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Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Wednesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 10:24 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Feb. 24, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• The Book of Mormon at Belk Theater
• Bacon Brew Bash at Unknown Brewing Co.
• Charlotte Jewish Film Festival screens Surviving Skokie at Temple Israel
• An Evening with Dr. Atul Gawande at Knight Theater
• Fight Night Comedy Competition Finale at The Comedy Zone
• The Book of Mormon at Belk Theater
• Bacon Brew Bash at Unknown Brewing Co.
• Charlotte Jewish Film Festival screens Surviving Skokie at Temple Israel
• An Evening with Dr. Atul Gawande at Knight Theater
• Fight Night Comedy Competition Finale at The Comedy Zone
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
News City council passes nondiscrimination bill in 7-4 vote
Posted By Ryan Pitkin on Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 12:51 PM
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A proposed change to an existing nondiscrimination ordinance that has riled folks up in Charlotte and surrounding towns for well over a year came to a head last night, with the Charlotte City Council voting 7-4 in favor of adding sexual orientation and gender identity, among other things, to the list of traits currently protected from discrimination in restaurants, taxis and public restrooms.
The vote came despite Governor Pat McCrory's warning on Sunday that a vote of approval for the changes to the ordinance would bring "immediate" action from the state legislature, which ultimately has control over municipalities like Charlotte. The Republican-led legislature could place the issue on a referendum for vote or it could simply strike down the entire provision.
About 120 of the 140 people signed up to address the council before the vote spoke in a public forum that lasted just under three hours. The 80 people who lived in Charlotte were split pretty closely down the middle in terms of being in support of or against the proposed changes, while those who came from out of town seemed to lean toward the opposition's side.
A proposed change to an existing nondiscrimination ordinance that has riled folks up in Charlotte and surrounding towns for well over a year came to a head last night, with the Charlotte City Council voting 7-4 in favor of adding sexual orientation and gender identity, among other things, to the list of traits currently protected from discrimination in restaurants, taxis and public restrooms.
The vote came despite Governor Pat McCrory's warning on Sunday that a vote of approval for the changes to the ordinance would bring "immediate" action from the state legislature, which ultimately has control over municipalities like Charlotte. The Republican-led legislature could place the issue on a referendum for vote or it could simply strike down the entire provision.
About 120 of the 140 people signed up to address the council before the vote spoke in a public forum that lasted just under three hours. The 80 people who lived in Charlotte were split pretty closely down the middle in terms of being in support of or against the proposed changes, while those who came from out of town seemed to lean toward the opposition's side.
Monday, February 22, 2016
News Lunch Break (2/22/16): City council expected to vote on nondiscrimination ordinance
Posted By Ryan Pitkin on Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 11:30 AM
The Charlotte City Council will possibly vote tonight on proposed changes to city ordinances that protect people from discrimination in hotels, restaurants and taxis. The proposed changes would add sexual orientation and gender identity, among other things, to the list of things that can not be used to refuse service to consumers in these businesses. The changes would also allow transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. (Ryan Pitkin)
The CMPD has released a description of a man wanted for kidnapping a local high school student and attempting to assault him last week. According to a CMPD report released this morning, a dark-skinned black man in his 30s with shoulder-length dreadlocks pulled up to a 16-year-old boy as he walked to East Mecklenburg High School and forced him into his car at gunpoint. The suspect drove the boy to a nearby location apparently to assault him, but the boy escaped before that could happen. The suspect's car is described as a white, four-door Chevrolet Impala or Malibu. (Ryan Pitkin)
A bystander was hospitalized after a home caught fire early this morning in Huntersville. The home, located at the intersection of Devonshire Drive and Birkdale Commons Parkway, was reportedly undergoing renovations at the time of the fire, which started at around 2:30 a.m. No one was home at the time of the fire, but one bystander was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. (Fox46 Staff)
