The Carolina Hurricanes this week announced a 66-game television package for the upcoming season. One game will be in HD on Versus, while the others will appear on FSN. (Last season Time Warner Cable showed HD hockey from FSN on channel 291, normally MOJO-HD)

Accordingly, the downloadable and Google calendars for the Hurricanes’ upcoming season have been updated (version 8/29/08) the TV information. Additionally, I’ve created a home-only version of the schedule. Follow the link below for the updated schedules. If you already have implemented the old schedule, simply delete all of the events in that schedule, but not the folder, then import the new schedule to the empty folder.

Link to updated downloadable Hurricanes schedules

The North Carolina Symphony takes the stage at 7:00 for tonight’s free Pops In The Park performance. The event takes place at Cary’s Booth Amphitheatre, and features the Legends of Beach, an 8-member all-star beach music lineup. The group consists of:

• Jackie Gore (lead singer, former Ember) - writer and original lead voice on the beach music classic, “I Love Beach Music”.
• Gerald Davis (former Ember)
• Jeff Grimes (former Ember)
• Mark Black (former Ember)
• Johnny Barker - wrote the beach music classic, “Summertime’s Calling Me”.
• Tony Davis (drums)
• Rusty Smith (trumpet)
• Jason Moore (sax)
• Steve Davis - former sound technician with the Embers for 20 years.

Gates open at 4:30 for the event and local performers will take the stage at 5pm. WRAL, a chief sponsor, will broadcast their coverage of the concert on Monday at 7pm and on 9/18 at 10:00p. Booth Amphitheatre has a varying policy on items allowed, but for this event, lawn chairs, blankets, small umbrellas, food, and beverages are allowed.

Weather may be a factor. Follow the latest reports at WRAL’s weather site. Here is a link to the Wake County doppler radar.

The Raleigh Wide Open III celebration begins Friday, and contains a schedule of incredibly diverse events for almost every type of person in Raleigh. Not only will with the outdoor festivities begin at Noon on Friday, the new convention center’s first event, the International Festival and Raleigh World Wide Expo will begin then, too.

Schedule subject to change

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008

• Noon Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
• 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Naturalization Ceremony (Cabarrus St. Lobby of Convention Center)
• 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Raleigh Wide Open III (Fayetteville St. and downtown)
• 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Music and Entertainment — Three stages, more than 30 local and national acts.
• Noon – 10:00 p.m. International Festival and Raleigh World Wide Expo (Convention Center)
• 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. Kids’ Zone and Carnival (Wilmington St. and Lenoir St.)
• 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Arrested Development on WRAL/MIX Fireworks Stage, Alternative music on Cherry Bounce Stage
• 8:30 – 10:00 p.m. Chuck Berry on WRAL/MIX Fireworks Stage, Annuals on Cherry Bounce Stage
• 8:30 – 10:00 p.m. Movie in Moore Square: Shrek the Third
• 10:00 p.m. Fireworks

Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008

• 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Raleigh Wide Open III (Fayetteville St. and downtown)
• 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Music and Entertainment — Three stages, more than 30 local and national acts
• 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. International Festival and Raleigh World Wide Expo (Convention Center)
• 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Kids’ Zone and Carnival
• 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Parade (Starts on Hillsborough St. near the Capitol and travels down Fayetteville St. to the new Convention Center.)
• 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Soul Asylum on WRAL/MIX Fireworks Stage, Alternative music on Cherry Bounce Stage
• 8:30 – 10:00 p.m. Lou Gramm on WRAL/MIX Fireworks Stage, Islands on Cherry Bounce Stage
• 8:30 – 10:00 p.m. Movie in Moore Square: Transformers
• 10:00 p.m. Fireworks

Cherry Bounce Stage

As the schedule states, there are two performance stages, the Fireworks stage (sponsored by WRAL), and the Alternative Music stage (Cherry Bounce). The exact schedule for Cherry Bounce is not set, however some bands have been set. On Friday, Raleigh’s Annuals will headline. Bleeding Hearts, Dawn Chorus, Solos Unit, and others will precede them. On Saturday, Montreal’s Islands will headline and Freebase 808, Red Collar, The T’s, Urban Sophisticate, and others will precede.

…if only for a day.

The News & Observer ran a terrific architectural review of the new convention center by former Urban Image columnist Chuck Twardy. Chuck is now doing freelance writing, and also recently published a nice, short article in metropolis magazine.

I enjoyed reading Twardy’s Sunday column, and his absence stands as one of the many examples of why the N&O is now a shell of what it used to be.

Going to spend some time in Kenan Stadium on Saturday night? Let gogoraleigh’s printable depth chart be your guide to the ‘08-’09 Heels. Based on the depth chart in The Daily Tar Heel’s “DTH Saturday” publication, this straightforward depth chart highlights the Heels’ Seniors, inexperienced players, and recruiting studs. There is also a rundown on each Freshman, just in case they see action.

Tar Heel Depth Chart (.PDF)

The Lincoln Theatre will be hosting Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band on Halloween night.

On October 11, the RBC Center will host the MMA Fighting Carolina Crown. Tickets went on sale Thursday through Ticketmaster outlets.

Billy Ray that is. On November 8th, Billy Ray Cyrus will play Cary’s Booth Amphitheatre. Tickets range from $43-$63 and go on sale Tuesday. Note: Miley will not be there.

On September 30, Lucinda Williams will play Memorial Auditorium in downtown Raleigh. Tickets go on sale this morning at 10am thru Ticketmaster outlets.

