Who would Anne Frank be now, if she’d lived? In the opening lines of her essay “Who Owns Anne Frank?”, published in The New Yorker, distinguished fiction writer Cynthia Ozick toys with that tempting question. Had she lived, posits Ozick, Frank would have been a brilliant writer, a household name — perhaps one of the … Read more
People have always come up to me and said, “Man, I’d give anything to be able to do what you’re doing.” Yeah, well, me too. Those of us who feel deep down in our bones that we were put on this planet to write and play music have given up an awful lot to follow … Read more
“Why’d you have to draw that line in the sand, why can’t you love me for what I am?” That line, from “Tell Me Mama” — the opening track of BR5-49’s new live CD, Coast to Coast (Arista Records, 2000) — is addressed to an aloof sweetheart. But it might as well be a message … Read more
As far as Ann Dunn knows, her Asheville Civic Ballet Company is breaking new ground in presenting George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy and Bess as a ballet. Even is Porgy has been done as a dance piece before, the upcoming production is unique for another reason. In both the original production and most subsequent ones, … Read more
Henry Ford would never have believed it. And anyone paying today’s gas prices might consider it wishful thinking: cars powered by something other than gasoline. But there they were, sitting in a parking lot in downtown Hendersonville on a recent, sunny afternoon: shiny new alternative-fuel vehicles from Volvo, Nissan, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Saturn, Oldsmobile, Pontiac … Read more
Commissioners support independent air agency “We have agreed, informally, that the air-pollution-control agency should … remain an autonomous board,” Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Tom Sobol proclaimed at the start of the board’s May 2 regular meeting. Sobol noted that several commissioners will be meeting with Asheville City Council members to “hammer out” the … Read more
It’s not every day that you can bid on a framed invitation to JFK’s inauguration — especially not at the same auction where you can land your very own wrestling combo, including a shiny championship wrestling belt and former pro wrestler Nikita Koloff’s Breaking the Chains: A Handbook for Christian Living. But those were among … Read more
The Asheville City Council threw local air-pollution control a lifeline. At their May 2 meeting, Council members unanimously supported maintaining an independent local air agency. It would include both an autonomous decision-making board and a citizens advisory committee. Council expects the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners to sign on, with the details to be worked … Read more
In the natural evolution of a nonprofit, sometimes you need to get back to where you came from. For members of the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County, that means letting go of a little professionalism and returning to their scrappy, volunteer roots. And it just happens that the society lost its first-ever paid … Read more
The Thomas Wolfe Memorial, the Grove Arcade, the many notable buildings designed by Douglas Ellington (such as the S&W Cafeteria and City Hall) — these are just a few of the highlights of Asheville’s remarkable architectural legacy. The Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County is sponsoring the following events for Heritage Week, May 8-14: … Read more
