Nov

Buddy Guy Coming to Raleigh

Blues legend and guitar wizard Buddy Guy will return to the Triangle this winter! This time around he’ll come to the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium on February 20. Jonny Lang opens. Tickets are on sale now.

Posted by Dana on November 19, 2012 | Tags: Music . | ( 0 ) Comments

Nov

Torii Noodle Bar Now Open

A new eatery has just opened in Crabtree Valley Mall. Torii, a branch of the Kanki, now offers a modest selection of Japanese noodle and rice dishes. Entrées on the menu (pdf) range from $10-$13. The restaurant is located upstairs from the Kanki, next to the Glenwood Avenue entrance to the mall.

Posted by Dana on November 17, 2012 | Tags: Food . | ( 1 ) Comment

Nov

Jim Gaffigan Coming to Memorial Auditorium

A month ago we were the first to report that comedian Jim Gaffigan is finally bringing his White Bread Tour to the Triangle. However the venue has changed. The March 16 show will now be at Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday, 11/17).

Posted by Dana on November 15, 2012 | Tags: Comedy . | ( 0 ) Comments

Nov

Brixx Coming to Cameron Village

brixx_logo TBJ reported yesterday that Brixx Wood Fired Pizza will open in the new Gallery at Cameron Village, the building replacing Balentines. This has been a long time coming. Back in 2008 it was rumored that Brixx was coming to the still-empty restaurant spot at Oberlin Court. Finally a proper Raleigh address will be a reality for the excellent, Charlotte-based pizza restaurant.

Posted by Dana on November 3, 2012 | Tags: Food . | ( 0 ) Comments

Oct

Sur La Table Opening Tomorrow

The nation’s next Sur La Table store may land at Streets at Southpoint Mall tomorrow morning. The store, which carries a full line of cooking equipment, is aiming for “go” when the mall opens.

I visited the Sur La Table store in SoHo a couple of weeks ago and while the store is similar to Williams Sonoma, the inventory is a bit more of a full complement cooking supply store and not quite as high-end than Williams Sonoma. It’s a store this market badly needs, especially the Raleigh market.

A few things to note in the store: the selection of thermometers, knives, and the demo of the induction cooking surface. Also of note is the store’s Grand Opening Sale which gives customers a $10 gift certificate for each $50 spent thru the store’s closing on Sunday evening. The store also runs cooking classes, such as Sunday’s $47 Essential Knife Skills cla ss, which has gotten rave reviews online. (ask them if they demo the CIA method of peeling a pepper!)

The store is located in The Streets at Southpoint’s outdoor section.

map it

Posted by Dana on October 24, 2012 | Tags: Food , Retail , RTP/Dur/CH . | ( 0 ) Comments

Oct

2013 ACC Basketball Calendars Ready for Download

Local basketball fans with iPhones, Android Phones, Blackberrys, Outlook, Palm devices, and more are in luck! Gogoraleigh’s Calendars Tab is your home for free 2012-2013 ACC basketball schedules for the entire ACC in .CSV, .ICS, and Google Calendar formats.

gogo has gone all out again, offering schedules for each individual ACC team , as well as one giant calendar which includes all 279 games. Events on the calendars include not only the game time, but also links to ESPN’s team pages and the name of the venue where the game is being played. On some devices, like Android phones, the location becomes a link to Google Maps showing the venue’s location.

For those already subscribed to the Google Calendar version of the ACC Complete calendar or any of the other supporting Google Calendars from gogoraleigh, you don’t have to do anything. All 279 events have been added automatically. As event details change, you’ll see automatic changes in your calendar.

And wait….there’s more! Gogoraleigh decided that these 13 calendars aren’t enough, and added home-only calendars for UNC and N.C. State. All for the low low price of ZERO !

Outlook-Based Blackberry/iPhone/Palm Users

After downloading the appropriate CSV file (see below), create a new folder in your in Outlook calendar (Bball13, for example). Use the File | Import and Export… to import from “another program or file”, then “Comma Separated File (Windows)”. Be sure to pick your new calendar folder as the target. This will set up the schedule in your new sub-calendar where you can make whatever changes you want.
iPhone Users – Open iTunes with the iPhone connected and sync (you may have to specify your newly added calendar in the “Info” tab’s Calendars section.) Now you can view the basketball schedules as their own sub-calendar or as a part of all calendars.
If you have a device which doesn’t support subcalendars (like Treos and older Palm devices), you’ll need to copy the imported basketball events into your main calendar. 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 Bball08 calendar in place. Sync your handheld to copy the events to the handheld.

