Not So Happy-Go-Lucky: Winston-Salem and the Art-House

After hearing a passionate endorsement of the movie Happy-Go-Lucky by an NPR film reviewer about a month ago, I was determined to watch it. I ended up going to moviefone.com and doing a search for the nearest place where I could watch the movie. The closest place ended up being Washington, DC, a good 300+ miles away. This in turn partially prompted me to embark on what eventually became my sugar-addled DC trip.

Since then, the movie's made it to Charlotte, Greensboro, Asheville, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, but not Winston. So the moral seems to be that if you're willing to drive, say, up to 100 miles, you can generally find the movie you're looking for if you give it a couple weeks. But generally, an art-house movie is hard to find in this town. I regularly attended the North Carolina School of the Arts' Films on Fourth movies last year, which brought in some great movies. But then the series ended last December, because there wasn't enough interest and attendance to keep them going. Outside of the RiverRun Film Festival in April (mark your calendar!), this town's got nothin'.

C'mon people! If this town is supposed to be known as North Carolina's "City of the Arts," we can do better than this!

You make me sick, Winston-Salem Journal

I have nothing but contempt for this award.

I bought the Winston-Salem Journal today, mostly hoping to find coupons and ideas to help with filling up my nifty new home. And inside, they had a special section called "Reader's Choice 2008" where they detailed some of the best things you could find in Winston-Salem for various categories. I'll provide some of the conclusions below as provided by the W-S Journal (followed by my commentary in parentheses).

"Best Place to Take a Date: Bambino Brothers Pizzeria and Sports Bar"

(Hmm. A sports bar. Okay... I'll just have to take their word that Bambino's is a good place for a romantic evening, I guess.)

(For the record, Bambino's also won the Reader's Choice awards for Best Place to Take the Kids, Best Pizza, and Best Italian. As a friend noted, if the Bambino's experience goes really well, then 9 months later you can take your new little bundle of joy to the same place.)

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"Best Place for a Late-Night Snack: Taco Bell
...Winston-Salem agrees that it's the best place for a late-night snack of burritos, chalupas, tacos, nachos or the new spicy Queso CrunchWrap."

(Uh... Taco Bell. OK. Come on... surely there are better late night snack options. I hope.)

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"Best Coffee House: Starbucks
...Even if you are not a coffee drinker, you'll find something you like at Starbucks."

(Starbucks? Starbucks! STARBUCKS?!??! Krankies didn't even make it in the top three?! God, I want to punch the Winston-Salem Journal in the face so badly right now.)

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"Best Hamburgers: McDonald's
...Using only 100 percent pure beef, the hand-seasoning on the grill with a mixture of salt and pepper, rest assured you're getting the best burger, regardless of the McDonald's location you're visiting."

(Oh my god, I'm driving over to the Winston-Salem Journal office right now... I swear: There will be blood...)