Jan 23-29, 2013

Jan 23-29, 2013 / Vol. 26 / No. 48

Cover Story

Will Korean cuisine be the next big thing in Charlotte?

When my mother first came to the United States in the late 1970s — the young Korean wife of an American soldier who’d just finished his tour near Incheon, Korea, where they’d met — her biggest challenge wasn’t the language barrier. It was the food. The Southern country cuisine that her Tennessee in-laws prepared was…

Kimberly Lawson

Holding on for dead life in Next to Normal

Immersing us immediately in the point-of-view the mom, Diana, Next to Normal presents the Goodman family through the lens of her mental illness. We don’t see the difference between what she sees and the rest of the family sees right away, but it’s radical enough when it smacks us in the face. One of Diana’s…

Perry Tannenbaum

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Jan. 24)

Scratch and Sniff: An officer pulled a man in east Charlotte last week after witnessing the suspect driving recklessly. When he approached the vehicle, the cop saw what he observed as “marijuana shavings” in plain view, so he searched the car. After finding a pair of brass knuckles and determining the man had a suspended…

Ryan Pitkin

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters: Fractured fairy tale

HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS *1/2 DIRECTED BY Tommy Wirkola STARS Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton The natural inclination is to compare Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — similar titles, similar punctuation, similar lunge for fan-boy dollars — but that wouldn’t exactly be correct. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m…

Matt Brunson

Quartet: Four score

QUARTET *** DIRECTED BY Dustin Hoffman STARS Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay Of all the reviews I penned over the course of 2012, only my complete annihilation of Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie received more negative feedback than my mixed, **1/2 review for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Angered readers assumed that my soft stance…

Matt Brunson

Getting personal with Giacometti

There comes a time in life when you’ve got to re-evaluate. Artistically speaking, that time is usually followed up with one of two (or, in some cases, both) realizations: passionate enthusiasm or dark, sorrowful longing. Either route can lead to new approaches, changes and transformations, be they bad or be they very, very good. I’d…

Anita Overcash

Aaron Swartz and the freedom to connect

Aaron Swartz wanted nothing more than to change the world. He was doing just that until he ended his own life, at the age of 26, on Jan. 11. Aaron was a social justice activist, gifted with deep understanding of how computers and the Internet work, and how they could empower people around the world…

Amy Goodman

Weekly horoscope: Jan. 24-30

Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 19-Feb. 18): You have highly favorable aspects all week. You and your partner or significant other are in sync. Love, romance and social life are positive. A “teacher” crosses your path in the form of a person, a book, or the right message that will steer you in the next favorable…

Vivian Carol

DMV’s immigration wreck

Dear readers, it’s time to revive Pundit Gut Checks, a Boomer With Attitude tradition we’ve neglected for too long. PGC is where you get a glimpse of how pundits produce a proper column that readers will love, when what the writer really wants to do is cuss all day at the latest nonsense from some…

John Grooms

The Secret is out

We’ve said it repeatedly over the past 25 years: Children’s Theatre of Charlotte productions aren’t just for children. Nor are they exclusively for families with children. Yet the misperception still persists — among newcomers to Charlotte and longtime residents alike — that theater presentations at ImaginOn are for children and acted by children. Well, that…

Perry Tannenbaum

Elonzo’s sibling sparks

The musical interplay between Jeremy Davis and his younger sister Maggie Bourdeau lies at the heart of the Charlotte indie quartet Elonzo’s increasingly impressive body of work. But when the siblings get into the occasional creative squabble during rehearsals, their fellow band mates just let the pair ride it out. “You kind of stand back…

John Schacht

Breaking down walls: Paul Van Dyk

Paul Van Dyk loves the sound of a guitar, but says he can get a wider range of tones through electronic music. The popular DJ might have formed a rock group like The Smiths, his favorite, but growing up in communist East Berlin didn’t afford him the opportunity to play anything but traditional folk music.…

Jeff Hahne

Prometheus Radio Project fans flames of a renaissance

There’s almost no point in listening to radio in Charlotte. Sure, you have your choice of syndicated shows from other markets, lame commercials and the same five songs on an endless loop. You might even turn to WFAE, but a lot of that is National Public Radio content that doesn’t originate here. What if you…

Emiene Wright

3 questions with Raymond Dover, owner of Miyagi’s

No sooner did the chic Korean barbecue spot Miyagi’s open in the heart of NoDa, in late 2012, than it started getting criticism from folks who deemed it less “authentic” than they had hoped. Owner Raymond Dover describes the restaurant as a blend of “Korean barbecue, sushi, and Asian fusion.” Staples of Korean cuisine, including…

Anita Overcash

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