January 28, 2009
Book Exchange to close Feb. 14
Durham's 'Book Ex' closes Feb. 14
I'll admit, I haven't been there since my friend Jonathan worked there in the early 90's.
Posted by spacegrrl at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
Category: local politicsJune 27, 2008
Disappointing.
Going back into some old podcasts, i found a Diane Rehm Show from 6/24/08 that was all about The Family:
"It's one of the most influential and least well known organizations in the country. The Family, also known as The Fellowship, consider themselves followers of Christ, and individuals responsible for changing the the world. An inside look at the power and history of The Family."
I was pretty excited to listen to it because I had read that Hillary Clinton is a member of The Family. In fact, that was one of the main reasons I became disillusioned with her during her campaign.
But I heard no mention of her during the discussion of The Family. I can't remember the date when she conceded but I think this was prior to that... if so, I can only imagine that they decided in advance not to bring that fact up during the discussion; disappointing, frankly.
There's plenty of disappointment to go around, really. Obama supports supreme court reversal of gun ban
Posted by spacegrrl at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
Category: local politicsMay 17, 2008
things i didn't know about plaster...
...until i went on the cleveland-holloway home tour:
- it's a better insulator than drywall, so houses with plaster stay cooler in summer (if properly ventilated) and warmer in winter
- it has better acoustical properties than drywall.
i had to miss the preservation durham tour this year, so i was quite pleased to be able to take a tour. C-H was really inspiring. i don't know if j and i will ever be in a position to renovate a house that has to be taken down to the studs (or close), and then there's the fact that i'm kind of lazy and unfocused, but there's still a part of me that would so love to do that.
Posted by spacegrrl at 04:02 PM | Comments (1)
Category: local politicsMay 06, 2008
vote! vote! vote!
like a baby stoat!
Voted this morning before work-- my polling place is always pretty low key. I was voter 200-and-something at around 9:15am. I was in and out in ten minutes.
Obama was at Blue Coffee in downtown Derm yesterday standing rounds of pound cake for everyone. A couple of photos made it up to the Durham, NC Pool on Flickr.
My buddy Sarah is a poll worker today; if you happen to vote at her polling place please bring her some iced tea! She has to stay there from 6am until the votes are counted tonight.
Posted by spacegrrl at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
Category: local politicsJanuary 04, 2008
round houses!!
today endangered durham profiles the round houses!
i heart those little round houses so. i've always wondered what they look like inside.
Posted by spacegrrl at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)
Category: local politicsApril 20, 2007
the one endangered durham entry you must read
if you don't like having old houses and other historic structures being torn down by the city, you should strongly consider at least reading this entry, and even better, going to the city council meeting on tuesday, may 1st at 6pm.
endangered durham is more persuasive than i am.
will i go to the meeting? i hope so? i should, but i very rarely do anything scheduled at 6pm on a weeknight due to my work schedule.
Posted by spacegrrl at 09:36 PM | Comments (1)
Category: local politicsApril 05, 2007
Digging the local scene
While I no longer qualify-- even remotely-- as a local scenester, I still use the internet to monitor its goings-on.
to wit:
What: Scene of the Crime Rovers play the Durham Farmer's Market Opening Day of the 2007 Season
When: 11am
Where: Durham Central Park / Durham Farmers' Market Pavilion
With over 50 vendors you will find a wide selection of fresh, locally
grown produce (including organic), potted plants and herbs, cut
flowers, fresh eggs, locally produced cheeses, honey, preserves, fresh
baked goods, hand-made soaps, photographic cards of NC, sapling trees
and much more. (Fruits and vegetables are seasonal and include only
things that actually grow in North Carolina.)
:|:
alt.music.chapel-hill has been having a lively discussion, the most lively i've seen since... well, since the starlite theater/gun shop conversation, actually, and it's all about the durham "scene". or community, if you prefer. i'm thinking that after i go to the farmer's market, i should check out BCHQ. i've been driving by that godforsaken block every day for the last seven years, and there's actually something cool there now.
