Merry Kwanzaa
Out of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Dr. Maulana Karenga invented a nonreligious celebration for the African diaspora (people of African descent who live off the continent) to commemorate their rich heritage and to ensure its successful translation to future generations. Hallmark excluded, creating a holiday is a fairly difficult proposition. Expanding from…
Holiday Sparkle
The buzz this holiday season is the new fizz in town. Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine, is not new, just the trendiest member of the sparking wine covey. Prosecco is not a bottle-fermented sparkler as is Champagne, but can still deliver a delicious ride. If you are not sure what to get for celebrating the…
Playing in the Family Band
On a warm, lulling Sunday afternoon in late October, the Barnettes’ black sedan halts sharply in front of a blue bungalow home in east Charlotte and out pop the girls in long pants. They seem to be the only people in Charlotte too busy to notice the day’s midsummer feel. The Barnettes have skipped out…
Wine List
The Wine List Wine Tasting A different sampling of wines every week. Saturdays, 12-5pm. Free. Frugal MacDoogal’s, I-77 at Carowinds Blvd. 803-548-6634. Wine Tastings Wednesday Flight Nights, 5:30-7:30pm, three-wine tastings; $10. Four for Fridays, 5:30-7:30pm, four-wine tastings; $20. Reid’s Fine Foods, 7th Street Station. 704-377-1312. Wine Tastings Several tastings throughout the week. Free. Earth Fare,…
Latino Blood is Thicker than Agua
If the South has more of a family vibe than other parts of the United States, then the further south you go, the more apparent it becomes that latitude must have something to do with it. The local Latin rock band La Rúa, consisting of Ecuadorian brothers Herman and Juan Miguel Marin and three other…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 12.21 Benji Hughes / Secondhand Stories — Hughes, playing all the holiday shows he can muster, gives you another chance to hear his peerless, dry (in the “wit” sense only) balladry before he pulls an LL Cool J and goes back to Cali. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. (Really. Hughes’ last show featured an epic…
Not so Welles
While it is encouraging to note the expanding catalog of latter-day reappraisals of Orson Welles’ extraordinary history, Clinton Heylin’s Despite the System is a quite unwelcome entry. The amateurish and reactionary attempt to vindicate the film director’s rejection by the Hollywood studios is a gesture predicated largely on a spiteful and redundant dismissal of Simon…
Keep on Ruckin’
After he started playing professionally at age 12, Derek Trucks always let his guitar do his talking. But as he’s matured, the former child prodigy realized that at some point in a career, a musician’s got to verbalize his emotions to keep fans interested. “Trying to play instrumental music is a pretty impossible road,” says…
CL Recommends
Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler by Ethan Brown (Anchor paperback). Hip-hop has a lot to say about crime, drugs and beefs; now Ethan Brown brings readers the lowdown on what actually went on as the big players of rap and hip-hop made their bones in the…
Playing Dress-Up
Save these hot linx in your wardrobe folder and get shopping: Looking absolutely fabulous never goes out of style. My Dragontown corset is the bomb! If you’re adventurous, try lighting yourself up like a Christmas tree — blink, blink. Pin Up Girl http://pinupgirlclothing.com Dragontown Corsets www.dragontowncorsets.com Light-Up Clothing www.enlighted.com Latex and Rubber Fashions www.baroness.com Big…
A Santa-Centric Spectacular
Who said the Rockettes were absolutely perfect? I was at Ovens Auditorium on opening night of the historic 35-performance homestand of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and from Row D, I detected a flaw. At the start of Act 2, one of the ensemble in the Raggedy Anne doll segment — shocking, truly shocking! –…
Andy Cauble
Drat. Oh, drat. Drat-nammit!! We’re liking the name. Tryin’ it on for size, you might say. Hey, it fits. Nice and snug. Good name — can we have it? Drat’s the band Andy Cauble, he of stoner rock band Black Lagoon, plays with nowadays. He’s joined by one-time Misguided Youth Jimmy King, former Crimescene 13…
Comfy Columns
Like a lot of people, my interest in Central Piedmont Community College’s new Academic and Performing Arts Center was piqued when tall columns began to rise on the building site. As they took shape ahead of the rest of the building, they looked like a folly from some 18th century architect’s dream. “They are solid…
Champion Irreverence
Goofy get-ups. Over-the-top musicianship. Silly lyrics. If this reads like a description of some heavy metal band, that’s OK — the Alternative Champs are spiritual kin to Spinal Tap. Whether prancing about in matching nurses’ uniforms, performing the sax solo from Spandau Ballet’s “True” on a kazoo or singing about Shaquille O’Neal’s size-21 feet, the…
The Blotter
hot cash: A man called to report a guest in his apartment stole $40 off the top of his microwave. Apparently the man does not live by the finders keepers maxim. The man who reported the robbery watched the suspect take the money and exit his apartment. He tried to call the suspect, but watched…
Dread Reckoning
Last week, at U2’s triumphant Charlotte tour stop, the Irish quartet’s lead singer and habitual Third World advocate Bono interspersed reggae icon Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers To Cross” into U2’s cherished hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Later during the concert, Bono also mimed being a political prisoner in the world’s darker…
Karma Cleanser
