March 24, 2009
WINSTON-SALEM — Nearly four years later, after writing what some called North Carolina’s most important North Carolina art film, Angus MacLachlan still gets the itch. And boy, he had it Monday. He wanted to calm down. He wanted to take no...
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March 22, 2009
In Greensboro, the Hoopville of North Carolina, we love our basketball. And we love to win. You saw it the past few days at the Greensboro Coliseum, where fans in burnt orange and two drastically different shades of blue had to holler and shout in hopes t...
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March 19, 2009
Denis Byrne was on the other end of a mop Wednesday morning, singing as he cleaned the floor behind the bar. The day before, his customers listened to one harpist, heard three bands, drained at least eight kegs of Guinness and finished off 110 pounds of...
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March 15, 2009
GREENSBORO — Monica Purvis thinks about her oldest son every day. Stop by her small apartment at Smith Homes, and she’ll pull a heavy box from her closet and read the stacks of letters she has written her firstborn, encouraging him to stay str...
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March 12, 2009
GREENSBORO — We could’ve been seeing Michael Jordan, the reunion of Led Zeppelin — or even Duke courtside at Cameron — and I still wouldn’t have gotten a bigger reaction from my 10-year-old son. He was all gaga over Lemony Sn...
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March 8, 2009
At this busy spot beside South Eugene, near a loitering crowd that gathers at all hours of the day, there’s not much left of this place called Five Points. There’s a tiny portion of sidewalk, a tiny portion of an old street and, on this particular day...
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March 5, 2009
GREENSBORO - Singer-songwriter Chris Smither will step on stage Sunday night in downtown Greensboro, surrounded by mannequins and dresses made of imported polyester that feels as fine as silk. But forget about snagging a ticket. The show is sold out. All...
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March 3, 2009
GREENSBORO — The signs have bothered the Rev. F. Willis Johnson Jr. since he came to Shiloh Baptist nearly two years ago. Whenever he’d see those six big signs, with big black letters, he’d wince at the big warning you can read from across the stree...
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February 28, 2009
WHITSETT — Off N.C. 61, where the rolling fields stretch toward forever, you'll see a great big sign go up this weekend outside Taylor's Service & Grocery. If you see it, you'll read about the new $10,000 reward, see the square-jawed photo of Bo...
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February 26, 2009
Jimmy Carpenter was sitting at his desk at his new house in New Orleans when he got the call. Billy Ransom Hobbs. Dead. Carpenter couldn't believe it. He called many of his old musician friends in Greensboro, his hometown, to see if it was really true. I...
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February 25, 2009
GREENSBORO -- The way Jay Pierce sees it, there are as many recipes for gumbo as there are grandparents. Well, his gumbo recipe comes from his own maternal grandmother. Granny, he called her. She'd keep a pot on the stove all day simmering, full of sausag...
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February 24, 2009
GREENSBORO - Jay Pierce hovers over his tilt skillet, making a big batch of beans and greens at Lucky 32 amid the sizzle and metallic clink of his busy kitchen. His 26-person crew races around him on this particular Friday night. They're all putting toget...
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February 21, 2009
They write some crazy stuff. They write about stealing boots and shaving their heads all because they want to share it with friends, family, even the StoryCorps mobile recording studio when it parks next week in Winston-Salem for a month. Or maybe, they s...
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February 19, 2009
The Textile South lies along the banks of the Haw and the Deep. Visit these hidden spots in Jamestown and in a hamlet east of us called Glencoe, and you'll see up close the life of a mill hand in the scuffed floors, the huge machines and tiny snuff toothb...
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February 14, 2009
GREENSBORO - Herman Weaver loved that camp. He'd be somewhere, and he'd roll out some story for his only son - his only child - about how he hiked, played games and learned how to swim across a lake. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. All at...
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February 12, 2009
GREENSBORO - When it comes to ringmasters, Alex Ramon is not what you'd expect. He's not linebacker big, with hands as wide as platters and a voice uncannily deep. Nope. That's not Alex. He'd get lost in a crowd. He's 137 pounds and stands 5-feet-8. And...
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February 10, 2009
GREENSBORO - His father and mother know him as Brian Wilson. He's their only child, the creative one. He played with Matchbox cars in the woods and in his backyard in Rockingham County, where he saw trees as the jungle and shadowy shapes as tigers, lions...
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February 7, 2009
GREENSBORO - At the corner of Spring Garden and Mendenhall, where the tragically hip mingle and drink, you can't miss the wallpaper splashed across the broad window at College Hill Sundries. It's just a mass of fliers - one for a paint and tile company, o...
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February 5, 2009
GREENSBORO - Police Sgt. Gerald Stephens saw it inked across the side of Poppa's tennis shoes, and those two words said everything about the motivation of this guy he just arrested. GET MONEY. "Poppa" was Deandre Jamar Purvis. According to court records......
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February 3, 2009
GREENSBORO - Last fall, right before his graduation from UNCG, Edgar Cabrera frequently saw his smiling face on an "Outstanding Senior" flier somewhere on campus. So did everybody else. "Dude,'' a classmate would say. "You're famous.'' "Yeah,'' Edgar woul...
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January 31, 2009
I carried Stella Roulhac's casket this week. I didn't know her. But I knew her daughter, Chris, her only child. I always ran into Chris when I was out late scouring the Triad for live music. This time, though, I traded in my T-shirt and a sweet spot by t...
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January 29, 2009
GREENSBORO - Roy Roberts ain't into politics. He'll tell you that. He'd rather write songs, play his guitar or share some tale about touring with soul legend Solomon Burke and growing up in a Tennessee town so tiny you'd miss it if you blinked. But after...
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January 27, 2009
Every time she tells it, Julie Ann Jones gets wide-eyed. She’s told her friends, acquaintances, the “Today” show, even the mayor of New York. You know, Michael Bloomberg. She just can’t believe it. And you know, neither can I. Here’s her story......
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January 24, 2009
GREENSBORO - So many pictures of so many things. Wel Jok flips up his laptop, clicks through picture after picture and tells countless stories about going home to southern Sudan, the place of his vaguest memories, the place he left 22 years ago. Not anymo...
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January 22, 2009
During Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama, Todd Baldwin Jr. saw his grandfather almost fall out of his chair. "Will you look at this picture!'' exclaimed the Rev. Robert Williams Jr. There it was on page 12, The Photograph. It already had appeared in...
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