Jul 19-25, 2011

Jul 19-25, 2011 / Vol. 25 / No. 21

Young Jeezy tears through trademark tracks tonight (8/2/11)

Young Jeezy Along with DJ Drama, he turned the mixtape game on its head with 2005’s Trap Or Die. Since then, he hasn’t disappointed, and the streets have been clamoring for his fourth studio, TM103, for more than a year now. While that project inches closer to Dr. Dre’s Detox lure, he’s still touring on…

Contributing Intern

Suite, 7/22/11

Lady Gaga’s very own DJ and producer — DJ White Shadow — was the master of the music at Suite on Friday, July 22.

Priscilla Tsai

New Multigrain Oatmeal at Chick-fil-A

It’s pretty hard to resist ordering Chick-fil-A’s chicken minis for breakfast, but if you are able, try their new healthy Multigrain Oatmeal, which will be available in restaurants starting Monday, July 25.

Priscilla Tsai

OMG: Anti-contraception in the 21st Century

Yesterday, the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine recommended that nearly all health insurance plans offer women free birth control coverage, as well as other preventive services without co-pays or deductibles.

John Grooms

MUSIC: Birds With Teeth at Tremont

Love it or hate it, the pop punk machine continues to pass along bands with high energy and smart-assed lyrics. Even though they sling out some sarcastic lyrics at higher tempos, Birds With Teeth is more than the three-chord tracks and bathroom humor that was big seven years ago. Locally disrespectful, the quartet moves between…

Amelie, Battle Beyond the Stars among new home entertainment titles

AMELIE (2001). After making his mark with the delightfully deranged films Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet made the ill-fated mistake of going Hollywood by overseeing the disappointing Alien: Resurrection. Amelie found Jeunet back in his element: as the creator of enchanting, quirky comedies that, like their central characters, march…

Matt Brunson

FILM: Cult Movie Monday, screening Xanadu

Tonight’s Cult Movie Monday film screening at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte will have you bouncing in your chair to ’80s numbers by Olivia Newton-John, Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard and The Tubes. The romantic musical Xanadu stars Newton-John as Kira a mysterious woman who joins forces with a young artist Sonny (Michael Beck) and rich…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2: Magical

Right out of the gate, let’s make it known that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 doesn’t suffer a precipitous fall as many final chapters are wont to do. Nobody exiting the theater will be recalling sour memories of, say, The Matrix Revolutions or X-Men: The Last Stand or any other heavily…

Matt Brunson

THEATER: Mamma Mia

Weddings can be stressful or so I’ve heard from friends who have taken the plunge. That makes Mamma Mia all the more unrealistic. Broadway’s long-running musical about a girl — to be married on a lovely Greek island — who invites three men (one of whom, she hopes to determine is her father on the…

Anita Overcash

Where to find it: Amazon Triple Peppers

North Carolina has Texas Pete; Louisiana has Tabasco. Most heat-seeker heads have a favorite bottle of the hot stuff. Hot peppers have been bottled for centuries. When peppers left the New World, the cuisines around the world changed. In fact, many believe the peppers — as well as other indigenous foods such as tomatoes, potatoes,…

Tricia Childress

NIGHTLIFE: Le Bang at Dharma Lounge

Being halfway through the work week is reason enough to celebrate, right? Right. Drop into Dharma Lounge on Wednesdays for Le Bang, a weekly nightlife event hosted by Buckmaster. It puts an extra bump in the hump with music by special guests and drink specials (including $2 PBR Tallboys or High Life, $3 well drinks,…

Anita Overcash

Small Place, Big Taste: miwa Asian Cuisine

If you ask me how many steamed pork dumplings I’ve had around town, I couldn’t tell you. But if you ask me where I’ve had the best dumplings, I could. Chinese dumplings are signature items and dependent on a chef, as these crafted morsels are as individual as fingerprints. Unless a dumpling is mass produced,…

