Troubled Troubador
A big hit with “Dead Skunk”; a singer-songwriter; a baby boomer — what’s a middle-aged, folkie hipster like Loudon Wainwright III to do?”I’m focused on this (current) tour and promoting this new album, So Damn Happy,” he says. “I was born in Chapel Hill but after two years moved up North. My Dad was a…
The Blotter
FORCED BUSING: A middle school teacher called police to report that her car had been stolen. She stated that shortly after class had let out for the day, she noticed that her vehicle key and remote were missing from the key ring. After checking the faculty parking lot and finding her car, she went back…
CD Spins
Iron & Wine The Sea & the Rhythm Sub Pop Normally, when a person records a record with ambient noise, plaintive self-harmonizing, and lots of acoustic plucking, you listen. You listen ’cause it’s usually something a friend recorded on his damn four-track, and he or she put his or her heart into the thing, dammit,…
News of the Weird
Feet don’t fail me now: A 31-year-old Philadelphia government employee’s surgery is just a radical example of how obsessed some women are to wear excruciatingly painful, but fashionable, shoes, according to an August Wall Street Journal report. For about $10,000, the woman had one toe shortened and another straightened so that now she can wear…
Music Menu
WEDNESDAY 9.10 The Juliana Theory / Hopesfall — In which the ex-Tooth and Nail emoters sign to a major, get a big load of studio polish, and put out work that sounds like a pretty good band went into the studio and got a big load of studio polish (go figure!). They’re best heard live,…
Il Nido Italian Restaurant
Mama Mia Strawberry Hill’s little Italy When the owners started renovations on their new restaurant in Strawberry Hill Shopping Center in South Charlotte, they noticed a sparrow’s nest lodged in the awning. “By the time we opened, the little chicks had hatched. It just seemed right that we would name the restaurant Il Nido, which…
Soundboard
Wednesday, Sep. 10 Big Al’s Pub, Mooresville Scott Johnson Acoustic Blue Trio 21 Cajun Queen 7th Street Gator Band Coley’s Tavern Acoustic Soul-ution Cuvee Wine & Art Gallery Delancey Street Duo Double Door Inn Jabberwocky The Evening Muse Jennifer Marks w/ Karen Jacobson Fat City SNMNMNM Graduate, Gastonia Simplified Main Street, Gastonia Tommy Hudson The…
Best In Fest
Perhaps not since Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has the screen offered such a searing portrait of evil flourishing under the guise of matronly concern. Yet here’s Sister Bridget, a nun so reprehensible that had she been a real person, one can only imagine God hanging His head in…
Al the Fox Conqueror
If Fox’s intention in their lawsuit against Al Franken was to break a large, undercooked ostrich egg on its corporate face while pouring streams of golden ducats into Franken’s pockets, it carried out its plan to perfection. A judge laughed its trademark-infringement lawsuit (Fox claimed it trademarked the phrase “fair and balanced”) out of court…
Home Theater
THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985). John Hughes’ finest hour (he didn’t have many, despite a prolific output), this was probably the best of the so-called “Brat Pack” features as well as a seminal film for many who came of age in the 80s. Viewing teenagers as more than just sex-addled nitwits (re: the Porky’s series), Hughes…
See & Do
SEPTEMBER 10 – WEDNESDAY Hailing from my hometown of Louisville, KY, Mark Klein will perform at the Comedy Zone tonight at 8pm. Dubbed “The King of One-Night Stand-ups” by GQ Magazine, Mark has been featured on Showtime and A&E’s Comedy on the Road. From stuffy Fortune 500 companies to rowdy, drunken college kids, the man…
Film Clips: Lost in La Mancha, more
NEW RELEASES CHARLOTTE FILM SOCIETY Movies begin this Friday at the Manor and continue the following Friday at Movies at Birkdale. Call 704-414-2355 for details. * LOST IN LA MANCHA We’ve seen several documentaries about the making of a particular movie, but along with It’s All True (about an abandoned Orson Welles project), this is…
Stargazer
For All Signs In March ’03, Uranus, the planet of change, rebellion, and eccentricity moved into the sign of Pisces after a seven-year foray through Aquarius. This week Uranus is retrograding back to the last tip of Aquarius for a goodbye visit that lasts through the end of this year. Those born at the cusp…
So you’re dead. Now What?
