OPERATION FREEFALL
Usually for fund-raisers, people gather, shmooze and are basically talked to death until they agree to give for a “good cause” (remember Jim Bakker and his PTL Ministry?). But, Operation Freefall isn’t your run-of-the-mill fund-raiser. Here, participants agree to raise a minimum of $600 in sponsorships for United Family Services’ Victims Assistance/Rape Crisis program, SOAR…
Oy Vey!
The hostess/server was busy making coffee when a regular customer appeared at the door. After being greeted by all the employees, the customer picked up a newspaper and proceeded to seat himself in one of the many comfortable booths. Soon, a tall glass of orange juice was delivered to him and freshly brewed coffee was…
The Blotter
Grave Trade: A woman bought a grave plot from a man for $225, because he convinced her he would turn around and sell the plot for $2,800 and give her the profit. The man called back the next day and asked for $100 more, which she gave him. She has not seen or heard from…
Taking the Fifth
Officially, Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican holiday to commemorate the 1862 victory of Mexico over the French. Americans love the concept of celebrating freedom and the vivid celebratory atmosphere that comes with it — in this case, all-out revelry with margaritas, beer and shots of tequila. Oh yeah, and some food. Charlotte has a…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I enjoy reading your column each week, even if I don’t always agree with the things you write. In November, I started a new job. The new position came with some good perks, like a signing bonus and a larger yearly salary. I noticed the change immediately with my first paycheck, which…
Hick-hop and it Don’t Stop
You know VH1’s show, Best Week Ever? Well, I think they would agree that my past hick-hopping week was one of the best. Check it: the hick — Chris Cagle in concert at Mike Wallace’s house — and the hopping (popping and locking) — an originator of hip-hop dance, Breakin’ star Boogaloo Shrimp aka Turbo…
Letters
Alienated Re: “Hateful Bigotry” column (by John Grooms, April 12). Grooms is right on the immigrant brouhaha. This is election year fodder to get the masses to the polls. No “real” legislation will come down — the politicians work for corporations and corporations like cheap, docile labor. My rant is that the other side of…
Remote Control
Captured! By Robots sounds like Robert Plant being electrocuted and castrated, backed by a teenage speed metal version of Led Zep. The visuals are even better: A skeletal, robotic guitarist dubbed GTRBOT666, made of wire and wood scraps, flails away on a double-necked flying V that appears to have been wired by Spock on acid.…
From the Editor
I got a call from an Associated Press reporter shortly before we put this issue to bed on Monday. He wanted to interview me about Phil Walden, the titan of American music who kick-started the careers of several generations of notable Southern artists — Otis Redding to the Allman Brothers Band to Widespread Panic –…
MUSIC ROAD
Turner South’s new Southeastern music-themed program, Music Road, premiered earlier this month with back-to-back episodes focusing on the Drive-By Truckers in Athens, GA, and Marty Stuart in Nashville. Hosted by Greenville, SC, singer-songwriter Edwin McCain, Music Road purports to “tour the birthplace of American music.” Yet the debut program, featuring regional legend Kevn Kinney and…
The Crazy Sister
Moodswing
La Peste
Adopting its name from the Camus novel The Plague, Boston’s La Peste, in its original incarnation, operated for a mere three years. But if you ask anyone who was on the Beantown scene circa 1977-79, they’ll single out the trio as the first true Boston punk band. Not a small distinction — captured on new…
Stargazer
Taurus The Bull (April 20 — May 19) There may be pressure on you to prove how much you love another. Alternatively, you may be asking someone else for this proof. The energy may be subtle. Concentrate on remaining conscious and step aside from such manipulative games. They rarely have a favorable outcome. For All…
Splendor in the Grass
It began with a tragic death, but has turned into a celebration of life and music. Since its inception in 1988, MerleFest, which takes place this weekend, has become the goddaddy of North Carolina roots music festivals. A year after Arthel “Doc” Watson’s son Merle was killed in 1985, the folk guitar legend was approached…
Wild Turkey
Driving in the dark two hours before the sun is scheduled to rise, my new friend Dan Hartman and I are playing “Old Mcdonald Had A Farm” for grown-ups. On our way to Dan’s hunting grounds in Chesterfield County, SC, he clucks, coos, crows and gobbles, teaching me the different hunting calls and techniques. Quacking,…
Avant-Funk
Even before rock & roll took over when I was young, the “art life” seemed very attractive to me due to maverick artists. Although the Web’s global, instant access renders the avant-garde quaint, the very same immediate dissemination of information also lessens the impact of fringe folk. Even if margins cannot cleanly be attested anymore,…
Mutiny on the Bounty
The bickering starts before Larry Benton even steps foot in the van. “Don’t ding up the fucking side, man,” shouts Greg Price from the window as Benton bends acrobatically out of his Jeep, trying not to hit his car door against Price’s 1994 maroon Safari. “Don’t mess up the love van?” Benton comes back with…
The Gospel of Jugis
You know you’re living in weird times when something as arcane as The Gospel of Judas becomes a pop culture phenomenon. National Geographic needed to recoup its million dollar investment in the Judas project, so they poured on the sensationalistic marketing (“a story that could create a crisis of faith”), and aired a TV “documentary”…
Trashed
Though his memoir is about so much more, there’s one particular detail of Dirk Jamison’s childhood that most holds the attention. After all, Jamison is not the first kid to endure an erratic and unreliable father, a depressed mother with an unhealthy relationship with eating or his parents’ troubled marriage. He’s not the first to…
What’s a Mecklenburger?
