Never let it be said that mountain bikers don’t have a code of honor. While gracious and generous to a fault, nearly every bike enthusiast I spoke with for this piece clammed up when it came time to talk about his or her favorite trails. Simply put, no one wanted to publicize their most beloved […]
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On the road
If many mountain bikers would like to see less traffic on the trails, most road bikers — such as Randy Roland of Hearn’s Cycling and Fitness — would enjoy seeing more bikes on the streets. “It’s not just a way to get to work,” he maintains; “it’s a better way to get to work. Bike […]
Citizen watchdogs keep the heat on pollution agency
The WNC Regional Air Pollution Control Agency board went into closed executive session during its Feb. 8 meeting, drawing complaints from some citizens present at the meeting. APCA attorney William “Billy” Clarke advised the board that North Carolina law allows closed session under certain conditions. “The board can go into closed session to consider the […]
The sacred and the profane
Del McCoury reigns as bluegrass music’s soft-spoken country gentleman. Steve Earle is country-rock’s undisputed renegade hell-raiser. What, pray tell, are the two of them doing together — blending the often unkempt Earle’s hard-luck, raspy Texas twang with the silver-haired, immaculately dressed McCoury’s perfect-pitch high tenor — on The Mountain (E-Squared Records, 1999), Earle’s first full-length […]
A ‘King’-sized vision
Sure, modern dance master Garth Fagan won a coveted Tony Award for his spellbinding choreography in the Broadway production of The Lion King. But the Jamaican-born founder and artistic director of the renowned Garth Fagan Dance generally explores territory that’s a little more postmodern. Take, for example, what is perhaps his best-known piece — Griot […]
Caustic Chameleon
Natalie Merchant is not one to shy away from tackling life’s injustices, big or small. “Pasta is one of the great fallacies of our time,” she once said. “Two hundred different shapes, and they all taste the same.” Merchant is best known as lead singer of the mid-’80s/early-’90s indie-rock darlings 10,000 Maniacs; she left the […]
Notepad
Winning the war … together While the war against HIV/AIDS has produced many individual heroes — and even a few villains — it’s the sustained effort of entire communities of people that has really made a difference. Shared information, shared challenges, and a collective vision all go a long way toward keeping the flame of […]
Buncombe County Commission
The Buncombe County commissioners unanimously passed a moratorium on new telecommunications towers in the county, at their Feb. 2 meeting. The second reading of the resolution — which was approved 4-1 at the commissioners’ Jan. 26 meeting — was delayed by the late arrival of the Baptist preacher who was to give the invocation. In […]
Notepad
Wheeling and dealing As every parent knows, having a kid is expensive. There’s food, clothing, insurance and childcare, not to mention the transportation to and from the child-care provider. But while many low-income parents work — often relying on the city’s bus system to get there — delivering their kids to the daycare center can […]
Spectral justice
Arthur Miller once wrote that he could tell a lot about the political climate in a country just by knowing that his play, The Crucible, was popular there. Deborah Austin, director of the upcoming Asheville Community Theatre production of Miller’s classic, must be heartened, albeit in a strange way — to note that this year […]
A gift for art
When Zone one contemporary gallery owner Connie Bostic approached painter Marie Hudson last year about exhibiting in the gallery’s upcoming Women of a Certain Age show (like Hudson, all the artists included were over age 60), her answer was a resounding “no.” “Actually, it wasn’t just ‘no’ — it was ‘Hell no!’” remembers Hudson. “I […]
Buncombe County Commission
It wasn’t a free lunch, but county commissioners were offered breakfast, free of charge, courtesy of the American Egg Board — and the staff of the county Finance Department, who won the meals in a KISS-FM contest. The breakfast invitation was delivered during the commissioners’ Jan. 26 agenda-review meeting. (Bill Stanley was the only commissioner […]
Notepad
Mr./Ms. Intern goes to Washington Who says summer jobs for students have to entail waiting tables or slinging hash at the local greasy spoon? U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor is now accepting applications from college students interested in working as congressional interns in his Washington office this summer. The program will be divided into two six-week […]
Notepad
Death race 2000 Next time you cross Patton Avenue, make sure you look left, right, then left again; then repeat the process: “Mean Streets 1998,” a report released recently by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, ranks North Carolina as the seventh-most-dangerous state for child pedestrians, based on data covering 1992-96. The report pegs the state’s […]
Honky-tonk king
He’s been called “too country for country radio.” But one listen to Junior Brown’s rapid-fire dance rhythms and blistering, bar-honed guitar work tells you he’s more likely to be too in-your-face for country radio, given the often-bland, poppy pablum that pervades those airwaves, these days. Though firmly rooted in tradition, Brown’s take on country music […]
Continuing Enigma
It’s not hard to see why Son Volt is considered one of the most enigmatic bands around. Leader Jay Farrar usually speaks in monosyllables (even when not being interviewed by drooling rock critics), and the rest of Son Volt — drummer Mike Heidorn, bassist Jim Boquist and his multi-instrumentalist brother Dave — have never been […]
Notepad
Hallelujah It’s official: The historic Hopkins Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church on the edge of downtown Asheville won’t be torn down. Thanks to a major grant from the Janirve Foundation, the old church will soon be looking, if not as good as new, then at least pretty nice. After 80 years of serving as the primary […]
Buncombe County Commission
The devil is in the details, or so it seemed at the Buncombe county-commissioners’ first meeting of 1999, which covered a daunting, varied and lengthy agenda on Jan. 5. On the docket were: animal-adoption concerns, a neighborhood battle over a shooting club, a proposed mountain-bike path around the new county landfill, the sale or disposal […]
Notepad
A two-way street If you think our fair city has escaped the ravages of racism, think again: While Asheville has a well-deserved reputation for tolerance and open-mindedness, it is still living down the legacy of the American South (not to mention the rest of the world). But the folks at Building Bridges have an eight-week […]
All in the family
For centuries, Edward Ball’s ancestors owned some 25 rice plantations near Charleston, S.C. And between 1698 and 1865, more than 4,000 black people were either purchased by the Balls or born into slavery on the family plantations. In Ball’s 1998 book Slaves in the Family, which won both the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and […]
Deep blues
Aurora “Rory” Block’s music has been known to literally save lives. “A guy said he decided not to kill himself after hearing my music,” she recalls, describing one particularly poignant fan letter she received. “Life is short, and it’s fragile,” warns Block. “Don’t forget that it’s a great privilege to be in this miraculous place […]