Issuu

PLUS: UP ALL NIGHT

TOWERVIEW OCTOBER 2015 | VOL. 17 | ISSUE 3

KICKING IT WITH MHG Duke student, varsity soccer player —and up-and-coming rapper

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On view through September 18, 2016

Maya (Guatemala), Cylinder vase (detail), c. 600-850 CE. Polychrome on ceramic, 5 1⁄2 x 6 1⁄8 inches (14 x 15.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion. The New Galleries: A Collection Come to Light is made possible by Nasher Annual Fund donors with special support from Anita and John Schwarz.

nasher.duke.edu/newgalleries

TOWERVIEW

CONTENTS

OCTOBER 2015 - VOL. 17 - ISSUE 3

CONTENTS CLAIRE BALLENTINE

CARLEIGH STIEHM

FRANKLIN STREET FRIGHTS

FAIR PAY, FRESH DONUTS Monuts and Rise are competitors on the Durham foodie circuit, but they’re partners in paying employees a living wage

KICKING IT WITH MHG

TOWERVIEW STAFF

PHOTO ESSAY: AWAY FOR AUTUMN

ELIZABETH DJINIS SAMANTHA NEAL

DUKE AFTER MIDNIGHT

NICK MARTIN

PIGGING OUT

EMMA BACCELLIERI

SITTING DOWN WITH DEAN SUE

A look at the Triangle area’s most popular Halloween celebration

NICK MARTIN

Duke student, varsity soccer player—and up-andcoming rapper. Towerivew talks to Macario Hing-Glover

A look at Fall Break around the country in photographs

Two Towerview reporters stay up all night at Duke’s greatest 24-hour hotspots: Perkins and Pitchfork Provisions

Barbecue is as big a part of Durham culture as anything—but who does it best? Towerview goes to find out

The popular administrator shares her most treasured possession, greatest regret and more

ON THE COVER PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MACARIO HING-GLOVER Album cover for “Sophisticated Ignorance” mixtape (Type MHG)

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EDITOR’S NOTE

letter from the editors Dear readers,

towerview ’

the chronicle s news and culture magazine

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF nick martin and emma baccellieri

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR MATTHEW ROCK CREATIVE DIRECTOR THU VP NGUYEN EXECUTIVE EDITOR AMRITH RAMKUMAR

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Alex Deckey, Darbi Griffith, Jessica Williams, Jim Liu

CONTRIBUTING STAFF

Carleigh Stiehm Claire Ballentine, Elizabeth Djinis Samantha Neal, Han Kang

GENERAL MANAGER ADVERTISING DIRECTOR AD CREATIVE DIRECTOR BUSINESS MANAGER

Chrissy Beck Megan Haven Julie Moore Mary Weaver

@TowerviewMag

dukechronicle.com/ towerview

Towerview Magazine

towerviewletters@ gmail.com

For many students, the all-nighter is a dreaded last resort—the path you take when all others have been taken from you, the only choice left when you face your personal failings in the miserable silence of Perkins after midnight. For some, maybe, there’s a hint of excitement to it. A little thrill that comes along with staying up past your bedtime, seeing the campus at its darkest and emptiest, watching Duke as it enters the witching hour. But there are some students who are better acquainted with the all-nighter—not as a last resort, but as an art and a science, a begrudging piece of the routine. For better or for worse, we count ourselves among this set. A year at the helm of The Chronicle will do that to you, and after our semesters of late-night breaking news and 4 a.m. layout checks, the two of us know all too well what it’s like to watch the sun rise over a pile of uncompleted homework and empty coffee cups. And no matter how accustomed you are to the all-nighter, no matter how well-integrated it is into your routine, there’s a tinge of frustration that never goes away: the incessant thrum of why didn’t I do this sooner, why didn’t I plan ahead, why do I do this to myself. The fatigue grows familiar, but it never gets pleasant, and eventually you find yourself standing in front of your overused dorm room Keurig, brewing coffee with Red Bull instead of water, hoping that it’s effective and praying that it doesn’t kill you. (Obviously, we’ve never done that. Obviously.) Of course, there are a few perks to the practice. Even the cushiest Perkins spots (I’m looking at you, Bostock bridge chairs) tend to clear out and open up around 2 a.m., and there’s never a line for tater tots at Pitchforks (sorry, we’ll never call it “Café Edens”). And no matter how overwhelmed and exhausted you are, seeing the sun rise over the Chapel is always beautiful. The best part of it, though, is the weird unspoken camaraderie that develops. There’s a sort of kinship you feel when you encounter someone else trudging to the Link’s vending machines at 5 a.m. or pacing dorm hallways in order to stay awake. A mutual acknowledgement that it sucks, yes, but also that you’re all in it together. Maybe that’s messed up, but it’s also—a little bit—beautiful. Get some sleep, Nick and Emma

Towerview is a subsidiary of The Chronicle and is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors. To reach The Chronicle’s editorial office at 301 Flowers Building, call (919) 684-2663 or fax (919) 684-4696. To reach The Chronicle’s business office at 103 West Union Building, call (919) 684-3811. To reach The Chronicle’s advertising office at 2022 Campus Drive, call (919) 684-3811 or fax (919) 684-8295. Contact the advertising office for information on subscriptions. Visit The Chronicle and Towerview online at dukechronicle.com ©2014 The Chronicle, Box 90858, Durham, N.C. 27708. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior, written permission of the business office. Each individual is entitled to one free copy.

