Outstanding in the field

One of the finest tours available in the Piedmont is somewhat self-guided and only happens once a year. But with the combination of a little preplanning and a healthy curiosity, you can learn a lot about the work of some of the most productive and innovative farmers in the land.

This year, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s annual Piedmont Farm Tour is the weekend of April 25-26 and features more than 40 farms in Orange, Chatham, Durham and Alamance counties. Eight new farms are on the list this year. More »

(This column was orginaly published April 2)
You may not have had time to notice, but the landscape has taken a sudden shift from dull and near monochromatic to Technicolor and then some. Of course, if you’ve been watching closely this should be no surprise — buds have been swelling and it was just a matter of time before they exploded in color.

Botanist Misty Buchanan, who hails from the mountains, did extensive research in the coastal plains and now lives here in the land between the two, recently put it succinctly:

“The mountains and the coast have their seasons,” she said, “but when it comes to spring, the Piedmont rocks.”

A recent stroll through campus was a reminder that just about every living creature has been waiting for the vernal rush of warm weather. There were hundreds of young people sprawled all over Polk Place with books and laptops. In a corner near the Wilson Library, a philosophy class was holding an open-air debate on the existence of the almighty; at midpoint along the mall, students in a writing class sat in a circle in the grass, dissecting their works. Not far away, near the little garden planted in honor of Paul and Shelia Wellstone, a couple of lunch breakers calmly knitted.

And all through campus, the usual rush-rush was broken by the sheer beauty of the spring. Even those walking head down, moving quickly to the next class, were compelled to pause a moment to gawk at the explosive color of blossoming trees and shrubs along the brickways.

Almost all of us are a bit preoccupied these days with the outcome of this weekend’s basketball contests. But I doubt anyone is unaware of the natural fireworks that await once the season comes to a close.

In this issue, we celebrate a few of the places and events that the adventurous can enjoy right here or just a short jaunt away. — Kirk Ross

milldam

By Mitch Virchick

One of the few certainties in the trajectory of our lives is that we eventually return to earth. The ground will rise up to claim our remains. If we are fortunate, our legacies survive, for a time, in our accomplishments, in the pages of books and journals, in our bequests and in the things we leave behind. Our built environment often outlasts us to remind succeeding generations of our industriousness; and even when that work ceases to produce something of real value, the ruins of old structures mysteriously inform us that someone was here long before we were, and took the time and effort to make their living in whatever way they believed they could. More »

mask31

If you’ve wandered down Lloyd Street and done a little window-shopping of late, you may have done a double take when passing The Merch.

Lined up along the window in the printing and gear shop’s new retail sales room are several mannequin heads bedecked with Mexican wrestling masks. Look a little closer and you might notice that one does indeed have a UNC logo. Closer still, and you can read that it is an officially licensed product.

How it came to be that a small company in Carrboro produced the first Carolina wrestling mask is a long story, with action in China, Mexico and Asheboro. Here’s how The Merch’s co-owner Chip Hoppin boils it down:

Music fans around here may recall “Viva Del Santo!” a hit tune by Southern Culture on the Skids about the legendary Mexican wrestler and movie serial star El Santo (The Saint). Sometimes, SCOTS would perform the song while a figure in wrestling gear and mask posed Santo-like and cavorted with the band and/or crowd. That bit of cultural cross-pollination helped hasten the influx of Mexican wrestling kitsch, already big elsewhere, into local culture. More »

By Vicky Dickson

Like any newly published author, Barbara Fredrickson has done a lot of book signing lately. One instance in particular stands out for her: the elderly man at the Regulator Bookshop who said he’d been reading her book for six days when his family members remarked on the positive changes they’d noticed.

“You’re a whole new Jim,” they’d said.

Jim told her he was 88 years old. More »

By Alvis Dunn

”I do believe in biorhythms. I think some days you’re in a little bit of a funk.”

With those words back in 2000, Tar Heel coach Matt Doherty set my mind to celestial wandering and my most lasting Carolina basketball superstition was born. Birthdays in hand, I began to “run the rhythms.”

That same season, I watched as the fortunes of Joe Forte and the team nose-dived side-by-side with the bottoming out of the biorhythms of key players. Over time, I discovered that calculating the “ritmos” and posting them at www.accboards.com was fun. It also helped me be aware of opponents’ strengths (eventually I began to prepare the rhythms for challengers too). Other fans enjoy playing around with the projections. And I have made some uncanny calls. More »

By Frank Heath

I have an admission to make, a confession even.

On the night of January 4, 1971, I did not go directly to sleep when my mom turned off the lights, at my bedtime, 8:30 – nor did I even try.
And really, what self-respecting 8-year-old could have slept, given the fact that North Carolina was hosting the despised South Carolina Gamecocks at Carmichael Auditorium at that very instant, with early control of that year’s ACC regular season race at stake?

Huh uh. As soon as Mom was safely back downstairs, I located my battery-powered transistor radio and slid it under the pillow, turning the volume up just loud enough that I could make out the game call (I believe that may have been Bill Currie’s last year as the UNC sports “voice”) – and got my fill of UNC whipping up on the undefeated and second-ranked Gamecocks. More »

Originally published February 26, 2008

By Steve Peha

I grew up in Seattle following the Washington Huskies during the John Wooden years. I saw UCLA play once: Bill Walton scored 24 points in the first half and drank Gatorade from the bench for the entirety of the second. (Man, the way he could lift that bottle was pure poetry in motion.) That about sums up my childhood as a college basketball fan. It all came down to how bad we were going to lose to UCLA. More »

Originally published February 26, 2009.

