See & Do
OCTOBER 16 – THURSDAY Widespread Panic bring their rootsy jams to Cricket Arena tonight for a show with compatriots Leftover Salmon. It’ll be one of the last chances “spreadheads” will have to see the band for a while as they’ve announced plans to take a yearlong break from the road. Doors open at 6pm and…
Home Theater
A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983). In America, it’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas, which helps explain why a two-disc Special Edition DVD of this holiday favorite is hitting the streets before most people have even begun making plans for Halloween (let alone the Yuletide season). Then again, a great movie is welcome any…
Stargazer
For All Signs Aspects of tension are prominent all month. If you are normally prone to sidestep stress and risks in life, there may be enough energy here to prod you toward change. If you flare easily under normal circumstances, these are days to use caution and avoid making moves prematurely. The cosmic message is…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES CASA DE LOS BABYS Writer-director John Sayles has successfully tackled so many unexpected subjects that one has to wonder if the accomplished filmmaker has a dartboard in his office to help him pick his next topic. Striking coal miners in West Virginia? Sure! Greedy land developers in Florida? Why not? Trigger-happy revolutionaries in…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Barfing Up The Wrong Tree I’m a 19-year-old gay male. About a month ago, I “met” a 26-year-old guy on a gay phone chat line. We had four conversations, during which we learned we had all this stuff in common, so we went on a date a couple weeks ago. At the end of the…
Ain’t nothing like the real thing
Masterpiece is one of those words designed to put you to sleep or make you feel stupid. It’s the word your parents and teachers spat out to drag you to a museum and it’s the word that rings in your head when you find you can’t appreciate that old master painting of the Crucifixion. “But…
Music In The Word
“I listened and I heard / music in a word / the word when you played your guitar.” — from “Pure and Easy” by Pete Townshend. If it’s true that most writers secretly wish to be musicians — and vice versa — then there’s gonna be a whole lot of role-playing at this year’s Creative…
Did you hear about censorship?
Last weekend, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney made a speech in San Rafael, CA, about journalism. That you won’t read anything about the talk — or the underlying theme, censorship — in your daily paper isn’t surprising. After all, McKinney faced unrelenting and corrosive distortion — a form of censorship — from the mainstream media during…
News For NC Writers
The natural corollary to reading — the primary activity celebrated by the Novello Festival — is writing. So it’s a good time to highlight opportunities for area writers to consider once the readings and other festivities conclude and it’s time to return to individual desks, notebooks, and computer screens.Some advice: 1. Always check with the…
Another Bobcat Freebie
It looks like city taxpayers will get stuck with the tab for providing at least 80 police officers per event to direct traffic at the new uptown arena when it opens in the spring of 2005. Although the Bobcats will reap all the profits from 140-plus events to be held each year at the city-owned…
Detour To Terabithia
Children’s Theatre is pioneering beyond their comfort zone with Bridge to Terabithia. We’ve seen CT musicals before, and we’ve certainly had brave confrontations with dark, disturbing themes. But we’ve never had an intermission during a CT production — or a Newberry Award medalist fielding audience questions on opening night. Regardless of author Katherine Paterson’s appearance,…
Boosterism Breakdown
The folks at the Charlotte Chamber have always been boosterism mercenaries who’d sooner commit hara-kiri than speak a single negative word about this county. Under normal circumstances, if there were, say, a hazardous radiation leak uptown, the Chamberites might send someone out to give a dog and pony show on the little-known benefits of radiation.…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music C’est Magnifique! Guest artist Jeff Ferdon, bass viol. Co-sponsored by Alliance Francaise of Charlotte. www.carolinapromusica.org. Fri., Oct. 24, 8:15 p.m. $15 regular admission, $7.50 for students/seniors. St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 1510 E. 7th St. 704-334-3468. Frankenstein, The Rock Opera Conceived by two Davidson students, Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece comes alive with ballads and…
Letters
Pink PowerI read CL faithfully because I appreciate its investigative journalism and its courage to run stories other local media would never touch. Unfortunately, Mary Ann Swissler’s attack on the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (“Compromised?” Oct. 1) was filled with inaccuracies and cheap shots. It is misleading to claim that the Komen Foundation…
Beverage Accounts
During the 1990s, Napa Valley real estate became the new gotta have luxury status symbol. Folks from varying backgrounds across the US turned their ultimate IPO and dot com profits into owning a small piece of “Eden.” Then they began to plant vines and make wines, especially highly prized Cabernet Sauvignon, aka “rocket juice.” With…
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish
This is my last column for Creative Loafing. My personal inclination was not to write a “final column” at all; I was just going to adopt Cartman’s screw-you-guys-I’m-going-home mentality from South Park and forget the whole thing. But one of my friends who. . . oh never mind. One of my friends appealed to my…
Appellations Down Under
With the hundreds of Australian and New Zealand wine choices staring at you, it’s hard, without your own portable wine expert, to know which awesome deal to grab. These guys produce the most flavorful, approachable juice for the money right now, and limiting yourself to only one inviting bottle per night is getting challenging. Luckily,…
Eat, Drink and Be Merry. . .
