The Many Localities of Chapel Hill

Well we've been here in Chapel Hill for two nights at the luxurious accomidations of Brandon's college friend Ryan. The area has a nice college town feel, and the land is beautiful - tall trees, hills, windy roads - it reminds me of our beautiful upstate NY home.

The cities here seem to blend into each other geographically, yet they each seem to retain a distinct identity. There is no zone that I could distinguish as an interim between Carrboro and Chapel Hill, but speaking to the residents of each, they have different things to say about the character of each.

Chapel Hill: liberal, somewhat "preppy", college influence
Carrboro: More liberal, somewhat more "hippy"

this being based on center's of the towns being 10 minutes or less WALKING distance from each other. Also Durham, which apparently has more of an urban feel is about a 10 minute drive away. It feels more like different neighborhoods than separate towns or cities. Very often I feel that way about Albany, Troy, and all the cities in between. I wonder what parallels can be drawn or lessons learned...

perhaps that it's helpful for separate cities to maintain their own identities as places, but also useful for them to be closely and comfortably connected. Hmm...

Update...

So we've just been doing some more serious traveling - 8 hours from Austin TX to New Orleans, and 10 hours from New Orleans to Savannah, GA where we are today - and we just parted ways with our esteemed compatriot Wilkinism who caught an early flight back to our home region to get a head start on some personal business. Brandon and I continue on today to Chapel Hill.

Oh Omaha..

<><><> Written 7/12 <><><>

News from the state that looks like a fish:

After driving all night from Minneapolis, we arrived in Omaha around 9 in the morning and grabbed a greasy, greasty breakfast at the 11-Worth Diner. With full bellies, we found a golf course which provided a scenic venue for some much-needed naptime.

Omaha generally seemed rather run-down, but it was sprinkled with a certain vibrancy in some areas. Through the ever-amazing couchsurfing.com, we found the dozen-or-so lovely guys and gals at Hotel Frank. The house boasts a non-stop rotation of Omaha's best and brightest (and friendliest) musicians, artists, students, short-order cooks, and other ne'er-do-well-ers. Hell, Bright Eyes even lived at Hotel Frank for a while.

Some of the best touring bands frequently stop in Omaha, but the locals complain that the ticket prices are rising rapidly. One Omahanian complained fervently about having to pay ten bucks! for a show recently. In fact, many of the bigger aritsts that used to sell out shows are having a hard time filling up even very small venues because the Omaha kids will boycott shows that cost more than a couple dollars.

Another alternative to the rising ticket prices is to DIY. As we saw in Detroit, warehouse spaces in Omaha are being appropriated by young, creative people for use as art/music/party zone spaces. This makes us very happy. To a degree, these venues seem to embody Hakim Bey's concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone. The loft party in Detroit was overflowing with spontaneity, conviviality, and immediacy that is rarely seen since the so-called death of the festival. "The [freely organized loft party in a post-industrial city] is already 'the seed of the new society taking shape within the shell of the old' [...] these are already 'liberated zones' of a sort... the party is always 'open' because it is not 'ordered'; it may be planned, but unless it 'happens' it's a failure. The element of spontaneity is crucial."

Also, shout out to the house dogs, two of the most lovable animals we've seen on the trip so far.

Up Next: Austin, TX. (!)

Playing Catch Up: Play by play - Chicago

Affectionately known to us as Chi-tonw, the city, its residents and it's vistors, have treated us well. We were graciously hosted by Wilkinism's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ted, and 17 yr old cousin Frannie in their fine abode nestled in the first ring suburbs of the city. Frannie is Hysterical! The first night we got there we were pretty tired, but we were up laughing for hours because of all her funny stories and her friends that she was telling us about.

Earlier this first night, we met up with a friend of mine, Laura, who has lived in Chicago for 8 years and is moving out in less than a week, and also my friend nancy, who just moved to Chicago last week, and whose boyfriend Anthony is moving in on the same day my friend Laura is moving out... Whoa! We ate lots of spicy thai food. Afterwards, Laura went home and we all went to go to another warehouse party (after the one in detroit), but it didn't feel right, plus the courtyard smelled like stinky fish. We were pretty tired, but when we got back to the home in suburban Brookfield, we didn't feel it because that's when we were all cracking up together with frannie.

The next day, we got a lot done in the "office" but that meant that we got a later start than we wanted to, so that by the time we got on the street to gather people's feedback about their city, it had started raining. We hung out under the tracks, out front of the Damon Street stop on the CTA blue line, though not many people were interested in talking. Perhaps we can chalk that up to the fast paced nature of Chicago. After that we met my friend Monica, Laura's friend, and also another friend Billy at the Skylark bar, where we drank boilermakers. From there we went to see an icelandic band called Benni Hemm Hemm at a bar in Ukranian Village called the Empty Bottle. We interviewed a couple of guys who were in Chicago, but from Tennessee, out front, then I spoke with a Chicagoan, and his friend visiting from China. We had some fun and interesting conversations with each of them, all documented on our video tape.

Madison and Albany

Here in Madison, we’ve been noticing many similarities to Albany. First level: both capital cities for the respective states. First level, pt2: Both cities with a large university presence: in Madison, the major state university, in Albany, SUNY and all the other multitude of colleges in the area. These similarities that you can see lead to some similarities that you can feel, like the sensation of being in a small town and a big city at the same time, or the atmosphere of the large number of sports bars that cater to the college student population, just like in Albany.

This is Madison, which has a strong liberal community (though could be true in the political sense, I am referring more to the intellectual sense, i.e. liberal arts), that I know is there and saw elements of, but I certainly didn’t see when we were out last night. Maybe this is because we didn’t go to the right places – very possible and quite likely. Nonetheless though, this is another similarity that I noticed between our two cities – a solid mindless party scene. Anyway I may be too critical of both areas now. To know this situation is shared in Madison, a place renowned for being a beacon of intellectualism, gives me some more hope for Albany and the rest of the capital region, that we too can develop a strong, broadbased reputation as leaders in thought.

Detroit Ahoy!

we're going to detroit today because I've been hearing some strange and interesting things about it. I read an article in Harper's Magazine that was talking about how this city is becoming the first "post-american" city and how it's getting turned inside out with people developing their own sorts of farms within city limits, while the suburbs continue to incorporate into each other and distance themselves from the center city. Apparently some places in the city are nice set up in the fancy downtown way that has become so popular lately, but so much of the rest of the city will have brand new condos, which might be next to a completely abandoned block, or a block with a couple houses and rows of organic staple crops. Strange.

Our updated route...

Here's our latest route as mapped out via google:

Ze Root

Our Stops...

This looks like the current slate of stops we have planned...

Cleveland, Ohio
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Chicago, Illinois
Madison, Wisconsion
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Des Moines, Iowa
Omaha, Nebraska,
Austin, Texas
New Orleans, Louisiana
Savannah, Georgia
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia