The lady in the Land Rover at Latta Park
Today was one of those days where you wanted to take a nice lunch in one of Mecklenburg County’s parks. It’s not blazing hot and the sun is just beautiful. I made the mistake of going to Latta Park in Dilworth to eat my lunch and get in a little reading. The parking lot was…
Can these two just kiss and make up?
Here’s another reason why I hate the NBA. Shaq is a big grown ass man, why is he offering little Kobe his ass to kiss or asking Kobe how his ass tastes? Classless and not that damned funny.
Superbowl ad for new movie Wall-E
‘Cause it’ s mega cute! \\\\\\\\\\ Wall-E comes out this Friday.
Movie trailers for this week’s film reviews
The Love Guru \\\\\\\\\\ Get Smart \\\\\\\\\\
Golgatha Records Futurefest, 6/21/08
Photos by Jeaumane McIntosh
BlackFinn…coming soon!
BlackFinn Restaurant and Saloon is coming soon to an EpiCentre near you on July 24. But there’s already a BlackFinn in Norfolk’s Waterside – Norfolk’s slightly outdated version of the EpiCentre. Ahh, Norfolk … where every week is Fleet Week. I was there this past weekend for a bachelorette party, which gave me the perfect…
Quote this
“It’s worth noting that where white people buy coffee is almost as important as the drink itself. For the most part, white people love Starbucks, although they will profess to hate how the chain is now a multinational corporation. This hatred is often sublimated by their relief at seeing one in an airport. The best…
CL’s Field Day + After Party @ George Herman’s, 6/21/08
Photos by Tricia Gillis
Goodbye to one of the greats
One of the all-time greats of American comedy, stand-up comedian/author/actor George Carlin died yesterday of heart failure at age 71. At some point today, it might be suitable for all of us who respected Carlin to shout out “The Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” – shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and…
How greedy are you? Psycho CEO!
Most people who know me, know two things about me. I hate thunderstorms and I love football. I love football so much, I wrote a book about it (www.cherishodges.com for more details). I digress, though. This morning, I was checking out the SI website to see what was going on with my favorite football team(and…
I love this chick!
Ladies and gentlemen … (if you haven’t already) meet Esperanza Spalding. She makes really good music. Her CD is on sale right now. In the meantime, check her out: \\\\\\\\\\
HeroesCon, 6/21/08
Photos by Charlotte Vibe Photography
Mint After 5, 6/20/08
Photos by Charlotte Vibe Photography
Can we stop worshipping Tim Russert yet?
From every indication, the late NBC journalist Tim Russert was a decent guy. That ought to be enough. Let his family and friends remember him and celebrate his life in private, and let it rest. The way the mainstream media turned the unexpected death of this really quite average TV newsman into a syrupy, weeklong…
News Roundup, 6/20/08
Latest floating “foot” turns out to be a hoax: Authorities revealed Thursday that the sixth foot to wash up on the shores of British Columbia is not human. Someone used a skeletal animal foot and lower leg surrounded by seaweed to stuff a sneaker and appear to be a severed human foot. Full story: CNN.com…
The Piggy Back Boink
Everybody loves a good piggy back ride, and this one proves to be one of the best a man could get. To properly execute this position, both partners need to be in the standing position, with the male “rider” facing towards the woman’s rear end. The woman now must embrace herself against a wall or…
Opening soon: Howl at the Moon
Howl at the Moon at the EpiCentre opens this Friday, but last night they had a pre-grand opening party that doubled as their dress rehearsal. Because the whole operation is just one big show, but we’re not talking concerts or plays – It’s a Dueling Piano Bar starring piano men that would make Billy Joel…
The Weekender
Friday, June 20 Film Get Smart: Thanks to cable’s Nick at Nite, I spent many a long hour watching Maxwell Smart talking into a shoe phone and be rescued by Agent 99 – despite the fact that I was born in the ’80s. Even if I didn’t have fond childhood memories of the show, I’d…
News Roundup, 6/19/08
Zimbabwe: Harare mayor’s wife ‘bludgeoned to death’: Abigail Chiroto was found in a mortuary near her home after being kidnapped and beaten to death. Her face was almost unrecognizable. Four other activists against President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party were also killed. Chiroto’s four-year-old son was kidnapped with his mother, but was released unharmed. Full story:…
I would have endorsed sooner, but the primary was over so quickly
By Al Gore So the chatty Cathys on the Internet are poo-pooing my endorsement of Obama. Listen up, Blogosphere, I made you and I can destroy you! How’d ya like it if I stuck my carbon footprint up your ass? Listen, people, this was a tough decision. I had to ask, “Who’s better for the…
Thirsty?!?
