‘Blood’ To Be Filmed In N.C.
The N&O has a
story today
(on page 4B) revealing that the movie version of the novel
Blood Done Sign My Name
will be filmed in North Carolina. The story is based on the Timothy Tyson novel involving memoirs of a 1970 racial killing in Oxford. The mayor of Oxford, Al Woodlief, said that his community welcomes the film crew, and delights at the opportunity to teach a history lesson.
“And besides, maybe I’ll get to hang out with Gwyneth Paltrow.”
(correction: this comment was made by the book’s author)
Oh boy. Another opportunity for Hollywood to portray the South as a bunch of racist hicks. To be sure, the storytellers in this movie will have no intention of highlighting the mayor’s point that “Oxford has changed very much in 30 years.” Instead they will blur fiction, stereotypes, and history with the present. Complete with bad southern accents, the movie will deliver a hit piece that will do irreparable damage to the reputation of Oxford. Poised to thrive from the fruits of being an outlying Raleigh community, the town, instead, will languish as transplants avoid the town stereotyped by Hollywood (all because of the actions of a few). Thanks a lot, Mayor Woodlief.
Sono Website Up
Sono Japanese Restaurant’s
website is online now and features four menus. The main menu features 11 entrees, four of which are seafood. There is a large selection of sushi as well. The restaurant is located in The Hudson at 319-101 Fayetteville Street.
Google Street View Includes Raleigh
Raleigh is now a city covered by Google Maps’ Streetview feature! Simply view Raleigh in Google Maps and click on the "Street View" tab to see the area. Comment here and let us all know anything interesting you’ve found.
Rusted Root Coming To Lincoln Theatre
Rusted Root will make its return to Raleigh at the Lincoln Theatre on March 25. Tickets are $22 and available through the Lincoln’s website.
Gandolfo’s Deli Downtown Closed
Bad news for the Hudson. Gandolfo’s New York Deli on Wilmington St. is closed. A Google search , however, shows a location at 14460 New Falls of Neuse Road, near Wakefield.
Wake County Unveils Justice Center Plans
Wake County unveiled plans for its new Justice Center project . The complex will replace rise at Salisbury and Martin Streets, and feature an 11-story tower. The $214 million complex will offer several new courtrooms, much-needed room for records, offices, and underground parking. ( map it )
The famed Garland Jones building (former First
Citizens
Federal Bank above, left) building will be razed, raising much angst among the architectural community. The building is one of the few of its style in North Carolina, but is not registered as an historic place. The building’s neighboring parking deck and the
8-story brick building
next to the safety center will also be removed.
The construction timeline extends to the project’s completion in 2013. The plan allows for completion of the county’s L-Building (including a parking deck) before demolition of the current courthouse parking deck. Once completed, the building will connect to the existing courthouse and safety center via underground tunnels.
While the project is a much needed improvement to an ever tightening supply of space for the county, the project has some design weaknesses that can still be overcome.
The property’s redevelopment is a long-awaited opportunity to correct one of Nash Square’s corners. The square is one of only two remaining squares in the Christmas plan for Raleigh, and provides a valuable place for its nearby community that should be the focus of its surroundings. The current parking garage at McDowell and Martin, instead, treats Nash as a seemingly random, undeveloped lot. Joe’s Place at Dawson and Martin, on the other hand, fabulously addresses the grand park across the street, as will the Hue condominium building.
The picture above, left is the projection from Nash Square. The picture on the right is in Washington, DC, and addresses the intersection with a very bold corner. The architects, to their credit, did put one of the Justice Center’s entrances on the McDowell/Martin corner, however it is way too understated and vague. Just as Progress II’s Wilmington St. corner fails to address this important urban intersection, the Justice Center’s offset entrance and smoker’s patio is no way to formally address Nash Square.
From the square, the eye finds its way back to the complexes central, stubby tower. Perhaps bringing the building’s exterior fully to the corner with a rounded, ascending front would give Nash Square what it deserves. Perhaps a coffee shop or a small restaurant much like The Dawson’s Borough would invite interaction between the square and the building.
Salisbury Street’s projection (above) misses an opportunity as well. The Justice Center’s base is planned to abut the Public Safety Center. The new building’s tower is not only inset from the Public Safety Center’s tower, it also sits back from Salisbury St. Unfortunately the complex’s facade sinks away from Salisbury, too, in order to create an outdoor plaza with a central fountain. Do we really need another outdoor plaza with no programming (other than smoking) in Raleigh? Wouldn’t it be more interesting to pedestrians to fill this space with another coffee shop or small food outlet? A pedestrian walking this stretch of Salisbury will be greeted with two plazas of people hanging around on the right and a blank wall on the left. We need to avoid cavernous, blank blocks.
Tonight’s session the building’s features and design was an unusual, welcome, open extension by building designers. There are three more planned , and each lasts from 5pm to 7pm:
- Feb 12: Northern Regional Center (NRC), 350 Holding Avenue, Wake Forest
- Feb 18: Knightdale Town Hall, 950 Steeple Square Court, Knightdale
- Feb 19: Wake County West Regional Library, 4000 Louis Stephens Road, Cary
Here are a few more of the plates shown at the presentation ( even more ) (2/15 update: The images are part of this .pdf file, which is now available ).
Pink Floyd Experience Coming To Memorial Auditorium
Promising a "full-on sensual attack", the
Pink Floyd Experience
is coming to Memorial Auditorium in the Progress Energy complex on February 19 and 20, 2009.
This Canadian tribute band to Pink Floyd excites intimate audiences with a huge combination of music, sound, lights, and video. They will actually be playing in Charlotte Wednesday and Thursday night this week.
