Oct 19-25, 2010

Oct 19-25, 2010 / Vol. 24 / No. 34

N.C. lands two congressional candidates on ’10 Most Terrifying’ list

You will be proud to know that North Carolina has landed two slots in a new Salon.com survey of “The ten most terrifying would-be congressmen.” It’s not an unexpected achievement, considering our state’s habit of electing goofballs like Virginia Foxx, Sue Myrick and Patrick McHenry to Congress, but we’ll take the extra attention anyway. Some…

John Grooms

Charlotte brainpower ranked 26th among U.S. cities

Today, the Daily Beast is publishing its 2nd annual list of America’s 55 largest cities, ranked in order in terms of brain power, from smartest to dumbest. Raleigh-Durham ranks fourth, and Charlotte ranks near the middle of the pack, at No. 26. Hey, at least we beat out Atlanta and Greensboro. Check out the results…

John Grooms

Halloween costume idea: Michelle Obama

If I hadn’t already psyched myself up about being Marilyn Monroe for Halloween, I would so do this. I mean, after all, Michelle Obama is ranked the world’s most powerful woman. Talk about making a statement. Some specific details of how to pull together this costume can be found at Outblush.com (see photo below), but…

Kimberly Lawson

JJ Grey “cancels” show

If you were at the Visulite Theatre last night, you probably heard or noticed that JJ Grey never made it to the stage… Apparently, he got food poisoning after sound check yesterday — and we can only hope it wasn’t from a local eating establishment. The good news was that Jonathan Tyler & The Northern…

Jeff Hahne

JFK’s clarity and Dubya’s ‘biggest mistake’

There are a lot of things that, whether we like it or not, the president of the United States can’t do: wave a hand and fix major economic problems quickly; force Congress to pass his/her favorite bills; make Sarah Palin shut up. But in the area of foreign policy and our relations with friends and…

John Grooms

Clarence Thomas’ wife has nerve

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, wants Anita Hill to apologize, nearly 20 years after Hill delivered her electrifying testimony of being sexually harassed by Thomas. Hill, a Brandeis University professor, says she has nothing to apologize for, and we agree. Ginni Thomas has a ton of nerve, considering how many women came…

John Grooms

Photos: Mellow Mushroom

Mellow Mushroom has returned to Charlotte and they are now open in Myers Park, across the street from Yoforia on Selwyn Ave. The psychedelic-colored restaurant is fun and family friendly. With a big patio, booth tables, tables in buses (see photo below), and a bar area, the restaurant can seat quite the crowd. Flat screen…

Priscilla Tsai

Solé Spanish Grille to close Saturday

Solé Spanish Grille will close Saturday, October 30, 2010, after nine years in business. The ownership at Solé originally worked for entrepreneur Rudolfo Montero at his renowned Tio Montero, a few blocks up on East Boulevard (now Brixx), in the late 1980’s. The team then opened Olé Olé on Kings (now closed) and Miro Spanish…

Tricia Childress

CMS Supt. Peter Gorman takes a dozen folks to NYC ceremony

One thing about CMS administrators: They don’t let the bad times get them down. Schools are hurting, as the system absorbs deadly budget hits; teachers are routinely laid off by the busload; the school board is catching hell for the slipshod way it’s deciding which schools to close or consolidate; people are now arrested at…

John Grooms

Free Fruista Freeze from Taco Bell

What’s a Fruista Freeze? Heck if I know. All I know is that if you print this coupon, you can a free Orange ‘n Créme one at Taco Bell. Offer valid until 11/25/10 or until online coupons run out. Let me know if it’s any good.

Priscilla Tsai

Stimulus hypocrites and forgotten Obama tax cuts

It’s funny how many Congressional conservatives, both Republicans and Democrats, voted against the federal stimulus package, but came back later with their hands out, asking for all the stimulation their local economies could handle. Thanks to the folks at NC Policy Watch, we found out about a new investigative report from The Center for Public…

John Grooms

This week’s new releases (10/19/2010)

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new in stores this week: Elton John and Leon Russell The Union Kings of Leon Come Around Sundown Shakira Sale El Sol Rod Stewart Fly Me To The Moon…The Great American Songbook Volume V Sugarland The Incredible Machine

Jeff Hahne

John le Carre: Calling out the traitors

John le Carre, the former British spy turned spy novelist, has some grave words for Tony Blair. More than seven years after the invasion of Iraq, the former British prime minister, now out of office and touring the world pushing his political memoir, is encountering serious protests at his book signings. “I can’t understand that…

Amy Goodman

3 questions with Chris Swinyard, executive chef

It’s a busy afternoon when Chris Swinyard emerges from the heart of the house at Vida Mexican Kitchen y Cantina. Dressed neatly in white, his blue eyes are fixed and focused. The chef has a story to tell. Swinyard has cooked in five-star restaurants, on The Today Show with Bryant Gumbel and even in the…

