Welcome to A&E

“All I want is a carrot cake for breakfast, and Obama.” So says Xpress staffer Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt, whose birthday happens to be Jan. 20—Inauguration Day. If you want to celebrate a new president and the change many hope he’ll bring, head over to the Inauguration Gala at the Orange Peel on Tuesday. Check out www.ashevillestreetstyle.com […]

POPAshevil­le!

For all the info For band bios, venue info, FAQs, ticket sales and a downloadable music compilation, visit www.popasheville.com. Three venues. Two nights (plus a pre-party). One giant purple bus puttering between locations. For $15. Welcome to POPAsheville: The town’s three-year-old music fest dedicated to indie rock and arguably furthering the evolution of Asheville’s music […]

Drawing on the extraordin­ary

Over the course of 2008, the S.S. Drawing Club (i.e., local artists Julie Armbruster and R. Brooke Priddy) collected news stories they deemed noteworthy and created illustrations to accompany each one. Twelve of the original drawings are hanging on the walls of BoBo Gallery along with the stories they illustrate. All the news that’s fit […]

Deadly decisions

Asheville? Nuclear waste? Why worry that Asheville City Council declined to pass a measure that would have sent federal planners the message “Don’t come through here” with these deadly wastes? Taken in a larger context, this nonaction by City Council may be vitally important. Folks have a right to know about some very local nuclear […]

Edgy Mama

My 10-year-old girl wants to understand where she “comes from.” We’ve covered the basic biology lesson of how babies are made, which she finds both fascinating and disgusting. Lately, she’s more interested in family history, genealogy and inherited character traits. She’s particularly intrigued with the origins of her interests and abilities. The other day she […]

Outdoors: Wild WNC

Janna the gray wolf is a supermodel. One of many rescued and endangered animals that call the Western North Carolina Nature Center home, she’s featured on the cover of the current Asheville Yellow Pages. Her supermodel status belies a humble beginning: Janna arrived here in 1993, when she was a mere 4 months old, from […]

Chamber subverts the will of city

For me, the biggest story of the last few months is the fact that the Chamber of Commerce voted to demolish [much] of the Burton Street neighborhood. Our City Council voted (one shy of being unanimous) for proposal 4b as the best I-26 connector project. As far as I know, the citizenry felt they had […]

Locating culture

I’m moved to ask two questions. The film Milk has had wonderful reviews and been widely accepted. Why isn’t it shown in wider distribution in the Asheville area? Is this allegedly diverse community too innocent to deal with the content of homophobia? Second question: Why do I have to go to Barnes and Noble on […]

Buying your way on campus

I want to compliment you on your excellent and lucid treatment of “Capitalism on Campus” [Dec. 23 Xpress]. You set the standard for clarity and objectivity on a newsworthy topic. Your article proved the meat of spirited discussion at our last coffee-hour gathering. Atlas Shrugged was one among several books that shaped my thinking during […]

Good report on questionab­le practice

As a retired teacher, I was really interested in your story on BB@T and objectivism [“Capitalism on Campus,” Dec. 23]. I think the reporting and writing were superb, and the article was certainly fair and balanced. You laid out the issues with admirable clarity and, given that this news magazine is clearly leftist, you refrained […]

Small Bites

La Copa De Oro: A popular West Asheville nightclub has added full lunch and dinner service. La Copa de Oro will now serve a standard Mexican-American menu of tacos, enchiladas, fajitas and nachos at its 1501 Patton Ave. location. The restaurant is open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 8 […]

The reverend and the rabbi

As the reverend and the rabbi stood upon the altar at Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher and looked out at the filled pews, they complemented and acknowledged each other with every word and every gesture, however subtle. The men, women and children assembled to honor the memory and life of Patricia Brinkley Shulimson (1940-2008) were […]

Let’s hear it for capitalism

I applaud Western Carolina University for their wisdom in accepting the very generous donation from BB&T, a successful financial institution that practices what it preaches [“Capitalism on Campus”]. And I applaud BB&T for [requesting] as a condition of their generosity that WCU include Ayn Rand’s remarkable novel Atlas Shrugged in their required reading list and […]

Outdoor Journal

Deer hunters take note: The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold a public hearing for comments on proposed changes to a variety of hunting, fishing and trapping regulations at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Southwestern Community College in Sylva. Some items being considered by the commission: eliminating the daily bag limit for deer; […]