Lazy nonvoters
About 5 percent of Mecklenburg County voters actually bothered to, uh, vote today, according to this Charlotte Observer graphic. Since Republicans and unaffiliated voters make up about half or so of the county electorate, that means about 10 percent of eligible folks turned out. Craptastic. Is it really that damn hard to drive to a…
The Police coming to Charlotte
BREAKING NEWS: The Police have scheduled a stop at Charlotte Bobcats Arena on Nov. 17. They have announced a few additional dates for their ongoing reunion tour, including two others in Atlanta. No word when tickets will go on sale …
Live Review: Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore Amos’ Southend Sept. 9, 2007 The Deal: Singer/actress aims to prove that she’s moved past her teen pop years. The Good: I expected a light, pop show as heard on the singer’s new album, Wild Hope, but was pleasantly surprised. Moore may be better known as an actress these days, but she showcased…
Live Review: Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore Amos’ Southend Sept. 9, 2007 The Deal: Singer/actress aims to prove that she’s moved past her teen pop years. The Good: I expected a light, pop show as heard on the singer’s new album, Wild Hope, but was pleasantly surprised. Moore may be better known as an actress these days, but she showcased…
Go Panthers!
— Cartoon by Jim Hunt
Ready! Set! Speed Dial!
by Fred Thompson I announced today via the telephone that I would be a candidate for the Republican nomination. The only lazier way was smoke signals, and there ain’t no Navajo word for Giuliani. The call to my supporters was to be 10 minutes but went longer ’cause in the middle I got another call,…
Tonkin Delight
Name of Position:Â Tonkin Delight Position: The woman lies on her back, with her legs open and her knees bent. The man slides his legs underneath hers, lifting her hips slightly and then penetrates between her legs. The man can easily reach her abdomen to caress and kiss. On a scale of 1 to 10…
Saying one thing, screwing another
Today’s abstinence-only education news comes to us from South Carolina, where researchers have yet again found that telling kids sex is bad doesn’t work: The study found that students who took the supplemental courses were significantly more likely to support abstinence messages and to say they expected to abstain from sex at least through high…
Dance Festival Takes Flight
With an impressive lineup of dance troupes at Spoleto Festival USA every spring in Charleston, the American Dance Festival staged each summer in Durham, and the prestigious North Carolina Dance Theatre based right here in Charlotte, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the Carolinas have become a hotbed for dance and choreography. Nor is…
Consequences and Repercussions
The N Word
The Stud In The Stall
Boomer With Attitude
Rustic Martini
Brand Spankin’ New
Coming Attractions
THURSDAY, SEPT. 13 This is rather interesting. It seems that a meeting has been “planned” for “pro-choice men and women and anyone interested in sexual health issues.” What’s the issue? You have sex. If you use protection, there’s a great chance a baby is not in your future. If you don’t, there’s a great chance…
Hendrix Tribute Show Spotlights Q.C. Music Scene at its Best
TURN ON, TUNE IN
Back For Seconds
Film Festival Picks 42Film Clips 44View From The Couch 4542
Fall Arts Listings
Novello Festival Highlights A Taste of Novello Thursday, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. Main Library $30 NEW! Pre-Novello Event: A Taste of Novello, sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, features live music and selected sandwich samples from Novello authors Jane and Michael Stern’s new book, Roadfood Sandwiches. Tickets $30.00,…
Matthew Hunt
Profile
Q Ratings
Mouthful 68Corkscrew 70Good Eats 7368
Stargazer
Virgo The Virgin: (Aug. 22 — Sept. 22) This time of year always gives you a sense of new beginnings. The eclipsed new moon occurs in your sign on Sept. 11. Now that serious Saturn is your new planetary partner, it is clearly time to begin the steps toward necessary changes. You need a new…
Conflicted Interests
Citizen Servatius
Hellfire and Redemption
David Childers is burning in hell. But there’s no need for you to offer up prayers of salvation. The situation appears to suit him just fine. With Childers, hell is a state of mind the singer/songwriter is all too familiar with. He’s made a career out of pain exploration. Since his ’94 debut, Godzilla He…
Calin Lupanu, concertmaster, Charlotte Symphony
Charlotte Symphony maestro Christof Perick discovered Calin Lupanu during an off-season gig at the Colorado Music Festival and hired him as Symphony’s new concertmaster just before the strike-plagued 2003-04 season. Tuning up for his fifth year, Lupanu is slated to handle guest soloist honors at Belk Theater in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto next May 9-10,…
Film Clips
New Releases THE 11TH HOUR In exactly which universe could Al Gore possibly emerge as a more charismatic screen presence than Leonardo DiCaprio? In our own, it seems. DiCaprio has long proven himself to be a sincere environmentalist (he was a logical choice to share the stage with Gore at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony),…
Double up
WTF? Finnland’s Lordi rocked the main stage of Ozzfest for 45 minutes on Tuesday, Aug. 28. The heavily-costumed band formed in 1995. Bass player “OX” and the other members require considerable time to get into costume. (Once More With Feeling) WTF? Rotto Von Klownstein — aka Martin Barry (left), Tripp Cole, Rocky Norkum and…
Godcity
If you’re one of those polite, gallery-crawling, Chardonnay-sipping art lovers, then you probably won’t dig the art collective known as Godcity. Attend a Godcity opening reception and — unlike the Q.C.’s more demure First Friday art events — you’ll find a congregation of energetic bohemians talking art behind a soundtrack of Talib Kweli. Formed in…