Now in its second season, The Mecklenburgers, a sitcom intended to inform residents about county services, is supposed to teach WTVI viewers about such disparate topics as domestic violence, substance abuse and running for mayor. County spokesman Danny Diehl said the last four episodes (which each cost taxpayers $30,000) have drawn an average 14,000 viewers,…
From Cirque To Puck — And Back!
Karl Baumann’s high-flying career Beginning with Quidam in 2002, Charlotte has cultivated an unquenchable appetite for Cirque du Soleil’s endless cavalcade of traveling spectacles. Varekai provided an encore mix of phenomenal acrobatics, fantastical costuming, winsome clowning and captivating music last fall outside Lowe’s Speedway under Cirque’s signature blue-and-yellow chapiteau. Now a new style of Cirque…
Charlotte Pride is Delayed, Not Dead
Last month, the Rev. “Flip” Benham stood in Marshall Park and proclaimed victory: Charlotte Gay Pride was finished. No longer would such perversion take place at the downtown park. His proclamations weren’t just limited to the obliging audience of TV camera crews. He also addressed Mayor Pat McCrory and the city council on March 27.…
I Heart NY
New York City: What’s not to love? I look at linx like these when I’m feeling masochistic. Desperate Housewives? I don’t think so. I’ll take my sex in the city any day. Overheard in New York www.overheardinnewyork.com Sweet Action www.sweetactionmag.com Satan’s Laundromat www.satanslaundromat.com Undercity www.undercity.org Museum of Sex www.museumofsex.com
What is a Maoist Rebellion and How Many Countries Have Them?
By the time you read this, Nepal’s King Gyanendra may have been overthrown. “Oh, no,” you’re thinking. “Gyanendra’s family, the Shah dynasty, has ruled all or part of that small Himalayan kingdom for the better part of five centuries. What sort of government will replace it?” Well, it’s possible that Nepal could become a parliamentary…
Film Clips
Current Releases BASIC INSTINCT 2 While many reviewers (to say nothing of Razzie Award voters) consider Sharon Stone a miserable actress, I can honestly say I would require all four fingers and the thumb of one hand to count her memorable performances. That number includes her fine work in last summer’s Broken Flowers, as well…
One Sad Friday
“What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home” — From “One Of Us,” composer Eric Bazilian, interpreter Joan Osborne Before noon on Good Friday, when Christian faith commemorates a sacred day of grief due to the crucifixion…
View From The Couch
THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED (2005). Based on a true story, this handsome drama directed by actor Bill Paxton (his second such stint behind the camera, following the muddled thriller Frailty) centers on the 1913 US Open and how a 20-year-old American lad named Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself pitted against two British pros…
What is a Hate Crime?
Three weeks ago, New York University student Broderick Hehman was murdered by a racist mob on New York’s 125th Street after he made the mistake of stopping to give a dollar to a wheelchair-bound homeless man. His teenaged attackers demanded to know why he didn’t give them a dollar, yelled racial epitaphs at him, shoved…
Girl Power: Hard Candy, Akeelah and the Bee
LONG AFTER THE din surrounding the merits of Hard Candy (*** out of four) has died down, people will still be discussing The Scene. Opening two weekends ago in limited release (and opening this Friday locally), this compact feature from director David Slade and writer Brian Nelson — a movie so controlled and claustrophobic that…
See & Do
Wednesday, April 26 Don’t let Leela James’ size fool you, nor her stately “natural,” which adds almost a whole foot to her height. James is an R&B singer — a real R&B singer, in the vein of a Chaka Khan or Lauryn Hill or Roberta Flack — equally at home with gospel, blues, soul and…
Convivial Pursuit
Corkscrew Growing up, my family played board games to pass the time. The marathon Monopoly and Risk sessions between my competitive family members provided hours of tense entertainment. Then Trivial Pursuit launched and my friends and I wasted fledgling brain cells learning names of leading men and women from ’40s and ’50s films. Montgomery Clift…
