Jan 24-30, 2012

Jan 24-30, 2012 / Vol. 25 / No. 48

Cover Story

Tanisha Williams: A West Side Story

“No visisitors allowed,” reads a sheet of paper attached to the door of the hospital room, high up in the intensive care unit of Carolinas Medical Center. “Don’t mind the misspelling,” a nurse says, jokingly, as she points out the error. “We just hadn’t gotten around to fixing it.” What’s the rush? It’s just an…

Mike Cooper

A clinical approach to A Dangerous Method

A DANGEROUS METHOD **1/2 DIRECTED BY David Cronenberg STARS Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender As part of his four-score from 2011, Michael Fassbender turns up in A Dangerous Method as Carl Jung, the Swiss doctor often deemed the father of modern psychology. Watching him tackle Jung as a cautious, conflicted man, it’s hard to see the…

Matt Brunson

Albert Nobbs: Close, but no cigar

ALBERT NOBBS **1/2 DIRECTED BY Rodrigo Garcia STARS Glenn Close, Janet McTeer There’s a towering performance in Albert Nobbs, and it sure as hell doesn’t belong to Glenn Close. A labor of love for the actress, Close not only stars in the picture but also serves as co-writer and co-producer (and, lest I forget, she…

Matt Brunson

Haywire only partly out of control

HAYWIRE **1/2 DIRECTED BY Steven Soderbergh STARS Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor Appeasing everyone from your grandmother to your little sister, director Steven Soderbergh has populated Haywire with hunks of every age, starting with 67-year-old Michael Douglas and running through 51-year-old Antonio Banderas, 40-year-old Ewan McGregor, 34-year-old Michael Fassbender and 31-year-old Channing Tatum before bottoming out…

Matt Brunson

Man on a Ledge: Not worth looking up

MAN ON A LEDGE **1/2 DIRECTED BY Asger Leth STARS Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks For a flick that ended up getting shoved to January, Man on a Ledge sure sports a cast that would look right at home on a year-end release date. Move past thudding lead Sam Worthington (still flailing about in his bid…

Matt Brunson

Spring is for color

From pastels and sherbets to bright yellow and the color of the season, Tangerine, it’s all about the bright colors this spring.

T. Strong

Future Islands play The Milestone tonight (1/30/12)

FUTURE ISLANDS Maybe the most depressing trend of this era’s retro-mania is how little today’s synth-happy pop bands even pretend to sound different from the initial ’80s wave of wet snares, pulsing bass lines, synthentic keys and melodramatic narratives. Fortunately, there is this trio of N.C. expats who’ve taken the basic elements of that era…

John Schacht

Hammer No More the Fingers play The Milestone tonight (1/29/12)

HAMMER NO MORE THE FINGERS Structural to modern music is the idea that a rock band playing midsize venues is somehow, by default, “indie” (whatever that means). Hammer No More the Fingers defies this convention. If anything, this Durham trio’s most obvious calling card is the arena-sized nerd-rock of Weezer. Sure, you can squeeze in…

Corbie Hill

Grown Up Avenger Stuff at Amos’ Southend tonight (1/28/12)

GROWN UP AVENGER STUFF/LUCKY FIVE Noisy pop supernova Grown Up Avenger Stuff are buzzing big from their debut, Disagreements With Gravity. Their bipolar mix of punk, grunge pop, shards of metal and industrial sludge isn’t new, nor is the band’s ability to stop and turn on a shiny dime. The real attention-getter is frontwoman Deirdre…

Patrick Moran

Children of Bodom bring metal to Tremont Music Hall (1/28/12)

CHILDREN OF BODOM Acclaimed Finnish black metal quintet Children of Bodom is known for its thrashing yet melodic sound. Touring to support their latest release, Relentless Reckless Forever, guitar hero bandleader Alexi Laiho and his cohorts show great technical proficiency and hair-slinging passion as they deliver an unforgiving assault of melodic hooks, heavy guitar, the…

Rachel Bailey

Oscar 2012 nominations: Extremely Shameless & Incredibly Dumb

I blame it all on Ernest Borgnine. On the very same day that the seasoned actor was celebrating his 95th birthday, the nominees for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards were announced. Borgnine, you may recall, famously revealed his penchant for masturbating on FOX News — oops, sorry; wrong factoid. Borgnine, you may recall, was the…

Matt Brunson

Gaelic Storm at Neighborhood Theatre tonight (1/27/12)

