Jun 21-27, 2011

Jun 21-27, 2011 / Vol. 25 / No. 17

The Hot House, 6/25/11

A slew of bands, including the Hot House Hefftones, Pain After Death, Pig Mountain and more, took over The Hot House (on Commonwealth Avenue) to perform on Saturday, June 25.

Priscilla Tsai

Bad Teacher: Cameron Diaz’s class act

By Matt Brunson BAD TEACHER **1/2 DIRECTED BY Jake Kasdan STARS Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake It’s no Bad Santa, but Bad Teacher brings just enough naughty behavior to the table to make it a decent watch for viewers tired of PG-13 timidity. In her best role since 2005’s underrated In Her Shoes, Cameron Diaz plays…

Matt Brunson

Weekender, June 24-26

Check out these events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area this weekend— as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing. Friday, June 24 Rob Schneider The Comedy Zone at N.C. Music Factory It’s grand opening weekend for The Comedy Zone at N.C. Music Factory, which means laughter is in order. Actor/comedian Rob Schneider…

Anita Overcash

Music: PJ Morton at Double Door Inn

Vocalist PJ Morton is, for all intents and purposes, what happens when you mix the sounds of gospel music with soul … and then sprinkle on a bit of John Lennon for added flavor. He’s been slaying audiences around the globe for years by serving up cleverly written tunes, delivered with an arsenal of understated…

Carlton Hargro

Green Lantern not bright enough

Considering all the advance negative buzz that had been building with the steadiness and scariness of a Category 5 hurricane, Green Lantern, just one of the approximately 428 superhero flicks that will be released this year alone, isn’t the catastrophe that had been all but foretold as far back as the Book of Revelation. To…

Matt Brunson

MUSIC: Find Your Muse open mic at The Evening Muse

It’s Find Your Muse open mic night at The Evening Muse this and every Monday. Musicians, grab up your music gear and head over to perform one of your own creations in front of a crowd. No one can guarantee they’ll be liked, but constructive criticism is always helpful! Get there early to snag a…

Anita Overcash

The Art of Getting By rates a D+

There are the lucky ones, those performers who manage to transition smoothly from child actor to adult star without hitting a rough patch during the teen years (e.g. Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor). Then there are those who find their careers derailed for whatever reason — take, for instance, the promising ’50s actor Bobby Driscoll (Treasure…

Matt Brunson

EXHIBIT: Mecklenburg, Germany

This new exhibit at The Charlotte Museum of History connects the city with one historical woman — Charlotte, Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Queen (wife of King George III) of Great Britain — in celebration of the 250th anniversary of her coronation and the 1994 Partnership Agreement between the two Mecklenburgs. Photos from the Mecklenburg region…

Anita Overcash

The Double Hour not worth the time

Giuseppe Capotondi made his directorial debut with The Double Hour while the picture’s three screenwriters all began plying their trade in 2005. Presumably, all of these relative newbies spent the previous years watching endless cycles of twisty thrillers and taking as many notes as possible. But based on the evidence of this film, their hands…

Matt Brunson

Theater: Alice in Wonderland

Central Piedmont Community College’s Theatre department continues its packed summer season with a newbie. Geared toward children, Alice in Wonderland is a Disney classic about the adventures of a gal named Alice. The musical features zippy songs, including “I’m Late,” “The Un-birthday Song” and “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”. June 29-30, 10 a.m.; July 1-2, 10 a.m.; July 5-9,…

Anita Overcash

Where to find it: A Middle Eastern Restaurant

One of the most common queries I have from readers is from those looking for a Middle Eastern restaurant offering mezza — not a Middle Eastern fast casual emporium. Charlotte has had a storied history with outcroppings of Middle Eastern cuisine. Decades ago, Casablanca (in Elizabeth) offered excellent Egyptian dishes, and not one, but two,…

Tricia Childress

Book reviews: Jennifer Haigh’s Faith

Faith by Jennifer Haigh (Harper, 336 pages, $25.99). “Oh, great,” I thought when first picking up novelist Jennifer Haigh’s latest, Faith. “Another book about sex abuse in the Catholic Church.” My Disgust-ometer was maxed out years ago by the horrendous scandal, and the last thing I felt like doing was rehashing the whole mess by…

