Mountain Xpress 02.08.23

LONELY HEARTS CLUB

Asheville’s success as a tourist destination and its large transplant population can pose unique challenges for dating in the area. Xpress spoke with several local relationship experts about how to handle this landscape of love mindfully.

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COPYRIGHT

An inauspicious omen for Asheville

I read tonight that Forbes magazine named Asheville as the only city in North Carolina to be among the 30 most beautiful cities in America. Forbes? Asheville?

Well, I’d known that my adopted hometown since 2008 had changed, but I’m surprised that now even Forbes thinks it’s cool. Nowadays, I consider this as an omen I don’t want to read about, especially because Forbes is not my type of magazine.

When I think of Forbes , I envision very wealthy people sipping their mimosas at a gentrified sidewalk cafe. Well, I guess that is us today.

I think of an ordered society of finely dressed patrons of the arts. Maybe sometimes in Asheville when the symphony entertains.

Or dressed-up executives rushing to work at big, incentivized corporations. Yep, that’s Asheville. Think Raytheon’s Pratt & Whitney, which will even soon have its own exit off Interstate 26.

Has Forbes seen our workers downtown struggling to make

enough to pay their rent this month because many of the apartments in which they used to live have been converted into Airbnbs or torn down to make room for big-box expensive apartments very few can afford? Have they seen the people on our streets who sleep there, too? Or in their cars or along the river?

And do they realize that Asheville often criminalizes the homeless and even those who advocate for them by food sharing? Do they know that some even face charges now of felony littering and have been banned from all of Asheville’s city parks for three years, and they haven’t even been convicted yet? All because they did just that at Aston Park on Christmas night 2021.

Or how about charging second-degree trespassing on a writer and videographer who represented a longtime online investigative publication? Do they realize that even

the ACLU is challenging Asheville on both these cases because they threaten our rights of assembly and having a free press?

And do our visitors know that soon they’ll be under surveillance if they hang around Pritchard Park and North Lexington Avenue? Or that a huge Duke substation is in the works to be built right above Lexington Avenue?

And then there are the water problems. If you preferred bottled water, you were in the right spot here during the holidays when more than 36,000 households and even our esteemed restaurants lost water or had to boil what they had in some parts of our area till Jan. 4.

Oh, how life has changed since my arrival here less than 14 years ago when my rent was $400 a month, when the South Slope was pretty much just that without all the breweries, when there were a few restaurants that catered to the locals with

plain home cooking at reasonable prices. There are still a few of these, but some recently have had to call it quits.

When I moved here, we prided ourselves as a diamond in the rough. We were proud of our city with only two hotels downtown at the time. Then the tourism development people started advertising our weirdness, our drum circle, our buskers, our eclectic downtown. Too many “discovered” us.

Now we lament with our brother and sister homeless friends downtown that Asheville has outgrown its kindness, its friendliness and toleration over the years. Fame has gone to some of our leaders’ heads. They now make decisions in closed rooms where the sun doesn’t shine in. They sign nondisclosure agreements and give away millions of dollars to entice multinational corporations to move here.

Then some folks come down from Forbes magazine, and you know the rest of the story.

— Rachael Bliss Asheville

Editor’s note: A longer version of this letter will appear at mountainx. com.

Tourists should find other funding

[ Regarding “Safe at Home? A Look Back at Asheville’s Precarious Pro Baseball History,” Jan. 18 , Xpress:]

I much regret the current trend for municipalities to pay for fancy stadiums on behalf of professional sports teams. I would say: Let the Tourists’ organization pay or let another municipality step in to foot the bill.

With a major league team, at least there might be some plausible argument that it helps the local economy — not so for minor league baseball.

CARTOON BY RANDY MOLTON

I don’t mind having a minor league team here and may even go to the games sometimes, but I don’t think it makes sense for taxpayers to foot the bill.

— Lou Lieb Asheville

A word of caution about psychedelics

I wish I’d known about your story sooner [“Shroom for Improvement: WNC Explores Psychedelic Mushrooms for Mental Health,” Jan. 25, Xpress]. I had two professionally guided experiences with MDMA three years ago for severe depression, and while they were transformative, I also suffered serotonin crashes both times that left me suicidal. It was a nightmare. I had to do transcranial magnetic stimulation and start antidepressants again. It took months to feel anything but extreme despair.

I always warn others about this and have discussed it with the big guns at MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). Apparently, this is a huge risk for anyone who has responded to SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) meds. You have to have been off the meds for at least six months before your journey, so levels are

very low to begin with. MDMA and psilocybin work by causing a spike in serotonin, but then your level plummets. Many people can bounce back, but not those of us with low serotonin needing SSRIs.

— Name withheld upon request

Flat Rock

The value of closed government meetings

[ Regarding “Out of Sight: City Council, Mayor and Staff Hold Closeddoor Meetings, Sowing Distrust,” Jan. 25, Asheville Watchdog via Xpress:]

For years I was key staff to county commissioners in another state. In my experience, closed sessions like this are important for briefing the elected officials on background research done by staff and having the elected officials identify a need for further information before going public.

Our elected officials consider a wide range of issues in their official actions; behind each of those issues is an extensive trove of data, information and policy options. Time and space to sift through all that is an important step toward making informed and appropriate decisions.

— Bette Meyer Asheville

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN

House rules

BY CARMELA CARUSO

carmelamariecaruso@gmail.com

Newly elected Rep. Lindsey Prather had expected to wrestle with tough questions upon her arrival at the N.C. General Assembly in Raleigh. After all, the Buncombe County Democrat had promised her constituents that she’d work on big issues such as school funding, Medicaid expansion and climate resilience.

Prather did not expect one of those questions to be where the furniture was.

“I didn’t think about the fact that I’d have to furnish my legislative office. So that’s coming together slowly,” confesses Prather. Although desks and chairs can be borrowed from the legislative building, she says, many members bring their own.

Prather and her two Buncombe County colleagues in the state House — Democrats Eric Ager and Caleb Rudow — will have many such learning experiences over the legislative session that started Jan. 25. All three won their first elections in November after the retirement of three multiterm representatives of the county.

GETTING SITUATED

The General Assembly can be daunting even for longtime political hands. Zach Wallace, vice president of public policy at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, calls the legislature’s Raleigh campus “super confusing.” He visits the House several times a year to work directly with members.

N.C. House

are settling into office

“I’ve spent a lot of time there and can’t get anywhere, so I just walk the edge of the building until I find the office that I’m looking for,” Wallace says. “I’m sure for our new members, they’re trying to figure that out, too. Where’s the bathroom? Where am I supposed to park? All those things.”

Another logistical concern, particularly for legislators from Western North Carolina who have a four-hour commute to the cap-

ital, is where to stay. The House is usually in session from Monday evening through Thursday afternoon, and most members travel home for the weekends to their jobs, families, constituents and other responsibilities.

Finding a place to spend the weeknights in Raleigh can be an added stressor. State lawmakers do receive a $104 per diem for each day they are in session to defray the costs, but their annual salary of

just under $14,000 hasn’t changed since 1995.

“I’m extremely lucky that my parents live in the next town over and I can stay with them,” Prather says. “Other legislators have rented rooms in houses, stayed in hotels, crashed with friends, split rent with a colleague and even stayed in an RV.”

The travel time also makes it more challenging for representatives to form and deepen relationships,

How Buncombe’s newly elected

members

OFFICIALLY NEWBIES: Democratic Reps., from left, Caleb Rudow, Eric Ager and Lindsey Prather all won their first elections in November to represent Buncombe County in the state House. Photos courtesy of the representatives

both in the capital and at home. Commuting means they aren’t around Raleigh on the weekends to spend time with their colleagues, and they also miss weekday events back home in Buncombe. “These are barriers that keep a lot of people from being able to serve,” says Prather.

Seven-term Republican Sen. Warren Daniel, whose district now includes much of eastern Buncombe County, agrees that the first few months of service can be disorienting. “Being a member of the General Assembly can be a full-time, 24/7 job,” he says. He advises his new colleagues: “Make sure you don’t let it adversely affect the time you spend with your family.”

LAW AND ORDER

In addition to learning the physical lay of the land, new members must also become familiar with how the House operates. Its rules include guidance on everything from when to speak and how to vote to more basic matters like when to eat (not during the first hour of sessions.)

House members have until April this year to introduce new bills. After a lawmaker drafts and presents a proposal, it’s assigned to a committee for consideration — and that’s where most go to die. During the legislature’s 2021-22 long session, over 2,000 bills were presented, but only 267 were passed into law.

If a committee approves the bill, it gets placed on the legislative calendar to be voted on by all members of the House. When the bill is presented to the chamber, members have the opportunity to speak: supporting it, refuting it or recommending amendments. If it passes there, it then goes to the state Senate, and then to the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper for approval or veto.

Julie Mayfield , a Democratic state senator from Asheville now in her second term, says she was surprised as a new lawmaker by how little debate happens on the General Assembly floor. “I wish I had known really how little moves forward in the Senate, how little we debate in committee, how little work on bills actually happens in public,” she tells Xpress. “Virtually everything happens behind the scenes, in small conversations, and bills that come to the floor are going to pass. Amendments will be tabled, and there will not be any real debate or question about the outcome.”

One new potential challenge for the rookie legislators comes from Republican House members, who

have proposed a rule change that would allow votes on overriding Cooper’s veto to be held without advance notice. (Cooper has vetoed 75 bills since taking office in 2017, more than all other North Carolina governors combined.)

Republicans currently hold 71 seats in the 120-member chamber, one short of the three-fifths majority required to overturn a veto. If the rule change were to pass, Democratic leaders argue, Republicans voting in unison could thus override a veto whenever one Democrat happened to be absent from the House floor.

Rep. Ager says he’s disappointed by that effort to change the rules, which will be voted on later this month. “I am a believer in conducting the people’s business in a clear and transparent manner, and the rules change seems to me to be an attempt to sneak things through with parliamentary tricks,” he explains.

GENERAL INTEREST

Despite those concerns, Rudow says members are generally able to work together regardless of party affiliation. Although he’s in his first elected term, Rudow was appointed last February to finish the term of retiring House Democrat Susan Fisher

“Unlike the U.S. House, the N.C. House has an environment of respect and cordiality across the aisle,” says Rudow. “We disagree on many issues, but there are also lots of policy issues that Democrats and Republicans work on together.”

Wallace of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce agrees with that sentiment. “Most of us agree on a lot more than we think we do,” he says, but “it’s hard to get to that point if you don’t know each other.” With that in mind, Wallace and the chamber are hoping to encourage more communication and informal meetings between legislative members this session, especially those representing WNC.

There are many issues to consider. Rudow says he hadn’t expected to be confronted with the breadth of topics that constituents, activists and lobbyists care about. He cites spaying/neutering community cats and sensory deprivation tanks as some of the unanticipated concerns people have raised; Prather mentions minibike regulations.

But no matter the topic, Rudow continues, “The core of the work is about understanding people, their challenges, and how policy can solve them.”

Leaked

A deep dive into the troubling history of water woes in Asheville

BY JOHN BOYLE AN ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG REPORT

bark@avlwatchdog.org

While the great holiday season water outage of 2022-23 may seem like an extraordinary event in Asheville’s history, the city has a deep and troubling history of water woes.

In fact, the origin dates to the Great Depression and the mountain town’s insistence on paying off a massive debt load while ignoring infrastructure needs. In the middle part of the 20th century, the city even funneled some water revenues toward the Depression-era debt, which was finally paid off in 1976.

The most recent outage, which left tens of thousands of customers without water and spanned 11 days over Christmas and New Year’s, was precipitated by a severe three-day cold event. Throughout the system, 27 city-owned waterlines broke, and when the city turned to its Mills

River water plant to produce water, workers found it frozen.

Engineering experts say infrastructure issues, a lack of preparation and a poor response to the crisis played key roles in the debacle. It is worth noting that the Water Resources Department’s “tabletop” emergency exercise in early December involved a tropical storm deluge scenario, not a cold weather event.

Asheville’s history includes a series of water failures and outages, ranging from a weeklong outage caused by a tropical storm in 2004 to more than 720 “boil water advisories” in various parts of the city between 2017 and 2021, usually caused by waterline breaks or other troubles. In 1995, city leaders and water officials lamented that one-fourth of the water produced at the city’s two main reservoirs, North Fork and Bee Tree, leaked into the ground because of old and faulty pipes.

As of 2022, that water loss figure stood at almost 27%, according to a

Water Resources Department brief from April of that year.

“Water loss is on the rise, after hitting a historic low in 2017,” the brief stated. “Despite a proactive leakage management program, new leakage continues to rise faster than the mitigative efforts can contain it.”

The average age of the 27 city waterlines that broke is 45 years, and the “majority of the large public-side breaks experienced were in pipes made of cast iron,” a city spokesperson said. Cast iron becomes brittle as it ages.

One of the more colorful water failures occurred in April 2019, when city water users endured days of brown water caused by excessive manganese settling out. While the water department assured residents the manganese-laden water was harmless, as some manganese occurs naturally in water and various foods, many citizens were unwilling to drink a glass of murky, brownish water or even wash clothes with it.

‘WATER SYSTEM IS IN TROUBLE AND HAS BEEN FOR DECADES’

For John Shaw, a professional engineer who has worked in the water industry for 35 years and lived in Asheville for five years, the latest outage struck him as another incident in a string of mismanagement.

“The city of Asheville’s water system is in trouble and has been for decades,” Shaw told Asheville Watchdog last month. “No one has stepped up and tried to address that.

So, it’s really no surprise to anyone who understands what’s going on that these conditions have existed and will continue to exist until they get a master plan in place to remedy this, which includes the funding required to do it, which is going to be very significant.”

Shaw lived in Asheville from 201318 and still owns a house in North Asheville, although he calls Reno, Nev., home now. A water industry consultant and expert witness, Shaw owns John Shaw Consulting LLC.

NORTH FORK: Most of the water for Asheville and Buncombe County comes from the North Fork Reservoir near Black Mountain. Photo by Cindy Kunst

Asked who could have predicted a lingering, severe cold weather event in Asheville, Shaw said, “Anybody?”

The low temperature hit 2 degrees on Dec. 23 and zero on Dec. 24, as well as 12 degrees the next two nights, but the cold snap was predicted days in advance. While Water Resources Department Director David Melton and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer have described the cold snap as unprecedented, that’s not the case, as Asheville has had at least seven cold waves of equal or colder temperatures in the last 50 years, according to John Bates , a meteorologist who retired in 2018 from the federal government’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville.

Of that December tabletop planning exercise, Melton said the session “wasn’t directed at this incident, right, because we didn’t know this was going to happen in December.”

“We had a totally different scenario, and it had a lot to do with setting up our master command, how that looks, who was going to be where, who was going to do what,” Melton said.

Later Melton added, “We were more geared toward tropical storms, hurricanes, things that we’ve lived through.”

MELTON ON CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘I’M A BELIEVER NOW’

Melton did say the department has taken immediate measures to assure a similar breakdown doesn’t occur again in February, including adding more insulation and heat tape to equipment at the Mills River water treatment plant, where key equipment froze.

A business degree graduate of Anderson University in South Carolina, a private Christian school, Melton said the cold snap did make him change his beliefs on climate change.

“You know, I was one of the ones — ‘Yeah, things are different, but I’m not sure about climate change,’” Melton said in a Jan. 11 interview. “I’m a believer now. Over the last several years, it’s a real thing.”

His boss, Assistant City Manager Ben Woody, also in the interview, jumped in to stress that water department staff are “technical staff that are trained.”

“I mean, they’re scientists, and they very much know what they’re doing, and so I think they’re always preparing to try and make sure water doesn’t go offline,” Woody said.

