Several months ago, Asheville resident Jim Chatham contacted Xpress concerning a project he was leading. Inspired by Eno Publishers’ 2012 release, 27 Views of Asheville, Chatham challenged graduates of his periodic writing seminar, “Turning Your Life Into Literature,” to take a whack at producing their own verbal snapshots of this unique community. Twenty-one of them heeded the muse and subsequently gathered to share their respective offerings. (photos by Max Cooper)
Special for New Year’s Eve: The local steel pan fusion outfit releases this new video, recorded on Wall Street in downtown Asheville.
I had my carpets cleaned the other day, and it shook up my life like a snow globe. There were reminders of who I was at 2 years old (plastic jack-o’-lantern), at 7 (kids’ books), at 13 (journals — all right, I'm keeping those), in high school (jeans painted with peace signs and shout-outs to Joplin and Hendrix — decades late, but still felt it, man), and who I was some months ago (letters, bank statements, numerous prescription-refill bags). Why all this stuff hanging around, pulling me down?
With the battle over the fate of Asheville’s water system, the Metropolitan Sewerage District is increasingly in the news, with accompanying questions about who the agency is and what they do.
New Belgium veteran Jay Richardson will fill top slot at new facility.
Local parent Mark Fields seeks 10,000 signatures for his petition to “provide each of our city and county public schools with an on-duty police officer or sheriff during the hours that children are in attendance, while simultaneously working to develop and implement a permanent plan to ‘Protect Our Children’ while in the custody of our public schools.” (Pictured: An incident from May, 2007, when Asheville High School was placed on lockdown. Photo by Bill Rhodes)
When Mountain Xpress hit the stands Dec. 5, few Lexington Avenue business owners found any holiday joy in the cover story, “No Easy Answers: Lexington Avenue’s Uncertain Future.” On Dec. 14, they met with newspaper staff to voice their concerns. (photos by Max Cooper)
While national media are already going about the ritual of speculating about the 2016 Presidential elections, it’s not too early for Ashevilleans to start discussing who might run in the 2013 city elections — with the mayorship and three Asheville City Council seats up — and what they’ll fight about.
In the wake of an 8-year-old girl being struck by a vehicle on Dec. 1, some neighbors are looking for answers, and organizing. Thomas Wagner, David Mosrie and Erik Moellering are discussing traffic studies done by the City of Asheville and preparing to meet with city staff. (Photo by Bill Rhodes)
Around 4:45 p.m. this afternoon, Asheville Police received a call that two men were fighting in front of the Decko Gecko sculpture in Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville. When officers got to the scene, Lt. Wally Welch explains, they found that one man had been struck in the head with a cane and cut with a knife; the other man had been cut on his cheek. ***WARNING This post contains a graphic image with blood*** (Photo by Max Cooper)
On Sunday, Nov. 4, the Diana Wortham Theater opened its doors to the exploration of ideas — TEDxAsheville. Xpress staffer Jordan Foltz attended. Here, he shares his personal observations. (In this photo, presenter Katie Spotz — who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean — speaks at the event. Photo by Matthew Abrams.)
With an oven, microwave, refrigerator and stove, the training kitchen inside of Mission Health’s recently opened Low Vision Center at Asheville’s Industries for the Blind looks no different from any other kitchen. However, for Tony West, he sees the kitchen differently — primarily through smell and touch. (Above, Tony West works at Industries for the Blind in Asheville. Photo by Caitlin Byrd)
Though voting began at 6:30 a.m. and ended at 7:30 p.m. in North Carolina, Election Day 2012 was about so much more than those hours when voters could cast their ballots. This Storify post looks at the local photos, video and tweets from the time the polls opened on Nov. 6, 2012 to well after the time that they closed. (Photo by Max Cooper)
After today, the campaigning stops: No more phone calls. No more mailers. No more motorcades. But before the polls close and the election season ends, here’s a look back at those campaign stumps in Asheville, N.C., through Storify. (photos by Caitlin Byrd)
For the past week, we’ve run responses to our candidate questionnaires online. You can find them at mountain.com/election, in our Oct. 31 print edition, or here (just click on through).
This morning, it’s icy rain in Asheville, while some mountain counties are reporting 6 inches of snow — one consequence of Sandy, the massive storm battering the East Coast. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Western North Carolina, including Buncombe County, until 6 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. Gov. Bev Perdue has declared a state of emergency throughout WNC. (Photo by Bill Rhodes)
One of the most amazing things about living in Western North Carolina is the ability to watch the Earth system move through its annual climate cycles. That is especially true for those of us who have moved here from other regions, especially those that, perhaps, do not progress through these cycles in such grand fashion.
The images below highlight how fast the changes occur in our mountains. Frozen Knob is a mountain in Madison County that shows great color each fall. Color had just started to appear on the mountain on October 11th, but by this week, the greens are giving way to the yellows, oranges and rusts of fall.
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Thursday night’s show by Justice served as the kickoff for this year’s Moogfest. However, Justice wasn’t the only event to get the weekend-long dance party started. Check out the tweets, photos and more from folks on the ground at Justice, Minimoogfest and so much more. (featured photo by @NickLeTellier on Instagram)
The Oct. 23 Asheville City Council meeting agenda includes rezoning requests concerning a private school and a bicycle taxi service, as well as a range of other items. This post features live updates from the meeting via Twitter
The 36th running of the Thomas Wolfe 8K race drew hundreds of runners out on a stunning fall morning Oct. 20. Runners looped around the Wolfe gravesite in Riverside Cemetery. (Photos by Bill Rhodes)
In yellows, reds and oranges, fall has arrived in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Here are a few of the Instagram photos that people have taken and shared throughout the week. (Featured image courtesy of @Jennifer Sadler on Instagram)
