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Triangle Modernist Mini Tour

Published by Administrator April 11th, 2008 in Architecture, Durham and RDU. 1 Comment

From Triangle Modernist Homes:

By popular demand, TMH presents its first Mini-Tour on May 17. The event begins at Saint Stephens Episcopal Church off of Rugby Road in Durham (see directions and map below).

To respect the neighborhood and reduce disruption, a free shuttle bus will take participants to the houses. Please do not park on Rugby Road; only handicapped participants with North Carolina handicapped placards may park in front of the tour homes. Once at the first house, you may walk to the rest (about 10-15 minutes between) or take the shuttle bus. Bottled water and restrooms are available in each house.

We’ve got three really cool houses, including classics by Brian Shawcroft and Robert “Judge” Carr and the brand new “Three Pavilions” by Bill Waddell. Come and discover design ideas for your own dream home — or buy one of these (two are for sale). Each architect will be on hand at his house and available for your questions!

Durham Documentary Free in Raleigh

Published by Administrator March 6th, 2008 in Art, Lookit, Raleigh, Durham and RDU. 0 Comments

“Durham: A Self-Portrait” will be shown Saturday, March 8, at 2 p.m. at the N.C. Museum of History in downtown Raleigh. Tickets are free. We haven’t seen it but it sounds like it’s up our alley.

More than three years ago, Emmy-winning filmmaker, Dr. Steven Channing, set out in search of an authentic depiction of Durham, his longtime home. Having heard all the stereotypes over his 20 years in the Bull City, he wondered, “What is the true face of Durham?” The answers are sure to surprise, according to Dr. Channing.

“More than 70 interviews were completed, combined with rarely seen film and video images and an original music score that combines to tell an intriguing story of race and class,” said Dr. Channing.

The film covers the birth of the tobacco era and “Black Wall Street,” as a bustling new industrial city develops at the turn of the 20^th century. It continues with the impact of modernization and the Civil Rights movement, alongside the rise of Duke University and growing minority populations. Under the glare of the national media, the community struggles to confront crime and despair, and keep an open dialogue.

Upcoming Screenings:

4/11; Durham Arts Council; 7:30p

3/30; N.C. Triangle Jewish Film Festival; Galaxy Theatre, Cary

3/8; N.C. Museum of History, Raleigh; 2pm

visit http://www.portraitofdurham.com for more information.

Jim Crow was here. Part 1.

Published by Robert E Leebowitz March 3rd, 2008 in Raleigh, Durham and RDU. 2 Comments

There is a building on the 300 block of Raleigh’s Davie Street that has a plaque by the door that reads “Capital Vacum.” It is seemingly unused, while the rest of the surrounding neighborhood now houses restaurants, bars, architectural offices, and art galleries. One day, while driving by the building with a friend, he pointed to the Capital Vacum building and told me that a black co-worker told him that this building used to be a nightclub and it was the first place in Raleigh he saw black people and white people dancing together.

The reminders of Raleigh’s segregated past occur often enough but they always come as a surprise and with a jolt, and this was one of those reminders. Was it really THAT recent?

Continue reading ‘Jim Crow was here. Part 1.’

Soccer Tacos

Published by Robert E Leebowitz January 29th, 2008 in Good Stuff, Durham and RDU. 3 Comments

The soccer matches start early most Sunday mornings at Raleigh’s Kiwanis Park. Like the soccer fields at Dix Hospital, the teams and spectators are almost exclusively Latino and the taqueria and pupuseria trucks show up to sell breakfast and lunch. Continue reading ‘Soccer Tacos’

The Mint, or: I Can’t Fit My Bling In My Thong

Published by Robert E Leebowitz January 16th, 2008 in WTF, Raleigh, Durham and RDU. 10 Comments

There’s a funny combination of articles in the food section of the N&O today. An article about the closing of Starlu, a restaurant in Durham (I always MEANT to get there for a meal!), and a Greg Cox review of The Mint, a new restaurant on Fayetteville Street. Kudos to Mr. Cox for waiting for the restaurant to actually open before reviewing it! The Raleigh Downtowner couldn’t wait and wrote a glowing review more than a month before the doors opened. We won’t link to the full review because you have to download a PDF of the entire Holiday Issue but we will tell you it is worth the effort. Here’s an excerpt:

The Mint restaurant aims to reclaim the space as the “crown jewel” of downtown Raleigh. The architecture and design convinces guests of the value – a six-ton bank vault door in the entry way, strings of diamond jewels and lights hanging from the two story ceiling. The ultra-stylish M-Bar upstairs features a jewel case inches below your drink and will more than likely have a life of its own outside the restaurant traffic. The Mint also honors the neighborhood’s heritage, with historic scenes like the legislative building and the courthouse lit by green LED lights. Money green, copper, and silver throughout the interior evoke a sense of worth and would feel right at home nestled deep within a banks secure vault.

Jenny Fredette is so right! This 1980’s mid-rise office tower has always been the “Crown Jewel” of Raleigh and we’re so glad it has been restored to its proper status!

