Lady Macparent
Horror mixes with hilarity in Bright Ideas, a macabre satire by young Eric Coble that is currently unlocking a toychest full of surprises at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. As the playwright veers from playfulness to violence and then to phantasmagoria, we’re kept off balance. The indictment of parents who scheme on behalf of their children,…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Nov. 10 Belk Arena, Davidson College Black Eyed Peas Breakfast Club DJ Boney B Double Door Inn Somebody Smith & Tim Apple The Evening Muse The Mammals The Gin Mill Wizard’s Road Show Lava Java Open Mic w/ Sam Midtown 51 Acoustic Solution Midtown, Mountain Island Mike and Rusty Milestone Single Handed w/ In-V…
Back to Caswell County
Maud Gatewood is a nationally known painter whose favorite subjects come from her birthplace of Yanceyville in Caswell County — right below Danville, Virginia and right above Greensboro. Her current exhibit at Hodges Taylor Gallery plays to her strengths.In her paintings, Gatewood often manages to stop time and let us see Southern scenes we know…
One Derails, The Other Sails
As Anna Karenina taught us, doomed love affairs and trains definitely don’t mix. The Chinese film Zhou Yu’s Train certainly subscribes to that deadly equation in this Instant Romance (just add tears) about a woman, a man… and a locomotive. Zhou Yu (Gong Li) meets and falls in love with struggling young poet Chen Qing…
Dylan Pens, Penn Reads
Bob Dylan has been putting words to music for a long time, for over 40 years now. In that 40 years, there have been a lot of Dylans: the folksinger Dylan, the rock & roll rebel Dylan, the crooning homebody Dylan, the anguished lover Dylan, the tarot-reading outlaw Dylan, the saved Dylan, the never-ending tour…
Toon In, Toon Out
Contrary to popular belief, there’s no guarantee that The Incredibles (***1/2 out of four) will become a box office behemoth along the lines of Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. or any of the other noteworthy Pixar-Disney collaborations that preceded it. It’s rated a cautious PG, a step ahead of the G rating usually foisted on animated…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music The Billy Goats Gruff Opera Carolina and the Public Library of Charlotte and Meck. County to offer performances of the Opera Express touring program. www.operacarolina.org. Nov. 13, 2pm at Morrison Regional Library. Free. 704-332-7177 ext. 209. Charlotte Symphony Performing Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and a finale by Borodin’s Second Symphony, featuring violinist Kyoko…
View From The Couch
THE MARX BROTHERS SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION (1929-1933). In May, Warner’s home entertainment division released a boxed set of the movies the Marx Brothers had made for MGM from the mid-30s through the mid-40s; now, Universal follows suit by offering a collection of the siblings’ first five pictures, all made under the Paramount banner. This crop…
Fast and Fresh
Sitting snugly on the refrigerated shelf at the Fresh Market among the rows of pestos, hummus, and andouille sausages is a container of D’Artagnan’s Duck Fat. So what, right? Even if you don’t know what to do with duck fat, don’t you wonder who does? And how has that need become so pervasive that duck…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON Bridget Jones is back, wobbly bits and all. Unfortunately, this follow-up to the delightful 2001 comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary is the laziest sort of sequel, lifting episodes wholesale from the first film before spinning off in directions that don’t even begin to make sense. Therefore, even though…
Pom Power
Pomegranates. They’re the latest of those wonder foods high in antioxidants — anti-rusting agents that hinder diseases like cancer and heart disease and slow down the aging process. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, cherries and spinach have long been touted for their antioxidant properties. The exotic pomegranate is the new healthy darling…
Steamrolled!
The last name Levine carries a lot of weight in this city. That’s Levine, as in Daniel Levine, son and business partner of Alvin Levine, co-founder of Pic n’ Pay Shoes. That’s Levine as in Levine Museum of the New South, Levine as in Levine Properties. So when Daniel Levine decided he wanted to build…
What’s For Tizzert?
