Hunting the Extraordinary
When trying to impress with wine, you walk the fine line. When invited to your boss’s fancy shindig or your significant other announces a romantic soiree, you can’t exactly offer up your everyday jug, but cracking open an unknown wine can invoke visions of embarrassing failure. But remember that wine people can be impressed with…
The Blotter
This Is Your Brain On Drugs: An employer and his live-in caregiver had a work agreement, but the employer told the caregiver he was terminating the agreement earlier than agreed to because of the caregiver’s drug and alcohol use. The caregiver became irate and told his employer, “I’ll kick your ass, your Daddy’s ass and…
Goodeats
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.…
News of the Weird
BODY OF EVIDENCE: In March, a jury failed to convict Dr. Raul Ixtlahuac, 41, of sexually assaulting patients at his practice in Gilroy, Calif. (acquittal on one count, a hung jury on the other five). Ixtlahuac’s lawyer believes the key evidence for his client was testimony by another doctor, who had measured Ixtlahuac’s erect penis…
The Battle Of Nashville
Country music has long considered itself the voice of the common folk and historically that has usually meant it was politically conservative. But a polarity of opinions emerged when the first two country songs to address the current crisis — Alan Jackson’s reflective “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)?” and Toby Keith’s defiant…
Di Banana Boat
All Day-O Jamaican cuisine in a convivial atmosphere BY TRICIA CHILDRESS The interior of Di Banana Boat may not evoke its tropical namesake, but it’s hard to be island-like within an outdated strip shopping center across the street from Hickory Grove Baptist Church. No matter, it is what Di Boat brings to the table that…
No More Lies
Malcolm Holcombe doesn’t like to hang around in Nashville. He went there in 1990, got disgusted and came back home to the hills of Carolina. “I was pulling a load, and the carrot in front of me just wasn’t tasty enough,” he says cryptically. “Didn’t like the color and didn’t like the carrot, so I…
Music Menu
THURSDAY 5.1Black Eyed Susan — This band from Baltimore is touring in support of a new self-titled disc. They’re basically a “not bad – not great” sorta jam rock band bringing in bits of country and folk treatments. Charlotte’s own Sundowners are also on the bill. Fat City (Shukla) Dromedary — Andrew Reissiger and Rob…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Apr. 30Amos’ Southend Matt Nathanson Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Double Door Inn Jabberwocky The Evening Muse The Josh & Kyle Show Fairwinds Coffee Co., Cornelius Lena Mars Fat City Astrid Haven Fishbone Grille Burke Long Graduate, Gastonia Simplified Jocks & Jills, UNCC Cherry Bomb Mama Mia Too at the Holbrook House John…
Thunder From Down Under
Let Bryan Singer make it perfectly clear. “I know you hear a lot of bullshit at these press junkets, right? You know, about how everybody you’ve worked with on your new movie was an absolute joy to be around. I swear it’s true, though, that Hugh Jackman is one of the kindest and most genuine…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES IDENTITY As a longtime fan of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians, this new thriller, which works from the same template, completely had me in its grip for the first hour. Eleven people, including a former cop (John Cusack), an active cop (Ray Liotta), a hooker (Amanda Peet) and a has-been actress (Rebecca DeMornay),…
The Summer Reloaded
At this point in history, it’s redundant to say that the latest summer movie season is crammed with sequels and TV takeoffs and remakes and other variations on things we’ve already seen. At this juncture in human evolution, this is a given, so let’s just focus on the numbers. Fifteen sequels. Three remakes. Six pictures…
See & Do
April 30 – Wednesday Charlotte Rep’s revamped New Play Festival, now called In-The-Works, continues through tomorrow. Plays still being presented include The Succulent Walk by John Love at the Lesbian & Gay Center on Central Avenue at 8:45pm tonight and Bonnie and Clyde by Michael Aman, Oscar E. Moore and Dana P. Rowe in Booth…
Make Charlotte Weird
