Trailers From This Week’s Reviewed Films
Juno \\\\\\\\\\ Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street \\\\\\\\\\ Charlie Wilson’s War \\\\\\\\\\ Atonement \\\\\\\\\\ I Am Legend \\\\\\\\\\ Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story \\\\\\\\\\ The Kite Runner \\\\\\\\\\ Alvin and the Chipmunks \\\\\\\\\\
SEFCA Honors Country
The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) named No Country for Old Men the Best Picture of 2007 in its 16th annual voting. A list of all the winners follows. TOP 10 1. No Country for Old Men 2. There Will Be Blood 3. Atonement 4. Juno 5. Michael Clayton 6. Zodiac 7. The Assassination of…
Malachi Green
Cartoon by Jim Hunt
Tori Kicks Out More People
Last month in Charlotte, Tori Amos stopped her show in the middle of a song to yell at someone. Some say it was a security guard, some say it was people in the front row. Either way, she yelled, “Get the fuck out of my show!” and her bodyguard obliged by escorting them out (around…
Mission Accomplished, Drugs!
By George W. Bush A long time ago, America declared a war on drugs. It was a sneak attack. You know who America was like, kind of? Al-Qaeda. Remember when they were at war with us but we weren’t at war with them? Well, that’s how it was with us and drugs, except that drugs…
Nicole Kidman’s Latest Movies
The Golden Compass \\\\\\\\\\ Margot at the Wedding \\\\\\\\\\
The “Rub Her the Right Way!”
Okay, so perhaps not exactly a classic Kama Sutra position, but it certainly should have been. This is basically a play off of the standard reverse cowgirl, but with a twist. The man lies on his back with one leg outstretched and the other bent with knee pointing upward. The woman then straddles her partner…
SCOTS
Southern Culture on the Skids is coming back to Charlotte on Friday, Dec. 14. Here’s a quick look at their last time in the QC back in July: \\\\\\\\\\
Your Documents, Please, Mr. Dobbs
Breaking the Sound Barrier
Guess who’s playing at dinner
QC Inferno
Seven Sins a Second
The Deal: The Finnish gothic metal rockers release their second album. The Good: The album contains nine tracks and a short introduction. It’s full of contrast between the harsh sounds of heavy guitars, bass and drums with softer, melodic sounds. Reminiscent in musical style to the popular Finnish group H.I.M., Sinamore has a much more…
Delivered
Boomer With Attitude
Kyoto Accordingly
Ross Gelbspan Author, The Heat is On and Boiling Point, www.heatisonline.org What is needed is a new Kyoto Protocol that reflects the urgency and magnitude of the challenge: a rapid global transition to non-carbon energy sources in the next 30 years. One approach might involve three elements: In industrial countries, withdraw the roughly $250 billion…
Audio Day Dream
The Deal: Latest American Idol runner-up releases debut disc. The Good: If I have to find something, I’d say Blake Lewis hasn’t forgotten how to beatbox – thankfully, not on every song – and he’d be a shoe-in for a Justin Timberlake sound-alike contest. He also didn’t forget to include the required ballads – “Without…
Aimee’s Top Five
Culture Surfing
The Blotter
BA-HUMBUG: A 52-year-old man said someone came to his home on Rainbow Drive and damaged Christmas decorations on display in his yard. He said Christmas lights were pulled off his trees and broken, two seven-foot Christmas trees were knocked down and the heads were pulled off two of Santa’s reindeers. THE DEVIL STEALS PRADA: A…
Adults-Only
A new social event has been created for the over-21 set. The premise: explore the museum after the hours, without the little ones underfoot. Hence Science After Dark presents Stars + Spirits. The Planetarium Building’s exhibits and aquaria are open for perusal while savoring a nice glass of wine or throwing back a cold one.…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I work in an office with a group of 15 women. We are all “friends” on a basic level, even though the other ladies know that I tend to be more liberal/progressive in my outlook than they are. Now it is the holiday time and people are going around asking for donations…
A Doctor, A DJ and a Model Were Sitting in a Bar
A Visit from the Perplexed Doctor San Francisco DJ Doc Martin pays a house call to Hom on Dec. 7. Escorts of Sorts Designer Michelle Kee is escorted down the runway by two of her models at a fashion show sponsored by M. Kee Fashions. The event, which was a part of Pop Life,…
Laughing Their Heads Off
Charlotte’s rapidly fading comedy scene gets a boost from a new improv comedy troupe, The Chuckleheads. As an icebreaker, the group unleashes their 1st Annual Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivas Improv Comedy Spectacular 2007. Seasoned improv vets, å la Scott, Ryan, Jenny, Joel, Lisa, Charla and Paul, will use audience participation to give you a show…
Letters to the Editor
Do Unto Others … I have not responded in the timeliest manner to Tara Servatius’ attack on Myers Park Baptist Church (Citizen Servatius: “A World-Class Jesus,” Nov. 21) because unlike Ms. Servatius, I felt compelled to be accurate in my facts regarding this very difficult issue. I am a proud member of Myers Park Baptist…
Better Off
Payday lenders weren’t happy with a survey conducted for the N.C. Office of the Commissioner of Banks that found consumers were better off without the high-interest loan companies that the state kicked out last year. • Sixty-eight percent of former borrowers said the loan ban had no effect on their household. • About nine percent…
Shake That Thang
In a time when a video game like Dance Dance Revolution has become a beacon of weight loss and aerobic activity, you begin to wonder: What happened to dance as art? No, not art like those dumb dance movies akin to You Got Served and J.Lo’s Feel the Noise. Like actual art, where it becomes…
