Clarion Content

It is our consistent contention at the Clarion Content that Durham's fabulous present could not and would not exist as it does, were it not for the stalwarts of its past. Once such pillar, Durham's thirty-eight year old tradition, Centerfest is back.

The Clarion Content is not edited by native Durhamanians. Si, we have been here many years, double digits now, but perhaps it is best if we leave it to a native to express his faith in Centerfest and what Centerfest means to Durham¹

Eli McDuffie, lead singer of the local music sensation, LiLa, on Centerfest...



Special thanks to Eric Chen, aka The Cota Flota, for digging up this footage.

Cliche though it may sound, not only is Centerfest back, it is even better than ever. The Durham Arts Council organized a series of focus groups and in a display of the pique² and pluck that makes Durham what it is, DAC responded to what they said.

They have added a role for creative community groups, they have more local, young, musical acts and a sweet new location that reflects Centerfest's role at the heart of Durham's art and culture community. This year Centerfest is going to be smack in the middle of Durham, downtown inside the loop.

The new location will encompass Morris Street, in front of the Durham's Arts Council's own building. Main Street from Bull McCabe's³ to Revolution, as well as Chapel Hill Street, and the connecting Five Points intersection in front of Toast along past Dame's Chicken and Waffles to Major the Bull's Plaza, the area in front of the Suntrust Building, ni swank hotel to be, and perhaps extend all the way to the Orange Street corridor. What a setting!⁴

In a much need twist, since the last time Centerfest was held in this location⁵ the storefronts were nearly empty, the Durham Arts Council is partnering with local businesses up and down these blocks. Businesses along the streets encompassed that sponsor Centerfest will be listed in the program and be able to vend on the sidewalk, just like the artists who have purchased booths.

The Durham Arts Council told the Clarion Content that there will be more than 120 artists represented, and as many as forty musical acts, along with the usual fun like facepainting, arts and crafts. There will be multiple stages for music, including one in Major the Bull's Plaza and perhaps one in front of the Green Wall.

There are still a few unanswered questions. Including, what role will the legendary Durham Food Truck community play? What are the festival hours⁶ and admissions charges?⁷ Will there be a nighttime element? And if not, will the streets remain blocked off over night?

Centerfest has come a long way, been with Durham through thick and thin. This year's 38th addition is going to be a blast. We can wait to hear the rest of the story.



Notes and further thoughts
¹Durham is place that loves itself so much, it married itself. Let's keep the fun going!

²By pique we mean cahojnes, institutional verve.

³Rumors abound about potential collaborations afoot.

⁴As we saw through the Holiday Art Walk and the Durham Storefront Project exhibits last year, this part of town is a vibrant, eclectic stage.

⁵The stories from this era abound, the Durham Arts Council and a documentary filmmaker could speak to just about every node in Durham's recent cultural renaissance and there is a Centerfest related backstory, from performing in Sedgewick's Wooden Nickel to the Y.P.P.C. to playing in front of 9th Street Bakery with "Goats where They Shouldn't be."

⁶There was lots of public support for a nighttime element to Centerfest, but also security and cost concerns.

⁷The focus groups suggested $5-$10, with kids under 12 free. Previous year's admissions had been a $4 suggested donation per person and recently Centerfest had been losing money.

Labels: Art, Durham, music

Coming soon... at 3pm

Web Premier of Hammer no More the Fingers: Kilowave

Labels: Durham, music, Pop Culture

that the NC Cow Parade and Round up will hit Durham with as many as 100 life sized cows on August 18th...




that all newer cellphone pictures have location embedded in the meta-data that accompanies the photo file, and that this information is what made Instagram so valuable to Facebook...




that Matt Kelly's new tapas place, Mateo's is getting ever closer to open in the old Book Exchange location...




that there is a new stop light going in at Hope Valley Road and Cornwallis Road, near Foster's Market and Guglhmpf...




that Outsiders Two is opening in August...




that Shalom Educating for Peace, a Durham connected Rwanda based NGO, was awarded a Global Peacemaking Award from the International Public Policy Institute...




that a new farmer's market has opened in South Durham... in the Greenwood Commons Shopping Center, #5410 NC55, Durham, Saturdays year-round from 8AM---12PM




Please email corrections, clarifications, rants and denials to clarioncontent at gmail dot com

We cannot guarantee everything we hear is true. But we promise you, if we write it, we heard it---and you didn't say, please don't print it.

Labels: Durham, food, heard, technology

The Clarion Content is delighted to announce, as some of you have already heard, that we are partnering with the Bull City Connector for our next Fashion Drive-by, Fashion in Transit. The clothes will be provided by the Independent's Men clothier of the year, Vert & Vogue.

We will have our usual superlative Fashion Drive-by team, photographer, Jessica Arden, and Creative Director, Cady Childs.



The Clarion Content is stoked to support the bus.

We are big believers in the ecological and communal returns of mass transit. The bus has so many rewards. There are obvious benefits; saving on gas, no parking issues, being able to knock back a tipple or two without driving. And there are subtler benefits; meeting your neighbors, understanding the geography of our community, the positive feeling of having played a part in reducing pollution and waste, helping push the mass transit mindset.

The Clarion Content is proud to be in and of Durham. We make a concerted effort to support the green¹ in our community and we believe Durham does the same.


Notes
¹We like green initiatives, ideas and projects of all ilks. If we are missing out on yours, please send it our way! Info@ClarionContent dot com. All one word dot is the symbol "."

Labels: Durham, ecology, Fashion, Fashion Drive-bys, infrastructure, Politics, Practical Advice, vehicles

The Durham Arts Council and Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau have partnered with EverWondr, an online events network, to produce a fabulous new events calendar of Durham Arts and Culture. It will be at www.DurhamCulture.com.




Those of you familiar with the clunky old calendar will fall out of your chairs at the difference and improvements. The imagery is dynamic and appealing. The style is classier, much more becoming of a city experiencing the cultural renaissance that Durham is. The event submission process is supposed to be considerably easier, too.

The Durham Arts Council is sponsoring a training session this coming Monday, 6pm at the Arts Council on Morris Street, to teach artists to learn how to use the calendar for themselves. It is an incredibly powerful tool. RSVP for the free session here.

Durham Culture.com allows members of the arts community to host a free webpage where they can post contact information, upcoming events and images, as well as audio and video clips of their work. This kind of centralized locus for information about the Durham Arts community is an excellent guerrilla marketing opportunity for those who might not otherwise have the budget to create a website or the drawing power that the collective assemblage will.

