A while back, Ani DiFranco and Utah Phillips teamed up to produce The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere — and proceeded to prove it by interweaving Phillips’ tales with dub beats, scratching and tape loops to reframe Wobbly radicalism in a newer genre. History is replete with lessons, they reminded us, forgotten at our peril — […]
Author: Cecil Bothwell
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S.E.E. Expo 2004 Events
Here’s a list of one-hour presentations at this year’s expo. (For information on the six intensive, half-day workshops, see “Power From the People”.) Action on the Campus Learn about the emerging student activism in the Southeast addressing energy and environmental issues: tactics, plans, current efforts and future options. Advanced Building Methods In Residential Construction Marcus […]
Power from the people
When the fifth annual Southern Energy & Environment Expo kicks off this weekend, it will focus on both the bright prospect of regional self-reliance and on the proven synergy generated by past years’ events. “We have a huge number of resources right in front of us: wind, solar, biofuels,” organizer Ned Doyle told Xpress. “We […]
Buncombe County Commission
A state law concerning public comment in local-government meetings, enacted last year by the General Assembly, worried the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ Aug. 16 formal session like a celery strand snagged between molars. From the beginning of public comment to County Attorney Joe Connolly‘s low-key finale, the issue seemed to hover over the proceedings. […]
Portrait of the inventor as a verb
He looked and saw a lot like Mr. Magoo, he was a college dropout, and he often started lectures by relating experiences he’d allegedly retained from infancy. And yet Buckminster Fuller was awarded 25 patents, wrote 28 books and received 47 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of major architectural and design awards, along with the […]
Seeing ourselves in the garden
A sizable subset of my generation acted on our discontent with the perceived evils of Western civilization in the late 20th century by embracing our culture’s oldest myth. “We’ve got to get ourselves Back to the garden,” ran Joni Mitchell’s refrain. Like many others, I pretended I was a homesteader, bought some wooded land and […]
Buncombe County Commission
“If you have $300, you can go to Wal-Mart and get into the methamphetamine business.” That was the message Sheriff’s Capt. Lee Farnsworth delivered at the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ Aug. 2 formal meeting. Somewhat ominously, Farnsworth also asked commissioners if they ever brewed coffee in motel rooms when they traveled. “Motel room coffee […]
Earthship space
photo by Cecil Bothwell Used tires are a societal headache. Once upon a time, we buried them in landfills — until the realization dawned that they gradually work their way back to the surface. In some places they were simply piled up; not infrequently, however, they caught fire and burned — sometimes for years. These […]
A moving experience
One of the best pieces of gardening advice I ever received came from a book and an author I’ve long ago forgotten, though I repeated the guidance in one of my own collections (The Icarus Glitch, Brave Ulysses Books, 2001): “Never be afraid to move any plant you can lift.” (Note that this is lift […]
Sorting it all out
Want to learn more about working with WNC flora? An upcoming workshop at the North Carolina Arboretum, “Native Landscaping and Homes in the Forest,” may be just the ticket. The event, slated for Thursday, July 28, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will provide hands-on opportunities to gain skills and information useful in managing their land. […]
Wanna bet?
All but invisible to many Buncombe County residents — and allegedly operating on the fringes of the law — the video-poker industry is thriving, with more than twice as many machines per resident as the statewide average, based on information from the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Evidence from other areas suggests […]
The countywide casino
The following 198 video-poker locations are either listed by the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department or have been discovered by Xpress reporters. According to Sheriff’s Department records, more than 500 video-poker machines are currently operating in the county, though those records appear highly unreliable. Based on the listed zip codes, West Asheville is home to the […]
Mesoamerican discovered in Barnardsville
The sleepy village of Barnardsville in northeastern Buncombe County is a haven of rural rusticity. It is home to tobacco fields (turned to vegetables since the buyout), Douglas Falls (an oft-visited scenic locale), hundred-year-old cabins, a 13,000-volume library dedicated to the study of Mayan culture, a volunteer fire department and a recently reconstructed fire tower […]
Invasion of the bawdy snatchers
The biggest plant growing in most gardens is invisible, though its roots underlie every inch of soil and its boughs overshade every other bean and blossom, boxwood and butternut. Being invisible, some gardeners don’t even realize it’s there; nonetheless, it is present — and ignored at considerable peril. Have you guessed it yet? I’m talking […]
It’s the grope, not the dope
Despite the recent prominence of local methamphetamine labs in the news — and a nationally reported link between meth use and increased risk of AIDS — the number of new AIDS cases reported in Buncombe County has held steady, and unprotected sex remains the primary risk factor for area residents. Dr. Douglas Richman of the […]
Show and tell
Gardens aren’t the only thing in full bloom this month. There’s also a bouquet of local gardening events. Here are several that may be of interest. A fair view of flowers The French Broad River Garden Club Foundation will host a Let’s Go Back to School-themed flower show at the Fairview Community Center on Thursday, […]
Buncombe County Commission
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners met briefly on July 28 to conclude a formal session left open a week earlier. During the barely half-hour session, commissioners approved the fiscal year 2005-06 budget, granted GDS a rate increase for residential trash collection in the county, and approved a financial contract to fund building a new […]
Solace for the many
Mental illness — particularly depression — is second only to heart disease in its socioeconomic impact in our country, reports Susan Brooks of Asheville’s All Souls Counseling Center. “That includes lost work as well as dollars for medical care and medication,” she notes. “Depression that is untreated can lead to permanent disability, and there are […]
Summer’s on the fly
Invariably, the summer solstice seems to come too soon (tomorrow, as I write this). One has the helpless sense that the season has barely begun to wiggle its bare toes in dawn’s dewy grass or settle into a long, delicious twilight on the front porch with a tall glass of ice tea when, wham, the […]
Buncombe County Commission
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners avoids the words “zoning” and “land-use planning” the way most county residents avoid poison ivy, but “cutting development density” doesn’t seem to scare them a bit. On June 21, the commissioners adopted the county Planning Board’s recommendations concerning mountainside development and amended the county’s subdivision ordinance. As laid out […]
Buncombe County Commission
At the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ June 7 formal session, disputes over water-system financial data triggered some of the most heated exchanges to occur in the chamber in recent memory. The elevated emotions sprang from differing interpretations of figures in the fiscal year 2005-06 Regional Water Authority budget. After David Hanks, the interim director […]