Mountain Xpress 07.08.20

OUR 26TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 26 NO. 50 JULY 8-14, 2020

Local hospitals on COVID-19 capacity, treatments

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Waynesville author releases debut story collection

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HOW TO BE HAPPY Finding joy in troubled times MOUNTAINX.COM

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10 HOLDING STEADY WNC hospitals stay prepared for possible COVID-19 surge

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12 COVID CONVERSATIONS The challenges of being blind during COVID-19, plus a chat with a WNC park ranger

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8 COMMENTARY 10 NEWS 13 ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES 14 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 17 WELLNESS 21 FOOD

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25 ENTER THE HELIX Nest Egg releases its seventh album

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12 COVID CONVERSATIONS

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Despite these difficult times, local residents are still finding meaning and joy in their lives. Xpress checked in with several who share their strategies — including nurturing connections with others, self-care and even comedy sketches.

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PAGE 17 MOMENTS OF JOY

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OPINION

Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.

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Wear a mask for the kids This letter goes out to the people who choose not to wear masks.

I have never had the flu in my life, but I get the flu immunization every year. Why? Because I never want to be the A-Hole who brings it home to my kids. I don’t like wearing a mask but wear one every time I go out in public. Why? Because I don’t want to be the A-Hole who takes the virus home to my kids.

But wearing my mask will not be enough to get my students or my own children back in the classroom where they belong. You can deny science, but don’t deny that leaving your mask at home has wreaked havoc on your community. Gyms can’t reopen.

Bars continue to keep their doors shuttered. Schools will not open in August. It pains me to no end knowing that so many people care so little about the greater good.

Virtual learning falls unbelievably short for the majority of our students, and teaching from home fails to fulfill my love for teaching. My children and students need direct instruction and all of the supports put in place for them at their school. All of our schools’ resources were made available for the last three months of the school year, but think of how many students were not equipped to access them. Communities at large have failed their most precious resource: its children.

Our schools will not reopen in August. Blaming Gov. Cooper, Dr. Fauci or anybody other than yourself

is a cop-out. Please get it together in time to get the kids back to school by spring 2021. Teaching from home hurts me to the core, both personally and professionally. My pain is nothing compared to the pain of the families and children left suffering without their school community.

It shouldn’t take a local or state mandate to get some of you to make the right decision. Think less of your personal feelings about the science and so-called oppression of your right to not wear a freaking mask. I hope you start seeing the bigger picture in all of this and become a better member of your community and society. If for nothing else, do it for the kids.

— Jeff Bloomer Mills River

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Decency demands Confederate monument removals With all due respect to the reader who equates Confederate monuments to the Nazi death camps and the Normandy cemeteries, there is a distinction between celebrating the past and coming to terms with it [“Confederate Monuments Remind Us of Our History,” June 24, Xpress].

The preserved death camps of Dachau and Terezin were intended as chilling reminders of a past no one wants to repeat. They represent Germany’s atonement. In fact, German law prohibits memorials to Nazi leaders, whereas in America, we MOUNTAINX.COM

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OPINION

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raise celebratory obelisks and heroic statues of individuals who were openly racists and raised arms against their own country.

The First Amendment may protect such memorials, but basic human decency demands their removal. The time is long overdue for America to reckon with its past, just as Germany has. We need to cease extolling false narratives, ignoring past transgressions and defending those who championed one of humanity’s most deplorable institutions. Only then can we, as a nation, truly heal.

— David Russell Asheville

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This is a goodbye letter to the charming little town of Black Mountain. …

Why am I saying goodbye? Because the town administration, police and fire department, and many of the businesses … callously and recklessly ignore safety precautions mandated by Buncombe County and our own governor, as well as the CDC. Apparently, it’s more important to serve political opinion and bias than to protect their own citizens. For this reason, I will no longer support Black Mountain commerce.

Residents of Black Mountain, you might consider asking your leadership why they were so willing to sacrifice your health to stick it to the libs. Shame on them.

— Angela Song Asheville Editor’s note: This letter was submitted before the statewide mask mandate went into effect. Also, Xpress contacted Josh Harrold, Black Mountain’s town manager, with a summary of the letter writer’s points and received the following response: “The town of Black Mountain began operating under a state of emergency on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Black Mountain, as did every other municipal jurisdiction in Buncombe County, followed the county’s lead and was step-for-step in line with Buncombe County up until May 22, when Buncombe County, along with Asheville, mandated face coverings without enforcement. The town of Black Mountain and every other municipal jurisdiction along with Buncombe County have followed or been more stringent than all of Gov. Cooper’s executive orders. The town of Black Mountain has and will continue to work with Buncombe County and Gov. Cooper’s office to continue to limit the spread of the virus.”

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Confederate monuments, the fake news of the time [In response to “Confederate Monuments Remind Us of Our History,” June 24, Xpress:] When this controversy over people wanting to remove Confederate statues in the South first crossed my radar, I really knew nothing about it. Up until that point, I didn’t even realize our country had many hundreds of these statues of Confederate generals and the like.

Hearing protesters wanting them removed, claiming they glorify not only racism, but the slavery of Black people, I could very much see where they were coming from. I can understand how these statues could be offensive to people, but why do we have hundreds of Confederate monuments throughout the Southern United States in the first place?

As far as I can tell, the Civil War was about the Southern states, the Confederacy, wanting to keep slavery in place, whereas the rest of the country had come to terms with the fact that slavery’s f**ked up and, like, we should probably stop doing that.

The Confederacy was trying to secede from the United States of America and keep slavery alive. Fortunately, the Confederacy lost the Civil War, the states were reabsorbed back into the Union, and slavery was outlawed throughout the land.

So given the history, why the bleep are there people upset that these statues are coming down, and why were they even erected in the first place?

You got to love the internet — I was able to look up a video by Vox on YouTube that breaks this part of the history down really well. Turns out there was this effort about 30 years after the war by a group of wealthy Southern elites under the name of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to propagandize to the youth in schools and erect all of these Confederate statues and monuments to sort of rewrite history, painting the South as fallen victims of big government oppression. Unbelievable stuff really, but these are the facts. I highly recommend checking out the Vox video on this called “How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War History” or look up the Wikipedia page on the United Daughters of the Confederacy or the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

So, the next time someone says that removing these statues is erasing their history, ask them what history they’re talking about, because the history the statues and monuments are meant to represent pretends that the Civil

War wasn’t about slavery (kind of like denying the Holocaust) and by leaving the statues up, they’re promoting this falsified propagandized version of history, or as I loathe to refer to it: Fake news! #doyourresearch.

— David Aylward Asheville

Boycott businesses that don’t comply with mask law As I drove around Asheville [June 29], I went into businesses to get lunch, gas, auto parts, etc. I saw few people wearing masks and no business enforcing the mask law.

I would like to call on all people who care about their neighbors and larger community to boycott businesses that refuse to comply with the law. They are putting all of us at risk and endangering the lives of the elderly and immune-compromised people in our area.

Such a callous disregard for cancer patients, people who have had organ transplants, elderly folks should not be rewarded with our hard-earned dollars. Please join with me and vote with your dollar against this kind of disregard for the health of our community.

— Arthur Dougherty Marshall

In times of crisis, fight for a better life I’m writing this letter because I felt compelled to write how I feel about the interlocking crises that are affecting the Asheville area, the country and the world. My dad is a musician and introduced me to Mountain Xpress while I was a student at UNCA. To think that almost 12 years later, I would actually see a soup kitchen for musicians at the civic center sponsored by AshevilleFM. Coupled with a pandemic that has killed more people since World War I and a city that cares more about tourism than the lives of its own residents, those times when I was a freshman now seem so long ago. And even then, I had to deal with the worst recession in 80 years when I was 18.

To understand my perspective, you have to realize 9/11 happened when I was 11 years old. And since then, it’s felt like this society has gone downhill ever since. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the 2008 Great Recession, for-profit health care, the election of Donald Trump, the Tree of Life syn-

C AR T O O N B Y B R E N T B R O W N agogue shooting. and now the worst pandemic of modern times combined with racist police violence and a new Great Depression.

With all of these things that have happened, how can the “important” people keep ignoring these problems while the majority are considered disposable? I’ve learned very early on that my life and others’ mean nothing to the powerful, and the only things that matter to this country are power, profit and self-gain, no matter how many die or get hurt.

So why do I still care? Because fighting for a better life is sometimes all you have. And at the end of the day, you don’t fight to win. You fight because it’s the right thing to do.

— Justin Reid Asheville

Asheville should be cautious of Black Lives Matter organization In the aftermath of the horrible killing of George Floyd, protests erupted in city streets across the country. They were often led by Black Lives Matter signage and chants. Unfortunately, the legitimate peaceful protests morphed into what I consider unlawful rioting, burning and looting. These

rioters and looters destroyed businesses and property that often served the Black community.

We can argue who “infiltrated” the peaceful protest marches, but I posit that they were people without a care for George Floyd or racial injustice.

They had an interest in creating chaos, which they did. I personally feel that they are revolutionaries, hellbent on destroying our country, its history, laws and culture.

There is talk by Asheville City Council member Sheneika Smith, along with the Asheville Area Arts Council and other community groups and leaders, of installing a temporary Black Lives Matter mural for Pack Square in downtown Asheville.

Before Asheville rushes to embrace the BLM mantra, I would urge caution and restraint from going down that path. They should diligently research the BLM movement’s origins and its foundational beliefs and plans for our country.

You may well be surprised to learn that BLM isn’t as peaceful an organization as the millions of legitimate protest marchers were. Be careful Asheville, whom you align yourself with.

— Dennis Kabasan Fletcher

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The Ravenscroft Reserve Initiative is excited to announce its partnership with Asheville GreenWorks as of July 1st.

Our goal is to preserve the small, urban ecosystem known as “Collier Avenue Wood” located in the South Slope of Asheville. With Greenworks, we hope to foster an appreciation of urban forestry in Asheville, however we cannot do it without the community’s assistance.

Please visit us at ashevillegreenworks.org/RRI to learn more or donate and keep in mind that all donations are tax deductible and directly support the RRI preservation effort.

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JULY 8-14, 2020

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OPINION

This time it’s different?

The Gospel According to Jerry

ANGER, OUTRAGE, FEAR, PAIN, SATISFACTION, HOPE. I’ve been suffering from emotional whiplash ever since the first time I saw video of the brutal murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. And when citizens took to the streets in protest, I thought to myself, “Haven’t I seen this movie before?” The Martin Luther King riots, the Asheville High School riot, the Rodney King riots.

The problem is that these hooligans who burn and pillage seriously tarnish the image of those brave and dedicated protesters who are peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.

I admit that, back when I had my small business on Riverside Drive, my rage over such senseless acts of burning and pillage might have provoked me to violent action in an attempt to keep everything I’d ever worked for in my entire life from being destroyed.

On the other side, though, are the police who beat Johnnie Rush for jaywalking at midnight on a deserted downtown street, who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the peaceful protesters on Bowen Bridge — and, especially, those officers who assaulted the emergency medical station with the lame excuse that the bottles of water they were destroying were being weaponized by the protesters. This, too, is hooligan behavior that besmirches the reputation of our dedicated Asheville police officers and firefighters, who put their lives on the line daily in exchange for a pathetic pay scale while their wives and children wonder whether they’ll return safely from their latest dangerous shift.

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UGLY MEMORIES

I grew up in Asheville, and racial injustice was part of my way of life, too, but I didn’t pay it much attention because I was not the victim.

I have a vivid memory, as a teenager riding a bus, of seeing a Black man on crutches with one leg of his pants pinned up, making the excruciating effort to climb on board and, even though there was a seat right up front, dragging himself all the way to the back of the bus to sit down. The driver wasn’t even concerned enough to wait for him to find a seat before proceeding to the next stop.

I asked a Black lady, whom I knew because she was a maid in my neighborhood, who he was and what had happened to him. She said he was a World War II veteran who’d stepped on a mine and lost his leg. It seems the term “greatest generation” applied only to those of our brave military veterans who were white.

In 2008, I wrote an article about some of the many racial injustices that involved Black men I have known and respected. I remember several occasions in the 1940s when I would go with my father to police court on Monday morning to bail out several of our Black employees who’d been arrested over the weekend for public drunkenness. And it was true that many had serious alcohol problems.

At the same time, white people also got drunk and, yes, disorderly at their country clubs and the Sky Club, and many were apprehended for drunk driving. In most cases, though, the police would just give them a warning and sometimes even drove them home.

Ironically, the white prosecutor had serious alcohol problems himself.

I could give you a litany of racial injustice incidents that I’ve personally observed over the years, but maybe we should ask our dedicated and beloved County Commissioner Al Whitesides — who, back in his student days, bravely sat at the Woolworth counter and endured scathing abuse for simply demanding that Black people have access to the same public accommodations as white folks — to tell us his stories.

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CULTURAL BLINDERS

I have thought long and hard, particularly during the last few weeks, about why many of us white Southerners still don’t have an understanding of Black anger “AFTER ALL WE’VE DONE FOR THEM.” One of the problems for me, having attended the segregated David Millard Junior High and Lee H. Edwards High School, is the way that, in all our history courses, Black slavery was sanitized.

The narrative went like this: We in the South had all these slaves who worked in the fields and the houses. The Yankees, who were industrialized, were taking advantage of the agricultural South with unfavorable taxes and tariffs. The South seceded from the Union in protest. The Yankees won the war and pillaged and burned our cities.

Lincoln freed the slaves; we had segregation and Jim Crow laws. Later, Martin Luther King stirred up the Black people and we repealed the Jim Crow laws and desegregated the schools.

So, what is their problem?

When I was young, we sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at almost every public event, and then we sang “Dixie.” Interestingly, when I think about it, I never saw a Black person sing “Dixie.”

We were proud of our valiant Confederate ancestors, who fought for the South against these Yankee oppressors. We saw Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara glamorize slavery and the Confederacy.

I don’t remember a single history lesson that made a point of saying it was a crime to teach a slave to read and write, because it was recognized that education was their ticket out of slavery. Even a century later, we were still very reluctant to give Blacks equal educational opportunities, because that would give them an advantage over illiterate whites when it came to applying for jobs.

SLAVERY’S LEGACY

There must have been hundreds of thousands of highly intelligent Black slaves who were denied education and, thus, the opportunity to fully employ both their minds and their talents. It’s

JERRY STERNBERG my personal opinion that this heinous act of educational deprivation created a cultural deficit that continues to this day.

It’s also telling that, in many cases, the slaves got better health care than many in the Black community do today, because they were considered a valuable capital asset, just like a mule or a fine horse. If they got sick or died, they would cost the slave owner money.

Recently there’s been talk of reparations for slavery. If this happens, some of the money must go to providing intensive educational interventions aimed at reducing racial disparities in academic performance. We must also devote part of the money to addressing the Black community’s specialized health needs. In addition, money needs to be spent on developing police forces that not only defend but equally assist all of our citizens.

