Jun 18-24, 2014

Jun 18-24, 2014 / Vol. 28 / No. 17

Cover Story

Poetry in plain sight

Amy Bagwell — poet, artist, educator — sits on the back patio at Snug Harbor on a steamy May evening, sipping from a beading can of Sierra Nevada and holding forth on the NBA Playoffs, a new documentary about the rock band The National and sundry other topics. In the background, the bar’s staff readies…

John Schacht

Straight from the source

“I don’t give a damn if my opinion is unorthodox,” Homeboy Sandman shouted to the Snug Harbor crowd last Monday, ending a verse of his song “Whatchu Want From Me?” It’s a line which summarizes that which makes him so intriguing. Whether it’s admonishing other rappers for using gun sounds in their song backgrounds, or…

Erin Tracy-Blackwood

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (June 19)

Game of Homes: A 57-year-old woman filed a police report after waking up one morning to find an arrow sticking straight out of the roof of her home. Popped-Sicle: A 51-year-old ice cream truck driver called police after being robbed last week. The man told officers that two unknown suspects punched him in the face…

Ryan Pitkin

Weekly horoscope (June 19-25)

For All Signs: For the next two weeks, Mars is opposite Uranus and very close to the square of Pluto. When these energies are working in combination they are known by astrologers to be very powerful, toward the good or ill. Both are hard on the physical body. Mars increases adrenaline and cortisol, resulting from…

Vivian Carol

Back in the game

In last week’s issue of Creative Loafing, I offered my picks of numbers 6-10 on the list of the best games created for the Atari 2600 back during the game console’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s (for the record, they were Adventure, H.E.R.O., Yars’ Revenge, Space Invaders and Ms. Pac-Man). Here, I present the…

Adam Frazier

Theater review: Passing Strange

When you come across an original musical whose title is a quote within a Shakespearean quote, you’re right to suspect that its creator is a person with a lot to say. Basing his musical on his own artistic development, starting with his middle-class upbringing in L.A. before taking us through his formative sojourns in Amsterdam…

Perry Tannenbaum

Alexander Michael’s: Where everybody knows your name

When I was working Uptown in my early, post-college years and craved a beer after work, I had to walk a few miles. Uphill. Sometimes barefoot and in oppressive summer heat — or in the middle of a snowstorm. You kids don’t know how good you have it now that downtown Charlotte offers a choice…

Page Leggett

Dwele Fierce

To watch Dwele’s videos, you might think the neo-soul singer is naturally outgoing: he wears slick, fashionable outfits and moves with cool, measured confidence. He’s worked with Kanye West — those are his languid vocals on the chorus on 2007 single “Flashing Lights” — and he’s seen a Grammy nod for a re-imagined Earth, Wind,…

Corbie Hill

CD Review: Swans’ To Be Kind

“People always consider us to be very dour and depressing, but fuck that shit,” chief Swan Michael Gira told Pitchfork in 2012. “The goal is ecstasy.” Ecstasy has two definitions. In the common vernacular, it’s commensurate with elation and blissful delight. But its first meaning denoted an out-of-body experience, an altered state of mystic self-transcendence.…

Patrick Wall

CD Review: Sylvan Esso’s Sylvan Esso

More than two years ago, the enchanting folk trio Mountain Man shared a bill with Nick Sanborn’s hip-hop-inspired electronic project, Made of Oaks. Few could have imagined that such disparate acts could mesh together so wonderfully, but alas that seemingly random pairing resulted in one of the most exciting acts to come from North Carolina…

Clifton Golden

City takes up abating gentrification

Michael Doney hates the term “urban pioneer,” usually reserved for relatively affluent individuals who are the first of their peers to venture into gritty neighborhoods and set up shop. Still, Doney, owner of 5 Points Realty, fit the profile when he purchased a home in Wesley Heights almost 15 years ago. Doney says buying in…

Emiene Wright and Ana McKenzie

It takes three: Dylan Gilbert in studio with his alt-rock trio Hectorina

A few miles north of downtown, Hectorina’s three band members — singer/guitarist Dylan Gilbert, bassist Zach Jordan and drummer John Harrell III are laying down tracks for the band’s upcoming, yet-to-be-titled album at Old House Studio. The bandmates cut jokes between takes, play riffs by Smashing Pumpkins and Bee Gees to lighten the mood and…

Jeff Hahne

Far from the tree

The trailer was packed. We had been ready to hit the road for nearly a half hour. As I listened to my father leave a third and final agitated voicemail for my brother, I wondered if this camping trip was a good idea. “A lot of things can get worked out in the woods,” he…

Julia Martin

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