RTP-area local music and culture

[Matthew Paul <mpaulREMOVETHIS AT duke.edu>]

Rawls wrote:
>>>Surely you wouldn't question the Public Relations
>>
>>Skills of a Help Desk
>>
>>>Manager at Southern Private University, would you?
> 
> 
>      Well, he probably learned the "skills" while
> sitting in a tent...a tent with internet portals. I
> mean you don't want to miss your spot in line and a
> potential chance to be on ESPN and be seen in a gym
> smaller than my high school's gym...
> 
>      But I'll tell you what that James Hepler did to
> Downtown Durham.  Even though I was born in Durham and
> knew the "scene" well enough on my own, I took his
> advice when he told me to only go to the Dog House on
> Guess Rd and maybe Wimpy's on occasion, so I had no
> reason to ever go to downtown Durham (until Teaser's
> opened, but that's a different story).  
> 
>      Hepler understood why I went to see Brokeback
> Mountain instead of watching a Panthers game (well,
> the Skins played the day before, that's where my
> interests were).  Hepler didn't shut down Brother's
> III.  Hepler didn't (and still doesn't) stand for
> overpriced thrift store clothing, and thankfully he
> didn't stand for an amateur promoter arrogantly
> telling us to look at a myspace link.  Did you see how
> the guy from Slim's in Raleigh posted his schedule of
> shows?  Did you notice how classy and efficient it
> was?  Did you notice LORD NECK is having a reunion?  
> 
>      I know the Durham "scene".  I was born in Durham.
>  That hospital where I was born is now a high school.
> I went to the Durham Library downtown before I could
> even read.  I went to the Durham health clinic and
> waited in line with the unwashed masses to get my age
> 10 tetanus shot because it was within walking distance
> from the library on a nice summer day.  I went to see
> Wu Tang Clan at the old Durham Bulls ballpark (they
> were a bit late, but were good overall).  I paid the
> inflated cover and membership fee at Ringside to see
> Razzle and Roxotica battle (Teasers price wise was a
> better deal that night)....I even went to a place
> called THE EDGE to see Ludacris walk in and sit on a
> couch, a place that is now called Blayloc, a place
> that by the way isn't really that close to Duke (not
> even that close to Duke's east campus), a place that
> like a lot of other Durham venues probably won't exist
> in it's same form a year from now but I'll gladly go
> there maybe under my own volition not because some
> "promoter" who belongs in LA told me to see the best
> the best.  I was born here...but I live in Raleigh (if
> you don't like it fuck you)...and I'm glad to see
> arrogant colloquialism.  Rick Sawyer is on vacation,
> so someone had to sound off.  Blayloc is so not in my
> Top 8 on myspace.
> 
> Rawls 
Well no one has ever questioned whether or not I had PR skills- I
certainly don't. I will work on it though. You seem to be doing what I
did earlier though--just assuming who I was and what I stand for. I'm
not a Duke student-I am obviously too poorly educated and foulmouthed to
have attended there. I responded poorly to what I thought was a barb at
someone trying to boost Durham attendence and it came off extremely
poorly. I should have known better to have posted anything but, like I
said earlier, I was highly caffeinated at the time.

I have lived in Durham almost all my life and played in bands all
throughout Chapel Hill from 1990-1996. The "scene" there chewed me up
and spit me out.