Google Calendar/Android Users

My favorite way to follow the ACC’s basketball calendar is to add it to my Google Calendar set. The Google Calendar is a dynamic, subscribable calendar that offers much flexibility. For instance, several game times have not been announced. As soon as they are set, actual game times will magically appear in your calendar. Also, Google Calendar offers a map link for quick viewing of the game’s venue location.

Additionally, Google has created a simple interface through mobile phone browsers. It allows one to view and implement ACC Calendar events. It also recognizes hyperlinks in the event’s description, so easy access to the team files is achievable by using the online Google Calendar app. To view these add the calendar using the link below, then visit http://calendar.google.com from within Safari on the iPhone or your Android browser.

(Note: Gogoraleigh will also carry the home-only calendars as an integrated feature of its normal Gogoraleigh Do-It Calendar ).

To view a Google Calendar, go to the gogoraleigh Calendars page and click on the appropriate calendar link. Once the calendar is displayed, you can add it your set of Google Calendars by clicking on the “+Subscribe” bottom on the bottom right.

iCal Users

There are two options:

Use iCalTextImport to import the .CSV version (linked above) of the schedule.
Download the .ics file from the Calendars page and import it into iCal.

Palm Desktop and Yahoo! Calendar Users

My brother-in-law taught me a neat trick. In order to get a CSV calendar into Palm Desktop, one can use Yahoo! Calendar as an intermediary. After downloading the .CSV file from gogoraleigh, open Yahoo! Calendar and click “Options” in the upper right. Then select “Import/Export”. Go to “Import From Outlook”, selected the filename, and click “Import”. Yahoo! Calendar users are done at this point. Palm Desktop users need to verify the import, then return to the “Export to Palm Desktop” section. Pick your target and hit “Export”. The resulting .DBA file should then be ready to import into Palm Desktop.

Beware! It appears easy to lump Yahoo! Calendar events that are unrelated into one calendar. If you are simply using Yahoo! Calendar as a conduit to Palm Desktop, verify that your calendar is clean before originally importing the .CSV file, otherwise unrelated events will get lumped with basketball dates in your resulting .DBA file.

RSS

Each of the Google Calendars carries an RSS feed. This might be an interesting addition to your RSS Feed collection because each calendar change will appear in the feed. This is most useful as an alert to a game time changes in the schedule. The RSS Feed for each calendar can be found when viewing each individual Google Calendar.

Notes

Calendars are apt to change, so check back occasionally for updates. To determine the version of your schedule, open the note associated with any event, and look for the version number. If your calendar is older than those listed above, simply delete the events in Outlook in your old one and import the events of the newer file. Google Calendar is dynamically updated on the back end, so you always know you are up to date when using Google Calendar.

Use at your own risk. I do not accept responsibility for any consequences resulting from errors in the schedule.

Link to Gograleigh Calendars

Posted by Dana on October 12, 2012 | Tags: Exclusives , Sports . | ( 3 ) Comments

Oct

N.C. State Fair Brings Familiar Fun

Today at 3pm the doors opened for the N.C. State Fair’s preday. Known for the rides, food, and livestock, the fair also features nightly concerts which require a modestly priced special ticket to get in. (Scotty McCreery’s shows Monday and Tuesday are sold out, but tickets are still available for Jake Owen, Matthew West, Hot Chelle Rae, Jason Michael Carroll, Brian McNight, Michael W. Smith, Billy Currington, and Corey Smith.

Food

While the State Fair is not my favorite food event of the year, there are several items to which I am look forward, including Cary Methodist Church brunswick stew and ham biscuits, Al’s French Fries, and N.C. State ice cream. A complete list of new foods is available, including deep-fried Girl Scout cookies. These freak-show foods aren’t what really excite me, though. I’d rather find some neat marinated meats cooked in a pit or over coals. I’ve always wanted to run either a kebab truck, a pizza in a cup truck, or a soup truck, (but it will never happen). Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the Cajun Grill (to the right of the Grandstand entrance) featuring some absolutely delicious seasoned fries and Crawfish Etoufee. In your search for food, the new Food Finder at the State Fair’s website looks like a good resource.

