Bill Miles, board president of The Performance Center in Asheville, was standing on a Grove Arcade balcony outside the offices of architects Calloway, Johnson, Moore and West on November 12, having just announced that the firm would be joining Boston-based William Rawn Associates in crafting a master plan for the long-discussed center. "We do think […]
Year: 2009
Showing 295-315 of 2958 results
Chariots of wire
There are athelete-punishing marathons, feats of spandexed agility and moments of community-bolstering brilliance. And then there's the Idiotarod, which is kindof none of the above and, then again, kindof all of the above. Serious runners booty: Costumed racers know that the Idiotarod is more about the fun than the run. Photo by Nicholas Noyes. "It's […]
The Green Scene
As one local energy-conservation expert observed, "green" has become the latest fashion and the coolest trend. Businesses and governments want to make sure their customers and constituents know they're being green, even when their efforts don't add up to much when you look more closely. Ditto for "sustainability," another concept that's been commercialized and turned […]
Minimalist pop mayhem
"I said 'pop music for cannibals' for a while," recalls the If You Wannas Ryan Cox. "Then I called it 'minimalist pop mayhem.' I also said 'green apples in mud' to someone once." Time to take great risks: The new album was recorded in different houses, with different instruments, during different seasons. "The changes in […]
Sound Track
Local country band The Honeycutters does not take its CD title from the Lead Belly folk standard. Instead, the tune is an original by vocalist/guitarist Amanda Anne Platt whose pragmatic voice and exceptional lyrics never falter on this 12-song collection. The crisp, waning autumn/time passing/unrequited love/dusty roads and pale sun feel of this album would […]
Sound Track
The Nova Echo's recent age 16+ show at Stella Blue contained a lot of elements foreign to Asheville: No beer was served, for starters. And then there's the matter of the tightly crafted, immaculately produced electro-pop. It's possible that, not since Sinead Lohan's tour stopped (inexplicably) at Stella Blue in 1998, has such a major […]
Dépêche Modo
"It's indie to say you're not indie, so we're not indie-rock indie rock-jazz-fusion," says Craig Larimer, the vocalist and keyboardist for Asheville's Modo. Modo's sound is an amalgam of jazz-influenced rock, with an art-poppy undertone that can be heard on the band's new self-titled EP. Photo by Lydia See Larimer and guitarist Rosenbloum say their […]
A "dirty" green word: development
The green choices we can make come in two basic types: the personal and the political. Some personal choices can make a big difference — forsaking meat, for instance. But other personal "green" decisions bring marginal or dubious benefits. How much, for instance, did buying the "sustainably harvested" bamboo pen cup that sits on my […]
Buncombe County Library system: No place for the sleepy
I was walking around downtown one day this summer and popped into Pack Memorial Library and pulled out my laptop. My eyes got tired, and I laid my head down on my closed laptop for a few minutes, only to be startled and awakened by a library security guard shaking my chair and telling me […]
Protecting yesterday’s beans
College may very well be intellectually enthralling and socially beguiling, but all that excitement calls for small sacrifices. As any frosh will readily confirm, being a full-time student means wearing flip-flops in the shower, sharing the remote for the student-lounge T.V. and giving up one's garden. Courtesy James G.K. McClure Jr. Farmers Federation Collection, Southern […]
Outdoors
What does it means to me, an outdoor enthusiast, to be "green"? A solitary walk in the woods gave me the opportunity to answer. For millennia, man has pondered the mysteries of the universe by journeying to such places as deserts and mountains, so in that spirit I began the short trek up Mount Pisgah, […]
Vegetarians aren’t pushy — but we’ll keep speaking out
In his recent letter to Xpress, Scott Smith calls vegetarians pushy. Not one "to refer to those who may be different in a derogatory manner," he then declares that most of the many vegetarians he knows are "excessively pale and overweight" and drink "large quantities" of beer. Hmm … Vegetarians are generally healthier than meat […]
Riding the bus just stopped being an option
I can no longer ride the bus, because of Asheville Transit's recently implemented "master plan." For one thing, it concentrates more on taking away/consolidating routes than significantly improving them. For another, it has resulted in the quadrupling of monthly bus fares. I believe these decisions made by the city were not only poorly thought out, […]
Shuler fumbles the heath-care ball and hands it to special interests
We thought that by getting rid of Charles Taylor we were doing better. Heath Shuler has proved he is a DINO, Democrat In Name Only, as our un-representative. The health care and insurance industries gave the second largest amount of money to Heath Shuler out of all North Carolina's representatives, and this is what they […]
Everyone has a role in ending sexual violence
We all know that sexual violence is a problem. The numbers are staggering: Every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. We live in a society that accepts and perpetuates rape myths, which manifest themselves through our media and our institutions and affect our individual perspectives on rape. Ending sexual violence requires […]
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About the "pushiness" of vegetarians
This letter is in response to Scott Smith's letter [Nov. 4] about the pushiness of vegetarians. I want to admit two things — I still eat my Italian grandmother's meatballs when I visit, and I will most certainly eat meats from Hickory Nut Gap Farm — but that are not the issues or concerns that […]
Weekly Asheville Disclaimer Page: 11/18/09
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The 2009 Asheville Film Festival in Hindsight
There’s no denying that this year’s Asheville Film Festival was low-key and scaled back. There was no special guest, fewer narrative feature entries and at least one notable miscalculation. That said, the 2009 festival did have more than its share of high points—not the least of which was a very positive vibe from out-of-town filmmakers, […]
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