Those fat, winged babies don’t need archery lessons to shoot stylized arrows through anatomically incorrect hearts. That’s because cupids aren’t real. But if you really hope to fall in love, stay in love, rekindle a love or simply find something to distract you until love comes around, chances are that getting sweaty and intimate will […]
Author: Steve Shanafelt
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Culture Watch
Not infrequently, readers will write in to me to complain about something I’ve written in Culture Watch. Although they can be filled with genuine feeling, the letters often contain grammar and spelling poor enough to override their writers’ salient points. Obviously, we need some standardization here. So, I present you with our new E-Z Complaint […]
Xpress MySpace Alert: Getting down with STRUT
Last week, the Mountain Xpress held an informal reader vote on our MySpace page to determine who should be our “favorite” band for the week. The winning band would have their profile listed in our “Top Friends” section, and would have one of their songs featured as our background music. It was a simple, down-and-dirty contest of online popularity, and it was also great fun.
The pure rock power of mindshapefist
For such an active music scene, Asheville has a relative dearth of metal acts. Chalk it up to our city’s folk-friendly, jam-loving, hipster-empowering counterculture, but if you really want to rock out, you’ve got limited options. In fact, the downtown set’s general reluctance to embrace the headbanging vibe has actually caused them to miss out on local acts like Sanctity and The Monsters of Japan, who are typically embraced by out-of-town crowds.
Blog Alert: A new and improved Bird On the Moon
Although blogger Jay Joslin has had one of the more interesting local blogs, his Bird On The Moon has also suffered from a bit of an identity crisis. What, exactly, was it about? Politics? Writing? Spirituality? Personal insight? It was all of these, and none of them. It was almost like four separate, but highly interesting, blogs that all managed to have the same name.
Blog Alert: Edgy Mama takes on the flu!
Local author and blog-goddess Edgy Mama recently posted a couple of blog entries about that dreaded parental duty; coping with a sick kid. Here’s a sample:
“As I warmed my cold nose against the frying pan of his neck, he asked if he could go back to school tomorrow. “I don’t think so,” I said.
There was a pause. “If I don’t go to school, are they going to put you in jail, like those guys told me?”
I guess the truant officers have been putting the fear of God and prison into the pre-Kindergarteners.”
Culture watch
Ron Rash Wins Top Award For Teen Lit Not only has Ron Rash been awarded a Sherwood Anderson Prize, an O. Henry Award and a Sir Walter Raleigh Award (among numerous others), but as a Western Carolina University professor, he’s also an active and visible part of the regional literary community. It was recently announced […]
Blog alert: Ashvegas vs. Toughman
Over the weekend, downtown Asheville hosted the Original Toughman Contest, turning the Civic Center into a brawl-lover’s paradise. While no Xpressers appear to have attended, the mysterious local blogger known as Ashvegas managed to catch the event.
Bugg vs. Rawal: Round Two!
Last week, freelance writer and coffee-shop employee Jason Bugg posted an essay on his personal blog So Much For Tact on the literary failings of Tim Rawal.
Tilting at the windmills of modern-day health care
On Saturday, Feb. 3, regional author Denise Mercado will sign copies of her recently released memoir They Created Us: Special Education, Medicaid Waivers, EPSDT, Independent Case Management at Barnes & Noble (83 E. South Tunnel Rd.).
Get your whip on
For those of you who like your entertainment a little on the naughty side, The Joli Rouge is hosting Grounded: The Big Nasty Fetish Freak Show on Saturday, Feb. 3 ,starting at 11 p.m.
Culture watch
Ironic Much? CityWiFi arrives in “Historic” H’ville Downtown Hendersonville, Inc.—a group that seeks to promote business and development in the town—recently announced that the so-called “Historic Downtown District” now offers free wireless Internet. The program, dubbed “CityWiFi,” was launched in late December, and is part of a growing trend in cities to provide incentives for […]
Pride through pugilation: The Original Toughman Contest
Living in a place like downtown Asheville, it can be kind if easy to lose perspective on what the rest of the country finds entertaining. Sure, there are those of us who like to dissect the latest arthouse flick, debade hidden bias in Chomsky’s latest tome, and spend the odd somber evening taking in a butoh performance. And yet, there are those who prefer their distractions to be less erudite, and more … well … concussed.
The gauntlet has been thrown: Bugg vs. Rawal
Coffee-shop employee, blogger and occasional Xpress contributor Jason Bugg recently posted a rant against Tim Rawal, writer of the “Raw Talk” column for the Asheville Citizen-Times’ free weekly publication Take 5. While Rawal’s light-hearted “I’m new here” attitude doesn’t seem like it’d be the starting point for a war of words, Bugg is evidently not much of a fan.
Culture watch
Theater On The Move It’s hard enough to be an edgy, professional dance troupe in a town like Asheville — where seemingly countless arts groups drink from the same smallish well of funding — but try doing it when you don’t even have a home. Yet, for four years, Terpsicorps has been putting on highly […]
Theater of discomfort
Trying to make Asheville into Edgeville: Fringe Festival performer Jenni Oldham is a longtime dancer with ACDT. Erin Braasch wants people to do the weirdest things. Demented things. Strange things. Deeply uncomfortable, highly personal things. And she wants them to do them on stage, in public. It’s her passion to make people expose themselves. No, […]
New galleries by Zen Sutherland
Local photographer Zen Sutherland recently submitted several outstanding photo series to our Xpress Photo Galleries, including a collection of Asheville Faces that rivals the work of our own Jonathan Welch. His other Xpress photo galleries include Biltmore Underwater and the Art Cars of Asheville. Sutherland is an occasional contributor to the Xpress. Have a photo […]
‘Zines seen?
Interested in the culture of DIY publishing? Then you might want to check out the latest episode of Ursula Gullow’s URTV series Art Seen Asheville. Local ‘zinesters Cindy Crabb (author of the exemplary ‘zine Doris) and Ethan Clark (editor of Stories Care Forgot, creator of Chihuahua and Pitbull and frequent contributor to Xpress. The show […]
A most absurdly excellent thing
Have a few minutes to kill before that hot date or weekend shindig? Check out the work of local artist Alexandru Sacui. His Web-based animated short anglais and digital graphic novel spanglais are both excellent ways to pass the time. The site itself is a bit on the conceptual side, and the navigation on spanglais […]
It’s a good way to make money
Comfortably numb: The Machine If you ask Joe Pascarell, there’s a reason Pink Floyd music is still around today. “I might sound old saying this,” he laughs into his phone from his home in New York. “But, so much of music today is fad and fashion, rather than quality. I think if you go back […]
Culture watch
Asheville On YouTube Unless you’ve been living under a very large (and non-Internet-ready) rock in the past year, chances are you’ve heard of the online video-sharing network YouTube.com. It’s like a cable-access show gone nuts, and hundreds of thousands of people across the globe have contributed content. Some of them are even from Asheville. What […]