Apr 15-21, 2015

Apr 15-21, 2015 / Vol. 29 / No. 8

Cover Story

Confessions of Charlotte weed dealers

So you’ve decided to be a weed supplier. That’s understandable. Growing or selling marijuana has the potential to earn you hundreds of thousands of tax-free dollars per year. You can make your own schedule. There’s no degree required, but plenty of party supplies for you and your friends. Plus, sometimes you get the sense you’re…

Erin Tracy-Blackwood

True Story: I call b.s.

TRUE STORY**DIRECTED BY Rupert GooldSTARS Jonah Hill, James Franco While it may be true that True Story is indeed based on one, the real story is how this intermittently interesting but hopelessly erratic picture bungles what should have been an easy assignment. Adapted from the book by Michael Finkel, the film finds journalist Finkel (Jonah…

Matt Brunson

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (April 16)

I Know Who To Start With: An employee of Novant Health phoned police after noticing damage done to their Ballantyne-area office furniture. It appears someone keyed or scratched the name “Patricia Thomas” on a desk. I’m guessing police have at least one person of interest to start with … Blade Runner: A person was stopped…

Jeff Hahne

Weekly horoscope (April 16-22)

For All Signs: Our most remote planet, Pluto, changes directions on April 16th, moving into “retrograde” (backward) motion. I have written about the god of the Underworld often in recent months. Pluto’s motion is related to vast power and social/political judgments which affect the masses. It is well for all of us that a period…

Vivian Carol

Festival Fits

Rock music festivals don’t book enough female acts. Look at the numbers: Only 17 percent of the bands playing Coachella include at least one female member; Summerfest in Milwaukee, the “World’s Largest Music Festival,” comes in under 23 percent; closer to home, Bonnaroo lands at just under 25 percent. The numbers get even more pathetic…

Megan Seling

Secrets from chefs in Charlotte restaurant kitchens

It’s been 15 years since celebrity chef (and my personal heartthrob) Anthony Bourdain unintentionally blew the lid off the restaurant industry with the publication of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. He wrote about the camaraderie of the restaurant kitchen — of “working together in a confined space under extreme pressure.” He made it…

Page Leggett

The business side of Bonnaroo

With roughly 85,000 music fans filling the farmlands of Manchester, Tennessee, each June to experience the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, it’s no surprise that the event has become one of the biggest flagship festivals in the country over the last 13 years. With more than $51 million in revenue generated across the state, there’s…

Jeff Hahne

Poverty is not a choice

I’m trying to become a more peaceful parent. When I’m anxious, my kids are much less cooperative and our time together is a lot less pleasant. So I’m striving to be more patient, to stop rushing the boys all the time. Mornings are the hardest time to practice peacefulness. They’re a mad rush of making…

Ailen Arreaza

The top 8 music festivals to sweat your ass off at

Whether it’s a short drive down the road or a multi-day camping experience, festival season is upon us. From Jason Isbell performing beside the rushing rapids of the U.S. National Whitewater Center to Billy Joel closing out four days on the farm at Bonnaroo, there truly is something happening for everyone. With more than 20…

Jeff Hahne

Coming out for cannabis

In the almost three-and-a-half-minute long YouTube video, a handful of clean-cut, well-dressed people share their “best kept secret.” Against the subtle notes of a piano, the opening shots cut between people who look nervous; one guy blows out a breath. Before long, each person shares who might not know their secret — parents, professional colleagues,…

Kimberly Lawson

High Times managing editor has roots in Charlotte

In the mid ’90s, Jen Bernstein and her friends used to hot box her parents’ mini-van, which she’d outfitted with stickers, before they’d go hang out in NoDa to see local acts and “hippie drum circles.” At the time, she was a student at Providence High School who loved attending concerts at Tremont and The…

Kimberly Lawson

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone works through its shortcomings

Before you even reach the dialogue, it’s obvious everything August Wilson crammed onto the page when he wrote Joe Turner’s Come and Gone can’t possibly be recreated onstage ­— not unless you can show the barges indicated in his stage directions trudging up the Monongahela River to Pittsburgh in 1911 and the sun falling “out…

Perry Tannenbaum

Mobile Arts & Community Experience is promising for community

You don’t need a massive theater complex to showcase performing arts. As a matter of fact, smaller, more innovative setups like the Mobile Arts & Community Experience are living proof size doesn’t matter when it comes to solid shows and creative constructs. Build it, and they — the crowds, that is — will come. MAX…

Anita Overcash

Dustin Adams of Cruise Carts boasts an advertiser-driven business

Well Charlotteans, it looks like last week’s Masters Tournament isn’t the only place boasting a golf-cart frenzy. Cruise Carts, started in March 2014 by one young entrepreneur Dustin Adams, is the first of its kind in the Queen City to offer free rides for community members in NoDa, South End, Uptown and Plaza Midwood. What’s…

Sara Workman

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