Meanwhile, we in Asheville need to know more about the positive work that goes on daily in the Black community. A good starting point might be to take one of the Hood Tours offered by Hood Huggers International. The local nonprofit was created by DeWayne Barton, an outstanding young Black activist who’s working very hard to teach respect both within and outside of the Black community. This just might be the catalyst that unites us all.

As I said earlier, “I’ve seen this movie before.” This time, however, I have hope, because young people have become seriously involved, and the movie has gone from color to black and white.

Asheville native Jerry Sternberg, a longtime observer of the local scene, can be reached at gospeljerry@aol.com. X

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JULY 8-14, 2020

9

NEWS

HOLDING STEADY

WNC hospitals stay prepared for possible COVID-19 surge

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com Mission Health’s COVID-19 preparations have been like a high school prom, explains Dr. William Hathaway, the system’s chief medical officer. You buy a dress, pick out flowers, make dinner reservations, get a car. You primp and preen for the big day, but just when you think you’re ready, the school pushes the dance off until the next week. A few days later, it’s delayed again. And again.

And again.

In January, Hathaway and his team began receiving the first reports that a pandemic was a possibility, and in February, they began to think through different scenarios of the coronavirus’s arrival in North Carolina. He watched as Italy and Iran, Seattle and New York reported case after case. Mission Health began to put protective measures in place.

Buncombe County reported its first case of COVID-19 on March 21. By April, Mission was averaging between two to six hospitalized COVID-19 patients per day. All nonessential surgeries were put on pause, and plans were readied to ramp up total capacity from 800 beds to 1,400. But the anticipated surge never came.

At least, it hasn’t yet.

On June 1, 650 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across the state. By July 1, that number had risen to 901.

If cases and hospitalizations continue to grow at the same rate, hospitals in Greenville, Charlotte and the Triangle may be completely full by late summer, according to a June report by researchers from UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and RTI International.

SAFETY FIRST: A nurse at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville screens a visitor before he can enter the hospital. The facility still has plenty of capacity, but the staff isn’t taking risks when it comes to COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Formation PR In Western North Carolina, the main regional hospitals say they currently have more than enough capacity to provide care for area residents. But their approaches, protocols and treatment options for COVID-19 vary.

ON THE INSIDE

If potential COVID-19 patients are deemed sick enough for hospitalization, short of breath and low on oxygen, they first arrive at the emergency depart-

ment. At Mission Health, the patient then immediately goes to an isolation room. Staff in head-to-toe personal protective equipment — face mask, face shield, gown, gloves — evaluate if the patient needs a COVID-19 test, and if a test is necessary, the patient transfers to a special unit of the hospital.

Hathaway notes that all COVID-19 patients receive care from lung and infectious disease specialists who are assigned solely to that unit, which minimizes potential virus spread among staff. At Mission, the average hospital

stay for a COVID-19 patient is seven days; patients who need intensive care, including ventilator support, average 2.5 days in the intensive care unit.

Mission averaged between 15 and 20 COVID-19 patients a day in June, with 116 COVID-19 patients passing through the hospital since Mission’s first case in March. Of those patients, roughly 25% have needed one of the hospital’s ventilators. Capacity isn’t a worry yet, Hathaway emphasized: The hospital has 90 ICU beds and if necessary, could

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double the ICU capacity to nearly 200 beds with 48 hours’ notice.

actual peak of this won’t happen until September, so we expect more cases.”

TO THE SOUTH

AdventHealth Hendersonville staff members in full personal protective equipment meet all suspected COVID-19 patients in the emergency department, explains Dr. Kelley Singer, the system’s director of quality. Those patients then move to a negative-pressure room with decreased air circulation to help prevent airborne virus particles from escaping.

Two Tru-D SmartUVC robots use ultraviolet rays to disinfect patient rooms and PPE between patients.

Patients under investigation are monitored until their test results return and stay under careful observation until discharge. The hospital has six ICU beds, with the ability to reach 26 if needed, says AdventHealth spokesperson Victoria Dunkle, and “enough ventilators for each ICU bed.” Dunkle and Singer referred questions about the system’s current number of COVID19 patients to the Henderson County Department of Health, which does not share hospitalization numbers on its dashboard.

Protocols are similar at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville. Suspected COVID-19 patients arrive at the emergency department and receive a rapid COVID-19 test, which delivers results within two hours, explains Dr. David Ellis, Pardee’s chief medical officer.

Patients with confirmed COVID-19 are sent to an isolated respiratory care unit, given IV fluids and supplemental oxygen and closely monitored to see if symptoms worsen, Ellis continues. If necessary, patients are taken to the ICU and placed on ventilators.

On June 30, Pardee had five COVID19 patients in its Hendersonville hospital, two in the ICU and three in the respiratory care unit. Capacity holds strong, Ellis emphasizes: The 16-bed ICU has averaged seven patients since mid-March, inclusive of COVID-19 cases. Pardee has 24 ventilators, and the hospital is licensed for 222 total beds, with 50 additional beds available for surge capacity.

As of July 6, 875 ventilators, or 27% of North Carolina’s stockpile, were in use across the state, according to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services data. Inpatient hospital beds were 72% filled and ICU beds were 74% filled, with 81% of state hospitals reporting.

“With the opening of the state, we’re seeing increased cases and we believe that’s going to continue,” Ellis says. “Some of the models predict the

TENTATIVE TREATMENTS

AdventHealth, Pardee and Mission all offer remdesivir, an antiviral medication produced by biotech firm Gilead Sciences that’s being tested as a COVID19 treatment. At Mission, sicker patients requiring oxygen may also be candidates for dexamethasone, a steroid that has shown early success for improving COVID-19 survival. And Pardee offers immune therapy with tocilizumab for select patients depending on severity of illness.

In May, Pardee Hospital began participating in a Mayo Clinic trial to provide convalescent plasma therapy to COVID19 patients. Plasma, the liquid part of the blood, is collected from individuals who have tested positive for either COVID-19 or COVID-19 antibodies and transferred to current patients; researchers believe this approach may help those patients fight off the coronavirus.

Patients receiving the therapy get a one-time infusion of donor plasma in the hospital, explains Dr. Chris Parsons, the medical director for Pardee’s Center for Infectious Diseases.

So far, every COVID-19 patient at Pardee recommended for plasma therapy has opted in, he says, and the results have been promising.

Prior to the availability of plasma and tocilizumab treatments, the COVID-19 mortality rate at Pardee Hospital was approximately 40%, Parsons says. Since early May, that rate has dropped to about 2%.

“This is despite having equally sick patients on ventilators, some of whom were from skilled [nursing] facilities, being among those patients admitted since May,” Parsons notes. “In other words, mortality improvement is not explained only by younger-aged or healthier patients — the therapies are making a difference. We do not yet know which combinations of these therapies are optimal.”

The Charles George VA Medical Center is also a participant in the Mayo Clinic plasma study, and AdventHealth and Mission Health offer convalescent plasma when indicated.

MAKING SACRIFICES

Despite the ample capacity and progress in treatment, life has not returned to normal at area hospitals. Pardee only allows visitors in situations involving pediatric patients, labor and delivery, ICU patients without COVID-19 and end-of-life care. AdventHealth and Mission have both loosened visitor

restrictions in recent weeks but continue to limit visitors to their COVID-19 units.

“It’s a very challenging situation to be in,” Hathaway says. “But it’s what we felt was in the best interest for a while for our patients and their family members, so they don’t inadvertently get COVID in the hospital, and for our staff, so they could be able to take care of patients safely.”

Hathaway says Mission has made two exceptions to its visitation policy since the rules went into effect in mid-March, with both situations involving a child.

However, the family of Daniel Pincu, an older Asheville resident who died of COVID-19 at Mission Hospital on April 27, told Xpress that a relative was permitted to visit Pincu in the COVID19 unit just before he was removed from life support, in contradiction of Mission’s stated policy. The same episode received coverage in the Citizen Times on May 2.

In response to questions about Pincu’s situation, Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell gave the following statement: “While there is no visitation allowed on the COVID-19 unit, exceptions are considered on a case-by-case basis for patients at end of life.”

Both AdventHealth and Mission offer digital tablets to help patients connect with loved ones via video calls. “We immediately took steps to help work around the no visitation policy and make contact with loved ones still available,” says Singer with AdventHealth.

“It’s really sweet to be able to have this kind of 21st-century visit.”

Right now, COVID-19 hospitalizations remain steady. But local health experts warn that this could change at any time.

“We’ve been lucky, but we’re on pins and needles the whole time, wondering if this recent surge that we’ve heard about — in Texas, in Florida, in Arizona because they opened up much more quickly — if we’ll also get that wave,” Hathaway says.

The main actions people can take to keep Pardee and other hospitals from filling up are wearing a face covering, washing hands and social distancing, Ellis says.

“Everybody is fatigued, and everyone wants this to be over,” he explains.

“But we can’t just make it be over. If everybody wears a mask, it would make a dramatic difference, and we would be much better off.” X

METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLAN The French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization (FBRMPO) is seeking feedback on our region’s 25-year transportation plan, known as the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). The 2045 MTP is a federallymandated and fiscally-constrained planning document that looks 25 years into the future to forecast changes in the region and identify needed transportation improvements.

The public comment period is open from July 8th - August 31st, 2020.

FBRMPO will take up the DRAFT MTP 2045 for a public hearing and final adoption at the September 24th, 2020 MPO Board meeting. A virtual public engagement event will take place in late July, in addition to a survey being made available during the public comment period. For more information and to view the DRAFT plan, please visit: www.frenchbroadrivermpo.org/mtp Comments may be submitted in writing from July 8th - August 31st by 5 PM to mpo@landofsky.org or by phone to (828)251-6622; public comments may also be presented during a public hearing at the MPO Board meeting on September 24 at 1:00 PM. Depending on current COVID-19 guidance, the meeting may be held either in-person or virtually, with additional up-to-date information posted at www.frenchbroadrivermpo.org The public transportation section of the TIP also fulfills the Federal Transit Administration’s Program of Projects requirement for the City of Asheville. FBRMPO meetings are open to people of all ages and abilities. Please let us know 48 hours in advance if you require special meeting accommodation or translation services. FBRMPO operates without regard to race, color, national origin, limited English proficiency, sex, age or disability. For more information on our Title VI program, or how to file a discrimination complaint, please contact Erica Anderson 828-251-6622 or mpo@ landofsky.org.

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 8-14, 2020

11

COVID CONVERSATIONS

FEA T U RE S

Our COVID Conversations series is back this week with more stories of local life during the pandemic. For upcoming conversations, we’re looking to speak with folks who’ve experienced COVID-19 firsthand, either as someone who’s contracted the virus or as a caregiver. Want to share your experience? Please email news@ mountainx.com and let us know the best way to reach you.

Finding a way Local resident discusses the challenges of being blind during COVID-19 Over the last 50 years, the world has gradually disappeared for Gary Ray. Diagnosed with macular degeneration in the late 1960s, he was declared legally blind in 1980 when his vision fell to 20/200. For the last four years, Ray says, “I’ve been totally blind.”

As his sight deteriorated, Ray has also been in long-term recovery for substance abuse; he will celebrate 37 years in September. COVID-19, he says, has presented new challenges on both fronts.

Since March, his regular in-person support groups have shifted online. The new format, says Ray, has required some getting used to. “You have to work on it psychologically in order to make sure you still get what you need out of it,” he explains. “It takes some mental manipulation.”

Initial access to these sessions also proved burdensome. “Using Zoom on either a smartphone or a computer was extremely difficult because there is a layer of keystrokes that one has to remember,” he explains.

Fortunately, a low-tech solution emerged. Group members can now dial into meetings using their landlines. “Do you need me to explain to you what a home telephone is?” the septuagenarian jokes.

Ray laughs often when discussing his life. In general, comedy has served as a coping mechanism, particularly in moments when sighted people react poorly to his blindness. In such instances, he says, the strategy also helps him alleviate his own frustrations.

“I never asked to be blind, and every now and then that anger still comes out,” he says. “I try to deal with it through humor.”

He also makes it a point to appreciate the good things in his life, including his wife, Linda Ray. “I’m very lucky,” he says, noting that Linda, who is sighted, doubles as his guide when the couple are out. “I hold onto her right elbow,” he explains.

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JULY 8-14, 2020

SOCIAL DISTANCING: “I have to be loud and have my cane out a lot,” says local resident Gary Ray. “And I have to educate people. I have to say, ‘Hey look, I can’t see you. So I don’t know if I’m 6 feet away from you.’” Photo by Linda Ray Still, Ray understands that many in the local blind community, as well as those in recovery, do not have a built-in support system. “Isolation is the worst enemy that I have seen for people with disabilities or with addiction issues,” he reveals. “We say in our [recovery] program, ‘An addict alone is in extremely bad company.’”

Finding a network, he stresses, is crucial. “There’s that therapeutic value of one person with a problem talking to another person with the same problem and figuring out how to deal with the particular issue,” Ray explains. “It also helps you know you’re not alone.”

To learn more about available local services and organizations for the blind, visit avl.mx/7g2. For more on recovery options in the area, visit avl.mx/7g5.

MOUNTAINX.COM

— Thomas Calder X

Peak season Clearer but busier days for Mount Mitchell Superintendent Kevin Bischof Hikers and out-of-town visitors probably weren’t thrilled with the six-week closure of Mount Mitchell State Park during April and early May. And the continued shutdown of its museum, gift shop, concession stand and restaurant is an ongoing annoyance. But there’s a bright side.

“When we were closed, you’d notice animals up closer to the road then because we didn’t have the vehicle traffic. And there are clearer days now,” says park Superintendent Kevin Bischof. “It seems to be a little less hazy.”

Bischof, who just celebrated his 13th year as a ranger with N.C. State Parks, has supervised maintenance, law enforcement and staffing for the nearly 4,000-acre Mount Mitchell State Park since 2018. He’s transitioning to the position of superintendent at Grandfather Mountain State Park in Linville, but with COVID-19 concerns delaying the hiring of his replacement, he’s currently juggling both jobs, including managing some highly unusual — and sometimes stressful — circumstances at the two busy attractions.

Shutting down the parks entirely, Bischof says, meant closing roads to vehicle and bicycle traffic and posting signage at all trails crossing park boundaries. But now, in an extended Phase 2 of the state’s reopening plan, restrooms are open and must be cleaned frequently, and the Mount Mitchell summit tower — the park’s main attraction — is accessible to guests Monday through Friday but closed weekends to prevent overcrowding (although visitors are still welcome to walk up to the summit, Bischof notes).

Additionally, the parking lots are limited to half-capacity, meaning that as guests flooded in on recent sunny weekends, he sometimes had to close the gates for several hours at a time.

