Art Gone Wild
Volume
21
/ Issue 9
Cover Design Credit:
Laura BarryCover Photography Credit:
Image based on the WPA posters of the 1930s
Environmental awareness and action are year-round concerns, but this fall the exhibit Within the Lines aims to showcase local artists, composers and photographers. It also calls for continued protection of our wild areas as the 1964 Wilderness Act celebrates 50 years.
arts
Asheville Symphony Orchestra presents The Many Moods of McCartney
When you think about it, it’s not a stretch that the co-creator of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band would go on to write classical music. Paul McCartney has written…Smart bets: The Ballroom Thieves
While every band doesn’t need a drum set, sometimes powerful percussion is exactly what elevates an interesting indie-rock outfit above the sea of competition. And making that drum set portable…Smart bets: The Grand Ole Uproar
Greensboro-based The Grand Ole Uproar describes its live show as “cosmic Americana [that] conjures up the Texas twang of Waylon Jennings … the improvisation of the Grateful Dead and the…Big Freedia, Queen of bounce, plays New Mountain on Sept. 30
It’s just after noon on the final day of 2013’s South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The fatigue that the marathon music festival inflicts is readily evident in a grand…Smart bets: Mountain Heritage Day
Break out the candles! Western Carolina University celebrates its 125th year during the 40th annual Mountain Heritage Day festival, a free event to recollect WCU’s rich history. Two stages and…Smart bets: Shimshai
“I gotta get my Asheville fix!” writes Shimshai on his own concert’s Facebook page, where several giddy fans have already responded with victorious tales of acquiring admission tickets. The California-based…State of the Arts: Cristina Córdova at Blue Spiral
This is the final week of viewing for a small self-titled exhib by Penland-based ceramicist and sculptor Cristina Córdova. The show, on view through Saturday, Sept. 27, at Blue Spiral…Asheville Area Arts Council celebrates a big year with the Gilded Ball
The past year has been an especially successful one for the Asheville Area Arts Council. In addition to receiving record funding from the city of Asheville and Buncombe County, the…food
Monkey business: Sweet Monkey Bakery & Café opens in Marshall
“I was born to bake,” says Hollie West, owner of Sweet Monkey Bakery & Café, a restaurant that opened this summer in downtown Marshall. As a kid growing up in Maui,…Beer Scout: Pour Taproom opens in West Asheville
“I want people to come in and feel like they’re at a beer festival every day of the week,” says Nate Tomforde, owner of the new Pour Taproom in West…First fruits: Asheville GreenWorks Food Tree Project nurtures communities
A test orchard at Buncombe County Sports Park in Candler is part of the Asheville GreenWorks Food Tree Project, an ambitious 20-year program developed in concert with the city of…Feeding a need: Asheville, Charleston chefs unite for charity dinner
It has been said that too many cooks spoil the broth, but four acclaimed chefs from Asheville and Charleston, S.C., will cream that sentiment on Sunday, Sept. 28, and spoil…living
Conscious Party: Take your human for a walk
WHAT: 7th Annual Tails + Trails 5K Adventure Run for Dogs and Their Humans WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 4, 9:30am WHERE: Buncombe County Sports Park, 58 Apac Circle, Asheville WHY: Seven…New Ayurvedic program highlights local practice, art and training
Ayurvedic medicine came to Asheville at least 12 years ago, when Vishnu Dass opened Blue Lotus Ayurveda, a Panchakarma clinic. Back then, “There was nobody practicing clinical Ayurveda in Asheville…news
Art goes wild in Within the Lines exhibit
“I had hiked to the top, going from 3,500 to 11,000 feet. … I sat there looking over this valley; I could see for miles. The feeling of the insignificance…Financing fiesta
Community Sourced Capital is poised to become a household name within entrepreneurial hubs like Asheville. At least that’s what Carol Peppe-Hewitt, founder of Slow Money NC and CSC’s North Carolina…Cutting costs: Retirement incentive shuffles county budget, staff
A list requested by Mountain Xpress shows 125 employees taking an early-retirement incentive at Buncombe County.opinion
Publish entire series on Asheville events
What a great series on old Asheville concerning events that were not long ago at all. Change is swift in this country. The latest trends are sometimes weekly and quarterly.…Urban Outfitters Controversy
The making of Asheville’s Woolworth Walk
A 76-year-old structure is bound to have stories to tell.Saving the French Broad River: Naysayers, start paddling
For most people, their sense of “history” begins when they arrive somewhere. So, here is my history of the French Broad River and what has evolved along it since 1986,…Biology, history surround ‘foot etiquette’ and hookworms
After reading letters like Kriss Sands’ on being barred from the Mountain State Fair for going barefoot [“Why I Won’t Be Attending Mountain State Fair This year,” Sept. 10, Xpress] and…Why the lack of diversity in Asheville’s breweries?
Having visited all of Asheville’s celebrated breweries, I’ve noticed a glaring lack of staff diversity. Is there a cogent, explicable, rational reason for this phenomena? Dennis Hill AshevilleAsheville Disclaimer 9/24/14
Downtown fairies fear gentrificationMen can also be victims of rape
Once you see someone suffering through a flashback, you never forget it. It isn’t like a dream. You can’t shake them out of it; you can only watch. A close…From scratch: Mountain BizWorks’ humble beginnings
Mountain Microenterprise Fund began in 1989 as a small demonstration project to a shortage of financing for small businesses, particularly those owned by women and minorities. MMF started out as…Thanks for the memories, Xpress
I’ve totally enjoyed the trip down memory lane in the last three issues of Mountain Xpress, and I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to be a small part of…Hope Floats
Mountain Xpress: Persistently progressing progressivism
I was scrounging for a master’s in history from Western Carolina and buying beer at Cullowhee’s Speedwell General Store when there it was on the checkout counter: Green Line ……Don’t throw buskers under the bus
As the city considers different ideas for the proposed “enhancement” of downtown (see the 2014 Downtown Enhancement Plan at avl.mx/0gw), please don’t throw buskers under the bus. Many of Asheville’s…There was never a dull moment
I moved to Asheville — well, technically, Black Mountain — in the winter of ’83. It was pretty rough. The night I moved into my little no-insulation cottage, temps plunged…Love your anniversary issue
Love, love, love your “XX YEARS Anniversary Issue.” Living here since 1987 has indeed been a good ride, and the Greenline/Xpress has definitely figured into the mix. It’s so interesting and…The drum circle’s early beats began at Vance Monument
Thank you for allowing me to share a bit of true Asheville history, at least my recollections of the origins of Asheville’s drumming and how the Pritchard Park drum circle…The Gospel According to Jerry: Tit for tat
This year’s Go Topless rally, the bare-busted parade that annually turns Pritchard Park into Hooterville, has sent shock waves through our town that have reverberated all the way to Raleigh.…On with the show
The Cold War never ended; it merely took a 10-year break. During those years, we cultivated our xenophobia, subconsciously trading fact for fantasy. America, it seems, moves ever more rapidly…Arrest the musicians—it’s the law
So it’s come to this: I’m walking on the sidewalk near Pritchard Park when a man in a wheelchair rolls up and starts serenading me with an a capella ballad…