Pivotal choicesFor the past eight years, conservative leaders have allowed “market forces” to drive the pace and direction of Raleigh’s growth, while citizen participation in the development process has taken a back seat. But the citizens aren’t riding quietly. Two recent rezoning cases have highlighted the ongoing struggle between practitioners of unchecked growth and those […]
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Durham Endorsements
Trusted veterans, vocal newcomers The engines of sprawl are also set to full-throttle in Durham. And many residents are concerned about whether and how the costs and benefits of growth will be shared. Current leaders have proposed spending millions of taxpayer dollars on subsidizing downtown parking decks for private developers, while little progress has been […]
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In parades
This weekend, for the second year in a row, the Triangle will host the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival. June is typically considered National Gay Pride month, but this year organizers are taking advantage of cooler temperatures and extra planning time to involve more university and area organizations than ever before. There’s a […]
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Yeah, Hal
The Independent‘s venerable longtime columnist Hal Crowther has recently been awarded yet another recognition of distinction: A 2001 Lillian Smith Book Award, presented by the Southern Regional Council, for his collection of essays, Cathedrals of Kudzu. The awards are presented each year in tribute to Smith, the eminent mid 20th-century Southern writer and activist. In […]
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Who can forget the Black Beast of Aarrgghh? Or the Black Knight, who continues to fight, even after his limbs are lobbed off, one by one? The killer bunny rabbit? And of course, there are the Knights Who Say “Ni!” and the horsemen who, because of shortages in the kingdom, have no horses. But did […]
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Divided We Fall
Director Jan Hrebejk, working in the distinctly Czech tradition of absurdist humanism, recalls the 1960s Czech New Wave with his Oscar-nominated Divided We Fall. Set in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, the film opens with a series of vignettes spaced two years apart, beginning in 1937, which introduce the main characters: David, the son of a Jewish businessman; […]
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Against the Drumbeat
This “Attack on America” has been brought to you by … Fill in the blank. Have you stuck with a favorite anchor? Or surfed at random? Can you distinguish one news source from the other? Perhaps you can–but the distinctions are measured in nuance. The drumbeat to war rolls steadily on. The president announces his […]
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In book drives
Quail Ridge Books and Music wants to enlist you in a good cause. This month, the book store has launched a book drive to help create the Mayview Community Library, in the low-income Raleigh Housing Authority development off of Oberlin Road, behind Jaycee Park. The community has partnered with local churches and the Hand Up […]
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Fall-ternative: Dance
bROOKERdANCE is a year-old modern dance company operating without a permanent performing space, but definitely with a mission. “Dance can be political, but it shouldn’t be propaganda,” says 24-year-old Rachel Brooker, the Durham-based troupe’s director. “Bodies are so political that once you put them on a stage, it’s automatically political.” Brooker, who says she is […]
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The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin)
Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), this German film improbably unites two people (Bodo, a man running from the scene of a bank heist, and Sissi, who’s just been pinned under a truck in an accident he’s caused) in a series of bizarre, seemingly fated coincidences. When Bodo saves her life, even accompanying her […]
