The civic-minded got an earful about the intricacies of how the Asheville Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts Department works during the ninth installment of the city’s 2008 Citizens Academy on June 5. “It’s All Fun and Games!!!” featured talks led by Parks and Recreation Director Roderick Simmons, Assistant Director Debbie Ivester and Asheville Civic Center … Read more
You came, you saw, you collaborated. Consultants working on the downtown master plan are declaring a weekend of public input and discussion a huge success. From Friday, May 31, through Sunday, June 2, several hundred people turned out to tell representatives from Goody Clancy, the firm hired to help create a master plan for downtown … Read more
It would take serious effort to miss all the buzz about the collaboration between Led Zeppelin’s front man (turned solo act) Robert Plant and Union Station front woman (turned producer) Alison Krauss. The unlikely duo’s Raising Sand (Rounder) dropped last fall and has been a subject of much philosophizing and rhetoric among music critics and … Read more
All throughout my sophomore year in high school, I had The Breeders. Their loopy, lighthearted-but-slightly-weird-around-the-edges alterna-pop seemed to relax my often-frustrated teenage mind. Keeping it together: The Breeders, fronted by ex(ish)-Pixies bassist Kim Deal (pictured) and her twin sister Kelley, have survived everything from the highs of mainstream success to the lows of drug conviction … Read more
Blurt out the name URTV quickly, and instead of hearing the individual letters U-R-T-V, what smoothly rolls off your tongue is either the phrase ““You Are TV” or “Your TV.” Either way, it works. Camera? Check. Lights? Check. Cardboard robot dancing for guy on couch? Check. Welcome behind the scenes of Asheville’s public-access cable television … Read more
The Feral Chihuahuas take the business of being funny very seriously. From their modest beginnings performing at “The Shed,” a small garage transformed into a tiny black-box theater, to the launch of their second summer season at Asheville Community Theatre, the sketch-comedy group is on the prowl, ready to conquer the city of Asheville one … Read more
Purple, though most often favored by 12-year-old girls who also love unicorns and Hello Kitty, occasionally finds its way into fashion. There was a time when local Old Farmer’s Ball regulars (male and female) sported purple socks with their contra-dance apparel. It’s been associated both with the psychedelic 1960s and the MTV-obsessed 1980s. Poet Jenny … Read more
As mass-scale biofuels come under closer scrutiny in the face of rising food costs, Asheville author Forest Gregg has come out with what’s been called the definitive work on using straight veggie oil as fuel. A fool for fryer fuel: Circus traveler-turned-author Forest Gregg can teach you how to run your car on straight veggie … Read more
A chicken may die for a number of reasons, but seldom from “natural causes.” An animal so perfectly designed to be eaten, so attractive to a variety of predators, rarely gets the chance to expire of its own accord. Baldy was different—but then Baldy was no ordinary chicken. It was the spring of 1997 when … Read more
