Ye Olde Archives

Raleigh Lee Smith Quail Ridge Books and MusicI first appreciated the reach of Hillsborough author Lee Smith years ago, when I was in Alaska and made the acquaintance of a young writer. When she found out I was from North Carolina, she excitedly told me her favorite author and role model was Smith, the author […]

Raleigh Dead Man Colony TheaterIn the mood for a movie starring Johnny Depp as a top-hatted, Victorian-era gentleman, wandering about in a strange land populated by outlandish characters? Believe it or not, tonight you have two choices: the 3-D Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton’s latest big-budget visual-effects blowout, which kicked Avatar out of IMAX theaters […]

Carrboro Battlefield Band The ArtsCenterIt’s a long way from Glasgow to Carrboro, but a couple of North Carolina moments can be found on Battlefield Band’s new Zama Zama, a concept album about greed and the never-ending search for wealth. First, and in the Scottish tradition of writing songs of greeting for notable figures, the quartet […]

Chapel Hill Thee Vicars, Pirate Love The CaveAfter SXSW, two foreign bands swing through the Triangle. Britain’s Thee Vicars deliver frenetic, fast-paced garage rock with occasional surf-guitar breaks. Led by the whining, nasal vocals of Rev. Mike Whittaker, the group delivers pugnacious, ’60s-style pop melodies that recall the Black Lips, simply with more distortion and […]

Durham MoLoRa Reynolds Theater, Duke UniversityIn 458 B.C., Aeschylus wrote the Oresteia, a Greek tragedy that opens up a debate about justice in Athens. Nearly 2,500 years later, South African playwright and director Yael Farber adapted Aeschylus’ classic into MoLoRa to restore that same debate, but this time about South Africa. The Farber Foundry Theatre […]

Carrboro Deerhunter Cat’s CradleI’d invite Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox to a party. He’s a colorful, interesting and outspoken individual. But I wouldn’t want him to play any music at said party, for fear he’d put everyone to sleep. While Deerhunter’s breakthrough release, 2007’s Cryptograms, featured a chaotic abrasiveness to counterpoint the murky ethereal fuzz-pop, subsequent […]

Durham George Thorogood & The Destroyers Carolina TheatreYou might say George Thorogood, with his radio success in the late ’70s and into the early ’80s, held the door for Stevie Ray Vaughan. Sure, it’s a shame people know his inferior versions of Hank Sr.’s “Move It On Over,” Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” and […]

Cary Carolina RailHawks vs. New England Revolution WakeMed Soccer ParkIt’s been something of a stormy off-season in American soccer. At the top level, Major League Soccer, there has been a still-unresolved labor dispute between players and owners. At the next level down, Division 2, there was a pitched battle between the United Soccer League and […]

Chapel Hill I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young lady from Rwanda Kenan Theatre, UNC CampusSonja Linden’s play is about Juliette, a Rwandan refugee who has written a book about the travesties that occurred in her country. In her attempt to get it published, she enlists the help of […]

Chapel Hill Eileen Ivers Memorial Hall, UNC CampusBorn in New York to Irish immigrants, Eileen Ivers strengthens the ties between Irish and American music with her fiddling. She connects the Irish reel “Bunch of Keys” with its Appalachian descendent, “Paddy on the Turnpike,” for instance. Ivers also introduces music from the immigrant neighborhoods of her […]