On Saturday, July 30, the Wingmen MC of Fayetteville are holding a benefit run to help fight lupus. “All of the proceeds from this ride will benefit local people suffer-ing from lupus,” said Wingmen MC treasur-er and event spokes-person Robert Mas, who not only enjoys help-ing others but joined the Wingmen “for the friendship and camara-derie it offers.”

The Lupus Foundation of America estimates that 1.5 mil-lion Americans, and at least five million people worldwide, have a form of lupus. Although lupus can strike men and women of all ages, 90 percent of indi-viduals diagnosed with the disease are women. Most people will develop lupus between the ages of 15-44. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report in May 2002 which indicated that deaths attributed to lupus increased over a 20-year period, particularly among African American women ages 45-64. However, it is not clear if the rise is the result of an actual increase in lupus mortality or better identifica-tion and reporting of deaths due to complications of the disease.

The ride starts at Cape Fear Harley Davidson. Registration opens at noon, kickstands up at 1 p.m. Like most poker runs, riders get a card at the starting point and pick up a card at each stop along the way. By the end of the ride, each participant will have five cards. The best hand wins a prize.

“We will also have a 50/50 raffle and prizes for best hand and worst hand,” said Mas. “We are expecting a good turn out and hope to have more than 200 people show up and partici-pate. We’d just like to encourage people to please come out and have a good time.”

Photo: On Saturday, July 30, the Wingmen MC of Fayetteville are holding a benefit run to help fight lupus. 

It’s taken a few years, countless man-hours and the dedication of many in our community to turn Fayetteville from Fayettenam into a three-time winner of the All-America Cityaward. Fayetteville’s Downtown has come a long way. In fact, check out just one of the many downtown events like Fayetteville After 5, the Dogwood Festival, 4th Friday, the International Folk Festival or even the random afternoon stroll and it’s clear that downtown is a great place to spend time.

As the synergy grows, new activities and businesses are drawn to downtown every month, which in turn brings more people looking to shop, dine and be entertained. One of the newest members of this dynamic community is the WRAL Downtown Fayetteville Trolley.

In four short months, the trolley has grown from an idea to a team member among the various groups that work together to continually improve and build on the successes that Fayetteville has fought so hard to achieve and maintain. So the concept that started with the question “What can we do to make Fayetteville better?” is now seen at local events, festivals and special occasions like the N.C. Veterans Park opening.

An entity unto itself, the WRAL Downtown Fayetteville Trolley is open to working with any organization that seeks to show off the many attributes that downtown has to offer.

Currently, the trolley roams downtown on various routes, depending on the event (think Fayetteville After 5 and 4th Friday) and street closures. It winds its way up Haymount Hill providing residents an alternative to driving downtown.

Many of the downtown merchant sponsors provide discounts and gifts that are packaged in eco-friendly bags that have become a valuable commodity.

“I think it is a fantastic addition to downtown, especially for our special events,” said Downtown Development Manager Jamie McLaughlin. “It has created such a buzz. People have come downtown just to ride the trolley, and all of a sudden they are introduced to our great downtown shops and restaurants. I think it is a fantastic way to get to know downtown. On one trolley ride, people get a tour of downtown while they are enjoying being downtown.”

The Fayetteville Area Transportation and Local History Museum has joined with the WRAL Downtown Fayetteville Trolley to bring historical tours to the public.

“We have developed initially, three tours that we will use the trolley for,” said Historic Properties Manager Bruce Dawes. “One is a general historic tour of downtown Fayetteville, and it will take in a number of historical sites that we will travel by on the trolley. Some of those sites will be a ride-by and some will be an opportunity to get off the trolley and perhaps go inside different historical buildings.”

There is a separate church tour as well. The church tour takes in the six nationally registered historic district churches downtown, and again, some of those will be ride-bys and some at some of the churches, the passengers will go in and take a look around.

The last tour is a military tour which talks about the history of the Fayetteville community as a military community predating Fort Bragg, going back to the time of the Revolution and Liberty Point and taking it up to the present day.

Large groups (20 or more) are also invited to contact the museum and create their owntour.

“If there is a particular group that is interested in a historic era or event, we can do that,” said Dawes. “As a local museum we have a lot of access to information that we can use to create individual tours. The weather now is brutal to be walking around and the trolley would give groups a chance to have access to an air-conditioned vehicle and still be able to see the sights.” 

Trolley Spokesman and Lead Manager Mark Henderson, is excited about the warm reception the trolley has received so far and has big plans for meeting the needs of the community as opportunities arise.

“My hopes are for the trolley to become the singular attraction that encourages many others to help and to think outside of the box in creating activities for downtown,” said Henderson. “We havea unique downtown and weshould use every opportunity to capitalize on that fact. We have already booked our first tour, a combo downtown/historical tour for a family reunion group. We are working with a unit at Fort Bragg to transport them to a social from Fort Bragg to the Botanical Garden. We are well on our way to becoming a downtown staple. We hope to have our Website up very soon that will have predetermined routes and times, becoming a lot morepredictable.”

If you are interested in booking a tour, or to find out more information, give the trolley office a call at (800) 779-8827.

Photo: Currently, the trolley roams downtown on various routes, depending on the event and street closures. 

From hockey games to concerts and shows, the Crown Coliseum always provides premier entertainment to our community, and on July 30, it will deliver yet again. On the July 30, the Crown will offer not one, but two dynamic shows that will get you on your feet and out of your seat as it hosts the All Star Rock Concert at 8 p.m. in the Crown Center Theatre and the Carolina Crown Southern MMAs Biggest Bash at 7 p.m. in the coliseum.

The All Star Rock Concert features 1980s artists including John s (Eddie and the Cruisers), Robbie Dupree, Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie, Joe Lynn Turner of Rainbow, Deep Purple and Orleans.

Collectively, the performers have more than 40 top-selling records and dozens of gold and platinum songs between them and they will bring all of your favorites to the stage. The performers will belt out some of the best music of the ‘80s including: “Dancing in the Moonlight,” “Dance with me,” “Steal Away,” “Keep On Smilin’,” “Still the One,” “Stone Cold,” “On The Dark Side,” Smoke On The Water,” “My Woman From Tokyo” and many more.

“This concert will pack more mojo per square inch of stage floor than almost any band we can think of — and they produce an evening of hit songs that audiences know and love, sung by the people that made them hits,” Crown promotional staff say of the concert.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased through the Crown Center Box Offi ce, Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets and by calling 1-800-745-3000. Ticket prices for the pit range from $35- $46. Ticket prices for the fl oor range from $25- $35.

If the ‘80s isn’t your scene, maybe you will want to take in the bone crushing action as the Carolina Crown Southern MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Biggest Bash gets under way. This annual event is known as the Super Bowl of the MMA.

Banned for 14 years in the state of North Carolina, mixed-martial arts is a full contact sport. As well as allowing a both striking and grappling, the rules of MMA permit a wide variety of fighting techniques, skills and a mixture of combat sports. Originally the competition was promoted as an effort to find the most effi cient martial arts for real unarmed combat, but rules have been added for the safety of the competitors and mainstream acceptance. It may also be commonly referred to as ultimate fi ghting, pride fi ghting, no-holds barred (NHB), free fighting and cage fighting.

CFP President Doug Muhle says “We are excited that MMA fans in Fayettville will have the chance to witness the awesome intensity of a world class MMA event!

”The event will feature 12 MMA cage fights, with three CFP world MMA titles on the line. The evening will feature nine amateur and three professional MMA cage fights.

A portion of the night’s proceeds will be donated to The Wounded Warrior Foundation.

Tickets are on sale now through the Crown Box Office, ticketmaster.com, all Ticket Master outlets, or by phone 1.800.745.3000. for sponsorship VIP tables and tickets sales, CFP rep Joel White can be contacted at 470-6974. Ticket prices for floor seating range from $42-$ 110. The doors open at 5 p.m., with the event starts at 7p.m.

Photo: Two fighters participating in the Carolina Crown trade blows during a previous event. To see all the action, take in the fights at the Crown on July 30.

As temperatures soar, everyone is seeking relief from the heat, so leave it to the the Fayetteville Downtown Alliance to find a way to put our minds on cooler times. On July 22, from 6 to 10 p.m., come celebrate Christmas in July during this month’s 4th Friday festivities.

Don’t wait until Black Friday to start your shopping, you can get a jump on it as many of the downtown merchants will be offering special Christmas discounts. Walter Guy Jewelers will even offer a Christmas layaway plan to help you get a handle your Christmas budget. Several merchants will offer Christmas refreshments, like Holmes Electric, who will share their famous Christmas Open House goodies, while others will give out door prizes.

And what’s Christmas without kids? The Downtown Alliance wanted to make sure they get into the Christmas spirit as well, so be sure to bring the kids. There will be free Christmas craft projects for the young and old. And don’t forget to pop in at the Cotton Exchange for its free train ride around downtown. Try your hand at art at Gregs! The shop will offer paint your own ornaments for just $5, half off the normal price of $10. And don’t forget to stop by the Fascinate-U Children’s Museum. There is even a rumor that the big guy will be checking his summer schedule to see if he can take a break from his busy toy making to join us for 4th Friday.

In keeping with the generosity of the American spirit at the holidays, several exhibits that give us inspiration to reach out to the less fortunate among us will be on display. The Second Harvest Food Bank, established in 1982, will host a raffle. They will have information about their programs, to help raise awareness of hunger in the area. Operation Christmas Child, one of the largest Christmas gift-exchange programs in the world, will be on hand to show how you or your local organization can join this giant yearly Christmas gift distribution project to some of the poorest communities on earth.

With summer in full swing, it is also a time that many families are moving in to our community. This gives us the perfect opportunity to showcase many of the beautiful residences in our fair city.

The Arts Council will open its Parade of Homes exhibit during the July 4th Friday event from 7 to 9 p.m. Each original work of art must contain a house and reflect the spirit of Parade of Homes.

According to Mary Kinney, marketing manager for the Arts Council, “The winner will be announced that evening and awarded $2,000 by the Home Builders Association of Fayetteville. First place art will be used on promotional materials for the 2011 Parade of Homes, to include the cover of 70,000 tour-guide magazines, which will also feature the winning artist’s biography.”

Cash prizes for second and third place will also be awarded.

