The Sera Jey Monastery Monks, mentioned below, will be taking down their sand mandala tomorrow (Thursday December 1 at 5 pm at the University Mall). There is quite a ceremony that goes along with this destruction of a mandala which includes singing, horn blowing, and eventually walking to a nearby creek to give the same back to the earth.
Month: November 2005 (Page 1 of 3)
Sylvia writes to alert us to the reappearance of the Shiwa Tour: The Way of Tibetan Peace and Healing at University Mall. Sponsored by Raleigh’s Kadampa Center, the monks will be in the mall making a mandala from November 28 through December 1.
Or as SlashDot puts it Diebold threatens to pull out of North Carolina. Why? Because state law here requires that all voting systems used in NC must reveal their code. This was enacted in response to the loss of significant votes in several NC counties in the last election.
The Slashdotters have a lot to say about this.
I have a category dedicated to the “Is Your Vote Counted?” discussions in NC and nationally that took place last year at about this time.
Leslee Farish write to alert us that Michael Parker will read from his story Hidden Meanings: Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the Song “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More Big Fat Woman.” I blogged about being delighted by this story when I read it in the Oxford American back in January.
Who: Michael Parker, UNC alumnus, award-wining novelist and fiction professor in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s MFA writing program
What: Parker will read from his story Hidden Meanings: Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the Song “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More Big Fat Woman.” He will also be hosting a discussion focusing on the issues raised in the story: body image, stress, family life, and relationships, in addition to sharing his own thoughts and feelings about the piece.
When: Noon, Friday, December 2
Where: the Mary Turner Lane Reading and Resource Room at the Carolina Women’s Center 134 East Franklin St, Suite 215
The Independent has a nice write up on Roger McGuinn’s visit to Jocelyn Neal’s History of Country Music class in late October. A timeless visit, I guess ;->.
Michael Newton’s State of Things session on the Afro-Celts is now available for download.
With the blazing new roads that now take us to the Lone Cedar Restaurant at legal speeds of up to 70 mph, the trip out to Ocracoke is a much faster one than advertized. Of course the reduced ferry schedule nearly makes up for the time savings. We made it to the Ocracoke – Hatteras ferry at 4 past 7 am this morning. In time to see the ferry round the end of the island. The next ferry was at 8 am. Luckily the friendly station mistress was generous enough to share some of her coffee and some talk.
We still made it to Chapel Hill in record (for us) time and in time for Tucker to get to his afternoon meeting.
Is not having all of your parts. So goes the chorus of the sing-a-long song from Capt. Rob Temple of the Red Sailed Schooner, Windfall, as he and his daughter led us all at the Ocrafolk Festival Thanksgiving Concert last night. The sold out show at the Community Center featured all kinds of local Ocracoke talent lead by the Molasses Creek folks — Fiddler Dave and Gary Mitchell. Lou Castro of Coyote added slide and dobro to a lot of the selections. Martin Garrish and his 80+ year old uncle Jule sang together. Donald Davis told a wonderful tale of deception over a red coat. Roy Parsons who is easily as old as Jule Garrish and then some played his famous single chord. Cheryl Roberts showed the crowd that a fiddle can be a violin and can play more than bluegrass (not that bluegrass is bad, but she def took us down a classical track with a bit of new Old Time tossed in).
This was a fundraiser for the upcoming 2006 Ocrafolk Music and Storytelling Festival to be held June 3 and 4 on the Island.
Ocracoke’s most ambitious pirate providers, Teach’s Hole, had warned me that they were being ousted by their landlord during our last visit. So I wasn’t surprised to see a For Rent sign on their building on the Back Road. But I was surprised to learn that the new big red building with black trim on the Main Road, the Garrish Road, Hiway 12, was to be their new home. Their warehouse and internet business will be upstairs and downstairs will be the shop, much larger of course, and the Pirate Exhibit greatly expanded. The new place is right across from the Variety Store.
Coming to Ocracoke after about 18 months off island brings some surprises. First the Jolly is closed for Thanksgiving as is the Silver Lake Hotel which is part of the same enterprise. Next we walked over to the lighthouse and noticed that Albert Stryon’s Store is now a printing company. “No longer retail” reads the sign on the steps. Along the road on the point, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trustees have purchased some property and made a nice walk out to the inlet available. Along the way is the grave of Sam Jones who is seriously awaiting resurection. The rumor is that Sam is buried with his horse. At the blast of Gabriel’s trumpet, Sam will jump on the horse and ride to Glory. Teach’s Hole our favorite pirate store gave us a scare. They has a For Rent sign on their building. Our last trip they told us that their landlord was going to boot them and install a bakery in their place. Our waitress at the Pelican, where we had a grand Thanksgiving dinner, told us that Teach’s would be moving to the Main Road up across from the Variety Store.
[more tomorrow]
It’s a long ways from here. Expect no blogging.
Philip Howard reminds us that 287 years ago today, Edward Teach was shot, stabbed and finally beheaded by Lt. Robert Maynard. According to Cpt. Robert Temple, Blackbeard aka Teach swam around the ship seven times supposedly seeking out his head.
We’ll be on Ocracoke tomorrow with our heads — and with this weather our hats on.
Chris Roush at Talking Biz News has a nice linked article about covering holiday retail stories and gives hints to reporters that might be assigned to report on shopping and retail from the day after Thanksgiving through the day after Christmas.
Sylvia pulled Sally and me out of the crowd and took a couple of pictures of us at the Tyndall Galleries Holiday Show on Sunday.
Later on Sylvia’s group, the Janes (no relation to Jane Tyndall), sang a set, then Sylvia and jazz pianist Chris Reynolds sang some duets. We had to run out before the duets really got going.
The great thing about the Holiday Show is that all the artists show up and hang out. And you get a good selection of all the work that Jane Tyndall represents.
When Sally and I were in Chicago, we went to Wired’s NextFest where we met Hubo the Korean robot and the famous Philip K Dick Android who were briefly united. Now months later George Bush is in Korea and shakes hands with Albert Hubo; that is Hubo with the head (from what looks like the same face-makers as did Dick) of Albert Einstein.
Tucker and the North Carolina Boys Choir are on NBC-17 singing at Streets at Southpoint(e) aka Darth Mall. The Boys sang the Carol of the Bells among other Christmas songs.
Their big concert at Duke Chapel will be on Monday, December 19, 2005 at 7:30pm.
Yes you can buy tickets from us. Drop me a line or a comment.
Phil Howard at the VillageCraftsmen on Howard Street on Ocracoke Island writes about street names on the Island and recounts some local history. He sells a lot of books about the Island at his craft store (and on the web) too.
Good news for Libertarians, Civil and otherwise, “A near-agreement to extend the controversial Patriot Act was blocked Friday by an odd-bedfellows coalition of liberals and conservatives who protested that it did too little to protect Americans’ civil liberties.” Reports Jill Zuckerman of the Chicago Trib as carried by the San Jose Mercury News.
Sally Greene has the best post and essay coming from Michael Newton’s Afro-Celt talk.
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