Jul 25-31, 2012

Jul 25-31, 2012 / Vol. 26 / No. 22

Cover Story

Stranger in his own hometown: Adam Lazzara

If a tree falls in rural Michigan and only a bunch of hearing-impaired rockers are around to experience it, does it make a sound? That old cliché is moot for Adam Lazzara, the Taking Back Sunday singer who is well known for death-defying stage antics like climbing up precarious scaffolding at big punk concerts and…

Mark Kemp

Beach reading with a beat

Books about music are plentiful this summer, so if you’re a music fan who’s headed to the beach anytime soon, you shouldn’t have any problem finding something to read while you’re sprawled on the sand. We’ve written before about a couple of books that would make great seaside reading: A Visit From the Goon Squad,…

John Grooms

Raising the bar: Wolfgang Puck Pizza

Wolfgang Puck’s food and I go way back. At his dazzling Postrio (circa 1993), an elegant emporium in San Francisco with towering flower arrangements and just-sourced local foods, I sampled the Chinese duck with a peach ginger sheen. The menu item let food lovers know that the Austrian chef who had launched the iconic Spago…

Tricia Childress

3 questions with Lynn Mussen, owner of Cluck-n-Cup

When Charlotte native Lynn Mussen was laid off from her accounting job at the end of 2008, she decided her days of being cooped up in an office were over. The following year, she and her husband opened Cluck-n-Cup (www.cluckncup.com), which specializes in chicken pot pie and coffee, as well as such breakfast and lunch…

Anita Overcash

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (July 26)

Peep This: A 29-year-old man filed a police report after a restaurant meal came to him extra crunchy last week. The man was eating at Le Peep on Providence Road when he bit into his waffle and felt something hard break. The man spit out his food to find he had bitten into a piece…

Ryan Pitkin

Weekly horoscope (July 26-Aug. 1)

Leo The Lion (July 22-Aug. 22) This is a really good period to travel. You may be given a lot of attention for an accomplishment in your career or life direction. You have nagging concerns related to an important decision. Don’t pressure yourself. Let it rest until the right answer evolves. Election 2012 notes: I…

Vivian Carol

Q&A with Osiris Rain

Charlotte-based artist Osiris Rain isn’t busy painting when I phone him for an interview. Instead, he’s in Wilmington on the set of Iron Man 3. Rain lays down his paintbrush and lends his hands to work on movie sets for three to four months out of the year. He wrestles with canvas the rest of…

Anita Overcash

Dalton and McCrory duke it out over education

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton closed out the North Carolina Association of Educator’s Summer Leaders Conference this week as the surprise guest speaker. The appearance symbolized the dividing issue of this year’s gubernatorial election as his opponent, Pat McCrory, spoke to a charter schools conference hosted by the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools the day…

Mike Cooper

Meet your neighbor, Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara

I met Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday a little more than a year ago. He’d come over to my house to do an audio interview with my friend DD Thornton, host of the Internet radio show Deaconlight at ErrorFM.com. DD plays a huge variety of rock on the show, much of it punk-based —…

Mark Kemp

This week’s concert listings (July 26-Aug. 1)

** Bullet points indicate CL’s critics’ picks** Thursday, July 26 Blues/Roots/International Bayou Butch Lucas (Villa Antonio (Ballantyne)) Ben Gatlin (Wet Willie’s) Latin Thursdays (Dream Nightclub, Matthews) Classical/Jazz/Smooth Beats and Keys (Encore Bistro and Bar) John Alexander (Blue Restaurant & Bar) Country/Folk Caleb Davis (Leroy Fox) Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Rachel Farley, DJ Silver (Verizon Wireless…

Too dumb to vote?

I swear to God, three weeks ago I heard a man standing outside a Rite-Aid tell another man that he didn’t like Mitt Romney, but would still vote against President Obama, because “my uncle told me Obama set up Obamacare, so he’d make a big profit from it and send the money to his family…

John Grooms

Childish Gambino grows up

When accomplished writer, actor and comedian Donald Glover took to the rap pseudonym Childish Gambino to put hip-hop on notice with the released-in-2011 single “Freaks and Geeks,” he didn’t mince words. In the track’s most declarative line he spits, “Told all you n—-s, I’m in it to win it, cause having an Emmy just wasn’t…

Mike McCray

Are you ready for Recess?

We’ve all heard (or done) the griping about Charlotte’s music scene — typically during a bleary, early-morning drive back from some out-of-town gig by a great band that never seems to play here. That unfortunate scenario illuminates two basic choices — keep bitching or start acting. Locals Casey Malone and Zach Reader chose the latter…

John Schacht

Archers reloaded

Of all the recent indie band reunions, maybe the least likely success story has been that of North Carolina’s Archers of Loaf. Unlike the Pixies, Pavement or Guided by Voices, who each quit at the height of their popularity and whose sold-out, big-room reunion audiences belie their ongoing cult status, Archers — who play Tremont…

John Schacht

Letters and online comments from the readers (July 26 edition)

Paperless Thanks This is a brief note to thank you for making a very courageous decision. I just read that your publication had decided to stop using the “i” word (“Drop the i-word,” July 5) when referring to “paperless” Hispanic immigrants. I agree that much like the “n” word, the “I” word has come to…

East and west Charlotte vying for a slice of the DNC pie

If all of Charlotte’s neighborhoods were siblings, it’s obvious which one would be the over-achiever. With its high-profile companies and gigantic, shiny buildings, Uptown is the older brother your parents brag about to their friends. When the Democratic National Convention arrives, the center of Charlotte may feel like the center of the universe. But with…

Ryan Pitkin

A sit-down with Pat McCrory

As we draw closer to Election Day in November, it is becoming increasing likely that Charlotte’s own Pat McCrory will become the next governor of North Carolina. Yes, McCrory, the same man who often played the role of authoritarian villain in these pages during his 14-year career as mayor of the Queen City. He is…

Mike Cooper

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