'Homeland' Season 3 Begins September 29

The cast and crew of the hit Showtime television series Homeland have been spotted around Charlotte a lot over the last couple of months--Uptown, SouthPark, Plaza Midwood--filming scenes for the upcoming season. Now we know when we'll get to see the highly anticipated season three: it premieres Sunday, September 29, 9 p.m. Showtime released this 30-second tease video, "Signals," today, and although it doesn't show any scenes, it's enough to get hardcore fans like me excited.

I'll certainly be among the millions of viewers tuning in to Showtime exactly two months from today to see what's going to happen with Brody, Carrie, Saul, and 'em, particularly after that explosive end to season two (literally). ShowBiz411 has revealed the titles of the first seven episodes of season three, and reports that episode nine is still being cast. The latter appears to align with the calls for extras in Charlotte on the Homeland Casting Facebook page, and since each season of Homeland features 12 episodes, I'm assuming the show is still in production on a handful of episodes.

The working relationship/friendship between Carrie (Claire Danes) and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is expected to be one of season three's most pivotal storylines.
Credit: facebook.com/homelandonshowtime 

Visit the multi-Emmy-winning show's website at www.sho.com/homeland.

UPDATE: 8-09-13
The official Homeland Season 3 trailer was released today. It's a little more than three minutes long and is full of riveting snapshots.

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Beware of Booty This Weekend

As an FYI, in case you weren't aware and would happen to be driving in the area, the annual 24 Hours of Booty is taking place this weekend (July 26-27) in Charlotte in the Myers Park neighborhood. More than 1,200 bicyclists are expected to ride the original "Booty Loop" as they raise money for cancer research and survivorship.

I commend the people who have the endurance to ride bikes for an extreme number of hours--they'll circle the 2.85-mile route through the picturesque neighborhood numerous times. Many of the participants divide the 24-hour ride into teams and they're able to take breaks, but the ride still requires a lot of energy. It's not all sweat though. Bootyville is set up, serving as the event headquarters and offering three meals and a midnight pizza party, snacks, energy bars, water and sports drinks, along with an expo area with vendors/sponsors.

Even if you aren't riding, you're invited to come out and cheer along the route (donations accepted too). Visit 24hoursofbooty.org for more details.

If you're looking for more things to do this weekend in Charlotte, remember to check out my Dusk Till Dawn blog where I've put together a big list of social events and parties.

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'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' Charlotte Auditions This Wednesday

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the popular television game show, hit the road earlier this month to hold auditions for potential contestants in select cities around the country. The show's producers are holding auditions in Charlotte this Wednesday, July 24, beginning at 7 a.m. at Victory Lane Karting (2330 Tipton Dr.). There's no signup or pre-registration for the audition. It's on a first-come, first-served basis, and you can get in line beginning at 6 a.m.

Fans pose with a Cedric The Entertainer cutout during recent auditions in Las Vegas. Credit: facebook.com/millionairetv

Cedric The Entertainer is the new host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, when the new season begins this fall. He replaced Meredith Vieira, who hosted the game show for the past 11 seasons.

Visit millionairetv.com for more details.

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My First Time: Moe's Original Bar B Que In Matthews

The Charlotte area's offerings of barbecue continue to grow. I was invited last week to visit Moe’s Original Bar B Que, which opened in June in Matthews. The barbecue franchise started as a single restaurant in Colorado by three friends who met at the University of Alabama. That pretty much explains why today nearly all of the 26 locations are either located in Colorado or the South--Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee (relatively speaking, the franchise has expanded rapidly over the last three years).

The Matthews location is owned by another trio, husband and wife Brian and Janeen Fairhurst, and brother Craig Fairhurst. They picked a great location in the charming area along Matthews Station Street, which has the look and feel of a quaint town square. There are restaurants, shops, the Village Green park, public library, historic train depot, and more all in that area. Moe's is housed in a standalone space that formerly housed a Mexican restaurant, but you know you're in a BBQ spot as soon as you enter.

Photos credit: Moe's

Having lived in Charlotte for several years now, I've experienced the never-ending Eastern versus Western North Carolina barbecue debate, whether at events, on TV, or at different restaurants. But Moe's is described as Alabama-style, and this was my first time trying that. The restaurant's signature approach to barbecue is to smoke all of its meats daily using fruit wood

Whenever visiting a barbecue restaurant for the first time, it's imperative that I try the pulled pork. So I ordered the Pulled Pork Platter ($10.25), which comes with two sides, cornbread, and a drink. I chose the mac 'n cheese and banana pudding as my sides. The pork was juicy and tender, and the sauce was flavorful, with a great mixture of spiciness and sweetness. The mac 'n cheese was tasty as well. And I'm a stickler about my banana pudding so I was prepared to be extremely critical: Moe's passed the test. It was good, even though, strangely to me, the pudding was more of a cream color than yellow. Didn't matter though--it was delicious.

Moe's is a family-friendly restaurant, but also has a small bar that serves about a dozen local and regional beers on tap (a good selection). When I arrived on that Thursday evening around 6:45 p.m., the restaurant was packed with people of all ages.

I get asked often by people who are visiting Charlotte, are new to Charlotte, or by my blog's readers who email me asking, what are the best places in Charlotte to get barbecue. I'll now add Moe’s Original Bar B Que to my list of suggestions (which includes Mac's Speed Shop and Queen City Q, as well as others outside of the center city), and by visiting Moe's it'll also give them an opportunity to experience this quaint downtown area.  

Moe’s Original Bar B Que, 111 Matthews Station St., Matthews, 704-814-6637, moesoriginalbbq.com, facebook.com/MoesOriginalBBQMatthews, twitter.com/MoesBBQMatthews. Hours: Mon-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; closed Sundays.

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No, GPS. There's a Sinkhole Ahead

Remember back when you would drive to a place that you'd never gone to before, that if you didn't know exactly how to get there you would ask for directions before you left home, and the person giving you the directions would basically guide you there by listing a series of landmarks? (Once you get on such and such street, come down about five lights and turn left by that McDonald's.) Then remember when MapQuest came along on the Internet and you would enter the address of wherever you were going, print out the directions, and take them with you? And remember when GPS devices started to become really affordable, so you bought one, placed it on your car's dashboard or windshield, and would get real-time, turn-by-turn directions to your desired destination? And finally, mobile phones started coming equipped with GPS built in, so now you could just hop in the car, type in or speak the address to where you're going, and get turn-by-turn directions. I've gotten so used to my phone instructing me on where to go. Haven't you?

Well, today I was on my way to a meeting in Concord when I encountered a large "ROAD CLOSED" sign on Harris Road, which is the name the road changes to after being Eastfield Road, near the Charlotte-Concord line. According to my GPS, I was only about five minutes from my destination, but thanks to the road being closed, I couldn't continue on the suggested route. And no matter how many nearby streets I tried turning on so that my GPS could recalculate, in hopes of it leading me in another direction, it kept pointing me back to Harris Road.

I wanted to scream: "I can't go that way because there's a sinkhole!"

I'd seen and read about numerous sinkholes popping up throughout the Charlotte area over the last several weeks, largely caused by all of this rain we've been getting. Today was my first time encountering one in person. It was relatively small compared to some of the sinkholes I've seen on the local news (and pales in comparison to sinkholes seen around the world), but it was big enough to stretch across--and force the closing of--the two-lane road.

In order to get to my meeting today, one of the guys I was going to meet with ended up having to give me old-fashioned directions over the phone, by listing a series of landmarks.

I look forward to the day when my phone's GPS has an "avoid sinkhole" button. #1stWorldProblems.

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