theCLog

By Matt Brunson

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
*1/2
DIRECTED BY Robert Zemeckis
STARS Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman

Officially, the title is Disney’s A Christmas Carol, which is acceptable since it sure as hell isn’t Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. While it might be true that this animated version retains more of the literary classic than might reasonably be expected, it’s also accurate to state that a key ingredient of the novel — namely, its humanist spirit — is largely missing from this chilly interpretation. Read the rest of this entry »

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By Matt Brunson

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
***
DIRECTED BY Grant Heslov
STARS George Clooney, Jeff Bridges

Loopy enough to stand out from the homogenized pack but not bold enough to truly go the distance, this eccentric satire (inspired by Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book of the same name) proves to be a modestly pleasing piffle in which journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor, sincere but straightjacketed by an undemanding role) searches for a great story on the outskirts of the Iraq War and finds one in Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). Read the rest of this entry »

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By Matt Brunson

COCO BEFORE CHANEL
**1/2
DIRECTED BY Anne Fontaine
STARS Audrey Tautou, Benoit Poelvoorde

Like Young Mr. Lincoln, Butch and Sundance: The Early Years and the Che Guevara yarn The Motorcycle Diaries, Coco Before Chanel is one of those films that promises audiences a peek at the formative years of a historical figure, in that underreported stretch of life before fame (or, in some cases, infamy) came calling. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to the Stupid Thing of the Week. North Carolina Republican Party chair Tom “I’m not gay, dammit!” Fetzer is throwing his party’s support behind the Palin/Beck faction and its move to purge the GOP of “moderates.” In a move that is leaving some political observers gasping or scratching their heads, Fetzer has invited New York Conservative Party congressional candidate Doug “Mr. Excitement” Hoffman to speak at the Republican Party’s Hall of Fame Dinner on Nov. 21 in Raleigh. Hoffman was endorsed by various Republican bigwigs – Palin, Pawlenty, Perry – over the GOP’s own candidate, Dede Scozzafava, who just wasn’t Neolithic enough for the new, improved, and increasingly nutzoid party.

Hoffman — who doesn’t even live in the New York congressional district in which he ran —  of course lost the race, giving that congressional seat to Democrats for the first time since the Civil War.  That’s success enough for Fetzer, though, who said Hoffman’s candidacy – against a Republican, remember – “inspired conservatives across the country . . . he will reach out to North Carolina conservatives to help us reclaim our government.” Well, good luck with that, Tom. Encouraging disarray in your own party is certainly one way to be remembered. By the way, here’s the kind of oratorical excitement you can expect from Hoffman if you head to Raleigh for his speech:

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Sometimes blogs are useful for simply passing along something worthwhile. If you’re like me and enjoy dark humor, like The Onion, and can’t stand even the thought of Glenn Beck, then check out this video from Onion News Network.

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Well, that’s a breath of fresh air. Mayor-elect Anthony Foxx says his first act as mayor will be to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. We’ve written about the USMCPA before, Mayor McCrory’s refusal to sign it, and City Council’s dithering on the issue. Check out this link for a reminder.

The irony of McCrory’s refusal to sign the USMCPA is that he was chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors environmental committee, which drafted and approved the measure in the first place. At the time, McCrory was bucking for a federal job — scuttlebutt had it that he wanted to be head of the EPA, thus his slot on the mayors’ environmental committee — but it’s one of the jobs he couldn’t talk his way into, sort of like the governor’s office. McCrory wouldn’t sign the agreement because it didn’t include nuclear power as a recommended power source. As the Observer pointed out at the time, McCrory’s objections were irrelevant since local governments don’t build nuclear plants. Local governments can, however, carry out the climate agreement pledge’s suggestions, such as preserving open space, enforcing land-use policies, promoting public transit, and inventorying greenhouse gas emissions in city operations.

At the time, of course, McCrory was on the payroll at Duke Energy, which wants to build more nuclear plants. Now, I’m not saying McCrory was in Duke’s back pocket, but … yeah, actually, that is what I’m saying. Also, I’m saying it will be a nice change to have a mayor who’s able to tell the difference between the public interest and corporate profits.

FYI, the linked column above is included in my upcoming book, Deliver Us From Weasels, to be released later this month. End of commercial, thank you and good night.

