RDU On the Rise: Spotify Wrapped revealed | Drinking in Durham | Tree-lighting season
Good morning, y’all!
It’s Mary Helen back again with this week’s edition of RDU On the Rise.
I cover Durham and it’s a particularly exciting week downtown, because our city’s social district is officially live.
It’s a lot bigger than Raleigh’s (humble brag) and here just in time for the holidays.
Good news to start the day
While downtown Durham is getting one kind of lit this weekend, it’s also tree-lighting season! A bunch of Wake County towns have theirs tonight. Durham’s is Saturday and the State Capitol’s is next week. Kimberly Cataudella put together a fabulous Holiday Event Guide to keep you merry all December long.
The Triangle has a Really Terrible Orchestra. Yes, you read that right. They are butchering the classics and loving it. Josh Shaffer has the delightful story about how the group came to be.
For all you soccer fans out there, enjoy this Durham high schooler’s story I wrote about covering the World Cup from Qatar for his student newspaper. The U.S. team plays the Netherlands at 10 a.m. Saturday.
It’s Spotify Wrapped season.
OK, time for a confession.
I don’t actually use Spotify. I get all my music from YouTube because (1) I really like music videos and (2) I’m not paying for more than one streaming service.
But Spotify Wrapped has become such a cultural sensation that other music apps have jumped in.
Korie Dean did a little digging to reveal how North Carolina artist stack up by monthly listeners. There are some surprises, so enjoy exploring the list and share your own stats... if you dare.
My top 5 artists this year:
Tyler Childers
Bad Bunny
Mac Miller
Doja Cat
Leon Bridges
A billion birds
A monthslong investigation of North Carolina’s secretive poultry industry published this week.
It’s a gripping series on how the state’s chicken and turkey farmers operate, how lawmakers have changed the rules to protect them, and a window into life near a chicken farm.
Our environmental reporter Adam Wagner partnered with reporters from The Charlotte Observer on the investigation.
Find all those stories and more here.
In other news
Lives lost: Fundraisers have been set up for the families of Keir Witherspoon, a young Durham woman who died in a Thanksgiving car crash, and Hailey Brooks, the child killed in Raleigh’s Christmas parade.
All eyes on NC election case: The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in what’s been described as “the single-most important case on American democracy” next week. Read up on Moore v. Harper.
Hop in: Vietnamese carmaker VinFast, which is building NC’s first auto manufacturing plant in Chatham County, sent its first shipment of electric vehicles to America.
What would you do with 32 extra years? A Wilmington man who got a double lung transplant at UNC Hospitals in 1990 has died. He was the world’s longest surviving lung transplant patient.
Deal sours: A local couple that sells adorable crochet creatures went on the hit ABC show Shark Tank this fall and made a deal. It never closed and Mark Cuban said he doesn’t know why.
Accidental death: The mysterious death of Charles Crooks, a 23-year-old who fell from a plane near RDU this summer, has been ruled an accident.
Things to do: Holiday edition
Friday: Watch the Muppet Christmas Carol at dusk in Raleigh’s Moore Square.
Saturday: Downtown Durham has an all-day holiday festival with live performances, including one by Durham’s own G. Yamazawa.
Sunday: Hillsborough’s Holiday Parade kicks off at 4 p.m.
There’s a ton more in The N&O Holiday Events Guide.
Enjoy the weekend
Thanks for reading. We will see you back here next week, when investigative reporter Tyler Dukes takes the reins of RDU On the Rise.
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