Natalie MacMaster is a pyrotechnic performer with more lift than a NASA launch pad. This step-dancing dervish in skin-tight neon pants kicks higher than her waist — simultaneously launching into a full-blown fiddling frenzy. You can practically see smoke beneath the blur of her fingertips, curls of 24-karat golden hair fly every which way, and […]
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Asheville City Council
The wheels of democracy turn slowly at times. It took three hours for Asheville City Council members to hear what local residents had to say about the proposed rezoning of 42 acres off Old Haywood Road. Two property owners have asked that their mostly vacant land be switched from single- to multi-family zoning. But so […]
Asheville City Council
“See what you can get,” said Asheville City Attorney Bob Oast on March 3. He was summarizing City Council’s directive to staff: Take our top issues on the proposed cable franchise with InterMedia back to the negotiating table. “We’re suggesting that staff go back and tweak this,” said Council member O.T. Tomes. After weeks of […]
An idea whose time has come
The List of Rock and Roll Calamities is as legendary as it is long: Richie Valens’ fatal plane crash on that cold Iowa morning. Carl Perkins’ car accident on the way to the Ed Sullivan show and international stardom. Ronnie Dawson’s fateful signing to Dick Clark’s Swan label, just as the payola scandal was beginning […]
A few big pots and a dream
Want to feast on succulent, summer-ripe tomatoes straight off the vine, or sprinkle fresh basil in your spaghetti sauce — but don’t have a few freshly plowed acres at your disposal? Never fear. Even if you live in an apartment approximately the size of a thimble, getting garden-fresh produce and herbs can be as easy […]
Calculating cable dollars
Time is on Asheville City Council’s side. Since taking office in December, Council members have spent several meetings, work sessions and a long public hearing trying to absorb all the details of a proposed cable-franchise contract with InterMedia. On Feb. 24, frustrated and tired, they listened to three hours of public comment. They accepted stacks […]
Asheville City Council
Newspaper editors don’t usually attend City Council meetings, much less address Council members. But on Feb. 10, new Asheville Citizen-Times Executive Editor George Benge went after Council like a bulldog. Thwarted despite repeated requests for access to 30 years’ worth of cable-franchise-fee documents, Benge accused Assistant City Attorney Patsy Meldrum of having a conflict of […]
Stripping for success
“Star,” a topless dancer at Xcapades — one of Asheville’s two adult-entertainment clubs — is a single mother with an 8-year-old son. Over the past four years, she’s worked as a can-can girl at Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town in the Sky, as a cashier at Wal-Mart and as a waitress. But none of those jobs […]
Notepad
Eating Disorders Awareness Week Millions of women across the U.S. start each morning on the bathroom scale; many will skip breakfast — and spend the day plagued by thoughts of food and their bodies. According to the nonprofit organization Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention, as many as 10 percent of U.S. girls and women suffer […]
Notepad
Speedsters’ salvation If you’ve recently lost your license for traveling 15 mph over a 55 mph speed limit, you might be able to get your driving privileges back, according to a recent N.C. Department of Transportation press release. The state Division of Motor Vehicles recently started a pilot Speed Rehabilitation program that lets certain offenders […]
Tolling the bell for Memorial Stadium
Irby Brinson may be feelinga little battered after his idea that the city buy the French Broad Golf Center fell afoul of torrential rains — which flooded the facility just as Asheville City Council members were debating whether to pay $3.5 million for it. But sometimes, there’s no rest for the weary. Having weathered that […]
Letters to the editor
Rep. Taylor should represent us Charles Taylor seems to be the representative of the “significant opposition,” not the “broad support,” on the American Heritage River designation of the French Broad. He claims 3-to-1 opposition, but his office will not reveal specific numbers. However, they acknowledged that the opposition number was less than 1,000. Knowing that […]
Buncombe County Commission
Ever rented an apartment with a leaky roof, running toilet, busted steps, a low-voltage current humming through the bathtub — and a landlord who doesn’t see a problem? Up until Jan. 21, renters in Buncombe County facing such predicaments had no official county-government office to turn to. What did they do? “They called me,” says […]
Notepad
Our Town, Waynesville style Get ready for a production of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Our Town,” the likes of which you’ve never imagined — or discussed. “It’s going to be an experience, I’ll tell you,” predicts Dr. David Guerin, who will both direct and play a key role in the play. But Guerin’s production […]
Buncombe County Commission
The joint city/county minority-business plan, more than a year in the making, is good — but it needs more work, Buncombe County Commissioners decided at their Jan. 6 meeting. After hearing complaints from several black-community leaders that the plan is incomplete — and, according to publisher Clarence Benton, “doomed to fail” — commissioners unanimously tabled […]
Letters to the editor
Who killed the French Broad as an American Heritage river? “On a winding dirt road near the top of the watershed, you stand above a tree-thick basin and the slight man in clean mended overalls turns his blue eyes toward you as he cocks his head. “‘Hear that racket down there? That’s your French Broad. […]
Notepad
Award-winning rest areas When you’re cruising down a North Carolina highway, your legs crossed tight and trembling as you pray, “Please, Lord, let me make it to a bathroom soon,” that rest area looming up ahead may seem like heaven. Desperation aside, however, the N.C. Department of Transportation recently singled out four of the 61 […]