Ford Galaxie spotted in Durham

Check out the cool old Ford Galaxie one of our photogs spotted in Durham.



According to Wikipedia the Ford Galaxie 500 was made from 1965 through 1974.

Spotted in Durham

How about this precarious load?



We hear you can get $5.00 a pallet.

Durham Graffiti

One of our photogs spotted this graffiti in Durham...

Cool car spotted in Durham

What a beauty...


Sweet ride...


From behind...


Nice dash...

Taryn Manning

Taryn Manning was not a household name in our office as of last week. But our executive editor has been a Playboy subscriber nearly twenty years, and once in a while an issue arrives, and the cover just knocks socks off. Taryn Manning was one such cover.

She showed up this month in the mailbox and when we threw the mag down on the coffee table, it caught fire.

Who is she?

As an actress; she has starred in Crazy/Beautiful, the Clarion Content favorite, Crossroads, as well as, Hustle & Flow, and she played Eminem's ex-girlfriend in 8 Mile. She has her own rock and roll band, a solo career, and no less of a star than Katey Sagal, of Married with Children fame, says she rocks. Can she sing like Katey? The jury is still out.

We have no doubt she is smoking.

You Tube

Michael, Michael, Michael

How badly did Michael Douglas want to be in this picture?





Many thanks to Clarion Content fave Kelly Oxford for the steer to the shot.

There is probably an interesting debate

Auto-tune is a fascinating ethical conundrum.



But it is hard to argue with Ms. Aguilera's position...

Wild Kingdom, in the yard

A beautiful butterfly meets a spider, witness, even in suburbia we live amongst the wild. We just notice it less.








This butterfly was at least triple the spider's size. It took the spider five minutes to drag it across the web. Another ten to fifteen minutes to swathe it, and it was gone from the web by morning.

Durham Squirt Gun fight 2010

The first annual Durham Squirt Gun and Water Balloon fight and free-for-all was a huge success. The Splash Mob event was organized by Flywheel design and publicized by word of mouth (and Facebook). It was a smash hit. No pun intended. More than 100 folks of all ages turned out. The Clarion Content's fearless correspondent took these pictures at risk of life, limb and digital camera.


Mayhem, early on...


It was held at the Durham Farmer's Market site, across from Durham Central Park.


Admittedly we were ducking during this photo, but please note the guy in the distance hurling a balloon at various dry (at that moment) photogs.


The action got more intense from here, but we had to put the camera in a safe dry place and take up a vigorous defense.

It is our observation that water ballooners under the age of five are the most dangerous opponent. Too young to have a conscience, they are vicious. More than once our correspondent helped fill and tie a water balloon for an anonymous youngster, only to have the balloon immediately hurled back at us. Fortunately, there were huge buckets under the filling station taps which could be emptied on the offending children's heads.

Special thanks to friend of the Clarion Content, April, for loaning us her extra fully automatic squirt gun. This young lady packs the heat!

This is Not a Fun Blog, Vol. 7: -Burger Streak Broken for Burritos Instead

It's way too late for this, but I gathered energy after practice and made myself a Beck/Nyet staple: turkey, bean and rice burrito filling* (now w/ corn, minus the tortilla). Good stuff, and I augmented my late night meal with a well-deserved homemade margarita light**:

* - store-bought "Spanish Rice," a combination of black and pinto beans, corn, browned ground turkey, "Mexican cheese," taco seasoning, garlic powder, smoked Spanish paprika, chili powder, chipotle seasoning, cumin, corriander, oregano. Turkey browned, rice prepared as directed, corn boiled and decobbed, beans and spice added. Sooooooo good.

** - salt rim of glass, add ice, 1 oz tequila, 0.5 oz. triple sec, 3 oz. diet sierra mist, three hefty squeezes of lime juice. Stir, enjoy.

So good culinary times after a good practice. It's too late to comment further - first day of classes tomorrow, so now it's time for bed.

This is Not a Fun Blog, Vol. 5: When the Beck's Away, Chicken Burgers

Beck's in Chautauqua this week, celebrating the iPJ's birthday and learning about alternative energy. She's left me to fend for myself, culinarily and otherwise, so here's my best an imitation.

I think the automatic assumption during the few other times that Beck has left me by my lonesome was that I would take the opportunity to hit up every pizza place in a five mile radius. And, given the pepperoni and bacon orders of years past, that was not at all a bad assumption. But *this* time, much to the shock of any Beck-to-the-Future who may have been asked such a question in, say, 2005, I not only made an attempt to eat semi-healthy but FIRED UP THE GRILL. I am the anti-Nyet.