NICK MARTIN 4

TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

EMMA BACCELLIERI

STREET FRIGHTS

STORY BY CLAIRE BALLENTINE A look at the Triangle area’s most popular Halloween celebration

hen the sun sets on Halloween, the world transforms for a night—and perhaps nowhere as dramatically as Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Since the 1980s, crowds from across North Carolina have flocked to the downtown Chapel Hill area to celebrate the one night when you can take on a new persona, whether that be a witch, zombie or Disney princess. Although the event was originally designed for the Chapel Hill community at large, recent turnouts of more than 80,000 attendees forced the city to aim efforts to

exclusively include only those within the community and students of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But against the wishes of Chapel Hill’s chief of police, the event’s stubborn popularity persists, and even the much-maligned devils from Duke manage to find a way into one of the state’s largest celebrations. “It’s really exciting, especially if you go dressed up,” senior Juan Ramirez said. “The costumes are always fun to watch and take pictures of. It’s pretty friendly.” Notable outfits in past years have TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

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included minions from “Despicable Me,” “Hunger Games” characters and a male student wearing a Barack Obama mask surrounded by his “secret service”— friends dressed in suits speaking into walkie-talkies. One teenager even took the phrase “one night stand” literally by dressing up as a cardboard nightstand. For those of age, bars like The Library and Spanky’s also provide venues for celebrating the night. And as it goes with any event bringing out tens of thousands spooksters, Halloween on Franklin Street allows for people of all ages to come together over a mutual love for the spooky holiday. “It’s an opportunity for students and locals to share common ground,” said Lt. Josh Mecimore, public information officer of the Chapel Hill Police Department. “They get to interact in a way that they don’t normally get to.” However, huge crowd sizes in the past show that locals are not the only ones attending the event. At its peak in 2007, more than 80,000 people visited Franklin Street on Halloween night—a figure that surpasses the city population, said Chris Blue, chief of police for Chapel Hill. After realizing that the town could not safely handle such an influx of people in a single night, Town Manager Roger L. Stancil began “Homegrown Halloween”

FROM A PUBLIC SAFETY POINT OF VIEW, KEEPING THIRTY TO FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE SAFE IS A VIRTUAL IMPOSSIBILITY.” — Chris Blue, Chief of Police for Chapel Hill

in 2008, which aims to reduce crowd sizes and turn Halloween on Franklin Street into a small-town community gathering as it originally was. Blue noted that since then the crowds have reduced dramatically—last year, an estimated 32,000 people attended. Mecimore explained that this alteration remarkably reduced the number of incidents that have occurred since 2008, most of which have resulted from alcohol consumption. Still, Halloween on Franklin Street poses significant challenges for Chapel Hill authorities like the police department. “From a public safety point of view, keeping 30,000 to 40,000 people safe is a virtual impossibility,” Blue said. But Blue added that the Homegrown Halloween initiative has resulted in a greater level of cooperation from attendees and that more people come in costume now. In the past, many just attended the event to watch the crowds. But even with the decrease in attendees, alcohol overdoses are the biggest issue the department faces, according to Blue. Last year, the number of overdoses saw a “dramatic and significant” increase, he said, a possible result of the fact Halloween fell on a Friday night. During the celebration, 13 arrests were made and

29 EMS calls occurred. Because the festivities occur in a confined space, crowd rushes are also a concern. The police attempt to avoid this by restricting items that could be construed as weapons, which might lead to widespread panic. “If you’re going to be a pirate, you’re going to be a swordless pirate,” Mecimore said. Mecimore added that the police department plans for Halloween on Franklin Street year-round—beginning the day after Halloween with plans for the next year’s celebration. Strategies to reduce incidents include traffic diversion plans and a perimeter set up within the main event that checks for prohibited items. The police department also recruits officers from neighboring areas for the night to compile a force of 300plus officers. Although many Chapel Hillians take pride in the event because of its popularity and regional acclaim, Blue noted that he does not see any benefits of the event because of the event management costs— which range from $230,000 in 2006 to $188,000 in 2013—and the public safety concerns. “There’s not much in the way of culturally redeeming characteristics,” he said. TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

Several Duke students also noted that the downsides to the event can outweigh the positives. “The novelty wears off after the first 30 minutes to an hour,” sophomore Ozi Boms said. “It’s only fun if you have something to do after or you know someone at UNC.” Sophomore Bella Rivera noted that her experience with Franklin Street last year mostly involved cold temperatures and being surrounded by strange people. “Unless you’re 21 or have a fake, you can’t get in anywhere,” she said. “If you have good friends though, it becomes a bonding experience.” Despite the negatives of the celebration, Blue said that he thinks Chapel Hill as a town does a great job managing the event and that all of the town departments and surrounding agencies cooperate well. “It’s very much a team effort,” he said. “We take our responsibility very seriously.” Blue emphasized that Halloween on Franklin Street is for Chapel Hill residents only and discouraged Duke students from attending. “Don’t go and tell your friends not to go,” he said. However, if this year is anything like past years, chances are that at least a few Blue Devils show up. Whether it’s the costumes, the excitement in the air or the potential for controversy, there’s something about Franklin Street on Halloween that’s irresistible to many.

