Events for the Week: January 12-18

Your best weekly list for parties, nightlife, social, and cultural events in Charlotte. If I learn of more events, I’ll update this post throughout the week.

Tuesday, January 13

A Peace of Jazz (weekly event)
Radio personality Jaye Delai and his wife Monica present this weekly jazz series at one of Charlotte’s swankest lounges. This week’s musical guest is Shawn “Shableek” Richardson. 7 p.m. $10. Kiss Lounge, 204 W. Woodlawn Rd. www.jayeandmonica.com.

Bridging Musical Worlds: Blues and Bearden
Through musical performances (Robin Rogers and Dawn Anthony), readings, and discussion, this event explores the blues, the art of Romare Bearden, and the struggle for justice, dignity, and freedom in African-American expression. 7 p.m. Free. Mint Museum of Art, 2730 Randolph Rd. www.mintmuseum.org.

Tone-X and Friends
After holding court for several months last year at Skandalos, the weekly comedy night is back at a new location: Alive. Come laugh at the jokes and skits by Power 98’s Tone-X, Chris “Funnyman” Robinson, and other comedians. Music by DJ Stacey Blackman. 8 p.m. $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Alive, 2909 N. Davidson St. (NoDa). www.myspace.com/tonexandfriends.

Wednesday, January 14

Pop Life (weekly event)
It’s the most popular social networking event on a Wednesday night. Starts after work but ends late. Music by select DJs. Presented by Creative Loafing and The Sol Kitchen. 6 p.m. Free. Apostrophe Lounge, 1440 S. Tryon St. (South End). www.apostrophelounge.com.

Thursday, January 15

Third Thursdays: Live Jazz (monthly event)
Enjoy live jazz, light refreshments, and great art during special late hours at the museum. This month’s featured musicians are Sabra Callas and Steve Shoaf. Sponsored by V101.9 FM. Mint Museum of Craft + Design, 220 N. Tryon St. 5-8 p.m. (music 6:30-7:30 p.m.) Free. www.mintmuseum.org.

Drinks @ Kiss (monthly event)
This party takes place every third Thursday. Enjoy drink specials—$3 Kiss Shots, $5 martinis, and $5 glasses of wine—and the best in hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and old school. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Crisis Assistance Ministry. Presented by Mingleberry.com. 8 p.m. Free before 10 p.m. Kiss Lounge, 204 W. Woodlawn Rd. www.mingleberry.com/drinks.

Friday, January 16

Notorious
The highly anticipated biopic of the life of Christopher Wallace aka the Notorious B.I.G. opens in theaters. Click here for local movie times and theater info.

Notorious Flirt Friday
Party real B.I.G. in honor of the legend and the new movie about his life. DJ Chase will be playing the best of Biggie. Presented by The FunkLabb and Thomas Washington. 10 p.m. Cost varies; ladies free before 10:30. Kiss Lounge, 204 W. Woodlawn Rd. www.kisscharlotte.com.

Saturday, January 17

Hands On Charlotte
Volunteer and participate in service projects taking place around Charlotte. Visit website to register and for more details. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. www.handsoncharlotte.org.

Daniel Bernard Roumain
DBR showcases his eclectic musical skills on the violin, keyboards, turntables, and even a laptop. 8 p.m. $19 and up. McGlohon Theatre at Spirit Square, 345 North College St. www.blumenthalcenter.org.

Meet the Browns of Comedy
Comedy by Benji Brown and Steve Brown. Hosted by Nick Lewis, with music by DJ Skillz. Afterparty follows. 8 p.m. $20 and up. Stir, 3500 E. Independence Blvd. www.stirnc.com.

Sunday, January 18

Hip-Hop Inauguration Concert
Featuring live music by Pradigy and his band. GenerationEngage will also be present so come party and get informed. 8 p.m. $5. Wine Up, 3306 N. Davidson St. www.wine-up.com.

