Cover Story
Going Bananas!!!: Don’t Cry for Me, Margaret Mitchell opens in Charlotte
Nearly three years after its publication, Gone With the Wind continued to grip the nation in a book craze exponentially larger than Harry Potter. The year was 1939. Novelist Margaret Mitchell’s Tara, Rhett, Ashley and Scarlett O’Hara already were part of American mythology. Not only had Mitchell’s epic best-seller won the 1937 Pulitzer, but the…
U-Carmen at the Gantt
Ahhh, the power of love!
Joan Osborne at Visulite (4/10/12)
JOAN OSBORNE While booty-shaking divas clutter the airwaves, singers like Joan Osborne, with her blues-soaked voice, are out to save the world. She hasn’t landed in hitsville since the ’90s, but that doesn’t matter, as her brash originals stand firm. And she can toss around a cover song with ease, which is nicely showcased on…
Writer Mary C. Curtis honored by National Society of Newspaper Columnists
A national columnists group has recognized one of our contributors for her skillful column-writing.
Deniro Farrar releases “Play No Games” video
Charlotte rapper Deniro Farrar released a video for his Ryan Hemsworth-produced song, “Play No Games,” from Farrar’s album Destiny.Altered today. The video was shot in NoDa. Deniro Farrar “Play No Games” Produced by Ryan Hemsworth from BLACK FLAG RECORDS on Vimeo.
Concert announcement: Fresh Music Festival
Charlotte’s K-Ci & JoJo among performers coming to Time Warner Cable Arena on July 1.
Mez, 4/7/12
Photos from the Wigged Out party.
Bar Charlotte, 4/6/12
Photos from this past weekend’s foam party
Today’s Top 5: Monday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Live review: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Time Warner Cable Arena, 4/6/2012
Red Hot Chili Peppers w/ SantigoldTime Warner Cable ArenaApril 6, 2012 I believe most Red Hot Chili Peppers fans fall into one of two groups – those who started listening before “Under the Bridge” and those who discovered the band because of the radio hit. The first camp believes nothing the band released after Blood…
Sake to me: tickets on sale for Sushi & Sake Fest
Event will take place Wednesday, April 25.
Safetsuit rocks Ovens Auditorium tonight (4/9/12)
SAFETYSUIT Though their debut album, Life Left to Go, was only released in 2008, it feels like fans have been waiting a decade to hear new music from the Oklahoma rockers who successfully infiltrated the mainstream airwaves while keeping an indie vibe about them. Fan favorites like “Stay” and “Someone Like You” put them on…
Turisas play Tremont tonight (4/8/12)
<strong>TURISAS Just the thing to get you fired up for Beltane! Paganfest 2012 headliners Turisas parlay a mashup of Symphonic metal, Queen-like bombast and Finnish folklore into a blood-spurting but ultimately uplifting Dark Age saga. Unlike many Battle Metaleers, frontman Matthais Nygard shuns growling for a sepulchral Peter Murphy croon that verges on Broadway show…
Sunday Funday, indeed
Sunday B_Sides event at VBGB.
Join expert Kevin Zraly for Wine 101
Registration for the Charlotte Food & Wine Weekend event closes on April 15.
Phillip Roebuck at the Milestone tonight (4/7/12)
PHILLIP ROEBUCK At the start of the 20th century, Sears, Roebuck and Company would ship you a house. It came in a boxcar – all you had to do was put it together. And there it was, a self-contained unit, wherever you wanted it to go. As a banjo-strumming solo roots-punk artist with a bass…
Angel Snow at Evening Muse tonight (4/7/12)
ANGEL SNOW With a name straight out of an Appalachian fable, it figures that the story of Angel Snow’s big break is a showbiz fairytale. A casual meeting with Alison Krause led to a fruitful collaboration with Krause’s songwriting brother Viktor. The partnership netted Angel and Viktor the newgrass buzz cut “Lie Awake” that features…
ALT-CTRL-SLEEP at Petra’s tonight (4/7/12)
ALT-CTRL-SLEEP Perhaps if they played more live shows, we’d discuss the music of Joe and April Diaco in the same revered tones reserved for some of the city’s better-known acts. After all, Alt-Ctrl-Sleep’s demos attracted the interest of dream-pop producer and guru Kramer (Galaxie 500, Low). The logistics for that Alt-Kramer collaboration didn’t pan out,…
Petal turns 4
The women’s clothing boutique celebrates their anniversary today with a sale, goodies and more.
Stomp on Saturday
The two-decades-strong Broadway hit invades Belk Theater.
