Jan 19-25, 2010

Jan 19-25, 2010 / Vol. 23 / No. 47

SC Lt. Gov. compares poor to stray animals

Remember Andre Bauer? He’s the lieutenant governor of South Carolina – the guy Mark Sanford didn’t want to risk taking charge of the state while he hiked the Appalachian Trail. The guy who has to keep denying that he’s gay, over and over. And now, he’s one of the guys running for S.C. governor from…

John Grooms

Dilworth streets to become slow-moving parking lots

OK, I know this could be construed as a minor gripe, a really small inconvenience. And I know there are people in Charlotte today whose homes are soggy from flooding after yesterday’s and last night’s downpours. And there are roads in surrounding counties that are closed until further notice because of the severe washouts brought…

John Grooms

Improving the music scene isn’t easy

Jeff Hahne’s recent music blog post about the lack of support for live music in Charlotte generated some good discussion on the Creative Loafing site. I’d like to take a second to throw a thought or two into the ring with the hope that my thoughts might focus in on what I take to be…

Eric Mullis

Coming Soon: Haiti Earthquake Benefit Concert at UNC-Charlotte

The tragedy in Haiti has left many of us shaking our heads in horror and scrambling to help with relief efforts. That’s where Robinson Hall Players and the UNC-Charlotte Department of Theatre come in. On Sunday, Jan. 31, they’ll host the Haiti Earthquake Benefit Concert to help victims of the earthquake. Currently scheduled to perform…

Anita Overcash

Grey Gardens and “The Marble Faun”

It’s hard to imagine how two well-to-do women related to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — Edith (“Big Edie”) Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith (“Little Edie”) — could go from a grand lifestyle to animal infestation (In case you don’t know, I’ll fill you in: In 1973, they were found living in their 28-room mansion, which…

Anita Overcash

N.C. flag, a la Supreme Court

Rather than go on and on about the Supreme Court’s decision to let loose the hounds of corporate hell on the American electorate (which we already commented on yesterday, in any case), we’ll tell you about the funny-as-hell visual commentary from the BlueNC site. It’s the new North Carolina state flag, reflecting the Supremes’ encouragement…

John Grooms

Rally songs gone wrong

With the release of Prince’s ode to boys in “Purple & Gold” (no not Ques, the Minnesota Vikings), you have to know that celebrity fans of the three other teams left in this season’s NFL playoffs will surely kick out songs to support their squad. While none of them will be as high-profile as Prince,…

Mike McCray

The art of ordering

Now that I’ve made me reservation to stop by The Liberty Gastropub for Charlotte Restaurant Week, it’s time to dissect the 3-course menu.

Priscilla Tsai

Soles4Souls, Lebo’s collecting shoes for Haiti

Just got this press release in my inbox. Got me thinking about the random shoes that are falling out of my closet right now that I don’t even wear anymore. I’m sure you’ve got some pairs of shoes that you don’t wear anymore but keep around “just in case” too. Get on it and help…

Kimberly Lawson

Sale of the day: Sloan

According to our friends over at ScoopCharlotte.com, Sloan has now marked down fall/winter items to 50 percent off. Also, check out their post on a special casting call to be held at Sloan on Tuesday for a new reality TV show. 1419 East Blvd. 704-376-1275

Kimberly Lawson

Today’s Top 5: Friday

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Jan. 22, 2010 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing. • Laura Izibor performing at the Urban League of Central Carolinas Young Professionals 2010 Leadership Awards at The Big Chill • Jerry Seinfeld at Ovens Auditorium • Elonzo…

Anita Overcash

Supreme Court: “Say hi to Uncle Aetna”

When the four Republican conservatives on the Supreme Court — Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Roberts — were nominated, each one preached the gospel of judicial restraint. Remember all the talk about how we needed conservatives on the Court because those wacky liberal judges engage in “judicial activism,” which is unconstitutional and evil? Well, I guess…

John Grooms

Upcoming: ‘Feminine Not Fragile’ trunk show

On Friday, Feb. 5, from 6 p.m.-9 p.m., head out to the showroom of Scott Jaguar on Tyvola Road to check out the spring 2010 collection of local designer Blaine Degannes’ high fashion clothing line Rain Anthology. Rain Anthology’s philosophy is to “provide women with fashion that makes them feel elegant and edgy without complication,…

Kimberly Lawson

Bank of America report’s hidden-in-plain-sight messages

Bank of America released its latest financial report yesterday, and we couldn’t help but notice three things. First of all, amid the gobbledy-talk of fourth-quarter losses, controlling expenses, red ink, blah blah blah, what spoke the loudest was something missing from the bank’s plans: increased lending. Remember increased lending? It’s desperately needed to jumpstart the…

John Grooms

Karaoke for a good cause

This Saturday, head over to Dolce Vita for “Sing for Cystic Fibrosis,” a karaoke event to help benefit funds in support of Cystic Fibrosis research.

