Recently in Durham Category
Speaking of banana pudding, I saw that Geer Street Garden offers it on their menu, and I bet it is good. I might give it a try when I go out with the guys tomorrow night.
In other news, we're making a big push to be moved into the "new" house by Saturday evening when Brooklynne's sisters arrive to kick off the summer season of fun. The project left to do are endless, but I find that having a deadline makes me more focused on the essential work. When beach week rolls around in a couple of weeks, I'll have more time to post some before and after shots.
Finally, long-time readers know I'm a wanna be stargazer, so I was glad to see the winning photos from the Earth and Sky photo contest presented by The World at Night. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Wednesday night, some guys convened at the Geer Street Garden for a pint and some time of fellowship. During the course of the conversation, it was noted that Durhamites are perhaps the only people who think it is cool to wear t-shirts featuring the name of the place they live (beside obvious sports franchise references). New Yorkers don't wear New York t-shirts, and people in Cary certainly don't wear Cary t-shirts. We also talked about the recent explosion of eateries, clubs, and music venues cropping up around the city (the Garden being one as well as Full Steam, Bully City Burgers, Motorco, Casbah, etc. etc... I could go on). Myrick Howard of Preservation NC recently declared Durham the "coolest city in NC," but we wondered if the local love of city could sustain so many busninesses all competeing for essentially the same pot of dollars. I won't try to answer that and I'll leave you to ponder the prospects for ODD while watching this video apparently shot by a local band (anyone know them?).
Via David Efird:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word - Disintegration | ||||
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I'm currently working on a history project that has led me to an interesting mystery in Durham lore: what ever happened to the Patterson Mill?
Historic maps, like the one here, show the mill near where Old Chapel Hill Road crosses New Hope Creek (near the current site of Githens Middle School), but according to the folks at the Patterson Country Store, there have been efforts to locate the ruins/wheel, which have all been unsuccessful.
Here's where the Inidana Jones in me comes out.... I think I'm going to take an expedition through the woods along the creek between Old Chapel Hill Road and 15-501. But I need some partners in the venture. Any volunteers to be the Starbuck to my Ahab?
The Blizzard of '09 has arrived! Of course, a blizzard in NC consists of 1 inch of crusty snow, but we'll take what we can get. We let Kona out for a bit and she seemed to enjoy the snow every bit as much as she used to in MT and VA. maybe we can get some video of HJ and Kona playing later.
By the way, if you live in the area and did not get enough snow, you can pick up some extra here.
In other news, the Travis weight loss challenge is progressing well. Despite gorging myself on Greek food Sunday, I lost another 3 pounds this weekend, bringing my two-week total to 9 pounds lost. I think that total is deceiving, because I probably started at +10 pounds from my body's usual equilibrium, thanks to my annual holiday binge, but it's still encouraging to make good progress in the beginning.
I'm also excited about my Steelers' chances in the Superbowl. If I can squeeze $40 out of my Feb. budget, I might make good on my dream of dressing HJ in a Bettis throw-back jersey.
If ARO closes later (rumors are flying), I'll see if I can live-blog the Inaugural events.
Friday, December 5th, Full Steam Brewery will be holding a prospective investor event/party. They are looking for five more $50,000 investors (no investments below $12,500 will be considered) and they are discouraging "tire-kickers," whatever that means.
Full Steam looks like a great project. Their niche is defining a distinctive southern-style beer based on products grown regionally in the US south. If they get enough financing to open a tavern as well, they also plan to push a signature line of savory hand-held pies, called "bullies" after their hometown base of operations--the Bull City.
All in all, I thought the brewery looked like a winning idea with a great team behind it, and I'm a little jealous of the Fullsteam guys for taking on an adventure like this--creating something new and exciting, and making or breaking it on the virtues of their own talent, effort, and desire. Isn't that what work should be? There's something very visceral about that.
You can read about it (or request an invitation to the fundraiser if you're loaded) at the Fullsteam website. Meanwhile, I'll be in my cubical.
Yesterday, I finished working on the historic landmark application for 413 E. Chapel Hill Street. Now all that is left is to go before the HIstoric Preservation Committee and see what kind of recommendation we'll get. This is the first real piece of historic consulting I've done and I really enjoyed it. It actually made me think about doing this for a career instead of continuing to chase the professor life.
I think we have a good case. The building was constructed between 1924 and 1950 (see the 1950 Sanborn map paste-up below), but I think I can point to 1939 as almost certainly the year it was completed. That was the year The Seeman's Printery moved in, which was one of several well-known tenants. Seeman's was a large operation, and the presence of oil and ink from the machines explains the black stains that Evan found all over the wood floors.
There are several points that may justify a historic designation, but to me, the most compelling find was that Seeman's had been the printer of choice for African American factory workers who wrote ballads to sell on the streets for a penny apiece. I think I found some of the originals in the Broadside Verse Collection of Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Archives Library. They had been stored at the printery for years, but at some point Dr. William Boyd (history prof. and director of Duke's libraries) convinced Seeman's to give him the last originals because he found them worthy of preservation.
They disappeared and were forgotten until I stumbled on a mention of them in an oral history recording and got some help from the very friendly library staff at Duke. That's the kind of find that you dream about when you are a budding historian.
I went running again yesterday. That's two days in a row. I did the Pump Station trail again (1.5 miles), which is pretty weak, but you have to start somewhere. Also, the entire run can be done in a half-hour--from the time I walk out of my house, to the time I walk back in. That makes it untra convenient. Last night I went a little too late and in some of the more dense areas of the forest it go hard to see roots and other ankle-injuries-in-waiting. I think I need to plan to be finished by 6pm at the latest for now.
I took Kona with me too. She is a surprisingly good jogging dog. I left her off-leash and she stayed with me the entire time, except once, when she started to chase some small animal. But she immediately stopped and returned as soon as I called (which is not normal behavior for her). I didn't let her swim in the river because I don't plan on bathing her again before the weekend, and it would just be too gross for guests on Wednesday if she was soaked with river water between now and then. Perhaps Friday we'll go swimming/fishing if the weather is still nice....
Do I have any readers who are especially fond of fishing or would like to go sometime?
I just noticed that Eat at Joe's includes a link to this City of Durham webpage announcing free municipal wifi in the five points area. I have no idea of how long this has been available, but it seems like the service has been flying under the radar for some time. I think this is more evidence of the city's good efforts to be progressive and forward thinking, as well as the problems with publicity that the city continues to struggle with. I've never lived in a place that has so many good things, but many of which I only know about long after the fact.
I wonder if the city plans to add more hot spots in the future?
