Living next to a railroad switchyard has its advantages. Well, one advantage, anyway: you get to see amazing graffiti that very few other people get to see. The art that rolls by every day includes intricate murals, sly cartoons and tiny Zen landscapes made with a few strokes of white marker. The artists come from […]
Todd Morman
Posted inNews
Damn shames and legislative games
You probably already know that North Carolina has some of the most absurdly restrictive ballot access laws in the country. Unusually early deadlines and high signature requirements combined to keep Ralph Nader off the state’s ballot in 2000. The rules also keep Libertarians busy, forcing them to spend so much time and money collecting signatures […]
Posted inNews
The War Page
A young couple in love is probably not quite what the Pentagon had in mind when it came up with the idea of “embedding” civilian journalists in military units headed for the Persian Gulf. So when Mike Marti, a major in the 82nd Airborne, chose the occasion of his deployment to Kuwait to propose to […]
Posted inNews
Great Weblogs for Not-so-great Times
Citizens who get all of their war news from television shows that refuse to air images of bloody or broken bodies. Now there’s a horrifying thought. Inquiring minds demand an explanation: Where’s our gore? If “embedded journalism” is simply the newest phase in the evolution of war as a network video game–and it is–someone needs […]
Posted inNews
‘Married by America,’ dumped by FOX 50
There’s something almost quaint about WRAZ FOX 50’s decision to once again become the only FOX affiliate in the country to pre-empt a reality TV show. “WRAZ-TV/FOX 50 has decided to preempt future broadcasts of the FOX network reality series Married by America due to content that demeans and exploits the institution of marriage,” the […]
Posted inNews
Preaching outside the choir
An activist friend whose husband has been busy hanging anti-war banners from overpasses along Interstate 40 stumped me with a sudden question at a party recently. “How do you convince people who don’t already agree that invading Iraq is a bad idea?” she asked. “I get so frustrated and mad when I try to talk […]
Posted inNews
Talk ain’t cheap at WUNC-FM
Is WUNC (91.5 FM) finally taking local talk radio seriously? Eyebrows were raised among media-watchers last week over news that WUNC–one of the most-listened-to public radio stations in the country, if you believe the hype–had suddenly dropped Mary Hartnett as host of The State of Things, a cultural affairs program about people and issues in […]
Posted inNews
Todd Morman
There are days you’ve got to feel for the folks who run The News & Observer. Just imagine it–publishing a daily newspaper, answering to the accountants and simultaneously dealing with the dizzying variety of viewpoints in the Triangle. It can’t be easy. When you screw up–and you’re sure to screw up sometime–the criticisms come fast […]
Posted inArt
High Art, Hit Movies and Manifestos
Happy moments don’t come around often in the world of comic books. Years of bias, terrible distribution and a general lack of interest from serious booksellers have combined to prevent smart works of comics literature (or graphic novels) from getting the shelf space they deserve in mainstream bookstores. And those rare moments of critical attention […]
Posted inMusic
Sharing the Rock Wealth
When is a Triangle band not really a Triangle band? Answer: When three of its five members live in Virginia. That’s the situation facing Dragstrip Syndicate, a band whose three-guitar assault mixes Wilson Pickett-style Southern soul with the psychedelia of The Seeds, the early ’70s punk of the MC5 and a dose of Humble Pie. […]