You could call him the ambassador of the weird, and when he spoke in Charlotte last week, important people listened, or at least appeared to. Since his book, The Rise of the Creative Class, was published over a year ago, Carnegie Mellon professor Richard Florida has made a living preaching the economic benefits of attracting…
Stargazer
For All Signs This month we are experiencing the last of three aspects between Saturn and Neptune that began mid-summer, 2002. This is one of the cosmic indicators of a depressed economy, but the good news is that this one will be past in June. The root issues began in 1989. Individually, it has represented…
De-Fogger
Either he thinks you’re an ignoramus, or he’s really that clueless. Those are the only explanations we can find to account for Observer managing editor Frank Barrows’ praise of his paper’s war coverage in the Sunday, April 27 edition. Along with his tribute to the daily’s wire editors (who, indeed, have a complex, often unheralded…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I live in a small college town, so it can be hard to meet new guys that are intelligent and have their acts together. I was out at a bar recently (because there’s not much more to do here other than drink) and was getting somewhat tipsy when I met a nice,…
Good Music, Good Food, Decent Fest
I expected a reasonable number of fans for last Wednesday’s Double Door Inn show by Don Dixon. After all, the man has put out a number of solid solo records, played in a seminal North Carolina band (Arrogance), and has produced folks from R.E.M to Charlotte’s own Snagglepuss to novelist Madison Smartt Bell. I didn’t…
Playfest Finds New Frontiers
Charlotte Rep’s annual new play festival has taken on a new look in its 17th go-round, discarding the primal scenery and stage blocking of yore and venturing forth to new venues. Sporting a catchy new name, In-the-Works, Rep readings turned up at the Museum of the New South, the Mint Museum, the Light Factory, and…
Have Bombs, Will Rule
Good news! Despite the degenerate best efforts of Natalie Maines, Sheryl Crow and Michael Moore, America still managed to win the war in Iraq! So, what happens now? With Saddam Hussein’s repressive dictatorship removed, the pressing question is how, and with what, the current anarchic void will be filled.During a Pentagon briefing last Friday, Defense…
A Picture Worth Thousands of Words
Old photos are fascinating. They capture a moment long since gone, freezing all of the details from a place — the people, the clothing they chose to wear that day and even the shadows they cast on the ground around them. Sometimes, depending on the photograph, more than just the visual imagery is captured.Such is…
Going Postal
“Choice” Is Just A CompromiseWhile I enjoyed the article Tara Servatius wrote entitled, “What Would MLK Do?” (Apr. 23), I take exception to the following: “White conservatives, meanwhile, are now attempting to undermine the very system they fought for, or at least appeared to fight for. County Commissioner Bill James and school board member Larry…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Brahms’ Double Concerto Guest conductor Grant Llewellyn leads the Charlotte Symphony as they welcome two soloists, Julian Rachlin and Han-Na Chang. May 2-3, 8 p.m. $12-$60. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-972-2000. Broadway Bon Voyage Presented by Carolina Voices. Featuring the Mainstage Choir, jazz ensemble IMPROMPTU!, the Eddy Mabry Dancers…
Paper Tiger
These days, wherever I go it seems that people ask me the same thing: “What happened to the Charlotte Observer?” You can tell by their faces that they’re genuinely concerned about Charlotte’s daily paper, or what’s left of it. Until recently, people in our newsroom regularly laughed about what was happening to the Observer. We’re…
Still Standing
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the rule in play at George Fine’s Beef “n Bottle. Even the name reflects the era in which this restaurant was born. In the North Carolina of 1978, if you wanted alcohol, including wine, you had to bring a bottle into a restaurant that held a “brown…
Live and Let Live Together
I’m the type of person who’s fond of making personal decrees, and so recently I made a new one (one that friends and family members alike are sure I won’t be able to maintain): no more wedding gifts for couples who have not cohabited prior to their marriage.I’ve heard others make the opposite decree: they…
