It’s challenging enough to create some 30-plus miniature sets in which to photograph sock monkeys and their doings: Celebrating Oktoberfest, planting gardens, dining out (Why sock monkeys? Just wait: That answer comes soon enough). But if the project involves constructing the dioramas from predominantly found materials, well, good luck. “My daughter and I went to … Read more
A healthy volunteer squash. photo by Cecil Bothwell I am not a fastidious gardener. Looking over my backyard jumble as I compose these words, I can well imagine a reader peering over my shoulder and sneering, “You write about this stuff?” I easily retort: “This is the garden I have always dreamed of growing, exactly … Read more
Garlic time: Now through October is the best time to plant garlic for earlier, bigger bulbs next summer. Each clove will produce one plant with a single bulb, which may in turn contain up to 20 cloves. Plant cloves individually, upright and about an inch under the surface and 4 inches apart in a sunny, … Read more
This waterfall in Pisgah National Forest is a geocache site featured in a UNCA photo exhibit by Margot Anne Kelley. Its coordinates: N35*18.402 W082*46.507. Too often, it seems, technological innovations cut people off from the natural environment. But at least one gadget has sparked a renewed connection with the natural world: the GPS device, a … Read more
Asheville, I hope you’re hungry. The local food scene is booming with bars, bistros and various other eateries, with more popping up each week, it seems. We have authentic Indian food served in exotic, candle-lit dining rooms, fantastic Middle Eastern fare served out of broom-closet sized rooms, and lavish brunch spreads served with sweeping vistas … Read more
A Christmas Carol: Reloaded When the first Montford Park Player stepped out stage right and proclaimed “Marley was dead, to begin with,” the whole thing must have seemed so fresh and new. They never could have known that 30 years later someone else would be rehearsing to say the exact same thing, in the exact … Read more
Monochromatic for the people: Ladytron considers stock in Woolite for darks. “Hello and a beautiful good day. I welcome you my new friend in the space,” writes German lounge artist and Myspace inhabitant L’etagere. “I hope we live a pleasant time in this space and remain up to one see again, on which I am … Read more
Even better than the movie Labyrinth: “Winding Path,” a creation in mulch and flags by Marty Cain. photos by Zen Sutherland Bureaucracies can be daunting, even to those accustomed to working within them. To artists, they can be downright terrifying. Coordinating a major event like the River Sculpture Festival, an outdoor contemporary sculpture exhibition at … Read more
Still life with lamp, sofa, Richard Buckner: His new album is about the “ethereal meadow in my mind.” Drive by the bodegas on Flatbush Avenue, exit the Canarsie Line subway at Broadway Junction, or walk through the factories-turned-lofts in Williamsburg, and the borough of Brooklyn just isn’t the sort of place you associate with meadows … Read more