Of course, as with any calendar, the massive task is keeping it up-to-date.¹ The Durham Culture dot com calendar fights that battle through crowdsourcing. If anyone and everyone can post to the Durham Arts and Culture calendar, then the responsibility for keeping it updated falls to the community collectively.

How very Durham of us.


Notes

¹We fight the battle here with our own calendar.

Labels: Art, Durham, technology

Opponents of nuclear power, like the Clarion Content, have to be cheered by the sentiments of General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt as expressed in the Financial Times on Monday.



The FT reports, "Nuclear power is so expensive¹ compared with other forms of energy that it has become 'really hard' to justify...according to the chief executive of GE one of the world's largest suppliers of atomic equipment."

He went on to say, "It's really a gas and wind world today." The FT says GE and Immelt see the shift to wind and natural gas energy sources as permanent, mostly because they are cheaper.²



Notes
¹The Clarion Content is opposed to nuclear power because of nuclear waste disposal and the downside risk of accidents, not because of cost.

²The FT notes this is especially bad news for the U.K. which is trying to get nuclear power plants built without public subsidy.

Labels: energy policy, nuclear issues

Little slices of Twitter... Our Tweets of the week.

Real quotes from real tweeters. We love to peak behind the curtain. Some of these Tweets are PG-13 or even R. All of them keep it real. Easily offended, click here.

All spelling is that of original authors.




dad just said I could pass for ten with my hood up! wahoo---T


Political rhetoric dissolves issues into spectacle before they can even exist---S


The people at the DMV accused me of lying when I said I was hispanic.... hurtful.---V


Summer slow the fuck down.---MM


Everyone thinks you should be happy just because you're young. They don't see the wars that we fight every single day.--V


“If you text me again I swear to god I'm changing my number” ok fine.. Sorry---R

Labels: humor, Pop Culture, twitter

A fantastic new service called CompostNow has debuted in Durham and the surrounding area. A tip of the hat to a fellow member of the Watts-Hillandale Neighborhood Association for sending this our way. They heard about them through the ahead the curve cats over at Bull City Forward.





For $25 a month, CompostNow provides a homeowner with a composting bin; you fill it up, they pick it up, once a week. Homeowners then have the option of having the resulting nutrient-rich, garden-ready compost delivered to them whenever and wherever at no extra charge. Or, CompostNow members can also choose to donate the compost to a local community garden of their choice.

Labels: Durham, ecology, Practical Advice, science

Opening of GraceLee Lawrence, "Artifacts and Creatures" sculpture exhibition at the Hillsborough Arts Council, tonight, Friday, July 27th, from 6-9pm. Show runs from July 27th through August 25, 2012. The gallery is open from 1-4pm Tuesday through Saturday.

Hillsborough Arts Council
220-B S Churchton St.
Hillsborough, NC

Labels: Art

This Sunday, July 29^th, at 1pm, Paula Cole Jones, a management consultant and editor of "Encounters: Poems About Race, Ethnicity and Identity," will lead a workshop on "Race in the Life of Organizations," that will examine how the racial composition of organizations affects the culture of those institutions.



Ms. Jones is a former president of Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries, and an independent antiracism consultant for the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

The workshop will be followed at 4pm by a reading of works from "Encounters" by Ms. Jones and others. The poetry reading is free and the workshop is $10, payable at the door, or by preregistering at http://allsoulsjuly29.eventbrite.com/

Ms. Jones, on the blog the InterConnection TipSheet, broke it down thusly, "Encounters can help people become aware of stories beyond their own. We tend not to know the intimate experiences of other people. These poets help us know what no one person can know. We encounter people, and sometimes we have very little knowledge of the depth and the kind of searing wounding that racialized society has done since its beginning. It helps us see what we’re up against if we’re going to heal ourselves. And heal the world."

The event will be held at the Walltown Children's Theater, #1226 Berkely Street, 27705, in Durham's Walltown neighborhood.

This event is sponsored and organized by All Souls Church Unitarian Universalist, Walltown, Durham, and co-sponsored by the Multicultural Committee of the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Garret Road, Durham.

Labels: Durham, facing race, Poet tree

Resident New Bruinswick philosopher, Storey Clayton, last seen in this space writing about the Occupy Movement faces the harsh realities of his reaction to the Colorado movie theater shooting. In a piece that challenges, provokes and doesn't apologize, he makes you think about modern society.

It is long, but well worth it. All links in the body inserted by author.---Ed.

Read more of Storey Clayton's work here at the Blue Pyramid. Check out the insights of his famous cartoon Duck and Cover, here on the Clarion Content. See and take the Blue Pyramid's legendary Book Poll here.




**************************************************


Object Lesson
by:Storey Clayton

I have learned a lot about myself in the past week. This is good. Learning is fun!

One of the things I have learned, or relearned perhaps, is how little I am surprised by things. Most people like surprises. I kind of miss them, I guess. Which is not intended as a way of tempting the fates. But if anything, I think I'm surprised that there aren't more mass-shootings in America. About one a day is probably what I'd expect. Maybe we'll get there soon. This is not a desire or a hope. It would be nice to have no mass-shootings in a year. But there would have to be a lot of changes to make that happen.

No, not increased security measures.

I wrote at length about the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon last October, how I saw it as a harbinger not of a revolutionary protest movement in our society, but as a reflection of how many people were left with nothing to do in our society. It would be nice if it were a revolutionary protest movement that was burgeoning in our society. Unfortunately, we have all seen too many revolutionary protest movements. We are watching several of them now! Look at Libya, Egypt, Syria. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. A bunch of people get themselves killed and do some killing and you end up with a society that looks a lot like it did before. But the leaders are slightly different and maybe this race or religion or sect has the advantages to lord over the prior victors. There is much to deter a young revolutionary in society today.

To believe in revolution, you have to believe in the future. You have to believe that there is a future worth fighting for. We are getting little stark illustrations all over the place that this is a foolish perspective. There will be a future, surely, in the sense of days that follow this one. No matter how much caves in or how much I lose, that is inevitably clear. But the idea that the right people can be in control, nay, that there even are right people, seems unlikely. And the more people who were raised and brought up to believe in an American dream and a future that was better than their parents' and the mass accumulation of growth and so on and awaken to find the piles of debt and futurelessness waiting for them, the more people they are likely to go out and shoot.

