The Sisters McMullen, the popular Asheville bakery that recently exited the doughnut-making business to concentrate on other goodies, left a big (ahem) hole in the local market. But the city’s first Dunkin’ Donuts franchise seems to be filling the breach. At your service: The new Dunkin’ Donuts on Merrimon is becoming one of the most … Read more
Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and celebration. And that’s exactly what Acoustic Syndicate’s annual homecoming show is all about. As much for the fans as for the band, the yearly performance is a chance to catch the group—known for mixing bluegrass, Americana, jam and country—in their element, with an extended set, eclectic guests … Read more
Many artists have been inspired by the bleak sterility of the modern hospital, with its conflicting roles as place of healing and prison—among them Dalton Trumbo, Ken Kesey, Lars von Trier and Susanna Kaysen (perhaps better known as the author of Girl, Interrupted). In 2001, local guitarist and singer Jason Smith added his name to … Read more
It’s not exactly a news flash: The “reason for the season” isn’t about fundraising for major credit-card companies. But, as local author James Cox points out in his satire The Christmas Curmudgeon: A Christmas Story for Guys (Infinity Publishing, 2007), plenty of people spend the holidays racking up massive debt, working themselves into a stupor, … Read more
There is a constant rumble at one end of the French Broad River Park from the endless jumble of traffic crossing the bridge over the river into West Asheville. Evidently, the noise was not enough to drown out Wayne Kirby’s pointed message coming from the eight small speakers spread across a small wooden bridge on … Read more
Local designers Paul Olszewski of Industree House (www.industreehouse.com) and R. Brooke Priddy of Ship to Shore (www.shiptoshoreshop.com) turned the recent Asheville Film Festival gala (on Saturday, Nov. 10) into their own runway show, complete with Hollywood-style glamour and plenty of paparazzi (including Xpress photographer Jonathan Welch, who shot these photos). Lowriders of Asheville delivered rock … Read more
You can’t hike with your dog in the Smokies. You can’t build a wood fire in the Shining Rock Wilderness. When you’re in DuPont State Forest, mountain bikes whiz past you. Why is each place so different and who makes the rules anyway? Bears mentioning: Campsites in the Smokies have a system for keeping packs … Read more
Catherine Redcloud was a sickly and stunted child, given to congestions, coughs and wheezes. She needed medicine, but medicine tasted bad. Her grandmother, a Creek Indian from the Poarch Creek Reservation in southern Alabama, knew the solution: Add a little something sweet to the elixirs to mask their bitterness. In time Redcloud got better—and bigger—but … Read more
My Baptist friends tell me there is only one way. There is only one true belief, only one true answer. All the words put together are the Word, and it means what it says—nothing more and nothing less. My atheist friends tell me I am a fool for believing in something bigger than myself. Everything, … Read more
In light of the recent discussions concerning what to do about illegal immigrants in our community, I am compelled to share the following. Most of us have stories like this in our family histories, if we take time to look them up. The heartbreak and struggle our ancestors endured in traveling to these shores are … Read more