View From The Couch
AWAY FROM HER (2007). Iris would appear to have been the first and last word on movies dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, yet here comes Away From Her to provide it with troubled company. Like that somber drama, this incisive picture, which marks the assured directorial debut of 28-year-old actress Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter), proves…
The Fall Guys (And Gals)
From local productions to the bigger touring names, the Queen City attracts all manner of artistic types. The creative spark is sure to explode all around the scene this fall – at galleries, on stage, in the studios, etc. Here are just a few of the locals to keep your eye on – you’ll surely…
Glenn T. Griffin, artistic director, Queen City Theatre Company
From the moment he first hit the boards at age 6, playing a chick in The Little Red Hen, Glenn T. Griffin, artistic director of the fledgling, year-old Queen City Theatre Company knew he’d found his oeufre … um, oeuvre. With Broadway only a 20-minute jaunt from his New Jersey home, Griffin’s parents were soon…
Festival faves
Over 70 movies will be screened during the four-day run of this year’s Charlotte Film Festival. Here, festival founder Louis Gurgitano shares his thoughts on some of his favorites. Pretty in the Face: This small film is my personal favorite feature in the festival. Not because the filmmaker is a guy from Greensboro, N.C., who…
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Samhain
Don’t confuse them with the people you’d find dancing naked by the light of the full moon. Or maybe that’s exactly the image you should keep in mind as you greet your pagan fellows during the Charlotte Metro area’s 5th Annual Pagan Pride Day. However stereotypical your mindset is when it comes to keepers of…
The Tortured Tenure of Gonzales
Breaking the Sound barrier
Not just for seder anymore
Corkscrew
Boogie Wonderland
Stop the presses and stop the traffic! Dancing in the Street breaks out at North Tryon, Thursday and Friday, beginning at noon in front of Spirit Square and boogying down the Queen City’s main drag until 2 p.m. Besides bedeviling motorists, the free display of dance companies and choreographers serves as a colorful come-on to…
The Blotter
LOVELY LANDLORD: A person agreed to rent a home to three different parties and collected deposit and rent money from them, knowing the house couldn’t possibly be rented to them all. In all, the person is accused to swindling folks out of nearly $3,700. CUSTODIAL KICK: A woman went to the house of her son’s…
The Quintessential Q.C.
Mouthful
Feast On Fest
The best way to flush all those big-budget Hollywood summer spectacles out of your system is to consume plenty of the 2007 Charlotte Film Festival. For four days starting Thursday and running through Sunday, the fest will feature dozens of indie feature films, documentaries, shorts and student works. Plus, there are also panel discussions, an…
Rebecca Carmazzi, North Carolina Dance Theatre
You can look in the 2007-08 brochure if you don’t believe me. Rebecca Carmazzi is going to be red hot this fall at North Carolina Dance Theatre. Predictable, you might say, if you saw her partnered with Addul Manzano in George Balanchine’s Rubies late last season. Like other fine NCDT danseuses, Carmazzi matriculated into the…
A Young Boy’s Dream Job
QC After Dark
Kala
The Deal: Sri Lankan Maya Arulpragasam releases sophomore effort. The Good: The latest album from the Britain-based singer is gathering heaps of praise from the masses. With electronic and actual drums used, they’re a focal point of the album. It also gets points for originality with Bollywood-type rhythms and riffs, even a didgeridoo, finding their…
Vote or Cry
Republican and unaffiliated voters can now choose people to run against Democrats in November. Primary election day is Sept. 11, though residents can vote through Sept. 8 at some locations. (Check www.meckboe.org for details). In the mayor’s race, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board member Ken Gjertsen is challenging incumbent Pat McCrory for the Republican spot on the…
Not Just Another Christian Band
Betta Listen
Get the Gore
The Deal: Rough-and-ready girl group with something to say and the rock and roll chops to back it up. The Good: Don’t confuse this girl group with the Go Gos. The Gore Gore Girls are not a fluffy pop group. “Deep down inside I’m a selfish witch/ one half tomboy and one half bitch/ breaking…
Pamela Nichols Galle, executive manager, Pi Productions
Celebrated actor/director/producer Pam Galle has been a fixture on the Charlotte theater scene since her stage debut in the 1990 Theatre Charlotte production of Diviners, directed by Steve Umberger of the now famously defunct Charlotte Rep. When the well ran dry after several years of steady acting gigs, Galle took matters into her own hands.…
Sea of Cortez rocks Snug Harbor
La Vida Local
Amos’ Southend, Aug. 23, 2007
The Deal: Five local bands and some roller girls entertain small crowd. The Good: Concord’s Stella Kidd played some good old-school metal that had a hint of grunge mixed into it. Singer Limy had one helluva stage presence, though his vocal styling took a little too much from the James Hetfield playbook. Shelby’s Sister Trish…
Alan Poindexter, artistic director, Children’s Theatre
There’s a delicious watchword hovering like a black cloud over the 2007-08 theater season: Wicked! Theater fanatics have waited for two years, hoping the next announcement from the N.C. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center would bring word the smash musical is coming to town. Wicked is the attraction that is driving subscription sales for this season’s…
The Revenge of Pop Life!
