Art Is Enough
The message on my machine said: “Call Tommie Robinson — he disagrees with your comment in the CL List Issue that nobody in Charlotte besides Ben Long can make a living as an artist.” Gulp. Just in case I or anyone else out there really believes that, Robinson kindly corrected the misconception. The esteemed portraitist…
America the Theocracy
Proverbs 1 Gary DeMar makes a disconcerting impression for a firebrand revolutionary who wants to overthrow the established order in the United States. No camouflage, and he carries a Bible instead of an assault rifle. Sporting khaki pants with razor creases, tassel loafers and, most of all, a warm smile, he looks like your neighbor.…
Gilman Gets It
As playwright Rebecca Gilman deftly ratchets up the tension in Boy Gets Girl, we realize that the onslaught of suspense isn’t her chief concern. Yes, she wants us to viscerally experience the feelings of violation and paranoia that bedevil New York magazine writer Theresa Bedell when an ungainly blind date morphs into a vindictive stalker.…
Amateur Hour
WCNC reporter Nicole Allshouse isn’t one of those journalists who lets mere facts, or the necessity of confirming them, stand in the way of a good story. And like Allshouse, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Detective Ginger Lowe isn’t the kind of person to let inconvenient facts hamper her latest criminal crusade. Put the two together and you’ve…
The water, the people, and the dam
It’s very rare to find a first novel that is big, bold, courageous, unexpected, full of passion — and utterly free of pretension. Waterborne is such a novel. And its author, Bruce Murkoff, avoids every pitfall and cliche that threaten to trap even the most talented and experienced novelist. The time is the Great Depression,…
Charlotte’s Mark on March Madness
March Madness heads to the Sweet 16 this weekend, with three ACC teams still in the hunt. Charlotte bars will be busy, office pools have exploded thanks to Kentucky and Stanford losing, and CBS is raking in some of its best ratings in years. Next to the Super Bowl, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music The Charlotte Symphony with Bill Conti Oscar Winning composer and conductor Conti will lead the Symphony as he conducts some of Hollywood’s greatest musical moments. www.charlottesymphony.org. March 26; March 27, 8 p.m. $15-$62. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-972-2000. Providence Chamber Music Series Musicians from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra perform…
Happy Birthday, War!
On the first anniversary of the Brave New War in Iraq, President Bush told representatives of 83 nations at a White House ceremony that they can’t display signs of weakness in an inescapable battle against terrorism. “There is no neutral ground in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between…
Two Great Joints
Used to be that New York-style pizza was an anomaly in Charlotte. But that was a long, long, time ago, in fact generations ago in nouvelle Charlotte time. The latest addition is a fine new pizzeria and bar that sprouted in the newest oldest part of Charlotte: Elizabeth. If you don’t live in Elizabeth, you…
Say Huh, Do What?
It’s one of those mysteries no one seems too eager to solve. How could the federal government snub our most excellent world-class rail project the way it did? We, after all, are Charlotte and, in typical Charlotte fashion, we simply assumed that Federal Transit Administration officials would fall to their knees upon the site of…
Into the Wood
Winemakers slave long and hard over grape juice to fingerprint their wine. By imparting their personality into their craft, winemakers avoid producing uniformly bland wine. One expensive, yet delicious, way they tailor wine is by using oak barrels to either ferment or age the juice — a tried-and-true technique that originated years ago when barrels…
The Price of Beauty
One of my favorite topics to teach is urban history, particularly the interwoven tale of American and European cities in the modern era, from the Industrial Revolution to the present day. It’s a complex story involving racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, fascism, communism, capitalism and criminality as well as more noble ideas of democratic freedom, historic preservation…
Good Eats
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.…
Letters
Vote Your Conscience With all due respect to Ms. Dwightman (“Walters’ Hissy Fit,” Letter to the Editor, Mar. 17), did we not learn anything from Florida? Bush is no more a moderate Republican than Michael Jackson is a regular guy. True, the Dems were in need of a testicular reattachment at one point but Howard…
Who Stole the Soul?
