Knowing The Score
Rolling Stone magazine, Spin, and a host of others have had a field day examining the new trend of Swedish rock. From what mysterious fount come these waves of feedback and noise? How did bands like The Hives, Sahara Hotnights, and Division of Laura Lee appear out of nowhere to invade our American rock consciousness?The…
Live from Downtown Concord
A newly restored part of downtown Concord is getting a new music venue. On Friday, November 15 the George Washington Bookstore & Tavern, located at 16 South Union Street, will host its Grand Opening. The venue, a building that’s 102 years old, will spotlight live music Thursday through Saturday. Currently there are also plans to…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 10.30 Melissa Ferrick — Whether it’s a throaty yodel or a subtle whisper, Ferrick delivers introspective and mature songs on her latest, possibly her strongest, CD called Listen Hard. She can strum and twang the guitar till blisters pop open and she weaves lyrical twists that beckon repeat visits. It’s potent modern rock with…
Sound Board
Wednesday, Oct. 30 * Amos’ Southend Melissa Ferrick w/ Anne Heaton & Edie Carey Bankers Raw Bar 24-Jam-22 Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Charleston Chops, Cornelius Kent Steel Comet Grill Brian Doyle Connolly’s On Fifth Backyard Green Double Door Inn Acme Anvil Company w/ Eric Lovell The Evening Muse Randy Sharp Fat City Hip-Hop…
Stranger Than Fiction
God bless America. And God bless Michael Moore for caring so much about America. The scruffy guerilla filmmaker who’s made a career out of sticking it to the nation’s corporate guard on behalf of the little people this time sets his sights on the country’s thorny firearm issue. The result is Bowling for Columbine (***1/2…
See & Do
Wednesday, OCTOBER 30 Charlotte Rep, in a co-production with Syracuse Stage, brings David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly to the Queen City, 14 years after the exotically erotic reversal of Puccini’s tragic opera took Broadway’s Tony Award. J LaRue tackles the challenging role of Song Liling, the Chinese opera diva who turns out to be a…
Film Clips
NEW RELEASES THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE It’s easy to appreciate what Jonathan Demme was trying to do with this remake of Charade without actually enjoying any part of it. Stanley Donen’s effervescent effort from 1963 isn’t exactly a classic, but with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn breezing through an engaging mystery-romance set in Paris, it’s…
Stargazer
For All Signs The new moon of November 4 is particularly intense because it is in the sign of Scorpio, near the retrograding Venus. This is a time when buried resentment or old hurts may surface for another review. When we hold onto anger it is because the unconscious wants to teach us something. Concentrate…
Seasons
It seems to get earlier every year, doesn’t it? Here we are, in the midst of celebrating Halloween, and Hollywood’s telling us that the festive year-end holiday season is already upon us — that it’s time to start thinking not only about Thanksgiving but all the way to Christmas. And, more importantly to them, we…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser:I had to respond to the letter about “Dickhead,” (Oct. 9) the lottery player who expected to win. I had a similar situation a few years back, a good friend of mine was dropping $50-$100 a week on lottery tickets. I constantly scolded him for wasting his money. He won $5 million. It…
Parents: Autistic Kids Ill-Served
Four Charlotte families with autistic children, frustrated by having their proposals shot down by the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board, are suing CMS, claiming the school system isn’t providing adequate therapy resources. The lawsuit also aims to implement what the parents say are much-needed changes in the school system’s current autism therapy program.Although autism is one…
Who Ya Hang?
There are millions of statistics out there that tell us exactly how many men cheat on their wives during the course of their matrimonial bliss. I’ve always questioned their accuracy because you never really know if the men are telling the truth. It’s not like we’re dealing with people who are well-known for their honesty.”Forsaking…
Church Music
The Steeple Lounge is one of the most intriguing places to open in the last year or so. Since it’s part of the whole Plaza-Midwood/Thomas Avenue extended family, it’s also a favorite of the police, who haunt the area like fishermen trolling for drunk drivers (all the while ignoring the feeding frenzy of uptown clubs…
Giving Torture a Bad Name
Chains dangling down from overhead, a barbecue grill lurking in one corner of the cell, a tool chest standing in another — you can tell pretty early in the Warehouse Theatre’s presentation of Closet Land that our heroine isn’t going to have a jolly time in prison. Through three humiliating and at times horrifying acts,…
Rules of the Load
My husband has notified me that it’s my duty as a pregnant woman to write about all the things that make pregnant women crazy. His intentions aren’t so much noble as selfish. He wants to discover what makes me crazy and stop doing whatever it is, in hopes of scaling down the ire he suffers…
Visitation By Venus
The potent force of mythology and echoes of the distant past filtered through paintings of the 18th century resonate in the exhibition Fragments by Maja Godlewska, currently on view at Joie Lassiter Gallery. To misread these large-scale works as merely lush or delicious in appearance is to undermine their intellectual intensity. While “Venus & Time,”…
Debate In A Can
The October 19 Dole-Bowles debate was the way it ought to be: broadcast live, with an audience in attendance that supplied some of the questions. Two moderators wrangled the candidates, and Liddy and Erskine stood at podiums, but were free to walk about via wireless mikes. Enough said.My gripe is with the first debate. The…
Deep Truths and A Pet Iguana
Blue Shoe could well be Anne Lamott’s breakthrough novel, enchanting her fans, dreadlocked or not, with the fairy-tale type charm that a little blue shoe holds for the main character, Mattie Ryder — a recently divorced mother of two children. Inspired by a toy shoe Lamott got from a gumball machine for 25 cents, the…
Letters
Yes Deal Ron Chapman (“No Deal,” Letters, October 16) does not appear to realize that his letter, far from defending Judge Bill Jones, represents the depth of corruption in the District Court. Karen Myers will now have less to do in pleading her case; she has only to direct attention to his letter and say,…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Cabaret Night The Boys and Girls Choirs at St. Peter’s present this program featuring Grammy Award Nominee Tom Chapin in the McGlohon Theatre. Wed., Oct. 30, 11 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. $7-60. Spirit Square, 345 N. College St. 704-372-1000. Chamber Music at St. Peter’s November’s performance features La Bonne Chanson, Opus 61. Gabriel…
The Blotter
Renovated Two-Seater: When a car owner returned to his car last week, he quickly became aware that something was amiss. Upon further inspection, the car owner soon discovered that, despite no other apparent damage, the rear seat of his car had been completely removed and hauled away. Although the man had left his car unlocked,…
Serene & Green
When Dr. Jane Goodall came to Charlotte a few weeks ago for the opening of her film Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees at Discovery Place, Chef Geoff Bragg was asked to cook for a private event in her honor. The choice of Bragg is not surprising given the fact that Goodall is a vegetarian, and Bragg,…
News of the Weird
Contemporary Holy Shrines: (1) A Mud Puddle (in the shape of Buddha’s footprint, attracting pilgrims to Thailand’s Pungna province and “guarded” by a frog whose skin is being fondled by people searching for lottery numbers) (September); (2) a Potato (in the shape of the Hindu god Ganesh, attracting pilgrims to a private home in Bombay,…
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.…
Sugar Rush Anyone?
It’s that time of year when the orange Halloween tchatkes come out of the woodwork, and costumed kids beg for candy at your door. Just for fun this year, plop down on a lawn chair with your plastic pumpkin filled with various candy, grab a glass of wine and harangue the SpongeBob and the Monsters…
