Charlotte.com: Arts and Living

Star of stage debuts her new CD

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:55 EDT

Best known as Elphaba in “Wicked,” Tony-winning Broadway star Idina Menzel is stepping off the stage and hitting the road this summer to promote her debut album “I Stand.”

She'll perform Monday at the McGlohon Theatre as part of her 20-city tour.

Menzel wrote nine tracks for “I Stand,” which was produced by Grammy winner Glen Ballard and was released by Warner Bros.

The album is filled with ballads and pop songs that showcase Menzel's voice outside of the musical theater genre. I spoke with Menzel briefly about her new status as a singer. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q. How difficult is it to sing a song that you wrote yourself?

There is a sense of vulnerability that comes with singing your own music because you're putting your own thoughts and your own stories out there for people to pass judgment on. On the other hand, there's a real sense of creative freedom. I can sing them however I want and develop them.

Q. Is it intimidating to be on stage without the cover of a costume or character?

As a performer you're always putting yourself out there whether you're in character or not. I always find a connection between myself and my character. I just feel that it's a vulnerable place to be as a performer in the first place; to get up there and be open enough is a scary place to be.

Q. What should people expect from your shows, and is there any choreography involved?

The shows will be very organic, very spontaneous. There will be lots of songs from my album, a couple songs from the theater that we reworked and some cover tunes. … The song lineup is not going to be the same every time. But I will definitely not be dancing. I'm not a great dancer in the first place.

Q. Do you prefer theater or singing more?

Singing is something I love to do, and I'll keep writing music and touring. But simultaneously I'm developing new shows for the stage. I just want to do everything that feels good and to do work that I respect. I like vacillating between the two genres. I think it keeps me fresh.

Wanted: Information for our Arts Season Preview

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:56 EDT

The Observer's 2008-09 Arts Season Preview will be published in late August. Here's how arts groups can be included:

Send us: Your complete season schedule (include events through June 2009, or as far into the season as you know). Include the name of each production/show/concert/exhibit; brief descriptions; the hours, dates, locations (with complete street address) and ticket prices. Also include a phone number and your Web address that can be published for more information.

Submission deadline: 5 p.m. Aug. 8.

Send to: arts@charlotteobserver.com. Please put Arts Season Preview in the subject line. Or mail to Miriam Durkin, Arts Season Preview, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, N.C. 28230.

Online publication throughout the season:

To publish your information online, go to events.charlotte.com (no www). Log in and fill in the blanks. Allow one business day for the event to appear on charlotte. com.

World's oldest lifeguard still a hottie at 83

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:43 EDT

Ed McCarthy has to be the world's oldest sex symbol, with apologies to Paul Newman.

Both are 83, but McCarthy is a lifeguard at the Harris YMCA, and we all know how chicks dig lifeguards.

In fact, he's the world's oldest working lifeguard, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, which makes him sort of famous, too.

“He's hot in a Speedo,” says Lauren Satter, a water exercise instructor who is about half McCarthy's age. “When he walks by … the ladies in my 11 o'clock class look, hoot and holler.”

No one is more surprised by this than McCarthy's wife, Vivian, who is not athletic in the least.

Neither was Ed when they got married in 1964.

“What makes us a good fit?” she asks. “You got me. If we met as strangers today, we might not even have bothered with each other, which strikes me as funny.”

What happened to him?

Well, she says, that can be summed up in one word.

“Retirement.”

Triathlete, Senior Olympian and a mean cook

To say Ed McCarthy has had a lifelong love affair with water would be a lie.

He didn't take up swimming until age 62, and he didn't become a lifeguard until he was 67. A man of few words, Ed says his motivation was simple: “I wanted to be a better swimmer and I figured what better way than to be a lifeguard.”

It marked the start of his post-retirement transformation, which is apparently ongoing. In addition to swimming, he is currently the oldest active triathlete on record in North Carolina, and has become a Senior Olympian, with three gold medals to his credit this year in swimming events.

The title of world's oldest working lifeguard was bestowed on him last August, after he lost two previous bids. His competition had been another YMCA lifeguard, Haywood Stewart of Colorado, who held the title until he was nearly 90.

“I heard he retired, so I went after it,” says Ed. “I'm not sure yet if it will actually appear in the 2009 Guinness book (due in September), since they have 40,000 categories to pick and choose from. It would be nice, though.”

His many accomplishments are all the more impressive when taking into account a series of health setbacks over the past seven years, including treatment for prostate cancer and the removal of a cancerous kidney last year.

“I hurt my hip a few months ago, and it has hampered my running,” Ed says. “I try my best to work out five days a week, biking, swimming, running or working out in the gym. I do at least two of those every day.”

For the record, he also takes care of the lawn, does most of the grocery shopping, and helps deliver meals to shut-ins with the Friendship Trays program.

He's a decent cook, too.

How it all started

Vivian doesn't pretend to understand what has gotten into her husband since they moved from New York to Charlotte in 1991.

She attends water exercise classes, but her sport of choice is window shopping, followed by a leisurely lunch with the girls.

