Splitting the Bamboo
Name of Kama Sutra Position: Splitting the Bamboo Getting into the position: The man begins the position seated above the woman with his legs “split” around her waist. While the womanÕs body is held erect and still, the man guides his manhood into her yoni and proceeds to make love to her. On a scale…
Word of the Week
Ersatz: adj. Being an inferior substitute: artificial. Example? I don’t want ersatz sweetner. Give me some real sugar, dammit!
Roots Rock, Recife-Style
The city of Recife nestles on the swampy Northeast coast of Brazil where the Beberibe and Capibaribe rivers spill into the Atlantic Ocean. Once called the Venice of Brazil by Portuguese colonists because of its islands, canals and bridges, the latter half of the 20th century was not kind to the state capital of Pernambuco.…
Who is Flynt Leverett?
Because he tends not to display his panty-less cha-cha in the presence of paparazzi, chances are you’ve never heard of Flynt Leverett. Let me tell you a few important things about him: 1. He has perhaps the most awesomely masculine name ever. The only names I can think of that are more awesomely masculine are…
John Phillips
By 1970, post-Manson and -Altamont, the sixties’ utopian, communal spirit was nearly in tatters. Emblematic of the dawning decade’s imminent descent into myopic navel gazing was John Phillips’ solo bow, the parenthetically-titled (John the Wolfking of L.A.), recorded in the wake of The Mamas and The Papas’ demise. The album broke with Phillips’ pop and…
Ask the Editor
Q: What music are you listening to these days? A: I’m listening to Amy Winehouse. She’s a soul vocalist from England, and she’s incredible. Trust me on this. Her music is sort of old-soul with a futuristic twist. Check her out at: www.myspace.com/amywinehouse. Oh, I’m also listening to old UTFO records. Don’t sleep on those…
Too Mush Of A Good Thing
The Advice Goddess
Cheap Thrills
SALSA NIGHTS Be Shakira for a night and prove that your “Hips Don’t Lie” at the free Latin-style dance lessons offered at the Loft, 1526 Elizabeth Ave. Learn salsa, merengue, bachata and more. Touting “celebrity instructors,” this joint gets hips swiveling every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Hit www.hispanos-usa.com or call 704-333-5898. TANGO & TAPAS…
Flux
It’s all about movement this week. A drawing that draws itself, Jenny Holzer’s web explorations, a French art teacher’s crazy Web site, Alan Becker’s spoof on Flash, and disorder. If you get to outer space, be sure to click on the stars. (hint: top linx, desordre > liens) Woman Inside Out http://fcmx.net/vec/get.swf?i=003702 Ada Web www.adaweb.com…
Dec. 27 — Jan. 2, 2006
Capricorn The Goat: (Dec. 21 — Jan. 19) There are multiple demands for your attention during the last week of Dec. That prevent you from pursuing what is really on your mind. However, as December melts into January, the business pace picks up and you have opportunities to explore. Someone in the background acts as…
Behind the Pen
Where do you get your ideas from? Jim Hunt: Pretty much anywhere. I keep informed online via CL, The Charlotte Post and The Observer. [A former CL editor] John Grooms was also a great source of topic ideas over the years. Sometimes it’s the latest e-mail rant from Bill James that leads to that week’s…
Number one with a bullet
The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) recently named The Departed the Best Picture of 2006 in its 15th annual voting. The acclaimed box office hit, a complex thriller about a cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a crook (Matt Damon) who both manage to infiltrate the other’s organization, also earned awards from the group for Best Director…
The Blotter
Marmot Mathematics: A ferret owner let another person borrow his ferret cage, but when he asked for it back, the woman refused to return it. The victim discovered the ferret cage borrower had given the cage to a third, unrelated ferret owner. Lost in all this business is the homeless ferrets caught in between. Dil-WorthLess:…
According to Jim
Welcome to the world of Creative Loafing cartoonist Jim Hunt. Hunt is as much a part of CL as the ink we print with, and the holidays wouldn’t be the same around here without our annual “Best of Jim Hunt” cartoon compendium. For years, Hunt has captured the irony, the hypocrisy and the comedy of…
Forward to the next screw-up
Boomer With Attitude
Robbery in broad daylight
CITIZEN SERVATIUS
Dr. Nsenga Burton’s Top Five
Dr. Nsenga Burton is an assistant professor of media studies and a filmmaker at Johnson C. Smith University. She decided to teach at JCSU to be more in touch with Charlotte’s booming African-American community. 1) Books: “Joplin’s Ghost is by my favorite author, a black woman named Tanarive Due. I have recently finished Lovely Bones…
Talking ‘Ish’ with …
Talking Ish
Top Junk Science Moments of 2006
