EATING: LUNCH IN CARRBORO
Last week, our Abroad at Home outing was to Pizzeria Mercato, a Carrboro pizza place favored by my sister and brother-in-law. Some local folks may well remember Magnolia Grill, an all-time great restaurant in Durham. We would dine there every time we visited family in North Carolina.
Ben and Karen Barker won numerous awards for his cooking and her baking and put Durham on the culinary map. The restaurant closed more than ten years ago, but their son Gabe carries on the restaurant tradition with Pizzeria Mercato.
Open since 2016, It’s a casual venue with a menu that surpasses expectations. Between the four of us, we sampled several pizzas including a margherita with delicate fennel sausage and a puttanesca with gorgonzola cheese. We also enjoyed delectable arancini (rice balls), sauteed green beans, Neapolitan meatballs, and minestrone soup. For later, the Chief Penguin and I took home a package of salted chocolate chip cookies. Most business is walk-ins, but they do take some reservations. Highly recommended!
It was also Open Studio weekend. After lunch, we wandered a bit and then headed to the studios at the Clay Centre on Lloyd Street. I was particularly taken with the pottery and ceramics by two artists—Betsy Vaden and Patricia Saling.
READING: SERIOUS BUSINESS
The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
Subtitled, A Memoir at the End of Sight, Andrew Leland’s The Country of the Blind is a very personal account of living with deteriorating sight. It’s also a history of the organizations that provide support for the blind, such as the American Federation for the Blind; how blindness has been treated by society over the years, and what adaptive technologies exist to assist in reading. Librarians may recall the early Kurzweil reader; today there are compact screen readers.
I confess to lots of skimming as I was most interested in Leland’s personal insights and adjustments. How did he and his wife navigate his changing view of the world? What was it like for him and his young son Oscar? And how and when did he begin to use a cane and other aids?
His thoughts on how he felt in the regular world and what he experienced in a residential school for newly blind individuals were informative and emotional. It took him some years to complete this work, and it is obviously a labor of love. It’s detailed, thorough, and endlessly fascinating. (~JWFarrington)
LISTENING: CHAMBER MUSIC
Combinations in Raleigh
The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival is celebrating 25 years this year. This music festival originated at Eastern Carolina University in Greenville. Most of its concerts are there, but in more recent years, it has brought its Signature Series to Raleigh at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church.
Last Sunday’s concert was a treat featuring six stellar musicians including festival founder Ara Gregorian on viola. The program consisted of Overture on Hebrew Themes by Prokofiev, with piano, violins, viola, cello, and clarinet, followed by a Mozart clarinet quintet, and ending with a piano quintet by Shostakovich. We appreciated the intimacy of the church sanctuary setting. The next concert in the series is in February.
WATCHING: INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
The Diplomat (Netflix) 2 seasons
Diplomat Kate Wyler is unexpectedly summoned and promoted to ambassador to the U.K. after an incident involving an explosion at sea. She is both flummoxed and concerned about how she will fit in this new role, especially since her husband Hal is himself a former ambassador, very present and itching to be involved.
Season 1 has been available for a while, and the Chief Penguin and I watched it previously. Now we are re-watching it to be fully up to date before watching the just released second season. Given the international political situation in the U.S. vis-à-vis Ukraine and Israel, The Diplomat is fascinating and possibly better the second time around.
Watching heads of state and their chiefs negotiate high stakes deals is compelling, but this series is also as much about the Wylers’ marriage and their ever-evolving relationship. She has said she wants a divorce, but they are still very connected.
The stars of this series are the unmatchable Keri Russell of The Americans as Kate, and the oh so perfectly sexy, cagey, and charming Rufus Sewell as Hal. Highly recommended for mature audiences!
Note: Header photo of red leaves ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
