This weekly report is a list of planned construction activities that will impact traffic on state highways and interstates throughout Vermont. Please remember to drive safely in all work zones. Lives depend on it.
Interstates:
I-89 Milton-St. Albans Town - Motorists will be reduced to one lane of northbound travel within the construction area (MM 102.0-113.4), with a reduced speed limit of 55 mph. Motorists should be aware fines are doubled when speeding through a construction zone.
I-89 Richmond - The I-89 Northbound passing lane continues to be closed to northbound traffic between MM 75.45-76.79. Monday, 6/3, and Tuesday, 6/4, from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., southbound traffic will encounter a passing lane closure. On Wednesday, 6/5, southbound traffic will be reduced to one lane from MM 77.29-75.71. This new lane configuration will be in effect for the next several weeks. Additionally, Wednesday, 6/5, through Friday, 6/7, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., motorists will encounter intermittent rolling roadblocks for material being delivered onsite. Northbound and southbound traffic entering the traffic control zone should expect the zipper merge to be implemented. Please follow the direction of the traffic control signs and devices.
I-89 Royalton - Work continues on the northbound and southbound I-89 bridges near Exit 3 in Royalton. A new traffic pattern is in effect until the fall of 2025. For southbound traffic, all vehicles will use the low-speed lane. For northbound traffic, all vehicles will cross over onto I-89 Southbound and then back to I-89 Northbound, north of the bridges. Traffic using the I-89 Northbound Exit 3 off-ramp will use the ramp crossover north of the bridges to the newly constructed I-89 Northbound Exit 3 off-ramp. The speed limit is reduced to 55 mph in the work zones on both northbound and southbound I-89 and to 25 mph on the Exit 3 off-ramp. There will be some traffic diversions and minor delays on VT 107. The speed limit has been reduced to 30 mph with a 14’ height restriction under the bridges on VT 107.
I-91 Bradford - A permanent, single lane closure has been established on I-91 Southbound near Exit 16. A speed limit reduction to 55 mph is in place through the work zones.
I-91 Derby - Single lane closures and shifting traffic patterns will be present on I-91 Northbound and Southbound from the U.S./Canadian Border Station to just south of Exit 27 due to milling in the southbound lanes and paving in the northbound lanes. Motorists should use caution especially when merging into traffic from the northbound on ramps. Motorcycles should use caution on grooved surfaces.
I-91 Fairlee - A full closure of I-91 Southbound between Exits 16 and 15 will be in effect for the remainder of the summer. Vehicles must exit the interstate at Exit 16 and detour along U.S. 5 to Exit 15 in Fairlee. Temporary signals are in place on U.S. 5 in Fairlee. Delays may occur, particularly during school commute hours. Rolling roadblocks in the northbound lanes are planned for Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please expect a slowing of traffic and possible delays when rolling roadblocks are in effect.
I-91 Fairlee-St. Johnsbury - A daily, single lane closure will be in place on I-91 Southbound in Newbury, just north of Exit 17. A speed limit reduction to 55 mph is in place through the work zone. A mobile work zone is scheduled for Tuesday, 6/4, for the placement of rumble strips on all bridges in this contract from Fairlee to St. Johnsbury.
I-91 Guilford-Brattleboro - Motorists can expect daily single lane closures in the high and low speed lanes, northbound and southbound on I-91, as well as narrowing ramps, as crack sealing operations begin.
I-91 Springfield-Hartland - Multiple single lane closures will be in place along I-91 Southbound from north of Exit 9 to just south of Exit 7 while a paving project ramps up. A speed limit reduction to 55 mph will be in place through the work zone. Motorists should watch for shifting traffic patterns.
I-91 Westminster - A bridge deck replacement project on I-91 over VT 121 is underway. Travel is reduced to one lane across both the northbound and southbound bridges, with a speed reduction to 55 mph. An alternating one-way traffic pattern regulated with temporary signals is in effect on VT 121 underneath the bridges.
State Highways:
Bennington - Sign installation will continue along U.S. 7 and VT 279 around the Welcome Center between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Lane closures of the low speed and high-speed lanes, as well as closures of shoulders, will be utilized as necessary to perform the work safely.
Bennington-Pownal - Contractor will continue to install posts and destination signs, and regulatory/warning signs along U.S. 7 north of Bennington between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Lane closures of the low-speed and high-speed lanes, as well as shoulders, will be utilized as necessary to perform the work safely.
Berlin-Barre - A paving project is beginning on VT 62. Toward the end of the week, single lane closures will be in place for milling operations anticipated to begin during the day between Airport Road and U.S. 302.
Berlin-Barre Town - A paving project is beginning on VT 63. Single lane closures will be in place starting Monday on VT 63 to accommodate milling. Motorists should watch for trucks entering and exiting the work zones and motorcycles should use caution on grooved surfaces. Stopped traffic delays are anticipated in the area of the Interstate 89 Exit 6 southbound on and off ramps where roadway widths are narrow. Motorcycles should use caution on grooved surfaces.
Bradford-Ryegate - Crack sealing operations are expected to continue along VT 5, with lane closures and alternating traffic as necessary to safely perform the work. Work hours are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Brattleboro-Hinsdale - Construction vehicles will continue to enter and exit the work zone on VT 142 adjacent to the new bridge site and motorists should be vigilant. Travelers eastbound on VT/NH 119 should expect a newly line-striped lane shift shortly after passing over the twin bridges into New Hampshire. Signs and barrels are in place to assist vehicles through the work zone.
Cambridge-Johnson - A resurfacing project is underway along VT 15 in Cambridge and Johnson. Monday, 6/3, through Friday, 6/7, between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., motorists can expect moderate delays and up to three traffic control packages with alternating one-way traffic on VT 15 within the project limits, from the VT 15/VT 108 junction in Cambridge to just east of the VT 100C intersection.
Danville-St. Johnsbury - Crack sealing operations are to begin on VT 2B between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. this week. Single lane closure with alternating traffic will be utilized to safely perform the work.
Fairfax-St. Albans - During daytime hours, motorists can expect delays and alternating one-way traffic on VT 104 between Fairfax and St. Albans.
Grafton - A bridge replacement project is underway on VT 121 over the Saxtons River in Grafton. Traffic signals are in place on either end of the bridge, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing alternating one-way traffic over the existing bridge.
Hardwick-Danville - Crack sealing operations are to begin on VT 15 this week, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., after completion of crack sealing on VT 2B. Single lane closure with alternating traffic will be utilized to safely perform the work.
Hartford - From Sunday, 6/2, through Thursday, 6/6, during nighttime hours, motorists should expect alternating one-way lane closures on U.S. 5 from Veteran’s Drive to Bugbee Street. From Monday, 6/3, through Friday, 6/7, during daytime hours, motorists should expect alternating one-way lane closures on U.S. 5 beginning near the Dunkin Donuts by Veteran’s Drive to the Hartford/Hartland town line. Flaggers and Uniformed Traffic Officers will be present to assist motorists through the work zone.
Ludlow - The removal of Bridge 57 and the installation of a pedestrian bridge over the Black River is underway on Mill Street. Pleasant Street at its junction with Mill Street is closed to all vehicle traffic. A detour routes vehicles from Pleasant Street along Elm Street, and Main Street to Pleasant Street Extension.
Marshfield-Danville - Monday, 6/3, through Friday, 6/7, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., motorists can expect lane closures with alternating one-way traffic patterns and delays on U.S. 2 from Danville Hill Road to the Danville town line. Flaggers and Uniform Traffic Officers will be present to assist motorists through the work zone.
Montpelier
· A paving project is starting on Memorial Drive and Dog River Road. Between the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. beginning Tuesday night, 6/4, and continuing through Thursday night, 6/6, single lane closures will be in place throughout the project limits. Motorists should expect stopped traffic and delays in the area of the I-89 Exit 8 ramps where roadway widths are narrow. Motorcycles should use caution on milled surfaces.
· Crews will continue work on the U.S. 2 and U.S. 302 resurfacing project during daytime hours, between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., 6/3 through 6/7. Motorists can expect alternating one-way traffic with flaggers in place to assist motorists throughout the project limits along U.S. 2 between the Bailey Ave intersection on U.S. 2 moving east to the Berlin/Montpelier town line, and along U.S. 302 from the Middlesex/Montpelier town line moving east to the Memorial Drive intersection. This work will also be conducted at the U.S. 2 and U.S. 302 intersection, moving east to the MontpelieBerlin town line.
Morristown - Motorists should expect occasional lane closures using flaggers during daytime hours on VT 15 in Morristown (MM 0.319-0.339) due to a culvert installation. Construction will be active at the inlet and outlet of the culvert. Motorists can expect occasional lane closures using flaggers during daytime hours and are advised to use caution when driving through the area.
Northfield-Berlin - Multiple single lane closures with alternating one-way traffic will be in place Tuesday through Friday throughout the length of a paving project on VT 12, north of Crosstown Road. Motorcyclists should continue to use caution on grooved surfaces. Expect delays.
Pittsford - Motorists can expect intermittent one-way alternating travel on U.S. 7 this week, beginning on 6/3. Traffic control will be present throughout most work hours this week to direct motorists through the work zone. Additionally, there will be a weekend closure of VT 3 within the construction vicinity beginning on Friday, 6/7, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. until Monday, 6/10, 2024, at 6:00 a.m. thus causing motorists to follow a signed detour. Motorists wanting to use VT 3 traveling south from the project site should continue on U.S. 7 to Bus Route 4. Any motorist wanting to use VT 3 traveling north towards the project site should use Bus Route 4 to U.S. 7.
Poultney - Motorists should expect alternating one-way traffic controlled by flaggers on Bridge #7 at the intersection of Thrall Road and River Street.
Quechee Gorge Bridge - The eastbound travel lane of the Quechee Gorge Bridge is closed through November of 2024. New travel patterns include alternating travel controlled by a traffic signal and a concrete barrier to separate motorists from workers.
Richmond-Bolton - Traffic Control with one-lane of alternating travel on U.S. 2 between Kenyon Road and Lemroy Court can be expected Sunday through Thursday between 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
Royalton - The bridge realignment project on VT 14, near Vesper Road and Meadow Lane, is ongoing. Traffic will be restricted to one-way alternating flow in the project area, controlled by flaggers between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Drivers are advised to use caution when driving through the area.
Rutland - A Class I highway resurfacing project is in progress. Sunday, 6/2, at 7:00 p.m. through Friday, 6/6, at 7:00 a.m., motorists can expect lane closures with alternating one-way traffic controlled by flaggers and Uniformed Traffic Officers along U.S. 4 between Gleason Road and U.S. 7, and on U.S. 7, starting near Cold River Road and extending north to Lincoln Avenue between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Please note: roadway surfaces will be uneven and manholes will be raised throughout the area.
Woodstock - A culvert replacement project is ongoing on U.S. 4 at MM 7.722. Motorists should expect one-way alternating traffic controlled by flaggers between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Worcester - Motorists should expect alternating one-way traffic maintained by traffic signals over the temporary bridge on VT 12 over the North Branch of the Winooski River. Flaggers will also be present to assist with traffic. The speed limit over the temporary bridge has been reduced to 25 mph. The posted speed limit entering and exiting the work zone is 40 mph. Motorists may encounter trucks entering and exiting the work zone.
Please note that many of our construction projects have dedicated public information professionals to help keep you informed. To see a list of contacts for specific projects and to sign up for weekly construction updates, visit our Construction Updates page.

Finished my thru hike a few days ago. Left Warrenton May 1st and got to Crissey Field May 27th.
Here's some notes. It's mostly cautions, with a few nice notes, so don't be scared off - the trip was absolutely phenomenal. Minus the first weekend I had killer weather. The vistas are unparalleled and the pelicans were so numerous. Saw seals frequently, a handful of whales on the north coast, saw some snowy plovers south of Bandon, bald eagles and osprey plentiful. So much beauty. So much hiking and camping. So many sunsets and forest morning walks.
May 1: Warrenton to Fort Stevens HB Camp
Took the bus from PDX to Warrenton, $20 and got dropped off by the Fred Meyers in Warrenton about 11:40. Hiked up through Hammond and the historic Fort Stevens area to the Jetty Road, up the Jetty Road to the Jetty, down the beach, then inland to the HB camp. If you leave from Warrenton, the Warrenton waterfront trail is a nice way to get close to the Columbia and avoid a good chunk of the road to Fort Stevens.
May 2: Fort Stevens HB to Tillamook Head
Long, smooth beach section. They were closing the beach by Camp Rilea later in the morning for firing drills, I made it through and reached the end just as the soldier in the truck was driving up the beach. Water up at Seltzer Park if you plan on staying at the Ecola shelters. There is a stream down the hill from the shelters but I didn't need to use it. Trails over Clarks Mtn/Tillamook Head were largely good and mud-free, I got there before the rainstorm at the beginning of the month. Watch out for side trails off the main trail that can be misleading.
May 3: Tillamook Head to Nehalem Bay.
I do not recommend doing this in one day. Watch the tides and go around the points (Silver, Humbug, Hug) at a minus tide if you can. There's an area just above the bridge across Arch Cape Creek that makes a good bivouac. I reached that around 1pm and decided to keep going - big mistake especially with the inclement weather starting to hit. The wind and rain absolutely sucked. I got to Nehalem Bay after dark, nearly chilled through. Fortunately Nehalem Bay has a great HB area and plenty of hot water in the showers. Oswald West was fine, north side of the trail going into Cape Falcon is very brushy. I skipped Neahkahnie mountain because of the weather and the time.
May 4: Nehalem Bay to Barview Jetty
NOTE: Old Mill RV Resort in Garibaldi is no longer taking tent campers, at all. They're renovating the tent area into more RV parking.
Jetty Fishery ferry is running as usual, it's a great place. This is the only water crossing I took. The seals on the side of the bay were less enthusiastic about the boat coming across than I was. Non eventful approach to Barview Jetty minus wind and rain. Barview Jetty HB area is nice and I'd love to visit it again under better weather.
May 5: Barview Jetty to Cape Lookout:
NOTE: Boat shuttles will be tricky this year. There is construction on the Tillamook Bay South Jetty that has Bayocean Dike Road closed through a good portion of the north end. The folks at the marina said they'd run boats after memorial day, tide dependent, but that folks taking the boat shuttle might have to prepare for a long wade (quarter mile) due to the how shallow the area available for drop off is.
I took the tracks from Garibaldi into Tillamook, then 131 out to Cape Lookout. It was nice skipping the road, railroad ballast is pretty horrible for walking on and watch out for the rail trestles if it's wet. The tracks were obviously disused due to several small slides that covered them. Be aware you may encounter homeless camping.
May 6: Cape Lookout to Sandbeach
NOTE: Cape Lookout north trail is closed due to washouts and trees on bridges. Have to hike the highway to the top and then you can take the south trail to the beach. Saw a bear cub in the clearcut across from the park entrance - park rangers said he roams alone most of the time and sometimes comes into the park to eat salal. They're monitoring it. South trail was good. Don’t expect to cross Sand Lake Estuary without a pretty low tide.
May 7: Sandbeach to Webb County CG.
Crossed the estuary bright and early with a <1ft tide. Nice morning hike down the beach to Cape Kiwanda and into Pacific City. Made my first grocery visit here for a refill on some blister care and food items. Chester's is good but is a mile away from Webb. I'd given myself some good blisters with the wet feet, railroad ballast walking, and overly long days where I was trying to speed hike road sections. After this point my feet toughened up pretty fast though. Grab a beer at Pelican and watch the sunset if you can and are inclined. Shoutout to the lovely Canadian retirees in their RV who invited me over for some hot cocoa the next morning.
May 8: Webb County to Neskowin Creek RV Resort:
Great day. The road section from Pacific City to 101 isn't bad. The rhododendrons were spectacular. There's a really cute farm stand where HWY 130 forks east from 101. Support them. Winema Road to Winema beach was great. The road walk from Neskowin beach access to Neskowin Creek RV resort was great.
NOTE: If you want to stay at Neskowin Creek RV resort, CALL AHEAD and make a reservation. You can do same day but they'll need a nonrefundable deposit if you're not a member of their parent organization. But it's nice, the showers and laundry were good, the meadow camping was a bit dewy in the morning but comfortable sleeping. It's back from the highway and pretty quiet.
May 9: Neskowin to Devils Lake (Gleneden Beach).
Standout day. Hit the north Rainforest Trail over Cascade Head by 9am and had a cool, beautiful, shady forest climb. South side was much warmer and the salmonberries overgrowing the lower portions of the trail were annoying. Heard rumors about a washout but I think I either missed it or it's been fixed enough. The highway section through Neotsu from the 101-18 junction into Lincoln City suuuucks. Take it slow, walk towards oncoming, and be prepared to step into the ditch frequently.
NOTE: Beverly Beach is closed through end of June. From Devils Lake to the next campground where you can tent camp, South Beach SP, is 30miles. I had time afternoon of May 9, so I hopped the bus to Gleneden Beach and hiked north back to Devils Lake. That knocked out 8 miles, so the next day I got the bus early to Gleneden Beach and hiked south to South Beach. Recommend using the bus to break this section up however best suits you. It's cheap ($2) per ride.
May 10: Gleneden Beach to South Beach
Bus to Gleneden Beach. A few road sections, the powerline trails between Fogarty Creek and Whale Cove are very helpful.
Taking the stairs from Devils Punchbowl to Beverly and Moolack beaches is the way to go. I hit Schooner Point at mid-tide - feet got wet but I was able to get around. Be cautious and shoot for low tides. No highway walking needed through Newport. The mini market right before Lighthouse Drive is really nice. Walking across the Yaquina Bay bridge was a bucket list item for me- so cool. Saw an osprey nest on one of the towers below the bridge. Grab a Dead Guy from Rogue before hiking to South Beach if you're inclined.
May 11: South Beach to Beachside:
Nice beach walk minus short sections through Seal Rock and Waldport. And a short highway section in Seal Rock. There was a locked gate at the end of the beach climbout into Seal Rock - it should have been reopened but not sure. Fish and Chips at Luna Sea are great. Low afternoon tide meant I could hit the beach right away as soon as it started in Waldport. Beachside SP had some lowlying flooded areas and wasn't my favorite HB site but the HB area was dry and sheltered. Close to highway.
May 12: Beachside to Perpetua:
Beautiful walk down into Yachats. Trail walk up to Cape Perpetua after crossing the Yachats River. Caffeinate well at Green Salmon before going up Perpetua - you'll need the boost. Great day. Perpetua CG has a HB site - 29A - find the camp host. I think it was $10. It's a nice site with creek access.
May 13: Perpetua to Carl Washburne
The forest trail to Cummins Creek is great. The road walking between Cummins Creek and Rock Creek CG can do unspeakable things to itself. There are sections where there is neither road shoulder nor a flat surface outside the guardrail. I made it through with much anxiety, cursing, and some slipping on the surface outside the guardrail. The beach section from Rock Creek to Carl Washburne was nice, Rock Creek and Big Creek are kind of rocky and swift but not too deep. Washburne is a nice HB CG, very handy to showers, no power station so charge in bathrooms. There's a resident coyote at Carl Washburne, so just be cautious.
May 14: Carl Washburne to Honeyman
Hobbit trail to Heceta is phenomenal, such a view point if weather is clear. Heceta Tunnel. Walked it. Probably shouldn't have. Roads past it are OK shoulder wise. Baker Beach into Florence very windy. Construction on Rhododendron Drive in Florence - check closures and detours. Highway from Florence to Honeyman wasn't bad. Honeyman HB sites are good, didn't like the sharp pea gravel they surfaced with but it was fine. Find a big rock to drive stakes, or meet a cyclist with a hammer.
May 15: Honeyman to Threemile Lake
Mostly uneventful, hiked under grey skies, not many OHV but then again it was a Wednesday. Beautiful crushed shell beaches. Tahkenitch creek crossing at midtide was sketchy, recommend timing for low tide. Should probably have stopped at Carter Lake or Waxmyrtle. Dune walking is hard. Threemile lake has not many sites by the lake but is pretty.
May 16: Threemile Lake to Umpqua LH
Sparrow Park Road is alright. Watch out for the puddles - you'd think the gravel surface would be hard but no, it's very soft and you'll sink over your ankles. Took a halfmile detour to Sugar Shack in Reedsport before hitting the laundromat (nice laundromat) and safeway. Highway stretch into Winchester Bay isn't bad.
May 17: Rest Day at Umpqua LH.
Destroyed a pizza at Bedrocks and went on a tour of the lighthouse. Watched the pelicans diving into the bay at sunset.
May 18: Umpqua to Horsfall Beach.
Lots of OHV in this area unsurprisingly but the beach walk was nice and could mostly ignore the OHV. I was thinking of camping at Bluebill but when I got to the beach exit I decided to head south a short ways and camp just off the beach. Worth it. Especially when I went past Bluebill next day and found out it was closed.
May 19: Horsfall to Sunset Bay.
As soon as I left the beach the bugs were after me. The road past the campgrounds was flooded over about 6" deep for several hundred feet in one section. Bluebill CG was closed (as mentioned) and I could see the entire area was basically still a swamp and hadn't dried out yet for the year. Hiking road through North Bend/Coos Bay was uneventful. Mom's Kitchen was a great breakfast, even if the folks there seemed a little unsure about "person with backpack." It's tiny and tight quarters so if they had been full, I wouldn't have tried to squeeze myself in. Don't miss the Walmart or Big 5 if you need something. Most of the road walk to Charleston is on a nice bike path off the main road.
Sunset Bay is one of the nicest campgrounds, and the beach/bay can't be beat for beauty.
May 20: Sunset Bay to Bullards.
I took the Cape Arago route, I think I missed the easy crossover from the pack trail to the logging road because I had to bushwhack. I don't recommend bushwhacking. Find the easy crossover that I missed. The PCT hikers that were visiting the OCT said they found the easy crossover. Passed a Caterpillar trimming brush on the logging road, operator didn't seem happy to see me, the PCT hikers reported that he lectured them about being there. I couldn't find clear information from the Weyerhauser Recreation site afterwards. Seven Devils Road is steep and gravelly and I grumbled a lot through it.
May 21: Bullards to Floras Lake.
The bridge into Bandon didn't feel too sketchy. Try to get to the beach at low tide. I'd have loved to have primitive camped in the New River area, but didn't have water. I checked out the river but it looked brown and sluggish, with goose droppings all over the bank and cow pasture upstream, so I had zero interest in filtering. Beach south of New River access is steep and soft, wear gaiters if you have them. I didn't. New River crossing at a 2.5' low tide were just above knee deep but I'm 6'2" so factor accordingly. There's a very shallow crossing just past Bandon and a main crossing a couple miles north of Floras Lake. Floras Lake CG has a small laundry facility and pay showers.
May 22: Floras Lake to Cape Blanco.
Blacklock Point is amazing, take the scenic detours. The Sixes River … you can cross it at a 3' low tide but it won't be fun. I think I crossed it around a 4' tide. It was up to my armpits (again, 6'2"). This was after waiting an hour and a half, I arrived when it was uncrossable. I'd shoot for a tide of 1' or less but I made it with my pack dry by holding it above my shoulders. The seals on the other side laughed at my initial attempts to cross and then left after I kept trying. Cape Blanco has another really nice HB camp.
May 23: Cape Blanco to Humbug Mountain.
Elk River was knee deep a bit after low tide, but it was a minus tide. Could be waist deep or more at a 1-2ft tide. Easy beach walk into Port Orford, a short highway section between Port Orford and the old 101 section. Lots of pelican flights, and saw Bonaparte Gulls on the beach by Port Orford which was cool. Along the old 101 section, I started seeing foxgloves in addition to the wild irises and lupines I'd been going by. There were some good viewpoints off this trail as well. Humbug Mtn HB is kinda rocky and hard to drive stakes but is also tucked away and private feeling. The highway noise was real - bring earplugs.
May 24: Humbug Mtn to dunes camp south of Gold Beach.
Highway section not too bad, but watch out for the areas where the highway has slid and there's been some recent construction. Go to Arizona Beach, shoot for low tide so you can exit out past Sisters Rocks. Otherwise you will not be able to make it all the way down Arizona Beach. Ophir to Nesika a nice beach walk. Nesika past Geisel monument and over another old 101 section was pretty. Otter point to Gold Beach was uneventful. There are some good spots between BA 179 and Cape Sebastian to dunes camp.
May 25: Dunes s of Gold Beach to Boardman Corridor.
Cape Sebastian was great, the viewpoints north are spectacular and the shore pines south are so pretty. Watch for poison oak. Meyers Beach North was OK, I didn't enjoy the south section past Pistol River, very windy with driving sand.
Carry water, be prepared to filter. I filtered from the creek below Lola Lake at the end of Meyers Beach. Plan to flag stop a bus or have someone shuttle you. It's too far and too difficult of a hike to go from Pistol River to Harris Beach in a day.
May 26: Boardman Corridor to Harris Beach.
Only toilets are at Arch Rock wayside. Have a water filter handy.
Most of the trails through the Corridor are pretty good. Exceptions: the exit off the south end of Whaleshead Beach is tough. The first several hundred feet are less like a path and more like a super uneven deer path, if that. Right next to the creek, it's basically just little toeholds chipped into the side of the hill. There is still a washout further up the hill, it's not awful, but had to grab the trees around it to steady myself across that area.
May 27: Harris Beach to Crissey Field:
Uneventful. Low tide made it easy to go from McVay Rock to California on the beach. The Winchuck River was an easy crossing at low tide. It was pretty exciting to hit the border and then check into the visitor center!
Overall: a grand time. I'd love to do it again over 40 days or so, with some intentional rests built in and breaking up the longer days. Example: lodgings in seaside (International Hostel?) would have broken up the Fort Stevens to Tillamook/Ecola day nicely, splitting Ecola to Nehalem is just the smart choice, and Garibaldi to Cape Lookout should be 2 days as well.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask questions about specific sections or the hike in general.
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Have a good weekend! Go check out the Polo

THURSDAY - MAY 30th

Ongoing - Happy Hour @ MFAH @ 5PM Meet your friends at the MFAH for the best night of the week. Explore the campus, visit the galleries, and get a drink at the bar. General admission is free.
Michael Palascak Stand Up @ Houston Improv @ 7:30PM
Leo Skepi Live Show @ White Oak Music Hall @ 6PM Viral Internet personality Leo Skepi brings his honest and inspirational opinions to a live stage!
‘Moana’ Screening @ Trebly Park @ 8PM
P.O.D. @ House of Blues @ 6PM
Roar @ House of Blues @ 7PM With Norma Jean, Bad Wolves, & Blind Channel
Vision Video @ White Oak Music Hall @ 7PM With Missing Delores Galore
Summer’24 Concert Party @ Warehouse Live @ 5:30PM Featuring Emma Ogier, Midnight Beverage, April Company, & more!

