http://www.thecharlottepost.com
tCIje Cljarlotte ^ost
LIFE
THURSDAY, MARCHE 2006
AS
Section
Monet,
meet
Hendrix
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE—Claude Monet,
meet Jimi Hendrix, '\dncent
van Gogh, meet Captain Kirk.
The unlikely pairings are
the result of a new fine-art ’
show, scheduled to open April
8, at the Experience Music
Project, the Seattle pop-cul
ture museum dedicated to
rock-and-roll and the adjoin
ing Science Fiction Museum, a
showcase of Klingons and
other extraterrestrials-
For the first time, Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen, the
museums’ primary b^efactor,
has opened up his private art
collection. Twenty-eight
works, some not seen in public
for more than 50 years, wiU be
on display
xmder the same
metaULc, multi-
hued Frank
G e h r y -
designed roof
that holds
some of the
other cool stuff
Allen’s coUect-
Hendrix
ed.
Down the had fix)m Renoir,
Seurat and Picasso is Jimi
Hendrix’s guitar, Dar|h
Vader’s helmet and Micham
Jackson’s jeweled glove.
‘Ts it that much different
fium Egyptian art being next
to Itahan art?” said Paul
Hayes Tucker, the exhibit’s
curator. ‘Tt’s ad relative.”
Aden was not immediately
available for an interview, said
Christian Qiiihci, an EMP
spokesman.
Tucker, a Monet expert, was
selected by EMP and Allen’s
.,-:people tp ^search, through
Allen’s “big” art collection—
they won’t say how big—and
. pick out some .of the works
Thcker thought would engage
a mass audience. He said the
initial idea was to featiire
impressionist works and show
how radically they changed
the art world in the late 19th
century
But he said today’s museum
visitors don’t see impression
ism for what is was. Monet,
Van Gogh and Renoir have
become ubiquitous images in
popular culture, he said.
Rather than explainir^ the
art history behind impression
ism - how Monet and oth^s
brought more realistic images
of everyday life to museum
walls that once were dominat
ed by pristine classical scenes
- Thcker said he wanted the
art work to tell the story
So Thcker, an art-history
professor fiom the University
of Massachusetts, Boston,
came up with an idea as radi
cal as putting Gav^uin imder
the same roof as Elton John’s
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
costume.
The show, aptly titled
‘DoubleTake,” groups impres
sionist and contemporary
works in an unprecedented
way Tlicker said.
He’s placed a lush Renoir
portrait of a girl next to a giant
Roy Lichtoistein cartoon-like
painting of a blonde bomb
shell- Fifteenth centvuy
Flemish painter Jan
Brueghel-The Yoimger is
grouped with Georges Seurat,
the 19th century Pointillist,
and Pablo Picasso, the famous
Cubist. A tranquil Monet
water lily painting hangs next
to a fiery, angry painting by
American abstract expression
ist TOllem de Kooning.
“We aU continue to learn
fiom Monet,” Tiicker said. "I’d
like to think aU his impres
sionist and postimpressionist
fiiends will be seen anew.”
Museum officials expect
about 100,000 people to pay $8
to view the exhibit in the six
months it will be in Seattle.
mmo
PHOTOS/WADE NASH
With the NASCAR Hall of Fame coming, Charlotte is sure to be a destination city, but will blacks visit Charlotte?
Tourist trappings
When it comes to black attractions, Charlotte’s behind times
By Cheris F. Hodges
cherts Jiodges@thecharlotlepost com
With the addition of the
NASCAR Hall of Fame,
Charlotte boosters are
touting the dty as a des
tination site in the mak
ing.
But is it a favorite visit
ing spot for black travel
ers?
According to the Ttavel
Industry Association of
America, blacks over
whelmingly consider
Atlanta as their favorite
dty to visit-
charlotte doesn’t even
rank in the top 10,
according to TIAA
spokesman Allen Kay
But that could change.
“Anythii^ can turn a
dty into a destination
city For example, in
Orlando, it’s the theme
parks,” he said. “Almost
any dty the size of
Charlotte would be a
good regional destina
tion.”
