Tag: Durham

Check me out on the High Heeled Traveler!

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast of ALL DRAGON*CON ALL THE TIME to bring you this guest post I did on the Durham arts scene  for my friend Jamie’s blog, The High Heeled Traveler.

Jamie and I met in the undergraduate art history program at the University of Florida, where we bonded over our shared fabulousness and love of shoes and Fragonard.

Lookit us, we were definitely in college.

Since college Jamie has lived in NYC and D.C., working at places such as Sotheby’s and the Corcoran Gallery.  Nowadays she’s a freelance writer and blogger, and she chronicles her love of fashion, food, art, and travel on her blog.  So, go check out my article, and then stay awhile to read more about Jamie’s adventures, I promise you’ll have a good time!

Thanks, Jamie, for letting me have some space on your blog!

Durham Art Walk

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Hey guys.  So the reason I’ve been so busy at work?  I’m planning the Durham Art Walk, which is this weekend!  10-5 on Saturday and 1-5 on Sunday and if you live in the area you absolutely must come!  I’ll be at the Durham Arts Council most of time, but there are tons of great events all over downtown Durham!  So check out the website and come to downtown, and stop by the DAC and say hi, I’ll be the freckled girl trying not to panic!

I’ll post more about my NYC trip next week, I promise!  In the meantime, I hope y’all have a great weekend!

Marry Durham One Year Anniversary

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On March 19th, 2011, a mass of Durhamites gathered on Rigsbee near Motorco and Fullsteam to marry Durham–to pledge to live a conscious, sustainable, community-focused, Durham-loving lifestyle.  I was not at Marry Durham because I was in D.C., visiting some friends.  Luckily, Marry Durham held its one-year anniversary this past Saturday, and I was able to attend.  Since Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, the anniversary celebration had a green tinge to it, but for those of us think St. Patrick’s Day is dumb (truly, it is the frattiest and bro-iest “holiday” ever) the event thankfully had more of a Durham feeling than a frat-boy Irish feeling.

We arrived a little late, and so missed the parade and the brief vow renewal service.  However, we got there in time to grab a pretzel from Cafe Prost (a new-ish food truck that does good, fresh soft pretzels) to see the klezmer band Freylach Time play at Fullsteam.  Klezmer is the music you associate with traditional Jewish celebrations–Hava nagilah etc.  I was all over that, lord knows I love my people’s music.  They were awesome.  People danced, I danced too!

There was a lot of anti-Amendment 1 protesting going on at the event, which was positive; Amendment 1 is this horrible thing that is maybe happening in North Carolina that not only will write a statement defining marriage as ONLY between a man and a woman into the state constitution, but will also do a bunch of other awful things that you can read about here.   Anyways, I’m all about anti-Amendment 1, but all the lovely people–including this woman and her awesome cake hat–were basically preaching to the choir.  The Marry Durham celebration wasn’t really a place where pro-Amendment 1 people would hang out, I’d love to take the message to them. Regardless, VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 1 FOR REALSIES Y’ALL.

Anyways, enough politics, here are more dancing photos.

A lot of people were dressed up, either in St. Patrick’s Day themed garb or in wedding garb, like the very committed woman above and this awesome lady in her awesome dress and awesome mask.

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Liberty Arts Grand Opening

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I’ve posted about Third Fridays in Durham before, they are always happening events, especially down by Golden Belt.  This past Third Friday was the Liberty Arts grand re-opening.  Liberty Arts is a metal foundry and iron-working studio that was a Durham institution, until a set of violent storms last year caused its roof to collapse.  Liberty Arts decided to move from its location near Central Park to a fantastic new space in the Golden Belt facilities.  Their grand opening celebration on Friday drew a huge crowd.

A number of food trucks, including The Parlour, Pie Pushers, and Only Burger, were on hand to keep everyone fed.  The weather was unbelievably nice for mid-March, so tons of people were sitting outside.

Lots was happening inside Liberty Arts: glass blowing, metal working, and other demonstrations.  The artists also had lots of pieces hanging around to look at.

I particularly liked this big wax mold of The Last Supper, I thought it looked like a big chocolate bar.

Durham’s own Luchadoras, the group of female masked wrestlers in the Mexican Lucha Libre style, were on hand in black evening gowns and sparkly masks.  I saw a bunch of them roaming around the Golden Belt area, they weren’t there to wrestle, I think they were just enjoying a night on the town.

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