Mobile
Monday, March 16, 2009
Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Monday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 7:24 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, March 16, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Fly Me to the Moon at Discovery Place's IMAX
• Comedian Jimmy JJ Walker at Lake Norman Comedy Zone in Galway Hooker
• Grand Imperial Poetry Night at SK Netcafe
• Find Your Muse Open Mic at Evening Muse
• Chubby's Karaoke at Dixie's Tavern
Friday, March 13, 2009
News Whoa, there, St. Patrick.
Posted By Contributing Intern on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Blame the weatherman.
Charlotte's St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival, originally scheduled for Saturday uptown, has been postponed to the next Saturday – March 21 – because of concerns about this weekend's weather, organizers say.“The weather looks horrible,” said Frank Hart, one of the organizers. “We're not out to hurt anyone, but we have to look at the big picture and the reality is all the weather forecasts we saw are predicting heavy rain … . I told (participants) we can go through the motions and be out there with a few people, or we can postpone. We decided it was best to be proactive and move the date.”
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.
News Stern charged in Anna Nicole's death
Posted By Contributing Intern on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Wow. Doctors even prescribed methadone for Smith when she was pregnant. Nonsense. Eleven different prescription medications were found in the room where the blond bombshell died.
Howard K. Stern won't be shaking the Anna Nicole Smith association anytime soon.Along with two doctors who wrote prescriptions for Smith, Stern was charged Thursday with obtaining drugs for the late model and reality-TV star, who died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose in 2007.
Stern, psychiatrist Kristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, whose office was raided by Drug Enforcement Agency officials last month at the behest of the California Medical Board, are all facing one count apiece of felony conspiracy to furnish drugs to Smith and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.
"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a statement. "There is ample evidence that Doctor Eroshevich and Doctor Kapoor violated their ethical obligations as physicians, while Mr. Stern funneled highly addictive drugs to Ms. Smith."
Read the rest of this E! Online article here.
Boomer with Attitude / News And now the good news . . . Ann Coulter's sales drop dramatically
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 2:54 PM
The bad news we told you about earlier — the return of tent cities to American urban areas, reminiscent to the Great Depression's "Hoovervilles" — is balanced a tiny bit today by reports that Ann Coulter's book sales are headed steadily downward.
Coulter, bony heroine of the hard right and former actress (she played Seabiscuit in the movie of the same name), has been all over the media lately, even agreeing to joint appearances with Bill Maher. The reason? Her latest book, Guilty, has sold a mere 100,000 copies. Most authors would kill for 100,000 books sold, but Coulter is used to figures in the 300K-400K range. And she and her publisher are apparently freaking out.
As media critic Jeff Bercovici commented, "No wonder Coulter is wishing out loud that the new administration had chosen to feud with her instead of Rush Limbaugh." At the very least, it's one more piece of evidence that the conservative wave that washed over U.S. politics starting in 1980 has broken and is receding faster than Karl Rove's hairline.
The N Word / News Gospel gone wild
Posted By Nsenga Burton on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Clutch the pearls — Bebe Winans, a member of the first-family of Gospel music, the Winans, has been arrested for domestic violence. Funny how this story about Oprah's boy didn't come out until she, Tyra
and Dr. Phil did simultaneous stories about domestic violence just yesterday. Maybe it's a coincidence? I think not.
Funny how, although Winans was arrested on February 13, 2009, we haven't heard about it until literally one month later. Funny how radio stations haven't been threatening to burn his CDs or stop playing them
although he reportedly pushed his wife to the ground. Funny how people want to pray for this grown man while throwing two young (you know who) people under the bus.
Boomer with Attitude / News Housing options of the future?
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:23 PM
As we continue to careen from one crisis to another, and wonder whether selling off the rest of our stocks would net more money than retailing our plasma, reports show that for some folks, things definitely are getting worse. Much worse.
