The set of awesome baseball flick “Bull Durham” gets makeover

The crumbling Durham Athletic Park will get some needed attention tomorrow, when Durham city officials break ground on a $5 million restoration project. In addition to providing a home to the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team from 1926 to 1994, the ballpark was also the set for Bull Durham. Yes, Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon all spent time at this historical ballpark.

The long needed renovations will “upgrade the infrastructure, restrooms, concessions and seating bowl, while at the same time create picnic areas and concourses that reflect the historic quality of the ballpark,” according to a city news release, as well as the installation of a new state-of-the-art playing field. The work is scheduled to be complete in December 2008.

After that, the ballpark will play host to all of NCCU’s home games, as well as serve as home field for the School of the Arts and for local softball and baseball leagues. It also will also continue serve as a venue for the Bull Durham Blues Festival and the World Beer Festival.

The 9 a.m. ceremony is open to the public. For directions, click here.

I appeared on MSNBC with Gov. Mike Easley today

So I’m sitting at my desk in the NBC17 newsroom, when body guards usher in Gov. Mike Easley. The state’s top elected official was appearing on MSNBC to speak about his choice to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

Anyway, Easley was nice enough. He thanked our staff for getting him situated in front of the camera. His body guards stood just to the right of him and looked out the window, whispered among themselves and occasionally glanced at the TV hanging above my desk to see how the interview was going.

Easley’s endorsement comes on the heels of Sen. Barack Obama’s well attended rally at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill (reportedly, about 18,000 people showed up). Do you think Gov. Easley’s endorsement will help Clinton’s chances in North Carolina (Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling showed Clinton trailing Obama in North Carolina by 12 points as of Monday)?

I got dirty this weekend

I love planting flowers in the spring. I’ve planted a small flower garden outside at least four of my apartments since college. There’s something soothing about getting your hands dirty, planting small flowers and watching them grow and bloom.

Below is a pic of the area I had to work with. As you can see, I had to clear a lot of pine straw and random debris from the area.

And here’s a quick recording of the work I did Sunday. I still have a long ways to go, but it’s a start.

OK. I guess I have a really long way to turn it into my own little sanctuary. Maybe my landlord should give me a break on the rent for beautifying the place. Hmmm. Now that’s an idea.

So many beers, so little time

I arrived at World Beer Festival promptly at noon on Saturday. Organizers had caged off nearly every sliver of downtown Raleigh’s Moore Square with a chain link fence, and all I wanted to do was be inside it. But as my friend Graham and I rounded the corner, we saw the line of the other thirsty festival-goers snaking around a parking lot. We stood patiently in line waiting for our chance to turn over our tickets for one of the small, plastic beer glasses that would be holding our brews all day. The line moved quickly, and soon we were ushered into a tent lined on both sides with brewers ready to pour us as many different varieties of beer as we were willing to drink.

Soon we were sipping on stouts, pale ales and porters from the likes of the Starr Hill Brewery in Charlottesville, Va. to Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont, Colorado. And by sipping, I truly mean chugging. We walked downtown to avoid the inevitable parking hassle a festival-filled Saturday would bring and because of the inevitable beer buzz created by four hours of drinking. So after making the trek in the heat, we were thirsty. The day was punctuated by the sound of volunteers emptying recycling bins causing the glass bottles to clank together a medley that made the crowd erupt with cheers (take a listen below).

After throwing back a few tasty brews, it was time to leave the tent and see what the food vendors had to offer. Graham was satisified with some vegetarian samosas, while I opted for a chicken gyro. It was at that point that beer fest got three times better. Only after stepping outside our original beer-filled tent did I discover that there were TWO MORE huge tents filled with brewers and beer.We wandered in and out of the beer havens for the next four hours. Taking needed brakes in the shade, munching on food and, of course, braving the long bathroom lines. I wish I had kept better track of the beers I drank, because there were so many delicious brews I’d like to seek out again. But there was one that I was so smitten with, that I’ll never forget: the Vanilla Porter by Breckenridge Brewery in Denver, Colorado. It was chocolately with an smooth vanilla finish and was the only beer I got refills of.

As 4 o’clock rolled around, we were tired, bloated by beer and ready to go. I called Raleigh Rickshaw for a ride, and we rolled to the furthest edge of downtown, then stumbled the rest of the way home. Here’s a clip from the ride home:

And finally, here’s a cool video made with pictures I snapped throughout the day using animoto. I was introduced to this site a while back by blogger and beautiful picture taker Abby, and finally tried it out. See the rest of my Beer Fest pictures on Flickr.

Were you at beer fest? What did you think?

A glimpse inside the breakroom refrigerator

Warning, watching this video means you’re giving up one minute of your life that you’ll never get back.

Is this sort of how your company’s refrigerator looks? Do you still carry a lunchbox?

Three reasons I love the Triangle (in pictures)

1. Because it’s entirely possible to go to a fashion show based on the theme of using plastic bags. This show was at the Whole Foods in Raleigh on Earth Day.