I probably shouldn't put in print that I understand that frustration and powerlessness of mass-shooters. I am a pacifist, of course, and abhor violence of all kinds, and am in no way trying to justify or vindicate the actions of James Holmes or anyone like him. But I get the idea of the world being so backwards and upside-down that only an absurdist and horrific reaction seems fair or justified. I have felt this way in my life sometimes and am very grateful to my pacifism for keeping me from stockpiling weapons. I know that some of you are probably surprised (there it is again!) to see me writing this, but I think you are not necessarily checking in with yourself sufficiently if so. Look inward, my friend. Have you never felt that kind of anger and despair?

This society is manufacturing anger and despair at an incredible rate right now. We've been over why, this worship of the magical "Economy", and we've even been over how it manifests when people only turn the proverbial gun on themselves, most recently. As my friend and debater Kurt Falk often tells me, I should be the entertainment at children's birthday parties. His idea for fixing all this is in his most recent post, where he joins Kurt Vonnegut (in Palm Sunday, just finished today, certainly influencing the style of this post) in advocating that we have new rites of passage for American youth, bar mitzvahs or quinceañeras for a culture unmoored. It's a good idea. It used to be that graduating from high school was our culture's adulthood commemoration ceremony. But now there is no real adulthood to be reached. In the sense of independence, of self-sufficiency, of freedom to make informed decisions, our newly minted adults are as bankrupt as someone with six figures of student loan debt. And just like those folks, they can't file it and start over.

So they shoot people, don't they? I guess that's a little oversimplified, but that looks to be the size of it. Apparently Mr. Holmes is walking down the corridors pretending to be the Joker or some other masked movie villain (get it?), but I'm sure he was perfectly sane when he spent meticulous hours buying guns on the Internet or laying tripwires across his apartment. He did the math. He was good at it. He realized that he had no future, that the people of America who were being distracted to death had no future, and he tried to illustrate that. All the way down to the six-month-old and the six-year-old who were apparently watching one of the most violent franchises in movie history after midnight.

I am not trying to glorify this scumbag or turn him into some sort of dark anti-hero (I'll leave that to Hollywood). But I am trying to dissent from the media chorus singing about the senseless unpredictable shock of all this. It's perfectly predictable and it has a kind of logic. Michael Moore did much the same treatment of Columbine in his masterpiece movie Bowling for Columbine, which we should all probably go rewatch. Part of his thesis was that kids growing up in the shadow of defense contracting, preached to about how the country they're supposed to love solves all its problems through violence, will occasionally take this environment seriously. And respond in kind. People are all agog about what's wrong with Colorado when Michael Moore already told you. To be fair, Holmes did hail from San Diego, one of the biggest military cities in the country aside from those found in Colorado. When we have a society filled with people who play a little video game attached to real drones that blow up real people, how shocked can we be that disgruntled broke teens or twenty-somethings from the new Lost Generation walk into a movie and emulate the solutions found on-screen and in real life?

What no one seems to realize is that you need to do something with these people. I don't mean to sound pejorative when I say "these people" - many of them are my closest friends and confidants. I coach them, I talk with them, I worry about the very concept of a future around them. They need things to do. They have active minds and have been raised on poisonous dreams about growth and accumulation. They need to put their mind to something other than disappointment, despair, and the soulless thresher we call "The Economy".

Many would suggest a war. I have no doubt that's one plan being hatched in the corporations funding the Obama/Romney campaign. A nice big war to sweep everyone into the old employer of last resort. You wouldn't even need a draft, you'd just have it de facto. I'm sure a land invasion of Iran or North Korea would keep many hundred-thousands of a Lost Generation occupied and out of the way. The legend is that this is what saved America from the Depression, what saved the Baby Boomers from totally overwhelming the system in the sixties. There's little doubt that part of the lack of enthusiasm to really make jobs and work for the youth of our society has to do with making the incredibly unappealing military look a little more enticing.

I, of course, would never suggest a war, any more than I would advocate you going down to your local movie theater and shooting up six-year-olds. They are the same thing. Only in a war, more six-year-olds die. Usually more horribly, more painfully.

I would suggest make-work programs. We certainly have things that need fixing. Let's build a free wireless Internet network for the whole nation. Yes, even rural North Dakota and Alaska. That would require some people, wouldn't it? Give them room and board and a college-like camaraderie, a little spending cash (so they can - gulp - see a movie), maybe access to a shared fleet of cars on weekends. Let's build some high-speed rails so we can take all these dangerous overpriced gas-guzzling trucks off the road. Let's build some solar and wind plants. I know, I know, it would require a total resignation from the very concept of The Economy. It would mean government was actively putting corporations out of work, and some of their employees too, and treating the youth of America with dignity and respect and like they're people who can do things. Heaven forbid.

But what are your alternatives? These people are going to be on the dole one way or the other. There aren't jobs, there aren't opportunities, and everyone in The Economy is doing their damnedest to make sure there are fewer jobs and fewer opportunities to come. I guess you can repeal minimum wage and make everyone punch each other in the nose for a scrap of bread you throw from the tower at midnight, but these people are increasingly going to leverage their debt and take matters into their own hands. And they'd have to believe in a future to make a revolution. If all they believe in is despair, then you get Aurora or Columbine or Virginia Tech. You get little dark knights everywhere, believing they are extolling some kind of neo-nihilism with every bullet, not realizing governments cornered that market with wars centuries ago.

I envisioned this post a long time before there was a movie theater shooting, and it was going to be about another kind of object lesson, back to the theme of learning about myself. It was about the fact that I bought a new coffee maker I didn't need a few months ago and haven't had the heart to set it up and replace the old one.

The old one looks like this:



I won it at the Yale tournament in the spring of 2002. They gave out useful or fun objects like rice cookers and Gameboys and coffee makers with the budget they would have spent on shiny trophies. I actually initially took the rice cooker at Emily's behest, but quickly swapped it for a more practical (for me) coffee maker with Steph Tatham, who'd won some lower award. The thing has worked perfectly for a decade. It's a relic of an American era of making machines that lasted, even though it didn't come from that era at all. I've probably had six-thousand or so cups of coffee out of this thing. It still worked perfectly this morning.

My intent was to replace it with this model that I got at Target for like twenty bucks:



It shouldn't take much imagination to see why I picked this out. The color is like the font of this page, the color I would pick for nearly all objects out of a pantheon of a thousand hues. It has a timer so that it will brew the coffee for me and have it ready when I blearily awaken at six in the morning to go to a tournament or fulfill some other wakeful task of existence. It is in every way perfect. Whereas the old one is dingy, off-white, wearing the stains of thousands of brews, incredibly simple in its design. It doesn't even have digital numbers! In an era where you can't dry your hands in public without interfacing with a motion-sensor, holding on to this thing is as old-fashioned as not having a cell-phone (I'm coming up on two years with a cell-phone!).

