Kemp’s Seafood Reopens
Sue Stock’s blog reports that Greg Cox reports that Kemp’s Seafood House has reopened.
AT&T Store at North Hills Opens
The AT&T store in North Hills is now open in its new location, between the escalators and The Q Shack, near the theaters. The store was formerly next to ArtSource, facing Six Forks Road.
Summertime’s Calling North Hills
North Hills will usher in summer with a
Beach Music
concert series that will make a lot of people forget Alive After Five. On Thursdays at 6pm in the North Hills Commons, the following bands will be playing:
- April 17 – The Embers
- April 24 – The Castaways
- May 1 – The Catalinas
- May 8 – Black and Blue
- May 15 – Liquid Pleasure
- May 22 – The Embers
- May 29 – Billy Scott and the Party Prophets
It’s a great chance for true Carolina Girls to get down, and for all of you Northerners to go see what you’ve been missing!
Big Ideas Conference Coming Monday
I received this from numerous sources, and it looks like a fantastic event:
July of 2008 marks the 220 th anniversary of the first ‘planning’ meeting held for Raleigh. That meeting, held at Sir Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, established Raleigh as the new state capital of North Carolina. In honor of this occasion, the Department of City Planning will be hosting a spirited, non-traditional planning charrette to discuss the Big Ideas you have for downtown and the City of Raleigh. This email, and the attached PDF, is a call for our community’s dreamers, thinkers, and critics, imagineers, and designers to come together to share your ideas, no matter how crazy or far-fetched, for what our community can be.
You want a river downtown? Tell us.
An arena surrounded by walkable retail? Tell us.
A zip line between the Two Hannover Tower and Wachovia Capital Center? Tell us.
You get the point.
Please feel free to post the attached PDF on your respective websites, as the success of the event will be influenced by the number of dreamers we have in attendance.
The details:
Where? Tir na nOg Irish Pub (218 S. Blount St., Downtown Raleigh)
When? April 21 st , 2008 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM
What else do I need to do? RSVP thru the planning department website .
The Black Crowes Coming to Lincoln Theatre
Saturday, November 8 marks the date when
The Black Crowes
invade downtown Raleigh. They will be supporting their new CD, Warpaint, their first in almost 7 years. It’s the first CD with guitarist Luther Dickinson, who can cook it up and scramble it.
WPTF Morning Slot Open
Apparently WPTF is seeking a morning radio show personality. According to the Curtis Media Website:
We’re NewsTalk 680 WPTF, and we’re seeking our next great morning host. If you love local radio, prepare like crazy, immerse yourself in the community and are a selfless team player, this could be your last job. Morning zoos and in-your-face instigators need not apply; this a fast-paced, news-intensive, politically-neutral show with a contributing cast of six.
Unfortunately Jack Boston was diagnosed with a leukemia recurrence right after he took the job a year and a half ago. I can only assume that Boston and/or Curtis decided that it wouldn’t work out. Hang in there, Jack!!!
Ban Overturned
The City Council has just passed a unanimous decision to repeal the garbage disposer ban.
Disposer Ban May Be Down The Tubes
Today’s city council meeting has several important items on the agenda. None, however, is more important than the anticipated overturn of the garbage disposer ban. Last Tuesday a committee met to discuss the issue in great detail and concluded that the ban should be overturned.
The committee heard presentations by public works director Dale Crisp as well as Keven Keener, an Associate Professor of Food Science at Purdue University who used to teach at NCSU. Crisp’s presentation, according to reports, argued that city employees in the field have reported much fat accumulation in the city’s sewer lines, and the recommendation to ban disposers was not based on a scientific study. He presented a sealed jar with a sample of the accumulated blockage.
Dr. Keener reported his findings from a study involving 27 fat/oil/grease (FOG) blockages from 23 cities around the US, 17 from the southeast (including Raleigh). From the samples it appeared that 86% of the solid blockages were fats. Of these, 61%, a high concentration, were saturated fats like those found in vegetable oils (4%-49%) and animal fats (33%-48%). The other 14% of the solids were from silt and sand, and contained highly concentrated calcium, likely from water hardness and urine.
The calcification process is not currently fully understood, however it is hypothesized that fats and oils in the presence of cleaners and sanitizers (bleach), break down into free fatty acids, bind to the calcium ions, and form insoluble metallic soaps.
Because food particles (disposers grind food into 1-2mm diameter particles) did not seem to play a role in this process, there is no compelling evidence that disposers are a key parameter in FOG-related sewer accidents.
The public needs to be truly educated better about what goes into sewers. Cute cartoons on the side of an occasional sanitation truck don’t cut it. We need to be concentrating on the road while driving, not reading trucks. How many people actually read the insert with the water bill? Most bills are cluttered with junk that is immediately thrown away. No, the city needs an education campaign, most likely involving the 6 o’clock news hour. Printed materials are for the very careful, who can read, and can read English. Everyone needs to be reached with this campaign.
Some have suggested composting as a solution, however fats do not belong in the composting process. At this point, fats need to be sent to the landfill. My personal suggestion for this campaign is that bacon grease be a key target. One way to dispose of this widely encountered fat is to pour it into an empty can (vegetable or soup can) and keep it in the freezer. When it’s full, toss the solid block into the garbage the night before pickup.
