Man Of Zeal
In Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise had Renee Zellweger at hello. With Superman Returns, Bryan Singer had me at the opening Warner Bros. logo. Beginning with 2000’s X-Men and aided by such works as Spider-Man and Batman Begins, the superhero flick has emerged as Hollywood’s latest bread and butter. Yet a viewer would have to go…
Acting Up
See & Do 10Moodswing 1210
View Askew
Book Review
JUNETEENTH JUBILEE
Well June, Black Music Month, is nigh done. Just in time for Juneteenth, this section must squeeze in some commentary on the state of the culture. Viewing the Marvin Gaye Real Thing in Performance DVD last week was a keen reminder of black artists’ consistent struggles for self-determination and aesthetic freedom in the music business.…
Stargazer
CANCER The Crab (June 21 — July 21) Love life is a joy this week. You and a lover may be off on a fine vacation together. Co-workers are also a pleasure. Activities related to the law, education, travel and publishing are favored. Those with children find reasons to feel proud. For All Signs This…
O Canada!
Arts Agenda 44Books 4844Local Review
Celebrate Independents
Note: Next week across the country, we’re celebrating Independent’s Week. Make July 1-7 a time to honor the independent decision-making ability in each of us by supporting independent businesses. Cherish the vision of passionate winemakers across the United States by buying local wine or choosing California labels that reflect guts and vision in the bottle.…
URL salad
It’s kinda like leftovers: Take a bunch of stuff you’ve been saving, toss it together, and voilà, a new dish. I call this one URL salad. Watch out for the nuts! Kariwanz Fetish www.kariwanz.com Femina Potens www.feminapotens.com Gay Boyfriend www.ryantown.com/gayboyfriend Motor Cowboy Custom Boots www.motorcowboy.com End Trouser Tyranny www.kiltmen.com/world.htm
The Wild, Brave and Free
Boomer With Attitude
Ways Immigrants Have Committed Immigration Fraud
The Classic Photo Swap At least through September 2005, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees handling applications for refugee/asylee travel documents weren’t comparing the applicant’s new photo for the new travel documents with the original photograph of the refugee/asylee stored in the Image Storage and Retrieval System (ISRS). So illegal aliens who buy/obtain biographical…
Minding the Gap
Former Sen. John Edwards, who has emerged as a populist voice for liberalism, says he wants to eliminate poverty. With statistics like these, it looks like the one-term North Carolina Democrat and former vice presidential candidate has his work cut out for him: • Sixty-four percent of Americans say it is hard to find a…
Film Clips
Current Releases THE BREAK-UP There’s a fine movie trapped inside The Break-Up, and it’s a shame that it couldn’t break free. As it stands, this picture about a rocky relationship is never able to compensate for the staggering miscalculation that cripples it. From the start, Gary (Vince Vaughn) is painted as a self-centered, insensitive man-child,…
Retire the Boycott
Brother with a Pen
View From The Couch
JOHN WAYNE/JOHN FORD FILM COLLECTION (1939-1957). When the American Film Institute released its list of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars several years ago, it was a shock to notice that, on the male side of the equation, John Wayne only ranked number 13. There have certainly been greater actors, but greater movie stars? Like him…
Why are so many Iraqis Fleeing their Homeland?
