Marah by the Book
Do what? Marah, the street-jivin’, banjo-slingin’, South Philly urban homeboy rock & roll throwbacks have been playing backup for an author’s reading? What’s next? The Oprah’s Book Club stamp of approval? A performance on Book TV? Side stage at Nobel Prize-palooza? Okay, the author is Marah Champion No. 1 Nick Hornby, writer of High Fidelity…
Terrorists & Michael
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “See, I haven’t seen my wife in 30 days, and it was a late night.” – Singer Bobby Brown, explaining to a gift-shop worker that he was smearing Preparation H hemorrhoid cream under his eyes for the sake of his wife, Whitney Houston, as reported by the New York Post. WEDNESDAY,…
Carolina Reggae Fest
What could be a more natural accompaniment to summer’s balmy heat than sweet reggae music? Its tropical groove is uplifting, and the music’s oft-cited positive vibrations are, for the most part, truly palpable. The abrupt arrival of summer this year brings rare appearances by a couple of Jamaican icons. The Carolina Reggae Fest at the…
News of the Weird
LEAD STORY: In an era of tight education budgets, one category of Texas school spending seems unrestrained, according to a May Houston Chronicle story: high school football stadiums. More than 20 new or planned facilities (“gridiron cathedrals”) resemble those of professional teams, with luxury suites, plush locker rooms and weight rooms. The $20 million stadium…
Keep it Southern, Simple
A young band from Boston, fresh-scrubbed and awash in debut-album buzz, gets a call to appear at a local festival with the Guess Who. Backstage, the young Boston singer watches the old Canadian fat guys squeeze into their Spandex and cheekily asks them, “What are you guys doing?” To which one of the balding members…
Letters
Males Are Abused, Too I thoroughly enjoyed reading this week’s article, “Can Domestic Violence Be Prevented?” (by Barbara Solow, June 8). It presented some very valid points such as early intervention and also mentioned factors that sometime preclude an onset of attack or lack of knowledge/outlets that often contribute to its continuance. Having been a…
Sit & Spin
Shakira Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 Sony Sure, sure, she’s as mainstream as they come, from her belly-shaking on MTV to her Pepsi endorsements. So why give Shakira the time of day in an alternative weekly? Here’s why: What gets lost in all the hype (and ridiculous music-pundit pronouncements that she’s “the Latin Britney”) is that…
Drama Chameleon
In the constellation of Tampa Bay area theater artists, St. Petersburg’s Julie Rowe is surely one the brightest stars. In the last two seasons at American Stage, she’s had three important roles: Josie Hogan of A Moon For The Misbegotten; Sarah Daniels of Spinning Into Butter; and, currently, Claire in David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof.…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 6.15 Carolina Reggae Fest – Roots-reggae queen Marcia Griffiths and reggae crooner Beres Hammond headline this Jamaican fest with youngsters Wayne Wonder and Jimmy Cozier opening. See story in Music section. Oasis Shrine Auditorium (Shukla) Tarbox Ramblers – The Ramblers’ 45-inch stagecoach rims churn the dark Delta blues soil, digging through the collected slide…
En garde, touché — up, up and away
Decked out in a flashy, skintight ensemble and floppy white hat, the foppish dandy swings down from a chandelier, twirls his moustache and in a thick, Inspector Clouseau-esque accent, challenges his opponent with a nasally “En Garde!” If that’s your impression of fencing, you’re not alone. The sport hasn’t exactly been embraced in the US…
Crime and Celebrity Redux
The Hot Kid By Elmore Leonard (William Morrow, 312 pages, $25.95) As Elmore Leonard’s 40th novel, The Hot Kid, demonstrates, the gangsters of the Dust Bowl era first fired his imagination to become a writer. As always, this outing lingers on fame and celebrity as much as it does on crime and punishment. Leonard’s cops…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jun. 15 Amos’ Southend U-Phonik and Orange Envy Breakfast Club Dub Access Reggae Double Door Inn The Tarbox RamblersThe Evening Muse Todd Martin & Syd; Troubled Hubble w/ Eric HutchinsonExcelsior Club Michael Porter TrioThe Gin Mill Wizard’s Road ShowIrish Cue, Cornelius Gabe and FriendsMilestone Latterman w/ Give or Take, Karate for Kids Oasis AUDitorium…