And yet I can't seem to make the transition, to get rid of the old thing. It was free. It has served me so loyally for so long. It still works.

I am such a bad capitalist.

Or maybe, to borrow a phrase, I'm just committed to commitment.

Maybe we just need to take everyone in the Lost Generation and have them paint our coffee makers. Have them fan out in the neighborhoods, house by house, and ask what everyone would like updated or changed or painted or retooled so that life feels new and fresh again. So that it feels like there's a future that's not just austerity and decline. So that people can feel like a rich person without actually being decadent or aspiring to buy and sell people.

That kind of house-by-house work sure beats the hell out of what that phrase is being used for in Afghanistan right now.

Labels: 2012 presidential election, Economy, Guest columns, Politics, public protest, thought

The Clarion Content subscribes to the 538's electoral forecasts. They indicate President Obama has a good chance of retaining his throne regardless of what happens in Appalachia. Nobody seriously believes Obama is going to pick up any states in region that he did not win in 2008. But a lot of folks are wondering what his unpopularity there means and where it comes from; the Clarion Content finds this an interesting question, because it is our view that there is bit of a microcosm brewing in the Appalachian tempest that may be a harbinger of some white behaviors to come in a country heading toward a majority brown skinned peoples.

Here are a couple of takes that stir the surface of the question.

The Economist examines why people who identify as Democrats voted against Obama in droves in the Appalachian region's presidential primaries.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in the Atlantic, takes on the underlying dynamics behind trying to bracket off Obama's race from the "other" reasons he is opposed in Appalachia.

Labels: 2012 presidential election, facing race, Politics

Binge viewing victim

If you have Netflix or own a DVR cable box, you probably already know from the title of this article what it is about, binge viewing is fairly self-explanatory. It will probably sound like a Stone Age myth to the Millennials' children that we once had to wait a week for a new episode of a television show to come out.

Already the way Netflix and the DVR let us consume television programs has altered habits of both the viewers and the creators of TV shows. The Walls Street Journal notes, "In 2009, Netflix members would watch an average 4.5 episodes per week of a serialized show. Now they watch 6.1 episodes per week, an increase of 38%." Binging as a way of watching television is on the increase.

This is going to drastically alter the revenue model for television programming.¹ The WSJ again, "Bingeing breaks habits that have long supported the TV business, built on advertising and syndicated reruns. TV executives are torn by the development: gratified that people are gorging on their product, frustrated because it's a TV party that all-important advertisers aren't invited to."

The bad news is this probably means more blurring of the line between storytelling content and advertising, much like the trend with the product placement we have seen in the movies.


Notes
¹(and already is)

Labels: Pop Culture, television

Rappers Won't Clock-out: Why Hip-hop is No Longer Timeless

by: Mimi Mendouga

courtesy of: the East Side Perspective

The East Side Perspective, a Clarion Content partner, is an up and coming sports and music website published in Chapel Hill.

For more great articles from the East Side Perspective, check here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past few years, it’s that hip hop is not dead. And if it ever was, we’re definitely experiencing something like an Easter period. Thanks to the emergence of artists like Wale, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and many more it may be safe to put the entire debate to rest.

For now, hip-hop is well and alive. But I’d like to raise a greater woe. Correct me if I’m wrong, but hear me out first. It’s been a while since hip-hop has been timeless. And if you ask me, the mix tape revolution is to blame for it.

By timeless I mean just that. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment it started happening, but songs have begun developing a “sell by” date--–like what



you see on the milk containers. It’s an unfortunate phenomenon that retired and dead rappers from eras like Big Pun’s, and the Beastie Boys’ are fortunately sheltered from.

When I say mixtape revolution – I’m talking about the moment when mixtapes stopped being a means to establish street buzz before the mainstream sting, and started being a way for established artists to stay relevant and milk their success of the moment. (*See Lil' Wayne). It also became an approach for new or aspiring artists to push through the boundaries that exist when you aren't financially backed by a big-time record label.

So what happens after a song’s sell by date? Nothing. Just like a gallon of milk, you can still drink it, you just probably won’t find it in stores, or in this case, the radio; and it’s more than likely that by then, you, as well as the store have replaced it. You can still listen to it – enjoy it even, but you know it won’t be around much longer.

Meanwhile, the music industry and rising artists everywhere have pumped out a flood of new projects, which you, as a music lover, are required to stay on top of.

Ultimately, artists are fighting to stay relevant by producing and putting out more and more music. The consequence? Songs reach their sell-by date fairly quickly, and are drowned out by new material. Not only are we, the consumers, given less time to enjoy and process the music; but, the fear of fading-out puts pressure on artists to keep releasing new music to stay afloat – sometimes sacrificing quality.

My point is, the music industry has become the music factory. Rappers are using an ‘economies of scale’ approach to music production–--and we’re all losing in the process. The mixtape industry is the new Wal-Mart of hip-hop, where artists routinely put other businesses, meaning artists, out of business; offering us an overwhelming quantity in exchange for durability. In other words, yeah sometimes we get good music, but it’s forgotten the second we get something else.




Quick scenario. You’re going down the highway, and the DJ starts playing Drake’s “Best I Ever Had.” Fifty bucks says you’re now stale-facing the radio, and probably upset that you have yet to hear him play the newest Kendrick. Not necessarily because one is better than the other – but because let’s face it, the song is old.

Would you be thinking the same thing if Dr. Dre and Snoop’s, “Let Me Ride” came on? Won’t your children recognize Biggie’s “Big Poppa” before recognizing Rick Ross’ “Blowin’ Money Fast”? Both were hits of equal magnitude in their era, though I bet you’d forgotten the latter until I brought it up. Today’s music is coming at us like baseballs out of a pitching machine in a batting cage. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. We just don’t have the time to appreciate the last hit before we are supposed to be ready for the next.

I digress. Don’t get me wrong. Mixtapes can be a great tool, specifically for upcoming artists. They can be a rapper’s resume and an opportunity to practice and present an organized body of work. But the overwhelming number to which we’re exposed takes away from the time we have to appreciate them – something that usually leads to being able to enjoy the music equally, if not more, later in life.

Just this year 50 Cent has released two mixtapes and is releasing an album. That’s roughly thirty-five songs from one person, in one year. Excluding features. Why? I’m a huge 50 Cent fan, I've listened to both tapes thoroughly… and remember two songs.