Mayor McCrory as Duke Energy mascot Reddy Kilowatt

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Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Nov. 6, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Here and Now exhibition at Joie Lassiter Gallery

•  Paranormal Investigators Convention at Ramada Airport South and Conference Center

• Eyes of the Elders CD release party at Snug Harbor

• The Lady’s Coffee exhibition at The Art House

• Charlotte Comedy Theater at Prevue Music Hall

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Check out these events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area this weekend— as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

Friday, Nov. 6

Paranormal Investigators Convention
Ramada Airport South
Things will get spooky during the Paranormal Investigators Convention, a three-day event which stops in Charlotte Nov. 6-8, and features a variety of seminars and workshops on paranormal activity and ghost-hunting led by experts in the field. This includes celebrities like Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango, and Tiffany Johnson of Ghosthunters, and more.

• Art Drop by Lark & Key Gallery tonight – during NoDa’s Gallery Crawl – for the opening reception of Revisit: A Group Exhibition. It features works by Duy Huynh, Charlotte Foust, Angie Renfro, Flora Bowley, Jen Swearington, Linda Plaisted and Sofia Barao. more…

• Music Charlotte music act, Eyes of the Elders, will celebrate the release of its new CD with a party tonight at Snug Harbor. Get out and support local music! more…

Saturday, Nov. 7

Emergence
Twenty-Two
Head to Plaza-Midwood tonight for the opening of a new art gallery called Twenty-Two. Its first exhibition is titled Emergence. It features funky abstract creations by artists Mike Watson and Nick Bloomberg.

• Festival Don’t get the wrong idea. Though there is a “Viking Village” at the 6th Annual ScanFest of the Carolinas, it’s not filled with ruthless brutes. Check out cultural displays on Scandinavian countries (that’s Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland), dance performances, authentic cuisine, arts and crafts and more during this fest. more…

• Special Event The Pig Pickin’ Oyster Roast at Common House will feature more than just barbeque, including live music, a cornhole tournament, and beer. more…

Sunday, Nov. 8

Runway for the Ballet
Booth Playhouse
Runway for the Ballet is a little like Project Runway meets So You Think You Can Dance, and it’s for a good cause. This fashion and dance affair benefits North Carolina Dance Theatre and will exclusively feature fashions from a variety of boutiques on the runway. NC Dance Theatre’s Innovative Works, will also be showcased.

• Theater Matthews Playhouse of Performing Arts presents performances of E. B. White’s classic tale, – about a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a spider named Charlotte – Charlotte’s Web. more…

• Benefit It’s good to laugh, and even better to be doing some good in the process. Charlotte improv group, The Chuckleheads will perform this special show at Sandtrap Bar & Billiards to raise funds Victoria Martinsen, a 6-year-old child with cancer. more…

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We send our young folks to war with a bunch of promises. Then, they come home and we break them. That sucks.

Fortunately, UNC Charlotte is doing the right thing and allowing students on the G.I. Bill to continue attending classes until the government gets their shit together.

Coming home from war and going to school — that’s the plan for many U.S. soldiers. But we’ve discovered the new GI Bill isn’t working like it’s supposed to.

Instead, many vets, including plenty in our area, are still asking, “Where’s the tuition money?”

“We have 463 total VA students,” said Alisa Roy, assistant registrar at UNC-Charlotte.

One of those is 23-year-old Army vet Tavoris Adams.

“I was stationed at Fort Bragg, then I went to Afghanistan,” said Adams.

Now, he’s studying computer science at UNCC. But, he ran into a snafu when the GI Bill did not come through with his college tuition.

“It was like a month late. I was kind of hurting at first,” he said. “I was just going to work and back to school, so I just had to save every penny I could.”

“Tuition and fees for an undergraduate student is about $2,000 a semester,” Roy said.

Adams is not alone and neither is UNCC. The VA is backed up with tuition payments around the country because of changes made to the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.

“Anyone that served longer than 30 days after 9-1-01 in the military is eligible, so there’s a volume that the VA can’t get caught up,” said Roy.

She says that UNCC is letting war veterans stay in school until the money comes through, but some colleges are kicking those students out for nonpayment.

Read the entire article at MSNBC.com.

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In my ongoing efforts to point out the neverending wackness of my homestate of South Carolina, I couldn’t have asked for more than Rodell Vereen. You may remember him as the guy who had sex with a horse named Sugar at Lazy B Stables in Longs, S.C., near Myrtle Beach and, when he was given parole, went right back and was caught again, having sex with the same horse. At the time of the second arrest, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me comic quiz show said maybe the problem was that Sugar is “an unusually alluring horse.” A judge took another view yesterday, though, and sentenced Vereen to three years in prison and ordered him to stay away from Sugar. There was no ruling on the possibility that Vereen was unstable – ba-da-boom.

Sugar enjoys a post-coital smoke

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