For our date a few weeks back, TYG and I hit one of the local farmers’ markets. This one’s in downtown Durham which gave me a chance to snap some nice photos of the skyline.
And some building art.
There’s some art and clothing stores around the market area so I took a couple of shots there too.
There was also lots of food: chocolate treats, potatoes, tomatoes, heritage flours etc. Some we ate on the spot. Some we brought home. I didn’t think to photograph any but even if I had, I’m not sure an organic, locally grown potato looks that different from a regular potato from Sprouts.
Tuesday, I shared some photos of our recent visit to the Nasher Museum of Art. There was also a display of African masks and helmets there; I figured I’d save that up for its own post.
All rights to artifacts remain with current holders.
Back in 1819, the government commissioned a printer to make copies of the Declaration of Independence. When one of them showed up at the Nasher Museum of Art last month, TYG and I went to take a look.
As TYG says, it’s remarkable such a landmark document is so brief. And how amazing the penmanship is given it was written with a quill pen — hell, I couldn’t write that neatly with any pen.
Of course we took in the other exhibits too. Starting with MamaRay by Wangechi Mutu, which looks even better outdoors.
Clodion’s Vestal Virgin.
Walter Quirt’s Death Wish.
Persephone Returns by Helen Lundeberg
The Blood-Soaked South by Lynette Yiadom Boakye
And this memorable photo by Bruce Davidson, Time of Change.
Recently TYG took me to see the Salix Piano Trio at Duke’s Baldwin Auditorium. As I’m rushed for time, today’s post is some photos I took of Baldwin. The performance was excellent too, particularly the Mozart.
Some years back, when my sister and our mutual best friend visited here, we went to the Sarah Duke Gardens. Surprisingly TYG has never been so recently we visited. It’s still beautiful — see for yourself.
I forget what exhibit led us to pick the Nasher Museum for a recent date. As usual we had a great time; it’s smaller than the NC Museum of Art but still cool.
Death Wish by Walter Quirt
Kenny Rivero’s “Self Portrait With Atom.”
Barkley Hendricks’ “Take All the Time You Need”
Damian Stamer’s “Playhouse.”
Helen Lunderberg’s “Persephone Returns.”
I didn’t get the artist credits for this one but I think it’s cool. Though marred by reflections in glass.
A couple of weeks back, TYG and I went to a display of live animals at the Raleigh Museum of Science and Nature. The highlight of which was a two-toed sloth.
I’ve seen sloths in museums before, but mostly they hang around doing little. Which is fine, they’re not there to entertain me. This one though? When she realized lunch was on the way, she got lively.
The woman feeding her eventually got the sloth to stretch into the “spider-man” pose.
Here are a few more animals from the same display.
There’s also this strange diorama figure. A friend of mine suggested the bird the man was holding was to make the fledglings think they were dealing with a mama bird. Sounds plausible.
One of the great things about moving up here is that there’s so much to do, more than we can ever get around to. Coolness.
TYG has been a huge fan of folk musician Rhiannon Giddens since catching Giddens when she was just starting out. We went to her local concert last year and Monday, she was performing in Durham again, so …
As you can tell we were waaaay close to the stage. We got to see Giddens up close, and she was clearly over the moon about performing. As with her last concert, she had a roster of talent performing too: Mavis Staples, Blind Boys of Alabama, Rissi Palmer, Toshi Reagon. I don’t know any of those names (music is not one of my fields of expertise) but damn, they can sing.
Trouble was, rather than wrapping up around 9:30, the concert ran until well after 10. Then we had to get an Uber home. Then we had to dose the dogs. We crawled into bed around 12:30 AM which is late for us (particularly me). That left me off my game Tuesday (which I’d anticipated) but the rest of the week as well. I think maybe I had some sort of mild bug or my pollen allergy kicked in — I shouldn’t have felt as wiped as I did. Though the concert was still worth it.
I got in an article for The Local Reporter, though in our new format, it won’t be out for a week or so. Over at Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about Marvel’s execrable War Is Hell series and the appeal of Bill Bixby in The Incredible Hulk (a repost from this blog). I got some work done on Savage Adventures because proofing nonfiction doesn’t require the kind of creative thought that writing fiction does. And following the two shorts I sent off last week, I submitted a third short story, “Champions of Darkness,” this week. It’s a no-pay market but there aren’t that many places to submit a 6,000 word reprint so I’m cool with it.
At this point, 2026 is one third over (you may have noticed). It’s tricky to assess my performance so far, given that a lot of it is long-term stuff (e.g., two drafts of Let No Man Put Asunder). I’m doing well on short stories, not just submitting but writing them: “Oh the Places You’ll Go” is finally done, for instance, though I haven’t found a market yet. “Honey on the Grave” and “Die and Let Live” are both looking closer to finished than they have before.
However I’m way behind on writing Impossible Takes a Little Longer or Let No Man Put Asunder. I think I can still get in two drafts of each but it’s looking tougher. Part of that’s because I used up the vacation time and “time off for disaster” that I’d budgeted in this year. Which, of course, doesn’t guarantee I won’t have to take more time off for more disasters … fingers crossed.
Financially, things are still dismal. Dog drug expenses are up, other expenses have been up and with Local Reporter dropping back to monthly coverage, income has been down. I’ve been looking around for more freelance work, no luck so far (while we are a two income family, I do take some satisfaction in covering my designated share of the bills).
Health, last time I had it checked, is good. Weight down a little, blood pressure back down. Exercise was off with everything else this week, but hopefully not enough to reverse the improvement.
And now May. Let’s hope for reasonably smooth sailing.
Cover by Gil Kane. All rights to images remain with current holders.
Recently TYG and I went to the local Ackland Museum as we do every so often. One of their exhibits was a wall of color, a collection of bright paintings on one wall. I think they set it up well.
Here’s a modern piece of pottery in the design of an old Greek vase.
Here’s some random art
We had to leave the car at the top of the parking garage, which was full for some college event. Can’t beat the view, though.
All rights to art images remain with current holders.
A few weeks back, TYG and I went to a baroque music concert at a local church. It’s more her kind of thing than mine but I did enjoy the music. And the church looks cool.
