FRENCH FAVORITES
Corkscrew Are we supposed to still hate all things French? Not I that ever did as I surreptitiously scarfed down croissants, duck confit and, of course, French wines. My gluttonous side easily bested any white-bread American-ness in me while Chirac pissed off most who saluted the red, white and blue. I just can’t help myself.…
See & Do
Wednesday, May 31 Earlier this season, the infamous Reduced Shakespeare Company invaded Spirit Square with their very own All the Great Books (Abridged). Now Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte picks up the gauntlet in its final production of the season, calling upon its go-to Reduced director, Jeannie Woods, to pilot its version of this rollicking Cliffs…
X-Lax
It may be inadvisable to switch a horse in midstream, but there’s no definite course of action when it comes to switching a director in mid-franchise. The three Indiana Jones films benefited from having the steady hand of Steven Spielberg on the controls throughout the series: As one of the creators of the whip-cracking adventurer,…
How Now, Powwow
As Americans, it is our duty to find out as much info on the foundation on which our great nation stands, especially now, when there’s so much animosity against the US. However, sometimes the deep, dark history is skimmed over in favor of the brighter, more heroic American Revolution starring General George Washington. It’s sad…
Second Helpings
Heartbreakingly beautiful is how an acquaintance once described his homeland, Colombia. While many people know of its famed coffee and Nobel-winner Gabriel García Márquez’ stories of unrelenting love, few are acquainted with Colombian cuisine. News of its civil unrest and kidnappings have prevented the South American country from becoming much of a tourist spot and…
The Blotter
Phone Tag A husband and wife got into a verbal confrontation in regard to the telephone. Angered, the husband retired to the bedroom. The wife followed her husband to continue the discussion. The husband grabbed his walking cane and struck the women in both of her shins. Then, he bit one of the fingers of…
Food News
Table Dancing The world of food media has really taken off in the past few years. Emeril owns about half of New Orleans. “Molto” Mario Batali now hawks product at NASCAR races. Anthony Bourdain, that genius, has built an entire career out of being a pretty decent cook, a pretty decent looking guy, an unapologetic…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: Several months back, you gave someone the advice to try Zen meditation. I took the hint and signed up for a meditation class at a yoga center. I was uncomfortable with the idea at first — you just sit in a room with 10 strangers and stare at the floor — but…
Party in the Pit
Miss me last week? It was my bye week … But don’t worry, I’m too legit, too legit to quit — just gearing up for M.C. Hammer at Speed Street. Last week, I went punk. On Wednesday, I followed up the Pit Crew Challenge at the Arena with a trip to Tremont Music Hall for…
Cheap Thrills
4TH SATURDAYS UPTOWN Billed as “A Cultural Exchange & Global Marketplace,” this free event boasts something for everyone. Shopping for the shopaholics, entertainment for the perpetually bored, food for erebody and peace for the single moms in the form of a children’s village (hallelujah!). It’s ongoing on the fourth Saturday of every month from 10am-5pm…
Season of the Tiger
School Daze, Spike Lee’s ode to his days at Morehouse College, includes a classic homecoming game sequence that captures students getting hyped in the stands, marching bands pumping out anthems, alumni shouting and coaches praying — every ingredient in college football except what’s actually happening on the field. It’s a visually brilliant portrayal of HBCU…
June 1 — June 7, 2006
Gemini The Twins (May 20 — June 21) Please note the lead paragraph because it particularly applies to you this week. Your focus of attention will shift over the weekend to matters of self esteem and issues concerning finances. Material reality will have a priority over the next few weeks. For All Signs Mercury, ancient…
Both Sides of the Line
Chatham County Line would like you to know that it don’t rock jamgrass — no neo-hippie hayrides in the sky, getting lost while looking for St. Jerry of Garcia. Nor does it play newgrass — rehearsals for a Wynton Marsalis production of Riverdance ain’t beckoning. Instead, the simple, subtle, lyrically propulsive sound that CCL brings…
Hookups
Moodswing
Paradise Lost
Jimmy Buffett will soon be docking at a marina near you. There is nothing you can do about it — he’s got more money and a bigger boat. Although Buffett has the wherewithal to go anywhere he wants, he’s not welcome at all moorings. Some have tried to insert him into yacht rock society. If…
Stressing out on deadline
With another deadline approaching and the prospect of turning in a pictorial account of my cousin’s bar mitzvah in Pittsburgh becoming increasingly likely, that familiar stress ball began to gather in my gut. In the past, the dreadful panic of racing against bastard time could only be ameliorated by finding something interesting to write about.…
Over the Rhine
