Latino Beat Editor Christina Lopez takes a personal look at growing up Hispanic in North Carolina.

by Christina Lopez
Latino Beat Editor

I never looked at my family as interracial. I was brought up like many families, in a warm house with two brothers, a mom and a dad. I went to Catholic elementary school and perceived my life to be what many would deem as normal.
We would take family vacations, and growing up I never thought about the logistics of things. My dad’s family was from Puerto Rico and resided in the heart of New York, while my mom’s family grew up in good old small- town North Carolina.
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By Jock Lauterer
Carrboro Commons Advisor

With apologies to Bob Dylan: “The media they are a-changin’.”

Here we are, a student-produced Web-based e-zine that would have been impossible back in the ’80s when your columnist began teaching journalism.
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 Dear Carrboro [5:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Guard It With Your Life
By Summer Saadah
Columnist

It was around this time last year, under the balmy blue sky of a Florida winter, that the official groundbreaking for Ave Maria took place. It’s just 5,000 acres of sunny soil–11,000 homes, a 100-foot high cathedral, a Roman Catholic university, a market, a pharmacy, a school and $400 million later and it’ll be finished. And what an accomplishment. It’ll be the first town that is a gated community! It’ll be the first gated community that is a town! It’ll be hard to tell the difference.
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By Daniel Matchar
Staff Writer

Tales from a Jaguar: the Carrboro High School Report

I’m Daniel Matchar, a sophomore at Chapel Hill High, and I’m a Tiger. I have legacy at that high school. My sister Emily and brother Ben graduated from there ages ago. For some time, I aspired to graduate from Chapel Hill High, carrying on the Matchar name. I had stuck the idea in my head that I had to finish high school there. I wanted the teachers who knew my siblings. I didn’t want change of any sort. But my mindset changed.
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Christina Lopez highlights Latino life in Carrboro in her column “La Vida Carrboro.” Lopez is a junior journalism major from Salisbury, NC.

It’s time to roll with “Radio Pa’Lante” on WCOM-FM 103.5.
“Radio Pa’Lante”, a non-profit program in Carrboro, promotes acculturation and assimilation among the Latin American immigrant community.
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By Summer Saadah
EDITORIAL EDITOR

“I want to say just one word to you — just one word.
Are you listening?”
Plastics.”
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Welcome to the Carrboro Commons, Round Two.

By Jock Lauterer
Lecturer, JOMC 459,
Community Journalism Adviser,
the Carrboro Commons

We have the gall. The unmitigated gall.

Some of you must be wondering: Where did this Carrboro Commons come from? Who’s behind this thing? UNC students!? How can a bunch of mere college kids presume to have the journalistic skills to even attempt to cover Carrboro? Yes, we are full of spit and vinegar.
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 Dear Carrboro: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The student staff of the Carrboro Commons gather for a group portrait: (front to back, left to right) co-editors Ashley Christian and Carrie Crespo; second row, Ramsey Bowman, Emily Brown and Features Editor Taylor Stanford; third row, Jordan-Ashley Baker, News and Copy Editor Joe Collevecchio, Kristan Haitz and Kyle Curtis; fourth row, Jack Carley, Tony Kim, Jung A Cho, Promotions Director Anna Swisher; A&E Editor Stephanie Novak and Machaele Stafford. Photo by Jock Lauterer

By Emily Brown

When Billy Sugarfix, 39, and his roommate Brian Risk, 31, sat down one day in their Carrboro apartment, they didn’t plan on writing a song that would become a local hit.

But by the end of the day, Risk, a software developer for Rho, Inc. and Sugarfix, a musician and local substitute teacher, had produced a rap song titled, “It’s Carrboro.” The song made its debut on WCOM radio later that evening.

“It was a total fluke,” Risk said, who bartends part-time at Cat’s Cradle in addition to his day job at Rho.

He mentioned that he and Sugarfix had been joking about living in Carrboro versus Chapel Hill when suddenly they started coming up with all sorts of lyrics.

“Every once in a while I’d help out with a song,” said Risk, who had been working on a beat for a while.

“When we got to the part about ‘droppin’ Plenty,’ that’s when I knew we had to write an entire song,” Risk said.

For any Carrboro newcomers, a PLENTY (Piedmont Local EcoNomy Tender) is a kind of local currency. When local businesses in Carrboro join the NCPlenty non-profit group, they pledge to accept PLENTY’s as a form of payment.

Despite growing up in Chapel Hill, Risk considers Carrboro his home. He feels more comfortable with his surroundings in Carrboro than in Chapel Hill. Risk described Chapel Hill as “the city” and doesn’t often venture outside of Carrboro unless it’s to play a game of pool at Zogs.

So where do Risk and Sugarfix like to hang out in Carrboro?

Risk does not have much time in between working at Rho, bartending at Cat’s Cradle and managing two personal web sites, but he does enjoy jogging and hanging out at Padgett Station, an organic bistro located on East Main Street.

Sugarfix is a member of the band Evil Wiener, which is currently getting ready for their upcoming Christmas Show at The Cave. The show is on December 22, 2006 and will beging around 10:30pm. He also runs his own custom song-writing business, customserenade.com in which he creates theme songs for blogs and podcasts.

Some of Risk and Sugarfix’s lyrics make light of Carrboro stereotypes and refer to individuals, like Ron Jeremy, who have nothing to do with Carrboro but were added for humor. However, the local businesses and people mentioned throughout the rap embody what Carrboro provides for so many: a sense of community.

The song got so much attention in Carrboro that Risk and Sugarfix decided to create a music video. With the help of Jason Meeks and Catherine Devine the “It’s Carrboro” music video made its debut at the end of the Flicker Festival at Cat’s Cradle on May 8th, 2006.

Risk said that his favorite part about creating the music festival was having the dance party in the alley by the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

For Sugarfix, the most thrilling and adrenaline rushing part of filming the music video came when he and Risk were rapping on top of the train tracks.

“All of the sudden a train actually did come down the tracks,” said Sugarfix. While they were both able to escape in time, Sugarfix said that he would never forget that moment.

He laughed and exclaimed, “In hindsight it was pretty comical.”

At one point the lyrics go as follows:

“If it’s locally owned: It’s Carrboro!
Organically grown: It’s Carrboro!
Your heart will warm: It’s Carrboro!
Got that hometown charm: It’s Carrboro!”

Carrboro’s hometown charm is alive and well. It’s local economy is thriving due to support residents give to local shops, businesses, and arts venues. Whether it is shopping at Weaver Street Market or sipping a warm cup of freshly brew coffee at Open Eye Café, your heart will warm simply because, “It’s Carrboro.”

To view the lyrics and the music video to “It’s Carrboro” please visit http://itscarrboro.com/