Navigation

I’ll likely be heading out there on Monday, sending Twitter updates as I go, using the hashtag #ncstatefair. Feel free to comment on your great finds here, and be as specific as you can about the location.

Wayfinding at the State Fair is extremely poor, and the fair is unfortunately ignoring this growing problem. For too many years people have said that some neat attraction was “near a sign that says pizza” or “near Dorton Arena”. Because these vague directions only leave me frustrated, I wrote the fair a couple of years ago asking for a signage system. To me the easiest solution would be to name the four or five zones of the fairgrounds and assign them colors. Take a look at these three maps:

Notice how the theme parks have assigned names and colors to their regions. The fairgrounds definitely has at least five regions:

the old midway, expo building, Graham building
the kiddieland midway and old expo buildings
the area next to the Scott Building extending back to the pig raceway
the new midway
The Village of Yesteryear, the flower show, lake, grist mill, etc.

Each of these areas could be named after a part of the state or a piece of our history. Zone names could be something like: Piedmont, Appalachian, Coastal, Banks, Croatan, Dare, etc. Then do what Disney did: a s s i g n c o l o r s to those zones on the maps, and put up signs at the entrance/exits of these zones. Now, to keenly address the original problem: put up signs on the existing light poles with numbers, perhaps, so that people can say "The best corn dog at the fair is BETWEEN lightpoles 12 and 7, in the Piedmont area", or "between lightpole 9 and Gate 6 in the Mountain area". That way people have pinpoint markers to plot where they are. Meet me at lightpole #12 at 3pm…. Of course, the numbers should be mounted high enough to be seen for a couple of Fair blocks and should match the color of that zone on the map. Eventually formal gateways could be added to signify the entrances to certain zones, but for now, colors on the lightpoles would suffice . Poles with numbers could also be mounted on the corners of some buildings, like Restaurant Row, for added distinction.

Rides

The new big rides Powers Great American Midways is bringing to the fair are The Rockstar and the Genesis. Both are “choir slingers”. I fail to see how the Rockstar is any different than The Rainbow. The Genesis looks like a side-facing DaVinci’s Cradle. The good news is the Skydiver makes its return to its place on the Old Midway. However there are three pitiful Ferris wheels. It’s a head-scratcher that in 1985 we had the Skywheel (double Ferris wheel), the Giant Wheel, and the front-facing Ferris wheel, yet in 2012 we have only three tiny bucket wheels.

A full, but tentative, list of rides is posted at the State Fair’s website. The list includes the number of tickets needed and the ride’s general location, too.

Transportation

The best times to go to the fair are Monday and Tuesday, and it isn’t even close. The crowds are very manageable, parking is better, and the ride times are decidedly longer. As far as parking goes, We have found success parking in the weekday afternoons on Beryl Road (access from the Waffle House on Hillsborough St.), but the Carter-Finley lot is a sure bet and has a dramatic entrance. In order to get by with the least amount of walking, however, ride the CAT bus . Routes run from downtown, Cary and the old Westinghouse site on Capital Blvd. Fare is $4 round trip, and the bus stop at the fairgrounds is at Gate #1 (at the edge of the Education Building).

Maps

Several maps exist of the fairgrounds:

Fair Website (Google)
PDF

Schedule

The Fair has printed an excellent booklet with the schedule included, and they are available at all of the entrances to the fairgrounds. That same schedule, however, is available online in html format, PDF format , and via the mobile platform apps.

Apps

While the NC State Fair has done a wonderful job with their website, they have also attempted to reach out to new platforms with mobile apps which include event schedules, maps, news, and more. The apps could use a lot of work, but they can still be helpful:

iOS – The app for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad is available thru iTunes. It only requires iOS3.0 and up.
Android – Available in the Google Play Store .

