Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2011

Mar 29 - Apr 4, 2011 / Vol. 25 / No. 5

The Milestone, 4/1/11

Treasure Fest benefit show at The Milestone, featuring Harvard, Robbers, Appalucia, and Great Architect, on April 1. Photos by Justin Driscoll

Priscilla Tsai

Nightlife Q&A: DJ Jask

Jask makes a stop at Dharma Lounge on April 2 (along with Lisa Shaw), and this is what he has to say about the current state of electronic music.

Carlton Hargro

One of 3 ‘most concerning’ nuclear plants just 90 miles away

Hey, here’s more good nuclear news: We’re only 90 miles from one of the three U.S. nuclear plants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is most concerned about. On the heels of the nuclear energy disaster unfolding in Japan, and a heightened awareness of inadequate nuclear accident evacuation plans for Charlotte, we now find out that…

John Grooms

Bluprint opens tomorrow

Located in the same building at Morton’s in Uptown (the Carillon building), the restaurant offers a full-service sit down breakfast throughout the day.

Priscilla Tsai

Key Lime Cheesecake

Pucker up. This key lime cheesecake packs a cool, creamy punch. The dense cheesecake sits upon a tropical crust made of coconut, flour, sugar, and butter. As a big fan of key lime pie, I was eager to try a cheesecake version. I followed the recipe without any deviations, baked the cheesecake in a water…

Priscilla Tsai

Mayor Foxx sells Duke Energy’s ‘green’ myths

If Mayor Foxx doesn’t want to be seen as a shill for Duke Energy, he needs to get his facts straight. Foxx was in D.C. yesterday, along with some other mayors, to promote President Obama’s energy policy. At one point, a reporter asked Foxx about Duke Energy, and the mayor delivered a very good facsimile…

John Grooms

Tonight’s Top 5, 03/31/11

The top five nightlife-related events going down tonight, March 31, as chosen from the folks at Creative Loafing. • Keepin’ It Classy With Dick Tracey at Crown Station Pub • Soulcial Thursdays at Apostrophe Lounge • Butter Thursdays • Comedy night at Whiskey Warehouse • Sunset Unplugged with Brendan Reynolds & Ryan Trotti at Sunset…

Kimberly Lawson

Latest GOP genius: ‘After Libya, do we go in to Africa next?’

It’s bad enough that many Americans know so little about the rest of the world, but you kind of expect someone on the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington to be a teensy bit more informed on the subject. Unfortunately, that ain’t happenin’ in the case of freshman congressman Tom Marino (R-PA), who apparently landed…

John Grooms

New from Jane’s Addiction — “End to the Lies”

A song from the upcoming Jane’s Addiction album has been released. “End to the Lies” is a bit different from other songs you may have heard by the band… Check it out: Jane’s Addiction – End to the Lies by paniko The band’s next album, The Great Escape Artist, is due this summer.

Jeff Hahne

OMB Beer Dinner April 7

Whiskey Warehouse is hosting a local beer dinner on Thursday, April 7, at 7 pm to support local farmers, brewers, and the public library. Tickets are $25 with the donation of 3 books, or $28 without books. Buy tickets at www.bandtastic.com/Library. 20% of all revenue will be donated to the library. The menu is as…

Priscilla Tsai

Bar Charlotte hosts job fair

College night is returning to Bar Charlotte. So college students, it’s only right that you check out this job fair at Bar Charlotte this week and next — it’s your civic duty to entertain the masses at one of the city’s hottest party spots. For more information, e-mail workatbar@aol.com.

Kimberly Lawson

Tonight’s Top 5, 03/30/11

The top five nightlife-related events going down tonight, March 30, as chosen from the folks at Creative Loafing. • Winning Level Wednesday at Suite • Off the Wall at On the Roxx • Pop Life returns, now at Re:Public • Pure Wednesdays (ladies free!) at Halo • Haunted 3D Blacklight Putt Putt Potluck III

Kimberly Lawson

Target at the Metropolitan unveils groceries

The Midtown Target store located on Metropolitan Avenue has finally finished turning my life upside down. An avid shopper at Target, their remodeling in the past few months to make room for fresh produce and groceries had thoroughly boggled my mind as I had to figure out the changed layout of the store. With an…

Priscilla Tsai

Live review: Viva Viva, Aloud, Public Relations, KPSoloman5000

Viva Viva, Aloud, Public Relations, KPSoloman5000 The Milestone March 26, 2011 The Deal: This past New Years Day, I was fortunate enough to be the only non-hung-over person at the Milestone’s New Years Day Hangover Party. For this I am thankful because I got to experience some amazing music by KPSoloman5000 and Aloud from Boston…

Jenny Lou Bement

This week’s new releases (3/29/2011)

