It used to be that “classical” automatically equaled frumpy. Classical music was performed in stuffy, ornate halls complete with gaudy chandeliers. “The classics” referred to dusty, boring tomes of yore, unless they were musical hits from your grandparents’ generation, in which case they were just embarrassing. Classical art, classic cars: all stuff to be filed … Read more
“Instrument players had a sexual style unique to their instrument,” dishes author Blair Tindall in her memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music (Atlantic Monthly, 2005). “French horn players, their instruments the testiest of all, could rarely get it up, but percussionists could make beautiful music out of anything at all.” In … Read more
The Brevard Music Center’s 69th annual festival continues through Sunday, Aug. 7, in venues at and near BMC. Among the performances not to be missed: • Saturday, July 9, H.M.S. Pinafore, Janiec Opera Company; Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium This swashbuckling musical was Gilbert and Sullivan’s first blockbuster. 7:30 p.m. $23-$33. • Tuesday, July 12, Emmylou Harris, Whittington-Pfohl … Read more
Where’s Gretchen? In David Sedaris’ latest book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, readers get plenty of updates about the other Sedaris siblings. Younger brother Paul, for instance, marries and fathers a baby — everyday stuff — and becomes the subject of two chapters. Famously highlighted in Sedaris’ last essay collection, Me Talk Pretty … Read more
Back in the U.S. for the first time in a few years, singer Luciano is doing what he does best — spreading revelations, and with considerable charm. “The message I came to deliver, I realized, is a mission,” he enthuses to Xpress. “In Jah [God] we are rewarded in higher regions. I realized people needed … Read more
Skeletons in the jukebox “Skeletons” provides a forum for local musicians, artists, record-store owners, etc., to erase cool points by expressing their unseemly affection for an unhip album from their past. Rocky IV Soundtrack, by Kevin Cassels, owner of Good Music and Other Stuff. “If you suddenly smell Velveeta while driving past a flea market, … Read more
Flavor: Middle EasternAmbiance: Homey and smallService: Pleasant Amro, Fathi, and Reda Ali want you to eat like they do. The family, which hails from Alexandria, Egypt, operates Ali Baba Middle Eastern Restaurant, a buffet tucked away in the Grove Arcade. For some, the word “buffet” conjures up images of congealed casseroles and limp lettuce, so … Read more
Pre-Fourth cookout: Earth Fare grocery at Asheville’s Westgate Shopping Center will dish out bison burgers, potato salad and limeade at a pre-Independence Day “All-American Cookout.” The event, which will be held under a tent to shade revelers from the midsummer sun, runs from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 2. For more information, call … Read more
Invariably, the summer solstice seems to come too soon (tomorrow, as I write this). One has the helpless sense that the season has barely begun to wiggle its bare toes in dawn’s dewy grass or settle into a long, delicious twilight on the front porch with a tall glass of ice tea when, wham, the … Read more
