Film Clips
NEW RELEASES THE MEDALLION To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, this movie is what the French would probably call “a royale with cheese” — a would-be summer hit that’s so tacky and cheap-looking, it makes one pine for the comparatively polished look of Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. This feels like a…
See & Do
AUGUST 28 – THURSDAY Catch the Charlotte Knights in their last two home games of the regular season. The Knights host the Norfolk Tides tonight and tomorrow night at 7:15pm at Knights Stadium in Fort Mill, SC. Tickets range from $6-9 and may be purchased by calling 704-36-HOMER. (Herman) AUGUST 29 – FRIDAY Matthews Alive!…
Home Theater
DESPERADO (1995). There’s style to burn in Robert Rodriguez’s enjoyable (if exceedingly violent) follow-up to his 1992 art-house hit El Mariachi. Antonio Banderas is positively magnetic as the tormented Mariachi, a musician seeking to avenge the death of his girlfriend, and he and co-star Salma Hayek (as his new lady love) immediately established themselves as…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Past And Furious I’ve been with my boyfriend for over a year. During our first six months, I slept with three ex-boyfriends. Horrible as that sounds, I don’t take cheating lightly. I think I was confused about my readiness to be in a serious relationship, and wasn’t really over my most recent ex or a…
CL’s Fall Arts Preview
CL’s annual Fall Arts Preview gives you the lowdown on the plethora of performing and visual arts heading to Charlotte from now till the end of the year. There’s more than enough to keep you entertained, amused and enlightened. A Bumper Crop of Boffo by perry tannenbaum There was plenty of ballyhoo for 2002-03 when…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I need an escape. I’ve been in the same go-nowhere job for three years now. It hasn’t been a bad run here, but I am bored with it and ready to try something new. I started thinking this thought on a daily basis about two months ago, pleading with my higher power…
A Bumper Crop of Boffo
There was plenty of ballyhoo for 2002-03 when the fall arts season opened. Big anniversaries for Theatre Charlotte and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. Notable premieres from Opera Carolina and the North Carolina Dance Theatre. New regimes at Charlotte Rep and Children’s Theatre. The new Charlotte Shout pseudo festival showered us with hype, cunningly packaging…
Stargazer
For All Signs Mars, the ancient god of war, is now closer to earth than it has been in 60,000 years. This did not happen overnight, but has been steadily building. It is an interesting parallel that the globe has been increasingly war-prone for the past many months. Fiery testosterone is on the loose. It…
Oasis of the Beaux
The kids are back at school, the beach is a memory and soon it will again be fall in the “Sahara of the Bozart.” Acid-tongued culture czar H.L. Mencken wasn’t referring specifically to Charlotte when he equated our region’s cultural contributions with a desert, but as part of the South, we were included. But Mencken…
Whiz, Bang, Thud
As a lesson in poor narrative choices, or of how to ruin the second half of a promising story, Jim Lewis’ The King Is Dead may be hard to top.Squandering 145 pages of tautly written prose and well-crafted plotting, Lewis follows the novel’s breathtaking climax with a 120-page denouement so ill-conceived the reader will ask…
Fall Arts Listings
Classical Music 89.9 WDAV 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert Arcangelo Corelli, Concerto Grosso No. 8 in G Minor; Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in F Minor “Winter,” from The Four Seasons; Paul Huppert, solo violin, Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, for 3 violins, 3 violas, and 3 cellos. Dec 2, Noon Concert at 12:30pm, After Work…
Revisiting The Towers
As the videotapes played over and over on September 11, 2001, our reactions to the spectacle of the Twin Towers’ collapse — and the colossal loss of life — were beyond words. But as Anne Nelson’s The Guys eloquently testifies, words were urgently needed.Nelson was a journalism professor with no previous theater experience. During a…
Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Both sides agree that a videotape is worth at least a thousand words. They just don’t agree what story it tells. Last Thursday, as the prisoner beating case involving former inmate Stacy Cunningham finally got underway, the jury and the public finally got a chance to view a tape attorneys for Sheriff Jim Pendergraph and…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music First Tuesday Concerts Tchaikovsky, Trio in A Minor, Opus 50, for violin, cello, and piano. Calin Lupanu, Concertmaster, Charlotte Symphony, Phillip Bush, Assistant Professor of Piano, U. of Michigan, Alan Black, cello. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 115 W. 7th St. Sep 2, at 12:10pm, After Work Concert & Reception (Hodges Taylor Gallery) at…