Come see local artists, musicians and dancers and stroll the historic district in the cool of the evening. Watch a potter creating a bowl or join the drum circle at our iconic Market House. While you’re checking out the local shops, be sure to stop in at Sunflower Fibers and wish them a happy one year anniversary!

Celebrate what makes Fayetteville such a fantastic place to live: small town warmth coupled with big city sophistication.

Photo: This painting won the 2010 Parade of Homes Exhibit at the Arts Council.  

A Fresh Breeze Upon Our Land

Betty Ford was a daughter of the World War I generation who came of age in the World War II era. She married a veteran of the War to End All Wars and raised children in the 1950s and ‘60s, a time when Moms were Moms, Dads were Dads and children had a fabulous time running around with each other in what we thought of as neighborhoods and what is now considered sprawl.

Betty Ford and many other women of that fabled generation lived with courage within the social framework of their times, and they managed to retain their individuality and spirit. They were, in the lingo of their era, “tough cookies.”

When Betty Ford died earlier this month, she had been off the national stage for nearly three decades, a misty historical personage for most Americans under 40. Make no mistake, though. Betty Ford was a real woman who changed the way we see ourselves and our American way of life simply by living hers openly and honestly.

It is painful to remember what a low time 1974 was in our nation. Richard Nixon had just resigned, the only United States President ever to do so. His Watergate scandal toppled him and instilled in the American public a poisonous cynicism about politics and government that damages us to this day. Betty Ford’s husband, Gerald, an affable Republican Congressman from Michigan, had been plucked up to replace Nixon’s also corrupt vice president. Both Gerald and Betty Ford must have been flabbergasted not to mention terrifi ed a short year later when Nixon departed, catapulting a Congressman who had expected to retire — and the wife who desperately wanted him to — into the White House as leader of the free world.

I can remember my own disgust standing alone in the small living room of my Chapel Hill apartment watching our nation’s new President, Gerald Ford, tell us that “our long national nightmare was over” and then pardoning Nixon. Millions of Americans, including this one, were outraged, but over time I have come to understand the deep wisdom of his action. Our nation did not need and would have been further sundered by a long and ugly criminal trial.

Meanwhile, Betty Ford was busy being — well — Betty Ford. With her undefi ned but very real duties as First Lady and four children who thought they were going home to Michigan now living in the White House, life was full. She sometimes referred to herself as the “First Momma,” which many Americans took to include not only her own children but them as well.

She was a warm and relaxed First Lady, a welcome reversal of the Nixon’s cool formality. White House parties were said to be fun again, and Betty Ford was anything but partisan, endearing herself to Americans of all political persuasions. She was open and outspoken on topics most Americans kept close to the vest in the 1970s. Shortly after moving into the White House, Betty Ford informed Americans that, yes, she and the President would indeed be sharing a bed there. What’s more she would not be surprised if her young adult children experimented with marijuana, and she was certainly willing to discuss the topic of pre-marital sex with them and about them.

In a most un-Republican departure from the standard party line, Betty Ford was an avowed feminist all her life. She was a prominent supporter of the doomed Equal Rights Amendment and wore buttons to prove it. On the always controversial issue of abortion, she was pro-choice, saying babies are “a blessing, not a duty.”

Her most lasting contributions, though, stem from her own health battles.

Two months after becoming First Lady, Betty Ford underwent a radical mastectomy and talked openly about it at a time when the “C” word still seemed taboo. We all know women and families who lives have benefi ted by her candor about her own breast cancer.

Then came her public bout with alcohol and prescription drugs. After family and friends confronted her in what we now call an intervention, she was reluctantly treated. When that was all over, she and a friend went on to found the Betty Ford Center for the Treatment of Addictions. Thousands of people have sought help there including celebrities and ordinary folk.

Rock star Stevie Nicks says simply that she would “be dead” without Betty Ford, and it is impossible to imagine addiction treatment in our country today without her honesty about her own problem.

She topped off her “new life” with a new face — she got a face lift to celebrate and told us all about it, bringing openness to yet another aspect of American life.

Betty Ford could not boast a resume of professional accomplishments, but we are a more open nation because of her time on the national stage, something she called “an accident of history.”

Her beloved husband of 58 years, Jerry, said it this way. “When the final tally is taken, her contribution to our country will be bigger than mine.”

Photo: Betty Ford in her official White House Portrait. Ford brought an openess and spirit of fun to the White House and taught America about honesty.

A recent survey by Japan’s Osaka University Graduate school of Medicine found that people who participated in hour-long, twice-a-month laughter or music sessions lowered their systolic blood pressure (the top number) by an average of five or six points over three months.

According to www.help-guide.org, laughter is good for your health and offers the fol-lowing benefits:

Physical Health Benefits:                                                                                                                             • Boosts immunity                                                                                                                                             • Lowers stress hormones                                                                                                                                • Decreases pain                                                                                                                                              • Relaxes your muscles                                                                                                                                   • Prevents heart disease

Mental Health Benefits:                                                                                                                                 • Adds joy and zest to life                                                                                                                                • Eases anxiety and fear                                                                                                                                 • Relieves stress                                                                                                                                              • Improves mood                                                                                                                                              • Enhances resilience

Social Benefits:                                                                                                                                             • Strengthens relationships                                                                                                                             • Attracts others to us                                                                                                                                      • Enhances teamwork                                                                                                                                      • Helps defuse conflict                                                                                                                                     • Promotes group bonding

Since many people live alone or in situations where laughter is not a regu-ar activity, in order to gain the benefits cited, you might need to create the op-portunity to laugh.                                                                • Watch a funny movie or TV show.                                                                                                                • Go to a comedy club.                                                                                                                                     • Read the funny pages.                                                                                                                                   • Seek out companionship with funny people.                                                                                                 • Share a good joke or a funny story.                                                                                                              • Check out your bookstore’s humor section.                                                                                                  • Host game night with friends.                                                                                                                       • Play with a pet.                                                                                                                                             • Got to a ‘Laughter Yoga” class.                                                                                                                      • Goof around with children.                                                                                                                            • Do something silly.                                                                                                                                        • Make time for fun activities ( e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke).

You might also take yourself less seriously. Learn to laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. You might also laugh at times when normally you might respond in a different manner. Put a toy or funny plaque on your table to remind you to laugh. Watch how children deal with situations and emulate them.

Spending time with a friend can brighten the day of any individual, especially a senior. Since many seniors live alone or may have lost contact with their friends, they might be limited on who is available for fun-filled activities. In that case, hiring a caregiver can fill that void.

As laughter, humor and play become an integrated part of your life, your creativity will flourish and new discoveries for playing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily. Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful and balanced perspective.

Photo: As laughter, humor, and play become an integrated part of your life, your creativity will flourish and new dis-coveries for playing with friends, coworkers, acquain-tances, and loved ones will occur to you daily.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) You don’t like to be told precisely what to do. You need the free-dom to make your own decisions. Then again, having too many choices is almost worse than having none. This week offers you just the right amount of structure.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You give your all to the projects and people around you. So choose your work carefully. You’re so deeply committed and motivated, and it would be a shame to waste this energy on anything other than what you really, really want. Think long and hard about what is going to make you happy, and write it down.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21) There’s an atmosphere around you. Sometimes it’s an at-mosphere of playfulness, silliness and whimsy. Other times, your personal environment is seri-ous, thoughtful and regimented. You are very much in control of the mood this week.

CANCER (June 22-July 22) Sometimes you wonder if your accomplishments will ever be enough to make you feel that you have indeed “arrived.” Give yourself overdue credit, and you just may realize that you “arrived” long ago and have been here all along, deserving of respect, love and acceptance.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You could spend a lifetime searching for your purpose and never completely defi ne it. You are too multifaceted to pin down in a single statement. So don’t worry about trying to fi t in or do what you should.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You have a system of reward and punishment, but you don’t consciously realize what it is. Think about the things you do to make yourself feel bad or good. You will determine the fairness and effec-tiveness of these methods and work toward a better system.LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) A loved one may secretly fear that she has little to give compared to another person in your life. You realize that all humans are vulnerable to feelings of inad-equacy. Your compassion and understanding will heal the situation or at least calm it for the time being.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You may not realize how low your level of inspiration is until you fi nd yourself wandering through the aisles of a store or library, looking for nothing in particular. An aimless search will bring you to your next awesome source of inspiration.

SAGITTARIUS(Nov. 22-Dec. 21) A father fi gure will play a role in the way karma unfolds. If you play your cards right, you’ll gain a position of power. It is crucial that you show humility, understand your place and pay respect where it is due. You will be promoted and praised because you are emotionally generous.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You won’t give up on what you want, but you also see that pushing your agenda, for the time being, isn’t working. So you’ll set it aside for a while, will-ing to see if there isn’t something better that is supposed to happen.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) You’ll carefully plan out events, though you’re also fl exible enough to abandon what’s not working. There’s no shame in turning to plan B, C or D. Your balanced mix of attentiveness and free-spirited attitude is a recipe for success.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) You have certain habits that are so much a part of your everyday life that you don’t even think of them as behav-iors anymore. Rather, they are just what you do when you are “doing you.” But you’re changing this week, and you could decide that a certain habit is unnecess

Have you ever thought about what you would do if you have a mishap when you are far away from home? I have. After crashing last year in Arkansas, it really had me thinking about the “what ifs” of motorcycle riding.

This is the time of year when many of us are making plans to travel. July is the BMW International Rally in Pennsylvania and the Wing Ding Goldwing Rally in Knoxville, Tenn. In August there is the 71st Sturgis Rally in South Dakota. There are hundreds of other events and destinations that will take us and our bikes far from our homes.

This year, I have plans to ride off-road through Colorado and Utah. Since my crash, I’ve added a few more survival tools for my riding peace of mind.

First, you need to be prepared. It is never a good time to learn to swim while in the middle of a flood. Neither is trying to develop a plan in case you crash.

The first responder(s) should you crash, will probably be your riding buddy or buddies. My riding friends have exchanged healthcare information, phone numbers for each other’s loved ones and we tell each other where important medications will be in the event one of us needs something. This includes medications and allergic reactions medications. Also, you should know your friends blood type and any other pertinent information.

