Eyes Only
Nation’s Restaurant News magazine included Raleigh’s Angus Barn (www.angusbarn.com) on its prestigious NRN 50 list of All-American Icon restaurants.
Founded 50 years ago by Thad Eure Jr. and Charles Winston — and operated today by Eure’s daughter, Van, the “Barn” opened a 500-seat, year-round lakeside pavilion (www.thepavilionsattheangusbarn.com) in 2009 for special events. The Angus Barn also opened two dining rooms accommodating 30-plus guests each in its wine cellar, along with a special teaching kitchen.
The Angus Barn is the only North Carolina restaurant on the list, and joins noted dining institutions including Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis and The Four Seasons in New York City. The restaurant has won the Ivy Award, DiRoNA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) Award, the Wine Spectator Grand Award and Fine Dining Hall of Fame Award.
In 2006, The Angus Barn’s Executive Chef Walter Royal, a Restaurant Guild International Five Star Chef of the Year, triumphed over a celebrity Iron Chef on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” television show.
Paul Stone, president and chief executive of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, attributes The Angus Barn’s long-term success to commitment, family and service. For more, go to www.angusbarn.com.
• • • •
Shine your shagging shoes for the 43rd anniversary celebration of the legendary Jolly Knave shag club June 18-19 at Loafers Beach Club in Raleigh. Founder Fred Fletcher is gearing up for the big event with a detailed history on Facebook harking back to the original Knave that opened on Hillsborough Street and continued life at Atlantic Beach relying on classic juke box hits of the ’50s and ’60s. E-mail Fletcher at theknave@suddenlink.com.
• • • •
Attorney and former corporate executive Sandy Costa has written Humanity at Work: Encouraging Spirit, Achievement & Truth to Flourish in the Workplace on leadership and related issues drawing on his past experiences. Go to www.santocosta.com for more information.
• • • •
Artist of Tomorrow, a community-funded City of Raleigh Arts Commission program, has selected five area high school students for one-time scholarships toward college studies in the fields of dance, theatre, music, and the literary and visual arts.
The five Artist of Tomorrow scholarship winners are:
• Kayee Au, Enloe High School, visual art
• Lauren Bullock, Middle Creek High School, literary
• Emily Gardenhire, Apex High School, theatre/musical theatre
• April Grossi, Leesville Road High School, dance
• Lucas Morrow, Southeast Raleigh High School, music
• • • •
Artsplosure will be the charity partner for the 2010 World Beer Festival-Raleigh hosted by All About Beer Magazine. The festival, ranked as one of the top 10 beer festivals in the country by USA Today, will take place April 24 in Moore Square Park. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.allaboutbeer.com/wbf.
• • • •
March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS) advises travelers to use caution, to learn to recognize the symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to check into supplemental insurance and potential access to medical facilities, particularly if traveling remotely or abroad. Go to www.aams.org for more information on emergency services and instructions for dealing with brain injuries.
• • • •
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will dedicate the new Eve Marie Carson Garden at 4 p.m. March 4. Named for Carolina’s former student body president, who was brutally murdered in March 2008, the garden is located on Polk Place, off Cameron Avenue behind the Campus Y. The garden is intended as a place of honor for Carolina students, past and future, who pass away before they graduate.
...
read more 
|
Correspondence
Disagreeing With Leutze’s Version Of Civility
I am writing in response to Jim Leutze’s column in the November 2009 issue of Metro, entitled “Manifesto for Civility in the Age of Obama.”
Over the last nine years, I experienced a whole range of emotions: anger, confusion, dismay — sometimes all at the same time. When I saw people at rallies yelling, “I hate George Bush.” “What did they mean? Why were they so angry? Obviously many, if not most, of these people were sincere in their convictions, and I believe they loved their country.” I trust that Dr. Leutze gets my point.
With that genie out of the bottle, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to put it back in. I believe that we are experiencing a classic case of “what goes around, comes around.” Leutze states: “The most dangerous, and perhaps the most disingenuous, are the ones trying to delegitimize and/or dehumanize the president.” Could he have meant the ones who accused President Bush of “stealing” the election, and who were quite vocal in despising and expressing their contempt for him? Where was his indignation then? Did he speak out to his friends, colleagues and readers, or propose any manifestos then?