Anita Overcash

Sale of the day: Belle Ville

The 30-percent-off-storewide sale continues at Belle Ville. Sale ends Friday and denim is excluded. Birkdale Village (between Banana Republic and Starbucks) 16836 Birkdale Commons Parkway Huntersville, NC 28078 704-655-9506 Epicentre (behind CVS) 210 East Trade Street Charlotte, NC 28202 704-971-7413 Promenade (next to Steinmart) 5341 Ballantyne Commons Parkway Charlotte, NC 28277 704-847-5352

Kimberly Lawson

Rev Run’s son spits “Hot Fire”

I guess we finally know which Simmons kid got the rap gene (and it wasn’t JoJo). Diggy Simmons, the moody 14-year old mogul in the making, does more than breakdance, design clothes and beat up his little brother, he raps too and I bullshit you not, it’s good. Maybe the Pharrell affiliation is rubbing off…

Mike McCray

Will Mass. earthquake wake Obama?

Maybe now Obama will wake up. And break out of his bubble. And do the things he was elected to do. And realize that he was elected as a “change agent” – in fact, as president, the change agent. And that voters don’t consider letting Wall Street and the banks get away with wrecking the…

John Grooms

The King’s Kitchen moving into old Harper’s Grill?

The sign says Harper’s Grill, 129 W. Trade St., has closed. Word is the space has been subleased to The King’s Kitchen, a not-for-profit restaurant spearheaded by Chef Jim Noble that will open in April or early spring. The purpose of The King’s Kitchen, according to their website, is to “work together with businesses, ministries,…

Tricia Childress

Reality comes to you

This Fay, Jan. 23, the Ballantyne location will open its doors to reality TV’s 12Pack (of VH1’s Daisy of Love, I Love Money, I Love New York) and Brandi C. (of VH1’s Rock of Love, I Love Money, Charm School), who will play host to a party

Anita Overcash

Whatcha smokin’?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is about to force the tobacco industry to fess up and spill their ingredient list for all to see. The Food and Drug Administration is working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products. In June, tobacco companies must tell the FDA their…

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman

Ringtones need an age max

I swear to God if I hear another corny hit from the ’70s or ’80s emitting unironically from the purse or belt strap of an old person, I’m going to lose my mind. Much like the Ed Hardy t-shirt clinging to the unappealing flesh of a walking mid-life crisis, ringtones are just another avenue for…

Mike McCray

Pass the Lord and praise the ammunition

Here’s something you’d expect from al-Qaeda rather than the U.S. Marines:  religious scripture inscribed on weapons. ABC reports that Trijicon, a Michigan company that sells sights for high-powered rifles to the U.S. military, has been inscribing New Testament passages on the sights — not the entire passage, but the citation, such as John 8:12, or…

John Grooms

The Boulevard gets Beautorium.com products

Looking for organic beauty care products that are cruelty-free and natural? Now you can find Beautorium, a natural and organic beauty product emporium, here locally at The Boulevard. Before setting up shop at the NoDa boutique, you could only find these products online at Beautorium.com, so it’s kind of a big deal that one of…

Kimberly Lawson

Martha Eulalia Suarez del Real

alias: “Martha my dear” inspiration: “Karma.” passion: “Healing.” favorite type of music: “The one you can sing at the top of your lungs in a lonely bar.” current city: Charlotte plug: Pura Vida Wordly Arts and Hand in Stone Spa To see more photos by Jasiatic, visit www.createtressphotography.blogspot.com

Jasiatic

Observer axe falls again

The Charlotte Observer has announced that the paper is cutting 25 more jobs, as a result of declining revenue. The cuts, according to Observer publisher Ann “Slasher” Caulkins, include 11 newsroom positions. Details weren’t given in the Observer’s official statement, but we’re told that copy editors and designers are the most likely victims. Considering that…

John Grooms

Sale of the day: Gifty Gifts

Check out their retirement sale, where you can find saving on everything from jewelry to candles. We’re sad to see another locally owned shop close, indeed. Go pay your respects. 5806 Prosperity Church Road 704-875-7979 www.giftygifts.com

Kimberly Lawson

No wine drinker left behind

The Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend, a biennial event established in 1989 and held in even years, includes parties – both formal and casual, an auction, wine tastings, and vintner dinners. New in 2010 is a policy of inclusion. In past years, events and dinners sold out quickly – many the day of the release…