A first-aid kit has been added to my emergency supplies, which contain materi-als for hard wrecks. Let’s face it. Most first-aid kits will do nothing for a real motor-cycle crash, so we have created our own first-aid kit which will have provisions for broken limbs, ribs and/or deep cuts.

It is very possible that we will have to make it to some kind of road intersec-tion, so a GPS is a must. Knowing your location will save you time of telling first responders where to meet you if needed. If you do wreck, you will need to mark the location of your friend on your GPS. Don’t forget to do this because if you leave your friend you may not remember how to find him or her when you return.

You cannot always count on cell phone protection and during a crash, and that time may be the difference between life and death. I’ve added a SPOT Personal Tracker to my bike (www.findmespot.com) that will provide a variety of information and rescue help. With the press of a button your SPOT will transmit your location via satellite and the folks at SPOT will dispatch rescue services to your location and notify the people that you have designated on your SPOT alert list.

The SPOT will get you to a hospital but then what? What if you are too hurt to travel back home or in an unsatisfactory hospital and need transporta-tion? What if your bike is unable to be ridden? Now there is a new service called MedjetAssist. MedjetAssist offers an assistance program specifically tailored for the motorcycle rider. This unique program was developed with the help and input of motorcycle enthusiasts.

MedjetAssist is an annual membership program (not insurance) which provides the arrangement of worldwide air medical evacuation and consultation services to its enrolled members when they become hospitalized while traveling more than 150 miles from their primary residence. The evacuation benefit is good whether travel-ing in the next county, state or outside the country. The Motorcycle Protection plan can be added to any annual membership for an additional fee ($25 per year).

MedjetAssist also provides medical ICU air transport and evacuation to a hospital of your choice. They provide up to $3,500.00 for the return of your motorcycle to a shop or dealership of your choice. They will arrange to have your bike returned to you if you are physically unable to ride because of a crash.

Medjetassist is cheaper than what you would expect to pay to get your bike to a dealership (depending on where you are) so it is worth checking out. There are a host of other benefits and plans by this company. For more information and terms check out www.medjetassist.com.

With a little preparation and planning you can do a lot to help ensure you are not left high and dry.Ride Safe!

Photo: MedjetAssist is an annual membership program (not insurance) which provides the arrangement of worldwide air medical evacuation and consultation services to its enrolled members when they become hospitalized while traveling. 

LARRY CROWNE(Rated PG-13) 2 Stars

Watching Larry Crowne (99 min-utes) is like sinking back into a nice posturepedic bed with a tequila and prune juice smoothie in one hand and a copy of The Bridges of Madison County in the other. See what I did there? I compared watching the movie to being old! In the interest of fairness, (or to avoid ageism) I know plenty of the over-65 set who jump out of planes and like to ride motorcycles. But that’s not the kind of person who is going to see Larry Crowne. They’re all over in the theater next door, watching Transformers 3, with the rest of the free world. But not me, since I’d sooner bite my own arm for blood than vali-date Michael Bay’s “vision.” So really, watching Larry Crowne was an act of defiance, flung in the face of people that insist Michael Bay is an actual director instead of what he really is — a carica-ture of a human being.

I was all set to watch a sort of modern Death of a Salesman, or possibly an existentialist commentary on the plight of the modern American working man. Nope. Nothing happens in this movie. NOTHING. Just Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts phoning it in while a cast of supporting characters tries desperately to be real people instead of poorly drawn robots. Well, Sulu is pretty cool, if you’re looking for a professorial role model. His evil laugh was the highlight of the movie, all the more so because his class has no idea how to respond, which is what usually happens when I try to crack jokes in my classes. Although he is much nicer about the cell phone issue than I am. He just takes the phones. You don’t want to know what I do with them.

Seriously though, this movie is blander than a bulk container of generic oatmeal. We open with what I am pretty sure is The Traveling Wilbury’s, in case you had any doubt about who this movie is for. Larry Crowne (Hanks channeling Forrest Gump more than he probably realizes, what with clarifying “Crowne with an E” every time he meets someone) is a charming enough guy, expending an awful lot of energy for his corporate masters, but seemingly happy with his place in the scheme of things. That all changes when his big-box store downsizes him out of his job, in an overdone scene done much better in other movies and televi-sion shows (even a partial list would take up the rest of the review space so do your own research on this one).

After a few scenes with his neighbor (Cedric the Entertainer, who is not, ahem, entertaining me at the moment), Larry decides to go back to school. Finding financial aid, enrolling and picking his class schedule takes him all of an afternoon, so this movie immediately loses a star for crossing over into the science-fiction genre. He ends up in a class taught by Mercedes Tainot (Roberts), who apparently lives in some wonderful alternate universe where professors can cancel classes that are too small without consulting administration, and with no apparent financial repercussions. Too bad Crowne shows up just in time which forces Tainot to hold class. She gives a horrendous first day speech (Wow. I hope I don’t come off that preachy in my first day lectures.), and Crowne heads to his next class.

The rest of the movie goes down pretty much how you expect it to from the trailers. Wilmer Valderama shows up looking better than he usually does, and Pam Grier shows up looking much worse than she usually does. In the name of humanity, why have we decided to let Nia Vardalos continue to write movies? Overall, it was tremendously depressing to watch actors making such terrible, terrible choices. But maybe you’re into that sort of thing.

For many students, the college enrollment process is a complex ex-perience. Counselors at Fayetteville Technical Community College realize that the maze of procedures, deadlines and paperwork can be frustrating for freshmen students. Even students who have attended FTCC previously find the changes in the process somewhat con-fusing. As a response to this dilemma, FayTech NOW, the New/Returning Student Orientation Workshop, was created. It is currently being implement-ed as a way for Counseling Services to more effectively assist the large number of new and returning students who de-sire approval into one of the more than 150 curriculum programs available. This group session also reduces the wait time that can be a result of seeing many stu-dents in individual counseling sessions.

Students have two options. They can attend the session face to face or online. The same material is covered in both. The face-to-face group session is facilitated by counselors who are knowledgeable regarding the enrollment process. Counselors explain to the group the different important links on the website and assist them in choosing a program. Students may ask questions and get assistance with understanding the requirements. The FayTech NOW group sessions are held in the Tony Rand Student Center, and students who need to attend should sign in at the Counseling Services desk.

The online option is available through the FTCC Website. This is done indi-vidually. At the end of the online workshop, students must successfully complete and electronically submit a short assessment. Their program approval paperwork is sent to them via e-mail in three business days. The FayTech NOW online workshop can be found on the Counseling Services webpage (www.faytechcc.edu/counseling/default.asp) by clicking on “New Student Orientation.”

The approval designates the curriculum program that the student will gradu-ate from and the classes they will need to complete and places them at the appropriate academic level based on either placement assessment or transfer credit in reading, English, and mathematics. Students are also assigned an academic advisor, generally in their program area, to assist them in achieving educational goals.

One of the most challenging aspects of going to school for those who are new or challenged with the computer is that FTCC is “going green” to recycle and reduce the use of paper products. Therefore, all information that formerly was sent through snail mail can be accessed via the internet. The key to being successful is to learn to make good use of the website (faytechcc.edu) and all of the free educational resources available to students at FTCC.

FayTech NOW is not appropriate for every student. Some will still need to be seen individually by a counselor. Students who have a concern or a question are always welcome to visit Counseling Services for assistance. Students who have attended FayTech NOW have responded favorably to learning useful solu-tions to eliminate enrollment problems. This cuts down on travel, expense, and time spent visiting the various offices to seek assistance. Students find the tips for success useful and eagerly ask questions and get answers. Counselors find the group format ideal because they are able to impart valuable information to more than one student at a time, cutting down on individual sessions and freeing up time to spend on other tasks. Students are encouraged to take advantage of yet another great benefit of attending FTCC.

For questions or more information contact, colee@faytechcc.edu, 678-8365 or nancec@faytechcc.edu, 678-8411.

Photo: Counselors at Fayetteville Technical Community College realize that the maze of procedures, deadlines and paperwork can be frustrating for freshmen students.

When you think American wines, most people think Napa Valley, but North Carolina vineyards are putting their mark on the American wine scene. And that’s only fitting, as our state is the home of our nation’s first cultivated grape: the scuppernong.

A cousin to the muscadine, the scuppernong was fi rst sighted by French explorer Giovanni de Verrazano in 1524. Sixty years later, Sir Walter Raleigh’s explorers wrote, “The coast of North Carolina was so full of grapes that the very beating and surge of the sea overfl owed with them.

”It was on this voyage that Raleigh discovered the famed “mother vine” of the scuppernongs on Roanoke Island. Cuttings from the “mother vine” were transplanted along the coast and as far west as Fayetteville, and from their bounty a rich wine history was born in the Old North State.

From 1835 until the Civil War, more than 25 wineries were operating in North Carolina. The war disrupted the industry briefl y, but by the turn of the century, many vineyards were thriving and wine was a rich commodity for the state. The industry has had its ups and downs over the past 100 years, but today it is thriving with more than 100 wineries operating throughout the state

.Today, you can travel from the coast, through the Piedmont and up into the mountains and fi nd a taste of Carolina throughout your travels. Here is a sample of what you will fi nd on your journey:

Coastal Wineries

Silver Coast Winery, located just 15 minutes inland from Ocean Isle Beach, produces 10,000 cases of wine annually. Visitors may take 20-minute tours of the facility, which will take them from the grapevines to the wine cellars. The winery offers tastings in its elegant tasting room where the friendly staff will help you select wines, and a small shop provides a collection of enticing gifts. In addition, visitors can view and purchase original art work from various local artists.

The Silver Coast Winery is 9-years-old this month. Winemaker, Dana Keeler, who came from the Finger Lakes region of New York, is celebrating six years at the winery. The winery is the 22nd opened in the state and the first in Brunswick County. The Silver Coast Winery specializes in the native muscadine grape but also imports many grapes from the Blue Ridge Mountain area.

Hours of operation are Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday until 7 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Combine a day at the beach with a wine tour and an art exhibition. For further information and directions, go to www.silvercoastwinery.com/winery.html.

Founded in 1976, Duplin Winery, located in Rose Hill, invites visitors to stroll through its Winemaking Museum to learn the history of the south’s oldest and largest winery. The winery produces more than 1,000,000 gallons of wine, selecting grapes from more than 1,400 acres across four states. Although the muscadine is a winery favorite, Duplin Winery offers 12 traditional wines as well as blends and champagne.

