Right Plot, Right Time
Once in a while, a book comes out that seems to have been written from current headlines. Thief of Words is one of those books with the right plot at the right time.At first, Thief of Words seems to be headed to being a mystery, but it’s really a love story with a strong plot.…
Letters
Tara Rules I have whittled my subscription down to weekend only for the Observer and that may be gone shortly. I wait eagerly each week to see what Tara Servatius or The Rhino is going to uncover. Tara has exposed the Observer for what it truly is — a group of pseudo-intellects that regurgitate the…
Arts Agenda
indicates critics’ picks. Classical Music Jazz & Classical Essentials Sunday Brunch Borders will be playing jazz and classical music from their essential catalogs. Coffee and pastry provided. Sundays, 1-3 p.m. Free. Borders, Morrocroft, 3900 Colony Rd. 704-365-6261. John Apple Recital presented by the Charlotte Chapter of American Guild of Organists. First United Methodist Church, 501…
The Blotter
Trip To The Unknown: Police presence distressed an unknown driver who, after spotting an officer sitting in his car, zoomed off at high speed. The officer reported that the driver fled so quickly he was unable to view the tag number or to initiate a traffic stop. But the officer was fast enough to track…
The Good China
When Wenda Chen bought the Ruby Palace in Matthews he added the word Bistro and thought everyone would know the place had changed from a buffet style Chinese spot to a restaurant. Not everyone has caught on, and that was three years ago. In 2000 Chef Chen sold his share and left the kitchen of…
Et Tu Vitis?
Humble beginnings make such good stories. And any good rise-from-the-ashes dramatic account should feature creativity, innovation and a hero. America’s thirsty quest for wine is no exception. Our forefathers spied plump, native fruit on a vine, and eagerly pressed and fermented it to create wine. But can you taste how unimaginably nasty that first batch…
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.…
For Whom Bell Toils
Three words: William Shatner album. Whoa…Didn’t mean to scare you like that. But Captain Kirk’s 1968 foray into recording, The Transformed Man — with its overly dramatic and unintentionally absurd cover songs — nicely illustrates what can and usually does go wrong when artists attempt to, er, expand their horizons. When most performers invade other…
The Good Girls
Wendy Tonetti and Sharon Sanders are continuing to do good deeds with the newly renamed charity Kids First of the Carolinas. The two ladies began helping families in need over 17 years ago as The Shelter Medical Clinic for the Homeless, but due to changes in healthcare regulations they had to close the medical aspect…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 6.18 Go Machine — Chapel Hill band deconstructs sound using ambient scapes and rhythm adjustments incorporating turntables, violin, computers, Theremin, doumbek, accordion and more. It works in a pop contortionist manner, while keeping melody in check. Damn intriguing. Fat City (Shukla) FRIDAY 6.20 DJ Rap — The possessor of model-like looks, an excellent junglist…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jun. 18 Baoding Robert Fernandez Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Scott Johnson Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Caribou Coffee, East Blvd Ken Foust Comet Grill Anamcara The Evening Muse Jay Garrigan w/ Lauren Echo, No Evil Fairwinds Coffee Co., Cornelius Lena Mars Fat City Go Machine w/ Your Black Star Graduate, Gastonia Acoustic Jam…
News of the Weird
Oregon organ: No state has had more serious budget anxiety attacks recently than Oregon, which saw some public schools close early this year after running out of money. However, another crisis surfaced in April when death-row inmate Horacio Reyes-Camarena told prison officials he would reluctantly accept the kidney transplant that would save Oregon taxpayers most…
Hollywood Homicide: Police Brutality
A few weeks ago when The Matrix Reloaded opened, much of the talk centered around the highway chase sequence that lasts a full 15 minutes. But that set piece is mere child’s play when compared to the climactic chase that closes Hollywood Homicide (* out of four): This one lasts a full three hours. Or…
See & Do
june18 wednesday The Juneteenth Festival of the Carolinas honors ancestors who were brought to this country as slaves. This year’s celebration kicks off with a banquet today at Four Points Sheraton Hotel Uptown. The festivities continue through Sunday with events at Independence Park, at 300 Hawthorne Lane. Thursday is a day for children, with dance…
More Than Just Atticus
Maybe things would have turned out differently had I been weaned on a steady diet of The Partridge Family and Adam 12. But it was the early 70s, my family was living in Portugal, and the most common form of American programming on the country’s sole television station was a constant stream of classic Hollywood…
Ah, Whadda You Know?