Posted by Dana on October 11, 2012 | Tags: Entertainment , Exclusives . | ( 0 ) Comments

Oct

Philip Rivers Featured in SI

This week’s (hideous) issue of Sports Illustrated features an article on former NCSU quarterback Philip Rivers. The man is burning it up in the fantasy leagues, but in the real NFL, Rivers is on a team that isn’t getting the job done. It’s a noteworthy dichotomy, and is the subject of the article on page 46.

Posted by Dana on October 11, 2012 | Tags: Sports . | ( 0 ) Comments

Oct

Jim Gaffigan Coming to DPAC

America’s top touring comedian, Jim Gaffigan , is finally coming to the Triangle! The performance will be Saturday, March 16 at the DPAC in Durham. No info is available from the DPAC site… yet.

Posted by Dana on October 10, 2012 | Tags: Comedy , RTP/Dur/CH . | ( 0 ) Comments

Oct

Bakatsias Opening Chapel Hill Greek Restaurant

I got a tip yesterday that GHG, George Bakatsias’ restaurant group , will be opening a Greek restaurant in the former Pyewacket space on W. Franklin Street. If this is true, it is some darned good news, and a nice departure from the Chinese/Mexican/Bland offerings that have plagued the reasonably priced Chapel Hill restaurant scene for so long. It’s also good news because I’ve always found Bakatsias’ restaurants impressive (even the Café Georgio that was in the depressing basement of Fine Feathers in University Square!). We’ll keep an eye on the timetable for this one!

Posted by Dana on October 8, 2012 | Tags: Food , RTP/Dur/CH . | ( 0 ) Comments

Oct

Burroughs-Wellcome Tour Coming Next Weekend

Triangle Modernist Houses continues their excellent series of architectural tours with a tour of the former North American Headquarters for Burroughs-Wellcome. The building was one of Paul Rudolph’s best pieces, and has not been open to the public for decades. It was featured in the strange, salvaged Natalie Wood/Christopher Walken movie “Brainstorm.”

The tour takes place on Saturday, October 20 from 9am to 1pm. Advance tickets are $9.95 and $15 day-of. Tickets and more information are available at the TMH Tour Page .

Posted by Dana on October 8, 2012 | Tags: Development , RTP/Dur/CH . | ( 0 ) Comments

Sep

Chef & Farmer Featured in Garden & Gun

Congratulations to Kinston’s Chef & Farmer restaurant for being featured in the October issue of Garden & Gun . The (great) magazine’s “Good Eats 2012” article opens with a backdrop of an Ashley Christensen-cooked meal, and moves through John T. Edge’s favorite 10 dishes of the year. Among the feature dishes is the Chef & Farmer’s Tomato Sandwich. Looks like a road trip is in the works…

Posted by Dana on September 24, 2012 | Tags: Food , Road Trip . | ( 1 ) Comment

Sep

Morrisville Town and Country Hardware Being Replaced with WalMart Express

A reader named Mike recently alerted me to an interesting retail story going on in Morrisville. It seems that the Town and Country Hardware (“formerly Ace”) at Davis and Morrisville Carpenter is closing on October 31. According to employees, the store’s lease was not renewed and the replacement will be a Wal-Mart Express.

This is interesting on several levels. According to a News & Observer article in July, Wal-Mart has been rolling out 15,000 square foot stores in small towns to compete with large drug stores and Family Dollar stores. Morrisville, however, is suburbia, and there is a full-sized Wal-Mart store very close by at I-540 and 54.

Secondly, this is apparently a dagger to the local Ace Hardware system and consumers’ ability to maintain equipment. A year ago I my lawn mower needed repair, so I took it to the Ace Hardware on Kildaire Road late on a Saturday afternoon. It took the store a month to return the lawn mower because that store is not an actual service site. Rather, they sent all lawn mowers over to “the Davis Drive store” (presumably the one at hand). I’m not sure where Cary’s Ace is sending lawn mowers now, but if they are sending them to North Ridge, it will be 2 months to get one repaired.

It is extremely sad to see stores like this (that offer services to our appliances) drying up. It’s one thing to worry about the amount of garbage we could be composting, but it’s another thing to make servicing expensive items like TVs and lawn mowers so difficult that it is easier and/or cheaper to simply discard the item than to go through the service hassle.