A Day in the Life (of a Durham Resident)

8:30 AM: Walk to Joe Van Gogh for 20oz red eye (known at JVG as a stout). Sit outside drinking coffee and reading book.

9:00 AM: Head back into JVG for desired (but wholly unnecessary) 2nd 20oz red eye. Stand in line behind woman who complains that her coffee "tastes funny." Encounter woman again moments at sugar and cream station where she declares that her replacement cup of coffee tastes equally bad. Suggest that perhaps there's nothing wrong with the coffee but that, instead, she's coming down sick. Return to my previous spot outdoors to continue my caffeine and Vonnegut infusions.

10:30 AM: Walk to Northgate Mall to buy slacks from Macy's (on good sale) and sport shirts from Sears* (on incredible clearance sale).  Opt not to wait in the crowd for haircut at Flashlight Barber Shop.

[*This link has almost nothing to the commercialization of the Internet as it is currently considered; instead, it's a nearly prehistoric concept [i.e., 1990] that makes for a pretty cool read, assuming you're a nerdy geek].

1:00 PM: Walk to A-1 Stop Mail to return card of some sort sent by a former co-worker to some unknown couple but at my address.

1:20 PM: Having completed mailing, stop at Dain's Place for a beer and a burger while I read more of my book. Dain's possibly has the best burgers that I've yet tried (which is to say that if you know better, you need to tell me asap: I'll be dubious regarding your claim but happy to be corrected).

1:40 PM: Having eaten most of my burger (excellent burger but too big), decide to head out for a long walk in direction of Duke Hospital.

2:20 PM: In midst of walk, decide to visit the Sarah Duke Gardens. Agree to take picture of a group of four friends (four friends or a disturbingly close family). Find a bench in a nice sunny spot far away from the busiest areas and get in a good 30 minutes of more Vonnegut and his description of The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore.

3:00 PM: On post-Gardens walk home, pass by Nasher Museum and decide to check out newest exhibit, The Jazz Loft Project.  Excellent - I even bought the book.  Much better than the previous special exhibit, which was seemingly loved by everybody but me.  But as for The Jazz Loft Project, I urge folks to get down here to view it.

4:30 PM: Stop by Bean Traders for another outdoor caffeine and Vonnegut session, this time featuring iced latte.

6:10 PM: After coming home and taking care of a couple of quick errands, it's back out again, this time walking to Warehouse District.

6:45 PM: Enjoy excellent square slice of Klaussie's pepperoni and sausage pizza outside Fullsteam Brewery.

7:00 PM: Head across street to Motorco Music Hall and drink two pints of Oatmeal Porter.  Read more Vonnegut.

7:40 PM: Walk over to Manbites Dog Theater to attend fourth and final segment of the 2011 Strange Beauty Film Festival.  One of the short films -- "For the Birds" by Lilli Carré -- was quite good (and somewhat sad, although that might have just been me) but I was otherwise perfectly bored and finally decided to leave short of the 45 minute mark.  I guess film festivals and I aren't made for one another, a discovery which probably surprises no one, least of all me.

8:50 PM: Return to Motorco where I'm immediately given a pint of the newest beer on tap which I find to be excellent.  I think it was 13 Rebels ESB by French Broad Brewery, but I could be wrong on that.  Whatever it was, it was quite good and I had three of them.

10:30 PM: Still at Motorco, watched local band Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes perform a killer set of folk-rock (JR had been with Carolina Chocolate Drops, recipients of the Grammy last week for Best Traditional Folk Album).  I'd seen JR & the MAs perform back in November on opening night for the Troika Festival when I'd found them good but not great: I don't know if they'd improved since then or if I was simply more receptive to their unusual sound tonight; whatever the case, they put on a good show and I happily put in a few bucks to buy their CD EP (which was offered free but  donations accepted).

11:30 PM: And STILL at Motorco.  If only the second band had been half as good as JR & MAs.  I won't name names -- easy enough to find out, of course -- but only a minute or two into their second song, I decided to go back to reading the Vonnegut book and soon finished it ("Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean that we deserve to conquer the Universe.  THE END").  I would have returned to the book during the first song but was fascinated by the fact that the band featured a xylophone; no, that alone didn't interest me so much as the fact that this was the third band I'd seen since Thursday that included that instrument.  Interestingly (?) although perhaps not surprisingly, I didn't much care for any of them.

