Go a-wassailing into the holiday season with A Swannanoa Solstice, and join the southern Appalachian's foremost bards of song, poetry, dance, and storytelling in an unforgettable celebration of Christmas and the winter solstice. In its seventh year, the event rejoices in the yuletide history of Appalachia and its Celtic origins. Rejoicing in the Yuletide history … Read more
For neighbors of the contaminated former CTS site on Mills Gap Road, there are two key questions: What's to be done about it, and who's going to pay for it? The answers, say those residents, are clear: Force the Indiana-based company to clean it up and pay for it. But CTS has recently countered that … Read more
Central to the African-American experience of the 1950s and '60s was the juke joint. An unlicensed liquor dispensary, it was a place for people to get together, relax, dance and drink. Free of the pressures of home or work, the juke joint was in many ways the only place where people could be themselves. Artist … Read more
"Just because the audience isn't dancing doesn't mean they don't like the show," says singer/songwriter/guitarist Jeff Markham. The musician admits that he, himself isn't "much of a dancer, but I'll get up and do the robot from time to time." Happy hour: Despite its name, this relatively new Asheville quintet is far from its last … Read more
About 150 drawings comprise Nathanael Roney's exhibit Take Me Out, currently on display at Harvest Records in West Asheville. The sheer volume of work is impressive and when viewed as a whole, the mass of drawings tells a compelling story as strange and beautiful as each individual piece. Nathanael Roney doesn't compromise subject matter for … Read more
When Arundas plays, the crowd is a mix of friends and family, belly dancers and the broad array of Asheville freaks who want to get down and boogie. Arundas plays a range of collaborative music that explores fantasy-like mystical rhythms, incorporating sitar, dun-duns, chanting and heavy, heavy drumming. Arundas tunes in to far-flung inspirations and … Read more
As far as we know, humans have always been big on miracles. Always big on believing that more is possible than what we were taught. More than what we have experienced. More than we logically assume. We humans have consistently wanted to believe that sometimes things happen that are outside the laws of nature. (Assuming, … Read more
When I attended UNC-Chapel Hill in the late '40s, most students viewed the holiday season as a time to relax. For me it represented economic opportunity. My parents had saved to pay my college expenses, but I was responsible for earning my spending money. My first year home from college, a close family friend gave … Read more
This is how it happens: You show up at a holiday open house or potluck or company party and some well-meaning person hands you a gift. A neighbor or co-worker or distant cousin — someone you totally like, yet never thought to shop for. What to do? Xpress has your back. Here's a list of … Read more
Editor's note: This is the second part of Raskin's two-part story on her first turkey hunt. See last week's Xpress for part one. Dowler warned me there was a good chance I wouldn't get a turkey. The difficulties of turkey hunting are compounded in the South, where thick forests compromise visibility and birds have been … Read more