“I used to think that I could not go on / And life was nothing but an awful song” –from “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly Never mind the pedophilia allegations. Put aside for a second his absurd assertion that “Osama bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I’m going…
News of the Weird
Expensive habit: Adding to the Disney-fanatic adults who have appeared in News of the Weird is George Reiger of Bethlehem, Pa., who has now been tattooed with Disney-related images 1,600 times, adding about one per week. Reiger said he spends $50,000 a year on his Disney habit, owns 19,000 items of memorabilia, and has fitted…
Rosebuds Reveal Their Secret
Carolina indie pop is alive and well. After Don Dixon, Superchunk, Zen Frisbee, Archers of Loaf, now it’s the Rosebuds turn. The “Buds are a trio, young, loud and sloppy, remaining true to their Triangle roots (they’re from Raleigh). Think Imperial Teen, the (New Zealand) Bats, Velocity Girl, Yo La Tengo, Marshall Crenshaw, B52’s, Modern…
Be Healed Now
Send me 50 dollars, a fee I’ve determined intuitively, and I’ll heal you right now, telepathically, psychically or whatever-ly as long as it doesn’t involve actually meeting or touching you! Whatever ails you I’ll divine it by summoning the back-up help of the Angel Posse I’ve been celestially entrusted with to do my destined holy…
Sit & Spin
The Standard Wire Post to Wire Yep Roc With so many Brit bands trying so hard to be the next Radiohead and failing so miserably — the toothless Coldplay, the anemic Travis, etc. — it comes as a very pleasant turn of events that the heirs to the throne are an unknown American quintet from…
The Play’s The Thing
I’m not the biggest theatergoer in the world, even though I love the art form. I’m the same way with movies, too. I want to lose myself in the story and acting, and forget that I’m sitting in a theater with a hundred other people around me. The problem, of course, is the other people…
Music Menu
THURSDAY 3.25 Granola Funk Express — Yeah, I know. The name doesn’t necessarily strike fear in your heart, even as it offends the stomach. However, these NC-mountain bred lads can still kick a meaty verse even as they prefer to rock the tempeh in the kitchen. Unlike the hip-hop the majors are still feeding you,…
B of A S.O.L.
Joey Vicenzo Automotive Parts Store Manager “I’m worried that people will start to think of us as a city of crooks rather than one of nice, green lawns with lush carpets of beautiful fescue.” Marianne Pearson Beautician “Image? I’ll tell you something about an image: those thieves gypped my husband and me out of mutual…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Mar. 24 Amos’ Southend The 77’s w/ Barn Hill Station Ballantyne Resort The Sinatra Experience Baoding Robert Fernandez Blue Carl DiPonziano Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Comet Grill Open Mic w/ Bill McDonald Double Door Inn The Reconstruction w/ Abe Reid & Spikedrivers The Evening Muse Tom Conlon, Buddahead, Scott Jeffries Duo, &…
The Blotter
A BAD TWO WEEKS: After a 10-day stay in the hospital, and then having to go to jail for two days, a man finally returned home to find that his apartment had been vandalized. The carpets, walls, and doors were covered in paint, and police said there were no signs of forced entry. TEDDY BEAR…
Jim Beams
Effectively blotting from our collective memory the unwieldy on-screen persona we’ve come to associate with him, Jim Carrey tones it way down in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a quirky new movie (written by Adaptation’s Charlie Kaufman) in which he and a toned-way-up Kate Winslet are cast against type as seemingly mismatched lovers who…
See & Do
MARCH 25 – THURSDAY The Odd Couple of politics, Ralph Nader and Alan Keyes, will debate the topic “Big Business, Corporate Crimes & Regulation of Business” today at 7pm in Dana Auditorium at Queens University. Keyes is a former Reagan administration official who ran for president in “96 and 2000, hanging on to the bitter…
No Guts, No Glory
George Romero’s seminal horror film from 1968, the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead, didn’t exactly cry out for a remake, but that didn’t stop filmmakers (including Romero himself) from releasing a dreadful new version in 1990. The same goes for 1974’s influential The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which suffered the indignities of a tepid…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Five Greasy Pieces My boyfriend of two years is a terrific guy and very attractive. I know this sounds petty, but last week, he started slicking his hair back, and it looks terrible. I’m mad he’d do such a thing, but he says he thinks it looks good! While I guess I’ll get used to…
View From The Couch
BEYOND BORDERS (2003). It’s been awhile since we’ve had an all-consuming romantic epic set against an international backdrop, and while Beyond Borders doesn’t come within even 100 kilometers of the power of, say, Reds or The English Patient, it’s a solid, second-tier effort far more involving than its critical and commercial drubbing last fall would…
Stargazer
For All Signs Through the end of March, every planet visible to the naked eye is in the evening sky. These include Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Long before the Copernican Revolution, priests and scholars would study these “wandering stars,” because they were clearly mobile and appeared to have autonomy beyond other night bodies.…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES JERSEY GIRL Where are Jay and Silent Bob when we really need them? Jersey Girl is being promoted as writer-director Kevin Smith’s first “adult” film, the one in which he has finally dropped his juvenile antics and made a story that involves real-world characters and real-life situations. That’s all well and good, but…
