A presenter and friend at IgniteRaleigh. (Photo courtesy of IgniteRaleigh)
Important takeaways from last night’s IgniteRaleigh 2, held Wednesday night in Lincoln Theatre: Raleigh boasts the third-highest concentration of modernist homes behind Los Angeles and Chicago, there is only one female boxer action figure and sexting is beneficial for relationships.
The unique event—and those very random facts—was part of Global Ignite Week, a social media meme turned PowerPoint phenomenon that spans 60 cities on six continents.
Similar to speed dating for the tech set, Raleigh’s version featured 19 presenters who each had five minutes and 20 slides that automatically advanced every 20 seconds to present an idea, story or business pitch. As Ignite founders put it: “Enlighten us, but make it quick.”
On the heels of Forbes crowning Raleigh with the top spot on its “Most Wired Cities” list (Wow. Tell that to THIS Raleigh. —ed.), more than 600 people flooded their Twitter streams with support, critiques and quotes from presentations, marked with the hashtag marker #igniteraleigh.
Smartphone batteries drained as Nadia Moffett, the reigning Miss North Carolina USA, and WRAL-TV meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner joined lesser known, if equally interesting, community-voted presenters such as health-enthusiast Dan Wilson and self-proclaimed redneck Jay Cuthrell.
Other brave souls touched on zombies, the importance of dumb guys in corporate America, DIY energy audits and 20 little-known facts about sex and pleasure. Some excelled, some bombed and anyone who went over their allotted five minutes was promptly cut off. (Or, in IgniteRaleigh’s case, offenders were “rickrolled,” a reference to the popular Internet prank involving the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”)
Local social media champions Kipp Bodnar, Ryan Boyles, Jeff Cohen and Wayne Sutton organized the first IgniteRaleigh in August 2009, which attracted 400 people. Find more information on the event at www.igniteraleigh.com.
In the “oh, no, not again” category of pop culture news, Kate Gosselin of “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ fame was spotted by WRAL “working” for a day in a Raleigh eatery this week, probably for some new reality show.
The hush-hush location shoot is not the only North Carolina showbiz connection for the octo-mom with the Flock of Seagulls hairdo. Her recently-canceled reality series on TLC was shot for three years by Figure 8 Films in Carrboro, which created the series. (Figure 8 did not respond to repeated requests by The Independent Weekly for an interview this year, when revelations of dad Jon Gosselin’s infidelity derailed the marriage, and, soon after, the series.)
Who wouldn’t want to live in a house where a strangely indestructible white-masked serial killer began his reign of terror? For many horror fans, Kenny Caperton is living the dream.
Caperton is the owner and proprietor of the Myers House North Carolina, a Victorian residence in rural Hillsborough designed to replicate the veneer of the house used as the residence of the Myers family in John Carpenter’s horror classics Halloween and Halloween II.
He moved into the house in March 2009. Since then, it’s served as the base for a number of local horror events, and will celebrate its first Halloween Bash starting tonight at 7:30 p.m.
The event includes screenings of the original Halloween and Halloween II, special appearances from two child actors from the horror film The Strangers, a couple of costume contests (including one based around Michael Myers, the iconic killer from the films), a memorabilia raffle and more.
Caperton says he’s heard from fans coming in from other states to attend his party: “There’s a lot of people who want to check it out. Halloween fans are just like Trekkies.” It’s only appropriate, given Myers’ look originally came from a Captain Kirk mask.
Caperton describes himself as a “crazy Halloween fan” (he even enjoys the Myers-less Halloween III: Season of the Witch). “The original Halloween has been my favorite movie my entire life,” Capterton says. “I just grew up with it. I always told everyone that if I could have any house in the world to live in, it would be the Myers house.” Continue reading »
DURHAM—At 8:30 Saturday night, Oct. 24, Michael Jackson fans gathered at The Pavilion at Durham Central Park for a tribute to the late entertainer calledThrill the World. It was a part of a worldwide event meant to synchronize participants at 12:30 a.m. UTC/GMT doing a dance similar to the one in Jackson’s “Thriller” music video.
The first“Thriller” dance took place in Toronto in 2006, in an affair that drew 62 people and set the Guinness Book of World Records’ “record” for most “Thriller” dancers in one place and time. By last year, the event had gone global and attracted more than 4,000 did the (nearly) inimitable dance.
Approximately 40 people turned out to the Durham gig, which was planned and executed locally within a span of two weeks.
Footage taken by Belem Destefani. Video produced by Belem Destefani and Sarah Ewald.
It’s the next-to-last night of the North Carolina State Fair, and my friends and I are stalking the fairgrounds in search of deep-fried butter. Everyone we’ve talked with claims that it’s here, but no one’s actually seen it.