Pat Robertson may truly believe that Hurricane Katrina was divine punishment on New Orleans, but the Ohio-based band Over the Rhine found Jesus there. Over the Rhine is pianist/songwriter Linford Detweiler and his wife, singer/guitarist Karin Bergquist. Backed by drummer Devon Ashley and bassist Rick Plant, they’ll bring intimate Americana to the Visulite on June…
Monsters Ink
You’ve likely heard the short version of this story: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (soon-to-be Mary Shelley), Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and a couple others you’ve maybe never heard of were in Switzerland in the summer of 1816. One dark and stormy night, Byron challenged them each to write a scary story. The most famous of…
The Mayor’s Secret IMs
Chat with CityBoy 11:00am FratboyChief: Michael? FratboyChief: Michael Smith, u there? CityBoy: Right here, Pat. What up, bro? FratboyChief: Huh? CityBoy: Just joking around. Now that we got fireworks going again, I’m getting ready 4 the riot. FratboyChief: U think that’s funny? U oughta know better, Mr. City Center honcho. Plus, last year’s fireworks did…
Garden Delights
Big-time art alert: the Atlanta Botanical Garden is showing monumental sculpture by Niki de St. Phalle. Wow! And of course you know of Howard Finster, but check out this obscure link to his garden circa 1990. Niki in the Garden www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org Weird Gardens www.weirdgardens.com The Cathedral of Junk www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/TXAUSjunk.html Zarcero Topiary Garden www.nku.edu/~biosci/CostaRica2003/arenal_files/Zarcero.htm Howard Finster’s…
Hip-hop is dead
Between the street grapevine and a cursory glance at www.AllHipHop.com headlines, hip-hop is rife with bad news. OutKast’s long-delayed Idlewild opus has armchair critics’ tongues wagging. Then there’s Snoop Dogg, permanently banned from the UK due to a Heathrow tussle resulting from his entourage not being admitted to the BA first class lounge with alacrity.…
Give ‘Em That Older Razzle Dazzle
Selling a song or hitting a punch line, the voice of Carol Channing isn’t as strong or youthful as it was back in the days when she starred on Broadway in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hello, Dolly! But as we heard at Halton Theater last week, thanks to some silky amplification, the sound of the…
Don’t Order the Fish
Charlotte is leading the country, along with three other cities, when it comes to heaviest mercury polluters, according to a four-year-long report conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scheduled to be published this summer. Charlotte’s problem comes from a variety of sources, but the biggest contributor is coal power plants, and Charlotte has…
Spit on This
Voices’ raison d’être: “For somebody to be able to look at us and instead of idolizing what’s so bad, which is all we get on CNN and everything else in between about what the Army’s done wrong or what this country’s done wrong — because everybody has their own opinion, which they’re entitled to –…
Women, Please Save Hip-hop
In hip-hop’s gross materialism and misogyny, it is women who keep the industry in business. Women are the inspiration for some of the most popular and profane songs. Every song is written for women to dance to, and the lyrics either instruct on how to catch a woman or brag about the bling that attracts…
Soldier’s Song
When Sgt. Christopher Tomlinson arrived at the scene, he thought it would be a routine operation. A truck had flipped and rolled into a ravine of waist-high water in the Iraqi desert, but that wasn’t so strange. “They were driving at night, and that country will sneak up on you,” says Tomlinson. It wasn’t until…
End Line?
Last week, Charlotte Area Transit System czar Ron Tober dropped the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the Charlotte City Council. As with most Tober presentations, you had to read between the lines. Essentially, the future of light rail in Charlotte could be dead, Tober told them. After the completion of Charlotte’s single, puny,…
Film Clips
New Releases DOWN IN THE VALLEY Writer-director David Jacobson’s Down in the Valley seeks to pay homage to the Westerns of John Ford and Howard Hawks, and various scenes also bring to mind Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy. We’re talking classic cinema here, folks, yet for all of Jacobson’s ambitions, his movie doesn’t really deserve…
View From The Couch
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965). Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is routinely cited as the greatest movie ever made, but what about the all-time worst? Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space seems to be the general consensus (thanks in no small part to its first-place — or would that be last-place? — finish in…
John Gay’s Unholy Alliance
His name is John Gay and at the moment he’s the most feared man in Washington. Politicians are so freaked out by Gay that a sizable segment of the Republican Party, including the president, is willing to risk the party’s control of Congress after this fall’s elections to keep him happy. If Gay gets his…
