Not Necessarily Exotic
Unlike the critical-darling releases dominating best-of lists these days, Dolorean’s Not Exotic defied the odds in 2003 by not being remotely hip, buzz-worthy, po-mo or avant-garde. Not Exotic: Truth in Advertising. That, of course, is the draw of this humble, stately recording, and why it found its way onto so many of those lists. It’s…
Groin Mate vs. Soul Mate
The trend these days is to claim that you’re married to your best friend. Couples interviewed about what their “secret” is because they’ve been together for some ungodly amount of time say it, as well as celebrities, although they must have a lot of best friends considering how often they get hitched. Even old Joan…
Sit & Spin
The Coral Magic & Medicine/Nightfreak & The Sons of Becker Columbia Records Once a Scouse, always a Scouse, that’s what I say. The Coral try to negate their Liverpool/ Beatles heritage, only to prove that the opposite is merely a mirrored reflection. As they try to be anything but their hometown saints, these young British…
Almost Re-re-scheduled
Sunday evening, I checked the weather and headed out to the Double Door Inn for the Alejandro Escovedo “Benefit for a Friend.” The show was due to be held about a month ago, but nasty winter weather forced a reschedule. Luckily, last week’s massive snow melted in time for folks to make it out to…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 3.3 Amelia White — White uses simple tricks on the acoustic guitar and her expansive voice to create what could be loosely described as ambient country. She’s a bit like a female version of Chris Isaak with a moody twang, and akin to Aimee Mann plucking more emotion from her guitars. But White clearly…
Gay Marriage
Chris Armstrong Barber “It’s great, I was getting tired of hearing about jobs and deficits and war and Halliburton. I mean, hel-lo? Let’s keep moving, people.” Ella McElvey Rental Property Manager “We should all just keep talking about it for the next five years, then all the gay people will be married anyhow and the…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Mar. 3 Ballantyne Resort The Sinatra Experience Baoding Robert Fernandez Blue Carl DiPonziano Bonterra Kim Carper, Van Sachs & Gerard Benson Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Charleston Chops, Cornelius Michelle Smith Double Door Inn Malem The Evening Muse Jack Ingram w/ Mike Strauss The Gin Mill Wizard’s Road Show Hart-Witzen Gallery Open Mic…
The Blotter
OUR BAD!: A woman’s luxury sedan was damaged recently when a demolition crew, blasting rocks, misjudged a blast and blew out her windshield and scratched her car’s paint. GO AHEAD AND AUDIT ME: Seemingly having no fear of the all-powerful IRS, a Charlotte man decided to steal a stranger’s name, social security number, date of…
The Passion of the Christ: His Cross To Bear
When Mel Gibson’s highly anticipated The Passion of the Christ opened nationally last week, it was reasonable to assume that its arrival might have finally tempered the onslaught of opinion and information surrounding this controversial work – the studio hype, the charges of anti-Semitism, Gibson’s curious comments regarding his personal beliefs. But if anything, the…
See & Do
MARCH 3 – WEDNESDAY The Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus is back in town. In the 19th century, P.T. Barnum started the American tradition of traveling circuses going town to town, dazzling the locals with exotic animals, freak shows, acrobats and tightrope walkers. Over time, circuses lost the freaks to the carnies, clowns climbed…
View From The Couch
DUPLEX (2003). While generally pretty good at predicting a movie’s reception, I blew it completely with Duplex. What happened to the rave reviews and $100 million gross I had anticipated for director Danny De Vito’s dark comedy? They were usurped by blistering pans and a paltry $9 million haul, which I suppose makes this a…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Awaiting Headline By Columnist’s Dog I’m a guy, 27, college-educated, well employed, and attractive, but it’s been three years since I’ve dated anyone. My family is far away, my friends have all moved away or married, and I can’t date women I meet at work because they’re all clients. I’m not interested in joining clubs,…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES BROKEN LIZARD’S CLUB DREAD Broken Lizard, the outfit behind the low-budget satire Super Troopers, is back with Club Dread, a comedy in which the vacation resort Pleasure Island becomes a stomping ground for a masked maniac with a very large machete. Yet here’s the kicker: Club Dread doesn’t exactly feel like a comedy.…
Stargazer
For All Signs Those of the fiery temperaments are attracted to the people of earth. Fires (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) want to go everywhere and do everything at once. They seek the more grounded earths (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) to help them channel their energies and maintain focus. The earths, prone to develop life ruts, have a…
Boortz, the Anti-American
“The truth really needs to be told about John Kerry’s Purple Hearts. A case can be made that he’s a coward.” – Neal Boortz, Feb. 17, 2004. The above quote from Neal Boortz, an Atlanta radio talk show host who is broadcast locally on WBT, is a new low, even for the group Al Franken…
Silver Gelatin Hope
Margaret Bourke-White was a pushy woman in a patriarchal America. Through her splendid and powerful photographs, she showed her country the bright side of its industrialized self. In the midst of America’s worst depression, Bourke-White delivered silver gelatin hope and early reflections of the genesis of what became the most powerful industrialized country in history.…
Letters
Tag, You’re ItIn reference to “Why South Carolinians Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Drive In Charlotte” (by John Grooms, “The List Issue,” Feb.11): I think you guys should think about this. Seventy-five + percent of the SC tags you see in Charlotte are former Charlotteans that moved to SC to get away from inflated taxes and…
Charlotte’s Trojan Horse
When Troy Scarborough comes to town next week in The Full Monty, he’ll be riding into Belk Theater on one of the juiciest musical comedy roles of the last decade. Scarborough, son of former Charlotte City Councilperson Ella Scarborough, plays Noah “Horse” T. Simmons, a linchpin in the story of six laid-off blue collar workers…
What The Heck Is A Spongmonkey?
