECTED BY Simon West STARS Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham The best thing about The Expendables 2 involves Chuck Norris. I don’t mean his performance — he’s as awful as ever, showing even less range than a mattress pad — but rather that his character manages to work in one of those…

Matt Brunson

Weekly horoscope (Aug. 23-29)

Virgo The Virgin (Aug. 22-Sept. 22)T he Sun has re-entered your birth sign. Generally this is uplifting. However, this year before you can truly celebrate, you must face a Gorgon. It might be your Inner Critic (which always exaggerates negatively). If the Gorgon is someone else, then maybe you are realizing you have a vampire…

Vivian Carol

United they stand: E Pluribus Unum

Daring and ambitious over safe and staid — that’s the game plan adopted by Charlotte arts scene stalwart Crista Cammaroto. Seizing the national spotlight that is the Democratic National Convention, Cammaroto, director of galleries for UNC-Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture, decided to get bold with E Pluribus Unum, a mixed-media show featuring some of…

Michael J. Solender

Music and conventions

I am a pop-music obsessive. Almost every thought that comes to my mind immediately translates in some way to a song or an album or an artist. It’s a part of me that I’ve just come to accept. A co-worker mentions what he likes about a certain person and the Romantics’ “What I Like About…

Mark Kemp

Gun insanity

Craziness. Literal insanity. Those words easily come to mind when faced with people who meticulously plan and carry out systematic mass murder. People like former North Carolina resident and white supremacist Wade Page in Milwaukee, Jared Loughner in Tucson, Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech, James Holmes in Aurora, Col., and whoever will be next in…

John Grooms

Electronic duo Wazu meets the big city

Moving to a new city to pursue a music career is far from unique. Outfits from smaller towns often hightail it to the “big city” in search of larger markets and music scenes that are more open to different sounds. After all, if things don’t work out, you can always just jump in the car…

Jordan Lawrence

This week’s concert listings (Aug. 23-29)

** Bullet points indicate CL’s critics’ picks** Thursday, Aug. 23 Blues/Roots/International Bayou Butch Lucas (Villa Antonio (Ballantyne)) Latin Thursdays (Dream, Matthews) Classical/Jazz/Smooth Beats and Keys (Encore) John Alexander (Blue) Country/Folk Alan Barrington (The Saloon) Erik Smallwood (Leroy Fox) Open Mic w/ Brett Greer (Tommy’s Pub) Speakeasy Thursday Open Mic (The Nickel Bar) Whitewater River Jam…

Kinky links to Abe Lincoln

Just when we thought everything had already been said about Honest Abe and the Party of Lincoln, along comes playwright Aaron Loeb with a wild comedy, Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party, to set us straight. Loeb is clearly taking the low road, defaming Republicans and Illinois politics in one fell swoop, incongruously mating his…

Perry Tannenbaum

Postcards from the edge: Okkervil River

For Will Sheff, the singer and songwriter for the decade-plus-old band Okkervil River, the culture wars are personal. Sheff is a hyper-articulate zeitgeist observer who’s waged pop-culture battles with the Austin, Texas-based band’s fans for daring to paint a (somewhat) humanizing portrait of Republicans (“The President’s Dead” from 2006). He’s also written about the Grammys…

John Schacht

School’s out for Krewella

It’s a near-Herculian task telling your parents that you’re dropping out of college. It’s almost as daunting to say you’re not going to college in the first place. But when you stand on the precipice of making your dreams come true, you bite the bullet and tell them your plans — even if it’s both…

Jeff Hahne

Stalking (Jon) Stewart

Amy Aussieker takes celebrity crush to a whole new level. The founder and owner of FABO Café, an art gallery on Selwyn Avenue, launched a national campaign to land Comedy Central headliner, faux-newscaster and Daily Show star Jon Stewart into her store when he is in town for the Democratic National Convention. The former sales…

Michael J. Solender

Party people at the Transfaith in Color Conference 2012

On Saturday, a woman in a black and lime tunic watched the hotel staff lay down flooring in an empty ballroom. It seems the floor is not big enough to hold even a small wedding reception, let alone the full-on dance party Charlene Archilla is describing in a soft voice. But for Archilla, 49, the…

Joanne Spataro

DNC: A timeline

America’s emergence as a bastion of freedom and equality is a history that couldn’t be told without using prior Democratic National Conventions as guideposts to mark the momentous occasions that shaped the politics of our melting pot country. From its roots as a faction of anti-federalist conservatives, the party has housed at one time or…

Mike Cooper

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