He’s been called “too country for country radio.” But one listen to Junior Brown’s rapid-fire dance rhythms and blistering, bar-honed guitar work tells you he’s more likely to be too in-your-face for country radio, given the often-bland, poppy pablum that pervades those airwaves, these days. Though firmly rooted in tradition, Brown’s take on country music … Read more
From self-portraits on velour to burnt-newspaper collages, an almost bristling originality marks the works chosen for this year’s Regional Scholastic Arts Award Show, now on display at the Asheville Art Museum. Appalachian State University Art Professor James Toub, one of the judges for the show, believes that, “Technical ability alone does not make for quality … Read more
If there’s one thing jazz trumpeter Steven Bernstein hates, it’s a jazz show. “A bunch of guys with beards, just sitting there … I can think of nothing more boring,” he relates, without a trace of irony. Sure, it seems an odd indictment at first, coming from him. The country’s only professional slide trumpeter, Bernstein … Read more
One man’s version of hell might be to end up serving, forever and ever, on a big committee. Disappointed by the mixed results achieved by a “Church Committee” directed to resolve zoning-classification issues for churches in the city, Asheville Council members asked the group to meet again and report to the Planning and Zoning Commission … Read more
Death race 2000 Next time you cross Patton Avenue, make sure you look left, right, then left again; then repeat the process: “Mean Streets 1998,” a report released recently by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, ranks North Carolina as the seventh-most-dangerous state for child pedestrians, based on data covering 1992-96. The report pegs the state’s … Read more