:|:
this week the city of durham demolished a house in our neighborhood. a house that was, apparently, well worth saving and renovating, if only it could have been removed from the clutches of its irresponsible owner.. who was, surprise of surprises, james "fireball" white. this is what the city does when it can't get a property away from the wildly irresponsible landlords like white: it tears them down and leaves an empty lot in place of what was once an historic property.
well, endangered durham reports: no longer. after outcry from citizens and other stakeholders, a moritorium on demolition has been called.
i know white isn't the only irresponsible property owner in durham, but it seems like every time we hear about a fucked up situation like this, he's the owner. it's unbelieveable the negative influence this one person has had on our neighborhoods. it's like he has no soul.
Posted by spacegrrl at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)
Category: local politicsNovember 08, 2006
across the street
a very, very small election detail that i noticed.
in my neighborhood, there are two polling places. one for folks who live on one side of Roxboro Ave-- those folks vote at the American Legion outpost. I used to live on that side and vote there, that's how i know.
then when i bought my house i moved to the other side of Roxboro. my polling place changed to the agricultural building.
while i was voting saturday i met two judges running against each other: tracy barley and ann mckown. i didn't much like barley; she came late, she was dressed to the nines with a big fake smile plastered across her face and i got the feeling that after consorting with the unwashed masses she'd be likely to go home and bathe in purell and perrier to get the stink off. mckown i liked better; she seemed very down to earth. i had already chosen her based on reading her statement, anyway, so i was chuffed to see that she's won the race.
reading over the exact numbers from each polling place, though, i noticed something quite extraordinary:
Barley Mckown
0019 American Legion Post #7 415 216
0020 Durham County Agricultura 171 322
Posted by spacegrrl at 12:47 AM | Comments (3)
Category: local politicsNovember 06, 2006
things to do tomorrow...
1) VOTE!!!! (if you haven't already.)
if for no other reason... do it for sarah. she's busting her ass to swing Congress a little farther to the left. And do it for danger_will.
Posted by spacegrrl at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)
Category: local politicsSeptember 08, 2006
endangered durham
an amazing blog sent to me by joe (thanks, joe!)
i found it a little cynical, but the research and the photos of durham from the previous century more than make up for it. his point about the effect of churches on the urban landscape is particularly chilling.
Posted by spacegrrl at 12:10 AM | Comments (2)
Category: local politicsMay 26, 2005
no one was hurt / everyone was hurt
not exactly a great day in durham. there were three cross burnings here last night.
:|:
a member of my family-- who is still alive to tell the tale-- had an encounter with the klan when she was a child in rural alabama.
her father died when she was quite young, and after a while, her mother remarried to a divorced man from another town who worked on the rail lines.
she has happy memories of her stepfather-- not just of the stability he brought to their family, but because he was a happy person, always singing and in a good mood.
then, one day, the klan ran him out of town. why? because he was divorced.
her mother died of TB not long after. she and her brother were left orphaned at a time when few social services existed to care for them. certainly the men who had run her stepfather out of town weren't there to take care of them. they were bounced from an orphanage to various distant family members, some nicer than others.
just a little tale to remind us that the klan are hypocritical bullies who heedlessly ram their ridiculous ideas of morality down the throats of others, at the expense of the community.
i just can't think who they remind me of. it'll come to me.
:|:
and backing up the concept of the klan as little, little men, we have the pants-eye view of the matter, which i particularly like.
i think burning crosses in durham ought to get ya a place in the darwin awards hall of fame.
Posted by spacegrrl at 06:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsNovember 05, 2004
i'm eeeeevil!
a co-worker told me that her father, who lives in cleveland, received the following phone call, at around 6:30pm on Tuesday:
"Please vote. Please vote Republican. We need to keep evil out of our government."
i ran around for the rest of the day saying, "I'm eeeeevil!!" and making little tents with my fingers, a la Monty Burns. or, alternately, little horns with my fingers, on my head, a la the devil.
because, you know, i am.
Posted by spacegrrl at 12:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsNovember 03, 2004
i do not adhere to the strict father model.
i'm totally depressed.
later i am going to write a lot of very specific stuff about why another four years of bush makes me extremely depressed and fearful, which is something i should have been doing all along.
topics to be covered will likely include:
- why a faith based presidency flies in the face of the principles on which our nation was originally founded
- why it is important that women have a right to privacy and control over their own bodies
- why it is deeply offensive and wrong to me for there to be laws that dictate who can and cannot be married.
- why the weapons of mass destruction were a huge red herring, and why we never should have invaded iraq, ever, regardless of whether they had nukes or not.
