Letters
Appalled As leaders with the Charlotte Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, we were appalled that Creative Loafing chose to print Mary Ann Swissler’s inaccurate and irresponsible opinion piece (“Compromised?” October 1) and present it to your readers as investigative reporting. The misleading nature of Swissler’s article is unacceptable. Shame on her,…
Good Eats
All Around Town Anntony’s Caribbean, 400 S. Tryon St., 704-339-0303; 2001 E. 7th St., 704-342-0749. All locations have different owners. 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 W. Franklin Blvd.…
Fall Flops and a Rush to Judgment
The FCC has come and gone, and “I’ve got mail” from all over as I gorge on the teensy Halloween Snickers hoarded from the greedy little kids that came to call. One told me (with his mother standing on my porch), “I don’t like any of your candy.” That’s the same mood I’m in, as…
Galactic Kicks Up a Ruckus
Suspended over a stage looking down at the top of Whitney Houston’s head isn’t the usual way a funk saxophonist breaks into show business. But for Galactic’s Ben Ellman, being a lighting tech for Houston in the 80s had a few unexpected perks. “Her sax player was Kirk Whalum. I had just started playing and…
Gridlock From Hell
The walls of the office of a prominent local developer double as a sort of war room where the enemy’s movements are tracked. Color-coded maps delineate the future and who owns it. The maps on the walls are of the new battleground — the counties surrounding Mecklenburg. Because his lawyer had painstakingly cracked through the…
The Music Box
You remember Sub Pop, don’t you? They were the label that helped “break” grunge, hardly ever paid their artists, and had Charles Peterson document the whole damn thing with his quirky black-and-white photography. Well, as many of you know, Sub Pop now puts out a wide range of music, and probably skews more toward folk…
The Blotter
RUDE AWAKENING: A woman woke up one morning to find herself in an unfamiliar hotel room. She did not know how she got there, what she did the night before, or if she’d had any sexual relations. HE BLEW IT: One thief decided that he wanted to make some noise around town, so he went…
In Tune
The Charlotte-based national touring act Hopesfall recently had their van and trailer stolen while touring outside of Dallas, Texas. In the van and trailer were the band’s instruments, gear and merchandise. The band’s label, Trustkill Records, has a PayPal account link set up on their website (http://www.trustkill.com/home/) for folks that would like to make a…
Put Down The Liquor and Sing
Last Tuesday was a date I had circled on my calendar some time ago. The Detroit “disco-punk” band The Electric Six were to play a show at The Room, along with opening act Junior Senior, which is basically a heavyset gay man and a thin straight one (they disco-dance too, in a campy indie-rock sort…
Sit & Spin
Carla Bozulich Red Headed Stranger DiCristina Stair Builders Records If you’ve ever heard The Geraldine Fibbers’ neglected 1995 debut, Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home, then the concept of singer Carla Bozulich doing a cover-to-cover re-make of Willie Nelson’s classic, Red Headed Stranger, becomes a trifle less surprising. But just a trifle. No…
A Question of Powers
The November 3 Time magazine asks an intriguing question about Brave New War Against Terror Architect (and Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld: “Is Rumsfeld Losing His Mojo?” If you’re like me — your first thoughts of Donald Rumsfeld are closer to mofo than mojo — Time’s question is worth exploring. Saddam Hussein may not have had…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 11.5 Alien Ant Farm — OK, so they have already stepped up a notch on the scene and rock like punks, with salutes to metal and an ear for funky rhythms. The sound of these Alterna-rockers, though, is pedestrian at worst, and sing-along rock on some tunes, at best. They’re poking around the touring…
Smoker’s Wild
Among the things I’m big-time grateful for in this life are the facts that I was single before AIDS roared out as a scourge upon the land, and that I got to be a smoker while the smokin’ was still easy. The choke chain is squeezing tighter around smokers’ necks, now that their pastime is…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Nov. 5 Baoding Robert Fernandez Blue Carl DiPonziano Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Coley’s Tavern Acoustic Soulution Double Door Inn Lunatic Fringe w/ Lilley, Strauss & Schigoda The Evening Muse Trina Hamlin w/ Fullgrown Graduate, Gastonia Simplified Grady Cole Center 311 w/ Alien Ant Farm Main Street, Gastonia Tommy Hudson The Meeting House…
See & Do
NOVEMBER 5 – WEDNESDAY They’re more mainstream than alternative these days (were they ever not mainstream?), but if you’re a fan of 311 it sure is fun to dress up and pretend, isn’t it? The alterna-metal-rappers bring their Chili-Peppers’ knock-off act to Grady Cole tonight at 8pm. Alien Ant Farm, another cookie-cutter post-grunge act best…
Feast Of Famine
It’s been established for several years that it’s not healthy to inhale all the hype that blows out of Utah during its annual Sundance Film Festival. Movie-goers got a real inkling of that after The Spitfire Grill, the darling of the 1996 gathering, proved to be much ado about very little; studio heads even woke…
Ask the Advice Goddess
The Thrift Of Gab I’m in the public eye, I’ve done well financially, and I’m not bad looking. A female coworker tells me I’m the kind of guy single women refer to as “good on paper.” Off paper, there’s a catch: Although I have a female “friend with benefits” who comes over several times a…
Witness To The Persecution
Last year’s Secretary illustrated the power dynamic of the boss/stenographer relationship. Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary repeats that notion, albeit in far darker terms. The documentary is composed entirely of the recollections of one of Hitler’s most intimate acquaintances, and yet one of history’s least known, Traudl Junge.Junge, Hitler’s secretary from 1942 until her final dictation…
Stargazer
For All Signs On Nov. 8 at 8:13pm EST we will experience a total lunar eclipse in Taurus. A lunar eclipse is essentially a heavily punctuated full moon. All those activities normally related to the full moons, such as increased traffic and potential for accidents, general hyperactivity, etc., are accentuated. Often full moons bring fulfillment…
Home Theater
THE BOGART COLLECTION (1940-47) Having recently gone the whole nine yards with Casablanca and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Warner’s home entertainment arm is now releasing four other Humphrey Bogart features (available individually) in more modest DVD packages. They Drive By Night (1940) finds Bogart receiving only fourth billing, supporting George Raft, Ann Sheridan…
Friend Or Foe?
