Raleighwood, NC

The Return of uliveandyouburn

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Bring the noise!

Hillsborough St.: From Tragedy to Travesty [Update: I Could Well Be Wrong]

I'm trying to keep a relatively light tone here at Raleighwood, NC so I won't have much to say about the Travesty in Progress that our city planners, and we the people, are currently foisting on Hillsborough St.

Roundabout?

That's some idiot nonsense, imho.

Raleigh Boy says he's "(cautiously) optimistic" about Hillsborough St.

Well, optimism is good for your health!

Indyweek's Bob Geary talks to a bunch of people and you've got your pros and you got your cons.

But this statement from Bob pretty much reveals the damage done:

"Consider, too, that many of the street's needed ingredients are hidden in plain view, like the old Varsity, a marquee movie house back in the day that later showed porn flicks and then was turned into a McDonald's restaurant....now, it's a stripped-down student bookstore that, like many other locations, awaits its new life as part of a new main street for Raleigh."

No, Bob, it doesn't await anything. Walk around back. Do you see the missing part of the building that used to hold the stage?

They destroyed that a long time ago and that's how I feel about Hillsborough St.

I'm not saying it won't come back or that things can't improve or that businesses won't find a way to make things work. I just can't feel good about a future engineered by city planners that don't get the concept of mass transit and only care about getting white people downtown.

I just don't trust good old boys that love white bread, even if they're Yankees with PhD's. Know what I mean?

Note:
Comments are welcome. I could be wrong about the theater but that's how it looks to me. "Yankees w/PhD's" is a metaphor. I won't attack you for disagreeing with me. I look forward to thousands of flowers blooming in the rubble of those roundabouts!

Update:
Here are some positive points that contradict me.

I remain unconvinced!

2010 Update:
I've been talking to some folks I know who have convinced me that the turnabouts may well be a good thing.  And, though Hillsborough St. will never be what it was, maybe something great for our time is emerging.  I would like that because, at heart, I'm an optimist.

Sat. 5/30: Lonnie Walker CD Release Party at Ahpeele [Shhh..insiders only!]

Lonnie Walker - These Times Old Times

Ahpeele, a t-shirt/fashion shop on Capitol Boulevard, is hosting a Lonnie Walker CD release party starting around 9 that sounds like a good time.

They don't seem to have a real website (i.e. a consistent spot to find out what's new and get directions), but do have an Etsy store, a MySpace page and a physical location with phone number, at least two of which could actually fulfill the "real website" role.

Fortunately New Raleigh has the details so I'll leave it at that. And if they want this to be an insider only, word of mouth about the afterparty kind of thing, then I apologize in advance for the extra publicity!

MySpace: Lonnie Walker

Update:
Looks like they did just find without the above.  I didn't make the show but I talked to someone who attended the early evening event at Schoolkids.  They said it was packed.  I bet the Ahpeele event was also happening.  Sorry I missed it.

Best of luck to Lonnie Walker with your upcoming shows!

More Cool Raleigh People: Kelly Reid

I discovered Kelly Reid's blog through the Twitter: Raleigh feed where one of her tweets to big time music blogger Brooklyn Vegan caught my eye.

So I decided to add a More Cool Raleigh People section in the sidebar links cause not everybody in Raleigh blogs about Raleigh.

So Mz Kelly gets some special attention. And she probably deserves it!

Bread & Puppet Theater at the Raleigh Little Theatre [May 22nd to 24th/Fri thru Sun]

Bread & Puppet Theater: Sourdough Philosophy Circus and Pageant

This weekend the Bread & Puppet Theater performs at the Outdoor Ampitheatre of the Raleigh Little Theatre on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon.

Show details:

"The Sourdough Philosophy Circus and Pageant is about the need for human fermentation. Human fermentation concerns those parts of the human body that are not governed by the government, like the guts and the gutsy parts of the brain. This is also applies to zebras and city bred cows, dancing bears and independent donkeys."

"The show is run by a bunch of cooks, specialists in cooking the various stews and pancakes of our everyday first world existence. Additional commentary is provided by the Rotten Idea Theater Company. Music is by the Sourdough Philosophy Brass Band and a quartet of sheep."

The techniques and working methods of the Bread & Puppet Theater were established literally decades ago and though I'm sure things have changed in certain ways, the photos and text I've seen suggests that the core principles continue.