Jiminy Christmas

Good golly, it must be nigh on March. You can tell because it is darn near impossible for some people to discuss the game of basketball without slipping in a flippin’ curse word. I mean, jeez, the season is heating up.

Even our very own Coach Williams had a lip malfunction on the radio after the Maryland game. The FCC might have stepped in, save the coach’s obvious embarrassment, rapid retraction and self-deprecation. He should be forgiven. He was, after all, talking about a defensive effort that had just inspired many, many expletives among the Carolina faithful.

We the basketball fans of this small patch of earth occupy a unique space during the coming of spring. As a focal point of the world of college hoops, we get to see ourselves depicted on numerous short highlight and b-roll montages documenting the basketball rivalries along Tobacco Road.

Greensboro blogger and Tar Heel fan Ed Cone recently commented about an HBO documentary: “It was OK, probably informative for auslanders, who will be forgiven if they come away thinking that the state of North Carolina consists of one farm, one road, two universities, and a barber shop.”

In a way, though, the collective concentration of a sizeable percent of the local populace narrows down to what transpires over 90 or so minutes on the floor of Cameron or the Dean E. Smith Student Activity Center.

Many of us are just shy of religious about it. There is reverence and ritual and blasphemy. For some, there are strongly held beliefs about one’s personal adherence to ritual and how that translates into what transpires between the two teams on the floor. I’ll not question the faith of others except to say that unless you’re in the arena yelling your lungs out, you have no effect on the game. Sorry. That’s just how I feel about it. The beauty of basketball is that it’s such an interesting game — an active game, an intricate game, and one you can get lost in.

But don’t confuse yourself with the team. Woody Durham, who quite possibly does have the telekinetic power to cause perfectly good free-throw shooters to miss by overly praising them, often admonishes UNC fans to honor their rituals – to “go where you go; do what you do” – in those dire times when the game comes down to the wire. That’s nice. You do that if it makes you feel better. But the outcome will be decided by the young people on the floor. And they know perfectly well where they need to go and what they need to do. They need to play some frickin’ defense.

Go Heels. — Kirk Ross

BY Vicky Dickson
Staff Writer

Writing fiction is as close to being God as you can get.”

You might not expect to hear those words uttered by a twice-baptized fellow who grew up attending church five days a week. But James Protzman isn’t your average Jesus invocator. Nor is he your average graduate of the United States Naval Academy or your average business writer – although all that appears on his resume. As does his work as a founding blogger on bluenc.com and his term on the Chapel Hill Town Council.

Pretty impressive. What’s even more impressive is that he’s managed to write a fascinating novel, Jesus Swept, along the way. A story of encounters between margin dwellers and establishment types that is set in motion by a thousand-year-old silver bracelet, the novel should be especially interesting to residents of Chapel Hill and the N.C. coast, where all the action takes place. A street sweeper called Jesus, the orphaned twins Hook and Sinker, a development director at Duke who hears the voices of pelicans and a mysterious old woman called Dog all grab a reader’s imagination – and don’t let go, even after the last page is turned. More »

By Margot C. Lester
Staff Writer

The Aztecs called it xocolatl, which translates roughly to “bitter water.” But they couldn’t have been all that bitter about it because they also associated it with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. Perhaps that’s why we associate chocolate with Valentine’s Day and other opportunities to win one another’s affections. But is there more to the magic of chocolate than ancient deities and gift-giving traditions? Possibly. In one study, melting chocolate in the mouth increased heart rate and brain activity more intensely than passionate kissing.
Whoa!

Whatever the reason, we love our chocolate. And we love giving (and getting) it for Valentine’s Day. From the dreaded (and clichéd) Whitman’s heart-shaped sampler to expensive imported confections, sweets for the sweet are pretty much a required element for a romantic Valentine’s Day. This year, why don’t you show a little love for the object of your affection and your community by buying your Valentine’s Day candy from a local maker?
More »

By Margot C. Lester
Staff Writer

You can recover from giving somebody a less-than-ideal birthday or Christmas present. But when it comes to Valentine’s Day, love’s not only not blind, but it ain’t unconditional either. During my seven years as a love advice columnist for Match.com, I’ve heard horror stories from men and women about inappropriate, unoriginal and down-right tacky gifts that have caused everything from giggles to get-out-of-my-lifes. Here is some of what I’ve learned:

Invest in each other. Surveys by Match.com and Jewelry.com found that a night of pampering, cuddling and being together with only simple gifts given is a perfectly acceptable way of spending Valentine’s night. This doesn’t give you carte blanche to cheap out though. Plan something that you both enjoy or that makes it clear to your sweetie that she or he is the object of your affection. (nudge, nudge) More »

A friend recently updated his Facebook status to note that he has lived here for so long that he was genuinely surprised this year when it got cold in January. That and a few inches of snow — a particularly nice variety that was good for sledding — and we all now are official veterans of winter. Great. Now let’s get on with balmier times.

One lovely way to warm things up this time of year is to revel in the traditions of Valentine’s Day, including the highly important wide distribution of well-made chocolate.

In this issue of MILL, we plunge headlong into the holiday, which falls this year on a Saturday night and promises to be a busy one at local restaurants. With that in mind, make those reservations early. You or your loved one might not care to opt for Friday, especially if either of you has a touch of paraskavedekatriaphobia and something romantic planned. — Kirk Ross

CARRBORO

The ArtsCenter
Center Gallery: Orange County Artists’ Guild Studio Tour preview

Carrboro Branch Library
“Moving the Line: The Art of Drawing”
More »

11/30
Chapel Hill Tree Lighting
Downtown Chapel Hill
The annual community tree lighting at University Baptist Church. 6pm
More »