Cover Story
Testimony of a failed ordinance
A teenage transgender girl, an older woman and two young girls walk into a bathroom … No punchline here — this really happened at Monday night’s almost six-hour City Council meeting. As the teen exited, two grown men who were hanging outside the women’s restroom yelled at her and called her a “pervert.” One of…
Drink This: Ida from Pint Central
A few simple ingredients come together to create Ida, a beaut of a cocktail named after the Grecian nursemaid to Zeus.
Today’s Top 5: Tuesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
SouthPark Eats Alternatives takes food to the streets for spring kickoff
Local food trucks just might be the cure for the common spring fever
Remembering Kyle Lee
A longtime Loafer remembers CL’s resident graphic designer in the ’90s.
Proposed rezoning could force out Chop Shop, Ultimate Gym, bring new construction
Not long ago, you could walk down North Davidson Street and hear faint acoustic guitars playing on the side streets. Gallery crawls would keep crowds bustling down the main thoroughfares. If the wind blew just right, you might hear clanking weights from a gym down 35th Street. These days, with the LYNX Blue Line extension…
Religious fanaticism threatens future of humanity
To this day, whenever I think about one Jewish radio listener’s comment I took during the late ’90s, I get a terrific laugh. It happened during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first stint as the head of Israel’s government. I was trying to explain to my WBT radio show listeners why, as a Jew, I was…
Day drinking at Old Mecklenburg, nighttime laughs at Comedy Zone
The good weather gods have smiled down on us. Finally.
First Drip (3/10/15): Amtrak derail in Triangle, medical marijuana bill coming to Senate, more
The news you need to know today.
Time Warner Cable Arena going completely smoke-free
Looks like you’ll have to burn your butts somewhere else.
Today’s Top 5: Monday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
First Drip (3/9/15): Save the Chop Shop, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Sunday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Today’s Top 5: Saturday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Cheap list: Burger Records Revolution Show, No Pants Light Rail Ride, more
A list of cheap things to do in the Q.C. this weekend.
New vape escape in town — KURE Vaporium and Lounge comes to NoDa
Queen City gets a new place to vape
Chappie: Aye Yai Yai, Robot
CHAPPIE**DIRECTED BY Neill BlomkampSTARS Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel I’m not going to go as far as the fellow screening attendant who suggested Chappie should have been called Crappie, but coming on the heels of the equally disappointing Elysium, it looks like writer-director Neill Blomkamp might be a one-trick pony … and that one trick was…
Unfinished Business partly achieves its goals
UNFINISHED BUSINESS**1/2DIRECTED BY Ken ScottSTARS Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson Sentimentality has no place in raunchy comedies, and many a movie of this nature has gone down in flames when, after we’re presented with 100 nonstop minutes of odious characters and gross-out gags, we’re suddenly asked to give a damn about these slobs. It happens repeatedly…
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Worth a brief stay
THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL**1/2DIRECTED BY John MaddenSTARS Judi Dench, Maggie Smith Sequels are perpetually rocked hard by the law of diminishing returns, which is why it comes as a pleasant surprise to note that many of the follow-ups from the past 12 or so months actually improved on their predecessors. Dawn of the…
Photos: Nothing Feels Good – Emo Night in Charlotte, Noda 101, 3/3/2015
A look at the monthly party presented by PBR.
Empire album signing to be held… somewhere
Details are yet to be announced for soundtrack signing and “special event.”
First Drip (3/6/15): Toll road project a go, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Friday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Opening Friday
What’s new in theaters this weekend.
Today’s Top 5: Thursday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
First Drip (3/5/15): Ringling Bros. to phase out elephant acts, gold heist is fishy, more
The news you need to know today.
The Things We Carry
Years ago I bought a charm bracelet in a Seattle flea market that recounted, in dangling figures, the life and times of its former owner. She was married, and they were German — or at least spent time in Germany — perhaps during World War II. They played cards, gambled and hoped for good luck.…
Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (March 5)
Better Than Ants In The Pants: A loss prevention officer at a University-area Kohls detained a man who had picked up a pair of pink Beats headphones and stuck them down the front of his pants. Police were called after the suspect tried to leave the business without paying for them. Is someone going to…
Weekly horoscope (March 5-11)
For All Signs: Venus, the original goddess of love, money, and cooperative agreements, is in trouble this week. If the symbols are read literally, this picture might represent heinous crimes against society. The torque of tension over the world’s financial balance may be so strained as to create financial meltdowns. Many personal relationships could go…
Don’t Look Now, Love and Death, Wild Orchid among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) THE BAND WAGON (1953). The 1931 Broadway revue The Band Wagon was the basis for director Vincente Minnelli’s opulent MGM musical, for which the legendary writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green…
NoDa Neighborhood Association hears plans for new development
The Chop Shop and Ultimate Gym would be demolished if proposal is approved.
Two science-banning bills up for vote in the House
Scientists and politicians clash when it comes to the EPA
First Drip (3/4/15): Petraeus takes a plea deal, Ben Carson on gayness, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Wednesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
B-I-N-G-O!
During City Council’s March 2 public hearing, where 120 people signed up to share commentary on the nondiscrimination ordinance, a few phrases stood out to us during the almost six-hour-long meeting. Because the ordinance did not pass, you should relive the #cltequality, #dontdoitCharlotte discussion to get a better understanding of what went down. Grab a…
Police-related shootings made for a deadly February
Imagine this: You’re 74 years old. You’ve just had heart surgery and have been resting in the days since. Relatives have been calling all day to check on you, but you don’t much feel like talking, so you let the phone ring. You tell yourself you’ll call them back tomorrow and you go to sleep.…
Jazmine Sullivan returns after almost four-year hiatus
Nowadays, when I drive long distances, I’m too distracted to invest in listening to a whole album. (It’s probably why I’m not the music editor.) My mind races as fast as my Mazda does along the highway. If I’m not talking on the phone or listening to a podcast, I’m dreaming up ideas — stories,…
CD Review: Immortal Randy Rhoads — The ultimate tribute
Considered one of metal’s greatest guitarists and an influence on many who came after him, Randy Rhoads was the guitar player for Ozzy Osbourne when he died in a 1982 plane accident at age 25. This new album featuring a long list of guests pays tribute to the axe man with 11 songs — 10…
Robert Karimi offers a taste of artistic nourishment
In most artist-in-residence studios at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, you’ll find artists working with materials like paints, fabrics and other objects to be formulated into a visual installation or body of work. But that’s not the case for interdisciplinary artist and food activist Robert Karimi. His medium is performance-based and, if you had…
Theater reviews: Jackie & Me and Sylvia
An amazing crush of traffic on I-77 made it impossible for my wife, Sue, and me to see Steven Dietz’s Jackie & Me at ImaginOn on Saturday afternoon. Yet when we caught up with the new Children’s Theatre production the following afternoon, March 1, it was equally impossible to overlook how supremely appropriate this unique…
New York Pastries & Pasteleria, Tropical Bakery are sweet!
Picture this: Every street corner in Charlotte boasts a family-owned bakery. The outside window is filled with glorious treats. Inside, an endless display case holds multiple permutations of pastries and cakes. Depending on the culinary heritage, these trays would be filled with melt-in-your-mouth pain au chocolat or kardemummabulle (Swedish cardamom bun) or egg custard tarts.…
For whom the tollway tolls
Here is how the toll lanes on U.S. I-77 north of Charlotte will work for commuters after they’re finished, ostensibly in 2018. Let’s say you live in Cornelius, you’ve left home a couple of minutes late and you have an early appointment at your office job in Charlotte. A mile into your trip, traffic is…
