Trees dominated the agenda at the Asheville City Council’s Jan. 18 work session. From a discussion of what to do about a developer in Montford who cut a swath of trees after promising under oath not to, to turning thumbs down on a staff-initiated plan to hire a private firm to craft a forest-management plan … Read more
A proposed retooling of the open-space requirements in Asheville’s Unified Development Ordinance could lead to more parks, more greenways, maybe even more sidewalk cafes surrounding denser housing and commercial developments in the city. That’s the hoped-for result of a proposal Planning and Development Director Scott Shuford presented to a wary audience of local developers at … Read more
Sure, you know art — you check out the gallery crawls, hold season tickets to the local community theater. You’ve even dabbled a little in modern dance. But what happens when you encounter something that breaks away from the art you know? Art that shucks off the confines of tradition, escaping to the edge of … Read more
Readers of Xpress might remember a recent Cohencidents cartoon that ran in these pages wherein a frustrated man sits at wit’s end in front of a laptop computer and confesses to his puzzled daughter that he can’t explain “why it takes such a long time to write a short story.” Any scribe who has ever … Read more
To begin this story, we first must ask: What the hell is acid jazz? Well, here’s a quick history lesson in what it’s not: Toward the end of saxophonist John Coltrane’s life in the mid-1960s, the jazz icon reportedly started taking copious amounts of LSD — a move he saw as consistent with furthering his … Read more
Okay, there’s plenty of brain-cell-deteriorating fodder to be found in the world of major motion pictures. But then there’s the controversial likes of The Passion, along with other praying-man’s films like Contact, Seven Years in Tibet, The Little Buddha and even (if you read between the battle scenes) Star Wars. But producer Stephen Simon (Somewhere … Read more
As movie years go, 2004 was a pretty good one. In fact, it may well have been the best one we’ve had since I started writing this column in 2000. The year was certainly unique, in that it introduced no less than three films I thought merited the year’s number-one slot. That poses a problem, … Read more
2004 was a year of many wonderful and unforgettable films, including a goodly number aimed at audiences who can appreciate mature themes and subtlety. There were also some unhappy misfires that should have been left on the cutting-room floor. Here are my takes on the best and worst of the lot. The best 1) Phantom … Read more
The Southeastern Film Critics Association recently issued its ranking of 2004’s best films. The association polled its 43 members (our own Ken Hanke among them) to compile this list of 2004’s top 10. 1) Sideways 2) Million Dollar Baby 3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4) Kinsey 5) The Incredibles 6) Finding Neverland 7) … Read more
Jimmy Buffett vs. Patterson Hood Tuesday, Jan. 11 and Thursday, Jan. 13 at Cheeseburger in Paradise and Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company, respectively. Hard to believe, but this reviewer doesn’t really fit in easily at Jimmy Buffett concerts — a fact brought home at the beach-bum hero’s recent private gig that doubled as a charitable … Read more