We have a winner! Thanks for playing and stay tuned for more free shit! The first person to e-mail me won two free all inclusive passes to this… June 19 — Thirsty Thursday at the Knights Game with the Sisters of Swat Compliments of qcvibes.com, RockHouse Events & Bud Light Lime. The lucky e-mailer will…
This way to better media
“This way to better media,” read the floor sign directing people through a skyway to the Minneapolis Convention Center. Thousands of people gathered there for the fourth National Conference for Media Reform, hosted by freepress.net. They came from all walks of life and all ages to address a central crisis in our society: our broken…
No more case of the Mondays!
Looks like somebody’s having a case of the Mondays… But not me! Turns out, Monday is as just of a fun day as Sunday…at least judging by the crowd that almost filled Dixie’s Tavern to maximum capacity last night. I saw everyone I’d see on a typical Saturday night out, and by everyone I mean…
News Roundup, 6/18/08
Israel calls for Lebanese peace talks: Israel and Gaza’s Hamas leaders have agreed to a truce that begins Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and is set to last for six months. Peace talks are planned, but for any truce to be successful for the Israelis, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Gaza militants in…
Charlotte Bestsellers List
1. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris 2. The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina by Rob Christensen 3. The Boomer Burden: Dealing With Your Parents’ Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff by Julie Hall 4. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch 5. Three Cups…
Sweet Tea Jubilee hits Symphony Park
The Sweet Tea Jubilee, a free, all-day music and arts festival to benefit the Levine Children’s Hospital, will be held on from noon to 8 p.m. on June 21 at Symphony Park at SouthPark Mall. Headlining the event will be An All-Star Show of Supreme Temptation, celebrating Motown’s 50th anniversary. Richard Street, lead singer of…
Class: Bang bang
CLASS
Women Who Rock
I am woman. Watch me rock. (Roaring is so 1970s.) It’s easy to be a woman who talks loud, but what about the chicks who are doing something? You know, like, making a mark on the community with culture, art and sheer intelligence? These are the women who rock. The women who put talk into…
CL previews upcoming shows
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 Chuck Prophet The one-time member of seminal cosmic country rockers Green on Red has released some great solo discs, specifically 1997’s guitar-happy Homemade Blood and 2000’s more experimental The Hurting Business, which sounded like Joe Henry run through Beck’s sampler: weirdly good. Subsequent releases haven’t quite hit those same heights, but there’s…
Home is for Heroes
HeroesCon returns to the Q.C., welcomes old and new friends
Ask the Editor
Q: What do think about taco carts in the Q.C.? A: Yo, I love our local taco carts. You know, those mobile kitchens you see around Charlotte that cook and sell tacos and other Latino-flavored foods? I live off South Boulevard (go Team Starmount!), and that area is swarming with numerous carts — which makes…
Hollis hits town
• Creative Loafing’s own Hollis Gillespie will be offering a writing seminar from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday, June 22, for those people who think their life could be the basis for the literary hit of the year if they could just manage to write about it. In this seminar, Hollis will offer critiques,…
What ‘attack on our culture’?
