Has It Really Been Five Years?
So I just watched the first half, as I mentioned, and Chris Paul is indeed great. He hit killer shots, made the solid as well as the spectacular pass, and generally proved that he is one of the top players…
News + Opinion
A Sign that Charlotte's Economy Is...
Over at the new Home Depot Design Center in Midtown, they have more business than they can handle. Word is, they hired double the usual number of designers. A typical designer carries a project load of no more twelve, but…
Your Car and the Needy Will Thank You
I received a press release this morning from United Way of Central Carolinas that I thought was worth sharing. This particular promotion makes giving too easy. Here’s an excerpt from the release: Jiffy Lube, Pennzoil, and United Way of Central…
Books, Web, Music
BOOKSMomma Loves Her Some Eggnog,by Tim Mikkelsen and Phyllis Wright"Every year during the holidays it's nice to just relax and have a cocktail. And then, after the holidays, it's nice just to relax and have a cocktail." If you're nodding…
Love and Basketball
Twelve years ago, one of my first assignments for this magazine was to put together the restaurant listings. I was pretty young at the time; fine dining was not a world with which I was well acquainted. So I sent…
Car Tunes
From the outside, it's a regular taxi cab—bright yellow with a light on top. But when you enter Billy Rivera's cab, you quickly realize that your trip will be anything but average."Hello. Welcome to the Kabby-Oke-Kab," Rivera will say as…
The Splendid Table
Although a formal table is threatening to go the way of the rotary dial phone—both are too cumbersome and take too long to use—it often makes a reappearance around this time of year. Out come the silver, the real linen…
Now THIS Is Newspapering
For Monday's paper, reporter Melissa Manware wrote this story about a jailed woman who was not allowed to pump breast milk for her baby. The two-month old has been crying incessantly, had a rash, and would not keep down formula.…
Sean "Talking Baby" Keenan Is Back
Together with director Blaine Miller, who was one of the co-founders of The Perch, Keenan has launched a new sketch comedy group called "Robot Johnson" (do I sense a Bob Johnson reference?). Starting December 7, shows are every Friday night…
Irene Neuwirth trunk show at Capitol!
Neuwirth's pieces adorn Hollywood's elite—Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, and Reese Witherspoon, among many others. And it's no wonder—her collection is simply elegant and can work either as a casual accessory or a dramatic centerpiece for more formal attire. (FYI: I…
Thinking Regionally with the Carolina Thread Trail
Some of this may sound familiar. The idea of a multicounty greenway system has been kicking around for years, but the recent popular sentiment mirrored that of one person at my table, who leaned over at one point to say,…
If You're Single, We Want to Hear From You
If you have any noteworthy experiences or anecdotes about single life in Charlotte, please share. If you'd just like to vent about being single in Charlotte, go ahead and do that, too. And if you're a former single who would…
The Show Goes On for Hamilton
My blog post yesterday explained how the current writers’ strike forced late-night talk shows to cancel their schedules this week. Hamilton, a Charlotte native, had been scheduled to perform on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno Tuesday (read yesterday’s post…
Monday Morning Quarterback
The Bobcats won their season opener for the first time in their four-year history. It was a pretty good game, until the team starting missing free throws like they were three-pointers. But they squeaked out the win over Milwaukee 102-99,…
Friday Night Lights
By now you should have read our feature in this month’s issue on the Bobcats (“Standing in the Shadows,” by Steve Goldberg). If not, what are you waiting on? The team’s bigwigs had a lot to say in Goldberg’s story…
Leaving. Fighting. Loving. Living.
This guy is not blinking, and he is screaming. And I mean screaming. Not just yelling to be heard over the loud music, but screaming at me so frantically that his voice cracks with every stressed syllable. He wants very…
Land of Distraction
What do you have when you get a room full of indulged, semieducated, distracted, media-addicted people? A jury pool.The two days I sat on a Mecklenburg County jury were full of surprises, so as we sat in the jury deliberation…
Books
Voices of Sudan, by David JohnsonIn 1983, civil war erupted in the east African country of Sudan. An earlier war had ended just nine years before, but the brutalities of this new set of battles and the starvation and social…
The War At Home
Sgt. Zachary D. Tellier, thirty-one, lived in Charlotte with his wife, Sara, before joining the military. According to published reports, earlier this year in Afghanistan, Tellier pulled two paratroopers from a burning vehicle, severely burning his hands in the process,…
It Takes Charlotte to Raise a Village
Meghann Gunderman says she loved growing up in Charlotte, attending Charlotte Country Day School, and that she has a wonderful and supporting family. She also says she always knew she "wanted to move out of North Carolina, travel, and go…
Standing in the Shadows
Way up in the corner of Charlotte Bobcats Arena, up in section 231, another bright orange cardboard "3" is hoisted over and tied to the railing as the arena announcer's voice spirals upward as if discovering puberty once again. "Matt…
Music
Live at the Jazz Corner, The Noel Freidline QuintetThe Noel Freidline QuintentJazz critic Whitney Balliett called it "the sound of surprise." Improvisation is the cornerstone of jazz, and when it's done right—in a balance of logic and serendipity—it creates a…
Um, Is the Apocalypse Coming?
What's going on? Global warming? I mean, we're happy and all for US Airways, and we hope this means they'll spring for some new seats that don't poke us in the rear with worn-out springs, but since when does an…
Observations on Plaza-Midwood
For one thing, nothing about the area around Central Ave and Thomas Ave feels manufactured--no Ballantyne or Birkdale (or uptown, for that matter) disease going on here. Each of the buildings looks a little different, there are mismatched tables and…
