The Revivalists energize sold-out Fillmore
Muddy Magnolias get the night started on the right foot.
The Disaster Artist: Room To Grow
THE DISASTER ARTIST ***1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY James Franco STARS James Franco, Dave Franco The spiritual companion piece to director Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, director-star James Franco’s The Disaster Artist is another cheerful Hollywood-insider piece about a man whose ambitions far outweigh his expertise. In this case, it’s Tommy Wiseau, the mysterious figure…
Despicable Me 3, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Twin Peaks among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) DESPICABLE ME 3 (2017). A constantly ka-chinging cash register disguised as a major motion picture, the utterly banal and utterly boring Despicable Me 3 is largely the animated equivalent of the recent…
Listen Up: Justin Fedor Gives Back on ‘Local Vibes’
Justin Fedor came into the studio a little shaken up by a recent armed robbery, but he was able to move past it to have a great discussion with Mark Kemp and Ryan Pitkin about the tribute shows he organizes to benefit the Levine Children’s Hospital and his work with The New Familiars and Ancient…
Cajun Queen stays afloat through a sea of change
The Elizabeth neighborhood has seen its share of change in recent years, much of it not for the better. Philosopher’s Stone, Jackalope Jacks, Kennedy’s and VisArt are just a few of the area’s staples to have shut down or moved away over the last three years. The Queen of the neighborhood, however, is not going…
Chad Lawson Tickles the Ivories and Chills the Spine in ‘Lore’ Podcast
Chad Lawson’s dulcet, disquieting piano underscores Aaron Mahnke’s spine-tingling, true tales of terror on the popular podcast Lore. So Lawson must love the dark and scary stuff, right? “Oh no,” the 42-year-old pianist says, laughing. “Truth be told, I rarely listen to the podcast because it creeps me out.” It turns out that Lawson hadn’t…
New City Council Members Set Sights on Abortion Battle in East Charlotte
On a chilly morning on the second day of December, Charlotte City Council member Julie Eiselt stood on Palmer Plaza Lane in east Charlotte and watched as hundreds of people streamed into a lot of land owned by Absolute Beauty College. The college had allowed local anti-abortion organization Love Life Charlotte to hold a concert…
The Blotter: Holiday Mischief
The Season for Taking An unknown male suspect is about to experience the wrath of bad Christmas karma after stealing a Salvation Army bucket of donations. Police responded to the Salvation Army near Park Road after the suspect fled the scene with $150 in cash donations and the iconic red bucket. Shirts for Days ‘Tis…
News of the Weird: Loving Family
Family Values Members of the Spann family of Comanche County, Oklahoma, keep running afoul of that state’s incest law, with the latest dust-up over the marriage of 26-year-old Misty Spann and her 43-year-old mother, Patricia, in March 2016. The two had been separated after Patricia lost custody of her young kids, but when they resumed…
Staying Sex Positive Amid Misconduct
A while ago, a friend and I were talking over beers at Common Market when she said she believed the act of heterosexual sex to be inherently patriarchal and invasive by definition. Feminist psychologist Dee Graham would agree. In her influential and controversial 1995 book, Loving to Survive, Graham argued that men’s sexuality is by…
Shoot Your Shot, Take a Shot
A couple weeks ago, I received a DM on Twitter (is that what you even call messages on Twitter?). A rare occurrence, I’m shocked that I even took notice of the alert. I opened the message to learn I’d been invited to join a live show and panel discussion put on by the ladies at…
Helping Others Motivates Charlotte Musician Justin Fedor
When Justin Fedor came into the Hygge West podcast studio for this week’s episode of Creative Loafing’s Local Vibes, he was a bit dazed, looking as though he’d just been held at gunpoint. As it turns out, that’s exactly what had happened. Fedor and some friends had been hanging out at his home in Plaza…
Salome’s Stars
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Make a start on that new workplace challenge. But get more information before you find yourself too deeply involved without knowing in which direction you should go. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) You might find things becoming tedious as your schedule slows down for the holidays. Use this…
Local Creatives Make Charlotte Home for the Holidays
I had met Justin Fedor many years earlier, when I was writing a story for The Charlotte Observer on his then-new band, the New Familiars. I didn’t realize this was the same Justin that CL’s news editor, Ryan Pitkin, had booked to come into the Local Vibes podcast studio at Hygge West last week to…
