Monday, August 15, 2016

Dave Barry and Colson Whitehead: Coming in September!

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We have two very special, ticketed events coming in September

First we host humorist DAVE BARRY on Wednesday, September 7, with his brand new book, Best. State. Ever. A Florida Man Defends His Homeland.


Then on Thursday September 22 we'll be welcoming COLSON WHITEHEAD, who will be reading from and discussing his acclaimed new novel, The Underground Railroad.


To accommodate the expected crowds, both of these events will be held at the Durham Armory, 220 Foster Street downtown.

These will be ticketed events.
For each event, two tickets will come with the purchase of a copy of the book, (they both sell for $27.00) or admission-only tickets are $10.00 each. We strongly recommend pre-purchasing the book/ticket combinations-at the store, on our web site, or on the phone--to avoid a long line at the armory. Admission-only tickets will not go on sale until a week before each event. Both events start at 7:00, and doors will open at 6:30.
***** 
I've read an advance copy of Dave Barry's Best. State. Ever and it was so funny that I found myself almost falling out of my chair from laughing so hard. (By "Best" here, Dave Barry really means weirdest..). Carl Hiaasen has called Dave Barry "the funniest damn writer in the whole Dave Barry country," and Carl Hiassen has some cred when it comes to funny. And we can all stand a little more laughter in our lives these days, right? Come on out and let Dave Barry raise your laughter quotient! You'll be oh so happy that you did.

And send us your entry for our "North Carolina: Weirdest State Ever" contest! We can't let Florida lay claim to the title of weirdest state ever without a fight! See contest rules and deadlines at this link to our website! http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/event/weirdest-state-ever-contest-deadline
***** 
The reviews for Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad have been deservedly over the top.

The New York Times calls it "[A] potent, almost hallucinatory novel..
He has told a story essential to our understanding of the American past and the American present." The Boston Globe says "The first thing to say about Colson Whitehead's new novel, The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead is that it's really good - good, in fact, in just about every way a novel can be good...[It is] a fully realized masterpiece.". The Washington Post says The Underground Railroad marks a new triumph for Whitehead...The canon of essential novels about America's peculiar institution just grew by one." And oh yes, someone named Oprah is over the moon about this book as well...

I say that Colson Whitehead's amazing book is impossible to put down, and no one who reads it will come away from it unchanged. Come hear Colson Whitehead and get a signed first edition of this great American novel.

Learn more about these events by clicking on the following links to our web site:
 
  
 Events for the rest of August 

ZINE WORKSHOP with TRISTAN MILLER (Ages 16 and up)
Sunday, August 21; 2:00PM -- 4:00PM 
For ages 16 and up. There is a $15 materials fee payable to the instructor. Pre-registration is recommended.  To register, email Tristin Miller: tristin.miller@gmail.com -- Please note the time and fee.
 
Have you ever wanted to create your own ZINE? Join arts educator Tristan Miller at The Regulator Bookshop for a hands-on Zine Workshop. Learn how to use found materials, daily writings, original drawings, and collaging to design your own zine. $15 for workshop fee and all materials will be provided. Ages 16+  
 
What's a Zine???  A zine (/ˈziːn/ zeen; an abbreviation of fanzine or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.
 
Tristin Miller, of Greensboro, NC, is an illustrator & fine arts instructor who loves to read and make zines. www.tristinmiller.tumblr.com
 
To register for workshop email: tristin.miller@gmail.com. Pre-registration is recommended.
 
LIZ McGUFFY
Thursday, August 25 at 7:00PM
Durham resident and Tar Heel native Liz McGuffy will give a talk on Mary Hancock: One of North Carolina's Most Successful Unknown Writers, based on McGuffy's article on Mary Hancock in the latest edition of the North Carolina Literary Review. Mary Hancock lived most of her life in the foothills of North Carolina, and wrote a number of popular historical novels. Her first novel, "Menace on the Mountain," was made into a Walt Disney productions television movie in 1970, with an eight year old actress named Jodie Foster in a supporting role.
 
CRAIG WERNER & DOUG BRADLEY
Monday, August 29 at 7:00PM
Explore the music that made Vietnam "the rock 'n' roll war" through the recollections of those who fought the war and survived it. Co-author Craig Werner will be at The Regulator Bookshop to discuss their new book, We Gotta Get Outta This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.

