It's hard to say what makes folks land in Carrboro. Many of the 16,000 plus residents were born and raised here, or left and came back. Some came to Chapel Hill for college, stumbled upon Carrboro and liked what they found so decided to stay. Others just sort of found themselves here, by accident or design, and ended up calling Carrboro home. Stephen Foster, the creator of CultureCrank.com, a new pop culture website based in Carrboro, grew up in Burlington, NC and attended UNC-Chapel Hall, where he majored in English with an eye toward becoming a college professor. Today, not so unusually, he's in an entirely different field: institutional money management for large corporate retirement plans. There are lots of ways to pick up different paths to unintended destinations, and Foster's current work first took hold when he left the state for Washington, DC--hoping to write for the Washington Post--and then ultimately New York City, where he "wandered" into finance and has been ever since. His passions are now housed, so to speak, within CultureCrank.com. Foster has planned to start it, he says, just about daily for the last 3 years, but has found numerous ways to procrastinate. Actually, over the last two to three years he has been writing music and book reviews for cdreviews.com and blogcritics.org. Now, operating from his office at 118 East Main St. in downtown Carrboro, the creation of CultureCrank represents, he says, "the thing that I've most wanted to do seemingly for as long as I can remember." Stephen plans initially to have a focus on local artists, especially musicians. CultureCrank will also include the screening of selected 3-5 minute video clips focusing on certain pop cultural themes, which he hopes to pull from site readers who are videographers and thus help them gain greater exposure for their work. Foster is looking for writers for all areas of his site. He believes that ultimately CultureCrank will draw greater attention to the enormous pool of talent in this area. To ask Foster what motivates him to write is like asking Picasso what motivated him to paint. Some people are just born to do what they do. Being in Carrboro, surrounded by the great local music and art scene, it seems like an ideal place to be. Walk a block up the street and you are at Cat's Cradle and the ArtsCenter. Open the office window and the sounds of music on the lawn at Weaver St. Market may waft across the breeze and into the room. We all land somewhere for a reason. Once we get there, with any luck, we are able to do what we love. Home | Overview | About Us | Ads | Art | Businesses | Carrboro and Area Stuff | Carrboro Map | Downtown Carrboro Map | Events | Prices | Restaurants | UniqueOrn Enterprises