Let them eat cake at The Baker’s Joint

When Johnson & Wales opened in 2004, the assumed expectation among many was the creation of myriad restaurants throughout the states by throngs of culinary grads. But what was overlooked then was the real possibility that baking and pastry grads would look around Charlotte and see opportunity. That’s what Cleveland native Rochelle Courey thought when…

Tricia Childress

Theater review: CAST’s Neon Palms

There are still easier places to find than the new Carolina Actors Studio Theatre near the corner of 28th and North Davidson Streets. But when Phase 2 of CAST’s relocation kicks in, there will be signage beyond the sidewalk leading you to the proper mall entrance. I knew the way well enough because I’d taken…

Perry Tannenbaum

3 questions with Sonya McRoberts, owner of A’sonji Cuisine

What can a former professional basketball player turned fitness expert tell you about food that you’d actually want to know? Well, for starters, that the words “healthy” and “delicious” can go hand in hand. Sonya McRoberts is the professional trainer responsible for some of the best bodies in the city. Her popular training studio Sonya’s…

Debra Renee Seth

Theater review: Ragtime

PERHAPS YOU CAN feel it. In the wake of a Debacle Dolly that opened the summer season at CP, Davidson Community Players has flipped the universe upside-down with their current production of Ragtime. Better set, better sound system, more daring repertoire, and — last Saturday night — a sellout house. Isn’t that what the professionals…

Perry Tannenbaum

Otep redefines the process of presentation

Once upon a time, your typical front person in this business was a leather-wrapped, ink-covered, hairy, testosterone-fueled Visigoth roaring like a sackful of demons. But metal is no longer a male-dominated field, and Otep founder/front woman Otep Shamaya is claiming a piece of that turf. The articulate, attractive blonde singer sounds like an art school…

Grant Britt

EXHIBIT: Live and in Stereo(type)

Marcia Jones and Fahamu Pecou, the first two artists to serve in the Harvey B. Gantt Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program (in partnership with McColl Center for Visual Art), return to debut an exhibit, featuring new works (Jones’ art is pictured) that expand their “social critiques on black masculinity and imposed feminine ideals.” June 24, 6 p.m.…

Carlton Hargro

CL previews upcoming concerts (June 22-27)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 PHOTOSIDE CAFE This Chicago-based indie rock band is all over the festival circuit this summer, so catching them in an intimate setting like the Muse should be a welcome change of pace for the group that self-describes itself as an edgier Dave Matthews Band. Their live show allows for everyone in the…

EXHIBIT: New Works by Dru Warmath

Artist Dru Warmath is sharing selected works from four of her latest series — Coastal Landscapes, Guardians, Hikers and Intimate Spaces — at Providence Gallery. The landscape and figurative paintings in oil — see the pictured “Intimate Spaces VIII” — are all abstract in style and convey the artist’s emotional responses to a variety of…

Anita Overcash

Nightlife profile: Laura Nealy

It was after dancing on a speaker at Mythos, while resident DJ Tober spun breaks, that Laura Nealy knew she wanted to have her own promotion and production group. In 1998, Nealy earned her spot in the “all boys club” of Charlotte’s predominately male nightlife industry and launched Top Down Productions, a promotion and booking…

Nicole Pietrantonio

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files

Dedication: A 33-year-old man filed a police report after a man threatened him over voice mail last week. He told officers that the suspect left him a message that stated, “Some sins are not forgiven. You need to get the belts on your truck changed, or I’m going to put a bullet in you.” The…

Ryan Pitkin

CD REVIEW: Ladybug Transistor’s Clutching Stems

THE DEAL: Brooklyn group returns with more timeless pop. THE GOOD: Over its 15-year run, Gary Olson’s chamber pop outfit has eschewed the experimental psych pop of its Elephant 6 brethren for the more trad climes of ’60s paisley pop. Still dressed in sweeping strings and horn fanfares, Clutching Stems’ confections add more obvious ’80s…

John Schacht

Did the Chinese really practice “death by a thousand cuts”?

Years ago I made the mistake of reading a book called The Journeyer by Gary Jennings, about the life and adventures of Marco Polo. If you’re not familiar with Jennings’s work, the synopsis is simple: SEX, VIOLENCE, history, SEX, VIOLENCE. Needless to say, I read it in about a day. Jennings writes of a torture…

Cecil Adams

CD REVIEW: The Vaccines’ What Do You Expect From The Vaccines?

