Mad about eggplants

In David Ruggerio's Italian Kitchen, he writes, "Eggplants are to Italians as sex is to nymphomaniacs." How true.

• by Maria Mangano

New Restaurants and Happenings

Restaurant and food happenings this week

• by Denise Prickett

Circle of life

It was a moment of serendipity perhaps specific to the performing arts.

• by Byron Woods

Teaching puppets, learning too

Just how badly does the world need another gathering like the RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence?

• by Byron Woods

What's creativity all about?

With Spark Con just a week away, here's a question: What problem is this inaugural conference (about "igniting the creative hub of the South") trying to solve?

• by Bob Geary

Trompe la cité

French artist Georges Rousse arrived in Durham last week to transform four downtown buildings slated for renovation.

• by Michele Natale
• Tags: Visual Art, Georges Rousse, Frank Konhaus, Ellen Cassilly, Kenny Dalsheimer, Penelope Maunsell

What are you reading now?

Furtively, in between work and sleep and domestic chores, we pick up that novel we've been eager to get back to.

• by Fiona Morgan

Back to work

Don Dixon is a take-charge guy. When he discovers his publicists have not responded to a writer's pleas for help, he takes care of the problem.

• by Grant Britt

Detroit Dilla

Only days after hip-hop's beloved auteur and beat-charmer James "Jay Dee aka J Dilla" Yancey died of complications from lupus, hip-hop Web sites began selling T-shirts with a new motto: "J Dilla Changed My Life." I own one.

• by Eric Tullis

Shine the light

The area's independent film scene can sometimes feel like a widely dispersed group of people groping around in a dark, cavernous room.

• by David Fellerath

Heroes and horndogs

The experience of watching Cédric Klapisch's Russian Dolls is something like leafing through an extra-thick issue of Vanity Fair.

• by David Fellerath

Five years later: We're defeating ourselves

Five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, no victory, no historical closure has been achieved--far from it.
Plus: In America, terror goes both ways

• by Godfrey Cheshire
• Tags: National, Cover Story

In America, terror goes both ways

Is there an example in American history of the police reacting to a radical threat and not making things worse?

• by Bob Geary

UNC Healthcare faces critics; Bowles responds

Elderly patients, patients without insurance and those having a tough time meeting co-payments got a break last week...

• by Kirk Ross

A year after Katrina

Glenda Edwards doesn't have much to be happy about. A few hours after Hurricane Katrina swept through Mobile, Ala., the Coast Guard rescued her from a perch atop her china cabinet in her flooded home, placing her and her granddaughter, for whom she was caring at the time, into two separate boats.

• by Mosi Secret

Beyond Buchanan Boulevard

Why did Duke need a presidential commission to realize its lacrosse players and other athletes live in a unique bubble, an "elitist, arrogant sub-culture ... both indulged and self-indulgent?"

• by Ed Rickards

Seeing clearly

Maybe it was the bright, early morning light beaming through the trees onto the railings of the front porch.

• by Richard Hart

Rougemont blues

• by V.C. Rogers

Bus stop

• by D.L. Anderson

Foreign aid

If the Triangle can be said to have a temple of Japanese pop culture, then that temple is Toyo Shokuhin and Gifts.

• by Veronica Noechel

West House, R.I.P.

Last month was a sad month for me and the core group that worked for three years to save West House, the elegant, if quirky, brick house with an enclosed, serpentine-walled garden built by Kenneth Tanner in 1935 on private property for his son and four other students to use as a dormitory while they attended UNC-Chapel Hill.

• by Michele Natale

As they round turn one

It's Mixed Metaphor Week as we take a quick look at the latest thinking in common wisdom among Washington insider-types handicapping congressional races to watch in North Carolina.

• by Kirk Ross

Witnesses for peace and against execution

Suffice it to say, it's unusual to see a laywoman preaching in a U.S. Catholic church.

• by Patrick O'Neill

Sept. 6 crossword solution

Sept. 6 sudoku solution

ZigZagLive

A pair of tickets to ZigZagLive with Boris, Pearls & Brass, Black Skies

For the week of September 6 through 13

Triangle Blues Society Fundraiser at Wetlands; Steve Terkel's Will the Circle Be Unbroken? at UNC-CH Memorial Hall; Des Ark, Meneguar, The Strugglers and Filthybird at Broad Street Cafe and more...

In the U.S., business comes before patriotism

Fidel Castro showed up at my house one sunny afternoon in 1959. It was daddy in a mask.

• by Peter Eichenberger

Live(ly) discussions at museums and galleries

Upcoming art talks around the triangle

• by Michele Natale

September Prelude

Three years ago, three leading presenters of chamber music in the Triangle--the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild, the Chamber Arts Society of Durham and the UNC-based William S. Newman Artists Series--decided to launch September Prelude, a festival to kick off the concert season. This year, the off-series event offers concerts in three cities, plus a day-long chamber music workshop for adults.

• by Classical Voice of North Carolina

Ariel Dorfman and American Shadows

When the planes hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Duke University professor Ariel Dorfman experienced a unique sense of déjà vu and horror.

• by David Fellerath

Bull Durham Blues Festival: Lonnie Brooks

Lonnie Brooks wrote a song last night. But that doesn't mean he's willing to share it just yet.

• by Grant Britt

Apologies to tympana

Honestly, I was expecting to be disappointed. Sunday night during the Table of the Elements Festival in Atlanta, Rhys Chatham premiered his new band, Essentialist.

• by Grayson Currin

A few good races (and a few opportunities)

Labor Day traditionally kicks off the election season. Not for the candidates, of course.

• by Bob Geary

Jerry Douglas

In Nashville, Jerry Douglas is the guy, the go-to player for stylized dobro licks and magic.

• by Kathy Justice

For the week of 9.6 ~ 9.12

Tom Petty at Alltel Pavilion; The Comedians of Comedy Tour at Cat's Cradle; La Fiesta Del Pueblo at N.C. State Fairgrounds; Pin Projekt at 305 South; Duke's Screen Society presents Aftershocks: September 11

Guitar Shorty

"I would like to be recognized as one of the greatest guitar players ever to hit the stage."

• by Grant Britt