Tricia Childress

Great reads for cold weather

It’s winter 2010. The weather’s cold, the money’s too tight for a long getaway, what to do? When in doubt, start reading. If you’re looking out your window at bare trees and frozen ground and want to be somewhere warm instead, but don’t want to spring for a trip to Miami, pick up one of…

The Lovely Bones: Novel approach

We might as well begin with a disclosure: I haven’t read Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. And from what I’ve been able to ascertain, folks who did go buy the book are furious that the film version doesn’t go by the book, or at least not enough to stifle their cries of foul play. Normally,…

Matt Brunson

Talking law & order with Andrew Murray

Putting criminals away is a thankless job … but somebody has to do it. For the last 35 years in Mecklenburg County, District Attorney Peter Gilchrist has been that “somebody,” overseeing the prosecution of thousands of lawbreakers — simultaneously pissing off convicted criminals and victims of crime who may not appreciate the length of a…

Cheris Hodges

Matthew Arnold triumphantly refuted

Sure, you can take the tragic view of “Dover Beach” and conclude with poet Matthew Arnold that the clash of ignorant armies at night is emblematic of endless war, confusion, and pain. Yet every time I witness Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, where inept buccaneers battle against inept British bobbies, the result is always…

Perry Tannenbaum

Comic review: Adventure Comics No. 6

I got sad after reading the latest issue of DC’s Adventure Comics. Sad because the creative team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Francis Manapul will soon leave the book — along with the comic’s star Superboy. I’ve really been digging what these guys have been doing with an otherwise lame character. I mean, think…

Carlton Hargro

Te Tremble — The Haitian Earth trembled

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Te tremble is Haitian Creole for “earthquake.” Its literal translation: “The earth trembled.” After the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti, the stench of death is everywhere. At the General Hospital, bodies had been stacked 4 feet high near the morgue. In the community house called Matthew 25, doctors laid out a plastic…

Amy Goodman

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files

Priorities: A 36-year-old man called police after he was threatened over the phone. He told police that he called the suspect’s residence to speak with the mother of his children, or baby’s mama, if you will. The suspect answered the phone and stated, “I’m going to kill you, and I’m going to knock you out.”…

Ryan Pitkin

Horoscope for Jan. 20-26, 2010

Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 19-Feb 18): You will likely have improvements in financial income or other personal resources. This may develop either as the result of general good luck or increased effort. Your sense of self esteem is increased by several notches as you demonstrate what you have learned in recent years. For All Signs:…

Vivian Carol

Kingdom of the Spiders, The Hurt Locker among new DVD reviews

CHE (2008). Upon its original theatrical release, director Steven Soderbergh’s epic look at revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara was screened in some cities as two separate films – Che: Part One (subtitled The Argentine during production) and Che: Part Two (Guerilla) – and in others as a single 4-1/2-hour experience. Catching it at home on DVD…

Matt Brunson

A Single Man worth knowing

Famous fashion designer Tom Ford clearly tries too hard with his directorial debut, but I prefer his overreaching to the cookie-cutter approach displayed by cinematic neophytes merely aping their contemporaries. If nothing else, this adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel has a visual style that’s clearly its own, and while some of the mise-en-scenes smack of…

Matt Brunson

FILM: The Light Factory’s screening of Mary and Max

Forget CGI for a moment and rediscover the pleasures of clay animation by checking out The Light Factory’s presentation of the award-winning Australian film Mary and Max. Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Eric Bana are among those lending their vocals to this seriocomic look at the long-distance communication between a little Australian girl and…

Matt Brunson

The Book of Eli: See it on faith

Talk about apocalypse now. If there’s one positive thing to be said about the sudden glut of end-of-the-world tales, it’s that the batting average in terms of quality has been on the winning side. Certainly, 2012 was a stinker, but The Road, Zombieland and now The Book of Eli have all been compelling watches, each…

Matt Brunson

COMEDY: Jerry Seinfeld performs at Ovens

Comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld returns to Charlotte for two shows at Ovens Auditorium tonight. His last big movie project since the his high-price-tagged TV show, Seinfeld, buzzed off the air (of course, the re-runs go on and on) was Bee Movie, and though movies that can be enjoyed by children and adults are great, it’s…

Anita Overcash

Broken Embraces needs some mending

The muse is upon Pedro Almodovar — specifically, favorite leading lady Penelope Cruz, who has inspired the Oscar-winning auteur to cast her for the fourth time in a feature film. Here, she’s seen in the flashbacks of blind screenwriter Harry Caine (Lluis Homar), who reflects on his affair with the mistress of a powerful businessman…