GAELIC STORM This combo doesn’t shy from sprinkling bluegrass, African, global and rock flavors into their Celtic music. That’s not to say they don’t play heel-kicking, traditional Celtic music. The band’s acoustic instruments explode into rousing barnburners just as effortlessly as they play floating, story-laden reels, jigs and ballads. With a slew of recordings under…

Samir Shukla

Nicolay & The Hot At Nights groove at The Evening Muse (1/26/12)

NICOLAY & THE HOT AT NIGHTS The Wilmington-based half of N.C. soul-jammers the Foreign Exchange — producer/composer Nicolay — teams up with Raleigh’s exploratory jazz trio The Hot at Nights on this tour. Together they’re re-arranging the smooth Dutchman’s instrumental cuts from his 2010 release, City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya, inspired by his stay in…

John Schacht

Stats show immigrants make positive impact on Charlotte and N.C.

Photo by Thomas Hawk In contrast to what anti-immigrant activists would have citizens of North Carolina believe, Latin American immigrants make a hugely positive impact on the city and state, according to statistics released today by the Charlotte Latin American Coalition. Here are excerpts from a press sheet the organization released, taken from the website…

Mark Kemp

Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band at Double Door Inn tonight (1/25/12)

JAIMOE’S JASSSZ BAND As a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, drummer Jaimoe (aka Jai Johanny Johanson) has impeccable blues rock cred. Unlike Southern rock rivals like Skynyrd, the Allmans could always swing with furious jazz intensity, thanks in no small part to Jaimoe, who also backed Otis Redding and Sam and Dave. His…

Patrick Moran

City’s new “security” rules for DNC are a pile of crap

Decisions made at city council Monday night about security measures during the Democratic convention are not much different from those made four years ago in Denver, when that city hosted the DNC. After police in Denver scared everyone by saying that 90 zillion crazies would soon endanger the city, law enforcement officers were essentially given…

John Grooms

Lipp Boutique to open, while Frock Shop plants roots

Lipp Boutique to Open in Metropolitan: Now that you’ve jump-started your new year’s resolution of shedding a few pounds, it’s time to spice up your wardrobe with runway-ready looks. And you can do so with the grand opening of Lipp Boutique, happening in February. Set to open in Charlotte’s up-and-coming urban community Metropolitan (1111 Metropolitan…

Kimberly Lawson

Item of the Week: Malaysia-inspired jewelry from MoaZen

Next time you’re feeling “down to earth,” do yourself a favor and look the part as well. MoaZen Jewelry & Accessories near Uptown features a different country-inspired line each month, and this month it’s Malaysia that’s getting the spotlight. “The Aba Teminar culture believes in harming no living thing,” says one of MoaZen’s owners and…

Kadee Blakely

Democratic Convention 2012: Ask BWA

Congratulations! You’ve entered the Ask BWA zone, where readers ask yours truly questions about issues of importance and gravity, and others ask pretty stupid ones. But hey, we pundits are here merely to serve, so let’s get on with it. Only two questions this time, and just one of those was actually reader-derived. I bet…

John Grooms

Scooter Arnold’s life with Marilyn

The walls of the bedroom are a green that would make Kermit the frog envious; a deep golf-course lush that frames the large black and white images of Marilyn Monroe in candid and posed grace. The color serves merely as a stage, and the spotlight is on the voluptuous pin-up girl. All the better to…

Natalie Howard

Floored: The Borrowers delivers big entertainment

In a mud-slinging, fear-mongering election year, it’s curiously refreshing to find paranoia and xenophobia going strong in Merrie Olde England, thanks to Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, now at ImaginOn in a charming, absorbing Children’s Theatre production. Sure, it’s fantasy, but not nearly as fantastical as The Wind in the Willows with its amphibian protagonists. No,…

Perry Tannenbaum

Exhibit: The Art of Cleonique Hilsaca & Alexandra Loesser

Genome is spotlighting the surreal works of two artists. Loesser paints raw realistic sights (such as a nude person with a bucket covering their head), while Hilsaca uses acrylics, inks and … tea (Yep! We said tea!) to create spirited and slightly odd paintings (like “Sisters,” left). Through Feb. 23. Genome, 120 Brevard Court. 704-332-4322.…

Anita Overcash

Exhibit: Gwen Bigham: Becoming

Bigham’s sculptures were described by curator Melissa Post as having “dualities, between external appearances and internal realities.” The pictured piece (only a portion is shown), “Vanity,” consists of a small chair (you can see the legs in the photo) mounted to the top of a table, which is composed of the same crystalized-looking material. An…

Anita Overcash

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Jan. 25)

