The Tipping Point

Asheville loves a fashion show and the options are coming more regularly — plus, they’re getting more creative and more exciting. On the heels of ACT's Costume Drama and last…

Fashion shows tend to be variations on a formula: Designers or boutiques send models draped in the latest apparel down the runway to the beat of something indie/pop-y/electro-dance-y. Costume Drama:…

Out of sight on Eagle and Market streets, a mere block away from the tourist corridor of Biltmore Avenue, the area known as the Block doesn't attract many visitors to…

Having once played in Asheville to an awe-struck and delighted crowd 11 years ago, Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai return for a live performance combining the Native American wood…

According to Charleston, S.C.-based "sloppy-tonk" duo Shovels & Rope, its stripped-down setup (two guitars and a "junkyard drum kit harvested from an actual garbage heap") is about necessity. Cary Ann…

Asheville native Charles Frazier is probably best known as the author of Cold Mountain. His newest novel, Nightwoods, is also set in the Appalachian mountains — though instead of the…

Author, library critic and Emily Dickinson scholar Christopher Benfey already has an impressive CV. He's also the grandnephew of Josef and Anni Albers, German artists who emigrated to the U.S.…

The summer installment of The Big Crafty — equal parts social event, indie-craft bazaar and shopping expo — returns to Pack Place and Pack Square on Sunday, July 8. Vendors…

Boy, howdy: It sure seems like music lost its way a while back — gone off the rails, you might say. I remember a time when kids playing music was…

See fireworks explode over Lake Lure at an Independence Day boat tour on Wednesday, July 4, beginning at sundown. $25 for boat tour; fireworks are free. Info, location and registration…

It's Friday night, and Carla Gilfillan is just starting her shift at Outback Steakhouse on Tunnel Road. She'll spend the next six hours juggling orders and handling the requests of…

“This should be a great year for berries,” says Walter Harrill of Imladris Farm in Fairview. “A very solid berry year indeed.” That's good news for local food lovers and…

What: The annual Bamboo Festival of the American Bamboo Society’s Southeastern Chapter Where: The festival will be held in the North Carolina Arboretum’s Education Center. When: Saturday, July 16, from…

Openings Ace Hardware (new south Asheville location), 1888 Hendersonville Road, 676-0047 Blue Ridge Custom Floors (new show room), 1154 Sweeten Creek Road, 348-6977 Facebusters (custom statue busts), http://www.facebust.me 393-9030 French…

Every so often, wilderness gets a break. Consider the case of the Box Creek Wilderness, a 3,300-acre forest tract straddling the Rutherford/McDowell county line just east of Asheville.

June 26 meeting Ingles sign variance voted down Tobacco sponsorships banned from future festivals Staff studies aren't usually particularly controversial. But a proposed traffic-engineering study for the Charlotte Street corridor…

In the months leading up to the May 8 primary, how did the Buncombe County commissioner candidates raise and spend money? Their initial campaign-finance reports provide a snapshot of how…

WNC congressional candidates voice views on U.S. Supreme Court’s health-care ruling One of President Barack Obama's signature achievements to date, the overhaul of the country's health-care system, has continued to…

Thanks to a more than $500,000 grant made available through the Affordable Care Act, the Hendersonville-based Blue Ridge Community Health Services will be able to provide health care services at…

I recently opened the Mountain Xpress and was saddened to see an insert espousing conspiracy theories regarding the existence of the Illuminati and satanic cults. I am in full support…

Since 1994, the Needle Exchange Program of Asheville has been doing what it can to give community members access to harm-reduction supplies such as condoms, clean needles, cookers, cotton, alcohol…

Kudos to Rusty Sivils for his well-written, heartfelt piece, “Dead Wrong,” regarding the slaughter of dogs and cats at animal shelters [June 13 Xpress]. However, I must take exception with…

I want to express my thanks to Brent Brown for his "Lowlife Scum" cartoon in the June 27 Mountain Xpress. If you'll permit me, I'd like to address the Lowlife…

I lost my husband, Ben Harris, two months ago in a terrible accident at Redhook Brewery in Portsmouth, N.H. Highland Brewery held a benefit for me and my unborn child…

In 2009, after selling my company, I had to purchase my own health insurance. I remember telling my friend, Judy, a New Jersey teacher, that I didn’t want to pay…

Please imagine the days that I spend with you. I work atop the building outside of which you busk. I arrive to hear you playing, saying to my colleague, "there…

Have the citizens of this country and their representatives lost their minds completely? We have a representative government. The citizens vote for candidates who will represent their interest in deciding…

If the function of the BID is to provide services that overlap those already provided by the city, then it doesn't seem logical to create a new bureaucracy and overhead…

If you do not want a building across from the St. Lawrence Basilica that will produce income for the city and its residents for years to come, but instead would…

The fact that we Ashevilleans could elect a City Council that would even consider putting yet another hotel on the property across from St. Lawrence Basilica shows how debased our…

Please stop selling out our once beautiful downtown — giving up old architecture, charm and character to dollars. The horrendously ugly and mundane hotel now being built across from the…

There are times when our leaders have a chance to do something that transforms communities, way on down the road. Our family has seen this in travels around the country,…

Face-paddling craze smashes WNC kayakers