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Thursday, April 11, 2013
News / Music / Pop Culture / Opinion / Culture 'CL' editor debates "Accidental Racist" at 'New York Times'
Posted By Mark Kemp on Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 1:23 PM
When a New York Times editor invited me to participate in a debate about Brad Paisley and LL Cool J's controversial song "Accidental Racist" at the paper's online "Room for Debate" forum yesterday, my feelings about the song had already evolved several times. They continue to do so.
I initially listened to it at home with my fiancee. Coming from two different cultural backgrounds -- I'm white and she's black -- we watched each others' faces as the country singer and rapper alternated lines in the refrain:
Paisley: I'm just a white man...LL Cool J: If you don't judge my do-rag...
Paisley: ...comin' to you from the Southland...
LL Cool J: ...won't judge your red flag...
Paisley: Tryin' to understand what it's like not to be...
So far, it was an interesting if clunky dialogue about why we should not judge each other based on external trappings, whether those trappings are the color of our skin or the symbols we choose to wear - in this case, the symbols being do-rags and Confederate flags. After all, symbols can mean very different things to different people. We need to dig beneath the surface of those symbols if we are to understand each other.
But then, the two continued this dialogue:
Paisley: I'm proud of where I'm from...LL Cool J: If you don't judge my gold chains...
Paisley: ...but not everything we've done...
LL Cool J: ...I'll forget the iron chains...
Paisley: It ain't like you and me can re-write history
LL Cool J: ...Can't re-write history, baby.
Whoa! Tarrah and I looked at each other in disbelief. Did LL Cool J really say that he (or anyone) could forget the chains that white Americans used to shackle slaves and drag them into a foreign country to work for nothing and be viciously whipped and treated as less than human? Yes, he did say that. And it is the weakest, most gravely unfortunate line in a song in which both artists' intentions were good.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Arts / Culture Weekend Wonders: Poetry graffiti in Uptown
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 1:03 PM
I stumbled upon a Facebook page this afternoon that's got my inner poet beaming: The Wall Poems of Charlotte. A team of artsy people, including mixed media artist Amy Bagwell, have gotten together to tag exterior walls of Charlotte with poems written by North Carolina writers. Here's the first one they've completed:
- The Wall Poems of Charlotte Facebook
The designs are courtesy of CPCC graphic design students, and painted by mural artist Scott Nurkin.
Gah. Creativity is bleeding into the bricked cracks of Uptown Charlotte. I. Love. This.
Culture Question the Queen City: How did a train end up in Freedom Park?
Posted By David Aaron Moore on Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 12:48 PM
Editor's note: In this series, local author David Aaron Moore answers reader-submitted questions about unusual, noteworthy or historic people, places and things in Charlotte. Submit inquires to davidaaronmoore@post.com.
I recently visited Freedom Park and saw part of an old train stationed on the park's grounds. How did it get there and where did it come from? - Daniel Hayes, Charlotte
The old Gainesville-Midland 301 has charmed generations of Charlotteans. It rolled off the lines of the Philadelphia Baldwin Locomotive works in 1920 and was shipped to Florida to serve the industrial rail line service Charlotte Harbor and Northern (the company had nothing to do with the city of Charlotte, aside from sharing a name). Once there, it shuttled between various small towns along Florida's west coast.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Culture Question the Queen City: Where did all the drive-ins go?
Posted By David Aaron Moore on Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 11:30 AM
Editor's note: In this series, local author David Aaron Moore answers reader-submitted questions about unusual, noteworthy or historic people, places and things in Charlotte. Submit inquires to davidaaronmoore@post.com.
