Waste Not, Want Not
Biohazard is about as New York as a band can get. On a snowy day in the Big Apple, we find drummer Danny Schuler on his cell phone. He’s having a late breakfast in a warm New York diner, the air replete with all sorts of idle waitress chatter and the clinking of forks and…
The Blotter
* Good Role Models Are Hard To Find. A woman visited her son’s school to have lunch with him, but when she arrived was told her son was absent. The woman then went to her ex-husband’s house, where she found her errant son enjoying the day off. The estranged couple soon got into an argument,…
Letter Grade
“More than a dozen years after their breakup, the dB’s occupy a position of considerable prestige and influence,” writes journalist Scott Schinder in the copious liner notes accompanying a new CD reissue of the first two albums by the much-loved NYC-by-way-of-Winston-Salem combo. “They’re… acknowledged by pop history as a crucial link between Big Star’s pre-punk…
Letters
No Government Funds for Art To The Editors: In reference to Linda Brown’s “Art Wishes 2002” (CL, January 2), I understand that it is important to some to have a “World Class City,” but my question is why is it so important for the arts community to receive financial support from our local government? If…
Music Menu
The American Plague A trio from Knoxville, TN spews forth punk rock; there are plenty of high fives with Motorhead, Stooges and Ramones, along with raw 70s glam sentiments. It’s basically a case of yelling, “One, two, three!” into the mic and kicking in fast and furious American rock & roll with all the bone-crunching…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jan. 16 Bayou Kitchen Bill Noonan Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cajun Queen, Pineville 7th Street Gator Band II Connolly’s Craig & Rich Dilworth Coffeehouse Open Mic w/ Bert Wray The Evening Muse Michael Reno Harrell w/ Phyllis Tannerfrye* Fat City The American Plague & The Common Cold Garbo’s Christy Snow Graduate, Lake…
Hollywood’s Early Thaw
What’s it say that one of the most promising films of the upcoming winter/spring movie season is something called Death to Smoochy? Of course, we’re all familiar with the axiom of not judging a book by its cover — or, in this case, a movie by its moniker. With Danny DeVito directing and Edward Norton…
Scene & Herd
Membership has its privileges: Little Cafe Bisous, nestled in the cute Plaza Midwood storefront that’s also home to Nova’s Bakery and Sadu, a piercing boutique, is unique as far as Charlotte nightspots go. By day they’re a homey coffee shop, filled with comfy (sometimes broken) couches, old books, a widescreen TV (the better to show…
FilmClips
NEW RELEASES ORANGE COUNTY Numerous stars — among them Kevin Kline, John Lithgow and an unbilled Ben Stiller — turn up in Orange County, and their participation makes one wonder if they signed on to curry favor with Lawrence Kasdan (whose son Jake directs the film) or to get in the good graces of Tom…
8 Days A Week
WEDNESDAY 16 The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged), a play by Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, is being presented by The Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. The show will be performed in Duke Power Theatre at Spirit Square on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:30, Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm, and…
Get Out of theWay!
To stop Brian Robinson, they’ll have to bankrupt him, says a man who knows him. He pauses, thinking it through. No, he says. They’d have to kill him. Despite a nationally reported debacle that left a two-story house stranded on Providence Road during rush hour last summer — a debacle that also cost him his…
Karma Cleanser
Karma Cleanser: There’s a soft drink machine in a dusty corner of my office building that doesn’t get a lot of use. Most people don’t realize that, almost without fail, the machine gives out two drinks instead of one when you hit the right button. I made this discovery by accident and since then, for…
The Little Creek That Could
Supporters of a Little Sugar Creek greenway say you shouldn’t believe the hype: despite disputes over big box developments and more, the project itself is alive and kicking. It’s true: looking under the Midtown Square parking lot, or near the softball fields at Park Road Park, or across from Carolina Place Mall in Pineville, it’s…
Stargazer
For All Signs Mercury, ruling planet of communications, travel, and general business, is turning retrograde on January 18. The symbolism suggests any verb that begins with the word “retro.” We often are required to “re-do” paperwork or projects during retrograde periods. We need to work a bit harder to make certain we communicate accurately because…
Team, Anyone?