Crews are clearing from the Devonshire Dr fire scene. Special thanks to neighborhood for the coffee!#OneTownOneTeam pic.twitter.com/1LbbFsKbJ7
— Huntersville Fire (@Huntersville_FD) February 22, 2016
Denny Hamlin won his first Daytona 500 yesterday in the closest finish in the history of the race. On the last lap, Hamlin made a move on leader Matt Kenseth, going around Kenseth's attempted block and racing neck-and-neck with Martin Truex, Jr. to the finish line, winning by 0.010 seconds. Following the race, Hamlin posted a photo of a second-grade essay he wrote many years ago stating his number one wish in life was to win the Dayona 500. (Jenna Fryer, Associated Press via WBTV)
It's real now pic.twitter.com/DVzFL5WKkk
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) February 22, 2016
It is believed that the man responsible for a string of seemingly random shootings in Kalamazoo, Michigan was an Uber driver and was picking up customers in between shootings. One man has even come forward claiming that he jokingly asked the man whether he was the shooter after being picked up by him, and the man said that he was just tired. Six people were killed in the shootings, ranging from 17 to 74 years old. Two other victims survived the shootings, including a 14-year-old girl who was reportedly pronounced dead and was being prepared for organ donation when she squeezed her mother's hand. The shooter has been arrested and will face charges including six counts of murder, among other things. (Michael Miller, Washington Post via Charlotte Observer)
Film / Film News Charlotte Talks About Oscar
Posted By Web Editor on Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 11:00 AM
- Fox
- Critic Sean O'Connell (right) attempts to withstand Mike Collins' ferocious questions during the taping of Charlotte Talks
The 88th Annual Academy Awards will be held Feb. 28, and, as always, local film reviewers will appear opposite host Mike Collins on Charlotte Talks to offer their preferences and predictions in the major races. Creative Loafing film critic Matt Brunson and CinemaBlend.com's Sean O'Connell will discuss the various contenders, including Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Big Short and The Revenant.
This edition of Charlotte Talks will air at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, on WFAE 90.7 FM. The broadcast will then be archived at www.wfae.org.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Sunday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 7:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Feb. 21, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Bartenders Ball at Rooftop 210
• Eurydice at Davidson College
• Craig Shoemaker aka "The Love Master" at The Comedy Zone Charlotte
• Yanni at Belk Theater
• Magical Moments in Opera at Matthews United Methodist Church
• Bartenders Ball at Rooftop 210
• Eurydice at Davidson College
• Craig Shoemaker aka "The Love Master" at The Comedy Zone Charlotte
• Yanni at Belk Theater
• Magical Moments in Opera at Matthews United Methodist Church
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Saturday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 7:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Feb. 20, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Casa Valentina at Duke Energy Theater
• Charlotte Jewish Film Festival screening Dough at Temple Israel
• The Beach Boys at Ovens Auditorium
• 4th Annual Banana Bar Crawl in Uptown
• New Wave Undertow at Milestone
• Casa Valentina at Duke Energy Theater
• Charlotte Jewish Film Festival screening Dough at Temple Israel
• The Beach Boys at Ovens Auditorium
• 4th Annual Banana Bar Crawl in Uptown
• New Wave Undertow at Milestone
Friday, February 19, 2016
Lunch Break (2/19/16): Danica gives Charlotteans a Lyft; Zika hits North Carolina
Posted By Ryan Pitkin on Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 11:30 AM
If things don’t pan out for Danica Patrick in this year’s Sprint Cup Series, we have a feeling she could find her second calling as a Lyft driver. The professional racer recently posed as a driver in an undercover video for the ride-share service, pranking unsuspecting passengers when she turned the roads of Uptown Charlotte into her own motor speedway (which is basically what Lyft drivers do anyway, but Danica did it with jokes). We have a feeling the conveniently photogenic and easy-going passengers were in on the prank, but you can judge for yourself:
CATS announced a halt to Blue Line service south of the Arrowood station this weekend due to construction on the Blue Line's expansion. Riders between the I-485/South Boulevard station and the Sharon Road West station will be directed to a "LYNX Connector" bus that will operate on the same schedule as the Blue Line from a nearby bus stop. (Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer)
