Film Clips
CURRENT RELEASES CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE Your enjoyment of Charlie’s Angels will likely determine your tolerance of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. This follow-up to that 2000 hit isn’t so much a sequel as an extension — if movies weren’t so time- and cost-consuming, it’d be easy to picture a new Angels flick hitting the multiplexes…
Paluso’s Pizzeria
Take Two Take Two Deli Double Duty BY TRICIA CHILDRESS “We’re two guys from New York that couldn’t find good pizza, so we started our own pizzeria called Paluso’s.” So says the menu at Paluso’s Pizzeria located inside the Golf Village Complex in Pineville.These guys may not have been able to find good pizza in…
Inside The Spiritual Jacuzzi
There is a group in the Dallas, TX, area called the Hot Tub Mystery Religion. Its adherents hold to no particular spiritual dogma, borrowing freely from such sources as Jewish mysticism, Roman paganism, Islamic heresy, and experimental art. One of its founders has compiled a recommended reading list for the faithful; it includes a collection…
Counter-Intelligence
It was a sleepy afternoon in June, and in the Atlanta office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, agents were amusing themselves the best they could — shredding obsolete field reports about strange Arabs in Florida flight schools who didn’t want to learn how to land, or reframing pictures of J. Edgar Hoover in his…
Free Fun in the Sun
Webster’s defines “kinetic” as “pertaining to or caused by motion.” Take that simple premise, add some spare boat and bicycle parts, plus whatever else you can scrounge up, throw in some ingenuity, a bit of artistic flair and theatricality, plenty of humor and environmental awareness, and you wind up with an event like this Saturday’s…
Letters
Calling All Lawyers In re: “Damn Spam!” (by Scott Henry, July 16), the surest way to get rid of spam? Sic the trial lawyers on those who send spam. If they could shakedown the tobacco industry for all those billions of dollars, getting spam merchants to cease and desist or pay up should be a…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music American Guild of Organists Recitals sponsored by Guild. August 3: Patrick Pope, Davidson United Methodist Church, 233 S. Main St. All at 8pm. Free. 704-333-9071. Comedy Bayou Kitchen Extreme Improv. Live improvised comedy created from your suggestions. Visit www.extremeimprov.com for more information. Call for reservations. Saturdays, 8 p.m. $5. 1958 E 7th St.…
Phishin’ For Broccoli
Not five seconds — I repeat, not five measly seconds after I exited my car at the sold-out Phish show at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre — a guy offered me some mushrooms. Of course, this is done in the classic way folks do it in other World Class Cities like Amsterdam: they simply walk by, minding…
Take Two Take Two
“We’re two guys from New York that couldn’t find good pizza, so we started our own pizzeria called Paluso’s.” So says the menu at Paluso’s Pizzeria located inside the Golf Village Complex in Pineville.These guys may not have been able to find good pizza in Charlotte, but now the trick is to have Charlotte diners…
Run, Jerry, Run?
I had to giggle when I saw a recent editorial page blurb about TV talker Jerry Springer testing the water to run for US Senate. I quote: “Mr. Springer’s experience includes more than just providing opportunities for chair-throwing by men who’ve fathered children by their wives’ mothers, or whatever. He was elected mayor of Cincinnati…
Curvy with Reasons
With its curvy shape, sleek long neck and rounded butt, a wine bottle kinda looks like a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe. But there’s more than meets the eye; there’s utility. Starting in the 17th century, people began storing wine in glass bottles, using cork as a stopper. Before that, everything from animal skins to ceramic jugs…
Robbing Us Blind
Ada grinned for the television camera as she explained to the reporter why she couldn’t afford to pay for her prescription drugs every month. I was more interested in what the reporter didn’t ask the elderly woman — how she managed to pay for the large-screen TV, VCR and blinking cable box clearly visible over…
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.…
Dead Or Not Alive
Last week’s big War Against Terror news was the extermination of Saddam Hussein’s two sons in a firefight in Mosul (which we thought was the name of one of the characters in Fiddler On The Roof but never mind). According to Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, “The previous night, on the 21st, we had had an…
What’s In A Name?
