Jay Curwen is one of a hundred or so athletes who will take off running, canoeing and biking in the eighth annual RiverLink Triathlon, slated for Sunday, June 6. The 21-mile event, in which participants run four miles, paddle five miles and cycle 12, runs down- and up-river on the French Broad, starting and ending […]
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The Wild Gardener
Known as bellworts, merrybells, haybells, wild oats and (to a few die-hard wildflower lovers) cowbells, these beautiful wildflowers are members of the great lily family. They bear the genus name Uvularia, based on the Latin word “uva,” meaning a bunch of grapes; the name refers to the fruits in some species (it’s also the source […]
Fake your way home
It’s funny to live in a city whose geography and culture are so entwined with a classic novel — and even funnier when that classic isn’t read half as much as it used to be. Asheville haunted Thomas Wolfe, and now he returns the favor by haunting Asheville. Or Altamont, as Wolfe named the city […]
Waxing poetic
Damian Higgins gave himself the stage name Dieselboy because of his, as he puts it, “boyish” interests. For anyone unfamiliar with the Philadelphia-based DJ’s work, his latest mix CD, The Dungeonmaster’s Guide (System Recordings, 2004), double-exposes Higgins’ adolescent side right from the get-go. Its opening Dungeons & Dragons-themed spoken-word reading is by Peter Cullen, the […]
The sound and the scurry
Abbeville, Ga., is home to the Wild Hog Festival, while Coalinga, Calif., boasts the Horned Toad Festival and Derby. Not to be outdone, the town of Brevard is preparing to launch its first-annual White Squirrel Festival. The event’s theme? “Go Nuts!” Of course. Brevard is one of reportedly only four areas in America where white […]
Cartoons
Up from the ashes
When people first learn of my involvement in restoring the Thomas Wolfe House, they generally ask two questions. The first one is, “Why in the heck has it taken so long?” Photos courtesy Pack Memorial Libraryand Thomas Wolfe Memorial The Old Kentucky Home in the 1930s, and in 2004, following six years of museum-quality restoration […]
Great trees for landscapes
When someone asks “Can you recommend a tree for my landscape?” my first impulse is to jump up and down and say: “Look around you in the gardens and woods. There are so many choices, so many options — just pick one!” But that’s just it. There are so many choices and so many options, […]
A thirst for change
“Don’t let the city and county get away with it!” — Hazel Fobes, Citizens for Safe Drinking Water and Air A funny thing happened to the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson on the way to finalizing its annual budget. With the June 1 deadline looming large, Authority members suddenly began talking about […]
Letters to the editor
Outdated agreement clouds water future A main reason for writing this letter is to express my appreciation for your reporter Jonathan Barnard’s excellent, informative accounting of the Regional Water Authority’s April 20 board meeting [“Feels like old times,” May 5]. The Regional Water Authority meets monthly, third Tuesdays, at 8:45 a.m., first floor, City Hall, […]
Asheville City Council
“Taxpayers should not bear the burden of entrepreneurial risk.” — Shiloh resident Michael Tracey Council member Terry Bellamy asked everyone to bow their heads as she delivered the invocation at the Asheville City Council’s May 11 formal session. As the chamber fell silent, Bellamy intoned, “Father, we ask that you unify this Council,” adding, “Help […]
Letters to the editor
UNCA should be a “green” leader I am a neighbor and alum of UNCA and one of the people who has mobilized to stop UNCA from cutting down 2.5 acres of prime urban forest off W.T. Weaver Boulevard to build a freshman parking lot. My neighbors and I found out about this — not through […]
On dislocation
Anyone familiar with the Asheville art scene over the last 20 years must suspect by now that Will Henry Stevens was the most prolific painter of the 20th century. The current Blue Spiral 1 exhibit of new — that is, never previously exhibited — Stevens pieces consists of 60 or so canvases and works on […]
Guided by voices
Grandpa told the old family tale. A husband and two sons made it modern. A movie star kicked it into gear. Then an insistent ancestor spoke from beyond and grabbed the reins — for good. If all the people who helped Sheila Kay Adams write her first novel, My Old True Love (Algonquin, 2004), gathered […]
Hard to swallow
One can only marvel at the actorly calculations driving Michael Cheek as he chokes down yet another donut in his portrayal of Otto, a slobby, histrionic, morbidly obese, unemployed comedian. The second and third acts of The Food Chain are totally dependent on the comedic Cheek’s verbal and physical timing, and yet you couldn’t make […]
Cartoons
Full of beans
One reason I decided to turn my yard into a garden was so I could savor the flavor of fine varieties of green beans at their very freshest. Like corn, green beans are a seasonal delicacy that must be eaten as soon as possible after harvesting. They have a short shelf life and, if not […]
Found: sound
“A nice melody leading up to a big bang is more effective than just one big bang after the other.” — Alexander Hacke of Einstuerzende Neubauten The notion of growing ever more distant from home permeates Perpetuum Mobile, the latest of two just-released albums from Einstuerzende Neubauten. Both in its tunefulness and emotional nuance, Perpetuum […]
New hues
Among Chuck Brodsky’s diehard fans is the Catholic bishop in Northern Ireland who attends shows there dressed, literally, for church. Afterward, he and Brodsky have sometimes raised a pint or two at the local pub. The widely acclaimed Asheville folkie has toured the Emerald Isle 10 times now. But when we “talked” via e-mail recently, […]
Complicated whimsy
“We’re really just a bunch of big kids about this production,” insists Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre’s Susan Collard during a recent rehearsal of the company’s impending show, Sinbad the Sailor. In fact, the choreographer and her husband, ACDT co-founder/teacher Giles Collard, have more than a passing personal interest in Sinbad‘s Middle Eastern setting. They lived […]