FRIDAY - MAY 31st

Astros vs Twins @ Minute Maid Park @ 7:10PM Promotion: Alvarez 00s Black Replica Jersey, Friday Night Fireworks, Pregame Happy Hour
Dave Matthews Band @ Woodlands Pavilion @ 7:30PM
Brit Floyd Concert Experience @ Bayou Music Center @ 8PM The world's premier Pink Floyd tribute act Brit Floyd is celebrating the 50th anniversary of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon.’
Samara Joy @ Miller Outdoor Theatre @ 8:30PM
Treaty Oak Revival @ 713 Music Hall @ 8PM
Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Josh Abbott Band @ White Oak Music Hall @ 6PM
TX2 @ Last Concert Cafe @ 8PM
Bresh @ Warehouse Live @ 10PM
Sapphic Factory Party @ White Oak Music Hall @ 8:30PM
Emo Forever Party @ Scout Bar @ 8PM

SATURDAY - JUNE 1st

Astros vs Twins @ Minute Maid Park @ 3:10PM Promotion: Girls Night Out, Mauricio Dubon Gold Glove Bobblehead
Ongoing - Saturday Stargazing @ George Observatory in Needville Water Lantern Festival @ North Houston @ 5:30PM Experience the magic of the Water Lantern Festival where you’ll enjoy tasty food trucks, fun music, and an incredible sight of thousands of floating lanterns reflecting unique messages.
Artisan Market @ Grand Central Park @ 9AM Come stroll through a unique selection of handcrafted treasures and discover locally made foods, flowers, arts, and crafts.
Coffee and Cars @ POST @ 8AM Come out and enjoy an amazing display of machines at POST!
‘The Sinatra Experience’ Concert @ Crighton Theatre @ 7:30PM Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of music, laughter, and a zesty lineup of Frank Sinatra’s most popular songs starring Dave Halston.
Accordion Kings and Queens Concert @ Miller Outdoor Theatre @ 7PM Enjoy a night dedicated to the enchanting sounds of accordion music, shining a spotlight on Texas’s rich musical heritage.
Maggie Rogers @ Woodlands Pavilion @ 7:30PM With Japanese House
Olga Tañón @ Smart Financial Centre @ 8PM
Teezo Touchdown @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Azizi Gibson @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Bleachers @ White Oak Music Hall @ 6:30PM With Samia
Alejandro Escovedo @ The Heights Theater @ 8PM
Borgeous @ Stereo Live @ 10PM
Sabai @ Warehouse Live @ 10PM With Julienne By

SUNDAY - JUNE 2nd

Astros vs Twins @ Minute Maid Park @ 12:05PM Promotion: Yoga Day, Astros Belt Bag, Kids Run the Bases, Family Sunday
Livingston Memorial Cup @ Houston Polo Club @ 5:30PM Experience a world class polo match, player parade, live music, expert announcing, traditional champagne divot stomp at halftime and special trophy presentation.
Blackwood Farmers Market @ POST @ 2PM Shop, taste, and support fellow Texan makers and organizations working towards the city’s green future.
Family Day @ MFAH Bayou Bend @ 1PM Visit Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens for an afternoon of family-friendly fun.
‘Dial M for Murder’ Screening @ MFAH @ 5PM See this Hitchcock classic on the big screen for its 70th anniversary revival.
Jazzy Sundays @ Discovery Green @ 5PM Featuring Melvin Johnson and the Electro-Akoustics
Hunxho @ House of Blues @ 7PM
AJ McQueen @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Dreamer Boy @ White Oak Music Hall @ 7PM
Trixter @ Warehouse Live @ 6PM
The Last Ten Seconds of Life @ Scout Bar @ 6:30PM

All Weekend

SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Strauss Festival Concert @ Jones Hall Music Director Juraj Valčuha leads one of the natural wonders of the music world, Strauss’s ‘An Alpine Symphony’ in an epic concert together with world renowned soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen.
All weekend - Nimesh Patel Stand Up @ Houston Improv
All weekend - Houston Tattoo Arts Festival @ NRG Center The world’s largest tattoo convention tour returns to Houston!
All weekend - ‘Taking Venice’ Screening @ MFAH Enjoy the Texas premiere of this hit documentary making waves in the art world.
All weekend - ‘Mayerling’ Ballet @ Wortham Center LAST CHANCE - An epic triumph in classical story-telling, this titillating three-act ballet tells the dark tale from Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s psychological thriller of the same name.
All weekend - Disney’s ‘Newsies’ Musical @ The Hobby Center LAST CHANCE - Inspired by real-life events, this smash-hit musical is an extraordinary story about fighting for what’s right... and staying true to who you are.
All weekend - ‘Murder Ballad’ Musical @ Art Factory Following a married couple in a break-up, this addicting rock-opera is an exciting theatrical experience that explores the decadence and dangers of desire.
All weekend - ‘Othello: The Remix’ Musical @ Stages Repertory Theatre This production takes ‘The Tragedy of Othello’ to a whole new level in this lit Hip Hop remix as an onstage DJ spins Shakespeare’s legendary masterpiece of jealousy, revenge and passion.
All weekend - ‘A Case for the Existence of God’ Play @ Stages Repertory Theatre Told with humor, empathy, and wrenching honesty, this award-winning play follows an unlikely pair of men as their lives entangle in a story that is both small and big at the same time.
All weekend - ‘The Emporium’ Play @ Alley Theatre LAST CHANCE - Thornton Wilder’s unfinished masterpiece comes to life for the first time, and the audience gets to be an active participant in the very fabric of the play!
All weekend - ‘Dial M for Murder’ Play @ Alley Theatre Greed, fear, jealousy… protecting someone you love. All motives for murder, all here in this sharp new adaptation of Hitchcock’s classic thriller.
All weekend - ‘On Midnight, Friday the Thirteenth’ Play @ Ensemble Theatre LAST CHANCE - Help investigate a murder mystery in this intriguing and exciting dark comedy.
All weekend - ‘Appropriate’ Play @ MATCH This haunting thriller play follows the Lafayette family as they return to their late father’s crumbling estate and discover a new disturbing truth about their own family.

Ongoing Special Events and Museum Exhibitions

Ongoing - AAPI Restaurant Weeks Enjoy special fine & casual dining menus at participating restaurants in celebration of Asian & Pacific Islander heritage month!
Ongoing - ‘Space Explorers: The Infinite’ Immersive Experience @ Silver Street Studios NEW - Embark on an immersive excursion through new breathtaking videos that reveal the many wonders of space exploration.
Ongoing - ‘Jurassic World’ Exhibition @ Katy Mills The limited-time globally sold-out exhibition immerses audiences of all ages in scenes inspired by the beloved film. Discover the science of jurassic world and walk in the land of jurassic giants, closer than ever before!
Ongoing - Dinosaurs @ Houston Zoo Trek through a lush forest trail to see life-sized animatronic creatures, including the fan favorite T-rex, Brachiosaurus, Edmontonia, and more!
Ongoing - Sloomoo Exhibition @ Marq E Entertainment Center Immerse yourself in the joy of sensory play with Sloomoo Institute’s colorful world of never-ending, hand-crafted slime, yummy scents, and soothing ASMR delights.
Ongoing - ‘Jacolby Satterwhite: A Metta Prayer’ Exhibition @ MFAH NEW- Artist Jacolby Satterwhite’s expansive multimedia installation fuses choreography, video, animation, lighting, and music to reimagine a kaleidoscopic, computer-generated world.
Ongoing - ‘Eye on Houston: High School Documentary Photography’ Exhibition @ MFAH The annual exhibition documents and celebrates Houston’s diverse neighborhoods through student photography that captures daily life in our communities, identity, and future.
Ongoing - ‘Ruth Asawa Through Line’ Exhibition @ Menil The exhibition presents drawings, collages, watercolors, and sketchbooks showing the breadth of Ruth Asawa’s innovative and profound practice.
Ongoing - ‘Janet Sobel: All-Over’ Exhibition @ Menil See the pioneering work of Janet Sobel and her ‘All-Over’ abstract expressionist painting technique which inspired generations of artists, including Jackson Pollock.
Ongoing - ‘Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow’ Exhibition @ CAMH Across an installation, a video, and a series of commissioned sculptures, artist Olivia Erlanger continues her decade-long investigation into what it means to call a planet home.
Ongoing - ‘Resonant Earth: Contemporary Perspectives on Land and Body’ Exhibition @ Moody Center for the Arts NEW - ‘Resonant Earth’ explores the connections between the human body and the land through the practices of six contemporary artists, each contributing a personal perspective and unique approach.

Scenario: Gau Floral Store, Bedtown — 12:00 PM
Slow days. Man, Konan really missed slow days.
Ever since the destruction of the Hymnal Bazaar, his business had been on the rise. That wasn’t an issue, obviously – Konan would prefer that the flowers he spends most of his time cultivating do get sold – but the sudden uptick from maybe 5 deliveries a week to as many as 50 was beginning to make his head spin. That wasn’t even counting the people who would come into the store itself, meaning that his schedule had been drastically changed to revolve around having to actually tend the shop during the day.
The botanist sighed with relief as he ushered out the last panicked husband of the day, a quickly-made bouquet in hand and a half-hearted wish that his anniversary date goes well. Konan never realized how stressful this would actually be when things got serious, but he wasn’t complaining about the extra money he was raking in from all of the business.
“...Hm. Should have a few hours to myself now. No appointments ‘til 5, and it's noon now...” Konan spoke to himself as he went about tidying his store, stopping for a moment to admire his indoor-grown lotus exhibit. They were no easy task, but it felt rewarding after seeing them sell so fast. A lot of things started to feel rewarding recently, he thought. Thus Konan was ready to start maintaining the aquaponic pool he used to keep the lotuses healthy. It was his favorite part of the day, so he made sure to really prepare himself for it–
Tinny music blasted through handheld speakers, disturbing the peace with industrial clangs and drum hits as a distorted instrumental growled over bestial roars. The other hand held a cellphone as its owner tramped through the flower shop. Not like a bull, but more like a: “BOAR WALKIN IN, GONNA GORE YOU DEAD; COME TO OUR TOWN, WE’LL PUT YOUR ASS TO—o-oh!”
Gesticulating aggressively to her camera, she swung her arm as if to punch the lens, winding up and knocking a vase off of its table. All the domineering bravado vanished from her mean mug as she dove for the porcelain with a loud “Kyaaah!”, catching the vase before it hit the ground. Unfortunately, this jostled several other display tables, knocking their flowers to the ground instead.
She looked up to Konan, colorful petals and ceramic pieces strewn all about her. Baingan had spent the day walking through the streets of Bedtown, filming herself and her surroundings for an impromptu music video. Whether she had a license to do so was unclear, but even she had to acknowledge that making a mess of the flower store couldn’t be walked off with a string of apologies and promises to not be so loud next time. She took out a small black rectangle. “Uh... can you put it on Night Train’s card?”
Konan stared at the boisterous rap star, a single eyebrow quirked in response to the card shown to him. If this had happened at any other point in the past, Konan probably would have blown up in response to the accident. Luckily for Baingan, though, all he did was sigh and give her a frank look before speaking.
“Look, uh... Baingan? I think that’s you.” After a swift nod from Baingan herself, Konan continues. “Money won’t fix this. Those were deliveries I was going to make. Unless Night Train is cool with covering the expenses of...” Konan silently counted all of the remains on the floor, drooping a bit as he did. “...30 ₹2650 deliveries, the ₹1325 apology refund for the deliveries being late, and ₹1000 for each of the 30 decorative vases, we’re gonna have to work something else out.”
Baingan began to put the card away after she finished her mental math, knowing just how much of a scolding she’d get for having spent that much money in one place during an unapproved recording session. Baingan didn’t let her nerves bother her though, and placed two firm hands on the botanist’s shoulders.
“Let’s make those fuckin’ bouquets again, then. I’ll help you and everything!” The sneer formerly on her face had been parted by an energetic grin, paired with her bouncing up and down ever-so-slightly. Though still a bit sour looking, Konan couldn’t help but smile a little bit. He gingerly took Baingan’s hands from his shoulders and guided them back to her sides. By the looks of it, he wasn’t much of a physical person. The grimace on his face told Baingan that much, at least.
“...Sure. Fine. Thanks.” Konan turned to go grab a broom, curt words hiding the relief he felt that he wouldn’t be redoing the work all alone. It was stressful enough to wake up and see he had thirty deliveries to make today. Once he returned with the broom, he began to sweep as he spoke with the woman who just volunteered quite a bit of her time to him.
“So... what are you doing here? Doesn’t Sing Now! keep all of his employees squashed under his thumb?” Baingan could detect some disdain for her boss in the man’s voice, which was a thing she had gotten used to by now. She brushed the rather heavy topic off with a vague shrug, an answer that was seemingly also enough for Konan.
“I’m doing a music video! I was singing and everything, yeah?” Baingan pointed to her phone, then her face, then her phone, then her face. The peppy motion seemingly stunned Konan for a moment, his eyes confusedly darting between the two items for several seconds after Baingan stopped. Paired with Konan’s stark white hair, an outside viewer would likely question if these two were really just one year apart in age.
“I... didn’t say you could, but fine. Whatever. You can get back to doing that AFTER we finish getting these arrangements remade and delivered.” Konan wouldn’t ever admit it, but he wasn't letting Baingan record in his shop just for helping, but because he was actually a huge fan of the musician himself. Regulars of the Gau Floral Store could recount the many times her songs would come up on the store’s speakers, the botanist himself often caught humming them to himself when he wasn’t particularly busy.
“Awright! We’ll get these all done and then you can feature in the video too!” Baingan’s face was streaked once again with confidence. She shot Konan a thumbs up, too. Konan offered little more than a nod before he rounded up the materials they needed, and they set to work. Konan spent a surprisingly patient few moments with Baingan as he instructed her on how to create the arrangements, the direction being much more gentle than someone who knew Konan might expect.
“Okay, that’s all of them. Now let’s go.” Konan led Baingan out of the store to an alleyway between Gau Floral Store and his grandmother’s apartment, where a spare bike was laid in wait for a situation like this. “You can ride on that bike, I’ll bring mine around. C’mon.”
Scenario: Near the bridge to Sapatibhatt, Bedtown — 12:11 PM
Carol hadn’t had a day off like this in a long time. Ever since that fateful day when she’d been put on trial by the Nightblooms, she’d been nonstop occupied with every sort of task, whether it be recovering from her injuries to helping out with the reconstruction process of the museum. Her coworkers seemed to be busy with their own affairs as well, leaving Carol with much of the menial work of trying to find anything that Marvin considered “strange” enough to be an exhibit, not to mention their already existing exhibits continuing to go missing by themselves.
And on this free day, she was wandering aimlessly about Bedtown, looking for a clue. The lady in the bright orange coat walking down the street with her head in the clouds was already enough to turn a couple heads without the bright yellow and purple dots adorning her skin, a parting gift from the Nightblooms. All the eyes on her made her ever more conscious of the rashy feeling all across her body, but she resisted the itch and walked on, arms at her sides. She had someone she was looking for. At least, that was a generous way of putting it. She’d heard from a talkative crowd member after show hours about one of his students, a floral store owner focusing on Nightbloom botany. Unfortunately, that was about the only thread she had at the moment. She had been so out of it the last few months, even as she declared to help out around these streets...
As she waved calmly and merrily at passersby, attention drawn to her like a gravitational field, she lamented this directionless wandering. She felt like an alien in the city she called home; this was Rākinnagarh, just as much as anywhere else. The city she vowed to help protect, make happy with those acts of hers. And here she was, utterly lost in its streets. She tried to bat away those helpless thoughts – she was here to learn more about herself and the city, after all – but there wasn’t much she could do by herself to assuage that deep fear.
As she moved to take another step in her aimless journey, Carol gasped as her foot failed to make purchase with the pavement, causing her to fall squarely onto her face. If people were staring at the comedian before, they were certainly hiding it now. Perhaps they figured she’d had enough embarrassment for one day. Maybe they didn’t really care. Carol groaned as she lifted her upper body slightly off the ground. Nothing seemed broken, but something was off. Had she run into something? Her answer came just as quickly as she had asked it, as she noticed the large stick laying on the sidewalk, directly under her legs. Beside it was a small man in a large, green coat, knelt down and turned away from her. The comedian frowned at the man’s apparent lack of awareness, as he seemed to be busy doing... something else? It was hard to make out from her position. With another groan, she hoisted herself back onto her feet, tapping the old man on the shoulder with stern intent.
“Hey, uh, do you mind?”
The man’s head perked up at the touch, a startled look in his eyes. “Oh? Pardon me, ma’am. What seems to be the–”
His eyes instantly glanced over to the stick, and then back to the woman, a blush forming under his mutton chops. He turned fully around before picking up the stick with one hand, cradling something else in the other. As he rose, he lowered his head.
“You have my apologies, miss. Are you hurt?”
Carol looked over herself for a moment, just to make sure. Nothing was terribly wrong, the benefits of being covered almost head to toe. She shook her head. “Just be careful where you put that thing next time, yeah? This is a public street after all, anyone could’ve tripped over it.”
“Yes, yes, I agree. That was quite careless of me.” The old man frowned.
Carol raised an eyebrow, noticing the cloth the man was cradling in his other hand. “Just what were you doing kneeling down on such a busy walkway, anyhow? This isn’t really a place to tie your shoes at.”
“Hm? Oh no, no. Nothing like that,” he said, gesturing lightly to his sandaled feet. Setting his stick beside a nearby wall this time, he gingerly unwrapped the cloth in his hands, revealing a porcelain tea cup, with a few chunks from the top scattered around it.
“I had just noticed this lying on the sidewalk, you see. The craftsmanship is remarkable, though it's certainly seen better days,” the old man grunted. “It’s a miracle no one’s stepped on it. I only caught wind of it after a shard nearly wedged its way into my toes!” The man’s apologetic visage seemed to have given way to a grimace. “Talk about careless.”
A sigh escaped from the comedian. “Right, well that’s rather kind of you. Do you want me to find a trash can or something for it?”
“And just throw it away?” the small man protested. “What a waste!”
Carol raised her arms in surrender. “Alright, I hear you.” After a moment of pause, though, she crossed them. “What do you intend to do with it then?”
“Well... I haven’t quite decided yet,” the man hemmed, replacing the wrapping over the broken cup. “I could use it to fill in one of my tiles back home. Oh, I could always try to fix it up, too! I’m sure it'd look lovely as a vase for my little Syngonium.”
Carol’s eyes perked up at the mention of a flower. “Oh, are you good with plants?”
The man grinned a sly grin. “Well, my garden wouldn’t use such words, but I’ve been working with plants for well over a few years now.”
“Oh! Maybe you can help me then.” Carol was beaming. Could this be the lead she was looking for? “I’m looking for a guy around here. He runs a flower store around these parts.” She rubbed her left arm, feeling the dots underneath her coat. “Allegedly knows a few things about... Nightblooms, too.”
The man raised an eyebrow while stroking his chin. “Hmm, a flower shop, eh? Well, there are a few around this part of the city.”
Despite the crowd, the short man paced back and forth, hemming and hawing audibly. Carol watched as passersby tried to maneuver around this guy, one almost running square into him. Finally, a lightbulb goes off.
“Oh! I wonder if you’re talking about the Gau Floral Store? Meixiu’s grandson runs it. I think his name was... Kodan? Nonan? No, that can’t be right…”
The man’s questions devolved into mumbling, forcing a small smirk from the comedian. “Hey, no need to sweat the details. I think that’s just the place I’ll look. Thanks a bunch!”
Carol gave a small bow as she turned to start her journey. She took a few more steps before turning again. After another set, she stopped. The old man had tapped her shoulder with his stick. “I can lead you there, you know. It’d be no trouble.”
“Oh, no. That’s okay,” Carol said. “I’ve already taken up enough of your time. Besides, what makes you think I don’t know where I’m going?”
“You look lost.” The man shrugged.
The comedian’s shoulders slumped at having been called out so easily. “Alright, lead the way, Mr...”
Carol blinked a few times, a sudden realization blushing red through her cheeks. “Oh wow, I hadn’t even asked you your name yet.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “How careless.”
“Nonsense!” The old man smiled, holding out a palm. “Gotam. Gotam Sodhani.”
“Carol.” She accepted the handshake, matching his smile with her own. “Nice to meet you!”
Scenario: Streets of Bedtown, 12:57 PM
A meander through the streets of Bedtown managed to turn into a surprisingly jaunty stroll with Gotam’s aid. As she was led along by the old man, Carol got to know him more and more through bits of small talk. While conversation repeatedly turned to talks of the ever growing rumbles that seemed to be happening across Rākinnagarh, like the terrible incident that happened a few weeks ago down at the community center, as they conversed, it was becoming clear to Carol that Gotam wasn’t your run of the mill geezer. He was a generous soul who had a genuine love for his community. He rambled about all the kind faces he’s been fortunate enough to meet throughout his decades of city living. He even shared a few winding tales of daring aid, such as when he chased and caught a wild boar that had run off with a poor fool’s walker stuck to its face.
Carol couldn’t help but laugh. She was pretty certain some of these stories were made up, but she knew better than anyone that any good story worth its salt was entertaining first and foremost. As the two walked, she felt her shoulders relax. Though she was never good at voicing her innermost feelings, she still felt them. This guy was honest, and clearly grounded in the streets he was leading her through. In the process of exchanging stories, she almost found it easier to smile. Almost.
Gotam stopped abruptly, moving his stick out in front of Carol, the latter raising a brow at the sudden shift in movement.
“What’s up? Did we find the shop?”
The old man was facing forward, a bright smile on his face. “No, it would seem ‘the shop’ has found us!”
Two figures approached, both atop their dual-tired steeds, though one was clearly weighed down by the basket behind her, as it was practically filled with flowers. The leading figure got off of his bike, taking off his helmet to reveal a pile of stark white locks underneath. Gotam met him halfway, arms open wide. “Kolan, my boy! It’s been too long.”
The botanist expertly dodged any attempt at an embrace, the grimace on his face reminiscent of someone who’d just eaten something far too sour. “Konan,” he said with a frown. “And, it’s good to see you too... I guess.”
With introductions out of the way, Konan waved Baingan over, prompting the rapper to walk her bike up next to the botanist. “This is the last guy, boss? With all the flowers?”
“Stop calling me boss...” Konan slumped a little with embarrassment, looking away from every involved party as he regained what little composure he had left after such a stressful day. “And... Yes, this is the last order of the day.” Konan replied, putting his hands into his pockets.
He turned back to the old man. “Now, Mr. Sadhani, given the quantity of your order, and the ‘complicated’ nature of your living situation, I’m going to need you to sign a few forms.” As he spoke, Baingan produced a series of documents seemingly out of nowhere, complemented by a pen and a ‘stern’ look, though the pout splayed across her face was more reminiscent of Konan’s comical expression when confronted with physical affection than genuine malice. “Sound good?”
Gotam simply chuckled, giving Konan a pat on the arm as he walked over to Konan’s new “employee”. Carol glanced over at the large pile of flowers, an astonished gleam in her eyes. Just what was this old man going to do with all those flowers? And how was he going to carry them all? She figured these were questions that would have to go unanswered for the time being. Besides, she had a more pressing matter that needed to be addressed, and she finally had the opportunity to act on it.
She smoothly approached Konan, and made the tasteful choice of a wave rather than a handshake or the like. That seemed to fully place Konan’s eyes on her, and a change in expression made it clear he recognized her somehow.
“You... were in that one livestream. The Nojus one.” The college student cocked his head to the side, examining Carol with curiosity. “You uh... Are you okay? They cut you open pretty badly,” he added. Carol could tell that he had better intentions than the rather insensitive remark would indicate, and decided that she’d just politely nod in response instead of addressing it fully.
“That’s... Me!” Carol tried to offer an enthusiastic response, but it was hard to mask the slight bitterness she had regarding that entire situation. For one, it seemed like her comedy career was now overshadowed by that glorified workout stream, and secondly, it left her covered in the strange dots Konan’s eyes would drift toward.
“I actually wanted to talk to you about something. I’ve heard that you’re pretty good with flowers– well, that much is obvious.” She gestured to the healthy-looking bunch of flowers being prodded through by Baingan and her newly-made friend, the two sharing mirthful smiles as they admired Konan’s care for the plants.
“But I also know that your main area of research is Nightblooms, right? Your teacher pointed me towards you for this kind of thing.” Well, she didn’t approach his teacher directly, but having overheard him talk about Konan was close enough, right?
“Uh... Parabotany, but yeah.” Konan offered another embarrassed sigh as he began to explain the more in-depth parts of his interest in supernatural plants, but a look of confusion grew on his face as he was met with engaged nods instead of rolled eyes. The pair stood there for a solid eight minutes discussing Carol’s affliction and other supernatural plants around Rakin, before eventually circling back to the main topic.
After a few moments of intense stares from all angles, Konan realized that he was now encircled by the other people he had run into during the day. Pushing the old man and Baingan away, he gave what he was about to say some more thought.
“...Well, I think the best way to figure out how this is affecting your body would be... Hm...” As Konan considered his next words, he noticed an expectant glance from his new... business partner? Is that what Baingan was?
Well, he was getting stared at, and he didn’t like it, so he might as well just say the idea to make it stop.
“Weshouldrecreatethecircumstancesleadinguptoyougettingthosemarks! A friendly spar or something, I think!” Though the first part was mumbled quick and quiet, the latter part was loud and clear. An intrigued glint shone in the eye of Carol Brown, and she put a finger to her chin as she thought about the proposition. Before she could speak, though, Baingan’s rather concerned voice rang out.
“Wouldn’t we get hurt? We still have a music vid to shoot, and... Well, it’s just dangerous! I don’t think we should be throwing down just for the sake of it!” She crossed her arms and frowned a bit more genuinely than she was before, a look that seemed to send Konan directly into damage control mode.
In a flash, Konan presented the three would-be combatants with pendants emitting a strange Stand energy. “I already thought of that! These are...” Konan stopped to think. “I made them. From a Stand material. They can patch up wounds after we’re all done... no issues, right?”
With a nod from every other person possibly involved in this little bout, Konan handed out the necklaces and cleared his throat, urging Carol to speak up now that the concern was dealt with.
“For a second there, I thought you were just looking for an excuse to fight...” She put a finger in the air to stop any protests Konan may respond with. “...But I’m pretty sure you’re being genuine about wanting to help, ulterior motives or not.” When Carol met Konan’s eyes, a palpable determination glowed from the both of them.
This was the perfect moment to have a take two on that fight with Nojus. This time nobody would be grievously injured and she’d have an opportunity to learn more about what happened to her in the process. She can finally prove to herself that she’s grown past that fateful night.
Turning to look at Gotam, Carol sees the question she was about to ask was already answered: the old man was constructing his bow and arrow, shooting a meaningful look to Konan as the fellow archer readied his compound bow. Carol chuckled a bit at that, before she made her way over to her partner.
Konan, on the other hand, looked back to Baingan. Similarly, she had already summoned her Stand, the gada shining in the afternoon sun. For the first time, Konan initiated the shared smile between the two. He walked over to her, nodding with wordless respect as the two sides of this friendly skirmish faced one another.
“...Baingan, can you do the– the thing? The one people always do before a Stand battle starts.” Konan whispered a bit awkwardly into his partner’s ear, causing her to practically light up like a firework. She hadn’t had the opportunity to be her larger-than-life self for an entire 40 minutes, and that just wasn’t right!
With an enthusiastic nod to her “boss” she took a step forward, cupping her hands around her mouth. “ALRIGHT, BEDTOWN! WE’RE ABOUT TO THROW DOWN, AND WE WANNA GIVE YOU ALL A NICE SHOW... BUT YOU KNOW THE RUUULES!” The jubilation in her voice was electric, making its way to the small crowd that began to form a perimeter for this nice little spar. “YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, EVERYBODY! SAY IT WITH ME ON THE COUNT OF THREE!” Even her fellow combatants prepared to join in with her. On the count of...
“ONE!”
“TWO!”
“THREE!”
“OPEN THE GAME!”
Location: A few two-story apartment buildings, with various stalls and food trucks out front in green. The map is 30x72 meters, with each square being 2x2 meters. The apartments' second floor can be reached by stairways, and there are stairways in the back that lead to the roof. The roofs are made of several planes, and in red are satellite dishes, chimneys, and other similar protrusions. The interiors of the buildings are not reachable.
As for the blue dots, they are various NPCs, all of whom have 222 physicals. The ones running the stalls have Salesman: 3, and the rest have a mixture of 3 skills that apply to a variety of different careers; however, they have to be talked to for a few moments before their specific skill can be gleaned. In other words, Carol has a wide variety of potential Skills open to her, but must spend time to figure out who does what with the exception of the people actively plying their trade. The stalls have some selling food, and some selling accessories, bangles, and other similar fare.
Goal: RETIRE your opponents!
Additional Information: The NPCs may be talked with, moved around, and generally interacted with however the players would like; however, there is an important restriction. Intentionally harming any NPCs is considered a LOSS condition, due to being out of character for either Gotam or Baingan to abide by and turning the fight into an unwinnable 3v1. Attacking pieces of Carol's Stand or otherwise stopping her from scaling out of control is fine, and they may not be actively used as human shields or similar. Otherwise, they'll generally move away from bizarre goings on and have Just Trying To Relax After A Hard Day's Work: 3, meaning that they're unlikely to be convinced to do anything that would get them involved actively in the fight, even with Carol's 5 Skill.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
I.M.P.A.C.T.	Konan Gau with Baingan Bharta	“I've found the perfect inspiration for my manga!!” Now that the day’s work is done, it's time to keep a promise. Get good footage for a music video!
Gallery of Wayward Reverie	Carol Brown with Gotam Sadhani	“In order to grow, we must defeat the mistakes of our past.”” You’ve come a long way from your first Stand battle. Show your growth!