CITY CONTINUES TO BE ‘COY’ ABOUT EVENTS, ENGINEER SAYS

Mike Rains, an Asheville resident and retired engineer who worked for Duke Energy at a nuclear power plant, said via email that even though the city has released more detailed information on timelines and events surrounding the outage, “they continue to be very coy around the significant number of major leaks that really brought the system down.”

He questions if the cold was the sole culprit.

“I highly suspect that many of these [line breaks] were not directly due to freezing but resulted from operational hydraulic events that may or may not have been avoidable,” Rains said. “By the way, one obvious ‘symptom’ of hydraulic events in the system is the brown water that shows up in household taps. This brown water is basically internal pipe corrosion that has been ‘shaken loose.’ In the early stages of the event, households in our area of North Asheville were reporting this, even though they were not out of water.”

Shaw also remains skeptical about the cold causing so much of the problem. Preparation is the key, he said, not how far the thermometer falls.

“I think it really isn’t a matter of degrees,” Shaw said. “It’s ‘At what point do we start to see freezing? Where is that freezing going to occur first? How are we going to protect against that?’ And how are we going to respond to it should it occur? You should plan for those things. It’s not just a numbers issue. It’s binary: freezing or not freezing.”

Melton also said in the interview that the Mills River plant had not been tested by this kind of severe cold, but that’s incorrect. The plant was built in 1998.

Since Jan. 1, 1999, Asheville Regional Airport, the official weather station for Asheville, has recorded 33 days with a low temperature of below 10 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. That includes a low of minus 1 degree in January 2014.

The Mills River water plant, actually located in northern Henderson County, is about 5 miles from the airport.

SHOULD A PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER BE IN CHARGE?

Rains and Shaw both contend a system the size of Asheville’s should

the balloon with an F-22 fighter jet, claiming it was being used for surveillance; Chinese officials said it was a research platform. “This is so wild,” Kay wrote in his Instagram post where he originally shared the image. “Never did I imagine waking up to a giant spy balloon flying directly over our house. I mean you read about these things in the news (I’m really not much into politics) ... but when something like this literally shows up at your doorstep I have to admit ... it’s kinda creepy!!!”

Photo by Kay

U.S.

UP, UP AND AWAY: Local photographer Jared Kay documented a Chinese balloon as it flew over his home in Mills River. The balloon first entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 by way of Alaska. On Feb. 4, the

shot down

What’s your story?

Poetry Contest

Xpress announces a 2023 poetry contest in celebration of April as National Poetry Month.

Are you poet living in Western North Carolina? If so, consider submitting an original, previously unpublished work for this year’s contest. This year’s theme is all about hope. Where do you go in Buncombe County to find your moment of zen or sense of purpose? Do you gravitate toward hiking trails or do you prefer a swimming hole? Or are you more likely to find your peace of mind in a local bookstore or cafe? Wherever it is, we want to read about it in the form of a poem.

All poems should be no longer than one typed page in a 12-point font. Again, only previously unpublished works will be considered.

The contest is currently open for submission and will close at midnight on Wednesday, March 8. Email the poem in the body of the message to tcalder@mountainx.com. The subject line should read “Xpress 2023 poetry contest.” Include the author’s full name and contact information in the email. Only one submission is allowed per person. There is no cost to enter.

A winning poem will be determined by local, award-winning poet Michael Hettich. The winner will be published online and in print in the final issue of our annual Sustainability series on Wednesday, April 26. The contest is not open to Xpress employees or freelance contributors.

Contact Thomas Calder at tcalder@mountainx.com with any questions

be run by a professional engineer, not someone from the business side like Melton, who started with Asheville in 2016.

“A facility of any size will have a professional engineer running the show,” Shaw said. “But you get down to the smaller utilities, which Asheville is, and it’s not uncommon to have the director be a guy who worked his way up — unfortunately.”

Shaw noted that he has not consulted professionally with Asheville.

Water systems are based almost entirely on engineering, and that’s why it’s so important to have engineers heading them up, Shaw said.

“Unless the guy at the top understands the requirements of operation, maintenance, management, design, regulatory compliance — all of those things are engineering-related,” Shaw said. “You really can’t tease them out.”

Rains has also said Asheville’s system should be run by an engineer, offering similar reasoning to Shaw’s.

Woody has stood by Melton, who was hired in February 2016 as assistant director of the Water Resources Department and promoted to director in November 2018. Melton earns $135,688 annually, plus a $3,600 annual car allowance.

His personnel file shows no suspensions or disciplinary actions. Melton has defended his performance and that of his staff, which includes multiple engineers.

“We actually have three [professional engineers] on staff within the water department in our engineering department,” Melton said, noting that he relies on them for their technical expertise.

Melton also defended his decision to cut off service to the southern service area, which left thousands in South Asheville and southern Buncombe County without water for days. While he took input from staff on the decision to essentially

sacrifice the southern portion of the water system to keep the rest of it running without boil-water advisories, Melton said that decision was his to make.

And, he said, he would do it again.

“We were hopeful that the night of the 26th, that we would get Mills River back on, or at least early in the a.m. hours on the 27th,” Melton said.

“Even with the hope we had, yeah, that’s a hard decision. It was a hard decision that the team came to and, of course, I approved that decision. So, at the end of the day, I made that decision.”

The city wanted to avoid a boil-water advisory for Mission Hospital and other medical facilities, as well as other heavy water users clustered in and around downtown, he said.

Asked if the decision was a mistake, Melton said, “I don’t think so.”

“Given the same situation we had, I would have made the same decision,” he told Watchdog

As far as being caught off guard, Melton said the Water Resources Department actually had “a little bit more than the normal on-call crews” for the Christmas holiday. Usual staffing is two duty officers and an on-call crew, but over Christmas, the department had two duty officers working, an on-call crew, a second on-call crew and seven staffers on standby, the city said.

Melton said he was out of town on Christmas Eve, visiting relatives in upstate South Carolina, but he returned to Asheville the afternoon of Christmas Day.

IS IT AN INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUE?

Early in the crisis, which started Dec. 24, Melton said the outage was “100% weather related,” and not indicative of an infrastructure problem, although he acknowledged 11

Melton said city waterlines are buried at a depth of 4 1/2 feet, the industry standard and well below the freeze line of 18 inches in this area. Shaw said that is plenty deep.

In a Jan. 11 interview, Melton said ductile iron is preferred over cast iron, as cast iron becomes brittle with age and more prone to ruptures.

The Water Resources Department’s capital improvement plan shows that over the past five fiscal years, dating to 2019, the department has spent at least $10.4 million annually, with most of that going toward “large waterline projects” and “small waterline replacement projects.”

Over the last 20 years, water crews have replaced 88 miles of pipe in the system, which comprises just over 1,700 miles of waterlines.

Melton said age is one factor to consider when replacing pipes but also how much the pipe in question is used.

by

DISCUSSING THE MATTER: Water Resources Department Director David Melton speaks to the media at a Jan. 3 press conference.

city-owned waterlines had broken. When the city released a timeline of events Jan. 10, it stated that 27 cityowned lines had broken between Dec. 25 and 31.

Melton said at a Jan. 3 press conference he ultimately made the decision to cut off water to the southern portion of the service area, mainly to protect Mission Hospital and other large water consumers from “boil-water advisories.”

Shaw said in his opinion it’s a “very fair” assessment that the city has an infrastructure problem.

“I think that goes to their understanding of the situation and their ability to track in real time their facility issues,” Shaw said. “If you don’t know the difference between 11 and 27 [waterlines] with regards to significant infrastructure issues, you have a problem.”

“We look at how often it breaks, how many customers it puts out of service when it breaks,” Melton said.

FORMER MAYOR: ‘YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN IN CITY GOVERNMENT’

Former Asheville Mayor Charles Worley, who also served as chair of the now-defunct AshevilleBuncombe Water Authority, said cities rarely set aside enough funding to handle all of their water needs.

“You do what you can in city government. You’ve only got so much money to repair and replace this many pipes,” said Worley, who served as mayor from 200105 and as a City Council member before that. “That’s just the reality of government. You never get enough money to get everything up to 100% capability.”

Worley, who was mayor when a tropical storm blew out key waterlines from the North Fork Reservoir in 2004 and left much of the city

WORKHORSE: With a capacity of 31 million gallons per day, North Fork is the workhorse, according to the city’s annual water quality report. Bee Tree’s capacity is 5 million gallons a day, and Mills River, 7 million.

without water for over a week, said two things struck him about this latest outage: poor communications and the freeze-up of the Mills River plant.

“One thing about water and underground pipes and freezing — if the water keeps running, it’s not going to freeze,” said Worley, an attorney by training. “But if you let it freeze up and you can’t get water out, then pipes are much more apt to freeze.”

Average daily demand on the city’s water system is about 22.5 million gallons, Melton has said previously. It hit 28 million gallons a day over Christmas, although some of that may have been from leaking water. But the system has a capacity of nearly 50 million gallons a day, and Melton has said development and building has

not created outsized demand on the system.

The Mills River plant, opened in the late 1990s as a supplemental water source for Asheville, had been offline for much of 2022. The North Fork Reservoir in Black Mountain and Bee Tree Reservoir in Swannanoa can easily meet the city’s needs.

With a capacity of 31 million gallons per day, North Fork is the workhorse, according to the city’s annual water quality report. Bee Tree’s capacity is 5 million gallons a day, and Mills River, 7 million. After treatment, water travels through 1,702 miles of waterlines and is stored in 35 reservoirs, according to the annual report. Each day, the system delivers water to over 156,000

CONTINUES ON PAGE 12

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THE MILLS RIVER PLANT FREEZE-UP

During the Christmas crisis, when plant operators tried to bring Mills River online to help meet high demand and keep water flowing, key components were frozen. Melton initially described them as intakes but clarified that Jan. 11.

“It wasn’t the intakes, but it was what we call the influent valves — the valves that control flow from the settling basins into the filters.” They were frozen, rendering the plant incapable of delivering water. Some lines that feed necessary treatment chemicals into the plant also froze.

Shaw suspects the Water Resources Department got lackadaisical about the Mills River plant because it’s not crucial to its water delivery plan.

“I’m sure it didn’t cross their minds that they would need to bring [Mills River] online because I’m sure it just sits back there as a high-demand facility,” Shaw said. “Well, high-demand periods are typically in summer, right? They’re not in

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ON ITS OWN: The Mills River plant, opened in the late 1990s as a supplemental water source for Asheville, had been offline for much of 2022. The North Fork Reservoir, pictured, in Black Mountain and Bee Tree Reservoir in Swannanoa can easily meet the city’s needs. Photo by Adam McMillan

the winter, so it never even crossed their mind if they had a water main break that they may need to bring this facility online.”

WATER LEAKS ALL THE TIME, BUT ASHEVILLE’S RATE IS HIGH

All water systems have leaks on a regular basis, but Asheville’s water loss over the years — one-quarter of the water produced — has been unusually high since the 1990s, Shaw said.

It’s actually about the same or a little worse today. The city has worked on improvements for decades now, and water loss in January 2022 stood at about 6 million gallons a day, down from 7 million daily in January 2008, according to city data.

But that’s still nearly 27% of the water produced being lost.

“It may seem more complex to someone who’s not in the industry, but elevation changes are something that is part of pretty much any water distribution facility with any topography that’s not flat,” Shaw said. “We deal with that all the time. It’s just a matter of managing your transmission systems, your pressure regulating systems. All that is done as a matter of standard operations in the industry.”

That 30% water loss figure is high, Shaw emphasized.

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In a 2015 press release, the city touted the issuance of $55 million in “green bonds” (from eco-friendly financial investments) to finance multiple watershed and water service protection projects. Steve Shoaf, then the water resources director, said mountainous topography causes water management challenges here, including unusually high water pressure, which can result in high water loss, sometimes around 30%.

“While it’s not an unusually high percentage in a mountainous area, the city is working to limit that loss,” the press release stated, noting valve replacements and enhanced water tanks were among the targets.

Melton has also said Asheville’s water system is unusually complicated.

Asked if Asheville’s water system was unusually complex because of its elevation changes and high pressures, Shaw said, “Meh.”

While experts disagree, with some saying 30% is common, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states, “National studies indicate that, on average, 14% of the water treated by water systems is lost to leaks. Some water systems have reported water losses exceeding 60%. Accounting for water and minimizing water loss are critical functions for any water utility that wants to be sustainable.”

The city’s release noted “some money” from the bonds went to replace failing waterlines, “so we’re getting the water from point A to point B with fewer leaks,” Shoaf said.

In the recent crisis, one leak was a major factor: a city waterline along Caribou Road near Sweeten Creek Road broke, spewing about 4.5 million gallons of water a day into the ground.

Woody and Melton also said water restoration, once Mills River did get running, was much more complicated than anticipated, in part because of varying pressurization in the system that required slow recharging of lines. But they also said decisions made at the time made sense.

“This is obvious, I think, but I don’t think that on the night of the 26th that we anticipated a prolonged water outage,” Woody said. “So, I think you have to create context around some of the decisions that were made.”

‘WE’RE GOING TO DO BETTER’

One complicating factor is the high pressure of water coming from the North Fork Reservoir in Black Mountain. Melton said restoring service to the south with water from North Fork was problematic because the higher pressure could cause serious issues with pipes and pumps in the south, so they had to go slow.

When restoring water to the western part of the service sector, in the Candler area, Water Resources ran into another complicating factor: A city-owned pump to get the water there wasn’t powerful enough.

“Actually, on the 26th we deployed our portable pump that we own,” Melton said. “Around the evening of the 27th, we noticed the western Buncombe County tanks weren’t recovering like we had hoped. So, at that point, staff began putting together the specs for the pump we needed. So, it was actually here in two days.”

The pump had to come from Charlotte.

Woody said the Independent Review Committee appointed by City Council to review the water outage, after its analysis, “may come back and say, ‘You should have two big pumps.’ Right? Or they may say, ’Yeah, I don’t know.”

He stressed that the city’s water workers are “very prideful” and strive to keep the water flowing.

“They want to be successful and they’re going to work probably, I think, twice as hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Woody said. “Now, could something bad happen again in three weeks? Yes, we can never say never. But I want to emphasize that I think we are going to learn from what happened and we’re going to do better.”

Watchdog reporter Sally Kestin contributed to this article.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at 828-337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog. org.  X

Buncombe sets goals for state lobbyists

Legislating change at the N.C. General Assembly, says Trafton Dinwiddie , is all about “the art of the possible.” During a Jan. 30 special meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, he and fellow Ward and Smith lobbyist Whitney Campbell Christensen spent some time painting what the county might feasibly hope to accomplish in Raleigh this year.

Buncombe first hired Ward and Smith last May, agreeing to pay the firm $72,000 annually to advocate for the county’s interests at the state legislature. The Jan. 30 gathering at the DoubleTree hotel in Biltmore Village marked the first extended public discussion of the lobbyists’ work since that contract was inked.

The legislative agenda the county seeks to pursue in 2023 can be divided into appropriations requests and policy changes. Topping the first category, said Christensen, was extra funding for state employees, particularly those working in K-12 and community college education.

Although education groups, both at the state level and in Buncombe, have long pushed for higher salaries for teachers and support staff, Christensen said the “novelty of a county coming out with this as a top goal” could help push lawmakers to include those raises in the state budget.

Other priorities included money to improve water quality in the French Broad River, support for the Innovations Waiver program (which provides community-based care for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities) and funding for McCormick Field. Regarding the last item, Christensen said lob-

byists with Major League Baseball had been advocating at the General Assembly over the past year to promote a state-funded grant program for minor league facilities throughout North Carolina.

