i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

I know I have North Carolinians -- both natives and long-term residents, and ex-natives and ex-long term residents -- reading this, so I've got a question for you: where are your favorite secret places in North Carolina? Where can I go take pictures that I might not already be aware of?

I'm particularly interested in small towns that have been around a while, have traditional "downtown" areas with older buildings/signs/what have you, or might have interesting decaying bits, and in places where we could do a little nature walking without having to be, you know, hardcore hikers. Extra extra bonus points for places within 25-30 miles of Chapel Hill/Carrboro -- I'm mostly looking for half-day trips -- but I'm willing to go further if someplace is totally awesome. (Anything neat on the coast or up in the mountains that could be made a weekend trip also welcome.)

I've already spent time in Pittsboro, Hillsborough, Bynum, Siler City, the state park area around the Haw River on 15-501 before Pittsboro, the back roads between the CH and those places, and of course Jordan Lake. I'm looking for new places; can you guys tell me any? Does, like, Mebane have an actualfax downtown? All I know of Mebane is that stretch right by I-40 where the Sonic and all the cheap gas stations are. (Mmmm. Sonic.) Are there any cool little festivals that you know about, ala Benson Mule Days? (I am weirdly obsessed with the idea of Mule Days. I find it totally hilarious.) Can anyone tell me exactly, in very small words and great detail, how to find the cement hippo in Bolin Creek Park? What about Durham County outside of the actual city of Durham? Oh, and has anybody been out to the Orange County Speedway? Is it awesome? Should shep. and I go?

things that traveller thinks about when she thinks about me:

( five things )

i can't promise to give you topics but if you'd like me to talk about anything else that you associate with me, say the five things and i will try.

now i have to buckle down and get some work done, because i am hoping to skip out of the office early and watch the first couple of innings of the carolina baseball game before i go home.

It's easier to pretend that my disjointed brain isn't really that disjointed if I letter the list:

1. The weekend's run of shows: [Holy Ghost Tent Revival CD Release Show] and [The Old Ceremony @ the Local 506].
   
   
2. The Old Ceremony set proves that the 506 is capable of lighting the stage in ways that don't make everyone on it look sunburnt and/or bloody; and yet, they rarely do. RED GELS ARE NOT ALWAYS THE ANSWER, 506.
   
   
3. To head west from Carrboro and the CH -- to Greensboro or Winston-Salem, places we often and occasionally, respectively, see shows -- you have to drive out NC 54 about 25 miles until it connects to I-85/40 in Graham. There's this church towards the western end of that stretch of 54 that always has a sign up outside that says GOATS 4 SALE, except that on Friday it said XMAS SPECIAL - HALF PRICE - GOATS 4 SALE. Anybody need a two-for-one special on goats? TWO FOR ONE GOATS BOUGHT FROM A CHURCH, THEY GOTTA BE HOLY GOATS, RIGHT? :D? :D? *rim shot* *echoing silence in wake of terrible pun*
   
   
4. Obligatory paragraph about college football: I think there are profound and sad and scary things to be said about Auburn hiring Coach 5-19 to replace Tommy and his $5.1 million buyout instead hiring of, say, Turner Gill (too smart to take that job anyway) or Charlie Strong (too smart to jump inside the SEC), but the things that need to be said make me so frustrated and blindingly angry that I can't discuss them rationally, so instead I'm just trying to focus on the inexplicable Muschamp-to-Auburn rumor from last week that obviously got started when the Auburn AD said, "We're hiring our former D-Coordinator!" Sadly, the defensive coordinator they hired: not nearly as awesome as Boom, Motherfucker!. And Auburn now: the laughing stock of the SEC, on so many well-deserved levels. I liked this search better when I thought the AD was just trolling the fan base for the lolz. Now it just makes me depressed, and I'm not even an Auburn fan.
   
   
5. The more I listen to Folie a Deux, the more it grows on me. Oh, Peter, you made a damn good album.
   
   
6. Once again it is Monday, and down here today it's sort of mild and it smells like it rained last night (which it did), and I would so much rather be in a car off to take pictures somewhere than I would be at work.

I guess I should go buckle down and get something done in the office, right? That's what they pay me for, after all.

Dean Smith made basketball a religion in our family, rivaled only by Presbyterianism, barbeque, and the Democratic Party. For many years, our dream scenario had gone something like this: Dean beats archrival Duke and its coach, the detested Mike Krzyzewski, for the national championship in April, then runs for the Senate (for which he had long been rumored a candidate) and whips the antediluvian Jesse Helms in November! Then we all eat barbeque from Allen & Sons, on Highway 86, to celebrate. Then we go to church to thank God for sending us this wry Kansan to make our state safe for hoops and liberals. Sadly, this never happened. -- Will Blythe, from To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever

The game is diminished by the senseless murder of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson this week; there are more important things happening here than the game, but in the end, it is still the game, and it still matters. This game is a constant, a fixed star. Go Heels. Beat Duke.

four days and five games later (we skipped game 3 of the six game series, wcu v. jacksonville, on saturday), i have 240 photos from the ncaa baseball chapel hill regional; some good, some bad, some of inanimate objects, some of delicious catcher butt (some catchers pictured may not be able to legally purchase beer yet, please ogle at your own discretion).

also acquired or produced over the last four days: serious sleep deprivation; a slightly bizarre farmer's tan; sunburnt boobs; a strong desire to spend all of next weekend sitting in the bosh again, watching the super regional; a freakishly exploded obsession with college baseball; 5400 words of mckay/sheppard that will hopefully get finished off tomorrow. it was worth every penny i spent this weekend. A+, would watch carolina win a regional again.

but now i gotta sleep. i have some things to say about last week's studio 60, especially the last ten minutes, but i can't quite formulate them yet. tomorrow, my darlings, i promise. for the moment, i sleep.