I’m not suggesting we kill mixtapes altogether. I’m just wishfully thinking and hoping artists scale back on quantity, focus only on quality, so we – the fans – can have durability. Don’t sell out to meet the sell by date, and stop give us more than we can handle. Otherwise your music is sure to spoil.

Labels: Durham, Eastside Perspective, Guest columns, music, Pop Culture

Long time readers know how the Clarion Content has a hankering for good guest columnists whenever and where ever we can get one. In fact, we are getting ready to introduce two such features when we debut the new blog format.

We will be running a "Vox Populi" reader submitted column, on any topic you would like. Amaze, delight, shock our audience. We dare you. And similarly, we will be accepting your Durham picture submissions for a special regular feature.

Our guest writer, today, is a fiction raconteur who fancies this popular new format of the moment, called flash fiction. A brief bit of razzle-dazzle and you're done is their modus operandi, super short fiction.

In this piece, our guest author has seized upon one of the Clarion Content's favorite topics, baseball. A flash fiction piece about baseball in the future, we know, we know, you all are already probably thinking: no umpires, electronic scorekeeping, et cetera. This author strikes out in a totally different direction.




Did You See Me Catch that Foul Ball?
by: A. I. Wright

I work for a company that sells clips of people who catch foul balls. They make good money.

We have the interns record and then electronically mark the telecast of every Major League Baseball game each time a fan catches a foul ball and their face is visible for at least two seconds. Surveys have shown most people won't buy unless their face is on for two seconds.

Then, thanks to some excellent facial recognition software and a little data mining deal with one of the big secondary ticket broker sites, pennies per name, we are able to email them an offer to purchase the clip. We will upload it on-line to our site, licensed by MLB, for one fee or we will email them a video file for a slightly larger fee.

You would be amazed how many foul balls there are in fifteen Major League Baseball games a night. Unfortunately, on a lot of them, we don't get the money shot. Next year, we are not only going to get the telecast feed, but the game film from all the other camera angles, too. It should double or triple the available number of clips, and thus revenue.

Cha-ching.

The sublime part is most people don't even ask these days how you connected the foul ball footage to their email address to make them the offer. And ninety-eight percent of those that do ask, we are able to put off with a simple, "Your tickets."

What a wonderful world.

Labels: fiction, Guest columns, technology

"Bring It Home" Pop-up exhibition

The exhibition "Bring It Home" features the two drawing series inspired by Catherine J. Howard's recent experiences in South Africa. Each series features small individual drawings, that, when placed together in a group, form larger images exploring the nature of “belonging” and “community.”

Her experiences in the townships of South Africa also prodded her to revise how she distributes her art. If beauty belongs to and should be shared by all of us, regardless of background, beliefs, or economic status, then artists should not limit the ownership of their work to people with “disposable” income.

And so, for this exhibition, all of the individual drawings will be available to own on a donate-what-you-can basis. If you love it, if it brings you joy, then you should have it.

"Bring It Home" will only be on display for two days, today and tomorrow, so stop in early to stake claim to your part of the art!

Copies of Catherine’s two sketchbooks created during her residency in South Africa, “A Warm Space to Disappear” and “New Home: Observations from Khayelitsha,” will also be available for purchase.

Only on display at 320 West Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC (the building under renovation across the street from the Post Office).

Friday, July 20, 2012 from 6-10 PM and Saturday, July 21, 2012 from 12-4 PM.

More examples of Catherine’s artwork are available at www.catherinejhoward.com. For more information, contact her at chowardbc09@gmail.com or 336-607-4604.

Labels: Art, Durham, Pop Culture

Music, pizza and free local brew are on tap at the History Hub’s first Open House from 6-10pm on Friday, July 20. The Durham Museum is located at #500 W. Main Street. The doors will be flung open to the public for the first time. So if you are out and about or heading downtown for Durham Art Walk's Third Friday you have a chance to wander through new, life-size exhibit renderings.

The folk duo, Quiet the Voices, will perform under the gazebo in Central Park, and friends of the Clarion Content, the Pie Pushers will be selling pizza. Word is the Museum will offer visitors light munchies and a free beer.

Ceiling-hung renderings of proposed exhibits and installations will be on display to prompt feedback and ideas. “We’re in a building stage right now,” said Hub co-director Katie Spencer, “and we’re gathering friends, feedback and funds to get our doors ready to open early next year. We couldn’t think of a better way to get started than to throw a party.”

Labels: Art, Durham, Pop Culture

Liberty Arts, Durham's renown non-profit artist collaborative, sculpture studio, and foundry is hosting a guest artist for Durham's 3rd Friday Art Walk, July 20th.

The artist, Jessica Bradsher, is a graduate in fine arts and sculpture from East Carolina University and an art teacher at Jordan High School in Durham. She was recently awarded the David Greene Teaching Award for designing a steel sculpture for public display at Jordan High School.

Ms. Bradsher is building the big outdoor project, that will eventually be installed at C.E. Jordan High School, at the Liberty Arts' Sculpture Studio, #923 Franklin Street Durham in the Cordoba Center for the Arts right now!



Interactive Sculpture "Heart" by Jessica Bradsher


She will be on hand to discuss her project as part of Liberty Arts 3rd Friday open studio and gallery, 5.30pm-9pm, July 20th. You can come and check out the progress she is making and also see more of her recent work on display. As well as work from all the fabulous Liberty Arts artists in their gallery.

Labels: Art, Durham, Pop Culture

The first annual Durham Fashion Show is happening this Thursday evening at MotorCo. In true Durham style, it is a collaborative effort, organized by Durham's dtownMARKET founder, Kala Wolfe. Thursday's fashion show, dubbed, "reFashioned," features six local clothing designers, four local graphic clothing lines, along with local hairstylists, photographers, and DJ's, including the evening's MC the Real Laww, and to top it all off, forty-two, local models. It promises to be a spectacular showcase.¹

There is not only a Fashion show at MotorCo Thursday evening, but after the show ends, attendees will be able to purchase clothing and accesories from all of the participating designers and clothing lines in MotorCo's Garage.

At the same time, the main hall morphs into a dance party when the fashion show ends featuring DJ Queen Plz and DJ Birdgherl. And you know it wouldn't be Durham, if there weren't a few food trucks.




The Clarion Content had an opportunity to catch up with Kala Wolfe, the organizer and head of the Durham Fashion Show, "reFashioned," for a few questions about how this all came together.


When did you think of the idea of a Durham fashion show?

