Zog's Pool Hall's Back to School potluck; A Southern Season's Kids in the Kitchen class

Zog's Pool Hall's Back to School potluck serves as a thematic meet-up each month; A Southern Season's Kids in the Kitchen class features a lesson in the healthy eating habits of Olympians

The rise of Southern cheesemakers

On Saturday evening, the American Cheese Society's 29th annual conference and competition took over a Raleigh ballroom with 14 tables devoted to different styles—from American originals to feta, cheddar, washed rind and smoked cheeses.

• by Emily Wallace
• Tags: Food Feature, cheese, A Southern Season, Raleigh Convention Center

Immigrant family's Mexican staple spices up Carrboro cuisine

The Triangle's large Latino population is hungry for the tastes of home. Tamale peddlers often can be found with the trunks of their vehicles flipped up with an open cooler of tamales for sale.

• by Victoria Bouloubasis

A writer with power in Ruby Sparks

The amusing but ultimately tepid comedy Ruby Sparks has a provocative and potentially harrowing premise.

• by David Fellerath
• Tags: Film Review, Chelsea Theater, Colony Theatre, Galaxy Cinema

Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones get it on in Hope Springs

Even if you're not at the age of Streep and Jones, it is fun seeing them get down and dirty as stiff, old fogeys who have to learn to be intimate with one another once again.

• by Craig D. Lindsey

Raleigh City Council: We're in charge

Raleigh City Council rethinks its authority as transportation set the stage for a discussion Monday that was unlike anything heard from the council in years.

• by Bob Geary
• Tags: Wake County, Raleigh City Council, transportation

Durham City Council OK's tax-incentive plan to convert SunTrust building into a hotel

With the promise of $5.7 million in tax incentives from the city, Kentucky-based 21c Museum Hotels is closer to purchasing the building from owner Greenfire Development.

• by Vernal Coleman
• Tags: Durham County, Durham City Council, SunTrust, Greenfire Development

Once a home to slaves, the Hogan-Rogers house could be demolished

"Slavery stole the identity of most African-Americans in this country," Deardra Green-Campbell says. "But this is home now. This house is directly tied to our family. It's a wonderful experience to know who our distant ancestors are and to be able to tie it to a physical location."

• by Maggie Spini
• Tags: Orange County, slavery, Hogan-Rogers house, St. Paul's AME Church

Hanging In There

• by V.C. Rogers

Setting sail

The complex mathematics of wind and water, in the hands of someone so intuitively connected to these elements, blurred into a sort of art.

• by Corbie Hill

GOP governors' criticism of Medicaid expansion is unfounded

Medicaid expansion will produce a massive increase in coverage for the vulnerable people who are the program's main beneficiaries, including children, the disabled, the poor and the elderly.

• by Jonathan Weiler
• Tags: Jonathan Weiler, Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Jonathan Weiler

Forest for the trees

• by Jeremy M. Lange

Re: Delta Rae; Immigration

"For these children who call America home, this represents the opportunity to come out of the shadows and fully embrace the only country they know."

• Tags: Letters to the Editor, Delta Rae

Spider Bags invite their friends over and make their best record yet

"It was this huge raucous party atmosphere the whole time we were recording, with 50 people sitting around us on the floor or singing drunken backups."

• by Brian Howe
• Tags: Music Feature, Spider Bags, Cover Story

Spider Bags' Shake My Head

At its foundation, Shake My Head is a collection of straightforward bar-rock songs. Walking (well, staggering) rhythms lend a vintage R&B swing behind overdriven guitar lines that mine '70s rock and pop. (Odessa Records)

• by Bryan C. Reed

The guide to the week's concerts

Vex, Lilac Shadows, White Laces, Jenny Besetzt, 95 Live With Dj Premier, Phatlynx, John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff, Johnny Rawls, Tom Maxwell, Discovery, Chelsea Wolfe, more

Can reissues stretch fans too thin?

As ever-frank heavy metal critic Kim Kelly recently wrote, "Quit reissuing things. Not everything is a fucking 'classic.'"

• by Grayson Currin

Realer Music Group releases 72-10

A new collection of Durham rap acts, dubbed Realer Music Group, is driven both by the Bull City's past reputation for raw rap and its future potential. 72-10 is their debut compilation. (Realer Music Group)

• by Eric Tullis

D-lister Kathy Griffin talks about the wealth of topical material she'll bring to DPAC

Kathy Griffin - "I am very much looking forward to coming to Durham and shaking things up a little bit."

• by Craig D. Lindsey
• Tags: Arts Feature, DPAC, Kathy Griffin

Six North Carolina artists combine text and image, but where are the women?

How artists deal with complexities of message is the issue in the exhibition Word Up: The Intersection of Text and Image.

• by Chris Vitiello

In pursuit of world peace, one coupling at a time

"Emergency shipment of condoms headed to Olympic athletes." —Headline encountered on the Internet

• by Monica Byrne
• Tags: Casual Observer, Olympics, hope solo

In the year of Amendment 1 and Chick-fil-A, the N.C. Gay & Lesbian Film Festival expands

"I would hope that everyone that supported Amendment 1 would see the North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival as hope for the future," says Carolina Theatre Senior Director Jim Carl.

• by Craig D. Lindsey
• Tags: Arts Feature, NCGLFF 2012, Kathy Griffin, Carolina Theatre

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