Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2010

Jan 26 - Feb 1, 2010 / Vol. 23 / No. 48

Happening now: Uncle Kracker at Suite

And the doors have opened! Suite and Kiss 95.1 present a free performance with national recording artist Uncle Kracker. Doors open at 5 p.m. and it’s first come, first served for this free show. The event is 21 and over only. Come see Uncle Kracker perform live in his only Charlotte appearance and don’t be…

Kimberly Lawson

Tab Benoit canceled

Tab Benoit’s Feb. 3 concert at the Double Door Inn has been canceled. Tickets that were purchased online will be refunded through Carolina Tix. If you purchased a ticket at the club, you can get a refund there. The show will be rescheduled.

Jeff Hahne

New ad depicts banks as ‘pigs at the trough’

The PR folks at Bank of America aren’t gonna be too happy about a new television commercial being shown in the nation’s capital.  A progressive activist group, Americans United For Change, has produced a new TV ad that flails big banks as “pigs at the trough.” The ad is in favor of more strenuous regulations…

John Grooms

Canned Observer writer’s gripes deleted from blog

Some odd goings-on at the Observer’s Web site over the weekend. As reported by the conservative website MeckDeck, veteran sports reporter Stan Olson — aka The Man Who Knows More About Baseball Than Anyone — was cut by the paper on Friday. Olson wrote about his “decommission” in his final blog post on Saturday. In…

John Grooms

American Apparel wants to know, how’s that ass?

American Apparel — such a family-oriented retailer. (Insert sarcasm font.) Do you want to be a model for the L.A.-based retailer? OK. Better question: Do you have a great ass? Right now American Apparel is searching for “The Best Bottom in the World.” Submit a close-up photo of your tush wearing American Apparel undies, and…

Kimberly Lawson

Concert annoucement: Country Throwdown

A Country Throwdown has been announced for Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on May 27. The show will feature Eli Young Band, Emily West, Eric Church, Heidi Newfield, Jack Ingram, Jamey Johnson, Jonathan Singleton & The Grove, Little Big Town, Montgomery Gentry, Ryan Bingham and The Lost Trailers.

Jeff Hahne

Promenaders need plan b

Royal Shakespeare Company brought us a taste of promenade staging during their 2007 residency at Davidson College when they staged Pericles and shepherded the audience around Duke Family Performance Hall as scenes changed. Children’s Theatre of Charlotte is doing much the same when they open the Bard’s As You Like It on February 19. All…

Perry Tannenbaum

School district down on oral sex

Picking this week’s Stupid Thing of the Week was a toughie, what with the anti-ACORN undercover pimp guy being arrested for messing with a U.S. Senator’s phone system being in the running. Finally, though, we went with the school district in Menifee, Calif., which may go down as the most idiotic, not to mention counterproductive,…

John Grooms

It’s a miracle! CMUD admits mistakes!

I bring you good news of a miracle! The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities Department (CMUD), historically one of the touchiest, most thin-skinned governmental service agencies on the planet, has now admitted that they’ve caused problems for customers. If you’ve ever tried to get CMUD to admit to a mistake, you’ll know what a miracle it is that…

John Grooms

(Re)searching for chicken wings

The Eat My Charlotte Foodie Tour: Chicken Wings hits the streets March 6. To ensure we will be taking y’all to the best wing spots in town, we did our highly scientific and methodical research yesterday by driving around Charlotte and taste-testing it all. Here’s a few pictures of what we tried. You may be…

Priscilla Tsai

Are you going to buy the new Apple iPad?

If you haven’t heard by now about Apple’s new tablet, the iPad, you’re living under a rock and need to join the rest of society. You’re excused this time though — you’re not missing too much. Why? Because from where I’m sitting, the iPad — which Apple calls a “magical and revolutionary device” — isn’t…

Kimberly Lawson

Shut ’em down: A State of the Union review

President Obama’s State of the Union address was brilliant and reminded many of us of why we voted for him in the first place. He has good ideas, strong ideals and really is looking to make a difference in the lives of many with his presidency. The address was also a good reminder of the…

Nsenga Burton

Gift Idea: ASCII Heart Necklace

Found this on Outblush.com and I <3 it! From etsy user bekathwia, this handmade gift will make any tech-saavy lover smile. (Note to self: The maker can’t guarantee delivery by Valentine’s Day, but hell, it’s such a neat gift, you should order it anyway. Price? $150 plus shipping.) This 1.5 inch tall Sterling silver pendant…

