Uncommon Grounds
No other beverage seems to fit the fast-paced American lifestyle better than coffee. We rely on coffee’s stimulating properties first thing in the morning and many end the night with a heady cup of espresso. Stained teeth? A thing of the past with teeth brightening agents. Addicting? Yeah, so what? Once you finally learn how…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: Two of my close friends (a couple) appear to have allowed their dog to die of neglect. The little guy developed a bad cough and a case of the shakes but never made it to the veterinary. I’m mad now that I realize the dog suffered for a month or two. They’re…
No Ordinary Joe
Like most days, today began with a big cup of coffee, which I drank from one of my favorite of mugs, the one with the line-drawing caricature of ‘ol Count No-Count himself, William Faulkner. Now, perhaps Bill liked to spike his coffee with a little something stronger, and perhaps he would roll over in his…
Going Postal
Law-abiding Lawbreakers? I was just reading Rafael Prieto Zartha’s column (“My People,” March 29) and noticed that he had come up with yet another name for illegal immigrants: “irregular personnel.” It seems funny to me that they continue to come up with these names in order to try to make people forget that these folks…
Wine List
Free Wine Tasting Thursdays, 5-7pm. Dolce Vita, 3205 N Davidson St. 704-334-1052. Wine Tasting Thursdays, 5-7pm. Aquavina, 435 South Tryon St. 704-377-9911. Wine Tastings ToGo-Go Features two new wines and complimentary food samples. Weekly discounts for guests. Wednesdays, 6-8pm. Harper’s ToGoGo, SouthPark. ZAPS Zinfandel Grand Tasting Taste a wide array of red zinfandels and enjoy…
Daniel’s hands
At first, I thought it was a good thing Daniel finally got a professional haircut, because otherwise I didn’t see who’d hire his skinny ass, what with his hair looking like it’s been attacked by bats. But he’s been applying at a lot of coffeehouses lately, where the employers seem to command a shocking appearance…
Music Menu
THURSDAY 4.6 Cracker (Unplugged) — Cracker’s never enjoyed the hipster cache of David Lowery’s seminal band, Camper Van Beethoven, largely because their records lack the same imaginative flights of fancy. There have been quality moments, usually of the country-rock variety, and that’ll be the focus of this acoustic gig featuring Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman.…
Stargazer
Aries The Ram (March 20 — April 19) Your self-will is very strong and you may be charging right into a nest of snakes. This period may bring a showdown with authorities and they are unlikely to show mercy or give an inch. Use caution with vehicles and machinery of all kinds. You are prone…
From March Madness to Mad Hot Ballroom
March is known for St. Patrick’s Day, the official start of spring, and one of the Carolina’s favorite aspects of the month: March Madness. Emphasis on the madness, because this year’s games were definitely infuriating! Between nail-biting overtimes, two-point victories and eye-popping injuries (literally), no one’s office bracket was safe from this year’s upsets. And…
Ugly is in the eye of the beholder
My old boss Greg had the worst tattoos I’ve ever seen. They were revealed to me a few years ago during my summer of manly things. I was working a construction job in suburban Chicago, scraping paint off a 100-year-old mansion with a cast of brutes. Among them were Ralph, a Vietnam vet who thought…
30-Year Fixed
Two things I remember from college … In a psychology class: Human beings’ lengthy childhood allows for our superior adult intelligence. In a sociology class: People who buy houses almost inevitably became more conservative. We used these lessons to justify sliding through a few hundred gallons of generic green gelatin dumped down a Slip ‘N…
Redemption of a Native Son
When Anthony Hamilton released the Grammy-nominated Coming from Where I’m From in 2003, Charlotte may not have been seeking another native son to claim. But with the recent release of Ain’t Nobody Worryin’ — arguably the best R&B recording of 2005 — the city no longer has any choice but to fete him and his…
High School Students Mysteriously Vanish
CMS loses nearly half of each class between freshman year and graduation Every year, thousands of Charlotte-Mecklenburg high school students disappear. They were there with their classmates at the beginning of freshman year when the first bell rang and the school doors opened. But by graduation four years later, almost half of them were gone…
Radical, Dude
Social activism through art is a powerful thing. Check out Skid Row theatre, sex-positive performance art, culture-jamming feminism, high-end recycling and other manifestations of subversive hybridity. LAPD www.lapovertydept.org Devil Bunny www.devilbunny.org Guerilla Girls www.guerrillagirls.com Treasures of Wasteland www.seccoshop.com American Visionary Art Museum www.avam.org
The Byrds
Byrds-wise, Sundazed has done an outstanding job to date — not only restoring to print vinyl editions of the ’60s folk-rock group’s Columbia albums but also releasing a number of rarities collections (vinyl only as well) containing tracks that weren’t included as bonus material on the Sony/Legacy CD reissues. With Preflyte, the label now fills…
Global Fork Fare
Maybe you can’t imagine eating anything more extraordinary than your grandmother’s home cooking. Even the thought of going outside the basics of fried chicken, Salisbury steak or grilled pork chops scares the dickens out of you. Meat and potatoes, enough to fuel any red-blooded American, is all the body really needs, right? Forget your froufrou…
Dropkick Me, Deano
After nine seasons of guiding his theater company to acclaim and respectability, artistic director Jim Yost says BareBones is ready to embrace steroids. With their most recent production of Torches at the Sunset Grill — and with their upcoming production of Orange Flower Water — BareBones is shaking things up, flexing some muscle and tossing…
Jason Herring
JASON HERRING, aka jah-sun rising, has played in the groups Moonburn, Latino Chrome, the Interstellars, Farfalla and Samurai. Currently, he owns the very small recording company called Ten Millimeter Omega and DJs at such local lounges/dancehalls as Eden, the Loft and Pravda. Herring claims he’s been known to bitch and complain a lot about our…
Spring Forward
Paper-thin onionskin, stitches and artifice. Epidermis, SOUP and Wonderlands gone awry. Chocolate, grapes and nature rearranged. These lines are not an erratic form of haiku, but words used to identify, signify or describe a sampling of the current shows in Charlotte this heady spring. SOUP is the title of an exhibition of recent work by…
Glam Redux
As previously discussed herein, the spirit of the 1970s Glam movement is afoot again in the culture. Above all, the chief sign of its resurgence is a slew of T. Rex reissues from Rhino Records. Boulevard, of Athens, GA, is a glam/pop-rock band that draws comparisons to Franz Ferdinand, David Bowie and Roxy Music. Vice…
Postmodern Christianity
Jeans-clad twentysomethings file into the stark, black space of Actor’s Theatre on Stonewall Street near downtown. Some clutch cups of Caribou coffee; others look as if they could have spent a few more minutes with a comb this morning. The seats aren’t yet filled when the band kicks into action. Like the audience, the members…
Columnists’ Secrets Revealed!
