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News & Opinion
Bojangles and the Threat Posed by Private Equity Pirates
Outside of the Charlotte Hornets, there is perhaps no local brand more revered than Bojangles, the regional fast food chain that opened its first location at the corner of West Boulevard and South Tryon Street in 1978. As local historians know, the restaurant was started by Jack Fulk in 1977.…
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Arts & Culture
Marking Two Years at Independent Picture House with ‘The Bikeriders’
As you turn right onto Greensboro Street off of Sugar Creek Road, you’re met with the juxtaposition of an old version of Charlotte that seems to be actively fading as a new city takes its place. An abandoned lot that was once home to a supermarket seemingly now only houses…
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News & Opinion
Sam Ash, Gold Tone and the Importance of Neighborhood Music Shops
While perhaps expected in the wake of news about widespread closures up and down the East Coast, it was still jarring when confirmation came in May that Sam Ash Music would be closing all of its locations over the summer, with the Charlotte location expected to close by the end…
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Arts & Culture
HeroesCon Returns to Charlotte with Giant-Sized Mini-Con
I’ve never been to a convention before, not a Comic-Con, not a HeroesCon in Charlotte, not even a more … conventional convention (unless we want to count growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal church and going on family outings to out-of-state revivals at the Grand Ol’ Opry, but that’s an…
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Visart Diaries
‘Kills’ Me Now: A Full History of the Halloween Movie Franchise
Despite my desire to stay retired from my movie-writing career, I’ve been pulled back in by my editor and, more important, my love/hate relationship with the Halloween franchise. My need to write about the latest Halloween Kills flick outweighed my need to hang up the pen. I promise we’re going…
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Visart Diaries
‘Society’ Brings Body Image Issues to Another Level
The best horror and science fiction always tend to have a social awareness to them, even if you have to squint a little to see it in the 1989 coming-of-age flick Society. Without giving too much away, the plotline at its most basic follows Beverly Hills teenager Billy as he…
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Arts & Culture
‘The Corndog Man’ is a Deep-Fried Look at Southern Hypocrisy
I’ve spent my whole life in the South and I honestly can’t imagine living anywhere else. I was born and raised in the Monkey Junction area of Wilmington. I visited family in neighboring Leland and spent summers “vacationing” in Dawsonville, Georgia, hometown of NASCAR legend Bill Elliott, aka Awesome Bill…
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Arts & Culture
The Return of Joe Bob Briggs
The man, the myth, the legend, Joe Bob Briggs will be in Charlotte on 4/20, and while that sentence may make some people explode with joy, others will surely ask, “Who?” To explain who Joe Bob Briggs is, I need to lay the groundwork for the concept of movie marathon…
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Arts & Culture
Zombie Movies Ain’t Dead, They Just Needed ‘The Battery’
What does a movie made with $6,000 look like? In the case of 2012’s The Battery, pretty damn good. I’ve been hearing about this film for a while but it honestly took me this long to check it out because of zombie fatigue. Reviews of the film all read the…
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Arts & Culture
Two-Lane Blacktop: The Great American Road Movie
James Taylor and Dennis Wilson may not be two names that immediately get you thinking about street racing and illegal drag racing. But maybe they should be. Monte Hellman’s underrated 1971 car racing flick Two-Lane Blacktop is a film that we should be discussing in schools and at dinner parties…
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Columns
VisArt Diaries: ‘Chaos’ in the Cave
One of the many things I’ve ranted about in this column, but maybe not often enough, is the back room theater in Visart Video. On a weekly basis, and for less than $5, you can watch an often hard-to-find and potentially yet-to-be-released film in an intimate setting. The theater seats…
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Visart Diaries
VisArt Diaries: On the Road
Touring in a band can be a lot of fun, and getting to play music in a front of a new audience every night can be rewarding. It’s mind blowing that anyone outside of the local scene cares — in our case, cares even more than the local scene, to…
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Arts & Culture
VisArt Diaries: ‘The Fourth Man’ Breaks Down Homophobic Tropes
For this installment of VisArt Diaries, I want to highlight some of the VHS that Visart has to offer. For those born in the new millennium, VHS stands for Video Home System, and refers to tapes that go into a videocassette recorder, or VCR. Now that that’s out of the…
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Arts & Culture
VisArt Diaries: Autopsy of a Horror Film
Happy 2019, we all made it, unless you’re not reading this, then I assume you’re dead. If you’re not dead, then welcome back. Let’s start with our resolutions for the year. I previously stated that I was going to read more, play guitar more and watch less movies. So far…
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Visart Diaries
VisArt Diaries: Embracing the Mythical Mockbuster
As you know if you read my debut VisArt Diaries column from two weeks ago, I’ve spent the last year trying to watch 365 movies, among other things. Well, you’ll be happy to know (or not care) that I recently reached my goal for 2018 — I am actually at…
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Arts & Culture
Visart Diaries: No Leg to Stand On
For the last few years I’ve been keeping track of every film I’ve watched. I thought it would be interesting to see how many I watched in a given year, but also helpful when friends routinely ask, “See any good films lately?” In the back of my mind, I always…
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