Resetting the Purim table

There is nothing better than a poppy-seed hamantaschen. The soft, buttery pastry, crammed with achingly-sweet, figgy poppy-seed filling, is so ridiculously delicious that it’s the highlight of a holiday on which Jews dress up in costume, exchange gifts and—according to Talmudic tradition—are commanded to get so drunk they can’t tell good from evil. They’re that […]

Buncombe Commission­ers

County may withhold URTV funding Money may be tight, but plans for Buncombe County’s new emergency-services training facility are proceeding full speed ahead. Training provided at the facility could save lives, county officials say. At its Feb. 17 meeting, the Board of Commissioners authorized a design contract with Keith Hargrove Architects and instructed staff to […]

Whose TV?

There’s trouble at URTV. Who—and what—is responsible for that trouble? The answers depend on who you ask. Before the crowd: URTV Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse addressing a 2007 meeting of URTV producers. Photo by Jonathan Welch Launched in 2005, Asheville’s public-access channel is “a televised forum for legal, noncommercial speech; a place where you can […]

Spreading a story: Embracing Simplicity

In the personal view of the Venerable Pannavati Bhikkhuni, abbot of Hendersonville’s Embracing Simplicity Hermitage, what she has is just a story. The Venerable Pannavati Bhikkhuni, abbot of Hendersonville’s Embracing Simplicity Hermitage “When people around the world see what can be done, it encourages in a way that rhetoric cannot,” she tells Xpress. “I tell […]

WPVM dials in new interim director, temporaril­y tunes out nine volunteers

A new interim station manager started last week at Asheville’s low-power FM community-radio station, but the news did little to quell ongoing tensions that have roiled the station since last fall. For months, station volunteers have lobbied to have Wally Bowen, executive director of the Mountain Area Information Network, removed from direct control of the […]

The Hendersonv­ille chapter of Business & Profession­al Women

BPW Hendersonville officers. Standing (L-R): Tonya Holbert, treasurer; Jennifer Duran, vice president; Leanne Schuller, secretary. Seated: Kacey Case Smith, president. The Hendersonville chapter of Business & Professional Women is a group of women who are dedicated to achieving equity for women in the workplace through advocacy, education and information. BPW is a nonpartisan organization seeking […]

After 81 Years, the Oscars become relevant

It can be argued—and it almost certainly will be—that this year’s Academy Awards were utterly predictable. The smart money had said it was going to be a Slumdog Millionaire straight ticket, and with eight Oscars—picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing, original score, song and sound mixing—they were dead on. Certainly I can’t say it wasn’t […]

Welcome to A&E

A bit of Marshall trivia for you: Marc Hosler of experimental band Negativland lives in the tiny town north of Asheville. Also, Tony Torn, son of actor Rip Torn, has a venue called The FBI (the French Broad Institute of Time and the River). The French Broad Institute will show the area’s only screening of […]

Bad girls set the world into play

After returning last year from a creative stint in Brooklyn, local singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Jon Reid—aka Jar-e—has been hard at work, writing and recording a new album, lending support to Angi West on her new release and, most recently, opening for Toubab Krewe at a spate of shows north and south of the Mason-Dixon line. The […]

The high price of love

“They say our love won’t pay the rent,” crooned Sonny and Cher in their 1965 hit seven-inch, “I Got You Babe.” In 1985, the average rent for low-to-moderate income families in Asheville was under $80, according to the annual report of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville. Last year’s conference of mayors revealed […]