So you’ve got a new band. You’ve got a solid lineup. You’ve got a set’s worth of songs. You’ve got everything but a name. At last count, there were more than 2.3 million bands in America. (Or something like that, hell, I don’t know. Anyway, it’s a lot.) And most of you don’t know it,…
The Blotter
What were you thinking?: A man told police that his car was stolen from his home and that there were valuable items in the car, namely his computer and stereo. The car was later found with no signs of forced entry, but all of the valuables were gone. Luckily, the man was able to drive…
Road Happy
For Drive-By Truckers vocalist/guitarist Patterson Hood, an old, familiar nightmare suddenly came true.Just after dusk on a spring night in 2000, about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola, Hood was behind the wheel of his band’s van, driving beneath a sky glowing with red highlights. Traveling at 70 mph, the van topped a low hill when…
News of the Weird
Postmortem bonding: In June, Reuters profiled Jerri Lyons, 55, of Sebastopol, Calif., who conducts seminars on the legalities and etiquette of do-it-yourself funerals, which are supposedly becoming more popular as alternatives to $5,000 funeral home services. According to one Lyons client, personally bathing and dressing a deceased friend made the loss easier to accept. Tip:…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 7.30 An Evening of Nebraska / Andrew Webster — For tonight’s show, performers Bruce Hazel (The Noise) and Justin Faircloth (The Houston Brothers, The Goldenrods, Les Dirt Clods) will shuck corn, discuss the merits of ‘Husker football, and play the latest from Conor Oberst and them crazy Saddle Creek records boys and girls. (Being…
See & Do
JULY 31 THURSDAY Pssst! Only one person can get you a seat at The Hotel Project, the unique by-invitation-only theatre event somewhere in the Marriott City Center. You walk up to the bartender at Cutters Lounge, order a drink, and — if you’re on the reservation list — you get a key to the hotel…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jul. 30 Amos’ Southend Zugizland Baoding Robert Fernandez Brickhouse Tavern, Davidson Robin Brown Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cuvee Wine & Art Gallery Roger Davis Double Door Inn An Evening of Nebraska: Justin Faircloth & Bruce Hazel w/ Andrew Webster The Evening Muse Matador Blues Fat City Watershed w/ Elcodrive Gateway Village Frankie…
Stargazer
For All Signs Because of its importance, one more time I will write the opening paragraph on the subject of Mars’ retrogradation through most of September. If you notice what is happening around you, you will see that people rather instinctively tend to avoid confrontations or disagreements during this period. That is a wise choice…
Two Much
Sorry sequels sour summer cinema
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: My wife and I hired a sitter, drove 10 miles to the suburban megaplex and paid $8.50 each for tickets to see T3. So maybe my behavior can be excused when I lost my temper and asked the gang of very noisy teenagers sitting behind us to pipe down. They made some…
Heaven’s Gait
Adapted from Laura Hillebrand’s enormously popular bestseller, Seabiscuit is a movie that’s sure to be acclaimed as much for what it isn’t as for what it is. It isn’t a big-budget sci-fi extravaganza. It isn’t a heavily hyped sequel. It isn’t about special effects or stuntwork. It isn’t a movie that relies on car chases…
A Curse on a Kiss
After a string of hits that included Never the Sinner, Stop Kiss and [Sic], the intrepid guerrillas at Off-Tryon Theatre Company have hit the wall — from a budgetary standpoint, anyway. Jeremy Cartee and Kristen Jones have plenty of ardent chemistry as the lovebirds in Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss. But there’s scant production…
Tres Jolie
It’s been easy until now to dismiss Angelina Jolie as some sort of gothic flake. Yes, she and ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton really did used to wear vials of one another’s blood. She’s down to 10 tattoos “at last count,” since having his name burned off of her left shoulder. And who among us will…
Spirited Tale
Ghost Riders may be an uncomfortable book for some people. Uncomfortable in the sense that it raises issues and questions about the Civil War many people don’t like to think about. The book also delves gently into the supernatural — which makes some people impatient as well as uncomfortable. But this is a well told,…