It would have been hard to believe just a year ago, but reports from around the country say that tent cities are on the way back. Reminiscent of the shantytowns dubbed "Hoovervilles" that popped up on the outskirts of hundreds of cities during the Great Depression, old-school housing choices for the unemployed are making a comeback in several U.S. cities.
The largest shantytown to pop up so far is in Sacramento, California (pictured above), where hundreds of people who've lost their homes are doing their best to survive in tents. Some things never change, though: Sacramento officials say they'll soon "evict" the squatters. Hopefully, the tent city citizens aren't big believers in the Second Amendment.
Film / News A Class act
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:02 PM
by Matt Brunson
THE CLASS
DIRECTED BY Laurent Cantent
STARS François Bégaudeau
Don't be embarrassed if you start watching The Class and can't figure out if it's a documentary or a fictional piece; that's doubtless the effect that director Laurent Cantent was hoping to achieve. Winner of the top prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival as well as an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, this French import is based on Entre les Murs (Between the Walls), a novel penned by schoolteacher François Bégaudeau. Bégaudeau co-wrote the script and plays himself in the movie, which is shot in cinema verité style by Cantent — add up all these facts and we're left with a fictionalized presentation that walks and talks like a documentary.
News Matt Brunson
Posted By Web Editor on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Matt Brunson is the Film Editor, A&E Editor and Senior Editor at Creative Loafing. He’s been with the alternative newsweekly since 1988, initially as a freelance film critic before joining the paper full-time as a staff member in 1996. He's the recipient of several awards from both the North Carolina Press Association and the North Carolina Working Press, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the 15 Short Film Festival. Matt currently serves as President of the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA).
News / Biz Charlotte's own Bernie Madoffs
Posted By Contributing Intern on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:17 AM
What scum. What an utter human failure. Unfortunately, Bruce Kramer isn't alone. Mooresville's Dean Martin, 71, (allegedly) made off with $10 million and J.V. Huffman Jr. of Claremont (allegedly) ganked $25 million.
While we wait for these people's day in court, we can practice picking on Madoff. I'm looking forward to sending him a prison-warming gift: a bar of soap. Won't you join me?
A Cabarrus County man swindled $30 million from investors and spent it on lavish cars, expensive artwork and a 45-acre horse farm, former investors charge in a pair of lawsuits filed in Mecklenburg court recently.The scheme involved 60 investors and spanned four years, ending after the man, Bruce Kramer, committed suicide, prompting investors to check the status of their money, court documents say.
“It's a sad time for a lot of families,” said John Manzella of Charlotte, an investor named in one of the suits. “This has hurt a lot of people, financially as well as emotionally.”
No charges have been filed in the case, though sources familiar with the situation say the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating. A spokesman for the commission declined to confirm or deny the investigation Thursday.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.
News The Phelps bong saga continues
Posted By Contributing Intern on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:13 AM
O.K., here's the rundown: Phelps smokes up, Kellogg's freaks out, the munchies are donated to the hungry and the boxes end up on Ebay. What did they think was going to happen?
We all know the story: incredible athlete and Olympian Michael Phelps gets caught taking a break with a bong thanks to a thoughtless facebook photo and next thing you know: media frenzy. While some where quick to point out the ridiculousness of the fiasco, others, like Kellogg's, decided that overreacting was definitely the way to go, announcing that they would not be renewing Phelps' hefty endorsement contract. Bad for Phelps (who has gotten a lot less flack for doing something far worse), silly of Kellogg's, but, apparently, good for a food bank in San Francisco.... congratulations Kellogg's, the boxes you were so foolishly embarrassed by are now on their way to becoming collector's items.
Read the rest of this AlterNet.Org article here.
-
Marilyn Chambers found dead
Porn star Marilyn Chambers found dead at age 56.
-
Question the Queen City: The story of Mabel Rea 4
The Charlotte native went Hollywood, returned home and met a tragic demise.
-
Question the Queen City: The story of Nellie Freeman, aka 'Razor Girl' 2
She decapitated her husband, was declared innocent, and never hurt another soul.