This week, we’re cleaning out the mailbag with follow-up letters from folks who’d previously written the Karma Cleanser. We’re always happy to hear how things worked. Well, mostly. Read on. The Karma Cleanser Dear Karma Cleanser: Do you ever post updates about former letters you’ve received? I wanted to let you know what happened to…
Manchildren in the promised land
Folks get hung up about Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins’ high, keening voice. I don’t know if this distaste comes down to homophobia or mere aesthetic roulette. Perhaps I’m inured to the potential grate of Hawkins’ sweet tones, due to having grown up with the grand falsetto of Earth Wind & Fire’s Phillip Bailey and early…
See & Do
December 21, Wednesday Testament to the power of the medium, Clay Aiken’s second-place finish on American Idol brought him more fame and success than a lifetime of touring (and it’s kept comedian Kathi Griffin’s career afloat). Like Carson Kressley, Aiken’s appeal is his aw-shucks charm, which invests a gentle innocence in his adult-contemporary fare. It…
No Beds for Battered Women
Christmas is normally the slow season for domestic shelters, as women try to hold families together until the kids unwrap the presents. It’s after the New Year, when resolutions fade and new beginnings end, that shelters pick up. But this year, Charlotte’s only shelter devoted solely to battered women is full. Shelter services coordinator Jane…
Stargazer
Capricorn The Goat (Dec. 21 — Jan. 19) You may be feeling past losses this holiday season. That could be concerning a person, an investment, the loss of a pet or a an issue about your health. The lens through which you see is probably grayer than it needs to be. Seek consolation from a…
Driving While Hispanic
When Mount Holly teacher Scott Gardner was killed in a car crash involving an illegal immigrant police say was drunk, vigils mourned the teacher’s untimely death. US Rep. Sue Myrick called for immigration reform at press conferences. Gardner’s tragic death, the congresswoman said, was the result of a broken immigration system, and only a lockdown…
Clips
Current Releases AEON FLUX While director Karyn Kusama may deserve a lavish Hollywood mansion and three-picture deal as much as the next filmmaker, she’s one person whose career might have benefited more had she stayed hungry. Her low-budget debut feature, 2000’s Girlfight, was an indie knockout, signaling her arrival as a moviemaker with grit, determination…
Pig Out, America
Almost a month after Thanksgiving I was cleaning out the refrigerator and found containers of leftover mashed potatoes and green beans that had turned very ugly. I wasn’t the only one with too many old leftovers in the house. Everyone in my office ate turkey sandwiches for at least a week. Now, it’s almost Christmas…
View From The Couch
AIRPLANE! (1980). Since 1977’s hilarious The Kentucky Fried Movie wasn’t a box office hit upon its original release (its reputation was made on the midnight movie circuit), this next picture by the comedy team of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker was the one that basically rewrote the rules of screen comedy. It was…
Short list
“But these people are breaking the law! Why shouldn’t they be deported?” Gee, why didn’t we think of that? WFAE host Mike Collins is such a sharp thinker on complex issues like immigration; if he works real hard, he might one day be able to replace WBT blowhard Keith Larson. House Defies Bush and Backs…
Jim Black Must Resign
In other states, politicians get in trouble for merely accepting expensive gifts or junkets paid for by lobbyists. In North Carolina, we take corruption to a whole new level. Here, a lobbyist paid by a sleazy lottery company to pressure Jim Black, speaker of the state legislature, worked for Black for free as a political…
Xmas marks the spot
Holiday releases come in all shapes and sizes Steven Spielberg’s strengths and weaknesses are both on view in Munich (Rating: *** out of four), though fortunately for audience members, the former wins out by that proverbial country mile. Munich is a strong film, an important work, and already a lightning rod for controversy and (one…
Your War Questions Answered
Has the genocide in Darfur stopped? It has not. Darfur is in Sudan. Sudan is the largest country in Africa. You could stick Texas and Alaska in Sudan and still have room for South Carolina. Wouldn’t it be nice if Texas just went away to Africa for a while? Sudan is so spacious that it…
Letters
For the Birds (and Bees) While I agree that Sex Ed is an important topic (“Sexual Fantasies,” by John Grooms, Nov. 30), the headline of Sexual Fantasies with a picture of a girl that looks 8 or 9 is bordering on Creative Loafing endorsing pedophilia. I don’t want to see a headline about sex with…
Bubbly Madness
CORKSCREW ‘Tis the season when corks pop and blurred visions of hangovers dance in our heads. And Dasher, Prancer and those other reindeer pounding on the roof don’t make the ol’ noggin throb less. But at least festive, fun sparkling wine makes the hangover worth having. Here are a few tips, and plenty of recommendations,…
Black Dick
I must admit I’m jealous of Grant’s Black Dick. “Jesus God! Where did you find that?” I hollered when I saw it. “I want it! Let me have it! It totally reminds me of high school! Gimme! Gimme!” But Grant is stingy with his Dick, as he is with everything. He even says he’d never…
Bakers by the Dozen
The student population of future bakers and pastry chefs is rising at Johnson & Wales University. Passersby can watch them learn the craft and view samples of their work through the windows along Trade Street. (The chocolate lab is on the corner of Cedar and Trade.) All four Johnson & Wales campuses have baking and…
