With their ’97 Doghouse records debut, Four Minute Mile, Kansas City’s The Get Up Kids‘ punk/pop–chock full of hooks and memorable bits–got the attention of indie rock/emo fans. Despite sniffs from the majors, the band has emerged as a shining example that the DIY ethic still pays off. Starting with basement tours and graduating to […]
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In gaming
Dungeons & Dragons fans should dust off their dice this weekend and head over to the first annual Trinoc*coN conference, a celebration that’s bringing together sci-fi authors, comic book artists, master gamers and all kinds of enthusiasts to the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center. Conference guests include Michael Stanwick, author of Stations of the […]
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In centennaries
October 2 marks the 100th birthday of one of North Carolina’s most celebrated and then neglected writers, a giant from Asheville who enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill when he was only 15, then went on to Harvard and then published several great works of literature before dying at the tender age of 37. At UNC, Thomas […]
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Scarlet letters
Good fiction writing may be distinguished by any number of remarkable qualities, but the best novels, from Anna Karenina to Lolita, are marked, almost universally, by one trait: moral complexity. Reading a novel can never be a purely aesthetic experience, a simple surrender to the incantatory power of words. Wherever language is employed in art, […]
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In the street
Last year, organizers of the first annual Raleigh Street Painting Festival expected crowds of anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 folks. Ten thousand showed up to get down on their hands and knees and chalk up the asphalt. This year, the festival committee anticipates even more will arrive at the parking lot on the east side […]
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In voodoo beats
In the late 1970s Boukman Eksperyans (pictured) assembled on the sidewalks of Ouanamnithe, a small town in northern Haiti. The group took their name from Boukman Dutty, a slave and voodoo priest who helped to unify the slaves against the French colonists in 1791, and their music echoes his mission with a blend of spiritual […]
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Glitter Films
“We want to see something different once in a while!” reads the first line of Glitter Films’ Statement of Vision. This simple premise is as good a reason as any to see independent films, and in fact, the frustration underlying such a statement is often what fuels a number of the independent filmmakers in the […]
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In old-time
Since retiring from his day job in 1982, 82-year-old East Tennessee fiddler Ralph Blizard has reigned as a hero of Appalachian dance music with his breathtaking virtuosity, welcoming personality and contagious love of the form. Ralph Blizard & the New Southern Ramblers deliver driving old-time music with youthful energy, traditional vocals and timeless power made […]
Posted inGuides
Literary
LiteraryBy city and alphabetically by venue. For current readings, please see our weekly “Literary” calendar. RALEIGH BARNES & NOBLE CARY: Tue, Sep 26, 7:30 pm: David Menconi. Tue, Oct 10: Sarah Susanka. 760 SE Maynard Rd, Cary. 467-3866. Free. BARNES & NOBLE RALEIGH: Thu, Oct 12, 4 pm: Erika Shearin Karres. Sat, Oct 14, 1 […]
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Ben-Hur
If Gladiator was your introduction to the sword-and-sandal genre, prepare to meet its granddaddy. The 1925 version of Ben-Hur (no, not the Charlton Heston flick–he isn’t that old), broke records with its $4 million price tag and cast of 125,000–two things that made for some colossal action scenes both on boats and on chariots. If […]