2. Because Durham residents are so passionate about local politics that they will go to great lengths to display their support.

3. Because you can go to a wine fest one weekend (this pic was taken at the Great Grapes! fest in Cary last Saturday), then go to the World Beer Festival the following weekend (I’ll be at the Raleigh event from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday).

What are three reasons why you love the Triangle (or greater Triangle area)?

Does the public really get to help pick Durham’s next city manager?

The finalists for Durham’s vacant city manager post will be announced Monday, April 28, according to a news release from city officials. This is exciting news for anyone who pays attention to Durham city government since it’s been a little over four months since city manager Patrick Baker announced that he was resigning. At the time, Mayor Bill Bell pledged to fill the post by the end of June 2008, the Independent Weekly reported.

Also on Monday, the city is also inviting the public and city employees to a forum to ask the finalists questions from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Here’s what annoys me a little (this is my reporter side kicking in). Why is the city choosing to release the names of the finalists on the SAME DAY as the forum? That doesn’t really give the public and employees time to Google the candidates and find out information about their backgrounds that may not be included in their resumes.

Back in 2005, when the city was looking for a city manager to replace Marcia Conner, it announced the finalists two days before the public forum, giving the public (and reporters) ample time to research the finalists before asking their questions. Here’s the article I wrote(PDF) following the ‘05 forum back when I was a reporter for the Herald-Sun.

On the bright side, I think it’s impressive that city leaders are keeping the process somewhat open to the public. Often hiring decisions like these are made with little to no input from the public, so it’s cool that Durham continues to let residents participate in the process.

That being said, does the public really get to help pick Durham’s next city manager? Not really. That’s up to the city council to decide. I guess, in theory, if the public made a big enough stink about one of the candidates that the council may bow to pressure and not pick that candidate.

Still, I wonder how much value the folks in Durham place on having a finalists forum? In 2005, about 120 people showed up. How many do you think will come Monday night?

Scooby Doo took a bike ride to work with me today

I rode my purple beach cruiser to work today. You may remember that I took it to the bike shop a few weeks ago to be repaired, and even though they didn’t do a very good job, I decided to chance it and give up my car for the day.

It cost me $35 to fill up my VW Golf yesterday, so something has to change.

So I filled up the Scooby Doo book bag my sister gave me a few years ago and hit the streets. It was pretty fun, especially when I was going down hill.

I can’t promise this biking to work thing is going to become a regular part of my routine. First, my bike is one speed, which makes getting up the hills a bit of a challenge (though avid-biker Donald swears it’ll get easier after two weeks). Second, I was a little sweaty by the time I got to the station, and it wasn’t even hot or humid out this morning. So I can’t imagine how icky I’d be during the summer. There’s no shower at work.

It took about 30 minutes, but of course I had to stop and take pictures. I think if I stick with it, I can make it to work in 20 minutes, which isn’t bad.

(I took a pic of my Scooby Doo bag because I think it’s too funny that it’s the only book bag I own).

If any of you can offer some tips on how to bike to work on warm mornings and still manage to look somewhat fashionable, I’m all ears. I know I’ll need a bigger bag, but cramming clothes, shoes, make-up and all my work gear into one bag might become tricky.

This fashion show gives new meaning to “bag lady”

Need something to do with all those plastic grocery bags hanging out at your house now that you’ve ditched them in favor of reusable shopping bags? How about turning them into dresses? That’s what students at Meredith College and N.C. State University did Tuesday as part of an Earth Day fashion show.

The “Bag-out In Style” fashion show was thrown by the Whole Foods Market in Raleigh to celebrate it’s new no-plastic grocery bag policy, which went into effect yesterday.

The winner was Kristina Illiev, who weaved together white plastic bags to make the top of the dress and then made big, frilly flowers for the skirt.

So have you given up plastic bags yet? I sorta have. I bought several sturdy bags that I take grocery shopping with me. But I need to get in the habit of bringing them with me to all the stores I shop at.

Whining about Wine Fest

I stuffed myself with some BBQ Saturday afternoon, hoping to prevent a hangover from all the wine I assumed I’d be drinking at the “Great Grapes! Wine, Arts & Food Festival” at the Koka Booth Ampitheatre at Regency Park in Cary, NC. Turns out that wouldn’t be a problem because most of the wines were much too sweet for my taste. The featured wines were all produced by North Carolina wine makers, many of whom fancy the muscadine — a gross-tasting grape of sorts that is fancied by many in North Carolina (clearly not by me, though).

I still had fun at the festival, thanks in part to the grape stomping contest, which featured NBC17’s morning anchor Donald Jones. I’m lucky because my shift briefly overlaps with Donald’s, so for a couple hours each morning I’m entertained by his antics. Donald has an incredible sense of humor and makes mornings much more fun.

Donald is an avid cyclist, and he disclosed after the contest that he biked 42 miles earlier in the day. So all the stomping you see him doing in this video is after an already busy day for him. BTW, Donald also blogs about his cycling ways.