Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2015

Jul 29 - Aug 4, 2015 / Vol. 29 / No. 23

Cover Story

Bees: The next backyard chicken in Charlotte

In the leafy backyard of his Elizabeth home, Gerry Mack sits comfortably ensconced in a deck chair, chatting with a visitor. Six feet away, the girls of his backyard brood go about their business, producing food in their unobtrusive way. But there’s no gentle clucking or brash scratching of leaves and dirt. Instead, a silent…

Alison Leininger

Vacation: Plus ça change…

VACATION **1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein STARS Ed Helms, Christina Applegate There’s a tendency to slap the label “comedy classic” on any guffaw-filled flick that emerged from the 1980s — Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Rhinestone (well, OK, maybe not that Sylvester Stallone-Dolly Parton atrocity) —…

Matt Brunson

Sunset Edge a low-key project

SUNSET EDGE **1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Daniel Peddle STARS Gilberto Padilla, Jacob Ingle They say you can’t go home again, but that’s exactly what Winston-Salem native Daniel Peddle did. An artist and casting director who’s long been residing in New York (which is where he “discovered” a teenage Jennifer Lawrence, thereby jump-starting her…

Matt Brunson

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation: Right into the danger zone

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — ROGUE NATION *** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Christopher McQuarrie STARS Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner Mad Max can breathe easy, as his jaunt down Fury Road still stands as the best action that money can buy this summer. But for a good while, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation looked like it might…

Matt Brunson

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (July 30)

Pubix: A woman got violent at the South End Publix last week in a desperate effort to clean up her personal area. The woman was seen shoplifting and when a security guard approached her, she pushed him down and ran out of the door holding a steak, body wash, a box of condoms and a…

Ryan Pitkin

Weekly horoscope (July 30-August 5)

For All Signs: We have multiple cycles that represent the economic outlook. Unfortunately between now and the end of May 2016, we have another recessionary cycle, a smaller one that occurs within the larger one we already know. We experience inflation, then recession, followed by inflation once again — a never ending cyclic wheel in…

Vivian Carol

The dirty work of pursuing perfection

Like all human beings, my one goal in life is to be perfect. This has been difficult to achieve, on account of my aforementioned humanity. I have never been one for self-help — almost every sort of faddish book or method to improve one’s innate moral constitution turns me off. It’s a huge industry, and…

Ashley Spurgeon

Local artists utilize defunct Goodyear Service Center

Two sweaty joggers slow their running pace outside of the defunct Goodyear Service Center at the corner of Tryon and Stonewall Streets. But they don’t seem out of breath and they aren’t reaching for water bottles. Like many others who have passed the building within the last month, they’ve come to an abrupt stop out…

Anita Overcash

Look out, it’s Sharkmuffin!

Brooklyn garage-rockers Sharkmuffin are hitting the road with their 14th drummer. It’s Spinal Tap-ian. While constant change could be viewed as a bad thing — perhaps due to a lack of consistency — the two founding members of the group, Tarra Thiessen and Natalie Kirch, have made the best of it. “Most of our drummers…

Jeff Hahne

Organizers attack voter suppression laws from two fronts

Nancy Shakir, an organizer with Democracy North Carolina, started her presentation to a diverse room full of people at Little Rock AME Zion Church on July 23 with a brief, but straightforward, American history lesson. “When you think of 450 years of indoctrination in this culture, which says to some people, ‘You are superior, you…

Ryan Pitkin

It’s time to fully recognize black women

I waited a few days after Sandra Bland’s arrest video was released before watching it. I kept trying to ignore the story, hoping it would disappear from my Facebook News Feed. I didn’t want to face the fact that a young black woman, who could have easily been me, was arrested and ended up dead…

Ailen Arreaza

CD Review: Warren Haynes’ Ashes and Dust

The weeping violin and plaintive mandolin that kick off the high-country lament “Is It Me or You” is fair warning that we’ll be hearing a different side of Warren Haynes on his latest solo release, Ashes and Dust. A collaboration with Americana crew Railroad Earth, the new album draws on an intricate weave of bluegrass…

Pat Moran

Leon Bridges’ Coming Home

Nope, it wasn’t recorded in the 1950s. Leon Bridges opens his debut album, Coming Home, with the title track full of simple doo-wop rhythms and spotlighting the singer’s soulful vocal tones. It immediately harkens back to a golden age of music that featured the likes of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. Coming Home presents a…

Jeff Hahne

CD Review: Del Rio’s Escape From Del Rio

The debut album from Charlotte quartet Del Rio — singer/guitarist Pete Hurdle, bassist Jeff Klumpp, drummer Miles Knox and guitarist Chris Pittman — is a quick-hitting 13 tracks filled with steady-handed pop-punk, splashes of humor and plenty of pop culture references. Album opener, “GTS,” does plenty in its 1-minute-and-29-seconds, giving the listener a quick intro…

Jeff Hahne

Three questions for Chris Windus, chef at 1897

For a company operating eateries in more than 100 airports around the globe, including 80 percent of those in Charlotte-Douglas Airport International, it’s important to keep things fresh. HMSHost is doing just that with the recent opening of 1897 Market in Charlotte, a chef-driven town-and-country marketplace that offers everything from a full-service dining experience to…

Ryan Pitkin

Part Two: Off-Broadway reviews, 2015

As promised, here are some Off-Broadway show reviews by CL’s theater critic Perry Tannenbaum. Here’s what he saw and how they rate: Shows for Days (***1/4) — After writing a wonderful vehicle for Nathan Lane, The Nance, Douglas Carter Beane is back at Lincoln Center with a memory play. Considering the mixture of darkness and…

Perry Tannenbaum

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