For three generations, the Duplin Winery has remained family-owned and operated. The Duplin family decided in the early ‘70s to create a market for their grapes and started making wine. In-laws, grandchildren, aunts and uncles all pitched in stomping grapes and bottling wine. The rest is history. The family is devoted not just to its own winery, but to wine in general, and the industry itself and has grown in sales by more than 10 percent each year.

Free tours are available Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and free tastings are offered Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The winery is closed on Sundays.

For more information, visit the website at www.duplinwinery.com.

Just 25 miles from downtown Wilmington, the Bannerman Vineyard has been cultivating grapes since 1973. A family-owned business in the heart of Pender County, the vineyard spans 20 acres.

Featuring the “muscadine” grape, similar to a Concord grape, wine made from this fruit has unique nutritional characteristics. Due to its ingredient, “resvertrol,” consumers have the benefi t of a healthy anti-oxidant which can lower cholesterol. Just think: drink wine and get healthy. The ingredient can be found in both the red and white muscadine wines.

The Bannerman family works long days at the vineyard during the “off season” (November to July). Hours for tasting then are Wednesday through Saturday from 12-4 p.m. or by appointment by calling 910-259-5474. During the season (August through November), the vineyard is open from Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. and on Sundays 12 - 6 p.m.

Piedmont Wineries

When you’ve finished your visit to the coastal wineries, head to the central part of the state where a vast array of wineries await you.A short jaunt down Highway 87, Lu-Mil Vineyards can be found just north of Elizabethtown in the small community of Dublin. The vineyard sits on the family farm of the late Lucille and Miller Taylor. Leaders in the agricultural industry, the family started the vineyard as a means of testing new machinery for the wine industry. Those tests spawned a successful vineyard, whose fi rst harvest occurred in 2005. That was the same year the vineyard’s gift shop and tasting room were offi cially opened to the public.

Taylor Divine is a 100 percent semi-sweet mid-harvest white wine made with a blend of scuppernong and Carolos grapes. Bladen Blush is a late harvest blend of muscadine grapes that produce a full, sweet taste and mild, pleasant fi nish. Cape Owen Red is made of native muscadines. It is the sweetest of the sweet wines. Old Cumberland, which is a soft, dry white wine made from the early harvest of muscadines, was named in honor of Cumberland County. Harmony Hall is made from the magnolia grape and is cold fermented for a smooth, sweet and fruity white wine. The vineyard is open daily for free wine tasting, but you can also spend the night in one of the Vineyard Cabins.

For more information, visit the website at www.lumilvineyard.com.

As you travel east, you will encounter a number of other wineries that make up the Uwharrie Mountains Wine Trail. Located in the heart of the Piedmont, the Uwharrie Mountains Wine Trail will take you to a number of wineries all within a very short drive of each other.

Stony Mountain Vineyards has a simple mission: Make great tasting wines and create wonderful experiences and memories for its customers.

The vineyard is owned by the Furr family. Ken Furr is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who retired with the rank of colonel. He is the winemaker and the general manager. His wife, Marie, is retired from civil service, and manages the tasting room and events. Their son, Devron, is a teacher, a member of the National Guard and the assistant winemaker.

Unlike many North Carolina vineyards, Stony Mountain offers a variety of traditional varietals including: Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and Syrah Sangiovese. They also offer four fruit wines: Very “Beary” Red, which is made from blackberries and a dry red wine; Blackberry, which is a semi-sweet red berry wine; Strawberry and Peach. They also offer a White and Red table wine made out of muscadine

.Winery tours and tastings are available by appointment. For more information, visit www.stonymountainvineyards.com.

Uwharrie Vineyards is operated by Chad Andrews. A gregarious host, Andrews is knowledgeable about all aspects of wine making and is quick to answer questions or explain the process to you.

Located just 25 minutes east of Charlotte, the vineyard is comprised of 50 acres of grape vines, and houses a 14,000 square foot facility that include a visitor’scenter, a formal banquet hall, a large tasting bar and a unique gift shop.

Andrews embraces the motto of the vineyard: He enjoys life to the fullest, takes many things casually, with the exception of his wine. When it comes to his wine, he is a perfectionist, carefully testing and balancing each and every vat of wine. Also something of a health nut, Andrews does not add any preservatives to his wine. “If you can’t pronounce it, it shouldn’t be in the wine,” he said.

The vineyard offers four different varieties of wines: white wines, red wines, blush wines and port Style.

The Carlos is a full-bodied dry white wine. The Magnolia is a favorite of many visitors. It has the sweet taste that many in the South prefer in their wines. It has a rich fruit taste with a apple and pear finish. A recent offering is a Muscat, which has a slightly sweet, aromatic and sensual taste. It expresses cantaloupe and honeydew flavors over a citrus core structure.

The Noble and Noble Evening Pleasure are signature red wines. The Noble is full bodied with a berry and spice overtone. It is cold fermented, and ends dry. The Noble Evening Pleasure is soft and sweet with wild berry overtones.

Two of the most popular wines are the port-style wines: the Red Velvet and the Frost Velvet. The Red Velvet is a blend of the vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and the Noble. It has a sweet beginning and a dry finish, which by in large comes with its alcohol content of 15.4 percent. This wine has been featured on Good Morning America, MTV and was selected as the ceremonial wine of the U.S. Army Special Forces and the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

The winery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. While the winery is fl exible on tours, as a rule, tours start every hour on Saturday and Sunday, with tours on a request basis during the week. For more information, visit www.uwharrievineyards.com.

Mountain Vineyards

Once you leave the Piedmont, you can head to the mountains where a number of vineyards wait to entertain you.

A little more than a decade ago the 167-year-old Shore farm in Boonville grew tobacco as it had for many years. Realizing that he had to diversify or face being the last of six generations to farm the land, Neil Shore, chose a different crop. He enrolled in Surry Community College’s viticulture program in the 1990s. A farmer since he was 16-years-old, Shore planted 15 acres in grapes in 2001, andnamed the winery Sanders Ridge after one of his ancestors. “He learned that there’s not a lot of difference between growing grapes and tobacco,” his wife Cindy said. “His inspiration was to pass something along to his kids and still keep the farm viable.”

Cindy manages the tasting room and works at the family’s certifi ed organic vegetable farm. Neil’s daughter Jennifer helps a few days each week.

Nine grapes are planted including Viognier, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Cindy believes they’re the only North Carolina winery to plant Muscat Canelli, a cousin of Riesling. Their French-American hybrid Chambourcin is bottled as Sweet Kate, a floral delight named for another ancestor. Sanders Ridge is open daily (except Christmas, New Years and Easter) noon to 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.sandersridge.com.

Raffaldini Winery owners trace their roots to 14th century Mantua in the Lombardy region of Italy where their ancestors were farmers with a long history of growing their own grapes and making their own wine. They purchased the Yadkin Valley winery property in 2001 after surveying more than 60 sites. “This location is exceptional because it has some of the same characteristics and features as in central and southern Italy,” said Thomas Salley, marketing director for Raffaldini.

The family planted more than 30 different grapes on 43 acres before settling on those that have proven to be successful. “We focus on Pinot Grigio, Vermentino, six varieties of Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Orange Moscato. This year we planted some Nero d’Avola,” Salley said. They also grow Malbec and occasionally buy Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc from other local growers. The first vintage was bottled on site in 2003 and an early tasting room opened in 2004. During 2007, the family constructed a villa reminiscent of Italian family homes with an events room upstairs and a tasting room downstairs. Their members gather at the villa for private tastings and club events including the annual Italian Festival in September.

Raffaldini is open Mondays from 11a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday 11a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.  Tours are Wednesday to Sunday 1-4 p.m. For more information, visit www.raffaldini.com.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the Emmy-award winning hit reality show on ABC, is coming to Fayetteville, N.C. to surprise one very deserving family and they have chosen Blue Ridge Log Cabins to lead the charge in building a new home. The identity of the family receiving a complete home rebuild from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will be revealed on Thursday, July 14 during Extreme’s, “Good Morning!” wake up call.

The Fayetteville Dogwood Festival is proud to be one of the hosts of a very special project to benefit the deserving recipients. Blue Ridge Log Cabins, R. A. Jeffrey’s — a Bud Light distributor and the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, together will produce Heroes, Hearts and Hardhats Music Festival on Sunday July, 17th in Festival Park. All of the proceeds from this all day event will be donated to the family build fund.

The festival includes food vendors, face painting stations, inflatable waterslides, cold Bud Light — and of course free entertainment! Donations will be accepted throughout the day, and proceeds from the food vendors, waterslides, soda, water and beer sales will be presented to the family.

The USO of North Carolina will also be on hand with their bus and N.C. Mobile unit collecting non perishable food and travel-sized personal hygiene items.

The day’s activities begin at noon and run through 9 p.m. Entertainment will include a lineup of performers like Da Throw Back Band, a festive 70’s style show band, Jamie Tate, a North Carolina native with fun tunes like “I’m One Beer Away From Loving You”, and of course a few other surprises. The event headliner will be country artist Josh Thompson.

Josh Thompson is a songwriter and performer from Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Thompson’s blue collar lifestyle can be found in many of the songs he has written, which includes the title track of Jason Michael Carroll’s current album Growing Up is Getting Old. Following his Top 20 Debut “Beer On The Table” his second single and album’s title track “Way Out Here” is already in the Top 40.

We invite you to join us at the Heroes, Hearts and Hardhats Music Festival presented by Bud Light to make a difference in the lives of the deserving recipients.

For more information about the festival, please contact Carrie King with the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival at 910- 323-1934 or cking@faydogwoodfestival.comFor more information regarding sponsorship opportunities and construction needs, please contact Blue Ridge Log Cabins athttp://www.joinextreme.com/northcarolinadonate/constructionmaterials.

To make a direct donation to the family build fund please visit http://www.joinextreme.com/northcarolina/builderfamilyfund.

Or if you have a product or service that you would like to donate please email Blue Ridge Homes at extreme@blueridgelogcabins.com and tell us about it.

Photo: The Fayetteville Dogwood Festival is proud to be one of the hosts of a very special event in support of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and their project, which will benefi t a local family.

Wine aficionados in search of special labels, those who want to learn more about grapey goodness and people just hunting for a unique gathering place can all find what they’re looking for at The Wine Café, which uncorked about six months ago in Hope Mills’ Millstone Towne Centre.

