It already seems like an Asheville institution, but little more than a year ago the Cinema in the Park series was nothing more than a glimmer in Rupa Vickers’ mind. “One night, I was just thinking: Wouldn’t it be great to go over to Pritchard Park in that amphitheater and watch movies?” Vickers originally told … Read more
The 16th Annual Asheville Greek Festival is more than a nod at Asheville’s melting pot — it’s a celebration of the Greek community that, this November, will celebrate 80 years feeling at home in Western North Carolina. “Most of the families who originally settled here are from a place in Greece that’s very similar to … Read more
Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai has been celebrated for crafting poems that unblinkingly explore love, sensuality, spirituality and other closely-held matters of the heart and psyche. Yet Israel’s increasingly violent climate has prompted Shabtai to alter his focus in the past year or so. “The changes in Israel are so deep, I had to react,” Shabtai … Read more
If you’re a woman of a certain age, you may have noticed already the little ways you’ve grown to be like your mother. Of the many alarming prospects raised by Lee Smith’s new novel, The Last Girls (published this September by Algonquin Books), not the least is that you may just become your mother-in-law, as … Read more
Of note Signed! Acoustic Syndicate, the WNC-based “acoustic Americana” group, recently announced their addition to the Sugar Hill label. The group will record a new album for the label this fall, with a release planned for spring of 2003. The group’s most recent recording, the double-album Live from the Neighborhood, was released earlier this month. … Read more
Twenty years ago the cover of Time magazine propelled herpes into the national consciousness with an allusion to The Scarlet Letter: the image of a giant red H. Suddenly, the dread disease became all the talk of the town, the fear of the day, and the butt of jokes (remember The Big Chill?) Pretty soon, … Read more
One of the first things I did when I moved to Asheville was to start networking with local gardeners. And the first group I connected with was the Men’s Garden Club of Asheville. I was involved in the planning for the National Men’s Garden Club Conference held in Asheville a few years ago, and I … Read more
As fall approaches, the Virgin’s bower or Clematis virginiana, is becoming visible in our fields and gardens. It has a number of popular names including woodbine, leather flower (although this usually refers to Clematis viorna), devil’s darning needle, traveler’s joy, and old-man’s beard (this last referring to the plumed seedpods). The most popular common name … Read more
You won’t be reading about the Asheville City Council’s Sept. 17 work session in this space for one simple reason: There wasn’t one. Instead, Council spent a week checking out how other cities deal with things like sprawl and transportation issues. Five Council members joined three county commissioners and several dozen other local leaders visiting … Read more
In just a few days, the latest extension of Buncombe County’s cable-TV franchise agreement with Charter Communications runs out. At their Oct. 1 meeting, the county commissioners will decide whether to seal a new 12-year deal with Charter or temporarily extend the contract yet again (as they’ve done every few months for the past year … Read more
