Power to the people If the World War III turns out to be an amorphous battle with a tactic labeled “terrorism,” then what might be the fourth? Award-winning filmmakers Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohen (Zapatista, Black and Gold, This Is What Democracy Looks Like) have been to the front lines in Argentina, Korea, Iraq, Mexico, […]

TLC for women with cancer As a breast-cancer survivor, Susie Tarantino knows the importance of a little self-pampering. “As women, we tend to focus on everyone else’s needs,” she notes. To help correct this imbalance, Tarantino (who owns the concierge service TLC) and Teresa Bennett (who owns Vanity Flair, a new day spa) have paired […]

The lost canines A lot of folks adopt wolf dogs because they think they’re “cool.” All too often, however, these people aren’t willing or able to give their new pets the special care and training they need. As a result, 50 to 80 percent of wolf dogs born each year will end up dead or […]

Buncombe Dems say no to eight lanes Buncombe County Democrats are taking a stand. The Buncombe County Democratic Party held its annual convention April 17, and besides selecting delegates to the district and state conventions (to be held later this year), the assembly endorsed a series of resolutions, including: support for a $7/hour minimum wage; […]

Help for homeless veterans About one-third of the adult homeless population has served in the armed forces, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. On any given day, says the agency, as many as 250,000 veterans are living on the streets or in shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point […]

Asheville hears a Who The sneetches and blummers liked Geisel a lotAnd who in the whole ville of Asheville does not?He gave us strange birds and strange cakes in the ovenThe 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins,Green Eggs and Ham, the Grinch and the zummer,Books we all read on the knees of our mummers.Dr. Seuss comes […]

Beacon blaze left mammoth mess It was the biggest fire in Western North Carolina’s history. Now, seven months later, about all that’s left of the Beacon Manufacturing plant in Swannanoa is 57,000 tons of still-smoldering debris. And someone’s got to clean it up. “It’s very difficult to comprehend the absolute scale of destruction we’ve got […]

Putting the party in politics A renewed sense of participatory democracy seems to be running loose in our land. Some trace this resurgence to the halted Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election, while others credit the global antiwar movement that coalesced before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Internet is surely playing a role […]

Climbing dogs and trampolines The award-winning films from the 2003 Banff Mountain Film Festival — a celebration of outdoor adventuring — feature some unlikely subjects. Front Range Freaks: Biscuit profiles a small Jack Russell terrier with a big appetite for rock climbing. Extreme Tramping — The Lord of the Springs is a mockumentary that follows […]

War and peace One year to the day after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, concerned citizens will take to the streets in cities around the world for a “Global Day of Action for Peace and an End to War and Occupation” on Saturday, March 20. Here in North Carolina, two large marches/rallies are planned, one […]

Xpress: Still desperately seeking new feeding grounds … There’s nothing quite so bleak as the yawning chasm of an empty refrigerator when you don’t feel like cooking. But here at Mountain Xpress, we feel your pain. Each year, Xpress publishes Blue Ridge Flavors, a print guide to dining and summer fun in Western North Carolina. […]

A shot at the spotlight Sick of obscurity? Tired of unappreciative karaoke-bar audiences? Hard at work on a brilliant clogging routine to “Dancing on the Ceiling”? Or maybe you have particularly talented chickens but no place to show them off? Well, here’s your chance. The Instant Theatre Company is looking for talented folks to audition […]

Ghosts of vanished Asheville “It’s debatable,” says Felicity Green, talking about whether the extensive renovation of Southside Avenue in the 1960s was altogether a good thing. “You look at the community of people in these photographs; it’s very poignant to think that this whole community has vanished and is now South Charlotte Street.” Green is […]

Summer: sun, fun — and voting? When I think about late July, my mind usually turns to hiking, picnicking and the like. But this year, I’ll have to add “voting” to my list of hot-weather pursuits. Last week, the State Board of Elections unanimously voted to delay the North Carolina primary from May 4 until […]

Get on board A new local group, URTV Inc., is seeking applicants to serve on its board of directors. The private, nonprofit organization will set up and manage the new public-access channel that will serve city and county residents. URTV Channel 20 will be available to all Charter Communications subscribers in Buncombe County, provided the […]

Children’s essay contest A new movie, The Adventures of Ociee Nash, will be released on Feb. 13. The film tells the story of a courageous 9-year-old girl who lived in Asheville in 1898, and the producers are sponsoring an essay contest for children Ociee’s age — third through fifth grade — answering the question, “What […]

CSI: Cullowhee In the recent CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode “Eleven Angry Jurors,” it’s the forensic experts who discover the murder weapon: peanut butter secretly added to the unsuspecting 12th juror’s chili (he had a fatal allergy). Meanwhile, in the “Stalkerazzi” episode of the spinoff CSI: Miami, it’s the forensic experts who discover foul play […]

The Guantanamo Bay question Can people be detained indefinitely without a hearing or access to a lawyer? Has the right to habeas corpus been suspended? These and other questions will be addressed in Behind Barbed Wire: Prisoners of the Bush Administration, an educational forum featuring panelists Bruce Elmore and Frank Goldsmith of the American Civil […]

Fit for a King When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, he said: “Sooner or later, all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace. … If this is to be achieved, man must evolve — for all human […]

As a new year emerges from the melted puddle of the old, it can be instructive to glance backward, surveying the landscape we’ve just traversed, and make some course adjustments ere we roll on. In this year’s edition of our annual tradition, Xpress has gathered fruit and pits from our 51 weekly editions in 2003 […]