Recommendations for water use Because of the current water situation in Asheville, our community is being asked to not use water because of health risks and to conserve what limited water we have. The Buncombe County Health Center makes the following recommendations to accomplish these goals. Health Risks 1. Bottled water is the safest source […]
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Running against the smog
It wasn’t gold, silver and bronze but asthma and acid rain that motivated more than a dozen Western North Carolinians to run, walk and bike through 100 miles of fog and rain, steep mountain slopes, nighttime gloom and traffic perils to relay a flag from downtown Asheville to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The […]
Flood-related advisories
Sep 15, 11:15 am Potable water served by the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson Counties System has been restored. Samples collected from multiple locations within the system have been analyzed in a State Certified Laboratory and found to be free of coliform bacteria. Based on these results, the continued presence of adequate […]
Letters to the editor
Community’s I-26 vision should prevail I just don’t get the Interstate 26 connector expansion. Having attended several relevant meetings, I am impressed with the vision of local citizens, and dismayed by the power structure that appears willing to disregard the community’s long and oft-expressed wishes for maintaining quality of life and sustainable growth in Asheville. […]
North Carolina gets a D on small-claims courts
The national legal-reform organization HALT released a “report card” several months ago rating each state’s small-claims-court system. North Carolina had the eighth-lowest score of all, earning a D. Small-claims court is an alternative to the regular system of civil justice. The crucial difference is that in small-claims court, the litigants represent themselves, thus avoiding the […]
Where they’re coming from
The portraits featured in My Roots Are Showing at Lexington Avenue’s dirt & Sky People Gallery are as varied as the people who rendered them. Sure, all the paintings depict classic country and blues icons — Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Rev. Gary Davis, George Jones and Junior Wells among them — and most of the […]
The junk journal
Update The creator of one of the two local compilations submitted to Random Acts’ anticlimactic mix-tape competition has come forth to reveal himself: Norrs Orbach, compiler of The Wedding Mix, take your bow. News After a few months off for a true rock-star “sabbatical,” Fisher Meehan is back with a whole new lineup for his […]
Cartoons
Ferns
Back in 1853, Henry David Thoreau extolled “the ferns of various species and in various stages, some now in their most perfect and beautiful condition, completely unfolded, tender and delicate, but perfect in all their details, far more than any lace work — the most elaborate leaf we have.” He knew whereof he wrote. Ferns […]
Count this
You could argue that all state fairs are alike. Anymore, though, they’re becoming one of the last real holdouts of true individuality. Think about it. In a country chock full of carb-counting ninnies, the fair is the last, great bastion of bold eating and large living, proudly touting goodies such as corn dogs, fried dough […]
Wicker Park
According to astrologers, when the planet Mercury is in retrograde, communications of every kind get fuzzed up. Computers crash. E-mails get sent to wrong addresses. Highway signs get missed, and you end up in Tennessee instead of at your new doctor’s office. Tissy fits and hurt feelings run rampant, because everyone is misinterpreting what everyone […]
Short and bittersweet
At its Aug. 17 meeting, the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson heard a few brief updates from consultants and city staff. At one point amid these reports, they voted unanimously, and without much ado, to join the city in funding larger lines for a low-pressure area of West Asheville. And then, just […]
Asheville City Council
“I’ve heard of traffic-calming, but I’ve never heard of student-calming.” — Montford resident James Revels “24-7, we will have staff living on site. This will not be an example of the inmates running the asylum.” That promise, made by a developer’s representative during the Asheville City Council’s Aug. 24 formal session, sounded like something that […]
Letters to the editor
Women’s vote and The Night of Terror I would like to remind the women who read this that Aug. 26 [was] Women’s Equality Day. This date commemorated the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. Throughout my life, I was aware that many women fought long and […]
Last Flight Out
Though certainly not the best movie of the year, for many people, Last Flight Out may be the only movie of the year. I found the story of a rescue in the Colombian jungle to be mildly interesting. But for those of the Baptist faith, it would seem to be much, much more. In a […]
Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2
If you care for your children, keep them away from Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2. The underlying theme of this ridiculous waste of film stock is that kids worldwide are being brainwashed by bad TV. To hammer home his point, director Bob Clark (Porky’s) relentlessly bludgeons his audience with every technique from bad kids’ TV […]
The ballad of Laura Blackley
The Laura Blackley Band’s new CD, Liquid Courage, is bluesy, gritty, sexy … and by turns joyous and sorrowful. Just like the group’s front woman herself. The album is both raw and polished at the same time. But best of all, it’s resolutely real. Liquid Courage (SBS Records) is genuine right down to its cover’s […]
Sistahs on Stage
Had Laura Blackley not witnessed a man bashing a woman’s head into a wall outside a Johnson City bar, the Sistahs on Stage music festival might never have been born. But even apart from the violence itself, it was the apathetic response of those around her that galvanized her to take action. A bouncer standing […]
Look what you made me do!
The Rev. Al Green may answer to a higher authority on spiritual matters, but when it comes to monitoring the content of his music, he’s still in pretty good hands — those of his own mother. Since experiencing a religious reawakening and founding his Full Gospel Tabernacle, in Memphis, Tenn., in 1976, Green has, understandably, […]
The junk journal
Since my dubious debut lip-synching Huey Lewis’ “The Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll” in a third-grade talent show, I’ve experienced enough “real live music” to make Mom more than a little concerned about her boy’s sanity. Funk has long since replaced Huey as one of my favorite habits, along with jam and straight-ahead rock. Altogether, […]