Grilled fresh pineapple, corn on the cob (plus steamed broccoli) w/ salsa, and chicken burgers* with toasted whole grain half buns made the menu tonight. I am sure I will cave and get take out** at some point this week, but for now it's Nyet 1, Beckless Kitchen 0.

* - I even called Beck to get a spicing consult for the raw chicken patties - I went with salt, pepper, medium hot chili powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, pizza seasoning, a touch of chipotle, and a scant bit of 2% milk cheddar cheese. Solid! In completely unrelated news, I scorched the pineapple and had some of the juiciest grilled fruit I've had - yum. I think the fast cook time charred it quickly but didn't dry it out. Good to note.

** - I suppose I should confess that my lunch today was some ridiculously good leftovers from Padre's Modern Mexican Cuisine from our farewell dinner last night. Holy new favorite Mexican place, Batman - I had carne adovada with refried beans and rice, and it was awesome yesterday and possibly better today. Beck had duck (!!) tacos; we shared delicious nachos to start. Anyways, I guess I've technically taken out once. Oh, well.

Full Meal!

Close up of maize autentica and visual proof that las samonellas son muertos.

Fairly gargantuan meal to cap the weekend, but I did more than enough running and chasing plastic in 100+ degree weather to make up for it. Here's to a week of good eatings and a happy nth birthday to the iPJ; hope he and the rest of the iPFam have a great week. I'll do my best to get by...

All I Ever Wanted (Summer 2010): Part 5 (Salt Spring Island)

Ah, the home stretch...

• Woke up Wednesday to a crunch-crunch-crunching that was too arhythmic to be human. Indeed, there were deer in the yard chewing on the grass and intermittently stepping on branches. The island is super quiet, so this came in loud and clear (though it only woke me and not the Beck).
• Beck got up early, and we went on a quick (and unfamiliarly hilly) three mile run down the road. Good to stretch the legs; my knees killed, natch, but I was quite proud that we responded to the super-relaxing setting of a B&B by exercising. Team Beck & Nyet wins.
• We grabbed luxurious baths and strolled our way downstairs for the first of three excellent Blackberry Glen breakfasts. Now's as good of a time as any to throw in some shots of the B&B; I'll end it with our delicious quiche, coffee cake, bacon and fruit breakfast.

• Awakened, cleaned and well fed, and armed with some good recs for sight-seeing around the island, we headed out to Mount Maxwell to get a handle on the surrounding islands. Nice views:

• After a brief swing through a pottery gallery, we headed to the first of many serious highlights, Salt Springs Island Cheese. Delicious goat cheese and a wide variety of jams and chutneys, making for a welcome early morning snack. Free coffee taboot. And the presentation was fantastic - here are some highlights of the highlight:

• Next stop: Salt Spring Island Bread Co., a home bakery up in the hills with gorgeous views. We bought loaves of rosemary and seed bread and munched on them for the duration of the trip.

• We quickly went by Tony's Tarts, a sweet and savory tart countryside stand, only to discover that they were effectively sold out for the day. Still full from our earlier cheese / chutney sampling, we elected to munch on bread for the time being, have a late lunch and head down to Ruckle Park. Home of, apparently, purple starfish:

• Swung by another art gallery featuring cool insect sculptures - we grabbed one that complemented our beetle (pictured first) in the Nyet and Beck abode bug collection:

• Hit the recommended Moby's in Ganges (the small town in the middle of the island) for a late lunch and had a top meal of the trip. I had a Piper Ale and a halibut burger with mango chutney, and Beck had a pecan burger plus an oyster shot. Our WCW did not disappoint, claiming upon being asked how it was going that she was "mediocrely wonderful," a phrase the meaning of which we have yet to deduce. Excellent meal overlooking the aquarina; here's the beer commercial-esque shot:

• We headed back to the B&B for afternoon hot-tubbin' and apple wine sippn' (and yeah, we ate some more oatmeal cookies). There was live music at the Treehouse Cafe that night, so we headed over after a bit for a late-ish meal. A dude named Sean Ashby, former guitarist for fellow Canadian Sarah McLaughlin, provided the entertainment; he was a solid guitarist, engaged in a bit too much cheesy stage banter, and otherwise tore up some covers of hit songs. Our WCW, upon being asked, "what is the Salt Spring Ale like?," responded "It's light. Good. It's won awards. I don't know." Sub-helpful. Anyhoo, another great meal - I got a bean and cheese burrito, Beck got a squash gumbo , and we enjoyed a breezy summer night. Beck also snapped some shots of boats / planes in the bay. Highlight pics:

• I had a hankering for some Mack & Jack's after dinner, but the Ganges liquor store was closed, so we headed back and settled for apple wine, tea and hot-tubbing. If I haven't made it clear, we were in heaven. We hit the bed around midnight and got ready for another full day...