Petal to the mettle
Performing Arts 40Arts Agenda 42Book Reviews 4442
Ode to a Wine Bar
CORKSCREW The wine list is daunting, With so many to choose. Who can help me? God, where’s the booze? But the selection tempts me, The cabernet so mysterious. Fifteen bucks a glass? Are you serious? There’s a sauv blanc, A pinot gris and a noir. Don’t know the producers, Can I get very far? Let’s…
Educational Genocide?
For nearly a decade, Mecklenburg County has tried to heal the racial wounds of the past with bricks and mortar. While suburban schools in the fastest growing areas of the county burst at the seams, the community methodically rebuilt historically black schools that had been long neglected. Even when it became obvious that some of…
Where everybody knows your name
What public spaces exist today where everyone knows your name? Besides the obvious — work and perhaps church or a 12-step group — where do you go? Coffeehouses are great meeting places, but they don’t have the convivial atmosphere of the old corner bar. The Internet, which connects cliques with clicks, is replacing the traditional…
What, me soft?
It seems Mexican politics are a hot topic. I got a few e-mails from south of the border regarding last week’s column, most of them reprimanding me for my soft criticism of the country’s president, Vicente Fox. The letter-writers couldn’t believe I was “pulling my punches” after years of hard and loud comments against Fox.…
Gung Hay Fat Choy
On January 29, Chinese New Year celebrants usher in the Year of the Dog — which doesn’t refer to the flavor of the year, but the characteristic nature of people born during it. About a quarter of the world’s population follows this calendar, and New Year’s, a 15-day event, is their largest celebration. Those people…
Short List
Breaking News Blogs Offer Drinking Game Ideas for Alito Hearings The man’s going to be confirmed — isn’t that reason enough to drink? Today Show critic Gene Shalit apologizes for calling Brokeback Mountain character a “sexual predator” Give him a break; he’s always been supportive of his own gay son. We’d rather he apologize for…
The Wine List
Wine Classes www.CarolinaWineClub.com. Jan. 17, 6:30-8:30pm, Diversity of the Piedmont — Italy. $35. Westye Group Southeast Showroom, 127 West Worthington Ave. # 104. 704-344-8027.
Strike One
Hi, hello and howdy. Hope you had a peaceful, relaxing holiday season. I know you didn’t, but I still wish you had. Since I’ve been, umm, away for a few weeks, I’m using this week’s column to catch up a bit, so let’s get right to it. Several events and issues deserve some attention: •…
Aeon Flux
Alison Krauss comes first. It says so right there on the marquee every night. But outstanding as that bluegrass songbird is, the people who accompany her on stage are not your average bunch of unknown sidemen and road warriors. Krauss’ band is special enough to get its own billing as Union Station, and most of…
Paper tiger
I owe a lot to the Charlotte Observer. For years I’ve paid my mortgage by writing stories the Observer won’t run. Not the stories its reporters can’t write or the stories they don’t know about, but the stories the paper won’t run. I’m not the only non-Observer reporter writing these stories. It’s gotten to the…
Sick Little World
Hot Linx OK, if you’re the sensitive type, stop right here. Go read the Observer or something bland like that. If you’re adventurous, follow these hot linx, scraped off the underbelly of the beast for your viewing pleasure. What is Victoria’s Secret? www.whatisvictoriassecret.com Engrish www.engrish.com Forget What You Know www.forgetwhatyouknow.net Gas Mask Fever www.missstrict.net/gasmasks.html World…
See&Do
Wednesday, January 18 Alright, you self-appointed hipsters, give it up. We know you sing along to Bon Jovi while thinking, “Damn, I’m singing along to Bon Jovi!” The definitive ’80s hair band rocks the Charlotte Bobcats Arena tonight at 8pm. Their worldwide “Have a Nice Day Tour” comes on the heels of the new album…
Outlaws & iniquity
Country outlaws are a (literally) dying breed. Many of today’s artists favor a painless payday rather than walking the hard line of such icons as the late Johnny Cash. Thus the 10th anniversary reissue of The Road Goes On Forever (Capitol; Rating: ****) by the Highwaymen — Cash with Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and the…
Spring Fever Hits Early
With the way the weather keeps alternating between hot and cold, it’s the perfect reminder that your relationship needs a kick in the pants — tuxedo pants that is. Why not take your bride-to-be to the Wedding Showcase in a place named one of the nation’s 20 Great Gardens. Your “Eve” will be tempted at…
Real Life Top 5 Divakar Shukla