“When he developed a keen interest in all these sports, I said, ‘Good. Go for it, but not I',” she says. “Most people are slowing down as they get older. He's speeding up. Sometimes, he actually comes home and complains that he didn't swim fast enough or run fast enough that day. I say, ‘Hello! You're getting old!'”

The man she met back in 1962 wasn't much for exercise. At the time, both were living on Long Island and working for the New York Telephone Co., he as an engineer and she as a service representative. Neither calls it love at first sight when they met at a company party. In fact, she was surprised when he asked her out one night to see “The Sound of Music.”

They were married within two years and raising a family.

Looking back, she probably should have suspected Ed was more adventurous than she imagined. The first hint came when he was 43, and hurt his back shoveling snow off the driveway of their home in Seaford, N.Y.

Rather than taking time to recuperate, he began trying to tone up by running up to eight miles a day, five days a week. Then came the day he decided to learn to snow ski by joining the rescue patrol at a nearby ski resort. He was 62 at the time.

“He wasn't all that interested in swimming until we moved to Charlotte,” Vivian recalls. “First he joined the Y, and before you know it, he's preparing for the Senior Games and working as a lifeguard.”

She doesn't know it yet, but he's considering sky diving, too.

The Depression generation

Ed likes to credit his training as a Marine for just about everything.

Raised the son of a liquor store owner, he volunteered for the Marines against his father's wishes in 1943, right after graduating from high school. “I had no idea what I wanted to do in life,” Ed recalls. “It was a time of uncertainty, when all anyone wanted to do was go fight, and I wanted nothing more than to be in the infantry.”

By age 18, he was a Marine sergeant, repairing radar equipment in the Pacific. He never did get to meet the enemy face to face, but that didn't stop him from returning to active duty in the Korean War. He didn't see combat then, either, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

“Let's face it, it's an ego thing,” Ed says, explaining his lust for adventure. “I'm getting a kick out of doing these things, because I still can do them.”

Mark McCarthy, the oldest of his four children, says it's more than just ego, however. He believes his father is part of a generation of men who didn't really learn how to live life to the fullest until after they retired.

“They were born during the Great Depression and grew up tough during World War II,” says Mark McCarthy. “They were not frivolous or given to indulgent hobbies. They went to school, got a job, worked 10 hours a day, raised a family and cut the grass. It was only after my dad retired that he got a sense of self-awareness and confidence.”

Vivian agrees. She says retirement has become one big adventure for both of them.

“He's totally enjoying life and doesn't want it to end,” she says. “We joke that we are getting older, but we're not ready yet. We're not ready to go.”

It doesn't bother her, either, that Ed is changing faster than she can keep up.

“The basic qualities that attract people never disappear,” she says. “It's not about growing apart. It's about growing.”

The cancer again

Ed guesses he has made 10 rescues as a lifeguard, most of them kids who simply “needed a little help.”

Lauren Satter also credits him with preventing several heart attacks at the pool, when he chased down a senior who forgot to put on a bathing suit. “I had a class in the pool and this man came out wearing only his flotation belt. My class was speechless,” she says. “It's so loud around the pool that the man couldn't hear Ed yelling at him. He finally caught up with the guy and wrapped a towel around him. All the man said was: ‘Oh, I thought it was kind of drafty.' It was hysterical.”

Ed's goal is to work indefinitely as a lifeguard, but he has been forced to take some time off.

The kidney surgery he had in 2007 didn't get all the cancer, and tests show it has spread. A few weeks ago, Ed began chemotherapy and it has robbed him of his stamina for the time being.

There is no doubt in his mind that the therapy will work. The question is if it will work quickly enough to fit his schedule.

Yes, the man still has a schedule to keep.

“I have qualified for the N.C. Senior Games in Raleigh in September and I plan to swim in four events,” he says. “I think I'll be strong enough by then.”

That's how sex symbols are.

A puppet show! (Leave the kids at home)

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:49 EDT

There are at least three remarkable things about “Avenue Q,” and only one is dirty.

First, the show that comes to the Belk Theater on Tuesday won three 2004 Tony Awards – best musical, best score and best book of a musical – and beat “Wicked” in each of those categories.

Second, its owners decided not to tour right away. Instead, they signed with casino owner Steve Wynn for an exclusive run in Las Vegas, starting in August 2005. (Not that this deal was a blockbuster: The New York Times reported that the show played to two-thirds capacity for eight months in the 1,200-seat theater.)

Third, and most important, it's about puppet lust.

Oh, there are other themes: learning to accept people as they are, identifying our own shortcomings, dealing with dilemmas from racism to homophobia to depression. The show, which includes both human actors and oversize puppets, is set in a New York neighborhood where former child star Gary Coleman (played by a woman) is a happy landlord.

But the key words are (let us repeat them, so you don't bring the kids): PUPPET LUST. Any show that features characters such as Lucy the Slut and porn-obsessed Trekkie Monster – not to mention an intimate moment one reviewer described as “a puppet sex scene played to a strobing rock number” – is focused on what Shakespeare called “making the beast with two backs.” (Or, in this case, with two rods up the backs.)