A retail store and tasting room, The Wine Café offers close to 200 labels of wines and craft beers from all over the world for sale by the bottle, as well as a constantly changing selection of 12 wines at a high-tech, self-serve tasting station. At least once a month, the café holds a free wine tasting. Because they are held at different times, customers can check the business’s Facebook page or the café’s web site, www.thewinecafeus.com, to fi nd out when the next event will be.

On July 7, the store’s owners, Angie and Ray Malvave, celebrated their birthdays with a tasting of their personal favorite wines. As well as sharing the same vintage — they were born on the same day in the same year — they also have an interesting love story.

As children in Puerto Rico, Angie and Ray were middle-school sweethearts, though she says he got mad at her because she wouldn’t kiss him. Fast forward 25 years, add a Facebook reconnection, and Angela found herself in a place she never thought she’d be. Not just by moving to Cumberland County, but opening her own business.

“I always had a dream of opening my own business, but it’s hard to quit your job and start a new venture,” she said.

But it wasn’t too hard to quit her healthcare marketing job to move to this area to be with Ray, who recently retired from the military. The couple was married in December.

“When Ray was ready to retire, we could have gone anywhere, but I really like the people here, the charm of the southern thing,” she said. “In developing the concept for the store, I wanted a big-city concept in a small city with a community feel for it.”

Figuring out what that concept should be was a little harder, but, in her choice of business, like her marriage, she sees a divine hand.

“I prayed,” she said. “The same way God brought me here and put us together, he will show me the business. Then we were having wine one afternoon in the backyard — a Grenache — and then I was like, wine! Wine it is. It was out of the blue in a way, the revelation I was praying for.”

In some ways, it wasn’t too surprising. In her many work and leisure travels all over the world, she says she always went places with vineyards.

“I’ve always been a wine lover,” she said. “I consider wine like an art. The complexity of producing the wine … it amazes me how you can open a bottle of wine today, and the same vintage one year later will taste completely different.”

Taste is something to experience at The Wine Café. The café’s tasting station works with pre-paid cards, which the business loads like a debit card for a one-time fee of $3, or for free if the customer puts $30 or more on the card. The reusable, rechargeable card is put into the tasting station by the customer, who then pulls down a glass from the rack overhead and chooses a 1 ½-ounce taste, a 3-ounce half glass, or a 5-ounce full cup of wine with a push of a button.

The choice of wines in the tasting station is changed every couple of weeks. Prices vary with the selection, but recently ranged from $1.50 to $5.40 for a taste, and $5.20 to $18 for a full glass.

“The idea is for the customer to experiment with different varieties,” she said. “I can be talking about wine for a long time, but until a customer tastes it, the aromas and fl avors … it opens the mind of many customers to try things they’d never ventured to try before and expand their palate.”

The store’s wine selection is divided by new world wines (from Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States) old world wines (Europe), sparkling, and sweet. Labels on the racks list tasting notes and pairing suggestions. The café also offers deli plates, cupcakes, gift baskets and can make special orders for labels that customers are looking for.

The Wine Café is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m.; closed Tuesdays.

Photo: Angie Malvave, of The Wine Cafe, draws a sample of wine.

First opened in March of 1980, Bob & Sheree’s Wine Shoppe has been an icon in Fayetteville for the last 30 years.

When first generation Italian Robert Accetturo moved to North Carolina with Sheree, they were seeking to combine Sheree’s California wine training with Bob’s retail and pub business experience. North Carolina did not even have a liquor license to handle Bob and Sheree’s request. A license had to be specially crafted to allow them to work with both beer and wine, and to allow taste testing to be handled on the premises. Bob and Sheree were eventually asked to make a choice between wine tasting or beer tasting, the state would not allow both. In the end, they chose to offer wine tasting.

Although Bob passed away Christmas of 2009, the business remains a family run business with Sheree at the helm and their son, Nunzio, helping run the two Fayetteville shops. Family and history are an important part of the life of the shop. Sheree speaks with passion about not only the business, but the importance of community and culture and how “bringing the best to the table” helps others make and maintain their connections with their loved ones.

The shop’s main vision is educating its patrons in making personal selections that will please each individual’s palate. Its goal is to “help you make the right decision every time you come in,” says Sheree. She equates selecting the right beer or wine to people selecting a particular scent to wear.

“I can’t ask someone to wear my perfume,” she says, “It fits like a puzzle, there is not one grape for everyone — each person is different.”

She is so committed to satisfaction that the shop offers a 100 percent unconditional money back guarantee on purchases made, even if you just did not like it

.The shop prides itself on offering a wide variety of wine and beers that are not available elsewhere in the community. A best seller for the last 15 years, Moscato D’Asti by the Saracco family was brought to Fayetteville by Bob and Sheree. Sheree recounts that when Bob was born in Chicago, the midwife listed on Bob’s birth certificate was from the Saracco family.

They also have upwards of 1,200 beers available at any given time. When Sam Adams introduced its limited edition Infi nium beer last year, the entire state of North Carolina was only allotted 40 cases. Sheree’s shop was given one case. She called the company directly to plead for more than those 12 bottles for the Fayetteville community, and was rewarded with an additional three cases. She took no advance orders, but offered them on a first-come first-served basis — one bottle per person.

Active in the community, the shop hosted wine tastings on Fort Bragg for the incoming commanders for more than 15 years. In past years they have hosted afternoon wine tastings at the shop, with the well-known DJs of Bob and Sheri in the Morning, capitalizing on the name word play. The shop’s staff has also taught classes to the staffs at local restaurants, helping to teach servers the proper way to serve and present wine, and how to deal with tricky customers.

While many of the wines and beers you will fi nd on hand are imported, you can also fi nd some great local products. If you are looking to acquaint yourself with some North Carolina wines, Bob & Sheree’s may have the widest selection in the area. The shop carries many of the state’s wines in both red and white.

With two locations, (2828 Raeford Rd. and 238 Hay St., Bob & Sheree’s Wine Shoppe offers much more than a fantastic selection of beer and wine from around the world. The shop offers “vintage hospitality” that is rare in our fast-paced society. Be sure to check out their Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/pages/Bob-Sherees-Wine-Shoppe.

Photo: Sheree offering a toast in the shop.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with having said that “Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance”.

Perhaps local wine-shop owners Teresa Swint and her father, Howard Johnson, “no we don’t own hotels, tee hee” says Swint, had similar thoughts when they decided to open Grapes & Hops on Ramsey Street seven years ago.

Swint said she had long thought that there needed to be a wine shop on the north end of town. When she and her dad decided to go into business together, it was an obvious choice for them.

Before opening Grapes & Hops, Swint, an accountant, and Johnson, who retired from hospital administration, admit they knew nothing about wine and beer. With a huge learning curve to overcome, and armed only with a desire for knowledge, they threw themselves in feet fi rst. Becoming masters in their fi eld, their focus now is on their customers.

Swint says that where wine was once consumed more by retirees, a younger demographic is now embracing the experience.

“I am not sure why the resurgence,” says Swint. “My only thought is that you can have so many different experiences with wine, reds versus whites, etc., whereas a gin and tonic is a gin and tonic.”

The wines at Grapes & Hops come from all over the world, however, some, like Duplin, Shelton, Raylen and Dennis originate right here in the Tarheel state. Swint says her store specializes in good customer service and that they will gladly special order wines for their patrons.

Every Friday the store opens new wines and offers free samples. She adds that by purchasing in a shop that employs wine stewards, you can receive personal recommendations and suggestions.

If you’re looking for a theme for your next party, Swint says that “wine tastings can be a fun thing to host.”

Local wine enthusiast, David Evans, and Swint, both, suggest having a theme to your wine-tasting.

“Cabernets from South America or Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand,” is a good place to start says Swint. She adds that “the difference in growing regions and the taste of the wines would surprise most people.”

When asked to describe the steps involved in tasting, Evans explains, “before tasting the wine, hold the wine up to a light or against a white background and assess the color. White wines will be pale to golden, depending on its age, whereas red wines will range from light red to almost black. The darker the red, the heavier the fl avor.”

The next step according to Evans is to “swirl the wine in the glass. After you swirl, look at the sides of the glass and you will see streaks coming down the sides. These are called ‘tears’ or ‘legs’. If the legs come down thin and quick then it’s probably a light and low-alcohol wine. If the legs come down slower and thicker, it’s probably a heavier and higher-alcohol wine.”

The wine gets swirled again, then it’s time to inhale the wine’s aroma. According to Evans, “If it’s a red wine, it may be earthy and spicy and may be Old-World style, whereas a New-World wine may be fruity.”

The best step in the process comes next.

“Taste the wine,” says Evans. “Notice how it feels at the tip of your tongue, in the middle and on the sides of your mouth. Be aware of how long you can taste the wine after you have swallowed it.”

Both Evans and Swint suggest having food available should you host a wine tasting. Swint says to serve “both soft and hard cheese, plain crackers and fruit.”

If you prefer trying your hand at making your own wine or beer, Grapes and Hops also sells supplies to get you started. In addition, they make lovely gift baskets that are perfect for every occasion. Visit them at 5407-C Ramsey Street or give them a call at 822-8700 for more information.

Photo: Grapes and Hops offers a wide array of wines to residents of North Fayetteville.

This, That and the Other

Individual human beings are the most fascinating creatures on God’s green earth.

We love them, hate them, help them, get angry with them, follow them, watch them on television.

Nothing is more riveting to us than other human beings. It is sometimes interesting and instructive to look at ourselves as a group, though, and the U.S. Census — conducted every 10 years — provides us with the data to do just that. Some of the information is interesting, some of it is positive and some of it causes concern.

A quick look from the 2010 Census.

Cumberland County has historically been younger than the rest of our state and nation, and it remains so. The obvious reason for this is our signifi cant military population, just the age to have young families, and they do. We are more transient than most other places with a full 10 percent fewer of us living in the same house we did a year ago than others in our state and nation. Not surprisingly, we also have a lower level of home ownership.

A quick trip to any public place in our community affi rms that we are far more diverse than the rest of our state and much of our nation, again because the military brings people of all ethnicities and heritages to our community, enriching us in all kinds of ways from language to food. We display this diversity proudly every fall at the International Folk Festival.