So, the piece about Starlu describes the uphill battles faced by restaurants, and quotes a national failure rate of 60% for restaurants. The review of The Mint mentions that the City of Raleigh gave the restaurant group $1-Million to invest in the interiors. Well, it sounds as though the million dollars is really visible in the interior design, literally. Reading about The Mint reminds me of foreboding scenes in films like Wall Street: the money is flowing, it’s raining diamonds and then you start to feel some apprehension; this can’t last, something bad is about to happen and you can feel it.

Well, flip through the N&O to the business section and look at that stock market graph and the blurb about heading into a recession. Will we look back in a few years and wonder: “Remember when people used to wear T-shirts about money and then they built that restaurant about money?” Ah, these are the days!

Water Garden RIP

Published by Robert E Leebowitz October 8th, 2007 in WTF, Architecture, Raleigh, Durham and RDU. 5 Comments

The Water Garden, a small office park on Highway 70 between Crabtree Mall and RDU Airport, is easy to overlook. It’s nestled behind bamboo, cattails and a pond that buffer the property from the traffic. A few years ago, I was driving an architect friend from the airport and as we approached The Water Garden, he remarked on the neighboring development, “That’s a development model for you: just rape and scrape the landscape clean and then cram as much shit on it as possible.” The Water Garden is an oasis in that earth-raped highway of crap. Today the N&O reports:

Water Garden project sinks RALEIGH — Landscape architect Dick Bell, who for three years has tried to redevelop 11 acres at the Water Garden Office Park off U.S. 70 in northwest Raleigh, is giving up on the project for good. A string of broken deals ruined several potential developments ranging from an 800,000-square-foot mixed-use building to a modest mix of condominiums and single-family homes. Bell agreed to sell the property for $1.6 million to a partnership that plans to build housing aimed at retirees.

Dick Bell has had an incredible impact on the shape and appearance of North Carolina. Bell is a landscape architect who, among other things, designed and built The Brickyard and the Student Center courtyard at NC State and Pullen Park. Last Year, he gave a lecture at the College of Design at NCSU and recounted the early years of the Design School. He described studying in Rome and traveling around Europe on a Vespa and how those travels shaped his vision and goals for North Carolina, especially his mission to make the profession of Landscape Architect known and respectable in North Carolina. He was cantankerous, strongly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining.
When Bell and his wife built The Water Garden, Raleigh ended where Glenwood Village now stands and Glenwood Ave - HWY 70 became a country road between Raleigh and Durham. Bell and his wife opened an art gallery on the grounds that featured NC artists and works by faculty from the School of Design. The opening night parties that accompanied gallery shows were legendarily raucous events (before our time but we’ve heard the stories) of local art history. Over a hundred cars parked along The Water Garden driveway and Highway 70, many of which stayed all night due to the multiple cases of wine and whiskey that flowed. The Garden Gallery closed earlier this year.
Take a Sunday drive ASAP and look at The Water Garden while you have a chance. The property features early work by Ligon Flynn, another star of the early School of Design. Dick Bell and Ligon Flynn both excel at creating environments and structures that are modern but very rooted in the Carolinas. It’s sad that Dick Bell was unable to realize any of his redevelopment plans for this property and the resulting development will most likely blend in with the neighboring environment - and that’s unfortunate in this case.

Gone Underground

Published by A Loud Arcane Toad August 27th, 2007 in Durham and RDU. 3 Comments

Leebowitz’s recent post mentioning the Frog & Nightgown made me think of other local places that were once wildly important but are now mostly forgotten and not Google-able. In Durham there was the Hofbrau, underneath the parking lot of what’s now the Whole Foods Market on Broad Street. What’s the story on this space? It was a German-themed bar, underground, right next to Duke campus. I know this because I went there a couple of times to see bands play, but that is extent of this poor toad’s memory. When did it begin, and why did it end? Google says nothing on this. The Internet coughs up a bit more information on Raleigh’s own Cameron Village Subway, which lurked beneath what’s now the public library. A warren of nightclubs, with a video arcade and a stereo store thrown in the mix, it was the white hot entertainment center not just of Raleigh but of the entire Triangle in those heady years of the late 70s and early 80s when 18 year-olds could drink legally. We miss it.

The Loneliest Monk

Published by Robert E Leebowitz August 15th, 2007 in Art, Good Stuff, Durham, Music and RDU. 3 Comments

North Carolina’s own Thelonious Monk will be the focus of an 18-event tribute at Duke University.

“Following Monk” opens in Durham on Sept. 15 with the Kronos Quartet performing music commissioned by the festival, including three world premiere arrangements of “Round Midnight.” The tribute ends Oct. 28 with a solo piano performance by Barry Harris, who lived in the same apartment with Monk during his final years. The jazz genius died at age 64 in 1982.

In between, the Following Monk Institute will offer guided tours of Monk’s birthplace in Rocky Mount, and the plantation in Newton Grove where his ancestors were slaves and where his relatives still live.

In a career that spanned 40 years and six continents, Monk only played a major engagement in his home state once. In May of 1970, the Rocky Mount native did a weeklong run at the Frog & Nightgown Jazz Club, on Medlin Drive in Raleigh.