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FAIR PAY, FRESH DONUTS

FAIR PAY, FRESH DONUTS STORY BY CARLEIGH STIEHM

Which came first, the doughnut or the living wage? For two of Durham’s favorite bakeries, you can’t have one without the other. TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

Monuts Donuts and Rise Biscuits and Donuts are two of the nearly 70 local businesses that have become certified as Durham living wage employers. The Durham Living Wage Project launched last March, with 13 nonprofits and 29 companies signed on as certified. To gain certification, a business must prove they pay employees at least $12.53 an hour. The state and federal minimum wage is currently $7.25. Over the course of one year, an employee working full time at the living wage would garner more than $10,000 more than a full-time worker earning minimum wage, explained Mel Norton, a Durham Living Wage Project coordinator. “It might not seem like a lot on the day-to-day, but over time that can make a huge impact on the quality of life those workers are able to afford,” Norton said. When Monuts first launched in 2011, co-founders Lindsay Moriarty and Rob Gillespie knew they wanted to be a business that prioritized employee welfare. “That is pretty uncommon in the restaurant industry,” Moriarty said. “But we both came at our restaurant with a more socially-minded focus.” As part of aligning with those priorities, Monuts began paying a living wage well before the project was established. Likewise, Rise also had a policy of

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paying its employees above minimum wage before the project officially launched. Rise founder Tom Ferguson emphasized that the investment in paying employees a fair amount meant that they felt more connected to their jobs and their coworkers. Although Rise franchises—like the one set to open in downtown Durham next year—are not required to follow the living wage standard, they are encouraged to. Thus far, all of the franchises have adhered to this recommendation. Paying a living wage for restaurant workers is not common practice in the industry, Ferguson noted. “Rob and I are thrilled to see other restaurants starting to talk about this issue,” Moriarty said. “However, at the end of the day, we are the only restaurant in Durham to actually practice what we preach by raising base wages across the board and not relying on consumer tips to get our kitchen employees to a living wage.”

“It is part of my responsibility to lead the change and show how this can be possible,” Ferguson said. Although the project has grown significantly in its first year, there is still more that can be done. As new restaurants and businesses move into Durham, they have the opportunity to join the project and gain certification. “We’re proud at Monuts to support both these causes and then some by valuing our employees with living wages, paid time off and health insurance,” Moriarty said. “We eagerly await other restaurants to join us in this cause, and have made ourselves available as active members of the Durham Living Wage Certification Program to advise other restaurateurs on how to make a living wage model work.” One of the potential impacts of the Durham Living Wage Project is that an increasing amount of employees being paid

“It is part of my responsibility to lead the change and show how this can be possible.” For example, nationwide chain Krispy Kreme, which recently opened a location on Hillsborough Road, does not pay all workers a living wage, according to an employee. “Sadly, we will not see more restaurants paying a living wage to their entire staff until consumers step forward and identify good labor practices as a priority when deciding where to spend their restaurant dollars. We have seen the power consumers wield numerous times, first with diners bolstering local food and more recently with restaurant-goers identifying sustainable and healthy agricultural and sourcing practices as important to them,” Moriarty said. She noted that she has seen a clear increase in the number of Duke students looking for sustainable and healthy food options, but few think about carrying that level of awareness over to the workers at the restaurants they visit. Ferguson, however, says it is important that each generation of workers helps those who come next to struggle a little less, noting that he also offers his employees insurance benefits. “It becomes really important that it isn’t as hard for the people that come behind us as it was for us. I don’t have to go out and farm the field like my grandparents did. I don’t have to work at a factory with terrible working conditions like my family did,” Ferguson said. “Why should kids behind me coming up in restaurants have to go through abusive kitchens with low pay and no insurance?” It would be difficult to mandate that other business raise wages to a living wage level because some are more successful than others, Ferguson said. He noted that he considers it a privilege that Rise has been successful enough to be able to provide support to workers in this way.

a living wage will allow them to bring more money into the community to spend at local businesses. Currently in Durham, the most affluent 5 percent of households earn an average income that is more than 27 times higher than the poorest 20 percent of households. This leaves around one out of every five Durham residents living below the poverty level. On Duke’s campus, the impacts of the Durham Living Wage Project have also been seen within the greater-doughnut community. University coffee and pastry favorite Joe Van Gogh raised its wage payments to meet the living wage standard in order to become a part of the project, Norton noted. But patronizing JVG isn’t the only way she said Duke students could support the Durham Living Wage Project. “One of the things students can do is consider making living wage certified employers the center of their planning for holiday gifts,” Norton said. She highlighted the diversity of options among the certified employers to include places like boutiques Vaguely Reminiscent and Vert and Vogue. The goal of the project is to encourage more employers to join by promoting living wage certified businesses rather than shame the ones that aren’t, Norton said. As part of its work, the project often hosts “buy-cotts”—activism through purchasing power, rather than boycotting. Norton encouraged students to follow the project on social media to monitor when new local businesses are added to the certification. “Duke students are a significant portion of the Durham economy,” Moriarty said. “Where they spend their money matters.”