“[Former Republican state Sen. Chuck ] Edwards worked really hard on this last session and really had that funding within a hair of being included in the budget,” Christensen said about the baseball grants. “In fact, leading up to budget day, I think we all were pretty confident it was going to be in there. So, we have reason to believe that we’ll have appropriations support.”

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On the policy side of the agenda, Buncombe will continue to fight against any legislation that would limit its power to make rules around short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. Although STRs are now allowed nearly anywhere in unincorporated areas of the county, and Board of Commissioners Chair Brownie Newman said commissioners have no intent “to ban or get rid of” the practice, the board wants to retain authority for future regulatory changes.

Christensen said Buncombe’s lobbyists were in regular contact with those working for the STR industry; she added that “the county was complimented for how reasonable it was” in backroom talks about the issue last year. She said those industry lobbyists plan to work toward limiting local government power again this session.

Buncombe will ask state leaders “to evaluate methods to modernize N.C. House Occupancy Tax guidelines to meet the evolving visitation and infrastructure needs of Buncombe County.” Last year, the General Assembly shifted how the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority must manage those tax proceeds: A third must now be used for tourism capital projects and maintenance, up from 25%, with the remainder used for advertising.

Speaking with Xpress after the meeting, Christensen counted that change as Ward and Smith’s biggest achievement last year, saying that lobbyists had to overcome unexpected resistance from House Republicans. But because the new tax arrangement is at the limits of what House guidelines authorize, she continued, shifting more money away from advertising will require a longer-term approach.

The county will also request that the state study ways to give permanent North Carolina residents property tax relief. Although Buncombe has explored ideas like differential tax rates for primary and secondary residences, Newman explained, many proposals currently face legal obstacles. “It’s such a complex issue, we didn’t feel like endorsing a particular solution at this point was the right way to go,” he said.

Despite the substantial docket, Dinwiddie said, the legislative agenda represented only half of what Ward and Smith would do in the coming year. “The other 50% is playing defense against things we don’t know about — and definitely can’t support,” he said.

The full legislative agenda is available online at avl.mx/cdg.

— Daniel Walton X

PLAYING DEFENSE: Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Brownie Newman, second from left, said the county hopes to fight off legislation that would limit its ability to regulate short-term rentals.

Photo by Daniel Walton

‘Blended learning’ here to stay in Buncombe County Schools

A combination of online and in-person learning proved instrumental to keeping students engaged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But even as the U.S. prepares to end its pandemic emergency declarations in May, the educational strategy known as “blended learning” is here to stay in Buncombe County Schools.

Janet Frazier, the school system’s media technology specialist, presented on the topic to members of the Buncombe County Board of Education Feb. 2. She explained that even prior to the pandemic, BCS had begun incorporating more technology for both staff and students, such as learning management systems like Canvas, Seesaw and Google Classroom. The school system’s technology specialists had also been educating teachers and other staff members on blended learning strategies.

Back then, Frazier explained, blended learning “happened in pockets” throughout the school system. “As digital learning facilitators taught, co-taught and collaborated, the readiness varied from teacher to teacher, but it was definitely growing,” Frazier said.

When COVID-19 arrived in the spring of 2020, Frazier continued, that professional development and familiarity with new tools paid off. “With the background that our teachers had from the diligent work of the technology team, we were able to prepare our educators in two short days,” she said.

Blended learning devices have now become fully integrated in county classrooms. The new tools, Frazier said, help students access content or share their voices.

“There is a sense of independence that students gained by using the device to take ownership of their own learning. We are able to reach students where they are, and co-teaching and collaboration are the new norm,” she said.

Members of the school board praised the BCS information and technology department for its efforts.

“I really appreciate all of the work that was done, especially during the pandemic, because y’all were key in providing safe learning environments for our students. And we were

more than just one step, we were steps and steps and steps beyond so many [school districts] in the state, in the country,” said board member Amy Churchill. “I truly do believe that y’all were instrumental in keeping this community going and safe during that difficult time.”

COMMENTERS PRAISE FCCLA, EXPRESS COVID CONCERNS

During public comment, parent Nyssa Rayne urged board mem-

bers to return to COVID-19 mitigation protocols, including testing and offering masks amid what she said was an ongoing pandemic. Masks were made optional for BCS students and staff at the end of last February.

“Students that are immunocompromised [or who] have family members with cancer, they can’t get COVID. They can’t afford to get it. That’s a death sentence for their family members,” Rayne said. “Y’all put forth some of the strongest COVID safety measures nationwide, and you had a return to school plan which had off-ramps and on-ramps for community spread. Please, let’s go back to that. COVID is not over.”

Three students also spoke about their involvement with the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, a national career and technical student nonprofit that helps students expand their leadership potential and develop life skills. The program is offered in Buncombe County Schools.

February is Career and Technical Education Month, noted T.C. Roberson High School student Logan Davis.

“In only just a year of my term, I have learned several leadership skills such as public speaking, responsibility, decision making, problem solving and teamwork. The most essential skill for this position is teamwork,” Davis said. “I will forever have a special place in my heart for career technical education because of the opportunity I was given. Thank you for supporting [career and technical education] and career and technical student organizations.”

— Brooke Randle X

HIGH-TECH HOMEWORK: Blended learning strategies, such as the use of education management systems like Canvas, Seesaw and Google Classroom, have become fully integrated in county classrooms. Photo by iStock

What can Chuck Edwards do for you?

Rep. Chuck Edwards began his term serving Western North Carolina in the U.S. House on Jan. 3. As part of his efforts to fulfill campaign promises, the District 11 Republican has made a running start in providing a variety of constituent services.

Constituent services are offered by all congressional offices to assist those who live in their districts. Whether it be through referrals to federal agencies, Social Security or veterans benefit applications, internships, business grants or policy concerns, Edwards and his staff say they’re ready to help WNC residents.

Those efforts faced initial challenges when Madison Cawthorn, Edwards’ Republican predecessor, failed to pass along his files of existing cases before leaving office. But Edwards is hopeful for the future, as dozens of constituents with open cases under Cawthorn have already reached out to continue the process.

Xpress spoke with Edwards in the latest installment of our “WTF?” feature — Want the Facts — to learn more about what his office can provide, how residents can reach out and what his goals are for constituent service.

WHAT CONSTITUENT SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE?

The most common services are referrals to federal agencies. For example, parents looking for information on how to apply for financial aid on behalf of their students may contact Edwards’ office, and his staff would answer any questions before steering them to the U.S. Department of Education’s student aid resources.

Due to the popularity of WNC as a retirement destination, Edwards says, most casework in the district involves applications for Social Security, veterans benefits, Medicare and obtaining missing payments from federal agencies.

“We get a lot of veterans that are contacting us because they’ve had a tough time accessing veterans benefits. For example, we just finished a 15-county tour that began

READY TO SERVE: Republican Chuck Edwards, recently elected to represent Western North Carolina in the U.S. House, says he is committed to providing the best constituent services possible for the region. Photo courtesy of Aesthetic Images Photography

at the [Charles George Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center] in Asheville,” Edwards says. “There were a number of veterans that knew we were going to be there that met us at that hospital to share some casework concerns that they had, some new and some ongoing.”

Congressional offices also assist with immigration matters, offer internships for students, write U.S. service academy nominations, vet applications for Capitol tours and gallery passes, and listen to any policy concerns.

HOW CAN CONSTITUENTS ACCESS SERVICES?

“All you have to do is call my D.C. office or my Hendersonville district office, and you’ll be connected with very capable, competent people that are equipped to handle almost any issue,” says Edwards.

Edwards’ Washington office can be reached at 202-225-6401, and the Hendersonville district office number is 828-435-7310. Questions or con-

cerns can also be submitted online at Edwards.House.Gov.

WHO HANDLES CONSTITUENT SERVICE CASES?

Edwards says he’s determined to be the face of his constituent service efforts, but he has been busy building his staff since his victory over Cawthorn in November. On Nov. 14, he issued a press release announcing his appointment of Bronwyn Lance as chief of staff, the first woman to hold that position in District 11. He has also brought on Chris Burns as his Hendersonville-based district director.

Lance will manage the day-to-day operations of Edwards’ office, as well as serve as a liaison between him and his constituents. She brings decades of experience in government and nonprofit organizations to her new role, including time working for former District 11 Republican Charles Taylor. Burns will be responsible for overseeing the district office, helping constituents with issues and coordinating with local elected officials. He is a Hendersonville native, president of the Summit Marketing Group and co-founder of the Friends of the Ecusta Trail.

WHAT ARE EDWARDS’ GOALS FOR CONSTITUENT SERVICES?

Since being elected to the N.C. Senate in 2016, Edwards says he has worked to make sure that he is accessible to his constituents. When asked about his goals for the term, Edwards says he hopes “to be available, to listen and to have a team that is passionate about serving the people.”

Edwards says he is committed to providing the best constituent services possible and has already begun working with his staff to create a more efficient system for handling requests. He encourages constituents to reach out with their concerns by phone or email and says he’s willing to have one-on-one meetings whenever possible. He also plans to host virtual town hall meetings to better understand the needs of constituents.

“I’m a common working man from Western North Carolina that has figured out how to live the American dream,” says Edwards. “I very much want to help improve the lives of other folks living in Western North Carolina.”

Q&A: Local scholar discusses her work with NASA’s latest moon mission

When speaking with her students, Amy Fagan, an assistant professor of geology at Western Carolina University, often reminds them that things don’t always go according to plan.

While in graduate school at the University of Notre Dame, her initial studies focused on the impact that craters and volcanoes have on the surface of Mars. But when her adviser left the university, Fagan found new guidance from Clive Neal, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and Earth sciences. He introduced her to the study of rock compositions on the moon.

“I’d never considered the moon until I was forced to not do Mars,” Fagan says. “But it’s great, and I’ve never looked back.”

In October, Fagan participated in a NASA moonwalking test mission. After spending the summer suggesting pathways and deciding on the necessary samples and tests, she and fellow geology experts watched from Houston as astronauts followed the team’s carefully laid plan at the S P Crater, a cinder cone volcano 25 miles north of Flagstaff, Ariz.

The work is in preparation for Artemis III, which intends to land NASA astronauts on the moon’s south pole in 2025. Along with exploring previously uncharted terrain, the expedition promises to include both the first woman and the first person of color on the Earth’s natural satellite.

On Jan. 25, NASA announced its request for proposals for teams to work on the live mission. Fagan is already in the midst of filing her paperwork.

Xpress sat down with Fagan to discuss the importance of lunar geology, what happens on a test mission and the historical impact of putting a woman on the moon.

Xpress : What would you say is the biggest difference between lunar geology and the geology of Earth?

Fagan: Plate tectonics. The rocks that we have here on Earth are actually younger than what we have on the moon because they’ve mostly been destroyed and recycled by plate tectonics. We don’t have that on the moon. So, if we want to know the very ancient history of Earth, especially in terms of things hitting

the earth — asteroids and things like that — we actually want to look for that evidence on the moon. It doesn’t exist here on Earth. It’s gone. It’s wiped away, but it’s preserved on the moon.

Talk to me about this moonwalking test mission.

The team started working together virtually over the summer. We were given our “landing site” and a 2-kilometer radius around the landing site — that’s your “exploration zone.” From that, we decided what science we wanted to achieve and then got narrower to discover the goals and then the specific objectives that we wanted to achieve while we’re out there.

We’ve all had enough training with looking at imagery on other planetary surfaces that we can start to recognize certain features and then make hypotheses about what those features are. So, something that might be a stream, something that might be a fault, something that’s probably a volcano. It’s pattern recognition. We started locating where in that exploration zone we thought we could achieve our objectives. Then that information was fed to some folks at NASA, and they developed the pathways that the crew was going to walk.

Were there any other aspects of the work that might surprise people?

Another thing that we did was determine what types of samples we wanted to collect. In addition to big chunks of rock that the crew was picking up, we also had drive tubes, which the Apollo crew had as well. It’s a tube that you whack into the ground, cap it and pull out a core of the ground. There’s lots of drive tubes from the Apollo days, and we expect that they will do that for Artemis.

What was the overall size of the crew?

We had two astronauts out in Arizona, and there were two of us out in the field with them. The rest of us were in the science evaluation room in Houston, watching the video and listening to the audio feed of what they were doing.

What we discovered is that things did not go to plan. Like most things in life, we had to make adjustments. We had to work in real time and keep track of how well we were doing in terms of addressing our science goals, collecting samples, getting the imagery that we needed, trying to track the crew.

What are some of the specific challenges of the latest mission?

The Artemis III exploration zone is at the south pole of the Moon. It gets very little light in some of the areas, and even where it does get light — because it has such a heavily cratered terrain — there’s a lot of areas where the sun gets blocked. Extreme shadows can occur. We had to mimic that environment by doing night operations. NASA brought in a big light and referred to it as an artificial sun. Since the crew was working at night out in Arizona, we were also working from 9 o’clock at night to 2 or 3 in the morning.

How do you feel about working on this mission, which will eventually put a woman on the moon?

In terms of there being the first woman on the moon, I think my biggest excitement is for the kids. I never really thought much about the fact that it was all men that did [Project] Mercury and [Project] Gemini and [Project] Apollo. It was just the way it was.

The first time I went to a school and I was talking to kids about Apollo, a little girl asked why were there no girl astronauts. That’s a natural question for a little girl to ask before you’ve learned the rules of society. As we get older, we become more accepting about the societal order, but kids are honest. Sometimes you don’t even realize that something is weird until a kid mentions it.

So, I think this mission is going to inspire a lot of kids, and not just little girls but all the kids when they can see that anybody can do this. I mean, you have to go to school and work hard, but you’re not automatically eliminated because you look a certain way.

What excites you most about the project?

We are living in a really exciting time for the moon. When I talk to people in an older generation that remember Apollo, their faces light up because they remember what it was like when Apollo 11 launched. They remember where they were, they remember who they were with and how much excitement there was.

I don’t have that. That’s something I’m really looking forward to — having that excitement inside my soul, an excitement that I’m sharing with a lot of other people, and not just people who are weird like me and do this for their career. I want to be able to feel that kind of full community excitement, and it’s coming. I hope that decades from now I can look back on the Artemis III launch and have that same look on my face that older people do now when I talk to them about Apollo 11. It’s going to be awesome.

TALKING SPACE: Amy Fagan, left, speaks with R. Aileen Yingst, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Photo courtesy of NASA

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

FEBRUARY

8 - 16, 2023

For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, opt. 1.

 Online-only events

 Feature, pages 24-25

 More info, pages 28, 30

 More info, pages 32-33

WELLNESS

Sparkle Time Holistic

Exercise

Aerobic strengthening, balance and flexibility.

WE (2/8, 15), MO (2/13), 10:30am, Avery’s Creek Community Center, 899 Glenn Bridge Rd

Tai Chi for Balance

A gentle exercise class to help improve balance, mobility, and quality of life.

WE (2/8, 15), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave

Tai Chi for Beginners

Tai Chi for all ages and abilities. Yang 10 and 24 forms along with Qigong Exercises

TH (2/9, 16), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave

Asheville Aphasia

Support Group

Every Friday in Rm 345.

No RSVP needed.

FR (2/10), 10am, WCU at Biltmore Park, 28 Schenck Pkwy

Yoga for Everyone

For all ages and abilities. Instructors are trained to facilitate classes for people standing, or in a chair. Classes are in English, instructor can speak Spanish if needed. Bring your own mat, water bottle and mask.

Registration required.

SA (2/11), 9:30am, Black Mountain Presbyterian, 117 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Magnetic Minds:

Depression/Bipolar

Support Group

Weekly peer-led meeting for those living with depression, bipolar, and related mental health challenges. Email depressionbipolarasheville@ gmail.com or call or text (828)367-7660 for more info.

