On Tuesday, Jan. 16, regional author Dennis Ackison will talk about his recently released novel, Murder at Fontana Dam, at Kaplan Auditorium in the Main Branch Library in Hendersonville (301 N. Washington St.). The novel, which is set in 1940s Robbinsville, N.C., tells the story of a WW II-connected murder that happens at the newly […]

Reader Predictions for 2007 Last week, to get people in just the right cynical mood for the coming months, we published a collection of sarcastic predictions for the new year. On something of a whim, we also posted a call on our blogs (www.mountainx.com/blogs) for 2007 predictions. Many readers responded, and given that it’s otherwise […]

Asheville Betting Odds For 2007 Each new year brings its share of cultural surprises, even to those of us who make a hobby of following the big trends. Of course, that doesn’t mean that one can’t make a few insightful guesses, complete with Vegas-style odds. • 112 to 1: Local world-music wannabes Toubab Krewe will, […]

All Aboard The Booty Boat Asheville-based funk group Yo Momma’s Big Fat Booty Band is shortly to be living my personal vision of hell: Being stuck for five days in the middle of the ocean with nothing but jambands and their fans. They were recently selected to be part of this year’s Jam Cruise, a […]

Theatre Administration Shakeups When most people think of local theater, they tend to think of what happens on stage, and most of the credit for a successful show tends to go to those with the highest visibility — the director and the cast. But the reality is that a theater company without good administrators is […]

A Dunn Deal For the past 30 years, the Fletcher School of Dance has stood guard at the gates of downtown Asheville, alerting all who drive up Patton Avenue toward the commercial row that ours is a city of arts as well as business. But, as is the case with so many long-established local businesses, […]

NC Stage Takes No Prisoners The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded a grant to the Asheville-based North Carolina Stage Company to help finance their school-oriented touring show A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The grant, which is funded through the Shakespeare in American Communities program, will take effect in 2007. And, if that wasn’t enough, […]

You Say Theatre, I Say Theater … It should come as no surprise that the super-professional team at the Flat Rock Playhouse would be able to create a topnotch theater education program — they are the State Theatre of North Carolina, after all. But, having a solid program and getting recognized for it are two […]

A Pug For All Seasons What’s the first word that comes to your mind when I tell you that there’s a new children’s holiday book coming out featuring a cute dog and her canine pals who help Santa save Christmas? Chances are, the word is “lame.” If it were any other book you’d be right, […]

Beverly Hills Ain’t Got Nothin’ On Montford Could it be that low-budget indie-flick Don’t Fade Away will be the first film to truly capture the cultural essence of downtown Asheville? The $1.7 million cinematic vehicle for The O.C. star Mischa Barton has booked a surprising number of local haunts for the shoot. According to sources […]

New-Play Throwdown Results After giving the Brevard Little Theatre a hard time a few weeks back about their seemingly self-congratulatory awards ceremony (see “We Invented The Awards Banquet” in the Oct. 18 issue of Xpress), it seemed fitting to follow up when the group recently announced the winners of their 2006 New-Play Competition. Rather than […]

SeepeopleS spelled backwards is SelpoepeeS Love them or hate them, the jam-techno-experimental-rock-whatever band SeepeopleS are one of the most critically recognized groups to call Asheville home (after the stealthy and elusive Reigning Sound, of course). Fronted by Will “I appear to play everything from which sound can be made” Bradford, the band recently announced that […]

Arise From Your Grave! It’s kind of hard to be sarcastic when you’re talking about people’s hopes and dreams. But, in the case of the recently announced Ghost Town movie, it’s equally hard not to. When Maggie Valley tourist magnet Ghost Town in the Sky closed in 2002, the impact on the already struggling local […]

We Invented The Awards Banquet There is a thin line between honest self-promotion and outright commercial hubris. After all, no one really seemed to care all that much when P. Diddy and The Bad Boy Family claimed We Invented The Remix that, in fact, they hadn’t. Why is it, then, that it seems a little […]

From The Belly Of The Beast He may be a two-time Tony nominee, a former member of the cast of Cats (Rum Tum Tugger, in fact), and an Emmy nominee for his work on As the World Turns, but the thing most of Terrence Mann’s future students will probably never let him live down is […]

Fun With Schadenfreude There are few things in life as evilly gratifying as watching someone else’s creative efforts turn into an instant, undeniable calamity before your eyes. Sure, on the surface may you feel bad about laughing as someone else’s dreams are dashed upon the jagged rocks of reality, but deep down inside you’re all […]

Unto These Marketing Awards Each year, the Southeast Tourism Society picks 13 of “the best and brightest in the tourism industry” for their annual Shining Example Awards. It’s not exactly clear what makes one seeming tourist trap more spiffy-keen than another — perhaps a per capita ratio of gimmicky boutiques? — but whatever it is, […]

A Christmas Carol: Reloaded When the first Montford Park Player stepped out stage right and proclaimed “Marley was dead, to begin with,” the whole thing must have seemed so fresh and new. They never could have known that 30 years later someone else would be rehearsing to say the exact same thing, in the exact […]

Betcha Can’t Kill Just One Rocking chairs? Weak. Coffee tables? That’s pretty much the Dullsville Town Square, man. What modern-day woodworking needs to be hip is something a little more lethal — like the handmade fly swatters about to make Haywood Community College student Robb Helmkamp about as famous as an artist can get in […]

Lights, camera … sarcasm! While it’s still possible that locally produced indie flick A Dance For Bethany will be a cinematic train wreck (first-time director, writers and producers all around), the movie could very well be a needed boost of recognition for many local artists. Thank Production Designer Gayle Wurthner, who managed to rope in […]