Feb 10-16, 2016

Feb 10-16, 2016 / Vol. 29 / No. 51

Cover Story

Carly Rae Jepsen moves beyond her mega-hit single

Carly Rae Jepsen could have easily become a one-hit wonder. Her song “Call Me Maybe” has more than 780 million views on YouTube, roughly 8 million copies sold in the U.S. and was a top-10 hit in 29 countries. It’s been parodied by Sesame Street and “Weird Al” Yankovic. It’s been covered by Kelly Clarkson…

Jeff Hahne

Deadpool: Alive and kicking

DEADPOOL *** DIRECTED BY Tim Miller STARS Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin Is it fair to state that Deadpool is all downhill after the opening credits? Yes and no. Certainly, the cast and crew list that kicks off one of the oddest Marvel movies to date is the sort of savvy gag that’s sure to amuse…

Matt Brunson

Zoolander No. 2: A model of wretchedness

ZOOLANDER NO. 2 * (out of four) DIRECTED BY Ben Stiller STARS Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson There’s no reputational risk involved in asserting that Zoolander No. 2 is so awful, it makes the 2001 original appear as brilliant as Annie Hall by comparison. But how about stating that Zoolander No. 2 is so awful, it…

Matt Brunson

How to Be Single far from a home run

HOW TO BE SINGLE ** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Christian Ditter STARS Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson The excellent moments in How to Be Single — and, yes, there are a handful — are like those woeful few seeds that are flung by a farmer onto a fertile field but instead end up landing on…

Matt Brunson

Weekly horoscope (Feb. 11-17)

For All Signs: On February 14, Mercury returns to its original position after making an apparent retrograde loop in our sky that began on Dec. 19, 2015. This often symbolizes a time in which those things that became complex and full of chuckholes at the beginning have finally come to a point of resolution. It…

Vivian Carol

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (Feb. 11)

Sundae, Extra Nuts A pair of hard-partying suspects weren’t ready to call it a night after security kicked them out of an EpiCentre bar last week. With 15 minutes to spare before last call, the clubbers attempted to enter a second EpiCentre bar through a back door on the lower level. After gaining entry to…

Madeline Lemieux

A Mighty Wind, The Passage, SPECTRE among new home entertainment titles

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) CRIMSON PEAK (2015). One of last fall’s biggest disappointments, writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak will likely only appeal to moviegoers unfamiliar with Jane Eyre or Henry James or Bluebeard or Daphne du…

Matt Brunson

Local artist brings Free Art movement to Charlotte

Charlotte artists Sy Arden and Laura Rasmussen walk down 36th Street in NoDa with a few, small, wrapped packages in their hands. Arden turns the corner outside of Smelly Cat Coffeehouse and eyes the perfect location for what she has in mind. She takes one of the square objects she’s holding that’s wrapped in saran…

Jeff Hahne

The battle of ‘Pizza’ Midwood

It’s really hard for me to pick a favorite food, but if had to pick just one, it would definitely be pizza. So I thought no better way to start my Creative Loafing debut than by breaking down my one of my favorite group of Charlotte restaurants, Pizza Midwood. Pizza Midwood is the affectionate term…

Chrissie Nelson Rotko

Shots Fired

About a year ago, I received a call from a friend. She was hysterical. She’d been having problems with a stalker for months. She’d gotten weird notes on her car and threatening phone calls. This time, he’d broken into her home. She didn’t know who “he” was, and the police didn’t offer much assistance in…

Erin Tracy-Blackwood

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