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The Gay Patriot
Instead of focusing on the ridiculousness of being a gay member of the Republican Party, the creator of Gaypatriot.org, who has ties to Charlotte, misplaces his sights on Obama's "dishonor" of the American flag and the "terror connection" behind the California brushfires. This blog is listed as "the internet home for the American gay conservative." Oxymoron, anyone?
Oh My Charlotte
At Oh My Charlotte, concerned citizens take the news into their own hands, reporting on any and everything they find interesting. One post cites the amount of available free parking (where?!) as "encourag[ing] our dependence on the automobile (and therefore foreign oil)." Blogger Purple Stars talks lovingly of his Mac after being dismissed on Halloween by that "ghoulish" PC: "My PC pulled a nasty trick on Halloween, that turned out to be fatal for the PC. The video card was working great then died. It was a perfect time to fully switch to my Mac. I had been wanting to switch for sometime now. So I'm now fully switched to the Mac full time now and using my Mac for work." Ah, amore.
Video Clips
Who the hell gave folks from the Q.C. video cameras and told them to post dumb shit on Youtube? Well, be glad they did. This is some funny stuff:
Terrorist Pussies
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zA1hyqA6UTY
In this clip, David Thompson enters the Charlotte Citizens Forum with the plan to discuss "Homeland Security." At first, he seems soft-spoken, quietly asking for an additional one minute to 30 seconds. Quickly, this ruse is aborted and Thompson begins to rant incoherently, jumping from issues with George Shinn ["that chameleon, lemon-headed coward terrorist pussy"], the arena's lack of ice, and "a rogue helicopter pilot" that shook up his Myers Park home. Very entertaining.
Housing Boom in Charlotte
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jw_ZyFE4IxE
Martin Bashir (you know, that British guy who really made Michael Jackson look like a nut) of ABC Nightline introduces this video on the booming real estate down South in Charlotte, Austin, Houston and up the West Coast in Seattle. This is in light of the 176,000 homes that were foreclosed on this year. The series called "Realty Check" interviews a group of people caught in the boom, including a broker/developer and a new transplant from Minnesota. Carl Fochler, the broker, brags that he's "made more farmers millionaires than the man with the balloons [Ed McMahon]."
International Day of Non-Violence
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1nh3CmrrslA
So ... this is such a cheerful clip, what with all the images of graves and flags and the most depressing song ever! Seriously, it's good to know there are people who care enough to string together pictures from the Arlington South Memorial located in Charlotte. Who knew? This was an important day in the lives of the people affected with the most constant result of the War on Terror, death. The women at CODEPINK have been a forefront of this debate since the beginning. A very unsettling clip, indeed, but maybe that's what is needed most right now.
Charlotte Gypsy Church
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GJf947D3cRM
The first image that comes to mind when speaking of gypsies is of a free-loving group of outcasts doing their own thing without a care in the world. Imagine the shock when you watch this clip and find the only gypsy thing in it are the flowered laurel pieces onstage. Archie Costello and company are just a bunch of regular Christians dressed in their Sunday best singing a song of praise. Somebody exaggerated.
WBTV News 1997
http://youtube.com/watch?v=17s59ky5Aao
"When You Need News." That was the slogan for WBTV News back in 1997. The first story of the day was the pursuit of an escaped convict. Steve Crump delivers the goods in his usual film announcer flair. Not bad for an independent filmmaker. Watch out when sunbathing alone near UNC-Charlotte. A college woman is given "the scare of her life" after being attacked in broad daylight during a lunchtime session. Charlotte in the '90s was no joke. Take a trip down memory lane and see if you remember most of the headlines.
It Came From MySpace
We logged onto MySpace and went searching for Charlotte-based artists with actual musical talent. Here's what we found:
Tropic Culture
This seven-member band plays a blend of Latin, reggae, pop, island and rock music, fusing it together into something they call "Tropic Pop/Rock." To give you an idea of how good Tropic Culture is, check this out: The band placed first at the Charlotte finals for the Emergenza Music Festival June 9 and then went on to win in final rounds at Columbia, S.C., and Nashville.