The national debate over illegal immigration is close to careening out of control. Despite critics’ claims to the contrary, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been rounding up undocumented workers in unprecedented numbers. Right-wing talking heads’ language and tone have become more and more hateful. Physical attacks on Hispanics in the United States are…
Festival: Gone to the dogs
FESTIVAL
Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files
HOW NOT TO GET A DATE: A 27-year-old woman said a man she gave her phone number to has been calling and threatening her for the past several days. She said the man calls saying things like, “I know where you live and I’m going to f*** you up.” He started making the threatening calls…
The elephant in the room
Over the last few weeks, South Africa was rocked by xenophobic attacks with tragic consequences. More than 60 people were killed, with reports now stating that about 21 of those people were actually South African citizens. More than 20,000 people have been displaced, and thousands are still suffering in hospitals from their wounds. However, a…
Summer this, summer that
JUNE 19 — Wine Tasting. Spend an evening with gourmet wines of Clos Du Val Napa Valley. The Californian winery, founded in 1972 is renowned for their French Bordeaux-style wines that dazzled the French during a wine tasting contest in 1976. Still in action, this winery went on to purchase vineyards in Australia and France.…
Tequila Lary strikes again
“I’ve had my requisite two beers and two tequilas, and I feel I am now qualified as a carpenter. I am headed over to your house with a chain saw. I hope you are home.” Normally I’d be frightened if I knew there was a drunk guy with a chain saw on his way to…
Forget the economy
This fall, many voters will go to the polls and vote for “change,” whatever that is, or for the guy they think will lower their monthly gasoline bill. (Only Jesus Christ himself could do that at this point, but many voters don’t know that.) They’ll cast their votes in reaction to the economic conditions of…
CD Review: Bun B
The Deal: One half of the legendary Dirty South duo UGK (Underground Kings) releases his first album after the death of his partner Pimp C and proves why even the most critical hip-hop heads can’t hate on his Southern swag. The Good: II Trill, much like his prior album Trill, features a diverse group of…
Stargazer
Cancer The Crab: (June 21 — July 21) Venus enters your sign this week and will be traveling “with you” through July 11. Often when Venus is prominent we become more interested in art forms. She has the power to turn introverts into extroverts for the short period of her journey. We have a greater…
Home builders hit with fines
Construction of at least two Charlotte subdivisions violated Clean Water Act
CD Review: Adem
The Deal: Yet another covers record … The Good: It seems, these days, every musician has in their contract – the one signed in blood at Robert Johnson’s crossroads – a covers-record requirement. With the surprise factor vanquished forever, the only intrigue left is who the artist aligns themselves with in their choice of covers,…
Film Clips
New Releases THE FOOT FIST WAY Certainly, we here at CL want to promote and celebrate regional filmmaking whenever possible, but not at the expense of credibility. To be sure, somebody appreciated this low-budget comedy co-written by buddies Jody Hill (who also directed), Danny McBride and Ben Best (all products of the North Carolina School…
Fighting domestic violence
Charlotte domestic violence advocates want the city to be known as a community that doesn’t tolerate domestic violence. And, they say, more people — children, even — need to know how to recognize the signs and fight the problem. “It is a problem that we all have to share,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Sgt. Vicky Suarez,…
CD Review: Man Raze
The Deal: Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, The Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook and Girl’s Simon Laffy join forces for new group. The Good: The album tears off from the start with “This Is,” a hard-rocking song with raspy vocals, heavy drums and rock riffs. You can easily hear the punk influence, but at the same time…
View from the Couch
DIRTY HARRY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION (1971-1988). It’d be a joke (to say nothing of an obvious money-grab) were Warner Bros. ever to offer another Dirty Harry box set at any point in the future: This superb collection is as good as it’s gonna get, showcasing all five titles in the series in newly remastered editions…
Letters to the editor
All about Aldi What universe does CL live in? It must be a universe of gas for $1 per gallon and an economic future free of fear of job losses and health care expenses, for your article (“Store Wars” by Tricia Childress, June 4) only briefly mentioned rising food and transportation costs — both of…
CD Review: Islands
The Deal: Montreal pop/indie band releases sophomore album two years after highly-praised debut. The Good: There must be something in the water up in Montreal. First, it was Arcade Fire and now, the overwhelming buzz/hype/praise is sure to follow Islands. Arm’s Way is strong from start to finish. The album’s instrumentation is downright inspiring and…
Drawing on the past
