Oil and water, Bush and grammar, kids and restaurants: Some things just don’t mix very well. But if you have children, you learn — if only out of desperation — that you can have an enjoyable culinary experience provided you choose the right destination. And it doesn’t always have to have a drive-through. The Asiana […]
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Animal magnetism
When Chris Southern was 8, he had a painful experience that altered the course of his life. Deciding his white bed was too plain, the budding artist devilishly tore his crayons from their box and used them to transform the boring frame into a world of color. He worked and worked until his mother found […]
Like a virgin
The cover of Malcolm Holcombe’s much-lauded 1999 major-label CD A Hundred Lies contains a deceptively wholesome-looking picture of him. But mostly there are photos of the random detritus of his life on the road. We see ticket stubs, a calendar from 1985 listing regular $75 gigs at the now-defunct Gatsby’s, and a tattered, telling fortune-cookie […]
Drunk off their brasses
Morning 40 Federation has some advice to help you kick off your day: Meander on down to your corner store and pick up a few King Cobras. Their sound is gritty, edgy and naughty by nature — like a truckload of proto-grunge (think early Replacements) crashing into a brass band from New Orleans. Ironically, that’s […]
Cartoons
Letters to the editor
Alt-fuel advocates respond to “Clean Machines” I wanted to be sure your readers were aware that, in addition to the alternative-fuel developments mentioned in your article [“Clean Machines,” Aug. 11], Asheville also has its very own Biodiesel Co-Op. This group was formed in February of this year, and has been steadily gaining new members. We […]
The politics of obstruction
These days, complaining about Western North Carolina’s air quality comes dangerously close to cliche. For the past several years, residents of the region have been saturated with the disheartening news that the mountains are no longer a refuge from the heavily polluted air of more populated, low-lying urban areas such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston […]
Without a Paddle
I was so prepared for this movie to be awful that I made Ken Hanke come with me as revenge for sticking me with so many turkeys this year. As fate would have it, the rat got a reprieve, because — astonishing both of us — Without a Paddle was also pretty funny (albeit sophomoric, […]
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Rating caveat: I gave this so-called animated feature (in truth, it’s a long commercial) a low rating because I found it so boring that I spent most of its excruciating 89 minutes fantasizing over how to torture Ken Hanke for making me review it. To be fair, you should know that my movie pal liked […]
Retro grading
New York City’s storied music underground has presented us with some pretty vexing concerns: • Was Nico really necessary? (I mean, really?) • If noise architect Glenn Branca is so all-fired influential, then why couldn’t he keep protege Alan Licht from writing prose? • Did Joey Ramone’s mother have a chin? Pause to discuss. Fight […]
Avoiding the goddess
Some of the worst paintings of the last three decades are those purported to represent the “sacred feminine.” So a first-glance reaction to Julia Masaoka current abstract works on display through Aug. 28 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, might be: “Oh, no, more goddess paintings!” Masaoka does, indeed, include vulva shapes in […]
Cartoons
Going with the flow
The architecture’s efficient, the decor is elegant — but something just doesn’t feel right. Customers won’t stay and spend money in your store; buyers keep backing out of deals to buy your house; workers in your office complain of headaches and fatigue. Maybe, a friend suggests, it’s time to call in a feng shui expert […]
Lacecaps and mopheads
‘Endless Summer’, ‘Annabelle’, ‘Tardiva’ — the names roll easily off my tongue, calling to mind the refreshing beauty of the summer-flowering hydrangea. Given proper care and placement, hydrangeas begin their show in June and continue well into late summer. And as the number of varieties, the bloom size and the range of colors continues to […]
Asheville City Council
“Schools aren’t getting the funding they need, but we always seem to find money for jails,” bemoaned Council member Holly Jones at the Asheville City Council’s Aug. 10 formal session. Her remarks came just before Council unanimously approved a conditional-use permit allowing a major expansion of the Buncombe County Detention Center in downtown Asheville. Earlier, […]
Letters to the editor
Don’t let the heritage of Shelton Laurel be sacrificed High on the steep slopes near the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, at the very headwaters of Madison County’s scenic Shelton Laurel valley, stand some beautiful old trees. They’ve been growing in the special, rich soils there since before the first pioneer families settled our area, when […]
The other side of the mountain
In a training session years ago and miles away from home, I was asked to “visualize.” I don’t remember what I was supposed to visualize, but I do know that this particular activity was not one for which my scientific training had prepared me. These days, downtown Asheville is my home. And during the intervening […]
Clean machines
A rapidly growing movement to clean up America’s air by weaning the nation’s transportation infrastructure from petroleum is launching a revolution as quiet but pervasive as an army of electric meter-maid carts. And the dozen or so alternative-fuel enthusiasts who attended a July 29 presentation sponsored by the Land-of-Sky Regional Council’s Clean Air Campaign ran […]
Letters to the editor
Free speech is not silent vandalism I live near downtown Asheville, and I recently had my vehicle vandalized. Were my windows broken or was my paint scratched? No, someone chose to deface my George W. Bush stickers with graffitti. Now, I understand there are many in this city who do not agree with my political […]
Collateral
Nighttime in Los Angeles. There’s no other place on earth like it at that time of day. And no other movie has ever captured the city’s demonic frenzy and polyglot pulse like this summer’s dazzling thriller, Collateral. To director Michael Mann (Ali), the City of the Angels feeds on seductive danger. There are no sunny […]
Go upload Alice
Even “normal” cats can seem sinister, the way they disappear, then spring back into view just to stare at you … unblinking. Poor Alice. Besides dealing with the vaporous Cheshire Cat — who, of course, adds that famous grin to his insolent gaze — she suffers other creature discomforts, as well. Like the punctuality-challenged rabbit […]