Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2013

Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2013 / Vol. 26 / No. 49

Cover Story

Kombucha culture

On most Friday nights around 8 p.m., Nicole “Nikki” Davis sets up shop at Smelly Cat Coffee in NoDa. On her table are large glass jars filled with specimens that look better suited for a laboratory than the local coffee spot. Jellyfish-like cultures float in a brownish liquid, as Davis talks with enthusiastic people who…

Keia Mastrianni

Rosa Parks, now and forever

On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., thus launching the modern-day civil-rights movement. Monday, Feb. 4, is the 100th anniversary of her birth. After she died at the age of 92 in 2005, much of the media described her…

Amy Goodman

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Jan. 31)

Ice Cold: A 61-year-old woman called police after her car was stolen. The woman told officers that she tried getting in her car to go to work but the windshield was iced over and she couldn’t see a thing. She went back inside, leaving the car running to warm up. Shortly after, she heard a…

Ryan Pitkin

The circus comes to town

Cotton candy sugar rushes, clowns in outrageous makeup, and dazzling acrobats are the memories from my childhood circus experiences some 15 years ago. I would walk up to the big tent, sit on the wooden bleachers, and watch as the amazing acts unfolded before my eyes. But how do they keep doing this, year after…

Danielle Brodie

Warm Bodies, cool film

WARM BODIES *** DIRECTED BY Jonathan Levine STARS Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer Another zombie movie? As the kids would type on Twitter, “FFS.” Yet even after we thought the genre was exhausted with 28 Days Later … and then Shaun of the Dead … and then Zombieland … and then some … here we find…

Matt Brunson

Movie 43: All-star idiocy

MOVIE 43 * DIRECTED BY Peter Farrelly, Brett Ratner & many more STARS Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet One of the producers behind Movie 43 publicly stated that he hoped the film would become this generation’s Kentucky Fried Movie, a declaration that felt like a swift kick to the raunchy area of my soul. Along with…

Matt Brunson

Rep. Kelly Alexander, Charlotte’s medical marijuana man

Two years ago, Rep. Kelly Alexander tried but ultimately failed to pass HB 577, a bill that would have legalized medical cannabis in North Carolina. So it’s ironic that we met at the funeral home he owns in Charlotte to discuss his most recent attempt at reviving the bill that died in the House Rules…

Ana McKenzie

Weekly horoscope (Jan. 31-Feb. 6)

Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 19-Feb. 18): Venus has entered your sign this week and will be traveling “with you” through Feb. 26th. Her presence gives you an air of poise and people will simply like how you look. You may become interested in making improvements in how you are seen. For All Signs: Jupiter, the…

Vivian Carol

Gone global: Grey Revell

The commercial is in Spanish, but its message is universal. A printer spits out an image of our planet, and a mother hands the picture to her son. Through successive pictures, we see the boy grow to manhood, eventually handing an identical image of the earth to his son. The TV spot may be obvious,…

Pat Moran

(Drag) Queen of Hearts: Roxy C. Moorecox

When I call drag queen Roxy C. Moorecox, she’s taking a break from washing her wigs. She has 15 piled in a bathtub and is spending the night scrubbing out old hairspray, sweat and glitter. After she is finished, she will then blow-dry and style each one. During this lengthy process, she plays a DVD…

Joanne Spataro

Under the influence of Jeff Mangum

It may surprise those familiar with Jeff Mangum, but when Creative Loafing asked seven local musicians influenced in some way by the underground legend for their comments, only a few felt inclined to contribute. Mangum, who performs at the Neighborhood Theatre on Jan. 31, was the leader of Neutral Milk Hotel, a frenetic, psych-leaning folk…

Jordan Lawrence

New year, new updates

Good news, PlayStation 3 owners! Downloadable content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is finally coming to PS3 next month. Bethesda recently announced that all three expansions for the role-playing game will arrive in February, beginning with Dragonborn. Hearthfire will release next, followed by Dawnguard. In addition, Bethesda will also release a 1.8 system update…

Adam Frazier

Will the Democratic South rise again?

It was almost but not quite like being in the middle of the action on Inauguration Day. If you opened the door of the restaurant on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol, you could practically hear echoes of President Obama’s speech and Beyonce’s rendition of the National Anthem, real or lip-synched. But it was…

Mary C. Curtis

The sound and the fury of noise ordinances

Rob Nixon feels like he’s been here before. The longtime owner of Jackalope Jack’s Restaurant & Bar is sitting in The Peculiar Rabbit, his newly opened business in the heart of Plaza Midwood, discussing the possibility that he may have to close its doors for good in a few months. Officials recently resumed discussions that…

Ryan Pitkin

Obama’s dirty wars exposed at Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah —- As President Barack Obama prepared to be sworn in for his second term as the 44th president of the United States, two courageous journalists premiered a documentary at the annual Sundance Film Festival. Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield reaffirms the critical role played by independent journalists like the film’s…

Amy Goodman

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