Wilco wants you to help with local food

Chicago band Wilco is supporting the latest Farmer Foodshare Challenge. Farmer Foodshare is a program that started in the Triangle to get donations of money or fresh food to use for community efforts to feed the hungry.

Starting Sept. 24, Wilco will challenge shoppers at 10 markets, including the Atherton Mill and Market in Charlotte, 2104 South Blvd., to donate money to support Farmer Foodshare.

Unfortunately, Wilco won't actually be at the market in Charlotte: They're playing the Raleigh Amphitheatre on Sept. 27, the same day they're releasing a new album, "The Whole Love." But if you donate to Farmer Foodshare at Atherton on Sept. 24, you get a free Wilco tote bag. The market organizers are hoping you'll fill the bag with food and drop it off at the Farmer Foodshare Donation Station at the front of the market. Wilco will donate proceeds from the sale of show posters to Farmer Food Share.

So far, the Atherton Market has 500 pounds of fresh food for Friendship Trays and the Dilworth Soup Kitchen. With the Wilco promotion, the market hopes to double that.

In other Atherton market news, Savory Spice Shop, a franchise based in the Denver, Colo., area, plans to open in the market in November. Savory Spice Shop, which also has a location in Raleigh, carries more than 400 freshly ground herbs and spices, 140 hand-blended seasonings, organic selections and gift sets.

The Atherton Mill and Market, in the former Charlotte Trolley Barn in the Historic South End, near South Boulevard and Tremont, is open 3-7 p.m. Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.

The best thing you can do with a Pringles can

It's hard to convey just how goofy -- and weirdly delightful -- the Pringles Can Speaker is.

If you send in the original receipt from any four Super Stack cans of Pringles, you get a round speaker that snaps into the top of the empty can and plugs into any personal MP3 player, including iPods. Go to www.pringles.com to get details and a free-speaker-redemption form

The long, hollow can acts as an amplifier, adding a little depth to the sound.

The coolest things about this from my hour or so of playing with it?

1. It's a speaker that fits in a cup holder. Those of us who haven't got car stereos with iPod jacks can finally listen to Wilco on the way to work.

2. You get interesting reactions when you walk around waving a Pringles can that is playing music.

3. Finally, while the fidelity isn't real Bose, Pringles aren't real potato chips, either.

Playing music with the can beats having to eat the nasty things.