Pre-Inaugural Ball
Get an early start on the celebration of Barack Obama’s inauguration, especially if you’re off work Monday for MLK Day. Music by DJ DR. Valet parking and VIP will be available. Presented by the Sol Kitchen and M. Simmons. 9 p.m. $10 in advance, more at the door. Blue Restaurant & Bar, 214 N. Tryon St. (corner of Fifth and College streets). www.thesolkitchen.com.

The Inauguration Celebration
This party celebrates the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the inauguration of Barack Obama. Basically, people just want to party. All three levels of this trendy nightspot will be open. 9 p.m. Cost varies. Hom, 116 W. Fifth St. www.eddietainment.com.

MLK Cool Down
Expect a nice crowd of partygoers, happy to be off work the next day. Presented by 11th Hour Entertainment. 10 p.m. Cost varies. Kiss Lounge, 204 W. Woodlawn Rd. www.kisscharlotte.com.

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My First Time: Club 935

I finally visited Club 935 last night. The hip-hop nightclub opened a little over a month ago and I blogged about its grand opening event and have listed its parties in my Events for the Week each week, but I just got around to checking it out for myself. And I have to say that I like it, and it's different than any other nightspot in Charlotte.

A few friends and I went there to watch the Carolina Panthers-Arizona Cardinals playoff game (sidenote: you can see Bank of America Stadium from outside the club). Club 935 opened its doors three hours earlier than usual for a game viewing party and it offered free admission before 10 p.m. That drew a large crowd. There were several TVs on which to watch the game and the best part about watching it here is that the DJ played music during halftime and every commercial break.

When the game ended, which I think was a little before 11:30, the vibe turned into a full-fledged party (people quickly got over the Panthers' loss--at least for the night). Club 935 is very big, divided into two large rooms that could be separate clubs. The first room has a large bar, several flatscreens, and a VIP room. It resembles many lounges in Charlotte, and I would compare this room to the size of the Sunset Club (but not nearly as ornate). It's funny because I spent most of my time in this room during the game and it wasn't until I went to the restroom that I saw that there was a second, larger part of the club.

The second room is huge and is where the dancefloor is located (though people danced in the other room too). Also here is a DJ booth, a large bar, flatscreens, raised platforms for dancing (sort of like cages), and a large VIP area with several booths and its own bar. This room itself is larger than most Charlotte clubs.

Club 935 has many appealing features, including plentiful free parking. But you can build the biggest and best club and it still not succeed. Club 935 is the new hotspot, and new places often draw large crowds, but sometimes, particularly with nightclubs, the interest wanes and people stop coming. But I think this place might become the club that people travel from beyond Charlotte to party at. The club is very well-run. There was plenty of staff--bartenders and, most importantly, security. And it's being run by Adolph Shiver, a club and concert promoter who has been throwing big parties and events for years.

And then there's the whole "Where the stars party" motto the club has, which I'm sure Shiver is responsible for. Since the club opened, it has brought in Nia Long, John Legend, Nelly, and several other celebrities and NBA and NFL stars to host parties. It brought in two hip-hop video vixens and models for the weekend: Angel Lola Luv on Friday and Melyssa Ford on Saturday. While it was announced at the club on Saturday when Ford arrived, I never saw her (shoot!), mainly because we didn't stay very late. It's hard to party late when you arrived at a club early to watch a football game, but that didn't stop some people. Plus, many people were still arriving after 1 a.m. when we were leaving. Also when we were leaving, we passed RZA and Ghostface in the hallway. I think they were headed to VIP and they were walking through the crowd all nonchalantly (well, the ever-flashy Ghostface was rocking a jacket with his name on it). They're in town because the Wu-Tang Clan have a concert at Amos' Southend, which is going on as I'm writing this.

The challenges I see for Club 935 are maintaining a safe environment when they're having crowds of what seemed to be like at least 700-800 people last night, if not more, and attracting the kind of crowd they envisioned when opening the club. There were plenty of well-dressed men and women there in blazers and dresses, but then there were some who looked like they don't adhere to dress codes.

Club 935 is located at 935 S. Summit Ave. and you can find out more by visiting www.club935.com.