Charlotte can be lovely in the fall. On one recent benign autumn evening, I enjoyed a backyard party with friends — pleasant company and conversation, good wine and delicious home-cooked food. People waxed lyrical over Charlotte’s attractive and civilized environment. All was right with the world. There was even a nip of complacency in the…
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.…
News of the Weird
Cult of Walt: For a September report, an LA Weekly writer hung out with Benji Breitbart, 20, Doug Marsh, and several other “Disneyana Enthusiasts,” who spend hours nearly every single day at Disneyland; have almost total recall of the park’s history and culture; rabidly collect memorabilia; and preach with intensity on which aspects of today’s…
Turning Hayseed Into Kerosene
The tune is familiar and the words are too, but something is drastically wrong with the tempo. The song is AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” but what are this fiddle and mandolin doing here? What have they done with Angus Young? And what’s wrong with Brian Johnson’s voice? He sounds like he’s swallowed…
The Blotter
INSTANT KARMA: A local repo man woke up one morning to discover that someone had broken into his brand new pick-up truck overnight. The thief stole $4,500 from the glove compartment and left no signs of forcible entry. What goes around comes around. HAPPY HALLOWEEN: It’s that time of year again: time for trick-or-treaters, haunted…
CD Spins
Terence Blanchard Bounce Blue Note The trumpeter’s first outing for Blue Note, after a tenure with Verve, drops the high-concept trappings (guest singers, movie music, etc.) and simply showcases his superior skills in playing, composition, production and band leadership. Bounce is simply a damn fine jazz record that hops between various permutations of the post-bop…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 10.15 The Mahavishnu Project — Yes, this is sort of a tribute show. Yes, I’m going to write about it anyway. TMP basically serve the same sort of function with John McLaughlin (no, not the “Issue Two!” guy) that Project/Object do with Frank Zappa — a sort of loving tribute that avoids the cover…
Fear and Loafing
Some weeks, I can be forgiven for not wanting to go out too much, right? I mean, our city’s aswarm with gangs, if you believe the local media. They’re relatively easy to find, luckily, thanks to some helpful hints published in the Charlotte Observer. In an obvious attempt to sneakily blend in with overweight football…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Oct. 15 Baoding Robert Fernandez Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Jes & Sherry Blue Soul Station Brickhouse Tavern, Davidson Robin Brown Buckhead Saloon Mission 19 Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro Calexico w/ The Frames Charleston Chops, Cornelius Michelle Smith Coley’s Tavern Acoustic Soulution Comet Grill Anamcara Cuvee Wine & Art Gallery…
Letter of the Law
It would be hard to find a newspaper without a Letters to the Editor section. It’s an important public service, providing a platform for the community to express their erudite opinions on topics of common interest. It’s sort of a legitimate alternative to standing in The Square wearing a tin foil hat berating passersby. It’s…
Runaway Success
John Cusack says he appreciates that director Gary Fleder describes his role in their new movie Runaway Jury (opening this Friday) as a “dramatic change of pace” and a “perfect example of casting against type” — just don’t ask the actor to explain it. “Even though I’m not sure what it means, I’ll take it.…
Chaste Mountain Whores
Asheville and Blowing Rock are whores. Face it, anyplace that yanks tourism’s crank as vigorously as they both do is a whore. And yet it occurred to me while meandering around Blowing Rock recently that whoring mountain towns have a quality different from their seaside, legs-spread sisters like Miami Beach that I can only describe…
The Year’s Best Disappointment
Remember those Encyclopedia Brown books we used to read as kids, in which the identity of the culprit could be ascertained before the end of each story by the major clue planted in plain sight earlier in the chapter? If nothing else, Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River reminded me of those books, albeit magnified to an…
