Nov 21-27, 2012

Nov 21-27, 2012 / Vol. 26 / No. 39

Cover Story

How not to give during the holiday season

It’s Christmas morning, early ’80s, in a well-kept, working-class black neighborhood of a mid-sized Southern city. My mom sends my big brother, my two big sisters and me to church for service, so she can stay home and wrap the gifts she’s hidden all over the house. She must have hidden them well, because I…

Emiene Wright

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Nov. 29 edition)

Purple Nurple: Two police officers were pulled away from their dinners at Solstice Tavern last week after some patrons got too rough with each other at the bar. The two men, who live together, were drinking when one reached out and grabbed the other’s nipple for a “titty twister.” The titty twistee punched his roommate…

Ryan Pitkin

Representin’: Figure of Speech

Aren’t Millenials the worst? An entire generation of coddled, flaky, unambitious meme-crazy hipsters content to rest on the laurels of their useless degrees and blame the economy for their self-inflicted sorrows? At least, that’s what a barrage of widely-circulated newspaper and magazine articles in recent years would have you believe. It was this flood of…

Laura Camilo

Red: Twilight of the God

John Logan isn’t old enough to remember the intellectual climate on college campuses in 1958-59, the years depicted in his Tony Award-winning Red, currently in its Charlotte premiere at Actor’s Theatre. But the playwright is likely blurring the truth artfully when he has Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko scolding his new apprentice for his unfamiliarity…

Perry Tannenbaum

Awaken your taste buds to the world of fusion

Far from his native land, a father looked at his hungry child, took a deep breath and plundered his kitchen, seeking to approximate tastes from home with foreign ingredients. What resulted was something entirely different, with a familiar lineage but a new spin. OK, so the father’s name is Dwayne Chandler, and the old country…

Emiene Wright

3 questions with mixologist Bob Peters

Meet Bob Peters (Twitter: @Bobthebartender), a local mixologist who has been tending bars — from classic neighborhood dives to swanky Uptown spots — for more than 15 years. Peters can currently be found in two Charlotte locations: When he’s not concocting exotic, Asian-inspired cocktails at Pisces Sushi, he’s making funky cocktail fusions over at Soul…

Lauren Blake

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte polices files (Nov. 22)

Diamonds Aren’t Forever: A 33-year-old woman filed a police report after losing a precious piece of jewelry at work last week. The woman told officers she had a diamond ring on her finger while working at the Jewish Day Community Center on Providence Road. She was afraid of losing it during an activity so she…

Ryan Pitkin

Like father, like sons: The Weir Family

When one discovers every painting has a unique story to it, art becomes less obtuse. Knowing this can demystify complex movements like cubism and conceptualism and bring new meaning to seemingly dull landscapes, portraits and history paintings. Such an understanding is important when it comes to The Weir Family, 1820-1920: Expanding the Traditions of American…

Grace Cote

Review: Yardwork’s Slamdunks

Yardwork songs used to seduce through sheer enthusiasm — this was a band so dialed into camaraderie and making joyous, anthemic noise that listeners were powerless against the pro-brotherhood tide. But what emerges on this tantalizing five-song EP is a band whose songwriting has taken small but significant steps forward, and in the process thrown…

John Schacht

This week’s concert listings (Nov. 22-Nov. 28)

** Bullet points indicate CL’s critics’ picks** Thursday, Nov. 22 Blues/Roots/International Latin Thursdays (Dream Nightclub, Matthews) Classical/Jazz/Smooth Beats and Keys (Encore Bistro and Bar) John Alexander (Blue Restaurant & Bar) Country/Folk Open Mic w/ Brett Greer (Tommy’s Pub) DJ/Electronic Cameo Thursdays (Phoenix) Dance Party w/ DJ Glow (Wild Wing Cafe (Ayrsley)) Nuvo Thursdays (Marigny) Salsa,…

Weekly horoscope (Nov. 22-28)

Sagittarius The Archer (Nov. 22-Dec. 20)The sun returns “home” to your sign this week. You likely will find it to be energizing. Now is the time to focus on new plans for this next year of your life. Take a fresh look at where you want to direct your energy. For All Signs: Mercury, planet…

Vivian Carol

There’s gold in Silver Linings Playbook

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK ***1/2 DIRECTED BY David O. Russell STARS Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence Writer-director David O. Russell, who makes decent movies when he’s not being a major-league jerk behind the camera (his temper tantrums with Lily Tomlin and George Clooney are well-documented, with the former skirmish captured for immortality on YouTube), follows The Fighter…

Matt Brunson

Life of Pi worth examining

LIFE OF PI ***1/2 DIRECTED BY Ang Lee STARS Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan It was Rod Serling, at the start of each episode of The Twilight Zone, who promised to whisk viewers to “a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land of imagination.” Yet here’s Ang…

Matt Brunson

Rashomon, Savages, The Watch among new home entertainment titles

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD.) THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012). The best thing about The Expendables 2 involves Chuck Norris. I don’t mean his performance — he’s as awful as ever, showing less range than a mattress pad — but rather that his character manages…

Matt Brunson

In God I trust

The election is over. Although I wasn’t surprised that President Obama came out victorious (I’d been following Nate Silver’s blog for weeks), this campaign did have an unexpected outcome for me personally — it made me more familiar with and committed to my Christian faith. I realize that’s a bizarre conclusion to months of finger-pointing…

Ailen Arreaza

American Aquarium swimming through breakups

BJ Barham is having a bad day. The gravelly voice of the country-leaning Raleigh rock band American Aquarium is stranded somewhere in New Mexico. The front axle on the outfit’s van is shot, and the band has spent the previous three hours killing time at a Denny’s — which Barham quips is the maximum time…

Jordan Lawrence

Scavengers of metal: Vulture

Bart Lattimore has been blazing a trail in the local Charlotte country/folk scene as a singer-songwriter for the last two years. However, when a few friends were searching for a frontman for a new metal band, Lattimore decided it was time for a slight departure from his roots. “I was playing at [drummer Joey Vernon’s]…

Sean Potter

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