On the concerning side, our median household income is about $2,000 below the state number and $9,000 below the national median. A contributing factor to these discrepancies is certainly our education level. Fewer Cumberland County residents have college degrees than those elsewhere in North Carolina and across the nation, but we do graduate from high school at a higher percentage.

And, while North Carolina as a whole had explosive growth over the last decade at 18.5 percent and the nation grew almost 10 percent, Cumberland County’s growth was a modest 5.4 percent. It is important to note, though, that the census fi gures were collected before BRAC’s growth really got underway.

This data and much more is available from the US Census Bureau and, just like a photograph of your last birthday party, it gives us a snapshot of our community, state, and nation as we were in the spring of 2010.•

• • • • •

Most of us succumb to impulse purchases from time to time, and my particular weaknesses in this area often involve books.

On the sale table of a local book emporium, I recently fell victim to Christopher Buckley’s sweet, charming, poignant and occasionally laughing-out-loud funny, memoir of his parents, Losing Mum and Pup.

Buckley’s parents were, of course, William F. Buckley Jr., the Lion of the Right in American politics, and Pat Buckley, a socialite at the top of New York and European circles for decades. Both died within a year of each other in 2007 and 2008, and Christopher, their only child, remembers his far-from-average parents with both love and consternation at the traits that made them both extraordinary human beings and a one-of-a-kind mother and father.

I confess that I cannot remember ever agreeing with William F. Buckley Jr. on anything political, and his effete and often comical mannerisms drove me crazy. But there is no getting around the fact that he was a brilliant, elegant, erudite and prolifi c writer who sent me to the dictionary on a regular basis, as does his son.

Christopher reports that even at the end his father’s words fl owed out “punctuated and paragraphed,” and that he could write his columns — about the length of this one — in fi ve minutes, most often with no corrections or editing. His books about sailing the seas are wonderfully readable and unequaled.

Christopher Buckley writes about his parents with great love and with great understanding that remarkable as they may have been, they were his Mum and Pup. My favorite line may be this:“Great men … tend to be the stars of their own movies.”

• • • • • •

By the time you read this, North Carolina will have celebrated and dedicated our state’s new $13 million Veteran’s Park in downtown Fayetteville.

It is North Carolina’s tribute to those who have served and will serve us and all Americans in our military, and it is in the right place in our community where heroes live next door.

It will be here when you and I are not, honoring those who have been brave and those who will be.

If you saw him, I hope you took a minute to say thank you to former North Carolina Senator Tony Rand.

The North Carolina Veterans Park is his legislative handiwork, the product of his understanding of the sacrifi ce freely and lovingly given by generations of North Carolinians and other Americans and of the special and unique role this community continues to play in military history.

Trust me on this one.

I was there.

Photo: The N.C. Veterans Park opened last week. Those in attendance heard a little from former N.C. Senator Tony Rand. Rand was the man behind the park in the N.C. Legislature.

 

There are some who would argue that bikers are scary. Their view of motorcycle riders involve visions of violent biker gangs out looking for trouble, not the many groups of riders who raise funds for the less for-tunate or the groups like the Patriot Guard Riders who honor fallen soldiers at funeral services across the country.

On Saturday, July 16, in an annual show of compassion that has be-come an event that many look forward to with great anticipation, Victory of Fayetteville is hosting the 9th Annual Christmas in July Toy Run.

As in years past, each rider is asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy in addition to the $15 entry fee. Passengers are welcome and it costs $10 for them to participate.

The event actually starts the night before the ride, on July 15. From 6-8 p.m. riders gather at Legends Pub on Bragg Boulevard, catch a bite to eat, listen to the live entertainment and preregister for the ride. Legends owner Holly Whitney has been a supporter of the event since its inception and looks forward to hosting the pre-ride registration party each year.

On the morning of the 16th, riders meet up at M&M Leather on Bragg Boulevard. Technically registration starts at 8 a.m., but event coordinator William Winford says that folks start registering right after set up is done, around 6:30 a.m.

The ride starts promptly at 8 a.m. and lasts two hours to the minute accord-ing to Winford and ends at Duke Children’s Hospital, which is where the fun really begins. The event is designed to support the children and families of Duke Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Children’s Miracle Network.

“Once we get to the parking garage at the facility, Texas Roadhouse has al-ready been up there for a few hours and has prepared a meal for us — right in the parking garage,” said Winford. From the garage, the riders travel by foot to the hospital complex foyer. “Once we get to the complex, we form a human chain from inside the hospital foyer to the parking lot. The gifts are transferred by hand, from person to person, so people actually get to see and feel their toy being donated to the hospital.”

Unfortunately, due to the nature of some of the children’s illnesses, it is not possible to deliver the gifts directly to kids. That must be left to the hospital staff. The generosity does not end with the toys though. Each year the Wal-Mart Foundation writes a check to the Children’s Miracle Network matching the monetary value of gifts and dona-tions raised by the Christmas in July Toy Run participants and sponsors. The Children’s Network then donates the matching contribution to Duke Children’s Hospital. Over the past 8 years, more than $98,000 has been donated in conjunction with this event.

After the presentation of toys and funds to the Duke Children’s Hospital, everyone departs and comes back to M&M Leather for music and food.

The entire ride is escorted by law enforcement, from Fayetteville to the Duke Children’s Hospital parking lot. While each jurisdiction provides law enforcement along the way, Cumberland County sends escorts along for the entire ride as a contribution to the cause, since the motorcade can be as long as ¾ of a mile some years.

As one of the original riders, Winford has a deep commitment to Christmas in July.

“Certain things just get into your blood. This is how Christmas in July is to me,” said Winford. “We have actually had riders on this event who were Duke children themselves, or whose children were Duke children. It is a very emotional and significant event for them. It runs deep and has real purpose and meaning. It hits people individually and it really hits this community.”

Winford recognizes that an event like this has no success without the support of the community. And like it does in so many countless other ways, the local citizens and businesses have stepped up year after year to do what is right and to help their fellow man … and children.

Call 426-5082 to find out how you can help.

Photo: On July 16, in an annual show of compassion that has become an event that many look forward to with great anticipation, Victory of Fayetteville is hosting the 9th Annual Christmas in July Toy Run.

Bad Teacher (Rated R)  2 Stars

From an objective standpoint, Bad Teacher (92 minutes) should have been super funny. The pedigree promises inappro-priate jokes that make the audience laugh despite themselves. Screenwriters Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg have done some very funny episodes of The Office, and Director Jake Kasdan did an amazing job with 2007’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Too bad the concept fails horribly.

Much like lead Diaz’s other attempts to play nasty (Very Bad Things, The Sweetest Thing), Bad Teacher falls completely flat, primarily because there is never any depth to her nastiness. She is not particularly funny as a “bad” teacher, mostly because she re-ally isn’t that much of a bad teacher. I mean, she’s no Mr. Chips, but she is more apathetic than bad. You could call her a “bad per-son,” but there isn’t a whole lot there to distinguish her badness from the badness of any other character in the film. And honestly, when you come right down to it, when you put together a movie of this kind you need to push the envelope to get the laughs, and this is all very standardized.

And her nemesis, Lucy Punch, is pretty in a quirky way, but plays Ms. Squirrel as very passive aggressive. The film as a whole would have been far more satisfying if the two female leads had gotten a bit more physical. If you’re going for gross-out humor, you have to mean it. There should have been punch-ing, poo flinging, full frontal exposure ala Waiting... and instead, we get a faceful of poison ivy and inappropriate displays of adolescent sexuality.

The major problem seems to be that neither the film, nor the actors, knows what is supposed to be going on. Is the film funny because everyone is so hate-ful? Is the film funny because teenagers are clueless and the bad teacher tells them how stupid they are? Is the film funny because the bad teacher embezzles (but only a little bit) and steals an exam (which emphasizes memorization and rote learning rather than true understanding or creative thought)?

Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) plans to marry rich and wrap up her career as a teacher. One wonders how she became a teacher in the first place, since you generally need to pass a certain number of teaching reviews and competency exams, but whatever. One might also wonder how she managed to convince her fiancée to get engaged in the first place, since the moment his mom steps in her plans are blown, because she is in no way sincere. But then, the fiancée is as dumb as a box of hammers, so mystery solved. In fact, all the men in the movie are as dumb as a box of hammers.

Principle Wally Snur (John Michael Higgens) has a bizarre dolphin fetish and fails to call Ms. Halsey on any of her be-havior. Substitute teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) is a milquetoast who is supposedly in love with one teacher, but ends up in bed with Ms. Halsey for no obvious reason. Of course, that lack of on-screen chemistry might be related to the fact that they are real life exes. State Testing Dude Carl Halabi (Thomas Lennon) is dumb enough to get tricked by an Annie wig, drugged, and blackmailed … and I am not buying that he was in any way interested in her to begin with. And let’s not even mention the gym teacher! As a romantic lead, Jason Segel is just starting to move past picking up the roles that Seth Rogen rejects as too schmoopy … but his interest in this chick is never adequately explained. He doesn’t get enough screen time to flesh out the relationship, and he doesn’t come off as the type to pursue someone so clearly dysfunctional.

Mostly, the film moves from sketch to sketch to illustrate that Elizabeth is a bad teacher long after the audience has got-ten the message. Yes, some of the jokes work. Too bad most of them don’t.

This is the first season for Fayetteville After 5 under new management. Starting with the May 19 concert that featured The Tams, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival has been at the helm. With all the other community events that the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival puts on — the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, Historic Hauntings, New Year’s Eve Party in the Park and the Miss Fayetteville Dogwood Festival Pagaent — it is no surprise that the transition has been painless for concert attendees. Carrie King and her staff know how to host a great party.

On Thursday, July 21, The Embers will perform at Festival Park. This marks the third of five concerts for this season of Fayetteville After 5. Local favorites, The Tams opened the season in May and were followed by Café’ Mars in June. The August concert will feature another local favorite, Suicide Blonde on Aug. 18. The concert series will conclude with The Band of Oz performing on Sept. 15.

No strangers to the music scene, The Embers have been performing to-gether for decades. In fact, their website, www.theembersband.net, points out that “After 17 albums, numerous single releases, The Embers are one of the most popular bands as well as one of the most active groups in the country. The Embers boast an average of 300 dates per year all ranging from Toronto to Florida, and westward to California and Hawaii.”