Get a thrill from Zodiac
Main Library’s current series Extra! Extra! Celebrating the Newspaper Picture closes.
Lesbian offspring
Zach Wahls speaks during Believe in Youth Awareness at Knight Theater.
Holla at my peeps at The Pink Hanger
Wanna know how you can satisfy your sweet tooth AND get fashionable discounts from some other really stylish “peeps”?
Live review: Diplo, The Neighborhood Theatre, 4/5/2012
DJ/producer du jour performs a special last-minute free show in NoDa
Live review: Van Hunt, Double Door Inn, 4/5/2012
Van HuntDouble Door InnApril 5, 2012 Van Hunt was an hour and 10 minutes into his concert at the Double Door Inn on April 5, 2012, when he stopped the show, his band walked off stage and the 42-year-old singer/songwriter addressed the audience. “I really hate to say this, but some people here have been…
Weekend Film Reviews: Titanic 3D; American Reunion
Here’s what’s newly covered on the cinema scene.
Zink has all you can eat BBQ-’nuff said
Dig into this all-you-can-eat supper, available every Sunday.
Just 24 hours left on the RedSky Gallery Easter sale
Hunting for Easter decor?
The Milestone, 4/6/12
Photos from the April 5 concert.
American Reunion: Marginally worth attending
AMERICAN REUNION **1/2 DIRECTED BY Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg STARS Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan Although the “raunchy teen sex comedy” got off to a rousing start with 1978’s classic National Lampoon’s Animal House, the lamentable rip-offs that followed — almost all of them centering on high school or college boys desperate to lose their…
Crawl over to these art openings
Here are a few picks of exhibit openings and receptions to check out.
Vote NO drag show at Hartigan’s Pub
Protest Amendment One at Hartigan’s Pub tonight.
Starving Artists cooks up Don’t Cry for Me, Margaret Mitchell
It’s not so much about a “writer’s block” as it is a “writer’s clusterfuck.”
Arts Flash: Q&A with Honora Jacob
Her works are currently on display in Lark & Key Gallery’s Memory and Metaphor exhibit.
DNC 2012 Notebook: Adding Carolinas flavor to convention events
Both the DNC and host committees are establishing the credibility of the Carolinas with one activity that incorporates the culture and another that aims to “leave behind” a mark.
We Were Promised Jetpacks play Neighborhood Theatre (4/6/12)
We Were Promised Jetpacks Glaswegians are a hard lot, or so folks like filmmaker Ken Loach and author Irvine Welsh are always insisting. But this generation of the city’s rich music heritage – including this quartet’s FatCat label-mates the Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit – have tilted more Belle & Sebastian romantic than they have,…
Battle Beasts, Strongholdcrvsader at Milestone tonight (4/6/12)
BATTLE BEASTS, STRONGHOLDCRVSADER Battle Beasts is one appropriately-named act. The Charlotte duo plays flat-out, reckless drum-and-bass noise-rock (yeah, a lot like Lightning Bolt). Yet Battle Beasts’ mix of hardcore pummel with wild-eyed danceability results in a more ruthless creature than the Bolt’s unicorns-n-rainbows bliss-punk: the desperate grit and grime of the genre’s basement origins shine…
Santigold opening for Chili Peppers tonight at the Arena (4/6/12)
SANTIGOLD One of the more adventurous contempo-pop songstresses, “Creator” creator Santigold will perform at the arena Friday, opening for some obnoxious white-boy funk-rock band whose name … uh – well, it rhymes with Bed Rot Shilly Lepers. (Feel free to take a pass on the headliners and make it an early night.) Santi White’s database…
Red Hot Chili Peppers play Time Warner Cable Arena tonight (4/6/12)
Red Hot Chili Peppers Remember when Red Hot Chili Peppers used to bring the funk, wear socks on their cocks and generally rock the fuck out with everything they had? Neither do they. Once “Under the Bridge” hit the airwaves, Kiedis and Co. mellowed out and found a new pop-rock groove. I don’t expect anything…
Friday Live! at the Factory announces 2012 schedule
Friday Live! at the Factory announced its 2012 schedule today which features national and local artists. The event, which takes place each Friday in the Fountain Plaza of the N.C. Music Factory, kicks off on April 29 with the “toe-suckin’ geek rock” of Southern Culture on the Skids and Charlotte surf rock group The Aqualads.…
Today’s Top 5: Friday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Extras at Mint Museum Uptown
Upcoming activities to keep on your radar.
Tickets on sale for 4th Annual 25 Most Stylish Event
Charlotte Style Mag asks, Who are the 25 most stylish people in Charlotte?