“When you’re standing out there not letting folks into the park, and they’ve traveled long distances, they’re frus-

WALK IN THE PARK: N.C. State Parks ranger Kevin Bischof, currently serving as superintendent of both Mount Mitchell and Grandfather Mountain state parks, is happy to see visitors returning after recent closures but hopes guests will be patient with the staff’s efforts to keep facilities clean and prevent overcrowding.

Photo courtesy of N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation trated,” he says. “I generally don’t get a lot of people who want to send me Christmas cards on those days.”

But he emphasizes that park employees are extremely happy to welcome visitors again. “We just try to remind folks to be patient with park staff and patient with one another,” Bischof says.

“I’ve seen a handful of folks who are upset because the bathrooms are closed because we’re cleaning them. And as someone who cleans the bathrooms, I can speak for the rest of the staff, when I say that we’d prefer not to have to be cleaning them. It’s just one of those necessary things.”

— Gina Smith X

Buying, Selling or Investing in Real Estate?

(828) 210-1697

www.TheMattAndMollyTeam.com

FEA T U RES

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘Wait no longer’ Citizens Hotel Corp. pushes for community buy-in, 1922-23 On Nov. 22, 1922, The Asheville Citizen revealed a sketch of the city’s latest proposed hostelry, the George Vanderbilt Hotel on Haywood Street. Construction costs were estimated at $1 million (about $15.4 million in today’s dollar). Upon its completion, the paper declared, the new hotel would be “among the finest in the South.”

Within days of the announcement, residents were solicited to invest in the new project. “The citizens … must show their faith by subscribing for stock,” one editorial declared. A subsequent advertisement, featured in the Dec. 10 issue of The Sunday Citizen, promoted the available $100 shares as “a remarkable opportunity” that combined “every element of civic pride with every prospect of assured profit to the stockholders.”

The pitch intensified a few days later, when yet another editorial qualified the previous advertisement’s claim. “It is not merely an opportunity,” the piece read, “but, we respectfully submit, a duty which none should shirk.”

Shortly thereafter, on Dec. 17, the Citizens Hotel Corp. (which managed the campaign) continued its push, offering readers 10 reasons why they should subscribe. Above all, the catalog reiterated that shares were a sound investment.

“Nothing could make it fail but the entire failure of Asheville, which is impossible,” the list’s penultimate point read.

Despite this barrage of notices and calls, community response appeared lackluster.

On Dec. 21, 1922, The Asheville Citizen featured a letter to the editor imploring citizens to buy in. “If all the shares are

HONORING GEORGE: The George Vanderbilt Hotel was completed in 1924. This photo appears to have been taken near the end of its construction. The hotel’s name was selected by citizens in honor of the late owner of the Biltmore House.

Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville not sold, then there will be no George Vanderbilt Hotel,” the letter writer, Archibald Nichols, declared. “Some property owners affected are subscribing liberally, but they cannot do it all.”

Nichols went on to remind residents that they only had until Dec. 31 to invest.

“Let me urge that they wait no longer,” he wrote.

But wait they did, forcing the Citizens Hotel Corp. to extend the deadline to Jan. 8, 1923.

Two days before the campaign closed, and with shares still available, The Asheville Citizen ran a piece about former resident Blair Taylor. Taylor, who had relocated to Cuba, still answered the call and invested in the Vanderbilt Hotel. “There can certainly be no doubt of the need of a hotel of this type in Asheville,” Blair states in the piece, “and I am surprised that the subscription lists are not already filled.”

Despite its best efforts, the campaign fell $70,000 short of its $450,000 goal.

Nevertheless, the project moved forward.

The following January, Herbert D. Miles, president of the Citizens Hotel Corp., addressed a crowd at the organization’s inaugural stockholders meeting.

In his speech, Miles reported that “with the single exception of the uncompleted sales of our necessary stock issues ... [the project] has proceeded in a most successful and orderly manner[.]”

Seven months later, on July 24, 1924, The George Vanderbilt Hotel opened. It remained operational for over 40 years.

But in 1969, it was converted into the Vanderbilt Apartments, which continues to offer low-income housing to senior citizens.

During his 1924 inaugural stockholders address, Miles praised the hotel’s design, telling the crowd: “The quality and the beauty of the building has come up to our most sanguine expectations, and will continue to do so; it is a quality which, regardless of changing fashions, will still be a credit to our city and state, long after we who build it shall have disappeared from the scene.”

Mon. - Sun. Lunch: 11:30am–2:30pm Mon. - Sun. Dinner: 5:00–8:00pm Sat. + Sun. Brunch: 9:00am–2:30pm

Editor’s note: Peculiarities of spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original documents. X

Lunch: 11:30am–2:30pm Dinner: 5–8pm / Sun. ( Brunch: 9am–2:30pm ( Sat. Reservations Recommended ====== 47 Biltmore Ave. Downtown Asheville ======

828.254.2502

THEBLACKBIRDRESTURANT.COM MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 8-14, 2020

13

COMMUNITY CALENDAR JULY 8-16, 2020

CALENDAR GUIDELINES For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext.

137. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.

Clubland is back!

See Pg. 27 Online Event= q WELLNESS Alzheimer's Association: Effective Communication Strategies WE (7/8), 2pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ed q Alzheimer's Association: Understanding Alzheimer's & Dementia TH (7/9), 5pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7e8 q First Contact Ministries: Recovery Support TH (7/9), 6:30pm, avl.mx/7ko q

Oily Womban Wellness: Essential Oils Workshop TH (7/9), 6:30pm, Meraki Chiropractic, 315 Haywood Rd RAD Second Saturday Open studios, classes and demonstrations.

SA (7/11), 10am, River Arts District Tranzmission: Trans, Nonbinary & Queer Recovery Support Questions: info@tranzmission.org.

SA (7/11), 2pm, avl.mx/7kc q

Alzheimer's Association: Effective Communication Strategies MO (7/13), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ee q Women’s Self-Defense Workshop TU (7/14), 5:30pm, Free, Steps to HOPE, 60 Ward St, Columbus Understanding Hormone Replacement Therapy Talk by Drs. Garbarino and Evins of Live Well WNC. TU (7/14), 6pm, Free, 760 Merrimon Ave Chair Yoga TH (7/16), 2pm, Weaverville UMC, 85 N Main St, Weaverville Alzheimer's Association: 10 Warning Signs of Alzheimer's TH (7/16), 5pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7eb q Alzheimer's Association: Legal & Financial Issues TH (7/16), 6:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7jm q

ART Artist Meetup TH (7/9), 4pm, Burntshirt Vineyards, 2695 Sugarloaf Rd, Hendersonville

Yadkin Arts Council Juried exhibition reception and awards ceremony.

TH (7/9), 5:30pm, avl.mx/7ge q Light, Sound, Movement Workshop UK-based artists reimagine works from the Black Mountain College archive.

FR (7/10), 10:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7gp q Slow Art Friday: Depression-Era Prints Discussion led by master docent Doris Potash at Asheville Art Museum.

Register: 828-253-3227.

FR (7/10), 12pm, Free, avl.mx/776 q Maggie Valley Arts & Crafts Show SA (7/11), 9am, Maggie Valley Festival Grounds, 3374 Soco Rd Art in the Park Local artist exhibits and vendors.

SA (7/11), 10am, Pack Square Park, 121 College St Garden Gallery Craft Show Glass, pottery, metal and fiber art.

SA (7/11), 10am, Crucible Glassworks, 60 Clarks Chapel Rd, Weaverville The Quarantine Painters Exhibition Opening

Featuring six local artists.

SA (7/11), 3pm, The Gallery at Flat Rock, 702-A Greenville Hwy, Flat Rock The Big Crafty Demonstrations and panels with local artists.

SU (7/12), 12pm, avl.mx/7ig q Art w/ Joan One-point perspective drawing class.

TU (7/14), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7ku q Discussion Bound Book Club The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro. Register: 828253-3227.

TU (7/14), 12pm, avl.mx/7c3 q Southern Equality Studios: Queer Artist Meetup TU (7/14), 4pm, RSVP required, avl.mx/7l1 q The 73rd Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands Artist panels, demonstrations and a raffle.

TH (7/16), All day, avl.mx/77o q Third Thursday Art Walk TH (7/16), 5pm, Downtown Marshall Asheville Art Museum: BYO Craft Night Art and wine tasting group meeting.

TH (7/16), 7pm,

Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7jo q Haywood Library: Mini Canvas Painting Class Ages 12-18.

FR (7/17), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7l0 q Slow Art Friday: Many Become One Discussion led by touring docent Hank Bovee at Asheville Art Museum. Register: 828-253-3227.

FR (7/17), 12pm, avl.mx/7cu q

LITERARY St. George’s Episcopal Talks About Racism The Cross & the Lynching Tree, chapters 4 and 5. Register: stgeorgeoffice28806@gmail. com.

WE (7/8), 12pm, avl.mx/7as q Haywood Library: Book Chat WE (7/8), 6pm, avl.mx/7kq q Malaprop’s Author Discussion Kyandreia Jones presents Choose Your Own Adventure: SPIES: James Armistead Lafayette. WE (7/8), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7hf q

True Home Open Mic Night TH (7/9), 6pm, Flood Gallery, 850 Blue Ridge Rd, Black Mountain Reader Meet Writer: Silas House TH (7/9), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7i0 q Hidden Timber Author Discussion Ellen Birkett Morris presents Lost Girls.

SU (7/12), 3pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7bf q Books & Coffee Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis.

SU (7/12), 7:30pm, avl.mx/7ir q SVM Book Club Betty Smith presents Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers.

MO (7/13), 11:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ha q Haywood Library: Next Chapter Book Club For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

MO (7/13), 1pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7kt q

Wild Goose Reading Group How to Be an Antiracist, part 2.

MO (7/13), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ev q Drive-by Book Signing With Leah Hampton, author of F*ckface & Other Stories.

TU (7/14), 5pm, City Lights Bookstore, 3 E Jackson St, Sylva Becoming AntiRacist Reading Group How to Be an Antiracist

by Ibram X Kendi.

TU (7/14), 8pm, avl.mx/7k1 q St. George's Episcopal Talks About Racism The Cross & the Lynching Tree, conclusion.

Register: stgeorgeoffice28806@gmail. com.

WE (7/15), 12pm, avl.mx/7as q Malaprop’s Author Discussion Leah Hampton presents F*ckface & Other Stories.

WE (7/15), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7gf

CONTINUES ON PAGE 16

Conservation Pros Inc. We have been helping your neighbors save energy since 2007 and we can help you too! We provide Energy Audits, Insulation and Air Sealing, Sealed Crawl Spaces and Dehumidification, Door and Window Sealing, Mold Remediation, and more!

We are practicing social distancing and using protective measures to keep our customers and crew safe.

Locally Owned and Operated, Living Wage Certified. www.conservationpros.com 828-713-3346

Sweeten Creek Antiques

Sovereign Kava

31,000 square feet with 125 vendors offering everything from stylized vignettes to the picker’s paradise. Items include antiques and collectibles, furniture, vintage clothing and accessories, books, jewelry, vinyl records, art and lighting. Sweeten Creek Antiques has something for every person, every home and every budget. Well behaved pets are welcome. Business hours are 11am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and Noon to 5pm Sunday.Masks are required for our safety and yours.

Sovereign Kava wants to change your head, and we’re very, very good at it. Kava comes from the roots of a pepper plant (piper methisticum) that has rocked faces in the S. Pacific for 1000s of years. It provides an unmissable, unmistakable buzz. Nobody buys weird-tasting drinks that don’t do anything. Lots of people buy our weird-tasting drinks. Often with kava, it takes a few experiences (or one big experience) to feel its signature headchange. Our bartenders can get you “there.”

VOTED WNC’S #1 Pandemic Hours: Open daily @ noon till 8:30pm

KAVA BAR & OPEN MIC

sweetencreek115@aol.com sweetencreekantiques.net 828-277-6100 | 828-450-5402 115 Sweeten Creek Rd, Asheville

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JULY 8-14, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

ashevillekava.com 828-505-8118 268 Biltmore Ave, Asheville

OP E N F OR B U SI NE SS

GERALDINE’S Fresh Goods. Baked Daily.

We are re-opening on Monday, July 6th, 7:00am - 3:00pm. Call in for your breakfast sandwich orders or just stop by. Fresh baked danish, eclairs, breads, and coffee ready to go! Please maintain the positive 3 W’s: Wash or sanitize your hands. Wear a face covering. Wait patiently with 6 feet distancing. There is plenty of outdoor space!

We missed our neighbors and are excited to see your smiling faces!

Carolina Hemp Company Carolina Hemp Company is open! Established in 2014, we are proud to be Asheville’s Hometown Hemp company. We are dedicated to providing our community with the highest quality hemp goods available. Our education-centered general store offers everything from our Carolina Hemp Naturals Whole Spectrum Hemp Extract, Carolina Hemp Flower, edibles, topicals, concentrates, hemp based foods, clothing, and accessories. Our passion is driven by the opportunity to bring real growth, sustainable products and viable, proven alternatives to pharmaceuticals into our communities. From local events to community outreach, we’ve made it our mission to support and drive sustainability, regenerative practices, and furthering hemp and cannabinoid research for all.

Drop by our 290 Haywood Rd retail location to learn more from our Hemp Advocates about how Whole-Spectrum Hemp Extract can help you! Open in-store and curbside pickup. Store Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-6pm. Saturday: 12pm-6pm carolinahempcompany.com 290 Haywood RD, Asheville 828-438-4367

20 13 C SI N CEIL LE , N EV A SH

www.geraldinesbakeryavl.com Facebook: Geraldine’s Bakery 840 Merrimon Ave. 828-252-9330

E'S

LDIN

GERA

FRESH GOODS. BAKED DAILY.

Silverball Subs We are a locally owned Sub Shop located at 347 New Leicester Hwy. We craft our subs using fresh produce from the WNC Farmers Market, bread from Annie’s Bakery, and sliced to order Thumann’s Meats and Cheeses. With rotating specials and a customizable menu there are options for all sandwich enthusiasts.

Draft and canned beer from our favorite breweries are always revolving as well. We offer takeout, easy online ordering, curbside, outdoor and indoor dining, and delivery through TakeoutCentral. www.silverballsubs.com 828-412-5281

Cosmic Vision Cosmic Vision is an eclectic retail store started 23 years ago downtown Asheville, NC. It’s purpose is to support local and world wide social service projects by donating parts of its profits as well as by selling clothes, jewelry and accessories made by local and international artists. Cosmic Vision is very grateful for the opportunity to help its costumers find an unique variety of comfortable clothing for women, men and children. It specializes in cotton, wool and rayon outfits from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Ecuador, Peru, etc.

