Mobile
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Arts Call to artists
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 12:30 PM
Local artists of all sorts looking to get their works noticed (and ... sold) will have the opportunity during two upcoming art events. Both the Ahlara Art Fair (Oct. 8) and the 4th Annual Charlotte Fine Art Show (Dec. 9-11) are currently looking for participants and welcome all forms of media including paintings, sculptures, photography, glass, fiber, clay, wood, jewelry and more.
Applications for the Ahlara Art Fair can be found at www.ahlaraartfair.webs.com and applications for the Charlotte Fine Art Show can be found at www.hotworks.org.
News Oh, poor John Edwards
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:39 AM
Nope. Sorry. I'm not going to feel sorry for former N.C. Senator and vice presidential nominee John Edwards. He created this mess for himself, and there should be consequences.
It's his children we should feel sorry for and who he should spend the rest of his life repenting to.
From The Daily Beast:
In John Edwards’ hometown, residents are disgusted by the fallen former presidential candidate's cheating on Elizabeth Edwards. Michelle Cottle visits Chapel Hill, where people snicker about his nightlife and his visits to his wife and son’s graves as tour buses drive by.Situated at the corner of Columbia and Franklin streets in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Spanky’s Restaurant and Bar isn’t known so much for its food as for the black-framed caricatures of prominent patrons that adorn its walls: sports stars, media personalities, politicians. In the top corner spot nearest the front window hangs a likeness of former Senator John Edwards, arguably the town’s most famous—now infamous—resident. The sly, flirty grin is unmistakable, and the extravagantly peaked eyebrows give Edwards’ image a faintly diabolical air. At a nearby table, a chunky middle-aged guy sporting a ball cap tucks into a late lunch and begins musing loudly to his companions about how someone needs to take down the disgraced senator’s picture. Pronto.
The gentleman is not alone in his disgust. When I ask the lanky, fresh-faced barkeep, recent UNC graduate Sam Ward, how often customers come in demanding to know when Edwards’ picture will be removed, he doesn’t hesitate. “Every day,” he sighs. Every. Single. Day. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen,” says Ward. “But it needs to. I hear they’re thinking of putting up a picture of Elizabeth Edwards in its place.”
Read the rest of this article, by Michelle Cottle, here.
News / Biz Charlotteans aren't the only ones talkin' trash
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:18 AM
Folks in south Charlotte recently made it clear that they don't want the Foxhole Landfill expanded, nor do they want ReVenture's proposed incinerator/gasification plant's leftovers. But, they're not the only ones pushing back against the government's and developer's trashy plans in this state.
Check out what's going on in Eden, N.C., and how Charlotte-based Duke Energy's coal ash is mixed up in the mess:
Opposition to a proposed landfill outside of Eden is growing, just days before the developer is scheduled to meet with area residents.A Facebook page titled "Residents Against a Landfill on the Dan River near Eden" had nearly 150 members on Wednesday evening , and Will of the People, a local conservative activist group, launched a petition campaign last week to oppose the project.
"We're just suspicious of an undertaking this massive by people with no experience in the field," said Thomas Harrington, an Eden attorney and Will of the People founder. "We're pro-business and pro-jobs, but we feel this will not be a plus in the eyes of anybody."
The petition drive will close at the end of the month, and the petition will be sent to a group of officials, including the Rockingham County commissioners, the EPA and local legislators.
Oak Ridge developer Kevan Combs requested a special-use permit to open a landfill on 1,700 acres just south of the Eden city limits off Harrington Highway . Combs has not bought the land yet.
Combs would use about 350 acres of the property for a landfill and recycling operation. He does not intend to collect residential waste from Rockingham County but is interested in disposing of coal ash from Duke Energy's Dan River Steam Station as well as material from mining efforts outside of the state. The landfill also would dispose of and recycle other residential and commercial waste.
Read the rest of this Waste Management News/News & Observer article, by J. Brian Ewing, here.
Of course, one side of the argument says the dump will be good for jobs and the economy — while the other fears for their health and their property values.
Doesn't this sound familiar, y'all?
