The Dare Society -- named for the first European child born in the New World -- is open to anyone with an interest in preserving North Carolina's cultural heritage: her music, art, literature, politics, sports, cuisine, industry, education and religion.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wolfpack: State football champs
Thursday, November 13, 2008
UNCC WILL get football
In September, Dubois recommended the school suit up a team by 2013, if boosters and football fans demonstrated support by raising $5 million in six months to help build a $45.3 million stadium complex.
"The cold stark financial reality we face is that those who say they want football are going to have to help pay for football," Dubois told trustees in Spetember. "We need to see support demonstrated now."
He suggested selling 5,000 personal seat licenses - or "Forty-Niner Seat Licenses" - for $1,000 each, just for the right to buy tickets, within six months of the BOT's vote.
That vote, of the 13-member BOT, came Thursday. There were nine members voting, and eight voted in favor with one abstention. There were no votes against. The other four members didn't vote. Three had previously expressed support for the initiative.
At the close of business on Wednesday, the Charlotte 49ers had received reservations for 4,167 of those FSLs. At a price of $1,000 each, that could translate into more than $4.1 million for the creation of a football program.
No money has yet been accepted by the ticket office, which was awaiting today's vote. ...
Interested fans and corporations can add their names to the reservation list by calling the 49ers ticket office at (704) 687-4949 or the 49ers Athletic Foundation at (704) 687-4950.
The biggest obstacle to football is a place to play. Dubois recommended building an expandable 12,000-seat stadium on campus, or playing at a renovated Memorial Stadium in uptown Charlotte.
School officials are talking to Mecklenburg County officials about Memorial Stadium. If the school invests significant money in renovating that facility, it would play there for several seasons, Dubois said.
Revisit the golden days of N.C. rock with Comboland Radio
"The idea to create Comboland is an example of something good coming from something bad," wrote Metro Magazine.
“The genesis of the idea is the death of David Enloe,” Smith explained during our phone chat. “He was the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of The Fabulous Knobs, along with Terry Anderson, Debra DeMilo and Jack Cornell. David and Terry met, I think, in junior high school. Terry may correct me on this, but I do know they’d been together for a long, long time. I didn’t know them well back in the day. I knew them a little. I did a lot of road case pushing for local bands so I could go see them without paying a cover.
Enloe passed away in November 2007. David Menconi wrote a fine obituary for Enloe, which is available online: www.newsobserver.com/105/story/796627.html. There’s also a great tribute to Enloe on MySpace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index .cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid
=288585688.Smith was not aware of Enloe’s illness, however, so when the news of his death reached him, it set him to thinking.
“When I heard about David’s passing, I moped around for a while thinking how horrible it was, and then I went to the storage facility where I keep all my vinyl records and packed up all my Triangle-area bands and brought it home,” he recalled. “I started listening to it, just sort of reminiscing, and it hit me that this stuff was still really good. It was a shame that these bands didn’t make it big-time.
“I decided it was time to start digitizing all this music,” he said. “Once I’d digitized it, then I had to play it around the house a little bit, so I made the play list and stuck it in Winamp and played it through the stereo system. I have a little program that will actually seg the songs, similar to what you have on a radio station. “Well, the songs sounded great, so I thought I’d stick in some newer stuff by Don Dixon. Then I downloaded some newer stuff and started experimenting. All this music sounded really good together, so I decided to make a radio station out of it.”
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
MacGruber loves him some Wilmington
Forte "made an ecstatic face, proclaimed Wilmington a 'beautiful' and 'wonderful' place and said he was at a loss for to words to describe how much he enjoyed his time here," writes the Star-News.
Forte worked in Wilmington on "A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy." He described the movie and then began to praise Wilmington.
Forte also talked about an obsession with the video game "Donkey Kong" that blossomed in Wilmington. He said he had several days of downtime during shooting when he would frequent a bar (he didn't mention it by name, but it's downtown hot spot The Blue Post) early in the afternoon while few people were there to brush up on his "Donkey Kong" skills for hours at a time. The arcade-style game was introduced in the 1980s and retains a cult popularity, epitomized in the 2007 documentary "King of Kong," about two men vying for the highest "Donkey Kong" score of all time.
The story played out on a smaller scale here in Wilmington, and it became his mission in life, Forte said, to knock the initials "LMK" out of the high score rankings, which he eventually did with his own, "WIL." Forte praised as a "really nice guy" the University of North Carolina Wilmington professor whose initials he replaced.
"He got my initials wrong," said Jim Kreul, the UNCW professor in question, whose initials are actually JLK. "That's understandable, though. At least he was in the ballpark."
Friday, November 07, 2008
Happy 90th, Rev. Graham!
Quick hits: A fisherman's memorial and a passenger train ... in eastern N.C.?
"His boat was the Carolina Princess. And those who knew the late James B. 'Woo Woo' Harker say he was the Carolina Prince.
" 'He taught by example and you never wanted to let him down,' said Leonard Rigsbee, a Carteret County resident who worked as a mate on the Carolina Princess just before it made its home on the Morehead City waterfront.
"Rigsbee, a former charter boat captain who now works as a boat builder, described Harker as a 'true mariner' and said it is Harker who inspired his interest in fishing and boating," says the Jacksonville Daily News. ...
"Rigsbee was just one of many whose life was touched by Harker's influence, and it was apparent in the crowd of friends and family that gathered on the Morehead City waterfront Friday evening for the unveiling of a fishermen's memorial in his honor. ..."
Local commuter rail service proposed for Cherry Point, Camp Lejeune
"Instead of driving to work, some Marines could take the train," says the Havelock News.
"A transportation committee of the Military Growth Task Force is suggesting the idea of commuter rail service between Cherry Point and Camp Lejeune.
"Danny Walsh, a Havelock commissioner and member of the task force, said a train would run in the morning and the evening along the 26-mile rail spur between the two bases.
"He said a commuter train would decrease the number of cars on the road and would also offer military members a chance to get some work done on the train.
" 'A lieutenant colonel that's going to Camp Lejeune every day could work on his laptop for the 35 minutes that he's riding down that railroad track,' Walsh said. 'He can talk on the telephone. He can rest. He can do everything except hang on to the steering wheel.' ..."
Monday, November 03, 2008
Preseason is premature
Preseason All-America? Youre kidding, right? Lets let these guys earn it on the court.
The rest of the team: Luke Harangody of Notre Dame, Darren Collison of UCLA and Blake Griffin of Oklahoma.
For an informed opinion on the preseason Associated Press poll, go to Patrick Stevens D1SCOURSE blog. Hes an AP voter.
Quick hits: Good news and bad news about the economy
"North Carolina’s 'business climate' is best in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive year, says Site Selection Magazine.
"The magazine praised Tar Heel policy leaders for the state’s use of incentives, taxes, economic development and work force development in securing new or expanded business opportunities and jobs," says WRAL.com.
"North Carolina has finished first in seven of the past eight years. ..."
Cherokee casino suffers in sour economy
"Brenda Wentz recently made the 2 1/2-hour drive from her home in Lincolnton to try her luck at the machines inside Harrah's Cherokee Casino.
"She brought her 84-year-old mother — who cares nothing about gambling — to see the fall colors and dine at a restaurant in the casino's hotel," writes the Citizen-Times.
"The economy and gas prices didn't keep them away. Instead, it pushed them toward a gambling trip.
" 'It gets our minds off things,' Wentz said.
"Harrah's Cherokee Casino, one of the largest private employers in Western North Carolina, is betting on people like Wentz as it braces for potential losses this year for the first time in its 10-year history. ..."