If you’ve ventured downtown in recent weeks, you may have noticed that hardhats are now as common a sight as dreadlocks. With a major street-and-water-line renovation under way, arteries such as Haywood Road and College Street have seen their fair share of dust and disruption. And if the din of jackhammers and dump trucks isn’t […]
Author: Webmaster
Showing 8317-8337 of 9872 results
‘Deer’ neighbors
I have a suggestion for Chatham County, Bald Head Island and other North Carolina locales faced with the vexing problem of deer overpopulation. Attempts by many of these communities to eliminate these intrusive animals have been stymied by the meddling of the state Wildlife Resources Commission. On numerous occasions, the commission has chosen to block […]
Fighting our way to a better place?
One of the questions most often posed to newly elected individuals is, “Are you enjoying your office?” Somehow the word “enjoy” doesn’t quite capture the essence of the experience. “Appreciate,” “value” and “honor” come to mind, but the generous doses of conflict, criticism and contradiction the job entails seem to limit the outright enjoyment to […]
Never mind your weight—what’s your favorite band?
Forget Sleepless in Seattle — I’m Dateless in Asheville. When the shelves of local stores filled with valentines and chocolates the day after Christmas, I determined that in 2003, I would have dates. I would be a dater of men. How does one like me go from being dateless to being a dater? I don’t […]
Dating at the speed of lite
When it comes to dating and mating, everybody has at least one worthwhile story to tell. A girl I knew in high school met her husband-to-be while she was working in a sunglass hut at the mall. He walked by her hut, she liked what she saw and blurted out, “Hey! I think you’re good-looking.” […]
Mountain Air, mountain water
“My family has farmed the land at the base of this mountain for seven generations,” says Nancy Hensley, standing in her brother’s yard in Burnsville (population 1,623). “I can’t bear to look up there; it’s like looking at a dead body.” Hensley is talking about the Mountain Air Country Club, a 1,000-acre resort/residential community/private airstrip […]
Random acts
Of note Ukulele Madness Good news for fans of Ami Worthen’s Mad Tea Party: The nostalgic, upbeat duo (Worthen and Jason Krekel) recently announced plans to begin recording a new CD of old-time novelty-jazz tunes, Old Songs for New Ears, at Collapseable Recording Studio in Asheville. The album is a followup to last year’s full-length […]
Up by her roots
Kasey Chambers, raised on Australia’s vast Nullabor Plain by free-spirited, Hank Williams-loving, occasional Seventh-day Adventist parents, emerged a couple of years ago as wish-fulfillment for alt-country believers. And alt-country music is for believers — believers in a broken voice, in the perfect song, in messages that speak for us all. Evangelists of the nascent genre […]
Clearly defiant, unclearly defined
For many twangy young singer/songwriters, the alt-country label is a badge of honor. Neko Case thinks it sucks. With the release of Case’s first celebrated solo album, The Virginian (Mint, 1997), she was so branded, frequently painted as a saucy poster child for the nuevo-genre. “I never want to be called ‘alt-country’ again as long […]
The word from Sundance
“I had a dream that you grew a garden on a trampoline and I was so grateful I invented peanut butter.” — Noel (Zooey Deschanel) in All the Real Girls A year ago, David Gordon Green brought his cast and crew to Marshall for a month-long film shoot. “We knew we wanted to shoot in […]
Shear determination
Before you consider barbershop-quartet singing in 2003, ask yourself two questions. First, outside of a boy-band concert, when was the last time you saw four male singers — a bass, a tenor, a baritone and lead — crooning in harmony? And second, in an era that’s canonized the concept salon, when was the last time […]
Thump-ripe music
His mind is quick as fire, while his body fills a space the way an empty whiskey bottle fills a breakfast table. At 53, Greg Brown stands a broad 6 feet 2 inches tall, with a working-class thickness to his arms. His big, long face is smeared with a grizzled, often mustache-less beard in that […]
Random acts
A love story Imagine you are Loop, a recently formed, local four-piece psychedelic-and-groove-inspired jam band, and you’re at one of your very first gigs — at the Mellow Mushroom on Jan. 23. And you’ve already won the kind of obsessive fan it takes bigger acts years to attract. Your band is a mellow and accepting-enough […]
Discovery channels
It’s probably the most common fantasy in modern-American-kid history: Just as you’ve always suspected, you really don’t belong in this family. Those incredibly lame people who claim to be your parents — aren’t! You don’t share genetic material with your extremely embarrassing brother/sister/grandparent/uncle/aunt/cousin. You’re adopted! For the kid whose parents’ genetic stamp is as obvious […]
Another side of the adoption story
Married couples that attempt adoption must undergo physical and emotional testing, submit to background and credit checks, and generally prove themselves to be fit parents. Single people have an even more difficult time of it, although many manage it. Gay couples, however, face the toughest hurdle of all, since most states won’t even allow them […]
More energy to fight
Sharon Drake realized that if she remained at 410 pounds, she was risking imminent death. Obesity-related diabetes was forcing her to have to inject insulin four times a day. She wasn’t able to walk more than 10 paces without wheezing or losing her balance. Every simple cold she got had the potential to evolve into […]
Valentine’s Day is for lovers (and runners, too)
The vibrant community of Black Mountain has a knack for finding creative ways to showcase its stunning surroundings. Whether the occasion features art, culture, music, antiques or recreation, setting it against the natural backdrop of the Seven Sisters range and the towering heights of Mount Mitchell imparts a special magic. On my first visit here […]
Notepad
Teach-in highlights U.N. role in Iraq crisis When it comes to the current crisis in Iraq, says Doug Jones, coordinator of UNCA’s honors program, “It seems like what we hear a lot of is the American perspective, and we hear the administration’s perspective, but I don’t think our media is doing as good a job […]
Asheville City Council
Watch out, Washington: Asheville’s hiring a gunslinger. At their Jan. 28 formal meeting, a divided Asheville City Council voted to hire a lobbyist to help secure federal funds for the city. It was a split decision, however, and the preceding debate raised some prickly questions about the realities of government and the D.C. money hunt. […]
1,001 uses for nuclear waste
If you’ve got lemons, make lemonade, right? It’s good to know that this kind of can-do, entrepreneurial thinking has risen to the top ranks of government and industry. As recently reported by Mother Jones magazine, the heavy thinkers at the East Tennessee Technology Park realized that the lemons on their sprawling facility would make some […]
One of us
A lot of folks who came to this state from other places like to call ourselves North Carolinians. But what do you have to do to earn those bragging rights? I’ve devised a couple of proven ways to spot a real North Carolinian. My first standard test question is always, “Did you study North Carolina […]