Feb 14-20, 2018
Hellcat Harlowe cover, CLT burlesque, Lofidels, Gus’ Sir Beef, Elonzo Wesley, new media
Cover Story
Charlotte’s Burlesque Scene Remains on the Cusp of a Breakthrough
Sitting at Ru San’s on a recent night, Laura Mullaney is hardly recognizable from the time I had met her before. Her short-cropped hair forms a wave where I thought I remembered shiny black bangs framed by a bouncy bob hairdo. As she has just left her day job in the beauty industry, her outfit…
Black Panther springs into action
BLACK PANTHER ***1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Ryan Coogler STARS Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan Like brown gravy on white rice, the sins of the father are served up by the ladleful in Black Panther, one of the best of the solo Marvel adventures to date. Pop-cultural appropriation is nothing new in comic-book sagas,…
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool: Gloria Be
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL *** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Paul McGuigan STARS Annette Bening, Jamie Bell One good acting turn deserves another, and that’s what viewers receive with Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, a compact drama that allows Annette Bening to portray fellow thespian Gloria Grahame. And if Bening never quite…
The ‘American Pickers’ Crew Wants to See Your Crap
All that shit your grandma’s been storing in her attic has to have some value, right? So why not cash in and get on TV at the same time? History Channel’s American Pickers is coming to North Carolina this spring and they’re searching for “large accumulations of junkie treasures.” What that means is that Mike…
The Blotter: Who’s Chicken?
Food Fight The chicken was flying at a convenience store in SouthPark last week after two employees decided that the break room wasn’t big enough for the both of them. Police responded to a Circle K on Fairview Road in response to an assault call and found two victim/suspects, as they’re called when both people…
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Silence of the Lambs, Wonder among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) THE BALLAD OF LEFTY BROWN (2017). Generally employed for comic relief, the simpering, simple-minded sidekick has long been a staple of Western cinema, with such character actors as Gabby Hayes and Jack…
Listen Up: Lofidels Does It All on ‘Local Vibes’
Like a Barbara Walters interviews, only way cooler. Ryan goes one-on-one with Lenny Muckle, the mastermind behind Lofidels, in the lead-up to the release of the new album, Demonstration. Muckle talks about why he struck out on his own to create a one-man band and how he constantly keeps things fresh. Don’t forget that we’re…
News of the Weird: Revenge of the Goose
Karma Takes Wing A Canada goose got its final revenge on Feb. 1 when, after being shot out of the sky by a hunter in Easton, Maryland, it struck Robert Meilhammer, 51, of Crapo, Maryland, seriously injuring the waterfowler. NPR reported that Meilhammer was hunting with a group when one of the large geese flying…
Salome’s Stars
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Congratulations, Lamb. The end of the month brings good news in the workplace, thanks to all the efforts you’ve made to get your projects off the ground and running. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Don’t let yourself be cowed into thinking you’re not up to the challenge you’ve…
Can Local Journalism Survive Facebook and the Demise of Print Advertising?
It’s not fair, exactly, to say that Facebook killed the alt-weekly in Knoxville, Tennessee. But it probably landed the final blow. The internet, obviously, has been killing newspapers for a very long time. Why, say, would you pay for a subscription to your daily paper when you can get your local news online for free?…
A Trip to The Imperial That I’ll Actually Remember
Is anyone actually calling it Northside Station? If you’ve explored nightlife in Charlotte, especially Uptown, you know that the “building” that used to house Bar Charlotte and Republic Nite Club is now called Northside Station. That’s where you’ll find Lucky’s Bar & Arcade, Flight Beer Garden & Music Hall, Tavolo (R.I.P. from what I hear)…
King Liz is a Black Female Jerry Maguire at the Perfect Moment
Every four years, we flip our TV’s to the Olympics and bask in the illusion that women are vital, equal members of the sports world, ascending to the winners’ podiums and brightening our winters with their exploits in skiing, luge and figure skating. Then the bubble bursts, the clock strikes midnight and we exit Fantasyland…
All I Have Is My Words
I’d say the worst assignment for any reporter would be to report on the death of a loved one. This week I had to do the next worst thing: report on the death of a career. OK, maybe that’s a bit dramatic. After all, Creative Loafing in Charlotte is doing relatively well, and we’re more…
Step Right Up for Your ‘Fresh My Farm’ Vegetables
A couple mistakes made 49 years ago still make for some of the best marketing in Charlotte. Whether or not you’ve ever eaten at Gus’ Sir Beef, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the restaurant at the corner of Monroe and Wendover roads is surely the sign. “The Original Gus’s…
Lofidels Is a One-Man Art-Punk Assault
Like any explorer, Lenny Muckle travels light. After playing in two punk bands, the 26-year old multi-instrumentalist and singer decided to strip down his approach to making music. With his art-punk project Lofidels, which releases its second full-length album, Demonstration, on February 22, Muckle creates textured alternative rock where electronics and guitars tangle with lyrics…
Jeremy Davis Honors Charleston Church Shooting Victims on New Elonzo Wesley Album
The horrific shooting of nine parishioners by a white supremacist in Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015, left the entire country stunned, forcing us to confront ghosts that many preferred to leave alone. For Jeremy Davis, a native of Summerville, South Carolina, and the leader of the Charlotte band Elonzo Wesley,…
