Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser:I’d lived in the same city five years with no problems when my bad car karma began. It started when my innocent little compact was sitting in a parking lot and was smashed by a gas-guzzling Camaro. Later, my new car was involved in an interstate pile-up. I was the victim “til I…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES CHARLOTTE FILM SOCIETY Movies begin this Friday at the Manor and continue the following Friday at Movies at Birkdale. Call 414-2355 for details. IF… Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Lindsay Anderson’s 1968 classic is that rare motion picture whose themes have made it both timely (it probably couldn’t have been…
Stargazer
For All Signs Mars, the red planet, was known in ancient times as the god of war. Within ourselves this planet represents our need for psychological and physical boundaries. We draw on our Mars energy when we feel angry and want to “protect” our territory. Sometimes this goes too far. We also access Mars energy…
Arts in the Harriet Sanford Era
Amid the local smoke and strife over arenas, schools, and budgets, have you noticed something? The Great Culture War, pitting politicians against the arts, pulverizing Charlotte’s progressive reputation nationwide, has virtually vanished into thin air. The Charlotte/ Mecklenburg Arts & Science Council, once the hottest political football around, lies at a comfortable distance from the…
Parents Just Don’t Understand
Everyone says being single in Charlotte has its advantages, and on rare occasion, I find the opportunity to reap the benefits. We don’t have to consult with a partner when we make major life decisions such as changing jobs or buying a house or a car. We can let the grass get as tall as…
Loafing Wins First Amendment Lawsuit
Freedom reigned for the Fourth as Creative Loafing won a First Amendment victory Wednesday when a judge lifted a restraining order against the paper. The order temporarily barred the paper from publishing information from documents given to us by former teachers at Crossroads Charter High School. Those teachers claim the students’ grades were changed to…
American Scrapbook
Faces are the unspoken, unwritten catalog of events, every man’s souvenirs of emotional high tides and low ebbs. Like a remembered song they stand unblemished by time, the book-marked pages of our lives, tracing chapters of love and loss, times of unchecked misery and unfettered joy. Our untold stories vanish when these pages, these faces,…
Nigerian Bank Scams
Steve Chuks, who says he’s the auditor general of “one of the prime banks” in South Africa, wants to make me rich. By e-mail, Mr. Chuks tells me he has found $126 million in a “floating account” in his bank from an industrialist who died without an heir. He says he found me, an honest…
Love On The Half-Shell
Joseph Campbell once stated that the only way you could truly describe a human being was by describing his imperfections; and in this, his first novel, John Biguenet does just that. In the tradition of Greek tragedy, Biguenet explores the story of human suffering, striving, living, and youth coming to knowledge of itself — through…
Full Day
Ah, nothing like Independence Day or what less imaginative folks like to call the “Fourth of July.” (Who needs Christmas when you can have the more exciting “Twenty-fifth of December”?) Last Wednesday, I got a headstart celebrating our country’s rich heritage by walking to Dixie’s Tavern for what was being billed as the “Uncle Sam…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music American Guild of Organists Summer Recital Series Evensong by Decatur Presbyterian Church Choir. Sun., July 14, 3:30 p.m. Westminster Presbyterian Church, 101 Colville Road. 704-588-1290. American Guild of Organists Summer Recital Series Featuring the Royal School of Church Music Evensong. Sun., July 21, 3:30 p.m. All recitals are free and open to the…
Letters to the editor LIBERAL HYSTERIA
LIBERAL HYSTERIA Concerning “Holier Than Thou,” (CL, July 3), it seems liberals can never get enough of demonizing the right. By presenting Ashcroft’s quotes, both before he took office and during his tenure, the writer hopes to dismiss Ashcroft as some right-wing nutcase. The problem the liberal writer obviously doesn’t take into consideration is that…
Brothers Four
Owning and operating a restaurant is a 24/7 job notorious for taking a toll on the owner’s family. But what happens when the owners are all part of the same family? Sergio, Ramon, Fernando, and Alfredo Gomez, four brothers, own both locations of Salsa’s Mexican Restaurant. The newest location, located in the Galleria Village Shopping…
Hands Off Title IX!
