Here’s a picture from the American Tobacco District from earlier this evening, before the security guards asked me to leave. Here are some other pictures I took this evening at American Tobacco and at Durham’s Bus Station.

Last night was Third Friday, an arts celebration in downtown Durham, and the biggest party of the night was at Golden Belt, a renovated mill east of downtown. The Independent Weekly, our local arts and alternative weekly paper, celebrated their “Best of the Triangle” results with a party in the Cotton Room, where samples were served from the Triangle’s best restaurants, as chosen by The Independent’s readers.

I went with some friends and ran into several others that I knew. We tried food from restaurants like Chubby’s Tacos, Lilly’s Pizza, Revolution, Tyler’s and The Mint. There was beer from Big Boss and Carolina Brewery and desserts from Sugarland and Gugglehopf. I met one of the guys from Wine Authorities and talked to him about North Carolina Wine TV. He knew who I was (those 2 guys who talk about wine) and I found out that the store does not carry NC wine, but has something called an endomatic, a self serve wine machine. I definitely need to check that out.

There was music inside The Cotton Room, ambient weirdness by Brad Cook, from the folk band Megafaun. There was also a stage outside where Thad Cockrell and Hobex performed. Since this was a notable Durham event, my friends from Onlyburger were there too.

Here’s a link to a few more pictures I took.

The guys behind the Fullsteam Brewery signed their lease on their new space in Downtown Durham, North Carolina. They are bringing local ingredients and the North Carolina agricultural tradition to craft brewing beer.

Here’s a link to the announcement of their new location at 726 Rigsbee Street on the Fullsteam site. Find out more about this plow to pint brewery at Fullsteam.ag and follow them on Twitter at @Fullsteam and @Fullsteam32.

Thanks to this post from Dave Delaney, I was pointed to this article from Serious Eats about street vendors using Twitter to announce their locations, specials and other information important to their mobile customers. The South is not generally known for their proliferation of street vendors, so the only listing is for OnlyBurger in Durham, and it was added when suggested in the comments. They are a perfect example of the kind of mobile business that can thrive using Twitter. Their mobile kitchen tweets their location as they drive around Durham.

I have read many reviews of their burgers on various Durham food blogs, but haven’t sampled them yet. I will take this opportunity to seek them out over the next couple of weeks and try their burgers.

Six Plates Wine Bar in Durham NC has been successfully using Twitter to increase business in their establishment. I chatted with Matthew Beason, one of the owners, about Social Media and connecting with their local patrons.

The concept of Six Plates involves a constantly changing menu of “six small plates” paired with wine. They have found Twitter to be an excellent way to let their customers know about today’s menu and specials. Follow them at @sixplates on Twitter.

If you stop by, make sure you say hi to Matthew and use the hashtag #sixplates while tweeting about the wine, food, service, atmosphere, or whatever else strikes you while dining.

This past weekend was the Durham Art Walk, which featured a gallery showing in the recently renovated Golden Belt complex. I had been to this site on the Eastern edge of downtown a week before, but everything was closed on a Sunday. Upon my return visit, I was pleased to find not just the gallery space, but about 35 artist studios with working artists. The complex also features living spaces and office space.

The people inhabiting this space are definitely on the bleeding edge of downtown revitalization. They are in a bubble totally unconnected to rest of the area. There is not even a grocery store anywhere nearby. For a complete history of the complex, go to Endangered Durham, one of my favorite sites about the history of Durham.

Yesterday I went to the Durham side of the New Hope Waterfowl Waterway. These are areas that were created to maintain bird habitats by adjusting water flood levels. When I got there the sky was pretty overcast, but the clouds moved out as I was shooting, so I got some great blue skies. I also got some great reflections.

Here’s a link to the rest of the photos on Flickr.

Christmas Night in Raleigh near the Shimmer Wall

Grace and Peter in Chapel Hill

Christmas Morning in Durham

To see more photos, go to my Flickr photostream.

This morning I helped serve breakfast at the Urban Ministries Community Kitchen in downtown Durham. Christmas morning seemed like a good time to think of others and help out. Afterwards I took some pictures around downtown Durham. Here’s a link to the rest of the photos on Flickr.

The above photo from 1962 is from the great site, Endangered Durham, that tracks the history of Durham, NC building by building and block by block.