Llamas. That’s the first thing I picture when I recall my days at Penland School of Crafts. It was a dozen years ago, to the month, and in my 19-year-old wisdom, I decided I wanted to make jewelry for a living. So I signed up for a two-month intensive in my chosen medium and left … Read more
What would Mrs. Jesus do? That’s probably the wrong question to ask feminist Biblical scholar Carol Newsom, who’s slated to speak in Asheville later this month. A debate over the true identity of Mary Magdalene — who may or may not have been “Mrs. Jesus” — has ramped up recently, thanks in large part to … Read more
In my most earnest National Enquirer mode, I try to get cheerful Canadian band The Duhks to say something nasty about authority, music teachers, life in general or another Duhk in particular. Alas, the luck of the Irish isn’t with me. Because everyone in this young, technically adept Celt-folk quintet loves, well, everything. They’re no … Read more
Painters are frequently afflicted by lengthy obsessions with their subjects. But book artist Ken Leslie’s Space + Time exhibit at Western Carolina University’s Belk Gallery is quite literally a tale without end. Over the course of a single year, Leslie left his bed each morning to go outside and look at the sky. For six … Read more
Front-row reviews What: The Not So Art Show Where: The New French Bar When: Tuesday, March 2 Between drinks, Thomas Browne informs me that this whole thing started because he’s a bad artist. Really bad. To hear Browne tell it, his works are somewhere beyond the mere aesthetically horrible, nudging into the realm of the … Read more
It’s just past 11:30 a.m. when I slide into a booth at the Silver Dollar Restaurant with one question on my mind. I’m a breakfast fan (or at least a breakfast food fan: Give me two eggs over easy, bacon, toast and potatoes and I’m a happy man). Trouble is, the hours are terrible. The … Read more
“Call them a poor man’s racehorse,” jokes Bob Simpson, secretary of the Blue Ridge Racing Pigeon Club. But racing pigeons — and we’re not talking about the kind that hang around Pritchard Park chasing bread crumbs — don’t necessarily come cheap. Prices for these specially bred birds can soar into the thousands of dollars, says … Read more
No, no, no, no, no. If you’ve been following my adventures with hydroponic gardening over the past few months, you know my condo corn crop has been growing like mad since I fenced the cats out of it — but the plants are disappointingly yellow. This is wrong. “Yellow is the color of my true … Read more
“We have to permit those that we disagree with to have freedom of speech so that we can still have our freedom of speech.” — J. Wendell Runion, International Baptist Outreach Missions Inc. Fears of pornography and depictions of alternative lifestyles appear to be key issues driving the local debate about public-access TV. Public-access advocates … Read more
