The ASPCA Joins the Ag-Gag Lawsuit
Spotlight won Best Picture. Hooray for journalism! Meanwhile, in North Carolina, we’re two months into a new law that targets investigative journalists and whistleblowers. It’s called the Property Protection Act, and it’s arguably the most cowardly piece of legislation yet foisted upon the state by North Carolina’s bought-and-paid-for legislature. This is a bill so bad…
The Morning Roundup: Happy Leap Day, Let’s Make Some Dick Jokes!
So this was the weekend the GOP presidential race finally, officially went completely off the rails, to the point where you have to wonder if, for someone like Marco Rubio, who fashions himself as the serious candidate, this is a nomination even worth having anymore. 1. Rubio jokes that Donald Trump has a small penis.…
Which of the Triangle’s new upscale cinemas has the most panache for your extra cash?
My idea of luxury is probably a little stunted. I have no Champagne wishes or caviar dreams. A cold Miller High Life and some Haribo gummy frogs are enough to make me happy. Still, I’m a big fan of the “treat yourself” mantra when the occasion calls for it: a new book, a cocktail that…
The N.C. Newsroom Cooperative will foster journalistic innovation out of RTP
On Sunday afternoon, more than 150 people, including notables from publishing, business and foundations, gathered in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood to meet Washington Post editor Martin Baron. Following a screening at the Rialto of the new film Spotlight, which dramatizes Baron’s role in uncovering a decades-long cover-up of clerical sex abuse in Boston, the crowd…
Paul Newman, 1925-2008
Paul Newman made a lot of movies people love. Hud, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are films that capitalized on Newman’s cynical attitude, acting chops and earthyyet unearthlybeauty. He was an antihero for an iconoclastic age with a difference: He wasn’t one of those hippie kids…
Remembering director Sydney Pollack, and his visit to Durham
If Sydney Pollack is not necessarily a household name to the general public, chances are his face and films are quite familiar. Pollack’s death Monday, May 26, at age 73 represents the passing of a true film raconteur and accomplished director whose career caught fire with the grim They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? After years…
Reckless Kelly
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Music writers and fans love categories. Musicians, on the other hand, are typically not so thrilled with pigeonholes and gratuitous generalizations. One might expect Cody Braunwho contributes fiddle, mandolin, harmonica and vocals to Reckless Kelly, the band he leads with his…
More Spotlight Coverage
Spoon
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. 1998: Bill Clinton and the blue dress. “Y2K” is slowly shaping on everyone’s lips. Celine’s “My Heart Will Go On,” Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life” and Madonna’s “Ray of Light” are in everyone’s heads. Meanwhile, a young rock band from Austin, Texas,…
Quintron and Miss Pussycat
When a now-familiar deluge of images hit the news after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans, the city’s surrealism was redefined, particularly in the Ninth Ward. Long before the storm started pushing toward the Gulf Coast, though, Mr. Quintron and Miss Pussycat had carved out their own divot of hyper-reality in that New Orleans neighborhood. Like…
Dr. Ralph Stanley brings his “high lonesome” sound
Clawhammer-style banjo player, bandleader and high tenor Ralph Stanley, now 79, is as dedicated to traditional mountain music now as he was when he first started playing it as a boy in his hilly southwest corner of Virginia. “We’re gonna do our best to put on one of the best shows that’s ever been there,”…
Warren Rochelle’s Harvest of Changelings
North Carolina is better known for tales of ghosts in the hills than fairies and magic. But that didn’t stop fantasy and science fiction novelist Warren Rochelle from setting his latest book, Harvest of Changelings ($24.95, Golden Gryphon Press), against the backdrop of the Triangle. Changelings concerns a Garner man who sires a child with…
Dillinger Escape Plan
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Meshuggah, Converge, Coalesce and Botch all blazed the extreme-metal trail years before The Dillinger Escape Plan’s frenetic blend of spastic time changes, guitar sprees and blast-furnace intensity captured scenesters’ attentions with their 1999 debut, Calculating Infinity. The Jersey quintet has been…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.