So Happy Birthday, Title IX. You just celebrated 30 years, but by most accounts, you’re still a babe in the woods. A lot of people don’t want to understand you, or they simply think you’re so malleable they can change one of the simple premises you stand for — equality of opportunity in scholastic sports.I…
Brains On Ice
It’s summertime in the Carolinas which means that the “Hot Now’ sign is lit. I don’t mind the heat myself, so long as there’s a swimming pool nearby and I’ve got some air conditioning to duck into from time to time, but then I’m a summertime kind of guy. A lot of people I know…
A danger to democracy
THIS FALL, YOU’LL hear a lot about who really runs this country. As congressional races heat up, the Democrats and Republicans will pull the same tired theories out of their playbooks for voters. Like they do every election season, they’ll be looking to confuse. They’ll try to pit the upper classes against the lower ones,…
Confessions of Wine Snobs
Here’s a news flash: wine snobs lurk everywhere. And once in a blue moon, they live a story worth making fun of. I polled every wino I know to find out the most embarrassing or funny thing they ever did with, for, about or in wine. So the next time you’re feelin’ stupid about your…
United We’re Bland
I’ve tried to let the Christians off the hook lately — and it’s not like that’s exactly easy. Living in the Bible Belt, hardly a week goes by when I don’t notice something that drives me completely crazy about religious folks and their various hypocrisies.I can’t just hold it in forever. Especially in light of…
Good eats
Dilworth/Southend 300 East, 300 East Blvd., 704-332-6507. Locals have long gathered at this casual neithborhood bistro in a vintage house featuring an eclectic menu. $$$ Berrybrook Farms Natural Foods, 1257 E. Blvd., 704-334-6528. Homemade soups, herbed tofu sandwiches, bean burritos, and freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices found in a natural food shop. $ Bistro…
The Blotter
Putting the “Petty” in “Petty Crime”: A company vehicle was recently broken into when an unknown suspect smashed the driver’s window. It seems the smasher passed over an expensive digital camera, among other items, and chose, instead, to take about four dollars in loose change from the console. Nothing else was stolen or damaged.Pop, Boom,…
Praya Haters
Wish I was Eddie Fondle myself in the dark Yes, I am Scott Stapp (haiku from the Die Creed Die website) Much like the God they champion versus the devil of “evil negativity” espoused by folks like Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Creed evokes a love-’em-or-hate-’em attitude in most everyone. Folks either love the band in…
Where Ya From, Dude?
Is there a more versatile or expressive word than “dude”? It can be used as a greeting, an exclamation of delight or of dark horror, or as a cry of anger.Take this typical exchange between two dudes at a party: “Dude!” (excited greeting) “I talked to Cindy yesterday!” “Dude.” (said with a suggestive cadence to…
“Ready” For Release
HOBEX signs with Tone-Cool Records
News of the Weird
Operation enduring advances: About 2,500 festive marchers turned out for Jerusalem’s first gay pride day in June, including a few Palestinians. And according to reports in The New York Times, The Times of London and The Scotsman, U.S. and British troops fighting in Afghanistan have been hit on by that country’s apparently numerous (and decreasingly…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 7.10 Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers / O.A.R. — The Marley brood, led by the effervescent Ziggy, released a splendid reggae-ska-blues record a couple years ago titled The Spirit of Music. The record is pretty much a return to Jamaican roots after years of releasing polished pop-reggae records, though Melody Makers’ reggae is…
The Grand Wazoo Revisited
The Grand Wazoo RevisitedProject/Object whips it out for ZappaProject/ObjectMarc Steiner By James Kelly Imagine the dilemma of beingin a tribute band. For starters, you probably have to be a hardcore fan of the artist you’re channeling, and be willing to do whatever it takes to make it work. Then you must figure out how well…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jul. 10 Arnie’s Tavern, Huntersville Scott Johnson Bayou Kitchen Bill Noonan Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville The Socialites * The Boiling Point The Martyr Index, The Pelicans & Angel Named Israfel Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cajun Queen, Pineville 7th Street Gator Band II Charleston Chops, Cornelius Kent Steel Connolly’s Craig & Rich Acoustic…
See & Do
JULY 10 WEDNESDAYThe Jeep World Outside Tour hits Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre today, featuring Sheryl Crow, Silvercrush, Train, O.A.R. and Ziggy Marley. In addition to the above artists, many exhibits and hands-on activities featuring “outside sports” will be available to show-goers, including cycling advice, rock climbing, mountain bike trails, and more. Tickets are $22.50, $35, and…
Tom Hanks’ Winding Road
For the large part of his career, Tom Hanks has cornered the Hollywood market on playing admirable Everymen and occasional paragons of virtue. From Big and Sleepless in Seattle to The Green Mile and Cast Away, he is among the most inherently likable actors of his generation — a veritable personification of normalcy and ordinariness…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Slummer Love I work in a little insurance agency and live a pretty routine life. Two months ago, I went to the bank to open a new account. When I reached the window, there she was — this breathtakingly beautiful teller. After two months of muttering, “Here’s my deposit slip,” I found the courage to…
Sour Source Material
Almost since its inception, the motion picture industry has turned to the literary world to find much of its inspiration, adapting novels and, in later decades, comic books and even magazine articles. The latest form of literary licensing would appear to be the graphic novel, as witnessed by last year’s Jack the Ripper saga From…