11:50 PM: As the band started into their fourth song, I decide that it's time to call it a day and walk back home, making a quick stop at the Family Fare to pick up some juice for Sunday breakfast). 

Xylophone aside, it was yet another fine day to be a Durhamite.

Privatize It !!

North Carolina has been debating (and debating and debating and...) for a year now the idea of privatizing hard liquor sales following reports of surprisingly high salaries and pensions for county ABC commissioners, concerns about too cozy ties with liquor industry reps, and indications of what look to be illegalities if not outright corruption. Not surprisingly, the North Carolina Association of ABC Boards is fighting these efforts.

Contained in that association's own press release from last week is one of the best arguments in favor of consideration of significant reforms, including privatization of sales: 

" North Carolina ranks 3rd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in revenue per capita from the sale of spirits and 48th in per capita consumption. North Carolina's control system for the sale of spirits works, and accomplishes important public health and revenue objectives," wrote Mr. Carr [the association's registered lobbyist, according to the PR]

We rank 48th in consumption but 3rd in revenue, both figures based on per capita bases.  That's outrageous.  That's not a defense of the status quo: that's a strong sign that state is using its monopoly to gouge the public.

What's almost as bad is Carr's contention in the press release that the concerns driving the reform efforts stem only from a single instance of high pay and one incident of "a holiday meal" paid for by a liquor company: that's crap, plain and simple.  Salary concerns were raised in New Hanover and Asheville, and to a lesser extent in Wake and Mecklenburg because salaries in those latter two counties were significantly higher that the pay levels for execs at the state level.  Moreover, the larger concern was over the lack of state oversight of local board activities, including salaries.  Beyond that, the "holiday meal" that Carr refers to was actually $9,334 (some reports say $12,000) affair for 28 Mecklenburg County ABC employees paid for by a liquor company.  And while that got most of the attention, it was but the tip of the iceberg as it was soon found that this occurs regularly across the state, although the tabs are seldom quite so attention-getting.

Big Star Third

My excitement about these Big Star Third shows the next two nights has reached critical mass.  Seriously. I'm going to need some help getting any decent sleep tonight (no worries: I know exactly where my bottle of Advil PM lives). What your normal five-year-old feels like on December 24 is the exact shape I find myself in this evening.

First, I happened upon this blog by Chris Stamey in which he describes the planning and preparation behind this project.  That man be blessed.  His post about Mellotrons is especially nice.

Next, it was this article in the local weekly paper that goes into greater detail about the project's birth & long infancy.  Also some enjoyable stories about Stamey's work over the years with Alex Chilton and the incredible fact that the idea and early planning for this show started many years ago with Chilton as a willing & eager participant... damn, to have had him in a central planning & playing role for this... now THAT would have been so far beyond special as to defy description in this or most any other language.

A quick aside, somewhat related: Chilton, for all the talk about his being reclusive and a bit eccentric, sounds like such a good guy.  Check these pieces about him from Paul Westerberg (especially love the line about the tent!) and Steve Wynn.

KIZZA ME


THANK YOU FRIENDS

Big Star - Thank You Friends from Derek Jenkins on Vimeo.

JESUS CHRIST


FEMME FATALE


O DANA


HOLOCAUST


KANGAROO


STROKE IT NOEL


FOR YOU


NIGHTIME


BLUE MOON


TAKE CARE


TILL THE END OF THE DAY


DREAM LOVER


DOWNS & WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN' GOIN' ON

Early Voting

Two years ago, Marc Fisher, who used to write a regular Metro column in The Washington Post, wrote an interesting commentary about the dark underbelly of the world of early voting.  What's that?  You hadn't known that there was a seedy side of early voting town?  That's because you've probably only seen the sunny promotion materials coming from the early voting board of tourism (unrelated but true fact about that board's members: they tend to stretch their metaphors to the breaking point).

I first read that column several days after voting two weeks early in the 2008 election, and I remember feeling that Fisher had it totally wrong in his contention that early voting was ultimately detrimental to the cause of a representative democracy.  As a columnist, he regularly made the contrarian argument -- sometimes because he was expressing his honest opinion and other times simply to stir up some needed debate within the metro area -- and on this particular column, I felt like he pressed the case for the latter reason.  Granted, Fisher took great pleasure in discussing his negative view of dogs; still, how could anybody really be against even the general concept of early voting? 

