While the Plaza Midwood Art Krawl was rained out, the Carolina Cup went on rain and NO shine ... and, for lack of better terms (and weather) was a complete and utter shit show.
The Carolina Cup is kinda like a NASCAR race, with a different form of horse power ... in regards to the amount of heavy partying off the track. Except all the men wear really tacky preppy and plaid pants and the girls wear Easter dresses and big hats.
At 9:30 a.m., I boarded a bus, was handed a mimosa and found myself on an Easter egg hunt on the bus. The weather looked nice the whole 2.5-hour ride there, but as soon as we parked ... torrential down-pour. After hiking through inches of mud we got to our tent — cold, wet and dirty.
There was one of two options — be a Debbie downer, or get sloppy-wet drunk. It was raining so hard if I had shampoo I could’ve washed my hair. Our tent broke out a slip and slide and a neighboring tent broke out the karaoke and started singing (and dancing) in the rain. And after a few beers, it was a glorious feeling.
By the end of the day everyone was just pretty much playing in the mudd. Some southern Carolinian took the horsing around. Like this guy ...
When we night-lifers hear the word "crawl," we usually think "too drunk to stand." However, Plaza Midwood’s Art Krawl isn’t just about the art of drinking. But since the weather was wet, the art scene was dry – as in there was barely anybody out. A local PM patron informed me the rain keeps postponing the event, but I didn’t let it rain on my parade.
It took a mere five paces down Central Avenue before I sighted a handful of paintings in front of Zada Janes, but no artist in sight. And though the cafés and galleries were advertising the Krawl, a lot of them were closed. Ten paces later, I found shelter from the rain in “Queen’s Gallery” — the apparent home of the Art Krawl.
While chillin' out to live music you can admire the ships and the harbors, the flowers and the landscapes. Unfortunately, I can’t show you as I wasn’t allowed to publish any photographs, but you know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words — but I don't have that long of a word count. Though I appreciated the beauty of each painting, I knew nothing about them and was ready for a drink — because a glass or two of wine can make the art challenged feel like an art expert, and depending on how many glasses you drink, perhaps even the artist itself.
It was then that I found my favorite piece of art ... in the hands of the bartenders, the alcohol artist.
The bartender explained the Art Krawl typically has tents lined up outside and galleries open for display, but on Saturday the Art Krawl was more like a pub crawl because the watered down weather kept the PM watering holes busy.
This Friday you have your pick from NoDa’s Gallery Crawl and Historic SouthEnd’s Gallery Crawl
And according to the weather forecast the sunshine will be on display.
As in the band; I really just went to the KISS 95.1 studios to rock out with Chad Rock and Danny and Foz from REHAB.
Our conversations quickly went from
CHAD ROCK: “How are you?”
DANNY: “I feel like a million pennies”
CHAD ROCK: “Well you look like shit man!”
DANNY: “Yeah, we got a little rowdy last night”
ME: (pointing to his fresh bloody knuckles): “What’d you punch last night?”
DANNY: “The TV”
Ouch ...
Before I knew it we were having a “tell off” about bed wetting stories and singing in studio karaoke. They remixed November Rain, Living on a Prayer … and My Humps. “My lovely lady lumps, check em’ out” … Danny’s deep man voice made it sound even better than Fergie. I then got to sing along to the best sing along song, ever – theirs: "Bartender."
The rockstars who truly party like rockstars rated Charlotte in the top 5 in terms of party towns.
“Everything’s new, the women are hot and every show we’ve played here someone gets kicked out,” Danny said as Foz nodded in agreement, “there’s a bald headed bouncer at Amos' that will fuck shit up.”
They were in town to play an all ages show at Amo’s SouthEnd … and they left me an autographed album to give to you.
Just as Ponce de Leon set out looking for the Fountain of Youth, I set out looking for the Fountain of Detox — as in escape from hangover hell. Sure, there’s Advil and Pepto for the breakfast of champions, a greasy morning after meal and even getting hair off the dog that bit you. But if you don’t want to follow-up the 500 liquid calories with McDonalds, or drink like you’re on vacation, my hippie ass has found a holistic approach to hangover healing ... The Hydration Station at Planet Beach Contempo Spa in Caramel Commons.
It’s the perfect hangover elixir. You lay in this space ship looking contraption and sweat out all the toxins in your body while rehydrating and moisturizing your skin. Oh, but it gets better ... you burn 300 to 500 calories while doing so. It’s like a steam room on steroids; a detox spa.
I appreciate my readers so much that I wish I could handwrite each of you a personalized “Thank You” card. But I can do you one better — I am going to write you a prescription for a hangover cure — I have 30 free passes to Planet Beach so you can try recuperation at the Hydration Station, and it includes three sessions so you can also try their Lumiere Facial Rejuvination.