The virus that has made headlines across Latin America and the Caribbean – earning a travel advisory from the CDC – just got a little closer to home, as North Carolina confirmed the first documented Zika infection today. Officials state the patient contracted the infection while traveling to one of the countries known for active transmission of the virus, and do not believe that travel-related infections are a public health threat to North Carolina residents. (Matt Nowacki, WSOC)
One man is reportedly dead after crashing his plane into a wooded area in Union County last night. The Union County Sheriff's Office said 68-year-old James Howard Cook crashed his plane near Tarlton Mill Road, north of Wingate, around 6:45 p.m. last night. Cook had reportedly called in mechanical issues earlier in the day. (Fox46 Staff)
#Lexington man, Jim Cook killed Thurs when his single-engine plane crashed in Union County. @FAANews investigating. pic.twitter.com/yRJQP7JABn
— Adrienne DiPiazza (@a_dipiazza) February 19, 2016
Acclaimed author Harper Lee reportedly passed away this morning at the age of 89. The author, equally famous for her loosely autobiographical novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and her subsequent reclusiveness, spent her later years in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Her death comes just less than a year after the publication of her second novel, last year’s “Go Set a Watchman.” The work, originally penned in the 1950s as a rough-draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” had been discarded for decades before being rediscovered by Lee’s lawyer. (William Grimes, New York Times)
Arts Theater review: Seascape
Posted By Perry Tannenbaum on Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 10:54 AM
Citizens of the Universe hasn’t announced the full details of its farewell season, but it has begun handsomely at “The Shell,” COTU founder James Cartee’s name for the suite on 2424 N. Davidson St. that CAST occupied in its latter days. The theater spaces where CAST often staged two productions at the same time have both been obliterated, stripped down to the original floors and walls, but the residue proves unexpectedly appropriate as a vast, bleak setting for Edward Albee’s Seascape, directed by S. Wilson Lee.
For awhile, the drama seems to revolve around Nancy and Charlie, a mid-life couple who bicker somewhat lethargically – compared with the titanic battles Albee staged between George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – about what they should do now and in the future. The weak grip this opening had on my attention was further weakened by Kylene T. Edson as Nancy, indistinctly audible when projecting her gripes over across the beach to her husband diagonally downstage. Lee would be advised to either energize Edson during these opening moments or bring her downstage more often.
Luckily, these difficulties evaporate when two ginormous lizards crawl ashore, frightening the humans as they scope them out. Since the sea is upstage, fright not only raises Edson’s energy level, it also drives her naturally toward us where she can be easily heard. Wariness is well-advised, but the lizards, Leslie and Sarah, aren’t foraging for food so much as they are reconnoitering the possibilities of life on land.
Amazingly, Leslie and Sarah speak English, if only the rudimentary kind you would expect from high school freshmen matriculating in Lancaster or Cabarrus County. There’s a lot for Nancy and Charlie to catch the reptiles up on, including the origin of the universe, the primordial soup, evolution, mammals, and the whole concept of emotions, beginning and ending with love. Shuttling between the urge to educate and the impulse to flee in terror, Nancy and Charlie might identify more with teachers in urban school districts.
The spark for this intriguing production comes largely from the extraordinary work Lee elicits from Emmanuel Barbe as Leslie, abetted by the phosphorescent glow of Kenya Davis’s makeup design. I’ve often struggled to penetrate through Barbee’s French accent when he battled against the Bard’s blank verse in Shakespeare Carolina productions. But here he is admirably slowed down by Lee – and often formidably booming. The physicality of him can be menacing enough as he advances toward you, but you really don’t want to broach the possibility that his species might lose their mighty tails during the next billion or so years of evolution. He’s attached to that tail.
By comparison, Brianna Merkel is a cute counterpart for Barbe as Sarah, as adorably clueless when she doesn’t understand concepts – matrimony, pregnancy, the list goes on – as Leslie is frustrated and antagonistic. We see a certain bond forming between Sarah and Nancy, peacemakers trying to calm their mates’ warrior instincts, and it’s here that Edson’s performance begins to blossom.
