The sun shines, the weather warms, and local crops promise to ripen soon. It’s almost time to begin the weekly warm-weather tradition of going to the local farmers’ markets to find your staples. Whether you’re looking for produce, plants, baked goods, or tinctures, you’re likely to find these and much more at any number of … Read More
The old house with a big porch at 377 Merrimon Avenue is rather nondescript. It looks like several other houses turned into businesses on that strip of commercial thoroughfare featuring businesses such as HomeGrown, Points of Light, and BlackBird Frame & Art. Inside on the first floor, however, is a shop that caters to a … Read More
Most of us are still trying to make good on our fitness resolutions. I know I’ve made mine: I want to be strong and healthy enough to do a week-long bike tour this year. Many of our resolutions will include joining (or re-joining a gym). As is typical of Asheville, there are so many options. … Read More
If you’ve been in Asheville for a long enough period of time, you know you can count on a few standard elements that help define the uniqueness of this little oasis in the South: Craft beer, festivals and street parties (with beer, obviously), and, of course, art. That last one is the trickiest. Asheville is … Read More
Sometimes things happen serendipitously that we simply would not have imagined. Thus is the case with the new CD, Divers, from the Alex Krug Combo. Back in June 2012 the Combo was playing downtown at Lexington Avenue Brewery. It was a letterpress release party for Heroes & Criminals Press, where a letterpress poster of the … Read More
Click, click, throw the yarn. Click, click, unwind the ball. Click, click, turn a row. My childhood was spent at the feet of my great grandmother, Hedwig. She in the overstuffed light blue La-Z-Boy, and me cross-legged on the old plum and purple oriental that covered the living room floor. I wanted to be close … Read More
Last September the Victoria and Albert Museum in London announced an exhibition retrospective of David Bowie. My first reaction was that the always-clever businessman Bowie would not miss the opportunity to expand upon this with some elder statesman product. Guess what? Here comes David Bowie. His quietly anthemic single “Where Are We Now? landed gently … Read More
“Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels.” -Faith Whittlesey This month Mercury is retrograding through Pisces beneath the current of Sun, Mars, Venus, Neptune, and Chiron also traveling through Pisces. We will all feel ourselves being swept up or down and away in the tidal … Read More
The book 50 Shades of Grey, penned by E.L James, is the fastest selling paperback of all time, surpassing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. It had conquered nearly all the bestseller lists by the summer of 2012, when word of its sensational story spread like wildfire, igniting imaginations and conversations that, heretofore, had never … Read More
Their eyes lock from across the table. They both reach for the bottle of champagne to fill the other’s glass, and their fingertips brush. The candle flickers and lights up their blush-covered faces. They giggle, smile, then look away. A piano sounds in the background, and it feels like the keys are striking just for … Read More
“I’ve been in about every situation [in the realm of polyamorous relationships],” says the Asheville resident known as Hawker. He believes that people are either wired for poly relationships or not. And he definitely is. Hawker is one of the moderators for the WNC Poly group, which was formed in the 1990s and currently has … Read More
If you have a finger on any part of the Asheville craft scene, then you most likely have heard of the website Etsy.com, where individual artists, crafters, and finders can sell their wares. It might not sound like a “local” retail option, but, in fact, it is. We have combed through more than 15,000 locally … Read More