SA (2/11), 2pm, 1316

Ste C Parkwood Rd

Yoga for Balance and Bones

In this workshop assess your balance and risk of falling, practice strength and mobility movements, cultivate breathing and

mindfulness practices to support balance, connect with your systems needed to balance, and leave with a path forward for healthy neuromuscular aging.

SA (2/11), 3pm, Black Mountain Yoga Center, 116 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Wild Souls Authentic Movement Class

A conscious movement experience in a 100-year old building with a community of women at all life stages.

SU (2/12), 9am, Dunn's Rock Community Center, 461 Connestee Rd, Brevard

Yoga Taco Mosa

Honor one another in practice led by Clare Desmelik, followed by tacos and mimosas in the taqueria.

SU (2/12), 10:30am, The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave

Winter Flow

This class is designed to build heat in the body and release excess kapha during the winter.

SU (2/12), 11am, One World Brewing West, 520 Haywood Rd

Medical Qigong

Includes the original Qigong sets, Five Animal Frolics, the Eight Silk Brocades, and QuanYin Qigong.

TU (2/14), 9am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave

Ben's Friends

Offering supportive community to food and beverage industry professionals struggling with addiction and substance abuse. Every Tuesday.

TU (2/14), 10am, Avenue M, 791 Merrimon Ave

Grief Keening Circle

Discussion of loss and grief with a period of music and silence, followed by an open group conversation.

WE (2/15), 8pm, Vintage Kava, 141 Reems Creek Rd

STARRY, STARRY NIGHT: The Astronomy Club of Asheville will hold a star gaze on Friday, Feb. 10, at Grassland Mountain Observatory in Madison County. The semimonthly event, which is free and open to the pubic, begins as the sun is setting. Gates will open at 5 p.m. Photo courtesy of Astronomy Club of Asheville

Nar-Anon Family Group Meeting

Weekly meeting for family and friends of addicts. Use Door C. TH (2/16), 7pm, 1316D Patton Ave

Narcotics Anonymous Meetings

Visit wncna.org/ basic-meeting for dates, times and locations.

ART

Smoky Mountain Impressions

Featuring works on of the Great Smoky Mountains by four new gallery members: Gail Drozd, Patricia Hargrove, Natalie Ray and Christine Schlageter. Open daily 11am, exhibition runs through Feb. 28.

Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Ave

Courtney M. Leonard - BREACH: Logbook23

| Coriolis

Exploring cultural and historical connections to water, fishing practices, and sustainability. Created by Shinnecock Nation ceramic artist Courtney M. Leonard as part of her BREACH series, the installation is a response to the artist’s research in Western North Carolina. Open Tuesday through Friday, 10am.

WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee

Reception for Courtney M. Leonard - BREACH: Logbook23 | Coriolis

This event will include a gallery talk by Courtney M. Leonard, along with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks. Free parking is available.

TH (2/16), 5pm, WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee Night/Visionary

A five-person exhibition featuring contemplative works on paper, panel and canvas by Josephine Close, Renato Órdenes San Martín, Kyung Soon Park, Christina Haglid and Eli McMullen. Through Feb. 26. Open Tuesday through Saturday 10am and Sunday 11am.

Tyger Tyger Gallery, 191 Lyman St

Art in the Heart: A Speculative Moment

An installation of a transparent, nine-foottall obelisk that will be filled with swirling fog that will slowly disperse into the atmosphere through small holes in the top of the obelisk. Text and images from interviews with Asheville youth and leaders will be projected onto the fog that represent what a monument could possibly be and say in 2523.

SA (2/11), 6:30pm, Pack Square Park Sherrill Roland: Sugar, Water, Lemon Squeeze Through sculpture, installation, and

conceptual art, Roland engages visitors in dialogues around community, social contract, identity, biases, and other deeply human experiences. Open 11am, closed Tuesdays. Through Mar. 20. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

COMMUNITY MUSIC

Performance: Vijay Iyer Multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” composer-pianist Vijay Iyer is one of the leading music-makers of his generation.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

Zoe and Cloyd

The duo's innovative “klezgrass” music springs from the rich traditions and complementary styles of fiddler/vocalist Natalya Zoe Weinstein and multi-instrumentalist/ vocalist John Cloyd Miller.

SA (2/11), 7pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain An Evening with Free Planet Radio and Chinobay Asheville’s acclaimed global-jazz duo, Free Planet Radio, partners with Ugandan musician, activist, and ambas-

sador, Chinobay, for an evening of musical fusion.

SA (2/11), 7:30pm, Ayurprana Music and Arts Center (formerly Ambrose West), 312 Haywood Rd

The Gesualdo Six All-male vocal group with one each of countertenor and baritone, and two of tenor and bass.

TH (2/16), 7:30pm, Brevard Music Center, 349 Andante Ln, Brevard

LITERARY

Poetry Open Mic

With host Caleb Beissert. All forms of entertainment welcome.

WE (2/8, 15), 8pm, Sovereign Kava, 268 Biltmore Ave

Raising Black: Joy, Pain, Sunshine & Rain

A collection of poetry, skits amd monologues exploring life while examining the state of our relationships to friends, family, community and faith.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Story Parlor, 227 Haywood Rd

Poetry Open Mic Hendo

A poetry-centered open mic that welcomes all kinds of performers every Thursday. Performances must be no longer than ten minutes. 18+

TH (2/9, 16), 7:30pm, Shakedown Lounge, 706 Seventh Ave E, Hendersonville

Shut Up and Write

Write silently with the group, followed by socializing. MO (2/13), 2pm, Dripolator, 909 Smokey Park Hwy

THEATER & FILM

North Carolina Stage Company presents Every Brilliant Thing

Based on true and untrue stories and told with the help of the audience, a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life. Various dates and times through Feb. 26. North Carolina Stage Company, 15 Stage Ln

A John Waters Christmas in Febuary "The Pope of Trash" and creator of movies such as Hairspray and Pecker will perform.

TH (2/9), 8pm, Wortham Center For The Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House

A re-imagination of events the night before Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, when he is mysteriously visited by Uncle Tom, the fictional character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, through

Feb. 18; also 3pm on Feb. 19. Presented by Diffrent Strokes Performing Arts Collective. Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

Calendar Girls

Based on the Miramax motion picture by Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth, the true story of eleven middle-aged women who famously posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukemia Research Fund in 1999. Various dates and times through Feb. 19. Hendersonville Theatre, 229 S Washington St, Hendersonville

HappyLand

A musical written by Brayden Dickerson and Zach Knox and directedby Jason Phillip. Various dates and times through Feb. 25. See p32-33 The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depost St Music Movie Mondays with Bill Kopp: Wattstax Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Wattstax concert film. Co-hosted by author, speaker and music journalist Bill Kopp and former Motown staff writer Sidney Barnes, the evening will feature a screening of the film followed by an interactive discussion. MO (2/13), 7:30pm, Grail Moviehouse, 17 Foundy St

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

A.R. Gurney's Love Letters

Dreamweavers Theatre presents an intimate reader's theater performance of this timeless romantic play comprised of letters exchanged over a lifetime between two people who grew up together, went their separate ways, but continued to share confidences.

TU (2/14), 7pm, Lake Louise Community Center, 60 Lakeshore Dr, Weaverville

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Dancing the line between drag and ballet, the divas and cavaliers of this all-male company blend their expert knowledge of ballet with a comic approach. See p33

TU (2/14) & WE (2/15), 8pm, Wortham Center For The Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

Harold and Maude

A Valentine’s Day showing of the classic love story.

TU (2/14), 9:15pm, Grail Moviehouse, 17 Foundy St

Native Gardens New neighbors in Washington, D.C. become embroiled in a property ine dispute.

Fridays and Saturdays

7:30pm and Sundays 2:30pm, through Feb. 26. See p24-25 Asheville Community Theatre, 35 E Walnut St

MEETINGS & PROGRAMS

Wireless Wisdom for Safer Internet Connections Community forum on electromagnetic fields (EMF) sponsored by SafeTech NC.

WE (2/8), 7pm, Online, visit avl.mx/ccu

Psychedelic Community Meet and Greet

Learn about experiencing legal, psychoactive plant medicines and get to know other members of the psychedelic community.

TH (2/9), 6pm, Vintage Kava, 141 Reems Creek Rd, Weaverville

Southside Card Game Night Families and community members can play card games like bid whist/spades, Apples to Apples, Uno, and more. Light refreshments served.

TH (2/9, 16), 6pm, Dr Wesley Grant Sr Southside Center, 285 Livingston St

Cocktail Classes: Stirred, Not Shaken Take a deep-dive into classic stirred martinis: from the dry to the dirty.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Oak and Grist Distilling Company, 1556 Grovestone Rd, Black Mountain

Valentine's Burlesque Dance Class

During these classes, you will learn and get to know the basics of classic burlesque dance as well as perfecting a dance routine.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain

Introduction to Medicare: Understanding the Puzzle

The class will explain how Medicare works, the enrollment process, how to avoid penalties, and ways to save money. To register, visit the Council on Aging of Buncombe County’s website or call (828)277-8288.

FR (2/10), 2pm, Online, visit avl.mx/9hz

Paint Your Own Vase

To reserve your place, call the shop (828)333-1884. Kids welcome, and must be accompanied by an adult.

FR (2/10), 4pm, Sarah Sunshine Pottery, 118 Beech St, Black Mountain

Star Gaze

Free and open to the public, by the Astronomy Club of Asheville. Visit avl.mx/cdp for details.

FR (2/10), 5pm, Grassland Mountain Observatory, 2890 Grassland Parkway

Galentine's Polymer

Clay Workshop

Make heart-shaped earrings or a necklace using a “Klimt Cane" at this beginner’s class. No experience is necessary.

FR (2/10), 5:30pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain

Relational Artistry: Essential Skills for Meaningful Connections

These meetings are designed to help cultivate intimacy skills in a variety of contexts. Through play, learn and practice these different skills: boundaries and consent, emotional IQ and responsibility, nonviolent communication, social meditation, sensitivity training and more.

FR (2/10), 6:15pm, Mountain Magic Studio, 3 Louisiana Ave Building Racial Equity in Land, Food, and Health Systems

This training is geared toward community leaders, educators, and people working in the food system. Participants will learn about best practices and challenges around engaging racial equity personally, institutionally, and culturally.

SA (2/11), Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center, 382 Pleasant Hill Rd

Sex Magic: The History & Practice

Learn practical tools to create deep connection to your higher self and between you and your partner through your sexual energy.

18+

SA (2/11), 10am, Mountain Magic Studio, 3 Louisiana Ave

Terrarium Workshop: A Fun Valentine Make & Take

Build a terrarium using three 2” plants of your choice, a variety of mosses, rocks and pebbles, soil, and other materials. All materials for one terrarium (except container) included in workshop fee. All ages welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

SA (2/11), 10am, Reems Creek Nursery, 76 Monticello Rd, Weaverville

Sanctuary Saturdays

Join others in the community for a free hot lunch in a warm and safe setting. Use the restroom, charge your phone, be part of a conversation, play cards, rest - all are welcome.

SA (2/11), 11am, First Presbyterian Church Asheville, 40 Church St

Hidden in Plain Sight

Story Time: Black History of Asheville and its People Community elders will share personal experiences and memories, from struggles and triumphs to the impact of African American businesses and cultural institutions.

SA (2/11), 2pm, Grind AVL, 346 Depot St Mock-Tail Happy Hour

Taste a variety of alternative, functional and non-alcoholic beverages for mindful drinkers and the sober curious.

SA (2/11), 2pm, East Acupuncture Wellness Boutique, 2296 US 70, Swannanoa

Workshop: Characterization and the Body

In this workshop, acting coach, director and performer Jamie Knox will lead you through a series of exercises to make your work more physically dynamic, prepare for giving a memorable audition, approach a character from the outside in, and more.

SA (2/11), 2pm, The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depot St

Painting with the Animals

A step-by-step instruction painting of Scruff, the center's Great Horned Owl. Ticket price includes admission to the park. SU (2/12), 10am, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd

Don't Watch the Super Bowl Competitive SportsThemed Trivia, Wipe Out Dexterity Challenge, and more. SU (2/12), 10:30am, Well Played, 162 Coxe Ave

Cooperate WNC

February 2023 Mutual Aid Roadshow

Learning gatherings for sharing resources and increasing knowledge of mutual aid and cooperative practices, while creating and strengthening relationships in the WNC community.

SU (2/12), 1pm, Christmount Christian Assembly, 222 Fern Way, Black Mountain Puppy Bowl with MPR and Ruff Life Adoptable puppies will take the field.

SU (2/12), 1pm, Down Dog, 51 Sweeten Creek Rd

Sew Co./Rite of Passage Factory Tour

On this 30 minute micro-tour, you will learn about the company’s sustainable and transparent business practices and hear about production processes and client collaborations.

MO (2/13), 11am, Rite of Passage Clothing & SewCo, 240 Clingman Ave Ext

Cham-painting with the Animals Start off with a champagne toast (non-alcoholic options also available) before doing a step-by-step creative painting of one of the center's black bears. Participants can bring their own alcoholic beverages to this event. IDs will be checked.

MO (2/13), 6pm, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd

Valentine's Day Games

Two-player games will be set up with Game Masters on hand to teach you how to play.

TU (2/14), 7pm, Well Played, 162 Coxe Ave

Sewing Club

Bring your machine or borrow one and be taught how to use it.

WE (2/15), 5:30pm, The Burger Bar, 1 Craven St

WNC, Past and Present: The African American Experience in the Smokies: Making the Invisible Visible Participants will learn the long-standing history of African American culture in the region through free and enslaved peoples interactions with early white settlers. Also, participants will look at the documentation of African American burials in and around the GSMNP and how the AAESP is using these burials to shed light on the lives of

African Americans in the area.

TH (2/16), 6pm, Black Mountain Library, 105 N Dougherty St, Black Mountain

LOCAL MARKETS

RAD Farmers Market

Winter Season

Providing year-round access to fresh local foods. Handicap parking available in the Smoky Park lot, free public parking available along Riverside Drive. Also accessible by foot, bike, or rollerblade via the Wilma Dykeman Greenway.

WE (2/8, 15), 3pm, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr

Heart of Winter Pop Up Market

A curated selection of area vendors.

SA (2/11), 1pm, Origins Marketplace, 126 Swannanoa River Rd

Carolina Ground

Valentine's Pop-up Market

Flours and flowers, as well as breads and pastries, coffee, hot chocolate, honey, sorghum, jam, eggs, botanical dyed yarns, books, and more. See p28

SU (2/12), 11am,

Carolina Ground, 1237 Shipp St, Hendersonville Weaverville Tailgate Market

Vendors from WNC sell their locally raised meats, veggies and fruits, cheese, herbal products, jams, jellies, pickles, baked goods, sourdough breads, drinks and more.

WE (2/8, 15), 3pm, 60 Lake Shore Dr

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS

NC High School Rodeo

Battle of the Blue Ridge multi-state rodeo, presented by the NC High School Rodeo Association.

TH (2/9) - SU (2/12), WNC Agricultural Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd

Cupid is Stupid Hammer out your frustrations and also get a chance to “hex your ex.” See p28 SU (2/12), 8pm, Hi-Wire Brewing, 2A Huntsman Pl

2023 Valentine Greenway Challenge

Overall winners for the 5K and 10K will be awarded prizes, along with the top finishers in each age

category. Participants are also encouraged to dress up for a chance to win one of four spirit awards. All sponsorships, donations, and 50% of registration fees will be donated back to the Black Mountain Greenways and Trails Committee.

