See&Do
Thursday, March 30 Cut to the fun! The Blumenthal PAC is bringing Shear Madness, the longest-running play in American theater history, to a freshly reconfigured Booth Playhouse for a nine-week engagement. For the 37,000th time — and counting! — concert pianist Isabel Czerny will be murdered in her apartment overlooking a hair salon. Not only…
Crashing The Joint
The new caper yarn Inside Man is a Spike Lee Joint, sho ’nuff, which may explain why pundits and critics are startled to note that the picture might also turn out to be a commercial hit. After all, the inimitable Mr. Lee is a maverick filmmaker who has always marched to his own beat, which,…
Get to Steppin’
Among the showstoppers at the 2006 CIAA Step Show at the Charlotte Convention Center earlier this month were some of the best college step teams in the East, including the amazing Deltas from North Carolina Central University and a high school step team from Greensboro. Playing on Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of Ray Charles, the young…
Wine Emergencies
So I’m slothing at home, feeding my pathetic addiction to Law and Order reruns on TNT, when the phone rings. My friend John is at dinner with a promising date, freaking out about what wine to order. After I giggle a moment about the thought of “love-’em-and-leave-’em” John on a real date and spending some…
The Blotter
Beware of Bullies: A bully with a baseball bat stopped a 15-year-old on his bike. The baseball player asked the kid for the blue sweatshirt he was wearing. Before the kid could give the suspect the sweatshirt, the suspect whopped the kid in the face with the bat. The ball player eventually got the shirt,…
Upper Crust
You can divide pizza lovers into two groups: those who love anchovies and those who need to learn to love anchovies. Oh sure, pizza could be divided regionally — as in New York, Chicago and California. Regional distinctions refer to the crust. Generally, folks from the New York area prefer pliable, Chicagoans like it thick…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I was dumped mercilessly some time ago and given no explanation. Since there was no real closure, I carried around a lot of anger toward this person. One night in a drunken stupor, I stood watch while a friend of mine let the air out of said person’s tire. Please note, I…
Sweet Spots
The closest many of us come to a bakery or pastry shop is ordering a muffin at Starbucks. Yet the number of small international bakeries in Charlotte is growing — particularly among the Latino sector. Why? Because Latinos prefer to buy bread fresh daily and to treat themselves to sweets made fresh. New to Charlotte…
Letters
Mountain High I just finished reading Matt Brunson’s fantastic article “Hit and Run” (Flicks, March 15), and I wanted to say thanks for putting together such a well-written piece. It really summed up exactly how I felt about the situation, and I sent it to lots of friends. I know Brokeback Mountain fans are getting…
The “King” Visits Charlotte
Just when I thought it was safe to take the ragtop down and put my bubble coat into storage, a cold front’s come in to delay the feel of spring. But don’t fret — in Charlotte everything gets hotter when the sun goes down. Speaking of hot, T.I. was recently in Charlotte to promote the…
See no Evel
Redemption is a dish best served cold — ice cold when it comes to hip-hop. And so it’s advantage Kanye West in the current kulturkampf, as the release of his “Touch the Sky” video perfectly coincides with the Associated Press’ recent release of footage showing former FEMA Director Michael “Brownie” Brown thoroughly briefing President Bush…
A pussy-ass princess
I don’t feel like getting naked in front of Grant, especially if it’s just for the sake of garnering some sympathy. “I swear, I’m covered in bruises,” I tell him. “Just trust me.” “Like hell, you pussy-ass bitch,” he bitches at me. He’s still mad at me for making him worry last week when I…
Kelly Green
Robert (“R.”) Kelly’s continued dominance of the R&B charts — despite more than a dozen child pornography charges, a history of relationships with females half his age (or less) and the audacious “Trapped in the Closet” song cycle — has little to do with his grade-school sexual metaphors and penchant for nailing the urban zeitgeist.…
ZZ Top
Lord, they’re awfully young in those photos. Just look at ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons in the Tres Hombres booklet — baby-faced and with only a beginning trace of the famous beard that would one day reach halfway to his knees and be as iconic as Ringo’s rings, Elton’s glasses and Flavor’s clock. The music,…
Stargazer
Aries The Ram (March 20 — April 19) The new moon in your sign on March 29 was eclipsed. This brings an intensity of focus to the issue of who you wish to become. This is a piece of inner work that must be done in the quiet, an environment that Rams avoid. You can’t…
Two Causes Better than One
Let’s not hear any grumbling about how two key Charlotte music benefits wound up scheduled on the same night, or any suggestions that this must be some April Fool’s joke gone bad. And let’s keep this an irony-free zone as well, what with one benefit fundraising for a struggling local venue — the Milestone –…
Cruisin’ with the Panthers
Urban Explorer I am the biggest Panther fan ever. Not the biggest in terms of size but the biggest in the sense that I love my football team. Everybody knows I support the cardiac cats. I’m originally from Charlotte. I was here when we didn’t even have a team — when the skating rink was…
All the Young Dudes
Glam or glitter rock may’ve had its official heyday in the early ’70s, but plenty contemporary bands proceed as if there’s been no punk or hip-hop interval since Ziggy Stardust’s fall from grace. Just ask fine local group the New Blacks, who infuse Sunset Strip metal into their heavy mix. If vintage glam was a…
State of the Country
Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing; Let the whole world know, that today is a day of reckoning. Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong. Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay … It’s Independence Day. — from Martina McBride’s hit “Independence Day,” by Gretchen Peters The cowboy sitting…
Talkin’ ‘Bout Two Generations
We baby boomers catch hell from both sides of the political spectrum. Many conservatives claim my generation led America into moral relativism, depravity, and the break-up of family life and, in general, pushed the nation down the slide toward the end of civilization. Lefties, on the other hand, often say we’re a selfish lot who…
Pulling the Boot outta Country music’s ass
Country music is the nation’s most popular genre — with nearly twice as many stations devoted to it than any other — and perhaps its most political. These days, the jingle jangle jingoism from Music Row seems to be louder than ever. Consider these lyrics from a few chart-toppers of the past few years: •…
Sí se puede!
