Notepad

A big job, a busy man

Physicians for Social Responsibility is a 20,000 member group working to protect human health from the threat of nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation and gun-related violence. If you think that’s a worthy occupation, you’re invited to meet the man who leads PSR, Dr. Robert K. Musil, when he comes to Asheville for three events.

First, Musil will appear at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, Oct. 18; he will conduct the 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.services and speak on the topic “A New Abolitionist Movement: Reaching Zero Nuclear Weapons.” The next day, Oct. 19 at 8 a.m., Musil will present a program on gun violence to the medical staff of the Mission/St. Joseph’s Health System at Memorial Mission Hospital. Later that evening (7:30 p.m.), he will return to the church to deliver a lecture titled “What You and Your Doctor Should Know About Chemicals and the Environment.”

A graduate of Yale and Northwestern universities and a former Army captain, Musil has had a distinguished career as a university professor and an award-winning radio broadcaster and television producer. He has also played a lead role in various peace organizations, including The National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Musil has been executive director of PSR since 1995.

The public is invited to attend all three events.

For more information, contact Terrence Clark, M.D. at 667-0287, or Lew Patrie, M.D. at 299-1242.

Quit complaining and pitch in

Have you ever felt frustrated that our fair city isn’t quite living up to its potential? Here’s your chance to get involved. The city of Asheville is seeking qualified city residents to serve on the following bodies:

• Fair Housing Commission

• Community Relations Council

• Asheville Transit Authority

• Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

• Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance Commission

• Board of Adjustment

• Firemen’s Relief Fund Board of Trustees

• Recreation Board

• River District Design Review Committee

Buncombe County is also looking for qualified county residents to serve on its Fair Housing Commission.

The deadline for submitting applications is Wednesday, Oct. 28. Applicants may send a copy of their applications to the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, care of Ondine Constable, Communications Assistant, P.O. Box 1010, Asheville NC 28802. The Chamber may endorse candidates they feel to be particularly well qualified.

For more information on the city positions, or to request an application, contact Maggie Burleson at 259-5601. For the county positions, call Kathy Hughes at 250-4100.

The end of the fourth wall

Luigi Pirandello’s play “Six Characters in Search of an Author” is notable — some would say notorious — for the way it breaks down barriers between truth and illusion on the stage. (In the play, a production company’s rehearsal is interrupted by the characters, whose story has been left unfinished. With the assistance of the company, however, the characters fulfill their destiny.)

Showcasing the Nobel Prize-winning playwright’s central themes — the enigma of personality, the ambiguity of truth and reality — “Six Characters” has been compared to the dramatic explorations of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. Asheville’s own Painless Productions is presenting a new adaptation of the famous play, written by director Steve Livingston and the cast of the Acting Company, based on the renowned adaptation by Robert Brustein and the American Repertory Theatre. The cast for the new production includes Sheldon Lawrence as The Father, Meagan Schearer as The Stepdaughter, Jim Marino as The Director, Valerie Hixson Swain as The Mother, and Tami Barry as Madame Pace.

The play will be performed Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 14-17, and Tuesday through Friday, Oct. 20-23, at the green door on Carolina Lane. Admission is $8 on Fridays and Saturdays, $6 on other nights. All shows are at 8 p.m.

Call 230-2827 for more information (or visit Painless Productions’ Web site at www.ioa.com/home/stevel).

WWI and WWII pilots honored

The Asheville Regional Airport Authority recently honored 20 combat pilots from western North Carolina who flew in World Wars I and II. The tribute, organized by a group of local aviation enthusiasts known as the WNC Aviator Recognition Society, included a reception and the official unveiling of the pilots’ wartime portraits, displayed in the Airport Authority’s conference room.

The project was initiated in July 1997, when the Airport Authority authorized the identification of local pilots who flew combat missions during the two world wars.

Those honored for their wartime service were: Gen. Ernest H. Beverly, U.S. Air Force (retired); Gen. Albert Boyd, U.S. Air Force (deceased); Capt. Olvin T. Cowan, U.S. Air Corps (retired); Col. Rex Dowtin, U.S. Air Force (retired); Lt. Roger A. Grant, U.S. Air Force (retired); Col. Steve Horn, U.S. Air Force (retired); Col. Carl A. Hyldburg, U.S. Air Force (retired); Col. Jesse I. Ledbetter, U.S. Air Force (retired); Lt. Edward F. Logan, U.S. Air Force (retired); Col. Henry Allan McCartney, U.S. Marine Corps (retired); Col. Ernest Melin, U.S. Marine Corps; Capt. William G. Moore, U.S. Air Force; Col. Herschel S. “Scotty” Morgan, U.S. Air Force (retired); Robert K. Morgan, Colonel, U.S. Air Force (retired); Col. Edward F. Rector, U.S. Air Force (retired), American Volunteer Group Flying Tiger; Sgt. Kiffin Yates Rockwell, Escadrille Lafayette; Lt. C. Joseph Rosbert , U.S. Navy American Volunteer Group Flying Tiger; Lt. John Q. Schell Jr., U.S. Navy (retired); Lt. Henry Westall, U.S. Army (deceased); Lt. Clair E. Wyrick, U.S. Air Force (Retired).

For more information, contact Kathryn Solee at 684-2226, ext. 152.

Starving artists no more

Screenwriters, playwrights, writers, literary translators, jazz and classical composers and songwriters are invited to apply for 1999 artist fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council.

To be eligible for a fellowship, artists must have lived in North Carolina for at least a year immediately prior to the application deadline. Artists receiving fellowships must maintain residency in North Carolina during the grant period, which runs from July 1999 to June 2000. Artists may not receive grants while they are pursuing academic or professional degrees. Fellowship grants are awarded in the amount of $8,000.

Established in 1980, the N.C Arts Council’s Artist Fellowship Program has enabled more than 280 artists to develop and create more work, which over the years has been essential to the state’s cultural heritage and creative vitality.

For more information, writers, literary artists and translators should call Literature Director Debbie McGill at (919) 733-2111, ext. 22; composers and songwriters should contact Performing Arts Director Karen Wells at (919) 733-2111, ext. 23.

— circumlocutorily compiled by Paul Schattel