Puppets On Parade
The Colla Marionettes have performed at Spoleto Festival USA before, appearing at Charleston’s annual celebration of the arts as far back as 1987. As they did in both 1989 and 2000, the skilled puppeteers from Milan crossed the Atlantic with two separate programs this year. If you peeped in on the Collas over the Memorial…
High Tension: Hack Job
THURSDAY, MAY 26 – Tonight I went to see an advance screening of a new thriller called High Tension (* out of four), which doesn’t open in Charlotte until June 10. Arriving 30 minutes before the 7:30pm start time, I chatted for a while with the monitor, the person hired by the studio to orchestrate…
Read It For Yourself
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life By Steve Leveen (Levenger Press, 123 pages, $17.50) I initially found this little book’s tone slightly condescending, but Steve Leveen’s enthusiastic heart is in the right place. Any book that encourages the rediscovery of reading and explores how to get more reading into your life has got my…
Slice Of Strife
There are several reasons to see Layer Cake, many of which have nothing to do with the film itself. First and foremost, it allows audiences the chance to mull over Daniel Craig, who has emerged as one of the frontrunners in the quest to locate the next James Bond. Next, it provides viewers with a…
Tipping Point Moments
Last Night By James Salter (Knopf, 132 pages, $20) James Salter’s second book of short stories, Last Night, confirms his status as one of our finest literary craftsmen. The volume may be slim, but the effect of these 10 stories is anything but light. Salter, who publishes rarely, won the Pen/Faulkner Award in 1989 for…
View From The Couch
THE COMPLETE JAMES DEAN COLLECTION (1955-1956). How nitpicky do we want to get? To truly be The Complete James Dean Collection, this would need to include Has Anybody Seen My Gal?, Fixed Bayonets and a couple of other titles in which Dean appeared in microscopic roles before hitting his stride. All joshing aside, this DVD…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Mill Village: A Piedmont Rhapsody A concert performed by the Charlotte Symphony Chamber Ensemble. Preview lecture at 7:45pm. Tue., June 14, 8:15 p.m. $5. Rock Hill Roasting Co., 140 E. Main St. # 140. 803-328-2787. Summer Pops Regional summer concert series. June 17: Energy Explorium, Lake Norman; June 18: Bailey Rd. Park, Cornelius;…
Film Clips
New Releases LORDS OF DOGTOWN Even if you don’t know anything about skateboard culture, all 90 minutes of the 2002 independent film Dogtown and Z-Boys will mesmerize you. Directed by former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta, that smashing documentary chronicles the rise of the Venice, CA, teens who almost single-handedly revived skateboarding as a national phenomenon thanks…
The Soy Next Door
Among the dishes offered on the “kids meal” menu at Mizuho Sushi & Japanese Cuisine is wasabi-free sushi. “Even in Japan, kids don’t like the wasabi when they’re young,” noted co-owner Masami Ueno. Since sushi became cool here, few places serving it have catered or even considered the pre-tween set. While children are not the…
Can Domestic Violence Be Prevented?
Maj. Gary Blankenship doesn’t fit the typical profile of a domestic violence survivor. For one thing, he’s a man. For another, he’s in law enforcement as Operations Commander for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department. With his military bearing and close-cropped hair, Blankenship is the picture of brisk professionalism and control. Yet, here he is, at…
Go for the Dough
I’m the kind of cook who cooks. Baking bread is better done by others – or until I have the time to learn to be patient. I even had pizza lessons in Italy, but all I got was a misshapen dough Frisbee mixed in with bad-mouthing from Sergio, my chef instructor. At some point, the…
Death Penalty Moratorium
When Alan Gell and Darryl Hunt left prison years after being wrongfully convicted of heinous murders, liberal reformers thought these two smoking guns would convince the public that North Carolina’s death penalty was rigged against poor people, black people and anyone else who didn’t have adequate representation or a fair trial. Though not sentenced to…
The Big Scoop
School’s out, the thermometer is rising, and lines get longer at area ice cream parlors. Who doesn’t crave the creamy cold sweetness of ice cream on a summer’s day? The ice cream cone is thought to have become popular (not necessarily invented) at the 1904 St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition — the same fair that…
Justice Waits In Mississippi
Mississippi’s State Road 19 runs southeast from Philadelphia, the county seat of Neshoba County. It’s an unremarkable road, and the small store it passes about 8 miles south of Philadelphia is equally unremarkable. But it was at that store in 1964 that three civil rights workers were murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen, who were at…
It’s Picnic Time
It’s not officially summer for another couple of weeks, but for all intents and purposes, summer started on Memorial Day. And summertime means picnics. The word “picnic” comes from the French word picque-nique, which first appeared at the end of the 17th century. The “picque” part comes from the verb piquer – to pick, as…
Genocide’s The Word
They still don’t get it. Charlotte’s shiny shoes crowd and those who serve it were “shocked,” “puzzled” and “disappointed” by a judge’s use of the term “academic genocide” to describe what takes place on a day-to-day basis in many county schools. They just couldn’t understand why Judge Howard Manning would go to such extremes to…
Way of the Sommelier
It’s a word that strikes fear in the hearts of those who have to pronounce it: Sommelier (SOM mel YAY). French for “wine butler,” this person is in charge of wine at a restaurant and can be your sherpa, guiding you through a dauntingly complicated wine list. Like so many other professions, sommeliers are a…
Books for Evildoers
