Field Guide: Patton Oswalt’s Rubies Endorsement

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Hi! Happy weekend.

Here are some picks for ways to spend the weekend, including an Iris DeMent show and a hometown dance premiere from former Alvin Ailey dancer Hope Boykin. Even if you don’t elect to go to any of these events, hopefully, it gives some general ideas of what to do and where to look for what to do. 

You never know what might happen on any regular old Thursday night bumping around downtown, after all—take last Thursday night, when Patton Oswalt showed up at Rubies in Durham for a punk show and had such a good time he took to Instagram to give a glowing report. Here’s his endorsement of the experience: 

These next four years (and maybe beyond?) are gonna be no fun for a lot of people. Fuck if I know what to do. But if there’s a small, defiant music venue showcasing new bands? Or a local theatre group? Or an indie publisher? Or anyone trying to keep some fierce, human light burning in the world? Support ‘em if you can — those little lights are gonna get us to the other side of this.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to the folks who came out Wednesday to the INDY’s first event of the year, a panel talk imagining what Durham could look like in five years. To quote Patton, “fuck if I know,” and as a few audience members aptly pointed out, there are plenty of pressing Durham 2025 problems that need addressing right now. Still, it was great to gather, listen to ideas, imagine a better future, and meet readers. Thank you.

elsewhere in the culture section

Durham poet Bridget Bell’s debut collection, All That We Ask of You Is To Always Be Happy, comes out February 4. It’s a rich, candid collection that tackles parenthood and maternal mental health head-on, describing postpartum depression, in one poem, as: “a window painted shut / a cornered mouse frantic along the floorboards / wheels on black ice — / spinning, spinning, spinning.” Here’s our interview with Bell, who also had some great advice to new moms. 

Some movie recommendations from Glenn McDonald: I’m especially interested in seeing I’m Still Here, which is coming to the Carolina Theatre next week. Here’s how Glenn describes it: 

I’m Still Here, from acclaimed Brazilian director Walter Salles, tells the terrible and true story of dissident politician Rubens Paiva, who was abducted by Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1971. The film is based on the 2015 memoir by Rubens’ son and focuses on the family left behind after the forced disappearance. The story is bracketed with scenes from 1996, when the now-democratic Brazilian state finally issued a report on Paiva’s fate.

I’m Still Here was a massive event when it was released in Brazil last year and was recently nominated for several Academy Awards. In fact, the film is up for Best International Feature and for Best Picture—a first for a Brazilian movie in Portuguese. Critics are lauding the film for its potent alchemy of the personal and the political in a time when authoritarianism is once again gaining momentum, worldwide.

UNC/Duke square off tomorrow, and here’s what the student editors at the sports desks of the Daily Tar Heel and Duke Chronicle have to say about the game’s prospects. Go heels!

ICYMI: Steak, English muffins, local James Beard semifinalists, a January playlist of local music, and more.

out and about in the triangle

Mike D’s has closed in East Durham and Matt Kelly is opening a pizzeria in Durham’s University Hill neighborhood. Preeti Waas has plans to open a gourmet boutique at HUB RTP and in Durham, coffee shop Omie’s has added a bottle shop component. In Raleigh, Legends nightclub is moving. 

Dix Park has announced its inaugural artist-in-residence—Preston Montague, an artist and landscape architect. Sixteen festivals to look out for this year (probably not the ones you’d expect). The recently released PBS Documentary American Coup: Wilmington 1898 is now available to stream on YouTube—right when it’s more relevant than ever. And, I only just got wind of this two days ago, but it’s so cool—the North Carolina Opera is premiering its first-ever Spanish language opera, Florencia en el Amazonas, this weekend!

— Sarah Edwards —
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