CD reviews Rating system No stars: Excellent beer coaster1 star: An even better beer coaster2 stars: Scant moments of grace3 stars: Flawed excellence4 stars: Gun it past the soccer moms and get to the record store Reigning Sound, Too Much Guitar (In the Red Records): Four stars • Kind of music: Rock ‘n’ roll• You’ll […]
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Cartoons
Asheville City Council
At the Asheville City Council’s May 24 formal session, Mary Parker, speaking on behalf of two local animal-rescue groups, explained how FurEver Friends and Merry Paws serve the community. Fighting back tears, Parker recounted how one of the groups had fulfilled a terminally ill cancer patient’s final wish. The woman, Parker said, was afraid that […]
Letters to the editor
Stormy weather for stormwater education The French Broad River was nasty in the 1950s — so much so that Wilma Dykeman’s 1955 book, The French Broad, titled a chapter: “Who Killed the French Broad?” Before 1972’s Clean Water Act, it was common practice to see outhouses or privies constructed over a stream. People just knew […]
Shock treatment
Last year, the city of Asheville received a $39,765 U.S. Justice Department grant to buy an assortment of “crowd control” equipment, including 30 new Taser stun guns with holsters and replacement cartridges. Details of the allocation were given at the Oct. 12 Asheville City Council meeting. In November, Amnesty International released an extensive report, which […]
Case closed?
Five years ago, Pete Bradley sparked a controversy that rocked Buncombe County and sent reverberations as far as Raleigh. But the ensuing messy scandal raised more questions than it answered, and a lawsuit by Bradley that might have shed some light on allegations of bribery, payoffs and other misconduct by state Division of Motor Vehicles […]
Letters to the editor
“Ne’er-do-wells” are people in need I’m writing in response to Mr. Keller’s commentary on the “ne’er-do-wells” in downtown Asheville [Commentary, “Dependence and Its Effects,” May 11]. As an individual volunteer who serves meals to those in need in Asheville on a weekly basis, I find Mr. Keller’s opinions both disturbing and harmful. Yes, there are […]
Keep on smilin’
It began with the death of an icon. August 9, 1995: Jerry Garcia’s demise, while perhaps unsurprising given his well-documented bouts with drug addiction, among other health problems, still stunned Deadheads the world over. To crib from Dead-lore, the eyes of the world — or at least their world — had finally closed forever. In […]
Smilefest facts and acts
Smilefest happens Memorial Day Weekend (Friday, May 27 through Sunday, May 29) at Deerfields, a 940-acre tract of wilderness located 20 minutes south of Asheville in the Mills River community. Tickets are $90 for the weekend, including camping. (No day passes are available.) Call (800) 594-8499 for ticket information; call (919) 563-4923 or see www.smilefest.com […]
Cartoons
About catalog copy
The catalogs keep arriving in your mailbox, and with the improvements in color printing (not to mention that great glossy paper the photos are printed on) each page becomes a literal floral feast for the eye. But if the photos are grand, the copy that accompanies them seems to grow ever more deceptive. So to […]
Inside the lines
Whether you’re a writer, a painter, a fashion designer or a musician, moving from impressing your friends and family to making an impact on strangers — or, better yet, the “people that matter” — is often the difference between a serious hobby and a professional career. For actors, directors and especially playwrights, Southern Appalachian Repertory […]
The past is real, and other signs of the times
The history of Western art is largely one of exclusivity: European and American art has, for the most part, been the province and the property of the white, rich and powerful. Well, a current local, interactive installation — … of the Cave, at LIFT Contemporary — is based on exclusivity, too: You have to be […]
Cartoons
Mountainside gardening
I often hear people say, “Bottomland — flat bottomland — is what I want for farming.” Mention mountainsides and the quick reply is, “No, it’s marginal land and too expensive to farm.” But mountainside gardening or farming does have its advantages: 1. An acre is measured on the horizontal, so there’s more surface area in […]
Seconds fat
A new traffic study funded by the N.C. Department of Transportation may have sounded the death knell for an eight-lane Interstate 26 Connector through West Asheville. The study found only a minimal difference in drive times between the six- and eight-lane options and appears to contradict the DOT’s long-running argument that eight lanes are needed […]
Letters to the editor
WNC inspires operatic tour de force Friday last [May 6], about 4 in the afternoon, the phone rang. It was an unexpected call from an old friend in Belgium who lives near Liege, close to the German border. She was very excited — wanting to tell me that in September she would be traveling with […]
Censored?
As I write this, I have just returned from Cade’s Cove in the Smoky Mountains. Although it was a workday and a long drive to a remote area, a friend and I joined 40 or 50 other people — retirees, high-school kids and working folk — who got up at 5 a.m. and traveled from […]
Letters to the editor
Muddy water is disappointing I want to make just a few observations: (1) The current Water Authority served a purpose, but it is now time for a change. Give the city of Asheville the opportunity to operate the system without all the restrictions, and I predict we will see improvements. (2) I am disappointed and […]
The Other Side of the Mountain
We were walking to a nearby restaurant when my wife and I spotted a drunken man asleep on the sidewalk. At almost the same moment, we saw a TV reporter and her cameraman, who were out on the town seeking public comment. The clip that showed on the news that night had me saying that […]
Shades of blue
Feeling her way: Only 26 and already dripping with awards, Shemekia Copeland, who got her start at age 8 at Harlem’s Cotton Club, will replace the ailing Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown as LEAF’s Saturday-night headliner. Singer Shemekia Copeland was dubbed “Miss Meek” by her late father, blues legend Johnny Copeland. She never lived up to the […]