View This Email In Your Browser
Hi! Happy weekend.
Writer’s note: Apologies, an error with Mailchimp sent out an old version of the newsletter (fittingly, from Groundhog Day). This is the correct version.
There are a couple of scary things happening in the next few weeks—the election, Halloween—but today, I’m going to focus on the obviously more fun event of the two.
For election guidance, of course, you can pick up a paper or read our election guide online. It’s comprehensive and the INDY staff worked hard to put it together.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, in part because the surrounding season naturally bolsters it so well—the big moons, little thrills of wind, jean jackets, and scraggly yellow flowers all feel bewitching. On my stoop, the squirrels have made short work of our pumpkin, turning a sculpted scary face into all-out body horror.
Should you need a push, Glenn McDonald has a round-up of Halloween movies playing locally. I’m intrigued by Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, which Glenn describes as a “1922 silent film by German expressionist filmmaker F. W. Murnau. A famously unhinged (and unauthorized) adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Nosferatu remains one of the creepiest sequences of moving images ever assembled.” It’s playing at the Carolina Theatre with a live symphony.
In Raleigh, the Alamo has a new series called Nightmares of a Clown, an “intriguing collection of 16-mm amateur films featuring, yes, scary clowns. One of the shorts is titled Toothache of a Clown. This is an opportunity to face your dentophobia and coulrophobia at the same time.”
Speaking of clowns, if you’re looking to cure (or escalate) your fear of them, there is a yearly Creepy Clown Trail walk along the Eno River. Paying $1.50 to have clowns jump out at you in the woods could also be a great date idea. What could go wrong?
The Shepard Fairey mural (see story below). Photo by Wyatt Closs.
elsewhere in the culture section
Musical collective DUNUMS is made up of many familiar musicians around the town. Its latest album begins with a conversation between band member Sijal Nasralla and his young daughter, Tasneem.
“Guitars and drums soon enter and the opening track, “binti,” begins. Sung in Arabic (binti translates to “daughter”), the rollicking rock song feels instantly anthemic, a shifting force that at once recalls classic emo and free improvisation,” Dylan Angell writes, “Thus begins an album that was written, conceived, and now exists as a dialogue between a Palestinian American father and his daughter.”
Shepard Fairey, the street artist behind one of the most iconic political renderings of our time—the “HOPE” image of Barack Obama—has laid somewhat low since the 2008 election, refraining from making images of presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Until now: In August, he released an image of Kamala Harris. The image is commemorated in mural form in five battleground states, including North Carolina, where a mural was installed outside Ella West Gallery in Durham (where the VP made a stop earlier this year). Read more here.
Justin Laidlaw has a great feature on a new exhibition by Sherrill Roland at the Nasher Museum of Art that circumnavigates identity and wrongful incarceration. And, via 9th Street Journal: Some other local artists making a legacy in the South and behind-the-scenes with a local Top Chef runner-up.
ICYMI: A homemade flour tortilla business and a WNC relief album full of bonkers talent (that recently made the Billboard charts!).
out and about in the triangle
An Eater Carolinas feature on Próximo in Chapel Hill. A locally owned new salad shop is open in Raleigh. A new ice cream shop is coming, also to Chapel Hill, in 2025. (Can’t believe the name “Chapel Chill” hasn’t been taken before now.)
Durham’s Zine Machine Fest is this weekend! Tickets are now on sale for the Chinese Lantern Festival in Cary. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are reuniting for their 20th anniversary. And a Fifth Season gardening store is opening in Raleigh! (I love the Carrboro location.)
OK, on to Halloween fare: If clowns are not your thing, consider a haunted trolley tour. North Carolina’s “Nine Most Haunted Hotels.” This Halloween storytime on the roof of the Durham Hotel looks fun if you have kids. The Nasher is throwing a Halloween bash on October 32. Hillsborough (a naturally haunted-feeling town) has a bunch of Halloween events, too. And on that last point: This Hillsborough story is my favorite ghost story, year in and year out.
PS: I picked up my membership tote from Letters Bookshop this week if you are interested in the bookstore’s co-op model. Regarding the tote: the straps are not the sturdiest, but the design is fun and the size is perfect. 8.5/10 tote bag.
out and about in the world
Bon Iver’s search for truth. From the Modern Love illustrator: “Over the past 14 years, I have illustrated more than 700 Modern Love essays and drawn well over 3,000 sketches — and I’ve used only two hearts.” The famous/infamous Park Slope Co-op founder retires. “How I Fell Back In Love With iPhone Photography.” An interview with Forrest Gander. A letter from Kiese Laymon.
— Sarah Edwards —
Send me an email | Find me on Twitter
If you’d like to sponsor the Field Guide,
please contact [email protected]
You must be logged in to post a comment.