Home Team
In the Charlotte Sting’s off-season, it’s not unusual for shooting guard Andrea Stinson to play pick-up games at the Y, entering the domain of adult male basketball players who know deep down to their Reeboks that they surpass any “girl,” even one who’s been a Women’s NBA All-Star the last three years.Famous last thoughts. “She…
See & Do
AUGUST 7WEDNESDAYThe 107.9 Wednesday Happy Hour Free Concert Series continues today at Gateway Village with music provided by the city’s hottest cover band, Cherry Bomb. The evening begins at 5pm, and admission is free. Call 704-374-3500. Former Van Halen lead singers Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth are touring together, in what some are calling…
Charlotte’s Very Own Gay Soap Opera
A handsome young investment banker sits uncomfortably as he receives a blustering pep talk from his overbearing boss. “All you have to do is keep your nose clean, and that corner office is yours. You know what I’m talking about? Whitman, are you listening to me?” Unremarked by the boss, the young exec’s gray flannel…
Bad Vibes
When a single person, especially a woman, starts buying all the necessities for her first home, it usually involves a trip to Target or Walmart to get the standard things like blenders, toasters, can openers, etc. Other women apparently have a different definition of “necessity.” Recently, here in my sexual prime of 33 years, I’ve…
When Smackdown Came To Town
“Wooo!” Ric Flair really should get a copyright for his distinctive howl. Even though the man didn’t make an appearance, the cry of “Wooo!” could be heard every few seconds from the thousands of bellowing wrestling fans at last Tuesday’s WWE Smackdown. For the uninitiated which included me until last week Smackdown is a professional…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser:The guy I was dating (my friends call it “stalking,” but what do they know?) has now been seen in the company of a woman who I will refer to only as The Slut. The thought of those two together makes me so angry. I went to the Internet and found a website…
Cozza vs. City, Round 1
The first battle between the media and the city over the secrecy surrounding the arena talks was fought last Friday in Charlotte City Manager Pam Syfert’s office. So far, it looks like the media is the losing side.City officials have said they won’t release the time, date or even the location of the city’s talks…
Stargazer
For All Signs Our largest planet, Jupiter, moved into the sign of Leo on August 1 and will remain in that sign for a full year. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, optimism, philosophy, travel and education. It generally represents improvements and growth in whatever department of life it touches. Its last sojourn through Leo…
Calling All Women
Take a seat boys, women from all over Charlotte will soon be strapping on tool belts and donning hard harts as they set out to build homes for needy families. Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte is sponsoring Charlotte’s Women Build as part of a nationwide effort that focuses on women’s ability to transform children’s lives…
The Couch Trip
Like many painters, I have flinched when some interior decorator has dissuaded a client from buying a painting on the grounds that “it wouldn’t look good over the sofa.” This subversion of aesthetic priorities has become a bitter cliche in the art world for a middlebrow absence of taste.The concept, therefore, for Sofa Show (currently…
From Ballerinas To Washboards
Charlotte doesn’t have a whole lot of Warholian events, so when one comes along, you go, right? Um, of course you do. Friday and Saturday night, the Hart-Witzen Gallery hosted multimedia arts event featuring live go-go dancers, a smattering of art (some pretty good), naughty ballerinas, film, Scott Weaver DJing, and more. “Wait a minute,”…
Immigrants A-Go-Go
I don’t know what it is about Russian novelists and their love of writing long books. Perhaps it’s the weather, no doubt more conducive to staying indoors and penning prose. Perhaps it’s the food — no real compelling reason to stop reading or writing. Perhaps it’s a lack of qualified editors. But geez — if…
Going Postal Fight Real Crimes
