Ten Things to Know: Culture Club is Coming to Washington DC

1) Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, NY, will be staging the play "Steve Martin's The Underpants," which depicts a young man who literally drops his drawers and is dealt with public humiliation. The play will be the troupe's season opener and it will run from Oct. 21-Nov. 8. Bill Fennelly directs.

2) The Both: A Rock duet consisting of veteran performers Ted Leo and Aimee Mann performs at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, on May 5th.

3) "While We're Young," a comedy directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts opens at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., on May 2nd (there is a concert there on May 1st).

4) Pauline McKee, 90, was refused a $41.8 million jackpot for Miss Kitty at a casino in Iowa, according to the BBC.

5) Bayern Munich won its 25th German title; the team faces Barcelona FC with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

6) The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC, named the best bookstore in Raleigh/Durham by "Indy Weekly" will be one of many bookstores celebrating Independent Bookstore on May 2nd.

7) Culture Club will be performing at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., a Washington, DC-suburb on August 10th.

8) "The Toronto Star" is reporting that the Canadian province of Ontario will give $1 million to relief efforts for the devastating earthquake which struck Nepal this weekend.

9) According to What the F*** Facts, the top export in America is cars, the top import in America is also cars. You do tend to see lots of Kia, a South Korean car, on the roads these days.

10)  Today is the 39th birthday of British actress Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine," pict. bottom)

http://syracusestage.org/

http://www.catscradle.com/

http://www.thelyric.com/

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/

http://www.wolftrap.org

http://www.culture-club.co.uk/

No Blog Entry Today as I am Sick as a Cat (we couldn't resist)

We believe this is a Van cat or an Angoran cat both of which are native to Turkey. We also think this image is from a cat club in Ankara, Turkey, which is the capital.

I suppose this is a good time to mention that The Beatles' tribute band Abbey Road Live, our of Athens, Ga., will play at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, on Jan. 17th at 9:00 p.m., and they are offering a matinee show on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Prices for the Friday show range from $10-12 and the Saturday matiness is $8 for children and $10 for adults.

We also want to salute our good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, for both the 10th anniversary of his blog (he is two years ahead of us) and his 5,000th blog entry. The latest entry is a moving tribute to Bill Overstreet, a World War II fighter pilot, from Roanoke, Va., our hometown, who died this week.

Knight is not to be confused with our other friend (well, in the Facebook sense) Keith Knight, who is an award-winning cartoonist for his work with "K-Chronicles" and his daily comic strip "Knight Life."

http://www.theknightshift.blogspot.com

http://www.kchronicles.com


http://www.catchannel.com

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.catchannel.com

Where's Josh Ritter?

For starters, we should point that our title is not to imply that singer/writer Josh Ritter is a missing person; it is rather a take on "Where's Waldo?"_ we are also going to explain where Ritter is performing in the coming weeks.

I have seen Ritter at Cat's Cradle three times in the last six years, and he is absolutely amazing in concert. Of course, now that I'm in my early forties, I'm glad I know the difference between Ritter and Andrew Bird.

Alas, the titles of his songs and records escape, but that's why we have Wikipedia right?

Here is where Ritter will be playing soon; and we are including a link to WXYC-FM, the student-run radio station of the University of North Carolina as he will be performing at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, a  community which literally borders Chapel Hill:

May 8 State Theatre Portland, Maine

May 9 Calvin Theatre Northampton, Mass.

May 11th and 12th 9:30 Club Washington, DC (both shows are sold out)

May 12 Cat's Cradle Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC

May 13 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC

http://www.joshritter.com

http://www.930.com

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.wxyc.org

http://www.whereswaldo.com

Record Store Day is Saturday

Albums from David Bowie, Herbie Hancock and the late Cem Karaca (1945-2004), a Turkish psychedelic music icon are among the selections one may find on any given day at an independent locally-owned record store, but Saturday is a day that has been marked as Record Store Day.

Some of the stores you may want to check out, depending on where you reside, may include Wuxtry Records in Athens, Ga. (with two other locations in the Atlanta-area), All Day Records in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, Enterprise Records in Portland, Maine, and Plan 9 Records with locations in Charlottesville and Richmond, Va.

Folk/rock singer Billy Bragg who we mentioned a few entries back is also performing a regular concert at The Cat's Cradle, which is in close proximity to All Day Records, on Friday, but we imagine he will be too busy with soundchecks to stop in that store. Hopefully, if you live in Chapel Hill, that will not be the case with you.


http://www.wuxtry-records.com

http://www.alldayrecords.com

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.billybragg.com

http://www.davidbowie.com

http://www.recordstoreday.com

http://www.enterpriserecords.net

http://www.plan9music.com

The Last 10 Films I've Seen-- A Lot of Docs

Greetings from the Spring Center Laundromat in silver Spring, Maryland, where we are blogging from live tonight....actually, they closed about three hours ago as their operating hours are from 8:00 a.m.-11 p.m. daily, but there is really such a place. We're not actually even in Maryland, but we thought it would be quirky to mention them.

Most of the last few films I've seen have been quite good, with the exception of "Troll 2" (1990) which I saw tonight at the Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va., which is about four and half hours south of suburban Maryland, but hey---it would be worth the drive!

