web analytics
Jun
09

DVR Alert: Bring It On

bringiton Raleigh native Peyton Reed has moved onto Hollywood and is directing some pretty big movies these days.  His most recent successes were “ The Break-Up ” (V. Vaughn/J. Aniston; $118M) and “ Yes Man ” (J. Carrey; $98M). However his first major release was in 2000 with “ Bring It On ”, the cheerleading movie starring Kirsten Dunst ($68M).

Encore (TWC Channel 310) will be showing the movie at 8pm tonight, so set those DVRs.

Jun
08

Shred-A-Thon Coming Tomorrow

Local sponsors are donating their time and resources to sponsor free shred-a-thons in your community.  Identity Theft prevention tips will be available.  Shred-a-thons are a perfect way to destroy old tax records, checks, employment records or credit applications.  You do NOT need to remove staples and paper clips from the documents. It usually takes about 10 minutes to watch the documents shred.

RALEIGH – SHRED-A-THON (Wake County)

  • Tuesday, June 9th
  • 12pm – 2pm
  • AT&T Office
  • 1201 Edwards Mill Rd., Raleigh
  • Local Sponsors: Attorney General Roy Cooper, AT&T, Iron Mountain
Jun
05

PKM Kept Fans Happy

The dawn of the Triangle music “scene” started with a small handful of bands. One of those was a band called Nantucket Sleighride. After a serious accident on the Millbrook Road bridge one night, the bad reemerged as just “Nantucket”, and swept the region by storm. Pee-Wee and Kenny joined up with Mike to form “PKM” later on, and wrote this rockin’ gem in the early 80’s.

Jun
04

Band Together Features Rusted Root, Saturday

Band Together gives us a chance to live at the intersection of live entertainment and local altruism. Cabarrus Street will be closed off for this Lincoln Theatre outdoor festival-style event. Band Together. Proceeds benefit The Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood, the largest non-profit provider of mental health services exclusively for children up to age 11. Through its clinical and educational programs the Center’s highly-qualified staff provides mental health services to more than 550 children and their parents annually. All mental health services are provided on a sliding scale fee system, based on family income. Nearly 1/4 of families receive services free of charge.

This year’s Band Together NC concert will take place, rain or shine, Saturday, June 6, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. in front of the Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh. Doors will open at 5 p.m. The artist lineup for this year includes Rusted Root, The Rosebuds, Chatham County Line and a late-night, first-come first-serve party with Hobex. Last year’s event with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic attracted more than 3,000 fans.

The event is 21-and older. Doors open at 5pm for the 6-11p, rain-or-shine event. There is a great lineup of bands, including:

  • Chatham County Line – One of the area’s best bluegrass, alt-country acts
  • The Rosebuds – They make music that embodies that certain spirit—youthful, but complex. Not at all fairytale, but magical. Not realistic, but real. Perhaps the way youth actually is. Their recently released their 4th and very different album, Life Like.
  • Rusted Root – 3 Million+ albums sold, a new May 09 release titled “Stereo Rodeo”, platinum recording artists with 9 releases, your favorite college song , new music and faithful fan favorites … coming to Raleigh on June 6 th .
  • Hobex – soul and funk and spirit and youthful energy. They are the kind of local, homegrown entertainers that make us proud to live here. This will be a late-night, first-come first-serve party
Jun
04

Sauced Pizza Coming to Glenwood South

sauced A New York styled pizza restaurant is coming to the former Enoteca Vin space. Sauced Pizza is the creation of Mike Lombardo and Kurt Lam, and will feature pizza by the slice, appetizers, calzones, and signature pizzas. The restaurant will open late this summer.

map it

Here is more from the restaurant’s press release:

Mike Lombardo (Lucky B’s) and Kurt Lam have announced a new venue that brings New York-Style pizza, a complementary lunch and dinner menu, and a casual, yet upscale full bar to the popular Downtown Raleigh district known as Glenwood South.

The eatery – opening this summer – will feature not only pizza by the slice, but also appetizers, salads, calzones, and other casual-fare menu items. An emphasis on fresh ingredients and detailed attention to service and experience is what owners Lombardo and Lam are paying careful attention to, ensuring customers a dining and bar experience that will warrant many returned visits.

