Saving drug money

For the uninsured and underinsured, paying for medications can be as much of a challenge as finding an affordable health-care provider. Fortunately, a number of organizations and programs offer cheap or free drugs to those who qualify. Here's a roundup of some key local sources for discounted meds. (And if you know of one we […]

Artillery

Redefining notions of the singular artist The drawings and paintings that comprise Lisa Nance's solo show, Hanging Caverns and Plants, are the deconstructed forms, contours and characters for which Nance is known. Using thrift-store finds and re-salvaged materials, Nance challenges traditional forms of the painting by working over popular art reproductions or constructing frames out […]

No one is invulnerab­le

Tough economic times can make it harder to take care of your health. But there's one key step Buncombe County residents can take that costs nothing. Young adults, in particular, may think they can handle anything, but H1N1 flu (sometimes called "swine flu") can still bring them down in a serious way. nationwide, H1N1 has […]

Brews News

Hendersonville residents rejoice: Appalachian Craft Brewery will move their production facility from Fletcher to Hendersonville and expand their operation to include a tasting room and music venue. The exact location of the brewery will be finalized soon. Husband-and-wife team Andy and Kelly Cubbin predict they'll be selling their beers from Hendersonville by mid-summer. Cold beer, […]

Stress less in 2010

War. Economic uncertainty. Bitter cold. Unachieved goals. Welcome to 2010. The year's only just begun, but there's already plenty to be stressed out about. "At this time of year, generally people are recovering from overdosing on sugars and alcohol," says Donald Dossey, a behavioral scientist who's the founder of the Stress Management Center/Phobia Institute in […]

ASKville

These days, Asheville is a national hub for alternative medicine. That makes it hard to imagine what the local health-care landscape was like back in 1985, when Mary Cissy Majebe opened the city's first Chinese medicine and acupuncture clinic. Photo by Jonathan Welch And the ensuing two-and-a-half decades were not without their challenges: In 1990, […]

Spork

It would be Django Reinhardt's 100th birthday on Saturday, Jan. 23. To celebrate the life of the jazz great, a group of local musicians who've been supremely inspired by him are having a show. Members of the Django-esque group One Leg Up will host the event, the always ebullient Firecracker Jazz Band will perform, and […]

Junker’s Blues

"Lo, there shall come an ending!" – Stan Lee What has transpired: Having spent hours carefully sorting through a mixed bag of records and then carelessly leaving the whole batch behind to pick up the next day, the junker finds his labors benefiting another when his deal is blocked by the son-in-law of the collection's […]

Come health or high water

In 1992, while working for a suburban New York newspaper, I wrote a story about a woman who had to go deep into debt to get surgery for a thyroid condition. She's probably still paying it off. The point of the story was that 16 million Americans lacked health insurance. But Bill Clinton had just […]

Tale of a takedown

"Today our right to free speech was stolen," an indignant Kathie Lack declared. She serves as chair of the Buncombe County Republican Action Club, a small activist offshoot of the local Republican Party. Whodunnit?: After a billboard sponsored by the Republican Action Club was defaced with graffiti in November 2008, then Buncombe County Republican Party […]