We sat around a long table on Maundy Thursday evening with a light feast spread down its length: chocolates, thin bread slices and fancy French cheeses, peanuts and cashews, dried apricots, strawberries, celery, tomatoes and broccoli all provided by our pastor, Kevin Matthews.

Alece Oxendines life story might not be the stuff of a Hollywood movie or even compelling subject matter for a small, independent film, at least not yet. Oxendines story, however, offers a testament to the power of art, specifically film festivals, to capture the imagination and change the course of a life.

I remember riding my bicycle like a madman, possessed of absolute enjoyment. My bike was a yellow, orange and crimson 10-speeder that looked like a flame as I churned my legs. I would grip the handlebars and laugh wildly as I scorched the neighborhood streets in search of the next hill.

According to the most recent figures, 20 percent of Greensboro residents live in poverty, and more than 26 percent of children do. How does this affect our actions, our public discourse and conventional wisdom? What does it mean about our collective future?.

The penultimate episode, which aired March 7, featured a reunion of former bachelorettes who were at one time or another spurned by bachelor Brad Womack. This is standard operating procedure for every every reality TV show: a reunion episode where former cast members get together to dish, verbally harass and sometimes physically assault one another.

Hosted by the Old Town Draught House on Spring Garden Street in the heart of UNCGs campus, the 5-mile race has become an institution. No matter what Mother Nature dishes out, whether 45 degrees and rainy or 85 degrees and sunny the BEERUN will happen, and it will put a smile on your un-tanned, out-of-shape, winter-weathered face.

Zion Bar and Grill in Greensboro is the Frankenstein of venues. Everyone and everything inside looks mismatched or completely out of place. To the left, used fishnets holding picture frames drape the walls opposite the bar. Plastic picnic-styled cloths with pastel designs cover small, square tables in the center room.

The traffic stop took place exactly a week after the notorious nightclub shooting on South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro last November. You remember shooting: Two groups of revelers left the N Club and a shooter opened fire in the street before being stopped by a Greensboro police officer.

The recycling tends to pile up in my apartment. My roommate and I toss empty soda cans, spam mail and old newspapers into a cardboard box by the refrigerator that serves as our recycling bin. Every Monday night if we remember we drag the cantankerous trash and recycling bins to the curb.

Sara Harper of High Point took in two great-great nieces and a greatgreat nephew with her husband, Curtis, rescuing them from what she characterizes as some pretty bad circumstances.

Never looking at Elmo quite the same again, a renewed appreciation for the life and work of Harry Belafonte, a deeper understanding of the parallels between the current rebellion in Egypt and the failed Green Wave revolution in Iran 18 months ago and a broader sense of the power of film in the age of Facebook and.

This past Sunday, I had the incredible opportunity to photograph and interview Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, star of MTV’s “Jersey Shore.” The lovable, whining, bouffant-sporting New Yorker scheduled several appearances in the Piedmont Triad area during the weekend.

That was the case in 2009, when, after Apple began looking to build an East Coast data warehouse here, the NC General Assembly voted in favor of a change in the statutes that would give them a $300 million tax break over the next 30 years.

I wake up roughly around 9:30 a.m. Since Im one of Americas jobless, I have no need nor any urge to get up at a reasonable hour. I roll out of the wrong side of the bed and I find myself dancing down the stairs toward the kitchen, guided by the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

On the rare occasions I remember a particular college classmate of mine, I find myself smiling. Sometimes I laugh. Its the same kind of affectionate laugh that comes forth when I think of my 9-year-old nephew and some of the ber-intelligent, amazing and amusing things hes done in his short lifetime.

Calm down, man, Brian reassured over the phone. Where are you at right now? We arranged to meet on Tate Street about an hour later. When I met with Brian at a coffee shop I tried to express my eagerness to write and get published even without a paycheck attached.

Evan Olson, the charismatic, blond-haired front man of the reunited Bus Stop, is leading the 1990s pop-soul group through its second set at the Blind Tiger in Greensboro when he calls out to the sidewalk to Bert Igar, the doorman of this venerable institution.

Kudzu Wish was a bad name for a rock band. It conjured up images of mullet-wearing Southern rock dudes. A stupid name that confused potential fans of our indie-rock ilk. Cud-what? would be an oftenheard reply through the barrage of questions and confused looks.

Okay, it is not the biggest bowl game. But the UNC-Chapel Hill football team and its fans can be proud of making it through a tough season and landing a game against the University of Tennessee. Where did the Music City Bowl name come from? We know that Nashville is a center for country music, but it has not always been that way.

The most interesting experience Ive had in a library special reading room was perusing the boxes of discovery materials in the federal civil suit filed by survivors of the Klan- Nazi shootings, which are housed at the Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill.