The view from inside a giant puppet is disorienting. You see cloth, paper, a tunnel of dim light, flashes of spectators’ faces. If you’re lucky, you can see your feet. Your arms are extended to weird lengths, you have no idea where your head is, and only split-second timing will save you from crashing into […]
Ristin Cooks
Posted inArt
Rolling on the River
Damselflies circle above the river, bits of glittering color supported on transparent wings. They mate in midair, flying together like strung jewels. They come to rest briefly on fallen logs, branches, or even the shoulders of the humans paddling up the Eno River in rubber kayaks. I’m on this expedition with about a dozen pre-teen […]
Posted inArt
Runaway Train
I can’t get that song about that steel-drivin’ man out of my head. John Henry told his captain: Captain go back to town And bring me back two twenty-pound hammers And I’ll sure beat your steam drill down. Lord, Lord, And I’ll sure beat your steam drill down. Colson Whitehead’s John Henry Days will do […]
Posted inNews
The Good Earth
On most construction sites, mud is what sticks to your boots and gets in your way. The four young guys building this wall in Pittsboro are covered in mud–thick red clay coating them from elbow to fingertips, splattered all over their clothes. The clay is all over the wall, too. In fact, the wall is […]
Posted inNews
Turkey shoot
It was the last turkey shoot of the spring and the fire barrels just wouldn’t get going. One guy was pouring diesel fuel over the smoldering logs and cardboard. “This is the last bit of fuel I got,” he said, dumping the plastic jug in for good measure. The smoke stank, prolific black clouds of […]
Posted inNews
Are you ready?
“Are you ready for Christmas?” asked the sweet lady at the place where I was paying a bill. She was the second person to ask the question that day. When I admitted I wasn’t, a scant two weeks before C-Day, her eyes widened in shock. “My goodness, what are you going to do?” A few […]
Posted inArt
Hide-and-Seek History
“It’s not going to be the merriest of Christmases, but we’ll get by,” said the woman in the homespun dress as she stirred the coals in the fireplace. We were all crowded into the little cabin trying to remember that it wasn’t bad manners to stare at the people in funny clothes eating out of […]
Posted inArt
Carnival love
The premise of Carrie Brown’s new novel, The Hatbox Baby, is irresistible. The setting is gorgeous; Brown’s writing style is skilled and observant. Whether you come away pleased with the book overall depends on just how tuggable your heartstrings are. Mine are a little stiff when it comes to tiny infants and winsome protagonists. But […]
Posted inGuides
Pursuit of Hoppiness
“Beer is actually a depressant,” Kurt Vonnegut once observed, “But poor people will never stop hoping otherwise.” There were a few thousand people fervently hoping otherwise at the World Beer Festival in Durham recently. It seemed to be working out for them, too, even though they were sloshing through about four inches of mud on […]
Posted inArt
Staking his claim
It’s hard to decide if Ted Bleecker is the happiest guy in Carrboro, or the crankiest. Or both. If you spend much time in Carrboro, you’ve probably seen Bleecker, walking with his shaggy black dog between the Weaver Street Market lawn and his building. You’ve probably wondered about his building. Bleecker is constructing a two-story […]