Think "bluegrass festival," and immediately the images appear: Rowdy cloggers, fiery fiddlers, hoedowns and hootenannies. That's all good, but the Mountain Song Festival — now in its fourth year at Brevard Music Center's Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, puts a refined twist on all the pickin' and grinnin.' Sharing the stage: The Steep Canyon Rangers have been gigging […]
Spork: Come celebrate Asheville FM
It started with a group of dedicated volunteers with a massive amount of radio skills, talent and tech savvy betwixt them. Add to that a generous lease of studio space from the owners of Izzy's coffeeshop in West Asheville. Mix with a heaping of organizational know-how and an eager willingness to collaborate with radio folks […]
Enter-Surprises doorway
Walnut Street
Edgy Mama: BPA in bottles is bad, bad, bad
Here we go again. We’ve cleaned out the “bad” plastics from the cupboard. We’ve taught our kids not to use plastics or plastic wrap in the microwave. We’ve replaced sippy cups and plastic water bottles with metal drinking bottles. But wait. Those metal drinking bottles that have been marketed as eco-friendly and non-harmful? Not safe, either.
Pritchard Park
Kip Veno of Rubber Cushions. Photo by Jon Elliston.
Book Report: A Fortunate Age
Joanna Smith Rakoff’s debut novel the sort of book that presents characters who feel like friends and who the reader will sorely miss after the final chapter.
This weekend on a shoestring
This weekend is somewhat of a free festival sandwich. You’ve got Apple Fest beginning Friday, LAAFF rounding out Sunday and in between… bluegrass, punk rock, a house party, a couple CD releases and some excellent singer/songwriters playing for tips.
LAAFFing all the way to the weird
Speaking of fun, the best way to get into the spirit of LAAFF is to come in costume. Yeah, Asheville is pretty open to all manner of dress. Jeans and flip-flops are de rigeur, dresses are paired with boots, dudes wear skirts, wings and horns are perfectly acceptable accessories. Even so, why pass up a […]
Meet the freaks
Here's one for the annals: The first-ever Freaks of Asheville calendar, set to debut at LAAFF this year. Photographer Michael Traister (Sock Monkey Dreams, Faces of Izzy's), known for his stunning portraiture, turns his deft lens to some of our town's "cultural creatives," creating portraits of some local eclectic personalities. Sister Bad Habit, aka LaZoom […]
Blue Rags revival
Three years since their last performance together and 10 years since the release of their much celebrated album, Eat at Joe's, local legends The Blue Rags are reuniting this weekend to revive their trademark brand of 'rag 'n' roll' with a pair of shows at the Grey Eagle and the LAAFF festival. "We want to […]
Spork
September is starting off the fall music season (is there such a thing?) right, with a couple of CD-release shows and the promise of a bunch more coming. Here's an abbreviated rundown, and our suggestions for where the music might be most appropriate. Americana songwriter Dave Desmelik debuts his new CD at Westville Pub on […]
Artillery
Imagine you've been handed a dried plant unearthed years ago — desiccated, shriveled and beginning to decay. Your task is to draw the flower as it might have appeared while it was alive and in full bloom. Such was the undertaking of Beatriz Mendoza two years ago when she worked as a scientific illustrator for […]
Junker’s Blues
Every time a flea market enthusiast has encouraged me to go to Pickens Flea Market they've always started with the caveat: "You have to get there early." Early birding is a good idea for any flea market, but it seems dogma de rigueur for this massive tribute to individualized entrepreneurialism, located on the western outskirt […]
Sound Track
There is a delicate balance between solid rock and roll and pop music, and to find a comfortable halfway point, without sacrificing quality for accessibility, is a music industry feat. Dup Crosson, aka Saint Solitude, has done just that, carving his niche with well-crafted, high quality indie-pop songs while still preserving his rock ideals. Photo […]
Review of Walking Across Egypt at HART
Grandma knows best: Walking Across Egypt creates contretemps and confusions, then resolves them nicely, and amounts to a homespun slice of Southern life.
Patton + Haywood
Edgy Mama: Preparing swine flu ‘survival kit’ can ease worries
I fully expect that, if one person in my family contracts the flu, we probably all will, and dressing up like a character from Scrubs while dispensing acetaminophen to the kids isn’t going to keep me healthy. So here’s what I bought for our home flu kit.
Drhumor Building
Lexington & Walnut
Win a pair of guest-list spots for The New Deal **update: Tickets won***
Live electronica pioneers The New Deal hit the Orange Peel on Friday. Want to go? Xpress is giving away two guest-list spots for the show.