Cover Story
Why are women attracted to burlesque?
The phone rings three times before a man answers. “Can you please connect me with guest Sharon Goodhead?” I ask the hotel front desk, stifling a chuckle. As I wait for Ms. Goodhead, which is the pseudonym used by burlesque performer, model and fashion icon Dita Von Teese, to answer the phone, I’m distracted by…
Negative Approach at Tremont Music Hall tonight (10/20/2013)
There’s been no drop in the volume of frontman John Brannon’s guttural crooning over the 30 years of chewing up mics.
Barton Carroll at Snug Harbor tonight (10/19/2013)
His new LP makes it abundantly clear his heart and soul have never left the mountains where he came of age.
Temperance League at Snug Harbor tonight (10/18/2013)
This group of seasoned vets practically lives in the pocket, instead of just occasionally visiting.
Flux Pavilion at the Fillmore tonight (10/18/2013)
The 24-year-old producer, melody maker and mix-master magus (aka Josh Steele) is the shiny new face of dubstep.
Powerkompany at the Double Door Inn tonight (10/17/2013)
A cinematic electro-pop band through which dark themes are explored.
Amityville Horror Trilogy, Pacific Rim, Psycho sequels among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD.) AFTER EARTH (2013). Emma Roberts (Julia’s niece), Tori Spelling (Aaron’s daughter), Patrick Wayne (John’s son) — yup, this nepotism thing can sometimes place dubious talents center stage, and with After Earth, Will Smith’s son Jaden is the latest to…
The stages of Lisa Ann
Lisa Ann’s prominence in porn erupted from American males’ collective desire to fuck Sarah Palin.
Charlotte refugees hit hard during government shutdown
For a population already hanging on by a thread, weeks or days without assistance creates lasting damaging effects.
Report: Fast-food jobs cost taxpayers billions
About 54 percent of fast-food employees and their families in North Carolina must rely on public programs to survive.
N.C. lawmakers score record lows on environment report card
82 received zeroes.
Upcoming: Carved
Charlotte chefs are stepping out of the dark corners of their kitchens to wield knives and quench their insatiable appetite for pumpkin slashing.
Is it the end or beginning for the Bobcats’ Kemba Walker?
Point guard has a lot to prove this coming season.
First Drip (10/15/13): food banks receive help, shutdown deal near, LAX dry ice bombs, more
News you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Tuesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Theater review: Fat Pig
Among the phenomena currently on view at UpStage in NoDa is an affirmation that people whose names begin with Q are eager to herald their contentment. With Jenn Quigley’s new Quixotic Theatre opening last weekend with Fat Pig, dovetailing with the final weekend of Quentin Talley’s latest On Q production, the Q.C. now has two…
Loving the little things: Backwoods Antiques
A Smoky Mountains’ gem in more ways than one.
Michael Pollan name-checks North Carolina amid warnings about a ‘cooking paradox’
While Pollan’s visit to Queens University Thursday night was thoroughly entertaining, depressing truths sprinkled throughout made the food star’s talk pretty scary, too.
Live review: Latin American Festival, Symphony Park (10/13/2013)
Julieta Venegas, NoTeVaGustar headline 23rd annual event.
First Drip (10/14/2013): Jerry Orr to retire, Iranian space monkeys, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Monday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Today’s Top 5: Sunday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Today’s Top 5: Saturday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Oct. 10)
Girl interrupted: Police responded to an assault call at a local high school last week after a student got a little rough during intramural activities. Two administrators told police that a female student lashed out at them after she was told she wasn’t allowed to attend a flag football game on campus. The girl apparently…
Captain Phillips: Worth a salute
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS *** DIRECTED BY Paul Greengrass STARS Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi Thirteen years after playing in the surf with Wilson the volleyball, Tom Hanks returns to the water in Captain Phillips, an involving adaptation of Richard Phillips’ fact-based book A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea. Despite the story’s…
Anti-GMO advocates to rally on Saturday
Charlotte food activists will gather for a World Food Day celebration and a march against Monsanto.
Live review: Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, Visulite Theatre (10/10/2013)
Connor Kennedy shines as the opening act.
First Drip (10/11/13): N.C. to resume WIC funding, McCrory’s “broken” Medicaid system claims challenged, more
The news you need to know today.
Theater review: The Children of Children Keep Coming
Production makes for a richly memorable and exhausting evening.
Today’s Top 5: Friday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
3 questions with Jay Pithwa, owner of Tastebuds Popcorn
Think back to the first time your parents took you to the movie theater, maybe to see Honey I Shrunk the whatever. Your fists were full of popcorn, and a box of Sno-Caps the size of your face was waiting to be devoured. You were happy. That feeling is what inspired Jay Pithwa to open…
Safe Sexting
It was a little after 1 a.m., and I had just arrived home and was combing the kitchen for a post-bar, pre-bedtime snack. As I foraged through my cabinets for something edible, I heard my text message alert go off. Oh, it’s him. I figured he was somewhere in the city where he now lives,…
CD Review: Joint D≠’s Satan is Real Again, Again or Feeling Good About Bad Thoughts
Satan is Real Again, Again — the sophomore effort from Joint D≠, Charlotte’s premier punk trio — improves upon its predecessor in ways that would have previously seemed impossible. Last year’s Strike Gently churned relentlessly. Nick Goode’s gnawing riffs and Thomas Berkau’s pile-driving bass combined with the whirlwind tumult of drummer Michael Houseman to form…
CD Review: Ghost Wave’s Ages
What’s missing from today’s beige rock ‘n’ roll is swagger, that cocksure feeling that loud guitars and a fat back-beat — if done well, anyway — suggests youthful invincibility like no other music genre can. Hip-hop’s cornered the market on the inner city stuff in recent years, but the British Invasion bands had swagger, and…
This week’s BNR Weekly (10/10/13) featuring a glimpse into X Nightclub, Bands and Beats Music Festival
The latest episode features an interview with X nightclub owner Derek Braun, more.
