Talk about the people. Find the drama. Look where no one else is looking. That’s what Mountain Xpress publisher Jeff Fobes told me and Neal Evans when we started covering local government in 1994. Neither of us was on staff for the nascent publication, despite what the masthead said. Seemingly there were 15 or so … Read more
When I look back at the early ’90s, I can remember a lot of issues that everyone worked on. Specifically, though, when I think about Green Line and then the Mountain Xpress, I am reminded of publisher Jeff Fobes’ mother, Hazel Fobes. She attended meeting after meeting, waiting to speak her opinion on all kinds … Read more
In 1994, the year Mountain Xpress started, I was sharing a $365/month place in Montford with my sister. It was a narrow little flat in a Victorian-era home, its backyard adjacent to the property where Zelda Fitzgerald died in a mental-hospital fire in 1948. The same apartment, no bigger but much refurbished, rents for $950 … Read more
What’s up, Asheville? You ready for this weekend? Put y’er boots on. A quick message in regards to the MTB trails in the North Mills River area of Pisgah Forest. “The U.S. Forest Service has reopened all trails and roads in the Trace Ridge and Wash Creek Area after completing an ecosystem improvement project in the Pisgah … Read more
Miles Building, Elwood Miles, hot summer days, sketchy Lex Ave (Welcome to Wally World), Grey Eagle in Black Mountain, Leni Sitnick, Julian Price, Be Here Now, Gatsby’s, Danielle Truscott, Marsha Barber, phones with cords, fax paper rolls, boot leather and notebooks, Carey Watson, Wanda Edney, paper ballots for Best of WNC, Patty’s little girls roaming … Read more
Time may not be strictly linear, but a weekly production schedule definitely is. That daunting fact had a good deal to do with my leaving Mountain Xpress almost as soon as it began. I was the editor of Xpress’ monthly predecessor, Green Line, from 1991 to ’94. After nearly seven years, however, it had become … Read more
There’s a reason some works have stood the test of time to become classics. Treasure Island is one of the titles that rises to the top of the little boy inside of every man’s list of tales that define the word to its fullest. The new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s definitive swashbuckling adventure is … Read more
North Carolina’s Energy Modernization Act prohibits disclosure of chemicals used in the process, according to your fine article on the subject [“Focus on Fracking: NC Officials Seek Public Comment on Draft Rules,” Aug. 6, Xpress]. How are we then to know if these chemicals are safe for the water supply and the environment? The answer … Read more
I moved to Asheville in 1989 and remember how excited I was to read the Green Line. As Western North Carolina director of the Self-Help Credit Union, I’ll always remember the day that Julian Price walked into our little office at 12 ½ Wall Street and made a substantial deposit. I know his support of … Read more
I remember editor Peter Gregutt helping my writing recover from four years of grad-school jargon and two years of technical writing. I remember the excitement of working on emerging social issues, such as the gay rights movement (still a work in progress). I remember thinking that my job was to “take down the bad guys” … Read more
