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Friday, September 4, 2009
Arts / News New exhibit at Lark & Key
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Lark & Key Gallery’s newest exhibit, titled New Works from Angie Renfro and featured potter Amy Sanders, will have its opening reception tonight from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Renfro’s works include oil paintings that capture everyday sights – like power lines - and landscapes. The exhibition continues through Sept. 27.
Boomer with Attitude / News Run for the hills – it’s SuperObama!
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Welcome to the Stupid Thing of the Week. This week’s winners are the shrill rightwingers who are foaming at the mouth about Pres. Obama’s scheduled short speech on the importance of education, next week via TV, to schoolkids all over America. “Socialist indoctrination!” “Commie propaganda!” “It’s just like Hitler!” All actual quotes from actual GOP state officials. Never mind that Republican President George Bush I spoke to American schoolkids via TV during his term. And, more to the point, never mind that the kids aren’t going to give a rip about what some old guy is talking to them about anyway. No president has magical powers that threaten to turn our children into socialist drones overnight, like some kind of reverse superhero. I can hear the intro to this new, dangerous superhero’s TV series now (with apologies to the producers of the 1950s TV show:
Faster than a Blitzkrieg! More powerful than Joseph Stalin! Able to wreck Republican dreams in a single year! Look – up in the sky! It’s a Nazi Fokker combat plane! It’s a Soviet MIG! No, it’s SuperOmaba!
That’s right, it’s SuperObama, strange interloper from another continent, who came to America with powers and abilities far beyond those of previous presidents! SuperObama – who can wreck the course of U.S. history, bend children to his will with a simple speech, and who, disguised as a mild-mannered president with a professorial bent , fights a never-ending battle for fascism, communism, and death for granny!
Film / Film Reviews / News Summer movie wrap
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 11:45 AM
By Matt Brunson
Best Cameo: Harrison Ford. Bet you didn't know Ford appeared in two movies this summer. Bet even Ford doesn't know he appeared in two movies this summer. Yet his split-second appearances in Bruno (ambushed on the street by the title character) and (500) Days of Summer (appearing in a Star Wars clip) resulted in two of the season's most hilarious moments. Runner-up: Arnold Schwarzenegger (sort of) in Terminator Salvation.
Worst Cameo: Will Ferrell in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. The Idiotic Man-Child strikes again. Runner-up: Mike Tyson in The Hangover.
Best Musical Accompaniment: David Bowie. The rock legend made his presence known at the multiplexes this summer. His theme from the Cat People remake, "Putting Out Fire," was employed in its entirety in an imaginatively filmed sequence in Inglourious Basterds, while his song "Heroes" functioned as a call to arms during the closing credits of the environmental documentary The Cove. He also served as the musical inspiration to one of the teen protagonists in Bandslam and even appeared in a climactic cameo. And making Papa Bowie proud during this period was his son Duncan Jones, who earned critical kudos for his directorial debut with the art-house film Moon.
Breakthrough Male Star of the Summer: Ryan Reynolds. Not only did Reynolds co-star with Sandra Bullock in the smash rom-com The Proposal, but his supporting turn as Wade Wilson/Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (another box office hit, despite the negative buzz) has led to the starring role in the proposed follow-up, Deadpool. Also on tap: the title role in another superhero adaptation, Green Lantern (like Deadpool, it's due in 2011).
Film / Film Reviews / News Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg: First Lady of TV
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 10:57 AM
By Matt Brunson
YOO-HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG
***
DIRECTED BY Aviva Kempner
STARS Norman Lear, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The poster for the documentary Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg states that the film is about "The Most Famous Woman In America You've Never Heard Of," and while that's probably not the case for everyone in the country (I'm willing to bet, for instance, that the historically challenged tea baggers and health care protesters have never heard of the likes of Betsy Ross, Harriet Beecher Stowe or Amelia Earhart in their sheltered, FOX-fed lives), that assertion doubtless applies to many learned Americans, even those well-schooled in pop culture.
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Friday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 4, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Opening reception for Contemporary Mosaic Art exhibition at Ciel Gallery
• Sea of Cortez at Neighborhood Theatre
• Comedians Matt Davis and DT Owens at Alive
• Ozric Tentacles at Visulite Theatre
• Ssshh Fridays at Happy Hour
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Film / Film News / News Opening Friday
Posted By Matt Brunson on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 3:47 PM
All About Steve - Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper
Carriers - Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine
Extract - Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis
Gamer - Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall
Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg - Documentary
News Pfizer's historic settlement
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Americans love to pop a pill, especially when their doctors are pushing them.
Here's some insight into who's pushing the doctors:
Pfizer will pay a record $2.3 billion penalty to settle an investigation into illegal prescription drug promotions.The settlement with the Justice Department includes a $1.2 billion criminal fine, the largest in U.S. history.
The case involves Pfizer's promotion of the painkiller Bexra and other medicines. Authorities said Pfizer's sales representatives created phony doctor requests for medical information in order to send unsolicited information to doctors about unapproved uses and dosages.
The world's largest drug company wined and dined doctors and sent them on exotic trips to induce them to prescribe its drugs including the impotence treatment Viagra and cholesterol medicine Lipitor, they said.
The overall settlement is the largest ever paid by a drug company for alleged violations of federal drug rules.
Of the civil penalty, $977,444 will go to North Carolina to resolve allegations that it improperly marketed the antipsychotic drug Geodon, Attorney General Roy Cooper said.
Read the entire News and Observer post here.
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Thursday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 3, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Shear Madness at Stage Door Theater
• The Charlotte City Comedy Tour at Upscale Restaurant and Lounge
• Author Ellen Crosby at Joseph-Beth Booksellers
• Subaru River Jam at US National Whitewater Center
• Karaoke at Irish Cue
News / Biz BofA, Wells Fargo flexing muscle
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Bank of America is still the biggest bank in America, for those who are counting.
A ranking released Wednesday by Virginia-based research firm SNL Financial shows that Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE:BAC) has total assets of $2.25 trillion and deposits of $971 billion.
And, Wells Fargo wants to give the U.S. their TARP money back ASAP.
Chief Executive John Stumpf says the San Francisco bank plans to repay “shortly” a government investment made in the bank during last fall’s financial crisis.Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) accepted $25 billion in taxpayer funds from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was designed to thaw the credit markets and boost the economy. So far, 10 banks have repaid the TARP money they received.
News Contract extended for Blackwater firm
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 8:54 AM
WTF? So, what our government is saying is that our own military can't handle these tasks -- that we need to outsource them to "The Shadow Army "crazies from North Cackalacky ... even though they're not licensed to operate in Iraq.
Is it April Fools Day? I mean, U.S. officials are kidding about this -- right?
The State Department said Wednesday it has extended a contract for protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq with a subsidiary of the security firm once known as Blackwater USA even though the company doesn't have a license to operate in the country.Spokesman Ian Kelly said the contract with Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats had been temporarily extended because the firm chosen to replace it is not yet ready to take over. The contract had been due to expire on Sept. 3 and be taken over a day later by DynCorp International, he said.
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5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
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Dumb criminal news
Trust us, lady, you'll have more room for your stolen foot cream if you leave your crack pipes at home.
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Live review: Moogfest, Asheville 1
Five memorable performances from the weekend.
