At first glance, the agenda for the May 21 City Council work session looked like a light snack compared to the usual multi-course menu for such gatherings. Lately, however, everything on Council’s plate has been flavored by the state’s budget crisis; even seemingly innocuous morsels of local legislative action can cause indigestion. In this case, […]
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At home
Who’s home? Ruth Rudisill Where’s home? The Vanderbilt Apartments How long at this abode? 32 years This month’s At Home column takes us to downtown Asheville’s venerable Vanderbilt Apartments to visit with 94-year-old Ruth Rudisill. She’s the building’s oldest resident, though you wouldn’t know it from looking at her. The charming, vital nonagenarian — who […]
No tears in his beer
It’s one o’clock on a Thursday afternoon, but Dave Marr, front man of the seriously country, heavy-on-the-pedal-steel Athens band the Star Room Boys — answers the phone as if it’s 7 a.m. And it must be confessed — his is exactly the kind of voice most women would like to hear at that time of […]
Working titles
Twenty years ago, downtown Asheville was a virtual wasteland. Most of the buildings were uninhabited, few people lived in town, and fewer still came downtown. But a handful of business owners took a chance on things eventually turning around for the better. Emoke B’Racz, owner of Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, was one of them. B’Racz opened Malaprop’s […]
The Practical Gardener
Whenever I meet someone from another country, I ask about the kind of food they eat at home and where their fresh produce comes from. What I find amazing is that, six times out of 10, they know that their food comes from a local source. Even more incredibly, these foreigners often know the name […]
All hail the second annual Mountain Sports Festival!
If one word describes this year’s Mountain Sports Festival, it’s “inclusive.” Many sports festivals cater only to elite athletes, leaving mere mortals cowering beneath the covers and feeling terminally inadequate. Not so Asheville’s Mountain Sports Festival. “It’s the average person just getting into sports that is driving this festival,” MSF co-founder Stuart Cowles told Xpress […]
Doing the Town Mountain Waltz
It rises just east of downtown Asheville. More than 15 years ago, some local cyclists thought it might be cute to hold a time trial up winding, scenic Town Mountain Road. The idea sounds great till you look at a topo and realize we’re talking about climbing 1,260 vertical feet in a mere 5.1 miles. […]
A good walk made better
It’s debatable whether Mark Twain ever quipped, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” But who cares? Sooner or later, somebody was bound to say it. Golf is a game that’s both widely loved and widely cursed, and it’s usually aficionados doing the cursing. I should know. I played golf for years before finally throwing in […]
On the run
Whether you’re a tortoise, a hare, or some more middle-of-the-road sort of critter, The Mountain Sports Festival has a running event for you. Runners young and old, ace and novice, can put their feet to the test in a trail run, a long jaunt through Biltmore Estate, or one of two downtown-Asheville events. Those who […]
Welcome
Dear mountain sports fans: On behalf of the Mountain Sports Festival Committee, the 2002 sponsors and the hundreds of dedicated volunteers and event hosts, I would like to personally thank you for participating in this year’s festival. We’re very excited to offer such a diverse selection of events and activities this year. I feel that […]
No sweat: Mountain Sports Festival goes the extra mile
The following activities and attractions — including workshops and live music — complement the festival’s competitive events, making for a family-style weekend of not-to-be-missed educational opportunities and great entertainment. For more information, visit www.mountainsportsfestival.com. Workshops and clinics For more information on dates, times and locations for workshops and clinics, see Schedule of Events. • North […]
May I have this trance?
The Lake Eden Arts Festival may be the only event of its kind that can promise “good vibrations” and mean it. Where else, for example, can you take a workshop in “sonic yoga”? The truth is, musical energy grips people on various levels. They hear and feel catchy rhythms, pounding or piercing tones. The music […]
The Practical Gardener
The first time I was ever mad enough to actually see red was when the family hound decided to dig up a bed of 6-inch-high, spring-planted snow peas. When I walked outside and saw the bed laid waste, I dragged the whimpering beast to the scene of the devastation and shoved his nose into the […]
The Wild Gardener
During the Second World War, the English music-hall singer and comedian Gracie Fields kept the home fires burning bright with her boisterous rendition of “It was the biggest aspidistra in the world,” a song urging the British to rally round the things that made England great, including more homes and parlors with more “blooming aspidistras” […]
By the bag or by the box
“That’s one thing that the perception of recycling needs to get away from — it is different from garbage. It’s a resource that has another life somewhere along the stream.” — Laura Wolf, Curbside Management All across America and beyond, landfills are groaning under a continuing stream of stuff that gets manufactured, distributed — and […]
A tale of two programs
Downtown Asheville’s Fine Arts Theater is proud of its recycling policy, says Manager Neal Reed — and rightly so. “The Fine Arts has had a strong recycling policy from the beginning,” notes Reed, who’s managed the 5-year-old theater for a little more than a year. “We recycle everything, from cardboard to glass (we sell beer, […]
Notepad
Keep your kids reading (and having fun) this summer Studies show that children who read over the summer return to school with improved academic abilities. To encourage kids to keep reading after school is out, the Asheville-Buncombe Library System is offering its 2002 Summer Reading Program for kids ages 2 to 12. This year’s theme […]
Asheville City Council
Asheville City Council’s May 14 formal session was an eerily sedate affair, considering the subject of one of the scheduled public hearings: a conditional-use permit that would allow developers to plunk down another big-box retailer (Target) in east Asheville. But unlike the divisive Wal-Mart hearings two years ago, this discount giant drew little opposition and […]
Beyond the Big Box
The recent lemminglike march of events in this nation has dramatically demonstrated the desperate need for a fundamental change in our political decision-making process. At this point in history, our Constitution serves us ill. Indeed, its failure to clearly delineate the rights of women, children, minorities and working people; its failure to clearly separate the […]
Her way
More than almost any other genre of music, the blues is caught in the trap of authenticity. To the purist, for something to be truly blues it must sound like the blues, meeting technical standards of chords and rhythms; feel like the blues, with themes of sex, drugs, death and redemption elaborated by a singer […]
The Practical Gardener
My gardening pal Frank McCarter doesn’t eat eggplant. Not that he doesn’t find it tasty, but he maintains that there’s no other mammal that eats eggplant, which he takes to be a solid indicator that we shouldn’t either. Lord knows I understand the connection between edible veggies and mammals. This spring, my asparagus patch has […]