I Want My Youtube!
You should know about Edward Whitacre. He could change your life, and not for the better. Whitacre’s the chairman of AT&T — the giant communications company that’s in the process of swallowing up BellSouth — and if he has his way, the Internet as we know it will be ruined. Whitacre, you see, thinks Web…
Nascar Rocks
Stadium Arcadium? More like racetrack havoc, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers comes to Concord’s Lowes Motor Speedway to rock the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge on May 20. Between the band’s recent SNL appearance and later tour with Mars Volta, the Chilis is hawking its ninth album by headlining as the race’s infield entertainment. Punk’s…
Letters
Who’s the Pimp? In regard to Tara Servatius’ article “Pimpin’ in the Queen City” (cover story, May 10), I wanted to make a few points. Creative Loafing has some 32 ads in this week’s issue for escort services and a back page ad for a company seeking women for employment that sell videos of “Hardcore…
That AM-FM feedback loop
To state the obvious: today’s youthquake cultural product revolves around flea-market chic (especially early ’70s) and endless pastiche. While negative for our common culture, sometimes this effect is good … for reissues. The Swedish-American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, best known for “Without You” and “Everybody’s Talkin’,” had one of the most serendipitous and strangest-ever pop careers.…
Flowers for Rita
Rita Rondina had a dream. She wanted to expand her dried silk and floral arrangements business into a multinational floral powerhouse — or something like that. It would have been downright cruel for Rondina to be denied her dream just because the banks weren’t particularly jacked up on lending her all the money she needed…
More Stuff to Taste
• Taste of Charlotte When: June 2-3, 11am-11pm; June 4, 11am-6pm. Where: Tryon Street in downtown Charlotte, between 1st and 6th Streets. Free • The 29th Annual Yiasou Greek Festival When: September 7-10, Thursday-Friday events 11am-10pm and Sunday 12-8pm. Where: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 600 East Blvd., Charlotte. Price: Tix are $2. • Greater…
Golfing for Status
In the stratosphere rich people inhabit, having your name on the Wachovia Championship Pro Am roster means something. It reads like a who’s who of rich and influential people: local business titans like Johnny Harris and Howard Bissell and national sports figures like Peyton Manning. In the Monday and Wednesday Pro Am, local rich people…
See & Do
Wednesday, May 17 Get ready to funk it up when Ivan Neville, Aaron Neville’s kid, brings his New Orleans posse Dumpstaphunk to the Neighborhood Theatre. This is freestyle funk with veteran musicians laying down those thick and jazzy beats that could only have originated in N’awlins. Tickets are $15 at the door and show starts…
Getting A Bikini Wax
The question wasn’t if, but what? Since I proposed the idea to interview some local bikini waxers on what it’s like to stare at people’s crotches all day long, I, of course, was nominated for the job. But the sensory focus of the article was “touch,” I was reminded, not sight. I would have to…
‘Saved by the Bell’ USA
Since graduating college, I have realized that nothing prepared me to be a citizen of the USA more than the good ol’ teenage sitcom, my personal favorite being Saved by the Bell. My addiction to the show started on Saturday mornings in the mid-1990s, when before going outside to play I would watch characters Zach…
Deciphering Fact from Fiction
The metaphysical mythology of intelligent design can make for some genuinely lovely poetic language regarding the beauty of butterfly wings, the complexity of the eye that lets us appreciate butterfly wings and the subtleties of consciousness that compel us to strap super-sized butterfly wings to the backs of grade-school thespians. But to rely on that…
Going Into Battle
The first thing you’re likely to feel in a paintball battle isn’t an external sensation, though it’s not long before that happens. The anticipation of your first bullet can manifest in an internal physical response. My reaction was somewhat stronger than pins-and-needles apprehension, but not quite so bad as paralyzing fear. My nervousness wasn’t helped…
Why Does Iran Dislike the United States?
