Cover Story
The 2014 Fiction Issue
In the spirit of the new year, during a time when people are making (and already breaking) resolutions, Creative Loafing offers up to you three creative stories of change, gleaned from the entries we received in our second annual flash fiction contest. Judging from the 1,000-words-or-less submissions, 2013 was a dark year for fiction writers.…
Charlotte Restaurant Week: Reserve a seat or stay home?
Love it or loathe it?
Local used-car dealerships allegedly unfairly targeted black customers
The companies named in the case are Auto Fare Inc. and Southeastern Auto Corp., both owned by Zuhdi A. Saadeh.
CD review: Jennifer Nettles’ That Girl
For anyone who has been following Jennifer Nettles since her pre-Sugarland — Jennifer Nettles Band and/or Soul Miner’s Daughter — days, the notion of a new Nettles solo album was met with tentative excitement. Would the new album harken back to either of those older sounds — the acoustic folk duo of Soul Miner or…
Dave Matthews, ZZ Ward, Iron and Wine concerts announced
Fall Out Boy, Shovels and Rope and others also scheduled.
Today’s Top 5: Tuesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
The Other Place offers a mystery in St. Thomas
What makes Sharr White’s new play, The Other Place, so mysterious is its relentless disorientation, beginning from the first action at Carolina Actors Studio Theatre’s arena stage. Ostensibly, we’ve arrived in St. Thomas — for CAST’s boarding-pass style of tickets have specified this island as our destination — where Juliana Smithton is lecturing a roomful…
Bobcats Week in Review: The Hangman Cometh
But is all really lost?
Stagioni now open
The third concept from the Moffett Restaurant Group opened last Monday.
Say goodbye to RedSky
The gallery closes on Feb. 8.
After questionable calls by refs, Panthers knocked out of playoffs
Loss to 49ers ends season on a sour note, but fans should remain optimistic
N.C. uncovered record number of meth labs in 2013
Meth, meth, meth, methy, meth meth
Charlotte’s Duru tha King releases first single
Artist is fellow cult rapper of Deniro Farrar.
First Drip (1/13/14): Cannon responds to Observer probe, Japanese whiskey maker buys Jim Beam, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Monday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Today’s Top 5: Sunday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Weekend Film Reviews: Inside Llewyn Davis; Her; August: Osage County; Lone Survivor; plus, Best and Worst Movies of 2013
What’s new and reviewed in theaters.
Today’s Top 5: Saturday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Jan. 9)
Drunk and Armed: A 29-year-old man ate a late-night meal at Midnight Diner last week only to end up losing a friend and a gun. The man told officers that he came to the diner at 3 a.m. with three friends but left one in the car because he was too drunk to come in…
Inside Llewyn Davis: Man of constant sorrow
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS **** DIRECTED BY Joel & Ethan Coen STARS Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan Meet Llewyn Davis, the protagonist of what turned out to be the best film of 2013. As superbly played by Oscar Isaac, he’s a folk singer in 1961 New York who’s just waiting for that big break, the one that…
Her: Computer blue
HER *** DIRECTED BY Spike Jonze STARS Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson It’s sometime in the near future, and Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely man. A once-glorious marriage has disintegrated to the point that his wife (Rooney Mara) keeps pushing him to sign the divorce papers, phone sex (a voice bit by Kristen Wiig…
August: Osage County: Family feud
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY *** DIRECTED BY John Wells STARS Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts It would be correct to state that Meryl Streep is one of the great actresses of our (all?) time. But it would be incorrect to state that it’s impossible to steal a film from her. And in August: Osage County, adapted from…
Lone Survivor: Valor stamped, SEALed and delivered
LONE SURVIVOR **1/2 DIRECTED BY Peter Berg STARS Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch Wars don’t exist in a vacuum, but that’s not always the case with war movies. While films like All Quiet on the Western Front, Paths of Glory and The Deer Hunter examine their conflicts in the context of the larger, usually political, picture,…
My first time in bed with a woman (w/ update)
“Pillow Talk” with Joanne Spataro airs Jan. 14
Jason Isbell’s sober inspiration
Jason Isbell may have a down-home, Alabama upbringing, but the alt-country troubadour revels in the most worldly of stories. One of his favorites is set in Germany, told by Thomas Lingstaedt, who coordinated Isbell’s first European tour. It was the tale of a youngster growing up in mid-1970s East Germany who, like countless citizens shut…
Featured dish: Chicken mole from Three Amigos
The first time I had this dish, it was a revelatory accident.
