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John Tucker Must Die

Reviewed by Webmaster on
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This is a somewhat enjoyable, insipid piece of teenage fluff. All the girls are gorgeous and so are the boys. The weather is always sunny. There’s one parent and she actually understands her daughter. Teachers are nonexistent. The school is so well-endowed with equipment and janitorial services, it probably has a higher operating budget than […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Reality pales by Hanke’s comparison I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for the work of Ken Hanke, and to make sure you understand what a treasure you have in this man. I am not a rabid movie fan. At least, not of current films, although like most cinema buffs, I have […]

The Scotch-Irish and the savage South

Posted on by Edna Campos

Professor Fred Hobson of UNC-Chapel Hill has written about the image of the “savage South.” Talking with him set me thinking about why so many observers, from Colonial times until today, have characterized our region as being more violent than other parts of the United States. Many reasons have been suggested, and the institution of […]

On the Hag-and-Possum trail

Posted on by Kevin Ransom

Always country, always cool: George Jones, left, plays a rare Asheville date next weekend, while Merle Haggard does two shows in Cherokee this Friday. In October, they’ll release their first joint album in a quarter-century. “It’s Merle Haggard and George Jones, together again for the first time …” Sorry, couldn’t resist. But one half of […]

Well-clogged territory

Posted on by A&E Staff

At 79 years and still counting, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has earned the distinction of being the country’s longest continuously running folk fest. And it’s not rife with hangers-on and wannabes: The event — a three-night staged version of the more casual Shindig on the Green — features genuine mountain singers, musicians and […]

The ninja gardener

Posted on by Alan Muskat

First you notice one or two metallic-green-and-copper beetles here and there. And then they’re everywhere, hundreds of munch-tanks devouring the petals of your prized rosebush or the green leaves of your peach tree. But before you reach for the industrial-grade bug killer, consider these safer options. When I first discovered beetles in my grape arbor […]

Chasing Cold Mountain

Posted on by Danny Bernstein

Fabled peak: The view from Cold Mountain. photos by Danny Bernstein There are more than 30 peaks in Western North Carolina that are higher than Cold Mountain, but none more famous, thanks to Charles Frazier’s best-selling book and the subsequent movie. And while most people content themselves with viewing the mountain from the Blue Ridge […]

Board games

Posted on by Melissa C. Smith

Can you say “cervical collar”? Pro mountain boarder Barron Frierson, of Fairview, gets a little hang time during a Big Air competition held at The Holler in Fletcher on July 8. photo by Melissa Smith Imagine the thrill — or fright, perhaps — of mountain biking downhill at top speed, dodging rocks, trees and other […]

No brakes

Posted on by John Schacht

“Most of us are contraptions that we made.” — Tom Waits, Los Angeles Times, 2004 Tom Waits makes a great character study. Like the misfits and oddballs he’s portrayed or inhabited over his three-decade career, Waits the Entertainer is a beguiling set of personalities welded and jerry-rigged together like used parts from different jalopies, and […]

Asheville’­s Urban Legends

Posted on by Kent Priestley, Steve Shanafelt

Every city has its legends. Its myths. Its mysteries. Who hasn’t heard of the baby gator that got flushed down a Brooklyn toilet only to emerge as a super-sized albino man-eater? Or was it in Hoboken? Or Fresno? And while tales of hook-handed murderers, spider colonies that hatch from bouffant hairdos, and the allegedly fatal […]

Monster House

Reviewed by Webmaster on
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Prepubescent neighborhood-watcher DJ (Mitchel Musso) is convinced that evil doings are occurring at the run-down old mansion across the street. Mean, snaggle-toothed Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi) is always yelling at kids to stay off his lawn. If they defy him — zap — their errant kites, balls and tricycles get sucked into the mouth-door of […]

Asheville, not Beirut

Posted on by Jonathan Barnard

“There ain’t no way I’m going to vote for [$6.2 million].” — Board of Commissioners Chairman Nathan Ramsey Rancor, raw and ugly, returned to local water negotiations when the Asheville City Council met with two Buncombe County commissioners at A-B Tech’s Enka campus on July 17. A mere month before, Mayor Terry Bellamy and City […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Bring back my Bonnie’s History does repeat itself — and will continue to do so, like a nagging spouse, until we tell it to shut up. And then it will keep on wagging its tongue and finger, but we won’t pay it any mind. Historical character, on the other hand, can get obliterated in a […]

Us and them

Posted on by Edna Campos

No one who keeps up with national events will really be surprised to see two of our elected officials — Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower and U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor — joining other politicians who are grabbing headlines with their anti-immigrant proposals. Perhaps Mumpower needs to be reminded that a federal law already exists […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Highest and best use As I read Cecil Bothwell’s well-written and carefully researched article “The(Non)enforcers,” [July 12 Xpress], I was struck by the irony of Greenlife Grocery and Staples being two examples of nonenforcement. Appropriately, these two businesses are almost directly opposite each other on Merrimon Avenue, just as they are, in my mind, almost […]

Not just a pot

Posted on by Anna Fariello

In his book The Handcraft Revival in Southern Appalachia (University of Tennessee Press, 1991), Garry Barker explains his reasons for living with a houseful of crafts. “Every handcrafted piece,” he wrote, “tells a story, evokes a memory of a very real person, adds a special warmth and character to daily life.” Barker moved to Asheville […]

Life before Randolph

Posted on by Kevin Ransom

This sacred-steel band isn’t interested in crossing over (at least not musically). You don’t need to be a member of the House of God flock in order for the music of the Lee Boys to feel familiar. The group’s sound is deeply rooted in the “sacred steel” style that has accompanied weekly services in the […]

Persistenc­e of double vision

Posted on by Connie Bostic

“Everyday Manuel,” mixed-media/collage. Artist: Gabriel Shaffer, Asheville. Whether you call it brut, primitive, intuitive, outsider, folk, visionary, or naive, identifying and critiquing work by untrained (or should we call them self-taught?) artists is never less than confusing. And if you think you can gain clarity by visiting all five venues participating in the ensemble folk-art […]

Gallery gossip

Posted on by Connie Bostic

• It’s great that Asheville artists have the opportunity to hang work in restaurants and coffee shops around town, but it might be a good idea for them to ask a friend, or better yet an enemy, to help them curate their work. Self-curation is a dangerous thing, and an unbiased eye can make all […]