Fight Real CrimesThank you to Tara Servatius for her “A Needless Tragedy” column (CL, July 31), emphasizing that the death of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Sergeant Anthony Scott Futrell as a result of the “War on Drugs” was totally senseless. Like Tara, I don’t think drug use is good. However, using law enforcement to fight it is…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music American Guild of Organists Summer Recital Series featuring Patricia Parker. Sun., Aug. 18, 7:30 p.m. All recitals are free and open to the public; a free-will offering will be taken to cover the costs of the series. Myers Park Baptist Church. 704-588-1290. *Brightstar Music Festival Chamber Music Concert Series three different spectacular programs…
Kissing the Wrong Rear End
Before Pam Syfert prostrates herself before the NBA with more than $200 million for a new arena clenched in her quivering fist, there are a couple of things she ought to know. All the signs are there that Syfert and the city’s posse of big-league booty kissers plan to give the NBA the farm in…
Scotland’s Gift
Scotch whisky is Scotland’s gift to the world. Unique and inimitable, it needs the Scottish climate, pure water and rich peat, not to mention hundreds of years of experience in the skillful art of distilling.The origins of Scotch whisky are lost in the mists of time. The word whiskey is derived from the Gaelic uisgebeatha…
Cooking with Martyr Stewart
I guess I’m truly a part of modern society because I’m always weirded out when I see traditional couples. Of course, I don’t find it strange when couples that are my grandmother’s age behave traditionally. Both of my grandmothers cooked and raised the kids, while my grandfathers were the breadwinners although my grandmothers both had…
Good Eats
Dilworth/Southend 300 East, 300 East Blvd., 704-332-6507. Locals have long gathered at this casual neithborhood bistro in a vintage house featuring an eclectic menu. $$$ Berrybrook Farms Natural Foods, 1257 E. Blvd., 704-334-6528. Homemade soups, herbed tofu sandwiches, bean burritos, and freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices found in a natural food shop. $ Comet…
News of the Weird
The sound of silence: In June, after the British musical group the Planets introduced a 60-second piece of complete silence on its latest album, representatives of the estate of composer John Cage, who once wrote “4’33″” (273 seconds of silence), threatened to sue the group for ripping Cage off (but failed, said the group, to…
Songs In A Minor Key
Reading her HighTone Records press release, one is clearly supposed to get the idea that Laura Minor is some sort of alt-country ingenue. That she had no idea of the vocal talent gestating inside. That music held no place in her former existence. That maybe, before she teamed up with songwriter Jared Flamm to perform…
The Blotter
Criminal Starter Kit: A security guard stopped at a convenience store to use the bath- room, where he inadvertently left his 9mm gun. He came back 30 minutes later and asked if anyone had brought the gun to the clerk. When it was discovered that someone had taken the gun from the bathroom, the police…
Cult Of Personality
There’s a new band on the Charlotte scene called Push Cult. The band features two familiar faces, lead vocalist Patrick Jason (formerly of Star Zero and 11th Hour) and percussionist Bill Golden (formerly of Black Sunshine and Holy Moses), along with two new faces, guitarist Matt Moor of Florida and bassist Alan Yates of Texas.…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 8.7 David Lee Roth / Sammy Hagar — You know why this stupid thing is selling out across the country? Because people have lousy taste. No, that’s not it — rather, it’s the fact that no hard rock bands play stupid girls’n’drinkin’ music anymore, the kind of music that rocked high school parties where…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Aug. 7 Arnie’s Tavern, Huntersville Scott Johnson * Bi-Lo Center Tool w/ Tomahawk Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Socialite Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cajun Queen, Pineville 7th Street Gator Band II Charleston Chops, Cornelius Kent Steel Connolly’s Craig & Rich Acoustic Double Door Inn Boo Boo Kitty & Stiff Kitty * The Evening…
Opening The “Box”
There’s never a white guy around when you need one.Writer-director Rob Hardy and producer Will Packer learned that the hard way during the 13-day shoot of their film Trois in 1998. In the low-budget erotic thriller, a married African-American lawyer fulfills his fantasy of a menage a trois, then sees it turn into a nightmare…
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. BARAN Iranian director Majid Majidi (The Color of Paradise) returns with another honest, humanistic tale, this one about a hot-headed Iranian man whose resentment that he’s been replaced at his…