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The Boring Assholes Guide to Everything in Lubbock
Welcome to the Hub City of [The South Plains**](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Plains), [Lubbock Texas**](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock,_Texas)
SEVERE WEATHER
TRANSPORTATION
HOBBIES & ASSOCIATIONS
MOVING TO & LIVING IN LUBBOCK
Unique to Lubbock
Unique to the South Plains & New Mexico
Weekly Events

• Food Trucks
• Farmers Markets
• Weekly Ads & deals

Event Calendars

• Lubbock in The Loop
• Good Stuff Lubbock
• Lubbock Cultural District
• Visit Lubbock
• LHUCA & ELAH
• Vote Lubbock
• Volunteer Lubbock
• Play Lubbock

Event Centers

• USA Arena
• Civic Center Event Calendar
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Government

• Lubbock County
• City of Lubbock

WEBSITES

• Lubbock Cultural District
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Keven Fitzpatrick #44 • Motorcycle Grand Tour Of Texas • Grand Saline Texas
Stopped by Grand Saline Texas Stop #7 and ran into four Grand Tourers.
Motorcycle Grand Tour Of Texas: https://motorcyclegrandtouroftexas.com
Grand Celine Texas: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y68KhwEMcNFt96Hx6
Grand Celine Texas History: Grand Saline's first settlers were the ancient Caddo and Cherokee Indian tribes, who discovered and made use of a large salt prairie south of the town. The Native Americans used evaporated salt, from the brine stream that flows over the flats, as a commodity they traded for other needed goods. In the mid-nineteenth century, the tribes moved southeast, having been forced out of the area by Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas, and by general anti-Indian sentiment. Only a few years after the Indians left the salt prairie behind, a new group of settlers arrived. A settler named John Jordan and other newcomers brought their families and set up a primitive salt works. The community named Jordan's Saline quickly became the center of Van Zandt County and was, for a while, the county seat. There were formerly numerous salt companies in Grand Saline, including the Richardson Salt works, which had drilled the first salt well; the Lone Star Salt Company; Kleer Salt Works, the first steam-powered salt plant; and the Grand Saline Salt Company, which later became part of the Morton Salt Company. During the late 1920s, the discovery of the nearby Van oil field brought companies that provided needed supplies. In the 1930s Grand Saline had twelve petroleum supply companies and five lumber companies. In the Depression years, local sewing rooms made garments for the poor. During World War II, a workers' strike at Morton Salt led the town to form the Grand Saline Industrial Foundation to attract new business to town. Their efforts produced clothing manufacturers, sulfur processing and meat packing companies. Grand Saline was also known for its Lone Star Hotel, which was, for a brief time, the home of Hollywood starlet Louise Fazenda, the wife of Warner Brothers executive Hal Wallis. Agriculture, farming and ranching have long been a major part of the economic life in Grand Saline. Crops have included sweet potatoes and other truck crops. A cotton gin built south of town in 1890 marked the beginning of many years of cotton production. Poultry, livestock, dairy products, lumber and an ice house all played a role in the formation and history of the town.
http://LoneStarRider.tv http://RidingForACure.com

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In 1982, I and six buddies went bear hunting in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We stayed at cabins near Twin Lakes, at the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
When you hunt most critters you go out before dawn and sit until an hour or two after the sun comes up and late afternoon until dark. Most bigger game animals hunker down during daylight hours, so it doesn't pay to sit all day. This means you have a lot of time between hunts.
This part of the UP has some remote areas; it is also where a lot of copper mining went on in the old days; the mines are all closed now and mostly full of water.
There are a lot of big paper mill holdings there also that are still being logged, so there are a lot of logging roads built by the paper mills; they are good enough roads for large double-trailer logs trucks filled with many tons of logs to travel on.
One thing you learn quickly when you use these roads is to get the hell off the road when a truck is coming because they take up the whole road and they don't even slow down for civilians because the mill owns the roads, not the state or county and you are on their land, but as long as you don't get in the way they don't care.
Most of the bridges across streams or rivers just consist of huge piles of large rocks with smaller gravel on top of the road. These things look like dams, but because of the large bottom rocks, the water can flow through the "bridge." It's a pretty cool thing to see.
We spent a lot of time driving and exploring these logging roads. On one particular day, we went down a new road that led to an actual state park at the bottom of Misery Bay on Lake Superior.
It's a park maintained by the state on paper mill property, there are several very rusitc camp sites at that park. We spent some time at the park and messing around on the beach.
About noon we headed back down a different road, you see a lot of small shacks that usually have smoke coming out of the chimneys, they are apparently used by the loggers.
We eventually ended up way out in the wilderness with no signs of logging or logging trucks, it's usually like driving in a tunnel because the trees come together over the road.
After a long while, we came into a clear area, and around a bend there was we came upon what we thought was a small town. The road basically went right down "main street," and as we drove through the place, it became apparent there were no people to be seen.
We came to a building that was a kind of store, so we stopped there. The "store" was completly empty, looking in the dusty windows you could see it had been empty for a long time. We walked around "main street" checking out the houses, a lot of them were in pretty good repair but they were completely deserted, dust on all the floors had been undisturbed for many years and there were no signs of foot traffic anywhere.
We eventually got back in the trucks and moved on we were all pretty intrigued by the town, we didn't go in any of the houses because it just looked like the owners might actually come back.
The "main street" went up a pretty big hill, at the top of the hill was a large building that was obviously some kind of industrial use building covered in that old galvanized corrugated metal sheeting.
We stopped at the building and found an opening in the siding. The inside of the building was wide open, and it was very tall, like 30-40 feet tall, with a lot of supporting steelwork; everything was very rusty and obviously hadn't been touched in many years.
There were large windows with no glass, just open to the outside high up in the walls that allowed the sun to light it up pretty well inside. At the center of the place, there was a large hole in the floor, like 15-20 feet square. We peered down into the opening, and it was a deep dark hole.
Somebody dropped a stone down the hole, and it was a long time before you could hear a faint splash of water so we dropped a stone and we had a couple of those old Casio watches with a stopwatch function so we dropped a rock and timed it to the splash, it took almost exactly ten seconds.
There were no guard rails or safety measures of any kind, it was really scary thinking about falling into that deep black hole.
There was some old equipment left that looked to be like turn of the century type stuff, we assumed it was a closed copper mine.The whole time we were exploring we had two 35mm film cameras taking a lot of pictures, this was 30 years before cell phones and 35-40 before smart phones.
After exploring the place for a while, we decided it was time to get going because we had only a few hours before dark.
After miles of running down those unmarked roads, we eventually made it back to the cabins, and we all went out to our hunting spots. After it got dark, we all headed to the local bar where we usually went to get something to eat.
One of the guys asked the lady bartender if she knew anything about that shut-down mine and abandoned the town; she got kind of a funny look on her face and went to the kitchen pass-through window and said, "hey Dave, these guys went and visited Peterson.
We all looked at each other like WTF is she talking about, the kitchen door opened up and the a the cook apparently called Dave came out dressed in typical bar cook clothes. Dave came over and said what did you see in Peterson we said first of all, we never saw a sign with a name on it, but it was just an abandoned town with pretty decent-looking buildings and a closed-down copper mine up on the hill.
Dave said yep that's Peterson some people see the signs going into town and some don't, the thing is there never was a Peterson it never existed. Whh......What the fuck are you talking about? We were there, looked into the buildings, dropped rocks down the empty mine shaft, and took many pictures. Dave said yep, you and many other people, but if you try to return, you won't find it.
What? We know the road we took. We can get back there, he said go ahead and try. You won't find it. Dave asked did you, by any chance, drop a rock in the hole and time it to the bottom? Yes, actually, we did it took almost exactly ten seconds.
Dave said yep, I did, too, and I looked it up. A falling rock or anything falls about four hundred feet in ten seconds; he said Peterson is a real ghost town the whole place is a real ghost town; he said I was there and saw the same things years ago, but I've tried many times to go back and I've never been able to find it, me and a lot of other people who live in this area and know it like the backs of our hands have seen it once and once only.
Dave said to go to Houghton Hancock and get your film developed, and let's see the pictures. The next day, we decided to take off from hunting and go up to town and get the film developed. Houghton Hancock is home to Michigan Tech so it's a college town with all the amenities it had a quick film developer place so we dropped the film off and went to see the sights, it's a really picturesque place.
About an hour north east of HH is Copper harbor at the very top of Michigan were it ends into Lake Superior, it to is a really cool place. When we got back to HH, we were dying to see the pictures, so we went and got the film and tore open the envelopes.
There were lots of pictures, beautiful pictures, but not a single picture of "Peterson"..........Now just a goddamned minute, this is not fucking possible a couple of the guys went back to the film place and asked where are the other pictures that were on those rolls? There were no other pictures. You have all the negatives. We don't keep other people's pictures. We see thousands every month.
There's a park in town, and we stopped there, and all sat at a table, just kind of in shock, not saying much for quite a while. In 1982, I was 23 years old. At 23, you think you know it all when you are hit square in the face by something like that; it shakes you to the core; everything you think you know is now suspect because you were in that abandoned town; it was just a cool old abandoned town, you saw it with your own eyes in the wide open sunny broad daylight, not on some dark foggy creepy night and nothing creepy happened, we took pictures that don't exist.
That changed my life from that point forward. After that, we went back to see Dave and gave him the stack of pictures of the woods, the Big Mac bridge, Misery Bay, the park on the bay, logging trucks, the rock bridges, some of the shacks, one of which was just about two miles from "Peterson." Dave just kind of chuckled and said yep, that's our "Peterson" alright.
For the next two days we totally forgot about hunting, we split up in two trucks and drove those roads over and over and over and never re-found "Peterson." That is my high strangeness story, we found a town that never existed, that other people have also see but only once.
As I look back on what we are now hearing stories about, stuff like different timelines like this fucked up one we are in now compared to the real one we branched off from on January 20, 2016. Is Peterson a place close to a spot where two different timelines come very close together? Is it possible that when all the conditions in the universe are just right, and you happen to be in the right place when all those conditions are right, you can visit Peterson?
What would happen if you were in Peterson and the universal conditions changed? I wonder if we will ever find out. If you can only go there once, how will it be studied? The mind-warping question is, who keeps track of who has been to Peterson only once and who hasn't?

If you’d like to add an event to our calendar, submit an event here. Please check with the event organizers to see if events change due to weather. Have a great week!

Noteworthy Events

The Lion King at DPAC

• Winner of six Tony Awards®, including Best Musical, this landmark musical event brings together one of the most imaginative creative teams on Broadway.
• Wed, May 15 - Sun, June 9
• $29.50+

Music in the Gardens: Ruckus Rock Revival at Sarah P. Duke Gardens (sold out)

• Featured Artists: Blue Cactus, Kym Register and Kamara Thomas
• Music in the Gardens concerts take place on the lawn behind the Doris Duke Center.
• Lawn chairs, picnics, and blankets are encouraged. Pets are not allowed. Outside food and beverages, including beer and wine, are permitted and will also be available for purchase on-site from The Palace International.
• Wed, May 29
• 7 p.m.
• Free admission

20th Annual Beaver Queen Pageant at Duke Park

• A special mix of folly, pageantry and humor, contestants take on beaver personalities and compete for the title of Beaver Queen with their fashion, talent and personality.
• Sat, June 1
• Free admission, with donations to the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association encouraged.

Good Moon Festival at Durham Bulls Athletic Park

• Featuring Sylvan Esso, Fleet Foxes, DEHD, Hippo Campus, Reyna Tropical, Truth Club, and more.
• Fri, May 31 - Sat, June 1
• Day passes are $72.95+

Boxyard Birthday: Celebrating 3 Years! at Boxyard RTP

• Join us for a full day of music, markets, and more alongside your favorite Boxyard businesses. We are so proud to be a part of the Durham community, and today we’re celebrating YOU!
• Sat, June 1
• 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Free admission

Rescues & Rainbows Pet Adoption & PRIDE Event at The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge

• They'll be serving cocktails benefitting HOPE Animal Rescue and the LGBTQ Center of Durham during this afternoon pet adoption event in honor of National Foster a Pet Month and National PRIDE Month!
• Sun, June 2
• 1-3 p.m.
• Free admission

World Hunger Day Durham at Durham Central Park

• World Hunger Day Durham, NC, aims to raise awareness of food insecurity experienced in the community, as well as to highlight the amazing work being done to support residents and create a more fair and equitable food system.
• Sun, June 2
• 3-6 p.m.
• Free admission

Multi-Day Events

The Magnetic Fields – “69 Love Songs” 25th Anniversary Tour at The Carolina Theatre

• In celebration of the 25th anniversary of its release, the Magnetic Fields will continue to perform “69 Love Songs”—the 3-disc masterwork that marked a significant breakthrough for the American band—in its entirety over the course of two nights, for the first time in over two decades.
• Wed, May 29 and Thu, May 30
• 8 p.m.
• $37+

NCHSAA Softball Championships at Duke Softball Stadium

• Fri, May 31 - Sat, June 1
• $8+

Sylvan Esso 'Good Moon' After-party at PS37

• Featuring Suzi Analogue and Made of Oak. Must be 21+.
• Fri, May 31 - Sat, June 1
• 11-11:30 p.m.
• $10

Durham Amateur Golf Tournament at Hillandale Golf Course

• This event will be open to all golfers who have an established USGA handicap of ten (10.0) or less by the registration deadline.
• Sat, June 1 - Sun, June 2
• $125+

Durham Brick Convention Lego Event at Durham Convention Center

• Attractions: lots to see and do including large scale displays, activities, traders selling loose bricks, new LEGO® sets, retired LEGO® sets, minifigures & accessories plus dedicated building areas.
• Sat, June 1 - Sun, June 2
• Session I: 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
• Session II: 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.
• $15+

Historic Buildings Open House at West Point on the Eno Park

• Enjoy a look inside the historic McCown-Mangum House, Photography Museum, and Mill.
• Sat, June 1 and Sun, June 2
• 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Free admission

Movies at The Carolina Theatre

• Jurassic Park & Rollercoaster
• School of Rock
• Quadrophenia
• Hundreds of Beavers

Monday, May 27

Events at The Glass Jug in Downtown Durham

• 2-10 p.m. - Board Game Night
• 7:30-9:30 p.m. - Movie Mondays: Top Gun Maverick

9 a.m.
Heron Rookery Tour at Pearl Mill Preserve
5 p.m.
Arts & Drafts at Fullsteam Brewery
6 p.m.
Mantis Falls Demo at Atomic Empire
Disc Golf Putting League at The Glass Jug in RTP
6:30 p.m.
Trivia Night at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
7 p.m.
Monday Night Skate at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company
Community Board Game Night at Moon Dog Meadery
OnlyUs Media Presents: The Bank at Rubies on Five Points
8:30 p.m.
Karaoke at The House

Tuesday, May 28

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 5:30-6:30 p.m. - Boxyard Run Club
• 6-8 p.m. - Bark & Bond Social

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

• 12-8 p.m. - Food Truck: Mike's Vegan Cookout
• 7-9 p.m. - Bull City Beer Runners Run Club

Events at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham

• 5:45-6:30 p.m. - Community Zumba Classes
• 6-8 p.m. - Music Bingo

Events at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP

• 6-8 p.m. - The Glass Jog Run Club
• 6-9 p.m. - Stitch & Sip

6 p.m.
Queer Death Cafe at Arcana
Bring Your Own Vinyl with Jaffar at Rubies on Five Points
Women on the Wall at Triangle Rock Club - Durham
6:30 p.m.
Trivia at Durham Food Hall
7 p.m.
Trivia at Beer Study Durham
King Trivia Tuesdays at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Not Rocket Science Trivia at DSSOLVR Durham
Tuesday Blues Jam at The Blue Note Grill
7:30 p.m.
North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra at Sharp 9 Gallery
8 p.m.
Jeremy 'Bean' Clemons Trio at Kingfisher
Julia Holter at Motorco Music Hall
8:30 p.m.
Karaoke at The House

Wednesday, May 29

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 12-2 p.m. - Hear & There: Daniel Delorenzo
• 5:30-8:30 p.m. - Game Night

Events at ZincHouse Winery & Brewery

• 7-8 p.m. - Signature Wine Tasting
• 7-8:30 p.m. - Laughs Comedy Night

3 p.m.
Durham Farmers’ Market at Durham Central Park
Color Pencil Magic at The Scrap Exchange
4 p.m.
Whiskey Wednesdays at Alley Twenty Six
4:30 p.m.
Whiskey Omakase at Dashi
5 p.m.
Free Wednesday Wine Tasting at Beer Study Durham
6 p.m.
Tarot with Joy at Arcana
6:30 p.m.
Singles Mixer & Durham Meetup at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
Trivia Night with Pickle at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP
7 p.m.
My Hero Academia TCG Girl Power Prerelease at Atomic Empire
Hammered Trivia at Hi-Wire Brewing
Karaoke Night at Mavericks Smokehouse
Music Bingo at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
Music in the Gardens: Ruckus Rock Revival at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
Brett Chambers Open Mic at The Blue Note Grill
8 p.m.
Air Hockey Tournament at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Trivia Night at Bull McCabe's
The Devine Feminine Comedy Showcase at Devine's Restaurant and Bar
Old Havana Nights featuring Brevan Hampden at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Karaoke at Moon Dog Meadery
The Coyotes / Stan and Denghy at The Pinhook
8:30 p.m.
Yot Club at Motorco Music Hall

Thursday, May 30

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

• 12-8 p.m. -Food Truck: Mike's Vegan Cookout
• 7-9 p.m. - Thursday Trivia with Nick

12 p.m.
Taking Back Thursday: Mysti Mayhem at Boxyard RTP
The Magnetic Fields Record Signing at Bull City Records
1:30 p.m.
Meeting Mastery One Session to Transform Your Meetings at Frontier RTP
3 p.m.
Guided Museum Tour at 21c Museum Hotels Durham
5 p.m.
Thirsty Thursdays at Dashi
5:30 p.m.
Walking Club with Bull City Strollers at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
6 p.m.
Mycelial Meet Up and Tarot with Emily at Arcana
Vinyl Night with DJ Deckades at Gizmo Brew Works
“Tango for Two” Dance Class at JB Duke Hotel
6:15 p.m.
Pony Run at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
6:30 p.m.
Line Dance Classes at Mystic Farm and Distillery
Boulders & Brews Meetup at Triangle Rock Club - Durham
7 p.m.
Trivia Night at Beer Tooth Taproom
Bring Your Own Vinyl Night at Congress Social Bar
Summer Jazz Jam (Curated by Al Strong) at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Community Board Game Night at Moon Dog Meadery
7:30 p.m.
Trivia Night with Big Slow Tom at Clouds Brewing Brightleaf Square
8 p.m.
Weekly Single Mingle at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Trivia at Fullsteam Brewery
Buck Meek (of Big Thief) at Motorco Music Hall
9 p.m.
Everybody Eats at The Pinhook
9:30 p.m.
Karaoke Night at The Tavern

Friday, May 31

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• 5-9 p.m. - Food Truck: La Republica Taco Truck
• 8-11 p.m. - Open Mic Stand-up Comedy

Events at The Blue Note Grill

• 6-8 p.m. - The Duke Street Dogs
• 9:15 p.m. - Electric Carnival

Events at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP

• 5-8 p.m. - Food Truck Friday
• 6-9 p.m. - Tom Neuhauser Music

Events at The Pinhook

• 7 p.m. - Rusty is 40: Jenny Besetzt / Opin / Riggings
• 10:30 p.m. - Night of 1000 Divas!