You may not realize puppet lust is a long and honorable artistic tradition. I'm not hinting at suppressed inclinations that may never have become overt. But it's no coincidence two “Avenue Q” characters bear a resemblance to Bert and Ernie, the … er … inseparable Muppets.

I'm talking about a 350-year history in the English-speaking world of – well, read on.

“Punch and Judy” – This couple premiered in London in 1662, where an Italian puppeteer made hunchbacked Punch beat many authority figures with a stick. Judy had a wandering eye, and she and Punch traded blows until he killed her.

“Petrouchka” – Best known as the 1911 ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to music by Igor Stravinsky. Petrouchka falls in love with a saucy ballerina; alas, she's hot for a stupid Moor, who hacks Petrouchka to death with a scimitar.

“Meet the Feebles” – An Oscar-winner has puppet sex on his resume! In 1989, future “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson made this comedy about (among other things) a rat who tries to exploit a hippo starlet in his porn business.

“Being John Malkovich” – In 1999, gifted street puppeteer John Cusack realizes that his “Abelard and Heloise” puppet show isn't going down well with passers-by, who object to the marionette lovers copulating in front of human children.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog – It's no accident that this genitally obsessed sock puppet (who celebrates his 15th anniversary this year) made one of his most famous appearances in 2000, at one of the legendarily obscene Friars Club roasts.

“Team America” – This 2004 action comedy from “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone was the first movie rated R for “graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language – all involving puppets.” 'Nuff said!

“The Ten” – After her fiancé tumbles from a plane in this 2007 movie, a distraught woman (Winona Ryder) marries suddenly – too suddenly, as she then falls for a marionette. Well, at least he'll never beat her – but think of the splinters!

She fell, he laughed, they broke up

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:41 EDT

Dear Amy: I dated “Donny” for about two months. One time during the period we were together, we were walking down some steps and the steps were a little wet. I slipped and fell on my side really hard. Donny laughed hysterically and was laughing for at least a minute before he asked me if I was OK – in between chuckles.

The fall really hurt me, and I was in so much pain I couldn't get up for at least five minutes. I had big purple bruises from the fall the next day. I was so angry with Donny for laughing at me!

He knew I was mad. He said he was sorry, but he said that when I fell, it looked like a cartoon of someone falling, and he just thought it was funny.

It has been a month since the fall. I didn't officially break up with him, but I do not return his calls, texts or e-mails.

I know this sounds petty, but I can't get that cackling laugh out of my mind, and I don't want to see him anymore.

I liked him well enough; we had fun on our dates. Am I overreacting by breaking up with him over this? Some friends say yes, some say no.

Not Laughing

Dear Not: The problem with an “unofficial” breakup is that you spend the next period wondering if you did the right thing, when you could be out meeting new people or reconnecting with the original person.

I agree that a person being injured by falling down a staircase is not funny. But I also agree with “Donny” that it looks like it could be funny, in a cartoonish bank-safe-falling-from-the-sky sort of way.

Regardless, if it was obvious that you were hurt, then he should have wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes and done his best to assist you. Laughing in that way and then not immediately trying to make things right makes Donny seem quite insensitive. I wonder if he would develop some sensitivity if he happened to be in your slippery shoes and something similar happened to him and you found it hilarious.

Who's not invited?

Dear Amy: My son is getting married in three months, and the invitations have been sent. I have heard through the relative grapevine that his great-aunt is displeased because she did not receive an invitation, nor did any of her children.

When my son and his future wife requested names of persons I thought should be invited, it did not even occur to me to invite great-aunts and great-uncles. My son has not seen any of these relatives in nearly 20 years.

Is there any way this situation can be remedied?

Mom of the Groom

Dear Mom: Your son's guest list isn't ultimately your responsibility, but his. If he would like to include these relatives, then it's not too late to send invitations.

If he doesn't plan to include these relatives, and if their noses are out of joint, then you should contact them to say that their guest list got out of control and apologize.

I suggest that you contact them because even though your son is responsible for his guest list, you are the one who seems most likely to want to have an ongoing relationship with these relatives – and you admit that it was partially your oversight that led to all this.

Many loyal soldiers in the grammar fight

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:25 EDT

My admission a couple weeks ago that I spend my life mentally correcting grammar mistakes brought many wonderful responses from anal-like-me language lovers with their own peeves.

At the risk of appearing as if I'm angling for grammarian James J. Kilpatrick's job, I must share.

Local mystery author Mignon Ballard's redundancy hit list includes “most unique” and “the end result.” “What other kind of result is there?” she asks. Ballard would also be happy if she never again heard the phrase “at this point in time.” “What's wrong,” she wonders, “with just saying now?”

A couple readers questioned the accuracy of the phrase “went missing” in cases where a person disappears – Natalee Holloway in Aruba, for instance. “Went missing” suggests the person chose to disappear, says Nancy Flowers of Charlotte.

Flowers also hopes someone tells S.C. highway officials that their signs should read “Reduced Speed Limit Ahead,” not “Reduce Speed Limit Ahead.”