Matt Brunson

NIGHTLIFE: Party hosted by 12Pack and Brandi C

These days it’s way too easy to get suckered into watching reality TV. The drama is intense, and those starring in it are more often than not … hot. Here’s where Villa Antonio comes in to nurse your reality TV addiction. On Jan. 23, the Ballantyne location will open its doors to reality TV’s 12Pack…

Anita Overcash

Courage of confections: La Pariesienne Fine Chocolate

Don’t be fooled by the lack of ambiance on that solitary stretch of road between Huntersville and Cornelius. Within one outcropping of a rather plain-looking white strip center, next to the North Meck Substance Abuse center, is a bit of whimsy — a bit of Paris. Chef Kristin Bou Zeidan, originally from Buffalo, N.Y., was…

Tricia Childress

3 questions with Sam Crook, Whiskey Warehouse kitchen manager

There aren’t that many people who would leave a cushy job with Apple to be a kitchen manager, but Sam Crook of the recently opened Whiskey Warehouse (formerly Creation) in Plaza Midwood did. “This is what I’m good at and this is what I enjoy doing,” he says. Crooks manages the staff, lunch and dinner…

THEATER: The Opera Show at Davidson College

Opera and theater combined has been known to produce some extraordinary works, such as the glorious Phantom of the Opera. But, this Monday at Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall something different — and quite intriguing — will hit the stage. Mitch Sebastian’s The Opera Show gushes rapture with music, choreography, and costume coming together…

Anita Overcash

A night inside the cop shop

I spent last Tuesday night in custody of the CMPD with a blood alcohol level of .08. No, I wasn’t drinking and driving — I was at the CMPD Police Academy acting as a test dummy for the training of officers in administering new sobriety tests … kinda like jury duty. They had me drink…

COMEDY: James Gregory performs at Lake Norman Comezy Zone

Comedian James Gregory, often referred to as the “Funniest man in America,” deep-fries his humor with soulful Southern tactics. The Georgia native may have gotten a late start in the comedy biz, but as the common adage goes, “it’s better late than never.” Whether he is cavilling on health nuts or environmental fanatics, Gregory says…

Anita Overcash

Crash Kings’ guitar rock leaves the guitar at home

On first listen to Crash Kings, you’ll think they sound a lot like most other power trios — bass, drums and piano … and guitar? Or maybe no guitar … It’s not easy to decipher. Further investigation will show the band uses drums and bass along with piano and clavinet — a keyboard with 60…

Jeff Hahne

MUSIC: Nick Oliveri

You may know Nick Oliveri as the bearded, bass-playing fellow from Queens of the Stone Age, but if that’s all you know, you’re definitely stumbling around in the dark. Oliveri, who plays guitar and sings, should be more widely known for his own long-standing music project Mondo Generator, which he’s led since 1997. He’s also…

Anita Overcash

David Childers, Bob Crawford team up for Overmountain Men

Back in 2007, local musician David Childers decided he’d had enough of touring life and figured it was time to hang up his guitar. After nearly two decades, he had had enough of the road and no longer wanted the stress of performing that had taken a toll on his health. Around the same time,…

Jeff Hahne

Harry Reid is aight with me

OK, so Sen. Harry Reid stepped in it last week by stating the obvious in the book seen and heard ’round the world, Game Change. Reid got caught slacking on his pimpin’ (Is that Ebonics, Negro dialect, slang or standard Black English?) and suggested that then-Sen. Barack Obama would be electable because he is a…

Nsenga Burton

CD review: OverMountain Men

The Deal: A mellower side of former Modern Don Juan hell-bent front man David Childers — his new group OverMountain Men celebrates the Ramseur Records release of its debut, Glorious Day, on Jan. 26. The Good: Overmountain Men is an introspective side of Childers the Don Juans never capitalized on. The group is a collaboration…

Grant Britt

Liquor, schools and the Pope

Welcome, readers, to yet another fine episode of “Ask Boomer With Attitude,” live from Charlotte, where football trumps academics any day of the week. Dear BWA: When in hell is Parks Helms going to go to jail? — If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention Dear If: First of all, congratulations; you hold the…

CL previews upcoming concerts (Jan. 20-26)

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 20 Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra They’re not some recently thawed band originally frozen in the ’60s. This 11-piece outfit, led by singer/guitarist Bro Jo, plays self-proclaimed “secular gospel,” a colorful mix of New Orleans soul, jazz, rock and gospel. They’ve been together less than two years, but can shake…

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