See & Do
Wednesday, July 19 Punk-metal group (hed) p.e. (p.e. for Planet Earth) injects funky hip-hop into its self-proclaimed “G-Punk.” Its newest collection of belligerent rock is called Back 2 Base X, which also has (gulp) some melodic songs thrown in. Opening for Kottonmouth Kings tonight at Tremont Music Hall. This all-ages gig starts at 7pm. Bring…
Film Clips
Current Releases CARS Ever since Pixar Animation Studios began its incredible run with Toy Story back in 1995, haven’t most observers been wondering when the company would hit a critical and/or commercial roadblock and watch its latest effort crash and burn? Newsflash: It hasn’t happened yet, and it ain’t happening with Cars. The storyline seems…
The Circus
Jesus God, what was I thinking? First, let me just say that my last ocean cruise officially qualified as a quasi-nice experience, even though my cabin was a lightless hovel that had less space than an Iraqi spider hole. But who cares when you practically have the rest of the ship to yourself, as all…
He Said, She Said
For centuries, each sex has pondered what makes the other one tick. Plays have been acted, books have been written, operas have been composed, statues have been sculpted and hell — the Mona Lisa was painted to answer the question. Yet more than five hundred years later, man still doesn’t know what lurks behind woman’s…
Flashy
Animation can be right up there with painting on grains of rice and training fleas to jump through hoops, but the finished pieces can be so amazing. Here are some good ones, with a dash of stoopid and a pinch of politik thrown in for good measure. Bendito Machine www.nontzeflash.com/2006/imag/filmak/swf/benditonontze.swf The Singhsons www.badmash.org/singhson.php Take Back…
Stargazer
LEO The Lion (July 22 — Aug. 22) The sun returns home to your sign this week. You likely will find it to be energizing. Now is the time to focus on yourself and new plans for this next year of your life. Take a fresh look at where you want to direct your energy.…
Best Local Artist
Hebden grew up wandering the rural wilds of Pennsylvania thinking flora was as alive as you and me. She proves it with her photographs of flowers from her Charlotte garden. Hebden collaboratively conspires with her earthy delights to charm, seduce and capture our natural-born, too easily calcified love for nature. We’re surrounded; we surrender.
View From The Couch
FILM NOIR CLASSIC COLLECTION VOL. 3 (1946-1952). Dipping into the RKO and MGM catalogues, Warner Bros.’s home entertainment division comes up with another worthy box set honoring those smoke-choked, black-and-white crime flicks that were as much about ambiance and attitude as anything else. Based on the Raymond Chandler novel, Lady In the Lake (1946) is…
Girls Gone Graphic
Review
Best Commercial Fine Artist
By his own admission, he can “sell it, print it, draw it, shoot it, paint it, crop it, flop it, stretch it and hang it.” Rousso has work on display at the Bobcats Arena, the Convention Center, the JCC, the Aquatic Center, Harper’s and Mimosa. You can’t see much of Charlotte without seeing Rousso. Independent,…
Breaking the Hobbit
Whether you’re spending Canadian coin or American currency, $27 million is one very serious investment in a new theater enterprise. Up in Canada, where The Lord of the Rings opened on March 23, Toronto-based Mirvish Productions lavished its record-setting bankroll into four full years of concepting, composing, technological pioneering, preproduction tweaking and supercharged publicity. Like…
Call of the Wild
As a sex columnist for men’s magazines for more than a decade, I’ve had the unique opportunity to learn more than most women will ever know about men’s secret desires, fears and fantasies. When I was writing about sex for Details magazine, I received thousands of letters from men: A few were the on-paper equivalent…
Best Local Actor
While we don’t see him on local stages quite as much as we used to — or we’d like to — Helm has given us an imposing set of performances in recent years. Nobody’s presence was more powerful so far this year than Helm’s in The Shakespeare Stealer. A double dose of splendor marked that…
Timing Is Everything
CORKSCREW
Not Your Father’s Porn
The first time I ever thought about male fertility was during one of the Naked Gun movies. The nurse hands Leslie Nielsen a cup, a smut rag, and a towel and tosses him into a small white room, which he promptly trashes with unseen acrobatics. This is consistent with how I learned everything else about…