Chanting “¡Sí se puede!” (“Yes we can!”), at least 5,000 demonstrators hoisted signs and waved American flags in Marshall Park on Saturday, March 25. Young and old, rally-goers came from across the Carolinas to demand pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. J. Crispin Rivera, a native Mexican and legal resident from Greenville, SC, had an…
The Guinness Book And Glory
If ever the Blumenthal picked a bankable property to bring to Charlotte, Shear Madness is it. Since opening in a wee Boston theater in 1980, Paul Portner’s interactive comedy whodunit has persevered into the new millennium, becoming the first, second and third longest running non-musical in American theater history, with record runs in Chicago, DC,…
Manufacturing Consent
It sounds too good to be true. A funky arts and entertainment colony on the edge of downtown, with two outside stages for music festivals, 25 bars and clubs including Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s themed country-western bar, a House of Blues-type live music venue and a South Beach-style dance club. “It’ll be a place where you…
Full Color
Angela Nissel is on a mission to bring together all the multiracial people of the world. Like Colin Powell, Halle Berry and David Hasselhoff. What? You didn’t know the Knight Rider was mixed? Come on, look at that curly hair. And I hear KITT was actually half Cray and one-quarter Yugo. What’d you say? Are…
Lovesong to lintheads
The people who honor the culture of North Carolina’s textile mill workers may not be lionized by history. Neither they nor the workers themselves will be receiving million-dollar bonuses. But they haven’t been forgotten. At least not by filmmaker Joel Blackwelder. Blackwelder, whose grandfather worked in Plant Six of Cannon Mills, has created a documentary,…
Hello Grriz and Boyz
Check out Bikini Kat’s farting turtles, or see if you can catch that weird creature flashing across Martha Colburn’s pages. No? Ok then, try cuntry life, esoteric architecture or musical flash weirdness. Bikini Kat www.bikinikat.com Martha Colburn www.marthacolburn.com The Cuntry Kings www.cuntrykings.com Zaha Hadid www.zaha-hadid.com Two Lone Swordsmen www.twoloneswordsmen.com
Mala Palabra
There’s a word that everybody has avoided in the national immigration debate: amnesty. Amnesty is the forbidden word. Amnesty is the cursed word. President Bush always makes clear that his guest-worker program is “not an amnesty.” Senators who favor legislation permitting undocumented immigrants to remain in the country shun the expression. Restrictionist congressmen consider any…
Film Clips
Current Releases ASK THE DUST Movies don’t get much more languid than Ask the Dust, yet for all its lackadaisical moseying when a trot here and there might have helped, the picture isn’t easy to shake. Written and directed by Robert Towne, this LA-set adaptation of John Fante’s novel casts Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek…
Short List
Among Dick Cheney’s Hotel Requirements Is That the TV Must Always Be Tuned to FOX News If the vice president is into watching fantasy shows, wouldn’t the Sci-Fi Channel be preferable? President Bush States That It Will Be Up To “Future Presidents” To Clean Up His Mess in Iraq If we can get the impeachment…
View From The Couch
A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (1969) / SNOOPY, COME HOME (1972). Buoyed by the success of a handful of Peanuts films on the small screen (most notably 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas), creator Charles M. Schulz and producers Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez elected to take a chance on bringing Charlie Brown and company to…
Look Homeward, Angel
There I was, zipping along Central Avenue, annoyed that the blabbermouth at my last appointment had made me late for my next appointment, when I ran into a traffic jam at the intersection of Central and 7th Street. Figures. Some kind of commotion in the intersection had traffic blocked. As I got closer, I saw…
Greatest Indignity
Ho hum … another month, another movie list. This time, it’s Premiere magazine who’s the instigator, as the new issue’s cover story trumpets the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. As always, this sort of list has stirred up all manner of conversation and controversy, particularly on that great bastion of vocal equal opportunity, the…