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KICKING IT with

MHG STORY BY NICK MARTIN Rapper Type MHG is probably one of the easiest people to find on Duke’s campus, but if you don’t know him—or even if you do—chances are you don’t know him by that name. With a Vic Mensa-esque hairstyle featuring all-blonde dreadlocks and a voice that sounds like Schoolboy Q, Logic and Chance the Rapper all in one, MHG has developed a small but faithful following, 1,508-strong on YouTube to go along with the nearly 500,000 views he’s compiled in just two years. And that’s only one of the crowds he performs for on a weekly basis. Macario Hing-Glover is a 20-year old sophomore at Duke, a starter on the men’s soccer team and by daytime, nighttime and naptime, independent underground rapper Type MHG.

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“WHEN I TOOK IT SERIOUSLY WAS WHEN I MADE A REMIX. IT WAS A DRAKE REMIX: ‘0100.’ IT GOT 30,000 VIEWS ON YOUTUBE. IT WAS NOT WHEN MY FRIENDS WERE T E L L I N G M E [ T H AT I K N E W ] , BUT WHEN I S TA R T E D GETTING EXPOSURE OUTSIDE OF MY FRIEND G R O U P. ”

0-100, Real Quick It isn’t surprising that Hing-Glover, born and raised in Phoenix, has a dream of being a successful artist, as he grew up in a musically-inclined family. But even with music in his blood, his roots aren’t exactly set in rap. “My whole family was pretty musical—my mom played the piano, my sister played the piano and sang. She sang a lot of classical music, like opera and stuff,” he said, adding that he also played piano and trumpet early on. “I didn’t hear that much rap when I was younger.” It wouldn’t be until high school that he was truly exposed to rap music, consuming 50 Cent and Eminem during his introduction to the genre. Imitating the fast-paced, shock-rap style of Eminem, Hing-Glover and his friends began writing and rapping lyrics to some of the songs they’d listen to, and before long, recording them. There was no real hip-hop dream or desire to be the next great emcee for any of them, just a kid and his friends trying to spit some fire on a 16 and get some exposure among their peers for the hell of it. But as it turns out, the teenage Hing-Glover actually had some heat behind his bars. Rapping into an iPad Mini (he didn’t invest in a legitimate mic and shock mount until senior year), Hing-Glover’s music started to impress his buddies. But even then, it wasn’t enough to force him to consider rapping as anything more than hobby. When he first started to dedicate more time and rack up a good amount of hits on his YouTube account, he wasn’t fully convinced this was anything more than a group of friends having some fun. Of course, “a good amount,” in YouTube language can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, but when his remix

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of Drake’s “0-100” broke into five-figure viewership, Hing-Glover finally realized he was on to something. “That was when people started giving me a lot of feedback. I didn’t really think of it past, ‘Oh, this is cool to be well-known around high school,” he said. “When I took it seriously was when I made a remix. It was a Drake remix: ‘0-100.’ It got 30,000 views on YouTube. It was not when my friends were telling me [that I knew], but when I started getting exposure outside of my friend group.”

Telling The Fams At home, away from the Internet, his parents initially balked at his new interest—rap was largely foreign to them, so connecting with their son’s music took a while. But, after enough coaxing and support, Hing-Glover’s parents came around to the idea. “It was something they had to come around to,” he said. “At first, they didn’t even like rap, so it was first them coming around to liking rap. Then there were some artists that they listened to when I showed them. And now, at least at the point I’m at right now, they’re really supportive. If there’s a music video or something they like, my mom will send me a text message saying she really liked it. And my dad’s been really supportive, same with my sister. That’s been really positive.” His parents wouldn’t be the last group he was nervous to show his music. As previously mentioned, Hing-Glover is a member of the Duke men’s soccer team, and if you’ve never been a part of a high school or college roster, you may not fully understand just how terrifying it is to enter as a freshman with something looming like an online, untold rap career. Rest assured, it’s a

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menacing challenge. Luckily—in retrospect—for Hing-Glover, he never had to tell any of his teammates. They found out on their own before he even played his first game. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone I rap. I remember, it was preseason last year, my freshman year, and one of the upperclassmen followed me on Instagram and they saw through my Instagram that I rap,” Hing-Glover said. “Then I came to the team dinner and everyone was playing my music. So it actually came out pretty quickly. I was planning on holding it for a while before I knew everyone, but that’s how it came out. The coaches found out soon after. They really like it, actually. And my teammates love it—they’re probably my biggest fans.” And that seems to be the pattern with just about all of HingGlover’s following—reading through the various YouTube videos’ comments sections, there’s not one negative comment to be found. But he’s aware that should he ever break through, there will likely be hate to come—not that he’s worried about it. “I haven’t actually experienced any hate about like, ‘Oh, you go to Duke, you can’t be a rapper,’” he said. “But that’s probably because my fan base is mostly Duke, and even my online fan base was already there before I went to Duke. I’m sure that if I ever do make it, I’ll experience hate about that, but I find it so insignificant that I’m not even worried about it.”