Lots of accessories, such as scarves, hats, gloves, shwals, capes, and ponchos, etc... • Jewelry is sold at very affordable prices, with a large variety of rings, earrings, bracelets, chains, necklaces, etc. • Books are also available. • Tapestries and beautiful alpaca, and cotton blankets. • Bhatiks, incense and several handicrafts.

34 N Lexington Avenue, Asheville 828 281 4292 cosmicvisionstore.com

Lakeview Putt and Play Lakeview Putt and Play is a beautifully landscaped, 18-hole, ADA-accessible miniature golf course located on the shores of Lake Julian. Come reconnect with your family or bring your special someone for date night.

Our four virtual reality booths offer over 30 games that provide a fully immersive experience you’ll never forget! Battle zombies, visit any place on Earth or have a “drunken bar fight” in a virtual world. Don’t want to experience it yourself? Grab a cone of our exclusive ice cream flavor from The Hop, “The Hole in One,” and watch others as they play.

We offer season passes and group rates for schools and churches.

Hope to see you soon at Lakeview Putt and Play!• Books are also available. • Tapestries and beautiful alpaca, and cotton blankets.

• Bhatiks, incense and several handicrafts. lakeviewputtandplay@gmail.com lakeviewputtandplay.com | 828.676.1746 2245 Hendersonville Rd., Arden

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 8-14, 2020

15

C O MMU N IT Y CA L E N D AR Notorious HBC Book Club Imbeciles by Adam Cohen.

TH (7/16), 7pm, avl.mx/7ik q Reader Meet Writer: All the Songs We Sing, An Anthology Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Carolina African American Writers' Collective.

TH (7/16), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7io q

FILM Movies in the Park: Space Jam FR (7/10), 7pm, Pack Square Park Movies in the Vines: Jumanji, The Next Level FR (7/10), 8pm, Mountain Brook Vineyards, 731 Phillips Dairy Rd, Tryon Movies on the Lawn: Van Helsing FR (7/10), 8:30pm, Creekside Market & Grill, 8960 Greenville Hwy, Brevard

CIVICS & ACTIVISM Buncombe County Board of Adjustment Meeting

WE (7/8), 9am, avl.mx/7eo q Progressive Alliance of Henderson County Meeting Questions: shantzv@ gmail.com.

WE (7/8), 2pm, avl.mx/7kl q Buncombe County Teen Democrats Meeting WE (7/8), 5:30pm, avl.mx/7l5 q Jackson County Community Meeting Pedestrian and greenway planning.

TH (7/9), 4:30pm, 355 Frank Allen Rd, Cashiers Mills River Town Council Meeting TH (7/9), 7pm, 124 Town Center Dr, Mills River Caretakers of Violence A conversation on police power with author Tyler Wall. Register: venue@ firestorm.coop.

TH (7/9), 8pm, avl.mx/7e5 q March to Reconcile Sylva SA (7/11), 1pm, Bridge Park, 76 Railroad Ave, Sylva Asheville City Council Meeting TU (7/14), 5pm, avl.mx/7b5 q Hendersonville Road Corridor Public

Meeting Planning for connectivity, congestion relief and pedestrian safety.

TU (7/14), 5:30pm, avl.mx/7j4 q French Broad River MPO: Coffee w/ a Transportation Planner Q&A on Metropolitan Transportation Plan and Hellbender Regional Trail Plan.

TH (7/16), 2:30pm, avl.mx/7iv q Mills River Agricultural Advisory Committee Meeting FR (7/17), 9am, 124 Town Center Dr, Mills River Silent Vigil for Immigration Reform FR (7/17), 4pm, 200 N Grove St, Hendersonville

ANIMALS Feline Frenzy Adoption Event Cats $10, kittens $45.

FR (7/10), 10am, Burke County Animal Services, 425 Kirksey Dr, Morganton Kitten Care 101 How to bottle feed.

SA (7/11), 4pm, Registration required, Free, Asheville Humane Society, 14 Forever Friend Ln

BENEFITS Pumpkin Dog Pop up Fundraiser SA (7/11), 10am, Asheville Humane Thrift Store, 1425 Patton Ave Sharing House Charity Drive Cleaning products, toilet paper and nonperishable foods.

WE (7/15), 12pm, 45 Oak Park Dr, Brevard

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY Incredible Towns Business Network Meeting WE (7/8), 11am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7g8 q Going Virtual Tips and techniques to present meaningful streaming events.

WE (7/8), 2pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ek q Snow Creek Landscaping Career Meet-n-Greet WE (7/8), 3pm, 226 Clayton Rd, Arden AeroBarrier WNC Indoor air quality system demonstration.

FR (7/10), 12pm, 165 Robinhood Rd Quality Janitorial Group Hiring Event

Appointments: avl.mx/7iq.

WE (7/15), 10am, 1276 Hendersonville Rd WomanUP Workshop Creating happy workplace cultures.

TH (7/16), 9am, avl.mx/7hp q

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS BYOF (Bring Your Own Furniture) 101 Painting workshop.

Admission (including supplies): avl.mx/7jv.

SA (7/11), 10am, $60, Fabulous Vintage, 3754 Brevard Rd, Horse Shoe Tranzmission: Legal Name Change Clinic MO (7/13), 12pm, avl.mx/7jc q Appalachian Ballad Singers & Their Songs Talk by Susan Pepper.

MO (7/13), 6:30pm, $10, avl.mx/7hb q Hendersonville Woman's Club Meeting TU (7/14), 10am, Hendersonville Woman's Club, 310 Freeman St Necessity is the Mother of Invention Adopting new ways to connect.

WE (7/15), 2pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7el

ECO & OUTDOOR Pop up 5k WE (7/8), 6pm, $10, Fletcher Park, 300 Old Cane Creek Rd, Fletcher Hendersonville Green Drinks Presentation by EcoForestry director Andy Tait.

TH (7/9), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ft q Pisgah Chapter of Trout Unlimited General meeting.

TH (7/9), 7pm, Ecusta Brewing, 49 Pisgah Hwy, Pisgah Forest Soul Fire Farm: Ask a Sista Farmer Q&A on gardening, livestock, agroforestry, plant medicine and food preservation.

FR (7/10), 4pm, Free, avl.mx/7gl q MountainTrue: Pandemics & Prejudice Presentation on democracy and environmental stewardship.

FR (7/10), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7h6 q Haywood County Six-Garden Tour Admission (shuttle included): avl.mx/7k0.

SA (7/11), 8am, $25, 265 Test Farm Rd, Waynesville Asheville Amblers City Walk Riverside Cemetery, historic Montford and downtown Asheville.

SA (7/11), 8:30am, 36 Montford Ave

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Outdoor Market Farm and garden vendors.

SA (7/11), 9am, 3461 Hendersonville Rd, Fletcher Rattlesnake Lodge Guided Hike Register: avl.mx/7hx.

SA (7/11), 10am, Free, 667 Ox Creek Rd, Weaverville

FOOD & BEER Drive-thru Food Pantry TH (7/9), 3:30pm, Montford Cove Baptist Church, 4920 Cove Rd, Union Mills Haywood Library: Rainbow Salad in a Jar Cooking class for teens.

FR (7/10), 10am, avl.mx/7ks q Food Connection: Free Curbside Meals SA (7/11), 11am, 204 Whitson Ave, Swannanoa Drag Brunch SU (7/12), 11am, Hi-Wire Brewing, 2A Huntsman Place Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon?

With authors Peggy Noe Stevens and Susan Reigler.

TU (7/14), 5pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7i1 q Leicester Community Center Free Meal WE (7/15), 11:30am, 2979 New Leicester Hwy, Leicester

WEEKLY MARKETS Tuesdays • West Asheville Tailgate Market. 3:30-6:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd Wednesdays • Asheville City Market South. 12-3pm, Biltmore Park Town Square • Weaverville Farmers Market. 2:30-6pm,17 Merrimon Ave, Weaverville • RAD Farmers Market.

3-6pm, Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St • Locally Grown on the Green. 3-6pm, 35 Hwy 64, Cashiers • Jackson County Farmers Market.

3:30-6:30pm, Innovation Station, 40 Depot St, Dillsboro Thursdays • ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech. 9am-12pm, 340 Victoria Rd • Flat Rock Farmers Market. 3-6pm, 1790 Greenville Hwy, Hendersonville • Enka-Candler Tailgate Market. 3:30-6:30pm, 70 Pisgah Hwy, Candler Fridays

• Marion Tailgate Market. 10am-3pm, 67 W Henderson St, Marion Saturdays • North Asheville Tailgate Market. 8am-12pm, UNC Asheville, Lot C • Hendersonville Farmers Market.

8am-1pm, 650 Maple St, Hendersonville • Yancey County Farmers Market.

8:30am-12:30pm,10 S Main St, Burnsville • ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech. 9am-12pm, 340 Victoria Rd • Black Mountain Tailgate Market. 9am-12pm, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain • Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market.

9am-12pm, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville

FESTIVALS Cherokee Voices Festival Demonstrations, music, vendors and Cherokee food.

SA (7/11), 10am, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 589 Tsali Blvd, Cherokee Open Streets Weekend-long closure of Main St for an enhanced pedestrian environment.

FR (7/12), 6pm, Historic Downtown Hendersonville Cashiers Plein Air Festival Live artist demos and classes.

WE (7/15), 10am, Village Green, 35 Hwy 64, Cashiers

KIDS NC Arboretum: Super Amphibians Class WE (7/8), 9am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7l7 q Haywood Library: Kitchen Chemistry Class WE (7/8), 10am, avl.mx/7kp q Miss Malaprop's Storytime Ages 3-9.

WE (7/8), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7ds q Haywood Library: Preschool Storytime TH (7/9), 10am, avl.mx/7kr q Cup o’ Joe Variety Show Music and stories.

SA (7/11), 1pm, avl.mx/7ai q NC Arboretum Skills Session: Turtle Tracking WE (7/15), 9am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7l8 q

MUSIC A CAPELLA SINGING (PD.) WANNA SING? ashevillebarbershop.com

Fletcher Summer Concert Series: Flashback Band Outdoor concert featuring 80s hits.

FR (7/10), 6pm, 85 Howard Gap Rd, Fletcher Jasper String Quartet Presented by the Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas.

SA (7/11), 7:30pm, avl.mx/7h8 q Brooklyn Rider & Matana Roberts World music performance and conversation presented by Black Mountain College.

WE (7/15), 5pm, Free, avl.mx/7jt q

SPIRITUALITY Astro-Counseling (PD.) 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, LPC. (828) 258-3229.

Asheville National Day of Prayer & Repentance WE (7/8), 5:30pm, Pack Square Park Bahá'í Holy Day Historical observance, music and devotions.

TH (7/9), 12:15pm, avl.mx/7j8 q Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By World Community problem solving workshop.

TH (7/9), 5:45pm, Foster Church, 375 Hendersonville Rd Jewish Power Hour w/ Rabbi Susskind TH (7/9), 6pm, chabadasheville.org q Faith Communities Organizing for Sanctuary Solidarity action and education on immigration justice.

TU (7/14), 4pm, Land of the Sky UCC, 15 Overlook Place Bahá’í Community Devotional: Appreciation of Beauty TU (7/14), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7jh q

VOLUNTEERING American Red Cross Blood Drive Appointments: redcrossblood.org.

WE (7/8), 11am, Biltmore Park Town Square Community Garden Workday SA (7/11), 10am, Buncombe County Sports Park, 58 Apac Circle American Red Cross Blood Drive Appointments: redcrossblood.org.

FR (7/17), 11am, Biltmore Park Town Square

WELLNESS

MOMENTS OF JOY

COMPLEX BEINGS: “Happiness isn’t the absence of things like anxiety or fear or anger or sadness,” says clinical social worker Tyra L. Goodman. “Emotions are fluid. We can be sad that someone died and also feel really glad that we have a park visit planned with a friend.” Photo by Noa Levine

BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com Whether you’re grieving a personal loss, the absence of your pre-COVID-19 existence, the killing of George Floyd or some combination of the above, so many of us are in mourning these days.

Fatigue, apathy and volatility are common symptoms of grief, says local clinical social worker Tyra L. Goodman.

Often, she notes, clients struggling with loss “feel like their brains are failing.

And meanwhile, the rest of the world is just going on as normal.”

But in today’s COVID-19 reality, continues Goodman, life is anything but normal. For those grieving, the pandemic’s disruption has created an odd effect. “There is something that is more congruent about the world experience now for those dealing with loss,” she explains. “They don’t feel quite as isolated in their experience because the world isn’t going on at its regular pace.”

Along with the health crisis, the recent killing of Floyd has impacted the way Goodman’s clients think about mental health. Periods of grief often shrink an

individual’s world, Goodman explains.

The peripheral gets lost, and the personal gets magnified. Yet for many right now, losing sight of the important calls for racial justice is untenable. The trauma has created a collective grief.

But within these difficult times, moments of pleasure do still emerge.

And that’s OK, says Goodman.

“Happiness isn’t the absence of things like anxiety or fear or anger or sadness,” she explains. “We’re human. Emotions are fluid.”

With this in mind, Xpress spoke with Asheville residents to learn how they’re finding instances of joy and how their strategies might benefit the broader community during these difficult times.

DESIGNED FOR CONNECTION

“My happiness used to come in a bottle,” says Michael Hayes, executive director of Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective, a local nonprofit. “I drank a 12-pack, and I thought I was good to go.”

For 37 years, Hayes’ life unfolded in this way, resulting in multiple jail sen-

Finding happiness during times of collective grief

CREATING SWEET MEMORIES: Michael Hayes, center, says quiet moments like making waffles for his two young sons are what provide him with the most happiness these days. Also pictured are Hayes’ sons Javion, left, and Hunter. Photo by Alice Dixson tences. His substance abuse stemmed from childhood trauma, he explains. At 8 years old, Hayes was molested. By 12, he regularly used drugs and alcohol to cope.

But over the past five years, Hayes has been involved in a number of recovery and resiliency education programs.

Ultimately, the work led him to create Umoja in 2019. The nonprofit works specifically with people of color to address trauma and healing.

His areas of expertise have come in handy in recent months. A father of six sons and one daughter, Hayes says both COVID-19 and the ongoing impact of systemic racism have put him on edge.

There are nights, he reveals, when he lies awake in bed fearful for the safety of his children, especially his oldest son, who is in his 30s. “I know he knows how to act if he gets stopped by the police,” Hayes says. “But what if the cop is having a bad day?”

To mitigate these dreadful hypotheticals, Hayes uses a coping technique called “resourcing,” which uses internal and external resources to achieve a relaxed but alert state. In Hayes’ case, he revisits a positive memory and goes over as many details as he can remem-

ber. “It actually calms my body down,” he says. “It doesn’t negate the fact that there are still troubled waters that we’re wading in right now — that there is still systemic oppressions, that there are still people who don’t want to change from the old ways and that COVID-19 is still happening. But it allows my mind to go to that moment so that my body and nervous system calm down.”

