The Blotter
DUDE, TAKE A HINT: A woman told police that during a three-month period an insanely persistent suspect made at least 1,080 harassing calls — yes, you read that right, one thousand and eighty calls — demanding to know where she lives. THAT’S JUST COLD: While visiting her mother at a local assisted living center, a…
View From The Couch
CONNIE AND CARLA It still remains to be seen whether writer-actress Nia Vardalos’ mega-smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding will have served as the launching pad for a prosperous career or merely fall under the “15 Minutes of Fame” designation, though the theatrical nosedive of Connie and Carla hints at the latter. Yet although it…
See & Do
AUGUST 11 – WEDNESDAY As we all know, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision which made racially segregated public schools illegal. One of the best things about the anniversary has been the extraordinary Courage: The Carolina Story That Changed America exhibit at the Levine Museum…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES CHARLOTTE FILM SOCIETY Movies begin this Friday at the Manor and continue the following Friday at Movies at Birkdale. Call 704-414-2355 for details. * CRIMSON GOLD Working from a script by internationally renowned director Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi (whose previous film The Circle was a past CFS offering) has made a movie that’s…
Ask the Advice Goddess
It’s Arraigning Men I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m having major problems with my fiance. He interrogates me about my every move, even though I’ve never been unfaithful, lied to him, or even kept a secret from him. One Saturday, I was bumming around the house in a comfy dress. When he came home,…
The Year of the F-word
One of the basic tenets of journalism is to grab the reader’s attention. So without further ado: Fuck. See how easy that is? Punching in those four keys certainly didn’t take any creativity or research on my part, yet chances are it got your attention just as effectively as a concise, artful paragraph with a…
Stargazer
For All Signs While Mercury is retrograding, it is generally best not to take action on contracts. The cycle is most beneficially used to complete old plans, gather information on proposed ideas, and reflect on past progress. It is meant for gestation and introspection, the dark and quiet time needed for new seeds to take…
Afternoon of The Long Knives
Creative Loafing has learned that over two-thirds of the 90-member News 14 Carolina employees were to be fired Monday afternoon in a staff meeting. Time Warner Cable managers told staff that while approximately 26 of them were being kept on to maintain a bureau-like operation, the rest received “separation packets” and thanks for their hard…
Vixens On Starship Homer
The idea of a space odyssey may not have originated with Arthur C. Clarke. But when he and auteur Stanley Kubrick collaborated on 2001 — with musical reinforcements from the Strauss Family — the idea took hold. While Clarke and Kubrick called their masterwork A Space Odyssey, it’s doubtful whether they closely read Homer’s earthly…
The Anti-Hoarders
“Susan” had been sleeping on the couch for years because there was simply no room in her bedroom to lie down. Nearly every square inch was covered in clothes, some stacked in piles several feet high. The rest of her one-bedroom east Charlotte apartment was just as bad, and over time she had made a…
Unsinkable Molly
Molly Ivins is a little worried that her new book, Who Let the Dogs In?, is being billed as a “career retrospective.” It makes the 59-year-old feel, she sighs, “faintly dead.” But with its collection of more than 100 of the syndicated columnist’s observations on American politics, it’s a fair description. In the book, Ivins…
Best E-mail Fight
Last week’s Creative Loafing Best of Charlotte awards inspired an interesting e-mail exchange between two local officials. First, on Thursday, serial e-mailer and county commissioner Bill James made sure everyone on the School Board, as well as others on his massive mailing list, knew that CL had given the entire board an award as Worst…
Arts Agenda
Comedy Bayou Kitchen Comedy. Extreme Improv performs every Friday and Saturday night at 8pm, featuring audience interactive comedy; Psychotic Pooch performs bizarre sketch comedy at 10pm (704-502-8423). www.extremeimprov.com www.psychoticpooch.com. $10. 1958 E 7th St. 866-467-7681. The Comedy Zone Upcoming Performances. Aug. 13-14: Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham & Peanut; Aug. 18-21: Joe Morrison & Roger Keiss. www.comedyzone.net.…
Vulture Of The Week
Like any other newspaper, we get a lot of unsolicited press releases and, with the advent of e-mail, the number of PR pitches has grown dramatically. Most of them make a quick trip to the circular file or, in the case of e-mail, the recycling bin. Last week, however, we received one that was so…
Cultural Exchange
For years, this column has noted the differences between Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnamese dishes embrace clean herbaceous flavors like basil and cilantro while Thai dishes can be a fiery meld of Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian, Cambodian, Laotian, and Indian foods. Both cuisines are heavily dependent on the trained palate of the cook to create a…
Dubya Does Drugs
As President, I think I need to explain the recent changes in laws about drugs under Medicare. There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the law so people seem really confused and misunderstood. Let me explain the important parts of the law, or at least the parts I understand. Discount Drugs: Just in time…
O Pair
