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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Music / News Project: Homebrew preview
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 3:54 PM
CL Music Editor Jeff Hahne chats with a couple members of the local band Heywire, who will be a part of a FREE event dubbed so cooly Project: Homebrew. This FREE event, to be held at Neighborhood Theatre on Oct. 1, is comprised of a panel discussing local music in Charlotte, as well as a concert of select artists from Jeff Hahne's Homebrew Volume 3, a CD compilation of local music. And did we mention it's FREE?
News Because we're trashy
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Are you participating in this weekend's Big Sweep?
Organizers behind Mecklenburg County's Big Sweep – which happens Saturday -- typically tell volunteers to expect the unexpected during the annual cleanup of local creeks.Last year, more than 700 volunteers picked up over 16,000 pounds of trash – including 55 tires, and a set of dentures.
This year's event runs 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Big Sweep organizers provide gloves, trash bags, snacks, and drinks. Volunteers are instructed to wear old clothes, sturdy shoes, a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
Find a volunteer location near you on Charlotte.com.
The life of litter:
Boomer with Attitude / News Charlotte ranks high on 7 Deadly Sins maps
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Who’d-a thunk it? Charlotte is part of Lust Central in the U.S. of A. Geographers at Kansas State University came up with maps that plot per-capita statistics to show which areas of America engage in the Seven Deadly Sins the most. The KSU geographers took the stats on things like STDs (lust) or theft (envy) or fast-food eateries (gluttony) and mapped them out. Our area is also in the middle of Wrath and Envy Central, too. In fact, the Bible Belt as a whole rates pretty high in most of the Seven Deadly Sins. The lust map is below. Find all of the maps here.
Arts / News "Mix at Six": Simplified, fashion show
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 1:37 PM
This Wednesday's "Mix at Six" at Ballantyne Village will feature food, drinks, and a live performance by Charlotte rock act Simplified. But wait, that's not all! A fashion show is also set to be presented by Modern Salon and Spa with featured clothing by Lotus. See flyer below for more details, and for a list of upcoming "Mix at Six" performances.
Arts / News Drag show!
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 1:08 PM
On Sunday, Oct. 4, Petra's Piano Bar transforms for "A Night of Celebrity Illusion." The event, a drag show with impersonators set to take on the roles of famed acts like Reba, Cher, Boy George, and more, is hosted by Q.C. drag queen Roxy C. Moorecox and features special performances by Gigi Monroe, an Atlanta-based drag star and illusionist. Ahhh, now this sounds entertaining. 18 and up. Tickets are $5. Two shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Petra's Piano Bar is located at 1919 Commonwealth Ave.
Point 8 Blog / News Group Dynamics: Introducing Charlotte Artery
Posted By Barbara Schreiber on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 12:35 PM
The term “art community” is often an oxymoron — as artists frequently see/define themselves as being outsiders to any kind of community or group. However, it is also common for small groups of artists, who share similar interests/beliefs, to team together. While each one would be doing her/his own work, they learn from, challenge and inspire each other to grow and evolve as artists. The collectives also help the artists get more attention, and reach a broader audience.
In such groups that really click, the sum is always great than the parts. These kind of collaborations have been a recurring theme on our forums, and we have mentioned it before on this blog — because we think that such collectives also have a larger significance, as they could often become the seed-crystals for a city/region to grow culturally, and become noted for certain media/“schools of art”, or just great art in general.
Starting with this one, we will be profiling some of the local art groups with such potential
Charlotte Artery is a group of five artists who recently joined forces with the intention of forming a studio collective and exhibiting their work together. (Photomontage above — Charlotte Artery installing its first exhibition — courtesy of Charlotte Artery)
Right now, the group — consisting of Dan Allegrucci, Julie Benda, Janet Lasher, Ashley Lathe and Bev Nagy — is running a sort of vagabond gallery, which will move to different locations for the next year. In exchange for the use of a space, Charlotte Artery will transform it into a temporary gallery using its own moveable walls, lighting and such.
