Charlotte Real Estate Agent Brian Belcher

This free event is at Charlotte's Mint Museum. The Museum used to be Charlotte's Mint, a building built to press gold into coinage because of the huge amount of gold mined in the Charlotte area in the city's early days. It is located close to downtown in the Myers Park area.

The poetry slam will be Feb. 26 and fill feature poets performing their art. Like with most art, it might not be for everyone. The language and themes may not be apppropriate for some people or children. The event will feature a group of poets called the Concrete Generation poets and the godcity artists.

Poetry slams have sprung up in cities across the nation and have become more popular after a show on HBO called Russell Simonds Def Poetry Jam.

It's an example of some of the events that happen around Charlotte as the city grows into more of a metropolis and a metropolitan area. There are a lot of things that people who grew up here fifty years ago might not recognize. New art events reflect a changing population and character of the city. The city has tried to promote that image by building a museum of the New South, located in uptown Charlotte.

March 7 will see one of the biggest shows in Charlotte for a while. Elton John and Billy Joel will play in the Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

Apparently, each one of them plays a set, then they join together and sing duets. They pick a variety of rock and roll songs, the event website says.

I wonder if they have to flip a coin to see who goes first. Going first is a bad thing in showbusiness I guess. But whoever goes first isn't the headliner. Maybe these two have been entertaining for so long that they've mellowed out and decided that it doesn't matter. I don't know.

I mean, it is Elton John and Billy Joel, so Billy is second. I wonder how he feels about that.

It would be one thing if these two were playing with an obviously inferior warmup act, but they aren't.

The show starts at 7:30 but tickets are killer. They range from $53 to $179. Yikes! But, even in this recession, there might be a bunch of people that love these two performers enough to save up for this ticket.

Tickets are available online at timewarnercablearena.com for this, probably once in a lifetime, show in uptown Charlotte.

The Charlotte Symphony is a professional orchestra in the city that plays orchestral music for everyone to enjoy.

They also sponsor a pops schedule that brings a variety of popular music to the city that everyone can enjoy. Ok, well maybe not your 13 year old. But everyone else can enjoy some good clean music.

People who have come in the past as part of the pops program have been the Smothers Brothers, a fixture on network television, once upon a time. The duo brought their stage show to charlotte and the symphony lent them a hand promoting the show.

The Pointer Sisters were another big name to come through with the Popps scheduel. They perforemd their hit "I'm so excited."

Buggs Bunny even made a stop in Charlotte on Valentines day. The animated character s made their apperaance onscreen while orchestra played an accompanyment.

Kenny Rogers is the latest one to schedule an appearance. The gambler will play the Ovens auditorium on the east side of Charlotte on February 27. That's this Friday. The show is at 8 p.m. so that's not too early to get off work and head down to the theaterr. You might even make it if you live somewhere else besides Charlotte area real estate.

North Carolina is home to one of the nation's largest military bases. Fort Bragg is east of Charlotte about 200 miles. There really isn't a good way to get to it on the road. I suppose if you have a military jet that you commute to work in, it's really easy to get there.

Fort Bragg is home to a bunch of famous military squadrons. The 101st Airborne is stationed there. There are a bunch of Special forces who call Fayetteville home. It is also a fun place to go if you really want to do Memorial day weekend right. The fourth of July is also a big event.

It's been a while, but there was an amazing fireworks show one fourth of july and a bunch of military demonstrations. They flew a helicopter with a bunch of marines in it right over the crowd and a bunch of soldiers jumped out of the helicopter, which was 100 feet off the ground and slid down a rope. They were simulating a rescue mission.

I've never seen or felt anything like the rush of wind that a giant helicopter flying 100 feet overhead made. Their rescue mission ended when they got the "injured" guy into a harness at the bottom of the 100 foot rope. They all put on a strap over their shoulders and the helicoper just picked them all up and carried them off at the end of the rope. They didn't reel them in or anything. I never saw carnival rides the same way again.

For all you non-Tarheels out there this is for you. I might be writing more about the heels as March Madness approaches.

Maryland beat the University of North Carolina in Maryland again. Who knows what that means though in a year where one team has failed to dominate.

Other North Carolina schools, Wake Forest and Duke have held the top spot, but have slipped in the past few weeks. They occupy the 8 and 9th spots on some of the sports polls.

The Tarheels, after beating N C State this week went to Maryland and blew a 16 point lead to lose in overtime. They squandered a 10 game win streak.

They are still the highest ranked basketball program in North Carolina this year. But it probably won't have all of North Carolina rooting for them when March rolls around. College basketball is always a hot topic and there are always rivalries, pools and trash talk at work, no matter where you work in Charlotte.

Maryland's point guard scored 30 points this game and had some key plays towards the end of the game in overtime. It seems like that is one of the keys to beating Chapel Hill, if you're going to do it.