The report stated that
Atlanta’s climate and
opportunities fca’ Afiican
American entrepreneurs
leads to many visitors
staying in the dty
Charlotte, which is a
little less than four hours
finm Atlanta, is the home
of the Charlotte Bobcats,
the only professional
sports team owned by an
African American and is
the host of the CIAA bas
ketball tournament
through 2008. Charlotte
is also the home of histor
ically black Johnson C.
Smith University
But what else does the
dty offer for blacks?
“Charlotte has a lot of
universal attractions
that cross cultural lines,”
said Dehlah Counts of
the Charlotte Regional
\dsitors Authority “With
the NASCAR HaU of
Fame coming here, there
win be a push to get more
minority involvement in
tile sport.”
According to
TOldpedia, only about 10
percent of NASCAR fans
are black, and that has
See DESTINATION/2B
Winemakers make pitch for manly men
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HEALDSBURG, Calif-They are
making macho merlot in California
wine coimtry
Hot on tile stiletto heels of last
year’s wines-for-womai trend, new
releases firom Ray’s Station
Vineyards in Sonoma County are
being pitdied to the Y-chromosome
set as “Hearty Red Vdnes for Men.”
The bottling of tiie sexes seems to
be part of a wider industry trend
that indudes cute labels and easier-
to-use packaging, \dntners want to
break from the pack by making
wines more consumer friendly
‘You face this challenge: How do
you evai get people to know you’re
alive?” said Rob^ Smiley a man-
^ement professor at the University
of California, Davis, who follows the
wine industry Considering the
fierce competition to get noticed
among the hundreds of brands lin
ing store shelves, gender vending is
“not a bad strategy to try,” he said.
Last year, wine for women was the
tiieme with brands such as Mad
Housewife fium Rainier Vine and
White lie Early Season chardonnay
from Beringer making news.
Vines marketed to women may be
finding an audience.
ACNielsen supermarket data on
ei^t wines aimed at women indi
cated the brands, some of which are
in limited distribution, accoimted for
$10 million of the approximately $8
billion in wine sales for the year end
ing Feb, 11.
Wine, especially the higher-end
vintages, has long been considered a
man’s world. But the people behind
the Ray’s Station campaign say
there is an overlooked audience in
the backyard barbecuer and
NASCAR aiito racing fan who
enjoys wine but has not made a
hobby of it.
“These guys, they’re married;
they’ve got a couple of kids,” said
Brian Hilliard, who heads up mar
keting for Ray’s Station. “VTne is
part of their lives, but it’s not inte
grated in a way that they really force
themselves to be knowledgeable.”
Ray’s Station is seUir^ a merlot
and cabernet sauvignon both priced
at about $15 and made mostly with
Please see MACHO/2B
Biking, walking to photograph churches
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HENDERSON. N.C. -If
you ask Adrienne Camfield
if she is homeless, she wiU
tell you emphatically that
home is wherever she and
her two dogs spend the
ni^t, whether it’s lying on
the ground outdoors close to
a chmoh, or inside a cheap
motel room if the weather is
bad and they are lucky
enough to have the money
‘Tf the dogs can’t stay in
the motel, I don’t go.”
Every day is lived hand to
mouth. Camfield makes
sure her companions eat,
even if she doesn’t, il
always have dog food on
me.i
The stress of her hfestjde
for nearly three years has
taken its toll on Camfield,
who appears to be in her
early- to mid-60s. Wind,
rain, heat and cold have dis
colored her skin, grayed her
hair and etched in facial
fines that show up between
her eyes and nose when she
grins broadly or squints at
the svui.
She is 41.
Her laugh, which, often
kicks in mejqjectedly and
sometimes inappropriat^y
could be described as a well
modulated cackle. It ends
abruptly, followed by a
shriek that could crack a
pane of glass, if one hap
pens to be around.
The trek by bicycle and on
foot along the East Coast’s
highways began in Revere,
Mass, on Jime 17, 2003. It
is schedxiled to end this
year, on its third anniver
sary in Atlantic City N.J.
