Cover Story
Best of the Blotter 2013
After a one-year hiatus, Creative Loafing’s Best of the Blotter edition returns. As the Blotter’s regular author, I’m proud to introduce the collection of the year’s dumbest, most hilarious or flat-out saddest local crimes, compiled for your voyeuristic pleasure. I’ve grown since 2008, when my editor took a chance and asked her lowly news intern…
Confessions of a Southern slut, part 2
How my office crush turned into my office fling
The Wolf of Wall Street indulges in overkill
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET **1/2 DIRECTED BY Martin Scorsese STARS Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill While David O. Russell is managing to out-Scorsese Scorsese with American Hustle, the real Martin Scorsese isn’t taking the movie season off; instead, he’s back with The Wolf of Wall Street, an adaptation (by Terence Winter) of Jordan Belfort’s memoirs…
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty not worth discovering
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY ** DIRECTED BY Ben Stiller STARS Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig So the screen version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is vastly different from the James Thurber short story upon which it’s based — so what? The original story is a delight, but for the most part, so…
Grudge Match hits the canvas
GRUDGE MATCH *1/2 DIRECTED BY Peter Segal STARS Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone Muhammad Ali may have had the ability to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, but Grudge Match can do no more than stumble around like a cockroach that’s taken a direct hit from a can of Raid. The pitch…
Opening Wednesday
What’s new in theaters on Christmas Day.
Free Comic Book Day’s 2014 titles released
Annual event falls on May 3 next year.
NPR picks up tear-jerker local story
Yelitza Castro, a local undocumented housekeeper, and her family spend most Saturdays cooking meals for the homeless.
Today’s Top 5: Monday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Today’s Top 5: Sunday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Today’s Top 5: Saturday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
American Hustle is an American beauty
AMERICAN HUSTLE **** DIRECTED BY David O. Russell STARS Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper Is it fair to David O. Russell to call American Hustle the best Martin Scorsese film Martin Scorsese never made? Deliriously alive on screen, with an energy that’s often electrifying, it’s a movie that in its best moments recalls Scorsese’s gangster classic…
Anchorman 2: All the news that’s fit to mock
ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES *** DIRECTED BY Adam McKay STARS Will Ferrell, Steve Carell By the hymen of Olivia Newton-John! A sequel that’s better than the original? I don’t know how to put this, but that’s kind of a big deal. While many folks have loved 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy since…
Saving Mr. Banks: Author of Mary, quite contrary
Saving Mr. Banks **1/2 DIRECTED BY John Lee Hancock STARS Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks The beloved 1964 film version of author P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins finds the title character (played by Julie Andrews) describing herself as “practically perfect in every way.” It’s almost guaranteed that some modern-day quote whore — maybe Peter Travers (no relation…
The Armstrong Lie: Gibney lances through falsehoods
THE ARMSTRONG LIE **1/2 DIRECTED BY Alex Gibney STARS Lance Armstrong, Michele Ferrari While the sports and entertainment arenas may be packed with far too many arrogant pricks to count — Michael Jordan, Steve Smith, James Cameron and on and on and on — a key figure among this egotistical elite is Lance Armstrong, the…
Fat and Happy
The trick is to truly love and be excited about the body you inhabit.
Conservative think tank calls out McCrory’s lies about jobs
American Enterprise Institute notes that McCrory’s decision to reduce unemployment insurance this year did nothing to curb the unemployment rate.
First Drip (12/20/13): Jerry Orr retires, revitalization coming to North Tryon, a Charlie Brown flash mob, more
The news you need to know today.