SA (2/11), 2pm, Black Mountain Recreation and Parks, 304 Black Mountain Ave, Black Mountain

LOVEaversary

A five year celebration with DJ Selector B and tarot reading.

TU (2/14), 4pm, Bottle Riot, 37 Paynes Way

Valentine’s Day Wine

+ Chocolate Tasting

An educational program presenting locally made chocolate paired with wine. See p28

TU (2/14), 8pm, French Broad Chocolates

Factory & Cafe, 821 Riverside Dr

Valentine's Day

"Fake as Hell" Mass Wedding

You can "fake as hell" marry your sweetie, your leather jacket, your boyfriend's dog or whoever and whatever you want. See p28, 30

TU (2/14), 8pm, Fleetwood's, 496 Haywood Rd

Galentine’s Charcuterie Workshop

Learn how to arrange meats and cheeses.

See p30

TH (2/16), 6:30pm, Ginger’s Revenge South Slope, 32 Banks Ave

BENEFITS & VOLUNTEERING

Bullets and Bandaids

The traveling exhibit features artwork and storytelling by over 40 veterans. See p32

TH (2/9), 5pm, One World Brewing West, 520 Haywood Rd

East Fork Pottery Founders Mixer

Attendees will have the opportunity to enter a raffle for special prizes. Proceeds from the raffle and ticket sales will go to community partner, Racial Justice Coalition.

TH (2/9), 6pm, East Fork Pottery, 15 W Walnut St

Junior League of Asheville Volunteer Expo

Modeled after a job fair, this free event will feature local nonprofits looking to fill ongoing and future volunteer needs. Nonprofits in almost every area of

community concern will be present at the event: health, poverty, legal aid, environmental stewardship, women’s issues, arts, civic leadership, technology, education and animal welfare.

SA (2/11), 12pm, Crowne Plaza Expo Center, 1 Resort Dr

Hot Duck Soup

Vintage jazz fundraiser for the Burnsville Lions Club.

SA (2/11), 7pm, Burnsville Town Center, 6 S Main St

Stitches of Love

Creating a variety of handmade items which are donated to local charities..

MO (2/13), 3pm, Panera Bread, 1840 Hendersonville Rd

Food Is Love: Food

Donation Drive for MANNA FoodBank

Focusing on collecting healthy, nonperishable foods for distribution to those in need in Western North Carolina. Items of need include low-sodium canned vegetables, canned tuna and chicken, low salt nuts, no sugar added fruits, shelf stable milk, whole grain pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, canola and olive oil, peanut butter,

low sodium soups, canned and dried beans, and low sugar cereals. Collection bins will be in the Asheville Outlets food court.

Monetary donations can be made at MANNAFoodBank.org. See p30 Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Rd

Become a Volunteer Court Advocate for Children In Need

Seeking volunteers for Guardian ad Litem advocates, trained community volunteers who are appointed by a district court judge to investigate and determine the needs of abused and neglected children petitioned into the court system. Visit volunteerforgal.org or call (828)259-6603.

First Baptist Church of Asheville, 5 Oak St

Date Night with Divine

Interactive games and shenanigans ensue as single and coupled audience members participate in "date night" with a drag queen host. All profits go to Arms Around ASD 501c3. Admission is free, donations are encouraged. TH (2/16), 7pm, Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Hwy

Kingdom Wellness’ Detoxifying & Relaxation Ion Cleanse Foot Baths

There are more than 2000 sweat glands and 4000 pores in your feet? Detoxifying footbaths have been used in Ayurvedic & Eastern traditions for thousands of years!

Notable Benefits:

- A stronger immune system

- A reduction in chronic pain & inflammation

- Relief from the symptoms of chronic illness

- Enhanced lymphatic drainage

- Improved circulation & heart health

- Reduction of swelling in feet/ankles

- Improved digestion / nutrient absorption

BEFORE AFTER

51 College St., #1A Asheville, NC 28801 828-507-8168

kingdomharvest.com

Lonely hearts club

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

jwakeman@mountainx.com

Dating is already an endeavor of vulnerability, humility and, at times, humiliation.

For single people in Asheville, it can also be a challenge.

Inquire about the dating scene here and stories of frustration are guaranteed. Being a popular tourism destination means that the attractive guy at the concert or cute woman at the brewery might only be visiting from out of town for the night. Many people in Asheville are transplants, and the social networks that lead to organic connections might not be deep. And residents have a wide breadth of political, sexual and even dietary differences that can be tricky to reconcile.

Navigating the specific challenges of dating in Asheville doesn’t need to create so much pain and frustration, however. Amber Lavin of True Nature Counseling and Coaching, who is trained as an associate life coach with the International Coaching Federation, encourages her clients to practice mindful dating, which she says “simply means slowing down.” Mindful dating “means taking a break from the casual ‘swipe right or left culture’ and … thinking about what you truly want in a partner and reflecting on patterns and habits that may be keeping you from finding that person,” Lavin explains.

Xpress spoke with four relationship experts about strategies for dating with intention, learning about oneself first and having clarity about one’s own wants and needs.

Tips for mindful dating in Asheville

CULTIVATE SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND SELF-AWARENESS

Dating mindfully means first looking inward and being realistic about your wants, needs and abilities, rather than approaching dates with a laundry list of qualities a potential lover should fulfill.

“I talk to a lot of people about getting to know themselves,” explains Jenny Shealy , a licensed clinical social worker. “People are constantly thinking of dating as what they are looking for, which is only one aspect of it. … The more you know yourself, the better your chances of finding someone who fits with yourself.”

Ionsul Ferrin , a coach who is trained in the modalities of nonviolent communication and authentic relating, works with clients on developing “self-intimacy,” which she says requires a “self-awareness so that we can be honest with ourselves and others about how we tend to act and react.” Being mindful of reactions and the triggers to those reactions — for example, how one handles rejection — is vital. Ferrin advocates “befriending … our nervous systems, so that when we get hijacked by intense emotions, we can be more intentional about how we choose to respond.”

Ferrin says she also coaches clients on the cultivation of self-love, developing a resilience to shame and establishing firm boundaries. (“Leaky boundaries … breed resentment,” she says.) These are all skills that together form a basis of self-intimacy, she explains.

Camaraderie helps the experience feel less isolating. For the past year, Lavin has hosted a six-week mindful dating support group with six-10 women — intentionally small to maintain intimacy within the group.

“Each week we focus on a different topic to create an intentional and mindful dating life,” she explains, adding that they do meditation, writing prompts and “a deep dive talk” each week about an aspect of mindful dating.

IDENTIFY EXPECTATIONS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

Models of relationships, be they positive or negative, primarily come from caregivers and the media, says Christina Morelli, a dating and relationship coach who hosts workshops. As a result, people can have widely differing expectations for relationships; for example, that arguing all the time is normal, or never arguing at all is normal, or that relationships should only be between two people, or that monogamy is restrictive and impossible. “Relationships are complex and nuanced and require a lot of self-awareness and effort to undo what is unconsciously indoctrinated,” Morelli explains.

For two years, Morelli has hosted workshops on how to create what she calls “relationship blueprints,” which seek to clarify what relationship goals an individual might have. “For singles, the intent is to create a relationship blueprint that works for you before you jump into a relationship, increasing the chances of finding the right partner,” she explains.

For some individuals who are dating, this may mean recalibrating expectations. “Specific to Asheville, I find there is a large gap of values and beliefs,” Morelli continues. “There are many who identify as very liberal and many who identify as very conservative. I don’t mean this from

BE MINE: “Relationships are complex and nuanced and require a lot of self-awareness and effort to undo what is unconsciously indoctrinated,” says dating coach Christina Morelli, not pictured. Photo by iStock

a political aspect but from a ‘how relationships should be’ aspect.”

These polarities and the lack of middle ground makes it “more difficult for people to find compatible partners in the area because that makes a small city even smaller when we think about finding someone with similar relational values and desires,” Morelli says.

IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS

It’s a cliché that healthy relationships rely on good communication. Alas, it’s a cliché because it’s true.

Ferrin coaches clients on “conscious communication,” which she describes as “intentionally chosen communication that serves to improve the quality of all our relationships.” Conscious communication depends on developing self-intimacy, being mindful of reactions and developing boundaries.

Just as individuals are shaped by the expectations for relationships that have been modeled for them, “default ways of communicating” are learned from caregivers and culture, explains Ferrin. “Unfortunately, those ways often don’t support the kind of love and connection that we really want,” she continues. “They’re frequently based in judgment and blame, especially when it comes to navigating conflict.”

For example, Ferrin says she was raised in a family with “a lot of ugly conflict and emotional violence,” and her parents divorced when she was a teen. Years later, Ferrin witnessed those patterns of conflict reemerging in her own marriage. She wanted to model more mindful communication and conflict resolution for her children. “I sought out nonviolent communication in my 20s out of a desire to do things differently than my parents did,” she says. “And it totally changed my life.”

Effective communication also requires active listening, says Ferrin. Active listening is not just about pausing in a conversation to let the other person talk; it means communicating so both individuals feel heard and validated. Active listening can be practiced even before going on a first date.

FIGURE OUT WHAT FEELS RIGHT

Asheville is supposedly a city with liberal and accepting beliefs around gender identity and sexuality. But that isn’t actually everyone’s personal experience.

“There is a lot of shame that comes up [around sexuality],” explains Shealy, who is also a certified sex therapist. Some of the shame she encounters in clients is rooted in “religious upbringing,” she says. “A big part of a lot of people’s history is trying to figure out how their own sexuality fits into how they were raised in a church, how that fits into dating, what feels OK or where they feel shameful about what they might want,” Shealy continues. Such issues do come up “a lot more [in Asheville] than when I was in California,” she adds.

Additionally, having sex is not a part of everyone’s experience of dating. There are people who are aromantic (not having romantic feelings) or asexual (not having sexual feelings), who also need to communicate their needs and strive to have their needs met.

There are also individuals for whom mindful dating means realizing that opting out of dating is the best decision.

“We can look at connection in different ways than what we’ve been taught — that people are happiest if they have this romantic, sexual relationship,” Shealy says. “We get a lot of needs met socially through friendships. … We can find other ways to connect with people in ways that feel right.”

ACT’s ‘Native Gardens’ stokes community

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

When Bob White was hired as Asheville Community Theatre’s new artistic director in March, the nonprofit’s leadership team was asking what he describes as “big questions, organizationally and institutionally” about issues related to all three components of its name.

“I thought, ‘Why don’t we do a season that allows us to explore artistically the things that we are earnestly thinking about organizationally?’” White says. “That brought us back around to these ideas of community building and living together in community. So, every single play in our season treats that issue, that idea, in some way.”

The 2022-23 Mainstage Season began in late September with Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and was followed in December by Elf: The Musical. The latter made ACT history by becoming the first of its shows to sell out its entire run before opening night. Now, the theater presents what could be its most provocative production of the year.

SUGAR AND SALT

Latina playwright Karen Zacarías’ Native Gardens debuted in 2019. The story concerns new neighbors — a young Latino couple and an elderly white couple — in Washington, D.C., who become embroiled in a property line dispute. The show confronts issues of class, privilege, entitlement and how to communicate through conflict.

Along with themes exploring racism and property ownership, the play also explores the distinction and environmental impacts of growing plants native to an area versus curating a foreign garden.

Despite these heavy themes, the production team emphasizes that Native Gardens is not nearly as bleak as it may sound.

“I think it’s a very sweet play,” White says. “It looks hopeless. It appears frantic. It’s urgent. There’s passion. And then it works out. And I think this is what we all sort of long for.”

In the process of learning more about Asheville’s theater scene and its major players, White was introduced to Candace Taylor. The Black female director is currently artistic director of Warren Wilson College’s theater department and has helmed numerous shows across the U.S. and locally. Taylor’s history of deftly tackling difficult subject matter convinced White that she was the person to deliver Native Gardens’ particular message of hope.

“It’s a play that you can come see, be entertained and enlightened, and go to sleep easy that night,” Taylor says. “And I think it’s extremely relevant to Asheville’s current housing situation, as well as [its] native gardening [issues].”

When it came to casting Native Gardens, Taylor found a practically ideal collaborator in Meghan Marcelo to play the role of Tania, described in ACT’s show notes as “a very pregnant Ph.D. candidate.” An Asheville native, Marcelo attended law school at American University in Washington, D.C. — where she lived in a neighborhood very much like the one presented in the play.

“I feel like I’m a real-life counterpart to a lot of these characters,” Marcelo says. “Obviously, it’s theater, so the characters are heightened in a lot of specific ways. But it’s the kind of play that I think helps build resiliency in talking about difficult issues, especially since it is framed in humor. I think that’s really, really helpful, especially when talking about issues of race and bias.”

HURDLES APPROACHING

Native Gardens debuts Friday, Feb. 10, and runs through Sunday, Feb. 26. In addition to the challenges of conveying Zacarías’ subject matter in a respectful manner, the cast and crew have various other obstacles to maneuver around — sometimes literally.

“It’s got so many living elements — or apparently living elements — and they need to change during the course of the play,” Taylor says. “We have plants, then we have a rippedout garden and then we have new plants put in. So, all of that has to happen in a relatively realistic way.”

The set also features two backyards that Taylor describes as “contrasting in their beauty, but very elaborate in what’s going on in them.” Furthermore, there’s an unattractive, broken-down fence between the two properties that the characters climb over. But arguably the greatest set challenge is a large oak tree in the middle of the stage.

“How do we work that tree and get people from one side of the audience to be able to see all the way across the stage, through the tree, to the other corner?” Taylor ponders. “Things like that are a little tricky.”

White notes that ACT is fortunate to have Jill Summers as its in-house production manager, whose experience helped alleviate his concerns about the show’s technical elements while he was reading the script and imagining it on the main stage.

Even with such a firm foundation on the crew side, Marcelo wasn’t sure if she should audition for the role. Despite her personal connection to the setting and much of the material, not holding one of Tania’s core identities — Marcelo is Filipina and white, not Latina — led to what she calls “a lot of internal seeking” regarding her appropriateness for the part.

“There’s a complexity there that could also add to the conversation about the difficulties around identity and discussing it and the conflicts that arise,” Marcelo says. “I wanted

to make sure that I was able to be genuine in my portrayal of Tania as a real person with an empathy that comes from shared, if not identical, experiences.”

RESIDENTIAL RESPONSIBILITY

While theater is often meant to be provocative, White believes that community theaters have an added impetus to establish healthy dialogue within the community about complex subjects. In his first full season as artistic director, he wants everybody to be able to see themselves in a role within ACT’s productions, which he hopes will help establish a commu-

nal connection that equity theater doesn’t provide.

“The community theater is where you’re going to see your attorney, your postman, your person that you see in line at the grocery store on stage or sitting next to you in the audience,” White says. “Everything that we do in society says, ‘I go, you don’t. I belong, you can’t.’ And at the community theater — the performing arts generally, but the community theater specifically — every kind of person imaginable is needed. Not just welcomed but needed to pull it off.”

Western North Carolina is particularly blessed in this regard, and it’s part of why the area has such a robust theater scene. The Native Gardens

team agrees that the presence of such organizations in Hendersonville, Brevard, Waynesville and Burnsville, providing performance opportunities for average Janes and Joes, is essential to the long-term health of the theater community — and, in turn, the region overall.

“The ability to express oneself, the ability to be seen in that way; the fun of getting to know your neighbors and putting on costumes and doing warmup exercises and all of that is not only for one’s individual wellness but for community wellness,” Taylor says. “It’s not just sports. Sports don’t do it for me. Plays and art and those kinds of things do, and I think there’s a place for all of that.” X

Publish March 8th & 15th Reserve advertising space in these special issues today!

