A Little To The West
Heather Maloy might have been born to dance. She had her first ballet lessons in early childhood from her mother, Judy. A native of Winston-Salem, she entered the North Carolina School of the Arts at age 12, and upon completing the 12th grade as a scholarship student, she was hired by NC Dance Theatre at…
Letters
Shortsighted City Leaders Thanks to Tara Servatius for saying what a lot of Charlotte residents are saying: “What’s wrong with our city leaders?” (“What’s In It For Them?,” May 21.) Pursuant to the US National Whitewater Center’s request for a financial pledge from the city for $2 million dollars over the next 7-10 years to…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Jazz & Classical Essentials Sunday Brunch Borders will be playing jazz and classical music from their essential catalogs. Coffee and pastry provided. Sundays, 1-3pm. Free. Borders, Morrocroft, 3900 Colony Rd. 704-365-6261. Len Langrick Recital presented by American Guild of Organists. Westminster Presbyterian Church, 101 Colville Rd. Sun., June 8, 7:30pm. Free. 704-333-9071. Comedy…
The Same Old Song
The folks from Myers Park who jammed county commissioners’ phone lines last week could benefit greatly from a free subscription to our local paper — as could one of that publication’s own columnists. Like the other people fighting to “save” the Cornelius, Belmont Center, Carmel, North Park and Hickory Grove library branches, angry residents of…
Crossing Jordan
From Morocco to Yemen, Middle Eastern cuisines are as varied as their cultures. Although politically, the pan-Arab movement would like to see the region united, the food divulges a varied past and agricultural heritage. In northern Africa, couscous, vegetables, and legumes form the center of the diet. In the eastern Mediterranean region, bulgur, rice, vegetables,…
Clay Aiken Exclusive!
The now-familiar spiky hair. The twinkling blue eyes. And he’s taller in person. Those are the first impressions as American Idol runner-up and UNCC student Clay Aiken arrives alone at the CL offices. I’d gotten a call that on his quick tour of Charlotte, he would speak only to CL, so here we are. “It’s…
Quick ‘N’ Easy
In a hectic world of head-banging schedules, life’s too damn short to worry about wine. It saddens and maddens me that we have to sacrifice the best things in life to save time. And, although trips to the wine shop still reign as a principal pastime for me, I imagine most people grab their wine…
Follow The Leader
One of the reasons given by the Bush administration for invading Iraq was the need to free the Iraqi people from the oppressive hand of Saddam so they could “flourish under American-style democracy.”So. How’s that going? On May 23, Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, effectively laid off the members of Iraq’s armed…
Goodeats
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
DOPEY: While two co-appellants chose to have lawyers represent them before the Supreme Court of Canada in their challenge of their marijuana convictions, David Malmo-Levine spoke for himself, addressing the justices for 40 minutes May 6, arguing that his right of “substance orientation” was similar to someone’s right of sexual orientation. After his session (which…
Pleasure Spiked With Pain
Talk about a sock hop. Twenty — hell, 15 — years ago, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were wearing athletic support hose on their band, er, members. Today, they’re printing their CD covers on recycled paper and having the famed artist and plate aficionado Julian Schnabel design the album’s packaging.From sharing needles to sharing songwriting…
Middle East Excursion
Raleigh-based Weekend Excursion are gearing up for a four-week tour of military bases in the Middle East where they’ll be playing for American Troops. Stops include Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. The band departs on June 25 and will move from base to base, sometimes by military aircraft and other times by commercial airlines.…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 6.4 Marc Broussard — The Louisiana native has taken a layered R&B approach, tipping hats to contemporary urban singers from the 80s. Simply said, the dude croons contemporary R&B with a touch of Crescent City jazz and flowing keyboards that add on gospel truths. Opening for Jay Clifford, guitarist and vocalist for Jump, Little…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jun. 4 Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Scott Johnson Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Comet Grill Pervis & Sonya Lee Double Door Inn Tommy Castro Fairwinds Coffee Co., Cornelius Lena Mars Fat City Dixie Witch Graduate, Gastonia Acoustic Jam w/ Clee & Chris Sheridan Handlebar, Greenville SC Little Feat Harper’s Restaurant Mike Crowley Acoustic…
See & Do