Brian Amidai is more consistently reliable as Charlie, very adept at the inertia of a husband who doesn’t wish to travel or repeat past adventures. He’s on a beach and just wants to relax, dammit, maybe get lost in a book. But Amidai’s transition between this beach potato and an instinctual protector rings viscerally true, and there’s a faint layer of comedy in the moments when he thinks he’s gone insane or died. Obliquely, I found him cuing my own reactions as this wild, mysterious fantasy unfolded.
For awhile, the drama seems to revolve around Nancy and Charlie, a mid-life couple who bicker somewhat lethargically – compared with the titanic battles Albee staged between George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – about what they should do now and in the future. The weak grip this opening had on my attention was further weakened by Kylene T. Edson as Nancy, indistinctly audible when projecting her gripes over across the beach to her husband diagonally downstage. Lee would be advised to either energize Edson during these opening moments or bring her downstage more often.
Luckily, these difficulties evaporate when two ginormous lizards crawl ashore, frightening the humans as they scope them out. Since the sea is upstage, fright not only raises Edson’s energy level, it also drives her naturally toward us where she can be easily heard. Wariness is well-advised, but the lizards, Leslie and Sarah, aren’t foraging for food so much as they are reconnoitering the possibilities of life on land.
Amazingly, Leslie and Sarah speak English, if only the rudimentary kind you would expect from high school freshmen matriculating in Lancaster or Cabarrus County. There’s a lot for Nancy and Charlie to catch the reptiles up on, including the origin of the universe, the primordial soup, evolution, mammals, and the whole concept of emotions, beginning and ending with love. Shuttling between the urge to educate and the impulse to flee in terror, Nancy and Charlie might identify more with teachers in urban school districts.
The spark for this intriguing production comes largely from the extraordinary work Lee elicits from Emmanuel Barbe as Leslie, abetted by the phosphorescent glow of Kenya Davis’s makeup design. I’ve often struggled to penetrate through Barbee’s French accent when he battled against the Bard’s blank verse in Shakespeare Carolina productions. But here he is admirably slowed down by Lee – and often formidably booming. The physicality of him can be menacing enough as he advances toward you, but you really don’t want to broach the possibility that his species might lose their mighty tails during the next billion or so years of evolution. He’s attached to that tail.
By comparison, Brianna Merkel is a cute counterpart for Barbe as Sarah, as adorably clueless when she doesn’t understand concepts – matrimony, pregnancy, the list goes on – as Leslie is frustrated and antagonistic. We see a certain bond forming between Sarah and Nancy, peacemakers trying to calm their mates’ warrior instincts, and it’s here that Edson’s performance begins to blossom.
Brian Amidai is more consistently reliable as Charlie, very adept at the inertia of a husband who doesn’t wish to travel or repeat past adventures. He’s on a beach and just wants to relax, dammit, maybe get lost in a book. But Amidai’s transition between this beach potato and an instinctual protector rings viscerally true, and there’s a faint layer of comedy in the moments when he thinks he’s gone insane or died. Obliquely, I found him cuing my own reactions as this wild, mysterious fantasy unfolded.
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Friday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 7:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Feb. 19, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Agent Orange at Milestone
• Science on the Rocks: Fire & Ice at Discovery Place
• Trashy: A Story Slam at Atherton Market
• Bechtler By Dark at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
• Adult Spelling Bee at UpStage
• Agent Orange at Milestone
• Science on the Rocks: Fire & Ice at Discovery Place
• Trashy: A Story Slam at Atherton Market
• Bechtler By Dark at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
• Adult Spelling Bee at UpStage
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Film / Film News Opening Friday
Posted By Matt Brunson on Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 4:24 PM
- Momentum Pictures
- Kiefer Sutherland and Donald Sutherland in Forsaken
Forsaken - Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland
The Lady in the Van - Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings
Race - Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis
Risen - Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton
The Witch - Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson
