Foster parent and deadbeat dad
Kevin Scott Smith has become one of the North Carolina Division of Social Services’ regular customers. After a background check, home visits and extensive training, the agency’s foster care licensing program approved him as a foster parent in August. His relationship with the agency’s child support services department is another matter. It is currently attempting…
Stargazer
Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 19 — Feb. 18) You are definitely in charge, out front, or on display this week. You have an eye for what is beautiful and likely will make sure to fold beauty around you. You are persevering and will turn over every rock to insure that your bidding is accomplished. For…
Cultural Understanding
Cow farmers, or shall I say dairy farmers, in the state of Wisconsin have been hiring Hispanic workers since the late 1990s. Even though 40 percent of all farm workers in the United States today are Hispanic, this represents a trend of Mexican farm labor migrating to the northern states and transitioning from crop picking…
Film Clips.
New Releases MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS When exactly did one of cinema’s most accomplished actresses turn into one of its most boring? Except for a couple of exceptions (most notably her atypical — and smashing — turn in Iris), Judi Dench has been delivering the exact same performance dating back to 1997’s Mrs. Brown and running…
Breaking News
Some New Apartments in SouthPark Rent for $3,200 And they say there’s no affordable housing in Charlotte. Death Row Killer Requests McRib as last meal Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. The Associated Press Reported that Bush, Responding to Hamas’ Palestinian Victory, “Noted that Democratic Elections Sometimes Produce Unwelcome Results.” Believe us, Mr. President, Americans…
View From The Couch
IN HER SHOES (2005). Given its deft mix of humor and heartbreak, it’s a mystery why this emotionally rich production from director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential) and Erin Brockovich scripter Susannah Grant (adapting Jennifer Weiner’s bestseller) didn’t fare better at the box office. An initially acrid look at sibling rivalry, this stars Cameron Diaz and…
Dumbed Down
I read the Charlotte Observer almost every day, so I must be some kind of doofus. And if you read it, you’re probably a doofus, too. That’s the exciting, maybe even life-changing, conclusion I’ve reached after absorbing the daily paper’s recent tweaks. You have to assume the folks running the Observer know their readership, right?…
Christ, You Know It Ain’t Easy
For all general purposes, a mainstream movie is a mainstream movie — large budgets, recognizable actors, plenty of studio hype — but independent films come in all shapes and sizes. There are the high-profile indie films that are generally released through major studios’ art-house arms (Lost In Translation, Good Night, And Good Luck); there are…
No Bark, No Bite
When kids wouldn’t behave, he choked them, slapped them and banged their heads against chairs. He’d often haul them out of their seats by their necks or yank them forward by hooking his fingers under their upper front teeth. No, this isn’t another column about some thug with a three-page rap sheet. This is about…
Mail Bonding
CORKSCREW This quarterly column lets you talk back. And talk you have. Your letters are fantastic, with insight and helpful tips. Keep ’em coming, my wino friends. E-mail corkscrew@creativeloafing.com. A Bit of Free Press (Well Deserved) Justin Vaughn wrote: “While in Atlanta for a conference last week, I picked up a copy of Creative Loafing,…
See & Do
Wednesday, February 01 OK, Ladies. Grab firm hold of your skirts with your right hand. Lift your left hand skyward as if you were holding up a pearl. Now show your utmost contempt for the floor! That’s the hot Latin attitude you’ll need at Booth Playhouse as Noche Flamenca comes to a boil for a…
Thai time
Years ago, I surrendered to the total sensory assault of Thai food. Colorful presentations and a tapestry of textures and flavors — basil, kiffir lime leaves, ginger, chilies, coconut milk, cilantro and lemon grass — please the eye, nose and palate, and bring me back time and again. Thai cuisine reflects Thailand’s unique political history…
SLAM!: MAKE NOISE B-BOYS
Converging from all over the world, artists of every skill, style and vocabulary will embark on a quest to capture the Individual World Poetry Slam title. I don’t really know that much about poetry. I’m still in the “Roses are red, violets are blue” field. But I can remember the feeling that runs down my…
Dumpsville
Suddenly, you’re dreading answering the phone and listening to his/her plaintive voice. Or he/she is picking on every little thing. With Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s better to break up before that artificially contrived holiday if things are on the outs. Get with your friends for an anti-Valentine’s Day party instead. But first, you need…
Letters to the editor
No news is Bad News I applaud Tara Servatius’ article bemoaning the shoddy reporting in the Charlotte Observer (“Paper Tiger,” by Tara Servatius, Jan. 18). When I moved here after living several years in Asheville, I looked forward to being able to read a “big city” newspaper that would make up for the years I…
Wine List
Villa Antonio Wine Tasting Five wines, free appetizers and live music. Wed., Feb. 8, 6pm. $20. Villa Antonio, 4707 South Blvd. 704-523-1594. Wine Classes www.CarolinaWineClub.com. Feb. 7, 6:30-8:30pm, The Art of Darkness: Chocolate and Wine. $35. Westye Group Southeast Showroom, 127 West Worthington Ave. # 104. 704-344-8027.
