Local Sit & Spin
The Avett Brothers Mignonette Ramseur Records About that catchy title: The Mignonette (pronounced Men-yon-ette) was an English yacht that capsized off the coast of Africa back in 1884. After 19 days, the four surviving members drew straws and summarily killed and ate the weakest member of the crew. Rescued five days later, Captain Tom Dudley…
hey, taste this
Sometimes when I say I like something that isn’t generally considered in good taste I can feel my “cultured” friends wondering: Doesn’t she know any better, or are her “development kid” roots showing, like dark hair against bleached blonde? They try to figure out whether or not I’m joking, or if I really do have…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 4.28 Chatham County Line — Raleigh, NC’s Chatham County Line play through a single microphone and use traditional instrumentation, but don’t get the idea that the band is just another grouping of campfire-friendly hippies equally as fond of the green grass as the blue kind. Comprised of flat-picker and lead singer Dave Wilson (Tift…
free beer!
The folks at Budweiser decided to buy a large, rock-star worthy tour bus, outfit it with beer taps and flatscreen TVs, and drive it around the country to show folks the merits of freshly brewed beer. Word of the tour reached Creative Loafing offices, and once the word “beer” was mentioned, the Bud folks were…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Apr. 28 Back Alley Music Hall, Concord Open Mic w/ Jon Teague Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Jes & Sherry Blue Melinda Hansen, Royce Guin, Korey Dudley & Rob Knox Breakfast Club DJ Boney B Brickhouse Tavern, Davidson Robin Brown & Andy Seets Bricktop Lounge Christian & Brigmunton Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cecil’s…
The Blotter
CLEAN GETAWAY: A man was washing his truck recently when another man walked up to him. The stranger told him his truck looked good, and then explained to the truck washer that he had a gun and would kill him unless he gave over the truck. The truck’s owner took a step back, handed over…
Dogville: American Splinter
DOGVILLE ***1/2 DIRECTED BY Lars von Trier STARS Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany Writer-director Lars von Trier is one of the originators of the heavily promoted Dogme 95 manifesto, the oath taken among a small band of filmmakers which dictates that their movies would be made without any artificial means (no computer graphics, only natural light…
Million Woman March
Barbara Jenkins Cleaning Company Executive “My sister went and I was so proud of her, keeping the flame burning, standing up for her rights . . .I could kill her, though — she wrecked the nice top I let her borrow for the march.” Allie Dunn Restaurant Consultant “I guess it’s all right. But that…
View From The Couch
THE HAUNTED MANSION (2003). Eddie Murphy, in neutered family man mode, tries to keep things hopping in this lead-footed endeavor, playing a New Orleans realtor who drags his wife (Marsha Thomason) and kids with him to inspect a majestic yet crumbling mansion on the outskirts of town. After making the acquaintance of the transparently unsettled…
See & Do
APRIL 28 – WEDNESDAY The Queen City Soul Slam Competition is hosted by the African American Cultural Center today. Poetry slams — or performance poetry — allow poets to perform their works to be judged by members of the audience. A final competition will be held April 30 to determine the Charlotte “slam team,” which…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES LAWS OF ATTRACTION The 1950 comedy Adam’s Rib cast Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as husband-and-wife lawyers who end up on opposite sides of a major case; Laws of Attraction clearly hopes to be its modern-day equivalent, but it’s so inconsequential, it wouldn’t even cut it as Adam’s Hangnail. That’s a shame, because…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Going Out With a Fang My girlfriend of five months and I had an active sex life — until this weekend. After a rough week at work, I wasn’t in the mood (a rare occurrence), so I suggested we just cuddle. For 10 minutes she kept making advances, and became furious that I continued to…
Flawed priorities
Six years ago, for the first time, this community was forced to confront the toll that years of neglect had taken on inner-city schools as school system leaders testified in the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education desegregation court battle. Now, three-quarters of a billion dollars in voter-approved bonds later, things look starkly different at…
Stargazer
For All Signs We will experience a lunar eclipse in the sign of Scorpio on May 4 at 4:33 pm EDT. The overall message concerns the need to find resolution and closure to old, perhaps painful, memories. It is time to let them surface, re-experience the old feelings, and then let them go, along with…
Largest in History
More than one million pro-choice activists converged in the nation’s capital Sunday to protest the government’s persistent effort to chip away at women’s reproductive and health rights. The March for Women’s Lives — organized by a coalition of activist organizations — easily broke attendance records for national reproductive-rights rallies, overwhelming the 750,000 benchmark set in…
Greatness Gone By
At the end of the 80s and into the early 90s, when Brad Fraser’s Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love first hit the stages of Canada and New York, Edmonton was still a high-profile city. Citizens of Alberta’s capital certainly absorbed a couple of body blows to their pride in 1988. The…
Letters
Mercenary or Civilian? In David Walters’ article (“To Die in Fallujah,” Apr. 14), I am a little concerned about your use of the word “mercenary.” To call the civilians who were killed in Fallujah (and they were civilians) “mercenaries” is a mistake. They were not hired to fight but to protect. They were civilian contract…
The Family Albatross
The “true north” of Jim Harrison’s new novel refers only tangentially to the geographical compass point, for True North is the story of a young man navigating blindly in search of his own direction in life, and a metaphor for how our pasts serve as emotional hurdles and psychological barriers to self-discovery. Narrator David Burkett…
No More Vanilla?
