MAY 17, 2012   Happy Birthday, Cool Jerk!

Dandelion Market 

is housed where Latorres dance club used to be on 5th Street, uptown Charlotte, right off of Church Street. (We loved Latorres for latin dancing so I was relieved to 

find it didn't close, it just moved next door upstairs-more about Latorres later).

Two of us ordered and split five "small plates". Each one a distinct flavor and generous portion, average price is $10.00 each. We loved the grilled lamb 
lollipops, pinky-red in the center; pick up these meaty pops by the rib bone! 

And the Prosciutto Crostinis: cheesy, crunchy, salty and yummy.  I can't wait to go back and try some more, so many choices. This is a G.B.O. (go back often) place. The atmosphere is cozy, aged brick walls with an open floor plan, it's a  real neighborhood  bar with an Irish pub feel. Quick service and each dish served up piping hot right off the stove. Maybe it's the rampant A.D.D. festering in all of us, but I love sampling many flavors in one hour sitting rather than waddling through one entry that you might not even like! The beer list is extensive and many of the mixed drinks feature my favor liquor, elderberry flavored  St. Germaine (click on it) which we discovered five years ago in P-town, Cape Cod. Not always easy to find in the ABC stores, ask for it and make sure they stock it. 

                                        Dandelion Market | Charlotte, NC (click on it)

And if your hips don't lie (click for hip action!) go to Latorres Disco next door on 5th Street! The club is revamped and gorgeous!

                        

 For you who wish to shake your bootie all night long, this top floor disco pulsates and features the best sound system and intelligent light system around. We went many times to the old location and loved watching the dancers who came out just to strut their stuff on the dance floor. Sometimes I would actually get up and dance!

        Beach Party kicks off May 18 FRIDAY at 10pm. Tickets $20.00 at the door.

Speaking of Latin Dancing       

Tues-  May 29^th - FREE Salsa Dancing Classes provided by the Charlotte Latin Dance Group 

7:00- 11:00 pm

 Villa Antonio's at their South End location (next to Pier One)

Charlotte

·        Villa Antonio has $5.00 bar appetizers and $6.00 drink specials     every night at the piano bar-and what a bar it is!

Extending "Restaurant Week" throughout the summer, go to Villa Antonio's for a 3 course prix fix dinner menu: $30.00 per person any night of the week. We often go to Villa Antonio's at their sister location in Ballantyne for family celebrations and authentic Italian cuisine. Great service and a beautiful atmosphere. Piano bar in both locations.

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DISCO IS NOT DEAD!

So sad to hear that Donna Summers, super Disco Queen and iconic bad girl of the 70's and 80's,  died today at the age of 62. She had battled with cancer.

  Five time grammy winner and the first artist to have three back-to-back No. 1 double albums, remember these hits if you are old enough, year after year:

 1975 Love To Love You Baby-the moaning and groaning from Donna was enough to set everyone groovin' in the disco's!

1977 I Feel Love 

1978 LAST DANCE (click here)

1979 Hot Stuff

1979 Bad Girls

1983 She Works Hard for the Money

1989 This Time I know it's for Real

I wasn't into disco music but my mom was! She didn't go "clubbing" but she loved to  blast Donna Summers and Barry White on our record player. Can't Get Enough -I know it by heart! We would  do the hustle (click) in the living room and mom would watch!
 I adored  the revamped version of  I FEEL LOVE (click here) in the Blue Man Group's 2009 show featuring Venus Hum on vocals which I enjoyed in Charlotte. Wild!  
Can you name the two songs that the Blue Men start to play in this video before Donna Summers' song. Email me: kbshoots55@gmail.com and I will post the correct answers. 

                                                        VEGAS with the BLUE FAKE MEN!

"Once you have established yourself as an icon in your field, it is important that you pay tribute to some of the great rock legends that came before you."- the Blue Man Group. 

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Dance like there's no one watching...if you haven't seen this New York

ensemble company perform, now is your chance! Right now till Sunday 

at the intimate Knight Theater, uptown, feast your eyes on dance that 

cannot be rivaled. Lucky to have seen the group perform twice, once in New York  WITH the incomparable and legendary Judith Jameson and then again last year in Charlotte, I am amazed at their skill and artistry!
For tickets, click here.
   

                                


















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Russell Brand look-alike but much cuter, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros puts on a performance that rivals crowd pleasers such as The Boss, Bruce Springsteen or even Jim Morrison dare I say! Don't judge till you see him yourself in person!

Russell Brand

  Alex Ebert

May 16,  Fillmore Charlotte: all eyes riveted on his every move, the packed-like-sardines crowd watched transfixed as Alex weaved and bobbed shoeless across the stage. Sitting often on the edge, his non-stop energy starts with a slow build up, engaging the audience to sing along, then ending with everyone hollering at the top of their lungs and jumping up and down in unison! The show was one of the best I have witnessed in ages! I can't say it's only rock and roll...it's more like a band of crazy folkie troubadours onstage. The band numbers 11 or 12 performers as I counted with organ, piano, trumpet, accordian (OMG), two drummers, guitars, back up singers, a wailing violin all with voices and instruments tuned to each other's perfectly executed improv.

My fav tune and one you probably have heard and not known who it was, HOME (click here) I took the shaky video! Ah, home-let me come home, home is where I want to be.

