By David Menconi When it comes to songwriting, it’s good to be prolific, and Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is – but the catch is he doesn’t exactly have control of when the songwriting bug hits. “The flood hits and I’ll write 10, 20, 30, even 40 songs all at once,” Mantovani says. “Then the spigot turns off and… Read More →
david menconi
Down on Copperline: Libba Cotten/Cat’s Cradle
Featured photo by Daniel Coston By David Menconi It’s been well over a century since the late great Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten was born in what is now Carrboro, but you can still find traces of the Piedmont blues legend’s wonder years in her old hometown. A bike trail bears her name, and there’s a historical… Read More →
Down on Copperline: Kirk Ross
By David Menconi Chapel Hill musician Kirk Ross leads something of a double life, political reporter by day and rock star by night – except, of course, for those times when the legislature’s session runs into late-night hours, or a storm is coming. Covering calamities from 2016’s infamous HB2 “Bathroom Bill” to this year’s Hurricane… Read More →
Piedmont Laureate Presents: How to Cover Politics and Stay Sane, An Election-Year Preview
The Orange County Arts Commission and Piedmont Laureate David Menconi Present: How to Cover Politics and Stay Sane: An Election-Year Preview Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 7pm Chapel Hill Library In today’s increasingly divisive political climate, how do reporters cover politics while maintaining clarity, honoring industry ethics standards and, more importantly, keeping their sanity? And how are… Read More →
Down on Copperline: Michael Galinsky
By David Menconi Thirty years ago, Chapel Hill’s Michael Galinsky was taking a photography class at New York University. Partly for a class project and partly on a whim, he started shooting pictures at shopping malls across the country. The resulting photographs added up to a composite of a moment in time – 1989, just… Read More →