Opening yourself up to family and friends, says Hayes, is another essential technique for dealing with individual grief. “A lot of people don’t want to recognize the trauma they’ve gone through,” he explains, especially in Black communities. “We’re told, ‘Don’t talk about it; pray about it.’ Or, ‘What goes on in this house, stays in this house.’ So we learn to suppress things.

We teach our Black men to suppress their feelings from the time they’re little boys.”

And for over four decades, Hayes says he heeded the advice, disconnecting from the world around him. But that has since changed. At 52, he says, “my happiness is through connection — it’s

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W ELL NESS

FOOL FOR CHRIST: Throughout April and May, Bishop José A. McLoughlin filmed the short comedy sketch series Quarantine with Bishop José. “Laughter is healing,” he says. Photo by Cindy Kunst

BE THE CHANGE: “I have a lot of things that I am passionate about,” says Ajax Ravenel. “Activism work is one of them. It’s a good outlet for the negative feelings that I have.” Photo by Ravenel

my family, my sons and my daughter, my wife, my cohorts at Umoja. My happiness revolves around connecting with people. Humans are intuitively designed for connection.”

McLoughlin says. However, he points out, there is a need for balance. “You can’t ignore the issues of the world. But in the midst of tragedy, laughter is OK. Laughter is healing. And so the whole point I was trying to make with these is that in a world where we’re dealing with so much, it’s OK to laugh.”

Combined, the seven-episode series has garnered over 50,000 views.

McLoughlin says he’s received emails from across the country and world.

“People write me, saying, ‘Thank you for exhibiting a religious leader who talks about and exhibits joy and isn’t on TV telling me I’m not good enough and I’m not worthy and I’m going to hell because I’m gay.”

Among his admirers is the church’s presiding bishop Michael Curry. “He said to me, ‘José, thank you for being a fool for Christ,’” McLoughlin recalls with a laugh.

The series aired its finale on May 24, the day before Floyd’s death. Today, McLoughlin views the episodes as a bridge to deeper conversation about issues like systemic racism. “Through these videos, people saw a different side of me; they saw I was letting my guard down,” he explains. “When you allow yourself to be vulnerable, it builds trust, and I think it makes it possible to have the tough conversations we’re having now and that we will continue to have about what it means to be a beloved community.”

Throughout April and May, Bishop José A. McLoughlin of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina filmed a series of short comedy sketches under the title Quarantine with Bishop José. In the opening episode, available on YouTube, the bishop briefly abandons his home laundry duties in order to geek out on his drums. “Do you know how you make holy water?” he asks an imaginary audience, with drumsticks in hand. “You boil the hell out of it,” he answers, before unleashing a rimshot on the kit’s snare and hi-hat.

“Joy and laughter is something that you know God wants us to be about,”

LAUGHTER IS HEALING

However, one of the key challenges during COVID-19 is maintaining connections from a distance. For many, virtual meetings have become a lifeline, both personally and professionally. For others, online platforms are also a way for spreading messages of hope.

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ALL THE SMALL THINGS

McLoughlin’s sketch comedy also highlights the importance of creative projects during periods of grief. This has certainly been the case for 18-year-old

photographer and activist Ajax Ravenel.

“I took pictures at recent protests I’ve been to,” she says. “And that’s been a really good outlet to channel the negative energy in a way that is positive.”

Looking to spread this positivity, Ravenel has since helped organize the art exhibit Resilience: It Is Our Duty to Fight, Protest, Create and Heal.

Currently on display at the YMI Cultural Center, the collection features works by several local artists of color, including Joy Maat, Jenny Pickens, James Love, Tarah Singh, Liz Williams, Jessica Delia and Ravenel.

Along with her creative endeavors, Ravenel says she leans heavily on personal relationships with community elders, as well as mentors including Michael Hayes. “I’m in contact with them on a daily basis,” she says. “I do check-ins with them. I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this way, how do I express this? And how do I move through this feeling?’”

Practicing mindfulness is another technique she employs, not only for her mental health but also for her physical well-being. Both of which, she says, must be properly managed if she is to continue her work advocating for racial justice. “The more we take care of ourselves and each other, the more momentum we will have and the more we’ll be able to continue moving forward,” she says.

Mindfulness, continues Ravenel, is also key for finding moments of joy amid today’s uncertainties and tragedies. “It’s in the small things,” she explains. “It’s in the beauty that you see. It’s taking a walk on a sunny day. It’s in the deep breaths.” X

GREEN ROUNDUP

by Daniel Walton | dwalton@mountainx.com

P&Z says no to tree protection ordinance Stronger protections for Asheville’s rapidly dwindling urban forest were shot down in a July 1 vote by the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission. In a 6-1 decision, with member Guillermo Rodriguez dissenting, the commission found that the proposal didn’t adequately balance development affordability and density with tree protection.

As outlined by city planner Chris Collins in a presentation to the commission, the new rules would have required all subdivisions, new construction and large expansions to have certain levels of tree canopy coverage. Those requirements, which ranged from 5% for downtown developments to 30% in certain suburban areas, could be met by preserving existing trees, planting new growth or making a “payment-in-lieu” for the city to plant trees elsewhere.

Commission Chair Laura Hudson argued that the rules placed too much emphasis on tree protection and could become an untenable burden for developers. “If you jam too many requirements onto one small parcel, I think you’re going to kill the development altogether,” she said. “Not that we want great big developments without trees — I’m just saying we want quality developments.”

But Sharon Sumrall, a member of the city’s Urban Forestry Commission who helped develop the proposal, said strong moves were needed in light of what she called an “alarming” NASA study about tree canopy loss and urban heat islands in Asheville. Released in fall 2019, that research found many of the city’s poorer areas to have less tree cover than wealthier neighborhoods, making them more vulnerable to extreme heat and the resulting health impacts.

“It comes to a philosophical point of, ‘What do you want your downtown and your city to look like?’” Sumrall said.

“At affordable housing, we should also have trees.”

Because the commission’s vote is only advisory, Asheville City Council will have the final say on whether to approve the new rules. Collins said Council is expected to take up the issue in August.

STATE CLIMATE REPORT FLAGS INCREASED WNC LANDSLIDE, WILDFIRE RISKS

One crisis doesn’t stop just because another starts.

Amid the state’s ongoing management of COVID-19, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has published the Climate Risk Assessment and

LAST STAND? The Ravenscroft Reserve Initiative is raising funds to preserve a copse of mature oak trees at 11 Collier Ave., a property currently slated for an affordable housing development. Photo by Inge Durre Resilience Plan (avl.mx/7i3) mandated as part of Gov. Roy Cooper’s response to climate change. While the report covers the entire state, it notes that Western North Carolina in particular is likely to see more severe landslides and wildfires as climate change progresses.

Heavy rain events with the potential to destabilize slopes, the report explains, are projected to become more common in the coming years. In conjunction with increased development in the mountains and aging drainage systems, the resulting landslides could have substantial impacts.

“As population increases, so does the dependence on critical infrastructure,” notes the report. “When major transportation corridors like [Interstate] 40 are impacted by landslides, disruption and economic losses are felt over large areas in the mountains because alternate routes are limited by terrain constraints.”

Severe droughts are also likely to become more frequent and intense, leading to conditions that promote wildfires in WNC’s forests. The report identifies Henderson, Buncombe, Cleveland, Burke, Catawba and Iredell counties as being at particular risk.

That increased risk comes as North Carolina’s capacity to respond to wildfires is deteriorating. “The state fleet of bulldozers used to create fire breaks and

the transport systems used to carry them are well behind the desired replacement schedule,” the report says. “This aging fleet is resulting in increased maintenance costs and longer downtimes due to nonavailability of parts.”

WNC TURKEY HARVEST HITS RECORD HIGH

COVID-19 doesn’t infect birds, but the pandemic has nonetheless proved fatal for many of WNC’s wild turkeys.

According to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, hunters with more time on

their hands due to statewide stay-home orders harvested a record 4,234 turkeys in the mountain region over the fiveweek season from April 11 to May 9, up more than 14% compared with the average of the previous three years.

The increase was even greater in Buncombe County than in the mountains as a whole: Buncombe hunters took 419 turkeys this season, more than 40% over the previous three-year average. However, wildlife managers say that the larger harvest won’t necessarily cause turkey populations to suffer going forward.

“Our turkey population is very robust, and in most areas, it can handle this additional harvest and hunting pressure quite well,” said Chris Kreh, the agency’s wild turkey biologist, in a press release about the recent season.

“Hunters may hear fewer gobblers than they are used to for the next year or two, but since hens and reproductive output are still largely protected, I don’t expect the overall population to decline.”

NONPROFIT NEWS

A recently established nonprofit, • Exotic Animal Rescue and Sanctuary, unveiled plans to open an Ashevillearea facility by July 2022. According to a press release about the move, the sanctuary would provide “a permanent home for those animals that were born in captivity and cannot be released into the wild,” as well as “rehabilitation services to injured and orphaned native wildlife.”

• In support of the Oak Hill Community Park and Forest project in Morganton, the Foothills Conservancy of North

CONTINUES ON PAGE 20

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GREEN Carolina received a grant of over $464,000 from the U.S. Forest Service.

The conservancy must still raise $440,000 by the end of September to finalize its purchase of the 651acre property, which will host public trails and environmental education programs.

• Andy Williamson was appointed the first executive director of Ashevillebased Outdoor Gear Builders, a nonprofit coalition of area outdoor industry leaders. Williamson, the principal of outdoor consultancy Active Strategies, will work part-time to expand the organization’s membership and further its strategic goals.

• Mountain Housing Opportunities received a $125,000 grant from the TD Charitable Foundation to install solar panels and water efficiency retrofits in affordable housing rentals throughout WNC. “Improving the energy and water efficiency of our apartments is not only the environmentally sustainable thing to do, but it also creates long-term economic benefits that help us improve the financial security of the families we serve,” said Scott Dedman, MHO’s executive director, in a press release announcing the award.

WINGED VICTORIES: Jean Marie Dillon’s photo of a northern pearly-eye butterfly, left, and Andy MacPhillimy’s green metallic sweat bee photo took top honors in the Pollinator Photo Contest hosted by Asheville GreenWorks and Bee City USA - Asheville. Photos courtesy of Bee City USA - Asheville • On June 5, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy finalized its purchase of a 448-acre tract at Chestnut Mountain in Haywood County. The nonprofit plans to donate the property to the town of Canton for management as a “natural

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Comments may be emailed to info@ landtrustaccreditation.org or faxed to 518-587-3183.

resource protective public outdoor recreation park.”

GET INVOLVED

• The French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization seeks public comment on a draft plan for the Hellbender Regional Trail through Friday, Aug. 21. The proposed network of bicycle and pedestrian paths would link communities throughout Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood, Madison and Transylvania counties.

More information and a comment form are available at avl.mx/7hs.

• Duke Energy has opened its Renewable Advantage program to residential customers, allowing them to purchase renewable energy certificates as part of monthly billing. For each $3 block purchased, Duke will donate 50 cents to NC GreenPower’s Solar+ Schools program, which provides grants for solar power at the state’s K-12 schools. More information at avl.mx/7hu.

• The Ravenscroft Reserve Initiative continues to raise funds to preserve a stand of mature oak trees at 11 Collier Ave. in Asheville, a property currently slated for an affordable housing development. Donations to the RRI can be made through Asheville GreenWorks, which took over fiscal sponsorship of the effort from MountainTrue on July 1. More information at avl.mx/7jg.

• The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy is seeking public comment on its reaccreditation as a land trust. Comments should describe how SAHC complies with the national standards of the Land Trust Alliance, available at avl.mx/7jz.

COMMUNITY KUDOS

• Asheville-based outdoors writer Danny Bernstein announced the forthcoming release of her newest book, DuPont Forest: A History, through Arcadia Publishing on Monday, Sept. 7.

Bernstein has previously written about the forest’s past for Xpress.

• Jean Marie Dillon was announced as the overall winner of the first Pollinator Photo Contest, hosted by Asheville GreenWorks and Bee City USA - Asheville, for her picture of a northern pearly-eye butterfly. Andy MacPhillimy took first place in the adult category for his snap of a green metallic sweat bee. Other winning photos will be shared through GreenWorks and Bee City USA social media in the coming weeks.

• In partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s Kids in Parks program, Buncombe County Parks and Recreation installed a TRACK Trail at Charles D. Owen Park in Swannanoa. The trail features educational activity guides for young hikers, who can earn prizes by tracking their outdoor excursions through KidsInParks.com.

• The Buncombe County Farm Heritage Trail was recognized with the National Association of Counties 2020 Achievement Award. Established by the Buncombe County Soil and Water Conservation District, the driving route connects several conserved family farms in Alexander, Leicester, Newfound and Sandy Mush. X

FOOD

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED Grey Eagle Taqueria teams with BearWaters Brewing

BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com When The Grey Eagle owners Sarah and Russ Keith pushed the pause button on live shows at their enduring Asheville music venue, they also pulled the plug on its popular eatery, The Grey Eagle Taqueria. “Without the music, we didn’t have that big pull for food, so it didn’t make sense to stay open, even for takeout.” Sarah explains.

That wasn’t the Keiths’ only operation upended by COVID-19.

The couple had been in talks with BearWaters Brewing to bring the taqueria to Haywood County via the brewery’s original Canton and brand-new Maggie Valley locations.

March 23 was the planned — and scuttled — date for the grand opening of the Maggie Valley site. With that effort temporarily on hold, the Keiths turned their focus back to Asheville and in mid-April instituted Taco Tuesdays, a curbside pickup option from the Clingman Avenue spot.

As Western North Carolina rolled into Phase 2 of its reopening plan, the new Maggie Valley BearWaters and The Grey Eagle Taqueria opened on May 29; a month later, the brewery reopened its historic Canton building on the Pigeon River. Though both BearWaters taprooms offer TGET’s signature tacos, Mexican street corn and fiambre salad, chefs Janelle Koelling and Maxwell Baker have tweaked the menus with dishes unique to each location.

“Maggie Valley has mussels steamed with beer and chipotles, and Canton has a beef and chorizo blend smash patty burger,” says Sarah. “We opened in Canton with an outdoor crawfish boil that was great. We loved doing little food events like oyster roasts and lobster dinners in Asheville with our brewery of the month, and we hope to do more there and bring them back to Asheville.”

The Grey Eagle is again providing a stage for musicians through live streams, and on those dates, the taqueria will sling tacos, nachos and burritos for takeout. “It’s kind of random for now,” Sarah acknowl-

Dog friendly patio dining nightly Contact-free takeout Full menu available Please visit us at plantisfood.com for hours of operation 165 Merrimon Avenue 828-258-7500

West Asheville ORDER UP: The Grey Eagle co-owner Sarah Keith expedites an order from the taqueria’s kitchen window inside BearWaters Brewing’s Canton location. Photo

by Stephan Pruitt edges, recommending that people check thegreyeagle.com for updated performance schedules.