If you had time to kill while snowbound, you may have caught the new commercial everyone’s talking about. I can’t decide if they’re mutant gerbils with human mouths or some bad dream you have after eating something loaded with chipotles. But you have to admit that the new Quizno’s commercials cut through the clutter on…
There’s Some Land I Want To Sell You
It doesn’t seem like it’s really been a decade since Dennis Covington gave us Salvation on Sand Mountain, a superlative piece of literary journalism that helped set the standard for the art of non-fiction. With the subject matter, it could have gone either way. Covington brought his storyteller’s eye to the snake-handling sects of the…
Nothin’ But Blue Skies. . .
Iraq’s US-picked leaders were able to adopt an interim Constitution last week, working overtime past the midnight February 28 deadline. Generic compromises were reached on the most sensitive issues, left to be argued passionately over the coming months. Paul Bremer, the Viceroy, umm, top US administrator in Iraq, met with members of the Iraqi Governing…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Charlotte Civic Orchestra The orchestra’s new music director will lead a performance of music from his native Republic of Georgia. First United Methodist Church, 501 N. Tryon St. Sat., March 6, 5:30 p.m. Concert $8 adults, $6 seniors/students. 704-344-0098. Comedy Bayou Kitchen Comedy. Extreme Improv at 8pm; Psychotic Pooch at 10pm. Fridays and…
The Fool on the Hill
Ralph Nader is a dangerous loony. Or maybe a wise fool. He’s certainly someone who is absolutely right and irretrievably wrong in the same breath. He’s right that American democracy has been dangerously corrupted by corporate payoffs and political kickbacks. But he’s terribly wrong in thinking that this is the time to engage in the…
Clean,Fresh and Distinctive
Buildings on East Boulevard in Dilworth have undergone the change from single-family older house to refurbished candlelit bistro, and the stale storefront into the oh-so-trendy two-storied storefront. But the whole neighborhood hasn’t been equally aglow with newness. One area off East Boulevard, in particular, has resisted much change. Tucked in the far corner of the…
Asking the wrong questions
If you want a marriage license in North Carolina, you’ll have to answer what, for some, may be very difficult questions. First, they’ll ask you if the person you want to marry is your cousin. Since it’s legal to marry your first cousin in North Carolina (which explains a lot) but not your double first…
2004 Southeast Food & Wine Fests
When spring arrives in the Southeast, food and wine fests pop up like weeds after a pelting rain. They are so plentiful, you need waders to get through the crappy ones. But some are worth the rising prices, and many benefit charities. Nothing wrong with drinking on a good conscience. Here’s a not-so-comprehensive list of…
News of the Weird
And there’s no gay marriage?: The sacred institution of marriage: In February, Hindus in a village near Pondicherry, India, in a traditional ceremony believed to bring relief to a drought-stricken region, tried to appease the god of rain by “marrying” a neem tree (the bride) to a peepul tree (groom). (In 2002, News of the…
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.…
World Without Peers
She is the matron saint of female country rock artists, a singer whose voice wields honesty like a scalpel and whose songwriting pen is dipped in the hurt of countless broken hearts. She, of course, is Lucinda Williams, and few musicians elicit the lofty compliments and geeky adulation that she does — and that’s just…
