Cover Story
Chef Donnie Simmons Looks to Create a Culinary Scene From Scratch in Monroe
In the restaurant industry, a good social media presence can be the difference between life and death. As chef Donnie Simmons learned recently, however, social media can be the difference between actual life and death in certain situations. Simmons says he was sitting alone in his new pizza-and-biscuit shop on Main Street in Monroe a…
Connecting With Others Makes Charlotte a Better City
The first time I ran into Oba Amitabha, the lanky, dreadlocked party promoter was hanging out with his friend Solomon Tetteh, also known as rapper Black Linen, hovering behind as Tetteh and I walked along a lush path at the UNCC Botanical Gardens. I was doing a story on Black Linen, and Amitabha was documenting…
Sylvan Esso turns The Fillmore into a dance club
Durham duo throws a nonstop party at Charlotte tour stop.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword: Knight sweats
KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD *1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Guy Ritchie STARS Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law It seems that every decade rates its own King Arthur flick, which means those folks who never wanted the 1980s to end now have another reason. John Boorman’s 1981 Excalibur remains a superb motion picture –…
Snatched snags too few laughs
SNATCHED ** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Jonathan Levine STARS Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn Amy Schumer became an instant movie star with Trainwreck, the 2015 summer surprise that grossed $110 million at the U.S. box office and earned the comedienne a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination. It would be tempting to state that Snatched, Schumer’s…
Chicago Free-Jazz ‘Genius’ to Blow Through McColl Center
The Nate Wooley / Ken Vandermark Duo performs as part of the “New Frequencies” series
Fifty Shades Darker, Heat, How to Steal a Million among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) ANOTHER WOMAN (1988). The 1978 drama Interiors (recently reviewed here) might have been Woody Allen’s most celebrated attempt at crafting a work in the style of his cinematic hero, the great Swedish…
A Day-Long Excursion Ends at a Hidden Gem on Plaza
This past week has been a complete blur. I’ve been in such a funk that I decided to cope by going out every day after work last week. No, I wasn’t super hungover or spewing anywhere, but still, I was doing the most. When Friday rolled around, a co-worker had already made plans for the…
Charlotte Area Power Exchange Helps Kinky Charlotteans Shed Inhibitions (and Clothes)
A few important questions inevitably arise in the course of a relationship: What are your career aspirations? Do you want kids? Where do you stand on the pineapple-on-pizza debate? What do you like in bed? That last one makes me nervous. It’s often asked late at night, in the dark, tangled up in blankets and…
48 Hour Film Project Producers Aim To Put Charlotte on the Map
WILL FISHER AND BLAKE PHILLIPS want to jumpstart Charlotte’s creative economy at 30 frames per second. As Collaboration Films, Fisher, a self-described “business development guy,” and filmmaker/graphic designer Phillips produce the city’s edition of the 48 Hour Film Project, which challenges local filmmakers to conceive and complete a movie in exactly two days. We spoke…
Alysia Osborne Works Between the Lines For Neighborhood Revitalization and Community-Driven Solutions
This story is the second of a five-part series on women making a difference at Charlotte arts and cultural institutions. The rapid change of Charlotte neighborhoods and the bustling development projects around center city has made cranes in the sky and bulldozers on the ground a normal fixture in the Queen City. Moving trucks are…
The Business People Go to Work
Nicholas Robinson doesn’t mind admitting that he “kinda stalked” the Southern California indie-rock band Delta Spirit. Robinson, guitarist and front man for Charlotte indie rockers The Business People, pushes up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a rather large Delta Spirit tattoo. It’s just after midnight on a Saturday, and Robinson, 25, is standing…
‘CL’ is leaner and meaner these days — but not too mean
One thing I have gained personally from having a smaller staff at Creative Loafing these days is that it has forced me out of my comfort zone. I can’t just sit around the office and act like an editor, delegating the reporting and writing duties to a staff of journalists. At CL today, we have…
New Project Aims to Connect Journalists With the Communities They Report On
At a small get together at Hygge Coworking West on Remount Road in April, a diverse group of journalists and community organizers milled about, socializing while they took trips to the kitchen to partake in the great unifier that’s always a sure way to lock-in attendance from both groups: free food. The gathering was a…
A Look at Diversity in Charlotte’s Growing Coworking Community
There’s certainly no shortage of desk space for freelancers and budding entrepreneurs in Charlotte. The rapid growth of coworking spaces in the city has ushered in a startup mentality that can be felt across the city. For a (usually) small monthly fee, coworking spaces offer ambiance, community, networking opportunities and access to resources that have…
Overwintered Spinach is the Fleshy Meat of Vegetables
Spinach, the meatiest of vegetables, is finally in season. The fleshy leaves of spring spinach are juicy with a potent green serum that’s high in iron and exceptionally rich in chlorophyll, which is a close chemical relative to hemoglobin, the red stuff in blood. [Image-2] This time of year, spinach is so abundant one can…
Corey Mitchell Fine-tunes a Kook’s Southern Drawl
You can see Huey Calhoun as a scavenger, a conman, and an illiterate hick. Or you can see him as a rock ‘n’ roll visionary, a natural salesman, and a quirky promotional genius. However you see Huey, in Memphis the Musical at Theatre Charlotte starting this Friday, you will not find him dull. Based loosely…
DJ SPK Mixes It Up And Pulls It All Together
Not only is Apollonia Khan — known behind the decks as DJ SPK — a regular on the Charlotte and Atlanta music scenes, but she’s also a promotions assistant and DJ at 92.7, a podcaster at StereoTypez Radio, and the 30-year-old mother of an eight-year-old child named Marley. CL sat down with this ubiquitous music…
5 Great Spinach Dishes in Charlotte
If you’re too impatiant or lazy to cook up your own spinach dishes, here are five excellent options at Charlotte restaurants. There are plenty more, but we’ve tasted these (well, most of them) and find them pretty extraordinary. Spinach patties Tropical Delights Jamaican Restaurant Made with onions, garlic, eggs, matza meal, salt, pepper, nutmeg and…
Weekly Horroscope (May 11-17)
For All Signs: Remain aware of the favorable Saturn/Uranus aspect that becomes exact next week. It is working even as you read this. The general conditions are especially favorable for integrating new systems with whatever has been traditional in your path. Gradual integration of new and old are supported now. Other than that, we have…