Tricia Childress

Joe Simon: My Life, Loose Ends among new comic reviews

Another week, another stack of comic books and comic-related goodies; here’s a look at what I’ve recently scooped up: Joe Simon: My Life in Comics: Just in time for this week’s big-budget, big-screen release of Captain America, I’d suggest that you get your hands on this memoir by one of the guys who created the…

Carlton Hargro

3 questions with Chris Boukedes, caterer

Chris Boukedes used to push brooms. Now, the former burger-flipper manages the Galway Hooker Pub in Lake Norman and The Comedy Zone at the N.C. Music Factory. The son of Greek immigrants, Boukedes’ projects have spread all over Charlotte’s culinary scene. This summer, he opened his own catering company, Charlotte Catering (http://charlottecateringandevents.com), at the EpiCentre.…

Designing women to watch

It’s difficult to describe the way a woman feels when she walks into a party and spies someone wearing the exact same outfit. The tightness in her chest and shortness of breath? That’s pure agony and despair. No woman wants to be caught in that predicament. But thankfully, people in the creative community recognize the…

Kimberly Lawson

John Butler Trio brings forth music with a message

There are moments during a John Butler Trio concert when Butler starts a solo and you swear that he’s conjuring up the spirit of Hendrix through his guitar, but upon second glance, you notice that he’s playing an acoustic. WTF? There are lots of names that pop up often on underrated lists, but Butler is…

Jeff Hahne

Shopping and fashion news, events and more (July 20)

Green Jeans Consignment Sale: Fashion, sales and going green sound interesting to you? Well, in that case, have we got a consignment sale for you. Fall 2011 registration has begun for the Green Jeans semi-annual consignment sales event, which takes place in Lake Norman on Sept. 22-24 and in Fort Mill, S.C. on Oct. 6-8.…

CL previews upcoming concerts (July 20-25)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 WIZ KHALIFA Admit it, you’re just now getting Wiz’s incessantly catchy “Black & Yellow” out of your head. The last time Sir Smoke-A-Lot touched down in the Queen City, he produced one of the longest lines I’ve ever seen for a live show. And he delivered with a seemingly endless, yet compelling,…

Style stalking Davita Galloway

Wardrobe stylist Davita “Miss Swatty” Galloway doesn’t wear heels anymore — or, at least, she hasn’t in quite some time. After walking in heels all day on the campus of UNC Charlotte a few years ago, her feet were bleeding by the time she got home. She’s been wearing flats ever since. Spotted in the…

T. Strong

CD REVIEW: Amy LaVere’s Stranger Me

THE DEAL: Singer Amy LaVere releases third studio effort full of songs about frustration and emotional solitude. THE GOOD: The music slowly builds on the album’s opening track, “Damn Love Song,” leading into the soft and sweet vocals of LaVere, served up with the spice of “Here’s your damn love song.” The Louisiana-born LaVere may…

Jeff Hahne

Creative Living with Chad McClure

If you’re afraid of heights, like Chad McClure, then one of the high rises in Uptown is the last place you’d want to take up residence. But McClure, who works in accounting and bartends on the side for fun, wanted to live within walking distance of the hustle and bustle of Center City. His solution?…

Kimberly Lawson

CD REVIEW: Sorry Bamba’s Volume One 1970-1979

THE DEAL: Jazzy funk and soul from a vastly underrated Malian superstar. THE GOOD: Other West African musicians, notably Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade, have incorporated funk and horn-driven jazz in their compositions. But Malian Sorry Bamba’s music possesses an otherworldly quality, an alieness unlike anything Western ears are accustomed to. It’s more of…

Grant Britt

Theater review: Hairspray shimmies at CPCC

There’s no mistaking the inclusive and unifying power of Hairspray, now at Halton Theater. Poor folk, black folk and chubby folk are enfolded in its embrace as the Corny Collins teen hop TV show bops and shimmies toward integration in 1962 Baltimore, propelled by the plucky activism of chunky Tracy Turnblad and her adoration for…

Perry Tannenbaum

Soldier suicides and the politics of presidential condolences

President Barack Obama just announced a reversal of a long-standing policy that denied presidential condolence letters to the family members of soldiers who commit suicide. Relatives of soldiers killed in action receive letters from the president. Official silence, however, has long stigmatized those who die of self-inflicted wounds. The change marks a long-overdue shift in…