Let’s hope the council will “do the right thing” and attack parameters that are proven to actually play a significant role in the problem. I commend the committee which unanimously approved the recommendation to end the disposer ban. The committee included City Councilors Koopman, West, Crowder, and Mayor Meeker (no, Isley was not involved). Admitting that one made a mistake is one of the toughest things to do, especially in public life, and these men deserve credit for doing so. Hopefully the entire City Council will continue this line of logic today and overturn this irrelevant ban once and for all.
Tax Day
Ahhh April 15! The day we all love. Just a couple of tips to faithful readers; most accountants suggest sending your forms via certified mail, so you will have to interact with postal workers:
- The post office at Avent Ferry Road and Gorman Street has outstanding employees. They are efficient, friendly, and well-worth a moderate detour in your day. This is one of Raleigh’s best-kept secrets. map it
- All postal items are eventually sent through the Westgate Road branch of the USPS. Therefore that site has the final pickup of the day. If I recall correctly, their box in the lobby is last-checked at 8pm each weekday, but don’t hold me to it. That location a couple of years ago had a steel drum band in their lobby on April 15. It’s BYOB, though. map it
Emerson Hart Playing Lincoln Theatre Wednesday
Fans of Emerson Hart probably already know this, but the "I Wish The Best For You" singer will be at the Lincoln Theatre on Wednesday night. "You…Me…" Sometimes artists try to make lyrics too difficult. Not Hart.
101 Lounge + Cafe Opens Friday
As of today, the 101 Lounge and Cafe website states that they "will be open Friday and Saturday evening." As they complete their menu, they will post it as well as defined hours of operation.
101 is located on the corner of Davie and Blount streets on the first and second floor of Palladium Plaza , the condo extension of Progress Energy Plaza II. They will have outdoor and corner curbside seating as well as a second floor lounge. The architectural design is by Vernacular Studio . outdoor and corner curbside seating, and a second floor lounge.
Hard Rock Park Opens Tomorrow
Tomorrow marks the soft opening of Myrtle Beach’s Hard Rock Park . The brand new 140-acre theme park will feature four roller coasters, many carnival rides, interactive music pavilions, and numerous live music stages, all with classic rock and country themes.
The marquis ride of the park, though is " Led Zeppelin: The Ride ", a 150-foot tall, 3,738 foot long, 65-mph, 6-inversion coaster by Bolliger & Mabillard . ( video ) If any of you have ridden a B&M coaster, you surely remember its smoothness and trademark whir.
With the addition of the Hard Rock Park, there are now 35 first-rate roller coasters within a 3.5 hour drive of Raleigh.
Strut 08 Coming to North Hills
This spring, fashion comes to life as top designers display their work during
Strut ’08
, a fashion, music, and dance show being held at North Hills. The May 3, 9:00 pm event will feature seven nationally-recognized fashion designers, each with Raleigh roots and a personal or professional tie to the Triangle-area. Models wearing seasonal styles, prominent local talent, and several area boutiques will take to the runway for a televised show.
“Raleigh has never hosted a fashion event like Strut ’08,” says Brian Williams, creator/producer of the show and president of Brian Williams Television. “The time is right. The Triangle is home to a fashion-conscious, creative class who has a distinct taste for well-designed clothing.”
The fashion designers include:
- Amy Stephenson , who grew up in Johnston County and has a well known line of jeans
- Miranda Laughlin , a graduate of Cary’s Athens Drive High School, known for her Bleighm line of dresses, shirts and pants
- Jewelry Designer Elizabeth Yarborough grew up in Louisburg and still has family living in the area
- Holly Aiken , also a graduate of NCSU, designs handbags in her Raleigh studio called Stitch
- Chuck Stewart , owner of Tumbling Colors, designer of fabrics used worldwide in the fashion industry, will serve as a special consultant for the show
- Victor Lytvinenko, a graduate of the School of Design at North Carolina State University, uses rare, expensive denim spun in Greensboro, N.C., to make his distinct and successful line of Verses Jeans.
- Bruce Wilson, from his Meschantes Couture studio and gallery in Raleigh, resurrects the art of designing the classic, custom-fitted corset for both men and women.
Local clothiers and boutiques will also feature their designs in the show — NV Clothes for Men, Verses Jeans, Uniquities, Meschantes Couture, Kerry Catherine Jewelry, Scout and Molly’s, Phortiistorm, The Metallic Spiral, J & B Clothing, bebe and SoHo along with a special “Art to Wear” designer from NCSU.
Williams has partnered with Social the Magazine to produce the show that will be held in (most likely) North Hills’ former Storehouse location. The venue will feature a red-carpet entry, a 640-square-foot entertainment stage and a 40-foot fashion runway. Betzi Hekman is the fashion coordinator for the production and Samuel Cole Salon and Salon Moxie are providing all hair/makeup services for the 35 models specified by the designers.
A silent auction held online and auctioned off prior to the show will benefit Interact of Wake County and will feature items personally selected and donated by the designers as well as other items.
For more information visit www.Strut08.com . Online ticket sales will begin March 1 on this site. Ticket prices will range from $25 – $100.
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