Ontario’s Vintage Theatre Festivals
Now that the SARS scare is yesterday’s news, you can resume considering Canada as a summer vacation destination. My wife and I did that last month when the paralyzing E-word still dominated the front pages. After a week in Minnesota’s Twin Cities attending an annual conference of the American Theatre Critics Association, we saw that…
Circus’s Animal Policies Faulted
Even though it’s important to look for the best in people, it’s hard not to feel the world would be a better place if people like Tim Frisco weren’t around stinking it up. People who are cruel to animals are bad enough, but folks who actually make a living at it, and even seem to…
A Refuge For Art
Sanctuary is a new-ish gallery owned and operated by DC transplant Jerry Lee Kirk. Art in America, currently on display through September 3, is the NoDa gallery’s second exhibit. “Initially I opened the space as a place to show art for myself and my friends,” Kirk explains. “But you know, the public isn’t going to…
Talk About Hip
It’s Friday night and Nayna and Khurrem are gearing up for their big 9pm show. It’s a pretty good crowd on hand at The Kazba in downtown Charlotte, and all eyes focus on the two women adorned in ornate, colorful costumes as they gracefully swirl and move about the room. They put on a fun,…
The Gospel Of Blue Suede Shoes
Miracles continue as CP Summer Theatre’s 30th season reaches a raucous climax. Two weeks ago, an audience returned from intermission and applauded the scenery change, when prosperity succumbed to heaven’s wrath in God’s Favorite. Old Testament prophets would surely be inspired by the current goings on at panoramic Pease Auditorium when the cast members of…
Nearer Thy God to Me
My American Fellows, er, Fellows Americanas, I would like to talk with you about religionality in our country. Mr. Cheney told me that religious leaders of the three major faiths here in the United States are alarmed that fewer young people are hearing the call to join the clergymen. I said if they’re not hearing…
Chinese Heroin(e)
What do Americans know about the lives of the people of modern-day China? Our culture flows into theirs without cease, but what do we know of theirs, and their lives? Candy, a gracefully harrowing novel by Chinese author/concert promoter Mian Mian, won’t tell you much about daily life in mainstream China. It will, however, give…
Who Gives A Rippage?
“There’s nothing that says that society or our laws or our elected officials have to accept as normal behavior that which we find to be perverted.” — County Commissioner Bill James If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: thank God for County Commissioner Bill James, who is always there to keep…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music American Guild of Organists Recitals sponsored by Guild. July 27: Mark Swicegood, First Baptist Church, 301 S. Davidson St.; August 3: Patrick Pope, Davidson United Methodist Church, 233 S. Main St. All at 8pm. Free. 704-333-9071. Heritage Singers The Heritage Singers of Yorkshire, England, formed in 1984 with a mission to restore and…
View From The Bottom
Over the years, President Bush has painted himself as a red, white and blue, star-spangled friend of the military. If there was one thing* that Bush learned how to do in the Texas Air National Guard, it was how to snap off a sharp salute. But despite this carefully groomed public image, Bush’s actual military…
Reel Food
The concept of having both scene and cuisine has faded a bit during the “00s. Nowadays, some, for whom these economic times have not been kind, are looking strictly for value and care more about maxing out credit cards than dining with linens and weighty flatware. At the same time on a national level, seafood…
Letters
Stamp Out Spam Thanks to Scott Henry for his excellent and in-depth article “Damn Spam” in your July 16 issue of Creative Loafing. His article brought out so much information on how the dirt bag spammers work. And more importantly why national laws preventing spam would be a bad thing instead of a good thing.…
Longing for Loire
Although we’re trying to ignore it, the French wine party is still hoppin’. Their braggart Bordeaux and Burgundy wines scream for attention and snooty Champagne rears its ego-filled head often, but the leisurely Loire [l’ WAHR] Valley is the shy wallflower hiding in the corner. Wake her inner wildcat and reap the rewards of refreshing…
The Blotter