Her “artistic journey” as
she calls it, involves visiting
the oi-^inal 13 colonies to
“take pictmes of places
where people go to believe
in God. It’s not so much a
‘religious journey’ where I
am trying to find myself”
For five days this week, a
lot of people in Henderson
saw an imusual parade
downtown and on some side
streets.
Part of the short proces
sion consisted of Camfield
pushing her red-and-silver
“Salvation Army” bicycle.
Momted on the back was a
cart loaded down with
clothes, blankets and every-
thing else she owns. A cam
era was almost always
hajiging around her neck.
Padding amiably along
dose behind on their leash
es were her two best
fiiends.
Goldie, a 12-year-old gold
en retriev^/chow mix, was
pregnant when Camfield
found her abandoned near
Ocala, Fla., six years ago.
Camfield stayed in
Florida long enough for
Goldie to have her puppies,
FILE PHOTO
and to find hemes for them.
Jake, an eight-month-old
“mutt,” has spent most of
his fife on the road with his
mistress since she paid $5
for him somewhere back in
South Carolina,
When they were in
Richmond, Va., a fiiend
Camfield had never met
before paid for Jake to be
spayed and to get all of his
shots.
Goldie is in her golden
years, too old now to run or
trot beside the bike if it is
Please see BIKERS/3B
Fighting
health
disparities
“Communities of color suffer dis
proportionately from diabetes,
heart disease, HIV/AIDS, cancer,
stroke and infant mortality.
Eliminating these and other health
disparities is a priority.
Former US. Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
The* Maya Angelou Research
Center on Minority Health at
Wake Forest University Health
Sciences was fbimded in 2002.
Named after oiu own Dr. Maya
Angelou, the center’s goal is to
improve the quality of life and
well-being for minorities in
North Carolina and across the
nation. The center addresses
these issues at a time when the
federal government has made
minority health and efiminating
racial health disparities a nation
al priority
What are health disparities?
The word “disparity” means, “a
condition or fact of being
unequal, as in rank, degree, or
age.” The words inequahty
unfikeness, and differ^ce have a
similar meaning. The phrase
Vacial health disparities’refers to
inequality in health status,
based on one’s race. Afiican-
Americans and other minorities
continue to experience hi^er
rates and increased death due to
certain illnesses, compared to
whites. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has iden
tified 6 main health disparity
areas. These are: Diabetes,
Heart Disease, Cancer,
HIV/AIDS, Infant Mortality and
Immunizations. Two minor dis
parity areas have also been iden
tified: Mental Health and
Asthma. Most of us know some
one in oiu’ family or community
who has been affected by these
conditions.
What cavises health dispari
ties? There are many factors
that contribute to the current
status of minority health and
health inequities. Genetics,
while important in certain condi-
tioiLS, plays only a small role in
the major disparities that we see
today Access to health care (hav
ing health insurance and the
ability to obtain health care ser
vices) is a major contributing fac
tor. We also know that fifestjde
or behaviors (such as diet, exer
cise, and safe sex) and environ
mental factors (such as stress
and exposure to toxins) also play
a role in a person’s health. And
more recently, studies have
shown that even when health
. insurance and access to health
care services are available, the
quality of care received is not
always the same. Minorities are
often less fikely than whites to
receive needed medical services
when they go to the healthcare
system.
Commimity outreach and
health education are priority
areas for the Angelou Research
Center. Knowledge is power.
Identifying and thinking about
problems are early steps in
changit^ behaviors and adopt-
ir^ the healthiest lifestyles for
you and your family Tb this pur
pose, we are proud to announce
“The People’s Clinic.” Each
week, we will provide health and
healthcare information that is
up-to-date, understandable, and
relevant to you!
Contribution by Kristy F. Woods,
MD, Center Director For information
about the Maya Angelou Research
Center on Minority Hedlth, visit
•mvw.wfubmcedu/minoritvhealth, or
call(336)713-7578.