Last week, the conservative website Human Events Online posted its “Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries.” The list – actually 30 books, including 20 “honorable mentions” – was picked by a panel of right-wing think-tankers, writers and academics. The top two picks? No-brainers — The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf (even…
You Dropped the Bomb on Me
Around 4:30pm on a March afternoon in 1958, a Mk-6 nuclear bomb accidentally slipped from its harness inside a B-47 bomber and plummeted 15,000 feet to earth. The bomb, 10 feet, 8 inches long and weighing 7,600 pounds, landed in a field in Mars Bluff, just outside of Florence, SC. Fortunately, it wasn’t armed with…
Wine List
American Wine Society Monthly meeting of the Charlotte Chapter featuring art and science of wine judging. Piedmont Natural Gas, Maxheim Kitchen 4301 Yancy Rd. Thu., June 9, 6:30 p.m. 704-344-8027. Wine Classes The interactive classes will explore the essentials of wine and food pairing, tasting techniques and trends in winemaking. Wed., 7pm. $25. Maggiano’s Little…
Just Let Them Eat vY-ee-nas
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Do you think you could live off $10,700 a year?” Question Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford, posed to Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, during NC House debate on raising minimum wage. WEDNESDAY, 6/1 NC legislators voted 66-52 to reject a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour.…
Breaking News
SEN. BILL FRIST COMES OFF AS A DORK AT HIS SPEEDWAY APPEARANCE Presidential ambitions for Terri Schiavo’s would-be savior seem to be in a permanent vegetative state. ANOTHER REASON TO TAKE THE BUS. . . OR MOVE TO ATLANTA Charlotte drivers pay on average $213 each year for vehicle maintenance because of bad roads, compared…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 6434-F West Sugarcreek Rd., 704-598-6863; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. 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. (Gastonia), 704-866-7574. A favorite of…
News of the Weird
LEAD STORY: The agency that oversees Spain’s stock market announced that it will implement a rule starting in July to require each director of an exchange-listed company to disclose not just names of family members but of any other “affectionate relationship,” straight or gay, that the director may have. The purpose is to help monitor…
Crappy Cars
You are not gonna believe this, but as of this minute it looks like the four of us – Daniel, Grant, Lary and I – have seen each other through the crappy-car syndrome. Daniel was the last to convert. He bought a new Ford after his dented old van finally died this month. I happened…
The Hidden Wu
There’s only so much room in the camera frame. It’s not that Inspectah Deck – one of the nine surviving MCs who make up Wu-Tang Clan – has been holding out on us. It’s just that he’s a little less demonstrative than some of his cohorts. Between Method Man’s acting career, the late Ol’ Dirty…
Letters
Two Strong Articles Congratulations on “The Road to Nowhere” (by John Sugg, June 1) and “Shame Is for Sissies” (by Hal Crowther, June 1). I found both to be informative and very interesting. I have hiked many times and researched a bit on the area around the north shore of Fontana Lake. Horace Kepthard, who…
The Blotter
One Tough Broad: A woman walked into a local restaurant, grabbed a female employee by the front of her shirt, stuck a gun in her stomach, and forced her to open the cash register. Alerted by the screams of the robbery victim, a male employee jumped in to save the day, and began struggling with…
EclectoFunkadelicious!
If you consider Rudy Currence strictly an R&B artist, you’re way off the mark. His music runs the rock ´n’ soul gamut, including touches of gospel, jazz, blues, funk, folk, pop and classical. It has crossover written all over it, although he still seems to be searching for consistency and an identity of his own…
See & Do
June 08 – Wednesday The stereotypical bongo drums and faint sounds of snapping fingers hit the Queen City for the 14th annual Southern Fried Southeastern Regional Poetry Slam. For the uninitiated, a poetry slam is a form of competitive performance poetry, putting a dual emphasis on writing and performance. Though the focus is on the…
Sit & Spin
Aimee Mann The Forgotten Arm Superego Despite the trademarked sweeping chorus that marks the opening track, “Dear John,” this latest album from gifted singer/songwriter, critical darling and musicians’ advocate Mann strays a bit from the lush, evocative fare of her work on the Magnolia soundtrack and 2002’s top-notch Lost in Space. The Forgotten Arm is…
Stargazer
Gemini The Twins (May 20 – June 21) The week begins with a flurry of activity and possibly a few angry words with a friend. Then your attention shifts to the subject of finances. Concentrate carefully on communications because misunderstandings may occur. Travel and play are prominent near the 15th. For All Signs From May…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 6.8 Swamp Cabbage, Ken Will Morton & the Wholly Ghosts – One might equate the festering fumes of Swamp Cabbage’s moniker with the band’s humid, backwoods, gumbo-fueled music reminiscent of fellow North Florida act Mofro. It’s a sweltering, electrified roots sound with a New Orleans flair. Athens’ Ken Will Morton has a great rock…
Hear Me Roar
Had I fallen to earth a woman 15 minutes ago, I would be wise to fall in front of the Levine Museum of the New South here in Charlotte. This would be my first stop – to see Purses, Platforms & Power, the current show on women’s ascent to power in this city in the…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Jun. 8 Amos’ Southend Inspectah Deck w/ Afu-Ra & Planet Asia Breakfast Club Dub Access Reggae Corkscrew, Huntersville Jared Allan & Co. Double Door Inn Long Distance Call The Evening Muse Swamp Cabbage w/ Ken Will Morton & the Wholly Ghosts Excelsior Club Soulution The Gin Mill Wizard’s Road Show House of Jazz Celine…
