“A bottle of Silk Hope wine is fitting for any Carolina occasion, from fine dining to an afternoon picnic, from vegetarian cuisine to a backyard pig-picking.”

I expected a vineyard straight out of a Napa Valley postcard. What my friend and I pulled up to was a metallic tube, a climate-proof, above ground cellar at the foot of rolling grape-filled hills. 

The owner/planter/vintner/sommelier/host was the only one there. Wally Butler was his name. He had a silver-streaked ponytail that said, “My office is God’s green earth. I punch in and out when the sun tells me to. Mother Nature is my boss. I make wine.”

I’m no oenophile, even if I can use the word properly in a sentence. Only recently have I begun to really taste wine, to notice the subtle variations beyond color and general category.

That said, our white sheets of tasting notes listed varieties I had never heard of. If anyone ever tells you the only grape that grows in North Carolina is the Muscadine, they haven’t been to Silk Hope.

There was Chambourcin. A French-American Hybrid. The French consider it “inferior”, but they’re missing out. It makes a red perfect for white wine drinkers or a voluptuous white with depth the color of rosewater and scotch.

Vidal Blanc. A hybrid of the Trebbiano and Rayon d’Or grapes. It’s sharp, like a clean sword going down your throat.

Traminette. My favorite. A child of Gewürztraminer (AKA Riesling) and a French something or other. It tastes like Goethe had an affair with a Southern Belle, all syrupy sweet talk and sharp wit.

We tasted and talked for three hours. About the troubles of lingering Blue Laws and a rigid mentality. About how the NC Wine industry has grown from 8 wineries to well over 40. About how Wally’s son is starting a mushroom farm.

Before we left, my friend and I split a case of wine and grabbed brochure of all the wineries in the state. Little ones. Big ones. All of ‘em, just waiting for us to arrive.

The Silk Hope Winery
2601 Silk Hope Gum Springs Rd
Pittsboro, NC 27312-6957
(919) 545-5696

It’s got to suck to be a vegetable. Think about it − bugs bombard you, kids can’t stand you, and you always end up playing second fiddle to an entrée. Surely, a cruciferous plant or two has sadly muttered, ‘No one would miss me if I was gone.” But life without produce isn’t pretty.

Durham does the Supermarket Shuffle

Cities across the country did too. It's easy if you’re a supermarket; just step back from your urban surroundings to the wealthier, White suburbs nearby. Then watch as the city you left behind dips into the sadly ironic state of “malnourished obesity.” Here, fast food is your staple, feeding you both too much and not enough at the same time.

Areas like this are called Food Deserts (everything has a catchy name nowadays), places where markets with fresh food are more than 2 miles from a community.

The corner of Angier and Driver Streets in East Durham was one of those for 50 years. That ended on May 13th with the opening of TROSA Grocery.

TROSA Grocery
2104 Angier St.,
Durham NC

This year, MSN named Durham the 11th fattest city in the U.S. Next year, maybe Durham will be a little lower in the rankings.

I drive underneath this bridge 5-7 days a week. It’s right by the Alston Ave exit on NC 147. Long abandoned, it was, as someone on Waymarking.com put it, “An ugly green thing.” On St. Patty’s Day, it became a brand new thing, one that would hopefully be good luck.

The Ugly Green Thing, courtesy of J. Wenatchee/Waymarking

See, this bridge connects two sides of the predominantly African-American Hayti (pronounced Hay-tie) district of Durham. The naïve would call it a ghetto, but before 1965, it thrived. There were Black-owned businesses, including a bank, library, hospital, and an insurance company. Voices strummed, plucked and wailed Piedmont blues, jazz, gospel and R & B into the night. Among them Nina Simone, Blind Boy Fuller and the Rev. Gary Davis.

Then a knife cut Hayti in two. A stretch of the highway was laid down right in the center of town, destroying businesses and displacing hundreds. A bridge was built in 1970 to heal this wound, but it festered. The bridge was dark, and the people desperate enough to rob and kill, to turn “Black Wall Street” into gangland. The bridge was closed in 1995; access blocked by massive iron bars and a chain-link fence.

