Welcome to The Bullhorn
A new place for Durham's small town news, friends' musings, eccentric classified's, upcoming events, poems, reviews etc. Straight from your friend's mouth to your inbox.
Origin Story
It’s been just a couple weeks since I deleted Instagram off my phone. A boring, cliche problem at this point, but a persistent challenge nonetheless. Just this morning, I was preparing my dogs’ breakfasts and considered it would be wise to buy low-sodium chicken broth in bulk. I don’t have a Costco membership, but had the immediate impulse to post on my Instagram story: lmk if you’re going to Costco anytime soon—need low sodium chicken broth for my overly pampered dogs. Of course I could download instagram to make this ridiculous request, but the boundary separating me from social media feels tenuous at best. I want to be able to get in touch with my community beyond just my friends, in a way social media allows. But I found myself at a loss for ways to do that without logging in.
There have always been methods for sharing information across places and people. Singing, passing notes, telegrams, phones, bulletin boards, email, tumblr etc. To say it’s gotten easier to share information is an understatement. Broadcasting details about your life has become a compulsion, designed to hook all the parts of your brain that long for connection and social reception. It's so easy now to tell a story of your summer in photographs or passively let hundreds of people see a post with the details of your band’s upcoming show. If my friends and I are at all representative, the number of people not on social media are maybe one in a hundred and those people are often forgotten, as Instagram-style passive sharing has become nearly ubiquitous. We don’t make social phone calls or have birthday calendars in our kitchens. I don’t know when someone has had a baby or if there are parties going on. Nobody told me about the local primary elections this month that were too small to be radio news. There are no longer group me’s amplifying information about protests or direct actions. There’s no church lunch, no morning announcements, no love letters, no bulletin board, no town cryer with a bullhorn.
I want to talk with both the people I know and love, and those I don’t yet. I don’t want my finger on the pulse of Durham’s goings on to be severed because I’m spending less time on my phone. I don’t want that for you, either. This is a place for us to share our announcements, our parties and marches, our desires and events, fundraisers and things for sale, the things we love, and the things we feel are wrong. Please follow along, if this speaks to you, and send in anything you’d like to share with your neighbors.
Upcoming Events
Saturday 10/28
Really Really Free Market from 1-4pm. 305 E Main Street. Bring things you want to give away and join for a skillshare, including changing brake pads, yoga, crochet, massage, embodied play and more. I’ll be here with a guitar and am happy to show people chords or help you learn to tune or change strings.
Sunday 10/29
All Out for Palestine Rally at Moore Square (201 S Blount St) 4pm. Get in touch if you want to carpool.
October 19 - Nov 4
Early voting in advance of election day, November 7
Swaps / needs / classifieds
Carter is looking for someone to purchase some low sodium chicken broth in bulk for their dogs and can reimburse on Venmo. Also seeking dog sitters/walkers….
Freaking Yum
Ideal’s Deli is serving up some of the most delicious sandwiches possibly in the world. I had the pleasure of stopping by today after they had run out of bread and sold out of my favorite sandwich—Uncle Primo’s Chicken Cutlet. Paul—an owner and sandwich guy—improvised, cutting a woven tin of garlic knots through the middle to create bread. The prosciutto mozzarella sandwich on garlic knots is transcendental. I hope you have the chance to try it sometime.