Immune Deficiency
If the average guy on the street beat someone else senseless for no particular reason and the victim could prove it, the odds are that a jury would award the victim a large sum of money. But when the folks allegedly doing the beating are sheriff’s deputies, and when the person to whom they answer…
What A Jerk
If a sunny fall or winter retreat seems the best way to beat our waterlogged summer blues, recently US Airways has been offering tantalizing deals to the Caribbean. While these flights are not non-stop to the gorgeous St. Vincent and Grenadine islands where this summer’s Caribbean pirates rocked, an increasing number of the non-stop flights…
Something Borrowed, Something Blew
This is a story about a boy and a girl. Except. . .that it’s not. Last Wednesday, local scenester, “zine “editrix,” computer designer and erstwhile Minister of Fun “Little Shiva” got married. To a male-to-female pre-op transsexual. In matching red dresses.Shiva has lived with Jenn for over a year, having met her at Savannah’s Club…
South African Good Juice
When I think of Africa, cool mists settling on the skins of grapes doesn’t exactly enter the picture. I see frickin’ hellish heat and arid plains, and I figure if a grape were introduced to this place, it would immediately be condemned to raisin hell. But this picture is all wrong. Classifying the entire continent…
Letters
Thanks For Nothing In the August 13-19 issue, Creative Loafing published a Thank You advertisement for The Manor (Eastern Federal Corporation) being named the best theater for quality of content in the recent Best of 2003 awards. Unfortunately, the ad also stated that The Manor is the “Home of the “Best Film Series,’ Charlotte Film…
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.…
Turn Up The Power
Attorney General John Ashcroft kicked off his Victory Tour last week in support of his beloved but beleaguered Patriot Act, which is facing increasing bipartisan criticism. Rather than backing down, Ashcroft is instead lobbying for increased unchecked powers in the form of the soon to be introduced Victory Act (Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations…
The Untouchable
First of all, it’s pronounced “Ness,” as in Loch, as in Eliot. Leona Naess. If the name sounds familiar, it may be that you saw her in a Gap ad a while back. Featuring female musicians, the ad had the shapely Naess keeping company with rockers like Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Liz Phair. Then…
Yes, Sex Causes AIDS
I don’t know when it became politically incorrect to advise the public that having a lot of sex with a lot of different people is a really bad idea for your health. In every other instance, the Democrat politicians who controlled the Mecklenburg County Commission until recently have been all about saving the voters from…
CD Spins
Cyrus Chestnut You Are My Sunshine Warner Bros. Tis a rare thing, indeed: A trio album by a top jazz pianist without the patina of cool. On the cover of You are my Sunshine, Cyrus Chestnut smiles broadly as he gets a kiss on the cheek from a little girl we presume is his daughter.…
The Blotter
Reality WWF: Two women got into a fight during which one of the women was head-butted and slapped three times. Phoney customer: A woman reported that a person that she didn’t know used her identity to obtain a cell phone on her existing account. She said she had no idea how the person got her…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 8.27 Black Market Radio / New August — Here’s a night some of you old Sound of Mine fans have been waiting for, kind of. You’ve got singer Carey Sims and guitarist Andy Seets back together in Black Market Radio. Joining them, and changing the sound around a bit, are Derek Young (ex-Jennifer Strip),…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Aug. 27 Amos’ Southend Badfish Baoding Robert Fernandez Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Scott Johnson Acoustic Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Coley’s Tavern Acoustic Solution (5pm) CPCC North Campus Robin Rogers Duo (10:30am) Cuvee Wine & Art Gallery Bixx Trio Double Door Inn New August & Black Market Radio The Evening Muse Pryor Dawson,…
The French Connection
Their sterling reputation notwithstanding, is it possible that the Merchant-Ivory team is nothing more than the cinematic equivalent of the 1985 Chicago Bears? NFL fans will recall how, in the modern era anyway, that football franchise long wallowed in mediocrity before transforming into one of the most respected units in pro football history, culminating in…
