The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s decision to hire a company based in Orlando, Fla., to tell us how to attract more visitors to Asheville is a reminder of how easily we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture. If we want to improve Western North Carolina’s economy, maybe each of us should intone, […]
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The Pacifier
Lt. Shane Wolfe (Vin Diesel, Chronicles of Riddick) is a poster boy for the Navy SEALs: fearless, noble and super-sexy in that form-fitting wet suit. Wolfe and his fellow SEALs perform a daring high seas operation to rescue an American scientist from a terrorists’ ship. Alas, our scientist is later killed in an ambush that […]
Man of the House
The first scene in Man of the House involves wild man Cedric the Entertainer and some very gross interaction with cow poop. I’m stupefied to report that my husband and every other man in the audience found this bit of dramatic conflict to be uproarious. At least I was immediately prepared for the possibility that […]
Don’t steal this book …
“This book helps free you, helps you be free — and it is free,” notes Karuna Alan Kistler, the author of Driving Your Demons Sane (Before They Drive You Crazy!). An unusual marketing strategy, to be sure, but no more so than the book’s exotic subject: do-it-yourself exorcism. For most folks, the word “exorcism” evokes […]
Back to basics
What is a Bo Bo? Robert Gardner’s Harness It could be the name of a ’60s TV clown, the dog you had when you were 12, or some exotic furry animal from Australia. Brad Reichardt had an Argentine friend who said that a Bo Bo was an anomaly, something you couldn’t explain. So when Reichardt […]
The junk journal
News • Head on over to quaint little Iceland, the real-life setting of Led Zeppelin’s ice-and-snow-laden “Immigrant Song,” where Zero to 60 front man Rick Weissinger will open a gig there the weekend of March 4 for Icelandic rockers Brudarbandid, who recently played Stella Blue. Last-minute tickets from some online travel agencies were going for […]
Cartoons
Letters to the editor
Who needs Dr. Science? I generally don’t succumb to the temptation to write letters to editors, but after Richard Rice’s letter [“Unsolved Mysteries of the Day”] in the Feb. 23 issue, I couldn’t help myself. I just happen to be able to answer his questions! Richard asked, “If four lanes on I-26 south and north […]
We need to beef up North Carolina’s Housing Trust Fund
Since the earliest days of the republic, Americans have taken great pride in the vision of a broadly middle-class society. While we hold no aversion to wealth and success, we reject the idea of a permanent, idle aristocracy — a prominent feature of the countries many of our forebears left behind. Similarly, while we stop […]
Where we all live
Residents of Asheville and surrounding communities may not realize that they live in one of the safest areas in America. Our violent-crime rate is fully one-third lower than the statewide average and even further below the national average. Those are impressive statistics, and our police, district attorney, courts, educators and employers all deserve our gratitude […]
Letters to the editor
Racism is racism, no matter when This is in response to Michael Arrowood’s letter on Zeb Vance [“Zeb Vance: Indeed No Simple Man,” Feb. 9]. To propose the notion that Zeb Vance was not a racist because the dehumanization, enslavement and denial of rights to black people was the norm of his time is a […]
Your wish is my command
A guy is walking down the beach, and he trips over an old-fashioned oil lamp half-buried in the sand. He picks it up and, having heard all the old stories, he can’t resist giving it a rub. Sure enough, out pops a genie who, in gratitude for having been released from the lamp, grants him […]
The junk journal
News Texas native Vanessa Boyd is the latest in a rather long line of artists and musicians from that state relocating to music-flooded Asheville. Her 2004 self-produced disc, unkept woman, shows off Boyd’s unique, slightly edgy voice (one that, in some weird way, recalls 4 Non-Blondes lead singer Linda Perry). Boyd’s music, however, is miles […]
Cartoons
Something to see
For whatever reason, Latin music still maintains an aura of exoticism among even the most well-intentioned American listeners, leading to shallow misperceptions and clumsy ethnic generalizations. All too often, music from throughout Latin America is described with cliched terms like “sultry” and “lively,” descriptions that say more about the slow progress of cross-cultural understanding than […]
Anarchy with a twist
A little more than 2,000 years ago, a loose confederation of tribal seafaring wanderers, known simply as Sea Peoples, did a fair amount of hell-raising and resistance-minded work in Egypt and other spots around the Mediterranean. The specifics of the Sea Peoples’ origins and history remain scant and largely mysterious to this day — but […]
The junk journal
News The Divine Maggees (pronounced “Maggies”) have recently ended their long East-coast search for a home here in Asheville. The No Depression-friendly all-female duo spent the first years of the new millennia based in Maine, where they garnered acclaim for their “their provocative, yet surprisingly accessible” vibe. After spending 2004 in Athens, Ga., the pair […]
Cartoons
In the footsteps of history
Asheville’s historic Montford neighborhood is a living museum, rich in architectural treasures. It’s also a changing urban area that’s struggling to maintain its diversity and preserve its special character in the face of sharply rising real-estate prices and increasing nonresidential development. Amid the pressures of growth and change, however, a strong feeling of community persists; […]
Asheville City Council
Given Kenilworth’s proximity to downtown and the hospitals, many would consider property in the neighborhood prime real estate. And tucked in a corner of this residential enclave is 8.8 acres of undeveloped land, owned by Alabama-based developers Batt and Associates and their Asheville partner, Thomas Wolfe. Developing it, however, is proving quite a challenge. Last […]
Letters to the editor
NIMBY is becoming a term of endurement Many Asheville citizens actually read newspapers; many serve on local committees (and unlike ex-mayors never called attention to the hours spent); many served on the committee that wrote the Unified Development Ordinance; many worked for the revitalization of the downtown; many fought and continue to fight ignorant plans […]