Oh, wow, I think first thought of a smaller version of what we are doing with the Durham Fashion Show, “reFashioned” way back in November.


How did it come about initially?

It came about mostly because of the art and design I was seeing come through at the art market that I organize, dtownMARKET. A large percentage of the pieces that local artists bring to the market are made from discarded, found, or repurposed materials. Basically most of the art is made of "refashioned" materials; some of which is purely visually beautiful, and some of which is practical and functional.

I was seeing amazing talent, fantastic output, in so many forms. I was seeing really interesting fashion and design pieces coming through as well. This appealed to me because:

I believe that the art and design that you surround yourself with, including your personal style, say a lot about you.

It gives you confidence, and fosters a sense of self. However, I also have strong feelings about the environmental impacts of consumerism, and so fashion and design pieces that are made from discarded or second-hand items or from carefully sourced materials are a fantastic alternative to mainstream/industrial fashion.

It's a sort of slow-fashion concept that mirrors the slow-food movement, and I think it can thrive in this area with the right attention brought to our local designers.


How did you decide to do the dtownMarket initially?

Initially I organized the first dtownMARKET because I wanted to have a very relaxed and fun environment where I could sell my vintage clothing collection. So I put the word out to local artist and creative types, surrounded myself with really amazingly gifted people, and held the first dtownMARKET in Duhram last May.


How has that gone?

Well it's been over a year now and we are still holding dtown twice a month, on 1st and 3rd Sundays, at MotorCo Music Hall. Recently we added a third event at Moshi Moshi Salon in Durham during Third Friday Art Walk, which has been great. I accept new vendors all of the time, and we have a great rotating roster of fun and artistic, creative folks.


How has it been working with so many Durham collaborators?

This is absolutely the best part about organizing these events! I get to meet, and get to know so many artists in Durham and all over the Triangle. Everyone here loves being a part of creative projects and if they don't know how to get something done, they know someone who does. I have so many wonderful people working extremely hard behind the scenes to make reFASHIONED happen, and I can't wait to show them all off on the 19th!


Notes
¹Full disclosure, the Clarion Content is one of the co-sponsors of the event, along with a host of other Durham luminaries from The Scrap Exchange to Cocoa Cinnamon, Net Friends and more.

We are delighted to have provided any and all the networking and support we could. The event is going to be great.

It would be unjust if we did not note, that is due in no small part to the efforts of the redoubtable Cady Childs, who not only has a line of clothing in the event, but has ably served to help the event's founder Kala Wolfe coordinate this multifaceted evening.

Labels: Durham, Fashion, music, Pop Culture

Little slices of Twitter... Our Tweets of the week.

Real quotes from real tweeters. We love to peak behind the curtain. Some of these Tweets are PG-13 or even R. All of them keep it real. Easily offended, click here.

All spelling is that of original authors. Any links embedded belong to the impish elves in the Clarion Content's Broad Street offices.




'all the kids who came over yesterday were so well behaved, and then there was you' -my mom---J

I feel like social network sites are just one big popularity contest...---KK

Ramen is my drug---V

Ugh. Tried to listen to the new Maroon 5 album. Washing my ears out with the Black Keys. #grossedout #pop #whathappened ---A

I just wish the kardashians would adopt me already.---T

Labels: humor, Pop Culture, twitter

Did you miss the Bull City Soul Revival 2012?

Even with all the heads up we gave you?

Lucky for you somebody made a highlight video of the event.

Be patient there is a minute long commercial at the start, but past that some amazing Durham documentary footage.

Labels: Durham, facing race, music, Pop Culture

The Clarion Content ran across a fascinating article in the New York Times recently about the nature of new, American middle class jobs.¹

Since reading Jerermy Rifkin's prescient² and controversial The End of Work more than ten years ago, we have understood that there is an upheaval coming for the American workforce. We are in the middle of that massive, uncomfortable shift right now. And perhaps it is not affecting 99% of the country, but there surely is a goodly chunk of folks who are feeling the socio-economic ground tremble and shift beneath their proverbial feet.


Maybe one day they let Rifkin out of the basement where they are keeping Paul and Anne Erlich...

Here is what the New York Times wrote, June 30th:

Personal training requires many of the skills and qualities of the new typical middle-class American job: it is a personal service that cannot be automated or sent offshore, that caters to a wealthier client base and that is increasingly subsidized (in this case, by employers and insurance companies).

But as people with such jobs have found, the pay is low. Unlike the clock-in-and-clock-out middle-class jobs of the past, personal service occupations have erratic hours, require entrepreneurial acumen and offer little job security.

“The kind of job where you come in and work 9 to 5, and where someone tells you what to do all day is becoming scarcer and scarcer,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economics professor at M.I.T. and co-author of Race Against the Machine, a book about how automation is changing the job market. “The kind of job where you have to hustle and hustle and where you’re not sure whether you will have enough clients next month, where you have less job security, is becoming much more common.”

For personal trainers, the median hourly wage is less than $15. Because they have to find clients and set up their businesses, trainers must be flexible, adapting to client schedules and physical abilities, as well as the availability of exercise machines and accommodating weather.

They must also be able to engage with all sorts of personalities — precisely the skills that help keep these jobs around while others are replaced by algorithms.

“Knowing how to keep someone motivated and how to keep a connection are skills humans have learned and evolved over hundreds of thousands of years,” Professor Brynjolfsson said. “A robot can’t figure out whether you can do one more push-up, or how to motivate you to actually do it.”

Notes
¹Truth be told, one of our twitterers sent us this way, and we would give credit where credit is due, if we could only remember whom it was. Speak up, if it was you!

²Not that we believe every word of crazy old Uncle Jeremy...but its like the best tall tales, fables or ghost stories, there is a nugget of truth or a lesson at the core.

Labels: economics, Politics

This is what makes Rand Paul an interesting politician...

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is a different breed of politician because he calls out realities blithely ignored by the talking heads on both sides of the aisle.

Agree or disagree with him on his litany of policy positions, he is a check on the Nation's Constitutional conscience.

Two examples in the last month:

Last week Congress introduced and proposed to vote on a six hundred page bill within the same forty-eight hours. The Senate voted 72-22 to waive the rule requiring a 48-hour layover for legislation to be digested. As Senator Paul put it, "For goodness sakes, this is a 600-page bill. I got it this morning."

Paul then proceeded to put his proverbial senatorial caja where his mouth was, proposing legislation that would force the Senate to give its members one day to read bills for every 20 pages they contain.

A reality check.