Mail-Order Morphine: While rifling through mailboxes, a thief found and stole a man’s supply of morphine. The thief removed the morphine from the envelope in which it had been shipped to the man and ran away with his find. Mission Complete: By hiding in a bathroom tangent to a local business, a cat burglar gained…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 400 S. Tryon St., 704-339-0303; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. All locations have different owners. A hint of the tropics; rotisserie chicken with Jamaican jerk sauce, ribs, Paradise Island fish special, curries, and Caribbean styled greens. $$ Azteca, 116 Woodlawn Rd., 704-525-5110; 9709 Independence Blvd., 704-814-9877; 1863 W. Franklin Blvd.…
News of the Weird
Flight risk: On June 28, as Orange County, Calif., sheriff’s deputy Owen Hall was standing beside a car he had stopped, he was shot in the leg with an arrow. After Hall pulled the arrow out and reported to a hospital, deputies combed the neighborhood and finally located archer Tri Thanh Lam, who had apparently…
On The Road Again
In their first 17 years of existence, Vermont-based quartet Phish steadily rose from a college bar band to become one of the top drawing acts in music history. Quite possibly one of the biggest bands (aside from repeated comparisons to the Grateful Dead) to ever exist outside of mainstream media, Phish is considered by some…
Simple Plan
Up until now, Claire Holley has been known as a soft, folksy singer. But with the release of her latest project, Dandelion, she’s rocking a little harder and letting more of her Mississippi roots show through. “I do think its rootsier than any of my other records,” the singer said recently from her Greensboro home.…
Music Menu
THURSDAY 7.24 David Grisman Quintet — Old timer, musical compatriot to Jerry Garcia and a big brother to jammers and alterna-rockers alike, Grisman rejuvenates traditional bluegrass with touches of jazz and eclectic signatures that don’t meander while keeping purists rolling in the hay. The “dawg” cuts his music like a precision laser tool, but leaves…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jul. 23 Baoding Robert Fernandez Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Jes & Sherry Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cuvee Wine & Art Gallery Trio 21 The Evening Muse Clarence Bucaro Fat City The Needles, The Bad Samanthas & The XXO’s Gateway Village Peace & Love Graduate, Gastonia Acoustic Jam w/ Clee & Chris Sheridan…
Spy Game
JOHNNY ENGLISH DIRECTED BY Peter Howitt STARS Rowan Atkinson, John Malkovich SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER 1/2 DIRECTED BY Robert Rodriguez STARS Daryl Sabara, Alexa Vega Johnny English is a movie of anticipation. Cast as a bungling British Secret Service underling who’s promoted to top spy after his ineptitude results in the deaths of all…
See & Do
July 24 Thursday Master of the mandolin David Grisman and his quintet will perform at Neighborhood Theatre tonight. Grisman refers to his sound as “dawg” music which, when it comes down to it, is really a blend of eclectic influences including swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy. It’s unique to say the least and his…
Off With The Show
So last year’s sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding made a fortune and was adored all over the country. If you think that’s a successful enough formula to guarantee an instant ratings bonanza when it’s transformed into a TV sitcom, think again. My Big Fat Greek Life, the boob tube’s Wedding spin-off, was a…
Stargazer
For All Signs Mars will turn retrograde this week. Among astrologers it is known that he who draws a sword or assumes power during this period eventually finds it turned on himself. In our personal lives we are well advised to avoid expanding our boundaries or initiating “war” on any front. The defendant, not the…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES L’AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE Xenophobes and the old at heart need not apply, but most discerning moviegoers will get a hedonistic kick out of L’Auberge Espagnole (translated as the Spanish Inn), a French import that was a deserving critical and commercial hit in its homeland. Invoking the spirit of such youth-themed fare as The Graduate…
Advice Goddess
Living Extra-Large I’m a caring, smart, pretty, 23-year-old girl. I do have some extra pounds on me. (I’m 5’10”, size 16/18 — I am not skinny!) I have no problem getting sex, but guys never want to go further. Married men love me; they’re always asking me out and wanting to “rock my world.” They…
Love In A time warp
When she answered her front door, Susan was surprised to see a sheriff’s deputy standing there. He was polite and cordial as he handed over the papers. “You’re being sued,” he explained. Sued? For what? She scanned the documents. Certain words and phrases stood out immediately: “willful and malicious interference,” “destruction,” “mental anguish,” “disgrace,” “humiliation.”…
