Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/134728
Zombies Are People, too. Sort of. In the Flesh extends sympathy toward the undead TV by DEAN ROBBINS The British miniseries In the Flesh (Thursday-Saturday, 10 p.m., BBC America) takes its place with the greatest zombie movies of all time. Like 1968's Night of the Living Dead, the granddaddy of the genre, it's both a gross-out horror story and a grim satire. In this case, the object of satire is England's bumbling public-health bureaucracy. In the Flesh plunges us into a world where zombies have risen and, through a government initiative, been "cured" by drugs. The approved term for them now is "partially dead syndrome sufferers." We meet Kieren (Luke Newberry), an unfortunate young man with colorless eyes and ghastly white skin, as he's treated with hundreds of others in a public facility. He's given group therapy, heavy makeup and colored contact lenses, then sent back home with his understandably edgy parents. But angry residents of Kieren's hometown — including his zombie-fighting sister — don't believe in the government's liberal policy of "assimilation." They're determined to make Kieren's life a living hell … though "living" might be stretching it. The miniseries is at once funny, scary and poignant. The poignancy comes courtesy of Kieren, a misfit whose guilt and anxiety are vividly rendered. Yes, he's "partially dead," but he's also one of the most human characters I've ever seen on TV. Hero Thursday, 8 pm (TNT) The Rock makes for an enjoyable TV host in this new reality series, which puts nine would-be "heroes" through harrowing challenges and lets America vote on the winner. The contestants have to prove themselves not only physically, but morally. The Rock tempts them with large sums of money to betray their teammates on the sly. "What I want to find out is what makes a real hero," he says. "Courage, strength, self-sacrifice, integrity — we'll test all these traits." The only problem with Hero is that, so far, there's no one to root for. The contestants bicker and brag, and eloquence is in short supply. "I just wanna, like, friggin' climb trees and, like, fight monkeys and stuff like that!" says a muscle-bound meathead named Marty. As you'll notice, "intelligence" wasn't on the Rock's list of heroic traits. Sinbad Saturday, 9 pm (Syfy) You expect a story about Sinbad the sailor to be campy fun, as in the 1958 movie The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. In the new Syfy series Sinbad goes to great lengths to create an exciting adventure, with fabulous CGI beasts, daring escapes and hair's-breadth rescues. Sinbad (Elliot Knight) is a scamp with a killer smile who accidentally kills a royal son. That leads to a curse in which he's forced to travel the seven seas without rest. The pilot gets us invested in his fate, offering just enough psychological detail to make us care if he survives his latest scrape. Sinbad isn't campy fun. It's just fun. Carolina Needs Capital Ideas by JOHN HOOD ternal and external factors began to make our state a less attractive place to invest Just about every political cause in Raleigh is being pitched as a spur to economic growth. It's easy to see why. North Carolina continues to post one of the worst un- in new private capital. The state legislature pushed up our marginal tax rates on personal and corporate income. Politically favored companies cut incentive deals to employment rates in the country. Poll respondents continue to list job creation as offset the effects, but most firms didn't or couldn't. At the same time, our competithe top priority for their elected leaders. tors reduced their marginal tax rates and streamlined their regulatory procedures No matter what the cause, advocates promise the effect will be economic — European countries were surprisingly active on both growth. The phenomenon goes far beyond the usual claims issues — and made smarter decisions about public capital about the stimulating effects of tax relief, regulatory reform, such as roads that facilitate private investment. infrastructure and public education. According to some You can see the results in a recent study of state-bylobbyists, North Carolina's economy would really cut loose state trends in capital formation. Published in the journal if taxpayers will just subsidize a few more modern-art exContemporary Economic Policy, it examined the period hibits, Hollywood productions, heritage-tourism sites and from 1990 to 2007. While North Carolina's capital stock preservation projects. was still rising a bit faster than the national average during Let's get real. There are many fine things that North the first half of the period, from 2000 to 2007 its rate of Carolinians can appreciate and enjoy with their own time inflation-adjusted capital growth (11.6 percent) fell behind and money. But when it comes to building the fundamenthe average for Southern states (16.2 percent) and the natals for economic success, the main contributions state govtion as a whole (14.9 percent), and way behind the likes of ernment can make are 1) establishing rule of law and the Virginia (19.8 percent), Florida (21.1 percent) and Texas security of private contracts, 2) ensuring the existence of Sustained economic growth doesn't come from (27.7 percent). high-quality roads and schools at an economical price and short-term gimmicks that pass money from one Recognizing that North Carolina can't recover its eco3) keeping tax and regulatory burdens as low as is consishand to the other via magical multipliers. nomic momentum as long as many companies, investors tent with the first two items. and entrepreneurs prefer to put their capital to work elseThese insights come from decades of empirical research. where, legislative leaders and the McCrory administration have made reforming taxes They also come from the realization that economic success flows from productive and regulations high priorities in the 2013 session. This is the right decision, regardcapacity — from the supply side of the economy, in other words, not the demand less of how much they may be excoriated by liberal lawmakers and commentators. side. If companies become more productive, they will survive, grow, hire and buy If the fiscal and regulatory policies of the Hunt, Easley and Perdue eras had been services. They tend to become more productive by acquiring more and better capital. That includes physical capital such as plants and equipment, intellectual capital accompanied by robust economic growth, the liberal pushback might be more logical and persuasive. But reality intrudes. Their strategy was ineffective. North Carolina's such as inventions and innovations and human capital such as better-trained emeconomy has lagged the national average since the mid-1990s. ployees and vendors. What our economy needs now is more capitalism — by which I Sustained economic growth doesn't come from short-term gimmicks that pass mean more risk-takers willing to JOHN HOOD, President and Chairman money from one hand to the other via magical multipliers. Government shouldn't invest their private capital in new of the John Locke Foundation, Columtry to manipulate demand. But it can play a role in encouraging, or at least accomand existing enterprises in North nist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcommodating, a greater supply of capital. Carolina. That's how we all win. ingweekly.com. North Carolina did this fairly well until the 1990s, when a combination of inWWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JUNE 5-11, 2013 UCW 21