10 a.m.
Tasting at Ten at Counter Culture Coffee
Plant Propagation: Cuttings at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
12 p.m.
SFC 3 Mixed Martial Arts Pro Superheavyweight Bout at Durham Armory
Co-Working Social at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
5:30 p.m.
Friday Night Live: Emily Musolino at Boxyard RTP
6 p.m.
Dyke Night Pride Kickoff Party at Arcana
The Patio Dance Parties : Clueless Fridays at Unscripted Durham
6:30 p.m.
Ravnica Remastered: Two-Headed Giant Draft at Atomic Empire
Paint & Sip Pottery at Delores Pottery
Temple Grandin presents: Animals Make Us Human at Duke University Gross Hall
An Intimate Evening w/ Grammy Award Winner, Susan Carol at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
7 p.m.
Bird Trivia at Fullsteam Brewery
7:30 p.m.
BYOS (Bring Your Own Sketch) at Mettlesome
Michael Hawkins and the Brotherhood at Sharp 9 Gallery
8 p.m.
Stereo Reveries at DSSOLVR Durham
Karaoke! at Fullsteam Brewery
Small Town Murder Podcast 2024 Tour at The Carolina Theatre
9 p.m.
An Intimate Evening w/ Grammy Award Winner, Susan Carol at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
A Metal Show: Alpha Andromeda, Celaris, Hermaeous Mora and Dunktank at Moon Dog Meadery
Gimme Gimme Disco at Motorco Music Hall
Mall Rat in a Cage Goth Dance Party at Rubies on Five Points
Planet Rave at The Fruit
Sneaky Link Fridays at The House

Saturday, June 1

Events at Atomic Empire

• 11 a.m. - TopDeck Championship Series Invitational Qualifier
• 11 a.m. - Lorcana Draft: Ursula’s Return
• 11 a.m. - Kill Team Tournament

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 9:30-10:30 a.m. - Fitness Pop-up: Yoga
• 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Boxyard Birthday: Celebrating 3 Years!
• 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Boxyard Birthday Market
• 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Saturdaze: DJ Baptiste
• 12-3 p.m. - Jewelry Crafting
• 1-2 p.m. - Cupcake Decorating
• 5-8 p.m. - Peter Lamb Presents

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• 1-8 p.m. - Food Truck: Death By Taco
• 1-7 p.m. - Triangle Vintage Market
• 4-6 p.m. - Live Music: Lake Chamberlain
• 7-9 p.m. - Back Porch Films Documentary Screening

Events at Fullsteam Brewery

• 1-3 p.m. - Sip and Solder Stained Glass Workshop
• 2-3 p.m. - Durham "Bullpen" Treasure Hunt

Distillery Tours and Tastings at Liberty & Plenty

• Every Saturday, 10-10:30 a.m. and 11-11:30 a.m.

Events at Mettlesome

• 7:30-8:30 p.m. - House Party
• 8:30-9:30 p.m. - Harold Night: Grand Finale

Events at The Pinhook

• 7 p.m. - Slater / Tony Velour
• 10:30 p.m. - Crank Dat Dance Party!

Guided Walking Tours with Triangle Adventures

• 2 p.m. - Downtown Durham Walking Tour
• 4 p.m. - Durham African American History Tour
• 6 p.m. - Downtown Durham True Crime Tour

8 a.m.
Cars and Coffee at 5425 Page Rd
Durham Farmers' Market at Durham Central Park
parkrun Durham at Southern Boundaries Park
9 a.m.
Walk for the Animals at Duke East Campus
South Durham Farmers' Market at Greenwood Commons Shopping Center
Naturally Wild presents Birding for QTBIPOC at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
10 a.m.
Wellness Fair with Performance of "This is My Brain on Anxiety: The Detailed Experience of an Anxious, Black Woman" at Hayti Heritage Center
11 a.m.
5th Anniversary Block Party at Rumors Durham
11:30 a.m.
Barrels of Fun Brewery Tasting w/ Seth at Bull City Solera and Taproom
12 p.m.
Crafternoons at Gizmo Brew Works
2:30 p.m.
National Prostate Cancer Awareness Basketball Tournament and Health Fair at Community Family & Life Recreation Center at Lyon Park
4 p.m.
Reception for Constellations: Forty Years of Explorations within Sacred Geometry at Horse & Buggy Press and Friends
6 p.m.
Bardo Bloom and Tarot with Virginia at Arcana
6:30 p.m.
Collin Williams at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
7 p.m.
Triangle Gay Men's Chorus Concert at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Nobody's Business with Nantahala at Huron Stage Music Venue
Beaux Mondes: Swinging Speakeasy Jazz at Succotash Southern & Creole Kitchen
7:30 p.m.
Private Event: Shop Closed at Moon Dog Meadery
The Stinging Blades at The Blue Note Grill
"The Memories I'm Bound To" (Art + Live Music) at The Fruit
8 p.m.
Nolan Taylor at Motorco Music Hall
The Monti: In Too Deep at The Carolina Theatre
9 p.m.
Collin Williams at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Blind Tigers: Live Karaoke at Rubies on Five Points

Sunday, June 2

Events at Atomic Empire

• 11:30 a.m. - Digimon TCG: Evolution Cup
• 12 p.m. - Pokemon TCG Tournament

10 a.m.
Jazz Brunch at Lula & Sadie's
10:30 a.m.
Al Strong Presents Jazz Brunch at Alley Twenty Six
12 p.m.
Sunday Dollar Bin Sale for Charity at Rumors Durham
Farmers Market at ZincHouse Winery & Brewery
12:15 p.m.
Public Tour at Duke Chapel
1 p.m.
Black Farmers' Market at Durham Tech
Rescues & Rainbows Pet Adoption & PRIDE Event at The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge
2 p.m.
Speed Puzzling Mini Tournament at Boxyard RTP
Soul Sunday w/ DJ Soul at Congress Social Bar
Hammered Trivia with Casey at Durty Bull Brewing Company
3 p.m.
World Hunger Day Durham at Durham Central Park
Brick Convention: LEGO® Fan Event at Durham Convention Center
6 p.m.
Omar Star's Extragalactic Birthday Bash at Arcana
6:30 p.m.
Open Mic Night at Moon Dog Meadery
7 p.m.
Desi Banks: The Purpose Chaser Tour at The Carolina Theatre
AZUL / Animal Prince / Elora Dash at The Pinhook
9 p.m.
Raggae Sundayz at The House

Running Art Exhibits

Constellations: 40 Years of Explorations within Sacred Geometry by Steven Ferlauto at Horse & Buggy Press and Friends

• Sacred Geometry is an ancient field of physics whose equations are expressed through shape. Shape is a way to explore the universal fabric of our existence.
• Sat, May 4 - Sat, June 1
• Free admission

Cameron Elyse's Divine Nine Legacy Memoir Exhibition at Hayti Heritage Center

• The Divine Nine Legacy Memoir delves deep into the history of the National Panhellenic Council (NPHC) or "Divine Nine," a collective of nine Greek Letter organizations founded on May 10th, 1930.
• These organizations were born out of the necessity to provide a voice for Black American students within the collegiate space. United by principles of service, community, brotherhood, and sisterhood, the Divine Nine work collectively to uplift society through acts of service to underserved areas across the nation.
• Fri, Apr 19 - Sat, June 1
• Free admission

It Ain’t All Black And White at DAG Truist Gallery

• It Ain’t All Black and White is a photography exhibition that encourages us to consider emotions such as serenity, apprehension, yearning, and more.
• Captured by 11 dynamic photographers dedicated to documenting the fullness and complexity of Black life, this exhibition offers each of us an opportunity to see ourselves with renewed attention.
• Thu, Apr 25 - Sun, June 2

María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold at Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

• María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold is a monographic exhibition of a visionary voice in photography, immersive installation, painting and performance.
• Thu, Feb 15 - Sun, Jun 9
• Every week, Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun 12-5 p.m.
• Free admission

Ley Killeya: Solitary Women at 5 Points Gallery

• 5 Points Gallery in downtown Durham invites you to appreciate Chapel Hill artist Ley Killeya's engaging exhibition featuring vibrant and thought-provoking paintings, exploring themes of identity, belonging, vulnerability, and acceptance, particularly for people from marginalized communities.
• Fri, May 17 - Sat, June 15
• Free admission

Counterpoints at Durham Bottling Co.

• Counterpoints is a curated showcase of local AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) artists, delving into the convergence of AAPI identity and mental health. Inspired by the intricate layers of musical counterpoint, its purpose is to weave together diverse narratives and confront the stigma surrounding mental health within our communities.
• Wed, May 1 - Sun, June 16
• Mon - Fri, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Message in a Bottle: The art of Christopher Philips Haile, 1947–1998 at Horse & Buggy Press and Friends

• This exhibit, curated by the artist's brother Roger Haile, includes over 60 artworks archived for the past 26 years.
• Sat, May 25 - Sat, July 13
• Free admission

Roll…roll…roll…
KER-SMASH!
“Good one, Rock. One more and you’ve got yourself a turkey.” Parker Markle, owner of the bowling establishment, noted.
“Thanks, Parker”, I said, thankfully accepting another longneck, “You still going on with your renovations here?”
“Damn straight!”, he replied, “I’ve got me investors, I’ve got me plans, and I’ve even got me real building permits this time…”
Two weeks later, we’re standing out in front of Parker’s still smoldering bowling alley and Parker is on the verge of tears.
“God damn shame”, I said, trying to commiserate my friend.
“Fucking squatters. Can’t even start on the renovations without these bastards…We chuck’em out of your place and the fuckers burn the place down. Hear from the local constabulary yet?”
“Yeah”, he snuffs, “Fucker’s ain’t got a hard dollar among them; nor two cents in their heads. Sure, I can sue, but to what purpose? Look at the place. I had my investors…I had plans…I’m well and truly fucked, Rock.”
“How much you out? “I asked, “How much you need to rebuild and remodel?”
“Oh, fuck me”, Parker trembled, “At least $55-60 thou. Where the fuck am I supposed to come up with that sort of scratch?”
Ker-ching!
I chucked my empty into the bin.
SPANG!
Parker immediately, without asking, dips into the ever-present cooler and hands me an icy-cold one.
In return, I hand Parker my business Rhodium American Express card.
“What’s this?”, he asks.
“It’s my entry into the world of keggeling and conspicuous consumer consumption” I chuckled.
“What the fuck?”, Parker asked, brow furrowed like the early spring marijuana fields hereabouts.
“Use it to order your needful things”, I said, “I’ve got way more than 60 thou free on the card. I mean, let’s not go nuts…”
“You mean?” He asked, quizzically.
“Yep.”, I replied, “Your wishes have been answered…sort of.
Parker looks at me with wide, wondering eyes.
“I’m your god-damned partner.” I smiled as I lit a huge Oscuro cigar; channeling Marion Ravenwood.
“Oh, fuck”, Parker suddenly breaks into a mile-wide smile. “We’re going to be the first bowling alley to have a walk-in humidor, aren’t we?”
“Fuckin-A, Bubba.”, I chuckle, “Plus a Class-A liquor license. Enough of this Class-B slinging beer for bucks bullshit, we’re going to have us a real tavern here on the green…”
“Let me get my plans”, Parker laughs, “I never thought of going the Class-A direction.”
“We’re going to serve more than pre-nuked wings and slate-board pizza.” I said, “We’re going to have 75 lanes, a full-service tavern, walk-in humidor, 80s arcade, and real fucking food. I remember you going on and on about it before the fire. Well, I haven’t forgotten what you’re dreaming about, so fuck it, let’s just do it.”
“It might go a bit past 60 large”, Parker said, slightly uncertainly.
“Let’s just keep it under 100k and for the love of grog, don’t say anything to Esme…”, I pleaded with Parker.
“I’ll do my best”, Parker said, as a manly handshake ensued.
“This could be the start of a beautiful friendship” I nattered.
Between my American Express card and Parker’s insurance pay out, we’ve got more than enough to start selecting contractors and hire us a security team. We’ve had the plans drawn up, had all the blueprints drafted, reviewed and OK’ed by the various governmental departments.
We are ready to tear down what remains of the old place, groom the land, and begin our re-build.
But first, there’s this little problem neither of us had foreseen.
What the fuck are we going to do with over 1,500 scorched pins and 800 or so blistered bowling balls?
We’ve already ordered all new pinsetters, pins and balls; so, what to do with all the leftovers…?
What to do?
What to do?
Of course! We hold a pre-opening carnival and sell tickets to a bowling ball mortar game.
No shit! Carve out a big-ass target out in some field, and fire bowling ball mortars. The closest ticket to where the ball lands wins.
We can worry about the details later.
First, I need to gin-up a set of bowling ball mortars. We’re going to introduce the southwest to Bowling Ball Bingo!
Hell. We’ll make it a huge pre-opening event: bowling ball punt guns, food trucks, local music, games of skill, food trailers, local brewery participation, drinking and merry making.
Still going to need some bowling ball cannons.
But first, we’ll need a place to hold the festivities.
No worries.
Y’see. I know this guy…
Now, in town, there’s been a lot of building. In fact, it looks overly developed.
However, go outside of town a couple of miles, and it’s heavily rural, fallow, and all agrarian.
Then there happens to be an old Junior League baseball diamond that’s been closed for years and in an advanced stage of neglect and derelictitis. However, it’s right off the main exit highway and nestled up closely to the San Juan River. Loads and loads of area to expand and have a nice little festivity.
I know the owner, the venerable ol’ bean Gilberto Cabrera.
So, I load up with beer and cigars and drive over to see Gilberto.
He’s outside his one-up, two-down, three across shotgun shack, sipping warm Modeles and cursing every aspect of life he’s currently been assigned.
I roll up and Gilberto instinctively reaches for his trusty double-barreled Ruger, gauge of 12.
“Whoa!”, I shout. “Just me, Gil. Kindly ol’ Doctor Rock.”
“What the fuck do you want?”, he growls.
“Hey!”, I yell, “Use low tones, or you can’t have any of the goodies I brought back from Canada.”
He props the shotgun over in a corner and being the avaricious old bastard he normally is, he bids me over to the porch to have a rag-chew and he a rifle of my truck’s built-in humidor.
I wander up and present him some pure maple syrup, fresh from Walmart, a half dozen cigars and a cold 12 pack of straight from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s (“The beer refreshing”).
We sit and catch up with each other. He’s an old widower and never had time for kids, so he’s grateful to have someone at least approximately his age to rabbit on with. He’s either 70 or 125, or somewhere in between.
It’s hard to tell with some of these old, wrinkly types.
Anyways, I broach the subject of ‘borrowing’ his land in and adjacent to the old ballpark.
“What fer?” He asks.
“Well,” I reply between sips of some recently obtained Kentucky Firewater, “Parker Markle and I are partners in a new rebuild of his bowling alley, which the squatters burned to a crisp once we got the local fuzz to chuck’em out.”
“Aye?”, he scowls, “Bastards. What does that have to do with me?”
“We decided to hold an impromptu festival, a couple of days, for grand re-opening, where we’d get some folk in to cater the event, with music, maybe some carnival-type rides, local food trucks and trailers, petting zoo for the kids, maybe a pick-up softball game or two and (saving the best for last) Bowling Ball Bingo.”
“What the hell’s that last one?” He wondered.
“Well, we’ve got nearly 1,000 old and slightly scorched bowling balls from the fire. Parker’s got new stock coming in with the insurance money. So, what better way to dispose of old bowling balls by building a couple of cannons, firing the balls skyward and have them fall on some prepared ground? The ground with have a checkerboard of letters and numbers, and instead of popping up little balls at the local Catholic Church, we use bowling ball cannons to choose?”
“Gil looks at me and scoffs, “Y’know, it’s not been really too quiet around here since you moved in. I know you’re a Master Blaster, but what do you really do?”
“Nothing too exciting,” I snicker, “I just snuff oil and gas well fires.”
“Hrumph”, he snorts, “No wonder it’s like the Fourth of July hereabouts every weekend.”
“A man’s gotta stay in practice”, I chuckle back.
We both have a snort and I produce new cigars. We spend the next few hours drafting up an agreement where we can use his land to hold the festival.
But the land and facilities are in a sad state of repair.
So, I promise to fix it up if he loans it to us for pre-opening weekend.
OK, but the facilities need paint, weed removal, blading for parking, Porta Johns, marking of parking areas, etc.
I tell Gil that’s fine. We’ll do all the work necessary to get his 40-acre donation ready for the big weekend. I also agreed to cede the finished area over to the Junior League baseball concern when we’re finished. As well as give the Jr. League 5% of the take, as the area is impoverished and any little help would be smiled upon greatly.
Gil also wants a nice, little honorarium to the tune of 5% of the gate.
“Sorry, Gil”, I replied, “But that’s a NCD (No Can Do). But I’ll let you sit in the security shack and keep an eye on the gate and warn about any potential trouble”.
He seemed less than amused.
“The gate will be right next to the beer garden and I could arrange it so that you could receive free beer in exchange for your time and sharp eye.” I noted.
The ink on the agreement wasn’t yet dry when Gil stated calling for his free beer.
“In a couple weeks, Gil”, I said, handing him a 12-pack of Blatz. “This’ll hold you until then.
He was deliriously happy. Free beer. Free cigars. A minuscule dose of power over his neighbors.
“Today is going to be a long day”, I noted to myself as I pulled out of Gil’s driveway.
First order of business was getting my old D-6 Caterpillar Dozer up and running. However, it needs some work.
I’ve got an idea, but the more it fleshed out, the more I felt like Hawkeye Pierce trying to get a new pair of boots from the Army.
I think I can nuke several birds with one stone: A trip to see Clay Smith about pipe for four bowling ball cannons.
I’ve known Clay for years and he’s one of the reasons we’ve settled in the area. He runs a fabricating/machine shop and that means I don’t need to buy an outbuilding to build my own metal shop.
After the obligatory handshakes, beers and cigars, we get down to brass tacks.
Well, CRA monel steel actually.
Found some 12.000" OD {A} x 8.600" ID {B} x 3.400" Wall {C} DOM Steel CRA casing, actually from the US Navy and once was part of a battleship’s complement; unknown which boat was the donor.
Perfect for 4 cannons.
CRA refers Corrosion Resistant Alloy; special pipe composited by two different materials including inner pipe and outer pipe. Inner CRA layer (0.25~26.0mm) normally such as Stainless steel, Duplex, Nickel alloy, Titanium, Hastelloy, Monel, etc., which are suitable for high corrosion environment.
Outer base material could be seamless or welded, SAWL, SAWH, ERW, HFW, or DSAW carbon steel pipe. The carbon steel substrate provides the required strength and the CRA cladding/lining provides the adequate corrosion resistance to the product being transported. The dissimilar metals that are present through the thickness of the pipe wall bring certain challenges to welding of clad/lined pipes, because welding of such pipes is usually carried out from the outside, using a single-sided welding technique
Clay needs some welding consumables, and will cut and polish the pipe for me if I find him a special CRA cutter-welder.
So, off to see Madden Martin at his welding shop.
“Madden, I need to borrow your CRA welder.” I notify him.
“Sure, what for?”, he asks.
“I’m building bowling ball cannons.” I replied.
“Oh. OK”, retorts Madden, thoroughly nonplussed with the day’s turn of events.
Sure, I can borrow the welder, all I need is to get him some good Wisconsin beer.
After a trip to the house, Madden loads the CRA welder into my truck after he offloads 2 cases of Blatz Light Cream Ale, 2 Cases of Leinenkugel’s, 2 cases of Point (“When you’re out of Point, you’re out of town”) and 2 cases of Spotted Cow from New Glarus.
I drop off the cutting welder to Clay and Javan Elliott, his second in command. We sit and chew the rag for a while, as his minions, of which he has thousands it seems, do the needful.
With the flick of the forklift, they load the 4 cut sections of the bowling ball punt guns in my truck.
Back to see Madden and we discuss his “kids” (apprentices) that are going to be helping me make the bowling ball cannons.
All it cost me was another couple of cases of beer and a box of ridiculously expensive cigars.
There are 6 “kids”:
2 Native American (Navajo): Shizhe'E (Navajo), Atsidi (Navajo),
2 Hispanic (by way of Old Mexico): Hector Manzanares, Richardo Sanchez (really) and,
A pair of local Heinz-57 variety Norteamericanos: Zachary Gibson and Alfie Walsh.
They all spoke passable English, and with my intense Oilfield Spanish, we could still communicate.
First, came the really dirty work. The pipe sections needed to be swaged, that is, drifted to see if they were the proper dimensions.
Any underage had to be filled with weld and then ground to specs. Any overages had to be ground down to specs.
This steel is about a 65-68 Rockwell hardness.
FYI: Rockwell hardness refers to how resistant a metal object is to penetration and permanent deformation from another material. It’s a measuring system of non-destructive metallurgical testing that determines how hard and strong steel truly is.
Truth is, it’s tougher than hammered nails. Way tougher, more like high-speed steel in circular form. However, it’s great for lateral compression and tension resistance, but prone to quench cracking. Quench cracks result from stresses produced during the transition from austenite to martensite, which involves an increase in volume. The martensitic transformation starts at the outermost surfaces of the part being quenched.
In other words, when there’s a phase change in the steel, it must be tempered or annealed slowly. So, a temperature shift greater than 300C must be done slowly or the metal cracks like an old soft-boiled eggshell.
I spent the rest of the day designing the cannons, and once that was done, explaining the blueprint to the gang of 6. They listened intently, asked non-stupid questions and generally came to impress me with the knowledge and work ethic.
The next day, I dropped back over to Madden’s and viewed the finished products.
They built the cannons beautifully. I checked them over and they were in specs every single measurement. They had acid-dipped them to get rid of the mill scale and then, went ahead and laid out the jobs.
It seems trivial, but many, even older hands, will do that in the opposite order. Here’s how errors creep in and begin to multiply.
I swaged each bore with a bowling ball I’d liberated from the old alley and it snugged into each like a Joey snugs into Mamma Roo.
I figured I could use these guys to help renovate the ballpark. I ask Madden if I can poach them for the duration of the build.
Madden readily agrees.
As long as they’re OK with a new boss and I’ll pay their way:

1. Beer.
3. Cigars.
5. $350/day.
6. Plus, I needed to teach them the basics of detonics.

Since this was Friday, I paid up for their day’s work and told them to meet me, bright and early (~0800) at the ballpark.
Six voices, in unison and several languages, agreed they’d be there with bells on.
That, I thought, would be interesting to see…
Saturday morning; I had my boon friend, Cat-skinner and all-around good guy, William “Kit” Carson come to the house and help me maneuver the old Cat 6 onto its trailer.
The beast is an old 1977 D6D model, with 140 original horsepower. The D6 is a versatile machine that can be used for a variety of tasks. It is commonly used in construction, mining, and agricultural applications. It is a great choice for clearing land, grading, and road building. It can also be used for digging and pushing materials, as well as for light demolition work. The machine is capable of pushing large loads and can handle most types of terrain.
I took it in trade for a job I did leveling out an old, abandoned limestone quarry that the owner was standing to lose via fines some ~US$50,000/day. He procrastinated and postponed, but did none of the US Government required remediation to the old rip-rap quarry once he finally wrung every peso out of that old hole.
It cost me a few cases of dynamite, a shitload of ANFO, a water well rig and a number of shotholes; but once we were finished, the place resembled a Kmart parking lot rather than the dark side of the moon.
But he didn’t have the cash to pay me and my crew, so I took his old D6 to hold while he generated some cash flow.
He died intestate some 14 months later. I submitted my bills to his estate and they basically said to keep the Cat, they’d sent the proper documents for title transfer, and we’d all call it a day.
So, I had a tinker item. I’d have Kit drop by when I was out of pocket and he could futz with the old girl and see if he could get her up to specs.
We replaced virtually every part on the tractor at one time or another. We stroked and bored the old powerplant and took her from ~140 BHP to around 500. Added a new turbocharger, since now we were residing at over 6,000’ AMSL. New tracks, pinions, trunnions, idlers, ripping hook, roller carrier, ad infinitum. New hoses, clamps, hydraulic cylinders…virtually jacked-up the radiator cap and inserted a new machine underneath.
She still was a cranky old bitch, and had to be kept warm and dry otherwise she’d sit and spit, sputter and smoke.
Yes, we were kindred spirits.
We teased her up onto the trailer and I backed my truck into the drive to hook-up. Luckily, the ballpark was less than 3 miles distant, as even my heavy-duty dualie truck was near it’s limit when it came to towing as the dozer tipped the Toledos at just over 37k pounds.
We all met over at the park and I immediately laid out an impromptu office on the hood of my truck. I had topo maps, aerial photos of the park, and after covering the maps over in vellum, I dragged out my drafting gear and started to sketch dimensions, and where things were going to go.
Kit had backed the dozer off the trailer and I battened everything down with old oil company map magnets and pulled my rig out of the way. I chose a spot under a copse of old-growth elms and live oak. The elms were afflicted with Dutch Elm Disease and the oaks had nasty cases of Live Oak Decline.
They were going to be removed and burned as per NOAA and BLM and half a dozen other alphabetic soup governmental agencies.
Besides, this is where the bingo board was to go.
Kit spent the best part of the day keeping the Cat running and training all of our international proteges. We took frequent breaks to go and rescue the Cat when Ricardo forget where the brake was and damn near drove into the Lower San Juan River or to ensure my charges were staying well hydrated.
The beer was locked in a cooler for when the drinking light was lit after 1700 hours.
Between them taking turns on learning how to speak “Cat”, Kit and the others often came by with ideas, comments and flat-out ridicule for how I was designing the park. Often, this required the liberation of some of my prime cigars.
Parker dropped by and informed me he had lined up 12 local food trucks for the two days, so we’d need parking, Porta Johns, running water and power for these guys.
“Fine”, I replied, “We now have a food court.”
“And well need parking”, Kit noted.
“How many cars at once? “, I asked.
“Best make it a thou”, He replied.
“Hmm…”, I hmm’ed. “The average car is a bit under 7′, but if you are driving them in, you need to park them far enough apart to allow exit on the driver’s side. So, allow 10′ width per car.
The average length is just under 15′. You can certainly park them close enough to allow 18′ per car, for backing and pulling out purposes.
While each acre of land contains 43,560 square feet, a simple mathematical computation shows if each parking space requires 180 square feet, 1 acre of land would accommodate 242 parking spaces. Of course, this assumes no turning lanes and each parking space is right next to each other. If a field that is 180 feet by 242 feet (approximately 1 acre) is designed with six rows of parking spaces with each parking space being approximately 10 feet by 18 feet and the traffic lanes are 24 feet wide, approximately 150 spaces can be designed. Therefore, there are three pairs of parking rows, each containing 48 spaces. The one-way traffic lanes are 12 feet wide and the two-way traffic lanes are 18 feet wide.”
“OK, I said aloud, “It looks like for a thousand cars at once, we’ll need about 7 acres. No problem. We’ve got nothing but space out here.”
“Problem”, Atsidi cautioned, “7 acres represent a long walk. Come in late and too far to drag the kids.”
“OK, clever dick”, I replied, “You and Shizhe’N are tasked with finding some shuttle buses. 25 or 30 person coaches that can just drive an ellipsoidal track around the parking areas. Let me know when, where and how much.”
“For two days?”, he asked.
“Nahh”, I said, “Let’s get them here a day early for a dry run. 3 days.”
“OK, bossman”, he smiled, “But we’ll need some greenery to grease those wheels…”
I peeled off a series of Benjamins from my wallet and gave them to them along with a register to sign.
“Everything on the up and up.”, I said, “I need receipts for everything. I’m going to keep sharp tabs on how much everything costs. Savvy?”
“Oh, yeah, Rock”, they both smiled, “We savvy goodly.”
“Wise-asses.” I snickered.
After lunch, we all sat around smoking and chatting. There were ideas being bounced all around. Some quite good, some a bit silly and some downright laughable.
To give you a rough idea of the layout, it all centered around the ballpark. It had bleachers, a bullpen, dugouts, rudimentary concession stands. And the ball diamond. The park was originally built for the local Little League, with base paths 70’ and pitching distance 50’. Over the years, it had been revived and now had 90’ base paths and 60.5’ pitching distances.
We decided that a fresh coat of paint would revive the old park and make it look more festive (and real). I reached out to several local businesses, and most bought advertisements on the outfield back fences. They’d supply the either canvas banners or plywood sheets with all the pertinent information about their company. Only cost $50/weekend, and it was tax deductible.
It was tax deductible since Esme pointed out our whole endeavor could be umbrellaed under as per the internal revenue code, a 501(c)3 is a nonprofit organization for religious, charitable, scientific, and educational purposes.
Donations to 501(c)3 are tax-deductible.
That helped grease the skids well and I had the lads out hammering and trying off canvas from the gusty Santa Ana-type winds that swept the area.
I won’t go over each and every event we had set for the park, but between Kit, myself and the guys, we had bladed down to the top Kirtland Shale roughly 8 acres for parking facilities. Kit took a turn and angled the main blade and inserted gutters around each acre of parking to facilitate drainage.
I built a Porta San farm that was close enough to the beer vendors yet far enough from the Food Court to be a convenience to all and a detriment to none. I even got the local Honey Wagon drivers to donate their time for a passel of free entrance and drinks tickets.
We had taken out ads in the local trades and dailies; as well as someone on the Internet built a page for the event.
We had a LOT of interest and actually had to turn away some potential partners as this was only a two-day affair. Evidently, a few groups had tried before, but never more that reviving the Little League and park. We went whole hog and decided it was going to be something with all the flavor of a State Fair, but we decided early on that a petting zoo for the kids was enough. I mean, the state actually still runs a real State Fair.
OK, we had a functional ballpark for Little through Senior League. Even had water piped in for the showers and real toilets, rather than Porta Johns. Along one side of the diamond, closer to the river, was the games and attractions area. A rectangle of ‘ping pong ball in the bowl to win a goldfish, to balloon shooting galleries and guess your weight/age’ type of attractions; along with some very, very sedate rides; carousel, mini-scrambler and a Squirrel Nut Zipper, as I recall.
Along the other side of the diamonds, was the food court. We had now some 18 trucks and trailers committed to the festivities. We were going to have funnel cakes, roast turkey legs, pickle-on-a-stick, some Mexican bakeries with all their delectables and one, oddly enough, all the way from Baja Canada hawking huge, ‘it takes two hands to handle’ cream puffs.
How that last one got wind of our little soiree was going to remain a mystery…
Then there was the entrance with ticket taker-sellers.
Of course, I had put in a specialty tent, with the help of no less than 7 local micro-breweries; a Beer Garden. We decided to just go with a Class B license and avoid all the potential nasties of both glass bottles (we only sold draft beer in Solo cozy-red cups) and high proof liquor.
There were, of course, a battalion of Porta Johns in close proximity to the Beer Garden.
We had a couple of the local oilfield service companies donate a fully functional and kitted out First Aid Station as well as a Security office.
Taking notes from the Chicago 1969 Republican party in Chicago, we put out feelers for large, tough people to enforce security if such was needed.
Thanks to Hector and Rick, we had the local motorcycle club, “The Rig Pigs” volunteer their services as security. These are guys that not only work in the Oil Patch but are also motorcycle aficionados. I know or have gotten to know every one of them, from Roughneck to Toolpusher to Rig Manager.
To be continued…

As always, if you know of an event that's not listed here, feel free to share it (with a link) in the comments. Feedback on events you've attended or plan to attend is welcome.
*Free (or no admission/cover)
--Recurring Event
Noteworthy: Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks continue playing their respective Western Conference Finals this week. Some dates and times are still TBA.
Monday, May 27 is Memorial Day.
Dallas Pride is this week - Learn more about Dallas Pride. See a full calendar of events.
Weekend & Multi-Day Events
May 21-26 Frisco Roughriders vs. Midland Rockhounds at Riders Field, Frisco
May 31 - June 2 Dallas Tattoo Festival at Irving Convention Center
May 31 - June 1 Taste Addison at Addison Circle Park
May 31 – June 2 Dreamhack Dallas at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center
June 1-2 Indigo Plateau Con at Dallas Market Hall
June 1-2 So What Music Festival at Panther Island Pavilion, Fort Worth
May 17-June 1 Teatro Dallas: Cloud Tectonics at the Latino Cultural Center
Through Jun 9 Hamilton at Winspear Opera House
*Through June 28 Central Library Staff Art Exhibit at Dallas Public Library Central Branch
Monday, May 27
*Dallas Stars Western Conference Final Game 3 Watch Party at PNC Plaza
Memorial Day Pool Party featuring Bass Junkies at Canvas Dallas
*Memorial Day Party at AT&T Discovery District
Memorial Day Pool Party at Lee Harvey’s Dive-In
Shakespeare Everywhere Five Year Anniversary Show at Deep Ellum Art Co.
*Parks Concerts Presented by the Dallas Symphony at Flag Pole Hill
*Memorial Day (DayParty) at Dec On Dragon
*Mad Monday Karaoke at Three Links
Nigeria's Most Wanted Tour: ODUMODUBLVCK at House of Blues
*American Legion Memorial Day Ceremony at Grandscape
Tuesday, May 28
Dallas Mavericks NBA Western Conference Finals Game 4 at American Airlines Center
Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks at Globe Life Field
*--Complicated Discourse at Celestial Beerworks
*Book Signing and Discussion: Micah Siva, Nosh at Interabang Books
*--Free Rooftop Movie: Road House at Sundown at Granada
*Cherry Blossom Tree Craft at Mountain Creek Branch Library
City Sculpt: Yoga & Pilates Series at Harwood Park
*Glowga With a Sip at The Sound at Cypress Waters
*The Concert Truck with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at Josey Ranch Library, Carrollton
*Havana NRG at Wayne Ferguson Plaza, Lewisville
Wednesday, May 29
Dallas Stars Western Conference Final Game 4 Watch Party at American Airlines Center
Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks at Globe Life Field
Throwback Wednesday with Alternative Experience at Round Two Arcade
*Open Mic Night at Union Coffee
*Book Signing and Discussion: Deborah Johnson, On Rising at Interabang Books
*Dorothy Chan with Tarfia Faizullah At Deep Vellum Books
*Billy Law at The Rustic
*--Music Bingo at The 2nd Tap (Dallas Farmers Market)
Sinatra Under The Stars at Sky Blu Rooftop Bar
From Ashes to New at The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
*Jason Hatch at Truck Yard Dallas
Sunset Sail on White Rock Lake
Thursday, May 30
Dallas Mavericks NBA Western Conference Finals Game 5 (at Minnesota, Watch Party TBA)
Hootie & the Blowfish at Dos Equis Pavilion
Texas Entertainer of the Year FI at The Rose Room
*--PNC Patio Sessions - Pretty Boy Aaron at Sammons Park
*Bad Art Night at Oak Lawn Branch Library
Custom Candle Making Class at Malibu Apothecary
Arts & Letter Live: Kevin Kwan at Dallas Museum of Art
*KB Brookins & Joaquin Zihuatanejo Reading and Conversation at Deep Vellum Books
Bishop Ave Hot 6 at Reveler’s Hall
Pride Night at Legacy Hall, Plano
Friday, May 31
Dallas Stars Western Conference Final Game 5 at American Airlines Center
Happy Hour 101 Memorial Day Kickoff + Mavs Watch Party at Shark Club
*Dallas Pride Country Dance Competition at the Round-Up Saloon
*Dallas Pride Kickoff Party at AT&T Discovery District
He.She.They - Dallas Pride Edition at It’ll Do Club
David Whiteman' Band at The Free Man
Bonnie Stewart at Opening Bell Coffee
*Open House/Free Climb Day at 6 Movement Gyms DFW locations
*Mamma Mia Double Feature Movie Night at Halcyon
Studio 22 - Salsa Dance Lesson & Party at Muse Family Pavilion/Klyde Warren Park
Jub Jam XIII featuring Pat Green at The Longhorn Ballroom
90’a Adult Night at Legoland, Grapevine
Saturday, June 1
Dallas Mavericks NBA Western Conference Finals Game 6 (TBA)
Dallas Pride Music Festival at Fair Park
Dave Matthews Band at the Dos Equis Pavilion
*Free First Saturdays - Teen Takeover at Nasher Sculpture Center
*First Saturday Tours at Winspear Opera House
*DFW Poetry Fest at The Wild Detectives
55th Birthday and Steak Night at Dallas 24 Hour Club
Wildcat W/ Ethan Hawke In Attendance at Texas Theatre
Hennything Dallas at Dallas City Hall Plaza
Lightcraft at South Dallas Cultural Center
Pride Champagne Drag Brunch at Mr. Misster
*Open Mic Night at Opening Bell Coffee
Summer Classical Music Series: Dynamic Duo at Mockingbird Station
Safari Nights at the Dallas Zoo
Gemini Fest at Sandaga 813
*Downtown Arlington Classic Car Show at Vandergriff Town Center, Arlington
Go Loco for Coconuts at Truck Yard Dallas (also Truck Yard The Colony & Alliance, Fort Worth)
*3rd Annual Glizzy Fest at Martin House Brewing, Fort Worth
Little Elm Craft Brew & Que at Little Elm Park, Little Elm
Sunday, June 2
Dallas Stars Western Conference Final Game 6 (Watch Party TBA)
*Dallas Pride Parade at Fair Park
*Free First Sundays at Dallas Museum of Art
*BILLFEST: A tribute to Bill Wisener and Bill's Records at Poor David’s Pub
*Summer Pop-up Market/NTX Vintage Market at The Rustic
*Drinks & Drums Live Band Open Mic & Open Stage at Heroes Lounge
*DCC Sunday Open Mic at Dallas Comedy Club
Dallas Flamenco Festival at Four Day Weekend Dallas
*State Fair Records Singles Club: Songwriters Round on The Green at The Kessler
*Craft & Connect: Open Crafting Day at DFW Young & Social, Farmers Branch

Reviews of the first day came flooding in and both commentators were overwhelmed. Luther reminded everyone that since there were now ten tributes remaining, betting circuits were closing and urged everyone to place their final bid. Artemis expressed her shock over how many tributes fell after just the first day. She read the comments and wasn’t surprised that Melonie was the favorite to win. She had the most votes with Violet and Merde falling behind. Both Luther and Artemis submitted their final bids to Melonie. Artemis couldn’t help but draw comparisons to Savannah Pickett and Candace Freeman, declaring just shy of Golden Victor material. Luther agreed but also seconded Violet’s comments about Martin being the dark horse.
The careers decided to keep guard in shifts with Merde going first followed by Violet then Melonie. At the end of Violet's shift and the beginning of Melonie’s, the two had a brief chat about their respective districts. Violet talked about how elections for a new mayor were still ongoing as evidence of massive corruption from the Morarity family kept coming to light, bringing in more questions of the legitimacy of the elections. Instead, a Capitalite named Annabelle Crane was sitting mayor until things were sorted out. She expressed her hopes for someone like Bacchus to run and thought he could win since most of the district loved him now. Melanie regaled stories about her work as preschool tutor. She would tell her students that their ears turn red when they lied, so she was able to spot liars by students covering their ears. Another time when the students were trying to guess her age, one had said seven and the other guessed two hundred. These stories garnered chuckles from the Hunger Games enthusiasts who stayed up, most of which camped out in Maximus Square. She also told Violet a story of how after the event of the previous games, she researched more subtle signs of abuse. This led her to discovering a case where one of her kids would be locked in a closet for hours when they got home. She immediately reported it and surprisingly, the peacekeepers were quick to imprison the parents as they were both repeat offenders albeit for different reasons. The story got Violet teary eyed, but Capital sources later proved this story false. Artemis wondered why Melonie would lie about something like this. Luther speculated she had a secret game plan.
Some uneventful hours later, Head Gamemaker Cardew announced that a new part of the arena was to be opening up. Tributes had an hour to move into said area or trackers would be detonated. She warned tributes not to set any ambushes as the door was already being patrolled. As the door on the north wall of P2 rose up, Luther gave a quick tour of the arena showing that it was filled with tall shelves like the ones placed against the walls of P1. This area was known as M (Main) and showed off more of the varied products. In the northernmost point, a smaller packing area similar to P2 laid yet its stairs were locked off meaning you could only access it through the loading bay where a forklift would put pallets or cages. This was known as V (Vault) and was where the most expensive products were packaged such as jewelry and good make up. In the eastern corner, there were the employee bathrooms and canteen but locked off. To the west, a door opened to the courtyard which contained six locked sheds and a trash compactor. Near that door was a line of pallet trucks and a bunch of cages. When Luther was about to ask who'd be patrolling the arena, a bunch of cylindrical bots with rotating batons flooded the area. A note was passed to him, revealing these drones to be called “union busters”.
All of the tributes scrambled to get in the M area. Violet shook Merde awake and gave him the rundown. He recalled seeing what looked like a massive, closed door yesterday and suggested they go there. He led the way while the girls followed closely behind. Martin also followed from the top of the shelves, hopping across and sometimes using the ceiling support beams to swing his way across. Viewers were impressed with his athleticism despite how incredibly skinny he seemed. Artemis commented how she should stop assuming every “shrimp” was weak. Martin stopped as soon as he saw the career pack run into the M area. He waited for a few moments to watch for any approaching tributes. Low and behold, he saw Alexa (3). Heather (6), and Calsie (12) all enter at different times. Every tribute had obeyed the rule of not standing guard at the entrance. Tusk (10), who was the first to arrive, was tempted to do just that but was dissuaded when the union busters hovered closer and brandished their electric batons. A few moments after Calsie entered, Martin considered the coast to be clear. He slowly began to climb down but suddenly, his hand slipped, and he fell to the ground.
As he struggled to get up, Zera (9) was about to enter only to see the crippled boy on the ground. Seeing an opportunity, she rushed over ready to slit his throat with her box knife. She grabbed him by the hair and tried to put the knife to his throat, but Martin struggled greatly. With the timer running out, Martin was desperate to escape. Remembering his prosthetic was made of metal, he kicked backwards and landed a hit between Zera’s legs. Zera’s group loosened, and Martin used the opportunity to wrestle himself free and grab the ball peen hammer from his backpack. He proceeded to beat the girl to death, calling her many names that needed to be censored. Zera’s cannon sounded after the tenth strike. He swiped the knife from her dead body and rushed into the M area, making it with one minute to spare.
Martin wasted no time in scrambling back up another shelf when he realized the new room was smaller than anticipated. He was nearly seen by Tusk (10) but made it in time. As for the careers, they began running down aisle after aisle searching for more tributes. After a few moments, they stumbled upon Alexa (3). They gave chase until they were in front of the bathroom. Violet and Merde were about to corner her, but Melonie stopped them. She pointed up and they watched as the union busters hovered closer to the frightened girl. Alexa was brutally shocked by the robots but not killed. Melonie guessed the bathroom was off limits as it would’ve been a potential hiding place. Merde saw this as the finale being on their doorstep and that the gamemaker event was about to commence. Violet hoped it wasn’t the shelves collapsing as there weren’t many places to take cover. She insisted they finish off Alexa and stepped closer.
Suddenly, the sound of an engine grew rapidly closer. Thinking quickly, she jumped backwards and narrowly avoided a runaway forklift. The forklift ran over the injured Alexa, decimating her body. Her cannon sounded seconds later. The careers listened carefully and picked up more than one forklift running wild in the M area. Melonie was quick to suggest they climb up the shelves for higher ground, but Merde wanted to surf the machines and cut down tributes. Violet agreed with this plan and lowered herself down a couple levels, Merde following. Melonie didn’t want to risk it and decided not to follow them. She climbed to the top of the shelf she was on and counted five forklifts running amok.
Violet and Merde were successful in hopping on the top of a forklift. The two seemed to be enjoying themselves more than anticipated. They had their weapons ready for any tribute to be found on the ground but almost no one was. Every tribute except Heather (6) thought to climb to the top of a shelf and seek refuge there. Heather was spotted trying to cut across an aisle to a nearby shelf on the ground as she was too scared to jump from above. Merde was on the opportune side to give her a drive-by hammering. His aim was true, and Heather fell to the ground unconscious. Her body managed to roll under one of the shelves, preserving her from the wrath of the forklifts. The careers were unaware of this. One particular detail Violet pointed out was that all of the union busters were hovering close to the ceiling as if waiting for something to happen. Capital viewers also found that peculiar with many in Maximus Square chanting for them to attack the tributes.
Martin was on top of a shelf in the southeast area and watching the chaos unfold. He spotted Violet and Merde surfing the forklift laughing and hooting, grumbling to himself, “Capital’s favorite kiss-ass district everyone.” Some viewers, especially the Dioners (D1 fangroup) didn’t appreciate his comments. Martin searched the boxes on top and was disappointed to find it filled with designer clothes. He growled in annoyance and thought it obvious there wouldn’t be anything useful left. Suddenly, a box knife materialized out of nowhere and lodged itself in the box he just searched. He turned to see Tusk (10), who had spotted him and was now ready for the games to be over. Tusk cursed to himself after the failed throw and vaulted himself over to Martin’s shelf. Martin tried throwing his knife over, but due to his poor throwing skills, he missed by a mile. Some viewers in Maximus Square doubled over laughing. Tusk charged towards him. Martin turned and tried to run, but quickly realized there wasn’t enough room for a running start to jump to the next shelf. Thinking quickly, he leapt into the air and grabbed onto one of the floating union busters. The robot soared through the air desperate to shake the unexpected passenger off, but Martin held firm. Tusk managed to grab onto his shoe and was trying to pull Martin down. Martin held on for dear life and the buster tried in vain to throw him off while Tusk held a firm grip on his prosthetic.
Co-commentators Artemis and Luther were enthralled by what was happening. Luther was almost starting to root for Martin while Artemis was watching his prosthetic fearing it would snap. The buster flew around the entire room during all this pandemonium and lasted for eight minutes before something happened. Melonie became aware of Martin’s plight a couple minutes in and hopped across shelves to the center of the room. She called for Martin, who pleaded with her to get him down somehow. Melonie pulled out her box knife and before she could throw, she became conflicted. On one hand, she could take two birds with one stone and be a step closer to victory. However, she trusted Martin could help her defeat Violet and Merde. She lined her sights on the persistent Tusk, who resorted to trying to wrench Martin’s prosthetic off his leg. The futile attempts were causing pain to Martin, tears becoming visible to the cameras. Melonie timed her shot carefully and took a chance. Luckily, the knife didn’t land on Martin’s person. It lodged itself into Tusk’s hand, causing him to yell out in pain and release the prosthetic. Tusk fell to his death, landing headfirst and cannon sounding immediately.
Melonie pleaded with Martin to release the union buster and fall back on the shelf safely. Martin nodded and waited until he was hovering over a shelf. Martin released his grip and didn’t land the way he expected. His prosthetic got lodged in the tiny grate, causing him to fall backwards. His leg was dislodged from the prosthetic, and he plummeted towards the bottom. He grabbed the edge of the shelf just in time and hung there. Melonie yelled she was coming. She climbed down and carefully avoided a runaway forklift to move under him. She yelled at him to let go and she would catch him. Martin was about to let go but he spotted Violet and Merde (1) on their forklift riding straight towards them. He yelled at Melonie to watch out. She hopped out of the way but not before Merde grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and dragged her onto the forklift. The two prepared to kill Melonie but she kicked Merde’s weapon out of his hand. He had to resort to strangulation but Melonie was a fighter. Violet was about to help but the forklift took a sharp turn and nearly knocked her off balance. Her struggle to compose herself stalled her from assisting Merde. Melonie managed to gouge Merde’s eye out with her thumb, freeing her from his grasp. She couldn’t escape however because Violet pinned her down.
Martin realized he needed to help somehow so he slowly maneuvered himself down to the ground. He had some difficulty with his prosthetic now gone but he managed to do so after great struggle. Many viewers were impressed with his perseverance despite the many harrowing things happening to him. Martin used the bottom shelf as support and hopped his way to the northwestern corner of the M area, making sure to duck under when a forklift passed. Martin spotted a coil of rope on the bottom level of a random shelving unit and grabbed it. He also found a small wrench nestled underneath another shelf. Artemis captured the “thinking face” manifest on his face. Martin knelt down next to the northwesternmost shelf and began loosening all of the screws. It didn’t take long before Capital viewers figured out what he was about to do. Many people in Maximus Square were loudly cheering for him to follow through.
Martin stepped back after finishing the last screw. He hopped over to the other side of it and began uncoiling the rope he found. After two tries, he successfully threw one end around one of the vertical support beams. He hastily tied a lasso knot and pulled it tight. Suddenly, he spotted a forklift heading straight for him. Martin pulled on the shelf with all his might, ready to make a break for it. It didn’t seem possible to Capital viewers, many shouting at him to just run away. However, to everyone’s utter shock and disbelief, the shelf began to give. Soon enough, the shelf actually tipped over and collided with the one east of it. Martin took one big hop out of the way and crawled his way to the north wall. He and all of Panem watched as shelving units collided and toppled over like an intricate domino trail. The combined noise of all of them falling together was the loudest recorded noise in the history of the Hunger Games at the time (record was beaten during the 57th Hunger Games). As fast as the first one fell, every single shelving unit was no longer upright. Four cannons sounded at the same time.
As the dust settled, the union busters were called away from the arena. Martin pulled himself up and hobbled his way around the fallen shelves. He was horrified to see Calsie (12)’s mangled body. It didn’t help that he stepped on Heather (6)’s hand either. Tears streamed down Martin’s face. A stroke of luck manifested itself in Martin’s lost prosthetic. While still mostly intact, it lost a couple key components which prevented Martin from putting it back on. Instead, he used it for support. He recalled there being four cannons, which left one person remaining. He hobbled his way to the east side of the room where two forklifts were pinned under some shelf. He climbed around the shelves and peered under the wreckage. What he saw absolutely devastated him. Melonie’s head was barely sticking out, enough for Martin and cameras to see her lifeless eyes. Martin broke down and screamed in grief. He began cursing the gamemakers for causing all this to happen and the Capital for enjoying this. “She’s done nothing but look after me and you made me kill her! Damn all of you watching to hell!” The Capital were greatly split on how to feel about his offensive tirade. Many were quick to be offended and cried for the mystery survivor to finish him while more sympathized with him and still cheered for his victory.
Suddenly, a chuckle was heard from behind him. He turned to see Violet (1) crawling out of the wreckage, which meant Merde (1) was the fourth victim to Martin’s domino stunt. Violet was pinned under a shelf and there was a gash on her forehead. Violet was quick to call him out for his breakdown and how hypocritical it was. “You chose to let those shelves fall. In fact, you chose to kill in order to win. You’re no different than the rest of us.” A fuming Martin came closer and corrected her, “I didn’t ask to be here unlike you. You volunteered for your shallow desire for fame and glory. We’re not the same.” Violet growled back, “Damn right we’re not. But at least I could ‘walk off’ my opposition.” Martin bashed her head in repeatedly with his prosthetic until her cannon sounded. Martin collapsed to the ground sobbing. Head Gamemaker Cardew quickly declared Martin Bogota of District 11 the victor of the 21st Hunger Games. Peacekeepers burst through the doors and were ready to escort Martin back to the Capital. Martin resisted at first but eventually gave up and let them haul him out of the arena.
Martin spent three days at the Maximus Hospital for his minimal injuries. A couple of the Capital’s greatest mechanics engineered a new prosthetic leg and Martin underwent surgery for it to be installed. Martin was moved into the Gaul Psychiatric Ward and wasn’t receiving treatment well. He lashed out at the therapists and wished to be let out. His mentor Savannah was allowed to visit and talk him down. Martin blamed himself for Melonie’s death and condemned the Capital for making him do it. Savannah admitted that while he had every right to be angry, Melonie would’ve wanted him to be thankful for his survival and not let it go to waste. She reiterated her words from the night before the reaping, “The Capital may have given up on you, but I haven’t. You are a person and have just as much a right to live as anyone.” A few days later, Martin was deemed well enough to be released. Martin spent the days leading up to the victor’s interview holed up in the apartment drinking the entire catalog of Johnson Jazzy Juices. His reasoning behind it was wanting to feel numb while also seeing what the hype was about.
The AfterGames show hosted by former gamemaker Jasper Deparnieux recapped this year’s games. This was a special year as it was the first appearance of new Head Gamemaker Priscilla Cardew. Deparnieux read the comments concerning her work and to her delight, it was very positively received. The arena was very unique and well utilized, especially in the final act. Cardew said she gained inspiration from the historical documents about pre-Dark Days delivery warehouses. She learned how the mailing industry became dominated by drones and its inevitable collapse as a result. Deparnieux questioned why the drones didn’t do anything while the forklifts went crazy. Cardew initially intended for them to attack tributes, but the unexpected hijacking courtesy of Martin and Tusk made her hesitate. Then proceeding events made her decide to hold back.
Deparnieux used this opportunity to transition to their new victor. There were mixed responses concerning this year’s victor, but the majority were positive. His performance in the games was acclaimed as he rose against the odds and defied everyone’s expectations. There was also the noteworthy factoid that he was the first disabled victor. However, his derogatory comments against the Capital before and during the games were met with some criticism. Many made excuses for his offensive words, blaming it on a guilty conscience and heavy emotions. Regardless, he was a very popular victor. Cardew admitted she was surprised he won as she had her bets on Violet before switching to Melonie. Deparnieux joked that she wasn’t the only one, letting slip that both Artemis and Luther lost money in the betting circuit. The Mutts (fangroup of weakest tributes) pulled in the biggest cash prize. Every member of the fangroup went home very happy and very rich. Cardew laughed it off. She remained tight lipped about next year’s games but promised they would be great.
This year’s victor interview was low on the opening jokes. Artemis and Luther’s only joke was about them losing money, Artemis lamenting having to fork cash over to her aunt. They brought up how surprised they were to be living in the generation that gave them the first disabled victor. As if on cue, Martin was introduced to the stage. Martin wore a dark green polo short with brown shorts and boots. He insisted on not wearing pants so everyone would see his new prosthetic leg. Luther quipped, “No paper bag today?” Martin said he tried to wear one but his stylist insisted he not to. The interview started off easily enough. Martin explained that he didn’t expect the arena as he had never seen those types of shelving units before, the highest at his home district being three meters. Artemis wanted to know how he managed to climb them so easily, him snarkily saying “I’m from District 11. It’s a prerequisite to know how to climb trees.” Luther admitted that he defied everyone’s expectations, letting slip that many were going to consider him an easy out. Martin rolled his eyes and said that disabled people could still accomplish a lot of things and not to underestimate them. Artemis replied, “At least you won the games unlike Arisu.” Martin demanded she show respect and Luther kicked her shin in response. Martin admitted that he should’ve been an easy out but Melonie was there to save him. She watched over him over the course of the games and attributed his survival to her. Both hosts knew better than to bring her death up but the montage video still played in the background. Martin was deeply troubled and angered by this. He called them out for still playing it despite knowing how he felt about the whole thing. “How dare you shove this back in my face! I have to live with this for the rest of my life. You could never know what that’s like.” He received a mixture of supporting cheers and boos from the audience. Martin stormed off the stage while flipping off the hosts. Artemis nervously gave the final sendoff, saying goodbye to “The Domino Devil”.
Before Martin was permitted to leave, he was called to a conference with the gamemaker’s table and President Rain himself. Rain was concerned about Martin’s behavior and wanted to be sure there would be no trouble. Martin was forced to apologize to the gamemaker’s table for insulting them. After some urging, he admitted that his actions were no one’s but his own. Rain admitted that despite his controversial comments, the Capital still enjoyed his games and he wanted to keep the nation’s spirits alive. That was why Martin was declared as the next Golden Victor. Rain congratulated him and firmly promised that if he stepped out of line, he would be greatly punished.
Martin was quick to return to his district, refusing to go to parties. Savannah stayed behind to save face for him. She went as far as trying to convince haters of Martin’s pain with very limited success. Martin returned to a hero’s welcome which he felt he didn’t deserve. He moved his entire family to Victor’s Village and quit his initial job. He was met with a horrifying discovery upon returning: his youngest sister Petal was missing two fingers. She came with a note that read, “Remember to behave. The Capital sees everything.” For seven months, Martin was very depressed and rarely left his house. He felt immense guilt over his actions during the games and couldn’t fathom a reason to move on. However, it was the unexpected visit of Melonie’s boyfriend Pablo that changed things. After watching the games, Pablo was ready to angrily confront Martin. However, Savannah called the Sanchez family and told them everything that happened afterwards. Pablo softened after this and couldn’t stay mad at Martin. Pablo said that she would’ve wanted him to keep living and that he was going to help him.
Martin kicked his life into high gear and did something with his victor influence. He worked alongside Savannah at Hamaguchi Prosthetics to better provide amputees with the appropriate metal appendages. The district guidelines became very strict when Martin began just handing them out for lower prices so peacekeepers banned him from selling them by the 24th Hunger Games. However, that didn’t stop more prosthetics from being covertly donated to those in need. They were never taken away as it was obvious it would lead to a riot. Martin would even hold food drives to donate extra food to the starving. Martin got in trouble with peacekeepers a few times over the years, but was never imprisoned as he never put his hands on any of them. He continued to care for his family and watch over the Sanchez family. Pablo would visit once a week to check on him. Martin never married or had kids, claiming he never felt the need or desire to pursue it.
Martin sparked a friendship with Savannah and the two were a decent mentoring team. They didn’t even have to wait another ten years for their next victor. They didn’t grow as close as other victors had but maintained a solid friendship. Martin seeked counseling from Phoebe Bentley (victor of the 3rd Hunger Games) a few times and was in fact instrumental in one of her kids winning the Hunger Games. He developed a professional relationship with Bacchus Johnson (victor of the 9th Hunger Games) and would often appear at his dinner parties in hopes of garnering extra charity funds to better help District 11’s citizens. Martin was known to be withdrawn and reserved, some Capitalites calling him “Mopey Martin”.
Things came to a head when Savannah was “accidentally” killed in a milling accident before the 41st Hunger Games. Savannah was revealed to be the instigator behind several riots in District 11 and some citizens speculated she was murdered by the peacekeepers to quell the chaos. Martin was one of those theorists as he was one of the five Golden Victors that vanished after the 41st Hunger Games ended. A note was left behind at his home reading, “She was a person and didn’t deserve it.” Martin was never seen again. The one time the investigation was reopened was during the 53rd Hunger Games when thirty handicapped children were kidnapped by the underground terrorist group The Phoenix Fighters. Martin was the prime suspect but the investigation was dropped after two months. Coincidentally, a District 11 victor was crowned that same year.

