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Hi! Happy weekend.
My boyfriend and I just finished watching the new season of Black Mirror. I thought it was pretty good: Some episodes had awkward pacing and felt one-note, but the season largely straddled a satisfying line between speculative, campy, and frighteningly not-far-off. (“Common People” in particular felt a little too real!).
It was nice to scrub my brain and publish a few stories this week that toed slightly more old-fashioned lines. Take former INDY intern Mila Mascenik’s feature, republished from UNC Media Hub, on the growing popularity of HEMA (Historic European Martial Arts—aka, swordfighting). The Triangle Sword Guild, the focus of the feature, is one of nine recognized HEMA clubs in North Carolina.
A few centuries after HEMA’s heyday and we’ve got amateur radio, or ham radio. Lena Geller dropped by a Durham County Library introductory session on the technology, which is often utilized for communication in hurricanes and other emergencies, and which is also seeing an uptick due to climate change (and other destabilizing forces). The hobby is also not without its sci-fi elements, as one participant told Lena:
“There’s this old New Yorker cartoon of a dog sitting at a keyboard, talking to other dogs on the computer, and no one knows you’re a dog. Radio is kind of like that. It’s mysterious. You are talking into the void and making human contact with somebody you’ve never met.”
Read Lena’s lively writeup here.
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A photo of an Oakwood Pizza Box pie. Photo by Wilson.
elsewhere in the culture section
Biscuits & Banjos is this weekend. Catch up on the festival with our interview with Rhiannon Giddens and festival playlist.
Can’t make it? Here are our weekly event picks, featuring a live Shakespeare reading, Project 2025 primer, and more. You could also catch a movie—Glenn McDonald has a few recommendations, and though I wish I was most drawn to the arthouse fare on this list, “doomed bromance” really speaks to me.
Jane Porter spoke with Margaret Severin-Hansen, principal at Carolina Ballet, who is dancing her last company show this weekend. With a 27-year career at the company under her belt, Severin-Hansen is a legend. Here’s her story.
Lena spoke with Anthony Guerra, chef-owner at Oakwood Pizza Box, on the popular restaurant’s plans to open a takeout-only location this fall. It led to a pretty interesting conversation on the industry at large.
She also debuted Lunch Money, our new cheap eats column. We’ve gotten some good tips on affordable lunch spots; keep ‘em coming and expect to find a new installment of Lunch Money every other week. Finally, I wrote about Bowbarr, an artsy Carrboro dive that has drawn scores of regulars (including John Edwards) since 2010 and is closing this week.
ICYMI: Cheese, Alex, baseball.
— Sarah Edwards —
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