Making The Cut
Forget the monster match-up on the marquee: Film fans who check out Freddy vs. Jason might instead want to keep their eyes on the supporting ranks. Will Katherine Isabelle, who plays party girl Gibb, be winning an Oscar five years from now? Will Christopher George Marquette, cast as nerdy Charlie Linderman, be earning $15 million…
See & Do
AUGUST 20 – WEDNESDAY Philly trio G. Love & Special Sauce bring their laid-back funky grooves to the Visulite Theatre tonight. The group, who’s still probably best known for their self-titled debut released back in “94, has been to town a few times — CityFest Live, the amphitheater and Grady Cole Center come to mind…
Home Theater
CHICAGO (2002). Not only for theater aficionados, this top-grossing adaptation of the stage hit is a musical for people who don’t even like musicals, weaving its deliriously dark tale with enough cyanide-laced cynicism to win over moviegoers who wouldn’t know Oklahoma! from Oh! Calcutta! Director-choreographer Rob Marshall and scripter Bill Condon keep the proceedings both…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Connect The Spots Nine months ago, I started secretly dating an out-of-town coworker, only seeing him when business brought him to the city. Company rumors pegged him as a big player, so I wasn’t surprised when he said he’d just come out of a relationship and only wanted a casual fling. Having just ended a…
Film Clips
CURRENT RELEASES AMERICAN WEDDING Comparing this third picture in the American Pie series to the Marx Brothers canon is probably grounds for immediate dismissal, but it has to be noted that the Marx’s frequent modus operandi of building a comedy sequence frame by frame so that it reaches an actual crescendo (best exemplified by the…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: At the beginning of the summer, I met this guy “Sean” and immediately developed a crush on him. He was dating someone at the time, so I knew that my crush couldn’t develop into anything. Being friendly, I invited Sean to come to my beach house some weekend. He never said yes,…
Soldiers Of Good Fortune
At a remote tactical training camp in a North Carolina swamp, six US sailors are gearing up for their part in the war on terrorism. Dressed in camouflage on a January afternoon, they wear protective masks and carry nine-millimeter Berettas that fire non-lethal bullets filled with colored soap. Their mission: recapture a ship — actually…
Stargazer
For All Signs Relationships are focused with high intensity during this period because Mars and Venus (male and female) are opposed. Sexual and creative energy increases, particularly in solid partnerships. A relationship lacking equal give and take is likely to demand a confrontation or shakeout. Evaluate the outcome and result of partnerships or agreements begun…
Stuck On Idol
There are things I believe in. Judy Live at Carnegie Hall and The Pretenders’ first album can be played back to back at equally top volume. I also covet Costello over Presley, love the White Stripes and Radiohead, have The Who on a pedestal, and secretly long for the return of Evelyn “Champagne” King. Call…
Tender Treachery
There’s nothing like a good long stretch of living in filth and degradation to change your outlook on the world. That’s the grim reality of Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, now at the Central Avenue Playhouse in an evocative Victory Pictures production. Peeping into an Argentinean prison cell, we watch a strange flowering…
Jeepers!