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new in stores this week: Wiz Khalifa Rolling Papers Los Lonely Boys Rockpango Mountain Goats All Eternals Deck Willie Nelson, Wynton Marsalis and Norah Jones Here We Go Again Peter, Bjorn & John Gimme Some Radiohead The King of Limbs Snoop Dogg Doggumentary Music Britney Spears Femme Fatale Sum…

Jeff Hahne

CD REVIEW: Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers

THE DEAL: Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco’s long-awaited third album finally hits stores. THE GOOD: After a successful second album, the anticipation building up to the release of Lasers was monumental due to his loyal fans. But if you expect the same content or story telling on this album that Fiasco provided with The Cool or…

Johnathan Cruse

EXHIBIT: Contrast

The balance of black and white is key in Culture Initiative’s latest exhibit at Baku Gallery. Various artists were asked to create two 12×12″ canvases using both shades to represent contrast. Each work is reflective of the artists’ own views toward contrast as well as the use of their choice of mediums (which range in…

Anita Overcash

CD REVIEW: Big Joe Maher’s You Can’t Keep a Big Man Down

THE DEAL: Jump blues from a modern master. THE GOOD: For the last 40 years, Big Joe Maher has been pounding out jump blues from behind his drum kit. Influenced by Amos Milburn, Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner, Maher is adept at creating current tunes in the jump style popular in the ’40s and…

Grant Britt

EXHIBIT: Beauty in the Broken

Artist Kendra Baird enjoys traveling around the world. After visiting 11 countries on a 12-month mission trip, she’s broadened her horizons. Her new acrylic paintings (including the pictured piece, “In Her Eyes”) reflect the people, places and things that she encountered. Her works are described as using “soft tones and subtle textures to conjure peaceful…

Anita Overcash

In case of a nuke accident …

  It’s time for another gut-churning, thrill-a-minute episode of Ask Boomer With Attitude, brought to you live from Charlotte, N.C., where people who use the most water pay a lower rate than those who conserve. This time, one of the questions was made up; see if you can pick it out. Dear BWA: How are…

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files

U-Turn: Police were interviewing a larceny suspect in the street last week when a black Saturn nearly collided with their patrol vehicle, skidding 20 feet to a stop in front of it. As an officer approached the passenger side, he witnessed the passenger stuffing something in the glove box and attempting to hide his open…

Ryan Pitkin

Nsenga says goodbye

It is with a heavy heart that I write this — my farewell column for Creative Loafing. Serving as one of the nation’s only African-American columnists at an alternative media outlet has been a pleasure and working with CL’s editor in chief, Carlton Hargro, has been a joy; however, I’m moving on to pursue other…

Nsenga Burton

Do shadows weigh anything?

I’m aware this is a dumb question, but in a way that reassures me because I’m relieved of the task of checking to see if any of your other readers have posed it before: do shadows weigh anything at all? Of course, I know we’re talking extremely small amounts — fractions of fractions of fractions…

Cecil Adams

Broken record: Sexual assaults and CMS

For years, female students at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have been groped, sexually assaulted and possibly even raped by other students. The result always seems to be the same. Before long, these predatory students are walking school halls again, despite convictions against them. In 2008, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman made a big show of taking on…

Weekly horoscope (March 30-April 5)

Aries The Ram (March 20-April 19) Give attention to the lead paragraph. Mercury is turning retrograde in your sign and will be more likely to affect your daily affairs than many of the other signs. Don’t even try to finalize anything while a retrograding Mercury is with you. You may have cause to reverse decisions…

Vivian Carol

Aristide’s return to Haiti: A long night’s journey into day

Late at night on March 17, 2011, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide boarded a small plane with his family in Johannesburg, South Africa. The following morning, he arrived in Haiti. It was just over seven years after he was kidnapped from his home in a U.S.-backed coup d’etat. Haiti has been ravaged by a massive…

Amy Goodman

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of March 30

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU One person’s religious beliefs is often another person’s existentialist theories, and The Adjustment Bureau offers plenty of theological fodder to go around. Because it tinkers with notions involving God and chance and destiny and all that other stuff that’s fun to discuss, it might turn off those types of folks who misunderstood…

Matt Brunson

DANCE: Garth Fagan Dance

Reaching 40 is a milestone, but Garth Fagan Dance had no trouble hurtling over the hill. The dance troupe based out of New York — and founded/choreographed by Jamaican native Garth Fagan — draws inspiration from Afro-Caribbean, ballet and post-modern dance techniques. Mid-air splits and flowing moves combine with body language and music for a…

Anita Overcash

ART: Opening reception for Inhabitants & Happenstance

Local artist and co-owner of Lark & Key Gallery, Duy Huynh never ceases to capture my attention with his dreamy paintings loaded with clever captions. In the gallery’s latest exhibit Inhabitants & Happenstance, you’ll find new acrylic paintings by Huynh (like the one pictured, which is titled “Metamorphosis of a Metaphor” — see what I…

