Oct 10-16, 2018
‘Hamilton’ comes to Charlotte; ‘Money Rock’ book, Pam Kelly, Belton Platt; VegFest; Bla/Alt 2018; Cuzo Key; Jeff Jackson, ‘Destroy All Monsters’
Chvrches ups the energy
Band never fails to disappoint with simple but effective performing style.
First Man takes flight
FIRST MAN *** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Damien Chazelle STARS Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy It’s immediately clear that Ryan Gosling possesses the right stuff when it comes to bringing astronaut Neil Armstrong to life in First Man, but it’s not readily apparent that Damien Chazelle adopts the right approach in dramatizing the events surrounding…
In Brief: The Hate U Give, Bad Times at the El Royale, The Old Man & the Gun, Venom
We’re now knee-deep into fall, which means the theaters have begun cramming their auditoriums with all manner of typical seasonal fare — i.e. blockbuster wanna-bes that are expected to keep concession stands popping for the remainder of 2018 and award contenders that hope to be remembered when critics and Academy members start handing out congratulatory…
Eighth Grade, Skyscraper, The Swarm among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) EIGHTH GRADE (2018). Hereditary was unsettling through its pervasive atmosphere of dread, while First Reformed was unnerving in its implications involving violence and vindication. Yet for a summer ’18 outing that truly got…
The Blotter: Inside Job
Gimme Gimme A new term has entered The Blotter’s lexicon. Two officers recently responded to a call for “aggressive panhandling” — a first as far as we can remember — at the intersection of North Wendover and Marvin roads in southeast Charlotte. One responding officer stated that when he arrived on the scene, he saw…
Listen Up: Adrian Crutchfield Blows It Down on ‘Local Vibes’
It took us a couple months to finally pull him into the studio, but we finally landed Adrian Crutchfield, saxophonist for the stars, and now a renowned solo artist in his own right. We talked to Crutchfield about his relationship with Prince, and how the iconic musician inspired him to jump out on his own…
News of the Weird: Do What You Want
Family Values Laurence Mitchell, 53, gets this week’s Most Helpful Dad award for graciously driving his 15-year-old son and the son’s girlfriend, also 15, to a Port St. Lucie, Florida, park on Sept. 6 so they could “do their thang,” as Mitchell described it. The Smoking Gun reported that when Port St. Lucie police officer…
What It Means To Be a Woman in the Nightlife Scene in the Kavanaugh Era
“What are you going to write about this week?” My boyfriend asks me that question every week. And unless I’ve been somewhere new, I’ll sigh because my answer is usually, “I have no idea.” But that’s also why I love writing about nightlife. Even if I haven’t gone to a new venue, the conversations I…
Jeff Jackson’s New Book Kills Rock Stars
Jeff Jackson takes the title of his new novel, Destroy All Monsters from the greatest — and noisiest — band you never heard of. Destroy All Monsters was a collection of Detroit visual artists turned art-rockers, who in turn stole their moniker from a 1968 Japanese monster movie starring Godzilla. “I like pulling the connotations…
Salome’s Stars
Aries (March 21 to April 19) A colleague might offer to open a door for you professionally. But before you walk through it, be sure this “favor” isn’t attached to an obligation you might find difficult to discharge. Taurus (April 20 to May 20) Your creativity, your persistence and your reliability could lead to a…
Bla/Alt Fest Returns for a Second Year of Inclusion
When you think about black musicians, what genres do you think about? Rap, hip-hop, R&B? Soul, jazz or Motown? The Bla/Alt Festival, founded by LeAnna Eden, was launched with the intention of flipping that script. The festival, dubbed “an inclusion of black identity,” boasts a lineup of black-fronted alternative musicians and bands from the Charlotte…
Vegan CEO Talks Meatless Mondays and Learning the Lifestyle
The path to veganism chose Morathi Howie. While at North Carolina Central University in Durham, he was headed to the cafeteria for “chicken Wednesday” with a friend when they informed him they were vegan. “What do you mean you don’t eat meat?” he recalled of his incredulous reply. After a long talk with his vegan…
No One Knows How to Cook Radicchio
It isn’t true what they say about cooking radicchio. Whatever it is that they say, it isn’t true. Few plants radiate as much beauty as radicchio; even fewer do so while simultaneously delivering black belt-level bitterness. In the produce section, radicchio stands out, its deep purple foliage making the veins appear all the more blindingly…
Belton Platt Views Charlotte Through a New Lens After Reading His Own Life Story
The first thing I noticed when I pulled up to Belton Platt’s new home in Concord was the playground. Right across from his house sits an unassuming little multicolored jungle gym. Nobody was playing on it during the sunny afternoon that I visited Platt. It was in such pristine shape that the plastic shined in…
A New Look at Life
In the midst of my recent interview with Belton Platt, subject of local author Pam Kelley’s new book, Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South, I asked him what it was like to read over his own life story and see some of the forces that worked against…
Belton Platt Listens for the Word
As I sat in the kitchen of Belton Platt’s home in Concord on a recent afternoon, we went through the usual small talk that often precedes an interview. We talked about how long he had lived there (two months) and he offered me a glass of water and lunch (I accepted the former and declined…
Pam Kelley’s New Book Ties ’80s Cocaine Dealer’s Story to Charlotte’s Issues Today
When Pam Kelley, a reporter with the Charlotte Observer, first met Belton Platt, aka Money Rock, at Central Prison in Raleigh in May 1986, he had recently been convicted for his role in a shootout in the Piedmont Courts housing project in Charlotte’s Belmont neighborhood. At the time, Platt was still appealing his conviction, which…
‘Hamilton’ Arrives This Week, Lifting Local Artists or Eclipsing Them?
Lauded by Broadway critics as an artistic breakthrough, showered with 11 Tony Awards, celebrated and denounced by successive U.S. presidents and worshipped by millions wherever it has played, Hamilton has been an unprecedented sellout smash since it opened Aug. 6, 2015. It’s the hottest ticket in New York City, and wherever it tours, it’s big…
Cuzo Key and FLLS Connect Contrasting Styles on New Project
Kenion Sherrill doesn’t rap, he rides. When I meet with Sherrill, who performs as Cuzo Key, outside of his Davidson home, he explains to me why his laid-back, conversational style doesn’t fit in with many of his peers. “I wouldn’t even call myself a rapper, really. I just like to speak the truth. I just…