Teenage Prostitute to the Stars
Now that James Frey got his ass ripped in half for fabricating most of his memoir (maybe he can stop the bleeding with wads of the money he raked in last year), I feel it’s important that I, as a writer who makes her living through the telling of her own experiences, finally come clean…
Warrior Between Worlds
A lot of songs could have cut through the haze of heartbreak I was muddling through in that Memphis music store, four days after Hurricane Katrina nearly crushed my adopted city of New Orleans. And it’s possible any one of them would have struck me as being extremely meaningful right then — in those first…
Life Sucks
Ohmigod, if you think you’ve got it bad, go to My Miserable Life. This is some of the funniest stuff I’ve read in ages. Like, umm, haven’t these people heard about some of the real suffering that goes on in this world? Kelly in Omaha, Age 29: get a clue! My Miserable Life www.mymiserablelife.com Despair,…
Tits and Grits
Monday — Gold Club There are no strippers anywhere. None. And no gold for that matter. All there is, is one creepy old dude watching ESPN on a Jumbotron. “Are there any strippers at this strip club?” I ask the hostess, who is dressed conservatively in a buttoned-down blouse. “They’re all in a meeting right…
lnmental
Ellen Gurley (aka LNMental) is known by different titles: DJ, poet, artist manager, jungle music buyer for Central Records. LNMental has owned her own website since the 90s, promoting good music. When not at her 8-to-5 Monday through Friday gig, her time is spent being the mouthpiece of www.coatcheck.net and contributing to other international publications.…
Party Politics
Joe Wind had seen racial discrimination at nightclubs before, he thought. Groups of black guys would approach a club door, only to be told they weren’t dressed right. Sometimes, he chalked it up to racism. But it had never happened to him. So he never felt called to address it. But then last November he…
Six-string belief
Last year, Son Volt leader Jay Farrar finally broke his silence about the dissolution of his alt.country mothership group Uncle Tupelo. He willingly exposed himself to the rock press and continues to display renewed faith in what guitar bands can achieve. No longer so stoic, Farrar’s not just drifting out there, looking at the wounded…
Unlocking Sherlock’s creator
Best known for his winking, literary embellishment and celebration of Gustave Flaubert (Flaubert’s Parrot), British novelist Julian Barnes turns to straight-ahead historical fiction with his new novel. In Arthur & George, Barnes takes on the real-life investigative forays of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famed author who became immersed in the wrongful conviction of a…
In the spirit
African-Americans accounted for 69 percent of all new HIV infections in Mecklenburg County during the first half of 2005. So the Metrolina AIDS Project (MAP) is taking the fight to church: Black churches, a cornerstone of the black community, have initiated annual prayer weeks to foster AIDS awareness in their communities. Although tremendously important, these…
CL Recommends
Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back by Norah Vincent (Viking hardback). Who better to hold their nose and dive into the red planet world of men than an adventurous lesbian whose graceful, liberal sentiments expose l’homme with an endeavored, unbiased honesty? Ladies, gentleman and transsexuals, let me introduce you to Norah Vincent,…
Like, radical
“Gag me with a spoon!” might be your response to any look back at music from the 1980s, the decade that’s best forgotten — if you’re old enough to recall Valley-speak, that is. I myself cringe during VH1’s endless marathons of snarky 20- and 30-somethings waxing pithy about Ray-Gun Era pop culture. On the other…
Steeper by the Dozen
A long line of ticket holders gathers outside the Broadway Theatre more than a half hour before the curtain will rise for the Wednesday matinee of The Color Purple. Charter buses come to a halt between 52nd and 53rd Streets, disgorging busload after busload to the back of the line — making it increasingly doubtful…
The Show Will Go On
Nineteen years is a long time to wait. For John Apple, that’s how long he’s been trying to restore the Carolina Theater, an uptown landmark from 1927 that closed in 1978. The Spanish Renaissance-influenced structure, with its magnificent chandeliers and vibrant colors, once hosted Elvis, Bob Hope, Audrey Hepburn and many film premieres. Apple’s wait…
The Blotter
Man vs beast: Pulling into his driveway, a man parked his truck and tried to exit his vehicle. Before he could get one foot on the ground, the man was attacked by a pit bull. The wound-up canine then ran into the backyard and harassed the man’s dogs. The pit bull began to charge at…
Where Have all the Ghettos Gone?
While no one was looking, the federal government stopped building slums. This is a good thing — and a bad one, as city leaders across the country are beginning to find out. The Charlotte City Council last week learned that this city needs to build 12,530 new rental units by 2010 to accommodate even half…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: What do you do when your new friend is racist? I don’t know for sure that my friend actually is racist, but I’m starting to worry about it. Here is the story. I met “M” when he was dating my roommate. We started hanging out at bars together and ended up clicking…
