Make French Broad bridge a work of art Kudos to Pam Myers for wondering, “Can the [new I-26 Connector] bridge over the French Broad be designed as a work of art? Let’s find out” [Xpress, June 28, “Beyond the urban trail”]. The answer is yes. If you want something to cherish and identify as our […]
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Forget honoring the veterans; let’s go shopping!
Hello, Asheville: It’s me again. This time, I want to start out by considering Memorial Day. The good news is I survived it (as I did Vietnam). The major difference is that Vietnam was more impressive — nay, more memorable — for me. And Memorial Day now seems to be celebrated mainly by going to […]
Tequila-soaked ambition indeed
The words quoted above were chosen to describe some of the fans of the local band the Caribbean Cowboys, which was voted “Best Local Band” in the Mountain Xpress annual “Best of WNC” readers’ survey. It seems that we are thought of as a senselessly sybaritic lot of Parrot Heads who have a lot of […]
Taste test
To those Americans who harbor the usual culinary prejudices, haggis — a traditional Scottish dish made from the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep minced with onion, suet, oatmeal and seasonings and boiled in the deceased sheep’s stomach — may seem like something to be avoided at all costs. And thus Bad Haggis, which […]
Dancing on water
Arms and fingers articulate unfamiliar body languages. Feet beat unusual rhythms. A kaleidoscope of exotic colors swirls to strange and wondrous music. It’s Folkmoot, the world-famous two-week international dance festival — and the world is coming to your doorstep. The first public performance of the 17th annual Folkmoot USA happens on Monday, July 17 at […]
The beautiful and damned
The still-mysterious inferno that claimed the lives of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and eight other women at Asheville’s Highland Hospital in 1948 was only the physical manifestation of an incendiary torment that had stalked her, like a relentless suitor, for nearly two decades. But a violent death in a madhouse before the age of 50 was […]
The latest word
The pains and pleasures of childhood are highlighted in this month’s column. Bill Brooks reviews Jim the Boy, by Rutherfordton native Tony Earley, and storyteller Marcianne Miller reviews children’s audiobooks — for adults. Quote of the month All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you […]
Smoky and the bandit
Back when I was 10 years old, my buddy Chris and I went to the library one afternoon to find this fabulous book our substitute teacher had told us about. The problem was, we couldn’t remember the title — only that it had the word “red” in it somewhere. Luckily, Chris found The Red Badge […]
Fun and games
Ron Meisner and Billy Malone share similar approaches to making art. Yet the results couldn’t be more different. While both create works that are solipsistic, each also draws inspiration from the distinct world that surrounds him. Meisner grew up in Michigan. During the ’70s, he spent eight years in Asheville, earning a B.F.A. at UNCA. […]
Border music
Jimmie Dale Gilmore watched the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll while growing up in Lubbock, Texas — but he didn’t throw away his Lefty Frizzell records when he discovered the Beatles. As a matter of course, Gilmore has always sought to augment, rather than diminish, his musical options. “To me it’s always one song at […]
New hands to helm a new air-quality agency
When the Western North Carolina Regional Air Quality Agency rises from the ashes of the old WNC Regional Air Pollution Control Agency this month, at least one new person will serve on the agency’s five-member board, which is charged with managing WNC’s deteriorating air quality. Asheville and Buncombe County created the new multigovernmental agency after […]
Asheville’s newest millionaire
He’s 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 178 pounds, sports a broad smile, and wields a handshake that could crush rock. But don’t even think about trying to return Tsao Chin-hui’s crunch grip. His right hand is attached to a million-dollar arm — a $2.2 million arm, to be exact. At least that’s what the […]
Asheville City Council
The ashes have barely cooled from the firestorm of criticism sparked by a rezoning request from the developers of Crowell Farms — a proposed large-scale development on the west side of town. This time around, however, Asheville City Council heard little opposition to another such proposed development. On June 27, Council members unanimously agreed to […]
Letters to the editor
A do-it-yourself bike path A response to Lars H. Johnson’s ending quote as follows: “And while you’re at it, see if you can’t get [Mayor] Leni to spare some change for a few more bike paths. If this letter has disturbed anyone, I apologize. Just remember, the pen is mightier than the sword — but […]
A blast for the pioneers
Hello, Asheville. It’s me again. This time I’m feeling nostalgic, which is not a good thing for Zen Master types. Masters are supposed to live in the moment, unattached. By that logic, every person at a certain point in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease becomes a Master — since, at that point, they forget all […]
The Sabbath Project
Sierra Club founder John Muir, raised a Scots Calvinist, learned to see the natural world as “the hospitable, Godful wilderness,” rather than a fallen state where evil and darkness reside (as the doctrines of his Christian upbringing had taught). Other followers of orthodox Christianity also have wrestled with a perceived conflict between the doctrines of […]
Asheville City Council
While the region dangles dangerously close to federal designation as a “nonattainment area,” Asheville City Council may ask Gov. Jim Hunt to drop his lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency. “The only way to fight air pollution is regionally and nationally,” declared Vice Mayor Chuck Cloninger, who also chairs the N.C. Parks, Parkways and National […]
Headline missing
Opinions vary, and folks are decidedly divided about a dangerous and bland stretch of highway. With all the factions assembled under one roof, former Asheville Mayor Lou Bissette opined that “consensus involves compromise,” at least where the I-26 Connector Project is concerned. Those were fitting words to open a two-part design forum meant to garner […]
Carpe diem, Asheville!
The stars must be in rare alignment, the cosmic harmonics in a once-in-a millennium convergence, because a pair of proposals has brought Asheville to the brink of making a whole new identity for itself. I’m talking about the separate plans to make the I-26 Connector eight lanes, and to tear down the Sayles Bleachery in […]
Cultural secession?
People of our community — people of stout hearts and good sense — have registered that, by acting cooperatively, we can stop behaving as collaborators in what has come to be our own oppression. The slow realization has dawned at last: We are a self-sufficient and hardy people who are fed up with the virtual […]
While Rome burns
The French have a word for it (they always do). The great 1952 novella by Robert Heinlein was called The Year of the Jackpot in America, but L’annee du grand fiasco in France. And considering the way we persist in soiling our own nests for nothing except money, despite everything we know today, I would […]