May 1-7, 2012

May 1-7, 2012 / Vol. 26 / No. 10

Cover Story

Damaged: Amendment One would destroy lives, rip apart families

Sydney Jolie Brown extends a little hand to introduce herself even before Renee Brown, her biological mother, does. Kelly Gimlin, Sydney’s other mother, stands inside and, with a warm smile, says hello. On a Sunday night in late April, the family gathers over plates of spaghetti in their kitchen, which overlooks the serene Lake Norman…

Ana McKenzie

Walk on

On a balmy morning, Rev. Deborah Warren, a Baptist minister, asked the crowd to join hands and bow their heads in prayer. With her soothing, assured voice, the founder of the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network united each person in a spirit of togetherness. She asked the people in the Gateway Village Atrium to recognize a…

Joanne Spataro

The Avengers: The gang’s all here

THE AVENGERS ***1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Joss Whedon STARS Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans A devotee of the Marvel Comics Universe, writer-director Joss Whedon obviously approached his assignment on The Avengers with the proper degree of reverence. And it goes without saying that the nation’s fanboys and fangirls are equally reverential as they…

Matt Brunson

Damsels in Distress: Some assistance required

DAMSELS IN DISTRESS **1/2 DIRECTED BY Whit Stillman STARS Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton And here you thought The Avengers was the only new movie featuring a character named Thor. In Damsels in Distress, Thor (played by Billy Magnussen) isn’t a hunk with a hammer but a lunk who gets hammered. He’s a frat boy attending…

Matt Brunson

City calls Occupy Charlotte logo into question

Apparently not just anyone can wear the crown in the Queen City. A city spokesman sent an email to Occupy Charlotte notifying them that using the city’s crown logo without permission constitutes a copyright violation. Keith Richardson wrote that they must stop using the image, which the group repurposed with a red fist in the…

Joanne Spataro

Another gulp of The Big Brew Ha

Whether you treasure the history of the Queen City, enjoy delicious food, international beers, or finely brewed coffee, the April 27 event offered something for everyone.

Kelly Davis

Exhibit: NoDa Artist Studios Tour

Just after we started thinking NoDa was lacking in the arts because of gallery moves and shutdowns, NoDaRioty goes changing our minds. The organization’s upcoming NoDa Studio Crawl on May 4 is going beyond the few remaining galleries in the hood, by featuring more than 13 artist studios in the surrounding area. (Side note: You’ll…

Anita Overcash

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of May 2

AMERICAN REUNION Where all the sequels to 1999’s American Pie — 2001’s American Pie 2, 2003’s American Wedding and now American Reunion — go wrong is that none manage the balancing act between sweetness and seediness as well as the original film, instead tipping the scale toward the bawdy end to an unnecessary degree. And…

Matt Brunson

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (May 2-8)

Baby Maker: A 28-year-old woman called police last week after a man exposed himself to her in perhaps the worst place one could commit such a crime. The woman told officers that she was browsing around the infant department in a local Target when the man approached her from the back and pulled out his…

Ryan Pitkin

Identity crisis at Levant Mediterranean Cuisine

When the owner of Levant Mediterranean Cuisine announced he was opening the upscale Middle Eastern restaurant Uptown, aficionados of those cuisines were cautiously optimistic. After all, Charlotte has a storied history with Middle Eastern — euphemistically known as Mediterranean — eateries. Since 2006, four Middle Eastern sandwich shops, two markets, and three restaurants have closed.…

Tricia Childress

Nazis, sex and music: Three new paperbacks easy to recommend

Black jazz and clampdowns in Nazi Germany, women bewitched and de-sexed by a Greek classic, and famed New Orleans musicians post-Katrina. Here are three new trade paperbacks — two reprints and one original — that are easy to recommend. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Picador Paperback Original, 336 pages, $15). Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues was…

John Grooms

3 questions with Karen Farrar, cheesecake maker

Anytime you hear tongues wagging about a recipe that’s been handed down for a century or more, it’s probably in your palate’s best interest to go on and help yourself to a taste of it. Karen Farrar (Farrar’s Fine Cheesecake, 224 E. 7th St.) was lucky enough to sample such a sumptuous tradition firsthand. “I…

