Come election time, we all tend to focus on who’s running for president and Congress and pretty much forget about the rest. Yet in many ways, the folks who win the races for state House and Senate — the two chambers of the General Assembly — will have a far more direct and intimate influence … Read more
Their signs are everywhere. Letters from their supporters are clogging local newspaper pages, their TV and radio ads are omnipresent, and just about every voter who doesn’t live under a pretty big rock knows by now that Republican incumbent Charles Taylor and Buncombe County Commissioner Patsy Keever, a Democrat, are locked in a heated race … Read more
Views LEAF in Black Mountain and Critters Buggin at Stella Blue; Saturday, Oct. 16. Every town has its little bits of Jekyll and Hyde, the social nuances that can paint a community as well rounded and diverse, but also expose it for being polarized and divided. Here in the Land of the Sky, we see … Read more
“You don’t know me, but I like your ass and maybe sometime I could squeeze it!” This intrusive found note — perhaps left on a stranger’s windshield or slipped inside a gym locker — came affectionately signed, “Your secret admirer.” The absurd pick-up line serves as a tiny taste of the sometimes hilarious, other times … Read more
After a number of years of floundering, the Asheville Area Arts Council is once again a functional entity. What’s more, the AAAC’s open-house auxiliary group, the Artist’s Roundtable — formed during a stormy period to give local artists more voice — is still alive and relevant. The group originated a yearly scholarship given to a … Read more
“We make a kind of music that’s not very well known in the U.S.,” says Chilean-born songstress Mariana Montalvo. “When you hear Latin music [in America], it’s Salsa or cha-cha — dance music. “We’re showing another side to Latin music.” Currently on tour with two other Latina performers (Toto La Momposina from Colombia and Belo … Read more
