- Arts & Culture
Having Coffee with Sam Shapiro, Charlotte’s Hitchcock Expert
Alfred Hitchcock once remarked that his films were “intended to make people scream and yell and so forth, but no more than screaming and yelling on a rollercoaster … So, you mustn’t go too far because you want them to get off the ride giggling with pleasure.” For Sam Shapiro,…
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Duke Energy’s Political Donations Pay Off Through Rate Hikes
Like so many others living in the Charlotte area, local resident Katie Rothweiler was taken aback when she received an electric bill from Duke Energy that doubled anything she paid last winter. For a working artist living in a period of inflation, the fee was critical. “Working class people are barely…
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Steve Hofstetter Makes a New Home in Charlotte’s Comedy Scene
There’s an old adage in stand-up comedy that claims aspiring comics must have 10 years of experience performing in front of crowds to be any good. Steve Hofstetter, a veteran comic who moved to Charlotte earlier this year, has a more specific, tiered timeline: 7, 10, 15. “Seven [years] until…
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Stormy Daniels Tells Her Side During Duckworth’s Show
Former adult film star and memoirist Stormy Daniels, a tireless thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, wrapped up her tour in Charlotte on Sunday night at The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s in Uptown with a mix of stand-up comedy, sensational storytelling and a short Q&A session. Daniels, who…
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A Guide to the 2025 Ayrsley Retro Horror Series
Beginning today for its 12th running year, Ayrsley Grand Cinemas will host its annual Retro Horror film series, showing a slate of classic slashers and frightening flicks … and this year is stacked. From Sept. 26 to Nov. 6, you can watch Retro Horror films on any day of the…
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Greg Sestero Discusses ‘The Room’ Before IPH Double Feature
What’s it like when your claim to fame was starring in a film widely beloved for being bad? Greg Sestero is one of the rare people who can speak to that experience, having been the leading man in Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film The Room, which over the last 22 years…
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Am I Unhirable? A Tale of Functional Unemployment in North Carolina
At the end of 2023, I was laid off from my job of almost three years. “The company has had to eliminate your position due to insolvency,” the official termination letter read. As someone who survived the Great Recession, I was no stranger to the ins and outs of the…
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The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s Fills a Gap in the Local Scene
While the announcement of a new comedy room at Duckworth’s Grill & Taphouse in January arrived without much hype or fanfare, the opening of The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s has been a compelling development for those in the city who are aware of just how starved we are for small…
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Local Activists Rally Behind Mahmoud Khalil
Dozens of demonstrators took to the streets of South End on Saturday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student who was arrested earlier this month who now faces deportation for his role helping to organize his own peaceful protests at the college in support of Palestine…
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Shen Yun, the Falun Gong and Practicing What You Preach
If you’ve lived in Charlotte for any extended period of time — or in any city around the world that’s home to a decent-sized performing arts theater, for that matter — you’ve likely been witness to the awe-inspiring marketing campaign that is Shen Yun. Often featuring a dancer in mid-split…
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Sifting Through Meaninglessness and Grief with ‘The Monkey’
Why does anything happen, really? Director Osgood Perkins has certainly wrestled with this question at times, if not all the time, given the untimely passing of his iconic father Anthony Perkins due to AIDS-related complications in 1992 and mother Marisa “Berry” Berenson as a passenger on a flight that was…
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Clint Eastwood’s ‘Juror #2’ and the Decay of the Movie Studio
There’s a thing about the icons Americans look up to, the ones who are sent abroad as symbols of our culture: John Wayne, Elvis, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Clint Eastwood, for example. Eventually they just become empty idols, devoid of context and meaning. We stop seeing them as artists or even…
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ESSAY: Project Safe Delivery and the Impacts of a Broken US Postal Service
As co-owner of a long-running Charlotte-based indie record label, Self Aware Records, what’s now known as “snail mail” still plays a critical role in my professional life. I tend to mail items on a near-daily basis and, over the last year, I noticed something about how my outgoing mail is…
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‘The Substance’ Explores Feminism Through Body Horror
Despite my penchant for reviewing decades-old movies, today we’re going to explore something a bit more contemporary: Coralie Fargeat’s newest film, The Substance, starring Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley. Of course, this isn’t my first time writing about body horror for Queen City Nerve and, if I have…
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Ayrsley Grand’s Retro Horror Series Continues Into 11th Year
In a world surrounded by chains and mega-conglomerates, independence is a rare thing, and that is nowhere more true than with movie theaters. This year we’ve seen Alamo Drafthouse, a national cinema chain, announce bankruptcy, and while it was brought back from the brink of death by Sony Pictures, we’ve…
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Golden Green Hotel Faces Uncertain Future Following Fire
At 7:40 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2023, first responders were called to a four-alarm fire at Golden Green Hotel off Independence Boulevard in east Charlotte. Smoke bellowed out of the windows of the historic eight-story hotel as residents, travelers and employees filed out the front. Independence Boulevard was closed off…
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