My colleague Ann Helms thinks it's time to call in a grammar SWAT team to fix a sign in front of a Gaston County church: “IF YOUR 2 BUSY TO PRAY YOUR TO BUSY.” Just as bad was a sign she spotted at a Wilkinson Boulevard fried chicken joint: “THERE BACK LIVERS.”

English teachers are our best defense against such atrocities, so I was happy to hear that Providence High teacher Debbie Ipock continues to fight the good grammar fight. In my recent column, I'd recounted a grammar debate over the oft-used phrase “national best-selling author.” Park Road Books' Frazer Dobson argued it should be “nationally best-selling author,” with “nationally” an adverb modifying the adjective “best-selling.”

Ipock agrees, but offers another option: “national, best-selling author” – two adjectives modifying “author.” She teaches this rule: If you can reverse the adjectives and the meaning stays the same (“best-selling, national author”) then you need a comma between the two adjectives.

Speaking of commas, I must mention Jeff Rubin, founder of National Punctuation Day. On his Web site, www.nationalpunctuationday.com, he describes the Sept. 24 holiday as “a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.”

The site includes good explanations of correct and incorrect punctuation usage and numerous examples of public signs – sent in by fans of proper punctuation – that demonstrate egregious punctuation misuse.

Rubin also peddles punctuation-themed T-shirts, posters and mugs. (The perfect gift for National Punctuation Day!) And – perhaps my favorite thing of all – he includes a recipe for semicolon-shaped meat loaf.

‘Mr. Fooster' a surprise and a delight

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:09 EDT

MR. FOOSTER TRAVELING ON A WHIM

By Tom Corwin. Illustrated by Craig Frazier. Flying Dolphin Press.

112 pages. $14.95.

Book editors receive stacks of books every week, usually a predictable lot of softback review copies, hardback would-be blockbusters and trade paperbacks.

Mr. Fooster announced himself with a postcard. It bore a drawing of a man blowing a gigantic bubble from a little wand, and read:

“As he blew the first bubble, he knew something odd was happening. The bubble just kept coming. And it was not shaping into a sphere, but rather an old DeSoto sedan, exactly like the one his grandfather used to drive.”

Bemused, I stuck the postcard on the wall by my desk. A few weeks later, when the actual book arrived, I sat down to look it over as usual.

But “Mr. Fooster” is in no way usual. Next I knew, I was closing the slender book, grinning, wishing I hadn't already finished it.

The plot sounds mundane: A man stuffs a wrinkled letter into his pocket and goes for a walk – the first of many, as it turns out. His mind wanders to random little questions. (“How come mandarin oranges came in perfect little segments without any mechanical engineering?” “Why is yawning contagious?”)

But things turn odd when a katydid smiles at him, and even more odd when he reaches for his bubble soap and inflates that drivable DeSoto. As days go by and his walks get longer, he meets “a bug the size of a bulldozer” that he charms with yet another astonishing bubble. This one forms an immense floating birdcage filled with fish, and so delights the bug that it, too, joyfully floats away.

Mr. Fooster wanders happily until one day, worn out, he pauses, then discovers his feet are growing roots into the ground. He becomes something like a tree, stranded in a natural leafy cocoon.

But this isn't the end of his adventures. He will see the bug again, and he will meet a butterfly and an angry man building a wall, and he will read his letter with the help of Scrabble tiles he finds along the way.

His kind attention to the little things – and his mysterious bubble soap – will produce just what's needed to transform every situation. And by the end of this deceptively simple tale, with its quirky happenings all illustrated by sepia-toned drawings, readers both young and old might also be transformed – at least a little. And like Mr. Fooster, we will be reminded “that life could bring an endless series of surprises.”

Ann Allen is the Observer's Books page editor.

Charlotte's uptown lifestyle has definitely grown on them

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:47 EDT

Elizabeth Shaffer grew up on a pig farm in Bardstown, Ky. Now she's in the most urban environment she's ever lived: uptown Charlotte.

A couple of years ago, Elizabeth, 28, and husband Ty, 30, were considering where to move after he finished law school at Vanderbilt University. They wanted what they called a manageable city in the Southeast – not too far from her family and his in Florida.

Atlanta was out. Too big, Elizabeth said. Ty, who grew up in Ohio – Columbus and later Cincinnati, called it “a city you have to fight every day.”

Ty mentioned Charlotte. Elizabeth, now a data analyst at WFAE-FM (90.7) first thought he meant Charlottesville, Va. In summer 2006, they visited, staying at the Westin uptown. They were impressed by all the people they saw walking around the center city.

“We saw that Charlotte had this momentum,” Elizabeth said. Not too big but not a “sleepy little town.”

Last summer, Ty did a six-week internship in Charlotte and in April the couple moved here after he landed a full-time job at a firm uptown. They're renting a two-bedroom condo at Fifth And Poplar in Fourth Ward, holding off on homebuying until they sell their condo just outside Nashville. They thought they'd buy a house in one of the first-ring neighborhoods around uptown – Chantilly, Elizabeth or Plaza Midwood. Now the Shaffers think they might just stay and buy uptown. They're considering selling one of their cars, which would seal the deal. They like that Ty can walk to work. They like living in the bustle and enjoy hangouts, such as Alexander Michael's and Cosmos Café.