The album Beach Music, Super Collaboration, which featured The Embers, among other internationally known recording artists, received international critical acclaim. It not only “evoked the best of memories and emotions for anyone who has been touched by the magic of beach music,” according to www.theembers.net. It also “introduced newcomers to the same passion that has made these enchanting melodies one of the greatest music phenomena of all time.”

Their latest album The Show Must Go On featured the single “The Last Time I’m Saying Goodbye” which debuted at number four in the UK’s Soulwalking charts.

In addition to the great music, Fayetteville After 5 is a great way to relax with friends and family and take a break from the worries of the work week. Enjoy a corn-hole tournament, participate in the 50/50 raffle and the prizes and giveaways. Like always, there will be food and beverage vendors (no out-side food or beverages are allowed within the park), and plenty of space on the promenade to get up and dance.

The gates open at five. Attendees can look forward to hearing a perfor-mance by local talent before the headliners perform around 7 p.m. The event is free and takes place downtown at Festival Park, so bring a blanket or a lawn chair to enjoy the show. Find out more at www.faydog-woodfestival.com.

Photo: The Embers are set to entertain at Fayetteville After 5 on July 21.

“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and it’s best hope for the future,” said John F. Kennedy; but in a world rife with issues and conflict, the future doesn’t always seem promising. On Friday, July 29, T. Pinckney and Associates is presenting the Teen Explosion Conference in order to prepare today’s students for the best fu-ture possible.

The institute is partnering with businesses in the Sandhills region of North Carolina to sponsor an annual end-of-summer culminating event that encourages teenagers to plan for a successful school year and apply themselves at their high-est capacity upon returning to school,” their website explains.

Mind OVER Matter Youth Development Institute was es-tablished in 1997, and is the organization that is partner-ing with local businesses, such as Kidsville News!, Kaplan, Inc., Pinckney & Associates and Up & Coming Weekly, to present the Teen Explosion Conference.

Mind OVER Matter Youth Development Institute provides organiza-tional consulting for many different nonprofit organizations. “An organiza-tion with capacity is like a tree with good roots. We help your organization grow healthy roots!”

The self-proclaimed primary goal of this organization is to support youth with skills that they need to be successful, by emphasizing the value of self, interactions with others and the impact this has on social and aca-demic development. It specifically services youth ages 11-19, or grades six through their freshman year in college. Mind OVER Matter Youth Development Institute is a nonprofit, and specializes in organizational de-velopment, program evaluation, staff training, strategic planning, and youth program development and monitoring services.

Dr. Teresa Thompson-Pinckney, the founder of the Back-to-School Teen Explosion Conference, explains the day as, “ a day for the business community to support our teenagers in an environment that makes the daily rigor of going to school relevant to our future generation of employees. When many teens graduate from high school, according to the private and public sector, our young people do not have the skills needed to succeed at work. This conference offers teens an authentic experience to learn strate-gies for school success, understand how to prepare for college and an op-portunity to interact with business and community leaders.”

Some highlights of the conference include a presentation on effective testing strategies sponsored by Kaplan as well as presentations on the importance managing finances and preparing for college with a 10-year plan.

The conference will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Hotel Bordeaux & Conference Center.

It is open for all who wish to participate ages 13 through 18. Registration begins at 8 a.m. For more information, contact Teresa Thompson-Pinckney at 486-4084. Breakfast and lunch are provided for participants.

Photo: On Friday, July 29, T. Pinckney and Associates is presenting the Teen Explosion Conference in order to prepare today’s students for the best future possible.

The Green Lantern  (Rated PG-13)  Three Stars

Green Lantern(105 minutes) is a film for the adolescent boy in us all. What’s more, the characters and the actors portray-ing them are very much aware of this fact. The acting is wooden, the dialogue exposi-tory and forced, the plot overly complicated. All in all, it’s not the worst comic-book movie of the last 10 years (I assume no list is necessary, but if you want perspective compare it to X-Men: Last Stand. There. Now don’t you feel much better about The Green Lantern?), but it is far from the best.

The film respects the comic book my-thology, even if I don’t. There were rumors that the filmmakers were experimenting with a comic twist on the story and were in talks with Jack Black (!) to star as Hal Jordan, and it’s a good thing they went with a more straightforward version. Director Martin Campbell didn’t do a terrible job, it is more that he didn’t do an amazing job, so the film comes off as very middle of the road forgettable. This is exactly the kind of generic super-hero film that makes just enough money so everyone involved can tell themselves they did a good job, and then move on to their next project.

Millions of years ago, the Guardians of the Universe used the green essence of will power to create power rings that could manifest anything the wearer thought of, in a sort of intergalactic version of The Secret. Wow. Now I am thinking of one of my ex-boyfriends who told me he was a guardian of the Universe right before he broke up with me. Seriously. He was not joking. I thought he had a creative mind and a rebellious streak, but no. He was crazypants.

Anyway, these guardians created a UN-type security force called the Green Lantern Corps. Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) is a senior member of the Corps charged with containing Parallax (Clancy Brown), who escapes and mortally wounds Abin Sur. Abin Sur, clearly wounded so badly he forgets that his magic ring gives him the power of intergalactic flight, manages to get into a spaceship and fly to earth. Meanwhile, test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) shows up so late for his big test flight that he doesn’t even undergo any of the flight prep one assumes experimental pilots need before they’re allowed to take the throttle. Oh well, at least he managed to find time for hate flirting with Carol Ferris (Blake Lively). Fun game! Take a shot every time she accuses him of acting like a child! Right around the last third of the movie, everything will seem much more entertaining.

Hal and Abin finally manage to get in the same scene, and naturally Hal buries the alien and flees the scene with magic ring and magic lantern in tow just before the government shows up. Although it seems like, since Hal isn’t a doctor, much less a specialist in alien physiology, he maybe should have considered the possibil-ity that Abin Sur was in some kind of regenerative alien coma and not risked bury-ing him alive? That’s not a spoiler … it just seems like taking the time to build a burial cairn when the military was bound to show up any moment when you have no way of verifying the alien is dead-dead was possibly a tad misguided.

Well, it seems to work out. And Hal is whisked away to the planet Oa where he meets Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush), Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Sinestro (Mark Strong). Meanwhile, exo-biologist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) has been tasked with creating some alien autopsy footage for use on the SyFy network. You might think the government would spring for some kind of biohazard suit and thick plastic gloves, but you would be wrong. These cost sa-ing measures result in Hector Hammon absorbing the yellow power wielded by Parallax, setting up the action in the second half of the film.

The mythology continues to develop, the story gets infinitely more complicated, and the finale fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion. However, there is an after credits scene.

As the Fayetteville Young Professionals’ (FYP) second year comes to a close, I’d like to thank everyone who has joined, volunteered, sponsored and attended our many events this year. We’ve made new business contacts, learned new skills, made some memories and most importantly initiated lifelong friendships. 

When I joined the FYP steering committee two years ago at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, I never imagined that from that those 20 people who sat around a table planning, laughing and even arguing, that FYP would grow to almost 500 members. The Fayetteville Young Professional’s success is a testament to the need our community’s 20-40-year-olds have to reach out and connect.

It’s cliché to say it, but FYP has changed my life. I have never been part of a group that has been as rewarding. While the new friends, parties, athletic activities and professional-development opportunities have all been really fun, being a part of a group that also has so much impact on the community has been unexpectedly satisfying. From giving out gifts at the Salvation Army, to cleaning up our newly minted All-America City with Fayetteville Beautiful, FYP has done a lot to give back, thus affording me the opportunity to get to know my community and give back as well.

Additionally, as an organized group, the Fayetteville Young Professionals have made Fayetteville’s business leadership take note of everything that professionals in the 20-40 age group have to offer. FYP gives our age group more weight and cred-ibility. Instead of just being the young guy at the end of the hall, now we are the young guy or girl who can call and mobilize 20-50 people for a meet up at a local restaurant, or team for a non-profit activity. As an organized group, we are able to make the connections that have taken established business professionals years to make and in a fun, friendly, non-intimidating environment.

Fayetteville is changing and it is exciting being a part of that. It is not the same place that many of our parents grew up in. Many of our members are from all over the world. They have moved here for careers or to come back and take over fam-ily businesses instead of venturing out to make their mark in other places. They’ve done this because of the opportunities that this community provides and the qual-ity-of-life improvements that have occurred. Our community has changed from a small town to a big city, which unfortunately has made it harder to meet people. FYP provides that venue. I can’t tell you how often I have heard someone say, “I had no idea there were so many young career-ori-ented people here.”

One of the things that FYP has expanded this year has been our “Meet ups.” Those events have been very successful and draw a diverse group de-pending on the location and time. I’ve not been to a meet up where I haven’t met a new Fayetteville Young Professional member who heard about us on Facebook, through an employer or friend, or even saw us at many of our monthly events. By hosting these events at different locations, it has exposed our members to a lot of new places in the com-munity that they had never been to. Our Lunch and Learn events have also continued to grow, with on average 30-40 young professionals attending our educational series, which are sometimes presented by other young professionals.

Remember, FYP is your group and it is what you make of it. Many of our new activities have come at the suggestion of new members interested in trying out a new activity or something they have a special interest. Next year promises to be even better

.If you are interested in joining, volunteering on a committee or renewing your membership, be sure to visit our website at www.fayyp.org.

Just because the 4th of July has passed, it doesn’t mean there won’t still be fireworks in Fayetteville. The Fayetteville SwampDogs are making a hard push towards the playoffs, and now is the best time to get your tickets to see the team live in action at J.P. Riddle Stadium.

The biggest upcoming nights are just around the corner, including the 2011 CPL All-Star Game, part of the SwampDogs All-Star Summer of Fun. Tickets are limited for the All-Star Fan Feston Sunday, July 17, as well as the All-Star Game itself on Monday, July 18. The Fan Fest includes a home run derby, as well as the 2nd Annual Guns-N-Hoses charity softball game, pit-ting members of the Fayetteville Police Department against the Fayetteville Fire Department, so don’t miss out on a great event full of fun and surprises, and a chance to see the stars of to-morrow, today!