Charlotte used to have several drive-in movie theaters. With warmer weather finally here, I started to remember what a good time it was to watch a film outdoors. I'd pile in a car with friends, and we would spend the night outside in lawn chairs or on the hood of the car, watching some crazy horror flick. I thought it would be fun to go again, but I can't seem to find any. Are they all gone.? - Darryl Johnson, Belmont
Yes and no. In Charlotte proper, drive-in theaters have gone the way of restaurants like Wiener King and mass transit like the city's old trolley system. Up until last year, there was the old Belmont Drive-In, just across the Gaston County line, but it has since closed.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Culture Weekend Wonders: Bacon-flavored condoms
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 10:07 AM
As you kick off your weekend, ponder this ...
Just when you thought the bacon craze was on its way out the door, the guys who brought us bacon salt, baconnaise, bacon popcorn, bacon shaving cream and whole plethora of other bacon-flavored products have now released ... drumroll please ... bacon-flavored condoms.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Sex and Love / Culture Forget dating websites: Lake Norman man turns to billboard to find love
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 2:40 PM
You gotta hand it to him: Gordon Engle is bold.
The Lake Norman man spent $5,000 on a billboard ad on Interstate 77 in north Charlotte, advertising his desire to date. According to WCNC's Dianne Gallagher:
The billboard is simply a photo of Engle playing the guitar with the words "...I'm Gordy. Let's have dinner." A website is listed below it."From the beginning, I thought it was a great idea," said friend Jeff Charles. "It's a 'Gordon idea,' and I want to do everything I can to help him."
Interested ladies can visit the website, http://www.helpgordyfindlove.com/, or read the full story here.
Culture A new father takes the American Muscle Car Challenge
Posted By Jeff Hahne on Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 10:15 AM
As the 38-year-old father of a 4-month-old baby girl, my sources of entertainment (outside of my job) have become fairly limited. I've found simple joy in going for a walk with her on a warm day or getting to change a diaper that hasn't been pooped in. Oh, how times have changed ...
When I was contacted about a media opportunity giving local journalists the chance to drive three American muscle cars to find out "How fast can you go?" - I jumped at the opportunity. The only time I've played that game before was when I was in college, driving my little blue Plymouth Sundance like a bat out of hell on my way to cover Music Midtown in Atlanta. I scared the shit out of my two co-worker passengers. (The answer at that time was 114 mph - sorry, Mom.)
The American Muscle Car Challenge is the latest experience from the people who created the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Instead of sitting in the stands, watching your favorite NASCAR driver take 200+ left turns around the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the American Muscle Car Challenge (which opens in Charlotte on April 12) lets the average Joe burn rubber on the track via a testing process in three hearty American cars - a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, a Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 and a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. (The tests are done in the opposite direction from NASCAR to make it more likely an errant driver will cruise onto the grass instead of into a concrete wall.)
After a brief class, participants are paired with an instructor and drive each car through a practice lap and official test for a total of six laps. Each test consists of four stations - acceleration of 0 to 60 mph; braking efficiency from 60 mph to 0; cornering capability (driving around a curve) to determine lateral G forces and, of course, top speed.
So, how does it compare to the thrill of changing a diaper? I guess it depends on the driver (and baby?) ...
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Opinion / Culture Charlotte among top 10 least-hipster cities in America?
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Hold on to your warm PBR cans. According to a real estate blog that took into account, among other factors, young people, dive bars and vegetarian restaurants in the 30 most populous cities in America, Charlotte is the sixth least hipster.
According to movoto.com:
To create a list of the least hipster cities, we first needed to get inside the mind of your average hipster. We scoured the Internet and swapped stories, and came up with a list of criteria that cities needed to become hipster havens. Once we figured out what these criteria were, we turned our findings on its head.
So, they took into account how much of the following was in a city: young people, walkability, bikeability, vintage stores, dive bars, vegetarian restaurants, artsy jobs and vinyl stores.
Five Texas cities made the top 10, including El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.
Read the results here.
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Question the Queen City: The unsolved death of Delette Nycum 2
The trial that followed was nothing short of a Charlotte version of the O.J. Simpson spectacle.
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Question the Queen City: Pianist and singer Chris Kelly 2
The longtime local lounge singer is 83 and lives in Greensboro.
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5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
