Those wonderful folks at the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau are about to make life easier for patrons of entertainment in Durham.

Well, maybe not life itself, but at least getting tickets -- by way of www.durhamtickets.com.

If you try that address now, you'll just get a "coming soon" notice. When it's up and running, any place of business that wants to hook up can sell tickets and will-call vouchers for ballgames, concerts, festivals and so forth and so on.

"We won't be a threat of course to the big Ticketmasters of the world," said DCVB president Reyn Bowman, "but there are many, many events for whom those services aren't realistic.

"Plus, we want a way events can push out 'last day' tickets, kind of like at that kiosk on Broadway but at many more locations."

Bowman said programming the service still has a couple of weeks to go, and "full deployment" probably won't be for a year or so, but the bureau is soliciting vendors: jennifer@durham-cvb.com.

Bargain on East Main

The old Durham Sun building at 310 E. Main St. has been for sale about eight weeks now, and the price has just gone down $251,000 -- from $950,000 at first listing to $699,000.

The present owners are moving out of town, according to agent Reynolds Maxwell, and hence their willingness to drop their price on the 1928 building.

"It's in very good shape," said Reynolds Maxwell of Maverick Partners realty. "It's certainly got a lot of interest."

Built for the old Durham Sun newspaper before it merged with the Durham Morning Herald, the building has 7,660 square feet on its first and second floors and a 6,000-square foot basement. The Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory describes it as "reminiscent of an Italian Renaissance palazzo with its five-bay facade articulated in the classic orders."

Diesel Productions bought the building in 2001 for $160,000, according to Durham County records.

Made in Pakistan

One World Market at 811 Ninth Street has an Oriental Rug Event running through Sunday.

The sale started Thursday with about 300 handknotted rugs, "all made by fairly paid adults working on home looms" in Pakistan. Sizes run from 2 by 3 feet to 9 by 12 feet.

The sale is held once a year, since the store isn't big enough to keep an inventory of rugs.

For the occasion, the Happy Hips Children's Bellydance Ensemble performs at 1 p.m. today.