Best Local Actress
A repeat winner from last year … and the year before that. Range and consistency are what separate Carla from the legion of fine actresses we have in Charlotte. They’re also the qualities that assure Carla of remaining in the public eye whenever she chooses. Look for her in a Children’s Theatre production and you…
Shakalaka Baby
Mouthful
Erotic and Eco-Friendly
So you’ve stopped microwaving your food in plastic. You have a chlorine filter on your showerhead, you avoid sneakers made in sweatshops and you take cloth bags with you to the market for your organic produce. But when it comes to the nightstand drawer, often all those noble and self-protective thoughts go out the window.…
Best Performing Arts Group
Like Nicia Carla, another frequent winner. Daring, skill and national renown are the hallmarks of NC Dance Theatre. Whether here in Charlotte, bolstering its claim to housing the best athletes in town, or wowing the critics in New York City, NCDT has become the crossroads for the nation’s best choreographers and the most promising, versatile…
Brown Girl in the Ring
I’ve never been big on soap operas. I try to avoid those inane conversations about soap opera characters and plots, which may explain why this avid sports fan never got into professional wrestling either — seeing how it’s merely a male form of a soap opera with the same caliber of acting and story lines…
Cheap Thrills
ICE CREAM DAY July is National Ice Cream Month. Be a part of the celebration with Mayfield Dairy Farms. The popular ice cream brand will hand out free samples of its four new flavors to help with the decision of which one becomes a permanent part of the Mayfield line. This event will be at…
Best Local Author
Professor Emeritus of English at Davidson College and vice president of the North Carolina Writers Network, Abbott’s writing passions include modern drama, religion and literature, and creative writing with an emphasis on poetry. He has published two books on modern drama and four poetry compilations, and won the Novello Prize for his first novel, Leaving…
CDR Erotica
Summer is sexy, rife with thug-love bangers on the radio and sandy assignations by the shore. So here’s some potential mix-tape cuts to enhance your rep as a sex-o-lette: LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES, Venezuelan-Nuyorica dance band extraordinaire, wowed ’em during last weekend’s Carlotan Rock 2006 at NoDA’s Neighborhood Theatre. As the disco house outfit set out…
Best Local Band/Artist
A repeat winner from last year. The band’s about as large as Earth, Wind & Fire (some eight members, and that’s without frequent special guests), and damn near as quirky. Its long-awaited debut, The First American, wouldn’t have sounded out of place on any major indie in the country, and why the group is not…
Classic Rock Über Alles
It was almost déjà vu when the first performance on this season’s Rock Star reality TV show came from a potentially badass rocker chick belting out a Who classic. Only — unlike last season which featured that exact same scenario — the nostalgia those aging mates from Down Under who still go by the name…
Dreaming Big
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Best Local Songwriter
Childers has won this award so many times that we should consider renaming it the David Childers Award for Best Local Songwriter. If you like your rock with a literary bent and delivered with the conviction of a Sunday sermon, Childers is your man. The Mount Holly native is equally adept at penning country weepers…
Men of Steel
In light of America’s media saturation, it was all but unthinkable that a new musical genre would emerge, fully formed, in the final stages of the 20th century. Where would such a thing hide from the voracious pop-culture machine? In church, as it turns out — or as Alvin Lee, leader/guitarist of the Lee Boys,…
Now that’s Italian
Mouthful 56Corkscrew 5856
Best Local Male Vocalist
Soulganic has been making musical waves in our neck of the woods with a blend of soulful jazz and shades of funk. Rodriguez has the NY falsetto that’s big enough to wrap around the music. Add Latin rhythms to the mix and it’s certifiably organic. Rodriguez is a snazzy bassist to boot.
