The Durham Bulls won the International League championship on Friday. It was their fifth title and eleventh finals appearance in the last fifteen yearsan extraordinary accomplishment, especially in the volatile context of Triple-A minor-league baseball, where rosters change almost daily under a major-league “parent club” that promotes and demotes players at its whim, rendering the […]
Adam Sobsey
Bio: Adam Sobsey (@sobsey) writes about wine and culture for INDY Week.Twitter: http://twitter.com/sobsey
Posted inCulture
As the Durham Bulls Enter the Playoffs, We Wonder: What Exactly Is the Value of a Minor-League Championship?
The Durham Bulls begin the International League championship series at home tonight. It’s the Bulls’ seventh appearance in the finals in ten years, a remarkable accomplishment in the volatile realm of Triple-A baseball. But what exactly is the value of a minor-league championship, even to the players vying for it? They wear Durham Bulls uniforms […]
Posted inMusic
The Great Pretender: Chrissie Hynde’s Forty-Year Roller Coaster Career
THE PRETENDERS Sunday, Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m., $45–$75 Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham “Precious,” the first track on Pretendersprobably one of the greatest debut albums ever maderoars out of London’s punk ferment with a ferocious attack that evokes “motorcycles with guitars,” the sound young Chrissie Hynde had conceived for the band she’d formed. Hynde, “the […]
Posted inArt
Paul Frellick Diagnoses Deep Dish Theater Company’s Lasting Legacy and Quiet Demise
In June, Deep Dish Theater Company quietly announced its closure after a fifteen-year run in Chapel Hill’s University Place (née University Mall)a major loss for the area’s theater scene. Yet the company’s demise received virtually no public notice. That typified the modesty and reserve of founding artistic director Paul Frellick, who “was always happy to […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Is The Closure of Cave Taureau a Bad Sign for Downtown Durham’s Recent Retail Bloom?
The last month for Durham’s burgeoning retail scene suddenly suggested a worrisome trend. In May, Nice Price Books went out of business on Broad Street. And then, in mid-June, the excellent downtown wine shop Cave Taureau, situated on the ring of the Five Points intersection for the last four years, slashed prices and announced its […]
Posted inArt
Though Durham’s Nice Price Books Is Gone, There’s Cause for Hope as Well as Despair
I’m sad because my bar is closing down. It’s not the place I drinkI’m talking about Nice Price Books in Durham, which just shuttered for good. I’m a regular there. I browse lightly, but mostly I talk with Barry Blanchette, who owns the store with Cindy Kamoroff. Our conversation ranges widely, from light rail to […]
Posted inArt
Filter Theatre Slices and Dices Twelfth Night at Duke Performances. Why Can’t We Leave the Bard Alone—and Vice Versa?
TWELFTH NIGHT Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham Friday, Feb. 5–Saturday, Feb. 6, 8 p.m., $10–$34 I started researching Filter Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company‘s Twelfth Night, which Duke Performances presents this weekend, by watching the ten-minute trailer on YouTube. It’s quite entertaining. It devotes its first minute to a thorough, comic milking of the famous […]
Posted inCulture
“We call that a go”: Marcus Paige leads UNC men’s basketball past N.C. State in overtime thriller
Photo by Adam David Kissick UNC guard Marcus Paige vies with N.C. State guard Tyler Lewis, PNC Arena, February 26, 2014 PNC ARENA/RALEIGH—You can probably spend your whole morning reading stories about UNC-Chapel Hill guard Marcus Paige, about Marcus Paige and North Carolina State forward T.J. Warren, about the [adjective] [noun] they [verb] in last […]
Posted inCulture
It’s back: UNC men’s basketball beats Duke
DEAN E. SMITH CENTER/ CHAPEL HILL—Two seasons ago, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski had a habit of saying. “It’s what we do.” He’d make sure to work this little phrase into post-game press conferences with regularity, and he could use it in the context of a number of different things. It was as if he […]
Posted inCulture
All work: UNC men’s basketball outlasts Pittsburgh
DEAN E. SMITH CENTER/ CHAPEL HILL—Sportsfans, I hope you made a whole day and evening of it and, after you watched North Carolina hold off Pittsburgh for their sixth straight win, found a place to settle in at dinner time to watch Duke escape Maryland by little more than the width of the rim and […]