Author:   Webmaster

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A Cinderella Story

Reviewed by Webmaster on
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Cinderella is a fairy tale with no fairies and not much of a tale. It’s cute — starring the poster girl of cuteness, Hilary Duff (The Lizzie McGuire Movie), and a new teen heartthrob (Chad Michael Murray, Freaky Friday). But cuteness can’t cure this film’s also being insipid, predictable, boring and not very funny. To […]

That comeback Urge

Posted on by Frank Rabey

Think you’re so important? OK, ever had a song written about you by a schizophrenic homeless guy with a round scar on his head from years of greeting people by head-butting them? All right, then. The shouted chorus to the late Wesley Willis’ manic “Urge Overkill,” in praise of fellow Chicagoans, the group Urge Overkill, […]

The best side of the fence

Posted on by Amy Wadsworth

The serene green field outside Biltmore Estate will soon be transformed into a sea of 1,000 horses. And they aren’t coming just to crop the fancy grass. George Vanderbilt’s historic property is slated to rise neighing, pawing and sweating to life July 14-18, and again July 21-25, with two high-stakes installments of the Biltmore Summer […]

Homegrown in the city

Posted on by Victoria Maddux

In midsummer, it can take a long time to walk the short distance from the street to Montford gardener Daisy Johanson‘s front porch. First you have to bask awhile in the sunrise shades of the gaillardia, Stella d’Oro lilies and golden yarrow that border the walkway. Then, halfway up the short flight of steps, you […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Lament for the loss of “Oooh” Going to see the fireworks every Fourth of July has become a family tradition. I look forward to the streetlights going out and the expectant hush of the crowd, and then feeling that wonderful sense of community as, together, we say and hear, “Oooh,” and “Aaah,” as the fireworks […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Mumpower’s homework lacking in scope I read the reply of Vice Mayor Carl Mumpower to my friend Officer Howard J. Wooldridge of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition [Letters, June 23], with interest, after spending much of the past 10 years researching the topic of drug policy. Mumpower says, “We’ve done our homework and followed models that […]

The pluses and perils of patronage

Posted on by Ann Dunn

A close friend who spent his career in New York City retired to Asheville several years ago. A patron of The Asheville Art Museum and The Asheville Ballet, he recently decided to stop supporting The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, explaining: “I am not a New Yorker anymore. I am an Ashevillean.” His is not […]

Wired and inspired

Posted on by Connie Bostic

“You can go home again,” artist Ron Meisner declares. “You just can’t stay too long.” Meisner, unlike the author to whom he’s alluded, wasn’t born and raised in Western North Carolina. However, his mother was, and summers and college here have led the artist to consider this region home. And with his parents now living […]

The Wild Gardener

Posted on by Peter Loewer

The white woodland milkweed (Asclepias exaltata), the swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) and the common butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) are all first-class plants for the Southern garden. The genus commemorates Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine, and many members of this plant group have a long history of use in chest complaints, supposedly acting specifically on […]

No rest area next 100 miles

Posted on by Marsha Barber

“Lightning struck and the muse jumped on my shoulder,” declares arts pioneer John Cram in describing the impetus for Scenic Overlook: Blue Ridge Parkway, an upcoming exhibit at his Blue Spiral 1 Gallery. Of course, there are also less mystical aspects to the show’s beginnings. “I’m fond of landscapes and so are a lot of […]

Two Brothers

Reviewed by Webmaster on
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Because this film is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, who brought us The Bear in 1988, audiences might assume that Two Brothers is merely a variation on that earlier film, shot entirely on location in the wilderness. It’s not. And if that’s what you’re expecting going into it, you’ll end up, like some of the film’s […]

An American abroad

Posted on by Paul Rockwell

Paul Rockwell: You spent 12 years in the Marines. When were you sent to Iraq? Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey: I went to Kuwait around Jan. 17 [2003]. I was in Iraq from the get-go, and I was involved in the initial invasion. PR: What does the public need to know about your experiences as a […]

Asheville City Council

Posted on by Brian Sarzynski

In poker, four of a kind will always beat three of a kind — hands down. And in politics, four votes will always prevail over three votes, whether you’re counting ayes, nays, raised hands or noses. Such was the case at the Asheville City Council’s June 22 formal session, when city leaders adopted an operating […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Do your job, Xpress — Mumpower is doing his Your article entitled “The education of Dr. Mumpower” [June 23] is of concern to me. I am a retired publisher of a national publication larger than Newsweek or Time Magazine. I understand the motive to provide vital information for readers. I understand the challenge for print […]

Let’s get real

Posted on by Michael Harney

The Asheville City Council’s recent tussle (“It’s War,” May 12 Xpress) made me want to join the discussion about drugs, the war on drugs, the cost to the taxpayers, and other options for our community. Drugs — the illegal ones we fear and launch wars against — could become a profitable and positive source of […]

The education of Dr. Mumpower

Posted on by Brian Sarzynski

“To solicit crack cocaine to prove there is a drug problem is like smuggling a bomb onto an airplane to prove we need better security at airports.” — Council member Brownie Newman It wouldn’t be a war without a little reconnaissance work. And as the principal planner and advocate of Operation Hard Time (a proposed […]

Letters to the editor

Posted on by Xpress readers

Wooldridge’s drug-plan advice is off-target Dear Retired Officer Howard J. Wooldridge: Thank you for your efforts to reach out to help Asheville from your Dallas office of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition [Letters, June 16]. Unfortunately the street-level hard-drug interdiction plan you observe as doomed to failure is not remotely [a] reflection of the effort we […]

Brevard Music Festival 2004

Posted on by Jason Lauritzen

The Brevard Music Center’s 68th-annual festival runs through Sunday, Aug. 8, in venues at and near BMC. Among the performances not to be missed: • Saturday, June 26, Ariadne auf Naxos, performed by the Janiec Opera Company, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium Composer Richard Strauss’ answer to Mozart. The story line: A Viennese nobleman brings an opera company […]