“The absolute best thing about living uptown is that you can leave your house and go do something fun – dinner, drinks with friends, grab coffee – without having to get in a car,” Elizabeth said.

The couple also find peace and quiet uptown. On Saturday mornings, they stroll around while it's quiet.

“It's really exciting to watch the city grow week by week,” Elizabeth said.

Anything the couple doesn't like about living here?

“I don't think we've been here long enough,” Ty said.

Why should kids get all the summer camp fun?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:41 EDT

Four little boys stand in front of me, all talking at the same time. Fresh off the bus from camp, their faces are wild with excitement, their hands full of rocks, arrowheads and crafts.

What I wouldn't give to go back to summer camp.

And why is it exactly that I can't go to camp? Why is camp reserved for kids? Their whole life is summer camp. If anybody should go, it's us grown-ups. Oh, to be back at Camp Greystone …

I get there early to get a top bunk. I make my bed and tack up pictures of my kids – not because I'll miss them, but because I'm going to be so busy having fun, I don't want to forget them. Excitedly, I wait for the other moms.

Our counselor comes bounding in and welcomes us to our week of no responsibility whatsoever. She tells us there's no cell phone reception. We all cheer.

“This is YOUR week, moms! Welcome, to Camp Tay-ka-bray-ka!”

Now I'm free to explore my deep-seated interests. I sign up for fencing, Tae Bo and tap dancing. And horseback riding, only because I want a blue ribbon to replace my red one I got in 1978 when I lost to a girl who stayed on a horse trying throw her. It really wasn't fair.

Precision sports such as riflery and archery are my favorite. In this chaotic world of multitasking, I get a huge rush focusing on one single thing for a whole hour. It's a double-rush, really, because I'm excited to hit the target and euphoric to spend time just boosting my ego.

I take weaving so I can weave the matches to all the single potholders I have. And pottery, to make the two giant, painted pots I need for my front porch.

I take glass beading to custom make jewelry to match my clothes, and woodworking, to design a jewelry box with necklace slots, so I don't spend the first hour of date night trying to untangle the one I want.

I eat great meals cooked by somebody else, while counselors bring letters from our families telling us how much they miss us and want us to come home. We laugh our heads off, then race to the candy shack before it closes. And we openly eat Milky Ways with no shame.

We sing beautiful songs around the camp fire. And then my favorite part. The only chance we moms have of getting one. AWARDS! I don't care if it's Most Improved Baton Twirler, just please, pin a metal on me.

Lying on my bunk, listening to the other moms giggle, I realize my life at home with two preschoolers is its own form of summer camp. Lots of activities, and fun and laughter. Even precision sports, if you count taking out splinters.

Rethinking it now, it'd be great fun to go to camp, but I'd probably be just as homesick now as I was at 12. I could probably find a rifle range here in town.

Maybe a place to take a tap class. Besides, here the snack bar is always open.

Bestsellers

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:42 EDT

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. THE LAST PATRIOT, by Brad Thor.

2. FEARLESS FOURTEEN, by Janet Evanovich.

3. SAIL, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan.

4. TAILSPIN, by Catherine Coulter.

5. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, by David Wroblewski.

6. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer.

7. CHASING DARKNESS, by Robert Crais.

8. ROGUE, by Danielle Steel.

9. DEATH ANGEL, by Linda Howard. 10. THE BEACH HOUSE, by Jane Green.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, by David Sedaris.

2. FLEECED, by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann.

3. WHAT HAPPENED, by Scott McClellan.

4. ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT'S ME, CHELSEA, by Chelsea Handler.

5. THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi.

6. MY STROKE OF INSIGHT, by Jill Bolte Taylor.

7. AUDITION, by Barbara Walters.

8. THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD, by Fareed Zakaria.

9. STORI TELLING, by Tori Spelling with Hilary Liftin.

10. THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR, by Benjamin Wallace.

HARDCOVER ADVICE, HOW-TO AND MISCELLANEOUS

1. THE LAST LECTURE, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow.

2. THE SECRET, by Rhonda Byrne.

3. WHEN MARKETS COLLIDE, by Mohamed A. El-Erian.

4. THE SOUTH BEACH DIET SUPERCHARGED, by Arthur Agatston with Joseph Signorile.

5. WOMEN AND MONEY, by Suze Orman.

6. THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK, by Timothy Ferriss.

7. END OF DAYS, by Sylvia Browne.

8. DEBT CURES THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, by Kevin Trudeau.

9. THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, by Dave Ramsey.

10. QUANTUM WELLNESS, by Kathy Freston.

PAPERBACK FICTION

1. DOUBLE TAKE, by Catherine Coulter.

2. SOMEDAY SOON, by Debbie Macomber.

3. LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN, by Janet Evanovich.

4. INTO THE SHADOW, by Christina Dodd.

5. THE NAVIGATOR, by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos.

6. STEP ON A CRACK, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.

7. FAST TRACK, by Fern Michaels.

8. BONE TO AHSES, by Kathy Reichs.

9. THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

10. THE MACGREGOR GROOMS, by Nora Roberts.

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1.THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

2. WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS, by Tim Russert.

3. EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

4. BIG RUSS AND ME, by Tim Russert.

5. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama.

6. DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, by Barack Obama.

7. I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL, by Tucker Max.

8. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN, by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey.

9. THE INNOCENT MAN, by John Grisham.

10. MARLEY & ME, by John Grogan.

PAPERBACK ADVICE, HOW-TO AND MISCELLANEOUS

1. SOUL WISDOM, by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha.

2. A NEW EARTH, by Eckhart Tolle.

3. SKINNY BITCH, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.

4. YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE, by Louise L. Hay.

5. THE POWER OF NOW, by Eckhart Tolle.

6. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING, by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel.

7. THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES, by Gary Chapman.

8. HUNGRY GIRL, by Lisa Lillien.

9. THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE, by Rick Warren.

10. THE SPEED OF TRUST, by Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill.

Indignant, irreverent and often in touch

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:58 EDT

This Land Is Their Land: Reports From

a Divided Nation

By Barbara Ehrenreich. Metropolitan Books. 256 pages. $24.

There's no mincing words or missing the targets of this tart-tongued book of short essays by Barbara Ehrenreich. The titular “their” takes many forms, ranging from the Bush administration to the health care system to corporations who spy on their underpaid employees.

If that makes it sound like Ehrenreich's writings tilt left, well it's more a permanent encampment than a leaning. Her satirefrequently makes a serious point, focusing attention on the ever-growing chasm between the few haves and the many have-nots.

For instance, the title essay laments how workers who toil in resort towns have to move farther and farther away from their jobs just to find an affordable place to live. Ehrenreich says she flinches when she hears Woody Guthrie singing “This land belongs to you and me. Somehow I don't think it was meant to be sung by a chorus of hedge fund operators.” And that's Ehrenreich being mellow.

In one of her sharpest essays, she notes that Americans spent about $10billion last year on health care for their pets. Ehrenreich contrasts that figure with the need to provide coverage for children whose parents can't afford health care. After noting how President Bush vetoed a bill that would have expanded health insurance for more than 3million uninsured kids, she offered this solution: “Make pet insurance available to all American children now!” That's followed by her worry that Bush would counter with a plan “to extend euthanasia services to children who happen to fall ill.” Call it incensed wit with shades of Jonathan Swift.

Staying with kids, here's Ehrenreich's take on stories about the Gap's using child labor in an Indian sweatshop: “The Gap should portray its child-staffed factories as part of a far-seeing welfare-to-work program that will eventually be extended to American children as well.”

Elsewhere, Ehrenreich notes how she was labeled a Marxist 20 years ago for writing about the country's growing inequality. But in a chapter called “Banish the Bloated Overclass,” she says it no longer takes a Marxist to realize the chasm that exists between the super-rich and everyone else. She backs up a lot of her jibes with statistics: the median earnings of illegal Latino day laborers are $700 a month; in 2006, average household debt exceeded income for the first time.

Ehrenreich covers plenty of topical references, from Jet Blue passengers trapped on the tarmac for up to 10 hours (“anything more than three hours on the ground isn't an airline delay, it's a hostage situation”) to the surge in oil prices, in a chapter called “The Heating Bill from Hell.” There's also an essay on Sen. Larry Craig's latrine arrest, “Fear of Restrooms,” in which Ehrenreich wonders whether the cop who spent the day on the can looking for errant fingers would've been more useful cruising the airport for terrorists.

The short commentaries – most only few pages – suit Ehrenreich's pace. Jab and poke, zing and move on.

Not all the essays work, and they can seem repetitive. And sometimes her targets are too easy. For that, see the chapters on Disney Princess products or the $210 million golden parachute for Home Depot's former CEO.

But for the most part, Ehrenreich writes with a robust audacity and indignity that is well worth reading.

Sam and Priscilla Waymouth

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:41 EDT

The trumpet brought Sam and Priscilla together in 7th-grade band in New Milford, Conn., in 1969. But it took 38 years for them to tie the knot.

The better player: I remember first seeing the shiny trumpet Sam held in his hand. I played trumpet, too, and was afraid he would play so much better than I. After all, he was a boy, and not many girls played the trumpet in 1969. We sat next to each other during band for most of our school years, but I was the one who played better.

The reunion: All through high school I thought Sam was such a great guy, but not my type. I thought he'd make some woman a great husband. We went to different colleges, married different people and didn't see each other until our 25th high school reunion. We were both divorced by then – Sam living in Charlotte and I in Milwaukee. We hit it off immediately.