TUG OF WAR: From left, David Mycoff, Kathy O’Connor, Kelvin Bonilla and Meghan Marcelo star in Asheville Community Theatre’s production of Native Gardens.

Photo by Eli Cunningham

Mon: All you can eat pork ribs

Tue: Taco Tuesday (Brisket Nachos & Tacos: Brisket, Pork Belly, Chicken or Shrimp)

Wed: Wine bottles 1/2 price

mussels

‘Everything isn’t as perfect as it seems’

Poet Clint Bowman on writing about WNC

BY THOMAS CALDER

tcalder@mountainx.com

Clint Bowman , co-founder of Dark City Poets Society in Black Mountain, credits poetry as his entry point to the written word. “I’ve never been a strong reader,” he says. “So, I latched onto poetry in high school when it was the only part of English class I could fully enjoy.”

Around that time, he was introduced to poet Edna St. Vincent Millay’s works “Afternoon on a Hill” and “Buck in the Snow.” At that point, he says, “I realized I wanted to create art in this same way — by writing poetry.”

In January 2020, Bowman and fellow writer Melisa Pressely

launched Dark City Poets Society at the Black Mountain Library. Along with offering critique meetings on the first Tuesday of each month, the group also hosts a poetry reading series on the third Tuesday of each month at BAD Craft, 6-7 p.m.

“Growing up, my writing seemed to live by the Wordsworth quote that ‘poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,’” Bowman says. “I misinterpreted this as good poetry is just random good luck. Sometimes it is, but more often it takes practice to collect all those spontaneous thoughts and give them meaning. Practice for me has been reading a lot of poetry, usually out loud, and writing a little bit every day and accepting that not everything I write will be good.”

In this month’s poetry feature, we speak with Bowman about the way his work as a recreation coordinator for the town of Black Mountain informs his writing, the importance of creating a literary community and the topics that are explored by fellow local poets. Along with the conversation is Bowman’s poem, “A Real Mountain Man.”

Xpress : What inspired this piece?

Bowman: This poem was inspired by an older friend of mine who has been mentoring me in the outdoors — mostly with trail building and maintenance. Often, when we are on the trail, he’ll share his crazy stories about working out West and his run-ins with local poachers. Bits and pieces from his stories make up the majority of the poem. The image of bears running from gunshots through a neighborhood really sparked the inspiration for the poem.

Is this typical of how your poems come about? Or is this an outlier?

He knows all the illegal bear hunters this side of the divide— he watched their hounds run a momma through the neighborhood while her cubs hid in a poplar tree.

Shotgun pellets bounced off the asphalt into kitchen windows, where kids took shelter beneath the bodies of their parents. He used to track ginseng hunters up steep ravines without a gun just to show them someone was watching.

Every character he knows haunts the stories of his conscious. From his couch, he zones out between commercials on descriptions of their faces.

This time, fifty years ago, he was digging fire lines in the high Sierras.

Now he’s calling me from his retirement home to keep alive the stories full of characters he wishes were dead.

This poem came about in similar ways as my other poems. The biggest difference with this one is that the stories were inspired by someone else’s encounters. Most of my other poems piece together parts of my own environment. The pieces that stand out the most are often what inspire me to write. Those pieces could consist of places that trigger a memory, the everyday destructive habits of humans or simply a conversation with a friend. Once the poem begins with a singular image or idea, the challenge then begins to answer the question, “So what?” As in, why is this subject important enough to write about?

Could you speak more to the specific ways Western North Carolina inspires and finds its way into your work?

Absolutely, much of WNC is like a Blue Ridge Parkway overlook — you have this beautiful view in front of you but trash around your feet. Everything isn’t as perfect as it seems once you begin to focus and zoom in on the picture. In a way, both positive and negative ele-

A Real Mountain Man by Clint Bowman

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: “Much of WNC is like a Blue Ridge Parkway overlook — you have this beautiful view in front of you but trash around your feet,” says poet Clint Bowman. “Everything isn’t as perfect as it seems once you begin to focus and zoom in on the picture.” Photo courtesy of Bowman

ments of our region provide plenty of inspiration for a writer. The biggest downside to that benefit is that the subject matter turns grim pretty quick. I’ve never written more about homelessness until I moved to WNC. I’ve also never written more about nature. The complexity of everything in our region constantly inspires me and finds a way into my poetry.

Through my work as a recreation coordinator, I feel lucky to spend a lot of my time outdoors. It’s much easier to write on a subject, both good and bad, when it’s directly in your face. More of the natural elements from our region may find their way into a poem of mine after a long day hike. The less flattering elements may make their way into a poem after spending all day in the river picking up trash.

Do you find similar topics explored by members of Dark City Poetry Society?

The types of poets we’re seeing are local writers that come from a wide variety of backgrounds. These poets range in age from early teens to over 70. Some are just starting out while others have MFAs or are currently in English programs. Most poets are from either Asheville or Black Mountain, but we do have some

very dedicated and talented poets who join us from Hendersonville, Barnardsville and other surrounding communities.

Many of the topics that come up seem to center around WNC and how that individual poet fits — or doesn’t fit — into the culture of our area. Topics touch on nature, religion, identifying as LGBTQ+, complex relationships, pregnancy, hippie communes — you name it. Anything remotely related to WNC has most likely been included at some point.

And how important are gatherings like these within the poetry community?

I think events like our critiques and poetry nights, along with other local reading events, allow writers the opportunity to feel heard and connect with one another. Often, poetry readings make up a small portion of open mics. To have events solely dedicated to poetry gives the art form and artists the platform they deserve.

Since most writing does take place in isolation, getting together with others can allow a writer to get out of their head a bit and take in different perspectives. Hearing and reading a variety of styles can certainly help the creative process as well. Being part of a group like the Dark City Poets Society can provide the support and inspiration needed for a writer to stay productive and challenge themselves to improve their writing.

Speaking of other poets, is there a new collection from a local writer you’re particularly excited to read?

I’m really looking forward to Mildred Barya ’s collection The Animals of My Earth School. I mean, how can you not be interested in a book with an amazing title like that? I had the honor of getting to know Mildred through a Q&A/reading event that was offered through the Black Mountain Library back in 2021, and I’ve been reading her work ever since.

I’m also looking forward to the publication of the Dark City Poets Society’s first anthology that will hopefully come out within the next year or so. I’ve met so many talented writers through the Dark City Poets Society, and I can’t wait to see all their work together in one place.

Lastly — who are the four poets on your personal Mount Rushmore?

I love this question, despite how difficult it is. My poetic Mount Rushmore would include Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, Sharon Olds and Walt Whitman. X

Directed

“Gardens and cultures clash in this comedy of feuding neighbors, good intentions, and bad manners!”

What’s new in food

Unique

ways to celebrate (or lament) Valentine’s Day

The way to someone’s heart is through the stomach — or so the saying goes. Whether you are looking to celebrate with your pals, by cursing your luck in love or (gasp!) by going on a romantic date, you will find several options below to whet your appetite.

Valentine’s flours

Carolina Ground, a boutique flour mill in Hendersonville, will host a pop-up market in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, on Sunday, Feb. 12, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The event will include goods such as pies, books, flowers and dyed yarns from several local businesses, including Milk Glass Pie, beeswax and butter, Simple Bread, Freckled Heron Studios and Bryson Farm.

Carolina Ground, which was started in 2012, operates as a community mill that aims to close the gap between farmers, millers and bakers. “Our pop-up markets are in a way an extension of this — engendering community through this mill,” says

Jennifer Lapidus, founder and general manager. “We are so excited to finally be able to offer ‘bouquets’ of flours … special gift boxes of flours for Valentine’s Day.”

Carolina Ground is at 1237 Shipp St., Hendersonville. For more information, visit avl.mx/cda.

A different kind of crush

Hi-Wire Brewing will hold its fourth annual Cupid Is Stupid car smashing event in the parking lot of its Biltmore Village taproom on Sunday, Feb. 12, 1-4 p.m. Sign-up is in person and is first come, first served. Smashing implements, sanitized protective eyewear and gloves will be provided. Hits are $5 for five swings or $10 for 15 swings.

An additional activity this year is the Hex Your Ex bonfire, in which attendees can purchase a hex, or a spell, for $2 to throw into the fire,

with proceeds benefiting the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that helps advance the careers of women and nonbinary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic beverage industry.

Hi-Wire Brewing is at 2A Huntsman Place. For more information, visit avl.mx/cd7.

A perfect pair

Individuals 21 and older can learn about pairing locally made chocolates with wine at French Broad Chocolate’s Valentine’s Day Wine + Chocolate Tasting on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 6 p.m. The $35 event, which includes three bonbons and three chocolate squares paired with three sample pours of wine, will feature selections from the chocolate factory’s XOXO collection. The presentation will also provide information about cacao farming and processing, as well as the history of the Ashevillebased company.

“Guests will get to try a variety of our chocolates that range from our winter peppermint white chocolate chip to our single-origin Peruvian dark chocolate,” says tours and events manager Rhianna Scott. “We’re really excited to feature our Valentine’s Day bonbons ... our dark chocolate cherry bonbon and our milk chocolate passion fruit bonbon.”

Wine samples will be Omen Red Blend, Wezcali We Love Pet Nat and Lingenfelder

French Broad Chocolate Factory & Cafe is at 821 Riverside Drive. For more information, visit avl.mx/cdd.

For the masses

Pretend to marry your sweetheart, your best friend’s pet or really anything your heart desires at Fleetwood’s “Fake as Hell” Mass

Reisling.

GET SMASHED: A guest takes a turn at smashing a car at Hi-Wire Brewing’s annual Cupid Is Stupid celebration. This year’s event takes place Sunday, Feb. 12.

Photo courtesy of Hi-Wire Brewing

Wedding on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 8 p.m. For $25, attendees will get a ceremony for two, a Fleetwood’s “Fake as Hell” marriage certificate and a Champagne toast. The post-ceremony reception, which is open to anyone, will feature music and sweet treats.

Fleetwood’s is at 496 Haywood Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/cde.

Bowl battle

Leaving St. Valentine’s behind, we shift our focus to other food-related news. After a five-year hiatus, the Soup or Bowl competition will take place on Saturday, Feb. 11, 1-3 p.m, at Blue Ghost Brewing Co. Interested contestants can register by emailing their full name and what soup they will make to j@blueghostbrewing. com. Those entering are required to bring 6 quarts of soup, their own ladle and a 25-foot extension cord.

Winners will be chosen by attendees who purchase a $10 ticket, which will get them a 2-ounce cup of each soup. Trophies will be awarded to the top three soup makers. A portion of the collected proceeds will go to MANNA FoodBank.

Blue Ghost Brewing Co. is at 125 Underwood Road, Fletcher. For more information, visit avl.mx/cd8.

Build a board

Asheville Charcuterie Co. is holding a Galentine’s Day-themed charcuterie workshop at Ginger’s Revenge South Slope location Thursday, Feb. 16, at 6:30 p.m. For $65, a cheese stylist will teach you how to choose and present ingredients, as well as how to capture photos for social media.

Ginger’s Revenge South Slope Lounge is at 32 Banks Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/cdf.

Southbound

Speaking of Ginger’s Revenge, the Asheville-based alcoholic ginger beer brewery is partnering with South Carolina’s Bear Island Distributors to expand distribution into the Palmetto State. Ginger’s Revenge, a 6-year-old family-run company that currently distributes to 650 North Carolina locations, will work with its new partner over the coming months. Initially, the local company will deliver its four flagship products to South

Carolina locations. Throughout the year, it will add smaller-batch items to its expanded distribution map.

“Bear Island felt like a natural fit for us,” David Ackley, co-founder and CEO of Ginger’s Revenge, says in a press release. “[Bear Island] is a family-run operation with ambitious goals and a commitment to a winwin partnership.”

Ginger’s Revenge Tasting Room and Brewery is at 829 Riverside Drive. For more information visit avl.mx/c0u.

Sharing the love

During February, Asheville Outlets is teaming up with MANNA FoodBank for the Food Is Love Food Donation Drive. According to the announcement, the focus will be on collecting healthy, nonperishable foods. Items needed include low-sodium canned vegetables, canned tuna and chicken, low-salt nuts, no-sugar-added fruits, shelf-stable milk, whole-grain pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, canola and olive oils, peanut butter, low-sodium soups, canned and dried beans and low-sugar cereals. Collection bins are in the outlet’s food court.

Asheville Outlets is at 800 Brevard Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/cdb.

Semifinalists announced

An Asheville restaurant and chef were named semifinalists in this year’s James Beard Foundation

Awards. West Asheville’s Neng Jr.’s, a Filipino restaurant that opened last summer, is a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, and Josiah McGaughey , executive chef at Vivian, is a contender for Best Chef in the Southeast region.

Finalists will be announced March 29, with the winners’ gala being held June 5 in Chicago.

For more information, visit avl.mx/cd9.

A meals milestone

Local nonprofit Food Connection has achieved the milestone of delivering half a million meals, or 205 tons of food, to those in need in Western North Carolina. The organization, which launched in 2015, schedules pickups of surplus prepared food from donors such as UNC Asheville, Ridgecrest Conference Center and Givens Highland Farms and then repackages the donations for distribution via the Food Connection Mobile Meals truck. The truck delivers meals free to neighborhoods and venues, offering families and individuals a menu of selections.

“We continue to believe that no fresh food should end up in the landfill while our neighbors go hungry,” says Marisha MacMorran, executive director, in a press release. “Food Connection connects the dots between those with too much food, to those without enough.”

For more information, visit avl.mx/97q.

— Andy Hall X

Around Town

One World Brewing West will host Bullets and Bandaids Volume 4: The Next Steps on Thursday, Feb. 9, 5-9 p.m., and Friday, Feb. 10, 5-8 p.m. The traveling exhibit features artwork and storytelling by over 40 veterans, plus local artists including Ryan O’Sullivan.

“It’s incredibly moving and really touching,” says local veteran Stacie Litsenberger. “We all have a different story to tell.”

The project is the latest from the Columbia, S.C.-based nonprofit, Bullets and Bandaids. Its founder, Robert LeHeup, formerly established the organization as a 501(c)(3) in 2019. The group’s mission is to connect veterans with local artists to encourage storytelling through creative mediums.

Litsenberger, who now serves on Bullets and Bandaids advisory board, is a retired U.S. Army major. In addition to her work with the nonprofit, she is an occupational therapist at the Charles George VA Medical Center.

All works are available for purchase through an online auction, with 40% of the sale going directly to veterans. Books featuring the exhibit’s works will also be available for purchase.

Having a community such as Bullets and Bandaids, says Litsenberger, “really does help people decrease isolation [and] find something meaningful.”

One World Brewing West is at 520 Haywood Road. Tickets are $10 for veterans and $20 for the general public. For more information, visit avl.mx/ccx.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Local reviewers’ critiques of new films include:

KNOCK AT THE CABIN: Writer/ director M. Night Shyamalan has lost his mojo — again. Plagued by horrible dialogue and flat performances, this tepid tale of four strangers tasked with preventing the apocalypse fails as both a thriller and a theology lesson. Grade: C-minus

— Edwin Arnaudin

Bullets and Bandaids shares veterans’ experiences

A night of spoken word

The locally produced “No Simple Disruption” podcast allows young spoken word artists to collaborate with celebrated musicians. On Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. the podcast hosts a live performance of poetry and music at Salvage Station.

The event will feature Grammy Award-winning acts such as Oteil Burbridge and Vernon Reed, as well as John Medeski, Brian Jackson, DJ Logic, Jeff Sipe and Maggie Rose Several local artists will also join the stage, including Austin Space, Datrian Johnson, Jake Wolf, Jake Mossman, Gina Cornejo and Truth-I Manifest.

