Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2013

Sep 25 - Oct 1, 2013 / Vol. 27 / No. 31

Cover Story

Why supporting local really matters

I had my first experience with local beer in college at the University of Georgia in Athens. Terrapin was the largest local craft brewery, and I drank plenty of its beer. My main watering hole, though, was a brewpub on Washington Street called Copper Creek. These guys brewed small batches (probably five barrels at a…

Cam Heiliger

CD Review: Medicine’s To the Happy Few

Dream pop, that ’90s signature mix of noise and psychedelic song craft has launched a successful stealth attack on modern pop. Need proof? Witness the recent spate of neoshoegaze bands, and the reformation of American dream pop pioneers Medicine. After a 17-year hiatus, Medicine returns with all original hands on deck to release a new…

Pat Moran

Book review: Philipp Meyer’s The Son

When it comes to research and preparation, Philipp Meyer is to novelists what Daniel Day-Lewis is to actors: obsessive and relentless. For his second book, The Son, Meyer drank buffalo blood, tanned animal hides and shot antique guns, according to a recent profile in The Wall Street Journal. All of his first-hand experiments, along with…

Erik Spanberg

Upcoming: Dining in the Dark

If there is such a thing as extreme eating, this might be an event that qualifies as such. At least, that’s what my my crotchety thirty-something tendencies tell me. Call me old fashioned, but I like to see my food when I eat it. Whenever I dine, I eat twice. First, with my eyes and…

Keia Mastrianni

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Sept. 26)

Moving Day: A man called police after his ex-girlfriend and her mother allegedly tried to drive him out of the house they share last week. The man had called the police on the woman earlier in the day and told them to arrest her and charge her with a DWI. When her mother found out…

Ryan Pitkin

Rush: A winning Formula

RUSH *** DIRECTED BY Ron Howard STARS Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl From Argo to Zodiac, even the best attempts by Hollywood to adapt a true-life tale will result in some falsehoods being created for the screen. Timelines will be compressed for the sake of expedience, several real people will be reincarnated as one composite, and…

Matt Brunson

Don Jon: Porn in the U.S.A.

DON JON ***1/2 DIRECTED BY Joseph Gordon-Levitt STARS Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the talented young actor who’s appeared in such hits as Inception and (500) Days of Summer, stars as the title character in Don Jon, a comedy that also marks his feature-film writing and directing debuts. Centering around the recreational use of…

Matt Brunson

Enough Said: Eloquently stated

ENOUGH SAID ***1/2 DIRECTED BY Nicole Holofcener STARS Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini Movies made for grown-ups — and clearly I don’t mean insufferable grown-ups of the Adam Sandler and David Spade variety — are fleeting mirages during the summer months, shimmering ever so briefly in the cineplex sun. Is that Blue Jasmine hovering on the…

Matt Brunson

Theater review: Tarzan the Stage Musical

Even as a kid, I was prejudiced against literature’s greatest vine swinger. Though they saturated TV for a long time, I don’t think I ever watched a single Johnny Weissmuller flick from start to finish. When Greystoke and Disney’s animated Tarzan attempted to revive the Edgar Rice Burroughs legend decades later, I passed. When David…

Perry Tannenbaum

EPA announces new proposed power plant standards

On Sept. 20, the Environmental Protection Agency took steps to enact the first part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan when it proposed standards that would cut carbon emissions from new power plants. Under the proposal, “new large natural gas-fired turbines,” or natural-gas plants, would need to meet a limit of 1,000 pounds of CO2…

Ana McKenzie

Theater review: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Looking for a serious theater piece that dramatically explores the life of our seventh president and conscientiously appraises his triumphs and his failings? Tough titties! Sober reflection and nuanced characterization are not in the arsenal of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, the rockin’, raucous, profane and incendiary musical now in its regional premiere at Actor’s Theatre…

Perry Tannenbaum

Weekly horoscope (Sept. 26-Oct. 2)

Libra The Scales (Sept. 22-Oct. 22): Your love of luxury and fine things may cause a battle with your partner, who prefers to keep the belt tightened. This reflects a genuine inner conflict. A fairly strong part of you also wants to play it safe. Look for a way to satisfy your wants a little…

Vivian Carol

The return of Cody Chesnutt

The story has all the ingredients of show business mythology: Fusing rock, soul, hip-hop and R&B, an unknown artist releases an invigorating debut LP, an urban/indie calling card that challenges notions of popular music. On the cusp of breaking big, the edgy artist vanishes, never to be heard from again. Until now. If the tale…

Pat Moran

Leogun’s rock revival

Leogun frontman Tommy Smith has never doubted that he should be a musician. The notion struck him when he first picked up an acoustic guitar at age 6. The idea stuck when he won his first school talent show at the age of 12. “From a very young age, I spent so much time in…

Jeff Hahne

The week that weirded me out

Did you feel the Earth tip on its axis toward “Stupid” last week? No one at our house felt anything specific, that’s why I ask, because there had to be some sort of planetary snag going on — how else to explain a week so jam-packed with stunningly ill-advised, reckless or just plain dumb goings-on?…

John Grooms

Q&A with Democratic mayoral candidate Patrick Cannon

Editor’s note: This is the last part of a series of Q&As with the two mayoral candidates, Republican Edwin Peacock III and Democrat Patrick Cannon. Peacock’s Q&A published last week. Until this year, Patrick Cannon, who at 26 became the youngest person ever elected to local office, mostly existed in the shadow of Mayor Anthony…

Michael A. Cooper Jr.

Museum Day Live! = free admission

Local museums are offering free admission (woo hoo!) on Sept. 28 as part of the ninth annual Museum Day Live! 2013. Smithsonian Magazine has partnered with 1,500 museums across the country to help promote the free admission policy to advocate for education. To gain free access, tickets must be downloaded online at www.smithsonian.com/museumday. Some of…

LaConteau Williams

The Brewer and the Beard

Somewhere, perhaps on Moses’ stone tablets, a rule was written that those blessed with a knack for brewing must mask their face in a cloak of hair. (Not sure how this rule applies to female brewers … but we digress.) Beards and brewing have gone hand-in-hand for — probably — centuries, and we were curious…

Paula Hall

Arm bands and brew

People have been making and drinking beer about as long as we’ve been doing anything else. One would think we’d run out of innovative ideas for imbibing by now, but then one would be wrong. Three new beer festivals are coming to town, each with its own flavor and hangover-inducing potential. The Brewz Music and…

Laura Camilo

Beyond Belief

I don’t think there was ever a time in my life when I genuinely believed in God. My father died when I was very young, and though I don’t remember it actually happening, I remember him, and I remember being told that he was in heaven. I also remember knowing at a very young age…

Ashley Spurgeon

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