Despite our many efforts to stave off that black-clad, scythe-swinging party pooper, the Grim Reaper will one day pay us all a visit. Our knowledge of that is what separates us from all other animals. But then what? As far as the final destination of our souls is concerned, most religious folks tend to think…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Call Waiting And Waiting I met a guy whose job brings him to my city every two weeks. He took me to dinner, held my hand, kissed me, and asked me for another date (in two weeks, when he’s back). The problem is, he hasn’t been calling in the interim. I’m not satisfied with a…
Blazing an Expensive Trail
It looks like those who work for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools aren’t the only ones who’ve helped themselves to high-end recreation vehicles at taxpayer cost. Despite double-digit tax increases by the County Commission in the last half-decade, county employees still somehow justified the purchase of fleets of sport vehicles. A couple weeks ago, after Creative Loafing…
Home Is Where The Art Is
He pirouettes around the room, dark eyes glowing, earring flashing, arms gesticulating. You’d think him a mad man, but no, his dance is well choreographed. To dramatize a statement — “This is important work!” — he slaps his hand on the table like the King of Siam declaring an edict. And then he leaps to…
Cancer, AIDS, Whatever. . .
It all happened so fast. On Monday she discovered a lump in her breast. On Tuesday she had a mammogram, on Wednesday a biopsy, and the next day she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And just like that, life took a big, scary detour for Missi Ivie. As a 31-year-old vegetarian and avid runner, this…
Panty Power
Back in the dark ages of women’s rights, when the only formidable power wielded by the fair sex was the Crown of England, women wore so much clothing in so many layers that it was difficult to discern — or remember — the concupiscence that lay beneath. The starchiness of the Victorian Age was brilliantly…
Applause for the Cause
‘Tis the season to say “good job” to local media outlets that’ve been putting their broadcast reach to good use by fundraising for a number of causes. In the weeks after the Pillowtext debacle, it’s commendable that local media power has been used this way. A favorite of mine is WSOC-TV’s “School Tools,” which, by…
Arts Agenda
Classical Music Boston Brass The brass quintet will perform a mixed program of mainly 20th century works, including works by Shostakovich, Ginastera, Liszt, Basie and Ellington. Wed., Sept. 17, 3 p.m. Free. Rowe Recital Hall, UNCC. 704-687-2472. Concert on the Green The Davidson College Jazz Ensemble will present an outdoor concert on the Village Green…
All In A Weekend’s Work
I’ve seen so many ethnic festivals over the last couple of years, I should publish my own Zagat-style guide. Festivals could be rated by checking for a few basic criteria. Does the festival serve food native to the country being celebrated, or cheap out and offer corndogs and polish sausage and chili-cheese fries? Is the…
Mama Mia
When the owners started renovations on their new restaurant in Strawberry Hill Shopping Center in South Charlotte, they noticed a sparrow’s nest lodged in the awning. “By the time we opened, the little chicks had hatched. It just seemed right that we would name the restaurant Il Nido, which means “the nest” in Italian. Inside…
Letters to the Editor
Perry Missed The Boat How could Perry Tannenbaum get something so wrong? Or be so uncharacteristically dismissive? (CL Fall Arts Preview, “A Bumper Crop of Boffo,” August 27.) Anyone more than passingly familiar with Charlotte Repertory Theatre over the last 20 years knows, or ought to, that only one person was indispensable to the company’s…
“Baked” Steak and Beef Stroganoff
Monday was KFC and Tuesday was pizza; Wednesday was hotdogs from the arcade and Thursday was Burger King. On the weekend our Dad would take my sister, my brother and me to a family-owned Italian restaurant nearby, or we’d get take-out Chinese and eat in front of the TV. The next week the cycle would…
Two Years Later
On September 15, a few days after the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, GI George will arrive when KB Toys stores begin selling the $39.99 George Bush “Elite Force Aviator” action figure. The 12-inch doll comes dressed in traditional naval flight suit, just like President Bush wore on the USS Abraham Lincoln when he…
Red Wine: Botox Free Aging Help
In America’s never ending search for the elusive anti-age goop, there’s good news for those willing to raise a glass. Recently, a Harvard Medical School study announced more benefits associated with drinking red wine: It extends life. OK, so far the treatment only works in microscopic baker’s yeast and fruit flies, but mice are on…
More Than Planned For
Imagine if nearly all future development in Mecklenburg County, with few exceptions, looked like Birkdale and Phillips Place — glorified strip malls along transit corridors with residential and/or office space thrown in, topped off by parking decks and a patch of green called “open space.” This, in effect, is what’s in store if the Planning…
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.…
Service With A Mouthful
“Excuse me for eating my lunch,” the saleslady said to me, while hovering behind the register over a plate of take-out, and crunching as she spoke on something that sent out the stink-bomb odor of Fritos. “Oh, sure,” I answered, but I felt like saying, “Put the feed bag down and get your little Lilly-Pulitzer-print-covered…
