Apr 17-23, 2013

Apr 17-23, 2013 / Vol. 27 / No. 8

Cover Story

Plaza Midwood restaurant Letty’s adds new tricks to old-school dining

Lately, the borders of Charlotte’s culinary explosion have begun to blur: Not all is as new as perceived. New school locavores sometimes forget that Charlotte’s forgotten gastronomic past included “fresh my farm” vegetables (the slogan used on signs, menus, and yes, painted on the building at Gus Bacogeorge’s Gus’ Sir Beef, a “meat and three”…

Tricia Childress

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (April 18)

Pop-Up Shop: Police responded to a shoplifting call in south Charlotte last week after a couple of men allegedly stole cameras from a Family Dollar store. The men weren’t hard to track down; according to police, they were attempting to sell the cameras in the parking lot of the same Family Dollar store. Lucky Shot:…

Ryan Pitkin

Artists converge for Lake Norman fest

There are times when it’s crucial to venture outside of museums for art, and the Lake Norman Fine Art Festival is one of those times. It offers a decent selection of artwork – painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, woodwork, glass, jewelry, and more – that’s enjoyable whether you browse or buy. The festival, held along the…

Anita Overcash

All around the world

Avid travelers know the importance of cultural mingling – that is, you really don’t know a place until you’ve put down your guidebook and mingled with some locals. Carousing off the beaten paths, trying foods you’ve never heard of, browsing through bazaars with handcrafted goods and attending performances that showcase entertainment and costumes unique to…

Anita Overcash

Local artist displays new works at bookstore

The Q.C.-based artist Gary Davis Sr. spotlighted African-American entertainers and idols – some of which included Bob Marley, Ray Charles and President Obama – in his previous collection titled First Impressions. A self-taught artist who has been painting with acrylics for years, Davis primarily paints portraits. But he doesn’t limit himself only to recognizable, notable…

Anita Overcash

Theater review: Fences

Productions of August Wilson’s Fences come around about as often as 17-year cicadas, which is about as often as actors come along who can do justice to Troy Maxson, its tragic hero. Maxson is baseball royalty, blessed with Babe Ruth-Josh Gibson slugging power and cursed with a snarling, bitter Ty Cobb temperament. He should have…

Perry Tannenbaum

Nothing’s shocking for Chad Gilbert

Grabbing the microphone. It’s a simple enough action and New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert has done it hundreds of times. However, while performing in Los Angeles in March, Gilbert suddenly collapsed onstage, the victim of an electric shock courtesy of a faulty mic. “It was definitely scary and weird,” says Gilbert, who was rushed to…

Ashton Lewis

Oblivion: Future fizzle

OBLIVION ** DIRECTED BY Joseph Kosinski STARS Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman The latest in a steady stream of apocalyptic, end-of-the-world sagas, Oblivion itself is a vast wasteland, with only fleeting visions of imagination and coherency as far as the eye can see. Presumably, writer-director Joseph Kosinski, adapting the graphic novel he co-wrote with Arvid Nelson,…

Matt Brunson

Craft beers to tempt the Q.C. cocktail crowd

When it comes to libations, my preference is always a cocktail. Beer is a four-letter word I seldom use, as I rarely venture into the world of taps. So, what’s a gal to do when it comes time to cure what “ales” you? Dive in face first and bottoms up, of course. The outcome? I’m…

Lauren Blake

The Exit Interview is theater and pop culture on Prozac

Now that our society has gone totally crass and crazy — our schools, our politics, our broadcast media and our movies — what’s an outraged, flummoxed playwright to do? Well, if you’re William Missouri Downs, a name bristling with innate eccentricity, you push all that craziness further over the edge in The Exit Interview, now…

Perry Tannenbaum

Perms, police and white privilege

When I was in high school, I wrote an essay for my 11th grade English class arguing that my ethnicity should be irrelevant in the university admissions process. I didn’t think it fair that my Cuban heritage allowed me to apply for scholarships my white classmates couldn’t qualify for. While studying expository writing in that…

Ailen Arreaza

Mayor Foxx’s exit no gift to city of Charlotte

Welcome to another earth-shaking, karma-clearing episode of Ask Boomer With Attitude, brought to you from Charlotte, where county officials act as if they’re being stung by wasps whenever the school system wants money for improvements. As usual here, readers ask questions of critical public interest and I do my best to clarify things. Let’s get…

John Grooms

Weekly horoscope (April 18-24)

Taurus the Bull (April 20-May 20): Periodically we need to examine who we are and also who we are not. Often something is eliminated. In general, it increases your courage and physical strength. For All Signs: Both Mars (the Warrior) and Venus (the Lover) are being challenged by Saturn, the god of time, practical reality,…

Vivian Carol

AMCS Bodega stocks up on Charlotte street culture

In the stoner classic Half Baked, Dave Chappelle describes bodegas as little corner stores with incredibly old products and pretty good weed. Allow the guys behind AMCS Bodega to explode that concept for you. Over the course of a year, the collective — whose moniker stands for arts, music, clothing and sneakers — has steadily…

Emiene Wright

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