From the Motherland
The term “West African” cuisine is not mentioned in most culinary source books. Whereas the term “French” has pages devoted to describing dishes and techniques named for the French, oddly enough you will find hardly a mention of thiebou djenne, yassa or plasas. But there is nothing unfamiliar about these West African dishes here in…
The Other Racial Profiling
Consider the following statements: “Most Negroes, unless forced by dire necessity to earn their livelihood with “the sweat of their brow,’ (are) loath to undertake any work that dirties the hands.” “The Negro mind has an all-encompassing preoccupation with sex.” “In the Negro view of human nature, no person is supposed to be able to…
For Love or Profit?
Remember the weird kid on your block who loved playing in the mud? He’d emerge for lunch plastered with dark gook, smiling like a cat with a canary. When that kid grew up, he might have become a winemaker. As adults, they get their jollies digging in the dirt and obsessing over leaves, mealy worms…
Letters
Brits Equally To Blame While I have previously appreciated much of what David Walters has had to say, “Hopeless in Gaza” (May 19) exists somewhere between misrepresentation and complete fabrication. Sir David of Arabia seems to buy into the myth that the English are our smarter, more civilized cousins who have somehow been dragged to…
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.…
News of the Weird
Creative fundraising: Norwegian activists Tommy Hol Ellingsen and his girlfriend, seeking new funding sources for the environmental movement, created a website earlier this year that charges visitors about $15 a month to view pornographic photos of the couple, with all profits to benefit environmental organizations (although some were reported ethically reluctant to accept the money).…
Future Shock
Poor Nick Hornby. The British author of High Fidelity fame and erstwhile music critic is at it again, this time in a recent New York Times op-ed piece bemoaning the fact that rock music has become too experimental and “self-conscious,” and that no one — with the apparent exception of Philadelphia’s Marah — remembers how…
My June Bride Bail-Out Guide
A headline touting a “bail-out-the-bride kit” caught my eye. Now there’s an idea, I thought, assuming it referred to something that would help a bride realize that she could, and maybe really should, bail out of her big day, but it turns out that the Emergency Wedding Kit just provides fluff stuff like a safety…
Sit & Spin
Mission of Burma ONOFFON Matador In 1980, Boston’s Mission of Burma released the “Academy Fight Song/Max Ernst” 7-inch. Not only was this one of the finest American post-punk singles, it was also hugely influential on the burgeoning hardcore scene developing across the US underground. Strange, because the song features acoustic guitars, jazzy bass chords, tape…
Geezer Rocks and Giveaways
Ah, SpeedStreet. Land of the five-dollar beer, free giveaways, and more girls with those little tattoos in the small of their back than in all the pornos “Silicone Valley” has ever produced. At two points one evening, I was walking through the crowd and reached some massive congestion. Thinking quickly, I attempted to take what…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 6.2 Kevin Montgomery / Cast Iron Filter — Montgomery has that mellow, “riding through the desert with the radio on,” 70s country-rock persona. No, Don Henley didn’t change his name, and Montgomery holds his own with evocative tales of running off to California, suicide and torn-apart lovers, his sweet voice pulling it all off…
The Blotter
A DULL ATTACK: A police report was filed recently from a nursing home. According to the report, two of the residents got into a dispute and one of them grabbed a butter knife and assaulted the other with it. The butter knife caused minor hand and scalp injuries. HOW NOT TO BEAT THE HEAT: There…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jun. 2 Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Scott Johnson Blue Melinda Hansen, Royce Guin, Korey Dudley & Rob Knox Breakfast Club DJ Boney B Buckhead Saloon Scott Munns Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cecil’s Robin Rogers Band Double Door Inn The Pain Killers The Evening Muse Kevin Montgomery; Cast Iron Filter George Washington Bookstore…
Katchikally African and American Cuisine
From the Motherland Surprisingly familiar West African foodThe term “West African” cuisine is not mentioned in most culinary source books. Whereas the term “French” has pages devoted to describing dishes and techniques named for the French, oddly enough you will find hardly a mention of thiebou djenne, yassa or plasas. But there is nothing unfamiliar…
Harry Plodder
Nobody could ever accuse director Chris Columbus of making art; most of the time, nobody could even accuse him of making good movies. But Columbus kept up his end when helping to bring the first two movies in the Harry Potter series to the screen. In helming 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and…
That 70s Show