“This collaboration is the beginning of a deep relationship with the creative youth of Asheville and the plethora of talented mentors with ties to the Asheville community,” notes a press release for the event.

Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the doors. Only adults ages 18 and older will be allowed in the venue.

Salvage Station is at 466 Riverside Drive. For more information, visit avl.mx/cdc.

Indigenous lecture series

As part of its Winter Lecture Series, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian hosts Our Voices, Our Identity on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 5 p.m. The free virtual lecture series will be led by Jennifer Wilson, the Aniyvwiya community program coordinator at the museum, as well as a beadwork artist.

MCI has more events planned over the following weeks, including Maker Monday on Feb. 20 with Indigenous artists offering craft demonstrations at the museum.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian is at 589 Tsali Blvd., Cherokee. For more information, visit avl.mx/ccz.

Looking ahead from ‘The Overlook’

After five years covering the local arts for Blue Ridge Public Radio, Matt Peiken is leaving his position with the station. On Monday, Feb. 13, he plans to launch “The Overlook,” a new daily podcast. The series will feature interviews with local artists, journalists and

other trendsetters to discuss a range of local topics relevant to current events. For more information about Peiken and his previous work, visit avl.mx/cd1.

Take a sip of ‘Love Potion’

Vibe with dance collective OMotion at White Horse Black Mountain during its upcoming performance, “Muses & Mocktails: Love Potion.” The Friday, Feb. 10, event blends dancing, burlesque, flow arts, comedy and poetry followed by a dance afterparty. Local mixologists at The NOHM Collective, known for concocting herbal elixirs, will serve mocktails during the show.

White Horse Black Mountain is at 105 Montreat Road, Black Mountain. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the afterparty starts at 9:15 p.m. Tickets for the full performance are $33; tickets for the afterparty are $22. For more information, visit avl.mx/cd2.

Travel to HappyLand

The Magnetic Theatre premieres its latest production, HappyLand, Friday,

HEALING WOUNDS: Stacie Litsenberger, left, treats a wounded Iraqi civilian at the Combat Support Hospital (now the Tikrit Air Academy) in 2006. Litsenberger currently serves on the advisory board of Bullets and Bandaids, which presents an exhibition inspired by the personal stories of veterans. Photo courtesy of Stacie Litsenberger

Feb. 10. The musical runs through Saturday, Feb. 25. Written by Brayden Dickerson and Zach Knox and directed by Jason Phillips, “this rock opera tells the tale of a delivery person who doesn’t quite fit into the titular town,” states the theater’s website. But after traveling to SadLand, the hero of the story falls in love and might even save the world. Asheville band Smooth Goose performs alongside the theater’s cast.

The Magnetic Theatre is at 375 Depot St. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday shows are at 4 p.m. General admission tickets are $25. For more information, visit avl.mx/cd3.

The Trocks are back in town

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo returns to the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts for back-toback nights on Tuesday, Feb. 14, and Wednesday, Feb. 15. Since 1974, the Trocks have traveled the globe amusing audiences en pointe. Combining ballet and drag, the group offers a nontraditional performance this Valentine’s Day. Tickets range from $20-$58.

The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts is at 18 Biltmore Ave. Tickets are $20-$58. For more information, visit avl.mx/cd4.

Don’t stop believin’

Travel back in time to the ’80s at the Omni Grove Park Inn for its annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Weekend. Absolute Queen, a tribute band to Queen, plays in the Grand Ballroom at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. The following evening features Departure, a Journey tribute band.

The Omni Grove Park Inn is at 290 Macon Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/cd5.

— Trevor Leach X

DIFFERENT STROKES! PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS

ABE LINCOLN AND UNCLE TOM IN THE WHITE HOUSE WRITTEN BY CARLYLE BROWN AND DIRECTED BY STEPHANIE HICKLING BECKMAN

Photography: Carol Spags Photography

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8

12 BONES BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

185 KING STREET Winter Trivia Tournament and Karaoke Night, 7pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY

Aquanet Goth Party w/ Ash Black, 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm

BIER GARDEN

Geeks Who Drink: Trivia at the Bier Garden, 7pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Music Bingo, 7pm

CORK & KEG Running of the Winos w/Jackomo (Cajun), 7pm

DOUBLE CROWN Western Wednesday w/Drayton & The Dreamboats, 8pm

HI-WIRE BREWING

HIGHLAND BREWING

CO. Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

RENDEVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm

SALVAGE STATION

G. Love & Special Sauce w/Donavon Frankenreiter (rock), 8pm

SHAKEY'S Emo Night w/DJ

Duo Franco Nino & Rm0nduh, 8pm

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Jazz Night w/Jason DeCristofaro, 6pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Poetry Open Mic w/ Host Caleb Beissert, 8pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Julie Odell w/Joshua Carpenter (indie folk), 8pm

THE GREY EAGLE Lee DeWyze (folk rock), 8pm

THE SOCIAL Wednesday Night Karaoke w/LYRIC, 9pm

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9

185 KING STREET

10 String Symphony and Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno (bluegrass), 7pm

Trivia Night, 7pm

DIFFERENT WRLD

Modelface Comedy presents Gianmarco Soresi, 7pm

FLEETWOOD'S Claire Vandiver, Claire Whall, Vandiver (indie), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

GIGI'S UNDERGROUND

Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

GREEN MAN BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM

Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Bluegrass Jam hosted by Drew Matulich, 7:30pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

The Lumpy Heads (Phish tribute), 9pm

PULP

Slice of Life Comedy

Standup Open Mic & Feature Comedy, 8pm

SHAKEDOWN

LOUNGE Poetry Open Mic Hendo, 7:30pm

SHAKEY'S Karaoke, 9pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Django Jazz Jam, 8pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

GRE/AY w/Tongues of Fire and Kerosene Heights (punk), 8pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR

• Rum Punchlines Comedy Open Mic, 6pm

• Karaoke w/Terraoke, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Kathleen Edwards

w/Matt Sucich (singer-songwriter), 7pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Press Play (disco, funk and lo-fi house), 9pm

THE ODD Massa Nera, Night Beers, Serrate, Loss of Consciousness (metal), 7pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY Thursday Night Karaoke, 8:45pm

URBAN ORCHARD Trivia Night, 6:30pm

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10

185 KING STREET Lazr Luvr: Pretty in Pink Theme Night, 8pm 27 CLUB

Sacrilege Goth Dance Party, 10pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Venus (dark house dance party), 10pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL An Evening with That 1 Guy (experimental dance/funk), 10pm

BOOJUM BREWING CO. Beer Never Broke My Heart Party, 9pm

CORK & KEG Tune Hash (folk), 8pm

DSSOLVR Annual Emo Valentine’s Party, 6pm

GIGI'S UNDERGROUND

• AVL Underground Comedy: Billy Wayne Davis (early show), 7pm

• AVL Underground Comedy: Billy Wayne Davis (late show), 10pm

IS IN THE AIR: The Julie McConnell Quartet

GINGER'S REVENGE

CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM

Connor Law & Dan Keller Jazz Duo, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

Underground Springhouse (reggae, country, funk), 9pm

ONE STOP AT

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Joey Fletcher Band (blues rock), 10pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

5j Barrow (folk rock), 8pm

ONE WORLD

BREWING WEST

Off With Your Radiohead (tribute), 9pm

SALVAGE STATION

Empire Strikes Brass Mardi Gras w/Rahm Squad, 8pm

SHAKEY'S

DJ Duo Ek Balam & Mad Mike, 12am

SHILOH & GAINES

Hearts Gone South (honky tonk), 9pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Hannah Ramsey (pianist, vocalist), 9pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Zach Bryson w/Descolada, Julia Sanders & Wes Pearce (folk), 8pm

STORY PARLOR

Clowning Glory (comedy), 7:30pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR

Whiplash: A Full Fetish

Experience w/Dixie Evans, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Yonder Mountain

String Band (bluegrass, Americana), 9pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Lake Solace (R&B, future beats), 9pm

THE ODD

Ida Carolina Presents:

The Heartbreakers' Ball, 7pm

THE OMNI GROVE

PARK INN

Absolute Queen:

The Ultimate Queen

Tribute, 8pm, See p33

THE ORANGE PEEL

Harry's House Party w/ DJ Molly Parti, 9pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK

MOUNTAIN

Muses & Mocktails:

Love Potion, 6:30pm, See p32

WRONG WAY

CAMPGROUND

Fireside Fridays, 5:30pm

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11

185 KING STREET

McIntosh and the LionHearts (country), 8pm

27 CLUB

Chupakabra, The Sour, Come in Travis (punk), 9pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY

80s MAXimum Overdrive w/DJ Nato, 10pm

ASHEVILLE CLUB

Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Dr. Bacon & Bella’s Bartok (funk rock, punk folk), 7pm

BLUE GHOST BREWING CO. Soup or Bowl, 1pm, See p30

BOLD ROCK ASHEVILLE

Bluegrass Brunch, 10am

CORK & KEG

Andy & Ruthie Hunter (folk rock, blues, country), 8pm

DRY FALLS BREWING

CO.

Moonshine State (acoustic duet), 7pm

FLEETWOOD'S

Danny Feedback, Fantømex & Bad Ties (punk), 8pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

CO.

Melissa McKinney (blues, rock, soul), 6pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM

Hope Griffin Trio (acoustic, folk, blues), 7pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

• Nobody’s Darling

String Band, 4pm

• Roberta Lee (country neo-pop), 9pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

TopHouse (Americana,

THE ODD Party Foul Drag and Saturday Night Tease, 8pm

THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN

Departure: The Journey Tribute Band, 8pm, See p32

THE ORANGE PEEL

Kid Hop Hooray Winter Dance Party, 10am

WHITE HORSE BLACK

MOUNTAIN

David LaMotte (singer-songwriter), 8pm

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY

• Life's A Drag Brunch w/Ida Carolina & Euphoria Eclipse, noon

• SOL Dance Party w/ Zati (soul house), 9pm

BLUE GHOST BREWING CO.

The Grass Owls (bluegrass), 4pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE

Bluegrass Brunch, 10am

CORK & KEG

PubSing (Gospel jam & sing-along,) 3pm

DSSOLVR

Big Game Party, 5pm

FLEETWOOD'S

The Silver Doors, Liquid Pennies & Seismic Sutra (psych rock), 9pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Traditional Irish Jam, 3:30pm

LOOKOUT BREWING

CO.

Super Bowl Watch Party & Dip-off, 6pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Chess Tournament, 2pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Goon & Teethe w/ Good Trauma (bedroom alternative), 8pm

THE ODD

Weirdo Rippers (post punk, new wave), 5pm

PLĒB URBAN WINERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 4pm

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13

27 CLUB

Monday Night Karaoke

hosted by Ganymede, 9:30pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE

Galentine's Party, 6pm

DSSOLVR

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HAYWOOD COUNTRY CLUB

Taylor Martin's Open Mic: Live recording with Asheville FM, 6:30pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Totally Rad Trivia w/ Mitch Fortune, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Quizzo! Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm

NOBLE CIDER

DOWNTOWN

Freshen Up Comedy

Open Mic, 6:30pm

SHAKEY'S

Shake the Mondays Off w/DJ Mountain Vibez, 9pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Ping Pong Tournament, 7pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Saturn Lavender & Cal Fish w/Tympantic Rupture, Yes Selma, Nostalgianoid & Splash Blade (indie), 8pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER

BAR

Trivia by the River w/ James Harrod, 8pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Dolly Days: A Tribute to Dolly Parton, 8pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Short Stop (soul, Latin, dance), 9pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Mr Jimmy and Friends (blues), 7pm

THE ODD

Magic The Gathering, 8pm

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

27 CLUB

Be My Undead Valentine (burlesque), 9pm

5 WALNUT WINE BAR

The John Henrys (jazz, swing), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY

Valentine's Day Trivia w/ Indica Gemini, 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Tuesday Night Funk Jam, 10:30pm

CARE PARTNERS

MAIN CAMPUS

The Land of Sky Men's Chorus Rehearsal, 6:30pm

FRENCH BROAD

BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

CO. JackTown Ramblers (bluegrass), 6pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

ONE STOP AT

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Early Tuesday Jam (funk), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

The Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Dead tribute, jam band, rock), 6pm

SHAKEY'S Booty Tuesday w/6 Speed Band & DJ Tamagatchi, 9pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Weekly Open Jam hosted by Chris Cooper & Friends, 6:30pm

THE GREY EAGLE Dolly Days: A Tribute to Dolly Parton, 8pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Mad Mike: Music for the People, 9pm

THE ODD Open Mic Comedy, 8pm

THE SOCIAL

Travers Freeway Open Jam Tuesdays, 7pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Tuesday Night Trivia, 7pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK

MOUNTAIN

Open Mic Night, 7pm

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15

12 BONES BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

185 KING STREET

Winter Trivia Tournament and Karaoke Night, 7pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY

Aquanet Goth Party w/ Ash Black, 9pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm

BIER GARDEN

Geeks Who Drink: Trivia at the Bier Garden, 7pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Music Bingo, 7pm

HI-WIRE BREWING

Weekly Trivia Night w/ Not Rocket Science Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

RENDEVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm

SALVAGE STATION

No Simple Disruption presents: An evening of powerful poetry & music, 6pm, See p32

SHAKEY'S Sexy Tunes w/DJ Ek Balam & Mad Mike, 10pm

SOUTHERN

APPALACHIAN BREWERY

Jazz Night w/Jason DeCristofaro, 6pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA Poetry Open Mic w/ Host Caleb Beissert, 8pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR

Asheville FM Live Music Sessions w/State Park Ranger (grunge-folk), 9pm

THE ORANGE PEEL

Matt Nathanson w/ Stephen Kellogg (pop), 8pm

THE SOCIAL

Wednesday Night Karaoke w/LYRIC, 9pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Wednesday Open Mic, 5:30pm

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16

BLACK MOUNTAIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Valentine's Burlesque

Dance Class, 7pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Trivia Night, 7pm

EURISKO BEER CO.

Hops Around Comedy: Kevin McCaffrey, 7pm

FLEETWOOD'S

The North Country, Krave Amiko & Hi Helen's (experimental pop, indie/folk), 8pm

FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

GIGI'S UNDERGROUND

Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

GREEN MAN

BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND

DOWNTOWN TAPROOM

Not Rocket Science

Trivia, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

Bluegrass Jam hosted by Drew Matulich, 7:30pm

PULP

Standup Comedy: Ryan Cox, 8pm

SHAKEDOWN LOUNGE

Poetry Open Mic Hendo, 7:30pm

SHAKEY'S Karaoke, 9pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER

BAR

• Rum Punchlines Comedy Open Mic, 6pm

• Karaoke w/Terraoke, 9pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE DJ Press Play (disco, funk and lo-fi house), 9pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Thursday Night Karaoke, 8:45pm

URBAN ORCHARD Trivia Night, 6:30pm

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): During my quest for advice that might be helpful to your love life, I plucked these words of wisdom from author Sam Kean: “Books about relationship talk about how to ’get’ the love you need, how to ’keep’ love, and so on. But the right question to ask is, ’How do I become a more loving human being?’” In other words, Aries, here’s a prime way to enhance your love life: Be less focused on what others can give you and more focused on what you can give to others. Amazingly, that’s likely to bring you all the love you want.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You have the potential to become even more skilled at the arts of kissing and cuddling and boinking than you already are. How? Here are some possibilities. 1. Explore fun experiments that will transcend your reliable old approaches to kissing and cuddling and boinking. 2. Read books to open your mind.

