“One of my Romanian teachers says, ‘People in the circus are way more crazy than other people, and the people who go up in the air are the craziest of all,’” reports Lisa Clayton, hula-hoop artist, ring mistress and aerialist with local act Surreal Sirkus. But even a lifetime of experience cannot ensure safety. “A […]

“I had so much racism and ill feelings toward whites that I had to back up a lot to gain perspective once I decided to follow Jesus. “Anyway, now I’m able to see what and where the true issues are at,” writes Speech, front man and mastermind of the recently reunited hip-hop group Arrested Development, […]

“The guy who plays drums for Kronik cuts my hair each week,” reveals Lewis Lankford, president of the West Asheville Business Association. And Bryan Marshall of country act Bryan Marshall & The Gone Wrongs, well, his wife Terra owns The Beauty Parade, a nearby salon. Lankford is naming off many of the musicians who not […]

“Once it’s had as much as it can take, it falls off,” pop star Britney Spears recently announced on the Web forum Contact Music. “It’s supposed to fall off every six months,” the bad press-beleaguered singer lamented. “Mine falls off every other day.” Perish whatever see-through-body-suit, Madonna-tongue-kiss thoughts you might be having: Spears is talking […]

“I want to have people on the dance floors singing ‘Om’ … instead of ‘shake that ass.’” — Bhagavan Das It was Beat poet Allen Ginsberg who once said, “Bhagavan Das never had anything better to do than call up Mystic Mama on the Mantric Telephone.” He was talking about Das’ practice of singing the […]

“If I had known you were coming I could have at least stocked up on burritos,” Miss Wilma tells her prodigal daughter, Sarah, who’s just mysteriously arrived from Santa Fe, 10-year-old daughter in tow. It’s a rather odd greeting, considering that the older woman has been all but estranged from her own offspring for the […]

Llamas. That’s the first thing I picture when I recall my days at Penland School of Crafts. It was a dozen years ago, to the month, and in my 19-year-old wisdom, I decided I wanted to make jewelry for a living. So I signed up for a two-month intensive in my chosen medium and left […]

When most people get Celtic musician John Doyle on the phone, they invariably start talking about guitars. He’s a left-handed player and uses a dropped D tuning, instead of the classic DADGAD. But I don’t know much about guitars — left-handed or otherwise. I tell Doyle this right off. “Fine,” he says. “I’m sick of […]

For those who want to do more than just play around when it comes to their music, Western North Carolina abounds in spring and summer with many varieties of acoustic-instrument workshops. Below is a short list of what’s available. • Acoustic Corner (105-F Montreat Road, Black Mountain) This store features unique acoustic instruments popular with […]

Don’t go milking Brad Land’s grueling Goat for any epiphanies. Giving readers “a grand observation” is the aim of most tell-all books, acknowledges the 27-year-old, South Carolina-based author. “That’s something I’ve seen a lot in memoir,” he says. But he deems the approach “kind of bulls••t.” Goat (Random House, 2004), his debut, has met with […]

“I am reggae. I decide what reggae is, because I create the music.” — Ziggy Marley “No one told Gandhi it would be easy,” muses Spearhead front man Michael Franti. Resistance movements, the musician points out, never are. However, “through music, we have a chance to be joyful,” Franti continues. “That’s why I create the […]

Sound-effects man Fred Newman has Garrison Keillor, a notorious Midwesterner, to thank for his current gig. But a certain Southern businessman gets the credit for inspiring Newman’s whole career. “I [learned] all these sounds from the storytellers at the Jack Fling’s Cash & Carry Gro,” the New York City-based noise-master remarked by phone recently. Newman, […]

Smile at your belly, and your friends will smile with you. “We’re in this together,” insists Lisa Sarasohn, the local author behind The Woman’s Belly Book: Finding Your Treasure Within (Self-Health Education, 2003). As a yoga teacher and health educator, Sarasohn speaks out against unhealthy rivalry and self-defeating body images. “Women are sometimes set against […]

We’re tucked in the back of some cafe — one of those oh-so-hip places in the part of L.A. where she used to live, before it became seedy and she had to move away. Now it’s trendy again, but she’s over it. She’s beyond cool. We’re wearing berets tipped over our eyes. We’re smoking thin […]

“I’m the only person in my town other hustlers would come to beat, except that it doesn’t happen anymore. There are so few of us left.” “And do they, would they beat you?” “No,” Cassie said. “No, they wouldn’t.” So explains Cassie Claiborne, the unforgettable force of Haven Kimmel’s latest novel, Something Rising (Light and […]

Among the offerings they’ll present at the upcoming Asheville Fringe Festival, The Future of Tradition Center for Folkloric Arts will give audiences a modern gypsy cabaret and the piece “Panty Raid Burlesque” — which is just what it sounds like. “What would be really fringy would be to combine them,” muses Susan Collard, artistic director […]

David DelGrosso, actor/stage manager with Aquila Theatre Company, knows that some audiences will be drawn to The Man Who Would be King because of the popular movie version of Rudyard Kipling’s short story. The film, which starred Michael Caine and Sean Connery in what were arguably the best performances of their careers to date, inspired […]