Bradley and Werner explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the World back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate how music sometimes united and often exposed deep and contentious divisions between soldiers of different racial and regional backgrounds. Many of the voices are those of ordinary soldiers, airmen, seamen, and marines. But there are also "solo" pieces by veterans whose writings have shaped our understanding of the war-Karl Marlantes, Alfredo Vea, Yusef Komunyakaa, Bill Ehrhart, Arthur Flowers-as well as songwriters and performers whose music influenced soldiers' lives, including Eric Burdon, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Country Joe McDonald, and John Fogerty. Together their testimony taps into memories-individual and cultural-that capture a central if often overlooked component of the American war in Vietnam.

Craig Werner, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaches literature, music and cultural history, as well as a course on war with Vietnam War veteran and co-author, Doug Bradley (We Gotta Get Outta This Place). Werner is also the author of Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America (revised edition); and Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival, among others.  Werner is a member of the Nominating Committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has won numerous teaching awards.
 
Doug Bradley has written extensively about his Vietnam, and post-Vietnam, experiences. Drafted into the U. S. Army in March 1970, he served as an information specialist (journalist) at U. S. Army Republic of Vietnam headquarters at Long Binh from November 1970-November 1971. Doug relocated to Madison, WI in 1974 where he helped establish Vets House, a storefront, community-based service center for Vietnam era veterans. In addition to writing a blog for Next Avenue.org, Doug is the author of DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle.

Shop Independent Durham
Tom Campbell
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St.
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 286-2700
http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Dave Barry and the "Weirdest State Ever" Contest!

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The  Regulator is bringing humorist Dave Barry to the Durham Armory Wednesday, September 7th
 
By "Best" here, Dave means the weirdest, strangest, most bizarre state of all. 
We'll grant that Florida does have some cred when it comes to weirdness, but pride in our own beloved home state make us feel we can't let Florida lay claim to the title of Weirdest State Ever without a fight!
Thus, The Regulator announces the

North Carolina: Weirdest State Ever Contest!

The contest rules are simple. Write up the Top Three Reasons that you think make North Carolina a serious contender for the title of Weirdest State Ever. Email your Top Three to regulatorbookshop@gmail.com with the subject line "Weirdest State Ever." Entries must be received by the end of the day on Friday September 2nd.

The Regulator will put together a sufficiently weird bunch of people to judge the entries, and the three best will be broadcast all over town through social media, email, our web site, etc. The grand prize winner will also have his/her entry read out loud at the Dave Barry event. All three finalists will receive a free ticket to the Dave Barry event and a free signed copy of his new book. The grand prize winner will also receive a $25.00 Regulator gift certificate.

Come hear Dave Barry at the Durham Armory
Wednesday September 7, 7:00 p.m.
 
This will be a ticketed event. Two tickets come with each purchase of the book ($27.00), or tickets without a book are $10.00 each. Books with tickets may be purchased at the store, through our web site, or at the door. Admission tickets may be purchased at the door. Admission tickets may be used as credit toward a book purchase at the event.

Dave Barry
 
Upcoming Events

DANNY JOHNSON
Thursday, August 4, 2016, 7:00 pm
From Pushcart Prize nominee Danny Johnson comes The Last Road Home, a powerful, lyrical debut novel that explores race relations, first love, and coming-of-age in North Carolina in the 1950s and '60s. At eight years old, Raeford "Junebug" Hurley has known more than his share of hard lessons. After the sudden death of his parents, he goes to live with his grandparents on a farm surrounded by tobacco fields and lonesome woods. There he meets Fancy Stroud and her twin brother, Lightning, the children of black sharecroppers on a neighboring farm. As years pass, the friendship between Junebug and bright, compassionate Fancy takes on a deeper intensity. Junebug, aware of all the ways in which he and Fancy are more alike than different, habitually bucks against the casual bigotry that surrounds them--dangerous in a community ruled by the Klan.
 
"This novel is sure to join the rich canon of Southern literature." --Anna Jean Mayhew, author of The Dry Grass of August
 
Danny Johnson is a member of The North Carolina Writer's Network and  served as fiction judge for the Weymouth Center for Arts and Humanities in 2014. His stories have appeared in Fox Chase Review, Remembrances of Wars Past Anthology, South Writ Large, Sheepshead Review, A Southern Journal, The Camel Saloon, and Main Street Rag's Best of Raleigh Reading Series, among others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in short fiction, his short story "Dancing with My Shadow" was judged by Writer's Digest as one of the 100 best in 2012, and he was a finalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest in 2013. Johnson is a Vietnam Veteran and recipient of the USAF Distinguished Flying Cross.
 
