My Upcoming Storytelling Show (Shameless Self-Promotion)

L’Dor Va Dor: Preserving our Traditions
from Generation to Generation
Through Storytelling at Agudas Achim Congregation
2908 Valley Drive, Alexandria, VA 22302

Sunday, March 29, 2009, 10:00-11:30 am
From Chelm to New York
Learn why you can't get a bagel in Chelm and what happened to all the borscht a public television station auctioned off, as Miriam Nadel'sstories take you into Jewish worlds, old and new. Miriam has told her stories at venues ranging from the Jewish Folk Arts Festival to a Hollywood art gallery. In addition to being a storyteller, she is a traveler, craftswoman, blogger and, by day, a grown-up aerospace engineer. All of the stories she tells are true, whether or not they happened that way.

North Carolina

As I mentioned already, I spent last weekend down in Raleigh,N.C. The primary purpose of the trip was to satisfy my Volksmarch obsession by checking off another state capital. But I do also have friends down there and seeing them was an important part of the weekend.

The downtown Raleigh Volksmarch was an enjoyable walk around the capitol complex, past the newish convention center, around the historic Oakwood neighborhood (including the cemetery) and through Mordecai Park. There was a fair amount of construction, requiring some detours here and there. Overall, it seemed to me that Raleigh is thriving, but does not have a real residential core in the city center. I'd also say that the architecture is generic Southern, with nothing to distinguish it from any other medium size city of the region.

The other walk I did was in Durham and took in the gardens and campus of Duke University. That was an absolutely lovely walk for this time of year, with lots of oriental cherry trees and camelias in bloom. The Duke campus is architecturally distinctive, with an attempt to recreate Gothic England. The chapel is a rather startling building to find in its setting, but the surrounding quad is along the same theme.

In addition to walking, I hung out with agedwiz and calsea, We talked about the grand old days of soc.singles (20+ years ago), in between eating barbecue, gawking at the food items on offer at A Southern Season, and driving through the downtowns of various towns in the region. It was great to see them and I had an excellent time overall.