#52: Durham

I heart Durham.*

Saturday night, we headed West, and saw Fistful of Love at Manbites Dog. It was hilarious and pretty brilliant-- especially the Dr. Dre song, wow. Had dinner at the Federal (yum), and a nice walk between the two, on the very empty streets of Durham.

So Durham is considered dangerous, and I can't help but wonder if people walked more, it might be a bit more hospitable. Empty sidewalks are scary sidewalks, in my book. The more you walk, hang out on porches and in front yards, the more you know and trust your neighbors. Maybe it's some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: Durham's dangerous, so we don't walk = Durham's dangerous because we don't walk?

*I fully realize that this statement might be considered treasonous by some fellow Raleigh-ites (specifically my dear gentleman caller), but what-evs.
Also realize that the above theory is mighty simplistic and a bit Pollyanna/Glad Game of me.

It's First Friday again. Yikes.

images above from BLOCK BLINK, clockwise from left by Tracy Spencer, Stephen Gardner, Shonna Greenwell, and Paul Friedrich.

Tonight (at my places of business)
1. BLOCK BLINK at the Miriam BLOCK Gallery-- a fun, informal, tiny exhibition of camera phone photos that I hope will continue to grow throughout the run of the show, culminating in a slideshow coinciding with the lecture, PHOTO: Past, Present, Future on May 8. The opening reception will be held from 5 - 7 pm. Read more over at New Raleigh here. (Thanks, David!)
2. Structure + Color pastel drawings by Abie Harris at Rebus Works, opening reception from 6-10 pm. See more infomation at our website.
3. The other half (okay, seven-eighths) of the Miriam Block Gallery is The Importance of Place, featuring the photos of Russell Gorga, who a Raleigh photographer (and engineering professor at NCSU). This is a giant collection of work, featuring photos from Gorga's travels, creatively composed, and honestly captured.

Tonight: Elsewhere
4. Looking Back (see a few posts down) at Artspace is still up, and absolutely worth a visit! Stacey Kirby will be "performing" (that isn't quite the word I'm looking for, but hey, it's early!) the Declaration Project again.
5. Heroes at Lump. Curated by Laura Sharp Wilson and elin o'Hara slavick, this is a "group exhibition of work by 47 artists who explore heroes/heroines in their work." Via their website.
5. Honestly, this is all I really know about, but I'm sure the usual suspects (VAE, Morning Times, Designbox, Flanders 311) all have great shows too!

It's our Tear-Down Culture, My Friend.

All over Raleigh new replaces old. Or, the old is just torn down. King's is gone, to provide parking for clean and shiny NEW IMPROVED RALEIGH. On nearly every block downtown, there's a leveled lot or a building scheduled for oblivion. Look towards Raleigh's old, established and quite wonderful neighborhoods. You'll see homes waiting to be torn down, empty lots and homes newly constructed, often simply super-sized versions of the old houses.

Now, I am most certainly NOT against in-fill construction. My love's livelihood depends on it and I want to see cutting-edge, progressive and green architecture populate Raleigh's neighborhoods.

But I wonder, what happens when a house is simply destroyed?

There are many impacts, I fear, environmentally, socially, historically and economically. This last one, economics or just plain money, is almost certainly also the catalyst for the whole mess.

Next door to my house (until about 9 this morning) was a small, old, dilapidated house. It wasn't a gem, however, its previous occupants were. Our neighborhood (though perhaps not too neighborly) YMCA bought the house a few years ago along with several others in our tiny 'hood. All were slated for demolition.

It's not that I'm against progress, nor the expansion of good organizations such as the Y, but it hurts me to see these houses leveled. I'm not sure why, though I think it might have to do not only with the tremendous amount of waste created by routine (not salvage) demolition but with the people whose lives were spent there, their memories and their stories.

Their once-homes are gone.