If there is anything the wives need to say to their husbands before New Years, do it before 7:30 tonight. That’s when a night of four ACC football games begins. The marquis event is at 8pm when NCSU visits South Carolina. The game will be carried nationally by ESPN “in stunning HD”, and marks the beginning of the network’s full season of HD football coverage. The radio broadcast for the game will appear on XM193.

Not to be forgotten, however, are three other important ACC games:

• Wake Forest plays at Baylor at 8pm on FSN and XM 192.
• Miami hosts Charleston Southern at 7:30 on ESPN360 and XM191
• Georgia Tech hosts Jacksonville State at 7:30 on ESPN360 and XM190

With football season around the corner, why not get organized?  Gogoraleigh has downloadable schedules for the ACC football season. The schedules are free and easily imported to Outlook, iCal, and PDAs for NCSU, UNC, and the entire ACC.

Perhaps it was just for last night’s Marriott grand opening, but the new convention center’s shimmer wall was illuminated. I wasn’t able to get a picture (the rendering is shown here), but what we saw was backlighting with blue and green coloring that looked fabulous. The best view of this is from the former Button South location.

The wall is supposed to be officially illuminated during the Raleigh Wide Open 3 celebration. Hopefully the “full show”, including the red and yellow tones (depicted in the rendering), will begin during that weekend.

In other lighting news, the Marriott’s parking garage was offering a one-night-only free parking night last night. The deck is illuminated with the same LED lighting system that the City of Raleigh adopted for a level of their parking garage adjacent to the Upchurch building.

Local basketball fans who like electronic calendars rejoice! I’ve uploaded the 2008-2009 UNC, NCSU, and complete ACC basketball schedules in .CSV, .ICS, and Google Calendar formats.

Outlook/Palm Users

• Create a new folder in your in Outlook calendar (Bball08, for example). Use the File | Import and Export… to import from “another program or file”, then “Comma Separated File (Windows)”. This will set up the schedule in your new sub-calendar where you can make whatever changes you want.
• iPhone Users - You are done. Now you can view the basketball schedules as their own sub-calender or as a part of all calendars.
• When you are happy with the way the subcalendar looks, change the calendar view to “Events” (instead of 7-day or 31-Day or whatever view you’re using). “Select All” from the list, and drag them over to your main “Calendar” (The Treo and other Palm Handhelds only sync to the main calendar - time for Palm to get with the program on that one!). If you want to keep your sub-calendar intact, use Ctrl-drag instead of plain drag. That will create a copy of each event to the main Calendar and keep the Bball08 calendar in place. Sync your handheld to copy the events to the handheld.
• CSV Files. (right click on the link and “Save As…”)
  • UNC - Download uncbball09_20080826.csv (version: 8/26/08)
  • NCSU - Download ncsubball09_20080826.csv (version: 8/26/08)
  • ACC COMPLETE - Download accbball09_20080827.csv (version: 8/27/08)

iCal Users

There are two options:

• Use iCalTextImport to import the .CSV version (linked above) of the schedule.
• Download the .ics files and import them into iCal.
  • UNC - .ics file (version: 8/26/08)
  • NCSU - .ics file (version: 8/26/08)
  • ACC COMPLETE - .ics file (version: 8/26/08)

Google Calendar Users

Consult the public calendars at the following locations:

• UNC Google Calendar
• NCSU Google Calendar
• ACC COMPLETE Google Calendar

Notes

Calendars are apt to change, so check back occasionally for updates. To determine the version of your schedule, open the note associated with any event, and look for the version number. If your calendar is older than those listed above, simply delete the events in Outlook in your old one and import the events of the newer file. Google Calendar is dynamically up-to-date.

Use at your own risk. I do not accept responsibility for any consequences resulting from errors in the schedule.

Holly Aiken’s much-anticipated store will hopes to officially open at the end of the week, however tomorrow is going to be the soft opening. The store is located at 20 E Hargett Street (corner of Wilmington and Hargett). See it for yourself!

map it

The News & Observer is reporting today that contracts for new signage for Raleigh’s Beltline will go out in November. Part of the deal involves new nomenclature for the confusing I-440 and I-40 sections known as “The Beltline”.

Back in 2002 DOT engineers recommended a new system for labeling parts of the road. What DOT will do is remove “I-440″ from the southern portion of the Beltline (the section that is I-40), and label the remaining I-440 as an East/West road. If one thinks of the Beltline as being shaped like a bell, the curvaceous upper portion will be I-440 while the bottom rim is I-40.

The two sides of I-440 will be labeled by the direction on the bell that they are eventually traveling. The West point is toward Cary, near Crossroads shopping center (map it) and the East point is that where I-40 breaks off toward Wilmington, near Walnut Creek Amphitheater (map it).

I’ve traveled to many cities with loop freeways and I’ve never seen one struggle with its nomenclature as much as we do. Ultimately the new nomenclature makes sense because the Beltline is not a closed loop. In order for the new system to work, however, the name “Beltline” should be dropped as it implies a closed loop. A new name should include the implication of an arc, such as the “Midtown Arc” or “Sir Walter Crescent”. We all know that citizens will not drop the Beltline name, however, and confusion will ensue.

New naming systems take time for adoption, and the introduction of DVD-based navigation systems won’t improve this lag time. While the state is as it, they ought to make an enormous leap in clarification by dropping the “440″ label all together, and going with another hundreds digit, like “340″, but that’s the subject of another post. Hopefully the use of West and East will make at least some improvement to the confusion.

Steak restaurant Carver’s Creek has closed. The restaurant at the 440/Capital Blvd intersection had a run of about 28 years, and was originally named Mountain Jacks.

map it