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Tuesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, June 21, 2011 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
•Blurring the Lines exhibit at Green Rice Gallery
• James McMurty with Jonny Burke at Visulite Theatre
• Mo Alexander at The Comedy Zone Lake Norman
•Trivia Night at Mellow Mushroom
•Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Review at CPCC's Pease Auditorium
Monday, June 20, 2011
Film / Film Reviews Blu-ray Pick: The Outlaw Josey Wales
Posted By Matt Brunson on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 3:19 PM
By Matt Brunson
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976)
***1/2
DIRECTED BY Clint Eastwood
STARS Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George
An important movie in the maturation of Clint Eastwood as both actor and director, The Outlaw Josey Wales finds the legend cast as a Civil War-era farmer whose wife and son are killed by rampaging Union soldiers.
Boomer with Attitude / News GOPers wage internal war over Afghan withdrawal
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 2:19 PM
It’s frankly weird to see the Republican presidential candidates sparring over Afghanistan and Iraq. For as long as most of us can remember, the GOP has nearly always been in favor of whatever military actions the White House comes up with. Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Iraq I, Afghanistan, Iraq II – all enthusiastically supported by most of the GOP. Until now. Faced with an economy in the toilet, bin Laden at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, and the vast majority of Americans wanting us out of Afghanistan (or as *The Onion calls it, “Satan’s Catbox”), the GOP has become sharply divided. The neo-conservatives’ fantasy that America should rule the world by force is finally, albeit slowly, being questioned more publicly by other Republicans. Granted, many Democrats have gone along with past invasions and bombings, too — and it was Obama, remember, who "surged" in the Catbox — but then, their public fights over wars are old news. When a majority of Republicans want to withdraw, that's real news.
Even the Republicans’ leading presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is calling for American troops to leave the Catbox as soon as possible. Rep. Ron Paul, also a White House candidate, has long been a critic of interventionist foreign policy; the difference this time is that he’s getting roaring applause and cheers from GOP crowds when he calls for an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. And the GOP candidate that many pundits say would be the party’s best shot against Obama, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, says there is no available winning strategy in the benighted country and we should get out ASAP.
Predictably, the party’s neo-cons are really upset. Yesterday, both U.S. Sens. John “Lookin’ for a fight” McCain and Lindsay “Does this uniform make me look straight?” Graham strongly criticized Republican war critics. Graham chastised them, claiming that a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan “will be a colossal national security mistake.” McCain, on ABC’s This Week, said, “I wish that Candidate Romney and all the others would sit down with General Petraeus and understand how this counterinsurgency is working and succeeding." "Working and succeeding?" Damn. McCain and Graham are hopeless; for them, the answer to every foreign problem is “Send in the troops” and/or “Bomb the hell out of the place.” Thank God that even members of George W. Bush’s party are seeing the light. Too bad we had to go through 10 years of bloodshed, death and a trillion dollars first, but at this point, let’s just give thanks for small favors.
Another “War is always the answer” advocate, Defense Sec. Robert Gates, opposes quick withdrawal, too, and yesterday offered reassurance that “we will end our combat role by 2014.” He also said we shouldn’t be concerned about how much the war in Afghanistan is costing. “I think it’s a mistake to couch the question in terms of the cost of war,” said Gates. “What’s the cost of failure?” Well, Sec. Gates, 2014 is about three years too late to suit the American public. And as far as “the cost of failure” goes, we’re now looking at the cost of failure — that is, American policymakers’ failure to take Osama bin Laden seriously when he said his goal was to wreck our economy by getting America bogged down in Middle Eastern land wars. If we don’t want to go the route of every other stupid empire that crashed because it stretched itself too thin while allowing the homefront to go to the dogs, I’d say those withdrawals need to start right away.
Arts / Debbie Millwater Best bets in Charlotte comedy, June 20-25
Posted By Anita Overcash on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 11:09 AM
As the headline suggests, here are a few of the best places to find comedy events in Charlotte — from stand-up to improv to sketch comedy and more. For a complete listing of all comedy visit www.CharlotteComedyLIVE.com.
Monday, June 20
Hideaway Stand-Up Showcase at 8:30 p.m.
