April 2009: Instant Decorator

We know you’re busy and important. So busy, in fact, that you might not even have time for decorating. But, if you happen to get a spare minute, consider this bulletin board project. Not only is it deceptively simple (“Oh, I just threw that together last week,” you can tell them), and stylish, it’ll get […]

Is it better to buy digital, or to buy local?

Since buying a new iPod a few months ago, I’ve spent less time buying music and more time digging through records I already own—uploading old Magnetic Fields and Beck albums while I page through lyrics and liner notes, then digging around online for the best album cover image I can find to fit my iPod’s […]

The price of success

We all know that restaurants are hurting across the board right now, what with all the tightening of wallets, closing of corporate expense accounts and losing of jobs,

Kirsty Harmon is Blenheim’s new winemaker

Kirsty Harmon is pouring her new wines; “new,” as in recently finished and bottled, but also new in that they represent the rebirth of Blenheim Vineyards. The winery, owned by Dave Matthews and family, has been shaken up since parting ways with original winemaker Brad McCarthy. Since its inception the winery’s reputation has been based […]

Hitchhiker's guide to wine

Wine is a wholly remarkable substance and one of its primary wonders is its ability to transport you, via taste, to far off lands. I am, I admit, a chronic hitchhiker on the wine trail, never content to stay in one place. But it’s a great time to be traveling, as wine is cropping up […]

Darius Rucker’s got game

It’s good to be back in the tournament now,” Darius Rucker told me during a phone interview last week, and he wasn’t talking about his music career, risen like a phoenix in a Stetson from the ashes of another animal. Specifically, a Blowfish. Rather, Rucker’s talking about the University of South Carolina hoops squad, back […]