Arts Agenda
Classical Music American Guild of Organists Summer Recital Series featuring recitalist Robert Gant. Sun., June 30, 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Free-will offering will be taken to cover the costs of the series. Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1000 E. Morehead St. 704-588-1290. American Guild of Organists Summer Recital Series with recitalist J. Samuel…
Letters to the editor
IT’S NOT JUST CATHOLICS Regarding “Darkness Visible” by Hal Crowther (CL, June 5), it’s obvious Crowther has wanted an excuse to release some pent up repression for some time. I agree with him that the Church needed this. It’s a cleansing that needed to be done. What these priests did to these children is indelible,…
To market, to market
“Last Saturday we had the biggest Saturday we’ve had since 1984,” reported Frank Suddreth, the manager of the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market. That Saturday the market had 121 different sellers and 4,000 vehicles. That same week the market had a record 20,000 vehicles. The popularity of the area farmers’ markets, though, has resulted in an…
Blood and Circuses
Friday night I went to see a good triple bill: longtime local standouts Lou Ford, the melancholic Houston Brothers, and a newish band called The Talk, all at Tremont. The Talk — nice guys all — I mostly avoided speaking with, as I mistakenly identified their drummer last week (too many Jeremys!). Their show was…
Celebrating Wine In North Carolina
When I woke up on a recent Saturday morning, I never dreamed my wine snobby ass would find good wine at the North Carolina Wine Festival. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the hype about NC wines being drinkable these days, but promptly dismissed it as bunk. I was proved wrong. With 19 out of 22 NC…
Running through the pain
When Julia Lucas’s friends encouraged her to go out for the cross country team as a high school freshman, it was so they could all hang out together and have fun. Their pitch — “You jog around and get a popsicle at the end of practices” — won over the then 14-year-old Lucas, whose only…
Playing With Your Food
Your mother probably nagged you to not play with your food. Of course, you probably played with it anyway, because playing with your food is a form of attention mongering with a primal underpinning embedded in early childhood experiences. As a baby, perhaps you accidentally plunged a fist into a pile of mashed mush, causing…
Counseling Group Must Overcome County Cuts
Because of County budget cuts, a program that helps kids traumatized by domestic violence is in jeopardy of falling by the wayside. The Center for Creativity and Healing is a counseling group that provides counseling for adults and children in a variety of areas including sexual abuse, body image, interpersonal skills and creativity. Professional counselor…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 400 S. Tryon St., 704-339-0303; 2001 E. 7th,, 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. $$ Fuel Pizza Cafe, 1501 Central Avenue, 704-376-3835; 319 W. Trade St., 704-344-1767; 404 S.…
Make Them Decide Now
Politicians know voters have short memories, but this is ridiculous. For as long as I can remember, the Mecklenburg County Commission has only raised taxes in years in which they weren’t facing election, knowing full well that pissed-off voters who filled talk radio airwaves would forget about the whole thing by the next election. Then,…
Over the rainbow and onto the charts
Gay people have always been around, of course. But gay culture has never been as visible as it is today. On the road to the mainstream, gay-identified music insinuated itself into the pop charts, often with few taking any note of the gay content or subtext. But beyond the impact of gay people on popular…
Smiling faces kicking your ass
Raised as I was with a certain brand of genteel Southern manners, I have an almost unconscious appreciation for the politeness of the South. Once upon a time, I thought that I despised Southern “manners” because I saw it as yet another show of hypocrisy (which it is). Southerners are often delightful to your face,…
Music News For the Masses
PERALTA will showcase at South Beach this week.