Amy Goodman

Exhibit: Ten Years of Great Art

Elder Gallery is celebrating its 10th year anniversary with the philosophy of the more the merrier. Forty artists, including Angelita Surmon, Anne Raymond, David Benson, Doug Gray, Carl Blair, Stephanie Neely, Ralph Turturro (the New York artist’s “Remember” is pictured), Ernest Walker and a whole lot more that I don’t have room to list, have…

Anita Overcash

Ask BWA: Bigger parks, banking thieves and U.N. manatees

Welcome to yet another stunning edition of Ask Boomer With Attitude, brought to you live, as always, from Charlotte, N.C., where no one knows how soon it will be, if ever, before we see our shiny new Heisman-winning quarterback play for the Panthers. Dear Ask BWA: I don’t get your complaints about the Charlotte Knights…

Exhibit: A Survey of Gallery Artists

Romare Bearden was born in Mecklenburg County but lived out most of his life in New York. Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop Charlotteans from considering the artist one of their own — and with good reason. His paintings and collages are rich in color and quality; check out the pictured “Marie’s Garden.” You can see this…

Anita Overcash

New Gantt Center exhibit sparks debate, inspires July 21 discussion

It would be a stretch to call Live and In Stereo(type) — the recently opened exhibition by artists Marcia Jones and Fahamu Pecou on display at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture — obscene or offensive. After all, the show (which features works that are “social critiques on black masculinity and…

Carlton Hargro

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files

Apocalypse Now: A 62-year-old man called police after being assaulted and robbed in west Charlotte while he tried to get home last week. The victim told officers that he pulled up to a stoplight on Parkway Avenue when a man he had never seen before came and pushed him off his scooter. By the time…

Ryan Pitkin

N.C.’s a great place to be a burglar

The Charlotte area is one of the best places in the country for ambitious professionals to make their fortunes. No, not in banking — in burglary. Here’s why, and how you too can make a buck stealing people’s stuff with very little risk of prison time. Other states will send you away for a few…

FILM: The Robber (Der Räuber)

Those with a liking for high-speed foreign cinema will want to mosey (or run!) on over to Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy for a screening of the German film The Robber (Der Räuber). Shot in Vienna, Austria, the 2010 flick directed by Benjamin Heisenberg is about a marathon champion who is living a double life. When…

Anita Overcash

Is Australia the deadliest place on earth?

I’ve often heard Australia contains more things that can kill you than anywhere else on the planet, often coupled with the proud assertion that our deadly wildlife is deadlier than everywhere else’s deadly wildlife. I live in suburban Sydney and have personally encountered funnel web spiders, redback spiders, red-bellied black snakes, and a blue-ringed octopus.…

Cecil Adams

THEATER: The Rocky Horror Show

Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte believes now is just as good a time as any to whip out the platform heels, fishnets, garters and rogue for The Rocky Horror Show. Basing performances off of Richard O’Brien’s book, music and lyrics, the show’s got nice timing for satisfying the wait (and longing for the cult fave’s sweet…

Anita Overcash

Weekly horoscope (July 20-26)

Leo The Lion (July 23 – 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 new plans for this next year of your life. Take a fresh look at where you want to direct your energy. Use this…

Vivian Carol

NIGHTLIFE: Candy Land Party at Mez

There’s no need to sugar-coat. Sweetness is in the air at Mez and Kazba during its special Candy Land Party, presented by dbraun Promotions, Elevate Lifestyle and Charlotte Seen. Models will be covered in confectionery and edible attire during a fashion show set to stimulate the sweet tooth. Folks attending should dress in their candy-themed…

Anita Overcash

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of July 27

BAD TEACHER It’s no Bad Santa, but Bad Teacher brings just enough naughty behavior to the table to make it a decent watch for viewers tired of PG-13 timidity. In her best role since 2005’s underrated In Her Shoes, Cameron Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, a gold-digging middle-school teacher who, having just been dumped by her…

Matt Brunson

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