We’ve been wanting to do this Top 5 ever since we got rid of that Samir Shukla guy. (OK, Samir got rid of us, actually. He wanted to go further his education or some such nonsense.) At any rate, the only reason we haven’t asked Samir’s brudda Divakar Shukla — Charlotte’s No. 1 music fan…
Letters
Live and Let Live For Pete’s sake, does everyone require a support group these days (“Childfree in America,” by Sarah Klein, Jan. 11)? What happened to calm fortitude, the courage of one’s convictions and good manners? I feel no need to defend my decision to remain childfree, nor would I dream of challenging the decision…
Seattle rides again
Greetings from NAP headquarters, where, on a semi-regular basis, we’ll be exalting the musical underdog and championing the artistic downtrodden. Our raison d’être is straightforward: There’s music made today — probably in a basement or garage on your block — that rivals anything in rock & roll’s top-heavy canon. We hold no truck with those…
Elvis is Everywhere
I’m nearly naked, stripped to my skivvies, surrounded by four men with long sideburns and curly chest hair. This cramped room backstage at Skandalos, where you’d normally find a Latin pop band or folks salsa dancing, wasn’t meant to fit four — soon to be five — Elvises. The Elvis in black leather looks more…
Blowfly for president
It’s tough to tell when Clarence Reid is yanking your chain. An interview with the famous South Florida soul/disco songwriter and producer — from awhile back when he headlined a Pimp ‘N’ Players Ball in Ybor City, FL — immediately devolved into a rapid-fire volley of laughter, lyrics, anecdotes and apocrypha. Regarding the taller tales,…
Stickman
A man was standing outside a soup kitchen when he was approached by another man known as Stickman, who was without his trademark stick. He accused the first man of stealing his namesake. The man denied it. So Stickman ran into the nearby woods, got another stick, returned to the man he was accusing and…
In the Jailhouse now
Support for Roe v. Wade 17 Short List 18 Jim Hunt 1817
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: For the past three years, I’ve taught undergraduate classes at a public university that’s about an hour away from my home. The commute can be bothersome, but I enjoy interacting with the students. I never much wondered if they viewed my courses as difficult, and didn’t lose any sleep when the “problem…
Where are they N.O.W.?
With the abortion issue figuring so prominently on CNN these days, the Charlotte branch of the National Organization for Women (NOW) hopes this year’s annual Roe v. Wade march draws a much stronger turnout on Sunday than in previous years. NOW and other abortion-rights supporters are expected to converge in front of the Charles R.…
Stargazer
Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 20 — Feb. 17) This is probably not your best time to be dealing with a partner or significant others. The mood is intractable and no one can persuade anyone else, so productive action is stalemated. Do the best you can to disengage emotionally from the fray. The cosmic forces are…
Like Goldilocks on Acid
Book Review
Clips
New Releases LAST HOLIDAY A remake of a 1950 British comedy starring Alec Guinness, Last Holiday is better than expected thanks to its retooling as a vehicle for Queen Latifah. Director Wayne Wang, who probably eyes the career of Ang Lee and wonders where he went wrong, has long been demoted from indie darling (Smoke)…
CL recommends
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin hardback). As a result of the great plow up of the Great Plains during the wheat boom in the 1920s, ambitious American settlers suffered the consequences of unknowingly destroying their climate. For the greater part of the 1930s, the land essentially threw up on its inhabitants.…
View From The Couch
THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960). Akira Kurosawa dips his fingers into both Hamlet and film noir, gingerly lifts a few morsels of inspiration, and then tosses out the rest in order to fashion his own morality tale about the corruption running rampant in the world of Japanese business. Toshiro Mifune, playing it close to the…
Please Come To Boston
ArtsPulse Although we hardly deserve it, Gretha Boston is back in town. Boston has made some glorious memories at Booth Playhouse. She made her Charlotte debut there alongside Andre De Shields, Randy Skinner and Marla Schaffel in a star-powered production of Let Me Sing! — Charlotte Rep’s pocket history of the American musical — in…
Exploring New Frontiers
MATCH POINT Woody Allen has spent huge chunks of his career borrowing from such masters as Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini, but as I watched his latest picture, Match Point, the director that repeatedly came to mind was George Romero. Like a zombie from Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Allen keeps rising from the…