Very informed sources say an offer by Charlotte investors to buy out one or both owners of the Charlotte Hornets is still on the table. Despite the team’s overtures about moving to New Orleans — which no one seems to seriously believe will happen — sources close to the situation say that if the New…
Care Takers
At first pass, the work currently on display at Hodges Taylor Gallery appears to be a study in contrasts. Mark Flowers’ paintings are abstract and rely upon a highly personal visual vocabulary. Edward Rice’s paintings are examples of pure representation and depend upon well-honed drafting and painting skills. While Flowers’ work appears unrestrained, Rice’s is…
Another Week Already
Alarmed by President Bush’s Sunday fainting spell, apparently triggered by a piece of pretzel “going down the wrong way,” White House advisers quickly set up coughing lessons for the Chief Executive. Early results were hopeful. “He’s making the right sound so that’s some progress,” said professional Cough Facilitator Hyacinth Jackson, “now, we’re working on muscle…
A Born Writer
There is no question now, if ever there was, that Robert Inman is a born writer, a man who knows how to weave a story together. His novels read easily, but the stories are evolved and developed with subtle artistry. Captain Saturday, Inman’s fourth published novel, like his previous three, is well-structured, well-written, and nicely…
Citizen Servatius: The Real Deal
We need to get a few things straight about the new arena deal before we start frantically hurling money in any particular direction. I know that injecting a dose of reality into coverage of uptown booster projects is considered a cheap shot around here, but it’s what they pay me the big bucks to do,…
A Double-Dealing Desdemona
Like the wonderful theater year just completed, 2002 in Charlotte is beginning auspiciously. Once again, it’s the Chickspeare banditas who are playing a key role in delivering the igniting spark. Last January, they turned the local scene on its head with “the play where you move from room to room,” Maria Irene Fornes’ Fefu and…
One Man’s Trash
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or sometimes it’s just another man’s trash, too. Look at eBay, the popular online flea market-cum-collector haven. Just about anything you can think of is sold there: books, records, dolls, art, knick-knacks, clothes, tickets, pornography, and just about anything else you could dream up. This new CL feature…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music The BBC Orchestra of London Presented by the Carolinas Concert Association. Tue., Jan. 22, 8 p.m. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-348-5800. Chamber Music at Queens Performing in concert will be pianist Mac McClure. His program will include Saint-Saens, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Granados. There will be a pre-concert lecture at…
Snow Day
Snow isn’t exactly my favorite weather formation, but I’m not immune to its beauty and fun either. I can’t say that I actually love snow because, having lived in Chicago, I’ve had quite enough of the stuff, thank you very much. The first time it snowed while I lived in Chicago, I was all excited.…
Haute Chocolate
The recent snowfall gave me the opportunity to conduct a blind taste test of hot chocolate mixes. We had a variety of hot chocolate and cocoa mixes, including a few recently received Christmas gifts. We rated the mixtures from best to worst in both taste and appearance. Finding tasters was easy. My house was filled…
Sense and Sensibility
Sometimes it seems as if the world is going to hell in a hand basket; that we’re surrounded by so much dross, mediocrity seems like a shining beacon of hope. Compared to the graceful cities of yesteryear, all we seem able to produce is a scrambled hodgepodge of development that runs the gamut from bad…
Bring Your Own Wine
So there you are at a nice local restaurant, scanning the wine list for something you can afford to drink with dinner. Your eyes move quickly past the $50 bottles, all the way down to the bottom of the list. With dismay, you discover that the cheapest wine is $30, which wouldn’t be so bad…
Covering the Predictable
It was interesting to observe how Charlotte newsies and sportsies covered a big story that was a foregone conclusion: the firing of Carolina Panthers coach George Seifert on January 7. The sports world is never so know-it-all and smarmy as when it thinks it knows what’s going down. The game was barely over on January…
GoodEats
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…
Left Behind
Is Zacarias Moussaoui really the 20th hijacker? The feds seem to think so. Moussaoui has been charged in US District Court with conspiring to participate in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Prosecutors say he was training to be one of the hijackers at the time of his arrest. If convicted, he will likely face execution…