Host Eddie Conz brings you some of this favorite local comics: Kevin Alderman, Karen Winns, Dick Garcia, Pat Sabre and Eric Shun. Also $2 drafts, $4 lunch boxes and food.
Hideaway Bar ~ 516 River Highway, Mooresville ~ $5
Tuesday, June 21
Taboo Tuesday Open Mic at 9:30 p.m. (Comedians sign-up at 9 p.m.)
The way open mic was meant to be with no language or content restrictions. Every comedian who signs up goes up for five minutes. Special guest host this week is Ben Jones.
Crown Station Pub ~ 1425 Elizabeth Ave., Charlotte ~ $2
Wednesday, June 22
Open Mic at 10 p.m.
Comics work out new material (sign up at 9:30 p.m.). With host Ty Longworth.
Jackalope Jacks ~ 1936 E. 7th St., Charlotte ~ Free
Thursday, June 23
Open Mic Night at 9:30 p.m.
The mic opens up for everybody, so invite your friends out to watch you take the stage for your five minutes in the spotlight. Hosted by Chris Corrado. Sign-up at 9:15 p.m. (Plus improv show at 8 p.m.)
The Comedy Zone Fort Mill ~ 900 Crossroads Plaza, Fort Mill ~ Free
Thursday, June 23 & Friday, June 24 & Saturday, June 25
Grand Opening with Rob Schneider at The Comedy Zone at N.C. Music Factory
Comedian/actor is known for his goofy roles in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Hot Chick, Grown Ups and more.
The Comedy Zone at N.C. Music Factory, 900 Seaboard St., Ste. B3, Charlotte ~ $30-$35
Friday, June 24
Improv Comedy by Charlotte Comedy Theater at 8 p.m.
Competitive short form improv where Charlotte's top improvisers compete against one another for your affection. Lots of audience participation.
Prevue ~ 2909 N. Davidson St., Charlotte ~ $10 cash at the door
Friday, June 24 & Saturday, June 25
Mo Alexander at The Comedy Zone Fort Mill at 8 p.m. & 10:15 p.m.
Alexander's style is to offend those people and ideals that have offended him; ideals such as ignorance, narrow-mindedness and for that matter, the easily offended.
Madison's On The Corner ~ 900 Crossroads Plaza, Fort Mill ~ $10
Saturday, June 25
Robot Johnson Sketch Comedy at 8:30 p.m.
Charlotte's favorite sketch comedy troupe makes its triumphant return in a new venue. Good humor by bad people.
The Mill ~ 3306A N. Davidson St., Charlotte ~ $12 cash at the door
To join Debbie’s mailing list (just one e-mail a week, I promise), e-mail DebbieMillwater@gmail.com with the Subject Line “Subscribe.”
Boomer with Attitude Correction: I botched blog item, but Rick Santorum's still a jerk
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 8:16 AM
On Friday, I botched a blog post about Rick Santorum, which garnered understandable complaints and even scorn from some readers. I apologize for the confusion. What happened is that I linked the post to the wrong outside source. I linked readers to a satire site that had picked up a story about Santorum and wrote an exaggerated version of it. I meant to, and should have, linked to this 1997 story from the Philadelphia Inquirer, a Pulitzer-winning paper in the McClatchy chain.
The gist of the blog post was, or at least was supposed to be, that former U.S. Sen. Santorum is hypocritical for running for president on a platform that calls for a complete ban on abortions for any reason and in any circumstances. He’s hypocritical, I feel, because in 1997, he and his wife Karen lost a baby in a series of events that, legally at least, appears to have been the equivalent of an abortion. That is, Santorum OK’d the doctor’s suggestion to give his wife antibiotics and then go ahead with delivery of the 20-week-old infected fetus, which his wife’s body was rejecting. Santorum knew that, at 20 weeks, the fetus could not live on its own outside the womb, but his wife’s life was at stake and he made a very reasonable decision to save his wife’s life. As he explained it, “The doctors said they were talking about a matter of hours or a day or two before risking sepsis and both of them might die. Obviously, if it was a choice of whether both Karen and the child are going to die or just the child is going to die, I mean it’s a pretty easy call.”