MUSIC: Blues Traveler

John Popper’s still got it, and this show is free. What more do you need to know? Blues Traveler are hardly spring chickens to the music game but they’ve continued to tour through adversity for decades and audiences still come out in droves to see the Grammy award-winning band jam out blues and rock hits.…

Mike McCray

THEATER: Becky’s New Car

Life is full of twists and turns, but during Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s performances of Becky’s New Car — a comedy by Steven Dietz (also the author of Yankee Tavern) — you’ll witness to a midlife crisis that spins out of control. When a longtime married woman and car dealership worker named Becky takes interest…

Anita Overcash

Weekly horoscope (Oct. 20-26)

Scorpio The Phoenix (Oct. 23-Nov. 20) This is a critical point in your relationship(s). You are so very prone to re-enact old scenarios now that it would be hard to resist. Your feelings are hurt, yes. But how much of this is about your ego and how much is about real love? If you are…

Vivian Carol

FILM: Evil (Ondskan)

Charlotte Film Society’s Saturday Night Cine Club continues with a screening of the Swedish film, Evil (Ondskan). Violence, bullying and a corrupt education center are intertwined in this flick about a troubled young man who falls into the wrong crowd, gets sent to a school to correct his behavior and finds injustice in its system.…

Anita Overcash

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of Oct. 20

CASE 39 Case 39 is one of those unwanted Hollywood bastards, a production that was completed years ago and has even been released in other territories but is only now making its stateside debut. Just how old is this picture? Let’s just say that when filming began, David O. Selznick was still combing the country…

Matt Brunson

COMEDY: Lily Tomlin at Belk Theater

Lily Tomlin has been making people laugh since her start in the comedy biz in the early 1970s. Famous for her “characters” (a telephone operator called Ernestine and a rowdy 6-year-old known as Edith Ann), Tomlin has consistently dabbled in everything from stand-up to appearances in TV, film and theater. She’s got an impressive amount…

Anita Overcash

The Karate Kid and Jonah Hex among new DVD releases

I AM LOVE (2010). How devoted is Tilda Swinton to her craft? Thespians occasionally learn another language in order to play a certain role, but Swinton plunged even deeper: For I Am Love, she not only learned to speak Italian and Russian, she also learned to speak Italian with a Russian accent. Or at least…

Matt Brunson

FILM: Wunderkinder: The Directors of New German Cinema

The Light Factory will take Charlotte film fans to the cutting edge of international cinema with their latest ambitious series, Wunderkinder: The Directors of New German Cinema. Running a full week, the event will showcase acclaimed imports from such envelope-pushing directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders. Among the titles to be screened are…

Matt Brunson

Red: Color me pleased

The action extravaganza Red is fun for a multitude of reasons, covering its bases quite nicely. Fans of movie stars doing the unexpected can revel in the sight of Dame Helen Mirren handling a machine gun the size of a Buckingham Palace guard house. Devotees of inventive visual gags can delight in the sequence in…

Matt Brunson

LECTURE: Fareed Zakaria

Columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria will visit Belk Theater tonight to lecture on politics, the economy and other worldly affairs. Having released two national best sellers — The Post-American World and The Future of Freedom — and countless news columns (featured in Newsweek International and The Washington Post, to name a couple), you’d better…

Anita Overcash

Theater review: Cosi fan Tutte

Opera Carolina hasn’t presented Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte since 1994, and the lukewarm turnout for Saturday night’s opening performance did not signal any great eagerness for the comedy’s return. Perhaps if our city’s battalions of Boheme partisans had been notified of the backstage drama that preceded final rehearsals before opening night, tickets might have sold…

Perry Tannenbaum

MUSIC: BiG K.R.I.T, Smoke DZA, and Curren$y

Before you start complaining (again) about the current state of hip-hop music (which sucks ass for the most part these days) take a listen to rappers like BiG K.R.I.T, Smoke DZA, and Curren$y (pictured). The talented trio of solo acts is continuing the classic MC tradition and, at the same time, moving the art form…

Carlton Hargro

Waiting for “Superman”: School daze

Davis Guggenheim, who won an Academy Award for An Inconvenient Truth, here presents another inconvenient truth: The United States public school system just isn’t working. This comes as a shock to absolutely no one, but unlike most recent nonfiction pieces, most of which tend to play partisan politics (usually siding with the left), Waiting for…

Matt Brunson

Book review: Into the Beautiful North

My favorite novel of the year, Into the Beautiful North, was actually published in hardback in 2009, but it took me this long to get around to it. I wish I hadn’t waited. The author, Luis Urrea, an American who was born in Tijuana, has written much about the country that straddles the U.S. and…

