It was just a chance conversation, two guys watching a soccer practice, but it saved my day. Muting the talking heads, I’d been discouraged at how far apart we all were. You know the old pre-election can’t-we-all-get-along. Well it’s going to work out. Week after week, as soccer dads and soccer moms, we’ve paced the […]
John Valentine
Bio: John Valentine lives in Hillsborough, where he's written about life on and off the farm for more than two decades.Email: [email protected]
Posted inArt
LitLocal
The students at McDougal and Culbreth Middle Schools in Chapel Hill and Powell G.T. Magnet School in Raleigh know all about Phillip Shabazz. His literary performance poetry has been called “imaginative,” “musical” and “vibrant,” and Executive Director Cynthia Barnett of the North Carolina Writers’ Network (NCWN) considers him “a rare resource” in the arts community. […]
Posted inNews
Water works
It was a perfect day for a walk on the Eno. We were between hurricanes, the sky was clear for a few hours, and the house was deep in cabin fever. Loading a backpack with water, snacks, flip-flops for wading, leashes and an extra layer of clothing, we headed for the river. Two very eager […]
Posted inNews
The new wave
Former Durham girl-about-town, Oxford America columnist and Indy contributor Lauren Wilcox pops up in some great company with a poem in the latest Paris Review. Sharing bylines with Billy Collins, David Kirby and W.S. Merwin makes for a good month. Her verse, “The Moving-Picture Principle,” plays with camera metaphors: light, motion and time. Kim Church […]
Posted inArt
Niku Arbabi:
The way some people accumulate computers, Niku Arbabi saves typewriters. Right now she has four favorites: “New ones follow me home,” she says, smiling. Her typewriters are integral to her art, or are at least one facet of her creative output. An artist, DJ, designer, writer, promoter, filmmaker and extraordinary zine creator, Arbabi isn’t one […]
Posted inNews
iPod, therefore I am
The seniors are bummed. They’re so, gulp, over, so … “past.” Miffy and Sandy Jr. arrive green on campus and are promptly given iPods as party favors. All Brett got was a Final Four towel. Duke’s decision to give members of the freshman class (a group they’ve feted as “the class of the future”) cool […]
Posted inNews
Running the river
Water themes abound as we cast an over-the-shoulder glance from “back to school” and muse instead on “back to summer.” John Manuel runs the whitewater of the Haw River’s Moosejaw Falls on the cover of the most recent issue of Wildlife in North Carolina, the monthly publication of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Manuel […]
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Magalogs, catazines and other payodicals
When is a magazine not a magazine? For me it was when I was on vacation. It was family movie night. We were in Boston during the opening run of Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Loews theater in Boston Common: hundreds of people, shows every hour all day long, lines snaking out the door. There was […]
Posted inArt
Karen Barker
Karen Barker’s plate is full this morning–in a good way. Her new computer’s not hooked up, e-mail’s not getting through and she’s got several dozen best friends coming over for dinner. As usual, she’s smiling and laughing as she describes her “to do” lists. It’s not the virtual world that’s on her mind, it’s all […]
Posted inNews
Thanks, Coach
Phew. That was close. Friends who’d seen Coach K early on the Fourth of July weekend talked about just how excited he was, like a little kid even. He was going. Things looked bleak in the collective zip codes of 27700, there was no joy in Durville on Sunday night. Cameron Crazies have a four-year […]