Water issues
Moodswing
Dead Again
DEC. 19: Pop Life ends its “Fall Series” with a big bang, featuring music from more than four DJs, dozens of local media folk, free food (courtesy of Townsend’s Gourmet Cuisine), discount drinks and much more. This event will not return for a good while, so come on out and enjoy yourself one last time.…
K-O-O-L J-U-R-K
“How funky is your chicken? How funky is your chicken? How loose is your goose? Our goose is totally loose! So come on all you Hog fans, come on all you Hog fans and shake your caboose, shake your caboose!” Before Buffy became a kick-ass slayer on the WB, she was a totally flaky cheerleader…
A Family Affair
Citizen Servatius
Coming Attractions
THURSDAY, DEC. 20 Wonders never cease. This time they come in the general direction of the Far East. Holiday Wonders is billed as “A Chinese Cultural Event.” Dramas, epic tales, myths, and legends have been visualized in large-scale dance sequences. The drums tell the story as they pound out a beat of celestial melodies. Get…
Dear Diary
Does It’s a Wonderful Life make you gag? Do you yearn for a less saccharine take on the Christmas spirit? If so, check out The Santaland Diaries. David Sedaris’ NPR essays formed the basis for this Joe Mantello adaptation, which describes the absurdity of the season through the eyes of a Macy’s Christmas elf. Not…
Stargazer
Sagittarius The Archer: (Nov. 22 – Dec. 20) You will likely have improvements in financial income or other personal resources. This will develop either as the result of general good luck or increased effort. Optimistic attitudes concerning money could lead you to overextend resources. Your sense of self esteem is increased by several notches as…
View From the Couch
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2007). Those who like their Potter black will find much to appreciate in the fifth and moodiest of the J.K. Rowling adaptations to date. Chris Columbus’ first two entries focused mainly on fun and games, with the subsequent installments helmed by Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell taking…
Skating on Thin Ice
Ice skating is really harder than it looks. Not everyone can aspire to be Michelle Kwan. But of course, you’re going to be stubborn and try to do it anyway. In that case, check out WBT Holiday on Ice at the Green Uptown, Charlotte’s only outdoor ice-skating rink. January 6 is the last day it’s…
Body Talk
The N Word
Bumper Crop of Gift Books
Performing Arts 40Comic Proportions 42Arts Agenda 4545
Two Men and a Little Baby
Remember the sitcom My Two Dads? It aired from 1987-1990. Two single guys who were fighting for a lady’s affections are awarded joint custody upon her death. It was also incorrectly credited as “the first true gay sitcom.” We’ve come a long way (thank you Will & Grace) since then. To help iron out things…
Film Clips
Current Releases AMERICAN GANGSTER Here’s yet one more tale about a confident crime figure who rises to the top before taking that inevitable plunge down the elevator shaft. Yet for all its familiar trappings, director Ridley Scott and writer Steven Zaillian invest their tale with plenty of verve, even if they frequently soft-pedal the deeds…
Darrell Roach
Profile
Bubbly holiday
Corkscrew
You’re Getting Warmer
I remember so well the final morning hours of the Kyoto conference. The negotiations had gone on long past their scheduled evening close, and the convention-center management was frantic – a trade show for children’s clothing was about to begin, and every corner of the vast hall still was littered with the carcasses of the…
When suckers were good
Kitchen Witch
All Kidman Aside
We know all about folks eagerly awaiting, say, the next Harry Potter installment or the upcoming Batman movie, but has there been a franchise entry that people have seemingly wanted to avoid as much as The Golden Compass (**1/2 out of four), the first of three pictures based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy?…
‘Tis the season for parties
QC After Dark
The Green Fairy Returns
Kitchen Witch 62Corkscrew 64Good Eats 6562
The Carats And The Stick
Advice Goddess
A cooked-up, down-home fling
Betta Listen
The Place Where He Belongs
For Chris Daughtry, the road to success may have started on American Idol, but the show is far off in the rearview mirror at this point. Three American Music Awards, four Grammy nominations and more than 3.3 million albums later, Daughtry has solidly proven himself in a band which won’t be going away anytime soon.…
Comic Proportions
Potter’s Field No. 1 Published by Boom! Studios. Plot and script by Mark Waid. Pencils and inks by Paul Azaceta. The Deal: Potter’s Field tells the story of a mysterious, self-styled detective known only as John Doe. Doe’s mission in life is to solve the unsolved murders of New York’s many nameless dead folk. The…
Local club/restaurant closes its doors
La Vida Local
Double-Dips of Santa
Performing arts
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 12 Sunshone Still The Columbia-based songwriter – aka, Chris Smith – delivers a 17-song concept album/character study of frontiersman Kit Carson, and it’s no stretch calling it marvelous. Ten Cent American Novels will be lumped into the alt-country bin, but as a horde of guest musicians attests, there’s much more going on here.…
Change!
The Deal: Brooding, gorgeous set from Ohio-based band. The Good: Navigating the same dark, melancholic seas as the Tindersticks or Dirty Three, these 12 tracks proceed with an unhurried grace well-suited to singer/songwriter Jerry DeCicca’s contemplative narratives. Sepia is the color of the day here, the minor-key songs highlighted by the pleasing ebb and swell…