Ten years ago, Tiz Benson opened a bakery that for some has become a house-hold name. “Tizzerts, Inc. “A Custom Bakery,'” became incorporated in April of ’95 and officially opened in July of the same year. Since then, Benson’s bakery has grown in more ways than one, and she’s learned a lot along the way.…
Bracing For The Roe-Less Era
Abortion could go underground. Now that President George W. Bush has been elected to a second term, he may appoint new Supreme Court justices who fundamentally disagree with the premises of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that provides US women the right to legal abortion. In response to this threat, the Washington,…
Kitchen Witch
More than any other time of year, Thanksgiving evokes a strange justification for tradition, particularly when it comes to the dinner menu. It doesn’t matter that young Sheila has just graduated from culinary school and wants to experiment with a few new recipes; Uncle Phil has been in charge of the stuffing for the past…
Parallel Universes
Christian evangelicals — the folks who want to replace Charles Darwin with creationism in public schools — will recoil at the thought, but their triumph at electing George Bush may have been a matter of evolution. “Cultures evolve as well as species, and that’s what we saw with the religious vote” on Nov. 2, says…
Your New Watering Hole
I thought for a long time that South African wine smelled and tasted like dirty elephants, zebras and giraffes bathing in a warm watering hole. Maybe South African wine consumers thought we might just buy that earthy shit, but I didn’t — until the funk started floating away. Gone are the rhinoceros dung and antelope…
Make CMS More Accountable
In 2002, the school system told the County Commission it would have to take band away from fifth graders if it didn’t get an extra $16 million. An extra 3,500 kids were supposed to show up that fall, crippling the school budget. The system was just starved for money, they said. To give the school…
I Vote Therefore I Drink
Unlike most other college-age students last Wednesday, I managed to put down the Playstation II controller long enough to go punch some different buttons: those on a voting machine. I had been hearing horror stories all day of people complaining how long they’d had to wait in line to cast their ballots, so I was…
It’s Your Bird Day
A small kitchen, lack of culinary skills, or a completely frozen turkey usually prompts the desperate call seeking a restaurant open on Thanksgiving. This year you can find more places than ever. Hotels are typically a good bet for Thanksgiving. At Savannah Red in Marriott Center City, Chef Ben Cattrell is offering a four-course menu.…
Red & Blue Don’t Make Purple
When you look at the post-election map of how Americans voted for President, red (GOP) states make the blue (Democrat) areas look like the fringes of the earth. If you look a little closer, though, you’ll note that even in some red states, big cities often went for Kerry while the vast sea of Big…
Post-election coping
The dust has settled on the election and your side lost. Big time. But don’t give up hope. Remember, you don’t have to face this bleak future alone. It may feel like you’re surrounded on all sides by gloating conservatives; keep in mind that there are still a lot of folks out there who see…
Good Eats
Our critics’ guide to recommended restaurants in Charlotte All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 6434-F West Sugarcreek Rd., 704-598-6863; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. A hint of the tropics; rotisserie chicken with Jamaican jerk sauce, ribs, Paradise Island fish special, curries, and Caribbean styled greens. $$ Azteca, 116 Woodlawn Rd., 704-525-5110; 9709 Independence Blvd., 704-814-9877; 1863…
Bumps in the Road
Toughen up your suspension and buy new shocks. Get ready for more potholes on Charlotte streets. A recent report to City Council revealed what we already know: Charlotte’s streets are getting worse, and they’re going downhill faster as standards of new construction decline and the money to maintain them shrinks. Ideally, city streets should be…
Word On The Street
Donna Iverson Accountant “There’s no way Democrats are organized enough to steal votes. If they could, Kerry would be president.” Chip Greene Graduate Student “Somehow, the word ‘morons’ comes to mind.” Eugenia Slocum School Teacher “Why is it if a black woman gets elected, everybody says there’s funny business? These Republicans need to stick to…
Expatriate Act
It is 11am in the morning on November 2, the day that the United States of America will elect its next President. Chris Whitley is enjoying a balmy morning in Austin, TX, which, the American singer/songwriter tells me by phone, is one of his very favorite towns in one of his very favorite states in…
Letters
In Defense of DMV I am writing this letter in response to the October 27 article by Tara Servatius (“Gang Rape and the Governor”). To imply that a driver’s license enables the crime of rape is nothing short of irresponsible journalism. The bottom line is that North Carolina’s driver license application procedures are among the…
The Blotter
A FRIEND IN NEED: After allowing a “friend” to live for a year at her house — which was completely furnished, including appliances — a woman discovered during a recent visit that her one-time tenant had vacated the premises and cleaned her out in the process. Among the items stolen were a queen-size bed, nightstands,…
Through A Man’s Eyes
The year was 2000, and the Mekons’ Sally Timms was getting up close and personal with what the British refer to as “putting the boot in.” A more visceral turn of phrase than the American equivalent “piling it on,” in this instance however, the Leeds, England native wasn’t the one wearing the boot; it was…
News of the Weird
Lead story: Most of the Japanese World War II suicide-mission dive-bombers (“kamikazes”) were successful, but a few failed pilots are still alive (their missions aborted because of weather or equipment failure), according to a Los Angeles Times dispatch in September. These days, they resent being compared to extremist Islamic suicide bombers, who, the kamikazes say,…
See & Do
NOVEMBER 10 – WEDNESDAY The West Coast hip-hop of Black Eyed Peas is thankfully more socially conscious than the violent bravado of their gangsta rap compatriots. Even when the core duo was signed to gangsta Easy E’s Ruthless records in the early 90s as Atban Klann, they were forward thinking and puzzled the label’s fans…
Silence in the Fog
Talk softly and carry a really loud axe — that’s been the J. Mascis modus operandi since he first emerged with Dinosaur Jr. in 1985, brandishing ear-bleeding volumes of Sonic Youth dissonance, Crazy Horse-length guitar solos and a bad case of the Uma Thurman blues. It’s now common practice among critics and hipsters to ignore…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Venus Envy One night, I told my girlfriend she was really hot. She kept asking if there was anyone hotter. I ended up saying Beyonce did have a little bit on her, then jokingly added, “Sorry, you’re only hotter than 99.99 percent of the women in the world.” Now, she brings it up all the…
Sit & Spin
R.E.M. Around The Sun Warner Bros. Back in the 80s, my older brother and his friends had crates filled with classic rock records, consisting mostly of the old workhorse standbys: Rumours, Physical Graffiti, One More From The Road. Tucked in with these, however, were two records, Murmur and Reckoning, by a mysterious band with a…
Stargazer
On Nov. 12, we have the New Moon in the sign of Scorpio. This sign is concerned with birth, death, and the conversion or transformation of energy from one form to another. In the month after this new moon we may conclude projects or make decisions to tear them up and start over in a…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 11.10 Black Eyed Peas — The West Coast hip-hop outfit is funkier and more R&B oriented than the gangsta violence of their compatriots. Being socially conscious, as well as just plain fun, earns extra props. Read more about the Peas in our See & Do section. Belk Arena, Davidson College (Shukla) The Mammals –…
