Southern Kind of Life

Durham, unfortuantely, has been somewhat at a disadvantage to the rest of the Triangle area with respect to DSL service. Verizon’s DSL service has always been fairly bad. Friends of mine that have worked at ISPs in the area have been universal in their dislike of Verizon’s DSL service.  Other areas of the triangle have been getting some competition to Time Warner Cable’s internet with the rollout of AT&T’s UVerse service which provides internet and cable over fiber optic lines.  I had hoped that Durham would get Verizon’s equivalent FiOS which is also a fiber to the home service.  However, it looks like Verizon has decided to pull the plug and sell all its customers in NC (and other states) to Frontier Communications. Whether this is good or bad for Durham remains to be seen, however a similar divestment in the north east has not gone very well. So, we’ll have to see how things go. I wish we could get something similar to Wilson’s Greenlight here in Durham as I think it would really differentiate us and encourage more people to consider moving to Durham, but I don’t hold out any hope that our elected leaders can be that forward thinking.

By way of newraleigh.com, it looks like Tori Amos will be coming to the Durham Performing Arts Center at the end of July. I haven’t seen her in concert since moving to Durham from the DC area in 1998, but I remember she had a good show then. I wonder what her stuff is like now.

I filled up my car’s gas tank this morning at the Circle K at Hwy 55 and Cornwallis Road. When I was taking my son to school they had the best gas price at $1.989/gallon but by the time I got there it had gone up to $1.999/gallon, matching the other two gas stations at that corner. While I was filling up, though, I had the pump automatically stop a couple of times at the highest pump level (when the tank was obviously not full) so I put the pump on the lowest pump level. My mistake was then to walk around the car to get my logbook. A UPS driver who was on the opposite side of the pump came out a few minutes ago and got my attention. It was a good thing too since the pump was overflowing out of my gas tank! It looked like I lost about a good 2-4 gallons on the ground!

So, if you’re pumping your gas, it’s probably not a good idea to leave the pump unattended.

Inside Streets at Southpoint (HDR)
© Steve W

I see from the Independent this morning that the owner of Southpoint Mall has declared bankruptcy. It says their malls will continue to operate while they reorganize. I don’t really know, but it seems to me that SouthPoint seems to be doing ok. At the very least, it’s always hard to find a parking spot there. It looks like mall performance wasn’t what did the company in, but rather that they financed their growth using short term loans and were unable to roll over the debt into new loans. So, now, they’re looking to sell malls to pay off their debts. Here’s hoping that a buyer for SouthPoint can be found soon.

Me

So, apparently, there’s a blogger bash at the DPAC tonight (also see facebook event) organized by 30Threads. I almost forgot about it but thankfully remembered it yesterday! Maybe this event will be a good kickstart for me to get back to blogging. Anyway, if you’re there, please say hello.  I’ll be the guy from the picture on the right.

Prairie Home Companion at the Town Hall Theater in NYC – December 12, 2008
©Arthur

If you haven’t been to the DPAC yet, you might want to consider going on May 9th.  It was just announced that in association with WUNC radio, Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion will be coming to the DPAC.    Tickets won’t go on sale until March 2nd but when they do you can get them at the DPAC tickets page.

I had heard rumors of this a few months ago, but had thought they fell through.  It’s nice to see they were correct.  A Prairie Home Companion is my son’s favorite show and he just picked up two books by Garrison Keillor at the Book Exchange in their going out of business sale.

Business Week has a new story up on how Some Cities Will Be Safer in a Recession. Of note is that they ranked Durham as #3 on their list of safe cities citing the academic and medical connections in town. I’m not sure how accurate they will turn out to be, but one can always hope.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving by the 55/54 intersection in south Durham and noticed that the Burger King and Crown gas station had suddenly disappeared! The two plots right next to each other have been completely plowed under and not even the asphalt is left. I’m very curious to know just what happened and what will be done with the site.

Of course, my track record with that intersection is fairly bad (even though I drive through it every weekday). The Taco Bell there burned down a few months ago and I didn’t notice until they were rebuilding it.

So, we’ll just have to see what happens with it.

Oh, and happy 2009!

Just a quick note to point out two reviews of musical concerts from this past weekend:

• Durham Symphony
• Duke University String School

Interestingly enough, the concert for the Duke String School got a review while the 3 full performances of Handel’s Messiah, presented by the Duke Chapel Choir, did not.  Something’s a bit wrong there.

The Christmas season is upon us and that means Christmas concerts. This weekend there are three performances of the entire Handel’s Messiah by the Duke Chapel Choir at Duke Chapel. In addition the Durham Symphony will be performing their annual holiday pops concert at the Carolina Theater on Friday evening. Featuring former Miss NC Elizabeth Grayson and guest conductor Fouad Fakhouri the Durham Symphony will perform Christmas favorites along with Beethoven’s first symphony. The concert starts at 7pm and tickets can be bought at the door or online at the Durham Symphony website. There will also be a silent auction at intermission to raise money for the symphony.