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I hope you're all safe, happy, and air-conditioned after the storm. Lots of cool stuff going on this weekend. Please enjoy yourselves!

THURSDAY - MAY 23rd

Space News & Brews @ No Label Brewing Company @ 6:30PM Space Center’s summer event is perfect place for space enthusiasts to mingle, ask questions, learn about recent news and brews!
Melanie Martinez @ Toyota Stadium @ 7PM With Men I Trust & Beach Bunny
The 502s @ House of Blues @ 7PM With Zach Seabaugh
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway @ White Oak Music Hall @ 7PM With Amythyst Kiah
Sarah Jarosz @ The Heights Theater @ 7:30PM

FRIDAY - MAY 24th

Dash vs NC Courage @ Shell Energy Stadium @ 7PM
Candlelight: A Tribute to Rihanna @ Lone Star Flight Museum @ 7PM / 9:15PM
FEID @ Toyota Stadium @ 8PM
Whee In @ 713 Music Hall @ 7:30PM
Shallipopi + ODUMODUBLVCK @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Charlotte Day Wilson @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Kublai Khan @ White Oak Music Hall @ 6:30PM
Ruckus @ White Oak Music Hall @ 8PM
Iris DeMent @ The Heights Theater @ 8PM
UMEK @ Stereo Live @ 10PM
Los Palominos + Lucky Joe @ Warehouse Live @ 8PM

SATURDAY - MAY 25th

Misfits Boxing: Brooke vs VanZant @ NRG Arena @ 6PM
Ongoing - Saturday Stargazing @ George Observatory in Needville
Ongoing - Farmers Market @ Market Square Park @ 9AM This spring, enjoy Houston’s best vendors in the very heart of downtown!
‘A Brighter Summer Day’ Screening @ MFAH @ 2PM Set in early 1960s Taiwan, ‘A Brighter Summer Day’ is based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation.
‘Wonka’ Screening @ Discovery Green @ 7PM
Candlelight: A Tribute to Coldplay in Concert @ Lone Star Flight Museum @ 7PM / 9:15PM
Grupo Firme @ Toyota Center @ 8PM
Gunna @ 713 Music Hall @ 8PM
In Flames @ House of Blues @ 6PM
Dead Poets Society @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Warpaint @ White Oak Music Hall @ 8PM
High Desert Queen @ White Oak Music Hall @ 8PM
NITTI @ Stereo Live @ 10PM With YehMe2 & Jawns
The Jaiye Room @ Warehouse Live @ 7PM

SUNDAY - MAY 26th

Memorial Day in The Woodlands Festival @ Town Green Park @ 5PM Celebrate the official start to summer live music, children's activities, strolling entertainment, fireworks, and more at Town Green Park.
Jazzy Sundays @ Discovery Green @ 5PM Featuring Cécile McLorin Salvant
Madison Beer @ Bayou Music Center @ 8PM With Upsahl
Tomorrow X Together @ Minute Maid Park @ 7:30PM
Madaraka Festival @ House of Blues @ 7PM Featuring Nyashinski
Trophy Eyes @ White Oak Music Hall @ 6PM
Taking Back Sunday @ White Oak Music Hall @ 8PM With Citizen
Alpha Wolf @ Warehouse Live @ 6PM

All weekend

FRIDAY & SATURDAY - ‘Umrao Jaan’ Musical @ Bayou Music Center @ 8PM This musical play is set to captivate audiences with a blend of talent, poetry and enchanting music, providing a dynamic and rich cultural experience.
All weekend - Comicpalooza @ George R. Brown Convention Center Brimming with entertainment, special attractions, programming and celebrities representing a myriad of fandoms, there is no shortage of fun all weekend long.
All weekend - Soca Punta Reggae Weekend Enjoy a thrilling celebration of Caribbean rhythms and vibes at different venues around the city!
All weekend - Arnez J Stand Up @ Houston Improv
All weekend - ‘Mayerling’ Ballet @ Wortham Center An epic triumph in classical story-telling, this titillating three-act ballet tells the dark tale from Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s psychological thriller of the same name.
All weekend - Motown and More Revue @ Miller Outdoor Theatre @ 8:15PM Enjoy a soul-filled weekend with the city’s hottest talent as they perform the greatest R&B/soul and funk hits from Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, and the best of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s classics.
All weekend - ‘El Niño: The Nativity Story, Reimagined’ Concert @ Jones Hall The vibrant and eclectic style of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams is paired with biblical verse, modern Spanish-language poetry, and more in this contemporary take on the Christmas story.
All weekend - Disney’s ‘Newsies’ Musical @ The Hobby Center Inspired by real-life events, this smash-hit musical is an extraordinary story about fighting for what’s right... and staying true to who you are.
All weekend - ‘Murder Ballad’ Musical @ Art Factory Following a married couple in a break-up, this addicting rock-opera is an exciting theatrical experience that explores the decadence and dangers of desire.
All weekend - ‘Othello: The Remix’ Musical @ Stages Repertory Theatre This production takes ‘The Tragedy of Othello’ to a whole new level in this lit Hip Hop remix as an onstage DJ spins Shakespeare’s legendary masterpiece of jealousy, revenge and passion.
All weekend - ‘A Case for the Existence of God’ Play @ Stages Repertory Theatre Told with humor, empathy, and wrenching honesty, this award-winning play follows an unlikely pair of men as their lives entangle in a story that is both small and big at the same time.
All weekend - ‘The Emporium’ Play @ Alley Theatre Thornton Wilder’s unfinished masterpiece comes to life for the first time, and the audience gets to be an active participant in the very fabric of the play!
All weekend - ‘On Midnight, Friday the Thirteenth’ Play @ Ensemble Theatre Help investigate a murder mystery in this intriguing and exciting dark comedy.
All weekend - ‘Appropriate’ Play @ MATCH This haunting thriller play follows the Lafayette family as they return to their late father’s crumbling estate and discover a new disturbing truth about their own family.

Ongoing Special Events and Museum Exhibitions

Ongoing - ‘Jurassic World’ Exhibition @ Katy Mills The limited-time globally sold-out exhibition immerses audiences of all ages in scenes inspired by the beloved film. Discover the science of jurassic world and walk in the land of jurassic giants, closer than ever before!
Ongoing - Dinosaurs @ Houston Zoo Trek through a lush forest trail to see life-sized animatronic creatures, including the fan favorite T-rex, Brachiosaurus, Edmontonia, and more!
Ongoing - Sloomoo Exhibition @ Marq E Entertainment Center Immerse yourself in the joy of sensory play with Sloomoo Institute’s colorful world of never-ending, hand-crafted slime, yummy scents, and soothing ASMR delights.
Ongoing - ‘Eye on Houston: High School Documentary Photography’ Exhibition @ MFAH The annual exhibition documents and celebrates Houston’s diverse neighborhoods through student photography that captures daily life in our communities, identity, and future.
Ongoing - ‘Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism’ Exhibition @ MFAH LAST CHANCE - The exhibition presents, for the first time in the United States, the origins and legacy of fauvism through paintings, drawings, and watercolors by Henri Matisse and André Derain.
Ongoing - ‘Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence’ Exhibition @ MFAH LAST CHANCE - Wiley’s monumental, large-scale paintings of Black and Brown individuals confront and challenge the silence surrounding systemic violence and injustice.
Ongoing - ‘Ruth Asawa Through Line’ Exhibition @ Menil The exhibition presents drawings, collages, watercolors, and sketchbooks showing the breadth of Ruth Asawa’s innovative and profound practice.
Ongoing - ‘Janet Sobel: All-Over’ Exhibition @ Menil See the pioneering work of Janet Sobel and her ‘All-Over’ abstract expressionist painting technique which inspired generations of artists, including Jackson Pollock.
Ongoing - ‘Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow’ Exhibition @ CAMH Across an installation, a video, and a series of commissioned sculptures, artist Olivia Erlanger continues her decade-long investigation into what it means to call a planet home.

Clare Sentinel 1937-05-28
PUBLIC INVITED TO SEE FOWLER ORCHARD IN BLOOM SUNDAY
The Fowler orchard in Arthur township covering several hundred acres will be in full bloom next Sunday. The management has asked the Sentinel to extend the public an invitation to drive out during the day and enjoy this vast sight. Many have enjoyed a visit during harvest season and this time offers a sight even more gorgeous.
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Clare Sentinel 1939-10-27
FOWLER ORCHARD SHOW PLACE OF CENTRAL MICH.
7,700 Trees Yield Many Carloads of Apples Each Year
Acclaimed as one of the finest fruit farms in the state, the Fowler Orchard, located between Clare and Harrison, with its 187 acres planted with 7,700 apple trees, is not only a show place of Central Michigan but a veritable bee hive of activity these crisp fall days.
The orchard, cleared and planted by the late Frank A. Fowler in 1914, was purchased in 1938 by Dr. R. H. Strange of Mt. Pleasant, who has added many noteworthy improvements and innovations to the project.
Nearly sixty varieties of apples are being grown, and most of these are harvested in commercial quantities. Between 20,000 and 25,000 bushels, which is equivalent to between forty and fifty carloads of apples, constitute an annual yield.
The harvest season, which is now drawing to a close, requires approximately a month and an average of forty people are employed. A crew of four men are maintained throughout the year, Earl Cradit, the Orchard Superintendent, having had direct supervision of the orchard since 1918.
During the peak of the harvest two trucks are used to transport the fruit in packing crates to the storage, where the apples are graded. A mechanical grader was added to the orchard equipment in 1939, thereby speeding up the process and accurately sorting the apples into four grades; Fancy, U. S. No. 1, Grade B. and Culls. The fruit can be graded at the rate of 100 bushels per hour through the mechanical grader.
No apples are ever picked from the ground for marketing purposes, despite the fact that thousands of perfectly formed and ripe specimens of fruit are blown from the trees during the latter part of the season. These windfalls are sold on the ground to eager buyers who come to the Orchard daily with trucks and trailers.
Besides heavy fertilization, a program of nine separate sprayings are given the trees each year, insects and pests being virtually eradicated. A Fowler Orchard slogan adopted many years ago, “A Dollar for Every Worm” persists, and peculiarly enough, there are never any claimants.
A modern hydraulic cider press was installed during the latter part of 1938 and hundreds of barrels of cider, utilizing large quantities of apples, are pressed each year. The orchard has adopted its own trade marked cider label and the juice is an important product. Every visitor to the orchard is permitted his fill of cider and few leave without taking away a jug.
The proprietor, Dr. R. H. Strange, has introduced many novel packages and containers for the apples, such as various colored mesh bags, paper boxes, Washington boxes, etc., and the fame and popularity of Fowler apples have spread throughout the State.
The fruit is consigned to grocery chains and independent truckers, in car load lots and also finds its way to practically all groceries in Harrison, Temple, Farwell, Clare, Rosebush, Mt. Pleasant, Gladwin and Beaverton, to which deliveries are made twice weekly.
On almost any Sunday during the harvest season 200 to 300 cars will visit the Orchard. Both Dr. Strange and Mr. Cradit, efficient managers, are friendly hosts and welcome visitors to the Orchard with a hearty warmth and a large glass of fresh cider.

Finally over the frustration enough to talk about it lol
I was driving from CA to TX and my car broke down in AZ.
Some huge piece of metal fell off a semi-truck and I couldn't move out of the way (surrounded by cars) so I ran over it. I thought I avoided disaster because my car was driving just fine.
Then 20 minutes later I get an alert that my power has been reduced (Tesla 🤮), speed limited to 60mph max and I needed to get to a service center ASAP.
So I slowly drove 3 hours to the nearest service center (Phoenix) and slept in their parking lot until they opened up the next morning.
I find out that the high voltage battery was actually punctured and they needed to replace the whole thing. And unfortunately they did not have one in stock and so they had to order one which would take TWO WEEKS (Fuck you Tesla/Elon!) I feel with a normal car this would've been fixed quicker and I would've been back in the road to see the eclipse.
In addition to the car expenses, I had to waste hella money for an Airbnb and living expenses for me and my dog for over two weeks. I'm a broke ass mf too 😭(Car was actually borrowed from my sister).
So now I'm in debt to my sister, lost trust to borrow the car from now on, and worst of all, I NEVER GOT TO SEE THE ECLIPSE.
Anybody else miss the eclipse?
TLDR: Driving from CA to TX. Car broke down in AZ. Took two weeks to repair. Stuck in Phoenix. Never got to the eclipse.

