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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Boomer with Attitude Romney campaigns on MLK Day with anti-immigrant bigot
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 10:25 AM
GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in an interesting way: by campaigning in South Carolina side-by-side with anti-immigrant extremist Kris Kobach.
Romney hooked up with Kobach to show the enlightened voters of South Carolina which Republican is the roughest and toughest on those pesky Latinos. Kobach, currently the Kansas Secretary of State, wrote Arizona and Alabama’s stringent-bordering-on-fascism immigration laws — neither of which will survive intact through the courts.
Romney might have considered Kobach’s history before palling around with a stone-cold professional bigot. Kobach, who once wrote a book opposing the South Africa boycott that finally brought an end to apartheid there, used to work for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as a “nativist hate group.” FAIR’s founder, John Tanton, has stated that he wants the U.S. to remain a majority-white country by putting strict limits on how many non-whites can enter the U.S. When Kobach ran for Congress in 2004, he was clobbered by his opponent after it was revealed that the Kobester has ties to white supremacists.
Now, Kobach is praising Romney for being farther to the right on immigration than any other GOP presidential candidate, and giving Mittens the semi-official Racist Thumbs-up. It all ought to go over well with Republicans in SakkaLina, but there could be hell to pay in November.
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Tuesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:36 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Jan. 17, 2012 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• William Partridge Burpee and Thomas McNickle exhibit at Jerald Melberg Gallery
• 2013 Wolves at Snug Harbor
• Promoting Democracy lecture at UNC Charlotte
• Taboo Tuesday Open Mic at Crown Station Pub
• College Night at Whisky River
Monday, January 16, 2012
Arts International Book Club begins
Posted By Anita Overcash on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 5:21 PM
International House's 2012 International Book Club - featuring reading selections with cultural settings/themes by global authors - starts tonight. The first book up for discussion is Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir, Persepolis. The book club meets monthly (except July, August and December). Here's the rundown on upcoming reads.
Feb. 20 - The Lotus Eaters, by Tatjana Soli (Vietnam)
March 19 - The Solitude of Prime Numbers, by Paolo Giordano (Italy)
April 16 - Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea (Mexico)
May 21 - Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh (India)
June 18 - Our Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson (Norway)
Sept. 17 - City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (Italy)
Oct. 15 - The Tiger's Wife, by Tea Obreht (Yugoslavia)
Nov. 19 - State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett (Brazil)
For more information, visit the International House website here.
News 'Occupy Charlotte: Restless,' a HuffPo video production
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 3:14 PM
A pair of Huffington Post reporters visited Charlotte a couple months ago to capture stories from the occupation as part of the online newspaper's Occupy Y'all Street series.
While here, reporters Jason Cherkis and Sara Kenigsberg visited with Vic Suter, who offers viewers a glimpse into a day-in-the-life of the Charlotte occupation.
Since the video was taken, Suter has moved on to Occupy DC, which is staging several protests that will take place in the nation's capital this week. Soon, she says, she will go on Occu-tour around the country, though she's vowed to return to the Queen City before the Democratic National Convention in September.
Creative Loafing's editor, Mark Kemp, is also featured in the video.
Watch the HuffPo video, "Occupy Charlotte: Restless," so named for a tattoo on Suter's shoulder, below:
Boomer with Attitude Don't fret, D.C. — Charlotte's still shamed with 'World's Worst Martin Luther King Statue'
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 3:05 PM
People in Washington, D.C. will mark the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. today by gathering around the massive new, 30-feet-tall statue of the famed preacher and civil rights leader. Some people have complained about the new statue by artist Lei Yixin, saying it’s too big, or not in the right place, or the color is weird, or the artist should have been American, or an inscription is incorrect. One bizarre criticism is that the statue makes King look “too confrontational.” Never mind that the man’s whole life was devoted to direct confrontations with injustice, with a goal of making the injustice clear to all, specifically by the act of confronting it. So, long story short, those critics need to get a clue.
One thing the critics of the D.C. statue should be grateful for, though, is that at least the piece actually looks like Martin Luther King, Jr. That’s more than Charlotteans can say about the MLK statue in Marshall Park. Yes, this is our annual plea for someone — anyone — to please, please find a replacement for the Uptown statue of (supposedly) MLK Jr.
Democratic National Convention 2012 Democratic National Convention 2012 Notebook: Shoring up the base
Posted By Mary C. Curtis on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 9:27 AM
As the remaining GOP presidential hopefuls blanket South Carolina and clog its airwaves with negative ads in anticipation of that state’s Jan. 21 primary — and the last chance for a non-Mitt Romney to catch fire — N.C. Democrats are generating enthusiasm in their own ways.
They certainly have something to rail against, namely the General Assembly’s late-night session called to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of a bill that strips a teacher’s group from a dues check-off privilege. Add to that N.C. redistricting squabbles and local disagreements over everything from school board appointments to county commission leadership changes.
Some of the frustration was certainly vented at this week’s meeting of the Uptown Democratic Forum, DNC member Pat Cotham’s monthly session at the Levine Museum of the New South. Members of the North Carolina Association of Educators, the Hispanic-American Democrats of North Carolina and elected officials added their voices. (New Mecklenburg County Commission Chair Harold Cogdell sat across the room from fellow Democratic commissioner Vilma Leake — I felt a chill.)