WILLIAM DAVIS
Tuesday, August 9, 7:00 PM
William "Endlesswill" Davis will join us at The Regulator Bookshop with spoken word poetry in celebration of his new collection, Broken Perception. Born in 1987, Endlesswill's 87 count poems in Broken Perception offers readers an assortment of remarkable poems that are as complex and multifaceted as the poet himself. Reflection of the self, renewal of the spirit, and sharp social commentary are among the many striking themes of the compilation of poems bound in Broken Perception.
 
As written work, Broken Perception offers readers a tangible visual medium through which to enjoy and explore the craft of Endlesswill's poetry. The semantics and symbolism found between the lines of this work will bring readers to the pages again and again.
 
William "Endlesswill" Davis is a spoken word artist who is dedicated to continuing the tradition of poetry in living form. Founded in a belief that creation and expression is one of the most valuable attributes gifted to humanity, Endlesswill uses writing to examine the spectrum of the human condition from a holistic point of view. Ambitious in his craft and performance, Endlesswill offers audiences unforgettable performances that evoke thought, introspection, and connection as a community.
 
APS CAT ADOPTION EVENT
Sunday, August 14, 2016 2:00 pm
Durham Animal Protection Society will hold a monthly cat adoption event at the Regulator. Come visit our furry friends from 2:00 - 3:30. Note the time and date.
 
ZINE WORKSHOP with TRISTAN MILLER (Ages 16 and up)
Sunday, August 21; 2:00PM -- 4:00PM 
For ages 16 and up. There is a $15 materials fee payable to the instructor. Pre-registration is recommended.  To register, email Tristin Miller: tristin.miller@gmail.com -- Please note the time and fee.
 
Have you ever wanted to create your own ZINE? Join arts educator Tristan Miller at The Regulator Bookshop for a hands-on Zine Workshop. Learn how to use found materials, daily writings, original drawings, and collaging to design your own zine. $15 for workshop fee and all materials will be provided. Ages 16+  
 
What's a Zine???  A zine (/ˈziːn/ zeen; an abbreviation of fanzine or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.
 
Tristin Miller, of Greensboro, NC, is an illustrator & fine arts instructor who loves to read and make zines. www.tristinmiller.tumblr.com
 
To register for workshop email: tristin.miller@gmail.com. Pre-registration is recommended.
 
LIZ McGUFFY
Thursday, August 25 at 7:00PM
Durham resident and Tar Heel native Liz McGuffy will give a talk on Mary Hancock: One of North Carolina's Most Successful Unknown Writers, based on McGuffy's article on Mary Hancock in the latest edition of the North Carolina Literary Review. Mary Hancock lived most of her life in the foothills of North Carolina, and wrote a number of popular historical novels. Her first novel, "Menace on the Mountain," was made into a Walt Disney productions television movie in 1970, with an eight year old actress named Jodie Foster in a supporting role.
 
CRAIG WERNER
Monday, August 29 at 7:00PM
Explore the music that made Vietnam "the rock 'n' roll war" through the recollections of those who fought the war and survived it. Author Craig Werner will be at The Regulator Bookshop to discuss his new book, We Gotta Get Outta This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.

Co-authors Bradley and Werner explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the World back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate how music sometimes united and often exposed deep and contentious divisions between soldiers of different racial and regional backgrounds. Many of the voices are those of ordinary soldiers, airmen, seamen, and marines. But there are also "solo" pieces by veterans whose writings have shaped our understanding of the war-Karl Marlantes, Alfredo Vea, Yusef Komunyakaa, Bill Ehrhart, Arthur Flowers-as well as songwriters and performers whose music influenced soldiers' lives, including Eric Burdon, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Country Joe McDonald, and John Fogerty. Together their testimony taps into memories-individual and cultural-that capture a central if often overlooked component of the American war in Vietnam.

Craig Werner, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaches literature, music and cultural history, as well as a course on war with Vietnam War veteran and co-author, Doug Bradley (We Gotta Get Outta This Place). Werner is also the author of Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America (revised edition); and Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival, among others.  Werner is a member of the Nominating Committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has won numerous teaching awards.
  
Shop Independent Durham
Tom Campbell
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St.
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 286-2700
http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/