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If you are visiting Charlotte North Carolina for the first time then you may want to catch a tour or two. Even if you’re not a tour sort of person it is sometimes a good chance to get a broad view of an new place and learn about sights that you may not have known about. In an area like Charlotte with such rich history there are many things to see and do. Maybe you would like to go spend an afternoon at the Levine Museum of the New South which give a really great picture of the American south from 1865 to today. They have a great record and interactive account of how the area has grown in the perspective of all walks of life.  

If you are only in the area for one night and you only have the night time to spend out on the town than check out what is happening at the NC Music Factory maybe there is a great concert or show going on while you are in town. This is the center of a whole neighborhood of fun or at least a good corner block of fun. Great for a one stop entertainment and restaurant experience. There is a main stage that holds a variety of live performances. They have a comedy club and a dance club called Halo. You can rock out at the Crobar or just go people watch at one of the restaurant and pubs like Black Bear Saloon or Wet Willies. Definitely a great way to get out of the cozy hotel for a little local adventure.  

If you have only a small bit of time during the day before catching the plane out of town maybe you would like to see a museum to open you mind back up. Check out the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art it is sure to help you relax your mind and get a nice walk in before sitting around another airport.

My cousin Vinnie, and yes that’s really his name and yes he really is my cousin, invited me to go with him on a road trip that would span Oregon, Washington and lead us into Canada. He wanted to take a whole month last summer to do this and at first I had hesitations. After all, I’m a working man, I have a job and responsibilities. So naturally I said yes. Vinnie and I grew up together in Northern California. My family lived in Pleasant Hill and his family lived in Albany. Both of these cities are on the East Bay and when we were teenagers we began taking BART into San Francisco and always had a great time. Vinnie is almost exactly one year older than I am and he is pretty much the one that determines what we’ll do. I’ve always just sort of relied on him for this and he always comes up with great ideas. I figured his road trip to Canada last summer would be nothing less. And I was right. It was just the two of us and we had an amazing time.

We stopped in Ashland, Oregon at the Shakespeare Festival. It’s something both of us had always wanted to do and just never made it up there. Moving on we stopped in Portland for a night and then headed out early the next morning and didn’t really stop until we made it Seattle. I know this is cliché but one of the first things I wanted to do was stop and have a great cup of coffee. We happened upon a place called Cherry Street Coffee and though this might sound stereotypical, it really was a good cup of coffee. Maybe the fact that there was a nice drizzle outside and it just all sort of felt right regarding Seattle expectations contributed to the overall effect, but still it was good coffee. Next we headed over to Pike Place Market and hung out for a while. Vinnie and I liked Seattle so much that we decided to stay the night and found a quaint little inn in which to rest our heads. The rest of the trip was just as amazing and I forgot to mention I have a great story about crossing the Canadian boarder. I’ll have to save that one for next time.

All of her life Cathy felt that there was just nothing like a great musical being preformed life onstage in front of her. She loved the theatre and was particularly found of musical comedies. She also loved a good rock opera like Jesus Christ Superstar but for Cathy there was just nothing like a Gilbert And Sullivan show. That is, there used to be nothing like one, however Cathy recently visited New York, which was something she tried to do at least twice a year, and her friend Maya had two New York Broadway tickets for Superior Donuts.

At first Cathy wasn’t sure how she felt about this, they always went to musicals when she visited. And it wasn’t purely selfish on Cathy’s part, Maya also liked them and would save the ones she wanted to see for when Cathy was visiting. However, she received tickets to the Music Box Theatre at work and since Cathy was going to be in town she thought they could go together. To demonstrate her appreciation for being thought about and also to be a good sport Cathy agreed to go.

The play was written by Tracy Letts who is the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning author of August Osage County. Well, at least the play has a good pedigree thought Cathy as she waited for it to begin. And when it did, right from the start she didn’t stop laughing even when she felt she shouldn’t and didn’t know quite why she was. It was an incredible play with fabulous performances and even the die hard musical theatre lover Cathy could not help but to walk out of the theatre asking Gilbert and Sullivan who? She was kidding of course and would always remain a musical comedy fan, but she had definitely broadened her horizons and loved Superior Donuts and was willing to explore the world of straight theatre.

Wishful Drinking is the bitingly funny autobiographical work of Carrie Fisher and is scheduled to begin previews at the New York Broadway Theatre Studio 54 later this month. The official opening of the show is October 4, and its limited run is scheduled to end in January of 2010. Residents and tourists staying in a New York USA hotel should make early reservation to guarantee their seat in this incredible journey of revelation and mayhem. As can be derived from the show’s title, Fisher tells in painfully humorous detail the stories of alcohol and parties she encountered as major Hollywood and social icon.

Fisher was born the daughter of the power duo Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher in Burbank, California. When she was two her parents were divorced and her father married Elizabeth Taylor. With all these super start talents surrounding her family life and early childhood socialization, it seems destined that Fisher was bound for a career in entertainment. Her initial performance experience began with the stage, so it is fitting that the stage is also where she has focused much of her recent work. However, Fisher will probably be most known and immortalized for her role as Princess Leia in George Lucas’ Star Wars series.

Fisher’s early life and exposure to all the destructive trappings of wealth and fame initiated her into an early experience with substances such as alcohol. She makes rich comedy work in her processing of these crazy party years, and has demonstrated a strong talent as a producer, writer and actress, which has continually propelled her through her life. Postcards From the Edge was her first major autobiographical writing that exposed some of the more controversial elements of her life, in a bitingly comedic style. It was adapted into a film in 1990 and starred Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid and Meryl Streep.