Friday, September 30, 2011

Meetings Focus - Durham Convention Center

"The Durham Convention Center recently reopened after being closed since January for a renovation. The convention center, which is attached to the Durham Marriott City Center, received a $6.9 million upgrade that included refurbishment of the interior spaces and a technology upgrade. The facility offers 44,000 square feet of meeting space."

- Site Scene, Meetings Focus

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Huffington Post - Duke University & The New Ivy League

"The only thing that can rival Duke University's academic reputation is the school pride of its students."

The New Ivy League: Unigo List, Huffington Post

San Francisco Chronicle - Duke University

"Duke's investments increased 24.5 percent in the fiscal year ended June 30... Duke's performance for the year beat Harvard University, whose endowment investments returned 21 percent for the year, and Stanford University, where annual returns were 22 percent."

- Duke, MIT Investments Surge as Colleges Rebound From Crunch, San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Meetings Focus - Bay 7

"Bay 7 is one popular facility that hosts off-site group events. Located on the American Tobacco campus, an adaptive reuse project that converted one of Durham’s tobacco facilities into a destination for shopping, dining and recreation, the venue accommodates up to 400 people and its “urban chic” design features include exposed brick walls, hardwood floors, steel girders and a balcony area."

- Southern Beauts, Meetings Focus

Meetings Focus - DCVB, Shelly Green

"Whatever method a DMO might launch, many use research to back up their efforts. They want to ensure that stakeholders, governments and others with funding controls have the local story about the hospitality industry’s economic impact. One manager who values the role that research plays for her bureau in procuring and preserving funding is Shelly Green, president and CEO of the Durham [N.C.] CVB... Green believes that many DMOs don’t do enough research on tourism impact, which is increasingly important in today’s recessionary climate."

- Market Value, Meetings Focus

The Splendid Table - Locopops

"'Locopops' - a Latin-influenced popsicle flavor sensation."

- Locopops, The Splendid Table / NPR

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

USA Today - Baseball and Bull Durham Tobacco

"Baseball's spitting image dates back to the game's roots. The term "bullpen" was derived from Bull Durham tobacco, which was first produced by the Blackwell Tobacco Co. in 1860."

MSNBC - McKinney's SPENT

"Most Americans know the facts about low-wage work, but many have been lucky enough to avoid actually having to live on $8 or $9 an hour. A computer game called Spent gives you the opportunity to see what it would be like to walk in a poor person’s shoes. The game, by an advertising firm called McKinney and Urban Ministries of Durham, N.C., starts with a choice: Would you like to be a server, a warehouse worker or a temp?"

- MSNBC, Can you live on $9 an hour? Play the game

Monday, September 26, 2011

Salon.com - Bull Durham

"If two of America's biggest pastimes (and industries) are baseball and the movies, why are there so few truly great baseball films? That's the question we posed to several experts -- novelists, sports journalists, even a former baseball commissioner... "Bull Durham" turns out to be, as one writer put it, "the gold standard"..."

- What's the best baseball movie?, Salon.com

Friday, September 23, 2011

TIME - Bull Durham

"Walt Whitman called baseball "our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us." Anyway, that's the close paraphrase of Whitman's panegyric by Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), a keen student of the game and its minor-league players in Durham, N.C., and one of the most liberated, lubricious females in the history of movies — certainly of sports movies, where the usual function of females is to stand at ringside or courtside and cheer their men on."

- The All-TIME 25 Best Sports Movies, TIME

Thursday, September 22, 2011

TheCabin.net - The Scrap Exchange's Events By the Truckload

"With endless possibilities and endless fun for the family, The Scrap Exchange, a largely self-sustained non-profit organization, helps educate children and adults not only on environmental issues but also how to stay green while feeding their creative side... “Events By the Truckload” is a traveling version, allowing visitors to create their own art from junk, vintage goods, unique items and even trash."

Scrap Exchange's 'Events by the Truckload' Coming to ArtsFest, TheCabin.net

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

InformationWeek - Parata Systems

"Parata Systems followed the tablet trend not to be trendy, but to reap tangible business gains. The Durham, N.C.-based company (with 365 employees) makes technology that automates the prescription fulfillment process for pharmacies."

- Our iPads Pay for Themselves: One SMB's Story, InformationWeek

Music.MyNC - Motorco Music Hall

"It was only a year ago when Motorco Music Hall opened its doors with high expectations in Durham...  Motorco has seen a strong presence of promising and often acclaimed Triangle-based bands — Bowerbirds, Lost in the Trees and The Love Language, just to name a few."

Motorco welcomes new talent buyer, hopes to attract nationally recognized acts, Music.MyNC.com

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The New York Times - André Leon Talley

"André Leon Talley, a contributing editor for Vogue who seems to represent everything urban: stylishly dressed, a force of nature who stands out visually even in a world filled with unceasing competition for the eye. After he’s finished with fashion shows in New York or Paris or Milan, Mr. Talley retreats to a quiet Westchester hamlet. His home there reminds him of his childhood in [Durham] North Carolina, and happy moments on his grandmother’s front porch."

- Talking with... André Leon Talley, The New York Times

Monday, September 19, 2011

Foreign & Commonwealth Office Blog - Research Triangle Park

"There are many famous triangles in the world: the golden triangle in India, which takes in Delhi, Agra (home to the Taj Mahal) and Jaipur; the golden triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and London which has a wealth of talent and innovation that is hard to match anywhere in the world... Having recently visited [North Carolina’s Research Triangle], I feel safe in saying it is one of the most impressive triangles and amongst the strongest for science, innovation, and R&D."