The first love: After numerous e-mails and phone calls, Sam flew to Milwaukee for a visit and we started a long-distance relationship. I moved to Charlotte, we broke up, then got back together and finally married in May 2007. We continue to pursue our first love, music. I play tuba with the Queen City Brass Band, where Sam plays cornet. But now he's a much better player than I am. Kathy Haight

Literary Calendar

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:30 EDT

Tuesday

SIGNING: E. Lynn Harris (“Just Too Good to Be True”), 7 p.m., Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 4345 Barclay Downs Drive. 704-602-9800; www.josephbeth.com.

Thursday

SIGNING: Jack Grubb (“Bad Intentions”), 7 p.m., Park Road Books.

Announcements

WRITING WORKSHOP: “Writing in Place,” a three-day creative writing workshop for adults, sponsored by the Hub City Writers Project, Aug. 1-3 at Wofford College in Spartanburg. Sign up for fiction, screenwriting or poetry. Author Tommy Hays (“The Pleasure Was Mine”) will be the keynote speaker. Other workshop leaders include Betsy Cox, Peter Caster, Sebastian Matthews and poets Rick Mulkey and Jennie Neighbors. Cost: $160. Lodging is available at Wofford College for $15 a night. Details: 864-577-9349, toll-free; www.hubcity.org.

Heath Ledger's crowning last act

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:14 EDT

Heath Ledger died at an age when many gifted actors first reach liftoff. At 28, he had achieved acclaim, popularity and riches. But he was just beginning to define himself as an actor and a star.

In Todd Haines' “I'm Not There,” he played a tortured big-screen idol, ill at ease with conventional accomplishment and fame, in the manner of Bob Dylan – or James Dean. When Ledger succumbed to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January, Dean provided an inevitable point of comparison. They both died young (Dean was even younger, 24), and each had big movies in the can – Dean with “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant,” and Ledger with “The Dark Knight,” which opened Friday.

Although posthumous performances sometimes have helped movies at the box office (Jean Harlow's biggest hit was “Saratoga”), Ledger in “The Dark Knight” plays Batman's arch-villain, the Joker, as a psychotic anarchist, getting off on destruction. Stories of the actor's demise theorized that Ledger's trip to the dark side of the Joker put him over the edge.

But in the weeks leading up to the film's release, Warner Bros. positioned Ledger for an Academy Award nomination and erased any residue of ghoulishness.

That decision might be right, in more ways than one.

The evidence on screen shows that as Ledger fulfilled his promise he might have developed as a character-actor star, like Robert Duvall or Gene Hackman, rather than a generation-defining personality, like Dean.

Right from the start of his career, Dean conjured an aura that transcended acting. Ledger never developed that kind of resonant big-star persona, not even in his one certified Zeitgeist movie, the gay cowboy romance, “Brokeback Mountain.” He was nominated for best actor, Jake Gyllenhaal for best supporting actor.

If the picture clicked for millions of moviegoers, it was probably because Gyllenhaal allowed them to see Ledger's stiff, emotionally strangled Ennis del Mar through the eyes of the besotted Jack Twist. Whether you consider it a camp classic or a wrenching cry from the heart, Twist's anguished “I wish I knew how to quit you” became the film's signature line.

Still, Ledger was earnest, talented and game, committed to acting for the long haul. With the success of “Ten Things I Hate About You,” he could have pursued celebrity as a heartthrob. Instead he opted for difficult, diverse roles, including a jail guard who refuses to become a third-generation racist in “Monster's Ball.” When he let you see him sweat in that movie, he also showed you blood and tears. And his tension as an actor sometimes blended, in a good way, with his character's.

He lacked the gravity and dash that could have anchored and energized sprawling fantasies like the arena-rock-flavored knight-in-shining-armor film “A Knight's Tale.” He might have grown into those qualities.

But I generally preferred him in juicy supporting roles, such as the mentor-entrepreneur in “Lord of Dogtown,” who practices tough love on his skateboarding team yet keeps faith with his own personal counterculture. Ledger has more genuine pathos than any of the kids in this movie; he plays an arrested adolescent with a grungy dignity that underlies even his drunken bouts of self-pity. He lets this character grow on you. And it's this sneak-attack quality that could have made Ledger a director's best friend for decades to come.

One quality that Ledger and Dean did share is rapid growth. Ledger gave his most entertaining and inventive star performance as the free thinker and hedonist in the period romp “Casanova,” which came out right after “Brokeback Mountain.” For once, in a lead role, he relaxed – and conquered. In “Casanova,” he's sunny when he's hopping beds at night and comically quick and alert when making the Venetian social scene during the day.

At last comfortable with his good looks and more confident than ever about his intelligence, Ledger is superb when he sprawls across a couch and rehearses how to ask a woman what's on her mind.

Dean's greatest performance was his last one, as Jett Rink, the disreputable Texas ranch hand turned fabulous oil tycoon in “Giant.” He creates a character as unsentimental and emotional, as unique and influential, as any in American movies. He speaks in a sometimes comic, sometimes moving mumble, and when he stomps out the outline of his small parcel of land in giant steps, he makes you feel the birth of pride in ownership.

In just three movies he made the transition from a specialist in embattled juveniles to an actor who could evoke the emotional scars of a grizzled, wasted old man.