Anita Overcash

Tangled, Topsy-Turvy among new home entertainment titles

HOW DO YOU KNOW (2010). Often as likable as a frolicking puppy — and always as messy — How Do You Know is one of those pictures in which everyone is so gosh-darn charismatic that the battle (at least for the filmmakers) is already half over. When compared to writer-director James L. Brooks’ early efforts…

Matt Brunson

THEATER: The Colored Museum

Take a trip back in time with On Q Productions. Its latest take to the stage The Colored Museum is set on an airplane that lands at different museums — each remembering significant periods in time related to African-Americans. From slavery days and the Civil Rights Movement to present day, the vignette-like pieces carry a…

Anita Overcash

Where to find it: Locally made urban honey

Honeybees are in trouble. A recent online petition from Slow Foods to Steven P. Bradbury, Director of the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs, urges that office to investigate whether pesticides are contributing to or are an underlying cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD). In addition to signing the petition, though, another way — a local…

Tricia Childress

MUSIC: Find Your Muse open mic at The Evening Muse

It’s Find Your Muse open mic night at The Evening Muse this and every Monday. Musicians, grab up your music gear and head over to perform one of your own creations in front of a crowd. No one can guarantee they’ll be liked, but constructive criticism is always helpful! Get there early to snag a…

Anita Overcash

When in Rome: Rudy’s Italian Restaurant

Talk about a snack down. The 6400 block of Rea Road — also known by those who use the Four-Mile Creek Greenway as the parking lot — has taken down a heady group of Italian restaurateurs. First Ciro Marino opened the incomparable Campania Ristorante, but later sold it. Then the larger-than-life restaurateur Giovanni Lorenzi (Si!)…

Tricia Childress

THEATER: Avenue Q

If Avenue Q was a real spot, it’d be more than a skip and a hop from jolly ol’ Sesame Street. In case you mistake one of the show’s characters for a muppet, a disclaimer warns they hold “no responsibility for its content.” So, just how risqué can this puppet performance be? The answer: See…

Anita Overcash

3 questions with Patrick Lavery, chef

Patrick Lavery says he likes to see people “fat, happy and wanting some more.” The chef at the classic Americana bar Jackalope Jacks has been slicing, dicing and frying for a little over a year now and considers the bar to be “a great atmosphere with killer draft beers and plenty of wide screens.” A…

Nicole Pietrantonio

THEATER: Dead Man’s Cell Phone

Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s latest production Dead Man’s Cell Phone is the perfect example of why it’s sometimes better to let a phone ring off the hook than answer it. The surrealist comedy by playwright Sarah Ruhl unfolds when a woman grabs up a stranger’s cell phone after he croaks in a cafe. Whatever the…

Anita Overcash

Explosions in the Sky stirs emotions without words

Music can conjure up a range of emotions usually through lyrics and the tone of one’s voice. Austin, Texas-based Explosions in the Sky may keep its music within instrumental confines, but that doesn’t dampen any reactions. In fact, it may bring out feelings even more. Listening to the band’s music is more of a journey…

Jeff Hahne

Comic review: Batman: Streets of Gothan No. 21

The Deal: The latest issue of Streets of Gotham wraps up the long-simmering story line starring the Batman villain (and Bruce Wayne doppelganger) known as Hush. The Bad: Despite the fact that I actually think Batman is one of the industry’s richest and most fleshed-out characters, I’ve never really been an avid reader of Bat-related…

Carlton Hargro

CL previews upcoming concerts (March 30-April 5)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30 BOBBY LONG The 24-year-old British singer-songwriter had his debut album engineered by Grammy-Award winner Liam Watson, most famous for his work with the White Stripes, and has been road tested doing 160 shows over seven months in seven countries a few years back. Long has built a following with a distinct soulfulness…

The life, death and rebirth of hip-hop artist/filmmaker Jeff Lucky

Throughout his career, filmmaker and hip-hop artist Jeff Lucky has lived, died and lived again. His story has played out in every medium imaginable — from newspapers and magazines (including The New York Times and Sports Illustrated) to television shows (on networks like Fox News and CNN) and film. Owner of the production company Dark…

Olufunke Moses

Nightlife profile: Shawn Tucker

Hip-hop, indie rock, jazz, drums and keys — put 31-year-old Shawn Tucker behind the 1’s and 2’s and that’s just what you’ll get. Tucker, who’s better known as DJ BlngxBdgt (pronounced Bling On A Budget), is blurring musical lines with his unique style of mixing during his Hella and Dirty Mega dance parties at Dharma…

Debra Renee Seth

Symphonic sizzle: Charlotte Symphony’s ‘Light My Fire’ concert

When Charlotte Symphony maestro Christopher Warren-Green waves a stick around at a concert, he’s usually facing away from the audience, cuing musicians and setting the tempo. But the new KnightSounds series is hardly your typical concert experience, so when Warren-Green was shaking a stick at the start of last week’s Light My Fire concert, he…

Perry Tannenbaum

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