He’s proof that you can have it both ways. Chuck Brodsky is a glorious oddity, a champion of things that don’t, at first, seem to fit together — proving that they are not only compatible, but maybe even vital to each other. If you subscribe to the notion that we are best described by our […]
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Buncombe County Commission
The dreaded “z-word” reared its head in a public debate at the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners July 7 meeting. The lengthy debate was supposed to be about the procedure for establishing a community council, a kind of forum for determining and representing residents’ concerns. But much of the discussion centered on many residents’ fears […]
Notepad
Cable franchises: Other approaches Asheville’s cable-franchise controversy is about to ratchet up a level, when Citizens for Media Literacy sponsors two talks by telecommunications experts On July 16, Joseph Van Eaton, a partner in the Washington, D.C. telecommunications law firm of Miller & Van Eaton, will discuss the problems and pitfalls of franchise enforcement in […]
Letters to the editor
The more faster disaster One of America’s main goals is to produce and consume more and more stuff — at a faster and faster rate. Many of us believe this gargantuan expansion can be made ecologically sound by shaping it into “sustainable development” or “quality growth.” But that’s like trying to teach Godzilla table manners. […]
Letters to the editor
Turning the Wheel of the Year The Summer (or Green) Solstice is a remarkable time: the longest day and shortest night of the year, celebrated by Pagan peoples since the dawn of human time. This year’s Solstice, however, was especially meaningful, because Druids were allowed to celebrate the sacred rites at Stonehenge for the first […]
American art for the ages
The emotionally wrought, compellingly rendered images are every bit as much a document of the first four decades of 20th century America as any sociologist’s objective pen or historian’s clinical lens. The more than 50 masterpieces that comprise In the City: Urban Visions 1900-1940 trace the dramatic cultural and political changes that marked this turbulent […]
World-class sounds
Very early into an interview with American music icon Mitch Miller, I made a major mistake. I asked Miller — a world-famous conductor, who’ll head up two concerts this month at the renowned Brevard Music Festival — about his background. It was my third question, I think, after, “Is this Mitch Miller?” and “How are […]
Portrait of the artist as a sham
So you wanna be a writer? Wilton Barnhardt has written a cautionary tale for you — Show World (St. Martin’s Press, 1998) — one the author himself calls satire. But to be satire, shouldn’t it exaggerate? Under autumn leaves, a wistful young woman named Samantha sits on a Central Park bench scratching notes for her […]
Buncombe County Commission
Commissioners David Young and Bill Stanley jumped the fence and voted to approve the Regional Water Authority’s 1998-99 budget at the Buncombe County Commissioners’ June 30 meeting. Both had voted to reject the budget one week earlier. Stanley’s vote was so quiet that Sobol had to ask him which way he had voted. Young made […]
Notepad
Mackey Mountain beckons If you’ve worn out your hiking boots walking the same old paths through the mountains, maybe you’re ready to explore someplace new. How about Mackey Mountain? The Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and the N.C. Chapter of the Sierra Club have just published a new hiking map featuring […]
How well do they do?
Most of us vote for candidates based on their ideology (socially progressive? fiscally conservative?), or where they stand on particular issues near and dear to us (teacher pay, for example, if we’re teachers). But how can the average taxpayer gauge how effectively he or she is being represented, day-to-day, in a state capital that’s hundreds […]
Buncombe County Commission
For the moment, the Regional Water Authority’s budget for the next fiscal year is all wet. After hearing a round of citizen complaints that area water bills are too high already, Buncombe County commissioners voted 3-2 on June 23 to reject the Water Authority’s proposed budget, which includes a 9 percent increase in water rates. […]
Who will lead?
Selecting a chairperson may not seem like a big deal — but it will be on July 13, when the Western N.C. Air Pollution Control Agency board takes a vote. Last year’s election plunged the agency into conflict, when its board re-elected Haywood County appointee Tom Rhodarmer as its chair. As a concession to the […]
Home on the range?
Everyone agrees: The firing range that Officer Donald Guge has opened on his property in an Emma neighborhood is perfectly within Buncombe County law. “It’s on my land, and I meet all legal statutes,” asserts Guge, who works in law enforcement in the county. He moved into the neighborhood about a year ago. “This is […]
Letters to the editor
Let city run cable system At its June 23 meeting, City Council came within seconds of voting on the cable-TV-franchise agreement between the city and Intermedia. [The vote was postponed until July 7, because of Mayor Sitnick’s nosebleed.] Viewed in its best light, we have to say that television is the most powerful communications (propaganda) […]
A wealth of arts in the mountains
It happens every summer: The Appalachian State University campus is transformed from a center of learning to a place for listening. And watching. And absorbing. And having a whole lot of fun, in the process. An Appalachian Summer Festival (now in its 14th year) blends music, dance, theater and visual arts — everything from Willie […]
The aural Xpress
Blues Came to Burgaw George Herbert Moore (Lost Gold Records) George Moore worries about his soul. Playing the blues, he’ll tell you gravely, is like writing your own ticket to hell. The real place. Home to the devil. Moore plays, he insists, because his retirement money simply doesn’t meet his needs. And if his Robert […]
Real traditions, real people
“The only place on the planet that the old British ballads are still extant and living is western North Carolina,” insists 70-year-old Joe Bly, his words falling over one another in their eagerness to spill out over the phone line. “Now if that isn’t high art, I don’t know what is.” Bly should know: For […]
New club view
Be Here Now. Tressa’s Downtown Jazz & Blues. Gatsby’s. The Grey Eagle. Hannah Flanagan’s. We’ve come to rely on these old mainstays (and newer up-and-comers) to satisfy our live-music needs. And why not? They haven’t failed us yet. But true to Asheville’s changing, fast-growing nature, new venues keep springing up (and older ones keep sprucing […]
Shaping, changing
It’s about 2:10 on a Wednesday afternoon, and we’re in a basement studio of the Asheville Center of Performing Arts on Walnut Street. Sunlight washes down from a skylight, hitting a long rack of costumes, a sort of pageant on wheels: a row of red satin dresses, Santa-trimmed in white, garnished with others of varying […]
Bead me up, Scottie
With his long beard, faded T-shirt and jeans and string of beads, it would be easy to label 49-year-old Christopher England as just another aging hippie. In fact, England is an entrepreneur — a kind of ’90s version of a Medieval trader. Like the itinerant merchants of olde, England spent 18 years traversing the world, […]