- Foreign & Commonwealth Office Blog, Understanding the famous Triangle

The Daily Tar Heel - Megafaun

"When Durham’s Megafaun played a set at a three-day music festival in England earlier this month, fans thought they were seeing the wrong band... A very different band stood before an audience who had come to know Megafaun from the twisted acoustic folk on its first full-length,The band’s sound has always been changing ­— from the shouted, sloppy harmonies that open to the spaced-out, texturized 12-minute “Comprovisation For Connor Pass” on — Megafaun has constantly found new sounds to tell their stories."

- The Daily Tar Heel, Rocking with Megafaun

QNotes - NC Pride 2011

"Thousands of onlookers will gather along the NC Pride Parade route to watch student groups, churches, nightclubs, elected officials and others march in this historic parade. The parade begins at 1 p.m. snaking its way from Campus Dr. down Main St. toward Broad... After the parade and from 2:30-5 p.m., the rally continues, featuring keynote speaker Randy Jones of the Village People and others."

- QNotes, Preview: NC Pride 2011

The Rock Hill Herald - Durham a Model for Redevelopment

Rock Hill city manager David Vehaun would visit nearby Durham to watch the city's minor league baseball team play... "If I had not gone and seen it with my own eyes, I would not have been able to believe what they have accomplished in Durham," he said. "It's absolutely remarkable. It's one of those things, quite honestly, you have to see, with regards to what can be done with old buildings." Rock Hill city officials are taking notes from Durham as they look to redevelop the historic Bleachery site...

- The Herald - Does Durham, N.C. hold keys for Bleachery's future?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Huffington Post - Music Education

"So often, we hear that music education is being cut away in American schools, leaving our children without the preparation to play instruments, to listen creatively, to sing or read music or write it... But I have recently begun to re-think this lament, because, looking more closely, I am finding so many communities, so many classrooms and concert halls, where kids are coming together to make music... A growing music movement in the U.S, El Sistema is a Venezuelan-born music education system that uses ensembles to change the lives of poor children. In Venezuela, it teaches music to 300,000 children -- lifting experience, aspiration and possibilities. In the U.S, there are now more than 40 El Sisetema programs in a growing network, locally inspired and locally led. The commitments to community and to poor children persist; the music is grounded in places like Durham, North Carolina..."

- Music and Our Children, Huffington Post

Monday, September 12, 2011

Courier - Durham Bulls Athletic Park

"Thanks to the 1988 Kevin Costner hit film "Bull Durham," the Durham Bulls have become one of America's best-known minor league baseball teams. Visitors to the 10, 000-seat stadium find local food vendors, covered and uncovered seating modeled after Baltimore's Camden Yards..."

- Eight Carolina Classics, Courier

Shuffle Magazine - Shirlette Ammons

"[Shirlette Ammons'] name already rings out in North Carolina, but she wants more. The dominant traits of And Lovers Like—the new focus on everyday life, the cultural cross-section of collaborators and styles—stem from her desire not to be just a local artist, a local African-American artist, or a local African-American queer artist. She is all of these things, and they’re all reflected in the record, which is largely narrative and autobiographical."

- Shirlette Ammons is On Her Grind, Shuffle Magazine

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Meetings Focus - Durham Convention Center

"The Durham Convention Center, a city- and county-owned facility in Durham, N.C., reopened after being closed since January for... a $6.9 million renovation that included a new roof, refurbishment of the interior spaces and a technology upgrade."

- Durham Convention Center Reopens, Meetings Focus

Garden & Gun - The Monti

"Jeff Polish is the creator of The Monti, a live-audience storytelling series based out of Durham, North Carolina, which puts five brave souls on a bare-bones stage once a month to share a true story. Since 2008, the evenings have caused such a stir that now every “Monti” sells out via Twitter and Facebook in minutes."

- The Full Monti, Garden & Gun Blog

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Houston Chronicle - Spoonflower

"Be it upholstery for a slipcover, linen-cotton canvas for a snazzy throw pillow or perhaps cotton silk for gorgeous drapes, the textile design website Spoonflower has the fabric and the pattern of your dreams - assuming you're artistic. Spoonflower allows creative types to design, print and sell their own fabric designs. Using digital textile printers, the Durham, N.C.-based company transfers patterns to natural fiber fabrics using eco-friendly, water-based pigment inks."


- Create the perfect fabric, Houston Chronicle

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Brian & Ashley's Hiking Blog! - Eno River State Park

"One of the hikes that Ashley and I had the opportunity to do during a family trip to North Carolina was the Buckquarter Creek & Holden Mill Trail Loop in the Eno River State Park. The Eno River State Park is well maintained and is a great place to go hiking. The Buckquarter Creek & Holden Mill Trail Loop closely follows the Eno River and gives you a great chance at seeing local wildlife... Ashley and I both would recommend a hike in the Eno River State Park the next time you are in North Carolina."

- Eno River State Park (Buckquarter Creek & Holden Mill Trail Loop), Brian & Ashley's Hiking Blog!

WCNC - Bull Durham and the Real Crash Davis

"[Bull Durham] brought a modicum of fame for the real Davis. He stopped by the film set one day in Durham. 'All these people jumped up when I said my name was Crash Davis,' he told the Associated Press. 'You would have thought I’d been resurrected.'.... Bull Durham was released 23 years ago, but still has an impact. Sports Illustrated and Rotten Tomatoes have both ranked it as the best sports movie ever made. It is a must-watch for those who worship at the Church of Baseball. It’s immensely quotable. And it allowed Crash Davis, the real Crash Davis, to live on even now, a decade after his death."

- Remembering the real Crash Davis, 10 years after his death, WCNC