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Friday, May 25, 2012
Arts Racing through Uptown
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, May 25, 2012 at 10:01 AM
In honor of NASCAR's biggest and baddest race of the season (the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 27), Food Lion Speed Street Festival gives the out-of-towners and locals a chance to partake in NASCAR-related activities, including autograph and Q&A sessions with drivers. Would someone ask them if they get tired of going in circles, please?
Live music (often of the nostalgic variety) on multiple stages, food vendors and other activities. Free admission. May 25-26, 12 p.m.-11 p.m. For a schedule of performers and more information, visit www.600festival.com.
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Friday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, May 25, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, May 25, 2012 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
* Eleemosynary at Ballantyne Community Theatre
* 40th Annual Members Show at The Light Factory
* Underneath the Lintel at Warehouse Performing Arts Center
* Charlie Murphy at The Comedy Zone Charlotte
Thursday, May 24, 2012
News / Opinion Closing the Charlotte Museum of History would leave a void in our legacy
Posted By Michael J. Solender on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Some of the Queen City's cultural ties to its storied history will be lost, perhaps forever, when the Charlotte Museum of History closes its doors on Friday.
Declines in ticket revenue, fewer grants from the Arts & Science Council, less money from private donations and diminished cash reserves have left it in financial peril. The museum will spend the next four to six months developing a new funding strategy. But it is anyone's guess if it will reopen.
Long a destination for school children, residents and tourists, the museum's collection tells much of Charlotte's history and houses artifacts that illustrate the evolution of our community. It houses a replica of the Indian paths that intersected at Trade and Tryon streets that brought settlers and trade into Charlotte. It was where visitors could learn about Waxhaw, a town in Union County named after the Indian tribe that once occupied this part of the state.
Film / Film News Opening Friday
Posted By Matt Brunson on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 11:42 AM
- Fox Searchlight
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Judi Dench, Bill Nighy
Chernobyl Diaries - Jesse McCartney, Devin Kelley
Men in Black III - Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones
Sound of My Voice - Brit Marling, Christopher Denham
Arts Birth of the Blumeys
Posted By Perry Tannenbaum on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Twenty high school productions, thirteen theatre judges, hundreds of stagestruck students — acting, singing, dancing, playing band instruments, building sets, sewing costumes, and running lights — plus thousands of screaming fans gathered together at Belk Theater have made it happen. And we're giving out the news: Blumenthal Performing Arts, Wells Fargo, and talented high school students and teachers across Metrolina have given birth to the Blumey Awards.
The amazing phenomenon, hordes of students cheering for their theatre heroes and heroines as lustily as they cheer for their football and basketball stars, began up north in the Steel City. Back in 1991, the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera established the Gene Kelly Awards to recognize the best in local high school musical theatre. By 2009, there were enough of these awards programs around the country for Pittsburgh CLO to band together with Broadway producers of the Nederlander Organization to create the Jimmys — or the National High School Musical Theatre Awards. Dozens of other regional theatre organizations, representing approximately 1,000 schools, send their winners to the annual event in New York.
This year, Charlotte will be a part of it — New York, New York!
Blumenthal Performing Arts nursed it after PAC education director Ralph Beck witnessed the Jimmy Awards in 2010. Blumey brass drew Metrolina schools, theatre professional judges, a corporate sponsor, and an ongoing scholarship program into the Awards machine. Once the juggernaut was set in motion for 2011-12, a pair of directors and a full production team — music director, choreographer, sound and lighting designers — worked flawlessly together so that the awards show was fresh and polished.
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Thursday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, May 24, 2012 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
* Back Alley Film Series, screening God Bless America at Crownpoint Stadium 12
* Conversations at Gantt: Capitalism, Globalization and Human Rights at Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
* Author Tamar Myers at Park Road Books
* Whitewater River Jam at U.S. National Whitewater Center
* Shiprocked at Snug Harbor
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
News Ex-CRVA CEO Tim Newman charged with a DWI
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:13 PM
Tim Newman, the embattled former Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority CEO, was charged Tuesday with driving while impaired, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Records show Newman was arrested late Tuesday and also charged with hit and run property damage and failing to give information, according to the website of the Mecklenburg County jail.The website says he was arrested by the N.C. Highway Patrol, but a sergeant for the Mecklenburg County office was not immediately available on Wednesday.
Newman briefly assumed an executive sales position within the CRVA after Tom Murray replaced him last year. In late February, Murray announced Newman's departure from the booster group, according to the Observer.
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Democratic National Convention 2012 Notebook: Youth is served (but will they vote?)
Posted By Mary C. Curtis on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Enthusiastic young volunteers and voters helped nominate President Barack Obama in 2008. Will they support him again this year?
U.S. Congressman Mel Watt acknowledged the importance of the question, posed by 19-year-old Johnson C. Smith computer science major Enrique Garcia, during Tuesday's announcement of the "UFuture — A Summit for Innovative Young Thinkers" at the university. The cyber summit, to be live-streamed from 10 a.m. to noon on Sept. 4, during the Democratic National Convention, will give representatives from more than 20 colleges and universities a chance to interact with national elected and White House officials, educators, business leaders and celebrities, such as activist and Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actress Alfre Woodard, who also spoke on Tuesday.
Arts Watch out, Spoleto — Ailey Dance is on fire
Posted By Perry Tannenbaum on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Queen City dance fanatics have seen Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater rather frequently in recent years — twice now at Knight Theatre since it opened in 2010, with prior visits to Belk Theater in 2006 and 2008. Down in Charleston, Spoleto Festival USA has nearly kept pace with us, hosting Ailey in 2004 and 2009, capping the company's 50th anniversary tour. On opening night this Friday at Spoleto 2012, Ailey returns for a three-performance run through Sunday.
Well, something dramatic has happened since Ailey last visited the Carolinas. The regal artistic director who guided Ailey to dizzying heights, Judith Jamison, has retired — or faded into the background as director emerita. There's a new sheriff in town, Robert Battle, and he's leading the troupe into new frontiers.
Battle's most radical departure was Ohad Naharin's "Minus 16." Spoleto sophisticates will remember seeing this pithy little choreography, set to the traditional "Echad Mi Yode'a" chant for the Passover seder, when the Batsheva Dance Company performed at Gailliard Auditorium in 2007. With the Middle East in typical turmoil, the piece struck me as "regimented hysteria."
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Wednesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, May 23, 2012 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
* 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Theatre Charlotte
* Micro Brews Cruise at U.S. National Whitewater Center
* Janes Addiction at Ovens Auditorium
* Live show and TV taping of Crazy Late with Johnny Millwater at The Comedy Zone Charlotte
* Echoed Locations exhibit at Twenty-Two