The Incredible Hulk attempts to rebound from previous mistakes
Justin Ruckman
One question that crosses a lot of people’s minds after riding the information superhighway is, “Who thinks of this stuff?” Creative minds like Justin Ruckman are the mediums responsible for bringing us virtual communities and spreading the word about eco-friendly fuels. “I do a lot of freelance Web site design and consulting,” says Ruckman, the…
CD Review: Weezer
The Deal: Pop-rockers release third self-titled album, sixth studio effort since 1994. The Good: The band worked with a handful of producers, but none changed the standard Weezer sound. Singer Rivers Cuomo went for his usual mass-appeal method of songwriting. The first single from the album, “Pork and Beans,” has shot up the album charts.…
Groovy Grüner
“I’m from the hippy era — peace, love, groovy.” –’80s rock icon Rick James I use the word “groovy” a lot. It occasionally pisses off the “older demographic” when I casually hijack their word — sprinkling it over my sentences like a watering can. But I dig groovy. My mother was an unapologetic flower child…
Last week on The CLog …
City Council, take note: “Taser International, the largest producer of Taser weapons, suffered its first defeat in a product liability court case. TI lost a $6.2 million jury verdict last week over the death of a California man … Once again, I urge City Council to temporarily stop the use of Tasers by police until…
CD Review: Portishead
The Deal: Brit trip-hop band releases third studio album, first in 10 years. The Good: Portishead hasn’t forgotten their past, as the new album falls in line with the others. I always remembered the group as having a sleepy vibe and that continues right from the start with “Silence.” “The Rip” starts off slow before…
Dough boys
Artisan and N.Y.-style pizzas gather fans
‘Women Who Rock’ at Pop Life
On June 25, Pop Life will — for the 3rd time in two years — honor women who are making Charlotte a cooler place to live during our “Women Who Rock” award presentation. The ceremony ties into this week’s cover story — which recognizes six funky chicks — but during the live event we’ll pass…
Tasty bites
Congratulations to Charlottean Peter Reinhart for winning the 2008 James Beard “Baking and Dessert Cookbook” award for his Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor (Ten Speed Press, 2007). This is his second James Beard award. Reinhart is the chef-on-assignment at Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte. Now Open: • Mime, the owner of Mai Japanese…
Tony Koo, restaurant owner
Tony Koo has spent much of the last 20 years working his way across the United States. From L.A. to New York, he has bounced around until he found a city and a restaurant that was just right. “I came here from Malaysia. My family needed help. First I worked in L.A. I didn’t like…
Drag, strip
You don’t have to take your clothes off Nate Mitchell of the band Cars Can Be Blue shows off his muscle-bound frame June 14 during a performance at Snug Harbor. Hide and spin DJ Fraser, one half of the wax-spinning duo The Fresh Catz, ducks behind a turntable at last Wednesday’s edition of Pop Life…
This way to better media
“This way to better media,” read the floor sign directing people through a skyway to the Minneapolis Convention Center. Thousands of people gathered there for the fourth National Conference for Media Reform, hosted by freepress.net. They came from all walks of life and all ages to address a central crisis in our society: our broken…
What happens in NashVegas …
What happens in NashVegas … gets published in this column. Some boots are made for walking, but mine are for going to the Country Music Association Festival in Nashville. They don’t call it NashVegas for nothing. Perhaps because much of Nashville’s nightlife is like a tourist attraction — such as The Stage, Tootsies and Legends.…
Theater: Sisterly love, war
There’s always time to leave the guys at home and have a girls night out. So why not go see Davidson Community Players’ production of Little Women: The Musical? Guys, you can stop reading now. The musical is based on Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women (published in 1868) and follows the story of four…
New Artists 2008
Exhibit: New Artists 2008 Dates: Showing now through July 1 Location: Elder Gallery, Suite 101, 1427 South Blvd. Info: 704-370-6337 or www.elderart.com Elder Gallery opens its doors to its latest group of talented artists. Bringing together the best of the West and East Coasts in a triumph of textures, styles and points of view, this…
‘Of murder and misery’
If you’re hankerin’ for the juncture where the all-American art forms of old-school bluegrass and murder ballads come together, and where the song’s punch line is written in, well, mayhem, then say hello to San Francisco’s The Pine Box Boys. Few bands are as adept at writing such spiky songs and self-describe themselves as “singers…
Convention: One ‘incredible’ con
CONVENTION
Literary ball-hogging
It’s risky if irresistible business to decipher the work of any artist — actor, writer, painter, whatever — through the lens of their personal lives. That said, it can be informative. Take Salman Rushdie, who, like so many authors, decries reading his novels as windows into his personal travails. Then again, what else could a…
Trial by fire
The Pink Spiders keep crawling after bus blaze