I like Margot Anand’s The New Art of Sexual Ecstasy. 3. Ask your partner(s) to teach you everything about what turns them on. 4. Invite your subconscious mind to give you dreams at night that involve kissing and cuddling and boinking. 5. Ask your lover(s) to laugh and play and joke as you kiss and cuddle and boink.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are an Italian wolf searching for food in the Apennine Mountains. You’re a red-crowned crane nesting in a wetland in the Eastern Hokkaido region of Japan. You’re an olive tree thriving in a salt marsh in southern France, and you’re a painted turtle basking in a pool of sunlight on a beach adjoining Lake Michigan. And much, much more. What I’m trying to tell you, Gemini, is that your capacity to empathize is extra strong right now. Your smart heart should be so curious and open that you will naturally feel an instinctual bond with many life forms, including a wide array of interesting humans. If you’re brave, you will allow your mind to expand to experience telepathic powers. You will have an unprecedented knack for connecting with simpatico souls.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): My Cancerian friend Juma says, “We have two choices at all times: creation or destruction. Love creates and everything else destroys.” Do you agree? She’s not just talking about romantic love, but rather love in all forms, from the urge to help a friend, to the longing to seek justice for the dispossessed, to the compassion we feel for our descendants. During the next three weeks, your assignment is to explore every nuance of love as you experiment with the following hypothesis: To create the most interesting and creative life for yourself, put love at the heart of everything you do.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope you get ample chances to enjoy deep soul kisses in the coming weeks. Not just perfunctory lip-to-lip smooches and pecks on the cheeks, but full-on intimate sensual exchanges. Why do I recommend this? How could the planetary positions be interpreted to encourage a specific expression of romantic feeling? I’ll tell you, Leo: The heavenly omens suggest you will benefit from exploring the frontiers of wild affection. You need the extra sweet, intensely personal communion that comes best from the uninhibited mouth-to-mouth form of tender sharing. Here’s what Leo poet Diane di Prima said: “There are as many kinds of kisses as there are people on earth, as there are permutations and combinations of those people. No two people kiss alike — no two people fuck alike — but somehow the kiss is more personal, more individualized than the fuck.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Borrowing the words of poet Oriah from her book The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life, I’ve prepared a love note for you to use as your own this Valentine season. Feel free to give these words to the person whose destiny needs to be woven more closely together with yours. Oriah writes, “Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be someday. Show me you can risk

being at peace with the way things are right now. Show me how you follow your deepest desires, spiraling down into the ache within the ache. Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Walter Lippmann wrote, “The emotion of love is not self-sustaining; it endures only when lovers love many things together, and not merely each other.” That’s great advice for you during the coming months. I suggest that you and your allies — not just your romantic partners, but also your close companions—come up with collaborative projects that inspire you to love many things together. Have fun exploring and researching subjects that excite and awaken and enrich both of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio writer Paul Valéry wrote, “It would be impossible to love anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object.” My challenge to you, Scorpio, is to test this hypothesis. Do what you can to gain more in-depth knowledge of the people and animals and things you love. Uncover at least some of what’s hidden. All the while, monitor yourself to determine how your research affects your affection and care. Contrary to what Valéry said, I’m guessing this will enhance and exalt your love.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In his book Unapologetically You, motivational speaker Steve Maraboli writes, “I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” That’s always good advice, but I believe it should be your inspirational axiom in the coming weeks. More than ever, you now have the potential to forever transform your approach to relationships. You can shift away from wanting your allies to be different from what they are and make a strong push to love them just as they are.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I analyzed the astrological omens. Then I scoured the internet, browsed through 22 books of love poetry, and summoned memories of my best experiences of intimacy. These exhaustive efforts inspired me to find the words of wisdom that are most important for you to hear right now. They are from poet Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Stephen Mitchell): “For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): To get the most out of upcoming opportunities for intimacy, intensify your attunement to and reverence for your emotions. Why? As quick and clever as your mind can be, sometimes it neglects to thoroughly check in with your heart. And I want your heart to be wildly available when you get ripe chances to open up and deepen your alliances. Study these words from psychologist Carl Jung: “We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “In love there are no vacations. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that.” Author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras made that observation, and now I convey it to you—just in time for a phase of your astrological cycle when boredom and apathy could and should evolve into renewed interest and revitalized passion. But there is a caveat: If you want the interest and passion to rise and surge, you will have to face the boredom and apathy; you must accept them as genuine aspects of your relationship; you will have to cultivate an amused tolerance of them. Only then will they burst in full glory into renewed interest and revitalized passion.

Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 advertise@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember the Russian proverb: “Doveryai, no proveryai,” trust but verify. When answering classified ads, always err on the side of caution. Especially beware of any party asking you to give them financial or identification information. The Mountain Xpress cannot be responsible for ensuring that each advertising client is legitimate. Please report scams to advertise@mountainx.com

EMPLOYMENT

GENERAL

AUTOMOTIVE PORTER

- HELPER - JANITORIALBIMMER LOGIC BIMMER LOGIC is hiring a shop helper. Flexible schedule $18/hr. Clean the shop/equipment/ offices/bathrooms. Wash vehicles. Shuttle drive customers and pick up parts. Help technicians. Must have a clean driving record! 828-214-9961 Luke@ bimmerlogic.net www. bimmerlogic.net/

SKILLED LABOR/ TRADES

DIESEL MECHANIC FOR HEAVY EQUIPMENT NEEDED Diesel Mechanic for Heavy Equipment with experience needed for heavy-highway and bridge construction company in Asheville, NC. employment@nhmconstructors. com www.nhmconstructors.com

HIRING ELECTRICIANS AND ELECTRICIAN HELPERS TK Electric LLC is looking to hire full-time experienced residential/ commercial electricians and helpers in Arden. Applicants must be able to work 40-hour work weeks. To apply, call Tim at 828708-1001

ADMINISTRATIVE/ OFFICE

BOOKEEPER/ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT FOR LOCAL RETAIL SHOWROOM Monday-Friday. 4 hrs/day. Morning hours preferred but negotiable. Extensive knowledge of Quickbooks and MS Office required. Excellent communication skills. Small business experience a plus.

Email resume to: Admin@ bellahardwareandbath. com. No phone calls or drop-ins.

SALES/ MARKETING

TERRITORY SALES

MANAGER UPM Raflatac, Inc. seeks a Territory Sales Manager to be responsible for all aspects of sales management within the designated area, including the following responsibilities: visit existing and new customers in Southern CA and Baja California Mexico and assess customer needs. Requires high school diploma and 2 years rel. experience. Position allows for work from home in the SW U.S. in CA, AZ, NV, and NM; headquarters located at 400 Broadpointe Drive, Mills River, NC, 28759. Domestic & foreign travel required up to 30%. For full details and to apply, contact Everett Lynch at everett.lynch@ upmraflatac.com

PROFESSIONAL/ MANAGEMENT

CHIEF OPERATIONS

OFFICER (COO) - BURIAL BEER CO. Burial is seeking a financial-focused Chief Operating Officer to oversee the company's financial planning and operational efficiency. To apply or for a more detailed job description go to: burialbeer.com/ jobs

DEVELOPMENT & OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

MountainTrue is hiring a Development & Operations Coordinator. More information here: avl.mx/ cd6 Application deadline: February 24, 2023

YOUR CAREER STARTS HERE WITH MHC! PROGRAM MANAGER Make a difference AND grow in your career! Methodist Home for Children is seeking a Program Manager to oversee a residential program for at-risk youth in Franklin. Candidates must have a 4-year degree, preferably in a human services program, relevant experience in staff supervision and background working in youth programs/ youth services. MHC offers excellent benefits, paid time off, and room to grow! Salary starts at $48,000. Apply today at MHFC.org/ opportunities vpenn@mhfc. org

SERVICES

AUDIO/VIDEO

DISH TV SPECIAL $64.99 for 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free installation, Smart HD DVR Included, Free Voice Remote. Some restrictions apply. Promo Expires 1/21/23. 1-866-566-1815 (AAN CAN)

EDUCATION/ TUTORING

ATTENTION ACTIVE DUTY & MILITARY VETERANS & FAMILY Begin a new career and earn your Degree at CTI. Online Computer & Medical training available for Veterans & Families. To learn more, call 866-2435931 (M-F 8am-6pm ET). Computer with internet is required. (AAN CAN)

HOME

4G LTE HOME INTERNET

NOW AVAILABLE! Get GotW3 with lightning fast speeds plus take your service with you when you travel! As low as $109.99/mo.! 1-866571-1325. (AAN CAN)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES

In as little as ONE DAY! Affordable prices - No payments for 18 months!  Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 1-866-370-2939. (AAN CAN)

BATHWRAPS IS LOOKING FOR HOMEOWNERS WITH OLDER HOMES FOR A SAFETY UPDATE They do not remodel entire bathrooms but update bathtubs with new liners for safe bathing and showering. They specialize in grab bars, non-slip surfaces and shower seats. All updates are completed in one day. Call 866-531-2432. (AAN CAN)

BCI WALK-IN TUBS ARE ON SALE Be one of the first 50 callers and save $1,500! Call 844-514-0123 for a free in-home consultation. (AAN CAN)

CABLE PRICE INCREASE AGAIN? Switch to DIRECTV & save + get a $100 Visa gift card! Get more channels for less money. Restrictions apply. Call now! 877-6930625. (AAN CAN)

CAREER TRAINING:

COMPUTER IT CTI Career Training allows students to earn a degree from home and ready to work in months. Call 888-281-1442. (AAN CAN)

CAREER TRAINING: MEDICAL BILLING CTI Career

Training allows students to earn a degree from home and ready to work in months. Call 866-243-5931. (AAN CAN)

CREDIT CARD DEBT

RELIEF! Reduce payment by up to 50%! Get one LOW affordable payment/ month. Reduce interest. Stop calls. FREE no-obligation consultation Call 1-855-7611456. (AAN CAN)

DIAGNOSED WITH LUNG CANCER? You may qualify for a substantial cash awardeven with smoking history. No obligation! We've recovered millions. Let us help! Call 24/7. 1-888-376-0595. (AAN CAN)

DIRECTV SATELLITE TV

Service Starting at $74.99/ month! Free Installation! 160+ channels available. Call Now to Get the Most Sports & Entertainment on TV!  877310-2472 (AAN CAN)

DON'T PAY FOR COVERED

HOME REPAIRS AGAIN

American Residential Warranty covers all major systems and appliances. 30 day risk free - $100 off popular plans. Call 855-731-4403. (AAN CAN)

DONATE YOUR VEHICLE

TO FUND THE SEARCH FOR MISSING CHILDREN

Fast free pickup. 24 hour response. Running or not.

Maximum tax deduction and no emission test required!

Call 24/7: 999-999-9999 Call 877-266-0681. (AAN CAN)

GUTTER GUARDS AND REPLACEMENT GUTTERS INBOUND Never clean your gutters again! Affordable, professionally installed gutter guards protect your gutters and home from debris and leaves forever! For a free quote call: 844-499-0277 (AAN CAN)

LEGAL NOTICE On January 27, 2023, Auslator, LLC, licensee of W264DT, 100.7 MHz FM, Clyde, North Carolina, filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for Assignment of the license for W264DT to Radio Training Network, Inc. Members of the public wishing to view this application or obtain information about how to file comments and petitions on the application can visit avl.mx/ce0, and search for W264DT

LONG DISTANCE MOVING

Call for a free quote from America’s Most Trusted Interstate Movers. Let us take the stress out of moving! Call to speak to our Quality Relocation Specialists: Call 855-787-4471. (AAN CAN)

MEN'S SPORTS WATCHES

WANTED Advertiser is looking to buy men's sport watches. Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Here, Daytona, GMT, Submariner and Speedmaster. The advertiser pays cash for qualified watches. Call 888-320-1052

(AAN CAN)

MOVING OUT OF STATE?

Licensed and insured, full-service, nationwide movers. Call now to get a free, instant price quote on your next move.

1-866-590-6549

(AAN CAN)

NEVER PAY FOR COVERED HOME REPAIRS AGAIN!

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT

COUNSELING SERVICES

ASTRO-COUNSELING

ACROSS

1 Nonmagical sort, in the Harry Potter universe

1-877-434-4845

Complete care home warranty covers all major systems and appliances. 30 day risk free. $200.00 off + 2 free months!

(AAN CAN)

SPECTRUM INTERNET AS LOW AS $29.99! Call to see if you qualify for ACP and free internet. No Credit Check. Call Now! 833-955-0905

(AAN CAN)

WATER DAMAGE TO YOUR HOME? Call for a quote for professional cleanup & maintain the value of your home! Set an appt. today! Call 833-664-1530 (AAN CAN)

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

DRAWING & OIL PAINTING

LESSONS If you are interested in learning how to paint the visual world as it is, and, learning about materials then this if for you. Affordable lessons and flexible schedule. jd@studiojamesdaniel.com www.studiojamesdaniel.com

Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling Services. Christy Gunther, MA, LCMHC. (828) 258-3229

FOR MUSICIANS

MUSICAL SERVICES

GUITAR REPAIR / RESCUE

Somewhat famous luthier with 35 years experience offering comprehensive repair service. Quick turnaround, competitive rates, free evaluation / estimate (in-person only). Convenient Asheville location. Brad Nickerson. 828-252-4093 nickersonguitars.net nickersonguitars@hotmail. com

AUTOMOTIVE AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES

CASH FOR CARS! We buy all cars! Junk, high-end, totaled – it doesn’t matter! Get free towing and same day cash! NEWER MODELS too! Call 866-535-9689 (AAN CAN)

7 What’s found in cafés but not coffee shops?

13 Spanish loves

14 St. Bernard or mastiff, often

15 Hoity-toity types

16 Goofus

17 Wireless speaker brand

18 Place

19 Fencing equipment

20 Shade akin to fuchsia

23 Part of Q.E.D.

24 ___ blind

27 Dispenser of drafts

28 “Black gold” or “Texas tea”

30 Out of the office

32 Nine-digit ID

34 One leaving its pad quickly

39 Astronomical objects represented by the circled letters in this puzzle

42 One righting writing

43 “The lowest form of humor — when you don’t think of it first,” per Oscar Levant

44 “The Song of the ___” (Willa Cather novel)

45 First Chinese dynasty

47 Broadcaster of “The Price Is Right” for more than four decades

49 Letters requesting help

50 Back talk

54 Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, for two

57 Offering in church

59 Noche’s counterpart

60 Nevada senator Jacky

67 Eccentrics

68 Produce oxidation in

69 Author Hemingway

70 Tablet tool

DOWN

1 Service that might be in Latin

2 “Yeah, that won’t work for me”

3 “I’m listening ...”

4 Many a wedding cake topper

5 Unleashes on

6 Intro to sociology?

7 “Evita” setting: Abbr.

8 Word with tax or cheat

9 Type of car whose name comes from the French word for “cut”

10 Toon hunting for a “scwewy wabbit”

11 Site of a mythical lion slaying

12 Romantic rendezvous

14 “Me, too!”

16 Patty’s place

18 ___ Challenge (famous taste test)

21 Gut-related

22 Some short-term rentals

24 Hightail it

25 Was behind

26 Island between Java and Lombok

29 W.C.

31 As of now

33 Bit of shut-eye

35 450, in ancient Rome

36 Sorento and Telluride

37 Amazon-owned home Wi-Fi brand

38 Scolding sounds

40 Part of some “Red” or “White” uniforms

41 St. ___ (Caribbean isle)

46 Some German cars

48 Word on the ___

50 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” author

51 Broadcaster

52 Oktoberfest vessel

53 Place to wash up?

55 Son of, in Arabic surnames

56 “___, not ___!”

58 Approx. when planes take off

61 Circus barker?

62 “Not you, too!?”

63 Disappointing R.S.V.P.s

65