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Behind the Beats Since he’s been at Duke, Hing-Glover has dropped two mixtapes, “Millionaire Mentality,” which dropped in February, and “Sophisticated Ignorance,” which he released via DatPiff Oct. 2. Both contain upwards of 15 songs, and both took roughly five months to fully complete due to an already-busy schedule. “It’s really time consuming,” he said. “I think some people take naps, so that’s probably when I make music. When I make music, I usually have an idea—I don’t go and sit down and think, ‘I have to make a song.’ It’s more that I’ve thought about a lot of stuff over a period of two weeks, and maybe have written some stuff down on my iPhone, and then I find a beat that I think will match with whatever I want to say. Then I combine everything and write lyrics. It probably takes an hour to write it and then rap it, and maybe another hour to mix it. It’s more efficient than trying to pump it all out.” One thing to note is that unlike the old days when rap artists had to hand out mixtapes and pray to get air time on the radio— those things still happen, but less prominently—Hing-Glover’s following has been entirely created online. Even his producers are other online artists he’s connected with since he started, though more recently that duty has evolved to include Duke

students who want him to rap over one of their beats. However, he has, once, performed for a live audience—his peers. “It was at STARS. It’s a [Duke] athlete performance. They had four or five athletes sing, and then I performed. They did it in the auditorium in Reynolds Theater,” he said. “I loved performing. It was so much fun. I’m a person who gets really hyped with stuff like that, and I had one of my good friends performing with me as my hype man. That was really fun, and I loved doing that, but most of my presence, really, all of it, is online. I wouldn’t be anywhere, I’d be at like five fans if not for the online presence.” Now, when it comes to Type MHG’s current music, like any 20-year old artist, there’s still a lot to improve on. His writing can feature some fairly-weak redundancies and the production value on his videos are very DIY-quality, but all things considered—”all things” being the fact that Hing-Glover attends Duke and is a prominent player on the men’s soccer team—he’s nailed down his delivery and flow, which is the one thing he’s always working at. As he pointed out, his delivery contains a few similarities to that of Logic’s, though I’d argue that there’s a hint of Schoolboy Q in some of his more aggressive, faster-paced songs, like “Savage.” And throughout the music, mostly when he slows things down, there’s an almost uncanny voice similarity to Chance the Rapper,

both boasting a raspy but somewhat melodic voice. Hing-Glover points out that the sing-rapping—or “J. Cole style,” as he refers to it—is something he wasn’t a fan of in his early days, but he’s slowly coming around. “When I first started, it was just, like, me saying lyrics. But a lot of it had to do with who I was listening to at the time. I remember when I first started rapping, I was listening to a rapper named Dizzy Wright, who had a faster flow. It was smooth and fast. I remember liking it and changing my style,” Hing-Glover said. Looking forward, with a mixtape just out, Type MHG will keep creating mixtapes and videos for his fans while also playing for the Blue Devils and pursuing his degree, which he plans to be in sociology. From there, things are pretty open for the charismatic 21st-century emcee, who says investment banking is also an option he’s currently weighing. “I’d say my plan is to pursue soccer and rap throughout college, get my college degree, then, once I get my degree, if I can get enough money through soccer to retire off of and live comfortably, I’ll pursue soccer,” he said. “Or if I’ve built such a big fan base through rap in the next three years that I can pursue rap professionally, but I definitely have to be at a certain point.” And while he may not be at that point yet, Hing-Glover’s music and popularity have come miles since he first told the world about his dopeness. He’s already gone “0-100” once— don’t be surprised if it happens again. TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

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DUKE AFTER

MIDNIGHT There aren’t many 24-hour places on Duke’s campus. But there are a few, and two of them are truly campus institutions—Perkins Library and Café Edens. Towerview decided to pull some all-nighters and observe Duke after dark. 22

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STORY BY ELIZABETH DJINIS

1:00 AM: Von der Heyden Pavilion

12:00 AM: Introduction It’s almost 1 a.m. By Perkins all-nighter standards, the games have just begun. Will students finish their problem sets? Will The Link vending machine dare to break down? Only the next few hours will tell.

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While some latecomers are just beginning their nights, sophomores Attyat Mayans and Angie Shen are finishing theirs. Mayans and Shen were nestled in a back corner of Von der Heyden, surrounded by...almost no one. Late night Vondy is a desolate place. Mayans tapped away at her keyboard, bathed in the bright light of her laptop screen. “‘I’m writing a paper due tomorrow,” she smiled, only to quickly correct herself. “I mean, I’m just editing it.” The paper is about Medieval music, and Mayans is a music major. She’s also a night owl, so she’s no stranger to latenight Perkins. “I’m most productive at night,” Mayan said. “It’s because I choose to, not because I’m forced to.” Her friend, Angie Shen, had no set schedule. She was leaving Perkins before 1 a.m. to get some reading done in the morning. Shen is a statistics major, which merited

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a “lol” from her. Right now, she’s taking a gender and political theory course. “Stats is pretty hard, but it takes me longer to read,” Shen said. Both girls were wrapped in thick sweaters and shivered to themselves. Is Perkins too cold, I asked, as Mayans pulled her grey fleece Patagonia closer around her? “[The air conditioning] is a waste of energy,” Shen said. *

2:00 AM: The Link With its cozy study booths and well-lit space, The Link is an ideal study spot for groups looking to talk. At 2:30 am, junior Jeremy Fox sat in an almost private booth with headphones, laptops, Saladelia plastic boxes and coffee cups strewn around him. The piece could be titled: Portrait of a Duke Student in Stress. Fox was switching between studying for an algorithms test and doing artificial intelligence homework. The Link is one of his preferred spots because he can talk freely and he tends to run into friends, he said. Was he almost done with his work? “No,” Fox laughed. But he’ll only stay one more hour. *

