At home and abroad

The Lake Eden Arts Festival, poised for its 29th installment, has a tradition of bringing both top-notch world-music performers and acts near and dear to the hearts of local festival-goers. And if that seems a rather tall and precarious order, the twice-yearly music, arts and camping event makes it look downright easy. Variety, fusion, festival: […]

Soundtrack

Though downtown Asheville's streets are full of buskers — especially on a warm weekend night when the tourists and dinner crowds swarm Battery Park and the Grove Arcade — a stand-out act still does just that: Stands out. That's the story with Leeda Jones, aka Lyric. Nothing's going to break her stride: Lyric Jones performs […]

Plastic with purpose

At first glance, the world of Taiyo la Paix's paintings is a bubble gum dream of carnival rides, palm trees and beautiful people in rock-star clothing. In fact, la Paix has been criticized for overindulging the fluffy fantasy. The many faces of Papillia / with additional illustration by Nathanael Roney "I actually think about heavy […]

Sound Track

• Take2 by WillBmusic The inspiration of singer/songwriter Will Baker, Take2 is one of those totally DIY projects. Baker performs all the instruments on this collection of 14 mellow, languidly groovy tracks (exception: "The Hill" is a collaboration with songwriter Jon Oakley). "Beautiful Moment" has a fluid feel from the jazzy cymbal taps to the […]

Strega Nona returns

[Editor's note: dePaola's visit to Malaprop's was cancelled due to health circumstances; Strega Nona's Harvest is still available. Alli Marshall interviewed dePaola before the visit was cancelled.] Illustrations from Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona's Harvest. Reviewing a children's book is an interesting proposition. There's not much narrative arc to discuss; little in the way of foreshadowing […]