Finding space in Charlotte has turned out to be more of a challenge than the group anticipated. However, Charlotte Artery pulled off something neat last week, when it opened its first exhibition at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center at the NC Music Factory. The artists went to work on the space and then filled it with appealing, well-executed work. You can view the exhibition this Friday, October 2, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. The place is a little hard to find, but I encourage you to check it out.
Charlotte Artery's ultimate dream is to help expand the infrastructure for Charlotte's creative community by creating opportunities for artists and providing basic services such as print or photo labs. "This is not meant to be about us," says Lathe. "While other artists work to develop their own DIY projects, we would like for the Artery to be a cooperative effort in helping others do so, while they in turn help Artery grow and expand to help others."
While I deeply appreciate the generous nature of this project, it would be great to see these folks display some good old-fashioned self-aggrandizement, too. Their plan this year is to stage five additional group exhibitions that, depending on the size of the venue, could include additional invited artists. However, I'd love to see at least some space within these larger shows given over to solo exhibitions by each of these five founding artists. There's nothing like the impact of a solo exhibition; when an artist's work does not have to compete with the work around it, its message is that much stronger — and, of course, it's a nice addition to the resume.
News State-wide recycling reform laws take affect Thursday
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 12:13 PM
The state's got new rules regarding recycling plastic bottles, but no one seems interested in enforcing them.
Public service announcements, fliers, and corporate-gift cards are all aimed at getting N.C. households to comply with a state law kicking in Thursday that bans plastic bottles from landfills.But don't look for the trash cops if soda bottles end up in your garbage cans.
"That's not the spirit of the law," said Scott Mouw, the state's recycling director. "Clearly, this is more of a law of spirit or intent, everyone recognizing the positive reasons to recycle."
Without enforcement efforts, though, North Carolina's embrace of recycling has been more of a half-hug.
It's important to know that Charlotte-Mecklenburg currently only accepts certain types of plastic. So, just because an item is plastic and a bottle doesn't necessarily mean they'll recycle it. And, they definitely don't recycle the lids. (Fortunately, however, Aveda -- yes, the skin and hair care company -- does. But, they do so through participating schools so you'll have to ask them where to drop yours off.)
What happens if you throw something into your red bin that Charlotte-Mecklenburg isn't recycling? It ends up in the trash anyway and wastes garbage collectors' time.
According to Charlotte.com, there are more recycling reforms on the way in and effort aimed at saving the state even more money:
Starting next July in Charlotte, recycling will be collected every other week, instead of weekly. The city is trading the red recycling bins for larger rolling containers similar to its trash cans. Workers will dump everything into trucks, and the plastic-metal-paper sorting will be at an automated facility.The move is part of a plan to save about $26 million over 10 years.
But, more bad news with a positive spin:
North Carolina missed a 10-year recycling goal it set back in 1991 for reducing trash disposal. In fact, more trash went to landfills, not less. Garbage disposal went from 1.01 tons per person in 1992 to 1.21 tons per person by June 2001.The state now has a new goal: Recycle 2 million tons of bottles, cans, and other materials each year by 2012. N.C. residents currently recycle about 1.3 million tons a year.
One of the state's new tactics to persuade people to keep plastic out of the trash is to focus on the empty bottles as a raw material for the state recycling industry. The state has plants that are a step in the manufacturing chain that turns used bottles into new bottles and other materials. The largest plastics recycling plant in the nation is to open in Fayetteville next year.
Why the push to recycle? The state is finding ways to make money -- and create jobs -- with recyclables, according to the Carolina Weekly Newspapers.
Plastic bottles can be repurposed for a variety of products, like filler for pillows and clothing.The Recycling Business Assistance Center estimates recycling programs have created 14,000 jobs in the state. Aluminum recycling programs create six times more jobs than a landfill alone, and recycling a can requires 95 percent less energy than producing a new one, the center said.