Thelonious Monk’s Homecoming revisits that legendary 1970 performance. The two living band members from the Frog & Nightgown dates, Paul Jeffrey and Leroy Williams, will appear on sax and drums, respectively.

In addition to a full-length rendition of the Frog & Nightgown setlist, Monk’s Homecoming will feature a never-before-heard recording of the shows made by Paul Jeffrey, who went on to spend 20 years running the Jazz Program at Duke. A conversation with the musicians precedes the show and will include Center for Documentary Studies writer Sam Stephenson, who has conducted extensive research on the 1970 shows.

Click here for the schedule and more info.

P.S. Apologies to Tabitha Soren for the title. I don’t believe this urban myth is true, although it is certainly entertaining.

Free Movies

Published by Administrator August 14th, 2007 in Good Stuff and Durham. 0 Comments

The Carolina Theatre Cinemas celebrate their reopening this Friday with free movies. You can visit the box office in advance to pick up free passes.

Click here for the schedule and more information.

BIT WTF?

Published by YeahYeahGirl July 3rd, 2007 in WTF, Raleigh, Durham and RDU. 6 Comments

It has always annoyed me. It has also become an excellent barometer for the Triangle area’s (particularly Raleigh’s) ever-increasing homogenization. It’s called the Independent Weekly’s “Best of the Triangle”.

Here’s a partial list of national chains that made the cut as the best the Triangle has to offer (comments are Raleigh-biased because that’s where I live- so sue me.):

Champps Sports Bar- Come on! I don’t even go to sports bars and I know there a million sports bars around that have more character- Mitch’s and the Player’s Retreat come to mind immediately, both of which have been around forever and manage to attract customers as much for their divey charm as for their TV screens.

Hooters- see above- and there are also plenty of places to get wings served by hot chicks who don’t have to wear pantyhose under their short shorts.

Panera Bread- I didn’t realize that wi-fi was a verb but if i was into “wi-fying” I think I could find a non-chain someplace outside of a mall to do it. You can’t throw a rock without catching a signal these days.

Starbuck’s - ok- this one REALLY gets me- why don’t we just call it “Best Corporate Coffee Behemoth That Tries to Crush Every Mom-and-Pop Coffeehouse in the Universe?” Aside from making pretty OK coffee available in airports Starbucks can kiss my ass. I’m proud to live in a town that put the Starbuck’s on Hillsborough Street out of business. Yeah!

Mellow Mushroom- they’re not national yet but they are all over the southeast. Note that they did not place for best pizza (maybe because their pizza sucks?) but for outdoor dining. Perhaps people were voting for quantity over quality- they do have an awful lot of tables on that pleasant quiet corner of Glenwood and Peace Streets. I was appalled that Moonlight Pizza didn’t make either of these lists.

Waffle House - yes, Waffle House used to be about the only place for late night food in the area but that was about fifteen years ago. Anyone in the area who hasn’t heard of the well-hyped Raleigh Times Bar has been living under a rock- and missing out on some kickass late night grub.

Moe’s Southwest Grill- Baja Burrito anyone? No one there gets fired if they don’t scream “Welcome to Baja!” at every customer and they don’t use chips with so much blue dye in them that your shit will be bright green for a week. And I know for a fact that I’m not the only one.

Bruegger’s Bagels - they’ve always sucked. But I have to admit I don’t know where the good bagels are ’round here.

Maggiano’s and Olive Fucking Garden????? Maggiano’s isn’t bad but it’s a national chain. Olive Garden? No comment.

PF Chang’s - Duck and Dumpling? Peking Garden? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Cheesecake Factory - Anyone looking for amazing desserts and doesn’t want to wait two hours at Crabtree Valley Mall? May I suggest Hereghty in Glenwood Village Shopping Center? Heavenly delicious is right.

Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Borders - I suppose they have their place but could they be any less Triangle-specific? Huh?

Outback- I’d rather get my bloomin’ onion at the State Fair. Once a year is more than enough.

Men’s Wearhouse, Nordstrom, DSW- See Best Buy, B & N, Borders…

Belk - Sure, if the corners of the Triangle are Texas, Florida and Maryland.

Jared - Sure, if the entire US is a Triangle. (It wasn’t, last I checked.)

Ace, Lowe’s - sadly, it’s true- there are few independently owned hardware stores anymore- Burke Brothers should have been the only one on a list with the header “Best LOCAL hardware store”.

Toys R Us - Play House? Wootini?

Target - I love Target as much as the next guy but once again- huge-ass chain. And it won for best place to buy candy. Odd.

Harris Teeter - Just because they CALL themselves “Your Neighborhood Food Market”… don’t be so gullible people! And how did Durham’s Blue Light get overlooked in this category (beer selection)?

What does all this mean? Well, not much in the grand scheme of things. It points to a depressing lack of creativity in the voters but who the hell are they anyway? I suppose I should be glad they’re all waiting in line at Starbucks while I’m getting a superior brew with superior service from the Mission Valley Cup a Joe… and I could TOTALLY wi-fi there. If I was into that.

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