Kimberly Lawson

Local karaoke contest — Fox Icon

With American Idol storming the airwaves these days, there are no doubt people around the Charlotte area who are thinking, “I’m better than them!” Well, get out and prove it. Fox and Hound is currently holding a karaoke contest called Fox Icon. The winner gets a $2,000 recording studio time at Sound Choice Studios. Weekly…

Jeff Hahne

State of the Unioned out

I am completely state-of-the-unioned out. Listening to and reading pundits’ anticipatory blah blah about it. Writing about it beforehand. Watching it. Taking notes. Listening to post-speech blather from FoxNews and MSNBC, not to mention the senseless “Republican response” from the governor of Virginia who’s been office like 30 seconds. Getting up in the middle of…

John Grooms

Bill

alias: Mindelixir inspiration: “There’s a certain beauty in the infinite ocean of possibilities that can be found anytime you search for it, I find inspiration in everything from music (isaac hayes, radiohead, photek, squarepusher) to everyday life (the sound of the AC, the rhythm of footsteps, the look on a passing strangers face).” passion: “Music.”…

Jasiatic

N.C. GOP hearts hazardous coal ash

In case you were under the delusion that N.C. Republicans in Congress don’t worship at the shrine of big business, please read this article from the Institute for Southern Studies. It’s by Sue Sturgis, a terrific investigative reporter in Durham, and in it she reports on GOP members of Congress who are actively opposing efforts…

John Grooms

CD Review: Corinne Bailey Rae

The Deal: British pop/soul star returns with new album after personal tragedies. The Good: There’s something about pain that produces great things. Corinne somehow maintains her oft wispy, angelic tone when singing about much deeper topics. She shows a range that I can’t remember hearing from her before and the accompanying production has songs building…

Mike McCray

McGarry & Lennon: poor parents to blame for lousy schools

All of a sudden the school board’s unofficial representatives of angry white suburbanites, Kaye McGarry and Rhonda Lennon, are making noises that CMS is spending too much on improving high-poverty schools. Especially since those irresponsible blacks are flunking out of school no matter what you do for them. OK, those weren’t their exact words, but…

John Grooms

Sale of the day: Revolution

Take 10 percent off storewide merchandise at Revolution, located at the EpiCentre. In addition, take 80 percent off select items as well as 50 percent off select women’s winter denim. 210 E. Trade St. 704-971-1990 www.revolutionshop.net

Kimberly Lawson

Meet Tara Davis, fashion designer

Tara Davis believes that your clothes represent you, they represent your self-esteem and your character. Maybe that’s why she’s been dealing with clothes practically all her life — first as a little girl who designed her Barbie’s clothes, then to retail management and now as a local fashion designer. Her line, FLOW By Tara, is…

Kimberly Lawson

Little Brother reveals details of LAST album

North Carolina’s Little Brother, Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh, has been the de facto “face” of the state’s music scene since its first release The Listening in 2003. The duo recently revealed details of their latest album, LeftBack, tentatively slated to drop in April. The album was originally just going to be an EP but…

Mike McCray

City should release Jackson file, and pronto

Last night, city council voted to not even discuss making public the personnel file of police officer Marcus Jackson. Jackson, who is accused of 15 charges related to his alleged abuse of his position of authority to stalk and sexually assault women, is innocent until proven guilty — as we’ve emphasized here before, and as…

John Grooms

Sale of the day: Green With Envy

Green With Envy’s clearance sale continues through the end of the month (that’s only five days, people!). Furniture has been drastically reduced, along with so many other select items on sale. 1111 Central Ave. Ste. 200 704-344-8774 www.greenwithenvycharlotte.com

Kimberly Lawson

Tonight’s Top 5, 01/26/10

The top five nightlife-related events going down tonight, Jan. 26, as chosen from the folks at Creative Loafing. • Bar Pong tournament at Whisky River • Power Yoga at Dharma Lounge • Trivia Night with Kat at Common House • Tuesday Night Groove at Prevue • Overmountain Men CD release party at Snug Harbor

Kimberly Lawson

Sprite Step Off Competition, 1/23/10

The Sprite Step Off Competition & Sprite Step Off Service Challenge featuring live performances by Rashad Jenkins, singer/songwriter The-Dream and Hip Hop star B.o.B took place at Grady Cole Center on Saturday, Jan. 23.

