Goodbye to Governor Yokel
On Election Day I already had this piece written by four o’clock in the afternoon. I figured that I was writing about a sure thing, one of the races that just wouldn’t manage to become an upset. By nine o’clock, I was still complacent. With three percent of precincts reporting (more than enough to call…
Whatever You Say, Pam
Charlotte City Council member John Tabor wasn’t confused. City staff just wanted him to think he was. At last week’s meeting, Tabor, like other city council members, swore he’d been told by city staffers that they were negotiating a deal with the NBA in which 20 percent of the $200 million budget for designing and…
The Blotter
Snack Time: A local food service company fell victim to a few thieves with a hankering for some sweets. The crooks broke the locks off the company’s trucks, which were filled to the brim with assorted tasty treats. The thieves then loaded themselves down with more than $350 worth of juices and other drinks, and…
News of the Weird
Sign language: A business consulting firm teaching how to use astrology to increase profits was inaugurated in May in San Francisco by two former telecommunications executives (and ex-Marines). Bruce Cady and lawyer Tom Mitchell founded Jupiter Returns to show executives, for example, that a failed business collaboration may have been prevented simply by understanding that…
See & Do
NOV 13 – WEDNESDAYJoining the Moving Poets 6/15 this time gives you a chance to sample the new performance scene at Hart-Witzen Gallery. Six short new works will deliver an exhilarating cross-section of art forms. Two examples: Jeff Cravotta, lead photographer for Moving Poets’ funky season brochure, teams with dancer/choreographer Heather Maloy; and, no kidding,…
Who Ya Hang?
There are millions of statistics out there that tell us exactly how many men cheat on their wives during the course of their matrimonial bliss. I’ve always questioned their accuracy because you never really know if the men are telling the truth. It’s not like we’re dealing with people who are well known for their…
Tom Talk
Roots-rocker Steve Earle is fond of wearing a particular T-shirt to certain photo sessions, probably just to piss people off. It says, “I’m from fucking outer space.” It’s a term of endearment, really. Artists or musicians, when faced with something wholly original that just blows their doors off, will refer to someone or their work…
STARGAZER
For All Signs On the full moon of November 19 we will experience the first of an 18-month series of eclipses in the signs of Taurus and Scorpio. It is closest to the center at 8:34pm EST and will be visible in North America to all but the West Coast. Eclipses usually occur in pairs,…
Head out on the highway
Cast Iron Filter is gearing up for the release of their fourth album and first live release, Live From The Highway. The disc features 11 tracks (10 live and one studio track), six of which are new and five “spiced-up” versions of favorites off their earlier releases. The band recorded the album in St. Simon’s…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser:”Tis almost the season and here’s my question: Will bad gift karma be generated if I give VHS instead of DVD? I would actually be re-gifting a specific VHS — a very popular, indie hit that I know the intended giftees would really like. However, I also know that they have a new…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 11.13 Good Charlotte — While it is cool they got Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass and lo-fi god Mike Freakin’ Watt to appear in their video (Watt the hell?), I’m still not sure how a band can make a “satirical” video called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” while exhibiting just that. These kids and…
80 Minutes On A Tightrope
Unless I’m covering my beat, I generally avoid one-person shows. They tend to lack tension, action and plot. They’re oftentimes about artists or public figures I’d rather learn about more authoritatively through books — if at all. As a group, they’re monotonous, static, predictable. But even a stultifying one-person show is an awesome challenge for…
Sound Board
Wednesday, Nov. 13 Bankers Raw Bar 24-Jam-22 Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Charleston Chops, Cornelius Kent Steel Double Door Inn Chasing Edison The Evening Muse David Childers w/ Guy Workman Fat City WCRO Down w/ Juggernaut & Hot Lava Monster Graduate, Lake Norman Robin Brown w/ Andy Seets JB’Z The Sweaty Head Band Lynn’s…
Visitation By Venus
The potent force of mythology and echoes of the distant past filtered through paintings of the 18th century resonate in the exhibition Fragments by Maja Godlewska, currently on view at Joie Lassiter Gallery. To misread these large-scale works as merely lush or delicious in appearance is to undermine their intellectual intensity. While “Venus & Time,”…
Rapper’s Delight
Can it honestly be declared that musicians make the worst actors? Probably not; after all, for sheer ineptitude, it’s hard to beat the smattering of athletes who have elected to test out their thespian abilities over the years. (Anybody see Joe Namath in Avalanche Express, or Bruce Jenner in Can’t Stop the Music?) But when…
Sail On Sailor
After a hilarious, intrepid journey as a Civil War reenactor, Tony Horwitz thought he might settle down at his rural Virginia home and sit still awhile. After all, Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter whose various assignments once scattered him across the Middle East, Australia and the American South, had wandered enough. Now, he decided, it…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES FEMME FATALE Director Brian De Palma has spent most of his career courting controversy, so why expect different results from his latest release? Already running the gamut of critical opinion since its opening (from an F by Entertainment Weekly to four stars from Roger Ebert), this deliriously over-the-top thriller features both the best…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Featuring Josh Bell, violin. Bell performs with England’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the world’s most recorded chamber orchestra. Belk Theater. Tue., Nov. 19, 8 p.m. $25-$75. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-348-5800. Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem Charlotte Symphony Classics. Featuring…
Betrayed Again
Charlotte’s white liberal elite may talk a good game when it comes to tolerance, but what many of them do in the voting booth is another matter entirely. Of course, the same thing could be said of the county’s black liberal elite. But by the time Mecklenburg County’s white liberal media elite got done spinning…
Thai That Binds
You don’t have to twist my arm very hard for me to visit a Thai restaurant. Recently, I even went through the most dangerous and deadly part of town, the construction zone on I-77 north, to reach the Thai Grill, located on Main Street in Cornelius. Owners Sunisa and Fa Puchakanit, who is also the…
The Need is Great
For some folks, this year’s sluggish economy and plunging stock market have meant perhaps a few less nights out on the town, scaling back on vacation plans, or maybe postponing some big-ticket purchases. But for thousands of less fortunate Charlotteans, it’s meant another night sleeping outside in the cold, or another day without a hot…
Funky Countries, Fun Wine
Look out France, California and South America, here comes competition. These days, virtually every country with a square inch of healthy soil produces and exports wine. This is great since wine from different areas infuses new energy and innovation into an otherwise complacent wine industry. It seems the key to bringing these new guys to…
Letters To The Editor
Cartoon Insult I am a reader of Creative Loafing from time to time, and Bissell-Hayes has on occasion run condo ads in your publication. However, I must tell you that after reading your recent publication, Vol.16, #34, p.12 (October 30) and the editorial cartoon on that page by Jim Hunt, I now realize why I…
Good Eats
Dilworth/Southend 300 East, 300 East Blvd., 704-332-6507. Locals have long gathered at this casual neighborhood bistro in a vintage house featuring an eclectic menu. $$$ Berrybrook Farms Natural Foods, 1257 East Blvd., 704-334-6528. Homemade soups, herbed tofu sandwiches, bean burritos, and freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices found in a natural food shop. $ Comet…
Bowl In Store for Ericsson
In case you’d like to see actual well-played football in Ericsson Stadium, wish no more. What has been a lot of mere sports talk since the facility opened will become reality next month, as the stadium becomes a real-deal venue for a college bowl game. With Charlotte-based Continental Tire as the sponsor, the bowl will…
O Brothers, Where Art Thou?
Regular readers of this column know that I’m not the biggest fan of jam band music — that’d be John Popper (irregular readers, try more fiber in your diet). Granted, I like all the components of jam band music. I like a band with a bit of melody to them. I’m real fond of jazz,…
