What’s Up, Docs?
There’s a point in the new documentary An Inconvenient Truth when Al Gore, who now gingerly introduces himself by saying, “I used to be the next president of the United States,” soberly insists that global warming is not a political issue but a moral one. He’s absolutely right, of course, but you wouldn’t know it…
Resurrection Rock
Marilyn Monroe is dead. That hasn’t changed. But a series of resurrections have kept her tattered remains hanging around in various guises since her death in 1962. If you’re thinking Marilyn Manson was the first to turn her into a ghoul, he was about 12 years too late. Glenn Danzig dug up her memory in…
Chill the Moment
Corkscrew Last week, after being held together with Band-Aids for five years, my pathetic 20-year-old A.C. unit finally died. This is a huge tragedy, since I live where summer starts in early April and lasts until Thanksgiving. All work ended; I was so freakin’ hot I couldn’t see straight, much less write anything intelligent or…
The Thought Police
Boomer With Attitude
Dry Humor
I first met George Singleton during Hurricane Ivan’s blow through Atlanta, in September 2004. To keep my feet along the sidewalk, I’d had to clutch at the wall of the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, where Singleton was scheduled to give a reading. Inside, the metal roof was booming. Singleton blew in an hour or…
Getting Grown
Brother with a Pen
Getting Around
Watching Webcams can be like watching paint dry, but if you’re on a virtual travel kick, they’re worth a look. Can you find the underwater hotel in Sweden? For geeky fun, check out the virtual reality link. Virtual Reality www.vrseattle.com Bookmobile Project www.mobilivre.org Road Signs of the World www.elve.net/rcoulst.htm Unusual Hotels www.unusualhotelsoftheworld.com EarthCam www.earthcam.com
Blue Men’s Blues
From Kandia Crazy Horse: Please heed this week’s guest columnist, Kenyan NYU scholar Tavia Nyong’o. As a former resident of Mali and lifelong admirer of the Imazighen people, I felt a Son of Africa should illuminate their plight and that of their greatest rock band, Tinariwen (translation: “the deserts”). When the Kel Tamashek (Tuareg) band…
The Heat Is On
And so it begins, summer that is. OK summer doesn’t really begin until the 21st, but we all know that the beginning of June is the unofficial start. Charlotte kicked off June by closing down a bunch of streets and throwing parties in the form of festivals. Case and point: Taste of Charlotte, First Ward…
Negligence at the Nursing Home
Tammy Terry remembers her mother as a woman who turned her love for animals into a successful dog-grooming business, a woman who never sat idle, who both worked on cars and sewed lingerie. Terry prefers these memories to the other image that is etched indelibly in her mind: Her mom lying alone for four days…
State of Schlock
“The band should be called, ‘I’m in a band with Ted Nugent.'” — Evan Seinfeld As an aging rocker going for one last grab at the spotlight, when does it occur to you that if your comeback is sponsored by Wendy’s new Frescata sandwiches, perhaps you no longer, well, rock? Set in a gaudy Vegas…
Did Honduras and El Salvador Really Fight a War Over Soccer?
Don’t Panic: Your War Questions Answered
Ladies from the Canyon
Two recent books, Michael Walker’s Laurel Canyon and Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California, both examine the SoCal folk- and country-rock scene of the early ’70s. Inevitably, it’s the canyon rock genre’s post-boom cocaine hangover that supplies the juiciest anecdotes. What might have given the volumes greater sociological heft would have been a look at the movement’s…
Fatherhood Unshrugged
As we prepare to celebrate Father’s Day on June 16, let’s first linger a bit on what a father provides. It is impossible to gauge the value of a father. The worth of the man that teaches his daughter how she should be treated by the opposite sex and shows his son the definition of…
Passion Players
For the Denver-based quartet Devotchka, there are no musical borders, only a common thread of musical DNA called passion. The band’s sound has been dubbed “Eastern Bloc indie rock.” But the group’s just as likely to play a mariachi hoedown, Left Bank ballad or spaghetti western epic as it is minor-key rock laments, Spanish fandangos…
Cheap Thrills
4TH SATURDAYS UPTOWN Billed as “A Cultural Exchange & Global Marketplace,” this free event boasts something for everyone. Shopping for the shopaholics, entertainment for the perpetually bored, food for erebody and peace for the single moms in the form of a children’s village (hallelujah!). It’s ongoing on the fourth Saturday of every month from 10am-5pm…
Scott Strikes Rijn Gold
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See & Do
Wednesday, June 14 File this under: “Those guys are still around?” World Party is in essence singer and multi-instrumentalist Karl Wallinger, a Brit fond of those lilting turns and twists of pop music. He launched World Party in the late ’80s after a stint with the Waterboys. Wallinger has always been an astute student of…
Film Clips
New Releases KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS Scott Marshall, the director of Keeping Up With the Steins, is the son of Garry Marshall (The Princess Diaries) and the nephew of Penny Marshall (Awakenings). As a Hollywood dynasty, this bunch doesn’t exactly compare with the Hustons or the Fondas, but like father and aunt, it appears…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I got a job doing Web design in a marketing firm. A woman 10 years my senior was my supervisor, and took an interest in helping me. She really elevated the level of my design work and championed me for promotions. We became friendly after work, occasionally meeting for lunch. I saw…
Finding the Funny
“Hated by most and feared by all” is how Joe Zimmerman is introduced as he struts to the stage and aggressively grabs the microphone stand. But before he says a word, the young comic cracks a smile that crooks to one side and slacks open, letting on that his bad-boy image is a parody –…
Letters
Let the Suburbanites Cry Re: “Drivin’ N’ Cryin” cover story, June 7: I’ll be 60 years old in 2030 when Charlotte’s traffic congestion reduction plan is completed. That’s going to be a while, almost as long as it’s taking to finish I-485. Every time I get on that interstate I feel like I’m going to…
View From The Couch
JOHN FORD FILM COLLECTION (1934-1964). There’s a reason that film critics routinely refer to Martin Scorsese as the greatest living American director, since it’s almost unanimous that John Ford retains the title of the greatest American director, period. (Frankly, I prefer Howard Hawks by a thin margin, but that’s another subject.) Warner Bros. has seen…
Well-packed
Moodswing
Is that Egg on your Face?
Citizen Servatius
Look Mom, now I’ve joined The Perch
Urban Explorer
Go, Speed Racers
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Stargazer
Gemini The Twins (May 20 — June 21) You may be caught between a rock and a hard place this week. Your natural response could be to let loose with a roar. For best results, set aside all temptations to play control and domination roles. Make an effort to see all sides clearly and to…
The Good Earth
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The Blotter
PAINT JOB: After an argument with a 48-year-old woman over paint, a confrontational suspect left her house. The woman believed he’d left the house completely. He hadn’t. Walking back from outside the house, the suspect yelled, “There’s your paint, bitch!” The woman walked outside to see the suspect had thrown white paint on the side…
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When it was completed in the late 1920s, Wilkinson Boulevard became the Carolinas’ first four-lane highway. Stretching from Gastonia to Charlotte, it was an important thoroughfare when the Charlotte Municipal Airport opened in 1935. Two decades later, the airport was renamed Douglas Municipal Airport after former Charlotte mayor Ben Douglas, Sr., and Wilkinson Boulevard was…