Madison County will soon get its taco on, too. The fourth location of

Patio & Kitchen Open.

No indoor dining Mon.-Thur.: 2-8pm, Fri. 2-9pm Sat. Noon-9pm, Sun. Noon-8pm

The Grey Eagle Taqueria is slated to open in the still-under-construction Big Pillow Brewing in Hot Springs in late July or early August. X

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F OOD

Going the distance Annual fundraising dinner brings the experience to donors’ homes

CROWDED TABLE: In 2019, guests at the Sunset Dining dinner supporting The Free Clinics gathered at Cabin Ridge event center. This year, TFC is staging an athome celebration with home delivery. Photo from The Free Clinics For two years, supporters of The Free Clinics in Hendersonville have gathered annually for Sunset Dining, a dinner on a Sugarloaf Mountain ridgetop to raise funds for the nonprofit, which was founded in 2001 to ensure health care accessibility for uninsured, low-income clients.

“The event is held in an open-air pavilion at Cabin Ridge,” says Sarah Friedell, community relations coordinator for TFC. “It is just a stunning venue with gorgeous mountain views and a spectacular sunset.”

And despite current social distancing challenges, Sunset Dining will go on, she assures, if not exactly as originally planned. “Like everything else, including TFC services, we had to pivot to a creative alternative.”

Together Apart: A Virtual Sunset Dining Experience will take place on the scheduled date of Sunday, July 19, but closer to home. “We already had the caterer booked and our wine partner, so that hasn’t changed,” Friedell explains. “Instead of gathering at Cabin Ridge, we’ll bring the dinner to donors on that date, and they can set up wherever they choose.”

The organization got creative in figuring out how to package the high-end dining experience. Both 22

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the event’s omnivore and vegetarian/ vegan menus by Food Experience catering company will offer five courses and a bottle of wine from Crate Wine Market & Project. The Free Clinics staff will deliver the meals to addresses in the Asheville area and Henderson and Polk counties that afternoon. An enclosed printed program will share the link to an online performance by a string quartet from the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra and remarks from The Free Clinics Executive Director Judith Long.

Another popular event, MANNA FoodBank’s Blue Jean Ball, which typically happens each year in June, announced that it’s canceled for 2020, though the need for food has risen dramatically in the 16 counties the organization serves. MANNA special events manager Kelly Schwartz asks folks who would typically throw on a costume and their dancing shoes for the party with a purpose to instead donate the cost of one $95 ticket, which provides emergency food boxes for nine families.

Orders for the Sunset Dining event must be placed by July 10 at thefreeclinics.org/ dinner. To donate to MANNA, visit events.mannafoodbank.org.

— Kay West X

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Thur., July 30th • 4:30-7pm Bar, Lounge, & Patio • Seating is limited - first come, first serve • Musician Ryan RnB Barber - Local & GRAMMY winning vocalist • Social distancing & masks are required • Best mask design wins a $50 gift card based on votes

Eggs Benedict Poached Eggs, Pecanwood-smoked shoulder Bacon, Prosecco Hollandaise & pickled Red Onions on an open-faced Buttermilk Biscuit

Exec. Chef, Anthony Cerrato (828) 398-6200 • 26 All Souls Crescent, AVL

Consistently Voted One of WNC’s Best Chefs

27 Broadway, Downtown AVL

IN THE BAG: BimBeriBon’s Eva Setayesh packs the restaurant’s weekly Big Bountiful Bags for customer pickup in West Asheville. Photo courtesy of BimBeriBon Since mid-May, BimBeriBon owners Eva and Reza Setayesh have taken stuck-at-home diners on a global culinary tour via Big Bountiful Bags. The adventurous twist on takeout was the West Asheville restaurant’s first step to resuming business after closing on March 18.

You can thank mothers for giving them the nudge to get back in gear.

“It was a week or so before Mother’s Day, and restaurants had been closed for almost two months,” recalls Reza.

“Mother’s Day is such a big day for treating moms to a delicious meal.

We thought, ‘Poor moms!’ We had to do something.”

What they did was create brunch in a bag: baked goods, a whole quiche, salad, soup, dessert and a bottle of prosecco. “All people had to do was open it up, spread it out and celebrate your mom, your wife, your grandma, all the mothers in your life.”

The Mother’s Day bags sold out, and a concept was born. Each week the bags are themed to a different country; so far, passport stamps include Greece, Cuba, France, India, Mexico, Asia and Spain. “How many of us have canceled trips and vacations? Everybody!” Reza asks and answers. “We tell a story.

Imagine for one night you’re in Costa

del Sol. Set the table, pour your sangria, cut your bread, put out the meal and take a respite from everything happening in the real world.”

Like many independent restaurateurs navigating the COVID-19 world, Reza is balancing saving the business, responding to customer requests and keeping staff and customers safe. In addition to the Big Bountiful Bags (ordered online 9 a.m. Monday through 5 p.m. Wednesday and picked up on Thursdays), BimBeriBon has added Friday and Saturday takeaway — breakfast and lunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and dinner 6-8:30 p.m. — which can be ordered online or at the eatery’s walkup window on Haywood Road.

And like many other restaurants on Haywood, BimBeriBon has plans to expand the footprint of its existing patio area to allow more guests to pull up a chair and sit a spell. “People want to go out to eat,” Reza points out.

“They just don’t want to sit inside to do it. From now until late October, we’ll take the opportunity to make the most of outdoor dining” — no passport required.

For details, visit bimberibon.com.

Take care of yourself and others 828-350-0315 SMOKYPARK.COM

soon u o y e Se awn l e h t on

— Kay West X MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 8-14, 2020

23

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

‘A CORPSE IN EVERY STORY’ Author Leah Hampton examines modern life in Appalachia

BY THOMAS CALDER

me. I’m worried for people’s health and I want justice and I want these protests [sparked by the killing of George Floyd] to continue.”

Consistent with many of the characters in F*ckface, Hampton is grappling with today’s uncertainties. “I feel connected to the world, but in an isolated way,” she says. “I’m running for office and I’m writing about this area and I care about this area, but at the same time, I feel like I’m a little bit lost in it all.”

Instead of pretending to have the answers, Hampton offers a series of stories unafraid to examine the many flaws and quiet triumphs of being human. “In this country, we want to simplify problems,” she says. “We want to simplify environmental problems, we want to simplify racism. But these things are complicated.

We have to really sit with it.”

tcalder@mountainx.com “Nothing’ll ever fix what’s broken in this town, but it would be nice if they’d at least get the dead bear out of the parking lot of Food Country,” writes author Leah Hampton in the opening line of her debut collection, F*ckface: And Other Stories, which hits bookstores Tuesday, July 14.

To celebrate the release, Malaprop’s will host a virtual author event on Wednesday, July 15, at 6 p.m.

Death and loss permeate the book’s 12 tales — be it the passing of a mother or the disappearance of an industry or, well, a giant dead bear laid out in a grocery store parking lot. “I wanted a corpse in every story,” Hampton says with a laugh.

“Literal or figurative.”

For readers dying to know, Hampton accomplishes her lethal mission in spades.

But along with an impressive body count, the former Western Carolina University instructor and longtime Waynesville resident also succeeds in revealing the complexities of life in South and SouthCentral Appalachia, including Asheville.

Her stories’ characters are cashiers, firefighters, park rangers and GameStop managers. They’re grappling with individual devastation like divorce and sexual trauma, as well as collective tragedies, including wildfires and the health repercussions faced by communities living near chemical plants.

Many of Hampton’s characters share underlying traits of loneliness and isolation. They are strangers in familiar lands, individuals who feel unwelcome at home but trapped by their circumstances.

In the collection’s opening title story, its narrator, Pretty, explains one of several misconceptions people have about her job as a cashier in Robbinsville: “People think I’m the express lane, but Food Country doesn’t have express lanes. Nothing in this town does; the mountains stop everything from moving.”

Meanwhile, those who have escaped their childhood towns often look back on them with a mixed sense of sadness and

Why I support Xpress: 24

JULY 8-14, 2020

DON’T YOU FORGET: “If I’m going to be 46 years old when my first book comes out, y’all are going to know the name,” says author Leah Hampton. F*ckface: And Other Stories debuts July 14. Author photo by Carrie Hachadurian disdain. “For all that I pined about it, my home county didn’t have anything to stay for or go back to,” ruminates “Mingo” narrator Tina. “The mining reclaim sites, scarred like they were, couldn’t imitate old ground. Suits and invaders had dumped toxic dirt onto what they blasted out, leaving the hillsides false, silent slumps. The curving bulge and teem, the mountains we used to stare off to as kids, were now corpses stuffed with dirty packing foam.”

‘IT’S COMPLICATED’

A self-described Army brat, Hampton relocated to Western North Carolina as a teenager in the early ’90s. The move brought her family closer to her father’s kin, who live in Harlan County, Ky. It also exposed Hampton to an area of the country that proved endlessly fascinating and inspiring. But whereas many writers are tempted to look back on or romanticize the region’s past, Hampton’s interest has

“Xpress represents the heart of Asheville and I want it to – Michele Bryan always be here.”

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always been to look ahead, especially as it relates to environmental issues.

“I’ve really been focused on asking: ‘What is the future? What are we going to be? And is there a way to preserve things but also progress?’” she says.

The same issues she tackles in her fiction are also what led Hampton to recently file for political office. This November, she’s running as a Democrat for one of two open seats on the Haywood County Board of Commissioners. Initially, she admits, her interest wasn’t to seek office; instead, she wanted to volunteer for the upcoming election. But after meeting with the Democratic county leadership, she was encouraged to run. Before accepting the role, however, she reminded her supporters of one potential controversy: “I was like, ‘You all are aware that my book is called F*ckface, right?’”

But like her New York City publisher, local leadership was undeterred by the collection’s title. And like her book deal, Hampton’s decision to run for office predated COVID-19. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, as well as a growing demand for racial justice, life is surreal for the debut author.

“It’s complicated,” she says. “Because it’s also this really joyous time, and I’m superhappy to finally have my book out in the world, but at the same time there’s so many things happening now that worry

OVERLOOKING IT ALL

And it’s this message — that life is forever demanding, baffling and bewildering, with moments of beauty in between — that Hampton shares with readers throughout F*ckface.

In her short story “Parkway,” the narrator, Priscilla, recalls her first month on the job as a park ranger. She is winding through the Blue Ridge Mountains with her colleague and mentor Coralis when they stumble upon a dead body — one of many Priscilla will encounter throughout her career.

Later in the story, after the police have arrived, Priscilla and Coralis head back to the ranger station. On the drive, Coralis shares insights about the work. Then, without explanation, he pulls into an overlook and offers his final bit of advice that day, which Priscilla relays to the reader: “‘Four hundred miles of parkway through some of the prettiest country there is, and everybody brings their shit.’ He leaned forward and shook his head. ‘There’s more murders, starved dogs, more toddlers slipping off cliffs, more sadness than anybody knows.’ He glanced at me, then at the road behind us, and shrugged.

‘We clean it up. Then maybe we give a tour, hand out some brochures.

Almost nobody knows where they’re going. Maintain order, even when there isn’t any. That’s all.’”

To register for the free Malaprop’s virtual book event, visit avl.mx/7gf. X

Enter the helix

Nest Egg releases its seventh album

ORGANIZATION IN CHAOS: Building on a foundation of krautrock, Asheville-based trio Nest Egg creates mostly instrumental soundscapes in a post-punk style. The band’s seventh and latest release is Dislocation. Photo by Jason Scott Furr The COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily taken live music off traditional stages, but creative endeavors continue apace. On the heels of a live set released in March, Nest Egg will release Dislocation, its seventh album, on Friday, July 10. The primarily instrumental Asheville-based group draws a good part of its inspiration from German music of the early ’70s.

Groups like Düsseldorf, Germanybased Neu! pioneered krautrock, a subgenre characterized by repetitive beats and droning, minimalist melodies. Nearly half a century later, Nest Egg makes original music that builds upon that aesthetic.

But guitarist Harvey Leisure (aka Jamie Hepler) is careful not to make too much of the connection. While he describes krautrock in a way that can easily apply to his band (“a steady, kind of repetitive rhythmic structure,” he offers), he emphasizes that, in practice, the term allows for a wide stylistic palette. “If you go back and listen to the bands that fell under that

category, they’re all over the place,” he says.

And in the best possible way, Nest Egg is all over the place, too. When the project began nearly a decade ago, Nest Egg was Leisure plus Los Angeles-based musician Cyrus Shahmir. But since 2013, the group has included the rhythm section of bassist Ross Gentry and drummer Thom Nguyen. Shahmir is still involved as well: “We don’t get a lot of face time these days,” says Leisure. “But he works on almost every recording that we do.”

Leisure admits that on the group’s early recordings, “there was kind of an intention to play Neu!-style kraut stuff.” But as Nest Egg developed a signature style of its own, the group incorporated more punk and postpunk musical ideals.

Nest Egg’s music comes forth through improvisation, and its creative process is, in Leisure’s words, “completely spontaneous.” “We just play until we find something that we’re locking into, and then usually

try to record a little bit of that,” he says. And that’s just the beginning.

The musicians then go their separate ways, each thinking about the music on his own. “When we come back, somebody usually has an idea about how to make it start,” Leisure says.

“It’s a collaborative effort.”

That method of creation often means that the Nest Egg musical pieces continue to evolve. A listen to the group’s Live at Hopscotch Music Festival 2017 (released in March 2020) reveals versions of compositions that differ greatly from their studio counterparts on Dislocation. “And if you listen to the [2017] Mothlight recording we recently put on Bandcamp, there’s a totally different version of the album’s opening track,” Leisure says.

Nest Egg’s music twists like a corkscrew while simultaneously remaining relentless in its forward motion — and the group even titled one of its songs in subtle acknowledgment of that duality. But the soaring, nineminute-plus “Helix,” a highlight of Dislocation, sounded barely recognizable from its current form when Nest Egg released an earlier version — nearly double in length — on its 2018 cassette, Blank Deeds. “Again, totally improv,” Leisure says. “They have the same bass line and drum rhythm, but other than that, they’re pretty different.”

To capture the extemporaneous nature of its music, the group tracks everything live when recording. “But we get pretty deep into the studio world when we’re in it,” Leisure says.

“There’s a lot of focus on how we can manipulate sounds.”

One area that Nest Egg does not focus on is lyrics. Much of the band’s material is instrumental, but even when vocals are present, they’re not the centerpiece of the music. “I’m not a poet,” Leisure says with a laugh. “If somebody wants to get something out of [the lyrics], that’s fine, but that’s not really what they’re there for.”