Laura Camilo

End of an era: Charlotte’s Snagglepuss calls it a day

When Snagglepuss pulls the plug on its 13-year-long adventure this weekend, there won’t be lot of critic-ink spilt. No box-set retrospectives are likely, fans’ lives will go on and the music industry will remain the lunatics’ haven it’s always been. Charlotte and the Southeast, however, will be poorer for it. The rolling-dance-party sextet celebrates the…

John Schacht

Independent woman: Julie Roberts strengthens her own identity

As dozens of limos sit idling, waiting in line to reach the red carpet at the New York City 2005 premiere of Walk the Line, a security guard approaches a black SUV and asks the chauffeur, “Who is being dropped off?” “Julia Roberts,” the driver jokingly replies. The guard takes the bait. “We’ve got Julia…

Jeff Hahne

The NSA is watching you

Three targeted Americans: A career government intelligence official, a filmmaker and a hacker. None of these U.S. citizens was charged with a crime, but they have been tracked, surveilled, detained — sometimes at gunpoint — and interrogated, with no access to a lawyer. Each remains resolute in standing up to the increasing government crackdown on…

Amy Goodman

Harassment, bloggers and money: How political nastiness works in Raleigh

There’s a good reason most Americans are turned off by politics and politicians. Actually, there are several good reasons — just look at the shape the country’s in. But it’s more than just economics. Surveys regularly show that voters are disgusted with the down-and-dirty attacks and tactics that dominate what passes for political discourse in…

John Grooms

Full Service brings Takeover! documentary to Charlotte

After seven-and-a-half hours driving from New Jersey to Virginia Beach and another hour figuring out where to set up and play a show on the blistering asphalt, at last, Full Service gathered their equipment and got ready to start their impromptu concert. As they opened the hatchback to bring out their gear, the kiss of…

Alison Angel

Gremlins 2, The Vow among new home entertainment titles

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD.) GREMLINS (1984) / GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990). Prior to 1984, the PG-13 rating didn’t exist; it took two violent films from that summer — both involving Steven Spielberg — for folks to decide that a new rating…

Matt Brunson

Amendment One: Vote no

If you are a regular Creative Loafing reader, you’ve no doubt noticed that we’ve dropped a lot of ink lately on Amendment One. That’s no accident. We made a conscious decision early on to give this referendum our full editorial attention. That’s because it is CL’s position that what the far-right, Republican-controlled North Carolina General…

Mark Kemp

A higher calling: RAIN’s 16th Annual AIDS Walk Charlotte

Danyell, 18, has not known a world in which she wasn’t HIV positive. Her biological mother, whom she has never met, had the AIDS virus and passed it to her child at birth. When Danyell’s adoptive mother revealed the truth to her then-8-year-old daughter, after years of secretly sneaking anti-viral medicine into her drinks and…

Joanne Spataro

S-s-s-steam heat and swordplay: Dangerous Liaisons

Suspense built steadily last Thursday at Knight Theater as we awaited the world premiere of Sasha Janes’s Dangerous Liaisons. Had the former principal-dancer-turned-choreographer at North Carolina Dance Theatre overreached in attempting to distill the intricate epistolary De Laclos novel into a mere 50 minutes? Would the original live music, composed and played by cellist Ben…

Perry Tannenbaum

Portraits of the artists at FashionSOUL

To understand the level of talent here in the Queen City in regard to fashion, all you need to do is simply attend FashionSOUL, happening May 5 at Amos’ Southend. The brainchild of local style guru Joey Hewell, the event, a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Charlotte, promises to be a fantastical evening with…

T. Strong

Exhibit: Dreamers Don’t Sleep

Opening on May 4, the Dreamers Don’t Sleep exhibit is a group show presented by Carlleena Person. New works by local artists including Person, as well as Infamous Jean Claude, Oscar Arango (check out his funky sea-friendly painting, pictured to the left) and Switch will be on showcase at Espada Bicycles in NoDa. Free admission.…

Anita Overcash

Interview: Day Hixson, silversmith

On the corner of 35th and McDowell streets in a 12-foot-by-20-foot backyard studio, silversmith Day Hixson likes to play with fire. Sparks fly as she works to the background of metals screeching like gears grinding in an old race car. Here, she constructs her one-of-a-kind jewelry line, Daycreations. With more than 15 years of experience…

Allison Campbell

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