3:00 AM:

...still in The Link, due to extenuating circumstances (read: a nap)— By 3 a.m., the library starts separating the boys from the men. The hard-core studiers stake out their spots for the rest of the night as stragglers shuffle out of the library. To stay awake, your humble reporter

downed an entire bag of Fritos and is now working on a bag of Doritos. I’m looking for more chips ending in “--itos,” so if you work for FritoLay, let me know. The more orange the chip, the better. In between consuming nearly half of The Link vending machine, I also committed the unthinkable in Perkins: I fell asleep. My “just a few minutes” turned into about 40. If there’s one thing this assignment has proven to me, it’s that I am a senior. Maybe I’m not up to this anymore. Duke has aged me. *

4:00 AM: Fourth floor Allied Barton security guard Morton Slutsky patrols the halls of Perkins looking for mayhem. Most nights, he finds something less climactic. “I see students sleeping all the time,” Slutsky laughed. Slutsky has worked in Perkins for the past two years, from midnight until 8 a.m. When he comes home from a long night shift, he walks his dog, feeds his fish and settles into sleep during the hours of day when most people are just getting up. And Duke students make it worthwhile. Slutsky said some of the more frequent Perkins visitors call him “dad” or “pops.” “They’re beautiful kids,” Slutsky said. “I love them all.” *

4:30 AM: Homebound After a long and eventful night, my editor has given me the go-ahead to leave this place. In her words: “Dunkin Donuts opens at 4:30, so that’s as good an

indication of the morning as ever.” As I walk out of Von der Heyden, nearly empty at 4:35 a.m., I spy Janett Dunegan, a longtime Duke janitor. Dunegan is a Perkins regular. She’s worked at Duke for 11 years and spent six and a half of those working in the library. She arrives at 3:30 a.m. and stays until noon. This gives her a more comprehensive view of Perkins, she said. “I come in here to all the mess,” Dunegan smiled. “And I make it clean for the students.” Dunegan said the students are always friendly to her and will often thank her for all the work she does. But one phenomenon she will never understand—finals week. “The students have so much work and they’re always freaking out,” Dunegan said. “But then they get it done.” The Duke struggle, summarized. *

All in all, I’d give my Perkins allnighter experience a 10/10, would do again. I met some interesting Perkins friends that I know will be my best friends for life. I mean, I’m a senior. New semipermanent friendships are everything I’m looking for. But one thing I’ve always loved about Perkins: it brings people together. There’s a solidarity in seeing your friends up until the wee hours of the night, running the whole gamut of emotions, just trying to finish an assignment. When we all leave this Gothic Wonderland, we’ll no longer have the opportunity to be in so much mental anguish in one place as late as we want.

It’s a kind of magic.

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At 11:55 p.m. on a Wednesday night

Café Edens—the West Campus mainstay formerly known as Pitchfork Provisions—smells like tater tots, bacon and hot wing sauce.

STORY BY SAMANTHA NEAL

24-hour eatery that begins serving breakfast at 11 p.m. and has an entire section of the menu dedicated to “grub,” Café Edens is a favorite late night option for many students. Its location also proves convenient for residents of Few, Keohane and Edens who want a study break or a snack to keep them going. When I first arrive, the eatery is the most deserted it will be for the rest of the night, so I grab a booth with a good vantage point. Throughout the night, the types of students in Café Edens vary. Initially, I blended in with my glasses and Duke hoodie among students grabbing to-go items before heading back to study. Others hang out with a group of friends in the restaurant as nighttime procrastination. “Pitchforks is where you come when you’re hungry and don’t want to study,”

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sophomore Larissa Cox said. By 12:30 a.m., the restaurant has become more crowded, and there are more people wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis than I normally see on a Wednesday night. “Well, we’re drunk right now,” a boy in a blue Hawaiian shirt blurted out almost immediately after I approach him and his friend. They’ve just come from a mixer to grab some food. Paulette, the night manager of Café Edens, said that the most popular item once the clock hits 11 p.m. is eggs. Other favorites include tater tots and grilled cheese, which can be spiced up with various add-ons such as bacon, avocado and apples. “The grilled cheese with ham is bae above all else,” a student recommended to his friend. Of course, the Haystack—a plate of fries smothered in cheese, gravy and jalapenos—is a common choice among

students visiting Pitchforks late at night. I also spied a pair of girls with Caesar salads and splitting a side of tots. At around 1:30 a.m. business spiked again with a different type of customers— the start of the post-Wednesday Night Shooters crowd—marked by the unmistakable smell of beer and sweat. After ordering, a boy in a fraternity t-shirt drops his glass beer bottle, shattering it on the floor. He quickly flees the scene to wash his hands in the bathroom while a girl with him starts picking up the glass shards before a worker can mop up the mess. Another girl loudly smacks one of the lamps above a booth with a fork, temporarily silencing the restaurant. “It’s a cultural call,” her friend announces. “Respect my culture.” I now feel more out of place typing on my laptop among the girls in crop tops or loose dresses and the boys in button downs and khakis taking Snapchats and