Cheesy: Police responded to a local Food Lion last week after security guards caught a man trying to stick a half-gallon of milk and some Velveeta in his pants. Look, if you’ve decided to steal a creamy cheese-like substance, why not go all out and take the brie? (We’re going to save the question of…

Ryan Pitkin

Weekly horoscope (Jan. 25-31)

Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 19-Feb. 18) Activities concerning taxes, insurance payoffs, government funding and loans will likely be delayed, and maybe even denied. This is a good time to talk with your partner about issues concerning joint resources. It is not a good time to attack, but only to discuss and look for mutually favorable…

Vivian Carol

CD Review: Case Federal & The Agents’ Natural Born Night Owls

There’s almost a disco/funk feel to the jazzy intro of “Haus Mule,” the first song on Case Federal & The Agents’ latest album Natural Born Night Owls. Federal comes in with a lounge vibe in his vocals, and just when you think you’ve got the band figured out, in come the guitar riffs out of…

Jeff Hahne

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of Jan. 25

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Finally, here’s one seven-year itch that can be scratched. When 2004’s The Polar Express made film history as the first animated movie to be created wholly by employing the motion-capture process, we instantly recognized that we were in the presence of something ghastly. Awkward and unsightly, the ersatz innovation rendered all…

Matt Brunson

CD Review: Hiss Golden Messenger’s Poor Moon

Since mothballing his S.F.-based cosmic cowboy band, The Court & Spark, then moving to N.C. and reconstituting as the semi-solo vehicle Hiss Golden Messenger, MC Taylor has released four superior roots-based rock LPs since 2009. But mistaking these, including the latest, for trad country or folk rock becomes folly as soon as the needle drops.…

John Schacht

Frida, Good Morning, Vietnam among new home entertainment titles

50/50 (2011). This comedy-drama centers around a cancerous presence, and that refers to Seth Rogen as much as it does to the malignant tumor found located on the spine of young Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Carve Rogen out of the picture, and its chances of being a truly moving picture about people coping in sickness and…

Matt Brunson

The day the Internet roared

Wednesday, Jan. 18, marked the largest online protest in the history of the Internet. Websites from large to small “went dark” in protest of proposed legislation before the U.S. House and Senate that could profoundly change the Internet. The two bills, SOPA in the House and PIPA in the Senate, ostensibly aim to stop the…

Amy Goodman

Where to find it: Pita and Ramen

In May 2010, I wrote that both Harris Teeter and the Fresh Market had stopped carrying the skinny (flat) Middle Eastern styled pita breads. But over a year ago, Fresh Market began carrying their brand of thin pita. Last month, Harris Teeter rejoined the bread fold by offering their brand of pita, too. These breads,…

Tricia Childress

Mood swings: Domenico’s Cucina Italiana

When Domenico’s Cucina Italiana opened last September, some were confused with the name, since a restaurant named Domenico’s once operated in Matthews. That Domenico’s is closed. This Domenico’s is owned by restaurateurs Frank Alessio, who also owns pizzerias and bars in Boone and Hickory, N.C., and Luigi Montesano, co-owner of Luigi’s Pizzas of Charlotte. The…

Tricia Childress

A look at Charlotte’s Tea Party

Let us tell a story of an oft-leaderless group of protesters who meet in public parks in costumes, carry signs and shout about government injustices. A group that split over differences of opinion only to then begin educating its masses on the inner workings of government and American history. A group that feels misunderstood by…

Rhiannon Fionn

Bucking the trends: The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle is discussing his recent decision to road test new material again despite today’s “cell-phone camera versions” that despoil new releases. He admits that even his band made concessions to the new viral order, but says those days and “that philosophy” are now over. “There’s also value in unmediated, unrecorded experiences,”…

John Schacht

Nightlife profile: Jessica Schroeck

Founded and run by Jessica Schroeck, Go Girl Entertainment is the go-to place for Charlotte go-go dancers. GGE dancers provide cheers and moves across the Charlotte area, everywhere from NASCAR races to Uptown shindigs. Modern go-go dancers are the high-energy party promoters with the endurance of the Energizer Bunny, grooving atop platforms, stages or in…

Natalie Howard

Why I chose to cover Occupy Charlotte from the inside out

I’d like to offer a little insight into my Creative Loafing coverage of Occupy Charlotte. It probably won’t surprise readers to learn that my conscious decision to cover the movement from the inside out rather than the outside in, as most traditional journalists would do, has raised eyebrows. My goal was simple: Give the occupiers’…

Rhiannon Fionn

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