(As a quick aside, his hope that Maryland voters would refuse the temptation of early voting in their state proved to be every bit as unlikely as he undoubtedly understood: the measure passed with more than 70% support.  The 2010 election is the state's unveiling of the new option.)

But I soon came to believe that the man was right.  Days after it was published, incumbent Senator Elizabeth Dole released a series of the most ridiculous and desperate negative campaign ads I've ever seen in which she accused her challenger and eventual successor, Kay Hagan, of being "godless."  This came a week or so after I'd already voted, and my initial reaction as it related to my vote was a sense of relief that I hadn't chosen to support Dole.  My next thought was to wonder how many early voters who had cast their ballots for Dole -- citizens whose support of Dole had been shaky or independent voters who may have been on the fence until marking their ballots -- suddenly regretted their vote because of that ad campaign.

My third thought was along the lines of, "Hm, Fisher might have made one good point, at least."  He still hadn't won me over to side, but...

What finally changed my mind was Election Day itself.  I felt no excitement nor any pride as a participating citizen, and that was in stark contrast to my usual attitude about Election Days past.  I missed my ritual of arriving at the polling station early with a cup of coffee to stand amid a small to medium sized crowd of fellow voters, most of whom seemed just as elated to fulfill their roles and do their duty (I fear that I may be starting to sound a bit like Binx Bolling here: "I am a model tenant and a model citizen and take pleasure in doing all that is expected of me.”).  Instead, I went straight to the office that morning, went straight home that evening, and felt a tremendous sense of letdown, despite (or possibly, to some degree, in reaction to) the excitement of some around me and even in the face of most polls that indicated most of my candidates were going to win.

And again, I couldn't help thinking back to the Fisher piece.  I'd already been surprised to discover that he'd made what turned out to be a nearly prescient argument that two different voters in the same precinct in the same election -- one voting early, the other on Election Day -- can be said to have voted in election environments made so completely different by intervening events as to nearly suggest that they actually participated to two entirely different elections.  The Elizabeth Dole ad controversy may not have risen to quite that level, but the point had been made for me.  And now, I'd realized that he'd also been right about the possibility of further loss of community that can result from early voting.

Whether those arguments outweigh the benefits, especially the suggestion that early voting can allow more people to vote -- although there has been at least one well-researched study that has found the opposite to be true -- can still be debated, but I switched sides in that debate back in 2008 (doing so after my Election Day but likely before your Election Day).  I even wrote to Fisher a week or two after the election to thank him for putting the issue on my radar so that I'd been better prepared to consider the matter as I reacted to the Dole ad and my feelings of let-down come the election and as I stopped to wonder what it all meant.

...

So what did I do on this fine autumn morning for which I've taken off work?  I just voted in the 2010 election, four days before official Election Day.  At this point, Fisher almost certainly doesn't want me on his side of the debate any longer now that I've shown myself to be such a lying, hypocritical s.o.b.  But, in my defense, I have some very important appointments next Tuesday, among them a meeting with someone to discuss housecleaning services: I had to prioritize!

I got to the Board of Elections office 20 minutes early, coffee in hand, and waited with a group of nearly 100 people and a slew of election volunteers, nearly all of us in great moods and not the least bit upset at having to wait on line for something so important and exciting.  Now I just have to hope that I don't find out in the next four days that my vote for Candidate X went to support a Lincolnesque figure who's sold poison milk to school children.  And I'll just have to see how I feel come election Day.

But now that I've admitted to going back on my word concerning early voting, I'll revisit a near-threat I made last month regarding this election's race for Richard Burr's U.S. Senate seat.  In a blog post from five weeks ago, I'd expressed tremendous disappointment with Democratic candidate Elaine Marshall's refusal to take a position on the so-called Ground Zero mosque controversy and wrote that I would likely not give her my vote as a result.  True to form, I failed to live up to my word.  At this point, it's anybody's guess what dastardly effect my treachery might next take.