(insidian, call me tomorrow. all the giraffes and llamas for you.)

i spent basketball season talking a lot of shit about virginia tech, but right now my heart and my thoughts and my prayers go out to everyone there, and their families, and their friends. flist, i hope everyone you know and love is safe right now.

there are really no words for this. i watch the tv and think, i just don't understand.

i *heart* waffle house.

carolina runs a lot of sports camps in the summers; mostly women's soccer and basketball (for men and women), but some others, too. this week, though, it seems to be a women's basketball camp, and there are girls in basketball shorts and high tops all over campus. there are a few high school age teams, but mostly i've seen middle school teams, and all the girls are at that stage where they're still coltish, some of them grown into adult height but not yet into adults. it's that age where they're not self-conscious about their bodies, at all, really, and it's been a joy to watch these unselfconscious, strong athletes laughing and shoving at each other. not in a creepy way, i swear, just in that way where - i mostly don't hate my body, but i don't love all of it either, and it's nice to see these girls before they hit that stage. i don't remember that age much at all; i was pretty miserable for most of it, and these girls at least seem happy. it's refreshing.

it's hot here, sweltering heat that fuses to your skin as soon as you step outside, and i'm still slogging through thomas wolfe's look homeward, angel (and wolfe, ha, was an answer on jeopardy last night!), which is good but slow going. i'm feeling terribly fond of the south this week, fond of the slow pace of life and the humid air and how green everything is, and so this week's top five: top five greatest songs about place. greatest = best ever or greatest = your personal favorites or greatest = some combination of the two, and place equals however you want to interpret it.

my list (for values of "greatest" equalling "my personal favorites"):

1. "thrice all-american", neko case & her boyfriends. buildings are empty like ghettos or ghost-towns/it gives me a chill to think what was inside/i can't seem to fathom the dark of my history/i invented my own in tacoma

2. "california (part two)", mason jennings. 'cause others may know where you've been, but honey, i know where you're from/you're from california

3. "lakes of pontchartrain", the be good tanyas. and i fell in love with a creole girl, by the lakes of pontchartrain

4."every fucking city", paul kelly. now i'm in a bar in copenhagen trying hard to forget your name/and i'm staring at the label on a bottle of cerveza and every fucking city feels the same

5. "carolina in the morning", al jolson. nothing could be finer than to be in carolina in the morning

honorable mention to mike doughty's "busting up a starbucks" for namechecking piscataway, which never fails to crack me up.

OKAY, NOW YOU GO. talk amongst yourselves while i'm off installing color management software in another library.

( walk the line )

( nip/tuck season one through sophia lopez ii )

( a brief moment re: my personal life )

april and i had wild adventures finding the waffle house at 54 and fayetteville (how hard can it be to find a waffle house? REALLY HARD, apparently) yesterday, but it was eventually located and breakfast was consumed, and can i just say? i love waffle house so much. SO MUCH. if i was to make a list of things i love most about living in the south, that list would look something like a.) waffle house b.) cheerwine c.) sweet tea d.) free tickets to carolina basketball games e.) grits. four of five? food products of some variety. that's the way to my heart, man. FOOD PRODUCTS.

i finished one of three big final projects yesterday, so i devoted the remainder of the evening to resurrecting two half-finished due south stories and thinking about THE HAIR. i made minimal progress re: the stories, but i made excellent progress contemplating THE HAIR and my apparent future as a writer who produces nothing but epic john sheppard gen stories. i'm tackling the annotated bibliography tonight and then i'm taking the rest of the week off to think about THE HAIR, damn it.

anyway. in conclusion, ray kowalski. seriously. i'm going to finish those stories if it kills me.

the bulk of sorority rush started last night, which is sort of disconcerting. hundreds of undergrads running around campus and franklin street in little black dresses. i'm not anti-sorority, i never have been, but i don't think i would have been happy in one and i'm glad i didn't do my undergrad somewhere like carolina where it is a massive part of the undergraduate social life. but i see these little girls, and some of them look so obviously miserable to be going through this, and i want to walk up to them, right in the middle of the lectures from the girls running rush, and say, "why are you doing this, honey? because your mom did it? because you're afraid you won't have friends if you don't? that's stupid. if you don't want to do this, don't. you'll have friends. you'll be happy."

i can't, of course, but i think about it whenever i see them. and last night i almost ran one over on my way home from campus - she was walking IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET - and it just. i don't get it. i really don't. and it makes me sad that some of these girls think they have to do this, when they really don't.

anyway. due south. etc.

( more about due south season one, the gift of the wheelman through the blue line )

here's a tip, though, due south writers: you ever write about ray or the other ray and fraser driving on a highway in chicago? ain't nobody in chicago drives on numbered highways. they drive on the dan ryan and the kennedy and the edens and the eisenhower and the stevenson. those highways have numbers, too, but nobody who's a chicago native will ever, ever, ever use the numbers instead of the names. but don't ask me which is which - i'm not a native, i don't fucking know, and the last time i tried to take the eisenhower out to the west side, i ended up in milwaukee instead.

in entirely unrelated news, sometimes dusty baker is really smart (see also: thanks beautiful at third base, even though i don't really want to think about aramis ramirez's future with the cubs if nomar is moving to third permanently) and sometimes he is really fucking dumb. ( blah blah blah cubs )

i've started watching the shitty wgn ten pm news just because i get to see home. how pathetic is that?

what is with me and these epic entires lately? i have no idea. sorry, kids.