Scene & Herd
So just how popular can a band get after being on a VH1 TV series? Apparently it doesn’t hurt, as Flickerstick proved on Saturday at Tremont Music Hall when a near-capacity crowd packed the club. It took about 20 minutes just to get in, and thank God I had opted not to be too fashion…
The Lone Outsider
* Gigi Dover of Rank Outsiders fame is releasing a solo album titled Unpicked Flowers. The singer recorded the material last summer at Moondog Studio in Nashville, TN with producer Tim Coats. Guitarist Duane Jarvis and bassist Garry Tallent (of the E Street Band), along with guitarist Bill Noonan and drummer Ray Mitchell (both of…
The Blotter
* Explosive Humor: During class, a high school student made his fellow students and teacher believe he was carrying an “explosive device” and intended to injure several people in the classroom. When asked to explain his behavior, the student said he was “just talking,” and in his mind the incident was a “joke.” To his…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 2.6 The Breeders — The Breeders touring once again isn’t quite the same as Michael Jeffrey Jordan coming back to the NBA to play with the Washington Wizards, but it’s close. A key influence of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and a host of others, the band is one of the last “true” alternative bands (along…
8 Days A Week
WEDNESDAY 6 Quiz Show, a story based on the 1950s’ quiz show scandals, will be presented by Children’s Theatre of Charlotte beginning tonight. Performance times are Wednesday-Friday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 9pm and Sunday at 2pm. All tickets are $6. For more information, call 704-333-8983. The Charlotte Checkers play their longtime rivals, the Greensboro Generals,…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Feb. 6 Bayou Kitchen Bill Noonan Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cajun Queen, Pineville 7th Street Gator Band II*Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro The Breeders Connolly’s Craig & Rich Acoustic Dilworth Coffeehouse Open Mic w/ Bert Wray Double Door Inn Pocket Lounge The Evening Muse Linda Dunn & Robert Horne Graduate, Lake Norman Andy Seets…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: All my life I have been struggling. I am a mean person, but I do have a heart. I’m the type of person who sends out a bad aura, the one talked about behind my back in a negative way, the one who steps on the dance floor or who joins a…
Death Be Not Proud
The beginning of a review usually isn’t the best place to comment on the end of a movie, but in the case of Monster’s Ball, that oddly seems like a logical place to start. Don’t worry, there’s no need for a spoiler alert: It won’t be revealed that, say, Darth Vader is actually Luke’s father,…
Stargazer
For All Signs The Chinese New Year begins on the date of the second new moon after the winter solstice, suggesting that spring is on its way. This year the date is February 12. We are departing the year of the snake and beginning a horse year. Horse years are restless, searching, and sometimes unstable…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES CHARLOTTE FILM SOCIETY Movies begin this Friday at the Manor and continue the following Friday at Movies at Birkdale. Call 414-2355 for details. * THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE Luis Bunuel’s classic conversation piece from 1972 — an Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film — is yet another wry attack on…
My Good Old Friend
From Good Old Friends When you make a list of all the most important things in life, you may include some treasures which you own. But if you’re like me, at the top of the list will be, The very special people you have known. The world is a much nicer place for me and…
CL Theater Award Nominations
BEST ACTOR, DRAMA Alan McClintock — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (George), Skylight (Tom Sergeant), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Randle P. McMurphy) Bobby Tyson — Drift (Lee) Carver Johns — American Buffalo (Teach) Chad Calvert — Turn of the Screw (The Master, Miles, Mrs. Grose, Narrator) Eric Foss — Corpus Christi (Joshua) Graham…
Celebrating the V Word
Vagina. Vagina. Vagina. Having been employed as a writer for over four years, that’s exactly triple the number of times I’ve written that particular word. And that, at least in part, is the idea behind The Vagina Monologues, the much-celebrated play by Eve Ensler, which is based on interviews with hundreds of women from all…
New Newspaper In Huntersville
Tucker Mitchell is back in the newspaper business, but this time he’s calling the shots. Mitchell, the former editor of the Leader newspaper, is now the jack-of-all-trades behind the Huntersville Herald, a new weekly newspaper that will arrive in the mailboxes of every household in Huntersville for the first time this week. Mitchell says it’ll…
Wedding Bell Blues
Once upon a time there was a beautiful young maiden who lived in a kingdom called New York, where she waited for a handsome prince to marry her so they could live happily ever after. That’s how fairy tales begin, and Me Times Three is just that — a modern-day fairy tale set in the…
Love Is Blue
A love affair between two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers reached a violent climax last month after one of the officers took another lover. In a jealous rage, Officer Gina Cook stormed Officer Rebecca Serena Garber’s Shadow Oaks Drive apartment on January 10, looking for a way in. Garber, Cook’s ex-girlfriend, was asleep in a back bedroom…
Citizen Servatius
Can Ann Wooten be legally barred from returning to Charlotte? It’s something we may want to look into. The former Southpark socialite who managed to alienate every one of the dozens of neighborhoods that once belonged to the Southpark Coalition simply won’t give up. She’s one of a handful of folks still pushing a lawsuit…
Tired of making things up?
Creative Loafing announces its first annual Creative Non-Fiction Contest for writers in the Carolinas, in association with the CPCC Spring Literary Festival. What, exactly, do we mean by creative non-fiction? It’s memoirs and essays and any work of non-fiction written in a literary style, as opposed to a journalistic one. Some examples would be books…
News, Rumor, and Innuendo
Inquiring minds want to know what exactly is going on over at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Heck, inquiring minds inside the PD want to know exactly what transpired before, during and after off-duty vice officer Michael Marlow took what appears to be a few shots at a transvestite who somehow wound up in his take-home…
I’m Sure I’ll Catch Hell For This
One of my favorite pastimes is criticizing other people. I firmly believe that the strength of my marriage has to do with the fact that my husband and I so enjoy criticizing other people together. When we’re out at restaurants, driving, or just watching TV at home, we’re almost always talking smack about somebody else.…
Arts Agenda
Annual Richard and Betty Peek Recital and Masterclass Featuring Organist John Mitchener. Masterclass will be Feb. 2 from 9am-12pm, Recital will be Feb 3 at 4pm. Sat., Sun. Continues through Feb. 3. Free. Covenant Presbyterian, 1000 E. Morehead St. 704-334-2283 Ext. 22.Concerto Competition Winners presented by Charlotte Civic Orchestra – featuring all the winners of…
Who Knew?
You love it. You’re always thinking about it. In fact you spend most of your life trying to get more of it. Yet this highly sought after and prized possession also wrecks marriages and destroys careers — just ask the suits at Enron. What I’m talking about, of course, is The Almighty Dollar — the…
Tale of Two Cities
Two good friends were in New Orleans when the Charlotte Hornets officially announced they were applying to the NBA to move there. Being loyal Hornets fans who live in the Charlotte region, they were skeptical about the attractiveness of the Crescent City. But by the time they returned, their tune had changed from bluegrass to…
Arts Feature
Wedding Bell Blues For once, a smart book that’s funBy Amy Rogers Once upon a time there was a beautiful young maiden who lived in a kingdom called New York, where she waited for a handsome prince to marry her so they could live happily ever after. That’s how fairy tales begin, and Me Times…
Purple Haze
With one swig of Frugos’ Peruvian Purple Corn Drink and its vaguely starchy cinnamon taste, I knew the rest of the meal would have an unexpected flavor. The 65-seat El Loco Pollo Peruvian Restaurant, which opened last November, claims to be the only Peruvian restaurant in Charlotte, which technically is true, although some Peruvian dishes…
Homefront Advisor
The international media, many governments and some human rights organizations condemned the United States upon seeing photos of the al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Rather than depicting them sipping cocktails at a Buena Vista Social Club show, the pictures showed the prisoners shorn of their religious beards, shackled and…
Green Viagra
Before Viagra, people used a variety of herbs, plants, and animal parts as performance enhancers. Aphrodisiacs, by definition, are drugs or foods which stimulate or intensify sexual desire. Most aphrodisiacs can be lumped in a few main categories. The first are items that resemble human genitalia. Plant roots, like ginseng, fall into this category, as…
Another Week Already
Quote of the Week: “That lemon-haired pussy, I’ll take him on.” — said by a citizen speaking to city council last week, referring to Hornets owner George Shinn, who the man says is spying on Charlotteans from a white helicopter. Both major political parties in NC said they were considering selling naming rights to their…
Tainted Love
Ever come across a bottle of wine that just doesn’t smell right? I’m not talking about a Chardonnay that smells more like a Sauvignon Blanc; I’m talking about wine that has a moldy, musty odor with flavors to match. That’s happened to me plenty of times, though early in my wine-drinking career I didn’t know…
NewsQuirks
* A one-legged man entered a restaurant in Colorado Springs, CO, by removing his prosthetic leg and using it to break the restaurant window. Police said Michael Richards, 54, took money from the register but because he wasn’t wearing his artificial leg he was unable to exit the business before officers arrived. * The manager…
THE WINE LIST
CAROLINA WINE CLUB Morning classes run from 10-11:30am. Evening classes run from 6:30-8pm. All classes are held at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design. Sessions include: Feb 12, How to Taste Wine; Feb 19, Wine & Food Pairings; Feb 26, Ordering Wine in A Restaurant & Purchasing Wine in a Grocery Store. Cost is…
letters
Be Realistic To The Editors: Re: “Pop Goes The Cherry” (by Cintra Wilson, January 30), all that the media which are targeted at teenage and pre-teen girls feature are messages about looks and music. This gives these girls the false message that somehow they, too, can be a teenage sex symbol like Britney Spears. Yet…
Good Eats
ALL AROUND TOWN ANNTONY’S CARIBBEAN 2001 E. 7th, 704-342-0749; 145 Brevard Court, 704-339-0303; 20910 Torrence Chapel Road, Cornelius, 704-894-0280. A fun, change-of-pace restaurant for a casual lunch or dinner. Limited menu features rotisserie-cooked barbecued meats, what else, Caribbean style. $ BRUEGGER’S BAGEL BAKERY All over town. Chewy bagels, crisp on the outside, and served with…
Correction
In last week’s paper, we inadvertently stated that CL writers Sam Boykin, Tim Davis, and Tara Servatius collected five awards from the North Carolina Press Association recently. In our excitement, we miscounted. The correct tally is four. In addition, writer Timothy Davis would like to go on record as stating that he was not drunk…
Beat Street
In the basement of a house on a quiet, unassuming suburban street in Charlotte, Keith Shamel and Melinda Hansen are unveiling a new song for their Delancey Street band mates. Shamel strums through the first few minor chord changes before drummer Rob Knox picks up the beat and adds a few well-placed fills. Bassist Bill…
One Man’s Trash
The Weird: Looking for a designer purse that’s more trendy than Fendi? Advertised as “appearing to be of leather,” the bags offered for sale at this web address are crafted out of genuine kangaroo scrotum (“no stitches to be found anywhere on the bag,” the seller advertises. Gosh, I’d sure hope not, at least for…
O Brother, Where Art Bob?
The irony is this: For a man who spent the first three decades of his career assiduously cultivating personal mystique like normal folks maintain stamp collections, Bob Dylan has since put a lot of time and energy in a willful destruction of that mystique. The norm in the 60s, 70s and portions of the 80s:…