Before that, though, there’s plenty of great SwampDogs action to catch at “The Swamp.” July 6 is Hospitality Appreciation Night at J.P. Riddle Stadium, as the SwampDogs cater to all of those who cater to us. Everyone working in the hospitality industry will receive a $1 off a general admission ticket to the game against the Wilmington Sharks. It’s also Ladies’ Night, so all ladies will be able to buy one general admission ticket and get another general admission ticket free!

Then it’s time to grab your four-leaf clovers, because the following night, July 7, is Summertime St. Patty’s Day! Come celebrate the Luck o’ the Irish, and the first 500 lucky fans, 21 and over, will receive a pint glass courtesy of Yuengling and Healy Wholesale. It will be a night filled with Irish nicknames, Irish food, Irish music — everything that comes with a tra-ditional Irish celebration! It will also be Fayetteville Observer Night, where fans can come and see the Weekender bug, so grab your green and come to July’s best Irish celebration.

On Saturday, July 9, the SwampDogs will host the Morehead City Marlins, and the first 500 fans in attendance will receive a new, insulated lunch bag, presented by Cape Fear Orthopedic. It will also be NC State Night, so wear your Wolfpack gear and receive $1 off a general admission ticket.

Don’t miss out on your chance to catch the best base-ball in town, all part of the Fayetteville SwampDogs All-Star Summer of Fun. For more information or to order your tickets, call the SwampDogs office at 426-5900, and we’ll see you at “The Swamp!’

Theatre Celebrates Past, Looks to Future With New Direction

In 1962, a group of like-minded individuals got together to dream. As is the case with those with vision, their dream wasn’t small. Their goal: the development of a regional theatre in their community. Driving that vision were Bo and Herbert Thorp, and with the hard work, talent and dedication of the Thorps and their friends, that dream became a reality. And, 50 years later, the community can celebrate that dream during the Cape Fear Regional Theatre’s 50th Anniversary.

Never known for doing things in a small way, the theatre will celebrate its anniversary with an ending, a beginning and an award-winning season featuring some of the community’s most talented performers.

For Bo Thorp, who has been the heart of the theatre for its 50 years of existence, this season is somewhat bittersweet. She can look back fondly at the success of the theatre, and look to the future as she takes a step back and the theatre welcomes its new artistic director, Tom Quaintance.

Quaintance, who has more than 18 years of professional experience, directed Hairspray last season at the CFRT, and was chosen by a special committee appointed by the CFRT board of directors after a two year search.

“Tom Quaintance is an amazing director and educator who will successfully lead the CFRT into its next chapter,” said Thorp, who will remain at the theatre throughout the 2011-2012 season as the Founding Artistic Director. “We are very excited about the leadership and artist abilities that Tom will bring to our community, and I look forward to continuing to work with him.”

For his part, Quaintance, is excited about the move to Fayetteville and the challenges presented at the theatre.“I am thrilled with the opportunity to join the Cape Fear Regional Theatre family and am humbled to follow in the footsteps of the great Bo Thorp.”

Quaintance looks forward to working with Thorp over the upcoming season to learn the day-to-day interworkings of the theatre and to create a vision for the theatre.

“One of the main things I want to do is to get out into the community and listen,” he said. “My immediate plan is to get out into the community and get in touch with the people. I want to listen not just to the patrons, but those who do not come to the theatre. I want to fi nd ways to bring them in.”

“For 50 years, the CFRT has been synonymous with professional, quality work that engages, inspires and enlightens the community, and I am especially excited to be arriving as the theatre reaches this extraordinary milestone. I have always believed that theatre is an essential part of any vibrant community, and I want the CFRT to always be a refl ection of this area and its positive attributes — warm, open, interesting and diverse. On a personal note, my wife and I are expecting our fi rst child in July, and we cannot think of a better place to raise a family than Fayetteville.”

The Season

The CFRT 50th Anniversary Season brings some of the best of Broadway and the best of the CFRT stage for a compelling season.

Boeing, Boeing

September-October 2011

Written by French playwright Marc Camoletti, Boeing, Boeing, made its English-language debut in London’s West End in 1962. It centers around the love life of Bernard, a man whose love life is a perfect balancing act: When one of his stewardess girlfriends touches down, the next one is already in the air. What could go wrong? The play, which was made into a move in 1965, and had a recent Broadway revival is, according to The New York Times, “The very opposite of what you might expect. It’s not smutty at all. It’s deliciously, deliriously innocent.”

Miss Saigon

November 2011

Set to run in conjunction with Fayetteville’s Heroes Welcome Home for Vietnam Vets, the staging of Miss Saigon is no accident. This is an epic love story set in war-torn Saigon amidst the turmoil of the Vietnam war. An American GI and a Vietnamese girl fall in love, only to be separated by the fall of Saigon. Their struggle to fi nd each other over the ensuing years ends in her making the ultimate sacrifi ce for the child he never knew.

Encore! 50 Years

January-February 2012

It’s the show loyal fans and patrons of the CFRT have been waiting for; performances highlighting 50 years of CFRT performed by your favorites. Special guest stars will return to the CFRT stage to recreate the role that have endeared them to the audience. This musical is guaranteed to be a showcase of the drama, song and dance that has cemented the CFRT’s reputation as the region’s premiere theatre.

The Great Unknown: A New American Musical

February-March 2012

This is a new musical. The CFRT will be the originating theatre and the first to stage this work by William Hauptman, author of Big River and Jim Wann, composer of Pump Boys & Dinettes.The Great Unknown is a jubilant Americana musical about big dreams and even bigger risks. Hoping to inspire and revive a fractured nation, one-armed Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell lead a daring expedition of veterans down the Colorado river to the Grand Canyon in the spring of 1869. With a contemporary folk/musical theatre score enhanced by environmental elements, The Great Unknown is an American musical adventure.

On Golden Pond

April-May 2012

Presented to great critical and popular acclaim fi rst off and then on Broadway, this touching, funny and warmly perceptive study of a spirited and lovable elderly couple facing their twilight years introduced a signifi cant playwright to the theatre world. This show will star Thorp and Mayon Weeks.

Special Productions

The Night of January 16th

September 2011

A revival of the CFRT’s fi rst production to be held in its original location — the historical courthouse on Dick Street. The story is a murder trial, but without a prearranged verdict; the verdict is decided by a jury selected from the audience. By design the evidence is presented in such a way that the decision must rest on the jurors’ fundamental attitude toward and life and toward man’s potential for greatness. Mayon Weeks will direct the show.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Dec. 6-16

The 21st annual production of Barbara Robinson’s holiday classic. This hilarious Christmas tale is a wonderful opportunity for students to perform.

50th Anniversary Golden Gala

Feb. 11, 2012This is the event of the season! Celebrate 50 years of magic. This black-tie gala is the ultimate back stage pass. Come lift a glass and toast the region’s premiere theatre.

Othello

March-April 2012

Presented as The Classic Theatre Series Production, the show will be performed at Fayetteville State University’s Seabrook Auditorium.

An Evening With Bo

Spring 2012

Celebrate 50 years of Founding Artistic Director Bo Thorp at the CFRT, with an intimate evening with special guests, performances and reminiscences. A reception to follow.

28th Annual River Show

May 2012

A great tradition continues on the banks of the Cape Fear River at the Sol Rose Amphitheater, Campbellton Landing.

Photo: Tom Quaintance 

Although the curtain has barely come down on the 2010/2011 theater season at Gilbert Theater, the staff is alreadyhard at work preparing next year’s entertainment for the community. Here is a peak at what is in store.

No stranger to the Fayetteville theater-goers, The Rocky Horror Show is back and it opens Sept. 22 and runs through Oct. 9.

“We are opening with our Rocky Horror Show. It is turning out to be a tradition like Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It is so popular and so well attended. It is a good balance to the things that are less well known and are perhaps more thoughtful,” said Lynn Pryer, Gilbert Theater founder and artistic director, adding that “We do such a good job with Rocky — I thought our live musical version was more entertaining than the movie. We will have a lot of the prior cast returning, too. That is something that is always a joy — doing the “Time Warp” again.”

As a part of the Dickens Holiday celebration that happens annually downtown, the Gilbert opens its rendition of A Christmas Carolby Charles Dickens.

“This is our fifth or sixth season doing the Dickens Holiday,” said Pryer. “Last season, we introduced our new set on casters, so we’ve got quite a good look for our space. We have our wonderful cast, largely returning. It is a great addition to the downtown celebration as it presents the entire story on stage, while outside they have people dressed as Victorian characters walking around the streets and all. I think it is a great addition to the day.”

The season’s third production is another source of pride for the Gilbert staff. It is an original play, by local Vietnam vet, writer, poet and playwright Stephen Miles. It takes place in a retirement home with seniors, one of whom has Alzheimers, and one of whom fi nds out that he is terminally ill. Pryer noted that it is done with a lot of humor, but a lot of pathos as well. Clusters will run Feb. 2-19, 2012. And will be directed by the author.

“A year from this week ,we will have produced our 100th play and something like a quarter to a third of them have been original scripts,” said Pryer. “We are very proud of that. It is part of our mission.”

Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like Itpremiers March 29, 2012 and runs through April 15, 2012. To escape death, the extraordinary Rosalind, her brave cousin Celia and one of Shakespeare’s funniest fools flee into the woods. There, in the bewitching Forest of Arden, they discover shepherds and aristocrats, country folk and lovers — and, ultimately, life, love, joy and freedom. Shakespeare’s glorious and wise comedy reminds us of everything it is to be alive.

The final play of the season will be somewhat of a surprise. Pryer had planned to end the year with a drama, but his personal decision to retire caused him to rethink that and it was changed to a yet-to-be named piece.

“When I did decide to leave, I said, ‘I don’t want to go out on a downer of a play,’ so this last one will be a musical,” said Pryer.

Just like his theatrical career, the 2011/2012 season offers a little bit of everything and something for everyone. According to Pryer it’s been a great ride.

“This time next year I will have been here 20 years. I came here because my son was here and I was very excited about once again living in the south. I had lived here as a missionary for a church years ago, I was a librarian at an all-black high school. I had lived in the south in Virginia, when I was in the Navy, so I was very excited about living in the south. I have a very soft spot in my heart for it. I came here looking for an opportunity, for a satisfying third act, and I definitely found it.”

Find out more about Gilbert Theater at www.gilberttheater.com

Photo: Gilbert opens season with The Rocky Horror Show.