All you have to do is join my blog group then e-mail me an address (brittney.cason@creativeloafing.com) so I can mail you your certificate — well, at least the first 30 people to e-mail me.
P.S. HOM’s re-opening has moved to next Friday, April 3. Oh darn, guess that mean’s we’ll have to miss the Hootie and the Blowfish ballet ... wtf?
In high school, I went to Young Life just about every week. One week, I found myself part of an operation that involved scraping road kill up to win a scavenger hunt. But one of the guys on the opposing team ate a live goldfish and it trumped our dead opossum in the point system... Yes, this really happened – do you think I could make this shit up? What can I say? I’m from a small town, we had to entertain ourselves somehow.
But Charlotte’s not a small town — it’s a big town, small city with a much more eventful form of “Young-Adult Life”: Charlotte One
Charlotte One is held every Tuesday at 7 p.m. until April 28 at the First United Methodist Church in Uptown. (People typically park in the Rustic Martini parking lot).
600 people gather to party with praise. They have a rocking band and a DJ in front of the church. They even serve refreshments. They rotate speakers, but last night (and next week) was (and is) Jarrett and Jeanne Stevens. They were like Christian comedians.
“Facebook seems to determine our relationships, they even have “it’s complicated” as an option – but breaking up using your facebook status is just dirty, ” Jarrett said. Apparently, the last guy I dated didn’t frequent Charlotte One.
Fashion Friday at KISS Lounge, which is introducing both the new Christian Audigier line and the AMPED 4-a-cure concert series - a philanthropy supporting cancer research through music. Friday Small Doses with special guest Tommy DeCarlo of the legendary Boston will be fighting cancer, as in performing.
I'm actually hosting the event ... the last time I hosted a fashion show I got yelled at for pronouncing BeBe as “bay-bay” as opposed to the correct pronunciation: “bee-bee.” With that said, can someone please tell me how to properly pronounce Audigier before handing me a microphone?
Doors open at 9 p.m.
I was lured up to Buck Wild Ultra Saloon in University by a facebook invite to “Man Show Mondays” that advertised trampoline jumping. Growing up, I would entertain myself for hours with the trampoline I had in my back yard. When I came home from college one summer my mom had gotten rid of it and confessing it was a pain in the ass when she mowed the lawn so she just gave it to the kids up the street that use to always come knock on our door and ask to jump on it.
There I was, 19 years old, knocking on my neighbor’s door, asking a 10-year-old if I can jump on her trampoline. So, I went to Buck Wild in hopes of jumping on a trampoline – I even wore yoga pants so I could do flips. Turns out, the Man Show actually entailed the bartenders jumping on mini-trampolines.
It was a little scary walking in – it’s reminiscent of a haunted castle, the door even looked like a draw bridge. But it was like an a-booze-ment park inside with Cornhole, Beer Pong tables on old whisky barrels, ping-pong ... and a stripper pole.
I threw my intern Sarah into the game to find some relief from nightlife boredom... and she brought back a board game. 2 points for the intern. — Brittney
Although we’ve had gaming systems since back when Atari was considered cool, the 21st Century ushered in the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. I actually read an article that talked about when the right time is to delete your ex’s Wii character?
That pretty much sums up the extent to which technology has come to rule our world. My man and I love to sit back and play a game of "Call of Duty," but it always seems to go better for him than for me. “Play Date” may have another solution for nightlife boredom, grab a board game.
For us un-technologically advanced, “Play Date” offers classics like Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and Connect 4 — basically the games we grew up with that will let us make our comebacks. Alongside great games, there’s game foods and alcohol. Then while the floor may already be moving from the drinks, “Play Date” adds another twist — Twister, Musical Chairs and Hula Hoops.
Kasey Khane’s rendition of T.I.’s "Live Your Life" Hey, ey, ey, ey, ey, EY.
Johnny Tap-out getting knocked the f out.
Saturday Night Live at The Charlotte Comedy Theater with Robot Johnson.
Good times were had with Good Time’s star JJ Walker.
The first thing he said when he took the stage was “Lake Norman – Cornelius, North Carolina... so it’s come to this?” Meaning, his career. But he was surrounded by celebs actually ... assuming he’s heard of NASCAR.
JJ is still so animated and outspoken he didn’t even need a mic, he just carried it around at arms length, only using it when he was acting out a punch line — or really trying to make a point. I was laughing so hard I got cramps ... some of the side splitting laughter induced jokes included his comments regarding Young Hollywood.
“Britney Spears lost custody of her kids ... even Michael Jackson was allowed to keep his kids.” He made some very valid points...
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