The Blotter
Who’s The Victim? A young man was standing in the parking lot of a local fast food establishment talking to a female friend. He asked her, “Can I hit that thang?” A security officer at the establishment was standing nearby having a conversation with another woman when he heard the rude comment and told the…
Rock by the book
A bookish brew of singer/songwriters have contributed 16-tracks of work directly inspired by a favorite book or written word, ranging from poems and plays, to comic books and Homer’s The Odyssey. Due next month on the Red Ink/United Musicians label, this highbrow project was conceived and created to help fund The SIBL Project, a San…
You bet your life
Israeli police announced in June that they were investigating reports that a syndicate in a town just north of Gaza was running daily betting pools on the site of the next suicide bombing, with odds ranging from 17-1 in the peaceful town of Eilat to 3-2 in Jerusalem. The syndicate’s alleged betting cards limit the…
Music Menu
FRIDAY 6.28 Bluegrass Showcase — A true Charlotte showcase of working (i.e., touring) bluegrass bands, this showcase features the Moonshine Racers, Brown Liquor Pickers and the Custom Grass Snakes. Some of the groups mix in a little NewGrass more than others, and some, like the Moonshine Racers, fold in a bit more country jam, a…
Sports mysteries solved
Reader Stephen Gilmore wrote in to “Who Knew?” with a few questions that really tested my sports knowledge. Seeing as how my sports knowledge is next to nil, I had to get a little help. First, Gilmore wanted to know what’s the difference between professional, semi-pro, and amateur athletes, besides the amount of their paychecks?”That…
Stargazer
For All Signs This week we have one more trigger to the Saturn/Pluto opposition, as Mercury continues its trek through Gemini. For those who are new to this column, the Saturn/Pluto opposition has been in progress for over a year and represents the global struggles we are experiencing politically as well as economically. These symbols…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jun. 26 Arnie’s Tavern, Huntersville Scott Johnson Bayou Kitchen Bill Noonan Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville The Socialites Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cajun Queen, Pineville 7th Street Gator Band II Connolly’s Craig & Rich Acoustic Double Door Inn Boo Boo Kitty w/ The Jim Jams The Evening Muse Lindsey Horne Band w/ Ashley…
See & Do
JUNE26WEDNESDAYThe Charlotte Knights take on the Buffalo Bisons today through Saturday at 7:15pm at Knights Castle. Tickets are $6-9, available by calling 704-36-HOMER. The Western Film Society will present its 25th Annual Western Film Fair today through Sunday at the University Hilton Hotel. Featured are movie and TV stars, autograph and photo sessions, four viewing…
The Future Is Wow
Steven Spielberg’s most recent summer outing, last year’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, had as many detractors as admirers, but I’m betting that Minority Report won’t fall victim to any such see-saw analysis. The film is an unqualified success, a great film that (like most movies worth their weight) will doubtless deepen and expand upon repeat viewings.If…
Fling Theory
Three years ago, I had a summer fling with a guy — nothing serious, just sex. He wanted more, but I wasn’t interested. My sister was there through it all. Shortly afterward, I met my current boyfriend whom I’ve been dating ever since. Five months ago, my ex-fling started hanging out with my sister, who…
Ghost Towns and Lonely Frontiers
Exploitation filmmakers and other film oddballs have often resorted to taking their shows on the road to get their marginal product into small-town theaters. But Lo Fi Landscapes: Films by Bill Brown and Thomas Comerford may be the first-ever avant-garde road show.Iconoclastic, experimental and defiantly uncommercial films that play with form and content, the short…
Who’s the Comedian?
Charlotte has recently welcomed the new location of The Comedy Zone on College Street. The added attraction was desperately needed to balance out all the dining and drinking establishments uptown and now we have another great reason to come uptown and enjoy the nightlife. I have to say, though, that I still have a special…
Film Clips
Current Releases BAD COMPANY Taking an explosive comic actor like Chris Rock and corralling his talents by sticking him in a dull action film is like buying an expensive sports car and solely using it to drive to the grocery store down the block. Yet that’s the story that unfolds with this blob of studio-generated…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser:Over the past seven months, I have become serious with a girl who I met through a friend. We were friends at first, but soon became serious and have spent nearly every day together since Christmas. When we were friends, her “wild” ways didn’t bother or affect me. But now they have nearly…
Real Life or Sci-fi?
Almost exactly 10 years ago,scientist Eric Drexler testified before a US Senate subcommittee about a field he believes could change the world. Scientists, he announced, could now tinker with matter on the nanometer scale — that is, at scales equal to one billionth of a meter. At IBM just three years earlier, researchers had spelled…
Fast-Forwarding Through the Bard
More than a couple of young sparks fancy themselves in love in Twelfth Night. And since this is one of Shakespeare’s more effervescent comedies, all sorts of mix-ups must be sorted out along the twisted obstacle course leading to the blissful exchange of bodily fluids. In a grand circle, objects of desire don’t return the…
Heavy Burden
If you think smokers or young guys blasting loud music from their cars are social pariahs these days, try being fat. There is perhaps no bigger social or professional stigma than being overweight. The attitude that overweight people are lazy, slovenly and incompetent, even if it’s not spoken outright, is commonplace — and manifested every…
The Empty Battlefield
In a climatic scene from first-time author Baer’s book, the former Central Intelligence Agency case officer watches as Kurdish guerillas run roughshod over a key army division of Saddam Hussein’s forces in March 1995, while trying to communicate with Washington. As artillery barrages roar in the foothills of northern Iraq, the reports officer who Baer…
Charter school gets judge to gag the Loaf
In a stunning infringement of basic First Amendment rights, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order barring Creative Loafing from disclosing information given to us by former teachers at Crossroads Charter High School. This gag order followed a story in last week’s CL, “Automatic Diplomas?”, regarding charges by some teachers at Crossroads that students’…