Befitting a band built on improvisation, live performance is central to what Nest Egg does. The group has toured extensively in the Eastern U.S., and in 2018, the group did a run of dates in the U.K. and Western Europe. But with the pandemic — and the likelihood that the EU will ban U.S. citizens for the foreseeable future — Nest Egg is staying home.

“The world has kind of stopped now,” Leisure acknowledges. “So now it’s time to sit back, start writing a new record and get some new things on the set list.” nestegg.bandcamp.com

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— Bill Kopp X MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 8-14, 2020

25

SMART BETS

by Edwin Arnaudin | Send your arts news to ae@mountainx.com

In Solidarity Like many Asheville-area art galleries, Pink Dog Creative has stayed active during the COVID19 pandemic largely through online exhibitions. Its latest digital offering, In Solidarity, “seeks to speak to the violence, fear and grief caused by centuries of injustice to Black people and to celebrate the many contributions made by people of African descent to the culture of this country and the world.” The works by Pink Dog artists and associated friends include paintings, mixed media, jewelry, photography, clay, wood and more. As much as 100% from the sale of art from the show will go to Black Lives Matter, BeLoved Asheville and the Equal Justice Initiative to support their missions of justice and equity — and Pink Dog will match all of those donations from sales. pinkdog-creative.com. Photo of “My Life Matter” by Joseph Pearson courtesy of Pink Dog Creative

Richard Shulman “Every season has its own flavor, and when we have the opportunity to live enough of life’s seasons, something can develop in a person,” says Asheville-based pianist and composer Richard Shulman in the liner notes of his new album, Life Seasons. Released on July 1, the collection features seven instrumental and six vocal tracks, including three with the vocal quartet of Wendy Jones (soprano), Paula Hanke (alto), Sherman Hoover (tenor) and Bob Bencze (bass/baritone). Hanke (“Life Seasons”) and Jones (“Spinning into Winter”) also have separate vocal solos. Jones additionally performs Ron Young’s spoken-word piece “Winter Solstice Dream” over Shulman’s keys, and all but three of the songs showcase Shulman’s eponymous trio, rounded out by Zack Page on bass and Rick Dilling on drums. A balm for uncertain times, the album is, in Shulman’s words, “music expressing the seasons and the depth of love possible from sharing life over many years.” RichHeartMusic.com. Photo of the Richard Shulman Trio by Frank Zipperer

Play Reading Club

Blue Spiral 1 exhibits After a gradual reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Spiral 1 is back in full force July 3-Aug. 28 with four new exhibits. Tools of the Trade: Reinterpreting Traditional Women’s Work (Main Gallery), a celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, includes ceramics, glass, weavings, sculpture, furniture and more; Hyperrealism, Deception & Blurred Media (Lower Level Gallery) spotlights 13 artists who specialize in optical tricks; Alberto Ortega: Cul-de-Sac (Small Format Gallery) is an exploration of the American suburban landscape; and Ralph Burns — A Time Before: Asheville and Beyond, 1975-1999 (Showcase Gallery) features work by the local documentary photographer that depicts the city “on the verge of becoming obsolete, with little indication of the growth to come.” Capacity is limited to 30 clients, and all who enter are required to wear a mask. Free to attend. bluespiral1.com. Photo of “Haywood Street #3, Asheville, NC, 1977,” by Burns, courtesy of Blue Spiral 1

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JULY 8-14, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

Following its successful inaugural One Act Play Festival on June 19, The Magnetic Theatre keeps its digital dramatic game sharp with the launch of its Play Reading Club.

Each Sunday (late) morning, interested parties are invited to gather in the “Magnetic Zoom Room,” and, according to a press release, “raise [their] mimosas to some of the most brunchworthy plays of contemporary theater.” The series is hosted by Wolfe Lanier and attendees may sign up as a reader or listener. The first installment takes place Sunday, July 12, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., featuring Adam Bock’s comedy The Drunken City, about “the mystique of marriage and the ever-shifting nature of love and identity in a city that never sleeps.”

Free to attend, but registration is required. themagnetictheatre.com.

Photo of Lanier courtesy of The Magnetic Theatre

CLUBLAND

Online Event= q WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 OKLAWAHA BREWING COMPANY French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL q Mark Bumgarner (Americana), 7pm, avl.mx/7kx TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic w/ Thomas Yon, 7pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR The Lads (rock, folk), 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING Dylan O Flanner w/ Caroline Grace (acoustic), 8pm THE ROOT BAR Lucky James (soul, Americana), 8pm SOVEREIGN KAVA Q Poetry Open Mic, 8:30pm, avl.mx/76w THE SOCIAL Karaoke w/ Lyric, 10pm

THURSDAY, JULY 9 131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (solo acoustic), 6pm FUNKATORIUM The Saylor Brothers (bluegrass), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ The Resonant Rogues (vintage jazz), 6:30pm

WHITESIDE BREWING CO. Doug Ramsay (jazz, soul), 5:30pm BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah’s Daydream (Gypsy jazz), 6pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER COMPANY Circus Mutt (bluegrass), 6pm

ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Eleanor Underhill & Friends (jazz, blues), 6:30pm LAURA’S PIZZA & TRATTORIA Hummingtree Band (folk), 6:30pm THE ORANGE PEEL q Jointkiller Brass Band, 7pm, avl.mx/7js THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Andrew Thelston Band (rock), 7pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Perry Wing Band, 7pm THE STRAND @ 38 MAIN Jamie Laval (Celtic music & tales), 7:30pm 185 KING STREET High Flying Criminals (soul, funk), 8pm AMBROSE WEST David Wilcox (solo acoustic), 8pm GREEN RIVER BREW PUB Acoustic Measures (classic rock), 8pm

MAD CO BREWING Trivia Night, 7pm

MODELFACE q Formal Friday: A Fancy Comedy Show, 8pm, avl.mx/7bc

ISIS MUSIC HALL q Ordinary Elephant (folk), 7pm, avl.mx/78j

THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Arnold Hill (Americana, rock), 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Q The Cheeksters (pop, soul), 7pm, avl.mx/7go

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Urban Soil (roots, rock), 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE Ley Line (world music), 8pm

AUX BAR DJ Databoy & DJ Woodside, 11pm

BALSAM FALLS BREWING CO. Open Mic Night, 8pm

SATURDAY, JULY 11

THE ROOT BAR Dennis Carbone (folk, acoustic), 8pm BEN’S TUNE UP Comedy Open Mic w/ Baby George, 9pm

FRIDAY, JULY 10 ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday (Grateful Dead tribute), 5:30pm

DINNER AND A CONCERT ON THE LAWN

FUNKATORIUM Lyric (rock, funk), 6pm

CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE 80s Trivia w/ Bingeable, 7pm

BANDS2FANS q Carolina Reapers (jazz, rock), 7pm, avl.mx/7in

WE’RE BACK!

BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Hummingtree Band (folk), 2pm SAINT PAUL MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS Sunlight Drive (acoustic duo), 3pm CREEKSIDE MARKET & GRILL Carolina Freightshakers Band, 6pm

CONCERTS BEGIN AT 6:30PM T HU 7/ 9 ALL THAT JAZZ: Musician, composer and educator Shannon Hoover will take the stage at the Funkatorium Biergarten on Friday, July 17, at 6 p.m. Hoover plays both electric and acoustic bass, piano and brass, with a focus on jazz, classical and world music. Hailing from South Carolina, he is the director of the Greenville Jazz Collective, a nonprofit performance ensemble advocating for music education. Photo courtesy of the Funkatorium FUNKATORIUM The Law Quartet (jazz), 6pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Ska City, 6pm THE ORANGE PEEL q Andrew Scotchie & the River Rats (rock), 7pm, avl.mx/7h7 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Mr Jimmy Album Release Show (blues), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Hard Rocket (rock ‘n’ roll), 7pm CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE The Dimestore Cowboys (honky tonk), 7pm GUIDON BREWING Phoenix DJ, 8pm WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN q Lazybirds (American roots), 8pm, avl.mx/7jk

OKLAWAHA BREWING COMPANY JED Flanders (rock, reggae), 8pm

CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Musicians in the Round (open jam), 6pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Buddhagraph Spaceship (rock), 10pm

OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Mountain Music Mondays (open jam), 6pm

SUNDAY, JULY 12 BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Ben Phan (bluegrass, pop), 2pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Alexa Rose (country, rock), 6:30pm MOUNTAIN SPIRIT q Shane Hennessy (solo acoustic), 7pm, avl.mx/7b3

MONDAY, JULY 13 ARCHETYPE BREWING Old Time Jam w/ Banjo Mitch McConnell, 6pm

TUESDAY, JULY 14 LOCAL 604 BOTTLE SHOP Asheville Synth Club (open jam), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE q The Travis Book Happy Hour w/ Jon Stickley, 7pm, avl.mx/7i8

RESONANT ROGUES ORIGINAL FOLK, SWING

F RI 7/10

ELEANOR UNDERHILL & FRIENDS EXPLORATIVE AMERICANA POP

THURSDAY, JULY 16

SAT 7/11

SARAH PEACOCK & CHRISTIE LENEE ACOUSTIC, AMERICANA, FOLK

ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Mark Bumgarner & Friends (Southern Americana), 6:30pm

SUN 7/12

ALEXA ROSE TRIO AMERICANA, COUNTRY

T HU 7/16

MOUNTAIN SPIRIT q Catherine MacLellan (folk), 7pm, avl.mx/7ky CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Outdoor Trivia w/ Bingeable, 7pm

MARK BUMGARNER & FRIENDS AMERICANA, COUNTRY, FOLK ROCK

F RI 7/17

BELLE AND THE BAND AMERICANA, FOLK, POP

THE ORANGE PEEL q

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL The Lasso Twins (rock, psychedelic), 8pm THE ROOT BAR Lucky James (soul, Americana), 8pm

Alexa Rose (country, rock), 7pm, avl.mx/7hc

SAT 7/18

THE KNOTTY G’S AMERICANA SOUL

THE ROOT BAR

SUN 7/19

Dennis Carbone (folk, acoustic), 8pm

AUBREY EISENMAN & THE CLYDES

TRISKELION BREWERY Open Irish Jam w/ Cornell Sanderson, 6:30pm

AMERICANA, BLUEGRASS

T HU 7/ 23

THE DARREN NICHOLSON BAND BLUEGRASS

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JULY 8-14, 2020

27

MOVIE REVIEWS THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

Hosted by the Asheville Movie Guys EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com HHHHH

Michelle Keenan

= MAX RATING

First Cow HHHHS DIRECTOR: Kelly Reichardt PLAYERS: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones DRAMA RATED PG-13 Weighing Kelly Reichardt’s great Meek’s Cutoff and now the very good First Cow next to her horribly dull Certain Women and promising but frustrating Night Moves, perhaps she should make period pieces more often.

Somewhat of a spiritual sequel to her Oregon Trail masterpiece, First Cow is a welcome return to form for the writer/director/editor after an uncharacteristic pair of misfires (that were nevertheless critically adored).

It’s also quite possibly cinema’s most understated crime caper ever.

Moving at Reichardt’s distinctly leisurely pace, the film opens on a woman’s dialogue-free discovery of two skeletons at a seemingly present-day seaside, soon followed by a jump to a man collecting mushrooms in the woods — but when and where?

Eschewing expository text identifying time and place, Reichardt and co-writer Jonathan Raymond (who also penned the source novel, The Half-Life) instead trust viewers to piece the details together, providing 28

BRUCE STEELE bcsteele@gmail.com

JULY 8-14, 2020

just enough clues to do so. And in classic Chekhov’s Gun fashion, the sets of bones leave viewers confident that there will be at least that many deaths to come, casting an enchanting air of dread over the proceedings as to precisely who will meet their end and why.

The subtle changes in clothing and technology imply a visit to the past, and natural conversation reveals that the fungi gatherer is Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro, The Big Short), food provider for a rough company of fur trappers heading to Fort Tillicum.

Shortly after his introduction, Cookie amusingly stumbles upon Chinese immigrant King-Lu (Orion Lee, Justice League), whom he finds naked in the woods, on the run from a mob of Russians. Based on their brief discussion, the cruelty Cookie’s employers show him and his clear reverence for and awe of nature, it’s implied that Cookie is driven to help the man out of a recognition of similar values — and his goodwill is returned when the two reunite at the fort.

At Tillicum — a fully realized place so muddy, rugged and packed with crusty characters that viewers may

MOUNTAINX.COM

crave a bath within minutes — the friends share their dreams and see an opportunity through the titular star, shipped in by London native Chief Factor (Toby Jones, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) for the sake of milk in the latter’s tea.

With King-Lu keeping watch, Cookie milks the bovine each night (in borderline indecipherable darkness), talking lovingly to the beast as if she were human, after which the sweet “oily cakes” he makes with the secret ingredient quickly gain a rabid following and set up a pleasant tension as the partners see how wealthy they can become without getting caught.

However, both in establishing this gambit and letting it play out, First Cow’s poetic approach becomes somewhat plodding. Extended stretches pass without dialogue or music, requiring significant patience, but the rich characterization and sense of place win out.

Leading an impeccably cast ensemble, Magaro is perfectly innocent while Lee exudes just the right amount of worldliness and heart. Their friendship is wholly believable and emotional, encouraging viewers to invest in their gutsy, relatable ambitions — the ultimate outcome of which Reichardt leaves nicely ambiguous.

The lack of a spelled-out resolution is sure to drive certain moviegoers nuts, but for those who roll with First Cow’s atypical style, there’s a simple sense of thankfulness that a film this subdued and beautiful exists.

Available to rent starting July 10 via Amazon Video, Apple and other streaming services REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

My Darling Vivian HHHH

DIRECTOR: Matt Riddlehoover PLAYERS: Rosanne Cash, Tara Cash, Kathy Cash, Cindy Cash DOCUMENTARY NOT RATED One of the films that was set to premiere at this year’s SXSW was My Darling Vivian, a documentary about Johnny Cash’s first wife and mother of their four daughters. Reduced to

Kristina Guckenberger

Casey Ellis

scarcely a footnote in the story of “The Man in Black,” the film sets the record straight and restores Vivian Liberto’s rightful place in Cash’s enduring legacy.

Directed by Matt Riddlehoover and produced by Justin Tittle (who happens to be the grandson of Cash and Liberto), My Darling Vivian utilizes never-before-seen family photos, interviews with Roseanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara Cash, and archival news and film clips to shed light on a woman who was left very much in the shadows as Cash’s fame soared and his life with June Carter took center stage. The result is an intimate and loving portrait that gives Vivian her due without sugarcoating her memory.

The title of the film was inspired by the more than 1,000 love letters exchanged by the couple, starting with their courtship. Cash and the beautiful, exotic-looking Liberto met at a roller skating rink in the early 1950s — a meet-cute moment that’s amusingly told through slightly different stories by each of the daughters.

The couple married shortly after Cash returned home from active Air Force duty in Germany. They moved to Memphis, Tenn., where they quickly started a family and he pursued his music career.

