As they pondered a 162-unit development at Thoms Estate North Asheville last night, Asheville City Council noted similarities to another project reported in this week’s Mountain Xpress (see “Go Tell it on the Mountain”). The 65-acre subdivision going up on Beaucatcher Mountain bypassed council review, as it conformed to the Technical Review Committee’s subdivision ordinance.
As reading material goes, a spiral-bound report by an undergraduate intern titled “A Cadastral-Based Change Analysis,” based on information gleaned from county tax offices, might sound like a bit of a yawner. But at a time when the phrase “steep-slope development” is enough to make local land conservationists’ hair stand on end, this study marks … Read more
Buncombe 1, Asheville 0 A Wake County Superior Court ruling earlier this month dismissed the city’s attempt to overturn state legislation that prohibits Asheville from charging different water rates for customers outside the city limits. But the ruling by Judge Howard E. Manning Jr. also lambastes state legislators for giving Buncombe County preferential treatment, which … Read more
Save your money on Valentine’s Day. If you really want to impress him/her, you’ll go out the night after. Jonathan Richman, who plays The Grey Eagle Feb. 15, isn’t quite a household name—but, for the past 35-plus years, he’s been chronicling the romantic life of the lonesome geek better than anyone. Introverted, abashed and childish, … Read more
Fending off the cold is the focus of several area exhibit spaces this winter, with Blue Spiral, A-B Tech’s Holly Library, the Folk Art Center and the Haywood County Arts Council Gallery all warming their walls with fuzzy fibers, quilts and tapestries. At Blue Spiral, Lisa Klakulak pays homage to the natural world and our … Read more
The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park may be in for a windfall of sorts—$1.5 million and $1.9 million in new funding, respectively—if the Bush administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 is approved. That represents an 11 percent increase for both parks over fiscal year 2006 levels. (Congress has not … Read more
Troy Sanders, bassist for Atlanta-based heavy-metal heroes Mastodon, knows the cliché of the suburban metalhead: a faded denim jacket, ripped jeans, Slayer T-shirt and pencil-thin mustache-and-chin-strap facial hair. And Sanders is well aware of the Beavis- and Butthead-like drones who typically populate the metal scene. He knows all this, and wants no part of it. … Read more
Those fat, winged babies don’t need archery lessons to shoot stylized arrows through anatomically incorrect hearts. That’s because cupids aren’t real. But if you really hope to fall in love, stay in love, rekindle a love or simply find something to distract you until love comes around, chances are that getting sweaty and intimate will … Read more
Not infrequently, readers will write in to me to complain about something I’ve written in Culture Watch. Although they can be filled with genuine feeling, the letters often contain grammar and spelling poor enough to override their writers’ salient points. Obviously, we need some standardization here. So, I present you with our new E-Z Complaint … Read more
When I went, with fear and trembling, to my first art class in the early ‘70s as a nontraditional student, Tucker Cooke was my teacher. After 40 years at UNCA, Cooke has announced his retirement. The UNCA University Gallery, recently renamed in Cooke’s honor, has mounted a retrospective exhibit of his works and is hosting … Read more
