The Cradle of civilization.

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on August 25, 2008
in Chapel Hill, Music, RDU, Raleigh, Urban Planning and WTF
. 6 Comments


The Carrboro Board of Alderman will meet tonight to review the plans for 300 E Main Street, a large development project that happens to share the same address as the Cat’s Cradle and the Artcenter. If a similar situation was occurring in Raleigh, we’d be wringing our hands and planning a funeral for two beloved cultural institutions that made the mistake of creating a more desirable place to live and work. Ahhh, but Carrboro has long appreciated the halo effect of the Cat’s Cradle as it spreads its coolness all over that small mill town and places it on the international map of music lovers worldwide. Kirk Ross, of the Carrboro Citizen reports:

The ArtsCenter and Cat’s Cradle, longtime venues and a major draw for visitors and residents to downtown, are in a unique situation, with both the developer and the town keenly interested in seeing them prosper in the new surroundings.

Mayor Mark Chilton said Wednesday that, all along, the developer has tried to find a way to develop the site without losing the current tenants. When it comes to the two cultural institutions at the location, he said, there’s also an understanding that they’re not just economically important, but a key to the town’s “vibe.”

I’m a big fan of Raleigh’s Mayor Meeker but I don’t think he appreciates Raleigh’s “vibe” enough. I’m so happy to see the Cradle getting the appreciation it deserves, while simultaneously feeling embarrassment that Raleigh’s musical scene is currently represented by the Lincoln Theater and Deep South Entertainment. I realize that you can’t legislate good taste but it sure is nice to see city officials that apply some pressure to accommodate it.

23 Hours + 5 Years

Published
by
The Furry Geezer
on August 25, 2008
in Art, Music and Raleigh
. 0 Comments

A Furry Geezer’s Lurid Recounting of Downtown Raleigh’s Open Mikes

This was the first piece written under the persona of The Furry Geezer, produced for 23Hours, the magazine associated with the documentary/retrospective show of the same name held at Bickett Gallery in 2003. It is astoundingly in date, since Stammer is going strong at Artspace, so the Administrator was kind enough to allow me to run it in celebration of one year with this fine blog. For the most current literary trends, check out Storyspark, the literary festival being produced by Raleigh Quarterly as part of the upcoming Sparkcon.

Summer 1983. Doonesbury’s “armpit of a decade” is in full swing. Raleigh’s civic leaders contemplate strategies and boondoggles toward rejuvenating the central district. The Art museum has closed and moved away. Sylvia’s Helping Hand Mission is going strong on Hargett Street in a large space deemed “under-utilized” by City Planners. Somewhere in the country, a group of people are working on the premier publication of a new national newspaper. It will be called USA Today. In the basement of a tiny luncheonette on Salisbury Street, a group of people gather on a Thursday evening. Drawn together by the funky used bookstore across the street, they are a truly diverse group. Initiated by a teenage drop-out and a former San Francisco open-mic emcee, the reading has attracted a few university types, but includes; the local H.P. Lovecraft junkies, Libertarian advocates for a nudist club, and a huge smelly man recognizable from his long naps at Olivia Raney Library (unless you happened to catch him heading into the blood bank, or see him rolling out of the signal shack by the Boylan Avenue Bridge). The reading starts, with nervous reminders from the bookstore owner about a strict ten minute limit. The huge man proceeds to unfold wads of paper from his many pockets and to borrow props (such as a full soda can) from his neighbors. When his turn arrives, he carries his small table and chair right up to the mike and delivers a 25-minute rant to the city that has the emcee sweating (8 more readers to go – my god) and has the audience in awe. Most of them hadn’t met a street bum with high culture before. But Ralph, and the Thursday Night reading, turned out to be special.