Then something strange happened. People of all colors and classes moved into Durham. New businesses started opening up. People went downtown and stayed there for dinner and a show. Per capita crime rates dropped in half. So city council decided it was time to rebuild that bridge and put the two halves of Hayti back together again, or at least try.

Opinions were just as split. Voices from the News & Observer and the blog Bull City Rising showed passion and hatred on both sides.

“More waste of money just to placate racial and class equity.”

“This is the selfishness and small-minded thinking that has divided the Bull City for so long.”

“This area is so full of drugs and the bridge is just going to spread the crime out.”

“Let 'em rot in their own criminal juices. Note the sarcasm please. “

“Why can’t they [the Hayti residents] get anything nice?”

They did.

It took two semi tractor-trailers to move the 192 ft. long steel bridge to it’s new home.  It has an open structure with good visibility; a bike lane, a walking path and an LED light that arcs over the bridge, colored “Durham Blue.”

This week I was honored to sit down with the mastermind behind the groundbreaking new band The Role Playaz— representing advertising powerhouse McKinney at this year’s Corporate Battle of the Bands at the American Tobacco Campus, Saturday May 15th @ 7:30 PM.  

I met up with lead rhymesayer HeavyE (aka Ben Eckerson) at local hobby shop The Android’s Dungeon.  Between dice rolls and Kirk/Picard debates, I managed to gain some insight into the Playaz style and inspiration.

JL: What’s a typical day in the life of a Role Playa?
HeavyE: Wake up, get online, check the profile for new posts, a little WoW, work, home for some Ramen and Netflix, late night WoW, sleep, dream the future… wake up and do it again.

JL: Have you ever engaged in Live Action Role Playing / LARP’ing?
HeavyE: Judging by that question YOU have never participated in battle with the great warriors of the Park Royale.

JL: So did The Role Playaz meet LARP’ing?
HeavyE: We formed like Voltron.

JL: How many members are in The Role Playaz and what do they do?
HeavyE: We’ve got Vincent Patterson as our Hype Man, our lovely Lead Singer Teccara Carmack, Hammerin’ Hank Leber on the bass, Ben Blackmer on Keys, John Roelofs laying down the beats, Leslie Riley on Cello, Scott Gaston running the AV, and the wonderful harmonies of our backup singers Aubrey Eckerson, Kelly Quinn, and Grace Tarrant.  And of course myself as lead MC.

JL: How does the cello fit in with The Role Playaz music?
HeavyE: It’s like how the Cool Whip fits with Pumpkin Pie.

JL: What are some of The Role Playaz musical inspirations?
HeavyE: Soul meets Bach says “hi” to Jackie Wilson then shakes hands with Gang Starr sits down next to Whitney Houston waves to Yo-Yo Ma and gives dap to J-Dilla.

JL: You guys have an amazing video show and stage presence.  Is the visual style of The Role Playaz as important as the music?
HeavyE: Our style is all encompassing and includes all aspects of our greatness.

JL: How did you choose the images for your video show?
HeavyE: Scotty G pretty much ran with the genius thoughts he already conjured by listening to our symphony.

JL: What is the inspiration behind The Role Playaz songs?
HeavyE: Everyday of our lives, put to tasty beats and glorious musical arrangements.

JL: Where did you learn your dope dance moves?
HeavyE: Star Search.

JL: Who are your nerd heroes?
HeavyE: Lamar Latrell of Lambda Lambda Lambda fame.

JL: One of your songs is called “Lightning Bolt”.  What is a lightning bolt useful for?
HeavyE: Only the most honorable battle, at the most difficult hour.

JL: You have another song called “Netflix”.  What is in your Netflix queue?
HeavyE: Princess Bride, Willow, Ghostbusters 2, Flight of the Navigator, Neverending Story, Home Alone 2, Sister Act 3.

JL: Do the Role Playaz have a CD?
HeavyE: A 3 track EP at this time, LP to follow.

JL: Do The Role Playaz plan on touring anytime soon?
HeavyE: June 19th Nashville. B.B. Kings. Be there.