The discourse at that time was often neither informed nor civil. Once the citizenry became inured to the barroom brawls, the game was over.
To make it worse, Leutze throws out the “red herring” of violence against public figures. As for open debate, how can that be possible when we have a president who campaigned as one man and tries to govern as another; when he and Congress barely even pay lip service to bi-partisanship, much less practice it.
Bush actually worked with the opposition on many occasions. Can Leutze say the same of President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Nancy Pelosi? And what about the health bill? Written in the smoke-filled room, pushed through the Senate by unconstitutional bribes and unread by those who were called upon to pass it — is this what Leutze refers to as “enlightened, reasoned debate”? Forgive me while I laugh at his nonsense.
We see the world not as it is but as we are. And the way Leutze sees it is very partisan, arrogant and disdainful. He goes on to state that, “We are the government.” I beg to differ. If he thinks that the current administration, composed all too often of tax cheats, those who lie under oath, those who have felony backgrounds — and the current Congress, with its determination to spend imaginary money and thereby bankrupt our country, not to mention bribing the voters to re-elect them with our taxpayer dollars — truly are one with the citizenry, then he is indeed delusional.
Does he even read the news? Or does he limit himself to CNBC and The Huffington Post?
Julian Baker Jr.
Raleigh
Easley Profile Insightful And Revealing
The Letter to the Editor “Easley Article Obnoxious” in Metro’s February 2010 issue calls Jim Hughes’ article on Mike Easley (“Frat Boy Governor,” December 2009/January 2010 issue) shallow and obnoxious, but I found it very insightful, objective, well thought out, revealing and informative. The article sheds light on the governor’s small town Eastern North Carolina background, which is also helpful in understanding events during his time as governor.
Easley’s tenure as our governor was an embarrassment to the state of North Carolina and an affront to its citizens. His many “ethical lapses” resulted from an overall lack of common sense morals and reflect a general contempt for the taxpayers. Arranging a $170,000 a year non-job for his wife at taxpayers’ expense is just stupid, over-reaching and greedy.
Accepting a below market, under the table deal from a sleaze ball resort developer in exchange for regulatory favors would be an obvious affront to most people’s common sense ethics and morals, let alone the governor! Obvious conflicts of interest like this should be even more apparent to the Easleys, who are both experienced lawyers. They should be setting the example for avoiding conflicts, instead of stretching ethical boundaries.
The author of the Letter to the Editor opines that Easley’s predecessors are also “probably” guilty of similar offenses, but that doesn’t minimize or mitigate his transgressions in any way. The moral equivalency argument is insulting and disingenuous and is often dragged up by people who have no other defense. Maybe the author is a transplant from Chicago or New Jersey where cronyism, quid pro quo and under the table deals are the norm. I hope our state never sinks to those levels of corruption and greed. Hiding behind young, loyal, but misguided assistants like Ruffin Poole, who are expected to take the fall if something goes wrong, is clever but cowardly, sneaky and circumvents intended accountability. Too bad Meg Scott Phipps and Jim Black didn’t have a fall guy.
The author cites the North Carolina Lottery as one of Easley’s “many accomplishments.” The lottery was recently characterized by fellow Democrat and former State Treasurer Richard Moore as a “fool’s game.” To get it passed, Easley had to sneak the lottery deal through while some voting members were unavoidably absent with then Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue casting the tie-breaking vote.
As governor, it didn’t take long for Perdue to raid the fund to pay for recent state budget shortfalls, instead of reducing expenses elsewhere. So much for Easley’s “education” lottery.
It is not surprising that the author of the “Easley Article Obnoxious” letter chose to remain anonymous.
Buck Burwell
Raleigh
Expert Witnesses in Michael Peterson Trial Discredited
Here we go again! This time it’s Duane Deaver, a blood expert for the state of North Carolina, who has been found to have withheld two negative blood tests 16 years ago in the Gregory Taylor trial. Taylor was found guilty and for 16 years has been proclaiming his innocence while incarcerated. He finally won his release in mid-February.
Now Deaver can join the never-ending list of experts who testified for the prosecution at the Michael Peterson trial and have since been discredited.
First, Saami Shaibani — a physicist who testified during the Peterson trial that Kathleen Peterson’s wounds could not have occurred from falling down a staircase — was discovered to have lied on his resume. Because of that, a man already convicted of a crime in another state where Shaibani testified for the prosecution, was freed after a mistrial was declared.
