Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["j. alfred prufrock" <ifoufo AT yahoo.com>]

Paul Jones wrote:
> seriously the carrboro story was a group effort and if you think about it
> there is not so much of that kind of thing happenin elsewhere or if it is,
> it's pretty quiet.

well, i'd have to say, that sounds pretty isolated in carrboro to me.

first off, i know of lingualesque collectives in both rollywood and
durham. one of 'em has been around in excess of ten years. i think you
don't read about them in the paper, because they aren't making group
efforts to be read about in the n&o. they have no interest in that sort
of publicity.

that's why people are talking and asking about why this carrboro story
is repeated over and over. there's a self-promotional machine, or group
publicity effort, however one would reframe it, at work in carrboro.
people wonder why is this group so interested in publicity?

secondly, last time i checked, it's all the rage with the kids
everywhere to wear shorts and flip-flops to work at the html firm by day
and rave on by night. and internet startups filled with people who call
themselves creative? something tells me it's been done to the same or
greater degree elsewhere also. if anything the headline should read
"carrboro: finally catching up!"

i think what i've heard from others is that the carrboro technorati
publicity machine -seems- unaware that carrboro is anything but unique
and the repeated self-trumpeting has gotten to almost epic proportions,
as though we need to call ourselves the paris of the piedmont to shield
ourselves from the truth of our whistle stop past. it's a pride thing? i
think so. i've been hearing the greatness of carrboro song for over
twenty years. i think the song has become more of a tradition than any
actuality.

to me, though, this carrboro thing does echo the unspoken sentiment
among some chapel hill scenesters that they somehow invented the north
carolina music scene, even though a hell of a lot more of it originated
a lot sooner in winston-salem and raleigh. chapelboro seems to be where
north carolina phenoms come to achieve their public apotheosis. i think
chapelboro somehow attracts publicity seekers. it certainly is quite the
media factory.

personally, i'd do anything to keep my name -out- of the paper. i owe
too many people for dope.

lastly, i live in durham, which i love like no other place i've ever
been. you couldn't pay me to live anywhere in chapelboro. it's far too
incestuous there for me, what with all the networking that goes on
trying to reach critical mass for some unspecified social change that
will most likely involve listening to lots of electronica and happily
coding away fourteen hours a day at the spankin new national antihacking
startup. aaaaaaagh! :-)

beer. bowling. that's me. you will come to durham to bowl. no league.
just bowl. and beer. you like.

but durham is undergoing such a rapid chapel-hillification that i might
not be able to afford to live in durham much longer. durham used to be
the best kept secret in north carolina. now people, well, yankees
anyway, are flocking to the place and prices are going through the roof.
if you want this to happen to you, then publicize yourself as much as
possible. people will come. in droves. look what happened to north
chatham county when the indy branded it the new "artists' colony." want
to live in north chatham? look in the wall street journal. under
"estates for sale."

i think the things that make the neighborhoods around the triangle
pretty ok places to live is a gestalt. take away rtp and the
universities here would be less. take away the universities, there would
be no rtp. take away either and carrboro would be just a place to rent a
cheap mill house, but artists wouldn't be living there. they wouldn't
even be staying in the triangle. i laugh when i read that unc is more
artistically oriented. laugh, laugh, laugh. the moo's (no pun intended)
that went on at ncsu in the early nineties were the hottest thing going
on in the art world at the time. i think xdu regularly blows xyc clean
out of the water (but, of course, xyc does one the favor of staying on
the air most of the time, thank you). but the sum is greater than the
parts.

jeez, i can't believe i said something that cheesy. the sum is greater
than the parts. yech!

chris calloway