The Curving Knot
Position: The Curving Knot On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is horrible and 10 is sexual nirvana): IÕd give it a 5, because while I wouldnÕt call it a great position, it was quite entertaining and “therapeutic” to try to negotiate. Difficulty of getting into position: If youÕve spent the last five years…
The Wheel
Name of Kama Sutra Position: The WheelOn a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate position (1 as horrible, 10 as sexual nirvana)? I would give it an 8, while my partner gave it a 3 É Did you have difficulty getting into the position? Heck no! Did you feel like a pretzel? …
Fest Or Famine
Charlotte has lately produced so many film festivals and series that movie fans would be forgiven for wanting to stick close to home to feed their habit. Yet it’d be irresponsible not to single out two major festivals in other parts of the state, acclaimed events that over time have emerged as two of the…
Cheap Thrills
CAROLINA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL Though the original Renaissance took place over 500 years ago, the Carolina version celebrates its thirteenth anniversary. In keeping with the spirit of its European origins, our festival features a medieval amusement park, a 9-stage theater, a 20-acre circus, an arts and crafts fair, a jousting tournament and a feast. The grounds…
Big Food
Mouthful
Crowning Achievements: The Queen and Borat
Whether or not one agrees with a character’s declaration that the royal family is comprised of “freeloading, emotionally retarded nutters,” it’s fascinating to watch these upper-crust Brits play out their own sordid soap opera in The Queen (***1/2 out of four), a wicked — and wickedly good — show that takes a highly dubious premise…
A Marvelous Bastard
Corkscrew
The Final Countdown
Hostile Takeover 18 Citizen Servatius 23Boomer with Attitude 2423
Guilty Pleasures
Y’all know you love ’em: Robin Thicke looks poised to bounce back from the one-hit wonder bin with his fine new The Evolution of Robin Thicke (Star Trak/Interscope). Andre Harrell’s protégé still purveys good blue-eyed soul, yet his palette seems to have progressed to the point that the Pharrell single, “Wanna Love U Girl,” is…
On Cue
See & Do 10Moodswing 1210
Fine Tuning Your Gut
Boomer With Attitude
Celebrating History — and Making It
Performing Arts
Hostile Takeover
More than five months after Mecklenburg Mills residents were abruptly kicked out of the termite-infested north Charlotte apartment building, some tenants are still looking for decent housing, still seeking answers and — as several reiterated last week — still troubled by the way the city has handled the fiasco. Among their concerns: New landlords who…
Play It Again
Mouthful 68Corkscrew 70Good Eats 7268
Who Will Stop Mike Nifong?
Citizen Servatius
Pounding the Witch
Burn Baby Burn 84Carolina Chocolate Drops 85Mixtape RIP 8786
The Blotter
A Fine Line: An Iron Station man reported a crime this week that happened on Feb. 2 of this year. The man thought “the suspect was his friend and they were going to hug, instead the suspect started punching him in the face.” Next Time Shuttle It: A man using the valet parking service at…
Old Country
When taking something old and renewing it, you gotta have proper respect for your elders and the music. As the Carolina Chocolate Drops, banjoist/vocalist Rhiannon Giddens, guitarist Don Flemons and fiddler Justin Robinson interpret old-time music in the African-American tradition as espoused by fiddlers like Mebane’s Joe Thompson. “We try to make that as authentic…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: A while back, I wrote you about my noisy neighbors upstairs. You never answered my letter. That’s fine. I know it was a weird question I was asking. Here’s an update on what has happened since I wrote. The people in the apartment upstairs from me had an annoying habit. They left…
The Nature Of Things
Performing Arts 50Advice Goddess 54Arts Agenda 4650
Letters to the Editor
More Problems Without Solutions Your article on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools race demographics (“Watch Out For That Cliff!” Oct. 18) states the stats and the problem well, but not a hint of a solution … because at this point, I don’t think anybody can suggest one. That is, one that is “politically correct” and/or won’t stir up…
Inside the Secret World of White Supremacy
The squirt-sized black kid, maybe 8 years old, pedaled his shiny orange Mongoose bike around downtown Laurens, S.C. He scooted down a side street with a cheery “hello, mister” to a passer-by, then waved at a passing police car. A few hours later, early on a September Saturday evening, the boy was back, zipping past…
Nov. 1 — Nov. 7, 2006
Scorpio The Phoenix: (Oct. 23 — Nov. 20) This week is quiet until the full moon on the 5th. Then you will be bothered enough to lay some of the cards on the table and take a look at the full picture in your relationships. Step aside from laying blame. It is better to identify…
See & Do Picks
Wednesday, November 01 Tonight’s the season opener for the Charlotte Bobcats. At 7 p.m., they take on the Reggie Miller-less Indiana Pacers in Charlotte Bobcats Arena. Their prey, however, is armed with Chuck “The Rifleman” Person as defensive coach. But with Coach Bickerstaff on hand, the kitties need not worry much. What wild turns this…
An Unsuccessful Intervention
Moodswing
Cinderella Becomes a Fashion Victim
From 860 A.D. China to 1950 Disney: the ancient fairy tale of the rich girl forced into servitude by a wicked stepmother, terrorized by her stepsister(s) and rescued by a fairy godmother to fulfill her destiny to become a princess is a tall order at best. But, it relates well to this slightly different tale…
View From The Couch
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III (2006). With a budget of $150 million and a stateside gross of $133 million, this third chapter in the M:I franchise failed to make back its cost domestically (once again, the international box office came to the rescue), which was interpreted as proof that a star’s imbecilic off-screen antics could end up…
The Shrew Must Go On
The Advice Goddess
Code of Honor
The entire notion of hardcore, from its brutally direct sonic aesthetic to its “rebellious Puritan” social/moral outlook, may seem faintly anachronistic, if not quaint, in today’s corporate punk world of Warped Tours and Hot Topics. In the early 1980s, though, with the Reagan Era in ascendancy, hardcore was a lifestyle, not a phase. One of…
Funny Names
Did you get lucky and get a funny name at birth? If not, no worries: make your own! Or practice your French with the Masked Cucumber on the site of ultimate knowledge. Charlemagne Palestine www.charlemagnepalestine.org Trey Hoyumpa www.treyplay.com Dario Argento www.darkdreams.org The Masked Cucumber www.leconcombre.com The Funny Name Server www.funnyname.com
Death of the Headphone Masterpiece
On the eve of Jan. 1, 2005, I resolved that I was going to get in the habit of making music mixes for every day that I was alive. The idea was that each mix would serve as a soundtrack to that day, or as a musical diary to capture the mood or events associated…
Film Clips
Current Releases CATCH A FIRE The title’s a bit misleading, insofar as this well-meaning movie never really catches fire. Based on a true story and set in the early 1980s, it centers on Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), a South African oil refinery foreman whose apolitical attitude allows him to largely fly under the radar when…
Sports Sports Sports
This Bud’s for … Dale Earnhardt Jr. And there was plenty of Budweiser and buddies at his birthday party at Cans last week. After I gave the bouncer the password: “J.R,” I got to join in the exclusive, intimate NASCAR party that was all white — collared, that is. Let’s just say it wasn’t your…
