More than 30 years after breaking up, The Beatles are omnipresent. Their songs are in the elevator and in the grocery store, at the pub and at the beach, on the radio and on the soundtracks of mournful Wes Anderson movies (though performed by other artists, due to the surviving Beatles’ notorious reluctance to sign […]
Author: Cecil Bothwell
Showing 442-462 of 525 results
More yeah, yeah, yeah
Rolling Stone trumpeted 1964 … The Tribute as the No. 1 Beatles tribute show on Earth. And a quick check-in with music posted on the band’s Web page (www.1964thetribute.com/audios) makes good on that claim. These guys have definitely mastered the sound, and if they can’t match the almost-uncanny look-alike pulled off by the Broadway show […]
Gonna garden my heart
When I lived on a low ridge just east of the Continental Divide in the Broad River watershed, I had a friend down on the bottomland who was a resolute and practical vegetable gardener. The appearance of her plot was prosaic, but her yield was as dependable as her ancient tractor, which had shouldered the […]
I want a lover with a slow fork
Depending on whose history you believe, belly dancing may be an anachronistic relic of Middle Eastern patriarchy or a set of exercises aimed at preparing a woman for childbirth. But on this night, in this place, with this crowd in Asheville, it seems a perfect metaphor. The setting is the Jerusalem Garden Cafe, the table […]
Organics on the green
The day before the Slow Food fund-raiser, a related event — the third annual OrganicFest — comes to City/County Plaza. Slow Food emphasizes the pleasure of eating sustainably produced, locally grown food, with special attention to heirloom varieties of plants and animals — an approach that also tends to embrace organics. Pure Food Partners, which […]
Intranational trade
Localopoly, the newest old-fashioned game in town, will give charity-minded players a chance to pass go while giving $200 (or whatever they’re prepared to give). The playful event, which happens Friday, Sept. 10 from 7-10 p.m. — is a fund-raiser for the Asheville-based Mountain Microenterprise Fund. A board game come to life, the nonprofit’s 15th-anniversary […]
The worms’ turn
As regular readers of this column may have gathered, I am an organic gardener of long standing. Not counting a sandbox corn crop at about age 8, I’ve been an organic grower since clearing and planting my first homestead in 1972. Equally pertinent to today’s column is the fact that nonagricultural circumstances led me to […]
Wildcrafting in the hollers
Fall signals harvest, and most garden classes at this time of year tend to focus either on what to do with the season’s bounty or on how to put your beds to bed. Flower lovers might want to check out “Nature, Craft and Art,” a workshop offered at the North Carolina Arboretum (Tuesday, Aug. 31, […]
Essential oils
Crude-oil prices hit $48 per barrel recently, and experts say $50 is on the near horizon. Meanwhile, Green Toe Ground, a community-supported-agriculture farm near Burnsville, is running its tractor on biodiesel made on-site from discarded cooking oil collected — free of charge — from local restaurants. Of course, there’s presumably not enough used deep-fryer grease […]
S.E.E. Expo 2004 Events
Ideas Backhome Chapters An informal presentation about the growing number of BackHome magazine readers across the United States, what they’ve accomplished together, and opportunities for getting involved locally. Biofuels: Legislation And Policies The Piedmont Biofuels Co-op presents a look at current efforts to promote and develop biofuels in North Carolina, including what our legislators are […]
Vital Signs
At the end of a long day’s drive, heading home from a wonderful vacation, there’s nothing quite as reassuring as the friendly yellow smiley face that tells you it’s time to circle the wagon and camp for the night. You pull up beside the curb, switch off the ignition, stretch out and relax in the […]
Buncombe County Commission
“A substation is usually not the subject of a tourist photo.” — Buncombe County Emergency Services Director Jerry VeHaun “We don’t want to play it too safe, because we will lose out to other regions. We need to be willing to gamble; we need to approach [economic development] with a percentage mentality,” local business owner […]
Haste makes taste
As a rule, genius doesn’t simply create masterworks for the sake of art — it creates, like the rest of us, because of deadlines and paychecks. Genius just does it better. In 1785, the Emperor Joseph ordered Mozart to write an opera for Vienna. Also in Joseph’s employ at that time was a librettist who’d […]
Warning flag
According to the United States Department of Defense Web site, more than 900 American soldiers have died since the war in Iraq began last year. Add to that the thousands more who have suffered injuries, and the lengthy U.S.-led occupation that’s now a stark reality rather than op-ed-page conjecture, and those casualty numbers seem only […]
Oysters a la Orleans
The time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things — of sandwiches and sides of fries or tasty onion rings. The walrus and the carpenter, you may recall, didn’t mess around with their oysters, savoring them as they are best enjoyed — on the beach, fresh from the ocean and raw. On […]
Keep smiling
It hasn’t all been angst and ardor at Mountain Xpress. Over the last decade, we here in the trenches have also shared more than a few laughs — both at ourselves and at the world around us. Reporter Lisa Watters still smiles about the time she interviewed a very bright but frightfully deaf centenarian. Lisa […]
Deep shade gardening
When the August sun is at its zenith and even the best-watered garden looks as droop-shouldered as Willy Loman after another day on the street, it’s time to turn your attention to what grows best in the cool beneath a shadowing umbrella magnolia or monkey nut tree. That is, it’s time to feed your head. […]
Big wheels keep on turnin’
It’s enough to make your head spin: the southeastern Ultimate Frisbee Hodown, Throwdown, Showdown VIII; three Home Trust Bank Cycling Classic races; and the mountain boarding 2004 RIDE international championship, all here the same weekend (July 30 to Aug. 1), with all events free to spectators. Ultimate Frisbee showdown Ultimate Frisbee and fencing just might […]
Stupid squash tricks
If you have a backyard garden, you’ve undoubtedly found by now that squash plants are too darn big. Zucchini and other summer squashes that are cute and manageable in June become Godzillas later in the summer, overshadowing everything within three feet. And the winter varieties make like Woody Guthrie and ramble “from California to the […]
Buncombe County Commission
“If we can’t be competitive, we will move our plant.” — Volvo Construction Equipment Plant Manager Dave Million At the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ July 20 meeting, the commissioners took action on two matters with significant economic implications for local workers and employers alike. And while there was general accord on one, the other […]
West of the moon
I well recall the first time I ventured over the river and way out Haywood Road to a scruffy shop in West Asheville, driven by the desperate need for an appliance part. It must have been about 1984. Haywood Road definitely wasn’t happening. Vacant storefronts, some boarded up, seemed more the rule than the exception, […]