Cruise Control
Boomer With Attitude
No Laughing Matter
Film Clips 37View From The Couch 38Films In A Flash 3937
Best Local Female Vocalist
Whether scatting her way through a jazz classic or re-interpreting a torch song, Chorneau’s rich and smoky vocals conjure intimate nightclubs and candle-lit romance. To hear Chorneau is to be reminded that voices — and not just lyrics — also tell stories.
Best Concert of Past 12 Months
For us music scribes, it’s tough to pick the best concert of the year from an array of fine shows that passed through town. Yes, even in the Queen City, there are many kickass shows every year. But the best show during this past year, hands down, was the return of the legendary LA punk/roots…
Electric Charge
Kilowatt Ours is more than a documentary. In many ways, it’s a personal quest. Filmmaker Jeff Barrie draws a link between the electricity he uses and the families of Appalachia, where electricity-producing coal is mined. When the environmental documentary last screened in Charlotte, only about 60 people watched at the McColl Center, said June Blotnick,…
Love, Peace Iraq
Lately, no one has had the temerity, the guts, to start writing thoughtful, apocalyptic songs about love, peace and Iraq. But now, Josh Ritter does. He writes careful, thoughtful, ruminating songs; all so personal and intimate yet buoyant and energetic. If you believe the hype, you’d think he was the next Bob Dylan, Springsteen or…
Best Local Music Scene Figure
Originally one of the founding members of Rare Grooves & the Soul Movement, now Kitchen brings us the Sol Kitchen. Through Sol Kitchen, Kitch brings in top acts steeped in that old-school soul Southerners love, including artists like Dwele, Van Hunt, Goapele and, most recently, Raheem DeVaughn. Having indeed performed a major service to Charlotte’s…
Best Gay/Lesbian Bar
Huge ups for the place that calls itself an “eccentric little gay bar in Plaza-Midwood” and sponsors the Charlotte Royals, the Queen City’s gay rugby team. (Gay rugby: who knew?) Open every night, DAKS features billiards, energetic music, drink specials and arcade-style games. “Hot videos” and cozy recesses let you get up close and steamy…
After One Unforgettable Spring
My People
Age Appreciation
Kilowatt Ours 17Don’t Panic 22Boomer with Attitude 2517
Best Attempt at Ballot-Stuffing
Well, you can’t say this local musician’s admirers aren’t dedicated. After deluging the CL offices with often profane and usually incomprehensible e-mails earlier this year, the faithful then turned their attention to voting for him in just about every category imaginable in the BOC poll — Best Local Athlete, Best Local Charity, Best Museum, even…
Independence Day
Citizen Servatius
US Open of Table Tennis Comes to the QC
Urban Explorer
What is Hezbollah?
“Hot Hezbo Action,” the newest chapter in the long-running Arab-Israeli War, began July 12. That morning, a group of Hezbollah fighters snuck across Lebanon’s border into northern Israel. Armed with explosives and anti-tank missiles, they attacked a group of Israeli soldiers patrolling the border in two armored jeeps. Three of the Israeli soldiers in the…
The Blotter
Neighborly Hate: A woman found four large holes in her garden where four yellow flowers had once been. The woman believes she has a suspect targeted. Her neighbor, previously flowerless, had four newly planted yellow flowers next to his/her driveway. The woman has never met the flower-thieving neighbor. In a separate incident, a man reported…
Summer Loving
We understand the simple way the human mind can work. It’s summer, meaning it’s hot. It’s hot, meaning the less clothes the better. Less clothes, meaning getting naked. Getting naked … hey, let’s have sex! OK, so maybe we’re not all that primitive, but you get the drift. July is a leisure month, so we…
Remembrance of Items Past
Book Review
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: My best friend recently married a guy she thinks is just great. I thought so too, until I found out that my sister’s friend has actually been cheating with him. I know about all their romps and the passionate kisses they’ve been sharing. Not only that, but this guy has been with…