According to the run of recent feature stories, Ledger enjoyed nothing more than doing the character-actor's vanishing act and disappearing into a role.

“If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” says the Joker in the Batman graphic novel, “The Killing Joke.” That's how the artistically adventurous Ledger must have thought about the future. Let's hope Ledger's Joker crowns his career the way Dean's Jett Rink did his.

Gallery calendar

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:44 EDT

Center of the Earth Gallery

3204 N. Davidson St., Charlotte. 704-375-5756. www.centeroftheearth.com.

Summer abstract show, “Glow,” features Carrie McGee, Scott Upton, Ruth Ava Lyons, Randy Walker, Kevin Hogan, Charles Walker, Robert Boyd, through Aug. 30. NoDa Gallery Crawl reception 6-9 p.m. July 18.

Christa Faut Gallery

19818 North Cove Road, Suite E3, Jetton Village, Cornelius. 704-892-5312.

www.christafaut gallery.com.

Summer group exhibit of paintings and drawings by gallery artists. Metal wall sculpture by Rick Smith. Through July.

Elder Gallery

1427 South Blvd., Charlotte. 704-370-6337.

www.elderart.com.

Sculpture & Paintings features Richard Aliberti, Carl Blair, Richard Conn, Jean McWhorter, Karen Powell, Grant Strawcutter and Lasha Khidasheli. Watercolors by Ernest Walker. Opening reception 6-9 p.m. July 11, runs through July 29.

Hickory Museum of Art

243 3rd Ave. NE., Hickory. 828-327-8576.

www.HickoryArt.org.

The museum commemorates the work of the late cartoonist and writer Doug Marlette. “Doug Marlette: His Art and His Words – From ‘Kudzu' to ‘The Bridge.'” Through Sept. 14.

Hidell Brooks Gallery

South End Steelyard, 1910 South Blvd.,

Suite 130, Charlotte. 704-334-7302.

www.hidellbrooks.com.

Tenth-anniversary group exhibition through Aug. 30. All 28 gallery artists have created new works for this show.

Hodges Taylor Gallery

401 N. Tryon St., Charlotte. 704-334-3799.

www.hodgestaylor.com.

Summer photography exhibit includes images from Carl Bergman, Sonia Handelman Meyer, Alice Sebrell, Elizabeth Matheson, Carolyn DeMeritt, Byron Baldwin, Keith Carter, Deborah Luster, Frank Hunter, Tim Buchman, David Halliday, Benjamin Porter, John Rosenthal and Linda Foard Roberts. Through Aug. 29.

Jerald Melberg Gallery

625 S. Sharon Amity Road. 704-365-3000.

jeraldmelberg.com.

Robert Kushner: Garden Walk, paintings on botanical themes. July 26-Sept. 6.

The Light Factory,

Spirit Square

345 N. College St., Charlotte. 704-372-1000.

First Juried Annuale features emerging photographer-artists selected from an international field, Knight Gallery through Sept. 7. 36th Annual Members Show, Middleton McMillan Gallery through Sept. 14.

Lark & Key

453-B E. 36th St. 704-379-1826.

Ongoing exhibit of works by Duy Huynh, Sandy Snead and various artists.

Mint Museum Of Art

2730 Randolph Road, Charlotte. 704-337-2000. www.mintmuseum.org.

The Art of Affluence: Haute Couture and Luxury Fashions 1947-2007. Through spring 2010. Scene in America: A Contemporary Look at the Black Male Image, through Nov. 2. Quiet Spirit, Skillful Hand: The Graphic Work of Clare Leighton, through Sept. 14. $6; $5 for ages 62 and older and students; $3 for children ages 6-17; free for members and children 5 and younger.

Mint Museum

Of Craft + Design

220 N. Tryon St., Charlotte. 704-337-2000.

www.mintmuseum.org.

Possibilities: Rising Stars of Contemporary Craft in North Carolina. Through Nov.30. Adults $6, seniors $5, children $3, under 6 free.

RedSky Gallery

1244 East Blvd. 704-377-6400.

redskygallery.com.

Teapots Across America, A Juried Exhibition featuring 38 ceramic artists from across the United States. Through Aug. 13.

Renee George Gallery

225 E. Worthington Ave. 704-332-3278. www.reneegeorgegallery.com.

A Summer Affair featuring new works by gallery artists. Through Aug. 20.

Shain Gallery

2823 Selwyn Ave., Charlotte. 704-334-7744. www.shaingallery.com.

Figurative Fun, works by Cassandra Gillens, Kathy Sosa, Kim Schuessler. Through July 31.

Shain Gallery at

Ballantyne Resort

1000 Ballantyne Commons Parkway. 704-248-4000. www.ballantyneresort.com

Ongoing exhibit of works by various artists including Chas Fagan, Kim Schuessler, Amy Dobbs, Henry Barnes, Jim Chapman, Connie Winters and more.

Studio 21

118 E. Kingston Ave. 304-376-1701

Paintings and figurative drawings by Tony Griffin, Ben Long, Darren Kingsley, Stephen Early and others.