The end-of-the-world extravaganza The Day After Tomorrow could stand to be stupider. That’s not to say that Mensa members will feel mentally stimulated after watching this latest infomercial on global property destruction from the director of Independence Day and the ill-fated Godzilla remake. It’s just that when it comes to making a big, loud, occasionally…
Street Talk
Josephine Wagner Freelance Writer “Yes, I would. I spent more last week on a busted tire I got from hitting a pothole than I’d pay in extra taxes, and if I can get a new museum in the bargain, that’s gravy.” Chip Finch IT Specialist “Absolutely not. If they want to fix potholes, why not…
View From The Couch
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963). Forget the film school staples for a moment: If you cross off the usual suspects (Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Seventh Seal, etc.) from my list of the greatest movies ever made, this World War II adventure yarn would probably be what’s left standing at the very top. Certainly, it’d be a…
See & Do
JUNE 3 – THURSDAY The Light Factory will present The Best of Full Frame at 7:30pm tonight and tomorrow night in the Duke Power Theater at Spirit Square. Two of this year’s award winners at Durham’s acclaimed Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be screened, with Born Into Brothels airing tonight and Word Wars being…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES FACTORY FILMS The Light Factory film series presents “The Best of Full Frame,” featuring two Audience Award winners from this year’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Movies will be shown June 3-4 at Spirit Square; call 704-333-9755 for schedule and other info. * BORN INTO BROTHELS Between that title and the film’s topic…
Ask the Advice Goddess
The Grill of The Chase I have three tests for a woman before I’ll get involved with her: 1. Magazine Test: Does she read gossip rags? Women who do like to talk trash, and I want no part of that. 2. Penny Test: Does she react negatively when I buy a candy bar with a…
Who Crapped in the Sand Box?
It was years in the planning, consisted of 24,740 cubic yards of concrete, 6,924 tons of structural steel and sprawled across more than a million square feet of earth. And it was surrounded by 6,073 asphalt parking spaces, where just a few years ago had been wetlands and forest. In the first four and a…
Stargazer
For All Signs Symbols suggest this is a time when we may be hearing about especially sad or sorrowful events going on around us. Illnesses, death, separations, or losses of other types may be prominent in the news. Anger is a good defense and can sometimes drive away compassion. As individuals we must hold onto…
“I Killed Innocent People”
For nearly 12 years, Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey was a hardcore, some say “gung-ho,” Marine. For three years he trained fellow Marines in one of the most grueling indoctrination rituals in military life — Marine boot camp. The Iraqi war changed Massey. The brutality, the sheer carnage touched his conscience and transformed him forever. He…
Mono In Stereo
So sweetly exuberant are Margret Kuehni’s playful, color-drenched, abstract monotypes that you wonder what would happen if, when she made them, she were deliriously happy rather than, as she says in her artist’s statement, cautiously happy. Kuehni’s “delight in putting color and form together” is contagious: Fragments, on view at Blue Pony Gallery through June…
So I Went To This Talk Show…
When you write a weekly column about any topic, you’re always looking for the gimme. Well, home readers, I had something like that in the palm of my hand, but was forced by an experienced television production company to bring this to you instead in a different form. I will tell you about what I…
Sweets For His Sweet
Imagine a drug — an intoxicant, really — that you can ingest for your pleasure every day. It’s cheap and easy to get. Works fast, too. And it’s legal. It’s candy. If you doubt the addictive power of candy, Steve Almond will lure you into his world of yearning with Candyfreak, a quirky but appealing…
Raiding the Cash Cow
It was one of those things they figure reporters will never get their hands on. After all, it was just a friendly PowerPoint presentation among good corporate citizens on how to scam the idiot taxpayers out of millions of dollars. Of course, now that it’s on the internet, any idiot taxpayer could read it. The…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Piccolo Spoleto An evening of music with Carolina Voices. www.carolinavoices.org. Thu., June 3, 7:30 p.m. $10-$12. Myers Park United Methodist Church, 1501 Queens Rd. 704-972-2000. Summer Pops Performances at SouthPark. www.charlottesymphony.org. June 6-27, Sundays, 8:15pm. Free. 704-972-2000. Comedy Bayou Kitchen Comedy. Extreme Improv: Fridays 8pm – Chicago Style long form improv “The Gallery”;…
Greatest Get Their Due
The hot dogs and cold beer have been forgotten. The last bit of relaxation has knotted itself out of our collective shoulders. The long Memorial Day weekend is gone, its rear lights shrinking into a rooster tail of dust without even a half-hearted wave goodbye or a promise to call in the morning. This was…