The footage at this stage of the film is particularly wonderful, showing a blissful young couple and a doting, almost goofy Cash. As the fairy tale begins to unravel, one of the film’s great strengths stems from having each of the daughters, filmed individually, sharing their recollections of the family experience — threats from the Ku Klux Klan, their father’s long absences, the stress of fame, his drug abuse, infidelity and post-divorce life.

The daughters each have their own experiences with their mother and father, and their reflections collectively provide an especially effective and authentic lens through which to view both parents.

In spite of everything, Liberto’s love for Cash never flagged. She walked the line — and toed it, too, making My Darling Vivian a mustsee for any Cash fan wishing to truly understand him.

REVIEWED BY MICHELLE KEENAN REELTAKES@HOTMAIL.COM

Palm Springs HHHHS

DIRECTOR: Max Barbakow PLAYERS: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons ROMANCE/COMEDY RATED R Picture yourself floating on a glistening pool atop an inflatable raft shaped like a giant slice of pizza, smack dab in a sunny oasis, with a freshly cracked can of cold beer. Sounds relaxing, right? Well, for Nyles (Andy Samberg), these #vacationvibes are an everyday occurrence — for eternity.

Director Max Barbakow’s debut narrative feature, Palm Springs, follows Nyles, a super chill guy who’s casually living in a very specific kind of boyfriend hell — the perpetual and ever-repeating slog of attending the wedding of his girlfriend’s best friend in, you guessed it, Palm Springs, Calif.

Nyles might be endlessly gliding around his life of neverending leisure, Groundhog Day-style, but it’s obvious that below his nonchalant attitude, he’s anything but happy. He seems bored, listless and disinterested — passing off an aloha shirt and swimming trunks as wedding attire and opening a beer in the middle of the vows as he vacantly recites, “Today, tomorrow, yesterday — it’s all the same.” It’s clear that Nyles has merely resigned himself to a life of permanent aimlessness and consequence-free day-drinking — that is until he meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti, The Wolf of Wall Street), the bride’s reluctant, wine-gulping older sister.

When Sarah is ambushed with the request (nay, demand) that she make a speech at her baby sister’s reception, she anxiously wipes the wine stains off of her face and begins to stumble up to the stage. Nyles, who’s seen her go through this tragic endeavor many times before, steps in to share his “thoughts on love” and effectively spares Sarah from an embarrassing fate. Amidst his toast to the newlyweds, Nyles darkly remarks, “We are born lost, then we’re found. But we’re all just lost, am I right?” This morbidly funny proclamation grabs ahold of Sarah and solidifies the feeling that this is certainly not going to be your mother’s romantic comedy.

Palm Springs is a refreshing take on the time-loop narrative, infusing humor, heart and heavy philosophical dilemmas into an otherwise overdone and monotonous genre. The film feels almost as if it’s in a category all its own, perhaps even a new genre — the experimental rom-com. It’s surreal and unserious without venturing into nonsensical territory. Viewers never

get the feeling that they’re being led astray or down some half-baked path. Instead, it’s truly enjoyable to watch the film unfold, with all its wild twists and turns — a credit to Barbakow’s clear, confident direction and Samberg’s and Milioti’s obvious on-screen chemistry.

With those three at the helm, navigating a number of raucous, dangerous and surprisingly heartfelt scenarios, Palm Springs manages to feel both fanciful and grounded. The sincerely captivating connection between Sarah and Nyles assuredly anchors the film in romance, while the inarguably original plot (thanks to screenwriter Andy Siara) takes big comedic swings and never misses.

Read the full review at mountainx. com/movies/reviews Available to stream starting July 10 via Hulu REVIEWED BY KRISTINA GUCKENBERGER KRISTINA.GUCKENBERGER@GMAIL.COM

AVAILABLE VIA FINEARTSTHEATRE.COM (FA) GRAILMOVIEHOUSE.COM (GM) Alice (NR) HHH (FA) All I Can Say (NR) HHHHS (GM) The Audition (NR) HHHH (GM) Beanpole (R) HHHS(FA) Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint (NR) HHHS (FA) The Booksellers (NR) HHHS(FA) Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (NR) HHHS(GM) Fantastic Fungi (NR) HHHH (FA) Fourteen (NR) HHHH (FA) The Hottest August (NR) H (FA) House of Hummingbird (NR) HHHH (FA) John Lewis: Good Trouble (PG) HHHH (FA, GM) The Last Tree (NR) HHHH (GM) Lucky Grandma (NR) HHHH (FA) Miss Juneteenth (NR) HHH (GM) My Darling Vivian (NR) HHHH (GM) Pahokee (NR) HHHHS(FA) Papicha (NR) HHH (FA) Proud (NR) HHH (FA) Shirley (R) HHHHS (FA) Someone, Somewhere (NR) HHHH (FA) Sometimes Always Never (PG-13) HHHH (GM) Sorry We Missed You (NR) HHHHS(FA) The Surrogate (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Times of Bill Cunningham (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Tobacconist (NR) HHHS (FA) Vitalina Varela (NR) HHHHS (FA) We Are Little Zombies (NR) HHHH (GM) The Woman Who Loves Giraffes (NR) HHHHH (FA)

We Are Little Zombies HHHH

DIRECTOR: Makoto Nagahisa PLAYERS: Keita Ninomiya, Mondo Okumura, Satoshi Mizuno FOREIGN FILM/COMEDY/DRAMA NOT RATED We Are Little Zombies tells the story of four newly orphaned Japanese kids from different families who meet at a crematorium, decide to start a band, rise to the pinnacle of pop stardom with the speed of a tweet and then decide to toss it all away. Imagine Danny Boyle directing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World if it were more about Scott’s band Sex Bob-omb and less about battling his crush’s evil exes — though that’s not to say the characters here don’t have demons from their pasts.

The four youths decide to name their newly formed group the Little Zombies because of the lack of emotion they collectively feel at the loss of their parents, none of whom cared very much for their children or vice versa. The film has a strong anti-sentimental viewpoint typical of certain youth, but it still managed to charm me with each new chapter, introduced in the style of ascending levels of 8-bit video game “start” screens.

Writer/director/composer Makoto Nagahisa and his camera are always moving, always trying something new, incorporating more styles and genre-borrowing than anyone except Quentin Tarantino — at least here in Hollywood.

You can tell that Nagahisa is a new filmmaker, trying to prove something — and film festival juries from Berlin to Sundance have recognized his efforts with awards.

And, yes, this movie may out-videogame Scott Pilgrim with its frenetic, ADHD style, which at times can be overwhelming. But whenever I found myself tempted to turn my brain off and succumb to the barrage of overstimulating visuals, I was wooed back by the film’s surprisingly rich storytelling.

Nagahisa deftly moves between scenes of loss and how we cope, to moments of razor-sharp satire on the entertainment industry — this picture gets a gold star for mentioning The Shaggs and having a cameo from Japanese art-rock band Chai — before returning to scenes with all the feels of real-life tween-age crushes.

If you’re a member of the human set, the Little Zombies are here to the rescue.

REVIEWED BY CASEY ELLIS C.DALTON.ELLIS@GMAIL.COM

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JULY 8-14, 2020

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): “As beautiful as simplicity is, it can become a tradition that stands in the way of exploration,” said singer Laura Nyro. This is practical advice for you to heed in the coming weeks.

According to my analysis, you’re scheduled to enjoy an extended engagement with rich, fertile complexity.

The best teachings won’t be reducible to a few basic lessons; rather, they’ll be rife with soulful nuances. The same is true about the splendid dilemmas that bring you stimulating amusements: They can’t and shouldn’t be forced into pigeonholes. As a general rule, anything that seems easy and smooth and straightforward will probably not be useful. Your power will come from what’s crooked, dense and labyrinthine.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You may think that playing heavy metal music and knitting with yarn don’t have much in common. And yet there is an annual contest in Joensuu, Finland where people with expertise in needlework join heavy metal musicians on stage, plying their craft in rhythm to the beat. The next Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship will be July 15-16, 2021. This year’s event was canceled due to the pandemic. If it had been staged, I bet multiple Tauruses would have been among the top 10 competitors. Why? Because you Bulls are at the peak of your ability to combine things that aren’t often combined. You have the potential to excel at making unexpected connections, linking influences that haven’t been linked before and being successful at comparing apples and oranges.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 1848, Danish King Frederick VII agreed, under pressure from liberal agitators, to relinquish some of his absolute power.

Thereafter, he shared his decision-making with a newly formed parliament. He was pleased with this big change because it lightened his workload.

“That was nice,” he remarked after signing the new constitution. “Now I can sleep in every morning.” I recommend him to you as an inspirational role model in the coming weeks. What so-called advantages in your life are more boring or burdensome than fun and interesting? Consider the possibility of shedding dubious “privileges” and status symbols.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian author Mary McCarthy provides you with a challenge you’ll be wise to relish during the rest of 2020. She writes, “Everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you’re older is that you really must make the self.” McCarthy implies that this epic reorientation isn’t likely until you’ve been on earth for at least four decades. But judging from the astrological omens, I think you’re ready for it now — no matter what your age is. To drive home the point, I’ll say it in different words.

Your task isn’t to find yourself, but rather to create yourself. Don’t wait around passively for life to show you who you are. Show life who you are.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Some night soon, I predict you’ll have an agitated dream while you’re asleep: a nightmare that symbolizes an unresolved conflict you’re wrestling with in your waking life. Here’s a possible example: A repulsive politician you dislike may threaten to break a toy you loved when you were a kid. But surprise! There’ll be a happy ending.

A good monster will appear in your dream and fix the problem; in my example, the benevolent beast will scare away the politician who’s about to break your beloved toy. Now here’s the great news: In the days after your dream, you’ll solve the conflict you’ve been wrestling with in your waking life.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Love is the best school, but the tuition is high and the homework can be painful,” writes author Diane Ackerman.

I’m guessing that in recent months, her description has been partially true for you Virgos. From what I can tell, love has indeed been a rigorous school.

And the tuition has been rather high. But on the other hand, the homework has been at least as pleasurable as it has been painful. I expect these trends to continue for the foreseeable future. What teachings about intimacy, communion, tenderness and compassion would you like to study next?

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JULY 8-14, 2020

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible,” wrote Libran novelist Graham Greene. His words can serve as a stirring motto for you in the coming weeks. I sense you’re close to summoning a burst of courage — a bigger supply of audacity than you’ve had access to in a while. I hope you’ll harness this raw power to fuel a daring feat that will expand your conception of what is possible.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “It’s not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out of the window,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens. That’s a problem you won’t have to worry about anytime soon. The coming weeks will be a favorable phase for you to both think and gaze out the window — as well as to explore all the states in between. In other words, you’ll have the right and the need to indulge in a leisurely series of dreamy ruminations and meandering fantasies and playful explorations of your deepest depths and your highest heights.

Don’t rush the process. Allow yourself to linger in the gray areas and the vast stretches of inner wildness.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The coming weeks will be a favorable time to undertake a transformative vision quest, even if the exigencies of the pandemic require your quest to unfold primarily in your inner realms. The near future will also bring you good fortune if you focus on creating more sacredness in your rhythm and if you make a focused effort to seek out songs, texts, inspirations, natural places and teachers that infuse you with a reverence for life. I’m trying to help you to see, Sagittarius, that you’re in a phase when you can attract healing synchronicities into your world by deepening your sense of awe and communing with experiences that galvanize you to feel worshipful.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.” The author and activist bell hooks wrote that. (She doesn’t capitalize her name.) In accordance with the highest astrological potentials, I’m inviting you Capricorns to be inspired by her wisdom as you upgrade your meaningful relationships during the next six weeks. I think it’s in your self-interest to give them even more focus and respect and appreciation than you already do.

Be ingenious as you boost the generosity of spirit you bestow on your allies. Be resourceful as you do this impeccable work in the midst of a pandemic!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it,” wrote author Sydney Howard.

Now would be a perfect time to act on that excellent advice. Is there any obstacle standing in the way of your ability to achieve a beloved dream? Is there a pretty good thing that’s distracting you from devoting yourself wholeheartedly to a really great thing? I invite you to be a bit ruthless as you clear the way to pursue your heart’s desire.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Ellen Goodman writes, “The truth is that we can overhaul our surroundings, renovate our environment, talk a new game, join a new club, far more easily than we can change the way we respond emotionally. It is easier to change behavior than feelings about that behavior.” I think she’s correct in her assessment.

But I also suspect that you’re in a prime position to be an exception to the rule. In the coming weeks, you will have exceptional power to transform the way you feel — especially if those feelings have previously been based on a misunderstanding of reality and especially if those feelings have been detrimental to your mental and physical health.

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edited by Will Shortz

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1 James who sang “At last, my love has come along” 5 Small matter 9 Easy mark 14 Things with nails sticking out 15 Fat removal procedure, in brief 16 Ease up 17 Direction on a ship 18 Oscar-winning Jared 19 Director Coppola 20 Storms out 23 Author Rand 24 Homecoming returnee, for short 25 During the recent past 27 Airy snack item 30 Casual top 31 Like Life Savers 32 Miss Piggy’s coy question 33 Limitless 34 Having ___ of it 37 “Pretty Woman” co-star 39 Mug

No. 0603 42 Actress/director Lupino 44 Wear away 48 Request 49 Singer whose 1980 single “The Breaks” was the first gold record rap song 52 Agrees 55 Top-quality 56 Black bird 57 Fairy tale villain associated with the ends of 20-, 27- and 49-Across 60 Playground fixture 61 “Je t’___” (“I love you,” in French) 62 Home of Timbuktu 64 Drooping 65 M.R.I., for one 66 If you drop this, you’re sure to trip 67 Fireplace remains 68 What hot dogs do 69 Parts of gym routines

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DOWN 1 Org. with monitors 2 Hunting cry 3 Many a middle schooler 4 On the main 5 Mutated gene 6 Makes too busy to do other things 7 Best 8 It “monthly changes in her circled orb,” in “Romeo and Juliet” 9 Turkish V.I.P. 10 Up and ___ 11 Crisp, smooth fabric 12 Squelches 13 Verily 21 Explorer ___ da Gama 22 Title role for Michael Caine and Jude Law 23 Be effective 26 As of now 28 Starting point for a German count 29 Maritime hazard

33 Almost any word ending in -ize 35 ___ Haley, former U.N. ambassador 36 Alternative to “com” and “org” 38 Mend, as a torn seam 39 Faux ___ 40 All of America wrapped up in one book 41 Way, way up 43 Type of coffee

45 Theatrical partner of “Arsenic” 46 Somersault, say 47 “That stinks!”

50 Everyone included 51 Set to the right or the left 53 Marsh plant 54 Executes orders 58 [Oh!!!]

59 Actor Epps 60 Agcy. for retirees 63 Things shown to bouncers

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