Western (N.C.) lit. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: There are some terrific writers in this region. Thanks to them, WNC is enjoying a literary Golden Age; and with such luminaries as Wilma Dykeman and Charles F. Price (not to mention the newly crowned king of Carolina literature, Charles Frazier) regularly frequenting […]
Author: Webmaster
Showing 9493-9513 of 9872 results
Letters to the editor
Airboats & other opportunities The possibility of airboats in commercial operation on the French Broad River opens up horizons of opportunity previously undreamed of. We could have smaller airboats traveling the Swannanoa River, all the way to Black Mountain — perhaps a riverboat anchored in Lake Julian for gambling. No, wait: Better make that Jet […]
Cross-cultural sharing
?Que pasa? !La Fiesta Latina, un evento maravilloso! ?Donde? Pack Square, al centro de Asheville. ?Cuando? 5 de junio, 1999. See? It’s not that hard to wax bilingual. Indeed, that’s partly what Asheville’s second annual Latin Festival is all about, says steering committee member Edna Campos. “It’s a venture in cross-cultural sharing,” she notes. Specifically, […]
Relaxing with the masters
They recline in lounge chairs, bodies insolently draped, slouched and perched. They’re mostly nude, but for a handful clothed in blue sky and clouds. Say what? A surreal beachside tableau wrought by too many hallucinogenics, perhaps? A surreal tableau, indeed, but it’s not the result of taking mind-altering drugs. Artist Gayle Wurthner has painstakingly painted […]
Notepad
Clear-day thunder The American chestnut tree used to be a mainstay of the economy and culture of central and southern Appalachia, accounting for some 30 percent of the region’s forests and providing a steady supply of mast, food and durable, rot-resistant wood. But a blight accidentally introduced from Asia around the turn of the century […]
Letters to the editor
Deal with poverty, not parks [A few] days ago, the voters of the city went to the polls to decide the fate of the $18 million parks-and-recreation bond issue. The next day, I opened the newspaper and saw that my fondest wishes (regarding this issue) had been fulfilled. The rich and the beautiful people were […]
Notepad
Turn your money green Asheville is a tourist town: In Buncombe County alone, tourism generates about $800 million a year, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years. In a recent study, for instance, the Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau found that hotel revenues appear to be increasing again; they reached nearly […]
Letters to the editor
Stopping Littletons … interpersonally There have been numerous suggestions of things to do to avoid disasters [similar to Littleton’s]. Missing among them all is a proposal I made in my 1973 book Humanistic Education (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall): People live in groups. Interpersonal relations, thus, are an important aspect of living. One of the […]
Sound and spirit
“In the beginning was the word: And the word was Braidstream,” keyboardist Danny Ellis comments with a chuckle, as flutist Rita Hayes finishes relating the origin of the name of their eclectic musical group. Hayes, co-founder (with Jeff Johnson) of the Asheville group, says the name was given to her by a friend in 1976. […]
Beyond the range
Bob Dylan. Bob Seeger. Stevie Nicks. The Grateful Dead. Bela Fleck. Leon Russell. Chaka Khan. Chick Corea. Cowboy Junkies. Don Henley. Huey Lewis. Willie Nelson. A random list of American musicians? Hardly. The fleet-fingered common thread running between these wildly divergent artists is one Bruce Hornsby of Williamsburg, Va. — a good Southern boy (well, […]
Backroads wisdom
A passionate pastime shared by old-building lovers and dedicated preservationists is the unfailing delight in searching out our region’s rich architectural legacy. Most encounters happen by chance, as we rubberneck along winding back roads; all too often, though, we’re left with more questions than answers. But no more! Or, at least, much less frequently: Both […]
Black Mountain Music Festival on the move
There’s a whole lot of confusion rumbling through these hills at the moment about a certain semiannual music festival, traditionally scheduled to take place in a few short weeks. Will the Black Mountain Music Festival happen on Memorial Day weekend? And, if it does, where will it be staged? Cynthia White and Zack Alper — […]
Stripped-down and dirty
Chris Whitley recorded his most recent CD (the stark, craggily brilliant Dirt Floor) in an old barn in Vermont using a lone two-track tape machine and a single microphone, and accompanying himself only on acoustic guitar and the steady tap of his boot on the weathered floor. That’s quite a contradiction for a guy who, […]
Traffic hell
[Editor’s note: All of the names of Critical Mass protesters have been changed, at their request.] “Fred Free” heard the whoops and hollers of joy from his friends behind him give way to angry shouts and the scream of police sirens, just as he put his feet down on the pavement at a stoplight at […]
Buncombe County Commission
Buncombe County commissioners gave cell-tower companies the go-ahead, voting unanimously at their May 4 meeting to lift a moratorium on new towers. The moratorium, which had been in place since Feb. 2, was imposed by commissioners to give the county Planning Board time to review the county’s existing cell-tower ordinance. Commissioners passed nine of 10 […]
Notepad
Don’t take the car — you’ll pollute the planet! Yep, it’s that old argument-stopper again, the one that always comes up when you’re trying to convince someone how environmentally friendly your lifestyle really is (you’re mostly vegetarian, you recycle, you turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, etc.); and then your opponent will […]
Letters to the editor
The destruction of Asheville’s civil-service law This letter is in response to proposed changes in [Asheville’s] civil-service law, which the City Council has forwarded to the Legislature [for approval]. The city administration does not propose to merely change the civil-service law. It intends to destroy the only objective oversight of the hiring practices of individual […]
Buncombe County Commission
“A sense of urgency is upon us,” said Lt. Col. Rusk G. Henry, who detailed for county commissioners the alarming state of nursing homes in Buncombe County. Rusk and several others asked the Buncombe County commissioners, at their April 27 meeting, for help publicizing the chronic problems plaguing many local adult-care homes, as documented in […]
Notepad
The price of freedom There’s certainly no shortage of fascinating stories about Western North Carolina — or, for that matter, of local writers capable of relating them. One of the more interesting such scribes is Charles F. Price, author of Hiwassee (John F. Blair, 1996) and its sequel, the newly released Freedom’s Altar (also published […]
Letters to the editor
Take a (healthy) hike The following open letter concerns relations between motorists and pedestrians in downtown Asheville. I’ve witnessed a number of similar incidents; one, on Coxe Avenue, nearly resulted in violence and caused a dangerous traffic obstruction. I hope to make your readers aware of the attitudes of some motorists regarding pedestrians. Personally, I […]
Fresh voices, healthy visions
Team in Training brings athletes together to fight leukemia. And singer/songwriter Jimmy Landry has brought a group of Asheville’s newest acoustic-music voices together for the same reason — and to help them get some much-needed exposure. “New Faces, New Voices” — a May 1 concert to benefit Team in Training and the Leukemia Society of […]