This is a decision that any thinking parent would make under the circumstances, but — and it’s a big but — Santorum now says that other parents faced with the same situation should not be allowed to abort the fetus. That’s why I maintain he’s a hypocrite. The key dispute in this matter is whether what Karen Santorum went through was an abortion. The couple now say it wasn’t an abortion because Karen’s body had started rejecting the fetus, she went through “birth cramps,” and thus it should be considered a premature delivery. The way the decision was made, however, indicates the couple knew that agreeing to antibiotics meant the fetus would be delivered and would die. Making that decision, knowing the fetus would die, is technically making a choice to abort — which makes Santorum’s current no-abortions-ever stance preposterous.
This blog post isn’t intended as a criticism of the Santorums’ decision, and it is frankly not a comfortable situation to write about, especially considering the couple’s — or any couple’s — right to privacy in such a situation. However, Santorum long ago went public with his "explanation" of the sad event, and now wants to deny other women the right to make the same kind of decision to save the mother’s life. He has even said that aborting a fetus for reasons of the mother’s health is “phony,” showing just how much respect he has for other people’s own privacy and right to make the kind of heart-breaking decision he and his wife made.
Here is a crucial excerpt from the Philadelphia Inquirer story:
After examining Karen, who was nearly incoherent with a 105-degree fever, a doctor at Magee led Santorum into the hallway outside her room and said that she had an intrauterine infection and some type of medical intervention was necessary. Unless the source of the infection, the fetus, was removed from Karen’s body, she would likely die.At minimum, the doctor said, Karen had to be given antibiotics intravenously or she might go into septic shock and die.
The Santorums were at a crossroads.
Once they agreed to use antibiotics, they believed they were committing to delivery of the fetus, which they knew would most likely not survive outside the womb.
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Monday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, June 20, 2011 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Nicole Atkins and The Sea at The Milestone
• Trivia Night at Mellow Mushroom
• Chubby's Karaoke at Dixie's Tavern
• Mic Night at Flying Saucer
• Pint Night at Dandelion Market
Friday, June 17, 2011
Film / Film Reviews Mr. Popper's Penguins: Simply fowl
Rating: *
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 3:01 PM
By Matt Brunson
MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS
*
DIRECTED BY Mark Waters
STARS Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino
Aside from Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) mistakenly believing that "BFF" stands for Big Fat Friend, the only original element to be found anywhere in Mr. Popper's Penguins is the character of Pippi, Popper's personal assistant and a Brit prone to parleying with prose that begins with the letter "p." The London-born actress with the terrific name of Ophelia Lovibond essays this role, and she provides a lift to every scene in which she appears.
Unfortunately, she doesn't appear nearly enough to save this ghastly family film. A bastardization of the award-winning children's book, this finds Carrey cast as a ruthless businessman with daddy issues, spousal issues, and neglected kids issues. Mr. Popper has always placed his job above all else, but that changes after he receives a parting gift from his deceased father: six penguins that take over his apartment and his life. Initially desperate to get rid of these creatures, he soon finds that the birds are useful in bringing him back together with his family. But what's this? A nasty zoologist (Clark Gregg) is harassing Popper and his new friends (given names like Loudy, Bitey and Stinky), insisting that the birds would fare better in a zoo than an apartment.
The penguins seen in the picture are a mix of actual animals and CGI creations, and here's a quick primer for those unable to tell the difference: The ones acting normal are the real birds while the ones pooping in Popper's face or leaning over to break wind are the fake ones. Watching the real penguins, your have to feel sorry for them — in this picture, they get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. Still, they fare better than Carrey, who's only allowed to try something new a couple of times; for the most part, he's simply required to react to the wacky penguin shenanigans.
Small children might get restless during the sequences in which Popper tries to patch up his relationship with his ex-wife (Carla Gugino is wasted as the missus), but they'll otherwise be kept entertained by the animal antics. Adults, on the other hand, might want to stay away — as Pippi would doubtless note, this movie is putrid, puerile and painful.
-
Question the Queen City: The haunting of Love’s Pass
The railroad pass has claimed at least 14 lives
-
More on the United Way 1
-
Theater review: Fly by Night