A week or two earlier Paul had called out his own party's candidate for imperial overreach when Mitt Romney dictatorially declared that he could unilaterally take the country to war with Iran, without the prior consent of Congress.¹ Senator Paul slapped him down,

"I must oppose the most recent statements made by Mitt Romney in which he says he, as president, could take us to war unilaterally with Iran, without any approval from Congress...This is a misreading of the role of the President and Congress in declaring war.

Unfortunately, Senator Paul is running even more of a solitary course² in this, than he is in actually expecting Senators to read the legislation they pass.

Click here for a fascinating analysis from Doug Mataconis on Outside the Beltway.

How much does Mataconis think Paul's opinion will shift Romney's stance?

Hint: "during the GOP primary fight the only candidates who deviated from the neo-conservative aggressiveness that Romney is demonstrating now were Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Gary Johnson, and we know how the voters treated them..."


Notes

¹Our own reality check forces us to recognize Presidents have been ignoring this rule since at least the Kennedy administration.
²A pessimist would say perhaps only Kucinich, the Maxine Waters faction in House of Representatives and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont would hold with Senator Paul when the chips were down.

Labels: 2012 presidential election, Ethically questionable, Politics

The Clarion Content had the opportunity this weekend to listen to renown personal development and leadership trainer Dennis Gaddy speak. Mr. Gaddy came on a Saturday on his own time, like three folks have before him and four more will after him,¹ to address a group of nearly a hundred young men.

These men participate in the DBL, a free Durham youth basketball league, the brainchild of local community organizer, Otis Lyons. Regular readers are familiar with this story, the twelve to sixteen year-old ballers in this league have to attend these educational workshops or they don't play in that week's games.



Mr. Gaddy dished out some knowledge to these young souls, who whether they are know are not, are facing a reality that says it is extremely unlikely that even one of them earns their living playing basketball professionally. While Mr. Gaddy used some basketball analogies to reach them, it was patently clear to this observer that he knew this hard truth. The five keys to a gameplan that wins were applicable to a far bigger stage than the basketball court.


1) You will become what you think about

Sounds simple enough. But what if you play violent videogames on the console all day and watch the latest viral hits on Youtube all night? What if you listen to music with dehumanizing, abrasive, negative lyrics and stereotypes for hours on end?

What is your mind dwelling on?

Mr. Gaddy coached these men that the mind is a garden and one reaps what one sows.

It makes perfect sense to your Clarion Content correspondent, how does one become a good basketball player (beyond pre-existing talents) or how does one hone one's skills at anything one loves from woodworking to playing the violin to writing iambic pentameter sonnets?? By living, breathing, and thinking on it all day.

Mr. Gaddy, his voice dropping another register, warned the impressionable minds, "It is happening all the time. You will become what you think about, what you surround yourself with, regardless of your intentions, you will reap what you have sown."

We believe, Mr. Gaddy. We believe.


2) A set of goals

Have a vision. Write it down. Literally.² Say it every day. Aloud. Those familiar with mantras will understand the formulation. Express the change you wish to be.

Aye, Mr. Gaddy, we believe. We believe.



3) Have a good attitude

A positive mental attitude goes a long way, further than one even realizes, would be the summary here. Your correspondent also already subscribes to this one. This is interrelated with the first key, as Mr. Gaddy noted. If you are what you think about; you are positive or negative in corresponding measure.

It rains a lot? Are you going to be down every time it does? Who can you call about the weather is one of the Clarion Content's favorite old saws... Mr. Gaddy noted, continuing his garden analogy, what you plant in other people is what they give back. Treat them as a default option like they are somebody and they are more likely return that grace and respect.³

Mr. Gaddy, playing to his audience, did a quick segue through the importance of politeness and the signifiers thereof, on his Yes list; please, excuse me, my fault, thank you, you're welcome... on the No list; yeah, uh-huh, what and um. Call us old-fashioned if you will, but we believe, Mr. Gaddy, it serves young people well to hear this explicitly.


4) Have character and integrity

Seemingly tricky concepts to sum up for a group of adolescents, Mr. Gaddy boiled it down to 'who are you when nobody is looking.' If you are true to yourself and your word, you only have to remember one story, the truth. Do what you say you are going to, he continued, have accountability, pairing the concept and the definition neatly. This means follow-through, again, even if if nobody is watching at the moment it happens, do it anyway. Do what you said you would. The little things get noticed.

Here Mr. Gaddy brought the boys back to basketball, do you know who does the little things on the court on your team, he asked, presumably meaning running back on defense, getting hands in the passing lane, making the extra pass.

Do you know who else does?

He reminded these young men about their coaches. How come they know your game, he queried. He talked about the importance of mentors and what it means to be too close to one's self and the process to sometimes see what one is doing. He explained how one has to be open to it to have a mentor and one has to actively respect a teacher to best learn from them. He articulated how those observers and those leaders can help mold people, if we listen, if we approach with the right attitude; with positivity and integrity, his hands chopping the air with passion.

Believers, your correspondent and the young men present, nodded and murmured.


5) Read

It sounds simple enough, but as Mr. Gaddy noted, fewer and fewer people are reading these days. Your correspondent had just heard the very same thing days earlier, about no less a select group than NC State engineering students.

But Mr. Gaddy would not hear of it. (pun intended)

Readers are leaders, he told the group. He said that in the modern world the single most likely characteristic that people who make it to the "top" share was a predilection for reading. Reading might not guarantee achieving, but a lack of reading skills could spell disaster. Mr. Gaddy told us that less than 3% of people literally write out their goals.

If you simply take your goals, your plans and put pen to paper, you are a top three percenter, he said.

It was the optimal mix of inspiring stuff and useful knowledge poured into these young minds. We were glad to be there to witness it.



Dennis Gaddy is the Executive Director of the Community Success Initiative (CSI), a non profit organization that was created out of a desire to fill a need to see personal growth and development, and leadership principles become a recognized strategy for achieving success in the lives of everyday people, with an emphasis on men and women who are transitioning from prison and jail.


Notes

¹The speakers at these workshops so far have included, Superior Court Judge Ellen Bushfan, on "The Law and You." Principal Martina Dumsford aka Coach "D" delivered the message "Education is not Optional" and league founder Otis Lyons spoke on gangs and gang violence.

²If you have been to the Clarion Content offices, you know we already subscribe to this one. We are animals too, like the horse with the carrot, post your goals and dreams within your sight and look at them every day, it will drive you. (Possibly we got this one from Mr. Gilbreth?)