laughing. Interestingly enough, though, there’s still variety in Café Edens—Batman pajama pants and slippers mingle among skinny jeans and wedges. A boy with headphones finishes his chemistry homework as guys in a nearby booth drunkenly discuss Texas high school football. Tonight was a pretty typical night, workers said, adding that Friday and Saturday nights are even busier with crazier student antics. “It’s college, I assume students are under stress and need a release,” Paulette said. “Just don’t disrupt the place.” Students have fallen asleep in the booths and workers have been forced to wake them up. Drunken

behavior is expected during a late night at Café Edens, Paulette notes, even on quiet Monday night. “We try to be as patient as we can and smile and do our best,” she said. The night begins to wind down close to 3 a.m. though the restaurant is by no means empty. As someone who is nearly always found asleep at this point on any given night, I decide to retreat to the comfort of my bed. Leaving my booth after three hours, I realize that I’ve enjoyed observing both familiar and unfamiliar faces pass through. If there’s anything that can bring together a wide range of students on any given night, it’s Pitchforks.

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out

pigging STORY BY NICK MARTIN

Allow me to start this month’s featured food reviews by explaining just how important this month’s topic—barbecue—is to me and Duke’s home state.

s a born-and-raised product of the state, I say with confidence that in North Carolina, there are few things that can be more divisive than barbecue— politics and the Duke-UNC rivalry are the only two things that come to mind. The reason behind this is that for centuries, North Carolina foodies and pork lovers have attempted to perfect the craft of barbecue, thus flooding the market with countless delicious stands, shacks, restaurants and leantos to feed the state’s insane demand. There are plenty of reasons why North Carolina is so obsessed with finelyshredded pork, most of them having to do with economic and agricultural background. But just know that if you have any barbecue takes to dish out, you better be well-informed and wellexperienced. Lexington features more of the pig’s shoulder while eastern includes the shoulder and pretty much everything

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else. The big difference, though, comes in the sauce: Lexington features a ketchup-based sauce and is applied after the dish is prepared. Eastern is all about the vinegar and is mixed in with the meat after cooking. “It’s about an 80-mile radius from Durham east, down to Wilson and Rocky Mount, that only serve a vinegarbased barbecue,” Bullock’s Barbecue Tommy Bullock said. “When you go west of here, it changes. It goes more of a Lexington style, where they just put the sauce on top of the meat—they don’t season it with it. And it’s good, but everyone thinks their barbecue is the best. But eastern North Carolina barbecue is the most different.” As we are in the eastern part of the state, it seemed just that I review a pair of Eastern-style barbecue joints and give you, the Duke community, the lowdown on where you can find the best pork in town.

THE GRANDFATHER OF DURHAM BBQ

There are certain special places you can enter and immediately realize the significance, even if you don’t yet understand it—Bullock’s Barbecue is one of those places. Now, I know you came here for barbecue talk, but before we get to the actual pork, Bullock’s has a special place in Durham history, so I’d be remiss to skip over it. The store first opened Aug. 1, 1952, about a half-mile down Hillsborough Road from the present location. In 1970, the Bullocks opened their second and current store. It was around the time of the move that Bullock’s began to bring in quite a few big names via catering and word-of-mouth. The list of celebrity visitors seemingly

goes on infinitely, with all the walls of the restaurant’s opening area—featuring takeout and checkout counters—covered with the faces and signatures of all those to pass through for a quarterpound of Bullock’s must-have barbecue. The list spans names that would make your parents and grandparents swoon: Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, George Strait, Joe Biden, New York Yankees—George Steinbrenner and the entire team swung by twice back when the team came through Durham—Burt Reynolds, Connie Chung, Robin Williams, Colin Firth and more. And among the most interesting of those to identify as a Bullock’s-fed celebrity is the first one on the list. “The first celebrity type we fed was Jimmy Buffett,” Bullock said. “We fed him at a concert in Chapel Hill at the UNC Student Union. Then the next celebrity was Kenny Rogers, he performed at the Dean Smith Center. Then Garth Brooks performed at the Dean Smith Center. And then word just sort of spread amongst the industry.” But as fast as the word spread around Hollywood, Nashville and New York, the food industry, namely the events food industry, took a turn away from local food in favor of national companies being contracted to handle all catering business. “It was a period of time in there that we really fed a lot of movie stars, as well as country music stars and politicians. Now these arenas have these national food service companies, and they make them take their food so they don’t have the flexibility of calling and bringing in an outside caterer. But there was an era that you’ll probably never see again of about a 10 or 12-year period that we fed a lot of celebrities.” When asked what has set his store apart from the rest of the barbecue in town, Bullock was quick to rattle off a list longer than that of the aforementioned celebrities—the Bullock’s BBQ menu, one he says he’s created for the public. It features countless daily specials, nearly 40 entrees, and plenty of comfortfood sides, all homemade, all as beloved as the next. Except, of course, for the barbecue. Bullock’s serves an Eastern-style barbecue, which is shredded fairly fine and is served alongside an extra side of sauce. The barbecue itself is tender and juicy enough to get my stamp of approval, though I’d have liked for mine to have had a bit more of a kick. Even though the barbecue didn’t knock my socks off, the sides—mac and cheese, Brunswick stew, baked beans and,

of course, hushpuppies—were all delicious and managed to surpass expectations. The hush puppies here were especially tasty, much more so than the “authentic” ones Duke students believe they’re getting at Cookout. The meal quality and experience, along with the wonderful staff, makes Bullock’s a must-eat restaurant for any Duke student hoping to better understand Durham. In a community that seems to open a hip, new restaurant every week, Bullock’s remains firm, holding the old barbecue fort down the same way it has for the past 63 years. And as long as they don’t change the menu, service or hush puppies any time soon, I imagine Bullock’s will be dishing out barbecue and serving the Durham community long after we leave.