- why it is extremely dangerous for the US to piss off the entire world. actually, that one is probably self-apparent.
- ...and many more.
stay tuned.
Posted by spacegrrl at 08:54 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsNovember 02, 2004
today is the day we will elect john kerry.
GO TEAM, GO!!!
Posted by spacegrrl at 10:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsOctober 28, 2004
i voted!
however, i didn't use early voting-- i used an absentee ballot. i filled it out last night and d. drove me to the post office today at lunch. i was paranoid about mailing it from work or any other place besides a post office or official blue mailbox. i'm actually pretty paranoid about the mail aspect of the whole thing, but that's not within my control.
i had to get d. and our co-worker charles to sign the envelope and put their full mailing address down, after i signed the envelope too. almost like a notary public thing, except it could be any two people over the age of 18 to serve as witnesses.
i liked voting at home with all my materials in front of me and access to the internet. the mail part i don't like so much.
anyway, i don't get a cute little sticker and therefore no free french fries or anything, but the important thing is that i voted.
after mailing my ballot i hopped back into d.'s car and said, "do you want to exit poll me?!?" we determined that kerry had 100% support in the car, and therefore, he will win.
Posted by spacegrrl at 01:24 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsOctober 27, 2004
should i stay or should i go?
a lot of people talk about moving to canada or some other country should the presidential election go to Bush this year.
it's something i think about, too. another four years of Bush and America will become a strange, deluded world unto itself, where women have no control over their bodies, and everyone who isn't wealthy will be struggling, at best, to make it through their elder years (or just to make it at all). we'll be shunned by the world; perhaps we'll even be attacked again by terrorists. we'll ignore the fact that entire continents are falling into chaos because their populations are being decimated by AIDS, until the chaos laps at our borders. our liberties will continue to be systematically removed in the name of safety and decency; formerly cutting-edge broadcast organizations will become bland wastelands. dissent will be considered morally wrong, as will any religious belief that isn't Christian.
it'll suck.
i'll stay.
i went to a quaker college during the era of south african apartheid. the quakers do a lot of work to bring political refugees to the states, to help them lead safer, better lives. i met a man named gordon who had thick scars across his back where he had been whipped by the police in south africa. he had seen his entire family murdered by the police. i met a man named mojomotse who told the story of finally making it to america, after a harrowing escape from south africa. he said that the day he arrived, he was so excited to be in a country where civil liberties are guaranteed that he accosted a man on the street and recited portions of the bill of rights to him. mojomotse was astounded to be living in a country where the law guaranteed that he'd be treated as an equal with other men, a country where he could express dissent without fear of whipping, arrest, or death.
if we leave, who will hold back the tide of morons who would change that?
Posted by spacegrrl at 09:54 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsFebruary 04, 2004
TTA
dave and i have been trying to carpool lately. me, because i want to reduce the number of miles i put on my car in a year; dave because he hates driving.
out of curiosity, today i decided to see what it would take for us to ride TTA buses from our neighborhood to work.
we would have to take two buses, and catch the first one at 6:45 in the morning. we'd have 5 minutes of leeway to catch the second bus, and if we missed it, we'd be stuck because the next one wouldn't be until 3:15pm.
we'd be riding the bus pretty much straight from 6:45 until 8:35, at which point we'd have to walk to our building from weston pkwy (right across from cary academy, i think)-- something like a 30 minute walk.
incidentally, the TTA site kind of sucks. the bus maps and schedules are extremely poorly presented. of course, it doesn't help that i'm all about Tufte these days-- he'd have a field day with the site. but then, so would just about anyone with an interest in web site usability.
Posted by spacegrrl at 05:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsNovember 17, 2003
jimmy carter in the house!
jimmy carter will be at the regulator this thursday evening
i'm trying to decide if i would actually want to meet him or not. i'm a huge fan, but that doesn't necessarily translate into needing to meet him.
Posted by spacegrrl at 04:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsNovember 03, 2003
vote/radio
a) please vote tomorrow
b) i'll be on the air tomorrow from 8-10pm ET at wxdu, 88.7fm in durham, nc. playlist will be here, updated live while i am on the air.
Posted by spacegrrl at 04:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Category: local politicsMarch 21, 2003
brightleaf peace vigil
peace vigil at brightleaf, snapped as i was driving by.
Posted by spacegrrl at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)