Over the weekend, I had a culinary orgasm. It lasted four hours, and occurred in a dark corner of famed Gramercy Tavern in New York City. Amidst a roomful of Who’s Whos and Somebodies, I blissfully consumed eight extraordinary dishes married with perfect wines. While basking in the beauty of this rather long, exultant moment,…
Beginning of the End of An Era
Bank of America is made up of literally dozens of smaller businesses, BOA spokeswoman Eloise Hale explained to me this week; so many, in fact, that she really wouldn’t have time to name them all for me. “But what are the main ones, the most important ones?” I asked. She named consumer and small business,…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. 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. (Gastonia), 704-866-7574. A favorite of many, Azteca offers a lengthy…
Olympic-sized Patience
Twenty-four years ago, TV producer Peter Rolfe was all set to go to the Summer Olympics, to check another “done that” off his already impressive list of TV events — big ones like the Super Bowl, World Series, NCAA college hoops, and even a Miss Universe pageant. Things didn’t work out, however, when President Jimmy…
Heavenly Road Show
It’s less than a week before the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue begins its 14-stop journey in Atlanta, and two-fifths of the featured participants are in Europe finishing a tour, one is in post-Democratic National Convention seclusion, another one is on a hush-hush photo shoot, and Buddy Miller has no idea what’s going to happen. “I…
With Us Or Against Us
Nine days after 9/11, President Bush declared to a Joint Session of Congress, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Since then, we’ve come to understand that what Bush really meant was, “Either you are with me or you are with the terrorists.” Put another way, if you don’t unquestioningly back…
Popper: Fitter, Happier
Blues Traveler has had a makeover. It’s both aural and visual. But it didn’t happen in some trendy spa or get done by piling on lots of special effects in the studio. The aural part can be heard on the latest Travelogue, Truth Be Told, released last August on the classic rock and metal label,…
Letters
Which Is Biggest Waste? You selected Mayor Pat McCrory as the Biggest Waste Of Tax Money, based on the salary and perks he receives from Charlotte (“Best of Charlotte,” August 4). You cite the mass transit tax, for which you give credit to McCrory. Since Tara Servatius (your own reporter), has thoroughly exposed the transit…
Sit & Spin
Constantines Constantines Sub Pop I recently read a screed from a rock critic-type who said he was tired. Tired of the Next Big Thing, tired of the inevitable next Next Big Thing, and tired of the whole (tired) concept of record reviewing in general. His argument was this: albums “hit” you, or they don’t. They…
News of the Weird
(Note: Chuck Shepherd needs to revisit the roots of “weird” and engage in two more weeks of reflection. Before he left, he picked out some golden oldies to tide you over.) Right in the kisser: Vincent Morrissey’s police brutality lawsuit went to trial in New Haven, Conn., in 1997, and the alleged perp, West Haven…
The Pre-Kickoff
Saturday Morning, the Carolina Panthers held their annual Panthers Fan Fest at Bank of America Stadium, drawing thousands of fans looking to sate their football fix. (Along with, of course, the local asphalt barons, who, tired of seeing their otherwise worthless vacant lots grow dandelions and poison sumac, seem to be very ready for some…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 8.11 Beijing — The quartet’s debut EP is a promising blend of breezy and slightly twangy UK-influenced rock — think Mojave3 without the fey and you’re in the general vicinity. The Athens band’s debut was mixed by Of Montreal’s Derek Almstead, and that’s your Elephant 6 collective mention of the day. Judging by the…
Viet-Thai Noodle House
Cultural Exchange A tasty blend of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine For years, this column has noted the differences between Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnamese dishes embrace clean herbaceous flavors like basil and cilantro while Thai dishes can be a fiery meld of Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian, Cambodian, Laotian, and Indian foods. Both cuisines are heavily dependent…
Knocking On Hell’s Door
Getting-sober stories are like giving-birth stories in that they’re rarely as fascinating to their audience as they are to the teller. Ditto “oh-what-a-lush-I-was” accounts lovingly delivered by recovering alcoholics entranced by their past lunacy to a degree that nobody else can understand. So instead, I’m going to tell you about what I assume was my…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Aug. 11 Big Al’s Pub, Cornelius Open Mic w/ Gabe B Blue Melinda Hansen, Royce Guin, Korey Dudley & Rob Knox Breakfast Club DJ Boney B Double Door Inn Angwish w/ Anything Now The Evening Muse Deirdre Flint & Steve Simpson George Washington Bookstore & Tavern, Concord Michael Proteroe The Gin Mill Wizard’s Road…
Word On The Street
Jimmy French Divorce Attorney “Absolutely. I have two girls and I was getting worried that my summer camp bills weren’t nearly high enough.” Dulce Hudson Druggist “Of course. Many schools are way overcrowded and when prisons get that way, they shorten sentences. Aren’t our students as important to us as our prisoners?” Rose J. Wheeler…
Minority Report
The plan went something like this: Open the movie amid the studio-manufactured hype declaring that it’s one of the year’s must-see releases, count the overwhelming number of rave reviews, watch the box office soar, and gloat as it picks up eight nominations (minimum) during Oscar season. Well, it sounded nice in theory. Truth is, for…