Flintlocks firing and autopsies: A Q&A with Manifest Destiny artist Matthew Roberts
On the look of the book, creating the monsters and more.
Today’s Top 5: Friday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Franklin McCain, one of Greensboro Four, dies
McCain is survived by his six sons and their families.
First Drip (1/10/14): N.C. threatened with sanctions, millionaire Congress, more
The news you need to know today.
Surveying the scene
Rare artists traverse media effortlessly, and such rarity can be found in Lee Hall: A Survey, the artist’s first solo exhibition since 1981. A landscapist, Hall paints scenes of urban buildings, deserts, rolling green hills and seascapes. They flow well in a survey show like this because they are all abstracted to the point of…
Mother of a beverage
Like so many paths to hell, my road to kombucha addiction was paved with good intentions. I started hanging out with some cool girls. They grew vegetables and raised chickens. They composted and crafted. I wanted them to like me. When one of them led me to her pantry and lifted the cheesecloth from a…
#nerdgasm: Charlotte Startup Weekend 5
The event begins 1/24/14. Let’s get it!
Roy Williams blasts illiteracy claims about UNC athletes
This after a report that claimed that many students in college football and basketball programs could not read beyond an eighth grade level
Today’s Top 5: Thursday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Opening Friday
What’s new in theaters this weekend.
First Drip (1/9/14): Charlotte may bid on RNC, N.Y. OKs medical marijuana, more
The news you need today.
Spirited away
Editor’s Note: Art On My Sleeve is theater critic Perry Tannenbaum’s new monthly column, in which he’ll offer up commentary on the arts scene in Charlotte. All around town, media and bloviators were aghast, agog or amused when news broke that Elevation Church’s Pastor Steven Furtick was building a multimillion-dollar home in Waxhaw. On my…
Annual Horoscope, Part II
Aries: Your ruling planet is Mars, the planet of war. It is retrograding through July 13. During this period, it may feel as though you are moving two steps forward and three steps back. Lots of attention is needed in the arenas of partnership(s) and clientele. This is important in January and March, when challenges…
Kellin Watson’s tale of two cities
Asheville occupies a unique niche in the regional subconscious, a sort of imperfect mecca of arts and scenery nestled in a gently concave Blue Ridge valley. With the onset of legitimately huge festivals like Moogfest and the similar-yet-legally-distinct Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit, Asheville’s musical profile seems to be both rising and evolving; yet to…
Legal weed could mean millions for N.C.
The lawmakers who took over Raleigh in 2013 — the folks who want to control women’s reproductive systems, mess with African Americans’ voting rights, and put homer-sekshuls in their place — often seem as if they came here via a 1950s time warp. Those, um, leaders downplay their Culture Warrior stances, however, and insist that…
Tofu finds its flavor
Since Meatless Monday first became a thing in 2003, many people have taken to skipping meat one day a week for a New Year’s resolution. The amount of resources — and the land required to grow it — used to produce meat could feed vegetables to a lot more people, with less greenhouse gas production…
The Beast Within, Big, Nashville among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD.) THE BEAST WITHIN (1982). Forget the usual Transylvania or London settings: This horror flick has the distinction of being set in scary Mississippi. It’s while driving through the state on their honeymoon that Eli and Caroline MacCleary (Ronny Cox…
Local musician Chris Peigler dies
Fixture of Charlotte music scene will be missed.
First Drip (1/8/14): Wounded CMPD officer update, war on tobacco, Gabby Giffords celebrates, more
The news you need to know today.
The Pull List (1/8/14): Entering the Swamp
The latest releases in the comic book world.
Underground midwives flout N.C. law to give moms-to-be more choices
Jennifer Little can tell you the exact time of her eldest son’s birth. She can tell you how much he weighed, down to a fraction of an ounce, how many inches he stretched from crown to toes, what his first cry sounded like and the color of his still-squinting eyes. But she can’t tell you…
