The home of Suzie Millions

Nobody christens the holiday season with a natural knack for embracing the wacky and romancing the outrageously tacky as local pseudo-celebrity Suzie Millions, seasoned veteran of The Big Crafty and author of “The Complete Book of Retro Crafts.” I recently visited Millions at the home she shares with her husband, Lance Wille, drummer for local […]

Winter sports in WNC: Let the fun begin

Winter fun in WNC
Last winter was heaven for local winter sports enthusiasts. And this season has been off to a great start, with unusually cold and snowy conditions providing ample opportunities for skiing, snowboarding, sledding, snowball fights, snowmen and assorted backcountry adventures. We’re celebrating today, Dec. 21 – the first official day of winter – by culling together some of our favorite photos and videos from the last couple years of snowy escapades.

Winter sports in WNC: Let the fun begin

Winter fun in WNC
Last winter was heaven for local winter sports enthusiasts. And this season has been off to a great start, with unusually cold and snowy conditions providing ample opportunities for skiing, snowboarding, sledding, snowball fights, snowmen and assorted backcountry adventures. We’re celebrating today, Dec. 21 – the first official day of winter – by culling together some of our favorite photos and videos from the last couple years of snowy escapades.

A change in the weather? Long-range forecasts call for dry, mild winter

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Both the National Weather Service and the WNC-based Ray’s Weather Center are predicting a drier, milder winter than normal this year. But that certainly hasn’t been the case so far. This is shaping up to be one of the coldest Decembers in Asheville’s recorded history. And we’ve already doubled the average snowfall for the month, with forecasters calling for more on Christmas Eve.

Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Dec. 22-28: A merry Christmas at the movies

Well, it’s Christmas week, and, as usual, that means all the studios are vying for your holiday attention. Three films of note come to town this week: The Coen Brothers’ True Grit hits all the first-run theaters (except Carmike) on Wednesday, while The King’s Speech comes to The Carolina and the Fine Arts on Christmas Day, and I Love You, Phillip Morris opens Christmas Day at The Carolina. That’s the good news. Two other titles show up as well. I’d rather not talk about them, but I guess I have to.

Congress OKs Local Community Radio Act; WPVM hopes FCC will now lift power restrictio­ns

“This is a day we have dreamed of since 2003 when MAIN launched its low-power FM station for Asheville and Buncombe County,” declared Wally Bowen, executive director of MAIN FM (WPVM), after the passage by Congress this weekend of the Local Community Radio Act, which gives FCC the ability to allow low-power stations such as MAIN’s to broadcast at 100 watts, instead of at its current 2 watt level.

Cranky Hanke’s Screening Room: So that’s it for 2010?

As the year sinks slowly in the west, I realize that for me the movie year pretty much is over. When I turn in this week’s reviews, the only thing left for me to review this year is Little Fockers. (Assuming Justin Souther isn’t knocked down by a bus, I have no intention of sitting through Gulliver’s Travels.) So far as I know at this point, there’s nothing opening locally on Dec. 31 and the next new movie we’re slated for is Season of the Witch on Jan. 7. (How depressing is that?) What’s mostly left for me this year is shuffling things around for my Ten Best list. I think I may need the time this year, which has been a peculiar one in a number of ways.

MSD postpones decision on proposed cost-sharing plan

In a 6-5 vote on Wednesday, Dec. 15, the Metropolitan Sewerage District board tabled plans to implement a new cost-sharing policy for sewer-line extensions in new developments and annexed areas until next month. Despite getting the go-ahead from the MSD planning committee on Dec. 2 (in what was also a close vote), the board heeded a request from the Council of Independent Business Owners that the issue be tabled for a month.