“I’ve been in the bar and nightlife business for 12 years now here on Glenwood South and I’ve always felt like a New York-Style pizza restaurant would be successful, and I still do”, says Lombardo. “This is something that I know this market will appreciate – not only from a nightlife-perspective, but as a lunch, dinner, and late-night establishment catering to customers of all types. We want families to be just as welcome and comfortable here as the customers who will be in for a late-night slice.”

read more…

Jun
04

Bon Appetit Names The Pit to a Top Ten

bonap The July issue of Bon Appétit magazine is on the shelves. Inside, on page 20, is a feature on the best new barbecue restaurants in America. Included in the list of ten is The Pit in downtown Raleigh.

Jun
03

Looking Back: R.E.M. Breaking Big at The Pier

In 1982 some young band from Athens, GA came up and played The Pier in the Cameron Village Subway (under the current Fresh Market location). (See the whole list from the show )

Jun
02

Deli To Replace Petit Bistro

About a month ago, Le Petit Bistro closed their location in Crabtree Valley Mall’s excellent food court. It had nothing to do with that store’s repeated “B” sanitation grades, though. The chain is pulling most of its shopping mall locations and going for transit terminals and specialty village settings. During the summer the space will be filled by “a New York-styled deli that only has one location in North Carolina”. Most likely it is the aggressively-expanding New York NY Fresh Deli which opened in downtown Apex a few months ago.

Jun
02

Hotel Possibly Planned for Glenwood South

abbeycarpet According to the agenda for an upcoming Board of Adjustment meeting, a 9-story hotel is being planned for the corner of Glenwood and West Johnson Streets in downtown Raleigh. The lot is currently occupied by the Abbey Carpet store, across Johnson Street from Red Room. The variance is being requested because of an appeal by the property owners for a variance to the 1|1 stepback for buildings in excess of 40 feet. Plans for this 80-foot building call for no stepback. While mixed-use has been a commonly used development scheme for lots this size, Raleigh certainly needs more downtown hotel space, and rumors point this way. The meeting takes place on Monday morning, June 8.

Jun
02

Site Four Goes Back to Square One

lafayette

The protracted saga for Empire Properties’ current Site Four plan is over as the Raleigh City Council adopted the city manager’s recommendation to terminate the contract regarding the property. The meeting’s agenda, released last week, shows:

On August 5, 2008, the City Council agreed to amend the Development Agreement with Empire Properties regarding the development of a boutique hotel and residential project on
the property known as Site #4 at the corner of Lenoir and Salisbury Streets. The amendment adjusted the allowable uses on the site and re-set the development milestone calendar to allow a four-month extension of the previously agreed-upon development milestones. This amendment also included an agreement to share costs for the widening of Salisbury Street and an agreement not to seek any further extensions to the milestone calendar. The developer has missed milestones in April (Building Permit Approval and Real Estate Closing), and clearly will miss the construction start date in May. No
substantial action has taken place on the preliminary approval of the project since late last
year. The developer indicates his desire to continue to work toward developing the
project, but in the current lending environment cannot commit to a specific time frame.
Recommendation:
a. That the City cancels the Development Agreement with Empire Properties at this time;
b. That the City considers re-issuing an RFP for development of the property in the
future in a better development environment;
c. That Empire Properties be encouraged to resubmit the current plan or a revised plan
upon issuance of the future RFP.

So an RFP ratified by Raleigh on March 7, 2007 goes back to the drawing board. The Stephen B. Jacobs -designed boutique hotel/condo project (that was to feature a rooftop restaurant and pool and an external glass elevator) was an excellent dream. To be fair, Empire Properties may find financing in the future and revive the plan. However it is sad to see the City of Raleigh lose at least 3 years on developing a key piece to the puzzle for reviving the Civic Center area.

When the city gets around to creating a new RFP process, hopefully something viable and charming will be built. We had a good plan in our hands, and unfortunately, the misgivings of some in the USA, that had absolutely nothing to do with the talent and opportunity in Raleigh, doomed a nice opportunity (and stuck us with only the Marriott to look at).

Jun
02

RBC Center Gets New Scoreboard

jumbotron Say goodbye to the RBC Center’s old scoreboard . Installation has begun on its replacement, which is rumored to be much like the impressive display/scoreboard in Newark’s Prudential Center. The new display will be “state-of-the-art” (whatever that means) and feature much-needed High Definition video on four sides.

Follow the scoreboard assembly progress by checking in on the RBC Center’s Roofcam .

UPDATE: This will be a Daktronics double-HD display with two ribbon boards. CanesVision has put together a fantastic blog documenting the process of dismantling both the scoreboard and the old SD control room. ( Thanks Jonathan! )

top -->