I live out in Sandy Mush — as vibrant and sensuously pleasing a place as one could dream of. From the porch of my little cabin, I can see the winter-dark ridges turning mauve as the tree buds swell, set off by the greening of the high pastures. In the woods the pink-striped spring beauties, […]
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Asheville City Council
At the end of the Asheville City Council’s April 19 work session, city leaders announced their intention to conduct closed-door negotiations with the Buncombe County Commissioners on the Water Agreement, which is due to expire June 30. Although the item wasn’t listed on the evening’s agenda, Council members voted 6-1 to schedule what they called […]
Letters to the editor
Defining Bad Education I used to sympathize with Cranky Hanke as I read letters attacking his reviews; then I went to see Bad Education. Cranky described it as the “best, most rewarding and most disturbing movie to hit town in 2005 to date … about relationships, the effects of childhood, sexual identity and identity in […]
Know your place
About 50 of us went hillwalking near the Asheville watershed last November — educators as well as staffers and volunteers representing many different local environmental groups (see list below). We divided into groups of 10 or so to travel lighter on the land and make it easier to hear what the hike leaders could tell […]
Slow hand
Self-portrait by Scott McMahon The photos on the wall at Tryon’s Upstairs Gallery share a basic methodology with the ones you took at summer camp. (Remember that DIY pinhole camera?) But the range of philosophies presented nudges the show into an entirely new light. The element of unpredictability makes each photo an adventure: Curated by […]
Cartoons
Get out there and garden
Hold onto your shovels: The door to the world of gardening here in Western North Carolina is opening. It’s called spring — and whether you’re a new gardener, new to the area or simply looking for renewal, there’s an abundance of information and plants at your fingertips. Scan the outdoor-activity and gardening sections in the […]
Talk about the passion
Bedroom eyes: Sam Beam’s latest release, Woman King, flirts with electricity. Sam Beam’s world is words. Some are delivered, prolifically, by pen; others are measured by speech. Lyrics for his band, Iron & Wine (a cross-pollination of classic indie minimalism and new weird folk), dash unfettered onto his paper. Faulkner laments and Garcia Marquez-like narratives […]
Cartoons
The Wild Gardener
Every time I take questions during a garden lecture, there’s always someone in the audience who tells me that moles are eating their bulbs and plants! And I always answer that moles are total carnivores and are interested only in meat. But moles use their tunnels only once before bequeathing them to voles (which resemble […]
Letters to the editor
This is a skirmish; that was a battle The errors and exercise of poor judgment contained in your article [“The Battle(s) of Asheville,” March 30] cannot be allowed to stand unremarked. Make no mistake: Asheville was a battle, not a skirmish. A skirmish may be generally defined as a clash of brief duration, involving small […]
Consider this…
[Editor’s note: Consider This is an e-mail update and analysis put out by the Common Sense Foundation, a nonpartisan public-policy organization formed in 1994 “to ensure that state government and the political process attend to the interrelated economic, political, social and cultural needs of those who are systematically denied access to power,” according to the […]
Letters to the editor
Deploying the weapons of peace Two weeks ago, the WNC Peace Coalition had a peace rally … [that] seemed to go well, with about 300 people in attendance. One incident happened, however, that was not known to the public. Our group believes that war is a horrible thing, and we believe that violence is not […]
Failed drug war won’t protect our children
In their recent commentary (“Where We All Live,” March 2 Xpress), Council member Terry Bellamy and Vice Mayor Carl Mumpower use the poetry of a child living in public housing to evoke sympathy and elicit support for increased drug-law enforcement in Asheville. But why is it that communities of color face far more scrutiny than […]
Radio killed the radio star
If you’re going to go fishing for inspiration in the corporate-radio pond, it pays if the fish you catch have compelling quirks to offset their popularity. In the case of Sun Domingo, an unabashedly melodic rock quartet based out of Greenville, S.C., the influence of heavy hitters like Coldplay and U2 is obvious. But Radiohead, […]
Cartoons
Creating the future—one garden at a time
Gardening is my spiritual teacher. If I could come to know the plants and all the creatures that live in my garden — and the wind and water and nutrients that flow around and through it — I believe that I would know the universe. Watching the miracle of photosynthesis, knowing that I’m seeing the […]
Vera Drake
It’s 1950 in London, a gray, sunless city still weary from the massive war effort. The city’s filled with battle-scarred men, and women who have learned to rely not on them, but on each other. Luxuries like chocolate and sugar remain in short supply. Few ordinary people have washing machines and the acquisition of a […]
Guess Who
Because of the title, it’s understandable that audiences might assume that this movie is a reverse version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, the highly touted 1967 drama about interracial dating that starred Sidney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in his last role. But it’s not. Ashton Kutcher is not a white Sidney Poitier, […]
Aces wild
For the second time in three years, Asheville could be losing a hockey team. The Asheville Aces have notified city officials that if their latest proposal is rejected, the team may be moving to a new home. Principal owner/managing partner Dr. Richard Hoodenpyle made the announcement at a March 17 meeting of a subcommittee of […]
Biodiesel blooms in Asheville
If Blue Ridge Biofuels has anything to say about it, every hippie bus in West Asheville should be able to dose on homemade biodiesel fuel this summer. By July, the group plans to open a publicly accessible pump in a part of town “where a lot of alternative people are,” says spokesperson Matt Siegel — […]