I apologize in advance for the length of this thread, but by far this is the user that wrote the most comments in the video of our song. At first, he suggested Scepter and Reign, but he debunked this lead by saying: "Scepter and Reign can be crossed off. I have been corresponding with the lady whose name is mentioned in the legal document, Naomi (first name used with her permission, and only her first name) since Thursday. She was legitimately shocked her name was on the document because in all these years NOBODY ever contacted her regarding it. She thinks they may have realized how much money it would cost and probably withdrew. She knew both bands fairly well, scale of 1-10 she answered "6.5 maybe 7'ish". She designed 1 "logo" for each band that was literally just a sketch she made with their band names on them she could print out in the Xerox store she worked at. Scepter's original name was actually "Dungeon Master" but they changed it to fit their name on her design. As for the abandoned demo from Scepter, she said they abandoned it because they couldn't afford to produce it. They didn't even make it far enough to name their 3 or 4 songs. So, on to the big question, are either bands involved with this song? According to her both bands came out in 1985, and according to her this "The Falling King" song predates both bands by a year or 2. This is not Scepter or Reign, this song is older than both bands. According to her, she first heard this song on a Detroit station while visiting family. Even back then, the Detroit station personnel had absolutely NO CLUE who this was. She remembers her father making fun of the singers accent claiming it was a "Posh" accent and also used to think the lyric was "The fall, the fall in the king" lol. I explained how this song was recorded off of several stations in 1987 and she replied "How many songs do you hear on the radio that are several years old?". She was stumped this was played on Z-Rock because this does not sound like an amateur band to her. She is not the only person to make comments that this does not sound like an amateur band, this sounds professionally recorded and produced, something EXTREMELY few amateugarage bands could have done. I thought i had something, but at least i tried. By the way, apparently Reign still performs in the Pittsburgh area under the name "Metallic Thunder"." (THIS IS HIS LATEST COMMENT) If this is true, it means our search will be even more difficult.
In one of his earliest comments he said this: "My 2 oldest sisters (born in 1970 and 1972) actually remember this song being played by garage bands and local talents in the Coatesville PA area. However, they both swear on mom and dads ashes that the first time they heard this song, a local music festival in Exton PA, I was NOT born yet (I was born in 1984). Even back then nobody could say who it was or what the title was. In fact the one band from Downingtown PA used to refer to it as "The Dungeons and Dragons song". And by that i mean, according to my sisters the lead singers girlfriend (or his sister....they could never tell?) would be in the crowd and when they were ready to end their performance she would shout "Play the Dungeons and Dragons song". My sisters also remember the adults thinking this song was somehow a promotional thing for the PA Renaissance Fair. Unfortunately they cannot offer any clues to the identity of this band or songs title, their guess, back then and still today, was Manowar."
At first, he claims our band is Manowar, explaining: "I do not think Manowar is an obscure band, nor do my sisters. The "obscure" bands mentioned in my postings are all the local garage/amateur bands that they remember playing this song and most of those garage/amateur bands even back then, along with my sisters, were under the impression this was a Manowar song. Many people, not just on this post but others feel this is Manowar "pitch" song, other bands thrown around have been Iron Maiden, Overdrive (Or Overkill, i'm not sure if it's the same band?), Blackmane, Axis and Cirith Ungol (spelling?). Keep this in mind, it's not that uncommon for mainstream/well known bands to have unreleased music in their "library". A good example, ask the most diehard Rammstein fans what their first song ever was, they'll probably answer Du Recht So Gut or Rammstein. Most people have never heard their 1992-1993 pitch song, "Tier" (Monster, beast). In fact, Till Linderman himself stated in 2018 he was unaware Tier was ever recorded by anyone, yet alone put up on the internet. Like this "Fall of the King" song, "Tier" was toted as an mystery song for years but was in a group of 4 or 5 other songs that Rammstein did but never released. One of my favorite bands, Corvus Corax, actually had something similar happen, a song they did back in the early 90's, "Vampire", opening for another band was recorded by a fan in the audience and made rounds on the Neo Folk community ages later. Corvus Corax themselves heard it on a radio station in Denmark roughly 2009'ish and called them asking how and when they got that song because they NEVER recorded it for public use. Personally i cannot give a wager who this is? I am not that good with this genre so i go with what people older than me and much better with this music say. To me it could be Manowar, something they never intended to be released publicly, it could be the Z'Rose a bunch of people feel it is, it could be Overdrive/Overkill (i do not know if these names are the same band or 2 separate ones?), it could be me time traveling impersonating my great uncle Fred......ok that last one was just meant to be a joke lol." Then someone says: "has your sister contacted erik to see about the the song?" and he says "OH HELL NO!!! They haven't spoken since they broke up in 1991-1992. I did reach out to his brother probably a year ago and never heard back."
He suggests it's either Manowar or Sarissa (he mispelled them): "@aSome1 There's some confusion, my sisters never said Z'Rose was playing the song in our hometown area. Local teenage to early college yrs bands were playing it. They recognized this song when I was on a family Zoom chat, i had this song on in the background (by accident actually lol) and my oldest sister (#1 born in '70) asked what i was listening to. I turned it up and she shook her head and asked the other sister (#2 born in '72) "Oh my gosh isn't that that stupid Manowar song Erik and his brother used to play all the time?". Erik was the name of her high school boyfriend. They remember hearing it first at an amateur music fest when my brother (born in '82) was still a baby. Mainly they remember mom fitting all of them in her old "Batmobile" station wagon. By the time i was born in '84 that station wagon was gone for at least several months. The band names they specifically remember playing this, and keep in mind these were "Garage bands" from the 80's were: Venomous Vomit, Razors in your Coffee (Erik's band), Ash to Ash, Cauldron Kings, Coven of Metal, Pridesville, South of Hell and Purgatory. They said there were a few more, but didn't remember....or care....to know their names. (Disclaimer: Several peoples associated with those mentioned bands have been contacted by me and several have replied.....the most common reply is "How the hell do you know us!?" lol)
"I have actually been looking at this song for almost 3yrs. I've had some "good leads" and some "bad leads" and i've also had "WTF leads".......but at the end it is still unsolved. So far the biggest contenders, from people way better with this music than me (I'm more a symphonic or extreme metal person) have been: Manowar, Iron Maiden, OverDrive, Overkill, Onslaught of Destruction and Sonic Mahem. My sisters really believe it is possibly an unreleased or "pitch demo" of Manowar but they also said it might be a Greek band from the early 80's called Sarassa or something like that?"
Then he denies it's Z-Rose: "@lostwavefinder587 I have seen that name tossed around a lot on forums and random chats (this being one of them). Most people way smarter and better with this music than myself seem to have the opinion that it is not Z'Rose. They range in reason from: the equipment sound professional and they were not, the dates don't add up, Z'Rose only did covers so even it is them in the recordings it's still not their song.....one individual (a supervisor at work who lived in Texas during this time frame) actually said "Z'Rose wouldn't have been sober enough to finish that song". I have only heard 1 Z'Rose recording, and unfortunately the person who recorded it (I think the date says 1989?) spends the majority of the 5 minute video talking during the performance so all i hear is them and not the singer. I have to emphasize about %99 of this info i'm presenting is NOT from me but people who know this genre of music way better than me....i'm more Symphonic metal and neo folk (Corvus Corax, Heilung, Faun etc."
"Out of curiosity, since a lot people think this might be Z'Rose, has anyone contacted the family/families of Nick or Joe Cavazos? My "team" is looking into a blog page from 2018 of a pretty intense exchange between a blogger and a woman who is believed to be "Rocker Joe's daughter. In this exchange she states this song is NOT her dad and uncle's band. But it gets pretty rough because the blogger keeps pressing and let's just say some NSFW language is exchanged. I will only say this, the woman's name does match one of the names in Julio "Joe" Cavazos obituary, but they can't tell if it is actually HER or someone posing. I also find it interesting that in another posting of this song someone is claiming to be the nephew of both Nick and Joe.....but about a dozen people ask about this song and he does not answer them......but someone else will ask something unrelated to this song and he answers??"
"About a year ago on another posting of this song, someone had a link to a conversation with a woman who was allegedly Joe Cavazos daughter. She very adamantly denied this was her dads band, Z'Rose. They person kept pressing her and she did not budge a single inch, "NO, its not my dad's band". The only thing that could be confirmed was the woman's name did match a name in Julio "Joe" Cavazos obituary as his daughter. But if it was her or not I can't say? Many peoples on other postings and on forums have all claimed to have gotten in contact with Z'Rose and stated they responded "No" to this being theirs.
So the "Kings Fall" song by Bernard Cavazos is actually a completely different song. He is also not related to the Z'Rose Cavazos. Somewhere I read that the "Kings Fall"/"Fallen King" song by Bernard Cavazos is about a corrupt politician or mafia like "king" not an actual king. Again none of this is from me, it's from things I read, not me.
When 'Wang' did a video about several mystery songs he included this one. In his video (I don't know if he made more than one?) he talked about how that Bernard Cavazos has been contacted and has denied this is his Fall of the King song. If my memory is correct Wang read a message from him explaining his "king" was a corrupt politician or gang leader like king. Wang also mentioned there was another Bernard Cavazos who was a doctor and he is sick and tired of people contacting him about this song"
Someone that replied to him said:
"@CharlesMarkward probably this tape recording was an attempt from them to make something of their own, many bands have started this way, an example is the Brazilian power metal band Angra, they were first meant to be an Iron Maiden tribute but as things went by, they have decided to release things of their own...I couldn't find anything about this "Z'Rose" band in metal-archives, neither at Google with a simple research, but the data gathered until this moment make sense: the Z Rock radio is from Texas, the so called "Z'Rose" band is also from Texas, it was the 80's, so, without internet, this was the way bands used to promote their work...but your story adds some drifts from this sensible data available until now...they are/were from Texas, ok...but until then, they weren't any big group, which means they were probably 9 to 5 salarymen whose musician activity was on weekends and the money earned wasn't enough to keep up with, so, a trip from TX to PA is a long ranged one and expensive for their then standards, I can remember when I've read the Mick Wall's Metallica biography, in which they highlight how hard was for them to go all the way from CA to NY to record Kill em' All, well, unless someone sponsored the so called "Z'Rose from Texas" (like the Zazula couple to Metallica) to play in the events you've mentioned in PA...which means they were good and had potential (this "mysterious recording" doesn't let me lie), because it takes a lot for someone at the other eastern extreme of a big country like the USA to call someone all the way from TX to play in an event when probably there were good bands around and without the need of a sponsorship to travel and get some place to sleep and eat..."
Therefore Charles says: "Also, i am not the one saying it's not them. People much better with much more access to metal archives/records are saying it's not them. BUT, everything you said makes perfect sense to me and I have no argument against any of it. It would make perfect sense if it was a possible pitch demo Z'Rose recorded and kept along for a few years before a station played it. My sisters are %98 certain it was a Manowar song, the only other band they mentioned as a possibility is a Greek band i can't find anything about called something like Sarassa??"
Someone told him to contact Erik: "A little bit ago someone in here suggested i contact my sisters ex and ask where he got this song. I could not get a hold of him, but i did get in contact with his brother he played with. According to the brother they got the song from their aunt who lived in Philly (Center City) and would send them tapes of songs to play. This song was on a tape sandwiched between "4 or 5" Manowar songs. He specifically remembered this for 2 reasons: 1, their aunt wrote "Killing of the king by No Name" and 2, the last song on the this tape was labled as a Venom song (he did not recall which) but was actually "Melody of Love" by Bobby Vinton😂. So i think this is why my sisters keep saying it's Manowar, because if it was on a tape with a bunch of their songs that chances are they heard a crapload of times?"
He contacted Erik's brother (Erik is supposedly the ex boyfriend of one of his sisters) and received this reply: "Erik's brother returned another email I sent about this song. I made a post about it about a week ago. The brother says their aunt who lived in Philly included this song on a mix tape of stuff for him and his brother to play. This song was sandwiched between several Manowar songs and the last song on the tape was supposed to be a Venom song but was actually Bobby Vinton's "Melody of Love" 🤣"
Therefore debunking the possibility it's a Manowar song, he also adds: "She (the aunt) passed in 2014. She would record songs off the radio for them. She lived in Philly (Center City) but also had a place in Florida, so he was never sure which cities radio stations she would record from. This song she wrote "Killing the King?" As the title and "???" as the band name, but it was between several Manowar songs. I think this might be why my oldest sisters are so insistent this is a Manowar song because they may have listened to it with Erik and his brother.....it's a theory lol"
He also thought of Iced Earth as the possible band: "lostwavefinder587 I immediately thought of Iced Earth when I heard this song. Although it's likely just a coincidence, it's interesting to note that Iced Earth was originally called "The Rose".
Someone said to him: "if that's any help, the Greek band's name you're talking about is probably Sarissa. I don't think it's them, though: the vox sound kinda different, and their songs are mostly Ancient Greece-themed." And he replied: "Yes, thank you! All this time I've been spelling it wrong. I gave a quick listen to a demo of theirs from '86. In terms of sound and beat and tempo etc, they are pretty close to this song. In terms of vocals, they sound nothing alike." Therefore, he debunked Sarissa himself.
Now here he changed his version and provides a new lead given by his sisters:
"Holy crap for some reason my last post got cut in half and didn't include the following info, sorry! So the individual i spoke to and got the new possible lead is the former singer of the one band my sisters mentioned, Purgatory, (i do NOT have his permission to use his real name but his stage name was Tarantula). He confirmed he played this song "once or twice" but didn't know the lyrics so they just repeated several "blocks" over and over again. He heard it from a band in NJ and when he asked if he could use the song they replied along the lines of "It's not our song, we don't care" but gave no indication who it was or they even knew who it was? He suggested the band "Knightmare" because they were from Texas and he remembers all of their songs being medieval or medieval fantasy related. Supposedly they wore what looked like full on plate armor (he does not know if it was actual metal armor or something made to look like it). He saw them perform a handful of times because he spent summers in Texas on his grandfathers (mistakenly said uncle in my last post, sorry) ranch and would sneak off at night to "the metal scene" (i do not know if that was a club name or if he just meant that in general?). He began visiting his grandfathers ranch in 1980 and stopped when his grandfather retired in 1992. He gave an estimated timeline for "Knightmare" of 1981-1989."
He corrects himself by saying they are not called "Knightmare": Interestingly, my supervisor at work lived in Texas during this timeline (roughly mid 70's to mid 90's from what i can gather?) and when I asked him about Knightmare he had no idea. But when i mentioned they dressed up like knights in armor he suddenly looked startled and said "That wasn't their name, their name was Battle Battalion or some s*** like that".
But then he says: "So i posted a few months ago about this song, my sisters remember garage bands in the area playing this… I checked every band called Knightmare on Metal Encyclopedia and it doesn’t look like it’s our band." "Forgive my French.....Damn. I thought maybe it could have been a lead but i guess like dozens of others I've come across, dead end. I did a quick search for Knightmare a few weeks ago and I got all excited i saw one band dressed up like monks or Druids, but that band only came out in 2017. I think it's safe to say the name has been used by many bands."
Then someone asks him: "Does the name "Battle Battalion" show up on any Metal "pedia" sites? That's what my supervisor claims this "dressed up in medieval armor" bands name was?" and another one told him: "I saw some bands with Battalion on the metal encyclopedia and discogs and none of them are our band. I don’t think we should go based on what a band wears as our lead."
Then he debunks the Knightmare (and the Conquest) lead: "So a little bit ago i mentioned a band name "Knightmare" as a possibility for this song. Well the band was actually called "KnyghtBlyde" (Knight Blade) and i got in contact with the daughter of the vocalist last night. I played this song for her and after some confliction/hesitation she said it is NOT her dad. The biggest thing was all of her dads songs were based of Aruthurian lore and filled with references to Camelot, Arthur, Morgana, Lancelot, Excalibur etc. Since this song has none of that, its not them. She has no idea who this is. I did a quick search "Conquest 80's metal band Texas" and found 3 results. Conquest from San Antonio, split in either '85 or '87. Conquest from Dallas, '86 - '90. Khan'quest (possibly same band as Khanquistador?), no location given but split up in '88 then reformed in 2000 then......nothing? I could not find anything about any of their songs or demos or releases or band members. But it's obvious I was thinking of the wrong Conquest bands 😂 Conquest was ruled out. Someone who owns the tape was contacted and told us this isn't them."
And he says the singer of KnyghtBlade is convinced this song is from Battallion:
"So a little bit ago I mentioned getting in contact with KnyghtBlyde singers daughter who states that this is NOT her dad. She contacted me this morning, her father thinks this song might be by a band called Battalion. But her father said Battalion also went by the name AAA, Anti Aircraft Assault (or Artillery) in their early days. According to her father AAA/Battalion were from Texas but at least 2 of their members were originally from Chicago. Has anyone ever heard of either Battalion or AAA, Anti Aircraft Assault? The closest I can say is my one supervisor at work mentioned a band Battle Battalion from Texas when he lived there."
Then someone replies to him: "you are right there is a band named Battalion formed in 1984" He says: "I cannot find a single piece of music from this particular "Battalion"? From what I could find they formed between 1983 and 1985, split, reformed under a few possible names, split, repeat. 2 people I asked did say they remember a band of some sort from "out west" Anti Aircraft A-something, but neither could give any info."
Now here, he suggests it could be a Talon song:
"So here's a potential lead for everyone: I was just playing this song for a friend who is obsessed with all metal music. She asked me "Where did you get that Talon song?" Talon was/is a German heavy metal band from the early 80's that released several demos and full on albums between '83-'89. Almost all of there songs were medieval themed, especially their 2 demos. Herr's the thing, they supposedly have 3 unnamed tracks from both demos, one allegedly called "King Slayer". I listened to a bunch of there songs and I have to say there are several songs where the singer sounds exactly like our mystery singer, but then the next song they sound nothing alike. There was one song called something like "Execution" that the opening guitar sounds like this songs opening only slower? I'm not saying it is Talon, but it is possibly something to look into or at least consider?"
He also claimed the singer sounds like Bruce Dickinson (which has been suggested many times):
"I've said many times that I personally feel this vocalist sounds extremely close to Bruce Dickinson. There is a clip of Bruce singing Tom Jones' "Delilah" on either a talk or game show, and his opening of that song is nearly identical to this Fall of the King vocals! Tone, tempo, cadence, pitch......it's really really on spot. I am NOT saying it is Bruce, I'm just saying whoever it is does a good job singing like him."
He says this song could be made by Eviscerator:
"Hello again everyone, has anyone ever heard of a band from Britain, late 70's through late 80's called "Eviscerator"? Very very long story short: I played this song at a Viking/Pagan/Neo-Folk/Black Metal "bar" about half a mile up the road from my place and the one patron who looked like Elvira and Lilith Bathory had a daughter together (HOT HOT HOT) comes over and asked me to replay it and she sang along with the recording with about %95 accuracy! Oddly, at the end after the 4 or 5 "The Fall of the King"s, she suddenly sang "The evil one now wears the crown, all hail the evil one" and head banged for a few moments. According to her, this song was by a band called "Eviscerator" and they always claimed this song was written as a pitch track for the movie Heavy Metal? I mentioned how this song by numerous accounts was recorded here in the USA in 86-87 from stations in Texas, Chicago, Cleveland, NYC and (by only one account) possibly Florida. She didn't feel there was an issue with that as stations will often play random things just to fill the spot including songs that are several years older. I asked about her added line at the end and she stated "I didn't add s*** bud, whoever recorded it must have cut it off before they got to it". I mentioned how numerous people strongly believe this is the work of Z'Rose, she said they probably covered it a bunch of times but it is not their song and even stated that this particular recording sounds like it could be them covering. She was more familiar with Z'Rose than me, she commented "The 3 Cavlaros brothers from Texas right? The singer was the oldest brother Jeff?" (I know that's not their name, i only included it for aunthenticity per context of our discussion, the last name is Cavazos and there was only 2 of them right?). She also told me Z'Rose had about a dozen other names through their years including "Gypsy Rose". I asked how she knew this British band "Eviscerator" and she answered that she lived in London from 78-85 and this song was played a lot on "amateur hour" on several stations, especially university stations. This kind of took me by surprise because i thought she looked younger than me (I'm 39) but she lived in England for college and her first husband in the late 70's??"
"In my last comments i mentioned a bar i went to was going to have a mini concert featuring bands that specialize in black metal and 80's tribute metal and i would play this song to see if any of the band peoples or concert goers would chime in. I did just that and got a few hits on the radar with a few of the band members. The one band, Inviaat, the singer says he remembers this song being played on a radio station in Philly PA for an entire summer because that station was trying to find the band. He does not remember the specific station but said it was near the Taylor University campus (my understanding is that there is several?) because the station thought it was the students from that university's music program. When i asked him when exactly that would have been he said Summer of 1983 because he was married on Halloween 1983 and was hoping the station would find the band so they could play at his wedding. A member from the local band "inductus Mortis" said he recalls that song being played "somewhere in the mid 80's" but does not remember if he heard it in Chicago or Cleveland because he bounced between them. I asked several bands, include the Venom tribute band Poisonous Whisper if anyone had ever heard of a band name Eviscerator from the 80's. Only one person thought he heard the name but it wasn't a band name it was a compilation album of NWOBHM from roughly '83-'84, but couldn't tell me anything other than that. As for the other concert goers, the #1 response i got from them was along the lines of "Dude you can sing, you should go pro!".....in other words they thought it was me promoting myself (I wish i could sing like that!!). the #2 response was people thought it was Manowar. After those 2 the guesses were the usual ones i have seen here and everywhere else this topic comes up: Blackmaine, Axis, Overkill, Overdrive, Black Sabath, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer, WitchAxe and 2 people even asked if it was an Ozzy Osbourne demo."
"I asked around, including my oldest sisters I've mentioned in my postings, about Eviscerator. The only person who heard of them, the one from this time-frame not the other 8 or 9 bands from the 2000's with that name, said they were a generic ManowaIron Maiden/Judas Priest tribute or more accurately, ripoff, band who sucked. I am not saying I buy this woman's account, but i'm also not discrediting it or calling her a liar. Her familiarity with this song and her accuracy with the lyrics makes me believe she knows this song from somewhere.....what that somewhere is, i can't comment because i don't know?"
"So far my friends and I have several "pings" to look into, the name Eviscerator has absolutely nothing from the time frame we're looking at. But there is (was?) a "Lee Lesaat" Canadian/British "mercenary" (did not belong to any band but would play for others) drummer who now lives in NYC my friends are looking into.
There is an 80's metal/black metal tribute concert this Saturday at the bar I was at last weekend. After the bands play their sets they have an open mic like set up where you can play your own music (as long as it fits the theme). I'm going to try and play this song and see if anyone, bands or crowd or food vendors etc, have any reaction.
And by "pings" I just mean responses/possible possible long shot leads. The guy or girl claiming to be a psychic vampire who time traveled and wrote this song for The Lost Boys movie is NOT going to be one of them😂"
Then someone asks: "What band is this Eviscerator ? I found a band that was formed in 2012 . Furthermore tthe song is not in the metal archives I searched through lyrics was not found." He says: "Allegedly they were in England in the 1980's, but the woman stated 2 of them had New York accents. If all of her account is true and accurate, they were NOT a professional big name band. I did find several bands with the title "Eviscerator" (in different variations) but all of them were from the 2000's. The only "pro" band with that title I could find was a Hungarian band from the mid 2000's. I asked Satanic lady if she remembered any of the other bands that played alongside "Eviscerator" and she only remembered 3: "Band-Shee" (an all female band....get it?) Gargoyle, and Werewolf Tears."
"I have a very very small update for everyone, but it's still an update nonetheless. The mystery succubus looking woman who said this song was by Eviscerator and sang along to it (even when I "accidentally" muted my phone to see if she was just repeating what she was hearing.....she was not) has been identified by my journalist friend! We are going to try and get in contact with her and see if there is anything else she can remember about "Eviscerator" that could help. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but her familiarity with this songs lyrics and the fact she sang almost in perfect synch with the beat makes me feel she really did know this song from somewhere in her past. That or she is a very good actress? Lol
I found only 1 solid, confirmed band with that name but they were from mid 2000's Hungary. But several peoples now and then tell me they remember hearing that name in the 80's as various things; crappy garage band, NWOHBM compilation album/work, some sort of event space or name, most recently someone claimed he thought it was the stage name of a singer but didn't know who or what band. I'm trying to get in touch with the woman who originally mentioned that name."
He posted this comment that lead nowhere: "2 very small updates for everyone:
1) The Viking/Pagan/Goth/Black Metal themed bar just around the corner from me is having a New Years event tomorrow night. They actually agree to give me a "booth" where i can have a "guess this song" set up. And, it will be right next to where the bands play...I'm going to be between the "stage" and the food truck lol
2) The one radio station i submitted this song to will play it on their "X hour" on 1/8/24. It is not a hugely popular segment, maybe a few hundred listeners, but it's better than nothing.
Here's to the New Year and hope this song and numerous others get solved!"
"So the station played this song Sunday night/Monday morning. They played it 4 times between 2:07am - 3:12am. They received 9 calls about it and about a dozen emails (I seriously didn't know they had an email!?!?!?). Unfortunately the majority of contacts were people either asking for them to replay it or people thinking it was Manowar. There were a few Iron Maidens and one or 2 Ozzy Osborne's. Only 2 people stated they heard this song before. Unfortunately they heard it from "some kilt wearing guy at blank bar plays it, I think it's him self promoting". Yes that's me they referenced and no it is not me singing lol"
He suggest matrixx as a possibility: "There's a band called matrixx that has been giving me interest. They were only around for two years due to financial struggles in their stage. If you look up attaxe and fiinal notice they share two members of matrixx. Their drummer and guitarist sound very similar to the band from this song. It's pretty crazy too because they have a song called defy the king. They also had a label to produce their songs which is called Suma Recording Studios. This may be the reason why the audio sounds too good for a small band. I hope that this is the band! Too many good clues that I found"
He debunks the Steven Lindfield lead: "One of the names thrown about here and there on posts about this song is a Steven Linfield ("Lindi") who bounced between Chicago and NYC in the 1980's. His alleged involvement varries between being the DJ who allegedly played it on a NYC station, to being a Chicago stations record manageclerk etc etc. I got in contact with him yesterday. He denies having ANYTHING to do with the airing of this song and does not know how or why his name came up. While he did work at 2 stations (NYC, then Chicago during the summer) he was an overnight watchman (security). However, he does recall this song being played on "some amateur hour crapshoot" in '86 in NYC a bunch of times. At that point in '86 he claims people were referencing it as "The King Song" or "The song of the King" (drawn out to match the singers "The Faaaalllll, the fall of the kiiiiiing") and it was already 2 or 3 years old at that time. He did explain that at least at the Chicago station there was an amateur drop-off slot that the dj's would pick through and play random "no namers" labeling them as "space filler". Because they would be played, literally just to fill space, they were NOT mandated to keep any records of them. Sometimes the dj's would just make up names to some of these. One of his main duties was to check the drop-off to make sure there were no bad things thrown in there instead of cassettes. Another dead end, but at least we rulled out one theory......silver lining??😂 LINDFIELD, not Linfield. Darn autocorrect on this phone."
He is convinced it's a professional band's demo: Thats why a lot people I have introduced to this song think it's a professional band, or at the extreme least an amateur band playing with top level equipment/sponsor? 1983 guy stated they sound like they have equipment his garage band "couldn't even afford to dream about looking at yet alone use". It's also one of the reasons my 2 oldest sisters insist this is a professional band (sister #1 says Manowar, #2 says Manowar or Sarissa) because there are no goofs or mistakes or errors. My sisters gave an example of a garage band from their Kutztown university days, "Freefall Abyss" that self released a demo and in one song you can hear a telephone ringing in the background and in another you can hear a fan or ac unit going.
He contacted a girl named Della: "This song was actually played on an old Philly/NJ station on the segment "Della names your tune" in 2009. I was able to get in contact with "Della" (real name withheld by her request) who at first stated "I played thousands of unnamed songs bud, I probably played this one 100 times, sorry i wont be much help" . Then a few days later replied "I do recall this one, it was sent in from a local listener who had it labeled as Dungeon Master or maybe Dragon Master on a CD with a bunch of old early Manowar, JudaPriest, Iron Maiden, Megadead, Metallica and AngelWitch songs. He or she claimed their father had this song on a tape from his college days. Nobody knew what or who it was back in '09 or '10 and as far as I know nobody figured it out when I left the program in '15." The only name she gave, and I don't know if this was even a real name or the drummers "stage name" was Leopald Lestat.........I do have 2 people looking into it (from a metal dating site of all places). Disclaimer: I know some of those bands are misspelled, I purposefully left it that way because that's how she sent it to me."
"I went down that road, you nailed it right on the head. There is no way to track down who that listener was. The only hint she had, in the form of the note attached to the CD was the person said they were from Radnor PA. I couldn't tell you because the other songs kind of bounce around in terms of year: there's a Judas Priest and an Angel Witch song both from 1980 but then there's a song from Megadeath (I believe Megadeath came out in '85?) and a Metallica song from '86? For some reason my one comment didn't show up? Della gave a pretty big hint, she said the mailing address on the CD was from Radnor PA, but the phone number included was a landline for a Chicago address. Her and the station managers assumed it was a "shadow number" and didn't bother keeping record of it. A lot of her requests had local addresses with out of state phone numbers, cellular and landline."
He suggests Dungeon Masters: "I have a potential lead, "Dungeon Masters" from Pittsburgh PA? Long story short: everyone at work talks about a "hot nerdy chick" who works at the one antique book store in town and she is a music genius and knows EVERY song people play. So i decided to test it. I played this song and she stated "I think thats Dungeon Masters, they were from my hometown of Pittsburgh PA back in the early to late 80's. Thats either Dungeon Masters or someone doing an incredible job imitating them?". Given that Cleveland is only a 2-3 hr drive from Pittsburgh (from what Steelers players say) i think this could be a possible lead and explain the Cleveland recording? Again, this is only a POSSIBLE lead, but i think it has potential?
Currently my one "source" is looking into it. He is not always accurate (as evidenced when we were looking into Conquest) but its better than nothing."
And someone adds this: "Della said the same Dungeon Masters so better look into it"
But he says this: "Close, "Della" stated the listener who sent in the CD had this song labeled as "Dungeon Master?", not a band name. But I am looking into it as best as I can. I found a Pittsburgh band "Dungeon" but they're NOT metal they're an Omnia/Faun like band (neo-folk I think is the term?) formed in 2018. I sent word out to the people I know and my "team". Now it is a waiting game."

