Sep 17-23, 2015

Sep 17-23, 2015 / Vol. 29 / No. 30

Cover Story

Birth of a NoDa Brewing beer

My alarm screams at 5 a.m. and I somehow fly out of bed. I’m not used to early mornings; my night’s sleep was more of a quick nap. The sun’s not even up yet as the radio tells me today’s high will be 90 degrees. There’s no relief to be found in NoDa Brewing Company’s…

Jonathan Wells

Everest: A chip off the old ice block

EVEREST *** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Baltasar Kormákur STARS Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin The best movie I’ve ever seen in IMAX remains 1998’s Everest, which was released back when films shown in that larger-than-life format were short-form documentaries generally screened in a museum facility (here in Charlotte, it naturally played at Discovery Place) and…

Matt Brunson

Black Mass: Married to the mob

BLACK MASS *** (out of four) DIRECTED BY Scott Cooper STARS Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton Do mine eyes deceive me? Is that Johnny Depp delivering an actual performance in Black Mass, his first genuine example of emoting in many a year? And he’s doing it under a mountain of makeup, the sort of latex overload…

Matt Brunson

Weekly horoscope (Sept. 17-23)

For All Signs: On September 17, Mercury turns retrograde. We have been experiencing the pre-shadow since August 27th. It floats back through Libra until October 9 and finishes the entire cycle near October 24. At this time we may encounter obstacles and chuckholes in previously made plans. Delays and revisions of schedule are likely with…

Vivian Carol

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (Sept. 17)

Come Again: A 39-year-old woman called 911 after going through a terrible experience in southeast Charlotte last week, just days after a young boy was shot during a drive-by shooting in what police believe was a case of mistaken address. The woman told officers that she was at home with her 2-year-old son and 1-year-old…

Ryan Pitkin

Hidden Valley marches into a new chapter

Two summers ago, a history of violence in the troubled Hidden Valley neighborhood in north Charlotte came to a head when 17-year-old Jaquez Walker attempted to rob a confidential informant buying drugs in the parking lot of the local elementary school and Walker was shot and killed by police. Within months, police were rounding up…

Ryan Pitkin

The family dynamic of Grown Up Avenger Stuff

They fought ninjas at Amos’ Southend. They experimented with bubbles at Hartigans. They hung glow-in-the-dark records from the ceiling of the Evening Muse. They’ve tried a variety of lighting rigs to set different moods. And, most importantly, if the music’s good, it’s not a gimmick. Grown Up Avenger Stuff simply enjoys doing whatever they can…

Jeff Hahne

The Money Shot amps up egos for the sake of comedy

More than a couple of Neil LaBute plays have waltzed through Charlotte in the past dozen years, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty, The Mercy Seat, Autobahn, Some Girl(s), and the suite of Mormon one-acts, Bash, that introduced the BYU grad to the Queen City in 2003. They aren’t teeming with admirable heroes —…

Perry Tannenbaum

Three questions for Scott Plassman, owner of Duck donuts

Two years ago, Scott Plassman and his wife, Jennifer, traveled to Virginia Beach for something fresh and warm, but not the ocean breeze. What they wanted was Duck Donuts, a made-to-order doughnut shop that was opened by Russ DiGilio and Robin Griffith in North Carolina in 2007. The Plassman’s first caught wind of Duck Donuts…

Riley Turner

Kim Davis’ false martyrdom

As a Christian, it is incredibly frustrating to stand by and watch as my faith continues to be hijacked and used as a tool to promote bigotry and hypocrisy. The latest example of this manipulation of the gospel is Kim Davis in Kentucky — the county clerk who has repeatedly refused to issue marriage licenses…

Ailen Arreaza

Recent

See all

Gift this article