A hearty thanks to Henry Rollins, The Rollins Band and Keith Morris for their Tremont Music Hall show last Wednesday. The house was packed for the midweek gig, and — and — most of the audience was more than 20 years old, defying all sorts of conventional Charlotte thinking where booking is concerned. And all…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES THE DANCER UPSTAIRS Javier Bardem was already a superstar in his native Spain before his superb, Oscar-nominated turn in Before Night Falls made US viewers take notice. But if his performance as gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas showed off his talents as a chameleonic thespian, his work in The Dancer Upstairs trumpets his…
Karma Cleanser
Dear readers: Two weeks ago, we picked your collective brains for an answer to “Clueless.” Quick recap: Hardworking single dad gets laid off, has no luck finding a new gig, doesn’t understand why the universe hates him. Boy, did we get some feedback! Advice-givers urged Clueless to do everything from joining the Democratic Party to…
Hillary Reconsidered
If you can trust the word of a publisher in promotion-mode, then Living History is making money: Simon & Schuster reported on Tuesday, June 10 that 200,000 Americans had celebrated the first two days of publication of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s memoir by paying $28 and taking it home. We asked some American novelists — John…
Stargazer
For All Signs The summer solstice comes at 3:11pm EDT on the 21st. This is the point of the year at which the northern hemisphere is tilted closest to the sun, so it is also theoretically the longest day of the year. For centuries, pagans (country people) celebrated this day with prayers and requests for…
CMU Lets Sewage Spills Slide
As used condoms and the raw sewage sludge they arrived in continue to pile up behind David and Olivia McManus’ home on Lansbury Court, the list of people Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities (CMU) neglected to tell about the millions of gallons of sewage it spilled of late is growing longer and more shocking.Neighborhood parents weren’t the only…
Food Terrorism
The front line in the war on terrorism can be found at airport security checkpoints around the country. In order to safeguard American travelers, carrying a pair of nail clippers has become an act of sedition. It turns out, though, that nail clippers aren’t banned because someone thinks an aircraft could be commandeered using a…
Studs in Stripes
“HANDSOME MUNITIONS ENTHUSIAST, ZEALOUS, FAITHFUL AND FIT. HOBBIES INCLUDE REALLY LONG WALKS IN THE WOODS, FORAGING, AND THE BIBLE. SEARCHING FOR SWF WHO OBEYS OLD TESTAMENT GOD, HAS INFINITE PATIENCE AND LONGS FOR OLD-FASHIONED COURTSHIP OF LETTER WRITING, ARMED CHAPERONES AND SEXUAL FRUSTRATION. ABILITY TO ACCEPT COLLECT CALLS A MUST. LAW DEGREE DESIRABLE.” Yes, he…
We Aren’t the World
In the mid-1990s, the well-known French filmmaker Claude Berri warned that without protection from American cultural exports, “European culture is finished.” He had plenty of pessimistic company. In that era, French Culture Minister Jack Lang spoke in terms of America’s irrepressible “cultural imperialism.” The popularity of a work like Jurassic Park was identified as a…
Stern Assessment
How appropriate. The very week that Charlotte unveils its new NBA team, the first game in the NBA finals scores a 6.4 Nielson television rating, a staggering 40 percent drop from last year’s opening game. In the 21 years the league has been airing finals, no game has attracted a smaller viewership. Even the famous…