Since Oprah Winfrey shared the flash-frozen sticks covered in batter with her audience at the Texas State Fair earlier this month, everyone has wondered if it will make its way to North Carolina. And rumors are flying around. “It’s like the Loch Ness Monster,” says James Rice of the booth Rice’s Corn and Lemonade. “Everyone claims they’ve heard it’s here, but no one’s seen it.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if deep-fried butter showed up. I remember when I was a kid and saw news reports about this new novelty item at the fair called “fried dough.” Even at a young age, it seemed weird that you could sell something that was the basic ingredient of most pastries by itself if you just deep-fried it.
Today, fried food forms the basis of most of the fair’s cuisine-the official blog for the fair is even called “Deep Fried.” As one wanders from one end of the fairgrounds to another, they might encounter the aforementioned fried dough, along with fried Oreos, fried candy bars (Snickers, Three Musketeers or Milky Way), fried pickles, fried strawberry cobbler bites, fried banana pudding bites, fried pecan pie, fried alligator tail, fried PB and J, fried Twinkies (also available frozen and dipped in chocolate) and the ever-popular fried cheeseburger on a stick.
The sticks are particularly important. The gourmands are like civil engineers of grease; if there’s a way to get something on a stick, they’ll find it. It’s simply a matter of shoving a splint of bamboo through some flash-frozen consumable before coating it in the batter of choice (usually cornmeal), and sending it on to the cauldron of trans fats. Continue reading »
Listen up high rollers, times are a-changin’ in Chatham County. The County’s no longer dry and word has it the casino’s coming to town. Tonight, Bynum Front Porch hosts its second annual casino night, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Now before the righteous citizens of Pittsboro decide it’s time for an ole timey revival, remember that gambling funds go to help the county’s kids. All money raised will fund scholarships and programming for two nonprofit community organizations, the Bynum Front Porch,and Chatham Arts Council.
Last year’s funds helped send two local young people to college, says John Winecker, event organizer and Chatham County schoolteacher.
If you’ve been watching cable news lately — you poor soul — you may be aware that four Republican lawmakers are promoting a new right-wing-media-inspired witch hunt.
No, we’re not talking about ACORN-bashing or “czar” paranoia here. Them’s old news, partner. But did … did …did you know that Muslim spies are infiltrating Congress?!
So says loon fringer David Gaubatz, co-author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America, published by World Net Daily Books. (World Net Daily, for those of you lucky enough not to know, is a “conservative ” Web site that has been pushing the “birther” meme about Obama.)
And so says Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), one of the aforementioned lawmakers, and …hmmm… author of the foreword to Gaubatz’s book. Here she is on Fox News this week, explaining her position on all those dangerous Muslim interns in Congress.
Thursday night on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, which, by the way, was pure fire from start to finish, Maddow broke the whole thing down for the sane among our populace.
Anna Wintour, in the shades (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)
The Indy’s Neil Morris reviewed RJ Cutler’s The September Issue here, and recently, Karlie Justus, the Indy’s fashion contributor, saw the film and offered her thoughts:
Fashion, as both an industry and obsession, has emerged as a popular focus of the reality television genre, with shows such as Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, The Hillsand The Rachel Zoe Project. They take us middle-Americans down the runway, behind the camera and into the sewing room, without us ever having to leave the couch.
Accordingly, The September Issue’slook into the nine-month process that went into creating Vogue’s largest issue to date doesn’t necessarily cover any new thematic territory. Television shows such as Marie Claire’s Running in Heels, Elle’s Stylista and even Seventeen’s Miss Seventeen MTV competition first presented fashion lovers with a look into the elite women’s club that makes up Condé Nast and Hearst’s top fashion publications.
However, the draw of this particular presentation lies not in its behind-the-scenes look into the day-to-day operations of a fashion magazine, as thrillingly and beautifully shot as it is; instead, The September Issue’s ultimate coup is gaining the participation of Anna Wintour, longtime editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine.
Regarded as perhaps the most important tastemaker in the $300 billion American fashion industry, Wintour is feared, revered and, up until now, largely silent behind her bluntly cut, pin-straight bob and impossibly chic ensemble. Many a blabbering sentence uttered in her presence begins with a noncommittal “I was thinking, kind of …” disclaimer, a testament to the importance of her approval to everyone-from her staff to designers as high up the couture food chain as Prada.
Director R.J. Cutler, who also filmed the Bill Clinton campaign documentary The War Room, not only opens the door to Wintour’s pristine white office, but he also shines a light on the editor’s family history, maternal instincts and thoughts on the oft-accused frivolity of the fashion industry as a whole.
