As exciting as it is to watch a perfectly synchronized corps of white-tutu-ed ballerinas execute graceful arabesques, the real thrill for many audience members at the Russian National Ballet’s performance of Swan Lake will be staying up past their bedtimes. Swan Lake has a special hold on the kiddie set. According to the troupe’s artistic … Read more
Father knows best: Recording Tillis Sings Tillis, a tribute to her legendary dad Mel, helped Pam escape the contemporary-Nashville trap. A couple of years ago, when Pam Tillis recorded a tribute album to her father, country-music lion Mel Tillis, she didn’t necessarily intend for it to provide a path to the next phase of her … Read more
“If you bite the head off a butterfly …” by Grace Smith. Quilts and old photos have their rightful place – but Grace Smith enshrines mountain heritage in a more fanciful format. Her delicately illustrated books are very process-oriented. Their departure point is old folk sayings from this area, such choice morsels as: “If you … 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. Ace of Base, by singer/songwriter Pierce Edens My first-ever mechanical music-making device was a little Sony Walkman, presented to me on the evening of … Read more
• Lewis Buck has recently completed several long-term works: “Canvas Desert,” raw canvas on Masonite; “Echoes of the Pearl Street Rag,” a collage made of cloth used as chinking in a 100-year-old barn in Maine; and a very large painting titled, in part, “Eccentricities of the … Idiosyncratic Anthropomorphism in Llareggub.” • Noah Saterstrom, who’s … Read more
Flavor: Barbecue and comfort foodAmbiance: Casual to the point of being laid backService: Friendly My love for all things porcine started at a tender age. I remember being on road trips with my family as a child. As soon as we’d hit the countryside, my father’s eyes would glaze over, and suddenly my mother and … Read more
Dining for Pets: Don’t you just love these events that allow you to splurge on yourself and do some good at the same time? On Tuesday, Feb. 28, many area restaurants and businesses will share a portion of the day’s proceeds with the Animal Compassion Network to help fund spay-and-neuter programs, as well as to … Read more
Southern Appalachia has been a driving force behind many of the greatest advances in American culture, music and politics. That’s author Jeff Biggers‘ story, and as unlikely as it may seem, he’s sticking to it. In his new book, The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture, and Enlightenment to America (Shoemaker … Read more
Before me stands a black-and-white photograph of hands. A pair of female hands rests upon a larger, rougher male hand. And nestled inside is another hand — pale, tiny, lifeless. “People think, ‘Oh, it’s so wonderful!’ when you tell them … that you work in Labor & Delivery. That’s the fun, happy place to be. … Read more
