Apr 26 – May 2, 2017
30th Anniversary Issue
Cover Story
John Grooms Shaped an Alternative Voice for Charlotte
When the editors at Creative Loafing told me that the paper’s 30th anniversary was upon us, I immediately volunteered to write about John Grooms. He is CL’s longest serving editor, Charlotte’s modern Mark Twain and my close friend. I admit, after several rounds of cancer, I’ve worried that I would soon be writing John’s obituary.…
5 Bands Worth Catching Before 5:30 at Carolina Rebellion 2017
Taking Back Sunday is the sole band waving the Charlotte flag this weekend.
American Indian Party Chair Fights for Indigenous Rights
Robert Greeson has dedicated his life to defending a piece of himself he once hated. Growing up as Jewish and indigenous in a rural mountain town in Georgia that was less than welcoming to minorities made it difficult for Greeson to feel prideful in his formative years, and as a teen he often disowned the…
Summer’s Sizzling Cinematic Slate
Over 50 movies are expected to open locally between the start of May and the end of August. Here are sneak peeks at some of these films – one per release date – followed by checklists of the remaining titles. MAY 5: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 further explores the far-flung adventures of Peter…
Cody Jinks and friends rouse the sold-out Neighborhood Theater crowd
Outlaw country’s next generation draws large crowd to NoDa venue.
Five Names For Your Irish Pub That Aren’t Milestone
Some originality, please?
From Hell It Came, La La Land, The Vampire Bat 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.) BROKEN ARROW (1950). The maturation of the Western as a vehicle for in-depth character studies took a major step forward in 1950, with the releases of The Gunfighter, starring Gregory Peck, and…
A Recogniton of the Most Consistent Culinary Best of Charlotte Winners
While digging through the archives of past issues for this week’s anniversary, we saw our share of Best of Charlotte winners, some of whom had been consistently winning since our first one in 1988. While keeping an official count would have been difficult due to the changing of categories and other issues, we did compile…
‘CL’ Charlotte’s Original Hometown Film Critic Opens Up About His Split Personality
The Charlotte edition of Creative Loafing had its coming-out party in April 1987, but it took over a year for me to receive my invitation. It was the spring of 1988, and I was set to graduate from UNC Charlotte in a few weeks. Having spent the past four years writing movie reviews for the…
Two Ex-‘CL’ Music Editors Put the Charlotte Scene Into Perspective
Ask two former Creative Loafing music editors to wax nostalgic about the Charlotte music scene during their respective eras, and you’re going to get an earful — after all, volubility about their musical loves and loathings helped land them the gig in the first place. Over the course of Creative Loafing’s three decades, we’ve followed…
A Look Back at the Never-Ending Battle and its Heroes
I write this as a man who has traveled through time, and I’m feeling a little jet-lagged for someone who didn’t leave his desk the entire trip. I’ve spent the last three weeks poring over Creative Loafing’s archives, from that godawful first cover with the unrecognizable skyline to the early aughts, when our Best of…
Hope Nicholls on Spending Three Decades in Charotte’s Music Scene and Why She Still Won’t Leave
I may be a news editor, but I consider myself relatively well plugged in to the Charlotte arts community. So in hindsight it’s bewildering that I only recently became aware of the woman whom I now consider to be the coolest person in Charlotte, especially because I’m (kind of) related to her. Just two or…
‘CL’ Charlotte’s Original Blotter Reporter Talks Switching Sides and Beats
It’s safe to say that Olivia Fortson is not scared of change. Fortson, who worked with Creative Loafing between 1987 and 1992 (she spent two of those years on the CL sales team, the rest as a reporter) is one of the few who have made the transition from Loafing contributor to staffer at The…
An open letter to a former hero who seems to have lost her way
Dear Tara Servatius, I always imagined one day I’d write to you. I would’ve thought I’d be writing to congratulate you on breaking a huge story, or to ask for advice on my budding journalism career. Instead, today I’m writing you because I need answers. I need to know what the fuck happened. Let me…
Aerin Spruill Links Up With CL’s Original Nightlife Columnist
“Parker you are kind of a douchebag, but I think I like it. Even better? I like that you’re the one throwing up right now and not me.” I laughed as I looked over at Parker Myers burping next to me in the Uber. Then I looked up to see whether the driver was getting…
Perry Tannenbaum Looks Back on His Love/Hate Affair With Charlotte Theater
Like many people, I felt like I had a personal relationship with Perry Tannenbaum long before I met him. Shorty after I moved to Charlotte in 1998, I started dabbling on the fringes of the city’s robust theater scene. One of the first names I heard mentioned, passed around by producers, directors and actors like…
Two Former ‘CL’ Editors Discuss the Hurdles of Increasing Diversity
I’m sitting in a slightly messy Creative Loafing office conference room. Story ideas are scribbled illegibly on a whiteboard and large framed posters showing images of past newspaper issues hang on the wall. Seated across from me is Carlton Hargro, the editor of the newspaper. It almost feels like 2011, when we last worked together…
‘Creative Loafing’ Celebrates 30 Years of Nonstop Obnoxiousness
“We had fun, we fought, we made up, and, at least in the editorial department, we never forgot our unofficial motto: ‘We’re not fucking around.'” Those words came from John Grooms, Creative Loafing’s original local editor who set this paper’s swaggering tone and high standards from the beginning. The quote is part of an essay…
Charlotte-set Films That Make You Proud There Are No More Charlotte-set Films
Before the right-wing dictators in Raleigh screwed over the state, North Carolina was a popular location for big-budget film and television productions. This included the Queen City, which found its skyline popping up in many quality productions. Yet even in those halcyon days, not all movies made in Charlotte (either entirely or just partially) could…
Weekly Horoscope (April 27-May 3)
For All Signs The horoscope of an individual is a precise map of the entire solar system at the time of his/her birth. The planets in the personal horoscope bear similarity to the Board of Directors in a corporation. Each planet is a member of the individual psyche with his or her own agenda. Venus…
