The green light has been lit: Now in its ninth year, the three-day Southern Energy and Environment Expo has "reached the mainstream," says event founder Ned Doyle. What was seen as a fringe movement in S.E.E.'s early days is now almost mainstream, he explains. Solar-powered hot-water systems aren't so new any more. Even some of […]
Year: 2009
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SEE Expo 2009: Presentations
Friday, Aug. 21 Year-Round Local Foods, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Regional gardening expert Patryk Battle discusses the wide range of options and perspectives, from farmers markets to CSAs. Biomass Electricity: Helping Our Economy & Ecology, 1:30-2:30 p.m. John Bonitz, farm outreach and policy advocate with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, shares the facts, including actions you […]
Week in, week out
As Xpress turns a page on its 15th anniversary, we've got a lot to look back on. Below are key moments in the paper's evolution from a scrappy startup to WNC's leading free weekly. The gang's (almost) all here: The Mountain Xpress staff, July 2009. On stairs, from left: managing editor Jon Elliston, arts reporter […]
What does the Mountain Xpress mean to you?
In honor of our 15th birthday, Xpress hit the street to ask what you think of us. Here's what you had to say. Zoe French of Asheville The astrology has been kicking booty the last few weeks. And I like News of the Weird. Phil Potter of Asheville The Colburn Earth-Sciences Museum uses Mountain Xpress […]
NOAA chief says new Asheville institute key to understanding climate
It's all about understanding our global climate That's why Asheville, with its repository of government weather records and a host of experts in climate science, makes the perfect home for a newly established federal research institute, according to the chief administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jane Lubchenco visited Asheville on Aug. 12 […]
Campaign Calendar
The Xpress Campaign Calendar up and running again. So if you are one of the many candidates running in one of the many elections in Buncombe County, or even a supporter hosting an event, we want them in our paper and on our Web site. Send news of public campaign events to bpostelle@mountainx.com or leave […]
Connolly steps down as county attorney
For 20 years, Asheville attorney Joe Connolly has served as Buncombe County attorney. But an Aug. 7 e-mail announced that the Board of Commissioners will interview new candidates for his job. Connolly tendered his resignation back in April, but the August announcement was the first public indication of Connolly's impending departure. According to board Chair […]
Remember when?
It's easy to reminisce with starry eyes about the Asheville music scene circa 1994: On one hand, distance and time often make the heart grow fonder. On the other, it really was a special time — an intersection of late '80s hair bands and early '90s folk that allowed for a hybrid of roots and […]
From the ground up
It's hard to recall the chill of winter during the sultry heat of summer. But local musician Erika Ferraby, who fronts bluesy-folk quartet Erika Jane & Remember the Bees, does recollect one shivery January when she, gospel-rocker David Earl Tomlinson, Americana howler Pierce Edens and soulful folkie Oso Rey sat around BoBo Gallery "doing jams" […]
L.A. story
"We're still honest and good, just a lot hairier," says Bill "Smitty" Smith, drummer for indie-rock sextet Truth & Salvage Co., coming to the Grey Eagle this week. That band (well, most of its members) used to be Asheville's stomp-boogie band, Scrappy Hamilton, but moving to Los Angeles has a way of changing things. Stoned […]
Artillery
Artists aren't typically thought of as entrepreneurs or purveyors of business in this culture, but local painter Gabriel Shaffer has laid that idea to rest. "Whoever came up with the myth of the starving artist wasn't an artist," he says. "Keep painting like hell": Artist Gabriel Shaffer is fighting the current economic paralysis, and offers […]
Sound Track
Chuck Lichtenberger (perhaps best known as the keys player in local pop group stephaniesid) is not exactly new on the scene. His own jazz project, the Chuck Lichtenberger Collective, has played a standing Tuesday night gig at Tressa's for the last couple years and boasts a stellar lineup: Michael Libramento (Floating Action, Ice Cream) on […]
Fourteen years before the mast
It was July 1995, and the Miles Building, Mountain Xpress' beloved home, was hot. I showed up for my interview in a suit: dark blue, pinstripes. It would be the last time I ever wore that suit. The ad director at the time was industry vet Carrie Watson, a chain smoker and chain cusser. A […]
Media with a mission
Fifteen years ago, in keeping with Asheville's continuing love affair with upstarts, a small group of believers launched Mountain Xpress. It was a long shot. Xpress started small, running about 24 pages a week, and slowly gained traction by virtue of its local focus and its chutzpah. We told readers that we published the news […]
A long way from local
Tailgate markets are designed to showcase local foods, grown by local farmers on local land. So why does the most popular product at many Western North Carolina tailgate markets hail from 452 miles away? Photo by Jonathan Welch Freshly caught seafood is so beloved by mountain shoppers that many area markets have tweaked their rules […]
Small Bites
• Sprout Garden
• Tomato Walk
• Bavarian Restaurant
Outdoors: Cheap weekend
Elijah, my 6-year-old, had been patient these last 15 months as he adjusted to having a baby brother. But come July, it was time to leave the baby with Daddy for a night: Elijah and I were hitting the road on my Ducati Supersport 900. Ready, set, zoom! Elijah Freese shows he's ready for a […]
The Dirt
A cucumber plant weaves its way across the garden bed, wrapping its curly tendrils around a pepper plant I grew from seed. Above the pushy cucurbit, a black-eyed Susan bobs in the wind. Its bright-yellow petals have finally emerged, and I can't help but coo over it. Green tomatoes, water-heavy and streaked with a ripening […]
We need traffic calming not traffic hazards
Who in their infinite wisdom decided to improve Edwin/Kimberly/Macon Avenue with traffic-controlling "hazards"? We have lived in Asheville for the majority of our lives, and feel that you have ruined the beautiful wide boulevards that complemented the gorgeous houses. Two weeks ago our daughter was driving north on Edwin Place with our 1-year-old grandson in […]
Public-safety-worker road rage is par for the course
Dear Ashevilleans, Relax newbies, this level of harassment is fairly normal, even the shooting. The only real news about the shooting is that it was a Fire Department officer instead of another type and the person fired on was white. Otherwise, this and [an earlier] Sheriff's deputy incident … are actually quite par for the […]
Still fuming at Asheville Transit
Still fuming as I write this third letter in three years about Asheville Transit's inefficient bus service. The problem location this time was Swannanoa River Road. Saturday, Aug. 1, I waited for the bus across from the golf course. I was headed to the corner of Swannanoa River Road and Tunnel Road, going […]