Charlotte’s unemployment rate falls in February
Unemployment decreased in 84 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
Easter Recipe: Coconut Pie
What dessert do you imagine when you think of Easter dinner?
Tickets on sale for Taste of the Nation Charlotte
Available now through April 11.
Today’s Top 5: Thursday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Opening This Week
What’s new in theaters this week.
Charlotte Knights stadium a step closer to securing funds
The team now hopes city council will wave it home.
Beatles offspring project a bad idea
The Interwebs are abuzz today with word of a possible project involving the sons of the Beatles. Before I go any further, let me say, “Please. Don’t.” It all started when the BBC published an interview with James McCartney and he said he’d be up for a project involving the other Beatle offspring. On initial…
Eat with your dollars with the Food Babe
There is an organic revolution storming, and all of us need to get on the band wagon for the sake of our health and our children’s health.
Today’s Top 5: Wednesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
MST3K, War Horse among new home entertainment titles
A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011). As part of his four-score from 2011, Michael Fassbender turned up in A Dangerous Method as Carl Jung, the Swiss doctor often deemed the father of modern psychology. Watching him tackle Jung as a cautious, conflicted man, it’s hard to see the same person who was so brooding in Jane Eyre,…
Spring flings open the doors of local farmers markets
Hours of operation for local farmers markets.
DNC Notebook: A budding bromance?
Mayor Anthony Foxx and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praise each others’ cities and work.
Diplo, Chiddy Bang announce surprise concert
Diplo and Chiddy Bang will be in Charlotte on Thursday night for a surprise concert. The DJ and hip-hop band are touring the country as part of AXE’s One Night Only for seven free concerts in college towns. On Wednesday, April 4, an AXE One Night Only truck will hit the UNC Charlotte campus to…
LOL: Comedy in the Q.C.
A roundup of CL‘s top picks for comedy shows in Charlotte this week.
Today’s Top 5: Tuesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
CD Review: Naked Gods’ No Jams
Anyone who has seen Boone’s Naked Gods live would likely scoff at the title of No Jams, the band’s absorbing sophomore effort. After all, the band’s energetic stage show is pretty much all jams — a high-octane tangle of kinetic bass lines, twisted guitarmonies and piercing vocals that fly off the rails with the energy…
Titanic: Still See-Worthy
TITANIC ***1/2 DIRECTED BY James Cameron STARS Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet In retrospect, it’s easy to be cynical and stuffy about James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic. It surpassed previous champs Star Wars and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial as the top moneymaking film of all time (itself eventually surpassed by Cameron’s Avatar), a personal affront to countless moviegoers…
Forget fear of flying; fear airport screening
There was terror in the skies this week over Texas, caused not by a terrorist but by a pilot — a Flight Standards captain, no less. JetBlue Airways Capt. Clay Osbon, flying Flight 191 from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Las Vegas, began moving up and down the aisle after the jet…
Sustain Charlotte encourages green in the Queen City
Sustainability is a big word with a broad meaning. Too often, people use it — and overuse it — to appear environmentally friendly. They’ll talk about having a salad made from local greens or riding their bikes to work but still order fast food or drive gas-guzzling SUVs. What will make these wannabes drop the…
The extremist bigotry surrounding Amendment One
The Amendment One debate got a lot hotter last week, as the mask of piety and “family values” was torn off the National Organization for Marriage. Until then, the battle over Amendment One — the “anti-same-sex marriage” measure that could also eliminate the rights of North Carolina couples in civil unions — had been fairly…
Feet to the fire after second Garinger High School student hit by car
The flowers have dried up and the balloons have lost their air. But the message is still clear at the busy intersection of Sugar Creek Road and Eastway Drive where a Garinger High School senior died on March 14. Spelled out on the bottom of plastic cups jammed in a chain-link fence are the words,…
A Trayvon Martin-inspired rally draws a small turnout with a big message
Moments after concluding his vocal tribute to Trayvon Martin by singing “Stand Up For Love,” Jared Martin, no relation, listened to the next few speakers express their concern over the case surrounding the fallen Florida teen. Suddenly, Jared was overcome with emotion, and he dropped unconsciously into the arms of a stunned observer. “I’m good,”…
Bucking the trend at Young Democrats of North Carolina’s annual conference
In a sea of suits and ties, Jerome Fleming is not your typical congressional candidate. Wearing a red plaid shirt and jeans, the vice president of the Cabarrus County chapter of the Young Democrats of North Carolina looks more like he’s hiking a mountain than running for District 83, which includes Cabarrus, of the state’s…