But a mistrial never happened in Peterson’s case. Strange indeed. Then came Michael Nifong, an investigator on the Peterson case. How can anyone forget how he became a prosecutor in Durham, or how he hid evidence that could clear several young men in the Duke lacrosse case. He ended up disgraced, losing his job and finally being disbarred.
And now with Deaver losing credibility, you would think all of this lying and corruption would be grounds for a mistrial in the Peterson case, especially since Peterson was convicted on circumstantial evidence produced by these two discredited experts.
Peterson fought for the people of Durham in his newspaper column before his trial by attacking the justice system. He ran for mayor to change it. Now the justice system has silenced his pen.
It makes me wonder what the people of Durham are doing about their justice system. It looks like they are doing the same thing three bus guards in another state did. They stood by with their hands in their pockets and watched as a 13-year-old girl was savagely beaten by another girl. They did nothing but watch.
Peterson has been in jail for almost eight years professing his innocence. He’s lost his family, his home, his personal belongings, his rights and his freedom. When he was first incarcerated he was physically beaten. When he was using his time to teach other inmates so they could earn a GED, that role was taken away from him for a crime he committed in jail.
And what was that crime? He had too many postage stamps.
Joanna Giglio
Hope Mills, NC
...
read more
|
Secrets of State
Raleigh Vibraphonist Hits Top Of Jazz Charts With New CD
For the last three decades, Raleigh-based vibraphonist Steve Hobbs has gained respect and admiration from jazz fans all over the world. His straight-ahead, bebop, hard-swinging potency keeps him in demand and never without a gig.
His steady fame gave him the creative freedom to create his latest album, Vibes, Straight Up, his first effort as a player only, taking on the music of others. The album has maintained the No. 1 position on the Jazz Week charts for over four weeks and placed high in unexpected places, such as Up with Florida, a publication that usually rates jam bands.
Critics here and abroad are praising Hobbs for this new exploration with other people’s music. He chose nine pieces, mostly pertaining to the South, improvising with an edgy style uniquely his own that expresses his passion for jazz while illuminating his roots as a Southern man. Hobbs jokes about fellow players being surprised by his accent, but he is dead serious when it comes to sending out a message through his music about what the South once was, how it has grown and how it stands today.
His inspiration for the recording grew out of his heritage as a Raleigh boy and his disappointment and concern with the stereotype that all Southerners are slack-jawed racists. If that were the case, says Hobbs, how could the South produce amazing jazz music?
Vibes, Straight Up is No. 1 in the Netherlands, home of his record company — Challenge/Twinz — but they wouldn’t allow Hobbs to name this record Down South because of the possible backlash from Europeans who still hold the stereotype that the South is Disney World with ragtime music playing in the background. Hobbs points out that some central Europeans are “shit talkers” anyway, and that a lot of their “Eurojazz” — as he calls it — has “no rhythmic vitality.”
The record company chose instead to use a shot of Lady Liberty for the album cover, and Hobbs is cool with that: The record is certainly a celebration of the South, but it also holds a New York edge. Through the music and his words in the CD insert, Hobbs feels his mission is accomplished.
He proudly confessed an e-mail from his personal hero, vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, made it all worthwhile: “Congrats on your CD! Downloaded it today on iTunes. You sound killin!”
Joined by Bill O’Connell on piano, bassist Peter Washington and John Riley on drums, Hobbs was in familiar and enjoyable company. The quartet sailed through and recorded the album in about five hours, maybe four if you count lunch.
Between recording and touring, Hobbs devotes his time to the “wonderfully gifted and talented” Powell Elementary School in Raleigh where he teaches vocal music and directs a 27-member mallet ensemble consisting of glockenspiels, xylophones, marimbas, piano, drums and other instruments. Hobbs proudly states: “It’s a cutting-edge school where teachers work together to teach kids reading and math through many mediums.”
He is currently composing music with kindergarten kids, who already rhyme words they compose for lyrics. “All the teachers at Powell are teaching in multi-faceted ways … it’s pretty amazing. How’s that for narrow-minded people from the South?”
Visit www.stevehobbs.com for more.