Priscilla Tsai

Followup: Did Cecil exaggerate the decline of the world fish supply?

I am writing to bring to your attention several errors contained in the recent edition of the Straight Dope titled “Farm-Raised vs. Wild Fish: The Facts” [December 25]. You begin your column by reminding readers of the collapse of Atlantic cod, claiming “the number of cod today is something like one percent of what it…

Cecil Adams

Let the Haitians in

Jean Montrevil was shackled, imprisoned, about to be sent to Haiti. It was Jan. 6, days before the earthquake that would devastate Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Montrevil came to the U.S. with a green card in 1986 at the age of 17. Twenty years ago, still a teenager, he was convicted…

Amy Goodman

Horoscope for Jan. 27- Feb. 2, 2010

Aquarius The Waterbearer (Jan. 19-Feb. 18): Your significant other may be acting like a horse’s patootie right now, but you don’t have to follow suit and play in the same court. Neither of you is being served by sharp words and irritable behavior. “Prove it if you love me” is a game left over from…

Vivian Carol

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of Jan. 27

AVATAR The only film capable of surpassing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as the Fanboy Fave of 2009, James Cameron’s massively hyped Avatar at least differs from Michael Bay’s boondoggle in that it’s, you know, entertaining. On the other hand, the notion that it represents the next revolution in cinema is nothing more than studio-driven…

Matt Brunson

The Boys Are Back, Bright Star among new DVD reviews

THE BOYS ARE BACK (2009). A low-key melodrama based on Simon Carr’s memoir, The Boys Are Back features a star turn by Clive Owen that’s not quite enough to compensate for either the uneven script by Allan Cubitt or the inert direction by Scott Hicks (Shine). Owen plays Joe Warr, a widowed British sportswriter living…

Matt Brunson

That Evening Sun: Hal Holbrook shines

Like the Jeff Bridges vehicle Crazy Heart (scheduled to open locally this Friday), That Evening Sun is one of those films that generates nearly all of its goodwill from a smashing central performance by a long-established veteran. Here, it’s Hal Holbrook who shows up to demonstrate to Hollywood’s young pups how it’s done. Holbrook plays…

Matt Brunson

Extraordinary Measures: Ordinary results

Had Harrison Ford spent as much time playing risk-taking actor as action hero, would he now have a mantel of awards to call his own? There was a time when the former box office behemoth would occasionally tackle a quirky character (e.g. The Mosquito Coast, Working Girl) amidst all those larger-than-life super-studs in guaranteed blockbusters,…

Matt Brunson

FILM: The Second Annual GayCharlotte Film Festival

The Second Annual GayCharlotte Film Festival will be held over the course of four days this week. The event commences with an evening screening of Little Ashes, starring Twilight vampire-heartthrob Robert Pattinson as the brilliant artist Salvador Dali. The screening of the film, which looks at the intertwined lives (and romances) of Dali, filmmaker Luis…

Matt Brunson

There’s more than beer at The Liberty

Even if you have never set foot on the British Isles, the images of a pub are astoundingly old-school: dominant dark wood bar, friendly bartenders, a fireplace, beers on draft, and a menu offering a ploughman’s lunch and some variety of a steak pie. All of this is served at a reasonable price. What’s not…

Tricia Childress

SPECIAL EVENT: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

Too old for the circus? Never. But you will have to be able to get past the big-eyed wee rascals sitting around you, as parents rejoice in something to distract their young ones’ spiraling attention spans, during Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Zing, Zang, Zoom performances. Illusionists, magicians, trapeze acts, clowns, animals and more…

Anita Overcash

New column debuts

I have long thought that Charlotte may have what you want if you’re willing to look for (and then support) it. I know what it’s like to move to an area and not find a food product you hunger for: I couldn’t find turnip greens in New Jersey, soft-shelled crabs in Tulsa and cranberries in…

Tricia Childress

THEATER: Grey Gardens

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

3 questions with Denise Hairston, chef/author

It’s hard to imagine a good bowl of collard greens without a ham hock somewhere in the mix, but that’s how Denise Hairston, author of Meatless Soul Food, likes it. Eight years ago, she self-published the first edition of her cookbook — taking the traditional soul food recipes of her family and making them healthier…

MUSIC: Haiti Earthquake Benefit Concert

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. Tonight they’ll host the Haiti Earthquake Benefit Concert to help victims of the earthquake. Currently scheduled to perform are bands/musicians Jeremy…