Capsule reviews of films playing the week of April 4
THE ARTIST Although its cribbing from Singin’ in the Rain, A Star Is Born and more means that this black-and-white silent picture sometimes runs short on invention, it easily makes up for it in style, execution and a cheery disposition that’s positively infectious. Jean Dujardin plays silent screen star George Valentin, whose chance encounter with…
Internationally known: The Benjamin Bear
A little slice of SoHo heaven is now available in the Queen City. Tucked away in a corner of the same South End plaza as Pewter Rose is a new international street wear boutique, The Benjamin Bear. The intimate loft space with exposed brick, piping and lots of natural light caters to the underground concept…
Book review: Charlie Louvin’s Satan is Real
Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers by Charlie Louvin (Igniter Press, 320 pp, $22.99). “There was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers,” says singer Emmylou Harris. She should know, having dedicated part of her career to keeping the musical legacy of Ira and Charlie…
Made in Mexico: Andre Araiz calls a watchtower home
Nestled quietly amidst the red brick landscape of the Highland Mills Lofts in NoDa is the watchtower. It’s not surprising that most people would see it more as a symbol of historic architecture than a place of residence. But it is Andre Araiz’s home. Araiz says he looked for a rental at Highland Mills more…
Joey Hewell
Spotted at Common Market, Joey Hewell is a trendsetter who isn’t afraid to stand out by showing his own personal style. If you catch him out in Charlotte during an event, it gets even better. You might see anything from blue hair, top hats and arm-bearing button-downs that show off his sleeve tattoo to tailored…
Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (April 4)
Not the baby!: Police responded to a domestic disturbance call at a house on Monroe Road last week after a man was threatening a home and its owners. The woman living in the house told officers that the suspect was trying to break into her home to fight her husband. When the suspect realized he…
Weekly horoscope (April 4)
Aries The Ram (March 20-April 19) The devil is in the details. Whatever small mistakes that might have been made in the recent few weeks surface now and must be repaired or you can’t really move forward. A relationship is at a turning point and may grow or die, depending upon your ability to admit…
Big flavors at Smalls
The divided, now narrow, storefront that was NoFo on Liz has always catered to the neighborhood of Elizabeth. In January, owner Joseph DiLeo opened the 80-seat Smalls: Food and Spirits, an eatery dedicated to an abundance and variety of small plates, primarily sourced locally. Restaurants, as other elements of the hospitality industry, are susceptible to…
3 questions with Chef Dan Gibson of Queen City Q
Family barbecues were embedded in Chef Dan Gibson’s upbringing. His father tended to the ribs, his aunt whipped up a scrumptious macaroni and cheese, and his uncle provided a must-have mustard sauce. As Gibson grew older, the barbecue reins passed on to him. But his passion for the technique went beyond food-friendly social gatherings. It…
Jam band members find new sonic ground with Eoto
String Cheese Incident and dubstep don’t go together. You can’t expect a progressive bluegrass band to experiment with electronic dance music without upsetting its main fanbase. Sure, there’s common ground in how the keyboards and drums playfully dance with each other, but comparisons end as soon as the bass drops. Enter Eoto. The side-project of…
CD Review: Lute’s West1996
There’s something brewing in the North Carolina hip-hop scene. More than a handful of artists are percolating just underneath the national radar, grabbing attention with music that’s true to Southern upbringing but compelling enough for wider consumption. Add rapper Lute to a list of notables that includes Charlotte’s Deniro Farrar, Durham’s Joshua Gunn and Raleigh’s…
Live review: MC Cataclysm, The Milestone, 3/30/2012
Hip-hop and breakdancing dominate the Milestone on March 30, 2012.
The N.C. Governor’s Race: Walter Dalton Q&A
North Carolina’s lieutenant governor discusses his vision for North Carolina as a Democratic candidate for governor.
Live review: The Black Keys, Bojangles Coliseum, 3/24/2012
Blues-rock duo sells out Bojangles Coliseum on March 24, 2012.
Live review: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Greensboro Coliseum, 3/19/2012
Band rocks Greensboro Coliseum for only N.C. date on March 19, 2012.
Live review: Jane’s Addiction, House of Blues, 3/10/2012
Band’s club tour hit Myrtle Beach House of Blues on March 10, 2012; coming to Charlotte in May.
Live review: Kill Your Mules, The Milestone, 3/1/2012
Kill Your MulesThe MilestoneMarch 1, 2012 Charlotte trio Kill Your Mules was nearly done with their set when the crowd was thrown for a loop. Local Filipino Elvis impersonator RenElvis, clad in a bedazzled one piece v-neck suit, joined the band for a rather bizarre, energetic cover of Elvis Presley’s “That’s Alright.” The audience soaked…