A few months ago, at budget time, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spinmeisters painted a picture of a school system too economically devastated to go on without an infusion of millions more in taxpayer dollars. Whether that is the case or not, one has to wonder what mid-level CMS employees are doing flitting about town in high-end recreational…
Lester Has Risen
We’ve seen this before. A posthumous collection of writings by rock critic Lester Bangs, that is.Well, sort of. While 1987’s Greil Marcus-edited Bangs anthology Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, collecting as it did much of the Bangs creme de la Creem, is often likened to some quintessential Gonzo RocCrits’ Bible, the reality, as the Village…
Hurry Up and Wait
“Unless You’re A Hemorrhoid,” said the bumper sticker on the car in front of me, “Get Off My Ass.” Seeing as it was close to 10:30pm Friday night, I was running late, and said car was driving about 25 mph, I got to thinking. Does this mean that the driver likes hemorrhoids on his ass?…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music American Guild of Organists Recitals sponsored by Guild. August 24: Robert McDermitt, Westminster Presbyterian Church, 101 Colville Rd. All at 8pm. Free. 704-333-9071. Brightstar Music Festival Chamber Music Series featuring Johannes Quartet, Jeremy Denk, Chee-Yun, Soovin Kim, Sheryl Staples, Jennifer Sperry and more. www.brightstarfestival.org. Aug. 22-23, 8 p.m. $25. Spirit Square, 345 N.…
Letters
Wrong Pick For Worst Place I can’t believe you. Have you no decency? I am a recent graduate of Charlotte Catholic High School. You have disgraced our school, families, and Catholic community. In your August 6 issue, “Best of Charlotte 2003,” you have a category on page 19 of “Worst Place For A Boys’ Club…
Marvelous Glop
I’ve always had an inquisitive mind, and as a professional cook I question foods and recipes — what they’re made of, how they’re made, when and where they originated, that sort of thing. I’m also drawn to simple foods; ones where a few ingredients combined together create something altogether different and good. These are the…
Sprucing Up Iraq
You can hardly blame Iraqis for snickering a little when a massive blackout hit the northeastern United States last week. After all, they’ve suffered through their own blackouts in lingering 100+ degree heat, primarily as a result of having the Hell bombed out of their infrastructure by the liberators who never leave. That the rebuilding…
Throw Toast at the Occasion
Toasts, memorable celebratory lines that convey friendship and humor, can turn an otherwise humdrum dinner into something fun, bawdy or touching. The term “toast” reportedly dates back to Roman days when people dunked burnt toast into wine to reduce its harsh acidity. Much later, clinking glasses supposedly came into fashion when bumping off your enemy…
Tick Tock
Over a century ago, my great-great-grandmother Theckla Servatius did a rare and amazing thing. She gave birth to my great-grandfather at age 46. Had she not had her little “accident,” I and about 200 of my closest relatives wouldn’t be here today. A lot has changed since then, and some things haven’t changed at all.…
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.…
Back To School Blues
To most people, I think “back to school” means pens and pencils, notebooks and folders, new school clothes and lunch money. For me, and I think for most teachers, the rush of emotions associated with a new school year is more complicated. As a student, I have always simultaneously enjoyed the anxiety over what the…
Hammers Of The Gods
A hunk of solid wood, a few electronic parts, a couple of switches, all hooked into a crude tube amplifier. At first blush it doesn’t seem like much of a tool for a revolution. So much for appearances.Screaming out of the early 1950s on the hips of pompadoured love gods, the electric guitar fueled the…
The Blotter
A Mighty Thirst:A store’s former employee came into the store and tried to leave without paying for some items. The manager caught her outside and retrieved five 22-ounce cans of Budweiser from her apparently very large purse. The Party’s Over:The owners of a local Charlotte business had to stop the party they were throwing because…
A New Black Market
On Wednesday, August 27, a couple of new local acts will take the stage at the Double Door Inn, but it is likely you’ll recognize just about everyone from both groups. Making their debut appearance is Black Market Radio, which features Carey Sims and Andy Seets (Sound Of Mine) with Jason Atkins (Wichita Caravan, Lou…
News of the Weird
Special delivery: As straphanger Joyce M. Judge, 42, stared out the window of the Boston subway car during morning rush hour July 30, she started dripping profusely, and a minute or so later, a baby fell out from underneath her skirt and slid around on the car’s floor. According to witnesses (some of whom vomited…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 8.20 G. Love & Special Sauce — Oh yeah! I’ve been waiting on this for a long while now — a club show with G. Love and his Special Sauce (which is upright bass player Jimi Jazz and dynamic drummer The Houseman). The Philly trio produced a new kind of noise back in ’94…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Aug. 20 Baoding Robert Fernandez Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Jes & Sherry Brickhouse Tavern, Davidson Robin Brown Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Comet Grill Anamcara CPCC, Levine Campus Robin Rogers Duo (11:30am) Cuvee Wine & Art Gallery Trio 21 Double Door Inn Bruce Hazel & The Noise The Evening Muse Americana X w/…
Gore-To Guys
Employing a slide rule, an abacus, a roll of ticker tape, and a copy of Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide, I’ve ascertained that I had managed to sit through all seven Nightmare on Elm Street films but only the first six of the 10 Friday the 13th entries. That means I may not be…
