Triangle Bloggers Conference 2005
February 12, 2005 on the UNC campus - be there or be somewhere else less cool...
Good lineup of participants so far - ya'll come on!
Afterwards, you can hie thee to Burlington for this.
Posted by Tony @ 9:45:00 pm |
The Poor Man hits one out of the park
Speaking of damn fine writing, hard to top The Editors at The Poor Man:
Fuckin' A!
Read the rest of it here - to quote the apostropher, "if you only read one thing on the internet today, this should be it".
Posted by Tony @ 9:30:00 pm |
Happy Belated Birthday, Lex!
As usual, I'm a day late and a euro short, but happy birthday (yesterday) to my best bud Lex! I first met Lex in the summer of 1977 (still, I believe, the hottest July on record around these parts) when he was writing some god-awful stuff for the Governor's School newspaper but ready and willing to throw down a Mayberry's Lock, Stock and Barrel with the best of us. Now he's one of the best writers I know (actually, one of the best writers I know of) but I'm betting he'd need the help of Vic and Hooper V to kill one of those super-sundaes these days. Happy birthday, pal - thanks for blazing the trail for those of us who are much, much (9 months at least) younger.
If you haven't been paying attention, Lex is getting some well-deserved mad props for his visionary and potentially ground-breaking suggestions to vault the News and Record past most other newspapers into the electronic age, well beyond just putting their stories online.
Posted by Tony @ 9:10:00 pm |
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Coffee vs. Mexican food
There was an article in the Chapel Hill Newspaper Sunday about the number of coffee shops in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area - their quick count was 15 as soon as the Starbucks opens at Eastgate. That sparked one of those "grumpy old man" rants in my mind, comparing the coffee-wired, Internet-wireless Chapel Hillians of today to the bunch of laid back drunks that I was a part of 25 years ago. By golly, if we wanted coffee, we poured some Taster's Choice into last night's stale beer and we had some damn coffee! Soon after my arrival at UNC, there was an article locally proudly proclaiming Chapel Hill the beer-drinking capital of the world, based on consumption per capita. Something on the order of 25 gallons of beer for every man, woman, and man-child in town, as compared to around 16 gallons per capita for Germany. Woo-hoo - we were drunker than a bunch of Germans! The legal drinking age was 18, Spanky's was gearing up to serve the first legal mixed drink in North Carolina and my buddy Adrian actually called the state Highway Patrol to confirm that it was legal for us to drink beer while we drove back to Charlotte for the weekend, as long as we weren't within any city limits. We were "fat, drunk and stupid" and by gum, we LIKED it!
What I actually find much more interesting than the number of coffee shops around here is the number of Mexican/Southwestern restaurants. Even with the loss of old favorites like Tijuana Fats and Papagayos years ago, I was able to come up with the following list without consulting the phone book:
Margaret's Cantina
Flying Burrito
Carrburritos
Armadillo Grill
Cosmic Cantina
Burrito Bunker
Bandido's (a couple of locations)
El Rodeo
Patio Loco
Fiesta Grill (out in White Cross)
Monterrey Mexico
That's only two short of the article's current count of coffee shops and I'm sure I'm missing some others. While I haven't eaten at more than a couple of them (if we don't eat at Margaret's at least once a week, they start to worry that something's happened to us), most actually do seem specifically Mexican or Southwestern US, as opposed to, say, Blue Corn on Ninth Street in Durham which has many more Central American and Carribean influences. I'm not saying whether this is good or bad, but as I commented in another blog the other day, we have 187 Mexican restaurants and only one decent-but-not-spectacular Thai place (I'm talking about Thai Palace - Penang seems to be more Malaysian than Thai). A little more variety would be nice.
Posted by Tony @ 12:35:00 pm |
Monday, January 3, 2005
Sugar Bowl
It's 16-0 Auburn late in the third quarter and I feel a rant coming on. Not the sponsor-name-in-the-title-of-the-game rant - I kinda wore that one out a decade or so ago when teams started playing in the Poulan-Weedeater Bowl. What I want to know is, it's January 3rd - why the hell is there still college football on my television? I mean, I love college football despite not having much time to watch it anymore, but it ends by tradition on January 1st except for things like the Senior Bowl. I understood it when New Year's Day was on a Sunday and they played the bowl games on Monday the 2nd - Sunday is for the NFL. But this is different - and it ain’t even the last game!
