in shoegazing

Good news if you’re an octopus, geisha or siren: Triangle-based HA HA SHOES has designed footwear just for you (or maybe they’re just inspired by you).

Good news for the rest of us: 1) THE ELECTRIC BLENDER/305 SOUTH is now a heated venue, and 2) this Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, they’re pairing up with ha ha to show off their new line, some of which involves velvet footbeds. And 3) Friday night is Metal Karaoke Night (tix are $6.66) and hot and dirty duo THE Dirty Little Heaters start tearing it up at 9 p.m. Any goody two-shoes who are out and about at noon on Saturday can stop by ha ha’s morning-after party and stay for Metal Matinee at 4:20 p.m. (But shouldn’t they have hired a soul band?)

Before you head over to 305 S. Dillard St. in Durham, make sure to see hahashoes.net to see what you’re going to need to save your pennies for. Call 682-2594 or go to www.theelectricblender.com for details. —Maria Brubeck

in basketball and anthropology

WILL BLYTHE grew up in a pleasant, wooded Chapel Hill neighborhood just off Franklin Street. The son of a noted university physician (among Dr. Blythe’s patients was Frank Porter Graham), young Will was immersed in the traditions of the town–its genteel affectations, rampant liberalism, eccentric cast of characters and strident basketball partisanship. So it is not so strange that Blythe ended up a top-notch writer who happens to hate Duke University.

Blythe jaunts down from NYC this week to expound on the hate-hate relationship between Duke and UNC as explored in his book To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry.

He’s at THE BARN IN FEARRINGTON VILLAGE on Friday, March 3 at 7 p.m.; A SOUTHERN SEASON on Saturday, March 4 at noon; the REGULATOR BOOKSHOP also on Saturday at 2 p.m.; and WILSON LIBRARY AT UNC on Tuesday, March 7 at 1 p.m. —Kirk Ross

in king spottings

You may recognize the last name of DAVID EICHENBERGER, one of the artists who will be decorating KINGS for the next several weeks. David is Peter Eichenberger’s son (see the cover), an occasional doorman at Kings and an artist whose work has been on display in galleries throughout the city. Along with LUKE BUCHANAN and SCOTT NURKIN, he will design king-related art–king-related meaning from King Tut’s gold to Larry King’s glasses to Don King’s hair–for Kings. It will go up Saturday, March 4, the same night that Nurkin’s fantastic hyper-color rock band, BIRDS OF AVALON, plays with Greensboro’s TIGER BEAR WOLF and DESTRUCTIONAIRE–a collaboration between members of Utah!, The Applejuice Orchestra and DeYarmond Edison. Tickets are $6, and the rock starts at 10 p.m. –Grayson Currin

in jazzin’

This year’s CAROLINA JAZZ FESTIVAL lineup is a giant, stretching from Wednesday until Saturday and including an all-star jam session on Wednesday, a tribute to Duke Ellington on Thursday, a performance by the Jazz atLINCOLN CENTER AFRO-LATINOrchestra directed by ARTURO O’FARRILL (see Latin Beat on page 53) on Friday, and the UNC JAZZ BAND with CHARANGA CAROLINA on Saturday. The events on UNC’S CAMPUS happen alternately in Memorial Hall, Carolina Student Union, Hill Hall and Carolina Student Union Caberet and off-campus at Top of the Hill and Talulla’s. For more, see www.unc.edu/music/jazzfest. –Grayson Currin

in lowercase tones

Step forward into the past on Saturday, March 4 at the newly opened RALEIGH MUSIC HALL (at the old Martin Street Music Hall location) with Johnson City, Tenn.’s EVERYBODYFIELDS. Call their music Americana if you want, but it seems to spring from a time well before that term was in vogue. And note that, in k.d. lang fashion, the everybodyfields keep that opening “e” lowercase, perhaps underscoring their just folks/we’re all in this together nature. It suits the acoustic trio’s unassuming sound, which keeps things as hushed as three-part harmonies can, and which carries warm promise of a lover’s whisper. The music starts at 10 p.m., with EARLY MORNING SWIM setting the stage with their own brand of acoustic goodness. –Rick Cornell