Sometimes that's not a bad thing and, in the case of the Bread & Puppet Theater, it can be a very good thing.

Definitely worth checking out even if or maybe especially if you don't normally dig theater productions.

Bain Project Documentation: Writers & Photographers

I made it out to the Bain Project over the weekend with John Dancy-Jones who is in the midst of multiple wrapup posts with photos that can be found via a list at the bottom of this post.

I don't have a lot to say about it, partly because I learned to hate art critics back during my performing days and partly because, if I dig in, I tend towards the hypercritical myself.

But I will say that some of the artists, who weren't identified with particular pieces though they all looked like work by specific artists, did a particularly awesome job and everybody made strong contributions. Overall it was a great community event.

Here are some responses and photographs from other folks around town:

Heather at IndieNC Blog interviewed many of the artists and posted some nice pics after the first weekend.

Kevin Green discussed one of his photos at The Digital Photo Project and also posted a few photos on Flickr.

Grayson Currin writes about the audio cd, The Bain Music Project.

Flickr sets & selections in the order found:

Steve Burnett
eclectic.bumpkin
haplochant
Karnevil
Riva Derci
bliss24

The Flickr action is extensive. Here are a couple of search options organized by "most recent":
tags: bainproject
fulltext: bain project

On a somber note:

Folks from Toxic Free NC shared some thoughts at New Raleigh regarding lead hazards on the site and I don't recall seeing any warnings when I attended. That's a bad look for the project and the artists involved, imho. They should have had a very visible warning sign at the entrance explaining the dangers and how to conduct oneself.
[via Raleigh Eco News]

If you have documentation or responses online, feel free to drop links in the comments.

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
The Bain Project & Bain Waterworks Photographs
The Bain Project: Site-Specific Art at Bain Waterworks

Wilson Greenlights the Future as Time Warner Tries to Force Us to Live in the Past

As Time Warner fights to ensure lousy service, Wilson demonstrates the way forward with Greenlight municipal broadband, way faster than RoadTrudger.

Update via Indyweek:
Netroots activism blocks effort to ban municipal Internet services

For future news keep an eye on Brian Bowman, my man in Wilson:
Save NC Broadband.com

The Bain Project & Bain Waterworks Photographs

www.flickr.com

Flickr: Bain Waterworks

A fun way to follow community involvement with the Bain Waterworks that goes beyond but may include the Bain Project is to see what's posted on Flickr. The above Flickr badge will automatically update as folks post new pics tagged "bain" and "waterworks" "bainproject". You can try other combos at Flickr for digital stalking fun!

Lots of local bloggers have already been posting pics of the Waterworks, the Bain Project artists and their art and a benefit music concert for the project held March 7th.

Bain Waterworks Pictures:
Pecans & Mistletoe: Photos of the Water Treatment Plant
New Raleigh: Waterworks Site Photos

Bain Project Art/Artists:
IndieNC Blog: Artists at Work
Bryan Regan: "random snapshots"
Raleigh Rambles: Preview Pics

Bain Music Project Benefit Photos:
Bain Project: Concert Poster
badgerblog: minimalism and the avant garde
Raleigh Rambles: Concert Pics

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
Bain Project Documentation: Writers & Photographers
The Bain Project: Site-Specific Art at Bain Waterworks

May 9-10, 16-17: The Bain Project: Site-Specific Art at Bain Waterworks

The Bain Project

The Bain Project, a convergence of site-specific art projects at the E. B. Bain Waterworks, opens this weekend, May 9th and 10th, with more to come the following weekend, May 16th and 17th.

WUNC radio did a recent show about the project.

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
Bain Project Documentation: Writers & Photographers
The Bain Project & Bain Waterworks Photographs

Triangle Game Conference: Escapist Videos

"An overview of the show floor and a few of the panels featured
at this year's Triangle Game Conference."

The Triangle Game Conference was put on this week in Raleigh by the Triangle Game Initiative. I missed it because I didn't see any announcements but there was quite a bit of pre-show coverage so I've just been out of the loop.

"President of Epic Games, Dr. Michael Capps keynote on 'What Makes Us Epic?'"

I'm going to take a more in-depth look from a business angle but I just wanted to go ahead and toss up this video coverage of the conference via The Escapist.