The Blotter
Drive-by Shooting: Some unknown bad guys drove by a house occupied by 11 people and fired multiple shots into the place with a shotgun. The only casualty was a front window. Dinner and Brews Interrupted: While drinking beer in the parking lot of a South Boulevard business, a man was accosted by two creeps who…
CL Recommends
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor). Originally written as a serial for a daily newspaper in Edinburgh, 44 Scotland Street chronicles the lives of the residents of the apartment building at that address. Alexander McCall Smith, best known for his delightful No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, says he wrote about a conversation…
Taking Flight
Batman Begins marks the beginning of a beautiful friendship – between the creative forces who’ve resurrected a popular franchise and the film fans who felt betrayed when that same franchise went belly up during the late 90s. Tim Burton may have helmed an exemplary Batman back in 1989, but it took Joel Schumacher to run…
Men Are Pigs
Grant is now of the opinion he is not gay, and claims this whole homosexuality thing is just a rumor started by all the men he’s slept with. We were on the terrace having chips and salsa. I’d just flown in from Frankfurt, where I had once again faked my way across the Atlantic under…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Charlotte Symphony Performs Pink Floyd Guitarist/Vocalist Randy Jackson joins the symphony along with a full band to perform Pink Floyd classics. Fri., June 24, 8 p.m. $22-$44. Ovens Auditorium, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. 704-522-6500. Summer Pops Regional summer concert series. June 17: Energy Explorium, Lake Norman; June 18: Bailey Rd. Park, Cornelius; June…
Film Clips
New Releases THE HONEYMOONERS The classic 1950s TV sitcom gets refitted for a 21st century big-screen excursion, but unfortunately, it’s the audience who gets it right in the kisser. This film has so few connective threads with the original that it’s clear Paramount simply awarded the title to the highest bidder – for all we…
Breaking News
Non-Muslim chainsaw fan and alleged murderer Gregory Despres U.S. GUARDS AT CANADIAN BORDER LET IN BUG-EYED GUY WITH KNIVES, A HOMEMADE SWORD, AND A BLOODY CHAINSAW. Hey, he wasn’t carrying a Quran, so we thought he was safe. CITY COUNCIL CUTS FUNDS FOR SCHOOL CROSSING GUARDS. What’s a dead kid or two as long as…
Charlotte’s Brontë
A few months ago, I asked a Charlotte restaurateur if someone reading a hardback novel in the bar area at night would seem out of place. He replied he had never seen anyone engage in that kind of pursuit in his bar area. On the other hand, people in Seattle commonly read books – paperback…
View From The Couch: Jaws, Coyote Ugly, more
COYOTE UGLY (2000). Providing eye candy for teenage boys, a plucky heroine for teenage girls, and relatively little for adult moviegoers, Coyote Ugly is basically Cocktail with a gender switch (i.e., more emphasis on “tail” than “cock”). Instead of Tom Cruise, we get Piper Perabo, cast as a small-town Jersey girl who heads to New…
See & Do
June 15 – Wednesday Catch It If You Can: Superhero films are starting to pour out of Hollywood, yet what’s noteworthy about this onslaught is that a sizable number of the titles, from the Spider-Man pair to the X-Men duo, have been worth catching. Add Batman Begins to that list: Not only is this attempt…
From Hot Dogs To Top Dog
Tim Ross, Executive Chef for McIntosh’s, went from hot dogs to top dog, turning a part-time job into a lifelong career. A Florida boy at heart, Ross didn’t grow up thinking he was going to be a chef until he got a taste of the excitement that would turn into his career. At 19, Ross…
They’re Christian. They’re Gay. Get Used To It.