Downtown Parking? EASY
On Friday WRAL did
another hit piece on downtown life
. This time the subject was free valet parking in front of a few restaurants exacerbating the “parking problem”. Aside from the logical problems of that argument (valet makes patrons’ parking
not
a problem), parking downtown still, in fact,
is
easy.
The City of Raleigh and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance have published excellent guides to parking in downtown. Go ahead and print these and put them in your car for future use.
- City of Raleigh guide (.pdf)
- DRA guide (.pdf)
Additionally, the Alliance has a zoomable online map . It is surprising just how much parking is available, especially at night and on weekends.
A way the City of Raleigh could vastly improve the perception of downtown parking is to erect a system of consistently designed, dynamic signs at lot/deck entrances. The lots would have a standard green circle with a large, white “P” letter. A neon “FREE” sign could be lit during hours when parking is free. As people venture downtown, they will be reminded of how abundant and accessible free parking is.
Cary’s Mamma Mia Closed
Cary’s location of Mamma Mia has closed. The Apex location will remain open, however. This is one of many, many restaurants to fail in this location at Cary Pkwy and High House. The 1991 has already housed 3 restaurants: Mamma Mia, Chuck ’em, and Jaspers. I’m always intrigued by seemingly good locations that have much turnover.
"Hook Up" Brings Seafood Back to St. Mary’s
The latest in a string of restaurants at St. Mary’s and W. Johnston Streets ( map it ) is going to be the Hook Up MarinaBar and Resort . The restaurant will feature seafood 7 days a week from 11am until 2am. Their slogan is "Eat Up…Drink Up…Hook Up!".
Bets on how long this fine establishment will last are being taken now.
Connect the Triangle Golf Tournament Coming in April
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are still growing rapidly. For most it is an online experience, only, but some area LinkedIn members are taking the experience offline with a golf outing.
Last year’s inaugural event had 40 attendees, but this year’s Connect The Triangle Golf Tournament promises more. Organizer Eric Bostrom said,”What makes this event so unique is that we have taken an online space and completely opened it up and made it real, tangible and attainable by allowing you to actually meet and talk with the person you are connected to online. Once face-to-face contact is made, you have an opportunity to forge real connections that can turn into genuine business leads, job leads and even friendships.”
Players are invited to participate in a 90-minute workshop called “Master Your Competitive Edge” prior to the tournament. The workshop aims to provide the tools needed to play in the zone, make good decisions, and sustain peak performance on the golf course. The Creative Golf workshop will help identify key individual strengths and build the consistency to transform one’s game.
The tournament will take place on April 8th at Crooked Creek Golf Club (Fuquay-Varina). There will be a shotgun start 1 PM with dinner and drinks to follow. Tickets are $65 with $20 from each ticket going to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle. Email connectthetriangle@gmail.com for more information.
NCSU and UNC 2008 Football Schedules for Your PDA
NCSU and UNC fans who like electronic calendars rejoice! I’ve uploaded the 2008 football schedules for State and Carolina in .CSV format.
Outlook/Palm Users:
- Create a new folder in your in Outlook calendar (Fball08, for example). Use the File | Import and Export… to import from “another program or file”, then “Comma Separated File (Windows)”. This will set up the Heels’ schedule in your new sub-calendar where you can make whatever changes you want.
- When you are happy with the way the subcalendar looks, change the calendar view to “Events” (instead of 7-day or 31-Day or whatever view you’re using). “Select All” from the list, and drag them over to your main “Calendar” (The Treo and other Palm Handhelds only sync to the main calendar – time for Palm to get with the program on that one!). If you want to keep your sub calendar intact, use Ctrl-drag instead of plain drag. That will create a copy of each event to the main Calendar and keep the Fball08 calendar in place. Sync your handheld to copy the events to the handheld.
iCal Users:
- Use iCalTextImport to import the .CSV version of the schedule.
Download ncsufootball08.csv
Download uncfootball08.csv
(right click on the link above and “Save As…”)
Note: Use at your own risk. I do not accept responsibility for any consequences resulting from errors in the schedule.
Rocky Top To Host Steakhouse Cooking Class
Todd Ohle, Executive Chef of 1705Prime , will hold a steakhouse classics cooking class on February 23 at Noon at Red Room Tapas Lounge . the class will feature butchering techniques, meat-buying techniques, and meat grade tasting. In addition, Chef Ohle will teach how to cook lyonaisse sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and asparagus and hollandaise.
“These classes are a great opportunity for our customers,” said Ogan. “This course is great for any one who is interested in learning more about beef, it will teach them the difference between different grades and cuts of steak, as well as what wine should be paired with what cut of meat.”
Enrollment is $75, and each student will get a schwag bag including a steak dinner for two and bottle of wine. (Ticket information should appear on Rocky Top’s website soon)
Recent Stories
- North Carolina Loses The Great Teacher February 9, 2015
- City Lays Markings for Currituck Obstacle Course February 4, 2015
- History Making Heels and Wolfpack Prepare for Battle January 14, 2015
- 25 Predictions for 2015 January 5, 2015
- Raleigh’s 10 Biggest Stories of 2014 January 2, 2015
- 2014: The Rain Year January 2, 2015
- Tupelo Honey Sets New Casual Standard December 1, 2014
- 2013 Predictions. A Look Back November 18, 2014
- Wicked Taco Bringing Fresh-Mex to Western Blvd November 17, 2014
- DOT Unveils I-440 Widening Plans November 12, 2014
- County Power Shift Brings Major Changes to Raleigh’s Future November 5, 2014
- Jarrett Bay Store Coming to Crabtree September 25, 2014
- FirstWatch Coming to Glenwood Avenue September 9, 2014
- Big Shindig Releases Set Times September 5, 2014
- Appearance Commission to Review Residence Inn September 3, 2014