THE DEAL: Four British guys give Yanks their debut album of refreshing indie pop. THE GOOD: This is pop music, and in the indie music market of bear-fur-as-beards bands and heavily processed synthesizer music, The Vaccines’ straightforward rhythms and Justin Young’s thick baritone voice are rewardingly unpretentious. Fans of Band of Horses will like the…

Weekly horoscope (June 22-28)

Cancer The Crab (June 21-July 22) People of the past may resurface. You will be glad to see these individuals, but more likely you will be reminded why they are no longer in your life. Somehow they are associated with old wounds in your life, and you would just as soon let those memories go…

Vivian Carol

The failed war on drugs: fast, furious and fueled by the U.S.

The violent deaths of Brian Terry and Juan Francisco Sicilia, separated by the span of just a few months and by the increasingly bloody U.S.-Mexico border, have sparked separate but overdue examinations of the so-called War on Drugs, and how the U.S. government is ultimately exacerbating the problem. On the night of Dec. 14, 2010,…

Amy Goodman

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of June 22

BIG MOMMAS: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son isn’t like Some Like It Hot; instead, it’s like every other witless sequel meant to prolong the life cycle of a flailing franchise. Like it or not, the fact remains that there’s not much to like here, and it only escapes a bomb…

Matt Brunson

Will N.C. be named ‘Most Hateful Legislature’?

SATIRE ALERT! To quote the great Sen. John Kyl, the following is “not meant to be a factual statement.” To non-clueless readers, we apologize for having to include this disclaimer. Now, on to the news. It was a proud moment last week when the GOP-controlled state General Assembly slapped down those posers in Alabama and…

Theater: Will Rogers Follies: A Life In Review

Classic Broadway aficionados couldn’t be happier that Will Rogers Follies: A Life In Review is coming to Halton Theater. The show focuses on the story of Will Rogers, famed humorist, performer and quintessential overachiever of the 20th century who had successful careers as a vaudeville actor, movie star, newspaper columnist, touring lecturer and radio broadcaster…

The Adjustment Bureau, Unknown among new home entertainment titles

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (2011). One person’s religious beliefs is often another person’s existentialist theories, and The Adjustment Bureau offers plenty of theological fodder to go around. Because it tinkers with notions involving God and chance and destiny and all that other stuff that’s fun to discuss, it might turn off those types of folks who…

Matt Brunson

MUSIC: Uptown Charlotte Jazz Festival

The smooth sounds of jazz will once again be resonating at the N.C. Music Factory when the Uptown Charlotte Jazz Festival hits town tonight for the second straight year. And this time around, the festival has expanded to a two-day event — plus, it features music from heavyweights like Michael Franks, Marcus Johnson, Jeff Lorber,…

Carlton Hargro

The Tree of Life: Movie as mood piece

Terrence Malick’s latest cinematic meditation, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Tree of Life, is a movie that’s probably easy to hate and almost impossible to defend. Detractors will be quick to label it pretentious, which seems unfair to me — pretentious denotes insincerity, and Malick is nothing if not genuine in his attempts to…

Matt Brunson

Tarmac blues at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport

Apparently, you can now strap a surface-to-air missile to your back and go wandering around the Charlotte Douglas International Airport tarmac and no one will notice. Bring a lawn chair. Sun yourself while dodging planes. Steal tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. History shows that you will probably get away with it. For…

FILM: Fear of a Black Republican

Forget the summer-matinee likes of Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz and Johnny Depp: An all-star cast of a different sort can be found populating the new movie Fear of a Black Republican. Filmed over the course of six years, this documentary from filmmaker Kevin J. Williams takes an in-depth look at why so few African-Americans belong…

Matt Brunson

Mr. Popper’s Penguins: Simply fowl

Aside from Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) mistakenly believing that “BFF” stands for Big Fat Friend, the only original element to be found anywhere in Mr. Popper’s Penguins is the character of Pippi, Popper’s personal assistant and a Brit prone to parleying with prose that begins with the letter “p.” The London-born actress with the terrific…

Matt Brunson

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