Cutler’s team follows Vogue’s editorial staff on a European fashion shoot and into an exclusive annual breakfast the publication holds for influential retailers such as Nieman Marcus, and even ventures into the homes of Wintour and her creative director Grace Coddington. Beyond those (admittedly fabulous) spaces, however, the film taps into an undercurrent of the struggle of art vs. commerce, the vilification of powerful females like Wintour and Coddington and the often volatile working dynamic they share.
Despite its undeniably exhilarating look into the luxury, beauty and excess Vogue openly upholds, certain parts in the The September Issue feel manipulative and stiff, which are a result of Wintour’s obvious discomfort and occasional disdain during the one-on-one Q&As that pepper the film and the awkwardly tight, lingering shots that frame these interviews. The most telling moments come when Cutler allows Wintour’s silence to do most of the storytelling, as her steely gaze reveals much more than any of her words.
As stylish and glossy as the magazine itself, The September Issue premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where it received an award for excellence in documentary cinematography, and for good reason: Any film that combines cameos by Vera Wang, supermodels Chanel lman and Daria Werbowy, Karl Lagerfeld, Sienna Miller, Stefano Pilati, Oscar de la Renta and Isabel Toledo under the watchful eye of arguably the world’s powerful magazine editors is guaranteed to be nothing less than glamorously fabulous.
The author of Death and the Maiden, Heading South, Looking North and many other works (Wikipedia Commons)
CARTER-FINLEY STADIUM/ RALEIGH—As U2 ended its 18-song set Saturday night at Raleigh’s Carter-Finley Stadium, Bono, the band’s frontman, dedicated the night’s singing to Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean-American novelist and poet who’s taught at Duke University for more than two decades. In 1998, Bono, along with playwright Harold Pinter, contributed his voice to Deadline, a fictional film set to two of Dorfman’s poems. The evening included a litany of such dedications, including one to the brother of guitarist The Edge and to members of the United States military in attendance. Still, for a band that hasn’t played North Carolina in 26 years, the Dorfman nod was the most surprising of them all. A full review of the show will be posted soon.
A male dancer catapults himself onto a small table on center stage. He slowly moves into a handstand, then contorts himself to lay perpendicular to the stage, supported by one hand. The audience clapped and cheered. It could only be a Cirque trick.
But which Cirque?
Obviously, what comes first to mind is Cirque du Soleil. I’ve never seen Cirque du Soleil live, but I grew up devoted to it on TV. Back in Bravo’s pre-Project Runway days, they used to air a lot of Cirque du Soleil specials, thus providing one of my first introductions to what I considered avant-garde theater. However, after the movie Knocked Up associated Cirque du Soleil with a bad mushroom trip in Las Vegas, the company probably lost a little of its claim to hipness.
In the past three weeks, I’ve seen two different cirques. However, neither was a Soleil. One was a media sneak peek at an upcoming show at Durham Performing Arts Center, and one was a performance with symphony accompaniment at Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre.
The sneak peek was for a Florida-based outfit called Cirque Dreams, which has a new production it’s calling Illumination. Naturally, light is a major portion: The video consisted of glow-in-the-dark objects that resembled flags and a line drawing of stair-steps reminiscent of a page from Harold and the Purple Crayon. A character called The Director features prominently, whose main characteristic is blowing a whistle with such frequency to rival the Grandmother in The Triplets of Belleville. As much as we could glean from the film, the show is devoted to acrobatics featuring one-handed balancing acts and aerial spinning with rings and scarves.
After the video screened, three performers came onstage to entertain the audience. Two of the dancers in red hounds-tooth suits performed a pantomime involving one being controlled by the other. The third, clad in a sparkly tank top and sailor pants, balanced on a small platform and did the ever-popular one-handed handstand, gaining applause from the assembled media.
Cirque Dreams takes the stage at DPAC from Sept. 15-20. Here’s video from Illumination:
Lisa Creech Bledsoe on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": "Speed dating for the tech set," funny! Nice write up of an incredible event. I'm voting for Scrubby next year. Scrub-by, Scrub-by, Scrub-by!
Lisa aka @glowbird (the boxing chick)
DK on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": Just moved back to the Triangle from Seattle, which is where Ignite started. It kind of caught on and blew up really fast, and organizers had to keep upping the venue.
I think people have been looking for this kind of cabaret for a while. They like going somewhere and being a crowd together, and it's
Christine Fawley on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": A fabulous night highlighting the diversity of talent and intellectual pursuits here in the Triangle. An event like this could be held every month and still barely scratch the surface of the passions of our community.
We were honored to be included and appreciated the support and enthusiasm of the crowd as we delivered "20