BACKYARD BBQ REVIEW I say the following having taken the previous intro and the weight of North Carolina BBQ takes into account: Backyard Barbecue is the among the top-three barbecue experiences I have ever had in my life. Finding Backyard is not the easiest task—it’s located off of Route 55, roughly 15 minutes from campus. On the drive over, I was feeling a decent amount of pressure from the fact that Backyard had recently been rated the No. 1 barbecue joint in the state by Yahoo Travel. That’s no easy thing to live up to, and if the pig-providing restaurant was indeed undeserving of being No. 1, I knew it would be my duty as a journalist, reviewer and native to say as much. Luckily for both of us, I wouldn’t have to go to such extremes. There are a million things you notice when you walk in the store: the nonchalant, friendly, almost home-y ambience, the sweet smell of baked beans and barbecue, the walls. The restaurant’s interior walls are covered from floor-toceiling with signatures, mostly done in black Sharpie, from their customers, though this wasn’t always the case. According to Melvin Simmons, one of the store’s owners, the tradition started with Triangle-product and American Idol (back when it was a semi-cool thing to like) veteran Clay Aiken. You see, Backyard BBQ is apparently one of Aiken’s favorite places to grab a bite, so one day, as a token of his appreciation, he signed the wall.

“THE FIRST CELEBRITY TYPE WE FED WAS JIMMY BUFFET.” TOWERVIEW MAGAZINE

After Aiken adorned the wall with his John Hancock, it didn’t take long before Fabianne, Melvin’s wife and co-owner, was faced with a question from one of their regulars. “If Clay can sign the wall, why can’t I? What makes him so special?” Fabianne’s answer was simple— he’s no more special than any other customer. From that day on, every fan, customer or friend who came through the door had a space on the wall if they wanted it. The story of how the Simmons family came to own Backyard is a long, riveting one, but Melvin summed it up before giving me the lowdown, for brevity’s sake. “We started in April 2007,” he said. “[Fabianne’s] mom was sick and she didn’t [want] her mom going into a nursing home, so we needed an outlet, something that could generate funds. We discovered this place, rolled the dice on it and it became [Backyard.]” The place got its first round of notoriety when it was featured in “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue” by Dale Volberg Reed and John Shelton Reed. The inclusion was actually done after the couple had completed their book, as they were so impressed by the barbecue that they felt they had to include it, according to Simmons. And as someone who has now enjoyed this ‘cue twice now, I can say that the Reeds got it right: Backyard serves some fantastic barbecue. The meat is tantalizingly unique, as Backyard is one of two

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known restaurants in Durham to cook its meat on oak and hickory wood, according to Melvin, who also goes by Big Paulie. It’s juicy and tender, more so than any other I’ve had, and you can tell the meat has been cooking for an extra two hours on that wood-fired grill as soon as you take a bite. Oftentimes, places will serve dry Eastern-style barbecue, which is a big no-no when you’re dealing with a pre-sauced meat. Everything about the process has to be perfectly timed so that when the customer takes a bite, the moisture and the sauce are still present at the time of service. “We represent North Carolina for what is, which is a southern culture,” Melvin said. “Typically, we have origins of North Carolina. What a lot of people try to do is come in and create and recreate and bring forth a renaissance. But this establishment here is based on what we were brought up on…. This is not a competition, this is real life—this is how we feed our family.” Backyard has this down to a science, and the dedication to their craft should not go unnoticed. I went with baked beans and mac and cheese for my sides, both of which were delicious. The baked beans were surprisingly sweet, but I adjusted quickly and scarfed down my meal all-too soon. You should visit Bullock’s for the history, variety and convenience, but if you’re truly looking for some of the best barbecue in Durham, and the state of North Carolina, you have to stop by the Simmons’ shop. After all, it’s right in our backyard.

sitting down with

dean sue

The popular administrator shares her most treasured possession, greatest regret and more.

TOWERVIEW: When and where were you happiest?

DEAN SUE: In the sun. Your present state of mind.

Your favorite occupation. Your hero.

Grateful.

Teacher. DEAN SUE:

Your favorite virtue.

Anyone who says “Thank you.”

Your favorite meal. Your favorite time of the day.

Diligence.

Vegetables. Sunrise.

What is it that you most appreciate in life?

Opportunities to belong, be involved and be heard.

What is it that you most dislike?

People who don’t pick up their trash.

Your greatest accomplishment. Your favorite movie. It’s yet to be. Too many to list.

Your greatest regret.

That I need sleep.

Your most treasured possession.

DukeCard (It’s how I get into my home).

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TOWERVIEW OCTOBER 2015

the chronicleâ€™s news and culture magazine