Theme amusement parks are big business here in the Southeast. First, consider Six Flags Over Georgia: Situated right outside metro Atlanta, this colossal allotment of family-fun acreage successfully exploits Looney Tunes characters and features roller coasters of smile-draining intensity with names like The Ninja. Next, we have Paramount’s Carowinds, in Charlotte (more of the same) … Read more
(Lights up on audience. Doc Kelley sits in metal folding chair being used as director’s chair, shuffling papers. Reporter enters stage right, carrying picnic basket, blanket and black notebook.) Anyone who’s ever been to a play at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheater knows the drill: just pack a picnic, grab a blanket and find a place … Read more
Nearly everyone has a gripe about the growing power of American corporate behemoths, but few of us are in any position — or even willing — to resist that power. After all, corporate America provides us with all the tools and trinkets of modern life — while exacting a healthy profit, of course. But every … Read more
“From the beginning, my best friends have been the common people.” — Giuseppe Verdi “Opera is for everyone,” insists David Craig Starkey, the founder (and general and artistic director) of the Asheville Lyric Opera. What’s more, he continues, “It’s always been the ‘people’s music.’” The ALO’s ambitious second season is set to launch Aug. 26, … Read more
It’s one thing to imitate the Beatles or Elvis or Van Halen, or to rake in the big dough with a Rod Stewart or Neil Diamond or Grateful Dead cover band. But Project/Object is a Frank Zappa tribute act, and that’s a different animal altogether. This is about as chops-busting a musical endeavor as you’ll … Read more
Skies in the Asheville area have become so poisoned with smog that state regulators considered our air healthy to breathe only one out of four days last summer. Between 1982 and 1994, the incidence of asthma in WNC’s children shot up by 72 percent, according to the American Lung Association. Conservation experts say the Great … Read more
As Council member Ed Hay remarked, the summer of 2000 has been filled with short meetings and little contention for Asheville City Council. Subtract the public-comment portion of Council’s Aug. 8 regular meeting, and it lasted only 27 minutes. The one issue on the agenda that could have been prickly never materialized: For the second … Read more
Lynn and Chris Law spent years searching for the perfect natural setting where they could build their mountain home. The Winston-Salem couple found it in the Ox Creek community, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway, where a swath of trees along a stream shielded their property from the road. Meanwhile, on the other side … Read more
Oink, ba-a-a and cock-a-doodle-doo Animal Haven of Asheville is not just another place you can go to adopt a dog or cat. While there are some domestic pets available for adoption, the group’s specialty is taking in abused and unwanted farm animals. After rehabilitating them and giving them the needed veterinary care, Animal Haven tries … Read more
Cosmo-girl dreams While standing in the check-out line at Ingles last week, a model on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine caught my eye. She was the ideal 38-20-24, and the dress she wore showed off her perfect figure exquisitely. Since that moment, my mind has been teeming with ideas as to how I might mold … Read more
