Attention rogue helicopter pilots, the team formerly known as George Shinn’s Charlotte Hornets has a new owner. Tom Benson, who already owns the New Orleans Saints, bought New Orleans’ NBA franchise from the league, a year and a half after Shinn sold the team. That’s given life to several movements that want to bring the Hornets name back to…
Courtesy, Newberry Opera House Charlotte's lucky to get great bands — "combos" as my parents, who were teens in a small town in North Carolina in the 1950s, still insist on calling them — and theater. I mean, Madonna will be Vogue-ing in the QC on her upcoming world tour. For about $500 per ticket, but still. Even as we have…
Courtesy, Chris Trapper You may not realize it, but you've heard Chris Trapper. His songs and voice have been on everything from hit movies — including a Farrelly Brothers classic — to daytime TV. Don't miss the chance to see him live at The Evening Muse on April 20. Revue: Your songs are everywhere — in hit movies and TV shows like…
Click on photo for larger view.Left to right: Mayor Anthony Foxx, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan speaking to media at the Charlotte Convention Center. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who in February was nominated as permanent chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, is visiting Charlotte for a couple of days. This morning, the Democratic National…
This weekend's top picks allow you the opportunity to get your groove on, get your laugh on, and/or get your cry on. Michael Bellar and the As-Is Ensemble. I started feeling hip just listening to the music of this experimental jazz group on their website. The group has recorded three studio CDs – “Turned On Turned Up” (2009), “Like It Is,”…
Courtesy, Carolina Tix Was Freddie Mercury the greatest front man of all time? Although I never saw him live, video evidence suggests — to me, anyway — that he was. He edges out the preening, prancing, and inexplicably sexy Mick Jagger and beats matinee idol Roger Daltrey by a mile. (And, I'm a fan of The Stones and The Who and have…
Photo by Greg MooneyA pyramid scheme. Jeff Whitty won the 2004 Tony for Best Book of a Musical for Avenue Q, which ran on Broadway for six years before moving Off-Broadway, where its run continues. Puppets have never been as foul-mouthed (or closeted) as those who dwell on that street. He went on to write the book for Bring It On: The…
Friday already? Time to check in on the week's inanity, courtesy of Jeremy Markovich (@deftlyinane). —R.T. The Mega Millions jackpot is up to $500 something million $640 million. You are not going to win it. I cannot stress this enough. But let’s indulge for a second. What would you do with the money? “I’m going to Vegas and party…
Most Fridays, I turn the blog over to Jeremy Markovich (@deftlyinane) for a little thing that we like to call This Week in Charlotte Inanity. For a few weeks, we called it something else. But no one got the pun. (Perhaps it was a bad pun.) So in an effort to make things less confusing, we are calling it what…
Courtesy, Charlotte Symphony The Charlotte Symphony announced the 2012-13 Pops season yesterday. There’s a lot to look forward to, but I’m especially excited about the angelic-voiced Natalie Merchant returning to town. The full lineup is: THE MUSIC OF BILLY JOEL on Friday September 14 and Saturday September 15, 2012. Michael Cavanaugh, vocals and piano. It's The Piano Man's songbook played by a…
Most Fridays, I turn the blog over to Jeremy Markovich for his recap of This Weak in Charlotte. Yes, we spell it that way on purpose. —R.T. I was last at an Olive Garden in 2001, when I won a bet with an intern and forced her to take me there to enjoy soup and salad and unlimited bread…
Courtesy, Carolina Tix Who is the real Martin Short? It's hard to tell. He becomes his characters so fully — Meryl Streep-like — that we never really get to glimpse the man behind them. We won't get to know him any better when he comes to the Knight Theater on March 31. But we will be laughing our arses off, I'll bet. Short…
Courtesy, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte There are enough thrills and scares going on this weekend to make it feel like Halloween. Let's start with the original master of the macabre. Edgar Allan Poe was wigging people out long before Stephen King ever wrote about possessed cars. Children's Theatre brings Tales of Edgar Allan Poe to eerie life this weekend. Let's just say…
Courtesy, Mandolin Orange 1. Mandolin Orange, an up-and-coming acoustic folk duo, is from Chapel Hill. Their Twitter feed reveals they're diehard UNC fans, but Duke fans should not be dissuaded from listening. 2. They opened for Rosanne Cash when she was in Charlotte in December 2011. I was in the sold-out crowd that night at McGlohon Theater and felt like I did…
When I was in high school, if you wanted to prove you were a man and not a boy, you took your girlfriend to Hatchet Hollow. It was a dirt road that ran across a rickety old bridge in the middle of some woods in western Pennsylvania. We all knew the story: somebody was thoroughly chopped into little bits down…
Credit: letsmove.govThe First Lady is regarded for her fitness regimen, and in 2010 she launched a campaign to get kids moving. UPDATE: Click here to see photos from Mrs. Obama's appearance at the CIAA Tournament. First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama will join North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan and area school children for a Let’s Move! on-court event…
Courtesy, Charlotte Concerts Everyone's short on cash and time these days. If you have just one cultural outing this month, let it be our BFD. Let's hear it for the boys! The cherubic Vienna Boys' Choir is one of the best-known and best-loved choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but they hail from many other countries around the…
I like elevators insomuch as I use them, in tall buildings, as an alternative to the stairs. Let’s say I had an appointment on the 40th floor of the Bank of America Corporate Center. Would I walk up to it? No. I would not. Elevator? Don’t mind if I do. That’s me. And then there’s this guy. He lives in…
Charlotte magazine contributing writer and blogger Jarvis Holliday is also a producer/correspondent for a new, local news roundtable show called 282. The show debuted in January and airs each Monday, 6:30 p.m., on WTVI, the local PBS affiliate, channel 42 (channel 5 Time Warner Cable). Hosted by Carlton Hargro, each week 282 features guests discussing topics that are relevant to Charlotte. On the February 20…
I'm a big fan of basketball–yes, I even like the NBA–and I like underdog stories as much as the next person. So of course I've been caught up in the tale of Jeremy Lin. In case you get all of your news from The Apprentice and Auto Trader, Jeremy Lin is the out-of-nowhere starting and starring point guard for…
Note: Starting today, on most Fridays, I'll be turning Trade & Tryon over to the inimitable Jeremy Markovich for his installment of This Week in Charlotte Inanity. Perhaps you’ve heard of Tommy Jordan and his daughter. They’re from Albemarle. She complained about her chores on Facebook. He went Pulp Fiction on her laptop, shooting it eight times with his…
Credit: facebook.com/antoniovillaraigosaLos Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been nominated as chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. I don’t often participate in scheduled conference calls for reporters. As a journalist—and I think many of my colleagues would agree—I’m not fond of 1) waiting in line to ask a question or 2) asking questions that other reporters would be able to…
Courtesy, Charlotte Concerts The good stuff just keeps coming at us. I can't recall a January that was this full of shows I wanted to see. There's Love, Loss and What I Wore, which is more cultural phenomenon than play. It's not about high fashion. It's about women's clothes and what they tell the world about us. If you recall…
Credit: facebook.com/thedailyshowDuring the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was taped on location. After seeing so much of the television news hype and coverage of the Republican caucuses and primaries, as the process—and presidential candidates—go from state to state (currently they’re just south of us in South Carolina), it had me…