But back on the matter of Marshall's invisible stand on the mosque controversy.  Her argument that the issue was local for NYC and therefore of no concern for North Carolinians would have been the proper tack four to six months ago, but the debate has since evolved well beyond local zoning issues and has grown (ridiculously, I'll grant) into a national debate which centers on tolerance and some of the basic freedoms most of us thought had been secured 219 years ago.  Refusing to enter into that debate should not be an option for a serious candidate for such a high office, so Marshall's decision to go that route was deeply disappointing.

However, with the benefit of additional time to consider the matter (were he reading this, Marc Fisher would now be saying aloud, "Aha!!"), I decided to give Marshall my support despite my frustration over her refusal to speak up for what is right.  It seems that there is too much at stake right now, and while Marshall appears to have little chance go unseating Burr, I realized that a protest vote for Michael Beitler or a refusal to cast a vote for any candidate in that race ultimately amounted to a vote for Burr, and I just could not do that.

A Teachable Moment Regarding Irony

This story on how CNN anchor Rick Sanchez managed to get himself fired today following a radio interview he gave this morning is nearly killing me, it's so good.  In addition to the pathetic hilarity, there is the fact that this represents a true teachable moment for Farkers (since they're the ones who put me onto the story this evening), specifically those who for years have proven unable to understand the meaning of irony.

Really, how much more ironic can you get than this?  Sanchez goes on a radio show to complain about Stewart & Colbert making fun of him.  And why do they make fun of him?  Because they say he's a dimwit.  But in defending himself, he says such unbelievably stupid things (not to mention hateful & hurtful) that he gets himself fired for being so incredibly dimwitted.  Irony seldom reaches this level of perfection.

Shutter Island (kinda sorta possible spoilers herein, maybe)

So this afternoon, I ventured out to a engage in one of my favorite weekend relaxation activities: reading while bellied up at a bar.  I actually did this at two bars, but at the first I only had a sandwich and a regular iced tea, so I don't know if it really counts, although I'll be the first to admit that that's probably very much beside the point.

The book of choice was Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, a few of whose other books I've very much enjoyed, particularly The Given Day.  And his writing on HBO's "The Wire" was, well, I'd hardly be first to extol the vitures (e.g., he wrote one of those lines from the show that I think of often, whether I'm at work or reading the newspaper: "It's Baltimore, gentlemen; the gods will not save you.")

So, about Shutter Island...

Actually, I can't go any further without warning that I'm about to reveal a possibly important aspect about the structure of the book and my guess about what it means.

[spoiler space]

[/spoiler space]

I'd barely begun reading the book when someone took it upon himself enough to inform me that the book had one of the "most mind-blowing twist endings" he could recall.

Well, isn't that just freakin' great.  Thank you so much.  Can I repay the favor by sneezing on that lunch of yours?

I've gotten through the first 100 pages, and I'm enjoying the story immensely, so far, but I'm reading it with "twist ending" in mind.  In fact, when I read the single-sentence paragraph that ends page 30 of the Harper Fiction paperback edition ("And he turned and led the way through the gate, and the gate was closed behind them."), I immediately felt certain that I knew what the twist was.  And most everything I've read since then has only reinforced my guess that Teddy Daniels is actually an inmate-patient at Shutter Island for having set the fire that killed his wife and three others years before this story is supposedly set.

I have plans for tonight and nearly a full day planned tomorrow, so I likely won't be able to find out if I'm right until next weekend.  But I'm dying to know.  If it turns out that I'm right, I might just have to make it my mission to track down the s.o.b. who spoiled it for me.  But I might still be able to enjoy the story, and might even enjoy watching how Lehane was able to control the story while leading readers down unexpected paths.

UPDATED 26-SEPT: Just finished the novel.  Turns out that while I wasn't right, well, I had, in fact, been right.  Tomorrow, I'm gonna have to figure out how I go about hunting down that s.o.b.  Good book, though.  Might have to rent the movie this week to see how faithful it is.

Wanted: Senator with Spine Attached

It just became likely that I'm going to throw my vote to an independent candidate, write in a name, or simply not cast a vote for the U.S. Senate election in North Carolina this fall.  Again. 

Back on October 1, 2008, while the Senate debated the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (a.k.a., the "bank bailout bill") that had been much discussed over the previous weeks, Senator Elizabeth Dole, the Republican incumbent, announced her opposition to the measure while Democratic challenger Kay Hagan refused to take a position, claiming that she needed more time to study the issue.  That struck me as wholly and unforgivably gutless, and it was at that point that Hagan lost my vote.