            
The Wanderlust KINGs
Coming MONDAY to the Fillmore in Charlotte is another lunatic ensemble whom I just discovered: Gogol Bordello.  Insane is how I describe this musical band of gypsies! Formed in 1999 in lower Manhattan, band members of all nationalities merged for musical madness. Watch the satirical Immigraniada (We Comin' Rougher) (click here) song and see how long you can take it! Right in your face, no punches here, weird Al Yankovic's cousin (not really) is SERIOUS about his schtick.
Do NOT miss the show on May 21.

Gogol Bordello  Date: Mon, May 21, 2012 08:00 PM  Onsadates and times

Interesting junK: "Gogol" comes from the name Nikolai Gogol. As one of the most influential writers in Ukrainian and Russian literature, Gogol paved the way for the likes of Kafka andDostoyevsky. He also serves as an ideological influence for the band because he "smuggled" Ukrainian culture into Russian society, which Gogol Bordello intends to do with Gypsy/ East-European music in the English-speaking world. -sourced from Wikipedia.

BTW: The Fillmore Charlotte is one of the coolest (literally, the A/C was blasting!) and most intimate venues to watch your favorite bands! We have witnessed Ray Davies, The Cult, Flogging Mollies, just to name some recent shows! You can get as up front and personal as you want with the band, as long as you don't mind the gang of rockers who mob the stage singing, dancing and maybe moshing...(yikes!) 

General Admission usually $25.00 gives you standing room only which is great if you want to feel the pulse and dance; otherwise you can spend extra bucks to get the VIP section which is roped off and guarded like a castle by a muscle bound bouncer and a checklist checker who seemed oblivious to the music and show! (Totally engaged with her texting buddies on her cell, she really illustrated just how far texting can take you: i.e. in front of oncoming trains, crossing streets in traffic, blowing through red lights, and missing an entire concert. A loud one at that!) And tweens are allowed into the shows.                The I.D. proofed adults are banded for drinks. 

Speaking of...who remembers the OLD Fillmore EAST in New York? 

Tell me about it, I missed that one, too young. 

Rock concert promoter, Bill Graham closed it's doors in 1971.

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smART: May 18 FRIDAY

 Again it is time for the Arts Market at the Neighborhood Theater, NoDa, way uptown Charlotte.  So much cool stuff to see, fun places to pop into and eat, drink and just be darn merry!

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"Making the world more open and connected" and shamelessly gobbling up our precious hours...HOW CAN WE IGNORE 28 year old, New York born, Mark Zuckerberg on the brink of his next grand adventure expected to reap in 6 billion smackers: Facebook goes public! A fad or a fashion, the hemp or cashmere hoodie that  Zuckerberg (click on him) wears 24-7 has become his signature (Old Navy sells them for $249.00!) and has incited many rants amongst wall street business folk.

Michael Pachter, the Wedbush Securities analyst who was the first to give the Facebook IPO a "buy" rating, told Bloomberg TV:

"Mark and his signature hoodie: He’s actually showing investors he doesn’t care that much; he’s going to be him. I think that’s a mark of immaturity. I think that he has to realize he’s bringing investors in as a new constituency right now, and I think he’s got to show them the respect that they deserve because he’s asking them for their money."

I disagree! Let's recall Apple's founder, Steve Jobs' black turtleneck, was he cool or what! Do genius minds spend time on their looks or do they maybe, just maybe, have bigger and better issues to deal with?Ya think? 

                                  Do they want to be admired for their clothes or for their minds?

These guys can wear whatever they want and it's we who judge who have to GROW UP! 

Frankly, I am amazed at how many decades men have donned daily boring grey or navy, two piece suits glammed up (not really!) with alternating colored ties and socks.

                                               Come on guys!

Regroup-and think this over, get creative. Wear a skirt maybe, why not! SKIRT Magazine, (remember that one- defunct in 2011) featured a monthly photo of a man in a skirt. Readers loved it and it definitely caught your attention.

Blogger Bill Clearlake said it succinctly in 2006, "Guys just want to be comfortable and many men are discovering that skirts are more comfortable for the male body than pants. Pants bind and chafe. They rub and restrict movement. There’s the “three drops” problem caused by our plumbing getting kinked on all that material. It’s even been demonstrated that pants can lower a man’s sperm count by raising the temperature of his testicles which inhibits sperm production. Cooling the testes with ice is a common medical treatment to increase sperm count and motility. Many urologists claim that tight pants can even contribute to or aggravate prostate problems."

                    Be brave! Like Braveheart, real men DO wear skirts (click here). 

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Practice WOTD’s (word of the day)


Guns and Butter diplomacy:  Exporting anything to fatten up the world and arm it for permanent bloodshed.


Hipsturd: Hipsters who aren't really hip but copy others who are.


Global Weirding: extreme unpredicatable weather trends that give credit to the theory of global warming.


JEET: "Did ya eat?"


Pinterest: a new social network website where you can sign up and share your ideas, likes, etc. with other users.

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Last blog's WHERE IS THIS was answered correctly by Oliva! It was Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden.


                 WHERE IS THIS?

send guesses to kbshoots55@gmail.com

Sony NEX-7 Black Digital SLR Camera With 18-55mm Lens - NEX-7K/B