Aug 7-13, 2013

Aug 7-13, 2013 / Vol. 27 / No. 24

Cover Story

The Unofficial Underwear Issue

As creative director Melissa Oyler and I looked through photos of sexy men stripped down to their skivvies for this week’s cover, we couldn’t suppress the puns. We just knew this was going to be “a great package” … of stories. After we’d pored over a dozen or so different images of male underwear models,…

Kimberly Lawson, Ana McKenzie, and Megan Henshall

The search for the best hot wings in Charlotte

As a “New South” transplant, I’ve run into one major hurdle in making Charlotte feel like home. It’s not the absurdly early times movie theaters close or the incessant corporate brown-nosing of Crown Town boosters. It’s the hot wings. I cannot overstate my love for this humble dish. It levels the culinary playing field; I’d…

Emiene Wright

North Carolina no longer gives a damn

Last month marked the beginning of the end for public education in North Carolina when the General Assembly passed a budget that would strip over half a billion dollars from our state’s already cash-strapped school systems. Lawmakers were quick to take to Twitter, Facebook and their media mouthpieces, saying they actually raised the budget slightly…

Erin Tracy-Blackwood

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Aug. 8)

Sight for sore eyes: Employees of a Charlotte ophthalmology clinic went to work last week and found that their office building had been trashed. An unknown suspect (or suspects) had vandalized the upper floor of the building and the adjoining steps with vomit and feces. No word on whether the material was transported to the…

Ryan Pitkin

Elysium: Coming down from cloud 9

ELYSIUM ** DIRECTED BY Neill Blomkamp STARS Matt Damon, Jodie Foster South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp made one of the more noteworthy feature debuts of late with the 2009 summer release District 9, a box office hit and Best Picture Oscar nominee about the wretched treatment of extra-terrestrials who had the misfortune of landing on…

Matt Brunson

CD reviews: Once and Kinky Boots

Of course, if a Broadway musical has any staying power at all, the cast album is cut and released before the show is crowned with the Tony Award. More and more, particularly when a show comes branded to Broadway with a familiar title, a familiar creative team, or big name stars, the album is out…

Perry Tannenbaum

My daughter, the asshole

“I’m having a nervous breakdown.” I press the phone to my ear while bouncing Sophie on my hip. Despite being 13 months old, she still cannot grasp how to squeeze her legs around my belly. Instead, she dangles like a broken rag doll, and I am always in the process of hoisting or almost dropping…

Rea Frey

Theater review: Showstoppers: A Lesson in Show Tunes

The latest from Stephen Seay Productions was what hipsters used to call a mixed bag. Seay’s company, co-producing with Rachael Houdek’s Cabaret, brought a fine venue into Charlotte’s thin cabaret inventory, but their collaboration, Showstoppers: A Lesson in Show Tunes, took me through some deep valleys. Atmosphere and acoustics in the cellar of Hartigan’s Irish…

Perry Tannenbaum

Ishtar, Mud, latest MST3K set among new home entertainment titles

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD.) ISHTAR (1987). Writer-director Elaine May’s Ishtar is one of those films that has always made me embarrassed to be a film critic — not because of having to endure the movie itself, but because of the behavior of many…

Matt Brunson

Weekly horoscope (Aug. 8-14)

Leo The Lion (July 22-Aug. 22): The New Moon of Aug. 6 occurred in your sign. This happens once a year and is sort of an extra birthday. You are likely to be thinking about some new and creative venture in your life. The double-Leo influence causes you to follow your heart and renew yourself…

Vivian Carol

Hiss Golden Messenger finds sonic freedom

In 2006, Creative Loafing hyped an intriguing four-band smorgasbord at the newly renovated Amos’ Southend. The line-up included avant jazz/noir popists the Dead Science, Jonathan Meiburg’s Shearwater just prior to their Matador Records signing, Evangelista featuring Carla Bozulich of Ethyl Meatplow and Geraldine Fibbers fame, and country rock-flecked outfit the Court & Spark, led by…

John Schacht

Speedy Ortiz hits the accelerator

Before the start of his band’s current tour, Speedy Ortiz guitarist Matt Robidoux was vacationing with his family in Maine. One morning, they were flipping through the New York Times, and there was a photo of Robidoux, his shirt ripped open, borne aloft mid-guitar solo by the crowd at the Brooklyn venue Death By Audio.…

Patrick Wall

Giant robots — and their collectors — to invade Charlotte

When separately asked what makes Transformers so popular, fans Eric Warren and Jacob Waller quickly provide the same answer. “It’s two toys in one.” That, and nostalgia, the two maintain. Other reasons follow, but that initial, singular vision may be one reason the pair is pulling off a first for Charlotte: a Transformers-exclusive convention. Charticon,…

Andy Smith

Advice for some Charlotte higher-ups

Life’s hard, but finding the right answers doesn’t always have to be. In this edition of “Do This, Not That,” I offer some advice for big deciders in Charlotte (and in Raleigh). Situation: You are the longtime director of the airport. Reports get back to City Hall that too many passengers are losing valuables from…

John Grooms

Famed Occupier runs for City Council

In the summer of 2012, Michael Zytkow became a prominent figure before the DNC when he joined — and usually led — bands of protesters attempting to hold local corporations like Bank of America and Duke Energy accountable for what the 99 percent saw as harmful practices. Just over a year later, the 27-year-old activist…

Ryan Pitkin

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