Today, I found out that this year's Democratic challenger to the state's U.S. Senator is being equally spineless.  On a news report on WUNC radio this afternoon -- a story which I've since confirmed online here and here -- it was discussed how the three candidates view Park51, the Islamic community center and mosque proposed for the site two blocks from Ground Zero in NYC (that being the long-winded but more accurate name for the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque").  Republican incumbent Senator Richard Burr has come out in opposition to the proposed mosque near NYC Ground Zero, saying that he views the location as "insensitive."  Libertarian candidate Michael Beitler says he that he is unconcerned about the mosque or its location, arguing that the efforts and arguments employed against the center strike hims as being "un-American."  Democratic candidate Elaine Marshall, by contrast, has refused to offer any opinions, claiming that it's an issue for New Yorkers only, so she will not comment.

The Connells: Buy 'em!!

As promised several months ago, for the first time in far too many years, albums from Raleigh's own Connells are available once more.  Currently, access is limited to MP3 download only from Amazon, but the band hopes to have CDs and albums in stores soon.  

Doesn't appear that their first album (1985's Darker Days) or most recent album (2001's Old School Dropouts) are available, but every release in between is out there.  If you're not familiar with the band please, please, please check them out.  Boylan Heights, their second album from 1987, proved to be a good starting point for me thanks to an incredibly exciting album review in the Washington Post the year after its release.  And if you're familiar with the band only from their fifth album, 1993's Ring (or maybe just from the single "'74-'75" from that album) you need to hear their other work.  Weird Food & Devastation from 1996 is not only a very good album -- no matter what 50% of Amazon reviewers would have you believe -- but a pretty brave one, too, given the drastic change in sound & direction they settled on following the huge success they had with Ring (and it's that unexpected change that accounts for so many unfair listener reviews of the album, of course).  And 1998's Still Life is one of those albums that is so overlooked & unknown that you just have to shake your head.

Bloody Good Time

In a post from April 2009, I declared as ridiculous the overly cautious policies of the FDA that meant that I was prevented from ever again donating blood because of the suspicious results of a single blood test.  Specifically, despite being a longtime regular donor, I was put on the deferred list due to a positive result for Hepatitis C.

Everybody appreciates a high level of caution to protect the blood supply, but to ban someone over a single result -- not making any allowance for the possibility of false positives -- seemed to me to be too much.  So for the past 17 months, I've been unable to do anything except grow frustrated whenever I'd see occasional reports of critical blood shortages in the Raleigh area.

Until now, that is.  Thanks to a revised FDA policy, I was able to go back into the blood services unit for a retest earlier this month.

I got a letter in the mail today showing negative results on both of the tests used to detect Hep C, so I have been cleared for additional needle sticks.  And I'm wasting no time getting back into the routine: I'll donate platelets at the Red Cross donor center in Durham after work tomorrow.

I'm pretty happy about this.  I hate the needle part, to be perfectly honest (I'm one of those wimps who has to turn his head away when the tech inserts the needle), but the platelet donation process itself is extremely cool -- the pulling and pushing of blood, the centrifuge, the machinery whirring and clicking, the cool graphics showing flow rate & estimated time remaining, etc. -- and it's the closest I come these days to volunteer work.  I've really missed it over the last year and a half.

Bad Ideas in Safety Pharmacology

I just picked up a refill for a prescription that I've been on for over a year now.  I noticed a new warning label on the bottle that I'd never seen anywhere before:

This struck me as a bit odd.  And then it struck me as funny, albeit in a purely twisted manner.  I've been prescribed this medication for off label use because it's been found effective in treating certain types of neurological pain, but the medication's approved indication is depression.

Did no one involved in the decision to label this drug find it self-defeating to encourage depressed patients to stay indoors with their curtains and shades drawn, avoiding sunlight or any aspects of a healthy, normal life that may accompany said sunlight?  "Suddenly feel like going outside for a walk?  Oh no, not so fast there, Frowny!  FDA strongly discourages you from attempting to escape your bleak basement existence.  So turn that TV back on and enjoy another few hours of that 'Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest' marathon!"