Raising the bar: Asheville Cocktail Week & Southeastern Distilling Expo
Volume
22
/ Issue 40
Cover Design Credit:
Alane Mason
The area’s burgeoning craft cocktail scene and growing distilling industry prompted the Asheville Wine & Food Festival to create the inaugural Asheville Cocktail Week. The concurrent Southeastern Distilling Expo will bring bar and restaurant industry professionals and 25 distillers to WNC.
arts
Asheville Zine Festival showcases indie publications
The Asheville Zine Fest hopes to represent the full range of independent publications. Supported by DIY, book- and craft-minded donors Big Crafty, Horse and Hero and Downtown Books and News,…Smart bets: Woods
Ultimate Paining opens for Woods when the band's national and international tour stops at the Mothlight on Wednesday, May 4.Asheville acting and film production schools help students book work
The Actor’s Center of Asheville and Asheville School of Film are helping establish the area as a reliable source of film and TV talent.Smart bets: The Harlem Quartet
Commissioned to pursue increased diversity in classical music, the masterful quartet plays at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville on Sunday, May 1.Free Range Asheville presents Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth vocal ensemble
Through use of a wide array of supremely challenging and/or obscure vocal techniques, the group creates a sound like nothing else. The modern classical Roomful of Teeth comes to the…Smart bets: Robin Tolleson
The journalist brings his mashup of vinyl, interview clips and anecdotes to Asheville Music School's The Loft on Sunday, May 1.Screen scene: Local film news
The Oakley/South Asheville Library hosts Anime and Art Afternoon, Maryedith Burrell leads a screenwriting workshop at NYS3 and Mechanical Eye Microcinema exceeds its Kickstarter goal.Smart bets: Death of a Salesman
The Magnetic Theatre's productions of Death of a Salesman mark the start of the theatrical group's new series to honor classics. Showings run Thursdays-Saturdays, April 28-May 28.Conscious party: Sleep Tight Kids envisions safe and cozy nights
Local nonprofit Sleep Tight Kids aims to provide more vulnerable children with simple bedtime amenities like blankets and pajamas after holding an all-ages fundraiser at Bold Rock Hard Cider on…food
Around the world: Asheville’s ethnic grocers offer a global culinary tour
While oversized, stinky fruit and gunpowder tea may not be on everyone’s weekly grocery list, many Ashevilleans are happy they don’t have to travel far from home to find them. Whether you…High spirits: A guide to Asheville Cocktail Week
A new effort from the organizers of the Asheville Wine & Food Festival, Asheville Cocktail Week highlights the local and regional craft cocktail scene with a week of competitions and…living
First Eastern Regional Wilderness Therapy Symposium held in Asheville
Wilderness therapy experts from WNC gathered at the first Eastern Regional Wilderness Therapy Symposium in Asheville to share research findings and participate in some outdoor adventures themselves.Farm & Garden: Spring herb festival brings together people, plants and products
With our growing season just getting underway in the mountains, we lucky enough to have the largest herb festival in the country about to take place right in our backyard.…news
Cleaning up toxic mercury from dental offices
Dental appointments make plenty of people nervous, but water pollution isn’t usually what they’re worrying about. According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, however, dental offices are responsible for 50 percent…Scanner silence: Buncombe Sheriff’s department encrypts radio traffic for officer safety
The Sheriff's Department wants to protect officers and catch bad guys, and to do that better, they have made it impossible to listen to their radio traffic. But it hasn't…Employees reduce waste at Industries For the Blind
IFBA’s recycling program, begun in 2011, has been limiting its impact on the environment. Last year, the program kept roughly 536,000 pounds of reusable materials out of the landfill and…Sweet talk: Kilwins Cares For Kids program brings chocolate to Asheville schools
A musical program featuring local clown Ash Devine provides teachers with classroom incentives while educating Asheville elementary school children about how chocolate is grown, harvested and processed.Energy Innovation Task Force charts WNC’s future
As part of commitments it made earlier this year to the Utilities Commission, Duke Energy has promised to make reducing energy demand a priority in Western North Carolina. A major…Small bites: Waynesville celebrates historic ties to ramps
Waynesville honors one of mother nature's most pungent offerings for the 86th year; Farm Burger adds a South Asheville location; and Belly Up Food Truck helps out those in need…opinion
Letter writer: Story of survival was powerful, positive
"Hearing her story of survival and about her angel guides was very powerful and positive. It truly moved me."Letter writer: Article may generate discussion on near-death experiences
"Central to the process of scientific inquiry is an openness to new data. It appears that our scientific models cannot adequately deal with the data from [near-death experiences] and similar…Letter writer: Converting chicken manure into chicken salad
"I was especially grateful for yet another example of the capacity of our community's progressive-liberal-socialists to convert chicken manure into chicken salad."Letter writer: In HB2 issue, what about locker rooms and showers?
"I don’t want to see transgendered people's rights violated in any way, but given the transgendered make up only around 0.03 percent of the U.S. population, what about the rights…Boundary issues: Where does Asheville end?
"I raise the question 'Where is Asheville?' because this community will soon be asked to consider the question 'Where is Asheville going?'"Letter writer: Give Vance a chance
"I am all for never seeing a Confederate flag again, but we need proper context for our precedents who lived in a world so different from our own."A community in danger: Why bathrooms aren’t the issue in HB2
"We have a responsibility as a community to show up for each other and to speak up when someone is in danger. Our transgender community is in danger."Letter writer: Neighborhood group opposes homestays ordinance change
"We believe the city of Asheville should be run first and foremost for the majority of the citizens who live here. We should encourage tourism, but not at the expense…