In these times when student violence against fellow students frequently makes headlines, photographer Julie Moos’ exhibit Friends and Enemies at the Mint Museum of Art is pretty scary. The photographer often took life-size color photos, cropped from the waist up, of standing student duos in the senior class at the private Altamont School in Birmingham,…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES BROTHER BEAR Oh, brother, what a bore… Brother Bear has been plugged as the last gasp of the traditional animated film, the movie that may help Disney decide whether to invest anymore in old-fashioned toons or simply concentrate on the computer-generated fare that’s been putting the bread on the table these past few…
Blithe Bumgarner
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Lon Bumgarner directing an utterly carefree comedy — so long that you may have forgotten how good he is at it. When he was dominating the Loaf’s directing awards from 1987-90, Bumgarner certainly garnered accolades for his Hamlet, Macbeth and Three Sisters with Charlotte Shakespeare Company. Yet his work…
Bah, Humbug!
Twinkly Tim Allen as Santa Claus? Try surly Billy Bob Thornton instead. A crowd-pleasing adventure yarn in which the dapper superspy saves the world, the girl and the martini? Replace that with a gritty epic where dusty frontiersmen lose their lives trying to protect a square of Texas real estate. A light-hearted romp about a…
Dumas Rediscovered
The story behind the recent arrival of a newly updated version of The Knight of Maison-Rouge could come from Alexandre Dumas himself. A thrilling, swashbuckling tale is lost in a heap of dust, only to be rediscovered many decades later, freshly translated and sent back out into the world. Just as improbable as a fresh…
Soho Bistro Chinese Cuisine
Nowadays looking good is what matters most. This is especially true for downtown restaurants. If you look breathlessly hip and offer OK food, then bingo, you’re a winner. Sometimes, though, a restaurant looks good and has good food. Amazing, huh? Such is the case for the striking 88-seat SoHo Bistro Chinese Cuisine, which opened in…
If They Ruled The World
In the October 15 issue of Creative Loafing, writer John Sugg wrote about the annual Project Censored report. The censored story cited as No. 1 was “The Neo-Conservative Plan for Global Dominance.” There has indeed been an attempt under Bush 43’s administration to execute the “neo-con” dream of empire — dreams that were spelled out…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music BAC Guest Artist Series Shirley Gilpin and Betsy Sesler featuring 2nd movement of Mozart’s Concerto for flute/harp and more. Mon., Nov. 10, 8 p.m. Free. Belmont Abbey Basilica, 100 Belmont-Mount Holly Rd., Belmont. Debussy, Ravel, Franck – French Masters Christof Perick, conducting Charlotte Symphony Classics. November 7-8, 8pm. $14-64. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center,…
Bad Girl On A Dirt Track
Believe it or not, January will mark the 10th anniversary of “The Whack Heard ‘Round The World,” the priceless pop culture moment when Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the knee by meathead- for-hire Shane Stant, who had been hired by Tonya Harding’s paramour Jeff Gillooly. Following the attack, Harding went on to win the 1994…
Lo Mein Event
Nowadays looking good is what matters most. This is especially true for downtown restaurants. If you look breathlessly hip and offer OK food, then bingo, you’re a winner. Sometimes, though, a restaurant looks good and has good food. Amazing, huh? Such is the case for the striking 88-seat SoHo Bistro Chinese Cuisine, which opened in…
Charlotte’s Crash Central
Every day, hundreds of thousands of people drive through Charlotte’s 13 most crash-prone intersections. These spots are probably well known to the insurance adjusters who read about them on accident reports and the traffic cops who write those reports, but the average driver sipping her coffee and talking on a cell phone on the way…
Mail Bonding
This quarterly column presents the opportunity to have your wine comments and questions aired. If you have a question, comment, or slam, email corkscrew@creativeloafing.com. High and Mighty Bernie opined: Just read “Birthday Wine Wishing” [8/13/03], and anyone moderately familiar with wine knows that the grape of Chateauneuf du Pape is Grenache, usually from 50 to…
