Storms in Durham, Hip-hop in Richmond
111 degree heat
Happy Friday,
I am trying to catch up on work after a loss of power and a little trip (more on both below!), so I am going to make this one short. Thanks, as always, for reading!
LOCAL NEWS
It’s been a wild week. On Tuesday, I went to Chapel Hill to help with orientation for incoming Ph.D. students. It was sunny and clear skies, and I nearly melted on the way from the car to the building and back, with the heat index peaking at 111 around midday. That afternoon, I arrived home and sat at the kitchen table, chatting with Neal for a few minutes. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a previously non-existent wind picked up and it was clear that a storm was really brewing. Within just a few moments, we went from casually chatting about the heat to moving quickly to hide in our windowless bathroom under the stairs, grabbing Zaxby on the way. If I had to guess, I would say that the entire storm passed through in about 15 minutes, but the trail of destruction it left was wild. Many old trees down, a 32-car pileup on the freeway, and outages that left nearly 100,000 without power. A few hours after the storm, we received a text from the city saying that the police were unable to respond to car accidents and thus we should avoid driving if possible. Our house was without power for the next two days (RIP groceries). The YMCA and my nail salon only just got power back and there are still streetlights that aren’t working.
When I tell you the storm was short, I mean it cleared up entirely and left us with clear skies by the evening. A few hours after the storm passed through, we drove to the airport to pick up Neal’s childhood friend who is visiting from California. We welcomed him into our dark (and hot) home for the first night but, luckily, spent the second night up in Richmond where we got to see a concert and hang out with Richmond-based friends. Now we are home and have power back, so all is well.
CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT
In Richmond, we saw hip-hop artists JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown and it was a pretty wild show. The audience was so high energy it was nuts. Definitely a younger (Xs on the hands kind of young), majority male crowd there for JPEG and a slightly older (30s and 40s), more subdued group of die-hards there for Danny. Neal and his visiting friend are huge Danny Brown fans and had been planning the trip for months. We spent the night in a little Airbnb and went to a weird “British” bar that was surely a fire hazard with all the British memorabilia on the walls and shelves.
Unsure about Diana’s placement above the toilet. We saw Kokomo City as part of the OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival in Durham this week. It’s a documentary that simply allows four Black, transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York to tell their own stories. It was raw and profound—those featured had such complex and philosophical perspectives on feminism, the patriarchy, and race.
I have not had a ton of time to be on the internet this week (especially due to our loss of power), but Bama Rushtok consumed a large proportion of the time I did spend online. For those who are not familiar, Bama RushTok refers to a yearly event wherein young women who are “rushing” (e.g., attempting to join a sorority) at the University of Alabama post their OOTDs (outfit of the day) and document the rush process while the sororities they are rushing post choreographed dance routines that amount to ads for their sorority. There are many other schools that go through rush at this time of year, and several other schools with large TikTok presences, but Bama Rush has a particular reputation due to the (anthropologically fascinating) Southern Belle aesthetic, class signaling, extreme wealth, and performative feminity. There are two components to observing Bama Rush: (1) actually following the girls who are rushing, getting to know their styles and preferences, which can be quite fun and (2) following the commentary on Bama Rush, which can be quite funny and enlightening. Anne Helen Peterson has been moderating a discussion about RushTok on her Instagram over the last several days (saved in her story highlights). The whole thing is fascinating, bizarre, and so very American.
BIRTH NOTICES
The school year has officially begun and I got to hold a week-old baby this week!
IN MEMORIAM
RIP to former Seahawks player Alex Collins, who took Irish dancing lessons in order to improve his agility on the field and celebrated touchdowns with a little Irish jig. So young, just awful.
In NC, a ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youth went into place today. Incredibly frustrating and disheartening.
COMICS
Back to work, yall!
Claire