Fun ‘n’ games There’s a new arcade on the block, and as far as Notepad knows, it’s the only smoke-free pool room downtown. The cozy, smoke-and-alcohol-free little 5 Pillars Arcade, housed in a basement space at 2 South Lexington Ave. (catty-corner from the Kress Building), also offers air hockey, fooseball, pinball and video games. Open […]
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The wary waif
Sarah McLachlan was recently described by the New York Times as “a touchstone for the mystical young women who drape scarves over lamps but consider themselves too cool to listen to the New Age diva Enya.” A fair (if smug) assessment? Well, McLachlan concerts do tend to bring out hordes of rapturous teenage girls in […]
Not the music of mortals
George Orwell’s 1984, with its dark vision of a voyeuristic government based on thought control, makes no mention of a dynamic foursome of teenagers who would base their existence on actively shunning suburban life, the mall and anything else remotely related to consumerist culture. Yet, since that very year, the New York City-based Wallmen (now […]
An idea whose time has come
The List of Rock and Roll Calamities is as legendary as it is long: Richie Valens’ fatal plane crash on that cold Iowa morning. Carl Perkins’ car accident on the way to the Ed Sullivan show and international stardom. Ronnie Dawson’s fateful signing to Dick Clark’s Swan label, just as the payola scandal was beginning […]
Self-portraits in clay
The face of sculptor Jhierry Lewis is multiplying and disintegrating at the same time, and some folks are desperate for an explanation. “I’ve opened up this Pandora’s box of the imagination and released chaos in the middle of the UNCA library,” he reports, a hint of mischievous satisfaction in his voice. No, we’re not talking […]
Letters to the editor
Protect the strippers from the prostitutes Forget separation of church and state; we drowned that baby in her bath water when politicians started running on “morality” platforms. But when a veteran [Asheville] City Council member (a white male) thinks eliminating a woman’s free choice of occupation “is the answer,” it’s time to ask, “Is democracy […]
A few big pots and a dream
Want to feast on succulent, summer-ripe tomatoes straight off the vine, or sprinkle fresh basil in your spaghetti sauce — but don’t have a few freshly plowed acres at your disposal? Never fear. Even if you live in an apartment approximately the size of a thimble, getting garden-fresh produce and herbs can be as easy […]
Try your hand at edible landscaping
Think on this: “edible landscaping.” Roll it around in your mind. Does it conjure up images of chocolate rivers with lollipops sprouting like flowers on the banks? Or maybe hedges speckled with fat blueberries, with stalks of creamy-white sweet corn standing sentinel by the gate? Many of us imprison ourselves with the idea that an […]
Keep it clean
Spring means cleaning. And while mopping your kitchen floor and tidying the linen closet is all well and good, some things in the cleaning line are best left to the pros. Some folks, for example, may not feel secure operating a cleaning behemoth that squirts water at pressures up to 3,000 pounds per square inch […]
Shooting salads and other oddities
There are countless signs that spring is finally on its way: Seed catalogs in the mail, buds on the trees — and every weekend, without fail, yard sales. It’s a natural progression. The weather starts getting warmer, and homeowners and apartment dwellers, dustpans in hand, are suddenly itchy to rid themselves of everything from that […]
ABC stores are money magnets
Perhaps the most robust, fail-safe business venture in Asheville is the retail sale of hard liquor. Profits from liquor sales in Asheville continue to rise. Frank Worley, the supervisor of Asheville’s Alcoholic Beverage Control system, says current revenues are the highest he’s seen in his 28 years on the job. Gross sales at local over-the-counter […]
Notepad
Letters from Carver Letters from famed scientist George Washington Carver to a young college student have been donated to the special collections at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library. Relatives of Thomas Dickey “Dick” Slagle — a Macon County man who met Carver in 1923 — recently gave the library about 25 letters Carver wrote to […]
Key concerns
What’s on the minds of individual Asheville City Council members for 1998? Chuck Cloninger still has an eye on signs and cell-phone towers; Tommy Sellers still plays the quiet man on Council, worrying about alcohol sales at city-sponsored events and working behind the scenes to smooth things between businesses and neighborhoods; Vice Mayor Ed Hay […]
New offices for MSD?
The Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County is considering spending about $3.6 million to renovate the former Carolina Power & Light building on Riverside Drive, for use as a new MSD office building. Some MSD board members and staff believe that concentrating employees in one building would be more efficient. They say the current MSD […]
Morning in the garden of good and evil
However sad, however real, the facts are old news now: Raped at age 12, shunned as a teenager, Fiona Apple found a certain solitary peace in reading Maya Angelou’s poetry and forging her own melancholy creations on the family’s piano. A sensitive, troubled adolescent, she was in therapy at an age when most girls were […]
The serial killer inside
“Poor Horace,” the teacher had written in the comments section of Horace Benjamin Beach’s first-grade report card. “There’s something terribly wrong in his home. Whatever shall we do for him?” Forty years later, forensic psychologist Faye Sultan wrestled with the same question: What to do for Horace? But by then, the stakes had been raised […]
Coming full circle
In the summer of 1951, artist Susan Weil wasn’t getting much work done. Two years before, she’d left Black Mountain College (where she’d studied with painter Josef Albers) to attend classes at New York City’s Art Students League, and to learn from artists living and working in the city. But in 1951, she’d just returned […]
Believe the hype
Ray Deaton has two favorite musical memories. The runner-up concerns his band getting to play the Grand Ole Opry. The winner explains why his band should get to perform there any time they want. Hold on — you’ll see what I mean. Deaton, 45, is the bass player and bass vocalist with IIIrd Tyme Out, […]
Rocking out in a folky world
Beth Wood is a renegade in the land of mellow singer-songwriters. Ironically, she’s also an active member of that world, part of Black Mountain’s WorkinFolk Agency roster, which includes such area acoustic mainstays as Chris Rosser, Jimmy Landry and David LaMotte. And she’s holding her upcoming CD release party at Black Mountain’s Grey Eagle, a […]
Buncombe County Commission
A lot of county residents support zoning, and those living in already-zoned areas seem pleased about it, the chair of Buncombe County’s Land-Use Planning Steering Committee told commissioners during their Feb. 17 meeting. “We have an exceptionally diverse group of citizens, with different ideas about what’s best for the county,” said Scott Hughes, recapping the […]
Where are the teeth?
“It should not pay to pollute,” Ginny Lindsey of the Clean Water Fund of North Carolina told the Western North Carolina Air Pollution Control Board during its Feb. 9 meeting. She urged the board to develop a clear, thorough and consistent civil-penalties policy. The APCA’s current two-page policy is neither clear nor sufficiently detailed, Lindsey […]