If you’d like to add an event to our calendar, submit an event here. Please check with the event organizers to see if events change due to weather. Have a great week!
See the full weekly calendar on our website.

Noteworthy Events

The Lion King at DPAC

• Winner of six Tony Awards®, including Best Musical, this landmark musical event brings together one of the most imaginative creative teams on Broadway.
• Wed, May 15 - Sun, June 9
• $29.50+

Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park

• Tue, May 21 - Sun, May 26
• $10+

The Patio Dance Parties : Clueless Fridays at Unscripted Durham

• Every Friday night head up to the rooftop at Unscripted Durham to swim, dance, and gather with throwback 90's jams and killer cocktails.
• 6-10 p.m.
• Rooftop is 21+
• Free admission

Taste of Soul NC at Durham Central Park

• Food & Merchant Vendor Rodeo happening at Durham Central Park.
• There will be something for everyone including a DJ, bounce houses and axe throwing.
• Sat, May 25
• 3-8 p.m.
• Free admission

Durham Underground Market at Durham Central Park

• Enjoy this monthly series featuring new bands every month from Oak City Music Collective, 45+ local vendors, food trucks, workshops by Joy Worthy Co, beewine/bubbly from The Glass Jug and more!
• Sun, May 26
• 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Free admission

Sweet Tea: A Sunday Tea Dance Presented by Stormie Daie! at The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge

• Take your holiday long weekend to the next level with performances inside and out by Alex Thee Rabbit, Santos, G-Clef, and Stormie herself — featuring beats by Jorden The DJ.
• Sun, May 26
• 4-6 p.m.
• 21+ event
• Free admission

Multi-Day Events

Historic Buildings Open House at West Point on the Eno Park

• Enjoy a look inside the historic McCown-Mangum House, Photography Museum, and Mill.
• Sat, May 25 and Sun, May 26
• 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Free admission

Movies at The Carolina Theatre

• Ponyo
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• The Searchers & 3:10 to Yuma
• Dawn of the Dead
• The Best Years of Our Lives

Monday, May 20

9:30 a.m.
Discovery Paddle at Eno River
2 p.m.
Board Game Night at The Glass Jug in Downtown Durham
5 p.m.
Arts & Drafts at Fullsteam Brewery
6 p.m.
Disc Golf Putting League at The Glass Jug in RTP
6:30 p.m.
Silent Book Club at DSSOLVR Durham
Trivia Night at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
7 p.m.
We Still Skating Adult Skate Class at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company
Community Board Game Night at Moon Dog Meadery
8 p.m.
Monsoon at Rubies on Five Points

Tuesday, May 21

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 5:30-6:30 p.m. - Boxyard Run Club
• 6-7:45 p.m. - Music Bingo
• 6-7 p.m. - Book Club: Genre Challenge

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

• 12-8 p.m. - Food Truck: Mike's Vegan Cookout
• 7-9 p.m. - Bull City Beer Runners Run Club

Events at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham

• 5:45-6:30 p.m. - Community Fitness Classes with YMCA
• 6-8 p.m. - Music Bingo

Events at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP

• 6-8 p.m. - The Glass Jog Run Club
• 6-9 p.m. - Stitch & Sip

5:30 p.m.
Thomas Taylor's Third Tuesday Jam: The Music of Dizzy Gillespie at Sharp 9 Gallery
6 p.m.
Queer Talent Show at Arcana
Pints & Pups at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
Bring Your Own Vinyl with Jaffar at Rubies on Five Points
Dancing With The Carolina Stars Fundraiser at The Carolina Theatre
Women on the Wall at Triangle Rock Club - Durham
6:30 p.m.
Trivia at Durham Food Hall
6:35 p.m.
Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7 p.m.
Trivia at Beer Study Durham
King Trivia Tuesdays at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Not Rocket Science Trivia at DSSOLVR Durham
Tuesday Blues Jam at The Blue Note Grill
7:30 p.m.
Eloquent Soul - Open Mic Night hosted by Dasan Ahanu at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
8 p.m.
Jeremy 'Bean' Clemons Trio at Kingfisher
Julia Holter at Motorco Music Hall

Wednesday, May 22

Events at Boxcar Bar + Arcade

• 7-9 p.m. - Monthly Pinball Tournament
• 8-10 p.m. - Air Hockey Tournament

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 12-2 p.m. - Hear & There: Daniel Delorenzo
• 5:30-8:30 p.m. - Game Night

Events at ZincHouse Winery & Brewery

• 7-8 p.m. - Signature Wine Tasting
• 7-8:30 p.m. - Laughs Comedy Night

2 p.m.
Film Screening — "Temple Grandin" at Durham County Main Library
3 p.m.
Durham Farmers’ Market at Durham Central Park
Seeing Without Eyes: Walking the Tightrope between Doubt and Belief at Rhine Research Center ~ Online
4 p.m.
Whiskey Wednesdays at Alley Twenty Six
5 p.m.
Free Wednesday Wine Tasting at Beer Study Durham
5:30 p.m.
"Take Tea Like a Bridgerton" Experience at JB Duke Hotel
6 p.m.
Figure Drawing and Tarot with Heiltje at Arcana
6:30 p.m.
Trivia Night with Pickle at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP
6:35 p.m.
Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7 p.m.
My Hero Academia TCG Girl Power Prerelease at Atomic Empire
Hammered Trivia at Hi-Wire Brewing
Karaoke Night at Mavericks Smokehouse
Music Bingo at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
Brett Chambers Open Mic at The Blue Note Grill
8 p.m.
Trivia Night at Bull McCabe's
Karaoke at Moon Dog Meadery
Queer Country Night w/ Line Dancing + Country Karaoke at The Pinhook
10 p.m.
World Goth Day All Vinyl Dance Party at Rubies on Five Points

Thursday, May 23

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

• 12-8 p.m. -Food Truck: Mike's Vegan Cookout
• 7-9 p.m. - Thursday Trivia with Nick

12 p.m.
Taking Back Thursday: Mysti Mayhem at Boxyard RTP
1 p.m.
Botany Spotlight: Bamboo at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
Meet the Keepers at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
3 p.m.
Guided Museum Tour at 21c Museum Hotels Durham
5 p.m.
Night Market at American Tobacco Campus
Thirsty Thursdays at Dashi
5:30 p.m.
World Turtle Day Celebration at Piedmont Wildlife Center
Walking Club with Bull City Strollers at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
6 p.m.
Dyke Night and Tarot with Rene at Arcana
Dungeons n' Drafts at DSSOLVR Durham
Vinyl Night with DJ Deckades at Gizmo Brew Works
“Rhythms of the Rumba” Dance Class at Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club
6:15 p.m.
Pony Run at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
6:30 p.m.
Line Dance Classes at Mystic Farm and Distillery
Sacred Traditions: Exploring African-Based Spirituality at Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Boulders & Brews Meetup at Triangle Rock Club - Durham
DIY Charcuterie Class at Weldon Mills Distillery
6:35 p.m.
Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7 p.m.
Trivia Night at Beer Tooth Taproom
Bring Your Own Vinyl Night at Congress Social Bar
Sound Bath at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church
Summer Jazz Jam (Curated by Al Strong) at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Community Board Game Night at Moon Dog Meadery
Periodic Tables: Beyond HIPAA – Mental Health Apps, Health Data, And Privacy at Motorco Music Hall
7:30 p.m.
Trivia Night with Big Slow Tom at Clouds Brewing Brightleaf Square
8 p.m.
Weekly Single Mingle at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Trivia at Fullsteam Brewery
Megayacht / Hypnic Jerk at The Pinhook
9:30 p.m.
Karaoke Night at The Tavern

Friday, May 24

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• 5-9 p.m. - Food Truck: Weizzie's Country Kitchen
• 8-11 p.m. - Open Mic Stand-up Comedy

10 a.m.
Tasting at Ten at Counter Culture Coffee
12 p.m.
Co-Working Social at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
5 p.m.
Food Truck Friday at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP
5:30 p.m.
Friday Night Live: Emily Musolino at Boxyard RTP
6 p.m.
Jo & Lee Tarot with Emily at Arcana
Friday Night Makes at Durham Arts Council
Yonder at The Blue Note Grill
The Patio Dance Parties : Clueless Fridays at Unscripted Durham
6:35 p.m.
Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7 p.m.
Negativland + Sue-C Present "We Can Really Feel Like We're Here" at Motorco Music Hall
Tim Wells & Les Bons Temps — Cajun Dance Party at Succotash Southern & Creole Kitchen
7:30 p.m.
Recital: Spring Star-tacular at Barriskill Dance Theatre School
Members-Only Rose` Party at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Keith Waters/Jon Metzger Quartet at Sharp 9 Gallery
8 p.m.
Stereo Reveries at DSSOLVR Durham
Karaoke! at Fullsteam Brewery
9 p.m.
Hush Hush at Mettlesome
Leo Album Release Party! at Moon Dog Meadery
Lip Sync 4 Ur Life + PHK Karaoke at The Pinhook

Saturday, May 25

Events at Atomic Empire

• 11 a.m. - Kings of War GT: Carolina Cryptid 2024
• 5:30 p.m. - Flesh and Blood: Part the Mistveil Prerelease

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 10-11 a.m. - Drag Story Hour
• 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Saturdaze: DJ k.ward
• 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Disco Differences: PopUp
• 12-2 p.m. - Cartoon Artist Pop-Up

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• 1-8 p.m. - Food Truck: Lobster Dogs
• 1-6 p.m. - Art Day!

Distillery Tours and Tastings at Liberty & Plenty

• Every Saturday, 10-10:30 a.m. and 11-11:30 a.m.

Events at Mettlesome

• 7:30-8 p.m. - Bull City Press Presents
• 8-9 p.m. - Golden Age
• 9-10:30 p.m. - Secret Society Showcase

Events at Moon Dog Meadery

• 1-2 p.m. - Improv Jam
• 8-11 p.m. - A Metal Show: Bunker Hill Bloodbath, No Falks Given, Demiurge, Alpha Strain
• 8 p.m. - 12 a.m. - Outside: CoLaB on Fire

Events at The Blue Note Grill

• 3 p.m. - CHHS Mini-55th with the Reunion Band
• 7:30 p.m. - 8-Track Minds

Guided Walking Tours with Triangle Adventures

• 2 p.m. - Downtown Durham Walking Tour
• 4 p.m. - Durham African American History Tour
• 6 p.m. - Downtown Durham True Crime Tour

8 a.m.
Durham Farmers' Market at Durham Central Park
parkrun Durham at Southern Boundaries Park
9 a.m.
South Durham Farmers' Market at Greenwood Commons Shopping Center
9:30 a.m.
Women's Introduction to Standup Paddleboarding at Falls Lake
10 a.m.
Party for the Planet at Museum of Life and Science
Flower Portraits at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
12 p.m.
Crafternoons at Gizmo Brew Works
3 p.m.
Taste of Soul NC at Durham Central Park
4 p.m.
Mystic Medieval Knights at Mystic Farm & Distillery
5 p.m.
Opening Reception - Renzo Ortega "Acts of Serenity" at Craven Allen Gallery
6 p.m.
Tarot with Heiltje at Arcana
Doodle Jam at Lonerider Distillery and Taproom
6:30 p.m.
Blackhawk Quintet at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
6:35 p.m.
Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7 p.m.
The Lofi Lounge at American Underground
7:15 p.m.
Sunset Float at Falls Lake
7:30 p.m.
Full Moon Fever Bike Ride at American Tobacco Trail
Recital: Spring Star-tacular at Barriskill Dance Theatre School
MOSS: Theo Bleckmann, Peter Eldridge, Lauren Kinhan, Jo Lawry, Kate McGarry at Sharp 9 Gallery
9 p.m.
Blackhawk Quintet at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Boston 168 at The Fruit
10 p.m.
House of Black Dance Party at The Pinhook

Sunday, May 26

10 a.m.
Jazz Brunch at Lula & Sadie's
10:30 a.m.
Al Strong Presents Jazz Brunch at Alley Twenty Six
11 a.m.
Durham Underground Market at Durham Central Park
12 p.m.
One Piece TCG Tournament at Atomic Empire
Sunday Dollar Bin Sale for Charity at Rumors Durham
Farmers Market at ZincHouse Winery & Brewery
12:15 p.m.
Public Tour at Duke Chapel
2 p.m.
Soul Sunday w/ DJ Soul at Congress Social Bar
Hammered Trivia with Casey at Durty Bull Brewing Company
Hillandale Golf Beginner Clinic at Hillandale Golf Course
4 p.m.
IAR Adopt-a-Dog Fundraiser at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Sweet Tea: A Sunday Tea Dance Presented by Stormie Daie! at The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge
5:05 p.m.
Durham Bulls vs Memphis at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
6 p.m.
Ann Arader and Tarot with Rene at Arcana
6:30 p.m.
Open Mic Night at Moon Dog Meadery
8 p.m.
Beloved Presents: Innerworlds at Rubies on Five Points

Running Art Exhibits

Constellations: 40 Years of Explorations within Sacred Geometry by Steven Ferlauto at Horse & Buggy Press and Friends

• Sacred Geometry is an ancient field of physics whose equations are expressed through shape. Shape is a way to explore the universal fabric of our existence.
• Sat, May 4 - Sat, June 1
• Free admission

Cameron Elyse's Divine Nine Legacy Memoir Exhibition at Hayti Heritage Center

• The Divine Nine Legacy Memoir delves deep into the history of the National Panhellenic Council (NPHC) or "Divine Nine," a collective of nine Greek Letter organizations founded on May 10th, 1930.
• These organizations were born out of the necessity to provide a voice for Black American students within the collegiate space. United by principles of service, community, brotherhood, and sisterhood, the Divine Nine work collectively to uplift society through acts of service to underserved areas across the nation.
• Fri, Apr 19 - Sat, June 1
• Free admission

It Ain’t All Black And White at DAG Truist Gallery

• It Ain’t All Black and White is a photography exhibition that encourages us to consider emotions such as serenity, apprehension, yearning, and more.
• Captured by 11 dynamic photographers dedicated to documenting the fullness and complexity of Black life, this exhibition offers each of us an opportunity to see ourselves with renewed attention.
• Thu, Apr 25 - Sun, June 2

María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold at Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

• María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold is a monographic exhibition of a visionary voice in photography, immersive installation, painting and performance.
• Thu, Feb 15 - Sun, Jun 9
• Every week, Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun 12-5 p.m.
• Free admission

Ley Killeya: Solitary Women at 5 Points Gallery

• 5 Points Gallery in downtown Durham invites you to appreciate Chapel Hill artist Ley Killeya's engaging exhibition featuring vibrant and thought-provoking paintings, exploring themes of identity, belonging, vulnerability, and acceptance, particularly for people from marginalized communities.
• Fri, May 17 - Sat, June 15
• Free admission

Counterpoints at Durham Bottling Co.

• Counterpoints is a curated showcase of local AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) artists, delving into the convergence of AAPI identity and mental health. Inspired by the intricate layers of musical counterpoint, its purpose is to weave together diverse narratives and confront the stigma surrounding mental health within our communities.
• Wed, May 1 - Sun, June 16
• Mon - Fri, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

As always, if you know of an event that's not listed here, feel free to share it (with a link) in the comments. Feedback on events you've attended or plan to attend is welcome.
*Free (or no admission/cover)
--Recurring Event
Noteworthy: Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks begin playing their respective Western Conference Finals this week. Some dates and times are still TBA.
This weekend is Memorial Dayweekend with the holiday being observed next Monday (May 27).. Saturday, May 26 is Opening Day for public pools at The Cove at Crawford Park, The Cove at Fretz Park, The Cove at Samuell Grand, and Bachman Community Aquatic Center.
Dallas Pride week is next week, and pre-celebration events begin this weekend.
Weekend & Multi-Day Events
May 21-26 Frisco Roughriders vs. Midland Rockhounds at Riders Field, Frisco
May 25-26 Pegasus Film Festival at LOOK Dine-in Cinemas Dallas
May 25-26 Mad Max (1980) at the Texas Theatre
May 25-26 TwoGether Land at Fair Park
May 25-26 Ubbi Dubbi Festival at Panther Island, Fort Worth
Through May 27 Scarborough Renaissance Festival, Waxahachie
May 23-25 EVERGREEN [to grow] at Wyly Theatre
Through May 25 Echo Theatre: Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper at the Bath House Cultural Center
Through Jun 9 Hamilton at Winspear Opera House
May 17-June 1 Teatro Dallas: Cloud Tectonics at the Latino Cultural Center
*May 11- May 24 Women in Art – A Joyful Journey Exhibition at Art on Main
*Through June 28 Central Library Staff Art Exhibit at Dallas Public Library Central Branch
Monday, May 20
Ghosts: Do You Believe at Texas Theatre
Meatless Meals: Inspired by India at Central Market Cooking School Lovers Lane
*Book Signing/Discussion - Kimberly King Parsons: We Were the Universe at Interabang Books
*Mad Monday Karaoke at Three Links Dallas
*Gabby & The Birds at The Free Man
*--The Love Mic - Open Mic at Sundown at Granada
Mixer Mondays at Bowlounge
*Motown on Monday at Elm and Good
Kizomba Semba class & prática at Dallas Dance Studio
*Hall of Fame Mondays at Palms
Classics in Black and White: The Third Man at Angelika Dallas
Linny Nance Hour of Power (Soul, R&B) at The Balcony Club
Tuesday, May 21
Mahjong at The Crescent Club
*Transcend Yoga on the Museum Green at Fair Park
Sketch to Success: Watercolor Session at Ad Ex Dallas
Dallas Skyline Rooftop Paint Party at Canvas Hotel
*--Spanish Learners Conversation Table at Renner Frankford Branch Library
*Book Signing/Discussion - Kerry Nichols, Puppy Brain at Interabang Books
Lady London at House of Blues
*Swiftie Theme Trivia at Vector Brewing
*Ralyn Gayle at Truck Yard Dallas
*Lakefront Live: Kevin Arellano at the Bath House Cultural Center
Songwriter Social W/Justin Pickard (Open Mic Night) at Adair’s Saloon
Seth Cowles and Friends at Improv Addison
Wednesday, May 22
NBA Western Conference Finals - Dallas Mavericks vs. TBD at American Airlines Center
Arts and Letters Live: Nicholas Kristof at the Dallas Museum of Art
*Dallas Symphony Orchestra and The Concert Truck Performance at NorthPark Center
*Salsa Dance Social at Sammons Park
*Learn to Play American Mah Jongg at Preston Royal Branch Library
*Preston Royal Discussion Book Club at Preston Royal Branch Library
*Love Songs Duh Choir Concert at Dr. L.G. Pinkston Sr. High School
Avi Kaplan: Feel Alright Tour with special guest Michael Alvarado at The Kessler
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lake Highlands
*Wednesday Patio Sessions: Lacey Ingram at The Sound at Cypress Waters
*Half Price Games Night at Dave & Buster’s
Women’s Climb Night at Movement Climbing at The Hill
*Andrew Frye, Solo Performance at The Kitchen Cafe
De Colores Presents: American Fiction at Studio C, Garland
*Watch Party Wednesdays: High School Musical at Grandscape, The Colony
Run Club at Armor Brewing Co., Allen
Thursday, May 23
NHL Western Conference Finals - Dallas Stars vs. TBD at American Airlines Center
ATB "Don't Stop" US Tour at Stereo Live Dallas
Ahadadream at It'll Do Club
Speed Dating Putt Putt and Mixer at Another Round
Sweat & Glow with Divi and Live Tinted at Place at Tyler
Thursdays on Tap at the Perot Museum
*--PNC Patio Sessions - Aurora Bleu at Sammons Park
*--K. Cooks & Friends at Chocolate Secrets
*Spanish Cinema Now+: Viaje a alguna parte at the Meadows Museum
* Uptown Dallas Inc. Annual Meeting at Violet Crown Theater
*--Chess for Adults at Vickery Park Branch Library
*--Knitting Group at Timberglen Branch Library
*Know Your City Series: Office of Arts and Culture at J. Erik Jonsson Central Library
*Japanese Tea Ceremony Demonstration at the Oak Lawn Branch Library
Derek Spence, A Tribute to George Strait at the Dallas Arboretum
Raised Right Men at The Rustic
*325 Comedy Show at Hyena’s Dallas
Friday, May 24
NBA Western Conference Finals - Dallas Mavericks vs. TBD at American Airlines Center
Eurodance - Dallas Pride Kickoff at Thrive
*A Journey through Psychological Sci-Fi at The Wild Detectives
TEKNOSTASIS in the Limbo Room at Ruins
BBQ Class at the Sheraton Dallas
Camp Saucer 5th Anniversary, Karaoke Kickoff at The Flying Saucer Cypress Waters
KXT 91.7 Presents: Warpaint with Sego at the Granada Theater
Dan Deacon with Future Nest at Club Dada
Brent Buemi + Mike Willey Jazz & Blues Duo at Opening Bell Coffee
*The Clinton Years at Lee Harvey’s
Chris Isaak at House of Blues
Dan Deacon at Club Dada
*Rachel Teague at The Rustic
**ctrl + alt + defeat* Gaming Night at Round Two
Kendrick Vs Drake: The Main Event at RBC Dallas
The Emo Night Tour at Trees
Taking Back Sunday with special guest Citizen at South Side Ballroom
*Lakeside Live Music: Faron Gilbert at The Sound at Cypress Waters
*RCN Jazz Band at Cityline, Richardson
*Disco Queen at Grandscape, The Colony
The Spazmatics at Lava Cantina, The Colony
*Gary Hobbs with Sabor Puro at The Levitt, Arlington
Saturday, May 25
NHL Western Conference Finals - Dallas Stars vs. TBD at American Airlines Center
FC Dallas vs. Salt Lake at Toyota Stadium, Frisco
Memorial Day Weekend Yacht Party/MImosa Walk at Elm & Good
*Saturday Sounds: Ceci Ceci at the Leonhardt Lagoon at Fair Park
*Forest Green Tabletop Brigade at Forest Green Branch Library
*Peaceful Paper Crafts at Grauwyler Park Branch Library
*Local Coffee Shop Talk: Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters at Hampton-Illinois Branch Library
*The Blank Collective Art Exhibition at The DEC Network
*Movie - Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy at Dallas West Branch Library
*Movie Night: Big Hero 6 at Klyde Warren Park
Discover Downtown Dallas Movie Series: Crazy Rich Asians at Harwood Park
Make & Take: Czech Kolaches at Central Market Cooking School, Lovers Lane
Create-Your-Own Sangria at Berkshire Farms Winery
Dallas Pride Rooftop Pool Party at Crowne Plaza Dallas Downtown
Sip and Stroll: Hotel Wine Tour at Omni Dallas
Goat Yoga Outside at Lakewood Brewing Company
Scarfias at Reveler’s Hall
Sunday, May 26
NBA Western Conference Finals - TBD vs. Dallas Mavericks
Burger Fight at Dallas Youth Sports
Cinema Con Nosotros Presents El Mariachi at the Texas Theatre
Nora En Pure Day Show at It'll Do
Rescue Puppy Yoga at Celestial Beerworks The Satellite
Drawing from the Masters at the Meadows Museum
Los Yonics at Tacos Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant
Make & Take: American Cobbler, Crisp & Handpies at Central Market Cooking School Lovers Ln
*Happily Ever Sip & Shop Local Vendor Market at Community Beer Co.
*Summer in Pegasus Plaza at Pegasus Plaza
Dallas Jazz Orchestra at Poor David’s Pub
Cybernetic Summer: A Memorial Day Weekend Party at The Double Wide
Brunch Movie: Charade (1963) at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Richardson