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More News, But Few Details on Jada Pinkett Smith's New 'Charlotte' Show

TNT announced today that it has picked up the pilot Time Heals for 10 episodes. The series will star Jada Pinkett Smith as "the director of nursing at a Charlotte, N.C., hospital," and the show "focuses on her struggles to care for patients at work and as a recently widowed mother at home." I blogged about this new show in September, but there hasn't been much new info on it since. The latest announcement basically repeats the info from a few months ago, except now it confirms that the show has been given the green light.

I'm a little confused because I'm not exactly sure the show will be filmed here as I initially thought. It may be a situation where the show is fictionally set in Charlotte, but filmed in a Los Angeles studio. That's what happened with Frasier, for example. The popular sitcom was set in Seattle, including the skyline showing from the balcony of Frasier's apartment, but the show was filmed in Paramount Studios. The first reports of Time Heals went as far as to give the name of the hospital: Mercy. There's an actual Mercy hospital in Charlotte. It's more than 100 years old and was acquired by Carolinas Medical Center in the 1990s. But the producers of the show could just be using that detail to add to their storyline.

I guess it's time I take off my blogger hat and put on my journalist cap and actually see if I can find out more details. I'll let you know if I learn more.

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Volunteer In Honor of MLK Day

I received this press release and thought it was worthy of sharing.

Hands On Charlotte Volunteer Event Honors MLK Through Service

Charlotte – January 7, 2009 – "Building On The Dream" is an annual large-scale volunteering event organized by the local nonprofit agency Hands On Charlotte (HOC). Its purpose is to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through service to the greater community. Building On The Dream offers volunteers the chance to participate in a range of service projects on Saturday, January 17, with a kickoff celebration on that morning at Thomasboro Elementary School, as well as projects taking place on the MLK Holiday of Monday, January 19. Building On The Dream will activate as many as 500 volunteers at approximately 20 volunteer project sites around Charlotte, with each project focusing on the issues of poverty and challenged neighborhoods.

Opportunities to volunteer—either as an individual or as a group—are still available. Those interested can see a list of volunteer projects and register for the event online by visiting www.handsoncharlotte.org.

Sponsored by Duke Energy, The Home Depot and the Corporation for National and Community Service, Building On The Dream kicks off on Saturday, January 17 with volunteer registration/sign-in (8am-9am) and an opening celebration (9am-9:30am) at Thomasboro Elementary School (538 Bradford Drive). Volunteer projects will then take place from 10am until 1pm. Projects on Monday the 19th will take place at various times, primarily from 10am until 1pm, but there will be no kickoff event on Monday.

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Bobcats Games Can Be Fun

I know most Charlotte sports fans have their minds on Saturday's Carolina Panthers playoff game, but I attended the Charlotte Bobcats-Boston Celtics game last night and it's one of the few times I've been able to appreciate how entertaining an NBA game can be. First off, I arrived about 10 minutes before tip-off. I've gone to several Bobcats games since I moved here in 2005, but I'd never gotten there that early before (I usually show up some time during the first quarter). Getting there early allowed me to see the singing of the national anthem (I don't remember the lady's name but she sounded great) and the announcing of the starting lineups.

The Bobcats' introduction is really cool. It makes the players look like rock stars. A pre-recorded video shows them in practice, during workouts, at press conferences--shot in black-and-white, with some scenes in slow motion for extra drama, and with Fort Minor's "Remember the Name" providing the soundtrack. ("This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill. / Fifteen percent concentrated power of will. / Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain. / And a hundred percent reason to remember the name.") Then when they cut from the video to the players courtside, Young Jeezy's "Put On" started playing. "I put on for my city. On, on, for my city..." The Bobcats did in fact put on for their city last night by beating the defending champion Celtics in overtime.

In addition to a great game (though I had to leave early), the halftime show was particularly interesting. It was performed by Ioan Veniamin Oprea aka the Human Slinky. My homeboy Lenny and I were watching the performance, trying to figure out if someone was inside the contraption. See for yourself.

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