The folks at JunkScience.com dedicate themselves to debunking major scientific theories. This year’s top 10 junk science moments included: The woodpecker sham: The world watched in awe in 2005 as teary-eyed scientists pronounced the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct no more after a research team from Cornell claimed they had a credible sighting. To protect the bird,…
Preaching and Drinking
Urban Explorer
Peace with demons
Moodswing
2006 Local Music: Sammies, Avetts Lead the Way
The year in local music? Impressive. Frustrating. And just a little surreal. Full-page spreads in national magazines. Lazarus acts. Arrivals. Departures. Banana peels. While Charlotte struggles to get the ink Triangle artists take for granted, the local scene continues to diversify and expand, nearly to the point of actual notoriety. Yet the tide could be…
Dr. Aaron Gwyn
PROFILE
The Met Aims for the Masses
Julie Taymor is sending a whole new jungle to Charlotte. But this time, the filmmaker-designer-director who brought The Lion King triumphantly to Broadway is not on the Disney payroll. Nope. Taymor is spearheading a high-tech, high-def invasion by The Metropolitan Opera. After 75 years of Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts, the Met is reaching out across…
Capsule reviews of recently released movies
Current Releases APOCALYPTO Mel Gibson may or may not be a sorry excuse for a person, but as has been the case since the first brutish caveman painted a beautiful mural on the cavern wall, it’s as important as ever to separate the individual from his artistry. And for the first half of Apocalypto, it…
In pursuit of perfection
Will Smith will never forget the moment he knew he’d be able to nail his role as Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness. It was months before the start of filming and the actor had asked the real-life Gardner to take him on a tour of the shabby San Francisco neighborhoods where, years earlier,…
View from the Couch
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006). Meryl Streep deserves all the accolades she received for her poison-dipped performance in this satisfying screen version of Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel. As Miranda Priestley, the ice-cold and rock-hard editor of the fashion magazine Runway, Streep delivers a terrific comic performance, as rich as the ones she gave in Postcards…
Consider the oyster
When you know love for the first time, you realize that those “I love you’s” shared in previous relationships amount to nothing more than words. This recognition is the accumulation of thousands of luminous or indifferent moments that shape actions — and tastes. This lightning bolt of clarity brings sudden comprehension and empathy for Etta…
Tasting stars
Mouthful
The best wines of 2006
Corkscrew
The black Atlantic
RIP Ahmet Ertegun (1923-2006) The terrible news came last Friday evening, courtesy of one of my dearest friends in Manhattan: Ahmet Ertegun, founding chairman of Atlantic Records, had died at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He passed away after lingering in a coma for weeks as a result of a fall backstage at…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: In response to “Hate Bait,” the man who did not want to go home with his wife for the holidays: I can relate. I think my situation is even worse, though, and I don’t agree with the answer you gave him. My story starts back in high school. I dated a cute…
‘Tis the Season to Party…
Tis the season to be jolly (fa, la, la, la … ) but it seems as though there’s an epidemic of bad moods going around. Everyone I seem to interact with of late is either stressed out or pissed off. Well, snap out of it people! Your bah humbugs are messing up the aura of…
See & Do List
Saturday, December 30 Katt Williams is the type of comic you’d like to, but just can’t, hate. Yes, his faux-pimp act is stereotypical. And yes, his comedy is misogynistic and promotes an unhealthy image of African-American men. But … he’s really, really funny! And isn’t that the essence of a great comedian — taking something…
Letters to the Editor
This week’s letters and .com-ments are in response to Kevin Keck’s article “Treacle or Claymation?” published in the Dec. 20 issue. When Claymates Attack! I found this article highly slanderous. Though I am used to Clay Aiken being beaten up for whatever offense he seems to have done against those in the media, I have…
From DMZ to TMZ.com:
“Save the cheerleader, save the world.” I don’t even watch Heroes, so I still don’t actually know what that means, but I have a gripe with this strange tagline for 2006, because “our” president was a male cheerleader back in his prep school days at Andover, and well, let’s just say that saving the world…
Shaken, Not Cheap Soiree
While traveling From Russia With Love, Agent 007 found out You Only Live Twice as his mission to thwart the Dr. No and Goldfinger turned into a Thunderball where Diamonds are Forever and you can Never Say Never Again. Didn’t catch the clever use of all Sean Connery’s appearances as James Bond? Where you been…
