Gearheads are a troublesome sort. I ought to know — I’m one of them. And WNC seems to attract these adventure-based, adrenaline-centered, outdoor-recreation types. Personally, I blame it on the ready availability of year-round paddling, the gazillion miles of single-track and bike-friendly roads, the lifetime’s worth of climbing opportunities. With such riches so near at […]
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Never Die Alone
This movie is 82 minutes in length, which is about 80 minutes too long. I didn’t walk out because the opening shot was of miserable, sleazoid drug dealer “King” David (hip-hop artist DMX) in his coffin, since I wanted to make sure the film ended with the same shot after it spiraled through the character’s […]
Nightmare on Eagle Street
It began with a dream. A revitalized African-American business district that would pay homage to the memory of the one that had somehow managed to thrive there years before in the shadows of segregation. A vibrant, prosperous district that would empower Asheville’s contemporary black community — and, perhaps, help heal the ugly legacy of racism. […]
Block of ages
• September 1991 – City declares South Pack Square (aka The Block) “blighted”; Council designates it a “redevelopment area” and authorizes creation of redevelopment plan • June 15, 1993 – City adopts South Pack Square Redevelopment Plan • June 15, 1994 – Eagle/Market Streets Development Corporation formed • 1994-97 – EMSDC, operating first out of […]
Letters to the editor
Where have you gone, compassionate Asheville? I grew up around here. I always told people throughout my travels to come spend time in Asheville, “It’s the richest spot in the Blue Ridge. Asheville is the kind of place you can walk hand in hand with your girlfriend, and people will not look twice.” That is, […]
Losing our traditions
Pete Seeger first heard the five-string banjo played at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville in 1936, forever changing the course of his life — and the future of American music. Fast forward to 2004. Award-winning bluegrass guitarist/vocalist and public-radio personality Nick Forster is coming to Asheville to host a fund-raiser for the […]
The fearless factor
“Time to go inward,” Rodney Crowell sings on the same-named cut from last year’s Fate’s Right Hand, “[to] take a look at myself. “Time to go inward,” he adds. “Would you believe that I’m afraid?” And as if that weren’t enough, when Crowell tosses off a list of heavies associated with some of our most […]
Cartoons
A blessing of Brassicas
Brassicae, a genus of Cruciferae (the ancient mustard family), is a cornucopia containing more than 100 species. These include kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, turnips and mustard (commonly called “cole” crops). Ivy Rose, my garden-prodigy granddaughter, says Brassicas taught her that nature is all about diversity. But most of the species grown for food […]
Born to fun
In my most earnest National Enquirer mode, I try to get cheerful Canadian band The Duhks to say something nasty about authority, music teachers, life in general or another Duhk in particular. Alas, the luck of the Irish isn’t with me. Because everyone in this young, technically adept Celt-folk quintet loves, well, everything. They’re no […]
Round and round
Painters are frequently afflicted by lengthy obsessions with their subjects. But book artist Ken Leslie’s Space + Time exhibit at Western Carolina University’s Belk Gallery is quite literally a tale without end. Over the course of a single year, Leslie left his bed each morning to go outside and look at the sky. For six […]
Cartoons
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
“It’s not as bad as you’d expect,” the movie-theater staffer told me as I went in to see Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. His prediction turned out to be true: Unlike most sequels, Destination London is better than the first Agent Cody Banks outing. Alas, that isn’t saying much. Sixteen-year-old Seattle sophomore Cody Banks […]
Threat or promise?
“I think we should implement this plan; people expect us to do something.” — Asheville City Council member Jan Davis Mountain residents and visitors can breathe a more-or-less clean sigh of relief: Unexpectedly low ozone-pollution levels let Western North Carolina off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s nonattainment hook (for now, anyway). Nonetheless, local government leaders […]
Letters to the editor
“Sanctity of marriage” crowd uses religion as a weapon I support the right of those who organized the March 6 rally [in downtown Asheville] for the “sanctity of marriage” to have and voice their opinion. What gets me is that they hide behind the “sanctity” of religion. The organizers of the rally refer to Leviticus […]
My first vasectomy
It’s surprising — and a little depressing — how quickly the word “vasectomy” can turn the most urbane, Asheville-cool professional into a hawking, crotch-pulling, bad-joking, well … peckerhead. I didn’t tell a lot of folks about my impending surgical alteration, but the few I did confide in immediately underwent some psychic track-switching, trotting out a […]
Asheville City Council
“If it wasn’t for the Flynn Home, I wouldn’t be standing here today — I’d be dead.” — former Flynn Home resident Bobby Miller Anyone who watched the Asheville City Council’s March 9 formal session probably won’t want to move to Montford anytime soon. A succession of Montford residents decried rampant drug dealing, prostitution and […]
Letters to the editor
Xpress: Take a pulse before declaring patient dead I’m writing to inform all concerned that rumors of the Surreal Sirkus’ demise have been greatly exaggerated. The recent article about Salsa [“The River on Patton,” Xpress Feb. 25] describes Rigel 7 as “a member of the now-defunct Surreal Sirkus.” As an active member of Surreal Sirkus, […]
Good King Richard
What can you say about Richard Thompson, one online fan asked recently, that hasn’t already been said? And while that’s certainly a revealing question, it’s maybe not the best thing to throw at the singer/guitarist himself, should you ever get him on the phone. But what the hell, I figure. We’ve had a nice chat […]
Like people
Back when MTV paid a bit more attention to the “M” part of its call sign, videos for raucous yet strangely intoxicating ditties like “Tommy the Cat” and “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver” introduced legions of young, impressionable minds to the furious fretwork of Larry Lalonde, the intricate yet thundering drum machine that was/is Tim […]
Dead can dance
“Dance him to death!” the spooky Wilis order the young girl, Giselle, who quivers in misery at the side of her grave. The fluttery creatures are ballerinas — Russian ballerinas, keepers of the flame of classical dance. In the upcoming presentation of Giselle by the Moscow Festival Ballet (formed in 1989), every step in the […]