Normally I'd be pulling for the undefeated team tonight in order to poke another stick in the eye of this sad, pathetic BCS nonsense. Every other damn college sport has a playoff, other divisions of college football have a playoff - this is just nonsense. So I should be loving having a couple of undefeated teams like Utah and Auburn with absolutely legitimate claims to the championship. But I just can't pull for Auburn. First of all, they're in Alabama and I grew up in Tennessee - need I say more? Secondly, their opponent is now in the ACC, however much I might begrudge them that. Thirdly, they can't pick a fucking nickname! Are they the Plainsmen or the Tigers or the War-damn-Eagles? Dammit, they can't be all three! But most of all, I'm so tired of their fans whining and bitching and moaning about how they deserve to be in the Orange Bowl instead of Oklahoma. Now I would have no problem if they said they ought to be in a playoff with a shot at the title game, but saying that they should be in because of some inherent superiority of the SEC over the Big 12 is just wrong, silly and self-defeating. So they suck and I wish they'd lose, but it doesn't look likely. As for tomorrow night's game, I guess I hate USC less than I hate the Sooners, so I'll pull for them. If I watch.
Posted by Tony @ 10:45:00 pm |
Catching Up
I had intended to do some blogging this past weekend but ended up with a bit of a cold so spent most of Saturday and Sunday lying on the sofa. This is not necessarily a bad thing - I felt bad but not TOO bad and it made me sit back and actually rest, which I've had a lot of trouble making myself do the last few years. So other than going by Margaret's Cantina on New Year's Day for her get-together with staff and regular customers (what a neat thing to do!) I stayed on the couch watching the tube all weekend. I would not otherwise have seen the most excellent Rose Bowl, featuring two teams that I have no love for so I could just enjoy the game and it was a hella game indeed. Also watched all four hours of Russia: Land of the Tsars on the History Channel Sunday - thought they did a pretty good job of covering 1000 years of national history in a four hour slot. Even caught the end of the Kansas-GaTech game - I seldom feel that I can make time to watch anyone other than Carolina and this was a great game to watch. Oh, and guys, sorry about the Panthers. I really thought they were going to pull off another miracle yesterday.
New Year's Eve was just a great all-around day. Slept in then went over to the UNC Wellness Center for a workout before getting ready for the evening. In case you're wondering, I didn't wear my tuxedo (well, of course I own a tuxedo - two actually but the vintage '50's tux is too small for me now. Every gentleman should own a tux) instead opting for the navy-blue Hong Kong-tailored 70's wide-lapeled double-breasted suit I got at an antique/junk shop in Pittsboro this spring for $40. Added a shocking pink dress shirt and many-shaded pink striped tie and I was ready to par-TAY! We had a superb dinner at ACME Restaurant in Carrboro with G and D before walking over to the Cradle for the show. As expected saw lots of old familiar faces but refrained from doing too much "howyadoin-ing" except for making it a point to go over and say howdy to Steve Aiken behind the board. Walked in as Apollo Heights was about halfway through their set - we were standing in the back and my eyes have gotten so bad (need a new prescription) that it wasn't until we were talking to Lori at Margaret's the next day that we realized that they were basically the Veldt! Shows how out of it I am. The Sex Police came out about 11:30 and sounded like they hadn't missed a freakin' beat in the intervening 10? 11? 12? years since they split. Played a couple of shortish sets and yes, PC, I did scream to Flame Retardant Asbestos Suit just for you! Finished the night with Speedball - one of the late Stacy Guess' songs. It wasn't until we were walking out that I noticed the poster for the show included Stacy in the photo - thought that was sweet and sad and very appropriate. I'm assuming this was a one-off (or a two-off - I think they had a show the next night in Winston-Salem) since I'm guessing Norwood's spending most of his time in LA but it was great to see them one more time. I understand they have a DVD out now - we didn't pick it up at the show, but I'll be on the lookout for it.
So now it's back to work and a brand new year. The last few years have followed a pattern where work went fairly smoothly through the fall and into the holidays and then all hell broke loose in the first few weeks back in the new year. Given the hell of the weeks running up to the holidays this year, I'm hoping that that was it and I've already faced the worst of it. Keep your fingers crossed.
Posted by Tony @ 12:40:00 pm |