— Dan Reeves
Lab Remains Raleigh’s — and America’s — Top Dog
If your canine companion is a Labrador, you — and your dog — are in good company. For the 19th year running, the Labrador Retriever ranks as the most popular dog in America and the top dog in our capital city as well, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC).
Indeed, the trusty, handsome, child-friendly Lab is the top pick of just about every major city in the United States. Rounding out Raleigh’s other top-five dog favorites are the German Shepherd, Beagle, Golden Retriever and Yorkshire Terrier.
“Raleigh followed the lead of the rest of the country with a local Top 5 nearly identical to the national Top 5 list,” said AKC Spokeswoman Lisa Peterson. “The only change in 2009 was the German Shepherd dog taking over the second spot from the Beagle.” This is also a national trend: German Shepherds, prized for their good looks and intelligence, are on the rise in several major cities, Peterson said.
While the AKC’s comprehensive city-by-city dog rankings demonstrate a remarkable preponderance of these top five breeds, the outliers tell an interesting tale.
Bulldogs, for instance, might only rank seventh nationwide, but they seem to be ingratiating themselves with big city folks. These muscular pooches rank as the No. 1 favorite in Los Angeles, and make the top-five list of Charlotte and Chicago as well. In San Francisco and Long Beach, no common Bulldog will do. In these West Coast cities, it’s the tiny, bat-eared French Bulldog — which ranks only 24th nationally — that gets third and fourth place.
Meantime, hard-working Rottweilers — 13th countrywide — show up as favorites on the short lists of no-nonsense cities like Buffalo, St. Louis and Baltimore. And in Richmond, they’re not too concerned with what the rest of the country is up to: the fairly obscure Miniature Pinscher (33rd nationwide) is their third-favorite dog to own.
It’s tempting to connect a city’s personality with its favorite dogs, but is it going too far to suggest that there could be a canine-related explanation for some of the picayune political skulduggery plaguing Albany of late? New York’s capital city is “now experiencing a takeover of the toy breeds,” says the AKC’s Peterson. In 2009, the Pekingese leapt five places to secure the city’s fourth spot, while the Yorkshire Terrier and Pomeranian tied with Bulldog for fifth.
It’s true, after all, that a high-ranking office holder can catapult an otherwise-unknown breed up the list. Take Boston, where the Portuguese Water Dog — ranked 70th nationwide — was championed by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who gave “First Dog” Bo to the Obamas. There, the breed is ranked 7th.
Here in Raleigh, Mayor Charles Meeker has also been a dog booster in general — he’s cut the ribbon on dog parks, advocated against tethering dogs for long periods of time and championed “responsible” dog ownership. Who’s to say what would happen if the mayor made a big deal about North Carolina’s own official hound, the Plott? Would it somersault from 126th into Raleigh’s top five?
— Liza Roberts
Skyscrapers For Kids
Skyscrapers of Raleigh is the theme for the Second Saturday program at the Raleigh City Museum March 13, from 2-3 p.m. exploring the city’s architectural past and future. Participants will receive a Skyscrapers of Raleigh Coloring Book and will have the opportunity to design their own tower. Admission is free.
Picasso Portrait Promised to NC Museum of Art
Julian Robertson of New York — a native of Salisbury, NC, and a graduate of The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill — and his wife Josie — have donated four paintings by important Europe impressionist and modern artists to the NC Museum of Art: Picasso’s Seated Woman, Red and Yellow Background (1952) The Bridge at Moret on an April Morning (1888) by Alfred Sisley; The Bridge at Poissy (1905) by Maurice de Vlaminck; and Fishing Boat (Red Sky) (1916) by Emil Nolde. Picasso’s portrait of his lover Françoise Gilot will be on display in the Museum’s new building opening April 24, according to Museum Director Lawrence J. Wheeler.
“While the North Carolina Museum of Art is known for its strong group of modern German paintings, it never had comparable School of Paris works,” notes John Coffey, the Museum’s deputy director for art. “The exceptionally vivid portrait by Picasso is the first work by this artist to enter the Museum’s collection.”
The NCMA is currently closed in preparation for the opening of its new gallery building on April 24. Designed by the firm of Thomas Phifer and Partners, New York, the new building will provide a greatly expanded, light-filled home for the display of works from the Museum’s permanent collection.
Go to www.ncartmuseum.org for more on Josie and Julian Robertson, the opening of the new building and details about the donated works of art. ...
read more
|