He’d heard it before, but somehow this time was different. Black gay men, the pastor’s words read, are a “disgrace to the race.” All his Baptist-believing life, Jeffrey Knight Williams had been told inside and outside the sanctuary that homosexuality was wrong. For most of his life, Williams had struggled to reconcile his attraction to…
Stargazer
Gemini – The Twins (May 20 – June 21) Creative or avante garde ideas that were generated in the past are now yielding applause and positive feedback. Hold in mind that your feelings rarely change. But the Twins often talk to themselves differently every day about what they think about those feelings. For All Signs…
Slice of Heaven
Peter Reinhart, a baker, culinary instructor at Johnson & Wales University and renowned author of several food books (including American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza), told me that his favorite pizza in town is made at Luisa’s Brick Oven. Restaurateur and Milan native Luisa Castiglioni first opened Luisa’s nearly 15 years ago and…
Why I joined the church, and how I left
Growing up homosexual in Asheboro in the late 70s was nothing short of a traumatic experience that I certainly did not choose. As far back as I remember being attracted to guys, the only physical relationship I encountered was non-reciprocal, so I never had a fulfilling sexual experience and knew no one to whom I…
Viva La Fringe!
The whole idea was refreshingly retro last July. City Stage Theatre Festival reprised four fringe theater productions at Spirit Square. Shows that had been successful up in NoDa and down in SouthEnd were corralled by producer Anne Lambert, subsidized by the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and showcased at Duke Power Theatre for one weekend apiece.…
Eat Your Cake
I don’t bake traditional cakes because of my fear of layers: too much architecture for this gal. The cake below, though, is a one-piece bundt baby, without any icing to worry about. With the addition of zucchini, this cake takes a walk on the simpler, earthier side. See if you agree with me on the…
Mississippi Terror
It was an impulse, stopping at a florist in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on a pilgrimage south down State Road 19. I bought three white roses. Two months ago, scoping out the town where three civil rights workers had been killed in 1964, I’d found the now-deserted food store on SR 19 where Ku Klux Klansmen had…
It’s the Berries
They’re tiny, but they pack a wallop. Berries, those colorful little gems, are among the world’s healthiest foods. Want to fight cancer, heart disease and high cholesterol? Eat a bowl of berries. Interested in avoiding kidney stones and the dreaded UTIs? Berries again. They’re even touted as possible protection against Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, so…
It’s Alive!!
North Carolina’s one-man confederacy of dunces, Jesse Helms, has written a book, Here’s Where I Stand, to be released later this year detailing the career that earned him the nickname Senator No, as well as Prince of Darkness and a few we can’t print here. He claims to have been misunderstood. Following are excerpts from…
In Our Own Backyard
You hear about Georgia peaches, Florida citrus and Carolina tobacco, but wine doesn’t often pop up. In fact, most wine snobs wretch from the thought of drinking the juice from these parts. I was definitely a card-carrying member of Club Negative, but things have changed. In the past three years, the Southeastern wine scene has…
Moyers Lauds Crowther
On Friday, June 3, journalist, author and TV host Bill Moyers delivered a blistering indictment of the current state of journalism, including PBS being force-marched to the right by new public broadcasting fuhrer Kenneth Tomlinson. In that speech, Moyers quoted extensively from an article we ran in our June 1 issue by the man Moyers…
Wine List
Wine Classes The interactive classes will explore the essentials of wine and food pairing, tasting techniques and trends in winemaking. Wed., 7pm. $25. Maggiano’s Little Italy, 4400 Sharon Rd. 704-916-2300. Wine Classes for Women A series of classes with three classes per series. Mon & Tues evenings. Salute Wine & Provisions, 2912 Selwyn Ave. 704-343-9095.…
Who’s the Competition?
A shocked silence descended upon the meeting chamber as Charlotte City Council members confronted a shocking truth too horrible to contemplate. The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, coming next February to Charlotte, should have been a slam-dunk for the Queen City, but it wasn’t. Charlotte had had to fight Raleigh tooth and nail for it, Arts…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 6434-F West Sugarcreek Rd., 704-598-6863; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. 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. (Gastonia), 704-866-7574. A favorite of…
Whither the Arts?
By the time you read this, City Council may have finally decided, at its Monday meeting, whether to move forward with the $147 million “arts bundle” – a singularly graceless name for a package of worthy, should-have-been-exciting downtown arts projects. Whether the council killed the bundle or approved funds for planning fix-ups at Discovery Place…