JL: What do you think your chances are of winning the Corporate Battle of the Bands?
HeavyE: 110%.

On a recent internal email exchange with folks in the interactive community, I felt compelled to pile on.

The topic was the current mckinney.com and the fact that this site used Papervision3d and a totally new approach to navigation.  It was a reinvention in its own way.

Unfortunately, I have been a vocal critic of the site when I think about its intended audiences.  But I've never been critical of the fact we took the chance, we set a high bar and were not afraid to fail.

As a leader of this agency and one of its owners I'm constantly wondering what I'm doing/not doing/should be doing to help us fail forward more often.  I'm not sure I'll ever know THE answer to this.  But I do know that I've never been afraid to fail.  I've failed a lot.  And I've learned more from failure than success.

I also believe, from my experience, that failing forward happens most and best when people take it upon themselves to make shit happen...not waiting to be told or asking for permission.

Here's to failing more, learning a lot and moving forward!

If you’re a nail biter, go for it. Just don’t leave your “bread crumbs” near someone else’s desk.

Working for McKinney is stressful.  Work, period, is stressful.  This really set in after an eye-opening meeting with my first boss at McKinney.  I told her I was about to break.  The pace--it was just too much.  "I come in, and I start working, and I just don't stop.  It's just nonstop," I pouted.  I thought coming in early, skipping lunch breaks, and leaving late was just unheard of. 

"That's McKinney," she said.  No follow-up.  No smile or twinkle in the eye to say, That's McKinney, but not really... You're one of a kind, and working through all that stress and pressure is what makes you stand out, Joel.  Here's a raise.

But that just wasn't the case.  Now, workplace stress, especially a workplace like McKinney, may lead to a stress-induced bad habit (or two).  Smoking, grinding of the teeth, nail biting.  Arguably, smoking is the most objectively "disgusting."  But since I smoke, I will move on to gross-stress-induced habit #3.

Wikipedia says (proof of this blog post's literary substance), "Onychophagia or nail biting is a common oral compulsive habit in children and adults, affecting around 30% of children between 7 to 10 years and 45% of teenagers."  But, of course, there are no stats for adult nail biting on Wikipedia.  And no, I'm not researching for that info because I've already seen enough pictures of stubby, nail-bitten digits for one afternoon.

Nail biting, a habit that we know exists beyond childhood, may be turning into an epidemic at McKinney.  No, I haven't seen an excessive amount of nibbled fingertips in meetings recently.  However, I did spot a stray, bitten off nail near my desk and then another on the "smokers' balcony" the next day.

Now, is this gross?  Yes.  Am I bothered?  Not really.  If McKinneyites are stressed to the point of biting a nail or two, it means people around here are working.  Really working.  People are coming in early, skipping lunch breaks, and leaving late.  So what if they chew off a nail out of stress (or hunger if they really are skipping those lunches); all I know is that I've wanted to bite off  more than a fingernail when I am at the top of my stress threshold.  And if "That's McKinney," a fingernail on the ground suddenly becomes a little less gross.

Streaming HD Public Broadcasting on the web?

Doctors that make webcam house calls?

Time travel? 

Hey, it could happen. After all, 1 Gigabit per second is fast. 100-times-faster-than-the-connection-you’re-using fast.   And it just may come to Durham.

See, we’re competing to be THE location of Google’s trial 1 Gbps fiber-optic network- Google Fiber. It’s a hot bid, and some cities have gone so far as to change their names to impress the almighty G.

Like Topeka, which is now Google, Kansas or Sarasota, now Google Island, Florida. Duluth, excuse me, “Google Twin Ports,” even jokingly called for all first-born male children to be named “Google Fiber.”

In the midst of this Google arms race, Durham is taking a different road, not flaunting how far they’ll go for Google Fiber, but how far they’ll go with it.

 The Durham community has created a site to gather support, show their credentials and share ideas. And that’s where you come in. 

Durham needs you to visit HiFiberDurham.com and post what you would do, could do, and will do with Internet that makes anything possible. 