Anita Overcash

Sex and the Queen City

I get a lot of e-mails from readers asking me where they should go to meet people. But I’m a nightlife columnist, not a dating service. The best advice I can give you is to just go out — whether you go to the grocery store or to a bar, you’re going to meet people.…

FILM: Screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie

The Main Library concludes its nearly year-long celebration of Alfred Hitchcock with its third and final series devoted to The Master. Late Hitchcock, Fake Hitchcock features three films made toward the end of the brilliant director’s career, as well as four movies made by other directors but clearly influenced by Hitchcock’s output. Among the “Fake…

Matt Brunson

What’s going with Tremont Music Hall, Neighborhood Theatre?

On Jan. 11, Charlotte music fans were in shock to hear that NoDa’s Neighborhood Theatre might close its doors at the end of March. Rumors began swirling, panic set in, blame was placed and ideas of how to save it were thrown around in a matter of minutes. At the same time, across town, plans…

Jeff Hahne

THEATER: Spring Awakening

When singer/songwriter/guitarist Duncan Sheik last visited the Q.C. for a performance at McGlohon Theatre, he gave Charlotteans who attended the show a small taste of select songs that he’d written for Broadway’s Spring Awakening. It was an attention-getter even with only a listen to a few ditties from the now sizzling musical, created by Sheik…

Anita Overcash

CL previews upcoming concerts (Jan. 27-31)

WEDNESDAy, JAN. 27 Liturgy Take a deep breath and wait for a break in the guitar drone to exhale. Don’t try it while listening to Liturgy, lest you wanna pass out. This NYC quartet professes to play black metal, but their feedback laden, incessant bombast is more akin to Glenn Branca’s orchestral guitar noise combos.…

THEATER: Theatre Charlotte presents Biloxi Blues

“Be all that you can be … in the army!” The anthemic ditty echos in my head, as I stumble upon Theatre Charlotte’s latest production of Biloxi Blues, the comedic play by Neil Simon that’s set in Biloxi, Miss., in 1943. Centering around Eugene Morris Jerome’s experiences during basic training, this quirky mess of happenings…

Anita Overcash

Obama needs to get tough, and follow through

The dust is still settling from last week’s political earthquake in Massachusetts, but everyone is still trying to figure out what it all means for the November elections and Obama’s presidency. The president is getting the usual bad advice from Democratic “moderates,” i.e., corporate flunkies, such as Sen. Ben “Big Pharma” Nelson and Sen. Max…

Comic Review: Orc Stain No. 1

Orc Stain No. 1 Published by Image Comics. Written and illustrated by James Stokoe. The Deal: It’s the first issue of writer/artist James Stokoe’s new fantasy series about a cunning orc (you know, those creatures from sword-and-sorcery-type works of fiction?) who’s better at stealing than fighting, trying to survive in a violent, blood-stained world. I…

Carlton Hargro

Talking more law & order: Michael Barnes

Michael Barnes is a name familiar to Charlotte residents. A practicing attorney with more than 10 years of experience, he’s been on the city council since 2005 representing District 4. Now, he wants a new job — the job of keeping Charlotte safe from criminals as the Mecklenburg County district attorney. As reported last week…

Cheris Hodges

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is first-rate

If ever the essence of a comedy could be distilled into three little words, then Peter Hatcher’s cri de coeur in the climactic scene of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is such a distillation. “I want Dribble!!” he bellows, with all his aching fourth-grade dignity. And of course, we all do. It may not…

Perry Tannenbaum

Mass. effect: Change politics or insanity?

Life is an interesting thing sometimes. I call it a “thing” because often it can be quite intangible — hard to grasp the meaning of and what you’re supposed to be learning during this precarious journey that we all must take. Other times, life can be crystal clear. You are here to give voice to…

Nsenga Burton

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files

Hobo Wars: Police responded to an assault call after a 40-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman were harassed and hit in Steele Creek. The woman told police that two men approached her friend and her and punched her. The man said that one of the suspects charged at him with a shopping cart full of…

Ryan Pitkin

Servatius Jr. II: ‘No’ means ‘no.’ Maybe.

When my daughter Annika was four months old, in a moment of insanity triggered by having enjoyed no more than six hours of continuous sleep since she was born, I informed my husband that she would be an only child, and I meant it. The amount of care that is required to bring a single…

Recent

See all

Gift this article