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Monday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Jan. 16, 2012 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Finding Harmony in Difference - Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at Harvey B. Gantt Center
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day festivities at Levine Museum of the New South
• The O-Getters at Snug Harbor
• Monday Funday at Dixie's Tavern
• Find Your Muse Open Mic at The Evening Muse
Friday, January 13, 2012
Film / Film Reviews Friday Film Reviews: The Iron Lady; Carnage
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 4:33 PM
- The Weinstein Co.
- The Iron Lady
Click on the link to be taken directly to the review.
Arts If Beale Street could talk: A review of Memphis
Posted By Perry Tannenbaum on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Before its reputation was Gracelanded to gaudiness and mangled by the murder of Martin Luther King, Memphis had already achieved quite sufficient notoriety — serving as the cradle of the blues and later as the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll. In its funky way, Memphis the Musical blew into Ovens Auditorium last week and reminded us that both of these precious heirlooms were the creations of African-Americans, exploited by white folk into mighty commerciality against the push-back other white folks, clergy, and stodgy corporations.
So Huey Calhoun, the fictional composite of deejays Dewey Phillips and Alan Freed, was about the most quixotic scamp of a hero you could imagine back in the storied 1950s: Poor and unemployed, shy and inexperienced with women, and stone cold illiterate. Overcoming these shortcomings is the work Huey’s chutzpah, his indefatigable mouth, and his unshakable conviction that all the world — black and white — should be listening, grooving, and dancing to the treasurable music buried in the basement joints on Beale Street.
Further fueled by his total admiration for the body, soul, and singing of Felicia, the diva of Delray’s Club, Huey becomes the mouthpiece for the rockin’ sounds of Beale Street, bringing the music to the middle of the AM radio dial and then in front of live cameras on local Memphis TV. Fronting the touring version of the Tony Award-winning hit, Bryan Fenkart brought us a Huey that testified voluminously to the rich detailing that Christopher Asley lavished on his stage direction, both on Broadway and on the road. Although Fenkart couldn’t hide his aptitude as a dancer — and oftentimes walked consecutive steps in the same direction — he was nearly as funky and eccentric as Chad Kimball was on Broadway.
On tour, Felicia Boswell is easily the equal of Broadway’s Montego Glover as Felicia. Unlike Joe DiPietro’s deeply knowing and nuanced book, however, the music written for Felicia by David Bryan doesn’t really package enough substance for us to discern any separation between Boswell and Glover. Range, check. Power, check. That’s about all Bryan’s generic songs require — and they don’t exactly smack of the '50s, either.
As we’d expect, Sergio Trujillo’s choreography and Paul Tazewell’s costume designs are dutifully preserved on tour. More gratifying, David Gallo’s magnificent set design wasn’t significantly compromised, so we shuttled between Delray’s subterranean haunt to the local AM studio or the makeshift TV dance floor with a slickness worthy of Broadway. If anything, I found the Act 1 climax even more powerful at Ovens seeing it the second time than I did just over two years ago at the Shubert Theatre. Aside from Fenkart and Boswell, credit for that dramatic power should be accorded to the special rancor and menace that Quentin Earl Darrington brings to Delray, Felecia’s protective elder brother, and the pure fervor that Rhett George bestows on the long-silent Gator, who finds his voice at exactly the right moment.
Boomer with Attitude Duke Energy discounts energy hogs' rates, wants you to pay for them
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 3:10 PM
- Thanks to NC Policy Watch
- I'm big and important so subsidize me, you lowly peons.
Opposition to Duke and Progress Energy’s joint rate hike request keeps growing. On Monday, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper told the N.C. Utilities Commission that the state Department of Justice is opposed to the 7.2 percent rate increase, saying this is not the time to burden struggling North Carolinians with another rate increase (Duke had an increase in 2009).
Now, as ProgressivePulse reports, NC WARN, the N.C. Justice Center, and the N.C. Housing Coalition — all liberal groups, just in case our internet trollers are slow to realize it (gentlemen, start your ranting!) — say the rate hike is a terrible idea. The groups point out that the rate hike would be unfair to residential customers, and most business customers, because the way Duke Energy determines rates gives a huge advantage (at other customers’ cost) to some of the state’s worst energy hogs. As the groups note, energy glutton companies, like Facebook and Google data centers, already get a lot of help from the state in the form of tax breaks and incentives, and will be eligible for another 20 percent discount on their 2012 bills. Here’s the key fact: “In 2010, Duke’s data center customers paid on average about 4.6 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity, while residential customers paid almost 9 cents.” Now, Duke is asking to raise the main residential rate to over 10.5 cents per kWh.
As a previous ProgressivePulse headline so succinctly put it, why pay more when energy hogs don’t? Let the Utilities Commission know how you feel about Duke Energy’s unfair rate allocation by calling them at 919-733-4249.
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Question the Queen City: The haunting of Love’s Pass
The railroad pass has claimed at least 14 lives
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