Continue reading A Furry Geezer’s Lurid Recounting of Downtown Raleigh’s Open Mikes
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Lump Gallery Benefit

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on August 15, 2008
in Art, RDU and Raleigh
. 0 Comments

Lump!
Tonight, August 15th, Lump Gallery will be hosting a benefit to benefit Lump Gallery. Stop by to see some local bands and donate to a very worthy cause. Donations will be used to support Lump Gallery’s ongoing display of cutting edge art. Many of their shows are installations that can’t be sold and can’t be profitable but Lump is an irreplaceable element in the cultural landscape of the Triangle. Two local bands, Phon and Schooner, will be perform. The show starts at 8PM there is a suggested $5 donation for admittance.

Big NC Love Update

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on August 15, 2008
in Good Stuff, Lookit and WTF
. 0 Comments

The N&O had this update today. This is my favorite, ongoing story of the year!

She is accused of instructing a 15-year-old boy to break into a house, and Crockett said she needed the money to buy a false leg for a beloved horse.

Big NC Love

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on August 12, 2008
in Lookit, RDU and WTF
. 0 Comments


The N&O carried this story about a woman who had her dead dog cloned in Korea but they seemed to miss the interesting follow up story involving a NC Beauty Queen who converted to Mormon rapist and fugitive from the law. Are they the same person? Did the dog cloning blow her cover? Maybe I missed the follow-up in the N&O but this story is worth reading here.

A juicy excerpt:

The story of Joyce McKinney is the stuff of pulp fiction: a North Carolina-born beauty queen who moved west, won the title Miss Wyoming USA, converted to Mormonism and went on to college at Brigham Young University, where she became obsessed with a Mormon fellow student.

When that young Mormon took a missionary trip to England, authorities say McKinney hired a private detective so she could locate and follow him.

She and a male accomplice were accused of abducting the 21-year-old missionary as he went door to door, taking him to a rented 17th-century “honeymoon cottage” in Devon and chaining him spread-eagled to a bed with several pairs of mink-lined handcuffs.

Art is Hard!

Published
by
The Furry Geezer
on August 12, 2008
in Architecture, Art, Chapel Hill, Durham, RDU, Raleigh, Urban Planning and WTF
. 2 Comments

HARD ART STUDIO DOOR

You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters. William F. Buckley, Jr.

I am an old fan-as-opponent of William Buckley and I miss his raised eyebrow. He’s often right on target, of course, and I thought this quote fit my mood, pondering all the ugly crap we see going up all around Raleigh, sometimes right beside much more noble projects. Raleigh architecture has it’s bell curve, I suppose, but the view out your car window sure can be depressing these days. I have tried to live with beauty and make beauty all my life - I’ve watched many friends do the same - and IT IS HARD.

Try harder! Raleigh is supposed to be so hot, why can’t we see consistent efforts to achieve a new urbanism that has a fairly high baseline of aesthetic sensibility. When it comes to moderately priced and/or high volume real estate ventures, I say: Make ‘em eat cake!! We can demand quality in planning and materials, without imposing a specific aesthetic sensibility on anyone.

Try harder!! Everything we do is art. Even if it feeds, clothes or shelters us, everything we do is done with artifice, with art, in a creative way involving value choices - so we might as well make it good. The search for quality leads to intellectual aristocracy, some say - well, so be it. The will to excel, to lead the examined life leads to arrogance. But I can will democratic exchange instead of arrogance. Yet I must ask: why does it have to be so dad-lemmed ugly? What democratic process allows such crap? And when there are wonderful architects, thoughtful projects galore, why does any of it have to be so dad-lemmed ugly?

I close with a quote from another end of some spectrum, I’m sure you’ll agree.