June 4 WEDNESDAY Even the made-for-TV Inspector Gadget version of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man proved that the 1957 Broadway hit still has a keen eye for the foibles of Iowans. If not profound, the dandy score still delights the ear. CP Summer Theatre launches its 30th season with Patrick Ratchford playing the fast-talking Harold…
Under The Sea
As far as trivial time fillers go, ranking the Pixar/Disney animated efforts seems as futile an exercise as ranking favorite Beatles tunes. Because the high level of consistency between them is so comparable, we’re basically talking about slight degrees of separation rather than quantum leaps in quality. So just as one person’s “I Should Have…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I’m hoping you can help me get this turned around. Frankly, I’ve had better millennia and I don’t know what I could have done to get into this situation. Since 2000, I have lost my job, went 20 months without being hired, lived off my savings and spent most of my IRA…
Movie Missives
The Manor Theatre on Providence Road will host a discussion by Bob Mondello, film critic for NPR’s All Things Considered, at 8pm Thursday, June 5. With the aid of select clips, Mondello will offer a humorous lecture on what he’s learned about the South — much of it largely inaccurate — from its portrayal in…
Stargazer
For All Signs Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, the warrior, are squared off for battle at this time. Many relationships are up for review and the firm ones will be tweaked and fine-tuned. Those not worth the effort will probably be scuttled. Relationships and/or creative projects begun early last summer are likely to require…
Film Clips
CURRENT RELEASES BRUCE ALMIGHTY In this hit-and-miss comedy, Jim Carrey, frequently playing to the rafters in what in anybody else’s hands would have been a fairly restrained character, stars as Bruce Nolan, a TV reporter who’s tired of fluff pieces and yearns to become the new anchorman. But instead of getting his wish, he ends…
Here’s The Church, There’s The Steeple
Installment One in the Artist’s Bill of Rights, concocted after a quick hop into the Steeple Lounge to see local near-genius Todd Busch on Thursday night (more to come in a later column, maybe).#1: If I (the artist) am playing a slow, heartfelt number about the vagaries of unrequited love or the melancholy of youth,…
Weapons Of Mass Stupidity
It’s the inviolable first rule of democracy that all politicians will praise the wisdom of the people — an effusive flattery that intensifies when they ask “the people” to swallow something exceptionally inedible. What the people never hear from anyone, or from anyone with further ambitions, is the truth. If a public figure wishes to…
Right Side of the Tracks
NoDa, Charlotte’s most established renegade arts community, has crept a little further north, across the railroad tracks. Sanctuary Art is the newest installment to Charlotte’s only counter-cultural community. The new art gallery is an easy walk down Davidson Street, past 36th, past Boudreaux’s, over the tracks and around the bend. There you’ll see The Colony,…
Arena Marketing Report Hidden
A marketing report that appears to have been buried by the city staff showed a lukewarm response among potential basketball fans to buying tickets to events at a new arena. Most of those surveyed seemed willing to try out the new arena once it’s built, but only on a limited basis at first.The report, which…
No Reservations
Sherman Alexie once said, “I think we’re all struggling with our identity. . .regardless of the ethnicity, Southern, New Yorker, black, white, Asian, immigrant — everyone’s trying to find a sense of belonging.”Often called the Jack Kerouac of reservation life, this time around Alexie leaves the reservation behind, but returns to the theme that has…
Straight Dope on Pot-based Medicine
For eons, cannabis has been ingested for the treatment of common and chronic ailments, but now, the march of technology is propelling wacky tobaccy into a brave new century of pharmaceutical development. Scientists around the world are studying not only whole, smoked marijuana, but also pure extracts that would make Louis Armstrong blush. The fruits…
Spoleto’s Year of the Woman
Wherever you turned during the first two weekends of Spoleto Festival USA, women excelled in 2003 as never before. Under the stars at the Cistern, onstage at Dock Street Theatre, in opera or concert at cavernous Gaillard Auditorium, a parade of enchantresses consistently dazzled.Two of Spoleto’s very best productions will linger for last hurrahs this…
The Blotter
Asphalt Bandit: A man in uptown Charlotte brought new meaning to the phrase “assault with a deadly weapon.” For no apparent reason, the man threw two pieces of loose asphalt at another man. Although both pieces of asphalt struck him, the man received no serious injuries. On Her Toes: A distressed woman contacted police after…