Back in the day, Iran and the United States were great pals. In 1955, Iran joined the Cold War on the US’s side by hitching itself to the Middle East Treaty Organization (later known as the Central Treaty Organization). METO was a sort of southwest Asian equivalent of NATO. In 1971, Iran’s ruler, Shah Mohammed…
Kicky Bard on The Green
It’s been nearly 18 years since anybody staged a Shakespeare play outdoors in the Center City. That legendary Charlotte Shakespeare Company production still resonates down the corridors of history. Humble fried chicken baskets on sale to theater lovers who attended the free presentation. Ambient sounds of city buses and the nearby parking garage echoing through…
More stuff to touch
• Reed’s Gold Mine When: April to October hours are Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday from 1pm to 5pm. Where: 9621 Reed Mine Road, Stanfield. For more info, call 704-721-4653. Check out: Get your hands dirty playing with pretty rocks at this historic site 28 miles east of Charlotte. • Lazy…
Minimum Wage is at a Crisis Level
The people Patrick Graham sees at Crisis Assistance Ministry come to the agency when they’re at their lowest. An illness, a job loss, a cutback in hours at work or an unexpectedly high heating bill are a few of the problems that leave them struggling to keep the lights on and the grocery bills paid.…
Crazy Fun
Don’t let dreaded cosmic rays penetrate your brain — make yourself a cosmic ray deflector. It’s a mental attitude, and all it takes is believing. Think that’s crazy? Check out the rest of these hot linx. The Cosmic Ray Deflection Society www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1483 Hundertwasser www.kunsthauswien.com/english/hundertwasser.htm The Balloonhat Experience www.balloonhat.com The Picture of Everything www.thepictureofeverything.com Raw Vision…
Turning Tables
Ballantyne, to older native Charlotteans, was the part of the city where you weren’t allowed to drive after dark because it was so desolate. That scenario is hard to imagine today, with new housing developments, townhouses and apartments populating the area like rabbits. Restaurateur and native Charlottean Alex Myrick, who owns Blue Restaurant & Bar…
Creative Loafing Summer Guide ’06
It’s what summer’s all about, isn’t it? Feeling the heat of the sun on your back at some magical spot between Nags Head and Charleston. Hearing the crash of waves on the sand. Seeing the colorful bikinis (or Speedos) flit by in hot pursuit of a Frisbee or volleyball. Tasting the salt of the ocean…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: I like to make people laugh, and I like to laugh too. Sometimes my humor has been called “inappropriate”: I stay away from poop jokes, but often make fun of overweight people, the mentally challenged and people with Tourette’s and cerebral palsy. Well, this might be karma, because while driving in my…
From Mush to Lush
Table Dancing When I die don’t bury me In a box in a cemetery Out in the garden would be much better I could be pushin’ up homegrown tomatoes Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes Only two things that money can’t buy That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes — Guy Clark…
Summer Film Series At ImaginOn
Starting in June, ImaginOn’s Wachovia Theater will be a sight for soaring eyes — all the better to take in those celluloid images of tapping feet, dancing limbs and crooning mouths. That’s because the main library’s annual summer film series — a Charlotte mainstay since 1975 — will pick up its heels and hoof it…
The Most Sex I’ve Had in Months
I finally got some dick the other day, but don’t freak out or anything. It’s not like I got to touch it or anything. I am still bummed at myself over that, because if I had not been late, I could’ve gotten closer to the stage and probably within reaching distance. As it was, in…
J & W Graduates First Class
Charlotte darling, Johnson & Wales University is in preparation to graduate its first class of business, culinary arts and hospitality students. It seems like just yesterday we were watching the building of little JW’s first dorm. Wait a minute … it was only two years ago that Cedar Halls North and South, separated by a…
Gullah Island: Georgia’s beautiful Sapelo
Want to feast your eyes on an island almost pristinely preserved as nature intended? We’re not talking Ocracoke or even Portsmoth, off the North Carolina coast (though those are well worth the long drive) — we’re talking Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia. Sapelo’s biggest draw is its dynamic Gullah culture of Hog Hammock.…
The Blotter
White Collar Crime: At noon on Monday, a suspect picked up a golf shoe from a man’s car and threw it at the shoe’s rightful owner, striking him in the knee. Cops arrived and observed swelling and redness from the impact of the shoe; the victim already had taken photographs of his injury before police…
Things to do in the Charlotte area for $5 or less
BBBS FAMILY REUNION CELEBRATION This cheap thrill includes the magic word “free.” With food served in a picnic setting, local celebrity appearances, the Arby’s Charity tour bus and music provided by WRFX 99.7 to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Charlotte, it’s the perfect weekend event for the frugal family. It takes place Saturday,…
Rhythms of the Motherland
Hypnotic and primeval, the thudding strokes of hands against the skins of such African drums as the djembe take us back to a time before the human race migrated out of the Motherland. Beginning with the Inaugural Drum & Dance Circle on Friday, June 16, the sonic core of this summer’s Ninth Annual Juneteenth Celebration…
The Smelliest Fair In North Carolina
For brevity’s sake, it might be easier just to list the few things you won’t smell at a county fair. But then again, you can’t count anything out. “I will say this. If you do a survey, 99 percent of the people come for the food,” says Bill Edmondson, the director of the biggest county…
Hummer Bummer
Bicycle Man has no bicycle, and without one he’s just Dale. Tiny Dale with tiny features on a small head that sits like a bearded softball atop an almost nonexistent body. He’s a three-dimensional stick figure hidden under an oversized black windbreaker and greasy black jeans. He’s been bicycleless before. Sixteen times in the last…