Government shutdown leaves some N.C. infants without formula (UPDATE)
Please consider donating formula, non-perishable items and money to your local food bank (link in blog).
Healthcare coverage going up?
Blame our Tea Party legislature.
Recipe: Thai Coffee Cupcakes
Stop using home-made as an excuse to turn out sad little cupcakes the size of my pinky finger.
First Drip (10/10/13): Denied marriage licenses, S.C. guy cuts the grass at Lincoln Memorial, more
The news you need to know today.
Today’s Top 5: Thursday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
Weekly horoscope (Oct. 10-16)
Libra The Scales (Sept. 22-Oct. 22): Your sense of personal identity will be the subject under consideration. Who are you becoming and who do you need to be? How do you wish to define yourself before the world? You will be learning what is required for you to hold onto your identity while simultaneously maintaining…
Another round for Olde Mecklenburg Brewery
On a sunny fall afternoon in September, a small group gathered off Southside Drive to celebrate the ground-breaking for the new Olde Mecklenburg Brewery site. Loyal supporters of the brewery, scattered media fellows and, of course, beer drinkers joined owner John Marrino for a small ceremony to commemorate what will be, for a time, the…
Menomena’s downsized determination
For the better part of a decade, Portland trio Menomena rode considerable internal band tension to the top of the city’s fertile music scene and a growing national profile. Then, as the band’s 2010 release, Mines, virtually declared in bold font, the creative dynamic that fueled its fractured art-rock blew up in its face. Mines…
Hot pockets: Morazan Restaurant
Quick: Name five Honduran dishes. So after you’ve named baleada — which is one of those fun Spanish words that plays with your tongue — what else you got? If you haven’t taken advantage of the significant impact this Central American country’s cuisine has had on the culinary landscape of Charlotte, you are missing out.…
Julieta Venegas shifts perspective
As long as Julieta Venegas can remember, music has been a part of her life. After making her mark in the late ’90s as an edgy, alternative artist, the Mexican singer-songwriter set off on a more colorful path — a fusion of ranchera, electronica and sun-dappled pop. In the process, Venegas became a mega-star, winning…
Musician and activist Si Kahn comes home
Si Kahn, the man who’s often described as the most well-known Charlottean whom most Charlotte residents haven’t heard of, is back in town this week. Kahn, who has spent most of his life balancing political and labor organizing with his passion for music, has a new album, Aragon Mill: The Bluegrass Sessions, recorded with the…
Jonathan Ferrell, me and the Geico pig
By now most of us have heard of Jonathan Ferrell, the 24-year-old former Florida A&M football player who was shot and killed by a Charlotte police officer. We have become almost desensitized to the killing of black men, so why did this particular death bother me so much? The night he was shot, Ferrell was…
Main Library offers new series of classics from 1934
It’s happening this year and next: The Main Library has announced its latest film series for 2013-2014, and it’s called It Happened One Year: Classic Movies of 1934. The title is pretty self-explanatory, and one movie will be shown a month starting this weekend and running through next May. All films will be screened at…
Three same-sex couples request, are denied marriage licenses
A place not usually in the business of giving bad news left some visitors in tears Wednesday morning. Between about 11:30 a.m. and noon, three local same-sex couples — Scott Bishop and his partner Ron Sperry, the Revs. Robin Tanner and Ann Marie Alderman, and Joey Hewell and Scott Lindsley — requested marriage licenses from…
Matrimony featured on “Carrie” soundtrack
Charlotte band covers Bob Dylan’s “Tombstone Blues.”
Deniro Farrar signs with Vice Records
Rapper inks deal with Warner Brothers-distributed record label.
The Pull List (10/9/13): The Shaolin Cowboy returns
The comics that come out this week, including one Title You Can’t Miss.
This week’s Sketchcrowd (Oct. 9)
The remote control.
#nerdgasm: Self-assembling robots
MIT: Hastening the takeover by robot overlords since 2013
Upcoming: 10th annual Plaza Midwood-Chantilly Chili Cook-Off
Local businesses, restaurants and courageous individuals will be serving up their delicious chili in hopes of walking away with the People’s Choice award.
First Drip (10/9/13): City Council update, fracking fears, burlesque and more
The news you need to know today.
Lights out for The Light Factory
Spirit Square staple for photography and film is “suspending operations”
New fracking concern: radioactivity
The our regulators are fracking industry employees and supporters.
Free Store in flux
The most important thing to know about George Hunt is that he’s an artist. The Lumberton native escaped homelessness, learned to read in his 50s, enrolled at Central Piedmont Community College, and eventually reconnected with family that thought he was dead for 15 years. But as he leans across a chipped and peeling picnic table…
Lake fatalities rise this year
Persistent rainfall kept many of the 32,000 boat owners around Lake Norman off the water more than usual this summer, but, somehow, fatalities on the lake — most of them due to drowning — jumped from one death in 2012 to four this season. On June 17, a man without a life jacket drowned when…
Don’t hang up on Roy Wood Jr.
If laughing at others’ stupidity is your preferred form of entertainment, then you needn’t proceed with caution when listening to Roy Wood Jr.’s prank calls. The prank calls typically turn into hilarious and sometimes verbally abusive face-offs between Wood and his targets. This can range from him ringing people about child support termination to arguing…
