Day: April 18, 2007
Seeing green
In a recent post on the economy blog of the newly created, locally based Web site sustainablewnc.org, sustainable-enterprise expert Steve Cochran, noting that more and more big businesses are adopting greener ethics, opined, “Real change is here, now.” He cited the latest issue of Fortune magazine, which lists the world’s top 10 “Green Giants”—Fortune 500 … Read more
Whose business is it?
A local grass-roots group is developing tools to help protect the Asheville area’s large lesbian-and-gay population from workplace discrimination. People for Employment Equality for Gays and Lesbians has created an online directory of employers who openly accept lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered (LGBT) individuals, whether through a written personnel policy or simply as standard practice, … Read more
Not your average summer camp
For most folks, the term “summer camp” triggers memories of sunny canoe trips, popsicle-stick-and-paint crafts and “Kumbaya” around the campfire. At the North Carolina Arboretum, however, summer camp amounts to much more. School’s in for summer: An orienteering group gets wild at last year’s Discovery Camps for Youth, which are hosted by the North Carolina … Read more
Holism in the hills
The Prama Institute, a new seminar and retreat center located near Marshall, plans to make a splashy debut. Grand-opening events include a poetry reading and workshop with lauded wordsmith Robert Bly film screenings with Palestinian director Hanna Elias. Head space: The Prama Institute’s Sid Jordan, left, and Ramesh Bjonnes in one of the facility’s dome-shaped … Read more
Pouring cold water on global warming
In eco-friendly Asheville, you might think it would be difficult to fill a room with people who haven’t seen Al Gore’s green blockbuster An Inconvenient Truth. But visiting global-warming skeptic Marlo Lewis found it easy enough during his April 11 lecture at the Grove Park Inn. All opposed: Mario Lewis, a senior fellow at the … Read more
Bowling for dollars
This is a puff piece. Puff as in the cocoa puffs, sugar puffs and all the other sickeningly sweet air-filled cereals now available by the bowlful at Eaties, Asheville’s first cereal café. Snap, crackle and pop: Eaties owner Becky Johnson, center, is flanked by cereal lovers Ruth Peterson, left, and Zoe Peterson. photo by Jonathan … Read more
Another first for Black Mountain College
The buildings are still there—one, a flat-topped structure, ashen and derelict along the shores of Lake Eden; another, a formal, pillared building called Lee Hall at the Blue Ridge Assembly, nearby. But to understand the legacy of Black Mountain College, which existed here between 1933 and 1956, it’s necessary to look beyond buildings, beyond the … Read more
They aren’t the world
If you never “got” world music, don’t feel uncultured. Ori Kaplan, co-founder of the definitely-file-under-world-music band Balkan Beat Box, doesn’t like it either. “When I hear [it], I cringe,” confesses Kaplan, whose band also eschews flags, nationalities and borders. “[It’s an] overly produced concept where you try to have some slick beat with some aboriginal … Read more