Us in an eye-catching nutshell:

Image by Nick Jones

Like most of us, perhaps, I know that the world is going to hell in a hand basket.  Pick your poison --  here are two of my recent  'favorites':

No seafood left by 2048 -- we over-fished the oceans! Yay humans!

All these severe earthquakes might be more severe because of global warming.

Also, like most of us, I had no idea what to do about it. So I was blown away by Valerie Casey's keynote here at SXSW Interactive.

A former exec at IDEO and Frog Design, Ms. Casey started The Designers Accord , a group of designers focused on sustainability and social change.  Her talk was really simple but moving.  The outline of it:

-- The world is going to hell in a hand basket.

-- The interactive community ( egocentric me, I didn't know I was a member of a community . . . there you go ) has done boo to help with these problems.  We lag product designers, urban planners, architects, you name it. 

-- These big 'intractable' problems are tough to solve because they are systems problems. By systems, I mean bunch of interdependent actors, and behaviors, with associated outcomes.

-- No other design discipline knows more about systems and systems design than interactive designers.  Especially if you include gaming and social as part of interactive.

-- So get out there and do something!

Email sent to Val Casey and Designers Accord.  Let me see if I can do something.  

I believe that before we fill a media placement, we should stop to assess the potential for creating a special experience. Especially, for those "incremental" or "added-value" placements. It won't bear fruit every time, but often it will.

A great example is the campaign/contest we created for Qwest High-Speed Internet called Protect Ur Rep (www.protecturrep.com). It began as a request to adapt existing work for in-game ad placements on Xbox Live. Rather than fill the request we pulled the train back into the station and took a closer look.

What we found was that gamers have a tolerate/hate relationship with in-game ads. They tolerate those that add to a game's realism and hate those that detract from it. I'm exaggerating here, but at best in-game ads become atmosphere. At worst they turn gamers against a brand.

We also found that gamers are competitive (duh!) and proud of their skills. They love to be recognized as the best. That recognition can take the form of prizes or simply "15 minutes of fame".

To neutralize the potential-piss-off-factor, and capitalize on the competitive nature of gamers, we decided to build a contest around our in-game ads. The gist was to allow gamers to compete for the right to have their Xbox Live avatar appear in our in-game ads. And pocket some loot.

In the end, Protect Ur Rep grew into a fully integrated online campaign comprised of in-game ads and brand pages on Xbox Live, a registration microsite, targeted banner ads and regular email communications.

It gave gamers a reason to pay attention to Qwest High-Speed Internet ads, offered a relevant point of engagement and a reward for doing so. It also gave them a reason to seek out Qwest ads, repeatedly, to see whose digital mug was plastered over them.

We won't have the final results for a few more weeks, but the early numbers are impressive. Who knew a little ol' media placement had so much potential.

The week started out with a musical interpretation of a 19th century German play exploring some dramatic examples of the dangers of repression and potential for revolt when you pit puritanical dogma against natural base desires and a little puberty. Who knew Footloose wasn’t the first?  Frank Wedekind wrote it in 1871 and Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater remade it into a rock opera five years ago.   I got to see the Tony award wining production at the Durham Performing arts Center on Tuesday.

http://www.springawakening.com/

http://www.dpacnc.com/

Friday afternoon I got to participate in a Think Tank here at McKinney for Durham’s bid to host Google Fiber.

How often do you get to spend a portion of your working day brainstorming the limitless possibilities, and somewhat daunting philosophical questions, of a web connection that’s a hundred times faster than the one we currently work with?

http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/

I ended my week in the RTP for TEDx TriangleNC.  This “independently organized TED event” hosted local thinkers, writers, performers who posed questions and big ideas from the simple to the profound for a day of thought, sharing and entertainment on Living to Our Highest Potential.

http://www.tedxtrianglenc.com/

http://www.ted.com/pages/view?id=343   

My point?  Durham kicks ass.

It is weeks like this last one that remind me why I have fallen completely in love with Durham. As I’ve come to embrace it as home my eyes have opened up with a lot of enthusiasm to the great variety of thought provoking opportunities our unique collection of universities, businesses and people has to offer here in Durham.  I can’t wait to see what this next week brings.