Yeah, yeah … we told you that Pop Life, the eclectic nightlife event brought to you by CL and the Sol Kitchen, was dead. Well, guess what? It’s back! Yes, just for you, we decided to re-animate our funky, weekly affair for the fall. And to start the ball rolling we’re celebrating two other events:…
Balls Away
If you’re a tennis fan, check out the Second Annual Professional Tennis Challenge. A “rematch” between former Grand Slam champion Jim Courier and Mayor FratBoy, aka Pat McCrory. It will be the second time the two have lobbed balls together. You may have to stomach some corny banter, but it’s free (unlike The Championships at…
Bridget Jones’ Diarrhea
Advice Goddess
The Born from the Unborn
Moodswing
Music Menu
THURSDAY, SEPT. 6 Johnny Irion CD Release Irion’s Neil Youngish (the early years) crooning and writing transcend genres. Although firmly grounded in American folk, Irion’s music is rife with rootsy Americana that has passed, yet remains unconstrained in any specific era. The songs get an assist from his wife Sarah Lee Guthrie and weave the…
Shout for Some Soul Food
Hallelujah and praise the Lord! Gospel Shout is here again! Come hear a cappella singers The Madison Golden Angels and local shout band the Madison Clouds of Heaven hit the high notes. Also featuring the Madison String Band, Charlotte Shout’s signature event is sure to be standing room only, so get your heavenly heinie here…
Liquor On Wheels
Books
Anatoly Tsiris, artist
Anatoly Tsiris is a first-generation American from Ukraine, Russia. He is an artist. He works with large pieces of lumber cinched in a lathe the size of a Cooper automobile. Anatoly is a little scary looking but his works are not. His turned urns are stout, solid and formidable like their creator and, unlike him,…
Karma Cleanser
Dear Karma Cleanser: Help! I am dating a sci-fi geek. I knew about my boyfriend’s obsession with science-fiction as soon as we started dating. He had a room of his apartment filled with action figures, Star Wars memorabilia and other geeky stuff. He also seemed to get how nerdy his hobby was and even made…
Harry Gives His All
Daniel Radcliffe returns from an express need to go commando onstage as troubled stable boy Alan Strang (appropriately named, don’tcha think?) in the West End production of Equus to again don the wizard robes of Harry Potter in the latest installment. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix picks up on the deluded aftermath…
Comic Proporations
Bomb Queen IV: Suicide Bomber Published by Image Comics. Story and art by Jimmie Robinson. The Deal: Image unleashes the fourth miniseries starring “America’s Best Villain” — Bomb Queen. This comic is a humor book (very black humor, by the way) and is intended for mature audiences. And, as I previously stated, Bomb Queen is…
Kevin Starr, artist/gallery owner
Kevin Starr is Charlotte’s Andy Warhol. He is, or has been, an award winning hair stylist, a pianist, photographer, painter and now — in his most recent incarnation — a Plaza Midwood provocateur. The Kevin Starr Art Studio is in a cubed brick building in a sea of asphalt behind the Family Dollar store on…
Ex-Wives And Aging Mistresses
New Paperbacks 49Comic Proportions 52Arts Agenda 5555
Fasting For Some Nouveau Jazz?
Is Century’s Patchwerk Playhaus evolving into home away from home for the prime players in Chicago’s vibrant new jazz scene? Judging by the response from the recent Ken Vandermark gig, word must be spreading, because Keefe Jackson’s Fast Citizens will treat us to some of its righteous Delmark debut, Ready Everyday. Jackson blows tenor and…
