It's been a year and a half since Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, the king of kid-hop, left Asheville for sunny California. Where, perhaps surprisingly, his days are not filled with surfing and movie star spotting. Instead, he's kept busy playing shows (like New Year's Eve at Legoland for the third year in a row) and … Read more
“When explaining Listen to This: Stories in Performance to newcomers, I will often describe it as This American Life life onstage but with better reception and more beer,” says local comedian Tom Chalmers, the host of the storytelling series, held monthly at 35below, Asheville Community Theatre’s black-box space. The show, which turns crowd-sourced personal tales … Read more
Fingers snapped and echoed across UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Hall on Jan. 23 as Marc Bamuthi Joseph spoke in rhythm and rhyme about hate, greed, neglect and ignorance. Capping off UNCA’s weeklong Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, keynote speaker Joseph tapped his way down the aisle of the auditorium, spinning and engaging with the audience, which … Read more
I will preface the following comments with the full disclosure that I’m a white male. I sincerely appreciate and back constructive efforts on everyone’s part to erase social injustice such as racial and gender bias. But the Jan. 10 open letter chastising Mountain Xpress [“Big Ideas,” Jan. 8, Xpress] for apparent gender and racial bias … Read more
Blue-collar Don is the father of the star pitcher and veteran coach; Michael is the timid newcomer who wants a special activity for his comparatively unathletic son. Scott Treadway and Charlie Flynn-McIver star in the pointed comedy Rounding Third, which makes use of the levity inherent in the Little League field to illustrate deeper life … Read more
It's impossible to discuss the health of a community without also discussing the food we eat. And when it comes to making healthy food more widely available for the underserved and at-risk members of our community, MANNA FoodBank plays a significant role. The local nonprofit exemplifies caring and compassion with programs like MANNA Packs for … Read more
Kim Shattuck definitely wasn’t the first bassist to be terminated unceremoniously. The firings and infighting that go on within bands easily rival the Hollywood drama that each week fills up fleets of grocery store tabloids. Such happenings hardly seem newsworthy — you know, unless the bassist in question gets fired from Pixies, one of indie … Read more
Editor’s note: In her new regular column The Family Kitchen, Asheville yoga instructor and parent Mado Hesselink will explore ways for families to eat a healthy diet on a budget. Breakfast. Sometimes called the most important meal of the day, I call it the most troublesome. When I wake up in the morning, I feel … Read more
What would it take for us to be the healthiest, safest community in the nation? Research tells us that health and safety are shaped by the communities we live in and by our individual behaviors. In other words, health does not start at the doctor’s office. It is created all around us — where we … Read more
Most of us have taken a tumble or two down the YouTube rabbit hole. We know how a seemingly innocuous, two-minute laughing baby video can turn into a two-hour time warp. The Found Footage Festival is like that — only way better. The bizarre assemblage of videos is curated by comedians Nick Prueher and Joe … Read more