If you’re a Carolina Panthers fan who thinks local coverage tends toward a bland vanilla flavor, as I do, you could get some relief if pending contracts are signed soon. Edge Marketing, a local TV production and marketing company, and WBTV are hammering out details to bring a network-style Sunday sports show to the market.…
The Melberg Moving Company
Veteran Charlotte art dealer Jerald Melberg grew up in a small town in Minnesota which he describes as a “fabulous” experience. It obviously inspired his entrepreneurial spirit, as Melberg often set up backyard petting zoos and circuses and charged all the neighborhood children 10 cents for admission.His initial interest was studying theater, but following his…
How Charlotte Bought Off Bob
All in all, Bob McNulty has got it pretty good. A couple times a decade, he and he alone makes the final decision as to which cities will get the coveted title of America’s “Most Livable.” In between these bestowings, city leaders across the country who normally wouldn’t give the leader of a small non-profit…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Chitravina Recital Classical Music Association of Charlotte presents a recital by Sangeet Samrat, Chitravina N. Ravikiran. Sun., May 2, 2 p.m. $10-$15, Free for CMAC members and Davidson students. Sloan Music Center, Davidson College, Davidson. 704-814-9355. Elijah The Charlotte Symphony will say farewell to David Tang as he conducts his last symphony concert…
It’s Surreal Thing
As conflicts go, The War Against Terror grows more surreal all the time. Last week progressed in an especially Dali-esque manner, beginning Monday with two comic strips taking on the very uncomical topic of American soldiers getting wounded in Iraq and their subsequent treatment — something the US press have generally failed to pay attention…
Lovely To Look At…
Looks can be deceiving. Kaffé Frappé: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner – Drinks, which opened in January, is a beautiful space designed by the talented Carrie Frye of Narmour Wright Associates of Charlotte. What started on the drawing board as an upscale diner morphed into a comfortably stylish restaurant with concrete, cork, wood, glass, and…
Clueless about History
Small boys love heroes. Girls have their heroines, too. But my generation, growing up in post-imperial Britain during the 1950s, hadn’t yet fought the battles of the 60s and 70s for gender and sexual equality. For us, the legacy of heroic derring-do was a male domain, peopled by the gallant men of empire, fictional and…
Mail Bonding
This quarterly column gives you license to talk back and see whatever wine comments and questions you might have in print. If you have a something to say, good or bad, e-mail me at: corkscrew@creativeloafing.com. German Recognition Gerhard Hamburg, an adorably charming, heavy-accented gent called me up awhile ago to tell me he enjoyed my…
Greek Isles Restaurant
Greek to Me Authentic Greek dining in Charlotte no longer a myth You no longer need the Oracle at Delphi to answer the question “Where do I go for Greek food in Charlotte?” Greek Isles Restaurant pays homage to a cuisine long neglected in Charlotte. Not since the Grapevine closed years ago has Charlotte had…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 400 S. Tryon St., 704-339-0303; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. All locations have different owners. A hint of the tropics; rotisserie chicken with Jamaican jerk sauce, ribs, Paradise Island fish special, curries, and Caribbean styled greens. $$ Azteca, 116 Woodlawn Rd., 704-525-5110; 9709 Independence Blvd., 704-814-9877; 1863 W. Franklin Blvd.…
The Dukes of Drum ‘n’ Bass
Breaking like a startled pulse, scurrying rhythms skittering to and fro with a bubbling snare snap like a hyperactive child with a serious sugar buzz, drum “n’ bass has long been the bête noir of the dance music scene. Its jazzy machine gun beat throbs in an intricate two-step built from jumped-up hip-hop or a…