We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. Carlos Castenada

Improving Our Gay Ghetto

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on July 28, 2008
in Raleigh and WTF
. 4 Comments

Gallery Owner Lee Hansley
The N&O reports that Raleigh has landed at the #1 spot on MSNBC’s Best Places To Live list and #4 on the Gay Real Estate USA’s Best Gay Ghettoes (tied with Tampa). Also, the #1 Best Place for Young Adults according to Bizjournals and the #1 ranking for Healthiest Cities for Men, from Men’s Health magazine. The article speculates City leaders may look back at this as the zenith of Raleigh’s ratings career. Those are nice little honors but those lists aren’t exactly from the Wall Street Journal, or The New York Times, or maybe I just don’t check out GayData.com as much as the next guy. This article seems to be begging a question and undeserving of front page status, especially after a 300 person rumble at the mall! It feels as though the entire angle of the article was shaped around gallery owner Lee Hansley’s (photo above) quote:

“I have just come to the conclusion that Raleigh has peaked in terms of these lists,” he said, noting that every good run must come to an end.

Well, start the presses: Lee Hansley just came to a conclusion about lists! Maybe Mr. Hansley should work harder to make Raleigh even healthier for Men’s Health and make our Gayborhood rating higher than Charlotte’s, rather than just resigning to failure. It’s great that our region continues to earn high ratings in lists that might attract the Creative Class but we have a LONNNGGG way to go before we run out of needed improvements: Regional mass transit, bicycle lanes, free feeder buses circulating downtown, converting government-owned, downtown, warehouses to space for art galleries and non-profits; a focus on green technologies for transit, public spaces and utilities; more hot dog stands outside Legends, and fewer riots at the shopping mall.

We at RDUwtf aren’t perfect. We need to regain our ability to center images to the column, and we will. We aren’t resigned to failure!

Gang Fights Are Cool (Again).

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on July 27, 2008
in Raleigh and WTF
. 6 Comments

Triangle Town Center Riot. WRAL TV photo.
Especially when they happen at the upscale suburban mall. Note that the reported number of participants jumps from 100 to 300 in the updates! Kudos to Triangle Town Center for taking the focus off “Gang problems” in Durham and Chapel Hill. Almost 300 kids fighting in a mall and no guns were pulled? Awesmomeness! This was a proper, old-fashioned, gang fight! Well, they should just board-up the place before the white flight drives all the upscale retail and leaves a “dead mall“, like South Hills, or Northgate; the kind of mall that just prays for 300 kids to come to the mall, even if they wind up stabbing each other in the buttocks. Go-Go Raleigh!

Earlier reports that the riot was started by disenchanted Connells fans protesting the absence of George Huntley at Saturday’s downtown performance were quickly discredited.

So long, Soleil!

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on July 17, 2008
in Architecture, Raleigh, Urban Planning and WTF
. 7 Comments


The N&O reports the Soleil Center has been added to the list of stalled projects in Raleigh. A million dollars for a condo overlooking a shopping mall? Remember the scene in Dumb-and-Dumber immediately after they luck into their pile of money? Lamborghini, pastel ski suits, giant furry boots? The only thing missing was a million dollar condo at the mall - built in a flood plane. The developers state that they expect to have new financing soon and we’d like to help. We’ll pledge a jillion dollars (one jillion!), if this thing ever tops out as drawn (stacking 50 FEMA trailers on top of each other won’t count). The suburban tower is a bad idea and $4-per-gallon gasoline is a daily reminder that The Market has begun to change land use patterns.

The Media is the Massage.

Published
by
Robert E Leebowitz
on July 10, 2008
in Chapel Hill, Durham and WTF
. 4 Comments

University Massage Chapel Hill
University Massage, on Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, has been around as long as I can recall. The N&O reports that police have recently become interested in rumors that some sexual activity may be taking place in the establishment. To which, we say: Of course sexual activity takes place there! It’s a massage parlor!

The police began to investigate after Daily Tarheel columnist, James Edward Dillard, wrote about a visit to the business.

“One quoted me the prices again, adding that I was purchasing a full-body massage with ‘adult conversation,’ ” Dillard wrote.

A friend who used to deliver takeout food to this business, 15 years ago, told me they used to have a menu that listed services such as: “Topless Hand Release”. Note that the owner of this business also owns a business called “Quality Movie Mates” in Durham. Someone to watch movies with? Cool!