"Troll 2" is truly a god awful film, but we knew that going in. In fact, a 2009 documentary about that film called "Best Worst Movie," directed by Michael Stephenson, who is the kid in "Troll 2" (he was born in 1978, so he is either 32 or 33 now), is also on this list.

Arta Doboraghi, age 31, an actress who is originally from Kosovo, left quite an impression in her portrayal as an Albanian immigrant in the 2008 Belgian film "Lorna's Silence," which features one of the most surreal sex scenes (involving Doboraghi) I've seen on film in a while. In fact, it occurs after the troubled couple has just broken up?!

"I Need that Record!" is a timely documentary about how modern technology and big box stores (Wally's World) have destroyed unique places like record stores and comic book shops across America. I was just thinking about that when I saw that a great video in Carrboro, NC, (next to the famed Cat's Cradle music club) which may have actually carried every Ingmar Bergman film ever made has, as of this year, closed its doors.

"Beeswax," which was filmed on location in Austin, Tex., is yet another unique slice of life film from Andrew Bujalski, who is arguably the Orson Welles of 'mumblecore' indy films, which feature lots of talking but great, realistic dialogue. And, amazingly enough, he makes indy films which are not as depressing as Bergman's films (seriously, I think "Fanny and Alexander" was even more depressing than "Schindler's List;" even though it's a great film, I refuse to watch it- ever again!).

Here are the last ten films I've seen, and yes we should add that we got this idea from "Film Comment." I hope this doesn't result in a nasty email from Gavin Smith, the excellent editor of that magazine that I've subscribed to for nine years now:

1. "Troll 2" (1990, dir. Claudio Fragasso)

2. "Beeswax" (2009, dir. Andrew Bujalski)

3. "The Beaches of Agnes" (2008, dir. Agnes Varda. doc. France)

4. "Lorna's Silence" (2008, dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardene. Belgium)

5. "The Killer Inside Me" (2010, d. Michael Winterbottom.)

6. "35 Shots of Rum" (2008, d. Claire Denis, France).

7. "I Need That Record!" (2008, d. Brendan Toller. doc.)

8. "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" (2010, dirs. Rick Stern and Anne Sundberg. doc.)

9. "Best Worst Movie" (2009. dir. Michael Stephenson, doc.)

10. "Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Seuss," dir. Felix Moeller. doc. Germany)

At Cat's Cradle- John Hiatt and The Combo (July 22)

For those who live in Raleigh or Greensboro and are avid John Hiatt fans, the country/rock hipster will be performing at The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC (Chapel Hill), on Thursday, July 22. His act is actually called John Hiatt and The Combo. Tickets are $35 and the show starts at 8 p.m.

Hiatt is known for his hit songs like "Have a Little Faith in Me," "Thing Called Love" and "Slow Turning."

His latest album is "The Open Road."

Hiatt is performing in Winnipeg, Canada, tonight, and he also give concerts at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Mich., on July 18 and WolfTrap in Vienna, Va. (outside DC) on July 21.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- School Lunch Menu

Friday night while I was waiting for the Neil Diamond All-Stars to perform (don't laugh) at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC (outside Chapel Hill), I came across a listing for the local elementary school lunches for this upcoming week in "The Carrboro Citizen."

I thought it would be a great segment for my two blogs. We will list the items that will be served for school children in the Chapel Hill, NC, (Orange County) area for Wednesday on this blog. We will list Thursday's items on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

For Wednesday, 5/19: Oven Baked BBQ Chicken (pictured) w/White Roll or Ham and Cheese Wrap as well as Baked Beans, Seasoned Collard Greens and Fresh Grapes.

This weekend, Cat's Cradle hosts Superchunk on Friday and Railroad Earth, a popular band at FloydFest (music festival held in Floyd, Va, every July) on Saturday.

UPDATE- Cat's Cradle announced today that Saturday's Railroad Earth concert has been indefinitely postponed. But, we can tell you that the Floyd Country Store in Floyd, Va., will be hoping this weekend!

At Cat's Cradle in Carboro, NC.........

In an effort to lure younger folks, we will devoting periodic blog entries to some cool clubs here in the region, including The 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, and The Cat's Cradle in Carboro, NC (just outside Chapel Hill).

Southern Culture on the Skids, a band with connections to my hometown of Roanoke, Va., will be at Cat's Cradle on Sat., Dec. 13. The show costs $12 in advance, $14 at the door. Opening act is The Hall Monitors. The Cat's Cradle's phone number is 919.967.9053

According to wikipedia, the band formed in Chapel Hill in 1983, and they are known for playing rockability, surf rock, country music combined with outrageous humor. They are also known for throwing fried chicken and banana pudding into the audience!

SCOTS made it big with their song "Camel Rock" in 1995. Other songs by the band include "Cheap Motels" and "Soul City."

Other shows at Cat's Cradle include the 2nd annual Winterfest Reggae Jam on Dec. 27.

I was at the Cradle, a very cool non-smoking establishment, myself last week to see Mates of State, a band I had never heard of (though they are apparently fairly popular) and it turned out to be quite good! I was the only one in the bar drinking cranberry juice.

Useful Links:

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.scots.com