#nerdgasm: 3Doodler
Seriously? A 3D printing PEN? #want
Today’s Top 5: Friday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Good beer gone bad
You know it as soon as that first sip hits your tongue. With it comes a combination of disappointment, disgust and anger. You feel let down, cheated and maybe even swindled. There is nothing like purchasing a nice bottle of craft beer, opening it up and knowing with the first taste that it’s bad. You…
Naked fear
I’m not a sportswriter, but I sometimes play one on the radio. An editor friend of mine calls it “parachuting in” — reporting on a topic that’s not your regular beat. For me, tackling a pro football or hockey story means many hours of extra homework to get up to speed. Sometimes, it means humbly…
CD review: Jocelyn Ellis’ Life of a Hologram
If psychedelic soulstress Janelle Monaé, synthpop queen Robyn, glam rocker Adam Lambert and eclectic spoken word artist Saul Williams all came together to create a sonic lovechild, Jocelyn Ellis’ debut album, Life Of A Hologram, would be the fruit of their sonic lovemaking. Ellis has coined her genre-bending and blending sound “Neon Folk” — a…
Confessions of a Southern slut, part 1
Sex: I love it, I need it, I want it
Moogfest 2014 announces initial lineup
Kraftwerk and Chic named headliners for the April festival.
First Drip (12/19/13): Jerry Orr’s future, Obamacare payment deadlines extended, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Thursday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Getting in the Spirit
It’s early Saturday afternoon and Arthur’s Wine Shop (located on the first floor of Belk SouthPark at 4400 Sharon Road) is already buzzing with swirling, slurping and spitting. One customer poses a wine-match question to owner Robert Balsley, who quickly snatches a bottle from a shelf, pulls out his waiter’s corkscrew, twists the cork out…
2014 Concert Wish list
For every concert tour that is announced, there is either a “Yes! They’re coming to Charlotte!” or, more often, a “When are you coming to Charlotte?!?” response. Plenty of musicians route tours through the Queen City, but it more often feels like artists forget this city exists. Aerosmith canceled a 2009 concert and never rescheduled…
A Christmas list for local newsmakers
Love it or hate it or both, the Christmas season is a time for making wishes. Too often, we make impossible-to-fulfill wishes, but hey, that’s part of the season, too. With that in mind, here is my annual wish list for local newsmakers and notables. Like they say, this is the time of year for…
Yes, the war on Christmas is real
As much as it pains me to admit this, Fox News is right about something: Our nation has declared a war on Christmas. Except that this war isn’t fueled by the semantics of the term “Happy Holidays” as Bill O’Reilly or Sarah Palin would have us believe. It has nothing to do with the secularization…
Weekly horoscope (Dec. 19-25)
For All Signs: The winter solstice this year is timed at 12:11 p.m. EST on Dec. 21st. This is the point of the year at which the northern hemisphere is tilted furthest from the sun. Therefore our nights are longest at this time. Ancient people of the north celebrated the “return” of the sun within…
Opening This Week
What’s new in theaters this week.
Open for debate: Are athletes and coaches paid too much?
A recession doesn’t affect them one bit.
No. 1 holiday travel tech tip: ABC
Batteries, adaptors, power cords. Pack all of them.
McCrory praises N.C. film industry, gives hope that lawmakers could extend tax incentives
McCrory’s office called 2013 “one of the strongest years experienced by the film industry in North Carolina.”
Recipe: Peppermint Chocolate Granola
This week, I complain about people who make a fuss about granola. Happy Holidays!
The Pull List (12/17/13): Godzilla, King of Monsters (and monster comics)
The latest in the comic book world.
First Drip (12/18/13): New manager for Meck County, San Jose’s newest millionaire, cylindrical computer and more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Wednesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Bob Rucho is a drama queen
You know what’s more annoying this time of year than long lines at the post office, driving in the rain near any big-box store and people who bring holiday desserts to the office when others are trying to lose weight? (Oh, wait — I’m usually the person who brings calorie-filled treats to work. Sorry, co-workers.)…
Ladies’ Night with Chickspeare
In a recent poll of theatergoers in the U.K., Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night placed eighth among the nation’s favorite plays, narrowly beating out Macbeth (ninth) and King Lear (tenth) in the rankings and trailing only Hamlet (third) among the Bard’s works that made the Top 10. Whatever audience preferences may be in America — or here…
Elysium, The Lone Ranger, Prisoners among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD.) ELYSIUM (2013). South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, about the wretched treatment of extra-terrestrials who had the misfortune of landing on our planet, was a metaphor for apartheid in his home country, and the film proved to be…