Here’s a secret: Columnists are human (except maybe Charles Krauthammer), and we have gut reactions to news stories like everyone else. Maureen Dowd, Tommy Tomlinson — they don’t wake up every morning thinking in well-crafted paragraphs. The insights and wisdom you read in the paper started out as gut reactions — usually to a news…
The Blotter
Stop or I’ll screw you: Two suspects, one holding a screwdriver as a weapon, approached a man. The suspect with the screwdriver demanded money from the man. The man yelled at the potential robbers, who got scared and ran away. The Vino is Serious: A Friday night dinner turned ugly when a 52-year-old woman poured…
Star Snitching
We have all heard about the alleged gang rape in a Duke University-owned house leased by members of the men’s lacrosse team. Two women hired to dance for a bachelor party were confronted by more than 40 members of the Duke lacrosse team, at which time they were allegedly assaulted, berated with racial epithets and…
Film Clips
Current Releases ASK THE DUST Movies don’t get much more languid than Ask the Dust, yet for all its lackadaisical moseying when a trot here and there might have helped, the picture isn’t easy to shake. Written and directed by Robert Towne, this LA-set adaptation of John Fante’s novel casts Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek…
Don’t Panic … Your War Questions Answered
If you watch TV news or listen to talk radio, you’re probably aware that the Bush administration and its allies have responded to the decline in public support for the war in Iraq by blaming the news media. The blame attack is two-pronged, which, if you think about it, is a great number of prongs…
View From The Couch
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (2005). Given its colossal box office, it appears Christians, heathens and everyone in between were inspired to hold hands and sway to the gentle rhythms of this popular motion picture. C.S. Lewis’ source material — the first book in a series of seven Narnia…
Listen up, Democrats
On Nov. 2, 1976, the night Carter won the presidency, I was the news editor of the Columbus (GA) Enquirer. My job each day was to put the paper together for publication. I prepared two front pages: “Carter Wins” and “Carter Loses.” What I didn’t count on was that by the time the printers were…
Disney & Docs
The Charlotte Motor Speedway and bad cinema seem to go hand in hand — Elvis Presley’s Speedway, Burt Reynolds’ Stroker Ace and Tom Cruise’s Days of Thunder all made sure of that — but that lowly impression is likely to change when the world premiere of the highly anticipated Disney/Pixar film Cars will be held…
Breaking News
Rolling Stone owner Jann Wenner And Boyfriend Matt Nye are Expecting! Nye’s sister is rumored to be carrying, but we still believe the baby will be a diminutive Mick Jagger. President Comes To Charlotte Thursday, April 6, To Defend War On Terror Please resist throwing tomatoes or other produce at him. Front PAge News From…
Bring On The Bad Guys
The so-called “culture of spin” gets taken for its own spin in Thank You for Smoking, a lacerating adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s celebrated 1994 novel. Even with a too-brief running time of 92 minutes, the movie manages to pack in all manner of material both saucy and dicey. Yet when the smoke clears, what’s most…
James v. Justice
For four years the Charlotte chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice has held an annual summit promoting diversity at a local high school. And for four years it has proceeded without objection. Nyala Hunt, NCCJ’s executive director, says the summit has been hugely successful, involving 10 students from every high school (200…
Italy’s other export
I had no idea what I didn’t know. I went on a wine trip to Italy and stumbled into the fascinating, ancient world of olive oil, an industry so similar to wine that it’s freaky. In Italy, the two dance together like lovers. Quality wine, meet quality olive oil … nice to see you. The…
See & Do
Thursday, April 6 Oh, that blue lion. He normally shows up to usher us to good savings on Oscar Meyer bologna and liquid detergent. But Mr. Lion has a few tricks up his sleeve this weekend — namely, flying cars and the Marshall Tucker Band. Say whaaaaat? At the Food Lion-sponsored AutoFair — Thursday to…