Where to find it: Chess Pie

Years ago when I found my great-great-grandmother’s recipe for chess pie buried deep within her Bible, I knew this recipe must have a special significance. After all, it was the only recipe among such important documents as birth, marriage and death certificates. Though the origin of chess pie and its name is unknown, some believe…

Tricia Childress

Comic review: Knight and Squire No. 1

The Deal: Writer Paul Cornell, an English scribe who gained recent fame writing the great (and, since it got canceled, late) Captain Britain and MI13 series for Marvel, pens the solo adventures of Knight and Squire — the “British Batman and Robin.” The Good: While I didn’t have many expectations when I picked up this…

Carlton Hargro

The Food Issue 2010: Our favorite local eats

For the last 15 years, I have been eating and writing my way through Charlotte. To most, it sounds like an enviable gig, and without hesitation — but marred by a case of food poisoning years ago (and yes, that place closed) — I enthusiastically agree. My singular regret, however, is I often do not…

Tricia Childress

Exhibit: The Figure

Jerald Melberg Gallery’s exhibit examines the use of human shapes in diverse works by Romare Bearden (see his pictured collage, “Reunion”), Raul Diaz, Susan Grossman, Paul Resika, Manuel Reyna, Isabel Bishop, Chuck Close, and more. As the gallery’s website explains, the show focuses on three main aspects of the figure in art: “where the figure…

Anita Overcash

Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights reignite a classic sound

These days, so much music being made falls into a pop category where it may be “hip” today, but in a few years — or even months — it’s going to sound horribly dated, cliché and downright awful. However, Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights are trying to revitalize the musical landscape, bringing forth a…

Jeff Hahne

Hawaiian Plate Lunch spot opens

About 800 Hawaiians live in the Charlotte metro area — or at least that’s the estimate cited by Kevin Siu, general manager of the recently opened Aloha Hawaiian BBQ & Grill. Owner Kevin Chang has many similar fast casual restaurants in California, but this is his first in North Carolina. Hawaiian food is a product…

Tricia Childress

CL previews upcoming concerts (Oct. 20-26)

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 DELLA MAE Sure, an all-female bluegrass band may be an anomaly, but what matters is being genuine. Barely a year together, the Boston-based combo sounds like a group of veterans because individually, the women are either classically trained or award-winning performers, or both, and they’ve made the rounds playing with long-established musicians.…

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files

Greetings: A 19-year-old woman called police after being threatened and harassed by an unknown suspect. She told officers the mystery suspect called her cell phone four times in five minutes and said, “Hello fat bitch! This is your worst nightmare. You are going to end up where your mother is.” Babysitter Fail: A woman called…

Ryan Pitkin

Nightlife profile: Kevin Mitchell

Some years ago, Kevin Mitchell’s fervor for music had him stumble upon a warehouse party on the outskirts of Atlanta. It was here he first experienced the emerging electronic music scene, and “energy unlike anything experienced previously.” Instantly hooked, Mitchell poured all his personal savings into booking DJs and renting clubs, even though he wasn’t…

Laura Camilo

How to deal with ignorant voters

Many questions swirl around this mid-term election season, some more pressing than others. How many seats will the GOP gain in Congress? Will they make inroads on the Mecklenburg County Commission? Is Christine O’Donnell for real? And some people will be posing the question I’ve asked myself a few times over the years: Why does…

CD REVIEW: Fistful of Mercy’s As I Call You Down

THE DEAL: Ben Harper, Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur team up on new band’s debut album. THE GOOD: Packed with harmonies, Fistful of Mercy’s debut album is roughly what you’d expect from this latest “supergroup.” None of Harper’s guitar flash is here, and Harrison has veered away from the electronic work of his band Thenewno2,…

Jeff Hahne

Event: Let Love Reign

Photographer Catalina Kulczar-Marin takes on the fight to legalize same-sex marriage with the exhibit Let Love Reign. The show features black-and-white portraits snapped by her of several Charlotte same-sex couples (such as Tony and Drew in the image to the left), depicting the love they share — and helping to put a face on the…

Carlton Hargro

CD REVIEW: Systema Solar

THE DEAL: Infectious, colorful cumbia and champeta music from the Colombian Caribbean. DJ-based music you can dance to, mop the floors and anything else but sit still. THE GOOD: Songs like “Bienvenidos,” Mi Kolombia” and “El Majagual” all carry a feel-good, colorful, day-glo sound yet still reference and carry messages (drugs, war, cartels, corruption, hypocrisy,…

Lew Herman

Is CMS broke … or what?

When my 2-year-old wants something she can’t have, she resorts to drama. She gives up quickly when she sees she’s not getting anywhere. Ditto with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. For the past two years, school system leaders have thrown a tantrum my 2-year-old could appreciate, spewing out termination notices to hundreds of teachers and crying about how…

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