Here's the sad news, from the Carolina Weekly Newspapers:
Although Mecklenburg County boasts the largest population in the state, it came in 12th on the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources list of top recycling counties in the state with an average of 174.5 pounds of recycling recovered per person in 2007.Dare County topped the list with more than 900 pounds of recycling per person, according to the 2000 census. Fewer than 30,000 people reside there.
Orange County, which includes Hillsborough and Chapel Hill, recycled more plastic per person than any other county last year, according to state figures. Orange residents recycled about 29.5 pounds of plastic bottles per person in 2007-08.Pamlico County was the next closest with 14.8 pounds per person. The state average was 3.8 pounds per person.
"People across the county have a really high recycling ethic," said Blair Pollock, Orange County's solid waste planner.
Four counties didn't collect plastic for recycling. Some of the state's municipalities - Kannapolis being the largest - don't have curbside recycling, Mouw said.
WTF Kannapolis?!
Boomer with Attitude / News Observer didn't mention 48 percent in poll think CMS sucks
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 11:24 AM
The Observer has a very interesting front-page story, written by Eric Frazier, on the results of a Knight Foundation poll of 26 U.S. cities, including Charlotte. The poll, taken to determine “what people love about” their communities, asked residents how they feel about a wide array of topics. At least as interesting as the results is the way the Observer reported the story. I’m not saying the daily sugarcoated Charlotte’s results in its reporting — they do point out some things residents are unhappy about, notably highways and community leaders — but let’s just say the article was less than forthcoming in places, and was padded with smiley-face quotes from shiny, happy residents.
What struck me was the following passage in the article: “The study found that only 24 percent of respondents in the Charlotte region gave high marks to the quality of public schools. That, however, was up from 17 percent the year before.” Man, talk about trying to put lipstick on a pig. “We’re up from 17 percent approval to 24 percent. Woo-hooo!” It was also interesting that Frazier’s story didn’t give detailed results, just a brief sidebar with three positive and three negative findings. I tracked down the full results, which include the disturbing fact that 48 percent of respondents gave local K-12 public schools a low-to-medium grade, with 28 percent giving a medium-to-high grade. Those results put Charlotte residents’ views of their public school system at the midway point nationally, with 13 cities in the poll rating higher and 12 rating lower.
You can access the results of the poll here (on the right side, you can click to access a pdf of each city’s results).
News / Biz BofA's bad press just won't stop
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 10:12 AM
More lawsuits, more backtracking for the nation's largest bank.
The state of Ohio is leading five pension funds in suing Bank of America Corp. over its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray says the lawsuit against BofA, Merrill Lynch and executives, including BofA Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, could eventually seek billions in damages.
The lawsuit contends BofA and Merrill executives concealed widening losses at the brokerage firm even as they approved huge bonuses ahead of the deal’s closing.
The five pension funds are from Ohio, Texas, Sweden and the Netherlands. The litigation includes two Ohio state pension funds, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System.
And, in news Progressives won't like:
BofA, who bailed out ACORN earlier this year, announced this week that they're dropping their nearly 20-year-old deal with the non-profit after working together to create "over 55,000 new homeowners in low-and-moderate income neighborhoods," according to ACORN housing.
This is the bank's response to revelations that a fake pimp and prostitute punked both an ACORN office and Fox News, who practically peed on themselves with excitement while smearing ACORN's name. This, of course, isn't the first time Fox News has reported fake ACORN news in their ongoing efforts to disparage the organization who's mission, since 1970, has been to help the poor.
So, it makes you wonder, how did ACORN become a target of the right-wing media?
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Tuesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 29, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• A Chorus Line at Belk Theater
• Rob Thomas at Uptown Amphitheatre
• Stand-Up comedy with Terry Tuff at Lake Norman Comedy Zone in Galway Hooker Irish Pub
• Touch One Tuesdays at Wine Up
• Adventures in Wild California at Discovery Place's IMAX
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Marilyn Chambers found dead
Porn star Marilyn Chambers found dead at age 56.
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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.
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Question the Queen City: The story of Mabel Rea 4
The Charlotte native went Hollywood, returned home and met a tragic demise.