President Bush and supporters of the war in Iraq have frequently suggested that removing Saddam Hussein from power and replacing him with a democratically elected government would result in the spread of democracy throughout the Middle East. It’s a lovely thought, but unfortunately it hasn’t happened. In fact, thus far, the only tangible thing that…
Channeling Capra
Adam Sandler earns his hefty paychecks for comedies like The Wedding Singer and the execrable Big Daddy, but he satisfies his thespian aspirations with films like Punch-Drunk Love and the underrated Spanglish. With Click, he attempts to have it both ways. Spending more time sucking up to his unctuous boss (David Hasselhoff) than bonding with…
Reporting the News Weakly
“We were wrong!” You almost never see these words on the cover of a major magazine, but on June 5, Newsweek said just that. The magazine headlined, in boxcar type, “20 years ago, Newsweek predicted that a single, 40-year-old woman had a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than getting married.” Over a…
Against the Tide
How much should a bottle of wine cost at a restaurant? I remember having a conversation with legendary winemaker Heidi Barrett several years ago about one of her creations, a Screaming Eagle cab, that sold at an area restaurant for $2,000+. She laughed and noted that she couldn’t afford that. Who can? And to be…
Knowing the Score
Citizen Servatius
Savoring history
Shiner, TX, isn’t the most glamorous burg in the world, but neither is it the black-eye blight on the landscape its name might indicate. Located about halfway between Houston and San Antonio, Shiner is a quiet, hilly town of about 2,000 residents, some of which are my relatives, fond of the same foods — kolaches…
See & Do
Thursday, June 29 If you’re in the mood for something a little different from club-banging while listening to a rapper with a so-called R&B singer on the hook, then be sure to check out Rahemm DeVaughn when he comes to town. DeVaughn’s smooth rhythm-and-blues sensibilities echo an era long-since past: the days of greats like…
Security Clearance
Last fall, a loud brawl broke out in a corridor of the Rayburn building in Washington, DC, the kind of verbal feud you don’t hear often in the halls of Congress. On one side were a dozen highly hacked-off Congress members who were fed up with the Department of Homeland Security’s stonewalling. They’d heard allegations…
Comix and Flicks: It’s not unusual
Heroes Convention 2006 brings a new spin to its 25-year tradition of exposing the Carolinas’ comic fans to the best in the industry. This year the usual line-up of artists and writers is being enhanced by the appearance of a movie star who’s moonlighting as a comic hero and by a best-of showcase of independent…
White Nights
Cason is back with a brand new edition … just like Vanilla Ice. Old School Ice was on hand at the grand opening of the new addition to Concord’s nightlife, ML Nightclub. Now, Ice may not truly be back with a brand new bag, but Amos’ SouthEnd certainly is. Those large metal doors are back…
Cheap Thrills
= FREE! 4TH SATURDAYS UPTOWN Billed as “A Cultural Exchange & Global Marketplace,” this free event boasts something for everyone. Shopping for the shopaholics, entertainment for the perpetually bored, food for everybody and peace for the single moms in the form of a children’s village (hallelujah!). It’s ongoing, on the fourth Saturday of every month…
Deep Dish Jazz
You can make the case that New York City’s jazz scene of the late 1950s and early ’60s was the most fertile creative era in American music history. Drawn to the city by its studios, labels, clubs, urbanite fan base and like-minded musicians, jazz artists great and small created a Petri dish of artistic collaboration…
The Blotter
Cheddar Beef Gets Me Hot: An employee at an East Charlotte Arby’s witnessed a man enter the eatery at 8:40pm on a Monday evening. The man proceeded into the men’s restroom and attempted to have sex on the sink. Unfortunately, the report does not indicate who or what the man attempted to have sex with.…
World Party
Anyone within spitting distance of a World Café broadcast lately will have become reacquainted with World Party via the Neil Youngish, ostensibly “new” song “What Does It Mean Now?” Even though the group’s gone unheard in America since 1997 (when fourth album Egyptology was issued), the W.P. sound, characterized by a distinctive ’60s vibe and…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I’ve been dreaming of a life with no 9 to 5, no memos, no meetings that drone on for hours. I’ve worked in a corporate setting for more than a decade of my life, watched good people turn into walking zombies, seen my own hair start to turn gray and the bags…
Dar Williams’ Better Self
You could call Dar Williams a murkysexual. Early on in her career, the folk/pop singer’s sexual orientation was the subject of speculation. Lesbians embraced her as one of their own, but Williams was always vague on her partner preference. When she revealed her orientation, it was a reverse coming out party. “It was a terrific…
Letters
From Tara Servatius Last week, CL published a letter from Charlotte Department of Transportation Section Manager Dan Gallagher criticizing our June 7 cover story “Drivin’ N’ Cryin’.” We inadvertently printed that letter without a response. Gallagher complained that “Servatius wrote that the Transportation Action Plan (TAP) ‘provides almost no detail as to what the city…
Brother No More
Dickey Betts. The Allman Brothers Band. It’s hard to talk about one and not the other, yet it’s been five years since Betts has performed with the legendary group he helped co-found. Not that he’s idle: The erstwhile Allman guitar hero hits the Neighborhood Theatre this weekend with both his crack band, Great Southern, and…
Happy-ass Ending
Moodswing