Hot Licks in the Summertime
A loping beat, drum thunder, a chorus of twangy and soulful voices, ragged feedback, rattling gourds and amplified, metallic ax power — these sounds and more will set the tone at the summer’s hot-ticket Verizon Amphitheatre lineup starring the Black Crowes, Robert Randolph and the Drive-By Truckers. The Crowes, originally from Atlanta, have purveyed a…
Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden
Stowe Botanical Garden is a must-see attraction in the summer for garden fanatics looking for ideas or those who want to kick back in the sun in one of the region’s most beautiful spots and breathe in nature. Daniel J. Stowe, a retired textile executive from Belmont, reserved 450 acres of prime rolling meadows, woodlands…
Where To Get the Perfect Summer Brew
There’s a lot to consider when finding the perfect summer spot to crack open a cold one. Thirsty Thursdays at the Knights game is a great summer beer destination for groups of friends. Tickets are $6, brats are $4 and brews are $2. And you get a selection with your money: Natural Light, Pabst Blue…
More Stuff to Hear
• Summer Sounds in the City Concert Series When: Wednesdays, June and July, 5–9pm. Where: Hearst Tower Courtyard on Tryon Street, downtown. Free • Speed Street Festival When: May 25-27, 11am-midnight. Where: Downtown Charlotte at Tryon Street from 2nd to 5th Street and 3rd Street from Tryon to Graham. Free • Pops in the Park…
More stuff to See
• Movies on the Green When: Summer movie series one Friday each month through September. Event starts at 7pm; movie starts at dark, approximately 8:45pm. Where: 435 S. Tryon St, downtown. Free • Skyshow FireworksWhen: Tuesday, July 4, after 7:15pm Norfolk game. Where: Charlotte Knights Stadium at I-77 South to Exit 88 (Gold Hill Road),…
Peaches
During summer in the Carolina Piedmont, the definition of the sense of taste can be summed up in one word: peaches. Bite into a plump, ripe peach at the end of a hot, humid day and let the nectar drip down your chin. Chew the sweet, delicate meat of the fruit and you can imagine…
Remix Reel
If you lived through the 1980s, you may remember an obsession with materialism and big hair (think Madonna’s “Material Girl”). Girls on Film, from Tallahassee, FL, channels the decade’s other hair bands — the new wave variety — bringing their signature “dancetronic glam wave” act to the Milestone on May 20. Lead singer Rio says…
Bonnaroo Arch and Crowd
Four days, dozens of bands, 700 acres, 80,0000 people. Since its 2002 inception, Bonnaroo often has been described as a music marathon. But that descriptor doesn’t begin to capture the festival’s overwhelming demand on the senses. Imagine a weekend camping with your friends and how grungy you might feel afterwards. Now imagine four days camping…
Film Clips
New Releases JUST MY LUCK With such titles as Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and A Prairie Home Companion on her resume, Lindsay Lohan has made smarter choices than other performers her age, most of whom have a tendency to end up in inane teen-bait comedies or disposable Disney Channel movies. Just My Luck marks a…
Los Pericos
In just four years, Charlotte has gone from being a nonstop for tours by cool Latino rock bands to being a must stop. It started in 2002, when the Mexican band Jaguares packed Tremont Music Hall, surprising the band itself, its management and its publicist, who told me he had no idea the Carolinas had…
Bele Chere
One of the largest and most established festivals in the Southeast, Bele Chere has provided entertainment for family-values crowds and decadent partiers alike. With bands, arts and crafts, clothiers, and food vendors, the yearly event draws hundreds of thousands to Asheville. Try getting a hotel room downtown between July 28 and July 30 and you’ll…
View From The Couch
EARTHQUAKE (1974) / THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974). The Poseidon Adventure isn’t the only ’70s disaster flick being rereleased on DVD to tie into the theatrical bow of Poseidon (see lead film story): Fox has also issued a two-disc Special Edition of The Towering Inferno, while Universal leaps into the fray with Earthquake. Earthquake’s greatest claim…
Now Dass Dumpsta
Ivan Neville is the cool, down-to-earth heir to New Orleans musical ambassadors the Neville Brothers, and bandleader of Dumpstaphunk. Refreshingly open over the phone about everything but his age, Neville divulged what it really means to be “Dumpsta.” Neville began his musical journey during his teens as part of his illustrious family’s band. His father,…
More Stuff to Smell
• Infinity’s End When: Open Monday through Friday, 10am-8pm; Sunday, 1pm-6pm. Where: 3704 E Independence Blvd. For more info go to www.infinitysend.com. Check out: What’s summertime without a little waft of patchouli incense? You can get that and more ofactory pleasures (though not the kind that’s meant to waft from the little pipes they sell)…
True Grit
People with true vision and guts blow me away. Their sheer stamina to stand up to others who doubt or giggle gives me inspiration. One person who embodies this attitude is Paul Draper, a man who inspires not just me but many in the wine world. Paul has been winemaker and CEO of Ridge Vineyards…
Coronitas y Señoritas
Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that commemorates the Mexican militia’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla a century-and-a-half ago. Yet somehow, for Charlotteans (and many Americans) that translates into a night of binge drinking tequila and Corona. Whatever reason you toast on Cinco de Mayo … Salud! (That means “cheers” in…
Another Extrasensory Overload
• Spoleto Festival When: Event dates and times vary from May 26 to June 11. Where: Charleston, SC. For more info, call 843-722-2764, or go to www.spoletousa.org. Check out: Theater, dance, opera, avant-rock — it’s a performing arts lover’s wet dream, a sensory overload like none other in this area.
Water Ways
While it’s long been established that oil and vinegar don’t mix, the same couldn’t be said about Wolfgang Petersen and seafaring films. At least not until Poseidon. The German director established his international reputation with the WWII sub flick Das Boot (The Boat) and scored one of his biggest hits with the exciting blockbuster The…