³While a cynic might call b.s. here, all but the most hardened Hobbesian, would have to concede the contrapositive: treating people disrespectfully, like they are less than somebody, makes them likely to return that treatment in kind. Or as one might say, in the vernacular, "If you wants some, bring it on, Muthableeper."

Labels: Durham, Practical Advice, thought

The Top 5 NBA Free Agents

by: STEPHEN VARNUM

courtesy of: the East Side Perspective

The East Side Perspective, a Clarion Content partner, is an up and coming sports and music website published in Chapel Hill.

For more great articles from the East Side Perspective, check here.


Sleeper Pick: Brandon Roy

Before I count down the top five free agents, I had to put Roy in the mix. Prior to his knees blowing up, along with just about every other part of his body over the past two years, this guy was largely considered to be the one of the best players in the NBA. Heck, even Meta Ron-Ron said he was the hardest player to guard in the NBA, over players like Lebron and Kobe. This guy use to be one of my favorite players, and I expect him to have a GREAT NBA comeback, similar to Grant Hill's comeback.¹




1. Deron Williams, G, Brooklyn Nets:

Clearly the best player in the modest free agent class of 2012. Fortunately for any team named the Nets or the Mavericks, Deron Williams is on the market. Williams is a 3-time All-Star looking to put the pieces back together after getting blindsided by a trade in 2011. A BIG point guard capable of scoring and making plays for others, he's the one true star in this class who is in the prime of his career. He's one of the best point guards in the league and will dramatically increase the win total for either the Nets or Mavs.




2. Eric Gordon, G, New Orleans Hornets:

Gordon sat out a vast majority of the 2011-12 season with a knee injury, but his ability to score and shoot will command a maximum salary offer (or close to it). Sources are saying that Gordon wants to stay with the Hornets, but depending on how draft day goes and if there any block buster trades, I wouldn't be surprised to see this guy go elsewhere. As a fan, I would love to see him in a Celtics uniform, especially if Ray Allen decides to move to another team.    




3. Steve Nash, G, Phoenix Suns:

Nash is the ultimate professional. He says he doesn't judge his career on rings and says that he would love to end his career with the Suns. Nash, however, will at least test the market as an unrestricted free agent, facing a difficult decision: Do I want to remain loyal like a Kobe or Paul Pierce? Unfortunately, he won't win a championship that way, as Suns owner Robert Sarver is committed to running the team into the ground. Or shall I take my talents elsewhere, and join a team ready to make a run at the finals? He's 38 years old, so the decision needs to be made soon.²




4. KG, F, Boston Celtics:

The 36 year-old power forward is a free agent again. The perennial All-Star, Garnett, was moved to the center position as the Celtics were hit with a slew of injuries in 2011-12. He excelled as a result during the regular season and he posted consistent 20 points and 10 rebounds in the playoffs and had Boston within one win of an appearance in the 2012 NBA Finals. The only teams involved with KG will be the Celtics and Father Time.




5. Roy Hibbert, C, Indiana Pacers:

Free agency couldn't come at a better time for Hibbert, who had a big stage to shine on during Indiana's postseason run after posting career-best numbers (12.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.0 blocks). The guy will probably see lots of digits on his next paycheck, and those digits are well deserved. This guy has proved me wrong and I wasn't sure if he had this type of talent; touche Hibbert, touche.


Honorable Mention: Ray Allen, Javale McGee, Jason Terry, OJ Mayo, Tim Duncan


Notes

¹The editorial staff isn't buying this one. We expect him to have a comeback a lot like Manny Ramirez's comeback for the A's this year. Roy is done.

²Some folks are trying to play the Canadian card, eh? Convinced that in a fit of patriotic fervor Nash will sign with lowly Raptors. The editorial staff thinks there is an equally good chance he signs with the Tottenham Hotspurs.

Labels: Eastside Perspective, NBA, Predictions, sports

that the famous Magnolia Grill on 9th Street, which closed last month, also used to be the location of a Piggly Wiggly.




a bunch of Duke ballers are in town for Coach K's basketball camp; Nolan Smith, John Scheyer, and more...




that there are tunnels under the Cordoba Center of the Arts...




that Matt Kelly's new tapas place, Mateo's is getting ever closer to open in the old Book Exchange location...




that the building be renovated across from the downtown Durham Post Office is going to be a restaurant and is petitioning to be allowed to have seating in the brick alleyway adjacent...



that Jack Nicklaus hit his first professional drive into a lake...then finished last in the tournament earning $33.33 in prize money.



that The Surf Club and Bull McCabe's are both opening beer gardens this Summer...



that the Kal Fadem exhibit at the Carrack Modern Art was a real hit. #MotorOil



that a Durham is getting an adult Kickball League.



that there will be musical performances on the second floor of the Cordoba Center for the Arts.



that a new farmer's market has opened in South Durham... in the Greenwood Commons Shopping Center, #5410 NC55, Durham, Saturdays year-round from 8AM---12PM



that Watt's Grocery owner Amy Tornquist is opening a bakery on Broad Street.



that over 800 acts applied for The Art of Cool's call for talent for the After Hours Concert Series.

Labels: Durham, heard

Looking for a couple of good sports articles this Sunday morning?

We have got a pair. (NO pun intended.)


Will this man look more familiar one day?


First, how about Tiger Woods playing before the smallest galleries of his professional career? After a tremendous storm passed through Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland Friday night, Saturday's round was played with only essential volunteers and family/entourage members permitted on course. Tiger played in front of less than 100 people. No camera clicking in his backswing yesterday. Third round leader Brendon de Jonge, made a gorgeous birdie on the twelfth, seen by exactly one spectator, fellow player, Hunter Mahan's wife.

Unbelievable. Read the whole story here from the Associated Press.

Our next story is a follow on to our NBA draft coverage. Great job, by the by, from our friends at The Eastside Perspective finding highlights on all the potential first round picks. Here we want to refer to an interesting link discussing the best players not drafted Thursday night.

At the top of Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports list is West Virginia's Kevin Jones, a second-team All-American last season who scored 19.9 pts per game while shooting over 50% from the field and grabbing almost 11 rebounds per game. Pretty darn good, right? NBA scouts labeled him a tweener at 6' 8". He went undrafted.

The player who tops the Clarion Content's list of "Most likely to Succeed" of the undrafted is Scott Machado of Iona. As a senior he averaged 9.9 assists per game on a lowly Iona team and shot over 40% from three-point land. The next Jeremy Lin? Read the whole article here.

Labels: college basketball, golf, interesting links, NBA, sports