I have a vivid memory of a friend—circa 1986—pouting, “‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now?’ Give me a break! The guy could have any woman or man he wanted.” That Morrissey refused to come out as gay or straight or anything, really, other than vegetarian, cemented his idol-worthiness in my mind far before the major press […]

Wanna go to an all-ages frat-type party but with better beer? First drive out toward Black Mountain (even better, catch a ride). Pass through the barbed-wire-topped gates into the warehouse complex that once housed a Drexel Heritage Furniture plant. Enter a door marked only “Unit 100,” walk down industrial steel steps, and enter a beer […]

“They say our love won’t pay the rent,” crooned Sonny and Cher in their 1965 hit seven-inch, “I Got You Babe.” In 1985, the average rent for low-to-moderate income families in Asheville was under $80, according to the annual report of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville. Last year’s conference of mayors revealed […]

Asheville has, by some accounts, become a haven for New Orleans ex-pats. Perhaps it’s a shared enthusiasm for dressing in costumes. Or a love of great music and a lot of dancers. Or maybe it’s a sense of community—that ethereal, much-lauded and oft-coveted state—that pervades both places. Feathers, beads, face paint: Mardi Gras revelers dress […]

“Two more accidents occurred the following week on Shanty Mountain,” writes local author Ron Rash in his latest novel, Serena (HarperCollins, 2008). “A log slipped free of the main cable line and killed a worker, and two days later the skidder’s boom swung a fifty-pound metal tong into a man’s skull.” WCU professor and author […]